HI GUYS. MISS ME? Well I won't lie to you, my loyal fans who haven't given up on me for dead and will still read this. I got lazy, but worse, I got into a block. I didn't write anything for about 30 days, seriously. Look at the first half of this chapter, with Gaz, THAT IS ME WRITING WITH A BLOCK. See how horrible it is? I kept it in anyway because I needed an opening but yeah, it's horrible.
Anyway I was gonna make this a huge chapter to make it up but... my evilness took over. You'll see what I mean. Enjoy reading loyal fans!
The wind was picking up, whipping around the young teen as she battled through the streets. She was already drenched to the bone, the chill of rain rushing down her spine and soaking into every bit of her skin. Gaz pulled the coat around her tighter, trying to blot out the world with her mighty willpower. However, without her music player and headphones, the world seemed so terribly loud.
She could hear cars rushing around, wet tires ripping along the tarmac. Gaz was not going to let this deter her, despite her hatred for the world, she would soldier on and obey that annoying feeling inside her that said 'Find Zim and be with him' despite the illogical nature of the statement.
Why was she even listening? Why was she obeying this irritating voice calling out inside her? Zim's life was his own, if he had annoyed Dib than fine, surely it had nothing to do with her... even thought technically she was the very reason why it had happened. Okay, not really technically but even so.
Her eyes narrowed in thought. What was it about Zim that made her concerned for him? Perhaps it was the knowledge that he was very likely to do something very stupid after this.
Likely? On second thought, Zim was almost certainly going to do something very stupid after this, like go and blow up half the earth or declare war on the Empire or something... something that would get him killed if he wasn't careful.
Gaz again felt something bite inside her, something desperate. Without even noticing, she picked up her pace, blotting out the heavy rain that plastered her purple bangs to her face. She had to figure this out, she had to figure out why Zim had suddenly become so... vital to her.
She didn't care about friendships, she knew that, although Zim's friendship was rather... nice. She couldn't deny that she enjoyed their time together. Maybe friendship was just not the right word for what they had? Maybe it was something else...
Although she didn't want to think of it as being anything more than friendship, after all, if friendship was something that felt bizarre to Gaz, surely anything more than that was just impossible. Right? Right, she was certain of it.
Travelling through a storm and being drenched to the bone after punching your brother in the face was a perfectly normal reaction to hearing that someone you know has been told some very bad news.
... she was sure it was.
There was a sudden flash of lightning, one that seemed to appear right over her. She remembered something her father had told her, something about counting the seconds between each flash to see how far the lightning was.
She counted to one, then the very world seemed to shake from the thunder that rolled over her like a wave.
Gaz was beginning to think that perhaps this might not have been the best idea. She picked up her pace however, hoping that she didn't carry enough metal on her to draw lightning strikes onto her.
She had no idea what kept her going. She could turn back at any time, go back home, shout at Dib, play some games... but she didn't She kept going. Even though the thunder was right above her, the lightning so bright it cast sudden shadows on the ground, everything was fighting her, telling her to give up, go home.
... but she didn't. Nature could throw all it had at her, this could turn into a full on hurricane and she wouldn't stop. Everything was saying go home... but she would not fail Zim.
And for the life of her, for all that burning intensity inside, she had no idea why. Or better, perhaps she did and just refused to face it. Zim was her friend, her best friend, her only friend... and though many voices in her mind argued that not even best friend would do something as crazy as this. They argued that there was a much better word than 'friend' for someone who felt so strongly as to walk out into a storm just to make someone feel better.
But that little four letter word was not allowed in Gaz's world.
Zim on the other hand was doing something a little... different. Somewhere in his lab he emerged from a large, dangerous looking machine slowly. Smoke drifted from around him and his body was wrecked with aches and pains.
But he had done it.
He looked to his slowly, his vision blurring just a little. "Uuugh... Gir?" He looked around for his robot companion, hunched over and obviously exhausted, "Gir?"
Gir happened to just be sitting nearby playing with a chicken. Who looked rather perplexed as to why he was there. "MASTER! YOU LOOK YELLOW!"
Zim immediately frowned, looking to his own hand... which was clearly the green it had always been. "... right. But do I look any different any other way?"
"... nooo." Gir scratched his head slowly, his eyes squinting. "Do you have piggy ears?"
The irken growled again and suddenly stumbled to one side, grabbing onto the side of the huge, weird looking machine to steady himself. "The machine... weakened me... I think I'll go and watch some TV."
He began slowly making his way towards the elevator, hoping that his experiment worked. Gir didn't notice anything... but that hardly told him much. Gir woudn't notice if his own head was missing. Zim sighed, feeling his body hurt all over.
That experiment might have not been tested at all, but dammit, he was ZIM and he knew it would work whatever he did. After all, who was there to doubt his amazing genius? Certainly not the Tallest, whom he now began to realise had always doubted his genius, despite his many, many amazing accomplishments. After all, who else had managed to set fire to an entire planet before?
Nevermind it was Irk, that was unimportant.
He staggered out into his living room, groaning. It felt like he'd run a marathon and more, why did everything just ACHE so much? For the first time, he noticed the weather. He had been in his lab so long that the outside world had become just that, a world away from his own. The lab was his one slice of home and when he was in there, Earth just didn't matter anymore.
Earth was something he saw when he walked into his living room and any chance to forget about it with all it's ugly ape-people and Dib's was welcomed... though he didn't mind Gaz. She had been welcomed into his little private world after all.
He couldn't help but wonder where she was right now, probably at home playing her gamestation... alone. He had an overwhelming desire to show up, possibly in some overtly dramatic fashion and announce that he was going to beat her at her stupid earth games. After all, he'd never actually played one of her games before.
Zim found a smile suddenly growing on his face. He'd like that...
"MASTER!" The house computer rudely broke him out of his wondering. "I have an incoming message."
"Wha? From who?" Zim blinked in shock and looked over to the very large TV screen which often doubled as a communicator.
The computer seemed to his ignore his command, or perhaps, just decided to link the call through directly, knowing that the caller was the only other person who ever contacted Zim directly.
"ZIM!" Dib's annoying voice cut through the room before his image even appeared on the screen. "ZIM WHERE IS MY SISTER?"
Zim just lay down on the couch onto his belly slowly, not even in the mood to look at Dib. Ugh, that big head of his just made him feel dizzy. "Dib beast. Zim is not feeling up to the MIGHTY task of dealing with your... you. So please go away." He held out a hand and made a little 'shoo' motion, still with his head against the couch arm rest.
"Zim you little green MORON." Dib seemed to be shaking the screen with his hands. "My sister just walked out into that storm just to go see if you're okay!"
Okay, THIS woke the alien up. He practically leapt up off the couch, even though his body was screaming for him not too. His red eyes bugged, his antennae standing on end. In his stomach he felt a horrible pit of sickness rising, above the aches that already raced across his body. "She's out there?"
"Yeah, she wanted to go see YOU of all people." Dib quickly growled out. "I dunno what kind of weird brainwashing you gave her but I swear I'll fly right over there in Tak's ship and- hey where are you going?"
Zim had hopped off the couch during Dib's rant. There was no question in his mind, he was not going to let Gaz drown in the rain outside. Dib may be fine letting his sister go out alone but Zim was not. "I'm going to rescue her."
"You can't do that!" Dib quickly shouted back, banging on the screen as if he'd somehow fall through it and stop the irken. "You're the bad guy!"
"THAT'S YOUR SIBLING-SPAWN!" Zim suddenly snapped, glaring and turning to Dib, his eyes flashing with rage. "DON'T YOU EVEN CARE?" The young human was taken back by this, even as Zim pointed to the screen, not noticing how his shirt now rode up slightly on his arm. "You sit there and scream insults at me while the one you CLAIM to be protecting walks through a LIGHTNING STORM!"
Dib had no answer, at that moment, he was astounded by both the shocking realisation that he'd let Gaz walk out and into danger and that, possibly for the first time ever, Zim had been right about something.
The boy spluttered something about shutting up before the transmission cut. Zim turned quickly and headed out the door. The rain hit him, cold and unyielding. Within seconds his clothes were drenched.
He was vaguely aware that he was walking out of his home without his disguise but that was a minor detail at best. His mind was made up, or perhaps something had made it for him, he had to go and rescue Gaz. The thought of her in trouble, in pain, caused a terrible weakness to rumble through his belly and yet, it forced determination into every other part of his being.
Zim couldn't explain it. He was walking out into a storm, the only thing standing between him and horrible acid burns was a day-old layer of paste. The paste never protected against the cold though, that horrible wet chill that soaked into his bones, or the wind that battered his tiny body.
He had thought that his new clothes might have protected him a little better but as he struggled on, he found that his shirt felt tight on his chest, his pants legs now only reaching to his ankles.
Nevermind the pain that was flowing over him. It was like having a headache that was all over you at once, stabbing at every joint, every bone. But he forced himself on, he was an irken soldier, he would not back down from this. He had to find Gaz, he had to make sure she was okay.
Because Gaz meant more to him than just someone to practice with, she was someone he wanted to impress, someone he liked being around, someone who he cared for. He had to smile as he battled through the elements. His body was ready to collapse at any moment from the cold, from the pain, from everything that had happened in his life.
But the thought of Gaz gave him determination and focus like he'd never known. Something to fight for, someone to fight for and even nature, even this stinking, horrible, filthy, cold planet with it's ape-stink people, even his stupid painful body, even Dib, couldn't take that from him.
LIKE THAT MY PRETTIES? Especially that INSANE ending I put there just to troll all of you? Yeah, Gaz and Zim out in the rain, and you know, you KNOW the next chapter is gonna be it. The big moment where their feelings come spilling out like crazy.
BUT NOT FOR ANOTHER TWO WEEKS. Yes, right here, right now I am making a promise. Back to regular updates, back to writing in motion, back to my focused strategy of putting out good work on a regular basis and earning the title I gave myself.
You guys are amazing, thanks for reading, reviewing and putting up with me.