The ride to the alien base was quiet, uncomfortable. Everyone's minds were racing, but they didn't want to waste time sharing their thoughts.

Gaz was thinking about how she wished she convinced Dib to just stay in his room instead of going over to Zim's. Though she now had a more important task at hand than just playing video games, she'd be lying if she said that she didn't want to be at home right now. She hardly knew GIR, but remembered how crazy and bouncy he was. She wasn't sure how comfortable she was flying out into the depths of space saving someone she wasn't all that close to. Not to mention that their pilot was completely out of his mind. She knew Zim much better, but wasn't sure what to make of his behavior switches all throughout the day. It was easy to hate him for being evil, or at least attempting to be. But Zim was clearly shaken to the core about this whole ordeal, and Gaz felt compelled to try and help him, even if that just meant saving GIR. She didn't want to care. She didn't feel like... herself... at that moment. That's what scared her most.

Dib's feelings were similar. He knew that he should be taking pictures, taunting Zim, calling up Mysterious Mysteries and exposing everything. That's what he wanted to do. That's what he had been after this whole time! So why wasn't he doing it? Dib wasn't sure. Perhaps it was because he didn't have his camera with him, but Dib never left home without it. Maybe it was because he was worried Zim might kill him from close range of if he tried. Zim was clear that he and Gaz were still Zim's prisoners, and he was piloting the ship. He could easily throw Dib into space if he so desired.

No, that wasn't it either. There had to be something that was keeping him from acting out; something that was making him want to help Zim save GIR. Like Gaz, Dib and GIR weren't all that close. He'd usually take advantage of his niceness to spy on Zim...

The twinge of guilt that surged through him took his breath away. That was it. His conscience had been eating away at him this whole day for mistreating GIR, without Dib even realizing it. For Dib, GIR was second-best on his capture list. Sure, an alien robot would be cool, but could easily just be seen as a regular robot, albeit more impressive. Zim was the real prize. Dib had been using GIR as a tool, never bothering to know him. Paranormal investigators weren't supposed to get attached to their subjects, but Dib knew he wasn't a normal investigator. He was a child, and being a child meant that the instinctual drive to connect with people would always be there. He had failed to listen to it this whole time, and for some reason, that bothered him. He looked over to Zim, who was staring out at the stars rigidly.

Zim's mind wasn't nearly as clear as Dib and Gaz's were. His mind was a haze, echoing with GIR's voice and constantly replaying past missions they had shared. He was being ripped apart in what felt like a thousand different places. Everything was wrong.

Firstly, he was an Irken soldier, a defective one at that. Ever since his Trial, (and near deactivation), Zim was feeling less and less enthusiastic about everything. He had been shrugging off stares and taunts his whole life, but this one feeling was more difficult to shake. Smeets were taught very early on about defectives, but not through their initial activation. Some lessons were learned through maturity, not unlike certain lessons on earth. He remembered being disgusted by the thought of someone being made wrong, since Irk was supposed to be a flawless military base. He never could have imagined that he'd be considered one of them, even if it was accidental.

He didn't know what made an Irken defective, and still didn't. He had been over-analyzing and revisiting himself since the Trial, trying to discover what it was that made him wrong. He never came to a single conclusion... except for one.

GIR.

Irken soldiers were ruthlessly trained. Trained in combat and skill, never in emotion handling. It was frowned about to display too much feeling into something that wasn't your life partner, or something related to violence. And Zim was good at that. Chasing a potential mate was never once on his mind, and the practice itself was slowly falling out of style. Violence was the only thing that made him feel excited; but that still wasn't emotional. GIR was the only thing in the world that could bring out that side of him, a side he didn't even know he had. Their initial meeting wasn't anything of the sort, just Zim acknowledging GIR's apparent stupidity and carrying on with the mission. But it wasn't long before he started catching himself acting... un-Irken like. He thought about GIR a lot, usually worrying about what damage he could cause, but also occasionally about GIR's own safety. He watched GIR constantly throw himself into all sorts of danger with a strange pulse of anxiety. He could imagine GIR exploding or shorting out very clearly in his mind, like it was a repressed fear. Fear wasn't the only new feeling either: he also felt more exasperated with GIR's antics than anger recently. Though GIR causing a colossal failure was common, he was surprised to feel the routine sense of rage ebb away into annoyance most of the time. Staying mad at GIR over something he clearly didn't care about was useless; GIR had the memory of a goldfish.

Zim also thought about GIR more even when he wasn't scheming. If he needed to go to a shop for supplies, he found himself buying GIR a snack if he could easy find one. He knew all his favorite foods by heart, though it was a long list. He came home to GIR sitting around watching TV, but eager to help once Zim explained the day's agenda. Zim had learned to drown out the constant noise GIR emitted in the lab, and would also talk to GIR about his day or a new plan at several different times a day. They'd watch TV, make waffles, and occasionally slip into the observatory and stare into space, thinking about home or picking a new star to visit in the cruiser.

In the Irken army, you're taught not to form relationships with other solders, for fear of the immense pain when they died in battle. Zim did that in normal training, but on earth he started loosening up on that rule, not seeing any real danger that could harm GIR other than his own stupidly.

Zim wished he hadn't.

Finally, he pulled himself from his mind and glanced down at the star map. They were close. He didn't turn to look at the kids. He didn't want their sympathy; he could feel it coming off them in waves. A warrior needed no one's assistance to get the job done, and he was a warrior.

He thought he was, anyway.

At last, the prison appeared in the horizon, and with it, a slash of dread. They didn't want to go in there. They had no disguises planned, no entry plan, no plan at all. Everyone was counting on Zim, but not even Zim himself was sure of this crazy idea. But what other choice was there?

"Okay. Gaz-human, I want you to drive the cruiser around the perimeter and draw attention to yourself. You seem like you'd be good at learning the controls," Zim instructed.

Gaz felt a surge of pride. Piloting an alien ship! She was starting to feel like Dib; excited for no reason.

"Dib-worm, you and I will enter from the far side of the building. You have to be fast, not stealthy. We aren't here for a battle, we're here for GIR. And if you even think about that camera, I'll personally destroy you!"

Dib flinched, but nodded. He could be fast, but was concerned about their exposure, wandering around with no armor or weapons. Voicing this was useless, he knew.

"All right. We'll run outside once we acquire GIR. When you see us, initiate the tractor beam and pull us up. This shouldn't take more than ten minutes! Now, let's-"

His speech was interrupted by a blast coming from behind him. With a loud yell of surprise the cruiser tumbled away from the prison, steaming from one side.

Zim hadn't turned the invisibility on! A rookie soldier mistake! What was wrong with him?

"ARGHH, FORGET IT!" He cried, barreling the cruiser down towards the building.

"ZIM! WHAT ABOUT THE PLAN?" Dib shouted desperately. They were going to crash!

"FORGET THE PLAN," Zim shouted back. "WE'VE BEEN SPOTTED! JUST FOLLOW MY LEAD AND DON'T BLOW UP!"

There was a deafening crash as the cruiser nailed the prison wall, shocked cries bouncing off the walls. The rescue team was collapsed on the floor of the aircraft, tumbled together in a heap. There was hardly any time to recover from almost dying, for Zim grabbed Dib and Gaz in each arm and half-ran, half-dragged them across the hall, ignoring the warning sirens blasting in his earholes.

Eventually Dib and Gaz found their footing and ran on their own, but not until they heard gunshots firing from behind them. They all turned around with a yelp as they saw a while entourage of officers giving chase, shooting and yelling at them to stop.

"ZIM! Do you even know where GIR is being kept?" Dib shrieked as he narrowly dodged another fire from behind.

"It has to be somewhere this way!" Zim replied, activating a shield with his PAK. "The officers from the transmission were looking off to the right, and the cameras are only on that wall!" He pointed to the one on the right hand side, which was lined with security cameras every few feet. "So we'll find GIR if we JUST KEEP RUNNING!"

Gaz took a sharp turn and ducked behind a stray cage that had fallen from the crash, before leaping onto an officer. She wrestled him for his gun, while a few others closed in.

"GAZ!" Dib's horrified cry was followed up by Zim, who activated his PAK's spider legs and starting throwing some officers away from Gaz. He miraculously hadn't been directly hit yet, but was still catching a few flares from close shots. Gaz finally got the blaster and went off, shooting officers and the surrounding environment like she was born and raised in the army.

Dib kept running. Not out of fear, but out of newfound energy. He had seen some pretty amazing things, but never anything like this. He was having heart palpitations. Adrenaline was like a drug that he now desperately required, and he couldn't help but run.

Gotta find GIR, he kept thinking. Find GIR and you can go home. Find GIR and Zim will feel better. Find GIR and you might not die!

Zim had already left Gaz's side, seeing as she didn't need his help. He retracted his spider legs and ran towards Dib, who was way up ahead. He was like a nerdy comet, and screaming all the while. Zim would have laughed if he wasn't so afraid.

Eventually, officers started pouring in Dib direction, who each carried a large blaster. Zim picked up speed, calling over his shoulder for Gaz.

Instantly she appeared, hitting each incoming enemy dead on. Not killing them, but paralyzing them for several minutes, which was more than enough time to get GIR and get out of there.

Gaz eventually got a bit too fired up, eventually shooting all the cage locks as well. "BE FREE, FREAKS!" She cried, as the weakened criminals fled the scene as fast as their scarred legs could take them.

Dib was still in the lead, glancing at every cage at lightning speed. Not GIR, not GIR, not...

There he was.

A little ways ahead, sitting right against the bars, was their target. Dib didn't like what he saw: a sparking, still heap leaning against the wall. He didn't look good.

He cried out his name, and heard a yell from behind him. Had Zim seen him too? He glanced over his shoulder to see Zim on the ground, with the wolf from before on top of him.

"You shouldn't have come here, Irken scum!" He spat, shuddering with crazed energy and baring his fangs. Zim only screamed angrily in response, slicing at him with a clawed hand.

Dib just kept running, seeing as he wouldn't be much help. He knew nothing about alien combat. He just needed GIR!

But standing in his way was none other than the squid monster from earlier; blaster reading aimed at Dib's head. Dib instantly braked.

"Don't move," he hissed at the boy, finger on the trigger. "Take one more step and I'll blow your head off!"

"G-GAZ! GAZ, HELP!" Dib wailed, completely helpless. He locked his eyes on GIR, who had managed to turn around. He looked confused.

Gaz broke away from the other officers and took a few shots at the squid, but he dodged them all.

Dib wasn't as lucky.

With a loud scream he fell to the ground, unable to break his own fall. Gaz swore loud, but didn't lose her focus this time.

"I can't-I CAN'T MOVE!" Dib slurred, his body completely rigid. He struggled to breathe.

Gaz took a few more shots, but Dib's cry distracted her, causing them officer to advance with a shot of his own. Gaz ducked, hearing a loud whoosh as the blast narrowly missed her head.

Zim was still fighting the wolf, starting to lose energy. They were losing. They were going to die, they were-

"MaSteR?" A distorted voice echoed around Zim.

Zim broke away from the wolf, frantically looking around himself. "GIR! GIR, WHERE ARE YOU?!" He cried, dodging the wolf's attacks.

Gaz quickly whipped around and shot the creature, which howled and dropped to the ground. The squid tried running towards Zim again, but Gaz kept over him and shot GIR's cage lock, which bounced around and hit the roof.

The squid ran towards the wall, watching furiously as the criminals were fled the prison and hijacked the officers' ships. He turned around to see Gaz, blaster locked onto him.

It took a long time for GIR to slip out of his cage. His mind was running a mile a minute like always, but now it hurt to think. It hurt to do anything now.

Zim swung around as soon as he heard the robot's voice: a quiet "PeEKAboo..." and saw him standing there.

Zim shrieked rather uncharacteristically and tackled him into a giant hug, but instantly regretted it when he felt GIR in his arms. He was steaming, every circuit shot. His metal shell was hot to the touch.

He was overheating.

Zim didn't let go, however. He never wanted to let go again. He tried saying something to GIR, maybe apologize. But all that was coming out was tearful squawks and whimpering. GIR hugged back, but the impact from Zim only furthered his damages. He wasn't sure what he was doing there or what was going on, he never really did. But he could feel himself shutting down, and GIR fought for consciousness.

"DiD-Ya... MEEt thE SUn?" GIR droned, his voice box faltering. "He tRIed tO KilL me ONCe,"

Gaz eyed the squid up and down, daring him to try anything. Dib had lost the ability to speak, but watched him slowly reach behind his back for his blaster. He tried screaming for Gaz, who couldn't see, but he couldn't form the words.

GIR, distracted as ever, looked over to where the squid was, and registered abnormal behavior inside his processors, which were just about melted. His vision went red.

It all happened so fast. Zim felt GIR wiggle out of his grasp and snapped his eyes open, just in time for the squid to yank out his blaster and fire towards him. GIR, in duty-mode, stepped in front to defend his master. Gaz instantly shot, but was too late.

Zim was fine.

GIR was not.