So, I decided to get chapter 2 out a little early.

I already have the first 3 chapters planned out completely, so I thought to myself, why not publish this one too?

It will make up for chapter 1 being so boring. xD

So yeah, read it, review…

Enjoy. XD

Chapter 2: Realizations

Dark purple eyes gazed longingly at the star filled sky above them. It seemed so close, yet so far away at the same time.

The eyes then lowered themselves to stare at their surroundings. Filth. Everywhere they looked. Filth. Scrap metal was littered everywhere, along with the occasional crashed spaceship. Filth.

This planet really lives up to its name.

The owner of these particular eyes let out a frustrated sigh. How she HATED this place! She hated everything about it! But not because of how disgusting it is. No. Instead, it caused her PAK to bring back horrible, horrible memories…

The reason she was sent here in the first place many years ago. It was all his fault. His fault! And now she was here. Again. Because of him. Again!

She didn't have any choice but to return to this awful place. She wouldn't, ever, face her leaders after what had happened. Not until she had made things right again. She had failed them. Because of him.

She took one glance at her escape pod. It was useless. No weapons, nothing to defend itself. It was just plain useless.

But why didn't she have a proper ship? Because of him.

She painfully looked away, and stared at her broken SIR Unit. With the absence of its memory disk, what good was it?

Why was she forced to dismantle her one and only companion? Because of him.

Why is her life completely ruined at the moment?

Because of him.

The only thing she hated more than this awful place, was that stupid defect! She will never understand how he manages to screw everything up.

Caused Horrible Painful Overload Day. Irk was in darkness for five, long years.

Caused Horrible Painful Overload Day Part II. Irk was in darkness… for four more years!

Killed two Almighty Tallest. TWO!

Caused a blackout on half of Devastis.

Ruined Operation Impending Doom I.

Ruined everything she had ever worked for.

She can't fathom why the Tallest haven't had him executed yet. But once she found him… Let's just say she'd take matters into her own hands.

And that's exactly why she chose to return here. Not to Irk where she could simply ask for a new ship and have someone repair her robot for her… No. Besides, she's not going back there until the world is right again, remember?

No. She was going to do almost exactly what she did last time. Every day and night she's been here, she's been sifting through the scraps of metal, taking parts from crashed ships, finding and repairing weapons… almost like last time.

Her new ship would be bigger, faster, and better equipped. Her robot would be modified and more dangerous than ever before. She would be ready this time.

Not ready to fight him. No, she would be ready to defeat him. She would be ready to finally prove to her Tallest that she is better than that defect.

She would finally get what was rightfully hers from the beginning. She would finally give him what he deserved from the day he was born.

Last time, she wasn't out for revenge. She had no reason to! All she needed was to prove to her Tallest that she was better than him.

Or at least she thought she had no reason. Now she realizes, not only has he wreaked havoc in her life (twice!), he has also brought chaos to many other members of their own race, even to the planet itself.

If she was the one to stop him, to deactivate him when no one else would, she wouldn't just be doing justice for herself. She would be doing justice for their entire race.

And there is nothing in this universe that could be better than that.

She looked at the progress she had made on her half-finished ship. It could take weeks, months even to finish it. But it would be worth it. Oh, how it would be worth it!

She already had her plan. To her, it was flawless. Perfect. Not even the defect, who has managed to ruin absolutely everything, could ruin this.

She gazed once more at the black sky littered with bright, shining stars, determined and full of confidence.

"I'm coming, Zim!"

I set my lunch tray down at the table beside the window, waiting for Dib to come and join me. I was extremely thankful that today was Friday. This week has probably been the strangest week I've ever had at school.

As usual, nobody else was sitting by me. But that's OK, because I'm not sure if I wanted to sit by the other children either. The only reason I like sitting by Dib was because I didn't feel alone at this new school.

But why did Dib want to sit by me? Just like everyone else, I didn't believe him about what he said about the paranormal, and he knows I don't believe him too. Or at least I thought I didn't believe him.

I don't treat him the way the others do. A voice in my head said.

I saw the way they treated Dib. Dib, the only person in this school who seemed even remotely like someone I could get along with. I don't know why it upset me so much to see him treated badly, but it did.

Was it because I believed Dib? At that point, I just wasn't sure. I was also afraid that if I said I believed him, I would be an outcast and treated just like him. And I didn't want that, especially only after a week at this new school. I remember wanting to be just like the other kids. I don't know why it mattered to me that I wanted to be just like them, but back then, it just did.

I scanned the lunch room, searching for Dib. My eyes caught sight of the girl with dark purple hair and braces. I think her name was Gretchen. She was only one of the few people at this school who seemed friendly. Maybe I'll go and sit by her…

"Hey!" Dib's voice said, setting his tray down next to mine.

"Hi! You startled me."

"Oh, sorry. Anyway, look at Zim over there. He's not eating… again! Haven't you noticed that he never eats here? Nobody else does! And haven't you also noticed that…"

There he goes again. Babbling on and on about Zim. That's all he talks about! I'd prefer to sit with Dib than to sit by myself, but it gets really annoying. It's almost as if he's obsessed with him!

Every single day, his non-stop talking about Zim has driven me insane. I just wanted him to stop!

"… I mean, it's so obvious, and if everyone would just listen to me they would realize that-"

"Um, Dib?" He shut up immediately. "No offense, but can you please shut up about Zim?"

Dib looked a little taken aback at what I just said. "But-" He began, but I interrupted him.

"It's just that…" I began awkwardly. "I… I know that you believe Zim's an alien and everything, but that doesn't mean I do too. It's just too weird for me! I mean, it's my first week at this school, and already someone I barely know is repeatedly trying to convince me that there's an alien here! Maybe Zim does have a skin condition, I don't know, but don't you think calling him an alien is a little, you know, out there?"

That came out sounding ruder than I expected it would. I regretted saying it the moment I finished.

Dib thought for a second. "But Karin, you don't understand." Dib said calmly, as if I hadn't just snapped at him. "I know what I'm talking about, I've stopped him countless times, and look at this!" He pulled a small laptop out from the inside of his trenchcoat. "Why didn't I show you this earlier?"

He then proceeded to show me about twenty pictures, all relating to Zim. He showed me a strange looking dog ("It's his robot minion in disguise!"), many pictures of an eerie, green house, and even an alien spaceship he claims to have captured.

"And look at this one! This is one of the only ones I have of him without his disguise on!"

If there was one thing I could say about Zim's disguise, it's this. It sucked.

I stared at the screen, taking it all in. Instead of hair, there was a pair of antennae. Instead of blue eyes, they were a rich ruby color. He had a striking resemblance to an insect. Maybe Dib was right…

No. No! If I believe him, that would mean I'm crazy. Right? And I am NOT crazy!

There I go again for maybe the hundredth time this week. Trying to convince myself of something I wasn't even sure was true. This was all too much for me. Maybe I really was going crazy…

I stared blankly at the screen for what felt like hours. Suddenly, I heard violent coughing from the other side of the lunch room, pulling me out of my trance. I whipped my head around to find the person it was coming from. Zim was sprawled out on the floor, coughing up the pathetic excuse for food that the Skool serves us. "DELICIOUS!" He choked out between coughs.

"You see!" Dib yelled at me. "Look at how he reacts to our food! He can barely taste it without choking! Come on, there is no way you can't believe me now!" He sounded absolutely desperate now.

I picked up my lunch tray, with all of my food untouched, and walked away, without saying a word. I needed time to think about this. I needed time away from this crazy place.

And for the fifth time this week since Monday, I couldn't wait for that dismissal bell to ring.

"Go on without me Gaz, I'll see you at home." Gaz walked down the front steps of the Skool, not even acknowledging her older brother.

Dib stayed behind and searched everywhere for her. Through the halls, on the playground, everywhere. He had no luck whatsoever.

After what felt like hours, he gave up on his search for Karin and headed home.

One person. That was all he wanted was one person on this planet to believe him. He thought he had that one person, but clearly he was mistaken. Today he realized that he might never have that one person now. He had already proved himself to be crazy before, and now he had done it again.

Besides, anyone who did "believe" him, was only trying to "help" him. Yeah right.

Gaz believed him, yes. But she didn't care. She couldn't care less if Zim wiped out the entire human race.

He can't keep doing this on his own. He needed someone on his side. Who knows what Zim could be planning next?

Midnight. My parents should be sound asleep by now.

I cautiously opened up my bedroom window and carefully climbed outside. I gripped onto the edge of the roof and easily climbed on top.

Climbing on top of roofs was like second nature to me now.

At my old home, every time I needed to be left alone, to think, or if I was just plain bored, I would simply open up my window, and climb up onto the roof. As simple as that. Always at night too. I loved gazing up at the star studded sky, with the moon so perfectly fitting in there. I always wondered what it would be like to be up there, high above the Earth, all alone, a freedom that no one could take away.

But tonight, while staring in awe at the billions of shining dots above me, I thought, Would I really be alone up there?

That's a question that's been going through my head a lot this week. Are we really alone? In a universe with billions upon billions of galaxies, are we really alone?

Right now, it just didn't seem likely anymore. In those billions of galaxies, there were a countless number of stars, which means there could be other solar systems, other planets… More life.

Now, looking up at only a very small portion of the universe that is all around me, I thought maybe, just maybe, Dib was right.

Throughout the week, I had noticed some very odd things about Zim. Very odd. Just the way he acted was… unnatural. The way he talked about Earth's doom. He sounded… happy, even excited about it.

I noticed he would always refer to Dib, and to the other children, as "pig smellies" and "filthy worm babies." As if he hates humans…

I have never heard of a skin condition that causes the skin to turn green. Never. To me, there was just no such thing.

His backpack thing was extremely out of the ordinary. Up until Thursday, I assumed that is was just a normal backpack. But a closer look at it told me that it was made out of metal. And fused into his back. Fused! As if it was a part of his body! There were no straps around his shoulders whatsoever.

When I looked at his gloved hands, I noticed that he only had three fingers on each hand. Three. And they didn't even look like fingers. They appeared to be more… claw like.

What really confused me was the lack of his ears and nose. He seemed to hear perfectly fine, and breath pretty well on his own too. It just wasn't humanly possible!

HUMANLY possible…

My eyes widened. Sudden realization hit me, as if I had been slapped in the face. My mouth hung open. I just sat there, frozen, on the rooftop. Only one thought crossed through my mind at that moment.

I need to talk to Dib.