.

(A/N: Not entirely pleased with this chapter or the last, but I'm glad my reviewers seemed to enjoy the last. Hopefully, you'll all enjoy this one too. Thank you also for your encouraging reviews. I really appreciate them.)

Captured

"What are you doing? They're playing games with you!" Lard Nar said. "They have no intention of being peaceful or letting Kadien go!"

"And Kadien has no intention of letting them go. The matter is under control,"

"Is it? Because it really doesn't feel like it is!" Lard Nar said. He sighed. "Fine. What's the plan from here?"

"They won't eat, so drugging them is off the table. They're likely in contact with their army, so a surprise attack isn't in the cards either. If they could be put to sleep somehow, though, we could separate them. Send one to Perth and keep the other for ourselves."

"They'll only fight to be back together again. Besides, they have their entire armada behind them. Separating the two isn't an option as things stand right now."

"It is if we take a page from Perth's book."

"Meaning…?" Lard Nar fished.

"Dangle one above the other's head in such a way that makes the other willing to do whatever we say for their brother's sake. They may be strong together, but they are also each other's weakness."

"Everyone keeps saying that, but nothing the Resisty or anyone else has done so far has weakened them. Not even when one's down for the count. They only get more dangerous," Lard Nar said. "You should have seen the battle through to the end and captured them that way!"

"Assuming we could have stood to the armada at all. Besides, I'm not fond of the idea of killing or imprisoning juveniles no older than my daughter," the King said.

"Neither am I, but if we do nothing, they'll take over the entire universe! Then what?!" Lard Nar said in exasperation.

"Wasn't that always Irk's goal?"

"No. Not always. Not like this at least. Miyuki was a wonderful Tallest and it would have been excellent if her potential offspring had followed in her footsteps, but they didn't! They followed in stupid Spork's! It wasn't our fault Miyuki died on Vort. That was an Irken's doing! But oh no, perish forbid Spork listen to reason. He just wanted Vort conquered. He ordered everything destroyed. Everything. There was barely a ship to our names that survived that desolation. Most all our technology was confiscated or destroyed. He left us with nothing! Nothing but a prison in which to rot. For something that wasn't even on us!"

"Whose operation was Impending Doom One?" the King asked.

"Spork proposed it, then put it into practice the moment Miyuki was out of the picture. Before even his first speech to the Irken Empire. It was something they'd both been discussing, but she had decided to opt for galactic unity instead of galactic conquest. Spork was willing to fall in line until Miyuki went down. At that point, it was no-holds-barred." Lard Nar sighed. "Everything decent in him died with her. Except maybe his love for their sons. Assuming Red and Purple really are theirs. Red and Purple pushed Impending Doom One onward until one of their subjects messed it up. Probably the same Irken who got Miyuki killed. When Impending Doom One fell through, they started working on Impending Doom Two. I'm not sure what their drive behind it was. Maybe to see their father's vision through? Live up to their parents? Make some kind of mark on the Empire for themselves that wasn't passed down from their predecessors? Who even knows with those two?" Lard Nar said. He paused briefly and looked momentarily wistful. "Sometimes I see shades of Miyuki in them. Not often, but sometimes. A pity they didn't root deeper than they did. I suppose grief does things to people. I can't imagine it would have been easy to lose both Miyuki and Spork in such a short span of time. I'd almost pity the twins if they weren't so hellbent on Galactic conquest. Maybe they do it as a way to cope. Why suffer alone when you can make everyone else suffer with you, after all? I won't pretend to really know the motives behind their actions in the end. All I can do is speculate."

"There may be a way out of this not pertaining to war. My daughter suggested a marriage alliance," the king noted.

"Irkens don't marry non-Irkens. They're prideful like that."

"Is that what you call it?" the king dryly asked.

Lard Nar huffed a partial laugh, smirking a little. "Why marry a species doomed to conquest? Will a Digestor mate a Hogulus? Will kings marry slaves?"

"That depends on the king," he answered.

"These kings won't," Lard Nar said, shaking his head.

"Do they care for anything besides one another?"

"Not a thing," Lard Nar said.

"Then we're back to separating them."

"And back to me explaining that they only get more dangerous when apart!" Lard Nar said.

"When you say 'apart', you mean when one is badly wounded or dying but still nearby. I'm talking planets apart in foreign environments where they have no power and can't negate each others' weaknesses," the King said.

"And we're back to me saying they'll just fight twice as hard to be reunited again. If you want to take that chance, take it, but I'm shipping the Resisty out of here if you do," Lard Nar said. "Miyuki and Spork were separated by Kadien once. They inevitably found their way back to each other. Well, Spork found his way back to her on Irk."

"There will be no safe place for the youths to retreat to this time," the Kadien King said.

"How do you intend to negate the armada?" Lard Nar dryly asked.

"We only need to take possession of one, then dangle that one over his brother's head and force the uncaptured twin to make the armada retreat. Will they give up on the collective for each other, I wonder?"

"I don't know," Lard Nar replied. "Wouldn't that just prove the Irken philosophy correct, if the weakness caused the downfall of their empire?"

"A bitter thing that would be," the King grimly said. Silence a moment. "We will see it through nonetheless, and what happens from there will happen. Are the Resisty stealthy?"

"We get by," Lard Nar replied, raising an eyebrow.

"I will ask to discuss matters with the two young Tallest in private. None of their men, none of mine. Only me, my daughter, and them. We will play the marriage alliance angle, then me and my daughter will leave the room under the guise of discussing things, they'll demand for their soldiers to be sent in, and you and yours can gas them all. Either that or you tranquilize them somehow. We'll go from there."

"Very well," Lard Nar said.

IZ

"Hey, I just got that weird feeling again. Like someone's plotting against us," Purple said.

"We're Irkens. Someone's always plotting against us," Red replied.

"I mean like, really plotting against us."

"The last time you got one of those feelings, the both of us almost wound up dead. Maybe there's something to these weird premonitions of yours," Red said. He looked over at his soldiers. "Be on your guard!" he ordered. "No one eats anything. No matter how good it looks." The King came back in, then. The banquet followed him and was laid out for everyone, even the Irkens. They stared at it hungrily. "Don't even think about it," Red warned once more.

"The food isn't tainted, I assure you," the king said.

"Take your assurances and shove them," Red replied.

"Where is the trust, young ones?" the king asked.

"You committed an act of war against us! We didn't start it," Red said to the king.

"I'll concede to that," the King said. "Perhaps we were a touch rash."

"Well now we can't let you get away with it," Purple said. "So you owe us something."

"I was under the impression my daughter had offered you something already."

"Nothing we're gonna take her up on," Purple replied. "I mean, I kissed her, but that's as far as that goes."

"You what?!" the king freaked.

"It was her idea!" Purple immediately defended, pointing at the girl. Red face-palmed, shaking his head.

"He didn't like it anyway," the princess huffed, crossing her arms.

"I didn't say I didn't like it. I said I didn't know if I did," Purple replied.

"Then we're discussing a marriage alliance whether you like it or not! A kiss is as good as a proposal on Kadien!"

Purple blinked blankly. The girl smirked wickedly. "Nice going, Casanova," Red bit at his brother.

Purple flushed and gave him a dirty look, eyes narrowing. "I thought you didn't read any of the literature or history samples from Earth," he retorted.

"I skimmed," Red said.

Awkwardly Purple turned back to the King and Princess. "It wasn't much of a kiss," he lamely tried to defend.

"It doesn't matter. You kissed her regardless," the King said.

"Is this fitting into whatever plot you had in mind?" Red asked Purple. Purple kicked him under the table and gave him another sharp look.

"Dismiss your soldiers, Tallest Red, Tallest Purple, and we will dismiss ours, and it will only be the four of us to discuss this situation," the King said.

"Our soldiers aren't going anywhere," Red said.

"Very well. Now regarding this potential marriage alliance, tell me. How do Irkens couple?" the King asked.

"Soldiers, dismissed!" Purple said.

"He's getting in your head! We're not dismissing our soldiers and we're not discussing Irken baby-making stuff," Red said.

"You mean reproduction?" Purple dryly said, giving his brother a look. Red tended to stumble for words sometimes. Lots of times.

"What he said! We're not discussing it! There's no marriage alliance! This isn't happening! What's happening is a discussion on whether we blow you to kingdom come or not."

"You won't once your brother marries into…"

"My brother's not marrying into anything!" Red said. "Irkens don't mate with non-Irkens."

"Yeah," Purple backed. "It would just mess things up."

"Mess them up or make them stronger?" the King asked.

Red and Purple exchanged looks, then glared at him. "I'm not marrying a Kadien," Purple said.

"Then you're not leaving this planet," the Kadien King replied.

"We probably weren't gonna be leaving it anyway! We know you were plotting against us. We just don't know how yet," Purple said.

"The Armada is filling the sky. Only the first wave of it engaged in the battle around the Massive. There's more where they came from," Red said. "Kadien isn't getting out of this. Now give us unconditional surrender or be wiped out."

"Or invaded. That could work too," Purple said, nodding.

"Neither of you know what you want from this discussion, do you? Whether it's war or peace." the king said. "Your mother was far more certain of her steps."

"You leave our mother out of this!" Red immediately replied. "We want your unconditional surrender, that's what we want! If we don't get it, this planet turns into a wasteland!"

"Not if one of their Tallest is held prisoner on it," the Kadien king said, raising his hand. His soldiers all stood.

"Positions!" Red ordered, shooting to his feet. Immediately the Irkens raised themselves up on their PAK legs and glared menacingly at their opponents.

"We could have solved this all so peacefully," the princess ruefully said.

"Get organic swept or fall in line as slaves!" Red said.

"You're gonna get us killed Red!" Purple protested.

"What was even your plan in this, Pur?! What were you expecting to do? Because clearly it's failed!"

"We can leave Kadien alone for now!" Purple said.

"For what purpose?!" Red demanded. "So they can gather their armies and come at us stronger than before?!"

"We don't need to open a second war front!" Purple said.

"They're Meekrob's allies! This is probably part of Meekrob's war front!"

"We weren't getting out of this without trying to talk!" Purple said, rising angrily in turn. "You need to let me do the talking here."

"Talking time is over! Now it's wartime!"

"Sit back down!" Purple said. He turned to the king. "War with Irk isn't worth it! The first thing he takes down is you and your daughter. Do you want that?!" The king faltered ever so slightly. "I mean even if your whole army comes down on us then, you're both still dead. At least she is! I don't want this war to escalate like that. I know Irk's gonna take a huge hit if it does, and we can't afford it and you can't afford it, but you lose a whole lot more than we do. Kadien can't stand against us. You know that!"

There was an intense stare-off between the two before at last the King backed down, bowing his head. "I know," he bitterly said. Purple tentatively started to relax, but was still on guard.

"Good. Now roll over and be good little slaves," Red sneered.

"Kadien will perish before we become Irken slaves!" the King shouted, losing his temper and drawing a bladed weapon. Immediately he went at Purple. The princess screamed, ducking low. Purple quickly blocked the king's weapon with his PAK legs, inwardly cursing his brother. Red leapt on the king without restraint. The Irkens leapt at the Kadien soldiers. Purple hovered hopelessly. He really should have come at this alone, he dryly noted to himself. "Will you all just stop?!" he shouted. All eyes went sharply to him, narrowed and cold. "What is with everyone in this room and wanting war? I mean seriously. This could all be resolved with a treaty you know! Or even a temporary ceasefire."

"Kadien will not crumble to Irk!"

"Then Irk will leave Kadien alone! Honestly, you're more trouble than you're worth," Purple said. "Just like Perth! Meekrob too, but we're in too deep there to back out right now. How about we all just breathe, hmm?" The King and Red exchanged dagger glares. "Trust that I know what I'm doing, Red!" Purple testily said.

Red scoffed in disgust and backed away from the Kadien king, eyes narrowed. "Go at my brother again, your daughter goes down first," he threatened, pointing at the stunned and shaken girl. "There's nothing you can pull against us that'll stop me in time to save her."

"No one's taking down anyone," Purple said. He looked at the Kadien king. "We just wanna get on with our lives. Let us walk out of here and take our armada and we'll all call it a day, huh? I mean, it's not like Kadien has much to offer Irk anyway. Please?"

There was a tense glare off between Red and the Kadien king, both looking ready to pounce at a moment's notice. Purple held his breath. "Very well," the King finally said. "Go." He wasn't keen to see the capturing plan through anyway, given Lard Nar's belief the twins would only become a more annoying force to reckon with in the wake of it.

"Red?" Purple asked, looking hopefully at his brother. Red turned and began floating away. Purple trailed nervously after. The Irken soldiers followed behind him.

Red didn't speak until they got outside, the Kadiens accompanying them. Purple had just started to hope that they'd pulled this off when… "A wise decision. You're smarter than your parents were at the very least. Smarter than Spork for certain," the king said.

Red froze. Purple's eyes widened. He knew what would happen before it did. "Red, don't!" he exclaimed.

"Destroy them!" Red ordered, whipping around and pointing at the Kadiens. Immediately the Irken soldiers spun around, taking the Kadien ones by surprise. Alarmed, the King fell back inside quickly with his daughter.

"What are you doing?!" Purple demanded in alarm.

"What we should have done from the start!" Red snapped, looking sharply at him.

"We had this!" Purple protested in dismay.

"Fight or fall back. Your choice!" Red shot.

"Red!" Purple said. Red took off into the fray.

IZ

It was chaos. Purple had seen where it would go the minute Red pulled the stunt off, and it wasn't anywhere good. Purple huddled behind cover. His brother joined him shortly after as explosions went off all around and lasers flew overhead. "What were you thinking? You're supposed to be the smart one! You should have known we couldn't win! At least not here!" Purple said in dismay. Red was quiet, looking a bit uncertain. "Red, we could have walked out of this! Why did you do it?!"

"I'm sorry, okay?! I'm sorry!" Red said. "I should have let you handle it. I should have trusted you, dammit! I don't even know what I was thinking!"

"You let him provoke you!"

"No duh, Purple!" Red replied.

"Well now what do we do?!" Purple demanded.

"The Armada will wipe out Kadien's in not long. Then we'll have their backup. Get back to the Massive! Alert our armies! The King hasn't had time to alert his own. I'll keep them busy here. You're good at being sneaky when you need to be, so be sneaky!"

"But…"

"I've got this, Pur, but the sooner our armies get here the better. A surprise attack is all we'll need to get the upper hand on Kadien. Go!"

"Stay alive," Purple almost meekly said.

"The faster you are, the more likely that is," Red replied. Purple nodded and scrambled quickly off to make his way back to the Massive.

IZ

Purple gawked at the battling armies and fleets in horror. Someone had alerted them. But who, if the king and princess hadn't had time to?! Not that it mattered, he guessed. It was happening, and Irks army had clearly been caught by surprise. They were holding their own, though. That was something. The Armada was keeping back the fleet as well, so victory was as good as theirs. Right? But Irk really wasn't doing great without a Commander there, and Red wasn't around to be that Commander. He could take it on, he guessed, but if he did he'd probably just get them all killed. Still, it was better than nothing, right? Right?!

Snapping out of the shock, he gasped and floated rapidly towards them. "Fall back onto the Massive! Our superiority is in the air!" he ordered. It was the first thing that came to mind! "Fall back!" he repeated. Oh he was definitely gonna get them all killed.

"Sir, the Massive isn't ready to take to the air yet!" a soldier exclaimed in dismay.

"It's basically a mobile fortress! It's the only defense we have."

"We'll be sitting dookeths in it!" the soldier replied.

"Well someone needs to start using its weaponry!" Purple replied.

"That would be the crew!" the soldier said.

"Then tell them to start using the weapons!" Purple said like it was obvious. Which it was. Even he could see that. The soldiers scrambled towards the Massive. Purple gasped as a Kadien went at him. A few, actually. He fought determinedly back against them, but none of this was good. The Armada soared overhead, peppering the enemy with its lasers. There was no chance of Kadien winning this, Purple assured himself. The Irken Armada was too large and too powerful. They buzzed around the Massive like a hive surrounding their queen. Which was pretty well what the dynamic was. Purple began to relax. Yep. There was absolutely nothing that would stop the armada and the army from…

He screamed in pain, suddenly, as something struck his PAK from behind and knocked him to the ground! He gasped in anguish, clutching the ground. The PAK sputtered madly. "Tallest Purple is down! Surround him!" a soldier shouted urgently. Purple tried to get his PAK to work, but it wasn't doing what it was supposed to!

"Capture the Tallest!" a Kadien soldier ordered, echoing the Irken ones. The next thing Purple knew, a giant clash was happening practically right over him and frantically he crawled away from it, trying to get to the Massive.

"Not so fast, Irken scum!" a familiar voice said.

Purple gasped, looking up into a blaster's barrel. He stiffened and glanced at the one holding it. His eyes widened. "Lard Nar?!" he blurted, scrambling back in alarm. He yelped when he was grabbed from behind by some large three-headed alien even he didn't know the species of. Probably one they'd conquered and enslaved. Purple gasped, looking back, and tried immediately to activate his PAKs back-blade, but it wasn't working! Nothing was working! Alarmed, he looked quickly at Lard Nar again.

"I knew something like this would happen. You do have your mother's way with words, after all," Lard Nar said. "That's why we gave the order for the armies to resume battle. The moment we saw that Tallest Red had lashed out! Oh, it couldn't have been orchestrated better."

"Hey, you're getting good at this," Purple said.

"We really are, aren't we?" Lard Nar chirped happily.

"We're still gonna execute you," Purple flatly added.

"Ah hah! Not if we execute you first," Lard Nar replied. "Fall back to the ship! Show the Irken elite we have them beat! No one will dare continue to attack with their Tallest our prisoner!"

The large three-headed alien laughed deeply and leapt towards a ship that was just coming out of its cloaked state. A Vort one! "I thought we destroyed your ship!" Purple said

"Not every Vort ship was destroyed! Some were smuggled away just before the Irken sweep of Vortian technology and such," Lard Nar said, racing along with his Resisty member. The Irkens, by now, had noticed something was wrong and were opening fire, but the Kadiens were just numerous enough to get in the way. Quickly Lard Nar and the Resisty converged on their ship and were beamed up rapidly. The Massive fired on it, but shields sprang up in defense, shaking the ship but keeping it preserved. The Massive fired again, but the Vort ship quickly moved out of the way and an armored window opened up. "Attention Irken scum. We have your Tallest! Surrender or he goes down permanently!" Lard Nar said. One of the Resisty members put a gun to Purple's head to emphasize the point, and Purple inwardly cursed them all. He struggled violently once more but given his position off the ground and locked in a crushing grasp, PAK down and out, that was proving impossible. And his head was starting to hurt, which really wasn't a good sign. That could mean the PAK was more damaged than he'd thought it was.

The Irkens paused en masse, hesitating. "What are you doing? Fire on them!" Purple ordered, thrashing about.

"Are you so eager to die, Tallest Purple?" Lard Nar challenged. "I won't ask again, Irken scum. Put away your PAK weapons and stick up your hands or else!"

Uneasily the Irkens shifted before making to do so. Purple's squeedlysplooch plummeted a bit. "Oh this isn't good," he said.

"Not for you," Lard Nar sang. "Call down your armada."

"No," Purple defiantly replied.

"What?" Lard Nar said.

"Make me," Purple replied.

"Call them down or die!" Lard Nar said.

"Just try it," Purple darkly answered.

Lard Nar trembled a bit with barely suppressed rage and looked blankly out the window at the Irken soldiers, who were beginning to call the bluff and stop looking so nervous. "If you won't, your brother will!" Lard Nar blurted. "To the palace! Kadien, capture the Irken foot soldiers while the Resisty saves your King!" Kadien cheered and descended on the unarmed Irkens, who looked back in alarm and began fighting with PAK legs quickly only to be swiftly subdued. The Resisty soared back towards the palace. "A pity you couldn't take more after your mother than you did," Lard Nar bit at Purple. "Vort loved Tallest Miyuki! But oh no. You had to take after the psychotic Spork!"

"Hey, you don't get to talk about him that way!" Purple protested.

"He blamed us for what your people did to Miyuki!" Lard Nar argued. "We had a great relationship with Miyuki! We wouldn't have wanted her dead! Much less with Spork her successor. Everyone knew how he felt about Vort. And every other planet that wasn't Irk."

"Making friends is too hard," Purple whined. "Destroying them is so much easier!"

"Did you even try to make friends? You almost talked down Kadien, for goodness' sake! Even your mother couldn't do that!" Lard Nar said.

"It's funner blowing stuff up," Purple defiantly said.

"Funner isn't even a word!" Lard Nar said. "You of all people should know that!"

"It's fun how angry it makes people," Purple said.

"Are we certain you're more your mother than your father?" Lard Nar dryly asked.

Purple started and looked a bit hopeful. "Am I like my father?" he asked.

Lard Nar blinked at him blankly then grimaced. He really hated being reminded of how young these two were. It just made him feel guilty. "Probably more than you know," he replied.

"Is Red like Miyuki?"

"Probably more than he knows," Lard Nar said. "Wait! Why am I answering these questions? I'm not obligated to! I didn't know them half as well as most anyway!"

"Why does it seem like everyone knew them better than me and Red, when we were always with them?!" Purple said in dismay.

"They were your sire and dam before they were your friends. Your secret sire and dam. Which meant they couldn't really share much about themselves with you, now could they? All they could do was take you under their wings and keep you guessing," Lard Nar said. "The Tallest aren't meant to be close to their subordinates. They're supposed to be aloof, commanding presences always hovering above them. They were probably already pushing their luck being as close to you as they were I'd bet, and who knows how the Control Brains would have taken it to know you were their children?"

"I don't think the Control Brains are as oblivious as everyone thought," Purple replied.

"Suspicions are only suspicions until they're confirmed. Until they were, the Control Brains wouldn't have had reason to do anything about it," Lard Nar said. "At least in that sense they're just. We're not here for casual conversation though. You don't like making friends, remember? We're here because you're our prisoner, and now we're going to save Kadien and make sure you and your brother are torn apart once and for all! Where will your strength be then, My Tallest? Either of yours?!" Purple lunged at him again and actually managed to catch the big three-headed alien off guard enough that he managed to break free. He went at Lard Nar, willing his PAK legs to work, but was quickly tackled by two other Resisty members and brought down. He thrashed violently, eyes blazing and a scowl on his face, but they wouldn't let him up. "Puncture his PAK!"

"Sure, if you wanna kill me!" Purple replied.

"On second thought, hold off for now," Lard Nar said.

"I thought so!" Purple said as he was picked back up by the large three-headed alien. His PAK was sputtering even more though. He was starting to strain it, and that wasn't good. It meant it would struggle to heal more than it was already gonna be struggling. "My head hurts," Purple whined.

"We literally don't care," Lard Nar said.

"It means my PAK is damaged really badly!" Purple said. "You know, the thing that keeps me alive?"

"Then your brother will be all the more compliant," Lard Nar said, brushing it off. Purple glared at the ground. It was frustrating because he knew what Lard Nar said was true…

IZ

Red, eyes blazing, was glaring darkly as the Irkens struggled against the Kadiens, neither side giving ground. He looked towards the Kadien king and princess, who were equally as stunned that they were stalemated. If he could just get the girl and take her captive, he could get her father to do whatever he wanted him to. Victory would be as good as theirs! Except each time he went for the princess, her father unleashed on him, and the guy was a heck of an experienced warrior. Like, Spork levels good. Red had never been able to beat Spork in a fight before Spork was gone, so that didn't bode well for him against the king. All he needed was one small opening though. Just one and she would be all…

"Almighty Tallest Red! Surrender your assault on Kadien or Almighty Tallest Purple gets it!" a familiar voice called out.

"What?!" Red furiously demanded spinning around with the rest of the Irkens. His eyes widened as a Vort ship uncloaked itself, window uncovered and revealing a sight that made his blood run cold. His eyes widened. "Pur!" he exclaimed in alarm, seeing his brother at the Resisty's mercy and looking far too exhausted to mean anything good. He could see the PAK sparking from here. Purple winced a bit and looked down ashamedly.

"My Tallest!" the comms officer exclaimed in alarm, his own eyes wide.

"Your brother walked into a veritable battlefield when you sent him back. The Resisty was a step ahead of you both and ordered Kadien's army to attack because the Kadien king was in danger. We all saw it coming. Your brother is glib like your mother was. Tallest Purple didn't even see what hit him before he was down and at our mercy," Lard Nar said.

"Resisty!" Red furiously shouted.

"Surrender your assault on Kadien," Lard Nar repeated. A shadowy alien aimed a blaster at Purple's head. "Let's see the PAK recover him from one straight to the noggin."

"You're dead, do you hear me?! Every single one of you is dead!" Red shouted. The shadowy alien charged the blaster. Purple flinched a little and Red immediately shrank back a bit, eyes widening in concern and alarm.

"Your brother isn't doing well. The sooner this ends, the sooner he gets help," Lard Nar said.

"Give me my brother!" Red insisted.

"Call down your armies and send them away. All of them. The Armada, the foot soldiers, the whole shebang. All we want is you and your brother. The Irken Collective can figure the rest out on their own," Lard Nar said.

"Listen here you piece of…" Red began.

"Red, look out!" Purple blurted in alarm, eyes widening. Red screamed in pain as suddenly some sort of weighted weapon wrapped around his body and shocked him powerfully. "Red!" Purple cried, trying to break free again. Red collapsed on his knees, thrashing.

"My Tallest!" the comms officer exclaimed, trying to get to him.

Kadien soldiers leapt on Red, seizing him and dragging him away from the Irkens before canceling the shock and aiming a blaster at him as well. "Retreat, all of you, or your Tallest meet their doom here on Kadien!" the Kadien king bellowed.

"Fall back!" the comms officer ordered immediately. Quickly the Irkens gathered and backed uncertainly away, but were reluctant to leave without their Tallest's order.

"Tell them to go," the Kadien king said to Red. Red glared at the ground in frustration. "Tell them to go or you and your brother both die."

"Fall back to the Massive and return to Irk. Or somewhere close if you don't want to deal with the Brains," Red bitterly said. "Purple and I will figure the rest out."

"No. You won't," the Kadien king darkly said.

"My Tallest, we can't leave you!" the comms officer protested.

"We'll find our way back," Red replied. "Or you or the Brains will find a way to wage war and get us back. Whatever works."

"You'll never see Irk again," the Kadien king said.

"Did we ask you to talk?!" Red demanded. The Kadien king started, looking offended, then scowled at them both. Red looked to the comms officer again. "Just. Go. We'll handle this."

"There's nothing for you to handle anymore," the Kadien king said.

"Again, never asked you to talk," Red said.

"You don't give the orders on my planet!" the Kadien king angrily retorted.

"Go!" Red ordered once more, looking at the Irkens

"Y-yes, My Tallest," the comms officer defeatedly said, bowing his head. He turned to the other Irkens. "Fall back to the Massive! We'll figure this out. Somehow. It wouldn't be the first time Irk rescued a Commander from Kadien."

"Do I want to know what that means?" Red asked.

"When you're back safe with us, then I'll tell you," the comms officer said.

"You're really not getting it, are you? None of you. There'll be no rescuing your Tallest this time. You'd be wiser to seek out a new one altogether," the Kadien king said.

"We won't give up on our Tallest quite as easily as that. So help you if you torture either of them like your people did with Almighty Tallest Spork," the comms officer darkly answered.

"What now?" Red said.

"Stay strong, My Tallest," the comms officer said.

"What now?!" Red freaked.

"We will come back for you," the comms officer promised. Turning, he left with the other Irkens. The King glared dangerously after them and considered sending his people in pursuit, only he genuinely wasn't convinced they would come out on top. Not with how well the Irkens had kept up with superior numbers. It was safer, for now, to let them go. They would attempt to blow the Massive out of the sky as they left instead. Maybe. He'd feel things out.

IZ

Red and Purple watched helplessly after the Irkens and suddenly felt a whole lot more uncomfortable with this. "There. I sent them away. Now let my brother go," Red said, voice much quieter than it had been thus far.

"He'll live, that at least I can promise you, but you'll never see him again," the king said.

A chill raced up and down Red's spine. Purple's too. "Wait, what you you mean?!" Purple immediately demanded.

"You can't do that!" Red protested.

"I can and I will!" the Kadien king replied. He looked towards Lard Nar. "Take the young irken to Perth and give him to them to deal with! His brother remains here with us."

"No!" Red exclaimed desperately.

"You can't!" Purple exclaimed, visibly alarmed. "Red!"

"Pur!" Red called back, clearly distressed.

"I wonder. Has there ever been a time when you two have been apart?" the Kadien king coldly asked. "Where will your strength be when separated, My Tallest?"

"Wait, we'll give you anything you want! Anything! Just don't split us up!" Red pled.

"I'm sorry, but you're simply too powerful together to take that risk," the king said. He looked towards the Resisty once more. "Thank you for helping to save Kadien," he sincerely said.

"It was the least we could have done, sire," Lard Nar replied with a smile. He frowned at Purple. "We'll see how well you fare as a Perthen slave," he bit.

"Take your prisoner and go," the king said to Lard Nar.

"Yes, your majesty," Lard Nar said, saluting.

"No wait, his PAK is damaged! They don't have the tech to repair it! They'll get him killed!" Red protested immediately.

"Red! Red, I don't wanna leave you! Red!" Purple cried out as the ship turned to fly away.

"Purple!" Red shouted frantically. "Let me go! Let go! Pur! Pur!" He tried to use his PAK legs, but the shock that had been delivered to him had scrambled it. It would repair itself of course, but he wasn't sure how long that would take. And what if they had a method to disable everything about it except the life support systems? If they'd had Spork a prisoner here and tortured him for any length of time, that meant they'd had to have disabled his PAK somehow, which meant they had experience dealing with Irken tech. Oh this was bad. This was so, so bad. "They'll get him killed!" Red insisted again, voice breaking when he really, really didn't want it to. The ship took off into the sky. "No, Purple! No! No! No!" Helplessly he watched after the Resisty's ship. "No!" he cried brokenly once more.

The Kadien king had asked if they'd ever been a time they were apart before. Had there been, he vulnerably wondered? He couldn't think of any! They'd never been apart, he realized with a chill. They'd never been so far from each other that they couldn't reach one another in short order. It had never happened. Not once in their life! Distress began to mount inside him, an empty feeling starting to churn in his squeedlysplooch, and suddenly he felt more helpless than he'd ever felt in his life. Every single part of him wanted to be near his twin again, because if he wasn't then bad things would happen! It was a totally illogical and irrational thought, but he couldn't shake it no matter how hard he tried. They weren't supposed to be apart! They weren't meant to be apart! That wasn't how this worked! However bad this being captured thing was, it wasn't half as bad as being separated from his brother. He tried to will back a burning sensation in his eyes, but the tears still sprang to them. Suddenly he just wanted to curl into a ball and whimper. "P-Pur…" he numbly said again. There was silence all around, eyes locked on him from every angle, but he barely registered them, still staring in the direction the Resisty had flown even after they were out of sight.

"Take the youth to the dungeons," the king ordered coldly. Red didn't even try and fight this time, eyes locked completely on where the ship had disappeared.