A/N: guess who's baaaaacc

tHIS HOE

here we go lads, part 2 of this hellfic

I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY~

"Thank you for taking the time to meet me in person, captain."

Lard Nar waved a dismissive hand. "It's no trouble. Please, don't worry about disguises here. Feel free to be yourself."

Atra smiled shyly. "Are you sure? My true form can be… overwhelming to some people."

"We are quite familiar with your people. If this is uncomfortable for you, then by all means, go ahead and relax."

Pleased by the captain's generosity, Atra pressed the button clipped to the hem of her uniform and her Irken visage vanished. The green skin, the antennae, the Irken military uniform- all of it faded away and was instead replaced by a pale, almost translucent humanoid figure. Lard Nar could vaguely make out the long, slender blue arms and legs. Her face was more defined than the rest of her body, with sharp dark blue eyes and a smirk crossing her thin lips.

"Fascinating," he murmured. "As a being of pure energy, you can manipulate how you manifest yourself to others, right?"

"To some extent, although in this case I had to use a disguise. My body is not entirely physical, and is mostly an illusion of light," she explained. "Anyhow, let's not waste time."

He cleared his throat, feeling somewhat embarrassed at having been caught staring. "Of course." He leaned back against his chair. "The Meekrob Republic is a renowned enemy of the Irken Empire. Were you on a mission to infiltrate?"

"…No," she replied hesitantly. "I was a rogue. I thought… I thought we could do it..."

"…Do what? Take down the whole Irken Empire?"

"I had help," she reassured him. "Other Irkens who supported my cause. Defectives. I even had other Meekrob soldiers that sided with it wasn't enough. The plan I came up with was falling apart. So I had to try and escape while I could."

"…I see. But the Meekrob people strongly believe in unity and strength in numbers. Why would you act on your own?"

"I… It's not important. I'll explain it all later. Captain… I know it was rash of me to act on my own, but I still believe that I can be a valuable asset to this team. You need someone from the Meekrob Republic on your side, to make the Resisty stronger."

"That was my mistake last time!" he exclaimed. "My army was far too small. But you're right. Having someone from the Meekrob Republic… would be extremely helpful. We've always been on good terms with your people. But… if you are to join me, then there is something you must understand."

"What is it?" she asked curiously.

"The Resisty, and all parties affiliated with us… we are all a team. Therefore, if you are to join us, you must follow orders. We make it a priority to respect the opinions of all crewmembers, but be warned that I don't tolerate insubordination on my ship. This is war. One reckless move, and you could get your entire crew killed. So Atra… I must ask you… are you capable of following orders you don't agree with?"

Her glare was sharp, but his was sharper, matching her own ferocity. She found herself completely at his mercy in that moment.

She forced herself to swallow her pride. "…Yes. If I must… I will follow the orders I'm given."

He nodded. "Good. I'll take your word on that. Then Atra, I'm happy to welcome you aboard." He smiled politely and bowed his head as a show of respect. "However… even with you… it's still not enough. We need more recruits."

Atra grinned. "I think I know a few people who may be willing to help."

"GIVE IT TO ME, DIB!"

"IT'S MINE, GET OFF ME!"

"NOT UNTIL YOU GIVE ME THE REMOTE!"

"BACK OFF!"

Zim was currently laying atop Dib's back, struggling to reach for the remote that Dib was holding underneath his chest. He grabbed Dib's shoulder and forced the human to flip onto his back, the remote sliding out from under him and falling onto the floor. He lunged for it, but Dib was quicker and his arms were longer, allowing him to grab the remote right before Zim could get to it.

"What the hell are you fighting me for anyway?! You agreed to come over and watch Mysterious Mysteries!" Dib asked through grunts as he continued to push Zim away.

"Wrong, I came over 'cause Gir had control of the TV and he wouldn't let me watch what I want! Now obey your overlord and give me the remote!" He jumped for it again, but this time, Dib held the remote up high, too far for the Irken to teach.

Dib grinned tauntingly. "What's the matter, space boy? Too high for you?"

Zim's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You'd better lower that remote or else."

"Or else what?" Dib challenged.

"I'll… rip your face off!"

"Scary," he quipped.

Zim's angry scowl didn't waver, but he stilled, which told Dib that he was about to bring out his PAK legs. Before he could, Dib quickly tackled him onto the other side of the couch, pinning him onto his back. He tucked the remote into his back pocket and held down Zim's wrists, preventing him from escaping.

"I win," Dib declared with a smirk.

"Release me, Dib-beast! Filthy… disgusting… human!" Zim squirmed and struggled in Dib's hold, muttering incoherent curses under his breath.

"Nope." He leaned down, grinning at the alien beneath him. "I think I like seeing you like this."

Something about Dib's tone caused heat to flood his face, the same heat that caused his squeedlyspooch to flutter. He averted Dib's gaze, his cheeks now a vibrant indigo. "Release me before I blow you to smithereens."

Dib decided not to let the words 'blow you' cause his mind to wander.

As soon as he said the words he started to regret them, because it was making him feel hot in a weird way that he had hardly experienced before. Having Zim at his mercy in battle was one thing, but this… this was entirely different. This was something new. Before his could ponder on it for too long, he quickly released him, pulling the remote out of his pocket to change the channel to Mysterious Mysteries. Thankfully Zim didn't say anything else, and he didn't complain when Dib changed the channel, surprisingly.

A few moments of silence passed as Dib engrossed himself in the new episode. He had to admit, Mysterious Mysteries wasn't nearly as good now as it was when he was eleven. But still, it was one of the only constants in his life, and therefore he refused to let go of it.

Unfortunately, the peaceful silence was broken by the other constant in his life. "Dib."

He waved the alien off. "I'm trying to watch."

"And I'm trying to tell you something."

"Can't it wait until after this episode?"

"No. Shut up and pay attention to me, stink-beast."

Dib sighed. Could he not have just a few minutes of peace? "Fine. What is it?"

"…Look at me, damn it!" Zim ordered, and when Dib finally did turn to look at him, he saw that his blush from earlier hadn't yet faded.

"What is so important that you had to interrupt me?"

"…I… ugh, damn it all… I didn't want to do this, but this stupid thought wouldn't go away and it kept making my squeedlyspooch feel all funny, so… uh… thanks, I guess."

Dib blinked slowly. "You're thanking me?"

"Let me finish," he snapped. "Yes. I'm thanking you. For… saving me. And… for…"

"For..?" Dib urged, trying to get him to spit it out already.

"…It's nothing, forget it." Zim huffed and turned away, dropping their locked gazes.

Now Dib was curious. "Come on, tell me. We're friends, aren't we?"

Zim flinched at the word. Friends. The term used to sicken him, and it still caused an unpleasant shiver whenever he so much as thought of it. But when Dib said it, for some reason… he didn't mind it as much. With Dib, the idea of friendship felt… easy. Too easy. A part of him wanted to hate Dib for that, because every time he tried to reignite that old rage he felt from all those years ago… it wasn't the same. It was gone- or rather, it had changed. Morphed into something else entirely.

And it scared him to death.

"No," he lied. "We are… reluctant acquaintances at best."

Dib laughed. "Right. Well, I won't force you if you don't wanna tell me. Your call."

Zim was secretly rather thankful for that, as he found himself wanting to drop the subject entirely. It made him want to think about things he'd rather not think about. So, instead of pondering on it, he decided to watch alongside Dib.

"…This show is stupid," he grumbled after a few moments. "Seriously, he hears one little noise and all the sudden the house is haunted?"

"It was clearly footsteps Zim, and they're all on the bottom floor. That noise was coming from the attic," Dib explained. "It's obviously haunted."

"Oh please, you humans and your silly little theories. This show only serves as a way to scare people and give them false hope about ghosts or the hairy foot creature you go on and on about."

"Or alien life," Dib replied smoothly. "They were right about that, weren't they, space boy?"

"…Shut up."

Dib smirked and took that as a small victory for himself. He knew that there was a lot that he and Zim still had yet to talk about, and he also knew that it would come up eventually, whether he wanted it to or not. But for now, he was content like this. He hadn't had a lot of experience hanging out with friends when he was younger, so he was going to enjoy this while he still could.

"This is Zim's voicemail system. As instructed by my master, please leave your name and your reason for calling. But I should note that if you aren't the Tallest or Prisoner 777, he's probably never going to call you back."

"O-Oh… you are Zim's computer interface?"

"Yeah, what of it?"

Atra blinked. Had Zim programmed it to be so snappy? "My name is Atra. I am calling Zim to talk to him about a possible… mission. Where is he?"

"He just told me that he had some errands to run, but I can guarantee that the master is over at the Dib-human's house. He's been going over there a lot lately."

She stifled a giggle at that. "How interesting. Well then, whenever he gets back, can you relay this message to him?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"…Tell him that he owes me a favor, and now is the time that he can repay that favor."

Irkens don't need sleep, yet as Zim had come to find out, he's been doing it more and more as of late. Zim blamed Dib for that. Perhaps being around the stupid human was causing him to go native. He shivered at the thought.

Ah, that's right. Now he remembered.

Last night, the Dib had introduced him to "Netflix". And although he'd never admit it out-loud, he was secretly fascinated with it. There was such a wide variety of things to watch, and Zim was enamored with the large selection. He didn't know what to watch first, so Dib had settled on a random movie. He must have passed out then.

"But the Dib-human isn't here…"

Zim jumped to his feet. Admittedly, that rest period had felt good. He felt more energized than he had in a long time. Zim might just have to put 'sleep' on a list he liked to call 'human things that are still terrible but not as terrible as everything else'.

He made his way upstairs, and noticed that the Dib-sister's room was empty. She must be at school. He remembered Dib mentioning that he was going to start taking Gaz to school and picking her up, so it must have started again. Zim reveled in the fact that he didn't have to attend that wretched place anymore. Dib's room hadn't changed much from when he was little. He still had his stupid 'Mysterious Mysteries' posters plastered all over the walls. Zim had noticed that Dib had started decorating his walls with band posters and whatnot. He clicked his tongue in annoyance, human music was loud and screechy and it made no sense.

He was prepared to pounce on the Dib-thing's bed and scare him awake, but upon closer inspection, he found himself practically immobile.

Dib had a bad habit of talking in his sleep, as Zim had come to find out one night when they had been forced to sleep in the same room during a school field trip. But as of right now, he was completely silent, the only sound being that of his steady breathing. Zim couldn't help but pick up on how vulnerable humans were when they slept. He had learned over the years not to underestimate Dib, but right now, he looked so harmless, so exposed, so…

His mind was supplying words that he'd rather not acknowledge. Perhaps he was going native after all.

He drew closer to him, examining him. Sleep was a curious practice, and Zim had yet to conduct any experiments on a sleeping human. He knew better than to experiment on the Dib, although he couldn't deny that he had entertained the thought quite a few times. He noticed the way he drew in such even breaths, the way his hair swept across his forehead and the side of his face, the way the sunlight hit-

Stop there, he told himself. That was way too poetic, and Zim did not do poetic.

Before anymore strange thoughts about the Dib's face could plague him, he decided to end things here. After mentally preparing himself for an awakened Dib, Zim grinned evilly and jumped onto his bed. "Dib-human!"

Dib abruptly sat up, his eyes flying open. Once his eyes found the source of the voice, he immediately relaxed. "Zim, jesus, you scared the hell out of me."

"I keep telling you Dib, I don't know this 'jesus' you keep referring to! Who is he?!"

"He's- oh, never mind. What are you still doing here? I thought you would've gone home last night."

"Foolish human, Zim doesn't have to go anywhere!"

"Right, of course." Dib sighed, running his fingers through mussed black hair. "God, I forgot to take Gaz to school this morning… she's gonna kill me when I go pick her up…"

"I will not allow that. The only one allowed to kill you is me." Zim stated it as if it were fact.

Dib pondered the thought. "Mm, I think being killed by you might be a lot less scary than getting killed by Gaz…"

Zim narrowed his eyes at him. "Oh I can assure you stink-meat, I will make your demise much more horrifying than the Gaz-beast could ever imagine!"

Dib grinned before reaching out to ruffle the alien's wig. "Great, I'll look forward to it." He then grabbed his glasses from the nightstand. "I'm gonna go take a shower. You can stay if you want, but I have to leave at around two to go pick up Gaz."

"Pfft, like Zim would willingly stay here any longer than necessary. I need to return home. It's dangerous to leave Gir unattended for more than 24 hours. You remember what happened last time."

Dib shuddered at the memory. "Right. Yeah. Go check on him."

Zim pushed open Dib's window and extended his PAK legs. He never had been one for using the front door.

"Oh, and Zim?"

"What?"

"Thanks. For staying the night, and stuff."

"…Whatever. Don't expect it to happen again."

Dib knew that was complete and total bullshit, but didn't argue further as Zim descended from the window.

"Master, you have one missed call."

"A missed call? Is it Prisoner 777? I haven't talked to him in forever…"

"Master, you released his children long ago, therefore he doesn't contact you anymore."

"Oh. Right. Well, who was it from?"

"It was from a person named Atra… they said you would recognize that name."

Zim's optical implants nearly popped out of their sockets. "Atra?! The wretched female that nearly killed me?! She has some nerve contacting me… what did she want?"

"She told me to tell you that you owe her a favor, and that now is the time to repay her."

"Favor?! Zim owes no one any favors! Computer, take me down to the lab! I'm going to give that fool a piece of my mind!"

"MASTER, YOUS BACK!" Gir eagerly wrapped himself around Zim's leg, humming contentedly. "The moose and I missed yous so much..! I made MUFFINS!"

Zim deadpanned as Gir tossed a muffin up in the general direction of his face. The muffin fell to the floor unceremoniously- Zim made a mental note to have the computer clean that up later. "That's nice Gir. Did you blow anything up while I was gone?"

"Maaaybeee…"

"That's good Gir- wait. Was it in the base?"

"Uh… maaaayyyybeee..?"

Zim groaned. It was no matter; the base would repair itself over time. "It really is dangerous to leave you alone…"

"But I wasn't alone Master! I was with the moose and his nubs! Hehehe, he's got nubs…"

"Sometimes I think I should leave Minimoose in charge instead of you… speaking of which, where did he go?"

"He's upstairs watchin' the lady prison show!"

"I told him that he wasn't allowed to watch that anymore! Ugh…" Zim huffed irritably. "Whatever. GIR! I have an important phone call to make. Go away."

"Yes sir!" Gir saluted, eyes briefly flashing red, before he proceeded to giggle maniacally while in search of something to entertain him.

"I don't understand her," Zim muttered to himself. "When she first came to Earth… I never would've guessed she'd end up betraying the Empire. Her story doesn't make sense. There's something she's not telling us. Unless she is defective, there's no way she can just 'rebel'. It may not matter now, but… I have a bad feeling in my spooch. Something's not right with her. Computer! Call her back. I have a few questions for her."

"Right away master."

A/N: Short first chapter, but trust me, it's about to get a lot worse.

stay tuned for chapter 2!