It had been a little over two weeks since the Florpus incident, and yet already things had nearly returned to normal. Everybody was back home and life had essentially resumed as if nothing had happened in the first place. The school had been on a sudden break as everybody continued to recover from the mass destruction that had taken place on Earth. Today was the first day of school being back in session since then. Zim, however, elected not to return to school yet.

By now, it had set in that Zim truly was on Earth for no real reason. Indeed, the Tallest weren't coming to conquer Earth regardless of what Zim did, and he had completely and utterly lost any sort of respect with the Tallest, and he wasn't deemed useful in any way. Even his desperate vie for power, his last-ditch effort to conquer Earth, had failed. So, Zim had spent most of the time since that failed plan in the same sad state Dib had found him in when he first learned this information. Simply put, he wasn't in the mood to deal with the human school right now.

"Wasn't the whole objective of being a student at the school to blend in with the humans?" the base's computer asked, the voice booming out from the ceiling above the couch, where Zim had draped himself.

"Yeah. But not today," Zim muttered, letting his right hand slip off of his chest onto the floor.

"What do you mean 'not today'?"

"Don't question me. Not today. Maybe tomorrow. And be quiet— you'll wake up GIR." GIR was sleeping in the corner, curled up like a cat. He was on top of his dog disguise, using it as some sort of bed.

"...Whatever. It's not my problem." Nearly the moment the computer finished, there was a knock at the door to Zim's base. "It's Dib."

"Ugghhh." Zim sat up with a prolonged groan and stretched. "Can't Dib tell that I'm busy?" Zim stood up and dragged his feet to the door, kicking empty cans aside as he did. Zim opened the door wordlessly.

"Zim," Dib stated disparagingly.

"Yes. Dib," Zim grumbled.

"You know that it's the first day back in school since you nearly killed us all?"

"Yes. Why are you here, then?"

"Cause…" Dib realized he should've been hurrying off to school. He was probably going to be late. Dib hoped it wouldn't be like the last time someone was late. He shuddered. "Shut up, alien! That's not important. What is important is that you don't seem like you're going." Dib signalled to Zim's antennae and non-human eyes with his hand. "You know, if you stop going to school, people might get suspicious. They might start to notice that you're weird. That you're not human."

"...Yes."

"...What?" Dib was confused.

"Eh, Zim has better things to do this Earth day than go back to human school, fool Dib."

Dib leaned to the side and looked past Zim, into his base. It looked exactly how one would expect a living room to look like if someone lived there for two weeks straight without leaving. He took note of a plate on the floor, which had a nearly-mutilated pizza slice which had been caked in glitter. That probably was Zim's robot's doing. Dib stood straight again. "Yeah. Wouldn't want to take time away from… that. Or from your alien schemes!" Dib accused, pointing at Zim, his finger less than an inch away from Zim's apathetic-looking face.

"Zim is done with such schemes."

"You tried to pull this trick before, Zim! I won't fall for it this time! I'll make sure that you never take over the world and that everyone sees you for who you really are!" Zim winced and his antennae flattened against his head as Dib practically yelled into his face.

"Yes. Now leave."

"I'll never— well I do have to get to school. I might be late by—" Zim shut the door on Dib and shuffled back to the couch, which he collapsed onto, face-first.

Zim truly felt like he was past the "alien schemes", as Dib lovingly put it. Even now he couldn't achieve anything on behalf of the Tallest. He was in exile and that was just that. Now he was exiled as he the Tallest had wanted him to be, and there was no reason to conquer; not that he could ever succeed in doing that. For now, it was this— just about the purest form of apathy Zim could muster.

Dib did make to school. He pushed the fresh memory of what just happened to him out of his mind. He could never think about it again. Never. Dib was to be on time in the future, lest… And in less drastic news, school was surprisingly boring. Well, Dib was always bored from the school's just mind-numbingly simple lessons, but today was different. He was usually distracted at least somewhat from the terrible monotony of school by the evil of Zim. But, of course, with Zim staying home, that didn't happen. But Dib could ignore that; that wasn't the real issue at hand. No, the issue was that now, while Dib was helplessly at school, Zim was at his base, probably creating countless plans to take over the world, and Dib couldn't do a thing about it! He was a sitting duck as Zim's incalculable menace worked its magic. When he returned home he would have to work even harder to counter Zim and all that he had accomplished during Dib's tactical faux pas.

When school let out, Dib rushed home, eager to get to work saving the Earth. Upon making it inside, he could hear his dad working on something. Sounded like welding. As he pushed farther into the house, he spotted him, welding a stop sign onto a robot's back. Huh.

"Hello, son. How was schooling?" Dr. Membrane asked, his voice muffled by his welding mask. He didn't look up from his work. The robot blinked.

"Fine. I—" Dib thought about earlier in the day. He had been late. He shut his eyes and shivered. "It was good." Dib looked around for a moment. "Where's Clembrane?"

"Oh, son," Dr. Membrane began, putting down his welder and pushing up his mask. He got on one knee and put his hand on Dib's shoulder, "he's living on a farm up north, frolicking and playing with all of the other Clembranes."

"...What? Dad, that doesn't make any sense. There aren't any other Clembranes." Dib paused, "...Right?"

"Oh, yes. You're right." Dr. Membrane laughed heartily, "I dumped him on the side of the road in the outskirts of town."

"That's… is he okay?"

"Maybe." He continued to laugh.

"Do you know where he went? I didn't really like Clembrane either, but… he's still alive, right? You can't just leave him for dead."

"Oh, he's still alive, son. Probably. Now hurry along— I've got work to do."

"Yeah, I'm gonna go up to my room, Dad." Dib began to walk away, concerned.

"Have fun."

Dib had made his way upstairs and walked down the hall to his room. He opened the door and slipped into his bedroom. Dib had work to do. He jumped into the chair at his desk and got busy. The plan was to install cameras and spying devices into Zim's base. As many as he possible. Then he could stop all of Zim's plans before they began. And he could get video evidence of his extraterrestrial-ness. He'd perfected his strategy since the last time he tried this, so it was bound to work. And, Dib made it his goal to have planted at least one in Zim's base by the end of the night.

Zim really only had two reasons for continuing to act the way he was. Either he was desperately trying to trick Dib, or he was… trying to trick Dib. There was absolutely no way that this was genuine. Dib thought that last time, and one just needed to look around at the rubble outside to see how wrong Dib was. Dib wouldn't be wrong this time. Dib, despite his innumerable failures and utter lack of tangible success, would finally catch Zim.

Zim hadn't moved an inch since he collapsed back onto the couch that morning. He was still facedown on the couch. GIR had been making even more of a mess, surely. Right now he was out doing something in the world. Probably eating or partying, knowing GIR. The television had been on the whole time, but Zim hadn't been listening into a single thing. Zim may have processed that he was exiled, but that didn't mean that he had completely accepted it. In fact, he hadn't accepted it nearly at all.

Out of the blue, the computer stated, "Master, there's an incoming transmission."

Zim said something in response, but it was muffled by the couch.

"What?"

"I don't care," Zim answered, louder now.

"It's from the Tallest."

Zim sat up, pushing himself upright, the couch creaking as he did. Now sitting, he brushed himself down and mused aloud, "Is it?"

"Yes. Would you like me to put them on?"

Zim mulled over it for a second. He had a slight smirk for a moment before his countenance returned to somewhere between depressed and bored. "No. Tell the Tallest to leave a message."

"But I thought that you wanted to—"

"If it's important then the Tallest will leave a message." Zim slid back down, now supine.

"I'm not sure if that's something this system can do…" the computer mumbled as it presumably followed Zim's request.

Zim, through failing to answer the Tallest, perhaps presented some sort of resistance, or won some sort of small battle. Regardless, he wouldn't be talking to the Tallest today. They'd have to wait for him. For Zim.