Disclaimers: I do not own Invader Zim
Author's Notes: Okay guys this is part of the story where the characters from all the flashback chapters like Lard Nar, and Annabel show themselves in the present-day time frame. I will be going back and forth between chapters about them with chapters about Dib and Zim.
Also, I changed the name of the Resisty to the Galactic Alliance, I just can't take that name seriously.
PS: I'm starting School this week so my updates will not be as frequent as they usually are sorry, but I can only do so much. Thanks for reading and please review.
(Location: Planet Zoran)
[Biome: The Scorch Desert]
They had been gone for far too long…
It could not be helped he supposed, after all scouting the scorch was necessary. The vast desert was an ideal place for the enemy to hide.
"Do you see anything Richard?"
Richard Page looked around him cautiously, with the new Irken radar system the Irken scum could land on this planet undetected. This of course would mean absolute destruction for Zoran and its inhabitance, something he could simply not allow. "No, I can't see a thing in this storm!" he rasped wrapping his scarf around his face in hopes of shielding his eyes from the elements. "We should head back Lard Nar."
The Vort Scientist and leader of the Galactic Alliance scanned the desert sand one last time. As if fearing the enemy would rise from its endless depths at a moment's notice. He tried remembering how he got to this place, this position in life. He went from being a lowly Vort scientist to the leader of the most fear alliance in the known universe.
Of course, it didn't start out that way, after his betrayal against Irk he had woken up in the trash heaps of planet Vort with a large black burn on his chest. Of course, he remembered what happened, Zim… Zim had shot him.
Of course, he was angry at first, but strangely the emotion did not last. Instead, he picked himself up and stowed away on a ship off world going who knows where. He just kept going from one ship to another, he met many other refugees along the way, and sorrow would always fill him when he left them.
It was too dangerous to travel in large groups, so staying together was impossible. Lard Nar had wished there was somewhere they could go, a place free of the Irken scourge. Finally, he heard rumor that the Milky Way had been labeled a death zone by the Irken people, and the idea emerged.
He would steal a large Vort ship and take any refugee he could find to freedom. It didn't pan out that way though. Lard Nar could only convince 10 refugees to come with him, and when they got there, it only took seconds for them to run into trouble.
Or what they thought was trouble, the old Irken AI's miss took their Vort ship as an enemy vessel, and nearly blew them to smithereens. It was only after Lard Nar explained their situation to them that they stood down. Still, they were forced to leave, of course Lard Nar stood his ground reasoning that the refugees had no place to go.
Understanding how desperate they were the AI's brought them here. And now new refugees arrived on Zoran like clockwork. And it was all made possible simply because Lard Nar refused to roll over and die.
"Lard Nar." Richard repeated.
Lard Nar forced himself to peel his eyes away to look at the man before him. Richard was a human who hailed from his home planet, Earth. He was a remarkable man, one whose love and devotion for his daughter showed no limits. "Right." He said. "We mustn't keep Annie waiting."
Richard laughed. "I told her she worries far too much." He said. "We've been combing this desert for years and we've never found the enemy."
"You can't blame her." Lard Nar said. "She's already lost you once." He reminded him. "She gave up everything to find you."
Richard sighed. "I know, and to think I actually thought I'd never see her again. That she would just forget..." he struggled for words.
Lard Nar was sure there would be tears in the man's eyes if it was not due to his dehydration. Water was hard to find on Zoran, and getting harder as the years went on. Soon the problem would have to be addressed, but that was for another day. "If there is one thing you and Annabel have taught me it's that love is the strongest force there is." He told him. "There is no greater devotion."
"So, you've never known such devotion?" Richard asked.
Lard Nar pauses and then answers. "Yes, but it was not for me." He answered tracing a spot on his chest. He could feel the scar from the blaster just barely now, and every time he thought of him, he would trace it with his finger.
Richard flinched; it was obvious to everyone in the resistance that their leader had a huge chip on his shoulder. No one knew much of the details, merely that Lard Nar had trusted someone deeply. Only for that someone to stab him in the back. Richard had seen the scar only once, it was a large burn, like a spider web of black veins. 'How could someone do that to another living being?' he thought.
Lard Nar shook his head. "It wasn't his fault." He assured Richard, as if he could hear his thoughts. "True I was angry at first, but he was only a child…perhaps I asked too much of him."
"Still to side with Irken scum." Richard spat. "Child or not he should know-"
"You don't understand." Lard Nar said. "He was just siding with his own people."
Richard's eyes widen. "You…you trusted an Irken! Are you mad?"
Lard Nar simply laughed. "They are not so different from us, he taught me that."
"He who?" Richard dared to ask.
"Zim." Lard Nar answered not missing a beat.
"You mean Invader Zim!" Richard exclaimed. "The scourge of 9 galaxies, the one-man Irken army, that Zim?"
Lard Nar laughed; he couldn't help himself. "So, is that what their calling him now?" Of course, he wouldn't know, he made it a point not to learn what kind of monster his young friend had become. And there was plenty of talk, a good third of the refuges here were survivors of Zim's work.
"This is serious Lard Nar." Richard snapped. "I can't believe you were friends with such a monster."
"He's not a monster!" Lard Nar snapped startling Richard, it was not like Lard Nar to get upset, or shout out over anything. "He's just lost." He added in a low whisper. "You didn't know him like I did, And if you ever met him, you would see it too."
"See what?" Richard asked.
"The doubt." Lard Nar answered without missing a beat. "Everything he does in their name, he doubts."
"Then why stand by them?" Richard challenged.
"Self-preservation." Lard Nar answered. "Something I'm sure some of your fellow humans could relate to."
Richard nodded, he had told his old friend much about human history, and he was right, it was the same. "That still doesn't make it right."
"I know." Lard Nar said. "But fear is a powerful adversary, one that not everyone is strong enough to conquer on their own."
"He had you, didn't he?" Richard challenged.
Lard Nar scoffed. "Yes, but obviously that wasn't enough, but who knows. Maybe one day he will meet that special someone who gives him a reason to fight. Like you with your daughter, like her with her own family."
"I guess anything is possible." Richard said, but he highly doubted it. After all, Irkens don't love anything, heck he wasn't even sure if they loved themselves much less someone else.
Lard Nar nodded reading him like an open book. "You know they weren't always like this." He began.
"Of course, I know." Richard scoffed. "You've only told us all a thousand times. The old Irk this, the old Irk that. Well, the old Irk is gone Lard Nar, and it's obviously never coming back."
Lard Nar sighed. "Perhaps, but is it so wrong to dream for a peaceful ending? Or are you not tired of war?"
"Of course, I am tired." Richard assured him. "But wars don't end peacefully, that's why it's called war my friend."
"Yes, I suppose you've got a point there." Lard Nar admitted. "But an old fool can dream, can't he?"
"You're no fool." Richard assured him. "I'm sure Invader Zim was once promising, maybe you were getting through to him. But it's obvious that he no longer doubts a thing."
"I guess we'll know soon enough." Lard Nar said.
"Do you really think they'll assign the Earth to Zim?" Richard asked.
Lard Nar nodded. "He is their most successful invader, the Tallest would trust no one else with the job."
Of course, it was no secret to them that Irk was already on Earth, even though the AI's had left long ago they still watched Earth closely and tried to keep it hidden as much as possible. But they knew it was only a matter of time before it was discovered.
Sadly, it had been the humans own actions that had done it. They had been sending probes out into space for years. The AI's would destroy everyone that they came across, but they could never be sure that they had destroyed them all. And while there was no proof that Irk had found a probe; it was the most popular opinion of the inhabitants of Zoran.
Either way, regardless of how the Irkens had found Earth and the AI's had picked up several Irken probes heading in Earth's direction. Naturally, they wanted to stop them, but there were children on Zoran and if they tried to intervene, they may inadvertently lead the enemy right to their doorstep.
So, they had no choice but to let the probes do their job, and now just weeks ago another piece of Irken Tech had been detected headed to Earth.
A ship! No doubt an Invader sent to conquer the unsuspecting world.
Richard shook his head. "I still can't believe they found Earth." He rasped, there was fear in his eyes, fear for his grandchildren no doubt.
Lard Nar sighed again; he could sometimes hear Annabel crying for them late at night. She obviously missed them very much and feared for their safety. He wishes he could calm those fears, but he could not sugar code the facts. Zim had become a heartless conquer, and Lard Nar did not need to hear the stories to know this. The Irken program could only be resisted for so long. "We couldn't hide Earth forever." He finally answered.
Richard seemed to nod in agreement, and how could he not?
For 50 years the AI's had protected Earth, destroying any and all ships that entered the Milky Way galaxy. However, it would appear their efforts were all in vain, for Earth had been found. Worse still, an Irken was already there.
"How could we let this happen?" Richard asked.
"It was only a matter of time." Lard Nar stated. "We aren't perfect, not even the AI's. They were bound to miss something sooner or later."
"So, what do we do?" Richard asks.
"The only thing we can." Lard Nar answered as they started moving through the storm again towards home base.
"We can't run again." Richard reasoned.
"It can't be helped." Lard Nar argued. "Annabel and Siri never found their piece of the weapon, and without it; we have no way of stopping Irk."
Richard growled. "I bet they have it." He said.
"Who the Irken's?" Lard Nar asked.
"Who else?" Richard asked. "Think about it. They knew about the weapon, it's possible."
"Possible, but unlikely, after all they would have used the piece to engineer their own by now." Lard Nar reminded him. "And last I checked the Irkens did not have a weapon that could destroy a whole planet in one blast."
"Yes, thank heavens for that." Richard said.
"Indeed." Lard Nar agreed, only to stop as a faint sound reaches his ear holes, almost like the hissing of a very familiar tongue.
By the time the sound registers it's too late to react. Both men scream as something stabs them from behind and electricity courses through them.
"No…" Richard whispers, falling to his knees.
There's the sound of cruel laughter, and more hisses, followed by a sickening clicking noise that Lard Nar can understand far too well.
"Well look what I found." The Irken scout snickered as he came into view. "A Vort and…." The Irken froze. "What are you supposed to be some hairless beast?"
Richard was still a little green when it came to the Irken language, but he knew an insult when he heard one. "I am not hairless!" he shouted gesturing to his white hair on top of his head. "See hair!" he yelled only to cough up blood.
"Oops I guess I set the voltage a little too high." The Irken scoffed not looking the least bit sorry. He twirled his taser rod smugly, only to stop as if he recognizes something.
Or someone!
"Wait a minute." He says pointing his rod at Lard Nar. "I know you." He says. "You're supposed to be dead-" he freezes suddenly and goes limp before falling to the desert sand.
A tall female earthling appears behind him, her lavender hair whips around in the desert storm. The swirling sand has cloaked her from the enemy. "I can't leave you two alone for five seconds without you finding trouble, can I?" She asked.
"Annie!" Richard tried to jump to his feet, but he's far too quick, and the blood rushes to his head. His feet give way before he even manages to get up completely.
"Dad." Annabel is at his side in seconds.
"We'll be fine." Lard Nar assures her. Before getting up much slower than Richard; in hopes of not meeting the same fate. He manages to stand up right, and reaches down to help his friend.
Richard takes his hand, and allows him to pull him up on shaking legs. His eyes never leaving the Irken Scout. "How did they find us so quickly?"
"Zim isn't stupid." Lard Nar reasoned. "If he's already infiltrated your Swollen Eyeball then it is possible that he's put all the pieces about the flying orbs together and has informed the Tallest about everything he knows which means…."
"We're compromised." Annabel finished. A wave of mixed emotions floods her. If Zim discovered their location through her encounter with Siri. Then Dark Booty must have found her research, which meant her family now knew she was okay. This realization made her happy, but she also feared for the ones she loved.
Her colleagues and her family could already be within Irk's reach.
"We have to move." Lard Nar insisted. "We have to ready the others."
"Agreed." Richard said, finally regaining his balance. "Annie gather the AI's, tell them it's time to leave."
"Okay." Annabel took off into the desert.
"Lard Nar I'll get the refugees ready." Richard assured him.
"Good I will join you shortly." He assured him as his eyes fell on the Irken's motionless body.
"What are you going to do with him?" Richard asked.
"The only thing I can." Lard Nar answered reaching for the PAK. "If I rewire the PAK, I can give him a sort of short term memory lapse. He won't remember this encounter."
"How much time will that buy us?" Richard asked hopefully.
"Not much." Lard Nar admitted. "Eventually…he may remember this, but hopefully it's just enough time for us to disappear." He said crossing a few wires on the PAK. "Go now, I must inform our informant that we are moving."
Richard nodded and took off into the desert sand towards the colony. The refuges would not be please to leave. Sure, life was hard on Zoran, but it had been their first real home in a long time, and it would pain them to leave it.
Lard Nar did not blame them, the journey to Earth would be a long and hard road, but they had to try.
Lard Nar pulled out his communicator and cursed in the Vort tongue. The storm would not allow the signal to go through. This meant their informant would have to wait; he finished rewiring the PAK. Once completed he took off towards the colony to prepare the ship for takeoff.
Hopefully, he could get it running in this storm.
"Well, Zim." He whispered. "I hope you're ready, because this time you won't be able to sit on the fence..."
-To Be Continued