Author's Note: hey hey hey it's been a month sorry about that. I have a clear idea of the plot now, so writing the rest of this should be easier, aka I can update more frequently. I'm still creating the world, so there's no romance in this chapter EXCEPT maybe at the end! ooooo. Enjoy!

Dib knew he had never been respected, that was easy enough to see. All his peers saw him as a sort of laughingstock, and from their point of view, Dib could understand it. If you don't believe in aliens, then watching a person devote their soul to exposing them seems insane. And many days Dib felt insane himself. The amount of time he spent focusing on Zim through the years had robbed him of any semblance of a normal life — friends, girlfriend, family.

Oh god, his family life was fucked. Paranormal interest might've been cute on Dib when he was a kid, but now he was seventeen. Professor Membrane used to preach about wanting Dib to focus on "real" science. He'd tell Dib that by getting accepted into a top university and receiving his Ph.D., Dib could easily snatch a prestigious job within the Membrane labs. But watching his son's childish obsession take him into his late teens strained whatever relationship Professor Membrane might've maintained with Dib over the years. Now, his dad didn't bother Dib with any type of goal. Dib could feel that like everyone else, Membrane had given up on the hope that Dib might turn out normal.

Gaz was okay to him sometimes, but even she had expected Dib to grow up by now. When one night Dib came home at two AM after a particularly bloody battle with Zim, Gaz told him "Zim is a sad excuse for an alien. But what's sadder is that you haven't found something else to occupy your time."

The notion that Earth was safe, that was what kept him going. Dib knew he was doing something to improve the world even if no one else would acknowledge it. And maybe, just maybe, one day he could prove them all wrong. Uncover Zim for what he really was and make some real strides in science. He could be the one to make space travel a reality, he could be the first human to communicate with exotic species. The advancements humanity could make by collaborating with more developed life forms, Dib got giddy just thinking about it.

Dib found "Enter The Florpus" in the library yesterday afternoon. Like most high schoolers in his town, Dib went to the library after school to finish his homework… and research the paranormal. Dib could no longer use his home computers to investigate supernatural topics. His dad blacklisted all paranormal websites from their internet when Dib was fifteen. Any time Dib tried arguing against the unfair ban, his dad got very quiet and made up an excuse about needing to go do some "important work" in the lab. At the library, Dib was basically ignored as long as he kept quiet.

Dib usually finished his schoolwork within two hours, which left him plenty of time to scour his favorite sites for interesting updates on paranormal affairs. Today, Dib was having no luck in finding any new information. He was surfing mindlessly through tabs, zoning out, sulking. As much as he hated to give up, Dib was debating just going home. Clearly there was nothing for him to dig up, and there would always be tomorrow.

'One more search and I'll call it quits,' Dib figured. 'Earth's sole defender needs to be diligent after all.' He smirked to himself, bitter. Some defender he was. He couldn't even get his own father to believe in him, let alone a planet full of people. Dib opened up the library's search engine and drummed his fingers on the table. What could he possibly search that he hadn't already before? What did he even want to look into? Demonology, cryptozoology, ufology? Close encounters? It wasn't like Zim hadn't bothered him in a while, but that didn't mean he wasn't plotting something. Dib stretched his arms out, contemplating, before typing "Zim." It was a long shot that he'd get results, but he'd never looked the alien up by name before.

The computer made a pleasant ding and alerted Dib that in fact, there was one result for the "Zim" inquiry. It was a movie with zero views on a lonely video-sharing website. The title read "Enter the Florpus." There was no description.

Curious, Dib pulled his headphones out from his backpack. Realistically this was going to be a waste of time, probably a crummy paranormal video blog by some fifteen-year-old kid. But Dib had time to kill, and maybe something insightful would pop up. Plus the movie was only one hour long. Dib could be home at six o'clock if he started it now, just in time for dinner.

Dib ended up watching Enter the Florpus five times. He had to leave to throw up twice.

Because onscreen, he was watching a story about himself. Himself and Zim and Gaz and his dad, in his hometown.

It wasn't that it was a bad movie. Obviously it was a parody to some extent. The humans of Earth were gross caricatures, drinking "poop" soda and mindlessly buying a piece of technology (that Dib felt resembled an Apple Watch) made to destroy them. There was a lot of yelling and gleeful violence by all the characters but in the end, the story arched into a sappy, happy conclusion with the Membrane family reunited (unlikely) and Zim failing to destroy the world (highly likely).

What struck Dib as horrifying was the things the film knew about his life, his world. Dib's failing relationship with his dad. Zim's ego. Even his fucking three-story house was right, albeit exaggerated in its form. Pieces of the puzzle fit together so, too well. Dib even saw some of himself in his cartoonized counterpart: the determination, the obsession, the emotion. And if the film knew private things about Dib, then logically it knew Zim's secrets as well. This was what had brought Dib to nausea.

Not only was Zim not an Invader, he wasn't even considered a member of his own species. He was exiled to unimportant Earth, the Irken version of a shitty day care they could drop their snot-nosed, bratty child at. Zim's leaders hated him, HATED him, so much so that they couldn't even be bothered to remember that they had sent him away.

Irkens sent Zim to Earth. Zim's species knew about Earth and considered it such a waste of space that they sent their greatest bumbling reject to it. And Dib, Dib had devoted his life tending to the bastard child of the Irken race. Everything he'd ever worked towards wasn't real. For years, Dib put his happiness on hold to chase a moron. And all the while he thought he was defending Earth!

It was ten o'clock when Dib finally left the library, a USB copy of the movie tucked securely in his jacket. From there, he went to the ABC Spirits up the road. Considering his height Dib raised no suspicion when walking in, despite being underage. It only took Dib five minutes to slip a bottle of Jack Daniels off the shelf and into his coat, the first time he'd ever stolen anything. Chugging as he drudged home, there was one thought on Dib's mind.

'My dad doesn't respect what I do either, Zim.'