Disclaimer: 'Course I don't own IZ.
A/N: I know I should be working on my other fics (writers' block is killing me with them right now), but I just have a couple of ideas in my head since I've been watching a lot of Invader Zim lately. I love it so much! Well, this particular fic is actually pretty dark, so I hope that doesn't bother anyone. I had trouble deciding the rating so I hope it's alright where it is. I'm pretty sure this is only going to be ZADF (Zim and Dib friendship) right now.
Success:
Prologue
Dib dragged himself along a scorched path of earth, his hands dirty and black with the ash that littered the ground in heaps for miles around. He blinked and brought a finger to his face, wiping a little black smudge off the lens of his glasses, only to realize that he made the smudge worse. Sighing, he tried to bring himself up to a sitting position, but found that difficult since he had pieces of glass wedged in his legs, making them almost totally useless.
He managed to lean against a pile of rubble that hadn't been completely destroyed by the invasion, finally able to catch his breath. The human boy stared up at the gray sky; an Earth sky that no longer would be able to see the light of its own sun ever again. He gritted his teeth when he thought about who did this.
Zim. His supposed friend. A trail of broken promises and lies were now behind him as of this very moment. How could the little green monster live with himself after everything he had done?
As far as he could see, Dib was the only one who survived the calamity in the town in which he lived. He wasn't even sure how he had; he just knew that an armada of alien ships had arrived and blown everything up. He had checked everywhere and everyone was either dead or incinerated so that only a black spot marked where they had been standing seconds before. Dib did not want to think about when he found Gaz's corpse lying across the street just as he managed to struggle out of their ruined house. He didn't know whether to be thankful that she hadn't been burned alive or not.
Zim was going to die. Of that much Dib was certain. He didn't know what he could do at the moment; he was sustaining injuries that were pretty bad. He just knew that he had to kill him personally. Even if couldn't wipe out the entire Irken race as revenge, the only thing he wanted to see was Zim's blood flowing.
How many others had survived? Dib almost didn't care. He picked the glass out of his skin slowly, agonizing pain lacing each pull he gave to every piece, but soon they were all gone and he could almost stand on his own two feet. He heard something coming, however, and quickly ducked under a bigger stack of debris near him.
"Those FILTHY humans never even knew it was coming!" That was the unmistakable sound of Zim's voice. He seemed to be looking over the carnage and destruction he had caused with his faithful robot, Gir, who was playing in the mounds of ash near the road. "Not even the Dib-stink."
Hearing his name, Dib stiffened a little in anxiousness; he wanted to jump out and grab him by the throat, but he wasn't strong enough yet and his attempt would most likely end in failure.
"Zim did not mind his friendship, though…" the little alien looked down at the charred dirt and he seemed to heave a small sigh. His red eyes betrayed his emotion. In fact, he seemed slightly frightened at the fact that he was going to be all alone again. Soon enough, however, he seemed to go back to his regular self. "Gir! Get on the ship. This will be our last glance of Earth. We must return to Irk!" He pressed a button and a ship bigger than his usual Voot Cruiser descended from the sky; ashes flew into Dib's face through the planks of wood he was looking under. He had to close his eyes and wait a little bit.
When he opened his lids again Zim had already entered his alien aircraft and Gir was beginning to follow him. 'I have to get on that ship!' Dib thought. 'It's my only hope…' He got up out of the rubble and followed behind Gir quietly, trying to go as far as his bloody legs would take him. The little robot may have noticed him, but if he did he didn't make a sign of it. Zim was already at the controls and the ramp that they had all climbed in order to get into the ship was being raised. Dib hid behind some weird boxes in the cargo hold and tried to nurse his wounds a little more.
'Soon, Zim, you'll regret ever having come to this planet,' Dib silently promised as they took off quickly into space. The ride began getting a little bumpy and the human boy felt something dig into his skin from his pocket. He snatched up the little piece of Irken gadgetry out from his coat and studied it. It was supposed to be either a necklace or a bracelet, but Dib never put it on because he had forgotten about it till now.
Zim had given it to him as a token of their friendship after Dib let him copy his homework for about the third time. Moved by the act of rare kindness, the human decided to give the alien a regular friendship bracelet made from colorful string that he found in a store. He figured Zim had never owned something like that before, so he might as well have it.
However, those moments felt like eternities ago. Their friendship probably meant nothing to Zim anymore. After all, he still ended up conquering Earth and destroying everything in his path.
What other kinds of evil alien races lay in wait out there? Dib wondered as he stared out the circular window nearest to him and into the stars beyond. And how had he and Zim become friends in the first place?