A/N I see that FFnet has turned all my bold/cursive writing into regular letters which honestly makes me want to never use this site again :/
No guest replies because it's just ... been too long. lol
Chapter 26
Zim stretched, basking in a feeling of lightness he didn't know he had missed. The new battery thing sure had done … something right. He wasn't tired anymore and he felt as though he had completely forgotten how nice that felt.
"Hey! Irken! You're still standing, so let's go one more time", Fasdi Mi said, and Zim sighed. Not in anger or exasperation or anything, just because he felt as though there was finally enough air for him to breathe.
"Are you sure? Zim will turn you into a plum that's been thrown to the floor really hard this time", Zim said. Mostly because insults were habit now. Also he had accidentally thrown a plum to the floor once and been quite mesmerized by how splashed it got. He absent-mindedly imagined Fasdi Mi on the floor; blood and organs splattered about like a fruit. It was strangely satisfying.
"Sure. Just you try", she said, voice monochrome and bored. It had Zim frowning and walking towards her angrily, fist already raised.
He could actually see her technique now. Whether that was because he was not drained of energy anymore or if he had actually improved, he couldn't tell, but fighting was more interesting today than it had been yesterday. Zim avoided a fist to the jaw and spun around her, aiming for the back of Fasdi Mi's head.
But he hit thin air and was confused for a while until he looked down and saw her on the floor, before a strong hind leg connected with his chest and sent him flying.
He hit the floor with a thump, and then a clink when his PAK connected with the floor. She was talking, but Zim was too busy gasping for air to hear her.
"-stand your ground even better next time", Fasdi Mi finished. Zim sat up and imagined her splashed against the floor again. She held out a hand for him, which he promptly ignored as he heaved himself up. At least it didn't hurt as much as it had yesterday.
Slipping into the battle stance she had taught him was finally feeling more natural, but she shook her head at him.
"Nah, we've sparred enough for a while, let's take a snack", she said. Zim paused, watched her retreating back in silence.
"But I'm not hungry yet." He frowned. Actually, he could probably go for a few more sparring rounds before even getting the least bit fatigued.
"It's snack break time, so deal with it", Fasdi Mi said loudly, rudely. Zim huffed out his annoyance and followed suit, begrudgingly taking a snack bar.
"I said your PAK would speed up the process of becoming a good fighter like me, you know", she said while munching on her own bar, wrapper thrown to the floor," but I'm starting to think that was an understatement. You're pretty much a natural once you put your mind to it."
"Of course I am", Zim said, though he didn't know what natural meant in this particular concept. He threw his own wrapper in the trashcan and licked the energy bar. It tasted weird and he wasn't even hungry. He ate it all anyway. "Did you know it was me that came up with the bigger battery idea? Me! Zim!"
"Hm. Oh yeah, Lard Nar mentioned that when I walked past him. So that's why you're doing so much better", she said through a mouthful.
"I came up with it! I am amazing!"
Fasdi Mi side-eyes him, then surprised him by moving and slamming him into the floor faster than he could react.
"Don't get ahead of yourself", She said, looking down at him.
And so, their break was over. He got up and attacked, vigorously using what he had learned against her. It felt amazing.
"Testing, testing. Can you hear me, Zim?" Dib's voice crackled over Zim's newly installed communicator.
"… Yes. This feels weirdy. It's like your voice is coming not only from the communicator but also my PAK. It's like you are inside of me!" Zim held the device gingerly. It attached to a limb hanging from his PAK. He had not figured out how to control the limb yet, though he was supposed to. Practice, Sev En said.
"Noted", Dib said and the sound of fingers hitting a keyboard filled the communicator. "How's my voice otherwise?"
"Loud and clear, Dib", Sev En said from Zim's right. "How are our voices? Any static?"
"Nope. I'll go ahead and declare the 300 meters test a success. Moving on to 500 meters."
"Copy that." Sev En and Zim walked along the garden. The weather had changed, and it was colder than Zim had ever experienced – although Dib said it was just 'average fall temperature' back on Earth. It was no problem, of course, ever since they installed a thermal regulator to his PAK and he acquired some heat blanket to make a nest of he never felt truly cold anymore. But he was still aware of the cool air touching his skin.
They arrived at the 500-meter mark and stopped. Zim fiddles with the device, trying to turn it on with his mind, but he wasn't there yet. He huffed and used the button as Sev En patted his shoulder.
"You'll get there, Zim."
"I'm got getting there fast enough!" He huffed glaring at the ground.
"What's that, Zim?" Dib asked over the communicator.
"Nothing! Is the sound working?" Zim said, maybe a little too snappy.
"Yup. I can hear you loud and clear, although you seem a bit … not happy. You wanna take a break?"
"No. I will be fine. Let us get these stupid tests done and move on", Zim said. Move on so he could practice more.
"Whew. It's been a busy couple of week, hasn't it?"
"Hmm." Zim didn't agree nor disagree. They were never busy on Vort, because you didn't need to gather your own food from tree branches in an environment where most things might want you dead, but on the other hand you always needed to arrive on time or else everyone would hate you. "Is that a tricky question?"
"No, it wasn't a trick question", Dib sighed," I meant that time has passed so quickly. It feels like we just got here, and yet, it's as though I've lived here for years. Y'know?"
Zim didn't know. He stretched until his shoulders popped and the components in his PAK shifted comfortably. They worked like second nature now, truly parts of him finally.
"It's only been a few of these 'Vort-months' since we got here, dummy. But yes, I suppose I feel … at home, here." Zim looked out a window as they passed. The garden - once again returning to the colors they were when he first arrived after the chilly, but manageable winter – passed quickly before he ran out of window to look through. The corridor looked the same, as well.
A sound travelled down the corridor, making his antenna twitch upward. I sounded like… but no, that was impossible. Probably the most impossible thing.
"Zim? You okay, man?" Dib asked. Apparently Zim had stopped walking.
"Um. Yes", Zim said, looking in the direction of the sound. It was vague, but he could still hear it. There were snippets of someone screaming in a familiar language – Irken. "I will catch up with you later." He turned and speed-walked toward the sound, voice, whatever. In the distance, Dib said something.
Soon, he found himself running. His hearing was good, and improved by a PAK installation, to the point where he realized the voice he had picked up came from a whole different part of the castle. But as he got closer, the voice got louder, and he had to admit that it was not just some mysterious hallucination.
"… release us … scum … return … curse …"
He realized it was not just one person angrily screaming in Irken, but several. He could make out at least three different voices, all angry and cursing.
He rounded one last corner, and froze at the sight.
In front of him, in cages with laser grids, were Irkens, each one in its own cage. Two were cursing and hissing, a third crying loudly, and the last one sat silently glaring with her lips curled up.
They had not seen nor smelled him in their rage, but he still ducked instinctively behind the wall. They were tall. Each of them easily towered three times higher than him, and he couldn't even properly measure the female sitting down, but even now, on her knees with her back curved, she definitely towered over him by at least an antenna's length.
"Hey, let us free! Let us go home, or we'll kill you!" One said, eyes wide and crazed and directed at a Vortian guard Zim hadn't noticed before. She was all alone, and cowering against the opposite wall. Her hands seemed unable to properly grip her stun gun in their shaking, but at least she hadn't fallen to the ground yet.
One guard against four furious, tall Irkens. Caged, of course, but that did not seem to be much help to the guard's mental well-being.
Zim's antennae flattened against his scalp, and he did not realize that he had started hissing until the Vortian's head – and gun - whipped toward him.
"…You", the Vortian breathed. Zim jerked. Despite the gun still directed at him, thousands of years of instincts told him to be more wary of his own kin that the weapon.
Granted, as the Vortian turned their head at him, so did the Irkens, and Zim found himself the center of attention of four tall, murderously angry Irkens.
"You're like us!" one hissed. "You're like us and you're free! Why? Tell them to set us free and return us home!"
"Zim", the Vortian said," t-tell them to calm down, please."
Everything was just wrong, and the swirling dreadful storm inside him only grew bigger under the attention. He curled in on himself, jittery, ready to attack for defense, lips curled up. All of this was instinctual. The more aware part of his brain tried to look questioningly at the Vortian.
"Wha-" He managed, the choked on nothing. He tried again-" What? What is this?"
TBC
Srry for introducing three male irkens being actively angry and one female passively sitting on the sideline BUT spoilers those are Red, Purple, Spork and Miyuki and it's all very Plot Important(tm)
Please leave a review and I promise no not take a year for the next update :D
/ReptileRuler AKA Saga