Chapter Text
The rain was pouring fast and hard, Dib had considered abandoning the mission, but he figured that stopping Zim was far more important than a storm coming.
How was it not? Zim could destroy Earth, Dib was willing to almost kill himself to save the Earth, nobody cares though. That thought has made him almost give up, but he knows that when he catches Zim he will be finally at peace.
Maybe he’ll even be praised by his father, maybe even the entire town? Dib laughs at that thought,
Passing the corner to Zim's house, he got shivers down his back, he just had to sneak past his weird… Garden Gnomes? Dib always thought they were weird, and it was because it is. Zim obviously doesn’t know how normal ones look.
And the color of the house, the decorations… Where did he even get this house? If you can even call it one. Everything about Zim, his home, his attitude and especially his goal was always creepy– No, it’s worse than that, it’s terrifying.
But getting back to the main goal, If he could just get into the house without any of Zims weird security killing him.
After a few minutes, Dib had a stupid plan, but it could work. He picks up a few small pebbles, and he starts throwing them at his gnomes, and without much shock, they treat it as a threat.
Shooting lazers, or whatever that alien technology is, he needs to be able to stop and deactivate them..
“Damn, how am I going to get past his security?” Dib looks at the window,
Maybe if he could jump from the fence all the way to the window he could maybe get in his house with little to no problem.
But that would be insane, the gap between the window and the fence is enormous. Dib couldn’t even make it half way, though maybe if he could distract those robots– “But how?” Dib was mumbling to himself.
He just needed a few seconds without being noticed, Dib might not be strong but he is pretty fast, or he is at least fast enough to make it.
He quickly came up with a plan, though admittedly a risky one. He took off his jacket, throwing it as far as he could. But both unfortunately and fortunately for him, it hit the front door.
They didn’t destroy it, but it seemed the plan worked, they were trying to inspect it. As fast as he noticed he jumped onto the fence to the ground as he ran for his life towards the window.
Climbing up he sighed, “I made it” He repeated that few times, from a more excited tone a tired one. There was no way he was going to get his jacket back, he accepted that loss.
Making his way to Zim’s underground hideout, he was clueless about Zims plans.
Upon entering, he heard the door close, it never does that when he’s near it. He can’t get it open. Why won’t it open? Am I going to die? Is this the end? He gets into a panic, the sound of his breathing suffocates the room, his vision turns black, he is hyperventilating.
But he isn’t unconscious yet, no no, that would actually be peaceful comparatively but he was too unlucky for that. He can feel every second. Anxiety, fear and intense paranoia is both keeping him awake and close to passing out at the same time.
He tried to take deep breaths, but somehow that made it worse, he felt his heart pound, it felt as if it was going to burst out of his chest.
He couldn’t move his hands, he felt like they were glued to his chest. He could only look at one spot on the wall.
This was a mistake.
The monitor in front of Dib turned on, it was Zim.
“Hello, Dib-Stink.” Zim’s voice echoed throughout the room. That phrase is never horrifying, but for Dib at this moment, it was way worse than horrifying, Which it did make it easier for Dib to focus on anything but the fear of dying.
He had a remote of some kind in his hand, even though he never saw the other side, he suspected it had at least one button on it and Dib figured it was important, why would he have it if it wasn’t?
Why is he trapped? What is Zim planning? But he could barely think, let alone speak– But he managed to shout.
“What have you done Zim?!” He didn’t know he had the power to yell, he expected it to be closer to a whisper, though he felt his throat constrict afterwards.
“I haven’t done anything yet. Well, except for… Build a new time machine!” His laugh, that hellish laugh, it’s a sound Dib couldn’t get away from, it felt like nails on a chalkboard.
“Prepared to go to the future, Dib?!” Zim looks to press something on the remote.
Dib knew he wasn’t going to stop Zim, but he couldn’t say anything before vanishing.
This is a dream, It has to be! Sure, Zim has created a time machine, but he used it to harm me in the past. The future is different, going forwards in time is just… Impossible!
Those were Dibs last thoughts before being transported to the future.
As he opened his eyes he was expecting to end up in the lair again. But he didn’t.
He woke up in the middle of a…
“Is this a bedroom?” He feels around, he stands up to try to find the lightswitch. Which he does find right beside the door unsurprisingly.
Turning it on, it was exactly what he thought. The room was well decorated, pastel pink wall paper, some lovely paintings of nature and a nice dark red master bed to finish it off.
It looked like his dream bedroom, but it couldn’t be. He knew this wasn’t Zim’s house, it wasn’t his either. But there’s one thing he does know–
Whoever decorated this house has great taste.
He left the room, he was being careful with being quiet, he questioned if he was alone.
But seriously, what is this place? The second floor feels very different from that room, it became undecorated, it was an off brown color. It looks like Zim’s house.
No, it is Zim’s house. He walked downstairs, to find the couch where it always is, the TV in front of it. The only shocking thing is that GIR isn’t there in front of it, talking to himself about tacos or something akin to that.
There is something that’s different, there’s a clothing stand to the right of the door, next to the corner, but not close enough to hug the walls.
But Zim doesn’t wear clothes that need a clothing stand, maybe I’ve just never noticed it before.
His legs crumble at the stairs, he sits on them for about ten minutes, maybe more? It’s kinda hard to tell how much time you’ve wasted when you don’t know what the time is, but does it really matter if I’m in the future anyways? Technically I have more time here than the future me
He stands back up, he has a good feeling that he’s alone in the house. Though he’s willing to wait until someone comes back, if there’s even anyone who lives here anymore.
Walking to the door, Dib’s terrified of opening it. What if Zim took over the Earth by this time?
Wait, how far in the future am I? A day, a year, a decade?!
But shaking off any fear that he has he opens the door, however. There was another person on the other side doing the same.