Disclaimer: I do not own Invader Zim or any of its characters.
Chapter Ten: The Outsider, Apocalypse Mix (A Perfect Circle)
Help me if you can
Its just that this is not the way I'm wired so
Help me understand why
You've given in to all these reckless dark desires
Zim was jerked into awareness by a sharp, stabbing pain. Something was pulling one of his antennae. He cried out, opening his eyes and squinting at a bright light. It only took a moment for him to realize where he was. He still pulled against the straps, even if he knew that it wouldn't work.
"EVIL DIB! RELEASE ZIM!" He screamed. His disguise had been taken, his identity uncovered for all to see. The other Dib hovered over the table that he was strapped to, the examination light was bright over Zim's face. All he could see of the the other Dib was a blur.
"You're awake! Excellent. I was hoping you would be awake for this." He could hear the smile in the other Dib's voice.
"Awake for what? Release me! I will carve out your eyeballs with a gerbil! RELEASE ME!" Zim screamed and struggled, but the straps were tight.
"My father will be here soon, I've already called him and told him I had something amazing to show him. It won't be long before there are twenty scientists in here waiting for their turn to cut into you. And I'm going to film it, so that I can watch it over and over." The other Dib said, his maniacal voice filled with glee. Zim began to panic.
"Eh? No! No, no no! Let me go! LET ME GO!" He screeched, jerking at the straps hard enough to bruise his delicate skin.
"There is no point in struggling." The other Dib said, leaning down and placing his elbows on the table next to Zim. He smiled happily, his dark eyes wide and creepy looking. He wasn't wearing his glasses.
"Dib, help Zim. Help me. Please. I know you're in there." Zim pleaded. The other Dib narrowed his eyes.
"He's not here. He can't hear you anymore. I AM Dib. The only Dib that is left." He leaned up, standing straight. They both turned their heads when Professor Membrane walked in. He looked the same as he always did, high collar and large goggles with that wild hair. Just like Dib's.
"Hello son. Ah your little green friend is here. Why is he strapped to this table?" He questioned, leaning over to look at Zim. Zim froze in terror, able to see his own alien reflection in the Professors goggles.
"Dad, this is Zim, the alien! See, I was telling the truth all along! Look at his red eyes! And his antennae! He's come to take over the earth!" He told his father, his voice filled with child-like excitement. He almost sounded like the old Dib.
"Well, yes. I know that. Where are your glasses?" Professor Membrane asked, looking over the table at the other Dib. "Are you feeling okay son?"
"I'm fine! What do you mean you know?" Dib asked, frustrated. "Look at him! He's not human!"
"Well of course he's not human! I've known that for years. But you always seemed to get along so well. I always thought it was nice that you finally had a friend. Besides, if he was going to take over the earth, I think he would have done it by now." The professor said, full of good humor. He wasn't affected at all. Zim lay frozen, his insides squirming.
"We are not friends! He is my mortal enemy! Why are you not taking this seriously?!" Dib yelled, nearly panicking.
"Yes, yes of course you are! I've got a meeting, so I've got to run. You kids have fun being mortal enemies!" Professor Membrane waved as he walked out, shutting the door behind him. Dib stood motionless as his father walked out. Zim couldn't see his face.
"No one will ever believe you. You're just that guy that everyone says is crazy. Get used to it, evil Dib. It will never change." Zim said, his weird tongue sliding around his words. He lay there while the human stayed silent, hoping that maybe he will give up and let him go. Stranger things had happened.
"If no one else will believe me then I'll just have to preform your examination myself." Dib said quietly. He locked the door and turned back to Zim, his eyes wide. He looked a little demented. Zim was terrified of him.
"Eh, no! Don't! Do not soil my supreme body with your filthy pig taint!" Zim yelled, pulling at the straps again. He reached for his pak, to use his mechanical legs but nothing happened. Zim stilled, reaching for his pak again. Nothing happened.
"Finally figured it out didn't you? I attached your tazer to the side of your pak while you were unconscious. I don't think you'll be using it for a while." He sneered. He pulled some white gloves on his hands.
"My pak! You have no IDEA what you have done! You can not even BEGIN to imagine the complexity of an Irkens pak! How dare you damage it! I will gut you and feast on your eyeballs! RELEASE ZIM!" He screeched, wiggling his entire body so much that he shook the table.
"Don't be so dramatic. I'm just going to cut you open, for now. I'm not going to kill you yet. I want this to last." The other Dib smiled, holding up a scalpel. Zim quivered at the sight of it.
"No, please Dib! Don't cut Zim! Please!" Zim begged, pulling at his restraints as hard as he could. The other Dib picked up remote control and began pressing some buttons. The table that Zim lay on suddenly moved, taking him from laying horizontal to being held upright. When the table stopped moving, he was eye to eye with the evil Dib.
"First I want to see what color your blood is." He said, grabbing one of Zim's gloves and yanking it off. Zim felt the cool air on his fingers and pulled his hand as hard as he could. The strap didn't budge.
The other Dib grabbed his hand and held it palm up. He put the scalpel in Zim's palm and pressed down, drawing a line of blood. It was purple. Zim screamed. Dib's hands shook as he pressed a vial to Zim's hand and took a sample. He secured the lid on the small glass container and placed it on the table behind him. It was then that Zim could see the selection of instruments that the other Dib had chosen.
Zim's breath quickened as the other Dib picked up a pair of tongs.
"Open your mouth." He ordered, his eyes focused on Zim's face. Zim immediately clamped his mouth shut.
"Come now Zim, don't make me hurt you." The other Dib grinned evilly. Zim turned his face to the side, trying to escape the other Dib and his tongs. It worked. Until the other Dib punched him hard, in the stomach. Zim gasped and his whole body cringed. The other Dib grabbed a hold of Zim's tongue with the tongs, and sliced a small piece off of it with the scalpel. Zim screamed in pain, his eyes forming tears.
The alien watched as Dib put the small piece of his tongue into a petri dish. As he turned back around, he looked gleefully at Zim.
"Now for your eye. Open it wide." The other Dib ordered, his hands shaking. Zim freaked.
"DIB! PLEASE DIB! I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ZIM! COME BACK! PLEASE COME BACK! ZIM WILL RE-THINK HIS PLANS FOR EARTH! PLEASE! WE DON'T HAVE TO BE ENIMIES! DIB! DIIIIB!" He screamed, his tongue bleeding profusely, spilling blood down his chin.
The other Dib's head jerked, his eyes going wide. Then he became angry.
"SHUT UP! NO MORE TALKING!" He screamed into Zim's face, brandishing the scalpel.
"DIB! COME BACK GOOD DIB! ZIM NEEDS HELP! HELP ZIM!" Tears ran down the aliens face as he yelled for the human who was his only friend.
"SHUT UP I SAID!" The other Dib screeched, holding his head between his hands, shaking. "No! No I won't let you! Its mine! GO AWAY!" The human screamed. He swung his arm up and brought the scalpel down, shoving it into his own leg. "How does that feel huh? You can't have this body back! It belongs to me! GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" He looked up at Zim, his eyes crazed. Pulling the scalpel out of his leg, he brought it up to Zim's face.
"Now, open wide Zim." His voice shook as much as his hands as he brought the instrument close to Zim's eye. Nearly sobbing, Zim shook his head back and forth rapidly so the the human couldn't cut his eye.
"DIB PLEASE HELP ME! PLEASE!" Zim cried, his body heaving with his fear. The other Dib grabbed his head in his hands and shouted out in pain, dropping to his knees in front of the alien. His eyes were wide as he hit the floor, his mind flickering between two different consciousnesses. He groaned, squinting as though he couldn't see then focusing as if he could. He rambled incoherently, phrases from two different people at war with each other. As he cried out in pain again, tears formed and streamed down his face.
Zim could hear voices in the hall, people at the door. Someone must have heard all the yelling. Someone started banging on the door. Zim glanced at the door then back down at Dib, who sat there staring and mumbling to himself.
"Dib! Dib wake up! Hurry Dib, wake up and release Zim! We must get out of here!" He said urgently, trying to reach the Dib. He just kneeled there, staring at nothing, like he was hypnotized. "Dib please! Wake up!" Zim begged, his head bowing down towards the human. People started banging on the door and yelling.
"Dib please! Dib! Wake up and help Zim!" Another bang on the door and Dib's face snapped to attention, up at Zim. His eyes squinted.
"Zim?" His voice shook, distressed.
"Yes! Get up and get me off of this table!" Zim ordered, frantic. Dib stood, his legs shaky.
"Okay." He looked in the direction of the door when he heard the yelling and banging. "Whats going on?" He asked, his voice gaining strength.
"Zim is strapped to this table, they will come in and find us if we don't get out of here. I don't have my disguise on. Get me off of here so we can go, quickly!" He commanded, his voice high with fear.
"Okay, okay, I've got you, hold on." Dib reassured, his hands fumbling with straps that the couldn't see. He freed one of Zim's hands and started on the strap around his other hand as Zim started pulling at the one on his neck. The banging continued as they picked at the rest of the straps. As they were working on the last two, they heard someone outside the door say something about the word "key".
Frantic, they doubled their effort as the door knob jiggled.
"Quick, remove the tazer from my pack" Zim said, turning to give Dib access to his pak.
"I feel really weird." Dib said, his voice strange as he pulled the tazer from Zim's pak.
"We'll worry about it later, lets leave this horrible human infested place!" Zim urged, while grabbing the two samples of his body that the other Dib had taken. He held them up and they were sucked in by his pak.
"Zim I can't get us out of here, I can't see!" Dib said, his gaze searching the direction of the banging and yelling.
"Do not worry Dib, Zim will get us out." He said, wiping the tears off of his face. He grabbed Dib around the middle. "Hold on." He ordered. Dib readily obeyed, not given much of a choice. The jets in Zim's pack exploded, blasting a hole in the ceiling. Holding onto Dib tightly, his jets carried them up and out of the hole, landing them on the roof.
His mechanical legs lifted them up, spidering their way across the roof in any direction that would take them away from there. Dib clung to Zim, his head pounding. Sirens sounded in the distance as Zim and Dib fled from the lab. A small speaker came from Zim's pak, he grabbed and pressed the talk button, yelling into it.
"GIR! Bring the voot cruiser to my location! Quickly!" He said, his legs carrying them down the side of a building. As they landed on the ground, they went around another building trying to stay out of sight. It was evening, the sun was setting and casting deep shadows around the building.
Zim's pak carried them to the side of one building, hiding in the shadows. It wasn't yet dark enough to cover them completely, but it was better than running from roof to roof.
"Where is that damn robot!" Zim whispered, his eyes searching heatedly.
"Where are we?" Dib asked, holding tight to Zim. His voice was stronger, which comforted Zim. Maybe the human would be okay. Zim heard his ships engines and ignored Dib's question as the voot cruiser swooped down with GIR at the controls.
"I brought you a jellyfish!" GIR screamed as the hatch door opened. Zim ignored him as well, jumping into the seat and letting go of Dib. He closed the hatch door and the voot cruiser and rose up into the air.
"Lets get away from this HORRIBLE place!" Zim yelled dramatically as they ship flew towards his base. Dib gripped his head and sat on the seat behind Zim, leaning back.
"Are you... alright Dib?" Zim asked, glanced back at the human.
"I... I think so. I feel different. I feel... angry." He said. His voice didn't sound angry. It sounded confused.
"Why are you angry?" Zim asked, punching the control panel with his sharp fingers. One of his hands were still bleeding.
"I don't know. I feel angry at everything. You, my father, myself. I... I remember. Zim! I think I've... I think I'm me again!" He announced, his head snapping up.
"You mean the other Dib is... gone?" Zim asked, his voice hopeful.
"No, not gone just... I'm whole again." Dib said, incredulous. "I remember everything! I remember attacking you in the rain, I remember when we... and I remember..." He reached around and grabbed Zim's hand.
"Hey! Let go of me!" Zim yelled, but Dib didn't listen. He inspected Zim's hand, feeling the deep cut in his palm. Zim flinched and jerked his hand away.
"Zim I'm... I'm so sorry-" He began.
"Don't worry about it. Its over with." Zim mumbled, interrupting him. They were quiet for a minute as Zim flew the ship.
"So... what does this mean for us?" Dib asked, nervous. It took Zim a minute to answer, so long that Dib didn't know if he would.
"I don't know."