Hi, everyone! I am super excited to post this chapter, and I'd like to give credit to MetasActReon. He is a personal friend of mine and has many fanfictions posted on Archive of Our Own, if you would like to check them out. He helped me quite a lot with writing Zim's dialogue in this chapter.

Hope you guys enjoy!

Chapter Sixteen: Zim

I stared up at the bright orange fireball that was crashing down to Earth in confusion, Surely, that wasn't the Massive.

Some of the humans panicked and ran away from the skool yard, dragging me with them. I was forced down to the ground by the humans on the other side of the skool just as a powerful wave blasted through the air. When it cleared, the humans cautiously stepped out of their hiding places, and I followed suit, curious as to what had crashed.

I approached the "landing" site and found a large metal ball. It looked to be an escape pod. There was a hiss as the top gradually lifted open. Once the top of the pod was fully open, a hand grasped the edge of the opening, and a human hoisted himself through. "Boy, that was a rough landing," he commented rubbing the back of his neck. "Sorry, everyone!"

"Mister Dwicky?" a voice gasped. I glanced over and found that it was Dib who spoke.

"Dib!" the man shouted, jumping onto the rim of the exit. He slid down the escape pod and onto the ground. He rushed towards Dib and grabbed him by the shoulders. "You have to help!"

"Help with what?" Dib demanded, hitting his hands away.

"There's an alien ship from a very dangerous alien race that's coming to take over Earth," the human announced.

Alien ship? The Massive. This man must have detected them and then came back to Earth to warn the rest of the humans! I can counter that with a little warning of my own.

I didn't bother to hear the rest of the conversation. I rushed off, heading back towards my base. It didn't take me long to get there, and the moment I arrived, I tore off my human disguise and headed down to the lab.

"What you doin' home so soon?" GIR wondered, getting into the elevator with me.

"Something happened at school," I explained. "An escape pod crash landed, and a human came out, warning everyone else of the impending invasion. I'm going to inform the Tallest so that they can be prepared for resistance. However minimalistic it may be."

Once the elevator stopped, I made my way to the communication station and opened a line to the Massive. It was answered after a minute or two by Red and Purple standing there with drinks in their hands. "What is it Zim?" Red questioned.

"I am here to inform you that a human has just crash landed back on Earth. He knows that you plan to invade the planet and is proceeding to warn the rest of the populace," I reiterated.

"Really?" Purple wondered.

"How well do you think they'll resist?" Red asked.

I chuckled a little. "Not very well. They've sworn off using their most powerful weaponry for fear of 'endangering the human population' or some other such nonsense, so I don't think it'll be too much trouble for the likes of the mighty IRKEN ARMADA!"

"Understood, Zim," Red answered.

"Hey!" Purple interjected. "Is there any place we should attack first? If they're not going to resist, then we should at least get a little fun out of it."

I thought for a moment. "Not really. It's pretty much all the same, but I do have one request." The Tallest didn't answer, but waited for me to finish. "That you do not kill or capture this particular human." I forwarded them my file picture of Dib. "He has been quite a nuisance to me during this mission, and I can't think of a better way to punish him than letting him watch his whole planet be destroyed and not be able to do a single thing about it."

The Tallest turned to each other for a moment before looking back to me. "Look, Zim," Red began, "we didn't even plan on coming to this planet, so I don't think we'll be able to indulge any requests like that."

I suppressed a gasp, but couldn't hide the twitch in my antenna. "What do you mean you 'weren't planning on coming'?"

"I think it's time we tell him," Purple voiced before sipping on his drink. "I mean, it's not like we can keep sending him into deep space for the rest of our lives just to avoid him."

Avoid me? What did he mean by that?

"Yeah, you're probably right," Red agreed. "That would be even more annoying." Red looked back up at me. "We weren't planning on coming to your planet because we didn't even know you had a planet." I was shocked. I couldn't even respond. Red continued, "We sent you that far into space to get rid of you. We didn't even know there was a planet there."

"What do you mean?!" I yelled. "You wanted me gone!?"

"More like dead!" Purple added. "So imagine our surprise when you called us!"

"But look on the bright side!" Red offered. "You'll get to contribute to Impending Doom Two for real this time!"

"But after that, it's back to flipping burgers," Purple finished.

"Not back to Sizlore!" I shouted.

"You're still banished, Zim," Red explained. "And you will remain banished and stripped of your rank until the Control Brain determines that you have repaid your debt."

"What debt?" I asked.

"The debt you gathered when you blew up the entire armada!" Purple answered.

"Anyways, we'll be there in about three days," Red said. "We're certainly looking forward to all those snacks!" The Tallest both laughed as they cut the transmission.

All I could do was sit there in silence for a little while. I didn't know what to do. My mission, my entire life since Impending Doom One was a lie. Tak said that the Tallest had lied to me, and Sizlore even showed me that my PAK still had me encoded as a food service drone, but I didn't believe any of it. I knew the Tallest when we were all just smeeches! I thought we had a good relationship! Apparently not.

"Master, the Tallest cut the transmission a half hour ago," the Computer said.

"Oh, yeah," I muttered, "They did, didn't they?"

They wanted the Earth, but they didn't want me. If that was the case, I wouldn't let them have the Earth, either. "They either get both or nothing!" I exclaimed, standing up from my chair.

"What you say?" GIR wondered, looking up from the card game that he was playing with Minimoose.

"The Tallest Think that they can reject the mighty ZIM?! Well, it is I who will reject them!" I shouted. "They will not take the Earth, and I know just the person to help me defend it."

Since Dib's parent was investigating the approaching Massive, the best place to look for Dib would be at his lab. I quickly made my way there, forgetting my disguise in my haste. Once I reached the lab, I used the mechanical legs from my PAK to reach up to the roof. From there, I made my way into the ventilation system, and I searched for Dib by looking through the vents.

After what felt like hours of searching, straining to see through the panicking humans stampede, I found Dib running into a corner and sliding down on the floor. It looked like he was trying to hide.

I used my PAK's legs to cut through the metal vent and lower myself down onto the floor. I was acutely aware of how dangerous it was to be in this lab without my disguise, but it wouldn't matter in three days when they knew Irkens existed, and the human's panic made them blind to everything that wasn't in their immediate line of sight.

I fought my way over to Dib and called his name. He didn't respond, even when I was right in front of him. "Dib, look at me you stupid Earth Monkey!" I shouted.

Dib still did nothing. He just stared at the white bottle he had in his hand. I grabbed him around the collar and lifted him up, forcing him to look at me. "You have to stop the invasion! I screwed up!" I yelled.

I didn't know how I screwed up, just that I did. Maybe by letting myself be fooled by those Tallest traitors?

I growled threateningly and threw him against the wall when he didn't answer. The bottle he was holding clattered to the floor and was quickly kicked away by many human feet. "You're useless!" I cried. "Whatever that hospital did to you was good for me at first, but now it's just plain irritating! Whatever it is, you have to fight through it, or both the Earth and you are doomed!"

The four mechanical legs extended out of my PAK and drew me up towards the ceiling. I shifted a ceiling tile out of the way and from there, made my way back into the ventilation system.

A few hours later, I had my disguise back on, and I, as well as GIR, was waiting outside Dib's parent's lab with the humans. Dib's male parent said that there would be some sort of announcement.

Dib's parent stepped up to the stand and cleared his throat. "Well, I think we all know why we're here, and why this announcement is being broadcast around the world. The former school counselor, Mister Dwicky—" He gestured behind him to the human who had crash landed a few hours ago, "—has warned us of an impending invasion by a very powerful alien race. We have officially corroborated his claim. It is real." Dib's male parent paused, glancing back at Dib and Gaz who were sitting next to Dwicky, as the humans around me gasped. He turned back to the stirring crowd but didn't say anything. Then he put his hands to his face as his shoulders started to bounce rapidly for some odd reason. I think I've previously heard it described as crying. "I'm sorry, Dib," he whispered. "You're the only one who would know what to do because you've studied these creatures all your life."

I rolled my eyes at his pathetic display. If this adult man was supposed to protect the Earth instead of Dib, those dirty traitors of Tallest scum have won the Earth already.

I pushed my way through the crowd and climbed up onto the stage, shoving the scientist aside. I glanced at the mics on his podium, but quickly decided that it would be best not to distract the swarm of humans by reaching for them. Instead, I decided to let my superior Irken voice deliver my message to the masses. I cleared my throat and announced, "Attention all you earth slorps! The Dib is broken because you were all too idiotic to listen. All of you were so incredibly stupid to think that you're all alone in this universe. HA! Now, Zim is your last hope so you will listen to me or you are all doomed!"

The crowd quieted a little at the sound of my voice, and they turned their attention to me, at last.

"Alright, kid, get off the stage," someone requested.

"Yeah," another agreed. "Let Professor Membrane finish his announcement."

I turned around to see two males in black body armor holding what looked like shock prods. If they think they can force me off this stage, they have another thing coming. Nothing will stop me from preventing my former Tallest from taking my project from me.

I ignored them and turned back to the humans, who were now hanging on my every word. "Dib is not the only one to know about other lifeforms! I listened to his rantings as he constantly accused me of being one of them, so I am your best and only bet to stop this impending alien DOOM!"

An unexpected and hot pain stabbed me in the back. I shouted in surprise and whip around to see that the two males had activated their weapons. They advanced towards me, brandishing their prods, and I backed away. The only way I could defend myself was by using my PAK, but that would reveal my true identity, and if these pitiful humans were going to listen to me, they had to believe I was one of them!

One of the men thrust his prod towards me, and I ducked under it, only to be stabbed by the second man. It seems that they turned the voltage up on their weapons because I felt this one right down to my squeedily spooch.

I groaned as the other man shocked me with his prod. I barely even thought of using my PAK, but it acted on my amazing self-preservation instinct. The legs from my PAK automatically extended and raised me up out of the range of their shock prods.

Everyone nearby made some noise of exclamation at this.

"Oh, so we're showing everyone, Master?" GIR wondered from down below.

I looked down at him, hastily ordering, "GIR, no!"

I barely got the words out before GIR had removed his clever dog disguise, revealing his robot self.

And I finally noticed that my black wig was on the ground next to him. It must have gotten caught on one of the men's shock prods as I got out of the way! Everything was ruined! There was no way these idiotic humans would listen to me now!

My balance was thrown off by a sudden impact, and I fell to the ground. I looked up to see the human that came from space standing above me with a projectile weapon in his hand. He was glaring at me with his finger on the trigger.

"He's one of them!" the space human shouted. "He's Irken! He has to be working with them!"

The man moved his thumb, and the weapon made a clicking sound. I've overheard enough of GIR's movies to know that he was about to pull the trigger. And that there wasn't enough time to get out of the way. I braced myself as a deafening bang hurt my antenna.

But there wasn't any pain or anything.

I looked back up to see Dib in front of me, some sort of long, metal rod in his hands. He was forcing the man's weapon upwards, and there was a thin trail of smoke coming from the barrel. "You shouldn't do that," Dib muttered, his voice more low and menacing than I've ever heard it.

Thanks so much for reading, guys, and I hope to see you next week for chapter 17! ...Which I have not finished writing yet, gosh dang it!