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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)
- 23
- 24
- 25
Twenty-four - Dib POV
I knew everything was going wrong the moment Zim hit the pavement and had a shotgun barrel pointed at his face. Gaz reached me at the same time she realized Zim wasn't with her anymore. I saw it in her face, the surprise as she realized she had been the only one to make it to the building's door, the only one to make it to safety. I saw her eyes change then, and become more determined than I'd ever seen them before. I saw her back straighten and her shoulders tense, and then I saw her turn on the kinetic energy knife that had belonged to Zim.
"Gaz!" I called. "No! Get the fuck back here!"
"I'm not gonna let him die, Dib." Gaz said, staring at me.
It was like watching a slow-motion movie. I watched Gaz turn away from me, away from safety, and start running back towards Zim and the Puuraki, Aevinr, standing over him, ready to shoot. I started after her, intending to stop her, save Zim, do something, other than let Gaz sacrifice herself for someone who got her into this mess in the first place. Then Lyse grabbed my arm with strength I hadn't realized he'd possessed, and pinned me to one side of the door.
"Don't you even," Lyse growled, "because I'm not gonna let you get shot to pieces too."
"That's my sister!" I yelled, my voice strained with anger. "And that bastard has Zim dead to rights! Why the fuck would Seerah make me do some emotional soul-searching if I'm just supposed to let him get his brains blown out and watch my sister get killed?!"
"I'm not saying we're going to let her play suicide mission! I'm saying you can't go out there, because then we'll have three dead, and you're the ones we're trying to protect! So get back to the stairs, sit there, and get ready to shoot!"
I stared at him until I was sure he should've spontaneously combusted from the strength of my glare. Lyse just stared at me, and it was a long battle of wills that lasted for only a second, but felt like an eternity. I finally nodded, and Lyse stepped back, freeing me. I moved back to the stairs and picked up my assault rifle. As I turned back to face the door, I prayed I wouldn't see Gaz lying on the pavement missing any of her major body parts. I breathed a sigh of relief instead, as she reached a distance that allowed her to throw her knife with frightening accuracy. I saw Aevinr dodge the electrically charged knife, which gave Zim the opportunity to roll away and get to his feet.
They both ran back toward the building, and I moved with Lyse to hold the door open for them so they didn't have to worry about wasting time doing that. I watched Zim pull ahead of Gaz - holy shit, he could run. Had he always been able to move like that? - and Gaz was right behind. I took my eyes off her only for a minute, watching Zim. He looked... beautiful, despite the situation. His pale skin was flushed from exertion, his eyes bright red as they stated right at me. I wondered why he wasn't using his PAK to move, and then realized he wasn't really little anymore. He'd probably got used to moving in his own two feet, so the PAK had become something more for storage purposes than actual day to day living.
My heart constricted a bit, watching him. Yeah. No doubt. I was worried about him, more so than I'd ever been. I loved him. I needed him to stay alive because I needed to tell him that, and I needed to tell him I was sorry. I needed to tell him...
I let out a bestial roar of pure rage as I lifted my eyes from Zim to Gaz. If it hasn't been for Lyse suddenly grabbing me, and Zim blowing through the door like a violent wind, I would've run out there with my assault rifle clearing the way. Aevnir could move. He'd recovered from Gaz's attack far too quickly. I heard Lyse say something quick in his own language, probably a curse. And then suddenly, Aevinr was behind Gaz, his arm around her throat, choking her, as he pressed the blade of a knife against her side, threatening to puncture flesh and give her a fatal wound.
"I know you're there, Irken." Aevinr called. He was holding Gaz in front of him like she was his living shield. And, damn it, she was.
I looked at Zim. He sat still on the stairs, staring out with an odd expression. His lips were in a thin line, and I could see he was already working out every possible way he could come out of this alive. He didn't care about Gaz. He didn't care about anyone except himself. I clenched my fists. How could I be in love with someone so selfish? How could I even care about a bastard like Zim? I couldn't let Gaz die. There had to be something I could do to save her.
Then Zim pushed off the stairs and moved to stand in front of the door. "I'm here, Puuraki."
Aevinr's face twisted as he grinned. It made him look psychotic. "So tell me, has it become policy to let Earthling females fight your battles?"
"Not really." Zim replied in an even tone. I glared at him. He couldn't even at least pretend to be worried? "Is it your custom to take hostages?"
"No. To be honest, I don't particularly like hostages. They end up being a hassle and are too annoying. On that note, I don't like leaving survivors either." Aevinr shrugged. I saw Gaz inhale as the knife dug into her side. "But in this case, I'm making an exception. You surrender yourself, I let the female go. I won't kill her or the other human, as long as you agree to come peacefully and quietly."
"Don't do it," Lyse said. "Aevinr doesn't make promises."
"Shut the fuck up," I growled. "That's my sister he's holding."
Lyse glowered at me. "I know. And if that was Seerah, you'd be trying to stop me from doing something stupid to save her. But if Zim agrees to his demands, he'll kill Gaz as soon as Zim's in reach. Aevnir doesn't leave survivors, and you guys have seen him."
"So, what? You just want me to abandon Gaz?" I snapped.
"No, what I'm saying is, wait. Seerah's going to fix this."
I looked at Zim, who hadn't moved or spoken since Aevinr had made his demands. He still looked out the door, watching Gaz. I glared at both of them, hating them both in the moment. Especially Zim, because I'd finally admitted to myself that I loved him, and had a severe sense of betrayal even though Zim didn't know how I felt. Then Zim turned his head and looked at me. His expression was neutral, but I could tell something was wrong. He kept turning, and looked up the stairs was Seerah came down them.
She wasn't wearing her human illusion. Her hair flowed long down her back, the color of ebony. Her eyes were a deep crimson, and narrowed as she stomped down the stairs with purpose. She still wore her Earthling clothes and her many piercing and rings, but somehow it didn't diminish her stature. She was a princess, and she knew exact how to carry herself. I wondered what kind of plan she had for rescuing Gaz.
"Lyse." Seerah said lowly, her lips barely moving. "Take Dib and go to the next floor. I managed to get the warp tuner running. Take him through it and flank Aevinr. Try to stay out of sight and wait for my signal. Going to try and distract him, buy you guys some time. When you hear my signal, open fire on them,"
"Wait!" I said, stepping in front of her. "If we open fire, we'll hit Gaz! I can't put her in more danger like that!"
Seerah looked at me, her eyes hardened chips of garnet. "This is an order, Dib. If you want to save her from Aevnir then you'll do as I say."
I snarled. "How is shooting at her saving her?"
"Because Aevinr will try to dodge." Zim said. "He did it with the knife, when Gaz threw it at him. He doesn't want to get hurt, even if it means killing his enemy. If he'd taken the hit by the knife, the electrical currents would've made his muscles contract, which would've fired the shotgun. I wouldn't be standing here. The charge isn't powerful enough to stop function completely, so he would've recovered in seconds. But he dodged. He'll let Gaz go in order to save his own skin."
"You don't know that." I said, glowering at Zim.
"Do you have a better idea?" He asked me.
I didn't respond. No, I didn't have a better idea. The only idea I had was booting Zim out and demanding Aevinr get his fucking hands off my sister. But the whole point of trying to hide here, and survive, was to keep Zim alive. God, I hated having conflicting feelings. "Fine." I said. "We'll do it your way," I looked at Seerah.
She gave me a nod. "Go, Lyse."
Lyse glanced at me and nodded, slipping up the stairs. As he did, I saw his human illusion vanish. He had the same coloring at his sister, which wasn't surprising. The only difference was that Lyse's hair shone blue under the light. I looked at Zim and said, "We're going to have a long talk later."
Zim actually smiled. "Yeah, sure."
I stared at him until the smile disappeared. "I mean it,"
"I know." Zim replied quietly.
I turned around and followed Lyse up the stairs. Seerah hadn't been idle while me and Lyse had been guarding the entrance. She'd set up different weapons within easy reach, along with stacks of ammunition. I wondered just how much stuff she'd managed to pack in that duffel bag.
At the end of the hall, close to where the classrooms were, was a machine about the size of a two-year-old human child, and thinner than the blade of a scalpel. I studied it, noting it was rounded at the base and the top, shaped almost like a half-cylinder. As Lyse approached it, the cylinder began to hum, as if in response to his proximity. I watched him kneel before the machine and place his hand over the rounded top. A holographic keyboard appeared, and the cylinder began to spin.
"What's that?" I asked.
"Warp tuner." Lyse replied. "Basically a poor man's version of a teleporter. Instead of breaking your body down to atoms and projecting you through the space-time continuum, it breaks down the matter of whatever's in front of you so you slip through it. Instant door, though it kind of feels like your going through a thick wall of snot."
"That's incredibly gross and incredibly cool." I replied, watching him deal with the machine. "And why's it called a tuner?"
"The snot-door only lets through the registered DNA samples."
Which meant only Lyse and I would be able to go through whatever portal was opened. Aevinr wouldn't be able to follow us back through the portal. On the same token, Gaz wouldn't be able to, either. Which meant the plan was to have her run to the front door where Seerah and Zim were, as we distracted Aevinr with our shots. "And what about non-organic matter?" I asked.
"Unaffected. Believe me, we aren't gonna end up naked on the other side." Lyse pulled his hand from the holographic keyboard and lowered it until it was inside the spinning cylinder. I saw him wince, and when he raised his hand, I saw that a thin layer of skin had been stripped from the back of his hand.
"Painful?" I asked.
"For about a second." Lyse rose, making room for me. I knelt like he'd done, then took a breath before I slid my hand into the cylinder like he'd done. For a moment I felt nothing, and then there was a sharp prick, like when you get clawed by a cat. The pain was there and gone, and when Lyse told me to, I pulled my hand out. On the back of my hand, a thin strip of the top layer of skin had been cleanly removed. It didn't look like it would scar too badly. I looked up at Lyse, and backed away when he told me to. He crouched again and the little holographic keyboard appeared. Lyse quickly started typing, calibrating the machine.
"You think they're okay?" I asked, looking toward the stairs.
"Who? Seerah and Zim?" Lyse looked up at me, then resumed typing. "Of course they're okay. Seerah won't let anything happen to Zim, and she definitely won't let anything happen to Gaz. She's an expert at talking. She got us into, and out of, so much trouble when we were little."
I frowned. "Who said I was asking about Zim?"
"Dib, you're a shitty liar, you know that? I know you're worried about him. It's in your eyes. You don't want to give him up, even if doing so might save Gaz's life."
"He got her in this mess in the first place." I retorted.
"No, that was Seerah. We knew we had bodyguards, but we weren't sure on who. She pulled a stunt that would get her killed, normally, but she's the princess and the heir so you can't really kill her off for just kissing someone. Now, if she got knocked up, that would be a different story."
I wanted to laugh. It came out as a choke. "Seriously? If Zim knocked her up, she'd be killed?"
"Yeah, except Zim can't knock anyone up. Irkens are clones, remember? No reproductive capabilities. The organs are still there - can't change that, really - but Zim is essentially shooting blanks."
I felt my face heat. That was way too much information. "Why are you telling me this?" I asked, my voice a little strained.
"Because you're being an ass. You love him, right? You decided that at the beginning of all this. Then you easily switched from love to hate the second Gaz was taken hostage, and now you're shifting back to love." Lyse paused, then face a soft hum. "Human emotions are pretty fickle, aren't they?"
I glowered at him, choosing not to respond. It was easier to just keep silent because Lyse already knew there was nothing I could say in response without making an even bigger ass of myself. And Zim... I closed my eyes, picturing his face. His emotions had been tightly controlled while we'd been talking in the stairwell, but there had been a moment where his eyes had gone wide and a dozen emotions had rushed through them as he'd looked at me. There had been another slip when Aevinr had made his demand. Shit. I wondered. Did he... Was Zim...? I shook my head. No. No way. I would've noticed if Zim had started developing a crush on me. I would've noticed if he was starting to express love. Wouldn't I?
Shit.
This was getting too complicated.
"She's ready." Lyse said, standing. He gestured to the wall in front of us. "It's a one story drop on the other side, so be ready."
"Yeah." I picked up my weapon and readied myself to walk through the wall that had suddenly started to undulate, like it was suddenly soggy. Lyse went through first. The soggy wall swallowed him up, then vibrated back into place. I resolved to tell Zim exactly how I felt when I got back. At least I knew there wasn't anywhere he could go to avoid me, so we would have this talk, and I would find out exactly what Zim thought about me.
I took a deep breath and headed to the wall. It felt like trying to press through jellied Saran Wrap, and instinctively I held my breath. It felt gross, like if you sneezed and snot landed on your skin. It lasted only a few seconds and then suddenly I was through, and just as suddenly I was dropping. I landed and bent my knees, rolling forward to diffuse the inertia from the fall and landing. Lyse was waiting for me when I came back to my feet. He signaled me, pointing to his eyes and then toward the front of the building. I nodded, pulled my gun into position, and followed Lyse through the shadows toward the front of the building.
Before we even reached the corner, I could hear Aevinr's voice, loud and snide, deriding whatever it was that Seerah had said. I didn't focus on his words; I looked at Gaz, who was stone still, staring at the door where Serrah and Zim stood. She had a stoic look on her face, the kind I'd seen her wear when she pretended to listen to Dad and was instead thinking about how to defeat the latest boss in her video game. She was already figuring out how to save herself. I couldn't risk catching her attention just in case she accidentally gave away our position and alerted Aevnir to our plan. So I followed Lyse toward the perimeter, where there was a little bit if cover we could hide behind. We checked our weapons, then settled down to wait. And watch.
"You really think I'll just let her go and we can go frolicking like none of this ever happened, princess?" Aevnir spat in response to whatever Seerah had said. "I'm only following orders. Your own father issued my command this time, so there's no wiggling out of them."
"Then let me talk to my father!" Seerah spat, her voice muted through the door. "I'll work this out with him!"
"Nice try. But not this time. He gave me free reign to do as I wish, especially since I made sure that your father would be aware you might be enthralled by the Irken."
Seerah laughed. "Enthralled? Aevinr are you that bloodthirsty that you'd manipulate the truth just to be able to kill someone?"
"Princess, I think your love for breaking the rules has blinded you to the fact that you can't change everything just because of the position you were born into. I'm sure you can change that when you're queen, but right now, you're simply a subject of your father's will. As am I. Now, shall we stop playing these games and get down to business?"
I couldn't see Seeah's expression, but I had a pretty good feeling that she was pissed off. Lyse shifted beside me, so I glanced at him. His face was grim, so it wasn't hard for me to figure out that Aevinr was telling the truth, as far as who had the pants this time. I wondered if there would be a civil war next, just so we could save my sister's life.
Then the door opened. I heard Seerah curse and it took all of my self-control not to spit one out myself. Zim strode out of the door, his head held high. His hand were loosely curled by his sides, so I wondered of he was holding an invisible weapon. He stood close to the door, which Seerah held open as she spoke to him, probably trying to convince him to come back inside. I tightened my grip on my gun, staring at Zim. Lyse touched my arm lightly and shook his head when I looked at him. Was this part of Seerah's plan? If it was, it was a stupid plan.
Zim moved forward only by a few feet. Then he stopped when Gaz gasped. "Let her go." Zim said. "I'm the one you want. I defiled your princess, corrupted her, whatever you wanna say. The humans have nothing to do with this. I'll go with you, without resistance, if you let the female and her brother go."
Aevinr was silent for a long time. I wondered if we was actually considering doing as Zim said and trading Gaz for him, then Aevinr smiled. "How stupid do you think I am, Irken? You think I didn't do my research on that human male the moment he made contact with the prince and princess? I know all about Dibeid and Gazline Membrane. I know they've long been corrupted by you."
"Corrupted? They're my friends." Zim spat. "Not like you'd understand that concept."
Aevinr laughed. It sounded like breaking glass. "Friends? Irkens don't make friends, even defective ones! I know exactly how you feel about them. And now you're trying to play hero so this girl here actually continues to believe you care about her. You're an Irken, copied over and over again, with the memories of every invader before you. You know exactly how to play this game."
I saw Zim's hands clench into fists. His eyes had narrowed, and I knew the look on his face was rage. That look had been turned on me plenty of times, so I knew it instinctively. Zim was pissed. Even more so than I'd ever seen him before. No, I realized slowly, Zim wasn't playing a game. He had meant exactly what he'd said. We were his friends. He cared about us, even if he had a twisted way of showing it. My finger twitched on the trigger. Where was the damn signal? Were we going to just let Zim talk Aevinr down?
"Get ready," Lyse whispered so quietly I barely heard him. I glanced at him, and he pointed to Zim. In his left hand was a small sphere about the size of a plum. It was dull silver, easily hidden in the dark. I recognized it as one of Zim's flash bangs. I tensed. The noise alone would bring people running, or at least calling campus security, so we were screwed the moment he dropped the flash bang. I looked at Gaz, and saw that she had her eyes closed already, screwed tightly shut. Had Zim warned her somehow? Had she seen it? It didn't matter, because in the next minute, Zim moved.
Aevinr started to thrust the knife into Gaz, making good on his promise to kill her. And then suddenly Zim was there, holding Aevinr's wrist in a death grip. The flash bang dropped at their feet and exploded the moment it simply tapped the concrete.
I didn't know what really happened next, because I'd been temporarily blinded by the sudden white light. I heard Lyse move, then the rapport of gun fire next to me. I rose when my vision cleared and fired my own gun at Aevinr. I saw Zim and Gaz running for the door Seerah still had propped open. They were almost there, almost inside, given a good head start because of Lyse and me.
But we'd sorely underestimated the leader of the Puuraki's mercenary group.
Aevinr recovered fast once he realized Lyse and I weren't actually trying to hit him. I saw him draw a long knife from a thigh sheath, and run his thumb along the blade. He seemed in no particular hurry, or maybe that was my own perception, because time seemed to slow the moment he cocked back his arm and threw the blade at Gaz.
I leaped out of cover roaring something, denial or an actual word. All I saw was that knife heading toward Gaz's back. I didn't see anything else, at least until Zim pushed her down. I saw him curse as the knife angled suddenly, as if someone unseen was guiding it. The blade was zeroed in on Gaz, and I saw Zim do something incredibly brave and incredibly stupid that I was going to kill him for later. He covered Gaz with his own body.
There was a bright spark as the knife pierced Zim's PAK. I saw his face screw up in pain, and then the PAK detached from his back, falling to the ground as he got to his feet, pulling Gaz with him. As I ran toward them, I could see that the PAK had been pierced fully by the blade, but only the very tip had actually touched Zim's skin. The PAK though, was a lost cause. It would take weeks to repair it, and that was if Zim actually had the parts.
"Are you okay?" I heard Gaz ask when I reached them.
"Fine." Zim replied. "It's not like the PAK's too important. I can survive without it, providing we don't do much strenuous activity."
"You mean besides fighting a homicidal maniac?" I said.
They looked at me and I saw Zim smile. Then Gaz let out a cry, and everything became a blur.
I turned in time to see Aevnir looming behind me, holding onto a hilt that had two blades attached to it, spaced only inches apart. My mind liked to come up with useless information when I was faced with fear, so I knew that knife would cause wounds that I never would survive. If they didn't immediately get an artery or organ, they'd leave two deep wounds that would be a challenge to heal. I'd bleed to death before someone managed to sew one of the wounds closed.
I was too slow in raising my gun, because I was trying to move out of the range of that knife. I saw Seerah lunge and grab Gaz, pulling her away before she could interfere, saw Zim's eyes go wide as he realized what exactly was going on, saw Lyse run from our cover, as if he could reach us in time. Then I was on the ground, pain shooting up my elbows to my shoulders, and I knew I was staring at my own death. Coward that I was, I closed my eyes, knowing even though everything looked so slow it was happening real fast.
I felt the warm spray of blood on my face. I waited for that chill, that cold feeling your body got when you knew you were going to die. It didn't come. Neither did the pain. Why wasn't there pain? Where was that chill? I opened my eyes and stared at the ends of two blades that dripped with fresh blood.
Zim's blood.
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Being Human