TENTH CHAPTER! ^^ *wacks a pinata*

Pinata: Ow!

At first I wasn't sure what to write, and all I knew was that I needed a scene between Zim and Gaz. Then I realized that I'd actually (an unintentionally) backed myself into a corner that I HAD to write. What am I talking about? Ashta left the room, thus leaving Zim and Gaz together. There had to have been some dialogue.

Pinata: I'm still in a lot of pain...

Shut up, Pinata.

Apology at the end. :(

Anyways, enjoy! :)

Everyone was sitting on the floor looking over the many history books thrown around the room when Ashta sat up suddenly, clutching her head. "I have a headache, and require rest. Continue studying on your own." she said stiffly before fleeing the room. Gaz eyed where she had been sitting, slightly confused.

"Well...that was random..." she said. Zim shrugged.

"The Ashta-creature is crazy. Zim has found it best to not question the many strange things she does." he said, not bothering to look up from his book about the rulers of Ancient Greece and Rome.

Gaz turned to Zim, a look of disbelief on her face. "No way...YOU'RE calling HER weird? You, who just last week had an incident with exploding hamsters?"

Zim waved his hand nonchalantly, his face still buried in the book. "Setting fire to the pitiful Earth-rodents was necessary to Zim's genius plan." he said, his voice slightly muffled by the pages.

Gaz frowned. "You're so self-centered."

"And you're mean." Zim said, looking up slightly from his book.

"You're too over-confident." Gaz returned, her eyes narrowing.

"You're a bully!" Zim responded, setting his book down.

"You have an ego the size of Alaska!"

"You rely too much on sarcasm!"

"You're an idiot!"

"You're a pathetic human!"

"You boast too much!"

"You're too pessimistic!"

These two fought for about an hour, until it started getting dark out. Gaz was lying on the couch, pretty much drained of all energy, and Zim was on the floor, also too tired to move. They stared at the ceiling for a while before both saying, "I hate you." and falling asleep.

!#$%

It was morning when Ashta walked out of her room. She headed for the kitchen, ready to start making breakfast, when she passed the living room and saw Zim and Gaz both sleeping, Gaz on the sofa, and Zim sprawled out on the floor.

"Did I miss something?" She muttered to herself, before picking up one of the nearby history books. She raised it far above head, then slammed it onto the ground as hard as she could, startling awake both Zim and Gaz.

"YOU'RE UGLY!" Zim shouted, jumping awake, and Gaz shouted, "YOU HAVE NO NOSE!" sitting up straight. Apparently they both thought they were still arguing. Gaz looked around, noticing where she was and what time it was before muttering, "Shit."

"What is the Gaz-beast doing sleeping in Zim's base?" Zim shouted, now fully awake.

Gaz glared at him. "We fell asleep arguing, remember, moron?" she then put her head in her hands and exhaled deeply. "This is not gonna go over well with Dib. Me, spending the night at his arch-enemy's house, who is, according to rumor, my boyfriend? Not good at all." She looked up. "I don't know about you guys, but I can't deal with the big scene he'll make of this. I'm gonna play hooky."

Zim's antennae perked up, confused. "What does playing hockey have to do with the noise that comes out of your brother's mouth nonstop?"

Ashta rolled her eyes. "She said hooky, Zim, not hockey. It's human slang for skipping Skool." She then turned to Gaz and shrugged. "I'm all for it, I guess."

"Is this...'hooky' common with human teens?" Zim asked, making air quotes with his fingers..

Gaz shrugged. "Most humans have done it at least once. No one really wants to go to Skool."

"YES! Then I will play 'hooky' to seem normal!"

Ashta rolled her eyes. "Whatever. In that case, I'm going back to sleep. You two can do whatever the hell you want. Just make sure Iva and Gir stay out of the kitchen. Who knows what they could blow up?"* and with that Ashta walked out of the room, leaving Zim and Gaz alone yet again.

Gaz turned to Zim. "For the record, if Dib comes to tear you apart limb from limb, it's your fault."

Zim scowled. "How is this Zim's fault? YOU started the argument!"

"Yeah, but if you would have let me win, I could have gone home before I crashed on your couch." Gaz pointed out.

"Zim loses to no one! Especially not a human!"

"Sure." Gaz said, rolling her eyes and standing up. "I'm going to get breakfast, then. What do you guys even have around here?"

"We have freezer waffles."

Gaz raised an eyebrow. "Freezer waffles? Why?"

"So Gir doesn't have an excuse to attempt to cook them." Zim said simply, getting up and starting to stack up all the books into a neat pile.

Gaz shrugged. "As long as it's edible." She wandered into the kitchen, only to see Gir sitting behind the wall next to the doorway, and grinning madly. Gaz raised an eyebrow. "What's got you looking like a happy version of The Joker?"

"I found my moose!" he shouted, showing her a rubber squeaky moose.

Gaz shook her head at him. "You're brain must be seriously fucked up." she said, walking past him and to the fridge. She pulled some waffles out of the freezer and put them in the toaster. She leaned against the counter, and then Gir caught her eye again. He was staring at her, and it was frankly creeping her out. "You're not gonna leave, are you?" she asked, irritated.

"NOPE!" Gir said happily. Gaz rolled her eyes. After seemed like forever the toaster popped.

"Finally!" Gaz sighed, grabbing her waffles and not bothering with a plate or syrup. She frankly liked them better plain. She ignored Gir's protests of "not cooking the waffles right" and walked back into the living room. Once there she bent down and started to help Zim pick up the books, using one hand, since the other was busy holding her waffle.

Zim looked at her, confused. "Why are you helping Zim?" he asked.

Gaz shrugged. "I've got nothing better to do. I finished my video game, and unfortunately the new game doesn't come out for a while." Suddenly, her eyes grew dark and threatening. "If Dib does ANYTHING to stop me from getting that game he will pay with his life." she growled. Her eyes suddenly went back to normal. "So, what are your plans for today?"

"Oh, not much. Zim was planning on using this day to think of plans for world domination, but now I think it might be better as a day of relaxation." Zim responded. Gaz nodded. For a while no one said anything to each other, and only the sounds of books being picked up and stacked could be heard.

Finally, Zim broke the silence. "I enjoyed our argument earlier. Most of the time people give up against Zim's persistence, but you kept arguing."

Gaz shrugged. "I hate to lose, and when I start something I need to finish it. I have the same mentality for video games."

Zim looked deep in thought, his hand propping up his chin. Holding a big History book, one who didn't know better may think Zim looked almost intellectual. Of course, this was not this case. "Zim did not know lessons learned in video games could be used in the everyday life of a human." he said, looking at Gaz. She snorted, a mixture between mild laughter and scoffing. (Or, at least as close to 'mild laughter' as one could get for Gaz.)

"They can if the one playing has the brains to figure them out. Unfortunately, brains are not a common thing nowadays." she said as she placed another book on top of the growing stack. "To be fair, though, in that argument, you were a worthy opponent. Usually people break too easily."

Zim laughed. "I'll have to remember that, next time I feel the need to argue with someone." Gaz smirked. She didn't know why, but she felt kind of good with the fact that her and Zim were actually seeming to get along, for once.

Gaz mentally scolded herself. This was change, and such change was not authorized by her. She and Zim were frenamies, and only that at best! Nothing was going to change that! Ever! Gaz reassured herself with her own doubts as she continued to stack books.

!#$%

*Later that night Ashta was once again in front of the big screen, summoned by the Tallests. She was terrified. They were obviously not pleased with her. It had been a two whole days in her week-long time-limit, and she had no results at all.

"Ashta, I am sure you know why we are calling." Red said, looking down at Ashta as if she were disgusting him. She whimpered, as she was used to the Tallest praising her for doing well on her missions.

"Y-Yes, my Tallests. I am aware that I am yet to show results for my efforts here on Earth." she said. "I know how displeased you are with me-"

"Displeased doesn't begin to cover it, Ashta." Red interrupted her. "You were once our greatest assassin, and now you don't seem capable of killing Zim of all people! We are not displeased, Ashta, we are disappointed in your actions." Ashta cringed. "We stand by our one-week time-limit. If by that time you have still failed to follow your orders and relive us of the annoyance that is Zim, we will be sending an assassin after you! You have five more days, Ashta."

With that, he cut the transmission suddenly. Ashta stared ahead for a while, until she finally broke down, with tears streaming down her face. She didn't want to lose her honor, her leaders' trust, and her confidence, but all of that seemed to be falling apart around her. Why did it seem so hard? This should be an easy assignment! Like Red had said, it was Zim of all people! Suddenly Ashta got angry. Zim. It was all his fault her life was crumbling to pieces! She dried her tears with her arm, a new determination in her eyes.

She was going to make Zim pay for what he had unknowingly taken from her. He would feel every bit of pain that she had felt. He would see his world fall to pieces while his life slipped away from him. He would know the true meaning of anger and humiliation. With these thoughts flooding Ashta's mind she hissed just three words through her clenched teeth.

"Zim. Will. DIE!"

What Ashta wasn't aware of, though, that there was someone else in the room. From the shadows someone had been watching intently, hearing every word both she and the Tallests had said. They knew of her secret.

You hate me, don't you. :( I promised an earlier update, but then I was blind-sighted by a spurt of unforeseen writer's block. I won't tell you what time to expect next chapter, for fear of not being on time, but I CAN tell you what to expect in it:

A ZaGr Moment!

Action!

An angry Dib!

Lots of pointless dialogue (like normal)!

And who was watching Ashta will be revealed! Hint: They so far have not been in this story.

*This is a reference to the original version of this fic that I had. In it, when Gaz first came over Gir and Iva blew up the kitchen. In case you're wondering, I had this story in development for MONTHS, and had a good few chapters written when I decided to give it more depth and character development. I pretty much scrapped all of what I had and rewrote it by ear. Believe it or not, but in VERY early development (and I mean VERY VERY early) Ashta wasn't even a character. The story pretty much had no plot and was centered around Iva and Gir. Then I later added Ashta and the ZaGr-theme. Then I gave Ashta some development and a deeper plot, and viola, this is what I have. Somewhere I still have the old notebook with the original written in it...Oh well, I'm rambling again. -.-

**I was listening to a hard-metal Vocaloid/Utauloid song when I wrote this part, to help me get into an angry-ish state. If you don't know what Vocaloid or Utauloid is, look it up, as I'm too lazy to explain it here. If you DO know, the song was "Alive" by Miku Hatsune and Teto Kasane. It's a spin-off of another Vocaloid song by Miku called "Blaze."