Dimensional Scope
part threeZim maniacally laughed from his roof at the pathetic human cities as they crumbles, fire churning the buildings to rubble and smoke filling the sky with black foreboding clouds. Gir was busy running around singing his infamous "Doom Song," gleefully prancing over the ashen ruins of humanity. It was a glorious conquest. Zim cast his victorious gaze across the panic struck streets, watching the vain attempts to escape. He stopped suddenly, both in sight and laughter, as his ruby eyes focused on one unmoving body, the black of the hair and clothes contrasting against the red chaotic background, the golden eyes mirroring the flames. Zim felt his chest constrict with pain. The Dib walked closer, passing through the crowds untouched. Suddenly the panic and terror all around him registered as Zim looked frantically from one burning building to the next. He'd destroyed Dib's planet, his home. Dib silently crept up until he stood in the front yard, staring at Zim from the ground. Zim expected anger, hatred, fear, something around those lines. Not a smile. Not the small tweak of his lips and the dim glow behind glass-framed eyes. Outrage, guilt, and confusion, not Dib's, but Zim's own, screamed through the Irkin's veins. How dare the human ruin his moment of triumph! And yet, at that moment, out of the corner of his eye, a sudden movement caught his attention. He watched as the lawn gnomes turned, facing the intruder with weapons ready. There wasn't time to warn, nor was there time to disengage their defense mechanism. There was only time to watch.
He had heard before and seen in small accounts, but it was unmistakable now. Humans bled in red.
From the roof to the ground was a painful leap but mindlessly, Zim jumped, hearing the snap of a bone as he stumbled from the grass to the red-washed sidewalk. Dib's eyes were closed, the glasses broken and strewn across the grass in shattered shards.
"Awww...Master's enemy Dib is dead…." Gir said in a hushed tone of reverence that was quickly dispelled with a random, "WEEEEE! AH HA HAH AHA HA!" as the undisguised robot danced and frolicked around the prone body, splashing in the puddles of blood.
"Gir, stop that at once!" Zim tried to shout, finding his mouth full of something that was instantly expelled as his jaw dropped. He opened his mouth again experimentally, finding more of this something pouring out like water from a pitcher. It tasted metallic and felt thick in his mouth. He looked into his hands, watching them fill with the liquid pouring from his mouth. It was red, just like the fluids that drained from Dib's lifeless form. The Irkin gagged, choking on the bile that rose to meet the never-ending flow of blood from his orifice.
"Master defeated the stupid Dib human!" Gir sang, unaware of the frantic scene. He danced more, his body dripping with the splashed blood, turning the turquoise into crimson. "Stupid, stupid huuuman!" he chanted. "Stupid, stupid Diiiiib! Hey, I know!" A sudden arsenal of pointed objects protruded from his head cap. "Let's dissect him!"
Zim watched the fires dance over the many blades, almost mesmerized by them. "No, Gir!" he burbled over the flow of blood. "Leave him alone!"
The SIR unit seemed to ponder the slurred wet speech with a curious lift to his glowing eyes. "I understand," it squeaked. And with that, it lifted its tools and sliced into the yielding peach flesh, through the black cloth of the T-shirt with practiced ease.
There was so much blood. It was everywhere, in everything. All over the metal floor. Splashing like raindrops with an audible plop.
"My, these humans have an interesting biology!" Purple commented, leaning into the glass on the observation deck, peering down into the display far below in the circular room.
Zim looked up to see the Tallest standing beside him. A quick look around showed all the invaders of Operation Impending Doom II. All of them looked immensely entertained by the floorshow below.
"AHHHHHH!"
The piercing scream drew Zim's attention to the spectacle as well. The railing was too high. He jumped up and down, straining to see through the glass and down into the observatory lab. What was going on? What was everyone looking at? Someone seemed to register his plight and soon gently lifted him up so he could see as well.
"AHHHHHHHHH!"
Dib's eyes were open in shock, his mouth wide in echoing screams as Irkin doctors extracted organs from an open cavity in his torso. Tears streamed down his face as pain contorted his features, his limbs shaking in their restraints.
"Dib!" Zim shouted, clawing at the glass with fingers scratching against the surface, "He's alive! Stop! Wait!"
"We always knew you could do it!" Red praised, lowering Zim to the ground. "Even as short as you are, Irkin Invader blood marches through your veins!"
"Wait! What about Dib?!"
The Tallest both smiled, bringing their hands together in short, repetitive claps. One by one the other observers joined in.
Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap. Clip clap. Clip clap. Clip clap. Clip clap clack. Clip clap clack. Clip clap clack. Clip clap clack. Clap...clap…drip...drip…drip….
Zim stood alone in the dissection room, gazing at the mutilated body on the table; an unbound arm hung off the end, a trail of blood flowing down and pooling at the fingertips. Most of the body was mercifully concealed with a pure white sheet, the lone arm and the tufts of black hair the only evidence a body was even there. Jars and bottles held the extracted organs floating in multicolored liquids, with labels that read only questionable names. The lungs were in the first jar labeled "pink bags," while the next-the "squiggly tubes"-were his intestines. A whole table was designated for the various containers holding the human components. Alone they were nothing but organs. On the dissection table lay nothing but a body, an empty vessel covered in a blanket. Zim walked the counter of jars, almost brought to laughter at the designated labels, stopping at the one called the "pump thingy." The human heart. The Irkin looked at it critically. All of humanities strongest emotions were supposed to come from the heart, he'd read: anger, hatred, fear, loathing, sickness...love. And in the end it was nothing more than a specimen in a jar. And yet…. Zim crept closer, his hands grasping the warm glass. Warm. And in sudden, startled fear he let it go. The glass container fell to the ground, smashing into countless pieces on impact. The "pump thingy" lay in the midst of it all, beating, constricting with an almost audible resonance. Zim shrieked, jumping away from it in horror.
"What are you doing, Zim?"
The Irkin turned, his pulse racing in his head. "Dib?!"
Dib leaned against the tree, his features shaded and enlightened by the cascading rays of sunlight that filtered through the leaves. Behind the glass frames, his eyes focused skeptically on Zim. "Are you feeling okay? You don't look so well."
Zim shook his head. "No...I feel fine." He smiled, taking Dib's hand in his own. "What were you saying?"
"Nothing." Dib gave the hand a small squeeze. "Just making small talk."
The clouds drifted like rabbit tails in the blue expanse of the sky with kites skittering across like pebbles skipping over lakes.
"How long have we been here?"
"Does it mater?"
Zim turned his head, "Why are we here?"
"Because you're here."
"But why?"
"Because I'm here."
"Why?"
"Because I love you."
Zim shot up, his eyes narrowing. "You LIE, human!" The Irkin jumped to his feet, backing away slowly. "Why are you doing this? You're supposed to be chasing me and screaming threats and flashing your troublesome earth technology at me!"
Dib looked up with an understanding smile. "Oh, you want to play THAT game." He got to his feet, standing inches before Zim. "Okay then." He closed the distance between them with a light, feathery kiss on the lips. "Run."
The sheets fell from Zim's sweat-sheened body as he forced himself to consciousness and out of the hellish nightmares that plagued his sleep. His breath came in short gasps as his pulse continued to feed fire through his veins. His hands grasped the sheets in fistfuls, his limbs shaking.
"Curse you, Dib."