The Almighty Error.

Sector Seven.

              Dibs' Perspective.

"Ergh...." he growls, irritated that I was right. "I will be able to explain better down in my lab."

I'm still baffled that Zim was willingly going to bring me into his base. No gnomes shooting lasers at me? No robot parents to throw me out like trash?

Something was definitely off with Zim. Should I still be concerned it was a trap?

But as always, curiosity gets the better of me. And the risk of being strapped down for random tests sounded more exciting than going straight home anyways.

•••

We arrive at Zims' base. It had begun to snow even harder and pile up on the ground.

We rush into his home to get away from the cold. I watch as parts of a massive machine lower down to Zim, removing his wig and eye contacts to reveal his true form.

"Master, you're home!! Ooh, and you brought your human friend!!!" Gir jumps from the couch and lands close in front of me, waving his metal hand eagerly. "Hiii!! My master has been talking a looot about you!! He made me clean up to impress you!!—"

"Gir! Shut up and watch your show!" Zim appears embarassed to have been exposed like that by his own robot servant.

"Okie dokie!" The mechanical child complied and returns to the couch to watch his monkey show.

I blink my eyes a few times to process what Gir said. 'Zim talks about me? Does he really want to impress me? What for?'

I can only assume it's just because we're as equally obsessed about each other.

"Come, Dib." I reluctantly follow him to the back of the house where he stepped into the kitchen trash can and suddenly disappeared.

'So that's how you get to his lab..' I think briefly before following him by shimmying into the can and immediately getting sucked down.

We drop into Zims' lab deep underground. He lands on his feet. I, however, land right on my ass.

"Ow.."

"Quiet. Now Dib, I am about to make a call. Do not say a word." He sounds serious. More than usual.

I look at him, and he looks back at me. His antennas are pointed straight upward, making me guess that meant he was on high alert.

I nod my head vaguely without standing up from the ground, my brows furrowed and clearly confused.

'Why did he bring me here? Why is he making a call? To who? His Tallest?' I cease my thoughts when I see a large screen lower in front of Zim, making sure that I could pay more attention without questions swirling around.

The screen is static for almost a full minute. Zim doesn't change the way he stares at it. Arms folded behind his back, as straight of a posture as he could get, and antennas still perked.

Finally, someone answers.

"Zim? Argh, what do you want?! Haven't you done enough, already?!"

It was his leaders. They carried mixed expressions on their faces, but clearly unhappy to even speak Zims' name.

"Red. Purple." He acknowledged them differently and through gritted teeth, instead of calling them his Tallest.

It left me confused.

Zim continued. "I've noticed you changed your course. I suggest you change it back."

"You don't have the authority to suggest anything to us." The red one pointed to Zim, leaning closer to the screen. "You are a threat to Irken life and need to be disposed of. Do we need to remind you about what you did?!"

"We're just doing something we should've done a long time ago! You were entertaining at first, but now you're just annoying! And dangerous!" The Purple one added, slurping from some unknown substance in a cup through a straw.

This conversation is confusing. My brows remain furrowed as I stand up and brush myself off, still paying close attention.

"Earth is my filthy planet for conquering, now! You can't come here and take it!" Zim took away from his stance and pointed accusingly to his leaders, seemingly hesitant about every word he was saying. "You—pathetic excuses for leaders don't even want this rock!! Haven't you done enough by toying with me?!"

"We don't want the rock you're stationed on, Zim!" Red spat. "Worthless Irken insects like you need to be erased, and that's what we plan on doing. You threw us into a painful situation and made us have to stop going straight in our course for invasion!"

Purple looks at Red now with a little concern. They whisper back and forth for a moment.

Zim doesn't wait for their whispering to be over. "You fail to remember my persistence, putrid Tallest. Zim will win this."

The purple one refused to talk at this point. He looked rather uncomfortable, stuffing donuts into his face.

So, Red continued. "You've already lost, Zim. Defects don't win anything. Our course remains the same at this point, and we don't plan on turning anymore. Therefore, we will continue in a straight line from here on out, so be it if that rock gets blown up."

The call ends.

Zim acts unphased but I could tell he was masking other emotions.

My heart started to pound, remembering that transmission I recorded before the Florpus.

"You know, I still can't believe we screwed up with erasing his Pak. It was our first act as the new Tallest and all we did was make Zim even more dangerous, Purple."

Were they that threatened by Zim?

I stare at the Irken—was he even considered Irken at this point?—My eyes lock onto the dome object on his back known as his Pak.

Zim, finally turns to face me. Folding his arms behind his back again, and his antennas flattened down against his head. He was clearly upset about something but was doing his best to keep it hidden from me.

"It was the only way to prove that Zim wasn't about to lie to Dib."