Dib was the first one to burst into the laboratory, "They said the Tallests wanted him, which means they went back to his planet."

Runa hurried after him, "Wh—how do you know this?"

"I spent years researching Zim and everything about him!" Dib made his way to the ship. "I learned his language while hacking into his base's computers, I know about it all. The Tallests are his leaders, and Irk is his home planet. They're aliens whose sole purpose is to invade and conquer."

Runa stopped when she realized what he was doing, "You mean…we're going after them? You want—"

Dib turned back to her, not really able to read her stoic expression, but the words that wavered said it all. "We'd be too late if we chased them by ship. I know of Zim's orbital station and they have teleporters. All we need is to use his camouflage machine to look like the other Irkens."

Runa was having a hard time keeping up with Dib, since it seemed like since the capture and till now he had covered all the bases. He was a quick thinker under pressure, something she wasn't. Runa felt like she wanted to destroy everyone in her sight when it happened, until Dib smacked her out of it. She raised her hand to feel the still sore spot, wincing.

"Whatever. If it works then I'm going with you." She finally decided, following him into the ship. It didn't take Dib long to figure out the controls, and when it was ready the ground above them opened up like double doors, the ship ascending from the field beside their home and making its way into the atmosphere.

Runa sat down, bothered. She watched Dib do everything with such finesse and felt envy. He was confident, up to the point where he could take control of any situation. She felt frustrated, not being able to do anything but follow Dib's instructions. The worst part of it was how she felt when Avery was taken; how she wanted to kill everyone she saw. Dib was quick to act on that and she was too embarrassed to thank him for it. It felt like a panic attack, a last resort feeling after everything went wrong.

Although she never had that feeling before she met Zim. Before him she forced herself to live in a happy ignorance after what she and Avery went though. She missed that, pretending that everything was okay. But when she met Zim she was forced into the reality of her situation, of what she was. Everything came back to the point where she felt conflicted about everything. She tried to let herself go with Zim, in fact he encouraged it. But outside that control… it was hard.

She was made to be a puppet, and it was difficult to attempt otherwise.

"—na." A hand shook her shoulder, jarring Runa out of her daze. She looked up to see Dib staring down at her. "We're here."

That fast? She nodded slightly and got up, following him to the docking bay. Dib was able to get them inside, and suddenly Runa was filled with flashbacks. This was the ship…

Dib was pushed aside, his glasses almost falling off as Runa ran past him. He quickly adjusted them and followed her. "Runa?"

"I've been here." She kept running, knowing exactly where everything was. She led Dib down multiple hallways and to an elevator, where Dib had to catch his breath when he reached it.

When the elevator stopped Runa led him to the teleportation bay, though not as fast as before. Dib could tell by her body language that he struck a chord. Wordlessly they both entered the room and Dib found the disguise-pod.

"You first." Dib activated it, ushering her inside. Runa just stood there, closing her eye and taking a deep breath. When Dib found an Irken disguise good enough he pressed the button. The machine closed up like a capsule, lighting up and a yelp of pain was heard before it opened up and she tumbled out. She looked so much like an Irken that Dib had to do a double take.

She blinked, green eyes glancing down at her new skin and she flinched. "Three…" She moved her hand around, amazed.

Dib chuckled at that and picked out a disguise for himself, getting inside and screaming when it closed up. Runa watched as an amber eyed Irken came out of the pod, wincing and holding his arm. "Why didn't you tell me that hurt so badly?"

She shrugged, "Pain tolerance."

Dib sighed and waved her along, stepping over to the teleporters and reading each one's destination point. "Foodcourtia…Conventia…Earth…The Massive—eh? This one is broken …Irk! There, this one."

Runa looked wearily at the machine, "Are you sure?"

Dib only smiled, "What's the worst that can happen?"

They were thrown in a cell.

"UNLEASH ME!" Zim shouted from the cell, his hands shaking the bars until something akin to a cattle prod was stuck through, zapping him back.

Avery sat back against the wall, tired of Zim and not even finding amusement from what just happened. "Just sit down. There's nothing we can do."

Before they could kill each other some sort of gas was leaked in the tube they shared, knocking them out for who knows how long. When they came to the planet Irk was in sight, and Zim felt a mixture of emotions. Avery felt them, as they were connected. At first he felt almost sorry for him.

Now he wanted to shove him out of the airlock.

"At least the other one is quiet." Rhas mumbled, taking a seat by the door. "When will the Tallests get here anyway?"

Kyo was having too much fun with the prod, laughing. "I sent a message, it should be any time."

"STOP-" Zap. "STOP IT-" Zap zap. "ZIM WILL-" Zaaaaaaaaaaap.

Avery felt a migraine coming and groaned, glaring at Zim. "Shut up."

That was when Zim felt a light shove and suddenly he was slammed into the wall. "AVERY!" He shouted, hissing in pain. When he was able to move again he crawled over to him and grabbed him by the collar. "You…you're a horrible slave!"

Avery reached up and touched the spot between his eyes. "If you call me your slave again you'll go through the wall."

The way Zim backed off after that had Kyo and Rhas laughing hysterically. "This is the best show I've ever gotten!"

"It's a shame Zim has to die." Rhas cackled, "I would pay to watch that thing do it for us!"

When the two Irkens were also slammed into the wall the laughter was cut off quickly. Avery had enough, and Zim knew it. He grinned. "Avery. Get us out of this cell."

Before Avery could lash out at Zim for ordering him he felt the chains of the bond tighten and he snarled, the rage at Zim was then directed to the bars and they were ripped apart. He stepped out of the cell, watching Zim march past him and kick the door open.

"G—get—help. Rhas!" Kyo cried out before letting exhaustion take him.

Sirens were buzzing overhead, but it didn't really bother Avery. "Alright Zim, just show me where to go. I'll accept this…contract…" He glared at the Irken in front of him, "…until we get back to Earth."

Zim was chuckling to himself, no… he didn't want to go back to Earth just yet. He had a weapon, and if he played his cards just right, he would be able to get his revenge. His plan hadn't gone exactly as he wanted it, but this worked just fine.

Those thoughts of course, echoed into Avery, and he couldn't help feel the emotions. He felt like he was swimming in wrath, almost drowning in it. They were too strong and he couldn't think straight.

'Yeessss drown in the anger, be engulfed in his fury.' He could hear Zim's voice, but it wasn't Zim talking. 'You of all people know what it feels like to want revenge. Let it take over.'

Avery shut his eyes, stopping in his tracks and faintly hearing the actual Zim scream at him in a panicked voice. Soldiers were gathering around them, but Avery couldn't hear it. His mind was storming, the heat of the emotions were boiling over and,

"Avery!"

Avery screamed, his arms flying out and causing the soldiers on both ends to be flung backwards into the wall. He opened his eyes and could have sworn he noticed a pleased grin on Zim's face before he turned to extend his spider legs and jump off the balcony. Avery followed him with a groan.

"What the hell is going on?" Red cried out, watching soldiers run towards the cell block. "Zim ESCAPED?" He pushed past the wave of fleeing Irkens and caught sight of Zim and the human, his eyes moving to the human when the ground began to shake. He caught onto the railing and grinned at the sight, "Meekrob…"

Domino almost fell over, being caught in the panic. "Re-RED!" He lost the Tallest when he extended his spider-legs and leapt off the balcony. "RED, DAMNIT!"

Red was too distracted with whatever was fighting for Zim. They were backed into a corner, something Zim didn't think through. Avery was keeping them away, but it wasn't much.

Runa held onto Dib's hand as the ground was shaking. "That's Avery!" She cried out as they fought past the waves of Irkens running the other way. They ran through the hallways, following the tremors as they increased in volume.

"Zim has to be there." Dib shouted, looking along the railings to the floors below, scanning the area until he spotted Zim and Avery surrounded by guards, but none getting near the two. "There Runa, over there!" He pointed, and Runa grabbed onto him, "Hold on!" She leapt off the side, taking a screaming Dib with her.

Domino saw the two Irkens leaping down, noting right away that they weren't Irkens at all. No sane Irken wouldn't go without their PAK extensions. He had to get down there. He extended his own appendages and threw himself off the side, rushing after the two Irkens. If they were Resisty then this was the worst time.

Red descended down before the soldiers, grinning at Zim as his legs receded back into his PAK. "Hello, Zim."

The sight of the Tallest made his antennae twitch. "Avery ATTACK!" Zim said without thinking. Avery, too drunk on the Irken's emotions, held onto the wall. The wall began to crack immediately, embedded beams flying out at the Tallest. Red quickly deflected them with a force field and hurried over to the Hybrid, pulling out a small syringe from inside his chest plate and quickly injecting him in the neck.

Before Avery could attack again he felt weak and his sight went dark. Zim was left all alone when Avery passed out in front of him. Soon enough Zim was face to face with his former leader, the taller one grinning menacingly at him. "I see three offences that lead to death, Zim; increasing your height by illegal means, attempted assassination of a Tallest and genocide on Irk. Oh, you've killed your last Tallest, Zim."

The last part caught Zim off guard, "Eh?"

Red grabbed him by the antennae, "Guards, take that human to the test rooms. Zim is to be put in the more secure cells. His execution is in one night's time."

"Avery!"

"Zim—"

They were so close, but something grabbed them both by the arm and pulled the two into a dark lit hallway at the very same time Red reached Zim.

Runa was about to pull her weapon out but Domino smacked her hand away, "Shh, you'll give yourself away."

Dib was completely calm under the circumstances, "—the purple Tallest?" His eyes went wide. "Why are you—"

'He must have meant Purple…' Domino sighed and shook his head, "Look. Whoever you two are it's not time to do anything heroic. Red is off the deep end and he might have you both executed for just getting in the way."

Runa wanted to get out of there and save Avery, but was pulled back. "Let go of me!"

"Listen!" He hissed, holding them tight. "Keep your disguises on. Anything other than an Irken on this planet right now is a target for experiments. If you want to save Zim or that human over there then you're going to have to trust me." He pulled out a paper and wrote on it, handing it to Runa. After a moment of staring at it she gave it to Dib.

"Where is this?"

"There's a map on every floor of this place, just meet me there." Domino got up and left them to join Red, trying to keep him from hurting Zim anymore than he already had.

Runa bit her lip. "Do we…trust him?"

Dib stared at the paper. Thermal paper…so they wrote with their own claws… "He knew we aren't Irken. I say he knows something we don't." He grinned reassuringly at her. "Hey we're not dead, so it's a good shot huh?"

Runa sighed and watched helplessly as they dragged her brother away.