Howdy! If you're here, I guess you read the prologue. Welcome... or welcome back... to the Betrayal! You may have read the first one, and you may then be thinking, "Didn't Yellowfur write that?" The answer is a resounding KINDA. I storyboarded, and wrote chapter 4, and proofread, but my sister Yellowfur wrote the other four chapters, and proofread chapter 4. Which is saying a lot. Besides, I didn't have my own account at the time. So, now the story is entirely written by me and proofread by Yellowfur, and it thus goes in my account. Enjoy.

Oh, and if you're wondering about the strange word emphasis, I write the Irkens' dialogue in the way that most of them talk. Zim really does place all sorts of weird emphasis on words (thanks to Richard Horvitz), and Tak and Tallest Purple do it almost as much. Therefore, I write many Irkens, including Kloof, as talking this way.

Disclaimer: I do not own Invader Zim, Jhonen Vasquez and Nickelodeon do. I only own Kloof and the contents of this story.

Chapter 1

Business as Unusual

"Gir, you are trying my patience. Gir… no Gir. GIR… GIR! You are trying my patience, Gir, and you are failing it! You hear me, Gir? You are failing my only patience! My patience is a failure… because of you!"

This wasn't by any means an uncommon situation in a certain little angular green house. Of course, this little angular green house was quite uncommon in and of itself. For one thing, it was sentient. For another, it was the residence of an Irken, an uncommon race in this leg of the galaxy. For another, this particular Irken was about as uncommon a specimen as they came. He was uncommonly short, and had an uncommon record - he was responsible for three worldwide power outages (two on his homeworld), two accidental assassinations of his race's leaders, and a general wide swathe of fiery destruction by humongous mecha (also on his homeworld). Total score: Zim 6; rest of the Irkens 0. An uncommon score indeed.

No doubt, you're all familiar with Zim, the little green alien, megalomaniac, idiot, and purported 'nuclear mole' who lives in this house. However, the events that transpired from this point involved Zim in a series of fantastic adventures that brought an intergalactic empire to its knees. You may not be familiar with those, so that's what this story will focus on.

Zim cringed at the volume of Gir's shrieks and whines; desperately trying to make it out the front door to get to Skool. Normally Zim would just shrug it off, but this was different (oh, how different it was). Gir, sans dog costume, had attached himself to Zim's right leg, because Zim would not pick the poppy seeds off Gir's bagel. They never used to bother Gir, but today, for some reason, he was scared to death of them.

"But they're STARING AT ME!" Gir shrieked, in a tone of voice with side effects that included ruptured eardrums, migraines, temporary insanity, and instant death.

"For the last time, they won't feast on your innards! Now get off!" With that, Zim kicked Gir off his leg and slammed the door shut before Gir could get out.

Muffled screams of "No! Help meeeee!" could be heard through the door, along with an unholy skittering sound.

Shaking his head, Zim walked towards Skool.

---

"So, what's the plan again?" Tak asked Kloof as she and Mimi activated her holographic disguises. She knew, of course; she was making sure he did. They hadn't bothered to set up a base; Tak was certain that humans were so oblivious, they could just park Kloof's modest ship in a stand of trees near the Skool without raising any attention

"We infiltrate the Skool under human disguise. You've got the same one you used last time, to intentionally raise the alarm of Zim and this… this Dib kid. We wait until they, along with Dib's sister, are all gathered in one place before striking. We kill whomever we have to, but keep the rest alive to watch as we do… something to their planet."

"I'm going to fill it with snacks and present it to the Tallest!" Tak growled. "You need to know this!"

Kloof scratched his hornlike antennae. "No, I DON'T. I'm not necessary for that part except to make sure the Empire doesn't know what we're doing and prevent the escape of our captives. Wait… wouldn't the snacks melt in the core of a K-class planet?"

"I'll refrigerate the inside," Tak explained patiently. "I have that technology."

"Right," Kloof activated his own holograph disguise; while the model Tak used was designed to be plugged into a PAK or SIR Unit systems core; Kloof had a similar enough port in his right arm that it wasn't an issue. He flickered and was replaced by the image of a large child taller than Tak, with a build more like Torque Smacky's and baggy red clothes to mimic his normal width. Nevertheless, he'd probably be able to pass as a child Tak's age. "How do I look?"

Tak frowned. "Hm… you don't blink. Your disguise won't either."

"Good point." Kloof fiddled with a panel in his arm, and gained a hood over his head that cast his eyes in shadow. "Better?"

"Better." Tak snapped her fingers, and Mimi slithered across the room to her side. "I'm going to go get some meat to fling at Zim; meet me in front of the Skool at 0850."

"Okay. I'm going to keep fiddling with the disguise until then; maybe I can get it to blink at regular intervals." Tak nodded and left. Kloof waited for a moment, tapping his foot, before sitting in the control chair and hailing a frequency. "We're on location, boss. She doesn't suspect a thing."

---

Zim had no idea what was going on. He searched his head for ideas, but nothing came up. Yet there was Tak, in all her (disguised) glory, sitting in her former seat. There was a new student in the seat next to her as well, but Zim didn't realize it yet and probably wouldn't have cared if he did. Tak was sitting staring straight ahead with an innocent smile on her face, showing that there was nothing to stare at, or in Dib's case, point and make a nightmarish sort of retching noise at. Zim decided to ponder this no more and walked across the classroom to confront Tak. As soon as he reached her desk and opened his large green mouth, though, Ms. Bitters' voice rattled its way out of her withered, centuries-old larynx.

"Sit down, Zim! Class, you may have noticed that Tak is back. Big deal. There is also a new student joining us…"

"His name is Kloof." Tak said quickly, using the more childish voice she kept when she was 'in-character'.

"Whatever."

"Hello, Kloof," the class dully mumbled in unison.

Zim decided to wait until lunch to talk to Tak and Kloof. He slouched in his seat and pretended to pay attention to the teacher and her the-end-is-nigh ramblings until the lunch bell (she was tired of the-end-is-near). He couldn't even concentrate on his latest plan to throw Gir into power plants.

---

When lunch came, Zim walked straight towards where Tak and the new boy were sitting silently eating their snacks. Dib saw Zim going in Tak's direction and got up to follow him. Any natural hostility between the two could be put aside for a moment, when a threat like Tak came along to upset the balance of power. Gaz's left arm twitched in annoyance as she watched them make their way across the cafeteria, towards her. There was going to be irritating yelling, right near her.

"I noticed Zim yelling about how normal he was in class this morning," Kloof said, making small talk as he chewed his pretzels.

"Yes," Tak agreed. "Zim subscribes to the theory that if you say something loud enough and often enough, everybody will believe you."

"That's actually proven to work most of the time, you know."

"Yeah, but I think he just does it instinctually. Speaking of…"

"TAK!" Zim shouted with unnecessary volume. "And just WHAT are you doing back here on MY PLANET!"

"It's not your planet," Dib added helpfully.

"Quiet!" With this latest interjection, Zim jumped up on the table. "I DEMAND you tell me what you're doing here! Or maybe you just came back to be defeated yet again?"

Tak's calm face twitched into an angry scowl. "That was cheating! I know you corrupted Mimi! It took me a month just to get her to stop singing and dancing!"

"We did it to stop you from draining the earth!" Dib yelled.

"Who asked you, anyway!" Tak and Zim yelled in unison.

As this went on, Kloof just watched with growing interest. Tak yelled at Dib, Zim yelled at Tak, Tak yelled at Zim, Dib yelled at Zim and Tak… Dib had a special brand of extra-annoying yelling (Dibbing, if you will). Suddenly, Kloof cut into the argument by yelling very loudly, "YEAH I'VE HAD ENOUGH OF THIS." He got up and leaned his face in close to Dib's ear with a grin. "I'm gonna pretend to punch you. Try and make it look real."

"Wait, what?" Dib asked in alarm, but it was too late. Kloof had pulled back his arm and slammed a large fist into Dib's cheek hard enough to launch him clear across the cafeteria, causing him to impact against the far wall with a hollow thump.

"HEY!" Poonchie called, getting the cafeteria's collective attention. "The new kid shut Dib up… BY PUNCHING HIM REALLY HARD!"

"YAYYYY!" The students began clapping, cheering, and even throwing roses at Kloof's feet. Tak began to snicker, and Zim quickly made himself scarce. Kloof simply looked at his knuckles in mild surprise.

End of Chapter

Ooh, Kloof's got a mean punch! Also, he's working for... somebody! FORESHADOWING! Join us next chapter to find out who Kloof's really working for!