Author's note: long time no upload! it's finals week for me so i've been stressed and overwhelmed with schoolwork recently, but i apologize as it's been so long since my last upload. but i'm really enjoying writing this, and i have big plans for it, so don't worry i won't abandon it. additionally, i'd like to thank everyone who's supported my story, the favorites and follows and reviews give me so much motivation and happiness. i'd specifically like to thank my current reviewers; CookiesxMilkEXCITEMe, Demonic Irken, Just a NPC. i've reread your reviews too many times. they really mean a lot to me, thank you for taking time out of your day to encourage me. hope you all enjoy this chapter!
It was around seven in the evening, not that Zim knew that. The only clock at Zim's disposal was on his viewscreen and he shut that off over an hour ago, although he remained seated in front of it. In fact Zim hadn't moved at all, not to fidget or stretch or find comfort. For the past hour he sat like a potted plant. His ruby eyes strained against the subterranean darkness, blinking slowly in ten second intervals as if he was a machine. Fisted tightly in his hand was the USB drive Dib had given him the other day.
Like Dib, Zim watched Enter the Florpus over several times, although he skipped any scenes that didn't contain him onscreen. Initially, Zim was hesitant to taint his Irken technology with a primitive Earth artifact, especially one the Dib gave him. For all he knew, Dib had infested the device with defects that would destroy his base's brain. But when Zim's screening of the USB resulted in no red flag tricks, he reluctantly stomped to his observatory and allowed the thing to play on his main viewscreen. Zim hated wasting time and Dib was a waste of time and this stupid USB was also a large huge waste of time distracting him from his mission. But the damn object taunted him with the unknown. Never before had Zim seen Dib in such disarray. And Zim made it a point to place Dib in various states of disarray. He needed to know what had broken his resilient enemy so efficiently.
At first Zim thought Dib went to the lengths of animating a mockery of Zim's life and was slightly impressed. That didn't last long. As hard as Dib tried, he didn't know the layout of Zim's base. Not even slightly. The layers and rooms of his base were depicted in such accurate detail that Zim couldn't help but flinch in horror. And sure Dib might know basic facts about Irkens, but he didn't know about the Tallest, or their specific plans to overthrow every planet by means of the Irken Armada. And yet the Tallest were in this film, mind you not as toweringly tall as they were in reality. But even Zim could see the differences stopped there: these animated figures were his leaders, right down to their goddamn PAK colors. They talked and walked and snacked as if they were Red and Purple. And they treated Zim the same way they always did. Laughing behind his back. Sneering at his plans. Preoccupied with bigger, better things.
When Zim watched his cartoon self learn how far the Irken Armada was from Earth, he stopped the film and sprinted over to his holo-chamber. Just like his fucking movie counterpart, his base didn't have the power necessary to access the Tallest's flight plans and he too had to steal power from his neighbors. Zim found himself twitching with rage as his computer extended tendrils of his base to perpendicular buildings. And as the flight plans displayed in his holo-deck, his twitching turned to violent shaking.
In Enter the Florpus, The Tallest were "shmillions of light years away" from Earth.
In reality, they were a decillion light years away from Earth.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.
"Computer, analysis on intruder."
"Intruder analysis complete. Human being, Dib Membrane. Intruder threat not detected."
Well duh. Zim scoffed. Why was Dib even here? After the drinking he'd done earlier, Zim expected Dib to be out of commission at least for the rest of the day. There was no way all that poison was completely out of his system: human bladders are hardly as effective at filtering waste as Irken PAKs are.
"Do you want me to initiate stage one of removal?"
A throbbing pain shot through Zim's upper neck, dulling his senses. He groaned, clutching his temple. Ever since he'd watched that stupid film, Zim felt as if his head was being crushed on all sides like an egg. "No. I can deal with him myself. Ready the elevator chute."
It took Zim five minutes to haul himself off of his chair and trudge towards the front door. Every fiber in his being was screaming at him to turn around. He could just laser the Dib off of his lawn and hibernate underground until he had a strategy of what to do next. Zim thought he knew better than to approach Dib without a plan, but. Fuck. He couldn't stand another moment alone with all this information buzzing in his brain. Dib at the very least might provide some sort of context now that he wasn't intoxicated.
KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!
"I'm coming, you dumbass filth!" Zim slapped his contacts onto his eyes and secured his wig, staring blankly at the front door. Open it. Open the door. The sooner I face this pitiful fucker, the sooner I can get him off my base. The sooner my mission continues. The closer I am to gaining the respect I deserve from my Tallest. With that Zim extended his arm, grasped the doorknob, and swung it open as quickly as possible.
Dib didn't look like a corpse anymore, but he definitely still had some ways to go to be considered alive. His skin was colorless and coated in sticky sheen, most likely sweat. The normally perky spikes of his hair hung limply and made him appear much shorter than he actually was, although Dib was slouching so that didn't help his height. But his brown eyes weren't cloudy, in fact they looked even more intense, even darker than they usually were. Zim frowned. "Can I help you, Dib-stench?"
Dib grimaced. "Yes. Thanks for asking." He held up a cheap empty plastic bottle, waving it slightly in the air. "You got any water in there? I'm all out."
Anger bubbled under Zim's skin. "You can't be serious," he hissed, venom coating every word. "Go home if you want your dirty Earth water. It's not my fault you filled your liver with toxins."
"That's debatable. But anyway, I can't. I'm still buzzed, and dad has a no drinking policy. Says it kills developing brain cells," Dib let out an ugly laugh, lowering the water bottle. Despite his tone, he looked at Zim with lively eyes, brimming with energy. "Besides, I think we have some talking we need to do."
"Fuck off human."
"Ah, c'mon Zim. I know you watched it too. You never open the door for me unarmed. Don't you want to talk about it?"
"NO." Zim could feel his squeedlyspooch hammering away in his chest. It made him feel like vomiting. There were too many emotions clouding his judgement, too many hormones pumping through his body, he didn't need Dib here to make that worse. "You are my enemy. I fend humans away from my house, not invite them over. I don't know what kind of psychological trap that, that…. THING was supposed to be, but I am not ignorant enough to believe for two seconds that it's real—"
"Are you even an invader?"
The question stopped Zim mid sentence. Shit. Of course the Dib had watched the film too. He watched it before Zim had for god's sake, of fucking course he would have new information about Zim and the Irken race. Zim tried to keep his breathing even, but he could still hear the heavy pounding of his organs, the rushing of his blood. Like clockwork, a sharp stab poked at Zim's neck. Bile rose to his throat, and Zim only just managed to choke it down before erupting all over his enemy's shoes.
Dib looked at Zim curiously, noticing his changed demeanor. "Were you exiled or something?"
"No," Zim controlled his voice to keep the tension he felt inside from escaping. "No. I wasn't."
"So then why are you here?"
"I'm an invader you moron."
Dib's expression adjusted from curiosity to an emotion Zim couldn't place. He softened his voice. "Are you really, Zim?"
"Yes goddamnit! Stop asking me!" Zim shrieked, hands shaping into tight fists. Why is he looking at me like that?
"We both know what we saw." Dib shrugged slightly, as if frustrated by the conversation. Then he sighed, shifting his gaze to the ground. He paused briefly, checked out of the conversation, before he returned his focus to Zim. "Look, I believe you, okay Zim? You say you're an invader, and I have no reason to question why else you would be here. The film got stuff wrong about me too, and about Earth. All I want is to figure this out. You want that too, right?"
"I can figure this out without you," Zim scolded, folding his arms together over his chest.
"Yeah, you can. Absolutely you can." Then, Dib did something Zim had never seen him do. He smiled. Not a vindictive grin, or a gloating smirk. A smile. It crinkled slightly at Dib's eyes and passed color through his face. When he started speaking again, his voice came out weak, breaking slightly. "I can't go home today Zim. I can't. Not after all this. I've been drinking since yesterday, I haven't slept in over twenty four hours. Let me stay here for the night. I'll sleep on the couch, I'll let you chip me as a security threat. Just don't make me go home."
A warmth crossed Zim's features, his cheeks tinted pink and his nerves relented briefly. He'd never seen this side of Dib. Hostility, anger, violence, that was Zim's life for the past few years on Earth. And Zim enjoyed it, his temper was what kept him sharp, on his toes. And yet there was a part of him, albeit small, that missed mellowness. It had been so long since someone was this vulnerable around him, this diminished. Especially someone like Dib. Zim let out a long exhale, glaring half-heartedly at Dib.
"Don't think you're not a level ten security threat, because that's exactly what you're programmed as in my computer. If you even leave the living room I'll blast you to bits."
"At this point, I wouldn't mind that," Dib laughed, perky. He looked down at his water bottle again, then back at Zim. "You do have water here, right?"
"Kitchen sink."
Dib's smile widened. Zim's resolve dissolved even more.