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"I just need to know the answers to my final exam tomorrow, Zim!" Dib exclaims as he makes a sharp turn down the hallway. Loose wires dangle down from roof. Distant soft clinks echo throughout the hallway from Zim's pak legs. Dib keeps running down the odd hallway of Zim's base, unsure where to exactly turn but he knows what he's looking for. Soon Dib stands in front a similar door, he watches it automatically open just a bit to slow for him as he starts to hear Zim's voice. When he can get pass he heads to the control pad for the door to lock it closed.
The boy runs towards a large machine, it stood tall and wide. It's pink hues of metal matching well with rest of the base. Dib awes at the machine, he comes to closer to it seeing the center of the build having a large circle opening. Zim's time machine. Dib chuckles slightly to himself, ever since Zim shown Dib this, told him about how he used piggies to destroy his life, and after a quick fight Dib knew what he could do with something like this. Sure it was a bit stupid to use it for a final exam but he's missed most of his history classes because of Zim and he's going to definitely fail without some outside help.
He hears Zim shouting and banging on the door as he fiddles with the controls. Dib manages to find out how to set the date on the machine to, he puts in the current month then the day the teacher promises to give them back their exams. As he's about to change the year to the current year he hears the door open. Dib looks behind him to see the angered irken at the doorway. The boy hastily presses the start button, not bothering to check the date. The inside of the circle spins to life, Dib glance back at Zim then at the machine. He really needed to pass this final.
Dib hops into the portal as Zim runs towards him, as he sees the alien and surroundings disappear when he enters the portal. Spirals of various colors take over his vision until he's forced back out the portal and onto his back. He stares momentarily at the familiar roof covered by wires. "Ace, what are you doing in here?!" A voice spoke, the voice was too recognizable except the pitch was off. Dib abruptly sits up, staring at the source of the voice. It was Zim standing back at the doorway, but nothing sat right with Dib with his appearance. Zim was notably, although not by much, taller, he no longer wore his pink uniform and instead wore human clothes.
"Wha.. Zim?" Dib manages to force himself to say, confused with Zim's odd appearance. In the irken's hands was a obvious alien gun which was once clearly pointed at Dib but now lowered. The alien stands his place his eyes scanning Dib. "Why do you look like that?" The boy bluntly says, one of this thoughts escaping out through his mouth. Zim's eyes narrow down at Dib, he takes a step into the room and without looking away he locks the door. "You're not Ace, are you?" The irken calmly spoke, his expression unreadable. Dib carefully stands up, planting his feet flat of the ground he once sat on.
"Who's Ace, Zim? One of your alien friends?" Dib spoke, suspicious of everything going on. His posture was stiff but he did well to hide his nervousness. "Dib." Zim spits out Dib's name, holding the same bitterness as he usually does. "This is where you ended up went you used Zim's time machine back in what? High skool?" The irken adds, keeping his bitter tone. He takes a step closer to the human watching him attentively. "What..?" Dib spoke, only getting more confused by the minute.
The irken happily chuckles to himself, corner of his pink eyes crinkling. But as his chuckles stop Zim's expression returns back to being unreadable. "So this where you ended up? I kept my eye out for weeks, just waiting for you to pop out of no where and you end up here, now." Zim spoke with fake amusement. Dib glares at Zim watching him for any sudden movements but instead the alien moved slowly and purposefully. The boy opens his mouth to respond but is immediately interrupted by the alien.
"Do you even understand how damaging time travel is?"
"It's complexity would fry every nerve in your pathetic human brain if I where to explain it to you."
"Are you even aware about your stupidity for breaking into my base for some disgusting exam that you end up failing!"
"It was so pointless, I had to waste my time to chase you around my base!.."
As Zim keeps yelling at Dib, it's starts to sound more like he's scolding Dib with each word. Dib internally cringes, not only is he trying to process everything, he's also having a future version of his enemy basically scold him. As far he was able to piece together, this was obviously a more further future and Zim changed either for the better or worse. "Okay enough!" Dib exclaims, interrupting Zim's scolding. The alien stops mid sentence and stares at the human. "What." Zim firmly spoke keeping his eyes on Dib.
"I'm obviously much further future then I'd like to be, and you're basically scolding me for using your machine." Dib spoke as he pointed at Zim. The irken let's go his odd calm demeanor and softly hisses as the human. "I am not scolding you." Zim denies. "Yes you are, you're scolding me like a kid. Whatever." Dib says before looking behind him and seeing the time machine. It has obviously aged as the pink hue were duller and there was some rust at the base. The machine seemed to be in well shape beyond the simple aging of the metal.
"It's not going to work." Zim spoke up. Dib looks back at the alien. "Why not?" He suspiciously questions. The irken groans as he approached the human. "I unplugged it, and are using its cord for something else." Zim says before crossing his arms. The boy gives the alien a confused and suspicious look. "Like what?" Dib asks. "The TV, one of the cords broke and this machines plug was the one I needed." Zim replies as he walks pass Dib and toward the time machine. The alien exams it a bit, touching the metal, pressing some buttons that didn't work, and slightly shaking it. "Stay here, I'll get the cord." Zim says as he backs away from the machine, points at Dib as he heads to the door. "Why are you helping me?" Dib asks right before the irken leaves the room.
Zim sighs, his antennas slightly twitching most likely out of annoyance. "Why do you ask so many questions? I knew you were very annoying in your smeet years but this is just too much." The irken spoke before opening the door, walking out into the hallway and locking the door. Dib awkwardly stares at the door before glancing around the room. All the other machines he remembered filling the room were now gone, leaving the room empty besides the large time machine. He doesn't really understand why Zim is helping him. It just seems so out of character for how he knows Zim, but yet again his behavior seems more mature. How far did he go and what has happened?
Breaking out of his train of thought Dib hears muffled high pitched wailing from outside the room. With experience, he knows that it was Zim's robot, GIR, crying. As the screams get louder, the muffled sound of Zim yelling can be slightly hear. When the door opens back up the voices become clear yet louder. "For the love Irk! You guys will have the stupid TV back on after I'm done with this!" Zim exclaims with a slight hiss in his voice as his back facing Dib. GIR continues to cry, but something catches the humans attention. It was a another voice arguing back at Zim.
"Zim, what's so important for you to take a cord from the TV!? GIR isn't going to shut up now!" The voice spoke, Dib tries to see pass Zim to see who the unfamiliar voice is. Although not being able to see beyond Zim doesn't mean someone didn't see him. Suddenly GIR stops whining and immediately pushes himself pass Zim's legs and towards Dib. "MARYYYY!" GIR cheers as he ran and jumps onto Dib, clinging to his leg. The robot brought the irken off balance allowing more to be seem through the door but Dib focuses on getting GIR off him. "Who's he?" The voice spoke, his tone suddenly confused. Just as Dib looks up to see the voice the door is immediately closed. All Dib saw of the other being was they were dressed in human clothes, similar to Zim's and their light tan arms. Was that a human?
"MARYYY I'VE MISSED YOU!!" GIR screeches while kicking his legs, his robot arms tightening around his leg. GIR squeals and giggles as Dib tries to hear Zim and the human with him. He takes a step closer bit does nothing. Just then the opens back up and another human hurries into the room as Zim angrily yells. "Ace!" The irken scowls. The humans slows down and stands only a few meters away from Dib, allowing him to properly look at them. They looked just like Dib, although a bit younger, they still looked like him. "Uh.. Hi? I'm Terrace." Terrace awkwardly speaks up, lifting a hand up to wave.
"Why do you never listen to me!?" Zim growls, "You're just like him." The irken adds on as he approaches them. Terrace turns around to look at him. "I'm sorry, Zim but.. Who is he? Why does he look like me?" He questions, his head tilting with confusion. "He's someone that shouldn't be here. Now go." Zim firmly says ignoring his second question before pointing at the doorway. "Well what about him, Zim? Who's he?" Dib speaks up making the two look at him with his hand pointed at Terrace. Zim snarls, "He's also someone that shouldn't be here." The alien spoke.
"Well what about GIR?" Dib spoke up while lifting up his leg that GIR still clinged to.
"How do you know GIR?" Terrace exclaims.
"How do you know Zim?" Dib yells back.
"Enough! Dib, shut up and Ace, leave!" Zim yells, keeping his hand pointed toward the door. "Why?" The other boy immediately questions. "Because as your taller I say so!" Zim firmly spoke as he straightened his posture. Terrace narrows his eyes at the alien before he opens his mouth. "Your irken ideologies are stupid Zim! You can't keep telling me what to do, you're not my Dad!" He shouts before lowering his head and backing away from the irken. "I'm so sorry, I-I didn't really mean it. I don't think it's stupid." He immediately apologizes.
Zim gives Terrace a glower look before turning away to the machine. "Whatever, just don't tell him anything about anything." The alien says as he head to the machine. Terrace glances at Dib momentarily before he starts to get a bit jittery. "I have so many questions." Dib murmurs as he looks over to Terrace. As Terrace opens his mouth to take he's interrupted by Dib. "Why do you look like me?" He askes leaning towards his look-a-like. "He's a Mary clone!" GIR suddenly exclaims. Dib finches, he forgot GIR was still holding on his leg. He tries shaking him but fails as the robot just screams loudly, so he just stops.
"What does he mean by that?" Dib asks. Terrace just shrugs his shoulders. "I don't know, but I am clone." Terrace awkwardly says. "Ace!" Zim immediately yells, making Terrace shut up. The irken emerges from the wires above and uses his pak legs to get down but doesn't retract them back into his pak. Instead he immediately picks up Terrace by his armpits and uses the pak legs to head quickly to the door only to throw the boy out of the room and lock the door yet again.
"Wait- Is he a clone of me? Does he live with you?" Dib asks, his confusion coming back. Zim uses his pak to walk to Dib, force GIR off him, grab his arm and drag him to the time machine. The alien ignores his questions as he forces the human in front the machine before going to the controls and putting the date Dib came from. "Hey! Answer me!" Dib exclaims as heads towards Zim but is only pushed by back one of his pak legs. The boy frowns as he's pushed, he knows Zim is ignoring and he's suspicious about why.
Millions of possibilities run through Dib head, but is interrupted by the portal coming to life. Zim sighs as he walks away from the controls and right besides Dib. "It's plugged in and working. You can head back to your time." The irken calmly spoke, holding back any anger he has left lingering. "Why won't you answer my questions?" Dib asks as he looks at Zim. "You already know too much about the future." The alien simply responds. Dib looks up and down at Zim. "Seriously?" The human says, his tone showing his disappointment. The irken chuckles slightly. "It's been so long since I've seen you like this." Zim softly spoke as he smiles.
The irken immediately catches himself smiling and immediately clears his throat as he looks towards the time machine. "Now go." Zim firmly spoke. Dib frowns, he still had lots of questions about everything. "Only if you answer one of my questions." The human proudly spoke, thinking he's outsmarted the future version of his enemy. Zim cruelly chuckles as he just forcefully pushes Dib into the portal.
Dib finds himself back in his time forced towards Zim. As he collides with Zim, the alien his forced onto the ground sitting with Dib right in front him. Dib quickly scrambles away from the irken and heads back to the machine but he doesn't go to the controls. The boy frowns to himself before turning away from the machine. Dib glances at Zim seeing him awkwardly stand up with a slight blue hue to his face. "I'm going home." Dib says as he walks away from the machine and pass the irken. "Yes! Leave Zim's base immediately!" Zim exclaims as he raises his hands, watching the human leave.
This was all to much to process and let to think about. With the millions of thoughts bouncing around in Dibs head only one was loud enough. Why did future Zim help him?