Dib: Yay! We got reviews!
Zim: I'm leaving. I am not going to be a part of this stinking human story! Especially when I am not ruling all of humanity!
Hex: Whatever Zim.
A/N: Short chapter ahead. Sorry for any spelling mistakes and grammar errors. I reread through the fic but there may be still some errors that I missed!
Oh and thx for more reviews!
Debacle Chapter 3: Disclaimer: We do not own Invader Zimmy I win…. I win…The words echoed that night after being at the lab and seeing Zim's tortured form. Now the words sounded empty and without meaning. "I win what?" Dib asked himself, as he lay motionless in bed, watching the light of the moon glow behind his red curtains. The stars weren't shinning. They were masked by clouds and manmade street lamps. Tomorrow night would be the night of the autopsy. Zim would be no more.
'You should feel bad. You've ruined the life of another.' Gaz's words burned into him. Then Dib began to wonder what he would do with the rest of his life. He finally had Zim between the slicing jaws of death. His childhood nemesis would be but a memory. So why now did he feel worried and regretful?
Dib suddenly sat up. Something inside him hurt. He was going to miss the old times when he chased Zim around the street and when they got mad with each other and plotted revenge for how to get back at one another. He knew now that Gaz was right. He had ruined Zim's life. Sharp pangs of guilt and anxiety spiked his heart. What had he done? Together they had weathered hard times. Both had been rejected by their own society. Both were troubled with their identity. Yes, Dib had achieved his long life dream. But what was the point when you weren't happy? Besides, he had always wanted to even his score with Zim and to save a miserable planet that didn't even like him, but like Gaz had said, if Zim had really wanted to conquer the planet, then he would have done so already.
Feeling sick with regret, he left his bed and began drawing up plans for an unexpected rescue.
In the morning, Dib went to work as normal. He tried to smile whenever someone looked his way and he had to fill in a report of a newspaper. There was a scientist named Joe who he saw after work at the lab chewing gum and working on a computer. He didn't do as much work as all the others. In fact, all he ever did was to watch the CCTV. They couldn't trust normal people to do it so they let scientists do it instead. Joe wasn't the best observer but he was always keen on watching the monitors back in an office chewing gum and reading naughty magazines. Dib went up to visit him. It was an awkward moment. Joe wasn't exactly friendly but Dib knew what he had to do. The night before the autopsy he had to grab somebody else's keycard. If he used his own, then the computer would identify it and the police would know just where to find him once he had rescued Zim. It was like wearing a pink bunny suit and robbing a bank. It wouldn't do. He would have to go in as someone else so that no one would expect that he did it. Sure, Joe would get the blame, but at this stage, he couldn't give a damn.
"Whatcha doing?" Dib asked innocently as he stared into the back of Joe's chair.
"Nothing. Just watching monitors. Same as always." He returned in a mundane voice. He turned the page in his playboy magazine.
Dib got closer, felt the sweat collecting on the back of his neck. "Dies anything interesting happen on the monitors sometimes?"
"No. Just the alien you captured. Bravo by the way. I'm dead jealous. My kids think you're a hero. Which you are of course." He fidgeted uncomfortably in his seat. Dib eyed Joe's pass on his desk, next to an empty coffee cup. So close. Why he wasn't wearing it on his lab coat he did not know. Didn't care. "Work long hours?" He put in.
"Terribly long." He answered blandly, flicking a page. "You interested in doing this shit or something?"
"Maybe." He was so close now. He outstretched his fingers, touched the cold plastic. Joe coughed but did not glance up to see what he was doing. He was too engrossed in naked lesbian women.
"Go to college or University. Study biology, then you can go on to performing autopsies like those other lucky scientists are gonna do."
"Yeah, thanks, I might just do that." He answered as if he was a machine on automatic. He was too busy focusing on the I.D. card. There, he had grabbed it! He slipped it up, under his sleeve and retreated from the desk. Too bad there were no CCTV cameras up here. Tough luck for Joe who was going to be accused of burglary tonight. "Well, gotta go. Need to get ready for tonight."
"Yep. Autopsy at 00.00."
Dib waited until everyone had gone to bed. It was nearly ten. He had to go now. He slipped on black pants and a shirt. His skin bristled with the cold as the wind howled outside. He never wanted Zim to die, least him causing it. He had to save him. Yes, Zim was an alien and yes he was crazy. But he was not evil and he was also a sentimental being, just like him.
Dib looked over his equipment. Joe's keycard, a flashlight, a cutting lazer. He slapped on his goggles, black gloves and a mask. Putting the things he would need into a bag, he quietly left his home and headed in the direction of the Lab. It was not far if he took enough short cuts. It took him perhaps ten minutes if he was quick. And now that he had Joe's keys, hopefully gaining access to all areas would be a singe. He had brought his lazer cutter because it would cut through any metal. However, it was only for emergencies. If he used it, the noise would attract unwanted attention.
When he reached the Lab, its dark walls stood out against the bleak sky like a protruding rock of destruction that stood for all of mankind's evil. Dib swallowed down his fear and slid Joe's I.D. into the slot at the entrance. He suddenly thought that he should have taken the back way, but it was too late now.
No alarm sounded. The doors opened with a quiet crinkle and a waft of stale air blew at him from inside. Dib stepped in; the doors giving a satisfying click behind as they snapped to a close. The lights were on. And he knew the place was going to be riddled with security guards.
Dib pressed his back against the walls and slithered round corners. Sometimes he had to drop down to the floor to avoid the CCTV cameras that lazily surveyed the area. He avoided the security guards all by luck. They seemed tired and grotesquely lazy, as if this facility was the last place on earth to be expected to be broken into.
With their vigilance failing, Dib was able to pass them like a moving shadow. Sometimes he heard their talk. They grated to one another like evil sentries. He was really beginning to hate this place. And he didn't feel like he was betraying the human race one bit. If anything, he had been the bad guy when he had allowed them to take Zim away in chains like an animal.
One man was muttering about the coming autopsy. Dib stopped briefly just to hear them.
"It's less than two hours away now." The old man grumbled flatly, "excited?"
"Yeah, sure. This doesn't happen everyday ya know."
"Yep. Can say that again."
Dib moved on. He didn't need to hear anymore. Finally, after many long minutes of careful undetection and using Joe's card, he entered Zim's quarters. He remembered the password that he had to key in on the panel to the side of the sealed door to enter the alien's cell. "Well, this is it." He stated to himself, "the moment of truth." He entered the code, hoping that no one had changed it recently. If he pressed the wrong digit, the alarm would sound.
0772127809.
He silently prayed. Yet, to his total joy and relief, the door opened softly after the clip from the lock. He didn't delay any longer and he swiftly crept inside. The room smelt musty with death and sweat. Sweat produced from fear. Zim still sat in the same frozen position as last time, iron bounds fixated to the wall. His still figure was as inert as ever. Dib's approach became much slower. His steps felt wooden.
"Zim?" He dared to choke out, "Zim? It's me, Dib! Come on, I'm here to get you outta here!"
Movement. Zim braced his shoulders for motion. The Irken's teeth gritted sharply together in pain as he tried to turn his head to see the human. His PAK was sparking with damage. Dib gasped. What had the scientists done to him? "Isn't this… what you… wanted?" He faintly hissed, "please, Dib, do me a favor and finish me off… you big headed dimwit!"
"No. I'm here to take you home." He protested, seeing the blood dribble down Zim's deep cuts from the movements. He edged nearer and tugged at the chains. Tight. He had to use the lazer gun or they'd be no other way to free him from the wall. "I'm… I'm rescuing you."
"Why? You put me… here you nutcase!"
"I know. I've never been so stupid in all my life but I'll explain that later. Right now I gotta get you out before someone picks up the scent." Then he paused as his eyes roamed over Zim's shivering body. "Where are your clothes?"
"I guess… in another cell…"
Dib turned on the lazer gun. The audacious, tumult noise made them both cringe. "Hold on." Dib whispered.
The hot
beam touched the dense iron like first lovers. At once from the
contact, the metal started to melt. Dib worked hard and carefully to
keep the hot metal from dripping onto Zim. The alarm sounded. Dib
urged the lazer to hurry up. "It'll take… ages for them to get
here…" Zim winced.
"Why?"
"They'll check their other specimens and experiments… first. I suppose they don't know… you're here, Dib stink?"
"No." The chains fell away and landed on the floor with a hard thud. Zim screamed when his hands were released from their upright position. Dib rushed forward to hold him up; otherwise he would have fallen flat on his face.
Sirens yelled in clamoring barks. Zim didn't move. He was too bruised, too hurt. Dib had no other choice. The guards, and even the police would be here soon.
Slinging the lazer onto his back, Dib heaved the small Irken into his arms and left the smelly cell. Dib was surprised that Zim wasn't that heavy. And he didn't struggle.
The cell next door contained the invader's clothes, though they appeared shredded and torn. Using the pass card, Dib retrieved them and then ran back into the shadows. A guard ran past, not noticing them in his dire urgency. Zim moaned in his arms. He was so confused. Why was his enemy doing this? Was he staging a rescue just to get even more popular? But what did he care now? He was as good as dead anyway.
Another guard walked down the lamenting corridor, swearing and shouting. He carried a 4mm pistol out in front of him.
"Why risk… your life for me?" Zim coughed quietly.
"Shhh!" Dib snapped, sweating profusely in his fear, "save it, Zim."
With a wheezing alien in his arms, naked, PAK vibrating unnaturally, Dib took a risk. When he thought no one was looking, he threw himself from the shadows and charged down the tight corridor. His luck faded like a trickle of flittering dust in an autumn wind. A guard saw him and instantly open fired. "There he is!" He screamed, "back up! I require back up in section A4 now!" His walkie talkie cackled back.
"Don't damage the alien. I repeat, don't take action if it involves damage of the alien."
Dib ran through a door and into another dark passage, unhurt so far. He threw a flash bomb behind him and a turrent of smoke rose from the canister to mask his regress.
The walls were bathed in a glowing red light as the alarm continued to roar and throb in his ears. The exit, where was it? Dib bit back the fear, using his key card to pass through heavy security doors. Joe's I.D card worked even when full alert was on. He had no time to ponder on to why. Zim had passed out in his arms.
Finally, Dib reached the open air. The black sky was a welcoming sight. The frozen air cooled his sweat and his rush of adrenaline relaxed.
Fear of pursuit, Dib dove into alleyways and narrow streets, being careful not to leave too many obvious tracks such as footprints in the mud and the trickle of green blood from the inert Irken.
Soon the alarms faded into the background, yet still, the boy ran. He avoided going back to Zim's place because he was sure they would investigate there and it was fenced off. No. It was better if he took him to his home. He had medical facilities and his dad's old lab was down in the basement, away from danger or any possible detection.
The fleeting reminiscence of rain continued and though his lungs burned and his legs felt numb, he ran on. Lastly, when he excited a narrow path, the sight of his house stood glumly against the eerie dark sky. A few cars flashed by but they did not deter him.
The door to his home opened with a deadly loud creak. Dib stepped into the dark hallway and closed the door behind with difficulty (since both hands were currently occupied). He switched a dim light on and tried to be as quiet and discreet as possible. He couldn't afford his father or his sister catching on to what he had just done. He had performed an illegal rescue and had broken an entry and had used a stolen I.D pass. Not forgetting stealing valuable evidence of extra terrestrial life outside earth. And that valuable evidence had been his childhood goal to expose all along. But friendship between them and a discovery of something deeper had frayed old dreams into new ones.
Dib, being as silent as he could and hoping against hope that he would wake neither Pro. Membrane or Gaz, he went downstairs into the basement where he performed his experiments and where he slipped into reveries. Here, no one entered. His sister never came into this room and nor did his father. So this place was as secret as any. His only concern was that if Zim was going to make it. And even now as he lay the limp Irken on the medical bed and closed the blinds to the only small window, he could hear the sirens of the police searching for the man responsible for the illegal capture of the alien invader, Zim.