A/N: Quick announcement before we get this chapter started – with this update, "Evolution of Evil" is now longer than "Reckoning", making it the longest story that I've ever written. So, a quick thanks to everyone who's been with me through this project. Also, sorry for the late update, but schoolwork cropped up on me.
Anyway, this chapter will include some more action and a little more fluff, which I'm sure you're all looking forward to.
Therefore, read on!
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Dib's life flashed before his eyes as Jana's energy sword descended towards him. He instinctively shut his eyes just before it reached him, not expecting to ever open them again… but then after a few seconds, he realized he wasn't dead. He slowly opened his eyes, and flinched at the sight of the blade hovering mere inches above his face. Managing to look past the glare of the concentrated energy, he blinked in surprise at what he saw.
Jana's face was scrunched up in effort, and the hilt of the sword was shaking in her hands as she pushed down on it – something was holding the sword in place, keeping it from making contact with its target. Just as the shock cleared up enough for everything to start to piece together in his head, however, Dib suddenly went sliding across the floor and slammed into the wall. Stars danced in his vision, but that didn't block out the sight of Zim descending the basement stairs, one hand extended palm out towards Dib, and the other curled into a fist as it was aimed towards Jana's sword.
"Jana," he said slowly, releasing his hold on her sword but keeping Dib pinned to the wall, "He is mine to kill. I would think that you of all people would know that. So tell me, what do you think you're doing?"
The usually composed assassin stumbled with her sword as she quickly deactivated and pocketed it.
"M-Master," she stammered, a slight hitch in her voice, "I-I can explain this. I-"
Zim held up his free hand to cut her off. "Wait upstairs. When I am finished down here, we will talk about this."
"Yes, milord," Jana said softly, before quickly heading back up the stairs. Zim watched her go, once again feeling the guilt rise up in him – he'd noticed the tear marks on her cheeks, and considering how controlled she usually was, she had to be upset if she was actually crying.
"Having trouble with your girlfriend?" Dib asked – just because he couldn't move at the moment didn't mean that he couldn't get a dig in at his nemesis.
The quip had the desired effect, as Zim turned back to Dib with a glare and darkened cheeks. Moments later, Dib was regretting it, as he was sent flying into a desk in the corner of the lab. Groaning in pain, he looked up to see the infuriated Irken sneering at him.
"I am really going to enjoy watching you die, you annoying monkey," Zim hissed, raising one hand and slightly clenching it.
Dib gasped as a vice formed around his throat and he lifted several feet into the air. His legs kicked uselessly at the air as he was dragged towards Zim, but then he stopped as he remembered the last time he was in a situation like this. If he could just get close enough… Dib raised an eyebrow as he suddenly stopped in midair while still several feet away from Zim. In response, Zim merely wagged a finger at him.
"Oh, no," he said, "I'm not making the mistake of letting you get close enough to do that again."
"How did you… oh, right. Telepathy," Dib groaned as he continued to hover in the air, "So, what now Zim?"
"Now, I kill you slowly. And then I feed what's left to him," Zim said, pointing over his shoulder at the stairs.
Dib followed the pointing finger, and paled as the lumbering figure of the alpha-GESS descended the stairs, having been summoned by Zim via its control chip. Dib didn't know this, of course, but at the moment he didn't care what it was doing there; he was too distracted by the disfigurement the GESS was now sporting on its face.
The GESS were never a pretty sight to begin with, but the alpha's face was now a ruined mess. The entire right half was scorched black, and in several places the skin had been burned away completely, particularly around the eye – the whole orb was exposed and misted over, showing that it was blinded. The other eye, however, was still quite active and glaring at Dib as it stomped down the stairs; its loss of depth perception obviously wasn't affecting it any. Dib also noticed a high-pitched whine seemed to be emitting from its partially opened mouth.
"Echolocation," Zim said, answering the question that Dib hadn't verbally asked, "A little result of the bat DNA I slipped into its genome. Impressed?"
"Congratulations, Dr. Frankenstein," Dib said sarcastically, "And what's your big plan for when they turn on you?"
Zim merely stared during the reference, but as that last comment sank in, he sneered.
"They will not turn against me, foolish human," he snapped, "They have been programmed to obey my every command, and the chips implanted in their brains enforce that. Zim learns from his mistakes; unlike past creations, the GESS will remain under my control. And with them at my command, I will wipe your species out of existence, and then I will hunt the Tallest down and take my rightful place as their successor. And you, Dib-Worm, shall be the first obstacle that I personally eliminate."
"I've heard this speech before Zim," Dib said, carefully watching the stationary GESS, "And you always lose anyway. What makes this time different?"
Zim merely laughed as he raised his other hand.
"This," he said, waving his hand and sending Dib flying into the wall. Stars once again danced in his vision, and before he could even reorient himself he was sent flying into the opposite wall, and then a containment cell in the corner of the room, followed by the ceiling and finally a stack of crates off to one side. All the while, Zim continued to laugh, making only the slightest of gestures with his hands to send Dib flying around the room. Once again waving the fingers on one hand, he sent Dib towards one of the desks in the middle of the room. Dib hit it hard and was sent flying over it to land on the floor and out of Zim's sight.
"Oops," Zim said with a chuckle, "Tilt."
He calmly walked over to the desk, the alpha-GESS trailing behind him at a distance. Just as he neared the desk, Dib jumped up and slashed at him with a scalpel – which he'd grabbed from one of the overturned boxes of equipment – only for it to be telekinetically knocked out of his hands. Zim leered at him, and in response he dashed over to another desk, desperately grabbed a flask of some chemical, and threw it at the mutant Irken. However, Zim merely tossed a fireball at the flask, shattering the glass and vaporizing its contents.
"Oh, please," Zim said with an eye roll, before waving his arm and slamming Dib into the back wall of the lab, his arm slamming into something that was protruding from that wall.
"You think that you can stop me? My new powers let me look into your mind, to read your every thought; I know your every move before you make it."
While Zim ranted, he lost his concentration on the very telepathy he was bragging about, and therefore wasn't reading Dib's mind when the human realized what it was his arm had slammed into.
"You cannot win," Zim continued, "Your mind is an open book to me."
Dib's lips pulled up into a smirk, causing Zim to narrow an eye in confusion.
"Then you should learn how to read," Dib said, before slamming his arm back into the box behind him, breaking the glass panel and hitting the button contained within the box. Zim merely stared, but then a whirring sound drew his attention to the ceiling… just as the emergency sprinkler system activated.
Zim let out a shriek that could rival any made by the GESS as he was drenched head-to-toe in water that went right to work burning through his skin. The alpha watched, completely baffled, as its master fell to the ground, his skin smoking, and Dib ran from the wall he had been previously pinned to. The alpha swiped at him as he rushed past, but Dib ducked under the deformed lion paw and kept running towards the stairs.
"Kill him!" Zim shouted. The GESS roared in acknowledgement, emitting another echolocation blast as it did so in order to guide its way, and then leapt onto all fours as it bounded up the stairs after Dib.
Dib panted for breath as he reached the top of the stairs, but he didn't dare stop – the GESS would be right behind him, which meant he needed to get the hell out of dodge. But as he reached the ground floor of the house, he was reminded of his other problem.
Jana, who looked liked she'd been trying hard not to cry again, was sitting on the couch in the living room. Hearing Dib come up the stairs, she looked up, and as soon as she saw him her teary eyes hardened. Whipping out her energy sword, she leapt at him; however, she never got a chance to attack him, as at that moment the alpha-GESS burst through the basement door. The beast headed straight towards Dib, inadvertently placing itself in Jana's path.
Cursing, Jana twisted her body in midair, altering her course and just barely managing to miss the GESS. However, her leg scraped across one of its horns, which opened a small gash. This caused Jana to curse even more, as she lost her focus and crashed into a wall. This sequence of events also served to momentarily distract the GESS, making it pause long enough for Dib to run around it and dash out the door.
Ignoring the disoriented Irken female who was slowly pulling herself to her feet, the alpha-GESS once again ran after Dib, its echolocation guiding it past the furniture in its way. Before the young human could get very far, the GESS launched itself out the door, soaring through the air and landing in front of him. Turning around, it fixed its good eye on him, its lips pulled back to fully reveal its shark teeth.
"Oh, crap," Dib said as he realized his predicament – he couldn't run back into the house, as Jana and a surely recovered by now Zim would be waiting for him. Meanwhile, he also couldn't run forward, since the alpha was blocking his direct path away from the house, which was actually the only path away from the house, as the rest was blocked by the house's high-voltage security fence…
Dib's eyes widened as an idea sparked in his mind, gaze quickly moving from the still soaking wet GESS – which was slowly getting in position to pounce – to the fence. The idea was desperate, but he'd noticed that lately all of his plans to stop Zim were desperate, and they usually worked.
"RAWR!" the GESS roared, pulling Dib from his thoughts as it leapt at him. Dib rolled out of the way, just barely avoiding the sharp claws and teeth aimed at him, and quickly minimizing the distance between himself and the fence as much as he could without electrocuting himself. The GESS turned around to once again face Dib, but this time the human faced the abomination with steel in his eyes.
"Come and get me, you son of a bitch," he muttered, staring the GESS down.
The GESS roared and threw itself at Dib again; Dib waited until the last second to roll out of the way, moving only when the GESS was close enough for him to see the nerves connecting to its damaged eye. The delay cost him – one of the GESS's claws ripped through his trench coat and slashed him across his shoulder.
"GAH!" Dib screamed in pain, but it was nothing compared to the howl of agony that the alpha-GESS unleashed as it slammed into the security fence and became entangled in it. The water still coating its body conducted the electricity, allowing it to penetrate even the thick rhino hide the GESS wore as skin.
Dib clutched his bleeding shoulder and staggered to his feet, watching as the alpha was lit up like a Christmas tree. Bolts of electricity danced between its outstretched limbs and its torso, between the jaws that were parted in a howl of pain, and between the ram horns on its head. One particularly large bolt arced between the horns and then suddenly slammed into the GESS's skull, burning through all the way and hitting the control chip in its brain. The alien metal further conducted the electricity, which spread along the nano-wires into every corner of the GESS's brain, frying everything it came into contact with. With a final screech, the alpha-GESS fell to the ground, ending a life that never should have begun in the first place.
And, naturally, that was when several army jeeps came roaring down the street and pulled up in front of Dib's house.
"Of course," Dib groaned, "Now the cavalry shows up."
The soldiers jumped out of the jeeps, several aiming their weapons at the dead GESS, while others fanned out along the street to keep an eye out for any live ones. A blond man in an all-black SEN uniform hopped out as well, carrying what looked like a giant hairdryer, of all things. That agent and a soldier with a sergeant's stripes then walked over to where Dib was still struggling to stay on his feet.
"This kid's the one we're supposed to hook up with?" the sergeant asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Don't underestimate him," the agent replied, "He's the one that figured out these things were going to attack."
"I can also hear you, you know," Dib said, carefully pulling his hand away from his shoulder; the wound hurt like Hell, but it was pretty shallow, so it was already starting to heal. Glancing at the device the agent was carrying, he raised an eyebrow.
"What the heck is that thing?" he asked.
"Prototype energy weapon," the agent replied, adjusting it in his hands, "Agent Nessie and his department have been working on this design for months, but this is the first chance we're getting to try them out."
"Oh goody, we get the toy that we're not sure will work," the sergeant said with an eye roll, "Now, where's this so-called 'alien' you paranormal freaks say is responsible for all the crap going down in the city?"
Before Dib or the agent could respond, the front of the Membrane house exploded outwards, and the dust quickly settled to reveal Zim, healed from his water burns and with both of his hands aflame. Narrowing his maroon eyes, Zim sneered at the soldiers who were staring at him in shock.
"Oh, you just had to ask…" Dib groaned.
The soldiers standing nearest Zim panicked and opened fire; however, this turned out to be a pointless action, as in a move straight out of a vaguely-good sci-fi movie that was turned into a terrible franchise, Zim held out one hand and froze the hail of bullets in mid-air. As the soldiers realized their weapons weren't doing any good, they ceased fire – and Zim then waved his arm, sending the bullets flying back into the soldiers who had fired them.
Dib winced and looked away as the soldiers were shredded. He then yelped as the sergeant knocked him to the ground, making his wounded shoulder scream in protest.
"Stay down!" the sergeant yelled, pulling out his sidearm as he did so and firing on the Invader who had just killed a large chunk of his troops. The still-living ones in the street joined him in the counter-attack, but Zim called on his enhanced agility in addition to the telekinesis to dodge and deflect every bullet.
Dib crawled away from the sergeant and towards the nearest jeep, where the agent was crouching with the energy weapon.
"What are you waiting for?" he asked, "Use the damn thing!"
"I'm trying!" the agent snapped, while pushing buttons and flicking switches on the side of the weapon, "Like I said, this is the first time we're using this thing – I'm still trying to figure out how to turn it on!"
"Oh, for crying out-" Dib began to say, but cut himself off when a familiar burning sensation entered the side of his face. Paling, he looked up to see Jana dashing through the battlefield towards him, murder on her face as she cut down the soldiers in her way almost absentmindedly.
"Not to push, or anything," Dib said, "But we need to get that thing working NOW!"
"Got it!" the agent said, holding up the now-vibrating weapon and pointing it in Jana's direction. Seconds later, a blast of sickly-green energy shot out of the end of the weapon, heading straight towards the charging assassin. Jana's eyes widened, and she jumped out of the way just in time to avoid the shot, which impacted the ground a few feet away. The explosion created a crater in the lawn, raining dirt down on all of the combatants and distracting them momentarily. Unfortunately for the soldiers, Zim recovered from his surprise first and stretched his burning hands out, releasing torrents of flame at his enemies.
Dib and the agent cursed simultaneously as most of the remaining soldiers were deep-fried. The agent quickly powered up the weapon again and aimed it at Zim this time; unfortunately, before he could fire, Jana landed next to the weapon and quickly cut it in half. Before either of the humans could fully register this, two spider legs shot out of Jana's PAK and pinned Dib and the other agent to the jeep, causing Dib's wound to reopen in the process and eliciting a cry of pain from the younger human.
"Impressive device," Jana said, "Shame it won't do you any good now. As soon as Lord Zim is done with these toy soldiers, he is going to tear you two fools apart."
Dib glanced past Jana, and his eyes widened in surprise before a wicked smirk appeared on his face, much to Jana's confusion.
"Wanna bet?" he asked, pointing behind her.
Jana carefully kept the spider legs pressed against Dib and the agent as she turned to look over her shoulder. Zim was tossing the remaining soldiers around like rag dolls, and was apparently enjoying himself… so much so, in fact, that he didn't seem to notice the sergeant – clutching a PAK leg wound on his stomach – sneaking up behind him. The sergeant was shakily holding a submachine gun, and was slowly bringing it to bear on Zim's back – and his PAK. Jana's blood froze in her veins.
"No," she whispered.
Completely forgetting about her prisoners, Jana dashed towards her master. The only thought going through her head during this mad dash was that she had to save Zim – her life would be meaningless without him. That was all she could think of as she placed herself between Zim and the sergeant… just as he opened fire.
Zim spun around at the sound of gunfire, and froze at the sight of Jana dropping to her knees, green Irken blood spilling out of several parts of her chest and abdomen. Time seemed to slow down as the female completely collapsed into a heap on the ground, her own blood pooling around her. Seconds later – which felt like an eternity – Zim tore his gaze away from his fallen servant and looked at the human responsible, who looked surprised at the sudden turn of events.
"Kisgaree!" Zim screamed, before unleashing the full fury of his offensive powers.
The sergeant screamed as his body burst into flames and was sent flying backwards. Dib and the agent jumped out of the way as the sergeant slammed into the jeep so hard it flipped over; shortly after, that jeep – and all the others the soldiers had arrived in – exploded, sending debris flying all over the Membrane front yard. Dib, the agent, and the remaining soldiers were miraculously unharmed by any of the debris, but they were all temporarily blinded by the explosions and resulting smoke. By the time any of them got their sight back, Zim was gone, and all that was left of Jana was a pool of blood.
"Uh, where'd they go?" the agent asked, looking around as if he expected either of the Irkens to suddenly appear.
"Zim ran off when we were distracted," Dib said while clutching his once-again bleeding shoulder, "He must have grabbed Jana when he did."
"Why? I mean, she was dead, wasn't she?"
Dib didn't reply. He knew that the other SEN member wouldn't like the answer – Irkens didn't die that easily.
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Zim's Base, A Few Minutes Later
GIR and Minimoose were sitting on the couch, watching the live news reports of the GESS invasion in the city. All the footage being shown was from drones and helicopters – no human reporter was stupid enough to go anywhere near the actual battle.
"I love this show," GIR droned, making Minimoose roll his eyes (which had an interesting effect in his case, what with being cock-eyed and all).
The front door suddenly burst inward off its hinges, slamming into the opposite wall as Zim entered the house, carrying Jana's body bridal style. GIR noticed the blood on Jana's torso and frowned.
"Aw, Jana's got an owie," the oblivious robot said.
"Yes, GIR, she does," Zim said, his voice oddly strained, "Now move."
Both mechanical servants quickly hopped off of the couch as Zim approached and gently lowered Jana onto the soft cushions. Once Jana was safely lying down, Zim turned his attention to the ceiling.
"Computer, seal the base. Maximum security procedures," he ordered, "And run a medical diagnostic on Jana – I want to know why her PAK hasn't healed her yet."
The computer didn't respond, but it had obviously heard the order; a metal panel slammed shut in the open doorway, and several more did likewise in all of the windows. Zim didn't notice, as his attention never once left Jana while the computer scanned her.
"Master," the computer spoke up at last, "Jana's PAK is still functional and undamaged. However, several bullets are lodged in her squeedly-spooch and heart; they will need to be removed before the PAK can begin healing the damage."
"Then what are you waiting for?" Zim snapped, "Remove them."
Several slender mechanical arms, equipped with various tools, emerged from the ceiling and got to work on removing the lead slugs from Jana's body. Watching the computer work, Zim collapsed into a chair with a sigh, feeling an immense weight lift off of his chest. He'd never admit it, but until the computer had said that Jana would be all right, he'd been scared; scared that she would die, that he'd never be able to talk to her again, that he'd never be able to apologize for blaming the failure of his initial coup plot on her…
Zim's train of thought was derailed when he felt something moving down his cheek. Touching it, he was rather surprised when his fingers came back wet.
'Am I crying?' he thought. He'd been upset when he thought that Jana was going die, but he didn't care to the point that he would do something as emotional as crying… did he?
Then again, he'd felt a connection of some sort with Jana ever since they had met, and as much as he hated to say that the computer was right, he was attracted to her, at least on a physical level. But the thought that his feelings went deeper than that…
As soon as Jana was awake, the two of them were going to have a talk; it was time to clear the air between them once and for all.
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A/N: Hope that the ending doesn't seem too sudden, but I wanted to get this done, and I figured it'd build up to the interaction between Zim and Jana next chapter. And speaking of the next chapter, I think that will be the last one, followed by the epilogue. We'll see what happens.
Next chapter: The tide is turned against Zim, who makes a drastic decision concerning his plans.
Read and review!