"What was that?"

       Tak tilted her head in curiousity at Zim, making a slight gesture to her cronies. He watched the one holding Kyt; his grip on her tightening, a sick grinding of bones faintly coming from her wings. She squeezed her facial features into pain, but made no noise.

      "It's my fault!" Zim said in a compressed yell, "I did it!"

       The grip loosened on her and relief came over Kyt's face as she met his eyes, blankly. Ari spoke, his tone insistant, "What's your fault?"

       "This. All of this." Zim said, to their surprising, laughing hysterically. "Years ago, before Operation Impending Doom One, I was a trainee Invader. Doing silly trainee Invader things! I got to work in a lab..."

       Kyt looked to her brother, her brows furrowed in wonder but her eyes showed fear. She had never seen Zim so hysterical; not at this level. He was still giggling uncontrollably, his eyes no longer focused on any of them, but ahead at the ground near his head; his body still pinned down and his head back, making him seem psychotic.

       "I did plenty of experiments," he bit his lip, trying to hold back the laughter, "Soo many wonderful experiments Zim did! There was one in particular, involving a freeze ray Zim built out of ore found in our mountains."

       "Zim went to test it, and it was a success!"

      "You nearly froze over all of Irk..." One of the soldiers holding the others mumbled.

      "I froze tiny planets nearby to prove Zim's greatness! Then they came to take it... To take it from Zim and take credit!" He roared with amusement, "But I stopped them... and the thing went haywire! Can you believe it?"

      "Get to your point!" Ari barked lowly, his eyes darkening.

       Zim took a few moments to regain his breath, tears at the corners of his crimson eyes. "And.. and the massive ray that came from the explosion hit here! Zim froze over a planet of fire!"

        Kyt eyed Zim, as his laughter resumed. The gears in her mind turning as she processed his words.

         Zim froze over a planet of fire.

       "You...," she said, trying to think. It became very familiar suddenly.

        The city towering with crystalline structures. The fire falling around her; and the ashes that had been pure white, not grey. White and cold. It had fallen from the sky, slow and unworried.

       Every time flames would come upon it, it dissipated into nothing. The light snow became hail and the hail piled up at a tremendous rate. The cold it brought overtook their naturally heated bodies. A strange stiffness overcame them, their muscles holding together tightly until they could no longer move.

        Everyone around her was frozen in place, still and unmoving. She remembered being alone, until she could no longer hold herself there and fell into the same state. Empty, vast, and dark; a void to anything... The faint memory of waking up to her mother came to her, but her father wasn't there. No one else was there except her mother and Tak. Tak then never entering their life again as she grew up. She thought that had only been a figment of imagination.

         She had grown and grown like a normal human, until now. All the suffering had been an unnecessary mistake.

       "You... took everything...", Kyt stood up, the arm protruding from the Irken's Pak melting off her body. Her pale skin glimmered as she stood, distorting her figure with intense ripples. Beside her, Ari glowered at Zim, still chortling maniacally. No one noticed the smirk on the angel's lips. She took a step to him, the heat liquefying the arm around him; he rose beside her.

      "See who really is at fault here?" Tak said calmly, unpinning Zim. Zim scrambled away, his psychotic smile still plastered to his lips. She threw her finger in his direction, "Because of him, your whole race is at stake."

       Gracefully, Tak lowered her taloned hand, facing her palm upwards toward Kyt, "But join me. Make an alliance with the Irken and this will be just fine. Your race can resume life as it was."

      "Kyt... Kyt..." Dib choked out weakly, watching them from his iron bindings. His voice weak like his body. "Don't listen... He... Hadn't meant to..."

       "Look at that!" Tak spat, "The one who loves you is siding with the one who took everything from you. Leave them all, Kyt. I am the one who saved you after all, wasn't I?"

       Tak's antennaes raised in expectancy as Zim's lowered, watching Kyt. Her glowing green eyes met his duller cardinal ones; she had never seen this sort of anger towards him. This wasn't anger at all, the thought materialized in his mind- this was hatred. He moved to her, but too slowly. Her body was already moving to Tak, to her side. Her brother not far behind. Tak smiled at her rival, signaling for the Irkens to release them, "They are no threat to us. Come."

       As they walked away, Zim stayed speechless. He could feel his squeedly-spooch leaving with her steps. Long after they were gone, he made a noise. It wouldn't have made a difference whether Kyt was still there or not. It started out no more than a thought before it became screams, his voice eventually becoming distorted,"No. No. No."

       His knees came up to his chest, and his arms enveloped them.

       Gaz, Gir, and a dazed Dib observed him, when a noise escaped him; a painful sob. Gir crawled over slowly, his jacket torn and bloody. A part of his synthetic skin, peeled on his hand as he reached out to his master. "Awww. It's okay!"

       Without a word, Zim pushed his hand away, his head between his knees. Dib couldn't quite register than Zim was capable of showing emotion. That he was able to remorse an action of his. He said nothing but glanced over at Gaz.

        His sister calmly met his gaze, causing him to worry. She wasn't sure how to handle this either. Since she didn't have her Game Slave, she couldn't ignore what had happened with her fantasy world. A rare expression of concern came into play in her eyes.

        Dib closed his eyes, feeling his head dizzy and vision blur from his loss of blood. He sat against a pillar, listening to Zim's cries and Gaz's distant voice.

      "What now?"