.

Separation Anxiety

Purple was having a panic attack. There was no simpler way to put it. Lard Nar was actually starting to feel bad about this, watching the young Irken hyperventilate. Mainly because it wasn't the fear of becoming a slave on Perth that was causing it. It was the shock of being separated from his twin. Purple had stopped even mentioning his damaged PAK and wasn't even thinking about Perth, it seemed. Just about how his sibling wasn't nearby anymore and might never be again. He reminded himself yet again this was one of the two genocidal overlords steadily overthrowing the galaxy, but right now that image was really hard to consolidate with the sad mess he was seeing.

"Oh come on! It can't be so bad," Spleenk said, feeling even worse about this than Lard Nar. "You must have been apart before, right?" Purple shook his head rapidly and began hyperventilating harder. "Not even once?" Spleenk lamely asked.

Purple sobbed and sank down against the wall of his cell as it registered with him that no. In fact he'd never been apart from Red before. Ever. Except when he attacked Irkana and the Resisty there, and that brief time on Gladitoria, but even then, Red hadn't been all that far, and they'd always been able to get to each other quickly. Not like this! He'd never been ripped away from his twin like this! Red was quite literally his other half! Being apart was not okay! It wasn't okay! It wasn't… He began to shake. None of this was okay. He had to get a grip. He desperately needed to get a grip. Red wasn't here to snap him out of a panicked state now. He shot up and began floating around rapidly in terror. He would kill for a bag of donuts right now. Literally kill. He had a habit of panic eating. Oh this couldn't be happening. It couldn't be happening! He wanted Red! He wanted him right now!

"Tallest Purple!" he heard someone shouting. How long had they been calling his name? He turned on them.

"I want my brother!" he insisted.

"You can't have your brother! We're not even close to where he is anymore," Lard Nar insisted.

"I want him right now!" Purple demanded.

"Well we can't always get what we want," Lard Nar replied. Purple went at the bars with murderous intent and struck them so powerfully they shook. His PAK legs shot out, attempting to impale anyone close by. Fortunately, everyone near had leapt back in alarm and were not staring at him with eyes wide in disbelief.

"Bring me back to Red!" Purple shouted.

"Get used to being without him! Your life with your brother is ended!" Lard Nar snapped back. Purple shrank away from the bars, eyes going wide and filling with vulnerability. His mouth quivered and he felt a stinging sensation in his eyes. Sniffing, he floated away from the bars and turned his back on them, crossing his arms. He faced the wall silently. Lard Nar shifted uncomfortably. "It didn't have to be like this. If you'd just been… if you'd just been like your mother!"

"Don't bring my mother into this!" Purple shouted, turning sharply on Lard Nar. "Don't talk about her or my father or my brother! Just leave me alone!"

"If you'd just gone for galactic unity instead of galactic conquest…" Lard Nar pressed.

"Leave me alone!" Purple insisted.

"Fine! As long as it gets through your thick irken skull that none of this had to happen!" Lard Nar replied. "Resisty, return to stations." Silently the Resisty left and shut the door to the brig behind them leaving Purple in darkness. Purple's mouth quivered again and he sniffed, sitting on the floor and drawing his knees up to his eyes.

"What would you do if you and Spork were separated?"

"Be better than I was, darling."

Purple let out a shaking breath.

"Don't shut down and don't let grief consume you. Don't stop seeking until you know the truth. Promise me."

"I promise."

"I can't. I can't, mom, I can't," Purple said.

"Promise me."

Purple sobbed, holding his head in his hands. He willed himself to take some calming breaths and managed just barely.

"Don't stop seeking."

"I won't," he swore. He didn't have much other choice. There was no universe, or precious few universes at least, in which he and Red were apart. There just wasn't. Those were either unfathomably rare or didn't exist. He wouldn't let this one be the anomaly. He wouldn't. He'd find his way back to his brother. He had to.

IZ

Red was eerily silent and complacent, head bowed low. He hadn't looked up from the ground once. Defeated, was probably the best way to describe it. He felt totally defeated and was probably in shock. He didn't know what to do. He had no clue. His instinct said protect Purple, but Purple wasn't here to protect anymore! He needed to protect himself. Just himself. Just… just… The concept felt wrong! It wasn't supposed to be just him! It wasn't…

"You brought this on yourself," the Kadien king said.

Before anyone could blink, Red was on top of him going straight for the throat. The king looked horrified, barely able to keep himself from being eviscerated. Red didn't stop. He didn't stop until some Kadien jammed an electrical prod directly into his side and cranked it up high enough that he screamed in pain and seized up. The Kadien king scrambled away from him, and the prod was withdrawn. Red collapsed with a painful and gasping breath. His entire body shook from the agony. Probably from anxiety and fear as well. Frustrated tears threatened his eyes, and he cursed them. Irkens didn't cry. He didn't cry. Irkens weren't supposed to cry… He wasn't supposed to cry… But that was all he felt like doing.

"Get up!" he heard them order. He barely registered the command. This time he didn't move.

You're not supposed to be broken.

"Get up!" the voice ordered again.

"If one of us falls, the other has to still be strong for him. For both of us. Okay? Even if it's hard to do."

He almost whimpered but managed to keep himself from doing so.

"Get up!" the voice furiously said. He could hear the electric prod activate and tensed up.

"No. Leave him," the king ordered more calmly. Silence. He knew they were all staring at him and hated them all for it. "Get up," the king soon said.

Red huffed and obeyed the command. Maybe if he could play up his vulnerability, he'd win sympathy points. There was something to be said for being an adolescent about the same age as the guy's own daughter. He could use this to his advantage. If nothing else, it might spare him torture. He fixed the king with a dark glare, for the first time looking up.

"If one of us falls, the other has to still be strong for him."

Okay, Pur. Okay.

"You're so going to regret this," Red dangerously said. "If anything happens to him…"

"You'll never know if it does," the king said. "You'll never know anything about him again." Red went on the offensive again, lunging, but the king was ready this time and fought back, quickly subduing him to the ground because his PAK still wasn't operational. That was the only reason the king had managed to beat him, Red told himself. Then again, if this guy was at Spork's level, he was probably just that good. Red was quickly bound and wrestled back up again. His breathing was rapid and tight. He felt like he was on the verge of hyperventilating, but he willed the panic down. Panic wasn't going to help him now. Panic wasn't going to help him escape. Panic wasn't going to help him find Purple. He needed to find Purple! He needed to! Purple needed him! He needed him! …He needed Purple too…

"I want my brother!" Red blurted before he could even think to shut himself up. "You're not keeping me from him! I won't let you keep me from him! He-he needs me! He needs me!"

"He's going to have to learn how to live without you, now. You'll need to do the same," the king said.

"No!" Red replied. "He needs me." He hated how his voice broke.

"It seems you need him just as badly," the king replied. Red started, eyes widening a little and filling with a sort of vulnerability he immediately hated. "Lock him in the tower cell," the king said. Red briefly resisted, but he knew there was no getting out of this. Not yet. He jerked free of one of the guards.

"I can float myself!" he snapped.

"Very well," the king said. "I'm sorry it had to be this way, I truly am, but you were simply too strong together. Too strong for anyone's goods. If only you'd taken after your mother."

"If you ever mention either of my parents again, or my brother, I'll kill the first Kadien I get my hands on and hope to the Brains it's you!" Red said. The king gestured for them to take Red away and they did so. Silently Red fumed and plotted. Tried at least. His thoughts, though, kept returning to Purple, and fear and uncertainty filled his eyes. Was he okay? Had they been able to stabilize his PAK? What if they hadn't? Was his brother even alive anymore? He hated how much those thoughts made him feel like breaking down. He was supposed to be able to protect his twin. Now he couldn't, and he hated that so, so much. He wanted his brother! He wanted to know he was safe…

Please be alive, Pur. Please. Oh please be alive.

IZ

The Perthan Emperor looked entirely too pleased with himself, Purple decided. Someone should cut him open. Red would have… "My compliments to the Resisty and Kadien," the Emperor said to Lard Nar. "This is an unexpected treat indeed. The other is on Kadien?"

"Imprisoned for the rest of his days, most likely," Lard Nar said.

"Hopefully tortured as well," the emperor said. Purple tensed up.

"The current King's predecessor would have wasted no time on that. This king not so much," Lard Nar said in a brief moment of pity for Purple. Purple tentatively relaxed.

"He is a softer touch than his cousin for sure. More's the pity for it since one can't afford to grant the Irkens a soft touch. It's not as if they'll ever repay the kindness."

"Kindness?! He ripped us from one another!" Purple protested impulsively.

"At least he spared your brother the torture on top of that grief," the emperor replied. "Fortunately for you, as long as you fall in line and be a good slave, no particularly harsh treatment will come your way."

"I'm not gonna be anyone's slave!" Purple replied. "We already promised you Invader Tenn. You don't need another Irken. Let me go or we organic sweep you for breaking the bargain."

"Why would I settle for one Irken, a mere minion no less, when I could have one of the Tallest instead? Or as well as," the emperor said.

"Well then Perth and Kadien are getting it extra bad when me and Red reunite," Purple replied.

"I don't understand why you don't understand that you're never reuniting with your brother again," Lard Nar said.

"I don't understand why you don't understand that I'm going to," Purple replied.

"In the next life, perhaps," Lard Nar said.

"Then your next life becomes a nightmare too," Purple said.

"Take the Irken away. Lock him up. I'll figure out what we'll do with him later," the emperor said. The guards immediately did so, escorting Purple away.

IZ

His nightmares were completely focused on Pur and the damaged PAK. Nightmares of his brother suffering but being ignored. Nightmares of the PAK steadily getting worse. Nightmares on nightmares. He feared them because a part of him sensed they weren't just nightmares… He dreaded the night he dreamt that Purple was dead. It would come sooner than later if they didn't fix that stupid PAK! What moronic decision had led to giving Irkens a weakness as blatant as that one? It was so easily damaged or removed…

He gave up on sleep, eventually—they didn't necessarily need it anyway—and looked towards the barred window. At least he got a view, he dryly noted to himself. Other than that, though, he'd been largely ignored. He knew they were discussing whether to torture him for information on Irk or not. If he was lucky, the king was just affected enough by him being the guy's daughter's age that it saved him that. They hadn't fed him since they'd locked him up. It had been days now, and he was steadily weakening. He wondered if they knew how much Irkens actually needed to eat to keep functioning. The taller they were, the more they needed, which meant the Tallest needed a lot. If they didn't get it, they became sluggish and entered some kind of dazed state where nothing really registered and you just kind of went through the motions of keeping alive. He willed himself to get up, but his energy was dangerously low at this point. Maybe they did know how much he needed to eat, but had decided this could be some mild form of torture.

With all the willpower he could muster, he stood up and walked over to the window. Walked, not floated. The PAKs energy got low if they didn't get enough sugars. It was better to conserve as much of it as he could. He peered out the window and scanned for a potential escape route in case he got out of here. Not that he would in this weakened state, but the moment he had energy again, he was doing everything he could to get away. Maybe that was also part of why they weren't feeding him. Because they knew that was his plan. He began to pace in his cell anxiously. He had to get out of here. He had to find Purple. They had to be together again! The armada was coming up with a plan, he told himself, but how long would it take before they would enact it? Could they enact it? Were they capable of that without leadership? The armada would come back, he told himself again. But what if they didn't…? What if the Control Brains decided to just cut their losses and find a new Tallest instead? Would that new Tallest try to rescue them? No, that would be moronic. Why would they ever bother? They'd have it all as Tallest! Getting him and Pur back would be counterproductive to them, and it wasn't like he or Pur had made any friends who'd go out of their way to save them. They'd only ever had one another. It was all they'd ever needed. The closest thing to a friend they even had was Zim, he dryly noted to himself, and neither of them could stand him.

Purple had mentioned Tak, he recalled. Maybe, if he could just get in contact with her and tell her to invade Kadien, she would stumble on him and break him out. Kadien was hers if she did, he dryly noted. Not like they had a shortage of planets to give out. Speaking of Invaders and breaking them out, maybe Tenn would be able to help Purple! Maybe she'd be able to get him off Perth! If she did, Perth was all hers. She could decide what to do with the dump. Then again, giving out that sort of power to Irkens that weren't all that tall, or even other Irkens in general, was potential for conflict and possibly a power struggle. On the other hand, what would it matter? If he and Purple were together again, they could take on anything! They'd always been able to.

"Prisoner!" a voice said, breaking through his thoughts. He started, turning quickly. How long had he been watched? He blinked at the Kadien soldier. "The King would see you."

"The King can choke on his own tongue!" Red replied.

"You don't have a choice," the soldier replied. Red despised how true that was and yelped when they hit him with an EMP blast that knocked out all his PAKs systems, say for the emergency life support and the data.

IZ

Purple clung to a stable mental state as best as he could, but nightmares of what might be befalling Red kept plaguing him and he just wanted to be with his brother! He felt himself getting weaker and weaker with each passing day. They were starving him. They knew how much Irkens needed to eat to stay functional. They were doing this on purpose to weaken him! The PAK, though, was doing a pretty good job of that itself. Without the sugar and food to fuel it, its ability to repair the damage done to it had slowed to a crawl. If anything, it was getting worse and worse. He felt it in his bones. They ached so much. Worse than he'd ever felt before. His brain was getting foggy too. They'd tried to make him do work, but they'd learned really fast that he didn't have the capacity to do any kind of work right now. They'd seemed to latch onto that and were now basically just observing as his PAK and body slowly shut down, and he really, really didn't want to go out like this, but it was looking less and less like he'd have a choice. He willed his brother to keep on going, even if the worst happened to him.

He needed help, he knew. He couldn't move, anymore. He was basically just laying on the ground at this point, curled up and waiting to die while hoping against hope they brought him food. He could barely hear anymore, and his vision was so blurry. He'd taken to just shutting his eyes and waiting for it all to pass. He wondered if his PAK was even alive still. How long had it been out if it wasn't? Why wasn't he dead if it had died? It had to still be going, right? Right?!

"My Tallest!" he heard a terrified voice exclaimed. He felt like he recognized it somehow, but couldn't really place it. "You have to let me go to him! You don't understand! He needs food for the PAK to repair itself! Lots of it! It's almost shutting down! He needs help right now! Let me help him! He's useless as your slave if he can't move!"

He wanted to tell the person off. He was nobody's slave. There wasn't a chance he was playing that role ever. He willed his eyes to open, but they refused. He heard his cell door open and heard someone skittering over towards him on four mechanical limbs. He racked his brain for a solution to who this was. An Irken. It had to be to call him Tallest. What Irken had they… Tenn?

He gasped, eyes flying open wide as a jolt of electricity went into his PAK, giving it a temporary boost in energy. He coughed like he'd just begun breathing again. Had he? How long had he not been breathing? Or had he been breathing, just very weakly? The energy boost died out slowly, his eyes closing with it, but he felt himself taking in stronger breaths again. He felt someone frantically working on the PAK. He wanted to say her name just to be sure his guess was right, but he really didn't have the energy for that.

"How are you still alive?" he heard her mutter half to herself and half to him. That couldn't be a good sign, he dryly noted.

"What?" he managed to get out in a whisper.

"Your PAK hasn't been functioning at all, My Tallest! Who knows for how long?" she—he assumed it was Tenn—said.

"Tenn?" he asked, just to try and confirm that. He still wasn't seeing very clearly. Her voice was Tenn's, though.

"Yes, My Tallest?" she asked.

"Food," he ordered simply.

"How long have you been without it?!" she exclaimed in dismay.

He really didn't want her questions right now. She was supposed to just follow orders. "Food," he said again.

"He needs food! Sugary food! Lots of it! It'll help his PAK fix itself!" she said.

"Let the Irken scum die," one of the Perth soldiers said. Well, he was a dead Perthling, Purple decided.

"Your Emperor doesn't want him dead though!" Tenn protested. Not that she would actually know if that was the case or not. She was probably just trying to sew doubt. Irkens were good at that. "Ask him!" she insisted when they didn't respond. "There's a reason he ordered you to take me here instead of somewhere else where I couldn't see him! Why would he want two slaves of the same species to be together? That would just be too risky, wouldn't it?"

Purple almost huffed a laugh. Tenn had always been one of the best-performing Invaders. He'd seen her test scores. Though sometimes she went a bit too far—like just now—and exposed a weakness of her own, she was overall great at taking bad situations and twisting them to her advantage. Well, not so much on Meekrob, but that had been a next-level disaster. Someone must have switched the labels of her package and Zim's, because they'd definitely been sending the Megadoomer to her. He'd personally quadruple-checked it, because Meekrob was probably the biggest enemy they had right now, and the most potent. They were currently at a centuries-long stalemate that had spanned even further back than Miyuki's reign. Every time one or the other of them seemed to be getting the advantage, the other turned it around. Irkens hated Meekrobians and Meekrobians hated Irkens. It was just how this whole thing worked.

"We will discuss with the emperor," a soldier relented. Purple hoped they didn't quite register that Tenn had brought up the fact two of the same species put together would be too risky. Maybe he could actually get out of this if the two of them stuck together. Maybe the Perthling emperor had overlooked the threat. Possibilities like that were why you were never supposed to say more than was necessary. Sometimes that was hard to do, but still. Tenn was better than this. Maybe her concern for his well-being had sort of overridden that common sense though. After all, Irkens were programmed to have complete and total devotion to the Tallest and do whatever they could to protect them. He felt another shock go through his back and let out a sharp cry of discomfort.

"I'm sorry, My Tallest, but it's so badly damaged that it's going to be very painful to stabilize," Tenn quickly said, continuing to work on the PAK while the Perthlings went off to get their Emperor's permission to feed him. Purple cried out again, tensing up. "I'm sorry," she said again. Sorry wasn't going to make the pain stop, Purple inwardly complained, but fine. If this was what it took, just fine. She'd make it up to him later. As soon as he could move again, he needed to start plotting how to get out of here and back to Red. He had to get back to Red.

IZ

Red glared defiantly at the Kadien king and his daughter. "Have you been fed?" the king asked.

"Like you don't already know the answer to that," Red replied.

"You will eat tonight, if only a little," the king said.

"A Kadien little or an Irken little?"

"Is there a difference?"

"Your well-fed is our little. Figured you would have known that from keeping Spork prisoner here. Or did you just not feed him at all?" Red said.

"Feeding a condemned prisoner was pointless," the king dryly said. "You're more fortunate than your sire was in that, though you won't be quite so fortunate in the escape department. We learned our lesson the first time. Three attempts have already been made to get you back, you know. Your armada is persistent."

"Told you I wouldn't be here long," Red said.

"Oh, you'll be here a long, long, long time to come," the Kadien king replied. "Best you hope your armada doesn't breach our security either, because if they do, it'll be a body they recover."

"When they really breach, you won't see them coming," Red darkly replied.

"We'll see about that. Take the youth and feed him," the king ordered.

"Would the youth be interested in a marriage alliance instead of prison?" the princess borderline taunted.

"No. The youth wouldn't," Red bitterly replied, crossing his arms. She shrugged. The guards took hold of him and led him away. He took in every corridor and door they passed through, trying to map out the palace. If he could just break out of his cell… He needed to find his way to Purple one way or another, and if the armada was struggling to get to either of them right now, he needed to pick up the slack. No problem, he told himself. He was used to picking up the slack. Purple wasn't exactly the most helpful co-Tallest around, after all. That was probably partially his fault, he knew. He really hadn't made it easy for his brother to have a say in anything early on in their rulership. He'd knocked him down every chance he'd gotten and eventually Purple had just sort of given in. It had gotten better once they'd realized how absolutely garbage Red was at the more social aspects of their rulership, but even still, in panic situations, Red was still picking up his brother's slack. That was what they did. When he slacked, Purple picked it up. When Purple slacked, he picked it up. It wasn't totally his fault that Purple slacked more often than he did. Pur was working on it, but Brains he'd been spoiled.

He was never going to see his brother again…

Immediately he banished that rogue thought and buried it as far back in his brain as he possibly could. He hated it with every fiber of his being. They'd be together again one day. He promised it. Nothing had ever kept them apart before, nothing was going to keep them apart now. The second they got together again, everything would be okay. It always was. Always. They pushed him into his cell and left to get him food. He set to work trying to coax his PAK back to a functioning state and looked up towards the window. He floated up to it the moment he could and scanned his surroundings. If he could get to a ship or even to the computer array in the palace, he could send out a distress signal to any invaders who happened to be nearby and in a position to help him. Ideally, his rescuer would be anyone but Zim. Tak was the one he was hoping for since she wanted so badly to be an invader and didn't have a planet to prove herself with yet. She'd almost gotten Earth already, so why not Kadien? He and Purple had been willing to give her a chance to prove herself, even despite the Control Brains programming her to be a janitor. They had the authority to make calls like that when requested and advocate for wannabe invaders. If Tak got him out of here, she was first priority on that list. Before he started looking that far ahead, though, he needed to focus on his situation now and getting out of it at least long enough to send out the call. He could do this, he told himself. Just one step at a time.

IZ

The good news was the emperor was allowing him and Tenn to stay together. The bad news was they were forced to do work. The good news was Tenn's PAK programming influenced her to be completely subservient to the Tallest! "Phew. This is tiring. Oh Tenny, fetch me a water," Purple said.

Tenn clenched her teeth, eyes flashing. Two weeks of this and she was already regretting saving his sorry hide. "You haven't even done any work. You've been sitting here watching me!"

"Not true! I lifted you to the branches once or twice," he said.

"Branches you could have sheared yourself if you'd bothered to pick them up!" Tenn shouted.

"Is that attitude I hear?" Purple asked.

She resisted the urge to scream. "No, My Tallest," she forced herself to spit out. "I'll get the water."

"Good girl," Purple said. "Bring a fan with you why don't you?" He heard her scream in frustration as she went.

Purple watched her go then looked towards the palace. The Emperor, he knew, was entertained by their shenanigans. That's why he'd let them stick close. As long as he could keep the guy entertained, he could keep Tenn close. As long as Tenn was close, he could entertain the Emperor. Hey wait. Maybe that could tie into a plan of escape! Then if Tenn started getting too ornery, he could pull the 'it's part of my plan' card. Then again, he sort of liked her a little ornery.

"Here, My Tallest," she bitterly said, handing him the water.

"And the fan?" he asked. Her eye twitched a bit before she turned and stormed off in a snit. He shrugged and sipped at the water until she came back and began fanning him. In his defense, in the absence of service drones, she was the next best thing. He really should do some work he guessed. The Emperor might only be entertained by his behaviour for so long before cracking down on it. Slaves weren't supposed to live like kings. If he kept using Tenn like a personal servant, they'd eventually end up separated despite the king's current amusement with the predicament.

"Should have let your PAK fizzle," he heard her muttering to herself.

"I heard that," he sang.

"Heard what, My Tallest?" she asked almost snidely.

She was getting too bold now, he thought. "Attitude, Tenn. Attitude. You know you really should watch that. You're only going to be here for so long before you invade it. Then you're back on Irk and me and Red will be Tallest again and you really don't want to be on my bad side you know."

"I need help with the work!" Tenn said. "How can I make it clearer?!"

"Fine. Pushy, pushy. Y'know it won't reflect well on you, right?" he said, getting up.

"I can't invade Perth if my time is spent working the chores and also serving you! That doesn't give me a chance to plan anything!" she argued.

"I like you feisty," he teased, poking the top of her head.

She started, blinking blankly, then frowned, crossing her arms sulkily. He was mocking her. She hated being mocked. "If feisty is what you call a blaster to your face," she grumbled.

"Am I hearing conspiracy against the Tallest?" he asked.

"Will you actually work if I tell you to?" she demanded.

"I mean, I can only get away with living like a prince for so long on Perth before the Emperor does something about it," Purple said, shrugging. "As long as the labour isn't too menial, I might think about it." Tenn double-face palmed.

"For two weeks now you've been hindering my progress, My Tallest. Two weeks!" she shouted. He was suddenly quiet. She frowned and turned. There was a look of devastation in his eyes before he quickly hid it. "My Tallest?" she asked.

"It's nothing. You just sounded a bit like Red for a second there," he quietly replied.

Tenn stared at him, not quite comprehending the sudden change, then grimaced a little and shifted a bit awkwardly. That was the first mention he'd made of his co-Tallest to her in the last couple of weeks. She'd thought his silence on the matter was strange since they'd never been apart before. Not in all the time she'd known them. From the first moment she'd met the two in the education facility, she'd never known them to be separate from one another. Practically joined at the hip. She'd never been sure why. There had never seemed to be any hint of romantic attraction between the two. Their affection for one another had seemed even closer than that, just in another sort of way. Maybe the rumors were true after all… That Tallest Purple and Tallest Red were twin brothers. If that was the case, Purple was probably taking it harder than she could even imagine. Maybe he'd just been keeping how he was feeling bottled up inside and dealing with it on his own. Maybe her presence helped him cope with the separation in some small way. Distracted him from it. A couple of times she'd thought she heard him panicking in his cell, she recalled. She'd never been certain of it though. She should pay more attention. She wondered if he panicked after nightmares or dreams about Red.

"My Tallest?" she almost timidly asked, unsure how to tackle the sudden change in demeanor.

"I um, I think I have to go," Purple said.

"The sooner the work is done, the sooner we can try and plan to get you off Perth. Maybe we can even plan as we work," she lamely offered. "The sooner you get off Perth, the sooner you can try to find Tallest Red again."

"Hey, you're right," Purple said. "So, what do we have to do?" She pointed behind him and he turned curiously. His jaw dropped at the sludge he saw covering the stone walkway. "Yeah, not happening. Next."

"What gave you the impression slaves had a choice?" Tenn asked.

"I'm not touching that grime," Purple said.

"The more time we spend on things, the less time we have to figure out how to get you back to your… brother?"

"Is this a surprise to everyone?" Purple asked, frowning.

"Irkens don't have family units," she said.

"You might be Zim's sister, so it's not like we're the only ones," he said.

She blinked blankly. "What now?" she dryly asked.

"I mean come on! Look how much you two look alike," he said.

"We all look a little alike, My Tallest. Well, you and Tallest Purple are more unique than most, but still!" Tenn said.

"You're a female version of Zim, only less insane," Purple said. "You were probably cloned from the same DNA or something. Or maybe you even had parents that secretly conceived you two and put you in the birthing tubes."

"Is that what happened to you and Tallest Red?" she asked. He faltered briefly. "Is it true? That you're the natural born smeets of Tallest Miyuki and Tallest Spork?"

"I mean, not natural born, we came out of the birthing tubes too, but probably conceived and implanted by them, yeah," Purple said. He hesitated. "We were definitely conceived and implanted by them," he more quietly said.

Tenn was quiet, not quite sure how to process all of that or what to say. "We'll get you back to your brother, My Tallest. You won't have to lose him too," she soon said. Purple shifted a little then nodded slightly more vulnerably.

IZ

Red had not been expecting the princess to show up with the food, guards bearing it for her. That immediately made him wary and suspicious. "You really should consider a marriage alliance," she said.

"I'm not considering anything other than escaping this cell, taking out anyone who gets in my way, and getting off Kadien," Red replied. "If Spork can do it, so can I."

"Spork was rescued. Sort of. You won't be quite so lucky," she replied.

"Three attempts in two weeks is a pretty darn good sign they're not giving up on me yet," Red replied.

"They will," she replied.

"Even if they do, I'm not giving up on me. Neither is Purple."

"You're so certain of your own prowess," she said, shaking her head. "Eat." The food was brought to the cell and pushed through.

"You keep suggesting a marriage alliance. Why are you so interested in one anyway?" Red demanded, snatching it.

"Because I want Kadien to survive," she replied.

"Kadien is toast. End of story. Get used to the idea," Red replied. "We'll turn it into a rest-stop planet or something. Maybe a landfill one instead."

"This is why you'll never escape us."

"Because you can't handle the truth?" Red challenged.

"Your threats fall on deaf ears, Irken prince," she said.

"Try king," he bitterly replied. "Even better than king, in fact! Almighty Tallest!"

"Father calls you god emperors," she said.

"Whatever! The point is we're superior and you won't be able to hold me for long," Red said, crossing his arms.

"Do you still feel so superior with your brother so far away?" she asked.

Red deflated immediately but quickly recovered himself to try and save face. "Yes," he replied, though his tone lacked its earlier punch.

The princess waved the guards away but was smart and stayed far enough back that his PAK couldn't reach her if he tried going after her. "What if I helped you to escape?" she asked once she was sure the guards were gone.

"Why would you betray your father like that?" Red warily asked.

"Because this is getting pathetic," she replied.

"What?!" Red sharply demanded.

"You're monitored at all times, even in your cell. Even father is starting to feel bad for you and how much you mope around or sit catatonic or wake up from a nightmare panicking and saying your brother's name."

"Am I seriously being monitored twenty-four-seven?!" Red demanded.

"Not right now. I made sure the observation units were off for this little meeting," she said.

"If you think for one second helping me escape is going to spare you, your father, or your planet, you have another thing coming!" Red replied.

"Eventually you'll break. When the nightmares become so bad you can't stand them anymore," she said.

"They won't get worse," Red bitterly said.

"If your brother becomes an ornery slave they will. The Perthlings don't exactly treat their slaves nicely once the novelty wears off. I wouldn't go so far as to say they'll torture him, but his life will certainly get a lot more unpleasant. After the death of the old Kadien king, things were a lot more tolerable for prisoners here than on Perth."

Red was quiet a beat, but then his voice took on a dark tone. "If anything happens to my brother…" he darkly began.

"It may already be happening to your brother. Or be about to," she said.

"Hope for all your sakes it doesn't," he said.

"We'll see," she said. "Enjoy your food. It'll be the last time you have any for a long, long time. It's not in Kadien's interests to see you return to your full strength."

"So you're going to starve me to death," he said.

"Only most of the way there," she replied, waving and heading off. "By the way, a banquet is coming up soon. Father intends to show you off to our many and diverse guests. Half of which are probably enemies of yours. No guarantees how well they'll treat you. Tata." He cursed her angrily in Irken. Maybe, though, he could use her offer of help to his advantage. If he could just convince her to slip him some sort of long-distance communications device… Maybe that was hoping for too much, though. Still, it would be worth it to try. Then again, if he betrayed her and the plan backfired, he could kiss goodbye to her help. Help he probably needed, as much as he hated to admit it. He'd have to think about this. Figure it out. He had to escape this cell, this palace, and Kadien as a whole. Rotting in prison for the rest of his life and being occasionally displayed like a trophy or some swimming thing in an aquarium was not an option. Then again, when he was brought out for display, it might be his best shot at escaping. He'd definitely need to feel this one out. He had a few options now. It was just a matter of acting on them.

IZ

Purple blinked blankly at two Perthling guards who were accosting a distraught-looking Tenn as she held a crop bundle in her arms. She let out a little cry as one shoved her meanly into the other. That one shoved her back into the first, who held her arm tightly. Purple frowned and floated towards them. Sure, he and Red had been pretty indifferent to Tenn when she'd called them from Meekrob panicking, but there was no way he was standing by doing nothing while a couple of Perthlings bullied her. It wasn't happening. The guard picked her up off the ground, mocking her height—which, to be fair, was kind of deserved—and threw her to the other like they were passing a ball. That was something he definitely couldn't let happen, because it was an insult to all Irk. The second passed her back to the first. She had by now dropped her crops. The first geared up to toss her to the second again, and Purple surged ahead, quickly snatching her out of the air as she was arcing through it. He floated her away from them then turned back with a little frown. He kind of owed her the save anyway. He'd been slacking pretty hard and also whining a lot, so she'd been having to do double the work while also having to deal with him. He knew he wasn't a very easy person to tolerate.

The guards stared at him in surprise. His interference hadn't been anything they'd been prepared for, clearly. Tenn, in his arms, blinked up at him in surprise. Clearly it hadn't been anything she'd been expecting either. "You dare step out of place in our presence?" one of the guards asked.

"My subject, my rules," he replied, putting Tenn down. He looked at her. "You should probably go back to work," he said.

"M-My Tallest?" she asked, eyes wide.

"I don't think they're very happy with me right now, so you should probably be out of the way. I'm not sure we're gonna be together very long after this, by the way, so uh, work fast on getting me out of here."

"But My Tallest…!" she began.

"Seize the slave!" one of the guards said. Immediately they both went at him, which wasn't good because his PAK didn't have a lot going for it right now aside from life support. He could still get the legs out though! For now. That would probably change soon too if he pulled this off. Immediately he deployed the mantis limbs and braced for attack. They tackled him at the same time, knocking him to the ground with an 'oomph', and he quickly began defending himself from their attacks and fighting back.

"My Tallest!" Tenn exclaimed in dismay. Immediately she deployed her own spider legs and went at them too. By now, other guards were paying attention and running to help subdue them, so this brawl was getting more intense than Purple had really planned for it too, but they'd come out of it! They always did. Irkens were the best warriors in the galaxy despite their generally small stature, and the taller they got, the better they generally were since it meant more reach, agility, and flexibility. He wasn't exactly a testament to that, but Red had been. Thinking of his brother immediately dampened his mood, but he needed to focus on this now.

He and Tenn fought valiantly against the group of guards who had descended on them and were actually coming out on top. In fact, victory was a guarantee. "Hey, this is easy," Purple said.

"My Tallest, what were you thinking? I could have handled it myself!" Tenn exclaimed. "You need to get out of here before they hurt you!"

"I'll be fine," Purple replied, brushing off the concern.

"That's not the point!" Tenn said.

"Well it's too late to back out now. Whatever the Emperor is gonna do to us for this, he'll do it anyway whether I stay or go."

"You need to hide!" Tenn insisted.

"You're the one who needs to you-know-what this place," Purple replied.

"My priority is keeping you safe and alive now!" Tenn said.

"That would probably mean more to me if it was coming from you and not your programming. You're bordering on going defective anyway. Why not cross right over and focus your attention on invading instead of on protecting me?"

"I'm not bordering on defective! And if I am, it's because of you and how annoying you are!"

"Exactly! So cross over or I'll be more annoying," Purple replied.

"My Tallest!" she furiously said, getting agitated again.

"Look out!" he exclaimed, pouncing on her just as a guard fired a blaster at her PAK. Fortunately, it missed his too. He sprang at the shooter and took him down with extreme prejudice, which really wouldn't go over well with the Emperor, so he expected very bad things to come of this. Maybe Tenn was onto something with running and hiding.

"My Tallest, you need to run!" Tenn insisted. "Hide somewhere! Anywhere! You have to be safe!" She took out the last guard and scrambled quickly over to him. "My Tallest, my ship is hidden in the forest outside Perth's capitol. Take it and escape!"

"If it's cloaked, I can't find it," he replied. "Come up with a better plan."

"We need to both run away. Before…" she began. Suddenly she screamed in pain, back arching.

"Tenn!" Purple exclaimed. She collapsed to the ground with a pained gasp and curled into herself with a whimper. That wasn't a good sign, he immediately realized. He gasped, grabbing her by the PAK and floating around in circles in the hopes of avoiding whatever had shot her. She hung limp and was drifting into unconsciousness, so he really didn't want a dose of what she'd just had. He got the bad feeling he wouldn't be avoiding it for very much longer, though.

He heard a blast connect right behind him and switched up his pattern. More Perthling guards were racing to subdue him. He darted around a corner, looked around, then pretty well tossed Tenn over the wall. Her Invader training could take over from there, whether she came back to face the music or decided to disguise herself as a Perthling instead of playing slave. Either way, she'd probably come for him, right? Maybe he shouldn't hope she'd gone defective after all. There really wasn't much he'd done, lately, to keep her respect or loyalty. Maybe she'd decide he just wasn't worth it anymore? That scared him more than he cared to admit, and he briefly regretted being so useless and annoying.

He kept fleeing and came around another corner only to come to a stop with a gasp. A wall of Perthling soldiers! "Um…" Purple began before stopping himself. There really wasn't much to say beyond that. Slowly he put up his hands. Red was all 'never surrender' and all that. Purple was more inclined to surrender and hold off for a later time when circumstances were more favourable, and they definitely weren't favourable right now. Guards came up from behind too, looking furious. He glanced back at them and got the feeling he'd really regret surrendering this time.

IZ

The banquet was tonight, the Kadien Princess had said in an effort to get him to concede to her help. Maybe that would have been the best play after all. Purple would have taken it, he dryly noted. Heck, Purple probably would have been off this planet by now. The Perthlings and Kadiens had double-screwed them over it seemed. He would have probably had better luck getting off Perth than Purple was having, and Purple would be having an easier time getting off Kadien. See? This was why they needed each other. Twinergy. The Kadien princess had said a lot of Irk's enemies would be present. Some allies too, so doubtless this was some kind of intimidation tactic on Irk's allies to draw them away. He cursed the fact that Purple wasn't here. The princess seemed to want an alliance with Irk rather than independence from it. His brother would have leapt on that! They were pretty well engaged anyway. He could totally see Purple diving into a political marriage if he needed to! Pur was practical like that. Spork had been that way too. Red had taken after Miyuki in 'matters of the heart', so to speak. Kind of a weird contrast honestly. Purple was more emotional, Red was more pragmatic, yet Purple would more likely mate for station, and he would more likely mate for affection. Purple would more likely leap to sentencing death, Red would more likely leap to sentencing exile.

He willed himself to focus. They would be coming for him soon. His best chance of escape would be then. He wasn't useless in a fight without his PAK, just not as effective. He heard the door to the tower creaking open. He heard footsteps coming up the stairs, antennae twitching a bit. He drifted away from the bars. He knew it wouldn't matter how far he was from the EMP blast, it would still work the same given the small space, but he could trick himself into believing otherwise. He really, really hated those EMP blasts. They were starting to do a number on the PAK. Repeated exposure to them wasn't doing the tech any favours. They arrived at the cell, took aim without a word, and fired. Red cried out in pain, collapsing to the ground as once again everything but life support shut down. It wasn't good that it was beginning to cause pain. It shouldn't be. He practically snarled when he was grabbed and dragged out of the cell roughly. The moment they were partway down the stairs, he acted and suddenly went on the attack. The guards shouted in alarm as he managed to shove one of them down the steps and slam another against the wall before tossing him after the first. He ran down after them and leapt over them both at the bottom. The hover belt kicked in first—it always did—and he floated rapidly away from the dazed guards and out into the corridor. He looked both ways, then went in the direction of the throne room and banquet hall. The main entrance was the only one he knew of, so he'd be playing it dangerously. Maybe there was an open window somewhere though? Nope. Didn't look like he was getting lucky there.

He burst into the banquet hall without hesitation. All eyes immediately turned his way. He didn't give himself time to process the various species there, just bolted, purposely slamming into the king and knocking him to the ground. The king shook it off and jumped up. "Get him!" he ordered, pointing. The next thing Red knew, he was being pursued by a large group of enemies and a few allies. Here was hoping the allies caught him and not the enemies. Better yet, here was hoping he wasn't caught at all.

Escaping the castle courtyard wasn't difficult. Disappearing into the capitol was risky, though. An announcement was already going out to the Kadiens to be on the lookout for him. He darted into the alleys. He had to get out of this cityscape and into the Kadien wilderness. He'd have a better chance out there! Suddenly something leapt on him from behind with a horrifying, insectoid sound. He was spun over and gasped. An Arachnean! Dammit! Everything that moved was prey to them, even each other. They were cannibalistic like that. He willed is PAK to come back online, and last second the legs sprang out and blocked the Arachnean's limbs from impaling or twisting him up. He managed to put up enough of a fight that he was able to slip away, but Arachneans were fast, so outrunning them wasn't a guarantee. Then again, his hover belt made it pretty easy to keep ahead. If just barely. At full power, it was actually really fast. He swerved out into a highway. He could maneuver better than his pursuer. She was nimble, sure, but also wider than he was, so darting through floating traffic was proving harder for her. Red soared down another alley and had almost reached the other end, when suddenly a Throbulan warrior leapt down in front of him and looked up with a scowl.

"You're a joke!" Red insulted without hesitation. He wasn't being taken down by a race that small. He plowed through the Throbulan, but it was quick to recover and go after him. The Arachnean joined it soon enough. He raced towards a cruiser that was running and untended and threw himself into it, immediately making for space. Various weapons fired after it, so getting into the whatever-sphere wasn't going to be an option. He made for the wilderness instead. If he could lose them there, then he could take the cruiser into space.

He'd just made it to the city outskirts when a Gladitorian suddenly struck the cruiser with a massive blade, cutting it in half. Red cried out in alarm as he was sent flying and toppling through the air. The Gladitorian landed behind him. "You've gotta be kidding," Red said, pushing himself off the ground. The Gladitorian went at him. Nimbly he dodged the warrior and fought back until throwing his opponent to the ground and making for the Kadien forests up ahead. A forest was good. He could lose his enemies in a forest!

He darted into the cover of the woods and kept going until all sounds of pursuit and firing weapons faded. Was he safe, he wondered as he looked around. He wasn't gonna stop running just yet of course, but had he actually managed to get away? He was wary of that hope. Something didn't feel right. He felt like he was being watched. Something was definitely stalking him, and no matter what he did, he couldn't escape it. He heard a soft chiming sound from somewhere above and gasped, looking up. He cried out in alarm at what he saw, but didn't have time to move before it landed on him. He gawked up at his attacker in shock. A crystalline warrior! Chrystallians, he believed they were called? From Crystallis. Hold on…

"Hey wait a minute. You look familiar somehow," he said. She shouted and began going at him with a crystalline spear. You'd better believe she was quick with the thing too. Desperately he blocked her strikes—strikes almost too fast to see—and bucked her off to the side. She slid a bit away from him, but was still on her hands and feet. Immediately she went at him again and he was forced to go on the defensive a second time. "I recognize you. You were on Hobo 13!" She faltered briefly, blinking in surprise. Probably because she didn't recognize him in the slightest. "You were there with Zim!"

She immediately looked furious at the mention of the little alien. "What? You know Zim?" she dangerously asked.

"I can't stand him!" Red said.

"Why? He's probably every bit as annoying as the rest of you," she replied before immediately going at him again.

"He's not. Trust me. We're annoying, sure, but not half as annoying as he is," Red said, continuing to block the attacks while also throwing in some of his own.

"But every bit as selfish, vindictive, and treacherous I'd bet!" she replied.

"Now that I can admit to," Red said dryly before striking her with a robotic limb. She cried out in pain, knocked to the ground. He leapt on her. She caught him immediately, holding him back with a scowl. He smirked, sensing he was getting the upper hand. "Too bad he cheated you out of a victory. You looked like you'd actually go all the way."

She shouted angrily, throwing him off. He yelped in surprise and rolled across the ground. She jumped at him again. He caught her up quickly in his mantis-like limbs, but the serrated blades couldn't damage her crystalline structure, and his legs couldn't get a firm grip on the smooth surface. Plus, every time she brushed against him with a sharp point or edge, he ended up cut. The Crystallians were no joke when it came to armor—they needed precious little—and were probably among the races most equipped to deal out passive damage by their mere existence. This one kept her edges sharpened like razors. He was getting cut up a lot more often than he was comfortable with for sure.

"Get off!" he shouted, jamming his PAK legs into her center mass. She cried out, flying back. He leapt up and began fleeing again. She went after him and moved rapidly. She leapt, tackling him to the ground, and once more they were caught up in a struggle.

"Stay down!" she insisted, jamming her spear at him again.

"I don't think so!" he replied, fighting her off.

"You can't win!" she said.

"Want a bet?" he asked. He didn't see the flash of a crystal dagger until it was too late. Before he could react, she'd plunged it into his arm. Why she hadn't gone for the center mass—tiny as it was—he wasn't sure. At least not until he felt his blood beginning to run cold. An icy little smile spread across her lips and his eyes widened in realization. A poison. She'd poisoned him! She hadn't gone for center mass because she hadn't needed to! There'd have been no guarantee she could pierce the armor there, even where it was lighter armored, but there'd been a guarantee she could cut his unprotected arm if she was precise enough in her strike. "Oh son of a…"

"Prisoners are meant to stay in prison. You shouldn't have escaped your cell," she said.

"Too bad prison wasn't what they were planning for me," he dryly replied, feeling his body starting to stiffen up. She frowned and raised an 'eyebrow' curiously. He smirked bitterly. "You'll see. By the way, congratulations. Crystallis is now marked for conquest."

"As if we weren't already," she replied. "It was going to happen eventually."

"No. No it wasn't. Now it is," he said. He saw a brief flicker of unease in her eyes, but quickly she masked it. He tried once more to fight her off, but his body only moved very slowly and just a little bit. He grunted in some discomfort.

"There, there. Just give in. It's less uncomfortable that way," she said.

"Curse you, Crystallian," he replied. She frowned at him. He felt his body giving in and fell back, staring numbly up at the sky. He was totally paralyzed. Frozen from the inside it felt like. That wasn't gonna be pleasant to come out of, he dryly noted, and he cursed her again as she stared down at him with eyes like ice. He'd never seen eyes like that before. She was tall at least, so he guessed he could have fallen to worse.