A/N: Surprise! I'm sure everyone was probably expecting another Halloween oneshot from me this year, but instead you're getting the start of a story I've had in mind for a long time. Partly this is to compensate for writer's block on my other ongoing stories, but honestly I've wanted to write this for years, and it seemed as good a time as any to start. I hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I've enjoyed writing it.

Might as well give a TW for once. This story will have a lot of violence and other content of a mature nature. So beware of that.

All that said, read on!

Disclaimer: I do not now, nor will I ever, own Invader Zim, which is the intellectual property of Jhonen Vasquez and Nickelodeon. I just own the OCs.

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The Violet Demon

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It was a normal day on the planet Areax IV. The system's binary stars were both in the orange sky, light being reflected by the dust and ice of the planet's rings in a constantly-shifting aurora that left shadows dancing across every surface. Much of Areax's surface was desert, the spaces between the great cities arid and sparsely dotted by the occasional oasis or outcropping of plants. And the cities were great shining edifices, huge walls enclosing collections of buildings that even at their smallest were miles high.

In Areax's capital, Lugrose City, one of the largest of these buildings was the circular structure near the middle of the city, roughly the size of two football stadiums placed together. This was the Grand Arena of Aerax; while many such coliseums existed across the planet, this was the biggest and most prestigious of them all. And at the moment, it was packed to the brim, members of countless species filling every seat in the bleachers, either looking directly down at the arena floor if they were close enough or looking to the various holo-screens floating in the air above it if they were too far away to see things clearly. Excited chatter filled the air as these beings talked to each other, only to fall silent as the screens flickered to life.

"Greetings, one and all, and welcome to the Aerax Gladiatorial Championship Games!" declared the six-eyed slug-like alien acting as announcer, "The best gladiators from every league across Aerax have been assembled here, to fight for glory and, should they claim the title of Grand Champion, may earn the ultimate reward coveted by any gladiator — their freedom!"

The crowd roared in response, mostly cheers towards the fights about to be performed for them, though there was quite a bit of amused derision aimed at the thought of gladiators going free. Their whole purpose in life was fighting for the amusement of crowds like these, the spectators thought; what would they even do with themselves if being left to their own devices?

"Gathered here are the top-two-ranked fighters from each of the eight leagues, selected by victories in regional preliminaries," the announcer continued, "They will face off in one-on-one fights, which will end only when one combatant dies or yields. The eight winners of these fights will continue to the quarterfinals, the fours winners of those fights will continue to the semifinals, and the two winners of those fights will face off in the final championship bout, all with the same rules applying as in the first round."

This time, the crowd's murmurings were more subdued and annoyed. They all knew this already; most were longtime spectators, and even those who were here for the first time knew the rules. Enough with the exposition, get on with the show!

As if reading the audience's thoughts, the announcer then said, "With all that said, let the first match begin! In the west corner, the five-year champion of the Emerald League, Gornakk the Crusher!"

As the crowd cheered, spotlights lit up a portion of the arena floor at the far western end. Several of the panels making up that part of the floor slid away to create an opening, and up out of it on a floating platform came a nine-foot-tall ape-like creature. Dark armor covered the entirety of his body, except for his forearms, where dark blue fur rippled from the movements of the bulging muscles underneath it, and his face, where red eyes and a snout full of sharp teeth glared out from within the confines of a visor-less helm. He held a large morning-star in one hand, electricity sparking between its spikes. And on his neck, displayed for all to see, was a metal collar, completely black except for green tags hanging from the sides.

"And in the east corner, the brand new champion of the Scarlet League, the rapidly rising star from the mysterious depths of space, the Violet Demon!" the announcer declared. The crowd cheered again, as a portion of the floor on the opposite side of the arena likewise opened, revealing Gornakk's opponent, who was quite different in appearance. Barely six feet tall, probably less without the boots of her armor — and it definitely was a "her", as shown by the bare hints of curves evident through her body-concealing armor, which matched her title by being a vivid violet that was contrasted sharply by the solid black visor of her helmet and the red tags of her own collar. In each hand, she held a short sword, the blades glowing with plasma generated by the hilts, which she lightly twirled once in a slight show of intimidation, earning a growl from Gornakk.

"And to make things more exciting for a match worthy of the Grand Arena, some obstacles for our fierce competitors!" the announcer said. In response, several random sections of the floor fell away to create trenches, out of which shot bursts of flame at random intervals, while other random spots opened to allow twelve-foot-tall pillars to pop up, spikes emerging from their sides before the pillars started spinning around, and yet other portions of the floor started crackling with high-voltage electricity.

"The stage is set, the rules are clear, let the match begin!" the announcer declared. As the crowd cheered, a blaring horn rang and flares shot into the air over the arena, and before either noise or light had started to fade, the gladiators were charging at each other, soon meeting in the center of the battleground.

Snarling, Gornakk brought his morning-star down on the Violet Demon, only for her to dodge to the side, ducking into a roll and leaving the morning-star to smash into the floor. Popping up from it, she swung one of her blades at Gornakk's arm, only for him to twist at the last minute, causing the blade to miss his exposed flesh and scrape off the edge of the armor instead. Growling, he spun around and swung the morning-star again, his opponent blocking by holding both blades up vertically to catch his weapon's staff between his hands and its head. The metal hissed as the plasma cut into it, but it was too durable for her to cut through completely.

The two pressed against each other for a moment, before Gornakk's greater strength started pushing the Violet Demon back. Realizing she was losing this particular match, she disengaged and jumped back, backflipping over a nearby trench, Gornakk's attempt to follow her being brought up short as a burst of flame shot up from the trench. As it dispersed, he was able to see that she had put more distance between them, standing near to one of the spinning spike pillars.

With a roar, he leapt over the trench and charged her, once more swinging out with the morning-star. And once more, she jumped out of the way, this time leaping into the air and impressively managing to land perched right atop of one of the moving spikes. She only stood there for a moment however, as the morning-star hit the pillar, cracking its center mass enough that its own momentum soon caused the whole thing to snap apart like a twig and topple towards the floor. Not that this seemed to worry the Violet Demon, who merely jumped off the spike and spun through the air to kick Gornakk in the face, hard enough to knock one of his teeth clean out.

As Gornakk reeled from the blow, the Violet Demon landed in a crouch behind him, then jumped up and spun around with both blades. One went low and slashed through the back of Gornakk's knee, while the other went high up and across his torso; neither penetrated the armor completely, but gouged deep enough that the radiant heat from the plasma burned the flesh beneath, causing Gornakk to yell in pain and drop to his knees, dropping his weapon in the process. As he did, the Violet Demon swung her blades towards his neck in a reverse scissor strike, intending to take his head off, only for his hands to suddenly shoot up and grab hers by the wrists. Before she could even try to break the grip, he heaved and threw her overhead, sending her flying.

The Violet Demon hit the floor hard, rolling roughly and blades falling from her hold to bounce away from her. Scrambling to her feet even as her vision spun, she braced herself as she saw Gornakk charging towards her… and in the process, her foot shifted and brushed against one of the charged floor panels, sending hundreds of volts of electricity surging up into her. And while her insulated armor blocked the majority of it, a significant amount still hit her, briefly paralyzing her as every muscle suddenly seized up.

BAM

Which proved to be a long enough delay for Gornakk to reach and hit her, a fist slamming into her helmet, smashing the visor and sending her flying again, landing hard on her back over a yard away. Sneering victoriously, Gornakk stomped over to her lightly twitching form to finish her off, raising a foot to bring it down on her head — at which point she suddenly rolled out of the way, leaving his foot to hit the floor instead and leaving him in an awkward spread leg stance. Something she took quick advantage of, bending her own legs and launching both out in a double kick that hit him square in the crotch. The armor took most of the blow, but enough force still penetrated to cause Gornakk to scream and once again fall to his knees.

Taking advantage of the breathing room this provided her, the Violet Demon stumbled away, cursing as her vision was impaired by the spiderweb of cracks her visor had been reduced to. Deciding that the potential vulnerability was a fair tradeoff for regaining her full vision, she ripped her helmet off. Chin-length purple hair billowed free as she did, framing a lightly tanned face and amber eyes that were narrowed in a glare at Gornakk as he stumbled back to his feet and swung wildly at her, only for her to toss her now useless helmet at his face, hitting him square in the opening of his own helm.

As Gornakk reared back in disorientation, his opponent dashed towards where her own weapons had fallen to the floor earlier. Snatching them up, she spun back around and lunged at Gornakk, who belatedly saw her coming and could only bring up his arms to try and block the attack. But this did him no good, as the blades hit his unarmored left forearm and cut clean through, the severed appendage hitting the floor at the same time that the Violet Demon did.

"GAAAHHH!" Gornakk screamed in agony, clutching the cauterized stump with his remaining hand and collapsing in a heap. The screams only stopped as a blade was suddenly pressed against his throat, and he found himself looking up at his stoic foe.

"Yield. Or don't. I don't care if I have to kill you, but I owe you for that headshot," she said, glaring at him.

"Skisblah! You're complaining about a hit to the head that barely did anything? You cut my arm off!" Gornakk growled with pain, before grunting out, "Fine, I yield!"

"Whiner," she snorted, pulling the blade away and sheathing both of them as she stepped back.

"And the winner by yield is the Violet Demon!" the announcer declared, the crowd bursting into cheers in response. For her part, Gaz Membrane rolled her eyes; she hated that damn nickname she'd been saddled with, which made her sound like some teenaged edgelord. It might have been less annoying if she'd been allowed to choose her own moniker, but then again, this whole situation was by definition unbearable, so who cared about that specific detail?

As the crowd continued to cheer, and floating spherical drones floated down to carry the wounded Gornakk away, Gaz turned and walked back towards the hidden elevator she'd risen up on, to head back towards the waiting room until her next round. And as she walked, her mind couldn't help but drift back towards how she'd ended up in this hellhole in the first place…

Months Earlier

Much had changed on Earth in the fifteen years since the Florpus incident. Well, not so much for the average person, but definitely for those who had been directly involved those events.

Once the Tallest had eventually been spat out of the interdimensional torment they'd been forced to endure, they'd decided they'd had enough of even pretending to put up with Zim's madness. As such, they'd called him up and greeted him with enough blatant rage that even Zim's usual obliviousness couldn't ignore it. They'd then gone on an angry tirade, chewing him out for every single way he'd ever screwed over them personally and the Empire in general, making it perfectly clear just how much they hated him. They spelled out, as clearly as was physically possible, that he was not an Invader and Earth was an exile, not an assignment. And before he could even process any of that, they'd ended the conversation with a virus upload that fried his communications, making it impossible to ever contact them or anyone else in the Empire ever again.

Zim, understandably, had been left shellshocked by this turn of events, even more than the shmoopy state he'd been in during the events leading up to the Florpus. So much so he'd literally just stayed in the exact same spot for days, staring at slack-jawed at the now dead screen, oblivious to the Computer's and Minimoose's attempts to snap him out of it, and even to GIR deciding to invite all his dance club friends over for a raucous house party.

Eventually, Dib had shown up, having come to the conclusion that Zim was trying to trick him into obsessive surveillance again. He'd kicked down the door and stormed through the base, expecting to find Zim hiding in his toilet like last time. Instead, he'd found Zim still catatonic in the now useless communications room, dust actually starting to collect on him from how long he'd been sitting there. Naturally, Dib had assumed this was another act, even when Zim didn't react to being grabbed, handcuffed, and dragged towards the elevator; Dib had just told himself that Zim was trying to trick him and that he might as well take advantage of it.

However, it was at this point that the Computer had shaken off its usual apathy and intervened, sealing the elevator and then playing a recording of the Tallest's vocal assault on Zim. And surprisingly, hearing all this again seemed to be what was needed to snap Zim out of his funk, causing an immediate reaction as he flew into an intense rage at this betrayal of his loyalty, trashing the room as he screamed furious insults at the Tallest, the Control Brains, the Empire as a whole, and anyone in general who had ever looked down on and mocked him.

Dib had watched all this, stunned by the sudden turn of events. A part of him had still assumed it was all a trick, but he'd quickly decided against that — Zim was not good enough of an actor to fake all this. And before he could figure out how to react to it all, Zim had finally noticed his presence, screamed at him incoherently, and then threw him out of the base. Literally, as he'd grabbed Dib and thrown him into a tube that had then sucked him up and shot him out of the roof of the house.

Landing on the sidewalk, Dib had wandered home in a daze, trying to process everything he'd just learned. How was he supposed to deal with finding out that his archenemy's entire reason for even trying to conquer Earth in the first place was a lie? And what would Zim do about it once he'd had a chance to calm down and think it over?

Gaz had been no help in any of that when he'd informed her. She'd simply shrugged, saying that it fit with what little she knew about Zim's leaders, and that Zim would either deal with it or he wouldn't. That had not done Dib's worries any good, and he'd laid awake all night thinking it over… and then he'd nearly had a heart attack upon finding Zim waiting at his breakfast table the next morning.

As Clembrane tried insistently to feed the two of them — and Gaz when she later joined them — ever more bowls of pudding, Zim had laid things out for Dib. While he hated him, humanity in general, and the Earth as a whole, his interest in conquering them all had only ever been dedicated to earning the approval of his leaders. Now that was no longer possible, but Zim wasn't going to just take such humiliation lying down. And the best way he could see to avenge himself was by turning his exile on its head — he was going to help turn humanity into a galactic superpower of their own, so that they would eventually overthrow the Irkens, at which point Zim would laugh triumphantly over them while the humans worshipped him as their benefactor.

Dib hadn't really been impressed by that line of logic, but rather than give himself a headache by trying to process it, he'd instead asked why Zim was bothering to tell him all this. At this, Zim had grumbled and reluctantly admitted that he might need Dib's assistance in this endeavor, since having the son of the world's most prominent scientist working with him would make the whole thing a lot easier to sell to the masses when he eventually exposed himself down the line. Besides, while Zim still had plenty of non-Irken alien contacts who he could get any and all necessary materials from, he'd need human understanding of Earth's business world (not to mention a good supply of Earth money as startup capital) in order to set up a front company that could distribute the technologies that would be needed to start changing human society the way it needed to be for Zim's plan to bear fruit.

It was at this point that Gaz had chimed in, saying that it seemed like a win-win scenario — Zim would get his revenge, Dib would be able to become the savior of humanity he'd dreamed of being, and she'd finally be free of the stupidity of their never-ending rivalry.

Taking all of this in, Dib had reluctantly agreed to the deal, but had made it clear that if it ever looked like this was really all just some master scheme to take over Earth to try and regain the Tallest's favor, he wouldn't hesitate to expose Zim and finally get him dissected. Zim had sneered at that, promising likewise to vaporize Dib if he ever tried to betray him without provocation. They had then hesitantly shaken hands to seal the deal.

And so it had gone from there. Over the next several years, as they graduated from Middle Skool and survived the bloodsport that was Hi Skool, the unlikely allies had outlined and detailed every step of what they'd need to succeed. By the time they'd (very reluctantly in Zim's case) started taking business courses in college, they'd won over Professor Membrane to the idea of Dib being a scientific businessman instead of purely a scientist; they'd carefully left out Zim's true nature or goals, obviously. In any case, the Professor was just so glad that Dib was no longer letting his paranormal hobby define him that he'd agreed to help in setting up the new company Dib established upon graduating, officially as a Membrane Labs subsidiary think-tank, but completely autonomous from his oversight. And thus, Zim-Mem Enterprises was born.

Zim had won the coin toss for the name.

In the years since then, Zim and Dib had already made some progress in improving life on Earth, which was the first step towards pushing humanity forwards. Pollutant-eating chemicals had been introduced into the atmosphere to purify the world's water (that was admittedly for Zim's own sake; he'd gloated for weeks about no longer needing regular paste baths for protection), plants genetically-engineered to thrive in arid environments were being introduced to reverse desertification and increase the global food supply, the ozone layer had been restored, and new medicines were being developed to wipe out major diseases and extend lifespans. All-in-all, things were going very well.

And where was Gaz in all this? Well, not particularly caring either way about Zim and Dib's plans, she'd instead thrown herself into her own pursuits. Not just playing games, but learning how to make them as well. As such, she'd studied coding and graphic design, building on her own natural programming skills she'd honed from years of maintaining her security dolls. Upon graduating college, she'd put those skills to use, setting herself up as a freelance beta-tester and troubleshooter, gaming companies hiring her to find and fix problems with their products; she'd even hashed out a few plans for games of her own, though those were still on the drawing board and not ready for production yet. So in her own way, she was doing great.

Oh, and there was one other thing of note. As a side effect of Zim and Dib's new alliance, Gaz and Zim had consequently found themselves spending more and more time together. At first, this had mostly consisted of her being forced to listen to his rants about all the problems he had to fix on Earth before "the worthless meat-apes" could be transformed into worthwhile interstellar soldiers, or her forcing him to take her on semi-regular gaming trips to Arcadikon. However, as time had gone on, they'd found themselves slowly growing closer, bonding over a shared misanthropy — just because Zim was uplifting humanity didn't mean he liked them, and Gaz had never developed much of a sense of empathy beyond those in a close relationship proximity to herself. So the two developed a shared interest in mocking the suffering people brought on themselves with their own stupidity, and a closeness somehow grew out of that, which eventually became a physical and emotional attraction by the end of Hi Skool, the two starting dating when she graduated the year after he did.

Dib had not been happy about this when he found out, having somehow been oblivious to their pseudo-courtship in the years up to that. Though before he could turn it into something big, Gaz had slapped him upside the head with a ham and spelled things out for him — she was an adult now, it was her choice and not his, so either accept it or he'd spend the next decade in traction. Knowing she wasn't kidding about that, Dib had begrudgingly backed down, and over the next couple of years came to accept it.

So, the three had settled into this new status quo, Zim and Dib working to improve Earth, while Gaz focused on her gaming business. And that was the situation they were in on the day that this story's plot began…

XXXXXXX

Gaz stood in the kitchen of Zim's base, which she'd moved into after college, still clad in the simple t-shirt and sweatpants that she used as sleepwear, arms cross and a deeper frown than usual on her face as she stared at the coffeemaker slowly boil. Her focus was completely on it, not breaking even as a pair of arms wrapped around her waist from behind, and the familiar feeling of a snake-like tongue started running up and down the side of her neck.

"You know the rules," she said flatly, "No messing around until I've had my caffeine fix. You know I'm not in a good enough mood for any of that in the morning."

"You're never in a good mood, my love-pig, that's one of the things Zim finds most attractive about you," Zim said, nuzzling into the crook of her neck, enjoying the fact that he was tall enough to do that; a few years back, he'd altered his genes to increase his height to the average human size, in order to better blend in. Plus, he wanted to be more intimidating when he eventually dominated the Tallest.

Gaz rolled her eyes at his comment, but didn't break out of his hold until the coffeemaker pinged, announcing its readiness.

"Finally," she muttered, pouring the coffee and dumping in probably more sugar than was healthy before taking a deep drink of it, "Advanced technology from all over the universe, and it still takes freaking forever to make coffee. Why can't we have the Computer do this again?"

"Because I'm not programmed to be a barista, and Zim's too lazy to make me one," the Computer commented dryly.

"Zim is not lazy, I'm just too busy to waste time on something so frivolous!" Zim snapped defensively.

"Considering some of the plans you tried to carry out back in the day, I doubt that," Gaz snorted, already feeling more awake and alert, "Anyway, what's on your agenda today?"

"We're finally ready to unveil the garbage-eating nanites that will be used to clean up the mountains of trash that your fellow dirt-monkeys have spent decades filling this planet's disgusting oceans with," Zim replied with pride, before scowling and adding, "We would have been ready months ago if we'd gone with my original plan of using genetically-engineered bacteria, but your hippo-headed brother convinced the board of directors that was 'unethical' and 'potentially dangerous to the ecosystem'. As if Zim could damage it anymore than your species already has, even if my brilliant designs did go wrong, which they wouldn't because they never do!"

As Zim started to rant, Gaz just tuned him out and focused on making the rest of her breakfast; after all these years, she'd built up enough of a tolerance for this sort of thing that she found she could block it out unless he got extra annoying. As such, he continued unabated for several minutes, until the sound of the toaster popping out her warmed-up waffles interrupted his flow. Blinking as he snapped out of it, he shook his head and finally seemed to remember how to hold a proper conversation.

"Er, anyway, what about you? What are your plans for the day?" he asked.

"Well, I finally finished the coding for that World of Blarghcraft DLC patch job I was commissioned for, so I'll probably spend the morning doing a beta-run on it just to be sure I didn't miss any bugs," she mused as she sat down at the dining room table and started to eat, "After that, I have the day free to relax, so maybe I'll actually avoid being a shut-in for once and get out of the house for awhile."

"Whatever pleases you," Zim said with a shrug, turning towards the door, "But I should probably get going. You know how Dib-Stink gets if we don't prep the presentation thoroughly beforehand, and-OOF!"

Zim was cut off as a full-grown pig suddenly slammed into his chest and knocked him to the floor. Gaz merely arched an eyebrow at this, not being remotely surprised when a giggling GIR ran into the room, Minimoose floating in after him.

"Gah! GIR, why is this filthy animal in the base again?!" Zim demanded as he knocked the pig off of himself and sat up.

"Pig came over to play!" GIR replied happily, oblivious as always to his master's anger.

"Aside from the fact that I have repeatedly forbid you from bringing that thing back here, why did you throw him at me?!"

"Nyah!" Minimoose contributed.

"Even I know that that's not why humans call footballs 'pig skin'!" Zim exclaimed, throwing his hands up in exasperation, "Just get the swine out of here already!"

"I don't wanna!" GIR whined.

"GIR, get rid of the pig," Gaz demanded firmly. While watching Zim dealing with GIR was usually good for a laugh, it was too early in the day for it.

In response to Gaz's command, GIR switched into red-eyed mode for a moment, and he quickly saluted before grabbing the pig and tossing it out a nearby window that Minimoose telekinetically opened before it could break through the glass.

"Bye, pig! See ya later!" GIR said cheerfully, back in blue-eyed mode and waving at the window as Minimoose closed it again. Zim watched all this in disbelief, and turned to look at Gaz with a look of defeat on his face.

"Why does he always listen to you and not me?" he asked incredulously.

"Because I scare him," Gaz replied matter of factly, "Now get going. Neither of us wants Dib calling us up to demand to know where you are."

Zim grimaced in annoyance at the mere thought of that situation. Shaking it off, he quickly tossed on his tried-and-true disguise, leaned down to give Gaz a goodbye peck on the cheek, and then marched out the door, followed by his robots (GIR thankfully remembering to throw on his own disguise this time). Gaz watched him go with a contented smirk that was almost a genuine smile, before composing herself and returning to her breakfast.

Soon finishing eating, Gaz made her way to the part of the base she used for her gaming room/office and spent the new few hours playing through the game patch she'd worked on over the last few weeks. Around noon, she decided that she had in fact fixed all the problems she'd been hired to deal with, and emailed the coding back to the game company. That done, she grabbed a quick shower before properly dressing for the day, throwing on a light purple t-shirt and a pair of jeans, as well as just a little bit of makeup; while she'd never been obsessed with flaunting her looks like a lot of the airheads she'd gone to Hi Skool with, she knew she looked good and always took steps to at least acknowledge it.

Grabbing a hoodie on her way out, she left the house to head towards the nearest Bloaty's for lunch — completely unaware that she wouldn't be coming home for a long time.

XXXXXXX

Strolling down the street, Gaz popped the last bites of pizza into her mouth, offhandedly tossing her paper plate into a trashcan as she passed it. Washing it down with a sip of soda, she hummed it contentment; even after all these years, she still wasn't much of an outdoors person, but with these simple joys at her disposal, even someone like her could enjoy being out in the sunshine and clear air.

As such, rather than head straight home as she'd originally planned, Gaz detoured towards a nearby park. Seeing that no one else was present, thus guaranteeing her some peace and quiet, she made her way towards the closest bench and sat down. Getting comfortable, she pulled her Game Slave Infinity Unlimited out of a pocket of her hoodie, activating the palm-sized disc's holographic interface with a tap.

"Now this is the life," she sighed in contentment, bringing up Super Bloaty Clash of Smash Worlds. She reached up to tap the start icon-

BAM

-when something suddenly fell out of the sky and slammed into the ground a few yards away from where Gaz was seated, nearly sending her flying off of the bench from the force of the impact, while smoke and dust billowed out from the spot where the object hit.

"Seriously?! This kind of shit is supposed to happen to Dib, not me!" Gaz growled at the unwanted intrusion into her relaxation. Switching off the Game Slave and pocketing it, she got up and walked towards the crashed object, waving away the already diminishing smoke cloud in order to get a better look at it.

It was clearly a spaceship of some kind, though her familiarity with Irken tech told her that that wasn't what she was seeing here. Rather than the usual maroon/pink/purple color scheme that the Irkens favored, the car-sized tube-shaped vessel in front of her was dark green, save for the black spherical window at the front that was now partially buried in the crater that the crash had created. A single engine protruded out of the back, still glowing with heat as it shut down; to Gaz's relatively experienced eye, it didn't seem like it was really built for long-distance travel.

"So, either an escape pod or a scout ship, definitely from a bigger ship," Gaz mused, "Great, that probably means someone's planning on invading. Now Zim probably won't shut up about them muscling in on his turf or something."

A hissing sound of compressed air being released drew Gaz's attention off her thoughts and back to the ship, where a panel on the side facing her was swinging open. Practically before it was done, a figure tumbled out of the newly-opened doorway and landed in a sprawl on the ground in front of her. It was a female figure about a foot shorter than Gaz, but definitely not human, as her skin was a bright gold, and instead of hair she had a bone-white ridge of raised scales ringing the top of her head. And most strikingly, she was wearing what Gaz could only describe as a skimpier version of a cliched Star Wars slave bikini — her impressive breasts were squeezed into a brassiere at least one cup size too small, made out of a silvery metal lined with a bright blue silk-like cloth, while more strips of that cloth hung from a chain of the same metal that clung to the alien woman's bare hips, barely managing to cover the essentials.

"Ugh, that would have been so much better if I'd managed to grab a ship I could actually pilot," the alien woman muttered, rubbing her head before looking around with large green eyes, which widened as they finally registered Gaz standing over her. She then gasped and jumped to her bare, three-toed feet and began speaking at a rapid pace, "Oh thank goodness, a native! You've got to help me, they're after me, I need to hide and find a ship and-"

"Zip it!" Gaz snapped, holding up a hand threateningly. As the alien's mouth snapped shut, Gaz continued, "Listen lady, you just crash-landed into the middle of what was supposed to be my relaxing day off. So start telling me who you are and why I should care, and do it slowly enough for me to understand, or I will knock your face off your head and then pretend the last five minutes never happened. Got it?"

"Er, right," the alien said, before clearing her throat awkwardly and starting over, "My name is Velinda of Moraxia, and I just escaped from Fornaxian slave traders."

"You're a slave?" Gaz asked, arching an eyebrow. Well, that would explain the outfit, she thought.

"You think I'd wear something like this normally?" Velinda asked indignantly, unknowingly echoing Gaz's thoughts, "That whole damn species is misogynistic as hell; they might take slaves of all kinds, but they specialize in selling females as sex slaves. They abducted me three days ago as part of their latest cargo and were taking me to their homeworld for auction."

"Then how'd you get here?" Gaz questioned.

"Luck. My control collar short-circuited and malfunctioned," Velinda explained, gesturing to her neck, where Gaz belated noticed some fresh electrical burn marks, "That let me take it off and escape when they weren't looking. By the time the guards realized what had happened, I'd grabbed this escape pod and launched towards the nearest planet, which was here."

"Well, good for you. Welcome to Earth, I guess," Gaz said with a shrug, turning away as her limited interest in the situation ended now that she had an explanation for it.

"Wait, you have to help me!" Velinda shouted, jumping in front of Gaz to block her, earning a growl that she ignored as she continued, "The Fornaxians don't just let slaves escape, they're going to come looking for me! I need a place to hide, or at least some real clothes so I can at least blend in until they eventually give up!"

Groaning, Gaz rolled her eyes and huffed in annoyance — this wasn't her problem! Still, wanting to get this over with, and just maybe feeling a twinge of sympathy for Velinda's situation, she pulled her hoodie off and tossed it at the alien.

"Fine, here, take this, I'm tired of it anyway," she said, as Velinda fumbled to catch the hoodie and quickly put it on, the size difference between the two of them making it look like a short dress on the alien, "As for finding a place to hide, just go in any direction and find any building you can get into. Trust me, most of my species is so damn stupid they probably won't even notice you if you don't actively draw attention to yourself."

"Thank you so much, I- oh no," Velinda started to say, only to pale as a shadow suddenly fell over the park. The two of them looked up to see that a stereotypical-looking flying saucer, the size of Gaz's childhood home and colored the same dark green as the escape pod, several more of which were ringing the side of it, was now hovering over the park and heading towards the ground.

"I'm guessing that's- OOF!" Gaz started to comment, only for Velinda to give a panicked yell and run off in the direction opposite of where the ship seemed intent to land, shoving Gaz out of the way and sending her stumbling to the ground in the process.

"Yeah, sure, I'll stay here and handle your mess for you. Jerk," Gaz muttered, glaring as she watched Velinda disappear into the trees and bushes of the park. Getting up and brushing herself off, she turned her attention back to the ship as it landed on hydraulic legs that extended at the last minute. A ramp opened on its underbelly and lowered the remaining distance to the ground, down which marched a trio of humanoid lizards in dark armor. The two in the lead were six-feet tall, with dark purple scales and holding what Gaz vaguely recognized as shock staves, while the one behind them was closer to eight feet, with teal scales and holding an open metal circlet that could only be one of those control collars that Velinda mentioned. He also had silver emblems on his shoulders, which Gaz supposed marked him as some kind of officer.

The Fornaxians ignored Gaz for the moment, marching over to the crashed escape pod and examining it closely.

"The pod's still warm from reentry, Captain Wrennock," one of the purple lizards reported to the teal one, "It hasn't been crashed for very long."

"Then the slave can't have gotten far," Wrennock growled, "We'll split up to cover more ground and track her down. I trust that you two morons will be able to properly restrain her when we do?"

"It wasn't my fault, Captain!" one of the subordinates protested, pointing at the other one, "Gronar was the one who was in charge of maintenance on the collars!"

"And you were the one who was guarding the door to the holding cells, Kemno!" Gronar snapped.

"Shut up, both of you!" Wrennock snapped, "Stop wasting time and go find her! Or else, I'll-"

"Hey, morons," Gaz finally spoke up, sick of watching this nonsense unfold. The Fornaxians blinked their slitted yellow eyes in surprise as they finally registered her presence, and turned to face her.

"Oh great, a native of this backwater," Wrennock muttered, returning her glare, "What do you want, primate? We're busy."

"Yeah, and I was busy before all this mess landed almost literally on my lap," Gaz replied with a scowl, "And I don't need you assholes tearing up the city and making the situation even more aggravating than it already is, so let me break it down for you — your runaway slave isn't here, she took off awhile ago and you're probably not going to find her, so just pack it in and get off my planet already."

The Fornaxians growled at Gaz daring to give them commands, but Wrennock composed himself and pulled up to his full height to stare down at her.

"Tell us where she went," he said firmly, eyes narrowing at her.

"Or else what?" Gaz demanded, folding her arms over her chest and returning the challenging look. Wrennock growled, only to pause and cock his head in thought, before smirking.

"Well, here's the thing," he said, "We were given a quota to fulfill, and now we're one slave short. Our superiors won't be happy about that at all, so if we've truly lost that runaway, then our only course of action would logically be to replace her."

Gaz stiffened, at both the threatening tone that had entered Wrennock's voice, and the fact that Gronar and Kemno were suddenly moving to flank her from both sides. Clearly, they were also picking up on what their captain was implying.

"But since I'm feeling magnanimous, I'll give you a choice," Wrennock sneered, "Either you tell us where the runaway went, and we leave you be once we've secured her, or we take you in her place. So, what will it be, little ape?"

Gaz ground her teeth, trying not to show any outward sign of worry as her eyes darted between the three aliens surrounding her, assessing the situation. Under normal circumstances, she'd probably just shrug and point them in Velinda's direction, having no problem selling out someone else she didn't even know to protect herself from an inconvenience, let alone something this serious. However, the simple fact was that from what Velinda had said, this wasn't just about slavery but sexual slavery, and even as misanthropic, selfish, and sometimes borderline sociopathic as Gaz was, there were some things even she couldn't tolerate, and that was definitely one of them. So no way in hell was she helping them, anymore than she was planning on giving up.

"My patience is running out? What is your choice?" Wrennock demanded.

"It's nice you're being so generous, but I think I'll go with option three," Gaz replied, keeping her voice steady and calm.

"Wait, wh-?" Wrennock started to say, only for Gaz to suddenly jump up and uppercut him in the jaw with all her strength. He went flying back, a sharp tooth and a glob of pale pink blood popping out of his mouth as he fell towards the ground, the control collar falling from his hands.

Landing back on her feet, Gaz spun around to see that Wrennock's subordinates, while clearly having been surprised, were quicker on the draw than she had expected, already charging her from both sides with their staves. Unfortunately for them, they weren't quite quick enough — Gaz sidestepped Kemno's strike, grabbing the shaft of his staff and pulling on it just enough that his own momentum sent him into the path of Gronar's attack, shocking him. As Kemno fell twitching to the ground, Gaz pulled his staff out of his suddenly limp grip and spun it around to block Gronar's followup strike. She parried his staff away and gave her acquired one another spin, the shaft smacking Gronar in the side of the head before she jabbed him with the electrified point of the staff, causing him to join Kemno as a twitching mess on the ground.

"Well, that was easy," Gaz snorted… right before Wrennock suddenly tackled her with a furious yell. The size and weight difference saw him easily knock her to the ground, and within moments he had her pinned down, his hands wrapped around her throat.

"You little sniza, someone should teach you to know your place," he growled, as Gaz gagged and choked. Flailing desperately, she brought a boot up into Wrennock's crotch, but the Fornaxian only laughed it off.

"Ha! Stupid monkey, I'm reptilian, my reproductive parts are internal!" he laughed, only for Gaz's hand to shoot up and jab into his left eye, clawing into it. He screamed and let go of Gaz to scurry away, clutching his face as blood ran down it.

"Those parts aren't internal, asshole," Gaz wheezed as she scrambled to her feet. Unfortunately, she didn't have a chance to do anything else, as Kenmo suddenly came up behind her and threw his arms around her in a bearhug, pinning her arms to her sides. He laughed triumphantly, only to grunt in pain as Gaz threw her head back and slammed it into his snout. He instinctively let go of her, allowing her to break free and spin around, kicking his legs out from underneath him and sending him to the ground. She then attempted to stomp on his head, but before she could, she was caught off guard by something slapping onto the back of her neck, followed by closing around the front with a click.

"What?" she exclaimed, grabbing at whatever was around her neck and feeling cold metal; her eyes widened as she realized it was the control collar that Wrennock had dropped when she'd first hit him. Spinning back around, she was greeted by the sight of Gronar, smirking smugly at her even as she growled and reared back a fist. But just before she could throw it at him, he held up a device that looked vaguely like a key-fob and pressed a large blue button, and Gaz froze in place, her entire body going numb all at once.

"What the hell?!" Gaz shouted… or tried to, the words instead being mumbled as her mouth refused to move. In fact, nothing was moving; aside from her eyes, every part of her refused to obey her brain's commands, leaving her stuck in the awkward angle of her pre-punch position.

"In case you're wondering, that's why they're called 'control collars'," Gronar sneered, "Once activated, they completely override the subject's nervous systems. As long as it's active, you can't do a damn thing unless you're told to."

Gaz glared at him, trying desperately to force so much as a single muscle to budge, and getting nothing in response. Between her focus on this and the angle she was stuck facing, she didn't see Wrennock walk over, one hand still covering his wounded eye and with a scowl twisting his face. She finally registered his presence, right before he rammed his free fist into her stomach, the force of the blow and her loss of bodily control causing her to collapse bonelessly to the ground with a pained wheeze. Wrennock then made to stomp on her, only for Gronar to grab his arm and pull him back.

"Wait, Captain! We won't get full price for cargo that's damaged!" he protested. Wrennock yanked his arm free and glared at his subordinate, but took a deep breath and composed himself. Turning his one good eye away from Gaz's crumpled form to confirm that Kenmo had also gotten back to his feet, he huffed and turned to walk back to their ship.

"Get her onboard, grab the pod so there's no evidence left behind we were here, then get us off-planet and back on course," he ordered as he walked, "Store her in the examination room. Once I've gotten myself patched up in the medbay, I'll look her over myself."

The other Fornaxians saluted their captain's form as he ascended back up into the ship, before collecting their dropped staves and then looking disdainfully down at Gaz.

"Get up," Kenmo barked. In response, Gaz stiffly climbed back to her feet, glaring at the reptilians but still unable to do anything to act on the rage consuming her.

"Now walk onto the ship," Gronar commanded, causing Gaz to turn and start robotically marching towards the ship. Watching her go, he turned towards his partner with a smirk, "Not so tough now, is she?"

The two laughed and followed after the fuming Gaz, the three soon vanishing up the ramp, which closed behind them. A few minutes later, the ship started hovering, the landing ramps retracting. A tractor beam then shot out to grab the crashed escape pod, levitating it up to place back into the spot it had vacated on the main ship's side. With that done, the ship launched up into the air, soon vanishing from sight.

For a few minutes, silence dominated the once again empty park. Then, with a rustle of branches, Velinda popped her head out of the bush she was hiding in. Looking around nervously to confirm that the Fornaxians were really gone, she stepped out fully and brushed herself off, before walking over to examine the crater left behind by the escape pod, and glancing up at the sky were the ship had disappeared to.

"Well, didn't expect my escape to be that easy," she muttered, scratching at her head ridge, "Guess I was lucky to cross paths with that girl right before they showed up. Sucks for her to get caught in my place, but better that than me having to go back. Besides, she looked pretty tough, she'll figure out a way to escape on her own. Probably."

With that selfish self-assurance in place, Velinda pulled up her hood and turned to walk into the city proper, searching for food, clothes, and a place to live. Her focus entirely on her own needs, she didn't spare another thought towards what she assumed was now Gaz's fate.

If she only knew what had just been set in motion…

XxxxxxxxxxxxxxX

A/N: And that's all for now. Hope this was enough to wet everyone's appetites for future updates.

Just to make things clear before I get flamed — while Gaz will spend some time in captivity before she becomes a gladiator, she will NOT actually be a sex slave. Saying anything beyond that is spoilers, but I feel required to say that I won't put her through that.

Also, I apologize for the extensive backstory infodump, but it was the only way I felt I could fit all that in. And, sorry if I got any of the nuances of business or game-making wrong when discussing everyone's careers, but I'm too lazy to research any of that properly.

That's all to say for now. Happy Halloween, stay safe out there, and please review!