Chapter 2: In a desert planet

From the Dr. Simmons diary

"Today a new patient was admitted, his name is Dib, he is 25 years old, and is the son of the famous Prof. Membrane, he worked as chief scientific in the Membrane Labs, he was found guilty of homicide, the patient knew the man since his childhood, the patient has been quite unsettled since he was admitted, we had to sedate him, nevertheless he hasn't showed to be dangerous and we had confined him to a medium security cell, that will allow him to move freely in a bigger space, besides since the patients in medium security cells doesn't wear straitjackets, we will be able to study his behavior better, ideal for the healing process."

From the Dr. Scrambly diary

"The patient Dib was admitted a week ago, the patient shows a strong denial in the fact of Zim doesn't being an alien. The patient shows since childhood, paranoia and hallucinations, his hallucinations varied from events like fighting in the space, to secret organizations, he talks especially about "The Swollen Eyeball Network", the patient says that is a secret organization devoted to paranormal activity, his obsession. We had kept him under observation; he hasn't show violent behavior against the personnel or himself yet, even though he can't be calmed on the therapies, we even had to sedate him in a couple of occasions; the use of medicaments with the therapies has been programmed in a week."

In the padded cell…

Dib was asleep; he never slept more than a couple of hours each day, he hated having to sleep, because he couldn't set apart the dreams from the reality and each time he slept he had horrible nightmares, sometimes he saw Zim enter to his dark cell in the middle of the night, but every time when he got closer he could see Zim's rotten corpse, and it hold him tightly by the straitjacket while it yells at him "Why did you do it Dib, why?", and sometimes he saw Zim's corpse, but not the way he remembered him alive from his childhood, but as a skin ill kid, his blood staining all the place and staining him, each time the memory from when he got arrested became more and more twisted, he was no longer sure of what had happened, the only thing he was sure is that Zim was alive, he couldn't afford to doubt it, the idea of everything being a trap had being deluded with the time but he couldn't accept Zim being dead and he didn't want his nightmares to told him otherwise. But for once, everything was different; Dib had a very different dream.

From the Dr. Koening diary

"The patient Dib was admitted a month ago, yesterday finally we had a great advance, the patient started to accept the fact of Zim not being an alien, the medicaments doses were a bit over the safe dose, there was not permanent neurological damage according to the medical reports, the therapy was especially intense, but the progress was amazing, and in record time; however since yesterday therapy, the patient has been specially calmed and quiet, he has been staring his ceiling during hours, as soon as he assimilates the fact that Zim wasn't an alien we could move on with the treatment"

From the Dr. Almos diary

"The patient Dib was admitted two months and three weeks ago, since the first big progress the patient has been very calmed, he is so much more settled during the therapies, and today we made our second big progress, Dib finally admitted that his hostile behavior was unjustified and the fact of him being able to hurt Zim, this time the medicaments doses were kept in the safe dose rank, even though the therapy was as intense as the former, the patient has been sleeping since the therapy was over, proximally since 6 hours ago, we hope the patient to be cured in 7 months or so"

He was in a tiny and rocky planet, the space and other planets and stars were clearly visible in that strange place sky, so long ago since he didn't thought about other planets or alien life, he started to walk in that desert place, noticing that there was nothing there, until he could saw a green figure standing far away staring to the infinite space above them.

"ZIM!" Dib ran as fast as he could, he couldn't believe he was seeing Zim again and when he was about to catch him Zim became dust and was dragged by a hot and dry wind.

It broke his heart and he didn't know why, he felt heartbroken to see how the dust was dragged away. "What is wrong with you filthy earth child?", that voice, Dib turned his head slowly, afraid of seeing nothing, but there was he, clear and tangible, Zim; just like he remembered him from his distant childhood before he was admitted in the mental hospital; a strange pink eyed kid with antennas was staring at him. "Zim?" he reached out his hand to touch him and be sure of Zim being there, and he realized he was not himself anymore, or more accurately he was himself of 15 years ago, his body looked like when he was 10 years old, even with the clothes he used to wear back then, the blue shirt and the black trench coat, when his sight returned to Zim, he saw him looking to his still extended hand with curiosity, like trying to figure out why he had extended it, suddenly Dib felt awkward and too self aware, he retreated his hand and cleared his throat, Zim was staring at him without a clear expression in his face, none said anything for a while, until, "Zim, why are you staring at me?" said finally Dib, "Eh? I wasn't staring at YOU!" "But you haven't done anything else!" "LIAR!" Yelled Zim while a frown was kept in his face, Dib was about to say something but started to laugh instead and he wasn't even sure of what, "Are you mocking ZIM!" Dib was laughing so hard that he couldn't answer anything and small tears started to came out, Zim was staring at him again in silence, "Heh" was something like an attempt of laugh, before he started to laugh genuinely, softly, and then loudly; both of them laughed so hard that tears started to came out wildly, the reason for the laughter, does it matter if there is none?.

From the Dr. Scrambly diary

"The patient Dib was admitted 5 months ago, and today we had a terrible setback, when we began the therapy in which Dib was supposed to accept Zim's death, he started to react very negatively at the middle of the therapy, we had to increase the medicaments dose, but since there weren't changes we had to increased them way over the safe dose, but we couldn't calmed him, he managed to escape from the cell, he ran and entered in an empty hall blocking the door so nobody could get in, we called security immediately, but it took them several minutes to open the door, we couldn't see what was happening inside, but we could hear a glass shattering while we heard the patient screaming "You can't make me forget that Zim is alive!", when we finally were able to get inside there was blood all over the floor, the patient had taken his shirt off, he seemed to be writing with the broken glass in his bare flesh, it unreadable because of the blood; we neutralized him immediately and sedated him until he couldn't move anymore, after that, we cleaned and disinfected his arm, the phrase "Zim is" was carved in his skin, we put some bandages on and transferred him to a high security cell, after we dressed him in a strait-jacket, is very probable we made permanent damage, we hope there is still possibilities of healing"

Dib woke up, and he was too aware of everything being a dream, the sudden joy which had startled his heart was gone, he felt the overwhelming grief and the tears started to trickle slowly.

"Get up irken scum!" yelled a deep voice from inside the dark room, Zim got up startled, it wasn't the first time he dreamed about Dib, but that dream had been so weird.

End of the second chapter

A/N: Thank you to my Beta-reader Erwin (he is awesome and is made of sugar and magic), and also thank you to all the reviewers!, I tried to be more careful with grammar and swithing tenses, but seriously, any mistake or thing you think I could improve, let me know, I want to get better and have less mistakes. Next chapter Zimcentric, I promise! (And will come in less than a week... hopefully)