Snuff Out a Thousand Suns
Arc 1: Chapter 11
I don’t own Invader Zim. This is obvious. If I were Mr. Vasquez, I’d be too busy vomiting out of every orifice on my body from the sheer thought of Zim having a sexual relationship with any of the other characters to be typing this right now.
Author’s note at the beginning, this time. I think it fits better here than the end. Remember, no update next week, and please don’t flame too hard over this chapter. I won’t blame you if you do, though; I had to wander my house chewing myself out after writing a certain scene about four and a half pages in and chug a Mountain Dew to get working again.
The Dew doesn’t seem to be affecting me well, though. I got the shakes now. Whoo. Used to be able to chug four straight no problem, and now two’s screwing me up. Damn you college budget. Why can’t you allow for three 12-packs a week? I’ve lost my resistance to the sugar rush.
~*~*~
Flurn sighed, staring out the window. He could just see Judgmentia in the distance, and they’d
probably be landing in a few units, if that. Shtirk had been to visit him a few times, trying to convince Flurn to speak against Zim at his trial. He’d promised to get Flurn’s charges dropped if he turned against the Invader. Each time, Flurn refused to agree to it, and Shtirk left angry and fuming. And now, with Judgmentia looming, the trial would likely be held the next morning.
The former Tallest turned to face the door. He’d been given a larger room than Zim and Dib were sharing, and he hadn’t seen anyone other than Shtirk and the drone that brought him meals in nearly a full three tenhafs. The isolation and his lowered status had resulted in his eyes and Pak slowly turning back to their natural pink, along with his body shape morphing back to a normal size. The Irken Tallest and Taller received regular injections of dye to help distinguish them from lower classes. An Irken who made a good living could afford the dye as well, if they wanted it, which was the reason for compressing the Tallest’s waist. It stretched them out just a little more, and would never be seen on even a Taller.
The door suddenly slid open, and Flurn blinked in surprise at the sight of Gaz. She slipped into the room, closing the door behind herself, and quickly walked over to Flurn, grabbing the chain tied around his wrist. “What’re you-”
“Shut up.”
Flurn blinked again, watching as the chain fell away from one wrist, followed quickly by the other. “Gaz, what are you doing?”
The hyuman cocked an eyebrow irritably. “Getting you out. What does it look like?” The girl grabbed Flurn’s wrist, pulling him back towards the door. “Come on. GIR’s not going to stay quiet for long.”
Gaz opened the door again, and Flurn saw GIR sitting on the floor across the hallway. The little robot smiled and waved, hopping to his feet. Gaz glanced down the hall both ways before nodding, and starting off towards the rear of the ship. “What do you mean you’re getting me out, Gaz?” Flurn whispered, following the girl. “You don’t honestly think we can possibly get off this ship, do you?”
“You don’t honestly think I’m doing this without having spent almost three tenhafs planning, do you?” she snapped quietly, peeking around a corner before turning. “Come on.”
“Gaz, there’s drones all over. There are ships everywhere outside; we’re not getting out of here!” the Irken hissed, stumbling as GIR jumped onto his back.
“Exactly. That’s how we will get out, now trust me,” Gaz growled back, stopping at a door. She opened it a crack and glanced in before continuing down the hall.
“Well, where are we going if you’re so sure we’ll get out? The hangers are towards the front of the ship, not the back!”
Gaz stopped, turning to give Flurn a look of absolute disbelief. “You have to ask?” she grumbled, shaking her head.
GIR squealed happily, kicking Flurn in the side. “We gonna get Mama!!”
~-~-~
Dib yawned, smirking at the Irken across the room. Zim hadn’t said a single word since his leader had been arrested. It was almost creepy, but not so much that the human couldn’t love finally seeing his enemy so broken. It took a lot of the edge off from the fact that Dib was pretty sure he was probably still going to be killed, even if Zim had turned out to be a criminal. The Irkens had a lot of pride from what Dib had seen, and he really doubted that they’d let him off.
Currently, Zim was sitting under the single window their room had. He’d looked out earlier that day, and seemed even more unhappy than before, if that were even possible. Dib had no idea what he’d seen out there, but it clearly wasn’t something pleasant.
The door opened, drawing Dib’s attention away from Zim, and he saw a rather short pink-eyed female in the doorway. She spared a single brief glance at Dib before walking over to Zim and beginning to untie his chain from the stake in the wall. “Tallest Shtirk wants to see you,” she explained, pulling at the chain once it was fully untied. “Come.” Zim forced himself to his feet, shuffling after her. The Irkens paused before leaving the room, and the female tossed a slight smirk in Dib’s direction. “I do hope you enjoy your own trial, hyuman,” she said, before the door clicked shut behind her and Zim.
Outside, Dib heard a faint shriek of what sounded like 'Mama’, and something heavy slamming into the door. “That almost sounded like GIR,” he murmured to himself, pressing his ear up against the door to listen better.
~-~-~
“Mamamamamama!!” GIR wailed happily, rubbing his face against the side of Zim’s head. Zim cracked the first smile he’d shown in ages, allowing the robot to do as he wished. All too soon, the drone who’d brought him out of the room grabbed the SIR unit, handing him off to another Irken standing nearby.
“Zim, you have to keep your SIR quiet, or he’ll ruin everything,” she whispered, pulling at the chain still tied around his neck. “I’m risking a lot to help you right now, so don’t screw this up, okay?”
Zim blinked in confusion, glancing past the drone to see Gaz and Flurn standing nearby. “What..?”
Flurn looked almost as confused as Zim, glancing from Gaz to the drone. “Oh, come on, Flurn,” Gaz said with a smirk. “You didn’t think there weren’t any drones who prefer you over Shtirk, did you?”
The drone smiled as the chain fell away from Zim’s neck, and she lowered it quietly to the floor. “You two are a real inspiration, My Tallest,” she said, nudging Zim towards his lover. “I lost my Skeep a long time ago when it came out that he’d been with a Smaller, but he refused to give my name, and destroyed his own Pak to keep his memories from being seen.” She smiled as Zim practically threw himself into Flurn’s arms, rubbing his antenna frantically against the taller Irken’s cheek. “I really hope things work out for you both.”
Flurn smiled back at her, holding Zim tight against his chest. “Thank you,” he murmured, his own antennae rubbing against Zim. “What’s your name? I never was good with names.”
“I’m Kip,” the drone responded, “and we really should be keeping on the move if you four are going to get out of here.”
GIR laughed madly, leaping from Flurn’s shoulders to land on Zim’s head. “We gonna get taquitos?!”
“No, GIR. No taquitos,” Zim hissed, pulling the robot off his head. “Now GIR, you need to be very quiet. If you aren’t, you’ll get us all deactivated, understand?” The SIR cocked its head to the side, blinking slowly. “Of course you don’t,” Zim sighed, looking away for a moment. “All right. GIR. We’re going to play a game, all right?”
“Eeeeeeeeeeeee!” GIR shrieked happily. “I like games! Is it a cheeeeeese game?!”
Zim slapped a hand over the robot’s mouth. “No, GIR! It’s a quiet game. You need to stay absolutely silent, understand? Don’t make a sound, no matter what, or you lose. If you stay quiet until Zim tells you to speak, then we shall get your taquitos.”
“Taquitos!!”
“GIR! Silence! Starting now! Understand?” Zim hissed, glancing around nervously. Some other drones had to have heard the SIR by now. GIR was still for a moment before nodding happily. Zim didn’t really think he understood what was happening, but they’d have to hope he did, and get moving.
The little group started down the hallway towards the hanger, moving quickly and quietly, and occasionally coming across drones. Some supported them, and would give alerts on where other drones were stationed at, and Kip would snap a cable from her Pak into theirs, disabling them for a short amount of time so they’d have a credible story to give Shtirk for how they’d gotten past. She used the same technique on any drones that tried to stop them, but with a bit less care than the helpful ones. Several times GIR would break into a fit of shrieks or giggles, catching the attention of three groups of drones that supported Shtirk and two that helped them. After a fourth fight against Shtirk’s drones, Gaz stopped them.
“Zim, you need to do something about GIR before we get caught,” she growled, kicking the head of an unconscious drone. “These guys are going to start waking up soon, and we need to be out of here by the time that happens.”
Kip frowned slightly. “She’s right, Zim. We aren’t even halfway to the hanger yet, and we’ve almost been caught several times. You have to make him be quiet, or leave him behind.”
Zim stiffened, turning to the robot. “No one can make GIR be quiet,” he murmured, antenna pressed against his skull. “He just doesn’t know how.”
“Mama!!” the robot screeched, jumping up and down. “Lookit what I can do!” He flipped onto his hands, doing a wobbly hand-stand for several seconds before falling noisily to the floor.
Flurn placed a hand on Zim’s shoulder. “Zim, if you deactivate him, we can carry him to the ship and reactivate him later.”
The ex-Invader started to nod, then shook his head. “Flurn, he’s an old model. Zim looked him up once. If he’s deactivated, it will be permanent.” His antenna pressed harder against his head, and he glanced down a hallway. Footsteps were coming towards them, and Kip whipped the cable out of her Pak again. Zim closed his eyes for a moment, grabbing GIR by the antenna. He looked at the little robot for several long seconds, listening as the footsteps paused, turned, and went back the way they’d come from. “GIR...as far as sidekicks go, you’ve been horrible. You’ve ruined Zim’s plans left and right, and never been any help,” he whispered once the footsteps couldn’t be heard, and pulled the SIR into a hug. “As a companion, however...Zim couldn’t have asked for anyone better.” In a single swift movement, he flipped open the robot’s head, reached in, and pressed hard on a button at the top of his neck.
GIR smiled widely at the compliment, hugging Zim back. When the button was pressed, he stiffened, twitched, and went still, his bright cyan eyes dimming to a dark shade of gray. Zim straightened up, lifting the limp body into his arms, and starting down the hall again.
“Zim..,” Flurn murmured, reaching out to touch the other’s shoulder. Zim jerked out from under the touch, muttering that they had to keep going, and sped up.
As much as the entire party hated to admit it, with as fond as Zim and Flurn had grown of GIR and how much the girls could see it was hurting Zim to have lost him, they did move much faster without him. In about the same amount of time they’d already been going, they managed to reach the hanger, and only ran across two more solitary drones.
“This one,” Gaz hissed, pointing at a Shuver close to the Massive’s doors. “I disabled the tracking on it last night, so we want to take it. We just have to get out there into the traffic, and we can lose Shtirk easy.” Flurn nodded, starting to duck into the ship.
“Well, well. What have we here.”
Spinning away from the ship, Flurn saw Shtirk, Drek and a few other soldiers standing not ten units away.
“Drone Kip. And here I thought you were one of the smarter drones on this ship,” the Tallest said with a sigh. “Drek.”
Drek smirked, whipping a gun out of her Pak and firing straight at Kip’s. The shot missed the center, but flew straight into one of the side panels, and Kip shrieked in pain.
“That hyuman boy told a drone that Zim had been taken to see me, and that he thought the defect was escaping. I really didn’t want to believe you’d be so stoopid, Flurn. But...here we are,” Shtirk said, arms outstretched to encompass the situation. “Now, are you going to fight me, or just come along quietly?”
Zim snarled at the Tallest, clutching GIR’s body closer to himself. Shtirk caught sight of the broken robot, and laughed. “Lost your SIR, huh? I don’t think that model reactivates, does it? Eh, not like it’s that big of a loss, really. It never did you much good anyway. Now, come on, and I’ll make sure the Control Brains deactivate you nice and quick, okay? I’ll even throw the robot away for ya.”
Kip and Zim caught each others’ eyes briefly, and Zim reached into GIR’s head again. “I may have lost GIR, but it will not have been in vain, Shtirk; and you will never have him,” he hissed, flicking a switch situated between the robot’s eye sockets. He threw GIR to Kip, who caught the now-beeping body and leaped at the other Irkens. Zim whipped his spider-legs out, grabbed hold of Gaz and Flurn, threw them into the back of the Shuver, jumped into the cockpit, and punched in commands to start the ship and open the hanger doors.
Kip used her own spider-legs to hold Shtirk and the soldiers in place, forcing them all through the unbroken panel as the beeping coming from GIR grew louder and faster. Shtirk furiously screamed orders at his soldiers, but Kip’s legs were holding too firmly for any of them to even get up, let alone use their own weapons against her. Kip smiled a little, closing her eyes as she listened to the Shuver speeding out of the Massive. “I’m coming, Skeep,” she murmured. “You’ve been waiting long enough.”
GIR stopped beeping for a long second, followed by a powerful explosion rocketing from his chest. Red-hot metal rained across the soldiers, and Shtirk screeched in pain and fury.
Outside the Massive, the stolen Shuver fell into place in the line of ships leaving Judgmentia. A high-profile trial had been held over the past few days, and only just ended, so Gaz had decided to use that to their advantage, and Zim piloted them in to blend with the leaving spectators. After getting out of view of the massive, Gaz pulled him into the back, climbing up to take the wheel, and neither Irken argued. Flurn just wrapped his arms around Zim, pulling him tight against his chest, and Zim let out the hot, burny tears that had been hanging in his eyes ever since getting off the Massive.
~-~-~
Dib glanced up as the door to his room opened again, expecting to see Zim being dragged in. Instead, he saw Shtirk, covered in cuts, scratches, and a few burns. The Irken quickly hovered towards him, grabbing his exploding collar and punching in some quick commands. “Zim got away,” he growled, wiping some blood from his arm onto the collar. “He took Flurn and Gaz with him.”
“What’d he do to you?” Dib asked, feeling rather nervous as the collar gave two long beeps.
“Talked one of my best drones into betraying me, then threw his broken SIR at me after activating its self-destruct sequence. Kip managed to hold me and four soldiers until it exploded,” the Irken explained bitterly, releasing a laser from his Pak and slicing through the chain in Dib’s hand. “I need you to find them for me. In exchange, I’ll pardon the humiliation you gave to the Irken empire. Zim is no longer even considered Irken at this point, so you really didn’t do anything wrong in my view. But.” He paused, grabbing Dib’s chin and pulling him up to look him in the eye. “Don’t get any funny ideas. I changed the settings on your collar, so you can go out without exploding, but I can activate it remotely, and I’ve set it to go off if anything happens to me. So don’t think you can just go off and do whatever you want.” He dropped the human to the floor, turning and floating out the door. “Come on.”
Dib stumbled out after the Irken, blinking rapidly at the brighter light in the hallway. “Trust me, I’ll do whatever I can to get Zim,” he said, “but I need a pair of glasses or something. I can’t see anything like this.”
“I’ll have the medical drones take care of your vision,” Shtirk replied, leading the boy across the ship.
“I’m gonna need some kind of ship, too.”
Shtirk grinned at that. “Don’t worry about that, hyuman,” he said. “Just make sure you kill Zim and Gaz, and bring me Flurn alive.
Dib was quiet for a few minutes at the thought of killing Gaz. She was his sister, after all. But...she’d always been so horrible to him. And she had been a leading factor in the destruction of Earth. Plus, she’d probably been the main reason Zim had gotten away. There was no way he could’ve done it without outside help. But she was still his sister. Dib shook his head. He had to stop that kind of thought. No sister of his would help destroy the Earth, and if Dib had to choose between killing her and being killed himself...well...it’d certainly be difficult to actually go through with, but he was pretty sure he could do it, as long as it was from a distance or something, and he did it quick.
The boy frowned at that thought. It made him feel a little sick to realize he probably could, and would have to, kill one of the last remaining humans in existence.
Shtirk led Dib through a large, open door into what looked like some sort of hanger. There were blurry, ship-like shapes everywhere, and they walked among them for a few minutes before stopping. Dib squinted at the small ship they had stopped at, grinning when he recognized the bored smiley face he’d painted on its hull in ninth grade. “Tak’s old ship,” he murmured, placing a hand against the door.
“I couldn’t let Irken equipment be destroyed along with your planet, now, could I?” Shtirk asked with a smirk. “Now c’mon. I want your eyes taken care of so you can get out there as soon as possible,” he said, turning to leave the hanger.
Dib followed happily. He was going to live, he’d be able to see again, and he was getting his own ship back. And all he had to do was kill his worst enemy. Not a bad deal.