Gir brushed past Zim when he ran inside and headed straight for the kitchen. He clearly didn't notice the dark atmosphere created by the hideous slash marks mixed together with the remaining vestiges of emotions experienced just minutes before.

Zim stood in the center of the room, his back to the door. He likewise didn't acknowledge Gir's presence, not when his mind was so focused on just his horribly burning emotion. It made his life goo boil. He wanted to lash out more at everything and scream until his throat ached, but all he could do was stand there and let it consume him.

Hate.

That's all he could think of. He hated that human. The foul creature knew nothing of what it spoke. Nothing! It could never comprehend a thing beyond what it could readily see!

He clenched his fists so hard his claws cut into his flesh. He didn't care about the pain.

The hate extended to more than just Dib - it was to his whole race. They were all disgusting. They basked in their own filth. They were stupid, so incredibly stupid, and could never come to true power. He hated them! He hated the very dust they walked on. Ignorant, incompetent humans of this world!

They all deserved destruction. Oh, how much he wanted to doom them to the hands of his leaders, especially to ruin the Dib-filth. In fact, he would request to have the creature for his own so he could torment it with every method of torture he knew. But…

That was when he noticed the liquid streaming from his eyes. Oh, Tallest, he was crying. His hatred was turning into grief and for the first time in his life he was crying.

With hands gripping his temples, he shook his head miserably. Never in his life…this feeling was illegal on Irk, the PAK was supposed to block it…maybe…maybe he was…

NO!

He scrubbed the offending tears and blood on his mouth from his face with his wrists, then straightened up to attention and glowered defiantly ahead at nothing.

He was not defective! He was an elite Invader and no one, not even the Tallests, could change that. He vaguely remembered all his mistreatment for ruining Operation Impending Doom I, his supposed-to-be humiliating banishment to Foodcourtia, and all the times he had been told by others his secret mission was a lie, but none of that ever affected him. He wouldn't let it affect him because that's who he was.

Clueless, selective, amazing Zim. No one respected him. But they damn sure feared him, and that was all he needed.

"Computer, activate the defenses!"

"That will require me to reactivate main power sources," the computer informed.

"I don't care! Do whatever is necessary! Just obey Zim!"

"Alright, alright." Certain lights around the TV screen flashed as the computer did as it was told.

Zim put his fisted hands on his hips, his brow muscles furrowed and his lip sticking out slightly. With an air of superiority, he turned to face the blue door and shouted, "None can stop Zim!"

All the noise he was making caused Gir to come into the room. He had taken off his disguise and was holding a spoon with what looked like mayonnaise and butter coating it. "Master, wanna know what happened today? I was a –"

"And you!" Zim yelled as he marched to his bewildered minion. "Why were you not here to protect your master? ! Are you really so stupid as to not come when Zim calls? !"

Gir stood quietly and blank-faced while Zim ranted. The Irken glared angrily for a few moments before he burst, "Well?"

Sticking his tongue out, Gir threw the spoon behind him then hollered, "I'm gonna make you a sammich!"

Zim roared in frustration. "No, Gir, listen to your master!"

Gir stopped walking away and looked Zim in the eye. The Irken glared darkly at the droid and Gir watched back calmly. In the back of his mind, Zim noted that Gir had been doing that quite often as of late.

Suddenly, Gir spread his extendable arms as far as they would go at normal length, saying, "Aww, hug time!"

"No! Do not touch me!" But Gir still came towards him. Furiously, Zim struck him across the head. The force sent Gir into the same wall Dib had been shoved against. "You will obey me!" Zim shouted.

Gir shook his head as if to clear it from a daze, what little brains he had rattling on the inside metal, and then he looked up at the ceiling. What he saw up there made him scream grievously.

Zim looked where the distraught robot had his gaze locked and immediately saw what upset him so much.

Entangled and half melted to the damaged wiring was the pink piggy. There was a hole in its forehead where a PAK leg had stabbed through and inadvertently gotten it up there.

Zim growled under his breath and shifted his gaze back to the still-shocked Gir. "Your attachments make you weak!" he hissed.

"Why?" Gir wailed.

"Because if you care about something it will only destroy you in the end!"

"Yay!"

Zim stared at his malfunctioning servant. He freely admitted it - he cared about the Tallests, even his own people in a way, yet now he was betrayed. The utter sickness he felt and pain in his PAK was a cruel reminder of the Virus it contained. The traitors… He struggled not to feel it, but he hated everything to do with the Empire. And now he remembered that he had received Gir from the Tallests as a secret and advanced model of a gift. That had been a lie too then, huh.

Zim knew what he always loathed the most, and that was flaw. No, he reasoned, I am no defect, but that robot…he is. Specially created by the wretched Tallests, and so flawed.

He stepped closer to Gir. "I must remove a problem like removing a virus from a computer," he muttered as if pre-programmed. At this moment his logic and senses were on autopilot.

Gir just sat on the floor, completely oblivious to what his master was going to do. Zim was standing over the little droid menacingly yet somber when without warning the computer said something he was never expecting.

"Incoming transmission from the Massive."

Zim froze. "…what?"

"Ahem, I said that the Tallest are calling you, sir," it huffed.

"Surely this is a joke. Computer, are you malfunctioning?"

The computer sighed and said, "Just answer the call."

Zim slowly turned to the large screen. With shaky knees he walked closer to it. Was that desperation he was feeling? It was pathetic no matter what it was. Why – why are they calling? "C-computer, answer or something!"

What if -?

The Almighty Tallest appeared on the screen. They were smirking.

Earlier that day

Somewhere in the vast cosmos of space, a pink and yellow planet rotating calmly on one side and a few asteroids flying aimlessly to the south on the other, traveled the imposing Invader Armada. On the bridge of the flagship, the Massive, Almighty Tallests Red and Purple sat in their command chairs finishing up a transmission with a blue-eyed she-Irken.

"Well, thank you for your very detailed report, Invader Nel," Purple said when Red was too lazy to say anything. Purple knew he didn't even pay attention to most of the long communication.

There was a bit of silence for a second, then Purple cleared his throat dramatically.

"Oh, uh," Red snapped out of his bored thoughts, "We hope to hear more of your mission later, blah blah blah." He signaled to a Navigator and before Nel could say any more, the transmission was cut.

"Is it just me or are these reports getting duller every day?" Red complained while rubbing the back of his neck.

"I don't know, but I'm getting hungry," his co-leader yawned. Purple stood up and pointed to another Navigator, saying, "You! Bring us snacks!"

Various foods of delicious junk were presented to them and they proceeded to scarf it all down. With his mouth full of something that could only be described as an orange Twinkie, Purple asked, "So what's been keeping you so quiet?"

Red paused in stuffing a doughnut into his mouth. "I've just been thinking."

"'Bout what?"

"Zim."

Purple coughed. "What? Why?"

"Well, it's actually his latest plan. I think we could put that to good use. Get it?"

"No, not really," he deadpanned and devoured a few doughnuts of his own.

Red sighed. "Alright, what I was thinking is that we follow his plan but actually destroy the planet. We've never cared about Earth and it's an even surer way of getting rid of Zim for good."

"But we can always just use the Armada to do that. Why go through that kind of trouble, especially since he's already dying from the Virus?"

"Because of the glory of it! Imagine the adoration we'll get for destroying a planet – and an annoying problem – with an entire star!" Red half-yelled as he imagined it.

"Yeah, that is pretty cool," Purple said. He never thought any of Zim's plans were amazing or smart, but now that Red really liked the idea he had to go along with it. Sometimes it seemed like Red's words were more important than his. But Purple wasn't outspoken enough to do anything about it.

Red set aside his snacks for the moment to declare, "Let's call Zim and tell him! Instill more fear into the defect!"

The communications Navigator established the connection but it took a while for anyone to answer. When Zim finally appeared on the screen, the Tallest could clearly see the wreck that he had become in just a day. It pleased them very much.

Present time

"S-so that's all they had to say," Zim said to himself after the Tallests had disappeared from the screen. He felt so absolutely foolish for thinking they had anything other than more pain to tell him. Well, he really didn't care.

Lightning flashed across the sky. The sound startled him and made him look towards the window. There was a puddle of water on the floor beneath the shattered glass. Oh, yeah, he had told Gir not to bother with repairing it. He hadn't even realized it when the rain first started.

He was compelled to move so he walked close to it, stopping just before stepping into the puddle. The wind blew moisture onto his face leaving his skin feeling tingly. He hadn't applied paste for a while. A few months before he had put weather sensors up in the atmosphere so he could better predict when the horrible watery drops of death would come, and he hadn't checked them yesterday.

It would be so easy wouldn't it? To just step out there and end it all. He had heard of humans doing things like slicing their wrists to kill themselves. Glancing at his own, he shivered. How unceremonious… In fact, now that he thought about it, the whole thought of suicide was unceremonious and unnecessary.

Quiet humming brought his attention behind him. Gir was in a corner scribbling with crayons on some paper. He was the one humming some random tune, and then he laughed and ate a crayon.

Zim felt a stab of something he could not name. It wasn't guilt, he thought, but he never had actually felt guilt before so he didn't know what it was that made him feel so terrible. He had almost destroyed Gir, and for what? The feeling increased.

He was going to die soon and when he did, what would become of his loyal servant? Be destroyed in a supernova, that's what. The strange feeling was replaced with powerful determination. "Zim shall not allow it," he said aloud as he clenched his fists. "Gir, repair this looking glass," he commanded.

No one would harm Gir, not as long as Zim was alive.

The robot's eyes turned red and saluting, he said, "Yes, my master!"


Alright, now it's starting to pick up the pace. Actually I have no idea what's supposed to happen next chapter, only until after that one will I really know what I'm doing. Yay, Invader Nel's cameo! She's my sister's OC and not in the public domain. Don't ask if you can use her :). Hehe, that "Oh, Tallest," part is supposed to stand for "Oh, god," but Irkens don't have gods except for the control brains and "Oh, brains," would be awkward. Hm, I really hope Zim's drastic mood changes are alright. I was really pressured with this chapter (did it all in one weekend, hoo-hah!) so I apologize for its obvious suckyness.

Alright, I think I will reply to reviews right now *smiles*
~Alli: Yesh, you're mean to poor Zim-Zim. Y U NO LIKE ZIM-ZIM, ALLISON T^T. What if he made your head big like Dib-weird or hired Nny to kill you viciously and paint the wall with your blood like I told David would happen to him too for what he said for saying that? Huh? HUH? *is fully aware you have no idea what I'm talking about – what a sad existence you lead* But thank you for the
1 review and I'll keep emailing the new chapters to you :).
~ArtistForever: Yes, poor, poor Zim. There will be more of Poor Zim, fear not. I thank you soooo much for your last review. It makes me so happy to see that I'm bringing tears to people's eyes.
~Anonymous: My dear unknown person, oh how I love you. You ask so many spoiler questions, herp-derp. I see you like it much so far, nyan, there is good angsty sweetness coming ^^.

~Dark Dragon 4x4: As you can see he snapped big time, hehehe. Thank you, thank you. Seeing you on dA was dumb luck, haha.
~Awsome3709: Hehe, you so fun x3.
~DarkWind13: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THAT! It made me feel much more comfortable with what I'm doing here :).
~ . .Soap: Yeah, I love that song a lot. And you've already got an answer to thine question. (Can you believe my spellcheck doesn't know what "
thine" is? D:)
~Anon: Ah, I love hearing "poor Zim" so much. SO. MUCH x3.
~InuyashaPrincess14: Yes, everyone likes comfort stories with little sweet Zim suffering o-o. It's the sadism of us all. Now I feel like I have to say, "You won't complain about nasty toilets, would you?" and I need a dA emote…
~InvaderLyd: Your review makes me very, very, very happy x3. My writing isn't that great, but thank you so much for that :D.
~Moth Mask: Yes, I try to not write any dialogue and thoughts unless I can actually hear the character saying that. It helps keep them in character and I'm glad others notice :). Now about your last review...that's one of the kindest and greatest I've ever gotten. Thank you so much. I don't know why you think it's so good, but I've always wanted to be able to write something that could be called that. You made my day :3.
~Mimi-loves-llamas: Thank you ^^. I'm glad you do!

*sigh* That takes up a lot of room, so after this I'll only reply to anonymous reviews in the notes and you account people will get private responses :). And I also need haaaaalp! Does anyone know how to make a page break? I must needs know if it pleases kith and kin (yay for jargon!).

EDIT: Hah! I figured out how to make a page break which I found out is actually called a horizontal line! If anyone else wants to know, what you do is put a chapter or oneshot in the document manager (yeah, the thing you have to do first before publishing anything) and then hit the Edit/View button. That will take you to a place kinda like Microsoft Word or something for editing. Up at the top-ish part where it has the Bold, Italics, and Underline buttons there will be a straight line button. That's the thing I use to separate the story from the notes. Hope that helped someone :).