A/N: Unfortunately, I have really bad writers block with this chapter. No hate please! It's also not as carefully proof read as my other chapters, if you see a typo or silly mistake please inform me! I'll fix it, I swear!
Warning: Contains… lots of crap really… like AlienxBoy mating that results in weirdness… compared to that everything is just peachy.
Disclaimer: Yeah, don't own… But I like to dream sometimes….
Summary: I don't have a summary up in the fic anymore because I keep changing it. I just can't find one to grab people's attention. If anyone has one they think will work and I do enjoy because it says the plot better than I can do, I will put it up. Until then, ya'll just have to read to find out what the hecks is going on. –winces- Really sorry, guys.
Remember:
"Speech"
Thoughts/Memories
Time Breaks
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Chapter Six-More Than The Original Seven
Down the squeaky clean white paneled halls, a lofty professor calmly marched to the room where his only daughter was housed in a comatose like state. No one bothered this intimidating man, and his journey to the room was quite uneventful.
He opened the door by his security bandage and a quick punching in of his numbers. A small monitor switched from a red color to a green. While sticking the card back into his pocket, the navy colored lanyard swaying gently, the doors unlocked and whooshed open for him. As soon as he entered he noted the few nurses padding around, changing bed sheets and taking body temp signs.
Membrane clasped his hands behind his back, tilting his head and just watching for a moment. The thin, violet haired young woman sleeping almost peacefully in the sterile bed barely even twitched. Yet the professor had no intention of letting her die gracefully.
Let her whither away just like his pride, as his life works' had.
It is strange… a father could not see his children as a valuable life work…
"Professor Membrane…" a soothing androgynous voice drifted over the intercom system, making him glance up unexpectedly, "A video feed is requested from a separate, private entity. Immediate response, please." Glaring quickly at the sparse nurses in their tight, bright pale uniforms, he ordered them to leave him.
"Video fed channel open, private line, Membrane. Numbers 74921. Infirmary… StationRS-802," he announced and strut over the bed as the screen buzzed on, flickering darkly for a moment and then lighting up, showing the entities.
"Professor Membrane," the angered voice greeted. The professor didn't even blink.
"Tallest Red. Pleasure to see you again," he said, "How long has it been?"
"I lost count of time with your constant failures!" the alien snarled. Again the professor didn't even flinch. The Irken on the screen let out a breath and pointed one of his talons at the man. "You have not found Zim, nor did you do anything in regards to the smeets he sired."
"I do not need to find Zim," he answered calmly. "All I have to do is find his human—my son you have seem to forgotten." Sightlessly, the eyes had narrowed to a dangerous degree. "As for the offspring, I have placed trackers in them. Currently my team is monitoring them and we are launching a strike as quickly as possible."
"For your sake I hope you are…" Red warned. Sighing the alien then cut off transmission. The screen fuzzed out in a wave of stormy static. The professor smiled and pivoted on his heel, leaving the room almost gaily if you knew the kind of man he was. Membrane did not even mind the missing weight in his pocket where the key card had been.
As the door swished closed, the man picked up his communicator and asked, quite pleasantly, "Please switch on locator G14A10Z19."
Port Sagilia, Milky Way
So the ship was docked, anchored by Gir and Mini-Moose rather excellently despite their modest size. Zim maneuvered well, Dib sitting beside him and helping by keeping the remaining reactor cores from over heating. Zag and Miz ran around the ship, shouting to their hearts content about finally being able to see another port.
"This. Is. So. Cool!" Zag punched the air with each word, resisting the urge to giggle and jump for joy. Miz managed to laugh, covering his mouth embarrassed when a snort somehow escaped him.
"Gah! I don't even have a nose…!" he mumbled, rubbing at the inconspicuous semi-bump all Irkens were characteristic of. Zag watched bemused, hands on her hips as she shook her head. The scene was interrupted as Zim emerged from the command center fishing in his pockets for something while Dib followed with a yawn. "Oh! Father!" The young boy walked up, tugging on his sleeve lightly. "Are we coming as well?"
"I assumed we were!" Zag added in, gazing up at her Dona with those rounded, rose-colored eyes. Zim's antenna flexed, showing his concern as he finally found what he was searching for. In his gloved claws were two metal rings and a clip.
"Well, I wasn't planning to leave any of you unsupervised on the ship—"
"We ain't gonna steal it, Zim," Miz replied, gruffly pulling down on Dib's hand he turned back, "Really, dad, me and Zag wouldn't!" Dib just sighed and patted him on the head. Zag hissed at him to be quiet, and he glared, sticking out his striped tongue. The tall alien tuned out the bickering and flicked on the objects he was holding.
"What I have here is a device used to understand different languages," he explained. Zag's eyes widened and she held out her hand almost immediately. Her Dona placed a metal ring in his palm, the cool, smooth metal winking up at her in the brightly lit entrance doors.
"Wow…" she breathed. Zim held one out for Miz, who took it between his thumb and forefinger to inspect it. From there he walked up to Dib, putting on the clip to the soft human cartilage of the left ear. Zim couldn't help but let a small smile grace his face.
"I remember when you had many of these scattered over you…" he whispered, the Irken hand lingering. Dib felt his brows slope down in grief, but he managed to give back a weak grin. Zim could feel the urge welling up inside him to hold his human, but let it go as Miz asked him something. "H-Huh?" the invader said, glancing down at the boy.
"I said," he repeated, rolling those eyes carelessly, "Zag and I don't have ears."
"Ah, no," the emerald being yielded, "But you do have antennae. Since we feel, hear, and smell from them, it goes on one. Whichever one works, I'll help you put it on." So saying, Zim bent down, turning Miz's back to him, and quickly snapped the ring around the base of the bulb of the right antenna. The cold, secure grip of the item jolted Miz's spine and he wheeled around, pushing away from Zim with a yelp.
"Hey!"
"Sorry, forgot to mention the slight shock of that," he tried to apologized, playing with his own antenna by leathered fingertips. "I'm really sort of use to it. Many years under a hot wing is worse that cold metal."
Zag flung her brother out of the way as he grumbled under his breath, flouncing to show her backside, and consciously raising one of her antennae. Zim aided her and placed the ring on, however carefully warming it up with his breath first. Zag's antenna twitched as the scent of mint permeated her senses.
"Now that we are all ready to go," Dib stated gleefully as he went straight over to the button to open the bay-door, "How about a nice day of family shopping?"
Zim chuckled, rubbing his hands together; Miz merely groaned, and Zag struck a comic victory pose, ready for action…
The pain was unlike anything he ever felt before. He had been cut and burned his whole childhood while he tried to keep aliens and other such creatures from invading his home. Bruises could always be seen under massive amounts of bandages at any given time in the year. There were piles and piles of doctor bills from various occasions where broken bones had to be put in casts straight away because of the severity.
Dib had known pain.
Yet… this pain was deep, stinging, aching.
His screams reached pitches unheard by human ears. Vibrations could barely even reach the Irken antenna; that was how loud they were. It would be impossible to describe it accurately.
His own father had taken him, belted him down to a cold, obdurate medical table where he was immediately struck with needles thick and glinting in the harsh lights of the ship he was forced upon… It barely registered that it was taking off from the earth. The only thing in his mind was the grating pain in his abdomen.
And his heart.
That was shredded to bloody, bloody ribbons.
Zim was gone. How the human knew this at such a critical hour is not something to be understood… Still, it was. They—the horrid fucking Tallest—had captured him, shoved the exile into the wall, snarling words in a language Dib wasn't much aware of until then. And that's when Membrane had shown up, unheeding of his own son's pleas. At that time, a cloth was over his mouth, and a struggle ensued in momentary panic as a bitter taste fell across his tongue.
And then black… followed by pain.
"Induced labor successful," a nurse's calm voice drifted past Dib's burning ears. Blurry shapes danced in and out of his sight. The glasses were lying somewhere off on a rolling table. They twinkled in the light at him.
Dib's pale hand blended in with the equipment, walls, sheets, all around him.
"P-Please…" he begged in a whisper as a tremor shook him. No one listened.
"First incision, marked… now…"
The slice of skin familiar, another scream, but no desperate thrashing… Dib realized… they had immobilized him, but applied no anesthetics. He would feel it all. Each blade, each probing hand, and every breath he took made tears run down the sides of his face. No matter the screams, there would be no comfort.
Would death be an option, he wondered as something sharp was cutting away at his innards. Violently, a moan escaped him when a rather distinct unit was removed from his stomach… and strangely enough… another…
Holding his breath, Dib waited from what seemed an eternity… and then a feeble, but clearly audible, cry erupted into the room. Nurses and doctors made no sounds other than shuffling feet like the dried leaves in trees. He sighed, not worrying about the sweat dripping off his body, or the staples closing up his wound. Someone propped him up, but exhaustion kept him from knowing exactly who.
Then, there were bright emerald bundles in his straining arms. They cooed softly, they're orbs covered by a cooled cloth. His children… or smeets as Zim would have called them…One with a fuzzy black head, the other bald, but the little antenna were drooped down, seeming to sway with his heartbeat.
"The one in your left is a girl, and the other is a boy…" a voice, deep and uncaring, told him. Absently, the new father laughed, his fingers stroking the smooth expanse of his son's forehead.
"Hello Miz…" he greeted. The baby gurgled and buried his head in the crook of Dib's shoulder. Dib smiled, turning to the fussy little girl. "Welcome to the world, Zag." Blissfully, the young man hummed to his children, deciding to be concerned later of his predicament.
But, that was not what the Professor had in mind.
"You are officially worthless now, son," the man said. All the nurses in the room shivered visibly. Dib did not look up, but his smile faded. "I will take the offspring for further study once you are finished."
"No. You won't."
"You believe you can stop me in your current—"
"They are in my arms at this time; I can do whatever I need to in order to protect them," he growled. Membrane chuckled, strutting over and bending down so his reflective goggles were only a centimeter from Dib's nose—a distance he could see quite fine at.
"I doubt that. You care too much to do something so drastic…" his own father whispered. Dib cursed under his breath and tightened his hold on the babies. They were staring unblinkingly, neither one giving the other an inch… until the doors were vehemently banged open.
The two males gasped and their necks snapped to the side to witness who had arrived.
Gaz stood, glaring, arms crossed and a pristine lab coat fluttering in the circulating fake air. Dib's face broke out in a shit-eating grin while the professor straightened, silently questioning his daughter. She stomped straight over and placed her palm on the top of her older brother's raven head.
"I forgot to mention," Gaz intoned caustically as a way of greeting, "I have been studying the human body AND the Irken one while you were merely searching for ones. From what I have gathered, the smeet/children/offspring need a biological parent close by in order to survive. If research is to be done, first they must survive. I will deem it necessary when testing shall be done at the earliest."
Gaz raised an eyebrow, daring the man in front of her to question it. With calculating eyes unseen, he only nodded, and promptly left the room, all subsequent personnel retreating as well. Dib closed his eyes and struggled to relax.
"Thanks…"
"Don't mention it," she answered seriously. The young lady observed the room with apprehension. "But I have a bad feeling we aren't out of the woods just yet."
Dib was too tired to say anything else and bobbed his head up and down. Gaz then carefully took the two children and laid them in cribs at the other end of the room, monitoring them with an eagle's eye.
The siblings, of course, never knew about the third pair of eyes floating about the room, noting every second of interaction. Professor Membrane could only faintly smile at his kids' too easily trusting and arrogant nature… a better part of his own capabilities he was glad to account for.
Port Sagilia, Jax Supplies
Jax didn't get many customers. In fact, Jax rarely knew what customers meant; his store was so empty all the time. Perhaps that was his entire fault though. Jax Supplieswas a rather boring name for a seedy port shop. Almost anyone could stroll down Sagilia and find entertaining—if not crude—installments of businesses dotted about the neon and swirled port streets.
For example… Jizard's Wizards, a very lovely little ditty of a place. Big Berthaz's Beauty Boutique, Jax hadn't really been there but the flashy place seemed quite hospitable. Vecon's Eatry, a restaurant that held fabulous cuisine from the Opec Galaxy. Excellent burgoos-fries.
So there you have it. Jax's shop had a sucky name. Nonetheless, the man didn't much care. He considered his little shop a diamond in the rough. Jax didn't get many customers… but the ones he did get were always loaded with credits. Ya see… Jax was a human abducted by a race of rather flower loving alien-hippie drones. He didn't remember that much about Earth, so it was a constant fascination to him about this mysterious planet he was born and partially raised on.
Notably, Jax was clever (despite the awful store name) and skinny. Having a talent for listening and watching with his keen orbs—one that was actually an implant due to a misfortune a decade and a half ago—he picked up quite a few good tips here and there and could come by practically anything ever requested. Earth, after its sordid death, became a macabre interest to many buyers that wandered past Sagilia.
Ah, wonderful Sagilia, the dead-center in the middle of the universe of crime world.
Suffice to say anyone acquiring to earthly items somehow or another stumbled upon Jax. Well, anyone really looking for anything could come to Jax no matter what. His success rate was perfect (Jax never counted the time he lost his own precious bunny slippers he had since his abduction, because honestly, he was in his preteens when he lost them).
Well, just as the sandy haired human was bemoaning the loss of no customers, he heard the bell on his door ring as it opened up…
A Few Moments Prior To Jax's Introduction And Coincidentally Right Outside His Shop"This is the place…" Zim muttered, stuffing his locater into his PAK. Zag ran up to his legs and clutched on to the fabric of his pants, gazing up at the sudden contrast of blinding neon to run down, gray and shabby shack. Miz was blinking, finding an odd interest in the dusty store in front of him. Dib had his hands shoved in his pocket and whistled.
A few whispered and grunts were picked up by his clip-translator. "Jax Supplies?" Dib mumbled under his breath. Miz leaned back on his balls of his feet and spied his father's minor curious-disgusted face.
"I kinda like it," he said. Dib pulled a face and then shrugged.
"I just feel lost here. I use to have a written translator a long time ago…" he grumbled, throwing a look to Zim who sheepishly scratched the back of his neck.
"I did warn you!" he protested lightly. The human managed to glower, sticking out his bottom lip. Zag's head swiveled between the two, attention shot between this strange port and the memories her parents argued over.
"What did you do, Dona?" she questioned. Both adults' faces colored and Zim spun on the heel of his boots, quickly striding over and opening the front door of the shop. The rest followed him in a flurry.
"I didn't do anything!" he snapped. Dib scoffed and caught up, tugging on the back of his crimson jacket harshly.
"Oh bull!" he objected, "You frickin' smashed it with your damn spider legs!"
"Hey! I told you—"
"Told me?! You screamed at me!" the human interrupted. Zim shrugged out of his coat, sharply turning to glare at the pallid being.
"Irkens don't scream, we merely order loudly," he replied haughtily. He smiled that notorious fanged smiled, tapping the human's button nose. "And everyone complies with the orders."
"Gah! I swear Zim if there weren't bystanders…!" Dib threatened. Zim laughed, which of course, echoed malevolence. Zag and Miz patiently rested at the closed-door quite use to the bickering their parents went through. Zag couldn't help but find it adorable; Miz was only a little put off this time, as he couldn't pay attention too much when in such a new and enticing environment.
"Um…" a distinctly English and human voice cut through the tension, thus evaporating the scene more or less instantaneously. All four visages glanced over to see a tall, thin blond man, maybe in his late teens, leaning on a steel counter. He had an odd eye patch over his left eye, and a couple chains dangling around his neck fashionably. His clothes were tattered and oily, but reasonably comfy looking. "Can I help you?"
Dib blinked numerous amounts of time; Zim smirked, shoving his hands in his pockets, while the two children rushed up to the counter gazing with their enormous orbs. Jax peered down, mentally trying to place their heritage and coming up confused. Irken? Martian? Zeboian? Dib immediately tensed again and walked over to tug his kids back by the scruff of their shirt collars.
"Uh-uh. You look with your eyes, not with your hands!" the human ordered. Just then Jax remembered he had a box of random parts lazing about the counter tops. They must have been reaching for it while he was busy studying them.
Okay, maybe Jax was a bit of an idiot.
"Err, yeah," he intoned, falling back and snatching the box, "Be careful! This stuff is…" he glanced down, and frowned, "Actually, I think it's mostly junk." Zim scoffed and began searching through shelves and grabbing certain items, letting his PAK scan them. "Well. Eh, here ya go kids. Take 'em. I can't sell much these days anyway."
Jax pushed the cardboard box across the counter. Miz had eagerly escaped his father's grasp and catapulted himself onto the counter. It surprised the poor storekeeper, who stepped back instinctively for a fight, he relaxed when he realized the boy was only rifling through the stuff. The blond human smiled a bit at the delight in those bright amber orbs. It reminded him of candy—those happy eyes. He looked up to another human; about to introduce himself when he realized the darker haired one in front of him had the same colored eyes.
Jax felt a shock travel down his spine as he noted the Irken in the room stroll over and place his claw against the naked forearm of pale flesh ("Hey," Zim had said, "I dunno if the parts can be found here. But we could make a new one…"). It wasn't much, but you could see the intimacy sizzling between the two. The human turned a bit, leaning to the touch as his face showed a level of distress only lovers could see ("How long will it take? I dunno if we should be here for more than a few days…").
Then it hit him.
Irken and human offspring?! Wasn't there only one known history of that? Didn't the Armada say they had perished? The offspring and the parents?!
"Apparently not…" Jax breathed. All eyes turned back to him. He blanched, realizing he was known for breathing vociferously. He held up one finger, closing his eyes with a good-natured smiled. "Excuse me while I promptly faint."
And then Jax thudded to the floor…
Somewhere Off in the Deep Recesses of SpaceA hoarse voice cursed out of nowhere.
Holding onto a throbbing shoulder, a being swayed in the darkness of her cockpit of a tiny vessel. Strands of hair were slick with seat, making them sparkle like violet gems. A pale arm slid in information across the touch-screen program.
"Locate trackers number…" fumbling cards clicked in echoes "1223 and 1224."
"Yes m'am," a smooth British accent answered. A breath of relief washed over the open pod window. It misted and then dispersed with a blast of warm air from the heater.
"Don't worry, bro," Gaz mumbled, slipping her tired lids closed. Her hands clicked on the autopilot joystick without ever spying down. "I swore that I'd help you… and I am." Then the escape pod traveled swiftly through the floating dusts of planets. "I just hope I can get there in time."
She shook her head then.
"No 'hope'. I will."
And we'll just forget that slip of insecurity. After all, this was Gaz.
Gaz could do nothing wrong, right?
Right.
"Why are you doing this?!" the tall emerald Irken growled. His ruby eyes glared fiercely behind the bars of the electricity. The holding cell was in a tiny square room in a corridor in the bowels of the Massive. All around was dark, dark gray. "I have grown, yes! But I have no desire to rule your corrupted system! Let me go dammit!"
"You have fraternized with the enemy," a being, cloaked in the radiant overhanging boomed.
"I was exiled!"
"Exactly! You are to live alone!" the second figure interjected, pointing down at the captured one, who shrieked in frustration.
"Regardless, they were not our enemy!" a ripped gloved showed a twitching claw gesturing wildly in a vague direction. The two other Irkens shook their heads.
"We had sent for you. They did not comply. If they cannot do as we say, they are against us," was what the one hued in red explained. That same twitching claw fisted, and punched the wall, bones crunched, but the captured soul made no notion of it of any kind. It was frightening, in simplistic terms.
"You cut off contact with me first!" was the enraged reply. "When I sent all those reports back…" the hand slipped from the wall. Spots of blue littered the bland flooring and smeared the smooth surface. "I believed that was it. I gave up ever hearing from you. When you finally, finally spoke back to me, I had moved on. You didn't have to worry over me anymore!"
"We always worried over you," a fond tone came from the one donned in purple. "Our most beloved invader."
"Don't you lie to me!" said invader shouted, lunging toward the bars. Neither Tallest even flinched. The energy charged bars sent spikes of agonizing white heat all across the emerald being. A scream of fury reverberated raggedly as sparks dazzled round the modest cell.
One of the Tallest grew tired of watching, and quickly pulled out a remote, thus shutting off power to the bars of the cell door. The emerald being let out a grunt, sliding down the bars with sizzling palms and bleeding digits; the smell, the sight was truly a sickening thing. The tallest tsked and gazed down haughtily.
"Do you see?"
"Yes. The persistence…"
"I swear," the imprisoned Irken's hoarse voice filled the entire ship, leeching life and bringing dread, "If you do not release me… I will kill you. I will escape and go rescue my human from your damned clutches!"
"Oh dear…"
"Very!"
"What?!" he snarled. The Tallest shared a believable look of pity. Something extremely rare in Irken culture. Even more so than love.
"No appears to have told him."
"It seemed so, yes."
"TOLD ME WHAT?!" the jailed one demanded, rising and glowering death a thousand times over.
"About your human."
"The poor thing…"
"Indeed."
"Poor thing, to our invader as well."
"Agreed."
"Oh, such a tragedy."
"W-What are you talking about…?" the Irk the color of precious earth gems question with a vice gripping his heart.
"You see," Tallest Red explained with a degree of graveness, "During the time we brought you back with us, it seems that the human's parental unit also took the liberty of reclaiming his smeet. This process accidentally trigged the human in a delicate state. They had to, well, in human terms, manually induce labor in order to save the offspring and the human. Unfortunately, in such a delicate state… your beloved human is now gone, Invader Zim."
Zim choked on his breath and spun around, seizing his chest. "N-No…"
"It's the truth. However, Red has forgotten to mention that the smeet have also been lost to you," Purple kindly interjected. "As soon as the host died, so did the parasites."
"THEY WEREN'T PARASITES!"
"The human body would disagree."
"Our Irken bodies disagree too."
"How could you have not recalled that little fact, I wonder?"
"Because he is selfish. Wonderful trait for an invader."
"Shut up!" Zim demanded, stomping his boots and pivoting back, orbs seething. "Just shut up! I don't believe you for one second! I can still feel Dib!"
"Dib?"
"The name of the human."
"Ah."
"Very sentimental, eh?"
"I said shut up! You don't know anything about us!" Zim cried out, thrashing at the bars like a lunatic. The tallest grew weary of this behavior and once more switched the electricity back on. They had wait a whole five minutes for the younger Irken to calm down.
Zim struggled to stay upright, blood—bright and blue—oozed out of the fanged mouth. The skin of his talons were burned away until only the muscles were showing. His breathing was erratic and heartbeat struggling.
"Why would you do this…?" Zim asked, eyes groggy with pain, but determined. The Tallest chuckled, forked tongues peeking out from time to time.
"Why not?"
"It simply must be, Zim."
"We cannot have the luxury of caring."
"Irkens are cruel things."
"I know…" he ground out, closing his eyes, "And I don't care."
"Stop running from our purpose."
"Our destiny."
"Yes. We must conquer."
"Destroy."
"We…? You mean you two," Zim laughed bitterly.
"No, all of us."
"You are missing the point, young one."
"Then tell me your point!" the youth declared, rising himself to full height and letting go of the bars. "All you're doing is succeeding in destroying my fucking patience!"
"You must do what is written for you."
"Yes. It has all been preplanned you know."
Zim was silent, orbs shining. The Tallest, believing they had won the argument, swished their royal cloaks and floated down the hallway. They left the holding cell with nothing but a paper drifting to the ground. As soon as they were completely gone, the holding place sealed tautly, the prisoner collapsed.
Dragging his broken body across the floor, Zim went to that flickering paper. His bloodied hand slapped down on the paper, staining it. Shakily, Zim turned his hand toward his blurry sight. What he gazed upon caused a shocked and despondent gasp to rip from his throat. The would-be dona curled up into a ball, rocking back and forth and denying what he was seeing. Unable to ignore his own eyes, his elegant neck tilted back and he screamed towards the heavens.
And he screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed and screamed and…
From the observing room, Red and Purple roared with laughter, sensuously entwining as they watched Zim's last straw of sanity break. They flicked off the screen before they grew too drunk of the thrilling emotion of dominance. Red roughly grabbed his partner and trailed his claws down the lean backside. Purple hummed and leaned in. Together they fell into an intoxicated state of unparalleled arousal as they never have experienced before.
"Truly, what a misfortune for the poor creature."
"For him, but not for us, my love…"
TBC…
A/N: So yeah. That is it for this chapter. I am severely depressed. No one seems to like this fic much. I am assuming its because of the M-Preg. Which, I completely understand. I freakin' hate M-Preg. Like, sooooooooooooooo much. So why am I writing one…?
Well, it's one of those stories that just won't keep quite, ya know?
I never thought I would fall in love with this one, more of, I just had to write it, yet, I have. I have seriously, really come to enjoy this story.
Well, for my fans, there are less memory scenes. I'm actually running out of them! Lol! Only two. Zim rarely has the memories; here are the rare ones though.
Oh! And please tell me how you like Jax. I dunno where exactly he'll be going, but I love him. Hope you do to…
Okay, until next time! Please review, 'cause I love you!
(SteelAgainstIvory)