Time Skipper's Uncle

"Talking"

'Thinking'

Stressed
File 05: Future Relatives

Time has always been a mystery to humans. It flows in one direction, but is there anything in the past or has everything already happened? It has been a desire to go into the past, a man claims that he can bend the waves of time and move freely about.

Dib wiped the sweat from his forehead as the sun glared down at him. He wondered why it was so hot today. Dib approached the small shack that the Clock man called home. The tree in his yard was dead and junk littered his yawn. Dib wrinkled his nose as the smell of trash floated to him on a breeze. Dib kicked a soda can away from his foot as he walked down the cement path and to the weathered door. Before he could knock, the door creaked open. A crimson eye peered out at him from the darkness. Dib lowered his hand and wondered if he could still run.

"You're right on time," the cracked voice whispered.

"Are you Mr. Samsa?" Dib questioned.

"In another time," the man said as he opened the door.

"I've come to talk to you about your…travels?" Dib unsurely said as he pushed his glasses back up his nose.

"Yes…my travels," Mr. Samsa drawled before he fully opened the door.

Dib listened to the door creak open and he grimaced. He really didn't want to go in there. Dib sighed and stepped inside the little shack of a house. The door quickly slammed shut behind him and Dib winced at the sound. Light filled the room as Mr. Samsa reached up and pulled a little piece of string. Dib's eyes narrowed in curiosity as he studied his surroundings. The room was void of furniture and anything to make it nice. Dib also noted that there was no other room beside the kitchen, bathroom, and room he currently occupied. The floor was nothing but wooden planks.

"I don't tend to gather possessions…there's no need for them since I travel," Mr. Samsa explained.

Dib raised an eyebrow and thought that was an understatement of the year. He turned his brown eyes to Mr. Samsa and took a good look. The man was no taller the five feet, five inches. His violet hair was cut short and randomly spiked in different directions. His crimson eyes seemed like they were staring at something else. Dib noted that his skin did hold a soft green tint. He wore a solid purple shirt and ratty black pants with dirt stains on them. His hands were covered in leather mittens, and his shoes were just regular black work boots.

"Tell me about your travels," Dib started as he leaned against the wall. He wanted to be close to a window or door.

"You already know about my travels…the others have told you about mental instability," Mr. Samsa chuckled.

"I want to hear your version," Dib coaxed as his eyelids lowered a bit in boredom.

"Why don't you take out that tape recorder…there is so much to tell," Mr. Samsa softly said. His cracked voice never raised above a whisper.

Dib raised an eyebrow at this, but he took out the tape recorder and pressed the red button. Mr. Samsa grinned as his white teeth gleamed in the dim light.

"As you know, I can travel through time…or is it that time travels through me?" Mr. Samsa questioned. "I am older then any being on this planet…or maybe I'm younger."

"What year do you come from?" Dib questioned.

"Quite simple…I was born in 2009," Mr. Samsa replied with a grin.

"That year hasn't happened; it's only 2007" Dib stated.

"It has for me…or else I wouldn't exist," Mr. Samsa pointed out.

"What's your full name?" Dib sighed.

"My name is Zag Ziminiar D. Samsa," he replied with another grin.

"What does the D. stand for?" Dib questioned.

"You'll find out soon," Samsa chuckled.

"How can you travel through time?" Dib questioned.

"My father was a genius…he once made a machine to send objects through time. Mother always said he was quite mad," Mr. Samsa mused.

"Go on," Dib sighed.

"Anyways, my father was taken away by the government leaving my mother to go her only aunt…my aunt was a starving artist," Samsa explained.

"This doesn't…"

"Listen because every story has a beginning…but mine has not yet ended," Samsa scolded as Dib nodded. "When I reached the age of five I began to continue my father's work."

"Five?" Dib unbelievingly questioned.

"I was advanced," Samsa replied.

'He's crazy,' Dib thought.

"I finished my project and found that time only flows in one direction," Samsa darkly said. "I could not go back to the future because once I arrived in the past I was stuck, for you see there was no future."

"Then how is there a past?" Dib challenged.

"Father told Mother that there was a past because it helped shaped the future. There are many different strands of time that intertwine with the same events, but each strand holds different outcomes," Samsa explained.

"Then how did you get to this past?" Dib questioned.

"Time had meant for me to come to this past, because my influence is a way to shape this time," Samsa spoke.

"Then why did you come?" Dib questioned.

"I wished to seek revenge on the one who betrayed my father and destroyed my mother's spirit," Samsa explained as he chuckled.

"Did you find him?" Dib questioned.

"Yes…but I can do nothing to him for I found that he will not do the same actions as his other self did," Samsa calmly declared as Dib raised an eyebrow.

"Do you have any proof of this?" Dib questioned.

Samsa darkly smiled and Dib felt an air of familiarity. His brown eyes widened as he watched two antennae rise from his short violet hair and twitch. Dib pushed off the wall in shock as the tape recorder fell from his hands. Samsa reached up and pulled the mitten from his hand. It fell to the floor and he wiggled his two clawed fingers and thumb. He chuckled and Dib noticed that his teeth were a bit closer then humans. His red eyes blinked and Dib scowled.

"What the hell are you?" Dib growled.

"I am the future," Samsa laughed as his antennae twitched.

"You're an alien!" Dib shouted in surprise.

"Very good…Uncle Dib," Samsa chuckled as he clapped his hands.

Dib tensed and his mouth dropped in shock. He racked his brain for answers but found nothing within his mind. Samsa smiled and he cracked his long thin fingers. Dib could finally figure out why his skin was such a pale green.

"You mean?" Dib choked out.

"Gaz did find happiness, but not before she was betrayed," Samsa sadly said as an array of emotions flickered across his face.

"Then Zim is…oh no…" Dib groaned as he pulled his hair.

"Oh yes…that's another story you'll have to wait to watch," Samsa chuckled.

"What happened?" Dib whispered.

Samsa sighed and flexed his fingers in front of his crimson eyes. He scowled and reached into his pocket. Samsa removed the skull necklace that his mother had given him. The skull necklace was the only object that kept him connected to the world, or else he wouldn't exist.

"I can't tell you that…because it won't happen here," Samsa sighed as he kneeled down and picked up the fallen tape recorder.

"Why can't you tell me?" Dib growled.

"If I told you…then you would hate yourself," Samsa replied with a smirk.

"Oh," Dib simply mumbled as his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

"When you travel into the past you need something to hold you to your time…something personal. Without that object you would fade from time to never exist again because you wouldn't exist in the first place," Samsa calmly explained.

Dib nodded in understanding and Samsa sadly smiled. He threw the skull necklace to Dib and he caught it on reflex. Samsa's image began to fade. Slowly his solid figure turned transparent.

"Wait!" Dib shouted in confusion and worry.

"You asked what the 'D' in my name stood for…it stands for Dib," Samsa answered as his voice began to sound like an echo.

Dib watched as his nephew faded from time. It was strange knowing that you had a nephew that didn't even exist anymore. He wondered why he had chosen to fade from time. Dib clutched the skull necklace in his hand and then opened his fist. He carefully turned the skull to the back and his eyes widened in shock.

"Time can only part us…to g from Z," Dib mumbled as he walked out of the house.

He pocketed the skull necklace and sighed as he walked to his car. It seemed that time did work strangely. As he drove away, he realized that he had once again lost another piece of evidence and a tape recorder.

Author's Note:

I wanted to make a story out of this, but decided to just one-shot it since I'm having too much fun with other things
Please review