A/N: And it's another story from me!
Sequel to 'Return to Irk' and 'Idiots Guide to Babysitting' this story revolves around Zim's half irken half human twin smeetbabies, Jenni and Larkz, who are now nearing their 16th Earth-birthday and taking their first visit to their father's home planet. But even though Zim left Skoodge in charge as Co-Tallest, things are not going well for Irk.
It's no longer a battle of Irkens vs. the Universe. The fight comes to the home planet when a civil war breaks out, Tallers vs Defects, and a 3 year old smeet, who's existence was ruined by Zim and his friends, is leading the front. Jenni and Larkz, Zim's twin children, are seeing Irk for the first time, and may be the planet's only hope.
I give you ... Daughter of the Tallest
x
x
x
x
x
Chapter 1 – Pre-departure
Jenni relished in the water rushing over pale peach skin. The soothing warmth was a wonderful change from the cold dry air of winter. Her hands ran across her body, helping the soap on its way to the drain. She turned her back to the spray so it fell down onto the top of her head and a mist flew up as the droplets scattered in all directions. It was the first morning of winter break, and no school meant she could enjoy her shower the way every teenager enjoys, but she wasn't a normal teenager.
Squirting some soap into her hand, Jenni reached up and gently massaged her antennae between her thumb and the two fingers of each hand. The sound receptors were sensitive to touch and the soft pressure on them made her whole body relax. She could have spent hours in that steam filled room, but a frantic pounding on the door roused her from her leisure. Her round solid blue eyes glared in the direction of the one that dared bother her during the first long shower she'd had in weeks.
"Jen! Are you okay!? You've been in there for almost an hour!? … Jen?!" the nob jiggled and the door rattled.
"Oh my blorch, Larkz! Can't I ever take a shower in peace!?" she yelled at the door. The attempts to get into the room ceased. Her brother's next comment was so quiet that she couldn't hear it over the rushing water. "WHAT?"
"Why do you even like that acid anyway!"
"Umm…Fuck off?" After a minute of silence, Jenni made the safe assumption that Larkz had gotten pissed off and had stormed away from the door as he did every time. If showers hadn't killed her after 16 years then they weren't suddenly going to start causing her to dissolve. A heavy annoyed sigh was her response to the next person to knock on the door.
"Jenni you're scaring your brother." It was her mom this time.
"He'll get over it."
"Maybe so but I need to do laundry today so leave some hot water behind okay?"
Jenni sighed, turned off the water and stepped around the curtain. She stood dripping on the tile floor for a moment before she reached for her towel; a big white fluffy one that she would never mistake for anyone else's; mostly because it was the only large towel in the room. The bathroom was shared between Jenni and her twin brother Larkz, but since his skin condition prevented him from showering he rarely used it. He and their father mostly used the designated waste disposal room in the lower floors of the basement lab. Jenni wrapped herself with the towel, carefully drying the outer case of that hunk of hardware on her back that Irkens can't live without, and then went back to her own room to get dressed. Today was the beginning of a big day.
The doorbell rang as she was walking down the stairs from the third floor of the house, the basement being the first (according to her dad). Kam, Jenni's mother, opened the door. "Oh Dib, aren't you early? I thought you guys weren't leaving until later tonight?"
"We're not, I just wanted to come over and give Zim a hand with the safety checks on the cruiser." Dib, Jenni and Larkz uncle came in carrying a couple suitcases that looked full to bursting. He was followed shortly by his son Waer Vos, Wes as Jenni called him, who nearly tripped on his baggy pants going through the door.
"Well Zim's in the basement doing some maintenance on the house before leaving, I'll go grab him for you." Kam stepped into the elevator to go to one of the many floors of the house, leaving Dib and Wes standing in the doorway both holding heavy boxes of metal scraps.
"Achoooo" Wes sneezed and took a step backwards, stepping on the hem of his pants once again. He fell to the ground with a crash, then grumbled a few choice Vortian swears when he stood back up. The normally greyish tone of his face was turning a vibrant shade of red around the cheeks and ears.
"Hey Uncle Dib. Hey Wes." Jenni grabbed the box from Wes and nodded towards the stairs, "if you guys are staying all day, you might as well use my room to change." Wes smiled gratefully and hurried up the stairs, tripping twice more on his way.
"Hey there Jen, and how are you today? Excited to get going?"
"Mhm."
"To tell ya the truth," her uncle said, leaning in close, "I am too!" He tilted back with a huge grin crossing his face. His shoulders hunched and shook with the effort of suppressing a delighted squeal. Uncle Dib always was a bit excitable when it came to aliens and other paranormal studies, much to his son's embarrassment.
The elevator came up, pushing the dusty pink couch out of the way, and Larkz stepped out. He looked over at his sister and uncle with his human-like pink eyes, his pupils shrunk rapidly from coming from the artificial lights of the lab up to the sunny upper floors. "Where's Wes?" his own antennae inclined with his question. His green skin contrasted greatly from Dib's, Jenni's, their mom's and every other human's on the planet, so he tended to not spend too much time around others without Wes nearby, or Jenni if nothing else.
"In my room changing."
Larkz nodded and headed up the stairs. By the time he and Wes came down the stairs, everyone else was settled at the kitchen table having the traditional waffle breakfast, cooked by the family's crazy little robot GIR, who filled up two new plates as the boys made their way over.
"FREEDOM!" Wes cheered as he stretched out his strangely jointed legs under the table. His thick jeans had been abandoned for a comfortable pair of basketball shorts. Not that Wes could ever play sports. Even during the summer he was forced to wear pants so that no one would notice the alien bend to his legs. "Sweet freedom!" his father laughed and ruffled up the boy's black hair.
"So what's the plan?"
Jenni and Larkz's father looked up from his plate with a waffle hanging halfway from his mouth. Finding that all eyes were on him, Zim quickly bit off the chunk and let the rest drop to the table, missing his plate by several inches.
"We," he said pointing at Dib, "will go over final safety checks while the kids finish packing everything into the cruiser. From there, Larkz and I will do a quick flight around the planet then if all goes well, we'll be passing Jupiter around dinner." Zim wiped some sticky syrup onto the table cloth before reaching into his pocket and tossing Dib a small Irken disc. "You can brush up on your Irken while you're at it."
"I don't need to brush up on my Irken. Kark is always switching languages on me, so I get plenty of practice."
"So when is Kark joining us anyway?" Kam interupted.
"She'll be coming around noon. She was up late last night working with a French architect."
Kark, Wes' mom was an alien, like Jenni and Larkz's father, though they were different species. Kark was from a planet called Vort, which they would be stopping at on the way to Irk. It was her, whom Wes had inherited his grey skin and annoying bone structure from. She was obsessed with languages and over the past 16 years had spent her time learning the more than 6,000 languages and dialects across the planet.
Zim stuck his snake-like tongue out in annoyance. "Kark doesn't even know Irken well enough herself. She…"
Zim was interrupted when Larkz let out a belch loud enough to silence the room. Most of the group started laughing, Wes and Jenni responded with burps of their own; Kam looked stern, Dib tried to look stern but was failing, and Zim just looked revolted. "I hope you all aren't planning to act like disgusting hyoomans while we're on Irk." Zim asked; he leaned back in his chair giving the teens a cold analytical stare.
Dib punched his arm a little less than lightly, "Twenty five years on this planet and you're still calling us disgusting."
Zim's antennae flicked forward and gave a smug smile, "Of course, Dib-stink. What else would I think of the species that you came from?" They laughed at the references to their old rivalry. So much had changed since those days. And especially during those few years after Zim had met Kam, when he managed to stop a civil war on Irk and become leader of the planet. He had brought an end to an oppressive empire and led the universe toward the path to peace.
And to think he gave that all up to come raise us on earth. Jenni sighed, wishing it would be time to leave sooner. Not that family breakfast wasn't enjoyable, but she was anxious to see a being other than her dad and brother who had antennae.
"Hello!? Anyone home!?"
"In the kitchen Kark!" Zim yelled from his seat, while Dib jumped up to greet his wife.
Dib had to basically squat in order to give her a kiss, considering the Vortian didn't even reach the height of his waist. "Thought you weren't coming until later?" Kark shrugged and went straight for the waffles, shedding her floor-length skirt along the way; She stretched her bent legs much the same way her son had when he had sat down. Dib casually pressed the button on the back of the chair, that Zim had specially made for any aliens that came to visit and the chair raised up a foot. Kark glared at him; she never liked being reminded that everything on the planet was bigger than her. Vortians may not have a height complex like Irkens but they didn't like being told they Couldn't possibly do something. She ended up taking it out on her son pointing out that he was also short by human standards. Dib was working to intervene before another argument broke out from the prideful Vortians.
Larkz stuck his fork on the stack of waffles as Gir walked by, offering more to everyone. "So who's all coming with?" He took a bite then spit it out on his plate. "Oh Grose! Dad, Gir's putting weird stuff in the mix again," he whined, pushing his plate away. Everyone else sniffed their waffles and did the same. Zim jumped up and grabbed Gir away from the waffle mix just as the little robot was about to drop a live chicken on the skillet.
"No! Gir Stop that!" Gir wiggled in Zim's arms, his legs still running in the air towards the waffle maker.
Jenni came over and took GIR from her father, and set the robot down. "No adding ingrediants Gir, Only waffle mix," she scolded.
"But! My waffles!"
"No Gir."
Gir looked sadly around at everyone in the room. Jenni reinforced the command. Gir's eyes flicked red for a second but switched back to blue; he giggled then picked up the chicken to take it back to the lab. Her mother burst out laughing.
"As always, Jenni is the only one that Gir really listens to."
Zim's eye twitched as if he might say something. It took him a minute of standing frozen like that before he shrugged and started collecting the plates from the table. He put on a thicker pair of pink gloves over top of his usual black ones and worked on washing the dishes. Kam was still laughing at how he avoided the comment but went to help him when some water splashed on his exposed arm.
"Smeets go up and start packing. Make sure you've got everything you need for the trip there. Even with the upgrades, it will still take 5 days to reach Irk."
Larkz huffed in annoyance, "it's kids, not smeets, and we're not even kids anymore Dad. We're 16."
"You're not smeets anymore once you've gotten your assignments, which since they don't do that on this planet you'll always be smeets. HA!"
Larkz and Jenni exchanged a glance but didn't argue. There was never a point in arguing with their Dad. He was often too clueless to see the truth even if you showed him the evidence. In the end they gave up and headed upstairs, with Wes right behind them.
XXX
"So when is Zim coming back?" the former-Almighty-Tallest Purple leaned back in his chair. He stared casually up at the ceiling but his antennae twitched occasionally thinking of that annoyance's return.
"They should be leaving that backwater planet in the next few hours. After that it will be a day and a half till he gets here."
"Oh good. I can't wait to see those twins again. They were so cute. Weren't they Red?"
Red ignored his counterpart's question and stared out the window at the city. "Do you think Tallest Skoodge even told them yet?"
Purple tipped his chair back onto two legs, pushing off against the conference table. "I doubt it. That shorty wouldn't want to disappoint Zim."
"He's not really that short anymore…"
"Well I'm still taller so I don't care."
"and he's your Leader."
"You know, he's still not resting? I saw him pacing the halls just last night."
Red sighed when Purple dodged acknowledging Skoodge as Almighty Tallest yet again. "I noticed. Well we'll be able to talk to Zim when he gets back. He's an idiot but he's still more likely to listen to us."
"Ha! Yeah, he's listening to us now even better than before."
"Regardless," Red said, firmly cutting off Purple's laughter, "he's got one blorch of a mess to clean up when he gets back."