I do not own Invader Zim okay; I know it has taken me awhile to update this. Sadly, inspiration strikes other stories first and life is hectic as hell when days off aren't really days off it seems…. (Got to love being an adult in the real world huh?) Anyway, enough of this A/N, on with the fic!

Tak headed back to her bunk and lay back down in a rage. What the hell was she going to be able to do to get what she wanted. And what did she want? All I know is I don't want any part of this madness and incompetence we call an Empire… she thought as she looked around, thinking of the mess she was in. This mission had no real use. Nothing that the Empire needed. It was all a mess and if it was really something Irk needed there'd be thousands more Irkens involved. No secret team would be made of the outcasts. No way. She turned over and screamed into her pillow as Tenn came in.

"Tak?" Tenn asked curiously. "Are you okay?"

"What do you think?" Tak asked.

"I'll take that as a no." Tenn sighed. "So, what's bothering you?"

"None of your business." Tak snapped.

"Okay, I'll take that as 'everything'" Tenn sighed. God Tak is just impossible to help. Just tell me what is pissing you off.

"Let me ask you something Tenn." Tak growled. "How is it you can keep up this charade when you know what was done to you? You got malfunctioning SIR units when you should have gotten a Mechadoomer. The Tallest saved you but let Irk drag your name through the mud. You could have had Meekrob if that mix up had not happened. How do you not just want to burn it to the ground?" Tak looked over at Tenn who was looking at her sympathetically. She had figured Tenn would know how she felt the best. She was so traumatized she had a breakdown at Earth food with the same name as the planet she had tried to conquer.

"I myself am done with fighting. So much I couldn't tell the Tallest fuck off to this mission." Tenn sighed.

"There's a time and a place." Tak said.

"You know for someone who has a hatred of the Empire you sure do seem to be willing to go along with it yourself." Tenn said back.

"Because I have to keep up appearances!" Tak moaned.

"So do I." Tenn replied. "So, you going to get me into Membrane Labs or not?"

"I guess." Tak sighed. "So, we need to schedule you an interview…."

"You know…. I could use this to give the humans some of our knowledge….." Tenn sighed.

"What?" Tak asked. She didn't quite know how to feel. Despite the ineptitude of the Irken leadership, this was still her people's technology, and she didn't want it to just be given to a race that from what she could tell from what happened to Dib a lot and what she could see from what she did observe of human culture that was very stupid, arrogant, and petty. They valued beauty and wealth more than strength and knowledge. They had only made it to the moon and probes had just gotten to the edge of their solar system recently from what Tak had read and they made a huge deal about something that took Irkens hardly any time at all. Just because she had despised Zim, the Tallest and all of Irken society for how they had treated her and forced her into work beneath her despite the reason she missed the test was not her fault, did not mean that she held much of humanity in esteem. She had seen how Dib was treated, how he was ridiculed for being right most of the time, how the ones in charge of educating him either dismissed possibilities or told him to shut up. She had recalled what she overheard with him and Miss Marshall. How Dib was right on her insecurities from where she was from and how she wanted to use him to make herself seem better. They treat Dib like a problem child. Like an ignorant troublemaker who needs to be put in his place…. She thought and then looked down at her hands. Like they do me. Even though we're better than what our society thinks of us…. She looked over to see Tenn looking at her confused. "Why would you want to give our technology to the humans? The act much the same as most of the Irken Empire does." Tenn blinked as Tak went on. "I have been out in the crowds. You've been at one of their information centers open to the public."

"You hacked the mainframe of Membrane Labs." Tenn said.

"Dib got me in the door, I just explored a little more than just cleaning up the emails from Skool like Dib does." Tak said.

"Well get me in there." Tenn told Tak. "As soon as you can."

"Fine, fine." Tak said.

"And I can be a double agent too you know. I am not incompetent. Not like Zim is." Tenn said as she turned on her disguise glasses to look like the young graduate that she was going to be playing for that role. "And I have to get used to the idea of looking like some bimbo from some middle-aged human male's fantasy." Tak rolled her eyes knowing that as a female they had certain attributes they could use towards males of other species, even if the Irken race hardly dealt with sexual relations anymore due to their cloning of the species. Part of the training female Invaders had gotten was about using their 'feminine wiles' to weaken the enemy. "Look it's been a while since training. And I didn't have to do anything like they taught us on that on Meekrob. They were beings of pure energy and had less use for sexuality than we do!"

"Give me a fucking minute." Tak sighed as she worked her way in the Membrane Lab's mainframe and added her information to interview. "And here you go, Monday at 11 am they are to meet you and talk about your potential to work as a researcher with them. Oh, and one more thing…" She got up and took off the glasses, causing the disguised Tenn to revert back to her Irken form.

"Give those back!" Tenn yelled.

"In a minute." Tak said. "I have one of these things myself. Not as glasses but it works…." She made some adjustments. "There, with a mere thought, you can now make the weak willed, which most of humanity is, do what you want."

"You sure you did it right?" Tenn asked skeptically.

"Let's test it." Tak smirked. "Skoodge, come here!" She called.

"What?" Skoodge said as he walked to where Tak was standing, next to the disguised Tenn. "Who is this lady with you?"

"I am no one and you will bring Tak and Tenn a bunch of caramel and chocolate covered popcorn to their cabin. Leave it at the door and run off. And you will not tell the Tallest you did so."

"Okay." Skoodge said walking away.

"And now we wait. Within a little bit, we will see if that worked." Tenn said.

"Caramel and chocolate covered popcorn?" Tak asked.

"What? It's good." Tenn shrugged.

"Meh I have grown kind of fond of the weenies on this planet…. That place Deelicious Weenie is actually quite good despite being horrible for humans." Tak said.

"Hmmmmm…. maybe human snack food might be good for Irkens…." Tenn theorized.

"We'll have to wait and see…." Tak said as she heard a knock at the door. Opening it, she saw the large back of caramel and chocolate covered popcorn. "Well, looks like it works."

"Great." Tenn smiled. "Membrane Labs, you won't know what hit you!" She said still in her graduate disguise, grabbing large handfuls of the popcorn and wolfing it down.

Meanwhile Professor Membrane sighed, looking over his work. It had been a long time since something revolutionary was released. Too long. I could restart PEG, but that guy who didn't like how long it was taking for my son and daughter to be with me and threw that ice cream cone like a total fool…. He thought with anger at that random person who yelled out and couldn't wait for something like free power bothered him greatly. He had used some of his technology to find out who was this guy with the ice cream and what he was doing and had found that soon after he had caused Professor Membrane that frustration and embarrassment, he was paid off handsomely by big oil and they made sure that he had all the ice cream and luxuries he could ever want. Money, money, and greed is what fuels these fools. So stupid. Membrane thought as he pounded his fist on the desk in annoyance. And money, while making a large fortune himself that could keep up his family, always had a price he knew, even if he wasn't aware of the slight pun. To keep his labs going and to keep striving for that perfection of all mankind he knew could happen in his lifetime, he needed funding. So, he had various governments and corporations demand certain things. He would always try to put in a certain way that the items could be used for good, even if the intent was not when the labs were commissioned to do so. It's the least I can do. Give my son and daughter a better world, even if I am never home with them anyway. He thought as he heard a knock on the door. "Come in." He said as he held out his hand and it opened.

"Cool." Simmons said as he looked at Professor Membrane.

"You like?" Professor Membrane asked. "I call it 'The Force.' No one will have to touch a thing. Decontamination will be so easy; this planet will be clean, and it will be harder for germs to be spread by contact."

"Brilliant sir." Simmons said, even if he didn't like the name. "But we have a new graduate who applied. "A Miss Tennessee Marie Irkan" He read from the file. "Has a PhD in nanobiosience."

"A young lady after my own heart." Professor Membrane said.

"I know you still regret not being able to do the coffee bean instead of blood thing…." Simmons said.

"Laws, ethics! HA!" Membrane laughed. "Nothing but tools of control that keep back humanity."

"Yeah, and if you remove those laws, most people just go stealing and killing…." Simmons sighed.

"You do not have the faith in science I do." Membrane said. "Sure, the human animal is that an animal, but we have the brains to be so much more. You don't see dolphins doing much like us. Except being horny drug addicts who bully pufferfish to get high." And not help me against those sharks I thought could be my friends….

"But she just came up and is booked tomorrow for an interview at the labs." Simmons said.

"What time?" Professor Membrane said.

"11 am." Simmons read.

"Hmmmmmm….my cure for atrophies in human temporal lobes and other brain damages from birth to cure epilepsy and other brain disorders can wait a little bit…." Professor Membrane said.

"Don't you usually teleconference with your kids?" Simmons rolled his eyes. He was always trying to get Professor Membrane to spend more time with his children as he often was the one who answered when Skool called on either Dib or Gaz. It had gotten so bad that they often sent emails too, but either one of them had stopped it or he just didn't read them anymore. Either one was possible in Simmons's eyes.

"Yes, but I work so much with the researchers that I want them to meet me in person. A mere screen won't show how dedicated I am to science and improving humanity as these young people are. I do not want the spark taken from them or worse corporate interests take them from me." Professor Membrane exclaimed sticking his finger in the air.

"Okay. I will get the conference room ready tomorrow for her." Simmons said. Even though we work for a lot of those corporate and government interests…..are they any different anymore anyhow? He thought as he headed to the conference room to get it ready for the interview tomorrow.

Professor Membrane turned back to his desk, after using the force to close the door. If this new graduate was what they made her out to be, she might be able to help him actually do the work he had wanted to do for humanity rather than what the big government and big money had wanted him to. He wanted to help and save mankind and justify the fact he was never home to everyone who had criticized him for it. He had a bigger goal and if that meant sacrificing family time, so be it.

So how was that? Good? Bad? Short? Long? Let me know in a review. I don't have much else to say here so remember to read (well you just did) and review. Ciao for now,

Otherrealmwriter

Aka

Realm.