Why were my titles for the past few chapters hanging out up here? I ask myself.
Author's Notes/Lament: This is what I do instead of doing my homework.. I'm going to fail. (sigh) College, work, volunteering, all of these good things keep me pretty busy. Just in case you were wondering why I sometimes vanish. I'm in the process of quitting my horrible job though, so updates may happen faster for a brief time. Maybe. Perhaps. Sort of.
Warning: another OC alert.
Troubles
Ral was replaced by a much more bearable Irken named Grahl. The shorter Irken hardly spoke a word, and he never made any complaints about what Lard Nar was doing. He was simply there to make sure the task got done.
The silence was stifling at times. Being in such quiet was unusual for the former captain of a very loud resistance. He glanced over at the smaller Irken who was watching him solemnly.
"Can you speak?" Lard Nar asked him after a while.
"Y-yes..." the Grahl replied in a timid voice.
This gained the Vortian's curiosity, and he stopped stocking in order to fully regard the Irken. "Why don't you then?"
"I... I do not wish to end up like Ral sir..."
"You mean like tied up?" Lard Nar raised an invisible brow. It couldn't have been that frightening.
"No... what happened after my Tallest found out you took out Ral... that's what I'm afraid of..."
"What happened?"
"My Tallest Red had him deactivated."
"Because I tied him up?"
"You are a Vortian... no offence sir... my Tallest Red does not like your kind very much... so when he found out you had easily subdued Ral... my Tallest had Ral's pak ripped off. It took ten minutes for him to die sir... it was... not something I enjoyed watching, and I do not wish to experience such a thing for myself."
"Ah... I see..." Lard Nar clenched his hands into fists and ground his teeth. What the flurk did the red Tallest think he was doing?
"Could... could you please get back to what you were doing sir?"
"Oh... yes ,of course," Lard Nar looked back at the shelf he was filling. He was still on the blue wrappers. He thought he might move on to the yellow ones when he was finished. "Did Purple watch too?" he suddenly asked.
"My Tallest Purple does not agree with such methods of termination... I believe he was either unaware or simply chose not to attend."
"I could easily take you down as well... I wonder why the red-guy decided to send you instead of one of those big burly soldiers that normally guard the prisoners."
"Because he would need Tallest Purple's permission..." Grahl replied. "He simply replaced Ral..." The Irken took an uneasy step back. "Please don't do anything to me sir... my Tallest will have me deactivated for such a thing..."
"Don't worry, you aren't nearly as aggravating as Ral."
"Th-Thank you sir..."
"Call me Lard Nar."
"Yes sir."
Purple had taken off all of his bandages. There were no visible scars, so when they arrived at their destination, no one would discover anything unusual.
"Is your antenna still bent?" the lavender eyed Tallest questioned his co-ruler.
Red's antennae were flattened against his head, and he sat in his chair with his arms folded over his chest. "I fixed it yesterday."
"Well you might want to try fixing it again."
They had just been in an argument over Ral's death. Purple thought the Irken care-taker's deactivation had been unnecessary while Red believed he should be able to deactivate anyone he wanted. There had been no blows exchanged, but all of the technicians were on edge.
"It IS fixed Purple," Red insisted.
"You didn't use a mirror when you fixed it did you?"
"Would you just shut up already? You're giving me a headache."
Purple let out a sigh before yanking his co-Tallest's crooked antenna back into place.
"Ouch!" Red exclaimed, raising his hand to smack Purple.
"Heeey, adviser Tad!" Purple remarked, dodging Red's strike. "You wanted to talk about something?" Red stopped to regard the green-eyed Irken who had appeared on the large monitor in front of them.
"Yes my Tallest..." the adviser replied calmly. "The Control Brains have just alerted us of another deactivation on board the Massive... they wanted us to check with you to make sure everything is alright."
"Who died exactly?" Purple questioned turning to Red. "A Riff or a Raf or something?"
"It was Ral," Red replied as a matter of fact. "You know, the caretaker guy."
"Oh yeah, some drones were playing a prank, and he ended up getting accidentally sucked out of the airlock. You know how it is," Purple shrugged.
"Yes sirs... but not long ago a janitor was killed, and two drones suffered life-threatening injuries because of a power-core reaction so..."
"That was taken care of," Red responded. "I saw to it myself."
"Yeah, it won't happen again," Purple remarked, nodding in agreement. "And the uh... the airlock thing won't happen again either."
"If that's all, we're kind of busy overseeing Operation Impending Doom two," Red stated.
"Ah yes... sorry to bother you my Tallest..." Adviser Tad bowed and the screen went blank.
Purple rubbed his forehead. "I think that went well," he grinned.
"Stop acting already..." Red grumbled.
"Aw... fine," Purple replied reaching for a bag of chips that he was keeping beside his chair. His smile faded as he tore into the bag. "I'm just trying to help you know."
"I know you are..." Red sighed. "Thanks Purple... you really are the best."
Purple smirked. "And don't you forget it," he remarked, holding out his bag of chips. "Want some?"
Red took a few and sat back in his chair. "I'm also really sorry... about before."
"Really? Because I'm not," Purple said before he started munching.
Red raised an antenna. "You aren't?"
"No, I fought with you on equal terms," Purple explained. "I lost this time, but don't expect I'll simply back down if you piss me off again."
"That seems fair I guess."
"You bet it is."
Lard Nar cleared his throat and both Tallest turned quickly to regard him. When Purple realized who it was, he glanced quickly at his partner, hoping to judge the situation appropriately. Red appeared rather subdued at the moment, so Purple stood up.
"Oh right, it's you. I nearly forgot. Weren't you supposed to be somewhere else doing something?"
"I believe your instructions were to rewrap what I used yesterday to accidentally get Ral murdered," Lard Nar replied, shooting a glare at the red Tallest. "I've done that already."
"How long have you been waiting around?" Purple questioned.
"Long enough," he said. To watch the both of you act like twits in front of the adviser, he was tempted to add but did not.
"Then go finish the assignment I gave you yesterday."
"Fine, but Grahl is gone, so you'll have no way of knowing if I'm there or not."
Purple rubbed his hand down his face and muttered something.
"I'll talk to you outside in a sec," he spoke.
Lard Nar turned and walked out into the hall, but he didn't go far. He wanted to eavesdrop as much as possible.
As soon as the door clicked shut, Red went off.
"Why the flurk didn't you zap him!?"
"He was being honest," Purple replied. "I mean, he came all the way here to tell me that Grahl wasn't there."
"So what!? I've never seen a slave, or any alien for that matter, show such disrespect towards us!"
"Isn't it great?" Purple remarked. "He doesn't give a dlark about titles or anything like that."
"But he should! He's the enemy! He's your slave! You can't keep letting him get away with things! Did you see what he was wearing!? He destroyed one of our own uniforms and turned it into... whatever the flurk that was!"
"He had my permission to do that," Purple answered. All of the technicians had lowered their heads and were fearfully listening to their Tallests argue.
"You should just kill him and be done with it!"
"He's my slave, I'll treat him how I want," Purple insisted, narrowing his eyes at his co-Tallest. "If you have a problem with the law, you can bring it up the next time we see the Control Brains."
Red quieted down a bit after Purple said this.
"S-Sirs..." the technician in charge of communications stammered. "There is a... transmission from Earth..."
"Great!" Red exclaimed tossing his hands in the air. "That's just what I need!"
Purple snickered, actually, it probably was. Nothing could make Red forget about his problems better than Zim. Unfortunately the small Irken's presence reminded Purple of everything he couldn't have, so he didn't like watching the bizarre transmissions Zim often sent them
Red on the other hand could listen to Zim's explanations of things with genuine interest.
"Alright, I'll let you handle this one," Purple said as he started hovering towards the door.
"Won't he think it's strange that you aren't with me when the transmission goes through?" Red asked.
"Naahh... Zim probably won't even notice," Purple responded, waving away his partner's worries. He stepped out of the hall and before the door could close behind him he heard "Greetings my Tallests! Err... Tallest? Where is the other Tallest!?"
Click.
Oh well. Red will think of some kind of excuse.
"So what happened to Grahl?" Lard Nar demanded. He was standing in the middle of the hallway with his arms folded across his chest.
"I don't know," Purple replied. "Maybe Red told him to do something else, and then forgot about it."
"Is he dead as well?" the former captain questioned.
"I don't think so. I've been with Red all day, so he couldn't have ordered any more deactivations."
Lard Nar blinked and clasped the side of his head, hoping to keep the flashbacks at bay.
"What's going on...?" he asked. "I couldn't remember anything about the crash up until a few days ago..."
Purple pursed his lips. "Hmm..."
"It just feels like I'm forgetting something important."
"How much do you remember?"
"A few moments before... then the hit..."
"Nothing after?" Purple pressed.
"I can only remember the fires.."
Purple was silent for a little while. "...Do you want to know what happened?"
Lard Nar hesitated. A part of him wanted to know, but another part of him was frightened of finding out the truth. "As the former captain, I feel obligated to know what exactly happened to my crew."
"And yourself as well?"
"Of course..."
"Alright, but you won't like it."
Author's Notes: Have you noticed some of the Irken 'bad words' the Tallests have been saying? Flurk means frick. Dlark/Dlamn/dlarn is damn and/or darn, and Shliza is shit. Helk is a combination of hell and heck.
Yes... they are regular words with an L stuck in there. Ha ha. I'm not that creative.
More notes: About what Grahl said about Lard Nar being a Vortian, I figured being anything other than Irken is offensive to Irkens. That's why he said it the way he did. I'd also like to point out Purple calls Ral "Riff-raff." He did this on purpose. He really doesn't care that the caretaker is dead, so he's joking about it.
What he really cares/worries about is Red's violent actions, not Ral's life. Poor Ral.
This was also one of the rare occasions both Tallest were acting more like they do in the show. Yes. That won't happen too often.