"No, Purple," with a graceful movement, the Red-eyed Tallest placed a hand on his forehead looking exasperated, "they have nothing to do with the pizza guy. They are clearly Syndicate." He gestured with his other hand to the Captain and Lor who were in the front of the little group. Dib was completely in awe of seeing the Tallests in person for the first time. The videocalls at Zim's base had done nothing to prepare him for their actual heights. Their fingers were longer, their limbs and torso so thin it was impressive they were able to keep their upper bodies supported at all.

"I thought the Syndicate was a pizza place." Purple seemed a bit annoyed by the revelation and Red seemed annoyed by his co-ruler's comments.

"No. The Galactic Syndicate are our allies from beyond the Zeta Quadrant."

"Did they used to sell pizza?" Purple put a hand under his pointed chin, looking skeptically at the two Rangers in their full, military gear.

"No. They never sold pizza."

"Are you s-"

"Yes, I'm sure!" Red looked ready to toss his fellow Tallest out of the room. He whirled back around to face the group of intruders, straightening himself up, surveying them with surprisingly intimidating, large, square, crimson eyes. Dib could see himself reflected in the surface and only then realized that the Irkens did not seem to blink too often. The Captain cleared her throat, stepping forward as she realized they were being sized up.

"Tallest Red, Tallest Purple." She addressed them with confidence, straightening her stance though even she seemed dwarfed by comparison to the Tallest. "I am Captain Allison Rose of the G.S.T. Nova." (Dib was a little disappointed that 'Allison' somehow was the actual name of an alien Captain. At least Lor and Carrius sounded like alien names.)

"You're just a Captain, that's not very impressive." Tallest Purple looked down at her, a condescending sneer of dagger-like teeth crawling across his face.

"Hold up." Tallest Red lifted a hand in the air as he narrowed his eyes, his expression deep in thought- Dib recognized the expression: the Irken was researching something using the data in their PAK. Occasionally Dib would see Zim get the same look when he was cheating during trivia. "You've seen live combat; your medals suggest you're quite a fighter."

"Turned the tides at the battle of Gaowei 9." This time it was the Captain's turn to give a knowing, little smirk.

"That was you?" Tallest Red drew back a bit, seemingly more at ease. "I'm impressed. I heard it was quite the fight."

"Seized the primary military base, captured the leader of their rebellion, and all without losing a single Ranger." The Captain had a bit more of a relaxed nature to her response now that the two were discussing military successes. Dib had no idea that his astrophysics professor was actually a decorated military captain. (Knowing this might have gotten him to pay attention during her lectures). Tallest Red's eyes widened a bit, his head tilted back, antennae perking up slightly. He looked genuinely impressed; arms crossed over his armored chest, no longer leaning forward as if ready to use those sharp teeth to bit off someone's head.

"That's quite the resume, however, a military elite such as yourself should know better than to try to barge onto the Massive." Despite the fact that Dib thought the Captain and the red clad Tallest had bonded over fighting, it seemed that Red was still annoyed by the interruption. Once again, those blood colored eyes narrowed as he cleared his throat. "This is a..." he paused looking to the purple Tallest for some sort of aid. "That word that means to break like a code or something..."

"Oh, violation." Tallest Purple replied quickly.

"This is a direct violation of the treaty between the Syndicate and the Empire." He hovered closer to them, leaning down to look the Captain in the eyes, proving just how tall he really was. Dib was suddenly glad he wasn't the Captain.

"I'm aware." She did not flinch.

"How did you get passed Sym? She doesn't let anyone back here without an appointment!" Finally, Tallest Purple seemed to get invested in the conversation at hand- now that the military chat had come to an end.

"It was no easy feat. I would like to lodge a quick complaint about her, while we have your attention. We were unable to make an appointment with the usual contact methods, and she was absolutely no help. She did not even listen to anything I said." The Captain spoke calmly, but Dib was glad she had decided to bring up the absolutely awful Irken woman who had tossed them on the Tall World ride and had nearly led to their deaths.

"Well duh!" Purple made a motion that might have been an eye roll but it was hard to tell given the solid, glassy color of their eyes. He too had his arms crossed, though not in an intimidating pose but rather he looked more like a huffy child, slouched behind Red. "That's her job! She's not supposed to make it easy because if it was easy to get an appointment with us everyone would do it and then we'd have to work and that would be terrible !"

"What he means to say is," Red interjected swiftly, "we would be overwhelmed if so many requests came in. We have many aspects to our jobs as Tallest. Sym helps us weed out trivial matters that can be handled by our staff."

"Well she sucks at it." Skoodge finally spoke up. The Irkens had been uncharacteristically quiet. But Dib had been watching them. Zim was looking up, seemingly in awe. However, Skoodge looked pissed off. His arms were folded, his antennae straight back, eyes narrowed judgmentally. Red and Purple both turned to look at him, as if seeing him for the first time.

"Oh hey! It's Skoodge!" Purple decided to narrate the obvious. "I thought you were dead."

"What?" Skoodge raised one antenna. "I'm not dead."

"Yes, you are." Purple argued.

"No, I'm not."

"Yes you are."

"I- I'm not dead. I'm standing right in front of you!"

"Yeah well, I don't like it. So go back to being dead you dead weirdo." Purple turned away from Skoodge with an indignant little ' humph '.

"I... what...?" Skoodge looked to Red who sighed.

"Purple, shut up." He looked back to Skoodge. "You're getting awfully mouthy for a supposedly dead Irken, aren't you?" Despite the severity of Red's tone, Skoodge's expression still looked rather annoyed with the whole scenario.

"I'm just saying, Sym did a bad job because she wasn't listening to why the Syndicate needed to talk with you. I'm not 'getting mouthy'" Earth culture must have worn off on Skoodge because he was using air quotes with his little clawed fingers, "I'm simply making an observation."

"I liked you better when you were dead." Purple huffed. Red rubbed the area between his eyes where a nose would have been.

"Very well, Dead-Irken Skoodge: Why are the Syndicate here?"

"Well, Tallest Red, Tallest Purple," The Captain spoke again, "it would be because we got invaded."

"Invaded?" Red recoiled in disgust at the reply. "What backwards planet wants to Invade you when you're allied with us?"

"Well, it was an Irken... so..." The Captain trailed off as Red blinked in surprise looking to Purple before both of them burst out laughing.

"Oh- oh wow. Total miscommunication there you guys." Purple put a hand on the Captain's shoulder and she looked at it, briefly taken aback by the reaction.

"Yeah, you're not being "invaded" that little thing there isn't a real Invader." Red was cracking up but instantly stopped, clearing his throat looking at Zim. "I mean, he is, but he's on a 'top secret' mission to 'Earth' which apparently was a real planet."

"Yeah and Skoodge is dead so he can't Invade anyone." Purple added, nodding as-a-matter-of-factly.

"I'm not dead!"

"Zim knows the mission was fake." Zim finally spoke up for himself. It was strange to see him quiet for so long, but Dib understood the amount of respect and admiration the tiny ex-Invader had for his leaders. Zim's loyalty ran deeper than his insanity.

"Oh, yeah." Red seemed a little put off by Zim's stoic response. Purple looked rather indifferent. "You didn't accidentally Invade the Syndicate, did you?"

"Mothra damn it Zim." Purple glared.

"No, he didn't." Lor finally spoke up in defense of the smallest Irken.

"Good because if he did you came all this way to tell us that Zim did something stupid, and that could easily have just been a call." Red looked mildly relieved. "Though it seems the concept of banishment still hasn't clicked with you."

"I know I'm banished." Zim's eyes narrowed. "You made that plenty clear when you decided to disconnect me from the Collective." The laughter completely silenced as the Tallest looked at each other. Dib could not read their expressions, but they no longer seemed to be in as good of a mood. Red looked down at Zim.

"I see."

"I came here to ask why." Zim looked up at him, the Tallest towering over the Invader, completely engulfing Zim's form in his shadow.

"That is a personal matter, Zim. This is a matter of alliances." His attitude had changed, he was more reserved than he had been before.

"Voel!" Zim called out to him but the look that the Tallest gave to Zim made him quickly cover his mouth. "I only ask you take the matter the Syndicate brings to you as seriously as you can." He had dropped the matter of banishment completely.

"I plan to. We've been allied since Tallest Miyuki. I don't plan to end it under my reign unless it is an absolute necessity." Red looked back to the Captain. "Go on, I'm listening."

"We have an Invader that was infiltrating Syndicate bases with a weapon of Irken make." The Captain took back over the conversation with ease. "We have the Irken herself as well as multiple witnesses to the attack. If you would allow us to beam aboard the remaining two prominent members of the case- I would have brought them earlier- however your Invader and one of our witnesses are prisoners of the Syndicate at the moment."

The Tallest looked at each other for a moment before Red nodded. "Guards, be at the ready." Red's booming voice ordered instant response as larger Irkens dropped down from somewhere on high, weapons raised. "Transportation authorized."

"Transport authorized." The Captain spoke into her wrist and there was a moment before Tenn and a pasty white Irken both materialized into view. Dib was confused for only a split second before he realized that pale, moon colored Irken had seven eyes blinking out of synch with one another. Purple let out a loud cry and stumbled back.

"What is that abomination! I want it dead! Airlock!" He went to point toward the windows, but Red grabbed his hand, lowering it.

"A Parasite is your witness?"

"He helped us catch this little friend of yours." The Captain gestured to Tenn who bowed deeply to her Tallest. "She was impersonating a First Officer."

"Tenn?" The Tallest looked her over. Red finally spoke. "You're supposed to be at the Academy with Sig. What in Mothra's name are you doing with the Syndicate?"

"We said: train Elites with Sig not: go Invade the Syndicate ! Those don't even sound alike! How do you get them confused!?" Purple made an exasperated gesture toward Tenn with both hands. "That's the sort of thing I'd expect from Zim , but you're competent!"

"Those do sound alike to me." Zim confirmed, though he still seemed rather annoyed by the Tallests' dismissal of his concerns. Dib saw Skoodge put an arm around him, saying something under his breath in, what Dib was now learning, was the untranslated Irken language.

"Yeah, I know. I'm pretty confused too." Tenn admitted.

"Her involvement in our Ranger mission, sabotage of a Ranger ship, and stranding of Syndicate personnel is a direct violation of the treaty between our people." The Captain pressed. "You can see why this was an urgent matter."

"And your witness is a defect, a dead guy, and a Parasite?" Purple looked unimpressed.

"I'm not-" Skoodge began but was cut off.

"First of all, that Parasite is creepy, I don't even want to look at it." Purple didn't even seem to hear the interruption. "This sounds like a set up to me. That Parasite can only be heard by your Syndicate. He's hardly a witness."

"We also brought the human. He's unallied, a neutral party." The Captain gestured to Dib who straightened up.

"Oh those are the weird Earth things..." Purple finally looked over at Dib. "At least it's tall..."

"Kind of..." Red looked less impressed. It didn't seem either of them recognized Dib, which judging how they had reacted to Zim, might be for the best.

"You see, Tallests, we came ready to discuss the treaty breach that has occurred on Syndicate soil." The Captain steered the conversation back to the point. Red looked back at her, again bringing himself to his full height.

"You came ready to make some pretty big accusations, Captain Rose." Red did not sound pleased. "You bring a Parasite, your lackeys, and an Earth-thing onto our Massive which is really... really... special and important..."

"Sacred" Purple interjected.

"Sacred to the Irken people." Red continued. "You insult our security, waltz in with our banished and..." he paused, "Skoodge" It seemed Red wasn't sure what to make of the dead-not-dead Irken. "And you launch accusations at us ? From my perspective, Captain, you are the only one here in direct violation of our treaty."

"The communications were down-" The Captain began to object but Red held up a hand and she fell silent.

"Let me finish." His tone was not loud, but somehow still rather sharp and biting. "However, if you are coming with witnesses and an Irken prisoner- then it seems like we have no choice but to arrange a proper trial. Then we will find out what has transpired on 'Syndicate Soil' as you have so – Purple that word for fancy talking again-"

"Eloquent."

"Eloquently put it." Red and Purple seemed to have the fill-in-the blank thing down to a science. "I'll alert the Control Brains and oversee the setup of the court. And, since you were so ballsy as to march onto the Massive and call us bad-guys; I'll make sure we contact your superiors as well. We'll get them on video to observe the trial for themselves. That way you cannot accuse us of bias." He looked over his shoulder, down at the Captain. "How does that sound?"

"Fair and just." The Captain bowed at the waist. "Thank you, Almighty Tallests."

"Until then, you are our guests on the ship!" Red gestured to the group. "Though the Parasite I expect to be monitored at all times."

" Rude. " Q remarked.

"He agrees." Dib finally spoke up. To his surprise, Red laughed.

"I'm positive he didn't. But he knows that if he steps out of line, I'll finish what I started with that one." In a swift move, Red whisked himself behind the Parasite, placing a hand against the hairline cracks of red along its back. "Isn't that right?"

" The Red Death still lives. I'm more surprised than I thought I would be ." Q didn't seem particularly intimidated by Red's threat.

"Now please!" Red spoke as Irken guards walked on either side of Q. "The rest of you, I encourage you to explore the Massive and take part in our many luxuries we offer. You are our invited guests for this Cycle, and after you have cleaned off and rested, we can continue with a proper trial. You are dismissed, all of you."

"Yeah," Purple hovered behind Red. "Get out of our sight you ugly mooches!"

They were ushered out of the Tallests' presence and Dib found himself escorted to a lovely little room. There were soft pillows, fluffy furniture- it looked far less steely and grey than the rooms they had passed through so far. Lor followed behind him. On one of the couches there were fine clothes that seemed similar to the ornate garb Sym was wearing.

"They really want us to feel welcome..." Lor flopped on one of the large bed-like cushions in the center of the room and nearly sunk into it. "This is very soft!" He tried to scramble out.

"Don't suffocate." Dib walked over and offered a hand to help him out, briefly forgetting that Lor had the strength of a small army as Dib was pulled into the pillowy prison. It took longer than two adult men wanted to admit to clamber their way off of the cushion.

"You want to try a different one...?" Lor walked over to another oversized mattress-like cushion, placing a hand on it more tentatively than before. "This one we might be able to actually sleep on without having to live the rest of our lives trapped in a soft cell."

"Why do you think the Tallests are being so nice to us now? I thought that red guy was going to disembowel your Captain but now he's like: Here just eat our food and lay on our weird-overly-comfy-beds." Dib sat on one of the smaller cushions and immediately fell over as that one was bouncier than he would have thought.

"I dunno, they're speaking Irken and my Irken is only so-so." Lor shrugged.

"I mean, they were speaking English to me. Did they not translate for you?" Dib looked a little confused.

"Huh? Oh. Yeah. No, they did. But like, right now. They're arguing but it's in Irken." Lor tilted his head back, craning his neck a bit toward the door.

"Oh wait, right!" Dib jumped to his feet. "You have super hearing!" Lor was rather passive as a person, he was friendly, but he didn't act like someone with a lot of power. Dib often found himself forgetting Lor wasn't human. "What are they saying?"

"Like I said my Irken isn't great and eavesdropping seems rude."

" Lor ..." Dib gave him a long, judgmental look.

"What? I don't usually do these kinds of missions. I stay in the med bay and do medical stuff." He ran a hand through his hair. Dib rolled his eyes, getting up and walking toward the door. Lor scrambled to his feet and was at the door in a flash. "Wait, where are you going?"

"I wanna look around." Dib shrugged. "Maybe we can get close enough for me to record what the Tallest are saying so I can translate it myself."

"Don't do that Dib, that's creepy and it probably violates all kinds of treaties." Lor narrowed his bright blue eyes.

"It's not creepy, it's detective work!"

"It can be both." Lor crossed his arms, standing firmly between Dib and the door. "I'm not going to let you secretly record Irken military leaders while you are representing the Syndicate. We're already on shaky terms. Don't start a war."

"Ugh, fine. Then I'll just regular explore." Dib gave an exasperated sigh. Lor didn't budge, giving him a disbelieving look. "Look, I'm on an alien spaceship so you better fucking believe I plan to explore this place. If you're so worried I'm going to 'start a war' you can just come with me." There was a brief moment before Lor finally stepped aside.

"Fine, we can go together."

"Come on." Dib grabbed his arm as the exited the plush room and entered the long, metallic hall, he could see wires in the walls and ceilings. There were Irkens of various sizes throughout the halls. They would look at the two, nodding respectfully, some asking if they needed anything before scurrying off. It was a little weird. The Irkens had always come across as rather loud, abrasive, and generally uncaring. However, now that the Tallests had made the Syndicate crew their guests, Dib found the Irkens that crossed their path to be rather pleasant. A few Irkens even went out of their way to explain various locations on the Massive to Dib.

Eventually they found their way to a rather nice dining area where Skoodge and Zim were sitting, Zim had a hand on Skoodge who seemed to be shoving food angrily in his mouth, surrounded by a pile of wrappers that implied he had been doing this angry-eating for quite some time. As Dib approached, he saw an Irken in a little apron bring another tray of food. She leaned over to Skoodge as she put the tray down. "This is for you Invader Skoodge! You were amazing on Blorch!"

"Thank you." Skoodge seemed to ease up a bit at the compliment. The Irken female's golden eyes glistened with admiration though she looked somewhat saddened.

"I'm so sorry to hear about your death"

"Mothra damn it!" Skoodge put his head on the table.

"Having fun?" Lor questioned as the two approached the Irkens.

"This has been Skoodge's whole day." Zim patted his shoulder empathetically as the Irken waitress scurried off.

"Why do they think you're dead?" Dib put his hands in his pockets looking at the small Invaders sitting in their fortress of food.

"From what I can tell there was a system update in the Collective that registers me as being dead." Skoodge lifted his head up.

"Oh hey it's the late Invader Skoodge! I heard about you dying. That sucks." A familiar Irken voice addressed the group and Dib turned his head to see the two door guards that had tried to stop them earlier. (Well, the female had tried to stop them. The male was the one talking, and he had not done much.) "I hope I didn't kill you."

"Vero, come along. We do not have to associate with dead Irkens." The female looked at the group with disdain in her crimson eyes.

"Mothra give me strength..." Skoodge muttered under his breath. The male guard, Vero, took a seat beside Skoodge, patting his other shoulder, mimicking Zim's gesture.

"It's okay buddy. You're with Mothra now."

"Vero! Come along. We have important duties to tend to once we have completed our meal." The female did not look amused by her companion's antics.

"These are the Tallests' honored guests. We have a duty to them as well." Vero replied confidently. He looked back to Skoodge and Zim, making an obvious show of turning his back on his female companion. "Forgive Xia, she's bitter and angry because she's allergic to fun."

"RUDE!" Xia hissed, her antennae lying back. "I just don't want to associate with... outsiders. I take my duty seriously."

"You two aren't bonded are you?" Zim made a face looking between them.

"Oh sweet Mothra absolutely not!" Xia was almost instantaneous in her denial. "The very suggestion makes me want to cleanse the memory banks of my PAK."

"Nah, we're same-tube." Vero explained though the explanation meant literally nothing to Dib. He looked at Lor who shrugged. However, Zim and Skoodge nodded, both seemingly satisfied with Vero's confusing reply.

"So, you share both of your genetic donors. That's rare." Skoodge remarked, looking rather impressed as he continued devouring the never-ending supply of food.

"Yes, and due to our similar genetic makeups, the smeetery made a mistake and we had to develop in the same tube. It was awful. Even before my PAK I knew I had a deep-set loathing for this one in my cardiac-spooch." Xia grimaced.

"Oh!" Dib clapped his hands loudly. "You're twins!" Vero and Xia both gave him a blank look. Dib had not intended to say that out loud. Usually when he was hypothesizing about Irken culture, he was alone in his lab, spying on Zim or running through data from Tak's ship. He was not accustomed to keeping his breakthroughs to himself. He cleared his throat. "You know... siblings..."

"No. Those words mean nothing to us." Xia looked annoyed by the interruption. "And since we are using a translator, the failure of our understanding falls solely on you and your inadequacies." She scoffed; her expression unimpressed.

"It's a term from Earth family units." Skoodge didn't seem pleased with Xia's rather harsh words toward Dib. "And you are being awfully uninviting to someone invited by the Tallests, aren't you?" He raised one antenna and for a moment Xia seemed to back-pedal.

"I... I suppose that is true." She didn't really apologize, but she quieted down a bit.

"Yeah, stop yelling at people in front of my chips." Vero held the bag to her face. "You gotta apologize to Chippy."

"I'm not doing that."

"Xia you have to; my chips are sad and they won't taste right."

"I'm leaving. You're clearly having some sort of break down in your logic circuits, again, and I'm not paid enough to deal with your bullshit." She turned her head and swiftly stalked off. The click of her boots on the tile was surprisingly loud given the crowded nature of the dinner hall.

"Haha, fuck you." Vero turned back to the group. "Now that she's finally gone, what is going on between the Syndicate and the Empire? Are we really going to war?"

"No. I mean... probably not." Zim shrugged.

"You and Xia are awfully tall for Elites." Skoodge noted. "And seeing you both on the Massive at such a young age is unusual. Are you Rising Tallest?"

"We both are." Vero made a face.

"That's actually pretty rare to have two Irkens that are the exact same height that are also tall." Skoodge seemed intrigued. Dib blinked, realizing that the guard the Captain had convinced to let them in by telling him pizza was in danger and the guard who had just brutally insulted him, were actually the next in line for the leaders of Irk. "That hasn't happened since Red and Purple took the position." Zim made a noise that translated into a random array of swear words, none of which made any sense and Skoodge slowly turned to look at him.

"What?" Zim blinked.

"Aw that was quite a word." Vero applauded. "I don't think they teach us that at the academy." Skoodge covered Zim's mouth with one hand.

"We aren't teaching it to you."

"That's bogus." Vero pouted for a second, but didn't seem too phased. He straightened up suddenly, "Shit I gotta run. Xia and I are back on shift." He quickly bolted from the table still holding his tray. He was actively shoving food in his mouth as he ran off.

"What an unusual Irken..." Lor commented.

Dib eventually moved on from the dining hall. There was a lot to be explored but the down side of being human over being Irken was that after hours of seeing life on the military space craft of the Irken leaders, he was starting to get tired.

The Irkens had eased up on him a lot, with the exception of Xia apparently. Even Sym had seemed more pleasant when he had come across her little office. Of course, she was still about as warm and inviting as a yeti-cave during a massive blizzard. However she had not tried to actively kill him, and for her that was an improvement. It was a little strange seeing the Irkens as inviting hosts. He had not seen the Captain, but was pretty sure she was stuck babysitting Q.

As Dib and Lor went back to the plush chamber the Tallests had provided, he collapsed heavily onto one of the firmer cushions. It was like a soft, mattress. He found the fabric began to warm up as he lay on it, the sensation was actually soothing. He had not felt this relaxed in a while. The Syndicate ship had comfortable beds, but nothing quite this luxurious. It was a bit like what he imagined sleeping on a cloud must feel like.

Things had gone okay, surprisingly.

Though he had not quite made it to the landing bay. Maybe that was for the best given what GIR and CB had probably done to the place. Though... he hadn't really heard from CB since they had entered the Tallests' chambers and- as nice as it was not to have to deal with a snippy AI- it was a little unlike him not to make snide comments during big meetings.

He was half asleep by the time his phone began to buzz.

Over

And over

And over

Again.

Finally Dib rolled over, squinting through his glasses at the text on the screen. His heart stopped as he saw multiple messages, all from CB, continuing to pop up even as he stared at the screen they flooded in:

TEXT:

RUN

RUN

RUN

RUN

RUN

RUN

RUN

RUN

RUN

RUN

RUN

RUN


I do have some art for you guys this time! A bonus scene from last chapter that I sketched up can be found here on my amino!

Also want to add some AMAZING fan art from the wonderfully talented Toasted Scones! Please check it out HERE!

Also this will b e updating once a week regularly ! Do you prefer Friday, or Tuesday updates?