Zim groggily pulled himself into consciousness. He on the floor of the main body of the church. A hundred or so humans were huddled in the pews, murmuring among-st themselves as their leader spoke. They sat in ragged clothing glaring above the speaker's head. Where the alter should have been, a large well like hole was torn into the floor spewing smoke out though the cracked ceiling of the church. On the far wall the same rune he found in Dib's room was painted in red. Dib's gurney was vertically mounted in the center with the human strapped firmly in the center. Unaware of Zim's lucidity, Membrane addressed the humans.
"I commend all of your efforts in trying to preserve the normal world we knew and your patience as we've searched for a cure. I have come up with a solution to our problem." He gestured to Dib's motionless form. "All I need to do is to permanently cut his ties with the paranormal world. Finally, we have found the key to doing just that." Struggling to undo the ropes Zim remained silent. A sharp pain shot through his arm as his hand brushed something in his back pocket. Blue blood dripped onto the floor as he gasped. Something had cut him, but what? The knife! He still had it from the carnival. Grabbing it loosely, he poised the knife to cut the rope. The light weight was taken from his hands, to be scolded with by Membrane. "There won't be any of that now." The scientist grabbed Zim's shoulder, forcefully bringing him to the front. He turned to his small audience, alien in hand and a smile on his face. "This noble little boy will make everything worthwhile!"
"What is it exactly that Zim has to do?" He growled. There had to be a way out of this! Membrane carried Zim to a small wooden plank and made him walk out to the center. The thin wood reached a forth of the way into the hole, which stretched longer than it seemed while Zim had been sitting. A blue fire glowed from within the pit.
"Oh nothing much, all you have to do is stand here and be our sacrifice." Membrane said in a patronizing tone.
"Your what!?" Zim shouted as he turned to face the eager human mob.
"Yes your death is the only way to end the insanity." Membrane gave Zim a gentle push causing the invader to tip backwards. Something inside the deep hole lurched up and took a hold of Zim's arms. The swish of metal echoed and grew louder as Zim fell. He cringed, waiting for the inevitable, scorching death. All he heard however were the startled gasps of the humans around him. He opened his eyes and found he was face to face with Membrane. "H-h-how?" The man stuttered. Zim looked around and saw a strip of barbed wire was coiled around the rope that bound him. The charmed piece of metal hoisted him to the edge of the sacrificial tomb. It sliced through the fibers and moved on to the leather straps that bound Dib. Membrane fell back as the remaining humans scrambled in terror. "It couldn't have worn off by now?" The man whispered, horrified.
"What couldn't? What's going on?" No one answered Zim as Dib fell free from the hospital bed. Mumbling something he stood on shaking legs. He waved his hand and the wire snaked around several bodies cutting deep into the sensitive flesh. Zim's eyes widened at the sight. "Dib made the monsters." He mumbled. People screamed and writhed on the floor, suffocating in a sea of barbed wire as Dib made his way over to his father.
"Now son," he chided, "you know I had only your best interest in mind. I had to." His resolve firmed. "You're hurting the people around you chasing fairytales. These people haven't done anything-" They hadn't done anything alright, Zim knew that humans would rather hide in denial than protect a hurting child. It was how their rivalry had gone on for so long. These were the same people who were eager to sacrifice the two of them for a chance at happiness.
"No one hurts Zim." He slurred, taking hold of his father's neck. The bloodied, barbed wire coiled around his parental figure and constricted. Membrane's body fell lifeless to the floor. All around them, wires mindless searched for their next victim, a little too close to Zim for his comfort.
Rushing around the gaping hole Zim came to Dib's side. The human's eyes were droopy and unfocused as he struggled to remain conscious. The sedative was still coursing through his veins as he came in and out, violently trying to stay awake.
"Zim is fine you stupid stink-beast." Dib leaned forward, resting his head on the alien's shoulder. "Come on let's go home." Dib moaned incoherently in response. "No, we really have to go." Dib didn't move. "Dib?" A light snoring came from the human as his whole body weight leaned against the petite alien causing him to top backwards. He hit the wood floor with a solid thump and the world went black.
His eyes shot open and darted around the room. A brilliant white assaulted his eyes. He was in the hospital again lying on a cleanly dressed gurney. His head and neck was bandaged and he ached all over. Above all he was scared, what had happened while he blacked out? Struggling to sit up he grabbed his bleeding, unbandaged arm, it was almost as if he had been injured after his wounds were treated. The florescent light reflected off the sterile floor, it seemed too clean now, too new. A woman stood with her back toward him, sifting through some papers. Loud music was blasting in her ears as she did her mindless task.
"What's going on here! Where's Dib!" The invader demanded. He got no response from the nurse. "Hey! Hey! Hello? Answer Zim!" The woman continued looking at the papers on the counter. Zim growled in frustration and threw the bed side lamp at the nurse. "No one ignores Zim!" The nurse jumped with a start and stared wide eyed at the lamp as if to ask it why it decided to join her on her side of the room. She then looked up to see her patient glaring daggers at her. Pulling out her head phones slouched, writing down a few things on a clip board.
"Oh, you're awake." She drawled, adapting an overtly disinterested demeanor.
"Yes Zim is awake, where is Dib!" The nurse blinked slowly and chewed on the end of her pen.
"The screamy one." She decided finally. "He's in another room. He's hurt pretty bad? Your lucky he was there. Crazy thing shielded you from the impact. Then he started yelling at us. He's really mean."
"Crash, what crash?" Zim thought a moment. "The bus crash but that was three days ago!" The nurse's face twisted into a pensive frown, as if answering Zim's question had been the hardest thing she'd done in weeks.
"We didn't have any kids on Wednesday, but we've been dealing with patients from the crash for three hours." She sighed, her mind already wandering back to her clipboard.
"…How's Dib?" The nurse shrugged flipping through some papers.
"I don't know, not my patient." Zim stared at her for a while.
"Zim is leaving." The alien got out of his bed and left the room.
"Whatever." The nurse sighed putting her headphones in.
Zim entered 408, Dib sat strapped in the hospital bed. His right arm was in a cast, his chest and left leg wrapped in clean gauze. It was evident the human had tried to fight his admission onto the floor. On the white board 'no shouting' was listed in his care plan under 'aliens aren't real' and 'pillz will make you happy'. He looked up at the alien as he walked in, an eyebrow raised.
"Of course they didn't notice you weren't human." Dib groaned, his one hope evaporating the moment he saw the alien."You know they don't put backs on hospital gowns." Zim immediately looked over his shoulder to see he was fully clothed underneath. "Of course that doesn't matter if they never removed your uniform." The human snickered. "I see the crash hasn't hampered your intelligence any." Zim scoffed, the two stood in a comfortable silence.
"How long until they let you leave?" Zim asked. Now that his PAK had finished rebooting, all function had returned to it, including the ability to call Gir for a ride. After how long it felt like he had been searching, leaving empty handed now felt wrong. His nemesis sighed and looked out the window.
"Four weeks, two if I'm lucky." He laid his head back down against his pillow. "I guess you're going to take over the world then." The human looked back at Zim, a mournful look in his eyes. Silently asking for Zim to change his mind if only briefly. The invader stretched his arms at a leisurely pace.
"Zim has survived a crash, and despite these incredibly good looks, is in a great deal of pain. I'll need at least a month to recover." He casually looked over at the bed ridden human for a response. A small smile crossed the young boy's face. "Until then Zim shall entertain himself by bugging you while you're helpless." The small smile was now a smirk.
"Well I hope that won't be too long. I hate hospitals." Zim sat down in one of the visitor's chairs.
"Why is that?"
"My mother. People said it was a car crash, but I saw her get stabbed by something inhuman." His family was convinced the experience had traumatized him and forced him to go to therapy. He had been so mad at her for so long, before he could truly understand why she never told his dad the truth. "They carted her to a hospital and she sat there for weeks in a coma." His eyes glazed over, fighting back tears. "My dad told them to pull the plug while I was at school. She died alone in a room like this one. Gaz and him, they act like she never existed." Perhaps they were too afraid to bring up the subject around him, but it didn't make it hurt any less.
"Zim is…sorry that, that happened to you." The two sat in silence for a while. "Zim is also grateful for your sacrifice."
"Hey someone has to stop a full out invasion." Dib whipped his eyes. "Everyone else is too wrapped up in their own problems to care." Zim shook his head, debating on what to do to keep the human from crying.
"No, I meant for saving Zim." He gritted his teeth. "It was counter productive to your mission, and still you-"
"Well, I'm mean..." Dib floundered. "You'd do the same for me wouldn't you?" The invader bit his thumb. Showing any form of respect to the sniveling human was uncomfortable. He certainly didn't want Dib to invoke any sort of life debt with him by denying the boy's request.
"Yeah…I guess I would." There was a long pause. Gir would be arriving shortly, and he didn't want to explain why a robot was crashing through the walls of the hospital. As he stood up, Dib reached out to him.
"Zim… did you have any strange dreams while you were out?" He lingered a while longer as he thought of a response.
"Irkens can't dream Dib."
You have received the normal good ending. You are a sensible person and fairly brave. If I only had one ending, this would probably be the one. ^^
Below are the inspiration for the story and the tracks that go with each chapter.
Inspiration: 1408, Invader Zim: Halloween Spectacular of Spooky Doom, Evanescence: The Open Door, Silent Hill 1 and 3, The Suffering, and Resident Evil.