Hey, guys! I've been having fun recently with my new ADHD meds, getting creative stuff done finally! I'm excited to finally be able to focus and get stuff done. I've been using them since September and I've gotten a lot of personal stuff done, and they're actually life-changing. For anyone curious, I'm more active on my tumblr, .com and I sometimes discuss how chapters are coming along over there, as well.

P.S. coming up with a title was a nightmare. Anyway! Slow as updates are, I'm still writing where I can!

Enjoy!

Part 75: Intermittent

Tak had been dismantling whatever wasn't destroyed from her ship for hours—taking apart the ship entirely to assess the damage fully. She'd started with the hull, then the storage and engines, the dashboard, and the interior. The lab space that Zim had allotted to her was sizeable (it had to be, with how much of the floor she'd already taken up) and she'd strewn her ship's pieces across most of the space. There was almost a defined path from the door to the desk and winding around all the parts.

Tak pulled a piece of the dashboard across the table, working to affix it to another piece. Gaz sat to her left, idly playing on her Game Slave.

"How long is this going to take you?" Gaz asks, looking up at the mess before her.

"I don't know what was damaged," Tak clipped. "It takes as long as it takes."

Gaz sighed, pausing her game. She looked over at Tak, tilting her head. The PAK was latched onto her back, the beveled skull design reflecting across the tablet and walls. She set her Game Slave aside and hefted herself up onto the table to sit there instead. Tak shot a look but didn't shove her off. Gaz leaned on her hand to hover over Tak and her work, looking over it with a plain expression.

"So, did you get a rank up or whatever?" Gaz asks.

"Pardon?"

"You got taller," Gaz says. "Did they promote you or something?"

Tak paused in her work to look up at her. "Is it normal for humans to ask nonsensical questions?"

"Is it normal for Irkens to be assholes?"

"Yes," Tak says with a smirk. Gaz snorted, shoving her in the shoulder.

"Isn't your rank determined by height? You get promoted so you're allowed to grow taller or something? Does your PAK affect that?"

"No, it doesn't," Tak says, with an aire of incredulousness. "Just being on a planet with different gravity pulls will do that. That's why Zim is so much taller," she grumbled.

"Ok, so why are you so much taller?"

"I haven't been on Irk in a long time," Tak says. "Same principle."

Gaz hummed, bringing her legs up to sit cross-legged on the edge of the table. "But your rank is by height, right?"

"Not solely. It's an unofficial caste system," Tak says. "The Control Brains control an Irkens' rank set. Their height determines their initial rank, and they can work up from that."

"Really? So, are there ranks among Invaders, or?"

"Not really," Tak says with a shrug. "We're all ranked roughly the same, we just get better picks in terms of what planet to invade based on our loyalty, our years of service, and our experience. The Control Brains take everything into account. We grow naturally over time like anything else, the PAKs don't impede our growth, we just grow slowly. With a growth spurt here and there, if we're not on gravitationally heavy planets. Most Irkens from my or Skoodge and Zim's crops have already conquered their assigned planets."

"Your "crops"?" Gaz asks. She waited for any elaboration, but Tak left it at that. "Wait, so are you and Zim higher rank by now?"

"I am," Tak says, a prideful smile slipping onto her face briefly. Her expression soured once more and she harshly pulled the dashboard close to her again. "Zim isn't an Invader. He's a food drone. He stole the ship he pilots."

"Well, from what I heard about his "job" on Foodcourtia, I don't think he's a food drone anymore, either," Gaz says, tapping her finger on the table.

"Then he has no rank. Fitting."

"Hey," Gaz snapped.

"He knows," Tak clipped back.

She turned back to the dashboard, stewing in the silence. Gaz crossed her arms, staring at her. It was a little over a minute before Tak sighed heavily and turned her way with a scowl and lowered antennae. Gaz's gaze was unfaltering. It was on one hand admirable for a species so easy to crush (literally) being so defiant. On the other hand, it was incredibly infuriating. It would be so easy to remind Gaz of who—or rather what—she was sharing a room with at the moment.

But she instead leaned back. "What." She asks. Gaz just continued to stare her down. "I'm not about to start sparsing what you're thinking, I don't care to."

"Nevermind," Gaz mumbled. She looked at her from the corner of her eye as Tak started working again and she pushed some pieces of ship aside so she could lay out more on the table, propping her head up on her hand. "Hey. How tall are those Tallests of yours? In human measurements."

Tak paused. She ran the calculations in her PAK. "About… I believe over ten feet. Perhaps twelve to fifteen, I do not have much to compare against."

Gaz snorted, chuckling. Tak shot her a sidelong, curious look. Gaz pointed to the door.

"So, they couldn't even get below the door frame?" Gaz asks. Tak stared at her a moment and then had to hold her face in her hand, shoulders shaking a little. Gaz poked her shoulder, prompting the smallest wheeze of laughter. "Hunching over like some grannies just to pass into a room? That how it is?"

"Gaz, stop," Tak whispered, burying her face into her arms on the table.

"You can laugh, c'mon, laugh!"

"Noooo!"

Gaz pulled her phone out, typing away as Tak had to turn away from her to continue working.

Gaz: I know things about Irkens you don't

Idiot Brother: what

Gaz: nah

Idiot Brother: What do you mean NAH?!

Gaz: suck it, bro

Idiot Brother: COME ON

Gaz switched through her apps. Tak eventually moved on to a different section of the ship, working through three different sections and setting them aside to one corner for completed parts she'd repaired. Gaz could hear two pairs of feet, and a high-pitched voice, coming down the hall and looked out to the door. Tak sighed, pausing as she was carrying a particularly large piece over to the table. Her antennae drooped to either side.

Zim was first around the door, Gir hanging off his arm. Dib was right behind him, his eyes zeroing in on Gaz immediately. She shot him a knowing smirk. Before Zim could properly speak, Tak turned her back to him, setting the large piece of ship down.

"No," Tak says curtly.

"You don't get the choice," Zim snaps back, grabbing the back of her shirt collar. He yanked her away from the work station, leaving her flailing not to fall and be dragged instead.

"I was in the middle of something!" Tak screeched. Gaz sat up, hopping down off the table.

"Party pooper," Gaz mumbled to Dib as she shouldered past him. "What is it?"

"WE'RE GOING HIKING!" Gir cheered.

"You're interrupting me for hiking?!" Tak shouted.

"Yes," Zim confirmed. He dragged her past the threshold and into the hall, towards the elevator. "Skoodge got to pick where because you both wanted to isolate yourselves."

"Thought you boys would want some alone time," Gaz teased. Dib elbowed her in the side.

Tak pulled her feet up further from the rushing water, gripping her knees. The rocks they'd decided to rest upon were smack in the center of the river, with a scattered pattern of rocks that led out to them. The river wasn't high, and she was at least grateful for that, but it was moving fast on all sides. Gaz sat back to back with her, letting Tak lean against her for some sense of stability.

The hike to the rocks had been fine and dandy. Tak had actually somewhat enjoyed walking through the trees. The light filtering through the trees was unlike anything she' seen before (she hadn't paid it much mind on any walks to and from her ship before, too focused on her tasks at hand). She could hear the river before she could see it. And Zim, of course, wasted no time getting onto the rocks to the largest boulder at the center of the river. And she was not about to be outdone by Zim of all people.

She marginally regretted it now. Her PAK legs were keeping her steady. Skoodge was doing much the same, stuck on the boulder between everyone else. Her and Gaz on one side and Dib and Zim on the other. Dib was taking panoramic shots of the river. Zim was just enjoying the view, far as she could tell.

Gir had flown off the moment they'd lost sight of the parking lot and any other humans. That didn't mean there were no humans. Tak could hear them occasionally pass them on the hiking path. A few teens would come by, and she and Skoodge would quickly recoil their PAK legs, before the teens would spot them all occupying the rock and move along.

"Hey," Gaz's voice snapped Tak out of her musing and she turned her, pulling her PAK legs in, confident enough at this point that she wasn't going to suddenly slip into the water. "It's not so bad when you're just enjoying it, is it?"

"It's not bad..." Tak admitted. She turned back to look out over the river. Gaz readjusting against her back, tilting so Tak's PAK slid along her own until it was against her shoulder and side. Gaz was looking over her shoulder at her.

"There are hiking trails without a river," Gaz says. "We'll go on one of those next time."

"I'm fine," Tak insisted.

"Yeah, your white knuckles are convincing me of that," Gaz said, her brow raising. She glanced over at Skoodge, who wasn't faring much better, shaking where he sat. Tak harshly let go of her knees, letting her legs drape over the side of the boulder.

"I am perfectly fine," Tak insisted again. Gaz hummed.

"Suuuuuure," she drawled. She turned to Zim. "Hey! I want to go to that one lookout."

Zim glanced her way. "Ah, good idea. Hm…. I should get Gir first."

Dib jolted, quickly shoving his phone into his pocket as Zim took a deep breath. "Wait! Wait!"

Gaz quickly covered her ears alongside Dib. Tak and Skoodge shot them each curious looks, before Zim shouted.

"GGIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRR!"

Birds burst from the nearby trees in a flurry of feathers and caws. Gaz was cackling, shaking against Tak. Tak gripped the rock, shouting a venomous, "Watch it!", and Dib shot Zim a glare. Zim's PAK produced the communicator, the screen flickering to life with Gir on the screen. Zim stared at it, dumbfounded a moment. The background had a mother black bear, with her paws over her head, dejected, as Gir hung from a cub's mouth like a chew toy.

"Hi, mastah!"

"Gir…"

Gaz leaned up to look over Zim's shoulder. She snorted, covering her mouth. "Oh my, god."

Dib and Zim looked at the screen, equally speechless. Dib rubbed his eyes and blinked. He pulled the screen closer, as if that would actually aid him in confirming what he was seeing. "Gir?"

Zim sighed, pinching his brow. "Gir, what are you doing?"

"I made friends!"

Zim sighed heavily. "Gir, come back to me, we're leaving soon for another location. Meet us at the parking lot. AND DO NOT BRING THE BEARS!"

"Aaaaaw!"

Dib shoved Zim out of the way, fighting off Zim's attempts to smack him away, shouting into the screen. "NO BEARS!"

"You're no fun!" Gir whined.

Regardless, he easily slipped out of the cub's mouth and started skipping away. Dib watched as the mother bear immediately began gathering the cubs up in the background. Zim ended the call with a heavy sigh. He turned on his heel to walk back down the rocks. His PAK legs shot out to balance him out before he ever came close to the water.

Tak and Skoodge watched him start to leave and leapt up themselves. They couldn't get off the rocks fast enough, leaping over the siblings' heads with their PAK legs to get onto land. Gaz laughed, leaning on a nearby tree.

"Jesus, if you were that high strung just get off the rocks!" she says, nonplussed when Tak shot her a deathly glare.

"Never," Tak ground out.

"Fine by me, hardass," Gaz says, waving her bravado off.

She sauntered past them, hooking Tak's arm in her own to drag her down the path. Tak stumbled at first before matching her pace with a playful scowl. Gaz shot her a smirk. Dib stared after them, walking alongside Zim like a zombie, with the Irken gently tugging on his sleeve to pull him along. Skoodge sidled up beside them, picking leaves off his pants.

"Where are we going now?" he asks.

"Dib and Gaz know a very good spot," Zim says. "You will enjoy it."

"Where?" Skoodge asks. "Is it like the park?"

"No, it is nothing like there. It is much better."

Once they'd reached the parking lot, Dib had shaken himself out of his daze and rushed for the map. Gaz jogged across the lot to scoop Gir up in her arms. He squealed, squirming in her grip. Tak side stepped her as she passed. By the time she'd reached the map Dib had found his bearings and turned towards the trail.

"We'll take it to about halfway," he says, "and then break off on a deer trail."

"A what?"

"Deer are animals that are native to most of this continent. They make trails of their own. Humans don't typically use them, so the traffic will be non-existent," Dib explained. He smiled, hooking arms with Zim as they took up the lead down the trail. "Which means you can relax when we get there!"

"He means no hologram," Zim clarified.

Skoodge looked uncertainly towards Tak. "Is that…" he paused, fiddling with his fingers. "…okay?"

"No one will see," Dib assured them. "We've gone a few times now. It's far off the trail so no one will see us."

"And you're sure about that?" Tak asks.

"Well, we haven't been caught."

Tak grumbled, pinching her brow. Gaz dropped Gir, leaving him to rush past the group up the trail, pausing every now and then to wait until they were nearby before sprinting again. Once they'd gotten reasonably far out, Gaz started to survey the trees. With a scrutinizing eye she scanned the canopy until she suddenly stopped, pulling Tak into a stumble by the arm. She pointed up to the trees, consisting of three main trunks in a rough triangle formation.

"These look good," she said. She released Tak's arm, cracked her knuckles, and shook out her limbs. Tak watched her, stepping to the side as she shook her legs out.

"What… what on Irk are you doing?" she asks.

"It's a human thing," Zim says nonchalantly. As if it were a perfect explanation for the weird display Dib was starting to mimic.

"It's called limbering up, asshole," Dib says.

Dib hummed, grabbing a low branch and hoisting himself up into the tree. Gaz vaulted off a nearby rock to launch herself into the branches. She made it halfway, her legs remaining past the bottom level of branches, leaving her to brace her knee to get up into the tree proper. Dib merely pulled himself up enough to start bracing with his feet on the main trunk and start working on navigating the branches from there. Gaz whistled down to the three Irkens watching from below. She nodded towards the trunk.

"Well, get climbing," she ordered.

She swung further up the branches. Both siblings had started to make good headway up the tree by the time that Zim finally grasped a branch. Gir rocketed up to the top, giggling madly as he soared past the two.

"They're truly monkeys…" Zim sighed. His PAK legs extended, hoisting him up between the siblings' trees. He quickly passed them, getting a string of swears from Gaz. Dib only started to climb faster.

Tak stared up with a deadpan look. She slowly tilted her head to see Skoodge looking at the display in awe. She truly would never know what went on in that head of his—but it was much the same with Zim—and the siblings, if she thought about it. The entire group was in many ways unpredictable. She set out to climb the tree, gaining ground on Gaz in no time. She slowed as she neared, until her PAK was keeping leisure pace with Gaz's progress. Gaz shot her a side-eye stare.

Tak opened her mouth, whatever words she was going to say catching in her throat as Skoodge shot past them. His PAK was utilizing all three trunks. Tak glared after him a moment before clearing her throat to try again.

"Want a ride?" Tak offered, holding her arms out.

Gaz grunted, hefting herself over a particularly large branch with a huff. "Only-" she gasped again, "-if I fall."

Take eyed the distance between them and the ground. A distance steadily growing longer and longer with each branch. She pressed her lips tightly together. "Would that not kill you?"

"I'll break my legs," Gaz retorted.

She pushed herself to stand, jumping to catch onto a higher branch. Tak reflexively shot forward, ready to catch her. Her arms remained in place even as Gaz kept climbing, until she hit the top. Zim, meanwhile, was intently watching Dib, twitching in anticipation with each branch Dib would grab and ready to vault himself forward should Dib slip.

Dib reached the top first. He took up a wide branch, leaving space for when Zim joined him as he caught his breath. Skoodge had gone even further up, looking over the tops of the trees with his PAK legs extended to the point it looked rickety. Dib called up to him, cupping his hands around his mouth.

"Don't stay up there! Random ranger helicopters might fly by!"

"Okay!"

"I thought you said no one would see us," Tak says, sharing a branch with Gaz. Gaz sidled up to her, arm to arm. Tak tried to fight away the heat coming to her face, resigning to look away from Zim and Dib when Zim shot her the most shit-eating smirk she'd seen as of yet.

"We never go past the canopy," Dib explained. "It's a great view, but it's easier to get spotted by the ranger scouts."

"Why do they scout? Is this on the border of their territory?" Tak asks.

"No," Dib laughed. "They're looking out for forest fires, floods, or missing hikers. It's the job."

Tak hummed, finally looking out across the trees. While most of her view was blocked by the tops of shorter trees, she could see why the trio seemed to love the view, and why Skoodge seemed to be enjoying himself as well. The view was magnificent. She hadn't noticed before how many different hues of green there were in the leaves alone. With the breeze it was as if she were watching a sea of green, each sway of the trees flashing the bright and pale underside of the leaves, sending cascading waves of color across the landscape.

"…Oh."

Gaz leaned against her with a satisfied smirk, lazily kicking her legs. It was surprisingly relaxing to just sit at the top of the trees, looking out over the waves of leaves, and seeing the forest disappear into the horizon. Skoodge found a branch of his own, hugging the trunk of the tree. Zim had his PAK legs out, anchored across the trees so he could be aloft between them, as if in an invisible hammock. He sighed contently, letting the sun wash over him.

Tak could see why Zim hadn't left the planet, in a way. There was undoubtably more than this to see. She'd seen just on her way in both times that the planet had a wide range of biomes across the landscape. She wasn't daring to go into the water—even in the submarining function of her Voot, if she could get it work again—no matter what any of them said.

The muscles in her shoulders were just beginning to untense when her PAK beeped. Skoodge's PAK beeped as well. Gaz looked at it with a raised bow, bending back just enough to look at it. Tak sighed heavily, letting the tablet come out to her. She twisted so Gaz, nor anyone else in the group, were in view should it switch to video call. The tablet came to life with a single notification.

'IMPORTANT: CONQUERING CHANNEL – ONE NEW MESSAGE'

Tak grimaced. Skoodge was looking at it, too, and shared a glanced her way. Zim righted himself, stretching his arms as he watched them. Tak opened the audio message.

"—is that thing on yet?"

"Hey, give me my donuts—"

"My Tallest, it's started."

Zim stiffened, turning slowly to stare at the tablet in Tak's hand. Dib watched him intently. The video message showed the Tallest in the bay of their ship, with Red swatting Purple away from the bag of donuts in his hands.

"Um, My Tallest…?"

"Huh? Oh! Great! Hello, esteemed Invaders!" Red shouted, shoving the donut bag into Purple. Purple held them victoriously, stuffing donuts into his mouth. "Every Invader receiving this message is ordered to come to Lagsh!"

The screen set up behind the Tallest lit up, showcasing a planet that was already being surrounded by Armada ships. Taks' antennae quivered excitedly. Gaz glanced up at them. She slowly reached up.

"Invasion is in a week!" Purple shouted, spewing donut crumbs across the stage. "Be late and you're getting thrown into the sun!"

"And we won't care why!" Red added. He swiped his finger across his neck, ending the transmission. Taka sighed heavily, handing the tablet back to the PAK.

"Skoodge—" Tak's voice caught in her throat when Gaz ran her fingers over the antenna. "AUGH!"

Tak slipped off the branch, twisting quickly to turn and catch herself on it. Gaz fell down, clutching the branch with her arms and legs as if her life depended on it.

"WATCH IT!" Gaz screeched.

"DON'T TOUCH THEM, THEN!" Tak roared, her face blazing a dark green as she scrambled back onto the branch proper.

"How far away is the planet?" Dib asks, snaking his arm around Zim's waist to keep him in place. Zim clutched his arm and shot him a suspicious look.

"Two… and a half days at the fastest speed?" Skoodge guessed, looking over the map on his tablet.

Tak huffed, resting herself on the branch and glaring Gaz down. Gaz looked up at her sheepishly. She gave a quiet chuckle, tightening her hold on the branch. Tak narrowed her eyes further.

"…I won't do it again."

"Good."

Zim was starting to squirm in Dib's arms in the way he would when he waited too long for Dib to finish homework. A restlessness that Dib would equate to something like a wound-up rubber band getting ready to snap. A burst of energy usually followed suit, the second that Dib would announce that he was finished, and Zim would dash out the door to either the car, the Voot, or the labs.

"I can't finish my ship in that time…" Tak grumbled, pinching her brow. She whipped her neck to glare at Zim and Dib. "And you're not touching this one!"

"I won't, I won't!" Dib shouted.

Tak huffed, leaning back to balance on the branch. She raised an antenna at Zim, but kept quiet. Skoodge slipped the tablet back to his own PAK and looked towards the boys. Zim was practically vibrating in Dib's grip. He had the slightest scowl, but his eyes were burning in anticipation. Skoodge's antennae lowered with his sigh. Zim's antennae were even beginning to twitch.

"No," Skoodge says. Zim looked at him, his antennae perking up before swiveling to the sides.

"But if I cloak the Voot—"

"No."

"I could be helpful!" Zim snapped. "I'm GREAT at annihilating!"

"Are you serious?" Tak asks. She held Gaz's arms steady as she sat back up on the branch.

"I haven't blown anything up in months!"

"What about that one ship?" Dib asks. Gaz whipped her head around to them.

"The what?"

Zim shook his head. "Not good enough."

"Oh, just blow up some rocks in the asteroid belt, or something," Gaz says. She turned away, muttering under her breath. "Or get laid."

Dib's face bloomed red. He hid behind Zim, burying his face between the Irken's shoulders. "Get what?" Zim asks.

"Wh—how have you not— Oh, wait, you were the weird kid, right," Gaz says, waving them off.

"Why do you want to leave for this, anyway, you don't want to be with the Empire anymore," Dib mumbled into Zim's shirt. Zim pouted, crossing his arms.

"They are irrelevant, what I want is to win a spacial dog fight."

Gaz shot him a deadpan look. "Wow." She turned back to Tak. "Is this what Irkens are like with their withdrawal?"

"No, he is just demented," Tak says flatly. Gaz shrugged.

"Aren't we all?" she asks dryly. She perked up, shaking Tak's arms just enough to get her attention. "You could try the one you abandoned here."

"What?"

"Your old ship," Gaz clarified. "Dib found it. It's in the shed at their house right now, Zim moved it."

Tak slowly turned towards Zim. He was halfway towards grappling the tree trunk to start climbing down and froze at her stare, wide-eyed. Tak's eye twitched.

"You. Kept. My ship?" she asks. Gaz slipped her arms out of Tak's grasp, moving to hang from the branch, out of her range of fire. "And you said nothing."

"Uh…." Zim shared a glance with Dib. He sucked air into his teeth and shrunk into his jacket.

"It's um…. Well…" Dib laughed nervously. "We can show you it?"

Tak grabbed Gaz, hoisting her up bridal style and using her PAK to carry them down the trees, despite Gaz's loud protesting and struggling. Zim hoisted Dib over his shoulder, following shortly after. Skoodge watched them go with a solemn sigh. Gir climbed up onto his shoulders, humming a tune to himself. Skoodge followed them down the trees, leaving Gir slumped over his head. When they reached the ground, Gaz had tired herself out, looking beat as she relented to letting Tak carry her down the trail.

"You'd be able to walk if you hadn't thrashed around," Tak muttered.

"Bite me," Gaz spat.

The drive back to the house had been awkward, in Dib's perspective. Skoodge did good work to keep Tak distracted, at least long enough that she couldn't glare a hole through the back of Dib's head rest. He sheepishly grabbed the keys from the back door hook and marched stiffly to the shed the moment they'd arrived.

The shed was almost a garage for its size. It was the only place, outside the labs, that he could have stored the old ship. He unlocked the door with a shaking hand, hearing Tak's tapping boot behind him in the gravel set out in front of the shed's lifting door. He pressed the button inside, steeling himself for the slow climb of the shed's larger door. He'd worked on the ship during free time when Zim was stuck in the labs. He'd come far, in his opinion, but he hadn't touched it since Tak had arrived.

The door settled and Dib cautiously turned to see Tak's reaction. She stood staring dumbfounded at the ship a few moments. Before long she fell to her knees with a groan. Dib jumped, holding his hands up on instinct.

"You ruined it!" Tak shouted.

"What?!"

"You tore it apart, you baboon!" Tak screeched, punching the gravel. "She's a mess!"

Zim started to cackle behind them, holding his sides. Dib shot as withering a glare as he could. It only served to make him laugh harder.

"He put it back together," Gaz remarked.

"HE GOT EVERYTHING WRONG!" Tak shouted.

"It's not like I have the schematics on my back, yet!" Dib shouted. He waved his arms towards it. "I-I did well for nothing to work with!"

"Why'd you do it at all?!" Tak shouted, throwing gravel at him. "I customized that ship myself! Where's half the outer paneling?!"

"I-I'm working on the interior parts!"

"YOU SHOULD'VE LEFT IT ALONE!"

Skoodge had rode the elevator down with her. Halfway to the level he'd turned to her finally, showing a look of determination she hadn't seen in his eyes before, when he spoke.

"You're not going to say anything about them, right?" he asks.

Tak leveled her gaze at him. He was stiff. His antennae were still, leaving half her ability to read his expression utterly null. She scowled at him, crossing her arms.

"Would I need to?" she asks. "Why bother? They're not going to care."

"You know that's not entirely true," Skoodge says.

"Because they're not idiots?" Tak asks, waving one hand. "They won't care. He hasn't left this planet long-term since he got here. They won't even read the reports if I did."

"They would," Skoodge insisted. "I think it's more than dislike when it comes to Zim. They dislike me. It's the not same with Zim."

Tak raised an antennae at him, turning to face him better. "You're not implying—"

"It's a theory," Skoodge says quickly. "He did kill two before. Accidently."

"Allegedly."

Skoodge huffed, tapping his boot. "You can come with me. We can share the ship until we arrive. I'd be leaving in the morning on the fourth day."

"Not much a choice in that," Tak grumbled. The elevator opened and she cut Skoodge off on her way out. She slumped into the chair at the worktable and sighed, resting her head on the table.

Her soul—or whatever the Irken equivalent would be; perhaps her consciousness—may as well have left her body. She was drained, mentally fatigued, and she'd spent the last two hours lamenting over the state of her old ship. Gaz had tapped out once she'd finished, claiming she needed a long nap. And Dib she'd reduced to a puddle of a person with every wrongdoing she'd pointed out. She'd been less than gentle in her critique of his shoddy attempt at rebuilding the Cruiser.

It was impressive he'd gotten that far; but pathetic for how much of the ship wouldn't have turned on.

She swiveled her eyes towards the hall, where Skoodge was prepping his things for departure early. She was still irked that she had to share a ship with anyone to get to an assignment, but it was that or she risked being thrown into the nearest star the next time she landed on an Irken planet or docked a ship. She'd grab a spare ship when they arrived for The Assigning.

"You're not going to say anything about them, right?"

Would she? If it were when she first arrived, perhaps. She'd given it thought before spying that bucket of water. Impulses were truly the worst thing in the universe. A simple choice of 'pick it up' or 'leave it be' and she wouldn't be there. Now? She doubted it. Even if asked point blank by anyone below The Control Brains, she'd redirect and avoid the topic altogether if she could. She grimaced, thinking of The Tallest. It was unlikely they'd spare her the time even if she was in their line of sight.

Their lack of care or interest in individual soldiers aside—she could hardly hold that too personally when she's much the same way—she was daring to admit she was starting to like the planet. It was a rare opportunity to be on a planet, disguise or not, with little to no slander to Irkens. It was shocking not to have the impulse to keep her antennae aware of her surroundings at every moment, waiting for an ambush or to pick up on intel.

Dib and Gaz not only lacked those same biases, they'd made it… welcoming. She hardly felt welcomed on Irk like how they insisted on spending time with her here. Whether that was typical of humans or not, she wasn't quite sure. Their global internet had been… splitting in how often humans typically engaged in touch or social engagement. She could search the galaxies for years and not find a similar situation again. Not from a new species that hadn't been exposed to the Irken Empire, that is.

She felt a roiling feeling of regret thinking about it. Her embarrassing defeat the last time she'd been to the planet aside, she wasn't risking this. This was a small haven, and she'd be damned to ever admit that they were right about that, but they were. The Empire wasn't even likely to come near Earth thanks to Zim's spastic and unpredictable… state of being.

Combine with that Dib and Gaz, and she began to question if the Armada would actually win. Humans would suffer a great number of casualty, undoubtably. But that trio would find a way to destroy The Massive, one way or another, whether out of an advantage on the battlefield or out of vengeful spite. She would bet money on the latter. Humans seemed to be quite a vengeful species when vexed, just like Irkens, ironically, and she'd seen how an Irken handled vengeance. She didn't want to witness how a human handled it.

She thought back to the footage of Gaz braining the aliens at the market, and how she'd soloed her second encounter. If half of the humans on the planet were like her, it had the makings of a bonified Death World.

No. Avoidance was the best option. Plus, she'd avoid death by Zim's hand as well, which would surely last longer than a measly ten minutes that the Control Brains would grant her via PAK removal or the spare minutes of life before she burned in the heat of a star. Frankly, he'd probably drag it out. They wouldn't. The choice was a landslide.

When she'd finally peeled herself away from the table and made it back upstairs, Zim had the siblings sat down on a table and was brandishing two jackets to them. Gaz turned to catch her eye and simply shook her head. Tak just looked back at Zim, lost.

"He's showing us a project he's been working on," Gaz says, turning back to him. "A bit long, if you ask me."

"I didn't," Zim says curtly.

He tossed the jackets to them. Dib fumbled to catch it. He caught sight of the fabric peel on the shoulder and tore it off. Gaz tore hers off a moment later, staring at the embroidery. A variation of the Irken insignia, one neither sibling recognized, and wording beneath it on an ironed on patch. "Property of Zim" was written in Irken. Dib snorted.

"I am NOT keeping that."

"Do you have any final words," Gaz asks, standing with the sleeve clutched in her fist. Zim looked unperturbed.

"It's not that bad," he says.

"Thirty seconds," Gaz clipped.

Zim snatched the patch off with a flourish to reveal their names embroidered under the insignias. Gaz reexamined the embroidery. She hummed, nodding. The Irken symbols making up her name were stitched in by hand—it wasn't perfect enough to have been by a machine—and she smoothed out the denim.

"Acceptable," she says. Zim stuck his tongue at her. Dib looked like he was at Christmas. Gir climbed over the arm of the couch, jumping up and down.

"I want one!"

"You're a robot, you don't need—"

"I want one, Mastah!"

"I'm not sewing a jacket for you, you can do it yourself!" Zim snapped.

"Nooooo, I want a PAK and jacket, too!" Gir whined, rolling off the arm of the couch onto the cushions.

"…Both?" Tak asks.

"I WANT ONE, MASTAH!" Gir shouted, rolling around the entire free space on the couch. Gaz side stepped, slipping the jack on to check the sizing. She resolutely ignored the increasingly high-pitched screaming from the tiny robot.

"Okay!" Zim screeched. Gir gasped in joy, hopping up and cheering. Zim pinched his brow with a sigh.

"That's sweet of you," Dib says with a smirk.

"I am making something already, but it's not done, Gir," Zim admitted. Gir froze. He set his palms to his cheeks, tears somehow welling up in his eyes.

"Really?"

"Yes, really," Zim admitted. "Hold on."

He slipped into Dib's room and rummaged around the dresser drawers. A moment later he stepped out, holding up a small PAK. Tak blinked at it, dumbfounded. Once he got closer, she could see that it wasn't metallic. Rather, it was crafted from various fabrics, with exposed lights where the slots of the PAK would normally be placed. Zim handed it off and Gir slipped it on like a small backpack. He spun around, bouncing on the cushions, giggling.

"I LOVE IT!"

"It's not done," Zim reaffirmed. "I have to finish it."

"Is it an actual backpack?" Dib asks.

"It opens, yes. The "slots" are going to be covered with a semi-transparent casing. But they will light up."

"That's adorable," Dib says with a beaming smile.

"I am not adorable!" Zim roared.