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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)
- 20
- 21
- 22
Twenty-One - Zim POV
It was a declaration of war. That's what all these soldiers were here for. Not war against humanity, or anything so drastic, but they were here for me. I knew it instinctively, like a gazelle knows there's a lion in the brush, waiting for it to let its guard down. I didn't really feel the need to tell Dib that little tidbit of information, of course, because then he'd probably let them have me. Me in exchange for Gaz. I could see it happening. But before I could let that much happen, I had to reach Gaz and the others. I had to make sure they were okay. I know, it's completely stupid for me to worry about Seerah and Lyse since I was pretty confident the people surrounding the building were their own kind. That said, I also knew that the Puuraki were xenophobic douchebags and probably wouldn't hesitate to murder one of theirs that happened to slip up and make an untoward gesture to someone from one of the races they considered impure or some bullshit like that.
Dib led the way through the stairwell hall, up several flights of stairs until we reached the floor his dorm was on. It made sense that they would've taken refuge in a familiar place that could be easily defended. And if they couldn't find refuge there, then there would be some clue left as to where they had gone.
The hallway was dark when we reached Dib's floor. I expected that. It was close to midnight, so normal people would be asleep. And if these soldiers were as good as they were making themselves out to be, then they would do whatever it took to let those people sleep. Of course, that was assuming they just didn't decide to blow the place to tiny pieces. I didn't think they'd do that unless someone got in their way, and that someone was decidedly us. I knew Dib wasn't going to give up without a fight. He would rescue Gaz and kill anyone who got in his way. I'd seen it before, when he went to "save" Gaz from a high school dance. I didn't know the details, but I knew that Dib was very pissed off that night, and I got a black eye for my effort of trying to ambush him.
Ambushing Dib is never a good idea.
"You see anything?" Dib asked, peering around my shoulder as we looked down the hall.
"Nothing," I replied. "It's clear."
"Right. Let's go." Dib went out first, low and to one side. I followed his lead, hoping that there wasn't someone waiting a little further down the hall to shoot us.
Thankfully, we didn't run into any problems as we moved down the hall. No one woke up, and no one happened by to ask us why we were skulking down the hall like a pair of thieves. We reached Dib's dorm and found the door closed. He reached out slowly to put his hand on the knob and twisted it to see if it was locked or open. The door stuck for a moment, then slid soundlessly open. The room inside was dark, but I had a sinking feeling that someone was in there, watching us. Dib felt it too, because when he moved into the room, he stayed low until he reached what I thought was a lamp. He rose then and reached for the lamp, but he knew better than to turn it on. So I thought, anyway. I watched his hand curl around the lamp's base and lift it from the small table it sat on. And then I realized it wasn't a lamp at all but a long wooden stick that must have been for a project for class. It would serve well for a makeshift weapon, but it wouldn't do much damage against whatever we would end up facing. At least Dib was smart enough not to call out anyone's name and give our position away.
He moved slowly, hands tight around the wood. As he approached the back of the room, which led into another bedroom it looked like, we saw a flash of movement. Dib raised the wood and started to swing. Gaz stopped him mid-swing by shining a red laser light directly into his eyes. Dib let out a strangled cry and dropped the stick to cover his eyes. I instinctively raised my hands to shield my eyes, though I probably didn't have to. After all, it wasn't me who was wielding a stick like a weapon.
"Shit! The hell was that for?" Dib hissed, rubbing his eyes to clear them. He glowered at Gaz, and I could tell she really didn't care.
"You were going to swing that without finding out who you were swinging at dipshit." Gaz growled as she lowered the laser pointer in her hand. She sighed and looked at me. "How did it look out there?"
I looked at Seerah and Lyse, then at Dib before saying, "About like how it would look if a swat team was descending on a terrorist's hideout. They're good, professional."
Gaz looked over at Seerah and Lyse. "You wanna tell us what the fuck is going on?"
Dib was now staring at them. He'd figured out something, or at least maybe he was starting to believe what I'd told him about the true identities of our brother-sister pair. He said nothing, clearly content to let Gaz take the lead for now. I suppose it was to be expected, as these people were his friends, and he'd known them for a period of time before all this had happened. I turned my head aside if only to hide my smile. I didn't know why I was smiling, but it felt appropriate for the situation. Here Dib had gone through the effort to get away from me because I caused him so much trouble, and here I was, practically the catalyst for this incursion.
Seerah looked at Lyse, who gave her a sort of helpless shrug. Sighing, she fluffed her hair with one hand. I saw Gaz's jaw tighten. I edged away from her as quickly as I dared. Seerah seemed oblivious to Gazline's growing irritation, which was always the fastest way to make Gaz lose her temper. Finally, Seerah let out a long sigh. "Okay. Okay. So here's what's going in. Lyse and I aren't human. We're from a race called the Puuraki. We're also the crown princess and prince of our entire race. Those guys out there? They're highly trained assassins and soldiers employed by our father to protect us, and are led by a man named Aevinr who's about as racist as it gets. So they're here to extract us, and probably kill anyone who ever came into contact with us."
Dib looked at me like I'd grown a second head. I fought not to look at him and smile in my usual gloating way. It was still pleasing to know, though, that he finally believed something I'd told him. But then I saw that look in his eye, the one that said his brain had picked up in some discrepancy in the story and it was the moron who called himself 'Mothman' who had begun analyzing the facts. Which meant the charade was over.
I wasn't sure what I was doing, really. Seerah hadn't done anything to give away who I really was, despite the fact she had to know I'd been the one to give away her secret. But Dib was about to find out one way or another, and I figured if we were going to lock down for a fight, I was going to need weapons to fight with. So I looked at Gaz and said, "I'm going to get my PAK."
"What?"
It didn't come from Gaz. There was so much in that one word it was hard to identify the true emotion trying to be conveyed. I looked at Dib and raised my hands to my hair, managing to shift enough of the synthetic strands to let my antennae rise. I saw his jaw clench and his face grow pale. There was that throbbing vein in his forehead, and I saw his black eyes narrow in pure anger. Dib stood slowly, almost towering over me.
"Zim." He growled. "I knew it. I fucking knew it!" He whirled on Gaz then, his face a mask of barely contained rage. "And how are you involved? I know you knew about this! I can tell by your face." He started toward Gaz. I saw the color drain from her face as she started to retreat. She was scared, terrified. There had been scant few times that Gaz had been truly terrified in her life, and all those times she was truly scared was when Dib lost control of his temper and became truly violent.
"I asked her." I said in a neutral tone. He slowly turned to look at me. I stared at him. "I talked her into helping me. For revenge against you."
Dib started toward me. I held my ground. Even glared at him in my usual way. I saw that vein twitch in his forehead. It was my only warning before he punched me in the mouth, sending me to the floor. I touched my lip and my fingers came away wet with blood. I looked at the black-clad legs that were suddenly in front of me and braced for a kick. But all he did was reach down and grabbed me by my shirt collar and hauled me to my feet. Then he drew me close until our faces were mere inches apart. I could see the fury in his eyes as he stared at me, and briefly, foolishly, I wondered if there was anything left in him that felt anything but contempt for me. "I don't give a shit what you do in your spare time, but don't go dragging my family into it! Whatever you got against me, Zim, you keep it between us. You don't drag my sister into your petty games!" He dropped me then, hard and fast, and I fell backwards into a wall.
He turned to look at Seerah and growled, "You knew."
"I knew." Seerah said quietly. "I knew because I've been trained to see through disguises. His was the best I've seen, but that is also due to his being here for an inordinate amount of time."
Dib wasn't moving, wasn't saying anything. He just glared at each of us, then turned and stalked out of the room. It was probably the best choice he could've made, otherwise he probably would've done Aevinr's job for him and killed us all. When he was gone, I got to my feet and smoothed my antennae back under the black strands of my wig. I looked up as Gaz approached me and gave her a shrug. She replied in kind, and looked at Seerah.
Seerah tilted her head. "I'll keep an eye in him. We probably should get out of this place and go somewhere where there isn't any people. Aevinr won't hesitate to kill anyone who just happens to get in the way."
"Do you have weapons to fight them off?" I asked.
Seerah tapped her lips. "Ideally, it's be safer to surrender, but at this point Aevinr probably won't back off." She nodded. "We can get a few weapons off those morons out there. It won't be hard for us to disarm them."
I looked at her. "You shouldn't stick around after you do."
"Wasn't planning on it. We're going to head for the physics building. There's only one entrance and the windows are blast-proof, so our odds will greatly increase if we take the high ground."
I nodded. It was a sound plan. If we controlled the high ground, then Aevinr would be hard-pressed to get to us without making too much of a scene. Of course, there were so many unknown factors in this. From what I'd learned as Seerah spoke about him, Aevinr didn't seem like an idiot. One didn't become the commander of personal bodyguards by being an idiot. Violent and racist, yes. A dozen possibilities and contingencies flashed through my head, different permutations of different situations, all of which ended on a big scene that got posted on the news and all the social media in the world.
"Would he involve human authorities?" I asked.
"Doubtful," Lyse replied. "He's probably already locked down the area surrounding the school. It's a cakewalk for him to hack computers and security grids to make it seem like nothing's going on. The school's probably already cut off from outside help."
"The best we can do is get as far away from people as possible and hope this doesn't end in a bloody way." Seerah added. "If it comes to that, it might've impossible to explain it away."
Gaz looked at me and frowned. "But it's you this asshole is after."
"It's all of us."
We all looked at Dib. He stood in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest. His eyes were cold behind his glasses, and grew colder still as he looked at me. I knew he was already in a fight-or-flight mode, and therefore he was going to be very dangerous if pushed. I'd done it before, and so I knew the kind of sadistic punishment he could dish out. Dib pushed his glasses up further on his nose. "It's all of us they're after. Seerah and Lyse are the primary targets. Wherever they go, this Aevinr guy will follow. Anyone who came into contact with them is a secondary target. It's safe to assume that there are already corpses on campus, and if not, there soon will be."
"So, what?" Gaz asked. "Even if there are dead people already, there hasn't been a panic. If we just run, who's to say they won't use hostages?"
"Aevinr doesn't believe in hostages." Lyse said quietly. "If it wasn't for the fact that the king, our father, decreed that all interactions on and with earth would basically be on the down low, Aevinr would've come in, plasma rifles blazing, and take as many Earthlings out as he could before he extracted us."
"And it doesn't matter to him who is the responsible party in this," Seerah said, unerringly calm. "Even though I'm the one who's at fault, he doesn't see it that way. Zim is the one he's really after. Everyone else will just be collateral."
I looked at Dib. His expression hasn't changed, but there was a tenseness to his shoulders that hadn't been there earlier. Taking a silent breath, I rolled my eyes as expressively as I could and spat, "We aren't solving anything by standing here talking about it. They're crawling all over outside, and we're giving then all the time they need to find a way inside. I'm going to get my PAK. You're welcome to join me, or you can head to the physics building. Take your pick. But I'm leaving now." I turned on my heel and swept past Dib, who glowered at me as I passed. I gave him the same look.
Gaz quickly caught up with me. She didn't say anything as we skulked through the hall, heading down the same stairwell that Dob and I had used to come up. Finally, as we nested the door, Gaz asked, "Aren't you scared?"
"Of what, exactly? Everyone dies at some point, some sooner than others. I don't fear death, or being killed, but I'm not going to strut out there and say 'here I am, shoot me'." I looked her in the eyes then, and I saw her shiver. Whatever was in my expression was making her uncomfortable. "If I go down, I'm making sure I take as many as I can with me."
- 20
- 21
- 22
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Being Human