It was such a strange thing. But pretty much everything in Dib's life was strange since Zim landed on earth. Dib loved strange things; they usually were connected to the paranormal, his absolute passion. But this was a different kind of oddity: A bit more psychological than paranormal. It was Zim's relationship with his little robotic sidekick, GIR.

GIR was... a few screws short of cyborg. Almost everything he did was unexplained and random, and he spoke as if he was communicating with beings from a different universe.Zim, being an alien, was a lot of things to Dib, obvious things. Dangerous, incompetent, selfish... but there were not-so-obvious traits there too. One of those things being patient; only with GIR. Dib wouldn't put it past Zim to have gotten rid of GIR a long time ago, as GIR normally lacked the brains to aid Zim in his plans for world domination. But for some odd reason, Zim never seemed to hold many things against the little guy. In the heat of the moment, sure, Zim would explode at him for failing to do seemingly simple tasks. But GIR was always there for every mission, with no grudges held from his master. Dib expected Zim to be completely self-centered all the time, it seemed like it was in his nature. He expected Zim to hate GIR along with the rest of the human race, and destroy him if he failed one too many times.

But Dib's fascination with Zim let him walk in on all kinds of things going on in that house of his; Zim repairing GIR when even the slightest thing was out of place, movie nights, "donut parties", really domestic things that Dib wouldn't believe a hostile alien invader would waste his time with. It was almost... sweet.

Dib wasn't sure how this thought came to him, but now he was stuck on it. Did Irkens feel companionship like humans did? He remembered Zim mentioning how Irken children were "made"; did Irkens not feel the same maternal bonds as earthlings do? Dib stared at the wall, mind racing.

"You're doing it again," Dib's sister Gaz hissed, eyes locked on her game screen. The siblings were sitting together on their couch, Gaz playing video games while Dib vanished into his crazy ideas. The norm. Sometimes Dib got a little toodeep in his thoughts, which would ultimately result in him forgetting to perform normal functions, like blinking, or occasionally, breathing. The amount of CPR that was done on Dib weekly would knock a doctor out.

Dib blinked hard, and he felt his eyes soften again, but he never lost his train of thought. He turned to his sister and asked, "Hey Gaz, why do you think Zim keeps GIR around? He doesn't ever do what Zim wants, and he's pretty stupid."

Gaz snorted. "So are you, Dibstick," she said, never looking up. Dib slightly cringed at the old nickname but followed up his question.

"I mean, Zim's the kind of guy that you'd think wouldn't tolerate that sort of stuff, and would've fired GIR by now... don't you think?"

Gaz shrugged. "I dunno. Loneliness would be my guess." Dib looked her way, mumbling out a "Huh?"

Gaz sighed hard, but explained, "You hate him. I hate him. Not a lot of people at school like him either, they just hate you more. That dog thing is the only person that cares about him at all."

Dib contemplated this, seeing how it made a lot of sense. "It also works both ways-" she continued. "The robot's dumb. Really dumb. I doubt that he'd still be functioning if Zim didn't look after him. He would have been in a scrap heap by now: he's useless."

Dib nodded. GIR would never be used by any sane person in a professional field. He'd mess everything up.

"So Zim only keeps him around to talk to him?" Dib wondered aloud. Gaz nodded.

"I wouldn't be surprised. Zim is in a constant need of attention, and GIR supplies that. GIR needs someone to make sure he doesn't kill himself every five seconds, and Zim supplies that. They need each other."

With that, Dib got up from the couch and walked over to the door. "What, you doing to ask him yourself?" Gaz asked sharply. Dib shrugged.

"Sort of."

He left the house and made his way to Zim's. He wanted to catch another calm moment between the two to support his theory of Irken relationships. He wasn't too frightened. He expected Zim to yell at him once he entered, but that was almost routine by now.

Come to think of it,Dib thought to himself, that's theonlyreason Zim's ever upset when I come over.

Whenever Dib witnessed a tranquil (or otherwise) scene, Zim's rage only came from the fact that Dib was there uninvited. He never tried to deny anything that Dib saw. Not once did he show any embarrassment for being caught in the middle of a baking challenge with GIR, or watching any kind of TV show with him instead of working in the lab. His only actual concern was that Dib "DARED TO ENTER THE HOUSE OF THE GREAT ZIM AND EXPECTED TO RETURN IN ONE PIECE."

Dib quickly crept over to the house and peered inside the window. To his disappointment, there was no one to be found. They must be in the lab. Dib repressed a shudder; going down into the heart of his lair was a much different thing than looking into it from afar. He wasn't scared,only cautious. His drive to expose Zim was trying to push him inside the home, but common sense stopped him. If he was going to go in there, he wasn't going alone.

A short run home proved that Gaz was still present, sitting on the couch, game in hand. Dib cleared his throat.

"What," she snarled, still not breaking her focus.

"Gaz, will you... goinsideZim'shousewithme?" Dib asked tentatively, all in one breath.

"You expect me to stop what I'm doing just so you can spy on that dumb kid some more? No way," Gaz said dismissively.

"Please, Gaz?" Dib begged, the thought of entering Zim's cave unguarded evaporating his dignity. "All I'm gonna do is ask him a few things, and then we can go home! Swear it!"

Gaz paused her game, finally looking at Dib now. Her face grew mischievous. "I'll go if you buy the new game I want," she bargained.

"What? Gaz, come on-" Dib stopped once he saw Gaz's face, stone cold serious. He sighed. "Fine... but we go to Zim's place first."

Before long, both kids were back in Zim's front yard. Dib quietly snuck his way back to the window, like the world's worst ninja. Gaz simply stomped up to the front door and knocked, wanting this dumb trip to be over with.

Dib silently panicked and waved his arms, trying to stop Gaz from making their presence known.

Too late.

Just as Dib ran to his sister's side the door flung open wide, and there stood Zim. He menacingly glowered at the siblings before shouting, "FLITHY HUMAN WORMS! What do you think you're doing, BARGING in on my abode and striking it with your... LIMBS?"

Gaz stared him down, unfazed. "It's called knocking, stupid. And it's considered polite to knock before entering something."

Zim only furrowed his brow. "Is that all? You matching over to my lair to teach me about MANNERISMS? Be gone with you!" Zim swung the door closed, but Dib grabbed the edge of it and shouted, "WAIT! I JUST WANTED TO ASK YOU SOMETHING!"

Zim only sneered. "AS IF I'D SHARE MY VAST KNOWLEDGE WITH THE LIKES OF YOU, FLESH PIG. NOW BE GONE!" Zim tried once again to slam the door, and Dib struggled to force it open again. Gaz just watched, completely disinterested. "IT'S ABOUT YOUR ROBOT THING!" Dib shouted, now pushing all of his weight onto the door. Zim didn't say anything, and suddenly pulled the door open again, sending Dib sprawling onto the ground. Zim only pushed him further from the entrance. "Eh? GIR?" Zim asked, narrowing his giant eyes at Dib. "Why do you care about the state of my robotic servant?" He guard wasn't at all lowered, but he did seem interested.

"I just wanted to see... what he's been up to," Dib lied, suddenly feeling embarrassed by his question. No doubt Zim would only laugh in his face and slam the door shut again if he just blurted out what was in his mind. Zim scoffed. "GIR's never really up toanything," he said simply. "He just does what he wants. You can't really control him, Irk knows I've tried..." The last sentence seemed to be more to himself than to the siblings, but Dib pounced on it. "So you just let him do his own thing most of the time?" He inquired. Zim suddenly reverted back into anger, annoyed that he had revealed more information than he'd like to. "Are you suggesting that I have no authority over my own machine?" He snapped, and Dib didn't say anything.

"GIR's loyalty to me is unquestionable, and that brings respect as well. Whether or not he listens fully to commands, he still sees me as his master." Zim rambled. Dib listened carefully to his word choice. Loyalty, commands, master.It didn't sound as warm as Dib had believed it to be.

Gaz was at her wits end with this whole conversation, and let her eyes wander around the yard lazily. She could slowly feeling something shifting around her, and she half-glanced over to Zim, who was watching Dib think about what to say next with complete disinterest. Gaz felt another shift, and noticed how Zim's eyes slowly lightened with a glint that she didn't like. Dib didn't notice.

Another rattle from down below. Zim's face had the ghost of a smile that was anything but friendly. Dib's distracted mind didn't pick up in time.

The stairs that Dib and Gaz stood on suddenly vanished. With a surprised yelp, they fell into a dark pit below. A frantic look upwards showed Zim glowering down at them, an evil grin spread wide on his face.

Then, darkness.