I hope you plan to continue this!

Miha Etzi is Tak, isn't she? To be honest, if it is her, I hope she joins Shepard's crew

Wow! This is absolutely amazing! I just finished and i really really hope you continue this! It's honestly so good! The way how blended the worlds of IV amd ME is awesome! :D

Tali and Zim teaming up would make any enemy quake in their boots. :3

Well...now that enter the florpus is out...you gonna maybe work on this again? Cause it's pretty cool.

this is wizard

I'm left wondering what was up with the keepers more than anything.

I hope that idiotic mihna realizes what happened to her race, goes crazy, or has her paknshattered.

Reapers?" Shepard blinked once, then twice. "You know about the Reapers?"

"Know? I knew about them before anyone else did!" he said, suddenly sounding indignant and balling his hands into fists. "But does anyone ever listen to me about anything? No! They all thought I was a ranting lunatic like they always did... Even my father didn't believe me!"

"Believe me, you're preaching to the choir, Dib. They're practically on our doorstep now and no one believes me, either. One of them even managed to invade the Citadel. Hell, there are pieces of the thing still scattered around the grounds there and they deny that the attack ever happened! Are you saying that you saw them coming even back in 2025?"

"Yes. They were the reason I founded FARR, the Foundation for Alien Research and Recovery. I amassed billions upon billions of files searching for any data I could find on them."

"How did you discover them in the first place?"

"Zim," Dib replied simply. "Numerous times I bugged his base to collect information on the impending Irken invasion." He laughed airily, turning his head with a woeful shake. "Never suspected I'd see that."

"What? See what?" Shepard asked, feeling very much on the edge of her seat with all this new information.

"Apparently, Irken technology doesn't react well to Reaper data feeds or communication. It jams up something fierce. Everything starts malfunctioning. I guess you could say the two different types of tech come from exact opposite ends of the spectrum. They repulse each other like opposing magnets. One day when Zim was absent from his usual attempt to fit in at school, I ran home to check my video data to see what he had been up to. His base appeared to have gone entirely haywire on him after he accidentally picked up a foreign stream of data while trying to contact his leaders."

"The Tallests," Shepard said and Dib nodded.

"As I'm sure you know, when something goes wrong, Zim doesn't handle it very well. He doesn't take too kindly to anyone messing with his base. From what I could gather, he regained control of his base's core systems and managed to send out an offensive pulse of disruptive energy at the source of the trouble."

"Disrupt me, I disrupt you," Liara said, folding her arms over her chest and bringing her fingers to her lips.

"Yes," Dib said, a crooked smile crawling over his lips. "But let me remind you that Zim does nothing in halves...and when he's mad he does nothing less than a hundred times worse. At the time all I could see was that he got his base back into working order. It wasn't until later, when I followed the transmissions that I discovered exactly what it was he had done.

What Zim didn't realize is that he couldn't contact the Tallests because they were under attack by a Reaper. The Reaper was jamming all of Zim's communications, and when he retaliated, he didn't destroy the Reaper, but he gave his leaders a chance to fight back by disorienting it."

"And the whole while he was oblivious...," Shepard said in awe, shaking her head now. It seemed like a perfectly Zim thing to do, honestly. She paused and thought a moment, collecting memories of the Massive in her head, of Tallest Purple and Tallest Red. It was obvious that despite Zim's unintentional efforts, the Irkens had failed to fend off the Reaper entirely. "I've been to the Massive. The entire thing was in disarray when we got there. But somehow, Tallest Red was still in control. He didn't appear indoctrinated like all the other beings who have become the slaves of the Reapers."

"Maybe he made a deal with the devil," Liara piped up. "It wouldn't be the first time the Reapers have used a willing host to achieve their goals. If the Irkens were suffering a hefty defeat, he may have chosen to side with the Reapers rather than allow his people to die."

"If the Irkens were that selfless, I might agree with you," Dib said. "If that really is the case, Tallest Red likely made a deal to rebuild the Empire...possibly in hopes of defeating the Reapers when his army grew large enough. If he had any of his own mind left, then his Irken pride would not allow him to remain a slave to anyone for long."

"Saren made a deal, and he eventually lost his mind to a Reaper anyway. Tallest Red will likely face a similar fate," Shepard pointed out.

"That depends on whether or not he allowed himself to be implanted. As long as his PAK was in working order, he will remain in full control of himself."

Something seized in Shepard's stomach then.

You have...no idea... what you've done...

They had not only overloaded Red's PAK, but Garrus had incapacitated him with a shot right to the head. As far as she was aware, up until then, he had been in complete control of himself. In an attempt to escape, they had left him for dead, or so they had hoped. Left him for dead – and left him vulnerable to the invading Reaper technology that had already infected the majority of the Massive. Shepard couldn't help but bring her palm to her face.

"Shit."

"Is something wrong?" Liara asked.

"Oh, nothing. I just gave the Reaper exactly what it wanted!" Shepard exclaimed, tossing her arms in the air and stomping about the room in a fury.

"What do you mean?" Dib asked.

"We thought we killed Tallest Red, but all we did was subdue him so the Reaper could do whatever it damn well pleased! It's probably completely indoctrinated him by now. And now it has full control of the Massive!"

"How could you do that?" Dib asked, incredulous.

"I didn't know! At the time, all I knew was that my crew was in danger and we needed to get out of that bloody ship before we were devoured alive!" Liara and Dib watched as Shepard continued to storm about the floor, muttering obscenities in every language she could remember. Liara thought to cover Dib's ears for a moment but then remembered he was not physically there.

"This is why you can't kill Zim," Dib interrupted her tirade.

"What?" Shepard asked, breathless as she turned towards him again.

"That Reaper has Irken technology at its disposal now. You have no way of defending against it, but Zim has everything."

—

And now we learn they need Sim to save them from reapers AND. Hat Dib created the system the shadow broker used!

Crazy! I love it!

Oh great, Red is still alive and so is that girl irken!

Oh no, not Mimi and what’s her name, the crazy obsessed one!

Spooky, but that’s Gaz. And there are more
irken left?

You make no sense, whatsoever," the Quarian frowned.

"I wouldn't expect your tiny brain to understand the greatness of Zim." he retorted.

"At least my brain isn't also my backpack."

"Irken biology is highly superior."

"Yes. Lucky for me I got your genes AFTER I had grown more than three feet tall." Tali tilted her head and gave him a smirk. Zim pursed his lips and gave her a few rapid up-and-downs, then squinted.

"I see what you're doing...," he said slowly, waggling a finger at her. "You're trying to use your alien mind tricks on me to make me think that because YOU have Irken DNA now and that you are unreasonably tall despite your inferiorness that you are like the Tallests! Well! You are in for a world of BRAIN-HURT because you ARE no Tallest! You will never BE a Tallest! Never a Tallest to Zim! Never a Tali-Tallest! No matter how TALL the Tali-Tallest is!"

"Tali-Tallest?"

"I said NO!" he said, stamping his feet and clenching his fists.

"Zim?"

"Yes, my Tallest? Er - Tali? Tali-TALLEST? ARGGHH! Don't TRICK ME!"

"Ah, Zim appears to be responding to the DNA alteration," Mordin spoke up. Both Tali and Zim started, having completely forgotten he was there. "Invader Irken is subordinate to the taller Irkens...or the 'Tallests', so it is logical to see Tali as a superior. Zim, is Tali stimulating your primordial instincts?" Zim stared at Mordin with a terribly disgusted and almost humiliated look on his face.

"Speak no more of your prime dials, frog-beast!" he seethed. "How DARE you accuse Zim of ...of-!" He glanced shakily over his shoulder at Tali and then hunched over making a retching noise. "I am going to be sick!" He lurched away from them, grasping at his throat and making a completely dramatic show of an exit.

"GIR! I need my BUCKET!" his voice echoed through the hall before the door to engineering closed. Tali closed her eyes and took a cleansing breath before turning her focus back to Mordin who was grinning as wide as any Salarian could.

—

Haha! So, he injected Irken into her, astounindg! And will see her as Tali-tallest. I laughed out loud.

Gaz! It’s Gaz!

So much for fresh new clothes," Tali said as she wiped what she could from her own garments. When she looked up she noticed Zim had removed and was inspecting the inside of his PAK. "I thought you couldn't remove your PAK." Zim whirled and Tali watched as the tubes she had seen before reattached Zim's PAK to his back. He tried not to look suspicious and failed. Marching over to her with his hands folded behind his back he looked up at her.

"Ten minutes..." When Tali gave him a questioning look he growled and continued. "I can survive ten minutes without it. How else am I supposed to upgrade and repair it? Not that I'd expect you to understand."

"Oh, I understand just fine. I repaired it just a bit ago... But I don't suppose you would recall seeing as how you were kind of dead."

"I was not DEAD!" he puffed up. "You...did not..." His tone was testing. Tali nodded.

"You're standing there yelling at me, aren't you?" Zim's antenna fell backward and he gnawed on his tongue inside his mouth. Tali couldn't stop the smile tugging at the corners of her mouth as she watched him struggle to accept it. "All with my 'filthy' Quarian hands." She held them up and waggled her fingers, watching as he cringed. "So...seeing as how we're even now... How about you tell me just how and why you brought me back?"

"Your... Your LEGS ARE STUPID!" he exclaimed before turning and marching speedily out of the room. He ignored the crowd as he passed through the CIC and headed for the elevator, realizing at the last minute that he had left GIR in the lab. Deciding it was better to just let the robot do what he wanted, he waited until the doors had closed before he discretely pulled the PAK from his back again and inspected it.

His expression grew uncomfortable when he had trouble finding anything wrong with the repair. This just didn't happen. How could it? Disgruntled, he reattached the PAK again and crossed his arms over his chest.

He would admit nothing

—-

Thank god, purple is gone.

But oh wow, looks like Zim cares for Tali. Despite what he might say or try to think otherwise.

Equally perplexed myself. Though... One theory..."

"What?" Shepard asked, holding a breath.

The door whooshed open behind Shepard and as she turned to see who it was. Hands shoved at her knees, pushing her aside. She stumbled only slightly as the small Irken ventured into the lab, she and Mordin silent at his unexpected presence. Zim ignored them, more intent on repairing his PAK than dealing with them, but he stopped dead when he reached the table slathered with remnants of Irken tissue and fluids still glued to its surface. The toolbox he had been carrying crashed to the floor with a resounding clatter in the quiet. Whirling around he glared up at them, his tiny body trembling. His sputtering PAK was not the culprit this time; he was furious.

"What did you DO?" he declared. Mordin moved to explain but Shepard quickly stopped him. Zim looked like a firecracker ready to go off.

"He was dead, Zim. I shot Tallest Purple and told my crew to bring him here. We needed to find out about the Irkens."

"You brought the Tallest HERE?" Zim replied, instinctively trying to raise up on his legs but failing miserably when the remaining busted ones collapsed under him. "Are you INSANE?"

"You led us to that forsaken ship and even if you weren't responsible for Tali dying, your leaders were! If you expect me to be sympathetic about dissecting that asshole you're going to be sorely disappointed."

"I wouldn't have CARED if you had killed him. He wasn't MY Tallest anymore! Neither of them were! You're an idiot for bringing him HERE!"

Shepard regarded Zim with hard, searching eyes. He knew what was going on here, and she realized she was about to find herself in a position she didn't much like: she had made the wrong move.

"Let me guess – you shot at him with your piddly human weapons and once he stopped moving you figured he was dead."

"That's usually how it works, Zim."

"Not with Irkens! Did you destroy his PAK?"

"His what?" Mordin interjected.

"His PAK! This!" Zim gestured awkwardly to the marred pod at his own back. Shepard shook her head slowly and Zim let out a growl of frustration. "You have no idea what you've done, human! You just unleashed a corrupt Tallest on your ship!"

"The PAK brings the Irkens back to life?" Shepard prodded.

"No. It KEEPS them alive. You were tearing apart a live Irken even if you didn't know it."

"Theory was correct," Mordin spoke up. "PAK controls entire body. Controls brain. Damage to bodily tissue does not necessarily cease brain, or PAK, function."

"So, what are you saying? The PAK rebooted the body?" Shepard asked.

"Essentially, yes. Not entirely familiar with complete functionality of Irken tissue or organs, so it may very well be possible for them."

—-

Ooooooh dear.

And a dead body under jacks bed. Yikes.