A/N: Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the beginning of my new saga. I don't know if this will be as popular as "The Puppet Master" and "Reckoning" were, but there's only one way to find out. Read on!

Summary: After years of being on Earth, Zim's life has entered a rut. But then one day, all that changes with a new arrival on the planet. Who is this mysterious new Irken? Where does she come from? And what does she want with Zim?

Disclaimer: I own the OCs and the plot. Everything else belongs the Great and Powerful Jhonen Vasquez.

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Shadows of the Future

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Zim sat on the roof of his base, staring up at the night sky. He had been on Earth for six years, and during that time he had changed physically. Because the planet had a lighter gravitational pull than Irk, he had grown several inches taller. He had been quite ecstatic when that had happened, but eventually, his classmates- being human- had started to naturally grow taller. What had been especially irritating about this was when Dib had grown to a point where he was taller than the Invader. And he took every opportunity to rub Zim's non-existent nose in it.

'Irritating little Earth-monkey,' Zim thought with a frown, but then it turned into a smirk as he thought, 'But I showed him up, didn't I?'

Deciding that it would seem unusual for him to stay the size of a child when he would soon be entering High Skool (and because he was sick of Dib lording over him in height), Zim had experimented with growth hormones. After several tests using cells cultivated from his own body, Zim had injected himself with a cocktail of hormones, which had made him grow until he was an even six feet tall. That made him several inches taller than Dib (something he gloated about for days), and only a few shorter than the Almighty Tallest themselves.

That new thought made Zim pause. At his current height, he could rival the Pretty-Mighty Third Tallest and maybe even the Sort-Of-Mighty Second Tallest for succession to the throne. And yet, Red and Purple had never seemed to really notice or care about his new height whenever he spoke to them. On the other hand, he only called them once or twice a month these days, so maybe they hadn't realized it yet.

Shrugging the thought off, Zim stood up and brushed off his uniform, which had also changed over the years. Because he had outgrown his old standard-issue Invader uniform, he had had to design a new one for himself. He now wore pants that bore the appearance of ordinary black jeans, but were tear and flame resistant, and were equipped with subspace pockets capable of holding numerous items of great size. The pant legs flowed into the tops of Zim's new boots, which he had modeled after the ones worn by Tak- he hated that woman with a passion, but he admired her fashion sense. The uniform shirt had been replaced with a more human-looking one, which was red in the chest area (with the black symbol of the Irken Empire sown on the front), and had black sleeves that ran into equally black gloves.

After he finished dusting himself off, Zim headed towards the roof entrance back into his house, deciding to get some recharge before the morning, when he'd have to suffer the torture that was High Skool. Just before he ducked inside, he took one last glance at the stars. Like any ambitious Irken, he dreamed of gaining power, and ruling over those stars.

What Zim didn't know, however, was that the course of his life was about to change. And soon, he would be near to fulfilling his dreams, standing on the verge of becoming ruler of every star in the sky and all the worlds that orbited them.

And it would all start with an event taking place that very moment on the other side of the city.

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The Mall, Same Time

Slab Rankle, Chief of Mall Security, stared at the banks of security monitors in his control room. "Sleep tight, mall," he said, going into his usual night routine, "Know that all your precious stores are safe under my watchful gaze. And… wait, what's this?" One of the monitors had gone to static, which naturally set off warning bells in Rankle's mind.

"So, someone thinks they can mess with this mall, huh?" Rankle asked rhetorically, "Not on my watch! Hmm, third floor atrium. Okay, it's go time!"

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A few moments earlier

On the third floor balcony overlooking the atrium, the lights started flickering, and a few seconds later, lightning started crackling out of nowhere, striking the walls and floors, frying all the electronics in the area (including the security camera) and shattering the windows of a few shops. Suddenly, the lightning bolts struck together creating a glowing, swirling vortex, out of which shot a figure that landed in a crouch.

As the vortex disappeared, the figure stood up. It was wearing a black, hooded cloak, under which it wore a black bodysuit that showed off the figure's slender, feminine form. She cracked her neck and looked around. "Well," she said, "It looks like it worked. Time to begin the mission, then."

"Hold it right there!"

The cloaked figure turned around to see Rankle standing at the other end of the hall. He quickly surveyed all the damage caused by the vortex, then glared at the figure. "So," he said, "You think you can just waltz into this mall and vandalize it, huh? Well, you're wrong punk! And now, you're going down!"

The figure placed her hands on her hips, and Rankle had the distinct feeling she was smirking at him. "Do you really want to fight me old man?" she asked.

"Old man? Old man?!" Rankle shouted, as the eye he normally kept shut popped open in anger, "That does it! Let's see how smug you are after you face my new security system." He pulled out a remote with only one oh-so-clichéd big red button on it, which he promptly pushed. There was a clanking sound as one of the walls pulled away, and several tall humanoid robots walked out of the hole.

Rankle smirked. After the incident with that green child a few years back, he had eliminated his useless zombie security force and replaced it with a mechanized division- one which was capable of actually combating intruders. Rankle was pulled from his musings as the cloaked figure started laughing. "Is this it?" she asked, "I've faced tougher challenges in my sleep."

"Grrrr! GET HER!" Rankle roared, pointing a finger dramatically at the black-clothed intruder. The robots extended their clawed hands and rushed the cloaked figure.

But before they reached her, she leapt into the air. She landed on the back of one of the robots, and ripped a panel off the base of its neck, revealing a bunch of wires. "Oh, now don't these look important," she said with a laugh, as she ripped the wires out. The robot started twitching and shooting out sparks, before collapsing. As it did so, the cloaked female somersaulted off its back, landing a few feet away.

The other robots turned and charged at her, but she simply stood still and pulled a metal cylinder out of a pocket in her cloak. Just as the lead robot reached her, she flicked a switch on the side of the cylinder, and a blade of pure energy extended from the top. With a single swing, the cloaked warrior severed the robot's extended arm, and then swung the blade horizontally to cut the robot in half at the waist.

She then launched herself at the three remaining robots, plunging the energy sword into the nearest one's chest. She dragged the blade, and then pulled it free and ducked as one of the other robots punched the air where she had just been. She then swept the blade through the robot's legs, sending it to the floor, and before it could get up, she cut its head off. She then quickly flung the energy sword at the last robot, hitting it dead in the head.

Having dispatched all the robotic security guards, she turned back to Rankle, whose jaw was hanging slack. "Any more toys you want me to break?" she asked. This snapped Rankle out of his funk, and he charged at the cloaked figure who had just destroyed his security system. He aimed a punch at her head, but she just ducked and rolled out of the way, her hood coming off as she did so. Rankle spun around, and froze in shock at what he saw.

The cloaked figure had flawless lime-green skin, bright green eyes framed by thick eyelashes, and curly antennae. "Wh-what are you?" Rankle managed to choke out. The female Irken bared her zipper-like teeth in a cruel smile as she replied, "Your worst nightmare, human."

PAK spider legs suddenly extended out from the folds of her cloak. Using them as a springboard, she threw herself at Rankle, knocking both of them over the balcony. The only difference was, the Irken managed to grab onto the edge of the balcony with her spider legs, while Rankle fell until he crashed through the roof of a Krazy Taco stand.

Having pulled herself back onto the balcony, the Irken female gave the wounded and unconscious form of the defeated Mall Security Officer one final smirk. She then pulled her hood back up, retrieved her energy sword, and walked away, heading out of the Mall.

Her destination: the poorly disguised base of the planet's resident Irken Invader.

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A/N: And there's the prologue done. I know I focused more on my OC than on Zim, but this will not- I repeat, WILL NOT- be a Mary Sue fic. I simply wanted to start this story off with a bang, as well as give my character a good introduction.

Next chapter: Plot development, more Zim, and some Dib, GIR, and Minimoose.

Until then, read and review!