"Believe"

'One-Shot'

By: Emo Fox

Something had happened.

Dib couldn't remember what, or why, or how – or any details at all for that matter.

He had woke up one day, like any other day, maybe sometime in middle school – though he couldn't be sure, to find Zim was gone.

Gone. Vanished. Erased.

Dib didn't understand it at first; he had vague memories of running around town, of trying to find Zim's base only to find an empty lot. He had dug for days on end, hoping to find a scrap of something – anything, but he discovered nothing.

He had rushed home to find everything he had on Zim missing. Tak's ship, photos, files, everything was just gone, vanished into thin air.

Dib had thought it was all a bad dream, that it'd eventually hammer itself out; that maybe he had just gone a little crazy like he had before, but when he walked back in school he'd find Zim in his usual seat ready to wage another childish war.

But, it never happened.

He was gone.

Dib was currently sitting on the roof of his childhood home, staring intensely up at the stars trying to find a glimpse of anything that would tell him everything that had happened before was real.

Zim was real, aliens were real, everything between them—

It was all real.

It had to be.

Dib had waded through high-school, passed with minimal effort and then threw himself right back into his paranormal studies. His sister had forgotten Zim ever existed, so did everyone else in town.

Only Dib remembered.

Even his memory was getting clouded with age; being twenty-three now, those childhood days seemed long behind him and he was frustrated with himself for being unable to even recall Zim's robot's name.

Though, the fact that he could still remember the lay-out of the base, bits and pieces of Irken history, and the fact that Zim had a robot at all were surely blessings that needed to be counted in itself.

Dib was starting to worry he was either going increasingly insane, or perhaps that he was finally submitting to society; finally conforming and forgetting the allure of the unknown and everything he once believed in.

He had to believe.

He had to believe in Zim.

If he kept his memories alive, if he continued to wait and watch, maybe the Irken would return and tell him this hadn't all been a grand illusion.

He'd return and everything would finally make sense again.

With almost mechanical movements Dib set up his cameras and recording devices; set the head phones to his ears and squinted hard at the night sky. He scrutinized every star cluster, every bright shining planet, every plane and organic creature darting by.

He let out the breath he had been holding as he closed his eyes, listening with all he had to the static on his headphones. "Please come back." He said softly, his tone on the verge of breaking, "I believe." His tone increased in volume, "I believe!" He nearly shouted, his eyes snapping open to stare hopelessly up at the darkness of space, "I believe Zim! Come back!"

Nothing.

Just the quiet and the dark, huge, empty universe above him.

Zim never came back.