Disclaimer: I do NOT own Invader Zim. Don't sue me unless you're gonna sue all the other 8,000 and whatnot other fanfiction writers!

Day 179: The Dwelling Shift

Zim sat in the front seat of the VOOT, occasionally looking down at his gloved fingers, his ruby eyes glancing awkwardly around the Irken spacecraft. Everything had been quiet this entire day inside the VOOT of Insanity, as Zim often referred to it. Even GIR had been silent, distracting his ever-busy mouth with snacks from the planet they had just departed from. Nobody was quite sure how long they had been traveling now. "Almost six months." Dib had predicted. Surely Irk was only a few hundred light-years away. If so, then at the rate they were going, the group would arrive at their destination in less than two days. Then, Zim could finally return home, turn in the humans as prisoners aboard the Massive, live as a civilian (or maybe even an Elite soldier) on his home planet. Of course he would have his SIR unit dismantled and melted down, for the safety of everyone, including himself. Whatever the Tallests wanted to do with the human prisoners was up to them, probably enslaving them or just executing them publicly. What an entertaining thing to go and watch. He could practically hear the people chanting his name in adoration, the smeets looking up at him with wide eyes.

"Zim! Zim! Zim!"

"Zim!"

"ZIM! Hey! Zim!" Dib yelled from the back seat, pulling the Irken out of his lovely daydream.

"What is it, Dib-filth?" Zim snapped. Dib rolled his eyes, tired of the ridiculous nicknames given to him.

"What planet is that? The one we just passed?" Dib asked, pointing out the window at a planet with a bright pink surface, red clouds swirling around the entire thing. One giant landmass could be seen from the distance, a few small islands everywhere around the edges. Zim pressed his face against the glass of the window and gasped.

"Its…Irk!" Zim replied, relief filling his voice.

"Oh, great, more stupid aliens." Gaz muttered to herself from the seat next to Dib.

"We cannot go there, though. First we must find the Massive so I can finally get rid of your ever-tiring presence in my VOOT. There you will be kept prisoner, most likely for all of your pathetic human life, so I suggest you make yourself as comfortable as possible here." Zim said sharply. "Computer, bring up the coordinates of the Massive at the moment."

A hologram appeared out of the dashboard of the VOOT, showing a graph, marking certain stars and planets with dots. The graph kept narrowing itself down to the position of the Massive, reaching a point where there was more detail in the dots, showing which stars were closest to the Massive's location. Finally the graph showed the large red ship next to a few planets, moving quite fast towards the VOOT's location. About three hundred light-years away, and closing in fast.

"Computer, take us to the Massive!" Zim said, the hologram disappearing and the VOOT lurching to a sudden start, sending all of the passengers strait into their seats.

The ship was going extremely fast, stars shooting past in clean white lines. It looked like one of those sci-fi Earth films, the main character (captain of the ship) giving out commands to a computer program, having his crew there with him…not to be imprisoned, but to be his trusted counterparts. That was certainly not the case on this ship.

"Computer!" Zim said shakily as the ship pinned him to his seat, "Approximately how much time until we reach the Massive?"

"Estimated two Earth-hours until the Massive is reached." Computer replied in a bored, monotone fashion.

Excellent, Zim thought, only two more hours to tolerate humans.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo

Tak sat in her cell tiredly. She looked around, having that odd felling like she'd been forgotten something all day. She turned and looked at the wall behind her, realizing what it was. She bent down and picked up a small rock, remembering when the rock had been large and healthy, not tiny and worn down. She turned back to the wall and made a diagonal slash across a group of four tally marks. That made one hundred and eighty even. One hundred and eighty days of being locked in her solitary confinement. All thanks to that horrible small Irken.

"Zim…" Tak growled at the wall, throwing down her "chalk". A few bits of it chipped off and scattered across the filthy floor, leaving some dust in its place. She huffed and stared at the marked-up wall, counting again to make sure that she had the right amount of days. While counting somewhere in the mid-seventies, a light brighter than anything she had seen in awhile came from the wall where the door was supposed to be. Inside the frame of the door, a tall shape stood, slightly slumped over. The dark shape walked closer inside of the cell, grabbing Tak and cuffing her hands in a rapid motion.

"W-what's happening, Vio?" Tak said, being shoved out of her previous cell, down the halls of the Massive.

"It's Elite Vio, to you, Ms. Pricky-puss. And by Tallests orders, due to 'such good behavior and cooperation', you have been reassigned to your old cell #777. Quit dragging your giant feet and get a move on, the scuffle from those monstrous things may cause a power-outage." Vio chuckled to herself, shoving Tak faster down the halls, to where other prisoners were held, a few Vortians giving them death glares as they passed. This all seemed pathetic to Tak, the bossy orders and crude remarks being given to her. Being in prison for so long dampened Tak's flame, covered it in soot, to be rediscovered at a later time. That time was now. Tak growled to herself, and came to an abrupt stop, causing Vio to nearly slam right into Tak's back. She stumbled back, furious at her prisoner.

"I said to move it, little bit-"

"No! I'm tired of this! Keep me in here as long as you want, you'll never change my mind, do any damage. I'll always be sharp as a tack (a/n: no pun intended) and I'll always try to escape, no matter what you say or how you hurt me! Go on, beat me up and drag me to my old cell if you have to, but I won't give myself up to you anymore!" Tak screamed, causing the entire prison wing of the Massive to quiet down to an eerie level. Vio collected herself and drew herself up, making her seem taller than usual.

"Very well, if I must." Vio said calmly. Both stood in a fighting stance in the middle of the hall. Vio decided to skip the physical violence and resort just on weapons. She reached and opened her PAK to grab the first weapon she could find that was gun-shaped. She grabbed something and shot it at Tak, hitting her arm, sending her sprawling on the floor in pain. She screamed something at Vio; it wasn't quite distinguishable in between her screams and cries of pain.

"Oh, quit being such a drama queen." Vio said, standing next to Tak's head as she loomed over her. Quite a bit of green Irken blood was pooling around Tak, gushing out at an alarming pace. When Tak didn't shut up like Vio wanted, she did something that was considered a crime if it wasn't inflicted on a criminal herself. Vio smashed her heel into Tak's antenna. The most sensitive place on an Irken's body. The pain was far too intense for even this reawakened and revised Tak, causing the female to pass out.

Vio stepped away and rolled Tak over, grabbing her from the handcuffs and pulling her up to where she was half standing, half slouching. Vio muttered something along the lines of "…Irk you're heavy…" before turning to some of the other prisoners and projecting her voice.

"This, you prison garbage, is what happens when you decide to cross the Irken Empire, as you all will soon come to find."

With that, Vio dragged Tak down the hall to cell number 777 and threw her inside to bleed.

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Aboard the Bridge of the Massive stood the two Tallests along with a crew of hard-working Irkens typing away on their monitors. Red and Purple stood there, or at least Red did, analyzing data on the current progress of Operation Impending Doom II. Purple was somewhere in the back of the bridge, digging through a pile of snacks looking for some nachos. Over half of the universe was property of the Irken Empire, This put a grin on the face of Red. Purple gasped, catching the attention of Red.

"What is it?" Red asked irritably.

"We…we're out of nachos!" Purple said sadly, hanging his head in defeat. Red sighed and knew what had to be done.

"Okay, who took his nach—"

"Sirs! Pardon my interruption, but it seems as though there is a medium sized unidentified object heading for us at an unsafe pace. The scanners are saying that the object is of Irken origin." one of the drones sitting in a seat said, unsure of what to do. Red sighed again.

"Put it on the screen, full magnification." he ordered. The drone nodded and pushed a few buttons before an image appeared on the screen of a map, the Massive represented with a red dot, the "foreign" object represented with a smaller blue dot. It said that the distance was approximately 250 light years away from the Massive.

"Zoom in on the object, find out what it is exactly." Red commanded. The map zoomed in closer and a few labels popped up next to the object in Irken text, telling what it was and when it was built, but not who was piloting it.

"A VOOT, sir, of the early Defatz colonies on Vort, designed for battle against Irken enemies, serial number 7609982-435674. It can't tell who is piloting this model, though there is more than one passenger inside the ship." the drone responded.

"Find out if the serial number is registered by any Irken invader pilots."

Some clicking was heard in the background as everyone on the Bridge stopped their work to see what was going on, all eyes on the drone who was researching the object. When the clicking stopped, Red turned around to see why it was taking so long for the drone to speak up and say what it was.

"Well?"

"Sir I'm not entirely sure you're going to like this…" the drone hesitated.

"I demand that you tell me who it belongs to." Red said in a low voice, almost a growl. The drone finally nodded and hit a button, which projected a name on the screen.

Invader Zim.

(A/N: Yay, I squeezed in another chapter! Maybe a couple more before school starts, then I will probably only be able to post on weekends. One more chapter till Zim and Tak actually like INTERACT. And last chapter I DID say I would hold a contest, you get, yet again, THREE chapters to post your entry. Here's the contest:

To get your own OC into my story! Two categories: one male Irken, one female Irken. NONE OF THAT HALF IRKEN, HALF VORTIAN/HUMAN/WHATEVER MADE UP SPECIES YOU MAY HAVE CREATED CRAP! I will only accept FULL Irkens. Each person can enter each category once, and I will not pick both characters from one person only. You must provide the following:

Name:

Age:

Gender:

Height:

Eye color:

History:

Personality:

Rank or Position: (ex: Foot soldier, Armada, Elite soldier, Invader, etc. NO Tallest!)

Physical Description:

That's all for now! Yes, whoever wins WILL have a place in the sequel. Any question, ask me! CRAZY JAKY, IF YOU DON'T GIVE ME A STORY IDEA I WILL JUST WRITE DOWN A RANDOM STORY! That's all, don't forget to review, bai!