(I don't own IZ, sorry for the super long wait, we had a heat wave + 90 humidity which is unheard of in my regions arid climate, its like Las Vegas with Florida's humidity, which means all I wanted to do was hide in my basement, I'm not used to that kind of climate, plus I hate hot temps I'd rather be in the mountains right now it's cooler)
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Zim awoke he was still groggy, he stumbled over to Dib's bed; the Drones had already removed the bandages. Zim traced the three parallel scars, they were not very long but Dib would carry them for the rest of his life.
Dib whimpered in his sleep, Zim wondered if he would ever trust him to hold him again.
Zim watched him sleep for a few hours waving of the medical drone who asked if he wished to sleep again. Finally Dib started making small movements indicating he was coming out of the anesthesia
Dib shifted and blinked his eyes open
"Papa?"
"I'm here Dib"
"I want to go home"
"I'm afraid that can't happen the base is ruined remember"
"I want to leave the infirmary"
"You are still to groggy to walk on your own, do you trust me to hold onto you?"
"Carry me papa, I still hurt and don't want to walk"
Before he picked up Dib he checked the computer to see where his assigned room was, he was surprised to find he had diplomats quarters close to the Tallest's chambers, but then there were few quarters with two rooms.
He carried Dib all the way there; he snuggled into his arms blinking sleepily. The door opened automatically for Zim recognizing his pak signature
"Hi Master!"
Zim almost griped Dib hard with shock but prevented himself from doing so, Dib still whimpered with the increased pressure to his wounds
"Gir I thought you
self destructed with the base!"
"I like exploding! Gaz found
me and put me back together"
"It's good to see you again, but can you keep it down, Dib needs some rest which room is his"
"The golden one Red chose the colors"
Zim opened the door and was pleased that the room wasn't overly garish the room was in neutral colors with black and gold accents; it already showed signs of being lived in by a small child, it was messy.
Zim tucked Dib into bed and cleaned up the books strewn across it setting them back into shelves, then picked up the dirty uniforms from the floor
The only thing little Dib had hung up nice was his fathers trench coat, then Zim spotted the photo, Gaz must have packed some things for Dib because there was no other explanation for it being here, he remembered that fight they had both walked away from that one with scars, Zim decided to ask his son if he could make a copy when he woke up.
He closed the door softly and sought out his room, he flinched when he opened the door it was decorated with pink accents, Purple must have been the one who chose the color scheme.
He would have had some other color for his room to be decorated in, pink was garish no mater what you did with it.
He would decorate it himself later, right now still sleepy from the drugs so he just plunked himself on the bed ignoring the pink pillows and cushions.
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A com chimed beside his head, he must have fallen asleep. He pulled himself out of bed yawning and stretching before answering it
"My Tallest I…"
"Save it, it's time for your little ceremony; now get yourself up to the bridge"
"After I check on Dib, I'll be right up"
"Fine don't be to long, I hope he's felling better"
As usual the tallest cut the communication short, before Zim could get into a long winded answer, for once Zim was happy they had, he wanted to check on Dib right away.
Zim opened Dib's door, he was still sleeping.
"Dib?"
He turned over and blinked sleepily
"The Tallest need me on the bridge, if you need anything call Auntie Gaz ok, are you feeling better?"
"Ok Papa, I'm still sore and sleepy, I think I'll sleep some more"
Dib's head flopped down and he was back asleep, Zim knew that he would be sleeping allot for a while.
When he had been rescued from the lab the med drones had kept him sedated for a long time.
He was glad that they had allowed him to bring Dib home even if they insisted on keeping his pak dispensing sedatives.
He marched to the bridge and the second the doors opened the cameras were on him
"Yes, yes Zim is great, My Tallest you asked for my presence"
Zim bowed down low, Red grimaced if they could they would have substituted another Irken but Zim is too well known, at least he had the decency to grow so they wouldn't have been embarrassed over his previous shortness.
"Zim in recognition for finally conquering this planet, after your Pack transfer on Irk you will be given another planet to invade in the next impending doom"
"Really my Tallest? Thank you! I won't be as much of a disappointment on the next one I promise"
"I hope so; now go enjoy the conquered planet party"
That was the signal for every off duty Irken to go and enjoy the feast, which meant a stampede for the free snacks, even the Tallest knew to stay out of the way of that mad rush
Before the Tallest left to enjoy their catered meal Red issued one last order to the bridge crew
"Leave a few battle ships with the administrator platform and turn us back to Irk, its several months to get to home"
They could get there faster but that would be pushing fuel reserves which they had already taken a chunk out of in their mad rush to Earth, plus Red wouldn't admit it but he wanted as much time with his smeets as possible.
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Dib awoke to find he was alone aside from Gir, Zim must still be with the Tallest, he slid off the bed and winced a bit when his scars pulled, he pulled a fresh uniform from the closet his old one was ruined and had been cut off my the med drones.
The Irken trainee's uniform looked similar to the soldier's only with less and smaller black stripes, no gloves and no shoulder or neck decorations.
Dib didn't mind it, even if it was tunic length, he had teased Zim that it was a dress on several occasions, now he was wearing one similar he realized it wasn't that bad.
He walked over to Auntie Gaz's quarters with Gir in tow, the door opened automatically and he stepped into chaos,
little Rev has stolen one of Aurora's toys and was running around the nursery with Aurora in hot pursuit screaming, Gir decided this looked fun so he chased after screaming as well. Dib went to Gaz who was rubbing her temples
"I'm sorry Auntie Gaz I shouldn't have brought Gir"
"It's alright Dib; I heard you got hurt are you feeling better? If Zim does that again I swear I'll"
"No it's ok he didn't do it on purpose, he apologized several times already and I'm sure he'll apologize some more after the party, now why aren't they fearing your mighty wrath?"
He indicated the two smeets and a robot which hadn't even slowed down their mad dash around the room.
"Because my wrath is only for people that are my own size or bigger or in the case of Irkens are capable of putting up a decent fight, but I can't hurt babies."
"They don't know that all you have to do is intimidate them a little",
"I'll give it a try"
"Rev and Aurora that's it! If you two can't share nicely…"
The three stopped immediately under Gaz's fearsome stare but true to Zim's prediction Rev had Red's arrogant streak
"Or else? What are you going to do, hit us? We're the Tallest's smeets"
"That kind of attitude won't get you far in training" Dib countered, then continued when Rev gave him a defiant look.
"I was Uncle Purple's little favorite, but that didn't get me any slack, in fact I was worked harder so I could prove I was worthy and not getting promoted because of who I am. And when I go back I bet I'll be worked even harder yet because of my Papa's success"
"That's not fair, everyone should be treated the same" little Aurora complained.
Gaz took a softer tone now that the smeets looked worried
"It's the unfortunate fact of life, same as siblings always fight when they should get along and love each other, I didn't learn that lesson until my brother died, so you two should be nice, you don't know when you will be separated,"
"You might even be sorted into separate fields and won't get to see each other if your free times are different" Dib supplied
"Our daddies won't make it so that we can see each other?" Rev asked
Dib shook his head
"A machine does the sorting so it's fair and impartial"
"But it's not fair if we can't see each other" Aurora whined
"The machine won't know that it just sorts you into whatever field you will be good at"
A knock sounded at the door interrupted Dib, he was about to tell them about his own sorting experience.
Gaz opened it up, several table headed drones marched in and a few service drones unloaded the food from the trays onto their table
A taller drone spoke
"Since you are unable to attend, the Tallest have sent over a selection of food from the feast for their children, nephew and his relations."
The Professor came in as the drones were leaving.
"I was told the meal would be served here, good to see you again children"
"Yay food" Gir, Aurora and Rev chimed at the same time
"Not yet you three don't, I'd like to hear apologies first"
Rev who was quite hungry went first
"I'm sorry I stole your toy Aurora, and I'm sorry for talking back Auntie Gaz"
"Good now Aurora "
"I'm sorry for screaming and running"
Gir looked clueless for a second
"Oh I'm sorry for screaming also, can I have the burritos"
"Good now lets eat"
She passed Gir the burritos which he happily and messily ate.
The food was a mix of human and Irken foods which they could all eat, there were many delicacies which Dib had never seen before, and he guessed it was stuff usually reserved for the high table.
There was so much food that they were soon all full, with lots left over.
Gaz packed it all away into the storage unit, Gir protested but even Gaz knew of the machines eating habits, he could literally eat them out of house and home if he were allowed to eat as much as he wanted.
The food was for later if the party ran late and the children got hungry later.
Dib was getting sleepy again he figured his pak had just administered another dose of medication, he tried hiding the fact he was sleepy but Gaz noticed that Dib was having trouble keeping his head up and his antenna were drooping tiredly
"Come on Dib you can sleep in the spare room for a bit, you two will have to keep it quiet, Dib has been hurt recently and needs his sleep"
She carried Dib to the room by the time she got there he was already asleep, she set him gently down on the bed the little smeets had followed her in and were peering at the sleeping Dib
"Why is he not moving" Rev asked
"That's what happens when you sleep"
"Is it fun?"
"It's enjoyable, especially when you get good dreams"
"What's dreams?" Aurora asked quietly
"It's like watching a program only you are in it"
"I want to sleep and dream" Rev said as he climbed up on the bed and found a spot near Dib
"Me too" Aurora whined not wanting to be left out followed her brother
And much to Gaz's astonishment once they settled in their breathing slowed and then steadied indicating they were truly asleep and not pretending. Gir curled himself at the foot of the bed and fell asleep as well
She tucked the trio in, when she returned to the main room she was a bit astonished to find the Tallest had come in
"Where are our smeets? I would have expected them to be tearing up the place."
"Have a look they are sleeping; I didn't know Irkens could do that"
Red and Purple peered into the room and sighed in unison, Red spoke first
"I was beginning to wonder when they would catch on to that trick, Irkens don't need to sleep but we can if we wish it's better than being bored for hours on end when nothing is happening"
"We had thought we might have to get them a pet so they could see that other creatures needed sleep" Purple sounded relived that a pet was no longer needed.
"The pain meds that Dib is on made him fall asleep, and they wanted to join in, I certainly wasn't about to argue so long as they don't disturb him"
"I think that Dib will be a good influence on them, since he has already had some training he is better disciplined yet he is still smeet like so they can relate to him"
Red spoke as though he was quite proud and fond of Dib
"He helped me break up a minor quarrel between them without the need for spanking; Rev needs a bit of discipline and talk about how just because he's your son he's not going to get away with things"
Gaz was a bit worried about suggesting discipline; she had found that the parents usually didn't like being told that they weren't being strict enough, the only reason she babysat was to get extra money for her games, Dad was rich but he believed that his kids needed to learn how to make money if they wanted stuff that went above their generous allowance, She had no idea where Dib had gotten his extra funds maybe it was selling blurry photos to those stupid paranormal magazines.
"You have our permission for minor discipline, sitting him forcibly in a corner a few times might help. Oh and we will get you the book Irken military discipline for smeets, I heard you know some of our language, but we will get you a translator disk for you and I'm sure Dib will help" Purple said, Gaz sighed in relief
"Oh and I'll also say just because Aurora is a little sweetie it doesn't mean she shouldn't be introduced to a little discipline, it will help build her character" Red added
"I won't argue with you I've seen cute kids completely spoiled rotten by their parents."
"If everything is under control we will go back to the party, call us when they wake or we will pick them up after your own sleep cycle, it's their first time sleeping aside from their birthing days so they should be out for about 12 hours or so plenty of time for you to get your 8 hours" Red said as he opened the door
"Thanks it's appreciated"
"No thank you for smeet watching, things have been hectic of late but the trip back to Irk should be quiet" Purple sounded like he was looking forward to the break
"Wait when are we going?"
"We are already en-route; if you need to communicate to any human friends you can do so, it may take a while as the database of the inhabitants hasn't been fully compiled yet"
Purple told her
"How is that happening?"
"Well mainly by the government's databases but it has proven to be inaccurate, So we got the humans to come to registration centers, where they were chipped and given free stuff, like communications equipment, it's a universal fact people love free stuff, so they flocked to the centers" Red gloated
"A chip like the one you implanted in my neck so the ships doors recognize me" Gaz said pointing to the back of her neck
"The same, without it you would be helpless in the Irken Empire, although you and you brother both were clever enough to bypass most of Zim's and Tak's equipment, how did you do that anyways" Red's eyes narrowed
"it's simple you just disconnect the recognition system and wire together a few parts so that it thinks it's getting a Irken code, kind of like hot wiring a car not all that difficult. Humans are known for being clever about bypassing security systems you might want to watch out for that"
"We will tell the administration platform about it" Red turned to leave but ran into a short maintenance drone
"Sirs I'm glad I found you, there's a human in the loading bay, with a stolen Irken Ship."
(A cookie to whoever figures out who it is)