Hello again! I kinda got writer's block on BOT, so I'll continue this. I've had a busy month, with vacation and swim lessons and all. I'm gonna keep it at a certain time this un, make it a kind of back and forth switch though. It'll be before the war started. Also it is a DATR and I haven't shown much interaction because I suck with it and even though it's kind of an anti-romance I need to show how they ended up doing this.

Chapter 3- The Hunt

"The pleasure of the hunt is in the chase"

5 years 3 weeks ago

As soon as I see that mysterious object I grabbed my gear: a maglight, a small dagger ( hey, this is a risky job!), and alien cuffs( in case it's just Zim screwin' around)and several recording devises I checked about twelve times. I creep out of my room once I collected my gear and slipped into the garage, "God I hate winter weather,"I mutter as I warm up the ship to go investigate. It reminds me of mom's funeral.. A small noise from the ship tells me it's time to go. I jump in and use the computer to run a sweep for impact. I see some minor activity near an abandoned junkyard. Looks to soft to be a meteorite or anything like that, looks like a landing.

I near the place and land aways from it incase something's there, better to be unexpected than obvious.

I pull out my night vision camcorder, switch it on. I stalk through the junk heaps sweeping the area, in the pit of my stomach I feel something is getting close , so I carefully reach

for my dagger and out of the corner of my eye I see two black shapes, I calmly turn with my camera only to have the short shape shoot an arm out and knock away my camera before it could focus ,okay, it's definitely not Gir and Zim..

The short shape glares at me with red eyes and darts me though the other one yelled "NO!"it was a female voice- wait, female voice, extending arm-oh God no

. As she draws nearer, I tried to hold them off , but the dart eventually got to me. I woke up in my bed with this memory, no dagger and a busted film- less camera and a slight headache. I frowned as these were proof it was no dream if not for a little note on my coat ( neatly hung on my door like it is when I'm not wearing it.):

"Sorry for ruining your evening, but you shouldn't have drawn a weapon, I wasn't very polite."

"Be seeing you soon."

Great, just great, SHE's back and that dagger cost me forty bucks and now it's gone!

Wait, if the dagger's gone.. "MY SHIP!" I ran to the garage to find my baby gone and another frigin note:

"Thank you for watching it for all those years, however, I'd like it back now."

PS: "Sorry you'll have to take the bus."

I crush it in my hand. "That inter-galactic-"

"What?" Gaz said from behind me. How's she do that?

" I just met an old friend who happens to be in town, you know, Tak?"

She raised an eyebrow " Took her ship back huh?"

I just grumble incoherently and go get ready for skool, I'd rather go back to the junkyard, but one more absence and I'll be expelled.

Tak's pov -the night in question

Mimi and I found an abandoned refuse center that will do for hiding the ship and building a base. I shudder as we touch down. To much like Dirt. As we camouflage the ship, my implants psyionicly detect an approaching life form- it seems to have a deep resistance to my mind powers, reading anything of him is difficult, so is turning him away. I use the implant to tell Mimi to follow me quietly. As we creep on him I use my ocular implants to enhance my vision- it's the Dib!

I crouch down and weigh my options. If I go to him now he will capture me-or die trying at Mimi's eager hands, I need to confront him someplace where he couldn't attack me.

Also, he has an unnatural resistance to my powers, possibly because of his knowledge of ESP and other phenomena, so I'll have to persuade him to aid me in my conquest.

He's dedicated, but every human has a weakness, and I know his: loneliness ,desire of acknowledgment and the belief he is not alone in his crusade. In that I found my informant, providing him with what he craved so terribly, I gave him falsely, for the best data on the planet. 'I used him' a human would say, which I guess is true, and he no doubt holds a grudge to this day.

That'll be difficult to work around, I should have let him in on helping, he probably would have enjoyed making Zim suffer.

I know no one would believe me , but I felt a connection with Dib as we were two outcasts battling all odds for recognition. Not so different as he believes.

He is starting to turn around with his recorder, I have to act.

'Mimi, destroy his recorder,' I order her silently. She shoots out her arm and bats it away from him. He whips out a small blade. 'Mistress, authorization for lethal force?'

"No!" I bark, out loud too. She shoots a dart at the exact moment I shout.

Dib thrashes about like an animal, wildly swinging his weapon ,as we advance on him I notice he has an expression of realization and fury then he passes out.

Well, he already knows I'm here, that much I can tell with the dagger and all.

I pick it up and decide to hold onto it for the time being, then order Mimi to pick him up and transport him to his ship; it's to early in my plan to try to talk with him, so it's catch and release for now.

I fly him back in my newer ship( the old one won't let me in!), drop him in his room and plant the notes on the coat I hung up and in the garage.

Might as well apologize if it'll help, he's more paranoid and aggressive than when I knew him bordering on imbalance , so saying he isn't going to be happy is an understatement.

I sigh and pilot my way back to our base to turn the filth yard into a suitable fortress.

Tomorrow , phase one begins.

The next day- Dib's pov again-

I get off the disgusting bus and mutter various curses and plans to get rid of Tak under my breath, not really seriously considering any of the plans, as most of them sounded like a retarded

chimp came up with them. With that thought, I realized I had forgot the obvious way- Zim.

We'd figure out a way to get rid of her, preferably one that would kill him and/or destroy his base at the same time to give me some rest.

Saving the world without credit tends to grate on your nerves.

I walk into the school looking around casually for anybody suspicious, but I give up because the thought Tak could impersonate anybody in the school with enough research and a disguise.

I casually wander the halls and the late bell rings, crap. I sneak into first block like a ghost.

"FILTHY TEACHER! HOW DARE YOU CHALLENGE ZIM!"

Well, I found Zim, in trouble as usual for trying to reanimate the lab experiments

(don't ask)well, science class is interesting at least.

Hey, I'm not complaining, I'm ten minutes late and the teacher didn't even see me walk in.

I casually sit down and enjoy a shouting match between Mr. Kabowsky and Zim.

Eventually, the argument ends with Zim screaming alien curses and getting an after school detention. Finally getting Zim to shut up, the harassed teacher cleared his throat.

"Class, we have a new student,"

No, no way she'd try this AGAIN, Zim I can believe, but how can she think I'M that stupid?

"Her name is Tak."

What! Same name, and her disguise is basically the same, she just ruined what element of surprise she had left!

Zim screams and falls out of his chair.

"Hi, my name's Tak , my dad's-"

The head of the whateveritwas weiner corp. Am I the only one with Deja vu?

She finishes the speech, sans poems meat products or sauces , thank God, then sits down at a lab table at my right, and smirks at me.

"What, no barbecue sauce?" I growl out of the corner of my mouth.

"The teacher looks like he'd have a stroke," she replies widening her smirk.

I shoulda brought my stun- cuffs or a camera or my dart gun, maybe gotten even.

"So, haven't stopped him yet?" she asks casually pointing at Zim, who looks like he's gonna have an attack in- whatever pumps his blood.

"No," I reply defiantly " Not a serious threat, it's more like a hobby."

"Still not an Invader huh? Scrounging around junkyards on this God-forsaken rock?" I ask and she just sits there.

Heh, I touched a nerve. I noticed her twitch at the mention of junkyard, weird.

"So why are you back and why did you reveal yourself," I mutter, not bothering to hear the lesson.

She smiled widely "The first, you'll find out, second last night was an accident, but I was planning on doing this anyway. Bring back memories?"

I lift an eyebrow. She wanted me to see her...

I pretend to be interested in the lesson, pondering this revelation. What advantage would this gain her? Good memories? Jeez, don't get many of those.

I feel something in my head crawling in my head, as if stirring around my memories.

Me at three with my mom and Gaz. Looking at a picture of an alien at twelve-Zim. Meeting Tak, talking to her, her betraying me.. Okay, I'm getting mad. I raise my mind's defenses but it keeps

stirring through all my memories, then.. me at eight in a black suit- mom's funeral..

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

OUT OF MY HEAD! The force withdrawls and I hear Tak fall out of her seat.

I'm breathing heavily. She can READ minds now. Wonderful.

"I'm fine. I'm fine," she says hurriedly to all the staring eyes.

I glare at her until the bell rings.

Tak's pov

I give the same boring speech I gave last time and they didn't question it, the only two who recognize me are Zim, who shrieks and falls to my GREAT delight, and Dib who looks furious and confused.

Well, expected as much, phase one commencing. I stalk over and sit near Dib.

"What, no barbecue sauce?" Dib says in a furious tone, obviously loathing my presence.

I have to be careful, by the look on his face, he'd love to dissect me right here and now.

"The teacher looks like he'd have a stroke ." I say, trying to lighten his mood.

He still looks murderous, so I try something else.

"So, haven't stopped him yet?" I ask, casually gesturing to Zim.

"No," he says defensively. Hmm, touchy. "Not a serious threat, more like a hobby."

That I can believe.

"Still not an Invader huh? Scrounging around junkyards on this God-forsaken rock?" He hisses at me.

I give an involuntary twitch, I hate being associated with junkyards.

Then, he quits with the chatter and asks the question I was expecting:

"So why are you back and why did you reveal yourself?"

Now to drop the bomb.

"The first you'll find out ,second last night was an accident, but I was planning on doing this anyway," I say with a grin on my face.

He is dumbfounded.

After a moment I ask " Bring back memories?" he gives a raised eyebrow and is calculating his next move." His emotions are hard to read, I need to see if there is any positive memory of me left in him. I reach out with my mind and sift through his memories.

I see various stages of his life, from birth on; it doesn't take him long to detect me and he is positively enraged. His mind is trying to force me back I finally reach me.

He remembers his interest when we met, the happiness to find his "kindred spirit", the denial when Zim confronted him with the truth, and bitterness hate and rage,(feelings not so foreign to me) when he saw with his own two eyes.

The positive feelings are gone. My innards sink.

I made him like me. I lose control of the pattern, he is young ,standing over a box with the corpse of a human female, his mother.

I feel like my head is splitting, he has exploded with negative emotions forcing me to get out,or he will have free reign in my mind.

I feel dizzy and fall to the floor.

This catches the humans attention, who've all been ignoring or conversation until now.

They all ask if I need assistance, but I get them all away.

I get back up and Dib gives me a demonic glare. Clearly it isn't good manners on this planet to poke around people's heads. He doesn't ease off until the bell rings.

I must say, this has screwed up rather nicely, now he wants to kill me and strew out my guts.

I need a way to get him to talk to me.

Or, I could kidnap him and twist him.

OR exploit his old weakness: loneliness.

Hmm, decisions, decisions.

A/N WooT! So, what'd you think?

I dedicate the chap to Wandering Namekian and Invader Johnny for letting me co-write on Squishy: Hugger of Worlds( READ!) All the Rulers of the Earth peeps, Raven the Evil Weasel Mistress for being cool( BTW, I tried to email you back but it didn't work)

Review , but do not flame.

Flamers will be found in a dumpster in LA.

PEACE!

Tyler