Disclaimers: I do not own Invader Zim

Author's Notes: Man 3 chapters in one day is really pushing my creativity, I haven't been able to do this often. Still, I was so excited the chapters just wrote themselves! This is seriously one of my favorite Arcs, I've been wanting to introduce the kids forever! Let me know what you guys think, as always thank you all for reading and please review!

(Back with Zim...)

[Location: Earth, 10 years into the Future]

His older-self had said very little at first as he led them down to the lab.

It was nicked named The Box and Lard Nar had explained that this place had special meaning to Taller Zim. "The fact that the door opened willingly was a testimony to how much everything had changed."

Zim wondered what that meant, but his taller self just grunted a response, Zim was kind of seeing himself as a Jerk. The guy should be happy, he had everything that Zim wanted, and he was not happy!

Lard Nar gives Taller Zim a cross look. "Why are you being so cold?" He whispers as younger Zim looks around at all the half-finished inventions and scattered tools and scraps of metal.

"This place is a mess." Younger Zim scowled.

"You really think pushing him away will teach him anything?" Lard Nar hissed.

"I have never been able to convince him to change." Taller Zim whispered. "Nothing I say now will do much difference."

Lard Nar understood what he meant. Zim had been fighting an inner war with himself for all those years, and fear always won. "Things are different now, you have something worth fighting for, show him that's what makes all the difference."

Taller Zim looks unsure, if he does or says the wrong thing, he could ruin the whole future they had worked so hard to make.

"Remember that leap of faith you took?" Lard Nar asked him.

"I do." Taller Zim answered.

"Do you remember how terrifying it was?" Lard Nar went on.

"It was the most terrifying moment of my life." Taller Zim admitted.

"But you did it, and it was worth it." Lard Nar said. "This is your chance to show him; this is all worth it."

Taller Zim seemed to contemplate this, and nods. "Zim over here." He orders and presses a button on the wall. "Computer we need more parts."

"Understood My Taller." The computer said and soon a hatch opened to reveal a tinny robot pushing a cart of spare parts.

"Gir?" Zim exclaimed.

"Master! There is two of you!" Gir squeals as he runs up to him with the parts still in tow.

"Yes Gir, thankfully you did not come with them." Taller Zim looks openly relieved.

Zim tries not to imagine the disaster of two Girs running around and shivered.

"Yes, a scary thought, isn't it?" Taller Zim joked.

"Terrifying." Zim admitted.

"Aw I love you too!" Gir hugs his leg.

Lard Nar chuckles, and things seem smother from there. It starts off small, Zim keeps mostly quiet as he watches his older-self joke and laugh with Lard Nar. It's nice to know that thing eventually work out between the. Taller Zim counts the supplies as Lard Nar helps him sort through it. It reminds him of his younger years, when Lard Nar taught him how to build; He smiles.

"Is Mary here?" Gir asked him.

"Yes, he is here, somewhere..." Zim answered him.

"I am so happy you are here." Gir exclaims.

Zim's smile widens, he had to admit he was missing his Gir, he wondered how he was doing.

"He is fine." Gir seemed to read his mind.

"I know." Zim said. "He is a good...friend." He almost said robot but changed his mind at the last minute. Gir was more than just a pile of trash, he was everything to him. Gir had been there to comfort him through some of his darkest days.

"Aw who needs a hug?" Gir hugs his leg again.

Zim feels the need to both embrace him and kick him away.

"Zim..." Taller Zim says, trying to hide his own smile. "You need to watch me make this, for the next time."

Zim nodded, and watched as they set to work, he helped when asked, but mostly sat with Gir and watched. As time went by, he got bolder and asked questions, questions like:

How did he end up here?

Why did he defect from the empire?

And was he really the Taller?

Taller Zim opened up with each question, it was hard to hate himself, especially when said "self" reminded him of his Zid. He couldn't even count how many times Zid sat in the very spot Zim was now and watched him work, taking notes and asking why he used this one thing instead of something else.

He knew his younger-self would need more time than Dib to come to terms with all of this, and that was okay. It was a lot to take in after all, the next few months up to graduation was going to be hard for both of them. A lot was going to happen in such little time. In the end though, it would be worth it, he knew this, these few precious moments in the future would make all the difference.

Lard Nar was right, he just needed to have faith, blind faith was not a weakness; it was the bravest thing anyone could have do.

"It's best I don't tell you anything." Taller Zim said.

"Why? Afraid I'll screw it up?" Zim challenged.

Lard Nar laughed "As sharp as ever my young friend."

"That's not it!" Taller Zim growled. "Something's are worth the wait."

"But the Tallest." Zim looks hurt. He can tell by the look on his older-self's face that it did not end well.

"Some will never see past their own greed." Taller Zim said, his voice held great wisdom.

His face fell, and Taller Zim understands his pain, he had done so much for them. He gave them everything, lifted them up higher then himself for so many years and in the end...

"When the time is right, you will see things for what they really are." Taller Zim tells him.

"You can't be me!" Zim snapped. "You feel nothing for the Tallest!" He hissed.

Taller Zim sighs. "There was happiness because of them." He admitted. "But there will be happiness after them."

Zim raised a brow, surely this peaceful passivist wasn't him. How did he go from being The Conquer of Worlds to...this?!

"You'll see." Taller Zim vowed. "Their caring smiles will turn into wicked smirks, all those lessons you learned together will become weapons against you. Your once great friends will bruise you and make you bleed. You will curse their name with the same lips you once praised them with.

Zim looks sickened. "Do we...do I kill them?"

"No..." Taller Zim speaks slowly. "As much as I want to hate them...You cannot make all those years go away by making them the villain. Nothing tells you what to do in this kind of situation, you can't just turn off those feelings. Yes, they will hurt you, but you will hurt them more."

A shiver runs up Zim's spine at Taller Zim's words. "Do you think they will ever change?"

"I... I hope..." Taller Zim shook his head not finishing. "In a perfect world they would step down, see the error of our old teachings. But this, is not a perfect world, we will lose something along the way, it is hard to move on. You gave the best you had, and you will wonder for a long time what there is left to give after that."

"But it will work out." Lard Nar jumped in. "Besides your nemeses will defeat themselves before you have time to take the first swing."

Zim gives him a confused look. "There you go speaking riddles again." He shook his head.

"Never be so clever you forget to be kind." Taller Zim lectured.

Zim looks at him like he had grown a second head. "Who are you? You have destroyed galaxies single handedly, now your-"

"As peaceful as a Vort?" Taller Zim sneered. "You will learn while living among your new allies that the war tyrant mentality will get you nowhere with them. If you want to earn their trust you must remember these words of wisdom. Never be so kind, you forget to be clever, never be so clever you forget to be kind."

"Never be so polite you forget your power." Lard Nar added. "Never will such power that you forget to be polite."

"Did you teach him that?" Zim asked pointedly.

"No." Taller Zim said. "Mother did."

"Mother?" Zim looks confused.

"Yes, it was how Tallest Zorn ruled our people, before Tallest Myuki ruined us!" Taller Zim growled.

"Why would we revert back to his ways?" Zim argued. "We were weak back then."

"Our father's only mistake was not challenging the AI's when Myuki was chosen." Taller Zim growled.

Father...Zim knew he was talking about Zorn; he had learned the truth when he had retrieved Gir from Rhapsodize. The clever sir unit had stolen all of Kazar's personal data from his computer. He now knew why the general found him so fascinated, why he had no doubt Zim would rise above the odds.

Seeing his older-self now, he sees the vision that Kazar always saw of his future. Zorn was a legendary leader who taught them how to rise up on their own two feet. Still, he as determined to never to never allow them to be blinded by their rage, what happened with the Gorgonians did not have to shape their future.

Myuki did not see it that way, and in the end, they had paid for her mistake.

The Zim that stood before him now was the answer, what would be used to fix their people. Zim just can't see how that Zim was once him, he was not Lard Nar. He did not have the strength to stand before his people and tell them what they needed to hear.

That enough was enough!

"Not yet." Lard Nar seemed to read his mind, "but one day, you will."

"How..." Zim dared to ask.

Taller Zim smiled. "People do crazy things for love." He said as he finished his work. The device appeared to be a battery box, but Zim what it was with a single glance.

"A new H-drive?" He asked. "You expect us to use hyper speed to get back to the past?"

"It's not an exact science." Lard Nar answered. "And you won't arrive at the exact point you left."

"How close can you get us?" Zim asked.

"If we are lucky, you will appear just outside of Irk a day before the choosing." Taller Zim answered.

"If not?" Zim asked.

"Then this future will never happen." Taller Zim spoke gravely.

The doors to the lab opened at those words and what Zim sees makes his head spin.

It's an even smaller him, and he runs up to him without fear, he is smiling in a sly way that Zim knows very well.

"Wow you were small." The smeet snickered.

"Who are you calling small you little twerp!" Zim growls.

The smeet laughs.

"Zid!" Taller Zim growls. "You are not supposed to enter here without an escort."

"Mother is coming." Zid reasoned. "They're just taking forever."

Zim sees the similarities in an instant, this child was practically Taller Zim's clone...no Zid, his name started with the letter Z, like Zim. A smeets name was often built up by the name of its parents and Zid sounded a lot like another name he knew.

"Hurry Zib take the picture." Zid shouts.

A flash of a camera comes from the door and another smeet pops out. "Got it!"

Zim's eyes are like saucers, the signs of mix breeding are more apparent in the second one. He looks like Dib mostly, but with cute little antennas sticking out from his hair.

"Excellent!" Zid exclaims he sounds so much like Zim he could have sworn the words had come from his own lips. "Victory for Zid!"

"Hey I helped." Zib pouted.

"Okay, fine victory for us!" Zid corrected himself.

"Give me that!" Taller Zim snatches up the camera.

"Oh, come on, that's my proof." Zid cried.

"Of what exactly?" Taller Zim challenged.

"That you weren't always so invincible!" Zid said as it was obvious.

Zim was still look at all of them with eyes like sauces.

"I think we broke him." Zib said.

"Zim?"

Oh, Irk Dib was walking in, their eyes met and…oh Irk he was turning that shade of scarlet he always did when he was embarrassed.

Older Dib tried his best to hold in his laughter, he never got tired of seeing that look on his mate's face. It was sweet to be reminded of such simpler times.

"He's blushing!" Zii exclaimed.

Zim sees the third Smeet and he swears this one is even more obvious than the other two, a mismatch of both human and Irk. It was obvious theses three were born, not created, they were not clones of their parents. They had no Paks something only cloned Irkens needed. Still Zim had no doubt they would get some when they were older. They extended the wearer's life span, their memory capacity and made them more efficient fighters. Not that Zim could focus on any of that, they exists which meant eventually he and Dib would...

He knows the thought should sicken him, but he's more curious and bewildered about the idea.

Dib sees Zim putting the puzzle pieces together, coming to the same conclusions he did. He blushes a deeper shade of red as Zim's cheeks go from pale to purple.

"I am not blushing you, you little Smeetling!" Zim growls. "You raised these children yourself?" He spat at Taller Zim. "I think a firmer hand is needed."

Taller Zim growled lowly. "Children, are the universe's revenge." He said and for some reason his words make Dib think of Mrs. Bitters.

"Yes, fear me I am a part of a revenge plot!" Zid declared.

Zim smiles. "Fear you? But you're so tinny."

"I am not tinny!" Zid screams.

"Now you've done it." Taller Zim growled.

"You wait, I'll grow big one day!" Zid vowed. "And I will be taller than you ever will be!"

Zim laughs. "Ha, unlikely!"

"Mark these words father!" Zid degrees. "I will get my vengeance!"

"Wonderful." Zib rolls his eyes. "Thanks dad, now the house will be at war for weeks."

"One should always be ready for war!" Zim scowls, shaking off the rest of his shock. "Honestly what are you teaching these children?"

Lard Nar shakes his head smiling. "You'll understand when you're older."

"Older?" Zim shook his head. "I am no child!"

"A lot happens in the next ten years." Taller Zim speaks. "And you grow a lot."

Dib feels the urge to reach out to Zim, but he knows Zim will only pull away. Oh, how he longs for the day they can kiss in public, like in their photos but Zim is still sorting through his feels. Dib decides he won't rush this, this time Zim will come to him, and when does Dib will be ready.

"Come we have little time." Taller Zim breaks up the festivities. "We must get them there before it is too late."

"You figured out a way home?" Dib exclaimed.

Taller Zim nodded. "There is a catch thought."

"We lose six months Dib." Younger Zim interrupted him. "When we get back well be at Irk."

Six months...the idea should scare him, and usually it would. He'd worry about his family, wonder if they were okay. But now he knew everyone was fine, they would all be okay, and he would see them all again very soon.

"Gaz should be done fixing your ship." Taller Zim takes the lead as they leave the lab and go back to the Portal jump.

Dib didn't even know Gaz would be doing that. "She can fix an Irken ship?!"

"She does that a lot." Older Dib answered. "You'll see."

"I hate all this not knowing!" Zim growled. "Why not just tell us?"

"It will happen naturally." Older Dib assured him, giving him a soft smile. "You'll see, it all works out."

Zim blushes once more, this new version of Dib was having an even worse effect on him then the current one.

Younger Dib notices it too, and he begins to plot to look just like his older-self as fast as possible.

Taller Zim snickers as if he can read his mind and Dib blushes as well.

"This is so embarrassing!" Dib whined.

Zim smiles, enjoying this, Dib was always so cute when he was embarrassed. He knows he shouldn't get swept away, he told Dib it would never work between them. And yet...here was proof right in front of him that it did.

"Zim?" Dib looks at him, the blush fading s concern crosses his face.

"I..." I need time to..." Zim tried to explain.

"I get it." Dib smiled he watches the others walk further ahead before taking Zim's hand in his. "No pressure, okay I'll wait for you."

"And what if I never..." Zim was going to say what if he never became him?

Dib knows what he means. "Taller Zim is nice." Dib admitted. "But this is the Zim I fell in love with." He kissed his hand.

Love, he still loved him after all the crap he put him through.

"I will never understand this love you speak of." Zim shook his head but doesn't pull his hand away.

Dib smiles and holds it a bit longer. "Maybe not, but I think you're learning."

Zim returns the smile, Irk he wished they could just stay here. Where everything was already figured out and their happy ending was already carved. The past was full of so much uncertainty and going back scared him a little. What if he messed this up?

Dib sees the train wreak from a mile away, and like always he comes to the rescue. "Hey, it will be okay. You're not in this alone. You got me, and no matter what you decide you always will."

"Okay..." Zim has never sounded more unsure in his life, but that was okay, he never mind Dib seeing this side of him.

"Let's go Space boy." Dib leads him forward to catch up with the others, they are still hand in hand.

Zim knows he should pull away, but he indulges Dib until the catch up to the others, where Dib lets go before, he does. He's respecting Zim's preferences and Zim realizes it in an instant, even though Dib would rather hold on, he doesn't smother him. He understands Zim doesn't like to be clingy in public, and Zim smiles at the small gesture, looking at his hand. This small gesture was love, he recognizes it at once and realizes Dib is right.

He was learning.

Once they reach the Portal Jump, Lard Nar puts in their destination, and they are zapped back to the cargo bay.

Well, she ain't pretty." Peg said, her white lab coat was covered in black grease.

"Hey, I didn't exactly have a lot of time." Gaz growled. "The ship will get you on Irk, after that it maybe totaled."

Zim is disappointed to hear this, but he knows with one glace she is right. The large vessel looked like it was barley holding together. He would hate to see her go, but he still had his Voot to get him and Dib back to Earth, still such a small, confided space with just the two of them, for six months... He didn't let that thought finish.

Dib did and blushes feverishly.

"Seriously Dib you can stop blushing; we all know you guys are a thing." Gaz said with annoyance. "It's so obvious."

"Gaz!" Peg whispered. "They may not be ready yet!" She reminded her.

"Please, they never stopped liking each other." Gaz pointed out. "What's there to work out when you never stop?"

She had a point, still Dib keeps blushing.

Taller Zim ignores them and walks onto the ship where he installs the new H-drive in the control panel. The others follow him, and Dib gets a surprise inside.

"There they are." Membrane says, his black hair was greying a bit, but he looked the same in his large lab coat.

"DAD!" Dib runs to him and hugs him.

"Oh, Dib sweetie." His mother looks somewhat blissful. "I forgot how different you look with your hair like your father's." Her own hair was also greying slightly, looking like silver highlights throughout her lavender hair.

"You should keep it." Membrane said, he looks somewhat hopeful.

"I don't know dad." Dib said. "I like it!"

"And another one bites the dust." Older Dib joked.

Membrane pretends to look hurt. "Oh, you wound me." He laughs.

Zim stands before them uncomfortably.

"Zim!" Annabel looks at him with only joy, she shows no anger for all he had done.

It is in this moment Zim sees where Dib got his forgiveness from. "Mr. And Mrs. Membrane you are looking well." Zim managed to keep his cool.

"So are you." Luna gets up from the command chair, she looks mostly the same just older, but her white hair has grown almost to the ground now.

"Luna!" Dib is so glad to see her. "I am so sorry I left you out there like that." He admitted. He felt guilty about it, even though he knew it was the right thing to do.

"It's fine, it all worked out in the end." Luna said and smiled. "Besides, I had Gir to keep me company."

Gir jumps into her arms. "Yah, bluey!"

Luna gigged. "I just wanted to see you both off." She embraces them both in one big hug. "I love you guys."

"We love you too Luna." Dib tells her.

"Zim does not know this love you speak of." Zim growled.

Luna laughs and pulls away. "Oh, it's like going back in time, you were so cute when you were in denial."

"CUTE!" Zim growls and the ship erupts in laughter. "I am a warlord; I do not do cute!"

Even Taller Zim cracks a smile, his younger self would get there...eventually. "It is time." He says destroying the mood. He wish he didn't have to, but they must go.

Zid looks sad, so do his siblings. "Don't you dare forget to name me properly?" He growls. "If I am Zib in another life I will be furious."

"Aw to be named Zid." Zib jokes. "I would get behind that."

"Don't even think about it." Zib warned.

"What does Zid even mean in Irken?" Dib whispered to Zim as they argued.

"It means wise or great leader." Zim whispered his answer. "Since mine means one of greatness, this name is fitting for my first born."

"And Zib?" Dib asked.

"Peacemaker, or Negotiator." Zim explained. "It can also translate to Clever One, depending on what dialect of Irken you use."

"Do I really need two I's in my name." Zii interrupted them.

"I think your name is unique Zii." Dib says. "Every Zii has two E's you have two I's that makes you special."

"You always say that." Zii says, but he is smiling.

"Zii means carefree spirt." Zim says proudly. "Freedom to dream, it suits you."

Dib smiles, Irken names were kind of beautiful when you knew what they meant.

"Finish saying your goodbyes." Taller Zim warns once more.

"Goodbye mother." Zii hugs Dib.

"Oh, thank Irk." Zim whispered softly.

Dib blushes.

"Yes, I can say without a doubt being the father is so much easier." Taller Zim agreed.

"Father..." Zid gives Zim a sly look. "Remember I am Zid."

Zim smiles. "Keep it up and I will name you Zib on purpose." He growled.

"I will know the difference and I will have my revenge!" Zid vowed. "Besides you names their second born wise leader! The eldest leads!"

"Then why am I the more responsible one?" Zib complains.

"Because being older is a burden in itself." Zim reasoned. "He'll grow out of it."

"Can he do it a bit faster?" Zib said with a smirk. "Because at this rate he'll never catch up." He uses Zid as an armrest as his father had done to older Dib earlier.

Zim laughs as Zid growls openly.

"Well son, take care of yourself on Irk." Membrane said as they embraced once more.

"Yes, don't get too nosey there." Annabel begged. "I was scared stiff every day you were there."

"I never meant to scare you mom." Dib told her.

"We know, you just focus on getting home." His father tells him.

"I will." Dib promised.

"Don't do anything stupid." Gaz warned in her usual scary voice. "If you die, I will never forgive you!"

Peg laughed. "We love you."

"Be safe brother." Moon says hopefully. "You too Zim."

Zim nods to her and Luna embraces him again, apparently, they are a lot closer in the future. Zim pulls away, pretending annoyance.

Luna doesn't even looked hurt. "Remember to be your truest self." She told him.

Zim is taken back by her words. "What?"

"At the choosing, be you." Luna told him. "Trust me."

"Alright that's enough out of you!" Lard Nar ushers her and her sister out. "Good seeing you Zim." He called over his shoulder. "You'll do great things."

Zim smiled. Of course, he would, his name was Zim after all. Honestly that Vort was a real puzzle at times.

"Bye mom, bye dad." Zib says as Membrane and Annabel guide him and his siblings out as well.

"We love you." Annabel said Peg and Gaz follow her lead after giving one last wave.

"Love you too, Zid, you kids be good." Dib calls after his fleeting children.

"Why am I always the only one that is told to behave?" Zid can be heard yelling.

"Gee I wonder why?" Zib teased.

"One push of the drive should do it." Taller Zim told them. "Remember what we discussed." He told Zim.

Zim nodded he knows his older-self isn't being cold, they are just running out of time.

"Dib come; they need to leave." Taller Zim urges his mate forward.

"Wish we had more time." Older Dib says then he adds something in the Irken tongue.

It hits Dib in a way he can't understand. "What did you say?" he asked.

"You are my forever." Older Dib answered.

Taller Zim smiles as he freezes. "It is how Irkens say I love you." He said knowingly.

Dib looks to younger Zim who is more purple than green at this point.

He had no idea Irkens even had a word for it and hearing Dib say it, makes his insides twist in a way he can't explain.

Dib tries to store the words away, to remember how it sounds. One day, if fate allows it, he will say those words to his Zim, and maybe he will say them back.

"We need to go!" Zim turns way hiding his face as he gets to the controls and straps in.

Dib smiles as he straps in too.

"I think I broke you." Older Dib teased as they make their leave.

Taller Zim laughs.

Zim growls, how dare he make Zim fell all mushy inside like it's nothing.

"Goodbye." Dib calls after them.

"Do not worry Love Pig." Taller Zim mused. "You will see us very soon." With that they were of sight; leaving the two alone.

Dib smiled, Love Pig, so Zim still called him that. Oh man that was embarrassing, but also sweet. He wondered if he still called him Mini Moose. He looks to Zim expectantly.

Zim gives him a sinister look. "Don't even." He growled.

Dib laughed as the Irken starts up the ship and the cargo bay doors to the vacuum of space opened up.

The others must have taken the Portal Jump back inside the main control room.

"Wait until you are outside of the atmosphere to activate the H-dive." Taller Zim's voce came over the Comms.

"I know that." Zim growled.

Dib smiled as they receive one final Farwell.

"Good luck Mini Moose." Older Dib jeered.

"Dib I warned you." Zim growled, he was blushing feverishly.

"He said it not me!" Dib argued, through his own laughter.

"He is you, there for you said it!" Zim lectured.

There is the sound of older Dib's and Taller Zim's laughter over the Comms and then Zim pushes the ship controls.

They takes off into the void of space, neither one of them looked back, there was no point. Taller Zim was right after all, they would see each other again very soon.

-To Be Continued