(I don't own IZ)
With a long range teleportation system in place, the trip was quick and unexpected for the Irth officials, the Tallest had booked rooms quietly and all of them showed up on the transporter in civilian clothing.
The first couple of Days they went unnoticed just another group of tallers on vacation.
Dib and Zim were acting oddly one of them would often point to a particular spot and they would share a laugh not needing to talk about the particular adventure that happened on that spot. And they would often stop suddenly and take a deep breath and sigh morosely
"Ok what is up with you two aren't you enjoying the fresh air" Gaz glared at them
"Actually no, this isn't the same stinky planet I invaded, it smells nice now and isn't so germ ridden, I never thought I'd say this but how I miss the old filth" Zim looked miffed at the change
"It doesn't smell like the planet I grew up on anymore" Dib complained on the heels of Zim's answer
They soon came to their old home which was the only one standing on the block aside from a recreation of Zim's base sitting beside it; the rest of the street was full of gift shops.
They paid their fee to enter and explored the old house; everything was as they left it even the garage had a gaping hole in it where Tak's ship had blasted off. They had put a protective clear dome over it to protect it from decay. Dib silently conveyed mind to mind with his mates all the details about how he grew up here, his room was as he had left it with a photo album laying open on the messed up bed and pictures of Zim plastered across the walls, he wished he could pick up the items and sort through stuff.
It was when they entered the gift shop that they or more specifically he had been recognized
"OMG It's Dib, oh can I have your autograph?" before he knew it he was surrounded by people wanting to talk with him and one brave soul approached Gaz looking for her signature. At first Dib was shocked when he had left Earth he was believed to be dead, now everyone seemed to know he was reborn and they seemed fine with that. When he asked one of the humans wanting to talk with him the answer surprised him.
"Irk broadcasted the fact shortly after Earth joined the Empire. Now everyone watches every time you are shown on vid. we were a bit disappointed when you didn't make tallest but everyone's happy with Zim as the new tallest as he's your papa and he lived on Earth, so he's Irth's and we are proud of that"
That was the end of their anonymous visit, the media swooped down upon them and happy fans pressed in giving them gifts. The next day Dib was happily sporting a trench coat and smiley faced t-shirt made to his exact size. He had wondered how a fan had made one so quick, after all his measurements were broadcasted only a few days ago at the Tallest choosing ceremony. It must have been difficult to adjust the pattern to a taller's skinny frame and making the pak hole in the back
"What happened to incognito" Rev grumbled
"They know I'm here and I'm the only tall yellow eyed Irken on the planet, my cover is blown I might as well enjoy it" he swooshed his coat and Rev glared at it jealously
Seeing his mates' envious look he dragged him into a mall to shop, big mistake, fans and the fact that Aurora soon took to the sport known as shopping.
After fending off yet another fan Gaz was getting exasperated
"Why don't you guys wear a holo disguise or something?"
Dib looked really sheepish and declined to answer
Zim Chuckled "Zim knows, Dib never got acknowledgment and praise from humans aside from his family before"
"So that's it, glory seeking like the old days, well I'm getting tired of the fans so could you please wear the holo" Gaz knew better than to boss Dib around now that he was taller, it would only undermine his future authority as tallest, however it didn't stop her from dooming her tall students when they were being stupid.
"No he can't" Purple stated
Everyone save for the other tallests look surprised
"Why?" Dib didn't want to wear the holo but he wanted to know why he wasn't allowed
Red sighed and scratched the top of his head "We wanted to pretend that this was merely a vacation but in truth it's an official tour for the new tallest and for the future tallests, Irth is just the first stop. The Earth leader was very kind to allow us to keep it unofficial, there is an official ceremony that we have to attend, but other than that we are just going to tour a few places."
"We are doing this without security? Are you mad?" Rev was livid all official tours had to have elite guarding them
"Look this is the first time that several tallest and future tallest were all practically elite trained we have the required elite right here" Purple was indignant
"Actually we do have a few extra elite along" Zim said
As if that was a clue several elite dropped the invisibility cloaking none of them were anyone Dib knew, he surmised that Wix who was the new supreme elite commander and Twent who now led Beta squad were both busy with the war, he missed the fighting but being next in line for tallest, he had to stay where it was safe.
"Gaz we can deploy the elite in a circle pattern that should keep out all but the bravest of fans" Dib said to mollify his sister, she never threatened to doom him anymore but he knew weird bad things could happen if she was angry and it wasn't directed at anything specific
"Fine what ever" was the old familiar reply but Dib caught a smile of relief before her old mask of indifference covered her features once again.
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After shopping they went to visit the old skool which had been added onto considerably to accommodate the Irken learning machines, since it was the middle of the day the just watched from across the street as Irken and human children played together, the smeets considerably smaller than their human counterparts were still having fun and roughhousing with the rest of them.
"I remember smeet training and playground time wasn't part of it." Dib was a bit confused
"This school is for advanced humans and smeets it's a 24 hour facility so there is time for playground activity and some time with the parental units" a teacher drone had came over to talk with them he pointed to the human children which they now noticed all had paks
"This is the first generation that we installed paks on human children, we had to wait until the general populace regarded the paks as a reward, now they clamor for the opportunity to get one and they will think nothing of having their children getting one. However right now only children who show promise in ether intelligence or physical strength are being selected, we hope that one day after all the defective DNA has been strained out from the populace that we can raise all humans this way"
Dib was a bit worried about going the old superior race route but he knew what the teacher drone had really meant was the birth defects and inheritable illnesses
He watched the children for a while after the teacher left but they acted just like normal happy humans
"Don't worry Dib there isn't any loyalty programming in the humans paks and they are free to choose their own careers, just having them play with Irken children at a young age is enough for now" Red patted him on the shoulder
"What we haven't said to anyone is we are slowly integrating Human Irken and Vortan cultures together, we are trying to step away from the old superior race thing that previous tallests have enforced. Well there are still extremely stupid species but we won't subjugate species that prove to be smart anymore" Purple said
"We hope that you three will continue on this path" Zim looked confidant in their smeets
The three of them smiled a nodded, they had planed on changing the invaders to infiltration and information gathering, once enough info was gathered the invader would start trade negotiations, much less messy than destroying things but that could also be a backup plan if the planet proved hostile, like the slaughtering rat people, those guys only wanted war and nothing else.
Dib continued to watch as the Irken and human children continued to roughhouse together, in one game of soccer one little Irken was knocked over in a mad rush for the ball, the smeet was still young enough not to be ashamed of keening his little heart out over the scraped knee, one of the larger human children came and picked up the little smeet
"Come on Tup it's not that bad it will heel quickly, look the bleedings stopped already"
The little smeet stopped crying and hugged the human
"Thanks big brother Trunk"
"I see you have noticed my little boys" a familiar voice said Just behind Dib he turned and broke into a big grin,
"Torque you haven't changed a bit from high school"
Torque frowned a bit "So it's true it really is you, but I have to make sure, which organ did Zim steal from me"
"A lung which he replaced with your dumbbell, he got the second lung from me and replaced it with that stupid mooing toy"
Torque hugged him in a crushing grip
"Dib old Pal, I never did thank you for getting my lung back, I would have never made the football team in university without it, sorry about snubbing you in high school, I was in the popular crowd and you weren't, everyone felt so bad when you died and a few years later the aliens showed up, you were right and we never listened"
Once Torque released him from the crushing hug Dib smiled
"It all worked out for the best, you said the child and the smeet were both yours?"
"Yep my wife died a few years ago, late stage cancer, it was found too late for even the Irken doctors to cure, a Irken female proposed mating and I went for it, some of the smeets went to Irk. My daughter is most likely in the library or in the basket ball court. she swears she will be tall enough to play in the NBA but I don't know if her mother will allow her to be in a mere human sport for a carrier. Well I have to pick up the children we only get a few hours with them"
"We?" Dib inquired
"Yeah I'm surprised too Lillia decided to stick around after the mating"
"Lillia isn't that a human name?"
"Yeah I kept messing up her Irken name she doesn't have one of the nice short ones but a big mouth full, so she permitted me to give her a name, she has such soft purple pink eyes it was the first thing to pop into my mind and she liked it" the two smeets ran up to their Daddy and the pre teen followed more sedately behind
Dib watched as the happy mixed family went home. They left the school and headed back to the hotel, Dib in deep thought as the rest chatted amongst them selves
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Their next stop was the food factories. one was situated in what used to be the Sahara desert, now most of it was lush farm lands, the natives happily worked the farms the food was inedible to humans but the monies they made helped buy plenty for their families another farm in the Gobi was growing sources for sugar, sugar beets, sugar cane and honey. Mass bee hives were surrounded by a vast field of flowers, other sections of the deserts we dedicated to human foods. Never had earth had so much plentiful food, no one ever went hungry
Their last stop on Earth was the official renaming ceremony Earth now was officially known as Irth easy enough to remember as the pronunciation was similar just the spelling had changed, the humans refused however to be called Irthens too easy to confuse with Irkens was their excuse, Dib thought it was because of years of bad sci-fi movies.
Visiting Irth had given Dib much to think about.