Zim opened his eyes, but a sudden excruciating pain overwhelmed him, and closed them again. There was something in around his eyes though; he felt it when he brushed his hand against it. It was sore and . . .

He scanned the room he was in. It was dark, but light enough for him to see a little bit. There was a musty and putrid smell that danced across his nostrils. A
liquid seemed to cover the ground. He reached and felt for the nearest puddle. He hoped it wasn't human urine. He pulled his hand to where he could see it. It
was worse: Irken blood.

Dirt covered the ground, while rats, spiders, and any other disgusting creature that exists mad their habitation there. The gray bricks of the walls were splashed with blood and cobwebs hung from each corner. There were thick gray bars surrounding him and he was lying down on some hay with a crap hole in the corner of the room. There was a cracked filthy bowl of
polluted water in front of him with a broken plate beside it with ants crawling over moldy crumbs. There was mirror on the wall so he decided to glance into it and-

He screamed, seeing someone he did not recognize. This Irken was much older than he was. This Irken's face was beat up, with black eyes and scars across his face. Traces of Irken blood and tears were plastered against his face. There were scars, scratches, bruises, and wounds all across his body. His Invader clothes were torn and filthy with his boots and gloves worn out. His red eyes, though still red were different; they seemed to be filled with so much weakness.

But it was him! Every little part! But how did he become to be in such a wreck? He put his hands on his face, trying to recognize it.

It finally hit him. He was in a prison. But how? How was he captured? What had he done?

There was a window near the top of the wall. One not that big, but nevertheless, a window. There were bars that stopped him from sticking his head out all the way. He looked outside. He froze. He was on a tower. A
HIGH tower. He had never been afraid of heights, but he couldn't breathe. The once light and frolicking Earth had changed. It was dark and gloomy, and nothing was close to "frolicking". The trees, the trees that were left, were bare and dead. Grass was left to straw and crab grass and weeds. Gray smoke surrounded the once beautiful Earth.

Zim felt unusually cold and felt a slight chill as the brown wooden door on the other side of the room began to open.

"How's my prisoner?" Said a chilling, but familiar voice. A girl of maybe 20 came into view. She had long violet hair that ran to her shoulders. She wore a
black skirt with black boots. She wore a purple vest over a black shirt. A skull amulet hung around her neck. She neared the jail door with a key, and began
to open the door.

Zim backed up, frantically trying to find a way to escape. "Who are you? What do you want?" He demanded.

She laughed an eerily triumphant laugh. "Did we hit ou too hard last night? Or are you trying to trick me?"

Zim, too afraid to do anything meekly just stared into er mesmerizing eyes that chilled every bone in his body.

"Zim, Zim, Zim. Do you need me to explain everything again?" She laughed again.

"Unless there is a part that pains you in it. I don't think we would want you to go through a little more pain." Zim smirked, trying to act like his normal self
again.

"Well I haven't heard a remark like that from you in years." She sneered, and then kicked him in the stomach. Zim doubled over in pain. "Well, maybe I do
need to refresh your memory."

She began to walk around his cell. "It was seventeen years ago since the death of my brother. I was three at the time. He was stabbed and murdered."

"Oh I'm so sad." Zim snorted. "It's called the human life. Even I know that. What has that have to do with me?"

"Well I took the knife." She pulled out a knife from her pocket. It was the same exact one Zim had sent into the Time Object Replacement Device. Zim gasped at the sight. "Look familiar?" She scorned.

"I have never seen that thing in my life." Zim lied.

"You killed him."

"I did not! I wouldn't be that weak to kill off some weaker being!"

She just glared at him. "Anyway, I swore that I would avenge him and find his killer. Make him suffer so excruciatingly. I, who was not the least bit interested in investigations had to adjust to it. It studied the knife in my brother's labs for years, trying to find out whose fingerprints were on it. I did find them, and they were inhuman. Well, about nine years passed and I was still on the killer, but no luck. Finally, I saw your spaceship in the sky one night. I looked at the symbol and it was the same exact one that was on this knife." She held the knife up. "You can just guess what happened next."

"No, I can't." Zim smirked.

"I caught you. I was on your trail the whole time and I caught you. Years passed by and things changed. The world did. Eventually, I became second in command. Everyday I made you suffer. Suffer for what you did to my brother. I won't let you die, it would be too good for you. You have to pay for what you did to my brother." She glared.

She grabbed him by the shirt and lifted him up. She threw him against the cold wall, face first. Zim's lips started to bleed and blood began to drip down. She took out a stick and beat him. Zim's cries of pain was drowned by the sounds of the busy new Earth life.

Lines of unbearable pain kissed against his back. More blood dripped down forming puddles on the ground. Zim was breathing heavily, his heartbeat growing quicker and quicker, quicker than a rabbit.

Zim leaned against the cold hard wall. Never had he felt so much pain in his life. It would be a disgrace if the Tallests saw him now. An Invader! Going through so much suffering! But that didn't matter anymore.

She stopped, satisfied to see the puddles of the blood on the ground. She clutched her amulet, and eyed Zim. "You have to pay for what you did to Dib." She whispered.

Zim, finally realized who it was. He knew he was slow, but it all struck him hard. "Gaz?" He questioned.

"You do not call me by that name anymore, Zim."

"Then what do I call you by?"

"Call me by whatever is higher than you, Alien."

"You mean, "Royal Stinkbeast"?"

Gaz slapped him. "Fine, you can call me Gaz. But do know, that "Gaz" isn't half the terror it will mean to you." Gaz hurried out of the jail. She locked the
door, and fled out the wooden door, and down the stairs, through the hallways, and to her room. She ran to her bed, crying, remember Dib, and how much she could have lost.

Zim sighed. For some reason, he did remember a time when he kind of felt this "emotion" towards her. Some unexplainable emotion that made him feel weird but lighthearted. But he knew he could never think that again. He groaned and lay down. He closed his eyes, knowing that he would probably have nightmares that night, or day, whatever the time it was.