Behind The Tube Glass
By alien freak And Xmimi89eR
story may contain gore/blood/violence/strong language
rating: T
ZaDr/ZaDf
And nooow chapter four !
Thanks for everyone who reads the story 3
English is my second language, my apologies if there are any mistakes.
disclaimer: I do not own Invader Zim.
'Tubes LX99e'
'SEARCHING...'
'18846 RESULTS HAVE BEEN FOUND.'
Dib clicked the first window.
Since last time he watched the whole entries, he decided to search more about tubes, after all, he didn't want to make the same mistake and suffocate the alien, and his dad's lab didn't have a lot of the oxygen bottles left, so sooner or later, he'd either leave the alien to die from lack of air, or get him out of the tube,
he also wanted to unmute the whole thing if it was even muted, that and he wanted to give the irken some clothes, yes, if he wanted to be friends then he wants to look at him without feeling guilty, and without having his face turning red, he kept searching more and more as hours passed, from how to unmute it to how to open it.
He wanted to know everything about it, and since he was smart, he memorized everything, he learned that there was actually a hidden screen in the bottom of the tube, it held every command.
If he wanted to open it he can just select the command, it was easy, Dib felt stupid for not knowing,
The tube goo colors means a lot, if it was pink/red then it keeps the living being in it asleep.
If it was green/blue then it keeps the living being in it calm.
If it was purple/blue means it heals the living being in it.
Dib remembered his dad's entry number thirty, he said that the alien wound took almost a month to heal, so he put him in the tube, to heal him faster, and to keep him locked, he also said he lowered the power the PAK reserve, just in case of another blackout.
In entry thirty-one, his father said he was slightly sick, and he didn't seem to have any new tests for the alien, his dad's wounds were also healed in that entry, since it's been almost three months between entry thirty and thirty-one.
Dib stood up, he'll go and see where his father put the alien's clothes, the boy wanted to give the irken some hospital clothes since he had no idea where his original clothes, but better of it, the irken will think he'll be open again, and Dib doesn't want to be stabbed by his spider legs; in his way to the examinations room, he shifted the papers in his hands, they had all the information about the tubes, he really doesn't want be fucked up.
pace echoing in the room, computers humming, liquid running through the wires.
he saw the alien, and felt like he'd saw him for the first time, it happens every time he comes to see him; of course, he gave him the usual look and pushed far away in the tube, hugging himself, it was weird to see the dangers alien who could easily break the glass and kill Dib with his spider legs, this scared.
"how many times do I have to tell you," he said a little annoyed, "I'm. not. going. to hurt you." Dib folded his arms to his chest, tabbing his foot at the ground, he got a hard glare from the alien, the boy looked at the papers in his hands, then back at the tube, trying to ignore the glare he was getting,
"um, I've been researching about these tubes," he said still looking at the papers, "I want to give you clothing," he tried not to blush at the weird sentence, "and i also want to unmute this," he finally looked away from the papers and placed them aside, then went to open drawers, "do you know where my dad put your uniform at?" he asked,
opening more and more drawers, the alien tabbed the glass with his claw, Dib looked back at him, the irken pointed to the left, at another drawer, it was locked, Dib almost frowned at the fact, but then realized he has all the lab keys, he got them out of his pocket, it was the small grey key that opens the drawers, inside wasn't much, some plastic bags here and there, in the corner he recognized the red uniform and got it out.
then went back to the irken, he looked at him for a moment, he swore he saw him somehow blushing, as if now just realize he's naked, "I'll only give you the pants, with all these things attached to you, I'm not sure you can wear the shirt,"
he then walked passed the tube and placed the clothes on the table, taking back the papers, it had all instructions of what to do, Dib leaned down at where the screen should be, put his hand on it,
it came to life with a small hiss.
"Alright let's see..." he said to himself, it wasn't THAT hard, but any mistake could get him.. who knows, dead?
first, you drain the liquid, the tube has to be half full half empty; there is already metallic arms that can do everything, but Dib wanted to get something inside.
"I'm gonna drain this now," he said, this time talking to the alien, "don't freak out, I'll drain only the half," he watched him, the alien pushed down, so he was almost in the bottom, still giving Dib glares, Dib sighed.
he pressed 'drain', then a hiss from the top and the bottom of the tube, he heard something, then the liquid started draining, he waited till it reached half the tube then pressed stop, he looked back at the alien, who is now looking at the ground beneath him, hands on his lab, antennae high up,
Second, you open the glass, it will slide from the top, then stop it before it reaches the liquid,
Dib opened another window, then found everything about the glass, including the mute button, he ignored it for now,
Dib pressed 'open', another hiss, then the glass started sliding down, the boy made sure for it to be small, just in case; then 'stop'
"oh-kay what's now?..." he looked back at the papers, he just have to activate the arms,
"right," he opened another window, in it was small controllers, it reminded him of video games,
he pressed 'activate'
arms in the top came to life; he left them and went to the uniform on the table, every piece was wrapped in plastic, he got the black pants, and took it out of the plastic bag, and walked back to the tube, he really wanted to get this weird situation done.
he moved the arms, they were long enough to land in front of his face, he gave it the cloth, then went down again to the control panel, the arms shifted a little then moved back inside the tube, Dib noticed the aliens antennae following every sound and move. when the arms were in place, Dib closed the tube and got the liquid back at its normal level, then shifted to the other window to unmute the tube.
the liquid fill the tube, and the alien shifted upward, and snatched his cloth from the arm, and looked back at Dib, the boy tried to get himself busy as the alien started wearing his pants, so he went and placed the uniform back to the drawer.
walking back to the tube, he saw the alien almost standing, looking at himself, he then noticed Dib, and crawled back,
"I unmuted this, you can talk now," Dib said, he took a chair and sat in front of the irken, his back leaned slightly down, but his head high as he looked at him, the irken opened his mouth, then closed it, then finally said, "w- w- why did you give me this?" eyes locked with the boy,
Dib thought for a moment, "do you want to stay naked?" he fought the blush, Zim stayed silent for a moment,
"what do you want?" Zim asked, he can't just trust a human,
"i wanna be friends." Dib never asked anyone this question, and here he was, asking an alien who properly hates all humans,
"friend?" he asked, one antenna rose up and the other still down, in a questioning position, "why?"
Dib thought, why would he want to be friends? "well, uhh, your just something amazing you know..." he played with his hands, eyes anywhere but at the irken,
"you think... I'm amazing?" that seemed to get his attention,
"yeah, it would be cool to be friends with a childhood dream, I've been waiting for this for like, all my life, so when you came, i felt like all my dreams had come true, and..." his words died as he realized how weird he sounded, he laughed slightly, face turning red, what's wrong with him, was he embarrassed by an alien?
Zim just stared, blinked once then twice, he didn't know how to respond.
"I'll probably have to get you out of this thing sooner or later," he said to himself, "the lab doesn't have a lot of oxygen bottles..."
"then free me now." the alien said,
Dib's head snapped, he didn't think the alien heard him, but he did, and here he was, back at square one, he looked at his lap, "what will you do when your out of this tube?" he said, trying to avoid the subject, "your PAK is still broken, and your ship is also broken, it may take a year to fix it, maybe even more as we don't have the missing pieces, and you can't just get out, if anyone saw you, well, you can imagine."
the alien frowned and seemed to think about it more, his PAK IS broken, and also his voot, he hated to admit it but the human's right, but even so, "maybe... you said you w- w- wanted to be friends, and here you are, locking you f- f- f- friend in a tube," he folded his thin arms, "also, i can try to f- f- fix my PAK..."
"How can I know you won't attack me when I get you out?" Dib asked, looking unsure, "and you have to keep attached to power,"
"yes, i do, that's why I'm not going anywhere," he shrugged,
Dib studied his face, "but that doesn't mean you won't try to attack me." he gave him an unimpressed look,
"how about a truce?" the alien asked, Dib blinked, he was thinking the same thing,
a truce is good but, "how do I know you'll stick to it?"
"you're the only one who knows the passcodes here, and some doors only open with your hand," a little smile came to his face for a moment as he tried remembering how fresh air smelled, or at less how the air itself felt like.
Dib give it a thought, yes he's the only one who knows the passcodes, so that should be enough, right?
Zim leaned and put his hands on the glass as he looked at Dib, for some reason he wanted to snatch the weird-looking hair lock, humans are weird, did they all have these antenna-looking thing in their heads?
"I still don't know..." he shrugged, and finally met his eyes with the irken, he blinked in surprise as he saw how close the alien was, Zim frowned, his head down looking almost at his lap, he didn't realize how miserable he looked, and when he did he rose his head again, pretending nothing has happened, he let a 'hmph' how could a filthy human refuse his truce?, didn't he trust him? Zim is worthy and can be trusted!
Zim felt offended.
"Hey I wanted to ask you," Zim somehow got over being offended as curiosity filled him, "if you're a- eh... not interested in science, then why are you here?" He seemed suspicious as he looked at Dib,
The boy looked back, that's a smart question, "it's my dad's will," he then thought for the real reason, "i was going to leave and never come back here maybe, but i found you." He pointed at the alien, "you're something that i can't just turn my back to." He lowered his hand, it was the truth.
"Dad's will? W- W- What's a 'will'?" Zim was confused about these humans words,
"uhh, it's like... before someone dies they write something that contains what they want or what they want others to do after their death, like who can have their money or who will be their heir, it's called a 'will'" Dib explained, he can't just expect an alien to know everything about earth.
"Y-... the lab man is... dead...?" Zim was slightly shocked, he's dead? No more crazy tests? Or stupid questions about his race?
"Y- yeah..." Dib's head was down,
"i see..." Zim said, he didn't quite understand what was upsetting the human all of the sudden, more awkward silences ate their insides, then a ting was heard, it was Dib's phone, a message.
Dib wanted to ignore the whole thing but then his phone rang just for a second then went off, he knew who would use this tech, it was probably Gaz.
He opened his phone to find three messages from his sister,
'Hey'
'Where are you?'
'Did you forget what day it is today?'
He thought, what day it was? Why is it important? He looked at the time it was 2:13 PM Friday, Friday... something was important about this day? He can't just ask his sister she'd be mad,
then it clicked, it was their family night!
He and Gaz goes to the 'bloaty's pizza hog' every Friday, how could he forget? Maybe because they didn't go the last few weeks, their father just died, and he guessed his sister is trying to get everything back to normal.
He grabbed the phone with two hands and replied back:
'No, I didn't.'
'Wanna go the usual time?'
They always go at 7 PM, he still had time,
'Yea'
That was her only response before she went offline, Dib looked once again at the time, yes, it was still early, what could he possibly do now? Oh of course...
Dib played with his hands, as awkward silence played around them.
He didn't dare to meet the irken gaze, he knew he was looking at him, with those big red eyes, for a moment he wondered if he could see colors... but of course he could.
After what felt like forever, he eyed the alien, not his face but... his chest, the image of his father's knife cutting it ran through his head, he took a good look, and saw a little long scar, if he knew anything about the irken, he'd say it shouldn't be from the cut his father made, right? He healed fast, and he was here for months, the cut should be invisible by now,
or was it too deep to heal perfectly? Was it because of the PAK damage that it didn't fully healed?
A waving hand yet had to wake him up, he blinked, "it's rude to s- s- stare." Zim said, running the other hand on his scar, he shifted his knees higher to try and cover up his chest.
"Sorry..." Dib said under his breath, he knew the alien can hear it.
It was silence again, but this time Dib had enough, "so tell me about you, like if you're an elite, does that means you go in missions and fight in battles?" He saw how the irken liked talking about himself, and he didn't mind, he also wanted to know more about himself.
"Eh?" The irken said, "oh! You wanna know more about me?!" He said with excitement, voice sounding childish, his hands once again on the glass,
Dib blinked, he never saw the alien face lighting up before, and that made him a little happy, "yeah, I wanna know," he shifted in his chair,
"Where do i start...?" He thought for a moment, one antenna high up, and the other down, "i know!, let me tell you about the time where i discovered a Meekrob spy, and my Cthulu!"
"A what?" That was a new alien race to add to his list.
"Infinite energy absorbing blob, also known as e- e- energy monster as everyone starts calling it," Dib thought Zim looked smart while saying this, even though Zim didn't seem to pay it any mind, "it was my creation, at the t- t- time i was a scientist on vort research station nine, my tallest, almighty tallest Miyuki, was there to see our creations," Zim shifted a bit, "my creation was meant to eat pure energy, i made it to become a weapon against the Meekrob, because they are made of energy.
It was all going good till I activated it, for some reason it attacked one of the other scientists,"
Dib was listening like a child his mom was reading him a bed storytime, his eyes slightly wide as he listened to an alien telling his adventures in space, it was everything he would have dreamed of, being in space, with all the stars around, and maybe some music.
"The other 'scientist'" he said the word while moving his two claws up and down, "was actually a Meekrob, a spy, it was there for a few months as it killed one of my fellow classmates and took his look," he seemed to remember how weird it felt to know that, "my creation a- a- attacked it, there was panic and soldiers who came to protect our tallest, The Meekrob however didn't run away, its goal was to k- k- kill the tallest, and it tried to,"
a little smirk came to his face.
"But I stopped it," he let a 'heh' and looked proud, yet something was wrong,
"me and the Meekrob got into a fight, i used my PAK legs to stop it, and i did, I stabbed it, right where its chest was;" his hand drew a little line on his chest, he didn't know he did that,
"since it's made of energy, it attacked my PAK, i don't know what they did to it, but all i could remember was Cthulu finally eating it, and killing it," something was definitely wrong with this memory, "the tallest was happy with the creation, the discovery and my braveness!" He lighted up again,
"i think i became her favorite elite after that!" A big smile on his face, yes, the tallest was proud of him, that's all that mattered.
the human boy was fascinated, "wow..." that all he said, then thought a little about the story, he didn't want the silence and he really was enjoying these stories, "so you say the meekrob are made of energy huh? but isn't your ship also have energy, why didn't the monster eat it as well?"
"eh? no, I programmed it to o- o- only eat pure energy, and it can be controlled, I've thought of e- everything." his smile never left his face,
"What happened to um- Cthulu?"
"he became the tallest pet!" he said loudly, "and also a war weapon." one hand somehow on his hip.
"that's..." he thought for the right word, "..amazing!" Dib sounded like a ten-year-old kid, and he liked the good rush of excitement in his body,
"it is amazing!" Zim nodded, and locked his gaze with the boy again,
he noticed a change in Dib's face, he looked excited seconds ago, but now how looks... "haven't you been in space before?" Zim asked, gaining the human's attention,
"hm? well no, not everyone can go to space, not everyone believes in aliens anyway," saying this reminded him of how lucky he is now, he was talking with a real alien, chatting just like some kind of...friends.
"that explains why they're s- s- stupid," he remembered when the professor said something about him finally seeing an alien, and how he didn't believe in them,
"and this makes you... not THAT stupid for knowing t- t- that I exist,"
Dib blinked, was that a compliment?
"that's rude for thinking that I, the great elite, don't e- e- exist," the hand on his hip shifted to his chest, "i am real." he slightly nodded, agreeing with himself,
it was like a compliment to Dib, he always wanted someone to say that aliens exist with him, but hearing an alien admitting it felt so much better.
at some point in his life, he came to believe what people said about him, he'd stay all night thinking if he really was insane or if people were just blind; he'd go to the roof in the night while everyone was asleep, with his computer and creations, and lay there listening, he thought maybe if he heard an alien conversation, he'd stop thinking that he's insane, but he never heard a thing.
and he almost gave up for the sake of his safety from the bullies and to make his father proud.
he stopped trying to listen.
he stopped talking about them.
he even tried not looking at the sky when it's nighttime.
all he did was studying, all day all night to avoid how depressed he felt,
he once broke down when he finished his homework, he thrown it out of the window and start writing it again, tears ran his face, he remember waking up with the homework paper stuck on his face.
but now there is a real alien in front of him, which meant that every night he had questioned his insanity was worthless, and the only answer to everything was: he is not insane, people are just blind.
he really wanted to know that answer years ago.
"from Zim to earth do you hear me?" said the irken while waving his hand, Dib's head snapped, he really was drowning in thoughts.
"y- yeah, sorry..." he was about to play with his hands again but stopped, then asked, "what's an elite do?"
the question caught the irken's attention, "an elite is the best of the best soldiers who are trained to become invaders,"
"so you are an invader?"
"yes, yes I am."
"what's an invader do?"
something felt wrong again.
"we conquer other planets. we get assigned by the tallest, we invade the planet, then we-" Zim felt his PAK click, "we enslave the planet."
Dib swallowed, "why?"
"huh?-" Zim blinked, "I..." he knows why, but... for some reason he tried changing the subject, "eh... who were you t- t- talking too?"
"wha-? oh that was my sister, Gaz," he knew the irken had avoided the question, he wondered why, but shrugged it off, "I'll leave early today, me and Gaz will go to eat pizza together."
"oh," he was relieved by the forgotten question, and the weird and painful clicks stopped, he felt everything stop, even the...
Zim put a hand on his head, nothing.
then the other one, still, he heard nothing.
his eyes went wide, why can't he hear the program? he thought deep down in his PAK, searching for any voice, then he heard a very muffled voice, it was low and weak, it was the program.
the thought brought up weird memories, something he didn't want to think about.
"you will pay for attacking my tallest!" Zim yelled at the meekrob, his PAK legs in attacking position, he felt nothing but the need to protect his tallest.
he attacked, a PAK leg stapped the small spy, but it didn't die, its energy ran through Zim's body and his PAK, he felt his PAK become so heavy, yet something stopped inside of it, he didn't know what, and didn't even have a chance to as his version blurred, he fell to his knees, eyes half close, he saw the meekrob get killed by what he assumed was cthulu.
something was horribly wrong, something that spy did, it did something to him, to his PAK but yet he couldn't tell what.
after that, he felt the voices become smaller and smaller, and even when they talk, their voices were far, far enough that he sometimes ignored them.
he wanted to report the problem, but he was scared.
what if it was what he thought? what if they couldn't fix him and then kill him.
if it was what he thought then...
he looked back at the human, who was giving him a questioning look.
back then he could still hear the program, but now... now only weak voices, he can't make out what they were saying most of the time, yet they somehow hurt, as if they became poisoning, he could feel his PAK heat up every time he does something out of the programming.
"you okay...?" he looked back at the human, he can see him, but somehow dark, his unstable image moved to stand up, and walked closer to him, he looked like he was under a black liquid, everything around the human was a slight blur, Zim tried blinking to focus his sight, but with every blink, he felt more and more lightheaded, voices screaming, he couldn't hear them, but they still hurt.
"Zim...?"
they stopped.
they stopped as if they never were even there, his vision got back to normal, and heat cooled down, he could hear his PAK hum.
"I'm ok." said Zim, he felt everything was wrong, everything he does and says.
he hugged himself.
Dib watched the alien's change of mood, he stood in place, studying his face, he also could hear humming from the PAK,
"does it hurt?" he asked, eyeing every move the irken made,
"w- w- what is?" Zim asked back, looking at the human from behind the glass,
"your PAK,"
"no." said Zim, it was a horrible lie, and he looked like a bad liar, he hated this fact.
Dib sighed, and went back to set on his chair, he knew the answer, Zim was bad at lying, and yet again he shrugged the idea away.
more silence.
"do you like being an invader?" Dib asked, he knew the answer, only wanted to ask another question and thought this would reveal maybe a little about Zim's personality,
"of course I do." it sounded robotic, and with that, he moved to his important question,
"do you like invading?" it sounded like the first question, but Dib knew it wasn't the same.
"eh?" Zim said only to give himself room to think- wait...
why does he need to think? the answer was clear, it should be yes, it is yes, this's what the programming would have told him, but where is it now? he felt his PAK heat again, more voices tried to gain control of his thoughts and answers, they screamed, but they were muffled.
"...i-" the answer refused to leave his tongue, so he thought of another answer, "it's what an irken is born to do." it sounded like a yes, but felt like a no.
Dib wasn't going to shrug this one, "you don't then." he locked his gaze as he felt the irken struggle to answer,
"I d- d- d- didn't say that!" he snapped, his PAK burning him,
the boy's eyes went wide at the loud answer, it was enough to tell him that Zim did not like it, yet he had to lie,
"that's what an i- i- i- irken is born to do, I'm an irken soldier, and that m- m- m- means yes, I like invading!" his eyes closed, hands like fists on his side, antennae lay on his head.
the pain stopped after those words.
Zim panted slightly.
Dib looked at him in silence, eyes from wide to half-closed, yes, he knew Zim was lying,
but why?
that question never left his mouth; his eyes traveled around the darkroom, this time he didn't play with his hands, something was off.
he looked at his watch, still early, but thought he had nothing else to do here, "I have to go, you rest." he said while standing up, Zim blinked, that was early, he for some reason didn't want the human to leave him with his thoughts,
"Are you coming tomorrow...?" a program voice screamed at his stupid question.
Dib looked back at the alien, all anger was replaced by... fear? or was it sadness? He couldn't tell.
"yeah, i will."
and with that, he left the dark and cold room.
END OF CHAPTER FOUR!!
Alien freak: i want to thank you! The views on this story were awesome!!
I can finally die in peace.
This was alien freak sighing off.