(a/n: if anyone is reading this, enjoy and please, please review.)

Act 14: Apocalypse Now!

Zim, Malice, Marcus and Mini-moose were gathered in the control room of the Apocalypse Tower.

Zim had completed repairs on the tower's main weapon and he called all his minions together to witness it being used for the first time.

Zim made a longwinded speech about being the greatest invader to have ever lived and how he has finally triumphed.

With that, the tiny Irken slammed his fist down on the button that fire's the tower's main weapon.

But nothing happened. Zim frowned "What's going on?" he kicked the console and began running diagnostic checks but everything was running perfectly.

Marcus smirked "Did you plug it in?"

"Yes!", said Zim, who was starting to disassemble the control consol.

Malice noticed some wires hanging from the ceiling "What do those do?" asked the bounty hunter.

Zim looked up and his eyes widened. He coughed nervously and muttered, "They connect the firing mechanism to the power core"

Marcus started to laugh.

Zim scowled at the cyborg "Silence!" Marcus nodded and wiped away some tears that ran down his cheek from his only remaining human eye.

He turned and he looked out the window. Marcus's smile faded instantly. Malice noticed and asked, "What is it?"

"We got company," said Marcus.

Zim, Malice, and Mini-moose went to the window and saw what he saw.

In the distance, they saw a group of seven beings approaching the tower at a fast pace.

Zim squinted and his eyes widened, exclaiming "Its Tak!" "And Finn" added Marcus.

Zim smiled "Nothing to worry about, they won't make it past the front doors".

Malice and Marcus looked at each other than they both looked at Zim "Whose guarding the front door?" asked Malice.

Zim thought for a moment then his eyes widened in horror "Gir!" Malice and Marcus rolled their eyes.

Zim barked at the two, "Get to the front doors and stop them!" the two killers turned and quickly hurried to the ground floor.

Finn, Marceline, Princess Bubblegum, Jake, Tak and Billy reached the tower's main entrance with no trouble at all. Finn drew his sword and he told his companions "ok guys, be ready for anything".

Everybody nodded and they readied themselves. Finn took a deep breath and kicked open the door.

The doors swung open with ease and the group hurried inside.

Once inside, the doors swung shut behind them and lights flickered on revealing a large circular room.

In the center of the room was a spiral staircase that led up to the upper levels with another set of stairs that led to the basement. At the foot of the stairs was a tiny silver robot with blue eyes. The robot was playing with a rubber pig, mimicking airplane noises and machine gun sounds.

Finn and the others approached the stairs.

The robot noticed them and he jumped to his feet, his eyes glowed red and an array of high tech weaponry emerging from its head "None may pass!" growled the robot.

Finn hefted his sword and he prepared for the robot to attack. But the attack never came.

Instead the robot stood his ground for several minutes then retracted his weapons and his eyes turned blue.

The robot just skipped away from them giggling and continued to play with the rubber pig.

Marceline cocked an eyebrow "What just happened?" "I think we won" said Finn.

Tak scoffed "Pitiful, Zim was always such an embarrassment to Irken military training with shoddy security measures, a defective SIR unit, not locking the front door, it's just plain pitiful".

Finn turned to the former Irken general and asked "Where to now?"

Tak pointed at the stairs "Head up the stairs to the control room, find the firing mechanism and disable it" she pointed to the stairs that led downward "I'll go that way and once I find the power core, I'll remove it".

Finn nodded "ok" he turned to the others "Lets go!"

Finn bolted up the stairs, followed by Princess Bubblegum, Jake, Billy and Marceline.

As they ascended the long spiral staircase, Finn thought about Alex and his mother.

Once he and Alex appeared on the surface, Princess Bubblegum had filled him in on the situation. It came as a surprise to him that Zim was an alien and that Marcus was actually Marceline's brother who was supposed to be dead.

He also met Tak, an alien from Zim's home planet where she was a general.

She explained that Zim was a wanted criminal, responsible for heinous crimes against their people.

The Irken general explained that Zim had assembled a doomsday weapon that was capable of destroying all life in Ooo and she asked Finn if he would help her stop Zim.

Finn agreed to help her bringing down Zim and save Ooo from his doomsday weapon.

After assembling their plan of attack, Finn tried to help Alex to his feet but Alex's injuries prevented him from being moved.

Alex lay up against a tree; he weakly smiled and told Finn that he would slow them down. He told Finn to leave him and stop Zim.

Finn respected his wishes and they left him alone.

Finn silently promised that once they defeated Zim, he would go back for Alex and try and help him. He imagined that once Alex's injuries were treated, he could live with Jake and himself.

Finn and his friends passed through a door and entered a large empty room.

Suddenly Finn came to a skidding halt. The others came to an abrupt halt beside him. Standing in front of the only doorway ahead of them were two figures. One dressed in a long blue coat, the other in black.

The one in blue was the blonde woman named Malice and the one in black was Marcus.

Finn and Marceline looked at Marcus in shock. He looked very different. One of his eyes was a cybernetic replacement and parts of his face had shards of metal fused with his grey flesh.

Standing in between the two was Zim. He grinned broadly "Well, well, well what do we have here?"

"Zim" growled Marceline; she gripped her ax tightly.

Finn leveled his weapon to the diminutive invader "Shut down the weapon"

"Or else what?" sneered Zim

"Or we make you" snarled Marceline.

Zim scowled then he snapped his fingers "Gravemaker, command override six, protocol seven-four-three…"

Marcus's eye widened and he looked at Zim in shock "You little bastard! You're not going to do that to me!" Zim looked a little worried and he continued rattling off numbers.

Marcus reached down to strangle the invader but he froze.

Marcus rose and he stood straight and still like a statue. Zim sighed in relief.

Marceline saw Marcus's expression go blank and she demanded, "What did you do to him!" "I overrode his consciousness and locked him into duty mode" said Zim.

Zim's lips spread into a crooked smile "Enjoy your happy reunion, vampire" his form shimmered and he vanished.

Finn's eyes widened "Where did he go?" "Teleportation " said Malice "He went up to the ops center at the top of the tower".

She glanced to Marcus who stood perfectly still "Oh and apparently Zim forgot to give him a command" she looked to Finn "You better get moving before he remembers".

Finn frowned in confusion "Why are you helping us?"

Malice shrugged "I don't know. It could probably be boredom, or the disturbing lack of money in my pocket." The bounty hunter smiled "Mostly I think its because I'm getting a little tired working for that little megalomaniac".

Finn and Jake shared a glance then shrugged. Finn, Jake, Billy and Princess Bubblegum hurried up the stairs.

Marceline stayed behind.

Malice quirked an eyebrow "Why are you still here?"

"He's my brother," said Marceline, nodding to Marcus "I want to try and help him"

Malice shrugged "Knock yourself out kid, he's a different person than you think he is".

Marceline approached her brother and looked him in the eyes "Marcus? Can you hear me?" she asked quietly.

Marcus stood perfectly still. His eyes were vacant with no sign of acknowledgement. A loud crackling interrupted the silence and Zim's voice spoke "Right, I forgot. Gravemaker, attack!"

Marcus's cybernetic eye glowed crimson "Acknowledged" he growled in a deep electronic voice.

He reached into his coat and drew twin revolvers. Malice's eye widened "Uh oh!" he took aim at Marceline and he pulled the trigger.

Tak hurried down the hall till she reached a set of doors.

She kicked the doors open and she entered a large room containing a large glass container.

Tak studied the glass container carefully. The container stood tall, running from the ceiling to the floor. It was connected to two machines, one on the ceiling and one on the floor.

Floating in the heart of the glass container was a tiny sphere of energy that glowed blue-white.

Tak's eyes widened in horror "No…he can't have been this stupid".

She knew that she couldn't just destroy the power generator or disable it because the power source, the tiny glowing sphere, was volatile and very sensitive.

If she weren't careful, the generator would explode with the force of a supernova or worse.

Tak sighed, "Why is this never easy?"

Finn, Jake, Princess Bubblegum and Billy ascended the stairs till they reached a set of doors.

Princess Bubblegum told the others to stand back. She pulled out a small device and placed it in front of the door.

The princess pressed a button and there was a high-pitched ringing then suddenly the doors crumbled to dust.

Finn and Jake looked at the princess in surprise and inquired how the box worked. Princess Bubble shook her head "Not the right time for a science explanation lets go stop Zim"

Finn nodded "Right".

Finn, Jake, Princess Bubblegum and Billy entered a large circular control room filled with screens, control consoles and large windows with a wide panoramic view of Ooo.

Finn scanned the control room and to his surprise, saw no one. Zim wasn't there. Finn lowered his weapon and scratched his head "I don't get it, where's Zim?"

Jake shrugged "Maybe he escaped".

Suddenly large glass tubes dropped down from the ceiling and trapped Finn, Jake, Billy and Princess Bubblegum.

Finn tried to break out of his glass prison but his sword didn't even scratch the smooth surface.

A loud, triumphant laugh filled their ears and Zim slid down one of the glass tubes till he landed on the floor.

Zim pointed and laughed at Finn "Ha, ha, ha! Puny human! You think you can beat me?"

Finn nodded "Yeah".

Zim blinked and continued "W-well too bad, you failed. After I deal with you, I'll take care of Tak and I will have the Gravemaker kill Marceline"

Finn slammed his fist against the glass "Let me out of here!"

Zim jumped back a little and a look of worry crossed his face.

Zim regained composer and he went to one of the control consoles "Too bad that none of you will be alive to see the final outcome of my brilliant schemes"

"What are you going to do to us?" asked Princess Bubblegum.

Zim grinned wickedly "First I'm going to put you three in the brig, then I will get rid of the last human in the entire universe!"

Princess Bubblegum's eyes widened "NO!" Zim pressed a button on the console. Billy, Jake and Princess Bubblegum all glowed bright purple than vanished.

Zim turned to Finn "now, its your turn" Zim pressed another button. Everything around Finn turned bright and in a flash of purple light, the control room, Zim and the glass prison he was in vanished.

Finn blinked and he saw that he was outside of the tower. He stood alone in the grassland, looking around in confusion.

Finn frowned, what was Zim's plan and Why would Zim teleport him to the grasslands?

Suddenly Zim's voice boomed over a loudspeaker, "Now than Finn, you shall be the first to experience the Apocalypse tower's main weapon, The Eclipse Blast!"

Finn spun around and saw that he was a few hundred yards away from the tower.

The human boy paled when he saw a pair of iron prongs rise on the top of the tower. Large bolts of blue crackling energy crackled along the surface of the iron prongs than they ran between the two. The energy slowly began to form a massive sphere. The sphere grew bigger and bigger till finally, a massive beam of blue energy erupted from the sphere and raced towards Finn.

Finn was paralyzed. His mind screamed at his legs to move but he was frozen in place. The only thing Finn did was close his eyes and brace himself for pain.

The air around him began to grow hot and intense, the hair on the back of his neck stood. Finn felt uncomfortably warm but he didn't feel any pain.

Slowly, Finn opened his eyes and he gasped at what he saw.

Standing between him and certain death was his mother. Gaz was holding back the deadly blue energy beam with her bare hands.

The energy beam collided with her hands, splitting into two and rebounding into several different directions. Finn noticed that the energy was scorching whatever it landed on.

Finn exclaimed "Mom!"

She glanced back at Finn "What?" "How are you doing that?" asked Finn in amazement.

Gaz shrugged "Magic". Her knees wobbled a little and she slid back a few inches, Gaz growled "Not now, don't you dare fail me now".

The energy beam flickered and finally died. Gaz wobbled a little and she fell to her knees.

Finn rushed to his mother's side "Mom!" he saw that blood was oozing out of her mouth. She steadied herself by placing a hand on her son's shoulder "I'm never doing that again".

Finn asked his mother why she was there. Gaz smiled a little and she said that she was originally going to steal the Enchiridion back and murder anyone who got in her way but she saw that Finn was in trouble. Something overcame her and she automatically stepped in to help.

Gaz grunted "Used what power I had left to hold that back. I wouldn't have had a problem if I was at full power but I used most of it getting past all the magic barriers I placed around Haven City. So much for getting back home now"

"Are you going to be ok?" asked Finn.

Gaz nodded a little "I need to rest for a moment".

Suddenly Finn hugged his mother saying "Thanks for saving me, mom"

Gaz quirked an eyebrow in surprise and she awkwardly returned the hug "You're…welcome Finn".

Meanwhile near the power core of the Apocalypse tower, Billy stared up at the glowing blue sphere that powered the tower.

Laying unconscious on the floor was Tak with a large lump on the back of her head.

A sly smirk appeared on his face and his eyes glowed dark green.

With or without the Enchiridion, The Lich will achieve his ultimate goal; the death of every living creature in the land of Ooo.

End of Chapter

(a/n: well i hoped you enjoyed this. Please review. Side note- we're almost at the end of the story.)