AN: Alright, here's the next one, so stop suffering from the cliffhanger :P This one won't be as bad - Oh, before I forget: Kinn's voice is incredibly high-pitched, even more when she panics. You'll need to know this for later :) The words she says in capitals are supposed to make your ears bleed…

Chapter 7 – Kribliss business

« That's The Massive out there. My people designed most of that thing, so I know how powerful it is... We're gonna die!!! Whose idea was this?! » -Lard Nar (Backseat drivers from beyond the stars)
Did felt himself be pulled, atom by atom, away from Zim. A bright blue light, sparkling with energy, filled his senses and brought him… somewhere else. He knew the tingling feeling, even if he never enjoyed it. He was being teleported.

As soon as he felt his body again, he opened his eyes. Metallic walls, metallic floor, buttons, consoles, screens, an illegal amount of pink… He was in the Irken ship. With the canon of a laser gun pointed at his head.

'Shralakh!' spat a menacing voice. 'You're not an Irken!'

'OOOOOH I knows youuuuuuu!' squealed GIR, still clinging to Dib's leg. 'You's Shredder! You's a Hork-Bajir! You's Predator! MUFFINS!'

A huge clawed hand caught Dib's neck and lifted him in a single gesture. He coughed from the strangling and the putrid smell. His captor was an alien, a very tall one, made of muscles and brown scales. It was wearing a thick black armor covered in sharp blades. All that could be see trough the mask was a pair of calculating yellow eyes.

'Let me go!' whimpered Dib with the little air he had left.

'Why did you jump in front of the beaming ray, fleshy?' grunted the alien.

'I didn't know!' groaned Dib. 'I'm really sorry, can you release me now?'

Before the alien could answer anything, an explosion shook the entire ship. He threw Dib to the floor and went back to the pilot chair. Another explosion, bright light seen trough the windshield. The Squeaky crew was leading a mean fight. Dib just hoped they'd think of getting him out before blowing the ship to pieces. He wasn't too sure about it. They were Irkens, after all.

His captor pressed a button and all of Dib's hopes crashed to the floor. They got higher and higher in the sky, away from the shooting range. He knew they wouldn't be able to pursue, both their ships were damaged and Zim was in no shape to drive the Voot Cruiser.

Silently, without attracting the ugly beast's attention, he got to his feet. He looked around, trying to find anything that would spark a brilliant escape idea. Maybe he could get GIR to do… something. Before he got the inspiration for anything, though, the gun was pointed towards him again.

'Don't move,' ordered the beast. 'I'll find something to do with you. You have to be worth something…'

Still aiming at Dib's large head, he pressed a couple of buttons with his claws on the nearest console. A screen came to life and Dib caught his breath. Zim's leaders, the two tall guys, were watching them suspiciously. Well, the red one was being suspicious, the purple one was busy eating a donut.

'What do you want?' asked Red with annoyance. 'It better be important, we Tallest are really busy people, you know?'

'I captured a fleshy from Earth,' groaned the ugly alien.

'Congratulations,' answered sarcastically Red. 'But the contract said we would reward you only for Irkens found on Earth. No Irkens, no monies.'

'This one got in the way,' grunted the alien. 'And he bears your mark on his skin.'

He grabbed Dib by the hair and turned him around. Dib yelped and hissed trough his teeth, trying to pull away. The Tallest peered curiously at the Irken tattoo.

'Hey, it is our mark,' noted Purple.

'You think it's a slave?' wondered Red out loud.

'Whatever it is, it's ours now!' exclaimed Purple with enthusiasm. 'Send him here!'

'Whatever,' shrugged Red. 'We'll give you some monies for that, I suppose. But nothing more until you've brought us Zim's pak with a side of fries!'

Dib's eyes snapped open. So they were the ones behind the attack. No surprises there, he thought grimly. He knew Zim's leaders to be cowards, but to abandon Zim on Earth, crush his hopes, then hire someone to kill him? That was low, even for Irkens.

He felt himself be pulled to his feet, by the hair no less. The bounty hunter threw them into a transparent tube opened at the front. Dib recognized a teleporter and opened his mouth to yell, but his scream and GIR's singing got lost in the darkness of space, their molecules shooting towards the Massive.

'MUMMY!' squealed GIR as soon as he was whole again.

Dib staggered a little bit, still unused to the whole demolecularisation process. He lifted his head and gulped. They were on the Massive's bridge. The Tallest were hovering above him, watching him curiously. At least GIR had finally let go of his leg. The manic robot was now hugging the side of Tallest Purple's face while chanting "mummymummymummymummymummy!"

'Hey, do we know you?' asked Red with a narrowed eye.

'That's Zim's defective SIR unit!' said Purple, trying to get GIR off his face. The robot kept hugging and purring and drooling a little bit too.

'Yes, I remember, now!' exclaimed Red, snapping his two fingers. 'You're the big-headed human smeet that danced for us!'

'…Can we not talk about this?' whined Dib, blushing. 'It's embarrassing…'

'But it was so entertaining!' applauded Purple while opening GIR's head to pull a wire. The robot's eyes blackened instantly and everyone present sighed in relief.

Tallest Red approached Dib, antennas lowered. The human didn't dare move a muscle, he knew that anything could provoke the Tallest's wrath and get him shot or thrown into space. Red peered at the tattoo and motioned to a drone. A moment later, a scanner was displaying the meaning of the bar code.

'Holy Mother of Irk,' muttered Red seeing the results. 'What was Zim thinking?!?'

'What?' asked Purple, munching on another donut.

'He made this pathetic fleshy thing his Kribliss! How lame is that?'

'Nah, seriously? Well, I suppose this puny thing can be Zim's equal, they deserve each other's pathetic-ness…'

Dib frowned. When Kinn had explained the whole Kribliss business to him, he felt proud to be Zim's equal, because the Invader was strong and dangerous. But now, hearing the Tallest mock them both sent a wave of indignation trough him.

'Hey, that's just mean!' he snapped. 'Who do you think you are, treating him- I mean, us, err, me, like that?'

Both Tallest narrowed their eyes at him. Purple's donut stopped mid-way to his mouth.

'We are the rulers of the strongest fleet of the universe,' answered Red in a cold voice. 'And you are nothing but a measly puny fleshy human, owned by a dysfunctional psychotic interstellar joke.'

'Yeah!' added Purple.

'You will learn to show some respect, human,' hissed Red.

He made a finger sign, and Dib felt a train slamming into his head. He fell forward on his knees, seeing stars. Two Irken soldiers towered above him and started hitting his already sensitive stomach with their pointy boots. This was made worse by the beating he received from Torque's gang a couple of days ago. He bit his lower lip to stop himself from shouting.

After a long moment, they stopped at Red's command. Dib was left on the floor, coughing blood and whimpering.

'Throw him in a cell,' ordered Red to the soldiers.

'But Reeeeeeed!' whined Purple. 'This thing his Zim's Kribliiiiiiss! It means that Zim will come HERE to get it back! He's gonna destroy EVERYTHING again! I don't want him here, nononononononoooo! Throw the human into space instead!'

Red grabbed his flailing arms and approached his face.

'That's exactly what I want, Pur,' he muttered. 'Don't you trust me?'

Purple pouted, but lowered his antennas in submission.

'Yeah, okay,' he said grudgingly. 'But you'll have to keep him far from our quarters! And the snack storage! And the weaponry! And –'

'Don't worry, Kribliss mine,' muttered Red. 'Everything will go smoothly, and soon there will not be a Zim to worry about anymore…'

His evil grin was matched by Purple's. They both turned back to the human, looking at him with identical diabolical expressions.

'Take the human to the holding cells in area four,' ordered Red. 'Await further instructions.'

'Yes, my Tallest!' saluted the soldiers.

They took Dib's chain and pulled him towards the innards of the Massive.

The rising sun gave a weird glow to the metallic paint of the Squeaky. Kinn wandered outside, looking for her Captain. She found Miik instead, or rather her bottom half. Her head and torso were deep inside the huge gash made on the left engine.

'Miik?' asked Kinn from the ground. 'Have you seen the Captain?'

The pilot extracted herself from the ship and made a face. The drugs effects were gone, leaving only an angry pilot with a bad headache instead.

'How would I know?' she growled. 'She's been avoiding me since I came back to normal.'

There was the usual grumpiness in her voice, but also a great deal of resentment.

'…Maybe it's because of this Kribliss business…' offered Kinn.

'No, you think?' asked sarcastically Miik with an angry swipe of her tool.

'No need to take it out on me, I'm not the one having commitment issues,' grumbled Kinn.

'Commitment issues?' screeched Miik. 'She should have thought about that BEFORE marking me, didn't she? Or did she just find convenient that she could escape a confrontation, using me?!?'

'I was not using you,' came a cold voice from behind them both.

They turned around to find their Captain, arms crossed and sharp antennas lowered angrily in front of her eyes.

'Then why are you avoiding me?' snapped Miik, jumping to the ground on the other side of Kinn.

'I have been experiencing difficulties comprehending the full impact of my decision,' said curtly the Captain.

'Please, spare your smooth talking for someone who cares, Taty!' spat Miik. 'What is there to "comprehend" besides what we had all along, anyways?'

Kinn, caught between the two, her head swapping back and forth, had trouble playing dumb. She sighed with exasperation.

'Look, can we drop the charade before I go insane?' she pleaded them. 'I know about your relationship, everyone on the ship knows. So you can yell at each other all you want, now. Happy?'

Miik seemed more than ready to obey, but Taty lifted a hand.

'There's no need for arguing. I just need some time to think.'

'What is there to think about?' snapped Miik. 'I though all was clear!'

'That's what I thought too. But now, I'm not so sure anymore.'

The Pilot seemed to froze, her whole body, from claws to antennas, tensed. After a beat, she turned to Kinn with a fake and dangerous smile.

'I have no idea what you are talking about, Kinn,' she said in a sweet voice that didn't suit her. 'There is absolutely no relationship between me and the Captain.'

She turned around, head held high, and went back to repair the ship with a renewed fury. Kinn watcher her go, feeling the need to be anywhere but there. Blorch seemed nicer, suddenly.

Taty motioned to the scientist and they both entered the ship. The Captain seemed tense but made no comment about the previous scene.

'How is Zim?' she asked with professionalism.

'Recovering, finally,' answered Kinn with a relieved sigh. 'I had to sedate him with the strongest drug I had so he would stop trashing around long enough for his wounds to heal.'

They arrived at the medical area, where they found Zim, curled on a cot, holding Dib's trench coat and wailing like a kicked puppy. It was rather pathetic.

'…What exactly did you give him?' wondered Taty.

'The same thing he gave to Miik earlier,' explained Kinn. 'It eliminates anger in all its forms, so the subject becomes more docile. It really gives an interesting insight about someone's personality. Like, for Miik, we could see she's a truly affectionate… nuzzling… person. And Zim here is in fact…'

'DIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIB! I miss hiiiiiiiiiiiim! I'm sorry I couldn't save hiiiiiiiiiim! And now he's gooooooone and I never got to tell him that I don't really hate his huge ugly head! I'm sorryyyyyyy!'

'…a whiny crybaby' completed Kinn, covering her antennas.

They left him to his despair and called the entire crew on the bridge. Miik kept avoiding their eyes, growling under her breath, but said nothing more. Taty stood before them, hands behind her back.

'Bass,' she called. The small soldier stood to attention. 'Any information on the attacker?'

'It was using an Irken ship, Captain,' he answered with distaste. 'But visual trough the windshield confirmed his species to be Glagoarth. There is absolutely no information on the database about a stolen Irken ship. He was orbiting around Earth until ten minutes ago, and his now heading towards the Damogran system.'

'Good. Kinn?'

The scientist perked her antennas, a huge smile gracing her face.

'Is there any way to retrace the human's position?'

'Oh yeah, done it already!' she said happily. 'I used the coordinates of Zim's SIR unit to locate him. Both of them were teleported to another ship earlier today.'

'What ship?'

'The Massive.'

Taty narrowed her eyes at this new information.

'This is not good,' she muttered to herself. 'Because we will have to infiltrate the Massive, then.'

'What? Wait! No! Is it too late to change my answer?' stammered Kinn.

Diplomat Blo raised his antennas, waiting for the Captain to continue.

'The laws are strict on that,' said Taty. 'We are bound to Zim until he gets his Kribliss back. And we got attacked before we could surrender the human.'

'Wait, you mean that if I had a second more to put the chain in his hand, we would be free to go?' asked Kinn with unease.

'Exactly,' said the Captain. 'But now Irken laws clearly state that we have to make everything in our power to get the Kribliss. Even infiltrate the Massive.'

A tension could be felt trough the crew. Kinn whimpered out loud, her whole body shaking with fear.

'But Captain! This is dangerous! This could get all of us dead!' she said.

'This is why I'm giving you all the chance to step back,' explained calmly Taty. 'You have the choice, Kinn.'

'Choice?!?' she strangled herself with the word. 'Please, please, don't give me choices! Last time I had one, it was when the Control Brains asked me to choose between red, purple or pink for my synthetic eyes! I panicked! You know what I said? ORANGE! What kind of eye color is that? I spent all my training years getting kicked by the other smeets!'

'Yes, I know, I was there,' muttered Taty. 'But calm down and listen. The laws only bind the ship and its crew. Anyone wishing out of this only has to quit, it will not be held against them in any way. You could do this, Kinn.'

'…You're kicking me out?!?' she wailed in a high pitched voice.

Taty groaned. There was just no talking to her scientist.

At that moment, the sliding doors opened and Zim stepped in, brow furrowed and antennas lowered. Kinn approached him and started running a hand held medical scanner over him, muttering under her breath.

'Zim,' greeted Taty with a nod. 'I trust you are feeling better?'

'I feel like a Megadoomer stepped on my head,' he whined. 'Or if I had been eating GIR's cooking. I want to curl up in a corner and diiiie…'

'The drugs effects are almost gone,' explained Kinn. 'The headache will lessen in a couple of hours, but at least you're not cry– I mean – wounded anymore!'

He pouted and turned to the Captain, crossing his arms.

'The Dib,' he simply said. 'I want it back.'

'We have no choice but to help you,' sighed Taty. 'The whole crew is under your leadership until the human is safely in your possession again.'

A creepy smile illuminated Zim's face, showing his zipper teeth in a dangerous way. His antennas popped up at the idea of giving orders to an entire crew.

'Do not uselessly endanger my crew's safety,' warned Taty. 'I would find a way to make you pay, no matter how many laws I'd be breaking.'

'Zim will take care of his new tools,' he promised with a smirk. 'Now tell Zim what you know!'

'It's bad,' warned Kinn under her breath.

'Your human was last detected on the Massive,' explained the Captain.

Zim's face showed no apparent emotion, but inside, he was shaking. The Massive? But that was where the Almighty Tallest were! Why would they want his human, after all they had already done? He thought they didn't care for the Earth or the humans or his mission! They had cut him off, forbidding to ever call them again, and let him to rot on that dirty planet… He didn't know if he had the strength to face them again. But he had no other choice but get the Dib back, no matter the costs, right? It was something he'd already decided years ago…

He stayed silent for a moment, devising a plan. The last remains of the drugs kept the rage at bay, helping him focus. There would be a time for rampage and destruction, but not now. Careful planning was necessary for a stealthy infiltration.

'Zim has an amazing plan!' he announced with a grin. 'You!' he said, pointing to Taty. 'You will play dead so the Almighty Zim can contact the Tallest and pretend to drop you off so he can enter the Massive with permission!'

'Not bad,' acknowledged Taty. 'Just the two of us should be enough, we don't need to attract unwanted attention.'

'But, but… my Captain!' interrupted Kinn. 'We want to help too!'

'Zim had another mission for you!' said the Invader. 'You will go to these coordinates and fetch the mighty warrior that lives there!'

He told her a series of numbers and Irken letters. Kinn sent her Captain a worried glance, but the Captain just nodded her assent. The scientist activated her hologram and left the ship, really unsure about the whole situation.

'The rest of you shall await further instructions,' ordered Taty.

'My Captain?' asked Miik in a neutral voice. 'Can I speak to you in private?'

Taty nodded after a short hesitation. She left Zim to plan the rest of the rescue mission with Blo and Bass and lead Miik to her quarters. As soon as she closed the door behind her, Miik advanced.

'Don't leave me out of this,' she warned.

'You will stay on Earth and await our return,' said Taty in a stern voice. 'I refuse to endanger you.'

'What, because now I'm your Kribliss?!?' she snapped.

'Exactly! It is my duty to protect you!'

The pilot stroke in anger. Taty stepped back, three deep pink gashes marring her cheek. She pressed a hand against it and turned back to Miik, her eyes burning with anger and anticipation.

'I do not need protection,' hissed Miik.

'I can see that,' growled Taty. 'Why did you strike?'

'We're in your quarters,' answered the pilot with a smirk. 'Anything goes. You told me so yourself.'

'I know that,' snapped the Captain. 'I meant why did you start this if you don't want anything to do with me anymore?'

'You need to look beaten up for your mission, don't you? I can take care of that,' she said, cracking her knuckles with a cruel smirk.

She wasn't surprised to see Taty's spider legs pin her to the wall.

'You know I never surrender easily,' answered Taty with a hungry stare.

On the bridge, Zim lifted an antenna at hearing fighting and destruction somewhere else in the ship. Blo gave it a wave of dismissal and went back to peer over the Massive's blueprints.

Some time later, the Captain came back. She was limping, had bruises and gashes all over her skin, teeth marks showing under the collar of her ripped uniform, and a most satisfied smile. Miik followed her, a smug expression gracing her features.

'…are you alright?' asked Zim with a narrowed eye.

'Never been better,' smiled Taty. 'Ready when you are, Zim.'

At that, the Invader smiled evilly.

'Establish a connection with the Almighty Tallest,' he ordered.

Kinn rang the doorbell and waited, twirling an antenna disguised as a pigtail around a finger. She had triple checked the coordinates Zim had given her, and was wondering what kind of mighty warrior she would meet inside. At the look of the house, it would be a human, but what kind of human could help them infiltrate the Massive?

The door opened suddenly and Kinn couldn't help but let a shriek of pure terror past her lips. In front of her was a young human female with purple hair and dark clothing, her angry eyes piercing a hole into Kinn's soul. The Irken whimpered at the aura of pure doom and gloom she could feel around the girl.

'I'm sorry!' she said hurriedly. 'I won't do it again!'

'…What are you talking about?' growled the human.

'I… I don't know,' admitted Kinn in a small voice. 'But I felt as if I should be apologizing for something…'

Gaz looked at the small girl on the doorstep. She was dressed in colors way too bright to be legal and had huge round eyes that gave her a stupid look. The representation of all that Gaz hated, bothering her way too early on a Monday morning. She growled. The girl whimpered, small tears pooling in her eyes.

'Why are you bothering me?' asked Gaz in a menacing tone.

'I… I was sent here by Zim,' she admitted with a tentative smile, thinking the human would understand. She thought wrong. The door slammed on her face.

'Wait!' she shrieked in panic. 'Listen, human girl! He said I would find here a mighty warrior who could help us rescue the Dib!'

The door opened slowly, Gaz' menacing eye peering at the girl.

'Where. Is. My. Brother.' She hissed.

'He… he… you have to understand! He and Zim attacked us, so we thought they were the enemy and we managed to capture the Dib-human, and I wanted to dissect him but it turns out he's really nice for a primitive species and –'

'I don't care about all this!' snapped Gaz, grabbing her by the collar. 'WHERE IS DIB?!?'

Kinn whimpered and closed her eyes, waiting for her neck to be snapped. When nothing came, she gulped and whispered:

'On the Massive. The most powerful ship of the Irken fleet.'

Gaz let her down, a small manic smile growing on her face. Her eyes came alight with challenge. Kinn, after letting out a relieved sigh, tried again:

'You have to help us, mighty warrior!' she begged. 'We are up against impossible odds, we need all the help we can get!'

'I won't be going with you,' said Gaz in a dark but somewhat smoother voice. 'The new Game Slave video game comes out today, I'm getting it after class.'

'You'd rather buy a videogame than help save your sibling-unit?' asked Kinn with a lifted holographic eyebrow.

Gaz growled again.

'…I'm sure it is a very good videogame!' muttered the scientist with a small smile.

'It is,' grunted Gaz.

'But… but, mighty warrior, we need your strength to achieve this impossible task!' she pleaded.

Something in the alien's begging and submissive stance, and how she called her Mighty Warrior with reverence and respect somewhat mollified Gaz a little bit. She thought for a second, went inside the house and came back, holding something. She threw it at the alien's feet with a smirk.

'I can let you borrow this,' she smirked. 'Work with that, girly.'

She shut the door on her face again and went back to eat breakfast.

Kinn looked at the broken metallic device on the floor, calculating the damage with a groan. The thing could be useful, but had to be drastically updated and repaired on many levels. This would take forever.

With a unhappy groan, she lifted the thing on her back and started walking back to the ship.

AN: Teehee! I managed to insert some RAPR! XD I mean, if marking someone as a Kribliss is making them your equal, of course the Tallest are going to be each other's Kribliss!

Thanks for the reviews, btw, they convince me to continue the corrections and posting :D