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Ahh, thank you to everyone who took the time to read, fav, and/or review chapter 1! It means the world to me. Also, to reduce any confusion, I've decided to place this after the events of Enter the Florpus, however it will have some AU elements regarding the series canon.


...My name is Dib Membrane! I'm 12 years old, and I'm all that stand between Zim and the annihilation of our world!

Did I really used to sound like that?

Dib ran his eyes over the over the text again, an odd sense of nostalgia settled over him as he read through the last line of his early autobiography. It had been almost 6 years since he'd last touched it. After the whole "Reality-Altering, Space Hole of Death" incident, his life had gone back to being hectic. It was strikingly akin to how things were before Zim's "disappearance" into his toilet.

Zim...

He traced back over the name. How long had it been since he left? Four, going on five, years if he remembered correctly. It almost shocked him as to how much time had passed since they'd last seen each other...it felt too fast, somehow. He couldn't help but wonder how things were going, how he was doing- if he was even alive.

Pushing his glasses up, he clicked off of his open document and opened his image files. Being the totally responsible adult he was, he had everything organized to a T. He scrolled past his early photos, taken as reconnaissance shortly after Zim's arrival on Earth. Zim's base, Zim's robots, Zim disguised, Zim undisguised...Had he really been this obsessed? No wonder everyone thought he was insane! There were so many he almost completely shot passed the sets where pictures of Zim morphed into pictures of them.

None of them had known it at the time, but the teleportation of Earth was the last significant attempt at conquest for the alien. He'd never tried anything quite at that level again, turning predominantly toward petty crime and obnoxious heckling. Though, over time, even that had changed some...their dynamic had changed.

Their odd understanding of one another quickly turned into what he liked to call a "Frenemy-ship", though it had taken significantly longer for them to move their relationship passed that. Zim still clung desperately to the denial of his exile and, he wouldn't lie, it had gotten in the way of their progress more than once. He could easily recall a few occasions where he'd gone to bed at night angry with the alien. He supposed it was around the time that Zim finally started taking life on Earth seriously that they moved forward. His sister had acted as a good buffer between their conflicting personalities and he'd started taking pictures simply for the memory rather than the obligation.

The images were all ordered chronologically, though even if they weren't, the differences between each set made it easy for him to determine their timeline. The subtle changes he could note in Zim's demeanor as he gradually became more comfortable with...everything. His new role, his "friends", himself. Dib realized that it probably wouldn't look like much of anything to untrained eyes, but he could see the variance between Zim looking at the camera and looking into it.

The list graduated into smirks, then smiles, then laughter before he finally got to the last one; a photo of all of them, scrunched in tightly in order to keep in frame, sat around Zim's kitchen table. He was the only one with a wide grin spread across his face, Gaz settling on a smirk and Zim caught mid-shout as he regarded a very messy and wildly spastic Gir. They had celebrated the end of their school finals, he remembered. In the background, various utensils and foods were strewn about, a glob of cake blurred with motion as it shot through the air.

This was the last photo he'd been able to take before Zim's extraction. He still didn't fully understand the circumstances that had let up to it...some kind of arrangement- a union. None of them had been able to get a full explanation out of him, but he remembered full well how upset he'd been. The normally hyperactive and snarky Irken he'd come to know so well was suddenly beside himself with outrage and...an odd sort of fear. Dib felt a familiar guilt wash over him; he hadn't done enough. In the days prior to his departure, Zim had successfully retreated back behind his walls and pushed them all away. They'd done everything to make those last days count, to create some semblance of normalcy, provide their friend some kind of relief from his now constantly stressed state...but they'd failed.

*Bing!*

Dib was startled out of his thoughts. A notification had popped up from the corner of his screen...a video call? Oh no...

He took a deep, composing breath and after lowering the volume on his headphones, clicked "accept".

"MARY!"

"Gir..." he groaned.

"There's too much beeping!"

Beeping? He didn't hear anything...

"It's probably just another hardware issue. I can fix it when I get back from scho-"

"The house is broken!" he screeched, dashing out of frame in panic.

"No, it's n-"

"If I may interject," a deep voice spoke, "The sound is a proximity alert."

Dib furrowed his brows, "'Proximity alert'? From who?"

"It is an unrecognized craft. However, it has not changed course since its detection 9 hours ago."

"9 hours?! Your radar has been sounding off since last night and no one bothered to tell me until now?"

"Technically, I'm not obligated to make you aware of anything."

"Big talk from someone who needs constant updates from me. Can't you just turn it off?"

"Of course I can, but it will resume every 15 degrees time until the ship passes outside gravitational radius OR is overrode through manual verification."

Sighing, Dib took off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes, "Well, I guess I can shut it off for you...maybe we can even find out who it is. Do you know how long we have before this 'craft' lands?"

There was silence for a moment, before the Computer replied, "Assuming that it stays on its current route, approximately 12 hours."

Minimizing his open tabs, he grabbed his glasses and stood from his seat, "I hate first period anyway...just keep Gir out of the labs until I get there, okay? I don't want to arrive to any smashed consoles."


Alright, chapter two is up. I'm going to try and use degrees for time due to later events, but it's still a little confusing for me, so please bear with my stupidity if it should arise. Thank you for reading, all feedback is welcome!