Author's Note: If you just want the good stuff it's Chapter 4.

Disclaimer: I don't own Invader Zim or any of it's characters. (there are no OC's in this fic as of this moment)


...


"Zim?" Dib's voice was piercing, cutting through the quiet in his bed room.

"Yes, it is the great Zim, earth-thing," came Zim's harsh reply. He crouched next to Dib's bed side, the lekku atop his head scewed in an almost pondering gesture.

"What are you doing in my bedroom?" Dib asked, sitting up and grabbing his glasses to slide them on and look at the alien.

Zim only stared, his large red eyes boring into the Earth-boys skull.

There was a long moment of near silence.

It had been a while since Dib had even seen Zim. A month and a half, actually, and while Dib was pleased to not chase him around constantly his days had grown wearily boring.

"I'm sorry for this... Dib dip-stick," the Irken muttered nearly too low for Dib to hear.

"Wha-?" Dib went to ask but was quickly shut up as Zim clapped a rag over his mouth with an intoxicating chemical smell. Dib struggled for what felt like ages, trying to kick Zim away from him or anything, but the Irken was still the Irken, and still had the strength to hold him down long enough for the chemicals to do their magic.

Dib went still after a long moment and stared blankly at the ceiling.

"How do you feel?" Zim asked.

"Why are their butterflies in my head?" Dib asked.

Zim rolled his eyes. "Good enough." He took Dib up in his arms and lithely jumped through the window, using metal legs to their full utility.

A long scurry took them to Zim's base where he quietly opened the door and brought Dib inside.

Gir was one the couch watching that mindless angry monkey show as Zim slipped past to the kitchen and down the elevator.

Dib was starting to squirm in his arms and managed to get a well placed hand in one of Zim's eyes.

"Gah-" Zim snarled. "You useless filth." He rubbed at the tearing eye. "I don't know why I'm even bothering to take care of you."

"But there's butterflies..." Dib mumbled. "Should take care... of butterflies." Dib trailed in and out of being able to use words, only half awake. He started to dose off.

"No, Dib. You can't sleep now." Zim kicked him hard enough to get a pained groan out of the boy.

The elevator finally descended down into the lab and Zim grabbed Dib under his arms and dragged him out of the shaft and over to an operating table and hefted him up.

Dib fell limply onto the cold metal surface and hissed at the feeling of chill against his bare skin.

"What's... going... on?" he asked weakly.

"Your drugs are wearing off, Dib-stink so cooperate so I can get this done." He forcefully rolled Dib onto his stomach and lowered the table to be easily workable.

"What're you talking about, Ziiim?"

Zim shook his head. "Insolent fool," he grumbled.

"You're the... insolent one," Dib started to drift off into sleep again just to let out a pained cry as Zim yanked his hair up.

"Zim?" he snapped, finally coming back to his senses. "Whe- what am I doing in your lab?" he asked and started squirming, trying to get Zim off of him.

"Don't struggle and maybe I'll make this less painful for you," Zim snarled and pushed Dib's head into the metal.

"Zim! Let me up!" Dib tried even harder to get away but couldn't quite manage to throw the Irken off of him.

Zim growled which finally exploded into a harsh order. "Computer! Hold the Earth-boy down until I finish this."

"Right away," the computer quickly complied and several metal clamps came from the ceiling to hold Dib and his big head down against the metal table.

Zim quickly grabbed a laser cutter from his PAK and pushed the hair away from Dib's neck.

"Whatever you're doing, you won't get away with it, Zim. I'll stop you and you'll never get away with it," Dib started yelling. "And... you just won't get away with it," Dib repeated himself and continued to do so.

With practiced precision, Zim made a small cut on Dib's neck, verticle to his vertebrae and carefully used another tool from his PAK to extract a small chip, no bigger than a thumbtack from the muscles there.

"Earth will win, Zim. Earth always wins and you never lose- I mean win. You never win."

"Shut up, you filthy earth-monkey," Zim snapped and took a different chip, this one clearly Irken, purple with the alien insignia on it, and shoved it into the skin where the other had just been removed.

A new tool from his PAK came and sealed the incision closed.

The computer released Dib, who promptly kicked Zim off of him and leaped from the table, turning to face the Irken.

"What did you do to me, Zim?" he yelled.

Zim crossed his arms. "You could show some gratitude," he grumbled.

"For what?" Dib snapped. "What did you do?"

With an evil looking grin, Zim held out the chip he'd just extracted from Dib's neck. "Just removed this from your body," he said.

Dib stared at it. "Why?"

"Because. I felt like it." Zim wrapped his fingers around it and squeezed until he felt the material give way with a cracking sound.

"What was that?" Dib asked and reached up to feel the incision on the back of his neck but only found smooth, flawless skin.

"A tracking chip the Skool puts in all their students." The Irken tossed the pieces aside. "But you won't be needing that anymore."

"I know I graduated but why did you remove it?" Dib asked and continued to try and find the incision on the back of his neck.

"Zim needs to take good care not to have his property stolen," Zim stated rather blatantly and walked over to a computer monitor. "Now, we should probably check your vitals, shall we?" He started typing in something.

"Huh?" Dib asked, finally stopping his rubbing. "Why would you want to know that?"

"Trust me," Zim said, once again giving Dib an evil smirk. "You don't want to know."