A/N: Second to last chapter! w0000000t! This could be the last chapter, but for the sake of wrapping things up, I'll be having one more chapter.
Ok, so, yeah, I really don't have much to say about this chapter, except that I hope you enjoy it!
Oh, and one more thing. Penname wa Silver B wondered what it would be like if Dib and AU Dib met. Well, being a dork, I roleplayed that very scenario! And…well, being nice, I'll show it to you!
("Hey, I'm an alternate version of yourself," Dib said, as though it were no big deal, "Say, do you have any idea how to get out of this universe? Any strange, green glowing portals around here?"
The other Dib's eye twitched, "G-gaz, do you see this hallucination, too?")
Skip.
("You," he pointed to Dib, "Definitely can't be me, because I'm me and there can't be two of me!"
"Uh, I already said I was from a different universe," Dib said, dully.
"It doesn't make sense!" other Dib cried.)
Skip.
( "You do know ZIM's an alien, right?"
"What?" the other Dib said, looking extremely confused, "He's not an alien! I mean, sure, he's weird but…"
"OH COME ON!" Dib cried, shaking the other Dib and forcing him to look at ZIM, "Look at him! He has no ears, or nose! His skin is green and he has three fingers! How is THAT human?")
Skip.
("So-so lemme get this straight," the other Dib said, holding his head in confusion, "He's really an alien?"
"Yes," Dib sighed.
"…Really?" the other Dib said.
"Yes! How many times do I have to tell you?")
Woo-hee, well, wasn't that fun? And, obviously, this must have occurred before this chapter. Probably somewhere around Chapter two or three…
Ok, I'll stop blathering now.
I do not own ZIM!
---
How Dib made it home after that, he didn't know. He hadn't bothered to look where he was going, or if any traffic was coming. He just didn't know what he was thinking at all. It was like there was an annoying buzzing in his head – it didn't make sense.
Slowly, he opened the door to his house, and walked inside blankly. The flustered boy sat down on the couch, without ever looking at it. He just stared straight ahead, thinking.
The green skin, the lack of a nose or ears, the robotic parents, the green dog, the "I heart Earth" signs, the comments about a superior alien race, the unknown organs, the water allergy, and, now, the galactic equinox molt.
Why didn't he see it before?
"ZIM's an alien," he said hollowly.
"Duh," came a voice from next to him. It was Gaz.
Dib blinked, and looked at his sister with a confused look, "Y-you knew?" he asked, dumbfounded.
"Pfft, yeah," she replied off-handedly.
"How?" Dib questioned. How had his sister known, when he hadn't?
Gaz turned off her gameslave, and looked at Dib seriously. "Have you seen him?"
For some reason, Dib winced at that, "Is it that obvious?"
"Yeah," Gaz said, dully, "It is."
"So he's really an alien…" Dib murmured to himself.
"Bout' time you figured it out," Gaz muttered, turning her gameslave back on.
Dib stared at his sister for a moment, before standing up, and heading towards the stairs, "Thanks, Gaz," he said, quietly.
The boy had already ascended the stairs before his sibling said anything in response, "Whatever," she said lightly.
---
The next day, Dib emerged from his room, looking tired, but happy for some reason. He was humming to himself and had a slight bounce to his step.
"Good morning, son!" his father said. He was making some coffee, and it looked like he had just returned a few moments ago.
"Hey, dad!" Dib said, pulling out a box of cereal, and shaking it. There was still enough for himself and Gaz.
"I hope you were fine by yourself for those few days!" Loch said, enthusiastically popping some toast out of the toaster.
"Yeah, I'm fine, dad," Dib said, pouring the cereal into a bowl, "And so is Gaz."
"Great to hear, son!" his father yelled, buttering the toast and taking a big bite out of it.
Finally, Dib had prepared his cereal and sat down at the table. For the first time he realized that Gaz wasn't there. She must've already had breakfast, he thought, chewing on his cereal.
"Well, son," Loch said, still standing as he ate his toast, "How's skool going?"
"It's going ok, dad," Dib said, wishing he could eat the cereal faster.
"And have you found out that alien's name yet?" Loch asked, looking at his son with anticipation.
Dib paused, and looked up at his father. Should he really tell him? ZIM was definitely an alien, but did he want his dad knowing about it?
"Uh," he said, "Well…"
"Yes, son?" Loch said, anxiously.
"No," he said quietly. It couldn't hurt to look into a little more…could it?
"Oh, I see," his father said, disappointment written on his face.
"Uh, yeah, sorry dad. I'll make sure to find it out, though," Dib said quickly, picking up his cereal bowl and putting it in the sink.
Hurriedly, he walked out into the living room, where Gaz was still playing her gameslave. "Were you playing that all night?" Dib asked.
Gaz grunted and muttered, "High score," before finally turning the game off, and standing up.
Dib shrugged and headed for the door, pulling it open and taking in the fresh air.
Again, the siblings walked to skool in silence. It was different today, though. The silence wasn't quite as absolute, and, for the first time in his life, Dib felt like he wanted to talk to Gaz.
Not being a naturally loud or chatty person, however, Dib couldn't think of anything to say to his sister, and they departed once again in silence.
Today Dib came into class a bit early, about five minutes and, as such, no one else was there. He watched without interest as each student entered the class. Then, suddenly, he raised his head up as ZIM entered the class.
ZIM paid no mind to Dib; he seemed rather interested in the ceiling at the moment. Dib glared at the alien and his terrible disguise. He should have seen through it the moment ZIM arrived.
Ms. Bitters slithered into class just as the bell rang, "Turn your horrible text books to page 325."
Sighing, Dib complied with his terrifying teacher. On the page in question, there was a large picture of a black hole with the word "The Sun" under it. The teacher got up from her desk and wrote on the board "Black Holes", making sure she squeaked the chalk as much as possible.
"Black Holes," she began, "Are caused when stars DIE and COLLAPSE in onto themselves."
Dib stopped glaring at ZIM for a moment, and looked up at Ms. Bitters. She was actually teaching them something today?
"The black hole created from the star has a FAR greater mass than the star itself. Because of this, its gravity is immense. SO immense, that if our HIDEOUS star collapsed into itself right this moment, all of the planets in this solar system would be sucked into oblivion."
The children gave uncomfortable looks around the classroom. Dib looked at them dully, didn't they already know this?
"And our star may collapse at any time. It may be 4 billion years from now, or tomorrow, but, rest assured, the planet is just DOOMED."
On the other side of the room, Dib could see that ZIM was snickering at this, and after a moment it changed into a full out laugh.
"Why are you laughing at that, ZIM?" Dib asked, "No human would find the thought of their planet being engulfed by a black hole funny."
ZIM looked nervously back at Dib, "Hah! I wasn't laughing at the pathetic Earth sun destroying this dirt-ball, uh, no, I was laughing at some…thing I saw on the tele-vision last night."
"Why are you laughing about it right now, ZIM?" Dib asked.
"It was a special about black holes! Funny black holes…yep…" ZIM said, looking around suspiciously.
"Black holes aren't funny!" Dib said angrily.
"NONSENSE! Of course they are! And I'm sure the other filth-monkeys will agree," ZIM yelled.
"Yeah, Dib, what's your problem?" Zita said, "You sound crazy."
"What? Did you even listen to what he said?" Dib exclaimed, pointing to ZIM.
"Foolish Dib-creature! You do not give enough credit to your fellow Earth-beasts!" ZIM said, wide zipper smirk now on his face.
"Yeah, Dib, do you think we're stupid or something?" Brian said, sounding insulted.
"But I-" Dib started.
"Just because you're some kind of genius doesn't mean you have the right to call the rest of us dumb!" Sara yelled.
"But-"
"You're probably just as crazy as your dad!" The Letter M concluded.
Dib looked flabbergasted around the class. Were they listening to the same thing he was? ZIM had just said that black holes were funny. Black holes were not funny!
Glaring at ZIM, Dib finally looked like he had something to say. He never got to say whatever it was he wanted to say, however, as the morning recess bell decided to ring at that moment.
The other kids immediately ran out of the classroom for the playground. Dib, however, stayed behind, and walked slowly over to the other side of the class.
ZIM had just started getting up from his seat, when Dib walked by. The two shared a long glare before Ms. Bitters kicked them out.
---
The rest of the day passed in much the same way. Dib would point out something incredibly stupid ZIM would say, then the rest of the kids would say that Dib was calling them dumb. Really, Dib wondered how his classmates didn't think the things ZIM said were weird. Even he had thought that the things he said were weird, even when he didn't believe he was an alien.
Dib left the skool feeling frustrated, but with plenty to talk about.
"…And then they called me crazy!" Dib finished a conversation he was having with Gaz as they walked home.
Gaz sighed; she had remained quiet through the whole 'conversation'. "You sound like dad," she muttered.
Dib blinked, "What? No I don't!" he defended.
Gaz didn't reply, and Dib didn't say anything more, either. He really didn't want to sound like his father.
As soon as Dib got home, he went into his room. He would just continue working on that one laser project he had been working on. That would make him feel more like himself!
Enthusiastically, he sat down at his desk, and started looking through his blue prints. "Ok," he muttered, writing some more information down, "If I just changed the Z line output to the," he broke off, staring at the work. "No, that would never work…"
"But what if I…" he said, talking to himself. He shook his head and crumpled up the paper. No, that wasn't it either. Why was this so hard?
Maybe he just needed to take a break? Yeah, that was it, he had been working for-for…well, not very long but, he was tired.
Angrily, he stopped working, and pulled away from the desk. "I'll come back later," he said, looking backwards at the work from the door. He turned the knob and headed down stairs.
Dib walked dejectedly and entered the living room looking rather defeated, indeed. Tiredly, he flopped down onto the couch, and stared at the ceiling. He watched the light fade all around him, as day slowly changed into night.
He had never done that before.
Ding-dong.
Dib shot up, as the door bell rang. Who would be coming here at night? Feeling slightly irritated, Dib pulled himself off of the couch and shambled to the door listlessly. Dully, he began to pull it open.
Then, suddenly, the person on the other side forced it open. Much to Dib's surprise, he saw it was ZIM.
"I need the use of your telescope," ZIM said, looking completely serious.
"What?" Dib said, standing completely still, "Why?"
"Nothing your feeble human mind should concern itself with," ZIM said, glowering at Dib.
"It's my telescope, ZIM," Dib said coldly.
"We don't have time for this, Dib! Your world might be in very great danger!" ZIM yelled, looking desperate.
"Well, obviously. I know you're an alien, you know," Dib said, smirking.
ZIM looked at Dib blankly for a moment, not exactly understanding. "Eh?" he said, "Oh, yes, well, this is something else entirely."
Dib stared at ZIM, "You don't even care that I know?"
"Eh," ZIM said, shrugging, "Now, let me use your telescope before it's too late!"
Dib's hand suddenly fell back onto the end table, looking around for something anything. Then, his hand felt something similar to hand cuffs. He grabbed them at once, and brandished them like a weapon.
"Woo, what are those?" ZIM asked, pointing to them.
"Uh, well, I don't know," Dib said, looking at them, "But they're something of my dad's! And that means it must do something horrible to aliens!"
Carefully, Dib approached ZIM with the hand-cuff type things, intending to push him out of the house on threat of 'something horrible' happening to him.
ZIM didn't look pleased, and probably would have pushed Dib away if there hadn't been a sudden shaking of the Earth. He growled, "ZIM does not have time for this!" and ran out of the house.
Dib found himself looking at the place where ZIM had been just a second before, still holding the hand-cuffs in a threatening manner.
"Score one for Earth!" he said, victoriously.