So, here's the last chapter of my little story. It was fun and I really am glad I wrote it.

Thank you to the people who reviewed. The comments have been helpful and I respect them.

This chapter is also known as, "the chapter where XIA actually gets introduced."

Disclaimer: Invader Zim belongs to Jhonen Vasquez.

Silicon G.I.R.L

Chapter 4:

The Consequence

Blinking his blurry eyes Dib looked up at his ceiling. He reached for his glasses that were resting on his nightstand and put them on. Quickly he glanced at the clock: 4:38 PM. He had been asleep for about six hours. Drowsily he sat up and swung his legs over the side of his bed, yawning. He stared off into space for about a minute before he remembered that he finished his XIA. Once he recalled that adrenaline pumped through his body, energizing him instantaneously.

"That's right! Finally, a robot friend of my own!" Dib exclaimed excitedly. Running over to where he left his creation, the intelligent boy carefully picked her up and set her on his bed. He flicked her on and watched as XIA whirred to life.

The robot's eyes lit up, being a soothing lavender color. Her mouth, when open, showed the same color. She looked nearly identical to GIR; except she was made out of a completely different kind of metal, which was a bit darker in color, and she had a metallic pony-tail, which contained the programming for her personality. Dib couldn't fit all her programming in her head, just as he thought, so he put the less critical information, her personality, in the more vulnerable area.

"XIA?" Dib asked tentatively. The robot surveyed him with blank eyes, then they softened and she smiled.

"Master Dib!" she responded, coyly stepping over to him and hugging his arm. She stood back and cocked her head looking at him. "You are Master Dib, yes? I'm sorry if I am mistaken." Dib nodded, feeling utterly thrilled.

"Yes, XIA, I'm Dib," he assured her. Cupping his chin Dib tried to think of a series of questions he could ask his helper, to make sure that she was running properly. "XIA, who is our enemy?"

"Zim, the Irken alien scum trying to conquer my lord's home world," the somewhat soft spoken android began to get a little bolder in her speech; she was starting to feel more at ease around Dib.

"Yep, who are Zim's leaders?"

"The Tallest," she answered after a moment, smiling brightly. "The Irken race has a height-based hierarchy."

"Okay, one more question," Dib looked at his creation seriously. This, perhaps, was the most important question of all. Whether she could answer the question correctly or not would determine if she passed. "XIA, is my head big?"

XIA stared at her master curiously and slowly answered, "No, not really. It's not much bigger than anyone else's. Why would someone tell you that your head is big? That's just silly." As XIA giggled at the absurdity, Dib felt proud. So far, XIA had been everything he expected, and a little more.

"Okay, XIA, let's go outside and do a field test," Dib beckoned XIA to follow and swiftly ran outside. While she walked directly behind her master, she gazed all about her, curious about the world she was seeing.

One of the things Dib was already very pleased with was how her personality was showing. Though, he was extra cautious about giving her a personality, because he didn't want it to possibly create a situation where she would be defiant. Dib put an emphasis on her obedience. He definitely didn't want a GIR.

XIA did very well with the rest of her tests. This was what Dib was hoping for, though the physical tests were mostly testing her dodging abilities and attacks. He couldn't test much else, because he didn't install her with as many add-ons as GIR had. Dib had initially built XIA to be an information gathering robot, not an attack robot, figuring that he could give her more additions as he felt they were needed.

Snapping himself out of these thoughts, Dib, wondering the time, checked his watch. It said it was 6:53 PM.

"XIA, let's go to Zim's now. I know you're ready," Dib dramatically stated, the tone of his voice plainly showing how anxious he was to battle his enemy.

"Master, shouldn't you eat something beforehand?" his robot looked at him with concerning eyes.

"Nah, I'll be fine. Let's go," Dib started to go back to his room to grab some things he figured he'd need.

"'Kay, if you're sure," XIA followed back into the house.

She stood at the front door, noting that Gaz was on the couch. XIA wished to officially meet her master's sibling, but figured it would be best to make that wait. After all, Dib seemed very eager to face-off with Zim. His battle that he was going to without food. The more the robot dwelled on this, the more worried she got.

XIA ran into the kitchen to look for anything she could quickly grab. Even if it wasn't much, she was hoping she could convince Dib to eat something. She saw a loaf of bread on a kitchen counter. It was in a plastic bag and on the bag was Prof. Membrane, with a speech bubble saying, "Super Bread! Used to make Super Toast!" Then, in small lettering at the bottom of the speech bubble was, "toaster not included."

Grabbing a couple of slices from the bag and then re-closing the bag, XIA ran back to the front door just as Dib ran down the stairway. He raised his eyebrow at her, seeing the two bread slices in her metal hand.

"Well, at least you're not making me eat a three-course dinner," Dib took the bread from XIA, much to her delight, and began to eat it as the two went to Zim's house.

About twenty minutes passed before the boy and his robotic assistant arrived at the cul-de-sac where his alien nemesis resided. There was a faint wind blowing past his shoulders. With every step closer to the green house, Dib felt a little cockier. He clenched the laser gun he held in his hand.

His plan was to battle Zim, just like normal. The difference would be that XIA would be hiding, watching and recording the whole thing. Then, Dib figured, there would be an unmistakable amount of evidence supporting his claims that Zim was an alien. At last he would get the recognition he deserved, be taken seriously by his family, his skool, the Swollen Eyeball Network…everyone.

"XIA," Dib said to her. She nodded, awaiting his instructions. "Hide in those bushes over there, record everything, okay?" Saluting in affirmation XIA did as she was told.

Dib stood in the middle of the cul-de-sac, in plain sight. He aimed his laser gun directly at a gnome and shot it. Knowing that Zim would take this bait, Dib waited. Nothing came through the door of the alien's house. But a shadow loomed over the over-presumptuous boy.

"Attacking my defenses, are you?" a voice whispered in his ear. Yelping Dib jumped away from the source of the noise and turned around to face it. Zim, undisguised and just putting his spider legs back into his PAK, laughed at his easily-startled adversary.

"Zim!" Dib spat out the name, having finally caught his breath. There was a silence between the two, a sort of staring contest, until Zim cracked up into a roar of laughter once again. "What's so funny, Zim?" Dib failed to see the humor of the situation, since Zim was undisguised and Dib was getting a recording of it.

"I'll tell you, though I'm afraid that your pathetically large head might explode from the shock," Zim grinned, taking pleasure from insulting his enemy. "I know your stupid plan, Dib, and I know all its flaws, too!"

"W-what are you talking about?" Dib was surprised, though he tried to act cool and collected. The stutter rather ruined his attempt, however.

"Your SIR! I stole your notes, a fitting retribution for you stealing GIR. Plus I was spying on your progress."

"What? How could you spy on me?" Dib asked, flabbergasted. Ever since the day that GIR was placed on the back of his head as a "tracking device," Dib had been extra careful.

"Not important!" Zim yelled, not wanting to giveaway the truth that Mini-Moose had been hiding in the tree next to Dib's window. Taking advantage of Dib's distracted confusion, Zim used a spider leg to knock the laser gun out of Dib's hands. "Now, horrible earth-creature, watch as I destroy your precious XIA. MINI-MOOSE!"

Reacting to Zim's call, Mini-Moose flew from behind XIA and knocked her into the street. The Irken only looked at her for a split second before pressing a button, and the robot was promptly electrocuted. Her body went limp and laid there.

"No, XIA!" Dib ran to her side, horrified, as Zim cackled and Mini-Moose floated over to Zim's side.

"Too bad her 'horse-tail' thing is such a weak point, Dib. I'll see you later. Hopefully, next time you'll think twice before stealing something that belongs to the mighty Irken Invader, ZIM!"

Dejectedly Dib scooped up the machine he worked so hard on and trudged home.

It was a six more days until Dib got XIA running again. Partly because it was school again, so he couldn't stay up late working on her, partly because he was so mad at himself because he put XIA to work in a dangerous situation before she was ready to handle it. Before he tried something like that again, Dib knew he had to give the robot more defenses.

The more urgent problem that needed to be corrected, however, was XIA's programming.

"You don't remember anything? Not Zim, not anything?" Dib questioned her.

"No…nothing," XIA looked sadly at her master. From what Dib told her, she could surmise that she failed to complete her orders. She was told to record what she saw and the recording got deleted when she was shocked. "I'm sorry, sir."

"It's okay, XIA. It's mostly my fault. Don't beat yourself up about it, okay?" Dib reassured her, yawning.

He was tired from trying to fix her. It was a sheer relief when he finally could power her on without her shutting down immediately. Certain aspects of XIA, like her personality, were unharmed from whatever Zim had done to her. Dib figured that this was because Zim was specifically attacking certain areas of her program. When he first realized this, he cursed himself for making the blueprints so exact.

"Master?" XIA's soft murmur broke Dib from his thoughts. "You're not angry with me?" Dib shook his head.

"Nope, so don't worry about it. I'll work on you more tomorrow. I'm going to sleep now," Dib told her, taking off his glasses and putting them on the nightstand. When he lay down and pulled up his covers, he felt XIA hug him as he drifted off.

The obedient, sweet robot gazed down at her master's form as he drifted off to well-deserved slumber, smiling softly. She knew would be a good master to her; even after she failed to achieve what she was built for, her very purpose, Dib had tried to fix her and comforted her that everything would go better the next time.

These human-like thoughts were shifted to the back of her metallic mind when XIA saw that there was an unfamiliar signal requesting transmission with her. Not wanting to wake Dib, she left his room and went to the roof of the house. Curiosity that she was programmed to experience enveloped her as she accepted the transmission, and was greeted by a faintly familiar visage.

"Who is this?" XIA asked the green figure who was projected before her. Her still slightly damaged programming told her that this was an alien life-form. He matched a particular description that was in her mind: green skin, large insect-like eyes, lacking visible ears and a nose, two antenna rising up from the creature's cranium.

"You do not recall? Good, very good. Exactly as predicted," the alien suavely murmured, before adding. "But of course I was right, for I am ZIM!"

"Zim?" This name was the name of the alien her master told her about. He had described that it was because of Zim that she was malfunctioning. However, this was all she knew, because so much of her knowledge data had become corrupt from the battle her master described to her.

"Yes, yes, now listen closely to Zim," he put emphasis on his name, which XIA noted as a characteristic of conceit.

Strangely, out of all her programming, her personality, obedience, and informational observation were the most in tact, practically unscathed. She began to wonder if this was no mere coincidence.

"XIA, wasn't it?" Zim paused, staring at his adversary's creation. He knew that if it weren't for Dib's capturing of GIR, he would never have been able to accomplish this advanced robot. As flawed as some parts of XIA were, she was still…useful. Far too useful for Zim to pass up the chance. "Who do you serve?"

"My master, Dib, superiors of Master Dib, and all who request tasks of me who do not contradict the direct orders of Master Dib or his superiors," XIA responded promptly with robotic seriousness.

"Are you sure that's all?" Zim questioned, looking at XIA with an unreadable expression. To make certain XIA quickly searched the file stored where her loyalties lied. Also strangely, this file was one of the few completely unharmed pieces of her software.

"Corrections made in ascending importance: All who request tasks of me that do not contradict the direct orders of my master or his superiors, Master Dib and Master Zim—" the Irken did not require to any more and burst out in a triumphant laugh. As soon as he finished, XIA continued her statement from where she was before being interrupted. "—and superiors of Master Dib or Master Zim."

"Victory is mine!" Zim grinned. How he knew his plan would work.

The electric shock had incapacitated XIA, but that was just the first effect. It also scrambled many of her less vital files and corrupted them, to distract Dib and not realize that Zim had snuck in a nanobot to reprogram an important part of his enemy's beloved android. Removing his grin Zim looked at XIA commandingly.

"XIA!"

"Yes, my lord?" the confused robot asked.

"Password-protect your programming saying that I am your master. I don't want the Dib-stink discovering this and being able to easily delete the information," Zim said, pausing for a moment to think of a password to use that Dib wouldn't be able to easily guess. XIA waited patiently. "The password is, 'the Foodening.'" Zim shuddered at the memory, but was thankful that it was an event of which Dib was and would remain oblivious. "Oh, and no telling Dib of this conversation."

"Commands processed and executed," XIA recited, then waited for her new master to release her, so that she could go back to the room with her original one.

"Excellent. Be ready for the next time I call you—OOF! MY HEAD!" Zim gave his orders right before being assaulted by GIR. The transmission went fuzzy and then cut out.

XIA left the roof-top and went back to Dib's room. As she entered, she smiled and sat herself at the end of her human master's bed.

Neither Dib nor Zim had any inkling of the havoc XIA's split loyalties would bring. The only being who did was the gentle, devoted XIA herself.


Yes, it's over now. There were some aspects of XIA that I didn't really get to touch on, because if I emphasized too much of her personality at the point I introduced her, the plot would have completely stopped for a little while.

Towards the end, though, I did get to reveal her loyalty problem. That was something I liked. I figured that, being Invader Zim, it would only make sense that XIA would be completely dysfunctional in a way. If she gets too many conflicting orders, she short-circuits. Imagine Dib and Zim, in a fight, barking orders at her, and then her head exploding out of complete confusion. That's the sort of thing I envisioned.

I have no plans for a direct sequel to this. Frankly, I think the only thing I'd let myself do is come up with another story and just put XIA in it as a minor role.

So, you've read my whole story. Surely, you must have something to say, either some compliment or critique. Why don't you review, then?

Anyways, I'm over and out. I hope you enjoyed my story.