By animeninjaNIPPON

"TAK!" Zim fumed. "What is that word you say to the MIGHTY ZIM?"

"How long have you been here?" Dib tried to change the subject.

"Since the lights went out on this level," Tak replied. "Your little argument amused me, so I stopped to listen." She opened her hand to reveal a pocket projector. "I scanned Zim's PAK while he was comatose, which enabled me to read deep into his personal thoughts. I made a copy of the ideas I thought would interest you, Dib." She spoke with such malice that Dib knew she was up to something. She pressed a button on the projector and a black screen with a green message came into view on the opposite wall. Zim froze.

"I can't read Irken," Dib confessed. Tak pressed a second button, and the screen fizzled for a second before translating into Dib's native alphabet.

Apparently, Zim had been keeping "Dib Files" on the terrestrial boy, in his own way. Most of it was translated phonetically, with random Irken slang thrown in between sentences, but the gist was still there:

I find it HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS that the first creature I get to know personally happens to be almost like me (in an INFERIOR WORM BABY way). Perhaps it is a trap set by TAK...oh how I hate her... The script went on for about five paragraphs griping about Tak, then went on to proclaim, I pity this stinkbeast.

"Wow," Dib mused. "He really hates you, Tak."

"NO!" She threw the projector to the floor, smashing it and killing the image. "Can't you see? He has a weakness..."

"LIAR!" Zim proclaimed. "ZIM has no weaknesses!"

"This doesn't prove anything!" Dib shouted angrily. "You're theory on human affections are all mixed up! Of course he'd feel bad for me - we're friends! And if you don't mind, we gotta go save the world and stuff."

Tak burst out laughing. "You fool! Zim is already gone!"

Dib looked around - the light from Zim's hat was nowhere to be seen.

"So much for 'friendship,' huh?"

"He escaped from you."

"Oh, there's nothing he can do. Everything on your planet is already dead - it's too late to try and save it."

She chuckled again, but her laughter turned to a scream as the roof caved in on top of her, followed by her own enchanted spaceship.

"Dib-monkey, get in!" Zim called, and in the background Gir called out, "TAK goes SPLAT!"

"Wait a minute," Dib said. "I thought all the doors ran on electricity."

"So?"

"How'd you get out?"

"Eh...I dunno."

Without further ado, Zim extended a hand, and Dib, able to see it in the red light of Zim's hat, grabbed ahold and allowed himself to be pulled in.

As they blasted off into the remains of Earth's atmosphere, Dib cried out excitedly, "I'm finally out of that stupid place!"

Zim took off his hat and looked at Dib. "And you have ZIM to thank! You can REPAY me by telling me stuff about YOU!"

End of part seventeen