Behind The Tube Glass
By alien freak And Xmimi89eR
story may contain gore/blood/violence/strong language
rating: T
ZaDr/ZaDf
I really just realized I kept writing 'less' instead of 'least'... Oh well, now I know better.
English is my second language, my apologies if there are any mistakes.
disclaimer: I do not own Invader Zim.
Scanning...
A threat had been detected.
Save enemies features?
Taking action.
999999
Dib woke up at the alien poking his nose. "You humans sleep a lot, t-t-tell me when you go to sleep so I won't shove those damned medicines d-d-down your throat." The alien said irritated, his magenta-colored eyes seeming to look at Dib's soul.
The boy blushed, he rubbed his eyes and put his glasses on. "I sleep a lot lately..." He murmured, looking away.
"Stop doing it."
"I can't help it, you know. Besides, you sleep a lot as well!" The boy exclaimed, glaring at the irken atop him.
"Well, of course." Zim smirked, burying his face in the human's clothes. "How about y-y-you wash my sweater?..." He asked, not meeting the human's gaze. Voice muffled.
"Why not, I wanna wash my jacket as well." Dib tried to stand again only to be stopped by the lazy alien.
"I never said now..." He whispered.
"You're weird." Dib replied, laying back down with a huff. "I'll do it in an hour then."
"Hmm..." The irken went back at drawing random shapes with his claw at the boy's sweater. His legs moving back and forth, almost touching his antennae. He wanted to move and do something, maybe try and fix his base, but for some reason, he felt calm around the young adult. Besides all that, lately he'd been feeling more tired. Zim didn't know if it was because of his PAK or because he's not getting enough power.
Even so, it's still the same, both he and his PAK need power, and now that none is getting it then both will be down.
A lot has changed... even Zim himself.
999999
Zim was laying atop the human, seeming bored out of his own skin.
Both his and Dib's clothes are almost dry. Now both of them just laying on the couch and watching TV. Well... maybe just Gir. Zim was poking at the boy's nose again, complaining how humans are so stupid and so odd. This only made Dib laugh.
"I'll go get the clothes," Dib said, standing up and going to get his blue jacket and the alien's sweater. He grabbed both cloths, put his hoodie on the kitchen seat, and walked back. "Here." He threw the yellow sweater at the irken.
Zim sat up and got the brown college sweater off, being careful with his antennae, the clothes slide throw his PAK and then threw it on the ground. The alien put his favorite top on, signing at the familiar sense in it.
"You seem to like this one." Dib teased, sitting down.
"Shut up." Zim replied, glaring at the human, though he couldn't help the smirk that found its way to his lips. "And you seem to like me." He said in a matter of factly.
Dib's face turned red. "I never said I hated you."
"Uh-huh, but your drunk-self said y-y-you love me!" Zim laughed, smirking at the human. He didn't exactly know what that meant, he only took it as a teasing method since the boy's face change colors whenever he says it.
And as Zim excepted, Dib's face was all red. "We-well, I wasn't in my right m-mind!" He defended himself.
"Hmm." The alien's smirk grew wider. He laughed. "You're weird Dib-stink."
"Hey! I just took a shower!" The boy exclaimed, glaring at the laughing alien.
Zim's insides were hurting from laughter by now.
999999
A small, round-looking car parked near a tall building. a skinny young adult came out, he looked around nervously before entering the coffee shop where he'll start his day.
"I guess my plan had worked." A voice came from behind.
the red-headed boy turned around. "I-I haven't seen him either b-boss..." He gave his opinion, sweat ran down his forehead. "Last time I saw him he was being carried by someone, I guess it was a girl? I don't know, but he was bleeding heavily from his nose so..."
"A girl? I never knew he had a girlfriend or whatever, it doesn't matter, no one can save him, this is MY virus, no one can stop it."
The boy took a deep breath. "D-Do you think that...?"
"He died? Maybe, I still need to make sure." The man with blond hair said, taking a cigarette out. "Keep the good work, Keef, our job is not done yet." He gave a cold glare towards the coffee worker and went into the shadows.
Keef stood there for a second, thinking maybe what he was doing might be wrong, but again, he had to, Dale said this and he have to do it. Or else his parents will probably lose their only job, and to be honest, Keef finally had their respect after getting out of the hospital years ago, and he didn't want to lose it now, even if it meant he'll have to take someone else's life.
It didn't matter, Dib's the last, then Dale will leave him alone. He'll be back to his usual life and be finally unbothered.
Keef sighed. Yes, just a few other weeks for professor Dale to make sure Dib is dead then everything will be back to normal.
999999
It was around eight, a cold night but no snow this time, people going back to their houses on this Friday night. Well, except for one person.
A gothic girl parked her motorcycle near the company her father used to work in, she got out and glared at the tall building.
"Dib, I swear to god..." She hissed under her breath, going into the building. Lights were way too bright for her liking.
As Gaz got closer, she could sense some awkward moment that once happened years ago...
The 14-year-old Dib ran downstairs towards the phone, he picked it up in a hurry and called his dad. The phone ringed for a while as Dib shifted from foot to the other. "Come on..." He hissed.
Then someone picked the phone. "Dad!-"
"Hello to Membrane science company for REAL science! please leave a me-" Dib hangout.
"DIB HURRY!" Gaz screamed from upstairs where she was sitting on the toilet, her hands were shaking. "I can't stop it!" She screamed again.
"I'm trying my best!" Dib yelled back. He remembered someone else's number from his Dad's company. The boy dialed the number and waited, biting his lips.
"Hello?" Came a woman's voice.
"We need help! My sister's bleeding!!"
"What?- Who are you?" She asked, a bit confused rather than shocked.
"I'm Dib Membrane! This is my Dad's company." The little boy was trying his best to calm down. "As I said, Gaz is bleeding, I don't know what to do!!"
"Wait..." She seemed thoughtful. "If I'm right then your sister should be around 12 now?"
"13."
There was a pause in the other line. "Where is she bleeding?" The woman finally asked.
"Uh..." He looked around the living room, unsure what to say. "Down there...?" He coughed.
"Oh!"
"W-What?"
The woman talked to someone in the other line, there was a lot of laughter which made Dib feel insecure. "Nah. Don't be scared boy, this is normal, you should know this. Anyhow, can I talk to your sister?"
"O-Oh... okay..." Dib called for his sister to come down, which took a while but she came down with nervous features.
Dib stood there, waiting patiently. It was till his sister hanged up and huffed, her face red.
"...What?" The boy asked, confused.
"It was nothing." Then she went out, not saying anything more.
Dib understood what was happening two years later. Gaz swore if he talked about what happened she'll shove a shoe down his throat.
The girl huffed in annoyance at the memory, she wished no one remembers what happened. She found two men standing at the door, they gazed at her, raising an eyebrow. Gaz took her ID out, showing them with an angry face. The two men let her in, not wanting to be the prey. As the girl walked down the hallway, she could feel eyes on her, they're probably wondering why a girl like her is doing in a place like this, besides, she was wearing all black with only a cyan-colored shirt. This must be how Dib felt when he first got here.
He and his stupid black trench coat.
"Hey, you." She called as she saw a scientist staring at her. "Do you know where Dib is?"
The skinny man swallowed, his gaze never meeting her. "O-Oh, uh..." He looked around, pleading for help from his fellow workers. "We hadn't seen h-him in a while now..."
"What?" Gaz took a step close. "What does that mean??"
"I-I..." He took a step back, hands trembling. "He's usually in his lab but lately he hadn't come here. If anything, I h-haven't seen him leave in the first place- B-But he must have left when I wasn't h-here. He also has been a-acting weird, I mean- I've heard he was crazy a-and all, but that man is crazy with his work, sometimes he never leaves the place for two days! Yeah... Bu-But he's—"
"Okay! Okay!" Gaz snapped at the man. "That's enough, thank you..." She whispered the last part, looking around again. The girl sighed, then she decided to look in another place, maybe she'll go to his house. Last time he told her he was sick, maybe finally the illness hit him and now she will say 'I told you so' because it's fun.
Her black boots clicked and clacked on the icy floor. She got her phone out and tried for the million time to call her brother. It was Friday night and he never came to pick her up to go to get pizza, he won't miss these days, and she'll make sure he will never. The gothic girl dialed his number and waited, knowing there was a chance he won't pick up, she already tried in the past two hours.
That's when a noise caught her ears. She would have ignored it, it was a normal noise of a phone ringing, but this one seemed way too familiar... And as she waited, no one seemed to pick that phone...
Gaz hangout at the same time that phone noise got quiet. Then she called again. When the noise was back, that's when Gaz's heart began to quicken. Her eyebrows frowned as she walked to the parking lot. Slowly looking for the muffled noise, the same ring tone she made for her brother's phone. It was customized, no one should have the same tone. No one.
As her feet dragged her closer, she was fearing the worst. What if he was in danger, who knows, got kidnapped? Or maybe hit his head so hard... The girl came to a stop as she felt vibration coming from under the snow, she leaned down to take a better look, her amber eyes quickly saw a screen turning on and off. Pale hands of her went to grab the familiar phone from the snow, it was freezing, Gaz wondered how in hell was it still working.
As she looked at the screen, the phone was about to die, the screen was cracked on the bottom, and of course, a thirty missing calls from someone called: 'My Precious Gaz.'
The girl rolled her eyes at the name. She hung up on her own self then shut off the phone, tossing it in her pocket.
Now her next stop is Dib's ugly house.
Gaz got to her motorcycle, hands holding tight, oh, how dead her brother is when she gets her hands on him. Not only because he missed their Friday night, but because he made her worried.
"Dib, you're dead."
999999
Dib was sitting on the couch, pizza box empty in front of him. Since he don't have his phone, he decided to use his old one, of course, it doesn't have a number but at least he could text the damn restaurant. Next to him was a sleeping alien, one hand was holding a tool, hanging from the couch side, and the other was close to his face, on the floor was the 'base'. Zim was trying to fix it for hours to no end. He kept working until he passed out it seemed. His breathing was even and black bags under his eyes. Dib assumed it's because he wasn't getting enough energy or food.
Dib's expression softened, he shifted to take the tool out of the irken's hand then laid his arm before him so it won't go numb. Dib then leaned to take the blanket from the floor and put it on the alien. The boy sighed, staring at the sleeping irken before him, his thoughts rushing like waterfalls.
Amber eyes looked back to the TV, he was on the camera settings, having nothing to do made him watch the camera feeds. That's when he got an idea. The boy took the mouse and went searching for the camera records from days ago. He kept searching until he came with footage.
...His own car parked at the driveway but it wasn't him who got out. A man around the same age as him came out the door, he had red hair, wearing a white dress shirt and brown jeans. His green eyes seemed bright with anxiety.
Then another person got from the back seat. Dib immediately recognized him. Zim.
The alien dragged Dib's unconscious body, his magenta-colored eyes shining in the dark-
"Here we are." He heard the red-headed boy say. "It will be better to stay away from the hospital, they're um-... not-... so good with their job, hm, yeah it's better to stay home-" Dib wanted to punch him so badly.
"Go away." Dib held a laugh at this, it was way too adorable to see the irken focused and pissed. He then saw the boy named 'Keef' leave immediately, looking scared out of his skin. It almost made Dib forget about the whole thing. The boy shook his head.
Then he heard the alien sigh. Zim walked with Dib's body to the door, almost out of the camera view. Dib could see Gir rolling in the dirt. He saw as the irken put him down beside the door and went looking for the keys...
Dib leaned back at the couch.
Zim really was giving up everything to him... He promised him to heal his sickness, promised to show him outer space, promised to prove aliens exist just for him. As much of everything he'd been through, what his Dad did to him, what the Meekrob did to him, he'd been sabotaged before even starting his mission-
There was a lot.
Dib would be traumatized if he was in the alien's shoes-
A bang on the door made him jump in place, Dib quickly grabbed the remote and went back to the main screen of the camera. And there it was, the last thing he wanted to face in the meantime. A motorcycle was parked beside his car, and almost out of view was a girl with purple hair, banging on the door with her strong fist.
"Shit-..." Dib cursed, looking left to right in panic. "Zim." He whispered. "Zim, wake up!" His hands went to shake the alien's shoulders, trying to wake the tired irken.
"DIB!" Gaz screamed. "OPEN THE DOOR."
The boy saw the alien shift underneath the blanket, growling at him. "My sister's gonna see you!" A key was heard from the other side of the door, then with a click. The door opened.
"Dib!" The girl with black skirt went inside, she dropped her bag on the floor, walking towards the living room which wasn't far away from the door. "Are you even home-"
"H-heeey..." Dib stood fast from the couch, making sure to put the blanket on the alien's head and antennae. "What's up?" He laughed nervously.
"What's up? WHAT'S UP?" She took a step forward, pointing an accusing finger at her brother. "I've been trying to call you for hours!" She grabbed the frozen phone out of her pocket, then handed it to the boy. "You've lost your phone and apparently forgot what day it is today."
Dib looked at his hands, almost dropping the icy phone to the ground. He wanted to say something but Gaz cut him off.
"I'm not mad because you 'forgot' about today." She folded her arms. "I hate to admit it but I was dead worried about you!"
"O-oh... uh..." Dib looked around, avoiding eye contact. "S-sorry, I've run through a lot of stuff..."
"You could've at least told me." The girl sighed, seeming tired. "What happened?" She asked, her expression softened, seeing her brother in a bad state. His hair was messy and black bags under his eyes, she'd even swear he's skinnier than before.
"W-What do you mean?" He swallowed, unsure of what to say, his hands nervously shaking.
"To you, what happened in those days you've been in the lab? You're almost just like Dad, do you even sleep??" Her eyes examining the boy's features, looking at him from head to toe.
Dib sighed. "Look, it's nothing, I just-"
"Ans who the hell is that??" Gaz suddenly said, eyes wide with confusion as she stared behind her skinny brother.
Dib prayed to God she wasn't looking at what he thought she was looking at. He slowly turned around only to see Zim staring at them from behind the couch, his disguise turned on. Ruby eyes shining behind fake black hair. Zim was gazing at him, his look was screaming: WHAT'S GOING ON?
The boy slowly rose a finger to his lips, shushing the alien from saying anything. His gaze looked back to his sister, who was looking from him to the other person in the room.
Dib coughed. "This is my friend-..."
"You never told me you have a girlfriend." Gaz said boldly, her eyes glaring daggers into her brother.
"He's not my boyfriend!" Dib snapped, face red as a tomato, he looked back at the alien, somehow wanting help to be out of this embarrassing moment.
"HE?" The girl titled her head. "You sure...?"
Zim bit his lips so hard it almost drew blood, if he didn't do something now then Dib would probably screw it up. With more confidence to face the scary girl, he stood up, hands tagging his yellow sweater to his thighs. He walked towards the two siblings and extended his hand.
"Hi." He greeted, smiling nervously at the purple-haired girl. He was trying his best to hold his disguise. His PAK saved the girl's face under 'enemies'. Zim didn't intend it to do this but he truly didn't know where to save it.
To say Gaz was confused would be an understatement. She looked from her brother to the new... Girl? Boy? She never knew. They had a pink dress, short hair, no hair on their arms or face, their body was curved and they sounded like a male with a weird accent, the way they stood was as if they were in the military.
Girl points: 3
Boy points: 3
...Gaz took another look at them, now noticing other things. They had pale greenish skin, red eyes, and three fingers like claws. Their smile showed odd-looking teeth, and when he spoke, she swore their tongue was weird, to say the least...
Girl points: 3
Boy points: 3
Zombie (?) points: 5
Well, that was enough. "Hi." She shook their hand a bit too harshly while looking at her brother. "Explain. Now."
Dib took a deep breath, finally coming with a good lie. "Do you remember the friend I told you about?" He saw his sister nod. "Well, we both had a project together, I was also sick so he came to look after me..." He smiled, trying not to make it look forced which was hard. "And before you say anything, I didn't ask you because you have college."
Gaz stared at them dumbfounded, blinking at the two idiots before her. "They're the one who...?" She didn't continue, only moving her lips slowly to form a 'crush'.
Dib nodded, hands in his pocket anxiously. He hoped she wouldn't understand the whole thing wrong. After all, this really looks suspicious, even for him. "Please don't get that wrong." He pleaded, seeing the look on his sister's face.
"Whatever." She finally said, going back to her normal self. "Just never do that again. Ever."
"Okay, I promise." Dib sighed, he glanced at the alien beside him. Zim seemed a bit confused.
"Oh and..." She looked back at the two, a smirk at her black lips, her amber eyes looking from Dib to Zim. "We're still going to get pizza." She took a step back, almost teasingly. "Both of you will come." Her evil smile sent shills down the boy's spine. He had no idea what she was planing. But if he knew anything about his sister then she has her own ways to get back at him.
And for some reason, he was sure he knew what she wanted to do.
"I'll go back to my apartment and get ready." She opened the door, getting her bag from the floor. "I want you to be there in half an hour, got it? It's already late." With that, she winked at her brother and closed the door.
Dib stood there, not moving till he heard her motorcycle was leaving.
"Oh... my god..." The boy breathed.
"I'm still c-c-confused." Zim said, his cut-from-the-middle eyebrow frowning. He turned off his annoying disguise then glanced up at the trembling human.
"Oh, dear..." Was all Dib could say.
END OF CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE!
Mary: That's kinda a short chapter, but here ya go! I guess I was also excited to write Gaz meeting with Zim and her reaction.
AF: I really just wanted to post this chapter before 2021 ends, it would be a shame if I didn't update all my stories before then.
This was Alien Freak, signing off.