I don't own Invader Zim okay? I don't have much to say here, been working on a few of my other fics I want to finish by the end of this year so this one hasn't been updated in a little bit. But enough of this A/N, on with the fic!

Lord Nar sat at a diner on the opposite end of the town in the desert and looked around. He needed to talk with Dib about what he could do for the Resisty and to see if he knew anything about the Tallest. He had written a few things down on the napkins while the disgruntled late night waitress looked at him. "Are you going to order something than coffee?" She asked as the ashes of the cigarette she was smoking dropped into the old pot.

"Coffee." Lord Nar said and he looked at the menu. From what he could gather from human food, his favorite delicacy from back home, a Vort Dog was made of things similar to Earth's pork, which was in much of the items on the breakfast menu of the diner. "A pecan waffle, bacon and sausage. And fried eggs. Double up on the sausage and more coffee. I never knew there could be a drink this good."

"Whatever, enjoy your heart attack weirdo." The waitress said. "What band are you with?"

"Huh?" Lord Nar asked looking at the waitress.

"We get tons of people who look like you come through here. Usually some band who couldn't make it very big in Vegas out there." Lord Nar looked to the bright town in the distance. "Yeah, lots of bands go in trying to be edgy and make it big there before trying in LA, Los Angles," She added at Lord Nar's look. "But they get a gig or two, it goes bad and they end up wandering the desert till someone finds their modified corpse. Dehydration or heat stroke."

"Well, that's good to know. Part of a band called The Resisty to do much that." Lord Nar lied. He knew she would know about aliens at this point, what with the Massive crashing only miles from the diner. However, if she thought he was some weird human, he was going to roll with it as he didn't want his exitance exposed and that was a good cover. So the Meekrob already told Dib what he was to them, and what they intended to do. He seemed rather annoyed at them, so would he want to help us? Goodness knows he can be useful. That was the most impressive use of intergalactic skills and warfare from a technologically inferior race I had ever seen. Lord Nar thought as he slowly stirred his coffee, waiting for the food to come up.

Meanwhile, in the desert that night, with the dried out corpses of failed bands, Purple was looking over Red's wounds while trying to triangulate where Zim's PAK was. Earth was about the size of Irk and Purple knew that Zim could be anywhere. The records had the locations of his previous transmissions. I sure hope he isn't back where his base was, it says it's nearly 2000 miles from here... Purple thought as he pushed a few buttons on a computer in his arm cuff, trying to locate Zim. He was the only Irken on this planet and he might be able to help him. Please, for the love of Miyuki, let Zim be close by... Purple thought pleadingly with himself as he connected to Zim's PAK and turned on the TRAK locator. "BINGO!" Purple said as Zim's location was pinpointed.

"Huh?" Red asked as he came back to, looking at Purple.

"Apparently according to the TRAK, Zim isn't that far from here, about 45 miles or so." Purple said.

"45 miles?" Red asked with a note of shock. "Isn't that a little far when we have no ships to fly us to?"

"Yeah, it is." Purple said with a defeated tone. He knew Red had a point. Sure, as Tallests, they could float and that would take the strain off, but there was still the obvious hindrance of Red being injured. If they were both safe, it would be an easy prospect as long as they kept out of the sight of humans who might be in the area, but from what Purple could tell, this area had hardly any humans in it except for a town off in the distance. But there were lots of sand dunes and big rocks around so if someone was passing by, there was a good chance they could hide until they passed. Purple then looked over at Red and sighed. "I could go and get help from Zim and come back to get you."

"And how long would it take to get there in the first place?" Red asked.

"Let me do some calculations." Purple said as he typed some figures into his wrist computer. "Ummmmm..." Purple blushed and looked away at the amount of time it would take to get to where Zim was at Dib's labs in the first place.

"Pur?" Red asked before he grabbed his side in pain.

"Well, it won't take a whole Earth day to get there..." Purple said trying to avoid the answer.

"Let's get real here." Red said looking at Purple. "And we're in the desert. It's a one sun planet in a goldilocks zone so it's not murder but the fact still remains when it gets dark, the temperature is going to drop. A lot."

"Yeah." Purple said. His calculations had it where it would take him 15 hours, as a typical floating speed for a Tallest was about the same speed it took a human to walk. "Well there is an option I don't want to have to use..."

"What? Seppuku?" Red asked. "I'll do you if you do me at the same time..."

"Not suicide." Purple said annoyed. Well not yet... He thought as he looked at Red. "I can use my jet boosters in my PAK to make it there in about a quarter of the time."

"And would you be able to get back in the same amount of time?" Red asked.

Purple quickly did some calculation with the jet booster fuel in his PAK. "Looks like it. And Zim's weight on the way back wouldn't affect me any. He's so puny, I wouldn't notice it."

"So, let me check mine, maybe I could handle it." Red said as he pulled up his wrist computer in his arm cuff and looked at it. "Shit." He said.

"Figured." Purple said. "If your PAK was forcing you to go to sleep, then I highly doubt you could come with me, and it's a big risk as we are in a desert with a bunch of saucer morons. I mean did you see that sign that said 'Extraterrestrial Highway'? People come out here looking for aliens. Most people it seems it's a gag but still. Our ship was brought down. If nothing else, humans know they aren't alone. And we are the leaders of the race that tried to Invade here. I doubt they would give us a friendly reception."

Red winced again as he laid back down in pain. His PAK was tapping into the emergency nutrients and using them up fast. He had suffered massively when the escape pod crashed and now they were alone in a hostile desert filled with humans hopped up on victory and the humbling idea they were no longer alone. From what Zim had sent them, they were ignorant creatures who fought with each other just because they looked different and had different ideas that were still worthless in the grand scheme of things. They had only gotten to the Moon and were still using fossil fuels and could hardly break the speed of light in hypothetical tests. Stuff Irk had done a long time before even Miyuki's days as Tallest before they became an Empire. Purple looked to where the crowd was only hours before when the ship crashed. They had all gone but the image of Dib simply kicking a burst of wind into submission wasn't right. Zim's information on humans said they had no special powers, but that one human who tore up their snack bin did it with an energy that he had seen only once before, and had information from. "Tenn!" Purple said.

"What about her?" Red asked.

"She was assigned to Meekrob. What happened, I don't know, we never went there, but she was sent to provide us information on them. And that pointy haired big headed human was using energy they had!" Purple said replaying the day's events in his mind.

"I thought you said that this planet thought they were the only life in the Universe?" Red asked as he turned on his side to a more comfortable position and shoed away a scorpion.

"Well, officially they thought that and acted as such." Purple said rereading transcripts of what Zim had told them that they had brushed off as useless before. "But there was a reason that big headed guy was the one, if I age up the pictures we have of that Dib kid that was messing with Zim..." Purple said as he took a screen shot he had of Dib when he was 13 years old, and put it in an age progression program. Red grabbed Purple's wrist computer in shock and looked at it.

"Well fuck me up the ass with a Florpus!" Red yelled in shock. "Why didn't we make the connection, that little twerp grew up and made contact with the Meekrob and they used him to bring us down!"

"All the more reason to get to Zim and try to get back to Irk and get everything back together!" Purple said as he put the pieces together in his mind of what was going to happen. It was painfully obvious at this point. Meekrob wanted the Massive and the Tallest out of the way and the best way to do that and cause disruption and chaos in the Empire was to have them lose on a planet that was thought of as an ignorant backwater hell hole filled with barbaric hairless monkeys that were the result of a messed up Anunnaki experiment they abandoned. Then the Irken Empire would be ripe for the taking. The Meekrob found the one human who was smart enough and accepting and comprehending of the idea of aliens to make their pawn and then used that human when he was grown to take them down. "Those beings of energy are messing with too much!" Purple yelled as a coyote howled. He pulled out a soda and a box of donuts and placed them beside Red. "Look, I have got to go save Zim wherever the hell he is out in this sunbaked wasteland. This will keep you alive till I get back. I am going to use the cover of night to get to Zim and work on getting the Escape Pod to be powered enough to get back to Irk. Maybe Zim still has his Voot Cruiser. But whatever, we can't stay here. Looks like there's about 9 hours of dark and no moon, so I'll be fine."

"Why does no moon matter?" Red asked.

"It gives off a little light and I need all the dark I can to get to Zim." Purple said. He looked to the northwest and got ready. "Stay here, rest up." He reached to his side where he had the laser pistol. "Take this, you'll need it more than me. I can still fight. I remember the academy days."

"Bring that annoying turd back." Red said, trying to keep his composure.

"I will." Purple said as he headed to Dib's labs where Zim was being held prisoner. "Don't die on me. I couldn't take a flight back to Irk with just Zim for company."

"I'm not that broken and pathetic you idiot." Red said as Purpled waved and activated his jet boosters. He really would have preferred to float, but time was of the essence.

The next morning, while Lord Nar was on his 5th order of pecan waffles and sausage and bacon and 19th cup of coffee, Dib walked in, Greatest Person Ever to Live medal still on his chest, sat down next to Lord Nar and sighed. "So, what do you need me for so bad you can't let me enjoy the one good thing I have in my life?"

So how was that? Good? Bad? Talky? Let me know in a review. I based Lord Nar's love of coffee and order off what I usually like to get at Waffle House. (Don't go to the Ashland KY one though...) and I said before the setting is in the Nevada desert because of Area 51 so you can see why I picked that if you ignored what I said in previous chapters. So remember to read (well you just did) and to review. Ciao for now,

otherrealmwriter

aka

Realm.