Dib slowly awoke, letting out a yawn, and then stretched his arms as he slid his way out of bed, and headed for the nearby bathroom. He looked down at the sink's countertop and let out a wry chuckle. Senior had been kind enough to bring his toothbrush from home. They may have been evil invading aliens, but at least they weren't INCONSIDERATE. Plucking it up, he got to work on brushing his teeth and making himself up, hearing a knock come to the door.

"Dib, are you awake?"

"Yeah...I'm up." Dib said loudly in return to Senior's question.

"Good, good. We're going to be going to your father's laboratory today, to start work on some pollution reduction technology and a little side-project for us Irkens. Then we'll need to swing by the hospital. I'd like you to meet some friends of mine who I think you'll find very helpful to your new jobs."

"Sure, sure."

Dib rolled his eyes. He was trying not to let the cheery, friendly tone of his "new master" reach him. He didn't want to try and be friends. Not anymore. He still felt betrayed, still felt indignant, and he wanted to keep staying that way, to keep focused, and to try to find a way to bring all these Irkens down. He'd just have to wait for now. But he had a feeling he'd find something he could use at the laboratory. If they were giving him and his family advanced tech in the name of "improving the planet", well...

He'd be improving it alright. He'd improve it very easily by cooking up an anti-Irken weapon as soon as he could.

Soon he was exiting the room, and Senior was out there, waiting for him, green eyes warmly glittering back as he led Dib down the hall and into the main bedroom of the Tallest, where, once more, a big meal was set up for them and Senior as he munched away on "Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs".

"You ever try these?" He inquired, holding up a spoon of the little, orb-shaped chocolate cereal as Gaz gave the tiniest of smiles, and Dib chuckled a bit.

"You gotta try them with SUGAR sprinkled on. They're sort of bland without that, sugar brings out the real taste." Dib found himself saying, as he reached over and prepared to grip a small little container OF sugar, hesitating as he realized how easily the words had risen to his lips.

"It's alright, I'll get it." Senior said, plucking it up and sprinkling sugar over his bowl before taking a big slurping bite of a large orange. "What's a true shame is that we Irkens can't eat bacon. Well, not yet, anyway. We can't properly digest bacon and other types of meats, but we could taste it and lick it like a lollipop." He added.

Gaz immediately pushed away the plate of bacon SHE had, now raising another eyebrow up, wondering if he'd sucked on the whole thing like a popsicle. Senior laughed a bit, shaking his head. "I haven't done it to anything on this table, I assure you. It took us a while to develop a proper PAK resistance to meat in that regard, we're still working on having our bodies fully enjoy meat. I'll let you meet the genius behind that when we get to the laboratory, he's the one who helped us develop our bodies so we could swallow you humans without having to worry about burning up inside."

"I'm so honored." Dib grunted, as Professor Membrane looked over at Senior, who was about to try the cereal. Matthew Membrane, having once tried his children's cereal in one of the rare meals they'd eat together as a family many moons ago, knew what was about to happen. The same thing that had happened when he first gave sugar-sprinkled, Chocolate-Frosted-Sugar-Bombs a try. He wisely ducked, covering up his head as Gaz and Dib smirked a bit at each other, and rested their heads on their hands as Senior's jaws opened wide.

CHOMP.

And then...

"OOOOOOOOOOOOH! SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!" He screamed out, clutching at his throat, howling, barreling around the room, antennae now popping up high over his head as he spun around and around in the bedroom, Dib and Gaz laughing uproariously at all this, Professor Membrane flinching. Senior was now literally bouncing off the walls from a sugar high, the entire room shaking, flowers in vases crashing over, paintings and pictures flopping to the floor, cracks breaking open here and there. At last, Senior flopped onto the bed at the end of the room, moaning, slowly rising up and rapidly opening and closing his laps, going "Aaaaa, aaaaa", tongue sticking out, as if trying to hack up the aftertaste lingering in his jaws.

"Yeah, it takes a bit of getting used to."

"I...I..." Senior murmured, his eyes suddenly going wide. "...I think I want another scoop."

"Yep! That's what they all say." Gaz said sagely as Senior made his way back to the table before noticing something had fallen down by what was now his new desk. He gasped, racing over to it, picking it up as Dib, who was in the right position to see from behind, saw it was of a rather younger-looking Senior, who was standing alongside...that was Zim! Zim, and Skoodge, and CLEARLY Tallests Red and Purple when they were much younger, but also two other Irkens, one who had slightly small, deep-set yellow eyes who looked a bit skittish, the other the only woman in the frame, who had curly antannae, a slightly regal figure, and beautiful blue eyes that were the color of a fine blue spring sky. Even by human standards, she seemed lovely, the eyes alone drew you in, combined with that adorable little Mona Lisa smile.

"Who's she? And the other Irken?" Dib asked, Senior seeing Dib was staring at it and he sighed, bringing it over, letting Dib examine the photograph.

"That's the former Tallest. Well, all of them, really. Former Tallest Spork's the yellow-eyed one, he's the one who looks like he's terrified of everything. And that..." He pointed a clawed digit at the blue-eyed lady. "That's Almighty Tallest Miyuki. We were all friends in training, all stationed together growing up and learning what we'd best be good at, how we could best serve the empire. Our PAKs give us a sort of...baseline personality, all the potential is in here." He jabbed back at the metallic "backpack" on his back.

"Uh huh, so you take that training to discover what you'd be best at from the traits your PAK's given you? Like...say...if it gave you good hand-eye coordination, you could find out if you're better suited for the battlefield or as a pilot?"

"Yes! And if you're more personable and more friendly, you'd make for a good medic, or a communications officer." Senior remarked with a smile.

"I take it you passed THAT bar with flying colors." Dib said as he passed the photo to Gaz and Professor Membrane, Membrane looking oddly intrigued by the blue-eyed Irken lady. She seemed...so familiar.

"I actually got my highest scores in marksmanship." Senior confessed to Dib as he snapped his digits, and a PAK leg swiftly shot out, and speared a banana with pinpoint accuracy. He began unpeeling it as he looked at Dib, and his expression turned somber. "I chose to go into the communications field even though I was great at shooting people."

"Why?"

"Because I realized how good I was at shooting people." Senior quietly intoned, Dib staring into his eyes for what seemed to be a long time as the communications officer turned new head of the Irken Empire munched on his banana. At last, he took the photo back, sighing slightly as he swallowed the last of the banana. "Miyuki was a great Tallest, you know. She believed in diplomacy, and building up trade deals and she was so intelligent and...she was nice. Really nice." He murmured, feeling over the spot where her face was.

"Did you love her?" Professor Membrane inquired.

"Oh, n-no like THAT!" Senior said, now blushing a bit. "Not like that. Spork was like my slightly pain-in-the-ass brother and Miyuki was like a sister, really. I loved her like a sister"

"Wouldn't know anything about that!" Dib mumbled under his breath with a wry smile.

Gaz tossed a grapefruit at his head.

Within a few hours, they were all being led out of the ship, after it had touched down outside of Membrane Labs, an enormous, towering structure of pearly white, with the Membrane Logo emblazoned on the front over many shimmering, glittering doors. Windows lined up and down the tall building, the sunlight softly reflected in them and casting rainbow rays of reflection all around the grounds as they walked across the parking lot and into the double doors that were flanked by various well-armed Irken Elite guards, one in particular having deep red attire to match her darkly crimson eyes.

Dib shuddered. She had VERY thick antannae, thicker than Zim's ever was, almost as wide as an arm ini length, and curved like scythes, almost like his hair! She had on a big metal face mask over the lower half of her mouth much like the cloth mask over Senior's mouth, only it looked intimidating and scary, wombined with her creepy-looking frontal metal extra "PAK" on the front of her form, strapped across her chest in thick metal bands with a large toolkit belt, a small cape, and with thick gauntlets that looked like they could tear your head off in one swipe.

More terrifying still was that there were people clearly trapped in the metal case on the front of her large frame, seeing through a big slot at the front. They were uselessly banging on the insides, trying in vain to get out, and Dib shuddered as she stared at him, then at the shrunken humans inside. "They've been very, very naughty. So they are being punished." The female Elite Guard said darkly, giving it a rap with her knuckles. "I don't tolerate people trying to hurt my men. They're lucky I didn't break their arms after they tried to make a break for it."

"Can they even breathe in there?"

"Oh yes. For now. If they try anything funny though, I'll turn the air off until they pass out. And then turn it back on. And maybe over...and over...and over." said the female guard, her tone deep and with barely-disguised ferocity as Dib quivered a bit, realizing that would probably be HIS fate if they tried to run away.

"Well, um...keep up the good work, Dite." said Senior, turning away and leading his human "pets" down a long hallway, past various pictures that had been taken of far-off galaxies, clusters and nebulas.

"These photographs are very lovely." He complimented Professor Membrane, who calmly nodded.

"I took them myself with my telescope camera. Something of a hobby of mine when I am not hard at work on SCIENCE!" He proclaimed, holding a finger dramatically in the air as Senior nodded.

"We'll give you some more to hang up. We've been to other parts of the universe that would make these pictures look like that creepy "Jesus Monkey" portrait." He laughed. "Like MACARONI art compared to the Mona Lisas we'll be showing you. But first..."

They reached a large, sweeping set of double doors, and walked inside. There were quite a few other humans inside, and many Irkens as well, three for every human, quite a few having big, fat, engorged bellies that they occasionally patted and rubbed over, Dib knowing they were savoring the trapped human meals within. At the head of a large table was an Irken with dark blue eyes who was wearing a labcoat, goggles of aquamarine and teal over his forehead as he turned to glance at them, a PAK hovering over his clawed, bare hands and a big grin on his face.

Gaz raised an eyebrow. "Oh. You can make things float."

"Yes, a few Irkens like me have special abilities. If we're not careful, we'd get labeled as dangerous "Defectives"." said the Irken in a very slight tinny, high-pitched voice. He had square-shaped antannae, it was rather odd, and a lighter shade of green skin than the "average" Irken did. "It's a freak result of PAK irregularity, but not for long, not if my project works out."

"This is Trivvik, but everyone calls him Trik. He's working on that "side project" I mentioned." Senior explained, Trik giving a bow as he floated the PAK over to his other hand.

"We're going to develop brand new PAKs for every single Irken, and we'd like your help with it, Professor Membrane. We want to make PAKs that won't be external, but will merge more properly with the body. To have this "organic shell" truly be our real forms. If my hypothesis is correct, in the days of old, Irkens with powers were far more prevalent, but the Control Brains created PAKs not only to try and regulate our behavior but basically tamp down on such abilities to ensure what THEY wanted as leaders remained on top...the Tallest. Time we fixed all that. No more picking leaders cuz they're Tall, no more obsessive desires for snacks and gluttony and greed! Back to the way it was."

"And Dib, you and Gaz can help Trik's human with our pollution reduction project." Senior added, as he gestured over to an African American human, a young girl who had slightly soft black hair, deep brown eyes, and deeper still brown skin. She was wearing a labcoat as well, and was walking towards Trik, holding up a snazzy metal clipboard.

"I think I've figured out how we can begin to reduce the amount of carbon footprint in the air through the careful application of select chemicals...if I'm right. But I'll need to properly test it out and-oh!" She saw the Membrane family and smiled. "Oh, well, how are you all?" She asked, her voice slightly scratchy, yet her face beaming and friendly as she shook their hands eagerly. "I'm Faith. You must be the people I'm working with. Dib and Gaz and Prof. Membrane himself, right? I've heard so much about you from Trik."

"They'll be giving us a lot of help. If you want, you can show them what you have in your workroom." Trik offered. "If, ah, that's alright?"

"Of course." Senior said. "I've got to go check in on our scouting parties down in Australia and Asia. There's a few dozen or so pockets of resistance, I need to make sure the troops aren't actually harming any of the humans. I don't want needless deaths." He quietly intoned, heading for a nearby office as Faith led them into an office of her own, with large computer screens showing off various read-outs of the atmosphere, several consoles hooked up to tubes and odd mechanical devices, a big table where blueprints were stretched out, and a soda machine not too far away.

She approached the soda machine, pressing the button for a "Diet Poopsi Cola" as Gaz and Dib looked at her. "You want anything?"

"Um...no, I'm fine."

"I'll take his then." Gaz said with a grin.

Passing the soda out, Faith raised an eyebrow. "You two got Senior, huh? Pretty lucky, getting the new boss as your new "boss"." She remarked. "I got lucky too, Trik is really nice, and he cares a lot about trying to clean up the planet and to fix up the Irkens. He's never ever hurt me."

"How long have you been with him?" Dib asked, raising an eyebrow up, folding his arms over his chest as Gaz slurped her Diet Poopsi, looking at the blueprints on the table, examining them.

"He found me in Florida. Well...I found him, actually. He was hiding from the rain, and terrified. I was out on the street, struggling to manage being near-broke and community college and basically living out of dumpsters anyway." She sighed. "He was in a pretty good disguise, I just thought he was some egghead with a skin condition that made him allergic to rain."

"I take it he figured out PASTE would cover his skin well?" Dib asked quietly. "That's what Zim did."

"Oh, yeah, I know about Zim! We all do!" Faith chuckled. "Congrats on keeping him at bay for so long, everyone stationed here can't stop talking about you three, you're all so famous. And yeah, we eventually figured out paste would do it, and he helped me with my work in school until the summer came along and then he revealed who he really was to me. I was pretty scared at first, but he was really nice and said he'd take good care of me and get me a proper education to help "bring out the potential of my mind" if I helped him. And so now I'm in a proper college program! He had M.I.T teachers spared just to make sure I got put on track for a Master's!" Faith told them with a beaming smile, showing off some braces on her teeth.

"Well that's considerate." Dib remarked.

"Trik said he wants to work on getting rid of the pollution issue plaguing the air, then the water first. And I think a proper application of Irken chemical compounds could do that. Though I've noticed something...kind of odd."

"What?" Dib asked as Gaz suddenly spoke up.

"What's all this stuff about the sun?"

"Oh, you saw that too?"

Faith led Dib over to the blueprints on the table, pointing at one that showed off a theoretical design for ridding the air of heavy duty pollution. "I was working on something to kill off every bit of smog and the like from the skies. I noticed Trik had added some notes on the solar radiation the Earth experiences. Look."

She pointed down at what Trik had evidently scribbled. It read "Examine level of yellow sun radiation, compare to Irk, further tests required"."

"Irk doesn't have a yellow sun. So I began to wonder if maybe...well, maybe the sun might damage Irkens if there wasn't so much pollution in the air that so heavily obscures its radiation. I'm not sure. I need to check to see what sort of solar rays their planet gets. For all I know, it may enhance them like Superman!"

"Yeah, yeah, cuz under a red sun, Superman's powerless, but under a YELLOW sun, he's super strong and can fly and-" Dib began to say, his eyes beaming, the inner fanboy within coming out. "Oh WOW. Can you imagine an entire planet full of flying Irkens with heat vision and freeze breath? YIKES."

"Yeah, that might be what Trik wants. I need to do more research." Faith insisted. "Can you help me with that? Maybe...charm Senior into letting you see Irk, collect samples from their sun's rays?"

"We can try." Dib offered. "I THINK I could guilt-trip him into it if I try hard enough!"

"Why Dib, that's so sneaky, underhand and downright diabolical to play off his feelings of guilt towards betraying you." Gaz remarked aloud, rubbing her chin. "...could it be you're not such a total loser after all?"

"Why Gaz, that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me!" Dib said with a beaming smile and a bit of a sly wink.

"Don't get used to it. You're just one notch above these guys. That only puts you at notch one."

...

...

...

...three hours later, it was time for them to head over to the hospital down the street, and Senior was soon leading them through the pearly, gleaming white halls of the Main Street's biggest and brightest medical center. The floors had been cleaned up and now shone very nicely, SIR robots scrubbing away at the walls and floors to ensure everything was spic and span. There was soft muzak filling the air, gentle instrumentals that wafted through the halls as Senior led them towards a maternity wing, into a set of grey double doors, past glassy shelves loaded up with cheery and friendly-looking puppets, plushies, teddy bears and children's toys, all designed to set the mood.

The lighting was soft and warm as they approached the secretarial desk, a mahogany semicircle where Dib and Gaz noticed that several white-robed Irkens wearing the same kind of clothes were looking over metal clipboards of their own. Their bare, clawed hands were pointing at various parts of the clipboard, speaking about different patients, all of them having necklaces with a green, round, orb-like gem at the end, one of them with a slightly frilly set of black antannae looking up.

He had distinctly pink eyes and he smiled at them all, standing up. "Oh, hello, hello! How good to see you, Senior!" He said, Senior smiling back. "Are you hear for Jayd?"

"Is our Chief Medic here, then?" Senior inquired, looking a bit surprised. "I'm confused, Feyr. thought he was still on Massive, tending to Red and Purple."

Indeed, Red and Purple now had various awful bandages and arm wraps around their frame, as none other than Bob the former Service Drone grinned at the two who were stuck in a medical wing bed, their "new boss" giving them a sneer. "I'm rather ashamed of you two. I mean, falling down in your own cleaning solution piles. Such a rookie mistake! That's why you always have to set up those big yellow "Watch Your Step Signs"."

The two grumbled in irritation, through gritted teeth, "Yes, boss."

"You're lucky I AM your boss and that I'm keeping you hard at work here! You ever leave the Massive, you'd be shot for impersonating a Taller. I'm so considerate, giving you two actual jobs instead of...oh...strapping you to a chair and launching you into a sun. So to show you there's absolutely NO hard feelings about the fact you badly botched the setup for dinner tonight, I'm going to let you order some delicious human Chinese food."

Tallest Red and Purple looked at each other, hopeful expressions on their faces...until Bob then brought them back to Earth.

"But of course, any food and drink you order is coming out of your paychecks."

"...but we're only getting five monies a year..." Purple squeaked out, Red's eyes bulging wide.

Bob began to laugh insanely.

"He left early to check on the patients here and make sure everyone's sticking to the agreed-on guidelines for the humans." Feyr remarked. "He's with good ol' Darth at the moment. They're tending to the mothers-to-be. One's going to give birth any hour now. The problem is that there's...complications."

"Oh my. Which room?"

"A113."

Senior nodded, bringing Dib and Gaz along, running as fast as he could down the left-hand side of the maternity wing as they approached room A110, A111, A112...A113. Sure enough, there, unconscious, was a red-haired human woman who was VERY far along and clearly about to pop. A shrinking machine had been wheeled in, and was being tended to, along with the pregnant woman, by two slightly darker-skinned Irkens that almost had a faint olive color to their frames.

The first had a big, red medical symbol cross on the front, with dark grey and black armor, spiky antannae similar to Senior's, and deep black eyes with dark grey pupils. The second was wearing the white robes that Dib and Gaz had seen from before, though his antennae was balled, rather unusual to be sure, and they saw he was not wearing any shoes, and had deep green eyes. Indeed, both their eyes emanated a kind of unusual warmth and softness that Dib was rather surprised to see.

"It's all set." said the medic, whom Dib guessed was Jayd. "Oh, hello." He saw the three entering the room and smiled. "Good to see you, Senior. These are your two humans? I'm Jayd, head chief medic now of the entire Irken Empire, I imagine." he remarked, Dib noticing the gauntlets he wore had tubes connected to the top, that snaked back into his PAK, odd green glimmering little things bouncing around within. "I'm going to help Darithil deliver this woman's child."

"Darithil?" Gaz asked, raising an eyebrow in the air. "Sounds kinda ELFISH."

"Ah, well, Miyuki named me that. She designed the lowly test tube baby you see before you using huge batches of her own DNA, though I got many recessive genes...and I didn't get her gender. Still, getting the name she wanted was good enough, though everyone calls me Darth." Darth said, his voice faintly ethereal, dark, almost golden in tone as Jayd flicked on the shrinking machine, aiming the nozzle at the woman. She began to shrink down in size, soon as big as a doll, and Darth tenderly picked her up, waving his clawed hand in the air as she hovered into his palm.

"Ohhhh, another psychic?" Gaz asked.

"Quite!"

Gaz gasped, Dib's mouth agape. Darth's mouth hadn't opened, but they'd heard his voice all the same as he tapped the side of his head with his free hand. "I'm more than just a telekinetic. The shrinking process will not only allow me greater power over her body, but her mind. I need to ensure she's as calm as possible so I can get the child out, it's rather tied up and ensnared in its own umbilical cord. I'm going to pyshically untangle it.

"Let's step back and give him some room." Senior urged, all of them moving to the far side of the room as Darth laid on the bed with the woman as she began to moan, her eyes fluttering open as Darth gently put the flat of a single clawed digit to her cheek.

"Michelle...wake up, Michelle."

The redhead's eyes fluttered open and she whimpered piteously in fear, stunned into terror at the enormous being that now held her in his grasp, but then he stroked her again. "Michelle, your child is trapped in you. It's wrapped in its umbilical cord and I need to get it out. I want you to take deep breaths, and look at my eyes. Look deep."

Michelle's chest rose and fell rapidly as she clung slightly to her patient gown, glancing down at her large, pregnant belly, then at his enormous green eyes.

"You like the color green, don't you? It's a warm, soft color. Its the color of life. Your child's eyes. Will they be green?"

"I...I hope so. I...hope he looks like his daddy." Michelle quietly squeaked out.

"Think of soft, green, rolling hills. Think of the way the wind blows through the leaves of the trees. Gentle zephyrs against your face." Darth intoned in that same dark, yet tender tone, as Dib saw Michelle's panting, heaving breaths were coming less raggedly now. Less harsh, less rasping, her pupils no longer tiny pinpricks, but now wider and more entranced. "Think of your baby's eyes, Michelle. Think of how beautiful they'll look. Beautiful glimmering emerald green."

"...yes...just...just like emeralds..." Michelle murmrued. "I love emeralds...my husband gave me an emerald and gold wedding ring..."

"It's a beautiful ring." Darth crooned, as his free hand stroked carefully over her pregnant belly, and it faintly quivered and shook. "A beautiful, beautiful ring for a beautiful woman, who's going to give birth to a beautiful baby girl, aren't you?"

"Yes. So...so beautiful..." Michelle moaned out. "And...and you have such beautiful eyes." She realized aloud, her voice a faintly awed, hushed whisper, her own pupils bulging at the gaze he held upon her, unblinking, unwavering, as Dib and Gaz looked astounded at all this, Dib especially. He could tell he was watching a master at work. Darth was very clearly hypnotizing her somehow with his psychic powers, and she'd fallen hook, line and sinker into the depths of his eyes.

"Your baby's going to come out now, Michelle. Close your eyes...and when I count to three, open them, and you'll see your baby's face." He cooed, Michelle slowly closing her eyes as he gently passed a single claw over her belly as, sure enough, a faint, wet sound rang through the air, and Dib gasped in amazement. The child was sliding out, and being hovered out of her womb, into the air, as the umbilical cord's tangling draped behind it, being cut loose and flopping down. "One...two...three."

Michelle opened her eyes as Darth hovered the child into her arms, her mouth agape as it slowly opened its own eyes, and looked deep into her face. "Mah-ma." It gurgled out, as she held it to her chest, and stroked deeply over its head, rocking it tenderly back and forth as Darth warmly smiled down at them, then up at the watchers in his room, especially Dib.

"There is great power in being so large, as you can see. It is so easy to dominate. Being such a towering, imposing figure means you can show great cruelty. But it also means you can show amazing tenderness." He added with a soft smile. "It takes greater strength to hold back, to lift up one who's fallen, to stroke and caress and to love than to lash out, to knock down, to crush beneath one's feet. In restraint, there is strength."

He carefully lifted her and her now-slumbering infant up, closer to his face. Tilting his head back, he eased her down, past the white teeth, the waiting tongue softly throbbing beneath. He eased them down onto his tongue, and Dib was astonished that she didn't panic. Michelle and the child just slid on down, downn into the waiting, warm wet throat of the psychic Irken that was devouring them.

"You'll be safe in me. No harm will befall you."

With a powerful pull they slid down into the tunnel of Darth's throat. The rippling tunnel softly throbbed around them, the walls undulating and pulsing all about. It was a deep, heavy warmth inside the body, yet Michelle wasn't afraid. She felt a tight ring of flesh pressing up against her feet, then it opened up to welcome her and her child inside.

She fell down into a world of deep softness and warmth, into tender flesh that was slightly moving. It would be hard to stand in the stomach, the ground was faintly rolling like waves. So she laid down with her child, lying against a soft wall that flexed adn relaxed, pushing in, rolling, massaging her with amazing tenderness as she felt the desire to rest and sleep.

"She will be fine within me. I will take good care of her." Darth explained to Dib and Gaz, patting his belly. "Being so small allows me to not only easily get the children out if there are complications, but I can tend to MANY humans at once. I'll be visiting several others who might have needed caesarean section deliveries to ensure their children come out safely. Being a psychic has its benefits." He intoned.

"It's amazing how well you got her to calm down. Getting her to focus on the eyes was a stroke of genius. She was completely enthralled!" Dib admitted as Darth sighed, and hung his head.

"I feel rather guilty over that. I do not like lying to others."

"Huh?"

"Well...I've not got green eyes..."

He reached up, and before their eyes, he pressed into his eye sockets, first the left, then the right, and the color began to drain away, his eyes now turning milky white, as Gaz realized before Dib could-

"You're BLIND?"

"Yes. Quite." Darth intoned. "I can psyhically "see" through others, of course, and using my surroundings I'm able to figure out where to go, but I can't see on my own. I have to "see" with my power."

"That makes what you did even MORE impressive!" Gaz laughed. "I mean...wow!"

"Why didn't you just tell the woman...?" Dib began to say before Darth gave the boy an invisible raised eyebrow of his own.

"How many creatures do you know have white eyes and are not creepy and disturbing to look at?"

"...okay, fair enough." Dib remarked quietly, rubbing the back of his neck as Darth sighed and rubbed his belly a little bit more.

"I change my eye color to each patient as needed." The psychic intoned. "It allows me to connect with them. To bond with them. There's a truth inside the lie. Even though I'm not outwardly being open, the feelings I'm sharing, they are real. I do care for everyone that I tend to. I want to help them. But it is often necessary to...keep some things hidden to do that. I hope you'll understand that."

He smiled warmly at Dib, who felt a shudder rise up in his spine. Though the Irken's expression was kindly, though his words were comforting and his tone was trying to be gentle...those eyes.

They burrowed into your soul. And Dib wasn't sure he'd sleep well tonight. Nor did he, for he kept thinking about what Darth had said. About truth being hidden beneath a faint layer of lie, and about Senior. Senior had lied about who he was...and yet, it seemed, despite WHAT he was, he did care.

But did that matter? Did it really matter? Dib wanted his world freed. He had to do something. And he knew just where to start. Tomorrow, he'd ask Senior to take him to Irk. Purely for scientific purposes, of course. Just for study, for a baseline comparison of it and Earth so as to better advance the projects. He hoped it would work.

But then a horrible thought came to him. Darth had been a psychic, and he'd tapped into their minds. What if he'd read Dib and Gaz's mind and learned they were trying to figure out a way to get rid of the Irkens? He'd surely tell Senior, wouldn't he?

Poor Dib did not sleep well that night. Oh not. He did not sleep well at all.