A/N- Good to be back. ^.^ I still have a little 'me' work to do and I'm not sure I'll be too consistent while all that's going on but, uh… Here? I'm sorry for just disappearing like that. Minor personal crisis. I've spent a while pulling at random story threads trying to find this one and I think I got it. (At least for this chapter.) But I can't be sure because it's like five thirty in the morning. If I'm a little less than articulate at times it's just because I'm very tired and the keyboard is getting closer and closer ksjadcsjbsjknf.

Oh, yeah. Warning: Smart Zim.

Fourteen-Situation Critical

"Yeah, I didn't need help or anything. I'm totally fine!" Dib slung the metal pipe so that it connected with the wall just above the Irken's head. "Will you put that fucking thing down?!"

Zim flinched at the sound of the pipe striking the wall. He looked up from the thing in the blanket with a slightly shocked expression. Dib growled low in his throat. The alien had been cleaning what was left of the child like a cat would clean her kittens. Most of the blood and slime had been cleaned off, revealing just how mangled the body really was.

Dib physically stepped back at the sight, swallowing hard to keep from vomiting. Again.

He sighed. "Just get up. We need to move." This was getting annoying. Obnoxious idiot Zim was better than this. He'd spent most of his time dragging the Irken around the ship and trying to keep him from getting eaten. Charming. The trouble was what to do now. He didn't exactly know his way around this place and it was clear that Zim would be no help at all in the state he was in.

Dib sighed heavily. Trying to stay mad like this was just wearing him out. Well, that and lack of food. He crouched down in front of the alien and held his hand out. "Come on." He said softly. "I'm not gonna hurt you." He told him when Zim looked up at him like they'd never met before, ruby eyes wide and unsure.

Slowly, he reached out and caught the alien's hand. Zim didn't try to snatch his hand back so Dib pulled him to his feet.

"You'll be alright, huh?" he asked quietly. Zim cocked his head at him, picking up his antenna. He looked very young right then.

Oh well. There wasn't much he could do with him right now. Dib left him standing there as he moved to a metal pillar near the centre of the room. He couldn't really read any of the text but he knew enough about diagrams and schematics to figure out where they were and how to get to the main controls. If there was any power left, they might be able to at least point this thing in the direction of home.

Dib almost laughed. 'Home' hadn't been 'home' in almost a year.

"Most of the doors are locked, you know." Zim's accent was heavier but it was hearing his voice at all that startled Dib the most. "You'll need the key or you'll have to hack the system."

"And I take it you don't have the key." Dib stepped away from the console and let Zim see the screen. As the Irken started to type, Dib realised he wasn't carrying the baby anymore. It was lying near the wall, still wrapped in its blanket.

This was too easy. There was no way Zim would just give up like that. He had being stubborn down to an art. It was just who he was. But now…Now, he'd changed again.

A sudden stab of pain made Dib's breath catch. The wound in his shoulder had been burning. He'd assumed it was just because he'd had to use his arm in the fights but now he wasn't so sure. His throat and lower jaw hurt too, almost like he'd been burned.

Must be something going wrong in his nervous system. He froze, then glanced at Zim who apparently hadn't noticed him. That was it, wasn't it? The Pak. It was linked in to the Control Brains. From what he'd been able to read on the computer screen when he'd woken up, there had been a global infection of some kind. If the Control Brains were still active and still sending signals...

They were screwing with his personality. The infection was causing the walls between stored, defective personalities to break down and the memories and defining characteristics were bleeding through into possibly the only active Pak left.

A soft chirp called his attention back to the room. Zim actually jumped and laughed like a kid with a new toy. "I got it." His voice was different, slightly higher and clearer.

"You sound like a girl." Dib murmured before he could stop himself.

"Well, we don't technically have a gender. We're kind of whichever one we want to be at any given time." Zim's voice was somewhere between his normal tone and Tak's voice without the accent. He sounded much younger, like a hyper-intelligent ten-year-old might sound. He shrugged. "We just kinda pick one."

"I…didn't know that." Dib wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"Well, why would you? You never really took the time to learn anything about me. True, you can learn things from dissection…But it doesn't tell you much about the culture, the social structure…or anything really."

Alright, this proved his theory. This one was way too smart to be Zim. Dib almost said so but stopped himself at the last minute. This one was too smart to be Zim and that also meant that they were smart enough to take offense to things. Well, appropriately, at least.

"So," Dib started then fished for words, "Who are you?"

Zim stopped typing but left his hands on the keyboard. He cocked his head as though he were thinking then lowered it a bit, tensing his shoulders, expression unreadable.

"No one really." He said softly, his voice taking on an entirely different quality. "Just a memory."

"What are you talking about?" Not that Dib ever really knew what Zim was talking about but this was different. Really, everything about this was different. In the course of the last few months he'd gone who knew how far across the universe with someone he was supposed to hate, got bitten by some kind of deformed… thing and essentially had a miscarriage from an egg he'd swallowed after kissing that space boy.

And just why the hell had he even done that anyway? He was what, 17 now? Did he really not have himself under better control by now? His thoughts were cut short by a soft sigh that sounded entirely too human.

"I don't really know either." Zim had been sorting through the fragments of memories he'd been seeing in his mind's eye the entire time they'd been aboard The Massive. Now he only had a vague recollection of some kind of tube he was placed in. It wasn't like being born. It was… painful. He'd been suspended in fluid, held by wires and tubes that ran deep into his veins.

Zim shivered a bit and shook his head. He glanced sideways at Dib and noticed that the boy was still holding his injured shoulder. "Does that still hurt?"

Dib's hand tightened on his arm. "Not so much anymore." He was lying but he had enough to worry about. His entire view of the Irken had changed in an instant. Now that curiosity that had so often gotten him into trouble was tapping him on the shoulder again. "And you never answered me."

Zim didn't miss a beat. "I did answer you." He said calmly. "It's just not the answer you were expecting."

The human cocked his head, the one lock of raven-black hair that had been constantly falling in his face since middle school lying almost gracefully over one eye. "Now I know you're not Zim."

In response the Irken held up a hand, tapered fingers visible through the badly torn gloves. "That's were you're wrong." He dropped his hand and sighed. "It's a long story."

"Okay, but my curfew's at ten." He was shocked when Zim actually got the joke, laughing softly as he leaned back against the console. He really was attractive, Dib mused looking him up and down. The soft light from the screen behind him coupled with the ripped uniform let him see just how well-defined the alien's muscles were. What was left of his uniform showed quite a bit of taut green skin, really.

Dib cleared his throat, resisting the urge to shake his head. Zim laughed quietly before looking back over his shoulder at the screen. "Apparently," he began, "I'm not even supposed to exist."

"I hope you have an actual explanation for that one." Dib told him, grateful for the distraction. At least until Zim's one good eye shifted to look at him. The Irken didn't move for several moments but stayed leaned back against the console, arms crossed over his chest, long legs crossed at the ankles, pinning Dib with a strangely seductive ruby-red glare.

"I do." Zim looked away, breaking the spell and letting Dib breathe again. He looked straight ahead and spoke slightly slower than normal, carefully as though the words left a bad taste in his mouth. "Red was… worried about the military. He always thought that we were getting too weak, that he was the only one fit for service. He commissioned the scientists to…" Zim sighed heavily, "…clone him."

"A clone?" Dib repeated. "You…"

"I was the first. But it wasn't… right. He wouldn't lose me as a research subject but he told me every chance he got that I could never take his place. I wasn't worth anything to him but…" Zim trailed off and swallowed hard.

"I- I don't know what to say, Zim. I'm sorry." Dib really did have no idea what to say. It explained Zim's apparent delusions of grandeur. He was programmed for it. But to do what Red did… it was just… unforgivable.

Dib thought about reaching out and laying his hand on the Irken's shoulder but he wasn't sure how the gesture might be taken. Just then the screen behind Zim flickered and went dark. The ship lurched forward and Dib felt the familiar pressure against his body. They were moving.

"You fixed it?" he asked, unable to believe it.

"Just the propulsion system." Zim answered casually as he walked toward the door, tattered coat swinging behind him. "Come on. We'll watch from the bridge." There was a light, almost playful tone to his voice then. He sounded very young again and Dib felt his heart flutter a bit. He spared a quick glance to his side, making sure the 'baby' was still there. The blanket was right where Zim had left it, making him wonder again just why in the world he'd given up so easily.

Dib shook his head and followed the Irken. He was fairly sure he was an expert at getting lost on a ship like this and he didn't want Zim thinking he was an idiot.

This whole thing was insane enough without switching their roles too.

A/N- I'm back. Some minor explanation goin' on here. So, yeah.