A/N: New chapter, ladies and gentlemen. I'm glad you all enjoyed the action last chapter, but I'm afraid we're back to plot development now. But don't worry - there'll be plenty of action very soon. Read on!

Disclaimer: I have a patent pending on Prime and the Devastators. Everything else is copyrighted to Jhonen Vasquez.

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Several hours after the Devastators had left, the city continued to burn. The smoke from the numerous fires rose miles into the air, forming into a single, gigantic column. The prevailing winds blew the smoke column out over the cul-de-sac where Zim's house had previously stood. Unlike the panic occurring in the city, the cul-de-sac was deathly silent and still. Suddenly, there was movement as the manhole lid in the middle of the cul-de-sac started to move. A hand, bearing a metal glove and covered in grime, weakly pushed the lid out of the way. A second one joined it, and together, they pushed against the sides of the manhole and pulled up… Dib!

How did Dib get there, you ask? Well, it seems that at some point, an expansion of Zim's base had burst through part of a sewer tunnel and weakened the structure as a whole. When the base had disintegrated, the unnatural caverns formed by the base had caved-in, and all that sudden added weight had caused the weakened sewer tunnel to collapse, taking Dib with it. He had then been knocked out, and carried away from the collapsing earth by the current of the sewer water. When he'd come to, he'd pulled himself out of the sewage and crawled out of the sewer.

Now, Dib crawled away from the manhole and flipped onto his back, exhausted. A huge black-and-blue bruise covered his jaw, and he assumed that a similar one was on his chest, considering how it ached. His nose wasn't broken from the kick it had taken, but it was sore and bleeding. He was also bleeding slightly from the cut he'd received on his cheek, and the multiple cuts on his back and sides from where Zim's spider legs had managed to slip past the battle suit. He was also pretty sure he'd gotten a concussion from the fall, but he didn't think it was dangerous. He'd have to get it examined.

With his self-evaluation out of the way, Dib pulled himself to his feet and looked around through cracked glasses. From the look of things, the Devastators had ignored the suburbs and only hit the city proper. Not that that made him feel any better. He'd been preparing for his final confrontation with Zim for two years, and now he had failed. And the worst part was that Zim's mocking words continued to ring in his head.

'I don't know what's more sad: You thinking you can defeat someone who's been trained to fight since the day he was born, or me for ever thinking you were a threat.'

'This isn't an invasion. It's target practice.'

'I have bigger plans now.'

At that last one, Dib frowned. "What bigger plans?" he asked, for once not caring that he was talking to himself. "Taking over Earth is all he's cared about since he got here. What else is there for him?" Dib paused as another thought came to him. "And who the Hell was he talking to towards the end of the fight?" Dib scratched his chin in thought- and flinched when that sent a jolt of pain through his body.

"Okay, first thing's first," he muttered, "Got to get home and have one of Dad's medical bots look me over." With that, he limped out of the cul-de-sac and headed towards his house.

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Zim sat in his command chair on the bridge of the Vengeance. His view of the stars was slightly obscured by his fleet of Devastators, as they floated in space, providing a protective screen while awaiting their master's next orders. However, Zim didn't seem to be in the mood to give orders. He simply sat hunched over in his chair, fingers pressed against each other, watching the Devastators through the viewport, while GIR sat on the floor playing with a squeaky moose toy.

"Master, are you feeling alright?" the computer asked, unnerved by the fact that Zim hadn't said anything for the past several hours.

"Oh, I'm fine," Zim replied, not moving, "It's just… I feel cheated. After two years of the Dib-monkey ruining my plans, I thought our final battle would be epic." Zim snorted, and then added, "But I had greater challenges when I was a smeet. That was just pitiful." Zim straightened himself up and said, "Oh well, I'll have to find a suitable opponent somewhere else. In the meantime, we have work to do elsewhere. Computer, locate the exact position of the Massive and the rest of the Armada. I think it's time we paid the Tallest a visit."

'Wait!' Prime commanded, and Zim rolled his eyes.

"What is it this time?" he muttered under his breath, so that the computer wouldn't hear him.

'If my years of military experience have taught me anything, it's this,' Prime stated, 'while the element of surprise is a helpful tool, an even better one is being able to fight on your own terms.'

Zim blinked and scratched his head. "Eh?" he asked.

Prime sighed and elaborated, 'If you attack the Armada right now, while you'll have surprise on your side, as well as technological superiority, the Tallest will still have the option of retreating. However, if you assault Irk, the Armada will have to come fight you, and there'll be no place for the Tallest to run.'

"What about the rest of the planets in the Empire?" Zim asked, to which Prime chuckled.

'They wouldn't dare fall back to a conquered world and leave the home world occupied,' he said, 'that would be a sign of weakness. The Empire's enemies would fall upon them like vultures on a carcass. They'll have to fight you at Irk… and they will lose.'

Zim didn't say anything for a moment as he considered this. To be honest, he didn't care about Irk or the Empire - he just wanted revenge on Red and Purple for fooling him. But Prime would not take "no" for an answer, and Zim was not eager to relive the pain Prime was capable of bestowing on him.

"Irken Armada located," the computer said, pulling Zim from his thoughts. He looked up at one of the computer screens, which was currently showing a map of the galaxy. A red blinking dot indicated where the Armada currently was.

'Excellent,' Prime said, 'they're in the Iban system. That's over a hundred light-years from Irk. We should have total dominance of Irk space by the time they get back.'

Zim said nothing as he continued to look at the screen. Finally, he made up his mind.

"Computer, warm up the hyperspace drives on all the ships and plot a course for Irk. We take Irk, we take the Empire." Orders given, Zim laid back down in his chair as the dark-matter generators in the core of the ship activated. The stars outside the viewport seemed to stretch as space around the Devastator fleet was pulled open, and then the fleet disappeared in a flash of light.

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Dib rubbed a towel over his body, careful to avoid the number of bandages he now bore. After having one of his father's medical robots patch him up and assure him that there were no life-threatening injuries, he'd grabbed a quick shower to wash away the filth from the sewer.

Now, he quickly got into a clean (and identical) set of clothes, and ran downstairs to the living room, where Gaz was right where he'd left her several hours earlier. "I had him, Gaz," he said as soon as he entered the room, "I had him, and then he got away."

Gaz cracked open an eye to glance at her brother before saying, "Looks more like he beat the crap out of you and then just left."

Dib glared at his sister, and was about to snap at her when there was a knock at the door. Curious, Dib walked over and opened it, only to find no one there. Dib raised an eyebrow in surprise, but simply shrugged and was about to close the door when he happened to glance down. There was a plain white envelope marked with the insignia of the Swollen Eyeball Network sitting on the doorstep. Eyes widening, Dib grabbed the envelope and quickly closed the door. "I'll be in my room," he said quickly to Gaz, and then ran upstairs.

Once in his room, Dib opened up the envelope and pulled out a DVD. He placed the DVD in his laptop and watched as the shadowy image of Agent Darkbooty appeared on the screen. "Greetings, Agent Mothman," the head of the SEN said, "First off, on behalf of the entire Network, I apologize for not believing your claims about the alien known as Zim. Perhaps if we had listened to you sooner, this disaster could have been avoided." Darkbooty shook his head and continued, "But now is not the time for hindsight. As the only person who really understands this alien, we thought we should send you this information."

The image of Darkbooty disappeared, replaced by a computer image of Earth and the Moon. A group of red dots appeared, moving up from Earth towards a smaller dot on the far side of the Moon, as Darkbooty's voice narrated, "One of our private satellites tracked the alien ships to just beyond the Moon, where they joined with another ship. A short time later, the whole fleet simply… vanished." The red dots grouped around the one near the Moon, and then blinked out of sight. Darkbooty's image reappeared on the screen. He said, "I am hereby ordering you, Agent Mothman, to find out where this alien menace has gone, and make sure it is eliminated. Good luck." The screen went black as the message ended.

Dib merely sat there, staring at the blank screen. "How the Hell am I supposed to 'eliminate' Zim?" he asked, once again talking to himself, "I don't even know where he went!" Dib placed his hands behind his back and leaned into them, deep in thought. Suddenly, he shot up with as a thought hit him. "That's it!" he shouted, jumping up. He grabbed the laptop and ran out the door.

He stopped when he reached the garage door and panted. Swallowing the nervous lump in his throat, Dib entered the garage and slowly walked towards the metal shape in the corner of the garage… Tak's ship. As he reached it, he extended a hand towards the cockpit, but stopped short as he reconsidered this course of action. After the copy of his mind had been erased from the ship, the ship's original A.I. - the copy of Tak's mind - had reestablished itself. Since then, Dib had barely gone near the ship - he wasn't suicidal, after all.

Now, however, Dib needed Irken expertise, and this was his only option. He reached into the cockpit and hit the activation button. The cockpit lit up as the ship's systems were brought online.

"All systems up and run-" the ship started to say, only to stop when it realized whom it was talking to. "Oh it's you. What do you want, human?" it asked, as the pods on its side separated and extended into claws.

Dib gulped and backed away, before saying, "I need your help."

The ship lowered its claws in surprise, and then burst out laughing. "Why would I possibly help you, Dib? I despise you."

Dib smirked at that and replied, "Because helping me this time means hurting Zim. Maybe even killing him."

The ship paused, and then retracted its claws.

"I'm listening," it said.

So, Dib quickly filled the A.I. in on everything that had happened, and finished by playing the DVD. The ship was silent for a few moments, before saying, "Zim couldn't possibly have come up with these ships - these 'Devastators', as you call them - by himself. He's not that bright."

Dib, who was now sitting on a box, blinked in surprise and asked, "Well, if he didn't make them, then who did?"

The ship extended a tentacle and tapped it against the floor in thought. Finally, it said, "You mentioned a transmission you intercepted going to Zim's base, correct? Perhaps whoever sent it is working with Zim, and sent him the blueprints for the Devastators."

Dib scratched his head in thought as he considered this. It wouldn't be the first time Zim had gotten outside help… Prisoner 777 came to mind. Another thought hit him, and he said, "Zim said he had 'bigger plans' than conquering Earth. Any idea what he meant?"

The ship's side-pods moved up then down in an equivalent of a shrug. "With this lunatic? Who knows," it said, "But it must be something big, considering the firepower he's packing."

Dib crossed his arms and lowered his head in thought. He was silent for a few minutes, before he looked up at the ship and asked, "Think you can track where he went?"

"It might be a little difficult, but it's possible," the ship replied, before asking, "You really planning on going after him alone?"

Dib's expression turned serious as he said, "I failed to stop Zim from attacking Earth, and killing so many people. I can't… I won't let him do it again somewhere else."

The ship let out a chuckle as it said, "That's very noble, Dib. Extremely stupid, but noble. Fine, I'll help you, but on one condition - when this is all over, hopefully with Zim dead, you let me leave this planet so that I can find my proper owner."

Dib thought it over, and then finally said, "Deal. So, when can we leave?"

"Go get whatever supplies you'll need, human," the ship said, "I should be able to estimate Zim's destination based on the trajectory his fleet was on when they jumped to hyperspace. Give me an hour, two at the most."

Dib nodded, and ran towards the door leading into the house. 'I'm coming, Zim,' he said in his head, 'and this time, I'm going to stop you, permanently.'

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Far from Earth, Irken Captain Floof sat calmly in the cockpit of his Shuvver, floating in orbit over Irk. Outside his viewport, he could see the other ships of the Home Defense Fleet that he commanded: Several other Shuvvers and Rippers, plus a couple of Ring Cutters. Not a very impressive force, not when compared to the main Armada, but it was really just for show. No one would dare to attack the throne world of the most powerful empire in the galaxy.

So imagine Floof's surprise when an alarm started blaring in the cockpit. He nearly fell out of his chair, before turning to his SIR unit, which was standing nearby. "What's going on?" he demanded.

The SIR saluted and said, "Master, a fleet of unknown ships has exited hyperspace seven-thousand kilometers out of Irk orbit, 70 degrees starboard."

"What?!" Floof screamed. He grabbed the controls of his Shuvver and turned his ship 70 degrees starboard. When he did, his jaw went slack. For appearing in flashes of light were three-dozen ships… very impressive-looking ships. "What the…?" was all Floof managed to say before the ships opened fire. Then, all he could do was scream as a flurry of laser bolts and rail gun projectiles ripped his ship apart.

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A/N: And I'll end that right there. Perfect buildup for the next chapter, don't you think? I'll try to have that up within the next couple of days.

Until then, Merry Christmas, and please read and review!