"We need to talk," Gaz stated the second Dib woke up.

"AH— G-GAZ! What are you doing in my room?! Y-you shouldn't be in here, it may not be safe, I don—"

"DIB," Gaz cut her panicking brother off. "It's this shit; it's pretty different from your usual shit. You seem to be genuinely going insane, and not just as a joke this time."

Dib started to shake a little. "I-insane..? Ha! What makes you think that..?"

She stood completely still. "Well, you will out of nowhere change your appearance entirely to the point where I can barely recognize you, you'll act super creepy when you're like that and then when you're like this it's as if nothing's happened, you refuse to tell me where you're going—especially on a night where one of the knives are missing, you hide yourself in here longer than usual and a lot of the times I'll hear laughing or some goddamn purring shit you do, and then last night? You ran into the house and ignored everyone, repeating to yourself 'no it can't be I'm a good person I'm a good person'."

"...oh.." Dib hid himself a bit in the blankets.

"...Dib." Gaz stepped a bit closer. "Normally, I'd think this was hilarious and make fun of you. But right now? As a sister? I'm legitimately worried about you. Your edgelord thing was amusing at first, but now it's getting out of hand. In fact, I looked through your desk to find something I could make fun of, and all I found was a buncha junk that doesn't even belong to you; like, they still had hella expensive price tags on or the names of other people scribbled on."

Dib's stomach dropped, and more than ever he wanted to just vanish. Although, wishing that could also mean becoming Pilot, and no one wants that.

"Dib. My older brother. Sir Pogchamp." Gaz opened her eyes.

Dib shook a bit more, fighting with all his remaining strength to prevent tears. "...Gaz, I... I can't tell you. I can't. It's not my fault. I promise, I..." he gripped the blanket tight. "If something happens to me. If I ever get out of hand. If something absolutely dreadful happens... you'll do something, right? No matter how hard? You do something to save me..?"

Gaz tensed up a bit, realizing just how deep this all went. She knew she had to be serious, and had to be a good sister to him. "And what if I can't?"

"Promise me anyway. Please, please promise me. Please." Dib's eyes were shaking along with the rest of his body; the tears had won, and were silently streaming down his face.

Gaz chewed her cheek, and nodded. "...yeah. I promise."

"I'm sorry you had to see that last night," Carrie sighed as she pulled her knees to her chest in chem class.

"Why..? I'm the one who brought you... I should be apologizing for you."

"Just because you're a guy or a trained paranormal investigator, it doesn't mean you can't be terrified too. I saw how you looked. You couldn't handle it any better than I could."

Dib stayed quiet, looking down at his desk.

"...they found a fourth one earlier."

Dib's chest seemed to get a bit weaker. "H-huh..?"

Carrie nodded slowly, this time she was quiet. She bit her lower lip, staring at her own desk. "...this isn't fun anymore."

Dib smiled—not like an amused smile or anything, but more like a confused, nervous smile—and looked over. "It was fun..?"

"N-not exactly... more of, 'oh shit crime never happens how exciting' but... it wasn't exciting. It's messed up."

ZiM still had no clue what was going on. And honestly? Good for him. ZiM doesn't deserve all this crime stuff on top of his abandonment and planet problems... well, to be fair, it's not like he would even care—wasn't his whole job to commit crimes?
Over at his house, he was marching about the kitchen. He was growling to himself, muttering angered nonsense and Irken words under his breath. The reason? He was thinking of Dib.
He hated how Dib made him feel. Well, he loved it since it was a good feeling, but he hated it. What he hated most of all, however, wasn't necessarily that it was with Dib (though, that was a lot of it); it was that he was showing signs of possible adaptation to Earth.
Normally, he'd be happy for this; he'd be blending into Earth and soon he could take over without anyone suspecting a thing! But, there was no taking over this time. With no reason to, he was becoming more human.
What would he even do now? If he's adapting more to Earth and losing all connections with his previous assignment, how will he spend his life?
Irkens live longer than humans. ZiM doesn't really have a working ship, so he's pretty much stuck on Earth for all eternity.

ZiM sighed, continuing to debate on what he would do on Earth.. when there was a noise coming from a wall.

He took a step back, readying his PAK blasters.

The noise got a bit closer.

ZiM steadied himself.

Then...

Out from the base entrance popped a short (taller than ZiM), pudgy Irken brushing off his stained uniform. "Hey, ZiM! I'm moving out."

ZiM blinked. "Skoodge?"

"Yeah! I'm still living in your basement! Or, not anymore." He started for the front door.

"Nonono, wait, you've still been there this whole time?" ZiM stopped him.

"Uh, yeah! You can get pretty lost down there."

ZiM groaned, sinking to the floor. "Do you know how longs it's been since I've seen another Irken?! Let alone someone not from Earth?!"

"...no?"

ZiM put a hand to his head. "I don't even... I was banned from Irk! I haven't even spoken to my Tallest! Where— where are you going?!"

Skoodge, after hearing this, started to feel a bit guilty. "Oh... uh, I called a guy—I'm gonna go to another planet." He paused. "...Irk, probably."

ZiM stood up quickly, grabbing the other's shoulders. "Yes. Take me. I'll do anything. I'll even say please."

Skoodge's antennae flattened. "I'm sorry, ZiM, but the ship can only hold two people..."

"I'M TWO PEOPLE!"

"The pilot and me, ZiM. The two people."

ZiM grabbed his own face. "I-I-I..." he curled up a little. "I want to go home, Skoodge... even if I can't, I at least want to leave here... leave all these stupid feelings behind. This planet's been changing me, Skoodge! I need to leave!" He sighed. "Leave Dib. I feel safe with him, but only sometimes. I feel other things, though! And I HATE IT! But..." ... "Hell, what am I even saying... I've been spewing nonsense all day."

Skoodge didn't say anything for a few seconds, thinking. "ZiM?"

"What?"

"I'll uh, see what I can do."

Immediately after skool let out the next day, Dib ran to ZiM's house. He didn't stop, he didn't look behind him, he didn't talk to anyone. He had to warn ZiM. He had to. He had to tell ZiM about Pilot, about how he could get hurt. He was going to save ZiM. Don't worry; ZiM was going to stay alive through the story.

Dib was quickly approaching ZiM's street, not stopping for anything.
Until he felt a sharp pain in his chest.
He came to a halt, trying his best to move. His breathing started to sharpen as the pain got progressively worse.
Dib jolted back, slamming on the sidewalk. He grunted trying to get back up, but was slammed back down every time. The pain turned to heat, spreading through his chest and stomach like volts of electricity. Dib screamed; the pain could almost make him pass out. He resisted the most he could, pulling himself down the side walk. Tears streamed down his face as he made an attempt to crawl; he wasn't exactly sure what was happening, but he had a pretty good idea.

"No. Nonono. No, please! Please!" He cried out.

It became even harder to move once he noticed the ground was coated in some weird, sickly green goo. It sizzled, and snakes popped out from beneath it. He screamed more, grabbing his head and falling back once again. His back hitting the normal concrete confirmed for him that nothing he saw was real, so he slammed his eyes shut and refused to open them. Besides, if nothing is real, then what is? What can he trust? What time is it? Where is he? Is he even awake?
Dib began to cough, his lungs seeming to lose breath. He rolled around on the pavement as he felt himself start to change; his hair started to fade, he felt cuts and scrapes form across his body, and his glasses broke.

"No, nono, get out GET OUT GET OUT!" Dib screamed to himself, begging and fighting with everything he had to stay in power. "PLEASE!"

It had been a day since ZiM had seen Skoodge. He (almost im)patiently waited, trying to find out if he could leave or not. He was honestly a bit nervous, as he hadn't said anything about this to Dib or anyone else. Pilot had seemed to... taken some form of interest in partnership with him—why doesn't he just fully accept it and they dominate the Earth together?
ZiM didn't belong on Earth, that's why.
Where did he belong, anyway? Not on Irk, either.

"Dear dirt, I don't even know what I'm doing," he thought aloud to himself, exhaling. "I am ZiM! I can live wherever I want! I should have no problems, and I can overcome anything!" ... "Ngh. UGH! What do I even do?! ZiM doesn't belong anywhere. How do I adapt here so easily?" ... "Who am I..?"

"...I know, ZiM," a soft, familiar voice came from the door behind ZiM.

ZiM gasped, quickly turning around. His small glimmer of hope was quickly matted once he saw that it was, not in fact, the nice Dib. He stared, not even moving. "...For a second I thought you were, eh, someone else."

"...for a moment?" Dib smiled, the last remaining scars appearing on his face. "It... almost was."