Hello, everyone! I have recieved a lot of positive comments on this fic, and that brings me so much joy! I love all of my readers! Thanks guys, for reading this angsty piece of crap!

Here's chapter 8! Lots of brother-sister bonding!

Chapter Eight: Dib

I laid on the bed staring at the ceiling, but it didn't feel like I was laying on anything. It felt like I was floating in midair. I felt like I was asleep, but I knew I was awake. It was so confusing. I don't even remember how long had passed since Dad and Gaz came to visit me. Since then, I had been in that tank more than before, and they were injecting me with more and more drugs. They were trying to convince me that aliens aren't real, and maybe they're not. Why else would I be in here?

I still have my memories, though. That time I piloted Mercury to stop Zim from crushing the Earth with Mars. That thing with the hamster, and that time Zim and I got turned into bologna. And Tak's ship. Tak's ship is still in my garage. Gaz and I flew that ship to the North Pole to stop Zim from teleporting all of humanity to their doom.

How could all of that just been one giant delusion?

But then again, the military called me crazy and put me into one of their Crazy Buckets during the whole hamster thing after I told them that Pipi was mutated through alien tampering. Maybe the hamster was mutated through contact with something natural like the nuclear plant? It did crash through it.

But then what was that thing on its back?

I shook my head, temporarily making me feel like I had thrown myself across the room. I had cycled through these same thoughts a million times. I had to decide soon. I couldn't take it here anymore. Was every supernatural and extraterrestrial thing I've experienced real, or was it all one massive hallucination?

I didn't know how long had passed after I had stopped myself from running in mental circles-a few seconds? A minute or two?-but the door clicked and drifted open with an echoing creak. A little while later a hand landed on my shoulder and gently shook me, making the world around me spin alarmingly fast.

"Dib?" a familiar voice called. "Dib, it's me."

I glanced towards the voice but found nothing but a dark, faceless figure. And alien?

I flinched at my own thought.

"Dib, it's me Gaz. I'm wearing a ski mask," the figure explained. "I'm getting you out of here."

Out of here? I wasn't entirely sure if this person was truly Gaz, but if she offered a way to get me out, I would take it.

"Come on," the faceless person urged, grabbing onto my arm and pulling me.

I tried to help them by sitting up, but the drugs that were in my system not only made me weak, but made the whole planet tilt out from underneath me. Somehow, with the help from the figure, I made it onto my feet, practically falling into her. She almost had to drag me forward, the floor lurching out from under me.

At some point, an alarm started blaring, and a red light started flashing, making the spinning in my head worse.

"Dang it," the faceless person muttered. "We'll have to take the stairs. They've probably locked down the elevator."

We started to go faster and faster, running down the stairs that eventually ended. Then we were outside.

Outside.

I took a deep breath of the fresh air. It was so much better than the stuffy air of the hospital. I wanted to look up at the stars, but I was putting too much concentration into keeping my legs under me, so I won't be dead weight for the figure who brought me outside.

We made it across the street, but then the person who got me out stopped and leaned me against a wall. She dug through her bag, and brought out a small metal rod that quickly extended into a full-sized bo staff.

Suddenly, there were people around us and hands grabbing at me. I tried to push them away, but I didn't have the strength to fight them. Then the hands were gone, and the figure came back, her bo staff retracting into a small tube again.

She picked me up from the ground, and though I tried to help her so I wouldn't be such dead weight, I could tell that I wasn't much aide.

We continued forward, and I didn't know how long we walked for. Eventually, we came to a house that I recognized. My house.

The person with me opened the door, rushed us both inside and dropped me on the couch. Then she closed and locked the door, taking her mask off. It was Gaz.

"How are you doing?" she asked.

"I think my head is clearing up a little," I said, though it sounded slurred even to my ears.

"Give it a few hours, and it'll work it's way out of your system," Gaz explained. "You can sleep it off it you want."

I couldn't tell if she was being extraordinarily nice to me for some reason, or if this was her normal behavior, and I just interpreted our previous interactions as threatening.

Either way, I was exhausted, and I gladly let my eyes close.


I woke up about three hours later, and Gaz was still there with me on the couch, her Game Slave in her hands. "It's about time you woke up," she muttered, hardly even glancing up from her game.

I could tell that the drugs were out of my system for the most part. My vision wasn't hazy, and I could think clearly. To test things out, I pulled myself up into a sitting position. I was still a little unsteady, but my strength had returned. "Why'd you get me out of there?" I wondered, more thinking out loud than expecting an answer.

Gaz's hands froze on her Game Slave for a brief moment before resuming. "I needed test my skills with my bo staff. I was getting out of practice."

We were silent for a moment before Gaz spoke up again. "You hungry?" My stomach growled loudly in answer to her question, getting her to smirk. "You remember the way to the kitchen?" she mocked.

"Ha. Ha," I stated, cautiously getting up from the couch.

I started to make my way towards the kitchen when the floor lurched, making me lose my balance. I caught myself on the door jam before I could fall. I shook my head and put a hand to my temple. Maybe my system wasn't as cleared out as I thought it was.

After making sure that I was completely steady, I continued into the kitchen and towards the fridge. I opened it up and scanned the contents. Just wanting something quick and easy, I took the milk out and poured myself a bowl of Choco Chunkies. I ate it rather quickly before getting some more. I didn't realize how hungry I was. I only vaguely remember eating at the hospital. I know that I did, but I don't remember how often I ate or what the meals were.

The sound of footsteps made me glance up towards the doorway. I found Gaz leaning against the door jam. "So…" she began, "you still believe in aliens?"

My breath caught in my throat at the last word. I took a second to remind myself that I was at home now before I pondered her question.

Did I still believe that Zim is an alien?

I know I'm not supposed to, but my memories of space and Zim's base were too detailed to ignore. With my head clear, I no longer questioned my own experiences.

I looked back up at my sister. "Y-yeah," I stuttered, my heartrate picking up despite my reasoning. "I do."

I thought I saw Gaz's lips twitch upwards in some form of a smile, but it was too quick for me to be sure if I really saw it.

Gaz picked herself up from the doorway, got a bowl from the cabinet and sat down on the other side of the table. She got herself some cereal, and we ate in silence, Gaz resuming her game as she ate.

I glanced out the window and found that the sky was beginning to lighten. It was morning. Maybe about seven. I don't remember much of what happened last night, but I do remember Gaz's retractable bo staff.

I turned back to her, and wondered, "Hey, Gaz? Could I see your bo staff?"

"After I'm finished with this level," she muttered in return.

"I didn't even know you had a bo staff," I commented.

"I don't use it much."

We lapsed into silence again until Gaz closed her Game Slave. "I'll let you see my bo staff if you clean up." Gaz didn't even wait for an answer before getting up from the table and going back into the living room.

I cautiously got up from my chair and slowly took the bowls and spoons, placing them in the sink. I managed to put the milk and cereal away, too before getting so dizzy that I had to lean against the counter. You'd think that the drugs would be out of my system by now. Maybe there was something else wrong with me that I didn't have the energy or concentration to notice before.

"Dib?" Gaz's voice called.

I turned around, still gripping the counter. Gaz was standing in the doorway, her retracted bo staff in hand.

"You okay?" she wondered.

I nodded. "Yeah. I'm good." I gestured to her staff. "That it?"

"Yeah."

Gaz came closer to me and handed me the tube. It was lighter than I thought it would be. "How do you extend it?" I asked.

"First, you'd need to step away from the counter so you don't break anything," she ordered.

I did as she requested and moved closer towards the center of the room.

Gaz put her hand out and fisted it, her knuckles facing towards me. She turned her hand over so that her fingers were facing the ceiling and moved her arm out to the side. "Hold it like this," she instructed.

I mimicked her.

"Now give it one hard jerk."

I did so, and the staff extended, one end of it stabbing me in the leg. I cried out at the sudden pain, dropping the staff to grip my let.

Gaz laughed.

I scowled at her before picking the staff up from the ground. I examined the center of the staff where the mechanisms must be. "Would you mind if I took a closer look at this?" I wondered.

"If you break it, I will make you regret being born," Gaz threatened.

I nodded, and managed to stop myself from saying that part of me already regrets being born.

Gaz walked off, and a second later, I heard the TV click on. I moved towards the stairs that lead down to Dad's lab and slowly walked down them. I still remember what happened with that dimensional scope. That was terrifying. Although, that had to be a hallucination. Maybe the scope affected my brain waves and made me see things. The monsters in that universe did say that it was based off of my imagination.

Once down in Dad's lab, I skirted his dimensional scope and went to the observation table. I placed the bo staff on the table and got to work on it.

It was an effective weapon already if you knew how to use it, but if you didn't-like me-it would be better to give it some sort of extra asset. But which one? Something with a bit more range, probably, in case I can't hit the enemy. Something that would be painful enough to take them out but not kill them.

Electricity, maybe? If the user wore insulating clothes, then it would work. It would hurt the enemy, and if it was a low enough voltage, it had the potential to knock them out without causing too much damage. I didn't have the strength to knock a person out by hitting them like Gaz apparently did.

A few hours later, and after multiple tests, I finally got it right. The bo staff had a switch that makes the electricity optional. The electric current ranged in strength. It could knock someone out or deliver a shock that was similar to the one you received from a doorknob after rubbing your feet on the carpet. And as long as the user wore long rubber gloves, the electricity wouldn't affect you if you didn't accidentally hit yourself like I did this morning.

A crash sounded upstairs, making me jump. A second later, Gaz was down in the lab with me. She snatched the staff from my hands and turned to face the stairs.

"Gaz!" I shouted, taking off the black rubber gloves I was wearing. "You'll have to put these on." I tossed them to her.

She caught them. "Why?" she questioned. "What did you do to the staff?"

"I electrified it, so unless you want to get electrocuted, you're going to have to wear those," I cautioned. She leaned the staff against the observation table and quickly put the gloves on, picking the staff back up. "What's going on?" I wondered, glancing towards the stairs.

"The goons from the hospital found us," she said, a slight bite in her voice.

I tensed. I couldn't go back to that hospital. My head was finally clear. I can't go back.

I started back away from the stairs, retreating to a far away corner of the lab.

Gaz gripped her staff harder as several people with the hospital's name on their clothes sprinted down the stairway. The staff delivered a high-pitched whine as Gaz powered it up, and she started whipping the staff around, hitting person after person.

But there were too many of them. The number of enemies doubled and quickly overwhelmed my sister. I lost sight of her as several of the enemies came towards me.

"No!" I screamed, running as far away from them as I could, but I couldn't get very far before another person sprang up in front of me.

I froze and backed away, running into someone else. They wrapped their hands around me, forcing me to remain in place. I struggled against their hold, but I couldn't get out. The man in front of me stalked closer, taking a needle out of his pocket. I stopped struggling, knowing what was coming. I didn't want them to take me away again, but what choice did I have?

The man inserted the needle into my neck and pushed the plunger down, an ice cold rush instantly making me weak. The one who was holding me, instantly scooped me up from the ground.

I glanced around, trying to keep myself awake, but I could already tell that I was losing the fight against the drug. I looked down and saw Gaz lying on the ground, her bo staff just out of her reach. Her eyes were closed, and she wasn't moving. "Gaz," I called, though even I could barely hear it.

Thanks for reading, guys! See you next time!