Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Invader Zim.

Chapter 8



Tak watched with some dismay as Jania grew more and more uneasy. The closer they were to meeting the Massive, the shakier her usually unnervingly calm friend became. She would spend hours upon hours checking up on her data…to try to figure out exactly when the attack would come, she said. Then, she would spend hours locked in the bedroom. One day she summoned Tak to the door. She pushed a button on her hologram device and her Irken form changed. Now her eyes were an orangey-red and her antennae were less curled. Her features were a little different too, and if she didn't know better Tak would have said it was another person entirely. "Why've you made another Irken disguise? You already have one."

"What do you think of it? Will it pass, do you think?"

Just then Zim passed by drinking an Irken soda. He stopped and looked at her, and then began to hysterically laugh. He pointed and laughed and pointed and laughed until Tak couldn't take it any more. She grabbed him by the collar and yelled in his face. "What's so funny?" Zim only continued in his howling.

"You think you're going to get away with that? HA! You couldn't fool the almighty ZIM! What makes you think you'll fool the Tallest?" Jania just looked down at herself with a somewhat disappointed expression.

"Fool the Tallest? What are you talking about, you stupid, disgusting…grrrr……." She shook her fist at Zim as he marched on. "What is that fool talking about? Do you know the Tallest?"

In response Jania just looked about uncomfortably.

Tak narrowed her deep purple eyes. Her tone was more confrontational than she would have liked, but that was due to force of habit. "You called me your friend. What race are you? Are you Irken? Or, are you from somewhere else? You're very tall…"

Jania's hologram buzzed off, bringing her back to her green-eyed Irken self. "Yes, this is my real body. This is me!" She smiled and spread her arms as if she were displaying herself.

"And you know the Tallest?" Jania averted her eyes. Tak gasped with realization. "You! You're the … everyone thought you were dead! What have you been doing out in the far reaches of the universe all this time? There was a funeral!" By now Tak was yelling, as angry as if she were dealing with Zim.

Jania laughed nervously. "I had work to do…and the success of my work depends on secrecy, on no one knowing where I am or what I'm doing. Tak, don't look at me like that!" She stepped back as Tak approached her. "Tak, I can't let the Tallest know who I am!"

"Why not? I understand why you wouldn't want the Karmites to know. It's a harder target when you don't know your prey's identity. However, why do you want to hide it from them? Think of Purple!"

"They know well enough that they are the leaders of Irk. They know they have to keep themselves protected. If they knew who I really was, then they would be distracted, and I can't have that when there's still a threat."

"Are you going to wait until every Karmite is dead?"

Jania shook her head. "No. It's up to me to show the Tallest the information I've gathered. They have to make the final decision." She nodded with determination, but Tak wasn't satisfied. She folded her arms together and frowned.

"Just you think carefully before you try deceiving the Tallest! Zim is a fool, but he is right on one point: someone who knows you as well as Almighty Tallest Purple probably knows you well enough not be fooled by your disguises." She gave Jania one final glare before turning around and almost smacked into Dib. "Aaah! How long have you been there?"

Dib was licking on an Irken lollypop. "It's up to her to show the Tallest the information…" he thought for a moment. "Thaaaaat's right. Your leaders are just taller than everyone else. Who's this Purple guy?" He turned to Jania. "If you know the Tallest, are you someone important too?"

Jania shook her head. "No, no, I don't know the Tallest – I just know one of them. I've never met Red. And no, I'm not anyone important. Tak would have you think so by the way she's going on…" She shrugged, "But I'm just your run-of-the-mill Irken female."

Dib stood there for a moment before a thought hit his head. "That's right! I came here to ask you something. I can't believe I didn't ask earlier, but I've just been so intrigued by all the equipment you've got here. This is really incredible!"

"Get on with it!" snapped Tak mercilessly. Jania grinned at her and rolled her eyes.

"Yeah! Like, we're supposed to run in and warn the Tallest, but then what do we do after that? Is everything fine then? Gaz wants to know when we can head back home… something about an expansion pack or something…"

Tak glowered at him. "It's not going to be as easy as you apparently think. Jania here's informed me that the Karmites are probably either ahead of us or right on our tail. It's imperative that we get to the Massive and evacuate the Tallest as soon as possible. In fact, we're almost there. There will probably be a firefight." She couldn't help but smirk when Dib lighted up.

"Really? Wow! So then, we'll have to flee with them and everything? This is going to be better than I thought! What's my part in all of this?" He fell over as the ship jerked violently.

"Get off of me!" screamed Tak. He did as he was told and Tak rushed after Jania, who was already running for the bridge. There they found Zim at the controls, laughing and screaming as he operated the blasters.

"FOOLS! You cannot survive against the mighty wrath of ZIM!" Long and pointy white spacecraft were swarming around the ship and in the distance loomed the pink and red conglomerate that was the Irken Armada.

Jania grappled her head in shock. "Already? Zim! Gya, I didn't know the Massive was on the move again. Okay, Zim. Your job is to move this ship to the coordinates I've programmed into the computer. Where's Dib?"

Dib jumped up and waved his arms. "Here I am! What do I do?"

"You man the blasters!"

"Alright! Move aside, Zim!"

Zim bristled. "What? Are you insane? You're letting this human amateur blast our way out of here while it should be ZIM getting all the glory?"

Jania turned at him and pointed. "Don't you argue with me! He doesn't know how to fly this thing! Be proud!" This time Zim saluted and manned the controls. "Dib, call Gaz over to take the spare blasters…she must be good at that sort of thing. All of you need to get this ship out of here in one piece. Zim, I'm going to take your Voot!"

"Hey!"

"No other alternative. Tak, you'll come in your Voot and cover me. Make sure I'm able to get into the Massive. Oh, and I want to take Mimi with me."

"Of course!"

Gir suddenly appeared and hung around Jania's neck and stared blankly into her eyes. "I wanna come toooo!" She pried the robot off her face and flung him on the ground. She and Tak exchanged glances and began to run for the Voots.

Tak had only one thing to say to Jania before they separated to pilot the craft. "Save the Tallest, Jania. I'll meet you back here!"