Double Crossed (Invader Zim)

Chapter 12

(Dib's P.O.V)

---

We have one week left. Seven days. Actually, 163 hours, but hey, who's counting? Well, me of course, but I don't think Zim is as concerned as me. I seem to have put the idea in his head that we literally can't fail. And while it's nice to see him motivated and calm, I really wish I'd left some room for disappointment, because we've gotten no closer than we've been since day one. Two weeks spent searching, all for nothing. Sometimes, we'll be sitting on the edge of the cliff, or maybe one or both of us will be sleeping, and I'll just wake up (if I'm asleep of course) and have a wave of depression sink in. What if I lose him? And right after we became so close, too...

Or, wait... Could that be a coincedence?

"Zim," I whisper. This is one of those times when we were both asleep, and I'd woken up to worry. Zim groans, pushing at me. I sigh. Time for my last resort.

I'd learned about a week ago of a surefire way to wake Zim up. It bugs him, but, hey, it works. I roll him over so that he's on his back, and pin his arms and legs down. "Hey, Zim," I say, a little louder this time. His eyes open slowly, and he starts squirming, because I have a line of saliva dangling down towards his face.

"Dib! Gah! I'm up! I'm up," Zim squeals. I laugh. I don't know why this is my last resort, it's so fun.

As Zim wipes at his face, making sure nothing actually got onto him, I pull my phone out of my pocket. Three new messages, all from Zim. No one else.

I think I have an idea of what's going on.

---

(Zim's P.O.V)

Dib has dragged me back into town. Granted, it's late at night, and not many humans are out, so I'm not worried about getting caught without my disguise, but I did just wake up, and I'm tired. Not to mention this is the third time this week that Dib has tried to spit in my face.

We end up at Dib's house.

"What are we doing here?" I ask. We had plenty of food.

"I think I might have figured out what happened," Dib answers, pushing open the door slowly, and lowering his voice to a whisper. "But we need to be very quiet and careful. Follow me."

I extend my metal legs from my Pak, since they can move quieter and more agilely. Dib, however, is left with just his fleshy legs, and we make our way upstairs.

A few doors down from Dib's room, we stop, and Dib turns the handle so slowly I wonder if it's even moving. Once he realizes the room is dark, though, he opens the door a bit faster, but doesn't turn on the light once we're inside.

A computer lays open on a desk, and Dib goes to sit down at it. Over his shoulder, I read what seems to be a journal entry.

"Specimen 3948 has been identified, and we are searching to contain it. We've been looking for two weeks, but it has eluded us since then. The city has been sweeped searching. The creature could be potentially dangerous, so it's capture is imperative."

There's more, but I don't want to read it. I already know it's about me. I'm the 'it'. Dib's eyes are still scanning down the page. Once he's finished, he clicks into the journal, presumably to read more entries, but it's password protected. Rather than attempting passwords, he simply switches the screen back to what it looked like when we arrived and stands up. There are tears in his eyes.

"Let's go," he says, and though he's clearly upset, his voice is hard.

"Go where?"

"Anywhere but here."

---

I scale the tree once we're at the hill. I don't want to be seen right now; I feel like a monster. But I'm not, right? Dib told me that I was special. Special is good.

Dib is sitting at the base of the tree, leaning against the trunk, head lowered, hands in his lap. He looks so upset. I'm torn between keeping my distance and going to help him. Eventually, I make my way down the tree and sit down next to him.

"Are you okay?" I ask. I don't understand exactly what was on the computer. Sure, I know that it was about me, but Dib seems to know something that I don't.

"I don't know," Dib sighs. "I'm just worried that we won't fix this in time." As he says this, he cringes a bit. "I may have gotten you too excited for this... I'm worried that you'll be mad at me if we can't do this."

"Don't worry," I say, leaning my head on his shoulder. "Even if we don't figure this out... I won't be able to feel much of anything for very long anyways."

Dib wipes at his eyes. "Don't say that. It just scares me even more," he mumbles. "I don't want to lose you."

He cares so much. Before, I didn't know why he was doing this. But it seems that he cares about me more than he cares about himself. And while that's touching, it's also scary in a way. He would die if it meant I could live, but I don't think I would want to live without him.

"We can do this," I say. "Not just because I want to think we can, but because we're not going to give up. We still have a week... that's plenty of time if you already think you're on to something. I believe in you. I believe in us." And with that, I give him a peck on the lips as my eyelids grow heavy. I feel his head leaning onto mine as I fall into sleep.