Hi! Hope you guys enjoy. Sorry about the length of the chapter. I have great ideas, but it's often hard for me to make my writing longer.

Anyway, this is basically my story of how the series ends, as I've said before. Please read and review!


Ch. 1. Defect

It had all started with the truth.

Even now, it had made him rather uncomfortable to think about it. But Zim still remembered that fateful day, the very day it all began…

He had called his Tallests, and they answered warily.

"What is it now, Zim?" asked Tallest Red.

"Well, I'm just reporting back to you, as usual," Zim replied.

"Let me guess," said Tallest Purple. "You failed to destroy Earth once again."

"It wasn't my fault!" protested Zim. "It was that giant-headed Dib human! If he hadn't ruined my plans…." he trailed off, just thinking about how Dib had ruined his latest, most ingenious plan.

"If only he knew the truth," Red murmured, but not quiet enough.

"What do you mean?" Zim asked curiously.

"Should we tell him?" asked Tallest Purple.

"Why not? It's getting old," replied Tallest Red.

"What do you mean?" repeated Zim. "Is it because I'm taking too long to destroy the humans? Because I'll try harder. I won't disappoint you, my Tallests!" he said brightly, in an attempt to please them.

"It's not that," Red interjected. "It's because you're, well…" he said, and sighed, "you're a defect."

Zim stared, uncomprehending. "I don't understand," he finally said.

"You don't understand?" Red asked, his voice rising. "I just informed you of how much of a screwup you are, and all you can say is you don't understand? YOU ALMOST DESTROYED IRK, FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!"

"So?" Zim still didn't understand what his leaders were talking about.

"Do you really think we would let a defect become an Invader? You're not an Invader, Zim. We lied to you. We only pretended you were one in an attempt to get rid of you."

"Yeah," chimed in Purple. "Maybe you should go back to Foodcourtia. Then you should go fry something, like you're supposed to."

"Oh, and what ever you do, please don't call again. It's annoying us to death." Then, Red muttered the word "defect" once more before the screen went black.

Zim stared at the screen for several minutes as the cold truth finally hit him.

Of course they didn't want him. Not since he messed up Operation Impending Doom 1. Why would they? He was just a screwup, a defect.

Just thinking about it made him feel worse. As it is, Zim had already broken out into a cold sweat, and he felt sick, sick to his squeedily spooch. So sick he almost wanted to throw up.

Defect... The word continued to echo in his mind. of course, that's not all he thought about.

He thought about what the Tallests said. It horrified him to think about it, but he did, anyway.

Oh, and whatever you do, please don't call again. It's annoying us to death.

Was that all they thought of him? Was he nothing to them but an annoying defect? Did they really hate him enough to send him halfway across the galaxy just to get rid of him?

He especially lingered on what Purple said just before the transmission was cut.

Maybe you should go back to Foodcourtia…

He was not going back to Foodcourtia. Of that he was sure. The question was, what was he going to do now? Then the most wonderful idea dawned on him.

Of course. Of course. He wasn't going anywhere. He wasn't going to do anything else besides what he'd been trying to do since he'd landed on Earth, and that was to try and destroy it, to conquer it. Then, he would call the Tallests, and inform him of his success. The very plan itself seemed failproof, and in general, perfect.

But he had to change something first. He had to change his defectiveness.

Zim then removed his PAK and started working on it, fixing it, fixing himself.