After hearing the announcment over the intercom, Zim cursed under his breath. They had no time to make it to the other side of the building. He just hoped there was a dead end nearby.

"Well, Gir," he whispered to his little robot servant. "It looks like we aren't going to make it to the exit. Guess we're gonna have to make our own, huh?"

Gir nodded. It was kind of a funny sight, a cute little robot with duct tape over his mouth carrying a full grown woman in an air vent. Of course, Zim had no time to think about that. He crawled through the vents a little faster than before, relieved when he saw an intersection with a dead end.

He sighed and placed his hand on the wall at the end. He needed to focus his energy just right so that it wouldn't melt too much at one time. Green light emerged from the space between his hand and the wall, and a hole began to form.

He noticed Gaz was staring at his glove, probably wondering why it wasn't melting with the wall. He turned his head slightly towards her. "Coustom-made gloves," he whispered. He felt himself smile faintly as he remembered where he got the gloves.

Long ago, after a series of events, he had befriended Gaz's brother, Dib, his once great enemy. Dib was even smarter as a full grown adult than as a kid, and had become the next generation famous Dr. Membrane. He had helped Zim train and learn to control his power, and after studying the energy Zim emitted from his hand, he made him those amazing gloves wich helped focus the energy.

Zim noticed that the hole had become big enough to escape from, and he stuck his head out to see how far down the ground was. They seemed to be three stories up. No problem.

He slid out of the vent and turned in mid-air, landing on his feet. He looked up and saw the hole. For anyone without enhanced eyesight like him, it would take quite a bit of staring to notice the difference, since it was night time, and on Irk the moon didn't give much light.

"Okay, Gir," he said quietly, hoping he could hear him. "Throw her down."

A moment later, he saw Gaz's figure fly out from the side of the castle, wich was another thing that kind of looked funny. He caught her easily and looked back up at the castle.

"Gir, jump down. Don't worry, I'll catch you." He watched as a much smaller figure fell down and landed on Gaz's stomach. He started running towards the back of the castle, to where he parked his ship. He glanced down at Gir and saw him grinning at Gaz.

Zim smiled. Gaz always was his favorite human. Gir's, that is. He didn't want to think too far into that at the moment.

He looked back up again to be sure he didn't crash into anything. He sighed happily. He loved to run now that he had super speed. He loved feeling the wind in his now-natural hair, loved watching things flash by him so quickly he barely saw them. Of course, that part was only if he didn't switch his thinking to fast mode, wich made it feel like he was just out on a nice evening jog.

He eventually reached his ship, the one he used to get from Earth to Irk. His old one was too small now, since he was much taller, so with help from Dib he took it apart and used the parts to make a bigger one. It was purple on the outside and had white seats on the inside, one driver's seat and a bench-like seat in the back. Other than being bigger, it pretty much looked the same.

He bent down and leveled his eyes with a retinal scanner. After a moment, the glass dome-like top bent up and he gently layed Gaz down in the back. He ripped off the duct tape as painlessly as he could and got in the driver's seat of the ship, letting Gir stay in the back with her.

Now, all he had to do was get to the Safe Zone, and he could finish his plan.

Wether it would be succesful or not, he didn't know. Only time would tell.

Note: Sorry this chapter was a bit short. If you couldn't tell, I switch POVs between Gaz and Zim, and I felt it was time for Zim's on the way to the ship and Gaz's inside it.

Also, I want to ask a question. 1,000 years is a long time, and a lot of things happened between then and now, so I want to do a few flashback kind of things every couple of chapters. You know, how Zim and Dib bacame friends, how Gaz took over everything but the Milky Way, how Zim trained. Do you think the next chapter would be a good time, or should I maybe wait a bit?