I bring you all another update. Slight language warning. Enjoy!

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My jaw dropped. Red's jaw dropped. Purple's jaw dropped. My jaw rapidly closed, though, despite the fact that my ruse was as good as shattered. As one, the scientists all turned their eyes to Red, then, in a wave, to me, then back to Red.

"What is going on?" Dib demanded in a hushed voice.

"I don't know," I lied, glancing down at the floor and up again. Red was staring at me, eyes narrowed. Suddenly, he transformed into the picture of perfect wrath, eyes snapping, body tense.

"What are you waiting for??" he snapped, staring around. "Get that thing out of there! Find out what the hell is going on!" Already, a wave of the scientists was swarming towards the door, eager to please their Tallest. "Wait. On second thought, bring it to my private chamber. Let me deal with it." He glanced around at them, pointing at the tallest of the scientists. "You. You come too." She snapped a salute, and all of them stood at attention until their leaders were gone, sweeping from the room with the head scientist in tow. As soon as the door swung shut, the inhabitants of the room burst into movement, more than a large number of them unlocking the door and swarming inside. I scrambled back away from them, kicking out and punting one of the nearest across the way, but…well, there were a lot of Irkens in there, and a girl can only do so much.

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So that's how I found myself, wrists shackled behind my back, being shoved roughly through the halls of the Massive. It was a long walk, but only because I was being led pretty much in circles, a tactic that would have worked had I not already been far too familiar with the layout of the colossal ship. Eventually, we came to the door of the Tallest's private room. One of my guides opened the door, and I was shoved inside. The doors snapped shut, and my doom was sealed.

I hopped to my feet, not wanting to be down on the floor in front of him. My mind was racing, and I could feel my whole body getting tense. I didn't have to look very far before I spotted that fiery Tallest, seeing as he was standing right there in front of me, with the scientist standing just behind, and Purple lounging on a couch in the background.

I tried to open my eyes wide and look appropriately terrified, but the façade crumbled with an intense glare from him, and I could only do my best to stand tall and try to look intimidating.

"They say your DNA isn't human," he said slowly, hands clasped behind his back. "But you look human enough to me, at least compared to our other specimen. I wonder why that is?"

"Sorry, pal, I have no idea what you're saying," I said flippantly.

"Oh, I am sorry to hear that. Good thing I can understand what you're saying."

"Shit."

"Perhaps. That depends." He moved forward, the equivalent of a few steps. "So, since that language barrier was so quickly surmounted, maybe you can tell us why your DNA is a completely different shape that your little friend's?"

"I have…AIDS," I declared, thinking on the fly.

"What?!"

"Yeah! AIDS! It's a disease on my planet," I said quickly, ad-libbing and really, really hoping these guys didn't know what AIDS really was. "It warps DNA…does some pretty bad stuff and…stuff." He looked disbelieving. "Er…and I used to take LSD!!" This one wasn't too far from the truth—okay, it was the truth. (I still don't see what the humans like about it so much.) "That warps DNA too!" Red shook his head.

"And don't you think it's a little funny that your disease-warped DNA happens to uncannily imitate mine?"

"…No?"

He stood up straight, sighing and shaking his head. "The poor thing doesn't think it's odd that our DNA is similar!" he remarked to the others.

"Well, actually, my liege, it's identical," the female broke in timidly. "To the particle…except for the parts that indicate gender, of course." I went pale at that…what did she mean, identical? That was virtually impossible; there were programs monitoring smeet activation to make sure that if genetic clones were somehow mistakenly produced, one would be destroyed. This was a bit…unreal.

Apparently, my shock showed on my face, because as Red turned back to me, a smirk appeared on his. "So maybe you do have some idea what I'm saying, eh?" he asked, moving forward again, until he was just in front of me.

"So maybe I don't." So maybe I'm an idiot. His eyes lit up, and before I knew it, he was behind me, my pack was open, and the human body I was used to living in by now was flickering—flickering—gone! He stepped back around, the expression on his face triumphant, until he got a good look at who I really was. Then his face fell. I sneered, more for effect than anything.

"By the past Tallest," Purple murmured, sitting up abruptly, antennae perked forward. My own were flat against my head, and I took a step back, away from the both of them, glancing back at the door through which I had entered. Purple rose slowly to his feet even as Red closed the distance between us, taking me roughly by the arm and pulling me away from the exit.

"You've already pulled that little stunt," he said warningly, though there was a decidedly fake smile on his face. His grip on my arm tightened as we got closer to his co-ruler, and I shuddered to feel his fingers on me. I ducked my head and tried to ignore it. The scientist was staring, and as we passed her, I glared. She shrunk away. "And here I was, thinking we were only dealing with some freak freeborn on stilts!" Red remarked, snugging a tense arm around my shoulders and pinning me to his side. I growled under my breath; being called a freeborn was almost an insult. The freeborn were a group of Irkens who had split from the Irken Empire some time in the distant past, after a crash on a desolate planet. The empire had refused to send them help, so they had declared themselves separate, and immediately set about making more of themselves. They lost several of the females, but eventually one of them gave birth to a smeet, and this one was not fitted with one of the packs standard to our kind; there were none to be had. It became a mark of pride among them to not wear packs, but with so few on the planet, they had to interbreed to keep on. Generally, the freeborn are regarded as a group of inbred genetic accidents…and most of 'em are pretty short, too.

"I resent that remark," I muttered.

"Resent, or resemble?" Red asked with a smirk. I opted not to answer, casting a glance instead at Purple to distract my eyes and my mind. He was staring, and looking more than a little dumbstruck. "By your silence, I'm assuming you choose resemble. Good choice."

"Oh shut up," I snapped, resisting the urge to kick him in the shins.

"Dear me," he said idly, leaning back and looking at me, a sympathetic expression on his face. "You don't quite get the way this works, do you? Here, let me spell it out for you. You are ZaiFae Luthuviel, the self-styled assassin who attempted to kill me and then hi-jacked a Royal Flagship from the Armada to make your escape. I am the Almighty Tallest Red, ruler—"

"Co-ruler!"

"—Co-ruler of the Irken Empire. You don't happen to be in any position to be giving me, or anyone else, for that matter, any kind of commands." Red smirked again, secure in the correctness of his logic, and I mirrored his expression with one of my own. Had these been normal circumstances, between Red and any other Irken, or even between he and I in the past, he would have been right, but not any more.

"But I," I said, supremely, maybe even overly, confident, "am taller than you." That stopped him short, and as he roughly stepped back, eyes flicking up and down at me. I stared levelly back, wishing my arms were free so I could cross them. We were on the same eye-level, but then…well, he was hovering several inches off the floor. I was not. I couldn't help but smile smugly at him when the look of realization flicked across his face, but I withdrew when it was replaced with a look of anger. He started forward, slamming his hands into my chest and catching my ankles with an outstretched leg. I fell back, and though the over-stuffed couch broke my fall, the back of my head cracked against its spine. My vision was immediately clouded by swarms of multi-colored dots, and I could only try to pull myself up and shake my eyes clear as he stalked over to me, crouching down in front of the couch. A firm hand pushed me back against it.

"You," he said slowly, spacing the words out, "are not taller than me. Just thought I'd let you know." Denial's not just a river in Egypt. I opted to again remain silent. I had no idea where this was going to go from here.

"So, you've been hiding out on this Earth place all this time?" Red asked conversationally, flopping unceremoniously down between Purple and I. I shrunk away from him. Purple had yet to venture a comment other than that one uttered oath, and I was resenting him for it. "I would assume so, but I can't really tell. Feel like volunteering any info?"

"Bugger off," I muttered, hoping that that particular injunction did not have a place in his vocabulary.

"What was that?" Oh good. It didn't. He shook his head. "So how've you been faring? You look healthy enough. No ill luck or anything on your journeys?" Why did he care? It wasn't like he liked me much or anything, that was easy enough to tell. I looked away. "Not much of a talker tonight, eh?" Not for you, asshole. Boy, it's a good thing he's not telepathic. I heard him sigh aggrievedly, and suddenly, the couch rebounded somewhat as he swept to his feet.

"Fine!" he said theatrically, and to his credit, his voice sounded suitably choked with emotion. "Don't talk to me! See what I care!" I turned to watch as he held a hand to his forehead, arching his back and looking dramatic. Abruptly, he straightened up, spinning to face me. The light fell on him in just a way so that he was cast into sharp relief, and I think that for the first time throughout this whole thing, I was truly, deeply scared. "Put this trash back in its cell!" he snapped, raising his voice enough so that the guards just outside the door heard and rushed in. He pointed at me, and I saw the questioning tilt to their antennae. "Give it…oh…a quarter of what its little buddy gets to eat, and don't listen to a thing it says, especially not about being taller than us! Get a pack-negater on it, and have it monitored around the clock!" When the two guards hesitated, he narrowed his eyes, fell silent for a moment, and screamed, "NOW!"

Immediately, the two rushed forward, grabbing me up and off the couch. They weren't too gentle, not when they were still in the chamber. With the scientist trailing behind, they manhandled me out the door. Before it swung shut I cast one glance back, but it was not meant for the self-satisfied statue in red; it was for that unmoving, unmoved vision of a past life. And still, he made no move to defend me or to defend Red, no decision either way. It was as if…as if he didn't care.

Then the doors snapped shut, and the two guards, who were at least a foot shorter than me, became a lot more respectful. They still hustled me forwards, but they weren't nearly so rough about it. The scientist, her legs working quickly to keep up, scurried ahead and peered over her shoulder at me.

"Did—did you really attempt to assassinate my Tallest Red?" she asked fearfully. I couldn't help but grin.

"Nah," I assured her nonchalantly. "I was just trying to stop him from assassinating me. There's a difference there."

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For the record, when Red says "You've already pulled that little stunt," he's referring to the incident in "What Came Before," where ZaiFae managed to escaping by backing against a door and then darting through it…

For the other record, I DO know that AIDS doesn't actually do anything to your DNA, if there was anyone out there who didn't pick that up from the context.

So yeah. I'd like to announce now that after the next chapter, I'll be changing the rating of this fic to R. Please note this, and make all necessary changes. Thank you!

MetaChi: Y'know, you'd think she's know that, but she's…kinda got a lot on her mind right now. O.O Now you know!!

Toshihiko1: I thank you for your review, and the one you left on "What Came Before." It's refreshing to get critical reviews like yours! To respond to some of the things you pointed out (in both of them):

Yes, I do realize now that ZF was a horrible Mary-Sue in that story. I consciously tried to make her a little less so in this installment, but I know I wasn't able to cut it out entirely. I apologize. Believe it or not, Red's actually my favorite Tallest—it's ZaiFae who likes Purple, and though I didn't know it at the time, she was the one writing her story. (I thought I was being all original and making it up myself, but I guess not…) Likewise, when I made my pen-name for , I hadn't yet realized that ZaiFae was a separate entity from myself. I'd change it if I had the volition to.

Now, I beg to differ with you about how tall the Tallest really are. I have a good reason at placing them in a human height range—I've noticed that when you look at Zim in relation to the Tallest, and Zim in relation to Ms. Bitters, you notice that he looks roughly the same size when compared to them both. Since he looks a little taller when compared with Bitters, that would make the Tallest taller than her, but still within human range. But that's just my rationale—as these are only my version of the Tallest, they don't have to be the same as anyone else's.

Yep, Pak's covered by the hologram.

I probably should have specified this in a chapter somewhere, but since I never do: ZaiFae's no longer in any of the databases. Since Red (in these stories) is a vindictive jerk, he promptly erased all official sign that she ever existed after she took off at the end of the last story. People who knew her would still remember her, but if they tried to track her down through official computer channels, she'd be gone.

So thank you for your reviews, and I hope I've cleared some stuff up!!

So there it is, folks. This chapter. Review? Please? More soon!