I do not own any of the characters or related logos. They belong to Jhonen Vasquez.
Chapter Three: Ten Minutes
"Watch it! I can't get a Game Slave Three if I'm decapitated!" Gaz yelled, trying not to flinch when her dad tried to remove the necklace.
"It's alright. I'm good at this."
"Good at removing cursed necklaces?"
"Ha ha ha! You're my funny child! No, good working with scientific tools, because curses don't exist." Membrane said, chuckling. He lifted something that looked like a scalpel up, observing it.
"This should do it! Hold still." Membrane ordered her. She wasn't about to squirm with the sharp looking tool so close to her throat. She felt the shock control ring squirm a little, as if it were uncomfortable. Membrane laughed in victory, and held up the necklace. Where it had been cut, you could see wiring coming out. It sparked a few times.
Gaz suddenly felt dizzy. Her eyes filmed over for a second. When she tried to open them to see, she couldn't see anything for a moment: Just darkness. Suddenly, something that looked like a clock appeared at the corner of her vision. It read "10:00" and began to count down. She realized it said ten minutes. What's going on? She thought. As quickly as her vision had fogged up, it cleared. At first, she was revealed, until she realized the clock was still at the corner of her vision, and counting down. Ten seconds had passed since it first started counting.
"'!" She yelled all in one breath. She ran to Dib's bedroom. He was sitting on his bed, reading Crop Circles Weekly. Gaz snatched the magazine and threw it across the room.
"Hey, what was-"
"Dib, something went wrong. As soon as Dad removed it, a little clock appeared at the corner of my vision and it's still there! It's counting down from ten minutes and about twenty seconds have gone by! I'm dizzy and something bad's gonna happen when it hits zero!" Gaz explained as quickly as possible. He gave her an unbelieving look at first, but it changed to surprise. She actually looked a little scared.
"Let's go!" Dib said, dragging her along with him. He jumped down the stairs two at a time. He ran into the garage, dragging her with him.
"Tak's ship is repaired, so we can use it to go to Zim's." Dib quickly explained. He jumped in, Gaz following him. He stared at the levers and buttons for a few moments, when Gaz shoved him aside.
"I'll do it!" She snapped. She hit a few buttons and pulled a lever, and they shot out of the garage, leaving a huge hole. Their father had already left for work, so there were no questions. Gaz piloted the ship, and they got to Zim's house in three minutes and twenty-three seconds, landing in the yard (Clock: 5:57). They jumped out and ran past the gnomes, and ran inside, taking two seconds. Zim looked at them, surprised. He and Gir had been slouched down on the couch. Zim jumped up.
"What are you doing here?"
"Zim, Dad removed Gaz's shock control ring, a-" Dib was interrupted by Zim.
"How? That shouldn't be pos-" Zim yelled out.
"BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!" Gaz yelled,"Zim, he did, and now there's a count down clock in the c-"
"In the corner of your vision, and it started at ten minutes?" Zim asked, smirking (Clock: 5:39).
"Yes," Gaz snapped,"Fix it!" This seemed to amuse Zim. He smiled.
"I don't suppose the necklace is still in one piece, or that you brought it?" He asked, smiling. Gaz shook her head (Clock: 5:34).
"The necklace was connected to you. Without it, you have ten minutes."
"Ten minutes to what? And why didn't Dib get a clock?"
"Dib didn't get one because the part of him his ring connected to got blown off. And...What do you think will happen in ten minutes?" (Clock: 5:23). Gaz couldn't control her anger any more, and tackled Zim. She climbed on top of him, and pinned him down. He looked a little surprised.
"I don't know! Now fix this!" She yelled.
"GIR! ATTACK!" Zim commanded. Gir stood up, and saluted. He attacked, but not Gaz. He duct-taped Dib up, making it so Dib couldn't talk or really move. Gaz glance at the struggle, and Zim used this opportunity. He jumped up, and knocked Gaz across the room. She hit the wall, hard. She wasn't sure if Zim would normally be able to take her, but she felt weak and dizzy.
"Are we interrupting something?" Gaz recognized the voice from when she had snuck into Zim's lab. It was the deeper male voice. Where there was normally a creepy picture of a green monkey, there was a video feed. On it, there were two aliens of Zim's race, both extremely tall. One had purple eyes, the other red. Red was the one that had spoken. He was smirking a little. Zim gasped.
"M-My Tallest!" Gaz would have used the opportunity to attack Zim, but she was too dizzy.
"Zim, we were going to ask you something, but care to elaborate on-" Red motioned to the scene in Zim's house-"This?"
"Like I said, Sir, the shock control rings aren't unlike PAK's, and this girl somehow removed her's by force. She got a count-down clock." Zim explained. The Tallest appeared to know what that meant.
"You! Human girl! How much longer on the clock?" Purple asked. Gaz looked up, feeling dizzy. Red murmured,
"From the way she looks, not much longer."
"Three... ... ...thirty... ... ...one..." She barely managed to moan. She coughed, and it came out as a tiny exhalation.
"Zim, do you know if the ring did any permanent damage?...Other than that? This was the second test subject, right?" Red asked.
"Er...No, I don't."
"Maybe you should save her, to find out. Then you can kill her, or whatever," Purple suggested. Zim frowned, considering this suggestion.
"...I'll do that..."
"I forget what we called to ask. Once you get the test results on her, send a copy of your notes. Understood?" Red asked.
"Yes, Sir!" Zim saluted, and the Tallest cut the transmission. Gaz's vision was blurry, but she could still clearly see the clock: 3:07. Zim picked her up and went to the lab through the trashcan entrance.
"Z...Zim?"
"Hmm?"
"I...If I d...die, I sw...swear I'm c...coming back a...and haunting you." She mumbled. He shrugged, still carrying her. They got down to the lab, and she felt something pierce the arm that wasn't in a cast. She barely felt it. He warned her,
"This is going to hurt. A lot."
"Pa...Pain just...means...I'm...n...not...dead yet." He chuckled at her comment, and hit a switch connected to whatever it was in her arm. The pain was mild at first, but quickly doubled, and that tripled, and so on. After twenty seconds, the pain was more than she could have imagined. She screamed, much more loudly than anything she ever heard. It abruptly stopped, and her vision cleared. The clock stopped on 0:53. She sat up, her head clearing. She was perfectly still for a moment. Suddenly, she yanked the needle out of her arm, and tackled Zim.
"I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!" She pinned him down again. She must have looked furious, because Gir saw her, screamed, and ran away, crying. Zim seemed mildly surprised.
"Haven't we gone over this?" He said, without much emotion. He broke his arms free, and shoved her. She landed a few feet away, but got back up. She glared at him. He smirked, and her rage doubled. The lights farthest from them on both ends of the room flickered, and went out. She stood her ground, calm. He glanced at them. The second closest lights did the same. He looked at them suspiciously. Gaz was still indifferent. The rest of the lights did the same, until they were in total darkness.
"Computer! Fix the lights!" Zim yelled.
"..."
"Computer?" All the lights came on at the same time. Zim yelled out, then looked up to see that Gaz had disappeared.
"What the-" The lights went back out, and flashed back on. A message was written on the floor in black marker:
YOU WENT TOO FAR.
Zim stared at the message, stunned. He didn't hear Gaz come up behind him. She kicked him in the back of the head. Zim stood back up. His Spider PAK activated, and he was lifted off the ground, now using the four 'legs'. Gaz smiled, and waved at him. The lights turned back off. Zim yelled out, and the lights flashed back on. He was surprised to see that one of the legs had been pulled off, and lay in a sparking mess on the floor. He growled, and jumped up to the ceiling, trying to see where Gaz went. The lights turned back off, and Zim waited for them to go back on. He wasn't afraid of some little human girl.
The lights took longer to come back on this time. When they did, the message had disappeared, and replaced with a new one.
WATCH OUT, ZIM. BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO BUGS ON THE CEILING.
Zim felt a spike of fear. He still couldn't find Gaz, and was beginning to thing the lights were more than a coincidence.
"COMPUTER! ANSWER ME!" Zim yelled. The computer didn't respond. The lights flashed, only off for a second this time. When they came back on, Gaz was standing where the message had been. Within the second the lights had been off, the message had disappeared. Gaz smiled at him, and waved again. She sat on the ground, and looked in front of her. After a few seconds, neither said anything, and Gaz layed down on the floor.
"C'mon, Zim! I'm not even standing up!" She yelled. Zim was perfectly still, and she chuckled.
"Don't feel too safe up there, Zimmie-boy. Bad things happen to filthy little parasites clinging to the ceiling like a scared child." She sneered. After a moment, the lights flashed off again. They stayed off for almost a full minute. Unlike before, Zim could hear what Gaz was doing, but couldn't figure out what it was. He heard something rip and break, and a few more breaking noises. After this, there was silence. The lights flickered back on. Zim looked around, and couldn't see Gaz anywhere. He wouldn't admit it, but he was scared out of his mind. He looked around more, and realized what Gaz had been doing. All the exits had been destroyed of blocked off. He started shaking with fear.
The lights flashed back off. After exactly ten seconds, they came back on. A new message was on the floor:
DON'T FEEL TOO SAFE, JUST BECAUSE I LEFT.
DON'T EVER FEEL SAFE, BECAUSE I WILL GET YOU, ZIM. YOU'VE GONE TOO FAR.
YOU'VE NEARLY KILLED ME TWICE.
I
WON'T
DIE.
BUT CAN YOU?
Zim yelled out. He looked around frantically, surprised to find all the exits back to normal.
"C...Computer?"
"What?" The computer asked, sounding a bit bored. Zim dropped down from the ceiling, landing in front of a screen. The screen almost instantly turned on, and Zim saw both the Tallest. They looked scared.
"Z-Zim? C-Can all humans do that?" Purple asked feebly.
"You saw that? How long have you been watching?"
"Ever since your SIR unit burst into tears when that girl tackled you." Red answered. Purple ran off the screen for a moment. Zim could hear him getting sick.
"NO! NOT NEAR THE SNACKS! AH!" Red yelled, looking where Purple had run off. Red looked back at Zim.
"No, I-I didn't know any humans could do that." Zim answered, but Red hadn't been listening. He had been preoccupied with Purple's getting sick near the snacks. The transmission was cut. The moment it was, Zim worked on tightening the security.
Irken training was extreme, but didn't prepare you for something like that. Red and Purple had been almost as scared as Zim had been. After they got over that, they laughed at how Zim was stuck on a planet with a scary little girl like that.
Dib had driven the ship home, shaking a little. About five minutes after Zim had dragged Gaz off, Gir had ran up to him, crying. Gir quickly explained that Gaz was scary and showed Dib a video feed from the lab, in the room Gaz and Zim had been fighting in. This was the same video feed the Tallest had been watching, and it had shown everything, including the floor messages, Zim while he was on the ceiling, and the lights flickering off for the first time.
"Gaz?"
"Hm?"
"Are you...Um...A vampire?" Dib guessed. Gaz seemed entertained.
"No."
"Alien?"
"Nope."
"Witch?" He tried.
"Nu-uh."
"From a different dimension?"
"I can't believe you haven't tried 'Spawn of Satan' yet." Gaz said. He gave her a questioning look. Before he could ask, they landed.
"Oh, look at that, I don't have time to answer that. Bye, Dib!" Gaz yelled, jumping out of Tak's ship, closing the top behind to.
"Now I'm gonna have nightmares," Dib said to himself.