Back during "Dib Does Irk", I'd proposed a scenario that would have seen Zim potentially die. This is the idea I had in mind for what would have happened HAD he actually perished...I thought it a good little extra to share with all of you. Enjoy!
At long last, the Massive had reached Irk, and Dib was treated to a full view of the planet and its odd alien landscape. The world had long stretches of flat ground, with patches of thick red, earthen tones over gritty, faintly desert-esque terrain. In addition to that, huge chunks of the planet had deeply vibrant, tight-cut orange grass that stretched for miles and miles over the planet, going off into a seemingly infinite horizon. There were few valleys and mountains, though there was, however, an enormous capitol city in the center of the planet.
Tall skyscrapers rose up, deep purple and red in color, Senior letting out a "CHUH" sound of aggravation, rolling his green eyes as he strolled along the steely sidewalk. There were enormous domed structures that Dib could see into the glassy roofs of, which contained, from the looks of it, nothing but food. Snacks, snacks of a hundred different brands, some from Earth, even!
Other buildings were currently in the middle of being closed, with big sticker tape, ugly and yellow, draped over it that read "Closed" again and again. Various very tiny little Irken babies barely bigger than a doll were being led out of a few of them by kindly-looking, white-robed consulars, all of whom had the same little necklaces that Dib had seen on the psychic, Darth. They were helping the Irken tykes along, a few hovering them about their heads as if they were moons and the consular was a mother planet, others carrying them in their arms as tenderly as possible, and a few had simply gotten little shopping carts and put the babes within.
"Faster, faster!" One of them cried out, standing atop one of his little baby compatriot's shoulders, banging his tiny fist on the cart as the blue-eyed consular rolled her eyes and pushed the cart a bit faster, Senior leading Dib towards what was very clearly one of the ONLY parks in the city. A very small park barely larger than his school's playground, but luckily for them, Tak was there as well, nonchalantly holding up her hand, showing off a very nice glimmering golden ring on it.
She was showing off this fine jewelry to about a dozen little Irken children, all of whom were listening in as she relayed her tale, and it took a moment, as the sun of Irk bathed down upon them all in an orange sky, for Dib to realize...
Zim. Zim was now stuck on the golden ring like he was an overgrown jewel, uselessly squirming, held in place by little golden clawlike bands that tightly gripped him and held him to the ring. He glowered darkly up at Dib and Senior as Tak smiled at them. "I've got some time off so I thought I'd tell these little smeets about the most pathetic Irken in our race."
"How goes your glorious new job as the manager of the best military force in the galaxy?" Senior asked with a little chuckle as Tak gave him a bit of a playful salute.
"I've been having all the troops running hard training drills, we've shut down the smeet factories to ensure there's no more test tube children, we're making sure Irkens cut down on their PAK use to get them adjusted to a future where they'll BE no more PAKs, and we're changing the power grid to make better use of solar and wind power over nuclear energy. In fact, the capitol's the last place with such a facility." Tak insisted. "We're going back to the way it ought to be, nice and natural and replenishible and utterly-self-sufficient."
"Good. Dib wanted to get samples of our soil and air and the sunshine Irk is blessed with for some testing. He's said he's worried that cleaning up the environment of Earth might mean an increase in negative solar radiation that will severely damage Irken flesh. So he wants a baseline from our planet to compare to his own."
"Oh yes, good idea, we wouldn't want to clean the atmosphere only to find that doing so would cook us alive." Tak remarked calmly as she flexed her clawed digits some more, Zim angrily squirming around and hissing at them.
"You will let Zim go immediately, you filthy kisgaree!" He snarled at Tak.
"What part of "you're stuck there" didn't register in your big, swollen, egotistical head?" Tak inquired with a laugh as the smeets around them giggled, a few poking Zim, making him snap his teeth at them as an idea then came to Tak and she gave Dib a look. "You know, Dib...I've an idea. Zim's caused you almost as much pain as me. Why don't YOU have some fun with him? In fact, I've actually begun to get...BORED with torturing Zim like this." She admitted, waving the
Zim-ring about, tossing it up and down in the air, making Zim groan and gasp out in pain.
"OOOF! OOOGH! OWWW!" He yelled out, flopping into her palm over and over every time she tossed him up.
"Here." She caaarefully peeled his tiny frame out and gave him to Dib, who plucked Zim up by the back of his shirt, looking Zim over as Zim flailed his tiny arms about in vain. "We Irkens have had our PAKs adjusted, we can eat humans without fear of really harming them. But, well...if an IRKEN was shrunk, nothing they could do. Especially not Zim, nothing on his PAK is working but the life support, so..." She evilly smirked. "If you want, Dib...go ahead. Get rid of Zim once and for all. Wouldn't it be fitting to have your greatest enemy eaten?"
Zim turned pale. His eyes bulged. "Y-You wouldn't dare! You wouldn't dare eat me!"
"Oooh, you would HATE that, wouldn't you, Zim? Eaten by the very being you tried to kill for years? By a filthy huuuuuuman." She laughed in her distinct, British accented voice, throwing her head back and cackling. "How deliciously ironic! Emphasis on delicious. Go on, Dib...help yourself."
Dib stared down at Zim's now small, shivering, shuddering frame. It would be so...so easy. No PAK legs to jab at him. No shield to defend the Irken from stomach acids. This time there'd be no escape. And Dib's "finishing move" really WOULD be a finishing move.
He lifted Zim up, his body quivering. The collection of the samples could wait. Nobody here knew why he really wanted them. They were totally bought into the idea he just wanted to help the Irkens, he could collect the samples ANYTIME, when would he get a chance like this? And after all, after being swallowed by an Irken himself, maybe it was time HE do the swallowing. Time HE dominated Zim for once, fully, truly had Zim's life in his hands.
It'd be so...so easy.
He found his tongue slurping over Zim's tiny frame. He tasted so good. Like a lovely little lime hard candy with a faintly sizzling aftertone that danced on his tongue like pop rocks. Dib could hear his heart thumping in his ears, feel his blood racing. Why not do it? Why not? After EVERYTHING Zim had done?
...so easy. So simple. And Zim would be gone forever. He couldn't say Zim didn't deserve it...
...Dib's mouth opened.
Poor Zim wasn't even given the chance to scream before he got tossed in, sent plummeting into the sea of wet flesh below, his entire body fitting nicely into Dib's jaws. The others stared, Senior's eyes bulging wide in shock as Dib had the whole of Zim trapped within his maw, Dib's cheeks somewhat puffed out, almost looking like a squirrel as everyone just stared, mouth agape before Tak spoke up.
"Did he...did he really just…eat him?" She mumbled out.
A flood of drool from the tasty, faintly husky flavor of the irritating Irken within his jaws made some saliva dribble out from Dib's lips as he nonchalantly swirled the poor flailing, screeching Zim about. He swished him from cheek to cheek, closing her eyes. "Mmmmm." He moaned aloud. It was almost like a faintly scaly jawbreaker or a gumball! Not bad at all. Still…as enjoyable as this was, he wanted to get on it with, because as tasty as Zim was...Dib didn't want to give Zim a chance to try and fight back.
GLRRRB-GGLRRRRPPP! Dib gave a big, huge swallow, and down, down into his esophagus the poor screeching Zim went, his frame a-squirming about, thrashing around, trying in vain to break free as Senior shook his head, watching all this unfold. "Yes. Yes, he just ate him." He murmured, and although his tone was normal, a faint...cold disappointment echoed within his voice as they watched the big, noticeable bulge in Dib throat that Zim made before it slid down, down into the hungry young Dib's gut. He rubbed over it slowly, smirking in delight, then letting out a distinctly raucous and wet belch.
"BRAAAAAAP. Oops. 'Scuse me. Musta been something I ate." He chuckled. "Frankly, Zim...nobody should be this delicious." He added with a laugh, Senior groaning, shaking his head as Tak sniggered in delight. The communications officer knelt down, pulling out a containment capsule which sprang forth from his PAK. He handed the glassy, square-like capsule to Dib, who, smiling, scooped up big chunks of natural Irken soil and put it into the little jar, Senior sighing as he looked at Dib's gut, and the faint squirming and screaming coming from within.
"AAAHHH! LEMME OUT, LEMME OUT!" Zim was hollering. "Human! I'm going to DISSOOOOOLVE YOOOOOOU for this travesty!"
"Actually I think it's DIB that's gonna be dissolving you." Tak said with a dark, sneering chuckle.
"Will this be sufficient for a soil test, Dib Membrane?" Senior quietly asked.
"Oh, I think so." Dib said with a nod, cringing as she acknowledged Senior had referred to him by his FULL name. Oh boy. People didn't call you by your full name or by your last name unless things were very serious, or they were positively angry at them. "Uh...I'm just gonna, um, you know. Need to get some good air samples and solar energy samples too. The air will be easy, but to test what your sun puts out will be tricky."
"I've got someone who can assist you. I will call Bob here to talk to you." Senior told him. "Tak, you stay with him, I'll go call Bob. I need to...do a recon sweep of the capitol." He muttered, making his way away from Dib, leaving the young lad alone, Dib looking down at his stomach, cringing a bit as he glanced back up in the direction Senior was walking.
He had...perhaps...made a big mistake.
…
…
…
...Dib was tossing and turning in his bed, panting heavily, sweating in his sleep. He was being assaulted in his dreams by the visage of Zim...who had long since perished, digesting away. The nightmarish frame of Zim was tormenting him in his sleep, mockingly laughing, his form melting and reforming all over again as he kept Dib pinned to the floor...bits and pieces of him dribbling down over the terrified and screeching Dib.
"What's the matter, Dib? I thought you'd be happy to see me dissolving like this!" He sneered, Dib's face filled with absolute terror and shock...as one of Zim's eyeballs slid out of its socket, flopping down, plopping onto Dib's chest. "Isn't this what you wanted, Dib?! ISN'T THIS WHAT YOU WANTED?!"
"G-Geeeet off meeeee!" Dib screeched out. "Get away from me, get away!" He howled, shoving Zim back as hard as he could...popping awake, finding himself in bed, covered in sweat yet icy cold as Senior walked over to him from the doorway, shaking his head back and forth.
"I heard you screaming from down the hall. What on Irk is happening?"
"It's...it's this awful nightmare I was having." Dib moaned, covering his face, putting his glasses on from a nearby desk as he shuddered and quaked.
"What was it like?"
"The dream was like...it was like...have you ever had one of those dreams? Where you THINK you've woken up, but...you haven't? Like it's just part of the nightmare and you're still in it?" Dib whispered out, clinging to his black hair.
"I'm afraid not." Senior said with a shrug, shaking his head back and forth. "But...well, let me tell you something."
"What?"
"I think that you're gonna be experiencin' a LOT of that from now on." the green-eyed, green-clothed communications officer told Dib...as his head fell off and flopped into Dib's lap. "You, Dib...have simply GOT to get your head on straight." He laughed. "Pull yourself together."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
This time Dib awoke to find Senior gently holding him in a tight hug, Senior gently stroking over his head, the white-eyed Darth patting Dib's back "Shhhh. Shhhhhhh. Shhhhhhhhhhh. It's okay. It's okay. It's okay." The Consular tenderly intoned, as a calm, soothing balm began to slowly bathe over Dib's frame. "It's just a dream, Dibbun. Just a dream. There-there. Relax. We are here for you, little one."
"I KILLED him!" Dib was screaming, his voice hoarse, tears brimming in his ."No, I-I fucking MURDERED him, Senior! I've murdered somebody! He couldn't even fight back and I just ATE him! I ATE HIM! I ATE HIM I ATE HIM I...I…" His sobbing and wailing dissolved away into barely-restrained crying. Not even Darth's psychic soothing touch was fully keeping his emotions at check. Darth shook his head at Senior, a concerned, almost frightened look on his own face.
"I can't help him." He told Senior. "I simply can't. But you can."
Senior took in a long, deep breath, and then gently put Dib's hands in his lap, holding the young lad's cheek. "Dib. It's okay that you feel so awful. So sick. So horrified. It shows your conscience isn't gone. I was worried it might be. Worried you might be too far gone, but...I'm glad to see you're not. There's still hope for you, Dib. I still believe in you."
"I don't know if I can believe in myself."
"When I get like this, do you know what I do?" Senior asked, Dib looking back at him. "I go back to what originally inspired me. What originally made me into what I am. Do that. It'll help. And I know what else will make you feel better." He added. "Tomorrow, I'm taking you out to eat. And I'm gonna bring my family along. I think you'll really like my wife." He added gently, giving Dib a soft smile. "But remember, it's okay to feel bad about all this. And it's even more okay to TALK about how you feel about it. People aren't meant to be alone. They need others to talk to about how they feel. Believe me. I know." He told Dib with a sigh. "Now...you want to maybe go get yourself some milk or something and try to head to sleep again? I can escort you to the cafeteria."
"...okay." Dib muttered, sniffling a bit,, wiping his nose on his pajama sleeves as Senior helped him out of bed, and off down the hall, staying close to the communications officer. "...you're too nice to me."
"Dib, I've read all about you, and I took the time to get to know you. You've not had people being NEARLY nice enough to you for YEARS." Senior insisted. "The way I see it?...I'm just making up for lost time." He remarked with a little chuckle. "Now then...white or chocolate milk?"
"Chocolate."
"Good man."