Zim wasn't even sure when he had arrived back at their room. He wasn't even aware he had been walking; his legs were numb under him. Everything seemed to be standing still and spinning around him all at once. The whir of the door opening snapped him out of his haze, and he was faced with the human who was still sprawled out on the cot.

Dib almost seemed like he would wake up for a few seconds before the snoring continued (not that he would ever admit to snoring) and he turned onto his side, dangerously close to the edge of the bed. His hair fell into his face and the shirt he'd fallen asleep wearing was riding up to show a thread of pale skin. The human had no idea that his fate had just been decided by two tall alien leaders who were practically teenagers still in their culture. He slept peacefully, happily almost.

Zim leaned against the door at it slid closed, sliding down to the floor. He couldn't wrap his mind around what was going to happen next. He tried to imagine Dib as he broke the news to him; panicked, worried. Upset, most likely.

Then again…

Dib had seemed to enjoy it here, with Zim. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad, after all? Maybe Dib would decide to stay. Yeah, that seemed reasonable, didn't it? He liked Zim, right, so how could he want to leave? Maybe he realized the Irken way was superior, and won't give a second thought about Earth being taken over.

Zim felt optimistic, suddenly. He jumped off the floor and over to the sleeping human. His chest felt tight, though, and he tried to reassure himself inwardly, telling himself that Dib wouldn't leave. Not after everything… "Dib-worm. Dib-worm wake up!" He shook his shoulder, sending the human's head lolling back and forth against the cot.

"Mmm." Dib groaned, cracking one eye open. In the dark all he could see was the outline of Zim's silhouette and he yawned, not sure if he was ready to deal with the alien quite yet. "Yeah?" Sitting up and stretching, Dib shook the tiredness out of his system and realized that there could only really be one reason why Zim was here and so excited. But, that couldn't be right? Had they already decided so fast? He figured it would take more than…what a few hours?

And just like that, all the confidence was sucked out of Zim in an instant. His resolve was crumbling to the floor around them the instant Dib cracked his eyes open. He opened his mouth to speak, but faltered. In the darkness, he could see what little light there was reflect off those honey colored eyes, the determination and excitement in them that Zim had ignited just by waking him up.

And before Zim even knew what he was doing, he spoke.

"They said yes!" He was grinning, even though his hands were shaking. What was he doing? Why couldn't he stop himself from forming those words? What happened to all the reassurance he had built up?

Dib blinked for a few seconds, trying to fully comprehend the rush of emotions that were slowly building into a smile. "Th-that's great! That's freaking wonderful!" And then he was out of bed, fighting the urge to dance around. Earth was saved! Because of him! He wouldn't have to worry about people dying or having to go back to his planet and there was the little problem of marrying an alien but, hey that was turning out pretty fantastic too wasn't it? He laughed and grabbed Zim's hands, almost wanting to spin the alien around.

"Thanks. You know, I couldn't have done any of this without you. You've saved billions of people, Zim. My people. And for that, I owe you everything."

Zim felt like he was being punched in the gut, and he grimaced at how wonderful Dib looked. He was so happy, it was like a light was turned on from inside of him, and it was radiating out of him and filling the room. And Zim wanted to sit in the darkness and beat himself up, but Dib wouldn't even allow him that. The jerk. "Yeah, well." Zim mumbled, looking down at their hands, his brow furrowed. "Don't act so happy; you'll make me regret it."

"Seriously, Zim." Dib whispered, lifting the Irken's chin and kissing him chastely before pulling away and staring down at the alien for a second. Zim looked haggard, tired and still Dib wanted to throw him on the bed and do some horrible mixture of tickling and kissing and make the alien laugh and scream. "Thanks." He went back over to the bed and flopped down on it, only to sit back up again half a second later.

"Oh god! Our wedding. Oh Big-foot's left foot, we're getting married. W-when the hell do we do that?" Dib fretted, already thinking, thinking…

'Before I lose my nerve,' Zim wanted to say. He ran a gloved claw over his lips, his brow knitting together in thought.

"The sooner the better, really." Zim finally said. He seemed to snap back into reality at the realization. "Yes! Tonight! Now!" Now while the Tallest were busy with their snacking. Now while Zim still had his nerve, and his lack of common sense. Now while Zim was still in this foggy state of wanting and desperation. He was at full attention, 'spooch pounding in his chest hard enough to rock his tiny frame, antennae at full stance. "We don't have a moment to spare!"

Dib's eyes widened and his body stiffened in shock. "Ummm. Okay?" Suddenly it was very real and he was realizing that wow, he wasn't 18 yet and despite the fact that he knew that it shouldn't matter because it was a question of saving his planet it was also kind of terrifying. He could never get married to anyone else. Not that he would want to.

It wasn't even like he'd ever been attracted to women let alone any other guys and then along came a spider, who just so happened to be an alien. And Dib wasn't going to say that he wasn't attracted to Zim because that was a blatant lie, it was just that now that they were doing this it felt so much more serious than it did when they were talking in the cafeteria.

Pushing to his feet, Dib breathed and smiled at Zim who seemed pretty excited, honestly. "How do we start?"

Zim's mind was in tunnel vision at this point; ignoring everything but what they had to do at this exact moment. Screw whatever happened afterwards. "We need to get to the control brain in the heart of the ship." Zim nodded, talking with his hands. He couldn't keep still, everything was moving so fast and he didn't want them to slow down lest his common sense caught up with him.

Grabbing Dib's hand, Zim led him out of their room; into the hallway where he had been certain was a thousand miles long just a couple minutes ago. And now everything was flying past him and he felt like he had taken three steps and they were at an elevator. Stepping inside, Zim pushed the very last button on the panel and the doors whirred past around them.

"Ok, when we get down there, it's all very simple. I'll use a chip and insert it in you so that you can receive my data. Extracting your half of the data shouldn't be too difficult. After that, we'll exchange markings. And that should be it." He gave a short shrug, looking up at the human to try and gauge his reaction to all of this.

"Okay." Dib nodded, frantically as he tried to hold all the information that Zim was throwing his way as the elevator zoomed down, a million Irkens passing by them until it finally stopped abruptly. His throat felt tight, as he grabbed the alien's hand and they were walking. "Where are we going first? Do the Control Brains have the chips or…?"

"The Control Brains will have everything we need." Zim answered with a nod. He gave the human's hand a squeeze. Everything felt too real in this moment. He feared that his sense was coming back to him, so he picked up his pace, leading his human through the narrow hall that led to a massive doorway. His fingers trembled a bit as he punched the security code into the nearby panel, fumbling a few times and re-entering it until finally the door lifted for them.

The Control Brain loomed over them in the nearly empty room, the walls consisting of wires and cables that hummed and buzzed all around them. The room was much darker than the others on the ship, the only light coming from the glowing orbs that adorned the Control Brain's surface.

"WHO ENTERS?" The deep, monotone voice came booming from the Control Brain in front of them.

"Invader Zim and Human Dib. We request a union." Zim demanded simply.

"UNION BETWEEN TWO PARTIES IS IRREVERSIBLE, AND ONLY VOID IN THE OCCURRENCE OF DEATH. DO YOU WISH TO PROCEED?"

Zim looked at his companion, giving him one last chance to back down.

Dib was almost too busy thoroughly examining the room to give a response. They were like giant paks and they glowed eerily, the lights getting brighter and darker in time with its speech. The entire room felt almost sentient. For years, humans had been trying to create Artificial Intelligence and had succeeded on some levels. But this…these Control Brains were beyond anything they ever could've imagined. They radiated their own presence. A very dominating one that demanded respect. The voices boomed and he fought the urge to cringe, yanking his gaze away from the machine.

The breath caught in his throat as he looked down into Zim's eyes, that also glowed slightly in the dark. Dib could see the colors swirling. He could see the dust clouds that he could just breathe in and die inside of. The history of the universe. So real. Very, very real. They had to do this. Dib hadn't expected to go quite this fast and wasn't sure about the alien's hurry but, it had to be done sometime. Might as well. Gulping, he nodded slowly.