Adaptations

Realization

Dib paced back and forth in the living room. Gaz was playing video games like normal, and other than the sounds coming from her game, the house seemed relatively quiet. Which made Dib's pacing even more apparent to Gaz.

"Dib… sit down," Gaz said, annoyed. "Your stupid pacing is distracting me."

Dib sighed. "I can't. I have too much on my mind, and the only way for me to get rid of these stupid thoughts is if I move around and think about them."

Gaz groaned and looked at him for a moment before returning her attention back to her game. "Dib, get over it. Zim got mad at you. So what? He does that all of the time, and you two get in a bunch of stupid fights."

"Yes, but this time was different," Dib said.

"Yes, but you forgot to factor in the fact that I don't care about your problems," Gaz said. "If you have a problem with Zim or anyone, then you should fix it yourself instead of bugging me about it with your pacing."

"So you're saying that I should go to Zim's house and get this whole thing resolved?" Dib asked.

Gaz nodded. "I don't know what you said, but it involves you getting out of the house," she said. "That's good enough for me."

Dib groaned. "Yeah… whatever, Gaz." He went over to the door and opened it. He was about to rush out and run towards Zim's house, but something a bit unexpected happened.

Zim had already come to him. He looked a bit tired, and almost a bit frazzled.

"Zim, what are you doing here?"

"What did you mean when you said that I made a difference?" Zim asked.

"Wh-wha?" Dib asked, feeling a bit confused by Zim's words.

Zim got closer to Dib's face and yelled, "It's not a hard question! You told me that I make a difference. What did you mean?"

Dib looked back into the house and noticed that Gaz was staring at both of them. He pushed Zim back a bit and they both left the house, closing the door behind them.

"Well?" Zim asked.

Dib thought for a few moments, looking in many different directions to see if he could think of a direct answer for Zim. It took him a few moments until he was able to think of something. "I don't know how you changed the rest of the planet, but you changed me a lot."

"How so?" Zim asked.

"You gave me something to believe in," Dib said. "Something for me to strive for."

"Dib, you're not making any sense," Zim said. "Maybe if you would use that puny brain of yours."

Dib growled. "Fine! All of my life, I believed that aliens and any other extraterrestrial beings existed and I had decent evidence to prove it to myself. But when no one believed me, I almost gave up on the whole thing, but you. You showed up and you showed me that I was officially right."

"Yeah, so?" Zim asked. "I've been sent here to destroy you humans and wipe your planet of any living being. You're happy with me around simply because I made you right?"

Dib sighed. "It's not just that. Every time that I defeat you and your plans, I feel like I've accomplished something and did something of actual significance."

Zim laughed. "Yeah, but you're the only one who will ever know that you had any significance on this planet. You still can't even get a single human to believe you about my existence, stupid Earth boy!"

"That's actually the last part that I wanted to say," Dib said.

Zim stopped laughing almost immediately. "Hm?"

"You're the only one who seems to pay attention to me," Dib said. "It may sound stupid, but an irken is paying more attention to me than any of the 7 billion humans on this planet, including my dad and my sister."

"Well, I only do that because you keep getting in the way of my devious plans," Zim explained. "It's not like I do any of that because I actually care about you, stupid human boy."

"Yeah, I get that. But it's still much more than what I've been getting for the past, well… lifetime."

Zim turned around and stared at the sky. "Then why do you side with the humans?" Zim asked.

Dib thought for a moment, thinking deep in his memories to discover something that would make him like mankind and the way that they treated him. Despite all of that, he simply stared at Zim's backside with empty eyes and said, "I don't know."

"Well, you think about that," Zim said. "For now, Zim is feeling better and is now ready to deploy the next stage of his plan on the classroom tomorrow morning. I guarantee that you and your classmates will be no more by tomorrow afternoon."

"Why tell me that?" Dib asked.

"Well, you're going to want to stop it, won't you?" Zim asked. "You would've found out somehow anyways. Zim knows Dib, by now."

"I guess," Dib said.

"Good," Zim said. He walked away from Dib's house.

Dib was in a bit of shock. Something had clicked in his head.

And he had no idea how to deal with it.

Back to pacing for several hours.

The following morning, Dib got out of bed and rubbed his eyes. He didn't get very much sleep last night, and he could already feel the fatigue making a mockery of him as he went downstairs to eat his breakfast.

Dr. Membrane, Dib's father, looked over to his son and said, "You sound awfully quiet, son. Is there something on your mind?"

"Huh?" Dib asked, missing at least half of what his dad said. He thought for a moment and then processed it all. "No Dad, I'm fine. Yesterday was just a long day and I didn't get very much sleep."

"Well, did you use my drug to help you sleep?" Dr. Membrane asked.

"No," Dib said, sounding a bit aggravated. "The first time I used it, it was because I was your guinea pig, and it made me throw up 9 times and forced me to stay at the hospital overnight."

"Oh… yes. Well if there's something that you ne-…"

Dib simply tuned his dad out, grabbed his backpack, and left the house without even saying goodbye. He figured that either his dad is still talking and didn't even realize he was gone, or he would simply forget the conversation took place in a couple of hours.

He walked to Skool and sat at his desk. He laid his head on the desk and turned it towards the door and saw Zim walk in with a confident grin. He found it surprising that after only a single night, Dib and Zim's situations were flipped. Dib was now the one feeling fatigued and unmotivated, and Zim was the one ready to take on the day.

Dib took this as a sign that Zim was about to win in his first successful task as an invader.

He didn't care.

The class went like normal until very familiar occurred. Zim fumbled with something on his wrist, there was a whirring noise, and the ceiling then doused everyone with mud.

Ms. Bitters was getting fed up with this. "We need to fix that stupid ceiling! You know the drill. Come back when you're absolutely spotless."

Zim, being the only person in the room who was clean, kicked his shoes up onto the desk and waited for his plan to unfold.

Dib was the last one to stand up and noticed that, like last time, people were disappearing as soon as they went through the door. The door was a portal again.

He waited until absolutely every kid and Ms. Bitters was out of the room, leaving Zim and Dib alone.

"Did you seriously just do the exact same plan as last time?" Dib asked.

"Yes, seriously," Zim said. "But this time, Zim has fixed the portal and it should take you to the correct location this time!"

"The room with the moose?" Dib asked.

"Precisely, stupid human!" Zim exclaimed. "Zim is victorious over his crude classmates!"

"I don't believe you," Dib said. "Did you test it yourself?"

Zim nodded. "Yes, it is working perfectly now. You are welcome to check it out yourself. Just poke your big head into the portal to see that Zim was right."

"How do I know that you won't just push me in?" Dib asked.

Zim gasped. "Do you really think I want to end you this way?" he asked. "That's insulting to Zim! I'd like to finish you my way."

Dib rolled his eyes. "Whatever. I'll just trust you better if you take a step back."

Zim sighed. He went to the back of the room and waited for Dib to enter the portal.

Dib nodded and went over to the portal. Slowly but surely, he put his head through and saw what he didn't expect to see.

It was a white room. In the center was the moose, and surrounding was Ms. Bitters and the rest of his classmates. They almost seemed… hypnotized by the moose.

Dib didn't want to fall to the same fate, so he quickly pulled his head back out of the portal and he was back in the classroom again. Only a few moments after Dib was brought back, Zim was at his side, taking down the portal and making it a regular door again.

"Y-you were successful?" Dib asked.

"Yes, I just told you that," Zim said. "Dib should believe Zim more often. Zim has a bigger brain."

"Y-you were successful! And I didn't make any attempt to stop you," Dib said, shocked by his own behavior.

"You're pointing out the obvious," Zim stated. "Why are you doing that?"

Dib sighed. "I'm just a bit shocked is all."

"I'm not," Zim said.

"Why is that?"

Zim cleared his throat. "Zim thought about what Dib said yesterday, and it got him thinking a lot."

"Thinking about what?" Dib asked. He felt strange asking Zim questions, but he really wanted the answers at this point.

"You hate the humans," Zim said, smiling.

"What, no I don't!" Dib exclaimed.

"Really?" Zim asked. He pulled out a small screen from his PAK and it showed an image of Dib. It was some footage from the previous day. He played it.

"Yeah, I get that," Dib said. "But it's still much more than what I've been getting for the past, well… lifetime."

The 'camera' turned away from Dib and looked at the sky. "Then why do you side with the humans?" Zim asked.

There was a long silence. "I don't know," Dib eventually said.

Zim stored the screen back in his PAK and repeated, "You hate the humans. They have done nothing but hurt you."

Dib growled, but it wasn't directed at Zim. It wasn't directed at anyone in particular. He turned around, trying to hide his weakness. "Why do you care?"

"Because you spent an entire year defending them," Zim said. "You wasted all of that time to protect the planet that's been rejecting you since day one."

"So… I should just turn my back on my own planet?" Dib asked. "Let some strange alien creature go in and destroy in everything just so that he could impress his precious Almighty Tallest?"

"Yes," Zim said bluntly. "If Dib continues to defend people that despise him, then he's stupider than he thinks. Because a stupid person would save people who make them unhappy. So yeah… how stupid are you, Dib!"

Dib's eyes widened a bit. He turned away from Zim for a quick moment as he thought for a moment. He eventually turned back and wiped away his confused and fearful face. "Not stupid at all."

"Then wh-…"

Zim was cut off by Dib. "I want to help you destroy human life."

Zim's smile slowly curved upwards. "Well that's something, Dib-worm. Or… Invader Dib, I should say."