Fanfic / Re: My Hostage, Not Yours

In 2011, RavenFollower13 wrote My Hostage, Not Yours, a trilogy of Invader Zim fics featuring the adventures had by Zim and Gaz as they become a couple. It was a highly popular series, being held in high regard by IZ fans as one of the most realistic and in-character depictions of the ZAGR pairing ever written. However, after growing over time as a person and a writer, Raven became critical of the series in hindsight, and ultimately decided a decade later to rewrite the series to patch perceived problems, such as the Character Development and romance feeling rushed.

The first story in this rewrite, simply titled Re: My Hostage, Not Yours, follows a similar plot to the original, as Gaz is forced to turn to Zim for help after a piece of alien technology latches onto her, though it's now an Irken PAK rather than a random Clingy MacGuffin. As the two secretly work together to get it off her without killing her, they slowly develop feelings for each other, even as a threat looms on the horizon. It is complete, and can also be read here.

The author has confirmed that similar such rewrites for the other two stories in the original trilogy are planned. The first of these, Re: My Hostage, Not Yours 2: Winner Takes All, began publication on July 2, 2023 and is currently ongoing.

Tropes

Re: My Hostage, Not Yours

• Adaptation Relationship Overhaul: One of the biggest changes between the original story and this version is Dib and Gaz's relationship. In the original, Gaz was quite aloof towards her brother, and rarely showed care for him. Here — reflecting the canonical Character Development Gaz had in regards to her feelings towards Dib in the movie, which was released long after the first version of MHNY — they're quite close due to years of having only each other to rely on, with Gaz making it clear she does care about Dib.
• Adaptation Species Change: In the original story, the Valkians were Lizard Folk. Here, they're now presented as Bee People.
• Adaptational Villainy: While still the Big Bad in the original story, the Valkian Queen was presented as a Noble Demon who was willing to honor her deal with Zim and let him and Gaz walk away once their exchange was over. Here, she only plays along to get Zim to lower his guard, and intends to kill them both once she has what she wants.
• Bee People: The Valkians are giant humanoid bees ruled by a Hive Queen.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Zim and Gaz move into this as they become more attracted to each other, as they continue to constantly bicker over everything.
• Big Bad: The Valkian Queen. It's his attempt to flee her that leads to Larb crashing onto Earth and his PAK ending up on Gaz, and the climax is kicked off when her minions hunt Gaz down to retrieve the PAK and the encrypted data hidden on it.
• The Big Damn Kiss: Zim and Gaz's first kiss in Chapter 17, as depicted in the cover art. Despite being meant as a Fake-Out Make-Out to appease the onlooking Valkians, the two have such UST by this point that it's much more intense than intended.
• Bizarre Alien Biology: The Valkians aren't just Bee People, their bodies also generate a magma-like substance from their rocky skin.
• Brown Note: The Valkians' living computer core is so obscenely bizarre in appearance that, combined with the concussion she's suffering from, Gaz gets sick just looking at it.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: The Valkians hook Zim up to their main computer and start draining his PAK's data and energy, causing him excruciating pain. Dib barely manages to get him free of it before the process kills him.
• Culture Clash: Zim's ultimate holdup on pursuing his newfound feelings for Gaz is that Irkens mate for life and aren't allowed to breakup and pursue new relationships if the first one doesn't work out, which is a real risk in this case, given how young and inexperienced in dating Gaz is.
• Defector from Decadence: Skoodge, having come to realize that the Tallest have been trying to have him killed, goes rogue from the Empire and leaves with the freed Resisty fighters after the Valkians are defeated.
• Didn't See That Coming: During the climatic battle, Gaz manages to overpower the Crone and hold a PAK leg against her spine, threatening to kill her if the Valkians don't let the captive Zim go. The Queen calls her bluff, thinking Gaz is too weak-willed to go through with it... and is stunned when Gaz proceeds to do exactly that.
• Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: A throwaway line in one chapter reveals that Gaz has stayed in contact with the Shadowhog, and has regular gaming nights with him.
• Dress-O-Matic: For awhile after Gaz gets stuck with Larb's PAK, she uses a dressing machine provided by Zim to change her clothes until she can get used to working around the large device sticking out of her back.
• Enemy Mine: Dib and Zim reluctantly team up to save Gaz when she's captured by the Valkians.
• Even Evil Has Standards: The Tallest are the joint Evil Overlords of a genocidal empire conquering the universe, but even they're disgusted when they learn that Zim tore the Valkian Queen's head off.
• Exact Words: Zim employs this at the end of the story, informing the Tallest about everything that happened without having to mention his relationship with Gaz or Skoodge going rogue.
• Fake-Out Make-Out: To prove to the Valkians that he and Gaz are mates, Zim swoops her up and gives her The Big Damn Kiss. True to the trope, it quickly becomes more intense as their UST causes them both to enjoy it more than planned.
• Grand Theft Me: Subverted, as the damage to Larb's PAK manages to keep it from overwriting Gaz's mind with his. Double subverted in Chapter 7 when it finally overwhelms her, until Zim manages to overpower Larb and enable Gaz's mind to retake control.
• In Love with Your Carnage:
  • Zim first starts to be attracted to Gaz after seeing her easily dominate an Irken combat simulator, finding her vicious fighting skills to be totally alluring.
  • Gaz reluctantly admits to herself after the fact that she found Zim ripping off the Queen's head to be pretty hot. And once she stops denying her feelings, she adds that she finds his overall destructive nature attractive.
• Keystone Army: When Zim kills the Valkian Queen, all her drones immediately drop dead as well.
• Literal Metaphor: When Dib tells Zim that Gaz needs some space to process her feelings over whatever's going on between the two of them, Zim responds by taking her into a holographic chamber displaying deep space, thinking that's what Dib meant.
• Locked Out of the Loop: Dib is kept in the dark about the entire situation with the PAK, because Gaz doesn't want his Big Brother Instinct making him overbearing, and Zim just doesn't want him involved. As such, he doesn't even find out about Gaz working with Zim until Chapter 14, and even then she tells half-truths to keep him calm; it takes the Valkians attacking two chapters later to get a full explanation.
• Loophole Abuse: How Zim and Gaz eventually decide to handle their relationship, given Irk's cultural policy of mating for life — if they consider dating the human way just a prolonged courtship, it's not a full mating, and therefore something they can call off if it doesn't work out.
• Mythology Gag: Tak mentions that she was imprisoned on Moo-Ping 10 and managed to escape when Dib and Gaz broke out their father. According to members of the movie's production team, there was a deleted scene that was meant to show exactly that.
• Named by the Adaptation: Prisoner 777 is canonically never called anything else. Here, he's revealed to be named Jiji.
• Noodle Incident: Zim apparently created a Weather-Control Machine a year before the story started.
• Not So Extinct: Zim is shocked to realize that the Valkians are involved, as the Irkens have long believed them to extinct. However, Jiji notes that their ship is heavily undermanned, implying that they're barely scrapping by. And then Zim kills the Queen, causing the rest to all die too.
• Off with His Head!: Zim ultimately kills the Queen by ripping her head off with his bare hands.
• Organic Technology: The Valkians primarily use this, best depicted by their ship being a living creature, with its main computer core looking like a massive organ.
• Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure: In Chapter 11, Gaz briefly gets hit with some of Larb's memories, specifically regarding Zim's status as a Defective. She proceeds to mention it to Zim, unaware that having his status brought up is his Berserk Button; this leads to an intense argument that seems to end their budding friendship and romance. Fortunately, this only lasts a couple of chapters before they make up.
• Prison Riot: Zim's plan during the climax involves having Dib and Prisoner 777 hack into the Valkians' ship and release all their prisoners, creating enough chaos to counter the Valkians' superior numbers.
• Related in the Adaptation: In canon, the only connection between Lard Nar and Prisoner 777 is that they're both Vortians. Here, while Lard Nar isn't directly referred to by name, 777 mentions his cousin who is running a resistance movement.
• La Résistance: The Resisty is evidently still running around and has grown, as the Valkians have many members imprisoned aboard their ship.
• Robot Me: When Gaz is supposed to travel to Australia with Dib to join their father for a family vacation/PR coverage following his latest project's completion, which would risk the progress Zim is making in getting the PAK off of her, Zim creates a robot duplicate to go in her place. Its AI is a perfect imitation of Gaz's personality to sell the illusion, though she can also remote control it if necessary.
• Scars Are Forever: Zim is left with several large scars on his torso from his fight with Larb's mind controlling Gaz's body.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Tak flees the Valkian ship once she has the chance to escape during the chaos at the story's climax.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: Over time, Zim and Gaz grow attracted to each other, but stay deep in denial over it — him due to cultural differences, and her due to stubbornness.
• Worf Had the Flu: The Valkians land at least one head blow on Gaz while capturing her. The resulting concussion leaves her so disoriented and sick that she can barely function, much less fight back; during the showdown with the Valkians, this combines with a case of PTSD as she flashes back to having to kill Larb and she freezes up. However, she snaps out of it due to the Queen's taunting of her making her angry enough, pushing aside her physical ailment to curbstomp all of the Mooks that come after her, only being knocked down by the Queen herself.

Winner Takes All

• Adaptational Heroism: In canon, Iggins was a Jerkass who cheated Gaz out of a game and mocked her for it, while in the original version of MHNY, he was the Big Bad of the second story, being a Psychopathic Manchild who declared a vendetta on Gaz out of an obsessive need for revenge for what she did to him in that canon episode. Here, he's a more well-adjusted individual who got therapy after canon, and only crosses paths with Gaz out of coincidence when he goes to Dib for help with a paranormal problem.
• Arbitrary Skepticism: As Gaz points out, despite the fact that Professor Membrane regularly makes sci-fi concepts a reality, he still refuses to believe in aliens and the paranormal because he feels there's no proof for any of it.
• But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Due to the fact that she was 9 years old at the time, Gaz doesn't initially remember Iggins or what she did to him.
• Conspicuous Trenchcoat: The Swollen Eyeball agents who Dib initially manages to get to keep tabs on Zim while he's out of town dress like this, making their surveillance of him extremely obvious.
• The Corruption: After Iggins accidentally opened an inter-dimensional portal, he was exposed to something that is causing a slow rot to spread from his arm.
• Culture Clash: Zim is still reflecting on the differences between human and Irken relationships, but seems to have managed to wrap his mind around things enough to decide he needs to wait until Gaz is 18 (and thus legally an adult) before he proposes marriage, which is the closest thing humans have to understanding the Irken concept of mating.
• Didn't See That Coming: Zim actually, albeit reluctantly and with the proviso of being supervised, allowing Dib to use his equipment for whatever the current crisis is catches Dib and Gaz completely off guard.
• Do Wrong, Right: Zim is annoyed by the Swollen Eyeball agents that Dib gets to keep track of him while he's out of town, mostly because they're so obvious about it, and are so easy for him to scare off, which offends his professionalism.
• How We Got Here: The story starts with a segment labeled "Epilogue" and is set after some unexplained disaster that the city is recovering from, while Gaz is shown physically and psychologically recovering from some kind of trauma of her own. Then things flashback an undefined amount of time to show the events leading up to this.
• In Love with Your Carnage: This continues to be the cornerstone of Zim and Gaz's relationship, as both of them are incredibly attracted to each other's fighting skills, to the point that sparring sessions are dripping with sexual tension.
• Like Father, Like Son: Gaz feels that Dib is too much like their father, needing to always be the smartest person in the room, and the one to control every conversation and tell people what to think.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Both Gaz and Zim are shocked when Dib says that he needs Zim's help with whatever situation has brought him back to the city.
• Parents as People: It's noted that Professor Membrane is so caught up in his work that he doesn't even seem to be aware of the fact that he and Dib have become estranged.
• Put on a Bus: Dib has been off the grid since graduating high school, leaving Gaz quite surprised when he suddenly comes home at the end of Chapter 2.
• Shout-Out: All the chapter titles are named after video games.
• Spotting the Thread: When Dib tries to explain the strange events that he needs the help of Zim's equipment to handle, Zim and Gaz both notice how he's being deliberately vague on the details and keeps trying to steer the conversation away from the specifics.
• A Storm Is Coming: At the end of the first chapter, there's an explosion of some kind that shakes the Membranes' neighborhood, followed immediately by an intense unseasonal storm. The chapter's author notes then ominously state that there's a big storm coming, which combined with the story's opening flashforward seem to indicate that there's a lot of drama on the way. In Chapter 5, we learn that the explosion and storm were the result of Iggins accidentally punching open an inter-dimensional portal.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Despite calling a truce for Gaz's sake, Zim and Dib still despise each other, and can barely tolerate being in the same room, much less actually work together.
• Time Skip: This story picks up a year after the prior one.