"-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOO-"
Zim was going for several minutes already. His voice reaching an ear piercing decibel causing all his allies to cover their ears in protection while Gir danced. It was the scream of nightmares.
"-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOO-"
This didn't phase the strange human though, he just stood there, with his stupid grin. Eventually he stretched his arms out forward and walked towards Zim. The Irken was still in traumatic shock to even register the incoming danger. Finally, the human was in front of Zim, he wrapped his arms around his alien body and squeezed, it was a hug.
"-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOO-"
"It's so great to see you alive, buddy," The human spoke in the most nightmarish and annoying voice Zim thought possible.
"-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOO-"
Zim was still screaming even after the human had made body contact with him. He finally stopped when the human squeezed harder.
"-OOOO-Huh? What's this? Human embrace?! By...you. Help! Someone save m-AHHHHHHHH! My spine! It curves in a way that causes pain! My Irk, please, someone save me, Zim!"
Gaz was the first to realize that Zim's scream had stop, the more obnoxious one at least. She saw the strange being holding Zim hostage and wanted to aim a blaster at him, but unfortunately she didn't prepare one. She could only throw something, but she didn't have anything on her to throw either, so she used the next best thing, a Skoodge.
The small alien flew through the air, but before colliding with the smiling face of the human, the monkey grabbed Skoodge out of mid-air and flung him back at Gaz. She ducked, causing the Irken missile to hit Daj who was behind her. The monkey stood between her and Zim in some sort of weird fight stance, preventing her from doing anything.
"Who are you?" Gaz recognized the features of the human, they resembled the traits of someone she saw on Earth from time to time, but she never bothered nor cared to learn who he was.
"Oh hi, you must be one of Zim's friends!" The human was still holding onto Zim tightly, "You look sort of familiar, have you ever had spider legs? I'm certain I've met a grotesque version of you before."
"Let go of him already!"
"Huh? Oh, Zim!" He released the embrace, "I'm sorry, I forgot I was still hugging you. I was just so happy that I held on due to instinct! Oh wait, I do recognize you!"
Zim fell down and quickly backed away from the suited human. He stood behind Gaz and grabbed Gir with his right arm, holding him out like a weapon.
"You! Why are you here!? How is it even possible!?" Zim yelled, "Why aren't you lip-eating a squirrel right now!?"
"So you do know me in this dimension! Yay!"
"I wish I didn't! ...did you just say dimension?"
"AAHH! Air, sweet air!" On top of the circular structure that the monkey had made, Dib had finally freed his head and could breathe once again, "Thanks for freeing me guys, it's not like I was suffocating or anything."
"Not now, Dib, we have more things to worry about than the needs of your puny lungs!"
"Hi Dib! It's good to see you again!" The human had turned to face Dib and waved his hand. The sight of another person greatly confused him, what's more he remembered who he was. An annoying being with red hair whom was blown up by him and Zim via goo during their childhood.
"What the-Keef? Is that really you?" Dib jumped down and got a closer look at the human, it was either the real Keef or a really good clone, "You're a clone!"
"Ye-what?"
"Don't play dumb! I know it's possible! I've read my dad's files! That's the only possible explanation for this!"
"Well, I'm not a clone, but you're a little correct, I guess."
"I've got him!" Zim had grabbed the red-headed being with his good arm when Dib distracted him, "Quick, everyone, kill him now before he exists in my universe for another second!"
"We've got some problems on our end," Kor replied. Zim turned his head to find his crew disabled by the monkey. Daj and Kry were trapped in sacks, Kor, Gaz, and Skoodge were tied together, Tel was in the monkey's headlock and was continuously getting punched, and Gir was placed upside-down.
"You useless pieces of flesh and whatever other substances exists within your bodies!"
"Zim, I didn't know you wanted another hug," Keef broke Zim's hold, "The truth is, I wanted one too, but you can't do it when you're only using one hand. Come here!"
"No, NO! Get away! Noooooooo!" Zim found himself in another embrace by the human, "Curse you! Curse your entire specie's ability to use both limbs!"
"You're a bit squishier in this dimension."
"Get off of me! My body density is not for you to know!"
"Hold on, did you just say dimension?" Dib asked.
"Yeah. Haha, clones, you're so funny Dib," he said, "You sound just like the nightmare you."
"Nightmare me? Holy crap! You're from the Nightmare realm!"
"We like to call it the Nightmare Dimension now, it sounds bigger."
"B-but how's that even possible?! How can you even get here?!"
"Through the portal! See, ever since you came to the Nightmare Dimension, there existed a waveform between our Dimension and yours. Dib, the Nightmare version of you, and I created the machine that would transport a mass from between Dimensions. However, my mass was too great to cross over and would make the portal very unstable, so we had to send Sir Chuckie Higglies."
"Sir Chuckie Higglies?"
"My monkey!" Keef's monkey let out a screech of confirmation, "I instructed my monkey to recreate the machine at any means necessary. It would create a stable link between our dimensions and allow me to complete my mission."
Zim kept squirming within Keef's grip until finally being able to release himself from the dreaded hug.
"Finally!" Zim screamed in joy, "Now tell Zim why you're ruining my universe with your existence before I ripped your ocular organs from your head like the equally annoying other you!"
"Of course. I'm hunting an evil tyrant from my dimension."
"Who is?"
"The Employer."
The Irken Armada, the most powerful force in the known universe. The planets they've conquered, thousands, the lives they've enslaved, millions, the beings they've killed, billions. For eons they have been the fist that made beings quiver, only the few opposed their rule while the many watched their bodies cease to live.
Now the infamous empire stood on the brink of destruction, at the mercy of a few. The crazy few. The very crazy few. The very crazy and annoying few.
"I hate Zim."
"We all do, Red, we all do," Purple and Red were standing in their Tower of Supreme Ruling and Tallness as each Irken on the planet was armed and geared.
"So every Irken on the planet is mobilized?" Red asked.
"Yes, every Irken, every fleet in orbit, every Mega Doomer is online."
"Alright, what if-"
"Everything will be fine, we are the strongest in the universe after all."
"But we've never been opposed like this! What if our laser bounce off of them like some reflector shield thing?! What if they have some sort of paralyzing chemical agent that only affects Irkens?! What if their soldiers have some sort of ability to mutate into gigantic hulking beasts?!"
"Come on, Red, don't be ridiculous!"
"Zim created a giant blob monster by himself that ate two of our past Tallests."
"...I'll start preparing our needlessly large laser cannons."
Purple turned around and was going to order the lasers to be prepped, leaving Red to overlook the troops mobilizing around his tower. Despite the several reassurances by Purple and the periods of snacking on cookies, he still couldn't help but wonder whether this was really enough.
"Huh, why are you-wait, you look familiar," Red turned towards Purple's voice, he saw that Purple was obstructed by a lone Irken, "Did we use you to test our bombs once? That time when we ran out of test dummies?"
"No, no that Irken had that weird bent in his antennae. I think this is the one we accidentally sent on a recon mission on a star."
"That was an accident?"
"Officially."
"Right."
"Enough!" The Irken spoke, his voice was loud and boisterous. The Tallest didn't appreciate the command.
"Okay, someone has earned another accidental mission on a star."
"Nah, not a star, a black hole!" Red said.
"Ooo, I like that idea, Red!"
"You fools!" The Irken spoke again, "I am not one of you low-life form puppets!"
"...Red, what's worse than a black hole to scout?"
"How dare you conspire against me! You foo-
Hey, can you shut up already an let someone else talk!
You dare interrupt me? The great-
Idiot that's ruining everything?"
"...Purple, am I Zimming out again?" Red looked confusedly at the Irken, "That Irken is talking to himself, in different voices."
"I'm hearing it too," Purple said.
"Who-What are you?"
"The masters in your shadow.
The benders of your will.
The true overlords!
WE ARE THE CONTROL BRAIN!" The Irken started laughing in four simultaneous voices.
"Oh, you're that Irken we threw in the Control Brain room, and judging by your glowing eyes, four voices, and large tentacle sticking out of your PAK, you must be possessed by the Control Brain."
"Yes."
"AHHHHHHHHHH-Scream too, Purple-AHHH!"
"Okay, AHHHHHHHHH-" Purple and Red got on their knees and begged.
"Please, don't kill us!"
"Shut up!" The Control Brain-possessed Irken said, "You dare order the almighty Control Brain!
Stop yelling already, we didn't come here to kill the Tallest anyway.
We only came for information.
But, but my almighty tentacle! I must strike someone down with it!
You did, to this Irken, nine times. We told you to stop because we needed the body, and then you hit him again."
"Control Brains, why did you need the body to contact us? Couldn't you have broadcast your message or something?"
"It is because we need to speak to you two privately as the current Tallests.
THE MATTER REQUIRES GREAT SECRECY.
Or else all your Irken lives will perish."
"Okay."
"We know of this threat against our planet.
AND OF ZIM!
We've monitored you for a while now.
And we know of your supposed plan."
"You...you do?"
"Of course!
We wish for you to discuss it with us in more detail.
Also, could you please come into our chamber, this Irken body makes me feel inferior."
"Yes, Control Brains."
"The Employer? Who the hell is the Employer?" Dib's brain was still trying to process all the information he had heard. A Keef from another dimension from his head is hunting a tyrant and is now hugging Zim. Dib thought he had witness the weirdest moment of his life, even more than seeing the Yeti in a penguin ballet, he thought that was a dream, but he still has the white hairs from the performance.
"The Employer is an evil Bio-organic warlord that threatened the galactic spaces of the Nightmare Dimension with his cyber-moose army!" Nightmare Keef said.
"I see, but why the Employer? That's a pretty dumb name for an evil overlord."
"I dunno."
Zim finally wriggled free from Keef's grasp.
"You! So this is your fault!" Zim shouted, "The Employer came from your stupid, disgusting dimension and messed with my PAK! Now I can die at any moment!"
"Oh no, does it hurt?"
"No, but I will still dest-"
"I can fix it."
"What?! You lie!"
"No, I can. You see, in my dimension, I joined the Intergalactic Rescue Kommand. It's also known as I.R.K., the planet where my version of you comes from."
"Intergalactic Rescue Kommand?" Dib said, "I thought the Nightmare Dimension was just a place where Nightmarish creatures want to claw through my skull, not a bad sci-fi movie."
"I passed the academy and was immediately sent out to a unit, where I met my partner, Nightmare Zim! Along with our siren beacon, Nightmare Gir, we dispensed justice and saved lives across the galaxy!"
"This doesn't sound like a Nightmare realm, at all."
"Well I'm disgusted," Zim said, "The thoughts that somewhere in another dimension, a being in my image is saving lives and galaxies churn my inner organs like butter goo! Surely nightmares will haunt me for cycles to come."
"We became the top officers in the universe!" Keef said, "Then we got assigned to hunt down the most dangerous criminal in the known universe, the Employer, whom we tracked to Earth. With the help of Dib, the Nightmare Potato, we-"
"Woah, hold on!" Dib interrupted, "In the Nightmare Dimension, Gaz is a hideous spider, you and Zim are heroes of the universe, and I'm a potato?!"
"I was bacon!" Gir said.
"He didn't look like a potato when I saw him, just very round and...lumpy...and reminded me...of fries for some...reason..."
"If it makes you feel better, Dib, he was also incredibly crazy," Keef said comfortingly.
"It doesn't."
"Alright. Long story short, we stopped the Employer's plan, but at the cost of my home planet, and Zim. He bravely gave his life saving his favorite planet."
"You sound pretty happy when you were saying that."
"After Zim died, the council on I.R.K. thought I was too sad and injected me with the Nick virus, forcibly making me smile and speak cheerfully for the rest of my life! It's incredibly painful!"
"Oh, I'm sorry."
"Zim's loss hit me hard. I was so devastated that I turned Gir into a punch bowl, and punch doesn't even exist in our dimension. Zim was my partner, my best friend, my lover."
"I see," Zim said, "I'm going to go scalp myself now so that I may pour acid into my skull since my brain has been TAINTED with knowledge that I will never forget!"
"That's a bit harsh, Zim," Dib said.
"I would rather be in relations with you, Dib-worm, than any form of him."
"You remind me of my Zim so much, Zim," Keef said, "You said that the night we invited Dib to drink judgment-impairing liquids. I still remember the smell of fries-"
"Okay now I need brain acid!" Dib said, "Just tell us why the Employer is here in our dimension."
"Yeah, alright. As it turned out, the Employer was never killed in the planet's explosion. Zim was transmitting the last moments of his battle to me, in it you can see the Employer getting sent through a portal. I showed the council but they didn't think it was important, they said different dimensions weren't their jurisdiction, but I couldn't accept that, I wanted revenge!"
"Portal, you mean like the one here?"
"Yes, the portal was going to let him cross dimensions. He had gotten the plans from Vort and built it on Earth. His goal, it was to not to conquer the universe, but to conquer every dimension!"
"Wow, that's even more crazy than any of Zim's goals! How is that even possible though?"
"That portal would've allowed him to travel to any dimension, at any time, choosing the rights moments to take control of the dimension!"
"The power to travel to different dimensions," Zim said, "I would love to acquire such a device."
"I know about that device," Crax said, "It's a very experimental project stored in the VR&D. I always watched the experiments as they pushed some poor subject through the portal only to come out as shredded cheese on the other side."
"Yes, I was certain that your Vort was working on a version of the portal as well and the Employer would want it. So I sent Chuckie to steal the components necessary to make one to allow me to cross over. Now we'll wait until the Employer comes to retrieve the machine so that I may battle him!" Keef said.
"His pawns have already left," Zim said.
"Then we'll wait until he comes back for the machine. He can't do anything without it after all."
"Or he could've stolen the blueprints for the device instead," Crax said.
"...I have a confession, I was never the smart one of my unit."
"I'm not surprised," Dib said, "Still, how were you able to track him to our dimension?"
"I still remember the day you crossed over into the Nightmare Dimension. According to my Dib, thanks to that, the wavelengths of our dimensions became more in sync. This meant that your dimension is the easiest to cross into, and it was why the Employer chose it as his first target."
"So this is all Dib-scum's fault!" Zim said.
"You could say that. Of course I had to make certain that he was indeed in this dimension, not physically though, despite years of trying to recreate the machine, Dib and I didn't have the technology for that. Instead, I traveled to this dimension through one of your minds."
"You did? When?! Zim demands that you tell him!"
"According to the date, it was two to three years ago..."
"You're transitioning into a flashback aren't you?! Stop it! I hate those!"
"Actually, no, Dib was able to monitor me when I crossed over. I have the recording and I'm going to show you all."
"Oh, that's better then."
Keef reached into his suit and pulled out a box. He pressed a button and it flattened out and projected an image into the air. Immediately, Dib, Zim, and Gaz recognized it, it was their middle skool. Back when Zim still had the drive to conquest Earth, when Dib was still battling Zim over the fate of the planet, and back when Gaz would see their stupid fights everyday and call them idiots. It was also when Tak had re-inserted herself into their daily lives. There were three screens, one showing Dib, the other showing Zim, and one showing Gaz.
Gaz noticed that Dib was standing next to a bulletin board on his screen, and on it was the date. It was that day. Dib and Zim had noticed the date also, both with a shocked look on their face. They stayed like that for a moment until Dib spoke.
"Hey, it this the time with..."
"...the noodles," Zim said disdainfully. He then recalled the painful images of that day.
Gaz only had faint memories of that day though. The only things she remembered clearly was walking to school and then suddenly being home, everything else was just a blur with fuzzy images and feelings. She always felt that it was important. After hearing everything Keef said, she made an assumption as to this gap in her memory, she hoped she wasn't right.
"Keef, just who's head did you jump into?" She asked.
"Yours."
"WHAT?!"
She was right, and he had said it so joyfully too. Keef started playing the video.