Chapter Text
Zim was living his happy but destructive life, making plans about how he’ll destroy the Earth. Talking about it with GIR, his robot, the closest he has to a friend, though he wouldn’t let himself get too attached, though with how GIR acted, he didn’t have a problem caring too much about him.
On Earth, he’s never had friends and he was completely fine with it, if not happy about it, the only time he would ever talk to someone was if he was trying to get something from them– Such as information, or to purposefully make them angry.
Even with Irkens, he wasn’t really friends with them, though he likes to think he is. But either way it didn’t weigh him down, he wasn’t on Earth to make friends with humans, he was there because it was his duty.
He had paper all scattered around the Living Room, blueprints, weird drawings– Which some were made by GIR and he would go on rambling about how once he’ll invade the Earth he’ll become the Almighty Tallests favorite.
A dream he wanted so badly, but his confidence and ego got in the way, he could never properly kill the humans or take them over in any way. He always threw a fit about it, ranting at the Almighty Tallest through the various calls that they had. Whenever he would look away from the screen, they would snicker or roll their eyes.
They often made remarks about Zim, they hated him, as much as Zim thought highly of them, they never thought the same about him, but he never picked up on that– They do say that ignorance is bliss, and Zim was living a blissful life.
GIR was watching something on the television while Zim was laying down on the floor making up ideas, talking about them with GIR, well, talking at GIR. “What if I poisoned the Earth?” He looked down, lost in thought. “But how would I do that?” GIR seems to be humming something,
“Maybe if I grab something that could inject poison into the ground, then everyone would start to panic– And then they would be terrified of Zim! Then they would obviously worship me.” He clenched his hand as he looked over to the robot on the couch “GIR are you even listening?!” He turns to him, Zim knew that he shouldn’t have asked.
He knew that GIR would respond with something stupid, he always does, and Zim was right, he did “I want tacos! Can we get tacos pretty please? Pretty please?!”
GIR’s hyperness tired Zim, for being a servant, he didn’t really do anything. But Zim couldn’t get rid of him. “No GIR, this is important! We have no time for something as disgusting as tacos ” He was repulsed by the idea of food made by humans– No, not just food, he was repulsed by humans entirely.
“Aww but–” “No GIR! Don’t give me that look!” Zim barely gives him anytime to speak, but GIR then gives him puppy dog eyes while Zim crosses his arms, “GIR.” he closes his eyes to avoid him, but to only to look back at GIR who is trying his best to cry, but being a robot and all, it isn’t working too well.
“But Master!” “No.” They go back and forth for a few minutes, until Zim gives into the pressure, “Fine…” He groans as he rolls his eyes. “But only once I’m done with my brilliant plans!” GIR started giggling. Which made Zim both happy and angry.
It was strange, with how much GIR annoyed him, he just couldn’t hate him. GIR was both more and less irritating than the regular human to Zim. But Zim never questioned it, he just moved on without thinking about his dynamic with GIR.
So as per usual, he went back to making up schemes.
Well , that was until his computer alerted him that something was heading towards Earth, and fast. Alarms and lights came from the ceilings making a loud beeping sound while flashes of red were fading in and out.
Zim was pessimistic about what it could be, he couldn’t… No, he wouldn’t let anything take over Earth, if by chance it’s an asteroid, he was going to destroy it. Earth is his for the taking, he was assigned to invade it, so he will.
So the first thing to do is to take action. He stood up in a heartbeat and then ran down to his lab.
He sat down on the chair right in front of a monitor, noticing all of the sheets of paper on top of his keyboard, then wiping them away for them to fall on the ground. He slightly regretted doing that, only for the reason that he would have to pick them back up. But that wasn’t his main concern right now.
“Computer!” He unnecessarily yelled “Identify whatever is coming towards this awful planet!” Everything froze, which left Zim on the edge of his seat, literally. “It seems to be a ship from space.”
The computer responds showing an image of a very dark and blurry image, Zim could barely make it out, but it looked familiar to him, too familiar. There’s probably something on that ship, something that could take Zims dream away.
He tried to analyze and inspect the picture, the shape, the colors that he could vaguely make out felt too similar to something that he’s seen before. “Maybe it was a ship that I saw while traveling to Earth? No… That’s not it.” Zim kept looking at it, trying to understand the shape.
His curiosity took over him. “Computer, locate where that ship is heading.” The computer freezes again. He rolls his eyes, trying to calm himself, but with each second passing, it felt like a year.
He decides to use his time by picking up the paper off the ground.
As he was picking up around twenty sheets he started getting inpatient, but as he was picking up the last few sheets, he heard a loud crash and what felt like an earthquake outside. He dropped every sheet but one out of shock, which left him angry and tired.
“The ship just crashed a few miles from your base.” Another image appears, showing coordinates.
Zim grabs a pen and starts writing it down as quickly as possible, and he was pretty fast, it only took him around thirty seconds, maybe less to fully write it all down.
He gets up from his chair, to go up stairs to grab his wig and contacts. He runs to his Living Room, passing GIR sitting on the couch, “If anyone tries to break in, I’m counting on you to stop them.” Zim tries to speak in the most serious tone he can. “Yessir!” GIR stands up and salutes to him.
Zim felt like he could actually trust him, he’s the only thing to trust. He leaves the house after he puts his disguise on, putting the contacts on last, but fumbling with them. He had to check out that ship, not only does his life depend on it, but so do the humans.
Walking down the steps, he could barely see it from his house, the ship was huge, which he knew would cause a panic, but, he was pretty sure, he was the only thing running towards the crash.
Sprinting into the forest, And being so small he could avoid most branches that would’ve hit him in his face if he was tall, which made him cocky, he couldn’t be happier about the fact that he was short, which he didn’t care about normally.
Time felt like it was quickly going by, Zims only objective was getting to that ship. Passing by tree by tree he felt like he was halfway there, he could already see the smoke, and he could smell something burning, there’s most likely a fire, he wasn’t sure what to do if that were the case, but he ran anyway. As he was trying to ignore the smell, he started to get nausic, but he needed to check it out.
As he was getting a better view of it, he knew exactly what it was.
It was the Almighty Tallests ship, destroyed in front of him. There were flames everywhere though it was hard to see because of all of the smoke.
But he went in, he felt like that was a mistake, nothing could have prepared him for what had happened. There was no chance in Hell that any Irken survived that crash, but in desperation Zim went into every part of that ship, ignoring any burns he would get along the way. But all he saw were corpses, bodies of his kind.
Zim broke into tears as he was searching for his leaders, which he did find, along with some transcripts of the calls that he and the Almighty Tallest had. He took them, if anything was going to be saved, it was going to be them.
He finally left the ship with several burns and cuts but nothing hurt worse than seeing his leaders dead. He couldn’t help himself, and he decided to read some of the transcripts, which made Zim feel even worse.
The transcript held some of their conversations they had after the call ended. He spent around three hours in the woods, in the middle of the night reading every single transcript. He found out the truth, the entire reason he was sent here on Earth. He didn’t feel guilty that his leaders died, but he also didn’t feel great about it.
He didn’t know how to feel, all he knew was that a large part of his species is dead and that he can never make his leaders, the Almighty Tallest proud.
Dib Membrane was living his very adventurous but mostly boring life. With his somewhat supporting, but busy father never having time for his children, and his sister, Gaz, who just plays games all day, never really talking to Dib. He didn’t have the best life at home, but it could’ve been worse.
He never had a social life, everyone seemed to hate him, but he shrugged it off. But there had to be one person who would be his friend, and there was, he made a friend through his dreams of being a paranormal investigator, which that dream was going almost nowhere, but he was determined nonetheless.
His father, Professor Membrane always thought that Dib was insane for believing in the paranormal, which didn’t really change how Dib thought, he tried to convince his father that ghosts and aliens exist, and once upon a time he almost thought that he was actually crazy, but, it never stopped him from believing it.
And he felt validated when Zim happened upon the Earth, but no one believed that he was an alien– That infuriated Dib, only him and his sister knew that he was an alien, which only one of them cared about. Dib constantly was spying on Zim, putting cameras around and even in his base.
Dib followed Zim to his base many times, and most of the time he would break in to stop whatever Zim was doing or planning. He always kept a close eye on him, which it wouldn’t be surprising to hear that Dib knew about the Almighty Tallest, and he especially knew how much they despised Zim, but he couldn’t help but to feel some remorse for him,
Which Dib would try to shrug off, but it was pretty difficult to not feel bad for Zim.
Dib was in his room, looking through the cameras, looking at what Zim was writing down, he took notes too. He felt smart by preventing Zims plans, whenever he needed a self-esteem boost he’d just think about how many times he’s saved people around him, let alone the planet.
And the cameras only made it easier for him to think of ways that he could stop Zim, though he knew it was a matter of time before Zim would notice the cameras, which he has multiple times, but that didn’t stop Dib from putting them back, and even hiding them in better areas.
He saw the alert, he was petrified to learn that something unknown was heading towards Earth. Then to learn that it was a ship, he couldn’t be happier, but he was also terrified. He was about to be validated on the fact that Aliens exist. He wasn’t crazy and the world was about to see that, but what if those aliens on that ship were alive? What if they try to take over the planet like Zim?
But he heard what could only be the ship crashing. Without a second thought he stood up, turned his computer off as he grabbed his jacket from his bed, putting it on as he opened his door.
As he walked to the front door. He sees Gaz, which he was thinking about explaining the whole situation, but it would take too long “I’m going to check out that sound, I’ll be home soon.” Gaz doesn’t really pay much attention to him, but she gives a nod.
He walks out, closing the door behind him, Taking a deep breath as he walks where he thinks the crash is.
Walking for maybe around ten minutes, he walks into the forest, lucky for him, it’s the same one that Zim walked into. He goes farther and farther into it, he feels lost, but he shakes every fear that he has.
He started getting a few cuts on his face, he was tall enough for the branches to hit his head.
So he decided to slow down even more. Which took him maybe ten more minutes to walk halfway to the ship.
But as much as he wanted to get there as soon as he could, he didn’t want to break his glasses again this week.
After a few more minutes, he finally finds Zim and the ship; he unsurprisingly gets there too late. He hides behind the tree as he watches Zim, he seems to be reading something, and he’s… “Crying?”
He finds comfort in the fact that whatever is in that ship is most likely dead, but something about seeing Zim like that makes him feel terrible, he never thought that he would feel that way about Zim. He should be happy that he’s feeling pain, with how much he’s hurt Dib, this would just be karma. But he can’t help the pain in his chest. It feels like his heart is sinking. He tries to shake the feeling off as he leaves the forest. He's confident that Zim will go back to his house as well at some point.
Walking back to his house, he sees Gaz and his Father through the window, he knew he was going to be scolded for leaving Gaz alone. With so many thoughts going through his brain he struggled even wanting to confront his family.
He turned the door handle and opened it, only to his surprise to see a relieved Membrane, “Welcome back home, Son.” The tone shocked him, he didn’t know what to respond with, even a simple ‘hello’ would suffice, but he felt awkward just thinking about saying it.
With a few seconds of dead air passing, he had to say something “Sorry, I was kinda expecting to be yelled at…” Which made his father laugh slightly. “Well, It was stupid of you to investigate that explosion, but I’m glad you’re okay.” Those words made Dib smile.
“I didn’t get too close to the Sh…” Dib cuts himself off, “If he goes to the ship he’ll be dead in seconds” Dib reminds himself, Zim might kill anyone who gets near the ship, “The explosion.”
“Did you see anything? Anything like valuable resources?” Dib looks away “Nothing, whatever was there is gone, it’s all fire and smoke.” Which wasn’t a total lie, but he thought it would be safer telling his father a false narrative.
He looked over at Gaz, she had her console on her lap, “How long has she been listening?” He could tell that she knew that he was lying, she knew that he found something, he was refusing to tell them what it was.
But his father was none the wiser, and for once, Dib was happy that he wasn’t.
He walked into his room and turned his computer back on, there he saw Zim, crying. He knew something was wrong, but he figured that it’d be better if he kept looking at him in case.
Until the camera picks up something Zim said, “I can’t believe it…” His voice is shaky and his hands are trembling. He falls to the floor, right in front of the couch. GIR seems to be concerned, it seems pretty uncharacteristic for him to not do anything crazy. Dib knew that this was serious.
Zim wasn’t putting up an act. Dib covers his mouth, he feels the tension, it feels like he’s being weighed down just by looking at the screen and whatever words that are about to leave Zims mouth are going to be devastating.
“The Almighty Tallest are dead.”
Dib backs away from his computer, he realizes what Zim might do. If they died because they crashed on Earth , then he’ll just blame humans for it, and he might just be more cruel and unrepentant.
But there’s nothing Dib could do, if he steps one foot near Zims front lawn, he’ll be blown into smithereens, which would be something that Dib would try to get through normally, but in the state that Zim’s in, he wouldn’t even think about trying it.
Yet again, Zim seems to be doing nothing but curling on himself crying, but all it takes is for Zim to get it in his head that humanity’s somehow to blame. But if he ever tried something, Dib would sacrifice himself to save people, he’s done it many times, so why would this be any different?
He decided that the best option for him is to get to sleep. It’ll probably take a while for Zim to be in his normal state again, and if Zims going to attack, he should at least be well rested.