Disclaimer: I do not own Invader Zim or it's characters.
Recap: "Because you're-!" Was all I could get out before I was suddenly back at the control room. I stood up in my seat frantically looking around me until my eyes landed on Dib who at the moment was the only thing that made sense. All I could was stare at the screen show a peaceful Dib before slamming myself back down into the seat. I put my head in my hands and let out a dry sob.
Irk dammit!
Zim's P.O.V.
"There's someone at the door..." The computer groaned out. I was still holding my head in my hands, I had gotten a horrible headache after coming from Dib's mind.
"GIR will get it." I said simply while waving a hand at no one. Everything was quiet around me, besides the humming still coming from the heart rate monitor.
"ZIM!" I jumped at the sound of someones voice coming from in front of me. I winced at how loud it was and looked up. I saw Gaz's face in front of me on one of my video feeds. What was she doing here? Didn't she go to skool? It's only...3:32 P.M.! How did time go by so fast?
"Zim! Get your ass down here NOW!" She sounded angry, but panicked as well.
"Yes, ma'am." I retorted, irritated by her shouting. She gave me a glare before going off screen.
I went back into the simulation room and placed Dib back on the stretcher. I decided to leave him there since I'll be back to try again anyway. I, reluctantly, left Dib to go face Gaz's wrath.
"What took you so long!" Gaz had her arms folded and was glaring daggers at me from the couch. I sighed.
"Could you not yell, I've got a headache." I grimaced.
"We have bigger problems than a stupid headache! The police were at the skool today asking every student about Dib!" Well that was expected, it was Gaz who said the police would be looking everywhere for Dib. I looked at her wondering if she had forgotten this.
"So? I already told you not to worry. Zim has this handled." I said reassuringly.
"Don't you think it's a bit suspicious that you weren't at skool today right after Dib's 'disappearance'? What if they start suspecting you?" I smirked.
"You should have more trust in Zim. The police-human had already come to Zim's base to inform me of Dib, and GIR had taken care of it rather smoothly." I lifted my chin in to show my confidence.
"GIR? You mean GIR? The stupid robot dog, GIR?" She asked skeptic.
"I'M MAKIN' COOKIES!" A scream came from the kitchen. I rubbed the temples of my head before answering.
"Yes, but the human wasn't exactly too bright either, so all is well." I nodded. She muttered an 'Oh' before looking at the ground. It appeared something was on her mind and she looked back up at me.
"How's Dib? Have you figured something out?" She asked a bit timidly, as if something was telling her there was another problem. At first I didn't understand why she thought there was anything wrong until I remembered how I appeared. My antenna were limp behind my head out of exhaustion, I was slightly hunched and I was still holding my head in one of my hands. I tried to straighten myself out, but I felt completely drained, so instead I trudged over to the couch and sat next to Gaz.
"Sort of." Gaz did not seem to happy with this answer as she gave me look that told me 'Tell me what the fuck "sort of" means or else'. "What I mean is I think I've found a way to help Dib, but it's going to take some time. I've built a machine that allows me to enter Dib's mind so that I can find whatever is keeping him from waking up." I decided to leave out the part where I had to break into her house and steal her father's equipment to build it.
"Inside Dib's mind? Wow, your technology's not as crappy as I thought it was." She said nonchalantly.
"Thank you...wait!" Gaz was giving me a sly look. I growled at her. How dare she insult me!
"So have you used it yet?" She said making me forget about her last comment.
"Yeah. The problem is that Dib seems to have created a different reality in his head where I was hit by that truck and we're enemies again..." I trailed off wondering why exactly Dib would want things to be like that again. He looked completely miserable when I found him, unlike before the accident. I felt a pair of eyes watching me and looked at Gaz. She was looking at me curiously.
"What?" I asked.
"What were you thinking about? You should be careful when thinking hard like that. Your head could explode." I gave her a bored look, then thought back to her question.
"When I went into Dib's mind and found him he seemed unhappy, even though he was in a world he created. He wasn't so sad when we were friends, so why would he want us to be enemies again?" Everything always seemed to come back to me. I'm really starting to think I'm the problem. It's the only thing I can think of. He doesn't even remember what I told him that day, he must hate me.
"Does he know that, that world's not real?" Gaz questioned.
"No, I tried to tell him, but he didn't believe me and he didn't give me the chance to explain anything to him before pushing me out of his head." I sighed.
"Then he made the world unconsciously, you can't assume he wants things like that. What goes on in his mind are only things he thinks would happen . I don't think he wants to be enemies with you at all. Even I saw the difference in him when you two had finally stopped the whole trying to destroy each other thing." That was true, but I can't help but feel some part of him wanted this.
"What I'm wondering is how he feels about what you told him before the accident." I looked to the ground.
"He doesn't even remember, but if he did I know he'll hate me for that alone." She looked at me confused.
"He doesn't remember? Did you tell him?" I looked at her like she was crazy.
"What, and get the same reaction as last time? I doesn't think so."
"Like I said before your timing was bad. I don't think you should tell him now, but once he's out of the coma and some time has passed you could try again." I still couldn't think of myself telling him again, but I'll take Gaz's advice into consideration.
"Maybe I should approach the situation differently. Dib didn't seem to want to listen when I tried to tell him that everything around him isn't real." This was going to take longer than I had anticipated.
"When are you going to try again?" Gaz asked.
"Right now." I said getting up. "I want Dib to wake up as soon as possible instead of staying in that fake world." I walked to the elevator, then looked back at Gaz. "If you're coming you should probably bring something to occupy yourself, time seems to go slower in Dib's mind than in reality." She nodded then walked to the side of the couch and started rummaging through something that I can only assume was her backpack and pulled out her Game Slave 2. When we arrived at the simulator room I told Gaz to stay and placed Dib back in the chair with the same position.
"Isn't this the room you used to trick Dib in to telling you he threw the muffin at you?" She asked taking a look around the room.
"So you do listen to Dib." I observed. "And yes. Let it be a lesson to you to never throw a muffin at my glorious skull." Gaz let out a snort at this and I glowered at her. I told Computer to put another seat in the control room when we arrived.
"What exactly are you going to do this time?" Gaz asked.
"Zim will have to play along with Dib's mind-world and try to gain his friendship again. If I try to be too forward again I'll only end up making him push me away again." It sounded good. Of course it did, all of Zim's plans are good. I reached up above me for the helmet and put it over my head.
"Good luck." Gaz said before I pushed the button that for the third time put me in a completely different scenery.
I looked around. I saw some familiar houses next to me from the sidewalk, one of those house was Dib's. I walked up to it and stood at the end of the sidewalk and as if on cue the door opened and out came Dib and "Gaz". When he saw me his eyes widened in surprise. But instead of asking what I was doing there or telling me to go away he just looked down at the sidewalk as if it were interesting and started walking forward with "Gaz" following behind. When I saw he wasn't going to acknowledge me I quickly grabbed his arm to stop him. He looked at me in fear making me let go of him and back off.
Why was he suddenly so afraid of me. Maybe it was something I said to him before, it was very confusing, but I don't remember saying anything that would get that kind of reaction. When he saw me back off he took off down the sidewalk.
"Dib, wait!" I tried, already knowing he wouldn't answer back. He only seemed to walk faster with "Gaz" walking normally behind. It's a process, I reminded myself and started following Dib down the sidewalk.
TBC
Sorry for the short and uneventful chapter it'll get better I promise. Going back to Dib's P.O.V. Next chapter. Thank you for reading this far! R&R, please!