***Zim's base***

"GIR, for the last time," Zim huffed. "You have to pretend to be a human dog-monster! Dogs can't cook anything! Do you want the humans to notice something?"

"I do," GIR answered, smiling stupidly. "Can we see Gazzy again?"

Zim sighed. "No, GIR, no. We have to stay away from Gaz and the Dib-human. They are dangerous."

"But they seem nice!" GIR hugged himself, still smiling.

"GIR! The Dib tried to destroy me and Gaz-human makes me weak! I can't afford to be weak."

"There's someone at the door and they want to see you," the computer announced.

"RRRGGG! Fine! Make sure GIR doesn't destroy anything," Zim said, turning on his disguise.

Three people were sitting on Zim's sofa when he entered. Dib, Gaz, and Tak looked over at him. Zim ignored Dib and greeted Gaz and Tak.

"Sup, Gaz, Tak," Zim said nonchalantly. "I don't remember telling you where I moved."

"We know it's you, Zim," Dib growled, hating to be ignored. "You don't need to pretend around us."

Zim's hologram raised an eyebrow. "Zim? The alien thing that you were addicted to? No, I'm Sen, the friend of Gaz."

"Your disguise is very clever, Zim, but that doesn't mean a fellow Irken can't see through it," Tak said smirking.

"Sure, whatever. Now why are you here?" Zim asked.

"Where's my ship, Zim?" Tak demanded. "I know you took it from Dib."

"Stop calling me Zim and I might answer you."

Tak narrowed her eyes. "Fine, Sen. Where is my ship?"

"Why do you need it?"

Dib threw up his hands. "We don't have time for this, Zim! Take us to the ship!"

Zim chuckled. "Why should I? You seem to insist that I'm someone I'm not and then you demand me to give you something that I don't have."

"The fate of the universe depends on it!" Dib glared at Zim.

"So?" Zim smirked.

"Zim," Gaz growled. "Take us to the stupid ship."

Zim glared at Gaz then went over to the wall and started to hit his head against it, muttering "stupid" each time. "I wish I could hate you, you know!"

"Same here," whispered Gaz under her breath.

***Basement of Zim's base***

Zim growled, still in his disguise. How did Tak see through his brilliant disguise and why did she need her ship anyway? He just wanted to lose himself with the humans.

When they got to his basement, Zim removed his disguise. There was no point pretending now. They knew who he was.

"Don't touch anything or I'll feed your brains to GIR," Zim growled.

"Just show us the ship, Zim," Dib rolled his eyes.

"And you," Zim spun, pointing at Dib. "Don't breath on anything or I'll feed your brains to GIR."

"But I need to breath to live," Dib said.

"Exactly."

Gaz sighed. They never changed.

The ship looked better than it once did, but it still apparently needed repairs. Tak leapt into the cockpit and began searching among the data profiles.

"Dib-smell, whatever you did to it sure made it difficult to fix the ship," Zim said. "It's as though you tried to pump it full of energy before it was repaired. Now tell me, why do you need this ship? And don't tell me the universe depends on it! You said that about the world several times before and nothing happened."

"Tak just told me she knew where you were and that she needed her ship or we would all be destroyed," Dib shrugged.

Zim looked at Dib before bursting into laughter.

"What's so funny?" Dib demanded.

"You actually believed her? She could have been lying yet you believed her!" Zim said once he caught his breath. "You like her, Dib-monkey. Even after she almost destroyed your world, you like her."

"I do not!" Dib shouted. "I just knew she was telling the truth."

"You like her a lot," Zim smirked. "I'm going to use this against you every chance I get."

"So? You like my sister!"

"That's different. You love someone who could destroy your home-planet and enslave your people just so that she could do that to other species. I like someone who would do that for her own personal gain."

"Isn't that worse?"

"Heh, no. Invaders are seldom treated with respect and have little use to the Empire. That's why they are the ones sent to planets. Nobody cares if they die."

"That's horribly cruel."

"It's awfully fun, though."

"Found it!"Tak shouted.

"Finally. Now tell me everything before I turn you into the Earth authorities," Zim demanded.

"Irk is in danger of being destroyed," Tak said as though it happened frequently.

"Oh, okay," Zim shrugged.

"What!" Dib yelled. "You said the universe depended on getting your ship back from Zim! How does the universe depend on your home planet?"

"It probably doesn't," Tak admitted. "I just told you that so that I could get you to help me."

Dib pouted while Zim simply smirked at him.

"Told you, stink-worm," said Zim. "Now how will your ship help? That ship may be powerful but not powerful enough to destroy something that can threaten a planet like the mighty Irk."

"I know that! The Irkens on Irk just need a place to stay until we can go home," Tak explained. "My ship has detailed instructions on how to make teleporters so that they can come here."

"Hold on a second," Dib interrupted. "All the Irkens are coming to Earth? Can't you use another planet? What will happen to the humans?"

Zim sighed. "No, just the ones on Irk. No, this planet is still unknown in the universe. Umm…we will have to do something about the humans."

Dib panicked and attacked Zim. The Irken merely used his spider legs to pin the boy to the wall. Zim then pulled up a screen and keyboard and started typing.

"There! Tak is the only one who can contact any outside species," Zim said.

"I won't let you…wait," Dib stopped struggling to get loose. "You aren't going to enslave the humans?"

"No, stink-beast! I told you that last time we met!" Zim growled. "I just don't want anything harming my people when we are weak. Now for phase two."

"Phase two? What's phase two?" Dib asked, hoping he wouldn't regret it.

"Well, first I need you," Zim grinned evilly.