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Chapter Text

Zim connected to his leaders, the Almighty Tallests. He had something big planned, something that would absolutely bring the Earth to its knees and make it ripe for conquering. Nothing could stop him, not even that wretched Dib-creature: he was already dealt with. In fact, he was going to be the demonstration for the awful things that he was plotting to do to bring the downfall of the human race.

"You're never going to get away with this, Zim!!!" He wiggled and writhed under his restraints, desperate to break himself free.

"Oh, i think i will, stupid human!! Your pathetic planet is as good as dust now!!!" He turned back around to face the screen when he heard it connect.

On the screen were the two Irken leaders in their usual place at the head of the Massive. They were both exasperated, tired from something that wasn't immediately clear to the two that put the line through. Purple sighed heavily, and Red grumbled and growled as he looked at the screen in front of them.

"My Tallests!! I am reporting to tell you of my greatest plan to prepare--"

"Zim, you're dismissed." He said abruptly.

"What?! Red!!!" Purple stood up straight and shot his vision over.

"Huh??" Zim perked his antennae and turned his attention from his captive to the screen.

"No, i'm tired of keeping this thing up. It's not worth it! I can't take hearing that voice anymore!" Red turned away and huffed. "He's through."

Zim stood up straight. "I apologize, my Tallest. Am i interrupting something???"

Purple looked at him. "Yes, actually, we--"

"No Zim, you aren't interrupting anything. We are dealing with this now. Right now. This needs to end immediately." Red stepped toward the screen. "Irken Zim,

"Ah-- m-my Tallests, i--" Zim felt breathless, but there must be something to why they were talking like this.

"Zim, no." Red turned to him again and spoke sternly. "You are relieved of your duty. You are no longer an Irken invader."

"What?! But i--"

"We don't care, Zim. We've never cared! We gave you your mission to get you away from the rest of the Empire so that you wouldn't ruin everything again. Why else do you think that we were always so far from where we sent you?! You're not a real invader!!!" Purple looked almost stunned, but he breathed and relaxed his body in acceptance of the truth.

Zim blinked in disbelief. He gently shook his head and shot his vision between his leaders. He huffed out a laugh. "Yooouu! You almost got me there!!!" He smiled wide. "You are truly masters of comedy, my Tallests!! For a second, i almost thought you we--"

"We are serious, Zim." Purple sighed out. "We never planned for you to be part of Impending Doom 2. We had to do something to keep you from destroying our civilization again." He shook his head. "We needed to get rid of you, and that was the only thing we could think of." His disposition changed. "And that's not even considering that you're a defect! Honestly, it's a wonder that we kept you around so long in the first place, now that i think about it."

Zim's jaw hung open and his heart beat hard in his chest. He tried to capture some air. "Ah-ah… i--"

"Save it, Zim. We've made up our minds. We don't want to hear from you ever again. We're severing all lines." Zim's eyes started to water. "And if you try to communicate with the Empire again, we will send somebody to execute you. Do not try us, Zim."

"I can't even say it's been fun. Because it hasn't." Purple rubbed his hand down his face. The communication was cut off.

Zim stood silently for a while, so awestruck by what he had heard. He stared at the screen, and his hands, and the floor, completely dumbfounded.

Dib was there, witnessing the whole thing as it happened. He saw Zim's leaders abandon him on a foreign planet, and he saw them admit that they did it on purpose. He saw the frustration that they had and the end of their patience for Zim. He couldn't blame them for that, but did feel heartbroken, and he was only an audience to this. "Zim…" He could never imagine what he would do if he were in Zim's shoes.

What he did do was collapse to his knees as his wobbling legs gave out. He breathed heavily aloud, drinking as much as he could and quickening until he was weeping through burning tears. He held his eyes closed tight to try to stop them, and even tried to push the water back into himself with his desperate hands, but his body heaved with the loss of every last thing that he had known from the moment he was born. He screamed, and he cried, almost hoping that it could make all that just happened become either a dream or something that he could simply undo. But he knew in his heart that it was a worthless wish.

He gasped for air. He pushed it out. He panted for a few seconds to regain himself. His lungs worked overtime, and he lowered his hands from his face and made them into tight fists. He pressed the tears from them, and growled and lifted his chest. He filled his lungs and screamed out with rage. He could feel his blood boiling inside of him now, and he needed to move to keep from burning alive.

He swung his vengeful fists at the screen over and over again until it cracked all the way across. He clawed at the buttons and slammed his heel into the controls that flanked the sides, and he ripped out the wires and veins that connected it all. He near effortlessly tore a rebar out with brute force alone and smashed everything that he could reach with every ounce of the strength that he had in him, bursting through metal and obliterating the mechanisms underneath. He kicked the rubble that he made across the room, and he knocked over anything that wasn't bolted down.

He held the rod in his hands and pointed it at the screen. He thrust it straight into the glass and circuit boards and stabbed at the former image of both of the leaders that he so adored and would have happily died for only a few minutes earlier. He imagined that the flying sparks and wires that battered his arms and face were hot blood and flesh from those people that had wronged him so horribly, completely devoid of any remaining feeling for his fellow Irken. He stabbed until they became heaps of gore, and stabbed until he could kill them all over again. He dreamed that they lay dead before him, maimed beyond recognition and worth absolutely nothing more than the dirt that covered the foul prison of his that they condemned him to.

He screamed in his native tongue, and in a few Earth languages, and in some alien ones that Dib had never heard before. He cursed those that had banished him here, and he blasphemed the world that they came from. He threatened them in promises that he'd never be able to keep, severing every vessel of theirs with words that they would never know. He realized all of the injustices he had endured and vowed to never forget any of them. He cried out for the things that he knew he would never be able to experience again, and his voice stung and cracked behind the truth that he was stuck here forever, alone...

The destruction provided Dib an opportunity to escape his restraints and get back to solid ground. He followed every motion with his eyes, still caught by his whole inability to leave Zim so distraught. He waited in tension for his energy to wane to something that he could safely handle before daring to move an inch from where he stood: wildly scared that he would become a target for all of the unbridled emotion.

Dib slowly and cautiously approached the tiny green beast. Zim fell to his knees again. He cupped his own face in his hands, finally realizing the pain in his knuckles and his skin and feeling his blood cool and dry in the fabric of his clothes. Everything, all of it: it hurt so bad. It felt like he was almost paralyzed and would turn to stone, destined to be thrown into an ocean of agony that sunk for miles and miles. His chest trembled.

"Zim???" He hesitantly spoke and touched a hand to his shoulder. Zim woke up and silently examined his palms and the back of his hands. He saw large and small shards of glass and metal coming out of his gloves, but he couldn't connect them to the pain he was feeling.

He looked up at Dib slowly. "Why are you still here?" He spoke quietly and calmly. That nearly terrified Dib, but he couldn't imagine pulling himself away from the situation.

He didn't know exactly what to say now. He knew the kinds of things that he wanted to say to the broken figure, but all of the words tangled together inside of his mind when he needed them most. He let them flow by themselves. "You deserve better, Zim…"

Dib could feel Zim's eyelids and his chest quiver through his hand, and it felt like it was piercing through his flesh. The words were shaky. "What do you mean?"

"They don't know what you're capable of." He glanced all over the alien's face. "They don't see what they're losing without you. They don't understand the things that you've done that they're going to be without." They locked eyes and Dib nodded his head once. "They never deserved you."

Zim watched for a few moments longer. His breath increased, and his body threatened to start crying again. He turned away. "Why… are you still here???" He was frustrated with himself: ashamed that he was so weak and emotional, and that his greatest enemy had not only seen it all, but that he was consoling him as well. And that it was helping. His body shook.

Dib crouched down next to him to try to get a look at his face. He gently sighed and reassured him. "It's going to be okay, Zim. We're going to fix you up together. We'll get through this." He leaned to try and see him better. "Come on. Let's go get you to the medbay."

Dib moved his hand across Zim's back to his far shoulder, and gripped the other one with his hand to pull him to stand up. Zim didn't resist much: he didn't see a need to keep fighting if he didn't at all have a reason to anymore. He stepped slowly, and Dib let him set the pace. They got to the elevator, and he asked for it to take them to the medical room. It whisked them away, and Dib led Zim over to the table in the room, helping him climb up onto it safely and lie down so that he wouldn't get any more hurt.

He sighed and barely spoke. "Computer. Medical repair." Metal arms came from the walls and the ceiling: tiny tweezers and forceps taking out the biggest chunks of foreign material. At the same time, little suction tubes gently sucked up any blood that came from the wounds.

Dib noticed that the machines weren't getting everything embedded in Zim's skin. He asked, "are they going to get the smaller bits, too???"

Zim lazily lifted a hand to look at it. He flopped it back down and turned his head. "No…" He didn't really care. "These are the basic repair machines. I fix smaller wounds myself. But it's not like the glass is going anywhere, so i'll do it later."

Dib furrowed his brow. He wouldn't be able to accept that. "That's not a good idea, Zim. You need to take them out now."

"Nooo, it's fine…"

Dib was almost angry with that. "That's not good enough, Zim! You need to get it out so you can heal!" He looked at some of the instruments that flanked the table and spied a few sets of small tweezers. He took Zim's hand in his own. "Here, i'll do it for you." He pinched the tips of the fingers on Zim's glove and gently tugged them down so he could take it off. He rolled up the sleeve of his tunic, and he did the same to his other arm, while Zim did nothing but watch.

When he got him prepared to be treated, Dib reached into one of his coat's pockets and pulled out a pair of nitrile gloves to wear. He chose a small set of needle-tipped tweezers and lifted Zim's hand again. He closely examined the cuts that were already handled to make sure that there were no spare shards. He spotted a few and delicately moved Zim's flesh to reach them, scoffing at how "advanced" the Irken technology was to miss this stuff.

Zim examined Dib for a long while as he picked miniscule bits of things from his hand and arm. He kept all the wincing and twitched to himself, having experienced far worse physical pain more times than he could count. He studied the concentration on the boy's face and how precise he needed to be to exude what he could.

It was very strange to have him act like this: at least when it came to something of this nature to Zim. Dib was always particular, and always very obsessive when it came to Zim. But he never needed to do anything like this before, he never needed to care for the alien. But he was here doing it, so intensely and so meticulously, and without even having been asked or invited to. It was weird.

Zim closed his eyes and relaxed his neck. He didn't know whether he trusted the boy; either to complete what he was doing, or to not cut him open right here and now; or that he just genuinely didn't care anymore, and his truth in the latter kept him from thinking about it further. He emptied his mind and focussed on his breathing instead.

Neither of them were paying attention to how long this was taking, but after a while Dib spoke. "I'm going to work on your face now, Zim." He opened his eyes halfway and almost instantly locked gazes with Dib.

He quickly scanned over his determined expression. He wasn't all too certain why he announced it. "Yeah, sure, whatever." He closed his eyes again.

A moment passed before he felt the weird plastic over Dib's hand touch his cheek. It wasn't as if this was the first time that those points of theirs connected: either had slapped or punched each other directly in the face quite a few times in their scuffles. But this was entirely different from any of that, or almost any other feelings that Zim ever had on his face: it was gentle, soft. At the same time it was firm and intentional, with movements that all made so much sense. It was jarring, scary. His breath hitched, but he breathed out steadily to accept that it was happening.

When he thought he was just about finished, Dib wrapped a few of his fingers around Zim's chin, delicately tilting his head so that he was certain that there were no further injuries that he had to attend to. Zim opened his eyes a second after Dib grabbed his face. He lazily watched him, still amazed that someone in his position cared to do this, even though he didn't need to. He removed his hand and took a step away from the alien. "Do you feel anything else in your skin???"

Zim lifted one of his bare hands again to look at it. "No, i think that's everything." He sat up and examined his other hand quietly. He slumped again, but didn't know what he should say.

"Do you have any ointments or anything for your cuts???"

Zim glanced up to him. He sighed, "in the drawers over there. Get me the bandages, too."

Dib fished the supplies from the drawer and set them down on the table next to Zim. He hovered a hand over the ointment. "Do you need me to do this??"

Zim squinted his eyes a bit, but that little bit of a glare let Dib know that he was already feeling better. He retreated his hand. "No, i can do it."

Zim snatched up the tube and twisted the cap off. He squeezed a large blob onto the back of one of his hands, and did the same to the other before smearing it on the open wounds. Most of it all stayed on the surface of his skin, but he was well enough to cover the areas of his arms that had been injured. He reached for the bandages on the table, but Dib beat him to them.

"I'll wrap you up." He unraveled a few inches of the material and held his hand out for Zim to give him a limb. He paused and hesitantly put his hand in Dib's, still uncertain why he still wanted to help him. It felt almost suspicious to him now, but he couldn't deny to himself that the tenderness with which Dib acted did comfort him. Maybe Zim was more suspicious of himself than of the kid that had always tried to out him.

Dib wrapped each of his fingers and hand well, and left the bandages looser at the wrist so that Zim would still be able to move. He cut the roll with a pair of scissors that were with the tweezers from before, and tied it off with knowledge he'd learned to prepare for his cryptid hunts. He silently asked for his other hand, and repeated the process in the same way.

There was a part of Zim that wanted to snap at Dib for how he was doing this; even if it was just to yell at him, because that's what it usually boiled down to. But something: either the disheartened state of him, or because he knew that Dib was genuinely caring for him and helping him out; prevented him from actually doing so. He thought to make up for that later.

Dib tied off the other arm. "Do you have anything for the cuts on your face??" He took Zim's chin in his hand again, holding him between a curled finger and a gentle thumb. Zim tensed and his heart skipped at the contact, jarred again by how delicate this all was.

He brought up a hand of his own to push Dib's away, but did it far slower than he would have at any other time. They looked at each other. "I have adhesive ones in the drawer." He spoke with only a tiny bit of attitude. Dib half-glared at him, but was relieved again that Zim was getting back to normal.

Zim twisted himself off of the table and walked over to get them. He started to take some out of the package. "Just bring them over here so i can help you."

Zim made a face to himself. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do anymore. It took him a moment to respond. "Why are you still here, human???" He turned and watched Dib inquisitively.

He furrowed his brow and shook his head. "Now's not the time, Zim. You still need to be patched up."

Zim walked over, holding the box in both hands. "You don't need to do any of this. You could have left a long while ago." Dib held his hand out again, "but you're still here… why???" Zim gave him the bandages.

Dib took a few from the box and set it down on the table. "Because you don't have a mirror in here and won't put them on right." He ripped the paper off of the stickers and took the ointment to cover the wounds. "Stand still."

Dib squirted a bit on his finger and delicately glided it over the biggest cuts. He used another finger to wipe up the excess that would stifle the adhesive, and smeared it onto the back of his other hand. He turned to get the bandages.

"I mean why did you decide to stay and help me??? You stand nothing to gain from doing this." Zim shut his mouth again when Dib had one prepared. He placed it on silently, focusing on positioning it to stick and hold the cut mostly-closed.

He reached for another one. "You just went through a lot, Zim." He did the same to another wound before continuing. "I know that you're a big bad space-bug…" He fixed another one. "But there are some things that even the strongest people can't endure on their own." Dib looked at a couple of other cuts on his face, debating whether they also needed tending.

Zim remained still. "But you hate me."

Dib decided that they would be fine without being covered. He blinked when he registered what was said. "Yeeaahh…" He felt awkward. "But i still care about you, i guess."

Zim turned his head and glared some. "Are you lying?"

Dib huffed. "Why would i have done all of that if i didn't care about you???"

He glared fully and spoke quietly. "I asked you first."

Dib growled. "Can't you just accept something for once?!" He was motioning with his hands and planted them on his hips.

Zim turned to face him properly. "Thank you, human-Dib." Dib's eyes got wide in surprise. "I… appreciate… what you've done for me." He was finding it hard to word it properly and be so genuine, and suddenly try to keep it together as well. It was getting hard to breathe, his chest felt tight. "I, um…" He could feel tears welling up.

"It's no problem, Zim." Dib didn't have a chance to debate himself on whether a friendly hand on the shoulder was appropriate, as it had already gotten there. "You just… needed some help." Again, his words were disjointed and free, and he just spoke what left his lips. "And i happened to be around to provide it."

Zim's brow furrowed and his mind felt like it weighed a million pounds. "You didn't have a choice to be." His chest seemed to prepare to cry again.

"But i do now, and i'm not going anywhere." Dib smirked. "Besides, it's not like i was forced to do anything with the way you barely tied me down."

Zim coughed a chuckle from deep behind the sobs that waited in his throat. "Heh. I guess i need to get better restraints for you." The smile on his face felt sore, but it wasn't unwelcome. Zim reviewed Dib's face again, and tried to nod away the sorrow. "Thank you, Dib."

He grinned. "You're welcome, Space Boy." It might have been too early, but he asked anyway. "So what are you going to do now???"

Zim sighed heavily. "I don't know…" His gaze fell to the floor, but his mind couldn't put much together quite yet. "But…" The two looked at each other. "I-i hope that you can help me with that, too." Zim smiled with soft, hopeful eyes, displaying his honesty and openness to whatever was to come.

Dib was surprised, but he slowly smiled back. "Sure thing, Zim."

Chapter Text

The two were now amicable enough to sit together at lunch, much to the relief of all the kids that always got stuck between their ends of the cafeteria during a food fight. Now at least their bicker and banter was contained, instead of being smeared across every wall by the end of the break.

Gaz sat with them only sometimes, when she wasn't in the middle of a game. She wouldn't even consider being near them then, as their weird competition continued even through all that had happened. But she did provide some insight to something that helped Zim a lot: she told him that he could just bring his own food from home instead of having to pick at what was served at school, because he couldn't think of that himself. At least he could get a snack in during the hours that he was forced to be there.

Dib, on the other hand, was still fine with eating the slop that was served there. He collected his tray and things and took his seat.

Zim glanced his eyes over at it. This stuff always smelled worse up close. "Did they have cafeteria food like this back on Irk???" Zim turned his vision to Dib.

"Cafeteria food, yes. Like that, no." Zim waved his hand. "Even the worst Irken cuisine is considered a rare delicacy across lightyears throughout the universe."

Dib grunted. "I'd argue with you, but this stuff really is putrid sometimes." He put some of it in his mouth anyway.

Zim cringed. "So why are you eating it???"

Dib swallowed and thought for a moment. "I guess i never really considered it." He made a face at his tray. "But i am kinda hungry right now." He turned his attention from what he just tasted to the muffin on his plate.

He pinched the liner and took some of it off to bite into it. These things were always far better than the other stuff because it was pre-packaged stuff that you could get at the grocery store.

"What flavor is that one??"

Dib looked at it. He didn't really register that there were supposed to be differences between the instances of the stuff. He sniffed it. "Um, i think it's banana nut." He was mostly guessing. But smelling it did spark some memories of Dib's. "Do you remember that time you kidnapped me and hypnotized me into telling you that i threw one of these at your head?"

Zim sneered. "You mean the time where you absolutely 100% did throw a muffin at me??? Yeah. I remember."

"Pfft! You remember the stupidest things." It was almost entertaining, he had to admit.

Zim turned to Dib and glared again. "You were the one that remembered it, pig-filth!!"

Dib nearly let himself laugh. "Calm down, calm down!" He waved a hand at him and took another bite. He thought about the incident as he chewed. "It's just funny how far we go sometimes."

Zim huffed, "yeah, like how you throw stuff at Zim unprovoked."

"How'd you know what kind of stuff would get me to say that??" Dib leaned his big head in his empty hand.

Zim tried to put it into terms that he'd understand. "The machine reads and manipulates a subject's brain waves. In that case, i programmed it to follow a neural path in your mind based on a 'dream scenario' that had already started. I filled in some of the blanks, but it was a lot of you just thinking that stuff up."

"Hmm, i guess that makes sense…" Dib tapped his cheek. "So what was with the floating alien shoes???"

"Oh, those were Meekrob. They're from a planet of the same name. I think that they're also part of the invasion thing." Zim flipped through the details to himself. "It was just an easy scapegoat, i guess."

"Do they really have the ability to do that kind of thing??"

Zim paused a beat to try to think back. "Um, i don't think so? I don't know."

Dib mulled it over. He tried to think back to the more significant parts to the dream. He sighed, "that's too bad. Having all those powers was fun, even if it was all in my head." He gazed over the texture of the confection before slamming his hand on the table. "Why'd you have it go on for so long?!"

Zim turned his head to him in surprise. He smirked mischievously. "Because it made it funnier."

"It was so detailed!! It was as if i really did live through all of that stuff." He reviewed the timeline again. "What was the stuff that you added??"

Zim thought back to the things that he did. "Besides the obvious, i made it so other people saw the things that you found. I figured that you're doing your…" He flopped his hand and wiggled his fingers in disgust; "Things… for attention. Your dream didn't have any of that on its own, which i thought was weird."

"I do!" Dib cocked his head an inch. "I just want for people to open their minds to all the amazing things in the world."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever." Zim turned his head, and Dib glared at him. "I also showed you the Irken Armada, which was kind of dumb, in retrospect." He tried to ignore the lump in his throat. "But it doesn't matter now, so who cares?"

"You had people respect me and gave me girlfriends and everything! It was great!!"

Zim made a face and grunted. "Calm down, the machine just exemplified the things that your hideous human mind thought up."

"Yeah, but you made people accept me! That's all i really want from chasing cryptids…" He deflated some. "Ya-ya know??..."

Zim glanced his eyes over. He sighed. "Yeah. Zim knows."

The boys sat in silence for a minute. They tried to jump over their own emotional hurdles that they unexpectedly came across, but met up on the other side after a bit.

"So, um…" Zim turned his head so that he could see Dib again. "Thanks for that… i guess…"

Zim turned his head to him a bit more. He smirked a little bit more than his coldness would have wanted, but he spoke honestly. "Sure thing, stink-meat."

Chapter Text

Zim waited outside of the classroom for his schoolmate to come out. The rest of the students were shuffling toward the lunchroom for the period.

Dib stepped out of the room with his deep eyes turned downward. He seemed upset.

"What did she say???" Zim walked slowly next to him.

"She said that i was going to get detention and a call to my dad if i keep falling asleep in class.." Dib took a very long blink.

"That doesn't sound TOO bad…"

"My dad hates when he gets calls from school, ESPECIALLY when it's about me sleeping!! He knows that it's never just because of insomnia that i get like this. He takes away eeeverything that i have when this happens!" He slumped. "It's a real bummer…"

Zim understood that a lot of the stuff that Dib did outside of school was stuff that he deeply enjoyed and helped him forget about the stresses in his life. They were important to Dib, so it was important that they weren't taken away from him. "Couldn't you just come over to Zim's place if he took your stuff away??"

He paused a beat. "No, 'cause he'd ground me."

"But what if you had a school project to do???" They entered the cafeteria.

"He makes sure that it's the case. If i do, then he makes me use Gaz's computer to work on it, and you know that she wouldn't give me a chance to do anything else on it." They sat down at a table and he put his head down in his arms.

Zim considered. He didn't want Dib to lose his fun stuff, but he wasn't too sure how he would be able to weasel it back if his dad really was so strict about it. Offering him something of his own wasn't a good idea either, as Dib would either destroy it or get it confiscated too, and Zim couldn't risk a famous scientist finding one of his alien gadgets. He looked at how Dib was huddled on the bench and how slowly he was breathing. It looked like he might be asleep right there.

Zim didn't want to wake him up. Dib wasn't the kind of human to sleep as an activity, so when he did sleep, it was because he needed it. This was a break period that they had anyway, so Zim let him have his nap.

And then it occurred to him. It felt obvious and easy to do, and he even thought about how he could make it fun for himself. He smiled and nodded. "Sleep well now, Dib-beast. Enjoy it while you can."

DuQwI'

This was a lunch break that interrupted a class period, so they had to go back to the same room once it was over. Zim walked with the sleepy Dib. "Remember, you need to stay awake for this, Dib-monkey." He was clearly drifting off again. Zim stood in front of him and slapped him. "Wake up!!"

"Hey!!!" Dib shook his head and glared at him. "What was that for?!"

"Stay awake, Earth Boy." Zim flicked him in the nose a couple of times, hoping to make him sneezy.

Dib swatted at his hand and crinkled his nose. He grumbled and entered the room, as he was the tiniest bit too tired to fight back, and he didn't want to get in trouble for anything else.

This was a class where the two of them were separated by a couple of rows and columns of students, so it was going to be a little hard to annoy him awake. Zim hoped that Dib would be able to keep his eyes open for at least this period.

About a minute after they got to their seats, Dib sneezed a few times. He made a weird grunty noise afterwards, and shook his head again. "That should buy him some time." Zim thought about what else he could do here to make sure that Dib didn't doze off again.

He couldn't think of much at this distance. He never minded being a disruption, but he didn't want the teachers to think that Dib was being one too and punish him as well: that would be counterproductive. He saw Dib lose steam again and quickly put a thought together. He scribbled on a piece of paper. He folded it up, and then paused. He opened it up and read it again, and wrote down a few more words that would hopefully stir Dib up. He refolded the paper and tapped his classmate to get her attention. "Pass this to Dib." He whispered and offered it.

Zita took it and gave him an odd look. She considered opening it to see what it said, but realized that she didn't care. She turned her head and hissed quietly. "Dib!!!"

He moved his head to look at her, not putting together why she'd want to talk to him. She glanced around and waved the paper to indicate that she was going to toss it to him. He held his hand to try and catch it, but it fell out of his hand's reach, so he pulled it back toward himself with his boot. He bent down and unfolded it as he sat back upright. "Hey Stinky :p Can i borrow some plutonium?"

Dib turned back to Zita with a confused face. She pointed to Zim, who was grinning and waving quickly. Dib's face fell into a grumpy expression, and he turned back around. As expected, Dib was concerned with the thought of Zim needing plutonium, and he plotted up dozens of different ways that he would use it to cause mischief.

The face alone assured Zim that Dib was definitely going to stay awake for the rest of this class at least. He pumped his fist in victory.

DuQwI'

When the bell rang, Zim zipped out of the classroom so that Dib would have to follow him. He caught up and glared at him. "What do you need plutonium for?! I thought you were over that stuff!"

Zim smiled. "Oh, i don't. Zim just said that to make you mad, (as far as you know.)" He rolled his eyes with those last words that he slipped under his breath. He gave a big toothy grin and received another suspicious glare. "See ya next class!" He ran off again. Dib huffed in frustration.

Zim scampered to a place where Dib wouldn't go in this transition. He quickly wrote up a list of things on another piece of paper, and held it in his hand as he hurried to the next class.

They weren't quite as separated in this class as the last one, but it was still enough to keep things from being totally easy. Zim took his seat, and waited for Dib to show up.

Zim watched his sleepy friend come through the door. He kept his eyes on him until he glanced over, and then quickly scratched in another word to the list in front of him, which he tried to make obvious so that Dib would see it.

When he did, he immediately recognized the Irken symbols that Zim had been writing. That set off an alarm in his head that it was important to get the paper away from Zim to at least delay any naughty ideas that he may be trying to put together. Dib snatched it off of his desk and zipped into his seat.

Zim continued to play his part by turning his head to growl at him. He thought to himself, "maybe a puzzle will keep him awake. I hope i made it challenging enough."

The class bell rang again, and the teacher set up the class to do… whatever. That wasn't really important. What was important was deciphering this stuff that Zim wrote down. Dib was still learning the language, so he wasn't able to distinguish all of the symbols that were written down, but he did keep a cheat sheet on his smartwatch. He tapped away at it to pull up the image to have backup to interpret this list.

Zim glanced behind him to where Dib was sitting. He saw that he was hunched over the paper, glancing frantically between it and his watch and writing down anything that he could understand. Zim smirked to himself and returned to his own schoolwork.

Dib had gotten many letters deciphered, but things didn't seem to be lining up. He interpreted words like "tent" and "occurrence," but that second one wasn't even an item. He wondered if it was just a distraction, so he continued to try to solve whatever it was that Zim had written down. "I'll figure this one out, you space rat!!!"

About fifteen minutes before class ended, the whole list was translated. Dib read it over again to try and make heads or tails of it. "Tent, daffodil, angle, toothbrush, interaction, horseshoe, occurrence, joke." Even after outright staring at the last word, he still tried to find some kind of hidden message or anagram or evidence that this was at all something that would have helped Zim commit acts of not-niceness. He made a frustrated face, and shot it up at Zim.

Who was already looking at him. They locked eyes, and Zim smiled and wiggled his brows at him before turning back around. Dib glared and huffed and looked at the paper again, only to realize that this was just a jape. He grumbled and wadded up the paper with one hand, and dropped his head onto the desk.

"That took longer than expected. Good thing Dib is still so stupid." Zim tapped his pencil on his desk, trying to come up with more ideas on how to get Dib through the last couple of hours of school.

DuQwI'

This teacher kept the pair contained so that they wouldn't disrupt the entire class by having them in the crosshairs of their bickering. Unfortunately, they were also sat up front and center in the room, so they had to be very sneaky if they ever wanted to mess with each other under her nose.

Dib expended a lot of energy trying to solve Zim's puzzle. He was clearly getting tired again, but seemed able to at least hold his head up.

Zim glanced at him whenever the teacher turned her head. He tried to listen closely to Dib's breathing to make sure that it wasn't slowing down too much. He noticed that it did a few minutes after she gave them an assignment.

He tapped his pencil at the edge of the desk nearer to Dib. "Stay awake," in morse code. Dib sighed, but he wasn't sure if it was because he registered the message, or because he was tired. Zim tapped his desk again, but didn't get a response.

Zim leaned over as if he were trying to peek at Dib's answers. He didn't notice, and Zim pouted. He thought about it.

Zim reached for something in his pak, hoping he had what he needed. He felt lucky that he did, and maneuvered it in his hand. He took a spare pencil; one that was well sharpened; and pulled it back on the rubber band between his fingers as if it were a bow and arrow. He aimed it from underneath his desk, and let it fly.

It struck Dib near his elbow. The point hit, but it wasn't given force enough to stick in him, so it fell to the floor after poking him pretty good. Dib made a surprised yelp at it, almost jumping in his seat. He shot a wide-eyed glare at Zim.

"No horseplay! Do your work!"

Dib continued to glare, but reached down for the pencil beside him so that Zim wouldn't be able to do that again. Zim tried to make a face to imply that there was something important that Dib needed to remember, but he thought that he was just being weird. Dib turned away and went back to his paper.

Zim tapped his desk again, repeating his message twice. Zim stared at the corner of his eye, and thought that he saw Dib twitch with some kind of recognition, but he still couldn't be sure. He shook his head and sighed. He glanced down at the assignment on his desk and hoped that it or the teacher would help keep Dib from falling asleep.

Zim quickly filled in the answers. He performed exceptionally in almost all of his classes, naturally (and not at all because he was actually way older than even the teachers at this "middle school"), so he didn't usually have to exert himself on completing any of the work given. He made sure that it was completed, and rested his head on the hand opposite of Dib, to keep an eye on him.

He was working slowly. Zim knew that Dib was able to do this particular class' work quickly as well, so it made him concerned. Zim shook his leg and teetered his pencil in his fingers anxiously. He couldn't think of what else to do in this class that wouldn't expend his supplies or catch the teacher's attention to his shenanigans. He twiddled his pencil in his fingers quickly, and lost grip on it only to have it fling partway across the room. He opened his eyes wide when it happened, and the teacher looked up from her book.

"Uumm.." Zim dodged his eyes. "My pencil fell. Over there." He pointed, and the teacher looked over at it. "I'm gonna go get it." He didn't wait for permission to do so, but he didn't really respect these Earth authorities anyway. He walked over and picked it up, then turned to glance over his classmates to see how they reacted.

"Go back to your seat, Zim."

He did as he was told, trying to not focus his vision on Dib for too long. They locked eyes for a second, and Zim moved his hand so that his fingers would open his eyelids wide. They usually made stupid faces at each other, so nobody interpreted it as some encoded thing.

Including Dib apparently, because he blinked tiredly without much attitude on his face before glancing away. Zim huffed loudly at him, and he frustratedly looked at him again. "Stay. Awake!" Zim quietly hissed through exaggerated mouth movements so Dib would finally understand what he was doing.

Zim slid back into his seat, still swapping glares with Dib. "Zim! Enough with the foolishness." They both sat up straight and looked right at the teacher when she hit her ruler on her desk.

"Yes sir." He waited for her to look away again before shooting another peeved glance at Dib, who supported his head in his hand. Zim grit his teeth and tapped his message again a few times. After a couple of seconds, Dib glanced over at Zim, who made a face to stress the importance.

Dib rolled his eyes and sat upright. He fiddled with his pencil and looked over his assignment again, breathing deeply to get some oxygen in his brain. He filled in some more answers and was doing pretty well staying awake during most of the class, but he was clearly almost completely out of steam only ten minutes before the school day was over.

Zim had still been keeping tabs on Dib this whole time, and almost panicked when he saw that he nearly fell asleep again. He quickly flipped through ideas on what else he could do to get him through those last few minutes, but his options were limited. He looked at everything in front of him and quickly picked the first thing that would keep the blame on himself.

Zim ripped his hand across the edge of the paper to make a noise that the people around him could hear. He started yelling loudly, holding his wrist up in pain. "OOOOWWW!!! OW OW OW OW! PAPERCUT!!!!! AAAAHHHGG!!!!"

Some of the kids chattered and some made some other noises like gasps and giggles. The teacher watched him with concern for a few seconds before she realized something. She stood up and slammed her ruler on the desk again. "ZIM! You're wearing gloves. You don't have a papercut!"

Zim stopped howling after she said that, but kept his mouth open as if he hadn't. He carefully looked over his hurt hand and found that there wasn't even a mark on his glove from where the paper scraped it. He acted surprised. "Oh, you're right! It's a miracle!!!" He held his arms up triumphantly.

"Zim, i've had enough of your disruptions today. You will see me after class."

The kids all did that thing they "oooooo" when someone gets in trouble.

"And the rest of you! I expect to see completed assignments on my desk by the time the bell rings today. Make sure it's done or we will have twice the amount of work next class." And they all deflated.

Dib watched quietly throughout the event. The commotion that Zim caused made his heart race with anxiety, and was more than enough to keep him awake through the end of the day.

DuQwl'

Dib waited outside of the classroom for his schoolmate to come out. The rest fo the students were quickly making their way to the exits of the building, as the day had just ended.

Zim stepped out of the room as unphased as he would if he hadn't just been chewed out by the teacher for interrupting the class.

"What did she say???" Dib asked as he tiredly walked beside Zim.

"Nothing important. That she was going to give Zim detention and a call to my parents if i disrupt the class like that again. As if Zim cares." He waved his hand dismissively and smirked at Dib.

He sighed and shook his head. He knew that Zim did it just for his sake so he wouldn't get in trouble. "Ya know…" His eyes were fixed on the ground in front of him. "I appreciate what you did for me today. It was… really helpful." They looked at each other. "Thank you, Zim."

Zim grinned. "It's no problem, Earth Boy. Just, make sure you get proper sleep this Earth evening so i don't have to do it again tomorrow." He looked at him expectantly.

Dib huffed a chuckle. "Oh i will. I'm about to fall asleep here as i'm walking."

"I know ya are, Dib-monkey."

Chapter Text

The boys had been partnered up, AGAIN, to do a project together. At this point it seemed like every teacher that paired Dib and Zim to work on something, especially the stuff in-class, were doing it just because they thought it would make for good entertainment. Their classmates wouldn't disagree, even if their rivalry was weakening into some weird semblance of 'friendship.'

This specific project was one that had them working after school together. It was simple enough to be able to do most of the work in their own homes, so they just called each other to iron out some of the things that either couldn't decide on for himself.

"Okay, yeah, i guess we'll get the papers together tomorrow before class. Hopefully they're all in English this time, right Zim???"

"Yes yes, smell-beast. Zim learned from the last time that human biologists can't speak the languages of the dirty creatures that they study."

"I still don't know how you were able to write a whole essay in 'nudibranch.'" Dib chuckled. "Alright, i'll see you tomorrow. Love you."

"Yeah, love you too."

Phone lines were slammed severed. Both ends of the line were mortified that they had uttered those words, completely untriggered, and so naturally. Dib just screamed when he ripped his hand from the receiver; but Zim went through the trouble of obliterating every last atom of his telephone in a fit of wildly stirring emotions, not the least of which were confusion and astonishment.

Dib was panicking: breathing heavily and trying to go over what had just come out of his mouth, and what came out of Zim's. He thought he was maybe dreaming or going crazy, or that he just misheard the both of them and that there wasn't anything to worry about. He paced and tried to come up with a way to ask about it as soon as he could, figuring that he could call and just claim that he forgot what he needed to say in the case that Zim wasn't also acting weird about it.

He picked up the phone and tried to call, but the line wouldn't even go through. He tried again to the same result and gulped. It was obvious that Zim had got crazy about those words and went ballistic on the wires, so he definitely heard what Dib said. He cringed at thinking about a way to remedy this.

Zim, on the other hand, destroyed every piece of Earth communication that he had in the hopes that Dib wouldn't try to contact him again. He locked himself away in the deepest cellar of his entire lab, and he yelled at GIR to not answer any other way he may try to get ahold of him. He really needed an opportunity to gather his thoughts and also pretend that there wasn't anything to concern him.

Dib left it alone for a while. He read his magazines, he watched Mysterious Mysteries, he played some of Gaz's old games; but he couldn't let it go. He knew that something was wrong between them now, and he knew that he needed to get them both over it because that project was due the next day. He IMed, texted, even booted up the communications on Tak's ship to reach him, but every last line was dead. There was only one thing left that he could do that would definitely reach Zim: he just really hoped that it wouldn't leave him as the charred remains of some awful alien weapon.

He reached the fence of the foreign house just as 'evening' was becoming 'night.' He stood on the sidewalk and stared at it for a few minutes, still uncertain about what he would say and how hostile Zim would be in response. He grunted and sighed, glancing at the security gnomes, as he was pretty certain that they would be activated right now.

The computer allerted Zim to an intruder on the promise, and he connected directly into GIR's internal communication system. "GIR!!! DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE, LET THE DIB-THING INTO THE HOUSE OR I WILL TAKE AWAY THE TV FOR A YEAR. THAT'S AN ORDER, GIR!!!" GIR was shocked.

Dib made it to the door in pretty much one piece, having dodged at least the very harmful attacks of the lawn ornaments. He rang the bell and leaned on the wall, trying to catch his breath.

GIR immediately opened it, without a second thought. "Hiiiii stinkyyyy!!!" He waved his little doggy hand.

"GIR! Can i come inside?? I really need to talk to Zim." He grimaced thinking back to why he was here right now.

"Yaaaaaa-haha!!!" The little robot ran back inside and hopped onto a chair at the table. He smiled and patted the seat next to him.

Dib breathed deeply and stepped inside. He was in with barely enough room to get the door closed before his blood ran cold in response to the sound. "GIR, I SWEAR TO IRK, IF THAT FILTH-MONKEY IS IN MY BASE, I--" The two of them locked eyes as Zim was coming up the elevator.

It felt like a thousand years passed in an instant between them. It was stiff and painful, and fear and uncertainty became the air that they breathed. The two tried to decipher the other's countenance, but the anxiety clouded their vision as well. It was impossible to tell what the other had thought of the whole thing, or how to begin this new step in the relationship between them.

"Zim, i--"

"Why did you say that…??" It was a quiet little question, so strikingly different from what Dib was certain was going to be a tirade with words that would burn to his core.

Dib shifted himself as he examined Zim's face again. He looked almost sad or heartbroken, but he held his hands in tight fists by his sides. Dib's chest quivered. "I… it was an accident." He scratched his head and glanced away. "I usually end calls with my dad like that…" They locked eyes again. "B-because i don't get to see him every day."

Zim tilted his head down and stared pathways into the floor. He didn't say anything, so Dib asked what he needed to. "W-why did you say that…?"

Zim looked up again. He breathed in and his body grew tense. "Iiit's a response…" It seemed as if he wanted to say more: he opened his mouth to, but he didn't know the right words. He turned away and shut his eyes tight.

Dib breathed in. It was scary to have Zim be quiet like this, and it was scary to be so speechless as well. Maybe he really should have left this for later.

He wasn't sure that words were even spoken. "So you didn't mean it…" Dib looked at Zim. He moved himself to lean closer. He hummed quietly and cocked his head a tad. Zim tensed his body again.

"You didn't mean what you said, then??" He opened his eyes, but kept his vision elsewhere.

Dib flinched. He lost his vocabulary again. He felt his heart ram against his ribcage, and his breath hiked once from it. He didn't feel that way about Zim, he was pretty sure. He hated him, right? That's why this is such a weird situation to begin with. He wasn't supposed to feel even this sympathy for such a heinous being… but he did. And it was as alien as he was. But it made sense to him when he felt this way, and maybe it would make sense to him to feel other things for Zim.

"I don't know…" He finally exhaled. Zim closed his eyes tight again. A little while longer passed in silence, until Dib took a step forward. "Did… you mean it???"

Zim stayed quiet. He focused on his breathing, trying hard not to fall apart where he stood. He was so vulnerable right now, so damaged: he wouldn't be able to handle losing anything more than he recently had. He already lost his home and his species, and he knew that losing someone so important to him would destroy the last bit of himself that still barely existed.

"Yes…" He used all of his will to keep his tears from falling. "I did mean it…"

Dib didn't expect him to say that: he didn't expect that honesty. He felt his gut sink and his world go blank around him. It felt like he was simultaneously on fire and freezing alive, and it hurt him everywhere. "O-oh…"

"You're… all that i have left…" Zim's voice cracked, and he turned his head farther. He swallowed hard and became silent again for a few long seconds. "Y… you mean a… a lot to me…" He breathed in sharply and rubbed his hand down his face. He turned to his guest, who was now closer to him. "Dib…"

He had a cautious little smile on his face, hoping that he could bring some comfort to his stressed friend. He held his arms a little bit aways from his body. He breathed in and spoke softly. "It's okay, Zim." He walked closer. "It's going to be alright."

Zim's body was hurting from being so tense, and it only got worse with every inch that Dib got closer. He looked the boy up and down, most fixated with his hands and his gentle expression. He leaned the tiniest bit back, not knowing exactly what to expect next.

Dib was about a foot away from Zim with his arms held out in front of him. They stared at each other for a few moments: the warmth contrasting sharply with the fear and uncertainty. After he felt enough of a time was spent this way, Dib breathed deeply and stepped forward, wrapping the alien up in his caring arms.

Zim was stunned. He quivered at it, so unused to touches of such genuine affectionate intentions. It was foreign, scary in a way. But he didn't back down from it. He lifted his hands on either side of Dib, and he took his time to finally return the hug.

When he felt it, Dib moved his head a little bit against Zim's to show that he was okay with the contact. The confirmation that this was mutual made Zim feel better, and he squeezed Dib close to his body.

He didn't know that he needed a hug like this for so long. The warmth, the pressure, the person providing the comfort… it was all so much more than Zim thought it would be. Tears started to flow first, but when he felt them on his cheeks his chest immediately started to heave. There was no avoiding the crying now. He wrung his hands against the boy's coat and tried to hide his face in his shoulder. "I-i'm sorry, Dib!! I c-can't-t han-dle this right-t now…"

Dib only saw Zim cry a couple of times before this, and he was never the kind of person that was comfortable with trying to console somebody. He knew that he needed to try, though. "It's alright Zim. I know that you're stressed out. It's okay to cry." He squeezed him a little bit tighter.

Zim wept against Dib's shoulder, the quivering in his chest making his body weaker with every falling tear. He clung to him with all that he could, unable to contain how visceral this response was. Dib held him close, not minding any damage that his trenchcoat was taking and squeezing him a bit tighter in his arms every time it felt like Zim might fall to the ground. He could feel every breath and tremble and how it taxed Zim's body, and he decided being here where he was was the only thing he wanted to do right now.

Dib nuzzled against Zim's shoulder. "It's going to be okay, Zim. I promise you, everything is going to be alright." He breathed out calmly, and only just noticed that his eyelashes were also damp. It never occurred to Dib that he might have also needed to be held this way: so emotionally vulnerable in front of someone that he genuinely cared about. He huffed out a smile and kept Zim close. "Zim, do you want to sit down? I'll still be here with you."

Zim tried to quiet his weeping. Air staggered as he breathed in, but after a moment, Dib felt Zim's head nod against his own. He slowly relaxed and stepped backward to lead them to the couch. He sat down and allowed Zim to basically fall on top of him, as he refused to loosen his grip to make sure that this wasn't some kind of cruel prank that Dib could get away from. Dib wouldn't dream of it.

Dib pulled him to his side. He leaned his head against Zim's and squeezed him tight. He breathed in deeply and declared without a second thought: "i love you, Zim."

He could feel him breathing. He felt it get deeper and less steady with every exhale, and he tightened his hold as Zim began weeping again. He buried his face completely against Dib's shoulder, and his claws dug deeper into his coat. Zim whined and wailed and curled up against him, completely unsure why his mind and body reacted the way that it did. The only thing that he could understand was that doing this was, somehow, making him feel better.

GIR heard Zim from the other room, not knowing why he was making the noises he was. He hurried over to where they were to see if there was anything he could do to help. "Master! Are you crying?? Why are you crying, Master???"

Dib looked over at GIR. "He's kind of emotional right now. He's going to be okay, i promise."

"Master never cries! What did you do to him?!" He hopped onto the couch next to them.

Dib tensed a bit at it. Zim sharply breathed in and sighed out with a tilt of his head. "GIR," his chest heaved, "stand down."

"Yes Sir!" He saluted, and stepped all over Dib to get next to Zim to hug him as well. He nuzzled against his arm.

The interruption helped Zim calm down some. His tears still fell, and he'd hiccup every now and then, but he was able to stop weeping the way he was. He analyzed all of this and moved his attention to his breathing when he was scared that he would become emotional again. He never loosened his grip on Dib during all of their time together.

After a while, Dib noticed that Zim seemed to become stable. He turned his head a bit. "Zim?? Are you feeling better???"

There wasn't a response: not a snuggle or a twitch or even a change in breathing. "Zim???"

He looked at the little robot on his lap. "Uh, GIR???" He was hoping that he'd be easily stirred awake. Unfortunately for him, he was not.

"Guys??" Dib glanced between his partners and tried to pull away from them. GIR was heavier than he looked, and Zim's hold on him was as tight asleep as it was when he was awake. There wasn't any budging from where Dib found himself. It wouldn't have been the worst that could have been currently, but he suddenly remembered that he didn't actually finish his part of their project. "Shoot…"

Chapter Text

Zim finished tapping away at the screen inside the mangled starship and the tablet in his hand. "Alright, that should make things simpler to diagnose." He hopped out of the vehicle and turned to look at it.

Dib cocked his head and swapped his vision from the two. "What did you do???" He couldn't imagine that much happened from those short minutes.

"Just watch, Dib-thing." He gave a cocky smile at him before addressing the computer onboard. "Ship! Activate!"

The machine wirred and revved to life, albeit weakly and incompletely. The computer beeped a couple of times to acknowledge the command.

"Oh, you got the voice command working." It wasn't awfully impressive, but something was better than nothing in this state. "Uhm, how's that gonna help us?"

"Patience, patience. Having the voice module working will be VERY… helpful." Dib glared at him. "It'll be able to tell us what's wrong with the sensors and things that the tablet can't, and we'll be able to repair it from there. You're gonna like this part." Zim smirked. "Ship, voice command."

It staggered in an electric creek "Affirmative."

"What?!" Dib was astounded at his auditory doppelganger. "I thought it erased me from its memory!"

Zim pinched his face into a smug grin. "As if your filthy human brain could properly navigate Irken technology; a mere copy of your idiocy could never fully understand the mechanisms, even from the inside. Zim just unlocked it again."

Dib frowned. "Okay." He growled. "Then why don't you use Tak's interface? If Irkens are so much more connected to their junky machinery."

"Perspective, Dib-thing." He spoke more casually. "A simpler mind can identify the biggest problems in the body easiest. For example, we can't fix the wiring between the dashboard and the thrusters if we're not certain that the thrusters are able to work at all."

"Then why don't you just inspect the whole thing? That doesn't sound that hard."

Zim gently shook his head. "There's no need to waste time and energy on that when we have this. Just, calm down, Dib-guy. Things are going to get a lot more frustrating for you."

Dib studied Zim and tried to not let those words intimidate him. He already knew that the ship was complicated to get working when he first got her: he figured that trying to repair the ship when she was in this shape was going to be much much harder.

"Ship, damage report." Zim glanced his eyes between the ship and his tablet.

"Processing…" The engine and onboard computer made loud wirring noises as it tried to identify everything that was wrong with it. Lists of error codes and warnings about parts that were damaged or offline appeared on the tablet.

Zim glanced it over, scrolling through several screenfulls of messages. He tisked his teeth and shook his head as he read through them. "That is a lot of issues." He looked up at it. "You poor, poor thing."

Dib made a face, unsure if he heard what he thought he did. He turned and sneered at the image of Zim.

"Why don't you tell Zim what hurts you the most, hmm??"

Dib turned his head to fully glare at him, perplexed completely as to why he was using such a different tone with this computer than he did with all of his own AIs. In fact, it sounded like a different tone than he had used on anything that Dib had known him to before, and it was very unsettling.

"Fuel tank repair required. Primary power distribution repair required. Engine repair required." Dib heard his own voice saying these things and knew that he could have told them that. He crossed his arms.

"I see, baby, i see." Dib's heart stopped. His hair felt prickly and it sounded like there was water in his ears. "Does anywhere else hurt you that badly, sweetie???" Dib turned to Zim completely as his body fully ignited from the phrasing.

"Major repairs required. I am unable to process the full extent of the damage to all systems. Repair to sensors would likely provide better detail." It sounded kind of sad.

"Oh, my poor widdle baby ship." Zim patted the front of it.

Dib seethed and shook. He barked at Zim. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! WHY are you talking to it like that?! Just talk to it like you would any other stupid piece of Irken garbage and get this over with!!!" He was trying hard to hold himself back from beating the snot out of Zim for taunting him.

Zim made a face that sat between a sneer and a dirty, laughing grin that bared his teeth. "I have no idea what you're talking about, dirt-beast. I'm just talking to the ship in a way that will comfort it from being so damaged so that i can get the most information out of it. Don't you want to get diagnostics on what to do before we start fixing just whatever?? I thought you were smarter than that, Earth Boy." He spoke cooly and smiled disgustingly smugly. This was so much fun for him.

"YOU WRETCHED INSECT!!! I'M GONNA MAKE YOU PAY FOR MAKING FUN OF ME LIKE THIS!!!"

Dib lunged forward with all of his might and rage, but was too far to reach Zim when he took a step backwards. In that time, he had the chance to say "restraints." A mechanical tentacle shot out from the ships cockpit and ensnared Dib a few feet into the air where he couldn't hurt anyone. Dib grunted and growled and yelled, flailing as hard as he could to try to escape.

"Oh, dear stink-brained Dib." He slowly shook his head. "You really must learn to control your temper if the two of us are to nurse this poor, darling ship back into working order." He used the same condescending tone as he had been. "Unless you think there's something wrong with how i'm approaching this." He grinned wide as he said it: "care to share your feelings, Dib-thing???"

Dib breathed in five gallons of air into a mouth full of teeth that he felt were sharp enough to cut through metal at this point. "YOU'RE A DISGUSTING SPACE MONSTER AND I HATE YOU!!!" He spat at Zim's face.

Dib was too high up to get a good shot in, so only a couple little droplets got on Zim's cheek. He wiped it off with an unphased hand. "I know you do." He stepped to be closer to him and finally took a serious tone. "But we have to do this. Don't let these things get to you so badly, Dib-beast. This ship isn't you. It's a basic copy of your mind from a few years ago, trapped inside of Irken equipment without having the chance or understanding to properly adapt to where it is now."

Dib continued to growl in his throat.

"Believe it or not, but the Irken-human connection needs to be approached very delicately. You saw yourself how hard a time the ship had when you downloaded yourself into it, including connecting to either of our species. It's a thin, brittle line, but walking on it is going to get us there much easier than either of us trying to go through Tak's interface."

It made enough sense, but Dib didn't want it to. He stayed angry, but calmed down enough to consider things. He thought about it. "I never had a problem getting through to Tak's interface."

Zim sighed. "Dib, now you really need to stop lying to yourself. Tak never liked either of us, and you always had a problem fixing her when you were doing it on your own. We're working on her together now, and i know that we're not going to get anywhere if we use that interface. It's not going to be that bad if we do it this way. You need to trust me that we can do this."

Dib stayed quiet. He was still upset, but calmed down about as far as he was going to be able to. He took a few deep breaths. "Okay…" He turned his vision down. "Okay, Zim. We'll… we'll do it your way."

Zim nodded. He patted the ship and told it "lower him down." The ship did as it was told and slowly lowered Dib to the ground. It released him when his feet were fully on the ground. Dib glared at him for a few seconds and ripped his body away. "This isn't you, Dib. The ship is not you. Even the memories that you share with her aren't you. She knows that she's a piece of technology now, of a species that's different than what she thought she was. Both of you have been through so much to further drive you apart. So don't take this as me talking to you."

Dib processed this. He huffed. "Then why are you talking to it like that?" He side-eyes Zim.

Zim rolled his eyes. "Because i wanted to mess with you." He smiled, and Dib bared his teeth at him again. "But we're past that now." He motioned with his hand. "I think we learned a little bit about ourselves, (for better or worse,) and now we're ready to actually start working on repairs."

Dib glared at him. "I hate you."

"Like i said, she wasn't able to adapt to being in alien equipment. Even as an Irken ship, she wasn't able to fully understand what her situation was." Zim looked up at the ship. "Tak made her out of parts of a prototype of one of the Armada's battleships. She has parts that my Voot Runner could never use, and parts that the current battleships didn't get. I'll admit, it was crafty of her."

Dib studied her and tried to compare it to Zim's ship and what he remembered about the other ships he had seen before. It looked all its own, and he had never considered that it was something that Zim hadn't been using this whole time. "How are we going to handle this?"

"I know about the prototype ships that she used. Vortians developed it while i was researching there, and i even helped with some of the designs. I wouldn't be able to recreate the entire blueprint, but i can probably manage around the things that it looks like she used."

Dib was surprised. "You helped design ships in the Armada?! Well that's excellent!!! Then this really won't be too hard to work on!"

Zim sighed. "Theoretically." They turned to each other. "Many of the technologies that they used for the Armada were made exclusively for those ships. They're not reproduced in mass quantities because they're specialized pieces of equipment, and because the prototype parts didn't get translated into the final designs. Even the raw materials are extremely difficult to obtain. I have some connections, but since the Irkens cut me off…" He turned his head away. "It's going to be tough getting things that will work."

Dib paused. "That's okay." Zim looked over to him. "Whatever we can't get, we can replace with parts similar to the ones that your Voot uses. They didn't cut you off from basic stuff like that, did they???" Zim glanced away shamefully again. Dib grew quiet. He felt sorry for him.

He spoke to try to add optimism. "Well… we still have Earth equipment. A-aaand we have stuff from all of the other planets in the universe! We can use that instead!" Zim glanced at him again. "Look, those losers obviously still haven't conquered all of it. There's still so much out there, and i know that you're more than capable of making something amazing out of any alien equipment that you get your hands on. You've hacked technologies from species that you haven't even heard of!!" Dib put a hand on Zim's shoulder. "Zim, i'm confident that you can do this. I know that you can."

Zim glanced away from him for a moment, digesting the things that Dib had said and his effort to try and cheer him up. He knew that he was just trying to be nice, but it did help dampen the sting of being an orphan. He turned back to him and gave him a nod.

Dib tinted his face with smug. "Besides. You have an excellent scientific mind at your side to help with anything that you can't do."

Zim huffed out a smile and rolled his eyes. "You're right, Dib." He glanced his eyes to the ship quickly. "The onboard computer is pretty smart." He smirked again, his eyes still showing how appreciative he was of the pep talk.

Dib glared, but his face still had a smirk on it.

Chapter Text

This will be written kind of messy; i am sorry about that. This entire fic/au happens over the course of… about six or seven years, i believe.

The first event that occurs is Zim's official exile, which happens a year-ish after the series ends, or when Dib is 13. That was the first fic in this set, the first chapter. It honestly needs to be redone to read better, but like i said, i don't think i'm going to touch any part of this again soon.

After that would be miscellaneous ficlets about Zim and Dib becoming something like friends. I intended for there to still be lots of tension between them at this stage, as they are still learning to trust one another. A major part of most of this fic was Zim learning to cope with being discharged from something that he was trained for and knew his entire life and his dealing with the related depression of that; and the tension between Dib wanting to help and still not trusting him enough to be a neutralized threat. Essentially an attempt at being friends.

This point would be one or two years in: the two decide that they have technology enough to do things outside of just Earth. Dib has always wanted to see the universe, and Zim doesn't have anything better to do. He's willing to explore other planets and things with Dib to get back out there (and keep Dib safe, but he probably wouldn't willingly admit that.) Between the two they have two partially working Irken vehicles: partially working because Tak's was never fully fixed, and because Zim's exile means that he can't get replacement parts to repair any of his equipment. They decide to merge the Voot and the Spittle to be a slightly bigger vehicle that would be able to handle whatever they need from it. In the process, they use Dib's downloaded copy onboard the Spittle to repair it and the Voot (which is the fic with the ship in this set), but i'm unsure exactly which AI they use when the ship is completed: it would either be Dib's copy, Tak's copy, or Zim's Computer, but i don't remember which one i was leaning towards. I just know that i was going to refer to the ship as “Tas” because it was TAk, but a Ship and not an Irken, if you understand. Just a distinction, not very important to the plot lol.

Along the way, the two become better friends. They learn to trust one another and put up with the other's nonsense because they're more comfortable with the fact that they really only have each other to rely on. As the ship becomes more operational, they use it to explore Earth and other planets. This is where i'd have genuinely fun ficlets with them doing stuff like cryptid hunting or getting into weird alien situations while they still butt heads a little bit. I just really enjoy the idea of these two being friends, honestly. Of course, those would perhaps have become supplements to the main story and might have become its own individual post if i had gotten to any of them.

To be completely fair, this IS still my fic, my au, so what i planned was what i planned whether it's accepted or completely reasonable or not. I say that because, yes, there is eventual ZaDRr in the story. I don't know if i mentioned it anywhere, but almost all of my IZ fics are in the same au, so the coming out fic, the confession fic, and the other ZaDr ficlets i have posted are all technically part of this storyline. So, they get together when Dib is 18, which is at least five years into the story. I wouldn't have anything too distracting in the fic at this point: it would have been more of “okay, this is what this is and it does affect the rest of the story to an extent.” I didn't plan on being touchy here: that's what those ship ficlets were for. Again, just supplemental stuff. Besides that detail, it would have been just more of their hijinx honestly.

At some point; about six years in; the two would agree that there isn't much opportunity left for them on Earth, and they decide to leave. Dib would bid his family goodbye: his sister being as supportive as would be typical of her, and his father not really caring one way or the other. Dib would probably still keep contact with Gaz after he leaves, but is comforted by Zim when he decides to stop communicating with his father. Of course, GIR would go with them, and more than likely Computer would too. Again, i'm unsure if he would be there as the ship's AI, or perhaps would have gotten his own robot body in which to ambulate. More than likely he would be the ship, but i never planned that detail out.

The group continue to explore the universe, but part of the plan to leave Earth involved finding and joining the resistance group known as “Resisty” (which i probably would have renamed, because that is a stupid name.) When they do find it, the members are very hesitant to allow Zim in, especially Lard Nar. Lard Nar would prefer not to have an Irken onboard, and would very much prefer any Irken over Zim because he knows him from working with him on Vort and seeing all of the destruction he's caused to the people he's trying to help. So the Resisty don't want Zim to join, but he and Dib convince them to let him in. Zim is kept under tight watch, which he does not appreciate but puts up with.

I'm unsure how long this goes on for before the Resisty have any kind of contact with the Irkens. Regardless, Zim secretly approaches Lard Nar with a plan to attack the Massive, which he agrees to. (This is where it gets dramatic.) He leads the Resisty in the mission as Zim spends particular time with his companions. When the attack is ready to commence, Zim takes his ship and charges the Massive alone. The Resisty distracts the Massive enough to where they don't notice that the Irken and his ship are unregistered parts of the Empire, so they don't attack him outright. Onboard the Massive, Zim essentially goes through with a suicide mission to try and kill the Tallests. I'm unsure whether he succeeds, but i would like to think he does. His companions are devastated to learn about it, but further vow to destroy whatever remains of the Empire after that attack. Dramatic, i know, but that’s just how i am with my stupid ideas.

Of course there would have been some other things in between. Like i mentioned, plenty of it would have been little ficlets and vignettes of stuff that happens with Zim and Dib and GIR, but those are the major story points. I think parts of it and the ending are just a little bit too depressing for me to really want to get into writing, because i know that doing so really affects my mood and i have been too busy to dedicate time to being unhappy. (Rather, more so than i am already: i haven't been doing any art because i'm depressed. Oh well.) If i get to it, great, if not, that's what this is for. Like i said, if you want to play with any of the ideas, i would like to see what you come up with. It's not my series or anything, but i am a little attached to what i have for this au, so please do hmu if you have any thoughts about it or whatever. Thank you for reading!