Danem

Disgorging the Past

Danem.

The word roared through his mind like a Hogulus herd, demolishing every other thought in its wake.

Danem.

Not an adoptive parent. A biological parent. Not only that, a Tallest as a biological parent.

"But... how?" He muttered, dazed. "I was hatched. Incubated and hatched by a cold unfeeling robot arm. I remember..."

A dark flare wrapped around the top of his head, and he gasped as someone else's memories poured into his head.

A guard hissed, clutching his face in pain with one hand, the other carefully balancing a newborn, wailing smeet. "She almost got away, My Tallest, but we managed to contain her in a higher security enclosure." He winced, pulling his hand away, revealing a nasty set of scratches running down his face. "Vicious little gorblank, you should get rid of her. The others are more docile."

Tallest Red smirked. "She will be docile. I'm not finished with her yet."

The Guard lifted the smeet, barely the size of his hand. "What do you want done with this one? To the labs, like the others?"

Tallest Red leaned forward, inspecting the smeet. Aside from being abnormally small, it was the most Irken appearing smeet the specimen had produced thus far. The only defects appeared to be an extra toe on each foot, and an extra claw on each hand.

He pondered a moment. "Have we completed the Time-Object Displacement technology?"

"Yes, My Tallest. It only awaits testing."

Red waved his hand dismissively. "Throw this thing through it. See if it survives." He glanced at the extra digits, curling a lip in disgust. "Get rid of those, clip them off. They make me sick to look at."

"Yes, my Tallest."

.....

Something was stirring around him. He could feel thoughts being pulled from his mind and poured into someone else's. They had to help. Maybe they could free him, whoever they were. He didn't care if a Devorrah saved him at this point, he just wanted an end to the pain.

Mustering up as much coherent thought as he could, he channeled his thoughts into the current he could feel leaving his mind.

.....

Zim sank to the ground, eyes wide and fixed on nothing, as the flare receded from his head.

Tallest Red did not bother to oversee the experiment, but you can guess the result. You were most likely found on the floor of a smeetery a century before you were born. Everyone assumed a mistake had been made, and inserted you into a hatching pod like every other smeet.

His mouth opened and closed several times, before he finally managed. "You... knew... how?"

I decided to research him. For bragging rights. Her eyes darted away briefly.

Anger curled in Zim's middle. "You... you have nobody to brag to. You're lying."

Gaz turned back to him, darkly. "I could have someone to brag to eventually."

Zim stared at her, then turned to Tiana. "Go to your room, smeet."

Tiana looked back and forth between Gaz and Zim, shaken by what she'd seen and heard. Even without observing what passed through Zim's mind, she could tell whatever it was had upset him deeply.

"Zim—"

"Now!" He barked. "I will speak with the Gaz-BEAST alone."

Tiana ducked her head and darted up the stairs. Zim turned to Gaz, a harsh light glinting in his eyes, and grabbed a handful of shadow.