A/N: Alright, sorry for not updating in a while, but I got kinda distracted by a ton of stuff over the summer. Plus, my beta reader's starting a Portal/Zim crossover and I'm helping her with that. But hey, you get Gir and a really weird metaphor in this one, so I'd say it's worth the wait.

Also, some have you may be wondering who the heck drew that picture of Vorty Tak. That was my beta reader, so she's awesome. Another thing that's awesome is that two people from Malaysia viewed this fic in the past month. Dear Malaysian readers: You're freaking awesome. Don't ever stop being awesome, okay? That goes to all my readers out there, too, whether you're from New York, London, Moscow, Tokyo, or any other city that's freaking awesome because it has one of my readers in it.

Disclaimer: I claim dis. I do not, however, claim ownership of the Invader Zim franchise.


"Proximity warning. Planet ahead."

"Uugh. Finally." Tak reached for the controls and initiated the landing sequence. Soon, she'd be back on Earth, and she hoped there was a place in a location convenient to her. She initiated a scan of the surface, watching as various suitable areas appeared. As luck would have it, there was one right where she wanted. She dialed in the coordinates and waited for her ship to land.

The ship touched down after about an hour, and she climbed out. If a human happened to stumble across her, which would be unlikely given the time of night, it would be fine. After all, she was there to see if the humans would be open to an alliance with the Resisty. Speaking of which, she hadn't told Lard Nar about her incident or the girl, who she'd learned was named Nevi Miho. She had, however, told him that Shloonktapooxis was with her, and he'd reprimanded the cone. Her hand was healing up pretty well, too, but it still kind of hurt to use it.

She started to design their base, trying to make it so it stood out. Then again, some humans couldn't find their own home if it came up to them and ate them, so she did what she thought would work. After she was done, she threw the base seed out into a patch of dirt, where it drilled into the ground and sprouted into a candy pink house. It wasn't as hideously tacky on the inside, though. She went to the mission control and contacted her leader. "Sir! Reporting in from Earth. My travel here was uneventful at most, with an... incident along the way. I'll be scouting the area, though chances of a human being awake are unlikely."

Lard Nar nodded. "That's good news. Carry on with what you were doing." As the transmission ended, Tak became worried that Zim would pick it up somehow. Well, if he comes after me, I'm sure I could handle him. She thought as she went back out again, wondering if it wasn't a good idea to leave Shloonk alone for more than two seconds.

She traversed through the streets, with no set destination in her mind. After a while of meeting nobody, she realized she was heading towards Zim's house. As she turned, a familiar squeaky voice rang out from behind her, and she groaned.

"Hi lady!" A pair of faux fur-clad arms encircled her waist. She pushed the robot away as if he was burning hot, not wanting to interact with him, and ran. Gir cackled and ran after her, dodging the random things she picked up and threw at him. Eventually, she tripped on a branch that was laying haphazardly in the road. He gasped. "Oh! Lady, are you hurt?" Instead of running to her, though, he ran to a nearby trashcan and climbed in. "I'm gonna get help, 'kay?" With that, he tipped the can over and rolled down the street, eliciting a cuss word from somebody who was trying to sleep.

"Well, there goes that nuisance..." Tak said as she got up and brushed herself off. She walked on until she reached Dib's house. There he was, perched upon his room, listening to the stars, and he seemed excited. Had he been listening to her? For some reason, she felt nervous approaching him, but before she could decide to leave he spotted her.

"Tak! Is... is that you?" He cried, then slid down a waterspout. The boy examined her closely, then grinned. "It is! Oh, I'd thought you'd never come back! I mean, I picked up your transmission, but I thought I was just dreaming!" He embraced her, and she returned the favor, though something was bothering her.

"How... how did you recognize me?"

"Oh, uh... Zim gave me a video of the process. It happened on my birthday." He explained. "Come on!" He said as he dragged her inside. "You might want to see this!" As the two passed the couch, a small groan of annoyance emanated from the furniture. Gaz didn't seem to care that there was an alien in the house. Instead, she looked angry that Dib was interrupting her precious TV time. The boy ignored her and continued up to his room, sat down in a rather nice chair, and started clicking and typing at his computer. "Here! It's your ship!" He swiveled the monitor to face Tak. "Well, it's not legally yours, since by Irken legal standards, mind transferring is a form of deactivation -"

"Wait, what?" Tak interrupted him. "What's this about deactivation?"

"Well, the broadcast explained that since the PAK has no mind in it, it can't function, which is very similar to deactivation. The comatose bodies of the former Irkens are then kept for experimentation, and safeguarding hardware is placed inside the PAKs to prevent their former owners – or anyone else, for that matter – from getting back in."

I could have died at the hands of those... roving scientists! Tak thought in horror. Or at least been trapped in a computer. She shook the ugly thought from her head and continued Dib's explanation. "I remember now... on the event of a deactivation, a the Irken's property is instantly relinquished to the Empire. Dib... if any Irken finds out you have ties with the Resisty, you could be in for a lot of false accusations."

"The Resisty... from what I've heard in transmissions I managed to get from Zim, they're a criminal organization that is opposed to the Empire... are you one of them?" He asked with a grin.

"We prefer the term freedom fighters, but yes." Tak said.

"Oh, man, that is so cool!" Dib said giddily. "Who you were talking to? Was that your leader? Can I talk to him? Can I can I can I?" he gushed.

"Well, I suppose you could, but -" He dashed out before she could finish. "Hey! Get back here!" She ran after him and grabbed him by the jacket. "As I was about to say, he might not like the fact that the first human he talks to is a child."

"Oh, well, I could patch him through to my dad, I guess..." Before Tak could disapprove, he added: "Who could tell someone more important then him..."

"Alright, alright! I'll let you talk to Lard Nar!" Tak growled. He squealed a little and dragged her to the garage. It kind of stank in there, but she ignored the odor as Dib crawled into her old ship's cockpit. "Now, I'll warn you – that's an Irken signal that sends out. He may ignore it."

"No it doesn't – I have this thing that changes the signal type. I used it to mess with Zim a couple times." He snickered a little, then continued. "I made a custom signal for Earth, so he will most definitely answer."

"Oh, interesting... would you be willing to share the schematic for this?" The device could be very helpful. The Resisty occasionally had problems with Irkens listening in on their transmissions, so if it was disguised as an Irken signal, the Empire wouldn't bother.

"Oh, of course!" He popped the control pad off the dashboard and shoved it towards her. "Do you mind contacting him?"

Tak stared in amazement. Not only had he made a signal-masking device, but he'd managed to make the control pad removable as well? Not bad, for a child on a planet that was a bit behind on its technology! "Not at all." She quickly plugged in the necessary info, then handed it back to him. "Nice job on that, by the way."

"On... what? The removable control pad? You had a couple wireless jacks laying around, so I used those." Dib said as the transmission waited to be answered.

"Wait, I did? Oh, yeah, I was going to try something with those and MiMi, but..." she dropped off as the transmission was answered. Dib's face lit up and he squealed a little when Lard Nar appeared. "Dib... remember what you called him for." She reminded him.

"Oh, uh, right. Um... hello, uh, guy..." He said, visibly flustered.

Lard Nar didn't seem amused. "Tak... who is this?"

Tak groaned. "This is Dib, he begged me to let him talk to you. Let's just say I owe him a lot."

"Oh... I see... but his head, it's so -"

Dib snapped out of his blissful mood. "My head is not big!" He screamed with the fury of a thousand teenage girls who had been denied the chance to see their favorite boy band.

"Whoa, whoa! Calm down!" Lard Nar shouted. "I didn't mean to – I'm sorry! I had no idea humans were sensitive about that!"

"Look, it's fine. I'll just put you through to my dad right now, and maybe we can talk later." He punched at the control pad angrily and then crossed his arms once the transmission had been passed along. "I don't think I like him very much."

"Just because he accidentally insulted you?" Tak asked. "He's from another planet, Dib. He can't be expected to know what sets you off and what doesn't."

The boy sighed. "I guess you're right." He looked at her sadly. "But it... it isn't that big, is it?"

"No, of course not!" She said quickly. "Your head is perfectly proportioned to the rest of your body!"

"Thanks. So what now?"

"Hmm... do you happen to have a certain video game?" She had the sudden urge to play it.

"Uh, I might. Which one?" She told him. "Oh, the sequel to that came out recently! I have it installed on my computer – you can make a file for yourself if you want."

"Thank you." They both went upstairs, and started up a new game. After watching the opening cutscene, Tak chose the race she wanted to use. Dib peeked over her shoulder. "Argonian, huh? That's a pretty good choice!"