(A/N: okay so I have never written an Invader Zim fanfiction and I know that Jhonen doesn't approve of ZaDr, but I can't stop it running around in my head. So, I am writing a fic to vent my frustrations. Sorry Jhonen, I know it makes your belly ill, so I hope you never see this. And I most definitely don't own Invader Zim, though you are welcome to send me a House Box…)
Chapter 1—Try to Remember
Zim groaned under his breath and opened his eyes. Dawn. He resented his need for sleep, almost as much as he resented his taste for Earth food that was not merely 'junk'. The planet that he had been banished to (for it was now too obvious to avoid admitting) had changed him, and was still changing him. The Tallest had made sure that his genetics would begin to alter themselves the moment he drew breath on an alien world. Parts of him weren't even recognizably Irken anymore, least of all to the DNA scanner in his ship.
He crawled out of bed and placed his feet on the floor, it was cold as always, and he wiggled his toes with distaste. They were quite human, as were his fingers. The changes that had brought them were all so intensely painful that he had missed Skool for weeks. He had neither desired nor needed the nose (small though it was) or ears that had grown to make his face more human. His skin was still green and his eyes still red, but a thick mop of black hair had grown over his scalp, hiding his antennae from the world. Unless of course he picked them up, still unable to control the urge to try to listen more closely with them. He was undeniably more human than ever, and he didn't even need his disguise.
Letting his muscles wake up for a moment he trailed his fingers over the material of his pajama bottoms, he didn't like to think that he now had to cover himself at virtually all times. Growing what medical texts dubbed a 'penis' had hurt badly, and had led to him spending an extensive amount of time learning just what he was meant to do with it. And he figured that given his new need for water, a former allergen, that such an organ would have been needed anyway to get rid of waste. The other functions of the 'penis' left him shuddering and unable to make eye contact for weeks. He didn't want to find a mate.
As he walked across his room he thought about the time almost 8 years ago. It was all he could do to try to remember the person he had been. His personality had changed quite radically with the introduction of human emotions, and taking his mission as a fake…well he wasn't the same at all. He was Zim, but he was not Invader Zim, he was Zim Hi Skool senior. At least he had friends…sort of. Dib, human, scythe-haired nemesis, and Gaz, terrifying possibly human video game addict, they were his 'friends'.
He laughed darkly as he slipped an arbitrary concert t-shirt over his head and shrugged his pajama bottoms for a pair of black pants. Dib had turned him into one of 'those' kids, but it wasn't really a big deal. Some days they would sit together and try to remember when they fought, the time before defeat and reality turned Zim into a normal guy. But they would end up joking about it and going out for pizza, Gaz tagging along muttering something about their demise if she didn't get her Bloaty's. Zim belonged to Earth, he had even converted his Irken age to Earth years 17 ½ a small amount of time to have lived by Earth Standards. But an Irken year only took one Earth month, and his race matured quickly, learned quickly.
"Remember Zim, you are a defect. The Massive didn't want you. It won't recognize you, the Control Brain will laugh," he told himself this every day, and it seemed to be getting easier to take. His exile less and less of a burden on his heart and mind. He would overcome the pain and rejection that had gone with the banishment and the deception. And he would take solace in the fact that now; at 6'1" he was taller than his leaders, though still an inch behind Dib. Zim smiled slightly his tongue slightly wider and smoother wetting his lips as he checked his appearance. Things were perhaps…not so bad.
(A/N: Next chapter in not too long. I promise there will be some slash in the future though I don't really do lemons. We shall see where this goes. Reviews are appreciated. Thanks for reading.)