Well, it took me about… six months… but I'm finally over certain incidences in my life to begin fanfiction writing again.

This is a rewrite of the Invader Dee story. It's not plagiarism; I have permission of the original author to post this.

I hope the story will be just as enjoyable the second time around. I almost rated it R, but then decided that after the kind of dark prologue, it's a pretty happy, non-offensive story. So if you don't like dark, just skip onto the second chapter. No scary stuff there.

~Prologue~

3 years prior to the events that shall follow…

The heartbeat of Irk pounded loud, echoing off the metal walls and reverberating with the sound of steel. Now was the time of darkness, when all good Irkens were snuggled tight in their nests, protected from the unknown by the few unlucky guards assigned to the night shift.

The main door of the smeet-genetics lab slid open with the dry hiss of sterilized air escaping. The shadow of a curly-antennaed Irken stretched long and thing against the walls of the chamber. High-heeled boots echoed hollowly off the tiles as she slowly entered and advanced, her head held high in caution.

She jangled when she walked from rows of bangles hanging off either wrist, and another half-dozen bangles wound around her long neck. Her moderate stature was offset by the burning glow in her brilliant red eyes.

She pushed her beautiful antennae back from the sides of her face as she stood beside a wall of small green canisters. The warming green glow of the security lights sent shadows flickering across her face as she reached out with long, thin fingers and entered a code as quietly as the beeping controls made possible.

The metal front covering on one cylinder slid open. Sliding a pair of purple nitrile gloves over her own black military gloves she pulled the cylinder free from the wall. It reflected her face in a distorted manner as she turned it over in her hands.

Her name was Willow, designation Willow One. Head female smeet engineer, entrusted with the genetics of more than millions. Entrusted with selecting from those genetics to create stronger, smarter, taller smeets. Smeets willing to grow to have only one goal: do or die for the Empire.

She placed the sample into an injection tube, hoping she'd done it right. Turning on the lights to check the configuration would have given her, and all the planning she'd done, away.

The only way to save the Empire from its downward spiral was to destroy it within the parameters of its own system. That was why she found it necessary to steal the genetics of a tallest from the lab late at night.

She lifted the needle up, admiring the glow of the sharp tip. She'd always appreciated how painful or painless the Empire's needles could be, depending on how deftly they were welded. In her capable hands, she could inflict shocks of pain or the gentleness of a butterfly kiss.

She lay back on the table, holding the needle aimed directly at her vulnerability. Shuttering her eyes, she pressed down hard on the syringe. She winced as she felt the foreign DNA entering her body to join with the egg she'd cultivated and implanted within herself.

It was all for the good of Empire, she repeated once more in her mind as she slowly slid off the metal table. The empty genetics canister rolled across the floor. She started for the door, then paused. They'd know what she'd done, sure enough, but not until she'd escaped. It didn't matter if she left the trash on the floor or not…

She got as far as the doorframe before the "don't litter" part of her mind threatened to snap. She rushed back, grasping the canister and throwing it in a biohazard trash basket. Then, sighing in relief, she ran for the doors. Now, to get away from the Empire before anyone found out what she had done. She only had to make it to the docking bays and she'd be free to carry out her plans.

The doors snapped shut centimeters in front off her face. She collided with them, crying out in agony from the sudden impact. She fell backwards, lying on her side in the fetal position, nursing her bruised right arm. The lights flashed on an off in a brilliant display, like a strobe light. Sitting up and holding her injured eye, she watched without any hint of emotion as five guards entered the room, lasers drawn and aimed directly at her chest.

The red spots of the target aims danced across her chest and her forehead. She looked at the guards; they looked at her. She debated grabbing the flame-thrower off the wall and making a run for it, but she knew the chances of escaping from hundreds of guards with her life were virtually nil.

"For a moment, I thought you'd repented. But you only went back to throw the trash away. You disappoint me, Willow," Raine, the only Irken in the smeet-engineering business who stood above her, commented dryly as he swept into the room, his antennae pressed back against his head in irritation.

"How long you been watching me, Raine?" she asked, crossing her legs and drawing them up so she could rest her arms on them. "And why didn't you stop me before I injected the genetics? You could have stopped me then."

"Before you did that, you were acting within your legal rights. You do work here, after all. But stealing genetics… and implanting them within yourself… Willow, what were you thinking? Are you trying to throw everything you've done out the window?"

She shrugged. "A life without taking chances ain't worth living. So you gonna shoot me or not?"

He shook his head slowly, his eyes hidden from her by shadows. She hated that. She couldn't read his expression and try to know what he was thinking. "Your skills and abilities are far too valuable to put a hole in your pretty little chest, and throwing you into space would kill the smeet as well, should you have had the devil's luck and succeeded in fertilizing one of your own eggs. No, I have a far more… special… punishment in mind for you."

"The embryo will be harvested from your body and grown in the nutrient chambers with the others. I know you suspected that much. But as for what will happen to you personally," he paused, then reached out and grabbed her curled antennae in his fist, admiring their smooth, even texture.

"You've always been vain, haven't you, my precious Willow? I think five years in suspended animation will teach you to think before you act."

She lunged forward, slamming the roundness of her skull directly into Raine's midsection. He fell backwards with a cry of surprise as the guards rushed forwards and restrained her arms behind her back. "So, your intention is to split my antennae? Dry out my skin? Steal the shine from my eyes. Take away my beauty, my vanity? I should have suspected you to do that, Raine. You can't stand anything beautiful that isn't yours."

He wiped a drop of saliva from the corner of his mouth, dislodged by the surprise of the impact. "When they take you out of the sleep chamber, you'll be lucky if a blind Irken considers you pretty."

"Yes, I am vain, aren't I? But I'd rather be ugly on the outside than have an ugly soul like yours."

"Get her out of here!" Raine ordered, not looking at her face as she was dragged off. He didn't have to in order to know she was leering at him. Even caught and about to be punished by the loss of five years of her life and the source of her vanity, she still won. She always won.

That, more than her elusive beauty, was the reason he hated her.