Note: Okay I lied. I didn't mean to lie but I also didn't realize that yeah it's about to get darker. So, here's your warning. I really should know better at this point. If you're unsure which letter Zim is reading at this point, it's chapter 9.

….

Zim doesn't know what I'm talking about.

This was the thought that greeted Dib as he woke to the sight of the gray, concrete ceiling above him. The screechy rage wasn't manufactured, it was real affront at being accused of something Zim didn't do that had failed anyway.

But it was Zim. Of course he'd hate being shown up as incompetent, right?

This was different. When you watched Zim for long enough, you got to know when he was blustering to cover a mistake and when he was truly angry. He starting throwing accusations back and threatening you instead of talking about how great and grand he was. And he hadn't lapsed or paused once.

The calm from being unconscious began slipping away. If not Zim, then who? His old classmates? They couldn't possibly have cared or hated him enough to risk jail. Even if they did, everyone loved his Dad. They wouldn't set his house on fire, not if they thought he probably went home every night.

"Hah. Hah." The sound came out weak and scratchy from his throat.

And those guys definitely wouldn't know where to send a bomb, so not them. Gaz? Gaz… was a distinct possibility. She hated him and knew Dad was almost never home. Maybe she framed him. Or maybe she wanted to get away from that city and forced a fresh start. Dammit, couldn't she have waited another year or two? She was almost legal herself… which… negated the probability that she had done it. If Gaz had already waited this long, she would wait another year or two to get out. Might even torch the house on her way out, but not before. Not while she'd be stuck with Dib.

Probably. As best as he could guess with Gaz, anyway. Not like she was open with much but her disdain for people and love for video games.

Could Dad… would Dad have done it?

Dib couldn't think of a reason that Dad would have, but he also couldn't think of a reason he wouldn't. Did he know for sure where Dad was that night?

Yeah. He'd been down in the basement, tinkering. It was a rare night where he'd been back. Dib had heard him zapping things downstairs. Dad was definitely home. He could have. But… why? And why the bomb? It didn't make enough sense. Yet.

He rolled over on his side and glanced at the underside of the cot. He realized with a cold start that this was one place in the cell he had not even tried to look, and he knew he should have tried because there were two very large coils of metal on the underside of the bed platform. The platform was held up by chains and there was no need for further support, so these coils weren't structurally necessary. He reached a hand toward them.

They uncoiled fast as a blink and two sets of robotic arms swayed like snakes from under the bed, the tips unfolding into metallic graspers that clicked and spun threateningly. He remembered now, these had dragged him to bed toward the beginning of his stay and returned his glasses. They didn't fold into the wall like he thought, he must have gotten turned around, or… his hand drifted up to his head. Maybe he hadn't fully recovered from whatever Zim had done. Whatever the case, this was new, exciting information.

Nothing else in this cell has a shot of coming off and helping me break out, but Zim obviously planted these here. If I can pry them loose I bet there's something in them I can use to break out. There's two and they probably defend each other, so I'll have to be fast and pull really hard. Or maybe I can get them to attack each other? Maybe-

The arms retracted, coiling back up under the pallet as a familiar whirring approached. Dib rolled himself up to a sitting position, frowning at the hoverscreen as it approached. It was sparking a little, its screen off kilter from Dib's attack, but still flashed its customary message.

Today there were six messages. That would bring Zim through the remaining letters… plus one? Apparently Zim wanted to end this faster. Whatever that end was, it couldn't be worse than waiting here another week while Zim drip-fed him responses. He pushed ACCEPT, trying to bring his focus back to the screen.

"Greetings, Earth Smell." Dib could see Zim in full profile now, sitting in the cockpit of his Voot Cruiser. "I have been unable to locate your actual place of residence and have had to retreat to orbit to try and sift through the unimaginable amount of data beams that leave this rock for any clues. You must be near your mail-place, but the smelly post office drones know nothing of your true dwellingplace. It does not matter. I will find you, soon.

"In between analyzing the information beams, I have conducted further research on the weaponization of friendship, but the topic has already been explored and appropriated by tiny multichromatic horses with various deformities on their heads and backs. While I have seen no evidence of their existence in your city, it is clear they harvested enough power from this 'friendship' to hide an entire world in plain sight. Transmission of their lives comes to me regularly. I believe they are attempting to brainwash me, and while the fact that they can use this 'friendship' to bend their surroundings to their will and flatten their opposition is very tempting, they will not get Zim so easily."

Dib's head tilted back and his chest shook with laughter. Oh gods. If this was what Dib thought it was, he'd struck gold. If he got out of here, he would never, ever let Zim live this down.

Zim's screen blorped. He peered at it. "In the meantime, I have received your latest correspondence." He tapped the screen in front of him. "Let's see what insipid drudgery you have sent this time."

After a few seconds, he opened his mouth in a sneer, and then it froze like that. Slowly, he closed his mouth again, a scowl creeping across his face.

It was only a flash, but Dib saw the little backpack on Zim's back spark. Zim's face spasmed, his eyes going dull and his tongue jutting out a full foot before returning to his mouth. Zim blinked, his forehead wrinkling in a very human expression for a moment, before his eyes refocused on the screen in front of him.

Again, the little frown. Again, the PAK sparked. This time Zim's arms flew out, slamming the panels in front of him. The view outside the Voot windshield tilted. Zim gasped, scrabbling at the controls. "What?! I… what?!" He wrenched a lever, breathing hard as the ship stabilized. "What…" To Dib's alarm, Zim's eyes drifted back to the screen with Dib's message on it.

Don't! Don't do it, something's wrong!

A full arc of electricity shot from Zim's PAK to the back of his head. The Irken flailed like a puppet with strings being jerked in all directions. The view out the window spun wildly as his forehead hit the control panel.

Get up! Wake up, Zim!

Zim did not wake up. The view outside the window spun faster and faster until there was a terrible shattering sound and the camera went dark.

There was no "next message" screen yet. Dib held his breath.

The screen flickered badly now, cutting in and out of the scene. An empty voot cruiser, the cockpit on fire. Zim crawling back into the cockpit, groping for the camera. Frantic gaspy noises as Zim crawled away, the camera jerking every time his hand came up and back down to the ground.

Finally the view stabilized on Zim's face, wild-eyed and screaming, "What did you do, Dib? Did you lay traps in your letter? You did, didn't you! You set traps in your letter that caused my voot to crash! AUGH!" The camera flew through the air, thudding to the ground. From the angle it had landed, Dib could only see Zim's legs as he either sat or lay back on the grass, and they were shaking uncontrollably. "NO!" Zim shrieked. "NO, you did not bypass superior Irken technology, that is not what happened! It is not possible for an inferior species! What happened does not matter because I will find you and kill you!" His legs stopped shaking and Zim made an odd choked noise. "Yes… yes, I will wipe you and your whole species off the face of the planet." His voice came out calmer, more collected than usual. "Then I will grind this ball of dirt into nothing and scatter its remains into deep space. That is all that matters."

Goosebumps ran up Dib's arms as he stared at the screen, trying to process what he'd just seen.

Zim sat up, a blissful, contented smile on his face, and turned to the camera. The smile hung all wrong and his eyes glittered unusually bright in the light of his burning voot. Dib's skin crawled at the utterly wretched tone of voice coming from those smiling lips.

"What… is happening…"