Hello - A ZADR/ZADF fic
A glum cast fell over the nameless city. Clouds blotted out the sun, a slow and steady of heated lightning blotting out the other sounds of everything: the birds, the leaves, the muted sound of slow, steady bootfalls on pavement...
Zim could hear it all, though. His heartbeat made his spooch feel sick, every single throb seeming to push it farther and farther up into his constricting windpipe. From a distance he could hear the skoolbell ring, his lekku twitching toward the sound.
He didn't close his eyes, lest he be forced by his own mind to relive it again...
"Stupid Zim... how could you have ever believe we needed YOU?"
Zim's spooch burned, flipping inside of him. He grabbed his uniform front for what seemed to be the thousandth time that morning. He wanted to rip his heart out, lest it destroy him from the inside.
"Don't you dare come back... We hate you! You're the shortest, most useless Irken..."
Tears leaked from the corners of his eyes, his clawed hand twisting and pulling the front of his uniform. The material streched and frayed from the abuse, tearstains starting to appear in the fabric.
"We're serious, Zim. If you come back, we WILL kill you. Never call us again."
Just when Zim thought he was about to lose it, like he could endure no more of this torture, a little voice piped up in the back of his mind, so soft it could have been whispered.
You are late.
The ex-invader shook his head. He didn't care... However, a small bit of relief shone in his conscious. At least when his deity, his race, his very reason for existing had abandoned him, his mind would still be there, giving him someone to talk to.
A few days had passed since that fateful, rainy day that Zim arrived at skool late with no explanation, lekku poking out his wig, uniform front wrinkled and stretched as if someone had been grabbing, twisting, pulling it out of shape.
No one noticed.
No one except Dib.
As the paranormal enthusiast stared over his tray at the Irken, he tried so hard to put together the puzzle pieces, to add up the evidence... It just didn't make sense! At first, Zim had been a nervous wreck. He jumped at any sounds above whispers, not uttering a word, not even to scream at everyone within earshot how superior and normal he was...
And then, he did a complete 180. Smiling. Talking to Dib as if he were an equal, and not an inferior creature. Talking to himself. Aloud.
Frustration boiled in Dib, his breath coming out in a whisper to the ex-Invader eating a chocolate bar in front of him.
"What is wrong, Zim?"
Desperation seeped into his pores when Zim only shrugged, pulling the wrapping of his candy bar down farther to take another bite. Dib watched the steady up and down movement of Zim's jaw, the slow and meticulous movement grating on Dib's nerves until he stood suddenly, slamming his palms down onto the table flat.
"Damn it, Zim! Let me help you... please. Let me fix you!" Tears welled up in his eyes, behind his glasses as he watched his childhood 'arch-nemesis' and best friend stand up, tossing his candy bar wrapper onto the table and look back at him with the most frighteningly dead look in his violet hues Dib had ever seen.
The paranormal investigator's blood ran cold at the words and the tone in the alien's voice as he turned to walk away.
"I'm not broken."
Curled up in the handicap stall on the bathroom floor, Zim whimpered softly as the voice in his mind whispered to him in a soothing way.
It's all right... You don't have to cry. Don't cry. This dream will end soon.
All a dream. Just a dream.
Once he woke up, he'd be in his base... in his squishy bed, his spooch rumbling for breakfast. GIR would be there, with a steaming pile of chocolate chip waffles, an orange soda poured into a glass. Pinching his arm lightly, another soft whine echoed in the empty room. The voice shushed him again, soothingly.
All a dream. Just a dream.
The bathroom door creaked softly, and Zim didn't even bother putting his contacts back in. He composed himself before turning to look at the person entering the stall, dull ruby irises meeting amber pools of concern. Tears slid down the pale peach skin from behind Dib's turquoise-tinted glasses, before he reached up to take them off to look at Zim more clearly.
Zim smiled softly, hugging Dib and reaching up to wipe his tears away with a gentle gloved hand. "Don't cry, Dib. We'll wake up soon... It's all a dream. Just a dream." He smiled a little brighter at his own words, kissing the remaining tears off Dib's cheeks before exiting the bathroom, leaving a very stunned Dib to sort through tangled thoughts.
The lockers passed by Zim in a blur. His pinch hadn't woken him up... he needed to wake up. The voice had told him he needed to wake up. Needed to wake up.
All a dream. Just a dream.
"Who are you?" the ex-invader whispered aloud, toward the voice in his head. At first, there was no reply. At the silence, a strangled sob joined the tears of frustration flowing down his cheeks. He couldn't be alone... he couldn't!
I'm the lie, living for you so you can hide the voice finally stated simply to a broken Zim.
Dib's gaze was glued to the floor, his cheeks burning red with the lingering feeling of Zim's lips. A horrible, sickened feeling rose in his throat and before he had time to register what was happening, he slammed his fist into the mirror. The thin glass cracked, blood beading on his knuckles before running down the shards as they broke skin, tearing flesh and biting muscle.
A wide eyed Dib stared at his reflection in the shattered glass. Suddenly, he reared back again, punching his reflection once more. He heard someone screaming.
"WAKE UP!" A muffled crack sounded as his knuckles hit the wall again, his bones shattering against the concrete behind the glass. "WAKE UP!" A wet slap echoed in the bathroom as his bleeding, bruised open palm smacked the wall. The shards of glass tinkled like chimes as they let go of the wall, falling against the countertop and floor.
"Wake up! Wake up! Wake UP, damn it!"
The voice was his own. he could see his face in the one piece of mirror that desperately clung to the wall by glue. Little flecks of blood marred his pale white face, a clean streak on either side made by the tears leaking unwillingly down his cheeks.
His hand throbbed in time with his heartbeat, his mind slowly coming to a realization.
It hurt.
He was in pain. He was in real pain.
This was not a dream, and there would be no waking up.
Faintly, he heard screams echoing through the halls. Some words were being repeated frantically. Zim. Roof. Swimming pool. The sounds reached a grand crescendo, screams and cries echoing with Dib's thoughts:
Him and that last, shattered piece of mirror shared a common bond. He knew what had transpired, both in that room and outside it. He finally smiled, emotionlessly, speaking in a dead voice to the shard on the wall.
"Hello... I'm still here. I guess we're all that's left of yesterday."
From the neighbors' patio roof, Zim could see everything: the skool, the pointing and screaming students, but mostly the deep, dark swimming pool below him.
You should wake up, now, Zim.
The Irken bit his lip, nodding slowly. All a dream. Just a dream. He needed to wake up, to return to GIR, to his mission, to Dib...
With Dib's face in his mind, he stepped off the edge of the roof.
Time slowed. The screaming outside his mind peaked to a grand crescendo, but inside his mind it was silent. The whisper was gone, and he was alone. A single drop touched his skin, acidic tongues of pain licking up his nervous system and making his thrash before he had even hit the surface of the water.
It hurt.
He was in pain. He was in real pain.
This was not a dream, and there would be no waking up.
His body broke the surface of the water, and suddenly he was engulfed in flames of pain. He thrashed, convulsing in the water, his body screaming against his will. The water filled his lungs, a great and terrible pain filling every part of his body.
But, though he was in the most excruciating pain of his entire life, Zim's thoughts were completely at peace as he slipped away.
'I'm still here... I'm still here... I'm... still...'