A.N. Well, I am back once again, and yet again reminded of why I dislike so much. Sigh I hope is fixed soon so that I may post there. Anyway, I just needed to bitch, since I'm sure no one ever reads this note anyway.
Disclaimer: Nope. Do not own it, and no one seems to be reading this story anyway, so, no one need to panic and sue me. I'm not even getting that many reviews (it's because this is an AU isn't it?!). But to those who have read and reviewed for this story, Glomps I love you! -
Project D.I.B.
Chapter: 04
The ship's interior lights were damaged by their frontal attack moments before, leaving the inside dark, aside from the emergency lights that left a dull red tinge to everything. It reminded Zim of his time spent trapped within the sanitary prison of science. The Irken shivered in detest.
The sooner the ship was destroyed, the sooner he'd start to feel alive again.
"There are a few survivors from the patrol that went missing." Tak stated, once the small female was close enough to him to speak with out raising her voice. Her eyes asked the stupid question that she had refused to voice, and Zim nodded once.
"Get them aboard quickly. We'll leave as soon as I've found, and killed him." Zim stated, and Tak needed no further explanations. Most of the Irken race now knew of the horrid man-beast that called himself Professor Membrane. He was the one responsible for the tests.
The death of Purple.
And…
"Right away, Zim. Just hurry up, I don't think the wounded will survive for long without immediate attention." Tak said as she left, and Zim scowled. His original plan to kill the stink-beast, slowly and painfully, would have to be set aside.
It doesn't matter… as long as he is made to suffer for his atrocities… Yes. You will rue the day you met Zim, the day you took away what belonged to Zim!
Zim smirked, running down the dimmed hallways, searching for the coward that had held him imprisoned for half a year on earth, until Dib had freed him, for reasons Zim had not understood then.
Just as he was passing into another section of the ship, surprised by the silence, he caught sight of a white coat, and stopped, his pack already displaying it's deadly clawed legs, holding out his gun, aimed to the being's head, and caught sight of deep purple.
Zim blinked.
"So… you've come at last." The droll voice sounded deadly, and held a ringing tone that he'd have recognized in death.
"Gaz…" Zim said, lowering his gun, and retracting his legs. The human was scary, but she was not his opponent, if anything he owed her for helping in his escape. "Where is he?"
Gaz stepped from the darkened shadows, her eyes looking curiously blank, arms folded over her chest. She'd grown tall over the years, standing a good foot above his own head. She smirked, as if noticing that fact, and Zim snarled at her cursing her genetics.
"If you mean my father, I have no clue." Gaz stated with a shrug. "Probably escaped with the rest of the shitless pussy's." Gaz pointed in the direction that must have led to the escape pods, and Zim glowered, not liking the thought of his prey escaping him, and moved to leave her behind.
"You took him away from me." She stated in a cold growl that froze the shorter alien in his place. They stood side by side, facing opposite directions for a long time; silent.
Zim's narrowed red eyes, softened as he sighed, his shoulders relaxing as he answered the human woman the best he could. "Yes. Yes, I did." That was as close to an apology as she was going to get. His pride wouldn't allow him to say anything more, and his pride was all that he had left.
"I hate you." Gaz whispered.
"I know."
The girl gave a scoff, and Zim felt something slip into his hand, a disk of sorts. Zim jumped looking down at it, wondering if the scary girl had placed one of those horrid detonators on him.
The detonators were one of Membrane's first weapons, and from what Zim remembered, the most painful. Having been filled with water, it slowly ate away at your insides after it had blown you open.
Zim was surprised to find that the object in his three fingered hand, was nothing more than an odd kind of storage unit. "What is this?" Zim cried, whipping around to look at the fading girl.
"Directions to the base, moron. Dad should be there." Gaz's lack of emotion for the future of her father was both startling and expected. That girl never was easy to understand, but out of all the humans, she was the only one worth saving. Zim shrugged off the nagging image of the girl's brother, as he made to leave.
"Go down cell block 'D.'" Gaz said in a no-nonsense voice, and had she not been the stuff of nightmares, Zim would have argued.
But he didn't.
He didn't even question her.
If Gaz had set a trap, she deserved the chance to try and kill him. He had, in fact, been the reason that her brother was dead, and though no real emotions where shown between them, it did not mean that she loved her brother any less than any other human. Gaz was a very possessive person after all, and Dib had been her brother. Whether he was annoying to her or not, Dib had been her's to an extent, and now, he'd taken that from her.
Just as the Irken race had taken the earth.
Zim wondered a moment as, he made his way through the maze-like hallways, and into the center of the ship, how and if, Gaz would escape.
Quickly, he threw the thought off.
He did not truly care if Gaz survived or not, even if she was the only other human that showed any potential aside from the Dib-human. It was a waste to see her parish with the rest of the trash.
The 'D' block was no different from the rest of the ship. Black, lifeless, and slightly ruined, and Zim began to wonder if Gaz had seriously set up a trap for him, or sent him on one last prank run.
"Stupid stink-beast, sending me out here for nothing! I am Zim, she cannot—" Zim fell silent, as his eyes lighted on a single door near the back of the hall. One security light was hung stationary above it, casting a red-tinged glow over the white plastic, and glinting off of the carved writings that were set in the blue paneled plate above the door.
'D132 - D.I.B.'
Zim was frozen for several long moments, his insides feeling as though he was falling through the ground at a high speed velocity, his mouth filled with cotton. Swallowing back his shock, Zim approached the door, placing his hand upon it, the tips of his fingers just barely grazing the plate bottom.
It… can't possibly… Zim breathed out desperately trying not to hope, his mind returning his to a happier time, with a boy who chased the paranormal using nothing but idea's from his large head. His thick glasses glinting in the sunlight.
Dib… it can't be. I saw him die… I… saw him die!
The alarms where set off, the ringing blaring in his sensitive ear spots as he was dragged by his arm. Zim felt a little more than uncomfortable, having been stripped naked, his PAK nearly removed, and being saved by his arch nemesis.
The small human's hand was firmly wrapped about Zim's thin wrist, the boy's trench-coat now securely wrapped around Zim's body Leaving only the blue shirt and black jeans that the boy wore.
"This way!" Dib cried out, turning another corner, and evading yet another capture. Why was the Dib-stink doing this? Wasn't this place, this whole situation, what he'd dreamed of for so long? Zim, jerked to a halt and wrenched his arm free of Dib's grip, turning angry eyes to him.
"Zim… what?" Dib asked, looking fully confused and it made Zim even more irate.
"Why are you doing this Stink-beast? To prove that you are the better?! You've already won this round, remember, the Tallest will never come for me! Your sick dreams of cutting me open are finally coming true!" Zim yelled. His hands clenching by his sides, tears threatening to fall.
Dib flinched back, his expression hurt, as he reached out a hand to comfort him, Zim jerked away again. "Zim, I—it's not like that! I—"
"There he is, good, job son, you found the escapee." Membrane's voice came like a loud ringing to his sensitive ears, and Zim turned, his face cast in morbid shadows.
The pain that man could inflict was enough to make Zim vomit. Instead, he extended his spider-like legs about him, prepared to attack.
"D—dad…." Dib stuttered, and Zim flinched once more. The human was weak when it came to pleasing his father, and he'd turn on Zim any moment now. With a quick jerk Zim had Dib around the neck, his body pressed close to Zim's own as he held him firmly, a deadly leg poised above his retina.
"Let me pass, or I will kill him!" Zim bellowed, filled with a rage he didn't know he possessed. He would kill the Dib, and bathe in his blood, and would never think twice about it, he knew that now. If it came to his survival, Dib was nothing.
The man in the white coat seemed shocked, for only a moment, his eyes covered by his goggles. The light was reflecting off of them, and Zim wished that he could read the man's face.
Dib was surprisingly relaxed in Zim's hold, truly unafraid, and the fact made Zim feel odd. He didn't like it, and tightened his hold a little more upon Dib's form.
The man stepped aside, and Zim rose on to his other legs and quickly scurried down the hall, still holding Dib hostage. "Which way?!" Zim cried into the small human's ear, and Dib calmly explained the directions until, at last he saw the exit.
White light seeped in from the crack beneath the door, wisps of fresh air curled up, and Zim nearly screamed with the prospect of being freed once more. He picked up his pace, and the Dib started to struggle, shouting words at him, things that Zim just ignored.
"Zim, wait! The security guns! They're aimed to destroy anything that moves fast! Zim! Stop!" Dib's words were but a buzzing in his ears, as he dropped the boy to the ground and burst through the door, the moist air stung his face and lungs, and the sun nearly blinded him, but he didn't care he was free! Free from the torturous pain of the endless tests, and the probing, stupid scientists who wanted to get a hold of his squeedly-spooch.
Zim retracted his legs, dropping to his own two feet, and looked around, finding, to his surprise, Tak's Voot runner, sitting out beside the street, Dib's creepy sister sitting inside with what looked to be Gir.
The Dib hadn't lied.
Zim, gave a smirk, and began to run toward his only escape, and then heard the hum of the camera, and the cocking of an earth-weapon. Zim turned, and watched as the deadly weapon showed it's self, taking aim right at his chest.
He was going to die, he had no time to block the on coming attack, no time to dodge from it's path.
A smile graced his face, as a deep sadness filled him. This was it, his end. He'd lived only to die here, and his life was completely meaningless, a jumble of lies and stolen dreams.
He was suddenly thrown back, and Zim fell to the ground harshly, the trench-coat, that had some-how managed to stay on him, tore against the pavement, and Zim winced, looking up at the hollow popping sound.
Looking up, Zim felt his insides clench as the Dib stood above him, back arched from where the bullet had impacted and proceeded to explode from his chest. A small hole dripped black colored blood, so dark a red it held no color at all, from the smiley-face's forehead.
Dib's eyes were wide in shock, face abnormally pale as he tipped backwards, a single word whispering past his lips, doubling Zim in half with it's kindness.
"Escape…"
Only Dib cared, that he lived, that he continued to do so.
And now, he was gone.
Zim felt his hands shake as he searched for a way to open the door. His heart already racing in fearful hope, that maybe, just maybe, he had been wrong, and Dib had lived. Hell, he didn't care if it was as Megaboy 2000, just so long as the child was alive.
Another present from Gaz lay taped to the door, and access code to the key pad. Zim smirked, quickly punching it in, and the door rushed open with a soft sound.
Looking in, Zim found a small room, with toys and a small dresser. There was a tiny bed, with white blankets, now stained red from the emergency glow. But the room was empty.
Zim gave a shuddering sigh, scowling once more. Dib, were you here? Did Membrane take you away again, and Gaz just wanted me to know, that you were alive? But then why, why would she say that I took you away?
Zim gritted his teeth, and his fist trembled with his anger. Again he had failed. Membrane had escaped, and now, all he had was questions. Hastily he turned to leave, when he caught a glimpse of something beneath the bed.
Worry nagged at him, as images of a lurking human played through his mind. His insides fluttered with light fear as Zim tried to see what was hiding beneath, but from this distance he could see nothing.
Turning, back he slowly approached, raising his gun, and kneeled before the bed. Lifting the blankets back, he jumped when a small Smeet suddenly jumped him, knocking him to the ground and running wildly to the door.
In a quick retaliation, Zim jumped back to his feet, and picked the small thing up with his legs. The Irken screamed and burst into tears, as Zim brought him back toward him. Realizing that the smeet was actually full grown, simply, small, Zim glowered, turning the male to face him, the small Irken dangling from his clawed-leg, crying uncontrollably.
"Zim! Hurry your ass up! We need to leave!" Tak's sudden screech echoed from his communicator, attached to his lapel. Zim rolled his eyes, snapping back a hasty,
"Be right there, start the engine up!" before turning back to the sobbing Irken before him.
Zim glared and smacked the small soldier hard across the face, instantly shutting the being up. "Get a hold of yourself, soldier! You are no longer a captive here! Now, where is your PAK?" Zim said in a commanding voice, and suddenly found himself gazing into large golden eyes.
The small Irken was glaring up at him angrily, his fear clear on his face, but his body refusing to show it. Zim blinked disturbed for a moment at the color, before again, Tak screamed at him, and Zim shook it off.
"Come on, we have no time, we'll get you a new PAK when we get back to the Massive." Zim said flippantly, setting the Irken down, and grabbing his tiny arm, tugging him along as they fled the ship.
Several times along the way, the Irken stalled to yank backwards and whimper, and had forced Zim to jerk the smaller one off balance more than once, before they burst through the quickly closing doors of the Voot Ship.
"Damn it, Tak, I told you to start the engines! Not take off with out us!" Zim snapped, quiet ready to argue with the annoying girl for nearly leaving them behind. The purple eyed Irken, turned haughtily, her lips in a smirk, ready to taunt him, when her eyes suddenly widened and her jaw dropped in utter shock.
Zim quirked an antennae. "Tak?" It was then that Zim noticed the utter silence in the area, that should be full of noise. The sounds of pain, and hurried medical assistance, the sound of reports and calls for immediate aid once they reached the Massive
But there was nothing.
Turning around, Zim made to find what all the oddity was about, and found the Irken he'd just saved from the ship. Zim gave a gasp, falling silent as well, a sense of awe and fear filling him.
How… is this possible? Zim wondered as he took in the appearance of the Irken before him.
It was a White One.
But, all the white one's are killed at birth… how? Zim's mind trailed off when he noticed the oddly golden eyes, framed by large, thick glasses. Glasses that seemed eerily familiar, just as the blue, blood stained shirt that was wrapped around the boy, a bullet hole in the Smiley face's center.
A flash of blood, and the image of Dib falling backward filled Zim's mind, before the memory of the door took over, clearly displaying the name he had hardly spoken in years.
"Dib…" It escaped his mouth like a broken whisper, and the white Irken jumped, eyes locking with Zim's. For a moment, Zim could have sworn he saw a flicker of recognition in those golden depths, but just as quickly, it was gone, and the Irken's eyes dimmed as he passed out onto the floor.
A.N. Well, that's it for chapter 4. - BWAHAHAHAHA what a place to end it right? Well, review review review!
Mora