When he finally came to, he found himself lying on a couch and staring up at the ceiling. He felt utterly confused and lost for a moment - it was like he was somewhere far away, somewhere lost and distant, and he still hadn't returned from his journey there.

It doesn't matter, he thought, I'll just return in a second. I'll remember what happened, and I can get back to whatever I was doing. The brain of anything, human or invader, always has its moments in which it seems to forget everything and then remembers it all.

The sun was hanging low in the sky. That was the first thing he noticed. The sky was gradually turning a darker orange, and would eventually become pitch-black. He remembered this, and wondered what exact time it was. At that moment, he couldn't tell.

He heard a faint squeaking sound coming from another room. He felt too tired to sit up and figure out what it was, however. The period of disorientation he was stuck in seemed to be lasting much longer than usual. It was like he was...trapped there.

I don't understand, he thought, Why am I not waking up?...Maybe if I just remember my name, I'll get out of this state of loss. That's it. My name is...He was still lost. He couldn't remember his own name. He couldn't remember anything...anything at all.

His head hurt. He felt too weak to move, and his head was paining him. He felt like something was stuck to one side of his face, but he couldn't move to touch it and figure out what it was. The squeaking in the other room began to grow louder.

A little robot with bright cyan eyes came into the room at that moment. "Hi!" the robot told him in a high-pitched, excited-sounding voice, "You're finally awake!" He tried to recall the robot's name, but nothing came into his head - just empty space...

He couldn't remember. He couldn't remember anything.

?

Gir had been in the other room, making muffins like he usually did when he wanted to cheer someone up...or when he just randomly felt like it. This time, they were blueberry. Blueberries reminded Gir of his own eyes - they were both some shade of blue, weren't they?

He could only hope his master would accept a muffin. Normally, he just ignored them. Does Master not like muffins? Gir thought, That's strange. Everyone likes muffins. He shrugged and put all of the muffins onto a silver platter and rushed into the main room.

"Hi!" he cried cheerfully, placing the plate of muffins onto a nearby table that had randomly been put in the main room a few hours ago, "You're finally awake!" Gir's master gave him a look. For some strange reason, it seemed...pained. The little SIR robot wondered why.

"...Are you okay, Master?" Gir asked after a brief period of silence, "What's wrong?" His master said nothing, his hurt expression still not fading. Gir eyed the bandage he had put on the cut that was on the side of his master's face when he found him.

A bit of blood had soaked through the bandage, which still scared Gir a little. However, he held his fear back and waited for his master to respond. Once he did, his voice sounded faint and distant. "I...don't know," he began, shuddering slightly.

"Does your head hurt, Master?" Gir asked, wondering why his master sounded kind of sad, "I found you on the sidewalk with a cut on the side of your face." His master's hand twitched a little, as though he was trying to do something, but was still too weak.

"...Yes," he responded, "It hurts. And..." He sighed quietly. "...Would you be, um...scared if I told you I couldn't remember anything?" Gir pondered this for a few moments. If Master couldn't remember anything...what would it mean for me...?

"I...guess so," Gir answered, tilting his head slightly in confusion, "Why?" His master sighed yet again and stared up at the ceiling worriedly. Deep inside his junk-part mind, Gir began to wonder what was going on inside his master's head. "Is everything okay?" he asked quietly.

"I can't remember anything," his master told him, "I can't even remember my own name. I can't remember why you call me Master, and I can't remember where I am, or what I'm supposed to do in life. Who am I?" He stared at the little robot, wondering why he was even here.

Gir recoiled a little. "M-Master!" he stuttered, "I'm your...your s-servant! Remember?" Shock filled him as his master shook his head. Master doesn't remember anything! What are we going to do now? What can we do without Master's memories?

"I'm sorry," Gir's master murmured, "I wish I didn't have to put you through all this. I guess you could call my condition...amnesia." His eyes were affixed on his servant, but his focus was somewhere else - somewhere far away and desolate, where nobody could ever go.

Gir was silent for a few moments. "So..." he began softly, "Do you remember my name?" His master paused, as though he was searching through his mind to find a solution to the puzzle that was in front of him. When the searching stopped, Gir stared up at him hopefully.

"...No," he concluded, "I don't...remember your name. I'm sorry." Tears began to well up in Gir's eyes, but he held them back. He wasn't going to cry - not now. Not when his master needed help. And right now, his master really needed help.

"Gir, reporting for duty," he told his master in a weak, shaky voice, "D-do you want a muffin? I made them myself..." He picked up a muffin from the platter and handed it to his master. He nodded, smiled slightly, and bit into the blueberry muffin. Suddenly, he laughed a bit.

"This tastes great...Gir," his master responded, patting Gir on the head, "Thank you." Gir smiled a little, knowing that, since his master couldn't remember anything, things would probably never be the same...and yet, no matter what, he would stay by his master's side.

?

Dib's feeling of safety continuously increased as he walked up to the front door of his house. As usual, the door was unlocked - At least Dad remembers to do that, Dib thought sadly, pushing the door open and stepping inside the place he had apparently lived in for all of his ten years.

The living room looked reasonably clean, although there was a potato chip bag on the ground that had probably been dropped by Gaz, Dib's sister. Dib couldn't help but wonder how she could eat so much and still be so skinny. It was a strange thing to think about.

Dib sighed quietly, put the bag in the nearby trash can, and walked off to enter his room. His room was, for lack of a better word, unusual. Littered with several posters and toys from his childhood, it was so perfectly unique that only someone like Dib could possibly own it.

Locking the door behind him, Dib sat down on his bed and took a few moments to stare at the wall. He was still thinking about what he had done to Zim. The bloody image was still locked in his mind, and would probably stay there for at least a few more days.

After about a minute of this, Dib jumped down and looked under the bed, pulling out a shoebox and placing it on the bedspread. The only things inside this shoebox were a sketchbook and a pencil. He pulled both of them out and started sketching something random.

Within minutes, he had finished a simple doodle of Zim. He wondered why he was even drawing his worst enemy, and returned to staring at the wall. When he took another look at his drawing, he scowled - he had absentmindedly drawn blood trickling down Zim's head.

"What's wrong with me?" he asked himself, "Why can I not get that image out of my head? It's like...I did something really bad. But...it's not like I killed him or anything...right?" Dib sighed and wondered if he really had killed him. Maybe Zim really was dead.

Dib remembered just how much he had always wanted to stop Zim. However, the thought of Zim dying sounded...cruel. It almost sounded like murder. Dib had never thought of murdering someone before. "I..." he began, "I might have...killed Zim."

Suddenly, Gaz, having just got home, broke through the lock and barged into her brother's room. "I saw that stupid green dog carrying your alien friend away. It looked like he was bleeding, too." She then left, leaving the door wide open...which Dib hated.

He got to his feet, slammed the door shut, and wondered if Zim had survived. I can't believe this, he thought miserably, I'm getting so worked up over a simple trip. All I did was stick out my leg, and now...Seriously. Dib sighed, closed his eyes for just a moment, and fell asleep instantly.

This is how Gaz found him a few hours later when it was dinnertime. For the rest of the night, Dib still felt groggy and kind of depressed. Finally, he decided to visit Zim and see what was going on. Without telling anyone where he was going, he left for Zim's house.

The sky was very dark now - just like Dib's mood at that moment. Usually, he hoped it would rain the next day (to get another chance at proving that Zim was an alien), but right now, he just hoped it would be sunny. Dib had the feeling that he needed to cheer up.

When he arrived a few minutes later, he felt like the whole thing had been a bad idea. As a matter of fact, he felt like a total idiot. However, there was no use in backing out - after all, he was already here, and thought the best idea would be to get it over with.

Dib rang the doorbell and waited for someone to answer, although he was hoping it would be Zim. He heard some strange squeaking noises coming from inside, but other than that, he heard nothing. Minutes went by, but nobody answered the door.

Dib sighed. Either Zim was dead, or he wasn't going to answer. Hoping it was the latter, Dib finally decided it would be the best idea to just go home and sleep. After all, he felt much too tired to do anything else. As he walked away, Gir answered the door, saw nobody, and closed it again.

?

"Who was it...Gir?" Gir's master asked softly. He was now sitting up and absentmindedly watching a cartoon. Gir returned and sat down next to him, feet still making those cute little squeaking sounds they always made. He wondered if now would be a good time to make some muffins.

"It wasn't anyone, Master," Gir murmured, "No one at all." The two of them were silent for a few moments. Gir guessed that his master still felt weak - after all, he had been sitting on the couch all night and occasionally flinching as though he was in pain.

"Hey, Master," Gir began quietly, "You still have to go somewhere tomorrow, right? I think it was called...um...Skool, right?" His master looked confused, and finally nodded after being lost in deep thought for a while. When he responded, his voice sounded slightly distant.

"I guess so," he muttered, "But what if everyone figures it out? After all, you've told me who you are, but that's it. I don't remember anything...Maybe staying home would be the best idea." He paused, wondering if it really was the best idea after all.

"...Are you sure, Master?" Gir asked, "I once heard you say that the others would be...superstitious if you didn't show up. That is what you said, right?" His master was still silent, and Gir realized that if it was what he had said, it didn't matter - he couldn't remember.

"I think you mean 'suspicious,' not 'superstitious,' Gir," he finally stated, "But you were close." Gir smiled cheerfully and bit into a muffin. "You're right, though..." his master pondered, staring off into space, "Whoever's at this 'Skool' place might get suspicious. But why would they...?"

Maybe I'll figure it out if I go there tomorrow, he thought. "Okay, then," Gir's master told him, "I'm going to Skool tomorrow." Gir said nothing, but was looking up at his amnesiac master as though he knew everything. He didn't, but Gir's master was like a role model to him, memories or not.