So technically this is where the real story starts.
The last chapter was mainly for background.
Enjoy!
Chapter 2
"Zim's Time Limit"
Gaz had her legs pressed up against her chest, hugging her knees in a rather childish but comfortable manner. She would've been the poster-child for panic and terror if she was showing her inner fear on her face, but she wasn't.
Glancing at the clock on her watch, it was lunch time now. Dib would probably be trying to keep Gir under control now, who would be wondering where his Master and Mistress were. She smirked at the thought of her brother gagging at the terms while trying to keep Gir from going into an all-out freak out.
Gaz had actually been on a high-speed chase on the way, but had lost the cops easily enough. Upon pulling up to Zim's house she had jumped out of the car and slammed the door behind her, dragging Zim (who looked considerably worse now) up to the front door. She'd kicked it open, knocking back his robotic parents that automatically answered while Zim and Gir were away. Gaz wondered if the house had shoved their twitching bodies back into the closet by now, or they were still laying on the floor.
Zim was before her, on the table, on his stomach, PAK hooked up to various large chords coming from his body. Slowly he had regained his color and Gaz's attention went to his slightly parted lips, which had a bit of drool falling from them. She smirked a little and glanced at his wig, which was still on his head, since she hadn't bothered to remove it. Gaz, having scooted the chair right up against the table, reached a hand out and touched the synthetic hair, just to see what it felt like. Normally when they were together, Zim took off his disguise, knowing her disliking towards it.
Gaz removed it from his head for that reason, revealing his limp antenna. She scowled. Everything about Zim looked bad, like he was sick.
"Computer," Gaz called. A beeping sound was her confirmation she was listening. "Anything yet?"
"It appears the Master's PAK almost shut itself down entirely." The Computer replied.
Gaz became unnaturally still. ". . . So if I hadn't brought him here when I did?"
"The defect would've killed him."
She let out a breath. No need to dwell on the things that hadn't happened. She swallowed, hard, "Did he know about this?"
"He was aware something hadn't felt right this morning." The Computer said, warily, as if reluctant to impose blame on his Master. "But he had no confirmation and so went to Skool anyways."
"Idiot," Gaz muttered, glaring down at Zim and especially his drool. "Is he going to be alright?"
"He'll have to be hooked up for a few days."
"Well, it's the weekend anyways." Gaz sighed, shaking her head. "He won't have to worry about Skool or anything . . . Not that he would anyways."
"Shouldn't you be in Skool?"
Gaz gave the computer a look of disbelief.
"Oh, um . . . Never mind."
"Yeah," Gaz scoffed curtly with an eye roll, turning back to Zim. "Is . . . Is this going to happen again?"
"Probably," The Computer admitted. "Until he is permanently terminated."
"What?" Gaz jumped to her feet, staring at the large computer screen in complete disbelief. "Z-Zim can't . . . This isn't . . . No." Gaz shook her head, one hand clutching it before she shot the Computer a look of such venom it let out a bit of a gasp. "What is going on? Why is his PAK acting up now?"
The Computer didn't answer.
"Tell me!" She shrieked, taking a threatening step towards it.
A cough made her turn around.
"Because (cough) I'm a failure as an Invader." Zim said through a cracked voice, propping himself up on his elbows in a tired fashion.
Gaz's eyes narrowed and the Computer let out a sigh of relief at having the attention directed off of it. "You."
"Now Gaz," Zim began, in a reasonable tone of voice.
"You knew about this?" She hissed, refusing to be reasonable. Gaz's hands curled into fists and Zim was sure if she wasn't wearing her necklace, a few flames would be escaping.
"Gaz-!"
"How could you not tell me?" She demanded, her foot stomping on the ground. "Did you not think your upcoming death would matter to me?"
Zim shook his head, bowing it in shame. "I couldn't know for sure. And it's my own fault. You needn't be involved with a failure."
"Idiot!" Gaz shouted, gripping him by the collar and bringing him towards her face. Zim stared at her with the appropriate amount of terror in his expression as she glared down at him. "I've been involved with you. For two years. Two years, Zim. Don't you think I would've dumped you by now if I didn't care about your well-being?"
Zim's eyes drooped again. "I . . . You don't know what's happening to me. You don't understand!"
"Then tell me!" Gaz growled, releasing his shirt as he collapsed back onto the table. "How could I possibly hope to understand otherwise?"
Zim sighed. "Computer, help me sit up."
A few robotic arms descended, doing as Zim asked. Gaz swallowed the bile in her throat. Zim, asking for help. Sure, sometimes she offered her help and he accepted it but never had he done so looking as defeated as he did now. It made Gaz sick just thinking about it, let alone seeing it in person. She made a face of slight disgust but hid just before Zim looked up to see it.
"I'm an Invader, Gaz," Zim began, stoically. "Even if the Tallest didn't ever officially reinstate me as one, my PAK recognized that I was on a foreign planet, meaning I was on some type of mission or another . . . So the Time Limit kicked in."
"Time Limit?" Gaz demanded, sitting back down in the chair. "Why haven't I heard about this before?"
"I wasn't sure that it applied, since I wasn't technically an Invader." Zim admitted. And each time he said that he wasn't an Invader, he visibly flinched, as some wounds never really heal, and this was one of his.
"Well . . . What's a Time Limit?" Gaz was beyond flustered as her brain adapted to the situation. Already she was becoming her normal monotonous and indifferent self once again, but looking at how pitiful Zim looked, maybe indifference wasn't what was needed in this situation.
Zim sighed, "A Time Limit is the amount of time an Invader- or any Irken really, I guess- has before they need to have completed their mission and return to the home planet."
Gaz's eyes widened, "So . . . Unless you go home, you're going to be deactivated?"
"No," Zim shook his head. "Returning home isn't required. Completing the mission is, however. I set my PAK up, upon arriving on planet Earth, to the mission of taking over. That's my personal mission, even if the Tallest never cared." He lowered his head again. "If I hadn't done it, then we wouldn't be having this discussion at all."
Gaz's eyes narrowed. "So how much time do you have left?"
"Computer?"
"Scanning . . . Three months." The computer replied, sounding slightly depressed. "Master-."
"That's all I needed to know," Zim interrupted, moving to get up. "Computer, begin preparations for self-destruct. Once I'm gone, I want you to-."
"What are you talking about!" Gaz demanded, gripping his shoulder and spinning him to face her. "You're not going anywhere!"
Zim was eying her like it was the last time he would see her again. He pushed Gaz away gently, "You should go."
Gaz stood as if she'd been struck, staring at his back as he slowly made his way to the computer, pulling up the settings she assumed.
He was really doing this.
He just giving up.
"So you're just going to quit?" Gaz growled, the fury in her tone stopping Zim for a moment. "Just like that?"
But it was only a pause, "What choice do I have? You shouldn't suffer with me, Gaz. Please, leave."
"You're unbelievable," She muttered, removing her necklace. "Zim, look at me."
He didn't. "I don't want to."
"Do it anyways!"
Zim hesitated but eventually dull red eyes looked at her, half closed and looking like he was in pain. "What?"
That one word stung, for some reason. The icy, dead way he said it. Like talking to a corpse.
Gaz ignored the chill and arched her fingers, flames appearing in her hands. Zim stared at her, dumbstruck with the terrible beauty of it all.
"Do you think I'd give up when all we have to do to keep you alive is so simple?" Gaz asked, through gritted teeth. She shook her head, eyes closed tight as if trying to form painful words carefully.
Zim finally seemed to redevelop a spine and glared at her. "I'm not going to ask you to take over your own kind, no matter how much you hate them. It's just culturally wrong. As an Irken, I was raised to respect my fellow Invaders and the Tallest, no matter what happened."
She relaxed with an exhale of breath, but her eyes did not open, and the balls of flame disappeared, acting like a thin glove instead of a weapon. "I'll help you anyways."
"No!"
"I'm not going to let you die!"
The words echoed through the lab, creating a deathly silence. They stood there, staring at one another. And Zim saw the most terrifying sight he had ever seen. A sight he had never believed anyone, let alone himself, would ever see in his lifetime.
Gaz's eyes were watering.
Sure, they weren't full-blown tears or anything, but the hint was there. But she looked strained, as if took effort to hold them back. But all Zim could really comprehend was that Gaz never cried. About anything. No matter what.
"Gaz?" Zim took a step towards her.
The flames disappeared as Gaz slipped her necklace back on, raising a hand to cover her face, as if some sort of glaring light was getting in her eyes. Zim became increasingly alarmed as she stumbled backwards a little.
"Fine." She said. But Zim wasn't quite sure what question she was agreeing to.
Gaz spun around on her heel and began leaving. And even though it was what Zim had ordered, he couldn't let her leave, for some reason. In a burst of strength Zim ran forward and caught her forearm, not saying a word, just holding onto it like a lifeline.
She stopped, didn't move, didn't turn to face him, still holding that arm in front of her eyes.
"You're . . . You're crying," Zim breathed, awestruck.
Gaz turned to face him, teeth gritted tightly and eyes still watering, but without any real tears. "No, I'm not."
"You lie!" Zim shrieked, pulling her towards him. He didn't realize how tight his grip was until she winced, slightly, but it was enough. No real physical pain showed on her face but that little twitch was enough to make him loosen his hold on her, just slightly, enough to keep her from getting hurt. "I'm trying to help you! How can you be upset about that!"
Gaz glared at him. "And I'm not trying to be helpful?"
"You're doing it wrong!"
"Then how do I do this right?" Gaz demanded, shoving him off of her. "Leave? I was trying to! So what do you want me to do, Zim? What do you want me to do?"
"Damn you!" Zim shouted, before he could stop himself. Gaz was about to punch him when she saw how hard he was shaking. For a moment she thought he was going to pass out again but then she saw the pain and frustration accompany that quivering. "This would be so much easier if . . .!"
He couldn't finish his sentence. But she knew it anyways.
"I'm not going anywhere," Gaz finally decided. "We're going to do this, Zim. And we're going to do this together."
"But-!"
"I don't give a damn about humanity!" Gaz snapped, silencing his argument. "If you disappeared, Zim, I wouldn't . . . I don't know what would happen to me, but humanity would suffer far worse then if I had you around."
Zim gave her a look of monotonous disbelief. "And what about Dib and your father? What are you going to do about them, hmm?"
Gaz looked thrown for a split second before a calm overcame her face and stance. The slight gloss to her eyes faded away as she looked him in the eye, knowing full well what she was about to get herself into. "They'll be fine."
"You can't know that. In a war, there are many casualties, whether intentional or not. They could be killed quite easily by accident in the battle that the human race would surely put up. Humans are stubborn that way." He commented, eying her purposefully.
Gaz smiled, just slightly, at his joke. "So I've heard. But a war won't be necessary if we do this right."
"Oh?" Zim gave her a look that was obviously just humoring her. "And what did you have in mind?"
Gaz thought it was almost funny, looking at him. He still had his contacts on, but not his wig, and she was pretty sure he didn't notice. "You're an alien, Zim."
"Well spotted," He insisted, sarcastically. "I still don't see-."
"When was the last time you saw a trailer on TV, Zim? Humans are afraid of aliens."
Zim's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying if we're going to do this, successfully," Gaz approached him, peeling off his contacts with her fingers and showing them the lenses looking back at him. "You're going to have to come out of hiding*."
It had been years.
Years.
Two, to be exact. And the whole time?
Not a word from him.
And before that?
Not a word. Not a single word. How did one go from daily reports to nothing? They would never know for sure, because they didn't care enough. In truth, they had forgotten about him till that day.
"You're so tall!"
Oh yes, they still remembered that day. Quite well, actually.
"You were betrayed because you were careless enough to treat not only Zim, but my sahlm badly as well."
It was almost impossible to believe. And not a word about Zim's intervention on that day had been spoken, by order of the Tallest. It was the subject discussed only in the most private of moments.
"My Tallest, I'd like to advise you as well, without the intention of insult."
How could one puny little thing, once such a nuisance and nothing more then a pest, become so strong? How had that rebellious little spaz come up with such a cunning plan of revenge and rescue? What had happened to the Invader wannabe twerp called Zim they knew of?
And then that alert had come in.
The alarm only the Tallest knew about, that questioned whether or not a Time Limit was to be placed on a PAK that had been long gone from Irk. All were under the assumption that the option was automatic, but it wasn't. The Tallest got to pick who was spared and who wasn't. After all, without a Time Limit, what was to stop those on missions from being lazy and lolly-gagging about instead of getting their jobs done?
And what an oddly painful decision it had been.
"I-It's Zim's," Purple pointed out, the two of them in the privacy of their meeting rooms, where only the Tallest were allowed to go.
Red stared at it in disbelief. The bolded name that had been on their minds as a drifting thought that surfaced when nothing else pressing was there to fill the space.
ZIM
Service: Food Drone ("Invader")
Originally on: Foodcourtia
Currently Residing on: Planet Earth
Personal/Given Mission: Take Over Planet Earth, Enslave Human Race
It hadn't been updated in a while. Normally, if the Irken had a partner, they'd be listed. But they didn't know the name of Zim's sahlm, just that he had one, somewhere.
And honestly? It was her that kept them from giving Zim a shorter Time Limit.
"She'll hate us," Red stated, casually.
But it still sort of bothered them both. This was confirmed as they shared a look, one that showed just how nervous they really were about this. Maybe even a little guilty. But it had to be done.
What use was having an Irken who did nothing for them?
Destroying Zim was a necessity, true. But that didn't mean they had to like it.
Red gulped, remembering a quote from one of Valkians as they'd interrogated him. The topic of Zim's sahlm had just sort of come up, really, but the Tallest were so intrigued that it had kept that one alive. For about another day.
"He said 'When revived, she can be quite the monstrosity'."
And hadn't even the Queen said something about her as well?
"He's even got a little sahlm to entertain him. Unfortunately, we only got a small demonstration of whatever fury attracted Zim to her but it was more then enough to prove she had spirit in her."
Red glanced at Purple and had a feeling they were both remembering what the guard and she had said.
"You don't think she'd come after us . . . do you?" Purple questioned, uncomfortably.
They stayed quiet a moment before letting out nervous chuckles.
"Psh," Red insisted, "No way! No one's dumb enough to take on the Armada, especially not a human."
But he didn't sound so sure.
"Yeah, you're right," Purple agreed anyways, also not really feeling his confidence.
It was strange. Why did this bother them so much?
"Maybe we should give him some time, just in case," Purple suggested. "You never know, maybe she and Zim have something cooked up! Hehe. I'd hate to ruin that for them."
They knew it was unlikely and untrue.
But Red agreed anyways. "Yeah, right. How about three Earth-months, then?"
It had originally been three days, just enough time to get all his bearings together before he disappeared.
The change was drastic and generous, and they both knew it.
But neither of them would admit it. And neither of them could give a reason as to why they were doing this for Zim, of all people.
Deep down they knew, though.
Zim was tall. Not only that, but he showed tremendous potential. To not at least give him a chance now would be a mistake, and they knew it. It was a mistake they'd made before, though of course, nobody but them knew it, and they weren't about to offer proof of a flaw in the Tallests' ways of ruling over its people.
"Should we give him a Time Limit reminder, then? Just to let them know they should initiate now?" Purple asked.
Red swallowed, "Uh, yeah, sure. Just add that in there."
Purple did so, and they hit enter.
They both knew then that somewhere, whatever Zim was doing, he might just die anyways.
And surprisingly, they both found themselves hoping he didn't go just yet.
There was work to be done.
*I really wanted to put 'come out of the closet' just so Zim could get mad, but it wasn't the time for jokes.
PHEW. So much intensity and really, nothing happened. -_-
I'm doing it again, guys! Writing a whole lot when in actuality, the story moved forward very little.
Pity me! Pity me! *wails*
Anyways, to clarify whats happening: Zim now has 3 months to live unless he can take over the world and Gaz had pledged to helping him, no matter what the costs. Kind of endearing in a way, isn't it?
Till the next chapter!
And since this is the last installment, I will start responding to some of my reviews:
cheddarbiscuit
So good to see you are continuing this story line (I figured you were.)
I don't see the need for a time jump, really, but what ever, its your fic. As usual you have a nice voice and tone... I look forward to seeing this story through to the end, I am certain it will be a satisfactory light read just like numbers 1 and 2 were, and while I may not always review but I will read and...
... Wait. This is rated M.
... Oh shit.
Echo: Yes, now one of the purposes of being older should make itself clear. Not only for Gaz's age, but I wanted to bring a few characters back who I needed (wanted) at a certain age, for the sake of appearances. And I needed at least Dib to be an adult for . . . legal purposes.
You'll see soon.
I'm not the kind of person to make hard-core kind of stuff though, it will not be excruciating details and positions and what not. Also, I literally burst out laughing reading this. Props to you.
ShadowShades
Nice. enjoyed how you worked out the ending to Revenge of Player 2.
Looking forward to what this new story will bring. Very curious about Zim's ailment as well
Echo: Yes, Zim's sudden on-struck illness was a frightening one, especially for Gaz. But you'll see why in the next chapter (and hopefully it's clear, because I wrote most of these chapters at like, midnight). Nice to know people are reading the whole story.
fairychix26
Aw this is the best invader zim series ever sry for not reviewing before but i just was trying to catch up asap and today i did this is really good and i can't wait till the next chapter
Till Next Time Luv
Fairy Girl
Echo: Yes, my frequent updates are hard to catch up on. Sometimes I even have to go back to re-read my story so my mind doesn't get all mixed up on the facts.
Thank you for taking the time to do so!
