Important Note: This, lovely and constant reader, is a story I volunteered to finish for The-Death-Bringer-of-Hell. She allowed me to and here I am. Now, enjoy!

Persona Reversed

Chapter Eight: Failure By Design

Looking at them, Dib decided they didn't look too different from the way they were. Zim was a few inches taller and looked less like he belonged in a mental asylum and more like he was a true warrior. His eyes were also a bit redder.

Rina looked a lot different, but still basically had the same structure as a normal Irken. She was a lot shorter, for one. About the same as Zim. Instead of her multicolored eyes with a colored circle around each, she had violet eyes. Her clothes conformed to that of Zim's design, so she looked like what passed as a male Irken.

When Rina pulled out a mirror and passed it around, Dib was faintly surprised. He looked like a normal Irken, too! It was so weird; he just wasn't used to looking like that. The only real difference being that his eyes were a dark gold. It worried him slightly that he would stand out, but didn't voice it, as Rina and Zim didn't look bothered at all by his eyes.

"What now?" Zim asked, looking around. They were in a long, pink corridor.

"We get the antidote to the disease." Rina said.

"Yes, yes," Zim said, waving a hand to show he understood that. "But HOW do we do that?"

"Couldn't we take one of the Tallest hostage?" Dib suggested. "You know, make him give us the antidote in exchange for his life?"

Rina tapped her green chin in thought. "Hey, that's a good idea! You know, for an earth boy, you're much smarter than all the other humans." Dib didn't know if that was a compliment or an insult. "Why are they so stupid, anyways?"

Dib shrugged, having wondered that his whole life and still not found out the answer. But he had a good guess. "Most of them just don't want to acknowledge the truth. That aliens exist and some houses are really haunted."

"They're that dim, huh?"

"Yeah…"

"EXCUSE ME!" Zim yelled, clearly impatient. "Can we DO something now?"

"Yes, okay," Rina said. She pulled a map out of her pocket. Unfolding it and placing it on the floor, they had a clear view of the layout of the Massive.

"Why are you carrying such an old fashioned map?" Zim asked, thinking that it should just be programmed into her computer.

"Easier accessibility." She muttered, studying it. "This is where we are-" she pointed to a spot on the Massive blueprints "-and we need to get here." She pointed to the middle of the ship, saying that that was where the Tallest slept. "If we can catch them while they're alone, we can probably do this quickly and smoothly, and no one besides the Tallest will have to know we're here."

"Why not just go in the control room shooting?" Zim asked, pulling out an Irken gun from seemingly no where. "We could probably take out a LOT like that!" He shot it at the wall, leaving a burn mark.

"NO!" Rina said, wrenching the gun from Zim's hand. "If we do that, everyone here will be after us. We stand a better chance if it's three against two instead of three against two hundred—plus!"

Zim nodded, understanding the simple logic.

"What if someone questions us?" Dib asked, a little worried. His mind was back on the golden color of his eyes.

"Don't worry about that. Right now, everybody should be in their quarters, sleeping. We won't run into a guard." Rina smirked.

"Why won't there be a guard?"

"Because the Irkens are powerful. The Tallest don't think anyone would really dare try and sneak in, so they don't bother with keeping a guard. It's a flaw, I admit." She sighed. "Sometimes I think they need their egos deflated. It's screwing with their common sense." Dib smiled and Zim nodded.

"Can we GO now?" Zim asked. "We need to hurry. They could wake up soon!"

"Let's go, then."

They trotted down the hall, toward the front of the Massive. Turning corners and passing by and through doors, it took them forever to reach it. Outside the control room, Rina instructed them to stop. She put her antennae against the door, listening intently.

"What are you DOING?" Zim asked, dragging her away from it.

"Let go!" she said, pulling her arm free from his grasp. "Look, if the control room is empty, we can use it as a shortcut to get to the Tallest's room. It would cut the time it takes nearly in half!"

"How much time does it take?" Dib asked, putting his antennae against the door. He had tried putting where his ear would be against the door, but found that he could hear nothing that way.

"About twenty minutes," She said, now sounding impatient herself. "But we might not have twenty minutes!"

"And why not?" Zim asked, looking at her suspiciously.

"Because it's speeding up!" She said sadly, looking away.

"What are you talking about? What's speeding up?" Zim asked, suddenly sounding clueless. He looked at her questioningly.

"It's worse than I thought!" she howled, unmindful of who could overhear.

Dib was bewildered. "What's going on?" he said, looking between Zim and Rina in confusion.

"The disease—its affects are speeding up!" Rina grabbed Zim by the shoulders. "Take off the disguise, Zim!"

"I'm wearing a disguise?" he asked, looking down at himself. "Why am I wearing a disguise?"

"See?" she said, pushing Zim toward Dib until Zim was practically in the disguised earth boy's arms. She forgot about her command for Zim to take off his disguise. "It's affecting his memories now! If we don't hurry, he'll eventually be eaten away until all that's left will be his body!"

"Who are you?" Zim asked, looking up at Dib while pulling at his antennae. Dib blushed at their closeness, and suddenly realized he was taller than the confused Irken.

"I'm Dib…" he muttered, fighting the blush. Now was not the time to comment on how cute Zim looked and kiss him.

"Oh, hi, I'm ZIM!" Despite his sudden lapse in memories, Zim still seemed to love shouting his own name out.

"I know." Dib muttered, feeling a little depressed that Zim couldn't remember him at all. They may not have been friends in the past, but Dib still liked the constant chasing, name calling, and odd life or death situation where Zim and he worked together. And he also liked Zim. He had even sometimes hoped that Zim enjoyed it, too. Enjoyed facing him: Dib. No way of knowing now, though—unless they retrieved the antidote from the two Irken leaders who had given him the disease in the first place.

"Come on," Rina said, pulling him from his musing and into the control room. It was completely empty. Zim was still in his arms, and Dib let go, his face blue with the Irken blush. Zim seemed not to mind. "This way!" She began dragging him to the other side of the room, not giving him a chance to sight see. Dib pulled Zim after them. Zim didn't seem to mind the dragging, either. But, as they left, he asked what was going on, having no idea of the danger he was in.

His entire genetic makeup—his design—was failing. Had always been failing. Had been failing before he even received the PAK at birth—through the line of Irkens who had owned it before him. He had been given a nearly defunct PAK, and the PAK was the biggest part of his design. Thus, his life had been in the hands of fate. Fate had had control of if and when the disease would be injected into Zim's system. If fate so chose, it could have kept the PAK from completely becoming useless in controlling Zim's actions while in his possession. He could have lived a normal Irken life to its fullest, died, and passed it on to the next Irken. But after the whole ordeal with Tallest Mizuki and Tallest Spork, and Operation Impending Doom I, it had been proven that the PAK was useless in detaining him. Therefore, the disease had been injected into him. And fate had made it its main priority to activate the thing just when Dib was discovering his love for the crazy Irken.

In a way, it was literally failure by design.

AN: Hope you guys enjoyed this. Please review. I accept flames. I love to bitch at the flamers! Bye!