Chapter Text
It had been 28 hours.
Zim groaned.
28 long hours since he had last been able to just lay down, power down the holographic disguise, connect himself to a recharging station, and clock out. Instead of being able to do that, Dib had been dragging him around the woods for ages now, tirelessly, even after he and Zim had pulled an all nighter trying to figure out the best places to hike and explore. ‘Bigfoot won’t hunt himself,’ Dib had said, ‘Cheer up, it’s gonna be fun.’ Even though Zim was physically unable to sweat, the hoodie he was wearing was beginning to feel soggy and disgusting in the humid heat of Earthen summer. Carefully he jumped over the rocks and the gnarly roots of the trees around him. Dib was walking a few feet in front of him, a camera in his right hand and his left clutching onto the backpack as he cheerfully passed over the obstacles in his way.
“You really think you’re gonna find big feet today, Dib-worm?”
“It’s Bigfoot, and I think you're doing this on purpose. Either you have never actually listened to a single thing I said during the entire time we've known each other, or you're fucking with me, and I honestly can't tell what's the more likely option,” Dib groaned, shoving aside a branch that hung in his path. “You’re a bad student, you know that?”
“Zim is a perfectly normal student, thank you,” Zim sneered.
Dib just shot an amused frown over his shoulder.
“You’re so weird.”
“I’M PERFECTLY NORMAL.”
They didn’t find Bigfoot that day. They did find a very nice spot to put up Dib’s telescope though, so they ended up stargazing once night began to crawl up on them.
“I wish I could go up there one day,” Dib mumbled after a bit. “See what’s out there, y’know.”
Zim just turned to look at the human. Dib's eyes were focused on the sky above, searching for something that was already lying next to him. Zim huffed. Foolish human. He had known Zim for six years now and never once had he ever bothered to look past the walls, or rather, holographic disguises Zim had been putting up around himself. Always too busy looking for the hidden, unattainable things that lurk in the shadows and beyond the horizon. Sometimes Zim just wanted to hit the kid over his head with his Irken tech, just to get it over with. If he had any left that was just the right size for hitting someone over that head, that was.
“You won’t find anything that exciting.”
Zim paused for a second before adding “Probably” to his statement.
“Hmm, you think so?” Dib hummed, still just looking up and nowhere near Zim’s face. “Space is pretty much infinite, right? There’s gotta be something, some world out there, with, I don’t know, intelligent species, like us humans. Animals. Plants.”
Zim snickered at Dib calling humanity intelligent. There was still so much they had to learn. They haven’t even colonized any other planets yet, despite all the viable options in their vicinity.
“But y’know,” Dib started again. “I don’t wanna just find the planets that have life similar to Earth. I wanna find all the places still unexplored. Places that have never even been set foot on. I just wanna see it all. Everything. Infitity.”
Dib sighed.
“If there is something out there at all. Who knows? Maybe we really are just the only ones in the entire universe.”
The human’s eyes finally landed on Zim.
“But if there is, you’re coming with me buddy. I’m gonna prove it to you. And then to everyone else.”
Zim blinked.
He remembered his home. Irk, with its red sky and constructions made of metal, deep underground tunnels and facilities. All the planets it has conquered and colonized. Destroyed and blown apart. Soldiers stationed on every outpost; invaders ready to enslave the entire population of their assigned planets. A universe on the brink of destruction. Zim’s insides turned.
“There’s nothing you’d want to see, Dib.”
“How can you be so sure?”
Zim shrugged.
Dib watched him for a few more seconds before turning his eyes back to the sky.