A/N: As the summary suggests, this takes place in an alternate universe in which the slow explosion in Episode 29, "Walk for Your Lives," is much worse than the ending seconds of the episode hints. Judging even from the little destruction that is shown and how badly Zim and Dib were (theoretically could have been) injured, my thoughts began whirring and the possibilities seemed endless. I'm hoping to have this flow as realistically as possible, but I'm also hoping to portray more of the human side of Zim that I believe must show itself more than the cartoon lets on, what with all of the time he's spent on Earth.

Though this is meant to be seen as a ZaDF fic, those who wish to see more may do as they please. The same is also said for any Zim/GIR shippers (if that even is a ship, I don't know); I see them as best friends, but to each his own.

Disclaimer: I do not own Invader Zim. Jhonen Vasquez does. Its awesomeness merely inspired this fic.

Rue the Day

The Time-Stasis Field explosion was much bigger than anticipated. The Earth, its population, and the resident Irken invader's operations have been irreparably devastated.

Zim and GIR have survived somehow, though the robot has been extensively damaged and repairing him will admittedly be difficult in their current situation. Still, they manage to find some small thankfulness in this first fact.

He works for weeks to fix GIR, making do with whatever he can find that might suffice for Irken technology (surprisingly, he finds most of what he needs among what the Earth-filth call 'garbage'). When he finally succeeds and GIR is in the same half-working order as always, Zim notices an oddness stemming from his zarnl blarg, the equivalent of what the dirt-monkeys would call his 'heart.'

But he cannot focus on this, however, as there is a more pressing (revolting) matter at hand: Dib has survived, too.

And in all truthfulness, Zim doesn't quite know how he feels about that.

He hates this worm-child, hates him, hates him, hates him, and there is no question of where the boy's loyalties lie!

It would be simpler just to walk away, to turn his back on the human menace who's been his enemy since the day he arrived on this planet. Leaving him to rot would be the least troublesome and most self-satisfying plan of action, allowing the Earth-child's injuries to become infected and kill him off as painfully as he's always deserved.

But considering the boy has fainted from a combination of exhaustion and his injuries, both of which are Zim's doing—really, considering this entire mess is Zim's fault—the little alien nearly chokes to find himself feeling...responsible. Something he's never felt before.

Every other time the invader has had someone within close proximity to blame, but this time there is no one else around but himself. He was the one who used the Time-Stasis Field without testing it first like the computer had suggested. He was the one that refused to listen when the others tried to tell him his plan would destroy them all.

Now, because of him, this planet is dead.

And here lays the most troubling aspect for Zim.

Though it's true that global conquest has been his dream since he was a mere smeet, he is only able to allow himself to feel pride during the first several moments. Before he found the broken GIR, before he discovered his labs and means of escape leveled, before he was able to grasp the true extent of the damage he'd done to Earth, and before his mortal enemy fell into a coma at his feet.

After that, it is all a living nightmare.

And no matter how much he hates this disgusting planet, he'd never meant for anything like this to happen.

The strange feeling he gets after repairing GIR only grows as, over those same weeks, Zim lowers himself—astronomically so—to searching for hours upon hours for whatever scraps of cloth and amount or quality of water he can find in order to clean and dress the disgusting human's wounds.

The funniest part about all of it, though, is the fact that he doesn't even know his reasons for doing it. If he hates the child so much and vice versa...then why does the odd feeling in his zarnl blarg grow increasingly painful every time he even ponders letting the Dib-human fend for himself? Why does the boy unconsciously lean into his touch when it comes time to change the bandages? Why is he feeling like this?

It frustrates him to no end, truly, but it is twelve-noon—speak of the Dib, wound-dressing-switch time—and he cannot stop himself. (This must be how GIR feels on a good day...)

One curious thing he's found while putting up with this arrangement is how he feels about the human body. Previously, he'd despised even the lightest of contact with human flesh, but after working with the Dib-urchin's body for weeks now it has become second nature. Another thing, then, is how fascinated he's become with the human body as a whole. Though he knows from countless hours of research the basics of human anatomy, it is even more amazing to see it all up close.

Making certain the boy's makeshift stitches are holding, he moves on to cleaning the wounds themselves as well as he possibly can (GIR's water filter and washing machine capabilities are a big help), prior to exchanging the dirty, tied-cloth bandages for clean ones.

When the dirt-human will wake is no concern of Zim's. After all, he wouldn't be lying if he said he had more important things to worry about.

And yet at this Zim finds his squeedly spooch churning like it never has before. He ignores it at first, but the churning soon becomes an icy fire not unlike that of his zarnl blarg, and the threat of stomach-sickness grows so great within the next half-second that the truth is inescapable.

Along with virtually all of the others on this pitiful planet, the Dib-human's Father and sister were killed in the blast as well. In other words, the boy is all alone now.

What's more, just before he falls asleep each night, Zim has taken to giving GIR's metal hand a squeeze, the A.I. in turn snuggling into him and falling asleep on his chest. Whenever the robot used to do this, Zim would always scold him and push him away. But things are different now, and the Irken hasn't the zarnl blarg.

The cold, hard truth?

The Earth boy and GIR are all he has left. They are his family now.

And Zim has to accept it, whether he wants to or not.

A/N: This is meant to be a very small prologue, as that is all I am about to produce at the moment without letting too much out and trying to watch more of the show to gauge the characters a bit more.

By the way, 'zarnl blarg' is an organ I made up, just for the sake of it, since my inference is the 'squeedly spooch' has something to do with the stomach... Also, I made up the coma thing; I don't know if someone can just faint after a horrible experience, not come out of it for a while, and have it be called a 'coma' or not, but as this is fiction...let's pretend, all right?

And as this is my first IZ story, feel free to critique and point out whatever if you readers feel something is off. (That goes for grammar, too, please. It's late where I am and I just finished my A.P. Physics homework... Yeah... XD)

Thanks for reading, as always!