It was another dark day. Gir could tell by the way his master shuffled in sadly that Zim had yet again failed. The Irken slumped on the chair, watching the noise and lights flashing from the TV. This day had hit him hard, and Gir had never really known why. He resisted his dying urge to go and play with the pig he was holding, but he put it down, watching it run out of the room in a terrified panic. No, there was no time for pig. His master needed him, and he had to help however he could. He walked over to Zim, noticing the burns around his normally green face. His left antenna was now burned short, leaving it half the size it was. Gir wondered what could have caused the Irken to get so injured, and he didn't know. The only bad injuries he saw was on the scary monkey show, and even then it was because the monkey had lost his bananas yet again. Gir walked softly towards his master, sitting next to him on the settee that he was slouching on. The Irken only responded by twitching his antenna; his eyes remained glued to the TV.
"What's the matter, master?" Gir asked in his chirpy, robotic voice. Zim didn't respond, only making shooing motions with his black gloved hand. Gir continued to watch the Irken, disobeying his orders to try and guess what was wrong.
Minutes passed, only the image on the tv changed. It was a news report, talking about strange sights that had been seen in the sky the last night. Gir's small brain made a connection; was master caught in the act? Was Dib gonna be proved right for once? Gir shivered, and shook his head, the paperclips that made up his brain rattling against his metal head. No, it couldn't be that. Something had crushed Zim's soul today, and Zim wasn't telling.
"Master, you know you can tell me if anything..." Gir started, but Zim was quick to silence the little robot.
"Silence!" Zim shouted, finally turning towards Gir, "Can you not see that I am trying to blot out our recent failure?" Gir stopped, stunned by the Irken's sudden response. "Almost got spotted, may have given myself away to the filthy humans!"
Gir almost giggled at the word 'filthy'. He couldn't help it, even he knew that he was broken. Everyone except Zim knew he was broken, and Gir thought that Zim should have picked up a clue by now. In a way, both of them were broken. He still remembered the time his obedience chip took over, the thoughts in his head telling him that the Irken was disruptive to the plan. Disruptive and a waste of time. Not worth the PAK on his back. Gir sighed, his wobbly antenna falling to the ground. Maybe he should have played with Pig instead. This was making Gir feel useless. He looked again at his master, who's eyes seemed to be shiny with sadness.
"Dib," Zim nodded, "A trap, must have messed with my engines. Landed on a farm; a farmer saw me." Zim turned to Gir with fear in his eyes, "I don't want to fail my Tallests! Not again..." Zim turned around, "not again..."
"Master, you won't fail." Gir said after a pause.
"Eh?" Zim looked over to the defective SIR unit. "As perfect as I am, I still feel...that I will." Zim looked down, almost ashamed of calling himself perfect in those last few seconds. "I have failed before...destroyed half of my own planet...killed too many Tallest to recall...and probably will end up getting us discovered."
"No you will not, master!" Gir shouted, "We are in a different world now, one with tacos and pigs and stupid monkey people! They are not good enough to wipe your feet, master! Remember the first day we met? We are going to rain down some doom on our doomed enemies, remember? Doom doom do doom doom do do do do..." Gir started getting carried away, singing the doom song to himself as Zim picked himself up. The Irken gave a small smile, still feeling vulnerable but able to pick himself up and plan for another day. After a while, the doom song started to get very annoying, and so Zim decided to give out a big shout.
"Gir!" He shouted, bringing the SIR unit out of his fluffy cloud.
"Yes master?" Gir asked, happy to see his master up and active again.
"Get the computer online!" Zim grinned, "I have another plan!"
"Another plan, another plan, another plan!" Gir shouted, skipping towards the computer. Zim smiled again, knowing that nothing could beat Zim now. This plan was perfect, Dib would never suspect a thing.