Welcome back to this episode of Fire in the Snow! I have a bit of a surprise for you...and you'll see what it is when you read this chapter! This is part II of the mutiny that Red and Purple are trying to do on the Massive, but let's see if they can actually get it done! As always, I hope that you enjoy and I really, really appreciate your support and continued interest in this bizzare little fic I've managed to pull from my head.

Let's just say...the seat of Tallest may be open very...very soon.

Chapter rated M for violence, perilous themes, allusions to mental disorders/PTSD, suggestive/sexual themes, brief heavy language, and general adult content.

Del stood and stretched, striding leisurely to the far wall of his quarters and dancing his fingers over the fanciful array of glasses dotting his bar as he mulled over his selection of exotic liquors and ciders. He selected one as Purple went into shock behind him, ruthlessly fighting against the hideously terrifying code invading his senses, and poured the honied, thick mixture into a single shot before gingerly taking it and swirling it through his mouth. Purple blinked, watching his Tallest from behind as Lire's death continued to play in his psyche, an odd sensation of fading and physical dissolving accompanied by the strangest weakness he'd ever felt plaguing his body and bogging him down like mud. Del poured another drink and moved back with a smile, sitting on the edge of the bed and crossing his legs delicately as he scooped Purple up by the back of the neck and urged him to take a revitalizing sip when the grisly, mind-shattering memory came to a final close and smoothed, leaving Purple with nothing more than the need to lay down and sleep for cycles to overcome the immense, overpowering drowsiness he hadn't been expecting. Del plucked the cable free from his PAK and nodded in approval, swiftly closing the protective casing to his hardware and bringing the chilly rim of the glass to his lips once more when he lolled and tried to gain his bearings. Huh? Wasn't he…weird. This was weird. He felt like he had been reincarnated, staring down at his hands as he sat up on impulse and panicked when he realized he couldn't speak.

Hello?

His voice…his voice was distant and too far gone, echoing in his thoughts as his body continued to move and sling itself up over the bed, touching his face without his permission and stretching with a peep to move towards the mirror and examine exactly what was happening. Sure enough, he looked the same. Wide eyes blinked without cause, fingers smoothed over lightly freckled skin without purpose, and Of course he looked the same, he was himself! Right? Right?! Purple tried to swallow but faltered, turning back as his feet went on autopilot to the stoic, leisure motions of an invisible puppeteer tugging on his soul and making him dance a devious waltz back towards his Tallest to take the glass and swallow down the nauseating, chilled cider that nearly made him gag.

Then…a voice.

"Ugh, this soft body can't handle its liquor. What a shame. How fitting of you to pick this one for me."

His voice?

But…he didn't say that!

Purple felt trapped under an invisible anvil, panicking and exerting pressure down on his jaw in a frantic need to see if he could move anything…anything at all and feeling a tiny nerve jolt as his teeth slammed together. His hands flew to his mouth with a yelp of surprise followed by a gentle rub over his sore jawline to pacify the ache his fingertips found there.

"Del, don't tell me he's still in here with me?"

What? Why did he keep talking?! Why was he talking to his Tallest like they'd known each other for cycles upon cycles with no malice?! He forced his jaw back open as his hands wrangled to keep it closed, hastily bounding back to the mirror to watch with false frustration that wasn't his own as whoever had taken him resumed control and figuratively pushed him back into his own mind. No! This was his body! T-This was his and only his and no one else's! Why couldn't he move? Why couldn't he speak? He had to challenge Del, yeah, he had to challenge him and end this intense nightmare once and for all before it got out of hand. Everything would be alright, and he and Red could figure this out together once he got to the brig and showed him what was happening. H-He would know what to do. Red always knew what to do.

Del chuckled from behind, patting the space next to him and laying back over his comforter to stare up at the gloomy ceiling with a victorious grin. "It's strange to hear your voice like that. I know it's you but you sound so pathetically weak." He laughed again and glanced up, watching as Purple's body joined him and crossed his arms over his chest to admire the piping hissing above them. "I figured it would be a lot easier to get blood if he was compliant, but the only way to do that was to bring you back."

Purple felt himself sneer with a snicker. "Ah. So the only reason you shoved my code into this form was to use me as a blood farm. How fitting of you, Del. You always know exactly what to say to make a man feel special."

Blood farm? Hey! I'm still here! Who the hell is in my head?!

Del ignored the ghostlike voice rebounding silently over the room as Purple irately screamed back his non-compliance, watching as his hands balled up over his chest in discomfort and deciding to yell once more.

Get out of my body you prick! Get out of my fucking body!

"Irk, I can still hear him and let me tell you, he's pretty damn loud." His voice sighed and rolled onto his side to get a better look at Del's deepening frown. "Is there any way we can shove him out?"

Del thought a moment, bringing a gloved claw to his mouth and tracing his lips as he ran over everything he knew about PAK technology. "Hm. I don't think there's a way to do it safely. You're being supported by his hardware, so if his code is deleted, all that will be left is your personality stream." He grimaced, trailing the piping with his eyes and sighing long and low as his short lived victory faltered. "That won't be enough alone to support proper brain function and you'll die…again."

Again? What do you mean again?! Del, look at me! C-Can you…can you hear me…?

Purple felt his form run a cool palm up over his cheeks and nod in agreement. "Ha, yeah. That wouldn't be fun. The first time was bad enough with that idiot General slamming through my ribcage. You know, death really is how they tell you it's like in the Academy." He swallowed on command, choking in his mind when he wasn't expecting it. "It's like falling asleep. Cold, stagnant, hibernation is all and then nothing."

Hibernation?

Del nodded along with his false words, rolling onto his side to face him directly as well but refusing to meet his gaze. "Then it's a good thing we won't ever have to go through that again now, will we?" He reached out and patted Purple on the shoulder, the sensation sending disgusting shivers up Purple's spine and forcing his body to react.

"Woah! I felt that one!" He chuckled, standing and wobbling on his feet as his parasitic host got used to his new height and laughed. "Is this what you tall idiots feel like all the time? This is fantastic! I feel like I'm on top of the world up here!"

Del slung himself up and followed, resting a hand on Purple's shoulder and grinning down as he felt himself beam back up.

No! N-No I challenge you! I challenge you for the seat of Tallest! You have to let me go! Y-You can't do this if I've challenged you!

Nothing.

Del made his way towards the hatch, inputting the code and waiting for it to sling open as Commander Poki saluted genially from the outside and held the door respectfully, eying Purple in confusion as he stepped through against his will and followed closely at Del's side.

"You'll get used to the feeling of him floating around in the back of your mind. For now, welcome back…Lire."

Play it cool. Just act normal.

Ugh, that was hard when Red was literally torn to hell, wasn't it?

He smiled to the best of his fading ability, grinning down at the slew of confused faces staring back at him as his prisoner led him down long back corridors and passed the cafeteria, awkwardly turning away from the door to wave at the inhabitants and conceal the plasma pistol burning into his skin as he walked. He had to get to Purple. He had to find a way to catch Del off guard and overtake the ship as a distraction, running through the layout in his ocular lenses and freezing at the end of the corridor when he noticed the tiny pulse he'd been trained on the entire time began to move. Where was Del taking him? He forced the barrel of his pistol further into the small of his prisoner's back as he forced him to pick up speed, flashing a hasty under planned smile to a tiny service drone that waved up at him from below then promptly frowned when she realized he was in a hurry. Del really hadn't thought this through or told anyone, keeping his betrayal a complete secret from most of his staff and playing them all for fools, not that they weren't. At least Lire was dead; that would have been a war and a half to go through if he was still around to see Red traipsing down the hallway like he owned the place.

"Do you know anything about Del's plans for the consort?" He asked on a quick, hushed stutter, swiftly rounding the corner and stopping when he was met with a wave of new recruits touring the hallways on their own. Red pressed himself up against the wall, keeping the guard in front of him and dipping down to conceal his face as they continued their sweaty, nervous trek. "I asked you a question, soldier. Do you know what Del is doing with the consort?"

"T-The consort? Y-You mean Nemi?" The guard stammered, sniffing thickly and yelping when he was forced into a service door. "I-I don't- I-I don't know, Sir!"

Red growled and firmly shoved him away, slamming his pistol down on the guard rail of the emergency steps as his thoughts reeled and he kept a close eye on Purple's ping behind his retinas. He watched as the frightened soldier wavered and wrung his hands together, squinting through each floor and struggling to keep up with the rapidly escalating speed of his mysterious other half. He decided to go in alone, throwing in the towel and feeling that the guard was more of a liability when he began to hum nonsense under his breath.

"You never saw me, got it?" Red hissed with a frustrated spit, rushing up the stairs in a surprisingly level headed chase and forgetting his prisoner completely as he raced over grating and quickly scaled the gargantuan ship.

The med-bay.

They were headed to the med-bay.

Red felt his pulse lurch as he counted the floors under his panting breath, skipping over steps and resorting to throwing out his PAK legs for added speed and squinting back against the rush of cold air smacking him in the face. His partner's pulse was steady and serene as he entered the sprawling med-bay with Del, the two hastily making their way to the back pod and stopping. Ugh, what was his game? Was Purple seriously going to give up his blood to that nauseating, vile monster?! He finally reached the correct floor, hooking his razor sharp PAK extensions into the hinge of the locked hatch and heaving as he dug his heels down into the grating for stability and pried it open.

Uh oh.

An alarm sounded, flashing lights and the deafening pierce of horrid screeching flooding the stairwell and alerting the surrounding guard to an unwanted intrusion. Fuck! No, no, no! Red thought fast, bounding forward through the hatch and dipping into a darkened medical pod as he scrambled for purchase over the slick floor, making his way under a suspended bed and gripping at the sterile plastic to watch a troop of five stoic guards race with thudding iron boots to the scene, flooding the stairwell and throwing out pistols as orders were given to find whoever was responsible. Red waited a few seconds longer, his pulse deafening in his antennae as he slowly stood and crept to the internal window of the room, smoothing back the privacy blinds and clamping a hand over his mouth to stifle a yelp when he realized Del had followed, forcing him to think fast and select a tiny cabinet in the back of the room. In a mad dash, he flew forward, throwing open the cabinet and painfully squeezing his way into the tiny crevice he'd been allotted, brushing aside stinging alcohol and sharp packaged PAK tools before fumbling to close the door shut behind him, a small bottle of eye solution slipping free and skidding across the floor at the last second and drawing a terrified curse from Red's lips as he finally shut himself away and waited. Shit…shit…shit…he couldn't move. He couldn't move or hear or feel or see. It was so dark, reeking of medical waste and astringent swirling together to produce something laden with fumes and noxious. He tried not to focus on the nasty scent, straining to press his long antennae against the seam of the cabinet and listen to whatever he could possibly pick up; an order maybe? But that didn't sound like Del. That sounded soft…familiar…lovely.

Purple.

There was no doubt about it, Purples sing-song tone turned vile with domination as he ordered about service drone and laughed along with Del as they fought to scramble forth to undergo their duties. That couldn't be right…it was but it couldn't be. Red reached out with trembling fingers, griping at the safety latch inside the cabinet and blindly forcing it open an inch before squinting in the now blinding light of the room searing back against his sensitive eyes. He held his breath and silently shut the door as he curled back into himself and forced himself to stay as still as possible when two sets of footsteps started rooting through medical supplies outside followed by two recognizable voices.

"Do you think it's him Del?"

"Mm. Probably. I always knew that General of yours was crafty in his ways. I can't believe I legitimately trusted him for as long as I did. I should have listened to your reasoning before assigning him to my cabinet."

"Yes, you should have. I told you he was bad news from the start. And he's not my General."

"Ah forgive me, with a kind face like that I forget that you're not who I thought you were anymore. It's strange to see you like this."

"You'll get used to it eventually. Now, help me check around so we can kill this idiot before he gets to the mainframe or something. I don't want his weird hands touching our tech and ruining everything!"

Red pressed his fingertips to his lips as he listened to Purple drag him through the mud like a limp, long forgotten piece of meat, overly confused at why the hell his kindhearted, patient partner would say something like that? Was he playing a part? Red swallowed when a fleeting thought passed through his mind, opening up a terrifying realization that he quickly pushed away; was Purple working with Del the entire time? Pfft, no. He trusted that man with his life and knew that whatever he was doing was for the good of them both and the good of the mission, choosing to let him play out his fictitious role as he listened and got a bit of enjoyment out of how poorly he was doing. Geez, Del would never believe acting like that. He stuck out his tongue and stifled a tiny chuckle when he heard Purple rustle above the cabinet above him, shaking his head and taking a deep breath when he accidentally smacked his jaw on a metallic shelf with a loud clang and hoped that Purple would purposefully ignore the clatter for his own safety. There was no way that his partner would ever-

Red froze when the doors to the cabinet swung open and two familiar lavender orbs shown back behind the smile he'd come to love, unnerving him completely as a deep frown hitched in his chest and bubbled up to spread over his face. What the hell? He glanced to the side and noticed Del had moved off somewhere else in the process, reaching out and taking Purple's hand when he extended it down and took him by the chin to draw him up to his height. Woah…w-woah! He was here! He was really here and he was in one very normal, undissected piece! Red flew forward and wrapped his arms up around Purple's waist, hoisting him from the floor and spinning him in the renewed light of the room as he pressed a swift, sweet kiss to his cheek and purred up into his neck to drink in his affectionate, gloriously delightful scent. It was cozy and warm, Red giggling out his adrenaline-fueled nerves as Purple's hands found his shoulders and smoothed over his scapula to draw him closer when he finally lowered him down and looked him over with a wholly relieved grin. He looked perfect, just as he remembered him, but something was different. He was slicked and drenched through his clothes with sticky sweat, hinting at the extraneous torture he must have been through and, as Red leaned in to smear a giddy smooch against his partner's chapped lips, he stopped himself short. There was something. Purple moved back forward and gripped at Red's ribcage, scanning his face with compassionate eyes as he kneaded his fingers into his skin and allowed his hands to trail down and peel away the pistol that had all but formed to his hand, setting it gingerly aside to the counter and opening his mouth to speak.

"I'm so happy I found you." He whispered, smiling softly and running a thumb up over Red's cheek. "I managed to slip away earlier and I've been trying to figure out where on Irk you went off to."

His voice was the same, but his speech was different. It was more heavy and articulated, as if he'd suddenly gone through cycles of grammar training that wasn't his own. "I-I'm happy I found you too." Red folded back forward into his hold, burying his face in his neck as he sighed against his skin as a test and pulled away when he realized Purple wasn't squirming. He always got uncomfortable when Red got too close for his taste, usually gently shivering away with a hasty apology or moving his hands somewhere easier to handle as he tensed. "How did you get away from Del? I just heard him in here with you."

Purple blinked and looked over his shoulder as if searching for something Red didn't understand, bringing a finger to his lips to affectionately hush him. He no longer had the instinctive tremor in his fingers from cycles of abuse, his hands steady as boards and careful as he leaned in for another kiss and clued Red in to the stench of honied alcohol lingering on his breath. Red met him halfway and blinked in perplexity, listening to the low sigh of self-sure contentment moving against him as Purple indulged a little too much for the first time and caught him completely off guard. He gingerly pushed him back and held him at a distance when Purple frowned and leaned forward on his toes to try and get closer once more, distressing Red in ways that he hadn't expected as he swiftly glanced out of the hatch and returned to speak rapidly under his breath in a desperate chase for answers.

"Pur, what the hell are you doing?" He mumbled, in mounting exasperation when his partner purred past his hold and curled his fingers up against his cheeks to press a kiss between his eyes and back him up against the counter. "T-This isn't like you, what…? What happened between you and Del? D-Did he get you drunk or something?"

"Irk, you always talk far too much for my taste." Purple chuckled, hooking a claw into Red's collar when he threw his hands up before him in defense to try and fight off the bizarre, out of character advances setting a deep chord of discomfort in his spooch when he felt finger trailing further than he wanted. "I've always wanted to try kissing you to see what the hype was about. Ah..I-I mean I really want to kiss you now. I could have died back in Del's quarters and I want to savor us being alone for a minute longer."

"Why are you talking like that?"

"Like what, love?"

"Like you're, I dunno, all ancient and proper? You sound creepy."

"Creepy? Ha! No, no, I'm just excited is all."

"Pur, I've seen you excited and you slur all of your words together and throw curses. This is wrong." Red stifled a yelp when Purple's hands landed between his legs, forcing him to push back hard against his shoulders and clamp a hand over his mouth when he landed back against the ground. "Ok, what happened with Del? You're not you. This isn't you!"

"Ah, I wondered how long it would have taken you to notice. Lire you owe me two hundred monies when we get back to our quarters tonight." A voice rang out, nearly melting Red in his boots. "I knew he'd notice you because you're, well, you're not as broken as Nemi."

Del strode around the corner and nodded leisurely in Red's direction, flashing him a warmhearted smile and moving to help Purple from the floor as their captive tried to figure out what the hell he'd just heard in all of the commotion. Did he say…Did he just say Lire? But Lire was dead and gone, destroyed from the inside out by the sharp edge of his boot knife and Zim's skilled hands tearing his hardware from his spine and chucking it into the Callnowian wilderness. He'd dissolved and turned to dust before they'd all left the geode cave in the cold but-

Red slumped back and gripped at the edge of the counter, his expression falling as he paled and felt the color drain from his face and leak away to the floor in thick, goopy puddles as he realized the obvious. Well, maybe not obvious, but the to the trained eye everything he'd suspected came to the forefront in rolling waves, crashing over Red's battered shores when he realized who exactly was staring back at him and continuing to violate his other half's body for the hundredth time. He had seen it before in the red light district of Moo-Ping 10's many moons, watching as dead PAKs were taken to quack doctors and surgeons for illegal data transfer into cadavers that had been pilfered from the Irken homeless population and given new life through code exchange. It was hard to safely rid the first resident from their hardware, so the two learned to coexist, meaning…m-meaning…

Purple was stuck in his own head with his worst nightmare.

"Pur, look at me. Look at me baby, I know you can see me." He took a step forward as Lire shook his head and rolled his partner's eyes, reaching up to work his fingers into his jaw as Purple tried to say something from within but was ruthlessly stifled. "Get out of him, Lire. Hasn't he already messed with you enough before you died?!"

Lire brushed Del's hand away and moved to sling himself up on the medical table as a drone arrived with a phlebotomy set and a needle, rolling up Purple's sleeve to show off his vein as the little drone swiftly pricked him and went to drain his precious lifeforce on command from her Tallest. Red sprinted forward with a shout, reaching out and feeling the wind knocked from his lungs when Del grabbed him sharply around the waist and hoisted him up. He wasn't going to go down without a fight, rearing back with a screeching growl when his instinct to protect what he loved bloomed out of nowhere and threw his PAK lasers out on impulse to fire up at the ceiling and strip away the piping of the ship. The drone pulled back as Lire sat stoic and unfazed, watching her scramble out of the way as hunks of iron and titanium cascaded down around them like meteors, alerting the rest of the floor to the horrors unfolding in the room as Del shouted a command to the computer to slam the hatch shut as Red fired once more and seared through a medical cabinet to ignite a package of untouched medical alcohol and watch it spray over the far wall in streaking flames of wild orange and glittering yellows. He wrestled his way out of Del's hold and fell to the floor, tackling Lire from his perch as his Tallest tried to maintain his bearings but faltered, allowing Red to rear back and build energy for a punch as he gritted his teeth in rage before realizing that he was about to clout his partner. He wavered, crying out when Lire hit him back with much more force then he was expecting and popping his jaw out of place as he struggled to reset it in its socket, feeling it pop and scrambling back across the floor when Purple pursued him. He braced for another impact but quickly realized it wouldn't come, watching in horrified perplexity as Lire slammed Purple's mouth shut and forced his fingers into the floor as Del collected himself and raced forward, a single recognizable sound flooding from Purple's mouth that had Red spinning where he sat to watch Del race forward like a dubious animal.

"Challenge!"

Red hopped up when everything slowed, his nerves calming and the beginning fringes of a challenge request piquing in his PAK hardware before it shot off to alert the Control Brains millions of miles away on Judgementia and halted Del in his charge as his own did the same.

"Almighty Tallest Del, I, Red of Naphrus, challenge you to combat for the seat as head of the Imperial Irken Empire!"

As always, thank you for joining me for this chapter! I hope you enjoyed and I love each and every one of you!

Next Update: Sunday, April 19, 2020 by 10:00 pm CDT (UTC-5)! Thank you and see you then!