Well, this is it people. The last chapter of my first completed solo fan fiction. I'm sad to see it end, but I'm happy with how it closes.

So, thank you to all of you who reviewed, there are too many of you to thank personally, but I do thank you! Much love!

The computer, Zim saw, had done a good job of protecting the house. Wires were flailing at People as they tried to get close, keeping intruders out.

The house opened for them and Zim touched the ship down in the roof. He hadn't looked at Dib since strapping the human into the chair next to him, not wanting to see the damage, but he had to get the human to the med-lab and that required sight to pick Dib up. So, he braced himself by chewing his lower lip as he looked over to see Dib, unconscious.

"Dib!" He yelled, slapping the human hard on the face. No, please don't die!

The human jerked awake, reaching up shakily to feel his cheek.

"Ow," He said, voice barely a whisper. "The Hell was that for?"

Zim was… shaking. He was absolutely terrified of the human right now as he picked him up and carried him out of the ship.

"D-don't die… please." He whispered, causing the human to give him an odd look.

Zim didn't look like he was crying… but he could swear he heard tears in the alien voice.

"Zim… I f-fine…." Dib gasped. When did talking exhaust him so much? "I c-can't even feel it anymore."

The alien's eyes widened and he quickly went to the lift, ordering the computer in a stern voice to hurry to the med lab.

His language was less polite though.

Dib let himself relax against the alien's heavy breathing chest. He was just so tired.

"Don't you dare go to sleep." Zim said, making Dib jerk awake again. He vaguely heard the elevator doors 'whoosh' open and Zim's footsteps. Though he was awake, he felt like he was sleeping .

Zim laid Dib on a metal table, meant for examinations.

"Computer," Zim said, unable to bring himself to yell anymore around Dib's helpless looking form.

When did either of them become so fragile as to be mortal?

"Run a scan." The alien finished. "Tell me what to do to save Dib."

A red plane of light moved over the form of the dying human. There was hardly any bleeding, nothing vital was hit, but he was dying. Zim could feel it… like a fisherman's hook was caught in his chest and the fisherman was jerking on it hard, trying to get it loose.

The computer stopped, and to Zim's utter sanity, actually had the personality enough to pause.

"WHAT!?" Zim yelled. Dib flinched, what could be wrong with him? "WHAT IS IT!?"

"Sir… he's dying." The computer said. There seemed to be remorse in his artificial voice.

"I know that!" Zim cried, his whole body shaking. "I know! How do I save him!?"

"You can't." The computer informed his irken master.

Those tears Dib had heard earlier in Zim's voice made their way down the alien's face now and he glared angrily at the floor. How!? WHY!? Why did this have to happen!? IT WASN'T FAIR!

"Hey Zim?" Dib asked, smiling over at the alien as those he hadn't heard any of that.

Zim's head snapped up, his eyes landing on Dib's face. "Wha-what?" He asked, inching closer. He felt the need to be close to the human right then.

"I'm sorry… for being such a jerk when we couldn't visit mom." Dib said, reaching out to wipe some of the tears off of Zim's face. "I was depressed, but you didn't deserve how I treated you. I didn't mean to seem ungrateful for all you've done for me."

Zim gave Dib a wide eyed stare. How could the human even be thinking about that!? He was DYING!

"Dib, I know, I know all this." Zim said, moving his hands to hold Dib's. "You have nothing to be sorry for, I'm the one who should be apologizing to you. I shouldn't have lost my temper."

"Sir," The computer spoke up, earning a growl from Zim. How could that lousy computer interrupt them at a time like that!? "There may be a way to save the human's life."

Zim immediately straightened, eyes once more wide on Dib.

"What?" He asked. "Tell me!"

Zim gently laid Dib into a clear blue capsule, leaned back at a forty-five degree angle with the floor and comfortably padded.

"How long will I be out?" Dib asked, sounding slightly worried.

"I don't know." Zim said, shaking his head. "But it's completely safe, I promise. I've used this thing a few times myself."

"Ok," The human said, taking a deep breath, which caused a small pain to jolt around in his chest. "Promise you'll wake me up?"

Zim nodded, a small smile on his face. "I promise."

The alien then leaned down, placing a small kiss on the human's lips. Green brushed the pink of Dib's lips just barely, making them tingle slightly. But before he knew it the feeling was gone, and as Zim 

closed the capsule the human was out, a small amount of gas filling the pod and putting the human into a deep sleep.

Zim watched as cords were fed into the capsule, forcing themselves into Dib's back and attaching to his spine.

These capsules were used for space travel, when the trip would take much too much time. Irkens would simply put themselves to sleep for as long as the trip took and would wake up when they got there. They were then adopted for another use after several small resistances were formed and began attacking these invaders while they were still asleep. They were then used to keep irkens alive when work needed to be done on their paks. The wires would keep them alive, as they were doing for Dib, while the doctor had free reign to work on the pod without doing damage to an irken's body.

The wires in this case, these wires took the strain off of Dib's body, keeping all it's functions going, so it could continue to heal Dib while he slept.

It would take a while, who knew how long, but Zim knew the absence would be worth it to keep the human alive.

Zim swung his legs lightly from his spot on a balcony railing as he felt the stone of the structure he was sitting on. He'd gone more for looks rather than practicality when designing certain features of his palace. It was mostly to distract himself from how bored he'd been after finally conquering the mud ball he was banished to. Ruling a planet was truly a bore. Sure it was fun to watch people grovel for their lives, but the whining could only be stood for so long.

His antennae twitched as the wind picked up a little. It was a wonderful day. The sun was so warm and the breeze so cool, giving his skin the most wonderful sensations. If only he had someone to share it with.

His mind immediately went to Dib. That stupid human, nearly getting himself killed. And still, after all these years he wasn't awake! That was why his life was so boring! It wasn't the monotonous way his servants acted, or the hard work he had to do keeping this planet up and running! It was the lack of any Dib!

He glared down at the ground so far below him, past the shiny white boots of his ruler uniform.

Irk how he missed his human.

"WHHHEEEEEEEeeeee!" Gir screeched as he ran into his master's bedroom late that night. He jumped up excitedly on the large, fat oval shaped bed and began hopped all over it, giggling loudly.

Much too loud for the sleeping irken to deal with.

"GIR!" He yelled as he sat up, the dark circles showing just how much he needed the irken to shut up.

"Master, Master, MASTER!" Gir yelled, , running up into Zim's lap and holding his cheeks tightly as though desperately needing his attention.

"What, what, WHAT!?" Zim yelled right back, pulling the robot off himself and holding him a safe, arm's length away.

"IT'S DIBBEH!" Gir shouted excitedly, throwing his hands into the air and waving them around. This was so exciting!

Zim's eyes went wide.

"He's ready to wake up?" He asked, voice barely a whisper.

Gir could only nod, he was that excited.

Zim smiled brightly before looking skeptical. His eyes averted to the ceiling and he asked the computer, "Is this true?"

"Yes, it is." The computer answered smartly.

"Then why couldn't you have told me?" Zim asked accusingly. No use getting your hopes up for a joke.

"Gir's better at getting your attention."

Zim growled and threw the robot across the room as he jumped up and hurriedly ran into his huge, walk in closet. He got dressed in his ruler's uniform and made his way into the deep basements of his lab, where he kept Dib safely locked away.

He ran quickly, bouncing in a manner resembling his insane SIR unit as he entered the lift. COULD IT GO ANY SLOWER!?

As soon as he was let into the lab he ran up to the capsule, putting his hand on the handle, but not daring to open it as he stared into the sleeping face of what had been his obsession after building his empire.

He was shaking.

"Are you sure?" He asked, looking up at the ceiling.

"Just open it." The computer groaned.

Zim tense, putting his thumb over the red button on the handle that would open the capsule.

And he pressed it, pulling the door open.

Dib's chest, he could see, was fully healed. The only indication anything had happened was a paler patch of skin on his chest in the shape of a circle.

But other than that Dib hadn't changed at all.

He gently pulled Dib out of the capsule, wires still attached to his back.

"Disconnect and attach the pak." Zim commanded and immediately the wires pulled away, making way for the pak that was then hooked into the human's back.

Zim sat Dib on the examining table, getting a good look at his still sleeping face.

"Wake up," He whispered, pressing his lips to Dib's as wires came up of his own pak, attaching to Dib's and administering a shock.

The human's eyes flew open and his hands went up to grip the sleeves of Zim's uniform. He was forced to take deep breathes through his nose as his mouth was occupied by… a familiar pair of green Zim lips.

As soon as the tingling from the shock wore off he pressed his own lips back against Zim's. He remembered the first kiss like it had happened only a moment ago, but this one was so much better.

He wasn't dying this time.

He breathed deeply when the kiss finally ended and Zim's pak retracted it's wires.

"Good morning." Was all Dib could think of to say and Zim gave him an amused look, only… there was something different about it.

"Glad you're awake," Zim said. He looked into Dib's eyes fondly. He'd missed being able to see them.

"Me too." Dib said, nodding. His smile was disappeared into a look of shock as he looked the alien over.

Zim's outfit consisted of a red and white coat, buttoned on the far left, black gloves and pants, and white boots. Everything was shiny and crisp and more than a little impressive.

He was taller too, about a head taller than himself if he guessed correctly, though he could have been taller.

And his face! There was a scar on his jaw ,small, but standing out against his slightly darker green skin. His jaw itself was a little more pronounced and his eyes were slightly less round.

He looked older!

"How long was I out!?" He asked suddenly, looking back at the smiling face.

Zim's smile could only widen as Zim picked Dib back up, carrying him bridal style, and said, "Let me show you."

Dib couldn't shake the look of shock off his face but he did calm down enough to wrap his arms around Zim's neck. He didn't want to fall from the new height.

Zim carried Dib to the elevator and it lifted them up, much higher than where the living room would have been in the old base.

Once back at his room Zim carried Dib over to the balcony, setting the human down to stand on his own and see out at the city that surrounded the palace.

It was… incredible!

As far as his eyes could see there were tall buildings made of metals in shades of red, purple, and silver. Hints of white could be seen, the same kind of white that the balcony they were on was. Dib figured they were stone statues or monuments to Zim or something like that.

A majority of the building appeared to be living quarters, the others Dib couldn't tell from where he was.

"You did it," He whispered, putting his hands over his mouth, and for a moment, Zim frowned, thinking Dib was upset. That is until Dib began laughing astoundedly. "How did you do it!?"

Zim smirked. "It's amazing what you can do with a few hamsters and various kinds of liquid explosives." He said, putting a hand on his hip.

"It's incredible." Dib said, shaking his head in disbelief.

"It is, isn't it?" Zim said smugly, pretending to polish his nails. He then turned back to the human, putting a hand lightly on the pak he'd made for Dib. "And with this you'll be able to spend every day of my rule with me."

Dib smiled and turned to the head taller Zim, giving him a small hug. "I look forward to it."

"Me too," Zim said, hugging Dib back. "Oh, and Dib?"

"Yeah?"

"Good morning."

I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! Look out for updates to 'My Only' and my co-authored fics with the wonderful Smallest Invader.

Also, check my deviantART account, the link is in my author page, for a picture featuring Zim's outfit.

Review please!