Somewhere Out There.
by: Thejennamonster.
PROLOGUE: Defying gravity.
"You're back."
"Finally."
"It has been a long time, hasn't it?"
"...Yeah. For a while there...nevermind. It doesn't matter, anymore."
"I...I always did believe you. Somehow, I always knew you were telling the truth."
"I know."
"I'm glad you're home."
"Me, too."
I woke up, startled to find myself in the cramped bunk space that I had been inhabiting for the past seven months. Half formed voices and images danced in the space in the back of my mind before disappearing entirely, making me wonder what it was that had jerked me out of sleep so suddenly. Whatever it was, it left me with a feeling if loss so intense that I could barely breath. There was just something so...vivid, so real about the dream that...
"You do realize it's four in the morning, right?" asked a muffled, grumpy voice from across the room, cutting into my internal monologue. Squinting, I could make out the shadowy form of my sister holding a pillow over her head.
"Is it?" I asked, running a hand though my hair.
"Yes. Yes it is. So if you don't mind, please stop talking to yourself and go back to sleep, or I will be forced to shove this pillow down your throat."
Whoops. Guess my monologue hadn't been entirely internal. Still needed to work on that. At this point in our lives, Gaz's threats were more talk than action, but it still probably wasn't the best idea to provoke her at four in the morning. On the other hand…
"Come on, Gaz, like you're really going to get up and come all the way over here just to suffocate me. By the time you did that you'd be more awake than you already are, and would never go back to sleep, which would completely defeat the purpose."
"Don't try to use your warped boy logic on me, Dib. I can, and I will destroy you if you don't shut up and go back to sleep."
Part of me wanted to aggravate my sister a little more, just for the hell of it. But then, that part of me had never been very smart. I decided to ignore it.
"Fine," I sighed, lying back down. I squirmed around, nuzzling my face into my pillow in an attempt to find a comfortable position in such minimal space. Gaz and I had been in space only a few weeks before I realized that all of the legends about "Little Green Men" weren't exaggerating in the least. While Zim was considered "short" for his species, the rest of the universe's inhabitants weren't much better. The average universal height was five foot three, which suited Gaz fine being as she was five foot nothing with shoes on. Myself, however, at a lanky five eleven, was pretty much doomed to being shoved into uncomfortably small living spaces for the majority of our stay amongst the stars.
I curled my knees up to my chest in an awkward fetal position and wrapped my arms around my legs. Sighing again, I flipped my entire body onto my other side, holding myself tighter, hoping that the instinctual comforting position might do something to alleviate my discomfort. It didn't work. Sighing for a record third time in three point five seconds I flipped back over onto my back and stretched the length of the bunk, allowing my calves and feet to hang over the end. I gave up. There was no use. I would never sleep comfortably again.
I allowed my mind to wander for a little while, concentrating again on the dream that had awakened me. I had been talking to someone, that much I was sure of, but whom? And about what? I remembered there was this…feeling of utter familiarity and relief, but I had no recollection what from. Try as I might, the images refused to come of my feeble and sleep deprived mind and, like a good nights rest, I decided just to give up and focus on something else.
This, however, proved to be boring.
"Gaz?"
"What." came her muffled reply. She still had the pillow over her head.
"You asleep?"
"Obviously not anymore or I wouldn't have answered, now would I have."
Oh. Right.
"Do you think that Dad misses us?"
She sighed. I could hear the sound of cloth moving against cloth as she sat up in her bunk.
"Yes, Dib. I'm sure he's holding a picture of the two of us right now, sobbing over it, waiting and hoping that tonight will be the night that we arrive home. Give me a break, he probably hasn't even realized that we're gone. And if he has, he's only worried that he'll no longer receive the publicity he got from 'raising' two kids as a single father."
She was right. I knew it just as well as she—the events from the year prior—the year of my accident—were proof enough of that.
"Besides, what do you care? I thought you didn't give a damn about what he thought, considering…" She trailed off.
"I don't, really, it's just…do you think anyone misses us? Do you think that anyone really cares that we're not around anymore? Do you think that anyone will, you know, be excited when we come home?"
"If we come home, you mean," she corrected.
"What an optimistic view you have, Gaz, as always." I commented. I sighed. Again. I really needed to find another way to express my frustration. All this sighing was becoming annoying.
"Come one, Dib, we've been out here for how many months now?"
"Seven."
"Right. And are we even near accomplishing what we came out here to do?"
She was right. I knew it. But I was never one to admit defeat.
"That doesn't mean anything. The Empire could fall at any moment—"
"Sure it could. And I could grow a pair of wings and Riverdance, that doesn't mean—"
"Wait a second," I interrupted, not being about to get over the mental image she had just put into my head, "what do growing wings and Riverdancing have to do with each other? Can you even Riverdance while flying? That kind of defeats the entire—"
"I was hyperbole, Dib. I was exaggerating to make a point, it doesn't have to—"
"Actually I don't think that that counts as a hyperbole. No that definitely isn't the right--"
"Fine," my sister interrupted, " I was being…damn it, what's that stupid word… facetious. That's it. I was being facetious. Now will you shut up and go to sleep? Seriously."
I sighed, again, "Yeah, sure. Sorry."
"Whatever," my sister replied. I could hear her lying back down, and pulling the covers back over herself.
I stared at the ceiling a few moments, trying to bore myself into sleep. Failing, I decided to go another route.
"Hey, Gaz?"
"ARG!" I heard a guttural, primal growl from the other side of the room, followed by a white, square object flying through the air to hit me directly in the forehead. I chuckled to myself as I heard Gaz pull her blankets over her head, grumbling to herself. Tucking the pillow she had just chucked at me under my head, nuzzling into it's soft cushiness. The added elevation was just what was needed to counteract the discomfort of sleeping in a bed that was six inches too short.
I wondered why I hadn't though of that, before.
I finally drifted back off into a restful sleep. Little did I know that it was the last that I would have for a very long time to come.
--
A/N: And hello again all you out there in TV land. This is the (dun dun dun ) sequel to "You Only Live Twice" which, as those of you who read the last story might have guessed, is pretty much going to be "Invader Dib". Hopefully this will work out. I have a hazy picture in my head as to what is going to occur, but the voices are only whispering at this point, so I cannot be too sure as to how it is all going to work. The only clue that I'll give you (which really is the only clue I have myself) is the lyrics to "Somewhere Out There" by Our Lady Peace (hence the title). That's all I can tell you.
So, the question might be: "Sequel? You're telling me that I have to read another freaking story before I get this one?" The answer, my friends, is "No." While there will be some allusions to the past fic (a few have been made, already), and one or two familiar faces may poke their noses into this all, you won't Really have to read the other fic in order to understand what's going on. This is a separate and new adventure for our cast, so don't worry about all that. However, if you want to read YOLT, I'm not going to stop you. At all. (grin).
As far as updates are concerned, I'm going to attempt at once a week. However, I, at the moment, work almost 60 hours a week at the restaurant my family has just opened, and also have an original project that I'm working on, so if I don't hit my deadline, you'll have to forgive me.
At any rate, I'm going to shut up, now. Please R and R. It makes me feel all warm and squishy in spite of the three inches of snow that has made itself home on my front porch.