Chapter Text
Zim was finally done with the training for today and he could finally relax. The days in the academy were pretty hard but that is necessary to prepare every Irke for defending and extending the empire. He had several bruises from today but they would heal soon, now he wanted to focus on spending time with Red.
The last couple of days Red was busy preparing for their training but he promised that they would spend today. So Zim was excited and made his way to Red's room which he shared with Purple.
Zim knocked and waited for the door to open. He could hear an annoyed groan from inside the room and then the door opened, showing an annoyed Red.
“What do you want?” he asked, glaring at the smaller Irke who only smiled at the taller one.
“You said we would spend some time together after training, so here I am” his smile stayed the whole time while Red groaned again.
“Listen, today was rough and I just want to be in my room and relax, we do something another time,” he said, hoping Zim would just leave and do something else, but he was wrong.
“We can spend some time in your room, I don't mind” Zim tried to get into the room, but Red stopped him “No Zim, I promised Purple that we do something alone, so leave us. I talk to you later”
Then the door closed, leaving Zim alone staring at the closed door. “But you promised…” he mumbled and went back to his room. He sighed and threw himself onto the bed. He hated that Red was spending more time with Purple than with him.
He grabbed his pillow and held it tight, thinking about the reasons why they spend so much time together. “Maybe because they are teammates and they prepare together” he tried to convince himself of that.
“That has to be it, he just puts a lot of effort into his training” He sat back up “And so should i, I need to get better if I want to be the greatest invader” he got up from his bed and walked back outside, looking for Skoodge, his teammate.
He spent the rest of the day preparing for the next day with Skoodge. In his opinion he was still not good enough, so he wanted to train through the night but Skoodge convinced him to continue tomorrow.
The next day arrived and the training session continued as usual. Today they had to complete a parkour as a team of four the only rule was, no PAK usage. Zim was put together with Skoodge, Red, and Purple. Finally, he could do something together with Red and show him that he was a worthy teammate.
They began and the first part of the parkour was pretty easy for all four of them, but then they arrived at the second half of the parkour. First, they had to cross a river full of lava. “Easy,” thought Zim and walked first over the thin branch. He was pretty confident in himself, but suddenly he felt a push and he almost fell into the lava, but his PAK legs saved him.
“Great Zim! Because of you, we failed!” yelled Red, who was behind Zim the whole time. Zim wanted to argue that he pushed him but Red just walked away and Zim wasn't entirely sure if Red actually pushed him. He had no reason to do that.
Zim pulled himself back up and followed Red, feeling bad that they failed because of him. He shouldn't have used his PAK, but it was a reflex to do that. All four had to do the parkour again until all four get through it without falling. Of course, Purple and Red were mad at him and glared at the smaller Irke.
It took them the whole day and part of the night until they all finished the parcour and were allowed to go to their room.
On the way back, Zim walked next to Red and said “Listen Red, it wasn't my fault someone pushed-” then Red interrupted him “Who pushed you? I was behind you the whole time and saw nothing, you were just too stupid to walk over a branch and then you had to use your PAK. You really are the most idiotic Irke I know” then Red walked into his room, leaving Zim no time to answer.
“Maybe I just imagined that pushed” sighed Zim and walked back to his room and sat down on his bed. He thought back to the moment he fell. Was there actually a push or did he just fall? He couldn't really remember.
“Red is right, I was an idiot today, but that will change tomorrow” he closed his eyes and turned on the rest mode on his PAK.
The days went on and Zim felt more and more abandoned by Red. He had no idea why he was avoiding him but today he would finally find out what was going on in Red's room. He waited until nighttime and snuck out of his room and towards the room Red and Purple were staying in.
He took a moment to think about if he really should do that, but it was necessary to understand what was happening. He took a deep breath and opened the door without knocking.
What he saw was the most shocking thing he had ever seen.
Red and Purple were making out on the bed and hadn't realized Zim was standing there.
He couldn't say a word and just watched his Boyfriend making out with someone else. It was something he never imagine he would see.
Something Zim hasn't realize was the wet fluid that leaked from his eyes. Something he never thought Irken could do.
“What is going on here?” he managed to choke out and that's when Red and Purple noticed him.
The tears were still running down Zim's face, he tried to wipe them away, but they kept flowing.
Red got up and walked towards Zim “What are you doing here? Why did you just come into my room ?” he asked, glaring mad at the other while Purple just watched it.
“the better question is why you were making out with Purple when you said you loved me?” he asked, still trying to stop the tears but the more he talked the more he cried.
“You really ask that? You are the reason. If you would be normal I wouldn't have to do this. Who would want to be seen with a defective Irke, look at you. You are crying, this shouldn't even be possible if you would work like everyone else”
Zim went silent, not knowing how to respond to this. His antennas went flat on his head and he looked to the ground. “You think... I´m defective?” he asked in a low voice.
“Everyone thinks this Zim. You can't do anything, everywhere you are something explodes and you are emotional. You are defective and you better fix yourself before I report you to Tallest Miyuki” then Red walked back to Purple.
Zim only nodded and walked back to his room, locking the door behind him. He couldn't be defective, that couldn't be true, right?
He had to hide this if he wants to become Irks best invader. No one can ever know about this. This will be his secret
As time went on, Zim showed more and more signs of being defective but because of how good Zim was at masking his mistakes he was never caught. Until he made the mistake and accidentally killing both of their tallest, which resulted in Red and Purple becoming tallest.
The only Irken who knew he was defective became tallest. This was the worst that could had happen to him.
But instead of deactivating him, they decided to torment and humiliate him in front of the entire empire. Zim had to just accept it in fear of losing his rank and his life.
He kept trying to impress Red and maybe continue their relationship, but with every try he just ruined his reputation more. He got banished to foodcourtia and when he returned from there, he was banished to earth.
And that's where he was standing now, trying to invade a planet that was his exile disguised as a mission Zim would never be able to fulfill. Red and Purple were happy to finally got rid of the menace they had to deal with their entire life.
And so another day on earth began. Another day of Zim thinking he could get the love he once had back.
Invading this planet would show Red he wasn't defective. He was worthy of returning to the armada and returning to Red.
It had been days since Zim lost contact to the massive, but he thought they were just busy or that's what he was telling himself. He didn't realize that he had been missing school for a week now and even his nemesis Dib began to worry about the alien.
After school, Dib made his way to Zim's base telling himself that he was just checking if Zim was planning something, but deep inside he was worried about him. He walked into the base and saw Gir watching TV, something that was already normal so he went down to the lab where he saw why Zim was not at school.
The Alien sat in front of the computer, the screen only showed something in Irken language, but seeing Zim he concludes that it wasn't good.
He walked closer to his nemesis to get a better look at Zim, who didn't seem to realize that Dib was there.
His antennas were roughed up as if someone had pulled on them as hard as they could, his eyes were red as if Zim had cried but Dib pushed that thought away. Zim would never cry. He always bragged about how emotionless Irken are and that crying was a sign of weakness.
“They abandoned me…” mumbled Zim, still staring at the screen and Dib began to understand what was going on. The empire must have cut contact with Zim and left him on this planet.
“Zim?” said Dib carefully, scared to touch the other.
The alien finally looked at Dib and instantly his face “What are you doing here?!” he tried to yell but his throat hurt so it was quieter and more hoarse.
“I wanted to check on you and I'm glad I did,” Dib said softly “You don't have to explain, I just want you to know that I'm here if you need to talk”
Zim was silent at first but then asked “do you think I'm defective?”
The question surprised Dib because it was out of character for Zim to ask something like this “No Zim if you would ask me I would say that you fit in perfectly here. You might be defective for your screwed-up society but you are perfectly fine for earth” Dib smiled and for the first time, Zim smiled back at him.
“Will you come back to school tomorrow?” Asked Dib
“I don't know yet, I want to see if I might be able to reach the massive. If not you will see me at school tomorrow” said Zim, looking back at the screen “I want at least to talk with Red one last time”