Zim bit his lip, the Tallest had not been picking up his calls for several months, and much to his dismay, they hadn't made any effort to call him back either.
Zim had always been the one calling them though, so the last fact didn't bother him as much, but it still irritated him how he couldn't get in touch with the irken empire at all these past few months. had something happened? was there an attack, why did he have no knowledge of it?
He felt helpless, he hated how he felt like this, like a hopeless, filthy earth child, small and pitiful. These pathetic feelings were a show of weakness to an irken, they weren't supposed to be this needy, irkens are the most independent life forms known! Their PAKs heal them, and just minutes after birth irkens PAKs receive all irken knowledge, they don't need to learn for years or "grow up".
All the way down to their very coding in their PAKs, they were not supposed to have such feeble feelings.
But yet, Zim found himself surrounded by them, it was like being submerged in disgusting earth water, being so helpless, drowning in self pity made him feel physically sick.
He took a sharp, but shaky breath as he prepared to speak.
" Computer! Call the Tallest! " Zim commanded, his voice coming out more unsure than he'd liked.
For what felt like decades, Zims whole world was fixed on that screen, his insides screeched and clawed out in desperation, his antenna twitched with every passing second, waiting, hoping.
The screen flashed with colour, almost making Zim chirp with glee, but he but back his squeak, trying to appear as unphased as possible. This has not affected me, see? I'm perfectly fine without having contact with you. He tried to calm his mind, he did not need the tallest figuring out he was so nervous.
"My allmighty Tallest! '' Zim vowed, respectfully saluting to the two irkens that glared at him through the screen.
"I can't help but notice it's been a whi-"
"I'm gonna stop you right there, " Tallest Red interrupted, his tone annoyed and irritated.
Zims antenna twitched at the sudden cut in, and he held back the words that so desperately wanted to flow out of his mouth.
"Zim, this has gone on long enough" Tallest Red continued, drawn out and sighed.
"What do you mean, my Allmighty Tallest? " Zim tried, though something inside him squirmed, as if to already know what they'd ment.
"Your mission, Zim. " Tallest Purple clarified, glaring at him, looking as if they wanted to erase Zim from existence entirely.
Zims antenna perked up at the mention of his mission, was it something about his progress? He swallowed, he wasn't sure why his insides felt so nervous and dreaded, surely the Tallest wouldn't be calling him off just because his mission is taking longer then the other Invasions. This is was a top secret mission after all, it made sense that it took longer, right?
The Tallest galnced at each other,, before turning back to him and revealing in unison,
"It was a lie. "
Zim froze. His mind ran a mile a second, millions of emotions washed over him, but none seemed to actually crack through to him. It felt unreal, the pathetic way his throat seemed to close up, denying any words from trembling out of him.
"..What?" His voice finally whispered, trembled and disbelieved, it was almost just as faint as the quiet buzzing that emitted from the electronics.
The Tallest heard though.
"We never sent you on a 'Secret Mission". You weren't supposed to find a planet, you aren't apart of Impending Doom Two, Zim. You never were. " Tallest Red explained, his annoyed tone not faltering.
His antenna drooped and he begin to chuckle, nervous, pathetic chuckles.
"You guys and your jokes! " Zim chimed, desperately trying to save his delusional world.
Tallest Red growled at the shorter irken.
"We're not joking Zim! You aren't an invader, you aren't and never were apart of Impending Doom Two! You were never supposed to find a planet, you were supposed to- I don't know- Die or get lost! You weren't supposed to call us back. " Tallest Purple snapped, his voice was loud and intimidating.
He was not joking.
Zim flinched at the shout, the room filled with a burning silence as his mind processed everything. The Tallest wanted him dead. They hated him, his own leaders- No, his own people, they all hated him.
He gritted his teath in a troubled frown. They had made him waste so much time on this filthy planet, for nothing!
He shook his head in frustration, before letting out a small grunt of emotion.
"But why would you make me spend so much time here? This couldn't of all been for nothing..! " Zim argued, he didn't, he couldn't gasp this information. It made.. No sense.
"Because we didn't want you bothering us. We didn't want to deal with you near us. " Tallest Red answered blankly.
"And we're fed up with your calls too!" Tallest Purple added, and the other irken nodded in agreement.
Zim opened his mouth to speak, but his couldn't find any words to express what he wanted to say. This angry, miserable feeling was swelling inside him, brewing and bubbling madly.
"Consider this planet your new foodcourtia. "
Tallest Red said, every word dripped with annoyed venom, it made him want to scream out his vows of loyalty and cries or anger.
"No-no, no! '' Zim stumbled over his words, desperately trying to change his leaders minds, but the screen display flashed black to the same, miserable dark grey colour it was before he had called the Tallest, bold Irken words displayed over the bleak screen in pinkish red letters.
He stood there for a moment, unmoving, everything around him seemed to go in slow motion as his mind wrapped around the information.
It make him angry, how small he felt in that moment. Stupid, pathetic and feeble, unirkly feelings brimmed and drowned his insides.
Zim let out a cry of rage, crashing one of his PAK legs into the now static screen. His mind felt like it was going to burst, so many feelings swirled inside of him, he couldn't think. He just kept swinging at anything in front of him, the sharp pain of the shattering glass cutting through his gloved hands felt better than the pain that swelled inside his head.
Many angry mutters seemed to slip out of his gritted teeth as he continued his blind rampage, he didn't even know what he was saying.
He felt numb, his claws stung with distant pain, though everything seemed like a blur, just blind emotions and sounds that would've been annoyingly loud if his mind wasn't so dazed in his own mind.
"..Master? " A high pitched, robotic voice asked him, it seemed to drag Zim out of his violent trance.
Zim froze for a moment, extracting his PAK legs from one of the many things he'd destroyed with them, taking in heavy pants as he gripped himself back into reality, the pain in his now ungloved hands slowly ached into his focus, same for the headache that must've formed while in his episode.
"... Yes, GIR? " Zim answered his SIR , who was now by his side.
Zims tone, admittedly came out more raspy and exhausted then he'd expected it to, his outburst seemed to make his throat a bit horse.
"Are youu ookayyy?? " GIR asked, his words stretched out with concern, as the robot grabbed one of his master's bloodied claws.
Zim winced at the sudden sharp pain the touch brought him, making him almost pull away.
"I'm fine. " The irken replied, his voice was a bit sharper than he'd intended.
Zim glanced around at what was now more of a dumb than his lab, he noticed his eyes felt damp and heavy. Had he been crying?
"But maastas bleedin'" The little SIR unit pointed out, moving his masters claw to show him. This earned another jerked wince from the irken, the movement sending more shorts of pain through his arm.
Zim looked at the hand GIR had lifted, it was coated in bright pink irken blood, it looked shredded, he grimaced at the amount of blood before turning to his other hand, which was about the same, though the pink liquid was now dropping other his uniform and the floor, he noted that GIR was also getting pretty messy.
He snarled at the shredded claws, before turning to a now pinkly speckled GIR.
"GIR, go get the bandages. " Zim commanded, irkens heal on their own, but it'd still take a few hours for this to heal and he didn't want pools of blood everywhere.
"Yes sir! " The robot saluted, his eyes turning bright red to signal he's in duty mode. His eyes remained red as the SIR unit ran out his orders, which admittedly surprised Zim a little, as he'd normally go back to his normal teal almost immediately.
The irken sighed, his body seemed to ache now that the adrenaline had faded, he slouched down onto the cold floor and leaned on one of the walls. Surrounded by the scraps of metal he'd made when in his rampage, he felt tired.
Zim had already gotten his monthly rest needs, but even though he had, he still felt himself yearning for sleep.