Zim and Dib are now freshmen; Gaz is in eighth grade. Zim is in his base and his leaders just found an odd excuse to end his surprise call, not knowing that they let slip an important piece of information.
Never had Zim felt so much at one time. He was shocked. He felt stupid, hurt, confused, and angry. He felt like a failure. He felt helpless. And if there was one thing Zim didn't like, it was feeling helpless. He was the almighty ZIM! He wasn't helpless… until now. The room was silent. Even GIR was silent. He saw that his master was deeply troubled. He knew the weight that the words from the mouths of the Tallest carried. Not because of who they were, but because of what they meant. Just before the transmission had been cut, Zim had heard something that changed the course of his life forever. He stood; blank-faced in front of the empty screen; the computer not daring to interrupt his trance. Finally, Zim turned slowly to face his minion. His ruby eyes blazed; the anger and pain welled up in him, and began to give way to an unquenchable hunger for vengeance. He told GIR: "We will take over this miserable, filthy planet, and perhaps others, and the Tallest will see how worthy I am, and they will rue the day they EVER DISOWNED ZIM!" "YAY!" GIR exclaimed. Zim smiled; chuckling darkly, "Yes GIR, yay."
Two years pass (Zim and Dib are juniors; Gaz is a sophomore). Zim has made many attempts at world domination, none of them successful. This is, of course, mostly thanks to Dib; who is still believed to be crazy for thinking Zim is an alien. Gaz is still annoyed by it all, but mostly by the fact that she knows Zim is actually smart, although he has his moments. She knows that if he had a genius day, nothing went wrong, and her brother would stay out of the way, he probably could take over Earth. Not that she cared. Dib has noticed that Zim's most recent plans have been increasingly intelligent, complex, risky, and desperate. He is concerned. He doesn't want Zim to take over Earth, but he feels he would probably have a boring life without Zim to bother him. Zim is beginning to realize that his efforts are inevitably fruitless, and will continue to be if he doesn't do something drastic. He cannot deal with the fact that the Tallest found him to be useless and destructive, and sent him away to be rid of him. He is teetering on the psychological brink; something is going to change; who knows what, but all Zim needs is a push.
Zim smiled in a way that only he could. He did it with evil in his eyes; you could see it despite the contacts. Today he would carry out a plan that he knew would work. He followed Gaz out the doors of the building that had been labeled 'hi skool.' Gaz knew she was being followed, but she was in a good mood, and found Zim's little caper entertaining. So she let him alone, to see what he was going to do. Dib had some kind of sciencey-club meeting after school today, and wouldn't be heading this way for another half-hour or so. Zim followed her until he knew they were alone on the street. He then sped up so that he was walking beside Gaz. Without turning her head she said "What is it this time, Zim?"
"Oh, Zim was just admiring the uniqueness of your lovely purple hair." He could think of no other way to distract her.
Gaz laughed, "I'm sure. What are you up to this time? Am I gonna have to rescue my brother again? Because I really don't feel like a rescue mission today; I want to play my new video game."
"Oh, you will find out soon enough, little Gaz. My plan will soon be clear…" Zim smiled mischievously.
Gaz knew he was going to do something; otherwise he wouldn't have bothered with her. She was keeping up conversation for the sake of stalling; so she could get information.
"But as Zim was saying, your hair is a fascinating hue; very rare, and Zim would like to test it; to study its genetic properties."
"Since when were you into human genetics?" Gaz humored him for the time being.
"Um…." A confused look invaded his formerly confident face. He had obviously not predicted this question and as such was searching for a credible answer. He found one. Or almost found one.
"When Zim takes over Earth, he wants to breed human smeets to have whatever hair color he wants so GIR can play dress-up with wigs and won't bother Zim anymore. GIR has taken a liking to purple lately."
"Oh, really?" Gaz mused. "And were this true, what would you need from me?"
Zim began to reach for the back of her neck. "Zim would only need a small snippet of Gaz's hair…"
"Touch my hair and you die, Zim."
"Really? Well then I wonder what happens if I do this?" Gaz could feel his hand on her neck; she was about to punch him when she felt the sting, then it all went black. Zim was proud of himself; it had worked. The Gaz-human had believed him; long enough for his plan to work. He picked her up and headed for his base. He paged his minion: "GIR! Get the base ready; we have company."
"Yay!" was all Zim heard before he hung up. Not that he had expected any different.