Disclaimer: I don't own Invader Zim.
Author's note: this is my first Zim story. In fact, this is my first story in quite a while.
The cafeteria was oppressive to every sense: the clatter of silverware on dishes combined with the hum of conversation to grate on delicate ears. The décor was dull, but the food was absurdly garish in color – nowhere near natural. A slight film of who-knows-what seemed to lie over everything, sticking to the hands and perverting whatever was touched. Do we even need mention smell or taste? Even the most jaded eye would twitch and moisten.
Ick, though Gaz.
She scanned the lunchroom. The mob of people seemed to run together into one giant, hideous mass of life. Her eye fell on her usual seat, as far anyone else as possible without ending up inside the walls, with the dust and the rats.
The only other person at the table was Dib. His face matched the one printed on his t-shirt: eyes not more than slits, mouth exactly level, no emotion in evidence.
Screw him.
She walked past without a glance.
A wail rose over the room – piercing, indistinct – but she didn't look back. She knew what she'd see: Dib twisted around, his eyes bugged out, mouth locked in horror, letting out that scream that she heard now only in the back of her mind. She knew what it was. Dib didn't want her to sit with that green kid. Zim.
She'd heard his theories. She'd heard them often enough that she didn't have to be convinced anymore.
"I'm telling you," he would say, distracting from the soothing rhythm of beeps from the Game Slave. "Zim's an alien! From outer space!"
"Got it," she'd say. She could beat this level, if only he'd shut up for once. "Outer space. Alien. Here to control the entire earth."
"Someone has to do something!"
That has always resonated with her. Do something.
Dib meant stop him, of course. Dib liked the Earth the way it was. No reason at all to turn it over to an alien lord-protector.
She reached the table. Zim looked up.
"You're incompetent," she said, studying the pattern of the veins in whatever meat was on her tray.
"Silence, puny human!"
Well, that was no surprise. Still, she pressed on.
"I've got a proposition for you."
"Zim has no need for your worthless proposing-ness, fool."
"Yeah, well, if you want to complete your mission, you'll meet me across the street once school gets out."
She turned. She'd said all she wanted to. She could go back now, and sit near Dib, and maybe pretend nothing was going on. Maybe.