Last chapter I was half asleep making it lol. This chapter will provide a better back story to LAST CHAPTER. Enjoy!

EDIT: I fixed the end after Blue says "Brilliant" when I realized Tak's call didn't come until later on. Oops!

After helping a bewildered Purple stand, Zim faced Gir.

"Gir! Go retrieve the Alternate Device, while you're gone…" He turned his gaze to Purple. "I would like to hear what Purple has to say." Gesturing to the duffle bag.

Gir saluted, optics turning red briefly, and took off through a ceiling vent.

Purple faced the exit point fondly.

"He hasn't changed at all has he?"

Zim smiled. "Well, I DID put a few upgrades in, but… No. He's still the same." Zim smiled. Before facing him.

Purple huffed in understanding.

"Is this the PAK in the vision?" Mary's voice startled them.

Purple whipped around. "What?! HOW?!"

Answering his question is Gir himself flying back in. Mary whistled.

"That was fast."

"Put that on. That should answer most of your questions. It starts last night and ends later tonight."

"What is this Zim?" He asked suspiciously.

"Don't worry, we all wore it, it's safe." Mary spoke while still examining the PAK without actually messing with it. She just sat on the ground again, cross legged holding it in her lap.

"Find a comfy spot to sit, you'll experience hours, but a few minutes pass out here. While you're watching it I'll get this set up." Zim gestured Blue and Stell over. Nova and Teal rushed to their sides awaiting orders.

Purple looked at Mary a few feet away. Eventually, he looked at the device. Sighing, he sat down next to her and put it on.

After a minute, she looked up at the sound of footsteps. Nova and Teal stood before her.

"Can I help you?"

Nova and Teal are both standard S.I.R Units from what she has seen. The difference is that they were made with outdated parts on purpose. Rumor had it, so was Gir.

If Gir stood next to Nova and Teal, you can see the differences.

The main one is the paint job. Mary remembers that shortly after becoming a Dib, one of Stells plots brought them to an ally that several graffiti artists were spraying the walls. She remembered Nova's look of wonder in its Optics. Teal however focused on the pop culture portion of it.

They have been hooked since.

Gir may love Tacos, but Nova liked making her body a work of art.

Teal liked painting various tattoos and such of random manga or cartoons. Teal also likes tribal tattoos for some reason...

Mary often finds them spying on the alleyways to watch them work. Finding other alleys, Nova swiped a few cans to practice herself while Teal assisted, but doodled more. Mary helped once by doing a piece making fun of Stell due to mounting frustration that week. Nova actually helped and made it prettier! Teal made it funnier by adding various sound effects and random symbols that made her collapse in laughter. Stell even lets Nova do her robots' paint jobs, encouraging Nova's chaotic ways productively. The duo often compete on who's better. Teal likes to put various stickers on them to piss off Nova.

It became their thing after a while. Last year, Nova started spraying itself in curiosity. Nova looked different every time Mary saw it. Teal did the same, but also found a lanyard and started putting pins on it. May likes guessing what each one is.

So, looking up as Nova walked over, Nova gave herself a pearl white look with ghost patterns on its hands and lower legs. Piggies? There were also glow in the dark green lightning accents here and there.

Hmmm Nova's been practicing.

Teal has a similar paint job, but in swirling shades of black, teal and royal blue. Instead of Piggies, it was hot rod flames with the Irken logo on its back.

They reached out and put one of their hands on top of hers. She looked at the hands and noticed a Ghosted number: 403 between the wrist and knuckles.

Looking up, the two smiled before retracting their hands and going back to work before the others noticed they wandered off.

Her lips wobbled.

Was this related to her Alternate Death? Showing support? Why..?

Soon enough, Purple ripped off the Device and started gasping in horror, while whipping around to face Mary.

"Did you make it to the roof?" She whispered. He nodded frantically.

They were quiet for a moment as he processed what he saw.

"Even though she was a clone, would this PAK have worked anyway?" She asked, looking up at him.

"I… don't know. I wasn't even aware Red was even making clones. Believe me, my surprise in the vision was very real."

"I see." Looking at the PAK again. "Why did you put this on me anyway? In there… you said it was your phase one to your apology to Zim. How?"

He was silent for a moment. Before scooching over to sit across from her, also cross legged, back to the others.

The others slowed in their work, wanting to hear as well without making it obvious.

"If it worked on you… it would work on Dib. Zim's Dib." Purple pointed to the PAK. Mary looked up. "This larger device behind me, I remembered it from an old briefing of Zim's of which I have no doubt he'll explain what it does himself. But… I remembered him talking about it."

Zim looked at him in shock. Purple remembered?

"I remember all of Zims briefings back then." He silently snickered. "It was kind of hard not to. At first we dreaded it." He shrugged.

Zim's antennae drooped a little. They dreaded his reports..?

"But after a while, I secretly looked forward to them. Honestly, they were the highlight of the week for me. Are you aware of Operation Impending Doom?"

Mary shook her head., but was clearly interested in this story. Stell whipped her head up, having heard of it. Raising a brow, Zim was impressed Stell was even interested in that.

"It was essentially what started the Invader program so we can conquer or destroy other worlds. Zim, here was in the first Operation before he COMPLETELY RUINED IT BEFORE HE EVEN LEFT THE PLANET!" He yelled back to the clearly eavesdropping Irks behind him.

"Zim did not ruin anything!" He shot back.

"You started firing at your comrades and made the fires worse everywhere !"

"Worse? ...Or better." He smirked.

Purple shot him a deadpan look, the kiddos started to laugh/snicker.

"Anyway…" Purple gave one last glare at Zim, before facing Mary again. She was still cackling. When she calmed, he continued, no longer whispering.

"With that one ruined, we banished Zim to Foodcourtia so we can try again."

"Wait… Zim was banished to Foodcoutia?" She asked, stunned.

"Yuuup!" He droned on exasperate, another quick glare to Zim. He smirked back smugly, waiting to hear the next part.

"So, here we are, trying again in Operation Impending Doom 2... when Zim here interrupts the ceremony for assignment on Conventia."

"How? I thought he was banished?" Mary asked, baffled.

"Simple, he quit being banished when he heard about it." Purple dryly deadpanned at Zim again.

"You quit being banished?!" Blue choked out. Stell just boggled at Zim.

Zim just shrugged amused, before working again.

To spare his neck, Purple adjusted his spot on the floor to sit sideways and backed up a few feet so he could see them all better.

"Quick question, PLEASE help me settle an argument with Red. Which is better, laser lights or smoke machines?"

"Seriously?" She blinked at the subject change.

"Seriously." He stared at her intensely.

"Hmm… I'd go smoke machines-"

"WHAT?!" Blue interrupted. "Laser shows are definitely cooler."

"Tch, please. I agree with Mary." Stell crossed her arms.

"Of course you would." Whispered Blue wiggling his non-existent eyebrows. She baulked as Zim silently snickered.

"I, however, like the lasers better." Zim spoke up, now buried in the machine.

"Of course you would Zim." Judging from Purple's fond expression, he knew first hand Zims fondness for lasers.

"Aw, but we're tied now!" Nova complained.

"Gir!" Zim shouted. "Which do you prefer?"

"I like the smoke machines. You'll be like ninjas!" He then started to naruto run around the room ducking behind things as he went.

Purple cheered. "Haha! Take that Red!"

The rest just laughed.

"It appears we veered wildly off topic. Ahem. Anyway, long story short, we sent Zim here after he all but begged for a mission." He grinned slyly at Zims responding glare. Still somewhat bitter about it being a joke.

"Honestly, we completely made this planet up! Neither of us expected Earth to be here." He sighed.

"So.. what?" Stell stopped working to look at him and Zim. "Were you just hoping he'd just keep flying into open space? Did you want to get rid of him that badly?"

The room became silent.

Zim stopped, hands frozen in their movements.

"At the time... " Purple finally spoke up. "Yes. Yes we did. Back then, Zim is completely different to how he is now." He faced them. Zim unburied himself to look at the floor, sideways to Purple. "He was a narcissistic, megalomaniac, chaotic little thing. Brilliant yes, but he never thought things through, most of his plans failed, and was obsessively loyal to the Empire. Because of this, we wanted him gone." He finished.

"Zim." Purple stood and walked over to him. Zim still didn't look up.

"Zim. You have no idea how glad I am that you found Earth." Purple confessed, hand on Zims shoulder.

"What..?!"

"Well, yes, it got you far away from us. That was the point." He shrugged. "But what I'm getting at, is you finding your own place here. Admit it, neither of us expected you to meet Dib back then, but… he saved you Zim." Grabbing his other shoulder, Zim just boggled at him. "With Dib being here, he made you try again. He made you think things through to succeed! He gave you a challenge to figure out a goal! I remember. In one of your reports, you said you didn't feel like it would be a victory over Earth unless you beat him first !" Purple shook his shoulders trying to get through to him.

"Dib SAVED you Zim! I mean look at you!" Purple backed up to gesture wildly at Zim. "I may have been in Foodcourtia the last few Millennia, but I still watch the news! You did SO much for Irk! For.. for them !" Pointing at Stell and Blue. "ALL your Invaders! You have successfully led our Empire into greatness AND given what was left, truly left of our people a chance to live! That is far more than me and Red has EVER done! I just kept shooting them out of airlocks." Stell flinched remembering her earlier research. "I'm actually ashamed of my past rule!"

Throughout this, Purple started pacing during his speech and Zim just sank to the floor in shock.

"Don't you see Zim?!" Purple stalked over and then knelt down before Zim. "We were wrong about you. I was wrong about you. But, I still don't regret sending you here. Being here has helped you far more than being with us ever could have. Dib… saved you Zim." He pulled the now catotonic Irk into his embrace.

As Purple held the increasingly distressed Zim, Mary sat there.

After all, it was only yesterday that Zim unloaded everything he knew about Dib. Everything they went through.

Waiting until they calmed, she spoke up.

"So… what does all this have to do with that thing? What is it anyway?"

"It's your device Zim. You can explain it, but when you're done, I'd like to tell you my plan for it, ok?"

Zim nodded, before leaving his embrace.

"This was based off of Dr. Membrane's own device he aired on TV. It's a Temporal/ Space-Time Object Replacement Technology. Basically you can replace an object from the past, with an object from the present."

"Seriously?! And why just objects?" Mary stood in shock, walking closer.

"It was how it was originally designed" Zim shrugged.

Purple faced it head on, arms crossed in thought. "That's what I thought." He mumbled.

"So, what's the plan?" Blue jumped down to join them.

Purple pointed to it. "So if only transfers objects, that should mean PAKs are fine, correct?"

"I suppose?" Zim confessed curiously. "I have not considered it."

"Oh! I think I know where this is going!" Mary grinned. They all looked at her.

"Think about it! PAKs basically store everything you are and experienced in it, right?" They nodded. "Ok, so! Even back then you guys were cloning. What if we took your Paks now and traded it with one THEN! Would that loophole work like that? You'd still have all your memories and stuff with the PAKs, soo…"

"Yes! That was exactly what I was thinking!" Purple grinned.

"So~ That leaves the problem with you using it on me and how does that apply to the apology?"

"Simple. As you said, PAKs are us basically. By making it compatible with you, it's compatible with Dib. Granted I haven't figured out how to get it to the first Dib, but then… Reds Clone of you." He pointed to Mary.

She blinked.

"Clones count as objects. Granted we don't otherwise, Zim here would CLEARLY have taken advantage of that." Crossing his arms and smirking at Zim.

Zim gave a shit-eating grin in response.

Mary twitched, oh yes, she could definitely see the chaos of a time-traveling Zim…

"We can actually USE the Clone-Mary to test it out. If successful, we can send the clone to the Dib of that last battle before Zim took over and put a PAK on him. That's why I made several PAKs, afterall."

"So…" Stell started. "We use the Fake Mary, activated later tonight, as a test. But how do we get the fake to cooperate?"

"Put the PAK on me." Mary startled them. "Think about it. When Skool gets out later today and after Stell surprise party for me, the storm starts and the Resisty captures us. We LET those events happen. Yes, Purple left, but he can still sneak back in and do what he did-"

"BUT YOU DIE!" Stell burst out!

Silence.

"Oh…" Mary all but deflated at that.

"You die in that vision!" Stell whimpered.

They all looked away remembering a still Mary in Zims arms with a bullet wound.

She gulped, shaking. "Then… then we REALLY need to make sure these PAKs back up everything, huh?" Trying to lighten the mood. But her nerves were shot. Flinching at the injury echoing in her mind. Seeing it through the eyes of the clone.

"Mary." Zim spoke. Startled, Mary faced him.

"There was no context. The vision was from Stell and Purples point of view arriving on the roof. There was nothing shown between the raid and us getting on that roof in the first place. For all we know, it could be another of Reds clones in your clothes. Or could have simply switched your clothes while you were both unconscious. There are simply too many variables."

"I'll take it! Zim can you hack into Red's PAK? Let's see for ourselves how many clones he actually has. Purple, how long does it take to clone someone?" Mary stood firm before them.

"I can easily find such information." Zim smirked in determination. Gir just pulled out a pad from his head and handed it to him. Zim smiled in thanks and started hacking.

Purple stared at Stell and Blue in shock. They nodded.

Facing Mary again, "Normally, about 1 earth month."

"Back then Purple. Now , about an hour." Zim interrupted. Purple stared in shock.

"Perfect!"

"HOW!?" Stell screeched overwhelmed. Mary faced her.

"We clone ME, by the time Skool lets out, you take her in my clothes. WE trick the Resisty! I'll stay here and hide while the raid happens, and they'll be none the wiser! I won't die, we can plant the PAKs on the clones and use them as tests for this time travel stuff! It's a win-win!"

"Thats…" Stell stared in shock

"Brilliant." Blue finished.

"Gir, help Purple clone Mary! Blue and Stell, get that Mecha ready! The Portal and everything else can wait until later!" They all nodded and split up.

~/~

Zim got to work hacking Red's Pak and telling the computer to alert him if Tak calls. After he went down to help Purple because his cloning knowledge is out of date.

~/~

Stell, Teal and Nova were rushing trying to finish the Mecha in time. Blue ensuring the stronger paste was in the compartment and a light layer of paste was already on her just in case.

~/~

Mary, Gir and Purple were in the lab. Purple explaining every step and answering all her questions as they worked. When he was done testing, Zim came in and started to make her clone, Purple put the PAK on her. Zim helping every step of the way.

Gir brought over a trash bucket in case she threw up. They held her during her seizure and she was knocked out like before. The PAK started downloading everything from her brain, her anatomy, everything was being processed. So now, they just wait.

~/~

They were cutting it close, but when the computer alerted them to Skool getting out in an hour. They were ready.