"About time!" Gaz said with her arms crossed like she had been made to wait for days.
The room Kyle had led them to was indeed named "the talking room." Gaz stood in the middle of the room with a game controller hanging loosely from one hand. It was a large, round room with a dome like ceiling. There was a long, rectangular table in the middle of the room with a hallow middle that was filled with television screens all that all had game controllers attached to them.
"So you finally decided to show up, huh?" Gaz said, "Good. Then let's get started with a plan."
She pushed a button on the controller in her hand and all the screens lit up at once. There didn't seem to be anything on it other than a play through of some old video game that Dib couldn't quite place. This went on for a while. It seemed meaningless to Dib, but Gaz stared at them like there was an important message to be heard.
"Alright. So in a week we're going to attack the heart of the Yulom power."
"Wait, already?"
"Yes. Now that you're back on Earth, we need to move as fast as possible. That stunt you pulled has everyone in a panic, and if we don't get things going as soon as possible, there won't be time for our own attack. If we get one quick attack in the center of their operation, they will be powerless for a while. It will give us a chance to set up a better retaliation."
Dib's jaw dropped. "I didn't think you were such a good strategist."
"Did you think that I just mindlessly pushing buttons with all my games?" Gaz said with a sly smile on her face.
"Well, I guess..." Dib knew that telling the truth wouldn't be good for him.
"And that's why I'm the head of this resistance. To fight against an alien race, you need strategy, not just blindly attacking or trying to match every move the enemy makes. Not unless you want to fail at it."
"So, that's it?" Dib asked.
"So, what's it?" Gaz said, opening an eye to glare at him.
"Well, is that all you wanted to talk about?"
"With you, yes. But I still have something to talk to Zim about."
"If you have something to say to Zim, you can say it to me too."
Gaz shook her head. "Don't worry, it's nothing important. Just wait outside. I'll be out in a second."
Dib was about to protest one more time, but the look on Gaz's face made him think twice about it. He slowly backed out of the room, leaving Zim alone with Gaz. Zim gave him a scared look as the doors closed in Dib's face. He stood, staring at them for a while. He put an ear up to the door, trying to see if he could pick up anything they were saying, but they must have been sound proof because they only thing Dib could hear was his own heart beat.
He took a few steps away from the doors, and considered cracking them open to eaves drop on their conversation, but he knew Gaz would find out, and even without the threat of physical violence, Gaz had a way of making you regret doing things like that. Dib leaned against the wall across from the doors and let his knees give out as he slid down. He tried to imagine what Gaz could be saying. Maybe it was a certain part of the attack that Zim was going to do alone, or it could be a sister warning Zim about doing anything stupid.
The halls here were quiet. There was the occasional echo that bounced off the metal walls, and at one point someone walked past Dib. Even with rubber soles, her steps made the floor clang. She didn't talk to Dib, or even make eye contact. It didn't seem to be out of fear or hate, she just seemed to busy to look away from the papers her nose was buried deep in.
Just as Dib was starting to get sore from sitting on the floor, the doors opened. Dib scrambled to his feet to greet Zim who looked like he was still locked in a conversation with Gaz, only this conversation was mostly through eye contact.
"So, are you sure that you're up for it?" Gaz said.
Zim's eyes flickered towards Dib before locking back with Gaz, "Yes. I know what to do."
"Good. I'm glad that you understand," Gaz said as an uncommon smile crept onto her face.
Dib looked for a sign that this was one of her cruel smiles, but it was calm, if not a little sad. Maybe he was just over reacting to this. Gaz never smiled, and especially not happily, unless she meant it. If this was something bad, then she probably wouldn't have been smiling as she walked away, down the hall and around a corner, leaving Zim standing in front of Dib.
"So, what did Gaz want to talk about?"
"Nothing important," Zim said, and he turned to walk down the hall in the opposite direction that Gaz went.
Dib jogged to keep up with Zim, who kept his eyes forward, refusing to look at Dib. "If it's nothing important, then why was it behind closed doors? Things behind closed doors are never nothing important."
"She was just saying how happy she is for Zim to be with you and that she wants me to stop you from losing any more pieces of you."
"Oh yeah? And why couldn't she say that with me there?"
"Since when has Gaz said anything nice to you?" Zim said, "She didn't want you to think she actually cares about you as much as a sister should."
Dib was a little tongue tied at that. Gaz did often keep her praises to herself, and usually anything that was any close to a compliment was hidden behind an insult. A part of him had a feeling that Zim was lying, but everything sounded as if it should be true.
"You're not lying are you?" Dib said.
"Since when have I ever lied, Dib?" Zim said before pausing to think, "Since we've started working together?" He added
Dib kept his mouth shut. Maybe it really didn't matter and they weren't talking about anything that involved Dib. After all, Zim did have the sort of luck that got him out of any situation, so even if it was something dangerous, Zim would probably get out of it. Dib took a deep breath and pushed down his natural urge to investigate.
"Our room should be just around the corner here," Zim said.
There was a small door hidden in a little corner with a number 77 on it. Zim opened the door and they walked in. It wasn't a very big room. Probably a little smaller than how Dib's bedroom was. Dib stood in the middle of it, beside the double bed, looking around. It had the same metal walls and floors as the rest of the base. It didn't really have much charm to it. Even the sheets on the bed were bland and white.
Then, the room began to change. Walls seemed to flicker in and soon the entire room resembled Dib's room back when the world was still normal. He looked behind him at Zim, who was fiddling around with a touch panel, changing the different features of the room to match the old room Dib used to know.
Dib put a hand on Zim's shoulder, "Thank you Zim. I think this is good enough."
"Zim is never satisfied with good enough."
"Alright, then it's perfect." Dib looked at the bed, never has a square lump of springs and cotton ever looked so tempting. "How about we go to sleep now."
Zim's eyes widened a bit, "That's right, you need to sleep everyday. Well, go on Dib, I'll be right here. Sleep."
Dib crawled into the bed, followed by Zim who snuggled right up next to him. Zim curled up against Dib's chest. With his face in Dib's chest, he almost looked like a little green human child, if it wasn't for the fact he had no hair and two antanai and a round computer thing attached to his back that held all sorts of alien technology. Dib could almost see what the world saw when they looked at Zim. That is if he shut off his brain for a little bit.
Dib let his head sink into the pillow. His eyes were already too heavy to fight. He didn't even have the strength anymore to pull the blankets further up to fight the slight metal chill the room still had. Dib let an arm lazily fall over Zim as he fell asleep.
"Dib?" Zim whispered into Dib's shirt.
"Yeah?" Dib slurred.
"You will always remember me, right?"
Dib laughed a bit. "You're kind of a hard person to forget."
"Even if your mind was scrubbed?"
"Without a doubt." Dib said, curling his arm around Zim.
"Promise?"
"Promise."
He could feel Zim nod against his body.
"What brought this on? Is it something Gaz said?" Dib asked.
"No. I was just wondering how good your memories are."
Dib smiled, "I find a lot of things hard to forget, and you are at the top of that list."
"I like being on the top of lists," Zim said.
Dib gave a tired laugh, "I know. And I'm glad you're at the top of this one."
He laid in the bed for a few more minutes before he completely fell asleep. That night Dib was so tired that he probably couldn't have been woken up if the entire underwater base was collapsing. It was as close to being a literal dead sleep as a person could get. It was almost dreamless. There were some flashes of Zim falling down a hole, and a nightmare of being trapped back with his father, but any dream that Dib had was forgotten almost as fast as it came.
When Dib finally woke up, he was still too drowsy to get out of bed. He considered just letting his eyes close up again and getting a few more hours of sleep, but the bed felt oddly cold. Dib felt around for what the source of this was. His brain was still so heavy with sleep, that it took him a few minutes to remember Zim was gone.
Within a second Dib was completely awake. He kept thinking about that time on the ship. That was the first time he had lost track of Zim like this. In fact, every time Zim went out of his sight, something bad happened. Dib was nearly tripping over his own feet as he scrambled down the halls, hoping to find Zim, or maybe someone who knew where Zim was.