As Dib was guided back to "his cell", he glanced around, looking for any chance to make a break for it. He spotted an elevator on the way back, and had to resist the urge to run right to it. He licked his lips, waited until they were a few feet past it…and started to whistle.

Zim paused for a moment, looking up at him…and then smiling. "That's a happy sound for humans, isn't it?"

Dib waited for something else to happen, but no, Zim was just looking at him. An expectation of some form shimmering in his eyes.

"…why would I be happy around you?" Dib said. "I'm…trying to hurt your antennae." He whistled again, this time much more loudly and shrilly.

Zim's antennae flicked back, but he just scoffed. "Please. You'd have to do better than that to actually—" Dib whistled loudly again, cutting him off. This time, he could hear the sound echo down the hall and through a nearby vent.

Finally, something started to happen in the distance. There was a loud crash, and then GIR began to scream…while banging on the metal walls, it sounded like.

"GIR! STOP THAT!" Zim shouted. GIR just screamed louder, and now there were more crashes. Zim groaned and threw his head back…and then grabbed Dib's wrist, dragging him down the hallway.

"Uh, hey, sounds like you should…take care of that soon," Dib said, needing to speak up to be heard over GIR's shrieking.

"I will," Zim said. "But I need to get you situated first."

Uh-oh. Dib writhed and struggled, trying to break free. The distraction would be useless if he ended up in his cell again! Though Zim was taking a different path than the first time…it was headed more in GIR's direction.

Zim stopped at a door, pressing a hand to the panel to open it before quickly shoving Dib inside. "Stay put," he said with a pat on Dib's shoulder. "I'll come get you later." The door quickly closed, and a loud clunk meant it was probably locked, too.

Still, as soon as Zim had walked away, Dib pressed his hand to the door panel. It buzzed at him, flashing red. He groaned and turned around, pressing his back to the door and looking at the room.

It was pretty small, maybe some sort of closet? There were some cleaning supplies stacked on the shelves, but there were a few random toys scattered on the floor. Those were probably GIR's, though.

But if GIR got in here before, maybe there was another way out…

Dib scanned the walls and ceiling, and quickly spotted a vent set high on the wall. He quickly climbed up the shelves, shoving things out of his way and to the ground, and grabbed the vent cover, pulling it up on a hinge.

The vent was small, about the right size for GIR or Zim to crawl through…not humans. But there was no way he could pass up a potential escape route!

He shoved his head in first, then began to wriggle the rest of the way inside, stretching his arms out in front of him. He had an inch or so of space between his body and the walls of the vent. A tight fit, but he'd been through worse.

So, with a grunt, he pulled himself forward. He kept going until he could get his feet all the way inside, and then started to use his legs to help push himself forward. After a few feet, he came to an intersection and, with a lot of wriggling and swearing, turned right.

It was slow going, and he was starting to feel sore and claustrophobic. So, as soon as he spotted a vent cover that didn't look like it led to anything dangerous, he pushed it open. It was set on the ceiling, looking down on one of the many hallways in Zim's base…and it was empty.

Dib pushed himself forward one last time, shoving himself through the exit…and falling to the floor in an undignified heap. He groaned quietly, slumping and closing his eyes for a second.

…GIR wasn't making any more noise.

That realization was enough to make him jump to his feet, looking in every direction. Zim wasn't distracted anymore, or at least wouldn't be for much longer, if GIR had stopped. He needed to get out of here before he was caught.

He started to run down the hallway…But then slowed down and started to walk quietly, instead. No reason to make it any easier for Zim to find him.

It only took a minute or so to find a familiar-looking hallway. Yes, this was the one Zim had been dragging him through not even a few minutes ago. Which meant that around the next corner, there should be an elevator. He grinned, moving a little faster, even as he focused on keeping his steps quiet.

A pair of familiar arms wrapped around him from behind, making him freeze in place.

"And just where do you think you're going?" Zim said, his grip tightening around Dib's torso.

Dib had to act quickly. He grabbed Zim's wrists, whirled around, and slammed back into the metal wall behind him. Zim wheezed, his grip loosening as his body went limp.

Which was all the opportunity Dib needed to tighten his grip and throw the alien off over his shoulder. Zim groaned as he was slammed into the floor.

He didn't want to see how stunned that actually left Zim, though. Dib sprinted down the hallway, in the direction he remembered the elevator being.

Once he made it, he repeatedly pressed the closest button until the doors opened. He dove inside, looking for a way to make the platform move up, but couldn't really find one.

"Um...up, please?" he tried, knowing Zim had some kind of AI in the base.

"And why would I help you?" the Computer said.

"...because I asked nicely, and Zim hasn't asked you not to?" Dib said. Still, he was already planting his hands and feet on the walls, beginning to clamber up.

"...eh, sure, why not." The platform shot upward, catching Dib off-guard and making him stumble.

He was quickly ejected out of the trash can in the kitchen and sent tumbling across the floor. He rolled towards the living room, stumbling towards the front door on his hands and knees.

He managed to stand up when he made it to the door, tripping over his own feet when he ran out. Still, he quickly recovered and darted outside.

"DIIIIIB!" Zim roared from his base when Dib was halfway down the sidewalk. His heart pounded, and he ran faster, sprinting out of Zim's lawn and down the street. He kept running and running, his only thought being to get as far away as he could before Zim could catch up to him.

Soon, his running brought him to his house. He was almost tempted to slow down, but the thought of an angry alien right on his heels just spurred him to move faster.

He threw open the front door, flung himself inside, and slammed it behind him, pinning it closed with his back. His heart still pounded, and he panted desperately for breath.

He…he had made it. He was safe. He was home.

Slowly, he slumped to the ground, reaching over his shoulder to lock the door. He continued to pant, holding his knees to his chest and looking around. No one in the living room or in the kitchen. With a grunt, he stood up and activated all the other locks on the front door.

Gaz would mock him for overkill again, but he was allowed to be paranoid after being kidnapped!

Footsteps from the stairs made him whirl around, beaming. His sister was walking and playing one of her games, headed for the kitchen. "Gaz, I made it out! I'm home!" he yelled, too elated to even try and be quiet.

Her game buzzed loudly at her, and based on her grimace, it wasn't a good sound. "Awesome, good for you," she snarked. "You couldn't have waited five minutes so I could save before making me lose?"

He flinched back, shocked. "I've been gone for days!" Dib said. "Weren't you and Dad worried at all?"

"Dad hasn't checked back since a week ago, so he didn't know," Gaz said. "And this isn't the first time you've been gone for a while. I just figured you had followed Zim into space or decided to go live in the woods or something."

Dib wanted to protest, but...yeah, there had been times he would spend days away from home chasing Zim or other cryptids. Still, he crossed his arms and pouted. "You could have at least tried to check up on me and make sure I was okay."

"Since when is that my job?" Gaz countered. "Look, I know you can take care of yourself just fine, you don't need me to hover over you and bail you out of things."

Dib grumbled a little under his breath, hunching his shoulders and pouting even more. Gaz opened one eye to look at him for a few moments, then hummed quietly in thought and continued on her way.

He sat on the couch and pouted a little more, then groaned loudly and dramatically before heading upstairs. He needed to make sure that he could truly protect himself from Zim.

First things first, he locked his bedroom window, and then began to scour the house for other locks that he could use. He managed to find a few, and spent most of the afternoon getting them installed until he had five in place, each of them tightly locked.

Maybe Zim could get through them, but that would delay him enough that Dib would probably wake up in the middle of it. And his bedroom window was made out of shatterproof glass now, anyway, so Zim would just splat uselessly against it if he tried to smash through.

He nodded, pleased with himself, and turned around…only to flinch when a flash of pink and green entered the corner of his vision.

He quickly whirled around to face it, backing away…only to stop when he realized it was just the drawings and photos of Zim he had pinned on his wall. …now he felt ridiculous. But at least no one had been around to see him react like that.

(With that thought, he quickly looked at his door, making sure Gaz hadn't seen that. It was fine—he was alone.)

He relaxed with a sigh, glaring at the pictures of Zim. Zim stared back a dozen times over, in blurry photos and crayon drawings pinned up and connected to each other (and notes) with bits of string.

Just looking at Zim made him feel…off. The longer he looked at the photos, the more it felt like Zim was hovering over him. A warm breath in his ear, whispering softly, or the ghost of claws gently traveling along his skin. He shivered, the hairs on his arm raising.

Without even thinking, he quickly stepped forward and tore one of the photos from the wall.

He quickly smoothed it out on his desk, making sure he hadn't damaged his evidence. It was fine, and it had been one of Zim in his awful disguise, anyway. He sighed, tangling a bit of now-loose string between his fingers.

…taking down the photos might not be a bad idea, actually. Especially if just the sight of Zim made him feel so weird.

To test it, he stared at one photo of Zim laughing maniacally. Something inside of him felt like it was being tugged at, and he took that photo from the wall, placing it neatly on top of the first one.

He continued to pick at the evidence, pulling off first the photos of Zim, then some crayon drawings. He still left some of his notes pinned up, and marked some connections between them, but his wall seemed a lot emptier now.

It was only temporary, he assured himself. Just until he could look at Zim without feeling funny. He dug around the papers on his desk until he found a folder with old homework inside of it. He dumped it out, tucked his evidence inside, and placed the folder in his top desk drawer.

It was slammed shut with a little more force than was probably necessary, but still. No more Zim-images staring at him. Problem solved.

He plopped into his desk chair, flicking to the camera feeds he had around Zim's house on autopilot. He flicked away just as quickly after a quick glance to reassure himself that…well, that nothing was happening.

Instead, he pulled up the security control panel for their house. Nothing weird showed up on their cameras, and the fences were still ready to zap anyone unauthorized who dared get too close…

And yet, Zim had managed to sneak in before. Dib scowled, reviewing everything again, making absolutely sure his nemesis hadn't been added to the whitelist for some reason. Maybe the system couldn't pick up on his inhuman life signature?

Well, he'd just have to find a way to make it a little stricter. There were limits on what he could do without access to the actual security computer, but he could still adjust pre-existing settings.

Like turning up the scanning radius for zapping a few more inches, and bumping up the motion sensitivity. It might not have been much, but it would have to do.

He stretched and leaned back in his chair. With that done, he could take a little time to relax. He rifled through the items scattered around his room before finding one of his old projects…a device to launch small nets at small, fast cryptids, he was pretty sure.

With that and an old magazine in hand, he headed down into the living room, flopping onto the couch. He sighed and leaned back, popping open the device in his lap and twisting a few of the inside components around. He didn't expect to get it up and working, but it just felt so good to be able to work with his hands.

He spent a while lazing on the couch like that, alternating between tinkering with the device and paging through his magazine. He still felt kind of dazed, probably adjusting to having escaped. It was only when his stomach growled that he realized that hours had passed, and evening was approaching.

He groaned, standing up and putting both the almost-working device and the magazine back in his room before heading to the kitchen. He paused in the doorway, weighing his choices. He wasn't quite certain what he wanted…as long as he could make it himself and was something normal.

After a bit of thinking, he decided to cook a frozen pizza. It sounded as good as anything else he could think of, and he knew Gaz would be more than okay with it. He started preheating the oven, sliding a pizza from the freezer in once it was ready.

Which left him to debate what else to have. Zim had presented him with mostly junk (probably not understanding the importance of nutrients), and Dib should probably start eating healthy again.

He scoured the cupboards, noting that he should probably buy some groceries soon. He eventually found a can of beans, which he started to head up on the stove. There were a few small oranges in the fridge, still good. He peeled two of them, separating the slices onto two separate plates, going to the stove and stirring the beans every so often.

It wasn't long before the pizza and the beans were both ready, laid out on the kitchen counter along with the plates. His stomach was already rumbling.

"Gaz, I made dinner!" he shouted upward, grabbing one plate and putting a slice of pizza and some beans on it. He didn't hear a response from her. He cupped a hand around his mouth to shout again. "Pizza!"

Ah, now he could hear her door opening, and her footsteps. Dib set his plate on the table and was grabbing a glass of water when she came in.

"Hey, thanks," she said, grabbing the plate that was left and getting three slices of pizza, the beans left untouched. "Well, see you."

Dib paused as he took his seat, blinking as she started to leave the kitchen with the plate and a soda from the fridge. "…you're not going to stay? To, um, eat together?" he asked, already cringing as the words came out of his mouth.

"Nah." Gaz continued to head towards the door. "Got a few raids to do. Might as well play and eat at the same time." She left, and Dib was alone at the table.

…he should have seen it coming, really. Gaz wasn't interested in family time unless Dad was involved, really, and he knew that. They were just as likely to eat meals apart than together, depending on their current whims. He should probably just be thankful that she hadn't mocked him for asking dumb, awkward questions.

He glanced at the empty chairs before shrugging, grabbing his plate, and moving to the living room. He sat on the couch and turned on the TV, flipping through channels until he found a ghost-hunting show.

It quickly sucked him in as he ate his meal, filling the room with noise. But, eventually, his plate was cleared and the episode ended. Nothing else currently on appealed to him, and he didn't feel like sifting through his collection of movies and recorded episodes.

He turned the TV off, set his plate in the kitchen sink, and headed upstairs. His room was a bit of a mess, but the walls looked a little cleaner. Even without the evidence of Zim looking down at him, he couldn't stop thinking about everything that had happened.

…he should write it down. Every little detail he could learn about his enemy was important. And once he wrote it down, he'd probably stop thinking about it so much!

Certain that this would start to fix everything, he sat in front of his computer, opened a new file in his Zim-related evidence folder, and began to type his perspective of the past few days…as well as the weeks leading up to it, weird dreams and all.

Once he had put it all into words, he sighed loudly, slumping back in his chair. Finally, he had gotten it out of his system. All he had to do now was avoid Zim (aside from stepping in to save Earth) until what Zim had done to him wore off. Then, he could go back to hunting him without remorse, and everything would be normal!

…including his stomach not twisting at the thought of Zim just being gone. He ground his teeth, pressing his fists against his temples and trying to will away the feeling. When that failed, he instead wrapped his arms around himself, squeezing as though he could force the swirl of emotions out.

It actually did make him feel a little bit better, but not by much. The thought of Zim not being around was still upsetting, and his skin prickled at the thought of the alien. He wanted to believe it was fear, but a part of him…

No, no, no! He quickly stood up and left his room. He needed to stop thinking about this. He needed to do something.

Couldn't talk to Gaz, she made it clear she wasn't interested. Couldn't go out to check the woods…he wasn't usually against going out at night, but there was no way he was going to make it easy for Zim to snatch him.

He paced back and forth, then headed to the bathroom. He needed to calm down and relax, and a hot shower would help him do just that. A bath could also be relaxing, but…

The thought of claws rubbing shampoo into his scalp popped into his head. He smacked his arm, trying to banish the thought. No, there wasn't time for a bath. A shower would be perfectly fine.

Besides, he felt kind of chilly, anyway. A hot shower sounded great. He closed and locked the bathroom door, quickly stripping down and hopping into the shower, turning the faucet to the warm temperature he preferred.

"Ah," he sighed, letting the hot water run over him. His skin still prickled, but that was nothing to worry about. The water would heat up a little more over time.

He grabbed the bar of soap and began to lather it over his skin. He closed his eyes, trying to relax without trying to force himself into relaxing. Avoiding the latter was harder than it sounded, but he slowly started to feel his muscles loosen as he rubbed the soap over his back.

His nails scraped against his skin, and he remembered the feeling of much sharper claws massaging him in that same spot. He shuddered, the soap slipping out of his fingers. Goosebumps rose on his skin, a tingling, yearning feeling lurking under it.

No, no, he was…he was just cold. He just needed some heat. He stopped and just let the water strike against him, trying to focus on that warmth and looking up at the showerhead.

It wasn't enough. Dib grabbed the handle and yanked it all the way, turning the water to its highest temperature. He flinched as the steaming hot water stung his skin, but he still stood his ground, trying to absorb the heat.

It needed to be enough, it needed to be what he needed. It was so much heat that it hurt, his skin turning red.

...and yet, he still felt a deep, aching chill.

He slumped against the wall, closing his eyes and letting the scalding water beat against him. If he just waited long enough, the heat would be so beaten into him that it would have to reach that cold, surely.

It didn't work. He waited and waited, but the heat didn't do anything but practically burn his skin. The water eventually ran cold, which felt awful on his now-sore skin and made him feel even worse. With a sigh, he turned off the shower and stepped out, totaling himself off.

He went through the motions of getting ready for bed, wincing when he saw himself in the mirror. His skin was flushed bright red…he really hoped he didn't actually burn himself.

A poke at his chest told him that his skin was sore and tender, but it wasn't that painful. He'd be fine, probably. Still, he decided to put on a loose, oversized pajama top, giving his skin some space to breathe and heal.

Gaz emerged from her room as soon as she heard the bathroom door open, and the two walked past each other, exchanging grunts of "g'night". Dib went to his bedroom and closed the door, standing in the middle of his room and scanning it all.

Only two possible ways for Zim to get in—the window and the door. The window was securely locked, and to get to his door, Zim would have to get through the security system in the rest of the house. And if he locked it, that would give him a few extra moments to wake up before he broke through…

There was a sudden screech from the bathroom, followed by rapid footsteps. Dib raced to the door, worried for his sister…

Only for her to throw it open before he reached it, throwing something heavy at his shoulder. "OW!" he shouted with a recoil.

Gaz just stood in the doorway, panting and glaring at him. Her hair was still dripping wet, a towel quickly thrown around her. She was shivering a little, or maybe shaking with anger.

"That's for using up all the hot water, asshole!" she yelled, quickly slamming the door closed and storming off. Dib just frowned, rubbing at his shoulder and looking at what had just been thrown at him.

It was a journal full of scientific publications, one of dozens sitting around the house. She had probably just grabbed the first thing she could find to throw at him.

He sighed and set it on his desk. There were definitely thicker books lying around, so he should probably be grateful that she hadn't gone for one of those. And that she hadn't gone for his head.

Still, he rubbed at his now-sore shoulder. It wasn't that bad, and he had dealt with much worse, but...

He grumbled, shaking his head. He didn't know what was wrong with him, why he was so hung up on stuff like this.

...sleep sounded good. A nice, long sleep away from Zim's weirdness. A stretch of time where he wouldn't have to think, and he could just wake up in the morning and be back to his usual self.

He double-checked the locks on the window, made sure the house's security system was on, and tightly closed his blinds. He lay in bed, tossing and turning. His skin felt…well, not itchy, maybe, something similar. Like he was missing something.

Fortunately, he already had just the thing to fix that. He went to his closet, grabbing the blue weighted blanket that sat on the top shelf. The weight of it in his arms felt nice, and he smirked as he spread it over his bed.

Dib nestled under the weighted blanket, sighing a little in relief. The added pressure was nice, but he still couldn't quite get comfortable.

After more tossing and turning, he grabbed his pillow and pulled it to his stomach instead, curling around it with all his limbs. His head lying on a bare mattress wasn't the most comfortable thing, per se, but he actually felt a little bit better.

With only a bit more fidgeting, he finally fell asleep.

Author's Note:In defense of Gaz...she would have acted differently and been more concerned if Dib brought up what sort of *things* Zim had been doing to him.