The Brains had decided for a lunch break, and afterwards they would conclude the Trial. Tak was picking nervously at her food, not really having the stomach for it. GIR, on the other hand (who had been singing the Doom song during the entire Trial) let loose a squeal of joy and started grabbing everyone's lunch trays. And eating them whole.
Even now, almost certainly minutes away from being deactivated, she couldn't help but find him disturbing and insane.
Tallest Purple, who was sitting at a table with Tallest Red, and other, rather tall, Irkens, was staring at the robot with a look of fascination. He couldn't help but feel proud. This robot was one of the best things he'd ever made.
Meanwhile…"Let me in!" Zim yelled at the guard who was blocking the door.
"Hey…you're Zim aren't you?" He asked, looking somewhat astonished.
"Yes. I see you've heard of my amazing-ness!"
"You were on Trial here a while ago! Jeez, you should've considered yourself lucky to get away from here before! Why the heck would you come back?"
"…To see the downfall of yet another worthless Defective?" He said, though the words sounded false, even to him. The guard zapped him with the laser/night stick thing that they were all assigned.
"ARGH! Foolish inferior- ARGH!" He got zapped yet again.
And again.
And again.
Finally he backed off, muttering words he had picked up from watching Earth movies. When the guard turned away, he ran around a corner to where Mimi was waiting.
"Did you drill that hole in the wall like I asked you to?" He asked. The plan had been to distract the guard while Mimi made a hole to get into the building. The fact that the guard never left the entrance, and thus wouldn't notice any hole, never crossed Zim's mind. Mimi nodded. "Quick, let's go!"
Back with Tak (hey, a rhyme!)…"Say, how about something that, you know, would help save me?" Tak said, grinning in a worried -and somewhat disturbing- way. They had just finished up with her most recent memory of breaking Zim out of Foodcourtia.
That won't be necessary. We have reached our ruling.
Tak's eyes widened with fear. Tallest Red and Purple snickered behind her. GIR was running around screaming, but that was nothing new.
OUR RULING: Irken Tak's I.D. Pak is damaged, and has led to a corrupt data path. She is a Defective!
At that, the Irken just collapsed onto her knees. It couldn't be… she was defective? She was going to be de-activated?
Irken Tak's data is not allowed into the collective. Her Pak will be removed and erased.
"But-but why?" She looked pleadingly at the Tallest. Her entire life had been devoted to serving them… and they were abandoning her now?
"Gee, let me think. It's either because you maimed dozens of some-what innocent Irkens, or because you helped break out a dangerous Defective." Red said, sarcasm practically dripping from his voice.
"Well, it's been nice knowing you!" Purple waved.
The cables attached to Tak's Pak began to remove it, and the data cables that were to erase the information started to attach themselves-
"HA-CHA!" Zim flew down on Mimi to the platform. He snatched the Pak away from the cables before the data could be lost, and handed it back to Tak. "Quick, get it back on! Then get onto Mimi." She stared at him, blinking once, partly confused that he knew where she was, and partly stunned at his suprisingly heroic entrance. But once the moment ended, she quickly complied.
The Tallest couldn't quite believe what was happening. They were frozen in their places, not even able to blink.
"GIR! GET OVER HERE!" The robot looked up from his running and screaming, cyan parts turning bright red.
"Yes master!" He said, flying up to him. Zim grabbed onto GIR's antennae.
"Quick, to the Voot!" Zim shouted, and the two robots flew off and out of that place.
At last, the Tallest were able to do something. Red turned to Purple, and said, in tones of pure hatred…
"Why can't we EVER finish a Trial?"
Much later…
Zim sighed, and started a transmission to the Tallest. He had to face the consequences of what he did. Still, he wasn't entirely sure that they'd pick up.
And when they did, he had no idea what to say.
"My Tallest, I-" He started, but Tallest Red held up a hand to silence him.
"Zim, out of all the things you've done wrong in the past, you've never done anything quite like this. You broke into the Spike of Judgement, and freed a condemned Defective. Never before has this occurred."
Purple nodded, and said, "At first, we didn't even know what kind of punishment we should give you, since sending you to Foodcourtia obviously doesn't work."
"But, we finally came up with something suiting what you did."
Zim looked nervously at his leaders. Were they going to have him deactivated?
"Zim, you are hereby stripped of your title of 'Invader'. From now on, you and Tak are banished from Irk, or any Irken-controlled planets." Red finished, though for some reason, there was a weary tone, rather than a serious one. "Never call us again."
They ended the transmission.
As he heard his sentence, Zim wasn't sure whether to feel relieved, or upset. Surely they could have done worse to him than to have simply banished. Still, he was no longer an Invader. What was he to do with the rest of his life?
Meanwhile…Tak was sitting in the living room, glancing nervously at the floor (well, really to Zim in the lab below), wondering what was going on. She knew how much of a transgression what he did was, and she still wasn't sure why he did it.
As she was pondering over it, Zim came up from the lab in the trashcan.
"Well? What did they say?" She asked, not entirely sure she wanted to know.
He sat down heavily next to her on the couch. "I'm no longer an Invader. I've been exiled from all Irken-run planets. My amazing Zim-ness will go to waste!" He said, and Tak was comforted to hear the arrogance was still in his voice.
"I'm sorry. All this over little ol' me." She said, with fake innocence. Zim even managed to crack a smirk at that.
They sat in a comfortable silence, until she heard him murmur something.
"Excuse me?" She said, perking her antennae at him.
"I'm not sorry for doing what I did." He said, not looking at her. Tak needed a few minutes to understand what he said. The longer she stayed silent, the more uncomfortable he looked.
But really, what could she say to him? Irkens were not supposed to feel like this. That's what they had their Paks for, to keep their emotions in check. A well-functioning Pak would mean that the Irkens who wore them would be constantly focused on their jobs and training.
And yet here she was, looking at her once most hated enemy, feeling things that caused humans on bad soap operas to kill each other.
Speaking of bad soap operas, the humans on there often did this…thing to each other to show affection. She and Zim had seen enough of them to finally understand what they were doing. It was called a 'kiss'.
Feeling even more nervous then she had at the Trial, she gently tapped Zim on the shoulder. As he turned towards her, she managed to catch his lips with hers.
So this is love, she though, as the world around them fell away.
A/N: BWAHAHAHAHA! I end NOW! With the only kiss in the whole series! Because I'm afraid that doing anymore will ruin it.Anyway, I hope you liked one of the very few in-character ZATR fanfics. If you guys want more, go check out Pinky Lillix's fanfics (especially 'Emotion Sickness'. It's got one of the best Tak origins I've ever read). Also, a great Zim crossover is Ice-Song's 'Not a Hero'. I highly recommend both writers.
I'd like to thank all my loyal readers and reviewers ,Suicidal Rubber Ducky, Raman Noodle, Pinky Lillix, Computer-Slave, All Apologies, rarofdoom, Zombie Zapper101, Invader Corren, Invader Becky, Dark enchanter, toxic-dreamer-2, Ice-Song, Yellowfur, Greendog, Mr. Girl, Confederacy, evildeathbee, and zimaddiction.
Without you guys, I'd never have stuck with it this far. I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I loved writing it.
See you again!