Disclaimer: Zim is owned by Nickelodeon and the WONDERFUL being Jhonen Vasquez. 'Enemy Mine' is an actual movie I suggest each and every one of you go out to find/buy/rent and watch! It's owned by some ppl that I don't know.
Also this fic is very loosely based on the movie. Very loosely.
By: Chaotica
Enemy Mine
Dib ran as fast as he could through the skool's halls. He had abandoned the impossibly huge hall pass some time ago. He could hear Zim scurrying around in the ceiling. Chasing him.
This wasn't like the last time. Zim wasn't after human organs. Zim was after him. Dib had stolen a hologram device from Zims' house. The Irkan was none too pleased with this.
Dib flung open a door and bolted down the steps to the boiler room. The massive heating unit churned away.
Zim dropped down in front of him using a pair of arms from his utility pack to grab him. Zim lifted Dib up three feet into the air.
"Now, human, give me my Hologram generator." Zim hissed.
Dib reached into his inside coat pocket then paused. What was that cracking sound?
"Give it to me!" Zim shook Dib with the grappling arm.
Suddenly a chunk of floor fell away. "What is this?" Zim asked kicking a chunk of rubble over the edge.
"The floor is falling away!" Dib screamed.
"What? What did you do?" Zim demanded just before the floor shattered beneath them.
* * *
Dib was the first to open his eyes. "Ungh." He muttered sitting up. He looked up and saw the faint outlines of giant boulders. Then he realized there was light around him. Something on the walls glowed a weird blue-green light.
"Zeriknen." Zim mumbled before he sat up. "What? Where am I?"
"I think we're under the skool." Dib said.
Zim stood up. "What did you do?"
"Me? I didn't do anything. I guess the floor just failed."
Zim inspected his utility pack. It sparked at him but did nothing much else. "Surely they will see the floor caved and find us."
"Pfft, yeah right. They never come down to the boiler room. It's probably older than Miss Bitters." Dib glanced around. They were in a cavern that was really very big. It was probably bigger than a football field and twice as high. "How did we survive that?"
Zim looked up. "I believe my pack saved us. It is programmed to react to save the Irkan it is attached to. Seems it decided to save you as well. Doesn't matter now anyway. It's broken. I'd need my lab to fix it."
Dib stood and started to explore. "Phosphorous luminescence." He muttered to himself. "At least we can see. I wonder what this used to be."
Zim wasn't paying any attention and was trying to contact Gir through his 'watch'. "Gir! Come in!" He got only static.
"I think we're going to be here for awhile."
"Shut up human. I will not be trapped here with you. Of all of your stupid stink beast race, you are by far the most annoying!" He threw a rock at Dib nearly hitting him.
"Hey stop that!"
Zim threw another rock.
Dib got mad and picked up a rock of his own. He winged Zim on his second try.
They glared hard at each other. Then Dib relaxed.
"This won't get us anywhere. We may be down here for a long time. We might as well make a truce." The human said.
"Why?" Zim asked crossing his arms.
"Well, if we're here for longer than a few months we'll need some else to talk to or we'll wind up talking to the walls. Haven't you ever seen CastAway? He talked to a volleyball. Is that how you want to go out?"
Zim thought a moment. "I suppose having a mind, even one so low level as yours is better than that."
"I'll take that as a compliment." Dib said sitting on a large rock. "We should probably see about some food." He glanced around. "Ooh yum, moss."
Zim gave him a look and opened his pack pulling out some small packages. "At least my replicator is still working." He eyed Dib before tossing him a package.
"What is it?" Dib asked.
"Food. I've noticed our races use the same components in the same ratios. Except for this substance you call 'salt'. I'm not quite sure what that is." He tried to open the food packet. "Grr, just open." He muttered.
Dib reached into a random pocket and pulled out a small pair of scissors and opened his. He held out the scissors to Zim warily.
Zim took them, opened his package then handed them back silently.
"Uh. How do I..." Dib asked letting his sentence trail.
"Just swallow it." Zim said popping the small cube in his mouth.
Dib shrugged and did the same. He suddenly felt full. That was a good sign.
While Zim sat on a rock grumbling to him self, Dib decided to explore.
He kicked a few rocks around and was caught off guard when a large bug-thing scuttled in front of him.
"Yeia!" He jumped back startled. The bug-thing twitched eyes that were perched on stalks at him and make small 'squeak' sounds.
"What? What is it?" Zim called from his rock.
"I, I don't know. It's huge!" Dib said. He tossed a rock at the giant bug and it scuttled backwards.
"Has it bitten you yet?"
Dib narrowed his eyes. "No Zim. I think Its' afraid of me."
Soft footsteps approached and soon Zim was peering at the creature. "Do you suppose we could eat it?"
"I don't know, I've never seen anything like it."
Zim gave him a look again. "You don't know what your own planets animals look like?"
"I don't know all of them. That's a lot of animals." Dib shot back defensively. "Besides, it looks like this species has been isolated for a long time."
Zim glowered down at the bug-thing then stormed off.
One Year Later
Dib nudged a rock with his toe. In one hand he held a makeshift spear made from one of Zims' 'Spider legs'. He stopped and jammed the spear into a crevice and pulled out a coke-bottle-sized larva. He pulled it off the spike and dropped it into a bag made from Big-Bug 'skins'.
He heard Zim rattling around on the other side of the cave. Lately the Irkan had been guarded around Dib. He hardly talked and when he did it was very little.
What could he have to hide?
"Yeargh!"
Dib looked up alarmed at the Irkan scream. He dashed over to the other side of the cave leaping over a few large rocks on his way.
"Zim!" He held his spear like a club now. "What?"
"Get it off!" Zim yelled. A Snake like creature was wrapped around his lower body, greenish fluid leaked out of a laceration on his face.
Dib smacked one end of the creature. It immediately let go of Zim and attacked in the direction of its new opponent. He managed to skewer the animal through its 'head' leaving it to writhe pinned to the ground.
Dib pulled Zim up and carried him far enough a way that if the animal got loose it couldn't find them.
"How bad are you hurt?" Dib asked.
Zim sat back. "My leg's hurt, and my face. How is it?"
Dib inspected the cut. "Not really bad, you could use a Band-Aid."
Zim gave him a humorless look. "Don't start with your Human medical ideals Dib." Then he muttered 'barbaric' under is breath.
"Might I remind you it was my races 'barbaric' medical ways that set your arm when you fell of the wall trying to climb out." Dib said.
Zim muttered a few curses in Irkan, Dib pretended not to understand. Turned out the little alien menace had quite a mouth on him.
"That has nothing to do with our current situation." He said indignantly. He stood up carefully favoring his hurt leg. "I will be fine."
Dib watched Zim hobble over to the replicator. It was no longer their main food source. They had found what was edible down here and what was not. But it still ran.
Zim put a hand on it as a strange unreadable look passed over his face.
Dib being a human, a creature that relies on emotion more than any race Zim had ever heard of, watched him curiously. If only it weren't true. The replicator was in full swing creating what it was meant to given the situation. But he knew something was wrong.
He glanced at the human who had turned away and was now cleaning the larva he had collected for their next meal. If only he knew why. If only he knew Zim was dying. If only he knew the small embryo that was being constructed in the replicator was his as well.
* * *
"Ze, nein grinto." Dib said stumbling over the Irkan words. Since Zim already knew English Dib had convinced him to teach him Irkan. It was slow going since the Human tongue was considerably thicker than the Irkan one.
"No, it's 'nain', not 'nein'." Zim said impatiently. He wasn't much of a teacher, but he had his reasons for doing this.
Dib sighed. "Ze, nain grinto." He said.
"Perfect."
Dib had just said 'Hail the Empire' in Irkan. A basic saying in Zims' culture.
"Now." Zim said capturing Dibs attention again. "Crein lige cher sin zine len." (You understand enough I think.)
"Trin shle lige greeg." (I'd like to understand more.) Dib replied.
Zim stood up. He was taller than when they had been lost. Only a few inches but then so was Dib.
"Dib. What do you know of children?" The alien asked.
Caught off guard Dib didn't immediately answer. "I know something about Human children. Why?"
"You know how I was raised. I know nothing of how to raise a child!"
Dib raised an eyebrow. "Wait, why is this coming up?" He paused. "Your pregnant?" He paused again, but before Zim could set him straight. "Well you can be sure I didn't do it!"
Zim gave him an aggravated look. "No, I am not pregnant, but it's close enough." He motioned to the replicator. "If you haven't noticed it's still been active. It's been constructing a child." He didn't look at Dib. "It is yours as well as mine. Seems when we fell it gathered your genetic material along with mine."
Dib sat there for a long moment. "So, this child is going to be half Human half Irkan?" He asked.
Zim nodded.
"Why would you have a machine that does that?"
"It is intended to activate if the Irkan is dying!" Zim yelled. Then he realized what he said and turned away.
"Dying? You're dying? Of what?" Dib asked.
Zim paced over to the replicator. "In the first fall, you remember the bruises on my sides? Those were signs that my Ingler Blech had ruptured. From the initial bursting I had around two of your earth years left without a transplant."
"And you didn't tell me?" Dib demanded.
"Of course not! An invader goes on, ignores such things!" He turned back to the replicator. "My, our, son will go on. When I'm gone tell him about me."
"Zim, you." He stopped. "I don't know what to say."
"Don't say anything. Just promise you'll keep him safe." Zim said not looking at Dib.
"I, I promise Zim. I'll keep him safe."
Zim nodded to himself then walked off to the other side of the cavern leaving Dib to himself.
Also this fic is very loosely based on the movie. Very loosely.
By: Chaotica
Enemy Mine
Dib ran as fast as he could through the skool's halls. He had abandoned the impossibly huge hall pass some time ago. He could hear Zim scurrying around in the ceiling. Chasing him.
This wasn't like the last time. Zim wasn't after human organs. Zim was after him. Dib had stolen a hologram device from Zims' house. The Irkan was none too pleased with this.
Dib flung open a door and bolted down the steps to the boiler room. The massive heating unit churned away.
Zim dropped down in front of him using a pair of arms from his utility pack to grab him. Zim lifted Dib up three feet into the air.
"Now, human, give me my Hologram generator." Zim hissed.
Dib reached into his inside coat pocket then paused. What was that cracking sound?
"Give it to me!" Zim shook Dib with the grappling arm.
Suddenly a chunk of floor fell away. "What is this?" Zim asked kicking a chunk of rubble over the edge.
"The floor is falling away!" Dib screamed.
"What? What did you do?" Zim demanded just before the floor shattered beneath them.
* * *
Dib was the first to open his eyes. "Ungh." He muttered sitting up. He looked up and saw the faint outlines of giant boulders. Then he realized there was light around him. Something on the walls glowed a weird blue-green light.
"Zeriknen." Zim mumbled before he sat up. "What? Where am I?"
"I think we're under the skool." Dib said.
Zim stood up. "What did you do?"
"Me? I didn't do anything. I guess the floor just failed."
Zim inspected his utility pack. It sparked at him but did nothing much else. "Surely they will see the floor caved and find us."
"Pfft, yeah right. They never come down to the boiler room. It's probably older than Miss Bitters." Dib glanced around. They were in a cavern that was really very big. It was probably bigger than a football field and twice as high. "How did we survive that?"
Zim looked up. "I believe my pack saved us. It is programmed to react to save the Irkan it is attached to. Seems it decided to save you as well. Doesn't matter now anyway. It's broken. I'd need my lab to fix it."
Dib stood and started to explore. "Phosphorous luminescence." He muttered to himself. "At least we can see. I wonder what this used to be."
Zim wasn't paying any attention and was trying to contact Gir through his 'watch'. "Gir! Come in!" He got only static.
"I think we're going to be here for awhile."
"Shut up human. I will not be trapped here with you. Of all of your stupid stink beast race, you are by far the most annoying!" He threw a rock at Dib nearly hitting him.
"Hey stop that!"
Zim threw another rock.
Dib got mad and picked up a rock of his own. He winged Zim on his second try.
They glared hard at each other. Then Dib relaxed.
"This won't get us anywhere. We may be down here for a long time. We might as well make a truce." The human said.
"Why?" Zim asked crossing his arms.
"Well, if we're here for longer than a few months we'll need some else to talk to or we'll wind up talking to the walls. Haven't you ever seen CastAway? He talked to a volleyball. Is that how you want to go out?"
Zim thought a moment. "I suppose having a mind, even one so low level as yours is better than that."
"I'll take that as a compliment." Dib said sitting on a large rock. "We should probably see about some food." He glanced around. "Ooh yum, moss."
Zim gave him a look and opened his pack pulling out some small packages. "At least my replicator is still working." He eyed Dib before tossing him a package.
"What is it?" Dib asked.
"Food. I've noticed our races use the same components in the same ratios. Except for this substance you call 'salt'. I'm not quite sure what that is." He tried to open the food packet. "Grr, just open." He muttered.
Dib reached into a random pocket and pulled out a small pair of scissors and opened his. He held out the scissors to Zim warily.
Zim took them, opened his package then handed them back silently.
"Uh. How do I..." Dib asked letting his sentence trail.
"Just swallow it." Zim said popping the small cube in his mouth.
Dib shrugged and did the same. He suddenly felt full. That was a good sign.
While Zim sat on a rock grumbling to him self, Dib decided to explore.
He kicked a few rocks around and was caught off guard when a large bug-thing scuttled in front of him.
"Yeia!" He jumped back startled. The bug-thing twitched eyes that were perched on stalks at him and make small 'squeak' sounds.
"What? What is it?" Zim called from his rock.
"I, I don't know. It's huge!" Dib said. He tossed a rock at the giant bug and it scuttled backwards.
"Has it bitten you yet?"
Dib narrowed his eyes. "No Zim. I think Its' afraid of me."
Soft footsteps approached and soon Zim was peering at the creature. "Do you suppose we could eat it?"
"I don't know, I've never seen anything like it."
Zim gave him a look again. "You don't know what your own planets animals look like?"
"I don't know all of them. That's a lot of animals." Dib shot back defensively. "Besides, it looks like this species has been isolated for a long time."
Zim glowered down at the bug-thing then stormed off.
One Year Later
Dib nudged a rock with his toe. In one hand he held a makeshift spear made from one of Zims' 'Spider legs'. He stopped and jammed the spear into a crevice and pulled out a coke-bottle-sized larva. He pulled it off the spike and dropped it into a bag made from Big-Bug 'skins'.
He heard Zim rattling around on the other side of the cave. Lately the Irkan had been guarded around Dib. He hardly talked and when he did it was very little.
What could he have to hide?
"Yeargh!"
Dib looked up alarmed at the Irkan scream. He dashed over to the other side of the cave leaping over a few large rocks on his way.
"Zim!" He held his spear like a club now. "What?"
"Get it off!" Zim yelled. A Snake like creature was wrapped around his lower body, greenish fluid leaked out of a laceration on his face.
Dib smacked one end of the creature. It immediately let go of Zim and attacked in the direction of its new opponent. He managed to skewer the animal through its 'head' leaving it to writhe pinned to the ground.
Dib pulled Zim up and carried him far enough a way that if the animal got loose it couldn't find them.
"How bad are you hurt?" Dib asked.
Zim sat back. "My leg's hurt, and my face. How is it?"
Dib inspected the cut. "Not really bad, you could use a Band-Aid."
Zim gave him a humorless look. "Don't start with your Human medical ideals Dib." Then he muttered 'barbaric' under is breath.
"Might I remind you it was my races 'barbaric' medical ways that set your arm when you fell of the wall trying to climb out." Dib said.
Zim muttered a few curses in Irkan, Dib pretended not to understand. Turned out the little alien menace had quite a mouth on him.
"That has nothing to do with our current situation." He said indignantly. He stood up carefully favoring his hurt leg. "I will be fine."
Dib watched Zim hobble over to the replicator. It was no longer their main food source. They had found what was edible down here and what was not. But it still ran.
Zim put a hand on it as a strange unreadable look passed over his face.
Dib being a human, a creature that relies on emotion more than any race Zim had ever heard of, watched him curiously. If only it weren't true. The replicator was in full swing creating what it was meant to given the situation. But he knew something was wrong.
He glanced at the human who had turned away and was now cleaning the larva he had collected for their next meal. If only he knew why. If only he knew Zim was dying. If only he knew the small embryo that was being constructed in the replicator was his as well.
* * *
"Ze, nein grinto." Dib said stumbling over the Irkan words. Since Zim already knew English Dib had convinced him to teach him Irkan. It was slow going since the Human tongue was considerably thicker than the Irkan one.
"No, it's 'nain', not 'nein'." Zim said impatiently. He wasn't much of a teacher, but he had his reasons for doing this.
Dib sighed. "Ze, nain grinto." He said.
"Perfect."
Dib had just said 'Hail the Empire' in Irkan. A basic saying in Zims' culture.
"Now." Zim said capturing Dibs attention again. "Crein lige cher sin zine len." (You understand enough I think.)
"Trin shle lige greeg." (I'd like to understand more.) Dib replied.
Zim stood up. He was taller than when they had been lost. Only a few inches but then so was Dib.
"Dib. What do you know of children?" The alien asked.
Caught off guard Dib didn't immediately answer. "I know something about Human children. Why?"
"You know how I was raised. I know nothing of how to raise a child!"
Dib raised an eyebrow. "Wait, why is this coming up?" He paused. "Your pregnant?" He paused again, but before Zim could set him straight. "Well you can be sure I didn't do it!"
Zim gave him an aggravated look. "No, I am not pregnant, but it's close enough." He motioned to the replicator. "If you haven't noticed it's still been active. It's been constructing a child." He didn't look at Dib. "It is yours as well as mine. Seems when we fell it gathered your genetic material along with mine."
Dib sat there for a long moment. "So, this child is going to be half Human half Irkan?" He asked.
Zim nodded.
"Why would you have a machine that does that?"
"It is intended to activate if the Irkan is dying!" Zim yelled. Then he realized what he said and turned away.
"Dying? You're dying? Of what?" Dib asked.
Zim paced over to the replicator. "In the first fall, you remember the bruises on my sides? Those were signs that my Ingler Blech had ruptured. From the initial bursting I had around two of your earth years left without a transplant."
"And you didn't tell me?" Dib demanded.
"Of course not! An invader goes on, ignores such things!" He turned back to the replicator. "My, our, son will go on. When I'm gone tell him about me."
"Zim, you." He stopped. "I don't know what to say."
"Don't say anything. Just promise you'll keep him safe." Zim said not looking at Dib.
"I, I promise Zim. I'll keep him safe."
Zim nodded to himself then walked off to the other side of the cavern leaving Dib to himself.