Galaxies Intertwined

Chapter 10: An Unlikely Alliance

Class went on as it usually does, with Ms. Bitters lecturing about some useless grimdark topic that succeeded only in boring the students half to death. Xan sat in her seat, discretely scribbling down notes and ideas on what to do. 'How am I going to even take over this planet? By force? By discreet subversion of the world governments until they willfully hand all of their power over to me?' she thought to herself. She couldn't push the thought of earlier's conversation with Kat out of her mind. She scolded herself mentally, disappointed in herself, 'No, stop it with the doubtful thoughts. Those are the thoughts of a defect, I'm a proud invader with a mission that needs to be accomplished one way or another'.

As she wrote, she felt a glaring pair of eyes watching her every move. She looked to her left and met Zim's eyes, staring studiously back at her. The stange feeling came back as soon as their eyes met, and she quickly looked back at her notes. 'That feeling, it makes me uncomfortable. Why does he unnerve me like that?' she questioned herself, fearful of the strange feeling. Unbeknownst to her, Zim shared similar thoughts. Zim looked down at his own papers, doodles scrawled across them in a vain attempt to find some form of entertainment during Ms. Bitters' brain-numbingly boring lecture. On the left side of the page was a doodle of the very enemy he was just staring down. Cursing his subconscious for making him draw that, he scribbled it away somewhat violently with his pen. 'Damn these distracting thoughts. She's not here to help me, she's here to take my mission! I can't waste time thinking about her unless it's to bring about her end' he mentally scolded himself. Irkens are fierce soldiers who have no time to be figuring strange feelings.

Dib noticed the two stare at eachother briefly before rushing back to their things. He raised an eyebrow, confused at this behavior, but ultimately brushed it off as just weird. He had more pressing things to worry about. He wondered if his message ever got through to Tak, and how she would respond. 'Yeah I didn't really think out how that'd go if she decided to side with me. Even then, why WOULD she? Last time I saw her, we fought over her stupid magma thingy. God why am I so stupid?' he facepalmed. Shaking the thought of Tak from his mind, going back to mulling over how he would be able to handle two or more aliens after his precious planet. Maybe the power of friendship or showing them how cool Earth was? He laughed mentally at his joke, acknowledging the supposed fact that stuff like that only works out in cartoons. No, he needed something serious. He won't be around forever, and seemingly no one else wss smart enough to realize the weight of the matter at hand, and even if they did, they certainly seemed to be indifferent to it. This only made him more determined to save Earth for good. Just a matter of how...

RIIIIIING!

Oh, class was over. 'That was fast, I must've really gotten lost in my thoughts there' Dib thought to himself, gathering his things. He looked over at Xan, expecting her to be grabbing her things with haste to go and do whatever evil things it is she does on her own time. But thats not what he saw. Zim had already fled home, but Xan was taking her time, seemingly sluggish at grabbing her stuff. She had a dark, agitated look on her face and seemed to be focusing on something. Intrigued, the big headed boy approached his enemy. "Hey, alien. What's got you so moody?" he asked out of curiousity, and not for genuine regard of her feelings. She slightly jumped at the unsuspected voice, her eyes darting over to look at him. Almost instantly regaining her composure, she spoke, "Firstly, don't call me what I'm not, boy. Second off, I'm fine, and even if I weren't whats it to you?" She shot him a slightly confused-slightly annoyed look. Dib shrugged, disregarding this fact. "Nothing. You just looked so intense and focused on something, I was curious. Plans to take over Earth I assume?" he pressed. Xan rolled her eyes, ignored him, and turned to Kat. "Come on Kat, lets get out of here. His presence annoys me" she said to Kat, grabbing her arm. "Bye Diiiib!" Kat said, her voice getting quieter. Dib, pushing this interaction out of his thoughts for now, went to grab his own things and to meet Gaz outside. He needed to check if Tak got his message. Well, try to. Not that he has any reliable way of knowing for sure, but he needed to try anyways.

Dropping his bag at his bed, Dib rushed to his computer to check the status on things. "The radio monitoring device is still up and running, perfect. And... what's this? Audio file received?" A new file on his computer he didn't recognize peaked his interest.

click

A familiar, accented voice spoke in a hushed tone, and Dib's eyes went wide, "I accept. Keep up your part of the deal and send my ship. I don't have much time, I'm sending this BZZZZT" the voice was cut off by static. Silence, a click, and more static played before the voice resumed, "... encrypted channel. It would take a month to get there. And, I won't bother with your planet, I just want BZZZZT". Static again. Finally, the rest of the message finished, "my REVENGE". A click played, and the message was over. Dib sat in shock for a moment, slack jawed. Gathering his wits, he shook his head, and smiled. "I can't believe she actually accepted my offer! I mean I don't know how much I can trust her, probably not at all, but still this is a huge step forward in combatting Zim and Xan!" he said excitedly. He looked over at a mirror on his wall, and stared at himself for a moment. "Teaming up with the enemy. Never in a thousand years would I thought about this, but I got this. I can do this, with the help of someone who actually understands how they work and their technology, Earth will be saved" he said confidentally.

Zim's eyes widened in fear and panic. This was not good by any means. He too would have to go to drastic measures, and he didn't like that thought one bit.