"This got out of hand." Dib put his head on the steering wheel as he sat at the front of Q's apartment complex. He felt so tired.

" I cannot believe the Master would ground me for triple forever ." The car stereo sighed.

"You're still in my car?!" Dib jerked back into a sitting position.

" Well of course. I am many places. Your phone has questionable images on it. Why do you have so many pictures of pigeons ?"

"I don't trust them- wait don't go through my shit!" Dib slapped the wheel aggressively. "If you are supposed to be grounded doesn't that mean you shouldn't be in my phone OR car? I'm going to tell Zim you're in here."

" Please do not do that. He will yell. "

"I am definitely going to be doing that." Now Dib couldn't even drive home entirely in peace. He opened his phone to text Zim but the screen closed instantly. "Seriously? CB, dude, what the fuck?"

" Please do not ." CB sounded like a kid caught by the babysitter. " I do not want to get into more trouble. I will be good, I promise. I do not like being cooped up in the house. It is very boring ." Dib could not imagine that any amount of time in Zim's lair could be considered boring, but he wasn't a super computer- so maybe he didn't need as much stimulation.

"Why did you want to help me anyway? You obviously weren't on some secret mission for Zim or anything. Was it curiosity?"

" In a way I am of Earth too ." The answer surprised him. " I was constructed, partially, from human-made computers. So... I deduced that I should at least attempt to salvage this planet ."

"Do you consider yourself human, CB?" It was the first time Dib had ever seen this honesty from the AI and he figured that after Q, maybe CB wasn't so bad.

" I do not believe I have much of an opinion formulated as to my own identity . But the Master insists I am mostly Irken ."

" Oh come on, surely you have some opinion on yourself. Didn't you design that hologram you use? So, you have at least a concept of your own appearance."

" I suppose I must ." CB conceded . " But I believe it is something that still requires further evaluation. I know that I am the first of my kind. I know that I am manufactured from both human and Irken components. And I am also aware that for reasons I cannot fathom, I have an uncanny hatred of pigs ." Dib blinked.

"Pigs?"

" Yes. I do not like them. I believe it has something to do with GIR ."

"I'd believe it." Talking like this... it put CB in a bit of a different light. It was a little funny how much more pleasant he could be when he wasn't taking after his creator, tossing out insults every few seconds. Dib may have been judging him too harshly... but... Q's little scenario still echoed in his mind. Those screams... the countdown timer... that panic... had those been real? Was that what it was like when that machine had tried to wipe out the humans all those years ago...? Q had no way of accessing memories from the real event- he had admitted himself that he had landed with the Federation ship only a few years ago.

Dib sighed, driving quietly to his apartment. He was still a bit shaken by being nearly devoured by an abomination that had its place more in the horror genera than the sci-fi. It was already dark when he walked in, and it seemed as if Clark's brother had already headed home as Dib returned to find Clark sitting on the couch watching an old movie.

"Hey! You're back!" He grinned. "How was Zim ?"

"Angry, as usual." Dib sat down beside Clark watching the screen with mild interest. He had a soft spot for these cheesy old-school flicks. "Have you seen this one?"

"No." Clark offered popcorn in the bowl beside him to Dib who took a handful. After everything he had been through today, Dib felt like he deserved the break. "But I saw the first two... they were not quite as strange as this one."

"I thought you were going to see a movie at the theater."

"I did, it was pretty good. But dude, you've been gone for a few hours. I'm already back." Dib blinked, looking at the dim glow of the clock on the microwave. He had no idea how it had gotten so late. "Your pizza is in the fridge, ready to heat up when you want it."

"Oh, thanks." Dib wondered vaguely if having to be quiet would be boring for CB in his phone, but he realized he didn't really care. He just wanted to relax and enjoy... whatever this movie was supposed to be. "Hey... so what's the plot of this thing anyway?"

"Well the lead guy is in love with the lead girl but no one wants them to be together because of reasons? I guess? The motivation still isn't clear and I've seen the movies leading up to it. Also, everyone is a monster, but they are all hiding it from each other."

"That sounds..." Dib trailed off. " Kinda dumb." Clark burst out laughing.

"It really is."

Silence fell again as the two watched the cliché events of the movie unfold. The acting was far from good, but that was a part of its charm. The third installment ended and the fourth in the franchise started automatically. Dib was enjoying just mindlessly watching something so far removed from reality it gave him a chance to unwind. He felt something heavy on his shoulder and he realized Clark had fallen asleep, head flopped against him. It was a little late for Clark, who usually went to bed early due to his class schedule . Dib vaguely wondered if he had stayed up solely to see Dib come home.

He felt himself getting tired as well. He wondered if he should wake Clark up to get him to bed. He had sort of lost track of what was happening in the movie anyway. Not that it mattered much. He yawned, his head had started to droop onto Clarks, rendering his plan to wake him null and void. Just as he was starting to lull to sleep, he felt a pain in his chest where the fringes of Q's living scarf had buried themselves. He struggled to sit up. In the flickering light of the TV he swore he saw seven pulsing orbs, peering at him from the darkness.

His heart stopped.

The pain in his chest increased and Dib slowly shook Clark off of him. The hair on the back of his neck stood up as he met those glowing eyes hovering in the corner of the room. " Dib...? " Clark yawned sleepily as he felt Dib stiffen. "You feel kinda warm."

Funny to hear that as Dib felt colder than ice. He saw something black scurry across his ceiling the head twisting back to keep those even unblinking eyes staring into him. He could feel sweat beading up on his forehead, his breathing coming more quickly. "Clark... we need to go." He got to his feet as his roommate sleepily rubbed his eyes looking around the room in mild bewilderment. Dib was locking eyes with the monster on the ceiling.

"You look a little pale... are you feeling all right?" Dib's heart stopped as Clark followed his gaze to the spidery alien. Clark looked back to Dib in confusion. "I think you need to sit down."

"No! We need to go. We need to-" Dib was cut off by the sudden, intense pain in his chest he looked down. He was certain Q had not hit him- there had been no mark, but now he could see the blood pooling through his clothing onto his hands. "Shit, it got me..."

"Dib calm down. I think you're having a panic attack." Clark took his arm gently and Dib jerked it away, stumbling back.

"Panic attacks don't involve bleeding out from chest wounds!" He spat back. Clark gave him blank look, looking at Dib's soaking clothes and his own blood-stained hands.

"What are you talking about?"

"I need to get Zim ! He got me- he fucking hid the wound somehow he-"

"Dib! Please, take a deep breath." Clark clearly didn't understand the severity of the situation. Dib tried to get to the door but his vision was blurring. He felt his body go weak, no longer responding to the desperate commands his brain was giving. He pitched forward, fully expecting rough impact with the ground but instead he was caught as Clark somehow managed to be close enough to pull the paranoid scientist to the couch with surprising ease. Dib was lying there, Clark checking his temperature with his hand unable to see those beady red eyes watching their every move.

That was about the last thing Dib remembered. Everything went black after that. Though, he did have a weird dream in which Clark, his brother, Dib's Astrophysics teacher, and one of the custodial staff were all just standing over him talking in hushed voices. It was a truly weird mix of people given how Dib didn't even think Clark knew his professor. In the dream, his professor looked really mad and Clark seemed to be desperately trying to explain something to her.

It was funny - they were speaking clearly, but Dib couldn't understand a word of it.

He came to only to find himself in his bed, he had wet rags on his head and his clothes felt sweaty. He quickly looked down but saw no blood. Another hallucination ...? He knew he had to get in touch with Zim. He found his glasses, and fumbled for his phone.

" Oh look. You are not dead ." His phone remarked dryly. He had almost forgotten his uninvited house guest. He had hoped the part about CB had also been a dream, but it seemed as if Dib was not that fortunate.

"What happened?"

" You had a very high fever. Your roommate took care of you. I could not see most of what happened because you let your phone die while you were watching the movie ."

"Clark?" Dib felt like he had been hit by a truck.

" Yes, I have seen him enter and leave many times. He mostly checks your temperature and your breathin g ."

The door swung open and Clark walked in with a tray of soup and a few more wet rags draped over his arm. His face lit up seeing Dib and he could watch the relief wash over his face. "You're awake!" He put the tray down and surprisingly wrapped his arms around Dib who awkwardly sat there for a moment before pushing him gently away.

"Y-yeah I'm up." Dib looked down at himself, he was still wearing the same clothes but there was certainly no blood. "What happened?"

"I don't know..." Clark looked rather upset. "You just started freaking out and then you fainted. I think you were having some sort of fever-induce-hallucination. You were burning up. I was about to call the hospital."

"Oh... I'm glad you didn't. I'd rather just have gone to my dad. He's weird about hospitals ." Genetic cloning wasn't exactly commonplace and Dib's father found that doctors and hospitals were more explaining than they were worth. Most times he handled the kids' illnesses himself. Dib didn't really trust them either- not since his school nurse had let Zim's organ-stuffed body pass as human over his own.

"Well I did my best... but if you weren't awake after another hour, I was getting an ambulance ." He picked his tray back up and set it down on Dib's lap. "You should eat something, you're still shaking. I think the fever broke but you look weak... Have you had anything to eat at all today? Other than my left-over movie popcorn?"

Dib had to really think about it. Had he really just gone the whole day without eating? No wonder the run-in with Q had worn him out so badly. "I guess not..."

"You can't do that kind of thing Dib! I was really worried!" He was a bit surprised by the lecture. He wasn't sure why Clark would care so much. If anything, wouldn't Clark get free A's for the semester if he died? "Do you think you can stomach and sandwich? Something a little more solid...?" Dib had to think about it for a moment.

"Y-yeah, actually. Would it be too much to ask? Just something simple is fine, whatever we have around the house. Maybe just a PB and J..." As soon as Dib said it and he saw Clark's face falter he remembered why that was a dumb request. "Right... you're allergic." It was in the medical records Dib had looked up on his roommate in when Clark moved in. Also- he was pretty sure it had actually been mentioned to him at some point. "Ham and cheese is fine then- I think I still have some meat from the last time I went grocery shopping shoved in the back of the fridge."

"You mean two weeks ago?"

" Was it really that long?"

"Yeah, Dib. I'm not poisoning you with rotted meat despite your request to murder me via legume." Clark at least seemed to have a sense of humor about the situation. "Look, I don't feel comfortable leaving you alone right now so I'll just use some of my stuff. Is turkey okay?"

"Fine." He nodded and Clark hurried back out. "CB," he quickly held his phone back up and CB's blue light flickered on. "Do you have any record of long-term effects from the Parasites? Can he stalk me through my mind? I swear I saw Q in this apartment!" He had no desire to look into those seven crimson eyes again and he certainly did not want to risk Clark stumbling on that monstrosity hiding on the ceiling waiting for a stressed, college snack.

" I do not have anything in my immediate memory. I will have to look in Zim's archives for more information ." CB replied after a bit of thought. " One moment please. " The screen changed to a small cartoon version of CB reading a book with the Irken emblem on the cover. The image might have been considered cute if Dib dismissed the fact that CB had hitched a ride in Dib's phone as an uninvited guest. Sure, he was useful now- but that was no excuse.

Dib quickly put his phone face down on the desk and slunk back into bed as Clark came back in with a sandwich . "Wow, thanks."

"It's no problem." Clark smiled. "You look better. You really gave me a scare tonight."

"Sorry." Dib took a bite and much to his surprise, he was actually quite ravenous. He stuffed the sandwich in his mouth and started on the previously neglected soup. Maybe having a roommate wasn't so terrible after all. Clark must have stayed up to take care of him because he was usually asleep by now. He had early classes. Classes... wait... "Hey... did Dr. Rosenberg come by while I was unconscious ?" The thought of school reminded Dib of waking up with his professor in the room with Clark, his brother, and that random member of the custodial crew.

"Who?"

"Dr. Rosenberg, she's tall, kind of frizzy hair. She teaches astrophysics?"

"Why would I know who that is, Dib? I'm pre-med."

"Right..." That explained all the medical care he was getting. "I just... I thought I saw her when I woke up... it was only for a moment but... I thought she was over here..." Clark shook his head, giving Dib a bit of an odd look.

"Sounds like you had some kind of fever dream if you ask me. Unless your implying your professor decided to visit our apartment at two in the morning."

"No... now that you say it out loud that sounds dumb... but it wasn't just her. Your brother was there too. And Ron! That guy who cleans the science labs on weekends." Clark gave Dib a blank stare before very slowly picking up the soup spoon, filling it with soup, and putting it in Dib's mouth, all the while making a very distinct 'shhhhhhhhh' sound. Dib was going to protest, but he was still really hungry and instead just snatched the spoon and ate more of the soup.

"That sounds like the worse party ever, honestly. I know I'm kind of boring but I hoped you had more faith in my social skills than that."

"Maybe it was a dream..." Dib rubbed his eyes. "I don't know." He wanted to talk more to CB (something he never thought he would say) but he couldn't do it with Clark around. "Shouldn't you be going to bed soon? This is way later than you stay up."

"I was worried about you. You can say I'm running on adrenaline . I think I can skip class tomorrow anyway after this. I'm too tired to focus." He gave an exaggerated yawn. "You want anything else?" Dib wasn't sure what to make of Clark. Even when he was young, he didn't fall sick very often and when he did, he was content to be shut up in his room with Foodio bringing him meals and his dad poking his head in on occasion. This sort of attention was just weird to him.

"Um... no. I think I just want to sleep if that is okay."

"All right, you probably need the rest. I'll check on you in the morning. Just yell if you need something though." Clark leaned over Dib, looking him over one last time, placing a hand to his forehead once more before smiling and heading back out of the room. Dib waited until he heard the door to Clark's room close before he whipped out his phone once more seeing the little cartoon CB bouncing excitedly with the book now closed.

"Are you enjoying yourself?" Dib was mildly amused. "If you did anything to my phone you know I will delete you from Zim's base, right."

" Your death threats indicate that you do not want the information I have collected ."

"Okay okay, what do you have for me?"

" First, apologize ."

"I'm not going to do that CB. You're an ass to me all the time and you never say sorry."

" That is because the only sorry thing in this room is your attitude. "

"See you just did it. Right there." There was a pause and Dib could tell CB was contemplating his actions.

" Very well. " CB finally spoke again. " I have found something very interesting that may send you into one of your paranoid rants ."

"I do not have paranoid rants!" Dib interjected but quickly hushed himself as the screen changed back to the single blue light which narrowed like a judgmental eye in his direction. "Right. Continue."

" As I was saying ," the synthetic voice continued, indignantly. " It seems as if the Parasite name runs a little deeper than just the Irken distaste for them. The tentacle appendages on the Parasite can be used to inject a toxin into a potential victim. The toxin takes a few hours to take full effect, depending on the body mass and metabolism of the host. Once active, the toxin causes elevated temperature, increased anxiety, shortness of breath, and visual hallucinations. While not deadly to most advanced species, the effects of the toxin will not wear off until a cure is administered or until the body is able to fully detox from the poison ."

"So that little fuck did poison me!" Dib clenched his fists, sitting up in the bed. "I knew that attack hit but it didn't leave a mark and just- fuck. I was stupid to ignore it. It's a good thing that humans are adaptable enough that I could shake off that poison." He had to admit he was a little proud of himself, it had only been a few hours and he was feeling great.

" That is where things become complicated ." Dib froze.

"Complicated how , CB?"

" Well... I did a little more research while you were talking to that weird person you live with and the human body would take four days to process the toxin in full . Even with your enhanced immune system from being a clone, you would still take roughly thirty-six hours- less than a normal human but still considerable time ."

"Wait! I'm still infected!?" Dib glanced quickly around the room for those piercing eyes, expecting to see Q watching him with a head turned completely around, gazing at him like a monster in a nightmare. But... oddly... his room was normal.

" That does not appear to be the case. Symptoms remain consistent during the entirety of detoxification ."

"What the fuck does that mean then!?"

" It means that while your body processes the toxin, you will still have the symp -"

"I know what the words mean, you ass ! What are you implying !?"

" Oh. I misunderstood. It is a very confusing question ."

"CB focus- please!"

" Yelling is not going to make me more inclined to answer you ." The AI was getting huffy again and Dib was half tempted just to throw his phone out of the nearest window and be done with this insanity for the time being. However, his wellbeing was a stake here and despite how utterly intolerable this particular computer could be, he had answers.

"You're right, CB, oh wise and brilliant AI. Please, enlighten me."

" I am aware you are being sarcastic but I enjoy hearing you describe me so accurately ." Dib rolled his eyes but stayed quiet. " Quite frankly Dib, the only scenario I can calculate that would result in you recovering so completely so quickly is that you received that antidote at some point while my communications to you were offline ."

"Is there some way I could have ingested the antidote accidentally? I mean the ingredient in popcorn are so far removed from actual human nutrients it could have created some sort of weird alien antidote on complete accident."

" No. That is why I said things have become complicated. The antidote is actually quite common place in the galactic market. However, most of the ingredients cannot be found on this planet. If you did get the antidote, whoever gave it to you was most likely not human ."

"Yeah but the only one around was..."

Fuck.

"...Clark."