I DID IT! I finished this for Superior's birthday! Go me and go this story and go YOU for reading and enjoying my silly fanfic :D *eats berries in celebration*

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Chapter 23

It didn't even take a day for them to realize that everything would be easier of they just kept a bowl of snacks and fruit in the lab.

Zim greedily bit into his pear as soon as his uppermost hatch had closed for the tenth time that day. He finished the fruit within seconds, sweet juice running down his chin.

"Nice work today, Zim", Sev En smiled," It should get easier to complete tasks with your PAK soon, especially with your progress."

"I don't see any progress and I don't see why it would get easier", Zim said, picking up a papaya.

"Imagine that your PAK is a limb that you weren't able to use before. The muscles would be untrained and it would take great effort to learn how to control it", Sev En said.

"It's just like someone who's been in a wheelchair for their whole life then got a surgery that made them able to walk, right Sev En?" Lard Nar butted in, elbowing his coworker lightly. Dib could swear something soft fell over Sev En's face at that moment.

"Yes … My oldest child was born with underdeveloped legs. She got her surgery when she was five. She worked so hard to learn how to walk", Sev En smiled," your situation is similar, Zim. It's all about trying your best."

"And hopefully you won't need to eat so much once you've trained enough", Lard Nar added.

Dib closed his eyes. He only rarely heard Sev En talk about his family, but it left him touched every time. Maybe because he remembered his own dad and how they used to do science together. Maybe he just missed his father so much at times and he painfully enjoyed those moments when Sev En would mention his kids and their lives.

"I would like to get to meet them some day", Dib blurted. Sev En looked up with raised eye brows.

"My kids?" he asked. Immediately Dib felt stupid for asking. He was only a human who happened to work with them, after all.

"Y-yeah", he said," they seem really nice." Dib fiddled with the sleeve of his lab coat, not daring to look Sev En in the eyes. Did he really just say that? He was so stupid!

"I'm sure they'd be happy to meet you too", Sev En said. Wait, what?

"... Really?" Dib looked up in surprise. Sev En was smiling broadly, his sharp teeth only making it a little bit creepy. Dib heart skipped a beat. "Neat!"

"You can come over for dinner sometime. Zim can come too, off course!"

"Oh really? You sure your kids won't be scared of him?" Dib asked.

"HEY!" Zim exclaimed, spitting papaya all over the table," the only thing the Vort-smeets have to fear is your big head!"

"My head is tiny compared to your mouth, Zim! Everyone has to watch out when you're around", Dib said.

"LIES! You're telling lies, Dib!"

"Keep telling yourself that", Dib smirked.

"Anyways", Lard Nar said before Zim could reply", I'm leaving. See you tomorrow." Lard Nar got up and went for the door.

"Yeah, bye", Dib said.

After just a few minutes, they had all gone their different ways. Zim considered going into the garden, catch some butterflies, climb some trees, maybe prank a gardener or two. It sounded like fun.

But he was so tired. His feet barely left the ground as he walked and thinking felt like too much of a bother. He really didn't think going anywhere except his and Dib's room would end well.

"See you for dinner then, Zim", Dib said. Zim looked up. Hey, were they already at the spot where you turned to get to the gates and walked forward to get to their room?

"Uhm. Yeah. I'll just go … I'm going to the room today", Zim said, shaking his head in an attempt at clearing his head.

"Yeah, that's what I figured. You look exhausted", Dib shrugged.

"Not as much as you", Zim mumbled, just to be the last one to say something.

….

His bed was nice 'n soft. Although he wouldn't fall asleep. He shouldn't be this tired! All he did today was to open and close the stupid PAK lids! He did more advanced things without thinking all the time. That was why he wouldn't tolerate himself being exhausted by these simple exercises!

With an angry huff he dragged himself off the bed and into the bathroom, trying to look tall and confident the whole time. He would take a shower to become more awake and then go out and do … something!

There was a note on the bathroom door. Zim could barely read it as it was located too high up, like the Dib had put it there without remembering the major height difference between them. Zim stretched himself on his toes and struggled to read the words, because even though he had mastered Dib's human language, he was only half-good and reading.

The new set of buttons in the shower are for u. They will make it pour cleansing goo instead of water so u don't break your pak.

Heh, silly Dib to think that Zim might forget something important like that! Because he hadn't! He definitely remembered to not get water on his PAK or else it might short-circuit! Yup! Mhhmmmm.

With that in mind, he undressed and stepped into the shower, pressing the new, peculiar button that said 'cleansing goo'.

It sure was … gooey. Nothing like water. And pink. At least it wasn't unpleasant, just weird, but in a way that meant he could get used to it and then probably enjoy it.

It slid off completely leaving him dry without even using a towel. On Irk you always felt a little sticky due to the humidity and muddy ground. This was like the exact opposite of that.

He wrapped himself up in a hot towel anyways, like Dib told him sternly every time he walked around dripping and leaving puddles all over the bedroom. It was comfy. He didn't feel more awake at all.

"I could just watch TV. Watching TV is a very productive and important thing to do. Dib watches TV all the time", Zim mumbled and climbed into his bed, kicking a turned-off GIR to the floor. He reached to the remote and turned on the TV.

A hideous drooling monster was chewing the head of a Vortian while battle ships fruitlessly fired various guns at it. Zim couldn't tell if it was a documentary or fiction. He usually had Dib explain to him as it was literally impossible to tell and Dib clearly had some kind of super power.

Three more Vortians got squished when a battleship crashed into the monster and pushed it off balance. Zim chuckled.

…

Dib entered the room carrying a bag filled to the brink with alien junk food.

"Hey Zim, I brought dinner!" he said, noticing that Zim was watching some kind of Vortian horror movie with a lot of blood.

"It smells horrible", Zim said.

"You look horrible", Dib replied," Seriously. Why didn't you take a nap or something?" Zim's eyes were half-closed and his body slumped in a way that Dib had never seen him like before.

"'m not tired", he mumbled.

"Sure you're not. Just look at yourself! Even a rock could tell that you need to rest, stupid", Dib said while unpacking the foods on their table.

"Lies!" Zim said, standing up in the bed. It was almost physically painful to watch him force his body to move," I'm FINE! Look at me standing being fine and good and … fine!"

"Right. Come here and eat then we'll just go to bed early", Dib said and walked over. Her lifted Zim without any effort and carried him to the table where all kinds of foods stood there, waiting for them to eat it.

"Try that slimy thing over there. It smells kind of like when the letter M fried one of those giant bugs on Irk, so I thought you might like it", Dib said.

"Why would we want to go to bed early? You always watch TV for hours before going to bed! I'm not tired!"

Dib sighed. He couldn't stay up while forcing Zim to go to sleep. It was like trying to get a five years old to go to bed: you had to convince them to do it.

"Well, I am tired. And I want to go to bed early, so you have to as well, or else you'll keep me awake."

Zim blinked, certain that there was something odd about Dib's reasoning. His eyes narrowed in thought, but he just couldn't put his finger on what. Maybe if he hadn't been this tired he would have figured it out.

"... That makes sense", he said. Dib relaxed. Now he didn't have to come up with anything else to convince Zim to go to sleep.

"Yeah, it does. Now eat up. I may have bought too much food and I'm not sure if it can be reheated", Dib said, biting into a blue burrito-like thing. It tasted like chemicals and sugar.

Zim smelled the food on the table while picking up the thing Dib suggested for him. It made his hands all sticky. Dib was right though, it did smell like those bugs after the humans had done the frying procedure on them. Zim bit down and concluded that, it did not taste like one.

"This tastes more than bird poop than fried bug-things!"

"Really? Huh", Dib mumbled with his mouth full of blue burrito. He cut off a piece of Zim's food and stuck it on his fork. After tasting his eyebrows wrinkled.

"I don't know what kind of bird poop you've had, Zim, 'cause this is freakin' delicious!"

Zim looked at him as distrustfully as Bigfoot when people told him he didn't exist.

…

It was dark. Dib snored loudly in his bed while Zim tried to get comfortable in his own. Despite learning how to handle the PAK being the most tiresome work he had ever had, trying to sleep with the PAK was even harder because it was like having a rock underneath you whenever you were on your back.

He lay on his side with his eyes closed, listening to Dib and the sounds in the hallways when an employee occasionally walked past. With a moan, he made the PAK open all three hatchets at the same time. It wasn't as hard anymore, but it still required his entire concentration.

He closed them again, one by one. Closing was easier, for some reason he couldn't explain. Maybe Sev En could. He seemed to know most things.

After the little exercise Zim's body became heavy as it couldn't stay awake any longer. Although he tried to open the PAK again, stubbornly wanting to master the feat as soon as possible, he tried in vain and they stayed shut...

Irken.

Wait, what was that?! Zim opened his eyes, looking around for whoever had said that.

It was dark. Not dark like the room usually was, with the clock and the little opening between the door ans the floor giving enough light for Zim to see the shapes and furniture. No, this was pitch dark, with absolutely no light or color. And he was floating in it, in the darkness.

Irken.

"What's going on? Who are you? Where am I?" Zim said, looking around despite not seeing anything.

I need you to tell the gray Vortian to built a stronger infinite battery for me. It is the only way.

"The only way to what? Who are you? Tell me!" Zim couldn't find the one who spoke and worse, he could not even tell where the voice came from!

Stop it with the questions. You only need to know what I tell you.

"Tell me! Tell ME! TELL ZIIIM!"

I said stop it! It will not matter anyway, for I will delete this memory and only leave the idea for you to bring forward to the Vortians. Do not disappoint, Irken subject.

"Huh? You make no sense, come here and explain yourself, you stinky voice!" Zim shouted, but nobody answered. He dropped deeper, into a more dreamless sleep.

In the waking world, the PAK beeped softly.

TBC

Whew. I have no idea how you eat a papaya lol

Please review if you can c:

/sagapaga