[IZ] Broken Kalopsia - Chapter 5

The evening came to an end not much time after that discussion, when Professor Membrane came back home. It was rare for the man to be around and both his children were caught off guard, since they weren’t expecting him that day. Gaz’s frown became less pronounced, sign that having her parent back was for her a welcomed surprise, and even Dib relaxed a bit more. His relationship with his father hadn’t changed much in the last two years and the man still considered him insane as most of the people who knew him, but the teen had come to terms with that. He had realised that the Professor always tried to do what he thought was best, not only for them, but for humankind in general, and that was a trait that they somehow shared. Besides, he was well aware that their father loved both him and his sister, even if he wasn’t able to express it properly.

“Oh, son, you invited your foreign friend over,” the scientist commented after having warmly patted the girl on the head, finally noticing the alien sitting on the other side of the couch.

“Yeah, Zim came over to watch a movie,” Dib nodded quickly, before the Invader could open his loud mouth and say something inappropriate. “I hope it’s alright.”

“Of course it is. I’m glad to see that you’re finally starting to act a bit more like your age, instead of just chasing your…fantasies,” the Professor stated, with a hint of real approval in his voice. “Now, if only you put those asides and start to embrace real science…” He let out a deep sigh. “So, what kind of movie? A real documentary? Something pregnant?”

“A movie about aliens,” Zim answered in the teen’s place. He had balled the now empty popcorn pack and had stuck it into one of the finished paper mugs. He wasn’t going to leave any traces of Irken food around, in case his rival decided to analyse them. “Much better than the first one.”

“Aliens, uh?” Membrane repeated, the delight that had touched his voice just a few moments before instantly disappearing. He turned his gaze towards his male offspring for a second, before locking it back on the Invader. “And tell me, child, do you happen to share my son’s…interest for this silly parascience?”

Dib hanged his head slightly at his father’s change of tone, mentally cursing his nemesis for his inability to keep his big mouth shut. Not that it would have changed anything. He knew far too well what his parent thought of his passions. His amber eyes, though, shot up again at the question that followed and he found himself looking at the Irken, curious to see what the other would have answered. Usually the Invader denied any connection between him and whatever was related to space and aliens, so he was expecting him to do the same this time. However, he was also aware that he might be surprised, considering his rival’s current abnormal attitude.

Zim hesitated for a moment. Lying and pronouncing his usual answers on the matter would have been easy and, especially, it would have removed the man’s attention from him. He didn’t see him as a real threat, since he was, as most of his kind, clearly oblivious to the fact that he wasn’t human, but it was also true that he was a scientist, one that wouldn’t have hesitated to dissect him and use him for horrible experiments, given the chance. He also was extremely tall and that trait alone made the Irken feel uneasy in his presence.

However, before he could open his mouth and blather some sort of agreement on how silly those subjects were, he caught the look on Dib’s face at Membrane’s change of tone and that caused a small squeeze in his spooch, followed by a feeling he didn’t truly recognise. Apparently, his rival’s troubles with his father unit were still ongoing. If he had made fun of the teen now, he would have just encouraged the man to show even more disapproval. He couldn’t bring himself to do it. Stupid whatever-it-was that was messing with him.

“Zim thinks that there are plenty of aliens around the universe,” he ended up stating, causing his nemesis to gape at him and even having Gaz lifting her eyes from her console, a look of surprise on her face. “Of course, there’s no way that there’s one on Earth,” he quickly added then, offering a nervous grin. “That’s ridiculous. No way. We’re aaaall humans here. But out there…I’m sure that there is at least one mighty, amazing race that will conquer the universe and crash this ball of dirt under a rain of doom one day!” He gave a final nod, unable to hold back the impulse to brag, even if indirectly.

The Professor stared at him for one, long, intense second, making the Irken want to stand at attention as he did in front of his Tallest, and then let out another sigh. “Now I see why my son spends so much time in your company,” he commented, shaking his head and sounding almost resigned. He then turned towards his children. “I’ll be in my lab. Don’t forget to brush your teeth before going to bed. I’ll see you at breakfast.” And without another word, he walked out of the room.

Zim instantly relaxed a bit when the imposing figure was gone, his instincts quieting down and stopping their pressing demand for him to submit to a creature that was most likely his superior. If Membrane had been Irken, the Invader would have been crawling at his feet by now. He was taller than his Tallest, even if just for a couple of inches. It was deeply disturbing.

“I’m leaving,” he announced, collecting his junk. He had to go back to the base and check the levels of his body chemicals and the pattern of the connection between his PAK and his organism. He needed to find a solution, there was no time to wait for the condition to solve itself. He had come to the point of subtly taking his enemy’s defences, almost risking exposing himself in the process. The situation was much more severe than he had initially thought.

“Uh, Zim, wait a moment,” Dib called him, following him quickly as he almost ran towards the main door. He rested a hand on the wooden surface, to prevent the alien from opening it, and shifted slightly on his feet. “I…” He started, stopping almost immediately because he wasn’t sure of what he was going to say. He knew that the Irken hadn’t meant to stand up for him, not truly, and that he had done it because either it served his own masterplan or he couldn’t help himself because of whatever illness he had. However, he still felt that he owed him. No one had ever sided with him, especially not in front of his father, the famous and respected professor. “Thanks. For what you said to my Dad about the aliens and stuff.”

The Invader felt two contrasting feelings blossoming inside him at those words. The first was an expected, shamed disgust, which made his skin crawl a bit as he fully realised the impression he had made on the outside. The second, instead, was something mostly new, a warmth spreading through his chest and then in all his body, making the other, unpleasant sentiment more bearable. He didn’t know what it meant and he wasn’t sure that he wanted to find out. He would worry about it later. Now, he needed to give the human an appropriate, dismissive answer.

“Don’t flatter yourself, Earth monkey. I didn’t do it for you as you seem to be implying,” he stated with a scoff, grasping the handle and forcing the door open even if his nemesis was still resting his weight on it. “I would never do something so foolish like helping you.”

A sly grin opened on the teen’s face. “Oh, and then do tell. Why did you risk implying that there are alien lifeforms all around here?” He asked in a defiant tone, daring the Invader to come up with a credible answer. He knew what to expect this time. A stuttered absurdity. This was familiar, even if for once he was merely teasing, in an almost playful way, instead of harshly taunting and mocking his rival. It felt lighter, easier and he couldn’t help thinking that he could have got used to this, if things between him and the Irken had been different.

Zim found himself caught off guard. Stupid, filthy human. The thought that he had helped him just to get made fun of as a result was almost making him mad. Almost. He did sense a difference in his nemesis’s tone, though, something that made his words less sharp, as if they weren’t aiming to hurt or upset him. He blinked, confused for a moment, then he realised what was going on. The worm child wasn’t making fun of him, he was joking. The realisation hit him hard and for a moment he didn’t know what to do with himself. He had been so focused on the struggle with his own moods and actions that he hadn’t noticed that the demeanour of the people around him had changed together with his own. The less aggressive and threatening he acted, the more they seemed to relax around him. Everyone still thought that he was a freak, but they paid him less attention and even insulted him less. As for Dib, he got slightly friendlier the nicer Zim acted. Super weird.

Realising that he had been gaping at his rival for a good minute, he struggled to compose himself and to find a proper comeback, even if the effect would be ruined in any case by his silence. “I did it because…uh…Isn’t it obvious? Of course not, not to your inferior human mind at least! To a superior Irken intellect, it’s crystal clear,” he exclaimed loudly, thrusting his chest forward to convey pride and confidence. “But since Zim feels generous today, I will enlighten your poorly developed intelligence, so that you can be bewildered by my amazing brilliance! I said those things to…uh, prove your parent unit wrong. So that, when I destroy his precious mankind before his eyes, he will remember this day and think about how blind and dumb he has been, having his future overlord warning him and not even realising it because of his…useless…humanity.”

Dib felt a bit of satisfaction when he saw that his little teasing question had caught the alien off guard. It was a small victory, after having been the one to be constantly taken aback for two whole days. However, his amusement faded for most part as soon as his rival started to speak, throwing in as many insults as he could and coming up with one of his usual, dumb cover-ups. It wasn’t the worst he had heard from him, though. He had to give it to him.

“Keep telling yourself that, you might start to believe it, space boy,” he shot back with a scoff, but there was no real heat in his voice for once. “Whatever your reason to do that was, I appreciated it. So, shut up and take the thanks.” He shifted as the Invader stepped out of the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow in class?”

Zim glared, almost succeeding this time, but then nodded, refusing to drag the argument any further. He told himself that it was because it wasn’t worth his time and because he had important things to do back at his base, but the truth was that he wouldn’t have known how to answer. “Of course. What a dumb question.” He turned his back to the human. “Have fun wasting time in your stupid, human restorative state, Dib-stink.”

The teen rolled his eyes at the rude statement, but didn’t comment. He was used to them by now. “Goodnight you too, Zim. Enjoy…whatever you do at night.”

The Irken didn’t answer and simply started to make his way towards his base, hearing the door being shut just a few moments after he had begun walking. There was a slight frown on his face, but it was there because he was forcing himself to scowl. He should be, considering how the whole day had gone. He had tried to delude himself into thinking that he could handle this thing that was happening to him, but the truth was that he couldn’t, no matter how hard he tried. Even in that moment, he could hardly keep himself from showing cheerfulness because, despite the humiliating way in which he had stood up for the Dib, he had enjoyed himself that evening, watching the human’s stupid movie, sharing his superior Irken soda with him and then discussing what they had seen. Even the tense encounter with his rival’s father unit hadn’t been so bad, that considered. The umpteenth sign that he was going mad.

He let his head fall back slightly, looking up at the sky. He could hardly see the stars with all that light pollution, but it didn’t matter. He knew that they were there, he had even been close to some of them. The next night he would go up in space and make some surveys, as his Computer had suggested. He would have all the time, without the pressure of having to show up at the Hi Skool in the morning. Perhaps getting away from Earth would do him some good in itself. He hoped so, but he didn’t really believe it would. Especially not if he would end up giving into the bad idea that was already taking shape into his brain.

╔ IZ ╗

It was past one in the morning when Dib woke up abruptly, with no idea of what had interrupted his slumber. His room was dark and quiet as it had been when he had gone to sleep a bit more than one hour before. He briefly looked around, confused and still half asleep, not even bothering to lift his head from the pillow or to reach for his glasses. Everything seemed to be in place and the space around him was made of nothing but blurry shadows, for what his sleepy eyes could see. Most likely he had been dreaming something weird and his brain had decided to wake him up to stop the vision. It wouldn’t have been the first time.

With a yawn, he rolled on his side and snuggled the blankets closer to his body, intending to go back to sleep. Things at Hi Skool had been a little rushed that day between the test he had taken and the hour of physical education, a subject he positively loathed. He had also had a close encounter with his usual bullies as he headed towards the cafeteria, but luckily for him all he had got out of it had been a shove and a punch in the guts. Gaz had showed up to meet him for lunch before the real beating could start and the group of idiots had instantly vanished at the sight of his scary sister.

When they were younger, the girl never helped him out if he got in that kind of troubles, or with anything else for the matter, but things had been getting slightly better between them in the last year. It all had started when he had finally mastered up the courage to yell back at the son of a bitch who had been taunting him one day, while his pals kept him slammed into the wall. By chance, Gaz had been passing by in that right moment and he had noticed her expression shifting in a frown he had never seen before. One moment later, she was kicking the crap out of the bully, making clear that she, and Zim, were the only ones allowed to mess with her brother.

In the aftermath, she had refused to acknowledge the shift in their relationship, out of pride or maybe for the need to keep her façade up, but they both knew that it had been happening. Dib had speculated that the change might be due to them both maturing. Gaz still hated his guts most of the times and never stopped reminding him of how annoying and stupid he was, but she had become more protective of him, in her own way. He wasn’t overjoyed by the fact that he was the one being protected, since he was the elder, but he had decided that, if that was how his sister wanted to express her affections, then he would take everything she was willing to offer. With their father almost always gone, she was the only real family he had.

The teen nuzzled into his pillow, already on his way back to unconsciousness. The room was chiller and it annoyed him a bit. He didn’t really feel like getting up and closing the window. Especially considering that it shouldn’t have been open in the first place…

The latter thought whirled around his sleepy mind for a moment, before its real meaning finally struck him. Dib’s eyes flew wide open and he sat up abruptly, fingers flying off to find his glasses. Once they were in place before his eyes, he was finally able to spot the additional shadow perched at the bottom of his bed, patiently waiting to be noticed.

“Zim!” He exclaimed, barely managing to keep his voice quiet, shocked at the sight of the undisguised alien. Despite her newly protectiveness, Gaz wouldn’t have hesitated to demolish him, if he had woken her up in the middle of the night. “What are you doing here? And how did you get in?!” The latter question was probably a stupid one. He had installed a security system, so that his computer would warn him of any unwanted intrusion, but the alien was good enough with technology to be able to hack it easily, no matter how hard he worked to perfect it. His rival had done it in the past, so he shouldn’t be surprised to see that he had done it again.

He gulped slightly. The Irken usually stayed away from his house, unless he was planning some nasty trick against him. He should have understood that something was off, since the Invader had been avoiding him all day. He had seen him just in class, since his nemesis hadn’t even bothered to make an appearance in the cafeteria and put on his usual show with the food he didn’t eat. Was that the moment of the truth, perhaps? Would he finally understand the reason behind the other’s weird behaviours? And was he about to face another threat to his life?

“Finally you’ve risen, Dib-human. I was starting to wonder if I had to wait all night,” Zim stated with a small scoff, pushing himself off the bed and standing next to it, arms crossed. “Stop wasting Zim’s time now. Hurry and get up. It’s time to go.”

Dib blinked, caught off guard for the umpteenth time. He had almost expected the alien to attack him or to try and force some weird device on him, while instead his rival was just impatiently tapping his foot on the floor, waiting for him to comply to his demand. He frowned. If the Invader was so stupid to think that he would obey without an explanation, he was very, very wrong. He wasn’t going to willingly walk into what most likely was a trap.

“Why should I come with you in the middle of the night, uh?” He asked, a hint of wary hostility in his voice. “You can’t just break into my room and order me around!”

“I am Zim, so I can command you, inferior creature, as much as I want. And you will obey me!” The Irken shot back, his tone heating up. One of his PAK legs emerged from behind his back, causing the human to start, but instead of diving towards the teen, it picked up the trench coat that had been left hanging on a chair and threw it into his face. “Hurry up before I change my mind and just drag you against your will.”

Dib eyed the alien once again, but, while his reluctance stayed, the animosity melted into a careful curiosity. “Can I at least ask where you’re taking me?” He questioned as he kicked the blankets off, grabbing the dark coat with one hand and reaching out for his boots with the other. A bit of sarcasm entered his voice. “Or is it a too important secret for my unworthy mind?”

Zim hesitated for a moment before replying, considering his options. “It’s a…surprise,” he eventually chose to say, in a final tone. He wouldn’t further elaborate.

The human raised an eyebrow, fixing his glasses as he bent down to lace his boots. “A surprise?” He repeated, almost expecting to have heard it wrong. Apparently the odd behaviours were still an ongoing thing. His eyes flew to the Irken scale model that he had carefully sat on his desk, next to his computer screen. “Like…your gift?”

The Invader simply nodded, refusing to speak further of the subject. He had known since the start that this was a very stupid idea, but the impulse to follow through had been too strong to be fought back. He had tried to avoid his nemesis as much as possible at Skool, hoping that not catching the sight of him would be enough to allow him to change his mind, but it hadn’t worked. So, once the instrumentation had been ready and the scanners regulated, he had broken into the human’s house to pick him up. He had expected the protests, but luckily, for once, the worm child had chosen to cut them short. Perhaps he was catching up on the fact that he wasn’t there to harm him, which was both good because it meant less wasted time, but it was also bad because it might push the other to exploit his peculiar situation.

“There, I’m ready,” Dib announced, snapping him out of his thoughts, trench coat draped over his pyjamas. “Now, would you mind…?!”

He couldn’t finish the question because Zim darted forward, his arms wrapping around the human’s waist as his PAK legs emerged completely, lifting them both up and carrying them towards the window. They both made it out of it without banging their heads or any other limb against the walls, which was quite surprising considering that they weren’t kid-sized anymore and that the teen had been trying to wrestle himself out of the alien’s grip, once he had recovered from the initial shock. The Invader’s grasp, however, was iron and much, much stronger than one could think looking at how thin he was. Another mystery of the Irken physiology.

“Zim, what the hell! Let me go!” He hissed as they jumped off the window, metal legs absorbing the impact with the ground perfectly. “What are you even doing?!” They never touched outside their physical fights or unless it was strictly necessary. The grip, even if it was far too tight to be comfortable, reminded him of a very unpleasant episode, which had happened a couple of years before, when he and the Irken had teamed up to get rid of Keef. First and last time they had ever considering doing something similar to hugging. Till that moment, apparently.

Once they had reached the ground, Zim unceremoniously dumped the thrashing human on the pavement, withdrawing his artificial limbs and stalking off towards the middle of the drive way. “You’re really trying to make this difficult for Zim, aren’t you?” He commented with a frown, but then he turned his attention in front of him, extending an arm as to touch something. A soft click was heard and suddenly his Voot Cruiser materialised in front of him, the glass that covered the cockpit lifting to allow entrance. “Hurry up, Dib-pig. Or I’ll leave you here.”

Dib let out a groan when his arse collided with the cement of the drive way, a curse and an insult on his lips, but when he looked up to spit them out at his nemesis and caught the sight of the spaceship, the words got stuck in his throat. Confusion exploded in his mind, as he tried to find an explanation to why the vehicle was there and to the fact that the Invader was standing next to it, almost as if he was waiting for him to get in before hopping in himself.

The teen frowned, unsure of what to think. There was an easy answer to all his current doubts, but it couldn’t be the one. And yet, all seemed to suggest that Zim wanted to take him to space, which was simply ridiculous, unless the other was planning to maroon him on some inhospitable planet or toss him into a black hole. Could that be the evil plan the Irken had been working on in the last three days? Act nice so that he would willingly get in his ship and allow him to take him to his death? It didn’t sound right, even as he thought it. Zim’s plots were never this cunning. Besides, the other could have come up with some less elaborated way to achieve that, a way that didn’t imply being forced to play nice with your mortal enemy and to humiliate yourself. The alien could have simply captured him while he slept, sedated him by putting something in his food, or anything along those lines. There was something more to all this.

Biting his lower lip in apprehension, he started to walk towards his nemesis, who looked like he was about to start screaming in frustration. He could understand his impatience. The longer they stayed there, the more likely it was that someone would catch the sight of both the alien and his ship, which would have meant exposing the Invader to the whole world. He was risking doing, all by himself, pretty much what Dib had been trying to do for years. That realisation was enough to persuade the human that there was no greater plan behind all that façade. His rival was many things, but he wasn’t reckless. If there was something he had always succeeded in, it was to keep his real nature hidden. He would never risk ending up strapped on a lab operating table just to play a trick on him. It went against the Irken’s clearly strong survival instinct.

“Alright, let’s go,” he nodded as he moved past the other to get in the Cruiser, no more hesitation making his steps faltering. He was pretty certain of his analysis, enough to make that hazard and to believe that there was no malicious intent behind that invitation.

He watched Zim carefully, amber eyes following his movements as the Invader gracefully jumped inside the spaceship and then pushed him aside to make space for himself in front of the piloting console. The cockpit was a bit too small for the both of them now, so Dib found himself pressed against the glass and had to struggle a bit to fit his legs comfortably. He tried without success to make his rival scoot at least a few inches away, so that he could stretch his crumpled limbs, and, in the end, he had to give up in front of the other’s stubbornness, which left him with two choices. Either staying as squished as he was or start shoving hard. He didn’t want to push his luck by upsetting the alien, so he went for the first option.

“Zim?” He called, cautiously as the spaceship started to raise towards the sky, almost soundlessly. “What’s…” He hesitated. “Wrong” didn’t seem the right word, even if it would fit, in the case the Irken was truly sick. However, he had a hard time labelling this nicer version of the Invader as something “wrong”. Weird, out of place, but not wrong. “Uh, what’s up with you lately?” He chose to reformulate, going for a more neutral question.

Zim didn’t turn to look at him, but narrowed his eyes slightly. He had been expecting that question. The human was smart enough to figure out that, perhaps, for once he wasn’t following one of his crazy plans. Not really at least. “That’s what I want to find out,” he simply answered, large magenta orbs fixed on the stars ahead of them.