A/N: Here we are with the next chapter, folks. Last time, Gaz's ghost revealed herself to her killers, and then finished off Dirge.
So, who's next as they try to survive her spectral wrath?
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Her bone-chilling voice called out after them as they burst out of the house and onto the street.
"Holy shit! What do we do?!" Torque yelled as the group finally came to a stop a few blocks away from Jessica's house.
"How should I know?! She's a fucking demonic ghost!" Jessica shouted in panicked rage.
"M-maybe we should go to Dib for help?" Zita managed to stammer out as she clung to Zim, pale and wide-eyed, "I mean, he knows all about this stuff..."
"And what are we supposed to say?" Jessica sneered, "Oh, hey Dib! Guess what, we killed your sister by accident and now her ghost is coming after us, can you help us stop her? Get real! Urg, I never should have let you morons talk me into that stupid prank!" She added as she pulled at her hair in frustration and fear.
"US!?" Brian exclaimed in disbelief, glaring at her, "You were the one so gung-ho about it, and letting those malfunctioning robots ice her!"
He hollered, throwing out his arms while Torque stood off to the side, clenching his head, "Oh man, oh man, I can't punch a ghost... what the hell am I going to do!?" He cried out in hysteria as Jessica started arguing with Brian while Zita shivered against Zim, and GIR... just hummed, sucking on a candy apple.
While the Irken himself frowned in irritation at the worm-babies freaking out... particularly bothered by seeing Zita's fear as she leaned against him for support (which was understandable, since he was clearly the best source of protection) and also truly beginning to curse this wretched Earth holiday! Were all of this planet's miserable celebrations determined to bring him misery and doom?! He thought, his mind flashing back to his experience with Tak on Valentine's, the fiasco with the Santa suit on Christmas, and not to mention what happen last Halloweenie and is happening now this Halloweenie!
And as the other skool children continued to freak out, his frustration peaked and he yelled, "SILENCE!" With his yell causing the others to freeze and stare at him in shock, "Your miserable arguing and groveling will not aid in our survival or dealing with Gaz-Beast!"
"Then what do you suggest we do?" Jessica sneered.
"We go to Zim's bas... er, my house! I have many inventions there that we can use to vaporize the Gaz-Ghost!" Zim declared happily.
At this, silence stood for several moments before Jessica spoke up with a flat look, "You can't be serious," the popular girl said with a glaring look of disbelief, "You expect us to put our lives in your hands?!"
She yelled in disbelief and rage, her eye twitching, "We might as well just throw ourselves at Gaz and let her eat our souls!" She screeched as Brian and Torque turned pale at that image while Zita gave a growl.
"Hey!" And shot Jessica a glare, "How about having a little faith! At least Zim's ready to fight for our lives instead of standing here freaking out!' She said, stepping up to Jessica with a glare and a slight flush of her cheeks, because seeing Zim trying to take charge like this was kinda... attractive.
But no, she had to focus, now wasn't the time for that!
"And honestly, unless anyone here has any other ideas, I don't see us having any kind of choice but to do what he says!" she snapped at Jessica.
"I mean, she's kinda got a point," Torque said.
"Yeah, I say we go with Zim's plan!" Brian quickly added.
At that Jessica let out an annoyed growl, but had to admit... they didn't have any other options.
"Fine," she groaned, rubbing her face with a tired sigh, "But you better know what you're doing, greenie."
She said, pointing at Zim with a dark scowl.
"Zim always knows what he's doing!" Zim declared, which didn't fill Jessica with confidence, "Now come, we must move quickly!"
With that, they ran down the street, soon reaching Zim's cul-de-sac and rushing up to his house, Zim kicking the door open and then slamming it shut once everyone was inside. As this was the first time any of them had been here, they all looked down in varying levels of confusion and/or disgust.
"Ugh, who decorated this place?" Jessica asked in disgust.
"Is that a toilet in your kitchen?" Brian asked, looking into the kitchen in confusion.
"Touch nothing!" Zim commanded with a snap.
"Oh please, like I actually want to touch anything in this dump," Jessica snapped back as Zita shot her a glare. But before she could say anything, she noticed Zim... climbing into a toilet?
"Uh, Zim...?" she asked, dumbfounded.
"Zim shall return promptly!" he declared, before flushing himself, leaving everyone staring at where he'd just been in disbelief.
"Seriously, what do you see in him?" Jessica asked Zita.
"For starters, he isn't a huge jerk who got us in this mess in the first place!" Zita snapped back, her patience finally running out.
"Excuse me!?" Jessica exclaimed out in disbelief.
"You heard me!" Zita shot Jessica a glare, while Torque and Brian exchanged nervous looks, "If we had just stopped things when it became clear that prank had gone too far like I wanted to, we wouldn't be in this mess!"
"You could have left any time you wanted to!" Jessica snapped.
"I tried that, remember?! Then you went and guilt tripped me into staying!" Zita growled, "Fuck, come to think of it, the whole prank was your idea in the first place! If it wasn't for you, Gaz would still be alive and none of this would be happening!"
"Hey, yeah, that's actually a good point," Brian said, speaking up while giving Jessica a glare, "If it wasn't for you, our lives wouldn't be in danger and Chunk and Dirge would still be alive!" He said with a growl while clenching his fists.
"Grr, I didn't exactly hear you complaining about the bitch being dead!" Jessica snapped back defiantly, "And you're all as much to blame as me!"
"We just went with the flow, the whole thing was your idea, we were just too afraid to say no!" Torque protested.
"Oh please, you all loved seeing that bitch burn and you all know it!" Jessica said with a glare.
"I didn't! I didn't want anything to do with anything like that!" Zita yelled, with tears actually streaming down her face as all the guilt and recent death finally started hitting home for her and hitting hard, "I just wanted to scare her! I just wanted to make her stop beating the crap out of everyone!"
"That's all I wanted too," Jessica tried to defend herself, but Zita wasn't having it.
"Bullshit! You didn't hesitate to let those killer robots go after her, and you were practically dancing on her grave before her body was even cold!"
At that, Jessica flinched back slightly at the accusation and the look in Zita's eyes, "Can you really blame me for being happy that psychopath was finally gone?!" She exclaimed.
"Yes I can, because whatever else she was, she was still a person with a family! And you had us get rid of her body like trash!" Zita snapped.
"Because that's what she was! FUCKING TRASH! THAT APPARENTLY WASN'T SMART ENOUGH TO REALIZE SHE WASN'T WANTED AND JUST STAYED IN HELL!" Jessica roared back.
There was a moment of stunned silence after that outburst as everyone just stared at her, too shocked to respond.
Eventually, however, the quiet was broken as Zim emerged back out of the toilet, carrying several large pieces of equipment in his arms. Seeing the state of the group, he looked around in confusion.
"Did I miss something?" he asked.
"Just Jessica showing how much of a cold-hearted bitch she is." Zita said evenly, while glaring at the girl in question who returned it heatedly, causing Zim to blink confused.
"Never mind them!" Torque however spoke up, stepping up to Zim, "Please tell us you've got some kinda Ghostbuster shit that will help us deal with that thing!" The jock said pleadingly to Zim, while looking around nervously.
"Of course, Zim is prepared for every situation!" he declared, hoisting up the machines he was holding, "With this, Zim can create an anti-matter particle beam that will destabilize Gaz-Beast's molecular cohesion and atomize her!"
Everyone stared blankly at him.
"I can make a laser that'll blow her up!" Zim dumbed down for them, hating have to do so and silently cursing human stupidity.
"Ooooooh!" The group sounded out in understanding.
"Well, can't go wrong with the classic of just blowing up the problem," Brian said with a nervous chuckle.
"As long as we don't get blown up, I'm in," Torque said with a grunt, crossing his arms.
"I knew we could count on you to come through, Zim!" Zita exclaimed joyfully as she lunged forward and wrapped her arms around Zim's neck in a hug.
"What's the catch?" Jessica asked with a scowl, obviously more skeptical of this whole thing than the others.
Zim, a bit flustered by the hug, took a moment to respond, but eventually he managed to compose himself.
"The catch, yellow-girl, is that Zim needs time to construct and charge the weapon," he said, "And we don't know how long we have until the deceased Dib-Sister finds us."
"That's... a pretty big catch," Brian said with a gulp, looking pale.
"It's also the only chance we've got," Zita said firmly, keeping her arms wrapped around Zim, "So just tell us what we need to do, Zim," She added, looking into Zim's red eyes, which... for a pair of contacts looked not only realistic but also actually pretty... beautiful.
"Uh, erm, right," Zim replied dumbly, also caught up in her eyes. Much to the disbelief of the others.
"Stop flirting and tell us what to do!" Jessica snapped, causing the two to break eye contact with blushes.
"Yes, right!" Zim shouted louder than he needed to, grabbing several cattle prod-looking devices and handing them out, "Zapping Gaz-Beast with these should disrupt her energy enough to keep her off balance long enough for Zim to destroy her. Do that to buy me time."
"Oooh, I think I'm actually starting to like this plan a bit~" Jessica said with a bit of a sadistic gleam in her eyes as she looked at the cattle prod, while picturing that bitch ghost screaming in pain.
"Uhh, doesn't this mean that we'll have to get close to her?" Before suddenly going pale as Brian spoke up with a nervous frightened look.
"Yes. Unless you'd rather just wait around like spineless worms waiting for her to come to you?" Zim sneered.
At this, the four humans exchanged fearful nervous expressions before Zita spoke up with a sigh, "I'm with you, Zim," She said firmly, while narrowing her eyes, "Gaz became like this because of us, so it's our responsibility to deal with her."
She told the others firmly.
"Can't we just get out of town and, I don't know, hide out in the Vatican or hire some kinda old gypsy to deal with her instead?" Jessica questioned warily, only for Zita to give her a strong glare (Which Zim couldn't help but note as a bit alluring for some strange reason) in response, causing her to give out a groan, "Yeah... figured that would be the answer."
She said while looking down at the ground.
"Eh... you only live once," Torque said, gripping the prod-like device.
"Yeah, and I'd rather live to reach my hundreds!" Brian called out with a stressed-looking expression.
"Hey, if I have to do this, so do you! Now man up and get out there!" Jessica snapped. Brian grimaced, but nodded and headed out the door, the others right behind him.
"Aha!" someone suddenly yelled as they stepped outside, causing them all to jump with surprised yells. Fortunately, but to their surprise, it wasn't Gaz's ghost; instead, it was Dib, leaping out of the bushes in Zim's yard, with a net in hand and a manic look in his eyes.
"I got you now- hey, you're not Zim," he started to yell, only to trail off as he registered who he was trying to ambush.
"...Were you just hiding in those bushes waiting for Zim to come outside?" Zita asked in disbelief.
"Uhhhh..." Dib's eyes looked back and forth, with even him realizing how bad this looked despite his determination to prove Zim was an alien, "Noooo..." He said, drawing out the word, prompting facepalms and incredulous looks.
"I'm starting to wonder if you're some kinda obsessive stalker," Jessica said, sending Dib (who himself was giving her an insulted look) a creeped out look, and for a moment actually feeling bad for Zim if this was what he usually had to deal with, before sending Zita a smirk, unable to resist poking fun at the girl, "You better be careful so he doesn't steal your boyfriend while you're not looking~" she said with a laugh.
"Now's not the time for jokes!" Zita snapped with a blush, while Dib blinked in confusion.
"Wait, you're dating Zim?" he asked, face screwing up in disgust, which made Zita scowl at him.
"No! ...Maybe. I don't know! And it's none of your business!" she snapped, "Now beat it, we're in the middle of something!"
"Okay, that disgusting subject aside..." Dib said with a green face as Zita gave him a glare as Jessica let out a giggle, "What the heck are you all doing at Zim's?" He demanded, before arching a brow, "And why do you all look like you've seen a ghost?"
That unintentional wording caused the whole group to freeze up.
"G-ghost? What ghost? That's ridiculous!" Brian laughed nervously.
"Yeah, there's no such thing as ghosts! We haven't seen any ghosts!" Torque yelled.
Dib arched an eyebrow at that, while the girls facepalmed.
"Okay... seriously... what's going on?" Dib asked slowly with a frown.
Zita bit her lip as she looked at him, the guilt that had been festering inside her all week bubbling to the top. And, considering the circumstances, she really didn't think she could keep it bottled up anymore.
"Dib... there's something you probably need to know," she said, getting a confused look from him and shocked looks from the others.
"Shut up! He doesn't need to know anything!" Jessica yelled frantically, panic and desperation in her eyes.
"Know what?" Dib demanded in a hard tone and scowling, prompting nervous looks from Jessica and the boys while Zita sighed. But before she could say anything, Jessica grabbed her and covered her mouth.
"That Zita knows about your crush on her, but she's in love with Zim!" Blurted out the blonde girl, latching onto the very first thing she could think of.
"What?!/Mmmph?!" Dib and Zita both shouted at the same time, the latter muffled by the hand covering her mouth.
"Yeah, and she wanted to let you down gently by ignoring it until you moved on, but you're clearly not getting the message!" Jessica said quickly, while the others all gave her incredulous looks.
"I don't have a crush on her!" Dib protested, though with a slight blush, "And even if that were what she meant, that doesn't explain how weird you're all acting!"
"We're just nervous and awkward being caught in the middle of you guys' love triangle," Brian explained as Torque nodded his head rapidly, "Yeah, I mean losing your crush on top of your sister is..."
Suddenly he froze, realizing what he said, as Brian and Jessica shot him looks that screamed "idiot" while Zita continued to struggle in the latter's grip.
"Wait, what do you mean losing her? Gaz is just missing," Dib said, eyes narrowing as he saw the whole group tense up in response, "If you guys know something about what happened to her, you need to tell me right now!"
"We don't know anything, so just- OW!" Jessica tried to protest, only for Zita to suddenly bite her hand to make her let go of her mouth. And before anyone could stop her again, she blurted out, "Gaz is dead!"
There was a moment of stunned silence, everyone's eyes widening in shock, Dib's most of all.
"W-what?" he managed to gasp.
"We lured her into an old house to scare her as a prank, but it went wrong and she broke her neck and we've been lying about it all week!" Zita explained, the words spilling out while tears started pouring down her cheeks as she finally let it all out, "I'm so sorry, I swear to God we just wanted to scare her, not hurt her!"
After the confession, silence stood outside of Zim's house for seeming an eternity, with a pale gaping Dib staring at Zita in shock and horror.
"Don't listen to her, she's crazy!" Jessica blurted out with a wide strained grin as she slapped her hand back over Zita's mouth, "She's just trying to pull a cruel Halloween prank on you, that's all!"
"Y-yeah, obviously Gaz isn't dead! She's just messing with you" Brian added nervously.
"Yeah, next she'll be saying that Gaz's angry ghost is haunting us and is the one who killed Chunk and Dirge!" Torque said with forced laughter.
"Dirge is dead too? When did that happen?!" Dib asked, still in shock but able to pick up on that detail.
"It didn't! Torque's just being an idiot!" Jessica snapped while throwing Torque a glare, causing the boy to wince as Brian facepalmed, while Zita struggle to break Jessica's grip before getting a idea, "So why don't you just...EW!" Jessica started to say, before yelling out in disgust as Zita licked her hand, "OW!"
Then shouting out in pain as Zita bit her hand again, allowing the girl to break free from her hold.
"It's not a joke! Gaz is dead and her ghost is on a murderous rampage! She's the one who burned Chunk, and she just attacked us at Jessica's party and crushed Dirge with a prop cauldron!" she yelled, "Zim is trying to build something to get rid of her, and we're just trying to keep her busy long enough for him to do it!"
Jessica glared at her, while Brian and Torque looked nervously between the girls and Dib, who was still shocked and trying to figure out whether he could believe what he was hearing.
And then the decision was made for him, as with a burst of flame erupting out of the cul-de-sac's asphalt, Gaz appeared hovering in the air, back to her normal appearance.
"There you are," she growled, eyes flashing red.
"G-Gaz..." Dib stuttered, his eyes wide in shock as he realized, "You're..." He started to say, pale as a ghost ironically, with Gaz giving a snort.
"Dead, yeah, I know. Good to see you're caught up on the movie plot, Dib," She said with an annoyed scowl, while glaring at her targets, "And you're just in time for the climax of dragging these morons to hell!"
"Drag this, bitch!" Jessica yelled, thrusting her prod at Gaz and causing it to shoot out a bolt of electricity at her. To everyone's surprise, when it hit her, it caused her to flicker for a moment while shrieking in pain.
"What the fuck?! Why did that hurt?! I'm already dead!" she yelled in rage.
Jessica blinked in shock herself, actually surprised that worked, before crying in smug satisfaction, "HA! Not so tough now, are you?!" She asked with a mocking smile, thrusting her prod at Gaz again, once more causing her to shriek in pain, "Looks like Zim's useful for something after all!"
With grins brought about by desperate relief at having a chance at survival, Brian and Torque joined in with the attack, thrusting their own prods in Gaz's direction. As Gaz continued to scream in pain, Dib looked on in horror, and Zita found herself frozen.
Logically, she knew that she should be helping, because this was probably the only way to ensure that she lived past tonight. But hearing Gaz's pained cries, and seeing the look on Dib's face as he watched his sister's spirit suffer, she found her guilt crushing down on her again - could she really let herself be part of causing the Membranes any more pain than she already had?
While Dib was just plain shellshocked. His sister was dead! HIS CLASSMATES KILLED HIS SISTER!? HIS SISTER WAS A GHOST!? He... he... he... Dib's brain just went completely dead in shock, unable to think or say anything, as this was too much!
"URGGG! DON"T JUST STAND THERE, YOU IDIOT! HELP ME!" Gaz's spirit raged at Dib. Couldn't her worthless brother be useful for once in his miserable life!?
The cry managed to penetrate Dib's shock, and triggered something primal in Dib. His little sister had been hurt, was being hurt even more by the people who had done it in the first place, and suddenly all Dib could see was red.
"Grrr, leave her alone!" he screamed, tackling Torque hard enough to send the jock stumbling into Jessica, leaving all three falling into a heap on the ground.
"What are you doing, you lunatic?! That thing is going to kill us!" Jessica yelled as she struggled to get out from under the disoriented Torque and Dib pressed down to try and keep them both in place, all while Zita looked on in shock.
"That 'thing' is my sister, and you've done enough to her!" Dib snarled in rage.
"Guys, knock it off! I need help here!" Brian yelled at them. However, in the process, he made the mistake of looking away from Gaz and letting up on his attack on her. This gave her the opportunity to gather her wits, and looking around, she smirked as she saw a nearby fire hydrant. Focusing her spectral powers on it, she snapped her fingers.
BOOM
FWOOSH
And in response, one side of the hydrant blew open, unleashing a high-pressure stream of water right at Brian. Whose prod was still active and crackling with electricity.
ZAP
"AAAGGGGRRRRHHHH!" Brian screamed as the water covered him and conducted the prod's current into his body, electrocuting him.
With everyone watching in shock as his body flashed with electric energy to the point that they could actually see his skeleton in some flashes while Gaz...
"Hehahahaha, who's frying who now you ass!?"
Gaz actually laughed in sick twisted delight at Brian's pain and suffering as he was electrocuted to death.
After a few minutes, the water pressure died down, causing the electrocution to stop as well. Not that that did Brian any good, as he was by now fried to a crisp, and without the water pressure holding him up, he fell to a lifeless heap on the ground while everyone looked on in shock and horror.
"Oh my God..." Dib gasped, eyes widening as what he'd just seen snapped him out of his righteous rage.
"You see?! That one's on you!" Jessica snapped at him, only to freeze as Gaz's attention turned to the rest of them.
"So, who's next?" she hissed.
"Gaz, stop! This isn't right!" Dib shouted, jumping up and putting himself between his sister and her targets.
"Not right? Not right?! Look at what they DID TO ME!" Gaz screamed, shifting into her more corpse-like appearance, "They killed me, and burned my body like trash! They all need to PAY!"
"I know! But not like this!" Dib cried out, shaking his head, still in the shock of processing his sister was not only dead but just killed somebody! And apparently killed two other people too!
"Doing this just makes you as bad as them!" He said, shooting the remaining three a glare, with Zita flinching and looking away, Torque just looking awkward, and Jessica... just glaring right back at him, "We can call Dad and the police and make sure they pay for what they did... but this..."
Dib looked at what was left of Brian in shock, swallowing nervously, "This isn't right, Gaz," He added in a low voice with a hard frown, having no desire to see his sister twisted into some kinda monster like Zim.
"Who gives a shit what you think?" Gaz growled, flames bursting to life around her, "Stay out of my way, Dib, or Dad will have two kids to mourn instead of just one!"
Dib flinched back at that, and looked between his sister's ghost and the three students cowering behind him. A part of him wanted to do what she said and just step aside, to let these three murderers get what they deserved. But he couldn't do it, his conscience screaming at him to do something to stop this.
"Gaz, please..." Zita begged, only to flinch as Gaz turned her attention on her.
"Okay, I've had enough of your whining. You're next," she hissed.
"ZIM THINKS NOT, GAZ-GHOST!"
Everyone's attention snapped over to Zim's front door, where he now stood holding a massive cannon gun in his hand.
"Eat anti-matter!" he yelled as he pulled the trigger, firing a beam of energy at Gaz. Who barely had enough time to widen her eyes before the beam hit her.
"AAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
Much to not only ensuing pain, but also...
FLASH!
BOOOM!
A large bright explosion that blew everybody back.
When the dust cleared after a few minutes, it revealed that Dib and the other humans had been blown back against the side of Zim's house, while Zim himself had been sent flying back into the house, lying next to the couch where GIR sat, obliviously watching TV.
"What... what just happened?" Dib muttered as the group stood up. Seeing Zim step back outside, he glared at his nemesis, "Zim! What did you do?!"
"What needed to be done, Dib-Stink, to prevent your ghost sibling from killing Zim and Zita-girl!" Zim said defiantly, before coughing awkwardly and adding, "And, er, these other two as well."
"Why would she... You were in on this?!" Dib screamed, the rage resurfacing as he realized what Zim meant.
"He loaned us the animatronics we tried to scare Gaz with, but that's all! He wasn't even there that night!" Zita quickly said in Zim's defense.
"And things only went wrong there because some people..." Zita shot Jessica who was pushing herself up with a groan while rubbing her head a glare, "Decided to turn the juice up on those things," she said with a scowl, with Jessica giving an eye roll.
"You're never going to let that go, are you?" she asked with a frown.
"Considering it led to Gaz getting killed and her ghost almost killing us... NO!" Zita snapped back, glaring at her as Torque gave a groan where he laid on the ground in slight pain.
"Urg... did we win? Is it... urg... over?" he asked, sitting up on his butt with a grunt.
"Yes, Torque-Ape, it's all over. Once again, Zim's genius has brought about a glorious victory!" Zim crowed. Dib glared at him, fists clenched, as he tried to decide how he felt after everything that had happened in the last few minutes. Unfortunately, he never got a chance to, as a terrifyingly familiar voice spoke up next.
"You wish, loser," Gaz said as she flared back into existence. And then as everyone stared in shock, she waved her hand, causing Zim's anti-matter cannon to fly up into the air, spinning around like a club to hit him in the head and knock him back into his house.
"ARG!" With Zim giving a startled cry of pain as he once again landed in the living room in front of the oblivious GIR.
"Shhhhh, I'm watching the monkey~" the disguised robot said with a gleeful smile, causing Zim to give a growling groan, "I... hate that monkey..."
While back outside, the anti-matter cannon floated up to Gaz, who gave a sinister smirk.
"Let's see how you losers like Zim's dumb toys being used on you instead~" she said as the cannon pointed and aimed straight at a wide-eyed Torque.
"Wait, no, PLEASE MERCY!" The jock shouted, but was ignored as Gaz mentally had the cannon fire.
BOOM
The beam hit Torque head on, and he didn't even have a chance to scream before his body exploded, leaving nothing but a massive scorch mark on the grass.
"Hahahaha! Now that was fun!" Gaz cackled, as the others stared in horror at where Torque used to be. She then swung the cannon around towards the others, who flinched back in panic... only for nothing to happen, as several sparks burst out of the base of the cannon's controls.
"Ugh, of course Zim's crap stops working after two shots," she spat in disgust, tossing the cannon aside, while Dib and the girls took the opportunity to run inside Zim's house and shut the door, "Run and hide all you want! NONE OF YOU CAN ESCAPE ME!"
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A/N: So, Dib at last knows what happened to his sister, but all things considered he's probably wishing that he was still ignored.
Also, we can scratch Brian and Torque off the list. Will anyone survive at this point? Well, you'll just have to wait and see.