A/N: ...Yep...Another late chapter. I think I'm going to stop trying to set deadlines for myself and just update when I find the time because honestly, school is draining me. Hell, you guys should consider yourselves lucky I'm even updating this week with teachers breathing down my neck. But the good news is, I only have one more week left of school before break. So yeah. Just hang in there and bare with me. With that said, here be the next update of ZADR Orange. Chapter 29 for those of you who have been waiting oh so patiently. Much love to those of you who have faved or added the story to your story alert lists. And as always, feedback be much appreciated. =3 So without further ado, we hope you all enjoy this quick update.

Warnings: Extreme OOCness

Rating: M for later chapters

Disclaimer: We do not own Invader Zim, nor any of the characters from it. We do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Zim/Gaz/Random Irken Drone/ Tallest Red: Notgonnadie

Dib/Irken/Gir: Me

Random Irken Technician: Both of us

Beta: Notgonnadie

Not giving up on trying to convince Dib to leave Zim yet, Gaz merely narrowed her eyes on her brother at his words. "But wasn't HE just about to leave you?" she threw back at him, having heard them arguing earlier.

The pain from their earlier argument still there, Dib's expression fell a bit at her question. "Yes...But...But he had good intentions at least, unlike dad...He said he was only leaving because he thought I hated him, and because he just wanted me to be happy..." his voice came out quiet, antennae drooping.

"Pfft. Yeah right. He just doesn't want to be around you. Do you even have ANY idea what he was doing while you were unconscious? He was ripping your organs out!" Gaz exclaimed, glaring over at him.

Eyes growing wide at her words, Dib seemed to freeze in his spot. "He was what?" he asked, wanting to make sure he had heard right as he pulled away from her, taking a few unsteady steps backwards. "Well, I'm sure it was necessary...I mean, I never asked him what the specifics of this procedure were going to be..." he tried to reason it out to himself, bringing a hand up to hold his head.

Shaking her head, Gaz only continued to glare over at him. "Please, Dib. If I hadn't been there watching him, he would have pulled you apart, and you would have NEVER woken up." she tried to convince him otherwise.

Antennae falling back even more, Dib could only shake his head. "Y-You're lying...Zim would never...He loves me, goddammit!" he screamed back at her, not wanting to believe that Zim would do something like that to him.

Getting annoyed now, Gaz growled out lowly. "Grow up, Dib! NOBODY loves EITHER of us!" she said with finality in her voice.

Feeling as though his very heart were being painfully ripped out of his chest at Gaz's words, Dib's wide eyes seemed to glaze over as he felt his already unsteady legs shake even more before giving out from underneath him, causing him to fall down to his knees and just stare down at the ground, not wanting to believe what she was saying to him. "No...N-No, you're wrong...Zim...H-He..."he tried to protest but fell silent after a moment, unable to continue. Feeling too emotionally worn out to argue with her any longer, he then bowed his head in defeat.

"That's what I thought." Gaz finally said when her words seemed to have gotten through to him before turning on her heel. "Come on, Dib. We're leaving." she said before storming out of the house, splashing through the soaked yard. "COME ON, DIB!" she then yelled back into the house again when she had reached the sidewalk.

Hearing the conversation himself, but unable to react due to the amount of pain he was in, Zim could feel tears sliding from his eyes as Gaz stormed out of the house, shouting at Dib to leave. He didn't WANT Dib to leave. "D-Diii..."he tried to sound out the others name, but it came out as a pained gargle.

Merely remaining kneeling where he was for several long moments, almost lifelessly now, Dib was unable to hear Zim before noticing that same scanning device Zim had used on him earlier laying on the ground near him.

Reaching out to take it, praying that it would still work despite the power being out at the moment, he then stood up and repeated Zim's earlier actions, first scanning himself then approaching the couch to scan Zim. Placing it in the Irken's hand so his thumb was on the button afterwords, not realizing that the other was awake at the moment, Dib hoped he would understand nonetheless what to do when he woke up.

"When the power comes back online, press this button and the base should be back under your control..." he whispered quietly to the other, running his fingers over Zim's hand one last time, though this time emotionless. "I'm sorry..." he then apologized before finally turning to leave upon hearing his sister calling him one last time, knowing that at least Gir would be home soon to help Zim.

Still unable to move and therefore stop Dib from leaving him, Zim could only shake a little as he sobbed heavily to himself, unable to do any more than that.

Having already exited the house, however, Dib approached his sister slowly, little emotion in his dazed expression. "Where do you have in mind to stay?" he asked, knowing they couldn't go home.

Walking ahead of him, Gaz merely began making her way towards the school. "I'm waiting on a response from a friend. Until then, we'll just stay at school. I know how to break in." she said, having had this planned since before Zim and Dib had even had their argument.

"Okay..." Dib just began to slowly walk after her, his gaze fixed on the ground in front of him.

Meanwhile, on the Massive, a random drone approached Red with some charts in hand. "Here are those charts you asked for, my Tallest. " he said, handing them over to Red.

Taking them from the drone, Red smirked after he had gotten a good look at them, his counterpart currently taking a nap in their chambers. "Interesting...I think that human was the best thing to ever happen to Irk...Ever since Zim left with him, he's gotten closer to death more times than I care to count...Hmm...But it's still not quite enough...YOU! Tech!" he then pointed at some random technician on-board.

"Yes, sir?" the technician instantly straightened himself out and turned to salute Red.

"Connect me to planet Dirt." Red instructed the technician.

Saluting again, the technician then turned to a screen in front of him. "Yes, my Tallest!" he said before sending out a transmission to planet Dirt, transferring the call to a large screen in the room as they waited for it to pick up.

Tapping his claws impatiently against his armor, the transmission was soon answered by another Irken with dark, purple eyes.

"My Tallest!" the Irken seemed surprised by who was calling her as she stood up straight and saluted him.

"Ah, I'd hoped you would answer. We have a...secret mission for you." Red grinned evilly.

Back on Earth, Zim remained where he was on the couch, slowly healing bit by bit, allowing him the ability to once again sit up and move around a little. But the power still had yet to come back online, which left him sitting in complete darkness not to mention the cold. "Dib..." the others name slipped past his lips as he shivered and pulled the blanket tighter around himself for more warmth.

A bag of tacos in hand and a taco hat on his head, it was at about this point that Gir came trotting into the base. "Hi, Mastah! I'm hoooome!" the little android cooed out before closing the open door behind him.

"G-Gir?" Zim sniffed, wiping at his eyes. "Y-You're home early..." he said, still shivering though this time more with emotion than from the cold.

"Dat's cause I missed joo, Mastah!" Gir claimed before glomping onto Zim, causing the other to let out a pained noise. "And I gots you tacos!" he said, holding out the greasy bag of tacos to Zim, all the while smiling cheerfully, his tongue hanging out.

Smiling sadly at Gir, Zim merely shook his head. "You know I can't eat tacos, Gir." he reminded the other before taking the bag anyways to set down next to him.

Seeming to notice Zim's sadness, Gir's little antennae then drooped down a bit. "D'awww...What's wrong, Mastah? Why you so sad?" he asked, wrapping his stubby little arms around Zim's waist the best he could, wanting to comfort the other.

Unable to help himself, Zim could only start crying a little again as he wrapped his own arms around Gir and held him tightly. "He left me...He just up and left me! I saved his life again, and he left me!" he exclaimed before breaking down even more.

Little antennae drooping even more when Zim began crying, Gir merely tilted his head to the side somewhat confusedly. "Da Big-Head Boy? But he loved you. He loved you so much." he said before hugging Zim tighter.

Zim could only shake his head at that though. "No...He left..." his voice came out in a whisper now as his antennae drooped.

Not knowing how to respond, Gir could only stare up at his master with an equally sad expression on his face.

Sighing when he got no response from the other save for a sad look, Zim leaned back on the couch and pet Gir gently. "The power's out, Gir...Can you fix it?" he asked though he didn't expect much from the other.

Merely nodding his head in response, Gir then wriggled out of Zim's lap to rocket down into the lab so he could play around with the circuitry until the power came back online. Returning a few minutes later as the lights flickered back on, Gir was all smiles again as he approached the couch. "I fixed it!" he jumped about excitedly.

Smiling sadly as the other began doing a little victory dance, Zim went ahead and pressed the button on the scanner so he wouldn't get kicked of the base and settled back into the couch. "Thank you..." he thanked the little android before closing his eyes and sighing.

Smile still remaining on his face though weaker now, Gir then crawled back up onto the couch. "Mastah want some soup?" he asked, trying to think of something nice he could do for Zim to make him feel better.

Said Irken merely shrugged. "I don't care..." he said, not really hungry but at the same time not wanting to completely crush Gir's spirit when he was trying to do something nice for him.

Reaching into his head and pulling out a rubber piggy, Gir placed it next to Zim before leaving to make the soup. "You stay here and keep Matah company, pig, while I go make him some soup!" he instructed the toy before running off into the kitchen to begin making the Irken some soup, undoubtedly making a mess at the same time.

Sighing yet again, Zim took the pig and smiled a little before curling up on the couch to rest some more.

Returning to the living room about 15 minutes later with a large bowl of steaming hot soup just to find that Zim had fallen asleep, Gir then set the bowl down and climbed up onto the couch with Zim, crawling under the covers to snuggle up to him and close his own eyes.

Meanwhile, with Dib and Gaz, Gaz sighed as she leaned back into one of the cushy chairs they had in the school library. "You might as well get some rest, Dib." she instructed him, closing her eyes as the sun was just setting in the distance.

A/N: And there you have it. Your weekly update of ZADR Orange. =3 Poor Zimmeh again. D8 He just wants to be with his Dibbles, but Dibbeh seems so unsure about everything nowadays. (Sigh) But at least he's got Gir. =3 And who else is worried about what Tallest Red has got in store for Zim and Dib? Obviously it can't be anything good. Anyways, like I said in my earlier author's note, I'm not setting a deadline for myself this week. You guys will get the next chapter when I sit down to work on it. So there. Now let me take this time to respond to those of you who reviewed. =3

To ClockwerkOrange: Well, hello there. To be perfectly honest, I'm a little surprised to see you commenting again. You've been gone so long, I thought I might have scared you away. XD We're glad to see you're back again though. =3 Yes, Zim and Dib do suffer oh so much in this story. That's how we role play them though. XD Anyways, we're glad to see we haven't lost you yet. And we shall most certainly continue writing this. =3 I don't think either of us would feel right stopping so close to the end. Though, as mentioned before, where we are in updating this is still FAR from where we are in writing. So try to hang in there. Thanks again for commenting and we hope to hear from you again soon. =3

To Meta-Knight-1-fan: Lol. Well, I can almost guarantee you that there are a lot of things in this story that you won't see coming. Of course, half the time we don't even see them coming until we get around to writing them. That's why I enjoy writing this story with NGD so much. You just can never tell what random ideas we might throw out for it. As for what Gaz will do, I think it's pretty evident from today's update what she had in mind. XD So until next time~

To Vithian: You're quite welcome for the late birthday wishes. =3 Everybody deserves at least one each year, even if it is late. And I think Notgonnadie had a pretty good birthday. To my knowledge, she received a phone with internet access for her birthday, so I believe she was happy come the end of the day. As for Thanksgiving, it can be fun at times though I only really enjoy the food. Getting together with family to celebrate however, not as much fun. I come from a family with several aunts and uncles but very few cousins. The cousins I DO have live in another state and are several years older than me. Because they don't really mingle with the rest of our family, the conversation of reproduction therefore falls on me and my older brother, though mostly on me. -_-; They keep asking when we're planning on having kids because everybody else in the family is getting old and dying off. I don't plan on having kids though until at least after I've graduated. And at the rate I'm getting classes in this economy, that won't be for a long while still. Damn budget cuts. (Sigh) At least I don't have to meet up with the rest of my family too many times during the year. Though Christmas IS coming up soon, which means another family get together. DX But at least it's fun still. =3 I'll just take a few shots and hide out in my room for the day until it's time to open presents. XD But enough about that. Your bathtub is used to clean your brother's trombone? Well, that's certainly a strange use for it. XD But at least it's being used. =3 I know how you feel though. Finding the time for stuff like that can be difficult at times. I limit my bathtimes to vacations when I'm at hotels and such. Otherwise, I get yelled at if I spend more than even 10 minutes in the shower. -_-; But oh well. I can see how those two fandoms were your first that contained slash. A lot of people seem to like them. Though, honestly, even though I like the fandoms, I don't like them enough to really read into any of the stories or write for them. They came a little later in my life than the ones I obsess over nowadays. Sonic, I grew up with, and IZ came out back when I was in eighth grade. So that fandom got REALLY lucky. As for Sonic, however, I loved the shows, I collect the comics, and I still play the games, though not the newer ones. The last game I played was Sonic Heroes I believe. After that, I couldn't bring myself to continue buying them. I do own every game before that though. Fanart and stories for that fandom didn't come until after playing Sonic Adventure 2: Battle though for me. Love that game SO much. I should play it later. It's been a long time since I've taken care of my chao. XD And I own a LOT. Broke my gamecube though, which sucks because now I need to use my Wii to play them. Enough of my rambling though. Thanks for being so patient with me when it comes to updates and listening to my ramblings. XD Life most certainly DOES get in the way a LOT. But soon enough I'll be on break and able to get updates up more regularly. So you can look forward to that soon enough. (Hug) Until next time~ =3

To Exogorth (In response to both your reviews): Yes, Zim and Dib did doom the Earth to a horrible fate. XD But as you can see now that you've caught up, it be saved again. =3 Anyways, we're glad to hear you're enjoying the story so much and let me be the first to welcome you as another one of our newer reviewers. We're so happy you decided to join us. =3 Indeed, life does tend to get hectic at times, but I always manage to find at least a little bit of time for typing. I wouldn't be much of a writer if I didn't. XD Thank goodness a good portion of my homework centers around writing to begin with though. So I CAN'T go any longer than a week without having something new written out. As for how quickly you read, you may want to slow down now that you've caught up because I only update weekly here. Gives you people time to soak in the entire chapter before moving on. And don't let this story distract you too much from your homework either. Don't want to get in trouble for receiving any bad grades. The torture will still be here when you get back. XD And in some ways, Zim does deserve it, but he doesn't deserve EVERYTHING we have planned to do to him later in the story. Neither does Dib really. But our tormenting them keeps this story interesting. So we shall continue until the very end. The happy ending we have planned though will be ten times sweeter because of all that torment. X3 So we hope you continue to read and enjoy. Until next time~ =3

To lillybean queen of the i ocean: Yayz! 8D

To DTDY: Oh, yes. That speech be so...Dib-like. XD

To heartofstone15: Well, as you can see, things didn't really go over too well in today's chapter. But fear not. Things will eventually work out for the better. You'll see. =3 And indeed. Zim's plan really WASN'T well thought out. But that's Zim for you. Wouldn't have his plans work out any other way. Lol. XD Anyways. Thanks for reading and reviewing. =3 Until next time~

To Illisandria Carthain: Lol. XD See. Aren't you glad now that you're reading the story here? It's things like that last chapter that people have a tendency to miss or forget all about. That's why we update weekly here. And at least you can say it was a nice surprise re-reading through a chapter you didn't remember prior to reading it here. =3 So things all work out. Anyways, as for your weekly question, no, we have not. But NGD and I aren't the one's who are going to be coming up with those names. We currently have a fanart contest taking place over on DA. The top three winners of said contest will be submitting two lists of gendered names from which we will choose from. So no. No names yet. The contest isn't over yet and we don't plan on ending it until close to the end of writing the story, which we still have a ways to go on. With that said, thank you for reading and reviewing each week. You rock. ^_^ (Huggles)

To Casykirby: Indeed! Quite late, but not the last person to review this past week. XD Anyways. Yes. Lots of excitement for you. Also lots of sadness. But those are the aspects which keep this story interesting. And no. It doesn't really clear up. At least, not right away it doesn't. You'll see what I mean by that later in the story though. Zim and Dib have a very unstable relationship throughout a lot of this story. It's only just now beginning to strengthen where NGD and I are writing it. But we're glad to hear you're still enjoying it so much. =3 And don't worry. They never stay apart for too, too long. And, as I've been saying, the ending we're shooting for WILL be a happy one. So keep up the reading and we'll look forward to hearing from you each and every week. =3 Because it really is nice to know we'll have at least a few readers continuining to review each chapter that we post. So until next time~ =3

To maliceofhumansacrifice: Oh, well, I'm sorry. But I really can't help how the chapters make you feel. We do warn you people that this story IS a very sad one. Cheer up though. Here be the next chapter to make you feel better. =3 It be full of warm cuddles from Gir. ^.^

To Sapcoat: Lol. XD Yayz! Indeed. Water can be oh so mean sometimes. But don't worry. I think that was the last time it picks on Zim in this story. XD Though it doesn't mean he's completely safe from our torment. XD Because Zim IS very unlucky in this story. He and Dib alike. But NGD and I only torment them because we love them. X3 And you're welcome. Thank you for enjoying our questionable tasteful torment of the boys in this story. XD We look forward to hearing back from you sometime soon. So until next time~