Okay, after 34 chapters, I shouldn't need to tell you that I don't own Invader Zim, okay? Now I really want to get this story finished and I'm getting wrapped up in the drama that is building up in this story. Now let's see if I can get this story finished by next year without that being a lie. Enough of this A/N, on with the fic!

Dib looked at the calendar with a sigh. It was only December first. They had captured Christie back in the middle of November. All this happened within a span of few weeks. From being in a stressed relationship to harboring a fugitive to being forced to kill Derek, to breaking Gaz free, to teaming up with Seamus, to Gaz and Christie attacking Red, Red dying to Zim being Promoted again. All within a few mere weeks. It was almost amazing how fast things could change. December 23rd was when the galactic alignment would happen and the whole world on lockdown somehow. Noticing that, he sat up and looked around. Why did I not think about this a LONG time before! Dib scolded himself as he got up and headed into Seamus's 'Fortress of Intelligence' as he had taken to dubbing it in recent days.

"Gah! Royal consort!" Seamus yelled jumping up. "What do you want?"

"Royal consort?" Dib asked.

"My new codename for you." Seamus smiled. "I mean Zim is going to be Promoted to Tallest, he is your boyfriend after all."

"Uggggghhhhh….." Dib placed his face in his palm. "Don't you think that name would put tons of suspicion on me or Zim? Or put me in danger? Or put a lot of people who know Zim in danger?"

"How? Most people know your relationship as one he's watching you. Maybe your old Skool mates will remember when you started dating but that was Hi-Skool and one can always write that off as you were young and dumb." Seamus said.

"Okay, so what about any innocents near Zim?" Dib said. "It would stir up a lot of trouble."

"I'm using it." Seamus said.

"Whatever." Dib sighed. "But you know about what happens on December 23rd?"

"Hmmmm….. December 23rd 2012…. That's that bullshit Mayan apocalypse right?" Seamus said.

"It's called that from a galactic alignment that will cause all aliens living off their home planet to go through a molt. All humans are on lockdown those few days. You ever wonder why? I'm sure you know about that order." Dib said looking at Seamus annoyed at both his seeming ignorance and of his choice of new nickname for Dib.

"I knew of the order." Seamus said making it seem like he was knowing what he was talking about all along. "So that's why it's going to happen. They didn't tell us much around the office before they kicked me out."

"Of course they wouldn't. Not to the guys like you who they paid to censor stuff." Dib said. "It must be soooooooooooo hard to go to a website and change stuff the Tallest don't like."

"It's much harder than you think!" Seamus said.

"Oh year right…." Dib said rolling his eyes. "I broke into the school networks and changed the reports on me since like 6th grade. And that was only because Skool didn't get too many computerized systems until then! I could have done it much sooner."

"So why didn't you change things so you'd get better treatment than this?" Seamus said.

"Didn't want to leave too much of a trail. Sometimes you have to leave some incriminating moments to not get in more trouble." Dib said. "Which is why I do know a bit about your territory. Now I will say you did do a very good job in helping us get the time to get Gaz out. You misled enough people while on your orders that Irk was able to do what it did so quickly. Historically it took humans decades of power over their conquered enemies to do some of this stuff."

"And historically it was the unchecked masses and the vocal minority that led to the take down of those oppressive regimes." Seamus said looking hopefully. "But they also did not have such a crippling issue come up. I do wonder though what the definition of 'home planet' means to this cosmic event."

"Well Zim's home planet is Irk." Dib said looking at Seamus confused. "I mean all the oppressive regime is from Irk."

"Yes but the saying is 'off their home planet.' You're a scientist think about it for a second. How can planets aligning up cause a living being to molt? Molts often cause when a species outgrows skin." Seamus asked. "I mean you are the scientist after all. Tell this mere hacker what you know."

"I think it's something with the gravitational pull." Dib noted. "It's not been researched much and there are very few records of this even happening and being observed with Earth. I mean I could look at records of the Babylonians, Mayans and others if you can find them and see if they have SOMETHING that suggests it happened before and what happened but without much else I don't know what else to say. I mean there could be higher powers at work we aren't aware of. Playing some sort of complicated chess game to get their end that no mere mortal could even begin to hope to understand and I have always somewhat suspected in my paranormal research that this may be the case but it seemed too much of a write off for my tastes. There has to be a reason for everything. To put it simply as 'God did it', leave it there and misuse any texts linked to that deity seems too simple. I have to explain the how and maybe that will lead to the why on the bigger questions." Dib said.

"You talk too much sometimes." Seamus said. "But in censorship semantics can mean a lot. By saying a disease is like the common cold people relax a little bit and ignore the bigger actions being taken by governments. Nobody makes that big a connection between the two. They don't ask 'Well if it's just a bad cold, why do you need to do such drastic measures? If only 19 people died, why are you acting like this?' Nope. With the right wordplay, the whole story changes meaning. Yes, Zim's birth planet is Irk. All Irkens are born there. But think back to when there were tons of immigrants coming to this country. They were born in other nations but called the US their home. Zim's been here for how long now?"

"12 years next March." Dib said.

"Exactly. And how long ago did you two become friends, even before you became lovers?" Seamus asked.

"About 7 years. Started dating about 6 years ago." Dib said.

"So that much time with you and willing to put so much on the line, don't you think that in the immigrant terms of 'home' that Zim's home planet would be Earth now? You did mention that you two would work on projects that would help humanity like trying to fix the ozone layer, prevent climate change things like that." Seamus said.

"So if the rules are 'home planet' and not 'birth planet' then Zim won't be affected. Most all the Irkens controlling this place would be. If Zim makes it through okay, it may cause something within the Empire. Chaos? Respect? Don't know." Seamus. "But they will notice it."

"You're right." Dib said.

"Not bad for a mere hacker huh Royal Consort." Seamus said.

"Shut up dweeb." Dib said.

"I'll ignore that Royal Consort and get you the records I have of those civilizations. Any more I'll let you know." Seamus said. "Your highness." He added sticking out his tongue at Dib.

"I hate you so much right now." Dib said.

Meanwhile Zim was still staring at the ceiling at Tallest Tower with Purple looking at him worried. Thinking back to when he and Red were first Promoted to Tallest, all he could see was that Red had much the same attitude. But then again, Red didn't have a messy reputation back on Irk. Sure, many still hated Zim for killing the previous Tallests, although that was by accidents of his own ambition. That question did come up in the meeting with the Control Brains. But as much as they seemed to hate him, there was still respect for him not taking the hint, having the goals to please the Empire and sticking to the mission, even if it was a lie and ending up giving Irk a very valuable asset for some things. Most of the dissent came from worker level Irkens, the elite benefited from the snacks and precious metals more than service drones did. They could cause chaos all they wanted, they never would get together enough to really topple the system. This was something the Control Brains knew too. They figured Zim knew that section of the Empire, or at least Earth enough he could handle any affairs that came up. This was a very overwhelming time, so Purple tapped Zim on the shoulder.

"What?" Zim moaned.

"Hey, you look like you need some rest. Alone. Some you know, what is it called, self-refection or introspection, whatever those new aged hippy humans called it. I can't have my new Co-Tallest such a wreck." Purple said propping Zim up. "I'll let you have Red's old room."

"Fine." Zim said.

"See, you're getting the hang of the level." Purple reassured him.

"Whatever." Zim sighed as he headed through the threshold and laid down on Red's bed.

"It's Vortian so it's very comfortable." Purple said.

"Yeah." Zim said.

"I'll see you later. I can now watch my precious telenovelas with no interruptions." Purple laughed.

Zim sighed. There was no way out of it. He was going to be Tallest. Years ago this would have been every dream come true. Now, it's his worst nightmare. Laying on the bed of its now deceased previous owner was also a little creepy. Irkens don't leave ghosts, or do they? I never asked Dib about that or what he thought. He'd have some sure interesting ideas. Zim thought as he lay back in the bed, falling deeper into it. "Man, this is comfortable." Zim had to admit to himself. And then he thought of the many nights he had with Dib back in the base. It had been days since he had been there. Zib was set to be taken care of. He saw to that. Gaz would kill him if he neglected the little hybrid smeet. But while their bed at home was comfortable and big enough for the both of them, Zim couldn't help but let his mind wander. Dib would certainly love it here. He loved that plushy armchair of ours and it was made on Vort too. Zim smiled at the thoughts of what they could do together in such a bed, it was when another voice came into his head. You know, that unless you can do something to totally change the zeitgeist on Irk about dudes fucking dudes, let alone that dude being from an inferior race then you know whatever fantasy you're having with Dib will NEVER happen. Zim's inner voice that sounded a lot like Gaz said as he grabbed a pillow and sighed. Irkens didn't need to sleep but they could if they were exhausted or just bored.

As he looked at the calendar at the wall, he noticed it was December 1st. "The molt is coming soon." Zim thought as he stared out the window over the city. He knew the whole planet was on lockdown. But how would it be enforced? No way they could get any alien race they worked with to do it. They would be living off their own planet so they would be affected by it too. "Any alien living off their home planet will go through a hideous molt for a few seconds. It won't be long but it will be catastrophic with as many Irkens as there are here." Zim said to himself. "I haven't been home in so long." He thought as he finally lay back in the bed and fell asleep.

Zim tossed and turned in the bed as he was feeling unsettled. He just kept seeing Dib's face. That was where he felt most at home. With Dib. Never in his life did he feel so much comfort and like he had nothing to prove to him. All he had to prove to him was that he loved him. He knew that he was Dib's whole world and that was what mattered to him. In his dream, he was sitting on a throne on Earth, with Zib crawling around and Dib was in his lap. Getting Promoted again would mean that they were no longer the same height but he would be taller. Zim smiled at this. He was still Irken and height meant a lot to him. Dib being tall and lanky himself was actually a bit of a physical turn on but he still loved the idea of a submissive Dib. He woke up and looked around. "Why am I having a dream involving Zib? He's my weird nephew in a way?" He asked himself. "I mean he is Dib's nephew by the fact his sister is Zib's mother. Ah hell, you get involved with one of the Membrane family, you're roped in." Membrane family….. He thought. "I killed his father." Knowing that the two never had a perfectly healthy relationship to begin with, he did see some personality traits in Professor Membrane that he knew Dib to have. Like both of them were rather obsessive, talked a lot when you got them started on something they were passionate about and both were highly intelligent. And like Zim, Dib strived to prove himself and his worth to him, even if the man never really could communicate how he did appreciate it. There were perfectly good reasons for Dib to hate him. He did kick him out of the house just for being gay at 17. That brought him closer to Zim, but it was still not right for a parental figure to do to his child just because the traditional way of reproducing to produce a legacy was out of the question when the man could figure a way around that. But he seemed to learn, if too late his errors.

"I have got to find a way to make this work for everyone. Make the best of a pile of shit." Zim sighed as he fell back asleep in the Vortian mattress

So how was that? Good? Bad? Short? Long? Let me know in a review. Like I said I want to get this one finished this year. I am getting to some action soon so hopefully I will get it done. Also my life will get pretty busy here soon what with work and school and all that noise so I don't know when I will update again but rest assured I will. I don't have much else to say other than remember to read (well you just did) and to review. Ciao for now,

Otherrealmwriter

Aka

Realm.