My Only The Only One

Chapter 3

Zim was diagnosed with one broken rib from the force he hit that baseball bat with, but irkens were sturdy. The rib was already in the proper position to heal, so after a quick and painless surgery to make sure the rib stayed there, Zim was put back in his cell and given extra guards.

He didn't care though. His plan had failed and there would be no other attempts with the human so aware. Dib got to live out his life, while Zim was confined in his cell, curled up in a corner so as not to be seen.

That didn't last, however. After only an hour he was up and pacing, keeping his strides even so as to not over exert his lungs. Why? Why did that human spare his life? Was it pity? No, that wasn't it; Dib didn't feel pity or compassion for an alien. The more he thought the more paranoid his thinking got until he could picture himself lying there on a cold, metal table, the skin of his chest and stomach peeled off to reveal his layers of muscle, and then his organs.

"No!" He finally screamed, kicking at his bars. "I won't let you have my squeedily spooch! It's not happening!"

Zim's brain began to slowly ferment in his paranoia and panic finally set in. Days, DAYS he sat wasting in his cell. He wouldn't eat their food or drink their poop cola! Tallest only knew what the Dib had put in there! His blood sugar gave out but even then he wouldn't sleep. They'd do it once he wasn't paying attention! They were waiting for him to sleep so they could take him without a struggle!

"What are you doing!?" Dib demanded. He'd been in and out of the cell for ten days straight, trying to get the irken to eat or drink something, but all attempts proved futile.

"I won't let you... get away with these... these things, Dib-human! No, not these things, not at all!" Zim declared, trying to get at the human through the bars but Zim was too weak and Dib was too far away.

"I'm not doing anything! Why won't you eat!?" Dib yelled.

"Because! I won't fall for it! Didn't then and won't now! Nope!" Zim ranted, going on and on for the next hour with examples of Dib's stupidity, none of which made any sense and worried Dib severely. Zim was losing it. His mind was coming unhinged and Dib had to watch as his once enemy's brain slowly turned to goop.

"Zim, NO ONE wants your organs." Dib insisted, pressing himself against the bars to show Zim his sincerity. "I mean it. My dad JUST wants to talk to you, and you have to be alive for that, so why would we want to kill you?"

"I don't know, you're the insane humans! Not me!" Zim made a point of acting like a child, pouting and crossing his arms as though he'd just won.

"Zim, PLEASE." Dib insisted. "I know you don't believe me but I REALLY don't want you to die, ok? I don't. It's not even about my dad or the talking, I just don't want to see you go like this."

"Well TOO BAD!" Zim shouted, laughing insanely. "Because I like giving you want you don't like and not giving you what you don't... don't like." He seemed to get bored with his own voice half way through this rant and sighed, pressing his fingers to his head.

"Zim, Zim!" Dib called as the alien began to sway on the spot. "Let me in!" He yelled at the guards. "You have to let me in!"

The guards quickly opened the cell and Dib caught the alien just as he collapsed.

"Zim, come on Zim don't get weak on me now." Dib encouraged, slapping the unconscious alien's face.

Zim groaned, turning his face from side to side and opening his eyes a slit, though he seemed to look at Dib unseeingly. Dib could only guess what was going through the green-bean's head.

"Why don't they want me anymore?" He asked, voice a whisper, which made Dib's ears ring. He expected shouting, as was usual for Zim. But then Zim wasn't acting usual at all.

"I don't know." Dib said simply. "I don't know, but they're dumb!"

"But they're the Tallest." Zim said, looking confused. "I must be really, really bad if they want me dead."

"No, no you're not. Even the Tallest can make mistakes." Dib said, putting a smile in his voice. "I bet right now they're thinking about how much they wish they had you back."

"Should I go back?" Zim asked, voice hopeful.

"No!" Dib said quickly, which made Zim look even more confused. "No, no. You should make them wait. After what they did to you, they deserve to yearn for a while, you know? Besides, 'absence makes the heart grow fonder.' Don't you know anything?"

Zim groaned, peeking an eye open further. "Of course I know that." He said, voice picking up volume, but only barely. "I am NOT stupid."

"See. You're not bad. You're really good. The Tallest MUST have made a mistake." Dib pointed out.

"Yes." Zim decided, humming and letting his eyes close. He snuggled up to Dib subconsciously. "Tallest made a mistake. They do that a lot with Zim. I shall see them later and make them admit it."

"That's a good idea, Zim." Dib said softly, stroking Zim's antennae back to lull him to sleep. The irken really needed it.

"Mmhm," The irken hummed, sighing as he finally drifted off.

"How are you feeling?" Dib asked as he walked into the medic bay. Zim was lying on a hospital bed, an IV in his arm, supplying him with some much needed sugar, and a tray of sweet treats near-by, a sugary cinnamon bun half eaten.

"Like an idiot." Zim said, looking as unhappy as ever, a little thin, but otherwise healthy. "I can't believe what I... Irk!"

"Everyone needs to open up sometime." Dib pointed out, and Zim just turned to him with a look of a very unimpressed cat.

"Who do you open up to, human?" The alien asked smartly.

"My sister." Dib said with just the same attitude, but with a smile on his face. "I saw you cry, Zim, does that make us friends?"

"Zim did not cry!" Zim said quickly, looking a little worried.

"Figure of speech. It means I saw you when you were vulnerable. Usually only friends get to see that side of you." Dib explained. This made Zim relax a little.

"What would you want to be my friend for?" Zim asked, giving the human a suspicious look.

"Look," Dib started, sitting in a chair close to the hospital bed. "I know you don't trust me. But you didn't take over my planet, and you have nowhere else to go. It would be good for you to have someone you can turn to here. Plus, I'm the most beneficial person since I'm close to Professor Membrane than anyone, which will give you some perks and a little protection."

"Protection?" Zim asked, scoffing. "I need no protection from yo-"

"You will." Dib interrupted. "Especially here. I know you could take on anyone here, Zim. I know you're strong, but if you hurt a human, even in self defense, people will want you gone. They will gang up on you emotionally and physically and there will be nothing you can do."

Zim pondered this a moment. Dib was right though, he knew that much.

"Zim, whether you like it or not, you need me. And quite frankly, I don't think I would mind having someone to talk to either. We're more alike than you know. The only difference is... my world's leaders finally wised up." Dib said, voice growing quiet.

Zim sighed, sitting up on the bed. "Do I have to... do anything?"

Dib laughed and shook his head. "No. I think we pretty much do the same things we used to... but for fun, instead of trying to kill each other."

Zim let that mull over in his head and moment before nodding. "That sounds doable."

"So," Dib hesitated before holding out a hand. "Friends?"

Zim took the hand gingerly, like he was afraid to touch it, but shook it anyway. "Yes. Friends."