Amongst The Reeds

What Once Was Mine

Well, this is in fact the epilogue of this story. But there will be one more chapter after this. I want to include both the good and bad ends of this story. This story is based on the Ghost Stories AU by Esthyradler on Tumblr. Please check out their comic if you haven't! Those comics are the reason this story exists in the first place.

Summary: The Grey Lady has taken control of Zim and is taking him to the lake. The group must race against the clock to find a way to save Zim's life.

Tired eyes cracked open, and Zim slowly propped himself up in bed. His lekku laid limply against his head, his skin was pale, and his eyes were glazed over. He pulled a respirator off of his face and let it drop to the floor. "Uhh, maybe you should lay back down. Do you need me to call Dib or his sister?" The loud voice of his computer rang through the room. Zim continued staring straight ahead. The AI snarked, "Or you can ignore me. Fine then, not like I was actually worried or anything. You're sitting up and moving. As far as I'm concerned, I was obligated to ask and nothing more."

Gir, noticing his master was awake, crawled up the side of the bed, and rested his hand on Zim's lap. "Yay! Gir is so happy yous feeling better! And the nice lady is helping you sit up! Are you going somewhere? Are you going with the lady?" Hands appeared on Zim's shoulders, and the Grey Lady loomed out from behind him. She gently pulled him to his feet and steered him towards the platform to leave. Dead eyes continued staring straight ahead as the Grey Lady maneuvered her possession. However, they stopped when Gir stood in front of him.

"Can I come too?" Zim stared blankly at Gir. When no reply came from his master, the little robot redirected his attention to the spirit. She made a motion with her hand to direct him out of the way. Gir's eyes lit up in understanding, and he stepped out of their path. "Okay, lady! I'll guard this place well! I'll make Master happy! You two have fun at the lake!" Obstacle out of their path, the ghost dragged her victim along.

As they ascended to the main room, awareness returned to Zim for a second. He had to lean on his companion as a bout of dizziness struck him. His head felt full of the stuff the Dib-stink called cotton. His mind buzzed with thoughts of nothing and everything. His limbs tingled, his mouth felt dry, his tongue enlarged. Nothing felt right. Before he could even begin to figure out what was going on, he felt a pull on his chest and collapsed to his knees. The platform stopped in the living room, but the Irken stayed where he was, doubled over in pain. "W-what? Hurts..." His lekku twitched, and he raised his heavy eyes up to see a dark figure standing in front of him. "Y-you..." The pain in his chest increased, and he cried out.

Zim's consciousness faded fast, and he collapsed into the waiting arms of the spirit. After a couple of seconds, Zim stood up again, all semblance of discomfort was gone. And with blank magenta eyes, the alien stood tall and walked out the door.

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?"