He ran, his clothes catching on branches, twigs snapping as he ran, leaves crunching under him and his breath leaving in short gasps of mist in the cold night air.

How was he supposed to know that Zim had actually had a good plan this time? It had been so many years and so far Zim had not once come up with a good plan. Plenty of them would have destroyed Earth, but they'd never work the way Zim wanted them to. Most of them would have caused Zim to die had Dib not intervened.

This time something must have gone wrong, or right, depending on whether you viewed it from Zim's point of view or Dib's.

It was still very Zim, but at the same time it was smarter. Zim had realised the Tallest weren't coming and he needed them, so he'd just destroyed all the other planets the Tallest were interested in so the Tallest had no choice but to go to Earth or be bored.

So now the Armada was on it's way and Zim had a set deadline. Somehow that seemed to have done a lot for him and now Earth was basically in panic and ready to be destroyed by the Armada.

Dib was running partly for his life and partly to try and save Earth. Zim was after him after he'd snuck into Zim's base in one last-ditch effort to sabotage Zim's plans.

Dib's eyes widened as one of his feet refused to move forward as he commanded it. In the split second he had before colliding with the ground he turned and saw a smirking Zim with his PAK legs extended, one of them having wrapped around Dib's ankle with flexibility Dib hadn't realised they had.

Dib closed his eyes as he hit the ground, loosing his breath from the impact. He wasn't given the chance to right himself when searing pain shot through his wrists and ankles. With a cold sick feeling he realised Zim had pierced his wrists and ankles with the damned PAK legs. Since when was Zim this damn smart!

Dib couldn't hold back the scream as the metal legs were pulled out harshly.

Zim answered his screamed with a laugh. "Foolish Dib-worm! You were always going to loose to me and my Irkin might!"

Dib spluttered lightly, moving his wrists closer to his chest and curling over them a bit. It hurt so badly and the bleeding wouldn't stop. On closer inspection Zim's legs had actually gone straight through the bone, right through to the other side of his wrists. No wonder it hurt. That was certainly going to take a long time to heal.

Zim glared at him. "Dimmit Dib-worm! Pay attention to my awesome might! Don't just fall asleep!"

Dib's eyes were closing from the blood loss and Zim suddenly seemed to realise what was happening. He scowled and bent over Dib, quickly putting in some Irkin goop that would seal the wound but block it up from healing. Zim hadn't put those holes in Dib for no reason after all.

Dib woke from a sound of agony torn from his own lips. His slowly waking body had decided to move to try and get more comfortable. Apparently moving was off the agenda for Dib.

Slowly he began taking stock of things other then the immense pain. He was vertical, which was fairly odd for someone waking up. There was something hard behind him, probably a wall. Now for working out the pain. That was much harder as it seemed to be coming from everywhere.

He remembered yesterday and pieced it all together much quicker. "Zim." He growled out much like he used to when he was younger. Granted he hadn't been all that much younger. He was still only 15 after all.

He half expected the green alien to come out of the shadows laughing but he didn't emerge.

Dib began mentally taking stock of his position again, trying to find someway to escape. He was attached to the wall in a way that really really hurt it he tried to move at all.

He could move his head however, if he was careful. He did that and looked over at his wrists. At first he was completely baffled. They appeared to be suspended against the wall with nothing to hold them up.

It took him a while to realise what the circumstances really were. His vision swam slightly and the pain felt so much worse. He thought he was going to be sick.

"Zim you sick bastard!" He screamed, struggling for half a second before screaming in pain as the bolts going through his wrists and ankles tore him up a little more.

"Y-you won't get away with this!" He screamed, his voice wavering slightly. He tried to put it down to exhaustion and pain, maybe even fear. Hell, he'd take being a coward over what was really causing his voice to tremble like that.

It was hopelessness.

Let me know what you think? Also, sorry for spelling errors, heh heh.

This is going to be a pretty messed up fic. Expect worse to come, as well as rape, mental torture and God knows what I'll come up with next time I'm feeling crap. Good news is, despite making me stay awake to 2.30am this has made me feel a bit better!

Dib: Joy. I'm so glad.