Chapter Ten: Rise
Life...flooding...filling the core. A warmth, a being, something resonating inside. Ideas...languages, cultures, everything. God, Vishnu, Azshara, Gallefrey, Gorgons, Borg...Bigfoot. Knowledge of everything...the world...the Universe. The mind that had formed so freshly...overwhelmed by the enormous pressure of so much information...A mere human mind could not contain such power...and it cracked.
...
"Welcome, young one," An old voice called out, sounding rusted and cracked, "To Aperture Science Enrichment Center." He sat up and looked around at the hotel-like room, noticing the age and decay on the walls. "You have been in suspension for...two hundred seventy days. Please seek attention from an Aperture Science Re-Integrator." The speaker from above shut off suddenly and the sound of something breaking far away sounded.
"The hell..." He moved around the room, the floor boards creaking ominously. As he wandered closer to the door, he passed by a mirror. For some reason...part of his hair was grown differently, it was stuck up into a scythe looking pattern. Disregarding this, he kept moving towards the door, unsure what lay beyond it. Just as his fingertips brushed the door...it burst open on him and a large sphere device on a railing pushed up at him. In surprise, he backed away and hit the dresser.
"Oh, hey, subject N-1...didn't know you were up already..." A British voice called from the sphere. Something in the back of his mind told him it was a core...a core in charge of human subjects. Subjects for what though...? There was so much information...it was hard to grasp on to what he wanted to know. Or was it what he wanted to remember? Did that core just call him N-1? "Iiiii meeean, oh great! You're up already!" It covered quickly. "Say...do you know what happened to this place...? It seems like no one told me..." It said, sounding quite annoyed. He wasn't surprised, who would want to talk to this stupid core. From that mass storage in the back of his head came the knowledge that this core went by the name Wheatley and that it was quite idiotic...it wasn't a wonder that this place had fallen into ruin after GLaDOS was deactivated...with only insufficient cores like this. GLaDOS was much better, having been created from a living being.
...How did he know all of this...
"So...you're not answering..." Wheatley observed, the large blue center that held a video recording device that was much like a large eyeball was trained on him. "Well...you have been in suspended animation for...about nine months...so, brain damage isn't completely out of the question." He was actually surprised he wasn't dead. Something told him this core, who was in charge of the human subjects, was used to the subjects suddenly dying.
"I don't think that's likely..." He answered, glaring up at Wheatley.
"Oh, good! You're talking," Wheatley exclaimed, making happy motions...as happy as a sphere on a rail can look. "Which means you probably don't have brain damage...maybe. Anyway, I need you to do me sort of a favor." He knew this would probably be an extremely easy thing...knowing Wheatly. Wait...he didn't know the core, though...they'd only just met. So... "There's this thing called a Portal Gun-"
"And you want me to find it...?" He guessed.
"That's the spot, N-1," Wheatley commended. "Now...just through that door there." He motioned with his...sphere...to the left, away from the door where Wheatly originally came from. A hidden panel opened to reveal a dark passageway. Nothing could be seen. N-1 tried to pull information from his 'memory' but nothing was coming up about this. What could that mean...? "Yeah, so...just through that door...not a big deal, just...walk over to it. I mean...I know you don't have brain damage now so..."
"Yeah, yeah," N-1 replied, beginning to make his way to the panel. He knew if he didn't do something, then Wheatly would just rattle on to himself. Which could be so annoying. Not that he knew...cause they only just met.
"And...sorry," Wheatly called out as N-1 passed into the secret hallway.
"Why would you be-" And the panel shut itself tight as the floor simultaneously gave out under him, landing him in some strange room. There was a strange device on a podium and several lasers coming out of walls. On the wall beside him was a huge, brightly lit screen. It had a large number one, with 01/99 under that, with several gorish pictures of bad things happening to stick figures lit up underneath. The only picture that was dim was one of a button and an arrow above it. "This...doesn't seem good..."
"Welcome, new test subject," A female, mechanical sounding voice called out. "Are you ready to test?"
"...Test...?" N-1 asked. All of a sudden everything became clear as information flooded to the forefront of his mind. A terrible place called Aperture where supposedly humane research had gone on...when really it was so much farther from that. Test subjects were put under horrible conditions and most often died...not even from remaining in suspended animation for too long...that would have been a much more pleasant death, for sure. But what he found interesting was what he 'remembered' about a certain Artificial Intelligence. "You're GLaDOS...aren't you?" He asked, looking at the portal device that lay on the podium.
"Smart one, aren't you. Don't worry, we'll fix that in a test later," She said sadistically. "Yes, that's my name. Do you remember your own name?"
He was about to say loudly that he did remember and state his name...but no name came to mind. A strange mechanical laughing was coming from the speakers. "You can't remember. In fact, you shouldn't even have memories," GLaDOS teased.
"What are you talking about?" N-1 asked, not revealing that he really didn't have any memories before waking up to the sound of Wheatly being stupid.
"You're more stupid than I thought...maybe using you for testing won't be as fun as I thought," GLaDOS sighed dejectedly. "You, N-1, are a clone. You never had a life, you never grew up, never had pleasant memories or a family." The last part seemed to make GLaDOS happy. "So technically you're adopted.
"A clone..." N-1 echoed, looking around the room.
"Yes," GLaDOS said simply, growing bored with talking. Being a clone explained a few things. Except for this knowledge...how did he know about Wheatly and GLaDOS before he'd met them. How he knew about Aperture...about the outside world as well. "As a test...and just for fun...to screw with you, basically, we pumped as much information into you as we could. Information about the entire Universe. I want to see what it'll do to a weak little human mind like yours."
"...That's evil..." N-1 replied.
"Whatever. I call it science," GLaDOS said. "And it wasn't me who came up with the idea, either. Some little robot brought DNA to us. An Aperture station on another planet, actually. It wasn't even really DNA, more like...you...as a tiny little cell just forming. A clone."
"What was that robots intent when it brought me to you?" N-1 asked, wondering if this new robot mentioned was also evil, or just plain stupid. Probably both.
"How should I know? I don't care. All I know is that we've got a clone. And clone's don't technically count as people anymore. So we can do whatever we like to you," GLaDOS said, with an evil tone to her artificial voice. Shit, she's right, N-1 thought, I've got to find a way out of this place. "Now, I'm tired of waiting. Get that Portal Device...and begin the testing," She demanded.
... The gun fit perfectly in his hand, the device locking itself onto his arm. This test seemed fairly easy...but he was sure as he ran through them...GLaDOS would surely make them far more difficult.
"Hey...if you finish quickly...maybe I'll even let you have cake later."
N-1 didn't have to think hard to know this was a lie.
...
Skyscrapers and towering buildings covered this planet, and in between the massive buildings were floating islands also filled with smaller buildings. The entire planet seemed to shine with dull gold and silver. Rather than glass, like on Earth, all the buildings were made from various metals, seeming to be patch-match and mismatched. The sky was semi-filled with smoke and smog from factories. But there was a sort of beauty to all the chaos.
Just as they were preparing to land, the guidance systems built into the ground lead their ship into a docking station atop one of the floating islands filled with machinery. Dib took a few steps and couldn't speak, too overwhelmed by the sheer awe of the planet. It was far beyond anything he'd imagined. "Yup," Zim sighed, coming out of nowhere to lean against Dib's side. "Pretty awesome the first time, huh, my delicious Dib..."
"Delicious?" He might not be able to comment on the sight of the planet, but that new name deserved some questioning.
"Nothing," Zim said quickly and pointing off in the distance, "Hey, is that a mechanical windmill over there?" He knew it was, and it cause Dib to look and be distracted, meaning: Zim wins.
"Hey...it is..." Now Dib was busy staring again and Zim took the opportunity to grope as he wished. At the moment it didn't matter, Dib wasn't ready to negotiate when he was still awed by their planet, he'd be distracted the whole time. So rushing him to get to the council was out of the question. So what else was there to do while Dib got over his fascination? Take advantage and touch where he knew he wouldn't be allowed to later. "Hey...quit that," Dib mumbled, finally taking notice.
"But...look at that cool thing...over there...at that one place," Zim rambled. It worked and Dib peered off at the horizon and spotted a different floating isle, this one housing a series of spiraling buildings. 'Heh, didn't even have to point this time,' Zim thought to himself as he continued along his business, eyes closed and relaxed.
"Irken Soldier! You are in violation of the Arlia-Irk neutrality pact! Put down any weapon and do not use your pak!" A British female voice called from a few feet away. Both boys turned to see a young woman clad in black body armor and gas mask. Blonde, tangled hair could be seen at the sides of the mask. "In the academy, when they said expect anything...I bet even they didn't expect this..." The girl said slowly as she lowered her gun. A small breeze brought the smell of machinery and caused the knee-high grass beside them to sway.
"...What...what should we do?" Dib whispered.
"I don't know..." Zim answered.
"Who is that?" Dib asked, watching the blonde, human-looking woman.
"I...I think it's an Arlian warrior..." Zim said, looking at the woman's massive weapon.
"Should we...attack her...?" Dib asked, finally noticing the huge, revolver-like gun.
"...No...no, we shouldn't kill her. Cause then the whole planet would want revenge...and wouldn't it be a shame to have to wipe out a whole planet...?" Zim bluffed.
"Yeah, totally, "Dib agreed, "It'd waste a whole planet full of cool stuff..and it'd waste our time...but just a little of it."
"Plus, we have to go get Miz anyway...we don't have time to play on a planet like this..." Zim said.
"Right, we've got to save Earth...maybe we can come back later and deal with her..." Dib said.
"Totally..." Zim agreed. Neither of them said anything about how trapped they were or that they were cornered with no weapons other than Zim's pak. Neither moved even an inch, simply bluffing out their asses.
"Hey, you two!" The warrior called out, seeming to get impatient.
"What do we do?" Dib asked.
"Tell her we're not attacking," Zim said, "but you tell her. She wouldn't believe me." Dib swallowed his fear and took a step towards the warrior, having to untangle Zim's arms from himself.
"Hey, we're not attacking you, okay," Dib said, his hands shaking.
"That's all you've got?" Zim whispered, hiding behind the human, using him as a shield and peeking over Dib's shoulder at the warrior. The feeling of Zim's antennae lightly brushing his hair was distracting and Dib had to take a moment to remember what he was going to say.
"Um! We're here cause...An Irken named Tak sent us! We- We're trying to protect Earth...That's all!" Dib explained.
"..." The Arlian warrior mulled that over. Dib couldn't tell who the warrior was looking at, maybe both of them. "Why would an Irken protect a planet other than Irk?" she asked suspiciously.
Now Zim came out from behind Dib and stood his ground before the faceless Arlian warrior. "Earth is my home," he said proudly. The warrior and Irken stared at each other before the warrior turned away.
"Whatever. I'll take you to our Council. They'll decide what to do with you then." With that said, she promptly turned and left, marching to the other side of the island.
"Heh, totally under control," Zim muttered as his hands began to wander again. Before he got anywhere Dib slapped his hands away.
"I told you to quit, we're being serious here," Dib scolded.
"I know, but all we're doing is following this wierdo," Zim said, motioning to the soldier marching in front of them. "Can't we make the journey enjoyable...?"
"Grow up, Zim," Dib said harshly, walking faster so that the alien was behind him now. "We're on a mission here, not just screwing around on various planets." A scowl made its way to Dib's face and he resisted the urge to turn around and see how Zim reacted. He didn't care at the moment. If groping and touching was Zim's way of dealing, then he'd have to find a new way.
With arms crossed, Zim let Dib take the lead. What was wrong with having fun while he could? Absolutely nothing. He hung at the back as the soldier let them to a sky bridge to another isle, gently sloping downward. They went silently from island to island until they reached the actual planet and were surrounded by tall buildings like towers. The rising sun caught the light and made the further off buildings shine dully. Even when they were mad, it was awesome to see. There were slanted windows in the buildings, but they seemed rusted and old. No other Arlians could be seen on the streets or in windows, the whole area seemed empty. Their boots clanked on the chrome sidewalk as they followed the Arlian woman who didn't seem at all surprised by the absence of life. "Where is everyone?" Dib voiced, looking around. He noticed that Zim didn't seem surprised either, but didn't want to ask him at the moment.
"Underground," The warrior woman answered, "Celebrating our good fortune of being free from war." She said this in a bitter tone, as if she wished there was a war to be in.
"How good for you," Zim said, just as bitter.
"Um...where is this council anyway?" Dib asked, watching all the tall buildings pass by.
"In the tallest building in Arlia, not too far from here," The warrior answered, not saying anything more. The rest of the way there was no noise other than their footsteps. Not a bird or person, nothing. Eventually they came to a huge coppery building, it rose high into the smog out of sight. "Here we are," She announced as the Arlian thrust open the metal door. Pure darkness laid inside along with whatever dangers the planet provided. The warrior stalked inside and Dib followed reluctantly, Zim tagging along at the end, not worried at all.
They were led through the dark to a large silver elevator that took them high up in the building, to the top floor. The ride was completely silent, save for the rickety sound of the elevator mechanics. At the end, they came to a huge room with high ceilings, this place was dark as well. In the dim lighting, it was hard to tell what the place was meant to be. Just as Dib opened his mouth to ask, the Arlian raised her hand to quiet him. Slowly the room became lighter and three raised platforms were revealed. On them were two old men and one old woman, all hooked up to wires and machines inside their platforms. Mechanics covered nearly their whole bodies. So...this was the council.
"I've brought intruders," The warrior announced, none of the council moved, "An Irken, he is breaking the Irk-Arlia treaty-"
"Is he attacking?" The male on the left asked, his voice old and cracked, like sandpaper. He seemed like the oldest of the council.
"...No."
"Was he leading an army to our planet?" The woman in the middle asked.
"...There were no signals being broacast from their ship...and there are no other intruders within the peramiter..."
"Then, who's to say he is attacking?" The male on the right asked, sounding wise.
"But! He is Irken! He threatens our planet!" The warrior burst out.
"Anya, Anya, take off your mask, please," The oldest asked, kindly. He seemed so old and wise that no one would ever argue him. 'Anya' took off her mask angrily and threw it to the ground, she stood firm and erect, eyes blazing with hatred.
"These are outsiders, they don't deserve to be here! They're a threat to the peace we've held here!" Anya yelled.
"Oh? What were these 'outsiders' doing when you found them?" The old woman asked.
"...They were..." Anya seemed reluctant to answer, "Sightseeing..." Dib threw Zim a hasty glare before turning back to the scene before them.
"And why shouldn't they? Arlia is such a beautiful planet, after all," The oldest said, looking up in fond memory of the buildings.
"Please, Anya. Do not be so hasty to cause harm to others where it is not deserved," The woman chastized lightly, "This is what the Irken Armada has done, and they aren't in such good position now, are they?" Anya bowed her head, anger flowing away like steam. Zim's antennae twitched at the mention of Irk not doing good. Dib knew he wanted to ask what they meant, but Zim kept quiet.
"Yes, my council," Anya said, brushing her hair back.
"Poor girl," Said the man on the right, "She's only just entered the Guard and already picking fights with travelers." Anya blushed but said nothing.
"Yes, yes," The woman agreed, "Why we even have a Guard in such peaceful times, I've no idea."
"Where have the times gone?" The oldest asked, "In my day...well, in my day we needed a Guard...as well as a full army..."
"Yes, Thank the Mechanica that those days are long gone," The woman sighed.
"How are your travels going, young strangers?" The man on the right asked kindly, squinting to see them.
"Actually, if you're the leaders of this planet," Dib said, stepping forward, "We've come here for help."
"Help?" The woman asked, slightly higher pitched, as if she never imagined anyone would come for help here. "Help of what kind?"
"Well, you see..." Dib said, not sure how to explain the situation.
"Meekrob has captured royalty from Earth," Zim stepped in, looking down and away from everyone, "A rebel Irken pointed us this way. This has nothing to do with Irk or Arlia. Just Earth getting back what was stolen by the Meekrob."
The council took a moment to think that over. Dib watched their mechanics moving as they thought, all of it seeming to be connected in an elaborate way. Meanwhile, it was completely obvious that Anya was staring at Zim with her head cocked, not even trying to be the slightest bit discreet about it. Zim, on the other hand, refused to look up at the council or at Anya. Every once in a while though, he'd glance quickly at Dib, who was determined not to look over at Zim.
"We've decided to give aid to you," The woman announced suddenly. Anya broke her gaze away from Zim and back to the council, obviously enraged now. "We already know all about your situation with Earth and Meekrob."
"Yeah, Arlia can be a bit boring sometimes, so we use the drama between all the other planets as entertainment," The man on the right said, smiling.
"Yes, well, everyone else is celebrating, so Anya will show you to the C-Deck," The woman told them.
"Ugh, but why?" Anya whined.
"Dear, you're the one who brought them to us, accusing them of breaking a treaty," The eldest said, frowning a little, "It's the least you could do."
"...Yes, Grandfather," Anya said quietly, bowing a little. She bent and snatched up her mask, marching out of the room quickly, Dib and Zim following.
"He's your Grandfather?" Dib asked, determined to convince this girl that he, at least, wasn't evil.
"Well, not really. But we call everyone in the council Grandfather or Grandmother, because they run our whole planet and take care of us," Anya explained, seeming to calm down with the explanation, "So Grandfather is really just a sign of respect."
"Do you have any blood relatives?" Dib asked, trying to stay on the same line of conversation.
"No...they were all killed by Irkens," She said coldly with a harsh glare at Zim. There was nothing to be said about that, no way to apologize for something he knew nothing about, so Dib said nothing. They went all the way back to the surface and down a few blocks to an average looking building. It looked like brass and was fairly short compared to the sky scrapers all around it. They went underground here and finally reached their destination. A large room made mostly of silver and chrome. It was the brightest place they'd been, covered with bright spot lights that illuminated the wires everywhere. "Welcome to the C-Deck...home of our information centers," Anya announced dully.
At the back of the room was a long row of desks with computers and chairs, adding to the heap of wires. And along the walls were dozens of large screens, all displaying different types of data. Dib found a computer and started searching for information on Meekrob, Zim just stared at the screens, watching the stream of information.
Suddenly a door at the side opened and a tall man in a top hat stormed in. "I've been updated on the situation and there's no time to waste!" The man seemed all business and was moving quickly until he saw Zim and stopped. "So I see...I didn't believe it...but I suppose now I must..." Zim didn't even bother glancing his way, he seemed to be ignoring everyone. Dib's eyes lingured on him until the odd man with the hat walked up to him. "You're the human...from Earth. Good to have you upon our planet, my boy. You're truly invested in this mission, yes?"
"With my life," Dib said seriously.
"Good, good," The man said. He glanced in Zim direction and seemed like he was going to ask him the same question but thought better of it. "My name is AJ, I'm the military director here. It's good to have something worthwhile to do, for once." He seemed pumped for this, but Dib just stared.
"Let's get this show on the road, already," Anya moaned, tired of doing nothing.
"Right," AJ said and took up a computer of his own. "As you know, the so-called 'prophesy' that Meekrob has been advertising calls for your blood. I'm not sure if this child's blood would be the same or if they're only using him as a lure. Either way, you're sure as hell not going to be on planet Meekrob."
"What? Why?" Dib protested.
"The prophesy, lad. Whether it's real or not. You're their goal, and we can't have that," AJ said sternly.
"They'd capture you and kill Miz as soon as possible. If they knew you were on the planet, they'd probably kill Miz anyway," Zim said darkly, remaining in his corner of the room.
"Exactly right," AJ agreed. Knowing the odds were against him, Dib gave up the protest and kept researching. There was very little information here about Meekrob. "We'll send a team of our best for recon and keep you here. If recon fails, we'll try other methods."
"Who would we send?" Anya asked, leaning against the far wall. "None of us know anything about Meekrob. And with Arlia enjoying this peace, I doubt any of our soldiers would volunteer to go on a mission that has nothing to do with us."
"Good point..." AJ sighed, "We're a bit too shorthanded for that approach. Not to mention that it's too dangerous, with our minimal knowledge and inexperience with Meekrob forces...it's unhighly to work, too many casualities..."
"I'll go," Zim said quietly, not moving his gaze from the screens.
"Zim, that's insane," Dib sighed, "You're not going."
"I'm Irken, and thus raised to hate Meekrob, I know more about them than anyone on this planet," Zim said, sounding dead inside. "I know their wherabouts. And thanks to Gaz and her infiltration, I know their planet inside and out. I know their technology and weapons almost more than my own, and I wouldn't need a team...one other person, maybe."
"You heard AJ...it's too dangerous," Dib said, resisting the urge to get up and slap Zim. "You'd get killed."
"Wait a second. If what he says is true...it might just be possible," AJ said, getting excited again. "The mission just could go well."
"Now that's something worth doing," Anya said, standing up straight.
"But it's not guaranteed...and it's dangerous," Dib interjected, glancing from Zim to AJ and back again.
"Dib," Zim said quietly, Dib looked and Zim was staring right at him, looking right into his eyes. There, Dib could read it, what Zim had been hiding all along. He knew it would come to this, he understood. Zim was completely willing to give his life for this. He was strong. Dib just wished he wasn't.
"Fine..." Dib said, looking away from Zim. "Go...and bring back Miz."
"He'll be safe," Zim promised. AJ then started to ramble on about little details, ship flights, weapons, arsenel. Anya paid full attention, overly excited about getting to go on a mission, as thought she didn't understand the seriousness of it all, like it was a game. But the whole time Dib couldn't understand what AJ said, merely because he felt Zim's gaze burning on him the whole time. He knew Zim wanted him to look, but he simply couldn't.
...
Standing over a large pile of robot parts and old cores, N-1 knew what to do. He'd always known what to do. And now he had to find the one he'd been cloned from. The large scythe of hair he'd had before was gone now, cinged off by a miscalculated laser. He didn't miss it, the thing had thrown him off balance a lot before. Now he had turret's armor strapped to his arms and legs, portal gun in hand. "Where's my cake?" He asked simply of the mechanical corpse below him. It didn't answer, if it had, then that would be a problem.
It wasn't too long before N-1 found the elevator shaft that led to freedom above. It was a long ride, but he'd waited a long time for this, so a long elevator ride wasn't exactly torture. The wavy grass and blue skies from Rattmann's stories was not what greeted him at the end. Rather, it was more mechanics and metal buildings, but more silver and brown than white. The place had a very dirty, grungy look about it. But he didn't let that get him down. He knew this was the surface, maybe not Earth as he'd liked it, but a new planet. Aperture Science moved some of their more 'inapropriate' testing to other sites...meaning other planets. GLaDOS thought of it as an expansion. Before N-1 demolished her, of course.
Now the hunt began, for somehow, he knew his 'clone' was somewhere in this foreign place.
...
The Arlians were very hospitable. The rooms they were given were huge, and everyone left them alone to have time to themselves. Not that they used it. Both kept their distance from each other. Each not quite understanding the other. Anya had seen them before they asked for help, so she knew how they were. She convinced AJ and the other recruits to leave them to their rooms and let them discuss things together. But they didn't say a word, or even look at each other. That is, until one of them got seriously tired of being ignored so much.
Dib was on the edge of the bed, looking at an Arlian magazine filled with tech for sale, when Zim stood over him and stared him down. He looked up into magenta eyes and felt a firey anger surge up. "Why...?" He asked simply. One antennae raised in curiousity.
"Why what?" Zim asked back, still staring.
"Why did you tell them all of that...they didn't know anything. You could have told them you knew nothing...and you wouldn't be going on this mission..." Dib muttered, barely able to look at Zim.
"I want to go," Zim stated. Dib gave him a pleading look. "I was never able to help Irk...or Earth. Now's my chance to help. To save our home."
"But why do you have to go?" Dib asked, exasperated, "You could just give us the information and stay here." Zim shook his head.
"There's too much. I couldn't. I have to go myself," Zim explained, calmer than he'd ever been, "Besides...he's my family, too."
What could Dib say to argue that...? He struggled for several minutes to come up with a good reason for Zim to stay but failed. Eventually he gave up and simply wrapped his arms around Zim and buried his face in Zim's shirt. "...I hate you..." Zim just kept standing there, arms limp beside him. Dib didn't see, but his anntennae fell as he looked down at Dib sadly.
"I know. I hate you, too..." Zim sighed.
...
...
A/N Sorry it's been so long. It's thanksgiving, so I give this gift to you, as well as the promise that another is coming fairly soon. Happy Holidays. I hope you liked this gift, much more to be coming, for sure.
Side note. Lemon tea is the best tea in the world, I wish I had some right now. Ninty percent of this chapter was written in one sittdown, after midnight of course. and when I should be writing an essay. Lemon tea is really great. It's currently five o four in the morning. Goodnight. Or good day.
Please comment :P In the spirit of giving :D
