Very looong A/N: ahhh, I'm so sorry this chapter took so long to churn out (even if it was…er… a few days…), I hit a dry spot (no inspiration), and then when I did finish this chapter, both editor and backup-editor dropped out, so I spent some time looking for another editor but nobody could do the job. So, this chapter is probably laced with typos, or grammar mistakes, and I'm sorry about that too… if anyone would be kind enough to point out any mistakes they could see, I'd be happy to change them.
I know, y'all are probably sick of me talking now, so I'll end the A/N right here. With the disclaimer. And then the fic. Whoo! ^_^d
Disclaimer: I own not even the lint in my pockets. So I don't own this.
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Dib sighed. He had long since given up trying to escape the room he was trapped in. Whenever he tried to, the computer sent out those metal vine things to stop him. Earlier, Zim had ordered the computer to restrain him. But Dib certainly hadn't expected to be detained into a bedroom. Given, it was an ugly bedroom, covered in 'Zim hearts earth!' posters and nothing like an earthling's room at all, but hardly something one was supposed to be trapped in.
The Human was sitting on the bed that was the only piece of furniture in the room, and shivering slightly. Dib pulled the ever-present black trench coat closer to himself and sneezed. Now, Dib was sure he was sick, doomed and depressed. What a…wonderful… mix, he thought sarcastically. Dib sneezed again, and one of the computer's metal arms shot out of a wall, carrying a spray bottle of antibiotic germ killer. The computer sprayed around the room, destroying any germs Dib managed to send across the room with his sneeze, and then retracted its arm back into the wall, amazingly enough staying silent the whole time.
Almost reluctantly, Dib realized he was sleepy, despite having fallen asleep earlier (albeit in rain). Glaring at the bed he sat on, Dib silently asked himself, what was the harm? Pausing to glance around a bit uncomfortably, Dib scooted back onto the bed, and laid down. The boy crossed his arms, then curled up in a ball, trying to take up as little space as possible. It was only a matter of moments until Dib was asleep.
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Zim glared at his hands as he sat in front of a computer down in his lab with a huge screen that covered nearly all of the wall. He wasn't quite sure why he was angry, but he was. Zim didn't know what had possessed him to save the Dib-worm, but it felt right. He didn't want the human to die.
Maybe it was because Dib was the only intelligent being on the little ball of dirt Zim was supposed to conquer. Maybe it was because he liked a challenge. But Zim couldn't find a specific reason for getting Dib out of the rain. He just did. And all Zim could do while pondering the subject was let his mind jump from one extreme to the other.
Penetrating Zim's thoughts, a beep echoed out from the computer. The Irken looked up from trying to glare a hole in his hands to see the words, 'Transmission: Incoming' above a bar that was slowly filling up. (A/N: I don't really know if this happens in the show, it's been forever so I'm making most of this up. -_-0)
Zim's antennae pricked up. "The Tallest!" He squeaked: the Tallest had never bothered to contact him before; it was always him contacting them.
In a few moments, the screen flickered and twisted, then cleared. The two Tallest sat on a couch, watching their end of the screen before talking. Zim blinked; the Tallest looked different from usual. Purple looked tired, and Red looked almost the same way, except that Red had an odd fire in his eyes, something like hate.
Zim paled slightly, never having seen the Tallest like that he had no other idea how to react. Zim watched the two, much taller, Irkens, each figure waiting for the other to speak first. Finally, Red broke the silence, but not by speaking to Zim. "Tell him already!"
Purple winced slightly, closing his eyes. Moving one hand, Purple rubbed his temple, breathily muttering something quietly. Finally Purple opened his eyes, looking straight at Zim, and spoke. "You're not coming back to Irk, Zim. Ever."
Red leaned back on the couch, looking at Purple sideways and asking, "Now, was that so hard? Anyways." Red looked back at Zim, whose jaw was hanging open in shock. "You're a…problem-creating thing." Purple rolled his eyes slightly at his companion's use of words, but Zim was too shocked to notice. "And as of now, you're stuck on that dirt-ball."
Zim blinked. Once, twice. Finally, the short Irken managed to breathe out a word. "…What…?" a choked laugh escaped from Zim's throat, quiet and unbelieving. "Y-you must be joking, my Tallest, why would you leave an Invader like me—"
Red cut Zim off. "An Invader like you could destroy all of Irk." Purple added in then, "In fact, you nearly did. If we kept you around, you'd wreck everything."
"The truth is, we hate you!" Red continued in a standoffish tone. By this time, Zim was pale and trembling all over, staring up at the Tallest like a beaten dog.
Red's eyes were burning now with a deep hate that was directed at Zim. Purple still looked tired, like he didn't want to be going through the situation at all. Silence rung out for a while after Red's declaration.
Zim turned his gaze to the floor, mind blank. Red's voice rung out, a mild disdainful tone evident in his voice. "Now, leave us alone, before we turn off all the power in your base." Uncaringly tossed in, Red continued. "Your Vootrunner will self-destruct in a few minutes, by the way."
There was another silence, a bit longer this time. Red asked, impatiently, as he gazed down cruelly at the shaking figure of Zim, "Well? Do you understand us?"
Zim snapped his gaze up, and Red found himself on the receiving end of a glare that, if looks could kill, would have killed him many times over. Pure fury blazed in the small Irken's eyes, only enhanced by their red color. Lunging forward, Zim hit a button on the computer, and the screen flashed off into black.
Closing his eyes tight, Zim choked an anguished, and angry, scream out, hands balled into fists as they slammed onto the keyboard below the computer. Unleashing his anger, Zim clawed at anything within his reach, just wanting to tear it apart, to take his anger out on something, pretending everything he ripped through was some bodily part of one of the Tallest. In a few moments, Zim had dented, ripped, slashed up and otherwise destroyed most everything he could get his hands on. He even ripped through a power cord.
The room was dark. The computer's screen flashed, went completely black. No light was in the room. Then the computer automatically started up again. A dull, small light flickered from the computer screen as white marks in the Irken language scuttled across the screen, the white contradicting the black and lighting up the slashed keyboard, the chair with a hole punched through it, and many wires that lay about uselessly.
Zim's breathing was the only noise in the room, apart from a quiet electric whirring from the computer. The Irken's red eyes reflected the light, glowing slightly because of it. There was a shuffling noise and Zim moved backwards, to the darker part of the room.
While no one was there to see it, Zim felt safe expressing himself in the way he next did: the Irken crawled back into the dark, hiding behind a stray piece of metal and curling into a tight ball. Quiet, almost silent dry sobs echoed around the large room as Zim mourned the great loss he suffered that day.
The loss of a home.