Yesh, my pets, the Tallest.

And Gaz.

In a room together.

. . .

This isn't going to be pretty. Also, this is the 30th chapter and it isn't wrapping up yet.

This story is like the last two combined (in length). Holy crap.

My apologies if Zim seems slightly out of character or something. Last night I had a dream that I got into this HUGE argument with him and we were antagonizing each other purposefully, where my other friends who also featured in my dream continued to feel uncomfortable around us. Seriously, I told my friend about it (he played a larger role in my dream then the rest of my friends, cuz he's like my big brother) and HE laughed at how ridiculous it was. And he's weirder then I am! But yeah, I'm kind of mad at him now.

YES, IT TOOK THE MAJORITY OF THE DAY TO GET THERE! SO?

Enjoy!


Chapter 30
"Live and In Person"

Gaz couldn't help fidgeting, her fingers twitching in her lap.

Zim glanced at her hands repeatedly. Her face was trained downward, eyes narrowed in whatever thoughts were irritating her. He chuckled lightly, wrapping his arm around her waist.

"Three days, Gaz." He reminded her. "It's not forever."

"I know, I know." She mumbled, looking out the window. One would thing she'd be mesmerized by the stars around them, but she was not. She barely paid them any mind. After all, she had been in space before, as a child, rescuing Dib from Zim once. It hadn't impressed her then and it did not impress her now. "It's going to feel like forever, though."

"What can I do to make this easier for you?" Zim questioned, taking her hand in his other, since the Voot Runner was on autopilot anyways.

Gaz rolled her eyes. "Nothing. I'll tough it out. It's no big deal."

"It's enough to bother you." Zim insisted, smirking at her. "You're positive Zim can be of no assistance?"

She huffed. "Yes, Zim. I'll be fine, seriously. Stop asking me."

He sighed and nodded, holding her to him closely. "Very well. But tell me at once if there's anything I can do to help."

"You can be quiet, for starters."

"Can do!"

Gaz rolled her eyes.

It left them in comfortable silence. Or at least, silence neither of them minded.

Zim was in inner turmoil, though he refused to show it on the outside. He was truly frightened for Gaz's well-being here, or, during her trials to be more exact. What if she had a reaction to the Pill during one of her tests? What if she got hurt? Zim would never forgive himself if she got hurt. He'd be making it respectfully clear to the Tallest he would be present for her events. It wasn't that he didn't trust Gaz or the Tallest, but accidents happened. Daily, on a planet that lived and thrived off of war.

Gaz, on the other hand, was looking forward to the fights; the only thing she was looking forward to. She hated diplomacy. It was one of the reasons that she tended to avoid all of the conferences Zim went to. Politics were what had actually kept her from trying to take over the world herself, when she was a child and stopped making up plans; Who wanted to deal with a bunch of old men?

Well, she'd be doing the same thing now, except the men were green.

Wait a second.

"Hey Zim?"

"Hmm?" He asked, curling a strand of her hair around her finger.

"How old are your leaders?"

Zim's brow rose. "In human terms or the actual years of life?"

"What do you mean 'human terms'?"

"Well, like I said about myself earlier, I am considered adolescent. And actually, the Tallest and I were in the Academy together, so we are about the same age as one another. So, to know their age, you'd have to know mine as well."

Gaz's eyes widened as she realized she had never made a decision about that. But then she rolled her eyes. "Fine. How old are you?"

Zim made a face of contemplating. "Eh, about . . . 159 years old."

Her brow rose. "And that's adolescence?"

"You're talking about a culture where the average specimen lives to be about five centuries old before they are killed in battle." He smirked at her. "So really, I'm practically a smeet."

"Ew," Gaz commented. "So you're about four times my age, but still considered a baby. That's . . . weird."

"I find it funny that I was completely oblivious of your existence for all of these years." Zim commented, continuing to coil strands of her hair around his finger. "I wonder how I would've reacted if I'd been told my future was to be Tall, with a mate of another planet; one that I had been banished to."

"I feel like you would've been pleased with the height thing but kind of grossed out that your mate wasn't an Irken." Gaz replied bluntly, watching that lock of her hair being played with.

Zim chuckled, kissing her. "Probably."

"159, huh?"

"Yup."

"I think we've got to be the weirdest couple in existence."

"On the contrary, we're particularly normal. Or, at least, our compatibility is. We have documentation of a Tallest with a Slorgbeast as a mate. Now that is weird."

"What the hell is Slorgbeast?"

"Something I will never let you see."

"Why?"

"Because you would lose your appetite. Forever. And I can hardly have you starving to death."

Gaz snickered.

"Proximity Warning: Approaching the Armada."

At once Gaz sat up, looking out the windows, which she had not been paying attention to. Zim turned the Voot Runner off auto-pilot, hands running across the controls as he took charge of his ship. Gaz's eyes narrowed at all the ships passing in and out, all off to who knows where, to do something undoubtedly destructive.

Dib would love this, she though sarcastically. Gaz couldn't help but become a little more depressed at the thought of her brother, but it quickly turned to irritation.

Stupid politics.

Instinctively, at all the faces she kept catching glimpses of through the ships, staring at her, Gaz pulled her hood up over her head. Yes, she had taken the cloak she was becoming rather fond of, was actually wearing it, obviously. Zim noticed this action but did not look at her when he spoke, focused entirely on driving.

"Remove that when you are brought before the Tallest." He instructed, politely, but Gaz could hear the nerves in his voice.

Ugh.

Did she mention she hated democracy?

Gaz watched as the ship headed towards one of the many openings in the ginormous ship. What had Zim called it again? Oh yeah, 'The Massive'.

Well, she eyed it with indifference. It certainly lives up to its name.

The faces inside ships disappeared, for the moment, as they physically entered the tunnels. Zim turned the headlights on, but Gaz wondered why he needed to. The walls were lit up on each side with a giant, green stripe through the middle, Irken lettering on it. The ship was moving to fast for her to read what it said but she recognized the characters.

The radio did not crackle to life. It beeped, and then there was a voice.

"This is Control; State your Identity and Purpose."

Gaz's brow rose.

Zim's hand went to his antennae, creating a headset with them, which was highly amusing to her.

"Invader Zim; Reporting to the Tallest."

Their was a pause.

"Proceed . . . Invader Zim."

Zim's antennae snapped back up on his head and he looked completely unreadable. Gaz smirked a moment, knowing full well how nervous he was, before creating her own emotionless facade.

The tunnel opened up shortly after into what looked like a giant parking garage, ships taking off and parking all around them, of a multiple variety. She kept her hood up, keeping away from the window enough so that those around them (the grounded ones, at least) could not see her, but she could see as much as she liked. Gaz felt like they were back in Skool, all these faces that looked similar but different from Zim's staring up at them. All the different colored eyes were intriguing to her, but not enough to where she peered closer.

No doubt their presence had been alerted beforehand, as Zim was directed (this she could read when the landing coordinates popped up on his screen) to a platform rather close to the entrance. Gaz nearly smirked to herself. Reserved parking.

Clearly they were important guests, then.

Zim landed precisely, or so she figured. He looked completely focused, clearly wanting to make an impression on the members of his race he hadn't seen in years. He landed smoothly on the platform, the Voot Runner not jerking in the least.

Zim let out a sigh or relief after landing, the hood popping up and releasing the usual mist. He turned to her, a brow rising. "Ready?"

Gaz nodded. "And I'm going to be able to breathe, right?"

"The Pill will help you adjust. Tell me if you're light-headed, though. Let me help you out." Zim offered then, stepping out.

Gaz figured it was probably because she normally got out rather ungraciously, simply choosing to jump out. She always landed on her feet, it just probably wasn't very appropriate. So she waited, Zim walking over to her side and helping her down by gripping her waist and lifting her. Gaz could feel the stares boring into her cloak but Zim paid them no mind and so neither did she.

Until an Irken's voice cut through the rather muted noises of chit-chat around them.

"ZIM?"

He turned, a brow rising.

Gaz figured she was female. Her eyes were pointed at the end and she had the annoying, untraceable accent Tak had. Except this girl's eyes were an ice blue, and her antennae weren't quite as curly as she remembered Tak's being.

Zim's eyes narrowed and then widened. "Tenn? Is that you?"

She nodded, staring up at his tall figure. "Geez, Zim. I thought the rumors were false about you!"

Gaz could tell by the twitch of his antennae and the slightest of tugs at the corner of his mouth that he was secretly pleased. But he otherwise gave nothing away and just shrugged.

"We'll have to catch up later, Tenn." He insisted, politely. "The Tallest are expecting me."

"Oh, yeah, sure, of course! See ya, Zim!" She waved, darting off into the crowd, but staring after him.

Zim placed his arm around Gaz, leading her off. Gaz glanced behind her, but did not turn her head, letting no one see what she had done. Tenn was now surrounded by people, all of them speaking and shooting continuous glances after them.

"Old friend?" She questioned, quiet enough for only Zim to hear, as she had no doubt those around them were trying to hear their conversation.

Zim snorted, eyes focused ahead, ignoring those around them as he kept her possessively close to him. "Hardly. Invader Tenn never liked me after a certain incident where there was a mix-up between a gift of hers and mine."

Gaz's brow rose. "You'll have to tell me about that later."

He chuckled, keeping the smile off his face as he pretended to be clearing his throat. "Of course."

Zim led Gaz through the sea of short little aliens, each of them either blatantly staring or sneaking glances at them. Gaz sighed. She was going to have to get used to this while she was here. Granted, most of them had eyes for Zim, but there were enough people staring at her as well to make her irritable.

As if feeling this, Zim muttered. "Please be patient. We're almost to the stations. You won't have to see them again in a few minutes."

Gaz huffed. "The things I do for you."

"I'll repay you later." Zim promised, squeezing her a bit tighter to him for a moment.

They walked out of what Gaz was going to call the Parking Garage and into a room of what looked like lamps and circular stages. But seeing those around them using them, Gaz was able to deduce their purpose. They were transporters.

"We aren't using those, if you're wondering," Zim explained to her, quietly. "The Tallest gave me private instructions to use their transporters, since we obviously would not be read correctly from the height difference."

Gaz acknowledged his explanation with the slightest of nods, doing her best to ignore the sea of small, green faces. Finally they passed, into a much more secure area, where two guards stood at the entrance.

They, too, stared.

Gaz nearly growled.

Zim simply nodded at them. "We have private instructions to use this transporter."

Dumbstruck, they stepped aside, staring after Gaz and Zim as they passed into the doors. It wasn't until after the doors shut behind them that they stopped and shook it off, completely baffled on the inside. It looked very much like an elevator to Gaz. Especially with the numbers going up as it started moving.

Gaz gave an audible sigh of relief, now that they were alone. "Geez! If we were on Earth, I would've punched someone by now."

Zim's expression turned sympathetic as his hand cupper her face under the hood. "My greatest apologies, Gaz. But it's only the Tallest and their immediate surrounding Irkens in the control room now. No crowds."

Gaz nodded, collecting herself. "Alright. But you seriously owe me."

Zim smirked at her, pulling her rather tightly against him. "As I said before, rest assured, you will be paid back in full."

Her brow rose and the elevator, as she had decided to call it (she figured she was going to be naming a lot of things), dinged. Zim immediately released her, going back to their original position, with his arm possessively around her waist.

And now it was the soldiers' turn, who were lining the halls, to stare at them.

Zim pressed her just a bit closer to him as he led her forward, knowing full-well she was getting irritated. And it made him nervous; what if she took out her frustration in front of the Tallest? No, Gaz would never be so reckless. She was always in control of herself.

. . . So then what if she did it on purpose?

He didn't have time to become terror-stricken, as the doors opened then, revealing to figures up on a platform in a circular room, surrounded by oblivious Irkens who only paid attention to their work (a fact which Gaz was immensely grateful of). However, she didn't dwell on these uninterested figures long, as immediately she became aware the two dominant persons in the room, who Zim was trying very hard not to stare at.

"Ah, Invader Zim!" Red shouted, both of them having turned towards the two as the door slid open. "Finally you arrive!"

"And with your . . . mate, now, I'm assuming?" Purple questioned, his brow rising as he looked between the two.

Zim nodded, bowing low, releasing Gaz as he folded his arms behind his back. "Yes, My Tallest. It's an honor to be in your presence again."

"Of course." Red agreed, not too humbly. His eyes went to Gaz, curiously. "And you are the girl on the transmissions, yes? What are you called, again?"

Gaz stepped forward, next to Zim, removing her hood and bowing her head respectfully as well. "Gaz, Your Highnesses."

They chuckled again at her terms. Zim was immensely grateful, even if he knew she was playing them. It unnerved him a bit how easily she knew how to get on his leaders' good side but he was too relieved to be anxious now. Especially since she had remembered to remove her hood.

"Those terms!" Purple laughed, "How many of them are there?"

Gaz blinked a few times, thoughtfully, but not dumbly. "Quite a few."

"We look forward to hearing them, Gaz." Red intervened. "So, did you have a nice flight, Invader Zim?"

"Yes, My Tallest," Zim replied, nodding. He'd straightened by now. "Although it seems rumors of our arrival spread throughout the ship. We were expected."

"Those Service Drones," Red scolded. "Always so nosy."

"And they have the biggest mouths," Purple agreed, also seeming none-too-pleased their little secret had gotten out. But he shrugged it off. "Ah well. We'll deal with them later."

"You must be tired." Red added, smiling at them. Although it gave Gaz the creeps, she did not show it. It was like Zim's smile, except, well, smarter. A bit more vicious then Zim's, which was normally playful or mocking. It reminded her of her own face when she was smirking, a thought she was not fond of. "We've set up a room for you two based off of what information you sent us, Zim."

"Although, it doesn't have water in it." Purple made a face, shivering a bit. "It does have an ample, harmless substitute though, if you need it."

"I have to ask, Gaz," Red questioned, peering at her. "What's with the hood? Is that some type of human thing?"

Zim nearly groaned, fearing what her response would be. He could just imagine her saying something blunt, along the lines of 'To keep the stares of your species off my face'. However, he was pleasantly surprised at her response.

"Yes," She replied, nodding. "It's rude for humans to show their faces to anyone besides the royalty of the estate first; especially when they are coming to see the royalty."

Zim nearly shot her a confused look. That was a complete lie, but still, a convincing one.

The Tallest made noises of curiosity.

"Huh," Purple looked to Red, jokingly. "Maybe we should start that tradition."

They laughed. Zim and Gaz offered smiles.

"Well, we're busy at the moment." Red commented, ceasing his laughter. "And we're aware that it's late, in Earth standards. We'll leave you two to your room."

"We'll have a Drone come and fetch you in the morning." Purple added, looking to Gaz with a smile she was slightly more comfortable with, earning him a slightly more sincere smile. "I know I'm always cranky when I've been traveling a few hours."

"Your trials will start around the afternoon." Red informed her. "We'll fill you in when we see you in the morning."

"Tootles!" Purple shouted, waving enthusiastically, like he always did when they called.

Red snapped his fingers. An impressive feat, since he only had two. "Guards; escort them to their room."

"Yes, My Tallest." The guards said in unison, bowing. Then they turned to Zim and Gaz. "This way, please."

"Let them use our means of transportation," Purple called after them. "After all, they wouldn't fit in the common modules."

Gaz heard them snicker, like they had some type of inside joke. With how much time they probably spent together, she wouldn't be surprised. Zim replaced his arm around her, leading her as they followed behind the two guards. Their remark left her wondering what time it was. They were led to another elevator, where the guards inserted their PAK appendages in a data transfer. Gaz's brow rose but she said nothing.

Well, that would certainly keep outsiders out of these elevators, that's for sure. She thought sarcastically, returning her face to its former, monotonous facade.

It was a silent ride, of which Gaz was grateful of. The two Irkens made no attempt to converse, as humans might have. Zim looked straight ahead the whole time and Gaz kept her hood down, figuring wherever they were going was probably relatively deserted anyways. After the somewhat long ride, the doors opened to reveal a long hallway.

"No one else is staying in these rooms," A guard explained to them as they walked. "We haven't had visitors in a while, as you well know, Invader Zim."

"Of course," Zim agreed, as they turned the corner.

Eventually they stopped in front of a door.

"This is your room." The guards nodded to them, turning to leave.

Zim pressed his palm to the handle and then Gaz realized where'd he'd got the idea for the scanning.

"Nice," She commented.

He grinned at her. "An Invader always uses the resources given to them."

"And apparently steals the most appealing ideas," Gaz retorted, walking into the room as he opened the door for her.

It was pretty big, extremely high ceiling. They'd probably prepared for anything, since they had no reference for Zim's height or hers. It was about the same size as their first room, the one back at the fortress, and looked relatively similar in appearance, the only major difference being the absence of a balcony. Or windows, for that matter, but Gaz hardly minded.

Zim reached into his PAK, removing the chip that had her wardrobe designed into it. He had attempted to explain it to Gaz on the ride up but she had quickly gotten bored with the explanation and decided she didn't particularly care anyways. Zim went over and began programming it in, while Gaz went and looked around in the bathroom, which was also where there were differences, but only in color really. Clearly Irkens didn't put much thought into interior design. The thought made her smirk.

Gaz went over to the mirror, examining herself. Gaz was normally a bit disheveled, after any sort of travel, space or otherwise. She noted she was bit paler then usual and the hood had pushed a few hairs out of place, but other than that she was fine.

"Like what you see?" She questioned, not turning around.

Zim, leaning against the doorframe and simply eying her, smirking, stood up and encircled her in his arms from behind. "Of course."

"What time is it?"

"About seven." Zim replied, holding her tightly against him. "Not particularly late, but I'm sure the Tallest meant well when they insisted you rest."

Gaz rolled her eyes. "Seven? Little kids have later bedtimes."

"We are to stay in this room, as instructed. However, if you insist on staying up later, I'm sure we can think of something to pass the time."

To demonstrate, Zim's fingers unclipped her cloak and it crumpled to the floor, pooling around their feet. Gaz's brow rose, eying the discarded clothing as Zim's mouth paid tribute to her neck.

"Should we really be doing this on this ship?" She questioned, slightly amused and slightly curious.

Zim chuckled, his fingers spidering along her ribcage as he spoke. "I'm actually starting to believe that they sent us here early purely for this purpose."

"Ew," Gaz commented, teasingly, eyes darting around. "Do you think they're watching us?"

Zim snorted, rolling his eyes. "I highly doubt it. That's completely disrespectful to one Irken for another to attempt to watch them with their mate. Despite some humans feeling stimulated after watching tapes or reading stories about others in sexually gratifying acts*, it's extremely frowned upon in the Irken society."

"Mm," She replied, nodding, looking up in the mirror. It was an interesting sight, Zim holding her. So that's what it looked like, then, when he was holding her. Gaz was used to feeling his passion, not seeing it. But the look in Zim's eyes was a familiar one and she smirked. "So we're safe, then?"

"Absolutely," He agreed, turning her in his arms to face him. "Also, you fell asleep last night and I was working."

"A whole twenty-four hours," She replied sarcastically, shoving away from his and stripping as she walked to the bed. "You must feel so robbed."

"You've no idea," Zim retorted, removing his own uniform as his PAK dissolved into his skin.


*Because NO ONE does that . . . hehehe . . . irony . . .

Eh, did you guys want Dib and Tak in the next few chapters?

Well, they'll be in the next one.

Only a few things left in the story. But I don't know how many chapters it's going to take.

Till then!