Season 1 Episode 4: Double Life
Episode Summary: Tensions continue to rise as the leaders of the resistance begin to train their new recruits while trying to dodge the ever-growing efforts of the enemy. Meanwhile Zim is still struggling to come to terms with the change and the destiny that it entails. Can the Renegades pull through? Or will the denial of one person spell out the end for us all?!
Author's Notes: So, I know it's been a whole month of no updates, but my Beta reader has been going through a hard time and is no longer able to proofread my stories as fast as she use too. So, I have decided to continue to write them, and upload them to Fanfiction. I am getting better at proofreading my own stories thanks to her amazing help. And once she completes her editing I will make the hopefully few changes to the episode.
So, with that said here's the next episode, I hope you enjoy it and please review.
Yours Truly, RoxieDivine
Episode 4: Double Life (Part 1)
(149 Years Ago)
"He's completely healthy. " The Computer Brain announced as it finished scanning Cadet Zim.
"Healthy?!" Nurse Meka screeched at the Brain's words.
Cadet Zim flinched at her outburst. The Irken nurse had been his health practitioner since his birth, and every week he saw her for the same thing. Zim couldn't help but roll his eyes at the whole situation; he was getting tired of these doctor visits. Of course he knew why they kept happening…
'Why can't I just be like everyone else?' he asked himself sorrowfully. 'Just a few extra inches; is that too much to ask?!'
"How can he be healthy?" Nurse Meka went on with her ranting. "He's an Amon, and he's no taller than a full-grown Shew!" she snapped venomously her ruby eyes blazing with pure frustration.
"He's simply a late bloomer." The Computer Brain assured her.
But the words did little to comfort the young Irken, Zim was 10 years old; and only a few short months away from age 11. Which meant in a matter of months the Irken cadets of his class would begin the next stage of their lives. The Shews would start their training at the academy, and the Amons would be chosen to continue the legacy of one of the Amons that had come before them.
'No one will choose me!' Zim thought bitterly. 'I'm too small! Maybe I was Miss Labeled.' It wasn't the first time this thought had crossed his mind. After all no Amon had ever fallen so far behind in growth before; 'Could it be possible that I'm just a lowly Shew after all?' Zim forced the tears not to fall, but it was an impossible battle.
'Why is my life so hard? Everyone else has it so easy! They all make it look so EASY! Maybe there is something wrong with me; why else would I be in this situation?'
Nurse Meka could sense what he was thinking so clearly that it was as if he had said the words out loud. She sighed and forced herself to calm down. "Zim?" she asked softly.
Cadet Zim flinched again and turned away in shame. "What's wrong with me?" he whispered.
"Zim there is nothing wrong with you; Amons grow at their own pace." Nurse Meka tried her best to reassure him.
"But I'm not growing at all! I've been the same height for years!" Zim snapped, and then bowed his head in shame as he realized that he just snapped at one of his superiors. "I'm sorry it's just-"
"I know your angry but trust me one day you will grow; and then you'll see that I was right." Nurse Meka told him.
"How will I know?" Zim asked. "You know, when I start growing; how will I know?"
"It will start gradually at first, then your hunger will skyrocket, and then out of the blue you'll reach full height as if it happened over night." Nurse Meka explained.
Cadet Zim sighed deeply "Everyone is so far ahead of me. Who would want me as their successor?" He whined. "Who would want the shortest Irken in the history of Irk to be their legacy?!"
"Zim do you know what your name means?" Nurse Meka asked suddenly.
Zim's eyes widen at the question "My name? What does that have to do with-?"
"Zim when an Irken is born they are sent to the downloading chamber where the Computer Brain gives them a name; but not just any name! Each Irken's named is chosen for a reason! Take Tallest Miyuki for example: her name means "good fortune" and she brought that to our people. All Irken names are this way. They speak of the great things we will accomplish and are given to us for a reason. Now I will ask you again; do you know what your name means?"
"One of Greatness" Zim whispered shamefully.
"One of Greatness" Nurse Meka repeated proudly. "Zim your name doesn't speak of greatness it means GREATNESS! Your destiny will be a powerful one!"
"But I don't feel powerful" Zim admitted. "I don't feel great! I feel worthless!" he yelled as tears continued to fall from his eyes.
"Zim the road to true greatness is not an easy one to follow." Nurse Meka said as her gaze clouded with wisdom. "It is rough, and full of hardships. I see much misery in your future." She admitted.
Zim bowed his head.
"But our hardships are what make us strong." she told him as she lifted his chin with her hand; her ruby orbs settled on his own. "And do you know what I see when I look at you?" she asked.
"What?" Zim whispered.
"I see raw strength in its purest form. Weather you become a commander of your own fleet, a general, or even the next Tallest; I know that you will be great!"
Zim looked away not in the least bit convinced.
"I know it's hard to believe now, but one day you will see it too." She smiled. "You are One of Greatness, and you will bring great change to us all." She turned then and left him to tend to another patient.
Zim watched her walk away more doubtful than ever before; not knowing that the future would soon prove her right…
In more ways than one!
*Please Note: So every Irken name means something. So what does Nurse Meka's name mean?
*Answer: One who speaks of future fortunes. (in other words, her name suggests that she can see into the future.)
(Present Day)
Training…
It was a slow task that took time, and the never-ending patience of a fine teacher.
Zim on the other hand was never known for his patience, and his tolerance for mistake was limited. And the slow progress of the new recruits wasn't making things any easier!
Three days had passed since the integrations at school had begun, and the original five decided that it was worth the risk to train the new recruits.
"Just in case things get a little too dicey." Dib had said.
'Dicey?' Zim shook his head at the word. If things got dicey now they wouldn't last 5 seconds.
The leaders had divided the recruits into four groups of five in hopes of increasing the pace of their training. Zim himself was running hacking simulations with the five "computer geniuses" of the group. James, who had always been Zim's best sparring partner, was demonstrating Irken combat to his own group of recruits nearby. Dib took over the art of weapon assembly, while Mark stuck to marksmanship.
And Rachel…well she stuck to strengthen her own combat skills. And who could blame her? After their near miss with the Tallests Royal Guard who wouldn't want to improve? But being against violence made her training at an agonizingly slow pace, and it wasn't just her that was slow.
The training itself was far too slow…
Zim could only imagine what the Tallest would say if they could see them now…
'So this is the resistance? And to think we were worried!'
Zim rolled his eyes at the thought and tried to think of the positives. 'Well I could still be suffering from that skull splitting headache.' Zim pointed out knowingly. 'Thank goodness that's over!' And his words seemed to be true. After he had taken that shot all of his symptoms had vanished overnight; much to the Dome Computer's dismay. The Computer Brain had constantly tried to lecture him about how he was making the biggest mistake of his life; but Zim would hear none of it.
He was not a leader; and he never would be, besides what being in their right mind would follow him? Even the humans were weary of following his lead, not that he blamed them; after all he did bring forth the end of everything they've ever known!
Zim rolls his eyes as his thoughts are interrupted by the sound of a blaring alarm!
Brian Rhodes screamed in loud frustration as the Irken computer beeped loudly as he failed to hack into it…AGAIN!
"If this was a real enemy computer you would have died eight times by now!" Zim snapped.
Brian turned around in his chair to see his Irken comrade looking over at him with dismay. "I'm trying okay!" The boy snapped back at the Irken and rubbed his temples in obvious frustration.
"Well your efforts are utterly pathetic!" Zim spoke bluntly trying his best to keep his temper in check.
IT WASN'T EASY!
No it was days like this that made Zim wonder how the human race had ever managed to survive so long in the first place! They were too primitive and babied through most of their lives. When Zim was their age he was already able to break into the smartest of supercomputers within a matter of seconds. His hacking skills were one of the fastest ever seen throughout Irken History! And he learned at a very young age the failure resulted in the beating of a lifetime!
He had been trained through pain, and hardship; he was disciplined to the highest degree and was never showed the meaning of mercy. Every Irken was trained in this way, to be strong, and emotionless. To know only hatred, and the thirst for enemy conquest.
But humans saw such things as cruel, and unjust; and it made them weak!
"Zim he'll get it eventually!" Dib argued as he walked over to stop the argument before it began; but it was easy to tell that even his old foe had his doubts. He was just too soft to voice them; Zim on the other hand was not!
"Please it's hopeless if he was going to hack this computer he'd have done it by now! Just look at Gretchen she hacked her's hours ago!" Zim pointed at the girl beside Brian.
Brian couldn't help but roll his eyes; Gretchen had hacked into the system on her third try. And according to Zim, Dib had accomplished the same goal on his first try at the age of 12!
Gretchen gave Brian an apologetic half smile.
Brian forced a smile of his own, he didn't blame her after all it wasn't her fault she was so smart!
"He'll get it!" Dib continued to urge; but Zim was having none of it!
"No he's had his chance hacking just isn't in his genes I'll switch him out with someone else." Zim looked around the room as he spoke, and it wasn't long until he found a suitable target. "You orange haired girl what's your name again?"
Kathy Rogers turned to face him, being the only orange-headed girl in the group it was obvious that he was talking to her. "It's Kathy!" she answered.
"Mark trade Kathy for Brian he's not working well over here." Zim ordered rather bluntly.
Mark frowned, but after receiving a quick glare from Dib he nodded his agreement; not because he wanted to, but because he had to! Mark and Zim had promised not to fight in front of the new recruits, and so far they seemed to be holding their ends of the bargain.
Of course Dib knew full well that if he knew Zim it wouldn't last long. 'At least he seems to be doing better.' The boy thought. That much was true, for the past three days Zim's strange behavior seemed to have vanished all together; much to Dib's relief.
Mark on the other hand was still very suspicious about the whole thing, but kept his thoughts to himself, and began to teach Brian; who had walked over to him with an obvious chip on his shoulder.
Not that anyone could blame him, Zim had a bad habit of being cruel! Of course Zim claimed he was just being honest. And it was becoming very clear to the others that Zim had no idea there was such a thing as being: TOO HONEST!
Kathy approached the Irken Computer slowly obviously unsure. "I'm not all that great." she admitted as she sat down where Brian had been sitting moments before.
"Well we'll see just how bad you are soon enough." Zim retorted.
Kathy looked at all the numbers before her and felt her heart sink 'This is impossible!' she groaned as the simulation began.
"Okay Brian," Mark sighed. "Ever fired a weapon before?"
"No." Brian admitted obviously still upset about his failure.
"That's fine we'll just start with the basics." Mark assured him.
"Which is?" Brian asked almost fearfully.
"Finding the right weapon for you." Mark explained. "Everyone has a preferred weapon of choice so let's focus on finding yours."
Brian looked around at the several tables of different weapons 'surely there's at least one I can fire perfectly.' He thought hopefully.
Mark gave Brian a lazar gun, and ducked out of the way as the kid accidentally pulled the trigger.
Kathy screamed as a loud blast hit the wall beside her just inches from her head.
"Okay this one is not it!" Mark exclaimed as he took the laser away.
"You think?!" Zim scoffed.
"You know this is why we need to be in separate rooms." Rachel pointed out.
"Oh we were in separate rooms; remember?" Zim snapped. "And then a certain someone had to blow a hole in the wall and flood the entire north wing of the base!" He glared at Keef knowingly!
Keef gave off a nervous laugh, "I said I was sorry!" he pointed out as if it made a difference.
Of course it didn't!
Mark rolled his eyes, and picked up another weapon, "Here let's start with something a little less lethal." He said grabbing a bow, and arrow.
"What's the use I'll never get it right?" Brian whined. "Maybe you guys should just brain wash me, or something."
"Oh come on archery is an honorable skill." Mark told him trying to keep the boy's spirits ups.
Brian watched as Mark handled the bow with ease and hit the bull's eye one his first try.
'I'll never be that good!' Brain thought.
Mark could read him like an open book. "It took lots of practice for me to get that good." Mark assured him. "Now you try!"
Brian took the bow in his shaking hands and tried to line up his arrow for the shot.
Mark smiled and said, "Here let me help." He then helps Brian line up his arrow. "Well it's obvious that your right eye is dominant. So you use a right-handed bow, and you hold it with your left hand." Mark explained.
Brain obeyed and put the bow in his left hand.
"Good" Mark praised "Now you're going to take an arrow, and pull the bowstring back with your right hand, and point the arrow towards the ground. Then you place the shaft of the arrow on the arrow rest." Mark waited as Brian followed his guidance the best he could. "Okay good, now finally you aim at the bull's eye; and let it rip!"
Brian aimed and released the arrow. Only to watch in utter dismay as it hit the wall just above its target with a small clank!
"That's okay try again." Mark assured him.
Brain wasn't so sure, but he obeyed none the less.
Kathy peeled her eyes away from Brain's training and began to run through the hacking simulator; to her surprise it didn't take long for her to figure it out, and after a few mistakes she had gotten the hang of it for the most part.
"Not bad for someone who has no idea what she's doing." Zim praised her as he came up to stand behind her causing Kathy to jump. Zim rolled his eyes 'Even when I'm being nice they're jumpy!'
"Uh thanks..." Kathy said nervously as she kept her attention on the computer screen.
Zim started to say more when a loud growl erupted from his stomach.
Kathy's brow rose in suspicion "Zim was that your stomach?" she asked.
"Um yes..." Zim admitted. "It would appear that with all this sneaking around, and stuff. I forgot to eat." He was lying of course he had been eating just fine, but Kathy didn't seem to notice.
"You know I got this you can go eat if you want." She told him.
Zim was about to assure her that he was fine when his stomach growled more painfully. "Fine..." he groaned. "But I'll be right back!" he assured her, and raced off towards the kitchen, slamming the door closed behind him.
Zim then falls to the floor clutching his stomach as it growls hungrily. 'Seriously not this again!' he thought as he opened up the refrigerator and began to devour everything in sight. He had no idea what he was eating; and honestly he didn't really care. All that mattered was the hunger, and the need to make it stop! Unfortunately it didn't take long for Zim to eat all of the food in the fridge, and despite his best efforts; he was still hungry!
"AHHHHHH" Zim growled obviously frustrated with himself. 'Why now? Why couldn't this happen when I actually wanted it to?!'
Of course he already knew the answer to that question…
Fate had a sick since of humor; and he was the current butt of every joke.
"Zim is everything okay?"
Zim froze as Dib's voice came from the other side of the door. "Everything is fine" he grunted before locking the door. "I just need some space okay?"
Dib sighed and tried the door 'He locked me out!' he wanted to scream at his old foe, but he forced himself to stay calm. "Zim you've been acting kind of odd lately." He began.
"Everything is Fine." Zim repeated. "I'm fine!" he was trying to sound convincing, but Dib wasn't buying it.
"Look I wasn't going to say anything because you've seemed to be doing okay the past few days; but we're all worried about you Zim." Dib urged, resting his ear against the door in hopes of hearing what was going on inside it.
"There's no need to worry." Zim forced a laugh only to moan as his stomach growled even more. 'I need more food, and fast!' he told himself knowingly. Then his eyes widen as he got an idea, and he imminently opened the door to carry out his plan.
Dib yelps, and nearly falls face first on the floor, but manages to catch himself just in time.
"Seriously?" Zim asked.
"Sorry just making sure your fine." Dib said as he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.
"Of course, I'm fine in fact I think I'll go make sure that all that food we stole is still good." Zim told him, trying to be as convincing as possible.
"Okay I'll go with you." Dib offered.
"AHHHH!" Zim yelled in obvious frustration. "Seriously Dib you guys are suffocating me! I'm not use to being so overcrowded okay?! I need some space!"
Dib froze as Zim's eyes blazed dangerously red. 'It's happening again!' he realized. "Okay fine I get it you need some space." Dib said trying to keep his cool. "I'll let everyone know that well continue training tomorrow."
Zim took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down. 'It's happening again!' he thought realizing the truth in an instant. 'That serum must have only been temporary!' he turned without another word and left for the storage room to sneak some food. This wasn't what he wanted. No he didn't want to steal food, but this was getting ridiculous. He needed to get a hold of these symptoms, and fast before the real nightmare reared its ugly head.
Dib watched his old friend disappear down the hallway, and out of sight. His face as always was clouded with suspicion. 'What was Zim hiding? Is it possible that I'm just reading too much into all this?' It was a possibility after all this could be a normal thing for Zim's kind; maybe it was some kind of illness that all Irken's get at least once in their lives.
'Maybe…' Dib thought to himself as he made his way back to his training comrades, but deep down he knew better. Yes, deep down he knew that Zim was in deep trouble…
He could feel it!
Zim clutched his stomach and grabbed onto the wall for support as he punched in the code to the storage room.
"You can't keep doing this to yourself!" The Computer Brain tried yet again to talk some since into his Master.
It was useless. Zim turned a deaf ear and began to shovel food down his throat.
The computer sighed and watched as his master continued to eat. Finally after a good hour Zim passed out on the floor sound asleep.
Gir steps out of the shadows and picks his Master up in his arms. "Time for bed!" Gir whispers softly, and slowly carries him to his master's quarters.
The Computer Brain sighs once more taking a moment to enjoy the silence.
For he knew all too well that the madness was only getting started!
-To Be Continued