Sitting before him in a white endless expanse was a woman. An Earth woman by his knowledge. Her eyes are closed and her breathing was slow, peaceful. Long ebony hair floated around her body as if it was as alive as it's owner. The dress she wore was simple and purely white. Zim carefully approaches her to see what could be wrong with her when her eyes slide open.
"Don't be cautious. Nothing will harm you here." Her voice was a sound Zim could only wish to hear again. Irkens had shrill voices and the other humans were horse with their voices. This woman's was pure and melodic and as Zim walked closer to her, she didn't smell like the humans he had lived with. No, she smelled sweet and earthy, but he couldn't place what the scent is. "Hello."
"Uh... hi." His voice was dull and low compared to hers.
"Sit, relax. Do you know where you are?" Her light brown eyes glittered with her soft smile.
Zim settled himself a few feet in front of the woman. "I remember falling asleep, so I must be dreaming. Irkens can't dream, though, because we don't even sleep."
"Yes, but you've been living like a human since you've found out that you weren't who you thought you were." Her eyes dimmed a bit.
"But I've never dreamed before. Who are you?"
The woman lighted chuckled. "I seem to be visiting your mind for the moment because you need to learn something, so who I am isn't the point. It's who you are that you need to know."
Zim abruptly stood up. "I know who I am! I don't need anyone telling me that!"
"Oh? Then answer me this: who are you?"
"I am Zim, former Irken soldier and fry cook, Defect to the Irken society, and... and..." He sighs then. What else was he? "... and alone on this planet." His knees knocked upon the ground. "That is who I am."
The woman sadly hummed. "That is not who you are. That is who you used to be. It has almost been a decade since you first landed on Earth and has been nearly seven years since you've received that message from your leaders. In seven years, you have changed. Do you not notice how tall you are? You may be Irken, but living on this planet has affected you as it would to a human. You are almost as tall as your leaders, so they must learn to accept who you are sooner or later."
"Who am I, then?" He asked, almost pleading in front of this glorious woman.
"I cannot say. You must learn that all on your own. To help you though, I want you to close your eyes." Zim obeyed and listened intently to her next words. "Now pay attention. Imagine me standing before you. Take in what you can sense about me."
He saw, in his head, the woman standing (instead of sitting) with her arms out to her sides and smiling at him. Her eyes shone with an emotion he was unfamiliar with and her stance was warm and inviting. He breathed in through his mouth to smell her wonderful yet unknown aroma which also tasted amazing on his tongue. He breathed out slowly and inhaled again through his antennas. The sweet smell warmly tingled throughout Zim's whole form. He sighed in relaxation. He imagined her speaking to him again with that light and airy voice. Just listening to her sent shivers down to his feet and back up to his head.
"Now hold out your hand." The real woman said. Zim lifted hand and came into contact with her own hand. Zim had never felt such soft and smooth skin before. Her warmth clung to him even after she took her hand away. "Do you have me in memory?" Zim softly nodded in response. "Good. Now imagine seeing right through me and into my mind. What do you see there?"
"I see an image of you with a child. You'd make a wonderful mother unit." She lightly laughed.
"What makes you think that?"
"Well, from what I've noticed about you is that you are warm and caring, thus making a good mother."
"Hmm... perhaps. Now open your eyes."
The image disappeared when Zim opened his eyes and saw the actual woman again only she held something in her arms. Resting in her arms was a baby with royal colored hair and a slight frown. The woman was glowing with happiness, Zim believed since he didn't know emotions yet.
"What is the point of this?" He asked.
"What is the point for anything?" She smirked. "You've learned to take what you knew and help mold that into what it's best use is despite what else you didn't know. I've done this for you and I see who you are and who you could be, but you need to do that for yourself. But I'm not finished just yet. Come here."
He inched toward the woman on his knees and waited for her to continue. Instead of speaking, she placed the baby in Zim's arms. "Take in anything and everything you can about this child before giving her back to me."
He nodded and focused on the child as he did for the woman. The baby had a white outfit on and taking the woman's words to heart, this child was a girl. Her sleek hair was a dark majestic color and held a hint of a fruity aroma. Not an Earth fruit, but the very rare and very delectable Irken fruit. Zim could only inhale and taste so much of the scent before his head began to spin. If he thought that the woman's skin was soft, Zim was sorely mistaken. Holding this little child was like trying to touch a silky cloud, it's material and had a weight, but was so smooth that it seemed to be weightless.
Suddenly, the baby's eyes opened and revealed a beautiful pair of dark gold orbs. Zim was taken aback by the beauty she has that was the same yet also differed from the woman. She seemed to be studying him as the slight frown upturned the slightest bit and a gleeful coo emanated from her. Zim smiled back before returning her to the woman.
"Close your eyes, again." Zim did so. "Take what you learned from the child and watch her grow."
He imagined the child sitting in front of him, her beautiful eyes staring intently at him as Zim began to add age to her. As soon as she was the age to stand up and walk by herself, she got up, still looking up at him. Her royal hair grew in length and her eyes began to have a menacing look about them, yet she still stared at Zim as if he was interesting. The wondrous scent from her began to ripen and grow more sweeter and intensify just like the Irken fruit. The girl sighed, much like how she cooed as a baby. Just from that sigh, he knew that her voice was as airy as the woman's.
Zim sighed again in release. The girl then reached her hand toward him. He touched her hand and marveled at her still so soft skin. Had he not been Irken, he would have cried being in the presence of the two amazing beings. Zim recalled what he saw to the woman.
"Open your eyes." He heard a smile in her voice as he obeyed and saw that the baby was a grown girl instead. "This is what you saw. By using what little you know about a person, be it any age, you can imagine who or what they'll be given time."
"I still don't see what this has to do with me." He gazed between the woman and girl.
"Sometimes, in order to find who you are, you'll need someone else to help you. Someone who doesn't know you, but knows that you exist. You need to gather what you can about yourself first before finding someone else to tell you who they think you are."
"So I had to do these two things to teach myself how to find who I am? Why couldn't have you just told me... that... I...?" Zim trailed off of his line of thought when the girl began to look familiar to him. "I know who this is? This is a human I know. What is she doing in my dream?" Zim looked to the woman for answers, but by the solemn look on her face, he knew that she wouldn't tell him. "I'll have to figure all of this out on my own. Nice."
"This is the last thing I'll say to you: sometimes you can see who you are by seeing a reflection of yourself through someone else. Don't bottle up your feelings. As you've said, you're a Defect." She smiled so warmly. "Don't Defects feel emotions other than superiority, fear, and revenge?"
Zim nodded, but kept his eyes on the human he was familiar with. "She's going to help me. That's why she's here."
"Perhaps. Now, I'll say good-bye for it's your time to wake up." She waved goodbye at him followed by the girl as the image of them blurred and disappeared.
`'`'
Zim opened his eyes to see his little minions in a cuddling puddle at his feet on the floor. This certain corner of Zim's base had become the sleeping area and was very comforting to see his base still in one piece. Zim's guess was that Skoodge had kept an eye on things while he slept as usual. Zim slept at night while Skoodge slept during the day, so that everything was taken care of at all Earth hours of the day. Zim stretched and groaned in slight discomfort at the stiffness in his muscles. The moment he tried to stand, Gir woke up with scarlet eyes and stood at attention.
"Sir!" Gir saluted.
"What is it?" He lazily asked.
The robot's eyes shifted to its normal azure color. "We's out of FOOD and Skoodgey lost his disguise generator!" A little metal pink tongue hung out of Gir's grinning mouth.
"I'll go shopping then!" Zim pointed out irritatedly. "Computer, give me several twenty monies Earth bills." He listened to the whirring and cranking of his base producing what he asked for. While Zim waited, he grabbed his disguise and put them in place. Even though he was somewhat settled on Earth and have had spent time tinkering with his inventions, he gave Skoodge a better disguise than his own, Zim had kept his scratchy contacts and wig. In his eyes, it was too late to change anything about that now for the humans have seen him plenty of times with just those things on.
Monies prepared, Master. The computer sounded lethargic as if it needed sleep. It needed as much sleep as Gir needed more sweet induced foods.
Zim walked up to the keyboard and took the given monies, folding them neatly and pushing them in his pants pocket. At the same time, Zim noticed Skoodge coming in and settling where Zim once laid. He yawned once and then went limp with sleep. Zim rolled his contacted eyes and trudged into the base's elevator. The dream lingered in his mind as the elevator doors slid open where the poster of a squid sat nailed upon the wall. Ever since Zim grew at an alarming rate, he's had to make adjustments to the entrances to the lower areas of his base. He even had to learn how to sew Irken fabric material just to make sure that he had uniforms to wear. Of course, he knew that he could buy human clothes, but just because he had to live with them didn't meant that he had to be human himself.
Zim opened the front door, glared at the bright Earth sun, and hissed under his breath about how this day is not going to bode well as dark clouds brooded in the distance. At least he didn't have to worry about Dib-stink anymore. In fact, Zim had only seen the human once or twice since the transmission from the Tallest. For some reason, that thought made Zim smile.
"Nearly seven years and I've lived a peaceful life without that human driving me insane. At least my focus has been..." Zim stopped talking at the sight of a chihuahua trotting across the street, straight toward Zim. When the dog was on the same sidewalk as Zim, he sat and looked up at the tall being. Zim's mouth twitched for a moment before slightly smirking. "Hi there, dog. See ya later." With that, Zim walked into town, feeling slightly better than he did when he woke up.
.*.*.
"I just don't get it, Gaz. If he were planning a long term plan, wouldn't have finished it some years ago and tried to attack us?" Dib paced around the kitchen like a wind-up toy wound up too many times.
Gaz scoffed, still focusing on her Game Slave 4ever. "Or has it ever occurred to you that he's not planning anything?" Her voice was sharp and quick, hiding it's secret tone.
"But why? See? That's my question there! Why isn't he planning anything? He's still here on Earth, so if he gave up, why hasn't he left? Or he's still here because he has something up the alien sleeve of his. Yeah, I'm good." Dib grinned stupidly.
"I swear, Dib, if you say anything else about this topic, I'll plunge you into a nightmare world from which there is no waking." Gaz enunciated very menacingly.
Dib squeaked, still very afraid of his sister after years of putting up with her. "Alright, Gaz. I'll just go watch some TV." Dib rushed into the living room away from Gaz and clicked on the television set. Settling into the sofa, he changed the channels for anything interesting to rot his brain with until a very loud and very attention demanding commercial blared out, hurting Dib's ear drums.
"Are your a major gamer? Is your life devoted to playing only the best of the best? Then this is for you! Game Slave 5-stars is going to be released in a store near you. Don't miss out on getting the all time best portable game system yet! It's new design is sleek and comes in different colors. So come on down because the lines open in one hour. One hour, folks! Be there, if you think you're the better gamer! Some stores may not carry all available colors. Some of the released games may have flashing patterns and may cause insanity due to lack of awesome gaming experiences. Batteries not included. Too bad."
Dib looked in the direction of the kitchen expecting to see Gaz zoom out from where she is to head for the mall, but there was no sign of her. Curious, he tip-toes to the kitchen archway and peers in only to see the kitchen devoid of all life.
"Huh. She must have left before the commercial was over. Maybe she'll get the game system this time instead of torturing another kid. God knows what happened to him afterwards."
.*.*.
Meanwhile, in a local insane asylum: "I had it in my hands for not even four hours." Crazed eyes shifted about the padded room under a layer of green hair. "I swear that she's not human. When I saw into her eyes, I saw a bottomless nightmare world. It was the world she spoke of. So many demons. So much death." The boy laughed, crazed and odd as he tried to move his bound arms. His laughs carried throughout the building, scaring the other doomed souls stuck there, and lifted off into the rising day supporting overflowing overcasts of weather.
.*.*.
Back in the city: The violet haired female stormed along the crumbling sidewalk with such an aura that anyone who felt her coming near quickly crossed the street to the other side. Some people even succeeded getting run over by rushing cars, which made the teen grimly smile. If she didn't have somewhere else to be, she'd stay and watch the road kill take their last breaths, but as it turned out she has to be at the mall before the line got too long. Far behind her, she heard the sound of running feet pounding on the pavement and voices talking to each other.
"Hurry! If we want to get the new version, we have to beat everyone else there!"
Their huffing and puffing only made Gaz's leg twitch in eagerness to trip them when they got past her, but then the other person heavily replied back.
"We might be too late! I heard that the line is longer than it was for the GS2 at the midnight release."
At that, Gaz didn't feel like tripping the other gamers. Instead, her heart started racing in preparation for the intense running she plunged into, leaving a cloud of dust for the runners behind her. To her, it was a good thing that she just had to pass the supermarket to finally get to the mall, but she was still a good block away and she was only a short distance sprinter.
Many open stores blurred in and out from her vision as the street marking the end of the block loomed ever closer. A smile crept upon Gaz's face again in victory until she noticed that the crosswalk sign was counting down to change to 'Don't Walk'. She forced her gray stocking clad legs to pump faster, just to make it to the to next block with only seconds left and eight huge slabs of concrete left.
'So close.' She thought in her head in a mantra-like fashion.
Her black booted feet eventually hit the curb, using the different level to add momentum to leap swiftly across the road just as the traveling vehicles zoom forward along the road. Heavily huffing, Gaz leaned her weight against a light pole for a moment, reliving that amazing jump in her head repetitively. Once her breathing was under control, Gaz straightened herself and took her first step only to wobble backward and lost her balance into the street. Gaz wasn't one to be afraid of death, so she quickly accepted her demise and didn't do anything to prevent getting smashed by a large truck until she suddenly flew forward into the light pole.
'Wait. Do light poles have arms?' Gaz gazed up and saw a tall light-green being holding her up.
"Are you well, human?" He asked calmly as if nothing had happened.
Gaz planted her feet on the ground and forcefully pushed the male away. No one was supposed to be near her, much less touch her. "I'm fine, but I suggest not doing that again."
"What, deliver you from definite and unforeseen destruction? Fine by me, human." He remarked snidely and began to walk off.
"No, wait!" Gaz cried out. 'Why did I do that?' She chided to herself, but she saw the being stop and turn looking expectantly to her. "I meant don't touch me." He seemed unsatisfied. "Longer than you have to." Gaz amended.
"If you're rather concluded, human, I'll be taking my leave." He said with a gradual release of weight to his shoulders and eyelids as he turned around again and made his way to the supermarket.
Gaz couldn't help but look at how he carried himself. How his stance was loose and broken. How his walk was seemingly laden with lead. How opposite it was from her own. For once, she felt sorry that someone was in pain, but that feeling was cut short with the runners catching up to her. Green savior forgotten, Gaz returned to her initial mission, yet she knew that something beyond her nightmare worlds was going to shift. For better or for worse, she hoped to know soon, hopefully before the rain came.
