He was underwater, deep, where no light penetrated. Darkness and the pressure of a million tons of liquid pushed his limbs down and compressed his eyes into two hard diamonds. He couldn't move and he couldn't think. He wasn't even aware.
Zim stood in front of a console, typing rapidly. He stood stock still, except every so often he quirked one huge red eye at the fat specimen tube that stretched from cold metal floor to cabled ceiling.
Things were changing in there. Invisible still, but changing.
Slowly, gently, light began to find his hooded eyes. It was soft but after so long in darkness it stabbed into his retinas like needles. It took an ice age to close his eyes; races rose and were destroyed in the time it took him to turn his face away. Still there was no coherency, no higher thought in his mind. There was only basic reflex, the kind that existed in the single-celled organism. It would take an eon for him to find himself again.
Zim was impatient now. He hopped away, laid his claws against the polymer of the specimen tube, scratched away a little of the film of frost that spread across it. When he focused his MIGHTY eyes he could see a hand lying as limp as something dead.
His lips drew back in what might have been a grin and might have been a sneer. "Wake up, Dib," he said.
The light was rising faster now, and his body with it. Impulses twitched carefully along nerves; his body was wracked with tremors. He was so cold it burned.
Slowly his mind began to revive from its long sleep. It was still mute. It was unaware of its own name. But it was waking.
The little alien paced in jerky restless circles. His claws were folded tightly behind his back. He was drawing in slowly, closer to the tube, until his shoulder dragged against the curved wall of it and he pulled away. He bounded to the console again, gave it a cursory glance, then screamed: "COMPUTER! Give me an estimate of how long it will take the DibSTINK to awaken!"
The machine that ran the ship focused on it's master, relaying the question to the medical banks. "Umm… we think he should be coherent in about six hours…"
"WHAT?!" Zim screamed, fisting both hands and shaking them wildly. "Too long! Speed it up!"
"Err." The computer sounded a little wary now. "If we go too fast we might leave some parts damaged… are you sure?"
Zim screamed wildly, tore at his face in a momentary frenzy of rage. "FINE, FINE, FIIIINE!" A wait was preferable to inflicting damage on the Dib-beast. He had held himself back from this for months, he could wait six hours. He. Could. Wait.
Zim returned to his monotonous pacing.
Dib remembered his name.
He was still dreaming, twitching, remembering, asleep. He was still cold. But now he had a name. Now he began to remember himself.
…it's winter and i'm so, so cold… sitting on the swings and i can't get warm… it's cold, somebody rescue me… i don't want to be here at skool today and i can't… i can't… i can't get warm…
…there's somebody else here, isn't there? or am i alone? please not alone…
…there is, there is, someone is here and he's laughing at me… can't escape…
…i'm just sitting here, why are you hurting me, i didn't do anything to you… hunched into my coat… it's cold…
…slush ball hits me in the face, melts, trickling down inside my collar, knocks me off the swing, it has rocks in it and one of them cuts me, COLD, so cold it hurts, stop it… you shouldn't be able to do this you shouldn't be here at all…
…just stop it. STOP IT. I SAID STOP IT.
His mind revolved slowly, coiling into a deeper, more peaceful sleep.
A light flared on, a notice went off, peeping loudly. It grated on Zim's nerves, but then, everything grated on his nerves now. Irkens were not good at waiting.
"What is THAT?!" he roared. The computer responded instantly. It knew it's master well. If he were balked there was a 97% probability of him flying into a destructive rage.
"He moved into REM sleep for a minute. It was a nightmare; he's out of it now."
Zim hissed, dragged his tongue around his mouth, reptilian and totally evil. His eyes flared wickedly. "Good, good!" he cackled. The short alien prowled closer to the tube, brushed gloved hands over it in a way that was almost reverent. Then he SLAMMED them down.
"Hurry UP, Dib, hurry UP! ZIM is almost TIRED of waiting!"
The computer added a stimulant to the nutrient soup that fed Dib, and warmed the gel surrounding him by another degree. It kept it's misgivings to itself.
He was coming up faster now, could see light shining cold golden up above him. Dib was gaining on coherency now, stroking as fast as he could through water as thick as molasses. His limbs burned and tingled as movement forced warmth and blood through them. And he was still remembering. And he was still cold.
…Sitting in the skoolroom, feeling eyes drilling into the back of my head… came in late because I was sick last night and slept in today, stop staring, idiots…! Not like it never happened to you…
…Well, maybe it hasn't happened to you because you contracted some weird alien flu and were puking copious amounts of slightly glowing green mucous into the porcelain god until two in the morning…
…But you shouldn't nitpick.
…And how about this… the guy (?)… who gave it to me… isn't here either…
Zim paced and paced and paced, booted feet giving off muffled clangs from the floor. He couldn't stand this wait. He returned again and again to stare through the crowded frost at the Dib, counting the tremors that ran through his thin limbs. This delay-! It drove him to distraction. It was such a long process. He could barely stand it.
Zim bounded to the tube again, propping his tiny body up on spider legs. Gently, gently, he wiped away the frost covering until he could see Dib's face and shoulders. The human's muscles were slack, his lower face covered with a breathing mask. Zim looked closer and closer until he could see Dib's eyes twitching back and forth under the closed lids. Then he sighed, scratching one claw down the polymer, down the bridge of Dib's nose.
He was awake, although he didn't know it.
Dib slitted his eyes open in the real world, just a hair. It was a move that was entirely unconscious. Fluid instantly rushed to press against his eyes and he closed them again, another reflex. Then he opened them fully.
This is what his dazed brain took in: a translucent blue haze across his vision. And through that, Zim's own face- his narrowed eyes, his spreading evil grin. The pointed light of computer consoles behind him. All blurred, as if it were seen through thick, warped glass.
Dib was not particularly afraid. He did not even believe that what he was seeing was real. He had had a string of nightmares like this for a week, once. He expected that this was one of them.
His eyes slipped closed.
Zim noticed the flicker of Dib's lashes instantly and pushed his face closer, grinning wicked and wild. The boy's eyes parted just a little, and rolled to focus outwards. His pupils were huge and dark, and he SAW Zim, SAW his enemy. Zim was certain of that.
A million thoughts rushed through Zim's mind at once. Well HELLO Dib awake at last how do you feel? Comfortable I hope, or maybe not, you look a little stupid in there OH my mistake, you always do.
I hope you're scared. I hope you SEE what I can do to you now, what I COULD have done anytime during all those years on earth when we played. You life is IN MY HANDS, Dib. How do you feel…?
The human's eyes slipped closed.
Zim waited for a moment. Waited. Waited. Seconds ticked by, no, they crept by, like ants. The he recoiled with rage.
"COMPUTER! He's SLEEPING! Why is he SLEEPING?! HOW?! HOW?!" He spun in his anger, delivered a smashing kick to the wall. The computer tripped over itself to tell him.
"He's tired, under great mental strain, it took a lot out of him to come out of cold sleep-"
Zim was barely listening. He dragged his claws down the side of his face, raging. Words had been lost in his unintelligible roars. If the computer had had a living shell it would have cowered.
Dib slept easy in his gentle prison.
END OF CHAPTER THREE
Okay… that turned out longer then I expected. Much longer. Dib was supposed to wake fully (yeah, we still have a bit of sleepy!Dib to go. M'sorry.) in one chapter but it didn't quite happen that way. I hope you enjoyed this nonetheless.
Chapter finished July 3, 2004.