Dib was asleep, but his eyes were open. He could feel something pulsating deep within his brain; at the core of his mind. Something was taking things from him.

Something was taking away the memory of life.

No! he screamed at it, trying to force it away. He couldn't move his body. Thinking the word made his head sear with white-hot pain, but he didn't care. He thought it again. No! No! No!

Quickly! Finish it! Someone else's voice. In his head? How would someone get into his head?

I'm trying, okay?! Yet another stranger's voice. He glanced around; yes, it was definitely coming from inside of his head. There was no one else in the room with him.

Wait…what room?

Dib tried to blink, but nothing happened. His entire body was frozen. He didn't seem to need to breathe. Am I dead? he wondered, hit immediately afterward with another surge of mind-splitting pain. That strange throbbing continued, but the pace was quickening. The second stranger was working faster.

No, you're not dead, the first voice said. Now it was talking to him. Was it trying to calm him down? Dib didn't know. But for whatever reason, it felt natural and all right. It didn't feel out of the ordinary.

But, after the rain, what was ordinary?

A painful, explosive snapping noise filled his ears, and Dib was suddenly able to move again. His back arched on impulse as he gasped for breath, his eyes shut tightly. Blood trickled out of his left ear, and he was suddenly aware that he was dry.

Too dry, he thought, and this time, it didn't hurt.

He opened his eyes, praying for sight, and he realized that it had finally stopped raining. No longer did the sheets of red envelop him. He was drifting on the sea again, although it wasn't dampening his body. His skin seemed to have a natural repellant over it. He was glad for it.

Groping for his glasses, he found them resting on his chest; a rather unusual place for them. Who moved them? he wondered, though the question was quickly forgotten.

He was no longer in his room.

But I fell asleep there, he thought defiantly, turning around and looking. The sea was below him, that wasn't unusual…but instead of the blue-green walls of his room, there was only a sky. A vast, black, starry sky, free of clouds. The rain was over.

But why? he wondered. Why did it stop so suddenly?

The bloody sea below him wasn't moving. It was calmer than anything Dib had ever seen, and the silence brought with the calmness was almost deafening. He blinked hard, and instead of tears falling from his eyes, blood fell and joined the sea. Dib's heartbeat quickened. What's going on?

Breathing hard, he looked directly below him. Never had he seen so much red. How deep was it, he wondered? Carefully, he lowered his hand into the blood. His fingers disappeared, then his hand. A strange sensation met his fingertips; like there was another hand beneath the blood, touching his own. The fingers stroked his palm, searching for a place to grab hold. Dib didn't resist. He was used to other things determining his fate. The hand found Dib's wrist, and, pulling gently, guided him into the sea. Falling limp, Dib obeyed. He had nowhere else to go.

Blood flooded his lungs, and he closed his eyes.

Whump.

"Ow…" Dib shook his head, propping himself up on his hands. He rose to his knees, pressing a palm against his forehead as he glanced around. "Where am I now?" There was no rain here, nor a sea; rather, the landscape was filled with long, yellow grass, like fields of the Midwestern United States. Blinking, Dib struggled to gather his bearings as he searched for something familiar. But nothing here seemed welcoming. There was only the grass, rustling quietly in the wind, and the sun, beating down upon him from overhead. There were no more stars, either.

Deciding that he was going to get nowhere by simply standing among the grass, Dib pushed it aside as he started to walk through it. "There must be a town somewhere near here," he decided (thinking rationally was something that he had always had an easy time doing). "I'm sure that they'll have a phone, and then I'll just call Dad—"

"What the—?!"

Dib was thrown to the ground for the second time in five minutes as someone pummeled into him, knocking him in the stomach as she scrambled to her feet. He coughed for breath, his eyes squeezed shut. The girl brushed herself off and knelt on the ground, looking around quickly before tending to Dib. He looked up at her weakly. She was panting and sweaty.

"Who are you?" she asked, her voice quiet and urgent. Her amber eyes were strangely familiar to him, but he couldn't grasp who she was. Is that what those voices were taking from me? he wondered dazedly, searching for his name. My memories? Why can't I remember anything…?

"Dib," he mumbled. "My name is Dib."

"Ganazala, but my friends call me Gaz," she growled, holding out her dirt-streaked hand. The name pinged in his mind, but he didn't know why. He shook hands with her and took a moment to look her over, struggling to remember why she looked so familiar. Her violet hair hung at her shoulders in greasy strands, pushed behind her ears messily. Her bangs hung in her face. She had wide amber eyes, similar to Dib's own, and her face was pale, like his. She looked to be about a year younger than he was.

She blinked. "What are you staring at?" she asked huffily, turning around to glance at the grass again. Her eyes found him again. "I've been running."

"So I can see," he murmured. Her black dress was stuck to her back with perspiration, her small breasts heaving with every breath she took. The sleeves of her loose gray shirt were rolled up, revealing sunburned arms. Stains from what was either food or blood (Dib guessed the latter) decorated her black boots and striped pink leggings. "May I inquire as to what you were running from?"

Gaz swore under her breath and rose to her feet, looking at the grass intently. She was searching for her stalker, no doubt. She growled. "A horrid woman, she is," Gaz mumbled, returning to Dib's side. "Violet's assassin, Takkit. She's been following me for the past four days. Four days! And all because Zim just won't freaking show up when he's supposed to…"

Dib blinked. It was a strange feeling, being unable to grasp these names that sounded so familiar to him. Gaz glanced at him, her eyes narrowing slightly.

"I've never seen you before. Where did you come from?" she asked.

"I…I'm not sure," he replied truthfully. She blinked at him accusingly.

"What does that mean?" she asked. "What, did you fall from the sky or something?"

Dib lowered his head, embarrassed with himself. Gaz cocked her eyebrows at him, thinking. Then her eyes widened. She leaned closer to him, as if examining his face. "Did you really?" she whispered, awe audible in her voice.

"Not if it's going to get me killed or put into a crazyhouse," Dib replied, looking back at her. She blinked, her eyebrows raised. She looked very impressed with him.

"Oh, not at all!" she replied amazedly. "The sky…you came from Simartia? From Beyond the Veil?"

Dib's head started to swim. "I…I guess so."

"The human world. The Veil of Rain," Gaz said, sounding patient now. Her breathing was slowing down. Dib had a feeling that she had forgotten about Takkit. He nodded. She grinned excitedly, her eyes flashing. "Wow," she murmured, shaking her head. "That's amazing. I've never been there before. I thought that it had disappeared by now."

"But…you're a human, aren't you?" Dib queried. Gaz laughed.

"Oh, no. I'm one of the rejects. See, I'm a half-breed," she said, holding up a strange-looking amulet that was hanging around her neck. It was shaped like a skull. "This thing lets those Veil workers know that I'm not allowed into Simartia. My mom was an angel, you see. I'm from A Long Time Ago, when humans and the people of this world were still allowed to correspond. My dad was a human; an inventor. He would trade his inventions for the valuable books and foods that were available only here. But then…things got out of hand, and my dad had to leave back to Simartia forever."

"What happened?" Dib asked, his curiosity getting the better of him now.

"The few humans that were allowed over here were stealing wildlife and selling it for big profits over in Simartia. Violet and Crimson were afraid that the humans in Simartia would want to come and invade this place, so they banished the humans and installed the Veil workers; little things that get into your head and take away all of your memories when you're either going here or to Simartia, so you can't reveal any of the secrets of this land that you think you may know, and so you can't tell anyone here about Simartia. When you go back to Simartia, your memories of there will be restored, I think."

Dib's heart sank. So that was why he couldn't remember. The Veil workers had taken away his memories of his life in Simartia.

Gaz blinked. "Do you remember what Simartia was like? I know it might be hard," she urged, her eyes pleading. "But I'd like to know what it's like. I have a feeling that I'll never go there."

"I…the only thing that I can remember is rain. Rain and blood," he replied, pushing his raven spike of hair out of his eyes. "I don't even know how I wound up here."

Gaz deflated. "Oh…that's sad," she murmured, sounding sincere. She blinked at him, her eyes questioning. "You look like me, sort of. I guess that's why you thought I was human, huh?"

"Yeah," Dib replied, smiling weakly at her. She smiled back. "I—"

Gaz started, whirling around and clamping a hand tightly over Dib's mouth. Hugging him against her body, she rolled into the grass, to a place where they were hidden from view. He looked at her, his heart beating rapidly.

"What's going on?" he whispered through her hand. She pulled it slowly away.

"Be very quiet," she ordered, her eyes wide and fearful as she searched the sky above them. "I heard something."

The wind rustled the grass again. But wait, Dib thought. Is that really the wind?

No.

Gaz sniffed, as though trying to smell their predator. She looked back at Dib, their amber eyes locking.

"Takkit's here."