Prologue

It was a clear, chilly night in the Iowa plains, perfect for viewing the meteor shower that would hopefully be at its zenith overhead. Aside from the fire they'd built, there was no other light to obstruct their view—they were quite a ways out from the university and its neighboring town. All they had to do was roast marshmallows, knock back a few shots for a different kind of heat, and wait.

Dib had to admit, he was nervous. Being such a cold night, the other friends he and Liz had invited from the ghost hunting club to watch the shower had either called off or flaked. It was just the two of them, sharing a bottle of Kahlua beneath the stars.

"I feel like such an enabler," Liz said. "I always hated in high school when my friends' older siblings would buy them alcohol for parties, but now here I am being that person."

"Well, it's not like you bought it for me specifically. And I'm not planning on becoming an alcoholic because you're sharing this with me," Dib said, driving the bottle into the snow between the lawn chairs they'd borrowed from the school for their "club event."

She laughed. "Oh good! That makes me feel better."

He laughed too, the flush in his cheeks hidden by the orange flicker of the fire. He leaned back in his chair and gazed up at the glitter of the cosmos. Where was Zim in that big mess of stars?

He shouldn't have thought about it, because thinking about it was the emotional equivalent of throwing a wet blanket over a fire. Ever since the alien left a little over a year ago, Dib had been going through a strange half-grieving process. He figured Zim was alright (or at least hoped very hard that he was), but his departure literally marked the end of an era in Dib's life. It had forced him to finally step back and question what kind of person he wanted to be, what direction he wanted his life to go. For now, he had settled on the college in Iowa and a major in journalism.

"You good?" Liz asked. "Maybe you oughta slow down on the Kahlua."

"No, it's not that," Dib said. "It's just…it's hard to explain."

"Homesick? That happens sometimes when freshmen come back from holiday break," she said, ever full of comforting tour guide knowledge.

"Trust me, I got plenty of my dad and sister to last me till summer," Dib said.

"Something else then? You can talk to me about it, you know. Unless you're not comfortable," she said. Dib thought she sounded a bit sad in the last sentence. He sighed as he debated internally, the years of ridicule sitting on his shoulders like a bird of prey ready to peck his eyes out. But Liz was so kind, and so open-minded about the paranormal. Maybe, just maybe…

Instead of looking at her, he spoke to the stars. "Do you believe in aliens?"

She hummed in thought. "I think so, yeah. From studying biochemistry, I've read all sorts of studies about the weird, inhospitable places we've discovered microbial life, and it's not just surviving, it's thriving. So it makes sense that out there, where it's so big and unpredictable, there would be some other form of life. Even if it's not as advanced as we are."

He almost laughed thinking of all the times Zim had figuratively (and literally) spat on humanity for its meagerness in the face of the Irken race. "Okay. Do you believe in the possibility that aliens are as advanced as us and have come here seeking contact?"

"You mean like UFOs and those conspiracy theories about Area 51?" Liz asked. She blew air out through her lips. "I'm not so sure about that. Pretty much every piece of UFO footage I've seen has been debunked. And with all our satellites and radar technology, I feel like we'd know pretty quick if something from out there showed up in our airspace."

"But what if they came in disguise and managed to blend in with society?" Dib asked. "Do you think it's possible that they're already living among us, studying us, plotting our collective doom?"

"Okay, you're losing me a little," Liz said.

Dib took a deep breath. "Then I'll just say it: I went to school with an alien. From outer space." He shut his eyes and waited several agonizing seconds for her response.

"What?" she said.

"I know, I know it sounds crazy. People have been calling me crazy my whole life," Dib said. "But I promise I'm not lying to you. Like, the reason I have prosthetics? I didn't get into some fluke accident; I was trying to stop him from tunneling into the Earth with acid and he almost killed me. He was actually with me when I was here on the tour, curled up in the backseat of my car! That's a whole other story, but—,"

"Stop, I need you to slow down," Liz said, putting a hand on her head. "I really don't know how to handle this."

"I'm sorry," Dib said. "I get it if you don't believe me. The whole story is absolute insanity. I only brought it up because…" he paused as a meteor blinked across the sky. "Because he left. And I think about him a lot. I wonder where he is out there and if he's ever gonna come back. He was this massive, crazy part of my life and now he's just…gone."

"Wait, this guy tried to kill you and you miss him?" Liz asked.

Dib finally looked at her. "Do you believe me?" he asked, amazed.

She sighed. "I really don't know. We haven't known each other that long, but you don't strike me as a pathological liar or a schizophrenic. So…how 'bout you tell me the story, from the beginning. Then I can decide."

Dib had to force himself to blink and close his mouth again. "Oh…okay. Well, uh…I guess it started when I was 11."

"Jesus," Liz said. She picked up the bottle of Kahlua and drank straight from it.

For the first time in his life, Dib told the story of how a strange green kid named Zim started attending his school, but nobody else thought it was weird. He told her about the first time he saw Zim without his disguise, his numerous attempts to sneak into the underground base, the time a second invader came and nearly took over the planet with a giant weenie stand, and how eventually the games went too far and cost him his arm and leg. He told her about their cross-country road trip and how by the end of it he and Zim were as close to being friends as they could be. And he told her about how, because of his leaders and his own destructive pride, Zim had left as abruptly as he'd come a little over one year ago.

By the time he finished, Dib realized two things. First, they had probably missed a great deal of the meteor shower. Second, he had inadvertently taken a step toward granting Zim's wish that his story be passed on, in some primitive human fashion.

And a third thing, actually.

"That's the craziest thing I've ever heard," Liz said. "And either you're just as crazy as that story to tell it like that…or it's true. Dib…"

He swallowed. "Yeah?"

She looked him in the eye. "I believe you. As a scientist-in-training, I know I really, really shouldn't. But, I dunno…something…just tells me it's real."

Dib's heart punched at his ribs; he felt light-headed. "Okay, it's my turn to ask if you're lying," he said.

Liz laughed and shook her head. She reached out and took his hand, and Dib thought he minded more than she did that it was his prosthetic one—he couldn't feel her warmth.

"I'm not if you're not."

Author Note: HEY I'M BAAAAAAAAAAACK. Sorry this took me longer than anticipated to post. Life sure does like to get busy alllllllll at once. Also, this story went through a crazy amount of revisions - it barely looks like what I originally had planned, but that's a good thing (I think). Even though I'm still not completely done with it. Close, but not quite there. Anyway, thanks for being patient, and thanks for favoriting/following/reviewing "Leaving Home" in the interval! And get ready for the pain train ;)