Chapter Text
Gaz didn't know how she felt about being around Zim. She didn't like him- yet she didn't hate him either. When he was around, the video-game addict would feel less grumpy, as inexplicable as that may be… But then she would remember the earache his yelling would give her, and she would subconsciously groan.
Yet, she saw Zim in a different light than everyone else. An example: her brother. Dib was obsessed with trying to expose Zim and his alien race. He'd ramble on about how much of a threat he was and seriously believed it. But Gaz knew the Irken was practically harmless. It was some sort of big joke that she had always scoffed at.
She also knew that she didn't hate Zim, and that sentiment felt wrong. She was Gaz. The only one with sense, with an accurate perspective on the world. She barely tolerated her brother's antics. Zim was another laughable caricature of ego and narcissism. Yet, when she was honest with herself, she realised she really didn't mind Zim, however much she should hate him. It was wrong, like a part of herself had corroded, betrayed itself.
She would always manage to shake the feeling off, but, the epiphany returned stronger after a day of Hi-Skool…
"Gaz-beast, Zim will propose a deal."
The green alien stood tall, chest puffed out with a three fingered, gloved hand extended downwards for a shake. The purple haired girl stared at the hand for a moment before slowly looking up, a questioning look on her face. He continued.
"If you would entertain GIR again this afternoon, you would be proud to serve ZIM! A great honour!"
"Uh huh," She replied, adjusting the straps of her bag, "Look, I can't keep coming to see you and GIR after Skool. I have a life too."
The Irken soldier was taken aback. His face distorted in disgust, "Wh-what?! You dare defy me again?!"
The game-addict nodded her head, "Yeah, look I'll see you tomorrow or something" Gaz walked away, "Goodbye Zim."
Zim seethed. He was mightily offended when Gaz ignored his attempts at changing her mind- he also felt slightly disappointed, she had refused to come to his base all week. Originally when she stayed at the house, it was to see GIR. Zim hated the fact that a human was staying in his base, but he got used to it. The alien started to grow fond of Gaz' company. She talked unlike her stupid mumbling brother, and he enjoyed listening to her interesting human voice. Zim appreciated another thing: she knew her place and did not interrupt his intellectual genius. Zim wanted to reward the Gaz-beast. The thing was, Gaz was incomprehensible. She repeatedly refused the command of mighty Zim! It frustrated him to no end. It was not logical.
Yet she continued to refuse. Again. And again.
Gaz, on the other hand, was avoiding seeing Zim and GIR on purpose. While she was less frustrated with the world and less wrapped up in her cares at his base, the fact that it was Zim's base was exactly what kept her away. It made her feel like she was weak; being manipulated into thinking the world was sunshine and butterflies. Gaz knew the world was cruel. It wasn't a good place. The Membrane girl so badly wanted to accept Zim's invitations, but she didn't. She was afraid.
Gaz had caught up with her brother, Dib. He swung around to face his younger sister, accidentally hitting her with his flowing black trench coat, "Gaz! Tonight there's a Mysterious Mysteries of Strange Mysteries rewind! It's going to be over two hours long, I'm so excited! They better have that one episode where-"
There was no stopping her self-proclaimed paranormal investigating brother from talking about his favourite show. Gaz had gotten used to it by now, so she tuned-out his nonsensical rambles and tuned-in to her GS4. It was only when she heard Dib screeching in rage that she slowly paused and looked up from her game.
"Zim?"
On the concrete of Hi Skool's sidewalk was said Irken Soldier on his knees, hands together, begging in front of the Membrane siblings. His gaze was glued to her in a pathetic display for sympathy.
"Gazlene, ZIM NEEDS you to entertain GIR this afternoon- PLEASE! Zim cannot plan an invasion with stupid GIR being a pathetic servant for eternity!"
Dib and Gaz cringed. The whole act was very un-Zim-like. There was silence between the three of them as they all tried to understand the situation they created.
"Wow… Zim… with your ego, I thought it would be-," Gaz started.
"-impossible for you to stoop to begging." finished Dib, "- unless this is part of your evil invasion plot!" he added, accusatorily.
"I dunno. He kinda reminds me of that dude with a stupid hat from the coffin commercial." whispered Gaz to Dib.
The alien's mood suddenly snapped back to normal as he raised his fists, "BUT! You HAVE to, ZIM COMMANDS IT!" he screamed at the sky in a manic fashion.
"Why?" Gaz rebuked, "Why me? All I do it entertain him for a moment, anyone can do that."
Zim looked back at Gaz, desperately trying to convince her to do as he wanted, "N-no! Only Gaz-beasts can entertain GIR! GIR is too stupid for others!"
Already fed up, Gaz walked past the alien, thwapping his green head as she passed by. Her brother snorted in amusement and copied, following beside his younger sister with a smug glance in Zim's direction. The alien stared down at the concrete path for a moment before he snapped his head up, adjusted his black wig and sprinted after the Membrane siblings.
Dib had again started spouting about his show and Gaz was again ignoring it. The Irken slowed his pace as he approached the two. With his expert training, he decided to trail a small distance behind them and waited. The siblings walked a fine length into the city before Dib started to feel that something was off. He cautiously and surreptitiously looked behind them before feeling both relieved and infuriated to quickly discover who the pursuer was, "Are you kidding me right now?!"
His sister also looked back. As soon as she saw Zim she halted. Dib pivoted and pointed at the Invader, accusing him of stalking.
"Zim does not play out the actions of a bird!" He hissed, baring his teeth, "The Dib-Monkey needs to stop getting involved in the situation anyway, it is not for ugly humans."
"That's it-" cried Dib, stomping forward, fists clenched, "This is the last of whatever, stupid plan you-"
Before the paranormal investigator could finish rolling up his sleeves, however, Gaz interrupted.
"If I go to your house and do stuff with GIR for the afternoon, will you leave us alone?"
The alien nodded and puffed his chest victoriously, "Yes! Yes, Zim will fulfill the request."
"You'll leave me alone, forever?"
For the first time in his life, Zim felt a pit form in his equivalent of a stomach, an ounce of regret. It was a strange feeling; one he had never experienced before. His pushed his shoulders up in an exaggerated manner, trying to look confident. He stuttered: it was hard to speak with a fake evil smile stretched as far across his face as physically possible. "Y-yes! Zim will fulfill the request…"
Gaz let out an exasperated sigh, rubbing her eyes with one hand, "Okay then. I'll come with you."
Dib made unholy noises as he flicked his head from both his sister and worst enemy's faces. But, just like his sister did, he sighed. Maybe this was good. Zim would leave his sister alone for once, instead of trying to use her as a pawn in his evil invasion plot. It would be another thing off his shoulders.
Maybe…
OR… this just part of the Irken's evil plot. Was all going according to plan? Dib was incredibly eager to race home and work on these new developments, but he had to make sure Gaz arrived safely first.
The rest of the walk was long and silent. It was uncanny. Zim was frighteningly silent. He simply walked beside Gaz; arms crossed behind his back without strutting about exaggeratedly. He glared every so often at Dib, it was the only thing that stopped the Membrane children from thinking he was a completely different person.
As they came towards their neighbourhood, Dib leaned over to his sister and whispered to her, "If he starts acting up, just call me and I'll be there with an anti-Irken gun."
"What anti-Irken gun?"
"The one I'm about to invent!"
Gaz scoffed, but she was secretly glad to have a backup plan. Then, Dib left, turning back every once in a while, to see if Zim was doing anything suspicious.
Once he was out of sight, "Okay, Zim. What's going on. Something is definitely wrong here." Asked the purple haired girl immediately. She knew he was up to something, and it involved her.
"What is wrong?" repeated Zim loudly enough for Gaz' ear to ring. He seemed to suddenly transform back into his old self as he scratched at his chin, "There is nothing wrong where the mighty Zim is concerned. The Gaz-beast is coming to Zim's base in order to play with GIR so that Zim can work in his lab in peace… I do not see wrongness."
And with that, she dropped the topic, instead taking out her GS4 once more. She could not be bothered trying to pry into his psyche, nor did she particularly want to, "Whatever."
When they turned into the cul de sac, one thing was obvious. Zim lived there.
The small house was squished in between two other, more normal looking houses, and it's white fence jutted out a small length further than the neighbouring ones. It's vibrant teal and purple paint job contrasted against the dull, brown and yellow buildings next to it. Not only was it an eyesore, it was the complete opposite of inconspicuous; a large satellite stuck out from the roof, facing the stars and thousands of giant, power-sucking tubes clung onto the houses next to it. How no one questioned these antics was unknown, and it always seemed to agitate the girl. Just like the being next to her, it was against the norm. As they walked through the gateless opening, she noticed one of the garden gnomes twist in the dirt, surveying her movement. She scoffed.
"Alright, Gaz-beast!" Zim jumped dramatically onto the doorstep. He pulled an unusually large key and stabbed it into the lock on the purple, wooden door, "prepare your fragile mind to enter the house of ZIM once more!"
She closed her Game Slave and placed it into her pocket, her face never changing.
The door was opened in a glorious way, and two large robot 'parents' were there to greet them, "Welcome home, son-"
"Yes, yes, deactivate for now," the alien waved his hand, causing the metal beings to retreat back into their small closet.
"Why do you still have those things," Gaz stepped inside, expecting something else to jump from the shadows, "They're kind of useless, don't you think?"
"Nothing of Zim's is useless, silly human," the door was closed behind them and a click indicated that it was locked, "Zim is going to enter his top secret lab now to proceed planning PLANETARY TAKEOVER!"
The gaming addict accidentally chuckled at his zeal. Zim took note of this and a proud grin spread across his face. He cleared his throat and turned toward the toilet in his kitchen. With a dramatic leap, he went straight down the drain. Gaz, once truly realising he had finally left her alone, threw her school bag aside and decided to binge TV.
She couldn't lie, she had always been jealous of his TV. It was really good quality-. She found the remote wedged in between two purple couch cushions. It was abominably greasy and sticky: so much so that she had to wipe her hand on her black jacket after pressing the ON button.
Just as she started to get invested in a show about a murderous turtle, a shrill squeal once again pierced her right eardrum.
"GAAAAZZY!"
And she was tackled by a tiny silver robot. His arms were wrapped around her tight, and he started wailing, "I MISSEDED YOU SOOO MUCH!"
"Hi to you too, GIR." She calmly replied, causing the machine to release her.
"Gazzy, everythinged has changed when you were gone!" he pulled on her jacket, "I painted the DOG!"
With slight amusement, she slipped off the couch and crouched to his level, "I wasn't gone for that long."
"It was a UNIVERSE ago!"
"I'm sure it was."
She pet his flat head and he giggled before doing a small dance and shouting, "CHICKEN BROTH IS READY!"
With that, GIR rushed into the kitchen. Gaz followed. As she entered, she was pushed into a chair at the round kitchen table and a bowl suddenly flew at her, which she narrowly dodged. It smashed against the wall across the room, shattering into large pieces. The purple haired girl thought about cleaning the mess but decided against it for now.
Noticing his mistake, GIR took another ceramic bowl, "Oopsiiee!"
This time, it was slammed against the wooden table. It cracked, but didn't break. The small robot turned around and took a giant pot off the stove. He effortlessly brought it over to the table, hopping onto the surface and pouring the hot liquid into the unstable bowl.
"That's enough, GIR," Gaz stopped him from overfilling it.
"Okay! EAT IT."
"How about," she tried to change the subject, noticing the distinct scent of petroleum emitting from the 'meal', "you… show me some of the stuff you did while I was gone?"
He dropped the heavy pot onto the table, its contents splashing dangerously close to the edge, "Does Gazzy want a tour?! Gazzy wants a tour of the HOUSE!"
The girl reluctantly agreed. Almost immediately, she was pulled off the chair and toward a closet door. The SIR unit opened the doors to reveal an elevator, to which he tugged her into. As the two descended into the depths of Zim's base, Gaz realised that if Zim had made an elevator, why did he go into his labs via the kitchen toilet?
She also realised that it would be best not to ask.
The deeper they went, the more concerned Gaz got. She had been in the labyrinth that was the Irken lab before, but only on a surface level. She felt uneasy about delving into the depths, even with GIR. If something went wrong, how would she escape? Even if she called Dib for his 'anti-Irken gun' how would he find her? How would she find him?
Her thoughts were interrupted as a small ding chirruped from a speaker. The two metal doors opened to reveal an incredibly dark room. The light from the elevator only lit so much, and it seemed safe enough to step into.
Before she could take any action, GIR laughed and ran into the dark, his cyan eyes acting as headlights to light his path. The girl called after him, "Are there any lights in here?"
"Nope!"
Typical Zim. With a low growl, she strode through the darkness in an effort to follow after her robot companion.
GIR would run forward a few steps before turning back to Gaz. Although he was utterly stupid and had no sense of anything, he knew that if he left her behind, he wouldn't be able to play with her again. Each time he looked back, she would shout at him to stop it. Her vision started to become crowded with small white dots, his eyes were bright. Too bright.
Soon enough, GIR's company became annoying and unsatisfying. The alien noises and cold, damp air made her uneasy. She feared that the room was actually full of experiments; the metal flooring, the weird bubbling sounds and steely air didn't help calm her nerves. She swore that someone was breathing into her ear-
"Gazzy! Look! A turkey!"
Finally, she was able to catch up to him. Gaz turned her gaze to where he was pointing and spotted a large cork-board. Pictures and scribbled paper decorated the thing. She decided to investigate, it looked interesting enough, and she didn't really want to let her paranoia consume her. It was just a really, really big dark room after all.
The purple-haired girl picked up GIR with both hands and approached the cork-board.
"Well… that isn't concerning."
The board was full of images of her. Surrounding each picture were scraps of paper with what she assumed Irken scribbling. She stepped back, more confused than anything. She honestly didn't know what to make of it. She needed to read the notes, it could give her a clearer answer. They had to.
She placed the small robot down and tore off the largest scrap of writing. She crouched to his level and held the paper up, "GIR, can you read this?"
"No- wait yes!" he stuck his tongue out.
"Well, what does it say?"
"It says… Deceiving is the key- to eat pancakes on a beach with preeetty unicorns!"
The SIR unit held his hands together endearingly. Not endearingly enough, as Gaz immediately gave up and balled the paper, throwing it as far as she possibly could. She let out an exasperated sigh, "Whatever."
She pretended not to care, but an inkling of doubt spread through her mind. What if Zim was seriously only using her for some stupid 'earth take over' plan?
Supressing the thought as deep as she possibly could, Gaz took GIR's small robot hand, "Okay, GIR, lets not play around in here anymore."
"But Gazzy wants a tour."
"Lets tour somewhere else."