Saving Zim by Dib07

Summary:

When you had it all. When old age forces you to change. When life isn't what you'd imagined. When you aren't prepared to be so powerless.

When a soldier's undetermined future remains his greatest fear.

Disclaimer:

I do not own the IZ characters. However this story and this idea is mine.

Cover art beautifully made by TheCau! All credit goes to her, please do not use without his permission, thank you :)

Warnings:

Character angst. Blood. Swearing.


Dib07: Hi all! Thank you all for being supportive. The reviews I have received keep me going. Welcome to the first few chapters that have had a good dollop of polish on them, and in many cases, a full rewrite in some sections, and a few new scenes or even chapters. Please feel free to review or comment, I always reply to every single one, and because of your love and support I will keep updating and improving this story for you!

Special thanks to some very remarkable reviewers and supporters who flooded my heart with SUPREME FEEDBACK! And thank you Piratemonkies64 for the youtube audio chapters!

For all those who are new to this story, this novel is for the adults who have grown up with these characters, and want something a little darker.


Chapter 4: Hanging on a Promise

The main view screen filled with static as his computer located their signal. If the Massive was on the dark side of a planet, it was sometimes impossible to contact them until their satellites were in better range, with less radioactive planetary interference. Sometimes the signal did not get through at all.

He did not need to worry this time. The signal connected successfully and he was looking in on the royal chamber where the Tallest habitually liked to sit or stand whilst receiving messages, drafting Irkens to war or eating snacks. Huge red tapestries hung at the back of each chair, the black Irken symbol a stern reminder of who he would always be. Today, no one was sitting on the high chairs.

"My Tallest?" He called, "Hello? It's Zim! I need to make a tiny, little, ever so small request!"

One of them looked at him from the side of the screen. It was Tallest Red. Zim recognised pale surprise in his leader's narrowed, long face before a careful stoniness washed over it. "Oh. You. I had just about forgotten what you looked like. Now you've reminded me. Great."

Zim was never very good at decoding their sarcasm, and began to suspect that it wasn't sarcasm at all. "My Tallest! Greetings!" He saluted at once. "I have a request!"

"Wait, wait." Tallest Red looked off-screen to make a 'come here' gesture. "Purple, Purple! Come look at this!"

Zim waited, standing as straight and as tall as he could. Purple soon joined Red before he began to laugh. Zim smiled too, trying to get in on the joke even when he had no idea what it was.

"Are you pregnant, Zim?" Red blurted out. "Don't you realize that it's against all of Irken Law to create smeets without authorization?"

"Let's be done with it and just execute him anyway!" Purple said.

"Like that ever works!"

"No, no my dear Tallest!" Zim hurried to say, even though he was unsure what 'pregnant' meant, "I suffered a minor incident, as is common on the battlefield. My spooch is just a bit... swollen! I am not pregnant!"

"Oh. He's not pregnant. Can we execute him anyway?" Purple asked.

Red pushed him out the way. "Back to business. What do you need? A noose? A pinch of shmoop to swallow? A grenade? A vacuum-less void to fall into?"

"I would like an upgrade!"

"An upgrade? To what? Your brain?"

"Almost! It's my PAK! It's running a bit low on power and its getting rather... worn inside. I thought..."

Red's face grew dark, and his long antennae arched upwards in a show of aggression. "You're asking us for an upgrade, Zim?"

"Yes, my dear Tallest! Then I can continue the annihilation of planet Earth!"

"It's been twenty two years, Zim." Tallest Purple cut in. "And you haven't conquered anything."

"Oh, but I'm so close! I can feel it! Please! One more push and the Earth is yours! I'll even throw in the moon! It's kinda useless, and I did promise it to Gir, but you can use it as target practise!"

Red looked at Purple, and Purple looked at Red. Then they burst out laughing. "The... the defect wants an upgrade!"

"To prolong our torment!"

"And... and he looks so... so pregnant!" Red laughed, holding his sides.

"I'm gonna die from laughter this time for sure!"

"Like 'upgrades' even exist!"

The transmission cut off suddenly and Zim jumped towards the screen. "My Tallest? Hello? You've been cut off!" He faced the ceiling. "Computer! Re-establish link!"

"Link up-load failure. They have ended the link, Master."

Like he often did after a call to the Tallest had reached its conclusion, he stood, wilting beneath the huge black screen in the half hope that they'd realize their mistake and reconnect the link.

He rested shaky claws on the console of the computer to steady himself.

-x-

Dib sat at the desk with his headphones hanging around his neck as he typed up yesterday's morning report that would later be issued in the Franklin newspaper. The day hadn't been very busy, in fact very little of anything was happening. The tedium would stretch while he eagerly awaited the call from his boss that would send him out onto the field for real investigation work. For now he was deep in dull legislation. Around him were other paranormal investigators working in different fields. Gary, who was a close colleague, worked in the same field, specializing in ghosts and extraterrestrials. He wasn't as sharp-eyed or as level-headed as Dib, and got excited over any possible sighting or evidence, claiming it to be real without further scrutiny. The man, though much older, with wavy grey and black hair, came to work usually stinking of alcohol.

When Dib looked at Gary he saw too much of himself in him, and what his potential future would have looked like, and what might still look like. Growing up old, alone and obsessed was becoming ever more real by the day.

He went back to staring at the computer, his hands frozen over the keyboard as he struggled to think what his next words should be. He liked to think he was top of his field, and an expert on every corner of the paranormal, but he could only be assigned to two things, his study being that of aliens and ghosts, like Gary's chosen themes: which happened to be the two most popular subjects. Any sightings related to these two topics kept him out of the office and enabled him to travel. Whereas some investigators studying vampires or swamp moles rarely left their post at all unless they got a call about some drunken guy who had thought he had seen some man suck on another man's neck. Aliens and ghosts were taken much more seriously, even though most of them turned out to be hoaxes. Usually ghosts or demons turned out to be rats in attic, or an alien in a cornfield turned out to be some unusually tall and satanic looking goat.

His boss, Clifford, looked in at Dib from his office. "Dib. Line 2. Take the call."

"Sure." He shrugged off his headphones and picked up one of the phones by his computer, holding it to his ear. As he waited for the call to be patched through, his tired eyes overviewed his desk. It wasn't very clean. There were coffee stains on the surface, and his ashtray needed emptying. There was a picture frame of his father and sister taken in the moment of summer five years ago. Next to it was a tiny toy figure of Zim that he had made out of bits of old plastic and glue. The likeness was very uncanny.

"Hello? Is this the 'extraterrestrial sighting' department?" Shouted some hysterical woman down the line. He was used to the hysterical sort. They liked to make a bit of a show for the attention. It was the calmer ones that usually had something genuine.

"Yes, it is ma'am." His professionalism took over in a heartbeat. He picked up the Zim figurine in one hand and felt the contours of its head. "This is Dib Membrane. What did you see exactly? And where and when did it happen?" With due care he placed the figurine back on the desk so that he had a free hand to flip open his notepad and start scribbling down notes.

"It's Mrs. Hoffman to you." Came the rattled reply. He had a mental image of her already. "And yes I saw an alien! Don't question me because it was! I know what I saw, and I wasn't on any drugs! I swear on Almighty God of what I saw!"

"When did this event occur?"

"Event? Don't call it that! This was a real alien! I saw it two days ago! I tried to call your department but no one would answer!"

"Ah yeah. We're shut on weekends. Lack of staff."

"And you call yourselves investigators? Look, I know what I saw! It was big and terrifying!"

Dib sighed inwardly. Most people who thought they saw aliens usually mistook flashing streetlights in a thick fog for landing UFOs, and little misshapen dogs for Martians. "Uh huh. And what did you see exactly Mrs. Hoffman?"

When he had the details, he ended the call, grabbed his notebook and left the desk in a hurry, causing the little Irken figurine to fall from the desk and break apart on the floor.

-x-

The local woods belonged to a local national park where people came to tour the wilderness outside the city. It used to be Native American territory. Now it belonged to red woods, squirrels and apparently aliens.

Dib arrived on the site with his newly appointed assistant: a female he had never worked with before. He didn't like bringing newbies along with him without the proper training because they only slowed him down and possessed that novel awkwardness he didn't know how to respond to. Thankfully Gary had come with him wearing his ridiculous 60's or 70's dark frockcoat and fedora, and due to his confidence and nigh unshakable charisma that came from his alcoholic daze, he usually did the interviews. Mrs. Hoffman was there in her equally ridiculous salmon pink petticoat, pointing at the woodland and shouting hysterically so that half the state could hear her; repeating the same story to any who would listen.

"It was in there! Just to the left of that old river! It had some sort of equipment! I'm pretty sure it was equipment! It was pulsing!"

Dib nodded and decided to look himself just to get away from her yelling. In his backpack was his camera, torch, notepad, sensor array and DNA sampler. He preferred to work alone when he was up close and personal with 'evidence,' and left the new girl with Gary.

The woods were dark, even this early in the morning. The canopy of leaves above threw out long, ever-shifting shadows across the carpet of grass, producing a sense of mystery and menace. He was told that wolves lived here, though their sightings were chalked up as hoaxes.

The river was really just a small trickling stream that cut through the wood like an artery. There were signs of recent activity here, he had to admit. There were blackened scorch marks running up a tree. Two day's old, maybe? And some of the grass had been flattened, as if something large had come along and sat on it for awhile.

He mused to himself, thinking that Mrs. Hoffman may not have been lying after all.

Dib naturally didn't want to get excited. Perhaps a human had left their car here with some camping gear perhaps (which would have been illegal), or maybe it had been kids playing a prank. Wouldn't it be funny if Mrs. Hoffman had actually sighted real aliens? More aliens meant more Irkens and he didn't know if he should be happy or scared at the prospect. He had once believed that Zim had been fully capable of calling for backup.

He started to consider that he might be dealing with aliens after all when he saw the too-obvious boot prints in the mud nearest the river where the grass had begun to thin out. And the boot marks were very small, and narrowed at the boot-tips. He clumsily fetched out his torch and its cone of light cut through the shadows, paving the way ahead. As he searched the immediate area, he found broken branches and one small misshapen machine part. It was Irken in nature: its design familiar and he soon recognised it as a part of the Voot Runner. Dib cut his teeth into his lower lip, eyes squinting behind his glasses as his flashlight combed the grass, soil and pink telltale plasma puddles that were dappled here and there in the mud. It almost looked like someone had spilled a bottle of Cherry-aid. The Voot had landed here, and Zim and Gir must have had a fucking picnic in the goddamn open.

Sprinting, he broke free from the woods and rushed back to the troop and straight for Gary who was busy recording the interview with Mrs. Hoffman using his pro-go camera. He almost barrelled into them, stopping just in time before he smashed into the new girl. He couldn't even remember her name.

"So sorry, Gary." Dib said, out of breath. He blamed his lack of stamina on the cigarettes. "But there are half price donuts right now at Marmalade's."

Marmalade's was an exquisite shop that sold the best donuts in the world.

"You're serious?" Gary looked at him with such scepticism that Dib thought his ruse was blown. "They never sell their donuts at half the price! I'd better hurry before they sell out! You don't mind finishing up the interview do you?"

"Not at all. I just need what you've recorded so far."

"Okay. Just don't tape over anything." And Gary gave him the pro-go camera; microphone and bulky tape recorder that looked like it had come from the same era as Gary. Then he started heading across the meadow towards the car, leaving Dib with Mrs. Hoffman and the girl.

Before he had even got the equipment ready, Mrs. Hoffman was off on another tirade. "Oh it was horrible! Just horrible! I only came out this way because I heard noises! Really loud banging noises! And I thought to myself that I'll just check it out, because it was making my poor dog Missy bark and bark! I was thinking it was those crazy kids playing around 'en such. That's when I saw it! Stalking about in them trees!" Dib pretended to record her by resting the bulky camera on his arm and looking through the lens when in fact he had just erased all of Gary's previous work.

"Uh huh." He encouraged, wondering how much she had actually seen.

"It had fiery red eyes that glowed in the dark! Satan's eyes! And its skin was green I think! And it looked vicious! It had a gun!"

"A gun?"

She seemed pretty shook up, and Dib suspected that she was exaggerating a little.

I'm saving him twice in two days. I must be insane. "Okay Mrs. Hoffman. Did you get a picture of this creature?"

"No I didn't."

"Well, I hate to tell you this, but what you saw on Saturday night was just a kid in a costume."

"What?" She looked truly baffled.

"Yeah. A little kid. He got lost in the woods after he pranked everyone with a toy gun. He thought it was Halloween."

"But it's February." She said.

"Exactly."

"And those scary, evil eyes he had?"

"Make up." Dib pressed, thinking up last-second excuses. He felt the girl looking at him peculiarly, but he took no notice of her.

The worry began to lift from Mrs. Hoffman's face as if she had just escaped from a bear trap. "Really? All I saw was just a child in a costume? But... it just can't be! There was a little green dog with it, and..."

"That was a kid in a costume too."

"Oh." She blinked, not sure how to continue as she looked into the camera. "All this time I thought we were being invaded by little aliens of all things!"

We were invaded two decades ago, but sure, whatever.

He remained affable with Mrs. Hoffman and offered to take her back to the office for some coffee, which she declined, saying that she wanted the Halloween kid apprehended for causing indecent public behaviour. He pretended to write more notes down just to keep her happy, while inside he was positively fuming, his quiet rage getting harder to conceal the more Mrs. Hoffman went on.

It was ironic that he was now trying to defend the stupid alien after suffering such ridicule as a child in school and then college. Now the tables were turning and it felt like a joke was being played on him.

Zim remained ignorant to it all. That had never changed.

Mrs. Hoffman, looking relieved, got in her car to drive home. Dib turned the video camera off and was about to head on over to his own car when the new girl rose a hand out to him. He stared at it as if her hand was a keen, double-edged knife.

"So you're Dilbert, right?"

"Uh, no, it's just plain ol' Dib. Dib Membrane." He said uncomfortably, but he took her hand in his and shook it. Her hand was very soft, whereas his was rough; the fingers calloused from the long nights he had spent as a kid engineering some machine to keep a space monster off his back.

He was not fond of females. They intimidated him. It did not help that his sister was the only female he had experiences with, and when the other kids dated, had wild campus sex, did drugs, and dated some more, he was always outside the circle, never having a girl even look his way.

Their hands parted.

"I'm Clara. So you're the famous son of Professor Membrane?" She sounded nervous too, as if she was conversing with a renowned celebrity.

Dib tried to smile and felt his armpits moisten with sweat. "I wouldn't get too excited. My dad and I are very different. He's into science and well, I'm here, trying to catch ghosts on camera and chasing aliens through national parks. What about you? You're new to this outfit, aren't you?"

He had barely so much as looked at her since arriving at the park, not just because she was new, but because she was a girl. He didn't want to like her. Liking her would mean nothing but disappointment in some way or other. She probably had a boyfriend, and had kids. And even if she happened to be single, there was no way she'd fancy him. He was a scrawny dork who wore glasses and smoked. No one wore glasses anymore. They were seen as old-fashioned. Most people used eye contacts instead, or opted for the eye-laser surgery treatment. She was just talking to him because of his surname, of which he could never escape.

"I started last week. I've been watching training videos and reading up on evidence and historical documentation before they even let me anywhere near the public." There was a reason for such intense training. Dealing with 'ghosties,' general hauntings, and ghoulies was one thing, but dealing with the public was a challenge in of itself, and a lot of the job forced you into old, dilapidated buildings were health and safety was a major factor.

"So why did you join the investigation team, if you don't mind me asking?" They started walking back to his car, a car whose seats were still slightly green and damp with alien blood. She had not brought her own transport: Gary had brought her over, and now Gary was gone; seeking donuts that were not half price.

"I really want to get into the field of zoology and eventually cryptozoology, but in order to be certified I have to be a paranormal investigator for a year before I can actually qualify."

"Zoology, huh? You like animals?"

"All types really. The weirder, the better. So, what are your hobbies?"

Chasing little green aliens. He thought. "I watch TV." He lied, trying to appear normal, but instead it came off sounding incredibly boring. "You?"

"Oh, I like dancing, music, and sewing."

If there was a guide book on How-To-Talk-To-girls, he would be flicking through it right now in a hurry. "I also like... games."

"Video games?"

"Yeah. I mainly play them with Zim..." His insides dropped at the realization of his mistake. "Uh... oh I mean... myself!"

"Zim?" She asked, looking at him in a half amused, half curious kind of way. Females and their expressions were suddenly as alien to him as Irken expressions.

"Yeah, he's... this... friend. Sorta. He's a little green and insane."

They got to his car. The green stains looked particularly bad under the full light of the morning sun. There was no way she would not see them unless she got in the back.

Great. First chance I get chatting to a girl and Zim fucks it up for me somehow without him even being here!

"Urm, seats are still a bit wet at the front. Had them cleaned recently because... because I spilled lots of diet poop all over them. Mind scooting to the back?" He asked, hoping he could persuade her.

"I don't mind."

He drove her back to the office where he was expected to report in. He dropped Clara off and waved her goodbye, and as he watched her make her way back to the office department, he wished he was someone else, someone with the confidence to ask girls out, to step out of line once or twice, and to not give a flying fudge about Irken invaders.

-x-

Dib practically had the door exploding inwards after giving it one big kick. Gir was on the couch, eyes wide when he saw the human storm into the lounge. The robot threw his arms up and whooped eagerly. "You wanna sit next to me and have some ham? I have plenty of ham! I saved some under the sofa!"

Dib closed the door behind him with a smack and looked wildly around, hoping all the commotion would have summoned the alien invader straight away. "Where is he?"

He noticed that Gir had part of his hand missing. It made the robot look odder than usual. Then again, Gir was known to lose things.

The human heard the toilet conduit before Gir had time to reply. Zim stepped out of the toilet with surprising dignity and walked over with a hard stare, but it was difficult to see the alien as anything but intimidating when he was limping. "Oh! What is it this time?" The Irken challenged in a groggy voice. "Can't you see I'm busy? And look, you're trudging mud everywhere! I can't keep having you come here, trailing..."

"What do you think you're doing?" His loud, commanding voice had quite the effect.

He noticed Zim's posture completely change. His smooth antenna flattened right down, and he almost shied back as if Dib was growing taller before him. The shift in his attitude did not last, and the soldier was back to holding his ground, his shoulders tightening as if he was readying himself for battle. "D-Doing what? How... how dare you come in here and accuse Zim of..."

"You were in the woods weren't you on Saturday night? Waterfall National Park ring any bells? And you went out without your disguise, again, didn't you?"

"I... I was..."

"You idiot!" He pressed forwards, flapping his arms out, which only made the Irken instantly recoil and shrink away. "They're going to find you, they're going to capture you, and they're going to kill you, Zim! Don't you care? Shouldn't you be just a little bit more vigilant?"

The old Elite almost tripped over a doll, his eyes glued on the advancing human. "You – you don't tell ZIM what to do, you fucking little worm! I can do as I please! You forget your place!" He ended up fastened into a corner while the human towered over him.

"And what place is that, Zim? Tell me! Is that where I stand, watching you get dissected? Is my place watching you scream and cry while they hack your arm off? Because this is the reality! I won't be able to save you when they come for you!"

"Why... why do you s-say that like you're not one of them?"

Dib caught himself. Then he blew his top. "You're right! What the hell am I thinking? You're a fucking alien, spreading mayhem and carnage! I should have exposed you while I was still in school!" He spun round, his trench coat flying at the edges.

"Dib!"

He didn't stop and approached the door in that same building momentum. He opened it with a violent jerk of his hand.

"Dib stop!"

He stepped out onto the sunlit porch. The birds were singing but he didn't hear them.

"You don't turn your back on me, Dib worm! You promised me you wouldn't!"

His forward march met an invisible wall, and he stood trembling on the alien's front porch steps. Hot breath stormed out of his partly opened lips. Without even looking at him, his eyes locked on his car ahead, he answered coldly; "You're an alien. And you still believe in that promise?"

"I know you still do. You are indebted to me."

Even though Zim could not see it, he winced. "I haven't forgotten." He finally looked round at him, his glasses flashing in the sun when he saw that the Irken had peeled himself out of the corner and was standing within the shadows of the lounge. "It was an accident. You can't hold it against me your whole life."

"Was it an accident?"

Dib stormed down the garden path to his car. "Tonight then, at the Treaty." He yelled as he opened the door. "And don't be late!"