Chapter Text
After this incident, Dipper became noticeably quiet. The boy no longer snapped at Zib, calmly accepted the food and allowed Zib to take care of him as much as he wanted. Zib noticed this and let his guard down a bit. Now he did not lock the cage and allowed Dipper to leave it, only now he did not really want to: every movement still caused slight dizziness and nausea, not critical, but not very pleasant either. Pines punished himself for trying to escape, Zib didn't even have to do anything. So, according to Dipper's feelings, another couple of days passed. A developed sense of time has become one of the few pleasant bonuses of staying here.
"Hey, Dipper!" one day, Zib woke him up by coming into the room "Help me clean up the mess that you made me make." he commanded, going to the bars. Dipper looked over his shoulder at him, stared into his unflappable eyes protected by cracked glasses for a few seconds, and then turned away with a sigh.
"Get up, Pines! Physical therapy is an important stage of recovery after traumatic brain injury!"
Dipper felt the cold metal wrap around his ankle.
"Physical therapy does not include iron pumping!" The boy, feebly resisting, grabbed the mattress.
"You'll only help, I'm not forcing you to carry heavy things." Zib did not even pay attention to the boy's attempts to free himself and, turning on his heel, simply dragged him across the floor to the exit of the room.
"Okay, okay, let go, I'll walk myself!" Dipper asked when he felt a little queasy again.
Zib immediately released him and stood in place, waiting for the boy to catch up with him. Pines got up and, after catching his breath a little, followed Zib. When they left the hallway, Dipper looked around the ill-fated room and sighed. There was a lot of work. Metal fragments of various sizes, parts and tools, and various small junk were scattered all over the floor.
"I'll lift the racks and put away all the heavy stuff, other small things on you." Zib immediately moved away from the curly-haired boy and began to lift the cabinets. His scuffling was accompanied by a continuous rumble and a barely audible grunt of displeasure.
Dipper shook his head, trying to get rid of the ringing in his ears and trudged towards the pile of junk. I'll start faster, I'll finish faster he tried to console himself
But the word "fast" was absolutely inapplicable to this situation. There was so much work that even after an hour there seemed to be no less junk.
"Zib..." With a heavy sigh, Dipper sat down on the floor next to the wreckage of the closet and looked piteously at Zib. "I'm terribly tired and hungry. Can we please finish for today?"
There was no response. Zib was sitting on his knees on the floor and staring in fascination inside a very battered and yellowed box. Dipper noticed how often and raggedly Zib's sides were heaving and the fingers of the hand holding the flap of the box were trembling slightly. Pines quickly realized that it was necessary to get the guy out of this state.
"Zib? Zib..." Dipper called out again, got up and slowly walked towards him.
Zib did not react at all to Dipper until he was 6 feet away from him. Then he slammed the box shut with a lightning movement and, pulling on a nervous unnatural smile, turned to Dipper.
"I'm fine!" He blurted out as soon as Dipper opened his mouth. Pines took a quick look at Zib. The boy's chest was still rising and falling too fast, although Zib tried his best to hide it, beads of sweat stood out on his greenish skin. A few agonizing seconds passed in silence as Dipper searched for words of comfort, but just as he was about to speak, Zib beat him to it again.
"I'm just... I just remembered something important! That I forgot to do something important. Something." he rattled, his fingers clenched on the box so that his knuckles turned white "Did you say you wanted to eat? Yes, we can finish for today! Let's go eat." He took the box, abruptly stood up and, without waiting for Dipper, hurried into the boy's room.
Pines followed Zib. What a familiar defensive reaction he thought
From around the corner, he heard Zib roughly toss the box somewhere in the corner and hurried to switch to preparing dinner for Dipper.
The meal was held in complete silence, only this time Zib did not join as usual. He just sat next to Dipper, thoughtfully looking at the floor.
When the curly-haired boy was already finishing his meal, Zib raised his head and looked at him.
"I have to work. You must be tired after cleaning. I won't bother you, have a good rest, okay? And let's not do anything stupid this time."
Before Dipper could answer, he got up and left the room.
"Waif!" Pines exclaimed with his mouth full and jumped up from the floor. Looking out into the corridor, the guy found only the ragged edge of Zib's battered raincoat, which immediately disappeared behind the iron door of one of the rooms.
After walking down the corridor, Dipper stopped at the one and raised his hand, about to knock, but unexpected restless thoughts stopped him. Zib was prone to unpredictable outbursts of anger when it came to some personal items, and what was in the box seemed to bother the guy very much. Dipper lowered his hand - perhaps it's worth sorting out the situation yourself first. The clang of iron coming from behind the door made Dipper wince and realize that Zib was not in the mood for a conversation and would not have heard even if Pines had knocked anyway.
With a heavy sigh, Dipper stepped back from the door. Why does he even care so much about how Zib feels?
"Don't forget that he kidnapped you. It's the Stockholm syndrome and nothing more. I'll be back with Dib soon and I won't have anything to worry about. And the contents of this box may help me with this."
Dipper took off and ran back into the room, hoping that Zib was stuck at work for a long time. Running his eyes around the small room, Pines quickly found the cherished cardboard box in the corner, crumpled from the impact. Removing it from the pile of metal, the boy sat down on the floor and, in anticipation, abruptly opened the flaps of the box.
In just one, moment, all his determination to use it against the "kidnapper" crumbled into tiny pieces, his chest was unpleasantly squeezed by a feeling of guilt and pity. There were several items at the bottom of the box: a photo frame with broken glass covering a slightly faded photograph of the Zib's family. Dib's. Dipper saw the exact same one at his boyfriend's house.
Hurrying to distract himself from the photo, the curly-haired boy dived deeper into the box. An old blue T-shirt, a worn red Gameslave, didn't Gaz have one before? What's next? A keychain with a UFO, floppy disks, magazines with Professor Membrane on the cover, a broken camera - Dipper realized that this box, filled at first glance with trinkets, was a window into the past for Zib. Among other small things, Dipper noticed a wooden pointer, and carefully pushing aside the rest of the things, he found the ouija board itself.
The boy had just pulled it out to get a better look when he heard the creak of an iron door behind him and immediately turned around. Zib was standing in the aisle, his face full of annoyance. But it was instantly replaced by fear as soon as he saw the board in Pines' hands.
"What are you doing!?" he exclaimed, and his frightened voice broke into a squeak "Put it back! Put it back!"
Dipper turned his surprised gaze to the ouija board.
"What? It's just..."
"It doesn't matter! Just hide it back!" His gaze was fixed on Dipper, the guy was literally afraid to even look at the board out of the corner of his eye.
Pines looked at Zib again and it took him a second to realize how scared he really was. The black-haired boy was breathing heavily, his hands clenched into fists, and metal tentacles peeked threateningly out of the pack, as if he was about to engage in a fierce battle. And tears in my eyes! The glare from the lamps on the glasses made them almost invisible, but Dipper could see them.
"Woah!" Dipper immediately threw the board into the box and hurried to cover it with a T-shirt "Zib!"
He stood up and took a small step towards him. "I hid it away. It's all good."
He took another step, and Zib backed into the hallway. When his back met the opposite wall, the boy's lips curled, he raised his hand and his fist slid under his glasses, wiping away tears, trying to stop them from flowing down his pale cheeks. He slid down the wall and sat on the floor. Now Zib didn't look scared or worried. Just sad. More confidently, Dipper walked out into the hallway and knelt down in front of Zib.
"Hey, hey," he said softly and put his hand on the guy's arm. Zib's fingers twitched at the unexpected touch, but he didn't pull his hand away "Don't worry. Everything is fine. You're safe." he patted his hand comfortingly "Do you want me to sit with you or..."
"No. Stay" Zib muttered, sobbing.
Dipper cautiously moved towards him and reached out to hug Zib, but instead he literally collapsed into Pines' arms, he barely kept his balance. Carefully grabbing him by the shoulders, Dipper reached for his head to "protect" the head of the boy clinging to him with his hand, but was a little confused when his fingers touched the cold metal. But Zib didn't seem to mind, so Dipper put his hand on the back of his head and pressed the guy's head to his chest.
They were both silent for several minutes. Zib's breathing gradually steadied, but he was still sobbing softly. Finally, still holding Dipper in his arms, he spoke.
"You can't just sit still, right, Pines?"
Dipper tilted his head to look at Zib.
"I'm sorry. I didn't think-"
"No, no, it's all right." he finally released Dipper and sat on the floor with his knees bent under him, shyly hiding his eyes, as if searching for something on the floor, instead of looking at Dipper "I just... I'm just afraid they're all still here." Zib's lips tightened and he squinted, holding back tears again
"They?" Dipper asked.
"You still don't understand what happened" Zib smiled bitterly "You seemed very perceptive to me. Well, then get ready to listen to my dumb, sad backstory."
Zib moved away from Dipper and leaned back against the wall. Pines followed.
"Well... It happened about 7 years ago. As you probably know, in his early teens, Dib was OBSESSED with Zim and the goal of saving the Earth. Every Dib in every parallel universe was like that. And I'm no exception. But there is one difference between the rest of the Dibs and me. I am the best Dib of all, I actually achieved my goal, saved my Earth from invader, showed people the truth! At least, that's what I thought at the time." Zib sighed and shook his head, showing that he deeply regretted his ignorance at that time. "I always dreamed that when I showed them Zim, everyone would immediately admit that I was right, see me as a hero, stop considering me a loser and... be proud." Zib inadvertently highlighted the last phrase, muttering it softly
"But that's it... It didn't work out that way. And then I decided to move on. To become the liberator of the universe. But I screwed up terribly! I screwed up so much that this place is all that's left of my universe.
I am the only one to blame for the deaths of billions of people and countless more intelligent beings, do you understand!?" He turned his head to Dipper.
A pair of shrewd brown eyes were watching Zib closely, so at that moment their gazes met and Zib immediately hurried to hide his eyes.
"And sometimes I think that Gaz and dad are still here. They are watching my torment, pathetic attempts to correct the situation and revel in my suffering! I would not like to know that this is true." He lowered his head and buried his face in his lap
Dipper stared at Zib for a few seconds, and then blurted out:
"What if we ask them anyway?"
The guy answered Pines' offer with a face full of horror and Dipper immediately waved his hands.
"No, no, listen! I know your... I mean, Professor Membrane. Yes, he's not the most attentive, not the most caring father, but he wouldn't hate you."
"Anyway, I don't want to hear a sharp comment from him about- " Zib hesitated, and then grinned, imagining his father's displeased voice "Actually, I would give anything even for that."
Dipper smiled cautiously.
"See? Let's try it? I'm sure you'll feel better."
Rubbing his neck uncertainly, Zib sighed and pointedly rolled his eyes "You're not going to leave me alone anyway, are you?" He feigned indifference to the idea of Pines, although his whole gut trembled at the very thought of a spiritual seance - such a small, but such a familiar and close to his heart piece of the past.
Dipper smiled indulgently. "Then will we need candles?"
"I can buy some..." Dipper noticed that the boy hesitated again before offering something "Do you want to come with me? What do you need to buy, limber up a bit?"
The curly-haired boy's eyes widened in surprise and he hurried to answer. "Yes. Yes, I would be glad!
"Great! Let's go right now!"
Zib jumped up, pulled his interdimensional gun out of his pocket and opened the portal. Dipper blinked rapidly, blinded by the daylight - in the semi-darkness of the warehouse and the cell, he had completely wean off the daylight.
It was a street. A street completely unfamiliar to Dipper. Zib took a step into the portal and Pines hurried after him. From the flat image inside the portal, the street immediately turned into a real place and the light hit the eyes even harder. It didn't seem to bother Zib.
Did he leave his hiding place often? Dipper wondered.
Zib threw on his hood and headed for the nearest store without even looking back at the prisoner, as if 100% sure that he would not escape. Surprisingly, Dipper actually followed him.
The store was cool and quiet, it looked like it was early morning.
A teenager was smoking behind the counter right under the sign "smoking is prohibited", lazily putting his legs on the table.
The cursory but attentive gaze of the curly-haired boy slid over the walls behind the counter. Red and white paper... Red and white paper... That's it! Here it is! A Missing poster! His missing poster! Dipper found what he was looking for. One hesitant step towards the cashier. One more.
"Dipper," Zib called softly. One more step. But suddenly a vivid picture popped up in Pines' head. He will approach the cashier. He'll call the police and what's next? The boy with two hair-spikes will run away. He will return alone to his lair. What will he do? Dipper narrowed his eyes pityingly, imagining Zib smashing up the room in blind anger, and then crying in an empty hallway.
"Fuck." Turning abruptly on his heels, he obediently walked towards Zib, lowering his head so that no one, God forbid, would recognize him.
Zib was already waiting for him with a pack of candles. "Do you need anything?"
"Yes. Give me 5 minutes."
Pines got lost among the counters, and after 5 minutes honestly returned with products for a couple of days ahead.
After paying for everything at the checkout, they returned to Zib's hideout. This escape attempt turned out to be even more unsuccessful than the previous ones.