"Dib?"

"Dib?!"

"DIB?! C'mon!"

Dib opened his eyes and saw a blob of purple, black, and white. His vision cleared and kneeling next to him was his sister. Gaz smacked Dib in the face.

"Okay, Okay! I'm awake!" Dib exclaimed, blinking at the light.

"What happened?" Gaz asked. Was that a concerned look on her face?

"Nothing," Dib replied, though he knew very well that it was a lie.

The concerned look on Gaz's face vanished immediately; replacing it was a look of frustration. "You call arguing with thin air nothing?!" she exclaimed as Dib rose to his feet. "There's something wrong with you, Dib, face it."

"I'm fine, Gaz," Dib tried to assure her. "Trust me."

"Don't try to fool me!" Gaz warned him. "I know what's going on. You're hearing voices."

"No, I'm-"

"Fine!" Gaz interrupted. "Deny it, but no matter how much you say you're fine, you aren't. Kya really needs to get that psychologist back here…"

"Do you realize what being labeled 'insane' would do to me?" Dib asked her.

"Uh, yeah, help you."

"No," he retorted. "It would ruin my future of being a professional paranormal investigator. No one will hire a lunatic! How will I get into college?"

"Maybe you still have a chance. If you start getting help now, you may be better in time for your career. C'mon, Dib, you're sixteen for God's sake! You've got, what, sixty-four years ahead of you? That's plenty of time to achieve what you want to."

"I'll be fine, Gaz, really…"

Gaz threw up her hands and headed towards the door. "Fine, assume what you want, but don't blame me if what you have is fatal." She slammed the door hard, leaving her brother in silence.

The words, "no more" echoed in Dib's head and hit him hard. He became overwhelmed at the fact that he would never achieve his dreams—or anything at that. He shook his head to rid himself of the thought. He won, right?

"It's amusing how you try to play the victim when we're the ones who had to pay," said Zita.

"You just have to win, don't you, worm monkey?" ZIM jeered.

"You're pathetic."

"Hopeless."

"Stupid."

"Pitiful."

"Why do you 'head illusions' find it entertaining to insult me?" Dib asked.

"Maybe because you're acting like such a jack-" Gaz furiously began, yet she was interrupted by ZIM's coughing fit.

"You know, with the six bullets you used to kill us, you hurt several other people, too," Keef said.

"With the bullet you killed me, you wounded my parents as well," Zita said. "You hurt my best friends, my boyfriend, and even people who weren't so kind to me."

"You hurt millions of Irkens who admired me ever so much," said ZIM arrogantly as Dib rolled his eyes. Dib knew very well that NO ONE could admire ZIM.

"You hurt the world by killing Dad, with all his inventions to help humanity," Gaz explained. "You also hurt whoever knew Kya."

"You hurt my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins," Keef said sadly.

"And you've also hurt yourself," Zita spoke up. "You've ruined your whole life."

"I still have a chance, if I get a good lawyer," Dib argued as he tried to let the painful words his victims spoke escape his head.

"You think a lawyer will help much?!" Gaz spat. "There is WAY too much proof that what you did was against the law. Murdering six people… You think that can give you a chance to return to a normal life?"

Dib realized then how slim his chances were at getting off the hook. There was practically NO chance. Dib's confidence decreased.

"There we go," ZIM said. "You're beginning to understand."

Once again, Dib had nothing to say.

At skool, the next day, Dib found it hard to keep the voices away. He figured it was because people were making fun of him a little more than usual today. Dib hated it when people mocked him; he found himself so defenseless in that area.

"Hey, Dib!" Torque Smacky called out. "See any aliens? Didn't think so. Your big head is too abnormal for them!"

"Why don't you just die and join your ghost friends? I'm sure they'd enjoy being around you much more than we do!" Jessica, the most popular girl in skool, said with a smirk as her friends laughed.

Then there was Zita. She always found time at the beginning of skool to call him crazy in her own little way. Laughter followed; how he hated the laughter!

Today, the insult from Zita was, "Watch out, I hear Dib's insanity is contagious!"

Dib was glad she didn't mean the actual insanity he had a chance of having. He vowed to never let that secret get out. More, hurtful insults and laughter would come if the news got out. He was actually glad to have a sister that wasn't social so there was no chance of her spreading it around.

And, of course, there were always the usual insults from ZIM, but Dib had gotten used to him. He could defend himself when fighting with ZIM. ZIM was an idiot, anyway.

"Pathetic earthling! You will never be able to stop my amazing plan! You think you can defeat me! You can't! HAH!" ZIM taunted Dib in the hallway at a passing period.

"Actually, ZIM, I've stopped your plans many, many times. You haven't noticed that in the past four years?" Dib informed ZIM.

"You're LYING!" ZIM yelled, drawing attention from the students in the hallway. Dib sighed in frustration.

"You go ahead and believe that," Dib muttered. ZIM obliviously told the rest of the skool that he was indeed a 'human worm.'

"Okay, I have to go or I'll be late for class again," Dib said as he headed to his next class.

"What?" ZIM turned around. "Oh, yeah, well, you're still lying!"

Dib shook his head and went inside the classroom door.

"Feeling guilty yet?" Keef asked nonchalantly.

"No," Dib said. "I guess I killed a lot more people then I expected. Cool."

"Cool?! COOL?!" Gaz's temper was getting the best of her once again. "So what you're saying is that you think killing people is enjoyably fun?! You like causing pain?"

"Yeah," Dib said. "I guess so."

"And just when I thought we were going somewhere…" said Zita as she paced around the cell. She crossed her arms.

"Hey, I thought you were for the good and protecting of your race!" ZIM pointed out. "I'm supposed to be the one destroying your race, but it seems as if you've joined my side."

Dib then recalled what his mission used to be: defending the world from ZIM and making sure it didn't get destroyed. He was amazed at how instantly his goal had changed from protecting the earth to getting revenge on it. Confusion found its place in Dib's head.

"See, Dib," ZIM said. "I control you now. You're just like me. I have influenced you so strongly!  Now, I can use this tactic with everyone—wait…I'm not alive. Darnit."

"No, you don't," Dib argued. "I'm not prideful and moronic like you are."

"Well," ZIM said. "You had the same goal, didn't you?"

"I didn't want to wipe out the WHOLE human race," Dib said. "Just the people who bothered me the most."

"Well, the human race bothers me the most, so we both are bent on destroying what annoys us the most. COPYCAT!" ZIM screamed. "You have a lack of originality!"

"What?" Dib exclaimed. He was annoyed at the alien's stupidity. "That's not true!"

"You're your own enemy, now," said Zita.

"You're not making any sense!" Dib threw up his hands.

"You soon will understand," Gaz said irritably.