My Beloved, My Betrayed

Chapter 4

Invader Zim (c) Jhonen Vasquez, of whom I would love to sing karaoke with for no apparent reason what-so-ever.

Beta: None - My normal beta was out of town, so I just decided to go through the fic a few more times than I usually do.

It had been twenty-two earth days, Dib figured, although, it was rather difficult to calculate the exact amount of time. Nothing seemed to change much in the inky vastness of outer space.

Inside the ship, though... that was another matter. Throughout the past three weeks Dib found himself insanely busy. Everything seemed to have happened so fast.

Dib had met with the colonels in charge of his brigade; the brigade itself consisting of about 4,300 ships. They all seemed all-too-thrilled to have such a tall commander.

The armada wasn't a concrete group. Brigades often came and went to take care of various other military engagements; after all, the armada was just the core of the Irken military. Fifteen days ago, Dib's brigade had been called upon to stop a Screw Head revolution on the Conveyer Belt Planet.

To tell the truth, the revolt itself wasn't really much of a big deal – more of an annoyance. The Screw Heads, being horrible rebels, just kept shipping mail and packages to the wrong addresses. Nevertheless, it was an uprising, so military forces had to be called – besides, the mail mix-ups were getting rather irritating.

Dib stayed on the Massive, controlling the operation from afar. General Skeeb was simply too much of an asset to risk in such a routine mission.

The coup only took a few days to resolve. There were no Irken casualties – although, the same couldn't be said of the Screw Heads. The Irkens hadn't even bothered to take count; the entire race had been deemed insignificant, property, the lowest of the low.

The brigade had to stay on the Conveyer Belt Planet for a few extra days afterwards to ensure that the small revolt was utterly crushed – as were the spirits of the entire race. Of course, by Irken protocol, this meant only more violence and bloodshed despite the end of the riots.

It was difficult for Dib. Not the assignment; it was a fairly basic mission. Psychologically and emotionally – it took its toll on the human. He knew that if he was to successfully infiltrate the Irken Government he'd have to cause death in its name, but, as his first assignment, it only brought a whole new level of realism for Dib. He had even been told, back during his training, in order to keep his cover, he would almost certainly have to unflinchingly kill humans, his own people. As he headed the slaughter of the Screw Heads, this truth only became more and more vivid to him.

When not at the controls of the demise of half the Screw Head population, Dib attended various meetings involving top generals discussing strategies in the war with the humans. Although Skeeb wasn't necessarily of their rank and caliber, being a brigadier general – the lowest of the general ranks – her height and impressive record, as well as the expectation of her rise through the system, possibly to the position of Tallest, allowed the disguised human to participate under her guise. Dib tried to merely act as an observer during these conferences, still trying to get a feel for the flow of Irken military life.

The meetings were held by Elite General Tak – easily the second most powerful Irken after to the Tallest; the Irken that Skeeb was to act as a assistant to when not performing her other military duties. He hadn't received the orders determining when, where, and with what he was to assist her with, but he was looking forward to the summons. It was a well know fact that Tak had achieved her high status through pure skill, not height. Elevation-wise, she was only a few inches taller than Skoodge, but her background of success in the Irken-Meekrob War, as well as the lengthy list of all the planets she successfully invaded afterwards, lead to a speedy rise through the ranks.

The current plan gave a nod to the Impending Doom Operations – invading the less guarded planets on the outskirts of the Earthen Empire and slowly closing in until earth itself was finally defenseless. On each targeted planet, the several Irkens acting in a highly trained team were sent to infiltrate instead of simply one, hopefully to pick up the speed of the conquest. Time was of the essence, hoping to completely confound and cripple the human forces as several of their planets suddenly started to fall to Irken forces. Every-so-often Tak would ask Dib for comments or concerns. He assumed that she was simply trying to get a feel for him as a strategist; after all, he'd have to work for her and later learn from her. Of course, Dib reported all the information to his father during his transmissions to Vasq.

Because the control brain had deemed Dib having too much water in his system, he was forced to take a tablet that would lower the dihydrogen monoxide levels in his body. Of course, being human, a lack of water might prove more than a little troublesome. Dib had taken to stealing small amounts of water from various labs scattered throughout the Massive. The few occasions that he had been caught, Skeeb's rank had kept the Irken scientists from reporting him, thus keeping him out of trouble.

Consequently, there was the problem of hiding the water from his personal table-headed service drone, Bob. Fortunately, Bob wasn't too bright. Appearance-wise, he was short and covered in large burn marks... something about loosing a bet with the Tallest and getting thrown into a sun... Bob acted pretty much as a servant, getting Dib food, something to drink, or any supplies. He never questioned Dib, only performing his duties. Still, if Bob found a deadly material in General Skeeb's room, he had no idea what the small Irken would do.

And then there was Zim. Zim kept insisting on spending time with Dib, despite his efforts to drive the small Irken away. Dib had sworn on many occasions, if he heard GIR's shrieks of "FLAPPEH!" and his insane babble about "Platypus Warrior Number Pink" one more time... how did the obnoxious piece of machinery even know what a platypus was, anyway? And then Zim's proclamations of how great he was; Dib didn't understand how such a failure of an Irken could possibly believe the self-praise he constantly spewed at every chance possible.

Between the Conveyer Belt Planet, the meetings, the transmissions, and the Zim insanity, Dib barely had time to sleep – something considered only a luxury in Irken society, not a necessity. He never really needed all that much sleep back on Earth and his PAK allowed him to forgo even more, so despite feeling like a zombie all the time, it was somewhat tolerable. Dib just hoped that things would calm down a bit so that he could fully take care of his basic needs –

"GEN'RAL SKEEEEEEEEB!! THE ZIM HAS ARRIVED!!... Hey – were you just talking to yourself?"

Dib was currently sitting in the spinning chair in front of the computer's massive screen. He spun it around to face Zim, glad that he had left his disguise on. "Uh... no... Why? Did you hear anything possibly incriminating?"

"No... just something about sleeping and Table-Headed Service Drone Bob. Not sure what they have to do with each other... You know, you should be glad that it was just me who heard; if that's a habit of yours, you might accidentally spill crucial information."

"Thanks for your concern, Zim..." Dib said sarcastically, trying to dismiss the janitor. Of course, something like that wasn't going to discourage him.

"No problem, my Taller. I'm sure you're probably wondering why GIR is not with me today."

"Tell me why, Zim..." My god, is he ever going to leave?

"You see, GIR is making brownies... Yup... you know, there's probably gonna bacon in them, like last time. I'm gonna have to destroy them when he forgets about them five minutes later."

Dib, aggravated, raised an antenna, the Irken equivalent to raising an eyebrow. "And why exactly did I need to know this?"

Zim shrugged. "I dunno."

The human rolled his eyes. "... So... are you here for any particular reason?"

"Well, your garbage needs to be emptied." Zim stated, flashing a large, toothy smile. "Sooooo... got anything interesting to do around here?" Obviously looking for a reason to hang around.

"How about you just get the trash and go?"

Zim patted Dib's head – something that could only happen because of Dib's current seated position. Also something considered very disrespectful. "Thank you for your concern, ma'am, but do not worry about wasting Zim's time. You see, I don't mind gracing you with my presence."

Dib looked away, trying to mask his growing rage. "Lucky me..." He turned back towards Zim, only to find him gone... and currently engaged in rooting through Skeeb's wardrobe. Zim tossed the military-issued clothing and armor around the room without rhyme or reason. "ZIM?! What the hell are you doing?!" Dib screeched, hastily trying to catch the thrown garments as they were thrown.

"Nothin' much... just looking at what you've got in here."

"Well, I don't 'got' anything besides my clothing, so you can stop making a mess of everything. Your job is to clean, not throw my stuff everywhere!"

Zim paused his antics and looked around the room, completely ignoring what Dib had just said. "Now that you mention it, it is a little messy in here. Looks like Zim'll have to stay a little longer than initially intended in order to fix all this."

Dib groaned, feeling that that was Zim's plan the entire time. "Look, I can't stay. I have important... thingies... to do... you know, fate of the Empire and all that. Just don't mess with anything – that's a direct order."

"Yes, my Taller!" Zim declared with a salute, although the disappointment was evident.

Dib exited, the relief evident on his face. He hastily went down one of the more vacant corridors to avoid any chance that Zim might be following him, not caring that the Irken PAKs forbade smaller Irkens from disobeying their Tallers.

"Well, looks like I won't be going back anytime soon – might as well take a walk." Dib muttered to himself knowing that there was no one to hear him, heading down the empty corridor. As he passed the rooms he looked inside, mostly out of sheer curiosity. Various Irkens scurried about inside, not caring what was going outside of their sound-proof labs, training areas, computer rooms, technology-encased enclosures. Each only had time for and focus for what they were assigned to do by the control brains – nothing more, nothing less. Dib had to ponder if they even had any idea how sad their existence was – based only on what had been predetermined at their hatching and with nothing else to live for. Dib mentally added that to his internal list of reasons why human society was better than Irken.

"GENERAL!" A small Irken, dressed in a communication officer's uniform and panicked, ran down the hall towards Dib. "Ma'am! Down the corridor... I saw... I-it's just... I contacted law enforcement, b-but... S-s-s-so much blood... PAK was destroyed... I couldn't... Just needed someone else... I-I can't handle this on my own... I mean... M-must have someone in authority there..." he babbled, obviously out of breath and very shaken.

"Calm down! Deep breaths – now, tell me exactly what happened!" Dib commanded, bending down to steady the smaller green extraterrestrial. Irkens didn't panic. It just wasn't something that happened under normal situations. Adrenaline slowly crept into Dib's veins.

He gulped, swallowing his fear, and tried again. "General... My Taller... I-I... Down the hall, to the right... There an... I saw a..." the Irken gulped again with a shutter before continuing. "...Mutilated... Everywhere, pieces of flesh and shattered PAK... I just..."

Understanding that the Irken was too upset to fully explain whatever it was he found, Dib asked. "What's your name and rank?"

"C-communications Officer Nort..."

"Well, Nort, show me where it is," Dib instructed, trying to hide the distress that the Irken's alarm was causing him. Nort nodded and apprehensively lead his Taller to the site.

As soon as he reached it, Nort closed his round, red eyes and shuttered.

"Holy fuck..." was all Dib could mutter.

The thick, green-blue, coppery blood; everywhere. The floor, the walls, even some seemed to drip from the tall ceiling – almost trickling from the pipes high in the rafters that wrapped around each other in a tangled web as they trailed along the length of the hall.

But the rich, azúl liquid wasn't what held Dib's eye. The green, blood-coated figure in the center of the mess was; at least, what was left of the figure. Large chunks of flesh were scattered around it. A finger here, a piece of skull there, an unidentifiable piece of tissue a meter over. Interspersed with the carnage were small pieces of metal, their dull exterior coated in the Irken blood as well. Dib didn't need to look hard to realize that they were the remains of a PAK; many of the pieces deeply imbedded into the flesh. Whatever had killed this Irken had been quite thorough. Disgustingly so.

Dib fought back the urge to vomit. Regaining his composure, he turned to the smaller Irken. "Do you have any idea what happened here? Any clue at all?"

Nort fervently shook his head. Dib looked to the cerulean-colored slaughter again, falling deep into thought. Oh god... This better not be linked to me; if any sort of investigation of 'Skeeb' was made... Nort's already informed law enforcement, I can't run – that would be suspicious... but if I stay that would also be suspicious... Dib glanced towards Nort again. Despite the maroon-eyed communication officer's panic, he showed no sign of leaving the area. Dib bit his lip. It looked like the natural thing to do was to wait until the proper authorities appeared.

Dib didn't have to wait long. It only took fourteen minutes before the Irken police and detectives appeared in droves. One of the taller Irkens, obviously the one in charge, made a transmission to someone through a communication device in his PAK before approaching Dib and Nort.

"Communication Officer Nort, I've been instructed to have you held for questioning, and possibly for the control brain to retrieve the proper information through your PAK." Immediately, two Irken guards grabbed Nort by the shoulders, literally dragging him off to, most likely, the prisons.

"As for you, Brigadier General Skeeb, you are to come with me." Without a word more, he turned around and headed down the corridor, expecting Dib to follow. When he didn't immediately move, an Irken guard gave him a hard nudge in that direction.

After a few moments of silence during their trek, hoping for the best, Dib decided to speak up. "Sooo... where are you taking me?"

"The Elite General would like to speak with you about the matter personally..." the head detective-y person informed Dib with a sneer in his voice. A sneer for what, though, the disguised human couldn't quite place.

Irken waiting rooms. Dib found that they weren't all that different from human waiting rooms. There was even an old, sour secretary in the corner. The pointlessly long time spent sitting around doing nothing but reading old magazines – also there. Dib had come to believe that was one of the requisites for something to be a waiting room. The only difference was the armed guard watching over Dib. You normally don't see those in human waiting rooms. Normally.

After what had to be two hours in the small waiting room of the lucky few who got a private audience with the Elite General, the bitter secretary motioned for Dib to enter through a door at the far end of the room. "You kin go in thar', Gen'ral Skeeb." Where the hell did this secretary get that obnoxious accent...? Dib nodded, and did as told.

Inside was a rather large room with an equally large desk at a slight upward angle – or at least what looked like a desk. Closer inspection showed that it was actually a highly advanced, state-of-the-art computer. Dib assumed that the lack of screen was because it was probably holographic based. Scattered throughout the rest of the room were large, fluffy looking chairs and sofas. In the corner was a table full of various snack foods and sodas – the epitome of Irken luxury.

And a modified SIR unit. Dib immediately paused and tensed up as he saw it, thoughts of the only other SIR he'd ever encountered started running rampant through his mind. Small, hyper-active, obnoxious, and able to see though the Skeeb disguise.

"Welcome, Brigadier General Skeeb. Don't just stand there; come in, sit down." Dib was too busy watching the SIR for any signs of suspicious activity to even notice Elite General Tak. He slowly walked towards a chair in front of the computer and sat down, not taking his eyes off of the small robot.

Tak noticed Dib's anxiety towards her mechanical servant. A flash of understanding came to her, followed by a look Dib couldn't quite place; it mostly resembled annoyance towards whatever was on her thoughts. "You must have met GIR." Dib gave a small nod, eyes still not leaving the SIR. "I can assure you, MIMI, here, is nothing like that defective SIR. I would know; I made her myself during my days as an invader."

Dib glanced warily at Tak, and back at MIMI. "I just don't like SIRs... Are you sure she won't flip out or shout anything incoherent?"

"She may be somewhat dated, but she's an excellent servant. And no, she doesn't speak, so you don't have to worry about shouting. She's able to communicate with me through a transmission to my telekinetic amplifier." Tak tapped the small metallic device daintily protruding out of her forehead. "Even if MIMI was shouting, you wouldn't be able to hear her."

Dib pretended to let it go, but first gave a glare at the modified SIR. If she was able to see through Dib's cover, neither she nor Tak showed any indication of it. "So... Elite General Tak... ma'am... you wished to speak with me?"

"Yes. Now, Skeeb, first of all, I apologize for not calling you here earlier, seeing how the Tallest assigned you as my aide. You see, there have been several... incidents... You happened to have stumbled upon the aftermath of one of them. I managed to pull a few strings so that the law enforcement wouldn't cart you away for questioning, allowing me to have a chance to speak with you on this matter personally."

The disguised human shuttered. Despite Tak's veil of kindness, Dib definitely felt undertones of cruelty. He was not going to get on her bad side. "If you don't mind me asking, ma'am, why did you want to have a word with me?"

"The Tallest have decided that the public should not know about these slaughters. It's was going on before you arrived, and there seems to be no sign that the murders are slowing down. Already we've lost fifty-four Irkens – all of them military officers. The body that you found belonged to Colonel Loor. If this information leaked out, there would be much panic aboard the Massive. We don't want the masses to know that there may be something that's not Irken hiding aboard the ship, killing our high-ranking military officials."

"W-wait... Something that's not Irken?" Dib stammered, his nervousness beginning to become slightly evident.

"Of course. It's part of the basic programming of the PAK; Irkens cannot kill one another. Therefore, there has to be something else on the Massive with some sort of vendetta against us." Tak said pointedly, as it mentioning something painfully obvious.

"Is there any particular reason why you're telling me this?" asked Dib, trying to hide his uneasiness once more.

"Yes. Seeing how you're to be my aide, you'll have to know about this information as well. We're hard at work trying to find whatever it is that keeps murdering. In the past two weeks there secretly have been a biological and a PAK scan of all aboard this vessel. Everything has checked out to be Irken and to have an Irken-issued PAK. We're at a loss."

"So nothing was abnormal was found in anyone?"

Tak glared at Dib, but quickly the sharp gesture turned back into her normal expression, which appeared to be a calm scowl. "Are you going to question everything I say?"

"Sorry, my Elite General... I'm just a little shaken from this news. I never expected anything like this..." Dib said in a half-bluff.

"Don't say sorry; it makes you sound weak. But no, nothing was found. You check out, I check out, my secretary checks out, your table-headed service drone checks out. Nothing without Irken DNA or a PAK was found." Not having much else to say on the subject, Tak changed the topic. "So, seeing as I have to fill out much paperwork for our 'interview,' you might as well tell me why you were there and what exactly happened. That isn't exactly a heavily traveled area."

Dib took a deep breath, about to explain what happened. "You see, my Elite General, I have an insane janitor, and-"

"... Lemme guess... Zim, right?" Tak said, seething. Tak's interjection caught Dib off guard. The reflection of pure hatred in her eyes made Dib shirk slightly.

"Yeah... how did you know?"

"I've had my own experiences with Zim... Before the Irken-Meekrob War spiraled out of control, the Tallest appointed me to take out Zim before he caused too much damage to inter-planetary relations. That moron found out about my assignment, but believed that I was trying to kill him so that I could take his mission. It turned into a game of me trying to kill him as he tried to kill me; all while he was executing his attempts to take over Meekrob." Tak looked bitter. "Obviously, I failed to kill him, and he never conquered the planet. That was the only mission I've ever failed to complete. It was only through the graciousness of the Tallest that I was allowed to fight in war that followed, where I proved my worth, thus promoting me to this rank – and that's only the most recent encounter I've had with him."

There was a long silence. Both just sat, almost daring the other to say something to break the void of noise. Suddenly, in a burst of withheld rage that she had started accumulating with the first mention of Zim, Tak forcefully brought her fist down on the computer/desk before her. "DAMN THAT ZIM! When he caused a power-outage on half of Devastis, I was about to take the Invader test. Because I couldn't complete my test, I was forced to work on planet DIRT for fifty years before I could have a chance to take it again... Easily the WORST years of my life..." She faced Dib again, her eruption of anger beginning to die down as she adopted a calm exterior once more. "Skeeb, your first assignment from me is this – make Zim's life a living hell. I feel that you'll have no objections to this."

"None, whatsoever, ma'am." Dib said with a sharp salute and a small smile.

"Good. So, you were simply leaving your room until Zim left. What happened next?"

Dib fumbled to pick up his story where he left off. "Well, um... then Communications Officer Nort ran up to me, panic-stricken and babbling. I followed him and found the corpse. He told me that he had already contacted the authorities, so I simply waited until they arrived."

"And that's all? Nothing more that might be useful? Anything?"

"No, sorry."

Tak fell deep into thought before speaking again. "If you remember anything else, be sure to tell me. I don't want to have to send you to the control brain to extract the information. Seeing how I managed to get a private audience with you, the hassle of the using the control brain would become my problem, and I would prefer not to do that. Anyway, you are dismissed, Brigadier General Skeeb."

"Yes, my Elite General!" Dib said with a salute.

"Please, just call me Tak. After all, we're going to be seeing a lot of each other."

"Yes, my... I mean Tak." Tak nodded and waved her hand, signaling that Dib could leave.

As Dib exited through the door, back to the small waiting room, he noticed the sour secretary filing her three-fingered claws, paying no attention to the tall Irken entering the room. "Some things are universal," he muttered under his breath. She gave Dib a scowl and continued filing her nails.

The electronic door slid open, allowing Dib to leave the small waiting room, his nerves still somewhat rattled from Tak's comment about there being "something not Irken" aboard the Massive. She didn't seem to be insinuating that she knew anything about his true identity, but if she and MIMI were telekinetically connected like she said, and if MIMI might be able to see through his disguise... Dib shook his head. He had to stop thoughts like that from constantly swimming through his head; he might accidentally say them out loud. The whole time he was studying both her and the robot for any sort of abnormal body language, finding none... Of course, Tak could simply be a very good actress, hiding her real emotions even in the midst of a great discovery, such as Skeeb's true identity.

No! He had to quit dwelling on what might happen and focus on more what he will cause to happen. He had already made his connection with the Elite General; second in command save only the Tallest. Although the meeting had been a little bumpy, hopefully, judging by Tak's reaction, she approved of her new protégé. After all, she had insisted that he call her by her real name and not just by her title – something almost unheard of in the hierarchy of Irken government.

Dib headed back towards his private quarters, lost in his own thoughts. Completely unaware of the pair of eyes following him, precariously perched among the mass of wires and tubes in the high ceiling. With a whir of graceful machinery, the figure disappeared, looking for its next target.

Ta da! Chapter 4! Love me!... Damn, I'm a needy bitch...

COULD IT BE!? THE START OF SOMETHING THAT MIGHT ACTUALLY RESEMBLE THE BEGINNING OF A PLOT OF SOME SORT? ... If that's what you're thinking, the answer is a resounding MAYBE! And by maybe, I mean that lots of stuff of importance will probably be in the NEXT chapter, of which you'll have to wait forever for. And by forever, I mean I won't be occupied with a type of art school for two weeks, melodic percussion practice until nine for a week, a trip to visit grandparents in another state for a week. And by occupied I mean drained physical and mentally of my very being by the end of every day. And by drained I mean... naw, I'll stop...

Thanks to my lovely reviewers, ZimAteWaffles, Insert Generic Fan Name Here, Rainbow-Man, Reigning Fyre, Ice Dragon3, Sighani, Chirp Chirp, SharpiesInAGayRainbow, Rambie, Liani Risate, ffnetlover, DTGC, kikomio, microwaved noodles, Kriss, DREIGNUS, DarkAngelKisses, Kurotorachan, Hashmir, and BarkingPup


-randomly gnaws on a book- What? You still here? Go! Review! -continues gnawing on book-