(A/N: okay…this is the same story as my other This is Now, but I edited it and I think it is better now. Im gonna updatechapters here. I changed some things, and it is not quite as angsty anymore…more like a Drama…I like it better this way, let me know what you think, Kay? Review and I will read and review your stories! Everybody wins!
Disclaimer: nothing belongs to me…I have no monies…don't sue me, you wont get much)
Prologue This is Now
Dib's footsteps echoed throughout his enemy's former base, now just a tomb, empty but for the memories it held. It should have felt strange, moving about this place without the fear of capture, without the hope of finally exposing Zim to the world, but without knowing or caring why, the boy felt more at home than he ever had.
His hands ran wistfully over the icy steel walls as he wandered through corridor after silent corridor, room after empty room. He had been exploring for about seventeen hours since they had taken Zim away, and he didn't feel like he had made any progress at all. The base seemed to go on forever, and most of the doors' access tubes were locked via the house's recently crashed computer.
Without anything to focus on his mind began to wander. He thought about the Invasion. It had partially been his fault, and he was ready to admit that. He just wasn't sure he cared as much as he should have. He knew that at one point there must have been at least a bit of truth in his 'defender of the planet' ruse, but he couldn't remember when it had been.
His nineteenth birthday was twenty-two days away. He had promised himself as a child that he would gain the respect he deserved, or die trying, by the time he was twenty. He now told himself that he was going to push it back a year. He would wait until the armada was done on the surface, then he would go out and give humanity one more chance. If they didn't realize by now that he wasn't crazy, than they never would. If they still hated him, if he was still unable to make them see, then he would take Tak's ship, which he had hidden beneath his house, and he would fly away.
Just as he had always wanted to, he would go out there and see it all. Maybe he would run into Zim sometime. The alien was done with the humans; Dib knew that for sure. Even if he managed to not be killed by his people for what had happened, he wouldn't go back to Earth. He didn't much like it there.
Dib wanted to leave. More than anything, at this point, he just wanted to go explore. He knew that humanity could take care of itself. They always had been pretty good at rebuilding. He remembered the time Zim had blown up the entire city, and the time Tak had caused the greatest earthquake in earthen existence. The people had thought little of it, simply rebuilding their city in the blink of an eye.
He would help them as much as he could in these twenty-two days, and then, on his birthday, he would leave. It wasn't like there was anything holding him on Earth anymore anyway. Before, there had been many things. The two biggest ones had been Zim's threat to the Earth, and his dear, sweet, loving, supportive family. Neither of the two existed anymore, so he felt he was free to go.
He thought about Zita. His experience with her had occurred the one time he had ventured out of Zim's base during the invasion. He was afraid to go out after that.
He had found her lying in the street outside the school building in a puddle of her own blood. She had a hole in her chest the size of a bowling ball. She had been screaming in pain and helplessness all day, and she had little voice left when he found her. He knew that many people had passed by her that day, none of them stopped to offer so much as a word of kindness to the dying girl.
She had stared up at him when he had approached her, fear filling her bloodshot purple eyes. This was the boy she had ridiculed her entire life for believing something she now knew to be true. Surely he wouldn't help her.
He had looked down at her coldly, prolonging the eye contact for a few moments before leaning down close to her.
"I told you," he said, voice almost a whisper, "why didn't you listen? What did I ever do to you to make you hate me so much?"
She let out a harsh choke, spitting up blood as she tried to come up with an answer; but he was already walking swiftly away.
He went back to the base after that, afraid he would find more of his old enemies who's suffering he could sadistically prolong. He really hadn't meant to do that. She wasn't that bad…no matter what she had done to him in the past, she still deserved to live right?
Right?
He was wrenched from his thoughts when his foot struck something small and metal that was lying on the ground. Dib's eyes moved down and rested upon Gir's lifeless body and colorless eyes.
The antenna was gone from his dented head and he only had half an arm left out of two. The little door on his tiny chest was hanging open by a pitifully frail bolt, and the wires inside were ripped to shreds.
Dib knew that the armada's 'real' SIR units had done this to him. He remembered how the maniacal robot had fought with his life to protect his new friend Gaz from the Irkens.
He remembered the sad, broken apology when he had failed.
Dib knelt down to pick up the pieces of the little robot, telling himself he would take what was left of Gir away with him, hopefully to find someone who had the ability to help fix him.
That was, if the people of Earth did what he expected them to do.