Chapter 10: Revelations
Onboard Numbah Infinity's ship, Dib approaches a door, causing it to slide open. So far, he has seen or heard no crew, but encountered plenty of locked doors, leading him to believe they are hiding from him. He quickly became aware he was being lead into a trap, but remained stalwart in his determination to learn the truth.
Suddenly, his lonliness came to an end, as the door opened into a darkened room, with a single ray of light illuminating Numbah Infinity, sitting calmly in a egg-shaped chair, sucking down some apple juice.
When Dib entered the room, he spoke "Numbah Infinity." coldly.
"Numbah 11." the head diplomat replied. "I imagine you want answears."
"Yes." Dib replied, feeling he was on the verge of a great discovery.
Numbah Infinity sighed. "Your file repeatedly stated you possess an extreme determination to uncover the truth, but I feel obliged to give you one last chance to walk away. If you wish, we can wipe your memory of everything that has happened so far. I'll even pull some strings with the KND to erase your desertion charge. You could have a distinguished, happy service in the KND. We could even arrange for you to keep your memories after decommisoning. What do you say?"
Dib was about to say no, but then began to really think about it. All his life, his interest in the paranormal had brought him nothing but misery. It left him with no friends, estranged him from his dad, frequently got him beat up by his sister, and caused him to repeatdly injure himself fighting Zim.
If he accepts and walks away, all that would end. He could have friends in the KND, reconnect with his dad, and actually feel like he's making a difference. And yet...
"No, no I've come too far to just walk away! I have to know the truth!" Dib exclaims.
"Very well Dib. The truth is, You Are Not Alone."
(KND symbol)
The scene shifts to the recently reconstructed Moonbase. The KND are doing their best to recover and repair, when suddenly a brand new crisis comes up.
"It's him again," someone reports. That is all they need to hear to know that Cartman is on the march.
"Where is he attacking this time?" Numbah 362 askes.
"He's cut a path of destruction all across Mexico, and is laying seige to a place called Miracle City." the same operative reports. "It seems like he's brought his entire army."
Numbah 362 appeared conflicted. On one hand, this was a golden opportunity to defeat Cartman and end his rain of terror. On the other hand, the KND had already taken such heavy losses. Could they really afford to launch a head on attack?
The scene shifts back to Dib and Numbah Infinity. "You are, and have always been, correct in your belief that extraterrestrial life exists." Infinity explains. "You are also correct in your belief that some alien races are not neccisarily friendly. Chief among these aggresors are the Irkens, Zim's people."
"Where is Zim, anyway?" Dib asks.
"All in good time." Numbah Infinity replies before continuing. "The organization you are a part of, the Kids Next Door, are but one rather primitive branch of a galaxy spanning organization know as the Galactic Kids Next Door. I have been assigned as their ears and eyes on Earth."
"So does that mean you're a..." Dib asked suddenly, but Infinity cut him off.
"No Dib, I am not an alien. Not everyone in the KND is ignorant to the GKND's existence. When an operative meets certain... critera, they are approached and put through several tests." Numbah Infinity explains. "If they pass, they are enlightened, and either sent into space or made a cover agent like me. If you choose your words and actions carefully, you, Numbah 11, may be invited to join our ranks.
Dib narrows his eyes. "Tell me what Zim has to do with this."
"As I mentioned, the Irkens are a violent, aggresive race, bent on galactic conquest. The GKND frowns on such actions, as they inevitably place children in harm's way." Numbah Infinity explained, with a hint of contempt in his voice. "In addition, the Irken species has no sense of childhood. Irkens are grown in vats, then trained to become soliders from birth. If they win, the entire universe will become a Military Police State where children endure brutal combat training from birth to turn them into psychotic soliders."
"But they are not why I have taken such drastic measures..."
Back at the Moonbase, Numbah 362 is adressing the KND. "Operatives of the KND, I know we have suffered terrible losses over the last month, but I regret to inform you that we must enter battle one more time." She began. "It has just come to our attention that Eric Cartman, a warmongering nutjob, has launched an all out attack against a place called Miracle City. Although this fight will be difficult, I can assure you, you will not be alone." She then turned to Numbah 1. "Send out the call, Numbah 1."
Nigel saluted, then pressed a button on a nearby consol, sending out a message to all the world's heroes, asking for help.
In a lab beneath the Earth, a genius with a fifty's haircut looks up from his invention.
In the city of Townsville, three sisters rush to their room upon hearing a special phone ring.
A miserable boy is talking to his fish when one of them suddenly changes into a ringing cell phone.
In the town of Porkbelly, three siblings and a pet gather around a massive computer.
Out in the open blue skies, an Ace pilot cruises along, when his plane's radio activates.
All across the world, heroes recive the message, the call to arms, and immidiatly ready themselves to respond.
(KND symbol)
The scene now shifts to Dib again. "Up there, out among the stars, these is a mighty civilization, with the ability to both see into and travel across time and space, through the future and the past. They actually look remarkably similar to us, actually. One of the crucial rules of their society is that they may only interfere when the existence of reality itself is threatned. Well, at one point in the history of Earth, it became neccasary." Numbah Infinity explained.
"A long time ago, a monsterous demon seized control of the Earth and a great number of nearby planets. His power was unmatched, and to further his ambition, created hordes of savage, destructive, and just plain evil monsters. The names of many are lost, but the ones that are know are regarded as myths, used to scare children. The Shadow Queen and King, Giygas, Reapers, Weeping Angels, the Lich, Starro, Lavos and the Star Devourers, the Dimensional Jester, all of them created by this demon. They were scattered across time, space, and even alternate dimensions to spread its evil. This attracted the attention of those almighty Lords over Time. They rescued the one person who dared stand against the monster, and sent him to a time period in which the demon was weak enough to be defeated, and he did."
"What does this have to do with the Irkens?" Dib asked.
"I'm getting there." Numbah Infinity replied. "It was not enough, however. You see, time is not a straight line, as most believe. It branches, loops, shifts, rewrites itself, all sorts of things. And whenever something happens, whenever a decision is made, time splits, one line for every possible solution."
"But millions of people make millions of decisions everyday!" Dib exclaimed, awed by the possibility of so many worlds.
"And there lies the problem." Numbah Infinity stated. "This demon had already proven itself capable of moving across time and space, so simply defeating it in one timeline wasn't enough. Eventually, the Lords of Time managed to confine him to one universe, one dimension, one timeline. But if they destroyed him, the timeline would split, and it would live on in another world. So that timeline was Time Locked, making travel in and out of that time and space impossible. The only way to breack the Time Lock is from the other side, and since every lock must have a key, it was hidden."
"The lock itself is an artifact, capable of driving people mad. It is known as the Macabra Skull, and is currently on display in Mircale City, above which this very ship floats. The key itself is inside the mind of a human, Eric Cartman. We believe his... personality flaws are a result of the key eating away at his mind, trying to cajole him into opening the lock." Numbah Infinity continued to explain. "There were other defenses, though. Three barriers, scattered across the world. One was left in the hands of the Rainbow Princess, another was buried beneath the Earth, and the third dropped into the sea. As a defense mechanisim, they warped the reality around them, resulting in the structures built upon them to be home strange creatures. As long as they existed, the key could not open the lock."
"But now all three have been destroyed, and the Demon's power over this universe grows greater. We initially suspected the Irken Zim to be responsible, but we now know it was the demon himself, possesing those with magical abilities to destroy the barriers, and driving Eric Cartman to madness." Numbah Infinity finished.
"So what did you need to kidnap Zim?" Dib asked, slowly begining to understand things.
"After eliminating him as a suspect, we decided he could still be useful in preserving the Time Lock." Numbah Infinity explained as the rest of the room's lights turned on, revealing a massive, purple and pink rounded arch in the final stages of construction. "This is a device capable of transporting objects backwards in time. We shall use it to prevent the destruction of the barriers in the first place."
Dib felt a strange sense of nausous unease looking at the machine, but that quickly evaporated when Zim stepped out of the shadows. "ZIM!"
"DIB-STINK!" the alien exclaimed upon seeing his enemy, but was held back by Numbah Infinity.
"Hold it right there, Zim. You agreed to help keep the Time Lock secure for the good of the Irken Empire, remember?" Infinity reminded him.
Zim, though seething with disgust, stood down. "Of course." he spat out. "We have far bigger falcons to fry. Assist the all mighty Zim with the machines construction, Dib-filth!"
And so, the two reluctently worked together to complete the machine. G.I.R. was sitting nearby in a bathtub full of rubber piggies. Numbah Infinity provided them to keep the robot under control.
Finally, it was complete. "And not a moment too soon!" Numbah Infinity exclaimed, as a nearby monitor indicated that Cartman's army had reached Miracle City.
The gate came surging to life, space and time folding into a murky gray vortex before them. "Here's how it works: the temporal gate has a programmed set of destinations in time and relative dimensions in space. As soon as we send something through, it will change to the next time and space." Numbah Infinity explained.
"Zim shall have the honor of sending the first blow!" Zim declared.
"No way am I leaving the fate of the Earth in your hands! I'll do it!" Dib countered.
"Nobody's doing anything until I double check the system." Numbah Infinity stated while accesing the computer port.
"What?" Zim asked nervously.
Numbah Infinity suddenly looked... upset. "Zim, these are not the co-ordinates we agreed upon."
"FINE!" Zim screamed, "IF I CANNOT USE THE MACHINE TO DESTROY DIB, I'LL USE MY HANDS OF DOOM!"
Before he could act on his threats, however, Zim felt the agonizing agony of thousands of volts of electricity surging through his body, causing him to fall to the floor. "Oh, right, the collar. G.I.R., THROW THE PIGGY!"
"But the piggy is my little friend!" G.I.R. responded. Numbah Infinity activated the collar once more, knocking the alien out.
Dib looked down at his electricly burnt, twitching opponent. "Um... what just happened?"
Numbah Infinity sighed. "I was hoping his devotion to the Irken Empire would overrule his hatred for you, but I was wrong. Instead of programing the time and space that the Barriers were destroyed, he targeted your earlier years, probably in hopes of crippling you."
That was it. The last puzzle piece fell into place. Suddenly, horrible memories of agonizing pain rushed into Dib's brain, suppresed by a paradox but suddenly returning. He rembered his tricycle being knocked down by a rubber piggy, a rubber piggy knocking him from a radio tower, being strapped into that mechanized life support system, it all came rushing back as he fell to the floor screaming. He remembered these things as if they had happened to him, but yet, they didn't.
"Numbah 11, are you okay?" Numbah Infinity asked as soon as Dib stopped screaming and was able to climb to his feat.
"I... I think so. But I remember all these horrible things... that happened to me... and then they didn't..." Dib spoke, badly shaken. He suddenly becomes angry upon seeing Zim. "BUT IT'S ALL HIS FAULT!" he screamed while grabing the half-awake alien by the throat.
"Dib, no! We need him alive!" Numbah Infinity yelled, to no avail. "If you kill him, the truth will never get out!"
That calmed Dib down. He slowly let go of Zim, dropping him to the floor. After a moment to compose himself, he asked, "What now?"
"I... I don't know." Numbah Infinity admited with a tone of defeat. "Only Zim was capable of programing the Temporal Gate, and he's not really an option now."
Dib looked over at the monitor displaying the battle below. Somewhere, down there, his friends were fighting, and from the look of things, they weren't doing too well. He then thought back to the events erased from time that caused him to greater and greater amounts of physical decay, cumulating in a giant robot exoskelation.
"I know what I have to do."
A/N: Two in one day, I'm on a roll.
For those of you wondering, the events Dib remembered are from the Invader Zim episode "Bad, Bad Rubber Piggy."
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