Author's Notes: I'll post chapters whenever I feel like it. That's the plan. You can review if you want to, but I won't get offended if you don't. This fic takes place sometime after the canceled Trial episode. I don't own anything.

Mercy

Purple came back a few times to check on him. The Tallest offered him some snacks and even showed him some of their plans for conquering Meekrob and Boodie-nen. The plans weren't the greatest, but they had a strong armada to fall back on, so it didn't really matter.

"And you never think of the families you're enslaving?" Lard Nar questioned the Tallest moodily.

"Nope," Purple answered. "Well… unless we want to use them for something."

"Like…?" Lard Nar asked with a bit of hesitation.

"Fights to the death, death mazes, facing off with deadly creatures until they die," Purple listed. "Sometimes we keep a few as slaves on the Massive, but they usually don't last long." He grabbed a handful of chips from the bag he was holding. "Yup… it's better for them if we don't think about them."

"That's just…" Lard Nar wasn't sure which word he should use to describe his revulsion.

He suddenly realized that Purple had used 'them' and 'they' rather than 'you' and 'you guys.' "Why didn't I hear about this?" He had started the Resistance to end the oppression of the Irken Empire, yet he hadn't really thought about the gravity of the situation. Now it was too late… his crew had been massacred by Irk's tyrants, and any survivor was going to be scared out of his or her skull.

After Vort had been conquered, all of the inhabitants had been imprisoned, but no one other than the soldiers who fought against the Armada had died after the initial conquest. Lard Nar thought he was dealing with oppression and slavery… but this was much worse than that.

Didn't his crew know of these things? Why didn't they tell him...?

Purple reached for his bag of chips resting on the desk. "That's a funny story actually. You see, before Vort was conquered I looked into the status of former allying planets. It turns out what happens to them after a successful conquest is different, but only under certain conditions. For example, the Tallest has to speak for the planet, and pretty much back up the inhabitants. Also, the species of alien has to be seen as useful to the Empire, but that was easy since a lot of Irken technology has been enhanced by Vortian technology, or so I've been told anyway."

Lard Nar ground his teeth as he carefully sat up. A stab of pain ran up one of his arms, causing him to wince. "Why would you do that…?" he asked. "And how is it funny?"

"Red was totally ticked off. He's ticked off now too, because I claimed you, but he was more ticked off back then, and it was funny," Purple replied. "Why? Well… that's a good question. Former Tallest Miyuki liked you guys. I'll just leave it at that."

What did Miyuki have to do with anything? Lard Nar glared at the Tallest for a moment, but Purple didn't pay any attention to the Vortian's apparent hostility.

"Here, this is all the information I got on the invasion of Vort if you want to see it," Purple told him. He used his free hand to pass a few digital documents to the Vortian. "I thought you might be curious." Purple stood up. The chip bag crackled a bit; it was almost empty. "I guess I should go pretend to be interested in whatever is going on. If I stay held up in my room too long, Red might come looking for me."

"I always thought you were an idiot…" Lard Nar admitted as his eyes scrolled along the statistics and reports in his hands. It hurt to bend his wrists, and his fingers still trembled a bit, but the pain was becoming more bearable.

Purple chuckled. "That was hardly any work. I just found it and gave it to you. The research to stop the massacre on your planet was the hard stuff. I really hate reading."

Bang bang bang

"Purple?"

"Ah jeez…" Purple's antennae fell. "I knew he'd come looking for me."

"You guys are hardly ever a part," Lard Nar said, pretending to be interested. He was still reading over the records on his planet's enslavement.

"Yeah, one of the bummers of being a twin," Purple spoke as he walked over to the door.

"Whaaat?" he called.

"Unlock the door."

"You locked the door?" Lard Nar questioned, raising an invisible brow.

"Yup," Purple replied with a cheeky grin. "I'll be out in a minute," he told Red.

"We need to talk, now," Red said in a low voice.

"Crap… he must have heard about me rescuing you. I guess I'm going to be held up in here longer than I thought," Purple muttered.

"Why?" now Lard Nar really was curious.

"Haaa. Not telling you."

"Purple!" Red's voice boomed.

Lard Nar dropped his papers (at least they looked like papers, but Irk had no trees so they were obviously made of something different) and stared in the direction of the entrance.

"The minute is going to keep getting longer!" Purple retorted heatedly. "Go away!"

There was silence on the other side of the door, and for a moment Lard Nar thought the other Tallest had left.

"He's hacking into my room the jerk…" Purple whispered, glancing at Lard Nar. "Sorry, but you've got to hide now. Red hates you."

"What do you expect me to do exactly?" the Vortian asked in a low voice. He wasn't too sure why they were whispering, but if Purple was doing it, then there must be a reason. "I can't exactly move if you haven't noticed…"

"Oh right…" Purple sighed. "Oh, duck under the covers. I'll bury you in reports and junk."

"What!"

"Shh! Just do it," Purple hissed.

Lard Nar was struck speechless when the Tallest lowered his antennae and glowered at him. Purple actually looked dangerous… The Vortian quietly pulled the covers over his head while Purple rushed to gather as many documents and reports as he could to throw on top. When Red had finally managed to crack the code, Purple was sitting at his desk with a donut he had kept hidden somewhere in the room.

He turned slowly to regard the other Tallest with half a donut sticking out of his mouth.

"Was it really so hard to open the freaken door?" Red growled as he entered the room.

Purple shrugged his shoulders and continued chewing.

"What's wrong with you?"

Purple shrugged again. This only appeared to anger Red who marched over to his partner and grabbed him by the shoulder. He pulled the other Tallest to his feet. Purple swallowed.

"What?"

"Do not play stupid with me Purple! I know you aren't as stupid as you make yourself look! You've already proven that with the Vort fiasco!"

Purple blinked. "Are you ever going to get over that?"

Red slammed Purple into the wall, causing the lavender-eyed Tallest to wince. "Enough games… if I didn't know any better; I would think you're trying to under-mind me… that's treason Purple! Treason!"

"Uhh… yeah. It would be if I was doing that…"

"I hate that dlamn mask! You are so…"

"Look Red, this has been fun and everything, but you do lose your temper a lot. If our followers saw half the stuff you did to me out of blind rage, you would be accused of treason, not me," Purple told him calmly as he reached to remove Red's hand.

"That… those…" Red sputtered taking a step away from his co-Tallest. "Those were accidents."

"Yeah, sure," Purple said. "Why do you think I'm known as an idiot Red? I have to be in order to cover for you."

"I said I was sorry…"

"I know you are Red, I know that," Purple said patting him on the shoulder. "I don't take it personally, but you almost did it again."

"It's because that dlamn Vortian..."

"Lard Nar didn't do anything," Purple interrupted. "That was all me. I rescued him. You really shouldn't hate them so much you know."

"You're calling it by name now?" Red grumbled crossing his arms over his chest.

"Sometimes maybe."

"Is there any reason I'll accept why you won't let me disembowel him?"

"Probably not."

Red sighed and rubbed his forehead. He seemed to be calming down, at least for the moment. "You're strange… but I guess I should have known you would do something like this… is it because…?"

"Yup, probably," Purple replied without hearing the full question. He also began to nudge Red towards the door. "You interrupted my snacking time, so I'm kicking you out now."

"Yeah fine…" Red sighed again as he allowed himself to be pushed out of the room. "You will join me on the bridge soon, right?" he asked turning to look over his shoulder.

"Uh huh."

Click. The metal doors slid shut, and Purple breathed a sigh of relief. He held his hands behind his back to hide their trembling and made a conscious effort to appear relatively composed.

"Well, that was exciting," he remarked.

Lard Nar carefully sat up. The blanket and the junk slid off, and he stared sceptically at the Tallest. "What the heck was that…?" He'd always thought the red one was more calm and rational than Purple, but now he wasn't so sure…

"That was rage," Purple replied.

"I know that! It's just…"

"Not what you were expecting?" Purple questioned running a hand through his antennae. "Tell me about it… he's been this way since he became Tallest."

"And you?"

"Eh…" Purple shrugged his shoulders. "I'd like to think I haven't changed at all since the day I was first programmed."

"T-Tallest Purple Sir!" one of the technicians called, knocking on the door.

Purple got up and hovered over to meet with the Irken. "What is it?" he asked when the metal door slid open, and he saw the technician trembling out in the hall.

"I uh… with utmost respect… please help…?"

"I thought he gave up too easily…" Purple muttered. "Alright. Stay out in the hall. Don't go back until I go with you."

"Y-Yes sir! Thank you sir!"

Author's Notes/ Warning/hint: This is only the surface of Red's little temper problem. Also, there is no RaPr.

I'm not sure I'm happy with this title. It was going to be "Prisoner," but that title was taken by someone else already... then I was going to call it "Prisoner of the Empire" but that didn't sound quite right. After a bit of a debate, I settled on the current title. Well I guess that's better than leaving it blank right?

I didn't give the chapter titles too much thought in the beginning. They get a little better as the story progresses though... probably.