Chapter One:

What was Coming

Arc: Labhorror

(Every event is separated by arcs for convenience.)

Warnings: Angst, blood, mild torture, gross mental images

(These will change with every arc.)

Chapter warnings: References to medical horror

(These will change with every chapter.)

After making sure the document was cohesive enough for anyone other than himself, Dib happily sent it off to be looked over by xxspacebabyxx, or, for simplicity, his online friend Yoa.

The two had been talking back-and-forth for the past few months after meeting on an online message board. She had shown interest in his outlandish theories about werewolves, and it all escalated from there. It turned out that she had some odd interpretations of reality too, so it was only natural that they would rely on each other for monologuing. It didn't even bother Dib that she was thirty-something-years-old, as long as she listened.

And Dib figured that she listened well enough to have a good idea of where he lived and who he was. After giving her all that should-have-been-confidential information, he was pleasantly surprised to find out that she didn't live too far from him and that she was working for his dad in a smaller branch of his laboratory. He also learned about her transition from the secretary of an alien-hunting cult to a real scientist that got to cut up monkeys. She worked in the animal experimentation department, but he would never hold that against her.

At the moment, Dib was absentmindedly tapping the keyboard in anticipation of her reply. He had sent the link minutes ago, and there was no way to tell if she had already looked through it or not. He went over the possibility of a spelling error in the report and gritted his teeth. With that in mind, he had to atone for any imperfections that would make her think less of him.

-it didn't format right and spellcheck messed it up so just let me know if something went wrong.

Now, Yoa would be forced to acknowledge that any mistake she encountered could be the work of a flawed word processor and not the result of his stupidity. He would have felt good about his cleverness if he weren't so paranoid.

With that out of the way, he was left to fret over why her reply was taking so long. Sure, she was working right now and the use of computers for social media was prohibited, but he thought he would have gotten a reaction by now. It was very possible that she lost interest, but Dib remembered the time she assured him that his rants meant the world to her. However, that was before she had a friend over and it took a full two hours and thirty minutes to send him a reply.

His shoulders slumped, but right when he went to close his laptop, Yoa's icon and a wall of text appeared below his link, and his eyes proceeded to dart across the screen.

The grin he gained from reading her message faded to a frown, and he began to type.

-what about professor plasm?

-He isn't really sold yet but he said he won't stop us

Dib was disappointed that the head scientist wouldn't be around for whatever they were planning, but Professor Razzy seemed competent enough to hold her ground in a situation where he wasn't in charge. Dib was surprised that Yoa even got the other two scientists on board, since she had let him know that they weren't fans of anything that wasn't already in a test tube. He was glad that they seemed convinced by the rather lengthy report on Zim, and that they didn't assume he was just a 14-year-old photoshop prodigy.

-so you're just gonna ambush him?

-i hope not haha

Dib lowered his eyelids. Yoa was still under the impression that Zim was reasonable, and it wouldn't require force to move him to a laboratory. They had been over this many times though, so there was no point in arguing with her at the moment. Dib was too excited about the new believers, anyway.

-are you guys going right now?

-idk later today i guess

That was enough confirmation for Dib to assume they were getting ready this minute.

-can i meet you there?

-sure :)

Dib leapt from his computer chair and ran through the hallway, only stopping to beat on Gaz's door.

"Gaz! You wanna come watch some fully-grown adults beat up Zim?"

There was an exaggerated groan on the other side of the door, "Sure."

Dib smiled and rushed to the living room. It would take his sister a moment to get ready, but it would be worth it to bring her along.

(Also, there was a tiny chance that Yoa was some sort of child-eating monster out for his blood. It was highly unlikely, but bringing Gaz along for some extra protection wouldn't hurt.)

She eventually came downstairs-with her gameslave of course-and Dib happily left with her at his side.

Zim pushed the needle in further, causing a fluid to develop around the metal beam. He adjusted the forms poking into Nick's brain, causing the boy to shift with mild discomfort.

"How are you feeling, Nick?" He asked with little concern.

The boy chirped and squeezed his eyes shut, "I'm-GREAT!" He squealed.

"Mhmm." Zim hummed, taking out a tablet in order to type an observation of some sort. After that, he pulled a single needle away, causing a trail of slime to fall back into his exposed brain. Zim placed it in a tray next to the operating chair and nodded in self-satisfaction.

Zim then began to prod at the needles lodged into Nick's head with no obvious goal. After a few minor reactions, Nick started foaming at the mouth, causing Zim to grimace.

"Gir! Come clean this up." He yelled, causing a robot to emerge from the shadows and start rolling around in the froth. His scowl deepened.

"You disgust me, Gir."

A floating orb, known as minimoose, came from a discrete corner of the room to gaze at the experiment below. His judging eyes went from the hunched-over figure in the chair to Zim, who was shaking his head at the defective SIR unit.

"Nyah?" He asked.

"Of course this has a purpose, Minimoose. I need to see how many of his fingers twitch when I jab at his parietal lobe." Zim assured, going back to the boy only to poke at the needles once more.

"Nyah."

"I don't have time for your philosophy, Minimoose. Go bother someone else."

"Nyah."

And with that, Minimoose left.

Zim stared blankly at the brain for a while, typed another report, and again went to doing nothing.

"Oh-eh, I think we're done here. Think you can close that up yourself?"

Nick slowly brought his hands to the top of his skull, only to jerk back when his fingers felt the brain on the inside. He made a noise that suggested he was about to cry, but instead exploded into a fit of giggles.

"Excellent." Zim went to leave, but a flashing red light overhead and the telltale buzz of an alarm stopped him in his tracks.

"Vicinity warning! Also the lawn gnomes are dead."

"The what? Dib!"

"I never said it was Dib."

"He dares defile my security drones with his stupid defile-y fingers… He will rue the day! Computer, take me to the living room."

"I can't do that. You will have to go to the designated-"

"Urgh! You useless string of code! Fine, I'll do it myself. I do everything else in this house, anyway."

"Okay Zim."

Zim, not picking up on the computer's condescending tone, brought his attention back to Nick.

"Hold tight, Nick, the Dib-stink is parading around on my property. Try not to think or breathe too hard while I'm gone."

Nick stared blankly into the doorway once Zim left the room. Unable to curl up due to the straps around his arms and legs, he settled with letting his head hang low and giggling to the floor.

"I know you're in there!" Dib shouted as he banged on the unusually placed restroom door. Gaz stood by his side, looking a bit ruffled after having to fend off some lawn gnomes that Dib couldn't handle himself. She was less invested in her Gameslave now that she had to spend actual energy on Dib's misadventure, so for once she was looking straight ahead.

"So do you have a plan or are you just making stuff up as you go along?" She asked.

Dib stopped, "I'm gonna... tell him everything about the lab and be really mean about it."

Gaz lowered her eyelids, disappointed in the lack of adults that were supposed to be assaulting an alien. Dib might have lied just to get her attention, but the sight of Zim being picked on by capable people was too good to risk missing. She decided she would just wait it out, and if Dib was really lying in the end, then she would hit him or something.

The door opened just a tad, and Zim's disguised face was peeking out of the opening looking very annoyed. Dib, with a new surge of confidence, kicked it open and the force of the hit sent Zim to the floor.

Zim immediately sat up and growled at the boy towering over him, "Do you always wait until I'm BUSY to do something moronic?"

"I just wanted you to know, Zim, that I have real allies this time."

Zim, assuming he meant Gaz, leaned to the right to see her along with the disembodied gnomes. He shot her a nasty glare.

"Oh yeah? What's she gonna do, Dib? Play her game-servant until I die of boredom?"

"I'm here to record the fight." She replied. Dib turned around.

"What?"

Before Gaz could elaborate, Zim had launched himself at the boy and began to thrash around wildly. Dib went to throw a punch but Zim countered it by biting his knuckles. As the alien went scratching, Gaz popped open her Gameslave and turned the camera towards the two morons brawling on the concrete.

"You didn't let me finish!" Dib yelled, with one hand being pinned down and another in Zim's mouth. Zim spit his fist out to respond with a jeer, but now that his hand was free Dib was able to grasp Zim's scrawny neck and throw him into the ground. Gaz let out an audible 'heh.'

After a few seconds of keeping a hold on Zim's throat, Dib began to watch with a demented fascination as his face turned a bright pink. Zim thrashed around frantically in order to get some relief from the pressure, but Dib was just too big for him.

When his face faded to purple, Gaz got a little uncomfortable.

"They won't want him dead."

Dib let go, letting Zim snatch up as much air as he pleased. Dib ignored his rugged gasps and turned to his sister.

"Thanks, Gaz!"

He couldn't kill Zim-not yet at least-but he appreciated the concern.

Gaz wrinkled her nose and stopped the recording. Zim probably wasn't going to fight anymore until his skin was green again, so she put her Gameslave in her pocket and waited for Dib to do something stupid.

Dib stood up and put a smug grin on his face, but he was forgetting something very crucial about Zim's mechanisms, and he was given a very rude reminder of them when a pak leg shot out of his back and held him by the coat.

Zim, face still pink and chest still heaving, advanced on the boy while Gaz watched from the sidelines. A van drove up from behind her, and she gave it a curious glance.

"Let me go!" Dib screamed, flailing his ungracefully tall legs around in an attempt to touch the ground.

"No." Zim replied.

Dib's struggling paused when he noticed a red-haired female exit the van with a device in her hands. Zim, also acknowledging the newcomer, scowled at the interruption.

"Eh?" He began, but whatever he wanted to say afterwards was cut off by the unquestionable sound of a taser meeting skin. Zim dropped to the ground, along with his pak legs, and Dib fell butt-first into the grass.

He looked up to see a woman still pointing the obviously modified stun-gun at the alien. He fixed his glasses in order to get a better look.

"Professor Razzy?" He breathed. She looked at him as if it were a crime to know her name, but her attention went elsewhere when a different scientist exited the van and another stumbled towards Dib.

"Dib!" She greeted, instantly running over to help him up while the other scientist went to take a look at Zim.

"So it's really an alien?" The blonde scientist asked, reaching out for the wig Zim was wearing. When Professor Razzy didn't stop him, Ned pulled the wig off to reveal two smooth antennae that now hung loosely from his head. He gave a sigh of relief, thankful that he wouldn't have to explain this to anyone's parents.

"Yoa?" Dib asked after being abruptly pulled to his feet. She responded by wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug, and he gladly complied. Right when he closed his eyes, she pulled away and her two partners were giving them slightly perturbed looks. Dib didn't notice or care.

"You really came!" If Dib were being honest, there was shred of doubt in himself that screamed that her support was a ruse. Now, he couldn't believe what he was seeing; Yoa-and her friends-with Zim in their clutches. This was a moment he could have only dreamed of.

Yoa nodded, too excited to respond with words. As Razzy hauled Zim into the van, the blonde scientist approached Dib, causing Yoa to back off.

"Dib, right?" He asked politely, holding out his hand for Dib to shake. He took it eagerly.

"Uh, yeah. You're… Ned?"

Ned slightly raised his eyebrows, for he had expected the son of Professor Membrane to have better manners. Though, considering they just reprimanded an alien, he wasn't about to scold Dib for having poor people skills.

"That's right. I met your dad, you know. He's a great guy, really," he gestured to Razzy towing Zim into the vehicle, "but he can't know about all this just yet."

Dib, who was trying to keep his expression numb during the mention of his dad, suddenly opened his mouth and let his shoulders fall back. Up until this point, he was imagining his dad patting him on the back and congratulating him for not letting an extraterrestrial slip through their fingers. Not exclaiming his achievements to his dad-or the world even-was just wrong. He felt like these scientists had just stole a part of his soul. He had to resist the childish impulse to go 'No fair!' and whine until they gave him his alien back. Yoa tensed, but Ned just smiled.

"It's just that we're an animal research facility, and if there was ever an alien to end up in the Professor's gloves, it would not be with us." His smile widened, as if he was just beginning to understand that this would definitely get him fired. "And maybe we want to do our own experiments for a little bit. You get me?"

Dib opened his mouth to argue, but quickly looked back down in contemplation. He had the power to rat them all out to Membrane, but would his dad even believe him? Probably not. And it seemed like they had the intention of giving Zim to the higher-ups sometime in the future. Also, he could understand that they wanted the freedom to do whatever they wanted without the interference of the media.

"Yeah, I guess so."

Gaz squinted at the three. No one had looked at her since the van pulled up, but she was still listening.

"Good, good." Ned went back to his full height and headed to the van, but Yoa stayed behind.

"We'll keep in touch, okay? Dib?"

Dib blinked, "I thought I was going with you."

Yoa chuckled nervously and intertwined her fingers. Dib, interpreting her response perfectly, ran up to the van with Razzy at the door.

"You need me! I know everything about him! Please let me go with you, I-I'll just watch or something."

Ned looked at the kid and frowned, but Razzy didn't resemble anything pertaining to pity.

"We aren't babysitters." She replied with complete indifference. Dib looked to Ned in hopes that he would back him up, but he just shook his head before turning back to Razzy. Dib silently cursed his cowardice.

Yoa approached Dib from behind and put a hand on his shoulder, and he was suddenly reminded of how happy he was to see her.

"I'll let you know everything, um, soon." She promised.

Dib let out a breath, glad that he wasn't completely left in the dark. As long as Yoa was on his side, then he would be somewhat involved.

Yoa took her hand away and climbed into the van. After giving him a friendly wave, the door slammed shut, and Dib watched as the box containing his only friend and Zim disappeared down the street.

Dib sighed. He had to look away when the sun strained his eyes, and he was wondering why they chose to kidnap an alien in broad daylight. Maybe they knew how stupid his neighboors were, too.

It was a bittersweet feeling. He had finally done it; he had exposed Zim to somebody. But he had a hunch that this was where his participation came to an end. It was almost anticlimactic giving Zim up like that. But he had gotten everything he wanted. He should be happy. He balled his fists, but hissed in disgust when he noticed that he still had alien saliva on his hands. In Zim's case, it might as well have been blood.

Gaz coughed. He had forgotten she was there.

"Let's go home, Gaz."

She raised an eyebrow, but said nothing about his melancholy as the two made their way home.

Author's note! Thanks for giving this a read. I'll try to respond to every review in the next chapter's notes. Also HUGE thanks to my beta readers on Invader Zim Amino...

Ecoloca

She was mega helpful!! Also she has art and a very cool fic of her own over on Amino, so please check it out :00

GoldenCoon

They're super sweet and they have some awesome art too!! They kept me motivated lol

Invader vinilla

The spell/grammar check I really needed xD They were cool and they draw really good too so yeah

If the search bar fails you I can probably send you a link to their accounts.

Again, thanks for the read!!