Our Mad Fairy Tale

All around him was dark and, for some odd reason, painful too. His thoughts were scattered, he couldn't remember clearly what he had been doing before passing out. Because he had to have passed out, hadn't he? Otherwise why would his mind feel so numb? His best guess was that he had fallen and hit his head. That would have explained everything, the pain included. However, the main question remained. Why had he fainted in the first place? That wasn't something exactly that happened to him on regular basis. On the contrary, it had almost never happened, unless one counted the times when someone had knocked him out on purpose. And he didn't remember pissing Gaz off more than he usually did, so she couldn't have decided to beat him unconscious in retaliation. His sister could be awful when she wished to be, which was pretty often, but she was never too cruel without a real reason.

Dib blinked, trying to clear his blurred sight. He was sitting somewhere, on something he didn't recognise as anything from his room or house. Not his bed, not his chair, not the couch, not the kitchen furniture. And yet, at the same time, there was incredibly something familiar in the shape of the seat, even if he couldn't place what exactly. One more reason to find out was going on and quickly. Usually, whenever he had that half sense of recognition, it was a bad omen.

Taking in a deep breath, he attempted to move forward, keeping his movements slow out of caution. Since his eyes weren't working properly, he had no way of telling where he was. So, better to be safe than sorry. Soon enough, though, he found that he couldn't really shift from the position he had been forced into because there were ropes, metallic ones, tying his whole torso to the seat. His amber orbs widened, in both shock and incredulity, but the feelings were quickly replaced by dread. There was only one person who could have pulled such a trick on him and, whenever he did, the results were never pleasant. Not for Dib, at least.

The teen opened his mouth, not sure if it was to demand to be released, to call out his nemesis's name to express his frustration or to just splutter out all the curses that had come to his mind, but he was interrupted by a very well-known voice before he could have spelled out just one single syllable.

"You're finally awake, worm child. Zim was starting to think that I would have been forced to wait for you the whole night."

"Hey! Don't blame me, space scum!" Dib protested, struggling a bit more against the restrains. He knew that it was useless, but that wasn't the point. Not trying to break free would have meant admitting that the Irken was in full control of the situation. Which was true, but knowing it and openly acknowledging it with facts were two very different things. "I didn't ask to be knocked out and...?!"

Once again he couldn't finish his sentence, his words turning into a surprise gasp. This time, though, it wasn't the alien's voice to stop him, but something piercing through the skin of his neck. He let out a low hiss, his mouth curling down in a scowl, but his expression relaxed slightly, without losing its hostility, when his sight began to clear, allowing him to finally have a look at his surroundings. Whatever Zim had just injected him had to have rid his system of the drug that his rival had most likely used to knock him unconscious. He couldn't be sure, also because you could never be when the Invader was involved, but it seemed the more reasonable explanation to his situation and physical symptoms.

Dib didn't waste too much time on those thoughts, which wouldn't have helped him out of whatever Zim was planning, and instead he chose to have a careful look around, his mind already formulating possible escape plans. Yet, for the third time in a row, he was forced to pause, overwhelmed by a brief but intense wave of surprise. He had expected to find himself somewhere in the Invader's lab, but what his no longer blind gaze fell upon wasn't the reddish dim darkness of underground levels of the Irken's base or the odd machineries that filled those creepy rooms. Instead, his amber eyes found themselves swimming among the familiar sight of the stars, which were shining as bright and enticing as ever against the blackness of space.