Megami Joushou

Meg didn't even bother to call in to work the next day. She didn't care if it meant another lecture. She didn't even care if she was fired and tossed out on the street. She and GIR would eat out of garbage cans and sing for pennies like Venetian minstrels (if... Venice used pennies, that is). She had taught GIR a variety of songs, and he could hold his own against her easily.

The morning was passed leisurely; GIR danced for her and she dressed him up as a mime. Nobody knocked on her door or sent her any messages. By 1100 hours she made up her mind and pounced on her terminal.

"Can we make bacon 'n' eggs??" GIR burbled, still making mime motions with his metallic claws.

Shaking her head as she pecked away at the computer, Meg replied, "We're not hungry today, GIR-igible." Truth be told, Megami never had a large requirement for food. She winced as she realized that it was probably the Irken in her.

"My tummy's growlin'."

"Eat this pen."

He did, spraying ink everywhere, and she laughed.

Hacking Gaftar's files was surprisingly easy. It was still long and tedious work, however. Every step she made had to be meticulously covered so that Membrane couldn't discover what she was doing if he looked into her terminal.

Every Irken that had passed through the prison was listed, along with various details of what experiments had been performed on it, how it died, etc. Very few of them were identified by name. They were simply numbers and letters. No pictures.

And almost all of them had been captured in raids. There was absolutely no mention of a ship crash-landing or anything of the sort... so she had obviously been taken from somewhere.

If her parents had ever been kept in that prison, she wasn't going to find anything on that computer...

Sighing at the lack of any satisfying information, she schlepped around some more files and tried to dig up anything she possibly could. The network that linked her terminal to her family's was pretty open, but she had never attempted to hack them in any capacity. After a few tries she gave up on both Gaz and Membrane. They were very heavily encrypted and too much nosing could tip them off to her activities.

Valerie's files weren't protected at all aside from some virus blockers. But her computer was very bland and mom-like. Lots of photographs, some newsnet files saved (like when Gaz discovered a new strata rich with some calicifed matter... when Meg graduated high school, etc)... But after a short amount of digging she hit paydirt.

A folder nearly buried among a long list of research files simply marked "Dib."

Her pulse quickening, she clicked on it to find that it wasn't at all encrypted.

The only photo Megami had ever seen of Dib was an old, faded printout photo that Papaw kept in his wallet.

The boy was only 12 years old, but Meg had always likened him to herself due to the huge, oblivious smile he wore. He had Gaz around the neck, hugging her tightly. She looked irritated but yielded to him for the sake of the photo.

Valerie had a few more photos stocked away of Dib in later years, and one school photo. About 30 kids with bored looks on their faces were posing behind a board marked "Bitters' 5th Grade." With little effort she found Dib: thick glasses, big grin and all. But he looked almost angry... the other children were standing a few paces apart from him than they were eachother (Meg had known he was not well-liked), save for an odd-looking boy with-- Green skin?!

It was hard to discern bcause they were in the back row, but it seemed as if Dib's hand was pushing on the green boy's head. The boy was holding the other side of his head in order to keep it straight, with annoyance clear in his features. Meg squinted at the photo and saw that the green boy had a handfull of Dib's trenchcoat and was pulling on it as if to get his arm away from the hair.

That boy... He couldn't have been human.

But what was he? The thick black hair had to have been a wig. It appeared as if Dib was trying to pull it off.

Hoping to find more answers, Meg clicked on more photos. The image tag on the next one said, "Dib--17." It was a simple photo of Dib standing sheepishly in someone's front yard... Possibly his... with hands shoved in his trenchcoat pockets. Megami recognized it as the one she was wearing that very instant. He was so much more real to her now... Moreso than ever.

Giggling, she touched the compter screen with gentle fingertips. He was a big geek! But he was very handsome. A lot like David, actually... if he got rid of those glasses, that hair...

But those were Membrane specialties. He so looked like a young Professor Membrane! He was adorable. She wanted to pinch his pale little cheeks.

While the rest of the photos were interesting, they didn't give Meg any more insight into Dib as a person. There was one of him crouched oh-so-sexily over a computer screen like a little hunchback. One where Gaz was "playfully" spraying him in the face with silly string...

Megami's heart skipped a beat when she scrolled across an actual video. Maybe she could hear what his voice sounded like! It had no label. Only a date.

She did not expect to see what she did.

It looked like a big production, almost like a sporting event. Thousands of Irkens were screaming with joy, and Irken characters scrolled across the bottom of the screen.

Though most of the video's focus was on advertisement, obvious Irken propoganda, and the Red and Purple Tallests (the Lasts. Everyone knew what the Lasts looked like), the cameras quickly scrolled past and fixed on Dib, who was shackled to the stage alongside another Irken.

Megami immediately had to swallow bile. Somehow (obviously in the course of events leading to this footage) Dib had lost his right arm. It had been crudely bound but was quickly bleeding through. His shirt and pants were soaked with blood, and his pallor suggested he was bordering on going into shock. She couldn't even figure out how he was still standing... He was staggering, looking dully at the ground, not even reacting when Purple Tallest pressed a laser to his forehead.

The Lasts were pandering to the cameras, smiling and making elaborate speeches. Cursing, Meg tried in futility to get an audio link. The file had long since been irreparably corrupted.

Suddenly, the Irken had the upper hand and was holding Red suspended in the air. Dib was leaning against him for support. The Irken pressed Dib's clammy head against his chest... An affectionate gesture?

Then, there was the horrible beast. Dib was dropped on the ground as the Irken was thrown into the air. Laser fire. Bloodshed. Dib got to his feet... He and the Irken were yelling at one another. More fighting.The beast was electrocuted and its Irken prey landed shakily before it, back turned.

"Turn around!" Megami squealed, flailing. "One of the arms is still working!" She was biting her nails. The third arm was poised, ready to make its deathblow...

At the last minute, Dib jumped in front of the Irken. Megami's stomach fell to her knees as she watched the alien finally turn, his face becoming painted with Dib's blood.

With a sweaty, fumbling hand, Meg terminated the video as quickly as she could.

She had never seen such carnage. For nearly ten minutes she covered her face and sobbed uncontrollably. GIR squeezed her leg tightly and gnawed on her knee.

When she finally regained her composure, she tried to find some more uplifting material in the Dib folder.

There was a small batch of text files that Megami discerned were letters. Most were pretty bland "I'm fine, how're you?" stuff, but some of them were amusing windows into the man's head. One was even sexually explicit... "I was in the shower the other day and I thought about how great your tits were..." Blushing, Meg quickly closed that one.

Apparently Dib and Valerie had some kind of sexual relationship? How come Valerie had never mentioned it? Probably because Gaz was jealous...

There was occasional mention of someone named "Zim." Mostly mundane stuff. "Zim wanted to know how high you adjusted the throttle on that Spittle Runner," or "I was for sure it was Orion's Belt, but Zim assured me (quite loudly) that it was not..."

The last letter was totally different from the others, however. Dib seemed so... sad, was it? Fatalistic? Here he finally mentioned how he "adored" Zim and had "feelings" for him. Megami couldn't think these were anything other than ROMANTIC feelings... Even the obvious passion he showed Valerie couldn't dissuade her from THAT.

The final letter was dated only three days before the video. Did Dib somehow know that he was going to die? And was this "Zim" the Irken she had seen? All signs pointed to "yes."

So the rumors were true. Not only was Dib in love with an Irken, but one of the same sex! Meg rubbed her forehead. Was Papaw Membrane ashamed of him? The final letter indicated, to her, that he was. And that this fact was also bothersome to Gaz as well.

Maybe speaking of him reallyWAS too painful for them... But Meg still felt as if they had no reason to keep his life hidden from her.

Just like they had hidden that she was of Irken descent...

Another lump rose in her throat. For a short time she was actually able to forget... about THAT...

She slammed her terminal shut and whirled about in just enough time to see Gaz enter the doorway.

"Well, if it isn't the L33T H4XX0R herself," Gaz sneered, leaning against the doorjamb.

Face staid, Meg made no attempt to deny her activities.

"Valer wanted to give you time to 'find yourself,' but I bet she didn't think that involved your nosing around her computer."

"Yours was too difficult to hack," Meg replied earnestly, crossing her legs as if they were beginning a business meeting. When the only response Gaz gave was a smirk, Meg asked simply, "Did Dib fall in love with an Irken?"

"You hadn't figured that out yet?" Gaz absentmindedly picked at her nails. "Yes. He did fall in love with an Irken. The stupidest, most incompetent Irken they ever shot out." Meg looked back at the terminal. "And you saw the video, didn't you? He gave his life for that moron, and what did he do with it? He squandered it. He threw it away."

"How?"

"By flying his ship to Irk and crashing it into the broad side of the planet."

Antennae perking up, Meg cried, "So Dib's Irken lover was the one responsible for the destruction of that planet?"

Gaz nodded. "Indeed. Though it was unnecessary for him to throw his life away... He used a gun when a slingshot would have done the trick." Glaring, Gaz spat, "And Dib's sacrifice was for naught."

Megami was incredulous. "But they saved the universe!"

"You see this on such a grand scope, Megami," Gaz answered, her voice low. "But Dib was not some nameless 'hero' sent from above. He was my brother, and he spent his life for someone who barely appreciated it or cared. Our planet was destroyed just as Irk was, and all because Dib was more concerned about-- about--" she growled, "--ZIM than anything else."

Near tears, Megami whispered, "Of course he's just a... nameless 'hero' to me. Because... Because you never told me anything about him!"

"Trust me," Gaz answered, the bitterness clear in her voice, "You're better off." Whirling back toward the hallway, she said, "I suggest you spend the rest of the day constructively because you're going to be in a hell of a lot of hot water when dad gets home." The door closed again.

"Will do," Meg whispered, quickly copying the "Dib" folder onto her hard drive. After a few moments' hesitation, she ventured to reopen the video file again, scrolling to the points just after Dib was impaled.

Zim lay him gingerly on the ground, and you could see they were speaking to one another. Last words...

Zim was finally able to kill the mechanical beast.

And the look of anguish on his face was plain.

He did care about Dib's sacrifice. In fact... Those eyes had dimmed. It was obvious a part of him had died as well. He looked... just like the Prince... Those eyes...

The Irken race was not a soulless mass like everyone had always said. They loved and lost just like humans did...

When Valerie and Gaz stole Megami from her parents' arms, did parts of them die as well? Did they go throw away their lives just like Zim did? Because life without her, just like Zim's life without Dib, was no longer worth living?

************************************************

Fear ate at the back of Megami's mind as she hacked the lock into the janitorial wing of Gaftar prison. But overall she was excited. She wanted to find her answers once and for all, and she was sure she could find them at the prison.

If she couldn't find any information in the prison's database, she would go have a look for herself. There were two prisoners who had been held in the facility's "special wing" for nearly 16 years, pretty close to Megami's lifespan (or so she was told). Nirvana had only been around for 18 years itself.

Luckily, she had done her research on the prison long ago, due to her interest in becoming a Razier. She knew its defenses quite well, and the halls were guarded fairly lightly in the area she broke into. By slipping in through the janitorial section she only had to pass one guard station, which contained a door she could easily hack through if the guard wasn't looking.

And, of course, he wasn't. He was reading a book with such devotion that when the clock chimed he didn't even look up. His glass-enclosed office was ten feet away from the steel door leading into the special section, and when she tiptoed up and the door buzzed her inside, she doubted he even heard a "click."

The guards had no reason to be especially vigilant. There had never been a successful escape attempt and no one ever came to rescue any prisoners. Who would risk their neck for an Irken? Nearly 99% of the prison's population consisted of them.

She crept through the dark, quiet hallway, peeking into all of the cells. The doors were metal bars just like in the movies, but they were electrified. Most of the cells were empty, though. The few Irkens she passed didn't even notice her; they were all hooked up to strange devices that disabled their Paks' functions. She knew which prisoner numbers she was looking for... So far nothing looked familiar.

Until she passed a cell toward the middle of the first hallway.

"Well... If it isn't the Nymph."

Stopping abruptly and doing an about-face, Megami took a defensive position.

"You're a little jumpy, aren't you?" the Prince chuckled, not bothering to move from his seat on the cot. He was also hooked up to a device, but it wasn't seemingly affecting him like it did the other Irkens.

Lowering her guard a tad, Megami replied in a low voice, "Why shouldn't I be?"

The Irken shrugged. "I'm the helpless one here." He knocked on the thick metallic wall. "Not getting out of HERE anytime soon."

"That sounded sarcastic," Megami growled, raising an eyebrow.

"Me? Mock the best that human technology has to offer? Never!"

"Well, at least we come up with our OWN technology," Meg spat back.

With this statement, the Prince threw his head back and laughed a full minute. "We?! That's cute."

Megami's heart clenched. She WASN'T one of them. She should stop referring to herself in such a way. Taking a steadying breath, she turned back to the end of the hallway. "Well, Prince Irk, I didn't come to chat. So if you'll excuse me..."

"Wait," he said seriously, getting to his feet. "Don't leave so soon, little nymph. I didn't mean to offend you."

Turning her head slightly, she scoffed, "Coulda fooled me!"

"Well," he murmered, "I honestly couldn't figure why such a beautiful specimen would spend her time amongst HUMANS..."

Genuinely confused, Meg turned to him yet again and asked, "Why not? What's so wrong with them? What do Irkens have against humans?"

"Why are you here?"

This was not a rhetorical question. He was looking at her, with those damn EYES, expecting a real answer. Instead, Megami folded her four arms and retorted, "Why are YOU here?"

"I heard there was a gorgeous little nymph flitting around on Nirvana and I wanted to see her for myself." His face was once again stretched into a smug grin.

"Give me a break!" Megami was laughing despite herself. "Are you here on vacation? You think you can just LEAVE anytime?"

In one smooth movement, he reached out and grabbed the back of the key panel on his cell door and it slid right open. Meg gasped and stepped back, but he managed to catch one of her hands lightly in his own.

"I've been so rude as to not introduce myself," he said, looking earnestly into her eyes. "My name is Vermeil." His head swooped down as if he was going to kiss her hand, but instead he brushed his antennae along either side of her foream. A trill of electricity ran up her arm and seemingly all the way through her spine to the base of her skull. Shuddering, she took in a sharp breath. "Might I ask your name?"

Briefly, Meg considered being afraid, but she wasn't. Her very soul told her that he had absolutely no interest in hurting her. "Me... Megami. Is my name."

"Exotic," Vermeil said, smiling ever wider. Without a moments' hesitation, he stepped back into his cell and soundly closed the door.

"How... Did you do that?" Megami pressed, pointing at the key panel of the cell.

Antennae twitching, he countered, "You never answered MY first question."

Finally allowing herself to smile, Meg replied, "I'm an orphan. I was adopted by a resident of this colony."

"That's too bad," Vermeil said as he took a seat on his cot again. "You should have been raised by your own kind."

Again he poured salt on a wound that was much too fresh. "My own kind, eh?"

"You would have been such a boon to the Irken cause."

Megami snorted, "How do you figure I'm Irken, huh?"

His brow prickling, Vermeil replied, "How could one NOT tell? The antennae, the skin... You even lug around an old SIR unit!"

After wracking her brain for a moment, Meg recalled that SIR units were Invader weapons of mass destruction. Most were defunct nowadays. "Now you're just yanking my chain," Meg huffed. "I don't have anything of the sort."

"Why lie about it?" Vermeil said. "I saw you with it yesterday, on the cliff. It waved to me."

"GIR?! A SIR unit?!"

Before she could recover from this, however, he crossed his arms and nodded toward the opposite end of the hallway. "Your human friends are coming. I suggest you make yourself scarce if you don't want to be seen with me."

Megami was able to dodge into a shadow just before the guard on duty passed Vermeil's cell. She slipped by him and back out of the building without incident.

She hadn't found her parents, but... She felt almost as if a hole in her conscience had been filled. As she ran full-tilt back home, she wondered about the Irken Prince, his eyes, and if he was really being honest about coming to Nirvana because he had heard about her.