The sheet they'd left for Zim didn't warm him. He lay on the cot, shivering, clutching at the fabric as if it might save him from his horrible fate. He could see it now. He could see the scientists guiding Dib's hand so he could make the first cut in Zim's body. He could smell his own blood, and hear himself screaming. And they wouldn't kill him, oh no. They would preserve his miserable existence as long as they possibly could, learning all they could about him. They probably wouldn't even give him anesthetic. Hyumans were, he shuddered, still a barbaric race.

Or at least, some of them were. Not all…

The hours dragged on, leaving him to imagine every agonizing, horrific experiment they would perform on him. With Dib's knowledge, it would be especially painful. Fear crawled through his squeedly spooch and gnawed at his brain. Finally, when the door opened again, he cracked. He drew the sheets over his head and whimpered, scrunching into a tiny ball.

The door closed again, and hands grabbed his shoulders. "Hey, hey! Thim, come off it. Thim!"

That voice… Zim pulled the sheet down a little, his eyes wide. It had been even longer since he'd seen Joey. The boy had never lost his speech impediments. He'd vanished from the orphanage at age 18 and, from what Zim gathered, had been in and out of jail a few times for petty thievery and breaking-and-entering. He'd grown so attached to GIR that, when he'd left, he'd taken the robot with him. He must have trained GIR to break him out of jail because shortly after he would be taken into custody, the news would report a hole in the solid cement wall, or window bars bent aside like pipe cleaners.

"Joey?"

The boy—now a man—grinned widely. "Hey Thim. Tom put out the wo'd. Don't wowwy. We gonna get you out thafely. We got a plan."

Zim gripped Joey's hand tightly, eyes wide. Joey's grin faded, and a hard light came into his eyes. "Wow. They weally sca'ed you, didn't they?" Joey sat cross-legged on the ground and did something few on the planet would have dared to do. He pulled the ex-Invader off his cot and wrapped him in a tight hug. "Don't wowwy Thim. It'th ouw tuwn now. We get to take cawe of you."

Zim clenched his eyes shut, clinging to Joey. "How are you supposed to get me out of here? This isn't a normal jail cell. The security is beyond… wait…" He pushed back for a moment. "How did you get in here in the first place?"

Joey grinned devilishly. "You thowed Tiana you' machineth an' how to make 'em wo'k. Tiana went back to the owphanage and found thome thtuff." He nodded to the hall. "They all athleep, and you had thtuff that methed up lockth."

Zim swallowed. "Tiana's here too?"

"Out in the hall. C'mon, we gotta go." Releasing Zim, he stood and reached his hand out to help him up. Zim tilted his head back. Irk, when did all those smeets get to be three times his size? He accepted the hand and followed Joey. He smiled at the sight of Tiana, engrossed in the readout of an Irken device in her hands. She glanced at him, and her face lit up.

"Zim. Better hurry, they won't be asleep much longer. Come on Joey, we have to run, we've got about ten minutes."

"Thowwy Thim." Joey apologized, before reaching down and scooping up the alien. Tiana and Joey turned and pelted down the hall, past the sleeping security. Zim noted the security cameras—each lens covered in green goo.

They'd reached the entrance to the facility when the alarm began blaring. Tiana held her arms out and took Zim from Joey. Joey nodded, and turned, pulling out an explosive device. As Tiana ran on, Zim watched as Joey pretended to plant the device on the outer wall. Security poured out and circled around him, guns drawn.

Zim sputtered, "But… they've got Joey!"

"It's part of the plan," Tiana huffed, "He'll break out in a couple days, same as he always does. Don't you watch the news?" She shoved a bracelet at him. "Put this on."

Zim didn't question, but slipped on the piece of jewelry. Instantly, his hand faded from green to peach, and grew two digits. Gaping, he stammered, "But how… you mastered holographic technology?"

Tiana smirked as she slowed and set him down. "Like Joey said, Zim, stop worrying. We can take care of ourselves now, and we finally get to help you."

Tiana left Zim at the edge of a runway, pointing him to the private jet at the end of it, but not before picking him up and squeezing him tightly. Zim had approached the jet and hesitantly climbed the stairs. Once inside, he took a moment to look around. The interior was lavish, with plush carpeting and wood siding. A mini-chandelier hung from the ceiling and, sitting on a leather seat, a formidable female sat, staring at him. He took a step back in alarm, ready to flee. He didn't recognize this hyuman.

She stood and crossed the space between them in a second. Kneeling, she grabbed his arm. He yanked back, but her grip held. He cursed the years he'd let his reflexes get soft. Gently, she slid the bracelet off his arm and watched his disguise melt away. Her mouth made a little "o" and her eyes filled with tears.

"Zim?"

Zim blinked, eyes darting around.

"It's me. Jane."

His jaw dropped. Jane had chosen an even more archaic form of communication than Tom, the written letter. He hadn't seen her since he sent her off to cow-ledge. He'd heard she'd become a success in the area known as business, and that she was a very important person, but neither of them had had the time to see each other.

This was Jane, who had once cowered at the sound of his voice and cried when anyone shouted. Now she looked as if she could face a meat-thirsty Hogulus without flinching. Except for now. Now she was crying again, wiping away the tears so they wouldn't burn him.

"You're okay. We were worried. I thought they might take you away before Joey could get to you."

Awkwardly, he patted her arm. "They found me. Zim is alright. Just a little… what do you say… shaken." His antennae drooped. "Zim is alright, but now what happens? I can't go back to the orphanage. They'll be watching for me. What will happen to the smeets?"

Jane smiled. "Don't worry about that. Tiana's taking over."

His head jerked up in surprise. "What?"

"Tiana knows your base better than any of us—except you. She's volunteered to take over Green Angel Orphanage. The kids will still be there, and still be looked after."

Zim felt relief for a moment, but then it was gone. "That still doesn't answer my question. Now what happens?"

"You mean for you?" She stood and walked back to her seat. Reseating herself, she pushed a button on the arm rest. "You'd better sit and buckle up. We're taking off."

Blinking, Zim hurried to another seat and buckled.

"What would you like to do, Zim?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what would you like to do? Would you like to live anywhere on the planet? Would you like to be able to do anything?"

Zim glanced out the window as he watched the runway zoom past. Quietly, he murmured, "I want to take care of the smeets still."

Jane smiled gently. "I thought you might say that. Guess what?"

He glanced at her. "What?"

"A wealthy donor has furnished an abandoned building for you. It's in another state, and it has the best technology Earth has to offer integrated into its structure. It won't be as good as yours, but it's something. All it needs is someone willing to run it and go hunting for orphans and cast-off kids."

Zim forgot his seatbelt and tried to leap up, but remained pinned to his seat. "You mean it?" He asked excitedly. "There's another place for me?"

"Of course. You will have to be more careful though." She waved the bracelet at him. "We'll do our best to keep Dib off your trail, but if he's anything like you told us, he won't give up."

"To flirk with Dib," Zim muttered angrily. Shaking his head, he declared, "He won't catch me again. I'm not going to let my guard down again."

"That's the Zim I know." Leaning back, she crossed her arms. "Well, we have a long flight. Let's catch up, shall we?"

Dib listened as his aide described the feed from the camera in Zim's cell. The man called "Joey" had broken in and, on finding Zim cowering, pulled him into a hug. The alien, on all accounts, didn't resist, but hugged him back.

A brainwashed man might break his brainwasher out of prison, but comforting him? And Zim returned the embrace? It didn't make sense.

Unless he believed Zim's story. Unless he'd been wrong for over twenty years.

What if…

Zim stretched. It had taken hours to reach the other state Jane mentioned, and even more time to become acquainted with the new house and its system. He would have to put some work into it to bring it up to Irk's standards, but it would do. With a smile, he reached for the doorknob. It was night, and high time for him to return to his mission. The one that called him with the sound of crying. The one that rewarded him every time he looked into another set of frightened, needy eyes. The one he'd commissioned for himself.

And Irk help the scum he found causing the sobs. His red eyes would be the last thing they ever saw, before black consumed them.

With a deep breath, he stepped out into the night. It was time to work.

THE END.