Disclaimer; We do not own Invader Zim. This story is simply for fun and so that the universe of Invader Zim can continue and soar on through imagination and words.

My sixth Invader Zim story. My last four were all mini novels and I don't really want to write another long Invader Zim fic. Plus, I have a real novel waiting in the wings that needs to be spoon-fed every few hours. So I can't ignore that.

This story I'm going to make about Dib rather than Zim all the time. It's about time the spotlight shone on him once in a while. Also I would like to explore his complex character and extend on it. Heck, I might even pull a rabbit out of the hat. Who knows? And I wanted to start something completely fresh, rather than continue on and on like Ordnance and Exodus. Though I enjoyed writing them to the fullest, it's good to have some change.

Though I'll say again that Dib's life is I think, is far more complex than Zim's ironic, yes? At least Zim has a friend to bounce his ideas on (Gir) whereas Dib has no one. Not even his sister who feels superior towards him, despite the age difference. So yeah, this fic ain't gonna be easy.

And one more thing, I'm sick and tired of Dib suicide stories. I mean come on! He would never kill himself! Don't believe me you angst nuts? Then read these three simple facts of why he'd never commit himself to a premature end;

As long as Zim's around, he'll never end his life

If and only If something horrible happens to him i.e. death, Pro. Membrane will be there to fix and bring him back. Okay?

Too many other characters are fond of him. I.e. his own dad, his sister and guess who? Zim! Don't believe me then listen to Mopiness of doom!

There will be no ZADR I don't think. (Probably a first). If anything there will be ZADA. And no further.

On with the story. Born from the inspiration Dib gave me. (Or rather lent. He's stubborn more often than I am).

Enjoy.

Chapter 1; Nobody knows it

'He who stands higher, falls down lower.' – Old Proverb

"Zim! Get the hell off planet earth!" A small boy, son of Professor Membrane and a brother to Gaz, ran across the playing field of Skool like some rabid leopard, excitably bounding along, desperate for prey in its mouth.

His glass-covered eyes focused on nothing but the green child ahead of him. He ignored everything else, including the kids yelling obscenities at him as he flew past, or the giant metal playing frame adorning much of the grass on the field. Then again, the green child ahead of him and rapidly increasing the distance between them, wasn't at all a child. He was Zim, the most egotistical, loud-mouthed alien known. His slight form was lithe and agile, and in mere leaps he was way ahead of Dib.

The chase wore the boy out, and he had to cease his sprint until he slowed to a stop at the water fountain near the entrance gates. Zim turned his head sharply to see his pursuer. Once he saw Dib had given up, he threw his thin arms into the air and melodically chanted his victory. It was hard to believe that a scrawny little alien such as himself, was an invader by his standards.

"You'll never win, Dib filth!" Zim crowed out sonorously, dancing on the spot madly in his deluded conquest. "Never!"

Dib snorted, fighting to get his breath back. The cold afternoon air stung his lungs. The bell clanked out behind them. Lunch was over and Dib had nothing but stern classes ahead.

He turned and started back. The vigor in his posture had been venomously been sucked away, leaving a dry, empty husk in its place. Dib hadn't a clue why he started chasing Zim in the first place. Maybe it was because Zim had slammed his head against his locker, or had shoved alien termites into his bag? It could have been all these things at once, and Dib had grown tired and angry with Zim's fermented antics.

It had been a year and seven months since that invader's arrival. And ever since then (he had been counting the days), had tried his best to announce to everyone that Zim was an alien. An alien bent on the destruction and decay of all humanity. But would they listen?

Still, Zim walked the earth, attempting whatever he could to rid the planet of human existence. He was like an exterminator. And a poorly inept one at that.

Dib walked, his whole body alert and stiff for anything Zim might pull on the way back to class. The invader was too busy crowing out his victory to bother with anything else. Dib was finding it easier to counter his schemes. Zim kept using the same old tactics. Nothing relatively new unless the situation called for it.

Ms Bitters was at her desk, reading a sheet of paper when they entered the classroom. The other children were talking away, taking up the opportunity to have a normal conversation before the teacher could silence them.

Dib sat down behind his desk, keeping his bright amber eyes on his antagonist. Zim kept his gelid grin that marred his green countenance. "Silly human!" He shouted across from his side of the room, "you're going to spend your whole filthy life trying to chase me down, only to fail!"

"That's what you think, Zim!" He retorted, wanting to throw the heaviest book the school had ever owned, right at the alien's head. However, that possibility was not close at hand, so he tried to ignore Zim's chuckles and concentrated on the teacher at her desk.

After a few more minutes of Ms Bitters scanning her sheet of paper for any dirt it seemed, she eventually put it down and fixed the children with a cold, glassy stare.

"Get your books out and don't just sit there. Work!"

The children immediately dived into their bags and rummaged for their textbooks.

"Now," she continued shrilly, standing up behind her desk, "turn to chapter eleven on shaving gorillas. It might show you how horrible it is to shave when you're older yourselves."

After school, Dib cheerily met up with his sister at the main entrance. She had her latest game device in her hand called the X119. Still, he didn't let the gadget come between them, try as he might.

"So, Gaz, how was your day?"

"Horrible." Came her latest one word answer. They walked side by side past the gates and onto the road.

"Zim, that stupid alien has been getting on my nerves all day! He just wants to be cut up on an autopsy table! He's asking for it!" He ranted; picturing an image of a helpless Zim strung up to a clean, surgical table with no hope of escape.

"Can you talk to someone else?" She groaned, "I'm trying to concentrate here!" Her fingers tapped vigorously on her game console. It's bright pink color always made Dib feel ill.

"Whatever." He replied, feeling a little sore. He jammed his white hands into his trench coat pockets as he faced the warm wind whispering from the east. He didn't like not talking. He liked conversations. It made him feel better. So, he tried again, aware of the patience leaking out of her. "Will dad be home tonight?"

"No. He's doing something at his office. A new light or something."

"Oh." So he was going to be on his own again, unless he sat down in the lounge with Gaz, which he often did. He liked her silent company and the tittering noises of her game pounding away as she skimmed through levels. He also had Mysterious Mysteries to watch, as long as it wasn't a rerun.

They got home and it was up to Dib to close the door, deactivate the alarm and scour the fridge for any possible dinner. Gaz however, sat on the couch in the front living room, ignorant to everything else.

Dib picked out his way through the food in the fridge. For some strange reason, he didn't feel very much like eating. "It's just worry." He reasoned with himself out loud, "and Zim did a great job causing it."

There wasn't much in the fridge to appetize him anyway. He checked the cupboards and the cereal shelf before returning back to his game-engrossed sister. "Wanna order pizza?" He asked her, figuring that the smell of fast food might bring his appetite back.

"All right." She replied, failing to look up at him, "but make it quick. I'm starving."

"Right."

He went back into the kitchen and picked up the phone on the shelf beside the window. The phone, like every decorative object, was shaped like Professor Membrane. He dialed the number he knew off by heart and listened to the dial tones.

I won't eat. He thought. I have more important things to do, like spying on Zim's house.

First he'd order his sister's food, to make sure she was well fed and happy. Then he'd go before it got any darker outside.

"Dib?" Hollered his sister from her comfortable seat in the lounge, "have you ordered the pizza yet?"

"I'm doing it now!" He shouted. Finally someone picked up on the other end.

"Bloaty's Pizza Hog. How can I serve you?"

"One large pizza topped with cheese and pepperoni, please."

"That'll be eleven dollars. Anything else with that order?"

"No." Dib paced about the kitchen, half his mind trying to decide what to do at Zim's place and what entrance he should try for.

He hung up was he was done and proceeded up to his room where he threw his light duffel bag onto his bed, opened his window and started rifling through his wardrobe for his binoculars. He needed them to get a clear view inside his enemy's home. Then maybe he could spy on what he was doing, depending on where his location would be.

He found his small, silver pair of binoculars hiding under his drawer of black pants. He fitted the strap round his neck and took out his camera from its minuscule bag under his bed. One day, Zim had to let up and reveal to the world what he was. Then Zim's reign of terror would be over and mankind would be safe, all thanks to him, Dib Membrane. And he was going to be there, to witness it all. But most of all, it would impress his father.

Deciding he may as well stay in his trench coat rather than changing into combat gear, he left the house with a morose farewell to Gaz, who didn't even return his goodbye.

The walk to Zim's house was pleasant in some respects. The late summer sun was melting like cheese over the horizon far out over the buildings and the sky was freckled pink and wispy blue. The pollen from the flowers drifted through the air thickly as bees buzzed past his ear and butterflies majestically swept along to collect the nectar.

Zim's house was just around the corner; glad he didn't have much of a walking distance. And if it got too late, he could always quickly return home without even being anyone noticing that he had gone.

Zim's eerily slanted turquoise house with abnormal gnomes rose up into view like some house sprung from a horror movie. To his dismay, all the window blinds inside were drawn shut, emitting impervious assess for his spy binoculars.

Darn. He thought, edging closer to his nemesis's home. "Now what?" Maybe, he wondered, if he got a little closer and tried the doorknob? Sometimes, if he were lucky enough, he could turn the door and let it open quite freely if Gir had forgotten to lock it again. Sometimes it was as if the mad little robot wanted him to break in without a challenge. He could only dream.

Aside from his goal, the neighborhood was rather quiet. No one was out enjoying the late afternoon. Dib stood right outside Zim's gnome field, wondering how best to get in. He had already tried scaling the wall before, and then receiving some horrifying results.

The allure however of the door was too powerful, and realizing he hadn't the stealth equipment to hack inside Zim's murky depths, he decided to try and get inside.

He walked down the small unkempt path between the gnomes, expecting them to fire at any moment. However, their blank, ghastly pallid faces only discerned him go by, like automated guns that had used up all their ammo.

"This is too easy!" He told himself, reveling in this turn of events. He went for the door with confidence this time; he reached out his hand and clasped the doorknob tight…

A giant wave of pain flashed through his body and his eyes were filled with a grave white light, searing like molten fire. He let go of the knob, feeling great shivers wracking his body as the blinding pain continued. He cried out momentarily, like come wild cat who had stung its paw. Then the pain seemed to dramatically die and Dib opened his eyes. The doorknob was smoking and the gnomes were regarding him with disdainful curiosity. Zim must have wired the doorknob up with electricity.

"Damn you Zim!" Dib choked, voice wispy and half what it once was, "you think this is gonna stop me?" He gingerly started to walk back, gently nursing the hand that had been bitten by the electric current. He should have seen it coming. He had walked blindly into another trap. "I'll get you!" He shouted, hoping somewhere, Zim would hear him. "You coward! All you ever do is hide! Some alien invader you are!"

He had had enough. He was going home.

Not looking back, Dib trudged back to his house, his hand still itching from the soreness of the sudden assail. Sometimes the current still coursed down is body and he involuntarily shivered as his nerves tingled uncomfortably. He was disappointed with himself for falling for a simple trap like that, and had caused himself unnecessary pain.

Gaz hadn't moved. She was still sitting on the burgundy sofa, chewing on the leftovers of the pizza he had ordered.

Whenever Dib returned from his adventures at Zim's base, he would boast to Gaz of how he had triumphed. What he had faced and how he had overcome it. Now, all he wanted to do was sleep and hope that the unnatural electric tremors in his body would cease. So without uttering a word, Dib went up to his room and slapped his door shut, separating himself from the world.

End of chapter 1.