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Dib walks through the corridors of his makeshift home, a conglomeration of human and alien tech, foreign metals stuck together with sheets of iron and steel, knit together in harmony to make the inner workings of a complete ship. But, Dib wasn’t thinking about that, he was occupied with scanning his hand against the door, and keeping the tray level in his other, once the metal door slid open with a futuristic “woosh noise” Dib smiled at his companion, or, at least he smiled in the same general direction.
Zim preoccupied himself with staring out the large glass radius window on the far end of the cockpit, watching the endless expanse of stars and nothingness.
Zim always said the extra viewing window was pointless, but Dib was sure Zim was starting to think differently nowadays. The human set down the tray as silently as he could, before walking closer to the other, clearing his throat before speaking. “What are you doing?” Dib asked.
The green alien did not turn, only his antenna flickered in the direction of the other as he spoke. “I’m watching our stars.”
“Our stars?” Dib echoed, leaning in to look for himself, as if he too had the capacity to understand every flicker of light out there.
Once Dib leaned closer, that's when Zim turned his head to look at the other, his face was unreadable, especially with his more featureless face. “Our stars. Yes.” he nodded curtly before continuing. “They're. Well.. they’re.. Here, Zim will show you.” Zim walked over to the main computer panel, after a bit of tapping Dib's full attention was brought into the spaceship as a large map of blue holographic planets and stars lit up the cockpit, that was when Dib followed Zim away from the window.
Before Dib could completely register what he was looking at, the alien started to explain: “your eyes don’t see very well. Like Zims does, because of our flight path, the trajectory has caused our stars to align, to overlap from our position now.”
Zims claws trail over the panels again, little labels accompanying each glowing holograph as Zim points at a large sun, clearly labeled irk, he draws a line with his finger as he crosses the deck, pointing to another star, labeled earth in clear english. Zim does not say anything as he walks yet again, closer to Dib where their ship lay directly in the middle of the cockpit. “See? They’ve aligned. When you look at them, they’re like the same star.”
Dib nodded slowly, he watched the hologram, the straight line Zim had connected with his finger to show the human, he nodded again before letting out a little breath with his word. “Oh.”
Zim said nothing else as he shut down the holograms, walking back over to the viewing window and standing in silence with the human as they stared out into the stars for a few moments longer, Dib sliding his fingers into the aliens hand as he too watched the outside galaxy pass.
~~~
The alien packed up odds and ends into large crates, shoving blueprint after crumpled blueprint into his cases, talking to himself as he tried not to read over plans of modified ships, instead crumpling them up more and throwing them haphazardly into his supplies. "-doesn't need much. Zim doesn't need much… Zim needs Gir, Gir is packing his disgusting pigs, and then Zim needs to gr-" there's a rolling flick of antenna, stopping in his tracks, halfway into the Voot as his eyes dart to the door.
Dib wore his own frown as he walked inside the attic/ spaceship carrier. "We talked about this." He murmured, the tired sound apparent in his voice as he closed the door behind him, making sure the two were completely alone in the base.
"No you talked about this!" Zim snapped as he finished placing the crate inside his Voot, shutting the hatched lid with a loud thunk. "You're going to leave Zim, so Zim is going to leave as well."
"I'm just going to college, I'm going to come back, I'm not leaving forever." Dib walked closer, stepping inside the circle of the take off zone.
Zim continued his task, unmoving he half sat inside the cockpit of his Voot, checking his fuel and such again. "Then Zim won't 'leave forever' Zim will 'come back'."
Dib walked closer again, leaning a bit inside the small ship, it was too small for two, definitely now that Dib finally hit his last growth spurt, there would be no way he could crawl inside and finish this conversation, so instead, Dib places his hand on Zims own, stopping the alien from readjusting a dial he had been fiddling with. "Come to college with me, just a few years, then I'll go with you, wherever you want to go. Hell, we could stay here on earth or you could show me all those touristy planets you've talked to me about before, how does that sound?"
Zims magenta eyes had locked onto the cool hand placed over his green skin. It took some time before he decided on what to say, collecting his words before opening his mouth.
~~~
Dib walked through the lunch room of his new highschool. Each table packed to the brim with faces he only vaguely recognized, leaving the lunch room all together and not paying mind to the posters littering each corridor he passed, instead focusing his energy on opening the front doors of the school while he balanced the lunch tray in his other hand.
The front steps of the school were mostly uninhabited, not including the green alien sitting on the steps. He kept his legs close, pressed into the dark pink jacket Zim had decided to wear to school that day. Dib was silent as he sat down, placing the chocolate pudding cup between them, which the alien picked up without a word, his contacts firmly glued to his communication device hanging over him from a Pak leg.
Dib leaned in, shoulder touching shoulder as he also tried to look at the screen. "What are you doing?" He finally asked, breaking the silence between the two.
Zim opened the plastic container with one clawed hand, watching the map displayed on his screen with what could only be described as melancholy, as the three labeled points on his screen drew further and further away from each other, zooming out slowly to keep each point on the small screen.
Dib could recognize his own planet even though the label on the screen was written in Zims native tongue, the next planet, which Dib could only assume was Irk, and the next label on a large ship drifting further and further from the other targets.
"Nothing." Zim responds to the question finally after the other genuinely forgot he asked.
Dib nodded, letting out a slow sigh "I see." He murmured, handing over his spoon as he watched the screen in silence.
~~~
The human leans his back against the outside wall of the school, his lunch forgotten beside him, he's not sure exactly when Gaz got swept up in an actual group of friends, but she did, and it was hard for him to not feel completely abandoned by his younger sister. Dib tried to stay positive, at least a little bit, this was going to be his last year of middle school. Gaz wasn't going to come to the highschool with him for another year.
He was going to be alone regardless, and Dib reveled in that fact as he closed his eyes letting the feelings wash over him.
"Zim eats here too." The voice spoke before Dib even had time to register the fact someone had sat beside him, opening his eyes just in time to see Zim take the pudding cup off his foam tray.
Dibs' knees moved in slowly, curling in on himself as if someone intruding into his space was too much for him to handle. "I'm not stopping you." He murmured, watching as Zim took his spoon too.
Zim opens the foil lid, shoving the first spoonful into his mouth as he leaned back against the red bricked wall, back arching to accommodate the metal on his back, and letting their shoulders touch slightly.
Dib flinches, reacting to the touch by leaning away, giving himself just a few inches, by scooting away along the wall. "What are yo-"
"Eating lunch like any other useless human child would." Zim interrupted, not paying mind to physical rejection, or at least ignoring it enough he wasn’t going to point it out.
"Okay. But why are y-"
"You said you weren't going to stop Zim." He stuck another spoonful into his mouth, face unreadable in the afternoon light, but if Dib had to put his finger on the emotion Zim was trying to convey it would have to be the closest thing to compassion a robotic alien could muster. "You could.. talk to Zim. And if Zim doesn't understand, you could talk until I understand."
~~~
Dib wasn’t sure exactly when barging into Zims base became an easy task, when he learned the blind spot of each and every gnome, when the front door started swinging open with a robotic "hi son!" Instead of the alternate guns and rays, but it had, and Dib found himself walking through the inner workings of the basement labs without much of an alarm or the computer voice blaring about trespassers, instead Dib walked through trying to find and hang ou- interrogate the green alien.
Dib followed the sounds of talking, and a bright light down the halls, he kept a hand on one wall, it was darker down here and Dibs eyes hadn't quite adjusted yet so Dib really only had sound and a dim shifting light to guide him.
A laugh.
A bright flash of colors, probably rolling over a large monitor in the room Zim occupied.
The burning sound of dripping sarcasm, a sound Dib knew too well, a sound he had to learn to recognize.
Once he reached the room Dib knew better than to just walk in, instead staying as close to the door as he could as he peered inside, hoping the noise from the monitor drowned out the sounds of his feet and breathing.
Zim stood in front of a large monitor, just like Dib expected, Zims armed stayed behind his back as the two aliens on screen laughed, one at least trying to contain his laughter with a sneer.
"My Tallest. as Zim sai-" The alien in the room started.
The two cut him off with more laughter, chuckling through their words, "as you said, this little throw away planet is going to take years-"
"YEARS!-" more chuckles as red echoed behind purple, his tone filled with mockery.
"-to conquer?! Really Zim? It's really going to take that long? How about you contact us when you're done-"
"-When you actually accomplish something worthwhile!"
"Yeah! Something that means something to the armada!"
"Then you might be a real invader-"
"-A REAL INVADER? ZIM?!"
"Oh I know right, that would be so funny. Zim. A real invader."
Zims hands shook behind his back, before he clenched a fist and threw a gloved fist into his chest. Real conviction as he raised his voice. "Zim IS a real invader, this is my mission. I am finishing my mission!"
Purple raised an eyebrow leaning into the communicator, covering the large monitor completely inside Zim's base. "Your mission? You really don't get it-"
Zim’s antenna twitched, a telltale sign something caught his attention, and it was obvious to the human his position had been compromised as the door he had leaned against made a loud squeak that was hard to ignore. "Shit." Dib whispered.
"Zim? What are y-" red also tried to lean in, cheek pressing against the other tallers.
"Signing off." Zim said firmly before pressing the communicator, staying deathly still in the now dark room, the only light came from the large monitor with a completely alien disconnection symbol, painting the room in a deep magenta.
The silence stretched for eons, Dib holding his breath in the dark, praying to anything that Zim heard something else, definitely something else, not the swear he whispered previously, nope, definitely not that.
"What are you doing here?" Zim said in the darkness, his claw still pressing the disconnection button, holding it down as he tried to control himself.
"Hey.." Dib rolled out of his hiding place, shoulders slumped, a nasty habit he gained after growing so much in the last few years.
Zim sneered, a mirrored look from his Tallest prior looming over his control panel, holding it as he shook gently, his antenna twitching slowly with every slow step Dib took, walking closer to the other. "You can't. YOU CAN'T JUST COME IN HERE! YOU CAN'T JUST LISTEN TO MY CALLS!" The shaking became more obvious, with every slow step, with every passing second the shaking became more violent, and harder to control.
"I'm sorry. I just came by to see you, hey, they were yelling at you. Are you- Are you okay?" Dib tried not to let his voice waver, it cracked, holding his words in the air.
"I'm n..n- just, get out GET OUT!" Zims fist hit the disconnection button again, the monitor flickering the same symbol a few times, basking the room in the deep magenta light over and over again as Zim tried to disconnect the call again.
"I can't just leave, not when you're like this." Dib placed his hand on top of Zims, the alien taking his hand back, as if now realizing the button on his control panel was scorching hot, holding the gloved hand into his other. "You're falling apart. We could.. we could talk about it, you know?"
Zim keeps his hands together, cradling one of them, his antennas pressing to his scalp as he turns to stand in front of the other. "You don't understand. You wouldn't understand."
Dib sucked in a breath. Shaking his head gently. "No, I actually think I do get it. And if I don't get it we can talk about it until I do get it." Dib moved in again slowly, unsure as he placed a hand on Zims shoulder, pressing into a slow and awkward hug.
Zim let go of his grip on his own hand, in favor of holding into Dibs coat sleeve, he shook gently, trying to keep himself from falling apart.
"You know.. my dad doesn't get it either, just the other day he-"
"I know." Zim murmured, still holding into the fabric clenched between fingers. "I know what he said to you."
~~~
Metallic legs crawled along the suburban family home, Zim lips turned up slowly as he gripped the glass jar filled with an assortment of alien bugs, Zim had great plans for them, and he was not going to let these creatures go to waste.
Once Zim crawled up the final window to his nemesis room, open and inviting the green boy inside, Zim paused momentarily, listening to the voices inside.
“-when you accomplish something worthwhile, son!” Zims head leaned slowly into the window, watching the humans father plaster himself on a floating screen inside Dibs room, voice booming out of the speakers into the room.
Dib sat in his chair, leaning back as far as the chair would allow, hands hovering over his keyboard, before slowly being placed into his lap.
“Something that has meaning to our name, to science, to-”
“Dad.” Dib trailed off, unsure if he was even really going to say anything, instead covering up the shaking of his hands by drawing them closer to himself.
“Yes, son?” Professor membrane asked, tilting his head slightly as he spoke into the camera, though his eyes stayed on something else unseen.
Dib took a breath before speaking, “I am a real scientist, I am-”
“Oh son, you really don't get it do you?”
Zim hadn’t realized he started crawling into the room, maybe an excuse to listen better, a reason to drive the knife in further, any reason to get the upper hand, but Zim came back to himself once he heard the small noise of the jar hitting the outer window frame, climbing down as fast as his Pak legs could take him, darting off into the closest direction that would give him cover.
He didn’t feel like bothering Dib anyways.