(Gaz's POV)

When Dib came home last night with his latest 'update on the happenings of Zim' I couldn't help but snicker at him. He, of course, stormed off into his room like a whiny baby when I laughed at what he told me. It wasn't that what he told me was particularly funny, it was just that I was surprised that yet again, he failed to notice how gay he was. It's so obvious that Zim could never take over Earth, he's just not good at it. I've seen that alien build some impressive shit, he's good at science techy stuff like that; but he's not good at conquering Earth. It takes all of a couple of hours to stop his schemes. However, Dib finds it 'absolutely necessary' to spend days (sometimes weeks) spying on Zim to get as much information as he can. He's like some type of weird love sick stalker, only he isn't aware that he's in love yet. How cliche.

Anyway, today's already a bad day, and it's only like one in the afternoon. I walked up to to my bed and bent down. Of course there were none under there. Crud. That was the last possible place to check in the house. This could not be happening. I was already to level 45! There's no way I'm going to start back from level 39, which was the last time any data was saved on my game. I felt my breathing quicken and my teeth mashing together in aggravation. Dad wasn't home, so I couldn't get money from him to buy more, so this was really really bad. My GameMasterPro was so very close to dying on me. I came up from bending down and grabbed my game off the top of the bed and stormed out of my room.

I guess I was going to have to resort to threatening the well being of some poor punk at the mall into buying me some. I picked my coat up off the hallway floor, where I had left it last, and put it on. As I walked past the door of Dib's room, I halted. I didn't check Dib's room! Maybe threats wouldn't need to be used.

I turned around and crept up to Dib's bedroom door and carefully twisted the knob. Pushing forward gently, I opened the door a few inches and peeked in, expecting to see my brother asleep or on his computer. However, he was neither of those things. In fact, he wasn't even in there. Guess he was out. Well, less sneaking around and/or yelling for me.

I threw open the door and began my search, throwing papers of poorly drawn Zim's aside and pushing over and searching in box's labeled, 'Proof that Zim is an alien.' I was getting extremely frustrated, as my search was slowly looking towards a bad outcome. I was close to calling it quits after having totally wrecked my brother's room, but something caught my eye. A sparkle coming from underneath the pillows on his mattress. I stepped towards the head of the mattress and tossed the pillows over somewhere. Bingo.

There, lay a partially opened laptop, a battery powered watch thing, some hard drives, and an open pack of batteries.

I tugged two batteries out of the pack after opening up a slot on my GameMaster. (Which has been in my left hand the whole time.)

I slipped them in and closed the slot. The side light on my gaming device blinked a couple of times and at the last blink, turned from red to green. Just as I was about to leave, completely satisfied, I heard a tiny shout coming from the laptop. Curious, I opened it up all the way.

What the heck? Wasn't this Zim's house? Jeez, Dib was head over heels for that alien. The image on the laptop showed four separate panels. One showing the living room, another the bathroom, another the attic, and one showing the main lab underground. Knowing that my game system had a total of three days of life with the new batteries, I shoved it into my coat pocket and focussed on the laptop. I could get back to my game later without worry of anything shutting down, so might as well check this out.

In the lower left panel, which showed the bathroom, I heard another shout, which was being produced off screen. I listened in as close as I could as the shouting continued. - "Master has a brother! Master has a brother!"

"Quiet Gir! You need not announce everything so incredibly loud!"

"You should invite him over!"

"I can't do that Gir. He's terminated. And plus, I'm not for certain yet about it. We cannot be too sure about anything just now."-

After an hour, I shut the top down on the laptop and left. Nothing interesting really. Just a bunch of blabbing about genetic garbage and some Zin guy. Back to the game. Here I come level 46. Prepare your evil piglets to face the wrath of my slayers double-edged sword.

(Zim POV)

Doing all of this research has been such a pain. By now, it was already the midnight of the next day. It's hard to do things when you feel almost worthless. I started thinking that any of what I found wouldn't matter to the empire. By the time they got to this planet, anything I found would have probably already been discovered by them. I'm still going through with it though, just in case.

What I've found so far is rather intriguing. I did some 3D modulation testing on the formation of Irken twins. The computer said that twins would occur if the zygonite in the smeet development tube split. I simulated the process in the C section of the lab. (C section was responsible for simulations and minor experiment testing.) If a zygonite were to split in the tube, one halve was always shown to come out slightly bigger than the other halve because it took more with it. If both were able to fully develop into smeets, it was shown countless times that one smeet came out just fully functional, and the other came out minorly defective. The one that would come out just functional was the one that was the bigger zygonite halve. Both Irkens shared the same DNA, but the bigger one came out stronger and all around better. The smaller one was weaker.

With the knowledge I had, I made the logical assumption that I in fact had a twin, and that twins name was Zin. It made sense with how Zin's DNA code was the same as mine. I guess I was the lucky of the two. It was now obvious to me that the termination papers on Zin were related to him being defective. All the information fit perfectly. But I still couldn't figure out why I was having dreams and memories about my dead brother. I assume that they eliminated him as soon as he was broken out of our tube, so I shouldn't have any rememberances of him. So many more questions, so much more to look at.

I had taken a break from the work and was currently preparing to play this game of tics and toes with Gir. I chose the X's, the sharpest looking English letter, leaving Gir with the fat, soft looking O's. "K. You go first 'cause you gots the X's. Place one of your pieces anywhere in a section on the board."

"Zim chooses to place his first peice here." I put my first X in the space just below the middle, but I chose not the middle because it was so obvious that the center was a weak point to be kept watched at all times. I would not allow so much attention on my first move. Back on Irk, I probably would have been awarded for such a strategic placement regarding where to place fighter ships for an attack. I looked at Gir to see where he would place his weak, pathetic O.

"I'll put mIne riiiggt here!" What a foolish move! He chose the center!

"Alright Gir. If that's really where you choose."

"It is indeed!"

After forever of playing the stupid Earth game, Gir won. It wasn't fair! He played dirty! I gave a nasty look to him. "That's no fair! I couldn't pay attention to the center row AND the top row. I didn't even realize you were putting pieces up there!"

"Yeah, you could've payed more attention! I wiiin!"

"Shush your gloating!" I sighed and did some breathing and was able to collect myself. It was just a dumb Earth game. Plus, it didn't really matter. Technically, all that should matter to me right now was doing more research. It was just so aggravating, though, that Gir won! How am I suppose to focus on two points! Even if I could, how could I prioritize which one was more of a threat! It's confusing if your uncertain about which one to focus on the most. ...

I flipped the toe game out of my way, and shoved past Gir towards the C section monitor.

"Zim, watcha so excited 'bout."

"Gir! Maybe there's a reason I remember things about my brother! Maybe we DID have a past together!" I typed away at my computer and started replaying the simulations I had made earlier. I looked very closely as it played out.

"There!" During the split! The bigger halve is only bigger by a such a small amount. There's no way the Control Brain would be able to detect that. It would have no idea as to which smeet would turn out defective. It would have to wait until both smeets grew to battle ready age, the time in which an Irken is given a PAK evaluation.

"Master, watcha finding."

"Gir, the termination of this Zin, my twin, must have took place when we were twelve and given PAK evaluations."

"WOW! What's that!"

"A PAK evaluation checks an Irkens PAK for defects, such as weak planning abilities and poor obedience levels. My brother failed, I guess."

"That's so sad. But at least you passed! What was your score."

"Well, my score was .. well, I don't remember what my score was. In fact, I don't really remember how my evaluation went down." I can barely remember any of my smeet-hood now that I think about it. But, I mean, it doesn't really bother me. I got all the research that matters completed. The Control Brain requires more focus on detecting zygonite sizes. Bigger zygonites equal stronger soldiers. (I approximated .07x^10 qm was what should be considered big.) I could focus on doing something else that might benefit the empire. Maybe I could do something on weapon enhancements. Yeah, and I could do some of the weapon testing on that dreadful Dib-stink. Just minor weapon testing. I would never waste major testing on that lowly human.

(Dib POV)

Jezus. I just wanted to buy some ice cream. That was no way in deservence of a random beating. I lay curled in a ball behind the Super Yum ice cream store, to sore to move. I knew that I'd be fine in about an hour, my body just needed time to rest from getting punched and kicked. All I did was walk out, and these punks I've never met before took me back and just had at me.

I forced opened my eyes and stared at my strawberry swirl splattered, just inches away from my face. I really wanted to eat that. I hate people. Even Zim never beat me this hard. I knew he was capable of doing a lot, but he always went easy on me, as if to say, 'Hey, just know I can do worse and that this is just a taste.'

Going home after I'm able to move is going to be a total pain. My dad was still at the lab I think, so I wouldn't be able to tell him about what happened. Even if he was home though, he'd just brush it off. I know Gaz wouldn't give two shits. She's just evil. I was kind of alone in a sense. I mean, no one wants to be my friend, my father thinks I'm nuts, and Gaz is without a soul. Maybe I shouldn't go home. Maybe instead I'll head over to Zim's again. I don't think I'll find out much about any plan he has for Earth. But while we're fighting, 'cause I have a feeling it'll be that kind of encounter, he'll notice my bruises from the beating and mock me about it. That's better than being brushed off and ignored, I guess.