Chapter One

Author's note: This is the story of an Irken, who has never, and will never meet Zim, Dib, Gaz, Gir, or any other IZ character for that matter. She may have heard of Zim, but that's about it. This takes place on Irk, in the future, when not too much has changed, except there's just a little bit more love in the world.

Disclaimer: I do not own Irk, or anything else created by Jhonen Vasquez. This story is simply an invention for my own original characters to live and interact, and something exciting might even happen.

Chapter One: Forbidden Love

It was a dark, gusty night in the Technology District of Irk. Lights began to blink off one by one as Irkens went to sleep after a long day of work. Only one light stayed on, in a window above a sign on a building labeled "SDL." The pitter-patter of footsteps echoed throughout the streets, though no one was there to hear them. The door of the building opened and closed, as if entered by some kind of ghost.

In the Smeet Development Lab, Leon was working tirelessly on a way to improve developing smeets. Normally, smeets are born through a machine, and loaded with all the information that they'll ever need through a PAK, but Leon was working on ways to enhance the developing smeets after they were born. Tubes lined the walls of the lab, with little smeets floating in a liquid. Each smeet had many different tubes connected to all parts of their tiny bodies, so that their development could be altered in anyway possible. He was being funded by the Irken military to do this, so that the next generation of Irken military would be even better, smarter, stronger, and faster, than the current one. Leon wasn't doing so well on this particular night, so he was procrastinating by inventing a new eye color for the next generation, which no Irken had ever possessed before.

Leon stopped for a moment to pick up a candy bar he had been eating over the course of the night, and took a huge bite. He wiped the crumbs off of his long lab coat, straightened out his goggles over his small green eyes, and then continued working, by pulling levers and pushing buttons, to achieve the desired results.

When the door behind him slammed, Leon's head shot up from the computer in which he was working. "Who's there?" He heard the sounds of footsteps walking closer and closer to him, mud splattering the floor as they got closer to him, but no visible body to go with them. "Show yourself!" Leon shouted towards the seemingly empty room, his lab coat fluttering in the draft created by the wind.

A flash of static, and an Irken woman appeared, as if out of thin air. She was a bit taller than Leon, her eyes fiery red, and extra curly antennas. "Hello Leon," she said, a hint of exhaustion in her voice.

"Oh Leah!" he sighed. They embraced shortly, "it's just you. You scared me! You never know who's going to show up these days."

She gave a faint smile before seating herself down in a comfortable armchair. "Forgive me for coming so late. You know if I had come at any other time, then we probably would have been discovered."

"Yes, I know, love," Said Leon, rubbing the sleep out of his green eyes, "I stay up late every night hoping you'll come back again, no matter how tired I get. Would you like to see my progress on the military project?"

"Actually, there's a reason that I came to see you tonight. I don't have too much time," Leah said, suddenly looking quite uncomfortable. "I've been told by one of the advisors that I've been looking a bit chubby lately, and I don't think it's from all the snacks I've been eating. I have a very high metabolism."

"Well, then what is it?"

"I want you to run a test for me, to see if I'm… well…"

Leon's eyes suddenly grew wide. "No, it can't be, can it?"

"Yes, love." Leah said. "I think that I'm… pregnant."

"But that's… just… impossible!" He whispered. Irkens never reproduced sexually anymore, not since the machines were invented to create smeets, and control overpopulation. It was believed that Irkens had evolved to be infertile, but apparently not.

"Just run the test." Leah said. "I have to make sure. I'm tired of worrying about whether or not my fears are true."

Leon nodded, and then scrambled to a room where he kept many gadgets. One of them was like a portable x-ray scanner, which could scan what was inside someone's body. He went back to the other room where Leah was sitting and fidgeting. He turned on the scanner and raised the panel to her stomach area. It made a few beeping noises, and then created an image. He dropped the scanner in shock. It fell to the ground and shattered.

Leah stood up and grabbed Leon's hands with her own. "Is it true then?"

Leon stared off into the distance, then nodded slowly. "This is incredible, it's been ages since something like this has happened!"

"But what should we do? No one can find out! I'm the next in line to become tallest! At last year's Measuring, they said that I was most likely to succeed Spork V within the year. If anyone finds out that I'm, that we're… you know… then we'll be found out, and exiled!"

"Don't worry, I think I know what to do. I can create some sort of invisibility shield, like what you have already, but only for your stomach. That way, no one would find out! I'll send it to you as soon as I finish it."

Leah hugged and kissed Leon. "Oh, you're the best!" She said joyfully.

He blushed, "Well, I-I'll do the best I can!"

"Oh! And maybe after he's born, you can make him big and strong, so that one day he could be a invader," Leah said dreamily, her red eyes filled with happiness. All her fears about pregnancy seemed to wash away after discovering that no one would find out about it. Even though it had been such a long time since an Irken had been pregnant before, the estimated time for carrying a baby was not that long, only a couple of months, as they developed quickly inside the womb. If this was still true, then they should have their smeet soon without anyone knowing about it.

"That sounds wonderful!" Leon said, adding his enthusiasm. "I'll make sure he's the best out of all of the smeets I'm raising now. No one will ever find out!"

But little did they know… someone was watching. Way too small for the two lovers to see, a camera about the size of a mosquito was floating outside the window, recording everything that was happening, and streaming it live back to it's home location. After it had seen enough, it floated away to where it had come from.

"Leon, are you absolutely sure that no one is going to find out about this?"

"How could that be possible? No one knows that you've been coming here for the past year, since you always wear the invisibility shield. Our secret is safe." He ran a hand through one of her antennas, and she closed her eyes as it calmed her. "So, how long can you stay?"

"Oh, I wish I could stay longer," Leah said, "but there's this long boring meeting in the morning, and I really need to be awake for it."

"So when can I see you again? It's seems like weeks since we last spent any time together…" Leon said, wrapping his arms around her tightly.

"Well, I'm really sorry," Leah said sadly, "but I need to keep appearances up. I need to show up to these things, however boring they may be, because it shows how dedicated I am, and in the long run it will earn me respect."

Leon looked sad and turned his head. "But we can still see each other after you become the Tallest, right?"

"We can try," Leah said. "I'll do whatever I can to lower security when we need our privacy. I can get you a job on the Massive when I live up there!" She looked at a nearby clock. "Oh, I really need to get going, but I promise I'll be back when it's time for our smeet to be born."

She gave him a short kiss. Then, in a flash of static, she was gone. Leon closed him eyes as her heard the door open and close behind her, then turned and cleaned up the mess made by the shattered scanner. Then he went back to his computer and typed away, working on creating those blue eyes for the new Irken army, and also, his son.

A couple months later…

Leah sat on Leon's bed, sweating. She had just undergone pain unknown to any living Irken woman. But it had all been worth it. In her arms, a tiny little smeet lay, curled up.

Leon entered the room. "So, Leah. What shall we name her?"

Leah's eyes widened. "Her?? I was under the impression that I was having a boy!"

"Well," Leon snickered, "if you look a little bit closer…"

"Oh my, you're right." Leah said. "Anyway, I was thinking of naming our little smeet after someone I always admired, but since it can't be a male name, I suppose it will have to be after the nurse who raised me as I was growing up."

"And who was that?" Leon asked.

"Viz."

"That's a very cute name, for something so tiny. I'll raise Viz to be strong, and powerful. Just like her mother."

Leah smiled, and then looked back down at her sleeping child. "I just wish I could be around more to raise her, but I trust that you'll do a great job."

"I will, I promise" Leon said. "Everything will turn out alright, I know it."

I would like to give extra special thanks to Invader Kyra, my beta, who is helping me rewrite this series… without the Mary Sue-ness, hehe. Please click review and tell me what you think!