Chapter Text
“Alright, everything is set. Camera, check. Backup camera, check. Phone, check. Towel for padding, check. And,” Dib beamed a devilish smile as he held up a pry tool, stolen right from his dad’s lab in the basement. He tucked it upright inside his backpack and zipped it up.
“Check. You’re in for it now, Zim .”
In the almost two years since Zim had arrived, Dib had collected a few particularly interesting mysteries about Zim. Today’s focus was that hideous device always strapped to his back. Or, maybe strapped wasn’t the right word. There were no straps, and no other visible way it was attached. It never came off, never moved, and Zim could use it without touching it. Maybe that meant it had some freaky neuro-connection. At first, Dib had thought the idea that it was connected straight to Zim’s spinal cord had been a little too outlandish. But it seemed the most probable option now.
Today would be what settled all those questions though. He’d been planning his attack for weeks. Dib had followed Zim home so many times at this point that he knew exactly how to get from the skool to the bug’s front lawn without ever being noticed. He’d have the whole walk to wait for the perfect opening to run out, jump the enemy, and get the pry tool under that piece of machinery. However it was attached it wouldn’t be any match for the sheer surprise Zim would have at being tackled. Dib had him this time, he was certain of it.
All he had to do now was execute it.
Seven hours later and Dib was walking a very familiar path. Cutting through yards, hopping fences, tracing the divots in the ground where he’d worn his way through over so many afternoons. He was buzzing with energy this time, though. Giddy at everything he was going to find out. He was betting on Zim being so shocked that Dib could manage to get away before Zim could follow. That would give him more time to inspect and experiment with that machine thing.
Push come to shove though, he had a heavy metal stick too.
Heavy metal that sat comfortably in his grip. Slowly, with less caution than he’d normally employ, he was closing the gap between him and Zim. Zim was unaware so far it seemed, just marching forward in that unnatural military walk he always had. Freaky little bug.
As Zim turned onto a particularly empty street, Dib stuck the bar into the unzipped top of his backpack and started walking faster. In his preparations he’d studied every road that Zim took on his route and this one was the best. A few old people that wouldn’t notice much, working adults who weren’t home right now, an empty house. Perfect for making sure nobody would mistake Dib for some common skoolyard bully instead of the hero he was.
Halfway down the street, far from anyone driving past at either end, Dib shouldered through a bush and broke into a dead sprint across the road. Zim pivoted at the sound of footsteps but was being slammed against the ground before he even made a sound. On cue though, he was screaming in Dib’s face the moment everything processed.
“GET YOUR DISGUSTING MEAT OFF OF ME YOU HUMAN FILTH BAG!” Sharp claws tore at Dib’s side and he felt the sting of them breaking skin through even his jacket. A small price to pay for knowledge.
“I’ve got a plan this time Zim! And I’m not walking away until I get what I came for!” A heavy metal thunk as Dib heaved his weight forward and slammed Zim down on his back. Hands flew, scratches flared up all across his arms, face, and chest. Zim managed to knee him in the stomach and that punched the air out of him for a second. But Dib held strong. There was NO way he was getting beat in this fight. Not after all his preparations. Not this time.
He saw an opening as he was kicked off Zim and onto the sidewalk. Zim rolled over to his hands and knees and quickly Dib scrambled to his own to practically throw himself onto the alien. He pinned Zim stomach-down and leaned all his weight onto the monster’s shoulders to keep him there.
“RELEASE ME, DIB-THING. ZIM did NOTHING to you!”
“Give it up Zim! I’ve been preparing for this fight for weeks now. And by tonight it’ll all pay off. By tonight, I’ll have learned all of the secrets you keep in this freaky device of yours.”
“What do you speak of, stink beast? You-” Zim cut himself short with a sharp inhale as Dib wrested the pry bar from his backpack and stuck the end under the edge of the device. Zim had been thrashing, slamming his fists against the sidewalk and kicking and bucking to try and throw Dib off. But at the sound of metal against metal, he went eerily still. Dib didn’t notice.
“What is this thing anyway Zim? Some super computer? A pocket sized spaceship? A second brain?” Dib laughed as he wriggled the bar a bit until it felt firmly wedged. He didn’t register that Zim wasn’t replying. “Doesn’t matter if you don’t tell me really. I’ll know everything about it after I’ve dismantled it.”
Dib barely processed the first syllable of a word Zim was saying before he pushed downwards. A lot of sounds hit him at once then. Organic crunching, like breaking bones. Something wet, something electric. Metal denting- he wasn’t sure if it was the device or the pry bar. And louder than it all, the animalistic scream of pain Zim let out as he went rigid under Dib.
Zim screamed a lot. To be fair Dib wasn’t exactly a quiet kid either but Zim was on a different level. And in almost two years, Dib had grown entirely used to the little cockroach’s volume level.
This, though, this wasn’t just loud for the sake of being loud. This was pain . A body-wracking pain that left Zim shuddering as Dib froze in his movements, trying to process the sudden shift in the air. Whatever he just did, it had hurt. Bad . And Zim was powerless to stop him.
“Dib..” Zim muttered out through gritted teeth. He was trying to push himself up again but he barely moved under Dib compared to the flailing he was doing a moment ago. “Dib, let me go. Get off of me.”
Dib blinked and didn’t move. The usual bossy, commanding tone Zim carried in his every word was gone. This order, it bled desperation and insistence. He spoke it with malice but Dib clear as day heard the tremble in the alien’s voice.
“Dib, get. Off .”
“Why.”
Zim’s breath shook and he didn’t answer right away. Dib looked down to where the bar was still jammed under the edge of the device. It was lifted slightly. Against the vivid colour of Zim’s top Dib almost missed it, but he did a double take as he realised he saw the fabric darkening. Unmistakable. He clenched his jaw and swallowed hard as he thought for the first time in two years that he might’ve just been the one to cross a line.
“I will skewer you through your heart if you don’t get off of Zim right now.”
“Tell me why first,” Dib hesitated, glancing at the bar then at the single eye that glared him down where Zim was looking over his shoulder. “Or I’ll push down again.”
That eye went wide and claws scratched at concrete. Zim was the first to look away.
“It’s none of your business you worthless waste of air. You are meddling in things you know NOTHING about. If you have any sense of self preservation, you will get off of Zim, immediately .”
Something tried to stop him. A voice in his mind was screaming that this was wrong, that this was uncalled for. Zim had caused destruction, chaos, some injuries over the last couple of years. But nothing like this. Nothing like what Dib was starting to think he was doing. Some part of his mind was begging him to reconsider if this was fair.
But Dib tried to steel himself. He had no duty to be ‘fair’ to the person that was trying to destroy his planet and kill everyone on it. So what if Zim hadn’t really hurt anyone yet? He was going to! It was only because of Dib’s heroic interventions that Zim’s plans had only caused destruction of property so far and not the loss of life. If given the chance, unimpeded, Zim would mercilessly kill. Dib was certain of that. He finally had a real solid upper ground here. Why should he give that up for some sense of ‘fairness’?
He pushed down on the bar.
It took Dib a second to understand what he was looking at as the device gave way. Dib pulled the bar back to stare wide eyed at the sight it revealed. Two ports, connection sockets, creating a straight shot to what Dib could only assume was Zim’s spine. They were metal lined all the way through, and the top one was still plugged into that weird device. But the bar had broken away the lower port.
Dib had never seen so much blood before.
It felt like minutes, but realistically he knew it was just moments before he pushed himself off Zim and scrambled back a few feet, bloodied bar still clutched in his hand. Dib watched on as the alien screamed, cried out in words he couldn’t understand, shaking on his side. There wasn’t a thought in the boy’s mind. Just blank processing as he witnessed the consequences of his actions.
Or, no, there was a thought. One, just one that stabbed him through the heart and was bringing a guilty tightness to his throat- regret. Absolute regret. There was no satisfaction in this. No sense of having won. Even when Dib lost their fights, there was some thrill to having fought at all. The idea that he still learned something to get one step closer to absolute victory the next time.
What did he learn here though? He learned two things that he could tell: that Irken blood was a hot pinkish-red, and what Zim sounded like when he was really, truly hurt.
Zim didn’t say anything to him. Nothing that Dib understood, anyway. He could count on one hand how many times he’d heard what he assumed was Zim’s native tongue. He wasn’t sure how he felt about the fact that this was now one of those times. His mind raced with what Zim could’ve possibly been yelling. What do people yell when they’re in pain like that? What do they yell at the person who caused it?
After Dib didn’t know how long, Zim got up. He was shaky and uneven, hands trembling violently before he wrapped them around himself. He looked at Dib once before he started walking away. Dib expected hate in his eyes. An unspoken threat of revenge. The promise that Dib would not get away with this horrific act unscathed.
Dib could add one more thing to the list of what he learned today: he found that he didn’t like what Zim looked like when he was terrified.
He was thankful he’d specifically checked which streets were quiet this time of day. Dib was not remotely in a state of mind to make up a lie to explain to a stranger why the ends of his sleeves were soaked in blood. Gaz had gotten home way earlier and was already in her room, so Dib just silently went inside and slipped into the bathroom to clean up. It didn’t even cross his mind to keep a sample. He just wanted it off of him.
There was no way he was going to skool either, he decided at near two in the morning. And as he watched his drawn blinds slowly illuminate with the sunrise a few hours later, he decided something else, too: that he never, ever , wanted blood on his hands like that again. Even for the world.