A.N. Sorry for the long delay got caught up in a lot of other projects and life in general. Anyway, I'm back with more of this story and realized I do I have a reason for the story being in bold. - Bwaha, but you have to wait to find out what that reason is. Also I realized that I had left these two chapters on my hard drive without posting this whole time. 0.0 so sorry about that…..
Project D.I.B.
Chapter: 05
"Prepare for the end Space-boy!" The young boy with the dark hair and glasses cried, his burrito-launcher aimed at the green transfer student. The green one merely smirked from where he stood on the school's rooftop, the setting sun illuminating his form in a glow of gold.
"And whose end are we discussing Dib-stink?" He was just too confident, did the little alien ever lose faith in himself?
"Yours you alien scum-bag! I have proof, for once, that you exist and the Swollen Eyeball will soon get it! Soon the whole world will know what you are! And I'll finally be recognized!" The idea made his chest swell with pride. Just a little longer, if he could hold Zim there a little longer, then the others would come, and his father would have to recognize his studies as real science.
Something nagged at him. Dib tried to brush it off, but it grew with each passing moment, accumulating when Zim cast aside his disguise, his mechanical legs bursting free from his PAK to attack Dib, and then the barrier went up.
The Swollen Eyeball had arrived.
Zim looked almost betrayed, and Dib could only stare back, feeling remorse, regretting bringing others into their battle. It really didn't matter though, for Zim would just escape like always, and the others would never make it passed Zim's lawn and then things would go back to normal.
But Zim didn't escape, he didn't even fight, he simply slumped forward, a sad, heartbreaking smile on his face, and laughed.
Groggily, the world became real, the wispy images from a time he was certain he remembered, but knew could never have been, fading away as a shadowed room came into focus. Dib blinked, letting out a discomforted groan, rubbing at his antenna as he sat up.
Did I fall asleep in the monitoring room again?
He was aware that he was laying on a hard cot of sorts and that the room was like none he'd ever seen on the Membrane. Finally, he became aware of another presence in the room with him, and he quickly turned expecting to see a doctor in white lab gear with in the stark room, and was floored by the purple, pupil-less eyes set in the green face.
"So, you're awake now." The voice was cold, much more so than the scientists that probed him daily. Dib swallowed hard, his fingers curling into the bed-sheets beneath him. He suddenly wished that he'd been under the blankets. At least then he would have had something to hide under, a shield of sorts—a bad one sure but still a shield—against the distrust and malice shown in the deep purple depths of the creature before him.
No… not creature… Irken. She's one of the aliens, like the ones Dad brought in… Dib felt queasy at the thought of the beings that had been tortured to death before his very eyes. Are they going to kill me? Dib felt mildly uneasy with the thought. Sure life on the Membrane wasn't all the great, but he certainly didn't want to die.
The purple eyes narrowed.
Dib couldn't stop the whimper that escaped him as he cringed back. The scientists he knew. He could deal with them, knew how to push their buttons with out stepping too far over bounds, and understood his place amongst them. These beings that looked like him though, he had no clue what to expect from them, and that terrified him.
The Irken snorted in a way that reminded Dib of the disgust the doctors showed him. From the voice he was fairly certain this one was female, but he wasn't certain, so mentally labeled her as "the cranky Irk," and tried to calm himself down. Showing fear would get him nowhere, it never worked with the scientists it wouldn't work with the Cranky-one.
"E—excuse me." Dib's voice broke, and he swallowed back the lump that formed in his throat, his mouth uncomfortably dry. Seemed all his moister had gone to his palms and slowly saturated the sheets he held in a death grip.
"Cranky" looked at him dully, leaning away and folding her arms over her chest, looking down at him. He had a feeling she was placing a rank on him, showing authority, but shoved the thought aside. People had been looking down on him since he was born, what was one more? Gaz was the only one who even remotely treated him as an equal, and that was due to some form of rebellion on her part.
Gaz… what happened to her? Dib's mind suddenly came to a halt, as flashes returned of the past few hours he could remember, but not one of them helped him to locate his sister, or her condition.
"What?" The question was snapped out and irritated, as though he was bothering her with his inquiry and silence was something to be feared, and avoided. She was all hot air though, and he doubted she'd actually maim him… yet.
"I—I… where… is my sister?" The question seemed to baffle her, as she blinked at him uncomprehendingly before another scowl contorted her face and she stood.
She was taller than he was by about a half-a-foot, and seemed to delight in it, as she turned and left the room with out answering his question. Dib watched her go feeling cold and empty inside. Did… they kill her? Anger flashed through him and the chair the female had been sitting in toppled over with a loud clatter, startling him, and the pale boy jumped, tears welling in his eyes.
"Gaz…. Where are you?" Dib questioned the empty room, a pathetic waver to his voice. He could hear the girl's voice in his head, all ready reprimanding and cruel, and he wished more than anything that she would come in to yell at him.
"You're such a cry-baby, Dib. God are you really a boy? You're pathetic, that's why they pick on you, because you suck. Shut up. Or I'll dump you in a bath full of water. See? Now, was that really so hard?"
"What happened?" Dib question, pushing his hands against his eyes trying to rid them of the dampness that was there. "Everything's so muddled…" Often times speaking aloud had helped him to clear his mind and organize thoughts that seemed otherwise impossible—such as moments where he had to decide what was real and what was some one else's memories—but it did little help this time.
I was in the lab… there was an explosion… Gaz locked me in my room… someone came into my room, I tried to run and he caught me with a metal leg… he yelled some confusing things at me… smacked me and then dragged me… Dib's breathing had become erratic as the memories came back, and as the recollection of being dragged was over laid with battles. Childish battles between the Irken man and a boy with glasses, a boy that was bathed in sadness.
He bit into the dark red fruit, lips suctioned to the skin so as not to waste a drop of its sweet nectar, all the same some welled up to dribbled down his chin. Black-crimson and sticky. He smiled through the blood.
The door slamming open, yanked Dib from his own horrid visions and he jumped, turning to the sound and was surprisingly happy to see the female Irken had returned, and with her was the red-eyed alien who had pulled him on board. Somehow knowing his name.
Dib couldn't help but tense, eyes narrowing out of habit. He knows me… or at least my name… he called to me… The thought made Dib uneasy and he swallowed hard against the urge to flee. Something about those red eyes terrified him, and at the same time, soothed him.
"State your name, smeetling!" The red-eyed Irken demanded, and Dib jerked, his mind blanking out for an instant. Distantly he recalled the voice, but he used a different insult back then. It was meaner, something primal, something like…
"…worm baby?" Dib whispered, his mind a befuddled hazy white, and nearly missed the shock that passed over both the Irken's faces accompanied by the involuntary step backward.
Red eyes narrowed as the—much taller—Irken stepped forward. Somehow Dib thought he should be smaller, but he kept quiet to those thoughts, as the other glared down upon him.
"I asked for your name, soldier! Where is your PAK?"
"Pack? How the hell should I know, you're the maniac who dragged me from my room!" Dib snapped back, mentally repeating how this was a very BAD idea, and yet the words just rolled out. As though tempting this being into rage was an everyday occurrence.
"Commander Zim just asked you a question, White One, answer now or we'll kill you here!" The Irate Irk snapped, her hands curled into tight fists at her side. Dib felt certain that she could—and given the chance would—kick his ass and fiddled in his seat uncomfortably.
Zim? I know that name… Dib's thoughts were cut short as the male Irken reached out to grab his shoulder painfully. The bloody images and flashes of pain spiraled through Dib's mind making him queasy, and Dib choked back a gasp, clenching his teeth and closing his eyes as the three-fingered hand jerked his arm up awkwardly."What. Is. Your. Name?" Zim asked in a dangerously low, menacing growl, his face closer to Dib's than he liked, and Dib scowled, his antennae twitching. He thought he heared the chair tip over again, but ignored it as the hand tightened on his arm in warning.
"Dib, obviously, or I wouldn't have responded." Dib said plainly, his lip curling a little in annoyance, even as some other portion of him felt over-joyed at the small squabble he seemed to be having with the older Irk. "So, how did you know it, Space boy?" Dib asked, the insult rolling off of his tongue much easier than it should have, and he had to suppress a smirk as the other alien's flinched at the name, Zim's eyes darkening with suppressed emotions, just before the hand threw Dib back onto the bed roughly.
"I'll ask the questions, smeetling!" Zim yelled, his voice seeming, somehow unstable. Dib looked up at the taller being, a little confused by the sound but made no comeback. "When you have answered me, I might answer your questions."
Yeah, that's real incentive there…Dib thought, but kept his thoughts to himself, least the Irken didn't touch him again and give him more graphic memories he did not want to have.
"Now, where is your PAK?"
Dib sighed and rolled his eyes, as he reseated himself, straightening his clothes and fiddling with the tiny hole in the shirtfront. "My back-pack is in my room back on the Membrane." Dib supplied, looking up when the cranky one stepped closer.
"Not a backpack you fool! Your PAK!"
Dib jerked back as she made a move to touch him, and scowled. He really didn't need to see what was in her mind. "I don't know what you are talking about!" Dib snapped, deciding that as long as he answered Zim's questions, he could be rude to the other one.
"Tak." Zim called out when the cranky one—Tak it would seem—raised her hand as if to strike him, and Dib stiffened when those red eyes turned to him. "Get lippy again, Smeetling, and I will not stop her."
Dib nodded.
"Now, how long have you been on that stink-beast vessel?" Zim asked, and Dib shivered at the term, somehow recognizing it.
"I was born there." Dib began, ignoring the shared looks of disbelief that passed over their faces.
"What do you mean born?" Zim asked again, leaning closer, and Dib repressed the urge to flinch. Flinching usually brought around a slap, and injection back home.
"… just what I said." Dib began, getting more annoyed as the two aliens seemed to have lost their comprehension skills. "Father raised me there, named me, and kept me safe from the other doctors, though Gaz was more protective and aware of what was going on than he was…" Dib muttered, digressing a little as his pale fingers traced designs over his clothes.
"Gaz?" Zim asked, his voice careful, and Dib wondered what it was that flickered in those eyes, but was too afraid to know. Something about the blood color made him uneasy, and at the same time desperately sad.
"… yeah, she's my sister."
Zim jerked back, his look becoming almost murderous, and Dib let out a shocked scream as the taller Irken suddenly leaned over him his hand once more wrenching his shoulder back, this time pressing him into the wall.
"You lie!" Zim hissed, his breath fanning over Dib's face, but he was barely aware of it as his mind became swamped with horrifying images that he'd only ever seen in his darkest nightmares.
Crimson welled up from a wound, the color a near black as the small form lay in the grass. The soft gasping was water-logged and red bubbles formed on pale lips as the boy tried to breath through the blood that was quickly filling his lungs.
"… D—dib?" Zim choked out, almost dazed, as his fingers reached out toward the human that was quickly fading away.
"Master!" Gir's cry was a distant sound, but still drew Zim's tattered attention towards the Voot cruiser where the little robot was jumping around jovially, next to a—surprisingly—stoic Gaz. The girl's brown eyes were visible as she stared just beyond the alien at the dying boy.
If he wasn't mistaken the girl looked hurt, but he had no time to dwell on that thought as the echoing groan from the metal door they had just escaped through drew his attention back around.
Rage filled him as the white-coated scientist stood in the doorframe watching the scene from behind goggled glasses.
"Oh, there he is, I told you he couldn't get far." Professor Membrane stated jovially, as though Gaz wasn't sitting right there in the Voot cruiser, eyes wet, probably for the first time in her life, and his son wasn't lying before him in a puddle of his own dark blood. "Hurry, we can't let him get harmed by the moisture out here, we'll have to delay the tests for another week if…" he stopped as he stepped down and kicked Dib's shoulder with his foot.
Looking down in slight shock he finally seemed to notice the fading boy, and he didn't even flinch. "Dib…"
Zim tensed, eyes flickering to the boy he'd spent so long hating, loving, and fighting. A deep sense of fear filled him making him feel weak, and it angered Zim, even as it confused him. He wanted to escape to the Voot runner, and yet he desperately didn't want to leave the Dib, not with that maniac.
Knowing that the man was his father, gave him the reasoning that Dib would be fine, but the cold fear and knowledge of the man's disregard kept him still.
Dib gurgled some, his body twitching slightly, as though trying to say something but it was broken and garbled. All the same, Zim knew what the child was desperately trying to say to his father, and his eyes couldn't tear away from the cerise stained lips.
"…eave…. Do..n't… hu….t …..im…. scape…." A pale hand gripped the white coat leaving a smeared stain, the hand shaking with the effort to hold on and dulled, dying, amber eyes turned and locked on Zim's, red stained tears tracing his pale cheeks. "…run…"
Zim felt an ache in his chest, a pain he'd never known before Dib's betrayal, only magnified. He shook unable to move as the light seamed to drift out of those eyes, and that hand released its grip to fall lifelessly to the ground.
Everything seemed to stand still and silent as the world mourned the loss with Zim, and then it was shattered.
"My poor insane son…"
Zim's eye shot up, murder burning in their depths at the casual disregard the man showed toward his own child's death.
"Don't let the alien escape, for my son, I'll stop this invasion."
Zim's teeth grit together as a burning, devouring hatred swelled up inside of him. This meat beast had to die!
The sound of the Voot Runner shuddering to life broke the moment and the whistling wind urged Zim to his feet, his Pak extending his legs. "You've earned the wrath of Zim, filth-beast. I will spill your insides."
He locked his eyes with the professor's eyes meaningfully before he looked down at the dead boy's till body. The Voot runner pulled up beside him and he made a hasty decision.
"Zim! Get your green ass in here!" Gaz yelled as Zim dashed forward to snatch Dib's body, but then Gir's strong grip pulled him back and into escape vessel.
"No! Gir, let me go!" Zim struggled weakly as the hatch closed and he could do nothing but watch as they sped away from the scene, and away from Dib's lifeless body.
Silence filled the compartment, broken only by the incessant gibbering of his SIR unit as it cuddled him, repeatedly calling out to him. "Master, Master you're back!"
Red eyes narrowed.
This was just the beginning.
Dib opened his mouth and screamed, his eyes moistening with tears made of fear and sorrow, and hate. Blindly he shoved free from the grip on him and curled into a tight ball, rocking himself back and forth his mind filled with the memories of the other Irken.
I died, I died, I died, I died…The mantra wouldn't leave his mind and he was left trembling in the horror of what he'd inadvertently seen.
The sound of the door denting inward echoed in the room, but he hardly noticed it as both Irken's jumped back.
"He's a White One! Damn it, Zim I told you—"
"Shut up Tak!"
Dib rocked himself back and forth, trapped in the memories of death, desperately denying what his mind told him to be true. I died… I died… I…
"I said stop it!" Zim's cry and sudden slap knocked Dib onto his side, and the blossoming pain broke him from his thoughts and the growing hysteria building inside of him.
Trembling he looked up at Zim, tears still soaking his face. "I… died…"
Zim's features tightened as Tak seemed to take yet another step back from him.
Slowly Dib managed to calm himself down, and he shook as he forced himself to take deep breaths to calm himself from his chaotic high.
"I will ask this only once smeetling," Zim began, sounding dangerous and Dib looked up at him feeling both scared and safe. "What is your name, and what did you see?"
"Zim!" Tak broke off as Zim's hand flew up in a clear sign for her to shut up.
Dib turned fearful eyes to the red before him his voice whispering, "You know?"
Cerise narrowed and Dib glanced away, well aware that he was treading on thin ground. "… I told you my name is D.I.B. an acronym for Defense Integrated Bionome."
Zim nodded, suddenly seeming to come to some sort of understanding, "So you are D.I.B., figures." He laughed humorlessly, and the sound made Dib flinch.
"…I'm sorry." Dib suddenly whispered, and the laughter stopped as all eyes turned on him once more.
"What?"
Dib looked down at his hands feeling confused. "I'm sorry I saw something so personal… but, who was the boy who use to own this shirt?"
He looked up, amber eyes inquiring pleadingly and was met with silence. Then, Zim turned and was leaving the room.
Panic gripped him and suddenly Dib found himself off of his bed arms secured around the taller Irken's lower waist. "Don't go!" Shock filter through Dib, but it only made his grip all the more firm. He barely knew this Irken, and yet, this was the closest he'd ever felt to untangling the mess of dreams and memories that he held that did not belong to himself, and he had a feeling that if he let Zim walk away now, he'd loose it all.
"Zim!" Tak cried suddenly there striking him on his spine, Dib shook a little at the sharp impact but held on tighter.
"Tak, it's fine." Zim snapped, twisting out of Dib's grasp easily, and pushing him back onto his bed. "Stay here smeetling, I have something to do for now, but I, Zim, will be back for more answers."
Dib relaxed and nodded. "Okay…"
Zim turned and left the room, Tak following soon after, and Dib was alone once more.
A.N. Been a while huh? Sorry it took some time to regain my nerve to attempt this story again so… yeah here I am, hope its still good, and YES I have finally found a reason behind the bolded script! -
Till next time
Mora