Dib was bleary-eyed when he woke up, having to blink several times to get the crust out of his eyes. He and Zim were still tangled up together on the bed, with Zim's eyes still closed. It was impossible to tell whether or not he was asleep, though.

With a sigh, Dib nuzzled his face against Zim's cheek and closed his eyes. Just a few more minutes…

Though a few minutes was all he got before GIR jumped out of his chamber, completely recharged, and began to bounce up and down on the bed. Dib groaned and sat up, stretching, while Zim grumbled and slipped out from under the covers, heading to the pantry.

He came back with a rubber waffle for GIR and two cups of a chocolate-flavored protein drink, handing one to Dib. They sat at the edge of their bed, drinking their breakfast while GIR chewed on his toy.

"So," Zim said. "Have you come to the right conclusion yet?"

Dib frowned at him. "…I'm not just going to give up. I can't."

Zim turned to give him a sharp look, and Dib held up his hand to stop him. "Look, just…all I want for now is to try and think of a plan. Just brainstorming, you know? I'll only consider using a plan that you approve of, that you think might have a chance of working."

"…hmm." Zim scowled as he thought about it. Dib slipped his drink. "…I still don't like the thought of you even entertaining this foolish notion."

Dib gave him a pleading look, trying to guilt him a little. "If all my ideas are bad, I'll drop the whole thing," he said. "I just want to give it a chance…for you to give me a chance."

Zim thought about it some more…then sighed dramatically, pressing his hand against Dib's face. "Alright, fine. Stop trying to look cute."

"Aw, you think I'm cute?" Dib teased.

"Shush, or I'll change my mind." Zim lightly smacked his face. "Anyway. Don't get your hopes up—any plan I approve of would need to be completely, perfectly foolproof."

"Mhmm, I understand. One-hundred percent guaranteed-successful plans only," Dib said with a nod. He tipped the cup upwards, downing the rest of his drink before standing up and stretching. "Well…best get started."

"Right now?" Zim said skeptically. "Don't tell me you want to present a plan you quite literally dreamed up."

"Ugh, no, space boy," Dib said, lightly shoving his shoulder. "I want to get started with making a plan. So…" He wrapped an arm around Zim's shoulders. "What do you happen to know about this whole…barricade thing?"

Zim squinted at him. "You expect me to know?"

"I mean…it's an Irken barricade, and you were part of their military up until less than a year ago…"

"And you expect me to just hand over all their secrets?" Zim said, crossing his arms. "…why are you prying into this?"

"Because if I'm going to make a plan, I need to know everything," Dib said. "How the barricade is positioned, what ships are there, just how long they've been there…"

"Hmm." Zim frowned. "…well, at least you're making good, reasonable points."

He sat back and sighed. "But unfortunately, I can't tell you much. I do recall a few news stories about the Meekrob invasion, but not enough for a clear picture." He grimaced. "And I'd rather not have the ship try to connect to the main Irken database…they'd know where we are."

One hand reached over his shoulder, brushing against his PAK. "…I doubt they'd…welcome any sign of me now."

Dib reached over to grab his hand and give it a reassuring squeeze. "They can't find you," he said. "And you don't need them. You're better than them. You deserve better."

Zim perked up a little, enough that he entwined his fingers with Dib's and squeezed back. "…I know. And you are…my 'better'."

He clicked his tongue and let their hands fall to the bed. "Unfortunately, that means there's no way you can get your necessary information out of me!"

"Oh, come on," Dib groaned.

Zim kicked his feet. "Needling me won't change my mind. I can't give you what I don't have."

"Space jerk." Dib frowned. "…alright. What if we went somewhere where we, or I, could get the information I want?"

Zim gave him a horrified look. "Entering the physical Irken databases? That's nearly as bad an idea as trying to get through the barricade! Maybe worse, since we'd have to enter their claimed territory first!"

"We don't need to go into Irken space," Dib assured him. "Some of the information has got to be public, right? They can't just hide the fact a barricade is there. We can go to a regular database or library, or…something."

"Oh." Zim blinked. "Yes…that could work. Though you aren't likely to get the exact details of the inner workings of the barricade that way."

"I can piece it together, I think."

Zim gave him a look, but then sighed and sat up straighter. "Very well. We shall go to a regular, less-superior database, where you may try to find enough intel to form a workable plan. Fortunately for you, I'm so brilliant I've already thought of one place that should fit just what you want!"

Dib rose one eyebrow. "Oh, you have, have you?"

"Do not doubt Zim," he answered with a haughty sniff. "…you remember when we discussed the idea of going to a space university?"

Dib nodded, eyes flinging as his mind spun imaginative images of that idea. "Wait. You mean—"

"Yes," Zim said, "To get your desired 'information', we shall visit the archives of—"

"The University of Vort!" Zim declared, gesturing to their destination. It had taken them a little less than an hour to make it, and a few trips through jump gates, but now Dib could marvel at the station.

And marvel he did, leaning forward until his breath was fogging up the windshield. The University was a giant space station, perhaps the size of a small moon, with several segmented sections. Zim was navigating them towards the visitors' hangar.

Dib glanced at the planet it was orbiting—a lush green one. He squinted. "…that doesn't look like the pictures of Vort," he said.

"That's because it isn't," Zim said. "It's some unnamed and uninhabited planet."

"Wait. I thought this station orbited Vort," Dib said. "…this doesn't make sense."

"It used to," Zim said. "But when their planet was marked for invasion, they moved the university outside of Irken territory so it could be independent. The Empire only allowed it because they were once allies."

"…or maybe they couldn't stop them in time and they don't want to admit it," Dib mumbled, mostly to himself. Zim tensed, making a small clicking sound at the back of his throat, and Dib shut his mouth.

After their ship ID was registered and they paid a few credits, they were able to navigate into the hangar. Zim parked the ship in the designated landing spot and gave GIR strict orders to watch it without making a mess of it, to which GIR saluted him. With that, Zim and Dib stepped out, and Zim pressed a nearby button. Their ship was teleported away, deeper within the station (at least according to the big sign on the wall), and two slips with a set of patterns were printed out.

Zim handed one to Dib. "Don't lose this, unless you want to memorize it."

"Got it," Dib said, scanning the pattern before tucking it into his pocket. He took Zim's hand, and they headed to a tram platform nearby. Dib marveled over the holographic diagram that showed the university and the trains that would cycle between specific areas, and Zim had to link their elbows to practically drag him to their tram when it arrived.

Once the doors had closed and were tightly sealed, it took off, speeding along a clear tube built on the outer walls of the station, giving Dib a great view of the stars and planet below. A few stops later, Zim got up, Dib trailing behind him.

"The archives here should be open to anyone, student or otherwise," Zim commented as they entered this new area. "It's basically a library, so even you should be able to utilize it."

Dib playfully shoved his shoulder, and Zim snickered. They entered the library, and Dib paused for a moment to take it all in.

This area was huge—a grand lobby, with elevators suggesting there was even more beyond. Bookshelves lined the walls, their treasures hidden behind panes of glass. In between shelves were machines, large computers that promised access to digital databases.

"Don't just sit there drooling," Zim said, reaching up to push Dib's slack jaw closed. "You've seen libraries before."

"Yeah, but this is a space library!" Dib said, looking around in amazement. "And it's HUGE!"

The Vortian at the circulation desk turned and shushed him. Dib snapped his mouth shut, chagrined. Zim took his hand and guided him over to a large library map hanging nearby. His claw ghosted over it until he found what he was looking for, at which point he walked away, leading Dib behind him.

"There's a whole section for news related to the Irken Empire," he said, stepping into an elevator. Dib watched, enraptured as they were brought up, then sideways, hovering seamlessly to another part of the station. Zim sighed. "But I wonder if you'll be able to read anything until you get over this."

"Just give me a minute," Dib said a little flippantly. The elevator stopped, and they stepped off somewhere within the base of the library. There were a few tables scattered here, along with some hologram projectors, and a few aliens were here already, studying quietly.

Dib went and claimed an empty table apart from everyone else. "So…do we just comb through the shelves?"

"Ha, no." Zim pointed at one of the closest computers as he sat down. "Type whatever you want into that thing, and it should give the information you want." He drummed his claws on the table.

"Huh." Dib headed over to it, pausing at the keyboard before typing in 'Meekrob barricade'. Several results popped up, and he was asked if he wanted to retrieve everything. Obviously, he clicked 'yes'.

After some whirring, a thin datacard was spat out of a slot below the screen, and with a flicker of light, a stack of books appeared in the cabinet underneath, the door popping open. When Dib reached in to remove them, another set was teleported in. He scooped up that stack, as well, with the datacard sitting on top, and carried them over to his claimed table. He glanced back to make sure no other books had appeared.

Zim rose a brow at all his books. "You think you'll need all of those?"

"Maybe. And it doesn't hurt to have more than what I need," Dib pointed out. He searched the table, eventually finding a few slots along the side for the datacard to slip into. As soon as he did so, the holographic projector at the center of the table came to life, displaying a spread of information across the table's surface.

"Hmm. Not bad," Zim said, flicking at the hologram. Projected news articles scattered at his touch, rearranging themselves in a different order.

"Don't delete anything," Dib warned, trying to figure out where to start. He poked at the hologram until he figured out how to organize things, at which point he set it to be ordered by date.

"Bleh." Zim made a face at him, and Dib made one back before opening the oldest of the articles. Zim leaned his chin on his shoulder to read over it.

The article was set a few years ago…several years, back when he and Zim were still fighting. It described how an Irken barricade had suddenly formed around Meekrob, cutting off any transportation and communication to and from the planet. According to statements from the Empire, the Meekrob had "proven themselves dangerous", and the barricade was there as "reinforcement for their endangered but capable Invader".

Were they trying to paint themselves as victims? Dib snorted and continued to skim the article. Apparently, they'd briefly lost contact with their invader planetside after some sort of unspecified incident that they were blaming on the Meekrob. A picture of said Invader was included, saluting the camera with a neutral expression.

"Ah, that makes sense now," Zim said, glancing over the caption. "It's Invader Tenn that's down there. No wonder they're waiting in a siege."

"...should I know who that is?" Dib asked.

Zim haughtily sneered at him, but his face quickly fell into a neutral expression. "Ah, right. Invader Tenn is someone I remember from Invader training, though she was too young to be in my cohort. Top of most of her classes, highly ranked...probably why they gave such a difficult mission to her.

"Normally, I'm sure they would simply steamroll the whole planet and cut their losses, but skills like Tenn's make her too valuable an asset to give up," Zim continued. "Plus, if she hasn't used her self-destruct, it's likely she hasn't actually been captured yet. They seem to be waiting it out to see if they can extract her before starting their full assault."

"So, if she wasn't skilled…they'd just blow her up?" Dib said to confirm.

"More likely she would have gotten captured, blown herself up, and then the Armada would blow them up," Zim said with a nod.

Dib shuddered. "Geez. …I'm really glad you got away from them."

"Hmph." Zim tightly gripped the table's edge. "They might have waited for anyone, really. Invaders are always skilled, and they can't afford to lose any pointlessly. Especially when they're smaller in number, now…" The last part was mumbled under his breath, almost as an afterthought.

Dib just frowned as he looked at their plans, but something about that statement…stuck to him. "Why aren't there as many Invaders?" he asked.

"Eh?" Zim squinted at him.

"You just said the number of Invaders is smaller now. Wouldn't the Empire try to train a lot of you? Did something happen?"

"Oh, eh..." Zim frowned, his eyes glazing over as he stared thoughtfully into the distance.

Just when Dib was worried Zim was zoning out, he blinked and seemed to snap out of it. "Dunno," Zim said with a shrug.

Dib narrowed his eyes. But either Zim really didn't know, or he was determined to keep it secret—either way, pressing him about it probably wouldn't do anything but make him upset. So instead, he turned his attention back to the table, and all the papers and images that had been spread across it.

"Well, while you tackle this, I think I'll be off in…the folklore section," Zim said. "For space folklore. Fascinating, scary stuff, really."

Dib looked back up, but only to give Zim a look. "You can't distract me that easily," he declared. "I am going to find a working plan."

Zim sighed. "Very well. …I'll still pick out stories you'd like."

"Mm, thank you," Dib said, already frowning back down at the raw information in front of him. When Zim kissed his cheek, his frown briefly twitched up into a smile, and he kissed Zim back before he turned and disappeared among the bookshelves.

Dib stretched and cracked his knuckles before leaning forward, grabbing a blue pen from his pocket. He could do this.

Over the next few hours, Dib had made notes and diagrams on pieces of scrap paper with all the important information he could find regarding the barricade and even the planet itself.

The barricade was composed to two rings of large ships orbiting the planet—one equatorial orbit, and one polar orbit. And it seemed that smaller ships would take off from the large ships to fly between the rings, effectively scanning the whole area to prevent anyone from entering or escaping the planet. Information about exactly what ships they were was scarce, since no one wanted to risk getting close, but at least a few people had noted the most dangerous, largest ships with the furthest weapon ranges.

It was basic siege tactics—keeping anyone from entering or exiting the planet until said planet surrendered. The thing was, as several articles noted, that Meekrob interacted very little with other planets even before Operation Impending Doom 2 and the barricade. So, for the past few years, it seemed that they had been through an extended stalemate.

…the fact this was part of the second Operation Impending Doom niggled at something in Dib's brain. Just as some of Zim's earlier comments had.

So, of course he also poked into bits of general Irken history, trying to find out something about that comment from Zim earlier, about there not being as many Invaders, and why there were several of these conquering 'operations'.

But the Empire must have guarded any information like that closely. He couldn't find anything, though he did find an odd gap between 'Operation Impending Doom' and the second one, with no information about just what happened during the first, or what exactly made the second different from it.

He tucked that in his mind to explore later, though. The barricade was the important thing right now.

His notes spread over scratch paper in patterns that probably made sense only to him, and he even began making a list of what they had at their disposal that could be useful, including noting down the Resisty's idea of a distraction.

He flicked the hologram of the planet and its barricade, making it spin in a circle. He bit his lip, watching it. Ideas popped into his head, and he wrote down a few, but none really felt good enough. And whatever he ended up showing to Zim…well, it needed to be perfect.

Or at least good enough Zim wouldn't automatically shut it down. Things like just disguising themselves or hiding on a ship to the surface wouldn't cut it—especially since anything moving to or from the planet would automatically be suspicious.

Eventually, he thought of a way to connect a few separate ideas, including the initial idea the Resisty had given them. As he put them together in a more complete plan, he smiled, starting to feel a bit more confident about it.

Zim eventually returned, carrying a brown paper bag that he plopped on the table. "…you don't seem to have given up," he said, placing a stack of books next to the bag. A quick glance told Dib they were all about 'scary' folklore from different planets.

"Of course not!" Dib said. Something in that bag smelled good, and his stomach growled. He opened up the bag and dug into it, pulling out what appeared to be a gigantic hot dog, large enough he could hold it into two hands.

Zim took a seat next to him, sipping on a colorful soda. "Hmm. Well, I hope you enjoy trying a Vort Dog."

Dib thanked him, taking a large bite out of the alien meat. Zim continued sipping on his soda as Dib devoured his lunch, his partner glancing over his scattered materials and scrawled thoughts. "You wanna hear about my plan?" Dib asked with a grin.

Zim held up his hand to stop him. "Finish eating first, I can't focus if you're chewing while you talk."

That was fair. Dib leaned back in his seat and continued to gnaw at the Vort Dog, taking the opportunity to shuffle a few papers and pull up the best hologram of the planetary barricade that he could find. He polished off his meal, moving to wipe his hands off on his slacks.

Zim grabbed his wrists before he could, grabbing a napkin and wiping the grease from his fingers. "Filthy worm," he sighed, leaning up to place a kiss on Dib's cheek. "You are lucky you have Zim."

"I know, aren't I?" Dib said, wrapping his hand around Zim's and giving it a gentle squeeze. He held it for a few moments before pulling back, gesturing to the spread of information in front of him. "Anyway! Now can I tell you my plan?"

"Very well." Zim shifted, sitting a little straighter as his expression became more neutral. More critical.

Dib gestured first to the hologram. "This is what the orbital barricade looks like. It hasn't changed much since it was placed, with no news from Meekrob—though apparently not much news came from them in the first place. But there also hasn't been any news from the Irkens about the barricade or their invader."

Zim gestured for him to go on, seeming disinterested so far. "Occasionally, smaller ships will fly through the orbiting rings, probably scanning over the planet," Dib continued, pressing a button to play the animation of the ships darting across. "So, my plan: during one of their scans, the Resisty will fly close as though trying to get to the planet, drawing the attention of the ships before flying off and luring those smaller ships away. And that will be where we come in."

"Hold it." Zim held up a hand, stopping him. "Only a few ships are lured away, if they go after that ragtag band, and this is when you want to approach certain doom?"

"Well, there's no way we could lure all the ships away," Dib pointed out. "We'll just need to settle for as many as we can. Plus, their attention will be on the Resisty anyway, even if they don't leave!"

Zim narrowed his eyes. "C'mon, I've barely even gotten started!" Dib moaned.

"…fine." Zim let go of his wrist. "I'd just love to see how you plan to pass through an impassable, barely-altered barricade."

Dib sat up a little straighter, now even more determined to show off his ideas and convince Zim. He poked his pen at the hologram, specifically sliding it through the very center of one of the "sectors" surrounded by orbiting ships. "If we aim for just the right spot, we can pass through the gap between the detection ranges of these rings of ships!"

Zim frowned. "Any 'gap', if it existed, would be extremely small," he said. "And if you were just one length-unit off, we'd be noticed and our ship blown up by dozens of weapons from all sides."

"That's why I thought of a few more ideas that would increase our chances of getting through," Dib said. "First, the Resisty can set off an EMP on their flyby to disable some of the larger ships, which would definitely get them chased off by smaller ones. We can add a full cloaking device to our own ship, and we become invisible to any systems that could still be working—and hey, we may just have a little more wiggle room in that gap!"

Zim scowled, shaking his head. "No, no, it's…that's too simple to actually work. First, where are we supposed to find an EMP powerful enough to overcome Irken technology!?"

"We'll build one!" Dib said. "I made a few prototypes when I was fighting you." He frowned in thought. "And I once found your house and the technology in it all collapsed in on itself and broken…what actually caused that?"

"I don't remember anything like that happening," Zim said.

"You were being chased by bees?"

Zim's eyes flicked with recognition. "Oh!" He scowled. "Oh…yes, that was when I made my Irken disruptor. I was going to use it to destroy your collection of stolen Irken tech, but it…didn't work as intended."

"Because it backfired on you?"

"…yes."

Dib smirked. "So. Sounds like you thought of something that would be very useful at disabling all the technology on all these ships."

Zim blinked, eyes widening…and then narrowing as he glanced nervously at the map. "They've probably made so many upgrades," he said. "What happens if it doesn't work?"

"Then the rest of the plan should still be good."

Zim scowled at him. "You mean the assumption that some ships will chase the Resisty, that they won't see through any of our cloaks right away, and that a 'gap in detection' exists?"

"The first two might be hopeful thinking, but I can show there's a gap," Dib said, pulling one piece of paper from the rest of the pile. "Here's a list of all the biggest ship models in the barricade and what their longest recorded ranges are for firing weapons. If I did the math right, there's a spot around here," he waved his pen over the hologram, "large enough for three Voots to slip through."

Zim looked over the given list, pursing his lips. "You're making several dangerous assumptions, still. Like that these ships can't fire even further, and it just hasn't been recorded." He smacked the list with the back of his hand. "Not to mention you haven't accounted for whether the smaller ships will be there and spot us."

"Okay, I'll give you the point about the bigger ships," Dib said. "But even if the EMP and the distraction don't work to take out the smaller ships, we can just wait until none are scanning the area."

Zim frowned, dropping the list and tapping his claws on the table. "Alright. If your plan worked—and that's a very big 'if'—what's your plan to leave the planet? Or are you planning to become a citizen of Meekrob after?"

"I did think of a way to get off, actually," Dib said a bit smugly. "And using similar strategies as getting to the planet in the first place, even!"

"Eh?"

"That communicator they showed us is connected to the Resisty, right?" Dib said. "After we deliver it, we can send a message, and they can pull the distraction trick again so we can sneak back out!"

"…and if they leave us there to rot?"

Dib gave him a flat look. "The whole point is to try and convince the Meekrob to help them. Leaving the people they hired stranded under a barricade, on purpose, really isn't a good impression, and they should know that. Plus, they might want to ask us to do more missions later on."

"Hrm. Well…" Zim bit his lip. "What if it's all a trap for us? To finish us off!?"

"First, no reason the resistance would do that. Second, if they wanted to 'finish us off', they would have done it at the bar, not stopped fighting and try to listen to us," Dib said, counting those reasons off on his fingers.

Zim frowned and fidgeted, tugging at the hems of his gloves. "Okay. Fine. Maybe you're right. …I still don't like this."

"Why not?"

"I don't know why not!" Zim yelled. "I just…I know SOMETHING is wrong!"

The few aliens at other tables whirled around and shushed him in unison. Zim glared, his mouth snapping shut with an audible click. A second later, a notification appeared on the table that a loud sound had been detected, and excessive noise could lead to them being removed.

Dib swiped away the message. Zim scowled and crossed his arms, and everyone else turned back to what they had been doing.

With a sigh, Dib said, "Zim…please, just take my ideas, my plan, seriously?"

"I am treating it seriously—gravely serious, as you humans would say," Zim hissed. "And I seriously have a feeling that something will go wrong."

Hmm. Well, Dib wouldn't deny how important or accurate gut premonitions could be—they sometimes were the difference between whether or not he found anything in his hunts. But on the other hand, Zim was naturally paranoid about things, and convinced that the task was impossible to begin with.

"How about this?" Dib said. "We'll take my notes with us. You can go through them, figure out any flaws you can, and figure out what exactly is wrong with it."

"Yes, I…suppose that sounds acceptable," Zim muttered, still frowning and twisting the hem of one of his gloves.

Dib grabbed his notes and tried to get them in some kind of order, then pressed a button to eject the datacard from the table. It went blank, and he set his notes and datacard on top of the books Zim had gotten him, dropping his research books into a machine next to the one he'd gotten them from. Metal arms scanned each book before whisking them away to their proper shelves.

"…we can check these out like we could from a library on Earth, right?" Dib asked, gesturing at the stack of books Zim had grabbed for him.

"Mhmm, yeah, sure," Zim said, already eyeing Dib's messy stack of notes. Dib rolled his eyes and passed over the sheets of paper. Zim took a second to tap them on the table and even them out before flicking through them, frowning slightly.

Dib picked up the rest of his things, linking his elbow with Zim's. "I'm going to wander around the library, too. Take the scenic route back, kill some time."

"Sure…" Zim said, most of his attention plainly on the notes.

Dib let out an amused huff and began to slowly walk through the rows of bookshelves, away from where he remembered the elevator being. Maybe Zim would notice eventually, but it gave Dib a chance to explore a little…slowing down and looking out large windows (holographic displays helpfully pointing out and identifying faraway systems), or looking over shelves to figure out just how they were organized.

Zim looked up at him, mouth open to ask a question—then he stopped and frowned, looking around. "You'd better not have gotten us lost," he said.

"I didn't…though I did wander for a bit," Dib said with a slightly smug grin. "You can't blame me for wanting to see a little more, can you?"

"…no, I suppose not," Zim huffed. "Still. Do you want to actually go back to the ship or not?"

Dib shrugged. "There's not really a rush, is there?"

"No, but some of these ideas I'd prefer not to even think about when we're so…out in the open." Zim glanced around suspiciously, glaring at some innocent Vortian browsing the shelves when their eyes met. They flinched, quickly backing away and ducking to the other side of the shelf.

Dib squeezed Zim's hand, getting his attention back. "You really think people in the library will care about us asking about the barricade?"

"You never know who might be around," Zim huffed. "…and I'm more concerned about our conversations trickling to 'people' further away. Those who would defend Irken territory."

Dib rose an eyebrow. Zim glared at him. "Don't give me that look. You think they wouldn't keep track of possible enemies and uprisings? If we go drawing attention to ourselves, they're sure to notice!"

Though he doubted the Empire knew what they were doing right this moment, Dib wouldn't deny that Zim was right about them wanting to keep track of anything that could cause trouble for them. He did wonder if they were as powerful and all-knowing as Zim believed them to be at times…

Still, he gave Zim's hand a small squeeze, trying to ground him. "Alright," he said. "We'll head back to the ship. After all, we can always come back and explore another day, right?"

"…it's still just a library," Zim said with a snicker.

"A space library," Dib emphasized. Zim snickered again. "I'm pretty sure there should be an elevator around the next corner…"

He'd remembered correctly, and this time actually guided them to the entrance of the library. Dib let go of Zim's arm to walk to the circulation desk, though he felt something grab onto the back of his trenchcoat as Zim followed behind him.

After a brief conversation that Dib wanted physical books, not digital copies, the Vortian sighed and placed them all into a machine that glowed with blue light. He made Dib answer a few demographic questions, muttering as he had to type up things about the relatively unknown planet and species. By the time they finished, the machine had stopped, and he reached in to pull out two stacks of near-identical books.

"Here," he said, handing one stack to Dib. "Those are yours to keep." Dib flicked through and noticed the paper was…newer, and kind of like regular printer paper. The Vortian had already turned away and was setting the originals on a cart to be taken back.

With that, Dib cradled his new books in his arms, wrapping one arm around Zim's again as they headed to the tram and took the route back of their ship.

Zim all but dove inside their Voot, running into the bedroom with the notes. Dib followed quickly to make sure he wasn't going to do anything too crazy with them. But no, he had just spread them over the floor and was kneeling in front of them, though he'd pulled a box out of their storage and was rooting around in search of something.

He shuffled through a few craft supplies before dramatically whipping out and holding up a red glitter pen. "Prepare yourself, Dib," he announced dramatically. "For every flaw, every weakness, in your notes to be pointed out and exploited!"

"Alright," Dib said, laying on the bed and leaning against a stack of pillows. He grabbed one of his new books. "You want the room to yourself, or can I stay here?"

"You may stay," Zim said, spreading the papers out in front of him. "But! Don't try to use your…your Dibbish charm to distract me from these!"

"Wouldn't dream of it."

Zim narrowed his eyes in suspicion, slowly turning his gaze back to Dib's notes. Dib smiled, quickly raising his book to hide his expression before Zim saw it.

He cracked open the book, watching Zim from the corner of his eye as he muttered to himself, rolling the pen between his fingers.