Writer's block had found me this chapter so I'm soory I took so long...again.
Review Replies:
Captor of the Crazies - Thank you for the confidence, I am now on the verge of getting off writers block! You know we gotta see you run around all ZADR-y :D hmmm...I'll see what I can do :)
Moth Mask - I would say, well, Dib-ghost so everyone can get the same picture in their heads. And maybe a curious Zim on the side...?
unknown - Quite a few weeks. And thank you!
Trainlover606 - yes, yes it will :)
Invader Neo - Not so epic yet I don't really think. Better epicness has yet to come X)
MoonToy - I know! I'm terrible for not doing what you asked :( I have the whole month of June for extra time, though, so do not lose faith in me!
Purple-Spyder - I am finally :0 What's 'Over Her Dead Body'? because I got the whole story from some tv show/movie.
- More Zimness mess coming up!
Dib and Zim stared at each other for what seemed like a long time to Zim. He couldn't make sense of what just happened. All he knew was that Dib just did something to Gaz before she could really hurt him. Dib had come to his rescue, but Zim's arms and his head, and, well...his everything hurt sooo bad, that he didn't have the energy to elaborate any further. The next thing he noticed was Dib's face were inches away from him. They weren't terribly close like you see in the movies, but this was just...different.
Dib seemed to know how close they were, but he obviously didn't care because his arms stayed glued on either side of Zim on the floor as he stared curiously up and down Zim's body. "Are you ok, Zim?" he asked, using a tone Zim didn't recognize. He sounded mad.
Zim couldn't respond at first. He watched Dib's changed features, so glowing and blurry, but he was still the same Dib-thing Zim had always known. It was as if the human had never left, but since past week it seemed as if he had been gone for years. "Zim is...fine," Zim's voice was guarded when he finally decided to speak, only because being unable to read Dib's emotions made him uneasy. Usually his highly developed senses could detect them.
Dib didn't respond. He only removed his arms from around Zim and shot up to his feet as if he were as light as a feather.
"What did you do?" Zim finally asked. His PAK was about to finish with its healing, so Zim felt confident enough to stand to his feet.
Dib backed away, glaring at him, but Zim could see he wasn't really focusing on him but something deep in his thoughts. He didn't look like Dib. He looked like a mask.
"Well...?" Zim prompted.
Dib seemed to come out of his world before biting his lip, then turned away.
Zim's eyes narrowed to slits. "Do not ignore me, Dib-thing! You cannot hide your secrets from Zim forever! I will find out..."
"No you won't..." Dib said with a low voice, then he turned back and said, "You wouldn't even understand what's happening. What I'm going through. Even if I told you it's not like...like you would care."
Zim rubbed his claws together. "No Dib...no. I don't care. All I want to know is why you are in my base."
"Yeah, I know, you don't want me touching your precious plans for Earth's destruction. But I obviously haven't done that!" Dib looked at Zim as he said this, and noticed he was coming closer, walking with his spider legs. "Zim, what are you...?"
"Please be quiet, Dib-stink," Zim said. "I have had enough of these games."
Zim was still getting close, and Dib didn't notice what he was doing until there was a click behind his neck. Surprised, he looked behind to see a spider leg reeling away with a device in its grip. It returned to Zim's hand, and he waved it at Dib.
"Now, if you try to get away again, I will have more information on your form to give my security. You will not be hard to find," Zim bluffed at the last part.
Dib looked surprised still, but he didn't make any moves. He only balled his fists and glared hard at Zim. "Fine," he said. "If you really want to know, I'll just tell you. That's it Zim. I'm going to give you what you want."
Zim's spider legs returned to his PAK, as well as the device. He was a little surprised. He expected Dib to keep on the argument, but he sounded like the fight had finally been taken out of him. He didn't say anything, instead Dib did.
"Wait...," Dib looked to the ceiling. "We're going up."
Before Zim could debate, Dib started to levitate until he was lifted to the ceiling. When his body disappeared, Zim knew he had gone to the roof, and set his elevator to go there. "Elevator, take me to the roof."
There was a beep and Zim was lifted by a pink pad to a hole that just appeared in the ceiling, and he got off at the top to find Dib. He had never been on his roof, really, unless it was to use the launch pad that popped out towards the back of the dark pink roof. He walked carefully on the rough surface until he saw Dib at the edge of the roof. He was sitting with his arms crossed and his legs dangling over the side.
Dib didn't look beside hime when Zim sat. "You don't even have to tell me what you think. Just...don't track me."
"Tell Zim the whole story. I want to know," Zim said seriously.
"Ok." Dib nodded, then a long, deep breath before he began. "Do you know what a ghost is?"
"One of those human afterlife things that you like to annoy our class about," Zim said as if he was the smartest creature alive.
Dib looked at Zim with a raised eyebrow. "Yeah...," he said, then bent his head down. "So, that's what I am."
Zim nodded, showing nothing of being shocked. "Continue."
"So here's what happened:
"T-Truce?" They both stopped and Dib extended his hand.
Zim shot the appendage a confused look and stared at it for some time. "What is this truce you speak of, human?" he used the word as if it were foreign.
Dib's hand shied back a bit. "Oh, well, it's when enemies decide to put off fights temporarily, I guess."
"Why?"
Dib shrugged. "I don't want to fight...for a little while at least, until Ms. Bitters cools down."
Zim considered this for a moment, shuddering at the memory of the day's events, then he extended his hand. "Alright then, Earthling. Truce...for now, at least."
The two boys shook hands before going separate ways. Dib shot Zim a glance and noticed he was talking to himself. Typical Zim, always having some sort of speech to say out loud. Dib thought about what he just did, and wondered if either one of them would really stick to a truce. After all, they never really did trust each other with anything. Dib definitely didn't trust an alien.
He was interrupted with his thoughts when there was a rustling sound nearby. He turned to see nothing, and walked on. He thought it was just the wind that made that noise until, suddenly, he ran into a fist. He stumbled back with his right eye swollen with pain. His glasses were smudged but not broken, thanks to his dad. He was far enough back to see his attacker; a tall, black-haired teenager with a leather jacket and a broken beer bottle hanging from his other hand.
"Hey, you, Dib," he said with a low, raspy voice. "We have a bone to pick with you, punk."
Dib also noticed a few others standing behind him wearing matching leather jackets. He tried to remember their faces from somewhere, anywhere, but came up blank. He found himself getting backed into an alley. "Me? What did I do?"
The man in the front frowned and shot Dib a dangerous look with his bloodshot, brown eyes. "All I can say is that your dad, Proffessor Membrane is a jerk. And you're just the way to get even."
Dib gulped. Two boys in the back flipped open a switch blade, and the guy in the front punched him across the face and landed a swift kick in his stomach. Dib fell backward, hitting his head on a brick wall. His glasses got knocked off him so he could only see blurry forms crouched over him and a voice whispering in his ear, "Sorry, kid. Nothing personal."
All he remembered was pain, a lot of pain, and blood pooling out as cuts and bruises marked every inch of his body.
"They left me laying on the sidewalk, even though my whole body was burning so bad that I didn't even here their foot steps. They thought I was dead, I guess. God, I wanted to be."
Dib looked at Zim, but Zim didn't speak. He had no intention to interrupt Dib.
Dib took a calming breath. "The next thing I knew, there was somebody lifting my head up. Then I heard my name. I kind of didn't expect you, Zim." Dib formed a tiny grin at the alien, but then looked away with a frown again. "I was sort of thinking you were going to finish the job. I mean...I don't know.
"Ugh..." Dib groaned, opening his golden eyes a little. He lifted a shaking hand and attempted to reach to grip Zim's arm, but failed. So instead he laid his hand on top of Zim's. "Zim..." he croaked out the Irken's name.
Dib heard Zim whisper his name, and he sounded shocked. Dib parted his lips and tried to say something more, but his eyes slid shut again and he felt the numbing swirl of pain make his body heavy. It was like there were screams and shouts of crowds and people pulling him down to this strange new world. Dib fell, and it was black and welcoming at first, until there was a light, not exactly the light people tell you to avoid when you're on the verge of death. It was smaller than he'd imagined, dimmer. The area around him swirled until the light completely swallowed him and he found himself sitting on something soft.
"Welcome," a gentle, velvet voice of a woman called to Dib as she appeared before him. Dib gaped at her beauty, and the woman laughed. "My name is Fravardin, and I am the guardian of all dead souls. You are human Dib. Age 12."
Dib tried standing up, and found it a lot easier than he thought. He looked at his skin, which was blurry, then he stared at Fravardin. "Um, where am I?"
"This is the line between life and the After-life. Humans only come here when neither after-live's want you yet."
"Huh?" Dib was over confused.
"Dib, you're human body is too damaged. It can't be healed, and you've already been abandoned. But you are not done with your duty to Earth. I am going to assign you as a ghost."
"What? Why a ghost? What did I do wrong?"
The woman touched Dib's shoulder. "You can't be here too long. Listen to me. Everyone who is assigned a ghost on Earth has a task to complete before they face judgement."
"I knew ghosts were real," Dib said. "Is this where all of them come before they haunt Earth?"
"Yes," said Fravardin. "All ghosts come here."
Dib raised an eyebrow. "So they all have tasks? What's mine?"
"You, Dib, have a year to find someone to love you. You're going to be sent to Irken Zim's home as your place to stay."
Dib's eyes popped. "Zim! What do you mean I have to stay with him? He's my sworn enemy!" Dib was about to go crazy. Like even more crazy than he sometimes was on Earth. All this was so weird...he didn't even have time to take one thing in before another thing was shot at him. And now he was being told that he was going to live with Zim?
"It's what you've been assigned. Now go." She pointed away with her finger, and everything was starting to spin again. "You will now train on how to use your new ghost abilities."
Dib gasped as he found himself moving unwillingly away into a marked area up ahead.
"So I trained for a few months on how to use these ghost abilitiese and how to follow my task." Dib stared at his feet. "Apparently I'm capable of looking more human. But I think Fravardin wanted me to figure that out..." Dib paused to look at Zim's expression. "So...you got that, Zim?"
Zim was reasting his chin on his hand and was watching Dib's face the whole time. He didn't miss a single word. "Tell me about these powers of yours, Dib-stink," Zim said, feeling better about calling Dib by one of his various nick-names.
"How do I know if you won't try something like you did downstairs?" Dib asked.
"I suppose, Dib-worm, if you're going to being staying with me, I at least have to know what you're up to," Zim said.
Dib nodded. "I guess." He pulled his legs from the side of the building and scooted where he would be facing Zim. "So all my powers in general are invisibility:" Dib demonstrated by turning invisible and then visible again. "Floating:" He hovered above the ground. "And speed:" In a flash, Dib was sitting on Zim's other side.
"Is that it?" Zim asked, curious.
"Well, no," Dib said. "I'm also a little stronger than I used to be." Dib was growing more comfortable with Zim now that he saw he hadn't really insulted him, which was a surprise.
Zim scanned over Dib's ghost body. "An interesting creature you are, Dib-thing. I would force you to help me enslave the human race if it weren't for that pathetic Earth truce we have."
Dib's eyes widened. "Are you serious, Zim?"
Zim grinned. "You expect so low of me, Dib-stink. Zim has agreed to a truce, so Zim is loyal."
Dib perked up. "Really? So...so would you help me?"
"Eh?" Zim was confused.
"You know, with that whole 'finding someone to love' me thing? If my theory is right, it's most-likely Fravardin will let me be a human again."
Zim stared at Dib. He didn't know what to say. Dib looked hopeful, and Zim did feel better knowing that Dib wasn't ignoring him anymore. Maybe he should help him. After all, if Dib really could be human again, there was a chance things could go back to normal. And that's exactly what Zim wanted was to have Dib around as his arch rival again. That was all he wanted.
"Yes, fine. Zim will...help."
"Really? Wow, Zim, I never expected any of this from you." Dib said incredulously.
Zim stood up and looked down at Dib with crossed arms. "So...what's our first move, Dib-ghost?"
Ok, so, maybe this doesn't make up for my long absence. I'm sorry, but this writer's block is killing me! X(
RxR (97) because I may need time