Invader Zim ZADR: How did we get here?

Chapter 17: Familiar ringing at the door

Here's another chapter for you, and let's hope that Zim and Dib will be able to move past Zim's small outburst and that everything will be okie-dokie between the two of them again!

...or maybe something else is going to happen. You'll just have to read to find out.

"So...let me get this straight. You went over to the junkyard, where Zim had made a makeshift arena for you to battle in. He also made some kind of weird robot made out of junk and was going to collect more junk to make it bigger and take over the world, but only after killing you. You then tried to run away, failed, and were captured by Zim. He was then about to kill you when you asked if he wanted to talk, whereupon he got angry, ran away, and left you alone..."

"You forget the part where I almost broke my neck," Dib mentioned, somewhat annoyed that she decided to leave out the part where he almost lost his life because of Zim. Well, it wasn't technically Zim's fault, but he was still somewhat confused and frustrated after last night so he decided he had the right to be crossed at Zim. Just for a while at least.

Dib was sitting on the couch, with Gaz standing over him with her arms crossed, as if he was getting lectured. As if that wasn't enough, she had also woken him up to speak with him, when he just wanted to rest for a minute or half a day at least. The walk back to the house hadn't exactly been pleasant. Besides his sore bones from the fall, and having just nearly been crushed to death or worse, he was more than shaken up. Not to mention his exhaustion, which made him fall asleep on the couch just as he had come home. But there was also something else, something that was concerning him greatly. It was this eerie feeling that he felt as soon as he found Zim, that had followed him ever since. Even in the morning, he could still feel it in his gut. He wasn't sure if it was everything else or just that which made him so cranky.

"As if that doesn't happen every time you go out with him," Gaz replied apathetically, before giving herself a moment to collect herself and make sense of the mess Dib had gotten himself in.

"...Alright, then there's only one question left..." She finally said, before looking straight at him with a glaring look, making him feel slightly uncomfortable. He could already tell that it wouldn't take long before she would start berating him.

"What happened?"

"Didn't I just tell you? Please don't make me explain all of that again-"

"No you idiot, I mean what happened between you and Zim!" Gaz blurted, as she really didn't want to hear the whole sorry tale again.

"Me and Zim? As far as I'm concerned, this whole situation is because of Zim, so I don't see what I'm responsible for!" Dib remarked though he couldn't help but feel he was being somewhat harsh. But then he remembered he was talking about Zim, so it was perhaps justified. Not to mention the whole 'nearly-breaking-his-neck' part.

"Oh really?" Gaz asked making no attempt at masking her sarcasm, as she gave him a mocking look.

"Don't you 'oh really' me! This whole thing was just because Zim had a meltdown so, for once, I didn't have anything to do with it!"

"And why did he have a meltdown? Oh, maybe it was because you decided to be an idiot and call him soft, hm? You were practically asking him to do something stupid, like trying to blow us up with a mailbomb for instance." She said, making it clear that she had already decided how much blame Dib was going to get for the whole thing.

"Please don't tell me you're going to try and make it sound like I started this mess! I'm willing to accept that I made a mistake in saying something like that to Zim, but that's NOT the reason why all of this happened, okay!"