Disclaimer: I don't own Invader Zim, Zim merchandise, props or characters. I do, however, own 'Zergarikiaka' and an infinite supply of coffee and the likes. Fan art I have no problem with, but no character thievery!

Ch.1 - The Conspiracy

Location: Planet Convencia

The Tallests are seen hovering above a platform in the center of a small arena fixed in the center of a massive meeting hall, and are surrounded by the masses of invaders publicly invited to this special meeting. A special assignment was being publicly assigned to a particular individual who, as far as anyone knew, would have to be either quite skilled or tall… or simply a short invader being sent off somewhere to be disposed of which could be laughed at by the bulk of the empire. Everyone in the assembled crowd was on the edge of their seats, despite the fact that there was none to sit in. The traditional lasers begin to fire down, illuminating the stadium as a solemn looking figure walks out of a narrow hallway, smoke following in the figures path.

Once the mysterious figure is on stage a floating screen activates showing a better view of this individual. It stands at the height of 6'4, at least, so it is almost as tall as the Tallests themselves. Dispite the better view offered by the floating screens, it's identity remained camoflaged by the slowly thinning smoke. In theory, a meeting such as this could have gone well without smokescreens and lasers, but who were the Tallests to be low key?

Soon after the first figure came onto the platform, two SIR units follow and stand at their masters sides. One SIR unit is colored black where most SIR units are red, and its head seems to have been customized to have a reptilian appearance. The second SIR unit is a normal looking one, except, it has long claws jutting out of its hands and is has horn-shaped antennae on the sides of its head.

Tallest Purple is the first to speak, as the lasers fade away and the smoke clears to a managable point.

"Zergarikiaka."

And with only the mention of that complicated name, the audience roars in applause. Purple pauses for a minute to wait until the applause dies down. The irken on stage bows sightly and looks up at the Tallests. A camera floats behind the Tallests, revealing the only slightly feminine face of the irken woman on screen, and further displaying claws on her right hand that appear to have torn threw her gloves, reaching a length of eight inches, four long spikes composed of what had once been spider legs from her Pak, and three poking out of a metal bar around her left arm. Zerg's focused gold eyes lock on to Purple, showing a severe lack of desire for details or patience for boring conversations. How this could qualify as boring however remained a mystery, in the presence of the majestic rulers and coordinators for Operation Impending Doom II.

"You may be wondering why we called you here today."

"Make this quick, alright"

"Fine... We know that you have been trained some time ago under the authority of Syrenn, by order from the former Tallest, Miyuki."

"... Continue"

"We need you to go out to a slightly distant planet; Earth. There you will undoubtedly find your target, Invader Zim."

An image of Zim appeared behind the trio before the crowd, along with a portrait of the planet Earth, with a dramatic arrow painted over the planet with the word "earth" written in red irken text. A random irken in the back of the crowd cheers then shies back into the crowd. The audience falls silent for a moment, some Irkens talk quietly among themselves. A few other invaders applaud, especially those who were on Irk when Zim attacked the place by mistake many years ago. The image begins to rotate along the edges of the arena, positioning itself so everyone in the audience would be able to see it.

"You will head to Earth, and find Zim. Appear to be on his side, though naturally only on ours. We want you to make him think he's worth more to the empire and sabotage his work on that useless planet, even make him believe he had taken that planet over, then bring him back to Irk." Purple paused. Red finishes the statement for him. "Back here, we will have you do you real job, and end him in front of this very audience." The audience began to roar in applause, a few releasing red balloons with black irken insignias on them. Purple speaks again once the crowd calms down again.

"Something you'll need to look out for, however, is the planets most abundant resource; water. It has been discovered the substance is practically poison... It burns our skin..." Red cuts in, not wanting to be overshadowed by his co-ruler. "Or at least, the pollution in the water is. The jury really isn't out on that yet. Chances are other substances might have the same effect."

Zerg sighs, obviously bored with the details, or perhaps with the mission she had been dealt in general. Blending in with her enemies and dealing with a slow mission was never her forte. She prefers a fast, clean, victory in most all cases.

"How much will you pay for this mission, and what shall I do with the planet?"

"You can name your price, and do with the world what you will."

A smirk spreads across the Irken's face, revealing a strikingly sharp set of fangs; Not quite as prominant as what a vampire would have, but not normal for a regular irken either.

"Good enough."

Suddenly a burst of indigo light consumes the assassin's body and she vanishes, defiantly threw means of teleportation. The Irken audience breaks into a renewed roar of applause. Red looks at purple, slightly annoyed. Purple looks confused as to why, looking at his co-ruler.

"Idiot, don't you know how much that assassins service costs?"

"No. But something tells me I'm about to find out..."

"A lot, and don't you forget it. Former Tallest Miyuki used to call on her without having to pay, but now that she's gone, that's changed completely."

Meanwhile...

Location: Earth - Smelly human suburbia - Membrane family home - dibs room

Dib had been watching monitors all day, barely moving more than twice to get a snack or got to the restroom. His eyes seem to be locked onto an image of Zim's base, where not much at all seems to be going on.

"Any minute now, he'll do something ... not... normal... and I'll catch it on film! I just know it!"

The boy dubbed insane mused to himself. He had said this same line many times today, despite the fact he was always wrong. The clock ticks behind him, eventually sounding rhythmic in the boys ears. He had begun to fall into a tired daze as he rested his abnormally large head in his arms. His strange, pointy jet-black hair hangs limply in his face as he stares, along with uncut strands of hair reaching halfway down his face, blowing some view of his glasses. It's been three years or more since Zim has arrived on Earth, and yet he still can't prove the alien-boy exists. Mysterious Mysteries thinks he is crazy, his class-mates believe he is insane, his teacher, who still is Ms. Bitters, despises him, and his sister doesn't care to listen to him, and his dad is too smart to believe in Aliens or anything of the supernatural. He has begun to wonder what the point of trying is. However, whenever he began to think that way, he would all ways be instantaneously reminded of his reason why.

Zim.

That moment, on the monitor, the large purple door that seems to have been ripped from a men's bathroom slams open, and GIR, the insistently insane robot, sprints outside without his dog disguise, screaming something about chocolate chilly beans and soy sauce. Dib snaps back into a state of awareness as this happens. Soon after, Zim runs out of the house with his disguise on, and picks GIR up by the back of the neck.

After a quick scolding, Zim drags the little child-minded robot back into the house. In excitement, Dib checks his monitor to see if that was recorded, and gawks in irritation and disbelief. Zim himself seems to have changed since he first arrived to earth, and not just in his height. He doesn't even seem to care about taking over the planet anymore, but that hasn't seemed to dawn on Dib yet.

"I don't believe it... I RAN OUT OF FILM!"

"YOUR VOICE IS STUPID!"

Dib glances at the door to his room after hearing his scary, Gothic sister Gaz yell at him from another part of the house, with one of her now trademarked lines. Dib sighs sadly and looks back at his monitor, soon after shutting it off.

"Next time... I should remember to have extra blank tapes..."

He leaves the sanctity of his room to go to the kitchen, where he just happens to see Gaz herself, merely eating some pizza and playing her GameSlave 3. She has recently started wearing spiked wristbands and a black spiked collar on her neck, making her look more gothic than ever. This was nothing out of the ordinary. Dib glances over at his creepy sister and scratches the back of his head as he tried to remember where the extra tapes were.

"Um... Gaz"

"I'm only four levels away from beating this game... You know what will happen if you disturb me or cause me to fail..."

Dib ignores Gaz's warning and continues the 'conversation'.

"Do you know where I left the spare tapes?"

"Go... Away..."

"Forg- ack!"

Dib was cut short when Gaz put her game on pause and attempted to punch him in the gut for bothering her too long. Dib managed to dodge her punch and run out of the kitchen and into the front room just in time.

"Man, I also have to remember not to mess with her on Mondays... Heh."

With a sigh Dib picked the remote off the floor. He then flopped onto the couch, head first, and put the TV on without even looking up, his thumb having memorized the code for the desired channel. Mysterious Mysteries was not going to be on for an hour yet, so he just had to wait for it to be on, and sit through the Scary Monkey show. Its been like four years since it first aired, and it's still on! "Ah well, can't be much longer until its cancelation." Dib thought as he listened to the screaming of the monkey.