No longer sprinting for his life, Zim found that gradually, his coherent thought was returning to him. The Dib... sitting there, looking so hurt, telling him to dry off, not prodding him with any of the concealed weapons stashed around his room? What was going on? What? Why?
Was he trying to help? Zim let the thought drift along his mind for a brief moment before he realized what it was; it was a trap! A trick!
"No, get away, leave me alone! You will not trick Zim!" he shouted at the human hoarsely, a feat that he vaguely realized should have been impossible with how little air his shallow breaths supplied him with. His instincts forced him to gasp in a deep breath after that, and he tried to hop to his feet to get away from this human who would undoubtedly just turn him over to the Earth authorities; it was a wonder he hadn't already!
But his legs were weak, utterly exhausted just like the rest of him. He needed to sit, to rest and recuperate, but he couldn't do that in his enemy's own base! What had he been thinking, coming here? But no matter how much he knew he had to stand up, he couldn't, just couldn't. Dib had his hands on Zim's shoulders and was looking into Zim's eyes with heartbreaking concern but Zim forced himself not to see any of that. Concern? Ha! It's a ruse, a clever trick!
What else could it possibly be?! Dib was his enemy! Enemy! Mortal enemy!
"Come on, Zim, dry off, you're soaking wet. If I had wanted to hurt you, don't you think I would've already done it?" Dib's voice reasoned pleadingly.
Zim only scowled, forcing anger through his veins past the fear, but he could still hear the mob of humans, their shouts and their footsteps and could feel their eyes on him and could sense their plans to cut him open just like an animal and the fear just would not go away.
I'm not afraid, Zim told himself forcefully, despite being unable to make his eyes any less painfully wide with what he knew was panic, Invaders are never afraid!
That was when his panic flared and his antennae screamed at a sudden sensation enveloping them and all of him and Zim yelled and thrashed about, "You won't capture Zim! You won't! Never, never!"
"Zim, calm down, it's okay! I'm just drying your head off, that's all! Okay?" Dib tried to make him understand, but Zim just looked around uncomprehendingly.
What was Dib planning, damnit, why was he doing all this?!
Zim stared at Dib for an instant that felt like an eternity; he acted like he was worried about Zim, and it made it so painfully hard to resist, but he knew he needed to! How could he possibly believe his enemy?! How?! The tears glistening in the human's eyes meant nothing, they were for show! His flushed face betrayed no true worry, how could it possibly? The delicate way he ran the blanket over Zim's antennae was just a clever ruse! That's all it was!
And Zim opened his mouth to complain once more, but he caught himself in his tracks and stiffened entirely with his antennae folded flat against his head. His superior Irken senses could hear—no, feel—the hoards of humans raging and yelling and stomping just outside the door to Dib's house—no, in Dib's living room! They broke in through the door! He was hyperventilating again, shivering madly and he found the strength to leap to his feet, the blanket dropping to the floor and Dib falling backwards with Zim's sudden movement.
He looked around, in full panic mode again, instincts kicking in and desperately looking for somewhere to hide. Somewhere, anywhere! Or, or some way to protect himself, some way to keep himself alive through the night at least! He couldn't go outside, they'd only find him faster, he couldn't... he couldn't go anywhere...
"Where are my weapons?" he suddenly snapped at Dib, ignorant to the fear a deep part of him knew his voice was caked with.
"What?" Dib asked dumbly as he scrambled to his feet.
"My weapons!" Zim yelled, nearly in hysterics. How could he not understand?! He had stolen enough of them over the years that he couldn't possibly be this oblivious! What was wrong with him?! "The weapons you stole! The humans will come and take Zim if I do not have my weapons!"
Zim shot over to the closet and tore through it, ignoring the near-limitless information Dib had accumulated about him, ignoring the pictures and the notes and the little doodles of him all over those notes... Where were the guns, the explosives, the time-stasis field generator?!
"Just... uh...They're somewhere in there, I think, just get in! Hide! I'll keep them busy downstairs, okay?" Dib turned to run over to the door, but Zim reached out and grabbed at the human's sleeve.
"You will only hand Zim over to those filthy monsters!" the terrified alien protested, a pleading look like a thin watery coat over the paranoia in his suddenly narrowed eyes.
"Hey, no, don't worry! I'm not gonna... I won't let them get you, okay?" Dib promised, giving Zim a shaky smile. Before tearing out of the alien's grip and sprinting down the stairs to hold the mob at bay, leaving Zim standing in his room, all alone.
***
They found out, Dib realized grimly. He could hardly believe it; people had finally realized that Zim was an alien! Why was this suddenly such an awful, horrible thing? Why in the hell did it tear Dib apart as much as it did? Why did he feel so utterly mortified and panicky and desperate all of a sudden? Zim's feelings were more than understandable, but even sympathy could not possibly account for how profoundly those emotions touched Dib's very core and punctured his heart with their needle-like touch.
Feeling all of that was almost more than Dib could handle, he had to admit; nothing had ever hurt him so profoundly, not even when Zim had emulated Dib's entire life in order to get back at him for a thrown muffin, and not even when he had actually held Dib's family hostage at his space station two or three years later. But as it were, that was not nearly all that Dib had to worry about at that moment. He still had to keep the angry mob at bay.
Oh, wouldn't that be fun.
He ran down into the living room just as the outer edges of the crowd had started to diffuse to other rooms of the house.
"What do you think you're doing?" Dib yelled angrily at them, trying more than his hardest to keep the lump in his throat and the weight on his chest from influencing his shaky voice.
"The alien came in here!" growled a surly man over the jumbled collective voice of the crowd.
At another time, Dib may have taken this opportunity to point out how many times he had said just the same thing without any response from anybody around him. But the thought never even crossed his mind now that the situation he'd dreamed of for so long was fresh on his doorstep, and instead, his thoughts raced for a believable reply to that simple fact. Running on empty and realizing that he had to say something, Dib let out "I know!" in his most agitated voice, then promptly went back to thinking of a believable lie.
It took him just a bit too long, it seemed.
"Well, where is it?" a large man with a deep voice bellowed back to Dib, backed by shouts of "Yeah!" and all manner of obscenities.
"Well, I..." Dib started, faltered slightly, then found his lie just before the crowd's suspicion rose up. "He burst in through the door and attacked me, but I was too much for him after all and I threw him out the back door!" Dib pointed in the direction of the kitchen, where the back door hid, for effect. "I would've yelled for you, but he was gone before I knew it! I think he ran into the yard next door,"
Dib all but held his breath, hoping like his life depended on it that the mob would believe him, that they wouldn't notice the watery trail Zim had tracked into the house and up the stairs, that they wouldn't search the house just to appease their own paranoia...
"You heard him, let's get out of here!" a woman with a shrill voice proclaimed.
"Wait, how do we know he's telling the truth?" the surly man shot back, eyeing Dib menacingly. Dib couldn't help but gulp nervously.
"The alien's getting away! Let's go!" a new voice shouted, young and male, from deep within the crowd.
"But what if the kid's working with the alien?!" demanded yet another voice, old and voluminous and womanly.
"Who are you people, what are you doing here?!" Gaz demanded as she walked down the stairs, closing her Game Slave and noticing the crowd for the first time.
"There's an alien here!" shouted the first voice.
"No there's not!" shot back the third.
Dib just stood there, giving Gaz what he hoped was a discreet, pleading look. Even if it was from his little sister who hated him more than anyone, Dib needed help from anyone possible right at that moment.
Gaz only stood, fist clenching and teeth grinding against each other in utter rage. She didn't waste a glance at Dib, and so, Dib decided, probably never saw the look he gave her. Instead, she just shouted in a voice so angry it was almost painful, "Get out of my house!"
The crowd promptly silenced itself, just staring at the girl before them who, somewhat on the short side and not even Hi Skool age yet, instilled in them the most menacing aura most of them had ever felt.
"Hey, I think I see the alien!" shouted a voice from outside, probably pointing down the street.
"You heard him, let's get out of here!" bellowed the deep-voiced man hurriedly as the crowd emptied into the road and started down the street.
When the last one was gone, mere seconds later, Dib heaved a heavy sigh of sheer relief. He couldn't even believe he had gotten through that; hell, he couldn't believe his heart hadn't torn itself clean out of its chest with how hard it was pumping. Not to mention the headache that screamed to go check on Zim right now, right now, right now. And he would, but first he turned to his sister. "Thanks, Gaz, I owe you one."
"Whatever," Gaz snarled hatefully. "And keep it quiet upstairs, Zim's screaming was getting annoying."
Dib blinked, somewhat surprised at that. "Uh, okay." He turned back towards the stairs and ran back up to his room.