"You'll never catch me, Dib-stink!" called the Irken behind his back, still running as fast as he could. Being chased into the middle of the city meant that he couldn't just use his PAK's legs to get away. Still, he could run just as fast as Dib, so as long as he didn't get tired...

"That's what you think, Zim!" the boy shot back, sprinting with all his might. Dib was huffing, exhausted, his trench coat was trailing behind him, flapping in the wind. Zim was weaving in and out of alleyways, through crowds, doing everything to try and shake him off. But Dib was not one to mess around. He would catch that alien, no matter what. Today would be the day.

Just like it had been for the past three years.

Gratuitous amounts of stolen human growth hormone had kept Zim and Dib the same height, which by earth standards was actually pretty tall. They both had the same lanky features, however Zim still looked as odd and green as the day Dib had met him, 'met' being a relatively calm term for what had happened. They had pretty much been the same for all those years, although Dib had noticed that Zim seemed to have grown some morals as well, probably from the hormones. Zim's disguise wasn't much better, although now he wore an actual backpack over his PAK and had a slightly more normal wig. It was raven black, as always, but had bangs and was longer. Sometimes it almost made him look like a girl, much to Dib's amusement. Zim had also begun wearing fingerless gloves since Gir had advised him to do so after watching too much MTV. Another thing about Irkens- they had no fingernails.

Zim turned a corner again, and Dib rushed off behind him. They flew down the street, knocking over many a pedestrian and sending a few shopping bags into the air. Both were panting heavily now- the chase had lasted a good hour already. If they hadn't been used to this sort of thing they probably would have collapsed a while ago. Maybe this time it would finally work out, reasoned Dib.

Zim suddenly came to the corner and turned abruptly, running across the street, asphalt crunching under his heavy Irken boots. Luckily for him there were no cars at the time. Dib soon skittered after him, rushing into the street with reckless abandon. Zim had already gotten to the other side safely, and had no intention of turning back. Until he heard the squeal.

Dib turned, mid-step, towards the giant machine coming towards him. Time slowed to cruel pace, letting Dib take in every refraction of light, every shadow, every inch of the thing closing in on him. His eyes widened, and for a moment he knew exactly what was going to happen. Fate had finally caught up to him.

Time resumed her normal speed.

There was a cry and a and a loud crack.

Zim saw the boy fly, tumbling back into the street. The car screeched to a halt. He landed with a sick splish, bouncing on the pavement, head snapping back before hitting the road again. Then he lay there, eerily still. There was a pause, then everything went into overdrive. People crowded around, making it impossible to see what was going on. Zim rushed to push through the crowd. There were too many people though, and he just kept getting sent back.

Suddenly a shout was heard. "Get back! Give him some room!" It came from a stranger, but the crowd obeyed and made a loose circle around the boy. Zim saw his opportunity and shoved through to the small center clearing.

As soon as he stepped in he heard a splash, and looked down. Ruby red blood stained his boots. He quickly found the source, laying in the middle of the road. No words escaped his mouth- only a name. "Dib?" he questioned, not quite believing what he was seeing.

"Oh my God, he's not breathing!" exclaimed a girl, who was kneeling at his side. She was the one who had shouted for space. A small commotion erupted.

"Dib?" repeated Zim. He sneered. "Get up, human. The chase isn't over."

"Someone give me their cell phone!" she yelled, trying to get the crowd to focus. Somebody handed her a small plastic square, which she swiftly began dialing.

"Dib, get up," ordered Zim, albeit shakily. He started towards the boy, each step sloshing lightly. Zim was beginning to quiver. Dib was not getting up. Dib was not fighting. Dib was not doing anything except laying there like her was dead. Zim swallowed, his mouth suddenly dry. Everything was so clear, the blood reflecting crystalline crimson in the glint of the sunlight, Dib sprawled on the gray, blue shirt staining as the seconds ticked by, seeming like hours.

Zim crouched down by his enemy. The girl on the phone glanced at him quizzically but soon was trying frantically to tell the 9-1-1 operator to get an ambulance. There was a silence, a few 'ok's, a few 'yes's, a few 'no's, and another silence. She looked at Zim, who was sitting with a lost stare on his face. "Do you know him?" she asked quickly. Zim jolted up, startled. He didn't seem to remember how to talk at the moment, so he just nodded. There was some more conversation, but Zim didn't seem to notice. He just gazed at his fallen enemy, trembling and shaken.

A flash of lights signaled that the ambulance had showed up. A path opened up, and a flood of paramedics rushed to the boys side. Zim was pushed out of the way, and stared, horrified as they lifted him onto a stretcher and hauled him inside, leaving a trail of blood in their wake. At the last second his brain seemed to kick in. "I know him!" he called, jumping up. A nurse motioned for him to hurry, and he leaped into the back of the white vehicle. He had to follow Dib. As soon as he was in, the nurse reached and pulled the back doors shut.

Zim could hear the sirens wailing through the ambulances thin metal walls. Paramedics swarmed around the battered body, attaching tubes and wires wherever they were needed. There was a buzz of excitement, and Zim only caught snippets of what they were saying. 'No response... crucial to... stop the bleed... check for... fractured his... internal...' were a few of the phrases he caught out of the heavy air, charged with fresh panic and smelling like a mix of bleach and blood. Zim just stood silently, pressed against the metallic white-wash walls, trying to take it in and block it out at the same time. He made sure he was out of their way.

So this was victory.

A bump jostled the ambulance, rattling all the tubes and wires. A repetitive blip over the soft hum of talking was the only thing indicating the body on the stretcher was still there. And even then, it might not have been really there. Zim almost fell over, but caught himself. A new drip of vermilion shone on the floor. Zim traced it up the pale hand it had come from, even paler arm where the usual trench had been discarded, and up his shoulder to his face.

That face. That face that had taunted Zim for so long now lay flat on a starchy cotton mat, eyes closed and mouth open in a silent scream that would never be heard. A dirty streak ran down his cheek, and ended with a dot of still wet crimson. Dib's glasses were gone, shattered on the side of the road, left where nobody would notice them. The whole scene hit something in Zim, something that wasn't supposed to be, but it nonetheless hit.

So this was victory, eh? No glorious battle, no fight to the finish. Zim had just unwittingly lured the boy into danger. He stared Dib in the face, trying to feel happiness instead of shock. He tried to give a proud victory grin, but all he could manage was a grimace.

Suddenly Dib was whisked out of Zim's sight in a whirlwind of panicking nurses and emergency tech's. They had arrived at the hospital. Zim leaned out of the van, hoping to see where he was going. He didn't want to loose sight of the boy. Before he could jump out and follow, however, one stray nurse tapped him on the shoulder.

"Do you know his name? We need to contact his family as soon as possible," she asked hurriedly.

Zim's mouth seemed to stick for minute, but then he quickly realized how urgent she sounded. "Yes, that's Dib. The... Membrane's boy," he said with a bit of difficulty. His brain wasn't really working at full steam; the image of Dib hooked up to all those wires, those bloody wires and tubes, rusty color soaking through him was still burnt into his mind.

The nurse seemed completely shocked. "M- Membrane? A- as in P- Professor Membrane?" she stuttered, wondering if she could have possible heard wrong. Zim nodded shakily, to her utter horror. "Oh God..." she muttered under her breath, before realizing that she still had a patient in critical condition. She leaped out, sprinting after the team, already heading to surgery. Zim didn't hesitate for a second. He ran up behind her, and into the emergency bay.

Everything was stark, horrible white. He kept following the woman, who had caught up to the team and was now shouting for everyone available to help out. "Four plus emergency!" she shouted, causing startled heads to pop out of doorways lining the halls they were running. "We need help, now!" she commanded. Zim followed closely, his usual fear of hospitals abandoned. There was no time for hesitation now. He had to follow. After all, as soon as Dib woke up the fight would start again.

They rushed past many doors but finally went into one. However, the nurse stopped Zim before he could enter. "I'm sorry, but you'll have to stay in the waiting room," she explained.

Zim began to protest, "But I-"

"Look, I know you're upset and you want to help," she said rushed, "but you just can't." A few doctors rushed in beside her. "I'm sorry," she added sympathetically. Then she turned and entered the room, leaving Zim alone in the hall.

He stepped down the hall to the crowded waiting room, filled with sniffles and old magazines. He found a chair and sat down, then pulled his knees up and buried his heavy head. He hated being powerless, but he knew the only thing he could do was wait and scheme. Dib would come bursting through the door soon. It was just a matter of time. This was definitely not victory. This was nothing worth celebrating.

"What did you do, you bastard?"

Gaz stared down her nose at him. Zim looked up, surprised that so much time could have passed already. The professor was standing by the door, demanding that the nurses let him in to the OR.

He swallowed, throat feeling thick and face looking pained. "Zim did nothing."

"Bullshit," she said as she sat down next to him. "There's no way that you let Dib hurt himself without your help."

Zim waved his hand in dismissal. "Silence, human. Zim did nothing. Dib was merely struck by a vehicle and knocked out. Had I been involved he would be a lot more defeated than he is now. Dib is just fine."

Gaz had changed over the years too. She still had the same purple hair as always, and it was still curled up in the same style as before. She had grown some, but was still a 'little girl', in most respects. Her black dress had been replaced with a baggy grey hoodie, though she still wore her skull charm. She usually wore a pair of blue jeans, but would sometimes a black skirt, much like her old dress. Today she had picked the jeans.

"This was not a victory. This was a minor accident. Dib will be out of here soon, and then we will resume our fight and I shall have a proper victory over him."

"He's just as incapacitated as he would be if you took him out," she replied, unable to stop herself from pointing out the flaw in his logic. Zim would never manage to take over the world anyway. It wasn't like helping him would do any good.

"Yes, but... this is not proper. I was supposed to defeat him by my superior skill as an invader!"

Gaz's eyebrows arched high on her forehead. "What do you mean, defeated?"

"Well," Zim corrected himself, "he hasn't been defeated. He's just... temporarily incapacitated. Dib would never die so easily." Gaz gave an involuntary twitch as Zim said 'die'. She was about to say something else when a man walked up to the pair, and both of them looked up. Professor Membrane towered above them, but soon took a seat next to Gaz, looking defeated.

"They say we can't see him yet," he said, voice sounding worn and ragged. He sat slumped in his seat, abandoning his usual refined posture. He stared at the tile between his two shiny black boots, barely visible under his lab coat. A sigh escaped him, and he looked back up. "You were there, weren't you, foreign boy?" Zim only nodded. Even though he and the professor had had a few talks, he still didn't know the alien's name. It didn't really bother Zim, though.

Membranes head drooped again, and he was once again staring at the floor. Gaz began to fiddle with her skull charm nervously. Waiting only made her more anxious. Zim only clutched his knees to his chest and stared at the clock, watching the seconds go by for what seemed like eternity.

The seconds went by like years, leaving the three to sit in agony. Membrane sat stiff in his chair, clearly frayed. The other two were faring no better. Zim couldn't stop himself from shaking; no matter how hard he tried to hold his knees to his chin he still trembled. Occasionally he could be heard mumbling to himself, "He'll come out here any minute now." Gaz bit her lip until it began to go numb. Still they waited.

Hours passed. Still they remained the same. People came and went, sat down and got up, and the three never moved. Nobody tried to talk to them- it was obvious they were all too upset, and nobody wanted to cause a breakdown in the waiting room. Every once and a while a choked sob would come from Membrane, followed by a thick swallow, but that was the only noise that the trio made.

Then, just when Zim felt like he was about to implode, a man in a white coat and large, wiry glasses walked up to them and asked, "Are you the family or friends Dib Membrane?" They all three looked up at the man. Zim's mind went blank. Dib should have already come out if he was... no, he had to be okay. Dib never died, no matter what. Zim knew, he had tried. He opened his mouth to ask what the man wanted, but Membrane spoke first. The man gulped.

"I... I'm sorry."

Zim felt time fall out from under him. The man would only be apologizing if he had failed to do something, and the only thing that needed doing was stitching up Dib, and if that could not be done then the boy was dead, but Dib couldn't be dead. It simply couldn't be.

"We did all we could," he continued, a sympathetic look on his face. Membrane didn't react. He didn't dare. Gaz covered her mouth, trying to remain expressionless. But Zim only shook his lowered head.

"No. No, that's impossible," he said shakily. He looked up, his face flushed. "No! You're lying! Dib is not dead!" he shrieked, leaping out of his seat and grabbing the mans collar. He was still quivering. Millions of thoughts swarmed in his mind, but above all a defying 'no' ran through his head. It couldn't be true. Zim refused to believe it.

But then the man paused, a confused look on his face. "I... never said he was."

Zim dropped him. He was shaking worse than ever. "But if..." he trailed off. Gaz lowered her hand from her mouth, and curled it into a fist. The man was once again lifted by his collar off the ground.

"You will tell me where he is or so help me I will shatter every single bone in your pathetic body and..." she growled, tears pricking at the corner of her vision. She began shaking as badly Zim had been, enraged at the useless idiot in front of her.

Membrane, breaking his stony silence, put his hand on her shoulder and said quietly, "Gaz." It was firm, though, and Gaz dropped him to the floor. This time he didn't land on his feet, however.

"R-r-room 215," he stammered, trying to adjust his glasses, now bent at an odd angle form the fall. He propped himself up on his elbows and continued, "It's down the hall and t-to the left." Zim was gone as soon as he heard the number, with Gaz not that far behind.

The Irken sprinted through the halls, pushing past nurses and knocking anyone stupid enough to get in his way down, leaving a trail of scattered papers being him. He was bounding through the halls, heart pounding in his ears. It synced up with his footsteps, hard on the tile, running for all they were worth. He would kill Dib for scaring him like that! He'd kill the stupid human who had the audacity to get hurt!

"Dib!" he yelled as he skidded to a stop. Silence replied.

Then he heard it. A electric beat, soft, barely audible through the excitement in his mind. He exhaled shakily, trying to clear his head. Yes, there was a steady rhythm in the room. And that meant...

"Dib! You stupid filthy worm, wake up! How dare you! You are not allowed to die unless Zim says so!"

Gaz burst in, and her face was hot with rage. She was panting from the sprint down the hall still, but it only took her a moment to realize what was in front of her. "You said he was okay!" She screamed, whirling to face Zim.

"Dib is fine," Zim said with a irritated scowl, "He is merely resting."

"He doesn't look fine!" she spat. Zim glared.

"Of course he is fine! This is the Dib human we're talking about. He must be fine, for he is useless to me if he is not alive to be my nemesis."

Before Gaz could spit out another comment, a solemn Professor Membrane and the same doctor from earlier came marching in. The Professor seemed very on edge, and when the doctor flipped on the lights all the way, everyone got to see how bad things really were.

Dib was wrapped all over in bandages. Some of them were already staining from the blood, but most were still cotton white. There were many tubes going into him- An IV drip with antibiotics, a tube for blood, as he had lost so much, and there was a tube in his throat, which connected to a humming machine; an oxygen machine. Dib's chest wasn't moving up and down like normal, but the beeping from his heart monitor told them that he was still alive.

"As you can see," explained the doctor, "we had to perform a tracheotomy to make sure his lungs got enough oxygen, and he had multiple fractures to his vertebrae. There was some internal bleeding, as well. All in all- he's in pretty bad shape."

"How bad?" demanded Zim. "Surely this is but a minor injury."

The doctor turned around. He had been speaking to the professor, but he supposed that question would have to be answered soon anyways. Besides, he didn't want to annoy these kids anymore- two death threats had been enough for one day. "We... we won't really know until he wakes up," he said. "We can do some tests now, but with his spinal cord injury, to move him would be unwise. So until he comes out of the coma, we'll ave to assume the worst."

"And that will happen... when?" asked Zim expectantly.

"We... don't know," he answered sheepishly. "It might only be few hours. It could be weeks, or even years," he continued, "It all depends."

Zim's eyes widened in shock. "Y- years?" he sputtered, horrified. The doctor only stared at the tile floor. "No, no, not acceptable," mumbled the alien. He stepped over to the bed. "Dib, wake up now. Zim commands you!"

He got no response.

"Dib, wake up! This is an order," he said, raising his voice.

Still nothing.

"Dib! Wake up, now!" he shouted.

And the boy just continued to lay there. Zim couldn't take it. He screamed at the top of his lungs, filling the room with an inhuman sound. He began to curse in Irken between demands for Dib's compliance. Eventually he wore himself out and fell to the floor. He punched at the dirty tile a few times before even that become too hard. It became quiet. For a moment Gaz thought Zim was laughing, but then she realized the real cause for his labored breathing.

"Should I get you guys chairs or something?" asked the doctor timidly. Membrane nodded again. The doctor raced off to get them what they needed. Zim stayed on the floor in a heap. This was not victory. This was only an accident. How dare Dib do this to he, the mighty Zim. Now the stupid human had left him without a nemesis to defeat. Without a reason to take over the world. Without a reason.

They sat there for hours ."I hate you," Zim managed to choke out every once and a while. "How dare you abandon Zim." The only other sounds came from the oxygen machine and the heart monitor. Zim practically crawled out of the room when visiting hours were over.