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Chapter 8—Unexpected Changes—

Wren's P.O.V….

Zim, Rachel, and I had just finished reviewing the plan for the fifth time when they herded us back into our cells. We would be staying the night in the cell then try the plan out in the morning. Rachel was on the bottom bunk of our beds and I was on the top one. She was writing in her magically appearing notebook and mumbling to herself about not having her CD player. I on the other hand was drawing in again on the paper I had snitched before. It was basically things like dragons, gryphons, and other little odd doodles. I looked up to see a guard coming and quickly hid the papers and Rachel hid her notebook. The guard scowled at us and we both returned it without thinking. The Reptival guard laughed at us. Rouk hissed and a hologram shimmered into a large black saber toothed panther form around her small bio-mech body. She growled at him and bared her ivory canines the size of butcher knives. The guard growled back at Rouk and she yelped. Dropping the projection she flew up behind me and hid shivering. The guard walked away laughing at her.

I shook my head at her. She was definitely not the bravest but her heart was in it.

"He wouldn't do that if I had my plasma cannon working." Rouk said with a snort.

"True," I replied and petted her head. "But none of us would have survived it."

Rachel just shook her head at us and asked totally off the subject, "Do you remember the plan?"

"Yep." I replied as I leaned over the bunk. "But why do I have to start it?"

"Because you're loud, mouthy, annoying, and can get into trouble without even trying," She replied with a shrug.

"But…" I started to protest. "Wait a frellen minute," I added cutting off my last thought, "I am not loud!"

"You are too." Rachel replied.

"Am Not!"

"Are Too!"

"Am Not!"

"You are too. Now shut up!" she said and hit me with her notebook.

I fell out of the top bunk and hit the floor face first.

At that Zim looked over at us and shook his head. "I have no clue why I, Zim, am escaping with two creatures that are that stupid." He said still shaking his head.

"Well Zim.." I said getting up rubbing my face, "Maybe we only act like idiots to hide our real intelligence."

"Well Wren. Sometimes I don't think you are acting." Rachel said without looking up from her notebook.

"Shut up." I replied and smacked at her with my hand. I missed by a mile. "But Zim, we also act like idiots because we are friends." I then turned around, slid my shoes off and hoped on my bunk again. I faced Zim and asked, "Do you have friends or best friends Zim?" I stressed a little on his name.

Zim hesitated then puffed out his chest and replied, "Irken invaders do not need best friends."

Rachel and I studied him a minute. I shook my head and Rachel sighed.

"Yeah Zim, whatever you say. I'm gonna go to bed since I have to start the plan in the morning." I said taking off my socks and laying them at the foot of the bed. I yawned while pulling the covers down a bit and curled up into the covers.

" 'Irken invaders do not need friends' my foot." Rachel muttered going back to her writing. "He needs a big reality check if he thinks that."

Without us knowing it he had heard the last statement. He visibly changed. His little perky antenna dropped noticeably and his face fell. His whole posture screamed insecure and alone. He put up a good front but deep inside, he just wanted what everyone else seemed to have but him. Someone besides GIR to stick by his side like Rachel and I.

"Maybe you could hit him with your notebook Rachel, and whack some sense into him." Rouk suggested to Rachel with a yawn and curled up beside me.

"I don't even think Rachel's notebook could knock sense into him. His head is probably harder than mine," I murmured sleepily, cuddling into the blankets more.

"Shut up." Rachel said and whacked me a good one.

"Ow, what was that for?" I asked sitting up and rubbing my head.

"That was payback." She replied. "And anyway I hit you and you still don't listen to me. Maybe it will work on him better than on you."

"Probably not. But you can try anyway." I said with a shrug and lay back down. It wasn't long till I dozed off. It had been one hell of a day and I barely noticed when I had passed out.

Later….

I woke up very uncomfortable. There was a heavy presence on my chest and it was slightly hard to draw in a deep breath. I knew it wasn't Rouk because she was sleeping , curled up by my ear. Her whiskers tickling my cheek ever so slightly as she twitched in her sleep and gave a sniffling sort of snore. I knew it wasn't Rachel. She would never in a million years get this close. So I cracked open an eye to see exactly was what on my chest. My eyes widened only to see that GIR was the thing sitting on my chest.

"Whaaaa!" I shouted in response to the sight shoving the little bot off my chest.

"Ahhhh!" came a reply and the little robot fell off my bunk.

"GIR! How in the whole frellen abducted high school did you get in here?" I whispered waspishly while looking at him from the edge of the bunk hoping to god Rachel was too tired to have even woken from my exclamation.

He just shrugged and said, "I dunno."

I raised a questioning eyebrow and asked again, "GIR how did you get in here?"

"Through the vent." He replied and pointed to a gaping hole in the wall. I could only assume that that was the vent he was talking about.

"Ohhhhh." I said and looked around. Everyone else was asleep even with our little out bursts. "GIR, why in the world would you wake me up when nobody else is awake?"

"Because!" he answered giggling.

"Because why exactly?" I frowned. Personally rolling over and trying to go back to sleep was starting to sound good to me at the moment.

"Because I wanna show ya somethin'" he replied with a stupid little smile and walked toward the vent.

I hadn't noticed it until now because it was just a giant gaping black void. Of course no one would have noticed it because it looked just like a wall panel any other time. I got up carefully as not to wake Rachel or Rouk up. I studied it and then measured it with a guess. GIR had climbed in it already and was waiting for me. I could barely see him with how dark it was but his eyes showed up just fine.

I sighed and went toward the vent. What else was I was going to do? I was already awake. There was probably not a chance I was going to get back to sleep any time soon. Possibly with my luck GIR would just torture me awake again.

With another sigh I stepped into the opening of the vent and was amazed that I could fit into it with a lot of room to spare. GIR started to walk and I crawled after him. For quite a while I followed the insane little robot though about a dozen twists and turns and at least one small, tight squeeze. We soon stopped at GIR's show-and-tell. He pushed the panel and it fell into a bright room. I blinked a few times to get adjusted to the light and saw it was a closet. I got out and looked around. It wasn't just a closet it was a clothing closet. It had a mirror that lined one full wall and shelves lined another.

"Um… GIR? What is so great about this room?" I asked with a hand on my hip and a perplexed look on my face.

"It has ma' fwiend in it!" he squealed and ran to the mirror and tried to hug it. When he bounced off the wall he giggled like a mad man as he landed on the floor.

I looked about the room, taking in what was about me. That is that's when I glimpsed myself in the mirror. I noticed my reflection had something wrong with it. I just couldn't put my finger on it. I stepped closer to the mirror to see better.

"Eh?" I asked and looked closer. "Whaaaahhhhhh!" I screamed and my hand shot up to my head. "I have cat ears and my hair changed colors!"

And true enough I had two cat ears a little higher on my head than my regular ears were. They were black with blue and purple stripes on them. The insides of them there an ashy, pink color. My hair had turned a base color black with streaks of blue and purple throughout too. I tugged on one ear and found out that it was truly attached. I pulled of a few strands of my hair only to find out that it was my real hair.

"That's so cool," GIR said with a giggle while watching me.

"Cool? It would be if I was not stuck on a spaceship in the middle of space, as a captive, and planning to escape as soon as everyone wakes up!" I said hysterically.

GIR just shrugged his shoulders and went to a shelf that was on the wall behind us. He pulled of a few things and asked, "Wanna play dress up?"

I turned to look at him and out of the corner of my eye I noticed I had a tail besides just the ears. My eyes grew wider, if that was possible. I jumped when I saw this and caught a glimpse of my feet. I had cat paws replacing the two feet I knew I had before all of this. I sank to the floor in surprise and shock.

"Oooo, you has a tail!" GIR giggled and pulled it. He wrapped it around his shoulders like a boa. "Dahling, you shouldn't have. It's just too much!"

"I am now and officially a true freak of nature!" I cried ignoring him completely. "I swear to god that I will never wish for anything else in my life! It all turns horribly wrong!" I started to cry, tears running down by cheeks. They slowed quickly when my newly acquired ears picked up the sound of voices and the steady thunk of footsteps.

"It came from in here? Why would anyone want to be in a clothing storage closet?" a voice asked slightly confused. "Who would want to steal clothes?"

"I have no clue." Another replied.

"Uh oh." GIR said, hopped up, and ran to the vent.

I scrambled after him as quickly as I could. We got up and were about to go until I remembered that the vent had to be closed. "GIR. I'll lower you down and you get the vent. When I bring you back up you but the vent back on ok?" I asked.

"Kay." He replied and I lowered him down. He picked up the vent and I brought him back up. He replaced it just in time as the door opened. I slapped my hand over his mouth before he could get us caught.

"You see anything?" someone asked.

"I don't see a damn thing. Space is screwing with us big time."

"Yeah, we need more time off here soon. With that last pick up of slaves, it's a little too much. Especially when we really don't have room for them all."

"At least none of the ones after the two that were put in the cells have shown any weird sort of reactions."

"True."

"Come on, let's go grab something to eat. I've craving something just a bit on the bloody side."

"You read my mind!"

I let out a silent sigh when I heard their footsteps exit the room and the door slide closed behind them. I let go of the little robot and followed GIR back to my room. He waved at me and walked back to the vent. He replaced the cover quietly. I only hoped he returned directly to his cell. I shook my head at the thought of him walking elsewhere throughout the ship and just walked back to my bed. I sighed and clambered back into it. Rouk murmured something about creampuffs then fell back into a deep sleep again. I curled up around her and worried about what might happen in the morning.

Next Morning….

"Get down now." Rachel half growled half demanded. She had her notebook in her hand.

"No." I said with a blanket covering my head and it was wrapped around me like a cocoon. I sorta looked like a baby kangaroo in its mother's pouch.

"Why?" she asked again fuming at my delay.

"Because I...I don't want to!"

"Wren, I am losing my patients and I'm losing it fast." Rachel growled at me. "Get your ass out of that bunk now."

"What is wrong with your puny human-worm friend?" Zim asked yawning running a hand over one of his antenna. Apparently Rachel and I had woken everyone around us up with our fighting.

"She refuses to come down from the top bunk." Rachel replied glaring at me, her foot was tapping on the floor with annoyance. Her arms were crossed over her chest and inpatients

"Why?" Zim asked curiously crossing his cell to lean against the bars.

"If I knew I would tell you, now wouldn't I?" Rachel turned to Zim snapping sharply. She turned back to me and pointed to the floor, "Down. Now." She demanded.

I shook my head.

"Just get down Wren," Zim said rolling his eyes.

"NO!" I shouted.

"Will you get down if you can take the blanket with you?" Rachel asked.

"Maybe," I replied hesitating just a little bit. I was unsure if I could get down without showing my feet.

"And then will you tell me or show me what's wrong?"

"Only if we talk about it in the bathroom." I said. I knew it wouldn't offer absolute solitude from everything and everyone in the hall but it was something.

"Fine." She replied and headed that direction without looking back at me.

I got down carefully as not to show my feet or tail and headed after Rachel. Zim shook his head and sighed, "I will never understand humans, especially the females."

I stopped behind the wall separating the bathroom from everything, my back to the wall.

"Ok. Now what is wrong with you?" she asked.

"Well, you remember that injection they gave us?"

"Yeah, how can someone forget about that?"

"Well I didn't die but I think I had an allergic reaction to it."

"What sorta 'allergic reaction' are we talking about? Are you covered in hives? Did you grow a tail or something?"

"Umm, something like that." I replied not looking her in the eye.

"Well...? Are you going to show me or not?"

"I sorta," I started to say but then I just dropped the blanket. I looked down like a small child that had just gotten in trouble. My ears were tilted back and my tail twitched in anticipation. My fingers knotted themselves together with my nervousness. Rachel was silent for several minutes. Then she suddenly busted out laughing. She fell to the floor holding her sides.

"It is not funny!" I shouted and stomped my foot.

"It is so," Rachel gasped. "You're a Neko!" and she fell into another fit of laughter.

"Grrrrrr..." I growled, ears flat against my skull, the pupils of my eyes contracted, and tail twitching this time in anger. I stomped out from behind the wall.

Zim saw me and busted out laughing too. I glared daggers at him and he stopped with only a few snickers escaping.

A guard was passing by. He stopped and looked at Zim perplexed. He turned around and gaped at me. He then turned around and ran down the corridor.

"Well that is something I would have never expected." Rachel said, wiping tears away from her face.

"Me either," added Zim. He had started laughing again and he was wiping tears away from his face also. "I've seen several ridiculous things in my life and you have to be one of them!"

I sat down on the floor in the corner of our cell with my knees up to my chest. I buried my face into my arms and sat there. Rouk came up and nuzzled my ear. That hurt. Here I was freaking out because I wasn't human anymore and the two of them were making fun of me. This wasn't normal. It shouldn't have even happened! Would I become less and less myself and more and more feline?

I was suddenly shook out of my desperate thoughts by a dozen scientists busted into the cell. One rushed up to me and grabbed me around the waist yanking me off the floor roughly.

"Wha..? Hey let go of me!" I shouted and struggled in its grip.

"Let go of her!" Rachel shouted and launched herself at the creature only to be caught by two others. She kicked one of them.

The scientists forced me down onto a cot and strapped me to it. One brought out a needle from somewhere in the folds of his clothes and injected me with it. I freaked and struggled as hard as I could to get away but the liquid soon made me sleepy.

"What did you do to her!" Rachel shouted struggling harder watching me stop struggling almost immediately. "Let go of me! What did you do to her!"

The cot started to moving and the last thing I remember was hearing Zim say, "I guess we have to rethink the plan." I then became good friends with the shadows that were creeping into my vision. They caressed my consciousness with a delicate hand and beckoned for me to just give in to their whispering temptations. I was out before I got out of earshot of Rachel's shouts.

I have to say, I love GIR in these earlier chapters and the rest of the stories! He's so much fun to play with as a character because he's one of the most random ones. Tacos one moment and then thinking of using Wren's tail as a boa the next. I giggled at that mental image because I can just believe that is one thing he would do. Come on! Who can't imagine GIR speaking like they would in a black and white film with a haughty heiress accent! lol