The Future Past's Present
part fiveBeing strapped to a table in the bowels of Zim's laboratory was bad enough; having three tubes sticking out of his head and more than enough noise-making machines at his side made it even worse.
"Is all this necessary?" he asked, testing his bonds.
"No...I just never get a chance to use any of it," Zim responded nonchalantly. He laughed manically as he pulled levers and pressed buttons. It was like a scene from Frankenstein. "Are you ready monkey slug?"
"As ready as I'll ever be, space case."
Zim smirked as he pressed the finally button with drawn out motions. The computer screen flashed to life. "Data Computed. Completed!"
"Well that was anti-climatic."
"QUIET!" Zim pressed a few more buttons, displaying the computer's findings on the huge monitor for them both to observe. "I knew you humans had a simple physiology but this is ridiculous. You only use 10% of your brain?"
"Can we discuss this later?" Dib asked, trying to sit up. Zim decided it was more fun to keep him tied up. After all, Dib had left him sitting on a couch for almost an hour.
"I suppose so. Computer, display all foreign chemicals, devices and such found in subject Dib's cranial cavity."
"Possessing. PROCESSING!"
With a swipe of the screen, a new display popped up.
"I knew it!" Dib shouted, though he couldn't read anything. It was all in Zim's native language. The pictures were easy enough to understand, though. He figured the blue coloring was normal human brain activity while the flashing neon green stuff was what they were looking for. "I knew I wasn't crazy!" He looked over at Zim with triumph, only to see him frozen and frigid. "Zim?"
"How can this be?"
"What?"
"This...this is Irkin technology!"
Dib wished he were free so he could see Zim's face. "So? What's an Irkin?"
"I am! Irk is my home. I thought I was the first one sent out this far in space!" Zim smacked his console. "Why was I not given such vital information? Whoever it was must have collected tons of information!"
"Oh..." Dib smiled. "So...you're from a planet called Irk?"
"Geah!" Zim turned around, shaking his fist. "We are not here to discuss ME!"
"Fine...but...if it's your own technology...you can fix it...right?" Dib tried to hide the hopeful rise in his voice.
"It's all a mater of computations and some more systematic checks to make a serum that will not be fatal to your feeble human DNA." Zim flipped the screen down. "Just a matter of time."
"Do it now!" Dib insisted.
"I can't. I have better things to do!"
"That's real cold, Zim." Dib lay back, forgetting he was on a hard table and smacking the back on his head into it. "Ouch... You can't get someone's hopes up and then tell then they have to wait!"
Zim buzzed his lips. "You said you had till you were twenty. What's a few more weeks?"
"That's like saying 'what's a few more seizures!'" The human struggled again, wanting nothing more than to choke the information he needed out of the alien. "What if it corrodes too far into my involuntary nerve center? I'll be a vegetable!"
Zim turned around, looking perplexed. "I guarantee you, this virus does not have the capacity to turn your body into a vegetable."
"It's a saying, Zim! It means comatose."
The Irkin shrugged, unstrapping Dib from the table and stepping back just in case the human had any thoughts of attacking. "I suppose that would be rather not good. I'll get to work on it soon, but I have more important things to worry about than my enemy's health."
"You had time before."
"Do not question me! I hold your only hope!"
Dib shook his head. "I should have known better. This was all just a ploy so you could have something I needed dangling over my head. Well, Zim, it's not going to work like that!" He pushed past the alien and strode to the elevator. "I've gotten used to the fact that I'm going to die for that past eighteen years and as far as I'm concerned, I can live the rest of them just the same. I don't need you!" He lifted his arm to call the elevator but four thin digits pulled him around, facing now the cool ruby gaze.
"I understand we've been fighting since the day we met, but have you ever thought it was just possible that maybe in all that time I've grown to enjoy having you around?" Zim threw Dib's arm down with disgust. "It took a lot of trust for you to come here today and a lot of faith for me to visit you yesterday. I thought maybe, MAYBE, you'd have felt the same as I do by now. I will always be your enemy on the battlefield but this is not a battlefield. This is my home and I invited you here. I offered my services and I promised to help you."
Zim stepped forward an inch, watching Dib take one backward till he was backed against the door to the elevator.
"You want to be...my friend?" Dib asked, swallowing the thick lump of stress that had formed in his throat.
"Why not?"
"You can't be my friend and my enemy."
"Why not? Batman dated Catwoman."
"That's different!"
"I thought it was what you humans called the 'power of love.'"
Dib tired to hide the slight blush that crept over his face. "Real life doesn't always work like that."
"I thought the rule of science was to hypothesize and experiment." Zim took a step forward, knowing Dib was trapped. A mere inch stood between them. "I'm saying it could. Least we could do is try."
For one frustrating moment, Dib had forgotten what Zim was proposing. The whole dating analogy was messing with his mind; the power of love thing didn't help either. "What exactly do you want from me?"
Zim put his hand on the wall space next to Dib's ear, enclosing him even more. "Your trust. A stab at friendship. An open mind. That's all."
"In return for the cure?"
"No." Zim smiled. "The cure is free. I ask for only what I give in return."
Dib nodded dumbly, feeling more than a little flustered. "Can I go now?"
"Of course." Zim stood up and walked away, giving the human room to breath and move. Dib took the opportunity and called for his escape vessel. "Will you be attending skool tomorrow?"
Dib nodded. "I don't plan on missing much more. I'm already falling behind."
"Mind if I walk with you?"
Dib hesitated. "Um...sure. I guess. My house at six?"
Zim agreed, letting Dib show himself out, and turned back to the screen. His shoulders slumped forward and he took a seat. "This is Irkin technology...but I've never seen anything like it before. If it weren't for the signs of viral aging and progressive damage...I'd swear this was recent. It's even more advanced that what I have at my disposal now!"
"I'm gonna make a mud pie!" Gir shouted as he ran across the room. "MUUUUUUD PIE!"
Perhaps 'advanced' wasn't the word he was looking for.