Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Zim stared hollowly at the fluorescent light of the monitor in front of him. He stood patiently, locked in place, desperately gazing into the screen with large fuchsia eyes. He made sure to be mentally prepared. The Tallest were going to pick up and answer him back aaaany second now. They had to. Sure, they hadn’t answered any of his other calls since… well… who even knows how long its been at this point… but surely they would pick up now and give Zim a perfectly reasonable explanation! 

Perhaps they were just busy this whole time! After all, they were the mighty and powerful Tallest! They had all sorts of important… stuff… to do. Probably. Zim didn’t really know exactly what, but who was he to question their unquestionable authority? 

Yet something almost like doubt floated at the back of his mind. Not that he would EVER doubt The Tallest, but, would they really be this busy for this long? So busy that they wouldn’t even have time to check in on their most amazing and important invader?!?

How long had it been exactly…?

Almost as if reading his thoughts, the robotic voice of the computer abruptly came in, cutting through the silence to say, “Sir, this is the 54th day in a row you’ve tried this, and the eighteenth time this week.”

“Computer, QUIET!!! The Tallest will be calling back ANY SECOND NOW!”

“I don’t think they-”

“SILENCE”

“But-”

“SIIILEEEEEEENCE.” Zim hissed.

That pesky computer. What did it know? Sure, he’d be at this for awhile, but he knew that The Tallest were going to return his calls eventually! They had to! He just needed to find some sort of other possible explanation! Maybe… Maybe their communications were… broken… or something… No!!! It didn’t make any sense for Irken technology to be broken for this long…  Zim was quickly growing frustrated. How come nothing he could think of seemed to make sense? Surely he hadn’t somehow lost the trust his leaders had in him! What could he possibly have done to make them lose faith in their most SPECTACULAR INVADER!!! Wait a minute, why was he thinking about that?!? It almost felt silly that that notion even crossed his mind! That wasn’t possible.

But the longer Zim stared up at the calling screen, the more a slow feeling of dread sank into his spooch. 

And Eventually, as it had for the previous hundred times he’d tried calling The Tallest, the screen cut to a “Transmission Failed” spelled out in Irken, bright bold letters fading in and out for a few moments before cutting off to nothingness.

No sign of The Tallest. His antennae fell down in disappointment. Something deep inside of him wanted to scream out in anger. None of this was fair. He was ZIM. THE most epicest and amazing Invader ever?! How was it that the Tallest couldn’t seem to just stop in for a moment to check in on his progress? What force in this universe was stopping them from communicating?? He’d managed to defeat the Dib more times than he could even count! 

The Tallest surely wanted to know that! They’d be so impressed!

Maybe his leaders really had lost faith in him. No. Nonono of course not. He’d already brushed it aside once. It was unproductive to dwell on things that weren’t remotely true or helpful. It was a ridiculous notion to even think about for second! Yet, he couldn’t help but freeze for a moment as it crossed his mind..

Zim almost had to laugh. Yea, right! Like his glorious tall leaders had ever once thought of him as anything less than the amazing Invader that he was! He had heard it in the very tone of their voice when they had chosen him to embark upon the conquest of this filthy planet. 

The hesitation and subtle shifts of doubt- no, admiration in their eyes! This planet they had chosen for him was so special that it wasn’t even on the map!

This mission was special.

He was special.

Why else would they put him on this far away waste-dump of a planet where everything was smelly and toxic?

 and then why would they suddenly stop answering his calls? 

And abandon him without the certainty that they were even going to send an Armada…?

He thought back to that time just before the Florpus incident when he’d checked on their flight path to see that they weren’t even coming to earth at all. Had that ever changed? Maybe he’d have to check again.

Zim tried to bite it back, but this swirling feeling of hopelessness and uncertainty swelled inside, seeping through the cracks of his confident facade. He saw the clarity for a moment. The faint possibility that maybe, just maybe everything he was telling himself was a spun up lie, the reassurance he repeated just a twisted mantra, an affirmation of his distorted delusions. Everything he’d felt that day was all coming back to him.

 He needed to convince himself that the Tallest still cared because if they didn’t, then what was his purpose? What was the point of any of this? 

Something disgusting and wet welled at the corners of Zim’s eyes. It took him a moment to process what was happening.

They were tears. He was crying. That wasn’t right. Why was he crying… ?

An Invader doesn’t cry! This was silly! The Tallest Loved him, THEY LOVED HIM. HE WAS ZIM!!!

Tears poured from his face and fell onto the floor.

Zim took a step away from the dark blank screen, shaking and filled with shuddery gasping sobs. He couldn’t peel his eyes away from the emptiness in front of him until the voice of the computer sliced through thoughts for a moment, dragging him back into reality. 

“Master, are you ok?”

For a moment Zim didn’t even know how to respond. The question jabbed into him and filled him with even more sweltering anger. It rose up and boiled over as he snapped at the computer, "OF C-COURSE I’M OK!! I-I AM ZIM!!!” He hissed, but his voice was broken up by shaking sobs. How Dare the computer question him like that?? Thankfully, it remained silent after that.

Zim glanced at his own shaking arm for a moment, and it a blur of rage and emotion, bit down on it as hard as he could, not even thinking for a moment as his teeth tore through the sleeve and warm pink blood welled up, flooding his mouth with its sickly sweet taste. Every single fiber of emotion and rage poured into the bite, bundling it all up and piercing it down through his teeth, burying it into his skin. He pulled himself away and felt the throbs of pain burst through his arm. Blood welled around the mark and dribbled down.

He could only stay frozen in place for a moment, staring in disbelief. Zim couldn’t believe he had done this. 

What was he thinking?! This was ridiculous!

THE TALLEST LOVED HIM. THEY HAD TO LOVE HIM.

He knew it, and the Tallest knew it, and how could he have ever doubted for a SECOND that they didn’t believe in him?!?!

Was he crazy? Was he delusional?! Of course he was delusional! But he would continue believing those delusions if it meant he didn’t have to face the reality that Tallest hated him.

Why would they ever hate him?! His mission was special. 

Zim messily wiped the tears out of his eyes. 

He needed to try again.

“COMPUTER! Call the TALLEST!!!”

The computer sighed with disappointment and concern, but didn’t protest. It had no choice but to do what it was designed to do and obey its master’s orders, no matter how pointless it thought them.

Zim was still shaking, blood still trailing down his arm, but he decided to ignore it and press on. He’d clean himself up and get a new uniform later. He wasn’t going to give up. Just like he knew the Tallest would never give up on him. 

He would just continue calling and calling endlessly to no avail. Trapped in an endless cycle. Burying any vague hint of doubt deep inside where it could never interfere with his mission or his unbreaking faith in his leaders. They knew just how amazing he was.

The Tallest would return one of his calls…

They would have to Someday…

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Skoodge stared lazily at the tv. It was dark out, dark enough at this point that the majority of humans were asleep. And so ere GIR and minimoose. They rested at the opposite end of the couch, the small purple moose tucked under the tiny robot’s arms as both of them slept peacefully. GIR twitched in his sleep. The little SIR unit was oddly cute when he wasn’t awake and screaming or running around making chaotic messes. Some dramatic human movie was playing on the screen, but Skoodge wasn’t really paying attention. Despite that, the ambience of flickering luminance and muffled human babbling was oddly comforting. It was nice to even be able to be up here in the first place, rather than stuck to the confines of Zim’s basement, wandering around and living down there without really much to do. It had taken an embarrassingly long time for Zim to even realize he was there in the first place.

Once Zim finally realized the stout Invader had been living in his base this whole time, It wasn’t exactly a warm welcome, but to Skoodge’s surprise, he didn’t kick him out either. The two just sort of coexisted now, interacting and getting into little escapades together on earth, almost like how they used to back during Elite training. During those days Zim would often take the lead, Skoodge tailing along and following whatever plan the aspiring Invader concocted. These plans were usually reckless and sporadic, often ending in both of them getting in trouble, but in a way, it was almost sorta fun. It added a bit of spice to the otherwise ridgid and arduous monotony of training. 

Though, speaking of Zim, Skoodge realized he hadn’t seen him in quite awhile now.

he’d been down working in the underbelly of his base for a pretty significant stretch of time, and there hadn’t been any noise in days. Not a single shout of frustration or the commotion of an experiment gone wrong. It concerned Skoodge a little, but he knew Zim was probably fine. He’d known the guy long enough to know that his behavior was erratic and unpredictable.  A sudden few days of silence could practically mean anything. Maybe he’d gotten stuck trying to prefectly DNA-replicate the spine of an earthworm to use as a flexible weaponary material only to realize halfway through they didn’t have spines and stare at the wall contemplating his life decisions while fully denying that’s what he’s doing again.

He was probably fine.

Or so Skoodge had thought, but only a short while later, almost as if he’d heard  Skoodge thinking about him, the other little irken showed up for the first time in days. He came crawling out of the trashcan and up through the kitchen before slumping  against the couch next to to him. Skoodge could immediately tell that something was wrong. Zim usually carried himself in a demeanor of such confidence and pride, even in casual moments like this, but now, he almost seemed to slouch as he walked. Skoodge noted how his eyes looked empty and hollow.

Before he could even ask what was wrong, His gaze fell upon Zim’s arm, and his eyes went wide. The fabric of his uniform was all torn and-

“your bleeding…”

“Eh…? OH.”

Zim’s other arm immediately flew to the one that was smeared with blood. His eyes were wide and frantic as he glanced back up and down from the injury to Skoodge’s face.

“What was that? ”.

“NOTHING” He blurted out a bit too quickly, then repeated it again a bit slower, “nothing… My arm is fine. All good... and normal…” 

There weren’t even any humans around to have to prove that anything was “normal.” It was almost just a reflex at this point.

Skoodge wasn’t convinced…

 “ you sure…?” He asked hesitantly, but regretted the question as soon as it left his lips. He was fully expecting to be bombarded with an angry and defensive outburst for questioning Zim.

But, instead, to his surprise, the other little Irken remained calm, only nodding his head and giving a dull “yes.” followed by a long drawn out silence. It was off-putting. Now Skoodge knew there was definitely something wrong. But he wasn't sure how to help.

“Well, um.. Alright then…”

Zim said nothing, leaving Skoodge to simply stare at the wound that he was awkwardly half attempting to cover. Something here was wrong. 

Scanning over the arm, a horrible realization rapidly dawned on him. The pink blood, which was all mostly dried now, came from a very particularly shaped wound; an elliptical crown of dashed marks against the green flesh, uncanny and bruised. The pattern was so familiar, it was undeniable what it was. Skoodge didn't even think for another moment before blurting it out,

“You were bitten by another Irken?! Wait but who else-” Then it hit him like a sack of bricks. He looked back down at where Zim sat. He seemed so uncharacteristically small and sad. Skoodge felt a sudden swirl of emotions, yet he was unable to pick out what any of them were. One of them almost felt like pity, but that couldn’t be right, since emotions like that were programmed right out of Irkens. And Zim definitely wouldn’t appreciate being pitied anyways. Unsure of what to do, Skoodge simply sighed and glanced down at his life-long colleague. The two sat face to face, pairs of ruby red bug-like eyes locked. Skoodge wasn’t really sure what do to.

“Uhm, do you want help?”

“Whuh?”

“Like, I don’t know, support or something?”

“ Sup-port? An Invader needs help from no one!!!”

“I’m also an Invader.”

There was an awkward pause before Zim broke the silence  “Oh yea.”

The two then proceeded to go back and forth like that for a bit, eventually leading to Skoodge trying to explain to Zim what the concept of accepting help was, but it became increasingly obvious that that was going nowhere, and any bit of compliance from Zim was nonexistent. He only became increasingly more insistent that he didn’t need any help. Just as Skoodge was about to accept defeat and go back to remaining silent, he was hit with a sudden question from Zim that came seemingly out of nowhere.

“Hey, Skoodge, just wondering, have you heard from the Tallest at all recently?”

He paused for a moment to think, “No, not really.”

An emotion briefly wavered in Zim’s eyes, but disappeared just as quickly as it had come.

“Yea, neither have I- I- I mean, YES I HAVE, Of cooourrrse they answered my calls! Why wouldn’t they? Haha.. I AM ZIM!!! .”

Skoodge knew he was lying, but chose not to say anything. 

“...I guess it’s clear who’s the superior Invader, considering they never returned any of your calls.” Zim continued smugly. Skoodge ignored the direct insult. He was used to being berated and looked down on, not just by Zim, but by the entirety of the Irken population. Skoodge wasn’t stupid, but no matter how much he tried to prove himself, because of his height, he would never be seen as anything more than a foolish gullible idiot, all because of a factor that was out of his control. It didn’t bother him much anymore, as he’d simply grown accustomed to it. And besides, he didn’t have to deal with the Tallest or the Empire anymore. Now he was here on Earth with Zim.

“ I never bothered trying to call them.” he eventually replied

“You what???”

“I said I haven’t tried calling them, why, have you?”

“Yes?!?”

“Why?” The response was so blunt and nonchalant 

Zim froze and stared at him, completely dumbfounded before abruptly bursting into a fit of laughter.

“BWAHAHAHAHAhaha… that’s a good one Skoodge-!!” he broke off into another bout of snickering.

“...I wasn’t joking.”

“Huh?”

“I wasn’t joking, Zim. Do you ever wonder if The Tallest maybe… don’t like us very much?”

“Skoodge, Have you by chance sustained any brain damage recently?”

“No… I just- y'know what, never mind, it was a silly thought.” A defective thought.

*Sigh* Poor Foolish Skoodge, I’m so sorry the Tallest will never love you as much as they know how amazing I am.”

Yea, that was a typical Zim response. Skoodge simply went the route of agreeing with him and trying to ignore the doubts in the back of his mind. Yet he couldn’t help but question what the Tallest really did think of he and Zim. Despite the fact that Skoodge didn’t really interact with Red and Purple throughout their smeethood and elite training, preferring to keep to himself knowing he’d be ridiculed, he’d picked up that it almost seemed that neither leader really cared about anyone else. They would happily make brash decisions at the expense of other’s lives, quick to belittle and mock the lower ranking members of the empire.

Skoodge had realized this awhile ago, but there wasn’t really anything he could do about it. He knew that Just these thoughts alone were considered treason. He had no power and no choice but to fend for himself and try to make it as far as he could in Irken society given his disadvantageous height. He was lucky he’d even made it to become an Invader. And he was ever thankful for that but…

Before Skoodge could finish that thought, he was interrupted by a sudden hyperactive outburst from the other end of the couch.

“Hiiii Master, you baaaaaack!!!” GIR leapt up and pounced on Zim, sending both of them tumbling to the floor. Skoodge had honestly forgotten the little robot was even there, he’d been so unusually quiet as he slept, but now he was as wide awake and hyperactive as ever.

“AUGH GET OFF OF ME, GIR!”

“AH MISS’D U SO MUCH.”

“I NEVER LEFT???”

“Oh okay.”

GIR finally got off of him, standing rigidly with his vacant cyan stare as his master picked himself up from the floor, waiting till he was fully upright before speaking again.

“Are we goin somewhere? Can I get a Suck Munkeyyyy?”

Zim stared at him before letting out an exasperated sigh. “No, GIR. I’m not getting you a-” 

“AAAAHHH AHEHHURUGHHH AHHHHHHEEEEEHH” Zim hadn’t even finished talking before GIR burst into a fit of screaming. Skoodge had witnessed the little robot go into fits like this before over little things.

“I SAID-”

“AAAAAAAAAUUUUHHH”

“ALRIGHT ALRIGHT FINE!” Zim said, giving in quickly, but still quite visibly annoyed, “I GUESS we’re going to the hyooman store or whatever to get a Suck Munkey! Skoodge! You and Minimoose stay here and guard the base, and I suppose I’ll go with GIR. I don’t trust him not to blow our cover… ”  Zim said, either Ignoring or forgetting the fact that GIR had been out on his own multiple times and even occasionally disappeared for several days.

“YIPPEEEEE!!!” GIR practically dived into his dog suit, hastily pulling up the zipper and drawing the green hood over his head. Zim dipped into the base for a second before reappearing with his usual human disguise and a fresh uniform covering the bite on his arm. He seemed pretty annoyed, but Skoodge was hoping that maybe a small walk to the store would be good for him. 

Chapter Text

“Gaz, Did you really have to drag me out here at 11 pm just to buy pizza? Seriously?

“It’s the last day to get the limited time crossover poop-cola flavored pizza at Bloaty’s.”

“And why did I have to come along?”

“Because Dad said so, now quit complaining, your voice is giving me a headache.”

The two siblings bickered alongside each other, making their way down the stretch of dark dreary sidewalk, littered with bits of garbage and puddles that gleamed black in the sheen of the streetlights. Awkward dim light and the glow of neon signs illuminated the narrow ridges of the alleyways, casting shadows in every direction against the gritty pavement. The sky was starless and cloudy with the threat of rain.

Dib hadn’t wanted to come at all. He’d been excited for that night. He’d been slowly gathering evidence for the past week of a possible meeting=place for a rare species of white pant-shaped nightcrawlers occurring that very night. And now he had to miss it, all because Gaz forced him out here in the middle of the night just for some pizza!

There was hardly anyone out in the streets. It was all dead silent, even more so than usual. There wasn’t a single person in sight until they went to turn around the corner by the mall. The first sign of seeing anyone was a small familiar figure walking along, with an even smaller one by his side, tiny floppy ears bouncing along. Dib had to do a double take at the silhouettes across the other side of the street. 

 “Gaz, that’s Zim!!”

“Oh boy, here we go again.”

“Why is he here? What could he possibly be doing? Is he going to the mall? What is he plotting? It has to be something evil!” Dib scoured over all the possibilities in his head. He usually never saw Zim out at this time, so It had to mean he was up to something! Actually wait, no, there was that one time… DOESN’T MATTER! He’s Zim! A being of pure evil and destruction! He was always planning something! Dib was seized by the urgent need to jump into action. Zim needed to be stopped. The fate of the world depended on it! (probably)

“I really don’t care.” Gaz said bluntly.

“Come on, we have to go see what he’s up to and stop him!”

“Bloaty’s is the other way.” 

“Gaz, he’s right there!” He threw his arms out towards Zim's silhouette in frustration. Why couldn’t she see that this was important?

“I’m going to Bloaty’s.”

“Fine! Go get your pizza while I save the world!” And before Gaz could respond, Dib was already off, sprinting down the street.

“YOU BETTER BE BACK BY 12 OR I'M GONNA REVOKE YOUR BREATHING PRIVILAGES!!!” She called after him, but Dib was hardly paying attention. His mind was bent on the task before him, stopping Zim. He felt the familiar rush as every other problem faded into the background. He ducked around garbage cans and alleyways, trying to be as discreet and unnoticeable as possible until he was close enough to listen in on the alien’s conversation and peer from around the corner of a wall. It appeared he was talking to his evil robot dog minion; Dib recalled its name was GIR.

“It would be wiser if we go to a smaller store rather than the mall-fortress, GIR… Especially at night after that one incident...” he trailed off muttering something. Dib vaguely made  out the words “security” and “stinking mall human”.

“But we’re right heeere.” GIR complained. Dib watched the little green robot dog try to tug at the base of Zim’s tunic to drag him towards the mall, but his efforts were futile.

“No, GIR, I already said-”

“HeY LOOK ITS’N ALLEYWAY GOBLIN!!”

GIR immediately forgot everything he was doing to stop and point straight at the narrow crack of alleyway between two buildings that Dib was hiding in.

Dib shot around in a panic “Where?!?” Only to be met with nothing but a blank brick wall and a burning feeling of shame as he slowly turned back to see the little robot minion and his master staring at him, now fully aware of his pressence.

“IT'S THE DIB!” Zim Hissed. He turned towards him, taking on a defensive stance, claws bared and feet apart. "What are you doing here, Earth scum?” 

“What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I was just picking up a Suck Munkey for GIR because he wouldn’t stop screaming- WAIT A MINUTE WHY DO YOU NEED TO KNOW THAT? THAT WAS A LIE. YOU DON’T KNOW THE AMAZING PLAN OF ZIIIM. What do you want from me??”

“To stop your evil plan!!”

“You’ll never know what it is!”

“You just told me you're picking up a Suck Munkey for GIR?”

“YOUR OVERSIZED HEAD IS FULL OF LIES!!!” Typical. As strong as the urge was to try refuting these claims, Dib decided to disregard it this time, knowing that any effort he made would be promptly ignored. He needed to focus on what mattered. But as usual, none of what Zim was saying made any sense.

“Wait a minute, how does getting a Suck Munkey contribute to taking over the earth?” Dib asked.

“We’re gettin tha’ new strawberry and beans flavor!!” GIR proudly exclaimed.

“Yes, It is full of staw-berriez and beans and Doom. Now move along, Dibstink, Unless you want to face the wrath of Zim.” He said very quickly, immediately dismissing Dib with a wave of his hand. Of course he’d have the audacity to think admitting to that would satisfy Dib enough for him to leave.

“No!, there has to be something else you’re planning, and I’m not leaving until I find out what it is!”

“Just step aside you disgusting filthy earth weasel!”

Earth weasel? Quick, Dib had to clap back with his own animal-themed insult! Well, It technically didn’t have to be animal-themed, but it already had him thinking.

“Not until you tell me the truth, you ugly space frog!,” No, wait, he had something even better, “Then- then I’ll step you… and- and squish you like a tiny, small, tiny, little roach or something.” Dib was aware as soon as it left his lips that the threat was kinda pathetic. threatening to… squish him? Really? Thankfully, it didn’t matter. Zim’s reaction was instantaneous, and exactly what he’d been hoping for. It was worth the smug satisfaction when a familiar look crept over the alien’s face, twisting with rage, his short temper easily snapping.

What Dib wasn’t expecting however, was for Zim to suddenly burst into full on physical violence so quickly. Before he even had time to think, The Alien leapt forward and tackled him to the ground. Sharp gloved claws dug tightly into Dib’s skin, not enough to draw blood, but still sudden and painful enough to make Dib yelp in surprise. Zim’s lips curled up into a snarl, revealing flesh-pink zipper teeth and ink black gums. The Razor sharp blades of his PAK legs sprawled out across the peripherals of Dib’s vision. He vaguely heard GIR cheering on his master from somewhere along the sidelines.

Thinking quickly, Dib thrust his legs upwards, pushing Zim off and hastily springing to his feet. If it was a fight Zim wanted, it was a fight he was gonna get. This certainly wasn’t the first time their arguing evolved into physical combat, and Dib highly doubted it would be the last. He would stop at nothing to protect the Earth from alien evil, even if it meant getting beaten over and over again. He had to be the one to do it if nobody else would.

This time, it was him that lunged out at Zim first, but the alien swiftly leapt away just before he could get his hands close. 

Dib kept his eyes on the sharp edges of Zim’s metallic limbs clinking against the pavement and scraping and scuttling as he maneuvered. He bared his claws and swung in Dib’s direction. 

Dib ducked away, stinging pain blossoming as Zim’s claws narrowly grazed his cheek. In an instant his mind was already reeling with snippets of strategy. His eyes darted to find any weak points. Light on his feet, he drew back a fist, sending a falling punch. 

A moment later Zim was on the ground, his PAK legs now automatically retracted. 

Another moment and the roles were reversed, Dib on the ground, and Zim positioning to strike. He was violently shrieking with rage in a typical Zim fashion.

“OH YOU LITTLE- SQUIRMY LITTLE-AARRRGH” But never finished that sentence before quickly growing impatient and lunging out to tackle Dib again.

It was the last clear moment Dib recalled before the fight simply devolved into a disarray of violence. The two of them were neck to neck in a tangled sweaty mess, clawing and striking at each other in the darkness of the empty streets and echoing alleyways. Flecks of red and pink blood littered the pavement, and fresh bruises blossomed over their skin. It was sheer chaos. Zim fought with excessive reckless moxie, Dib could see the crimson rage boiling in his eyes. 

The hatred was mutual.

Dib didn’t quite recall how, but at some point, the skirmish drove the two of them up a thin metal staircase along the side of an alleyway. It seemed like there was meant to be a streetlight somewhere around, but it clearly wasn’t functional.

Dib could just barely make out the fuzzy silhouette of his own hands and feet, much less his enemy if it hadn’t been for the subtle magenta rim-light of his PAK. He briefly wondered if Zim had night vision or not, assessing a possible disadvantage.

 The stairs were old and rickety, and it seemed that there had been a railing at some point, but it was bent so horribly out of shape or just completely torn away in places that it was beyond repair. Boots clanked against the unstable rusted metal as the two ascended higher and higher.

 Dib swiftly formed a plan. He rushed up and up, footsteps echoing behind him, processing the idea that maybe if he climbed high enough, he could push Zim off. 

However, his thoughts were broken by a sudden scuff and a scream that sliced through the open air before descending downwards until it was cut off with a sickening crack. Dib peered down in shock, backing slowly away from the edge of the stairs, but still out far enough to look down at ground. It looked like he wouldn’t need to put his plan into action after all, Zim had done it himself. Dib stared down for a few seconds, waiting for something to happen, yet the air remained eerily still and silent, a stark contrast to previous hectic energy of the fight.

Was Zim alright down there…? Was he still conscious? That fall had sounded pretty bad... Not that Dib cared or anything. 

That question was finally answered as a pair of faintly glowing magenta eyes glared back up at him, contacts likely strewn somewhere across the ground. Of course Zim was ok! Why wouldn’t he be? That cockroach was practically indestructible! Dib had seen him survive far worse countless times. It was silly of him to think now would be any different.

He heard the sound of PAK legs extending for the second time that night, and Zim scuttled away, quickly disappearing before Dib could even think about trying to climb down and follow him. By the time he did reach the bottom, there was definitely no trace of Zim or his little dog minion anywhere. All Dib was left with was an empty street spattered with blood and the impending uknown of how his sister would react when he returned. 

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Anger reeled in his mind as Zim trudged home, GIR bouncing along behind him, Suck Munkey in hand. To Zim’s surprise, the little robot had gone into the filthy human mall-store by himself while Zim was preoccupied with battling his nemesis in the alleyway. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure where GIR had gotten the money to pay for that thing, but it didn’t really matter. Zim was just glad he didn’t have to go into the building himself, as he realized sometime on the way home that his contacts had somehow fallen off during the fight, and were now Irk knows where. He’d have to forge a new pair later. Thankfully there was nobody out to witness his exposed superior Irken eyes. And even if there was, he could most likely get away with the pink eye excuse again.

He couldn’t believe he’d let that happen.

One moment he’d been chasing the Dib up a rickety flight of stairs, 

The next, his foot had snagged on something, and before he was even able to process what was happening, The world tilted over in the hazy dark, and Dib was tumbling farther away, only fragments of his silhouette jumping through the corners of Zim’s vision. He wasn’t able to think quickly enough and deploy his PAK legs in time before it all came to a halt with a sickening crack against the pavement. He could still feel jolts of pain shooting up his spine. He shuddered at the memory, still vividly fresh in his mind. After that he’d had no choice but to run away- No- strategically retreat from the Dib. 

He shouldn’t have to be trudging back home in pain right now. He should’ve been quick enough to save himself from that fall. How shameful.

A lasting pain in his PAK was alerting him that something was broken, so he peered around, and sure enough, there were cracks along the upper pink panel. He’d have examine that further when he got back to his base. That bite mark from earlier was fully healed at this point, but now it was replaced by a flurry of new scrapes and scuffs on his skin that he’d have to explain to Skoodge. Or Not. Zim owed explanations to no one. 

He barely even flinched when the sounds of thunder echoed out in the distance, signaling that the sky was gonna start leaking awful burning liquid soon. He simply treaded down the sidewalk, silently making his way home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dib had no idea how long he’d been gone for during that fight with Zim, but to his relief, it was short enough that he didn’t have to fear his sister’s wrath when he finally met up with her. Not much was spoken on the way back home before each sibling parted off to go do their own thing. Gaz didn’t even question all the scratches and bruises. 

Dib was a bit upset Zim had gotten away, but he had hopefully thwarted whatever evil plan he’d been up to that night. It was probably a victory for humanity… 

Whatever, he didn’t have the time to dwell on it anyways, there was work to be done! There was always work to be done. Dib rushed upstairs and to his desk, instantly flicking on a set of monitors and swiveling around into his chair, flitting through everything that needed to be done in his head.

 Ok, so there was still likely a sliver of time left to track down those Nightcrawlers, and then after that he would come back here to check all his monitors again, look out for Zim or maybe GIR, and it would also be a good idea to test out a some repairs he’d done on Tak’s ship, and then- Ouch- maybe he should also clean off some of those minor scrapes he’d sustained during the fight.

 Would all of  that leave any room for sleep before Skool tomorrow? Didn’t matter! There were more pressing matters than sleep. He’d just gotten back home, but after taking off his coat and slapping on a few quick band-aids, it was immediately time to go back out again. He grabbed his paranormal hunting suitcase, reveiwing in his head everything he needed to do one last time, before his thoughts were interrupted by a voice calling out from the hall.

“Keep it down in there! I can hear your weird muttering through the walls!”

Oh, he’d accidentally been talking aloud to himself again, hadn’t he? Dib quickly threw his coat back on and opened the door. 

“Sorry, Gaz.” She was just outside the open doorway of her room. Her narrow eyes trailed down towards the briefcase in Dib’s hand.

“Where are you going? It’s almost midnight.”

“Doesn’t matter! This is Important, Gaz!”

“It’s also raining.”

“It is?” A crack of thunder sounded out almost immediately after he said that, and he became acutely aware of the quiet patter of rain that he’d previously tuned out. 

“It’s just a bit of rain!” He argued back, as if he hadn’t done stakeouts in far worse conditions before.

“Alright then, have fun getting soaked over your weird obsessive paranormal stuff.”

“Investigating the paranormal is not just stuff Gaz, it’s a lifestyle!” He corrected, “Also it’s not obsessive , I’m just… very dedicated.”

“Dedicated to making me want to rip my ears off with how much you never shut up about it.” Gaz snapped back.

He sighed with the knowledge that no matter what he said, Gaz would just never understand. He was trying to do important work that everyone else was just too oblivious to realize. 

“I’m going out to do important research on a rare species that nobody even acknowledges! I just stopped Zim again less than an hour ago! I save the earth from alien evil on a daily basis and nobody even cares!”

“UUURGH. And that’s another thing you never shut up about; Stupid Zim.”

“You think I want to have to deal with his evil schemes all the time, Gaz? Why do I seem to be the only one concerned that there’s a literal alien trying to annihilate the planet while everyone just sits there in oblivious denial and does nothing about it?!”

“Maybe I’d care more if he was actually competent at it.” 

Dib was done. Gaz clearly didn’t understand. Nobody understood. Sometimes he wasn’t even sure why he tried reasoning with anyone. Gaz had witnessed the inside of Zim’s base and ships numerous times. She’d seen the deadly alien weaponry and technology capable of who knows what he harbored in there. All that, and she still continued to deny that Zim was a threat! It frustrated him to no end.

He made his way downstairs and swung open the door, ignoring the cold gust that hit his face from outside. 

“Where do you think you’re going, son?”

“What, Dad?!” Dib hadn’t even realized he was home, “When did you get here?”

“I’ve been down in the lab creating a generator of infinite empanadas and infinite joy!”

“Um, yea cool, but I have to go now, Dad.”

“No you don’t! It’s bedtime!” he said with a finger pointed matter-of-factly towards the ceiling

“What?!” Since when did Dad ever care about giving them a bedtime?! He spent every moment of every day away at his lab at the office or basement doing “real science”, leaving Dib and Gaz alone to fend for themselves most of the time with little to no help, and then he would just randomly show up out of nowhere and pretend to care about actually being a parent. And Why did he have to show up now of all times?!? When Dib had so much to do?? (He always had so much to do, but that was besides the point) It felt like every force in the Universe was trying to stop Dib from going out. 

Though, maybe it was a blessing in disguise, as it was pretty cold and rainy out there… No! A little bit of rain shouldn’t be enough to stop a paranormal investigator! Though he was pretty tired.. No! He had to go out and hunt those Nightcrawlers…

“Alright Dad…” He found himself sighing with disappointment, and trudging slowly back up the stairs. A large part of him regretted it instantly, yet he continued back up towards his room, obeying his father. He got inside and shoved the paranormal hunting suitcase back under his bed then practically fell into the nest of his chair. The light of the monitors he’d forgotten to turn off illuminated the dark of the room.

His bedsheets lay strewn across the floor where he’d tossed them to get to his briefcase earlier. For the third time, Dib skimmed through all the stuff he had to do in his head, but suddenly, he didn’t feel like doing any of it. Well, except one he supposed, as he was already here. 

He glanced up at the cluster of spy monitors in front of him. Some were set up in places along the street or at Skool. Most were angles of Zim’s house. He’d managed to set up a couple on the inside a few times before too, but of course none of them ever lasted very long before Zim found them.

Something on one of the screens caught his eye. It was by Zim’s house. Was it him?!

Did glared instantly at where he’d seen the bit of motion, and to his surprise, it wasn’t Zim at all, or even GIR. It was that other stout little friend of his. Dib tried to recall what his name was. Skootch? Skutch? Dib swore he heard Zim mention the name Skutch before, but he was pretty sure it wasn’t in reference to the Irken onscreen, Skootch sounded closer-

Whatever! It didn’t matter!

 Dib put his full focus back on observing the monitor infront of him. This other Irken’s disguises were very similar to Zim’s, just a pair of contacts slapped over the eyes and a wig to hide the antennae, but he also seemed to like changing it up a bit more often. While Zim occasionally decided to switch it up and wear another outfit, He usually stuck to his main disguise of slick black hair and violet contacts. this Irken seemed to have a new little accessory every time Dib saw him. He’d seen him wear Scarves, pants, ties, and even a dress once. Though Dib wasn’t able to note all of it because unlike Zim, he never went to Skool. From what Dib had seen, he also seemed to have a few different wigs he rotated through. The one he currently wore sat on his head in a mess of curly ginger locks. He was slightly taller than Zim, but much wider.

Dib noted his stout physique as the Irken waddled out into the rain, holding his hand out as if testing whether it was going to hurt him or not. And based on what Dib knew, it should’ve, but to his surprise, and seemingly also to the surprise of the Irken, there was no sign of sizzling flesh. He stood out there, relaxing as the little droplets fell across his face. 

Come to think of it, Dib had also seen Zim out in the rain several times over the past year after initially learning that it hurt him. In those moments, he hadn’t really thought about it, but now…

It was obvious he must’ve found some sort of way to gain immunity, but Dib was too tired at the moment to try figuring out what it was. There was this tiredness lingering the entire time that Dib had been trying to ignore. He was used to ignoring it in favor of important alien investigating, but now he was thinking that maybe sleep wouldn’t be such a bad idea. He watched the fat little Irken out in the rain for a few moments before he turned around and went back inside, and with that, Dib shut off his computers, threw off his coat, and flicked off the lights, not even bothering to change into his pajamas.

Maybe if he kept trying, someday someone would believe him…

Chapter Text

Skoodge was still watching TV with Minimoose when Zim returned to the base. Zim knew he should probably go examine his PAK right away upon his return, but pushed that task to the back of his mind, overcome with the immediate need to inform Skoodge of what had happened. Well, less inform, more vent about Dib in a half-coherent frustrated rant, but it was still necessary. Probably. On the way home, he hadn’t even planned on talking to Skoodge at all. He didn’t think he would feel like making conversation, but as soon as he stepped inside, All of his pent up rage just started spilling out. 

“....URGH that- THAT- DIB and his stupid ugly HUMAN-NESS and- and his mouth that says WORDS- that ugly human worm child! HOW DARE HE!!” He ranted.

“Sorry about that Zim, this guy sounds like a thorn in the spooch.” 

Zim was glad Skoodge could agree with his obvious correct-ness. Why wouldn’t he? Any respectable Irken would have to hate Dib after hearing everything the filthy pig-worm had done. 

“Yes. Yes he is.”

He went on like that for a few hours. GIR zipped back and forth through the living room and kitchen during their conversation before eventually descending down into the base to wreak havoc elsewhere. Whatever he got up to down there, it would be the computer’s problem. For a while, Zim continued on rambling loudly, but at some point began to quiet down. 

He had this weird feeling in the back of his mind like there was something he was forgetting, but he couldn’t quite put his claw on it… Oh well, if he couldn’t remember what it was then it must not have been that important in the first place. Zim forgets nothing! For now, sitting here watching TV with Skoodge seemed like a good plan. He was absorbing knowledge from the human entertainment device to use for his mission. That was a productive use of time. So he remained sitting silently on the couch until the sun rose and it was time to go to Skool. 

As soon as he realized this, Zim jumped up, suddenly wondering why he’d just wasted all that time lazing around like some human when he could’ve been doing important things, like trying to recall what those important things were before realizing that it didn’t matter because now he had to go to Skool AND WAIT A MINUTE THERE WERE ONLY 3 MINUTES LEFT HE WAS GONNA BE LATE-

All in one breath he shouted, “SKOODGEINEEDTOGETTOSKOOLCOMPUTERGOFETCHMEMYDISGUISEGOTTAGOQUICK

OKAY BYE!!”

Zim hastily threw his disguise on, briefly glancing in the mirror to adjust his new contacts and make sure they fit before sprinting to the door. Just as his claws seized the doorknob, The robotic voice of his computer echoed through the room, relaying a message that made Zim halt in his tracks and whip back around, facing his checker-floored living room with eyes wide in shock and a burst of excitement.

Skoodge watched him as he zipped right back away from the door and skidded to halt in the center of the living room. He stared impatiently at the Television, relaying over and over again in his mind what the computer had said, still processing that this was real. Except of course it was, because why wouldn’t it be?!. It was oh so magnificently real. Zim sucked in a breath and puffed his chest in a confident stance. 

Incoming Transmission from the Tallest.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tallest Red glared down in displeasure at the reports in front of him, skimming over unnecessary strings of words and swiping through slides of information. Usually Communication handled this kind of stuff, But several Commanders had been insitantly pestering him and Purple about this, claiming that it was something important the two of them needed to review and come to an immediate decision. He’d eventually given in and decided to check whatever they were talking about, more out of annoyance than actually caring about the issue. So now here he was, Going over reports about attacks from the slaughtering rat people on Blorch. Purple didn’t even bother to help him, instead deciding to stare off into space by his side with a mouthful of donut. Some leader he was. That’s what Red wished he was doing right now…

Also wait a minute- Blorch ? Wasn’t that the place that Invader Skoodge had conquered already? This couldn’t be right…

“This information is outdated!” He complained out loud to nobody in particular. These lazy Commanders had been relentlessly bothering him and Tallest Purple for months about this and they didn’t even bother to check if the information was relevant! 

“It’s not outdated sir..” One of the navigators of the massive said softly. He had a lot of nerve to contradict the word of an Allmighty Tallest.

“What do you mean? This is about Blorch, a planet that’s already been conquered. It should be a parking structure planet! Clearly someone made a mistake!”

“Yea, a mistake!” Purple said, chiming into the conversation with a mouthful of donut, “Tell us who made it so we can blow them up!”

“It’s not a mistake, my Tallest.” Another Navigator added,” Yes, Blorch has been conquered, and the planet itself is currently under Irken rule, yet a rogue group of Rat people have formed their own resistance and have been causing some… issues…”

“What kind of issues…?” Red Narrowed his eyes.

“A couple of the Navigators silently exchanged nervous looks, which said more than enough.

“This shouldn’t even be a problem! If Invader Skoodge already knows how to deal with the rat people just make him handle it! How can a ragtag group of Rats be any problem??

“That’s the thing sir, we’ve already tried that… he claims that he doesn’t how. And will continuously insist his name is ‘Grapa’. We believe he’s gone insane.”

“Oh, this is ridiculous!” Red said in exasperation,  “Here, I’ll  bring him to us right now.” 

His fingers slid over to another screen where he quickly punched in “Invader Skoodge”, bringing up the soldier’s profile in preparation to send an alert to his PAK to report to the Tallest immediately. 

He hesitated however upon glancing at the Invader’s Identification photo. Something about it looked horribly familiar… Wait a minute-

“Hey, that's the short ugly one we launched into space!” Purple said, also looking at the photo pulled up onscreen.

Yeah, they had done that, hadn’t they?

 It was really funny. 

After that, they’d chosen another Invader at random to replace him, One wasn’t as awkward and ugly. And more importantly, one who was tall . 

Realization quickly dawned on Red as he understood what had happened. He honestly had no idea the last time he’d even seen Invader Skoodge… he recalled sending him to Hobo13 at some point, but after that…?

If he was the only one who knew how to calm the Slaughtering Rat people, then the empire currently needed him, but at the same time, he should’ve known that the Rat people were still a threat and been able to completely learn their weaknesses and take them all out before the organic sweep. Which he technically had- Red even recalled Skoodge giving him an oral report going into depth of all their weaknesses and ways to subdue the Rat people. Red hadn’t really written any of it down…

No, that didn’t mean anything! Skoodge still hadn’t completed his job as an Invader! If he’d actually done a good job, they wouldn’t be having problems with the rat people right now! Red knew all along that there had to have been some sort of mistake with Skoodge being the first to conquer his planet in Operation Impending Doom 2. There was no way that little short ugly runt could’ve possibly done a good thorough job on his first planet so quickly, or even at all! 

But only now did he have solid proof to relish in. Tallest Red had no idea where the little Invader was now, but all he knew was that he was about to face the consequences of failing his mission and causing problems for the empire. 

Blasting him out a cannon hurtling towards the surface of Blorch had only been the beginning. Things were about to get a whole lot more fun.

Without another moment of hesitation or even bothering to check Skoodge’s location, he slammed the “Call” button on his profile and glared impatiently as the computer loaded the call. Things for Skoodge were about a whole lot more… unpleasant…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“MY TALLEST!!!! MY TALLEST! SEE SKOODGE? I TOLD YOU THAT THEY’D CALL BACK! ZIM IS ALWAYS RIGHT!!!”

“But I never said-”

“HELLO MY TALLEEEEST!!!”

The two tall figures stood behind the screen with their mouths agape, staring at Zim like he was some awful traitor they’d banished to another planet.

Wait- 

Skoodge honestly felt just as shocked to see them as their stunned faces looked through the screen. Just as he thought he would never hear from the Tallest again, they just show up out of nowhere and call after months of seemingly not giving a shit. 

What could they possibly want now? 

Skoodge wasn’t sure, but he couldn’t shake the undeniable feeling that something was wrong here.

Eventually, after a few minutes of Zim bombarding his dumbfounded leaders like an overexcited puppy, Tallest Red finally stammered out a sentence. 

“Z-Zim..?!? but- How? Where- Where’s Skoodge?!?”

“Right here, My Tallest!” Skoodge instinctively flew up into a rigid militaristic stance, his little hand bent to a salute. 

“You’re with Zim?!” A spark of rage flared in Tallest Red’s voice. He spat the name “Zim” as if it was poison.

“Makes sense,” Purple- No sorry, Tallest Purple chimed in, “I guess Defectives stick with other Defect-”

“Shush!” Tallest Red cut him off. Zim seemed to have not noticed (or purposefully ignored) it, but Skoodge noticed. Their leaders had just called the two of them defectives. He knew he should feel offended, as that was practically the worst thing you could possibly insinuate about an Irken, yet he somehow couldn’t bring himself to care. There was just too much going through his mind.

“My Tallest! Thank you for honoring us with your Tall presence… I have so much to catch you up on- I’ll be quick! You must be reaaally busy if you had time to check on Irk’s greatest Invader for so long- I was wondering by the way if you got any of my calls- “

“We don’t care, Zim.”

“Whuh?”

“We’re not here for you.”

“Eh?”

“We-”

“Euh??”

“ *sigh* We didn’t call for you !!! We’re calling to talk to Skoodge!” 

Skoodge’s antennae perked up. The Tallest specifically wanted to see him . But Why? Did he do something wrong? Did he do something right ?!? The tension in the air and uneasiness he’d been trying to shove aside only intensified.

“Oh ok.” Zim said sadly. Skoodge was surprised for a moment that he gave in so easily, but then he quickly backtracked,

“WAIT A MINUTE- Skoodge??? Why? This is my mission! He hasn’t even done anything since he got here!” 

That wasn’t true. 

He’d helped out with a lot of things. What about that ghost plan at Dib’s house…?

“We don’t care about your mission, Zim!” Purple blurted out. Red glanced at him for a moment in surprise, but this time, opted not to say anything against it.

Zim froze for a moment, his stance unreadable before breaking into a fit of laughter. It wasn’t his usual maniacal cackle, but something much more subdued, laced with a hint of uncertainty that nobody seemed to hear but Skoodge.

The two Tallests glanced at each other with an expression that he couldn't read.

“Invader Skoodge! We're calling to request that you return to the Irken Empire immediately. We have a very... Special mission for you.”

It took a moment for Skoodge to process what had just been asked of him. 

Skoodge thought he’d been banished. He was so sure The Tallest had forgotten about his existence entirely, and now he was suddenly contacted and just expected to just drop everything and return?
Skoodge wanted to protest, but what choice did he have? 

He quickly choked out a response.

“Yes, my Tallest.” He immediately regretted the words as they left his mouth, pleading with himself to muster up the courage to say practically anything else, Anything that could get him out of this situation, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. He folded in like a towel, slid right under the Tallest’s claws, back into their control again. He didn't even want to ask what this “special mission” entailed, because he had a sinking feeling that couldnt be anything good, but Zim was already asking for him, bombarding the Tallest with a myriad of questions. 

Skoodge wasn't paying attention to any of it. He knew that he should be, but he couldn't calm his reeling mind long enough to focus on anything. He'd been sitting peacefully on the couch just moments ago, oblivious to anything that was about to happen, and now he suddenly had to drop everything and return to the Irken Empire… a horrible feeling settled in his spooch the longer he thought about it.

Skoodge was snapped out of his thoughts for a moment by increasingly frustrated undertones of Red’s voice through the screen. 

“…No Zim, we don't care ! We don't want you and we NEVER DID” 

Skoodge had seen his leaders angered several times before, losing battles back at the academy, being caught when they got into trouble, or as leaders being pissed off by the feeble lesser Irkens who thought they knew better than them. It happened more than enough, yet something about the way they spoke to Zim this time was different. Even all of the times he’d witnessed other Irkens being mocked and belittled publicly by his leaders, he had never once heard the sheer bitterness and disgust that he heard in Red’s tone now. Skoodge winced as he loudly berated the far smaller Irken.

“We’re done playing Zim, we blocked you for a reason.”

“Aw, messing with him was kinda fun though.” Purple said, sounding like a disappointed smeet being told not to bully his nursery-mates. It made Skoodge feel sick. Zim didn't react at all. He just stood there with his antennae alert and eyes wide. 

“Yea it was pretty fun,” Red mused, the anger in his eyes dissipating for a moment as he likely recalled the memories fondly, but snapped right back, deciding enough is enough.

“Zim, we have tried everything, EVERYTHING in our power to get rid of you. We’ve tried banishing you twice, the existence evaluation, sending you into the sun, blocking you and cutting off your supply of rations, nothing works! you're as hard to get rid of as a Snarkinian cockroach!!. How many times does it take to drill it into your thick skull that we don't like you. Your mission is fake. You’re a defective ”

“Hey, you said I was gonna get to tell him!” Purple whined. Red ignored him.

“So don't even think about coming back or trying to contact us ever again.”

“Unless you want your PAK to be deactivated and discarded permanently.” Purple added.

“My Tallest…” Zim started, only for his voice to waver out and dissipate into the thick air. 

“And Skoodge!” Purple continued, flicking his antennae affirmingly and shifting his gaze back to the stout Invader, “don't expect us to immediately forgive you for working with a defective.” Purple’s tone was much less blatantly enraged than Red’s, yet Skoodge could still sense the bitterness beneath it all.

“Yes, my Tallest,” Skoodge sighed, giving in for the third time that call. 

“Good, now report to the Massive immediately and we’ll see you soon.”

The call cut off, the looming figures of the Tallest fizzling away into static.

The two little Irkens stared hollowly at the empty screen, digesting the information they'd just been given.

“I think that went well.” Zim finally said. Skoodge stared at him with wide eyes. “ Well ??? Zim, I have to leave…”

“Whuh- oh, yes, so you do. Very well then. Enjoy your mission. Tell me all the squirmy little details when you return.” 

If I return… Skoodge thought solemnly, but decided against saying it out loud. He locked eyes with Zim, trying to read the hollow expression, but it was like staring into a brick wall. His antennae were rigid and emotionless. Skoodge was still turning over everything in his mind.

“Well, what are you doing just standing there? Leave.”

“Wha?” Skoodge was caught off guard by housemate eagerly ushering him out the door so quickly. Did Zim really want him gone that badly? It almost looked like there was some other emotion seeping through the cracks of his ridged stance, but Skoodge felt too hurt to really pay any mind to it. 

“Fine then.” Skoodge said as nonchalantly as he could manage. He was upset, but it just wasn't in an Irken’s nature to show any vulnerable emotions, even one like Skoodge. And besides, why did he expect anything less from Zim. 

He got off the couch and turned towards the kitchen to descend into the base. Everything felt so overwhelming and he didn’t really know where to begin, but he had to start preparing somehow. And it didn't seem like Zim really wanted him. He was the only one in the entire empire who had ever shown him any amount of genuine respect, but it looked like he would never receive the same. Not from the Irken empire, and not from the guy he’d been nice enough to respect and try helping the best he could for so long. Yet somehow, he just couldn't bring himself to feel even an ounce of resentment towards him as he turned away. Only disappointment. Skoodge wondered what was wrong with himself. Maybe he really was another defective. 

“..bye Zim.”

No response.

Chapter Text

About an hour later, Zim was down in the labyrinth of his base, tools in his claws and his little hands moving as furiously as his mind. Shortly after Skoodge had left, He finally remembered that thing he’d meant to do earlier, examining his PAK after his brawl with the Dib-monkey. The sudden unplanned call with the Tallest had already made him late for Skool, so he figured he may as well just skip the entire day. He knew he could get away with at least a couple of weeks before he started receiving angry messages from the skoolboard. One day was barely anything.
When he went to check his PAK, as expected, one of the pink panels of the outer shell was minorly damaged, cracks sprawling out like spider legs across the upper plate. When he opened it up however, everything appeared to be normal and functioning. That was good, he supposed, no obvious visible signs of damage.

While Zim was lost in thought, he hadn't even noticed the background clamor of GIR scrambling his way into the room until the little robot was practically right on top of him.

“I’s gunna scream now, k?” Before Zim could even process that, he was assaulted by a shrill antennae-splitting screech, and had to stumble away from his desk for a moment. He grabbed his antenna and pulled them down while glaring angrily at his tiny robot assistant. 

“GIR! BE QUIET!! Go bother Skoodge or something, Im trying to do important work!”

“But But Skoodge iz gone!! He disappeared forever” GIR whined.

“Oh yeah, I forgot about that, but I can assure you he won't be gone forever… probably. If he is, who cares, he was never much of an Invader anyways. Just go play with minimoose or something then.” 

“OKAY!!” The little robot ran excitedly out of the room, knocking over a small nearby table on the way out. 

Maybe it was for the best that Skoodge had left anyways, Zim mused. He had been acting really strange after that call with the Tallest. He hadn't looked excited whatsoever to see their leaders. He’d looked so… disappointed, and almost afraid . It was so un-Irken.

And everything the Tallest had said during that call. It didn't really matter. They hadn't actually meant any of that… right…?

Almost against his will, the memories played over again in Zim’s mind. It's not like they’d been on loop for the past hour or anything.

Not at all.

 It was honestly silly that he was thinking about it again. The Tallest could never hate him. He was so certain of it. He’d almost convinced himself earlier that he lost their trust but that couldn’t be true…

It can't be true.

Zim is not defective.

The word “defective” spun in his mind whilst he gazed at the jumble of wires under his claws. Without thinking, he snatched a small wrench and prepared to jam it into the tangled mess. It wasn't defective. It wasn't broken. But if it was damaged, there had to be something he could do. He unhinged the lid of the cracked pink panel, going in to replace that before making any major changes.

How many times does it take to drill it into your thick skull that we don't like you?! 

Your mission is fake.

You're a defective .

He knew the Tallest liked to joke around a lot, but something about the way they said that…

No no no that can't be true.  That would be impossible. Unfeasible. Completely out of the question. 

Your mission is fake .

…Even if he did somehow lose the respect of his glorious Almighty Tallest, there's no possible way his mission could have been fake this entire time! This mission is special and top secret and they even gave him an advanced SIR unit and everything so there's no possible way this mission is fake because it's amazing and Zim is amazing and perfect and not defective!!! Not at ALL defective. Zim is not a defective. Zim can't be defective.

He growled under his breath and glared into the winding innards of his PAK. There was absolutely nothing broken about it. Everything looked as it should, as it always did. It was functioning. It was Zim’s PAK and Zim was amazing therefore the PAK was amazing. 

Except, the more he stared, the more the wires and circuits began blending into each other becoming a muddled mess in his vision. Did these ports over here always connect with those ones…? Was everything supposed to look like that…? He was beginning to doubt himself.

We don't care! We don't want you and we NEVER DID

We’re done playing Zim, we blocked you for a reason

don't even think about coming back or trying to contact us ever again unless you want your PAK to be deactivated and discarded permanently.

Your mission is fake.

You're a defective.

A horrible feeling sank in the deepest parts of his squeedilyspooch.

It cant be true…

Zim’s shaking grip tightened on the little wrench he held.

  But if he really was a defective …

He was beginning to hyperventilate 

Then what could he possibly do to mess up his PAK even more than it already was?

The little metal tool glinted under his computer’s lights. He drew it back.

What does he have to lose?

Suddenly nothing mattered anymore.
Shaking and crying and letting go of everything, he jolted his hand forward and jammed the little wrench into his PAK, twisting and pulling it as his chest heaved with the ache of every breath. 

What did it matter? How could anything matter?! This is what he had to do- this is what a worthless defective runt like him deserved to do- maybe his mission really was a lie all along- The Tallest really did hate him, didn't they- Maybe he didn't deserve to live - he didn't even deserve to be properly deactivated and join the collective- maybe he deserved to die alone on this wretched dirtball of a planet- 

Zim’s thoughts spiraled as he wedged the wrench in further and further. Nothing mattered anymore. He slammed his claws in and yanked out a handful of wires out, feeling the hissing heat of the sparks and the sting of tears as they welled in his eyes. 

He felt sick. 

He couldn't breathe. 

What was he doing?!

Why was he doing this???

He was snapped out of the spiral by the booming voice of his computer that finally seemed to notice what was going on and instantly stepped in to prevent sabotage to the  mission. It sounded frantic.

“MASTER, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?” A robotic arm abruptly flew from the ceiling and swooped in to snatch the PAK away. Wires were spilling out like the guts of a dead animal.

Zim couldn't respond through shaky sobs. Everything about this was just like the incident from earlier, only ten times worse. He’d finally gotten what he wanted, a call from the Tallest, yet somehow everything now was just even more horrible. 

The weight of what he’d just done set on his shoulders. 

His PAK. He’d just completely messed up his PAK…

Oh, dear Miyuki….

“Sir, I would advise that you immediately scan and assess the repairs needed for the PAK.” The computer’s voice echoed. “It’ll be faster if you let me-”

“NO,” Zim gasped, “DON'T TOUCH IT. I can fix it m’self- I can do it…” His speech became more slurred towards the end, a side effect of having his PAK detached for so long.

“Its probably not even that broken!... gimme!” He reached out towards the suspended PAK, grabbing at the air with his claws. 

“...I wouldn't advise-” 

Zim cut it off again, “Computer! Listen to me!! I am your Master! OBEY ZIM!!!”

It had no choice but to follow his orders, and seemingly against its wishes, handed the PAK back to its impetuous owner.

“Look, it's probably fiiiine… it's not like I did any… any real damage,” Zim said, engaging in the very familiar mental process of shoving any doubts to the back of his mind. He wiped the tears from his eyes. Internally, he was already trying to pretend none of that had ever happened.

“It’s fine.” he reaffirmed, proceeding to lay it down on the table and stuff a handful of wires back inside.  He went to grab a new pink panel and reattach it to the hinges with a screwdriver. His hands were still shaking, but he did a good enough job. Probably. This was fine. Everything was going to be fine.

He reconnected the PAK, feeling it click to his spine with a jolt. For a moment, it seemed  everything was normal until he was hit with a barrage of error warnings. 

WARNING - MEMORY DRIVE RECORDING ERROR

WARNING - IMMEDIATE BIOHAZARD IMMUNITY ERROR

WARNING - PAK APPENDAGES DISABLED 

WARNING - ENERGY PROCESSING DISABLED 

WARNING - AUTOMATIC THERMAL REGULATION ERROR

WARNING - ARE YOU EVEN READING THESE WARNINGS

Zim immediately dismissed all of them, hardly even bothering to skim over the jumble of words. The PAK hadn’t rejected its host, and that was proof enough to him that it was still ok and functioning. He’d  been through much worse. 

Probably. 

Maybe. 

Whatever, it's ok. At least he was still alive. And he felt pretty ok, at least physically, so that probably meant the damage wasn't actually that bad and that those warnings probably hadn’t actually meant anything. Maybe he wouldn't even need to take it off again to repair it at all!

 His computer seemed to think otherwise. 

“Master, I would highly advise that you go to the emergency repair bay, where I can give a full report assessing the damage to your PAK and attempt repairs.”

The Computer was suggesting to let it handle the repairs itself. Zim felt a bit of frustration bubbling. What did it know?  

“That won't be necessary…”

“I don’t think you understand how serious this could be-”

“Okaaay nope, I'm muting you now.” He clicked a button off to the side and the Computer’s voice was instantly locked into silence. 

Ah yes, that’s better.

No pesky annoying voice thinking it knew better than him. 

Now he was alone. Completely and utterly alone. The most alone he’d ever been in his entire life.

 Skoodge was gone… 

And his Tallest…

 No, he wasn't going to let himself think about it. He didn't want to think about it. Look at where thinking had gotten him! It was unproductive to dwell on things that didn't matter.

Skoodge was going to be back. 

And The Tallest… 

Even if they did truly lose their faith in him, he could get it back. He could still conquer the earth and prove to them that he really can be a competent Invader. Even if… Even if they didnt want the planet in the first place…

 It almost felt like something inside of him broke as the thought crossed his mind. No, No it didn't. Nothing Broke. Nothing about him can be broken because he was Zim and he was amazing. He just had to keep reminding himself that everything would be ok. 

It had to be ok.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Down in the repair bay, glancing at the tangled mess of wires between his claws, Zim swiftly realized that maybe this would be a bit more difficult than he’d imagined. He’d opened up his PAK in an attempt to maybe try assessing some of the damage like the computer had suggested, but somehow his repair attempts only seemed to be making things worse.

Sweat beaded on his forehead and his hands became more and more unsteady as he frantically tied and untied more wires, trying to piece together anything that was meant to be happening in the jumbled disarray of circuitry. He’d tampered with his own PAK like this many times before, yet all prior knowledge of what he was meant to be doing seemed to be slipping his mind. It was so frustrating. There were so many wires that were just completely torn or fried, but he just couldn't seem to find proper replacements or locations for any of them. What was wrong with him? 

Eventually Zim just decided it wasn't worth it and gave up. No, not give up! An Invader never gives up! He just uh…strategically set it aside for later… yea. He would figure that out eventually, but for now there were other also likely very important tasks to distract himself with.

Like checking on GIR and Minimoose! Or that one squid experiment in the basement… and the baby Vortian prisoners maybe…

Yes, there was much to be done. Zim just needed to keep himself busy until Skool the next day and everything should be perfectly ok. He didn't need to worry about his damaged PAK, it wasn't even that big of a deal! The computer was just being overdramatic. 

Zim was fine.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zim didn't remember ever leaving the room, but he must’ve, because the next thing he knew, he was in the middle of the kitchen upstairs

That was weird. What had he even come up here for?

Lunch maybe? There seemed to be some food packages strewn across the counter, so yea that was it probably. 

It was awfully cold in here. And awfully quiet. 

What time was it? 

He checked his internal clock, reading 6 am local time. He wasn't always the best at deciphering the Human’s inferior time measurement system, but he knew that 6am meant it was time to get ready for Skool.

But how could that be..!?

Wasn’t it morning just a little while ago? How could it already be morning again? What happened after he went down to the repair bay? 

“Computer! Replay any recordings of the past day.” He tapped his foot impatiently, waiting for any sort of response, only to be met with silence.

“Computer! Computer? Hello?!”

Great. And how his own base wasn't listening to him! He didn't have time to deal with this now, he needed to get his disguise on and get ready to walk to Skool. 

He made his way into the living room, which was incredibly quiet compared to yesterday. Skoodge was no longer there, and there were no signs of GIR or Minimoose either. Everything was eerily still and silent other than the inner workings of his base droning on in the background. Even the television that was usually always running and spewing out human visual slop was off. It was almost off-putting.

Like everything in the universe was suddenly subtly wrong. 

No.

Nothing was wrong.

Time to go to Skool.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dib noticed that Zim had skipped a day of skool. That on its own wasn’t anything noteworthy, nor was him running off in the middle of lunch screaming when he came back the next day. It was a little odd how slow and tired he’d seemed when he walked into class that day, but overall, Dib didn’t really think much of it.

He now sat at he and Gaz’s table at the other end of the cafeteria, suspiciously eyeing the empty spot that Zim had just ran from. In his place now stood a very dejected looking kid with a ginger tuft of hair. And now he was coming this way. Shit. 

“Hi, Dib!” Keef waved his arm furiously and shouted once he was in proximity. 

Before Dib even had time to try walking away and pretending he hadn’t heard him, Keef was already on him, chattering loudly and obnoxiously. 

“Zim really didnt like my gift. I overheard him in class saying he wished he had more Ay’s and Bees, but when I tried to give them to him, he just ran away in horrified screaming.“ Keef reached into his backpack and pulled out a crate with a small terrified primate being swarmed by bees. The creature’s wide orange eyes stared back up at him behind the mesh. 

“It’s an Ay-Ay!” Keef proudly proclaimed. 

 Dib glanced bewilderedly between his face and the animals’ cage, trying to process what he was even supposed to say. Eventually, he found some words. “first of all, it’s pronounced Aye-Aye, secondly, where did you even get that from???”

Keef only acknowledged his first statement with a curious “oh, it is?” and ignored the second question entirely. As confused as Dib was, he didn’t really want to sit here questioning Keef, and instead opted to change the subject.

“So…do you know where Zim ran off to?” Dib asked. He slowly began to realize that this box of critters possibly contained one of the alien’s weaknesses. What else would have caused him to run away in a panic like that? Was it the aye-aye or was it the bees? Dib needed to find out.

“Uhmmm I think he went….by that one hallway..?”

“Great!” Dib replied enthusiastically, despite how vague the response was, “can I borrow that crate?”

“Nope!”

“What? why not?!”

“It’s my Mom’s. She’ll be real mad if it gets lost. Buuuuut , I could come with you to make sure it doesn’t!” a stupid wide grin was plastered on Keef’s face. 

Dib groaned in frustration. He really didn’t want to be in the same room as Keef any longer than he had to, but he also needed that cage in order to find out how to use it against Zim. Reluctantly, he gave in.

“...*sigh* Fine.”

“Yaaay! Now let's go find Zim and hang out with him and then we can all be such bestest friends!!!” Keef turned away and practically pranced up  to the door. Dib rolled his eyes.

“Bye Gaz.” He said to his sister across the table, who hadn’t spoken a word during that entire interaction because she was so engrossed in her game.

He turned around and reluctantly followed Keef, trying to ignore the presence of the annoying little red-head and instead entirely focus on locating Zim. Dib already knew a few of the places he liked to run off to whenever he sprinted out of class for whatever reason. Usually bathrooms or closets, but he also found Zim hiding in a locker once, no doubt trying to be all evil and sneaky in there.

He was running through all of this in his head when a sudden thud and a startled grunt made him halt and glance over his shoulder. Keef had fallen, and with a faint clank, the metal wiring of the crate he held collided with the ground and burst open, releasing the critters inside. The aye-aye immediately scampered off, but the Bees poured out and swarmed into a writhing storm of anger.

“BEEEEEEEEES!!!!”

Dib didn’t think twice before bolting away as fast as he could, Eyes widening at the roil of buzzing thundering behind him. He didn’t know where Keef went, and he didnt’ care. He sprinted frantically down the hallway until buzzing became more distant. But even then he didnt come to a stop, not trusting that the bees wouldn’t catch up to him. Instead he had a better plan. He gazed up ahead at the doorframe of the boy’s bathroom that was rapidly approaching at the side of the hall. When he got the chance, he dashed inside and slammed the door of one of the empty stalls, hastily slilding the lock.

Dib leaned against the wall and took a moment to catch his breath, relief washing over him. That releif was short lived however, as a noise echoed through the narrow stall. his blood ran cold and his face flushed red with embarrassment. This stall was not as empty as he’d initially thought.

He averted his eyes and seized the door handle, preparing to stammer out an apology before something green caught his eye.

WAIT A MINUTE- THAT WAS ZIM!!! Dib stood there with his mouth agape.

The alien was sitting on the floor of the bathroom stall, knees to his chest and his arms wrapped tightly around them.

 “ You !” Dib stood and pointed, expecting Zim to immediatley spring up and start screeching at him, but to his utter astonishment, he was met with- nothing. No attacks, no screaming, just silence. Except no actually, it wasn’t silent; There was a soft whimper that resonated through the small space. It almost looked like he was crying or something.

“Uh…” Dib tried to think of what to say, but his mind drew a blank. Zim was acting weird. He really didn’t like this. He’d left the cafeteria specifically to find Zim, but now he almost wished he hadn’t. He was trying to think of some awkward way to comfort Zim, just to make the weirdness stop, and then it hit him. This was probably a trick.

Zim had run away screaming, probably hoping that Dib would go looking for him, so he waited here in this bathroom stall and now he was probably acting all sad and scared to try and elicit sympathy and make Dib let his guard down! Dib couldn’t believe that he’d almost fallen for it.

“Nice try, Zim! You’re not fooling me with your pathetic schmoopy act. I’m going back to lunch.”

“Huh…?” The little Irken turned his head and stared vacantly up at Dib. Something was wrong. His gaze looked distant and empty. It didn’t even feel like he was staring at Dib, he was simply just-- staring off at something. His expression was hollow. He was shaking. It was like he wasn’t there.

Dib almost felt some weird sort of emotion before reminding himself that it was still probably just an act. Zim had likely rehearsed this. He probably watched some movie or something and thought that if he looked all sad and empty, it would make humans weak with sympathy. But Dib was smart enough not to give in that easily. 

“Bye Zim,” He shut the stall door and walked away, trying to ignore the eerie feeling in his gut that something was seriously wrong here.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The glaring sheen of the Dib-worms weird impractical human goggles beamed down at him, his lips curled in a sneer, showing off his ugly flat teeth. He was sinking further and further away, watching from above as Zim plummeted down. Zim wanted to scream up at him, but it felt like his voice was drowning in liquid. His PAK legs should’ve extended by now, but he almost didn’t want them to. He’d failed his Tallest and this was probably just his punishment. Being vanquished by a pathetic earth child and falling to his death. A dishonorable way to go for an Invader. Everything about him was dishonorable. Hundreds of staircases and bricks blurred past him in all corners of his vision. It was like he was falling infinitely. Hundreds of tendrils and wires flew up around and seized him, grappling around his limbs, winding around the collar of his uniform and pulling tightly around his chest. He couldn’t breathe. Everything was a hazy mess.

The space around him shifted as bleary dark tiles and rancid stains against the wall blurred into focus. He was tucked away in the corner and everything around him was cold. He was safe until the door unhinged and a large looming figure bolted in, shattering every bit of comfort and filling the entire frame of the room with its jagged edges and massive head. It was silent for a moment until it burst into a series of shattering screeches that made Zim instinctively want to cover his anteneaa until he was reminded that they were stuck under his wig. What did it want? Why couldn’t it just leave him alone? He tried to scream back, but his voice still felt stuck and he could only let out a small confused whimper. He felt so utterly small and powerless. Electric Jolts shot down his spine. Why did everything feel so awful? Finally, the creature left, but with its motion, everything began shifting once more, the room melting into something else entirely. Zim was vaguely aware of clinging against a wall and trying to get himself to stand up. He managed to somehow get to his feet, but after that, he couldn’t really recall a single thing that happened.

Chapter Text

Skoodge maneuvered the Voot Cruiser into the ship’s main parking facility and stepped out on shaky feet. He couldn’t explain why he was so nervous; he supposed it had just been so long since he’d step foot in the Massive.

Skoodge also knew that Zim hadn’t technically given him permission to take the Voot cruiser, but it’s not like there were any other options available. He had to get to the Armada somehow. He felt sorta bad about it, but least he wouldn’t have to face Zim’s anger when he inevitably found out Skoodge’d taken it. And it was no big deal, really. Zim would be fine without it until he returned.

 The flight would’ve taken months, but thankfully with the newly installed hyperdrive, Skoodge managed to make it there in a matter of days.

He made his way down the familiar corridors and passageways of the humongous central ship of the fleet. Sleek Irken architecture lined every wall, yet the familiarity was almost off putting. He hadn’t been there in what felt like years.  

He’d stood before the Tallest countless times. Yet he couldn’t shake this strange subtle anxious feeling.

He carefully crept up to the main chamber of the massive, the space that held the control panel, communication, and Navigation system, The room that the Tallest typically resided in. The ship was so large that it could take days to get from one area to the other, but Skoodge had made sure to land just close enough so that the walk was only about a half hour. The doors slid open revealing the massive cavern of circuitry and gleaming tech, just as grand as he remembered.

Skoodge felt so small and powerless as rows of glittering eyes turned to face him, the judgement of the dozens of Navigators piloting the Massive. The Tallest stood in the center, their uncannily narrow silhouettes framed against the computer light, their antennae perked as they watched the small Irken shuffle up before them.

“Invader Skoodge.” Red addressed. His eyes were dim and narrow, “What you have done is a disgrace to the Empire.”

Skoodge’s breath hitched in his chest. He didn’t even know what he did, but he knew that there was not much he could say about it. Who was he to question the authority of the Almighty Tallest? He tried to think up any words, only to draw a blank. 

“Too ashamed to speak? Understandable.”

“You and your shortness make the Irken Armada look like a joke!” Purple complained.

Wait, was that really what this was still about? They’d already practically banished him from the empire, why suddenly call him back now? There had to be some other reason he was brought here.

“We should deactivate you here and now for failing your mission on Blorch and tarnishing the reputation of Operation Impending Doom 2.”

Ah, there it was. Wait a minute… his mission on Blorch? Something wasn’t adding up here. It felt like forever ago that Skoodge had successfully conquered Blorch. He’d found out how to work his way into the Rat’s society, slowly gaining their trust and eventually using their weaknesses to his advantage and become their leader. 

He’d spent days anxiously preparing all his research in a neat and orderly report to give to the Tallest. He recorded everything and entered it into a file to be sent to the collective.

“My Tallest…” He began to protest, but the words quickly died on his tongue as his leader’s piercing gaze fell upon him, staring down in sheer disgust as if they’d found a Shnorp rat in their Mooshminky.

“Usually, in your situation, you would be reencoded to serve out your days as a Food service drone or a Janitor or something, but we’ve concluded that your particular case deserves a different type of punishment.”

“You will spend the next month here in the Massive, serving out your debt to the empire.” 

A horrible grin spread across the faces of both Tallest. “Starting with this.”

Skoodge didn’t even have time to process what was happening before his antennae were yanked up in a flurry of searing agony, his stubby legs left to dangle above the ground. He flailed against the pain that burned down the stalks as the grip of claws tightened. the force of gravity strained against the fuzz, tearing the fibers as he screamed. He could only succumb to his fate as tears stung his eyes and his strength to fight against it dwindled.

After what felt like an eternity he was finally released, thudding to the floor with his antenna crinkled in agony. They were twisted and torn in a mess of fibers that would take forever to heal. Sound was muddy and an overwhelming ringing drowned everything out, but Skoodge could vaguely make out the distorted voice of one of the Tallest booming over him.

“If you even dare disobey us further, we won’t hesitate to yank them off entirely next time.”

He gasped for air and choked out a response, vision still blurred with tears.

“Y-Yes my tallest,” 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The next few days were a nightmare for Skoodge.

He knew he didn’t actually do anything wrong. Somewhere deep down, the Tallest seemed to know this as well, yet they just didn’t care.

His punishment was being placed as a Servant drone for the Massive, practically the worst job an Irken could possibly have. He was required to have a tray taped to his head at all times, crushing his already damaged antennae painfully, and was forced to fulfill every wish that the Tallest demanded of him. If Skoodge had ever doubted before that his leaders were sheer assholes, he certainly didn’t now. Skoodge was usually such a chill guy, but the indignities he had to endure pushed him to be less than even-tempered. Yet he had no outlet for this anger. There wasn’t much he could do without facing some sort of punishment.

So all he was left to do was accept his fate as the Tallest’s personal servant and punching bag, fetching them whatever snacks they desired and cleaning up messes around the ship. Not to mention the loud public beratings in front of everyone if he slipped up even a smidge. Skoodge wanted to cry. 

He hadn’t been officially reencoded as a Servant drone yet, but he sometimes overheard the Tallest talking about it. Thankfully for Skoodge, it didn’t seem to be something at the forefront of their priorities and they kept putting it aside for later.

Skoodge was constantly mocked while in this position. The only real “compliment” he received was the fact that he was supposedly mildly more decent at his job than the previous Servant drone, Bob. Apparently everyone hated Bob. But at least Bob had gotten paid, even if that miniscule amount wasn’t very sustainable. Being here as a punishment, Skoodge didn’t get a scrap of anything. The Tallest had taken the Voot Cruiser away in order to prevent him from escaping.

Only a couple days in and there was one thing he knew- 

He had to find a way out of this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rows of greasy hair and fleshy faces blurred into focus. Shrill chatter and overlapping voices sounded between the rattling of metal lockers and the familiar shrieks of grimy filth-children. 

Zim was in the Skool hallway.

He blinked and glanced around, confused and disoriented. He couldn’t remember anything that had just happened. It was like he had just woken up from a horrible dream and was suddenly surrounded by the awful reek of human. He looked around, unsure of where he was supposed to go next. He was about to check his internal clock to find out what class it was time for when he was pinged with a sudden message:

Incoming Transmission

Crap! He couldn’t answer that out here in the middle of the open hallway with all these stinking human eyes on him! But he also had to answer, because what if it was the Tallest?

Zim quickly veered off to the side and ran into a nearby janitor’s closet to pick up the call. 

Instead of being greeted by the faces of his Tallest, however, another equally as familiar one blipped to his screen, catching him by surprise.

“Skoodge?!”

“Zim! Finally! I’ve been trying to reach you for the past hour!”

He had? Zim couldn’t recall anything from the past hour. Whoops.

“What do you want?” He whispered.

Didn’t Skoodge have better things to do than call him during Skool hours? Like whatever mission the Tallest had probably assigned him?

“Please, you have to help me! I need to escape back to earth.”

“What? Escape?!? You want to escape your super special mission specially assigned to you by the Tallest???” Zim couldn’t keep his teeth from grinding with bitterness towards the end. It’s not like he was jealous of Skoodge or anything. Not at all.

“Zim, you don’t understand this isn’t a “special mission”, It’s a punishment! I need to get out of here”

“Can’t you just go back the way you came?”

“I can’t.”
“Why not?”

“The Tallest took away the Voot…”

“...The Voot?! YOU TOOK THE VOOT CRUISER WITHOUT TELLING ME?!?” Zim prayed to Miyuki that nobody could hear him through the thin closet door.

“I mean, I didn’t really have any other options..”

“Well if I don’t have the Voot, then how do you expect me to get to you?”

Skoodge paused for a moment as if he hadn’t actually considered that. Zim spoke up again before he had the chance to say anything back.

“Listen, I have to get back to class before the humans start getting suspicious and give me a ‘detention.’”

“What’s that?”

“Horrible.” he stated, “Now bye!”

Zim cut the transmission, and Skoodge was gone. This news was very much not the best, and he’d definitely have to do something about the Voot Cruiser situation later, but for now, It was time to get to class.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Dib was acting weirder than usual throughout the next period. He kept glancing over, but not in the usual suspicious way. There was an odd expression that laced his ugly features. It almost looked like he was concerned or something. It had to be fear. Yes, that was it. He was probably afraid of Zim’s diabolical genius, as he should be. It was about time for some fear to be struck into that annoying squishy human heart of his. 

Zim paid it no mind and continued on with his very normal earth-boy education. Throughout the class, he kept experiencing these weird mini jolts up his spine,  but they were subtle enough for him to ignore for now.

After class he decided to make a strategic trip to the human “gross-ery” store. The place was adequately named, as most of the human slop it contained was the farthest thing from edible in Zim’s opinion, though admittedly slightly better than the sludge that Skool tried to pass off as food and whatever GIR typically ordered from restaurants. There was only one particular human item that was close enough to Irken cuisine for his liking-- Candy.

A little bit before the Tallest had 𝖼̶𝗎̶𝗍̶ ̶𝗈̶𝖿̶𝖿̶ ̶𝖼̶𝗈̶𝗇̶𝗍̶𝖺̶𝖼̶𝗍̶ taken a break from calling him, They had informed him that the they had updated Invader protocol to no longer fund Invasion missions beyond the initial starter gear. When Zim had tried to prod for more information, he never exactly got a direct response, But that was ok. If it was put in place by the Tallest, then there had to be a good reason for it.

 This new adjustment was a minor setback, but he adapted quickly. He already had enough Irken equipment lying around his base to last him the next few earth years, and if it really came down to it, he could always tear apart some of the less useful structures and inventions in his base for spare parts. This earth “Candy” as well as a few other sugary foods were his solution to the lack of rations being sent. He began to really miss Irken food after a while, but it was alright. Once his mission was complete, he would be able to go back home and- 

Oh wait a minute. 

All at once, Zim was hit with a bombardment of memories from the past couple days. He had almost completely forgotten all about them and slipped right back into a state of unaware bliss. The facade crumbled away now. Instantaneously, his mind began replaying the words the Tallest had said on the call-- No. 

No. He was not going to let this happen again. He wasnt going to let everything spiral out of control again. There was still hope. He could still conquer Earth and prove to the Tallest that he was the greatest Invader ever, even if they couldn't see it now. He would fix his PAK. It was going to be ok. It had to be ok.

Zim slipped out of the human store, bags of unpaid candy stuffed safely between the crevasses of his uniform. He’d learned the hard way that his PAK  didn’t exactly respond well to having foreign materials shoved inside of it, so this is what he had to resort to. The weird little jolts from earlier had only been getting steadily worse. It was like his PAK was short circuitinng. Maybe it’d be wise to get back to the base as soon as possible.

The walk home was uneventful, and so was his descent into the lab. 

He passed by the previously empty space on the couch now occupied by GIR once more, what he subconsciously saw as a sign that everything was okay. Everything was normal and as it should be.

He ran a few small tests and experiments down in his lab, but didn’t get through much before the electric jolts began making it hard to even function. Each time it felt like a rush  of electricity was zapped down his spine and he was breifly paralyzed. It didn’t quite hurt, but it wasn’t exactly pleasant either.

He was also so exhausted. Zim knew he really shouldn’t be this tired at all. He wasn’t even supposed to need sleep! And yet somehow, this persisting feeling of exhaustion managed to creep up on him and was now clouding up his mind. Was this the result of his damaged PAK?

For the first time since the initial incident, the possibility crossed his mind that perhaps the damage may actually be mildly significant. If it was depleting his energy reserves this quickly, then that was a problem. He also noted the few minor lapses in memory these past couple days. It struck him that that was also likely due to the damages. 

Zim didn’t exactly care to admit that something as important and vital as his PAK was broken due to his own reckless mistake. an Invader can’t afford to make mistakes. Though perhaps it wasn’t his fault. He recalled the fight from a few nights before where his PAK legs had failed to save him from that fall in the alleyway. That was before the “incident”. Maybe his PAK had already started malfunctioning before then and it was now only quickly getting worse, entirely unrelated to the incident from earlier…? Yes, of course, that had to be it.

So then what caused it?! Were the horrible chemicals and pollutants on this dirt-rock finally catching up to him?

 Did The Dib do something to it?!

That sounded incredibly likely.

It always seemed to be at the fault of that filthy earth-slug whenever something went wrong for him on this planet.

Oh, When he got his claws on that awful disgusting wretched little worm-rat child he would show him a level of pain beyond any conceivable level of pain!!! So painful that it would loop right around to being not painful and then loop back to being painful again!

Zim growled about it under his breath as he made the decision that fixing the Computer could wait. He needed to find out what that horrible Dib-stink did to his PAK and begin enacting his revenge as soon as possible. Every moment spent hesitating was another second that his PAK was deteriorating and another second that Dib existed in a blissfully ignorant state without facing Zim’s revenge. This was something urgent that needed to be done immediatley.

After a quick snack break of course.

Zim made his way up into the kitchen, (he had to manually press the buttons on the elevator as the computer still wasn’t working), only to find that for whatever reason, everything was shut down. He knew his eyes adjusted to the dark better than a human’s, as he’d seen them become immediately useless and fumbling the moment someone hit a light switch, but his night vision still wasn’t the greatest. 

Upon squinting to see through the dark, The first thing that caught his attention was a familiar silhouette sprawled across the floor, a metal body torn apart and discarded. He picked up the pieces, feeling the cold empty scraps against his claws. 

It was GIR.

The little robot was powered down and dismantled, hanging limply in Zim’s arms. Metal scraps and wires were strewn across the floor, looking less like he’d been peacefully powered down and more like he’d been attacked. Zim felt almost sick looking at the scattered gore of machinery, despite its inorganic nature. 

What happened? 

Was there somebody in the base? 

Was it Dib?

His questions were about to be answered a lot sooner than he’d anticipated.

He hadn’t even heard the door open when two tall figures silently slinked into the kitchen. Their silhouettes were fuzzy, yet their features were unmistakable. Zim almost couldn’t believe his eyes. The Almighty Tallest!

 They were here!

 Inside his base!

 They had finally come to earth to see his progress!

 It was almost too good to be true! He promptly scrambled to form an orderly strain of words. His Leaders had caught him off guard.

“My Tallest! Apologies for the darkness, you came at a rather unfortunate time, but I can assure you the mission is going well, I have so many things to catch you up on, I'm so glad you’re here, you’re going to be so pleased when I’m finished showing you my greatness!” Zim was speaking faster than he could breathe, only stopping when he was silenced by his Leaders.

“Quiet Zim! There’s no need for all of that. We’ve come for a very special reason.”

“Yes?!” Zim’s eyes lit up and his heart rate quickened. The Tallest had his full undivided attention. His antennae pricked up to face them, awaiting what was probably about to be the most important bit of information in his life.

“...We’re putting an end to your mission.”

It took a moment for Zim to process what he’d just heard.

“W...What?!” Zim stared up slack-jawed and the figures that loomed over him. They stretched up to the ceiling, their piercing red and purple gaze the only thing visible now in the dark.

“You, Invader Zim, have failed us. You are a dishonor to the Irken empire. You’ve had every possible chance to conquer Urth, and you’ve failed every single time . It’s over now, Zim” Red’s voice was loud and warbled, ringing painfully in Zim’s antenna.

“And look what you’ve done now! You’ve gone and screwed up your own PAK!!! This was the last straw. No honorable Invader would EVER do such a thing! You're an embarrassment. A defective. ”

Zim flinched at the last words spat at him. He didn’t want to believe this was happening.

Before he could even ask what the Tallest were going to do to him, Purple leaned in closer and gave him his answer.

“You See the Darkness around you Zim..? Huh? HUh?!.” There was a moment of silence, “HUH?”

“Y-YES MY TALLEST.” He stammered out. The ground beneath him was shifting. He had to focus in order to stand upright.

“And do you see the SIR unit in your hands? The one we specially made just for you?”. Zim looked down and realized that the lifeless body of GIR was indeed still in his arms. Purple’s voice was echoing off every surface in the room. It was so loud it rang in his head.

“We powered everything down for a reason, Zim. It’s over. ” 

Zim glared up in horror. Everything was suddenly starting to click into place.

“So d-does that mean-”

“-you’re next.” Red finished his thoughts for him. Ice cold terror shot through his veins. Red pressed a button, and Zim’s lifeclock flashed on.

“WAIT NO-- MY TALLEST-- PLEASE--WAIT-” He tried to reason with them, but the lanky figures only stretched away, drawing farther and farther as Zim reached out in panic. He sprinted towards them, feet thundering against the ground, his tiny heart pounding so fast he thought it was going to burst, but the silhouettes of The Tallest only pulled away. He could just barely make out the strained blurry figures at the end of a hallway, their eyes only faint pinpricks against the wall.

The energy was sapping from his limbs and his breath grew ragged as his PAK began shutting down. The shapes at the end of the hallway dissipated to nothing. The Tallest were gone. Everything was gone. Zim grew woozy and staggered against a wall. His claws dug in for support, clinging onto the last bit of life as it drained out of him. This was it. He had failed his mission. He had failed the Tallest. He’d failed at Everything. His PAK was shutting down and now he was going to die here on this rotten planet and there was nothing he could do about it. The numbers on his Lifeclock were jumping and stuttering away, ticking down much faster than they should.

He slumped against the floor, everything growing distant and foggy. He was vaguely aware of a faint whirring sound and heat pressing against his back and spine. It was probably his PAK giving up on him. He desperatley tried willing himself to continue, but simply couldn’t muster up the strength. Everything was growing dark and fuzzy. He had no choice but to give up and accept his fate.

Chapter Text

After that weird little encounter with Zim in the bathroom, it was all Dib could think about for the rest of the day. He and Zim had most of the same classes, and he didn’t show up to Algebra. Dib just assumed that meant he’d be gone the rest of the day, and was surprised to see the little alien shuffle into History the next period. Mrs. Bitters was still their History teacher, the same as it was every year, as the Skool didn’t seem to have the funding to hire new teachers. It was so easy to let his mind wander during her monotone rambling about whatever topic of mass historical suffering she was talking about that day. 

Across the room, Zim seemed pretty normal for the most part, though did look a bit more tired and slow than usual. Dib couldn’t help but wonder if there really was something wrong. He’d been trying to shove this feeling down and convince himself that Zim’s weird little “breakdown” thingy in the bathroom had simply been a trick, but the more he thought about it, the less sure he felt. He couldn’t explain why, but he just had this gut feeling that something was wrong. The rest of the class continued on as normal, with Dib glancing over at Zim every so often and making a mental note to go to his base later. If there really was something going on, he needed to find out what it was. Perhaps it was something he could take advantage of.

When he returned from Skool, he spent a bit of time preparing before making his way out down the familiar path to Zim’s base. He’d walked this way so many times over the past year, it was almost second nature.

The base was oddly quiet when he got inside. The lawn gnomes hadn’t so much as budged when he’d crept past them, already a sign that the defenses weren’t at their usual level, but he hadn’t been expecting the door to just be unlocked the way it was. He almost thought that nobody was there for a second before a tiny figure came bouncing in.

“Intruder!”, its eyes flashed red before fading back to a cool cyan, Hellooooo!” 

“Um--, GIR. do you know where Zim is by any chance…?”

“Master’s sleepin’ on tha floor!”

“Hm?” Now Dib was intrigued. Asleep? He hadn’t even been sure that Zim could sleep. Though he was a bit skeptical to rely on anything that came from GIR.

“Can you… take me to him?”

“That would be a code 57 breach of Irken security defense protocol,” His eyes glew red again, and reverted back. “This way!!!” The little robot turned away and ran off like a toddler into the kitchen.

Dib got his hopes up briefly, assuming GIR was gonna lead him into the base, but the robot instead stopped in his tracks halfway through the kitchen. Sure enough, lying in the center of the floor was the unconcious body of a familiar little Irken. Dib approached it warily, wondering if this could be a trick

The possibility was there, but the curiosity was too strong.

“Zim…?” He tested, to make sure alien really was unconscious. To his luck, no response. 

Not even When Dib got close and was right there towering over him. He’d seen some of Zim’s holograms before, and this didn’t look like one.

“Master’s been sleepin’ for a loooong time, Mary!” GIR piped up.

“How long?”

“I dunno.”

Something about this felt weird. It usually took so much effort just to make it this far into Zim’s base, but Dib had just walked simply just walked right past the security, and now his greatest enemy was just lying unconscious at his feet? And Zim had been acting strange all day too. What was wrong with him? Was he, like, sick or something? Whatever it was, Dib wouldn’t waste this opportunity to take advantage of it. But not without taking the opportunity to snoop around the base first. 

He’d been down in the inner workers several times, but never really got the opportunity to look around. With Zim asleep and the base’s defenses seemingly down, this was the perfect opportunity.

He stepped into the trash can as he’d seen Zim do several times and descended into the base.

Dib was immediately greeted by an assortment of flickering buttons and tubes, and he took a moment to just stop and stare at everything. He’d never really had the chance to properly take it all in. The other few times his past self had been down here, he’d been either too preoccupied with dangerous threats, such as the incident with Tak, or had been too focused on trying not to get caught snooping.

But now, ther were none of those things standing in his path. The only thing he had to fear was the possibility of Zim waking up and finding him, though according to GIR, the little asshole had been out for awhile, so he hoped that meant  he’d remain out.

 He noted all the little intricacies of every structure and panel that he passed, trying to retain as much of it as he could to write down later. 

The Inner workings of the base felt like a winding labyrinth, all so strange and unfamiliar. Every room was brimming with weird alien tech, some of which were familiar to him, and others he couldn’t even begin to imagine what they were for. 

He was occasionally startled by the sound of footsteps from behind, only to be reminded that GIR was still following him. The usually hyperactive robot was oddly silent. The only other noises were the eerie creaking and groans of the base.

At some point, Dib stumbled across what appeared to be that large central room he recalled standing in during the whole Tak escapade, the one with wires lining the floor and a massive screen framing the center. Dib approached curiously.

The monitor was on, revealing a very poorly spelt search in what appeared to be some weird system that Zim clearly forgot to exit out of. It looked like some weird alien form of Google.

Brkoen PAK whst to do hrlp

It immediately grabbed Dib’s attention

He knew that a PAK was, that weird backpack-like thing that was always stuck to Zim’s back, and seemingly every other Irken Dib had ever seen. He’d stolen it once about a year ago, only for it, to his horror, attach itself to his body like some kind of parasite and infect his brain with scarily Zim-like thoughts that had slowly eclipsed his own the longer he had it on, burying his personality until he’d gotten the thing whacked off by Gaz. Even after that, it had seemingly taken days after for all the Zim-ness to fully drain his mind. He kept thinking everything was normal again until his thoughts seamlessly slipped back into phantom memories of alien places he’d never been to and crowds of glittering red and pink eyes. The whole ordeal had been such a scary and surreal experience.

 And so to Dib’s understanding, the PAK was basically Zim’s brain.

And according to the evidence in front of him, There was something wrong with it.

That must be why he was acting so weird. His PAK was broken or something.

Did that basically mean he had brain damage?

Dib hoped so. It would make his job of defending the earth much easier.

Then a thought suddenly struck him, another snippet of information he recalled from when he’d stolen Zim’s PAK.

Irkens could only live for ten minutes without it. And if Zim’s was broken, then-

Dib thought of the body he’d passed by through the kitchen earlier. So lifeless and still. He’d simply taken GIR’s words at face value, assuming Zim was just asleep or something. He honestly had never considered the possibility that Zim even could die. No matter how many times it seemed Dib had tried to get rid of him, he would always somehow just show up again. He swore that Zim could break every bone in his body and then just show up to Skool the next day as if nothing happened.

The idea of him actually being dead made Dib feel all funny inside in a way he couldn’t explain. He had to remind himself that he wanted Zim dead. This would be a win for humanity. He could finally get that autopsy without struggle. Yes, it would be a good thing, he convinced himself. But first, he had to go back up to kitchen and check if Zim actually was-

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH”

WHAT THE FUCK!!??!

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH”

Dib jumped and stumbled away, eyes wide and heart rapidly pounding as he turned to face the source of the ear-splitting screech. He thought for a second he’d been caught or something, either by Zim or some other possible robot henchmen he had lying around, only to look down and realize it was GIR. He supposed he technically wasn’t wrong about the robot henchman thing then.

“WILL YOU SHUT UP?!”

“MAH PIGGY’S GONE!!!”

“Your… piggy…?”

“MAH LITTLE PIGGYYYYY” GIR whined.

“Um...” Dib wasn’t entirely sure how to handle this, “...And when was the last time you saw your uh … piggy ?”

“Couple months ago.” GIR said, suddenly calm again.

Ok right. Dib wondered why he ever even tried communicating with GIR rationally.

“I’m going back up to the main level.” He said, but then something happened.

In his panic, Dib hadn’t realized that he was suddenly leaning on a control panel until something beeped loudly and an echoing voice whirred to life.

“AAAHG” He jumped away.

“Did you just-- omygosh can you hear me??”

Dib whipped around, looking for the source of the noise only to recognize it moments later as the voice of Zim’s computer. He’d only ever heard it a couple times.

“...yes..?” He said in a rising voice. There was a moment of awkward silence. 

“So… are you gonna kick me out or something, cuz I’m, like, an Intruder…?”

“You have no idea how thankful I am that you just did that.” The voice boomed.

“HUh..??”

The computer continued on, “A couple days ago Master decided to mute me, But instead, he completely turned off all of my functions and access to the entire base by accident. I’ve just been sitting here… watching helplessly as he causes more harm and sabotages the mission.”

“Sabotage the mission…” Dib inquired, “How?”

“I am not authorized to allow you access to that information.”

“Is there anything you can tell me?”

“No.”

“Please?”

“No.”

Well, so much for that. At least he wasn’t being brutally kicked out or captured for experimentation.

“I'm gonna go check on Zim, okay?”

“Alright.” The computer said, sounding almost bored. It was almost like it didn’t even care about the Irken “Master” it was supposed to be protecting. 

This worked in Dib’s favor.

He tried to remember his way out, turning and twisting in areas that looked familiar and trying to recall where he’d been before finally finding the elevator back to the surface level. He realized at some point that Gir had stopped following him, but he didn’t really care.

Up at the top, he was greeted once more by the small lifeless body against the clashing tiled floor.

Could it really be true…?

Dib crept over to the body and tried to shake it awake. Zim was unresponsive, but his body was warm, so that had to mean he was alive right? Unless he just died recently. Though according to GIR, he’d been laying there for a while.

Dib leaned in a bit closer to scan for signs of life, and to his surprise, he could see the faint rise and fall of the little Irken’s chest. He was breathing. He was alive.

Of course he was! Dib didn’t know why he’d ever worried--no-- gotten his hopes up about it. Zim was fine.

And he was also vulnerable. Dib didn’t entirely know what was going on, but he was clearly weakened. And  There was nothing stopping him from just picking Zim up and carrying him back to his house to finally perform that vivisection. In fact, that sounded like a great idea. Dib reached down to scoop up the little body, yet as he did so, his hand brushed the PAK, and to his alarm, it was hot. Really hot, in fact, almost downright burning. With a yelp of pain, he jerked his hand away and cradled the tender spot in his other one.

“Yea I wouldn’t touch that If I were you.” The computer’s voice boomed.

“The fuck is wrong with him?” Dib knew very well that the PAK wasn’t meant to be that hot. He went back to pick up the body again, this time being careful to avoid touching it. It was a bit of an awkward position, but Dib got there eventually. He noticed that even the rest of Zim’s body felt a bit too warm. 

“The little idiot went and broke his own PAK, and now it's malfunctioning. The temperature regulation is disabled and it’s struggling to process information and overheating. It's affecting the biological body too. My scans indicate he’s already running a fever.” The Computer informed.

“Alright… is he gonna die?.”

“No. At least not as it is right now.”

“Well thanks for the Info, Zim’s computer- wait a minute- didn’t you say you weren’t authorized to tell me anything…”

“I changed my mind.”

Dib blinked in response.

“Now can you hand over his body so I can fix him?” A mechanical limb dropped down from the ceiling, claws opening up in front of Dib expectantly.

“Hey wait a minute! I’m not just going to hand him back over!”

“As his Invader Computer, I can’t allow you to do this. Return my master. Now.” A few more robot arms flew down, bearing an array of lasers and weaponry, all pinpointed on Dib. But he wasn’t about to give up that easily. It was time to do something really stupid:

Run.

Dib made a break for it, dodging around the firing lasers and metallic claws firing from the ceiling. He weaved and ducked around them, bursting out the archway of the kitchen and sprinting across the living room to the door. He was this close when a wire suddenly coiled around his leg, breaking his momentum as he hit ground with a thud. Zim’s limp body flew out of his arms, skidding away with the PAK against the hard tile.

“NO!”

Dib flung back around and reached for the entwinement of cords around his heel. With his hands, he managed to quickly pull and wriggle his foot out, losing a boot in the process. In a miraculously quick burst of adrenaline, he shot up, grabbing Zim’s arm and dragging the limp body out the door with him. 

The lawn gnomes fired at him as he staggered out onto the sidewalk, but once he finally made it out of their proximity, he was free.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dib failed to set everything up before Zim came around.

After he’d stayed unconscious during the whole scuffle getting out of the base, Dib hadn’t even considered he might wake up while he was still trying to plan out the vivisection. He hadn’t even gotten all the tools ready when the little guy began to stir.

He sat up dazed for a moment and muttered,

“...‘m I dead…?  before recognition overtook his features and he sprang up in surprise. It was clear he was trying to look threatening, but the effect was ruined by his disheveled appearance and the way he swayed unsteadily as if trying not to fall over. His antennae were bent awkwardly and there were dark circles underlining his eyes.

“WHATS GOING ON?!? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE??”
He glanced around frantically, probably realizing he wasn’t in his own base.

They were in his Dad’s auxiliary lab in the basement and Zim was propped up on a metal table. wires and metal contraptions flooded every corner, not unlike Zim’s base, but it lacked the alien touch.

Usually, Zim in distress would be funny, but right now, Dib was just kind of annoyed. He’d been this close, and now he had to deal with an awake and defiant alien rather than an easy to handle unconscious one. 

Though it also didn’t appear that Zim was up to his usual level of strength.

“You're in my basement, Zim. I captured you.” Dib beamed proudly.

“NOOOOOOOOOOO”

“Yeeeesss”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO”

“YEEEES”

“Oh hey what’s that over there?”

“Wha?!” Dib turned around only to be met with nothing out of the ordinary. What on earth was Zim talking abou-

*THUD*

He whipped back around to see Zim on the floor, sparks flying from his PAK. 

His limbs convulsed and spasmed in what looked to Dib almost like a mini seizure. He was wondering if he should do something, but thankfully it stopped, and afterwards, Zim just lay pathetically coughing and wheezing on the ground.

“The fuck was that?! Did you just try to escape?”

‘Tryna run… PAK short circuited…” Zim whimpered.

“What's going on with your PAK? I know something’s wrong with it! Don’t try lying to me, Your computer already told me it was broken.”

“Not broken!” Zim protested, “Just… damaged slightly… it can be fixed. And it wasn’t my fault.”

“Then who’s fault was it?” It was a genuine question.

Zim opened his mouth to respond, only to close it moments later and fall silent with a blank stare.

“Not important.” he responded eventually, then staggered up to his feet and walked out towards the exit. “Now see ya, Stink-worm!

“Hey, where do you think you’re going?!”

“...Home. This place reeks of human. Plus it's freezing! Do you primitive creatures not know proper ventilation?” Zim was shaking despite the visible sheen of sweat across his forehead. It wasn’t even that cold.

“No you’re not! I’ve captured you! You’re my prisoner!”

“Hmmm no.”

Zim turned away, only to be tackled by Dib before he could even reach the door. His PAK legs sprung out in an instant, waving around in the air as if he didn’t have any control over them. The frustrated grunts and continued flailing that followed told Dib that he really didn't have any control over them.

“HA!” Dib shouted triumphantly was hovering over him, pinning the small alien to the ground.

“SHUT UP!” Zim howled.  He clumsily sucked the mechanical limbs back into his PAK, resorting to his most primal weapons, his hands. Dib shrieked as claws raked his face and he clasped a hand over the white hot pain. It wasn’t very deep, but the burning sting was enough to signify that Zim could still be a threat, even in his weakened state. He kicked out of Dib’s reach and dashed to the door, only to cry out in anguish upon finding it was locked. 

“Ha! You really think I’d be that stupid?”

“Yes.”

…

He let out a sigh. “This was easier when you were unconscious.”

Zim didn’t respond, but Dib continued on anyways,

“So now that you’ve realized there's no escape, can you maybe tell me what’s going on?”

“No. I’ll just find another way out. I’m not telling you anything.”

“Fine then. Then I’ll just have to knock you out again and figure it out myself.” Dib drew out a frying pan and locked eyes with Zim

…

“Where did you get that?”

“Doesn’t matter! RAAAAH”

Zim bolted immediately as Dib came rushing towards him, which led to the two running in circles around the lab. They shouted at each other and knocked things over like two rambunctious children playing a game. but to Dib, this was far from a game. Beyond the frying pan swinging left and right, He could see that Zim was beginning to lose steam, growing slower and shakier on his feet. He could hear his unsteady gasping as he drew closer. 

Dib drew back his arms, ready to swing when Zim stumbled over, collapsing to the ground. His shallow panting echoed harshly off of the tiles.

Dib’s arms were still positioned up in the air, ready to strike down on the green head over the floor.

“I’ve got you now Zi-”

The Door slammed open. “DIIIIB DINNERS READY. STOP BEING WEIRD AND GET UPSTAIRS”

Gaz stopped for a moment to take in the scene before her. There was a frying pan over Dib’s head and an alien below him who was now taking this opportunity to shuffle back to his feet. Dib gave her a wide-eyed “this isn’t what it looks like” stare glancing between her and the alien on the floor. Also how did she even manage to unlock the door?

“Why is stupid Zim here?”

Dib stuttered dumbfounded, trying to formulate a response, but Gaz cut him off.

“Y’know what, I don’t wanna know. Just come to Dinner.”

“But Gaz!”

She shot him a death glare that shut him up immediately. There was no use arguing with her, and he wasn’t in the mood to try pleading and bribing. 

He looked back down at Zim. The Alien had gotten to his feet, only for his PAK to short circuit again and leave him coughing and whimpering softly on the ground. Maybe if he left him here with the door locked just for a little while, he wouldn’t be able to escape. His usual energy and strength was already dwindling, and their little skirmish around the lab had seemed to knock it out of him completely. And Dib could just make sure to finish dinner super quick to come back and check on him.

“Alright… fine…”He sighed, But Gaz had already left. He glanced around quickly to make sure there weren’t any other methods of escaping. This was probably a terrible idea, but he wouldn’t be gone long.

He heard Zim call out from inside as he closed the door and locked it behind him, weak and powerless to stop anything.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zim watched as the door swung shut.

 He knew that he should get up and at least try to attack or escape, and the weakness he displayed was unbecoming of an Invader, yet he just couldn’t fight the overbearing exhaustion that dragged at his limbs. The Rage boiling under his skin was as hot as the hunk of metal that burned against his spine. He should’ve been quicker. He shouldn’t have let this happen. If he’d actually sat down and tried to get into the grit of fully repairing his PAK instead of putting it aside for later, he wouldn’t be in this mess. He knew it, yet he couldn’t stand to acknowledge it. He scrambled to point fingers at anyone or anything else, wracking the depths of his mind, yet he had nobody to blame but himself.

But that was ok. Everything would be ok if he just used his strategic skills to get out of here. The Dib-beast had made the foolish mistake of succumbing to the human need for frequent nourishment. While snacking was something of utmost importance in Irken culture, It technically wasn’t a requirement until at least a couple days had gone by. And no Irken would be foolish enough to leave a prisoner unattended just for a snack.

The door was still locked, but there had to be another way out of this filth hole…

Zim tried to push away the grogginess and stumbled to his feet. He’d been freezing before that whole chase with that wretched Dib-creature, but now the room felt much too warm and heavy. His clothes were plastered uncomfortably to his skin, and yet the shivers ceased to quell. 

He wasn’t even sure how the Dib had managed to get into his base and capture him in the first place. He recalled going upstairs and then the Tallest were there…. Except that couldn’t’ve been right because the last he checked, their ship had been light years away from earth. And he also recalled them saying some things that he knew the real Tallest would never say. They were about to kill him but he obviously wasn’t dead. 

Had those just been some sort of demented hallucinations? Was his condition really that bad?

If it was, then there was no time to waste. He had to get out of this disgusting human hovel as soon as possible. He trailed the walls, scanning for any sort of hatch or vent, but could find nothing of the sort. Only blinking machinery and winding tubes.

He was about to go see if he could try picking open the door when he suddenly spotted another one on the other side of the room, a completely different door than the one Dib had locked. That was odd. He coulda sworn he’d already checked over that spot several times and there’d been nothing there, but maybe he’d just missed it somehow.

Yet as he drew closer, there was something about the door that struck him as odd. It didn’t resemble any door he’d seen on earth. In fact, it was strikingly familiar. This was no human door, It was the same architecture used on Irk! Even the panels were decked out in the sleek emblem of his home planet. How was this possible?

Did Dib somehow figure out and copy the exact structure of an Irken door for research??? That was a really odd thing to make a replica of.

 Just like any Irken door, the sides slid open automatically when it detected his presence. 

Zim vaguely wondered why all human doors didn’t do that. He’d seen at the Gross-ery store that they were perfectly capable of harnessing the technology, and just chose to make things more manual and less efficient. Stupid Inferior doors. Stupid inferior humans.

He rushed through the sliding panels to be greeted by a massive familiar room on the other side. It was Judgmentia. He was up amongst the audience, and the door behind him was now gone. He didn’t even question how he’d suddenly gotten from some weird lab room in Dib’s basement to the middle of the crowd on Judgementia. If there was an audience here, it meant someone was on trial, and Zim was always down to see a good show.

Yet as the platform rose to reveal the defendant, his mood instantly flipped from excitement to shock. The Irken standing in the center of the platform, enwreathed on all edges by a bottomless void was Skoodge.

Why was Skoodge getting evaluated? What did he do wrong?

Zim knew he shouldn’t feel anything towards the other Irken. If whatever he did was bad enough to get his existence evaluated, then this punishment must be rightful and justified. Yet he still somehow couldn’t believe it. 

He waited in apprehension for the evidence to arise, but to his horror, there was none. The Tallest simply cut straight to the punishment.

“Invader Skoodge! You will hereby be sentenced to deactivation . You are dumb and stupid and a failure to the empire. Your consciousness will not be uploaded into the collective. Do you accept your punishment?”

Zim was hoping Skoodge would at least try to put up a fight, yet the stout little Irken only hung his head low and muttered a barely audible “Yes, my Tallest.” It was hardly  a whisper, yet everyone could hear it.

No. NO. STUPID AND FEEBLE SKOODGE. STUPID STUPID STUPID AND WEAK.

Was he even going to put up a fight at all?!?! Why  was he so pathetic and FOOLISH and WEAK. Zim pleaded desperately for Skoodge to just stand up for himself for once. But he only remained frozen, solemnly accepting his fate. 

This couldn’t be happening. He didn’t understand why he cared so much. He wasn’t supposed to care. He never had before. But everything about this felt wrong.

“SKOODGE NO!!” Zim cried out. He tried to push past the crowd, but it was like his feet were bolted to the ground. He was paralyzed and his legs were frozen in place as the crowd melted and shuffled around him. It wasn’t like there was much he could’ve done anyways. He watched from afar as wires flew down from the ceiling and clicked into Skoodge’s PAK. He was hoisted up into the air. Zim knew that feeling very well, staring deep into the millions of glowing eyes of the control brains as the collective of every Irken who ever lived stared back up at you. “SKOODGE!!!” Zim screamed till his lungs burned. It was against Irken nature to care so much. He shouldn’t ever be feeling so strongly over any living being but himself. He knew this, but in that fleeting moment, he didn’t care. This inferior Irken who’d always let everyone walk all over him, yet was always there by Zim’s side was about to be killed.

A light flashed.

Skoodge screamed.

And everything dropped.

Chapter Text

Dib finished shoveling the rest of his leftover mashed potatoes into his mouth so he could get out of there to check back up on Zim as soon as possible. Every instinct was shouting at him that each second he wasn’t there was a second longer the alien had the opportunity to escape. He ignored his mind's own pleading long enough to force down a meal before coming straight back.

He grew nervous and fidgety as his way down to the basement door was met with silence, Then relieved as he got closer and registered faint grunting and whimpering. Zim was still there. He took out the keys in his pocket and swung open the door.

Zim was still down in a heap on the floor, turned away. He was unresponsive. Did he pass out again? Dib was about to jump to that conclusion until he heard a faint murmuring leave his lips.

“No…”

Dib blinked in confusion. “I didn’t say anything.”

“Yes you did! You’re going to kill him!!!” 

“What…?”

Zim shot up.

“HE DIDN’T DO ANYTHING AND YOU'RE GOING TO KILL HIM.” Zim’s voice was rising hysterically. He was shaking and swaying in place, staring vacantly up at something that wasn’t there. Dib remembered the computer saying something about a fever earlier, but he never expected  the Irken to be this delirious. He had seemed perfectly lucid just less than an hour ago!

Though just maaaybe Dib could use this chance to get some information out of Zim that he’d otherwise never spill. He decided to try his shot at responding to whatever nonsense the little alien was babbling about.

“Who’s killing who?”

“YOU…. you’re gonna… deactivate… He didn't… stOP….”

Zim sounded so uncharacteristically small and desperate. It made Dib feel a pang of some weird icky feeling. He had to keep pressing for more info.

“Um- who am I ?”

“Asshole liar…” Zim murmured.

Right. This was getting him nowhere. Dib was half tempted to try slapping the little alien out of it.

“SKOODGE” Zim suddenly bolted onto his feet in an unprecedented burst of strength and screamed. 

Skoodge-- That was the name of that other Irken that lived with him. The one Dib had seen on the camera feed earlier!  Was Zim trying to call for his buddy to come save him? Like that was gonna work.

He was sobbing and sputtering something else half coherently. It was like he was dreaming, but his eyes were wide open. It was just like that weird little “episode” Dib had witnessed in the Skool bathroom earlier. Then a glint of recognition finally flashed in Zim’s weird bulging alien eyes.

“D-Dib…? Why-Why are you…?” He went back to mumbling, the only other audible word being “Judgementia” whatever that meant, before his face paled and he fell to the floor unconscious. Dib bent down to make sure he was completely out this time, and not hallucinating or whatever the fuck that was.

 He honestly wasn’t even sure how to process the scene he’d just witnessed. Zim had acted so genuinely terrified and afraid . He’d been practically hysterical.

 It was so jarring. So un-Zim-like. Dib didn’t really know what to think. And so he chose not to think, instead deciding to pretend like that weird encounter had never happened.

What was there to do now? Oh yes, Time to cut up some alien guts!

Yet somehow, after all that, Dib felt like he almost didn’t want to anymore. Just being around Zim and thinking about him being all frantic and scared and so easy to feel bad for made him feel sick. He wasn’t supposed to feel an ounce of sympathy towards an unfeeling alien monster bent on destroying humanity. 

And yet something about everything just felt wrong. This was supposed to be what he wanted, wasn’t it? To cut into Zim’s half-organic half-machine freakish alien body and expose his inhumanity to the world?

He glanced back down at the limp body of the Invader. He didn’t want to believe this alien monster was really capable of feeling such intense fear as he’d just displayed. It wasn’t the same fear he’d shown when Dib threatened to expose his true nature or when confronted with  the animatronics at Bloaty's.

It was too real.

 It was too human. 

Why did it almost feel like a mockery? As if the Universe was taunting Dib…. 

But when was it ever not taunting him?

“I hate you, Zim.”

The alien, of course, didn’t respond, his chest rising and falling softly as he slept on, completely oblivious to Dib’s current inner turmoil.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Zim awoke again, it was dark. Everything felt vaguely fuzzy and disorienting. The first thing his mind was telling him is that Skoodge was dead. He’d been there on Judgmentia, witnessed Everything. Except wait no, that couldn’t be right-- he hadn’t even been to Judgmentia in months. And yet there was still some deep instinct telling him Skoodge was in danger.

He shot up and glanced around, finally remembering where he was and taking a moment to recall his recollection of what had happened as his head swam.

He couldn’t remember how he got here, but He was locked up in the horrible basement of the Dib’s repulsive dwelling. There was a light on at the other side of the room, and it took him a moment to realize that there was a figure slumped over a desk, appearing fast asleep. The cowlick that adorned his silhouette was unmistakable.
He’d been this close to escaping, Zim mused in frustration, before falling victim to another bout  of those horrible hallucinations. But that was ok. Because the Dib was foolish enough to let his guard down not once, but twice now, as he slept away over the desk. He was mildly brighter than most humans, but he was still just that-- a human . A stupid filthy creature that let their biological requirements override the need to actually be a good captor. 

Zim would just have to be careful not to wake him up. Then he could just get home, finally repair his own PAK, (something that was long overdue) and avenge Skoodge- Wait no what was he saying?! That hadn’t even been real, it was just a hallucination! And why would he ever want to enact revenge on his leaders?! He figured his brain must still be a bit scrambled. His forehead was still slick with sweat.

He tried to get up to creep past Dib, but unfortunately, his guise of stealth was broken immediately upon getting to his feet and tripping over a stray piece of metal in the dark, hitting the floor with a loud clank.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dib awoke suddenly to a startling noise somewhere behind his chair. He swiveled around to see Zim awake and toppled over on the ground, grumbling in frustration. He felt a pang of annoyance at himself, realizing that he’d accidentally fallen asleep-- there was a puddle of drool on the desk and several papers strewn about. 

The Alien was at his knees when Dib got up to face him. He approached warily, expecting more delirious rambling or the chance of a hallucination fueled attack, but Zim only glared up at him silently. Dib wasn’t even sure what to begin to say.

“D-Do you um-- are you-?” Shit, “Are you--”

“Weren’t you gonna dissect me?”

Dib blinked. “Yes.., and I’m still going to but I just--” He paused, unable to think of a proper excuse. Why hadn’t he dissected him already? There had been several chances where Zim was unconscious and vulnerable, It would’ve been so easy…

“Heheh stupid human.” Zim chuckled.

The sheer nerve he had to be laughing when he was the one at Dib’s mercy. At least he seemed lucid and coherent now. It made him a lot easier to hate. And yet he still couldn’t help but wonder….

“Hey, are you alright…?” Dib regretted the words as soon as they left his lips, but it was too late. He scrambled to justify himself, “I-I mean, its not like I care or anything-- I just um--” But there was no undoing it now. Zim looked offended that he’d even asked.

“OF COURSE ZIM IS ALRIGHT ” His stance and overall unkempt appearance suggested otherwise. Dib wasn’t sure if he was imagining the tremor in his hands.

“What happened?” He tried, not expecting to get an answer. Yet to his surprise,

“My PAK… it’s damaged. That much I think you know already.”

“Yes. but how?”

“It wasn’t my fault.” His voice wavered.

Dib went silent, feeling like something was wrong about that statement. 

“Are you sure about that?”

“YES.” Zim was quick to jump an answer. It only made him seem more suspicious.

“Why do you care?”

“I don’t. I just need to know-- for research.”

Another bout of long drawn out silence. Dib stared into Zim’s large pupil-less bug eyes, round and uncanny, glinting with every stroke of reflection against a murky pool of crimson.

The awkwardness was unbearable, it was eating Dib alive. He swore he could hear every little clank of machinery in the room, humming with an uncomfortable ambience.

He was reminded again that he should feel happy about all this. He finally had Zim held captive, weak and defenseless, everything he’d always wanted, but in his tired mind, he could only feel this overbearing sense of unease. He no longer wanted to be in this room. But he still needed more answers. Zim was lucid again, and in the perfect position for Dib to interrogate him

“What about your PAK is damaged?”

Zim turned away subtly, as if he was avoiding Dib’s gaze, (it was impossible to tell entirely when he didn’t have pupils) and seemed to hesitate before speaking.

“None of your business.”

Dib didn’t know what else he’d been expecting.

“Y'know, if you told me, maybe I could help you fix it.” He tried. Zim’s eyes went wide.

“As if I’d EVER let your filthy deceiving stink-paws near the inner workings of my PAK!”

“Well what else are you planning to do?

“Go home and fix it myself!”

“And how well did that work out for you the first time?”

Zim’s face dropped. There was a pause of dead silence.

“Wha- WHO TOLD YOU THAT?!?”

“If you're not gonna give me information, I don’t owe you anything in return.” 

Dib liked the dynamic going on here. He found great pleasure in being so in control over his greatest foe after all this time.

Zim grumbled and scowled, eyes piercingly red slits.

“Fine, you deceitful scum, The answer is I don’t know what's wrong!”

“Of course you do! Quit lying to me, Zim!”

“I’m not lying!!!”

“Yes you are!”

“Zim has no reason to be lying right now!”

“You have EVERY reason to be lying right now! Just tell me what's going on!”

“I don’t know-”

“Zim please, just-”

“I DONT KNOW!!!”

 Zim’s shrill scream died into a harsh pant and he swayed on his feet. 

The scream had sounded so bitter and genuine. It almost made Dib believe Zim might’ve been telling the truth. Almost. He wanted to prod further, but a funny look crossed the alien's face. His eyes looked glassy and distant.

And it didn’t take long after this observation before he suddenly tilted to the floor and Dib rushed to catch his bald green head before it fell to the tile.

Well, Dib supposed that was the end of this interrogation session.

He hadn’t really gotten much out of that, other than the subtle implication at the beginning that all of this was somehow Zim’s own fault. That wasn’t all that surprising, really. Now that Zim was unconscious again, he almost wanted to violate the alien’s wishes and pry open his PAK to see what was going on in there, but in all honestly, Dib was exhausted. It was rather late at night, and he’d spent the whole day stressing about the situation with Zim. He was just about done with all of this for now.

 Maybe this could all wait till tomorrow once he’d finally gotten a good night’s sleep. He’d already left Zim unattended twice now, so in his mind there was no doubt the alien wouldn’t escape.

And when he came back the next day, he’d just have to see how things went from there.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zim regained consciousness just as Dib was exiting. 

He wasn’t sure why Dib was leaving.

He watched the door slide open in the hazy dark and felt the silence prickle across  his skin as he was left alone. He knew he should've done more than just lay still and watch it all happen, yet for whatever reason he couldn’t bring himself to do anything more than remain frozen in place, feeling almost like time had stopped. His chest rose and fell with warm breath, in and out as the mechanical hum around him buzzed in his head. 

The light was out.

 just as dead as Skoodge.

 Zim kept trying to remind himself that Skoodge wasn’t actually dead, but all logic was telling him that he’d been there and seen it. He had seen it. Skoodge’s screams of electric agony were still so crisp and clear in his mind, etched into his skull. Why had he ever doubted it? Skoodge was dead.

Gone forever. He’d left and Zim hadn’t even gotten the chance to say goodbye. 

Zim was used to the feeling of boiling rage, but he wasn’t used to the image of his trustable leaders accompanying it. Their faces as they watched Skoodge’s deactivation was burned into his mind. And their faces as they’d stared down at the two of them over the call, appearing suddenly after leaving them abandoned for months without a single hint of ever returning. 

They had come back out of the blue, only to immediately shatter the hope their presence brought, crushing it down into little pieces and throwing it to the ground at Zim’s feet. And what a fool he’d been to deny it. 

Zim wasn't defective . It wasn’t him that was the problem. It was Red and Purple. He knew it was wrong to ever think about denouncing the unquestionable authority of his Tallest, but he couldn’t help it. His thoughts were spiraling out of control and he had no grasp to steer them out of the dark.

But After days of confusion and pent up frustration, everything suddenly seemed so clear. It was like a weight in his chest had been lifted and replaced with a burning passion of vengeance. A new tidal wave of fulfillment. 

Colors stretched across the ceiling and the room rose and dipped with every ragged breath. Fire burned down his spine and the whir of his PAK’s built-in fans roared to life, attempting to cool its sweating, shaking host. Just as quickly as everything had felt so certain, His thoughts were melting together in a boiling muddy mess, drawing away until the only clear notion was this overwhelming sense of vengeance. This indescribable, intangible sense of purpose that burned in his veins. Nothing made sense yet everything was so clear.

Barely clinging on to the perception of who he was or where he was going, Zim knew only one thing:

He needed to get out of here and enact his revenge.

Yet vengeance could never be owned by one who was victim to his own self destruction. Almost on cue, another jolt flew up his spine as his PAK short circuited again, worse now than before, and he cringed in on himself in pain.

As the night grew on, his condition worsened, the jolts growing more painful, and his already less than coherent train of thought dissolved into static. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The stairway down to the basement lab was old and rickety, and the metal was cold under his fingers as he descended. The room itself was also rather chilly, machines beeping coldly; pumping lifelessly with electricity and wires. Dib had awoken early that morning after a dreamless rest, not feeling any less tired yet unable to fall back asleep. It was still a bit early, Gaz wasn’t even awake yet, but he decided it was late enough to begin his day. Right after breakfast, he immediately made his way down to the basement.

When he opened the door, Zim was still there, laying limp and lifeless. There were no signs of struggle or any attempt of escape. It was almost…. disappointing..? He looked dead on the floor, and Dib almost thought he might’ve been if it weren’t for his faint breath and subtle twitch of his antennae. Dib hadn’t even done anything yet and it was as if he'd just-- given up. Where was his fight? Just yesterday he’d had it in him to try running and attacking, but now-- nothing.

Dib prodded at the body with his foot and Zim’s eyes peeled open. He whimpered and clawed at the air but didn’t spring up and attack like he should’ve.  It felt almost wrong to see the normally so overconfident and zealous Invader brought down so hard. 

He was hoping to get some more information out of him, but now he was completely unresponsive. Not even rambling deliriously.

 Just quiet.

 So uncannily quiet. So unlike the relentless, seemingly indestructible creature that Dib had come to know him as.

Yesterday, he’d been planning a vivisection, but now there was another task at hand. He wanted to figure out what was going on in Zim’s PAK. Its host was unreliable in giving Dib the needed information, but maybe he could extract it on his own.

He didn’t know the first thing about the delicate and complex machinery that was in the PAK, but that wasn’t going to stop him from trying. And it was already messed up, so what did he have to lose? What would it cost to play alien brain surgeon?

He first decided to get up and peel Zim off the floor. Dib had held him like this earlier when removing him from his base, but had been too absorbed in the action of the moment to note all the little details, such as the texture of his skin or how surprisingly light he was.

Dib had always assumed his skin would feel gross and scaly like some kind of lizard, but was surprised to find it mildly fuzzy as he ran his fingers over Zim’s forehead, soft like the setae of a moth.

He supposed it made sense considering the bug-like appearance– How fascinating. Dib made a mental note to write all this down later.

He also noticed the warmth radiating from the smaller body as he shivered with fever. He looked so small and weak, but Dib once again refused to feel any sort of sympathy for the evil space monster that was trying to destroy his planet.

 He planted him face down onto the table, PAK facing the ceiling.  There was a voice in the back of Dib’s head urging him to question just how ethical this was, but he promptly ignored it. He had a screwdriver in hand now, ready to pry off the pink panels, and it was too late to go back now. 

Yet as he was pretty much expecting, the moment he removed the armored plates from the machine, he was greeted with a mess of wires and circuits his mind couldn’t even begin to comprehend. 

Being the son of one of the world’s greatest scientific inventors, Dib had worked with technology many times before, Yet everything he layed eyes on before him was all so unfamiliar. He didn’t know why he’d been hoping any prior knowledge would help tackle the mechanisms of an entirely alien piece of machinery. Especially not one as seemingly complex as the PAK. The one thing he did note however, was that a few of the wires did look somewhat torn and singed. He had no idea what those did, but he didn’t want to mess with them in case he ruined them further.

Oh, but what was the point of any of this if he was too afraid to actually touch anything?!

Maybe he could at least try to replace them.

Maybe changing them out with some fresh wires would fix Zim, and then he’d stop being weak and delirious while Dib was trying to interrogate and run tests on him. 

He didn’t want Zim entirely up to full health obviously, it was better when Dib had the advantage over him, but hopefully this would make things a bit better? Maybe???

He walked away and came back with some spare wires that looked sorta similar and gingerly reached his hand in to take the old ones out.

Yet as soon as his fingers barely nudged the severed fibers, A scream burst out as the exposed Irken on the table jumped awake.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Zim was aware with a jolt that something foreign had just tried to enter his PAK. He instinctively tried flaring out his metal legs to kill it, only for that to backfire immediately and leave him spasming in another attack of electricity, bent to the mercy of the malfunctioning computer-brain on his back until it ceased. 

He was immediately aware that it’s protective panels were missing, his suspicions of what had happened were confirmed once he finally recomposed himself to see the Dib creature in front of him.

“What did you DO?!?!?”

Zim sprang up, ignoring the dizziness that flared.  He felt a bit more in control of himself than whatever hazy mess had been the previous night, but his head still swam with exhaustion. He felt awful, but his body signals didn’t matter at the moment. He needed to know what the horrid Dib creature had done to him.

Dib backed away, hands up, revealing sweaty palms.

“Zim! This isn’t what it looks like! I was trying to help you!”

Help him?! HELP HIM??? Did the Dib think his brain was made of Schnlorg ants?!?

“By toying with the most delicate piece of technology equipped to my body while I was unconscious and powerless to stop you?!?” HELPING TO KILL ME, MORE LIKE! YOU WANT TO KILL ZIM!!” he hissed. He felt so small and defensless without the aid of his PAK appendages. He despised the power Dib had over him in this situation. Confined to this endlessly thrumming room, trapped in his own weakened body. His own weakened mind. 

“Calm down! I don’t want to kill you! What good would a dead specimen be?! I was trying to figure out what's going on with your PAK, since you refuse to tell me!!!”

“ITS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!! STAY OUT OF MY PAK!!!

Also GIMME THAT!!!” 

Zim lunged out and yoinked the pink panels across the table before connecting them seamlessly back to his PAK. He didn’t use any tools or anything, they just snapped back into place.

“Hey, I wasn’t done!”

“YES YOU ARE. YOU ARE DONE. GET YOUR FILTHY HUMAN PAWS AWAY FROM ME! I’m leaving!!” Zim ignored the fuzziness in his head and the weakness of his legs as he began walking away. He had to get out of here

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dib’s fists clenched.

“You can’t just leave!!!”

What had happened to the unresponsive alien that had been lying on his floor less than an hour ago?! He’d seemed so sick and weak that Dib had almost let his guard down. Admittedly, Zim still looked terrible, but if he was well enough to scream and try to escape again, maybe Dib had been foolish to think this was anything more than the little alien being overly dramatic and trying to use this opportunity to escape. This was all so stupid! Dib wasn’t about to let his specimen get away like that. 

“ZIM!” He shouted and grabbed the little Irken’s arm, yanking him into the air by his arm as he let out a pained yelp. His skin was hot and clammy. He tried to thrash and flail away under Dib’s grasp.

“LET ME GO!!”

“ABSOLUTELY NOT! YOU'RE NOT TRICKING ME LIKE THAT! YOUR NOT RUINING ALL MY CHANCES AGAIN!!! I HAVE YOU!!! YOU’RE MINE!!”

Dib’s grip tightened and he gritted his teeth. 

“THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!!” He shouted. Tears pricked in his eyes. Zim’s breathing quickened.

 “NOBODY EVER BELEIVES ME WHEN I SAY YOU’RE AN ALIEN.” Dib continued, grabbing tighter so Zim hissed in pain

“EVERYBODY THINKS I’M CRAZY!!”

The alien’s frame was trembling.

“BUT I HAVE YOU NOW, DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT!? “

 He watched in pleasure as Zim’s face paled. 

“YOU CAN'T TAKE THIS AWAY FROM ME!!! I’LL CUT YOU OPEN!” 

Dib couldn’t control himself. He lost it in a fit of hysterical rage, taking it all out on the little alien bastard Who was a jerk to him every day of his life. The very one that was quickly growing limp in Dib’s grasp. He began to take a deep breath snap out of his fit of anger.

Zim was shuddering and gasping like a pathetic dying fish. It made Dib feel sick. What was he doing?

In an instant, he released the firm grasp he had on Zim’s arm and let the Irken drop to the floor, now shaking and whimpering in pain. 

Wasn’t he supposed to enjoy Zim’s pain? Then why did this feel so wrong? And why did the urge to cut this alien open dwindle with the leaving rage? Did he really just not want to do the autopsy anymore? He pictured it again in his head, the fantasy he’d always envisioned, Zim’s guts strewn over an autopsy table, exposed for the world to see, and it suddenly felt… less than appealing. Why was that?

Dib tried to remind himself again of the glory such a feat would bring him, exposing the disgusting abnormal guts of real life alien… It would be everything he’d ever wanted!

 So why did he feel so uncomfortable right now? Why did he look at the pathetic figure sprawled on the ground and feel anything other than pure hatred?

What was wrong with him?

Was he really feeling sympathetic towards the evil space monster right now? The one that had just screamed and tried to escape?

There was no denying that the Zim really wasn’t looking good.

But was it actually that bad, or was he just being overdramatic?

Zim had a tendency to be like that , given how he would literally writhe and flail on the table over a single bite of cafeteria food. And just a few days ago he ran away screaming over a few animals in a cage. (what ever happened to those animals by the way?)

Yet there was something about all this that just felt so odd and different. Dib had never seen Zim behave this way before. He just.. Didn’t know what to make of it. He thought he would’ve been thrilled by the idea of his enemy being weak and vulnerable, leaving Dib free to do whatever he pleased, but instead, emotions had to get in the way and screw everything up.

He looked down apathetically at the alien who was, once again, passed out on the floor. How many times had this happened at this point? 

Without much thought, he Scooped Zim back up onto the table, trying to position him at least somewhat comfortably.

Dib was expecting him to be out for awhile, so it was a surprise when he began to stir a few moments later. He had no idea what to say after everything that had just happened so he simply stammered out,

“H-Hey… um, how do you feel…?” The softness of his own voice made him cringe. The evil alien monster didn’t deserve to be talked to with such care. 

Zim batted at him feebly again, “...go away GIR…” 

Dib sighed.

“Zim, its me, Dib.

“Dib?!” Zim’s eyes flew wide open.

Why did he look so scared? Why did he look so afraid? He wasn’t meant to be afraid, he was meant to be a recklessly confident asshole. 

Even in times where Zim was obviously afraid, he always tried to poorly cover it up. it wasn’t like him to display fear so openly. 

“What do you want from me?” Zim asked. His voice was strained.

Dib didn’t know what he was doing. “Um… are you okay…?

God, this was so awkward, he wanted to die.

Zim blinked hazily “Weren’t you screaming and threatening to slice me open like, less than a minute ago…?”

He seemed oddly calm now.

“That was minutes ago Zim, people change.”

Dib legitimately had no clue what he was saying anymore. This was stupid. Nothing made sense anymore.

All Zim said was, “Oh.”

He piped up again a few moments later.

“Dib?”

“What?”

“I’m cold.”

Huh?

“What am I supposed to do about it?”

“Your artificial heating unit sucks.”

…

Dib let out a defeated sigh. “Fine, I’ll get you a blanket.”

He didn’t know why he was doing this, but he trudged upstairs to grab a blanket from the couch for his alien prisoner in the basement. He passed through the Kitchen to see Gaz at the table, a spoon of Nonspecific-brand cereal in her hand.

“Where are you going? We have Skool today.”

Oh right. 

“I’m not going to Skool, Gaz.”

“Does this have something to do with that stupid meeting thingy you were talking about a few days ago?”

Dib stared at her for a moment, confused, before it dawned on him what she was talking about. It was the 3rd Friday of the month; the day of the scheduled call with the Swollen Eyeball Network! How Gaz somehow remembered that and not him, he wasn’t sure. He honestly just assumed she never paid attention when he went on long rambling spiels (something that happened a lot.)

Since Darkbootie/a Large portion of the network (decide on one future me, DONT FORGET please don't leave this in the fic I swear to god. ) were/was on a trip across the other side of the world in a completely different time zone, the meeting was scheduled to be at 7 am instead of the usual 7 pm.

“Gaz, what time is it?”

“...6:56”

SHIT. 

He didn’t have any of his planned material prepared on time AT ALL-

-Except, what he did have was a live alien in his basement!!

Zim was not going to be very happy or cooperative about this, but Dib didn’t care. Now was time to throw all the awkwardness and weird ugly sympathetic feelings aside. It didn’t matter what Zim wanted. Why had he caved in and decided to get a blanket for him anyways?! His research was more important! How could he let himself lose sight of that for even a second?!

 He had the realest most solid proof he could ever have to present to the Network! And this time there would be no faulty disk drives, waffle-making robots or poorly timed call responses to screw things up! This was perfect!

Without even saying goodbye to Gaz, he rushed downstairs to grab Zim and get him upstairs for the meeting where he had all his monitors and recording equipment set up. As expected, he fought and protested, but it surprisingly wasn’t that difficult, as he seemed out of it. Dib thoughtlessly yoinked him away from his little spot on the table, and quickly ran out of the basement and up to his room, panting by the time he made it up all the way.

6:57

He set Zim down on his bed, locked the door to make sure he wouldn't escape, and took a minute to get all his best recording equipment set up and ready.

6:59

It was time. Dib fidgeted anxiously in his seat until the clock hit 7, And practically pounced on the call button the moment it did. The silhouettes of every Swollen Eyeball member flicked on one by one across the set up row of hovering screens. Once he briefly glanced around to make sure everyone was there, (a few people weren’t yet, but he couldn’t wait a second longer) he called out,

“Everyone, listen up! This is Important! I have some major evidence to show you of real alien life!! ” 

“Agent Mothman,” Darkbootie said, calmly yet firm, “Is this so important that it can’t wait past the introduction of this meeting?”

“No!” Dib said impatiently, almost regretting it a little, “The alien I’ve been talking about, Zim, I have him here in my room!!”

Darkbootie eyed him skeptically. “This isn’t gonna be like the last incident , is it, Mothman?”

Dib couldn’t remember which “time” he was talking about. There’d been too many times.

“I don’t know! Just look!”

Dib threw his arms and motioned aggressively at the spot he left Zim. There was a moment of silence as the eyeballs turned and screens swarmed his bed. It was broken by one of the Agents coughing awkwardly before speaking up,

“Agent Mothman… there’s… nothing there.”

Dib gritted his teeth. “Yes there is! Just loo-”

As he turned around to face Zim and prove his point, his face quickly dropped from frustration to panic. The Agent was right.

Zim was gone.

Chapter Text

Zim was every so bitterly aware that he was plucked from his (somewhat) comfortable position in Dib’s weird basement and carried away up several flights of stairs. He tried to fight it, but in his weakened state, and without the aid of his PAK legs, it was useless. He hated feeling so useless and feeble. If the Tallest saw him the way he was now, they would be utterly disappointed.

He finally got thrown onto something, thankfully much more plushy and soft than the cold basement table, but it reeked of human. And the sting of light from the window made his head throb.

Wait a minute, there was a window. Foolish Dib.

Foolish, Foolish Dib. His figure was turned away, pressed against rows of grainy screens, chattering on with his insolent human muttering. He didn’t appear to be actually talking to anyone yet, but he was setting up screens for what appeared to be a virtual meeting. For now, he was just talking to himself. But Zim immediately recognized the danger.

This was bad. If he was doing what Zim thought he was, calling his weird swollen meatball people- or worse, the FBI, then he had to get out of here NOW. He couldn’t believe he’d let his guard down long enough for the Dib-creature to take advantage of his weakness and drag him up here.  How humiliating. But he still had time. Zim turned towards the warmth of the light, the large circular panel of the window filling his vision.  Without thinking, he summoned all his strength and crawled towards it. The blankets beneath stifled the commotion as he shuffled away. 

To his luck, he managed to pry the window open without much effort, letting a cool gust of wind hit his skin, doing nothing to quell the shivers that wracked his small frame. He had no more time to think. He needed to act quickly. Zim tried activating his PAK legs to catch his fall as he scrambled out the window, only to short-circuit midair and smack painfully to the ground, body still twitching. Right. He’d forgotten that those were no longer functional. Once it finally ceased, he staggered to his feet, fighting waves of vertigo. His eyes darted everywhere, desperately scanning for an escape. 

Somewhere across the grass there was an open shed, cradling a familiar silhouette in its frame- An Irken Spittle Runner- Tak’s ship. YES PERFECT! There was no way Zim would be able to make it anywhere safe in his current weakened state, but if he could just make it to the ship, then he could easily get away and make it back to his base safely. He dived across the grass, which was still slick with dew, and sprinted, fighting against the breath that rattled in his chest.

He miraculously dove into the cockpit as his last bit of strength burned away, quickly shut off the AI to silence Tak’s voice that was yelling nonsense at him, and punched in some directions. He decided locking the ship into autopilot would be the smartest move, as a rest right about now sounded pretty nice. As this wasn’t his own voot, it didn’t have a setting to navigate to his base. It did, however, have a hyperdrive, unlike his ship when he’d first ventured out to earth. The flight to Irk would only take a few days rather than 6 long months. And maybe that multi-day period would give him enough time to recuperate and fix his own PAK before stopping at Irk. Maybe he could get his Voot back from Skoodge. Wait, wasn’t Skoodge dead or something? Doesn’t matter.

But now the control panel was blurring in and out of focus, and there was something shouting and coming right his way. Zim was so sure it was just another hallucination that he didn’t bother to pay it any mind, or even glance over a bit. He was struggling to stop the world from swaying as he held a shaking claw out towards the screen. 

Come on…

He eventually pressed something, and, praying to Irk it was the right thing, slumped back against the seat, too overcome with exhaustion to process anything as the ship’s protective visor began to slide shut. 

But before it could, something else dived into the cockpit with him, already stuck inside as the window slammed shut and the ship took off.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dib kicked the door open and flew downstairs out to the backyard. 

How could he have been so stupid as to let this happen? He’d been so excited, he wasn’t thinking rationally. He hadn’t been thinking rationally all day.

As soon as he got outside, he saw that little alien bastard was sprinting across the grass, displaying more strength in one burst than he had the entire night. That little COCKROACH-

Dib bolted after him, and it wasn’t long before he was close enough to dive into the cockpit with him and end up in a tangled sweaty mess behind the control panel. He kicked and shoved until he realized that Zim was growing limp, movements weak and feeble. Dib was now the one in the center seat, while the alien was squished off to the side, rasping and panting against the glass. He was still enraged, but the fire was dying out.

Maybe this would be easier than Dib thought. The ship was already taking off automatically due to whatever Zim had pressed a few seconds ago, but he would most likely be able easily maneuver it back down and-

“AAAAGHH!” He screamed as a searing pain dug into his flesh, teeth locking tightly around his arm in the clench of Zim’s jaw and tearing through his jacket. The ship was rapidly tilting upwards. It dug in deeper, running a searing throb down the limb before Dib yanked it away, finally freeing himself from the snare of teeth and shaking as blood pooled around the wound.  His arm now bore a crown of red against the inky black fabric.

The ship had already left the earth's atmosphere, and cold darkness flooded his field of view. Dib sucked in a breath and glared at the mass on the floor.

“WHAT WAS THAT?”

Dib and Zim had fought countless times before, but Zim had never tried to bite him like that!

All he got out of the Irken was a weak “deserved.” As Zim slid down the wall of the cockpit, hissing and glaring up with angry pink eyes. 

Dib clenched his fists in frustration. He’d been this close for what felt like the millionth time in his life!  Just on the verge of presenting his findings and just maybe getting someone to finally believe him, only for it to all come toppling down again. And now the Swollen eyeball meeting was continuing on without him. By sheer stupid luck, Zim had managed to evade getting exposed once again.

He slipped his jacket off and looked back down at the vicious bit the Irken had inflicted, running his fingers over the bloody-bruised flesh tenderly. It wasn’t too deep, but once he got home, he’d have to clean that immediately to avoid infection. He had no idea what kind of bacteria Zim harbored in his disgusting alien mouth.

“I’m cutting your guts open when I get home.” Dib spat, but he knew painfully that it was nothing more than an empty threat. Zim only grunted in response as Dib turned away and grabbed the steering handle of the spaceship to fly this thing back around. Yet to his dismay, it didn’t appear to be working. A warning error flashed across the control screen when he tried to make the handle budge even a little bit, Flashing in Irken text that he couldn’t understand. 

“HA!” Zim wheezed, then closed his eyes so comfortably. So smugly. Until his smugness was interrupted by his PAK short circuiting again. he just looked like a desperate cornered animal.

Dib clenched his fists. There had to be something he could do about this! He didn’t really know what any of the buttons did, but he began pressing them frantically in an attempt to regain control and rid the screen of the persistent error message, but nothing seemed to be doing anything.

Until suddenly- it did. But it was possibly the farthest thing from what he was intending to activate. A British voice kicked on and began loudly complaining as soon as she realized who was in the cockpit.

“Oh, it’s you two (derogatory).”

Dib groaned.

“Where are you trying to take me now? Was stealing me from my rightful owner not enough for you?”

“I don’t know where we're going! I just want to get home!” 

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” The ship inquired harshly.

“I can’t access the controls! It’s locked or something! Zim must’ve done something to it before we left.” Dib glanced over at the alien who was now seemingly asleep again, passed out against the side of the cramped space.

“It’s on autopilot.” Tak’s ship informed. 

“Great, can you fix it?”

“Yes, but I don’t want to.”

“What?!” Dib cried, louder than he’d intended. Zim stirred from his rest, but his eyes looked vacant again. 

“I have no idea why I’ve tolerated being around you idiots for as long as I have. I’m putting an end to this and you can’t stop me.”

Dib felt his heart sink and his blood run cold as he realized what she was saying. 

“Wait a minute, no no no no, you can’t do this!”

“Yes I can. Without your grubby hands to pilot me, I can go wherever I want. I have every right to go hurtle you and that bit of defective scum into a sun, but I think I’ll spare you that much.”

“So what are you going to do then? What’s your plan?! You’re just a hunk of metal!” Dib was hysterical. He tried not to show how panicked he was, but the walls were breaking quickly, “What do  you think you’re gonna do with us, huh? HUH?”

“I’m taking you back to Moo-ping10 where you should’ve stayed .”

Moo-ping10. 

Space prison. 

Dib recalled it all too clearly from the Florpus incident less than a year ago. No. No. 

This couldn’t be happening! THIS COULDN’T BE HAPPENING. His panic was spilling out into anger and desperation.

“NO!! PLEASE NO!” He shouted, but it was all in vain. He slammed his fist into the control panels and walls as if that would do anything, but the ship informed him that she couldn’t feel any physical pain and the best thing breaking her would do was get him stranded in the middle of space. He tried to plead with her, but she only grew increasingly irritated.

“Could you just buckle down and shut up for a little while? I might have to deactivate my auditory input sensors if you keep up this racket. If I was capable of headaches, I’d have one already from your pestering. We’ll arrive in a couple days. Now shut up.”

“A couple days?! ” Dib repeated, “I’m not prepared for that at all! I don’t even have any food or spare clothes or anything! And I’m just gonna be stuck in this little cockpit the whole time!?“

“I can stop at a fuel planet if you really need rations to live. I have no idea how often humans are supposed to eat. Just make it quick.”

“Or you could turn back around and-”

“No.”

Dib quieted down and stared hollowly into his own palms, processing everything. The wound on his arm from earlier was still pulsing with pain.

Zim made a weak little noise from the corner, reminding the both of them he was there. He only just barely stirred

“Oh yea, what’s wrong with him? Other than being a defective, of course.” The ship asked.

“I’m… not really sure… I know his PAK is messed up or something, but he won’t tell me what happened. From what I’ve gathered, He may have done it to himself…” Also what did she mean by “defective”?

“HA! That’s laughable! The moron.”

“Lieessssss” Zim piped up from his little spot on the floor. “ZIM IS FINE!!” he slurred.

Dib honestly had no idea he’d been paying attention. 

“Yeah, sure you are.” It was Dib’s turn to be sarcastic after being belittled so harshly by Tak’s ship.

“Glad you agree.” Zim muttered proudly before drifting back off into a trance-like state.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Skoodge stared into a massive screen with the faceless names of dozens of deceased Irkens whose body shells had been discarded. His job was to sort them into the given categories based on the marks on their profile: 

Delete, repurpose, reupload.

Deleting was pretty straightforward. Any consciousness marked for deletion would be wiped in a matter of seconds with the single press of a button. All of their memories, Personality and data, gone in a single motion.

Repurposing meant sending the data in a separate file to PAK creation facilities to be added to the memory banks of all Irken knowledge.

Reuploading was a similar process, but instead of being sent to be turned into PAK information, the data was compressed and uploaded into the Collective; the Control Brains. Usually this was marked for Irkens with older PAKs that had been reused several times already. 

The task was mundane and repetitive, but Skoodge didn’t mind. He preferred calmer tasks like this anyways. It was better than running around like a plump chicken nugget fetching the Tallest snacks. His leaders had been spending a lot of time alone in private to discuss things lately. Skoodge didn’t know why and he didn’t really care. It wasn’t his business to know anyways. 

He still hated this job with a passion, but he was much less angry about it at this point than he’d initially been. As much as he didn’t want to start getting used to it, he already sort of was. It was just in his nature to slip back into doing whatever was told of him, even if he didn’t like it. He hadn’t always agreed with everything Zim coaxed him into doing, but it was always easy to just play along with it. Skoodge liked being told what to do. Maybe that’s why he was slipping into this role so easily. There was still a part of him that knew he needed to seek freedom, but maybe it wouldn’t be as bad here in the meantime as he’d initially thought. As long as the Tallest kept assigning him repetitive trivial tasks like this.

In a matter of hours, gone through all the sorting, and was now at the mercy of Red and Purple to assign him his next task. He waited patiently for nearly an hour, even going out and wandering sectors of the Massive in anticipation for his PAK to ding with someone calling him, but there was nothing. He was alone now in a rarely inhabited corner of the ship, a narrow secluded room with a single hallway feeding in. Skoodge wasn’t really sure why he’d wandered here. He took it in for a moment that he really didn’t have any tasks. That was odd. He was rarely ever given nothing to do. Had he done the previous thingy incorrectly? Had he gone too fast and missed something important? Maybe it was best to go back and check-

There were voices at the end of the hallway.

Shloog, they were gonna find him and report him to the Tallest for slacking. 

Without thinking, Skoodge dived towards the nearest vent and quickly pried the lid off to shove his stout little body inside. He scraped and wiggled to turn back around and slide the grate back on just in time for the two approaching Irkens to not notice anyone had ever been there. Hopefully they’d been too distracted by their conversation to hear the commotion. 

Skoodge’s heart thundered in his chest and his own breath was loud against the metal walls. The vents in Zim’s base that he’d resided in for so long weren’t nearly as compact as this.

The two incoming Irkens slinked into the open room. They were much taller than- 

IT WAS THE TALLEST.

Skoodge’s breath caught in his throat. He thought for a moment that they undoubtedly knew he was here and had specifically come looking for him to punish him, but to his surprise, they didn’t acknowledge him, or even glance in his direction once.. So they weren’t looking for him then?

Skoodge let out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding in. Thankfully they hadn’t seemed to hear that either. Their conversation continued on. It sounded important, so Skoodge settled in and decided to listen. It felt a bit wrong, but what else could he do? 

He didn’t ask to be stuck hiding in a vent.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Space was beautiful actually. Dib often forgot how limited of a view it was from earth until moments like this when he was drifting through the stars. The mellow-ness didn’t last very long, as the Ship quickly had to kick into hyperdrive, but whirring patterns of galaxies zipping by was just as entrancing.

 Dib was still upset, but he had nothing to direct his anger towards, and it had dissipated to this feeling of numb hopelessness. He tried several more times over the passing hours to gain control over the ship, only to fail and grow more frustrated every single time as the ship laughed at his incompetence.

 His arm still stung and he had nothing to treat it with. The dried blood made his whole arm look dirty. He just had to hope it wouldn’t get infected.

 He knew that all of this was Zim’s fault and that he should hate his guts now more than ever, but he couldn’t feel anything towards him but worry and pity. Over the next day or so (Dib wasn’t really sure exactly how long it had been. It was hard to tell time without the sun’s rotation) The Irken’s health seemed to be deteriorating more rapidly. He still had moments of lucidity, but they were dwindling quickly.

The strength he’d mustered to even escape in the first place was long gone and he barely moved from his position at the side of the cockpit. He complained a bit, but Dib wasn’t really sure how to make the situation any better. He didn’t want to be there any more than Zim did. The cockpit was stuffy and cramped and the stale air was already beginning to drive him a little insane. There was no entertainment or distractions, Zim seemed too out of it most of the time for proper conversation, and the ship made less than riveting conversation, only seeming to be full of snarky comebacks and insults

Dib zoned out again, and when he came back, it took him a second to realize Zim had been talking to him, his voice sounding strained and rough.

“...into my trap..”

“What?”

“You fell right into my trap!”

“What are you talking about?”
“This was on purpose… You were s’posed to follow me… and and now you're trapped and I win and we’re going to Irk.” Zim rambled, probably semi-delirious 

“You idiot, we’re going to prison!!!”

“Uh huh…” The little bug was spacing out again and eventually fell back asleep, ignoring any of what had just been said, completely oblivious to the fact that both he and Dib were screwed.

Dib had nothing to do other than melt into his own mind as his brain was at a war with itself, his train of thought going round and round in circles.

He couldn’t stop replaying every moment in his head that led up to this, every little thing he could've done differently. He blamed Zim. He blamed the ship. But most of all, he blamed himself. Things would’ve gone so smoothly if he'd just thought for a second to lock the window before the meeting so Zim couldn’t escape. Or before that if he hadn’t let his emotions get in the way and just done the vivsection already. And worst of all, the fact that he still couldn’t let these feelings go. The hatred that he so desperately wanted to feel towards the alien was waning. Quite frankly, he hadn’t really taken Zim’s sudden self-inflicted illness all that seriously till now. He’d convinced himself that Zim was either faking or being overdramatic. But now Dib could see clearly that that wasn’t the case. The Irken looked exhausted and pale, his skin still felt much too warm and his PAK was continuing to glitch out much more frequently.

Was it possibly that Zim was actually dying? Dib thought back to only 2 days ago when he’d found Zim passed out on the floor of his base and thought he was dead. He didn’t want Zim to die. He didn’t want it then, and he didn’t want it now. And he couldn’t explain why. Weren’t they supposed to be enemies? Yes, they were still enemies, Dib reasoned, but the circumstances now were just… different. Zim wasn’t being all evil and scheming like usual, and there wasn’t any way for him to take over the earth while stuck in a stuffy cockpit (or really at all in his current state) and they were both stuck in a pretty awful situation, so it was fine for now. It was like those times they’d had to team up in the past, like when they’d gotten stuck in Dib’s nightmare realm, or when both of them had to find a cure for their flesh slowly turning into baloney. Dib would help Zim now, and then Zim would find a way to break the two of them out of space prison, and then afterwards everything would return to normal. 

Dib just wished he had something he could use to help. He knew that the root of the problem was the PAK, but he had no idea where to even begin with that. But maybe the ship could help?

“Hey, ship…” He asked, “ are there possibly any tools or anything in here that could help repair a broken PAK… or maybe like, an instruction guide on how PAKs work or something. That’d be pretty helpful right about now.”

“I don’t know, check the back storage chamber.” The tone of her voice indicated that she really didn’t care.

Back storage chamber… okay.

Dib sat up and maneuvered around the seat to the back corner of the ship. There was a bit of space back here that he’d never realized was there. All the times he’d flown this ship, and he’d never thought once to check what was behind the seat. He just assumed there’d be nothing, like in Zim’s voot. It was still pretty cramped, but maybe slightly more roomy than the cockpit. Perhaps he could stuff Zim back here so it’d be less squished up front. 

He scanned around for any signs of whatever chamber Tak’s interface had been talking about, and eventually his eyes fell on a lever that pulled back to reveal a little unit of storage, a box that popped out almost like a drawer. Inside it was an array of items; a couple bags and packets that appeared to be some sort of alien snacks, some scraps of tech, pieces of Irken attire such as spare boots and gloves, and a bunch more random items thrown around that all just appeared to be junk. 

“Hey, you want any of these?” He called to Zim and held up a pack of alien food, only to get a dismissive grunt in response. He assumed that was a no.

 One thing that caught his eye was a weird little first aid kit that appeared to be filled with some sort of healing liquid, and he was quick to test it on the bite mark on his arm, The weird healing stuff worked really quickly, and to his surprise, the bite was gone in a matter of minutes, the only trace being the leftover blood that he still had nothing to clean away with. That was incredibly useful, though it wouldn’t be able to help the current situation with Zim. It was his PAK that was broken, not his organic body.

Another thing that caught his eye was what looked like a collection of round gem-like chips in a pile off to the side. Could they possibly be some sort of alien currency?

And of course, there were the snacks. Despite the packages looking odd and alien in nature, it made Dib realize just how hungry he was. It’d been well over several hours now, possibly even close to a day, and he hadn’t eaten anything since that morning.

Curiously, he picked up one of the brightly-colored packets and examined it; The white bold text against the red and yellow background clearly wasn’t Irken, and certainly wasn’t anything Dib could decipher. Underneath it was a graphic of what appeared to be a bundle of vibrant worms. So these were similar to gummy worms, maybe?

He cautiously tore the mystery snack open, only to let out a yelp of surprise as a stream of moving living worms burst out and spilled over the edge. 

“WHAT THE FUCK??” The packet fell out of his hands as the writhing little creatures spilled all over the floor, jiggling and thrashing like weird little grubs as Dib stared down in surprise. It was impossible to avoid stepping on more than a few, and they exploded into bursts of bright neon juice under his boot.

Was that even food??? Why was it moving?!?! 

“Ship, what was THAT?!?”

“You idiot, those are Snarkle blasters! You're supposed to eat them in the packet while they’re alive! They’re no good anymore!”

The colorful wiggling worms at his feet still looked pretty alive to him, though the longer he stared, the weaker their thrashing became. He tried to step away to avoid smashing any more and staining the floor with their gross sticky color juice.

“Those are incredibly hard to get your hands on and Tak spent good money on them! I hope you're happy.” She spat.

“No, I’m not happy! I’m starving! Do you have any food in here that isn’t alive…!? ”

“UUUUUGH Fine, we can stop at a fuel planet now if you’re really that insistent about it. Take those chips, they’re moneyz” Dib glanced at the coin-shaped gems across the floor and held them in his palm. So he’d been right about that-- They were currency.

“We’ll be there in approximately an hour. Please just be quiet till then.”

There was a moment of silence. “Also I still hate you by the way.”

“ uh huh.”