***
"Nothing stands between us here and I won't be denied." – Sarah McLachlan "Possession"
***
When he came to a splitting headache greeted him. He rolled over flat on his back, and threw an arm over his face when the bright lights of the ceiling stabbed his eyes. God, he hated the light. I wish I had my gun I'd just aim it up like this and –
BANG!
Dib shot up with a shocked jerk, his eyes wide. "What the hell?" He looked at his hand and just stared at it with his mouth open. His gun. He looked up at the ceiling. The light straight above his head sparked and bits of glass dropped down. A couple of seconds of comprehension gave him some more pieces of vital information. His hands and feet were free; the packing twine lay strewn around him. Frowning he carefully got to his feet, absently rubbing at the small red oval-shaped mark on his forehead. It was warmer than the rest of his skin, which was clammy and cold to begin with.
"Who . . .?" He murmured in confusion. None of this made sense in the damn least. Standing caused a rush of blood came to his head and he had to stand there for a second until the fuzziness and disorientation wore off. Brushing bits of glass from his clothes, Dib stretched. Oooo, man, he was going to be feeling those aches for a long time, he could tell already. Working the kinks out from his neck, he turned about his space and made another discovery. The door to his cell. It was open.
Okay. This goes for double in the it's-weird-and-it's-getting-weirder-by-the-minute department.
Dib cast his eyes briefly toward the ceiling. "However the hell you're moving around up there, I think I'll leave this one alone." Catching himself, he smiled. Wow. Shaking his head, Dib explored the open cell door. Poking his head out carefully he looked both ways. Clear. Ducking back inside, he checked his weapon. "Whoa." Bullets. In fact, it seemed someone had taken the second clip and actually loaded it in there. When he checked his pocket, it was missing and the clip was full.
Good. Strange but good.
He smacked the clip back into the gun and moved out of the cell and into the passageway. Hold on a sec. Where am I going? I've never been here before. If I'm going to escape this place, I need to know what modes of transportation are available to me.
Picking a direction at random and letting gut feeling dictate where his feet took him, Dib explored his new situation. His only guess so far was he had to be on some sort of Irken vessel. A very large one to boot. Everything in surrounding was of the best up-to-date quality. Dib claimed to be no expert on Irken technology although he knew enough to get by. He hazarded as much as he had guessed so far based on what he'd learned from Tak long ago. When interest and need moved her, (and when he bothered her enough) she showed him how an Irken spacecraft worked. Heh, he even got her to teach him how to fly them. On their first flight, Tak had gripped her armrests and made a big show of praying and swearing. Nothing bad happened of course - Dib was more than capable - she just loved giving him a hard time.
God, I miss her. If only . . .
No. Dib shut his eyes for a moment and shook off the memory. He couldn't think about things he couldn't change. However there were things he could changed – that HAD changed. Like himself. War. Killing aliens. Being a hero. Those things just weren't important to him anymore. Funny how once they were the only things he cared about excluding everything else to the contrary. Was it too late to discover what truly were the things he cared for? If when he returned would he find this revelation in heartbreak? Let's cross that bridge when we get to it. If there's a better cliché to support it, I'll think of it later.
Where on God's earth am I?
Oh. Wait. A porthole.
Dib went to it and knelt down to look (the corridors were tall enough for him to walk through without having to duck but such wasn't the case with the windows). His eyes bugged out.
Black space with white dots. Lots and lots of them. The half sphere shape of the world took up most of the available view space. He exhaled on the glass. It fogged beneath his nose briefly. His rapture quickly became replaced by anxiety as it dawned on him what this meant.
God's earth he was not on.
Don't. Panic. All problems seek solutions. "Great." He got up and kept going. This was going to make things difficult. More than they already were though at this point he found it hard to believe.
Or was it? Doing a quick estimation in his head, Dib figured he'd been going at left turns and right angles for the past fifteen minutes. During this he hadn't run into Irkens or robots or ANYTHING. As far as he was concerned, the place was dead.
No wait, what about Zim? He's around here some place. What about him?
A distant shot interrupted his train of thought.
Automatically his trigger finger flexed. He started to rush forward. Wait. Hold it. Dib attuned his ears and listened for it again.
BAM!
Louder. It came from the next corridor, somewhere off to his right. Coming closer. Dib ducked behind the wall to the left, wrapping both hands around the gun, finger ready and steady on the trigger. Chancing it, he pressed himself flat against the surface and peered out and around.
Someone's coming.
A shadow appeared, long and growing shorter as the owner came closer and closer.
He heard footsteps. Finally he saw him. Dib's face hardened and his eyes squinted. Son of a bitch. Zim.
The Irken was running for his life. That much could be said for the fear on his face. His wide crimson eyes were terrified and unfocused. Sweat beaded his skin profusely, glistening slickly under the dim lighting. Every other stride was a limp because of an injury favored to his left foot. He paused to fire behind him and then kept going. A second later, Nia appeared after Zim. In contrast to her quarry's wild fear, her face and actions calm and calculated. There was no sweat. She was the hunter.
Like with me, Dib thought, only she wasn't trying to kill me. Here it looks like she means it.
I can't say I blame her.
Got to hide. They were closing in. Dib had no desire to pit against two enemies. He backed peddled fast and found a room to duck in. Peeking out, he made it in time to see Zim race by and Nia fire once, twice, three times. When they vanished, Dib came out again and crept after them.
***
While Dib was stalking quietly and unknowingly behind the two aliens, Zim reached a vast room filled with more computers and monitors than his personal chamber. The main deck. Lots of places to hide.
Taking brief pause, he checked behind him. Seeing an Irken pistol nose-to-nose up close and personal, he involuntarily peddled rearward. The small of his back touched a terminal workstation. Feeling that, his hands spread out over the controls behind him and he ran both claws along those as he moseyed his way around the room. Nia crept after him, her face somewhat cool, smug and deadpan. Slowly, methodically taking her time. The female Irken never did anything in a hurry. It's what made her invaluable as a soldier to the Empire - and for a brief time - to Zim. He silently cursed at not having seen her back stabbing inclination sooner or he would have destroyed her on the spot. Too late he had come to trust his inner admonition and now he was staring down the barrel of her gun.
This is what happens when you like the thing your hand feeds - eventually it bites you.
When she fired, he dove behind a chair. The shot glanced off the top of the seat leaving a burnt, charred mark. Unfortunately doing that twisted his ankle again, sending an even sharper pain up his left calve than previously. Good God, it was incredible. Gritting his teeth, Zim crawled on his hands and knees behind the other control panels, carefully keeping them between him and the shooter. Lying practically on the floor, he could see her feet as she moved about the deck. Using them as a guide, he crawled away from wherever direction they moved.
They were getting closer.
I don't want to do this but . . . Zim reached for his holster. Grasping his weapon, he handled it uncertainly. He hadn't used one in a while - albeit not having needed to touch a laser in several earth years. Hopefully his mighty brain still remembered how to aim and react to being fired upon. If his ducking stunt was anything to go by, those instincts were still sharp. Sharp enough to keep him from being killed, he could only hazard.
When I subdue her, he swore mutely. I will destroy her. Utterly. I will annihilate her until there's NOTHING left but nothing. Incinerate her slowly so she can feel every searing burn. I will enjoy that. I will enjoy that a lot.
"Oh Zi-im," Nia called after him in a singsong manner. By the sound of it, she was looking for him. "Now let's play fair. You know I hate waiting. Be a good little smeet head and take your poison."
Wait no more. Zim stood up and fired. He missed, of course. In seeing the error he dove down again to avoid the retaliation. Covering his head with his arms, he yelled. "What do you want?! If it's home you want, you got it! Zim says you can go! Goooooo!" By the time he reached the end of it, he had his hands together in psuedo prayer and rather oddly he was on his knees too. When he opened his lids again, Nia was just stepping around the rather large computer monitor he was huddled behind. She grinned. "Peek-a-boo." Oh that look on his face she would cherish forever.
"Poor deluded Zim," Nia cooed with acid sweetness. "You think it's all about you? I'll be going home but not yet. First," she moved toward him slowly as he crab walked frantically away from her, "I'm going to let you in on a little news flash: I don't like you. Second, you're a horrible invader." She laughed when his eyes bugged out. "Oh c'mon, Zim, wake up and smell the Blorch rat! You suck at being anything useful to the Empire. All you do and everywhere you go, chaos follows!" Driven to anger, she came at him faster and faster until he ran out of crawling space. "Did you HONESTLY think the Tallest had any confidence in you after what you did in Impending Doom I? Why did you think they sent you ME?"
Don't let her get to you. She can't be right. She CAN'T. When he thought to lift his laser again she swiftly kicked it from his hand. Zim glared at her and sprouted spider legs and jumped to the ceiling. Producing suction devices for his hands, he crawled over the ceiling using the metal extensions as leverage. For every well-aimed blast Nia fired, he gave into reflex and avoided every one of them.
"You know," Zim told her after she ran out and waited impatiently for her weapon to charge again. "I did trust you, Nia. I really thought out of everyone I had advising me, you had half a brain enough for the both of us. If I had known what a human-like bitch you were going to turn out to be, I would have killed you on the spot." Adding with dramatic sarcasm, "Annnnnd, I would have done it MYSELF!"
"Sure." Nia brought her gun up again. Big grin to go with it too. Zim tensed, eyes darting around. He couldn't keep dodging forever; he was running out of endurance and reaction time. If only he could get his . . . where was it . . . there! Near the door leading to cargo hold. Hmm, if he could get to his gun, go down that exit ramp and through to the hold, he'd have more space to defend himself. All cargo had been delivered the previous earth day so while lacking for cover he wouldn't be for maneuverability. I still have a chance.
By the time Nia fired again, Zim released himself from the suction devices and retracted his legs. He landed in a crouch and executed a neat little roll toward the exit, picking the snub nosed ally up on the way. To his feet he jumped in a smooth motion and darted down the dark recess tunnel.
"Clever," Nia chuckled, stroking the top of her weapon almost affectionately. "My little green friend continues his fantasy."
"As I recall," came a familiar male and very human voice from behind her, "you're pretty green yourself."
Then she felt something hard push against the back of her skull.
"Drop that . . . whatever the hell that is."
Oh how the tables do turn. Nia made a small smile, opened her hand and dropped the weapon. "I knew you'd come sticking your nose around here sooner or later."
"Thanks to you."
"Who me?" she feigned innocence.
"Yeah you. Zim wouldn't be that kind to me." Dib appeared in front of her, his gun leveled down. He was a lot taller than she thought. She kind of had to crane her neck to look up at him. "Where is he?"
Hands still raised to the sky, Nia jerked her head to the exit. "He went that way." She narrowed her dark green eyes at him. "Look," she said in a low voice. "Let's cut this shit out. We're both intelligent beings here aren't we? We want the same thing: Zim dead. If you let me go after him, I can solve both our problems."
Dib didn't move and his face remained impassive. "Ideologically that sounds great, but I'm going to have to pass, sweetheart."
Nia blinked. She had not expected him to object.
Dib explained. "All I want is a way to get back to earth. You can do whatever you want but I'm going home."
The female Irken stared at him incredulously. "So he can chase you for the rest of your short, pathetic life?" She waved her arms a little. "That idiot is fucking obsessed with you! He's sick! He NEEDS to die!"
Zim's not the only one obsessed with something. Dib allowed for an amused smile. "You don't think I know that?" He gestured in the general direction the alien had disappeared in. "I've known him since I was twelve. I know how he gets. I don't know WHY he gets like he gets but at this pointing giving a shit about it anymore is furthest from my mind."
His gun was off her. Taking a chance, Nia swept up her weapon. Dib lifted his again.
Stalemate.
"I've got my own score to settle with you, Dib," Nia said through her teeth, backing toward the exit ramp. "You and me aren't done by halfway. After I kill Zim, I'm coming for you."
Then she disappeared.
Dib lowered his gun and punched himself in the head. Swearing under his breath, he made after her. All the while he gave his conscience grief. Why? Why couldn't he bring himself to shoot her? Maybe it was because of the way he'd taken pity on her, helpless and bleeding to death in that ravine. Certainly when he looked at her, he kept remembering that. Rebellious, smart and devious. A total bitch. She reminded him of . . .
By the time it hit him he almost tripped as he sprinted to a stop. He moaned. "Oh fuck…."
I can't identify with this I can't identify ANYTHING with this. Not if I want to get out of here alive.
He shook it off and forced himself to press on. Getting off this thing was going to be impossible unless he did something about Nia and Zim. While his dearest wish was to leave them both to die in their own bloody self-righteousness, he knew he couldn't run away from this one. It was time to stop running. Here were two monsters that were connected to him by weird and freakish circumstances. One who he sensed respected him as an adversary and possessed enough honor to fight fair. Who probably did so because of the compassion he had shown her but was too loyal to her own to be grateful for it and this was the only way she knew how to repay him in kind. The other he'd known as a child, who didn't fight fair, who maliciously hurt and broken him in every way possible. Who devoted every bit of energy into his own excess self-worth and interests at the cost of EVERYTHING and for which he deserved this fate he was now spiraling toward.
By the time Dib's thoughts had climbed its peak, he'd reached the cargo hold. Hiding just inside the entrance, he watched.
Zim and Nia were going at it. Neither actually possessed any real advantage over the other. They were equally matched physically, mentally and emotionally. The only problem was Zim was a bit slow because of his ankle and caught a couple of close calls.
Totally focused on killing each other, it filled their black souls so completely; the ardor ran with the sweat down their lime colored skins.
Zim rolled to avoid a shot and from his horizontal position, he returned the blessing with twice the passion.
In standing there, Dib realized he was in a unique situation. He was partially hidden and he had a clear field of range. They both could be taken out easily, like at a game at a carnival. Bang would go one, bang would go the other.
Now was THAT fair? Hell no.
Whoever said war was fair? All's fair in love and in war.
Nia cackled when Zim winced as his bad ankle twisted and caused him to stumble. The other alien frowned through glazed eyes of pain and cursed her. She only laughed again and danced out of another discharge.
But . . . . Dib stared at Zim. He hurt Gaz . . . he hurt me . . . And her . . . she shot me, she mocks me for being unable to . . . because she knows I can't . . . because I won't.
Dib sighed. Truly what was there to do? Fate had never gambled in his favor. It didn't in the past against all odds and there was no reason for it to start changing direction in the present. So as he watched them play their deadly song and dance of death, he came to a stone's throw.
Let them kill each other. Let whatever the hell Michelle thought was so great up there decide.
Then suddenly, in the strange way coincidence runs, it decided.
Zim ran out. When he aimed to shoot and pulled the trigger, he got a clicking sound. He tried several times rapidly but the loud brisk clicking told all. Horrified at his misfortune, Zim dropped it and started to back away, searching around frantically for escape. Except for the exit ramp from the deck, the cargo hold was effectively a trap. There was nowhere to run. Zim's stream of life's luck had run out - finally.
Dib tensed, reasserting his clammy grip. Now or never.
Despite the playing field tilted in her direction, Nia advanced on her prey. Apparently she wanted to rub his defeat in his face before giving him over to it. "Want to leave me a little something to keep me up at night, Zim?"
Zim glared at her. "Nothing I could come up with would be enough to keep you up at night. I think a mirror would suffice on its own."
"Oh come on." She smiled sweetly. "There has to be SOMETHING."
Long pause. Suddenly Zim grinned. It was the nastiest, dirtiest grin Dib had ever seen. It gave him the shivers.
"There is something."
"Pray tell."
Zim appeared to swallow and then he spoke. "Ta nil ba'ka!"
Oh. My. God. Dib's mouth creaked open in shock. Had to be, quite literally, the filthiest thing said in the Irken language to another Irken.
A storm cloud moved over Nia's face. The heat in it was intense. Her rage was so great her little body trembled. She took a threatening toward Zim, the blood red heat burning in her murky eyes.
BANG!
Nia leapt and whipped around on Dib who had stepped out and fired a single shot into the air. Seeing him, amusement lit her eyes. "Oh isn't this nice, both of my boyfriends are here."
Meanwhile Zim only stared at Dib. Under his breath he murmured, "You're alive." I thought he was dead, I thought I killed him, I can't believe he's not dead . . . But instead of being upset about it, he realized this made him happy. It made him happier than he ever thought he could be.
Dib sighted her. "I thought you played fair, Nia."
"Fair? Whoever said I played fair?" Suddenly a leg came from her pak, hooked Zim around the middle and drew him in to her even as he tried to run away. She put the weapon to his head and encircled her arm around his neck like a lover.
"Curse you!" Zim shrieked frantically kicking and elbowing at her. "Release me or you will suffer most horribly!" The gun rammed in pointedly. He ceased struggling. "Or not."
Nia grinned. You could tell she loved every second of his fear. God, it was sickening.
Dib frowned. "Why are you turning this into a hostage situation? I don't give a rat's ass about him."
A second of hurt flickered across Zim's face followed by darkness.
Nia shrugged and moved the thing down the length of Zim's body. "Hostage? Nah. I'm just having fun." She tightened her grip around her former boss's neck and gave it a quick, hard jerk. He choked. "Aren't we?"
Meekly, Zim nodded. He seemed miserable.
"That's pretty fucking cold."
"Oh and what was it he did to you?" Nia shot back. "This is a space walk to the stars compared to that slice of hell you call your whole life. Don't tell me you don't want him to suffer for his evils."
"His evils? How about your evils?" Dib challenged. "Where do your loyalties lie, Nia? Your uniform is the same color as his."
"Not anymore."
Zim made a strangled gasp and arched over. His eyes bulged. Nia pushed him aside casually. A tiny wisp of steam came from the barrel of her weapon. Zim stumbled and fell to his side, clutching his stomach. Green blood steeped rapidly into the fabric of his uniform. After a second of lying there, a pool began to spread around him.
"NO!" The word screamed from Dib. He squeezed the trigger.
She dropped to the floor heavily, without a sound. Zim curled into a fetal position, rocking back and forth. Painfully he lifted his head, craning to see what had happened to her. Dib approached Nia's still body and turned it over with his foot.
There was a bullet hole between her eyes.
"Enough." He sounded calm and quiet. Gradually he turned his attention to Zim who made a small sound of fear and painfully tried to crawl away. A long streak of blood followed him.
When Dib began walking toward him he began to make a strange mewling sound. A mewl that sounded exactly like the sound Nia had made in the ravine and the female Irken had made in the ICU.
Dib lifted the gun. No more.
Ready.
A single tear appeared under Zim's eye.
Aim.
The tear ran.
Fire.
Snap.
Snap.
Snap.
Zim closed his eyes and sighed heavy and shaky.
Dib looked at the gun. "Thing jams a lot." He tinkered with it, making sure while he did so it pointed away from his body.
Seizing the opportunity, the alien tried to speak. "Dib . . . wait . . ."
"Wait?" Dib asked quietly, glancing at him, almost conversationally. "How much longer?" Click. "Got it."
"No longer," Zim was in anguish. "But you won't – you wouldn't - "
"Yes, Zim." Dib told him gently. "Yes, I would."
The alien tried again to crawl despite his strength being practically gone. It was amazing how much stamina the little guy had. Dib followed him, the abysmal anger rising steadily with growing strength. He narrowed his eyes into two fierce slits of hard amber. "Why?" he said darkly. "Tak, Michelle. My sister. Area 51. The whole human race, the whole fucking planet. Why?" A tear slipped loose and streamed down his cheek. Still broken. Always broken. "WHY?"
"Promise me you won't give into your hate, Dib. This is really important to me."
"I don't know!"
Oh Gaz, you don't know what he's like. His death at my hate is what he created.
"Like hell you don't!"
But he doesn't understand what he's done to you, don't you realize that? He doesn't care!
"I DON'T KNOW!"
Then make him understand. Make him care.
"Goddammit," Dib angrily rubbed the tear away with the heel of his free hand. "I hate you. You deserve to die."
He started to walk away.
Zim began screaming.
Unable to stand it, he turned and yelled at Zim. "SHUT UP!"
The alien ignored him.
Dib put both hands over his ears to block out the noise. "Shut up," he said to himself faintly, mournfully, trembling. "Just . . . . shut up."
Struggling, Zim propped himself up on his hands. Gradually Dib looked up at him.
For a long time they stared at each other.
Then it happened. Dib found himself coming over and kneeling at his rival's side. Zim's small hands clutched at the human's shirt. Without warning, the alien began to shake violently as if from an inward chill. His eyelids kept dropping, each blink a physical struggle. Everything in Dib screamed against it. But he reached down and slipped an arm carefully beneath the alien's tiny body and held him close. Zim responded by wrapping his tiny skinny arms around Dib's neck. Wordlessly, Dib cradled his nemesis in his arms and moved to leave. He paused to regard Nia's silent form. Her eyes were open and staring, her face frozen in surprise. The first and last time the young Irken soldier Nia could have been taken by surprise. Only in death.
Many minutes passed. All the while he stood there, saying nothing, thinking nothing. Shifting Zim to his other arm, he knelt by her side, reached out to her face and closed her eyes. Then he stood again and left the cargo bay.
***
Two Hours Later . . . . . . . . . . .
Watching the earth spin beneath his tiny ship, Dib felt something he hadn't felt in a long time. It took a while for him to find a name for the warmth inside of him and when he found it, it grew. He decided it was the best feeling in the universe.
Finding an Irken ship large enough to accommodate his height had been difficult enough without having to worry about bumping his head every time he moved around the now very obviously abandoned space station. He winced as he shifted in his soft seat. Not to mention the inconceivable lingering dull pain in his shoulder. Though he easily patched that little problem up with the rudimentary medical supplies in one room serving as sickbay, he couldn't find anything to kill the pain. Everything there had been made for Irken patients so he had had very little to go on.
Oh well. Gauze and swearing every now and again worked wonders.
On the other hand, what worked against his convenience worked for Zim's. The alien came to briefly and helped Dib help him by reading the labels on the equipment for the human. It wasn't easy. The alien's mind was in a daze, he didn't seem to know where he was half the time. His pak kept having to restart his breathing until Dib managed to stop the bleeding. According to a scan, all vital organs had been missed - amazing since so much blood had been lost. Between fighting his respiratory fluxes and being oblivious to immediate surroundings, Zim kept muttering unintelligibly. At first Dib thought he was trying to speak to him but he stopped paying attention when he listened to some of the stuff he was saying. Most of it wasn't worth minding.
It's what usually happened when you had a fever. Irkens were no exception.
So Dib injected him with a sedative.
After tending to their injuries, Dib continued to explore the rest of the place until he found the docking port. Selecting the biggest ship, he was dismayed to learn all of them had only one seat and no room in the back for anything else. Just his type of luck.
It didn't matter now. He was going home.
Zim started to move around in his sleep. Dib rolled his eyes and endured it. It's what he had to put up with until he figured out where he could land without worrying about being shot down by the military. Thankfully Zim was so small, he fit on the human's lap comfortably. His head rested on the human's shirt, stained with a mixture of dried alien blood and his own. If he closed his eyes, he could pretend Zim was a small child. It actually felt kind of nice sitting there like that. It must be what mothers feel with their babies, Dib mused. Maybe it's why we have so many of them. For those few and far in between moments of peace and quiet reflection.
He looked down at the Irken again and couldn't help smiling. Part disbelief, part amazement. Unbelievable. Hadn't it only been a short time ago this was the very same creature that had tortured him? The same who was responsible for this entire war, for thousands dead, for warping his mind and others minds into shells of their former selves? Wasn't this the evil alien creature whose arrival into his life so many years ago changed it forever – forcibly robbing him of his childhood?
Wasn't this his mortal enemy?
Yes to all, yet here I am holding him in my arms, thinking about how nice this is. There had to be something absurdly wrong with that. Cosmically wrong.
He's the enemy. He's MY enemy. It won't mean anything to him. He doesn't understand the concept nor the enormity of what I've done for him.
He didn't deserve my compassion. Still . . . I don't care. I can't help it. I can't stand there and let him die. I can't. I don't know what made me do it before with Nia - why I was able to do it before. All I know is it's just not me. Let's face it while we're running. No matter how badly I want to kill him, no matter how much he deserves to die, no matter how sick I am of the shit he puts me through I just can't live without the bastard.
And I don't think he can live without me.
Could he live with it knowing that?
I think I can.
Dib rocked his head back and let it bump gently against the back of his seat. He exhaled slowly. He chuckled. Boy, if THAT wasn't fucked up! He couldn't wait to see Gaz and tell her about it. That was the best thing about it. He would be able to tell her.
Zim's eyes opened. The sedative had worn off. For a few moments, he stayed still, blinking, staring into space. Eventually he began to look around and as he did he sat up. There was a child-like curiosity on his face. Seeming not to notice Dib, he shifted around on the human's lap and got a full load of his surroundings. He spied earth outside and lingered on it for a bit. His claw absently teased across his heavily gauzed mid-section, touching the folds of it between his fingers. Then bit by bit, mindful of his wound he shifted around again and peered up at the human. Dib almost smiled when their eyes met.
The alien opened his mouth. Closed it. But whatever he wanted to say, he decided not to. Instead he settled into the crook of the human's elbow and laid his head against his good shoulder. He exhaled audibly.
"Dib."
"Yeah?" Dib closed his eyes and let the tension ease from his muscles. A couple of hours of sleep and then he'd try to land, he decided.
"Why?"
For the longest time, it didn't look like he was going to answer. But then he did.
"Why not?"
It was the last thing the human said before drifting off. Zim sat up again and stared at him, studying his lanky profile.
"Stupid human," he murmured in reply as a small smile stretched across the alien's face, a smile faintly echoing the one Dib gave him before. Yes. He knew now the answer the human had asked of him so desperately. The answer that eluded him for as long as this earth-monkey had been a part of his world, fueling his fervor, feeding his drive to conquest. The reason why this one human's very existence had given his life something he'd never forget.
He must know. But first he needs to hear what I owe him. It'll never be enough but . . . he needs to know it before anything else happens.
Zim brushed the human's cheek with his knuckles.
"Hmm?" the human stirred.
"I'm sorry."
He opened his eyes.
Heart hammering, Zim shrank back.
But all Dib did was smile. He went back to sleep.
After a long moment, the alien leaned against Dib's arm again and watched the earth beneath them. He imagined he saw the sunlight glance off the ocean, into the atmosphere and out to the stars.
***
A/N: That's not the end. The next chapter is the conclusion. This chapter had been hell to write – I wanted to get it just right. I hope I did.