Tak awoke to find herself in her bed. She didn't remember getting into her room let alone her bed so she was rather confused at how she got from the living room to where she now laid.

She sat up and stretched and noticed a sticky note fall from the blanket as she sat up. Tak picked it up and read it to herself: "Dear Tak-defect. I noticed you were shivering like a victim of the bone chills so Zim took it upon himself to relocate you back to your guest room. P.S., MiMi and Gir disappeared sometime last night and I suspect they might be at one of those seizure-light clubs. Zim recommends investing in Tylenol."

Tak smiled at Zim's surprising gesture of kindness. She figured he would have sooner left her to freeze than to take her to her room, put her in her bed and pull a blanket over her. And how hadn't she noticed? She was trained to wake at the slightest touch in case of enemy soldiers slitting her throat at night. Maybe Earth was making her too soft…

But today was a great day to be soft. Today would be one of the greatest days of her life because today was her and Dib's wedding day. Strange how an Irken Elite defector and a human Resisty supporter would have ever met let alone fall in love. The odds had to be astronomical. Still, she was happy that she had such good luck of late. For the majority of her life she had tried so hard to be part of something that the Irken Empire would never let her be apart of and now she had something new to care about.

Maybe that was why love was illegal in the Empire; because it was a distraction. It was still an enjoyable and wonderful distraction.

…

Several hours later Dib was at the church with his sister. She wore a purple dress with a single black stripe running from her right shoulder to her left hip. The dress ended in a rippling pattern and she wore her trademarked buckled boots, polished for the occasion. Her outfit was finished with her dark makeup and skull pendant.

"Wow, Gaz. I never knew you could clean up so well." Dib said. Gaz opened one of her eyes threateningly with the question 'what did you just say?' written in her glare. "Er, I meant, I never you would want to clean up so well. It's just surprising, you know?" Dib corrected his error but was still kicked in the shin as punishment.

Dib was wearing his tuxedo, something he rarely wore. It was sad he'd be wearing it twice in one week. He almost laughed at the fact so much had happened so quickly in a week. Or cried. He couldn't figure out which. It was just so unreal.

He still wore his boots and his coat, so he didn't look too fancy. Gaz made a comment about him looking like a punk version of Dracula and asked him if he was going to meet up with Neo and Morpheus. "Very funny Gaz." had been his only responses to her jokes.

There was a crashing noise and a muffled exclamation about tacos followed by angry orders from a familiar, overzealous alien. Dib smiled as he realized they were here and the ceremony would begin soon. Gaz excused herself and traded spots with Zim who walked in dressed the same suit he wore to the funeral. His hyperactive robot was following him dressed as a green dog.

"Zim apologizes for his tardiness, Dib-drone." Zim said making some sort of Irken half-bow of respect, "I was attempting to take the safest routes possible and, well, Gir here wasn't too helpful with that." Zim jerked a thumb back towards his robot. "I gots my mastah' lost!" Gir smiled. "Yes. Yes he did." Zim sighed out of his teeth.

"It's alright Zim. How's Tak?" Dib asked. "Oh, she's fine. She was in something of a daze the entire trip over here with that pitiful love-smirk humans have on their faces often times. She looks quite ravishing though today. She really went all out for her appearance today with the program and outside of her disguise." Zim moved in closer to Dib. "To tell you the truth, if Zim were not committed to the Gaz-flower he would be jealous of your standing with the Tak-defect." Zim chuckled a little but was silenced at Gaz shouting 'Careful Zim!' from nowhere.

"Your sister's powers are both awe-inspiring and fear-inspiring. I am thankful she is merciful towards me." Zim stated after a fear-inspired silence. Dib nodded agreement. "Yeah, she can be coldhearted and mean at times, but she has he moments of… emotions other than rage." He explained. Zim looked at Dib questioningly. "Like love?" He asked. "Not really, no. I've never really seen her show love as I know it outside of that rare occurrence when she hugs me." Dib shrugged.

"She is ravishing as well." Zim said to no one in particular. "My sister? I never really thought of her in that way because, well, she's my sister. But yeah, I guess she's… attractive." Dib agreed reluctantly. It just didn't feel right rolling off of his tongue.

They were given a notice that they had ten minutes to get ready even though both groom and best man were ready at the time, so they sat to talk some more. Eventually the conversation took a unique turn when Zim brought up Tak and his early discussion.

"You know, the Tak-defect wishes for smeets." Zim noted. Dib raised an eyebrow at him. "Tak wants kids? That's… I don't know…" Dib was pondering this, "I'd be ok with it, but I'd like to wait for a few years… Wait for things to settle and Gaz to be old enough to be on her own legally."

Now Zim raised an eyebrow at him. "But how would you two go about having smeets? Human and Irken anatomy may match up, amazingly, but they still cannot interbreed." He informed Dib. Dib was in deep thought. "True." Was all he said.

After another moment of silence Zim admitted something to Dib. "The Tak-defect got me thinking. Zim would like smeets or 'children' of his own some day with the Gaz-flower. But the same problem lies between us as with you." Zim scratched his chin. Dib stuck his tongue out in disgust. "Please don't talk about doing… that with my sister." Dib requested. Zim's eyes shot wide for a second as he looked at Dib.

"You two aren't genetically related, are you?" He asked. Dib shook his head. "Interesting…" Zim muttered and Dib caught on. "Zim, there is no way on Earth, heaven or hell that I will ever sleep with my sister just so you can have kids." Dib glared at Zim. Zim scoffed nervously. "Zim had no such intents of you! However, you are the only human she trusts and quite frankly the only one I find genetically worthy to…" Zim was trying to convince him. "Zim. No. Just, no." Dib finalized.

They sat quietly for a few more seconds and then Dib, inspired by Zim's twisted plan turned towards him. "What about you and Tak?" Dib asked and Zim glared at him questioningly. "What about me and Tak?" He asked. "Well, you two are Irken. Can't you two… mate?" Dib asked, almost slapping himself for his stupidity. Zim's mouth was actually slightly slackened at this suggestion. "You… want me to mate with your soon-to-be bride?" He asked to make sure he heard correctly.

"Well, you don't have to mate with her. Can't you artificially inseminate her if you both want smeets? Then you could have two and we could keep one and you could keep one." Dib still felt stupid for asking. Zim thought about it. "That is an impossibility for two reasons. The first is this: Irkens cannot artificially inseminate. Our anatomy allows for only natural insemination. It's complicated and disturbing, so I'll spare you the details." Zim explained, "The second reason is the same reason natural breeding was replaced by tube and cloning methods: Irken females are inseparable from their young until a certain age. It was becoming a distraction for so many of our race to be for the care of their own smeet rather than of the Empire, so we began tube and cloning."

"So you need a human child as your own?" Dib asked. Zim nodded. "Yes. I can impregnate the Tak-defect, as awkward and uncomfortable as that would be for me considering it is betrayal to the Gaz-flower and the fact that we still have something of a bitter attitude to each other. But I could never take a smeet from her or her overprotective attitude would surely take over and she'd hunt me down and skin me alive, wearing my hide as a sort of trophy pelt. As is traditional of our ancient past." Zim explained. Dib gave a 'wtf' look but shook it off.

"Let's stop talking about this until a time when I want children." Dib groaned. Zim nodded agreement and immediately after a minister apprentice told them it was time for the wedding.

…

Dib stood beside Zim. He was sweating nervously and almost excessively.

Finally the music began to play and Tak appeared in her dress. Dib's mouth went slack at the sight of her. She really had gone into incredible detail to make her disguise as beautiful as she could. Every detail about her seemed to radiate. Her skin had a slight more colour than usual, but was still pale and perfect with the beauty mark beneath her left eye. Her eyeliner was no longer a blackish colour but a deep indigo like her hair. Speaking of her hair it was silky and smooth. She looked to much the same but so much more beautiful.

Zim looked from Tak to Gaz and he felt a butterfly flutter. Her hair retained that same fanged maw shape. Her eyes were still nearly-closed due to her affliction with lighting, but that made her mascara and eyeliner more noticeable. It was dark violet, just like her dress. She also seemed to be smiling, but if it was at Dib or Tak's happiness or at Zim looking at her, Zim could not tell.

The only people that were invited were the only people that cared: Larz and Zita. The two wore their best clothes, Zita's being quite bright and lively and Larz's being his full dress uniform, which he wore at the funeral. It looked somewhat happier though.

The sermon went by quickly and the two had written their own vows. "You may now read your vows." The priest said. Dib began to read his and they were the usual words of poetic affection and desire and standing by each other through the worst of the worst and the best of the best. Tak read hers and they were pretty much the same. They both had their own little individuality to it though, Dib's being about standing for this home of theirs, referring to Earth, and Tak's being about up heaving corruption in governing powers, referring to the Irken Empire. They both agreed to each other's vows.

"If there is anyone here who believes they should not be wed, speak now or forever hold your peace." The priest said.

The door of the church blew open and everyone ducked. Vem stood there in his Vernon disguise before he let it flicker out. "I have something I'd like to interject, since you mentioned it your holiness." He gave a jagged smile as he entered the church.

"Oh my God! An alien! An actual alien!" The priest rattled. Dib let out a drawn-out sigh. "Someone finally sees I've been telling the truth, and it couldn't have come at a worse time." He noted. Tak cursed under her breath. Not only was the day ruined but she left the pistol in the bag because there was no space to hide it on her dress.

Larz was already up with his pistol and fired two shots, both of which Vem dodged. He flung a disc-shaped object at Zita and Larz tackled her down. "Duck Zita!" He cried as they collided and hit the floor. The disc sliced the air they'd been standing, struck the wall and detonated with enough force to knock the chandelier from the roof. It fell and sent shards of glass in multiple directions.

Zim had pulled his pistol out but a shard of glass clipped him in the hand and he'd dropped the pistol out of pain. Larz's pistol was too far away and Zita, well, she didn't bring hers. Vem pointed his own Irken pistol at Dib. He was the only threat left seeing as how the Gaz-human and Tak-defect had left theirs elsewhere. Dib was the last one with a pistol.

A fist smashed into Vem's cheek bone and he felt himself fall sideways, dropping his own pistol. He got back up and spat a few jagged teeth out with green blood. He reached out for his pistol but his hand jumped back as he saw the pistol be crushed beneath a buckled boot.

Vem looked up with his mismatched eyes. Looming over him was the Gaz-human. He noticed it had suddenly gotten darker and that her eyes were glowing red. Out of nowhere a purple beam of light shot downwards and engulfed the Gaz-human, but she did not lighten from the beam. She instead became as black as night, her glaring red eyes sharpened and distinct against the darkness. Everything else was engulfed in black and Vem suddenly felt his augments fail, crippling him enough to the point where he couldn't escape.

"Vem." Gaz spoke in her same calm tone, but there was venom in her words, "I shall be your punisher, the decider of your fate. You have taken that which is dear to me and now you wish to destroy my brother's happy day. I can't have that. You wish to exterminate us. I can't have that either. You will pay for this, even if I have to dig deep into your body and rip the very soul from it, leaving you a miserable husk for the decrepit and pitiful lower life forms to nibble on. Only when you are at the final, crucial moment of pain and suffering and it cannot get any worse, when your spirit and will are broken and there is no escape, only then will I grant you the mercy of death."

Vem spasmodically and ineffectively bolted for where the door had been. He plunged into a world of light as soon as he escaped the church and it blinded him to the point that he tripped over the stairs and rolled into the side of his car screaming. He hit his head and rolled onto his back as his vision began to fade. First he noticed the small splatter of green Irken blood on his car but his gaze shifted to the sky.

He blinked and when his eyes opened again he saw the Gaz- and Dib-humans standing over him, Dib's glasses reflecting like to blue circles on a shade.

And then he blacked out.

Chapter 25 Completed, please R&R

Vem's caught. What will the Membrane children do with their new prisoner? By the way, how many chapters can a story have? I guess I'll find out soon enough.