A/N: Hello lovelies. I have another chapter for you =3. So this turned out to be an insanely long chapter it was like 20-30 pages actually so I'm splitting it up into two or three parts. So just stick with me and some action will happen really soon. :D I have no warnings for this chapter but the next chapter is high T and low M, nothing too graphic, but you'll definitely know what's happening. I block out any...disturbing parts though. If you want those go to the rated M section please XD.
I don't own IZ but I do own my characters so please don't steal, write, or draw them with out my permission thank you. :).
I was disappointed that I only got 3 reviews but I appreciate them and I get what I get! :D So thank you! Also thank you DarkLexi for following and favoriting DMD I hope to hear from you in the near future! So I'm going to respond to one review now and two at the bottom. Also near the end of this chapter Vex goes all out country and does some insane stuff that shouldn't be tried at home...trust me O.o well anyways it's a really REALLY long process to actually do what he does, and he doesn't automatically have control so sorry about that but I had to fit it in the first part of this. 8D
My bestest budday psychochicken! I understand, they don't die that easily do they? XD And yes Zim was going for Robert Downy Junior huh? Actually I was also basing him off the new series of the British Sherlock with Dr. Watson as that guy from the Hobbit ;D. I LOVVVEEE that series and I'm so mad they don't have more episodes out yet. Anyways, suspicions are suspicions but we'll see what goes on with Oniumare soon. She's watching you in a dark corner with a butchers knife though...so be careful O.o...She knows...EVERYTHING! LOL.
~ÐΞΛТHШłSH12З4
Zim's POV.
I groaned and leaned my head back against the couch. It was SOOOO boring around here lately, Oniumare still hated me for initiating the truth and Jax and Tabitha never left each other's side so I was nearly left alone the whole time to just rot!
Today was a little different though. Jax actually decided to spend some time with me while Tabitha was getting a room set up for Vex and the others for8 when we retrieve them in about three days. I know lots of time—boring time—has passed and the ball is a few mere days.
Things have been especially tense between Oniumare and me; she nearly throws me out a window whenever we're around each other or if I ever bring the subject up again. Albeit it was fun to be tossed around like a rag doll by a necromancer, it was still slightly annoying. Talk about keeping a grudge.
Jax and Tabitha. Now that was an interesting subject…they've been really touchy feely lately seeing as they've been 'together' for a little less than a year now. In fact we're nearing Irksmas again; I'd have to start thinking of presents to give everyone. Well anyways Jax and Tabitha have been 'tense' around each other just in a different way.
"Did you fall asleep again?" Jax asked, bringing me out of my thoughts.
I groaned in defiance before slowly lifting my head and shooting him a look, "No, I should though there's nothing else to do around here."
"Well you could go to the city, Tabitha and I are going tonight," Jax offered up. He looked out a window to see it was cloudy and pretty much raining. Remember pure Irken rain doesn't hurt Zim and the others, Earth rain though…
"Why are you two going to the city?"
"She wanted to go on a dinner date and I would like to move around a little bit so I'm not bored around here. I think I've read like fifty books since I woke up here nearly a year ago. It's time for a little change."
"Yeah we'll we're about to get a big change here in just a few days," I grumbled while leaning my face against the palm of my hand. I was tired but not at the same time. My body said go do something, run five miles, fight a bear…anything but there really wasn't ANYTHING to do.
"I don't know what I think about that. I don't know about this ball…"
"More likely you're not thrilled that Vex is coming back and will most likely be watching your every move with, Tabitha?" I summed up, quirking an 'eye brow' at him with a small smirk.
"That too and I don't have anything against, Vex other than the fact he tried to kill me and Tabitha but I just feel like a nuisance when he's around. Tabitha is usually more interested in talking to him then even glancing at me."
"So you're jealous?"
"I guess in a sense, yes. I just don't want to get in the way of them but at the same time I want to be in the way…if that makes sense," He shrugged while tearing his eyes away from the window and glancing back at me, "Didn't you ever feel that way with Cari?"
"Well sure, all the time actually. You just have to learn to live with it," I answered while scratching at my antenna in boredom, "But she is your cousin so I'm sure you felt weird when I entered the picture."
"Cousin?" Jax asked, giving me a funny look, "I'm not related to Cari."
"Sure you are, before you joined the military you were Miss Elena's…son." I mumbled before realizing I had just made a HUGE mistake, "Wait never mind HA I mixed you up with someone else."
"Wait now I'm confused, I AM Miss Elena's son. I never had a cousin though; I joined the military when I was just a young kid. I didn't get a lot of time with family before that."
"Yeahhhh sorry about that," I said while biting my tongue really hard. 'Stupid, stupid, stupid. He doesn't remember that!' Jax was still giving me a suspicious look while his antenna shifted around, not really being able to know his exact emotions which were probably all over the place at the moment.
"I mean, my mom let me visit some family once or twice. But it was always for short periods of time. She always had business to attend to. And once I left I never re-contacted anyone. I didn't even know who they were. I nearly lost contact with my mom when she learned that I'd started fighting for money underground."
"You fought for money?" I asked in actual shock. That and I was trying to make a quick subject change.
"Oh yeah. I didn't win as much as I'd hoped but when it came down to me or him it always ended up being me as the winner."
"So you went underground," I quirked an eyebrow at him again, "And beat the shit out of random slaves from gang owners to get a few loans."
He paused for a minute, antenna lowering in shame and his eyes dropped to the ground, "I never said I was proud of it. But I had to, to survive. I was also bid on a lot by other gang owners and beat up if I lost the fight."
"So it's all a big game then? You either win, get money and approval from crime lords or get beat up, killed and hated by everyone around you?"
"…Yeah…that's basically it."
"Geez how did you explain that to your pilot trainers?"
"I didn't, I'd only fight when I didn't have class over the weekends and stuff. No one really knew."
"So I'm guessing you weren't really known around your academy?"
"Well I was known as the kid who got bullied all the time. And I'd use that as an excuse for my underground fighting injuries if I needed too. But other than that I never really kept any close friendships."
"Huh…I…never knew that about you. If you don't mind me asking…why were you bullied?"
"Oh that's nothing," Jax said waving it off, "I refused the football team, didn't want to get in bed with any popular girls and I was quiet. They were all mad at me because I chose not to fit in when I could've ended up like them."
"Why didn't you?"
His antenna lowered again, "I just didn't want to be like them. I once saw a jock trying to force a girl to…do things and I tried to interfere."
"You lost didn't you?"
"Yeaahhh, I ended up with a concussion, a broken wrist and a dislocated shoulder. What's worse is it turned out the girl was actually just pretending because the jock—her boyfriend—liked to be in control."
"So you got beaten up because you were trying to help someone."
"Oh all the time, pilot's academy isn't different from anywhere else. I just learned to cope with the abuse. I wasn't thrown into trash cans or anything but I was that weird quiet kid everyone saw as an easy target," He shrugged and looked back out the window. How could he be so calm about this? Getting physically abused every day of your life because you didn't want to be like someone you know you're not is just…just sick!
"Jax why the hell didn't you fight back? Zim would've at least TRIED to defend myself."
"Zim," He chuckled slightly and looked over at me calmly, "I was stronger than the fastest jock that had a hundred pounds of pure muscle. But if I fought back I'd be stooping just as low was them. Sure I'd try to defend myself. But I'd never initiate or egg on a fight."
"I think you're insane," I mumbled and crossed my arms, "your mom must've played a big role in that lesson huh?"
"Well of course, moon wouldn't ever teach me it. I was afraid to be around him even if he is my brother. I had to learn from someone right?"
"What about your dad?"
"Never knew him. My mom was single all her life so I'm guessing that Moon and I were accidents." He shrugged again, "She never really confirmed that though so I honestly don't know." My throat tightened in frustration. This whole time Jax has been living an oblivious lie but he wouldn't believe me if I told him the truth. I don't even know if I believe it myself.
"Hey lovely, ready to go?" a voice asked startling both Jax and I. We both looked up to see Tabitha in a pretty black dress. Jax smiled brightly as his eyes lit up upon seeing her and he stood up eagerly.
"Of course gorgeous. Zim and I were just talking about the academy," He smiled and wrapped his arms around her before pulling her in for a short lived kiss and looking back over at me with a kind of warning look. I gave a small nod understanding that he didn't want what he just told me spreading to Tabitha, that'd cause unnecessary arguments and long talks about the past.
"Yeah…good times. When will you two be back?"
"Most likely sometime tomorrow. It's quite a journey to the city and it's already nearing dinner time so either exteremly late tonight or tomorrow sometime." Tabitha shrugged while grabbing Jax's hand eagerly.
"Uhu," I said clearly not believing a word coming out of her mouth. It'd take two hours with their physical condition to zip ten miles to the city. Not long to eat and then to zip back here would take less seeing as it's mostly downhill. That's alright though; I'm not her father…just her best friend. "Alright well come give Zim love and go have a good time I guess."
"Ok," Tabitha said with a bright smile. I was glad she was happy. She came over and nearly bowled me over with a bear hug before we kissed each other's cheeks and let go, "We'll be safe I promise," she muttered while winking at me.
"You better be," I grumbled back, "I'll just be here bored out of my mind." Both of them kind of chuckled at that, "What it's true!"
"Alright Zim, we'll see you later," Jax said before smiling over at Tabitha and heading towards the door and ladder descending to the ground.
"THEY GROW UP SO FAST!" I wailed as soon as they exited the building. I waited a couple minutes before screaming, "ONIUMARE! THROW ME OUT A WINDOW!"
Cari's POV.
It turns out, that Vex's old house actually turned out to be the place we could stay under the radar. We were only about two hours away from the city by cruiser and we were in the middle of nowhere so it was actually extremely helpful.
We still weren't on good terms with each other but we stood up with each other long enough to walk a mile making small talk. At the moment we were about twenty miles from Vex's house. He seemed eager to go home but also a little depressed. I understood why but I didn't want to talk about it.
"Vex…we gotta stop," Rae panted while collapsing down onto the steep hill we were climbing.
"I second that notion," Riley grumbled. Yeah we still had her 'captive' as she liked to call it. She was still handcuffed and roped to Vex's waist so she couldn't run.
"No one asked ya," Vex growled at her still being fairly hostile towards her, "And Rea we can't stop now, we're nearly to safety."
"Look around you!" She panted, motioning to the rest of us including me. I was exhausted but I could still go another mile or so, "We've been nonstop travelling for the past three months! Can we not just rest for a day?"
"The ball is in three days!" Vex shot back.
"And if we miss it, we miss it." Jeb hissed, taking a step forwards to support his daughter, "It's not as important as our health." Vex glared at him angrily before looking around and sighing. He was hand in hand with Mia so she wouldn't trip or get lost but he could still clench his other fist.
He looked down for a second before his head snapped up and his eyes brightened happily, "Yes, everyone rest. I got an Idea."
"Oh brother," Jeb sighed earning a hard punch from his daughter.
"He doesn't shoot down your ideas."
"When you're around he doesn't," Jeb shot back, rubbing his now sore arm like it was a treasured object.
Vex quickly untied Riley from his waist and tied her to a close tree, "Minerva watch Mia fer a second will ya?"
"Yes but why?" She asked, taking Mia's hand and leading her over to a stump to sit down and rest.
"Ya'll see," Vex said excitedly before shooting off up the hill like it was nothing.
"I'll never understand him," I groaned.
"He's used to hills and hard physical work," Jeb said catching my comment.
"I realize that but still. How is that even fair?" I grumbled back, plopping down on the freezing cold ground. We were all bundled up seeing as it snowed last night and the snow made the ground muddy and wet, making this climb harder than it had to be.
"Didn't he used to like…nonstop work back when he still had Axel?" I asked Jeb after about five minutes of waiting.
"Yup," Jeb said simply, "It was either studying, Axel or the gym for him. He never had parents to fall back on. He lost them when he was about 80 to cancer and heart problems. So he had to learn to fend for himself at a young age. He was never much for sports though if I remember right. Well his sports like wrangling calves and breaking horses yes, football once and a while but anything else was nothing to him."
"Sounds about right," I huffed.
"WHOOHOO!" All of us looked up when Vex jumped over the hill, excitement lit up his eyes and he looked genuinely hyper, "Come on! Yer gonna miss em!"
"Wha?" Riley muttered to herself. I hurried over and untied her from the tree before motioning for everyone to follow me. We got up the hill in a few minutes but stopped in shock when we got to the top. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" Riley shouted as we watched Vex hiding in a shaggy piece of grass, stalking some wild horses.
"Come on! These guys used ta live round me an' they clearly haven't left! They're gonna be our ride back home."
"You're insane you imbecile! You'll kill yourself!" Rye snarled trying to pull her rope out of my hand but I just shot her a look and kept it tightly wrapped around my hand.
"Oh no I won't," Vex said excitedly. He grabbed something that looked to be a make shift lasso out of wines and small, flexible tree branches, "I used ta do this all the time."
He slunk along the ground eyeing a certain large horses grazing in front of the rest, "Catch one and ya catch the others." He mumbled to himself while crawling closer until he was within reaching distance of the massive animal. "HA!" He shouted while throwing the lasso around its neck. It instantly reared up in fear while Vex pulled the rope tight and jumped on its back.
Almost at once the horses started bucking and running around in circles, throwing itself on the ground and running up to trees stopping right before them and rearing up. Anything to get him off, but he stayed on like he was stuck with glue. Only one time did he intentionally fall while wrapping his arms around its neck and swing to the ground when it threw itself into a tree. He hopped back up and proceeded to break the horse until it just stopped and huffed angrily. "THAT'S How ta have some fun! Jesus I haven't felt so alive in ages!" He hollered happily while hopping off the horse and tugging it along behind him.
My jaw dropped as I stared at him. I looked around to see the others were just the same, "What. The. Hell." Riley said before rolling onto the ground and curling up, "I'm stuck with an insane freak," She squeaked while rocking herself back and forth, "I'm gonna die…"
"Come on! They're all at my command now so let's get going!"
"You're command?" Jeb scoffed, looking at him like he was a lunatic.
"Sure, he's the leader of the pack, now I'm his leader. See where I'm goin here?" Vex elaborated while patting the horses face. It was still not happy with him. In fact it tried desperately to bite him anywhere and everywhere but stopped as soon as he shot it a look.
"How am I going to ride a horse if I can't see?" Mia asked as Minerva led her over to them.
"Easily, I've tamed two other horses in this pack. In fact," He whistled loudly and looked around eagerly until two or three horses moved and a tallish grey Tobiano horse came out tossing its head around and stamping its hooves into the ground, "Darlin' this is Angel. First girly I tamed," Vex smiled brightly as the horse approached and tossed its head up, "Don't sass me child I know I've been gone fer a while!"
"Is he…talking to a horse?" Rae asked Jeb quietly.
"I don't wanna talk about it…but yes." Jeb groaned face palming a few times.
"Mia I want ya on angel and she had a baby round here somewhere. I named him arrow." Mia gulped nervously before stepping forward and holding her hand out, "She ain't gonna hurt ya. We've been good friends for a few years now. I helped assist with her birth. She ended up in my pastures alone and in labor. Axel demanded I helped and I did. Momma didn't like me too well but she did."
Mia nodded before reaching out and letting Vex guide her hand to the horse's muzzle, "She's…soft."
"Yup, now let's get ya up on 'er. Riley, you too." Riley's jaw dropped and she choked out a fake sob, "Stop yer snivelin' and get yer ass over here!"
"Vex I don't think this is such a good IdeAA!" She didn't get time to finish before Vex grabbed her and tossed her up on top of the horse.
"Don't be afraid, she'll sense yer fear." He then hauled Riley over and tied her rope to the horses neck, "Run and ya die. Yer choice." She glared at him but clutched Mia's shoulders tightly while Mia was clutching Angel's mane tightly.
"The rest of ya choose a horse." We all gulped and headed off into our own directions. I chose a large black Morgan horse that looked to be kind of old. He shot me a look like 'don't touch me' but I tried anyways. It took a minute but I was eventually allowed to touch it and grab its mane, "Oh Irk please don't buck me off." I prayed. I jumped on with a small struggle and earned a bite in the leg from the damn thing, "Hey! That hurt!" I went silent when Vex came over though. He literally just touched the damn things face and gave it a look and it was perfectly fine again. 'I hate you world.'
As soon as everyone else was on a horse, Vex jumped back on his and kicked it gently, "Don't buck me now." He said calmly when the horse started backing up and resisting him again, "come on darlin' just a short jog, just twenty miles." It threw its head up but soon decided it was going to listen…for now and started walking. The other horses followed it, seeing as he was the leader of the pack.
"I'm gonna die," I heard Riley muttering over and over again.
"Relax and ya won't," Vex shot back. She stuck her tongue out at him before realizing he wasn't even looking. I tried not to laugh at her but it was starting to be pretty hard. However once I was jerked forwards and the horse was moving insanely fast I yelped making her laugh at me.
"Can't handle a little canter can you?" She teased.
"I'm not the one chanting about my pathetic life ending every few seconds," I shot back giving her a dirty look and urging my horse to move a little faster.
"Just twenty miles guys! We're gonna start gallopin' now!" Vex called back, kicking the horses sides a little harder and moving so he was propped up on the creature. We started rushing and jumping over anything and everything, it was frightening actually but kind of…fun. I was actually starting to enjoy myself.
"Imma call you Midnight," I said for my own sake while stroking the horse's mane as I clung onto it for dear life.
A/N: So yes, Midnight is my horse and he was an ass when I had to re break him after nearly a year and a half of slack and no riding. It was wonderful. Again that process takes SOOSOOOOOO much longer and you won't have control of the whole herds riding formations if you tamed the leader. The pack would follow 'you.' but others wouldn't be able to ride the other herd horses without breaking them also. So sorry about that being wrong guys. Again don't try that at home. I dislocated my shoulder trying this on a new horse my close friend purchased. She had to sell him not too long ago :'( but that's ok...he was an ass too XDDDD. And JAX! Fightin' undergroundddddd. OOOO you bad boy you XD. I still love him...he is my lovely SO DON'T STEAL, DRAW, WRITE OR USE HIM IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM PLEASE MY LOVELY! NOT YOURS! Thank you! XD.
Review responses!
Insane Rocker! IR: I feel for Vex too, but we see a bit of a younger side to him in this chapter don't we? LOL Country folk know how to have fun, that's a fact LOOLLL. Anyways, thank you for your concern on my back, it is MUCH better thank goodness, I was even able to ride my lovely horse today. And yes, Zim is insane and can read people when he wants but he doesn't really 'control' it lol. I hope you have a lovely day/night as well and again thank you so much for your concern. I feel more like a human that way not just some random author :D
AND FRITTTEREOTR EOT ! You're birthday is in THREEEEEE DAYYYSSS! EEEEEE SOOO exciting yes? ANyways YES go laser tagging and go karting SOOOO much fun. I went laser tagging for my BFF's B day and it was my first time, so I literally took it like a military initiation. I even jumped over a ramp and slid down it shooting everyone in sight screaming "BRING IT BITCHES!" Yeah that was fun lol. THE PLUSHIES! And yes, I totally know how you feel. My life gets ruined when one little mistake ruins the drawing D'X. Demon Bitch from hell will learn don't worry lol.
~ɖελτħώίȘħ12З4