Sublime Awakenings

Sublime Awakenings: Chapter 38

It seemed as though he had only just blinked, but it had to have been longer than that because when he opened his eyes, he had already passed through the crack. He was seated at a bone table that looked like it might have been grown, killed and cleaned instead of carved. In this place that prospect seemed entirely likely. Looking up from the smooth, but uneven surface, his body gave a violent jolt when he saw Letta sitting across from him between her mother and Saint Judith. Both of the latter were still quite dead; this time really dead. They, like Letta, were held in place by the vines that had lifted them up from the lower level. The vines had now worked their way into their bodies at various vital points.

When his body jerked, he could feel the veins in his own wrists tug him back into place in response. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath before looking down to see the red strings leading from inside small holes in his wrists, which rested on the table, to a large mass of organics: the heart of the monster that had surrounded him in his bedroom! Its vines were connected to everyone at the table, controlling the dead and entrapping Letta and himself.

Surveying his environment, he realized that the entire “room” was constructed from a huge tree-like thing that had been mostly hollowed out on the inside, where they were. A red film of organic material covered the branches, basking them in a crimson glow. The walls were much like his own had become in that horrible nightmare: drenched in blood and carnivorous veins and organs. There were other dead people at the table with them. Deacon Jasper and Sister Victoria were both seated at the end of the table to his right, both charred and bloody from the fire in the catacomb. His own parents were on either side of him; his father still missing a leg and his mother's head having been haphazardly stitched back on.

Eyes slowly blinking open, Letta looked around with a dazed expression before finally focusing on their current predicament and their deceased companions. She screamed. And screamed. And then she screamed more coherently. “Oh my God, I can't take this anymore! Why...why won't it just let us go!”

“Ah, finally awake I see.”

Both of their heads turned to see the nightmare rendition of Johnny moving from the shadows into the red light as he approached the head seat of the table to Todd's left. He was no longer simply a body made of twisted sinews and possessing vague features in common with the Scary Neighbor Man. No, now he was covered head to leather boots in skin: Johnny's skin. It appeared to have been tanned. The stitch jobs that connected the various sections were little better than the one that held his mother's head on. On top of the skin suit, he wore one of Johnny's typical outfits, with a shirt claiming that he could taste their fear, which was probably literally true in his case.

“Shmee! What the hell is this!”

The blue-haired head tilted to the side in a questioning manner, purple light pouring from the eyes onto Todd's face. “What? You don't like my new wardrobe?” His voice was dripping with condescending sarcasm, which he complemented with an exaggerated sigh. “And I was certain that it was an improvement on the last one. Oh well, too late for another change I suppose. Why, Thanksgiving dinner is almost upon us!”

Letta's hands trembled against the table as her eyes settled on the giant organ in the center where a turkey should have been had this been a real holiday. She gagged, but nothing came up.

“Now, now. We mustn't eat before grace.” The trauma sponge pulled out a tall bone chair, crossing his legs as he took a seat with elbows resting on the table. “Todd, would you like to start? What are you thankful for? Don't be shy, my boy.”

Todd glared at him with hard eyes, trying not to think about whether they were supposed to be eating the thing on the table or if it was going to be eating them. “I'm not playing any more of your sick games, Shmee.”

Shmee shook his head at the rude response. “My, my, aren't we an irate little man this evening! I know that you think it is a celebration of a myth that denies the cultural annihilation of the native peoples of this country, and I do apologize for any offense, but that is no excuse for being ungrateful. Besides, my garments for the evening are very much in line with the tradition of the Aztecs, aren't they?”

“Ungrateful! What exactly am I supposed to be grateful for here?”

“Yes, ungrateful. I have welcomed you inside my home to celebrate this most splendid occasion of our reunification after having to go to a great deal of trouble to even get to you in the first place. I've gone out of my way to supply you with willing parents because I know how family holidays always sting when you don't have any. And this is how you repay me! If you're not ready to contribute, then at least have the decency to bow your head.”

A sharp reply died on his lips when Todd saw all of the dead celebrants bow their heads and clasp their hands in a prayer position. Letta's head was already bowed in what was probably a state of emotional exhaustion and her hands moved almost mechanically to copy the others. His own were soon to follow when the vines attached to his arms forcefully raised them and pushed them together, jerking his whole body toward the table so that his head fell forward.

“Now, I will start. Ahem. Dear Lord, I would like to thank you for the bountiful harvest that has so graciously been laid out before me. It is a great comfort, especially after having fasted for such a long time. I am also thankful for my very dearest friend, Todd, coming back into my life. He has been sorely missed, even if that sentiment hasn't always been returned. I am thankful to Johnny for freeing me from that restricting cage of fur and cotton and giving me instead this extravagant vestment. And lastly, I am so very thankful to Todd's 'sister', Letta here, for all of those blessed years of solitude, which have allowed me to reflect so thoroughly upon my situation.” His words turned more accusing than sarcastic when he gave Letta a piercing look. “So, yes. Thank you, my dear.”

Tears ran down her face to fall upon the ivory below her bowed head, but she dared not meet the nightmare's searing gaze. “I...I didn't mean. I didn't know....”

“That you were locking me in a dark, dusty filing closet with no access to any outside contact? That you were depriving a living being of sustenance and companionship?” He smiled in mock sympathy as he rested his hands upon the table, the patchwork skin jostling a bit from the movement of the right being crossed over the left. “Of course you didn't. How could you? Surely the word of little Todd here wouldn't have sufficed. He is, after all, quite insane, if you can't tell by now.”

“Leave her alone, Shmee. She can't see the stuff I see. She couldn't have known. And it's your own fault that she thought you were making me worse. You fucking were making me worse!” Todd was really in no position to be shouting at their capturer so hostilely, but at least it was distracting the anaphasic life form from Letta.

Shmee's head turned to the other side of the table, purple eyes narrowed in bewildered anger. “I protected you, Todd! I did my best to keep you alive and mentally intact when no one else cared. I told you the things that you needed to know, all the while keeping you safe from the painful truth of your life. Of all life on this planet. Keeping you innocent of the sickness that almost every member of your race wallows in and thinks it good! And NOW look at you! Look at the lengths I have to go to just to make you scream! Face it, my little boy lost, you are infected with the vileness of this world!”

“Don't call me that! You only kept me 'safe' and 'innocent' because you needed me to be easily terrified so you could feed on my fear! You're the reason that my life was so full of horrors!”

“Yes! Fear is the oldest and strongest emotion of all organic creatures of your kind. Without me, without experiencing the terrible, without feeling that primal and eternal fear, you would have never known the sublime! You would be as lost and empty as the rest of these cattle! Even more lost and empty than you have allowed yourself to become! But it isn't too late! I just have to keep you isolated. Isolated and safe from yourself.”

“Safe from myself, Shmee?” It sounded preposterous, especially since the only time that he had been really interested in self harm had been a result of the trauma sponge's harassment, but something about it almost made sense. Todd felt as if his mind was spreading out, attempting to wrap around something important, but not quite succeeding. But he didn't have time to dwell on it. What he needed was some kind of logic, if Shmee could even process such a thing at this point. “Safe from the world, safe from choice? Safe from life? The only way that's going to work is if you kill me because, guess what, I am alive. And what's the point in being alive if not to live?”

Shmee actually laughed at this. “Oh, that's rich coming from you, Todd. Ever since I met you, you've been trying to hide from the world! Even now, I can sense that you're terrified deep down of being truly free of that padded room, and with good reason. Life is so chaotic, isn't it? And navigating it! Actually making decisions instead of just playing it by ear. You've always been rather bad at that, my boy. That's why you need me to run interference, to filter out anything that you can't handle, to keep any real choices, any dangerous thoughts, far out of reach.”

Todd broke contact with the other's eyes, his own falling to the vines that still secured his hands in a steepled position. Shmee's words had cut deeper than he thought they should have. Of course he had tried to hide from the world! After being exposed to the things that he had seen in his short life, who wouldn't have? But maybe he had been far too quick to assume that everything that he encountered would be more of the same, to imagine the worst of people and situations. Still, he did want to be free of the padded room! And he didn't need or want Shmee to force him into a mental one to keep the real world at bay. He wanted to know what it was like to live, to truly live.

Another deep breath and the boy met his ex-bear's gaze again. “I don't want that anymore.” Bringing a leg up to the supports under the table, he kicked away from it violently, sending his chair crashing backwards onto the floor. There was a crack as the bone of the chair splintered, and Todd rolled out of it's clutches as if it would come to life and capture him. Pulling himself into a semi-sitting position, he used his feet to move further away from the table until the red vines were a tight leash holding him there.

Pushing down the queasy feeling that tried to take possession of his stomach at what he was about to do, Todd employed all of his will to force his hands apart and back even more, slowly pulling the vines from his arms. The pain of the tendons clinging to the veins in his wrists was nothing compared to the mere knowledge of it, the sight and feel of them being pulled out. As soon as they were finally extracted, he moved out of their reach, even though the whole room was comprised of the same substance, the same creature.

“I didn't ask you what you wanted, child.” Shmee rose from his seat, making his way around the table as Todd scurried before him on hands and knees. “I'm telling you what you need!”

When he reached Letta's chair, the teen finally stood on shaky legs, facing his peruser. “What makes you think you know what I need? Maybe I only ever thought I needed your protection because you've been telling me that since I was three days old! You never asked me what I needed!”

“I didn't have to ask! You told me every day with your feelings, with your fears. You were so small. So helpless and alone, and unconsciously you knew it. Those people,” he paused to gesture at the dead Castils, “were not going to give you what you needed.”

Gaze following Shmee's gesture, Todd allowed his eyes to linger on the corpses of his fictional parents before turning back to the other with teary cheeks. “You don't know that. B-before you came...before all of the bad things came they-” a hiccup interrupted his sentence, “they might have loved me one day. But it's too l-late now. Now all I have is...is...”

“The fleeting and empty promises of other shallow and corrupted humans.” This time Shmee's voice was gentler as he stepped forward, closing the few feet between them. One patchwork hand rose to cup a wet cheek. “Let her go, my boy. Let them all go. You don't need them. They don't love you. Not like I do.”

As Todd forced himself to look up into the purple eyes, he felt as if something inside himself had broken. More tears came of their own volition, as if spewing from a dam. “You're right, Shmee. They don't love me like you do.” His own hand moved to cover the one gloved in Johnny's skin atop his cheek and his eyes closed for a moment.

He hoped that it looked like he was taking in the comfort, even though touching that skin sent waves of nausea through his body. What he was doing was disgusting and desperate, but at this point, it seemed like his only chance. He could hear the frantic voices of the others telling him this was a bad idea, that it wasn't true. So many things, but he tuned them all out, pushed them so far back that they became a low buzzing.

“They can't. They're too consumed by their own petty egos to love anyone else. They fill the world with their evil, their hate, their secret self loathing. But I am constructed from your own ego, from your own needs.”

Todd smiled sadly as Shmee's voice grew more confident, feeling the hand move from his cheek to run through his hair again. This time the gesture was almost genuine, but it still lacked depth. Shmee lacked depth. He lacked any true understanding of human emotion. The boy opened his eyes, his hand once again seeking out Shmee’s, this time to hold it. “I'm sorry, Shmee.”

A giant smile enveloped the nightmare's face, red sinews showing behind the corners of his mouth. “Good. Then stay with me, Todd, and you will never have to feel unwanted again.”

“No. I mean I'm really sorry.” Still holding the hand tightly in his own, Todd stepped back quickly, pulling his laser-edged machete from its holster, switching it on. He saw a look of confusion and hurt on that hideous face before he finally let go to spin around, cutting into Shmee's midsection when he came back. Both Shmee's cries of pain and betrayal and Letta's cries of shock and fear mixed together as blood spewed from the gaping wound and the trauma sponge fell to the ground.

Ignoring the cries the best he could, Todd turned back to Letta, forcing her hands apart and pulling the vines out of her wrists, flinching as he relived the feeling of what she was going through. “I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I know it sucks, but we've got to get out of here.”

When she was free of the vines, the girl rose to her feet, but nearly tripped as she backed away from the gory scene. Each of her hands held one of her wrists tightly as she sobbed from the pain and the lingering fear that her veins would come out with the tendons. “Th-th-thanks, Todd. You-you're. Oh my God, I thought you...but you're-”

“I know. Sorry I had to do that.” Gripping Letta by her upper arm, Todd pulled her to the other side of the room, where the film of organics looked thinner. “I think this is the way out. Or in.”

“I-in?!”

“Out! It's out, okay?”

“Oh...no...you...don't.” The phrase escaped the stitched mouth like the last words of a dying man before a thick green mist rose from it, circling through the room, around the bodies of his dead dinner guests.

“Shit. Help me with this.” Once again taking his blade in hand, Todd began cutting through the bloody film with Letta's help. Sure enough, there was a type of entry way that he hesitated to call a door on the other side! But by the time they had cleared enough of the monstrous coverings away, the boy looked back to see that the dinner guests had risen from their seats. Either Shmee was controlling them all somehow with his vapory form or the red vines, which he could no longer see attached to them or lying flaccid on the table like his and Letta's were, were inside them, controlling them. Either way, the bodies were coming for them, and they needed to move fast.

“Fuck! Step over it!” Letta hopped over the remaining organic material clinging to the bottom of the hole that they had just uncovered, pulling Squee haphazardly behind her. “Not dead people again!” The passage that they were now in was much like the “room” that they had just left. It was like being inside a giant, living monster. As they ran through the more empty spaces that might have passed for a path of some kind, she could see other holes, some covered in the same loose film and some not, leading to other “rooms”. A few of them were more like windows to the outside world of black emptiness and bloody, carnivorous ground that they had started in. The vines outside were growing up the walls of the structure.

Todd dared a glance back. The dead bodies were still coming after them, surrounded by the green mist, and maintaining a steady pace. They weren't gaining on them, but they definitely weren't falling behind either. That was just stupid! Dead things don't move fast! If they ran that fast, their ankles were gonna snap off. Still, he sped up his efforts, taking Letta's hand to make sure she did the same. “Dead things move slow, Shmee! Dead things move slow!”

“Todd, where the hell are we going? I don't think this is the way out! The ground is sloped. We're getting higher!”

“At the end of this hall there's gonna be a door! A really big one with strong locks inside! That's where we're going. There's a way out in there. I can feel it.”

“Feel it?” she shouted in disbelief.

“Well, it is my brain, right?”

“I don't know! Technically. Maybe.” Even though she had already known that, the thought was still unsettling. No wonder Squee had always been so afraid of everything!

Todd released a relieved sigh when at last they reached their destination. A large door loomed ahead, its shape an odd one that conformed to the surrounding wall instead of the standard rectangular model. He and Letta ran through the entrance, working together to push the heavy door closed and turn several bolts that would lock it. Just as they finished, there was a series of thuds from the other side; probably the dead bodies running into the door. They both backed up as a loud banging commenced against their stronghold.

“I don't think they can break the locks.”

“Todd, there's no way out of here.”

The boy turned around to scan the near barren room that some unconscious motivation had driven him to. Overall, it looked like an old attic in an abandoned house, granted, a monstrously deformed, alien, organic house, that had seen better days. There were no other doors, no staircases, not even a rope ladder to the ground outside, but in the very center of the dusty room there was a circular arch that seemed to radiate with energy. Inside the arch was a great untempered schism, a vortex that seemed to swirl and explode with incomprehensibly infinite possibility. “Yes, there is.”

Letta's voice became even more strained with fear and stress as she looked back and forth between the arch, the first geometrically sensical architecture that she had beheld in that world, and Squee. “No, Todd, that's...I don't even know what it is, but it can't be safe. Who knows where it even goes? If it even goes anywhere at all! We can't go in there!”

Biting his lip in thought, Todd approached the other carefully before taking her into a quick, but meaningful hug. “Maybe you can't, but I have to. I think it's the only way for me.”

“But-”

“No. I have to.” His tone became more urgent when he pulled away, looking away from her teary face to see the green mist invading the room through the small cracks between the door and the walls like it had in his bedroom before. “You should go now. Get out before it's too late.”

“Todd-”

“Letta, the worst thing that could happen is that it might kill me, right? But that's a chance that I'm willing to take at this point. I was supposed to come here. Now go! Gaz, get her out, now!”

“Squee, don't do anything stupid! I can still win this!”

Gaz's voice was only the first to ring out in the in the chorus of variations of Letta's protest. Zim assured him that his technology could save him because it was amazingly superior, and that he would be a prime example of human stupidity to walk into the “swirly, rippy, teary doorway of doom”. Pepito, of course, wanted to take him to his house to try a different method, and Dib felt the need to stress that if he died in his mind, he might really die. But none of that mattered. “I said get her out! This isn't up for discussion!”

He stepped up to the arch, ready to go if only Letta would let go of his hand. Once again, he shut the others out of his mind, letting them know in no uncertain terms that he was committed to this course of action.

Letta started to protest, but even as she held tightly to Squee's hand, she could see her own starting to fade out. She tried to speak again, to beg him not to do it, but it was too late. She was waking up.

Todd felt a stab of emotional pain as the girl finally disappeared, taking even the hum of the other voices with her, before looking back into the vortex in front of him. After raising a hand to skim the surface of the schism, he brought it back, his body shaking with a strange kind of energy. But he didn't have time for this kind of experimentation. The room was now full of fog and Shmee would be trying to stop him again soon. Savoring one last breath, in case it really was his last, he stepped forward, taking the plunge through the archway.

The entire world seemed to come to an end. And then a beginning. And then some impossible state that contained both the beginning and the end, but was neither. Everything that he thought he knew was consumed by a black, scorching fire, which left freshly ignited stars burning in its wake. Space. He was in space! Or he was space because he didn't seem to have a body anymore, not even an imaginary one. He felt as though his being was spread over an enormous distance, through an enormous expanse of time. When he moved, the universe moved, but it was impossible to tell which one was the initiator of the movement. Everything was swirling together; dancing to some undifferentiated song that told an unspoken truth, a never-ending story.

With every spin that existence took, he became more spread out, more entangled in its invisible folds, more a part of its every facet. He could feel himself slipping almost carelessly away, his ego being stripped like tarnish from fine, old silver. He thought that maybe he was dying, but it didn't matter. It was funny, even hilarious, the lives that were wasted worrying about mortality. Then, in an instant that could have been an eternity, there was no more him. There was no more anything, but that nothing was everything. It contained everything because when nothing becomes a stable condition it becomes something, and chaos can not allow that. It was every possible reality, every point in time all at once. It was amazing, and completing and terrifying. And then it was gone.

Slowly, the subjective experiences of his life came back to him. The world was black again: black and empty. The horrors of before were nowhere to be seen. No more blood sea for ground, no more hungry vines, no more blade-armed creatures or bone structures. Just nothing except for himself and one other.

Todd stared at the glowing energy being with a sort of dazed look. The being had taken on a similar appearance to that which Pepito's father had showed them in the projection from Nny's basement. The lung-like organs inside were still dark in color, but the two outer layers had changed. The inner “body” was turquoise instead of orange and the outer murky red mist had turned to a soft blue glow. “Shmee?”

The being stared back in awe. “Todd, that...that was magnificent! I'd no idea that humans were capable of such feats! There was so much emotional energy! And without any fear! It shouldn't be possible!”

At those words the boy’s expression hardened, though he found that he had to force any actual anger to the surface. “Is that all you care about, you precious energy and how much you can get?”

“No! No, my boy, you don't understand! You don't know what this means for my people! For your own people! If this...experience...of yours could be simulated in other hosts, then fear would no longer be necessary. It would mean a whole new approach to life! It would mean-”

So Shmee had felt all of that too. Of course he had. He had been in Todd's mind when it happened, and maybe the sheer force of it all had peeled a couple layers of illusion from the anaphasic life form as well. Maybe. But he still was what he was. He was being more straightforward now, but he was still obsessed with feeding, and Todd was in no mood to deal with this. “Shmee?”

“Yes?” The life form stopped mid-sentence at the interruption.

“Get out of my mind.”

“Of course, my boy, but if you would just listen-”

“We'll talk about this later.”

“Todd-”

“Later, Shmee.” With a focused effort of will then, the trauma sponge disappeared much as Letta had before he had stepped into the arch, leaving Todd alone with the darkness; alone with himself. He smiled slightly. “This won't do.”

-----------Back at the lab----------------

Letta sat in a chair with a blanket around her shoulders as she raised a still trembling hand to take a slow sip of some kind of tea-like drink that Zim's computer had given her to calm her nerves. At first she had been hysterical, almost certain that Squee was going to die. But the screen had continued to document what he was experiencing, even if the boy himself was nowhere in sight. And then he had been back, alive and safe. And no longer trapped in the bone structure. Her relief was immense, but she still felt as though she might be in shock. And she might need therapy herself after this, but there was no way that she could tell her dad about it.

“Do not worry, fragile little worm baby! The Squeaky-hyuman is finnne! See?” Zim pointed a black-gloved finger at the monitor happily. Just a few Earth minutes ago the Shmee-monster had finally been separated from the boy's body, thanks in large part to the AMAZING technology of ZIM! Or so he liked to pretend. He wasn't really sure what had given the Squeak the power to control his inner world, but all that really mattered was that it was working to the invader's advantage. Shmee was currently contained in the pink bear of fluffy, fluffy wuv, merrily and eagerly waiting for his human to wake up. As were they all.

“That would make such a great game. Well, you know, if it was a first person shooter type game. And with more levels and twists.” Gaz smirked, looking to her left, at her brother. “Do you think Squee would mind it I based a game on this?”

“What?” Giving her a look of disbelief, Dib shook his head. “I don't know, Gaz! Ask him yourself...sometime after all this is over.”

“I thought it was over.”

“It's not over until we take down Bitters! This is just the first step! Now we have to question the alien-”

“The one that you're not going out with?”

“Yes, the one that I'm not-hey!” He paused to take a deep breath, ignoring Zim's pleased look. Anything that brought him displeasure pleased the Irken. “Shmee. We have to question Shmee so that we can get more intelligence on Bitters. And then we formulate a plan to stop her horrible evil! And then-”

“Okay, okay, we get it. You think maybe I should cut out the ending? It's kind of lame.” She gestured to the screen, where Squee was lying on his back in a relaxed position, all the while busy with the task of recreating his imaginary world. It was like watching a time lapse of evolution. It played out so fast that it looked more like magic than science, but she figured that maybe it was because there were fairies and other such creatures. Giant yellow and purple flowers bloomed to release hoards of fireflies, which took to the air and the sky, sprinkling it with shiny stars. “Yeah. Really lame.” The monsters had been cooler.

“Oh, I don't know. I kind of like it.” Pepito added his opinion absentmindedly, even though the question hadn't been addressed to him, without taking his eyes off the screen. “It's a fitting prize for winning an inner battle against your own fears: gaining control of your own world, becoming your own god.”

“Pssh. Like I said, totally lame. Gamers like cool rewards like free pizza. Or just cool endings.”

The demonic teen rolled his eyes at this, but couldn't bring himself to be truly upset at the moment. Todd was okay, and that was the important thing. He couldn't expect most humans to understand his sentiment anyway. The girl probably couldn't handle that kind of power herself. The truth was, not many people could.

Humans had historically not been too capable when it came to facing the truth that they so ardently claimed to seek, and often mistakenly claimed to have. Of those who did see beyond the veil of all time and space without some kind of filter, like the All Seeing Eye or a firm hold on what they were looking for such as when he and Todd had paid a visit to Hell, most ran away in fear. Others went insane. It was a rare person who was actually inspired. He smiled. He had always known that Todd was special.

“Just think of it as the ultimate game cheat.”

“Yeah, but the game is already over. And even if it wasn't, a cheat that powerful would make it pointless.”

“No. The game is just beginning. The game is life: real life.”

Great. Now Pepito was starting to sound like Dib. Gaz gave him an incredulous look. “You're saying that his having power over his imagination like that is going to give him powers in real life? Outside of his mind and Zim's simulator?”

“No, no.” He waved a dismissive hand. “Not directly. But his fears and insecurities have always held him back, you know? And now maybe he can get over that. Self-confidence and security play a big part of getting what you want in life.”

Gaz shrugged. Everything that he was saying was true, and she guessed that she did hope Squee gained something from the experience. But it was still a lame thing to put into a video game.

“Hey, Pepito, you're pretty smart for a popular kid.” Dib's tone was a mix of admiration and suspicion. It was meant as a compliment, but how a nonconformist with an IQ over one hundred could become popular eluded him. What if something sinister was going on? Something paranormal!

It was Pepito's turn to shrug. “Eh. I'm not that popular.” It was true. He was only moderately popular, which was exactly what he wanted in hi skool. Being at the top of the rung meant being secretly hated by everyone else, friends included. It also usually meant flipping burgers or driving trucks after hi skool was over. But there was a rare, almost magical place in hi skool society: a place where you could maintain the respect of most of the important cliques and teachers alike; a place where you could make good grades and be on student council without being a nerd or a suck up.

He could socialize with people from most social statuses without raising an eyebrow. Not many people actually wanted to be him, which was what garnered jealousy anyway, but almost everyone wanted to be his friend. But from Dib's perspective, this was definitely an enviable position. Dib wasn't exactly on the bottom rung, the one reserved for people who didn't take a bath or change clothes daily, but he wasn't far from it. Zealous ranting about deviant beliefs would do that every time, especially when you did it on table tops in crowded places. It was something he knew from long ago experience.

“Hey, there's someone else there, in his mind.” Letta pointed at the screen as her hoarse voice interrupted the lag in conversation.

The eyes of the Antichrist widened as his chain of thought was broken into millions of tiny links at what he was beholding on the screen.

As Todd lay, staring into the rising sun that must not have been hurting his eyes, a small, dark silhouette appeared in the distance. It seemed to grow larger as it approached, eventually coming into focus in the shape of a man. All through the stranger's advance, Todd had remained calm, regarding the man, as everything else, with passive interest.

When the man finally came within a few feet of the boy, he smiled down at his prone form before offering him a hand. “Come with me.”

Todd seemed to hesitate, but there was no hint of fear or worry. The pause seemed as though it was only to consider whether he was more interested in who this fellow was or the sunrise. Eventually, he took the hand and even returned the smile.

At the point of contact, the light from the rising sun on the scene in Zim's base seemed to crest. The entire view was engulfed in white light before going stark black.

“W-what just happened?” The tea-like substance fell to the ground with a clatter and a splash.

Dib's hands instantly found Letta's shoulders to keep her calm, or at least seated, as he addressed Zim, voice serious once again. “Is he still unconscious?”

“Who was that?” The words sprung from Gaz's mouth in a blend of frustration and excitement. So maybe the game wasn't over yet! But how could anyone else be in his mind?

“Silence, worm babies! He is still unconscious. His brain waves have jumped a little in frequency, but that shouldn't have disrupted the output.”

“If Shmee is out, shouldn't he have woken up?” Letta's hand took a hold of one of Dib’s in an attempt to pry it from her shoulder. She needed to move! She needed to do something! “Oh God, we need to get him to a hospital!”

“AGAIN with the hospital! Don't be ridiculous! ZIM's basement is far more advanced that any hospital on this pathetic...er landmass!”

“Well, then do something!”

“Zim is working on it! Something is scrambling the data before it gets to the interface!” Stupid, uppity simians! The Irken's eyes narrowed at the computer monitor before him in determination.

“So it's something on Todd's side.” That's right Dib. Calm and logical. That's the way to fix this problem.

“Shit! Zim, we have to wake him up!” Pepito cringed at his own panicked voice as all eyes landed on him. “That thing...that person...whoever that was...they came from the void! It could be anything. Anything at all!"

Notes:

-Squee's pov on Thanksgiving (and a lot of related things) that Shmee mentioned comes from the Squee comic titled “another valuable lesson” in which he wonders how Columbus discovered America if there were already people there. Basically, I scrape the barrel of the cannon material, over analyze it, and then make the meaning more sophisticated as the characters get older. I did this with Dib too. Most of his political beliefs in this fic come from one little exchange from Tak, the Hideous New Girl:

Tak: “The great thing about your people, Dib, is that most of them don't notice. All they see is another faceless corporate venture, not a plan for world conquest.” Dib: “Wait, is there really a difference?” I'm thinking this may mean Dib has some negative feelings about capitalism and cares about things like fair trade, sweat shops, corporate raiding, ethical consumerism, etc. He may also have some fears that humans will one day become like Irkens, even if he does save them: obsessed with economic expansion at the cost of lives and freedom of others, lazy and in love with convenience to the point of merging with computers so as to do less of their own thinking and less work. Gaz would probably remind him of this fear even more than Zim as she is obsessed with snacking and video games.

-“Fear is the oldest and strongest emotion of mankind.” is a quote by H. P. Lovecraft.

-Little Boy Lost is a poem by William Blake. A lot of the conversation between Squee and Shmee in the nightmare-verse was inspired by the song “Pet” by A Perfect Circle. I know a lot of people think of Nny and Squee with that song, but to me it sounds more like the relationship that Shmee and Squee have. Nny is the boogeyman. Lyrics: http://www.lyrics007.com/A%20Perfect%20Circle%20Lyrics/Pet%20Lyrics.html

- “dead things move slow!” and “Dead things don't move fast. You're a corpse, for Christ's sakes. If you run that fast, your ankles are gonna snap off.” are quotes from George Romero's Diary of the Dead.

--The term “untempered schism” is borrowed from Doctor Who and Pepito's reflection on those who experience it running away, becoming inspired or going insane is a twist on what the Doctor explains about the Gallifreyan children that were exposed to it for initiation as Time Lords. Even so, the idea of what the untempered schism is was not taken from Doctor Who (but I think it's basically the same thing in Who too). It is related to what Pepito explains about astral projection and the nature of the multiverse back in chapter nine.

Squee and Invader Zim characters belong to Jhonen Vasquez.