Special Thanks:

Invader Johnny: Thank you so much for all of your support in this story, and my previos story as well. Yeah I know they probably wouldn't just up and leave like that, but hey, Red loves her lol. Anyway, yeah about Zim being scared of Tallest Red, that was really hard to do without making Zim extremely OCC, but if you could really see Tallest Red, you'd have been fricken scared too lol.

Eax M.Attalos: Thanks, and I toned this chapter down quiet a bit, you were right, I was getting a little carried away with the swearing.

Disclaimer:

I don't own Invader Zim blah, blah, blah, but I do own Lir so don't you fricken steal her you moronic nutjobs!!!

Chapter 2: Catch Me As I Fall

Red shifted in the piolet's chair, trying to get some feeling back into his legs. He silently thanked the Vortians for having recently invented new hyper thrusters for his ship. It was bad enough that the trip to Earth still took a good two months, but it beat the shit out of the post six months that it would have taken. Still...this trip was taking way to damn long for Red's tastes, silently he prayed that Lir would still be alive when he got their, if she wasn't, he would make good on his promise to Zim.

"Hey, why don't you take a break...you look like you could use a good rest, and when's the last time you ate?" Purple questioned sounding much like Smeet mother.

"No...not tired...and I don't know," Red answered truthfully as he slumped further into his chair.

"Look, it's not going to do Lir any good if you die before we even get there," Purple nearly shouted, having long ago gotten fed up with Red's stubbornness.

"Fine! I'll go get something to eat, then I'll go take a nap, will that make you happy Mommy?" Red yelled back, sounding exactly like an overly tired whiny teenager.

"Good, now move it!" Purple commanded physically shoving Red out of the piolet's chair and onto the floor.

"Bastard," he heard Red mumble as he staggered off to the dining hall. Purple winced as he watched his friends movements, Red really was in bad shape if he was stumbling that badly, and he was probably still hiding a lot of his condition. Red was like that, always had been even in the acadamy. Purple had lost count of how many times Red had literally ran himself to the point of collapsing while they had ruled. 'His stubbornness will be the death of him,' Purple thought with a sad shake of his head, before turning his attention back to the blackness before him.

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Red sat and absently picked at his half eaten nacho's, he knew Purple was worried about him, but he'd been in worse shape before. 'That a lie and you know it,' his mind yelled at him. Okay, so he was bad, no worse than bad, he was killing himself and he knew it. God, why did he send her away, why the Hel didn't he go with her? Shoving his nacho's across the table in disgust, Red folded his arms on the table top and laid his head on them. 'Can't go to sleep...what if something happens...can't...go...to...sleep...' was Red final thought before complete exhaustion took over and he was lost to dreamless sleep.

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Purple slowly made his way down the corridor to the dining hall, he needed a doughnut and very large caffeinated beverage, he now understood why Red was so addicted to that stuff, it really did help when you had to pull an all nighter, which Red did all the time. Pressing the access panel on the wall, he watched as the doors slid open with a soft hiss, only to reveal an obviously passed out Red slumped over the table. Purple growled low in his throat, this was literally getting ridiculous, he had never seen Red this bad before, sure he had fallen asleep a couple of times during meetings, but never like this.

"Damn you, I swear you'll be your own death," Purple sighed as he lifted Red over his shoulder, and much to his horror and surprise Red, who had always been a light sleeper, didn't react at all the his actions. This was not good, Red's PAK should have a least sent some kind of warning in detection of the sudden movements, but there Red lay, still out cold and looking like he'd been through Hell and back. Purple found his eyes widening as he was finally able to take in his friend's appearance. Red's normally lime green skin was now the color of mint ice cream, dark circles surrounded each eye telling of Red's extremely high stress levels, and his antenna hung limp over the side of his head.

Purple made short work of carrying Red to his bed chamber, where he carefully placed Red on the large bed, pulling the covers over his friend. Knowing he could do no more, Purple sighed and left the room, he knew Red would be alright for now, he would be out for a good couple of hours at least. Returning to the dining hall, Purple grabbed a bag of doughnuts and a large brain-freeze, and slowly made his way back to the bridge. Slumping back down into the piolet's chair, Purple began to wonder what he was going to do with Red, if he let him keep this up any longer he'd be the only one arriving on Earth. Just short of locking Red up however, Purple was out of options, all he could do was continue trying to Red to eat, and sleep as much as he could.

Sighing again, Purple finished off his last doughnut and gulped down the rest of his orange brain-freeze, he slumped down into the chair and tried to get comfortable, they still had a four weeks worth of travel ahead of them, and right now they were traveling between solar systems...so this was a wonderful time to try and get a little shut eye himself.

Shuffling in his chair again, Purple proceeded to do just that.

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Red's Dream in his POV

"Next!" he heard Purple yell wearily into a seemingly endless row of Irkens. God how he hated the Great Measuring, it wasn't so much that it was hard work, it was just so damn time consuming. Taking another sip from his slushie, he let out a low sigh and stood to re-join Purple.

"How many more do we have left?" he asked, not really wanted to hear the answer.

"Oh I'd say about...another million, give or take a couple thousand," Purple answered, his voice full of venom and shear exhastion. Red mearly groaned in response before pickin up his own data pad, and taking a look at the Irken before them, and much to his surprise it was a female.

"Hey Pur, when did they start letting females become Invader's?" he whispered to his co-ruler.

"Huh...oh, I don't know, does it really matter," Purple replied rubbing his sore and tired eyes.

"Guess not...but, look at how tall she is," Red stammered finally really looking at the female before him. He was right, she was tall, and beautiful at that. Her eyes were a deep dark purple that had a fire smoldering deep within, her antenna swept back into perfect tight little curls, her face was small and fair boned, but her body showed sign's of the many years of training and conditioning.

"Stop drooling, and let's get this over with," came Purple's hiss, snapping him back into reality. He turned and threw Purple a look that could kill, before quickly taking the female's picture and taking some notes.

"Okay so what company are you with, what training have you had, and what is your status and name," Purple rambled off, not looking up from his data pad.

"Sirs, I am stationed with the Armada section 7768 responsible for On Planet Organic Sweep. Completed training on five planets including Vort, Jasem, Draglin, Militaria, and Hobo13. Status Captain, name Lir." the female stated before snapping into a clean salute. Purple began scratching notes onto his data pad, while Red simply stood with his mouth hanging open.

"Is something wrong my Tallest," Lir asked as she noticed Red's distress.

"No...nothing's wrong, that's quite an impresive line up," he answered quickly as he caught Purple's death glare.

"Yes, yes very nice, now start the measuring," Purple replied with a dismisive wave of his hand. In response to his order, several mechanical arms made their way from the ceiling too begin the tediouse task of measuring and examining every inch of their new subject. Lir stood still and held her breath, her violet eyes darting from arm to arm. Suddenly the arms snapped back and retreated into ceiling to await their next victim.

"There, now that wasn't so bad was it," he commented with a smile as he watched Lir breath a sigh of relife. Lir turned to him and flashed him a beautiful smile as a deep blush made it's way to her cheeks.

"No my Tallest...that wasn't so bad," she stated quietly bowing her head in submission.

"Please, call me Red," he requested, placing a slim claw under her chin bringing her violet eyes to meet his red ones.

"Yes my Tall...I mean...Red," she replied as the blush deeped on her face. Purple rolled his eyes and returned his eyes to his data pad to watch the information that was pouring into it, what he saw however nearly made his eyes pop out of his head.

"Red...I think you should see this," Purple called as he slowly collapsed into the nearest chair.

"What is it, I'm trying to work over here," he demanded not bothering to hide his annoyance as he made his way to Purple's side. His only answer however was Purple shoving his data pad under his nose. Taking the pad he began scanning over the information, his own eyes growing as big as saucers.

"Holy...is...this can't be right," He stammered as he re-read the information.

"It is, and...we have a new co-ruler," Purple stated dumbly as he shakily rose to his feet.

"What, but she's a military captain, we can't just yank her out of her job and say 'Yeah she's the new Tallest so you'll just have to train somebody else,' we're in the middle of an Invasion for Irk's sake," he replied though clenched teeth, as he fought to keep from yelling.

"You think I'm happy about this, I know what's on the line Red, but we don't have a choice, she's a Tallest now and there's nothing we or her can do about it," Purple hissed, as his antenna gave a sharp twitch.

"Look...I'm sorry, but if we do this, that means we'll have to cancel Operation Impending Doom II, and that's going to look really, really, bad," he answerd with a heavy sigh, he hated it when Purple got upset, he wasn't good at it.

"I know that, but like I said we don't have a choice in the matter," Purple sighed, his antenna relaxing against his head. Red ground his teeth and turned with Purple to face Lir.

"Captain Lir, I'm afraid that we have some good news and some bad news."

End Red's Dream and his POV

Red sat bolt upright in his bed, and tried to catch his breath. 'Damn it...everynight...it's the same dream," Red thought as he lowered himself back down onto the bed. He wanted to get up again, but his body wasn't listening. With a frustrated groan, Red gave up and resigned to staring up at the wire and cable filled ceiling. Slowly sleep began to take over his mind, and he was once again shoved back into darkness with nothing but his memories to haunt him.

Author's Note:

Okay, I know this was really short and really stupid, but come on people it's two in fucking morning, and I am going to bed. So goodnight all, and flame me in my nightmarish Hell. YES, FLAME AWAY YOU JERKS...and to those of you who aren't going to flame me, I love you...I love you good. Next chapter...I'm not even going to say, cause I don't know yet...so...REVIEW!!!