Red looked out the window sadly, sitting away from Purple. He wasn't angry with him… he was just… he didn't know how he felt.
Sleet had taken everything from them… everything. Now, Sleet was the Tallest, and they had been sent to the one place where Sleet knew they would hate it… on Earth, with Zim.
The small blue planet slowly came into view.
"There it is." Red said quietly. "Earth."
"Yay." Purple replied, looking away from Red.
Purple wasn't confused about his feelings like Red was. He knew exactly where his emotions lay. He was ashamed. Ashamed that he had let Sleet get the better of him…
Before Purple had become one of the Tallest, he didn't really have any friends. Red was the closest thing he had to one after Sleet disappeared, but even he avoided him as much as he could.
But when he became a ruler of the Empire, everyone knew who he was, and treated him with respect, even if they did think he was nuts.
Now that the title had been torn away from him, he was left with nothing again… and although Red was his dearest friend now, he didn't really deserve him.
It tore his Irken heart in two.
As the planet drew closer, Red gazed over at Purple. Red felt bad that he had let Purple down…
He shuffled over.
"You okay?" He asked.
"No. But it doesn't matter any more. We're nothing…"
Red was going to answer, going to tell him that they weren't nothing, but the ship started to enter the Earth's atmosphere, and he was forced to stay quiet.
Zim trudged home after an unpleasant day at skool. He was used to it by now, but he still wished that he could destroy the planet and get it over with.
He was almost home, when his little SIR unit in his little dog costume came running up to him.
"GIR! What are you doing? I told you to guard the house while I was at skool!"
Completely disregarding what Zim had said, GIR sat at Zim's feet and grinned.
"You got a present!" He squealed.
"A present?"
"It fell from the sky!"
Zim blinked, and ran the rest of the way home, to see the small Irken ship in his front yard, with two tall Irken climbing out. He recognised them instantly.
"M-my Tallest!" Zim stuttered.
Red looked sadly at Zim. "Well there you go. We are recognisable without our robes." He grumbled.
"Open it now!" GIR screeched, oblivious as always.
"What are you doing here My Tallest?" Zim said, almost laughing, running over to help his superiors out of their insufficiently sized craft.
"We're not the Tallest any more Zim." Purple said duly.
"What?"
"We were replaced. You report to… Tallest Sleet now." It took a great deal of effort for Red to refer to Sleet as a Tallest without seriously hurting something.
"Sleet?"
"Yeah. Sleet." Purple growled. "We got assigned by him here, in…" Purple breathed in deeply, restraining the anger he felt from having to explain. "… Your charge."
Zim's eyes rolled back into his head and he collapsed, unconscious at the feet of the Ex-Tallest.
THUD"Wake up Zim."
Zim slowly opened his eyes. He was lying on the sofa inside his house, with GIR sitting at his feet, Red standing near the window, and Purple sitting on the arm of the sofa, looking down at him.
"Gaaa!"
Zim sprang to his feet, still a little shocked to have the people he idolised in his home away from home.
"Relax Zim." Purple said sadly. He never, not even in his nightmares, imagined he would be comforting Zim, of all people.
"So, uh… how long will you be staying here?" Zim asked, not feeling at all comfortable.
"Permanently." Red growled. "We've been exiled."
Zim, apparently, didn't comprehend the relevance of what he had just been told. He did, however, know that Red and Purple were terribly upset. He knew he had to do something about it… but what?
Then it came to him. It wasn't the best idea, but it was the best that he could do, considering that he was stuck in this particular part of the city.
"Would you like me to show you around?" He asked.
Purple looked over at Red.
"Whatever."
Zim couldn't help but smile.
"You'll need disguises…"
Zim walked along the street a few hours later, followed by two taller figures.
Instead of the contacts and wig that Zim preferred, Red and Purple had holographic projectors, which Zim failed to see were more effective.
Red had short red hair, which was longer at the front, so it hung over the top of his crimson eyes, whereas Purple had scruffy black hair, and violet eyes.
They both were wearing their casual Irken clothes, but no one seemed to notice.
They walked in silence as Zim led them around, pointing out the major landmarks of the small community.
As they walked past the skool, they were ambushed by a large-headed boy with spiky black hair and a black jacket.
"I've got you this time Zim!" He shouted.
"Dib." Zim growled.
"Isn't that the human Zim's captured several times before?" Purple whispered, leaning over to Red.
"Yeah, but Zim always ended up exploding." Red laughed to himself, despite the situation.
Dib suddenly realised that Red and Purple were there.
"Who are you?" He asked.
"Uh…" Purple glanced at Red. Red shrugged.
"More of your alien buddies Zim? Can't you doom us on your own?"
Red and Purple couldn't help but laugh.
Zim forcefully ignored the laugher of his new comrades and glared at Dib.
"What I do is none of your business Dib."
Zim lifted his head high and pushed his way past Dib, looking very aloof and proud.
Red and Purple followed Zim, still giggling. As they past Dib they paused, with their eyes glowing behind their holographic disguises.
Red raised his holographic eyebrows, and pushed Dib to the sidewalk. Then they both strode after Zim, leaving Dib sitting on the concrete, staring after them and feeling very confused.
"Is that human always like that?" Purple asked as they walked.
"Yes. He is quite bothersome, constantly attempting to infiltrate my base, to blow my cover, and to foil my ingenious plans." Zim replied, growling the last few words through clenched teeth.
Red and Purple looked at each other and grinned.
The trio walked together for another hour or so, with Zim pointing out every place he'd ever been.
As he was rattling on about the city Cess Pool, Red's gaze landed on a large building across the road.
"What's that place Zim?" He asked, pointing.
Zim looked over and coughed slightly.
"That is a human gathering place called a mall. I have never ventured inside, but GIR has on frequent occasions, and he tells me it is full of shops and activities that entertain teenage humans."
"Can we go have a look?" Purple asked, finally interested in something on this planet.
"I suppose…"
Purple grinned and started walking towards the large building, when Zim grabbed his wrist and pulled him backwards, saving him from a collision with an oncoming car.
"You need to be careful." Zim said after Purple was safely back on sidewalk. "Human vehicles are dangerous and cause great pain if they hit you."
"How are we supposed to get across then?" Red questioned, crossing his arms over his chest.
Zim pointed to a black and white stripped path a little while down the road.
"We're able to cross at the crosswalk."
"Oh."
Red and Purple were both feeling very foolish.
As they passed through the automatic sliding doors of the mall, Red and Purple were bombarded by an assortment of different noises.
Zim wasn't as effected by the din as they were; he was used to the noise from the skool playground.
It was all Red and Purple could do to not run around like smeets at a fairground, looking at everything for eight seconds then running off to the next thing. They had to act like they'd been there hundreds of times before.
They walked calmly, looking at everything they could from the centre of the large halls.
"I'm hungry." Purple whined after a short while.
"Me too. Can we get food here?" Red asked, turning to Zim, who had been patiently walking behind them.
"According to GIR, yes, but his information has been less than reliable in the past."
"Would it hurt to look?"
"I suppose not…"
"Cool!"
The trio walked up some stairs, and ended up in the food court.
"Well it looks like GIR was right for a change. What would you like?" Zim asked, looking up.
"Uh…" Purple was chewing on his fingers. He couldn't choose!
Red was the one who decided.
"How about that?"
He was pointing at a large donut shop.
"Sounds fine."
Red and Purple looked at each other and restrained the screams of joy that were welling up inside them.
Zim bought them three large donuts each, with pink icing and sprinkles, while getting a small cinnamon donut for himself.
Red and Purple were ecstatic.
"Why don't our donuts have this pink stuff on them?" Purple asked through a mouthful of donut.
Red shrugged and continued to devour his pink covered snack.
They finished their donuts, and Zim proceeded to lead them out of the mall, when Purple picked up a strange sound, coming from a shop tucked right in the far corner, and stopped.
"What's that place Zim?" he asked.
"I'm not sure…"
The trio walked towards the isolated shop, and discovered the source of the sound Purple had heard.
It was a strange looking machine, with a big screen on it. There was a platform in front of the screen, which two people were standing on.
As they moved closer, they saw that the platform had arrows on it, and on the screen, there were more arrows, scrolling from the bottom to the top.
When an arrow reached the top of the screen, the people on the platform would step on the corresponding arrow.
The song that the machine was playing seemed to be determining the pattern of arrows, and when it finished, the clearly older girl stormed off the platform, apparently having lost the game to the younger one, who remained on the platform.
"Who's next?" She asked, flicking her brown hair behind her ears.
One of the boys who were leaning on the wall near the machine glanced at his watch, before looking up at the brown-haired girl.
"I'd love to Chas, but it's getting late. I'll get slammed if I miss my curfew again." He said, pushing himself off the wall.
The girl shrugged. "Suit yourself. It's not my fault you got stuck with a curfew Jake."
The boy grinned. "You know damn well it is Chas. Later."
The small group of boys waved as they left, with the girl waving back.
After the boys left, the girl slumped her shoulders.
"Now who am I going to play with?" She said to no one in particular.
Red jabbed Purple with his elbow.
"Go on Pur. You'd be good at that." He said grinning.
"You gotta be kidding!"
The girl on the platform looked over at the sound of Purple's surprised cry.
"Hey!" She called.
The trio flinched and looked over.
"One of you guys can play me!"
They had no choice. They walked over slowly.
"Nice going Red, you big dummy." Purple hissed.
When they reached the platform, the girl's brown eyes went very round and her playful smile changed to a look of surprise.
Red and Purple were confused, and Zim was a little concerned.
"Wow!" The girl said, her smile returning.
"What?" Red asked worriedly.
"Nothing. You two are just nice to look at is all." She ignored their looks of confusion and continued. "So which of you are going to play me?"
Red and Purple looked at each other.
The girl sighed. "How about I pick?" She pointed at Red. "You play me."
"Me!"
"Yeah you."
Purple and Zim chuckled.
"Aw, shut up you two." Red hissed as he stepped onto the platform.
The song started, and the arrows started scrolling onto the screen.
Red was a little clumsy with his footwork at first, but he quickly got into the groove, throwing up 'Perfect' and 'Marvellous!' with his score.
The girl glanced at his score for a second and growled. He was beating her!
She streamed through the lighter stuff, and then tried to get ahead with the more complex moves.
Purple and Zim stood quietly behind the platform, their eyes wide in disbelief. Red could DANCE!
Red didn't even seem to be trying. The more complicated steps didn't even faze him.
He and the girl were in perfect sync for most of the song, until the girl got tangled up in her own feet. She tripped, and tumbled off the platform.
She looked up to see Red finish the song… with a perfect score!
There was a gasp behind them as one of the adult humans who apparently worked there saw the girl fall from the platform.
"Good god! Chasidy lost!" He cried.
There were more gasps of surprise and muttering from the other staff. As it turned out, the girl was there a lot, and never lost.
"Jeez." She mumbled as she picked herself off the floor.
"You okay?" Purple asked as he and Zim walked around the platform.
"Yeah." The girl turned to Red. "Those were some killer moves you were pulling. No one has ever beaten me before."
Red shrugged, trying to act as if it wasn't a big deal.
"Beginner's luck."
The girl laughed. "I'm Chasidy. Who are you guys?"
"I'm Red… and this is Purple and Zim." Red replied, gesturing to the other two.
"Red, Purple and Zim?" Chasidy said oddly, raising an eyebrow. "Why are you two named after colours?"
"Uh…" They didn't have an answer to that.
Chasidy crossed her arms for a moment, and leaned close to Red, looking deep into his eyes.
"It's because of your eyes." She said quietly. Red blinked as she moved back. "It must be why. You've got red eyes and you've got purple eyes. How fantastic!"
Red and Purple glanced at each other.
Zim coughed.
"That's all well and good, but we really must be heading home now." He said rather impatiently, grabbing Red and Purple by their wrists and pulling them in the direction of the exit. They didn't seem to mind.
A/N: I borrowd the dance bit from a fic that one of my friends wrote. Iyou read this, you did it first. Don't kill me!