Zim sat in his chair and stared at the monitor in front of him, reading the Irken symbols as his worst fears were realized. It had been a whole year since he had found out that his old masters, the Almighty Tallest, had sent him to Earth as a way of banishment. Four years in their service, four years of trying to gain their favor, and this is what he gets. But now was not the time to think of such hardships. After getting to know some of the humans of this world, Zim began to grow fond of his new home. Soon he began to act and sound like a human.
Zim looked over his hands at the two strands of DNA that was on one of the monitors, still surprised at what he was seeing. Both strands, one human, the other Irken, were so alike that it appeared that humans and Irkens where compatible. "This isn't good." He said to no one in particular. He was expecting them to be similar, but not by this much. Realizing what he had to do, Zim called his faithful, yet dim witted servant. "GIR!" He yelled, and just as he did, a small robot fell from a high place on to its face. When it jumped to its feet, eyes glowing red, it saluted Zim. "GIR, we have a problem," Zim got out of his chair and walked up to GIR who, as Zim talked to him, eyes began to turn from red to teal.
"Oh no." GIR said with a frown. "You found a bad thing in you."
"No GIR." Zim said not wanting to know what he meant by that. He pointed to the monitors as he continued, "As you can clearly see, this is the problem."
"What are they?" GIR said excitedly.
"They are two strands of..." Zim began only to be interrupted by GIR.
"What are they?"
"Two strands of..."
"What are they?"
"Two strands of DNA!" He said finally. As soon as he was sure GIR stopped talking, he continued. "As you can clearly see, the two strands look similar. Except for this piece," he points to a small fragment of both strands, "these parts are what effects appearance. Do you know what this means?" GIR thought for a moment, trying to understand things, only to smile and shook his head. "It means that if the Tallest were to get their hands on this information, they would turn Earth into a breeding farm."
"Is that good or bad?" GIR was genuinely confused.
"Bad GIR, very bad." Zim turned back to his little servant. "This planet is our home, and I refuse to let those tall freaks take away our home." Walking up to the computer, Zim pushed a few buttons and had the data placed into a human portable storage device called a USB flash drive. When the download was complete, Zim erased the data from his computer completely. Taking the drive in his hand, Zim knew only one person that he could trust with this information. Too bad that person wanted to reveal Zim's true identity. Knowing he had no other option, Zim began to leave his lab. "Come GIR. We must go and talk to the only human who can help us."
"Who's that?" GIR asked as he caught up to his master.
Zim didn't know if he would regret it, but right now it was his only choice. "We're going to see Dib."
Gaz Membrane sat on the couch in the living room of her house, playing online with a group of friends she had against some noob kids who she didn't even know. Even though she was pwning all of them, she was still a little preoccupied. It had been three months since she had kissed Zim, and she had wondered if it was too soon. She knew that Zim wasn't human. As a kid she thought he was just plain weird. But when she just started middle-school, she had come to school earlier then she thought, and saw him standing behind the building without his wig and contact lenses. It was a surprise to her to find out that her idiotic brother was right. But what surprised her more was how she couldn't stop thinking about it. She stopped just as a bullet whizzed by her game avatar's head. "Who the hell did that?" She almost yelled into her headset. Hearing someone snickering, possibly the kid who tried to snipe her, she switched her character's weapons from her trusty battle rifle to her rocket launcher. Aiming it towards where the bullet came from, she smiled and said, "Hasta la Vista, you son of a bitch." After she fired, the voice began to repeatedly shout, "Oh shit!" And just before the rocket hit home, someone knocked on the front door. "Door," she yelled over the sound of the explosion. Soon her dad, Professor Membrane, came walking into the living room.
Opening the door, Professor Membrane spoke in his usual powerful tone. "Greetings. How may I help you?" Gaz didn't hear who it was due to the fact the person was talking quietly, but she didn't care. She was busying herself by hunting down the kid who tried to kill her. "Dib!" Professor Membrane called up the stairs. "One of your friends from school is here to talk to you."
Gaz turned to look at her dad and said in a matter-of-fact tone, "Dib doesn't have any friends..." It was then that her voice failed her. Standing in the middle of the entryway, was Zim and that little, green robot-dog he called GIR. "Zim?" She couldn't hold back the surprise in her voice. Her attention was pulled away from him when her team kept calling her name. "Sorry guys, something's come up." They all let out a moan of grief. "Good luck, and gang up on that noob that tried to snipe me." As soon as they answered, she turned off the game console and turned back to Zim. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm here to see your brother." He replied simply, trying to avoid eye contact with her, the memory of Gaz's kiss still fresh in his head. "I have something that I need him to see."
"I see." Gaz didn't mean to sound let down. It's just she hoped that he came to see her. But at the same time, she was glad to hear that he wasn't here for her. Knowing that she needed to say something, she tried to bring up what happened the day before summer. "Listen Zim," Gaz said after a minute of silence, "I was wondering if we could talk about what happened that day. You know," her face began to turn red, "when we kissed." Before Zim could answer, his name was shouted from the top of the stairs.
"ZIM!" Turning to the stairs, Zim saw Dib standing there with a surprised look on his face. "What are you doing here?"
Zim put his hands up as a gesture of peace. "I'm only here to talk, Dib," he said, "nothing more."
"Talk about what?" Zim, cautiously, pulled the flash drive out of his pocket, and handed it to Dib. "What is this?" Dib asked.
"Quite possibly," Zim explained, "something that would make this planet valuable to the Tallest." Zim saw the suspicion that was plastered on Dib's face. "Look, I'm not gonna deceive you, okay? If I wanted to, I would fail miserably."
Hesitantly, Dib took the flash drive from Zim's hand, walked over to his computer, plugged it in and opens the only file on the device. Staring at what was before him, Zim, GIR, and Gaz came up behind him. Gaz, looking over her brother's shoulder, spoke first. "And what exactly are we looking at?"
"They appear to be two strands of DNA." Dib answered before turning to Zim and asking, "Human?"
"Only one is," Zim replied, "the other's Irken."
"Seriously," Dib practically shouted. "But they're so similar. How can you tell the difference?"
"The gene that effects appearance is different." Zim pointed to the screen as he said this.
Seeing her brother's surprised expression, Gaz spoke up again. "And this means what exactly?"
"Humans and Irkens are compatible," Dib replied in a stunned voice.
"Again," Gaz's voice was edged with annoyance, "what does that mean?"
Zim and Dib just looked at each other. With a red face, Dib spoke first. "You wanna take this one?" He asked.
"She's your sister," Zim replied, "you should tell her." Crossing her arms, she glared at Zim, who, with a sigh, continued. "This means," his face grew red, which was a strange sight with his green face, as he tried to think of what to say next, "humans and Irkens can have children together."
At that moment, Gaz's face turned a bright red. "Wow," she looked away, trying not to look Zim in the eyes, "so if you and I were to..." She didn't even try to finish what she was saying for both Dib and Zim to understand what she was thinking.
Dib just waved the thought away. "Like that would ever happen." Dib said as he turned back to his computer. Zim looked at Gaz, his face just as red. Soon his eyes wandered to her lips, the memory of the kiss they shared still fresh in his head. Suddenly, and luckily, Dib snapped Zim out his thought process. "Right?" He looked at Zim with a look of warning.
"Uh, right," Zim said, his face so red that you could have sworn that he wasn't green, "probably won't happened." Just then, a thought crossed his mind. A thought that Zim could use against Dib. Smirking his way, Zim continued. "You know, this also means you and Tak can have kids, too."
Dib's eyes shot open as his face grew red. "Wait a minute," he practically shouted, "there's nothing between me and Tak. Nothing!" Zim began to laugh at Dib's outburst, which allowed Gaz to laugh. "Tell him, Gaz!" Dib pleaded with her.
"Right," Gaz laughed, "if there's nothing going on, what do you do in the shower so early in the morning?"
"I condition my hair!" He replied, pointing to his hair, which made Zim and Gaz laugh even harder.
"You know," Zim said, trying to stifle his laughter, "I've heard that too much conditioning can make a guy go blind." It was at that point that Gaz was rolling on the floor, clutching her sides, while Dib's face turned a deeper red. As Zim and Gaz laughed at Dib's embarrassment, they were unaware of a lone ship in Earth's orbit. This ship, though of Irken design, was neither part of the Irken Empire nor the Resistance. It belonged to someone the Tallest thought had died during the first Operation Impending Doom, his name was Rok. Sitting in his captain's chair, this being, once known as the greatest Irken Elite in the empire, ran his plan through his mind once more, hammering out the details so that it would go through smoothly. However, the only unknown variable that would cause a problem was the competence of a single Irken that, from what he had heard had given up on serving the Tallest.
"Omega," he called out to his SIR unit, a dark armored robot with blood red eyes. "Has all the necessary preparations been made?"
"Yes sir," Omega said in an uncharacteristically deep voice compared to its small frame. "The Grand Federation has made contact with their human contacts."
"Are they aware of the reason of our arrival?" The Irken asked.
"The Federation's Commander informed them that they are on a need to know basis." Omega replied. "All they know is that you are here to meet with a contact of yours that is posing as a high school student."
"And do they know how he is?" This was Rok's final question. One that he had hoped would make his job easier.
"Negative," Omega said, relieving Rok of his worries. "The Federation's human contacts know nothing of the identity of your contact."
"Good," Rok smiled, something he rarely did, "if it all works out according to plan, the Irken Empire will be no more." Rok snickered before continuing. "After all, all empires must fall anyway."
