Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

A few years ago, I used to look up at space. And when space looked back, I knew I was given a responsibility. A duty.

A mission.

But after years of scorn and ridicule, I began to lose motivation. I started thinking, “Why bother? Why save a world that doesn’t want to be saved?”

Even so, my mission still remains. I can’t avert my eyes no matter what.

Down somewhere in Zim’s base, Dib listened to the chattering voices of Zim’s leaders, watching the monitor that displayed their backs turned to the screen. The light of the screen illuminated throughout the dimness of the room. As Dib raised an eyebrow at their commotion, Zim only stared at them with a blank expression.

Dib could hear Red’s voice, “Yeah, yeah. Oh! And what about that one time when we launched him into the sun!”

Purple’s voice responded enthusiastically, “Yeahhh! Oh man, that was great!”

“I know. And can you believe how long he’s lasted on that dirt planet??”

A small voice could be heard in between their conversation. Dib assumed it was one of the pilots of the massive, “Sirs?”

Purple continued, “I know right?! We should’ve just executed him or something!

“Uh, sirs?”

Red talked over the small voice, “Yeahhh, but it’s too much work to bring him here, you know?”

The voice spoke up loudly, “My tallest!”

Finally averting their attention towards the voice, they turned around so that they were facing the screen. Purple angrily munched on his donuts. Exasperated, Red replied, “Ughh, whaaaat??”

The two leaders noticed that the monitor was still on and their eyes widened. They stared back at Zim’s blank eyes, feeling as though he was staring into their souls.

“Uh… Hey, Zim!” Red greeted, feeling the awkwardness rise in his voice, “You didn’t… you didn’t hear all that, did you?”

They only received a blank stare as a response.

Purple looked back at Red, munching on another donut, “...I think he did.”

With that, the transmission was cut and Zim was faced with a blank screen. Soon, an irken symbol popped up on the monitor as it went into sleep mode. A voice resounded in the air as if it had no definite source of sound.

“Sir… the Tallest cut the transmission.”

Zim left no reply and instead kept his gaze fixated onto the monitor. More specifically, the symbol it presented.

“Sir?” Realizing what was happening, the voice let out a sigh, “Here we go again…”

Dib observed the idle irken, unsure of what was happening, and thought out loud, “What is wrong with him?”

Unaware that he was vocalizing his thoughts, the computer responded casually, “He does this sometimes,”

“What the?!”

“It usually takes a couple hours.”

“Are you… gonna shoot lasers at me or something?”

“Eh.”

Red lights emerged from the irken symbol on Zim’s monitor, reflecting on the eyes of the irken. Dib looked closely and noticed that glitches and sparks were flying around Zim’s PAK. What was eerie to Dib, however, was the seemingly endless staredown Zim was having with the symbol on the screen. His neverending gaze never broke, even as his PAK took out a gun and aimed up at the screen.

It was aimed directly at the symbol.

Without a flinch, Zim shot the monitor, creating a large flash of light coming from the screen. Smoke began to emerge from the damaged monitor, creating a gray cloud around them as bright sparks flew out from the screen.

The computer’s voice broke through the ringing in Dib’s ears, “Well, that’s new... Um sir, you do realize there is an intruder?”

Shit , Dib thought.

With his PAK still glitching, Zim slowly turned around to meet eyes with his foe with a deep glare plastered onto his face. The cracked screen on the monitor deformed the irken symbol behind Zim.

The moment only lasted for a moment, as Zim’s PAK stopped glitching. The red in his eyes vanished and he looked up at Dib quizzically. After a moment of processing, he screamed at him, “THE DIB!!! How did you get in my base?!”

Taken aback by the sudden change, Dib was unsure of how to respond, “I… uh…”

“Computer!! Intruder alert!”

Claws emerged from the ceiling and grabbed onto Dib’s shirt, lifting him up. The claws brought him down to Zim’s level.

Zim pointed a finger at his enemy, “How dare you interrupt me in the middle of an important call?!”

“What important call?? Your leaders were just talking crap about you!”

“YOU’RE LYING!!”Dib pointed at the broken screen, “And just look at the monitor! You destroyed it!”

“Zim did no such thing,” he waved it off. “Now silence! Computer, dispose of the child.”

The computer did as told, bringing the teenager away from Zim, towards the exit. Zim stared after him, before hesitantly turning around to look up at the broken irken symbol, feeling a sense of unease. His PAK began to glitch once more as he turned his back on the screen.

~

Zim poked at his lunch in the cafeteria, tuning out the sounds of people chatting or yelling at each other. Throughout recent years, he noticed that the humans were growing alarmingly taller. He especially hated the fact that his enemy was no different, growing much taller than before. It was an insult to Zim.

As Zim was in the middle of zoning out, he felt a shadow casting upon him and a familiar, annoying voice breaking him out of his thoughts.

“Zim.”

Zim looked up and glared ahead, “What do you want, Dib-stink?”

Dib looked down at him, his gaze not breaking “I wasn’t done talking yesterday.”

Zim raised an eyebrow, unsure of what he meant by that, “What are you talking about?”

Dib pointed a finger at him, “Don’t act dumb! There’s obviously something wrong with you that made you shoot your planet’s symbol!”

Zim scoffed, “I am a perfectly normal human worm-baby.”

Dib didn’t want to deal with Zim’s lies. He knew what he saw and he wanted answers. But if Zim wouldn’t cooperate, he may have to find another way to find out what happened.

His leaders. His leaders just admitted to hating him, even admitted to attempted murder. Dib remembered hearing it, and he was certain that Zim heard it too.

Dib decided to pry it out, “Cut the crap, Zim. What is it? Do you hate your leaders or something? Because they seem like shit—“

Zim snapped. He slammed his claws down on the table and stood up, anger flashing in his eyes as he shouted, “Don’t you speak of the tallest with such filthy language!!”

Holy shit, Dib thought.

By then, they were attracting unwanted attention. Dib didn’t want to deal with a crowd and he started feeling second-hand embarrassment, so he decided to leave it be.

For now.

“Okay, okay. Whatever, man.”

Zim watched as Dib left. He suddenly felt eyes on him and he looked around, his glare now replaced with a look of confusion.

Realizing that he had made a scene, Zim acted quickly, “Eh… yes! The ‘tallest.’ I am simply defending the—um… the… tall… humans.”

“You mean the seniors?” A girl asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes!”

Dib sat under a tree near the lunch tables, typing away at his computer, his racing thoughts on different theories being vocalized.

“...But why would he shoot it? It doesn’t make any sense. No, it doesn’t seem like Zim at all. Zim always showed devotion to his leaders, so what was the…”

Unbeknownst to Dib, two seniors approached him, “Hey, shut up, space-nerd.”

Dib continued to think, “...And why was his PAK like that? Some sort of glitch? A transmission? A virus?”

The other senior looked up at his friend, “I don’t think he heard you.”

“Oh, really ?”

He ripped Dib’s laptop away from his hands and started reading what he was typing. Dib stood up, “Hey!”

“Let’s see what we got here, shall we?” the senior said in a mocking tone.

Dib cried out, “Give it back! Give it back, you dick—“

Before Dib could shout out another word, he felt a sharp pain on his left eye that expanded throughout his entire face. The shock resulted in him hearing ringing in his ears as his vision blurred for a moment. He realized it when he landed on the hard ground that he’d just been hit.

He heard voices, but was unable to comprehend them when he felt the panic rise when feeling a warm, thick liquid trickling down his face. He tasted and smelled metal. He looked down at his crimson-stained hands in horror as realization set in.

“Shit, he’s bleeding. Come on, let’s go!”

The two seniors ran away, as far as Dib could tell. He could’ve sworn he heard Zim’s laughter earlier, but now he heard none. He turned around a glass shard from his glasses penetrating his eye. He didn’t realize he was crying until he felt it land on his hand as he faced Zim.

Zim stared back at Dib, a look of an equal amount of horror plastered onto his face at the sight of his enemy bleeding.

Chapter Text

Dib opened the door to his house, glaring at the floor. He had pulled the glass shard out of his eye prior to arriving home and wiped the blood off to the best of his ability. Only a deep scar and smudged blood remained, along with a crimson stained coat.

Gaz, who called in sick for school, was playing video games on the couch until she looked up at Dib. Taking in his appearance and current state, she was taken aback.

“Woah, what happened to you?”

Her brother didn’t say a word to her.

Membrane entered the living room when he heard the front door open, “Aren’t you supposed to be at school, son?”

Dib looked up at his father with a bloody eye.

Membrane took in his appearance, “Oh. You better patch that up before it gets infected. Now, why don’t you tell me why you’re so upset.”

He led Dib to the couch next to Gaz and they sat. Membrane wrapped an arm around his son in an attempt to ease him.

“Tell me what’s wrong, son.”

Dib spoke, though he tried his best to not let his voice crack, "It’s these seniors from my school… They kept picking on me and I told them to stop. Then they just punched me.”

“Why are they picking on you?”

Dib turned away from his father, “I dunno... they made fun of me for liking paranormal stuff before... But you know that I—“

“Well, it’s time you grow out of all that, son. You’re older now, so you should find some different hobbies.”

Dib slowly turned to Membrane with a look of disbelief, “...What?”

“Perhaps those kids will leave you alone if you become interested in real science.”

Dib pushed his father’s arm away from him as he stood up, not breaking eye contact with him, “You… agree with them?”

“Now, now, I’m not picking their side—“

Dib laughed bitterly, "Oh, but you ARE.”

“Son, calm down.”

“You know, I thought that for once, you would actually listen to me. That you would listen to what I say without judging me,” Dib looked at the floor, using all of his willpower to not cry in front of his stoic father, “I just wish that you wouldn’t question how I feel.”

Silence rang in the air. Dib could feel the tension rise as a lump formed in his throat. His hands gripped tightly onto the ends of his shirt as he silently wished that Gaz would break the silence with some witty insult. But even she was quiet. As each passing second went by, he couldn’t tell what was going on in his father’s head, and that was what scared him.

Finally, Membrane broke the silence, but his words only brought Dib feelings of dread.

“Without questioning, there wouldn’t be any scientific progress.”

He looked at his father in shock. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Was Dib only a personal experiment in his father’s eyes? Was that all he was to him? Did he not care for the well-being of his own son?

Then Dib realized that there was absolutely no reason for him to be surprised. The signs were all there. For years, even. And that was what angered Dib most of all.

Dib’s voice was stained in anger as he looked at his father with pure hatred, “When Earth burns down, I hope you’re the first person Zim takes out.”

Dib stomped away, up towards the stairs and a slam was heard shortly after. Membrane was left speechless as Gaz looked up at the stairs with a conflicted look.

In Zim’s base, Zim and Gir were watching The Scary Monkey Show on the TV, sharing an irken fun dip.

The computer alerted Zim, “Incoming call from the Tallest.”

Zim lept up from the couch, dropping the candy stick, leaving the rest of the dust for Gir, “The Tallest?! At this time??”

Zim hurriedly rushed in front of the TV in time for the Tallest to appear on the screen.

“Greetings, my Tallest! I wasn’t expecting such an early—“

“Yeah, yeah, Zim. That’s great,” Red cut him off.

Zim’s antenna wilted a bit.

“We uh…” Red began laughing, “we actually have some good… good news for you.”

Purple joined in on the laughing as Red elbowed him, “Yeah! Very good, exciting, important news.”

Zim looked up at the Tallest eagerly, “Important? What is it??”

Red stifled his laughter, “You’ve been assigned a new, more secret mission on Irk.”

“Irk ?? But what about my mission on Earth?”

“Oh, this new mission is much more important than your current mission.”

Zim placed a finger on his chin as he pondered, “I see. There is no need for me to be here anymore, now that I have a new, more secret mission.”

The Tallest began laughing uncontrollably and Zim’s PAK began to spark electricity. Zim looked up at the Tallest and watched as they struggled to breathe.

Red heaved a satisfied sigh, “So... you better come to Irk immediately, alright?”

The Tallest looked down at Zim, only to see Zim glaring at them.

Purple called out to him, “Uh… Zim?”

Zim immediately snapped out of it, “...Of course, my Tallest! I will be leaving tomorrow night!”

The Tallest looked at each other, then back at Zim, “Uh… good! We’ll meet you on Irk.”

Gir waved happily at the Tallest from the couch and they waved back.

Zim’s PAK glitched once more. Before the Tallest could say anything else, Zim cut the transmission.

The two leaders stared at the blank screen, dumbfounded.

Red turned to Purple, “Did… Zim just cut the transmission?”

Zim stared at the screen with a glare, his PAK glitching.

Unbeknownst to Zim, Dib was hiding in the shadows of the ceiling, dangling from the wires. The teen blinked when Zim turned around and met eyes with his enemy. The two stared at each other for a bit, processing what is happening. After a short moment of silence, Zim screamed.

“WHAT THE??”

"HI MARY!"

Dib panicked, “Uh… I’m not really here!”

“YES YOU ARE! COMPUTER—!”

Dib lept down from the ceiling, landing in front of Zim, “Wait!”

Zim instinctively backed away from him, “Hm???”

“What was that just now?”

“What was what?”

“That whole exchange! Zim, you were glaring at your leaders.”

Zim glared at his enemy as a response, unsure of what he was getting at. Dib pointed at his face, as if proving a point.

“Yeah, like that! You looked at them as if you were looking at me !”

“No I wasn’t! Get out of Zim’s base!” Zim pointed at the door, but Dib stood his ground.

“Not until you tell me what the hell that was. Are you leaving Earth? You’re going back to your planet?”

Zim waved an accusing finger at him, “You know too much!!”

Dib furrowed his eyebrows, pinching the bridge of his nose. Sometimes he felt as if he couldn’t keep up with the alien’s excessive amount of energy, “No, Zim. I don’t think you get it. I’m pretty sure your leaders were lying to you.”

Zim looked up at him skeptically. It was clear that he didn’t believe a single word he was saying.

“Oh, Dib. Always trying to deceive me. But I will not be fooled!” He pointed at him once again, “I can see what tricks you’re trying to pull! But you cannot fool an irken elite! Pitiful, pitiful, pitiful hyoooo -man.”

Dib could feel his eye twitch, “Zim, they’re OBVIOUSLY trying to execute you or something--!”

“FILTHY LIESSSS!!! If they truly were to do such a thing to Zim, YOU wouldn’t be trying to warn me!”

Zim had a point. Dib didn’t know why he was even trying to warn Zim. What his leaders wanted to do to him wasn’t any of his business. In fact, Dib should be rooting for them to execute him. He should be looking forward to his enemy’s demise. But for some reason, the thought of letting his enemy die at the hands of the people he looked up to his whole life didn’t seem right to him.

Dib looked at the floor. On one hand, he could let Zim go. By doing so, he wouldn’t need to worry about him taking over the world anymore. Years of fighting and stopping the alien from invading Earth would soon come to an end.

On the other hand, if he let Zim die… what would he do? Proceed to hunt down Big Foot? Go ghost hunting? What was his life like before Zim came into the picture? He remembered having a fascination for aliens at a very young age. Those memories soon reminded him of the look of disappointment on his father’s face.

His father.

Dib’s glare at the floor hardened. If he let Zim go, he’d be left alone with his father. He’d be left with the constant reminder that his father thinks he’s crazy. And no way in hell would Dib be able to put up with that much longer.

“Dib-stink,” Zim’s voice broke his thoughts. Dib looked away from the floor and looked at Zim, who was looking at him in annoyance. 

“Leave.”