Zeraf's hands clench into fists, and his Pak legs slowly emerge from their compartments. I start to bring out mine, but when they don't hit the ground in a few seconds, I remember what I'd done and I close the compartments back up, trying to be subtle. Zeraf notices though, of course.
"You got rid of your Pak legs?" he asks, a smile playing on his lips. "Surely you haven't been fighting with them while you tried to fit in on this planet."
"That's exactly why I got rid of them," I growl back at him, trying to keep my cool. "There's no reason to have them if I'm not here to conquer the planet."
"You're so weak," he grumbles, still smiling. "Maybe you're a lost cause anyways. We should just get someone else to take over this dirt ball."
I glare at Zeraf. "Why don't you back off? Last I checked, this was my dirt ball."
Zeraf laughs out loud, his eyes squeezing shut. My tensed muscles relax, and I raise an eyebrow. "What's so funny?" I ask, the edge in my voice gone.
"You've already told me that all the people who care about you are gone," he says, his smile wide across his face. "I don't know why you would want to save a planet that doesn't love you. You aren't even supposed to care about love at all." The words hurt, yes, but I don't move, not wanting to look vulnerable, or get caught with my guard down.
"It's not all about me," I say. "The other people on this planet have their own lives, and their own people that love them." Saying it out loud hurts me a bit. I do still care, and I wish Dib was here. But I can't think about that right now.
Instead of responding, Zeraf reaches out with his Pak legs and lifts me into the air. When he can't reach any higher, he brings me down, ramming me into the floor. For a minute, I think he's going to ask me to go with him again, but the Pak legs stay around my waist and his throws me against the wall.
"What will the Tallest do if you kill me?" I ask cockily, wiping blood off of my arm. "Don't they want me alive? If you're the Irken that ruins their plans, how do you think they'll dispose of you?"
For a moment, Zeraf's confident look wavers. But then he sets his glare on me again. "You aren't planning on coming anyways. I'm just making sure you don't interfere with the next invader that will take your place." Without waiting for a response, he throws me again. My wig falls to the floor, making me wince as it brushes against my severed antenna.
Without hesitation, Zeraf walks over to me, eyeing the ripped stalk. "Was this you?" he asks tauntingly. "Or was it the better, reprogrammed version that we created?" I growl up at him, refusing to answer. I don't want to know how he'll mock me if he finds out it was both. How weak will I sound?
Zeraf grabs the antenna, pulling at the ripped edge. A wave of pain ripples through my body, and I instinctively kick at him, sweeping his feet out from under him. He falls on his back, and his Pak legs retract quicker than I thought possible. His eyes snap open and he reaches behind him. His breath hitches and he glares at me.
"You little-"
"Shut up," I interrupt. "You were trying to kill me. I just thought I'd return the favour." I stand up, staring down at Zeraf, my antennae twitching. I put my wig back on and turn to leave, but just as I'm about to open the door, I turn back. I lean down and pull Zeraf's broken Pak partly off of his back, pulling one of the legs out.
"I think I'm going to keep this," I say, sounding disinterested. "Not like you'll be needing it anyways." I bring the sharp edge of the Pak leg down on the wires connecting his Pak to his body, and watch as he sits, helpless, minutes away from death. "See you never." I turn back towards the door.
I stand in the doorway for a few seconds before turning my head and looking back at Zeraf again. I hold up his Pak tauntingly.
"Who's the defective now?"
---
I lay Zeraf's half-shattered Pak on the table as I walk into the house, pulling my wig off at the same time. The pain in my antenna has lessened by now, but I still wince. I'm extremely tired, most likely because of the combination of depression and anger, not to mention the worn-off adrenaline of killing Zeraf.
After a minute, I decide to lay my Pak next to his, just to see how hopeless he looks next to me. Any other Irken would think that I was a powerful soldier, and that Zeraf was a weakling, who couldn't save himself. It's funny that pretty much the opposite was true, up until he died.
But now that I know that the voice wasn't really Dib, I regret the loss of my Pak legs, and especially my antenna. Obviously, there's no way to get them back now, but that doesn't change the fact that I made a mistake.
My eyes linger on Zeraf's Pak for a minute, debating whether or not to bring it down to the lab. After a moment, I decide to leave it. It's not like I'm expecting a visitor anytime soon. I reconnect my own Pak.
The exhaustion running through my body forces me downstairs, where I flop down onto my bed, not bothering to flip the covers over me before I'm asleep.
---
I expect to sleep forever, but when I wake up to a noise upstairs, the clock says I've only been down here for about three hours. Rather than going back to sleep- which I would very much love to do- I force myself to stand up. My back aches from the uncomfortable position I fell asleep in, but I sneak over to my door and push it open a bit. The noises get louder, to the point where I can tell it's the clanging of dishes. I got the Computer to stop informing me of intruders awhile back; I don't really have to worry about it. Or, well, didn't, I guess.
As quietly as I can, I make my way upstairs, hoping to catch the unwanted visitor before they hear me coming. I stop the chute right before my head rises above the top, and flatten my remaining antenna against my head to peek into the house.
In the kitchen, someone is rummaging through the cupboards, hitting the edges of the plates together as they pull them out one by one, staring at them like they've never seen them before. I can't see their face, because their head is covered by a light blue hood. The hood of the sweater that Dib gave me on that first night. I see a bit of what looks like black hair poking out the top, and I forget about hiding, jumping out of the chute.
"Dib?" I ask. The intruder turns around, knocking off the hood in the process. Two curled antennae poke out, straightening in surprise.
"Zim?" the Irken asks, her mouth twitching at the ends.
"How do you know me? And why are you in my house?" I ask, anger being overpowered by the sadness that this isn't Dib. Though, I don't know what I was expecting; I know he's gone, and it was admittedly stupid to think he was here.
"Oh yeah," she mutters. "They wiped your mind. You wouldn't really remember me, huh?" Before I ask what she means, she sticks out a hand and tilts her head. "It's Raz," she says. "My name, I mean."
I refuse her handshake. "It would seem you already know my name," I say dryly, crossing my arms.
Raz looks down. "Sorry, I guess I should have alerted you of my visit," she apologizes, pulling her hand back awkwardly. "I helped Dib on the massive," she chirps. Then her smile falls a bit. "Well, as much as I could help him before the guards caught me."
"That's a traitorous action against the empire," I say in disbelief. "You would have been killed."
Raz rolls her eyes and smiles. "I may be defective, but I'm not stupid," she says, waving her hand in the air in front of her. Before I can interrupt her, she continues; "I'm a scientist. And the guards don't exactly stay around to watch you die when there's a foreign threat on the Tallest's ship. I was able to get to a lab and fix myself up before I bled to death."
"Okay, forget that," I say, shaking my head. I was a scientist too, I know how that would work. I look at Raz. "You're defective as well?"
Her eyes widen and she grins. "Yeah, definitely," she answers. "I'm not surprised, to be honest. I can get pretty expressive and emotional." She nods, as if confirming the information to herself. There's no hint of sadness on her face; she prides herself in her difference. Whereas I had been denying that truth for years after the other Irkens had outcast me, based on how she said it, she can't have known about it for very long.
"Oh, is Dib here?" Raz asks. The nonchalance in her tone brings tears to my eyes.
"No." I want to say more, but I can't help but feel like I would break down if I opened my mouth for any longer.
Raz's antennae drop down a bit, and her brow furrows. "Hm? Why not?"
I look down, refusing to speak, and I hear a little gasp come from her. She can tell what I'm trying to say, even without words. "Oh... Zim I'm... I didn't mean to..." she trails off.
Trying to change the subject, I look up and ignore my blurry vision. "You still haven't told me how you know me," I say, and my voice is surprisingly firm.
"I worked on your Pak a while back. I think... it would have been about a year now on Earth," she looks up as she tries to do the mental math. "They erased your memories afterwards, though. I guess they didn't trust you. Or me," she adds, her eyes coming back down.
She worked on my Pak? Which means...
"Can you fix it?" I ask. She looks at me, confused.
"Huh? Fix what? Your Pak?" Her eyes sparkle a bit as she says it. I nod, uncrossing my arms finally. After a moment, Raz's eyes widen a bit, like she's just remembered something important. "I should probably tell you something first," she mumbles. "Since they wiped your memory, you wouldn't remember, but I... I was the one who messed with it in the first place."
Before I can start yelling, Raz holds up her hands, expecting me- and rightfully so- to hit her. "I only did what the Tallest told me," she pleads, her eyes squeezed shut. "I never wanted to hurt anyone, especially not you. You're an inspiration to me!"
I straighten up and blink in surprise. "Me?" I ask. One of Raz's eyes pops open. "But everyone on Irk hates me!"
"And I hate them," Raz states simply. "I hate that everyone has to fit into these degrading categories based on how tall they are." She rolls her eyes at this. "Honestly, if you think about it, it really is stupid." Then her expression lights up. "But when I saw you come back after Operation Impending Doom, I admired your courage and rebellion. You were the shortest Irken I'd ever seen, but you were so determined to be an invader. You talked back to the Tallest, for Irk!"
I smile a bit, realizing that I was rebelling even before I came to Earth. Raz looks up at me, one eyebrow pulled up. "So... that Pak on the table," she prods, tilting her head toward the living room.
"There was an Irken spy sent to keep me on track for my mission," I growl, crossing my arms. "Except that he tried to kill me instead."
Raz stands quietly for a minute, her eyes awkwardly looking down. After a moment, she looks up. "So... let's fix your Pak."