This is my first IZ fanfic and I pretty proud of the result. I hope you like it.

Special thanks to "Drop of the Sweetest Poison" (http/ for beta reading this chapter and dealing with my screwed up English..

I love reviews! They are tasty! ¬

Disclaimer: IZ belongs to Jhonen Vasques and maybe Nickelodeon (Damned Nickelodeon producers >-

You can read more about this story at my profile.

"Irken Zim, according to the Law 438-9, you are accused of high perfidy against the Empire."

He knew he was laying on the ground. He could hear alarms sounding furiously while the computers pointed out desperately all the damages in the building, trying their best to keep the place as safe as the chaos allowed.

His body was aching badly, especially his pak and head. His thoughts were not completely clear. Though, he knew that something terrifying had happened.

Didn't the soldier in front of him just say something?

And why was he surrounded by a group of soldiers that had electric lances trained on his fallen form?

While his mind struggled to remember everything, he was raised harshly off of the soil, restrained firmly by the arms. He tried to break free, but all his desire to flee was drained when he found those lost memories.

He had just killed Tallest Miyuki.

"You are found guilty of destroying the Biological and Technological Research Center and the murdering Tallest Miyuki. Your sentence shall be public execution. However, in agreement with Stature 100.2, your judgment will be diminished to forced labor. Also, from this moment, you will be degraded to soldier-type 9B."

His face remained low while the Great Central Brain was declaring his verdict before him. Once given his fate, he slightly tilted his head upwards, fixing his gaze on his newly ex-comrades, who remained standing around him and the Central Brain.

They were whispering their dissatisfaction. They all wanted the execution—with public torture included—and some of them were glancing fleetingly at Tallest Spork, who had remained silent during the judgment. He stood nearest to the Central Brain, staring intently at it.

A sigh escaped him. It was uncertain whether it was of relief of his death sentence being terminated or if it was his last trace of dignity escaping of his chest.

Solder-type 9B. The lowest rank in all the Empire, slightly above the janitorial squad. Now that he thought about it, he found that he preferred dead.

Suddenly, Zim woke up from his state of inanimation.

Over a year had passed since that incident.

With great effort, Zim had began climbing slowly but constantly the irken rank pyramid. Though he was far from returning to a respectable position, it was more than he imagined he would reach after the judgment.

Now he was working in the Recognition Squad. The mentioned squadron objective was to expand the planetary map of the empire and, especially, look for planets and civilizations that were worthy enough to conquer and control.

Zim looked to his right and then to his left, noting that his companions were as inactive as he was moments ago.

Finding potential planets for the empire wasn't the most exciting work of all. Weeks could pass, and they wouldn'thave any progress. So little was the activity that only one irken was required to be awake in the lightly illuminated control cabin located at the end of the corridor.

Most of the time, the pilot inactivated himself, awaking every once in a while to check that everything was in order.

Zim felt the temptation to return to inactivation, but he knew that he would dream the whole incident again. His dreams were sadistic in that they only brought him pain.

With a slight tug, his pak unplugged from the seat. He rose, stretching his arms, legs, and spine. According to his pak, he had slept about six days, which was too lengthy for his pleasure. However, it could not be avoided for he had to continue with his work.

He could almost feel how his brain was atrophying with every day that passed. He needed something to do, and he needed it now.

Since the beginning of the journey eleven months ago, they had only discovered planets lacking in atmosphere, sterile planetoids, and asteroids lost in the nothingness, completely useless for the empire.

With a lack of reason to remain in his place, Zim entered the control cabin, where a soldier higher in rank than him was absentmindedly reading documents on a small screen near him, eating a snack without vigor. Feeling Zim's presence with the aide of his antennae, the soldier raised his eyes. Having no desire of acknowledging Zim's existence any more than a second, his concentration returned to the screen.

Enough time had passed since Tallest Miyuki's death that irkens now limited themselves to ignoring him; the beating season had passed long ago.

Zim took a seat next to the pilot silently. He wondered where they were. He fiddled with some commands, and the computer informed him of their current position to the side of its screen with a large table of information spread out.

Something in the table called to his attention.

In a few hour's time, they would enter a small solar system.

"I already initiated the analysis," the pilot at his side spoke suddenly, bothering not to raise his eyes.

Every time the squadron found a new object, a general analysis was done. If it was something of interest, one or two members of the team were sent to investigate. Until now, that had not been the case.

After a few minutes of waiting, the screen flashed a graph of the solar system. Eight planets, a belt of asteroids, and some planetoids were in the periphery. A classic and boring system.

"It does not seem to have any worth or uniqueness from the last few discoveries we have made" Zim dismissed. He was not surprised that their luck had not yet turned.

Suddenly, the antennae of both irkens stood on end when the statistics of the third planet was spread out on the screen. They focused their attention on the screen, watching intently as a multitude of information was given to them.

"What's that?" the pilot inquired, nodding at the third planet, which was almost drowning in a completely new bright blue substance. "Someone will need to investigate," the soldier decided, rereading the statistics with care.

Zim agreed, peering out the window. He needed to leave the confinements of the cruiser, even if it was just for a brief moment. If not for his constant regressions to the past, the most probable thing he would have done would be to return to his seat and inactivate himself, allowing the pilot the authority to choose someone else for the job.

Zim bit his lower lip before addressing the superior officer, "I ask for permission to carry out the research."

He hated to ask for permission, but he was not in position to take decisions on his own yet.

The pilot stared at him for a moment, uncaring of the planet. He sighed and said, "I was about to wake Scargnia to check it out, but if you want to go, you may do so." He waved his hand in a dismissive gesture.

Zim happily jumped to his feet and prepared to exit the room. He was stopped when the pilot spoke up.

"Zim, you have twelve hours to investigate, or we leave you."

Zim ignored the pilot's cruel snickers and answered, "Yes, Sir."

Leaving the control room, Zim fumed.

How many times had he swallowed his pride?

He knew that all of his companions wouldn't mind leaving him on a planet with no way to escape.

Sometimes when they thought he was not listening, they told jokes about the best place to desert him, delighting in the gestures he would make when he realized his misfortune.

Aided by that treatment, Zim greatly disliked being locked up in the small ship for weeks on end.

He was supposed to be an invader, for Irk's sake! He was supposed to be working on a foreign planet where he could run, do exciting and challenging things, or just randomly walk wherever he pleased.

Inside the small hangar, there were four obsolete voot cruisers parked,functional and ready for any situation.

Zim chose the closest voot cruiser and climbed in. The ship activated, showing its current condition, simultaneously as it recognized its pilot.

Zim typed in some commands on the control panel.

With this, the cruiser sealed itself. A few seconds later, the ship began to levitate.

"Computer, open the hangar gates," Zim commanded.

The doors opened horizontally, revealing a dark, vast landscape of distant, brilliant points.

Straightening his posture, Zim activated the propellants, and the cruiser slowly exited the Recognition Ship.

There were twelve minutes remaining to reach the planet, so he had some time to relax in the seat.

He felt relieved that there was, despite being momentary, some privacy to think without receiving poisonous commentaries. Much time had passed since he had a ship to himself. He had missed the days when he planned strategies to conquer one of his many assigned planets.

He examined his destination-planet in question and its neighbors, using the time before the imminent ruin he would spread on the unfortunate planet to consider his life calmly.

A mere four minutes remained, so he scanned the obtained information.

Indeed, the planet was immersed in a substance that the computer could not identify.

As he approached his goal, much was clarified. Reading a bit more, Zim found what he had been desiring to learn: the planet was overflowing with life and a dominant species existed.

The planet loamed in front of him, and the computer spread images of the biggest cities of the planet on its screen. This confused him.

The buildings were poorly constructed, one together with another. There was barely an urban organization. The little he could see of the inhabitants indicated a severe case of technological lag. Any society on this planet would be an easy target for the empire.

If an invader was to be sent here, it would not take more than a week in concluding his mission.

"Sir, the time of landing is two minutes and thirteen seconds. Do you wish to activate the cloaking system?" the computer inquired monotonously.

Zim voiced his affirmation.

It was morning when Zim arrived at the planet. He decided to land near the city boundaries where it would be difficult to discover any traces of his arrival.

The city was surrounded by hills and a forest that, for the season, was becoming dulls shades of red and yellow.

Zim's ship landed between two small but leafy trees, greatly shielding it from sight.

"Computer, no inhabitants are near us, correct?"

"No, Sir. The area is clear."

Satisfied by the answer, Zim climbed out of his ship and narrowed his eyes at the city. "Computer, show me options of disguise."

Two segments of the ship opened, and a small screen appeared between them, showing several disguises.

Zim chose the first option, and, a second later, he was enclosed by the curved halves, an intense white light flashing inside. Zim let out a screech of pain.

Zim was released, wearing a simple black wig. He roughly massaged his eyes because of the itchy contact lenses.

A reflective surface appeared for Zim's viewing of his disguise, and he opened his eyes, taking in his appearance.

Zim had been trained to take advantage of his resources, for there were very few to aide with his mission, but this disguise crossed the line.

"Is this the best you can do? Any alien with a half-crushed brain being served as food for a squasr would know that—"

A tug at his dark pink uniform interrupted him.

"Hey, have you seen a rabbit over here?"

Zim jumped when the voice seemingly came out of nowhere. Turning around, he spotted a small human studying him with wide, curious eyes. An older human was searching among the shrubs for the missing animal.

Zim struggled vainly to block his ship from the humans' view.

"What did he say?" the older human asked the younger, his head and torso tangled in the brushwood.

"Nothing," the child replied. "He hasn't said a word."

Zim's pak took a moment to decipher the new and simple language. With this, Zim was capable of understanding the child.

"Er… No, I have not seen this rabbit you speak of—Hey! I saw something moving in the branches! I'm sure it is that rabbit creature!" he exclaimed, indicating the top of a distant tree. Nervous, he pushed the small human away with a nervous smile. "Quick, it will fly away!"

The child glanced over his shoulder at the trees, searching for the creature, wondering how a rabbit could reach that height.

Zim watched the children run away together with a sensation of edginess in his system. With the kids out of earshot, he snapped, "You incompetent ship! You said there were no natives near our position!"

His answer was a metallic "Oops?"

'Alright…' Zim thought after giving a deep exhalation, 'maybe the disguise isn't that bad after all.' Out loud, he commanded, "Computer, camouflage!"

A hologram covered the cruiser further, creating the illusion of an excessively large, red shrub in its place.

Zim made a satisfied noise and extracted a small device from his pak, beginning to search for the closest source of the strange blue substance. He took twenty steps before stumbling upon a small creek lost among the bushes.

A narrow pink pipe slithered from his pak. Cautious, Zim sucked up a sample of the liquid with the pipe and contained it in a flask. Supporting it with a device that greatly resembled a pair of tweezers, he inserted the flask into his scanning device.

It would take around an hour to complete the analysis and discover the possible uses that the substance might have.

This would give him enough time to explore the surroundings and closely inspect the new species and their crazy town.

An hour passed, and his pak emitted a small sound, indicating that the sample was completely analyzed.

Zim marched down a solitary street, extracting the appliance, scanning the results. To his consternation, the substance was highly dangerous when in contact with his skin. Though, it was inoffensive if mixed with other substances, like sweetenings or enzymes. He felt relieved about having had the precaution of using tweezers when taking the sample.

The last of the graphs and tables were scanned quickly. As a whole, there was a simple conclusion: it was useless. It was unnecessary to take another sample.

Though his mission was completed, he was curious as to what more there was to do.

During the last nine hours, Zim explored the city but was disappointed when he didn't find anything that could really call to his attention. Everything was so archaic and decadent for the irken standards. But at any case, he was grateful for the fresh air despite how strange a scent it carried.

Surprisingly, he didn't stand out excessively among the humans. Some of them merely whispered to each other about the strange color of his skin, but they continued walking along with their way nonchalantly.

Tired and unentertained, Zim decided to return to his ship.

Dark was descending on the city; nobody saw his small vehicle in the sky. Passing over the city, Zim took his final glances at the human race.

In the middle of the forest was a road, on which a lonely car traveled.

Zim targeted his gaze on the vehicle absentmindedly.

When the car prepared to turn on a curve in the road, the computer send out a brief alarm simultaneously as Zim saw a blurry spot appearing and disappearing in the middle of the road, provoking the car into losing control, swerving off the road.

"What happened?" Zim questioned, watching the vehicle crash into a tree.

"There was a reading of unknown nature in the way below us. The only record of a phenomenon slightly similar is the energy coming from a meekrob at the moment of its dead."

Zim knew from his adventure into the city that the humans didn't seem to have any type of energy in the capacity as meekrobs.

"Land forty meters away from the incident position."

The computer obeyed, touching down onto the grass.

Before leaving the ship, Zim asked, "Any survivors?"

"Yes, two humans."

Zim decided to don the mediocre disguise. He detested the contact lenses greatly, but his curiosity was more influential.

When he reached the collision spot, he extracted a small, red, spherical device, and, with a small squeeze, it was activated, rising to his eye level.

"Do a general scan of the area and analyze for any track of energy, especially in that direction," he commanded, waving towards the road.

The sphere levitated and floated away as he glanced around.

Not far from him was the earthling's vehicle and a staggering figure who slowly moved towards a tree. The figure collapsed in front of the base of it, clutching a small, whining bundle.

The human had short, smooth magenta hair and pale skin.

"Everything is alright, my dear. Do not worry. Mom is here with you."

But Zim knew that everything wasn't alright. She wouldn't get any medical support and he wasn't of any help, not even with all his technology, he had not even the slightest idea of how the treatment of a human proceeded. With his antennae, he discovered severe internal hemorrhages, and, just from listening intently to the short gasps of breath, he knew that she must have had three or four broken ribs.

He leaned against a tree to perceive more of her, the wig didn't help, but in the attempt, a branch broke under his weight.

Their eyes met, and they were silent for a moment, staring. He had been spotted, but he was still in disguise. What harm could it do to speak to the human?

He took a few steps towards her, scratching his head awkwardly. "Er… Hello. Mm… I… was walking hereabouts and..."

"This is not what I expected, you know?" she interrupted, worriedly examining the bundle in her arms.

"Eh? What do you mean?" he asked, intrigued.

The woman smiled and shook her head sadly. "Nothing. A long story that is worthless to tell now." She breathed deeply and murmured, "At least he isn't injured..."

Zim didn't bother to ask for further explanations for he knew that he wouldn't get an answer. He was distracted from the human when his eyes became more irritated. Growling, Zim rubbed at them.

"You should take them off if they hurt your eyes that much."

Zim froze. Nervously, he answered, "I don't know what you're referring to! It's only my allergy to... to... greenhouse gases! Yes! That's it! A completely normal human allergic reaction!" He placed his hands on his hips to make his lie more credible, but a second later, he was rubbing energetically at his eyes again.

"Don't worry. I know what you are. That disguise sucks, you know? Besides, who am I gonna tell? That squirrel over there?" she smiled.

Zim, alarmed, looked straight to the squirrel as if it were a real threat. Once deeming that it wasn't, he returned his attention to the human. The idea of taking the lenses off momentarily was very tempting.

To whom might she tell if her death was imminent?

He removed the troublesome contact lenses and the wig, from which his antennae sprouted, waving and stretching comically, grateful to be released from the scratchy wig.

"Much better, is it not?"

Zim did not answer. He leaned against a tree near the human, analyzing her. "Earth-creature, what you have to do to ask for help?"

The human observed him for a second before returning her attention to the bundle that had stopped crying, now emitting giggles and gurgling noises.

"A telephone, but this car had an emergency system that my husband installed. When I crashed, it automatically sent for help. They won't take much longer to arrive—"

She was interrupted when the spherical device returned to Zim, reporting, "No trace of abnormal energies was found in the area."

Obviously the human couldn't understand what the scanner had just said, but her curiosity grew. She fixed her gaze on the device until Zim stored it in his pak. But her breathing began to excite, and a growl escaped her mouth.

- You know you won't last any longer, right? - The irken declared.

The human only nodded and briefly closed her eyes, thinking.

- I have an offer you won't deny - She began, opening her eyes slightly.

Zim's antennae perked up, and he stepped towards her. "What kind of offer do you believe that Zim would be interested in, eh?"

She serenely answered, "If you promise that you will take care of him," she nodded to the bundle, "I will promise that the day we meet again, I will give you whatever you ask of me."

"Ha! Why should I, the amazing Zim, accept this absurd proposition? I had never heard a dying creature spout so much foolishness!" he disdainfully answered, arms crossed. Clearly his irken pride had been insulted, but, at the same time, he was somewhat interested.

"Because if you don't, I won't be the only one who will die tonight," she hissed, her eyes filled with an evilness that Zim had never seen before.

He swore the air had become colder and heavier. The night had almost completely covered them, but he felt their surroundings being swallowed in a total obscurity. He could even sense dark claws trying to drag him into the shadows.

- Alright, I promise. But only while I'm on this filthy ball of dirt you call a planet.

She was morbid, and she obviously had strange methods to limit his existence to a very brief moment. He didn't want to know what these were, especially if in the world where strange incidents occurred, much like the one reported just recently.

The woman smiled, satisfied. Unknowingly, she had just won the first match between human-kind and irken-kind. But the satisfaction was short-lived. The pain in her chest peaked, and she was losing her breath quickly. She coughed up blood violently.

"T… Take him..." she rasped, raising with difficulty the child to Zim.

Quickly, Zim took the bundle into arms and remained silent long enough for the human to recover her breath.

"What's his name?" he inquired.

The child had a small lock of black hair sprouting from his forehead. His eyes burned intensely into Zim's, analyzing him like a strange new toy.

- Dib - The woman replied calmly.

Zim was surprised. Generally, when someone was to die—And Irk! How many times he has seen that?—their stress levels were exorbitant. They acted rashly, trying with all their might to survive.

But how could this human act so calm in her time of death? Did she want to die? No, it was something more deep and puzzling than he could grasp.

He noted that the same tranquility in her voice was echoed through her eyes.

'How bipolar is that?' Zim thought with amusement. 'A moment ago she was capable of reaping me apart, and now she is so peaceful.' That perplexed him enough to lower his eyes to the child who seemed to be less complex.

"And yours?" Zim directed at the human female without looking at her. The child smiled at him and happily waved his little hands, struggling to reach Zim's antennae.

This child was certainly cheerful. How would he be once having grown up?

When the child achieved his target, firmly gripping one of the irken's antennae, Zim extended his arms to put distance between them, accidentally stretching his antenna more in the process.

"Quit it! Release Zim's antenna!" Zim ordered. His antenna slipped through the little fingers, and Zim found that he wasn't angry like he would usually be from impetuous treatment such as this. "You, little earth-worm, should be proud of being the only thing Zim has taken under his protection!" This earth smeet was, mmm … cute, but imprudent; yes, maybe too imprudent.

Suddenly, Zim remembered that he hadn't obtained a response from the female human. His antennae perked, and he turned around to address her.

But the human was already dead.

According to the police report, the woman, who was returning from a visit, had died of trauma, internal hemorrhages and cardiac insufficiency next to her car. Her one-year-old son, Dib, was delivered unharmed to a young Professor Membrane, who had arrived twenty minutes after the incident, by an unknown boy with a skin condition.

No one ever knew who that boy was.