A/N: Alright, so here's the deal: this is going to be an experiement.

This is just my second fanfic so far, and for the most part it is going to be the history and events leading to my other fanfic 'The Conspiracy' 170 years in the future. You can follow along with the story as a stand-alone piece, but I highly recomend that you also keep up to date with The Conspiracy (and the sequels to come) because the two are really meant to stand together for a more in-depth story.

And so, I present to you the cataclysm that smashed two worlds together.
The disaster that shook the galaxy to its core.
I give you,

The Purge


DISCLAIMER: I do not own or claim to own Invader Zim in any way, the copyright goes to Jhonen Vasquez and Nickelodeon


The multitude of displays dividing the three colossal monitors show hundreds of scenes. A few displayed families sitting at home comfortably watching TV together on a couch, some showed similar families in domestic disputes ending in physical violence. Many screens showed the inner workings of factories, offices, intelligence facilities, and a very select few were even showing the going-ons inside of the Membrane Labs.

One of the many screens displayed the home of the Membrane family, where Gaz sat on the couch viciously slaying vampire piggies on her Game Slave 2. She was playing Vampire Piggy Hunter, one of her classic favorites. The screen beside the one showing gaz was of the garage housing Tak's ship. Very bright, blue flickering light bathed the wall behind the ship as Dib was no doubt modifying the structure of the nearly restored custom-job cobbled together with scrap metal into a state-of-the-art vessel.

The sun was setting and the hundreds of subjects on the displays were winding down for the night. Many of the screens darkened as the lights were being turned off and the inhabitants of the city all started going to bed.

Zim sat in the chair facing the monitors, slouching with his arms hanging over the edges. His eyes were half closed as he blankly stared at the monitors, not watching any single screen in particular. Five years had passed since he arrived on Earth on his supposed 'secret mission' issued by the Tallest, and four years have passed since Zim finally stopped denying the truth that he was exiled. He bitterly regrets believing their lies, when at the time he refused to believe the nay-sayers of his people.

On two different occasions, irkens hell-bent on completing their vendetta against Zim have informed him that his mission was fake, and both times Zim believed them to be spouting blatant lies.

For the first year after coming to terms with the realization, Zim was crushed. He was dead inside. On a few occasions, he very nearly died of starvation because of a perpetual state of apathy. His mission was everything, it was his only reason for living. He truly thought himself to be an Invader, one of the greats, second only to the Tallest themselves. He had no reason to live anymore, so for several months he did nothing but mope around the base and just barely stay over the edge of keeping himself alive.

After that much time had passed without so much as a peep from Zim, Dib's paranoia peaked, and he took action. That long without going to skool or trying to plague the city with mutant rats? Never a good sign in Dib's book. For a few days he staked out his house, watching from the outside for anything out of the ordinary. When nothing happened, he worked up the courage to go inside to drag Zim out if necessary and thwart whatever diabolic scheme he was hatching.

He wore the stealth suit he used once before to infiltrate the base, and sneakily approached the front door. After nothing happened, he walked up to the door itself. Not even the gnome sentries paid him any heed, so he walked in. The inside of the base was in shambles from neglect and Gir was simply sitting on the couch watching the Angry Monkey show on the cracked flat-screen display. Gir only waved at Dib as he entered and returned his attention to the show. Dib squinted one eye as he passed and he removed the mask, seeing no need for it. He used the only entrance into the lower base he knew of in the trash can and descended into Zim's lair.

He wandered around the base snapping pictures with his camera until he came upon the room with the three giant displays. Then as now, the screens show hundreds of different places with hidden cameras and spybots. Dib marvelled at the sight, scrolling his vision from left to right until he noticed that the chair in the middle of the room wasn't empty.

"Ah! Zim!" he screeched and jumped back, covering his face while expecting to be jumped by Zim and ejected from the base. Instead, Zim simply sat there with the same deadpan expression. Dib slowly lowered his guard and approached the alien slouched in the chair. He looked horrible, his eyes were sunk in with dark rings surrounding them. His skin was more pale, and his body was boney and skinny form malnutrition. Dib had a puzzled expression as he walked next to him and still got no rise out of the supposed 'mighty Irken Invader' he still thought Zim to be. "Um... Zim?" he asked, with a small amount of concern in his voice.

Zim's eyes slowly drifted to lazily meet Dib. Until that moment, his mind was just static, not really paying attention to anything. "Dib-..." he didn't know what title to give him anymore, since he technically wasn't his enemy. "Dib-human... what do you want?" he quietly asked, barely mustering the strength, or will for that matter, to speak.

Dib gestured to Zim with his arms outstretched, "What... what happened to you?"

Zim meekly explained his predicament, and bid him to leave him in peace. For the following months, Dib checked in on Zim every few days to see if he had come out of his funk, but he never did. His arch-enemy had lost the will to live, and now all that was left was a man, a broken down, beaten man who has lost everything. Dib reluctantly decided to help Zim out of what ever dark place his head was in. He felt partly responsible for the hand fate had dealt the unfortunate alien.

No being deserves to suffer alone the way he has.


A/N: If you felt this chapter was really slow, there's a reason for that: I'm trying to set the tone for the events to come.

As you can imagine, almost all of the character interaction in this story is going to be out of character, as none of them have ever been in the situations that they are going to meet.

I'm going to be writing this in tandem with The Conspiracy, so apologies in advance for any delay there will likely be between chapters.

Thank you for your time, and thank you for reading my second tale of intrigue!
As always, See you on the other side~