The Almighty Error.

Sector Fourteen.

Zims' Perspective.

I didn't understand why the Dib-Thing was saying this was odd, because it wasn't. I've never seen the full anatomy of a human, and perhaps doing so would assist in my decisions on how I would like to conquer earth.

I watch him drop the garment in his hands which left the Dib standing there completely bare and unclothed. His face turns an interestingly deeper shade of red but it meant nothing to me. I eye him down but then hissed and pulled out the contacts that were still in my eyes when they were beginning to hinder the quality of my eyesight.

"Quit looking at me like that.. I already told you, don't make this weirder. I don't even know why you want to study the male human anatomy!" He walks into the glass encasing and I see his brows furrow.

My annoyance shows as I walk over at a slow pace due to the pain in my abdomen, turning a knob to activate the chemical liquid to come out of the faucet above his head. It is a deep blue hue and lighter in weight than earth liquid.

The human flinches when the element hits his skin and I find myself briefly worrying if it hurt him. However, he doesn't seem to be in pain.

"Why.. does this smell like.. perfume?"

"I don't understand your earthly reference. At least it does not burn you." I step back once activating it and am relieved that it wasn't harming his skin. But my relief turns to disgust.

'Why do I care if it hurts him?! He's laughed at my pain in the past!'

I watch the Dib start scrubbing his body with his hands, and I choose to sit on the floor against one of the walls and watch him through the glass encasing. Making my PAK pull out a tablet from within it, I start to sketch out the Dibs' form. "Hm.. Are you going to tell me what that thing is, now?"

"I—Wait—Are you drawing me?! Stop that!!" He looks over at me as if in horror, I can see he's turning colors of red again.

I lower my device to pause my sketching. "Yes, and? I'm taking notes, stupid! Now tell me!"

"Jesus Christ—It's my dick, you nimrod! It's the male half of human reproduction! Now stop staring at it!" He looks away, resuming to scrub at his body.

I quickly take note of this, squinting my eyes as I try to replicate my sketch of what it really looks like. "Would it be painful if it was removed?"

"What do you think, Sherlock?! Us guys kinda need it to use the bathroom and make children! And it's the most sensitive part of our body!"

"Who is this Sherlock you speak of?! I am not Sherlock! I am Zim!" Putting my tablet away in my PAK, I narrow my eyes at the Dib.

'Reproductive organ.. hm.. I don't see how that would be useful in my plans. This was a waste!' My antennas abruptly perk forward toward the human and I instantly panic, reaching up to pin them down to my head. 'No—Stop that! What are my antennas doing?!'

"H—Hurry up your stupid cleansing and get out!" I stand up and don't care to supervise the human any longer. My feet swiftly take me out of the room and return myself back to my lab, all the while I keep my hands over my antennas to hold them down. Once in the clear, I let go and see they've gone back to normal.

My body starts to pace back and forth, and I knew I was growing visibly nervous as the seconds went by. "What was that? My antennas pointed toward the human! Does it mean something? It couldn't! It—can't!"

"Master!! I made you waffles cause you said you'd eat them if I cleaaaaned!!" Gir comes down the trash shoot with a squeal to his tone, running circles around me and interrupting my disturbed thoughts.

I get dizzy trying to watch him and make an effort to have him stop. "Alright, alright, quit it! I will go eat these stupid waffles if you go make sure the Dib doesn't try snooping around! Understood?! And—computer! Don't be an idiot and translate anything from those articles he saw into the English language! I cant afford for anything else to go wrong while he is down here without my supervision!"

I rush to the elevator to take me above ground, my wound aching horridly. Once on the surface, I find the closet that I stored my uniforms and took out a top, carefully putting it on and wincing every few seconds that it brushed against my injury. "This needs to heal faster.."

After finally looking more presentable I see the plate of waffles on the table and sigh, approaching it. I slowly start to eat them one by one, relieved to find that Gir used Irken ingredients in them.

Starting to enjoy the taste now, I try not to think about the past few hours. The fact that the human tried to help with my healing process, that he gave up Taks' ship because he trusts me, and.. how he's still an annoying little piece of shit who's screwing with my mission.

"The human has poisoned me with stress. This is why I am having weird malfunctions with my Pak thinking he's my designated mate.. it has to be the reason. Irkens aren't built for stress.." I reason with myself while eating, staring ahead at the wall blankly. "I can't get sidetracked. The respect of my Tallest needs to be earned back.."

I feel the emptiness inside of me start to rise like before. The hopelessness. I mean, I couldn't even handle Taks' ship, what says I could handle making this plan work?

Again though, my thoughts are interrupted.

"Zim, Gir said I would find you up here." I heard the Dib from behind me, but make no effort to look back at him. "Thanks for letting me wash up, by the way.. I actually like the way its making me smell."

I still don't respond. Now poking at the waffles, I let my eyelids close halfway. My PAK must've been draining other forms of energy within me to heal my wound. "Go home, Dib-Stink.."

"You don't want to at least come with me and tell me what parts of Taks' ship you'll need?" I feel his gaze, which only makes me growl in response.

"Not now."

He circles the table and sits down in front of me. I quickly make an attempt to stand up and leave before the Dib could question my weakness, but the pain across my front torso only hurt worse than before, forcing me to sit back down to feel some relief.

"Dude, we're a team right now.. You need to learn to be more open with me." He sounds more serious than usual, making my body stiffen.

I make sure my eyes don't lock with his to avoid making the situation any more uncomfortable for myself. My antennas start to droop back, and I sink into the chair while touching my abdomen. "My Pak thinks I still need to be unconscious to heal. It might be that my squeedilyspooch is more damaged than I expected from the slash."

"So.. basically, you're tired and need to sleep to heal?"

"More complex than that, but sure. I'm.. exhausted. But it's both mentally and physically."

"I see.." I can tell from the corner of my view that he was rubbing his chin. "Then why don't you just let yourself sleep?"

"Because.. Zim isn't weak! Zim needs no—..." I trail off, having no energy to speak with such fire. "Pft.. Just go home, Dib-Thing.. We will continue our work once my Pak says I'm ready. Give me a day or so.."

I was using my injury as an excuse, but the mental strain my lifeline system was causing made me think about how stupid my entire plan was. How this wasn't going to work. I've lost my Tallests' respect for good this time.

Maybe I wasn't hiding it well enough, because the Dib spoke up saying something that was as if he could read my thoughts. "It's going to work. Whatever specifics you have about this plan with your ship.. I just know it'll work."

I look at him in slight disbelief. He doesn't even realize my entire plan is to conquer earth, not save it. How would he even know anything? "Tch.. Yeah, sure."

"Seriously. Your leaders will regret turning their backs on you and disrespecting you. By doing this, you'll have to earn their respect back! Even if it means by taking them down. They'll have to respect your drive to keep fighting!"

His speech left me baffled even more so than seconds before. This human was trying to boost me up, not knowing that I was betraying the trust he put into me.

Why was I starting to feel guilty?