(I don't own IZ original characters are mine.
Just talking about having my eye injured brought back phantom pains,
I was playing chicken on the monkey bars when I was a kid, next thing I recall I was in the nurses office with a cold compress over my eye in a world of pain, I had gotten kicked directly in the eye, I no longer have 20/20 but I'm glad I have a normal looking eye and I can see out of it, even if it's blurry)
Dib had finally calmed himself completely down; it wasn't hard to do when he was completely immobilized, it was a while before Lord Nar came in, he walked up to Dib and sprayed something on his feet, the goo became gelatinous and Dib was able to shake his feet free "I won't free your hands until you promise that you will behave" "I've calmed down, I remember that you told him not to hurt her lekku so it's not your fault" "Good I need your help to treat her lekku to help it heal, but no one can get near her except you" Lord Nar sprayed Dibs arms, any he thankfully shook them free, the hardened goo still covered his pak and was still somehow interfering with his ability to shift forms "How do you intend to help her, there is no way I'll hold her down for bandaging, it will hurt her more both physically and emotionally" "The goo we used was originally developed for raw nerve wounds like broken lekku, it was expensive to make until the Crafrucians started supplying us with the rare chemical that makes it so expensive in the first place. What makes the goo so remarkable is it absorbs extra electrical impulses, yet leaves the necessary ones for life alone, and by absorbing these extra energies it becomes hard. For a broken lekku it will absorb all of the raw impulses emitting from the broken end and protect it while it heals" "So why do you have this substance and not the Irkens" "the Irkens are too proud to admit they need this stuff, and if you haven't noticed my species Vortians has horns we need it for when our horns break to close to the nerve, thankfully we don't suffer as much shock as Irkens do." "So what exactly do you want me to do?" "simply bring this bottle close enough for her to be able to smell it, if she can smell it's not harmful she might let you spray it on her lekku, Irkens are really uncooperative when it comes to damaged lekku so be careful"
Being uncooperative was a understatement, Dib couldn't get anywhere near her and when he did he was kicked and punched, he cursed whoever freed her arms, even pain maddened she was a formable opponent, Dib sat in the middle of the blanket pile giving up rubbing the side of his chest he noticed that Kim had inched closer, so he decided to play the age old waiting game it seemed like forever before she was within grabbing distance but Dib stayed still she soon was very close, Dib licked his lips a human habit which carried over in his Irken form. He spoke softly "Kim I was given a spray to make your lekku stop hurting, do you want me to use it "No it will hurt Kim, everything hurts Kim" she scooted away quickly and stayed out of grabbing reach "this will make the pain stop" "there is always pain everyone always wants to hurt Kim" "Has Ber?" "No Ber only abandoned Kim not his fault" "Ber and Zim will be rescuing us, do you want to hug Ber when he comes" "touches hurt, hugs hurt, linking lekku…. I will try spray, promise Kim pain will stop?" "I promise" Kim came forward slowly then she sat in front of Dib with the injured lekku where he could easily spray it, she had her eyes shut tight her whole body shaking, Dib quickly sprayed the broken end, her body suddenly went ridged then slumped over completely he grabbed her before her head hit the ground, gently lying her head down on one of the pillows with the injured lekku the one facing up.
"good work Dib now we can finally have a look at the damage, Ah good it was a clean break to bad there is so much soft tissue exposed, I'm surprised she was able to walk or talk considering how much of the lekku is missing, but look already there has been new growth it will still be several weeks before we can stop using the spray and several months before it matches it's counterpart again and when it does it will always be a bit of a lighter color." "Will she recover mentally" "She'll probably drop the third person when she wakes up, Zim's lekku was left to re-grow on its own so he was in the pain maddened state for too long and using the third person became habit. However she may be touch shy for a very long time and her spirit may be broken, theirs nothing that can make a Irken feel more helpless than having their lekku brutalized"
Kim finally awoke to a world free of all encompassing pain, she sat up and felt dizzy the ground wasn't where her senses said it should be, everything felt weird, sounds echoed and felt hollow, smells, everything was wrong she lifted her lekku up one felt heavy and short, she got a extraordinary sensation of pain whenever she moved the short one, so she left it to hang flat on her head, she drew her knees up to her chin and whished the ground would stop shifting where it was supposed to be, she tried looking elsewhere but turning her head made her dizzy, something moved near her she refused to look lest the ground move again and she would fall over "Hey Kim good to see you up again, how are you feeling" "I'm dizzy because the ground won't stop moving and my lekku hurts like hell" "The ground isn't moving, well it sort of is we are on a spaceship but the dampening field takes care of movement, I'm glad to hear you not using the third person to talk about yourself again" Kim vaguely remembered the time after her lekku broke, what she remembered most was the pain and how every sensation was exaggerated to the extreme of pain. Dib was about to touch her shoulder in a comforting gesture she jerked away, she remembered how much a simple touch hurt, but the movement threw her off balance she fell to the floor, the only thing that hurt was her broken lekku when it was jarred out of position and it sent pain throughout her body, ok lesson learned touch shouldn't hurt but watch out moving the lekku suddenly. She let Dib help her up, she leaned against one of the crates, she didn't yet trust herself to keeping balance "I'm broken and useless Dib I can't even stand without fear of falling, some great warrior I turned out to be" "Don't say that! You will learn to balance again your brain just needs to learn to deal with a shorter lekku" "that could take months! And it won't help us get back to Ber and Zim. It won't help us get home"
Dib was flabbergasted this didn't sound like the ever confident Kim he knew, she sounded defeated, even back on Earth when they were fighting the impossible odds against the Dhahmons she never sounded the least bit afraid, Lord Nar was right her spirit had been broken with her lekku "That's no way for the Great Devourer to talk, I've never known you to back down from a fight, why are you quitting now because you simply can't find where the floor should be? You are a disgrace to Earths colors, Earth never backs down even against impossible odds remember." Dib worried for a second that he had pushed to far. Her good lekku drooped as low as the injured one, it stayed that way for quite some time. Then when Dib thought he might have to slap her to get her to respond there was a spark of defiance in her eyes. "no you are right, I can't quit yet." she stood up using a crate for support, she swayed and took a hesitant step forward then a second one she was away from the crate though she couldn't keep her balance. She fell to the blanket pile. "Damn it" she crawled back to the crate and walked back and forth along it's length not straying far from the blankets because she still fell often. Dib made no motion to help, he knew that she had to do this on her own to regain confidence.
After a while Lord Nar came in and watched as Kim was slowly regaining her balance. "I would like to talk with you about the Resisty, our planets are enslaved under Irken rule our people used "I don't care" "What! We heard so much about you before you sided with the Irkens, how you were the only one to see the invader as a threat and protected Earth for years before the Dhahmons came and now you won't help other peoples who need you?" Dibs eyes went hard and cold "I won't deal with terrorists." "The Resisty isn't a terrorist organization were freedom fighters." "taking a transporter station, holding hostages, torturing prisoners sounds like terrorism to me." "I won't be held responsible for that bounty hunters actions! if it weren't for the fact that he's a Crafrucian prince and the Crafrucians wouldn't deal with us if we didn't take him along, there would be no way I would allow someone like him in the Resisty!" "Dealing with crime lords, the list keeps compounding." "I truly regret what happened to your friend, but please consider the plight of other people" "Go away"
Lord Nar sighed, he had no idea what to do with Dib. Earth and Irk were refusing to negotiate, and with Dib as an Irken there was no way he would listen ether. Lord Nar wouldn't free Dib's pak so he could transform to human that would allow the Irkens to home in on the pak's signal then they would be done for. "Sir! The Irken armada is approaching our location!" "How is that even possible? They shouldn't be able to track us" "Do you think the tales are true about Irken life pairs? That the mates can find each other no matter how far apart they are?" "Damn I hadn't thought of that if it's true we have to get rid of them! Load them into a shuttle and launch them toward the nearest Irken controlled planet, hurry!"
Dib and Kim were roughly grabbed and hauled away just before Dib was shoved into the shuttle Lord Nar gave him a large package "There is enough goo to treat your friend until she's done healing. The instructions are in there, plus some cleanser to free your packs but don't use it till you reach you destination or we will self destruct the shuttle." He then shoved Dib inside. Sealed the hatch and stepped away so the shuttle could launch. Everyone watched tensely as the shuttle sped away and as the Armada crept ever closer. "Sir the massive is changing it's coarse it's now adjusting to intercept the shuttle" "Thank goodness"
On the massive "We have the shuttle in a tractor beam sir, we will dock it in cargo bay 2" Ber was already running off the bridge Zim and the Tallest followed at a more sedate pace. When they arrived at the cargo bay Ber was practically dancing in place waiting for the shuttle to be docked and opened before the hatch was fully opened he dived inside "Hey watch it Ber! Be patient she's alright considering the circumstances" Ber had plowed into Dib as he went straight for Kim, she had passed out on the shuttle trip the movement of the shuttle was too much for her skewed sense of balance. Dib came out of the shuttle first "remind me never to get in between a life pair ever again, it's hazardous." Ber then came out with a reawakened Kim his lekku twined possessively around her good one, Dib thought she looked a lot steadier and stronger now that she was in Ber's company again, she still was hesitant walking and she leaned heavily on Ber. Dib gave Ber the package of goo for her lekku.
"Dib come here. We need to talk" "Yes my Tallest?" "First off how is she?" "She's completely out of commission for quite a while, and I'm not sure if she'll regain her confidence" "Darn it when the empire tried to kill her she wouldn't die or give up, the Resisty gets a hold of her when we need her and she's broken" "What's going on my Tallest?" "The Crafrucians have declared war, since their prince died on the station and they are blaming the Irkens" "if it was that reptile thing he's the one who broke Kim's lekku he deserved whatever he got" "Unfortunately that won't help us, even if he was in league with the Resisty, he was a prince. If he had died going after Kim's bounty 200 years ago it might not have been as bad, but he was torn apart in the station, the desecrating of his body was unforgivable" "Breaking Kim's lekku was unforgivable!" "You see, neither side is willing to back down so we are forced to go to war. We are expecting you to go home and prepare Earth. Thankfully Earth is good at producing battle ships; they haven't stopped making them since the Dhahmon war, we will need every ship and every trained warrior, Vacation has been cancelled. Let's pray that Kim is one of the rare few that can recover from being broken"
(Finally I get around to a good protagonist, I'm sorry but the Resisty sucks as a villain, they hardly make good terrorists
I made a picture of Ber consoling Kim on DA I also have a few other pictures related to the Invader Dib series and a few related fics not available on FF so go and browse my gallery and see my GIR costume)