The Adventures of Mip Membrane

Chapter 4: Her Return

"You can take your disguise off now." Tak stated, breaking the silence.

"Oh, does my disguise make you uncomfortable?" I asked.

"Yes. Very much so."

"Then I'm leaving it on."

If I had to be kidnapped, I wanted to be the most obnoxious hostage possible. I hoped maybe if Tak got sick of me, she would just ditch me. Of course, there was also the potential of her killing me, but I hoped that Dad would catch up to us before that happened.

"So... how's it going?" I asked.

"I'm not going to engage in a conversation with you."

"You just did."

"SILENCE!"

I chuckled. "You sounded just like Zim there."

"Wait, you know Zim too? Oh, that's a stupid question, of course you do. It's hard not to know that nuisance, especially if you live on the same planet as him."

I folded my arms. "He's not a nuisance."

"Oh, you naïve child. He's been lying to you all your life, hasn't he? There's a reason why he was banished to Earth. He's an absolute menace to Irken society. His arrogance and stupidity has caused the death and suffering of millions of his own kind. I can't say for certain what the Tallest intend to do with you, but I guarantee whatever fate awaits you with them will be considerably less painful than staying on Earth with Zim."

It didn't make any sense. Sure, he had a temper, but I only ever saw him beat up that freaky teddy bear. Well, there was that one time he attacked Moofy, but it was for my sake! That girl could've killed me!

In fact, Zim was really nice. He didn't act like it all the time, but he really did care about me, Dad, Gaz, all of us.

"You're wrong. He would never hurt me." I stated.

"Yes, yes, just keep living in your delusions. I don't know why I was trying to reason with a defective."

Defective. I had heard that word thrown around before, usually when Zim was upset about something. I wasn't entirely sure what it meant in the context of Irkens, but I remember overhearing Dad try to convince Zim that he isn't one numerous times. I never considered that I could be one, mainly because I didn't know what it meant. But I guess if I was similar to Zim in any way, Tak would view me as defective.

I kept quiet for a while, but as we got closer to Irk, more questions started buzzing through my head.

"What do you think the Tallest are going to do with me?" I asked.

"That's none of my business. I'm only doing this because they promised to promote me to the Invader rank if I turned you in. My guess is they'll discard your PAK. Clearly it's not working right. I'm surprised it's functional at all."

The realization hit me like a train. That was why my PAK looked different. It was broken. And all this time I had no idea. My family, they had to know it was broken. Zim would know. Dad knew enough Irkens to where he would have to be able to tell. Why didn't they say anything? Why didn't they try to fix it? Why would they just leave me broken?

My PAK legs. I know I have them. I can feel them. I can even move them a little, but I can't get them to come out like Zim and Tak. Even Moofy was aware of this. Why didn't I question it before?

I concentrated, feeling a leg weakly scrape against the inside of my PAK. That was the most movement I could get out of them.

"You're right. My PAK is broken. I had no idea. I... I don't get it. Why didn't anyone tell me? Why didn't they try to fix it!?"