A/N: Yes, yes, I do realize that it's been awhile since I've done a chapter to this, but I've finally picked it up from the fact that skool starts tomorrow, and if I don't finish it soon, it will never get done. This is the last short chapter, because after this they'll probably be really long from me trying to stuff them all into the same one (I'm trying not to turn this into a 20 chapter story, k?
Okay. Things are going to get VERY confusing VERY fast. I got tired of using the words 'the pale boy' and 'the green boy' to describe Dib and Zim, so I did a quirky little thing toward the end. Pay attention to detail, and pay attention to perspective. Don't worry, it's not going to go on like that forever :) Probably just until the next chapter.
Also, please taken in mind, that Dib and Zim do remember things that come naturally to them, but they don't remember much about *themselves*. They can name inanimate objects as well as animate.. and... well, it will all be explained later. Just read on and don't kill me for taking so long.

Chapter 8: What's in a Name?

"AHHH!" the green boy wasn't expecting the pale boy to turn back so suddenly, and he fell back, stumbling into some shrubbery behind him.
"Hey! Are you okay?" the other boy asked. Securing the robot dog and trench coat under his arm, he walked over to the shrubbery and poked his head in. "Hi."
The green boy looked up at the newcomer, blushing slightly at his stupidity, and pulled a stick from out of his hair. "Um... hi."
"Need a help up?" the pale boy offered his hand.
"I suppose," the gesture was accepted, and upon standing the green boy dusted himself off, giving the pale boy an odd glance. "I know you!... Don't I?"
"I dunno," he shrugged. "I sure don't."
"Great," the green boy rolled his eyes. Tersely, he said, "I was /hoping/ you could help me, but apparently you cannot." He turned and began to walk off.
"Hey- hey wait!" the pale boy rushed after him, awkwardly, for the robot still encased in his hand had suddenly felt heavy in his tired arms. "Look at where we are. There's no way we'll be able to find home if we just walk off our separate ways."
The green boy seemed to cock and eyebrow. "And just how do you know if 'home' is even around here?"
"I... I... uh..."
"I didn't think so," he sneered. "But you seem to be correct. Going off our separate ways will solve nothing."
"Good," the pale boy nodded, and shifted the weight of the robot in his arms. He pointed to the stream. "It looks like I was carried down here from the river. I was planning on following it up, so that maybe I could find my way back."
"So you're not as stupid as you look," the green boy mumbled amusedly, and began to walk upwards. He watched as the paler one slowly stumbled to catch up in back. "The boy is obviously an alien," he thought. "His skin is so... pale. And his eyes... why are they so strange looking? But he has his own SIR, so of course he should be of my kind... shouldn't he?" He took this moment to peer into the river below him (which still continued to send chills up his spine) and realized that he also had eyes like the boy's behind him. What...? He blinked and touched them lightly with his hands, realizing they had to be artificial eyewear. "So /I/ am the one in disguise," he thought to himself. His hands moved up to a lump of hair that sat a top his head, and his pressed it, already feeling his antennae ache from the pressure. He wanted to take it off, but this was no place for that now. If that... boy behind him was who he thought he was, he would have to tread carefully.
The pale boy huffily tried to keep up, already annoyed by the green boy's haughtiness and lack of concern for his well being. Not that he was /required/ to be concerned over such a thing, but at *least* he could be a little more well mannered than he already was.
"Can... you... hold... on?" the pale boy huffed after a while.
"Hold on? We've just barely begun!" the green boy said, annoyed again and turned around. Noticing the boy's fatigue, he sighed. "I suppose that we could rest for a while."
"Thank... you..." the pale boy said through his gasps, leaning onto his knees. The sun had now begun to rise higher, and it was getting warmer by the second. The air, no longer having that cool chill of wind every so often, was stuffy, and made breathing harder. The pale boy laid his jacket with the robot to the side, and leaned down to drink from the river. He stopped, noticing the curious look he got from the green boy. "Aren't you going to have any? You'll get dehydrated at this elevation."
"No," the green boy shook his head. "That's quite all right."
The pale boy scrutinized him in the newfound light, noticed his odd features- the green, olive-like skin. The lack of a nose. And the strange clothing that he had /never/ seen before. He cocked his head slightly as he observed him, and finally opened his mouth, "You're not normal looking... You have green skin!"
"YOU'RE the one not normal looking!" the green boy accused back, angry that this boy had judged *him* of not being normal. "Your skin isn't even colored! What kind of a person has skin that's so... pale?"
"If you haven't noticed, green boy," the pale one said with a slight sneer, "Most /normal/ people have skin that aren't odd colors like yours."
The green boy looked around. "Oh, yes, of course. Let me look at the plethora of people around here and compare their skin to mine."
The pale boy blushed slightly at his own foolishness, and realized the green one was right. How could he judge what was normal and what wasn't, when there wasn't anything normal around him to compare it with? For all he knew, this boy in front of him could have a skin condition. He turned his head and began to drink again, and an idea came to him. If that robot he found was broken, he could easily use it as a thermos! That way, he could carry water with him at all times in case they had to veer away from the river for some reason.
He carefully pulled the robot out of his jacket, and was about to lower it into the water when-
"WHAT do you think you are doing?" the green boy snapped, and pulled the robot away from him.
"Hey!" the pale boy stood up. "That's mine!"
"Really?"
"Umm... well... sort of. I /found/ him."
"You aren't even sure it's yours, and you're about to use him as a thermos," the green boy said frankly.
"So? It's broken anyway," he said, gesturing toward the robot.
"Stupid boy!" the green one sneered. "/I/ can fix this thing."
"You can? How? You have no spare parts."
The green boy started, but he had to vacillate for a moment. He /could/ prove this boy wrong, and fix this robot. After all, whether he owned it was questionable after all. But that would endanger him. If this boy was in some way a.... /threat/ to him... well, he couldn't go revealing everything to him. But still... the pale boy knew as much about who he was as he did, and even less about the situation they were in. He wouldn't know the difference.
"I have a special backpack," the green boy said finally, and as if by indication, at that moment the spider-like metal legs unfolded themselves from his back and stretched out to show off their full potential. "These things have been designed to serve as an alternate repairing source in times of emergencies."
"Wow..." the pale boy said, gazing in awe at the machinery before the green boy grew too embarrassed to have them out and had them fold back into the backpack again. "That is so cool! Where did you get those?"
The green boy sighed, shaking his head. "How am I supposed to know?" he wanted to answer, but instead it came out as, "Were you a monkey in your past life or were you just /born/ stupid?"
"Actually, monkeys are quite intelligent- Hey!" the pale boy glared at the green one as it dawned on him.
The green boy simply shook his hand and then tossed the robot back to the other boy, who surprisingly caught it, though not without struggle. "I'll fix it tonight, when it's not so hot. We should keep traveling. It seems as though the weather conditions will not remain as 'pleasant' as they are now, for it must still be morning."
"Okay," the pale boy said, grabbing his jacket and whipping it into the air to get the dirt off, then wrapping the robot unit in it. He looked up and found that once again, the green boy had gained distance on him, and broke out into a trot to catch up.
***********************
The green boy was right, because it *did* become increasingly warm as the day wore on. Eventually, the duo was forced to find shade under a tree until things became cooler. The shade wasn't all that cool itself, but it was certaintly a relief from being directly out in the sun.
"I'm hungry," the pale boy groaned as he sat down, clutching his stomach and laying the robot and jacket to the side.
As much as he hated to admit to his own weakness, the green boy silently agreed. He looked around, but he knew it would be useless because nothing looked familiar to him anyway. "I don't know of anything we can eat that's around here."
The pale boy looked around. "We could try mushrooms but... I wouldn't. There's to great a chance it'd be poisonous. Hmm.... there's berries, but I haven't seen a berry bush our entire time up here."
The green boy's eyes fell on a patch of growth just beneath a tree that looked lush enough. "What about that stuff?"
"Moss?" the pale boy laughed, but sighed, because he seemed too exhausted to do so anymore. Already he was dirty and sweaty from having to walk so long so far, on an empty stomach, and even worse, with his injuries from his 'accident' (at least he supposed it was this). He blinked, his eyes already beginning to hurt, and feeling moist themselves from watering up because of the intensity of the sun. "I... guess... but I mean... it's moss."
"So? It is a supplement that will suffice us for now," the green boy said, and leaned forward, scraping a handful off the tree. Knowing that it would only prevent him from eating further if he decided to 'try' it before eating it, he stuffed the entire thing in his mouth and chewed.
"So...?" the pale boy asked. "Is it any good?"
The green boy attempted not to show a face of disgust that suddenly overcame him, and then grimly nodded his head, gulping the stuff down and wishing desperately for something sweeter to get that other taste out of his mouth. "Yeah. Delicious."
The pale boy cocked his eyebrow, and slowly leaned down and grabbed a handful himself, following the same procedure the green boy had taken, and most likely for the same reason. His face lit up. "Wow! This stuff /is/ good!" he said, and leaned forward to grab some more.
The green boy shuddered at this sight, and turned away, looking up toward the mountain. He hoped it would get dark soon, but knew that if it did so, it would only hinder their journey upward. The heat that had encased him was too much to bear, however, so he didn't care that they would have to stop traveling. Where /were/ they going anyway? he wondered to himself.
"So um... um..." the pale boy began, then held up his hand as he gulped down the last of the moss as if he gestured the other to wai. "Um, what /is/ your name?"
"I don't know who I am. Do you REALLY expect me to know my name?" the green boy said, slightly agitated that this boy kept asking him stupid questions.
The pale boy shrugged. "You never know."
The green boy slid back to the ground, exasperated. "Well *this* certainly doesn't improve our situation."
The pale boy thought for a moment. "Gaz...? No... Gir! Yes! That's it! Your name was Gir!"
The green boy stared at him for a second with a cock-eyed expression. "How would you know that?"
"I... I just have this feeling that I remember you. And those two names were the first to pop into my head, so you *must* be one of them."
"Gir? It certainly sounds familiar..." he paused for a second and decided to try it out. "Gir. My name is Gir."
"Yes! That works out. Now... do you happen to know my name?"
'Gir' thought for a second. "You said a name earlier that reminded me of something..."
"Gaz?"
"Yes. That rings a bell."
"But Gaz is a girl's name..."
"Maybe not."
He opened his mouth to say something then decided to shut it. He shrugged and looked deep in thought. "No... it can't be Gaz. It doesn't sound right."
'Gir' thought for another second. "There's a name I'm thinking of, but it doesn't suit you. I don't know why... it just doesn't feel right to call you it."
"Try it out and we'll see," the pale boy said, eager, hoping that possibly this would be his name.
"Well... the name is Keef."
"Keef? That sounds familiar to me."
"So your name is Keef?"
"I... don't know."
"Well then I'll call you Keef, for now," 'Gir' said to the pale boy.
"Okay, 'Gir'," 'Keef' said to the green boy.
The two exchanged a solemn grin, and then 'Keef' sighed, leaning back on the tree. "I'm going to take a nap, okay?"
"Sure," 'Gir' said, deciding that he, too, was exhausted, and it really didn't seem to be any danger in simply taking a nap here.
"And Gir?" 'Keef' said as he laid his head back, softly patting the robot that he had sat next to him.
"Yeah?"
"I'm really glad that I didn't have to do this alone."
'Gir' thought for a moment. It was an awkward thing to say, and even more awkward a thing to respond to. But his own doubt was overweighed by the feeling he got from what how he wished to respond right then, and even more, what he felt. They were alone here, so it wasn't like he was supposed to be highly embarrassed if he said something utterly foolish, right? A minor headache formed from all this deep thinking, so finally Gir sat back, responding, "Me too." But as he glanced over at 'Keef', he realized that the pale one was already asleep.