By animeninjaNIPPON
They had a long time to wait until morning came, leaving plenty of time for Dib to think. He sat upright in his seat, next to Gir, occasionally glancing nervously over at his Irken counterpart. Zim looked at no one as he ate an Irken sandwich in silence. Thus, Dib began his inner musings:
OK, I know he was supposed to be my enemy in the…past. Maybe he's a little mixed up on the "crushing" thing, like Tak was…but he is definitely my friend now, I think. As for anything more, well, I dunno. He's 7.25 times my age, or so he says… "Hey, wait a second."
"Hmph?" Zim swallowed his mouthful of sandwich and looked over at Dib.
"How much faster do Irken years go by than Earth years?"
"How should I know? ZIM was trained to be an INVADER, not a SCHOLAR!" Zim paused to think, stroking his chin. "WHY?"
"Because if you think about it, in Earth years, you could be about my age."
"What does THAT have to do with anything? Have your brainmeats gone rotten, Dib-monkey?"
"Why do you call me that? Isn't it easier just to say my name?"
Zim fell silent for a moment. All of a sudden, he sprung frantically from his seat. "Oh NO! I just remembered something!"
"What?"
Zim sank back into his seat to reminisce. "Back on that day I came here, I saw TWO OF YOU! We'll have to face an ARMY!"
"Huh?" Dib pondered that new piece of information, imagining a fleet of twenty or so little Dibs running around and chasing Zim. "Hold on…I remember that day! Come to think of it, I'm sure I saw someone that looked sort of like me – well, from the back, and only for a second. But I was on my way to the bathroom, and I found the 'Zim Files.' Maybe that guy was the future me, and he dropped the notebook!"
"But what about the ARMY?" Zim demanded.
"There is no army – but we do have a problem. We can't let the me from the past get that notebook! It would just complicate things further."
"Good thinking, worm baby – you can retrieve the notebook. Leave the ARMY to the AMAZING ZIM!" He shook his fist proudly.
Dib sighed. "No. I have a better idea."
"Are you saying that YOU could possibly be smarter than – "
"Just listen." He reached across Gir's head to grab Zim's shoulder. Gir jumped back into the mini-fridge area just as Dib pulled Zim down.
Meanwhile, past Dib slept serenely in his blue-tinted bedroom. Not even the scraping sounds outside woke him up.
"Hey, WATCH it!" Zim leaned against the side of Dib's house on his spider legs, holding the human up to his bedroom window.
"Sorry," Dib apologized. "Are you sure this ketchup won't melt?" He brandished a packet of Irken ketchup and squeezed it until a little of the red stuff flowed out, then proceeded to write a backwards message across the glass with it.
"Are you SURE this will work?" Zim winced under Dib's weight.
"Knowing me, it has to." Dib tossed the empty packet aside. "OK, I'm done."
Once they descended, a band of pink stretched across the horizon. "We don't have much time," Dib exclaimed. "Zim, do you still have your old human disguise?"
"Of course!" Zim pulled his old wig and contacts out of his PAK. Despite the fact that he hadn't worn them in twenty Irken years, they were still in good condition.
"OK, I've got a plan. It's crazy, but it might work…" Dib leaned in closer to Zim. "First, I'll need you to remember as much as you can about that day you went to my skool…"
End of part twenty-one
Yeah, I know this is a long story. It ends at chapter twenty-five, though. So far, this is the longest fic I've ever written.
animeninjaNIPPON