[Pre-A/N: This is a collection of what can hopefully be read as oneshots. I'm putting them all in one upload because they all actually go together and have an order and i don't want to get confusing. But you should be able to read each chapter independently, i hope.

Consider it an AU if you must. I call this Zimvoid individual "1773." If you don't know what that means, it doesn't matter. Sorry if anything is ever ooc, i'll try to mention it per entry.

Overall TW/CW: anxiety, depression, angst, stress, coping, enemies to friends type-stuff]

[A/N: (Word count: 3,935) The one wherein "it" happens.

This took me almost a year to write because there's a lot of emotional stuff in these stories that literally ruins my day to write.

I meant for it to be "Friendship," but it might come off as more "Relationship," so sorry about that. But yes, Zim IS emotional, fight me about it. Maybe a lil ooc at the end.

Sorry that i use human organs (heart, lungs, etc) with Zim, but idk how else to convey the ideas. Lots of warnings, sorry.

TW/CW: stress, anxiety, being dismissed/fired, sudden loss, anger/rage, frustration, screaming, breaking things, death (mentioned/implied, imagined), violence (imagined), blood, angst, sadness/depression, crying, despair, captive/hostage, confrontation, wounds, medical care, physical touch (hands, face), comforting, emotional intimacy]

Zim connected to his leaders, the Almighty Tallests. He had something big planned, something that would absolutely bring the Earth to its knees and make it ripe for conquering. Nothing could stop him, not even that wretched Dib-creature: he was already dealt with. In fact, he was going to be the demonstration for the awful things that he was plotting to do to bring the downfall of the human race.

"You're never going to get away with this, Zim!!!" He wiggled and writhed under his restraints, desperate to break himself free.

"Oh, i think i will, stupid human!! Your pathetic planet is as good as dust now!!!" He turned back around to face the screen when he heard it connect.

On the screen were the two Irken leaders in their usual place at the head of the Massive. They were both exasperated, tired from something that wasn't immediately clear to the two that put the line through. Purple sighed heavily, and Red grumbled and growled as he looked at the screen in front of them.

"My Tallests!! I am reporting to tell you of my greatest plan to prepare--"

"Zim, you're dismissed." He said abruptly.

"What?! Red!!!" Purple stood up straight and shot his vision over.

"Huh??" Zim perked his antennae and turned his attention from his captive to the screen.

"No, i'm tired of keeping this thing up. It's not worth it! I can't take hearing that voice anymore!" Red turned away and huffed. "He's through."

Zim stood up straight. "I apologize, my Tallest. Am i interrupting something???"

Purple looked at him. "Yes, actually, we--"

"No Zim, you aren't interrupting anything. We are dealing with this now. Right now. This needs to end immediately." Red stepped toward the screen. "Irken Zim,"

"Ah-- m-my Tallests, i--" Zim felt breathless, but there must be something to why they were talking like this.

"Zim, no." Red turned to him again and spoke sternly. "You are relieved of your duty. You are no longer an Irken invader."

"What?! But i--"

"We don't care, Zim. We've never cared! We gave you your mission to get you away from the rest of the Empire so that you wouldn't ruin everything again. Why else do you think that we were always so far from where we sent you?! You're not a real invader!!!" Purple looked almost stunned, but he breathed and relaxed his body in acceptance of the truth.

Zim blinked in disbelief. He gently shook his head and shot his vision between his leaders. He huffed out a laugh. "Yooouu! You almost got me there!!!" He smiled wide. "You are truly masters of comedy, my Tallests!! For a second, i almost thought you we--"

"We are serious, Zim." Purple sighed out. "We never planned for you to be part of Impending Doom 2. We had to do something to keep you from destroying our civilization again." He shook his head. "We needed to get rid of you, and that was the only thing we could think of." His disposition changed. "And that's not even considering that you're a defect! Honestly, it's a wonder that we kept you around so long in the first place, now that i think about it."

Zim's jaw hung open and his heart beat hard in his chest. He tried to capture some air. "Ah-ah... i--"

"Save it, Zim. We've made up our minds. We don't want to hear from you ever again. We're severing all lines." Zim's eyes started to water. "And if you try to communicate with the Empire again, we will send somebody to execute you. Do not try us, Zim."

"I can't even say it's been fun. Because it hasn't." Purple rubbed his hand down his face. The communication was cut off.

Zim stood silently for a while, so awestruck by what he had heard. He stared at the screen, and his hands, and the floor, completely dumbfounded.

Dib was there, witnessing the whole thing as it happened. He saw Zim's leaders abandon him on a foreign planet, and he saw them admit that they did it on purpose. He saw the frustration that they had and the end of their patience for Zim. He couldn't blame them for that, but did feel heartbroken, and he was only an audience to this. "Zim..." He could never imagine what he would do if he were in Zim's shoes.

What he did do was collapse to his knees as his wobbling legs gave out. He breathed heavily aloud, drinking as much as he could and quickening until he was weeping through burning tears. He held his eyes closed tight to try to stop them, and even tried to push the water back into himself with his desperate hands, but his body heaved with the loss of every last thing that he had known from the moment he was born. He screamed, and he cried, almost hoping that it could make all that just happened become either a dream or something that he could simply undo. But he knew in his heart that it was a worthless wish.

He gasped for air. He pushed it out. He panted for a few seconds to regain himself. His lungs worked overtime, and he lowered his hands from his face and made them into tight fists. He pressed the tears from them, and growled and lifted his chest. He filled his lungs and screamed out with rage. He could feel his blood boiling inside of him now, and he needed to move to keep from burning alive.

He swung his vengeful fists at the screen over and over again until it cracked all the way across. He clawed at the buttons and slammed his heel into the controls that flanked the sides, and he ripped out the wires and veins that connected it all. He near effortlessly tore a rebar out with brute force alone and smashed everything that he could reach with every ounce of the strength that he had in him, bursting through metal and obliterating the mechanisms underneath. He kicked the rubble that he made across the room, and he knocked over anything that wasn't bolted down.

He held the rod in his hands and pointed it at the screen. He thrust it straight into the glass and circuit boards and stabbed at the former image of both of the leaders that he so adored and would have happily died for only a few minutes earlier. He imagined that the flying sparks and wires that battered his arms and face were hot blood and flesh from those people that had wronged him so horribly, completely devoid of any remaining feeling for his fellow Irken. He stabbed until they became heaps of gore, and stabbed until he could kill them all over again. He dreamed that they lay dead before him, maimed beyond recognition and worth absolutely nothing more than the dirt that covered the foul prison of his that they condemned him to.

He screamed in his native tongue, and in a few Earth languages, and in some alien ones that Dib had never heard before. He cursed those that had banished him here, and he blasphemed the world that they came from. He threatened them in promises that he'd never be able to keep, severing every vessel of theirs with words that they would never know. He realized all of the injustices he had endured and vowed to never forget any of them. He cried out for the things that he knew he would never be able to experience again, and his voice stung and cracked behind the truth that he was stuck here forever, alone...

The destruction provided Dib an opportunity to escape his restraints and get back to solid ground. He followed every motion with his eyes, still caught by his whole inability to leave Zim so distraught. He waited in tension for his energy to wane to something that he could safely handle before daring to move an inch from where he stood: wildly scared that he would become a target for all of the unbridled emotion.

Dib slowly and cautiously approached the tiny green beast. Zim fell to his knees again. He cupped his own face in his hands, finally realizing the pain in his knuckles and his skin and feeling his blood cool and dry in the fabric of his clothes. Everything, all of it: it hurt so bad. It felt like he was almost paralyzed and would turn to stone, destined to be thrown into an ocean of agony that sunk for miles and miles. His chest trembled.

"Zim???" He hesitantly spoke and touched a hand to his shoulder. Zim woke up and silently examined his palms and the back of his hands. He saw large and small shards of glass and metal coming out of his gloves, but he couldn't connect them to the pain he was feeling.

He looked up at Dib slowly. "Why are you still here?" He spoke quietly and calmly. That nearly terrified Dib, but he couldn't imagine pulling himself away from the situation.

He didn't know exactly what to say now. He knew the kinds of things that he wanted to say to the broken figure, but all of the words tangled together inside of his mind when he needed them most. He let them flow by themselves. "You deserve better, Zim..."

Dib could feel Zim's eyelids and his chest quiver through his hand, and it felt like it was piercing through his flesh. The words were shaky. "What do you mean?"

"They don't know what you're capable of." He glanced all over the alien's face. "They don't see what they're losing without you. They don't understand the things that you've done that they're going to be without." They locked eyes and Dib nodded his head once. "They never deserved you."

Zim watched for a few moments longer. His breath increased, and his body threatened to start crying again. He turned away. "Whyhellip; are you still here???" He was frustrated with himself: ashamed that he was so weak and emotional, and that his greatest enemy had not only seen it all, but that he was consoling him as well. And that it was helping. His body shook.

Dib crouched down next to him to try to get a look at his face. He gently sighed and reassured him. "It's going to be okay, Zim. We're going to fix you up together. We'll get through this." He leaned to try and see him better. "Come on. Let's go get you to the medbay."

Dib moved his hand across Zim's back to his far shoulder, and gripped the other one with his hand to pull him to stand up. Zim didn't resist much: he didn't see a need to keep fighting if he didn't at all have a reason to anymore. He stepped slowly, and Dib let him set the pace. They got to the elevator, and he asked for it to take them to the medical room. It whisked them away, and Dib led Zim over to the table in the room, helping him climb up onto it safely and lie down so that he wouldn't get any more hurt.

He sighed and barely spoke. "Computer. Medical repair." Metal arms came from the walls and the ceiling: tiny tweezers and forceps taking out the biggest chunks of foreign material. At the same time, little suction tubes gently sucked up any blood that came from the wounds.

Dib noticed that the machines weren't getting everything embedded in Zim's skin. He asked, "are they going to get the smaller bits, too???"

Zim lazily lifted a hand to look at it. He flopped it back down and turned his head. "Nohellip;" He didn't really care. "These are the basic repair machines. I fix smaller wounds myself. But it's not like the glass is going anywhere, so i'll do it later."

Dib furrowed his brow. He wouldn't be able to accept that. "That's not a good idea, Zim. You need to take them out now."

"Nooo, it's fine..."

Dib was almost angry with that. "That's not good enough, Zim! You need to get it out so you can heal!" He looked at some of the instruments that flanked the table and spied a few sets of small tweezers. He took Zim's hand in his own. "Here, i'll do it for you." He pinched the tips of the fingers on Zim's glove and gently tugged them down so he could take it off. He rolled up the sleeve of his tunic, and he did the same to his other arm, while Zim did nothing but watch.

When he got him prepared to be treated, Dib reached into one of his coat's pockets and pulled out a pair of nitrile gloves to wear. He chose a small set of needle-tipped tweezers and lifted Zim's hand again. He closely examined the cuts that were already handled to make sure that there were no spare shards. He spotted a few and delicately moved Zim's flesh to reach them, scoffing at how "advanced" the Irken technology was to miss this stuff.

Zim examined Dib for a long while as he picked miniscule bits of things from his hand and arm. He kept all the wincing and twitched to himself, having experienced far worse physical pain more times than he could count. He studied the concentration on the boy's face and how precise he needed to be to exude what he could.

It was very strange to have him act like this: at least when it came to something of this nature to Zim. Dib was always particular, and always very obsessive when it came to Zim. But he never needed to do anything like this before, he never needed to care for the alien. But he was here doing it, so intensely and so meticulously, and without even having been asked or invited to. It was weird.

Zim closed his eyes and relaxed his neck. He didn't know whether he trusted the boy; either to complete what he was doing, or to not cut him open right here and now; or that he just genuinely didn't care anymore, and his truth in the latter kept him from thinking about it further. He emptied his mind and focussed on his breathing instead.

Neither of them were paying attention to how long this was taking, but after a while Dib spoke. "I'm going to work on your face now, Zim." He opened his eyes halfway and almost instantly locked gazes with Dib.

He quickly scanned over his determined expression. He wasn't all too certain why he announced it. "Yeah, sure, whatever." He closed his eyes again.

A moment passed before he felt the weird plastic over Dib's hand touch his cheek. It wasn't as if this was the first time that those points of theirs connected: either had slapped or punched each other directly in the face quite a few times in their scuffles. But this was entirely different from any of that, or almost any other feelings that Zim ever had on his face: it was gentle, soft. At the same time it was firm and intentional, with movements that all made so much sense. It was jarring, scary. His breath hitched, but he breathed out steadily to accept that it was happening.

When he thought he was just about finished, Dib wrapped a few of his fingers around Zim's chin, delicately tilting his head so that he was certain that there were no further injuries that he had to attend to. Zim opened his eyes a second after Dib grabbed his face. He lazily watched him, still amazed that someone in his position cared to do this, even though he didn't need to. He removed his hand and took a step away from the alien. "Do you feel anything else in your skin???"

Zim lifted one of his bare hands again to look at it. "No, i think that's everything." He sat up and examined his other hand quietly. He slumped again, but didn't know what he should say.

"Do you have any ointments or anything for your cuts???"

Zim glanced up to him. He sighed, "in the drawers over there. Get me the bandages, too."

Dib fished the supplies from the drawer and set them down on the table next to Zim. He hovered a hand over the ointment. "Do you need me to do this??"

Zim squinted his eyes a bit, but that little bit of a glare let Dib know that he was already feeling better. He retreated his hand. "No, i can do it."

Zim snatched up the tube and twisted the cap off. He squeezed a large blob onto the back of one of his hands, and did the same to the other before smearing it on the open wounds. Most of it all stayed on the surface of his skin, but he was well enough to cover the areas of his arms that had been injured. He reached for the bandages on the table, but Dib beat him to them.

"I'll wrap you up." He unraveled a few inches of the material and held his hand out for Zim to give him a limb. He paused and hesitantly put his hand in Dib's, still uncertain why he still wanted to help him. It felt almost suspicious to him now, but he couldn't deny to himself that the tenderness with which Dib acted did comfort him. Maybe Zim was more suspicious of himself than of the kid that had always tried to out him.

Dib wrapped each of his fingers and hand well, and left the bandages looser at the wrist so that Zim would still be able to move. He cut the roll with a pair of scissors that were with the tweezers from before, and tied it off with knowledge he'd learned to prepare for his cryptid hunts. He silently asked for his other hand, and repeated the process in the same way.

There was a part of Zim that wanted to snap at Dib for how he was doing this; even if it was just to yell at him, because that's what it usually boiled down to. But something: either the disheartened state of him, or because he knew that Dib was genuinely caring for him and helping him out; prevented him from actually doing so. He thought to make up for that later.

Dib tied off the other arm. "Do you have anything for the cuts on your face??" He took Zim's chin in his hand again, holding him between a curled finger and a gentle thumb. Zim tensed and his heart skipped at the contact, jarred again by how delicate this all was.

He brought up a hand of his own to push Dib's away, but did it far slower than he would have at any other time. They looked at each other. "I have adhesive ones in the drawer." He spoke with only a tiny bit of attitude. Dib half-glared at him, but was relieved again that Zim was getting back to normal.

Zim twisted himself off of the table and walked over to get them. He started to take some out of the package. "Just bring them over here so i can help you."

Zim made a face to himself. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do anymore. It took him a moment to respond. "Why are you still here, human???" He turned and watched Dib inquisitively.

He furrowed his brow and shook his head. "Now's not the time, Zim. You still need to be patched up."

Zim walked over, holding the box in both hands. "You don't need to do any of this. You could have left a long while ago." Dib held his hand out again, "but you're still herehellip; why???" Zim gave him the bandages.

Dib took a few from the box and set it down on the table. "Because you don't have a mirror in here and won't put them on right." He ripped the paper off of the stickers and took the ointment to cover the wounds. "Stand still."

Dib squirted a bit on his finger and delicately glided it over the biggest cuts. He used another finger to wipe up the excess that would stifle the adhesive, and smeared it onto the back of his other hand. He turned to get the bandages.

"I mean why did you decide to stay and help me??? You stand nothing to gain from doing this." Zim shut his mouth again when Dib had one prepared. He placed it on silently, focusing on positioning it to stick and hold the cut mostly-closed.

He reached for another one. "You just went through a lot, Zim." He did the same to another wound before continuing. "I know that you're a big bad space-bug." He fixed another one. "But there are some things that even the strongest people can't endure on their own." Dib looked at a couple of other cuts on his face, debating whether they also needed tending.

Zim remained still. "But you hate me."

Dib decided that they would be fine without being covered. He blinked when he registered what was said. "Yeeaahh..." He felt awkward. "But i still care about you, i guess."

Zim turned his head and glared some. "Are you lying?"

Dib huffed. "Why would i have done all of that if i didn't care about you???"

He glared fully and spoke quietly. "I asked you first."

Dib growled. "Can't you just accept something for once?!" He was motioning with his hands and planted them on his hips.

Zim turned to face him properly. "Thank you, human-Dib." Dib's eyes got wide in surprise. "I... appreciate... what you've done for me." He was finding it hard to word it properly and be so genuine, and suddenly try to keep it together as well. It was getting hard to breathe, his chest felt tight. "I, um..." He could feel tears welling up.

"It's no problem, Zim." Dib didn't have a chance to debate himself on whether a friendly hand on the shoulder was appropriate, as it had already gotten there. "You justhellip; needed some help." Again, his words were disjointed and free, and he just spoke what left his lips. "And i happened to be around to provide it."

Zim's brow furrowed and his mind felt like it weighed a million pounds. "You didn't have a choice to be." His chest seemed to prepare to cry again.

"But i do now, and i'm not going anywhere." Dib smirked. "Besides, it's not like i was forced to do anything with the way you barely tied me down."

Zim coughed a chuckle from deep behind the sobs that waited in his throat. "Heh. I guess i need to get better restraints for you." The smile on his face felt sore, but it wasn't unwelcome. Zim reviewed Dib's face again, and tried to nod away the sorrow. "Thank you, Dib."

He grinned. "You're welcome, Space Boy." It might have been too early, but he asked anyway. "So what are you going to do now???"

Zim sighed heavily. "I don't know..." His gaze fell to the floor, but his mind couldn't put much together quite yet. "But..." The two looked at each other. "I-i hope that you can help me with that, too." Zim smiled with soft, hopeful eyes, displaying his honesty and openness to whatever was to come.

Dib was surprised, but he slowly smiled back. "Sure thing, Zim."