Author's Notes: Welcome back to another installment of "Sweet Mother". This is the home stretch. This fic will be done soon, just one more chapter after this, and now is where the action starts to really happen. Thank you to everyone who has read and reviewed, and I hope you'll stick around to see where this crazy story goes :)

Chapter 14

I Am Zim!

Soldiers and servants combed The Massive for hours before they finally realized that there was no place the humans could be. They had escaped with the PAK of Tallest Sweet; an artifact of a mysterious Irken past. Needless to say the current Tallests were royally ticked off, and making matters worse was that they weren't allowed to be alone with their rage.

"Maybe the pitiful humans are hiding in the airlock, my Tallest," Zim suggested as he followed the pair like an annoying baby duck.

"Pfft, I wish," Purple grumbled, "How did these brainless monkeys manage to outwit our finest soldiers? Maybe we should kill some of the guards. You know, to send a message."

"There will be time for punishments later," Red reasoned, "For the moment we need to figure out where the humans will go now."

"Probably their precious little home planet," Purple mockingly scoffed, "Look at me, I'm a stupid little pig monkey! I can only travel at warp zero! I eat dirt and have thumbs! Bleh!"

"Hahahaha!" Red laughed at his friend's antics, "Okay, okay, give me a minute to catch my breath! ... Okay. I'm okay now."

"Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! My Tallest?" Zim jumped up and down while waving his arms to catch their attention.

"Ugh, what is it, Zim?" Red sighed irritably.

"I don't think the Dib-beast will go back to earth," Zim told them, "I've battled with that big-headed menace for FAR too long, and I know his brain meats inside and out. Literally. I once piloted a ship inside his GIGANTIC head."

"Eww!" Purple stuck out his tongue in disgust.

"I think he'll try to find Irk," Zim explained, "He defies the will of the Irken armada, and he likes to cut open aliens with his primitive human tools. TOOLS!"

Red and Purple couldn't help but squirm a little. They wouldn't really believe Zim's claims that the Dib thing was dangerous, except that it was being primed to be the next leader of earth. Its current leader was quite tall. There were some Tallests (not them) that failed to reach such impressive height. Earth could be a serious enemy if Zim was wrong about the humans being dumb, and Zim's credibility was frankly a joke at this point.

"Navigator!" Red barked at the technician piloting the ship, "Set course for Irk. If the humans try to get to the Control Brains, we have to be there to stop them."

"Um, but sir, Zim is the one who-," The navigator tried to object.

"You heard the man! Do it!" Purple commanded even more harshly.

"Ah! Yes, my Tallest. Of course. At once!" The navigator stammered as he nervously fiddled with the controls.

"What about me, my Tallest?" Zim asked eagerly, "What do you want me, THE MIGHTY ZIM, to do for you?"

The two of them just looked at each other like they were silently trying to pry the other one to clean out a litter box. They both then looked down at Zim, who was smiling up at them like a kid awaiting his allowance. Purple was the first to break the unspoken tension.

"Yes Zim, you. Right," Purple said slyly, "We have a very special job for you. You're going to go back to earth and destroy the Dib and his family for us should they ever show their ugly faces again."

"Oh, but I'm already in the process of conquering earth," Zim replied almost defensively, "I just need to soften up the smelly humans before the planet is ready for the armada. Isn't there anything else I can do?"

"Well..." Purple acted like he was thinking before he replied, "Before you go to earth you should probably have the right weaponry to defeat the humans. Oh, I know! Zim, when we get to Irk go to the Control Brains and ask for a PAK evaluation. Once the Control Brains have determined your strengths and weaknesses they will assign you the perfect weapons for defeating your enemies."

"Yes! Victory for Zim!" Zim shouted in triumph and held his fists up in the air, "I will get these awesome weapons of awesomeness, and then rain some doom down on that horrible doomed planet! Mwahahahahaha!"

"Yes, yes, just go already," Purple waved him away, "Oh, and take one of the really fast voot cruisers. We want you evaluated as soon as possible...you know, for the good of the mission."

Purple snerked a little at his own words, but Zim didn't notice. He ran out of the room with the enthusiasm of a champion, ready to conquer the earth and kill those that would dare steal from the mighty Irken Empire.

Once Zim was gone, Red turned to his Co-Tallest and in a deadpan voice said, "You know he's defective, right? The Control Brains will evaluate his PAK and deactivate him."

"I know," Purple replied with a sinister smirk.

"Purple..." Red sighed, but then grinned and said, "You're a genius."

The two Tallests then laughed together over the opportunity Purple had just taken advantage of. Soon they would be rid of Zim forever, and once they found the PAK of Tallest Sweet and fed her memories into the Control Brains it would be a perfect week. They just had to get to the PAK before the humans did something horrible to it.

"Are you sure you understand how the system works, munchkin?" Jeem asked Membrane for probably the fifth time.

"Yes, Mother. We've been over this seventeen times," Membrane sighed impatiently, "I enter the network using this special computer you gave me, and then I install the override code. Once the code is in place, I install the new muted control brain personality patch. With the patch in place the control brains will bend to the will of their creator, i.e., you."

"Correct," Jeem nodded approvingly, "Oh, and the will of the Tallest. Don't forget about that."

"What!?" Dib exclaimed incredulously, "But they might override you! Why would you give those monsters that kind of power?"

"Because they rule Irk, grandson," Jeem explained in a longsuffering tone of voice, "I may be a rogue, but I'm not an anarchist. One problem with the current control brains is that they don't obey the Tallest. The Tallest obey them. Irkens have become nothing more than pawns, and in order to remedy the situation Irkens must be given their autonomy back."

"But...but what if the Irkens are still...you know?" Dib asked hesitantly, "What if they regain the power of free will, and decide they like being evil?"

"That's a very real possibility," Jeem conceded.

"Well? Then shouldn't we just program the PAKs to make the Irkens good?" Dib asked, "Wouldn't that be better?"

"Son," Membrane bent down to speak to Dib at eye level, "We can't do that."

"But why not?" Dib asked.

"Because it wouldn't actually solve the problem," Membrane told him as gently as he could, "If we make the Irkens into what we want them to be, then they still won't be free. We'd be no better than the soulless machines that dictate their lives right now. Sure, some Irkens might stay evil, but some might turn to doing good and undoing some of the damage. If they never get that choice however, then they'll never get to truly feel alive. Would you want that, son? To feel like you could never be anything other than what your programming told you to be? To be a robot instead of a man?"

"Well..." Dib pondered over these words, and then said out loud, "Zim would probably still be evil. He seems to have a personality of his own, and the Tallest seemed to have personalities, but the other Irkens seemed so...empty. Like drones or something."

"The control brains don't take away one's personality," Jeem corrected Dib, "They force a dependence on the user that starts as a symbiotic relationship that gradually becomes parasitic. I know humans tend to think of the loss of free will as the loss of thought. I've seen enough of your dystopian movies to know how you perceive it. That's not reality though. Reality is that Irkens can no longer reproduce, Irkens can no longer choose their own careers or where they will live, and if an Irken dies defective their existence is erased from the collective's memory. When a smeet is born, the memory of every dead Irken that preceded them is installed into their PAK. They are born having lived a million lifetimes. Essentially, because of this, each Irken is immortal. Yet from birth each Irken's legacy is held hostage by forces they cannot control and cannot predict."

"Whoa..." Dib breathed in sickened awe, "So...when you die...every future Irken will remember everything you've ever done?"

"Not if I can help it," Jeem growled, "You forget munchkin, I know earth's location and weaknesses, and so did Kloee. If our memories end up in the control brain database then everything you care about could be destroyed. That's why I don't want to do this. I know what could happen."

"But Dad's doing it," Gaz pointed out, "Everything will be fine."

"Wow, that's surprisingly optimistic of you, Gaz," Dib commented.

"Yeah well, normally I have to trust you, which I don't," Gaz replied dryly, "I do trust Dad though."

"Gee, thanks," Dib deadpanned sourly.

The computer pinged at them then, indicating that Irk was within range and that they should prepare for atmospheric entry. Dib, Membrane, and Gaz put on their seatbelts as they sat in their chairs. Jeem turned off the hover on her chair and activated a magnetic gravity lock to keep it rooted to the floor. She then held on tight since there was no seatbelt.

Reentry began, and the temperature rose in the cockpit. The ship sped up due to the natural gravity of Irk, which was a larger planet than earth. Dib and Gaz screamed, though it was the type of scream one lets out when riding a roller coaster. Membrane laughed giddily, also enjoying the ride. Jeem's robotic gloves dug into her armrests and she clenched her teeth, but she barely made any noise as they descended toward the capital city.

The ship smoothly landed in a parking garage and decompressed, and everyone let out a collective sigh of relief. The hailing frequency then pinged at them.

/Attention newly parked vessel,/ A male Irken voice droned, /You will need to pay the 20 monies required to park here or else your vehicle will be vaporized. Thank you and have a productive day./

"Great, all I have is earth money," Jeem groused, "Well kids, we'd better hurry up and run before they blow us to oblivion."

The door flew open, and all four passengers quickly booked it out of there before a death ray shot out of the side of the parking garage and blew up their ship! The group hid behind some sort of seating area, and Dib and Jeem both quickly darted their eyes around to make sure there were no Irkens to spot their arrival.

"The coast is clear," Jeem told them, "Now, we're going to have to be sneaky about this if we're going to make it to control brain operation complex. Does anyone have any nail polish remover?"

"No," Dib whispered, "Why would we have that?"

"Well I need something to remove the human disguise with!" Jeem hissed in reply, "My hair is superglued on, and my makeup requires a solvent to remove. I might be able to remove the contacts though."

"I have some acetone in my lab coat," Membrane offered, "Would that help?"

"You do realize that's the main ingredient in nail polish remover, right?" Jeem asked with a wry smile.

"Obviously I didn't," Membrane bit back, "It's not like I have any reason to wear nail polish! I mean for crying out loud, I haven't even had real fingers since age seven!"

"Kloee told you not to pet that shark!" Jeem countered.

"You didn't even know about it for three weeks!" Membrane yelled angrily.

"I was on a business trip!" Jeem argued, "Your insipid hobbies didn't pay for themselves!"

"Ugh! Can you guys focus?" Dib asked irritably.

"Fine!" Membrane and Jeem snapped in unison.

Membrane then handed Jeem the acetone, and the first thing she did was pour some on her wig. Normally she had a delicate process to remove the oversized hair piece, but they were in a hurry. She then started vigorously rubbing away her peach colored makeup and peeling away at her contacts. Within a matter of minutes Membrane and his children were starting at a tall green Irken female with crooked curly antennae and deep somewhat cloudy purple eyes.

"I have to keep the gloves on," Jeem told them, "I know four fingers is too many for an Irken, but two is too few. They would realize I'm a Tallest, and that would draw much more attention than four fingers on each hand."

"Well then what do we do?" Dib asked, "How do we hide?"

"I don't know about Membrane, but I think I know how to hide you kids..."

Zim was so excited. He was on a mission to take down his worst enemy once and for all, and he would get new super weapons to do it with. The Tallests had already given him the most important planet to conquer, and now he was personally going to see to the retrieval of an ancient Irken artifact. He was finally getting the recognition and attention he'd always wanted.

Zim had to go through several checkpoints to get to the Control Brains, but fortunately he had special clearance from the Tallest. The guards for the most part let Zim through, but one stopped him just before he got to the door.

"Halt! You may not enter the operations room!" The burly Irken guard ordered Zim.

"But...I am supposed to go in there!" Zim insisted confrontationally, "The Tallests told me to get my super weapons from the Control Brains. You dare disobey the Tallest!?"

"You can't get super weapons from the Control Brains, moron!" The guard corrected him, "The only way you can get weapons is-"

"Silence!" Zim screeched, "Outta my way!"

Zim then used a stun gun from his PAK to incapacitate the annoying guard. No way was he going to let anyone stop him from achieving greatness. His ambitions, his legacy, his chance to be the pride of the Irken Empire...it was all behind that door just waiting for him.

Zim entered the room, which was almost the size of a stadium, and looked up at the greatest piece of technology ever devised: the Control Brains. There were many red scanners on the orb-shaped metallic structures. It almost looked like a Brooglichian spider's nest, and the way the plugs and tubes hung down slightly only added to the illusion. This place, these machines...this was the very heart of Irk.

"Hello mighty Control Brains. I am Zim!" Zim announced himself proudly, "I have been sent by the Tallest to give you information on my mission and my enemies so that you may give me the appropriate super weapons. GIVE TO ZIM!"

At his proclamation, the red sensors activated and began to scan Zim. They found his location and attached tubes to his PAK to extrapolate data from him. Most Irkens hated his procedure because it was the most invasive thing that could be done to them. The Control Brains were entering Zim's mind; his very soul.

"Orders from the Tallest have been received," The Control Brains stated in a monotone multi-pitched voice, "Begin existence evaluation..."

"Existence evaluation?" Zim asked nervously, "No, no! That's not what I'm here for! I need weapons! I must destroy the Dib's giant head! I am too important to be evaluated. I AM ZIM!"

The guards at the operation center normally didn't have much to do. Most Irkens came to the Control Brains by appointment, and the few that didn't usually had some sort of high clearance. That meant the guards didn't meet a lot of people in their line of work. So imagine their surprise when after dealing with Zim they saw that a very tall female came to them shortly after with an alien prisoner in tow.

Jeem walked closer to the operation center all the while holding onto the arm of Membrane, who had his hands tied in front of him. She walked slowly, because within the voluminous skirt of her dress Dib and Gaz were each hanging onto one of her legs. This way they could hide in case something went wrong. Not that she could've gone faster anyway. Walking wasn't something she was used to anymore.

"Halt!" One of the guards ordered, "Why have you brought an alien in the vicinity of the Control Brains? Is this a Zim thing?"

"No. I'm here to rip out the human's mechanical implants and use them to repair a faulty module in the Control Brains' grabby things," Jeem lied as smoothly as she could.

"Implants?" The guard asked.

Jeem then lifted down one of Membrane's gloves; revealing his mechanical arm. Membrane winced, despising showing anyone his prosthetics since it only added to his perceived freakiness. His discomfort added to the illusion of being a prisoner, and the guard was fooled by the explanation.

Once the pair was allowed inside, Jeem slowly walked in with Membrane. Once they were in the dimly lit hallways of the operation center, Jeem lifted up her skirt so that the kids could get out and walk freely again.

"*Gasp*! Man, your feet stink!" Dib complained, "How long have you been wearing those boots?"

"30 years, give or take," Jeem shrugged indifferently, "I don't buy new things unless I need them. Apparently a philosophy neither of our worlds share anymore."

"Does this place have a plug where I can charge my Game Slave?" Gaz asked.

"Europe doesn't have the proper plugs for that thing, and you expect to find one on Irk?" Jeem asked snidely.

"Pfft, I was just asking," Gaz scowled indignantly.

"Where are these control brains, Mother?" Membrane inquired.

"Down this hallway within the double doors on the left," Jeem replied, "It'll take a few minutes to walk there, and I would appreciate it if we moved slowly. My back feels like it's on fire!"

Dib winced as he realized Jeem was indeed bent over and gritting her teeth in pain. It was still weird to look at her green skin, her purple pupiless eyes, and her pink zipper-shaped teeth. She always looked imposing due to her height, but seeing how alien she was made her look a lot more threatening to the junior paranormal investigator. Like some kind of shadowy monster.

"Dib," Gaz whispered harshly at Dib, "You're staring at Grandmother. Stop it. It's weird."

"Sorry, I just..." Dib wasn't quite sure how to verbalize his fears, so he just said, "It's nothing."

"You think we'll turn green like her?" Gaz asked out of the blue.

"I hope not," Dib replied, "I can't believe Dad didn't know. Who keeps something this important from their own kids?"

"Irkens apparently," Gaz replied matter-of-factly, "I'm not as surprised as I thought I'd be, actually. We've always been different from them."

"Them?" Dib asked.

"Other kids. Other people. You know. Them," Gaz elaborated, "It's kind of a relief. To know there's a reason, and that we won't one day wake up and find out we turned into a bunch of drooling idiot adults. We'll always be different. We're smarter than them."

"I don't wanna be an Irken!" Dib hissed softly so the adults walking ahead of them wouldn't hear, "I don't wanna be like Zim. He's a monster. I don't wanna wake up and suddenly have the urge to conquer the galaxy."

"Don't you get it, doofus? That's why we're here. So that doesn't happen," Gaz reminded him, "If we fix their stupid control thingies then Irkens won't want to destroy everything. This isn't how they're supposed to be. It's how they're programmed to be. I bet even Zim isn't supposed to be like this."

Dib hadn't considered that one. Zim was born into a system that was rigged to make him evil. Every PAK was like a virus that told its host to kill. Like being born possessed. Dib involuntarily shivered, realizing how horrifying this situation really was. He was beginning to understand why his grandmother was so scared. If she failed, then she would become just like them...or be killed resisting.

"The doors are...just around...this corner," Jeem huffed as she struggled to catch her breath. She had been walking at a normal pace, but her old body was crying out for relief from gravity, "Membrane, you won't have much time. Remember the plan."

"Of course, Mother," Membrane nodded, "This is going to work."

Jeem smiled at Membrane's determination. She generally wasn't proud of her creation, but in this moment she was so glad that Membrane was her son. Perhaps science hadn't been such a bad idea after all...

The reinforced double doors came into view, and the family braced themselves for the task ahead. Before they could even get to the door however, they heard someone screaming from inside! They couldn't quite make out what was being said, until they heard a piercing voice scream out "I AM ZIM!"

"What the-?" Dib exclaimed.

Membrane wasted no time and used his specialized computer to hack the door open, and the sight that greeted them was truly unnerving. Zim was suspended in the air by tubes coming from the ceiling. Dozens of red optics stared at their prey, and Zim's body writhed in agony. He was screaming at the top of his lungs, and drool was coming from his mouth. His PAK blinked every few seconds, as if it were giving him an electric shock. The humans didn't know what was going on, but Jeem did. Zim was being erased.