Disclaimer: I don't own Invader Zim. I never have and I never will.
Summary: Zim kills himself. A year later Dib is reminiscing about it.
A/N: I posted this on deviantArt several months ago. Many people looked at it and some even commented on it. I just decided I wanted to try to post this here on and see how it went. It's probably not the greatest in the world.. but that's okay. Like I said, I wrote it a while back. I've tried to fix it up a bit, hopefully it'll look somewhat better. Anyway. It's not supposed to be ZADR.. I promise. I didn't have ZADR in mind when I wrote this. Just a hate/friendship type thing. And just as a side note, the part where Dib sees the inside of Zim's base, I was thinking of the movie Secret Window when Amy goes into Mort's house and sees everything torn up… and if you haven't seen that movie… then I'm sorry! Just ignore that then. By the way.. the idea of the way Zim killed himself, yeah… I'm sorry that it sucks. I just wanted a slightly different idea than the gun or the knife.
Somewhere Out There
Rain fell gently upon a young man as he walked up to the top of the hill. He glanced toward the dark sky. Goes perfectly with my mood. He thought sadly. He finally reached his destination. He looked down at the grassy area that lay in front of him. He took in a deep breath. I have to do this. He reminded himself. He slowly knelt down. The rain seemed to begin falling a bit harder. He looked up into the rain, letting the rain mix with the tears falling from his eyes. He looked back down to the ground. "It's been one year…" he started softly.
"Did you hear about that Zim kid?" Dib could hear the whispers. He glanced back over his shoulders to look at the two whispering. They noticed Dib looking at them.
"What do you want freak?" one of them asked. Dib shook his head and looked away, hoping they'd continue their conversation but they didn't. Dib sighed thinking back for a moment.
"Zim," Dib said quietly, facing his one time enemy.
"Shut up, Dib-worm. I don't want to hear anything you have to say," Zim growled. "Why Zim?" Dib asked. Zim pushed him roughly against the wall, just to prove how angry he was.
"I'm DONE with you human. I'm done with Earth. Have your precious planet, human, because I don't want it anymore," Zim growled. Dib just stared at him, no emotions crossing his face.
"Well guess what Zim? I don't care about it anymore either. You want to give up? I don't care!" Dib said, pushing past Zim. He walked a few steps away. "You'll regret it human," Zim said. "We'll see," Dib replied, walking away. Zim turned to look at Dib's retreating form. "YOU'LL REGRET NOT CARING ABOUT ZIM!"
The ringing bell pulled Dib out of his thoughts. That was the last time he had spoken to Zim. It had been several days before that the argument had taken place. He could only hope that everything was all right.
That afternoon Dib left school, walking straight toward Zim's base. He wasn't sure what to expect when he got there. He hadn't actually found out why Zim was so angry with him the day that they argued. Stop worrying.. Zim has just been pissed off and hiding from the world.. he'll be fine when you get there… He told himself. By the time he'd gotten to Zim's base, he'd convinced himself that everything was going to be just fine.
He walked up the sidewalk to Zim's front door. He paused, trying to decide whether he wanted to knock or just walk in. He chose to knock, so he pounded his fist against the door. He heard no sound from inside, not even the robots that always answered the door. He decided just to walk in. He reached for the doorknob, and turned it slowly. The door squeaked open without any hesitation.
Dib could only stand and stare as he looked into the house. It looked like the inside of the base had been through some sort of natural disaster. Dib took a few steps inside, slowly pushing the door closed behind him. Everything was destroyed. The TV that had been against the wall was lying on the floor. The couch was torn apart and pieces of it laid all over the room. The picture that had been on the wall was ripped down. Dib was in shock as he continued to survey the damage of the room. He happened to catch a glance of something shiny against the wall. He walked across the room and knelt down next to the shiny object. He reached out for it but gasped and pulled his hand back. He quickly realized what it was. Gir lay crumpled against the wall, destroyed, most likely beyond repair.
Dib moved through to the next room. It was in almost the same shape as the other room. It seemed that all the entrances to the base below were destroyed. He looked up at the wall in front of him. Something was painted there in the Irken language. He couldn't read it. He couldn't believe how the place looked. "What did you do, Zim?" He asked softly. He turned to look at the other wall and gasped with what he saw there.
Zim lay against the wall, almost looking in the same shape that Gir had been. Dib walked over to him, looking down at him. He noticed Zim had a piece of paper crumpled in his fist. Dib reached down and slipped it out of Zim's hand. He straightened it out and began to read the messy handwriting.
Dib-human.
I know you will find me. You will be the only one interested enough to actually see what happened to me. If it wasn't for you, I'd lay here until I rotted away. Anyhow. You are probably wondering what I did. I have taken enough human drugs to kill a human, so you can only imagine what it will do to me. I told you. I told you that you would regret not caring about what I did. You wouldn't listen to me that day we argued. I told you I was giving up but you didn't care why. The Tallest told me this whole mission was a lie. I was exiled here and that I can never return to my home. I waited for days to see if you would come back so I could tell you… but you didn't. You didn't care. Now I'm gone. Your greatest enemy. The only living being who would believe anything that came out of your mouth, is gone forever. Have a good life Dib-human. I know you will be a lot happier now that I'm gone. We never agreed on anything and yet we were the only ones we had. You're stupid human. I can't believe that in the end, you were the last thought on my mind.
Dib sighed and stuffed the note in his pocket. "You're right Zim. I am stupid. I can't believe you'd even waste the last few minutes of your life writing to me," he said softly. He leaned over and gently picked up Zim's lifeless body off the floor. He walked to the front room and picked up the crumpled body of Gir off the floor. He walked to the door, stopping a moment to glance back into the room. "This is it, Zim. I've won but I really don't feel like I have," he said softly, walking out the door.
"It's been one year, Zim," Dib said softly, still kneeling before the grave he'd made for the only living thing he could consider close to a friend. "I know that you would know that story but it makes me feel better to come here and tell you about it. My life hasn't been great. I haven't been having a good life. It gets easier each day knowing that I will never have you to fight with again. I hope that wherever you are… you're happier than you were here. You have to be. Wherever you are now, you have to be accepted better than you were here," Dib sighed, finishing what he'd come to say. He slowly pulled himself up off the ground. "I'll be back in another year, to tell you how life has been treating me," he said quietly, turning from the grave. He looked up at the sky. The dark clouds were retreating and the sun was slowly beginning to come out. He smiled slightly. "I know you're out there Zim, listening to me and laughing at me for having these emotions.. but I know you left me here to go search for a better place where you could be happy. I think you've found it now. I'm glad," he said quietly before walking back down the hill, away from the only person who would ever listen to him, his only friend.
