Chapter 1

A/N So I haven't written anything for a while and decided that I needed to do another ZADF story because who doesn't like Zadf? :) Uh, this isn't meant to be a ZADR story but I know some of you can turn just about anything into a ZADR story…so yeah. I am making it teen but that is probably unnecessary…I'd rather be safe than sorry. Uh, yeah, that's it…Have fun reading! Remember: No Flames no matter what…suggestions are good but no flames

Disclaimer: Yeah, yeah, I don't own Invader Zim

It wasn't the fact that he had woken up bleeding.
No, the head wound could have come from anywhere really.
Another experiment gone wrong...
Gir's foolishness...
Dib's interference...
Nor was it the fact that he had no idea why he was down in his lab bleeding or how the wound had come to be.
He supposed that the memory loss would have come from the hit to the head.
Or maybe his pak?
No...His pak seemed fine. But of course, a wound to the pak was much more important the head. Meaning it would have healed faster.
But he wasn't worried about that either.
It was the fact that he had woken up...
From sleep...
something he hadn't done sense training...
and it scarred him...

Something was wrong.

Something was VERY wrong.

He hadn't necessarily been sleeping. Unconscious was more likely. He had never slept in his life. He had, however, been knocked unconscious before. But still, if he had been knocked out by someone, he should find the culprit-

"Master?"

The young irken looked up from his desk drowsily. His eyes glazed over and a trail of green blood dripping down the side of his head.

"Whatisit?" He slurred annoyed. "Can't you see I'm...thinking?"

"It is almost time for skool." The computer pronounced in a bored tone. "I was wondering if you were ever going to wake up."

Zim scoffed and wanted to snap back at the machine, but decided against it. He didn't feel like arguing this early in the morning.
Or at least he thought it was morning.

The alien rubbed at his eyes, feeling the familiar click of his human contacts. Great...not only had he slept, he had slept with his contacts on.

Zim got up from his work desk. The desk was covered in various papers and blueprints showing his ideas for new ingenious plans. His green blood had dripped onto the top paper. His wig lay on top of the mess like a dead animal.

A sharp stab of pain came to his head causing him to momentarily lose balance. He quickly grabbed onto the desk to regain his composure.

Irk. That probably wasn't a good sign.

Zim raised a shaky hand to his head, panting slightly.
It stung as he pressed it on the wound causing him to hiss in pain. As he removed the hand he noticed his glove was gone, which was odd. He almost never took off his gloves.

"Er, Computer?" Zim asked, still looking at his bloodied hand.

"Yes?"

"Uh, What happened last night?" The irken almost whispered.

The computer hesitated for a moment. "Er...How should I know?"

That snapped the irken out of his drowsy trance. He glared up at the ceiling. "What do you mean 'how should I know'? You're the security system!"

"I was busy." It retorted.

Zim scowled. "Busy doing what exactly?"

"O-oh, you know...computer things."

"Being a security system is your whole job!"

"Uh...well. Your job is to take over the planet and you haven't done that yet either!" The computer stammered back.

Zim stood there slack jawed for a second, too dumbfounded that the computer would say something like that.

He must have been asleep still. That was it. He would wake up soon. His computer wasn't talking blasphemous lies. He wasn't bleeding. Everything was fine.

However, the sharp pain his head told him that this was, in fact, the real world and he wasn't dreaming.

Zim's antennae laid flat down to his head in anger. "WHAT!" He snarled, his hands balling up into fists.

"Uh-Uh..." The computer's disk drive whirred, processing an excuse.

"Just-never mind." Zim hissed throwing his disheveled wig onto his head and starting towards the elevator. "Obviously you're broken. I'll fix you when I get back from skool."

The computer seemed to sigh in relief. Tallest, what a strange device.

Zim stepped into the elevator and shivered as cold metal met bare skin. He looked down at his clawed toes. He had taken off his shoes too?

Zim shook his head and pressed a button on the elevator's wall. The lift started whirring softly and he ascended.

It took him some time to get to the desired room since he was in the lowest room of his base. But eventually the elevator gave a cheerful ding and the doors opened. He wasn't going to the surface just yet. He wanted to fix the gash in the side of his head first. If he didn't he was sure Dib would never let him hear the end of it.

Irk he could imagine it now 'hey Zim, what's with your head? You're up to something I know it! Another one of your experiments gone wrong? Blah blah blah…'

Just thinking about it gave him a headache. He walked into the small storage room. It was the only part of the base that had what you humans would call a 'bathroom'. Except the bathroom was more like a closet with a mirror and a sink with irken water flowing out of it. His base purified Earth's water and transformed it into irken water, leaving him with an unlimited supply.

Zim stomped through the door and fumbled for the light. He hissed as he turned the switch; the blinding light meeting his already sore eyes. It took a few seconds for his ocular implants to adjust and he could see again.

The invader groaned at the sight of his wound. It looked fairly deep and it was already clear that it would leave a scar for a few years or so.

He spent a while cleaning it. He didn't want any nasty earth germs getting into it and infecting it. That was the last thing he needed. Once the wound was relatively clean and had stopped bleeding, he set down the towel he had been using and moved onto his wig.

The wig was a mess. It looked like someone had chewed on it. Well knowing his luck, Gir and Minimoose probably had. He fluffed it up a bit to his liking before placing it over his antennae. The whole cleaning process had made him feel more awake. His head felt a little clearer. However, he still couldn't remember what had gone on the night before. Come to think of it…he couldn't remember much from yesterday at all. Just little blurbs. Ah well, it would come back to him eventually. Maybe he wasn't as awake as he though? Probably…

Zim decided to take off his contacts until he had to leave for skool though. They were stinging pretty badly. He went to put them on the corner of the sink when something caught his eye.

Zim raised an antenna in interest. On the floor there were his black gloves.

How strange…

The young irken stuffed his contacts in his pak and picked up the gloves. He quickly slipped them over his hands. Each of the fingers, he noticed, had been torn out, showing off his claws. A sticky red liquid caked the border of the tears. That's when he noticed that the floor was splattered in some of the sticky red stuff. Not too much, but still pretty weird.

Zim shrugged, figuring Gir had spilled something on the gloves and tried to eat them. You never know what Gir tries to eat.

Finally he was ready. He turned off the lights and headed out into the storage room again. He grabbed the handle to the door to close…oh…wow…

The outside of the door was covered in deep slash marks. It looked like someone had taken a knife and started hacking away at it. But the marks were too deep and wide to have been made by a knife.

Zim ran his finger through the nearest mark. What could have done that? Gir wasn't that strong…or smart. He couldn't have made these marks. Neither could Minimoose. The computer could have maybe.

And the computer had been acting weird this morning…

That must have been it.

Zim inhaled suddenly out of breath. His heart was pounding and he was panting relatively fast. His body made him back away from the door.

What on irk was going on?

"HI YEAH MASTAH!" A shrill voice pierced through the silence and pretty much scarred Zim to death.

Zim popped up on his mechanical spider legs by instinct but because of the rapid motion they couldn't get a good grip on the floor. He ended of slipping and falling on to his back with a thud.

"Woops…"

Zim stared angrily up into two glowing cyan eyes. "Giiiiiiiir! How many times have I told you not to sneak up on Zim?"

"Hmm! Let me think! Uh…CHICKEN?"

Zim sighed and propped himself back onto his feet with his spider legs. Then he let them slip back inside his pak.

He dusted himself off and held his head up high, glaring down at the little robot who sat with his legs crossed below his master. "Gir."

"YES!" He answered gleefully.

"What are you doing down here?" Zim started walking towards the elevator, motioning to Gir to follow.

Gir squeezed one eye shut and tilted his head, as if the question was too complex for him to handle. "Uh, yous told me to remember."

"Zim did no such thing." Zim swallowed, suddenly feeling his throat go dry.

The robot got up and started to follow. "Ya-huh. Of course you did silly muffin."

"Oh, then what did I say?" Zim stepped into the elevator with Gir.

"You told me not to say or I couldn't have no more barbeques in the living room." Gir stuck out his tongue.

"Gir." Zim pressed. "If I said something last night, I need to know what."

Gir made a zipping motion on his mouth. "Nu uh."

The alien sighed. He would have to ask later. Gir usually was easily willed into anything, but he seemed unlikely to give up the information.

Why was all his technology acting up today?

Finally the elevator came to a halt and Zim climbed out of the toilet, soon followed by his robot minion.

Gir went running off into the living room squealing about something or another. Zim just shook his head and followed behind.

Giving a quick glance at the time on the kitchen clock, he decided it was about time to head out. He didn't want to be late to class again…not after last time. Ugh, Mrs. Bitters could be nasty sometimes. She could put any Vortian in a mental hospital.

However, he was still missing his shoes. "Hey Gir."

"YEASH!" Gir was now situated upside down on the couch gazing at the TV in awe.

Zim stepped in his line of vision in order to gain his attention. Gir gave his master a sad look. "Why you no let me watch TV?"

Zim rolled his eyes. "Gir, what happened to my boots?"

Gir snuck a glance to the side of Zim. Zim just moved over a bit in order to block the view again.

Gir gave an annoyed squeal. "Moosey had them."

"Oh? And where is he now?" Zim crossed his arms.

"I dunno." The robot finally gave up trying to look at the TV and took an interest in his foot instead.

Zim let out a groan. "Computer?"

"What." It snapped rather harshly.

"Where is Minimoose?" Zim tapped his foot. It shouldn't have been this complicated to find his boots.

"Behind the couch."

"Why would he be-ugh, you know what! The world doesn't make sense." Zim climbed onto the cushions, pushing Gir out of the way.

"Or maybe you're just too stupid to understand it." The computer mumbled. Zim gave the ceiling a death glare before leaning over the backside of the couch.

"I'll deal with you later." Zim hissed under his breath. Too his relief Minimoose was, in fact, lying down behind the couch seemingly sleeping over Zim's boots.

Zim extended a spider leg from his pak and used it to move the tiny robot over so that he could retrieve his boots.

It took him some time to get his boots. He had a pretty bad aim. But after a while, he scooped up both shoes and was able to put them on. As he slipped his second shoe over his clawed toes, he noticed that something was covering the bottoms. Analyzing them closer he found dried mud and a few pieces of earth foliage.

Strange…he didn't remember going outside yesterday.

Zim shrugged it off, already running late. He hopped off the couch and headed for the door. "Zim is leaving." He pronounced to no one in particular.

"No one cares." The computer responded as on cue.

Zim gave the machine one last glare before closing the door and leaving for skool.

A/N: Sorry if this chapter was a little dull, it'll pick up pretty soon :) hope you liked it so far