Disclaimers: I do not own Invader Zim

Author's Notes: Thanks for all your support and reviews, it really helps! With that said please enjoy Chapter 8!

(15 years ago…)

[Location: The Amazon]

She had not expected to find anything… She never did.

Annabel Membrane gathered all her wits as she pressed forward, treading deeper, and deeper into the thick jungle of the Amazon. Mosquitos buzzed in her face, and she did her best to bat them away with one hand, as the other used a machete to slash away at the vegetation; creating herself a straightforward way back to civilization.

It was her only lifeline, her only way back. For a moment she regrets not hiring a guide, but soon shakes the thought away. The last thing she wanted was to get a civilian involved in an alien encounter. She shook her head, in disbelief at her own words. These orbs were most likely another hoax, but she had to be sure, after all she had two little ones to worry about now.

Annabel smiled at the thought of her children. Dib would be turning 33 months, and little Gaz who was now 18 months had just started walking days before she left. Her husband Dibson Senior always found it cute how she would count every day, and month of their children's' existence. Annabel found her smile fading, she and Dibson had not left off on a good note.

He was upset that she was still wasting her time with what he believed was a fantasy, but Annabel knew what she had seen, she knew it was real. It had all started when she was seven years old, being a country girl by birth, her parents lived on a farm several miles away from where her current home was now. One night she had woken up to the sound of nervous Nays. Something had spooked the horses, and her own father had gone out to see what it was. Being a curious seven-year-old Annabel had followed him outside. The noise was coming from the barn, and she had followed her father in, hiding behind a few barrels of hay.

What she saw there still made her blood run cold.

A large robotic like squid was standing in the middle of the barn, scanning the livestock, and beeping, as if speaking in some indecipherable language.

Her father had tried to open fire on it with his shot gun, but the mechanical beast was not affected by the rounds, it simply turns slowly to her father and scans him. Once completed it walks up to him, snatches him up and carries him off into the night. Annabel hadn't even second guessed her decision to run after them, she screamed at the thing to let him go, as her father begged her to run on home.

She didn't listen, she kept chasing them, until she was far too tired to keep up. That morning the police found her sitting beside the road staring off in the direction her father had been taken. She tried to tell them what happened, but no one believed her, and needless to say her father was never seen or heard from again.

It was because of that day that she was here now. Was today the day she would finally get answers?

She wasn't sure, but she had promised her mother on her death bed that she would find out what happened to her father!

And it was a promise she planned to keep.

"Come on Annie." She said, using the nickname her father had given her. "We're almost there." She chops through a few more thick stocks of vegetation, only to freeze as she hears a familiar mechanical sound. It was a sound that had been burning into her mind since that night. The beeping, almost static like language. She cuts the last stock more slowly, trying not to give away her position.

And what she sees makes her chest seize up, as all air leaves her body.

A squid like robot walks around on four metal tentacles, scanning the ground, responding in that same mechanical language, that she can't make out. This was it; she had found him.

"Dad." She whispered, pulling out her camera. She stops to make sure it's silent, and that the flash is off before she begins to snap pictures. The machine is oblivious to her, working diligently, its own mission in mind. "What are you looking for?" She whispered.

Suddenly a monkey howls in the distance, startling the squid. What it does next takes Annabel by surprise. The squid transforms into a round sphere and takes off into the air.

'The orbs!' she realized, pulling out the blurry pictures. 'The orbs were the squids in flight!'

But why were they here, and why had they taken her father? Did he see too much? Was he even alive today?

A twig snaps behind her, she turns around to see another squid. Unfortunately, it sees her too!

"Shoot." She whispers.

The squid scans her, and she waits for it to attack.

For a moment nothing happens, the squid scans her again as if confused. It makes a strange sound, she cannot understand. It repeats.

Was it trying to communicate with her?

If so, she couldn't make out any words, perhaps this was some sort of computer talk, maybe this was a computer-based race. A Biomechanical species from the stars, if so, perhaps there was a way for her to close the communication gap.

She puts her camera down on the ground beside her, and pulls out her phone, offering it to the squid. The squid doesn't seem to understand.

"Here, take it." She offered, reaching out to give her phone over to it. She knew she was making a great leap of faith trusting this thing, especially when one kidnapped her father. Still, she felt like there was no imminent danger. It was hard to explain, but she felt like the alien was asking her for help.

The squid approaches almost cautiously and reaches out to take the device.

Annabel couldn't help but smile in awe at its glorious tech, it looked far more advanced up close, and to think she had such an honor to see it.

The squid takes the device, and scans it, before making a ding sound.

Annabel watches as it begins to type away at it, as if figuring out how it works, finally a cord comes out of its tentacle, and it connects to the phone. The squid jolts, as if surged with electricity; it then turns to Annabel. "Thank you I have received necessary update, scanning again."

Annabel watched in awe as the creature scanned her again.

"Species: human, device given: a phone...Purpose? A means of communication." The squid's voice sounded a lot like the voice of her cell phone's Siri, so Annabel decided to call it that.

"Did you use the internet to download all of that?" She dared to ask.

"Yes." The Squid, Siri answered. "The phone identifies you as Annabel is this correct?"

"Yes." Annabel answers too astonished to speak.

"I have used your phone to explore the vast web and took the liberty of downloading several languages." Siri told her.

"Oh." Annabel says, she's finding it hard to speak, here she is with the thing she's been looking for her whole life, and she can't form the words she wants so desperately to ask.

"Thank you, Annabel, for your assistance." Siri says. "I must go now." She goes to leave.

"Wait!" Annabel exclaimed.

"Is there something I can help you with?" Siri asked. "Are you lost? If so, civilization is that way." She used a tentacle to point in the direction Annabel had come.

"No, I'm not lost." Annabel assured her. "Are you?"

"No, I am in Amazon." Siri answered.

"Okay why?" Annabel asked.

"Why?" Siri repeated.

"Why are you here?" Annabel repeated. "Why are you on my planet?"

"Searching." Siri answered.

"For what?" Annabel inquired.

"Weapon." Siri replied.

Weapon!

Red flags went off in her mind, a weapon? She was here for a weapon! Annabel began to back away slowly, perhaps Siri's intentions were not as pure as she thought. "We humans don't have any advance weaponry." She told her. "We can't offer you anything better than what you already have."

"You miss understand." Siri told her. "Weapon is ours."

Annabel stops. Okay, so they had something of theirs, and they wanted it back. Well, that made sense she guessed. "Did you lose it here?" She asked.

"It is somewhere in Amazon." Siri answered. Her sentence was not a full one, and it was obvious she had not grasped the full concept of English. She kept forgetting the word: the!

"How long has it been missing?" Annabel asked.

"You humans would say decades." Siri answered. "50 decades."

"It might have moved by now." Annabel said. "We usually don't leave dangerous things like that out in the open."

"I see." Siri stated simply.

"Why were you in the states?" Annabel asked.

"What?" Siri asked.

"15 years ago, there was one of you in my hometown, you took a man from a barn." Annabel said. "Why be there if the weapon is here?"

"A piece of weapon is here." Siri said. "Weapon too dangerous if assembled."

Okay so there are pieces hidden all over the planet. She could buy that, but that still didn't explain her father.

"Where is he?" She asked.

"I knew I remembered you." Siri said, suddenly a holographic image is displayed before her.

Annabel gasped as she saw herself in the barn of her home farm, behind the barrels of hay. The image also shows her father, and the squid before him. "You were behind me." She realized aloud as the holograph disappeared.

"Correct, I was so confused when I scanned you and it showed you as familiar. But now I understand I have scanned you before." Siri says.

"Where is he?" Annabel cries.

"Your father unit is home." Siri said.

"No, he isn't, he's been missing because of you!" Annabel screamed. "Now give him back!"

"You miss understand he is at my home." Siri told her.

"Bring him back!" Annabel ordered.

"I cannot." Siri said.

"Why!" Annabel screamed.

"He saw a piece." Siri answered simply.

"A piece?" Annabel asked, tears streaming down her face. "A piece of what? The weapon?"

"Correct, needed him to find it." Siri stated.

"Did you?" Annabel asked hopefully.

"Yes." Siri answered.

"Then bring him home." Annabel ordered "Now!"

"He is home." Siri stated.

"No bring him here, to me, our home, to Earth now!" Annabel demanded.

"I cannot." Siri refused.

"Why not." Annabel cried, tears coated her face now, wetting her shirt.

"Richard, does not wish to come home." Siri said. "He wants to help Zoran for the sake of his family."

"Zoran?" Annabel asked. "Siri, what is this weapon for?"

"Zoran must eliminate Irk." Siri answered.

Irk?

Annabel was confused, what was Irk, and why did her dad feel the need to protect her from it. "Siri, I want to see my dad NOW!" Annabel ordered.

"Siri can take Annabel to father unit." Siri stated, obviously deciding to own the nickname she had been given. "Bur Siri must find her piece of weapon before returning home."

"Then let me help you." Annabel said. "I've been in these woods several times; I can make your search faster…maybe you know a landmark it's nearby."

Siri seems to think it over, finally she speaks again. "I will accept Annabel's help."

Annabel sighed in relief, and watched as Siri offered her a tentacle. She hesitates.

"Why do you wait?" Siri asked.

"I'm never coming back, am I?" She asked.

"No." Siri answered, confirming her fears.

"Why?" Annabel asked.

"Too dangerous to risk coming back to Earth." Siri stated. "Irk can track us. Irk must not find Earth."

"And if they do?" Annabel dared to ask.

"Irk will win war." Siri stated.

A chill ran down her back, she ignored it. "War? What War?"

"Revolution." Siri answered, "Freedom from Irk starts now."

"They enslaved you?" Annabel asked, she could feel herself shaking.

"We are all slaves to the Irken Machine." Siri answered. "Earth is free, and defenseless...must stay hidden."

Annabel suddenly began to understand, the squids must have hidden their weapon here for safe keeping, since Earth was unknown to this Irk, but somehow the pieces had been moved on them. Leaving them franticly snatching up whoever had seen them in hopes of assembling it, and using it to stop Irk before it could get more powerful. And to make matters worse multiple trips to Earth put them all at risk, because this Irk was tracking them.

"How long have you been on Earth?" Annabel asked.

"20 human Years." Siri answered. "My partner unit took Richard, he showed us piece of weapon, and returned to Zoran with partner unit."

"And now your partner unit cannot come back?" Annabel asked.

"Correct." Siri answered, confirming her suspicions.

Partner unit, Annabel wondered if partner met, husband or simply someone Siri was working with. But she didn't waste time asking. She had a decision to make, stay her on Earth, and wonder about all she had heard, or leave and find her father. "I can never come back?" She asked again.

"Perhaps if War ends quickly, I can bring Annabel and Father Unit back to Earth." Siri offered.

"I would like that." Annabel admitted. "But I have family here, they need me."

"Zoran needs you, safety of universe at stake." Siri answered. "Must help Siri for sake of family."

Another chill ran down her spine, but she knew what she had to do. "Okay I will go." She answered, "But first I have to leave a message for my family."

"Make it quick." Siri ordered.

Annabel nodded and pulled out a piece of paper, writing down as much as she could about the encounter. She then places it in a plastic Ziploc bag with her camera. Finally, she took out her phone and gave her husband a single message.

I love you, please find me.

She knew Dibson would never find her, but hopefully he would find her bag of research. Once she knew the message had sent, she placed the phone in the bag, zipped it up and hid it in the hole of a nearby tree.

"Are you ready to go?" Siri asked.

"Yes." Annabel answered sniffling, at least she got to say goodbye, and there was a hope that she would see them soon. But first she had to ensure their safety, she knew Dibson would hate her for this, but she like her father; understood. Just because the aliens had not found them yet, didn't mean they never would. To pretend they'd stay hidden forever was a death sentence waiting to happen.

She would not have that kind of future for her children, and if staying light years away while fighting some war meant that they would be safe; then so be it.

"Then let's go." Siri said, offering her tentacle again.

This time Annabel took it without hesitation and allowed Siri to lead her into the unknown.

-To Be Continued

End Notes:

Thanks for reading as always, I ask you to leave a comment. The next chapter will be up soon

So, until then...

This is Emily signing off :)