"Fuckin'... Head..." Gaz snarled, raising a hand to her hammering head. Whatever she was laying on was cold and dirty. Like the skool floor, she thought sarcastically, tightening her eyes. The purple-haired girl sat up, allowing her golden hues to flicker open; her surroundings were a blur. Am I in the Hi Skool? Was her immediate thought as her surroundings began to focus. It wasn't her room for certain. "Why the hell..."

      The girl stood up, feeling nauseous and weak. Her throat was parched and burned with every breath she took. Gaz made her way into the hallway, thinking of only the water fountain just around the corner. It wasn't until her thirst was quenched that the realization overcame her.

        "God.. What?" Gaz placed a finger to her aching temple, her bangs loosely moving aside. She wanted to recall everything. The last few days. The last few weeks. Running from aliens, fighting aliens, saving aliens, going to an alien planet and back... She was exhausted. Everyone had to be exhausted. Everyone.

        The click in her mind sent her bolting back to the classroom to find it empty. It was only her. There was no Gir. No Zim. No Kyt. No Dib.

     She raised her foot and thrusting it into a desk, just to send it flying back into another. Dib was gone. Her rage ignited as she lifted up the chair at the teacher's desk to throw it against the wall. Anything. She wanted to hurt anything. "Because of you he's dead!"

       She screamed over and over; louder each time, her words no longer words but infuriated cries. "Because of you I'm lost!"

"BECAUSE OF YOU!"

"My my, you showed this room it's doom. Impressive." Gaz felt the hairs on her neck raise slowly, tugging to be free of her skin, as she slowly turned around. The voice was old and raspy and familiar. The air around was ancient and sluggish and had a certain air of eeriness. That, too, was well-known. Gaz said nothing as she came face to face with the withered, bent woman. Her glasses gleaming in the sunlight streaming through the windows. "You're not hard to keep under control, though. You're just a filthy earthworm."

       Gaz took a step back, her memory slowly jogging. Filthy earthworm. The speech striking her of how similar it was to Zim. It came across, hazily, that Ari and Kyt had mentioned the encounter with Bitters. With her father. And everything after.

      The old woman's shape crippled and glitched as she became a tall Irken; silvery blue. "Your little pig friends gave themselves up. Fascinating to think that Zim doomed himself for a pathetic human child."

        Gaz remembered how that little ball of ugly, Skoodge, had set her up. He had set all of them up. She and the little Irken had been making their way to a ship, with Zim and Kyt as back up. And then he had her cornered. It became blurry as she was hustled to the ship's entrance and then Kyt and Zim came, frantic. She remembered a blow to the back of her head as everything went into darkness. And this is where she had came back to conscious.

      She didn't bother to interject, having nothing to say as nausea swept over her. She had always threatened to end Dib. And now that he was gone, she felt purposeless. The only two left to threaten were Zim and Kyt, and they were gone...  Bitter's creaky voice continued, "You will be held here until Tak's plan carries out. Until it is safe for me to return to my throne and bring upon a reign of doom!"

"You're delusional!" Gaz blurted, infuriated by how helpless she was. She grit her teeth together, trying to think; trying to pull herself together. "They'll get out! They will get out..."

"Oh, but you filthy child,"Bitters cracked a crooked-tooth grin, her eyes wide in hysteria of the prospect. "They're bound to be dead. In due time."

Gaz launched her body towards the Irk, hands reaching at her in a clawed formation. She wanted to shred to her to pieces, with her hands, her teeth, with anything that could reach the damned alien. Her body was jolted back, forced to stay where it was, forcing her to stare at that hideous creatures twisted grin. "Now now. No need for that. I will see you soon. As your ruler."

     A cackle escaped the tall Irken as she made her way down the hall, her disguise kicking into existence the moment she was out the door. Gaz felt her body go limp when she could no longer hear the delighted screeches, weak and useless. She was on the floor again for what seemed like hours.

       She felt she had gone insane at some point; Dib's voice sounded faint and unreal. Because it wasn't real anymore, she knew better.

      Gaz didn't even flinch as the nearby window shattered over her.

~~~

      It took Dib's eyes a while to adjust to the harsh sunlight around him. Or it seemed harsh to him, after not seeing it for what felt like an eternity. He slowly looked around at the untouched city; like the nightmare he had been living in(and died in) had not happened whatsoever. As if Kyt had never came. As if Zim never came. Zim. He focused on the tall purple house across the street, seemingly intact from where he stood. His legs wobbled with every step he took, threatening to lock and give up.  Dib's let himself sink to the ground when he reached the picket fence with peeling white paint, examining the house. The windows were cracked and the door was barely on its hinges. It was barely normal. The lawn was dying and the odd assortment of garden decorations were broken.

      There was dried blood on the sidewalk.

      Ari's warning about the skool reverberated through his head. He felt deranged, stumbling down the sidewalk, panic settling in his stomach. The scar where he had gotten stabbed so many months ago ached in response. He mumbled under his breath, as two younger kids ran around their front yard, "It's like nothing had ever happened..."

       It was unsettling, knowing that everyone was brainwashed into forgetting. That nearly everything stood as before. Everyone was made to forget that nearly a day ago they were hiding themselves in refugee camps... Everyone. Gaz. I have to find Gaz!

      He pushed himself to move and think. Gaz couldn't be home, could she? Their father was still estranged to them at this point. The panic made his stomach feel like it was dropping and being throwing around. He had no idea where she could be. What she would be doing... What could have happened to her. He had no idea. If Zim and Kyt were gone, she could be gone, too. "Goddamnit!"

     He spat out a chain of curses, sitting on the curb with his elbows on his knees. "What the fuck am I supposed to do?!"

       Tears collected in his eyes, bulging in his vision as they tried to escape his eyelids. He had no one to talk to and nowhere to go. He could go back to Kyt's, but Ari wasn't too friendly towards him and it would only set him back. He felt the tears reach his chin before he was even aware he was crying. Dib squeezed his eyes shut. He had to get to that damned skool. What if Gaz isn't there?

      He bit back a frustrated scream, letting it dissolve into a garble in his throat as he struggled to rise to his feet. He shuffled down the sidewalk with his hand pushing pressure on his pounding head. It felt like Dib had been walking forever; the school was only a couple of blocks away. He squinted at the horizon, watching an awkward bird rise up, it's wings unmoving.

        His feet shuffled a little faster. Gaz. No. No no no-

       "NO!" He cried out. What if she's gone? What if they killed her? What if they killed any of them? Kyt? Gir? Even Zim? He forces his wobbling legs to break into a light jog. The skool was so close. All that was running in his mind was the pool of blood, dried and lifeless just like he should've been. How he should be currently. How Zim could be. How Gir could be. How Gaz could be. How Kyt could be.

        It was driving him insane as the skool, oddly abandoned, loomed before him. It was just as dreadful as when he had to go in there for classes he would be bullied in. If not even more dreadful empty, holding uncertainty. He forced himself up the steps, wiping filthy sweat off his forehead with his black lab jacket. The door was locked. He slammed his fist on the door, resting his head against the window, "Fuck!"

    Calm down, calm down, calm, Dib... He took in several breathes, waiting for the pain in his head and stomach to subside. Dib stood straight looking up through window on the door and slowly went down the stairs. He knew he should spare himself the time as he peered into ever window, it was hopeless and yet....

       "Gaz!" He cried out, his eyes filling with tears. She was there. Right before him. He hit the window, calling her name, trying to get her up. "Gaz! Please! Gaz!"

          He watched her shake her head, her eyes fixated on the flickering fluorescent lights of the skool. It struck him then, that he was literally dead to her. Dib took a step back, eyes searching the school grounds and the area surrounding him. There was a bat lying by the chain link fence, where all the kids left the broken equipment to be weathered away. It felt heavy in his cold hands as he trudged back to the window of Bitter's room. Stared inside as he raised the bat.

       He could almost see Zim entering the room, much smaller, much different. He could see himself accusing Zim of being what he was. He could see Kyt walking in for the first time, her ghostly hair wavering around her. He could see everything shatter with the glass as he struck at it.

          Gaz could hardly move as he poked his head in from the other side and he had no other words than a choked, "Hello."