Chapter 1. The nightmare beigns

He opened his eyes slowly, his body ached as he tried to move. He groaned and turned his head to his right, finding an empty landscape, the same to his left. After some minutes he managed to sit down with some difficulty, the foreign place surrounding him. It was desolated, but it seemed he had managed to escape somehow.

He felt lightheaded, his PAK started applying painkillers automatically, it would take more time though for him to be fully recovered. A flashback rushed to his memory after some minutes: a full scale war between The Massive and the armada against earthlings, he could remember seeing a lot of lasers and ships blowing up, it had been a terrible chaos, and as if it weren't enough, an overpowered human had shown himself, blowing a hole through his ship, taking all the snacks. Blowing a hole through that piece of art of technology wasn't normal, and less coming from a human, who was supposed to be primitive and feeble.

"This has to be a nightmare…" he said to himself, as fear rushed down his spine. The Massive had gone down, he could remember they were descending quickly to earth, the pilots and staff on the Massive were in full hysteria mode, he remembered their voices calling on to him, telling him he had to get out of there, before it was too late. He remembered being pulled by one of his pilots to the nearest airlock.

"You escape, my Tallest, I'm sure you'll be ok, you can glide, so it won't be such a rough fall for you"

"I shouldn't do this, pilot! I…I just can't!"

"My Tallest, you're Irk's hope, it won't do any good to us if you died here, you're our leader, and we trust you, keep our hopes up, maybe the crash won't kill us, but I don't want them filthy meat bags finding and experimenting on you"

"Where's Red?!"

"We don't know, my Tallest, but you must go"

"Then come with me!"

"No, my Tallest, your gliding is better if it only supports your weight, if I go with you, it'll be a lot more risky. Please, save yourself!"

Without waiting for a reply, the pilot had pushed him out of the airlock , they weren't that far away from the ground, and he tried to glide, it was taking him some effort since he was on free-fall, but it was working, his descent was slower and smoother. And then, The Massive crashed on the ground, sending a wave of air towards him, the impulse throwing his body farther away from the place. He remembered falling towards the ground, and then, losing consciousness from the impact. He wasn't sure how long he had lain there, but knew his spine had just healed from breaking; he had probably been out for around a day or two.

The uncertainty of the situation was making him sick. Had the massive survived the fall? It probably had, had the humans slaughtered the crew? What would they do with the ship? And most importantly, where was Red?

Purple recalled his co-leader panicking after they had lost the snacks. It had been a strange event, but he knew Red better than anyone, and understood how he panicked when something wasn't in control. His partner loved organization, perfection and control over all things. Was Red inside the Massive too? Had he survived the fall? Was he captured by the horrible humans? He felt he was going to throw up his entire squeedly spooch, it was just too much for him, to think Red was being experimented on or tortured by them weaklings.

"I've got to find him, find help…" he tried to stand up, but stumbled down, falling on his knees. His body still needed rest, but the anxiety was killing him. Then he remembered his PAK and tried sending a signal to Red, but got nothing in return.

"Damn, my communication system is off…can it get any worse?!" he hit the ground with his fists, anger washing over him, making him even dizzier. How did it come to this? Why?

He hadn't cried in such a long while, but the impotence was overwhelming, he couldn't stop anything, he had just fallen from his perfect world, his throne on his cloud for being a Tallest. And now there he was, on the ground of a piece of dirt, vulnerable as he had never been before. Tears made their way down, nobody was there to witness it, but he still knew he was shedding them, which made him even more nauseous. He was alone, he hadn't been really alone in a while, no Red, no soldiers or invaders, advisors, even service drones.

Then in the midst of despair he remembered why they had gone to earth in the first place…Zim. After not getting any calls for Zim in a long while, they were wondering what had happened to him. Years went by without notice, Operation Impending Doom II was going smoothly, and then, a distress signal from Earth. He remembered it clearly.

"M…my tallest! It's me!"

"Zim? It's been a while, we were wondering what happened to you…" Red had responded, he looked concerned, but his reaction was probably out of curiosity, or because he needed to know everything, or it'd make him anxious.

"The Dib-stink, he got amazing powers, they captured me, I managed to escape to send this signal…they've been experimenting on me! THE GREAT ZIM! I'm sorry my tallest, but somehow that stinking Pig-smelly went out of control…Zim can't-"

"ZIM! How did you get out of the testing tube?!" a voice was heard and the signal was cut out. Everyone in the Massive's communication room was silent.

After shooing all the crew staff, Red and Purple were engaged in a heated argument, which was very rare. They used to complement each other in their ruling, not interfering with each other's orders, which had led them to the completion of Operation Impending Doom II to a 95%. They were great co rulers, even if it was the first time on Irk's history there were two tallest. They seemed to be one mind in two different bodies all the time, sometimes they even finished each other's sentences. But this time, they were almost screaming to one another, regarding Zim's transmission.

"We have to go and take Earth down!"

"Nonsense! If Zim got into that, he better get out of there alone!"

"That's not the situation now, Purple. He hadn't called us in years and suddenly he shows up telling us that, it means he can't get out alone anymore"

"Why do you care so much? He nearly killed us and our civilization multiple times!"

"We can't afford the humans to obtain information, think about it! Zim would tell them everything if they push the right buttons, heck, maybe they already know a lot!"

"Even if they did, we are galaxies away! They don't have the technology to come here!"

"What about that human with amazing powers?! What if he decides to attack us?"

"You really believe Zim!? Red, are you feeling well?! It's Zim we're talking about!"

Red huffed, narrowing his scarlet eyes into thin slits. "We are going there, it's final! You told me you'd leave the tough decisions to me, and I say we evacuate Zim, terminate with that sorry planet and send him to Foodcourtia as he should be! Letting him roam about in space was a mistake!"

"No! You are making a mistake by going there! But you're so damn stubborn when you want to be! Mark my words, this will be our doom!"

And that had been the end of the conversation, with a very upset violet eyed irken leaving the room to his own chambers.

Purple sighed, even now he wouldn't mind Red's presence, even if it had been his mistake, he had never felt so alone in a long time, but reminiscing there wouldn't take him anywhere. He knew what he had to do, he had to find the source of his problems that went by the name Zim, since he had his coordinates recorded in his PAK, he would free the little bugger and somehow, make him help Purple to recuperate the Massive…somehow, maybe Zim's base was still around, maybe that old technology would be useful. He sighed heavily, looking to the horizon, as he started walking to said coordinates reluctantly and cursing softly in his native tongue.