Dib groaned softly as he opened his eyes. His entire body ached from the night before, though he found he could only just barely remember the details. As soon as memories flooded back into his mind however, he wished that he were sleeping again. It was no use hiding the truth from his weary mind though.
He noticed that his body was at a rather awkward angle, slumped against a wall. While he couldn't name a specific injury, he ached from the extra voltage he had received and the way his body curved against the cold wall wasn't helping at all.
After straightening himself up, it took Dib a minute to fully absorb where he was. This was mainly because he wasn't aware of just where he had run to the night before. When the UFO wallpaper and the horrible décor around him finally met his eyes he felt a shiver run down his spine.
He was in Zim's base. That in itself was no better than being in his father's laboratory.
Glancing around though, he noticed that he was alone in the living room. Zim was nowhere in sight and neither was his robot. Desperately, Dib tried to stand, so that maybe he could leave his enemy's clutches, but his knees caved beneath him. He cried out in soft pain, trying his best not to draw too much attention to himself.
Feeling rather dejected and hopeless, Dib found himself crawling on his stomach, clawing his way to the front door. Despite the pain, he found he was able to press on, that he contained a strange energy that never seemed to cease.
Tentatively Dib reached for the doorknob to release himself from his newest prison. It took several tries to grab it, but once he did Dib used it to force himself to stand. His body shook from the strain and for some reason he had the impression that he was standing lopsided somehow. Even so, he carefully turned the handle, ready to sprint away if he needed to.
What little hope Dib had left in him was silence by the booming of the sky and the pouring rain. It seemed that the storm had continued through the night and into the invisible dawn of morning. Dib couldn't shake the feeling that if he tried to escape he would surely die from the searing pain that followed. He could feel his hands shake at this realization, and he shut his eyes. Dib had done far too much crying that day to bawl in his enemy's base.
" Are you insane?"
Dib whipped around to face Zim, who was standing in the doorway only a few feet away from him. It wasn't an unusual question by any means, infact it was one of many that Dib had learned to ignore by that point in his life. Somehow though, hearing it from Zim made it stab just a little harder. Perhaps this was because Zim was the only thing that proved Dib's sanity, or maybe it was just because Zim was his enemy and he knew it would sting.
Whatever was whirring in Dib's mind was unknown to his nemesis. Zim stood with an annoyed glare painted on his undisguised face.
" Stupid human," He spat out. " You can barely stand and yet you're still trying to run away? Are you THAT frightened of me?"
Dib looked away, not out of fright but of sorrow. Everything in his life, if he could really call it that, seemed so petty and meaningless upon review, even fighting with Zim. It wasn't that he wanted the world destroyed. That wasn't it…not really. Somehow though, he didn't feel he had the right to protect it anymore. Every vinegar-coated word that spilled from Zim's mouth dripped into his wounds, searing the pain even more.
" Don't…" Dib sad weakly, " …don't call me that."
" What? Stupid?" Zim asked, missing the point entirely. " But you are! You are! You are a stupid, stupid human!"
Dib leaned against the doorframe, as though Zim's words had struck him repeatedly. Involuntarily he found himself sliding down to the floor, weakened by his despondence.
" No…" Dib whispered, feeling that his voice had been sucked away from him. " I'm not…I'm not a…"
Zim's antennae perked curiously at that statement. There was something wrong with the Dib-human, but he couldn't quite place what it was exactly. There was something different that day and it threatened to consume the both of them, for the unknown is often fearsome and menacing.
" Not a what?" Zim dared to ask.
Dib was quiet for a moment or so, as though he could longer bring himself to speak at all. He felt weak and defenseless in front of his longtime enemy, and yet he wasn't entirely sure if they still were.
" Human." Dib forced himself to speak, choking on unshed tears, " I'm not human."
" What are you talking about?" Zim snapped, " Of course you're human! Is there something wrong with your brainmeats?"
With those cold, accusing words Zim stepped closer to his archenemy. Somehow in his delusion he saw this as a form of attack, and Dib snapped his head up and quickly brought a feeble arm in front of his face to protect him.
" No! DON'T COME NEAR ME!" Dib shouted desperately.
He could feel the energy within him rising again and before he was even aware of it, blue electricity was whipping circles around his arm. It was still an unfamiliar feeling, so Dib sat almost in a fearful trance as it snake around his arm.
Zim had jumped back several feet. If he had been expecting anything, it wasn't that. From a distance he watched the electricity flow and waver. It looked nearly as strong as his electrical tongs, if not even stronger.
" I didn't think that humans could do that," Zim said in awe, as though he had misjudged his foe somehow.
" They can't," Dib managed to choke out. " Zim, I'm not…I'm not human."
Dib slowly began to explain his situation as the world slowly began to whirl and churn to a stop and time was a broken grandfather clock, ticking and tocking and raising tension, but never moving a second further. Zim listened with wide eyes, barely believing what he was hearing. It was hard to believe what he was seeing as well, the greatest threat to his mission sobbing like a smeet.
Such weakness had never been permitted in the Irken army. Zim could remember watching many young defectives being dragged off wailing their hearts out. Zim knew that those Irkens bled a little before being deactivated.
" And…and now I can't even stand in the rain!" Dib pulled on the doorframe, trying to force himself upright, " I'm so pathetic…"
Zim could neither deny this statement, nor feel sympathy for Dib. He was more focused on something else, something far more important than Dib's weary mind. Watching his enemy's moves carefully, he leaned against the wall. Zim peered on carefully as Dib struggled to stand.
" So…" Zim began, carefully treading on lines that he shouldn't cross, " your father…Membrane, I mean…he's after you?"
" Why would you care?" Dib snapped coldly.
By all normal means, Zim wouldn't care; he would never care it seemed. These were not normal means however. They were means that caused Zim to smile callously, and head for Dib once more.
They were means that made Dib squirm inside.
" Well, you are my enemy," Zim pointed out.
Zim began to continue on, but before he could utter another word he was interrupted by chuckling from Dib. The sound Dib made was dry, empty, and almost completely devoid of bright colored emotion. His eyes were wide, even without his glasses, but somehow he seemed to be blind to the world around him, as though they were still necessary.
" Are we really, Zim?" He asked once the chuckles subsided, " Are we really enemies anymore?"
Zim was certain that he was not afraid of Dib, so he was unaware of why he was backing away from him. Once he felt his pak touch the wall though, he slowly became aware of just how potentially dangerous a situation he was in.
" After all," Dib said gravely, " I'm not human."
This fact had long become burned into his mind. Dib couldn't say that he was bitter toward the human race--not exactly--but he knew that he no longer belonged. Humans are naturally afraid of things they don't understand and that in itself creates paranoia. Dib knew he would never be able to walk through a crowd without wondering if they could see inside him, or even if he was somehow physically different from everyone else. In one night he lost the ability to fit seamlessly among people, even if they thought he was a little crazy. Realizing this fully, he knew there was only one thing he needed to do.
" And…I'm not staying," Dib said harshly. " I can't."
Dib knew it was a mistake as soon as he stepped out the open door and into the pouring rain. Screams and cries rang against the neighboring buildings as he fell to his knees once again. It was a mystery to him how he would be able to even get up and walk again.
That mystery became unimportant, as Zim quickly grabbed Dib by the collar and pulled him back inside. He slammed the door and turned around with all the rage of a demon bottled down forcibly.
Soaking wet and breathing heavily, Dib stared up at Zim and wodered where the sudden compassion had come from. Zim very well could have let him eat his words, but Zim saved him.
" You really are an idiot," Zim said. " If you stay out in the rain long enough, you would probably short circuit."
" …Why would you care?" Dib repeated his unanswered question.
Zim was surprisingly silent for a moment, trying to find the best possible answer. He immediately knew what answer he really was thinking of, but it wasn't one he could ever use.
" Well…what makes you think I was going to let you go?" Zim replied.
Dib's eyes widened in a sudden fear, not of Zim, but what was to become of himself. Dib didn't like the direction they were veering in but he couldn't stop the car in time.
" Computer!" Zim shouted out to the ceiling. " Raise the defenses and make sure the Dib cannot escape!"
There was no response from the computer, but Dib heard various locks and latches click around the house. He forced himself to stand, so that he could limp over to the door and test it stubbornly. This didn't quite work the way he had been hoping though, for Dib stumbled and nearly fell. The only reason he didn't crash to the floor was because Zim grabbed his arm on the way down.
" Think about it, Dib," Zim spoke softly into Dib's ear. " Membrane won't find you here. Why would he even bother looking in my base? However…"
Zim tightened his grip on Dib's arm, causing Dib to cry out from pain once again. To this Zim sneered.
" …should you decide to try and run away, I'll inform him of your whereabouts," Zim said, dropping Dib to the ground.
Dib groaned from the impact, but was quickly sitting back up on the floor.
" But that doesn't make any sense!" Dib protested, " You would be exposing yourself as well!"
" Would I?" Zim snickered, " He doesn't believe I'm an alien, remember? I'm just that foreign green boy."
Zim was right. Dib hated to admit it…but Zim was right. His fa-Professor Membrane would never believe that Zim was an alien. Dib's eyes met the floor, trying desperately to avoid Zim's.
" Now, there are three rules," Zim informed his captive. " One, you can't leave. That should be obvious though."
With each word Zim spoke, Dib felt walls being erected around him. What freedoms he had were slowly dwindling away and he felt his heart being crushed like a tin can.
" Two, you are only allowed in the upper layers of the house," Zim explained, " You are not, by ANY means, allowed in my labs. Understand?"
There was an extra anger in Zim's voice when he spoke of his labs. In the past few weeks he had upped the security on them so that Dib couldn't break in at all. Dib thought that it was a new project and was extremely curious and suspicious, but he could only nod and comply.
" Three," Zim finished, " you have to feed yourself. Don't worry about that though. GIR always bringing filthy Earth foods in here."
Zim grimaced at the thought of the sickening things that GIR brought home on a regular basis. The food was often disgusting and dripping with filthy sauces that Zim had no intention of forcing into his body, even if he could.
" Believe me Dib," Zim said honestly, " You're better off this way."
While Dib knew this, being trapped with Zim really didn't feel any different from being stuck out in the rain. Carefully, he hugged his knees to his chest, not bothering to get up off the floor. Dib gave no answer, but the message was clear. Zim was the last person he wanted to be with. He was alone in his misery, so he really wanted some solitary peace.
Somehow, Zim seemed to understand this. He walked out of the room without another word about it.
Once Dib was sure Zim had gone, he felt tears run down his face. Dib made sure not to sob out loud though, incase he was still lurking nearby. With those tears, he let Zim go.
Dib let everything go.
(A/N: Thank you for all of the wonderful reviews! I also happen to have something somewhat constructive to say here. This story is going to be rather interesting to write, because the situation here with Zim and Dib is the opposite of what it was in my other story, "Exactly What You Wanted". Instead of Zim being Dib's captive, it's the other way around. This should be a fun ride. : ) So please R&R and I'll try to have the next chapter up as soon as possible.)