Eternal Rivals

Summary: Even with civilization falling to pieces around them, Zim was determined that they continue their deadly game, that Dib never diverted his attentions, and that his young rival remained the same enemy he met so long ago.

(A/N): I meant to finish up Chapter Six before posting any more, but I got impatient...meh. Cliffhangers, they irk me.

I knew I'd throw someone a curveball in the last chapter. I'm not going to be too detailed yet about the technical hows and whys until later; this is Gaz we're talking about, one of the least talkative characters in the whole IZ series and least likely to question someone on this weirdness. Necessities like escape and survival come before anything else after all.

-"It kills me not to know this, but I've all but just forgotten what the color of her eyes were and her scars and how she got them. As the telling signs of age rain down, a single tear is dropping through the valleys of an aging face that this world has forgotten... There is no reconciliation that will put me in my place. And there is no time like the present to drink these draining seconds. But seldom do these words ring true when I'm constantly failing you, like walls that we just can't break through until we disappear. So tell me now, if this ain't love, then how do we get out? 'Cause I don't know."–Rise Against, Savior

For a long time there was silence in the prison of the wandering Irken dreadnaught, brother and sister staring at one another disbelievingly at the sight they were seeing.

Gaz knew exactly how long it had been since the young alien-hunting grade schooler had apparently dropped off the face of the Earth and right into the clutches of the enemy invader, igniting not concern but definitely questions from the student body. They may not have liked or even appreciated the boy but they were still so accustomed to his presence that people ended up asking questions, rude and degrading as they were. That was exactly why the sight of him there before her unchanged threw a spark of confusion into her and for once was utterly stumped.

Zim couldn't have possibly caused this, he wasn't smart enough to engineer something so complicated, but there was simply no other answer that made sense.

As for Dib, well, he had no clue whatsoever of how long had passed since his capture, unable to even mark a calendar thanks to the tough transparent walls preventing any sort of time-keeping, ruining any idea that boy had for just how long he'd been imprisoned.

After all, never seeing the sun made days feel much longer and impossibly uncountable, though he'd estimated somewhere around six months to a year, a guess that was quickly scrapped once the towering image of his own sister appeared. With his lack of glasses, it was hard to tell who exactly she was at first, but the purple curved hair-style and facial features left no room for doubt it was his sister.

Still Dib found himself wondering if this was simply a hallucination caused by the disgusting food he'd been forced to subsist on all this time, but he had to discard this theory—he'd never gotten sick on the meals before, no matter how gross-tasting it was. And, despite the rumors that people liked to believe about him, the boy wasn't exactly prone to having strange visions for no reason. There was the possibility it was just another hologram sent to taunt him and hound at the boy's thoughts, or perhaps his mind was just starting to screw with him.

It's not like the holograms hadn't happened before; Zim wasn't shy about using such methods on him, sometimes just as an experiment or way to pass time, and the holograms were never a pleasant experience.

Dib usually tried to ignore them and remain silent as his way of defying his captor, but a combination of exhaustion and anger could occasionally make him snap. So instead of jumping to his feet and replying back as he was tempted to do, the young boy remained seated where he was, staring blankly at her and wondering whether or not this was going to be yet another false alarm.

"Dib!"

His whirling thoughts were abruptly broken when the young woman pounded on the glass and shouted at him, breaking any and all thoughts of possible deception. The holograms had always fizzled with any contact to his cell and that voice... She had a stronger and more feminine tone acquired from age, but the same underlying growl that Dib recognized so clearly was still present.

It had to be her, there was simply no other explanation.

Just how long was he here that Gaz could've changed so much?

How...old was he now?

Well, the only way to find out would be to hurry up and say something, "...G-Gaz...?"

The purple-haired girl lowered her hand slowly when she finally heard his voice and placed one palm against the surface of the cell, observing him as her sudden shock began to wear off. The black-haired prisoner paced forward a bit to see her better, continuing in spite of his shaky and stumbling movements, and squinting somewhat to take in the sight before him. Dib's voice was the same as she remembered it except for being rather hoarse and strained, as though he'd done plenty of yelling while incarcerated.

Although, considering the two major players here were Zim and her brother, was this really such a big surprise?

Now that Gaz had her wits all collected, she could see the fading glint of suspicion that had been occupying his face just before her shout, most likely because there was the possibility her presence was just faked. That meant that he had already suspected a ploy from his kidnapper. Obviously, Dib's rivalry—or rather, outright hatred now—with the alien invader hadn't even faded slightly through so many years. Or perhaps it had gotten much worse instead.

Still, what was she supposed to say to him? Gaz was not the most emotional person, unlike her ever-excitable brother, and the two of their personalities always ended up clashing with the slightest provocation, even when they at least made the meager effort to stay away from each other. This was no heartfelt reunion and she had never expected it would be, and who knew if Dib thought this would happen.

Maybe he did suspect a rescue, since he was a stubborn as hell optimist after all.

Despite still being confused about the why and how involved with his appearance, Gaz decided to focus on the here and now. She still had a very important job to do and an escape to finish.

"Stand back," She told him sharply and Dib shuffled backwards against the far wall quickly, a slight trembling present in his hands that the girl didn't know the cause of.

Gaz pulled a coal black device from her satchel shaped vaguely like a derringer and the boy's eyes widened as he recognized its purpose; Dib was the person who created the thing after all. Pressing a switch on the side to turn it on, the object whirred with a low humming noise and a blade ring expanded from the muzzle, glowing red with heat. When the ring was forced against the side of the cell, only a few seconds had to pass for the burning tool melt and cut through the resistance. Gaz wrenched the device back, taking the whole circle of glass wall with it and dropped the barrier to the ground with a dull clunk. Now a huge hole in the cell was present for the occupant to easily slide out of, which he did so swiftly, glad to be finally free of the prison.

Dib opened his mouth to start bombarding her with questions and demanding explanations as to how she managed to find him and how much time had passed among other things, but Gaz cut him off before he'd even begun by grabbing him by the shoulder and practically dragging him to the open vent in the corner of the chamber. "Don't talk now, we're escaping,"

She was stern, not letting any emotions to start peeking through, as they would just get in the way at the moment. She gestured for Dib to enter the vent tunnel, but he didn't budge and irritably Gaz wondered if she really had to force him out. However, just as she was about to say something else, her brother interrupted this time, a determined glint returning to his eyes.

"Gaz, I need the heat saw back for a moment."

The girl remembered that was what the object she used was called, but she was confused and a little curious as why he would refuse escape for it. So Gaz handed the device over and Dib immediately turned it on, twisting the dial on the side to compress the heated ring into a smaller circle about the diameter of a dime. But she nearly attacked him in a combination of shock and anger when he abruptly flipped the muzzle around to press the burning blade against his own wrist. It only lasted a second and the heat saw tumbled to the floor, with the boy clenching a hand around his wrist to apply pressure to the wound, while simultaneously tearing strips of his sleeves off with his teeth as makeshift bandages.

"...Got it..."

The metallic clink of something falling to the ground was what stopped Gaz from interrogating him immediately and her brown eyes caught the sight of a tiny silver sphere stained with Dib's blood, slowly rolling to a stop by her feet. Heedless of the red, she plucked it from the floor, frowning in distaste at the sight of the blinking green light upon the surface. The sphere was marked with a line of Irken lettering that she didn't know how to read and thus it became meaningless.

"Tracking device..." Dib told her haltingly, breathing hard between words as he secured his bandages on the open wound, and Gaz noticed the effort of suppressing the pain was causing his words to slur slightly and his eyes to become glazed. "Zim...stuck that on me...a while back... Leave this room...with it and...and an alarm goes...off." His explanation did make sense, but the total lack of hesitation with ripping out the foreign object was rather interesting.

In a strange, morbidly fascinating way, Gaz found herself wondering just how painful it had to be for someone to stick a burning blade up against your skin and...

No, focus on the task at hand. That's simple gaming tactics; eyes on the prize, distracted by nothing.

At least Dib remembered the tracking chip before they booked it out of there.

"Are you able to walk?" Her voice was quick and to the point, gesturing at her brother and the way he was shaking, one hand fixed on his wrist and other wiping his sweaty forehead. He nodded quickly and the two of them grabbed the ledge and squeezed back through the gaping ventilation shaft, with Gaz going first to lead the way and Dib following along quietly behind. At first she wondered why he was so silent, instead of needling her for information like she expected, until Gaz remembered that her brother was the one most accustomed to sneaking through dimly lit tunnels like this, not her.

No, Gaz herself would have liked to just smash her way out of a situation instead of creeping through the shadows. All of this climbing through vents was really starting to get annoying.

But sadly, this was no longer an option here.

For about ten minutes or so during their oh-so-quiet getaway there was no noise except for the heavy breathing of the boy and almost inaudible sounds of them shuffling through the narrow tunnel, until the piercing shrill of an alarm echoed throughout the ship and a loud thud reverberated from behind.

"I thought you said that the tracker that caused the alarm wouldn't go off," Gaz hissed fiercely, unable to turn her head in the small space to glare at him, but her body language said plenty.

"It...didn't," Dib gasped a little, his exposed hands and feet already forming blisters and scratches from moving across the rough surface in the vent, while a distracted envy formed in the back of his mind for another pair of the slick boots his sister wore as part of the stealth outfit. "The...guard shifts might have...changed. I don't know...how to keep track...of them. No way to...keep time."

Gaz growled at the knowledge, irritated that she simply couldn't use the easy way out, but the way things were going...

"Fine, we'll take another path. We're too slow and exposed here if they decide to smoke us out," With no further direction, the young woman abruptly kicked out the grating beneath her and dragged Dib with her, landing in the kitchen—where a robotic staff worker jumped erratically into the ceiling in response—and sprinted out into the halls.

With her brother in tow, Gaz found the launch hanger where Zim kept the escape pods and pounded the door with the roar of rapidly approaching feet behind them. This door however, was tightly barred and guarded with a small keypad at eye level with Dib that was undoubtedly the way to open her only escape route. But the error was that she couldn't translate the Irken text on the keypad and paused, hating to get stuck here at the end like some kind of rank amateur.

Gaz was just about to turn resolutely around to engage in some ass-kicking as her last resort when Dib suddenly jumped up and punched in a four letter code and the barrier swung open.

With no time to question him on how he learned the password, Gaz ran to the nearest pod and initiated the start-up procedure, as she had driven them before without much trouble. The hum of the engine alone was enough to make her cringe as the pounding footsteps down the hall were joined by shouts and the alarm became more urgent. Just as her brother was about to leap into the machine with her, a familiarly harsh voice rang out and her finger rested on the launch button while eyes cracked open to see a huge crowd of gathered guards holding enough weaponry to blast them to pieces.

The idea that all of that firepower was here because Dib was the escapee in question was rather interesting...and annoying as hell to have to deal with.

Zim was at the head of them, fists clenched so tightly that his claws almost seemed to tear at the gloves he wore, and glaring at the both of them with heat smoldering within hateful, red eyes.

Since coming to Earth, the alien had not changed in the slightest, at least not in the physical aspect of things. Yet for so long there was no one around to question his apparent lack of noticeable aging, and issue wasn't even brought up until he started to cause some real trouble. Ironically, the dreadnaught Zim acquired was something that had crash landed on Earth for reasons that the alien had never clearly explained, though his jubilation in obtaining it was undeniable. The invader wasted no time in repairing the ship and taking it to the sky; a few blown up cities later and the country (and even more) was fighting a practical and losing war against one very foreign vessel and other surprises Zim possessed.

Zim also seemed to realize that while drifting high in the sky, having a method to actually controlling his plethora of experimental monsters was an optional idea and set them loose upon humanity with no inclination of a leash and this time, every knew who was causing this destruction.

And Zim had delighted in finally doing some real damage.

At the moment though, he spared Gaz a quick glare and then set his sights on Dib as though the boy was somehow personally responsible for being able to escape his prison alone, and the robot guards advanced steadily as his fists curled even tighter than before. The metallic appendages burst from his Pak with a sharp click and lifted the tiny alien into the air, one pointed claw angled in their direction displaying his infuriation. "Fools! Did you think you could leave without resistance?"

Dib simply clenched his jaw and with some struggling, calmed the subconscious trembling of his body and mustered all of the hatred he could reach, "I'm leaving Zim, and you can't stop me."

Some unspoken meaning seemed to pass between them, like some kind of secret message that only sworn enemies could understand and Zim's face darkened, "I will make you regret your defiance, Dib."

It almost looked as though the two of them were going to fall right back into their old brawls, despite the fact that Dib's current condition was less than par for a ridiculous sparring match. But as the Irken lunged forward to attack, Gaz seized a hold of her brother's collar and yanked him back into the escape pod as the tiny ship fired up its engines, hatch slamming shut as the purple-haired girl brought the flying vehicle around.

Hands clenched tightly around the controls with a fierce determination, and Gaz quickly dragged up a distant memory of flying one of these unwieldy escape pods from Zim's orbital base. Spinning in a circle wildly, the machine seemed to wail as the metal made contact with the ceiling, and a few of the robotic servants who'd attempted to anchor the ship were hurled violently into the walls. Zim made his move then, brilliant green lasers flashing from the tips of the mechanized limbs and gouging deep rivulets into the pod as he tried to bring it down. Distracted by the attack, Gaz directed the weapon control to Zim and drove him back with a few shots that he easily avoided, but it gave her the opportunity she was waiting for.

With a few well-placed laser rounds by an experienced hand, the exit was blasted open and the pod spiraled off into the sky, Zim's scream of rage echoing far behind.

Claws tightened and grew dangerously close to ripping through the sheer black gloves upon his hands, while narrowed claret red eyes stared off into the distance where the stolen ship was rapidly disappearing as a dot on the horizon. Smoke rose in thick clouds from the hangar bulkhead where new laser burns decorated the forced open door and the roar of wind threatened to rip any nearby figure into empty air.

Zim stayed that way for quite some time, until long after the pod had vanished from his sight and the computer finally managed to jolt him out of his stupor.

'Master, interior damage is destabilizing the Conquest. I advise that we land and make repairs.'

That was what he had seen fit to name the ship; Conquest. It was supposed to be the defining hammer blow of his mission. The beginning of the end, so to speak. Besides, Zim had seen no reason to be original with it as the name fit his purpose so perfectly from the outset.

Of course, the computer always had to put a damper on things, even his rage.

He'd found that the onboard interactive AI system built into the Conquest was completely irreparable even after all the work he had done on ship's hull. With no alternative, Zim uploaded his base's computer into the battle cruiser and placed the lab on lockdown for the time being. He certainly wasn't going to use GIR as a replacement. Only bad things happened when his minion got a hold on any computer system, so the Conquest was out of the question. Still, even though some part of his mind knew that setting the cruiser to dock was a sound idea, he didn't reply.

'Uhh...Master? Were you listening?'

"Silence!" Zim screamed at nothing, only partially aware that the computer had no face he could point at. That was a thought. It should have a holographic avatar he could vent his stress at. Still, it wasn't what was really bothering him at the moment. "He got away..." Disappointing as it was that the security failed to stop them it was also at the same time a slightly exciting realization.

'I can send the nearest squadron after them, if you want...'

"Yes! Send them! Then you can start repairs or whatever unimportant task you do when I'm not ordering you!" Zim swung around, pointing at one of the cracked cameras, again forgetting the computer had no face. A low groan ensued from the speakers but the peeling cry of the reinforcement alarm sounded with a haste contradictory to the AI that called it. And, somewhere not too far away, the hum of black engines sounded in response.