Chapter 9

I walked down the hallways feeling dazed and confused. I had questions zipping through my head at a million miles per second.

How am I supposed to save Gin? Why didn't she try to save herself? Why did she give me her chip? Why does she keep saying that thing about love and hate? What does she know about me that I don't? How will Zim react?

Speak of the devil, just then Zim decided to march over and glared at me menacingly. He got really close to me and was up in my face. If he had a nose I'm positive I would have felt his breath against my face.

"Alright you filthy meatsack, where is Gin?" he growled and I returned the glare that he was giving me.

"She left Zim," I snapped and we got so close that our foreheads were pressed together and we were staring into the others eyes, or should I say lenses. This actually hadn't happened since we were little kids. Just then the bell rang but instead of walking away Zim grabbed me by my shirt and slammed me against a locker.

"Why did she leave? Answer me human, answer ZIM!" I rolled my eyes and clenched my hands into fists, preparing for the fight that was about to ensue. Its odd Zim has been acting a lot angrier towards me than usual. We hadn't fought in a while and I was beginning to think he had given up, but then he goes and has to start acting crazy.

"I didn't do anything Zim, nor do I have to answer you!" I growled and he threw me to the ground before climbing on top of my torso and straddling me. When I had hit the ground however my palm had opened and the chip that Gin gave me fell out.

Zim froze, fist pulled back and ready to punch me in the face, and stared at the small piece of Irken technology lying on the floor. He reached out a shaking hand and grabbed it before bringing it up to his face. After examining it for a while he looked at me, a deadly glint in his eye.

"Where did you get this Dib?" he asked and the fact that he was silent, combined with the fact that he said my actual name sent chills down my spine. When I didn't answer him he lifted me up and slammed me against the ground again.

"Answer me now Dib, or else I will-," just then a door near us opened and a kid inside poked their head out. It was a student I recognized from my grade and they stared at me and Zim with wide eyes.

"LOOK EVERYBODY ZIM AND DIB ARE ACTING ALL GAY ON THE FLOOR!" he yelled before pointing and being joined by many others, Zim got up and pulled me with him before pulling me around the corner and out the skool.

Once outside he turned to me and stared me down with a smirk on his face.

"I was hoping it wouldn't come to this DIB. But unfortunately you leave me no choice," he said and with those words he pressed a button and in a matter of seconds my entire world went black.

When I opened my eyes, my head was throbbing and the room I was in was dark. I couldn't see much because my vision was also blurry. Someone must have taken my glasses, I tried to sit up but found myself immobile. My arms and legs had been strapped down onto the table.

And the table itself was cold and stiff and I shivered out of discomfort and fear. How did I get here? All I remember is arguing with Zim over…the chip!

"Glad to see you're awake Dib. Though I must say the drugs I administered to your system didn't last very long…only ten minutes," he said my name in a mocking tone and stepped off the elevator with a smug look on his face and his hands behind his back.

"W-what am I doing here Zim?" I asked, my voice showing my fear.

"Silence! I will ask the questions. And I will start with, where did you get that marooko chip!" he yelled and I flinched but was confused.

"It's called a marooko chip?" I asked and he shook his head.

"No the word marooko is the equivalent of your human word…ugh what was it, oh yes: damn," he said and I nodded.

"Now answer my questions, I told you I would be the one asking!" he said angrily and I sighed in defeat. There was no way he was letting me go unless I told him the full story.

"Alright fine…Gin gave it to me before she left this morning," I said and he glared at me.

"You lie," he snapped and I glared at him.

"No I didn't! Go ask her yourself!" I yelled at him and he slapped me in the face. I clenched my teeth as my cheek stung.

"Don't yell at me. And besides, I couldn't ask her even if I wanted to…she's gone," he whispered the end and I could hear the hurt in his voice.

"What do you mean gone?" I asked and he turned his back to me.

"I mean she's just gone. Her house is gone, all her files from the school are gone, even if she'd only gone for one day…but every trace of her is gone…she didn't even say goodbye. She just got here and then she left as soon as she arrived," I felt sympathy stab at my heart for the alien. He sounded heartbroken, something I never expected from someone with an ego as large as Zim's.

"How can she be gone though…she was here only an hour ago!" I asked and he turned to me. I was shocked to see large blue tears gathering in his magenta eyes.

"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT! I KNOW SHE WAS HERE JUST AN HOUR AGO THAT'S WHY I'M SO MAROOKO UPSET! I COULD HAVE STOPPED HER, OR AT LEAST SAID GOODBYE BUT I DIDN'T," he fell to the ground and his tears fell to the floor.

I sighed sadly for Zim. He looked so pathetic…and it made me feel, terrible. I don't know what he's going through but, I can imagine. The only person who's ever cared about you, gone.

"Zim…listen I have to tell you something…Gin left because…she was going to be replaced with something terrible," I said and he looked up at me.

"What?" he asked and I took a deep breath. Then I told him what she told me, about the chip, and how her personality would be destroyed. How she left so she wouldn't hurt him or take over the world…

"I could have stopped her, I could have saved her…do you know what it feels like to have someone you love and care about suddenly disappear without even saying goodbye?" he cried and I shook my head.

"Of course you don't, because you're so pathetic no one would bother loving you back. You're too busy getting up into business that isn't yours to get into! You fight constantly for an ungrateful race that was doomed from the start. Why don't you just admit defeat and accept that fact that you were destined to fail. You were born to amount to nothing," he told me with all the hate and anger in his voice that he has probably ever felt.

I understand that he was just taking his feelings about Gin out on me but I didn't care. He had hit me in all my weak-spots. He said the few things that he knew would break my spirit. Tears streamed down my face because all the things he said were true. Every last word was correct. He said things that should have just been kept unsaid because what he did was trigger something in me that I didn't know was there: utter Irken ruthlessness. And right then I was so upset, that I wanted him to feel what I felt…I had to break his spirit completely.

"Yeah well you know what Zim? It takes a failure to know a failure," I spat and he looked up at me in fury.

"What did you say?" he whispered and I glared at him.

"You shouldn't even be here Zim! You should be dead. Gin told me everything... Your leaders only sent you to this planet so that they could get rid of you; you are worthless to your empire. They sent you to a planet as far away from them as they could so that you would die... You aren't an invader, you're a failure, and you always have been a failure! And you know what else? I wish you had died, because it would have made everyone's lives that much easier!" I screamed at him and he stopped frozen with this look on my face that made me instantly regret all that just came out of my mouth.

"Gin…told you that?" he asked and I looked away. After a few minutes of silence I felt the bonds keeping me on the table release and I got up. I was surprised but then I looked at Zim, sitting on the floor with a defeated , empty expression on his face, and a horrible realization hit me…I did exactly what I had just aimed to do…I just destroyed his spirits…his only reason to live. I just broke my mortal enemy…and it felt horrible.