Note: Just for the record, this is not, in any way, shape, or form, a ZADR. Any awkward moments between Dib and Zim are there because… well… do you think it's easy having someone be an enemy for years and then suddenly you're on speaking terms with them? That's awkward!
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Amazing. These humans place such importance on their memories that when reviewed clearly, their emotions are impacted precisely the same way as before. Zim studied Dib's tear-streaked face, wincing at the salty-poison streams. Afraid Dib would catch him staring, Zim turned to watch the viewscreen.
Dib's memories of Invader Stok had been playing for hours, from being held in her arms as a toddler to his sixth birthday party. The viewscreen featured the end of the "party".
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"Don't worry, Dib. It's still early, you'll have friends eventually."
Six-year-old Dib turned to face his Mamá sadly. "No, Mamá, I know they don't like me. I know they never will. They think ghosts and things are silly, I don't. I'm just… different."
Invader Stok gathered him in her arms and rocked him back and forth.
"Why wasn't Dad here?" Dib's voice trembled.
Stok held him tighter, a note of anger in her voice. "He had a project at the lab, sweetheart. He'll be back tonight."
Dib nodded weakly and burrowed deeper in her embrace.
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Zim paused the frame for a moment and studied it. For a hologram, Stok's disguise wasn't too bad. In fact, by Earth standards, she was relatively attractive. Deep, black hair that was almost purple reached to her knees when not braided out of the way. She had designed a slender but hardy shell structure and a firm, motherly countenance, but she had kept her violet eye-color.
"It's my fault, you know."
Zim glanced sidelong at Dib and snorted. "How could it have been your fault? You were a smeetling. You could not have given intergalactic coordinates, and the Tallest at the time could not have seen through a hologram as sophisticated as Invader Stok designed. She was good at that sort of thing, apparently."
"How do you know?" Dib retorted.
Zim locked eyes with him. "She fooled you."
Dib couldn't take his eyes off the screen. "But that box, it must have had some sort of homing device in it that I activated. Over a stupid grasshopper! You never knew her, Zim. She may have bred you, or however you Irkins describe being born, but the only parents you ever knew were your PAK and this control brain you talk about!"
Anger bubbled up, but Zim held it in check. "Your point, human?"
"I knew her! I cared about her! I loved—her." The Dib had trouble speaking. "She was m-my anchor. D-dad didn't c-care, h-he barely came ar-around. And I dest-troyed her."
Alarmed to see Dib spinning completely out of control, Zim ordered, "Enough of that! You are… how many years have you?"
Stammering furiously, Dib blurted, "N-never you-hoo mind. When something h-hurts this b-badly Zi-im, age doesn't-doesn't matter. Humans don't-on't just sh-shut down on the-their feel-ings like Irkins!"
"Well in case you haven't noticed, Dib, you aren't even human!" Zim glowered.
"Sh-shut up!" Dib stood up and screamed. "Y-you're so full of it, aren't y-you? You think e-everything measures up-to the Ir-Irkin standard, well you're-ou're bloody wrong! You h-have no idea what it's l-like to have spent years hat-hating something, trying t-to catch it and put i-it away, and then fi-ind out that that thing is yourself!" Worn out from tears and screams, Dib sank back into his seat. Zim just sat back, shocked by the outburst.
A few minutes passed in silence. Zim shifted and grouched, "Well, are you going to go into hysterics and rip your stitches if I start your memories up again?" The human shook his head, and Zim, on a whim, fast-forwarded to the moment the ship had stripped Stok of her hologram.
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A giant ship hovers above his house. His mother is in the garden, just outside his window. She is staring at the ship, utterly frozen in place, her trowel still in her hand.
"Invader Stok, disperse the hologram."
"No," she pleads. "No, he mustn't see, somewhere else, please!"
"Disperse the hologram."
"NO!"
She clenches her hands around the trowel. Her form begins to ripple, faster and faster and faster. Dib can't look away. Within seconds, his Mamá's olive-tan skin, rippling black hair, and deep violet eyes are replaced with shockingly green skin, two antennae, and deep violet orbs, pleading mercy.
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"She put up a strong resistance." Zim offered. Surprised, Dib shot him a questioning look. "It took that ship ten seconds to destroy her hologram, that's a record. The usual resistance only lasts half that time." Dib nodded half-heartedly.
"Hey, Master, how come the sky's gone all gray?" GIR bounded into view.
Zim rolled his eyes. "The sky isn't gray, GIR, because there is no sky. We're not in Earth's atmosphere yet."
"Then why's the window gray?"
"It's not gray, unless you put paint on it."
"Then why'm I seein' gray?" the robot persisted.
Gritting his teeth, Zim stomped to the cargo bay and peered out a window. "Odd, it is gray out. Where are the stars? The planets? The blackness of space? Space isn't gray." Visual enhancers leaped from his PAK and locked onto his eyes.
Scanning… Scanning… Scanning… Data report: It is gray.
"I know that!" Yelled Zim. "What is it?"
It is a spaceship.
"Irk! It's too close, we'll have a collision any moment now!" Zim dashed for the cockpit, skidding to a halt at the next data readout.
The spaceship is not next to us. The spaceship is not above us. The spaceship is not below us. The spaceship is around us.
"Explain!" Zim hissed.
Say please.
"I AM ZIM!" He shrieked. "I AM AN INVADER, AND INVADERS DO NOT SAY PLEASE!"
The readout darkened, then flashed bright magenta-orange and replayed Zim's worst nightmare.
"I'm gonna sing the Doom song! Doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom—"
"PLEASE!" he squealed.
During your exceedingly long discourse with Dib a tractor beam locked onto the Voot Cruiser and pulled it in.
"Why did you not tell me?" He wailed.
You were busy and GIR was much nicer to be with.
Zim jammed the enhancers back into his PAK, reminding himself never to let GIR play with his gadgets.
At that moment the entire side of the Cruiser was ripped away, throwing the alien against the far wall.
"Zim, what's going—" Dib peeked back and his eyes widened.
There in the gaping hole stood Professor Membrane.
"Dad!"
