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Being Human	By : RotSeele Category: +G through L > Invader Zim > AU/AR-Alternate Universe-Alternate Reality Views: 2485 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Invader Zim. I do not make any money from this story.

Chapter List
- 1-Being Human
- 2-Two
- 3-Three
- 4-Four
- 5-Five
- 6-Six
- 7-Seven
- 8-Eight
- 9-Nine
- 10-Ten
- 11-Eleven
- 12-Twelve
- 13-Thirteen
- 14-Fourteen
- 15-Fifteen
- 16-Sixteen
- 17-Seventeen
- 18-Eighteen
- 19-Nineteen
- 20-Twenty
- 21-Twenty One
- 22-Twenty-Two
- 23-Twenty-Three
- 24-Twenty-Four
- 25-Twenty-Five
- 26-Twenty-Six
- 27-Twenty-Seven
- 28-Twenty-Eight
- 29-Twenty-Nine (Epilogue)
- 19
- 20
- 21
Twenty - Dib POV
I wanted to smash in Gaz's teeth for the story she'd told about me. I was livid, to say the least. But I'd managed to piss her off too, so I couldn't exactly say I was in the clear and we would just mutually forget the insults we just gave each other. No, Gaz wasn't that kind of person where she would easily forgive someone. After our stories were told, we just sat there and glared at each other until Seerah reached for the bottle and gave it a spin. Then we watched the bottle, though I kept catching Gaz sneak peeks at Zeke, like she was judging him. It made me a little curious, mostly because of the conversation we'd had about Zeke.
Then I looked at the bottle, watching it slowly stop spinning until it came to a halt. I looked up at the person that the bottles was pointing to, and I felt the blood drain from my face. Zeke didn't look too healthy either. We stared at each other, refusing to move even an inch. Me, I was afraid of letting my attraction for him show, especially after Gaz was kind enough to dredge up memories of Zim. Not that I liked that stupid, egotistical psycho like that.
"Come on you two," Seerah said with mild annoyance. "Get to it."
"Pass." Zeke said suddenly, almost panicked.
"You can't pass," Seerah said.
I saw Zeke glance at Gaz, like she was going to help him. She just sat there, smiling and passive, and I saw him pale even more. So I stood up and crossed the floor until I was directly in front of him. He looked up at me with an expression that begged me to simply ignore the bottle's order and defy Seerah. Seerah was far more scary than the bottle would ever be. So I sat on the floor in front of Zeke and let out a soft sigh. "One kiss." I said, more to myself and Zeke than anyone else in the room.
I reached to cup Zeke's chin. I felt him recoil, but he didn't fully retreat. I had to remind myself that he wasn't used to this. I mean, he'd had a girlfriend up until tonight. He probably was an emotional wreck. I probably was, too. I didn't want to do this in front of my sister and two people I'd only known for a few weeks. So we stared at each other until even Gaz made a noise of impatience. No choice. Not if we wanted to stay on this side of what passed as sane anyway. So I tilted Zeke's head back a bit, watching his eyes. He stared, almost unblinking, as he simply let me do all the work. Then I touched my lips to his. I felt him tense at the touch, and knew he was going to try and hit me if I kept the contact going for much longer. I counted to five, then released him and stood quickly.
"There." I said. "A kiss." My face burned. Zeke didn't look too much better.
Seerah scoffed. "You call that a kiss?" She got up and sauntered over to me. She grabbed my arm and spun me around, before she knelt in front of Zeke. "This is a kiss."
She grabbed Zeke by the upper arms and pulled him flush against her. I heard a noise of protest cut off as she sealed her mouth over Zeke's. I saw tongue. A lot of tongue. The kiss was heading into snogging territory when Zeke finally managed to break her grip on him. He was on his feet in a flash, and a moment later there was a gust of wind. Zeke had bolted.
I turned on Seerah. "What the hell?! Are you crazy? Why would you do that?"
Seerah smiled. "It needed to be done."
"Like hell it did!" I started to move to the door to go after Zeke. Gaz intercepted me along the way. "What do you want?" I bit out.
"I'm going with you." She said, like it was obvious.
"Why? It's not like he's your responsibility."
"Neither is he yours. But someone's got to watch your back, and I'm not staying with the wonder twins over there."
I glanced over to Lyse and Seerah. Lyse looked furious, gesturing wildly as he scolded (at least, I think he was scolding) Seerah. She was just listening with a look of indignation on her face, and arguing back now and then. I gave a short shrug. "Fine."
Gaz followed me out of the common room and into the hall. There was no sign of Zeke. I checked my room and the bathrooms on the ground floor, but he wasn't there in any of them. I hurried to the front door of the building and went outside. I called out for him, like he was going to respond. Gaz came up to my side and peered into the dark.
"Should we split up?" She asked.
"Why are you so worried about a guy you just met?" I asked.
She looked up at me, her gaze one of studying calculation. Finally she said, "Why can't I be concerned? You called me to talk about him, remember? You confessed to me that you liked him. So you tell me why I'm worried about a complete stranger."
I just stared at her. "So. Truce?"
"For now."
Good enough.
We split up with me heading for Zeke's dorm and Gaz heading for the parking lot and the small garden on the other side of the building. Whoever found him would call the other, and then try to talk Zeke put of whatever he might be doing. I was concerned about his reaction to Seerah kissing him. I mean, he'd had a girlfriend right? So he probably had gotten to the kissing stage, if not beyond it. I shook my head. I shouldn't be thinking these kinds of things about people I barely knew. Maybe the girlfriend had been a lie. Maybe I had been right. Even if I was right about the whole girlfriend thing, I still couldn't call him on it. Could I? Gaz would probably punch my teeth out if I asked in front of her, though.
My mind recalled Zeke's expression the moment Seerah kissed him. For whatever reason, Zeke's expression matched one Zim had made a long time ago when I'd actually caught him at his most vulnerable. We had been fighting as we always did, for some stupid reason or another. I'd gone looking for him after hearing nothing for over an hour. No attacks, no yells, nothing. I found him lying at the bottom of a steep hill, one that, if he had succeeded in climbing it, would've given him a tactical advantage. His left foot was twisted at an awkward angle and he was covered in cuts and oozing wounds. How long he'd lain like that I would never know, but when he saw me watching him, his face took on an expression I'd never seen him make before. Fear. It was utter fear. He was scared. He never told me what had actually happened. Zim had grudgingly allowed me to splint his foot and carry him home, whereupon he told me never to speak of the incident again.
Zim. Why did he continue to haunt me even when I was so far away? I was paranoid enough to believe something was going on without my knowing about it, and I felt that Zeke was somehow involved. And I was beginning to think that Gaz was somehow involved with whatever was going on, too. It would be just like my sister to do something hairbrained behind my back as a way of proving hers was bigger than mine. And she was certainly capable of getting Zim involved, because he wouldn't pass up a chance to get me back for leaving him. Of course, now I was wondering why Zim hadn't taken the opportunity to attack me on campus and declare how much smarter he was compared to me. These weeks of peace should've made me more paranoid, and instead I hadn't thought much about it. Had Zim finally matured a little? I snorted. Yeah right. And by sunrise, the campus would be overrun by flying zombie squirrels.
I don't really know how far I walked, but I managed to make it to the gymnasium campus before I found Zeke. He was sitting on a small hill overlooking the track. His knees were drawn up to his chest with his arms wrapped around them. His chin rested on his knees and he was staring out at the distant darkness. I approached slowly, watching his back tense as he heard my approach. I reached into my pocket to pull out my phone, then stopped. This would probably be the only opportunity I'd get to talk to him by myself.
I sat down next to him and stared off into the distance, trying to see what was so interesting out there that was keeping Zeke's attention. When the silence dragged on long enough, I drew in a breath. "So,"
"So?" Zeke asked in a quiet voice.
"Did it scare you that badly?"
"No."
"Then why run?"
Zeke finally looked at me. "You really want to know?"
I looked at him, meeting his eyes. Once more, I was reminded of Zim. We used to sit like this and just talk about whatever came to mind. It was those moments that were the most relaxing for me. I always wondered if Zim got some sort of satisfaction out of the moments we weren't trying to kill each other. "Yeah," I said. "I really want to know."
Zeke took a long moment to study me, just watching, weighing. Then he finally said, "Seerah is an alien princess from a race called the Puuraki."
I stared at him. Long minutes passed with the echo of his deadpan voice in my ears. I felt my shoulders beginning to shake, but I wasn't sure if it was from a sudden wave of pure anger or from the laughing fit I was about to have. He wasn't looking at me anymore, so I couldn't judge his expression. He was lying. He had to be lying. When I managed to get some semblance of control back, I got to my feet and glared down at him. "If you don't want to tell me the truth just say it. Don't insult a girl you don't even know."
"And what do you know about her?" Zeke asked. "What do you know about any of them?"
"Right back at you," I growled. "You're the one who's acting the strangest. I know you didn't get much human interaction growing up, but Christ, this isn't how you treat people. And if was just a game! Okay, so she stuck her tongue in your mouth, and that was a little too much, but you didn't have to run and you certainly have no right to say she's some alien!"
Now he looked at me and I could see a flicker of anger in his eyes. "You asked and I told you. I don't lie, and even if I did, I'm no good at it." He started to say something else, but stopped as my phone began to ring. Gaz. She was probably wondering if I had any better luck seeking Zeke. I answered with a terse "What?".
"You find him?"
"Yeah, I found him." I growled.
"Good," Gaz said, her voice barely a whisper. "Grab him and come back to the building,"
"Gaz, why are you whispering?"
"Just do it!"
I heard Seerah's voice in the background, yelling something. I heard Lyse too. I heard something that sounded like glass shattering. Then Gaz's phone cut out, leaving me with just the dial tone before there was nothing but silence. I stared at my phone, then slowly became aware of Zeke standing by my left side. There was a look of confusion on his face, and I could tell he wanted to ask what was going on. I didn't say anything to him; I just took off at a light jog, slowly picking up speed as my brain came up with a million different scenarios as to what was happening. Zeke was right behind me the entire time, saying nothing.
When we arrived at my dorm building, Zeke grabbed my wrist and pulled me to a halt. As soon as he did, he pulled me out of the line of sight of the front door. He pulled me toward a clump of bushes that lined one side of the path that led up to the building. I shook his hand off my arm and started to rise, but he grabbed me again and pulled me down. He put his finger to his lips to signal silence.
"What are you doing?" I hissed.
"Saving your stupid ass." He hissed back. He lifted his hand and pointed toward the far side of the green where two tall gates separated the parking lot walkway from the quad garden area between all of the dorm buildings. Faintly I could see a shadow, the shape of a man. The longer I looked, the more the shadow came to resemble a man. And the man was carrying what looked to be an automatic assault rifle. I realized that, had I run to the door like I had intended to, I would've been shot. I let out a breath and looked at Zeke. "Thanks."
"I've been around the block a time or two." Zeke replied quietly. He rose and started scurrying along the bushes. He stopped now and then and pointed out several more heavily armed men stationed in the shadows around the building. He didn't say anything, but I could tell that he knew what he was doing. I had no choice really but to follow his lead. I began to wonder what he'd done before coming here. He'd said his parents were ambassadors, so it was conceivable that he'd received training based on what they might have encountered while visiting a hostile country, but the way he moved was too military, too highly trained for a simple week of how to put on a bullet proof vest and duck behind your bodyguards. In fact his movements reminded me of a person I'd fought before. I think it was the way Zeke would stop and assess each new person exactly the same way that Zim would study me when we were fighting. I kept my mouth shut, mostly because now wasn't the kind of situation where a psychotic break would be a good thing. First I had to focus on getting to my sister. Once I was with her, I could finally confront her about Zim, because I knew she knew something. Her behavior toward Zeke was just off enough that I could be fairly certain it wasn't just because I'd told her I thought I might have a crush on the kid.
"We can get in through here," Zeke whispered. "This is the only entrance they're not watching."
I looked toward the small side door that led into a stairwell. "Why aren't they guarding this door?"
"My guess?" Zeke shrugged. "Because they haven't caused too much of a panic yet. If they can keep their target in the building, then they can avoid unnecessary casualties."
"You don't think they'd actually kill innocent people, do you?"
"I'm not them, so how would I know? But this is exactly how I'd do it. Cut off all but one escape route, so if your prey decides to run, you know exactly where it's going to come out."
I stared at him. "This is what you'd do?"
"I'm sure you've thought about it before."
My lips drew into a thin line. I didn't want to admit it to him, of course. Who hasn't thought about doing something homicidal once in their lives. Haven't they?
"Let's go." Zeke said suddenly, and he took off low across the short lawn. I was right behind him. We slipped through the door into the stairwell and I took the lead from there. I had to reach Gaz, Lyse, and Seerah. I didn't know what was happening, or what would happen. But I was reminded of too many childhood incidents where I was too late to save her, or anyone I really cared about.
- 19
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- 21
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Being Human