Disclaimer: I don't own Invader Zim, Jhonen Vasquez does. I only own this story and if anything I write resembles anything that already exists, it is coincidence and I don't mean to copy anything.

Were you all surprised from the last chapter? Probably not, but I couldn't stop laughing from the look of shock I imagined on Zim's face; PRICELESS! Well I hope you like this next one and I love all your reviews so keep them coming. As always, ENJOY!

Chapter 21

Zim couldn't believe what he was hearing. Tallest Spork and Miyuki were the ones that made me? I'm the last that can use it? Zim couldn't think straight. How could this be?

"You really do take after them, Zim. You have Tallest Miyuki's temper and Tallest Spork's ego and knack for getting into trouble." Red laughed.

"It's probably the reason you have gotten so tall, too." Purple added.

"Why didn't you tell Zim this from the start?" Rayne asked as she glanced at the baffled look on Zim's face. She had never seen him like that before; he almost looked like he was a statue from how stiff he was. Zim snapped himself out of his shock when he heard her question and focused back on his leaders.

"We needed Zim to become a skilled soldier before we gave him something as important as Project Z1. Not to mention that we needed approval from the Control Brain. To be honest, we never thought we would ever need to use it." Red explained while leaving out the fact that they never thought Zim would become competent either.

"Was that the requirement to get the project in the first place; that he was a skilled soldier?" Rayne asked, recalling when the two Irkens first received the devise.

"No, the requirement was that Zim was present at the time of retrieval. It was used as a failsafe to make sure it wasn't stolen, just in case Red and I were captured." Purple corrected.

Zim was about to say something when they heard a crash over by the door. Dib, Gaz and Gir accidently opened the door and fell on top of each other on the ground.

"Thanks a lot, Gir. I said not to touch the controls." Dib grumbled as Gir just smiled back at him.

"Were you three eavesdropping on our conversation?" Zim growled, glaring at the three intruders.

"No, we were just-" Dib started with his hands waving defensively.

"We was spying on master and pretty lady." Gir blurted out. Zim glared harder at Dib. Dib laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head. Zim stepped towards Dib, looking like he was going to murder the poor boy.

"Now Zim, let's talk this over. It's not like I haven't done it before." Dib said trying to calm the Irken down; not surprisingly, his comment didn't help. Zim pounced on Dib, yelling things like 'stupid human' and 'nosey monkey pig'. Red and Purple just looked at each other in confusion.

"Do they always do this?" Purple asked.

"Oh yeah." Rayne and Gaz said in unison as they rolled their eyes at the two boys. Gaz joined Rayne where she was standing to get out of the way of the boys wrestling on the floor.

"So, how much did you guys overhear?" Rayne questioned Gaz nervously.

"Enough." She smirked ominously. Rayne's face instantly turned bright red.

"So, you actually did it with Zim? Was it any good?" Gaz whispered and Rayne's face heated up even more.

"Gaz!" Rayne complained and Gaz laughed.

"You should have seen the look of shock on Dib's face when he heard; priceless." She teased, making it worse. Great, now I won't ever hear the end of it. Rayne glanced over to see Gir watching Zim pummel Dib while pulling a bag of Cheetos out of his head and eating them.

"I love this show." He squeaked. Rayne just smiled at the robot; he was so weird but Rayne loved him anyway.

"Can we get back to what we were talking about? You can beat up the big-headed earth boy later, Zim." Red said.

"MY HEAD'S NOT BIG!" Dib hollered, but was ignored while Zim got up after giving Dib one last smack to the head and walked back over to the Tallest.

"What would you have Zim do, my Tallest?" Zim asked.

Red handed the data core to Zim. "Insert it into your PAK's main hard drive. The affects won't be immediate; from what we have heard, the upgrades will kick in the next time you are in battle." Red said.

"Why would it activate then?" Gaz asked.

"We are a military race; battle is the only time when anything really counts. The project was made with soldiers in mind." Red answered.

Zim hesitantly took it and looked over to Rayne; she smiled and gave him a small nod. An arm appeared from Zim's PAK and grabbed the device, pulling it into his PAK.

"Like Red said, the affects won't be immediate." Purple repeated.

Zim nodded and bowed. "Thank you, my Tallest."

"Now, in the meantime, we need to devise a plan of attack with the other invaders and call for more reinforcements using one of their long range transmitters." Red said and the two leaders left the room.

"Well, this was all very interesting." Dib stated. Zim glared daggers at him again, still angry that they had spied.

"Anyway, all this new technology stuff aside, I think you owe your friends an explanation." Dib said turning to Rayne.

"About what?" She asked innocently.

"Don't play dumb with me. I heard Zim say that you we're-" He stopped himself but Rayne knew what he was about to say.

"Well, you see I- That is we uh. It isn't what it sounds like." Rayne said in a panic. Like hell it isn't what it sounds like. Zim called me his mate. How else can that be taken?

"Rayne doesn't need to answer you, Dib-stink. It's none of your business." Zim said, coming to Rayne's defense.

"Bullshit it isn't, Zim!" Dib yelled back at the alien.

"I knew he was going to flip out." Gaz sighed.

"Of course I'm flipping out. Why aren't you, Gaz?" Dib questioned.

"It's because it doesn't matter to me what Zim is. Rayne is happy, isn't that good enough?" Gaz said. Rayne was surprised that Gaz was not only defending her, but was okay with her and Zim. Dib opened his mouth to say something, but then closed it. He knew he wasn't going to win.

"You guys are such a pain." He said shaking his head.

"Only to you, Dib." Rayne laughed and Gaz snickered at the comment.

"I like DUCKS!" Gir randomly shouted then ran out of the room, giggling.

"He is so annoying, he was the one that opened the door and got us caught in the first place." Dib said.

"Then Gir did something right, for once." Zim sneered.

"I think he's cute." Rayne laughed.

"Yeah, in an irritating kind of way." Gaz added, heading for the door, followed by Dib.

The four walked down the hallway in search of the troops. "I wonder what the plan is." Dib pondered.

"To win the war." Gaz stated sarcastically.

"You know what I mean." He complained.

Rayne snickered behind the two siblings before Zim pulled her around the corner of another hallway.

"Zim, what's wrong?"

"I wanted to talk to you without those two spying again." He said motioning towards the others.

"Okay, what do you want to talk about?"

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about being mates. Zim didn't think the Tallest would find out so soon." He apologized.

"It's okay." She assured him.

"Do you even know what that means?" He asked.

"It's the same as dating, right? Or is it more like what animals on Earth do?" Rayne asked.

"It's more like you are now bound to Zim…for life." Zim almost whispered the last part.

"So it's like being married?" She asked, sounding a little surprised.

"It is very similar to your race's marriage ritual, but not exactly. There are two parts to it. The second part is a ceremony that announces us as mates. I guess we are, what your people call, 'engaged'." He concurred.

"Wow, I didn't realize it was like that." She admitted. In a way, she wasn't very upset about it. In fact, she kind of liked the thought of being 'mated' to Zim. She loved him and that's what mattered, right?

"Are there rules behind being mates?" She asked.

"Only that you belong solely to me and that no male is ever allowed to touch you." Zim emphasized.

"Well, as long as I'm with you, I'm okay with it. I mean, I love you and you love me so it works." Rayne smiled. Zim smiled back, delighted to hear that she accepted him as her mate, and kissed her softly. Rayne giggled and kissed back.

"We should probably get back before Dib comes looking for us." Rayne chuckled.

"Let the Dib-beast worry for a while." Zim smirked, liking his alone time with her.

"Come on, Zim." Rayne laughed, tugging at his arm.

"Fine." He pouted and Rayne laughed more as they walked down the hallway to join the others.