A/N: So here's another chapter, woah! So fast! Okay, so the rating will definitely go up, but I'm not sure how far. I don't think I'm going to make this an NC-17 anytime soon :D Anywayyyyy, please read and enjoy!
"Huh?" Dib asked foggily, his eyes glazed over. His brain felt cloudy for some reason—muggy, as if his entire body was barreling through a mucky cloud. Maybe the heat was getting to him, he guessed. He took a lungful of breath and straightened himself, willing the haze away, however as much as he tried to sooth his nerves, his defenses were shot when Computer interrupted his reverie.
/Perhaps you should lie down./
"What?" Dib blurted, his heart pounding against his chest. No, he did not want to think of how positively immoral that had sounded, didn't want to think about it's implications. He laughed noiselessly to himself—surely, Computer wouldn't even have the programming to be cynical.
/Really, you should stop that./
"Stop what?" Dib questioned brusquely, the edge of the mattress pressing into his legs. Maybe if he tried shimmying to the side he could escape, but then wouldn't Computer just hover after him? Damn those cordless, hovering monitors of his!
/Your heart rate has elevated to 103 beats per minute./
"Uhhhhh," Dib uttered idiotically. He really had no idea what to say in return. Why would the machine even bother to point that out, it wasn't as if it didn't happen on a regular basis. His level of anxiety and stress habitually tripled that of a normal, customary person—he had a freaking alien to subdue and an entire planet to save, and regrettably, the side effects were inconsequential to his mission. "That's normal for me."
/Your stress patterns are also-./
"Okay, would you quit that!" Dib interrupted, managing to lose the last shred of his balance as he teetered over the edge of the bed. He let himself fall back and he hit the mattress with a dull thud, dust mites pooling into a cloud above him.
/Quit whaaaaaaaat?/ Computer hovered even closer, suspended.
"Quit- I don't know! Quit observing—or something!" the teen replied, gesturing to all of his body. He flushed and turned away. "It's sort of invasive."
/I wasn't trying to be invasive./
"Whatever," Dib muttered, sitting up from his splayed out position on the bed. He rested back on his hands and tucked his knees towards his chest. His eyes steeled over as he gazed at the suspended monitor, earnestness hardening his resolve. "You haven't answered me. Why are you here?"
/-groooooooooan-/
Dib blinked. "What…?"
/I've noticed some things./
No, really? The thing was advanced alien machinery, of course it would notice "a few things".
/You haven't been around. Why?/
"O-oh, yeah," Dib responded pathetically, hunching his shoulders, all seriousness seeping from him. He quirked a brow and mulled his thoughts, a torrent of ideas popping up inside his mind like wayward Internet ads. Maybe he had a hearing impairment, but it almost sounded like Computer had been inquisitive about his absence. He could never really stay away from Zim's base for more than week (plotting, always plotting!), and here he was going a full month, a no-show- it was preposterous! He looked back up at the monitor, which had strangely advanced upon him and hovered merely a few inches away. The hum from the screen was ever-present, nearly crackling with a steady thrum that strangely began to placate him. "I don't know, I've had…things to do."
/You're lying./
"Hey, don't accuse me of-!"
/I'm going to perform a scan./
Dib shut his mouth and reeled back, his eyes darting across the room. Surely it didn't have the sufficient means to do that? Computer only managed to hack into a simple monitor, not a hard drive, and he didn't think the screen had any hidden compartments or weapons, because he should know—it was his monitor. He scooted across the bed, his back thudding against the wall as Computer continued to hover in closer.
"Scan what? Why?" he asked guardedly, grabbing a nearby pillow and shielding himself with it. And then an idea hit him, which almost seemed to disappoint him for some reason, but he didn't let himself dwell on the feeling. "Wait—did Zim put you up to this? Hell no! I'm not gonna' give you any information on my vitals, so that he could-."
/He won't know./
"Wha…?" Okay, that was strange. Dib couldn't possibly fathom why Computer needed a scan from him if the information wasn't going to be used to the alien's advantage.
/-sighhhhhhh- Calm down, it's not like I'm going to probe you./
Dib instantly stilled and let a grimace etch across his lips. "Ew, that sounds so…"
/Hn. Trust me./
He stared at the screen that now hovered eye level to him, the white light illuminating his face, and surprisingly he didn't flinch away from the light, because it felt sort of soothing as it danced across his face, warmed his cheeks, tickled his- .
What the hell, woah! Just woah! Dib shook himself awake and pressed the pillow further into his chest, a half-assed attempt at a defensive shield. He let out a heady breath. "Is it going to hurt?"
/Nope./
It was a curt and concise answer, but it seemed to ease him. "And why are you performing this scan?"
/…/
Dib waited and waited for the computer's answer, and it felt like he had been waiting for millennia, before Computer replied with a fixed whir,
/I want to show you something./
Dib felt himself sigh and hunch over, before he tilted his head up and uttered, "Fine, just fine. I'll let you scan me, but so help me God, if you fuck something up or hurt me or give any of this info to Zim, I'll sneak into your base and rewire your whole system!"
/I'd like that./
Dib snapped his head. "What?"
/Lie down./
'I'm hearing things,' Dib thought incredulously, shaking his head. He definitely did not hear that—no, most certainly not. And as he threw the pillow away and scrambled towards the center of his mattress, he lied down on his back, nestling his hands atop his belly. He stared up at the ceiling and idly watched as the screen's luminous light jittered across the course surface—an eerie light show, he observed.
"How is this going to work?" Dib asked suddenly. He felt a dizzying sense of panic crawl up this throat, before the monitor hovered close, white light illuminating half of his face. "You're not gonna'…s-stick things into me, right?"
/Relax, Dib./
And he did. Dib let his eyelids flutter before his muscles grew lax, his body further sinking into the mattress. And just when he thought he couldn't be any more tranquil, a blinding blue light filtered across the room and eventually washed across his body like a wave.
He could feel it, but then he couldn't—it was rather hard to explain. The scanner was projecting from Computer, a solid beam of cerulean light streaming from the monitor where it washed across his toes and continued its way up the length of his body. It felt like being encased in vapor, and he was surprised to find that the sensor crackled against his skin, but not in an unpleasant way. It sort of felt…good.
Before he knew what he was looking it, he could see them.
They were pictures; snippets of memory that streamlined across his vision so rapidly that he was surprised he could even catch a glimpse of them. The first reel of images were astounding—they were snapshots of space, a hollow black void of glittering stars and shimmering planets and Dib could only think –so beautiful, so fucking beautiful- and he saw other things, things that frightened him. Green things, aliens, Irkens: doom, destruction, enslavement. Conquest.
Time seemed to skip, and he was looking at an empty lot on Earth.
'Where Zim's base would be,' he thought, astounded. The images he saw next were of no revelation to him- they were familiar, an everyday occurrence, mostly images consisting of Zim and Gir, Gir and Zim—dumb and dumber. The pictures seemed to grow mundane, tedious, until a flickering feeling rounded upon him: isolation.
He felt lonely, as if a hollow pit had formed within his body. For a moment, he seemed to take over Computer's persona and he watched as never-ending, tiresome days of botched conquest passed before him. He watched as Zim yet again screwed up another execution plan, watched as Zim still wouldn't listen, watched as Gir messed around with the lab equipment with no regard to Computer's wellbeing. And he hated it, hated being there, hated being used so improperly, so inadequately.
Dib didn't even know he was speaking these thoughts out, as if vocalizing for the machine, and as he awoke to a vacant room, Dib wondered if any of the images –emotions- were true.
He shot a glance to the floor where the monitor had dropped, devoid of any light, a substantial crack etched across the screen.
It was time he paid Zim's base a visit.
A/N: Woahhh, sorry to go so crazy there at the end. Uhhh, review? They motivate me to write faster, radder, more adequate!