Bob stumbled from his ships wreckage. He was sure he had seen buildings around him, so why was he surrounded by trees? He headed off towards a gravel path through the woods. After a few minutes he came across a bench next to the path. There was a small wrinkled creature with baggy skin draped over its bony frame. Bob assumed this must be one of the human-beasts he had heard of from Zim's transmissions. Hoping it could help him find his way to Zim; he walked over and cleared his throat. Now that he was closer Bob thought it must be diseased as he noticed small brown spots going all up and down the human's hands and arms. The human looked up and smiled when it saw the small Irken.

In a shaky, high voice that spoke of experience it said, "Well hello there young 'un. Where are your mommy and daddy?" Bob wasn't sure what a "mommy and daddy" were so he said, "Uh, I'm not sure where I am. I'm trying to get to Zim, can you help me?" the diminutive human smiled again and replied, "Okay dear, let old Edith get you home now." Then the human stood slowly and took his hand to lead him away. Bob wasn't very comfortable in the humans grasp, but he assumed it was a regular human practice so he wandered off down the path with "Edith".

Tak smirked smugly at the sight of the trio and took a step towards them. As she started another step her smirk faltered and she fell down face first into the dirt at their feet. Zim turned to Gaz and said, "What should we do with her? I mean she did try to take my job and take over your planet last time she was here." Gaz thought for a moment, "We could give her to the cops. They would probably keep her out of our hair." Dib interjected, "We couldn't do that without exposing Zim as well. Besides she must have come here for a reason. Maybe she's on our side this time." Gaz rolled her eyes. Dib had told her that he had a crush on her last time she was here. She figured he was probably trying to get on Tak's good side. Gaz shook her head, "Fine put her on the couch." Zim turned to Gaz with a shocked expression, "What?! Why should we let her stay? I don't want her on my planet; why would I want her in my house?" Gaz raised an eyebrow, "Your planet?" Zim looked up at her, confused, "Huh?"

"You just said 'my planet' like it's your home or something."

"No-I-you just, shut up! Irk is my home, I meant that when I conquer this ball of filth I will rule it so it's MINE."

Gaz smirked, "Uh-huh. Whatever Zim." By this time Dib had already scooped Tak up into his arms and was headed for the door. Zim jumped in his way, "I said no, this is my base and I won't let you bring her in here." Dib scowled, "Hey, we live here too. We get a say and the two of us agree that she can stay." Zim looked at Gaz for her to back him up, but stopped when he saw she had sided with her brother on this. Zim sighed, "If she hurts Gaz I'll kill you both." Without giving either of them a chance to reply he turned and went straight to an elevator to go down to his lab. Gaz shook her head and said, "I hate it when he gets all protective and shit." Dib nodded, "Yeah, but at least you know he cares."

Gaz walked inside ahead of Dib, "It's still annoying as hell." She went off to her room and closed the door. Dib brought Tak into the living room and set her gently on the couch. He looked over her messy clothes and dirty face and headed to the kitchen. He walked back in with a dry clothe and some of Zim's cleansing chalk. He sat on the edge of the couch and started to gingerly wipe away all the dirt and soot from the crash. As he cleaned her arms and then her face, Dib wrinkled his nose, "I'm so sick of the smell of smoke."

Bob sat in a small room in the large building. The sign above the door as he came in said "Precinct". He wasn't really sure what that was but the humans inside all had the same type of blue uniform with tiny metal shields on their chest. This seemed utterly ridiculous to Bob as the shield was too small to defend against anything. The wrinkled human who brought him here was talking to a uniformed person with a handlebar mustache in the other room.

There were a few other humans in the main room, which he entered through. Bob had noticed from his conversation with Edith that female humans have growths that male humans don't. This helped him determine more about the human female he was studying in the main room. She was wearing very revealing clothing and he could see plenty more than just her fishnet stockings as she bent over a chair. He could also see her bare spine and stomach as her shirt only covered the bare essentials. The chair she was bent over had a strange male sitting in it. He had red pants and a white button-up shirt that was open down to his sternum. He was also wearing a strange wristwatch that tethered him to his chair. The female was forcing a small silver blade into a small opening on the watch. As she finally popped open his watch the man stood to his full height.

It seemed somewhat ill fitting as he was shorter than the female. He reached over the counter and grabbed a wide-brimmed hat and a red velvet waistcoat. Just as he slipped both on, the uniformed man with the mustache yelled in a gruff voice, "Get 'em!" the female frantically grabbed the velvet man's hand and cried, "Come on Silky, let's go!" Then the two of them charged out the door with many uniformed humans close behind.

As the commotion died down, the man with the mustache walked into his small office and sat down, "So little boy just tell us where you live and we'll get you home quick." Bob nodded, "I don't know where it is, but I'm supposed to be staying with Zim." The officer perked up at the name, "You said you're staying with Zim? Well not too long ago Dib sent my men over there every freakin day. We'll get you over there in a jiffy."

After a few hours so they could both cool off and think, Gaz decided to head down and talk to Zim. When she walked out of her room she noticed Dib asleep in a chair next to Tak. Gaz shook her head, "Figures." Then she headed over to the same elevator Zim had used not long ago. She found him sitting in front of a low work table absent mindedly pulling apart an important machine and putting it back together again.

She moved up behind his chair and draped her arms around him, "Hey. Are you still mad at Dib?" Zim sighed and ran his hands up her arms, "Zim was never mad, I just don't want you to get hurt. I don't trust Tak at all, and then Dib just brought her in like an old friend. It just… I don't know. It bugged me."

Gaz smirked, "Yeah, he still likes her I guess. But come on, I can take care of myself better than you or Dib. Plus the three of us kicked her ass all over the place last time. What's to stop us from doing it again?" Zim nodded, "I guess you're right. But Zim still doesn't trust her." Gaz smiled, "Me neither."

Tak woke with a start. Her whole body was sore and her head wouldn't quit throbbing. After a few moments to calm her headache she thought aloud, "Well, I guess this means they didn't kill me." She looked around to see where she was and found two surprises. First she was on the couch in Zim's living room, and second the Dib-human was asleep in a chair next to her.

At first she was confused by the human's presence, but as she realized what he was doing there she nearly burst out laughing. Her guard had fallen asleep. She wondered what Zim would do when he found out about it. Tak decided to go find Zim as he was surely in charge of these pathetic humans. She got up quietly and made her way to an elevator.

Gaz came around Zim's chair and sat on the table in front of him. It was low enough that they were about eye to eye. She asked, "So what should we do with her. Torture her into telling us why she's here?" Zim grinned and leaned forward so their foreheads touched, "You know how much it drives me crazy when you talk like that." Gaz smiled mischievously, "We could use that Asian water torture, it would probably be much worse for an Irken." Zim shuddered, and Gaz wondered if it was because of the thought of the torture or just him enjoying her playful cruelty.

Zim reached up and put his hand around her neck as he enveloped her mouth in a hot kiss. She thought to herself, well that answers that. Both of them were so preoccupied to hear the elevator chime as Tak stepped out. She noticed the two of them quickly and shrieked, "What's going on?! Is she trying to eat you?!"

Zim jumped back and stumbled over his chair. Just as he hit the floor Gaz said, "What are you doing down here? You're supposed to be upstairs. Where's Dib." Tak ignored the questions and screeched, "Don't eat me, I taste terrible! Eat him not me!" Then she ran over and held Zim in front of herself as a shield. Zim shrugged her off, "She wasn't trying to eat me. It's a normal way of humans showing affection. As delicious as Zim surely tastes, we were just kissing."

At first she seemed skeptical but then she realized what he had just said, "Wait, wait, wait. Affection? You actually feel affection for this human? You do realize how illegal that is, right? Even you aren't that dumb. Do the Tallest know about her?" Zim's face grew very dark and serious as he took a step towards Tak, "No, and they never will. As much respect as I have for the Tallest the law doesn't matter. She is important to me and I will never let her be executed. If you breathe a word of this to any person ever, I will kill you slowly and painfully. When you finally cannot comprehend the difference between pleasure and pain, and you beg for me to let you die, then I will rip your Pak off with my bare hands and crush before your own eyes. Then I'll let you shrivel up and die in the most painful ten minutes of your life." Tak had unconsciously taken a few steps back in fear. She had never seen any Irken so frightfully serious, especially not Zim.

Looking between the two aliens Gaz cleared her throat, "Excuse me, but can we go back to the whole execution thing? Zim, are you trying to tell me that if your government finds out about us, I could get killed? Why has this never been mentioned before? How could you just not tell me about this, I mean it's not like it's a small thing we're talking about here." Zim shuffled his feet, "Well, um, there's a small law, that's not very important. Nobody really even knows about it."

Tak cut in, "Pretty much every Irken knows that law and its one of the most important rules for invaders to follow."

Zim fixed a cold glare on her, "One more word and I'll kill you where you stand. Anyway it basically says that any non-Irken who joins into a mated partnership with an Irken is a threat to the Irken military, and is to be officially executed immediately. And Zim never told you because nobody was ever supposed to just show up. Zim expected to have time to prepare and hide any evidence of your existence. Nobody would have ever found out. Besides, it wasn't something you needed to concern yourself with."

Gaz shook her head, "It wasn't something I needed to concern myself with? Why would I not be concerned with this? Even if you were the only person alive who knew that law, you should have told me. Dammit Zim, why would you keep something like that from me."

"Gaz I-"

"You know what, I don't wanna hear it Zim. I really don't. Your such a prick, you always try to be so protective of me, and then you just risk my life like that. Honestly this is the worst thing you've ever done. Why would you take such a big risk?"

"I just wanted-"

"I don't want to sit here and listen to your excuses. I need to be alone for a while Zim."

"But Gaz wait-"

"Just leave me alone asshole."

And Gaz ran off to the elevator. Zim turned to Tak, "I never should have let you stay here. Get the fuck out of my lab Tak." Tak looked at his serious face, "Zim its better this way, you already have a bad reputation-"

She was abruptly cut off as Zim's fist collided with her face, "never say another word to me again bitch. Now get out of my lab before I have to explain to Dib why I murdered his woman." Tak wasn't sure why he had called her Dib's woman but she didn't want to be killed so she took off and went upstairs.

Dib woke up when he heard the door slam hard. He immediately noticed Tak was missing so he ran to the window to make sure she hadn't run off. Instead he saw his sister storming away from the house for some reason. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard Tak behind him, "Zim pissed her off. He left out some very important details about their… relationship." Dib turned to face her, "Like what?" Tak shook her head, "You'll have to ask one of those two, I'm in enough trouble with Zim." He nodded and motioned her over to the couch, "So what are you doing on Earth this time?" Tak looked at him with a very serious face, "Maybe I'm here to kill you for ruining my plan last time."

Her serious expression deflated to one of depression and desperation, "Actually, as much as I would love to kill all three of you, I'm not here for that. After you three beat me, the Tallest saw me as an even bigger failure than Zim. They kicked me out of the military. I couldn't even get a job on Foodcourtia without people mocking me every day. The control brains banished me, not only from planet Irk but all of Irken space. And Irken space is growing more and more. I got so angry at the Tallest and the brains that I tried to join the Resisty. Even those fools refused me. The only place that stays out of Irken military space and Resisty territory is this galaxy. The only thing I could do was come out here and try to start over."

Dib examined her face as she recounted her recent hardships. He found that all her emotions seemed genuine. He also found himself thinking, she's still beautiful, even without her disguise. Dib was surprised at his own thought but there it was. And the more he thought about it the more he realized he was right.

He opened his mouth to speak but closed it again as the doorbell went off. He grumbled, "I'll get it." He walked over and opened the door. His jaw nearly hit the floor as he saw a third Irken standing in front of him. This one however was downright tiny, even compared to the other short aliens. He was barely two and a half feet tall in fact. There was also the sheriff standing next to him.

The officer tipped his hat, "Hello Dib. It's been awhile. This little guy says he's supposed to be staying here with that friend of yours, Zim." Dib buried his face in his hands. This cop didn't seem to care about the tiny undisguised alien standing here. This was even worse than when Zim lost a contact lens in a game of bludgeon ball and passed it off as pink eye. Dib shook his head and waved the Irken inside with a sigh, "Yeah, he can come on in." the cop smiled and went back to his patrol car, thinking he had just dropped off a weird looking lost child.

Bob was nervously rubbing his hands together as he walked in, but he visibly relaxed some when he noticed Tak reclining on the couch. He walked over to her, "hey um, I'm Bob I know Zim kinda." She looked down at him, "Well good for you." He took an instinctive step back as he remembered that she was higher ranking than him so she would treat him the same way the Tallest did. He looked down, "Sorry, I'll just leave you alone then." Tak looked back down to him, "Wait, do you not recognize me?"

"Should I? Yeah you're taller than me but I can't remember all of my tellers." Tak smiled at the thought of an Irken who wouldn't make fun of her. In fact she was about at the same level as him. She held out her hand, "My names Tak. So where have you been that you don't know who I am?"

"Oh well I was on a ship by myself out in space so I didn't have any contact with people for a while."

"Alone in space huh? That's must have been nice."

"Yeah it was, but I sorta ran out of supplies. I didn't feel like dealing with the Tallest anymore, so I decided to come out here." Tak decided she could live with this little Irken; she may even call him a friend if they could both stay for a while.

Bob sudden looked like he remembered something so he turned to Dib "Is it okay if I stay here for a while, I don't really have anywhere else I can go." Dib nodded sympathetically, "Well, it's okay with me, but you'll have to ask Zim." Bob nodded, "Where is he by the way?" Dib looked up, "Computer, where's Zim?" Computer beeped, "Zim is currently in the lab, he is engaged in telecommunications with the Tallest."

Authors Note: i know that I labeled this as humor and tragedy but the humor part is mostly just occasional one liners and sitcom type stuff. also the next chapter stuff is gonna start to get sad so don't come here for a giggle. sorry folks!