Alarms were roaring up and down the halls.

Zim didn't even waste time shouting at the computer; he just extended his four prehensile spider-legs from his pak, formed them into a neat square around his shoulders, and blasted the medical bay's main entrance into oblivion. The Irken frantically pushed through the smoke and stumbled into the room he'd left his human not even thirty minutes before.

Gir blinked up at him from the floor of the devastated room. Stupidly. Blankly. Soaked from ball-antenna to tiny magnetic feet in fresh blood: Dib's blood, which currently discolored several walls and most of the floor. There had been no way for the human to defend himself; his back was split open with laser fire, pink and purple organs and hints of dead-white bone peeking out of his flesh, like a horrible jungle blossom, stinking of ruin.

Zim didn't even blink. He didn't even really allow himself to SEE. He was too ANGRY to do anything but react. He surged forward, decapitated Gir with a savage swipe from one spider-leg's pointy end and scrambled desperately over to the table. He had to grab the end of his uniform and hold it to his face to keep from retching at the smell of burned tissue.

I TRIED TO STOP HIM, MASTER. I COULDN'T MOVE FAST ENOUGH. BUT... THE HUMAN PROBABLY DIDN'T FEEL ANYTHING... The computer sounded completely terrified.

"Why is he still HERE ?" Zim raged, "GET HIM INTO A REGENERATION TANK! NOW!"

Had the house's AI been a tangible creature, it would have tripped over itself in its haste to obey. A brilliant blue ray of light instantly swept down from the ceiling, flowing over Dib and transporting him to the sterile safety of an impregnable glass chamber three levels below.

Zim was left alone with the carnage and the ruins of his robot slave. He stood trembling, too overwhelmed with emotion to do anything but stare and gasp in the filthy, blood-soaked air. His eyes fell on the bloody head of Gir and he ran over and grabbed it in his claws and SHOOK it madly, "WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE TALLEST WERE YOU DOING, FOOL?! DO YOU HAVE -ANY IDEA- WHAT YOU'VE DONE?!"

Gir's blackened eyes gave no answer. The robot's mouth hung open stupidly, unhinged.

Zim began to SMASH the robot's empty head into the edge of the table. "ANSWER ME!" KLANG! "ANSWER ME!" KLANG. "-ANSWER MEEEEEE!" On Zim's third strike, Gir's head snapped open, spilling the paperclips and bubblegum and coins that made up his 'mind' all over the floor.

Panting, Zim snarled and hurled the empty head into a monitor across the room, which exploded in a fresh shower of glass and sparks. "I hate you." he muttered, wiping froth from the edge of his mouth with the back of his black-gloved hand. "...always getting in my way... always -interfering-. With your stupid TUNA and your BABBLING.... always BREAKING THINGS. Always KEEPING ME FROM DOING WHAT I WANT! DIB WAS MINE, do you HEAR ME? MINE!"

His fingers clawed and flexed painfully. His eyes spasmed independently of each other. He wanted to BREAK something. He wanted to KILL something. The fury under his skin was cresting, rolling, ROILING, every wave screaming, dib dib Dib DIB! and the headache was rushing back and GROWING now and it had nowhere to go trapped inside him fuming boiling pressure building up in his GUTS, building and twisting and MOVING until he wanted to SCREAM hysterically because it was CHEWING ON HIS BRAIN FROM INSIDE AND HE COULDN'T STOP IT...

"RGhh!" Panicking, Zim seized his own rubbery antennae and YANKED them down, HARD. White-hot pain exploded across his mind, wiping out the world in a searing nuclear flash. As his vision cleared, mental clarity came with it. His thoughts were crisp, sharp, and lethally focused. He was in control. He knew EXACTLY what to do.

He straightened, and his mind stung like a freshly salted wound. "COMPUTER. Clean this mess up, take me to Dib, put GIR back together and TORTURE HIM MERCILESSLY until he EXPLAINS WHY HE DID THIS."

The cool blue light engulfed him, and Zim melted away.

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A/N: Short chapter. Blargh. Sorry... I should really quit juggling three fics at a time :)

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