Within moments, Dib descended from the grassy hill, miles away from his apartment. He was air, nothing but light and sound.
Several moments later, Dib realized he could not breath. His vision blurred and his insides choked and twisted.
But the glow eventually dimmed and his breathing became normal. He was incredibly exhausted, and though he was strangely aware this was going to happen, it completely alluded him as to what was really going on.
A flash of green tore through his tired eyes and was met with a most disturbing grin.
"No need for formalities, Dib." His lithe alien tongue slithered over dry lips. "No more reason to keep us apart."
Dib need not think, for it was overridden by a huge manic grin that seemed to never die. They're bodies were several feet away, but it seemed as though they were inches apart. Zim had that affect.
"Where am I?" Dib shook his head and tried to determine whether he was dreaming or not.
"Zim?"
Zim's antennae quirked and the alien noticeably brightened.
Dib heard no reply. "Oh my... holy... shit.." Not a dream.
The young man muttered, his eyes shifty and fuming. "What the hell is this!"
Zim frowned for a moment, then kept his face neutral. "You, my dearest, know more than you say you do."
A huge, wild grin. A finger wraps around a stray hair, pulling tighter and tighter in a slow manner. A nervous habit Dib had.
"What did you do now Zim!" Dib growled, pulling his hair so tight he clenched his teeth. "And don't play games with me!"
A nervous titter. "I... well, I..." his tongue slipped over his lower lip. "I showed a couple of fat chewing puppets how they act without their strings." Zim tittered again, jumping up and down on the balls of his feet, the very idea exciting him. "Do you believe justice is quantifiable? Do you think there is a limit to what justice is, and how it can be carried out?"
Dib recognized this speech pattern, sort of edgy and never finishing a complete thought, but for some fucked up reason, it all came together. Zim was starting to get like this before he left earth. It was so much worse now, and by worse, he meant. Crazier.
His whole body ached and his heart was twisting and pounding.
He never felt more alive in his life.
"Well," Zim looked out the foggy window, smudged with mud and red blotches. "Lovely view, eh?" The slithering voice seemed to be choking Dib. Zim growled, tired of silence and questions.
"Think of it this way, you stinky, horrible human creature of mine."
"I don't bel--" Dib's voice was snatched away.
"Yes! Finally a response! Oh, my dear, dear, dear. I'm so happy you're here. You must know all of this. Listen!" Zim's usually falsetto pitch raised a few notches and grew raspy and deep at the last word.
Dib felt winded but still tried to speak. "Let me finish my response before yo--" A coughing fit. "You throw a party."
"I've come to a complete understanding." Zim gasped out passionately, his eyes dreamy. "You have protected the majority of insignifantants for the minority of what is, in your opinion, the good of the world. I see your reasoning, and I understand your need for acknowledgement. I understand you. Its no longer needed, Dib-stink, this protection."
Zim twirled around in little circles. "They were going to take me away from you. So I showed them how easy it is to break someones spirit, like they did to me. I showed them how self indulgent over confident bastards fall the hardest. They were all worthless to me. As is my, well, mission. But I knew this a long time ago. Was waiting for the opportune moment."
Dib looked at him, about ready to say something. There was an understanding. Dib let go of his hair.
"Yes!" Zim jumped up and down. "You see!"
Dib's eyes widened as his mouth few slightly open.
"Do you remember before I left?" Zim said with a horrible glaze in his eyes.
"You were insane Zim! Why did you do that? Why did you take off your disguise?" Dib never did figure this out, and to this day, it haunted him. That one defining moment. "Kill all those..." Dib's mind flashed horrific images, stopping his sentence.
Zim cackled. "Isn't it obvious? I wanted everyone to know. It was just, well, boring. I was tired of our games, and I was tired of this melodrama we put on. I became unclouded. No more masks." He wiggled his fingers around his face.
"You challenged me to catch you in front of everyone! You told me that whoever dies would be because of me! I was hated."
"No, you weren't. Everyone looked to you. And you almost never failed them. I know I'm a wanted alien... and that's how I wanted it. I wanted you to catch me. Instead, you thought you defeated me, but I saw... we both knew it was a ploy. You're smarter than you look, ya know."
Dib thought this through so many times before now, and it made more sense than anything else he thought of. "You wanted time to... take care of other things...?" Zim nodded slowly.
"Of course! I did this for me, and well, uh, you. Just a change of pace, is all. It's neither win or lose, its perfect."
"Look, I'm fucking exhausted," Dib said conversationally, his thoughts swarming with half-epiphanies and conclusions he just wasn't ready to sort out yet. He gasped slightly as his hand met cold metal, trying to raise his body in a more comfortable position. "Tell me why I'm here. What's the point. I don't see--" Dib stopped talking, feeling a dizzy spell overtake his body, sliding down to the cool floor of the ship. He coughed again.
"What do you not see? I destroyed an entire enemy race. What you wanted to do. How have you been treated since I've left?"
Dib smiled slightly. Life had been better. "Much... better. But... Zim! Where does this leave me? What's the point?"
Zim's eyes widened and then lowered into little slits. Dib saw in the bright light, that there were discolored scars along his face.
"There's no point to any of this. I just wanted to see you, uh, smile." Zim sideways smirked and winked, knowing full well of the outraged outburst coming next. But it didn't come.
'Zim's gonna kill me, I know he is.' A paranoid thought said in a foreign voice in Dib's head.
"But then again, I might have something up my sleeeve!" He winked again, or maybe it was just a twitch. Each word presented a different expression for every sentence. Contemplative, mirthful, then serious.
Zim took a few steps toward the other. Dib unconsciously held his breath. "You know full well I don't care about plans anymore. It was never any fun." A slide of the tongue, across the lips.
When they fought in the past, lines were clear. Clear as crystal. Now, like a caped crime fighter, Dib was hiding under the mask he so well wore. And Zim, grotesque and bloody, smiling and trembling and laughing, wore no mask. Not even his disguise.
Now, Dib was not sure of anything Zim wanted anymore.
And that, that seemed to be more exciting than anything he had ever encountered in his life.
"So, Dib, darling," Zim took several languid steps toward Dib. "Come with me? We shall leave this worthless place, and all of its worthless pretenses and formalities, masks and human garbage."
Dib for the slightest of seconds, wanted more than anything to tear that grin off his face. It drove him mad.
But the thought was driven away when those maddening, gorgeous eyes looked into his own. They said.
We are the same.
A twitch or an endearment? (I understand you.)
Pulling tighter and tighter...
Zim's smile suddenly seemed more human.
Suddenly, nothing seemed to glow more than that hand, reaching for Dib's.
Suddenly, nirvana was everywhere.