21Alright. Last chapter of this story. The Bad End of Amongst The Reeds. Thank you, everyone, for reading this story. It was my absolute pleasure to write this. Thanks to Esthyradler for their awesome Ghost Stories AU, and for checking over for my chapters before I posted them. Thank you, everyone, who read this, wrote a comment, favorited, and/or followed. I'm happy that I've entertained you! I hope you all are doing well!
Comments:
RandomDragon2.0: Thank you so much! I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Zim'sMostLoyalServant: Thank goodness she was there right? Also, thank you very much!
Invader Johnny: He got very lucky. So many things could've gone wrong, but it all worked out in the end!
When Dib asked Gir to pilot the Voot Cruiser, he thought the robot would be competent enough to drive them without crashing. He placed way too much trust in him. Luckily, the park probably wouldn't notice the damage too badly, right? Gaz stood next to him. "Thank goodness this place doesn't have cameras, or Dad would be paying so much to get that fixed." Tak raised a brow at the ten-foot-long skid mark that the ship had left in the park. A couple of trees had been splintered and knocked over by their crash landing.
"Real smooth landing Gir. I'd say this is the best landing I've ever seen you do." Gir cheered while Gaz scowled at her. "Oh, shut up, Tak. Enough with the snark. We need to see if we can find Zim." They looked around, but they could see no sign of life in the area. Everything was serene and undisturbed. "Do you think we beat them here?" Tak scoffed and turned to Gir. "Can't you do anything useful and see if you can track your dooky master?"
Gir laughed and started digging through his head. "I have my piggy! Piggy can find master!" Tak smacked her head with her face and turned away. "Alright, well, I'm going to look around the road. The last place I want to be is anywhere near the water with him around." She pointed at the smiling robot that was putting on its dog costume. "He'd probably find a way to accidentally kill me."
Before she could even begin down the road, she froze. There, walking down the street, was Zim. He looked pale and lifeless as he walked down the dirt road in his purple pajamas. "Zim!" Dib called out and ran up to him before the others could catch up. He tried to grab him around the shoulders and get him to stop walking, but he was shoved out of the way as Zim continued undeterred. Dib hissed as he landed painfully on his arm. When the human pushed himself to his feet, a sharp twinge of pain shot through the limb. He inspected it quickly, noticing several bleeding cuts from landing on stones. Dib wiped the blood off on his coat before he turned back to Zim.
Gaz was trying to push against Zim's chest, but no matter how hard she tried, Zim didn't slow down. "Dib! Get your butt over here! I need help!" Dib ran over and tried wrapping his arms around Zim's shoulders. It was hard to pull back, though, when the pressure made his cuts flare in pain. "Zim! Snap out of it, please! You've got to wake up!" Gaz looked up a moment as her feet dragged against the dirt. There was no light in Zim's eyes. No spark of recognition or consciousness or anything that showed he had heard her brother's plea.
"Zim, I'll kill you if you die! I'll bring you back just to kill you if you don't snap out of it right now!" Gaz hoped that she could somehow wake him. That if Zim heard them, he would fight the possession. She could feel the panic rising in her as they got closer to the dock. "Are you gonna let this ghost kill you? Let her defeat the Almighty and Powerful Zim?" That slowed his pace.
Gaz's eyes widened as Zim's lekku twitched. Dib joined in. "The Great Zim would never let a ghost overpower him. You have to fight her!" Tak watched from the sidelines in awe as Zim halted, right at the spot where the ground became wood. She had been trying to formulate a plan while Gir babbled stupidly about some toy of his when she noticed the siblings' plan was working. She left Gir behind as she ran up to them. "Yeah! Didn't you say you were going to show me how a real Invader worked or something? You can't rub your stupidity in my face if you're dead! So show that stupid ghost what an Irken can do!"
Everyone watched as Zim's claws slowly morphed into a tightly clenched fist. "Fight her, Zim!" Dib watched the Irken with hope in his eyes. The little alien's eyes were scrunched shut, and he was shaking. His eyes snapped open. None of them saw it coming.
Dib gasped as sharp claws raked through his arm. As he was thrown to the side from the force of the attack. When he looked up, Gaz had also been shoved to the ground opposite him, and Tak was wrestling with Zim using her Pak's legs. "Dammit! You can't do this!" Her robotic limbs were dug deep into the ground, and she was pushing back against Zim with all her might.
"I owe you this!" She reared back one arm and slapped him hard across the cheek. Zim was unfazed as she did it again and again. "Tak!" Dib held his bleeding arm close to his body as he realized that she had Zim in a standstill. Tak growled as she grabbed both of Zim's hands and held them away. "I'll hold him off! Find that stupid ring!"
Gaz started racing through the reeds while using her phone as a flashlight. Dib tried to push himself to his feet, but the blood loss was already making him dizzy. He looked up when he saw Gir walk towards him. "What's wrong, Mary? You don't look so good?" Dib looked at him pleadingly. "I need you to see if you can find a ring! Look around this park. Search wherever you haven't been from the last time we were here, and if you find it bring it back. Zim is going to die if we can't find that ring!" The little robot tilted it's head curiously.
"A ring? Like a pretty shiny ring?" Dib's eyes widened. "Yes! Yes, a ring! Have you seen it?" Gir smiled and nodded. "I saw pretty shiny thing last time I was here! It was waaaay down the road, though! I was playing with the shiny and then I dropped it before we had to leave! I'll go get the shiny now!" The kid watched as Gir playfully ran off towards the road. He looked back at Tak and Zim to see that the former was slowly being pushed back by Zim. Her Pak was letting out little sparks from the strain. "GAZ! FOLLOW GIR! HE KNOWS WHERE THE RING IS!" His sister bolted after the robot.
Tak grunted as she lost another inch to the ghost. She tried to push harder against the dirt with her legs because she knew all would be lost the second her mechanical limbs touched wood. There would be no leverage for her to hold back the possessed Irken. While she tried to formulate another plan in her head, she shivered as the ghost's miasma increased immensely. "My ring… My ring! My riNG! MY RING! MY RING! MINE! MINE! MINE! YOU CAN'T HAVE WHAT'S MINE!"Tak gasped as the pressure overwhelmed her. Her grip loosened for a nanosecond, but that was all the advantage the spirit needed. The ghost pushed forward with all her might, and Tak's mechanical legs bent and gave way. She slammed backward into the wooden dock with a cry.
Dib's eyes widened in horror as Zim stalked forward, no longer held back by Tak. "ZIM! NO!" The little Irken walked to the edge of the dock. Dib forced himself to his feet, uninjured hand outstretched as he darted onto the dock after Zim. "NO!" He reached the edge right as Zim fell into the lake. He would never forget. He could never forget the screams. The smoke rising from the lake as the alien's skin burned away from the water. As the echo of a lady's laughter rang in his ears. As he jumped into the lake after him.
The minutes that followed felt like hours to him. He barely remembered dodging Zim's flailing arms to grab him. Once he had his arms around Zim, some unknown force tried to drag them down. Just when Dib was almost out of breath, there was the sound of a splash, and the force released them. The two burst out of the lake. "Dib! Over here!" He could barely see through the water droplets coating his glasses, so he swam blindly in the direction of Gaz's voice. Zim was scarily limp as Gaz ran up to them, once they reached the bank, and dragged Zim onto the ground.
His skin had been completely burned off by the water, inflamed and raw, and his pak was whirring as it worked to try to heal him. The group knelt beside Zim, and Dib was relieved to see that Zim was still breathing. "Dib-human. Gaz-beast. Tak." Zim's eyes opened slightly to look at his rescuers. His voice was raspy and weak from swallowing water. "Zim, hold on! We're gonna get you to the base." Dib turned to see Gir standing nearby, watching them.
"Gir! Go start the ship!" The robot went running, not even questioning the order. Dib and Gaz shifted so that they were on both sides of Zim and tried to prop him into a sitting position. The second they put pressure on his aching body, the little alien screamed in pain. They all flinched at the sound. "Shoot! He's so badly injured that the pak's painkillers aren't enough to dull the pain. How are we gonna move him?" Dib bit his lip as he looked at his friend. Zim's breath was shallow, and he whimpered softly from the discomfort of lying on his pak.
The group looked up as the Voot Cruiser landed beside them. "Great! Gir brought the ship over! Let's just pick him up and move him really fast." Tak said as she hovered over them. "Come one! He needs medical attention now! We can't stay here any longer." The siblings nodded and moved to pick Zim up again. When he placed his hand under Zim's back, he realized something. Zim's pak was no longer glowing, and the Irken was still. "Zim. No, don't do this! You can't do this!" Gaz looked at her brother for a second before putting two fingers to Zim's neck. She quietly waited for a couple of seconds before pulling her hand away. "He's gone. We were too late."
Dib grit his teeth, and tears welled up in his eyes. "He can't be dead! We can still save him!" Gaz glared at him. Her brother stared in shock as tears also appeared at the corner of her eyes. "He's gone, Dib! We failed. We couldn't save him!" Dib didn't believe her. He couldn't believe her. He couldn't admit that Zim was dead. "Maybe we can restart the pak! Please, we've gotta do something!"
Tak glared at him. "The pak is delicate technology. With all of the water clogging its systems, it has to be damaged. Even then, living Irkens can only survive for ten minutes without it. It wouldn't matter if you somehow figured out how to restart Zim's pak. You wouldn't be able to fix it in time. Just give it up, Dib. He's dead. And there's nothing we can do to change that."
Dib slumped as he took in their words. Zim really was gone. And they would never get him back. He pounded both of his fists against the ground. "Why did I have to take us on that stupid hunt! This never would've happened!" The others looked away as Dib sobbed. "This is my fault. Zim! I'm sorry!"
"I'm sorry!"
Dib gasped as he jolted into a sitting position. He looked wildly around him, taking in his surroundings. He was in his room. Not at the lake and not sitting next to Zim's corpse. Zim! Dib whipped his head around so he could look at the other occupants in his bed. Zim was still sleeping while surrounded by Gaz, Mini Moose, and Gir. None of them had been disturbed by his outburst.
Dib sighed in relief as he watched his friend. "You know it's considered creepy to watch me sleep, right?" Dib jumped as Zim's eyes opened. "Sorry, did I wake you?" Zim shook his head. "Zim has been awake for a bit. I was trying to go back to sleep, but then you decided that you wanted to pursue a life as a human pop-up toy. What made you jump like that?"
The human blushed slightly at the jab. "I-uh, I had a nightmare. I dreamt that we were too late and you…" Zim hummed as Dib trailed off. "Well, luckily for you, that dream was fake. How would you survive without the great Zim?" Dib chuckled and looked at him with a weak smile. "I'm glad I don't know the answer to that."
The little alien grabbed Dib's hand and yanked him back down. Dib let out a soft "oof" as he fell back against the bed. "Zim?" He blinked as he was shushed. "Now that you know Zim is fine, you can go back to sleep. You're even more annoying than usual when you're tired." Dib smiled fondly as he got comfortable. Thank goodness it was just a dream.
