A scythe-haired boy leaned on his arm, trying to pay attention to the lecture even though his eyelids were heavy. He hadn't gotten much sleep last night, since some kind of higher up from the Swollen Eyeball Network had awoken him at three in the morning. And the excitement from the new mission gave him a temporary energy that only lasted for about half an hour, leaving him only two and a half hours left to sleep, which his insomnia didn't allow him to enjoy.

'I've got to stay awake,' he thought, trying to get uncomfortable in his desk, hoping it would prevent him from drifting off. The green child a few desks over shot him a weird look, but returned its attention to the clock. All class period the green skinned kid, Zim, had seemed both irritable and impatient. Something that normally Dib would take note of, but he was too tired to care. Did Zim ever need to rest? Why is it always humans who have to, and alien species never seemed to need it? 'Question sleep,' he mentally told himself with a chuckle, remembering a certain human who did just that. He pulled out the flashdrive and turned it over in his hands, still finding the concept of what it contained amazing. An entire person, all of their hopes and dreams and opinons, contained in such a small piece of technology. Now, he had to think of a plan of how, exactly, he was going to get the contents of it into Zim's Pak. He doubted it had an Earthen USB slot.

"...and that, class, is exactly how each of you will die if you were foolish enough to choose to be born," the old teacher hissed at them. The bell rang at that moment, sparing them from another lecture about doom. Some leapt out the windows eagerly, others took the traditional route out through the hallways.

"What is that device you are holding?" a harsh voice commanded, directly in front of Dib. He looked up to notice a pair of big eyes staring at him suspiciously. If he focused, he could see the alien eyes behind the white 'normal human' contacts.

"Haven't you ever seen a flashdrive before, space boy?" Dib retorted, tucking said flashdrive into his jacket pocket. "Or do they not have those on your planet?"

"Uh...of COURSE Zim has seen its like before! I was merely testing you...to see if you knew yourself! I AM NORMAL!" the alien hastily responded, covering up his lack of knowledge in that area. With that said, he shot one last glance at Dib's jacket pocket before marching out the door. Dib followed behind sneakily, a plan forming in his mind. He would plug it into Zim's computer, then send it to the Pak wirelessly! Risky, but that was the only plan he had right now.

There was the teal house, the one with the purple door. Dib couldn't tell if Zim had a bathroom door as his front door as a joke, or if was just his obliviousness kicking in again. Coils stuck out of the skinny house's sides, entering into the two apartment buildings on either side. Why did they not find this odd? Why did they just ignore it, not even caring that an alien was living next door? The boy thought all of this in an instant, still focused on following right behind Zim without being noticed. He almost got caught at the door, Zim's antennae probably picking up some sort of sound he was making that the human ear couldn't detect. Zim had scanned the lawn suspiciously while Dib used his ninja skills to stay perched on top of the edge of the door. He slipped in just as the alien closed it.

"GIR!" the Invader barked, removing his human disguise. A cyan-eyed robot tackled his master to the ground.

"Mastah! I thought yous was gone FOREVAH!" Gir cried out. "I LOVE you!"

The Irken raised an eye at his minion, pushing him off. "Zim was only gone for Skool, Gir."

Gir smiled. "Why?"

"To learn about Earth's defenses."

"Why?"

"So I can destroy it easily!"

"Why?"

"Because my Almighty Tallest expect it!"

"Why?"

"I'm an Invader, that's my job!"

"Why?"

"All of the other jobs are beneath me!"

"Why?" Gir inquired again, giggling. Zim's eye twitched in anger.

"ENOUGH! This is giving me a headache!"

"Why?" Gir screeched in joy. Dib stifled laughter as the small Irken hissed through his zipper-like teeth.

"If you hadn't been given to me personally by my leaders, Gir, I would almost expect that you are commited to making the great Ziiiim INSANE! Is that what you want? For me to be insane as Dib?" Zim asked of his minion.

"YES!" the robot squealed. Then he cocked his head to the side at the Invader's expression. "No?"

"Yes Gir, no," Zim replied.

"Yes, no, yes, no, yes no!" Gir sang happily. Zim sighed in exasperation.

"I'm going into my labs to experiment on the test subject, Nick I think his name is. Don't bother me," Zim ordered, marching over to the toilet.

"Oh, he's gone," Gir answered with a silly grin. The Irken froze and turned his head slowly to his minion.

"He's WHAT?" was the shrieked answer.

"I gave him a cupcake and let him go!"

"WHY would you DO that?"

"Cause he asked nice!" Gir responded. Zim started to yell at his minon again, and Dib decided that he's had enough of this. He crawled across the ceiling and over to the trash bin entrance. As soon as both of his feet touched the bottom of the can, Zim whirled his head around. Dib descended right as Zim was about to attack him. The boy sighed in relief as the elevator calmly took him down in silence, quickly bringing him to the desired destination.

Dib looked around in wonder. The young paranormal investigator never tired of looking at the alien lab, with all of its amazing technology. But this wasn't a time for sightseeing, the alien could arrive at any moment! He ran over to the main computer and plugged in the flashdrive.

"File found," the computer said in a bored voice. "Say, aren't you that big-headed enemy of Zim's?"

"Stop making fun of my head!" Dib snapped.

"Geez, sorry. You have issues, you know that?" the computer pointed out. "Now, what do you want to do with this...file thing?"

"I want to transfer it to a Pak," Dib announced.

"Please type in the Pak ID," the computer replied smugly, bringing up the ID screen. "Bet you don't know how to do that."

"Shut up!" Dib replied harshly. "I can figure it out." He typed in numbers at random, ignoring the snickering robotic voice that informed him each time that the code didn't register.

"Hi puppy head!" a different, higher pitched robot voice squealed. Dib whirled around at the noise just as a wall of green tackled him to the ground, hissing and jabbing at his eyes. The human fiercely fought back, trying to get back to the keyboard.

"WHAT are you DOING in my BASE, Dib-worm?" the alien shrieked.

"Saving the world!" Dib growled back, yanking hard on his enemy's antennas. Zim yelped in pain and clawed at Dib's face.

"Lookit me! Lookit me!" Gir exclaimed, pushing random buttons on the keyboard. The monitor's screen flashed green. "Woo! I'm winning!"

"Code accepted, for once," the computer announced, interrupting the fight between Irken and human. "File sent."

Zim turned to Dib. "What file?" he asked quietly, dangerously.

Dib backed up. "Er...a personality file," the child admitted.

The Irken yanked Dib up by his hair. "Whose personality?" Dib mumbled something quietly, and the Irken shook him violently. "WHOSE?"

"OW! Knock it off! Johnny, okay? Johnny C, famed homicidal maniac! The one who killed all those people lately!" the human shouted. The Irken visibly paled and dropped his enemy in shock, recognizing the name. The little Invader ran back to the keyboard, pushed Gir aside, and frantically started to push buttons. An error message or a 'RESTRICTED PAGE' popped up each time the enter button was pressed. Sometimes a picture of the Scary Monkey popped up, the computer's attempt to aggravate its master. All Zim got in the end for his efforts was the key code Gir had sent the file to, and when he read it, he paled even further and cringed away from the screen.

"This isn't good, it can't be..." Zim mumbled, holding his head in his hands. "It would explain...but this...and now...YOU!" Zim turned suddenly to Dib, marching over to him with fire in his eyes. "This is ALL YOUR FAULT!"

"What did I do?" Dib retorted. "So the file went somewhere else. We can just get it back, and-"

"Don't you think I've tried? Even my best hacking skills can't get past the firewall! If Johnny takes over his personality permanently, I'll MURDER YOU!" the Irken Invader shouted.

"Hold on, hold on, just try to calm down." The human backed up, moving slowly so as not to trigger anything hasty from his enemy. "Who was it sent to?"

Zim groaned. "Of ALL the possible Paks, Gir HAD to input his ID."

"WHOSE?" Dib demanded.

A/N: And...cliffhanger! Oh, aren't I evil? :D