Disclaimer: JtHM and IZ belong to Lord Jhonen Vasquez.

Authors Notes: An idea I got for how Dib and Johnny might have met.

Seeing as Johnny had a Nightmare version in Dib's mind-world thing, I figured they have to have met sometime.

Planned one way, then written in completely different way.

It was reasonably late when Dib went up to the cliff-side that overlooked his town. Sure, it took a while to get to, but the view was so magnificent, and it was far enough away from the smoke and people and cluttered buildings of the city that the sky and stars were almost always completely visible. He'd started going there about a year and a half before Zim had showed up - mostly to stargaze. He'd stopped when he added extra-terrestrials to his list of interesting paranormal things, and decided he wanted to be closer to his less-transportable technology. Well, that and back then his city had been rife with abductions and murder. Those had stopped a few months back, so he'd taken the chance and walked up here.
The strange car was still there from a few weeks ago - the junky old grey thing with the foam smiley-face ball on the antennae. He didn't know who it had belonged to, but it was recent; had only shown up about three weeks ago. Nobody really complained - it offered a spot to sit, and rest. People often sat on the hood or roof, likely suspecting it's owner would not be coming back for it.

He was quiet as he set up his telescope. The sound of crickets singing was the only thing he could hear, and it was a welcome change from city sounds like cars, people yelling into cellphones, and construction. Along with occasional screams, explosions, and monster cries.
Dib paused as the sound of somebody walking came from behind him. It couldn't have been Zim - the footfalls were too heavy. Though, Zim had used robotic suits before. Pausing in his setup of his often-used telescope, he turned around casually, seeing no green alien, but a tall man in a black coat not unlike his own. His hair was strange - the way it was cut reminded Dib strongly of the antennae of Zim's species, Irkens. He shrugged it off as a coincidence, turning back to his telescope as he laughed at himself under his breath. If it was just a human, and not an Irken, he was fine. He could handle himself against troubles from the city, and as it was highly unlikely Zim had managed to convince a human to work for him, he needn't fear one of Zim's half-baked schemes.

The footsteps came closer, then stopped next to him. Dib however, had his gaze locked skyward through the telescope, and was confident the man was up on the cliff-side to do the same thing Dib was - stargaze. So, he ignored the man, searching for the North star so he could figure out where the rest of the constellations were situated, and hunt them down, too.

"It's so clear tonight..." Dib heard the man say quietly. It sounded as though he was mostly talking to himself, but Dib decided to try and invite the man into conversation.

"Yeah... You can never get this down in the city." The man was quiet, and just as Dib figured the man wanted no part of a conversation, he spoke.

"What are you doing up here?" He sounded suspicious. Dib, continuing to hunt down the various constellations, did not look away from the sky as he responded.

"Stargazing. I'm looking for the North star."

"But shouldn't you be at home or... something? It's awfully late for somebody your age to be alone up here." There was a strange tone in the mans voice that some part of Dibs mind was wary of, but the child pushed it off as paranoia, and spoke again.

"My dad's barely ever home and my sister couldn't care less about me." He heard the man lean against the old wood that made up the guard rail.

"What about your mother?" Dib scoffed quietly, frowning.

"Don't have one." The man was silent for a few moment's more.

"Do you ever get the urge to go over the stars?" The man asked quietly. The strange tone in his voice from earlier had come back, and the way he'd worded his question made Dib look away from the sky and toward the man speaking to him.

"Like, rocket ships?" The man shook his head vigorously, staring down at Dib with a look of mild irritation on his face.

"No, not into them. Over them. Over the stars." The man sat down, still gazing up at the sky. "Sometimes I see no reason to keep myself writhing on the rusted blade that is life." Dib shivered, and tensed. The man was talking not about space-travel, but of suicide. "I meant to make myself emotionally cold. That didn't work, so now I don't know what to do. I can't go back to my house - it's that very thing that stole my sanity. And Devi won't take me in, not after what I've done to her." Dib resisted running off, away from the man who had just admitted himself as being insane."Oh, I never asked - what's your name?" Dib gulped, and responded, forcing himself to remain calm.

"Dib. My names Dib." The man grinned, then bowed as gracefully as he could from his position on the grass.

"I'm Johnny C, but seeing as we're sharing this intimate moment, you may call me Nny." 'Nny' stared at him, then glanced over to Dib's telescope. "Why stargaze out here? It awfully far out, and there are many good places to watch the sky inside the city limits." Dib shrugged, glancing up at the stars once before returning to Johnny.

"I like this place best. It's closest to the sky, and farthest from the city, so I feel less trapped up here." Johnny nodded, a strangely peaceful smile on his face.

"I can understand that." Johnny shot another glance at Dib's telescope, and seemed to become transfixed with it this time. "Can you... see aliens with that?" Dib nodded slowly, surprised.

"Sometimes. But usually it's only Zim." Johnny narrowed his eyes.

"Who's Zim?"

"An... an alien in my class at Skool. Nobody believes me though. His disguise isn't even good, I mean, he just wears contacts and a wig! He doesn't even speak right, always calling humans 'pig-beasts', or something similar." Johnny narrowed his eyes.

"What does it look like?" Dib noted that Johnny had called Zim 'it' as he responded.

"He's got green skin - like, bright, reptilian green, his eyes are a solid reddish color, but he wears contacts all the time, and two long black antennae on his head. They're usually hidden under a black wig, though." Dib turned again, once more aiming his gaze skyward as he hunted for the North star - why hadn't he found it yet? "He's only got two fingers, and a thumb." A smirk crossed Dibs face. "Makes it funny to watch him point at things - makes it look like he's giving everything the middle finger." Suddenly, Dib wondered why he was bothering to give this man such a detailed description of what Zim looked like - it wasn't like he'd believe him, right? Nobody ever did.

"... Where does it live?" Dib, behind the telescope, raised an eyebrow, but complied nonetheless. It wouldn't do much good to disobey a suicidal insane man, right?

"Down the street from my house - it's really weirdly shaped, tall and green with a purple door. You can't miss it. Why?" When the man didn't answer, Dib turned away from the sky -again- to look at Johnny. But he had vanished from sight. For a moment, the paranormalist debated on whether or not Johnny had been a hallucination, but when the insane suicidal man emerged from behind the ruined car, he let out a silent sigh of mild relief. Good - Johnny existed. That meant he hadn't began hallucinating.

"I didn't expect my diary to still be here..." Johnny said, clutching a ragged, black book whose title was illegible from age and weather. Dib glanced from the man to the car Johnny was now sitting -crouching, really- on the hood of.

"So, that old car is yours, then?" Johnny nodded, his gaze pointed up at the sky. For a moment, he didn't say anything, merely examining the sky for a little while longer, then turning to Dib and giving him the same calculating gaze - and then spoke.

"You're looking in the wrong place." Dib blinked, confused. Having obviously sensed this, Johnny rolled his eyes, and spoke again. "You said you where looking for the North Star. Polaris is in the other end of the sky, in the 'bob' of the Little Dipper astersim in the Ursa Minor constellation..." Dib's eyes widened slightly at the mans show of astrology knowledge, staying silent as he let Johnny continue. "You have to look for the cup of the Dipper first - then follow the handle." He raised and arm, pointing in a direction several dozen degrees away from where Dib's telescope was currently pointed. "It's there. You see it?" Narrowing an eye in curious suspicion, Dib moved his telescope, and, looking through it at the area the man was gesturing to, realized he was right.

"Wow... You can find the constellations without a telescope?" Johnny nodded.

"You just need good eyes, little Membrane child person." Dibs eyes widened, and he jerked back in surprise. He distinctly recalled not telling this strange man his last name.

"Y-you know who I am?" Johnny grinned a very eerie smile, nodding.

"Of course I do. You're not exactly a nobody, Dib person." Johnny hopped off the car -the black book remaining behind on the hood- "And besides, I know your dad really well - I'm sure if you asked him about me, he'd get really awkward and avoid the topic." Dib gulped, grasping his telescope to his chest and matching Johnny's steps when the man moved so as to not let the insane man get any closer than he already was. "Haven't you ever wondered why Mister Professor covers up his face? Why he wears those big goggles in combination with that tall coat-collar?" Dib shook his head, noticing that Johnny was purposely moving so that he was situated between Dib and the only non-life-threatening path down the cliff.

"D-dad... He's always d-dressed that way..." Dib stammered. Johnny wasn't holding any weapons, but the man exuded an aura of terror - this person was by no means somebody to take lightly or underestimate. Johnny chuckled, shaking his head.

"Nope. Before you were born..." The insane man paused, then chuckled, as though he knew something that Dib did not. "He never dressed like that. Never ever. He had a normal scientist lab-coat, and clear glasses that really showed off his eyes." Dib's mind was working feverishly, trying to come up with some way to get past the single obstacle preventing him from leaving. "But that..." Johnny paused again, and his hazel eyes seemed to flash. "that was before I got to him."
Dib froze. This insane man had done something to his dad? He wanted to run at the man, attack him and demand to know what he'd done, but his fear, and that he knew better, kept him in place.

"What do you mean?" Dib got out before freezing again - something was with this man that made Dib want to just not speak, not say anything at all. Johnny chuckled.

"He wears the collar-coat and goggles for a reason. You would too, had you been in his place." Johnny relaxed a little, taking a more carefree stance, but that only made Dib worry more. "Before that Tess lady, Mister Professor was the only one that got away from me. I remember that night pretty well. He was in his living room. He'd been working hard all that day, but managed to stop and rest for a minute, by criticizing what I wore." Johnny got angrier as he recited those last few words, obviously not enjoying recalling that particular part of the memory. "So, I followed him to his house. When he got inside, I crawled in through an open upstairs window. I already had my smiley-machete out - I didn't know if he'd come upstairs or not, after all."

"What...?" Dib whispered. Johnny gave him a strange look, as though he was upset that Dib had interrupted his story.

"Don't talk yet - I'm not done." He chided. "When I didn't find him upstairs, I went down to the lower level. I found him going into his basement, and that's when I struck. He fought back really well for a scientist. I almost got cut. I got him before he could do anything really bad; I got in a slash over his eyes, but then he knocked my knife away, and I couldn't find it. After that, I gave him some lacerations on his neck - he stopped moving, so I thought he was dead, and I left. It was surprising to hear he'd lived through it." Dib stared, terrified.

"You... tried to kill my dad?" Johnny shook his head.

"I didn't attack a father." He then giggled, giving Dib an oddly amused look. "And even if I went after him now, I still wouldn't be attacking a dad!" This got Dib angry. What was this man rambling on about, 'not a dad'?

"Of course he's dad!" Dib exclaimed, angry. "I'm his son!"

"You know, I didn't say you weren't his next-of-kin - you just aren't his son." He shook his head, carefully moving closer while Dib mulled over the words, angry. Johnny let himself calm down as he continued to move closer. "There's a secret about your history I'll bet your 'dad' hasn't told you - and he'll avoid the subject if you ask him. Same goes for your weird sister. I'll bet you don't remember ever having a mother. You can't find any birth records, and your first memories are really strange." Dib gazed up at Johnny, who's face was calm, with the expression that he knew something very important about the child in front of him yet could not say what it was. "If I were you, I wouldn't settle for alien abductions - You said he's never home?" Strangely calm now, Dib shook his head. He was more curious than terrified at this point. What secret did Johnny know about him and his sister?

"No. Normally he's away in a lab somewhere." Johnny kneeled down, pulling Dib close before the child could move away.

"If you go into the basement, and hack the computer there, I bet you'll find some very interesting information." Johnny was smiling strangely now, but not in a way that made Dib fear for his life - it made him eager to get home and do just what Johnny had told him.
He looked down at the ground as he thought, but looked up as he felt Johnny move away.

"W-where are you going?" Johnny, walking away down the hill, raised up a hand as he responded.

"I've got a very foreign foreigner to take care of." The insane man paused, turning back to Dib and speaking one last time. "I like you, Dib person. You didn't make me angry, or feel like vomiting through every orifice." He smiled again, the same creepy smile that made Dib wary of him. "If you ever need a friend, I live on Garotte road. (1) House number Seven-Seven-Seven." He turned, hands in his pockets as he began walking away again. "Keep me in mind if you ever feel like running away."

"Goodnight Johnny." Dib called out to the man. He thought he heard the man say 'doubtful', but it was faint, and sounded whisper-like, making Dib wonder if the man had said anything at all.
It was a few minutes before Dib turned to leave - his attention had been taken by the black book still sitting on the hood of the car. He almost felt like taking it, but it wasn't his. And lord knew if it would make Johnny angry. So, he merely moved it out of sight, so as to hide it from prying eyes that didn't have the sense to leave the object alone.

A final look at the stars, and Dib began jogging down the cliff path, on his way home. He had a computer that needed hacking into.

(1) - 'Garotte' is a method of murder via strangulation. I needed Johnny's road to have a name, so I just threw 'Murder' into an online thesaurus, and took the word I liked the sound of best. So, essentially, Johnny's road name is 'Murder Road'. Appropriate, no?

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I got a little carried away with the idea that Nny knows who Dib is - this plot bunni idea that Nny knows how Dib is a clone makes for wonderful inspiration. Not that I really need another active story under my belt.

May or may not get more chapters - though I guess I'll let you readers decide this time around. 'Yes', or 'No' to this story getting more chapters?