Author's notes: This is my first fic... hope it's good! Please R&R, it'll encourage me to keep going on it... oh, and yeah... Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Zim characters. If I did, the world would be a far more frightening place.

He couldn't believe his eyes. He pulled off his glasses and rubbed the lenses with the hem of his shirt without looking at them, them slid them back on. He saw as the world came back into focus that his eyes had not deceived him. Standing across the hall, looking at him, was Zim.

It had been five years, but he recognized him instantly. It wasn't easy. Either Zim had changed his disguise, or five years of life ... wherever Zim had been living had changed him drastically. His skin was no longer the distinctive pea-soup green it had been, but was a rather sickly whitish greenish color, and his ridiculous pompadore wig had been restyled, or replaced, a plain, shoulder-brushing cut. He'd also grown. He was still rather short, but short like an adult, not like a child. He'd changed much, but Dib still recognized him instantly, the way a mongoose recognized a viper. It was almost primal.

Dib realized he must have been staring for almost half a minute now, dumbfounded. Zim hadn't broken eye contact with him the entire time.

What Dib found strange, however, was not the physical changes in Zim, but the expression on his face. There was no hate, no gloating, no triumph, just simple, cold acknowledgment. Zim knew it was Dib, knew he had been recognized, but he didn't care. His eyes were calm, collected, and unfeeling. Invader's eyes, Dib realized, with a cold thrill.

Zim inclined him head slightly, broke eye contact, and turned away, striding down the hall. Dib knew he should follow him, Corner him, question him, but somehow couldn't bring himself to move, only to watch, as Zim rounded a corner and dissapeared.

Finally Dib was able to galvanize himself into action, rushing the opposite way to his locker. He dropped his bag, fumbled the lock open, and pulled out his floor length trench coat, throwing it on. As he turned to grab his bag, he noticed himself in his locker mirror. His face had gone a chalky white, and his long black hair, streaked with blue and braided to below his shoulders, looked damp with sweat.

He hurriedly wiped his face on the back of his sleeve and took a few deep breaths, willing the color to come back to his face. Best not to look too shocked, or people might think him ill. When his face approached a normal tone again, he slammed the locker shut, wincing as he heard the mirror fall, and grabbed his bag, shoving the lock in his pocket rather than take time to put it in place. There wasn't anything important in there anyways, not even textbooks.

He swept up his bag and hurried from the building. Today, there were more important things than Skool.

Arriving home, out of breath, Dib ran at once to his room on the second floor. He'd long ago taken over the master bedroom, when his equipment had outgrown his smaller room. He doubted his father even knew. The only ways the Membrane children knew he hadn't completely forgotten the was that the bank account was added to monthly, and that he called them via videophone twice a month.

Dib often wondered why he bothered. So long as their report cards were respectable and social workers didn't come sniffing around, he didn't care what they did.

Tossing down his backpack, he practically threw himself into the computer chair. "Computer!" He barked, "Contact Agent Darkbooty immediately!" It softly beeped an affirmative, a black window popping up on the main screen. "What is it, Agent Mothman?" Dib was momentarily surprised. In the three years since he had last spoken with the swollen eyeballs, Darkbooty's voice had gotten rougher. Older. "He's returned, Agent Darkbooty. Zim is back."

"You know what you must do, Agent Mothman." Dib nodded. "If Zim has returned after all these years, then it must mean trouble. Zim has to be stopped. Again."

"Using whatever means necessary." Dib paused at the implication in his superior's words. Finally, he nodded. "Whatever means necessary."

"Contact us again when you've made progress. And, Dib?" He froze when Darkbooty used his real name. "Yes?"

"Good luck, you'll need it. Agent Darkbooty, out." The window went black again, then closed itself, leaving Dib's circuit board background bare. But not for long.

With suddenly renewed fervor, Dib began calling up file after file. Documents, videos, pictures, schematics, and sundry other tidbits were all revealed on the multiple monitors.

None were quite revealing enough to expose Zim to the skeptics of the world, but to Dib, each bit of evidence was glaringly obvious. A water burn, Zim's missing ears, a crooked contact lens, GIR in his dog suit, the laser gnomes, a blurry video of the voot cruiser... His stock of evidence was astounding. But it wasn't enough for the world to be convinced. No, they needed something irrefutable. Like a specimen.

Dib grinned at the thought of Zim floating in a tube of neon-colored goo, festooned with wires, helpless. At Dib's mercy. He felt a twinge of something else along with the satisfaction that came with the mental image, but pushed it away. He was far too busy refreshing his obsession to deal with anything else at the moment.

He was engrossed enough, in fact, that when the bedroom door creaked open, he barely even registered it, until he heard a sigh. "He's gone, Dib. Why are you still pulling all this stuff up? It's been five years." The bed springs creaked as Gaz settled herself on the edge of the bed.

Since their father had practically deserted them, Gaz's attitude towards him had softened. The rest of her, however, seemed to have toughened. She no longer reacted to every possible threat by lashing out with verbal, or physical, violence, but rather let most of it slide away. She was strong enough for that, now.

Her clothing still ran towards black, fishnet, and skulls, but she had grown her violet hair out, so it fell softly down her back. She'd also added makeup to her daily routine, all in shades of black and violet. Today, he saw, she'd given herself Egyptianesque swoops, something she'd become fond of recently. "I saw him, Gaz. Today, at Skool."

"Really?" She sounded cautious. "Are you sure, Dib? It wasn't some weirdo with a pompadour?" Dib shook his head. "He's changed, Gaz, but I recognize him. I almost think he wanted me to. He stood there, just looking at me, for a long time, then walked away. But it was him. I know it. I can feel it. He's back."

"...I believe you, Dib." Her words sounded troubled, but not doubtful. He pushed that tidbit aside, just like the unidentified emotional twinge. He couldn't spare the time, or the concentration, as he wracked his brain and searched his files. "So, what are you going to do?"

"What?"

"Now that Zim is back, what are you going to do?"

"What am I going to do!" Dib was stupefied, incredulous at her statement. "What do you think I'm going to do, Gaz? I'm going to stop him!"

"From?"

"Did you eat stupid for breakfast, Gaz? From conquering the world!"

"How do you know he's planning to do that?"

"How? How! He's... He's... Zim! He's an invader!"

"He's been gone for five years, Dib. Five quiet years. Don't you think, after all this time, we would have seen some sign, if he was still trying? Why would he come back here, and make sure you saw him, if he was still interested in conquering the world?"

"What else could he POSSIBLY want, Gaz? It must all be part of his plan. He must have been waiting, consolidating his resources, plotting, waiting for just the right time to strike. Maybe it has something to do with the conjunction coming up! Yeah, I better look into that..." He heard Gaz stand and move for the door. "Alright, Dib. I'm going out... I'll be back later." The door clicked shut behind her. Dib didn't hear it, immersed again in his research.

Gaz stalked down the sidewalk, her head bowed, deep in thought. Was it really true? Was Zim back? The thought made her uneasy. It lent validity to things she didn't really want to think about Two dragons... She shook her head. She wasn't going to think about it. She looked up with resolution, and abruptly felt weak in the knees.

As they had for the past two weeks, her feet had carried her, unconsciously, to Zim's. This time, however, the door was open. It couldn't be a coincidence.

Almost helplessly, she approached the door, glancing at the depressions where the robotic gnomes had been, before Dib uprooted them for study.

She nudged the door open a little wider, and stepped through. It was dark inside, and not as she remembered. Everything had either been broken or carried off, most of it by Dib when Zim had left.

After he'd gone, Dib had flown into a rage, and had trashed the ground floor of Zim's house. Later, he'd come back and salvaged what he could.

A lot of it, she knew, had been hybridized into his own computer system. The wallscreens, the appliances, even some circuitry from the walls were worked into the system that resided in their father's room. The toilet sat in Dib's old room, like some sort of strange trophy. It was beyond her how he'd lugged it home, all by himself. Probably with the aid of some invention filched from their father.

She looked about, surveying the damage. Holes and large dark spots, where things had hung adorned the walls, a gaping hole in the kitchen floor... even the ugly old couch was ruined, the upholstery torn and covered in brown stains, hopefully from water damage and not other, more disgusting liquids.

She didn't see Zim anywhere in the house. She bent over to examine the crater where the toilet had been, That was when she heard a faint swoosh, and a soft footfall behind her. She whirled around, and there he was, standing in the entrance to the kitchen.

She was astonished both by how human and how sickly he looked. His Irken uniform was gone, replaced by snug-looking black pants, a loose burgundy T-shirt, and red-trimmed over-shirt. The only thing that remained were his old gloves, and possibly his boots. She wasn't able to tell, with his pant legs in the way. "So you really are back." She said it flatly, but her heart was racing. She hoped coming here hadn't been a major error in judgment. "Yes, Gaz-beast, I'm back." His tone of voice shocked her more than his appearance. It was calm, collected... and sad. "Why?"

"I expected your brother to be the one to question me."

"He probably will... if he doesn't go straight to trying to capture you for the good of all mankind."

"Is he still so rash?"

"Are you not?" At this, his mouth quirked into a slight smile. "No Gaz, I'm not. It's been a long five years. Very, very long."

"Where were you?"

"Elsewhere. Nowhere. At least, nowhere important."

"A different planet?"

"A whole other world." He was hiding something, she knew, with that turn of phrase. "What world?"

"One you know nothing of, little Gaz."

"Little? I'm taller than you Zim, and only a year younger."

"Taller yes, but younger by far, far more than that. Humans can't dream to live as long as I already have."

"But... you've grown. In just five years, you've grown a lot..."

"I believe that has something to do with the way you humans alter your food. Growth hormones, genetic modification, all that. Did you know tomatoes now have fish DNA in them?"

"But you don't eat human food..."

"I trained myself to tolerate it, the same way you humans can grow to tolerate poisons. Sugars seem to help. I can't eat anything with more than slight amounts of protein in it, however."

"Why?" He cocked his head slightly, a long strand of hair rising from his head. She realized, when it twitched, that it was an antennae, camouflaged in plain sight by his wig. "Why what, little Gaz?"

"Why bother learning to eat our food?"

"It was that or starve. My rations ran out."

"Then why stay?"

"Where else was there to go? I never left Earth, Gaz, because there was nowhere out there to go. Nowhere in the galaxy, that I knew of, that hadn't heard at least hatefully whispered rumors of the Irken Empire. Nowhere but here, this remote, backwater hole. I had nowhere else to live."

"Why didn't you go back to Irk?"

"Why are you so curious about me, Gaz?" She crossed her arms. "You ARE an alien."

"That didn't interest you before, as I recall."

"My brother is still obsessed with you." He nodded. "I thought as much. I saw him today."

"Why are you back here, Zim?" He shifted his weight, a gloved claw rising to his throat. She saw a glint of copper chain and a glimpse of something silver, before he tucked whatever it was back into his shirt. "My reasons are my own. Suffice to say, I'm no threat to you or your brother."

"You were never a threat, Zim."

"I could be now." She looked into his eyes, frightening and cold, and she believed it. "Then why aren't you, Zim?"

"As I said, Gaz, my reasons are my own."

"There must be a reason why you're here, why else would you come back where you know you'll be hounded?"

"Why do you keep coming to my house?" She jumped slightly at the question. "What?"

"Why do you come stand on my lawn everyday?"

"How..."

"My robot spy bees have a ten day memory span. Anything older is deleted for space. They show you coming to my house, every day, for as long as they can remember. Why?"

"I don't know." She was losing control of the conversation, she realized, had been for a while. She knew she should leave, before the conversation went where she didn't want it to. She just somehow couldn't take that first step away.

Something about being around Zim, after all these years, was captivating. She was uneasily reminded of footage she'd seen in biology class, of a small bird being eaten by a snake. The bird had just stared at the snake and cowered. It could have flown away at any time, and been free of the snake, but it had just sat there until the snake pounced, and then it had been far, far too late. "Have you missed me that much?"

"I'm not the one who's missed you, Zim."

"Then why are you here?" Why are you the first one to come greet me?"

"He's trying to come up with a plan, trying to prepare for your 'insidious plot'."

"I suppose I should have expected that. Dib seems to love plans as much as I did. I suppose we all need to feel like we have a purpose."

"Where's GIR?"

"I mention purpose and you think of GIR? That's an interesting tangent."

"Why are you avoiding all my questions?" She yelled. He smirked. "Why haven't you caught me at it before now?" She glared at him, amber eyes flinty. "You've gotten slippery, Zim."

"Necessity is the mother of us all. There are people out there, persistent people, who won't be put off by excuses like a 'skin condition'. Your brother, for instance."

"Where have you been?"

"I thought I'd made it fairly clear that I won't answer that question, Gaz." Finally a thread of anger touched his voice. "I don't owe you answers. But you owe me some."

"How do you figure that?"

"Need I remind you who's trespassing in who's domain?"

"Right. It was my brother you wanted to lure here, not me. How could I forget that?" He shifted his weight again, leaning towards her. "Why have you been coming here?" He hissed. She could see a ruby gleam in the pupils of his contacts. His true eyes showing through. She shivered. "I said I don't know. Why is it so fucking important?" She was starting to get anxious. She should go-

"Because, I want to know how you knew i was coming back." Panic.

"I didn't!"

"You knew, or know, something, Gaz. I know you haven't been coming for very long. You always stand in the same spot, and the grass is barely damaged. How did you know?"

"I had a dream!" She shouted it at him, finally able to take that first step towards him. With the first, the rest came easily, until she was inches from him, looking down into his face. "Angry with me, Gaz? I didn't cause the dream, though I'd love to know what it was of." Her eyes narrowed. "Forget it, Zim." She walked around him and through the front door, slamming it behind her. But she still had the nagging image of the bird, struggling helplessly in the snakes' jaws.

TBC

So that's the first chunk, hope you enjoyed, and please R&R, like I said... constructive criticism is welcomed, so don't be shy!

Edit: Came back and fixed my typos. After a few years... *shifty eyes*. I guess it's time for me to write another installment, huh? Better get my fingers busy.

Edit 2: I fixed the REST of the typos, hopefully, and made a few artistic alterations, nothing big. (ABOUT TIME!!!) Now, on to chapter two, and then.... THE WORLD!!