I was trying to think of all the different paths for this au but reading HCs on the last post by @letaintedserpentine they had it spot on.
When Zim comes back, he’s furious that Zib has fucked up, ruined everything. He doesn’t stop boiling with rage but Zib eventually does break down. After a while, Zib barely responds to Zim, sulking in places, telling the hologram to go away, etc.
Normally, Zib would have pushed Zim away too much that the personality is gone and he’s left alone.. but that doesn’t happen. Zim stays, gets to know the Zib, they talk it out. Then nothing progresses. Zim is stuck, he doesn’t grow mentally, he’s slowly losing old memories in order to create new ones and eventually, Zim asks to be let go.
Zib refuses, he just got to know Zim, he can’t lose him. If Zim goes, he’ll literally be all alone in the void. He can’t have that. But Zim begs.. his life is done. The Pak can’t be removed from Zib or he’ll die, and they don’t have the materials and resources to get a new body for Zim, even then, he’s still restrained to the Pak. They can’t co-exist and they both know it.
With heartfelt tears, Zib says his final goodbye to his only friend left in the void and free’s Zim from the binding code, now he’s all alone in the void.
For now..
