"Master?" Gir asked. Zim flinched, looking down at the small crab. He had perched on a rock a good distance away from the shore, where he could lay flat and still see all of the beach. Or at least the part where the Dib-human's shelter was located. He would be hidden almost completely from any watching humans…not that it mattered at the moment. It was night, and the shore was empty.

"Yes, Gir?"

"How long are you going to stay and wait for Mary?"

Zim flinched, then grit his teeth. "Zim is not waiting around for him for no reason," he spat. "I just need to get a good look at him to make sure he's healed, and my efforts to help him weren't wasted. As soon as I can confirm that, we're leaving, Gir."

"Okeydokey!" For several precious seconds, Gir was silent. "Master, I'm bored."

Zim groaned, dragging a hand down his face. "Then go…scavenge near the beach or something," he said, waving the crustacean away. Gir cheered at the assignment, hopping into the water and scuttling out of sight.

With him gone, Zim sighed, laying his chin on his hands and using his tail to splash water over his gills. He was certain the Dib was fine. It would have to take more than that to bring him down! He just…wanted to see that for himself was all.

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Dib had certainly…grown in all the years he was gone. His voice had deepened, too, but he could still hear the same tones and excitement as in his larval stage, especially in the way he said Zim's name…

"Zim."

Hmm, no, that wasn't right…too high-pitched.

"Zim!"

Ugh, the anger was close, but the voice was still all wrong! His brow furrowed, and he tried to focus on what the Dib's voice really sounded like.

"Zim!"

"Gah!" Zim jolted up, scrambled on the slippery rock, and tumbled over the side and into the water. He shook his head and focused on whoever had been calling his name.

A taller female merken bobbed in front of him. Her eyes and tail were purple, and her antennae were curled at the tips, with purple bulbs in the middle of said curls. She was also glaring angrily at him with her arms crossed.

"Hello, Zim," she hissed. "So…good to see you again."

Zim blinked, then tilted his head. "Who are you?"

The other merken reeled back in surprise. "Wha…? You don't remember me? I'm Tak." Zim blinked, still confused. "Tak! The merken whose life you ruined, multiple times!"

Zim scratched his head. "Really? Name one."

"Yeah, okay! Nine years ago, I was going to be placed in a hunting party. But you just had to be sent, do they have you my position in the party! I had to wait until the next season to join one, and you ruined the hunt anyway!"

"Well, the Tallest simply insisted that I go hunting…" Zim argued.

Tak growled. "Then a few months after that, you managed to open a sinkhole into the caverns below the Deep, sending a quarter of the city plunging into darkness…me included!"

She clutched at her antennae. "I was lost for months down there, nearly a year! I missed the test to join a hunting party, and I was demoted for failing to show up! All because of you."

"Oh." Zim blinked, then chuckled brightly. "I guess you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time!"

Tak snarled, practically foaming at the mouth as she squeezed the water between her claws, as though she could choke Zim with the sheer force of her mind. Then, she inhaled and dropped into a neutral stance, though her gills still fluttered angrily.

"Well. I'll make sure that you remember me and what you did to me, but that's not why I'm here today," she said. "The Tallest have sent me to fetch you. They—"

"The Almighty Tallest sent for me!?" Zim squeed. "They want to see me in person, don't they? Oh, do they want my reports on my observations, or will I be given a new assignment!?"

Tak grit her teeth and glared at him. "If you'd stop talking and come with me, you'd find out," she growled.

"Lead the way, then, Tik!" Zim said. Tak growled again, but turned and swam away from the shore, Zim right on her tail. "Oh, this will be exciting! A glorious day for Zim!"

"…oh, you wish," Tak muttered under her breath. A smirk spread across her face as she pictured Zim's elation soon being crushed.

Tak guided him to a reef cavern far from the human-occupied shore. Magic shimmered around it, rendering anything within invisible to human eyes. "The Tallest are here temporarily, as they check on nearby hunting parties," she explained. "Now if you'll excuse me…as much as I'd love to watch what happens next, I need to get my own hunting party back into order."

She shot a glare at Zim as she swam away. Zim swam into the cave under the watchful eyes of armed guards. "Why'd she glare at Zim?" he huffed. "It's not my fault if she can't control her hunting party."

The guards glared at him, pointing their spears and urging Zim to go further into the cavern. Zim did so, holding his head high and pushing the fact that everyone within was giving him a dirty look out of his mind.

The inside of the cavern was decorated with colorful plants, and filled with a small stockade of fish and other offerings for the Tallest. Glowing red and purple motes drifted through the water, lighting up the cavern…and at the far end, Zim came to a stop in front of two thrones carved from whale bone.

The Tallest floated before those thrones, staring down at him with crossed arms. Zim bowed, wriggling his erect antennae at them. "You wished to speak with ZIM, my Tallest?"

"'Wished' is a strong word, but…we have to," Red said, glowering down at him. "Zim, your sheer...enthusiasm with wiping out the landgoers has gone too far this time."

Zim swallowed, his gills flaring, but he refused to shrink under his gaze. Oh, right, this was probably about his latest brilliant plan. He had forgotten about that for a moment. "I took down a ship, a whole ship of humans!" he protested. "Besides, don't we want to wipe them off the land?"

Purple growled. "Yes, but not in a way that nearly exposes us all! Most of those humans were rescued, what if one of them saw you!? And that ship wrecked one of our colonies!"

Zim tilted his head, antennae twitching. Purple growled a little louder, but Red raised a hand to stop him, sighing. "Zim. After that...incident with the kraken, our first act as Tallest was to send you to the hunting parties."

"And I did much better there than as a researcher!" Zim declared, puffing out his chest.

"No, you ruined what was supposed to be our greatest hunt ever, all because you couldn't bother to practice!" Purple snapped. "We thought sending you to watch the shallows would get you out of our fins, but no, you just had to make an even bigger mess!"

"And there's really no place left we can send you," Red said. "Except..." He and Purple exchanged glances. Red's eyes gleamed with light, and Purple himself couldn't help but grin.

They both raised one hand in the air, each glowing with red and purple magic, respectively. Zim wasn't nervous, of course! His trembling was all just in awe of the Tallests' magic!

"Zim, you leave us no choice," Red said. "For your crimes, we hereby banish you…"

"To land."

Zim's eyes widened, and he swam back a few inches. "My Tallest, please, reconsider—!" But it was too late. The Tallest had aimed their magic at him, and it swirled around, sinking into his body like tingling needles.

But then, it faded. Zim looked down at himself, but nothing seemed different. "Better hurry!" Purple snickered. "It'd be a shame if you transformed while you were still underwater."

"This is your last chance, Zim. If we catch you in our oceans again…" Red glowered at him, then swiped a claw across his throat in a slashing motion.

Zim's veins ran cold. He stared at his leaders in disbelief. Some of their elite guards raised their spears and pointed them at Zim, finally making him whirl around and swim to the shore as quickly as possible.

The Tallest exchanged glances as soon as he was out of sight. "You really think he's going to go on land?" Purple said.

"Of course. Despite him being…ugh, Zim, he's never disobeyed a Tallest," Red said. With a flick of his claws, a smaller merken swam over, holding an orb in their claws. It showed an image of Zim, scooping Gir out of the sand before swimming onwards. "Besides, if he ever returns to the water, we'll know."

"Not like he'll survive long in water in his new form," Purple snickered. "Heck, I bet he won't even last a day on land!"

Red laughed. "At least he's finally not our problem!" Both of them laughed as they swam back to deeper waters with their entourage, confident that they'd never see Zim again.

Zim had swum as quickly as he could to the shoreline, but when he finally came to a familiar empty beach, he hesitated. The Tallest had commanded him to go to land, and their magic would let him survive, but to leave the ocean forever…?

He grimaced and shook his head. No, this banishment was surely…temporary! Even if they had threatened his life if he returned, surely that was just in the heat of the moment! Once he proved himself worthy, his Tallest would welcome him back with open arms. He was certain of it.

That was it! He'd obey his Tallest faithfully, prove to them he was a merken capable of living on land and even conquering it, and he'd be able to return to the sea.

With his convictions restored, he nodded to himself, set Gir down in the sand, and finally swam to the very edge of the water. With a few grunts and powerful strokes of his tail, he pulled himself onto the sand, then used his arms to drag himself away from the water.

He made it perhaps a foot past the lapping tide before he rolled over onto his back, panting. The rising sun felt warm on his skin, but he wasn't cooking, as he had feared. His gills fluttered in the salty air, and his lungs took in a few breaths of air.

"Hey, this isn't too bad…"

As soon as he said it, he felt the magic tingling in his body, stabbing into him like a thousand needles. A red-and-purple light pulsed around his tail…which suddenly split into two halves, from the base to the tip of his fin.

Zim stared in wide-eyed horror. He could barely feel anything beyond some tingling and stinging, but he still placed his hands on both sides of his head, screaming at the top of his lungs as he watched the magic continue its work.

Both halves of his tail were stretched and flattened out like putty into thin, spindly limbs. His beautiful sheer fin was hardened and twisted, shaping itself into three-clawed feet. There was a faint sting at his neck as his gills sealed into faint lines, but he barely paid attention to that, as he was too horrified by his…his…

Legs.

His scream never stopped, and it couldn't get any louder, but it went up an octave in pitch. His wide eyes were practically bugging out of his skull, and his scream only cut off when his lungs ran out of the air to fuel it.

He panted for breath, still staring at his legs. Okay. Wow. He had been hoping for something more powerful, like tentacles, but these would still allow him to move on land. And if the humans could use them, they wouldn't be difficult to figure out at all!

Experimentally, he twitched his toes, an action that made him grimace and shudder. His feet felt so…sensitive.

Still, he grit his teeth, planted his hands into the sand, and pushed himself into a kneeling position. Ugh, these legs bent in such weird ways…it wasn't pleasant. Once his feet found purchase on the ground, he unbent his knees, standing up.

He kept his hands spread away from himself for a few seconds while he found his balance. When it seemed that he had it, he smirked and puffed out his chest, placing his hands on his hips. "Hah! Victory for—!" The sudden motion made him wobble and start to tilt backward.

He lost his smug expression and flailed, but he still ended up falling on his back. He groaned.

"Master?" Gir said. The hermit crab had scurried out of the water and was sitting on the beach next to him.

"Gir," Zim huffed. "I need you to find a way to make yourself less conspicuous to the humans. Can you do that without getting caught?"

"Yes, Master!" Gir chirped. "Do you want my help before I go?"

Zim bristled. "No…no, Gir! Find a disguise as soon as possible—no, immediately! Go!" He waved off the hermit crab, who smiled and scuttled his way toward the human city.

With a sigh, Zim pushed himself into a sitting position. These limbs may have been…trickier than he expected. But at least he had time to practice now, without anyone to watch blunders he certainly would not make!

He stood up again, wobbling for several seconds before he felt he had found his balance. He raised one foot off the ground…and fell onto his side. He groaned, flopping against the sand. This was going to take a while.

After multiple attempts of standing up, falling over, yelling at his legs to do as he commanded, followed by frustrated kicking, Zim finally, finally managed to take a few wobbling steps forward. Everything about the movement still felt wrong to him, but at least he could hobble around the beach without falling over.

With a bit more practice, he tested himself by scrambling over the boulders. It took him several tries, with a lot of falling over and cursing in merken, but he eventually made it to the top of the rocks. He stood proud with his hands on his hips, resisting the urge to puff out his chest in case it sent him falling backwards again.

Now that he could walk, the landdwellers would be at his mercy!

…the question was, where would he go?

Zim frowned, rubbing a claw under his chin in thought. He had observed the humans for years, of course, and he knew that blending in would be key to his survival on land and success in his determined mission. But he would require shelter from the sun, and a source of land supplies…

His eyes gleamed, and a wicked grin spread across his face. He knew exactly who he had to find.

Dib grumbled to himself as he dug into his bowl of cereal. He and Gaz were eating breakfast in their small kitchen, and she was once again refusing to listen to him.

"I'm telling you, a merken saved me! Although I'm pretty sure he might have been behind the boat sinking in the first place."

"Uh-huh. Sure, Dib," she muttered. She wasn't even looking at him, too busy checking her phone.

Dib growled, dragging one hand down his face as he dumped his bowl into the sink. "What do I need to do for you and Dad to believe me?"

"Actual proof might help."

Dib scowled, crossing his arms and heading to his room. Maybe he needed to rest after almost drowning, but how could he when he knew Zim was around? He already had his supplies packed and ready to go, and several plans churned in his mind.

Yes, by the end of the day, he would find Zim and gather his proof. Then they'd see, they'd all see—

A knock on the front door made him jump with a quiet yelp. "Can you get that?" Gaz said. "It'll keep you from monologuing."

Dib's frown grew, and he headed to the door. It was probably just a salesman. He needed to take care of it as quickly as possible, he had a merken to catch!

After all, he thought as he opened the door, it wasn't like Zim would just waltz right to him.

"Hello?" he said. "How can I—" He saw who stood waiting there, and his breath caught in his throat with a choking sound.

Zim smiled at him, ignoring the confused expression on the human's face. "Hello, Dib-beast!"

Dib blinked, staring blankly at the merken with wide eyes, his jaw dropping. His gaze shifted down to Zim's lower half, and...yes, those were legs. Pink, scaly legs. His gaze shifted back to the merken's wide, almost manic grin.

Dib inhaled sharply and screamed at the top of his lungs.