An update! YAY! And kinda early too considering I thought that I'd stuggle to update this week. Huh. Weird how things go, ammarite?

Anyway, in this chapter we have a MAJOR PLOT ADVANCEMENT. See if you can spot it.

Have fun reading guys!

Zim kicked over another... thing. What was it, a power generator? Oh who cared, it needed to be kicked. He'd been infuriated since the moment he got home, in fact, he'd been infuriated since his whole time flying home. Hell even Gir had kept quiet due to the intense rage that was flaring within his eyes.

"THAT GAZ-BEAST! AGH!" He shouted again, throwing some random object across his lab and hearing it hit a wall with a satisfying crunch, shattering into pieces. "WHY ARE ALL HUMANS SO... STUPID?"

How dare she ask him questions about their friendship! They didn't even have a friendship! It wasn't like Zim even wanted to be friends with her anyway, he didn't even know how to be a friend in the first place! All he wanted was to learn how to kick the Dib-stink's butt and rule over the planet!

"Stupid, stupid humans," Zim growled, pacing about his lab and looking for something to smash, it seemed however that he'd already smashed most of the stuff in is lab already. "Why do the always have to," He paused, thinking of the right word, "complicate things with their," He punched the air a few times, "Dumbness!"

He sat down onto his favourite work chair, it was long and curved and allowed him to lean back without his PAK digging into his back. He sighed and rubbed his eyes, feeling strangely exhausted after that outburst.

He could also feel his anger moving away, although it was still there of course, just waiting for someone to walk in and disturb him so he could shout at them.

But no one did. No one ever disturbed him, except for Gir and the annoying little robot was no where to be seen.

He winced to himself as he felt something move inside him, not a physical thing, but an emotional one. Something was... annoying his heart, like a hand squeezing it. He growled, feeling suddenly restless and wishing that he could do something about it.

Zim's mind immediately thought of Gaz and the squeezing lessoned. But the invader shook his head and forced the thought away, he didn't want to talk to the stupid annoying human girl. The squeezing tightened and Zim forced a gasp down.

What was going on with him lately? Why was he getting so... attached to Gaz? She was just a human! She was a worthless tool to be used and disposed off once all her fighting powers had been absorbed and adapted.

So what if she was very good at fighting? So what if she was strong and powerful and admirable? So what if she was a warrior above the normal pig-stupid humans of this planet?

He was an irken soldier and it was illegal and traitorous to mingle with the enemy. He knew he had been pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable already, his report to the Tallest was coming up and the pressure was on him to explain his actions.

Although he may just skip over the whole 'learning from the enemy' thing and just hope they buy it. The big fear for Zim however was that he was already far behind the others, even by now Blorch, Skoodges conquered planet, was in the final stages of being converted into a massive industrial complex.

And he had barely made a dint in the fight for Earth... if it wasn't for Dib, he knew he'd be done already.

The irken growled to himself. DIB, that annoyingly tall and big headed and smelly and STUPID human! He thwarted him at every turn! Well, almost every turn, there had been plenty of times when Zim had gone out of his way just to utterly torment the young boy.

Well, he was hardly a young boy anymore, was he?

Zim paused on his chair to consider this. He knew that his enemy was going through his species puberty. He was getting taller, stronger, faster... and Zim could not deny that Dib's punches hurt a heck of a lot more than they used to. Part of why he'd asked for training from Gaz was so he could try and match the young man at fighting strength.

The irken knew he still had the resources and fire-power to keep his enemy from winning their war, but for how long? Soon the boy would be an adult and he would have access to all the tools he would ever need to begin winning their war. He had changed, adapted, Zim had not and it was starting to cost him.

That phrase Gaz spoke came to his mind. Why can't you allow this one change?

Zim ran had hand across his chin and for once, rather than throw himself into a frenzy about why Gaz was wrong... he thought on this. He hadn't changed his ways in the years he'd been here, but it wasn't irken to change. When you were given your job, you were expected to do it. He was cloned with one billion others, what little set him apart for his identity was given to him and he was told to fight.

Why was that such a terrible thing? He knew his life's purpose and he was doing it, that was all he needed.

One thing he'd noticed about this planet, about the humans, was that they weren't good at any one thing. While the Irkens were masters of warfare, the Vortians the masters of science, the Meekrob masters of art, the human race... had nothing. Their science was solid, but hardly mind blowing. Their art was good, but nothing special. Their war strategies were effective, but not unbeatable.

They seemed to enjoy standing out on their own, and yet, they craved company so deeply they'd give themselves to just one person for all their life.

No wonder the Tallest laughed so often when he tried to explain the humans to them. They seemed like such a baffling race of beings, how they had possibly survived without specialising in one area just... amazed Zim. Truly it did.

Suddenly, there was a scream and, smashing through the floor, was Gir. The annoying little robot picked himself up under Zim's watch, his mouth splattered with chocolate. He seemed to pause before waving at his master. "HI!"

"Hello Gir," Zim replied bitterly, annoyed that his little moment of peace had been broken, but since when did he ever get any peace?

The robot looked from side to side before bouncing over and jumping to sit on Zim's lap, "Where is the scary gurl?"

"She's not here," Zim replied coldly, his heart doing that weird squeezy thing again. He did not push Gir off him however, sometimes the robot was good to talk at, not talk too, but talk at. Just an ear to shout and rant into, one that would not turn away or ignore him. "We... fell out, as I believe the humans put it."

"Aww, she was nice," Gir commented simply, crossing his legs, "Why'd ya fall out?"

"She accused Zim of being a friend," The irken raised a fist, "Then she demanded I change! Foolish human, Zim is perfect! He needs no friends or change!"

"But Dib's your friend," Gir commented as his large eyes blinked, "Gazzy should be your friend too!"

"DIB IS THE ENEMY!" The irken shouted back at his robot, "And Gaz is NOT my friend!"

"But you played with her!" Gir grinned, "With the fun shooty game KERBLAMO!"

"That was serious training, Gir!" Zim growled, "Not playing!"

"But you liked it so much!" He giggled a little and poked Zim in the belly, "You liked it sooooo muuuuuch."

"I didn't like it," Zim replied, hotly dening Gir's all too hard-hitting accusation, even as his heart squeezed again. He was going to have to scan himself for any medical issues as soon as he was done talking with his robot. "She was a tutor, a tool to use, nothing more."

Gir paused and then smiled, "But you went on a date! You must like her!"

"... what is this 'date'?" Zim asked simply, an antennae raising slowly.

The robot giggled and waved his arms, "I saw it on tee vee! A date is where a human takes another human to eat disgusting food! And then they KISS! And then they're in loooove."

"Love?" Zim almost spat out the word, "Love is a disgusting concept! Utterly useless to an irken soldier such as myself! Why would I ever be in love with Gaz?"

"I never said you are!" Gir stated quickly, as if calling out Zim's little slip.

Zim ignored him and continued ranting. "Zim cannot feel love! His mighty PAK stops him from feeling such emotions! Only defects feel silly things like love, Zim only loves himself!"

"Isn't that feeling love?" Gir questioned as he began wiping the chocolate off his mouth with his doggie suit.

"Zim cannot and will not change! Not for Gaz, not for anyone!" He leaped up, causing Gir to fall from his lap and onto the floor with a loud clang.

"But mastah has changed before!" Gir called out again from the floor, almost as if he was acting as the little voice of common sense in Zim's mind.

"What? When?" It seemed the irken invader had finally decided to listen to the robot and he turned his passion red eyes onto him. "Tell Zim."

"Mastah was a fightery person, then foody person, then a fightery person again!" Gir counted on his limbs for a second before looking up and grinning, "Dats three changes!"

Zim looked at him blankly, his mouth dropping open in shock. He... he was right. Gir was actually right about something for once. He had changed before, three times even.

The irken seemed to have trouble taking all this in, he stuttered and stumbled back, the realisation of this hitting him so hard that he was almost winded. He could feel his heart beating fast and yet squeezing tight, as if he was forcing blood around his small body faster than he truly wanted too.

Finally, he sat down, leaning back against a machine as Gir seemed to play about with his suit. "... Zim... can change..." He slowly clenched a fist as a new kind of determination took over him. "Zim can change! And I can prove to Gaz I can change!" He grinned maniacally and shot up, raising his fist into the air and shouting, "ZIM WILL CHANGE!"

SO YEAH, that was pretty awesome AMMARITE. I really liked writing the end with Gir in this, I liked putting him in that Shakespearian role of 'the wise fool'.

And before some of you phone in and say 'but Zim's personality didn't change, just his job!' don't worry, that's all taken into account and is all part of the plot. I also wanted to make sure that Zim doesn't act too OOC... I want him to obviously progress, however I want to keep that insane 'throw himself into it' kind of attitude Zim has. Either way he won't be emoing about his new 'change', he'll be going at it WITH FISTS FLYING AND... STUFF HAPPENING.

There are NO REFERENCES OR HOMAGES IN THIS CHAPTER GASPO.

So yes, I hope you enjoyed reading! Review, tell me what you liked and didn't like and what you want more off! Remember guys, if you say 'more piggies' I'll put in more piggies.

Laters!