Zim had not yet put the finishing touches on his evil plan of evil Gaz-ness revenge, let alone set the ball rolling, so it was understandable that he would be confused as to why the aforementioned human was attempting to superglue his bookcase back together. In fact, it was more than understandable that he felt more than a little angry when he realized that his entire living room was in shambles.

One could argue that his outburst, no matter what the reason, was unnecessary, but he felt it was justified.

"What the hell do you think you're doing in my home destroying my things? I haven't even put my evil plan of revenge goodness into action yet! You aren't allowed to initiate preemptive strikes against me!" His shouting startled her and she dropped a shelf on her foot.
"Ow!" She hopped up and down on one foot, a most comical sight (Zim was smart enough to keep his laughter contained), and glowered at the alien. She couldn't very well chastise him for startling her, seeing how she had destroyed his living room, so she settled for glaring at the wall behind him. "This wasn't a preemptive strike. And what do you mean 'evil plan of revenge goodness' anyway?"

Zim swallowed hard. "I…um…hey! I'm the one asking the questions around here!"

"Yes, well, be that as it may…I don't feel like talking about it." She bent over and picked the shelf back up before focusing on the bookcase once again.

"Inconceivable! You can't just not want to talk about it! You're trespassing!" He paused to take a breath before beginning a rant when Gir ran up to him and hugged his knees.

"Master! I missed youuuuu!"

"What happened to you?" Zim demanded. The little robot looked as though he had taken an extended vacation in a salvage yard.

"Gazzy an' me was playin' a game and then Gazzy got real upset and started crying and laughing at the same time and then we played wrestling just like on TV! I accidentally brokeded your toys though when she started chasing me around. I sorry, Master!" Gir hummed quietly to himself as he waited for Zim's response.

"What would upset you so much that you would beat up my robot and demolish my home?" Zim demanded, a protective claw atop Gir's head. The alien couldn't begin to imagine what Gaz must have done to him.

"I don't want to talk about it, and if you want me to have this place resembling a living room, then you'll drop it and we'll discuss it later."

"I don't care about the living room!" Zim shoved Gir towards the stairs. "Go play or something, Gir. Gaz and I need to have a little chat." He waited as the robot made its way to the staircase. "I'm not angry anymore so stop staring at me as though I'm about to kill you." The alien sat on what remained of the sofa wearily and debated over helping her to put everything back on the shelves, but decided not to move. "You are rather confusing."

Gaz bit back a sarcastic retort and sighed. "I experienced a brief lapse in self-control."

"Ah. Is the alarm on your biological clock about to go off?"

"That is a horrible way of putting it, but no." She glanced over her shoulder at him. "Have you ever realized something that made you want to celebrate with joy, but go on a homicidal rampage at the same time?"

"No."

"Oh." She finished with her work in silence and walked over to the door. "Sorry. I'll see you tomorrow or something." She left the house and Zim was in such a state of confusion that the poor ex-Invader felt sure he would melt into a little Irken puddle of befuddlement.

Gaz wasn't quite the happy camper either.

For you see, people never mention the darker side of falling in love with someone, especially when it is your first time doing so. They talk of Cupid, roses, satin sheets, fireworks, bells and music ringing in your head. No one ever speaks of the anxiety you feel when that special someone forgets to call or the fear that one day they may walk away and never look back.

And certainly no one ever Ever EVER warns you that you might fall in love with someone you just don't want to or what you're supposed to do in such a case.

Gaz's initial reaction was anger. The passionate and caffeinated variety.

Looking back on this fateful day she will be aware of the fact that she has three things of which to be grateful for: deciding to ditch her last period art class in favor of playing games with Gir, the fact that Zim hardly ever skipped class and was not at his home, and that Gir is made of fairly strong metal and has no nerve endings.

For now she was miserable.

She gave an empty little chuckle as she realized that she had beaten Gir like a redheaded stepchild, as the saying goes. But the knowledge that she was head-over-heels in love with Zim and that most of her seemed content to stay that way had made itself aware just as she was about to beat the hardest boss in the entire game, causing her to lose.

Now, she knew that it wasn't entirely Zim's fault that she felt this way. It was her body's, the traitorous thing that it suddenly was. But she was young and full of energy, especially after finishing off a twelve-pack of soda, so really it was just a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Cliché, yes, but the truth.

With everything already said and done she supposed she should at least apologize to Zim. She pulled out her cell phone and dialed his number.

"It is I, the mighty me! Who wishes to speak to the wonderful I?"

"Zim? Gaz. I wanted to say I'm sorry for killing your living room. And for not asking you permission before going over to your house…and for beating on Gir, but I swear he thought we were playing a game or something. I'd never purposely do anything to hurt you two."

"I know."

Silence ensued and Gaz fidgeted as she tried to think of something to say. "I'll make it up to you."

"Why don't you just tell me what's going on?" Zim demanded. "I know we haven't been close lately, but that doesn't mean I'm not still interested in you...err, friendship. I consider us to still be allies despite all that has happened."

"I will tell you. Eventually."

"Tell me now!" His voice took on a most irritating whine, and Gaz nearly smiled. He was back to his old self. Odd of her to think such a thing, but oh well.

"I'll tell you on Thursday, before you graduate."

"Very well, you evil human. Fare thee well, dirt child."

"Shut up." They disconnected and Gaz continued walking home.

Zim stared at the phone in his hand and shook his head. She was more of a puzzle than Gir at times. And she caused worse headaches. If it wasn't her biological clock that was making a mess of things, then what was it?

Normally Gaz was cool and calculating. SO why would she freak out like that? And why would she ask if he had ever experienced something that pleased and repulsed him at the same time?

Well, there was that one time when he had tried to make Tak his love monkey…

He gasped and made a bee line for his labs. Was that evil Irken female back? Her reappearance would certainly cause that kind of reaction in Gaz. She would be pleased that the alien was back so that she could torture her, but she would be repulsed because no one really liked Tak…except Dib, but his opinions never really did count for much.

His computer scanned through the reports at NASA and SETI, which took a considerable amount of time. The results came back as Zim started eating his third sandwich. There were no reports of anything unusual going on near Earth, but that didn't honestly mean anything considering human stink beasts were the ones running everything.

Should he inform Dib of what was going on? He could prove to be a resourceful…um…resource, but on the other hand he might get caught up in Tak-love and Zim didn't want to be forced to kill him. So many options, so little time. They had to get to Tak before Gaz.

"Earth monkey, it is Zim! I need your help!"

"Zim, it's three in the morning. What the hell do you want?" Dib grumbled.

"Your sister is going to try to do something very stupid and we have to stop her."

"Normally we're the ones trying to do something very stupid," the human pointed out, "and it's her that stops us. Get to the point or I'm going to hang up on you."

"Tak, that annoying female piece of filth, is back. And your sister is going to try to track her down and do I don't want to imagine what to her. We can't let her have all the fun! We have to spy on Gaz and figure out where Tak is located. Are you in?"

"Are you mental? Last time we did anything remotely like this it backfired on us because we were assuming something without having all the details."

"Gaz destroyed my living room and beat up my robot because, as she put it, she had a 'brief lapse in self-control.' I have spent minutes trying to figure out what would cause her to be pleased and repulsed at the same time, and this is the only logical explanation."

"Maybe she loves you," Dib snickered.

"Ha! Foolish human idiot brain! What an idiotic idea. Are you going to help me?"

"Sure. But call me back when the sun is actually halfway up in the sky, okay?" Dib hung up his phone and tried to get back to sleep. He had a feeling that Zim was simply jumping to conclusions again, and that there was no possible way Tak could be back on Earth. But if she was…

Grumbling, the poor boy got up and turned on his computer. He wouldn't be getting much sleep now, that was for sure. He tapped his fingers against the keyboard idly. There had to be some way to monitor Gaz's actions without getting caught like last time.

One would think he'd have learned his lesson about spying on his younger sister, but no such luck.

A grin reminiscent of the Grinch that stole Christmas adorned his features as he came up with what he felt was the perfect plan.