While Zim sat inside of Black Star waiting for the ability to offload and join the others in celebration, and waiting for a moment to visit with the wounded, he had time to think about things. His muscles finally relaxing, he realized, as he slumped back into the cockpit chair, munching on some field ration or another, and finally put some thought towards something that had been bothering him for quite some time.

Zim had always had a hard time connecting with his Werk. His companions on Squad Sigma seemed to have much closer feelings for their Machines. Serah especially. In her mind, it seemed to Zim, that there was no doubt that her Werk was, in fact, a living, sentient thing. Not to Zim, at least not at first. How long had Zim been piloting Black Star? And he still was only just now starting to make gains in his synchronization with the machine, no... the Werk. In Zim's previous life, before the cadet training program, Zim had done a number of jobs, one amongst them was working on a Terraformer's ship where he was responsible for using a wide range of machines. Some of those machines even had pretty sophisticated A.I. systems, but despite Zim's assertions that these machines were nothing but tools, weapons, and armor. Zim had to admit that he had never experienced the kind of feedback and resistance in using the machine like he had with other equipment. 

But now? Now Zim was pretty sure that there was something more to these Werks, that there was, in fact, a type of Sentience to them that Zim had never experienced with the other machines that he had used. The voice from inside the machine. Before, Zim had thought that it was just something that failed pilot cadets had come up with as a way to spook the system. Of course, if that was the case, the military scientists would have simply disproven it and dispelled the rumors, and yet Zim had heard it himself. And that voice had haunted Zim for a long time.

The breaking point, as it were, for Zim was in the fight in Joppa. Three events took place that could not be explained, not without accepting that the Werks were more than machines. The first was the sudden psychic abilities that Elora suddenly possessed. The second was, perhaps unintentional, Paladin's take over of Arin's body. Finally, at the end of combat, Black Star made an attack that it should not have been able to do, not from that range, while simultaneously protecting Zim from harm.

So yes, now Zim did believe that Black Star and the other Werks were sentient, that they maybe even had a soul of sorts, but he still wasn't sure how that made him feel about Black Star. There were times in training simulations that this was getting in the way, the distrust of his Werk got in the way of his Synchronization and it would plummet through the basement, even resulting in a forced ejection from the simulator. So now, Zim had questions, and he doubted that Lorenzo would be keen on answering them, especially in a way that Zim would understand... if that was even possible. But he thought that perhaps his squadmates might be able to assist him with his thought process.

Zim looked around the hanger and spotted Katya talking with Ritsu. She looked in Zim and Black Star's direction. He wanted to talk to her about what went on inside with the infiltration team, about Elora and the Ace Cruxi, and about his questions about the Werks. His hand absentmindedly fiddled with the hair tie that she had loaned him. He wanted to spend time with her, it didn't matter what took up that time, as long as it was with Katya. Then his heart sunk as she seemed to embrace Arin as he helped her up from the ground. It was hard to tell from the angle and the distance, was it a hug or a moment of weakness? If it was a hug was it a celebration or was it something else... Zim's hand pulled on the hair tie now. Not enough to damage it, just enough to pull it tight against the back of his wrist. And off they went together. Zim began down a process of self-loathing and depression. 'This is stupid,' he thought to himself after a few moments of staring at the corridor the two had gone down, 'Get over it. If she didn't feel the same way, then so be it. You returned safely from Combat, give her back the hair tie and move on. Don't let this be an issue.'

His stone-faced composure returning as he felt Atty being dragged off of the top of his frame.

Once he was released from Black Star, Zim made his way to a medic on site to get approval to skip the med bay. After about ten minutes the congratulations became noise to him as he moved down the hallway. No, right now isn't the right moment to discuss this. He would find some other time to ask his companions about their thoughts. For now, he would just go and collect his own thoughts.