– – –

Author's Note:

Invader Zim is -c- Jhonen Vasquez! Only the events of this story, characters specific to the story, and character tweaking (heh) are mine. :3

~Jizena~

– – –

Gaz's Records

The Spike of Judgment, the Irken Empire's strongest maximum-security prison holding, was suspended in space amid multiple rocky entities and metal satellites. Barbed wire rings forbade any ships from entering or leaving without a security code. Oddly enough, it reminded me of many a final dungeon I'd encountered in video games over the years. The Spike was a fortress, with spikes literally jutting out from all directions; I could only imagine that such a structure would be impossible to maneuver through on the inside, which, in a sense, made it ideal for holding cells.

When we came within orbit, Tenn's communication screen flickered with a call, and she informed Dib, Lex and I to get out of sight of the screen. Tenn, in turn, shifted out of hologram before answering the call. Only Irkens allowed in and out, I guess.

The three of us ducked down behind the pilots' seats while Red loomed over us. I shifted myself to one side when the screen hummed on to get at least a partial look.

"What's your business here?" demanded the caller, a female Irken technician with sharp purple eyes.

"Invader Tenn reporting," Tenn answered, referring to herself by her old title clearly for leverage and not out of respect. She saluted the other officer, who only gave a look of scrutiny in return. "I'm passing through with a prisoner of war."

"Prisoner's reason for admittance?" the technician asked, her voice thin and nasal.

"High treason and a bunch of other terrible things."

The technician scoffed. "There are other prisons, Invader," she said. "Why is it necessary that you're bringing your prisoner to the Spike?"

"Did you not hear me say high treason?" Tenn repeated, clearly already fed up with the system in place.

"Yes, yes, but plenty of things commit treason against the Empire."

"This one's Irken."

"We're close to capacity. I need a better reason."

Red took over the conversation at that point by saying, strongly, "Our prisoner needs to be put on trial, and this is the only place for her to be detained and tried and locked up again. And if that's not reason enough, how about the fact that I'm authorizing it?"

The technician looked almost astonished for a second, and her antennae twitched. "My Tallest! I couldn't see you on the screen," she said, almost frantic. She glanced down and away for a second, then continued, "We lost connection with the Massive some time ago, sir, and until a few days ago were unaware of your whereabouts—"

"Who contacted you about me?" Red demanded.

"Let's see… the guards on Planet Vort, sir," said the technician, looking offscreen for a moment.

"Days?" I heard my brother wonder under his breath. True: it seemed like we'd only been in transit a couple of hours at most, but we couldn't assume that time was similar across the entire Empire.

"Regardless, my Tallest," said the technician, "of course we can accommodate this trial and imprisonment for you. You will have thirty seconds to enter."

The screen went dark, and I saw Red grin before he said proudly, "Allies."

"Nelv was a step ahead, huh?" Dib commented as he started to pick himself up.

"Stay down!" Tenn cautioned. "We don't know what kind of scanners or whatever we might pass going in."

"Fine, whatever," Dib submitted, sliding back down between me and Lex.

Outside the ship, I then heard a loud creaking and groaning as the rings gave way for Tenn to pass through, and again as they closed around behind us. Tenn had slowed her speed, and I held my breath, hoping we wouldn't be met with massive resistance upon landing.

After a couple of minutes, the ship hummed and was still again, and the screen flickered back on with the same technician on the other side.

"My Tallest," she greeted. "Invader Tenn. State the size of your crew."

"Five," Tenn answered. "Plus one prisoner."

"Enough for a jury," said the technician, typing something into her own computer. "Do you require a public or private trial and detainment center?"

"Private for now, with a request for a public continuation later," said Red. "Our three other crew members are not Irken."

"Not Irken?" the technician repeated, sounding repulsed.

"Is that a problem?"

"No—no, sir. My Tallest. Of course. Non-Irkens may serve as witnesses, as you know, sir, but cannot be prosecutors."

"Fine, because I'm locking her up myself," Red declared. "And I'll be running her trial at a future date to be determined."

The technician paused a moment, then continued typing. "All right," she finally declared. "Your prisoner will be assigned to cell 1052-G." She spoke each of the digits individually, accentuating each syllable. "We had been holding that cell for another prisoner who never showed up." The technician looked up. "Unless you know the whereabouts of former Elite Invader Skutch?"

I felt my heart skip a little. I'd forgotten that Tak had initially tossed Skutch aboard a prison ship after slicing off his hands and mangling his PAK. It made sense that she would have sent him here, to add insult to injury.

"Don't worry about Skutch," Red said firmly.

"I do not make it a habit to worry about anything, my Tallest," said the technician. And I saw Red wince, just slightly. This was what he had to work with: an Empire full of those so used to regulating emotion, while he, the leader, had started to open up to what it meant to feel anything at all.

"What I mean is, Skutch is not a priority. In fact, I'd say he's redeemed himself of any need to be in prison," Red corrected quickly.

The technician looked as close to alarmed as I'm sure she'd ever been. "Redeemed?" she wondered, as if speaking the word for the first time. "My Tallest—"

"I said, don't worry about it." Red's voice was harsher now, the way he'd always spoken when I'd first met him. While he had become much more accepting and even noticeably human in a few ways, Red was still not someone who lost an argument.

The technician reeled back, then collected her composure and nodded, typing again "I'll just delete the record, then, sir?"

"That'd be best."

"Tell your pilot to fly to the left. G Corridor is five levels up when you reach the first spike. Name and rank of your prisoner?"

The ship fell silent for a breathless moment. None of us knew what Tak's standing was with the majority of the Irken population. Obviously she had so many devout followers they were launching one last attack on Earth, but the rest of the Empire seemed to be loyal to whoever was Tallest at any given moment. Or whoever the Brains recognized as Tallest. If the latter was the case, Red technically had no power, even though both the guards on Vort and the Spike technician seemed to have hailed him by title without question.

Red answered, slowly. "Tak. She no longer holds any rank. She's being imprisoned as a traitor."

The technician looked almost nervous for a second, but struggled to remain looking neutral. But she did say, "Thank you, my Tallest. G Corridor should be more than sufficient for high treason prisoners."

"Perfect."

With that, the transmission was cut, and Tenn's screen instead began to show a map of the Corridors. As she made her way through, Tenn made a point to say, "Thanks for handling that, Red. Never thought I'd say this, but I'm glad people are listening to you."

"Huh," was Red's first response. Followed by: "Well, it might take a while for everyone, but we'll see. At least my actions on the Massive haven't made it out here yet." He shuddered somewhat, then added, "Also, I've got more I need to tell you guys. Just not here. We need to lock Tak up before anything else happens."

Beside me, I felt my brother shiver somewhat as well. Lex must have noticed, too, since the two of us exchanged a look before both turning our attention to Dib. "You okay?" I asked him, noticing that his eyes were locked onto a single spot on the floor several feet in front of him.

"I'm fine," he said.

"Don't lie to me, Dib," I threatened. "What's going on?"

He shifted his focus to look at me, and he looked half scared, half mesmerized. "Can't you feel it?" he asked me, his tone alarmingly quiet. "The static in this place, the… I-I don't know, the power in this place, the history, and…"

Dib cut himself off with a sickened groan, and leaned forward onto his knees, his fingers clawing at the air until he curled them into fists.

"Dib," Lex pleaded in as even a tone as she could, "stay calm. Stay here, stay level. Don't let it overwhelm you."

"I'm trying," he admitted. "It's just that the Spike has more energy around it than Devastis or even Vort. Gaz, please tell me I'm not alone in this…"

The truth was, I could feel something. I was awake to the static, to the bristling, heavy air in and around the Spike, but I didn't feel sick in the same way I had on Devastis. I could feel it and ignore it, and I think that having witnessed that moment with Zim so recently, that second we both realized he was completely human, had some effect on me. Knowing that rush and sensation of just what being human meant, I felt that much more detached and oblivious to my Irken genetics. I'd never felt super connected, so the more I used those abilities the sicker I felt for having done so; for the most part, I could ignore them.

But Dib had seen something I hadn't.

I had never looked at my own reflection in our mother's Mirror.

Dib was someone who could take a concept like 'destiny' seriously. He was obsessive, if only with the best intentions. Plus, he was the one who'd actually felt the full influence of an Irken PAK. He was prepared to feel more, experience more, become… something other than what he currently was. So he did, and the waiting was causing him to feel it that much more fully.

"I can feel it," I assured him. "I just don't think it means anything yet."

"Doesn't mean anything?" Dib repeated harshly, managing to keep his tone down. "How can you say that?!"

"I just mean the next step isn't here," I said, keeping my tone firm in hopes of keeping my brother stable. "Breathe and stay human, Dib."

"I'm trying," he admitted in a whisper.

"Stay human till we find Mom."

That bomb drop didn't elicit a verbal response from Dib, but he did give me a look that he understood. That he was worried, but that we were on the same page. I patted his shoulder a couple of times, and Lex firmly grasped both of his hands. And together we stayed silent until the ship came to a complete stop.

Tenn insisted upon disembarking first, just in case we'd be met with any kind of retaliation, but after only a couple of minutes she gave us the all-clear to follow. Red and Dib volunteered to be the ones to drag Tak out from her holding cell on the ship; Lex and I kept our weapons at the ready at the door of Tenn's ship, while Tenn herself tried not to begin conversation with the guard at the door.

The guard was tall for an average Irken (maybe 5'5"), and I noticed that Tenn kept looking over at them and straightening her shoulders, lifting her head up. After a couple seconds I realized what she was doing. Tenn had stayed in human hologram on Earth for a few years, now, and with the exception of the Invading forces hadn't really been around other non-hologramed Irkens during that time. Now standing so close to one without fighting them, Tenn was sizing herself up. And I saw it, too: she'd gotten taller. Significantly.

Now, I had no idea how Irken growth worked, or what really made the Tallest the Tallest, but I did know that height denoted authority, hence the higher ranking soldiers being of taller stature than most Invaders, who in turn were mostly taller than regular citizens. If Tenn had gotten taller over the past couple of years, did that technically mean that she'd risen in status?

Figuring that Red and Tenn herself would be the best to answer that question, I didn't pry or stare; just waited with Lex until Red emerged from the ship holding Tak by the back of her collar, followed by my brother, also ready to attack if necessary.

As a group, we followed Red to the large hexagonal door to cell 1052-G, where the Tallest addressed the guard. "Are you a Tak loyalist?" he demanded.

"Certainly not, my Tallest," said the guard, looking up. Tak did not struggle, but I saw her trying to crane her neck in order to look back, specifically at me. Red didn't let her. "My loyalty is with the Empire."

"Whose Empire?"

"The… Irken one…? What other Empire is—"

Red glared at the guard.

The guard saluted. "Yours, sir! Of course!"

"Good. Open the door so I don't have to be anywhere near this traitor until her trial."

The guard obliged, and the hexagonal door spiraled open, revealing a cold grey room about eight feet high and wide. Red tossed Tak into the cell, and as soon as she landed, solid cuffs shot up from the ground and bound her wrists and ankles together; a pale green light from each gleamed to show they'd locked her in place, and Tak was stuck to the ground with nowhere to face but out toward all of us.

"There," Red said defiantly. "Get comfortable. We'll be back for your trial. Anyone want to say anything?"

"Yeah, I've got a few words," Dib said.

"So do I," I added.

Tak lifted her head, and said nothing

My brother stepped forward first, his seething anger obvious in the air around him. "There are so many ways I could tell you I hate you," he began, "but that would just be a waste of my time and energy. So instead of giving you any sort of sick satisfaction in hearing exactly how I feel, we're gonna talk about you.

"Everything you've done, everything you have tried to pass off as a 'game,' as some kind of elaborate plan, Tak—every move you have made has been done out of fear," Dib said, pacing his words so that there was no way Tak could tune him out.

"You've made some pretty terrible choices while you've been running," I added, glaring at her.

Tak only glared back, as she had been doing since we'd locked her up on the ship.

"You have manipulated people," I went on, feeling the heat rise in my back. "You've manipulated people who should have already been your allies, because you were afraid they wouldn't follow you. You manipulated fate to overthrow your own leader and throw the entire Empire out of balance. You manipulated Zim. And my brother. And me. And so many others. And I just want to know why."

"So do I," said Red. "But not yet. Let her sit alone with those facts for a while, and we'll get to the why at her trial."

Stiffly, Tak moved her neck so that she could tilt her head to face Red. "Why not get it over with now?" she chastised him. "You're just going to lock me up again."

"Not necessarily," Red answered, shrugging one shoulder. "You might get sentenced to something that involves work. Reparations. Who knows. All I know is that I'm going to wait until you can have the public trial you deserve. Isn't that what you wanted, Tak? To be up in front of a crowd? Well, congratulations. The entire Empire, once everything's been settled, is going to be able to witness your trial. I'm not going to let the Brain system punish you, you'd get off too easy."

"Where's your pity now?" Tak sneered.

Red balked somewhat, but was able to shake the comment off. "The thing is, Tak," he said, almost uncharacteristically calmly, "it's not just pity. I'm new to it, but I'm pretty sure no emotion is just any one thing. With pity comes guilt, and empathy, and compassion. Do I pity you? No. I don't. Do you deserve that from me? No. You really don't. Do you deserve empathy and understanding from the leader you dethroned and tried to kill? Absolutely not. But am I going to take the easy route and kill you or erase your PAK? No, because that would be beneath me. I'm not who I was when the Brains were pulling the strings, Tak."

Turning his back on her, Tallest Red added, "Get used to it."

To us, he motioned back toward the ship and said, "Let's go," and strode away without a backward glance.

The heavy door began to shift closed around Tak, and I did watch the entire slow process of her being completely sealed away from us. I watched enormous wires snake forward from dark patches of the walls around her and clamp onto her PAK, locking her in place without use of its functions; the cuffs on her wrists beeped and tightened, and a hinge shifted from the center of the cuffs to create an additional hold around her fingers to further restrict movement. Lastly, the door closed in around her, leaving me one last look at our old opponent, who finally closed her eyes in acceptance of her defeat.

And then the door shut completely, and she was out of sight.

Electric bars sprang up in front of the door as one last measure of security, at which point Dib said, "I'd say she's pretty much harmless in here."

"I wouldn't say harmless," I realized, shivering somewhat as the two of us made our way back to the ship. "She can still mess with people's minds. I just hope nobody listens to her at her trial."

"Yeah, true. Same," Dib agreed.

We left the conversation at that until we were all back on board. As Tenn retraced her route out of the corridor, Dib brought up the inevitable question: "Who's going to be called to Tak's trial?"

"Well, I'll be running it," Red stated, "and I figure everyone who's on board this ship now should be there. We should probably get some statements from her followers. Probably Skutch, maybe even Zim."

"If they take any hostages on Earth, I'm sure they'd make the trip back to make them testify, and take part themselves," I offered. At the same time, I began to wonder just how long everything would take. The fighting, the aftermath.

Actually, the aftermath was bound to last for a while. Nothing was going to be the same once things were settled on Irk. Everyone back on Earth was probably at least a little bit aware that there was something going on. I just didn't want to have to wait too long before we could go home.

– – –

The journey to Irk would take a while, Tenn told us, and just as we were wondering how to pass the time, my watch chimed with an incoming call. I dismissed myself to the far end of the room to take it, knowing but still delighted that the caller was Zim.

"I was kind of hoping you'd still be in transit," he admitted. "I just wanted to catch up with you before this last push."

"Well, I'm glad you called," I admitted. "We just locked Tak up. Have her forces attacked there yet?"

"Not yet, but we're ready," Zim told me. He proceeded to fill me in on several things—GIR being revived and proving to be of no threat anymore, the Meekrob's assistance, the plans to fan out forces across the globe to protect against the Invasion.

And what month it was.

"It's seriously September?!" I cried out in response to that last part. Which got Dib and Lex's attention, and I waved them over to hear the rest.

"I was surprised, too," Zim admitted, "but honestly, based on the way Irken and Meekrob ships travel, it makes sense. Wormhole travel cuts down on the travel time we feel, but not what actually passes. Your dad said something about space travel too, but I couldn't entirely follow."

"Yeah, well, that's Dad explaining things," I said.

"So it's September back home," Dib mused. "Same year we left?"

"At least there's that, yeah," Zim confirmed.

"So… so I'm sixteen." Dib took pause for a moment, and Lex and I exchanged a glance before checking to make sure he was okay. "We passed my birthday," he finally continued. "Why do we keep using that number code, then? What's that mean?"

"I honestly couldn't tell you," Zim said, "but I remember that GIR did say something back when… you know, bad crap was happening… something about 'that's when it wakes up' or something like that."

"But we passed it," Dib said again.

"Maybe on Earth. I dunno about Irk."

"Hmm."

"Anyway, don't let me distract you guys from what you need to get done," Zim said. "I just had to tell you a few things. That in particular. Oh, and, eh, is Lex there?"

"Yes," Lex confirmed.

"Oh, good! Do you still have a communicator on? I need to pass the frequency over to yours."

"What? Why?" she wondered.

"Well, there's someone here who really wants to talk to you."

"Oh, my God!" Lex clamped both of her hands over her mouth, and her eyes watered. That could only mean one thing: her dad had finally woken up; the Meekrob and Ira had pulled through.

"I'll catch up with you again soon, all right, Gaz?" Zim said. Dib nodded at me and led Lex away toward a notch in the wall, where she leaned back and eagerly turned on her communicator to accept the call transfer.

"Yeah," I said. "Be careful, okay? Kick Grapa's ass."

"Planning on it. Good luck on Irk. I know everything will turn out fine," Zim assured me, and it was wonderful to hear him say so one more time before we were set to land. "I love you." That, too.

"I love you, too," I told him. "See you soon, okay?"

The call transferred over the Lex's watch at that point, and a second later, she cried out, "Dad!" When I looked over, she was smiling and relieved, and clinging to my brother in order to keep herself standing. I saw her nodding and saying a few things, but I didn't listen in, allowing my friend the time she so needed to reconnect with her father. I was sure she'd fill me in later, assuming there was any more than her relief to tell.

I wandered back over to the pilots' seats, walking in on a fairly rational conversation between Tenn (still out of hologram) and Red.

"They'll see us, though, right?" Tenn was asking. "I could activate the cloaking, but aren't the planet-bound Brains above and beyond the others? What's to stop them shooting us outta the sky, especially with a Meekrob ship tailing us?"

"The fact that they're expecting us is exactly why they won't attack until directly threatened," Red answered. "Every time I visited the Brains on Irk, they at least alluded to the Prophecy in some way. I was supposed to go out and get things conquered before we could be."

"What exactly is the Prophecy?" I asked, leaning against the back of Tenn's seat. Red rose from his, trying not to show that he was startled to have been interrupted. "I keep hearing that there is one, but go figure Mom never actually told us or even Dad exactly what it said."

"Look, kid, I don't even know what it says, exactly," the Tallest admitted. "All I know is that it was put down a long time ago, based on something one of the Brains or one of their technicians saw in the Mirror. They knew exactly who the Mirror would pass down to, and that she and her 'Heirs' were threats to the spreading Empire. It sees the fall of the Empire, and apparently mentions another race rising up, which is obviously the humans but the Control Brains basically set out to conquer everyone, just in case."

"Huh."

I looked Red over. He was harder to read now that he was back to looking Irken, and I was still on the fence about how I felt about him. Obviously, he was not my favorite person, but I didn't feel like I completely hated him anymore. He had done some terrible things, mostly to and oddly enough because of Ira in some way or another, but Red had been a product of Control Brain tyranny just like everyone else. And he'd had to cover up various things for probably his entire life.

Red had had to be the face of the Irken Empire, acting out the Control Brains' orders no matter how he actually felt about it. I could tell he enjoyed a lot of it, but at the same time, following orders caused him to repress his own innate sense of empathy, which could not have been easy. He'd covered up Ira's identity to keep him alive in the Empire, he'd kept Zim's past from him in the interest of protecting him from harmful truths. And lately everything was crashing down around him and he wanted to preserve what he could of Irken integrity while basically going into this fight with the knowledge that he'd be rebuilding the Empire from scratch.

I couldn't say he hadn't been helpful. I just also couldn't completely forgive him for all the dick moves he'd pulled in the past yet.

And he could absolutely tell. "Look," he said, rising, "I get that you don't like me, but I'm trying to help. Can we just be on the same page about this when we move on to Irk?"

"I'm with you, don't worry," I said, glancing up at him. "We're allies."

"That's a relief." Red cast a glance over at my brother and Lex, who seemed to have finished talking with Victor and were continuing a conversation on their own. "Listen, there's still something I need to tell you," Red continued. "All of you."

"Yeah, so you mentioned before the Spike," I recalled. I turned to look at the others again, and when Dib picked his head up, I waved them over. Before Red could launch into whatever he had to say, I lightly took hold of Lex's arm for a second to ask, "Everything okay?"

"More than okay," she answered, smiling while rubbing at the corner of one eye with the heel of her palm. "Wonderful, even."

"You got to talk to your dad?"

"I did." She let out a bit of a sigh and added, "I can't wait to get home to see him."

"We'll have to beat the Brains quick," I said, only half joking. I wanted to go home, too, but there was so much that had to happen before we could even think about heading back.

"Believe me," Lex said, "I'll help in whatever way I can to see that things move as quickly as possible at this stage." Glancing up at Red, she asked, "What were you saying just now? What's going on?"

Red waved us back and stepped around the co-pilot's seat to join us. He shifted his stance to fold his arms, which had been more or less his neutral stance when looking human, but quickly moved again, letting his arms hang to the side. "Tenn," he said without looking at her, "you need to hear this, too."

"I'm listening," she said.

"You can put the ship on autopilot for five minutes."

Tenn glowered back at the Tallest, but, upon taking in his growing discomfort, obliged, switched on her autopilot, and stepped around to join us, hologram active.

Red glanced around at each of us, then grimaced, let out a slight, harsh sigh, and opened the compartment in his right gauntlet to shift his appearance. He shivered through the split-second transition, folded his arms more comfortably, then cleared his throat to begin. "As you know," he said, "every time one of the Brain centers is destroyed, they've been taking away one of my PAK's programs or regulations. First they took my weapons, then they cut out my anti-grav… and it's been feeling like the more they take, the more my Original ability is taking over."

"And…" Dib prompted.

"And, well, you know more of it," Red relented, shrugging at Dib. In human form, Red's emotions really were easier to read. He was projecting unease and gratitude all at once. "You know I'm not using a hologram to look like this."

"You're not?" asked Tenn, looking him up and down in disbelief.

"No, and it's too long and complicated to spell it out again," Red told her, "so long story short, my PAK kept a code of my forced human DNA and I figured out how to tap into it and shift physically."

"So… wait," I said, "you were saying, about the Brains taking stuff from you. Obviously they didn't lock you out of being able to shift. What'd they cut off when we blew up the Station off Vort?"

Red drew in a deep breath, leaned against the back of the co-pilot's seat, and said, "My filter."

"What, like an air filter?" Lex wondered. "Are you in need of oxygen? We have extra tablets."

"No, no, no. My filter. Emotional filter. Every PAK is equipped with one, except for one or two of the rarest Originals." Red held out one of his hands, rubbed at the scar under his thumb, and finished, "And, now, except for mine."

"Hold on, can you elaborate?" Dib asked, panicked and curious. "What do you mean, emotional filter?"

"Exactly what it sounds like," Red said sharply, shifting his gaze to glare at Dib. "One of the primary functions of PAKs throughout the Control Brain era has been regulation. It filtered out the vast majority of emotions we were technically born with. Love and trust and all that. Even Originals had to deal with the filtration of every other feeling but the ones we were left with."

"So," I said, trying to sort out where he was going, "without your filter—"

"Without it, according to the Brains, I'm basically an enemy," Red explained. "Not being up to regulation, my PAK is effectively what the Brain system would consider Defective. And as far as it goes for me, that just means… it's just letting me see the error of my ways even more. I was already starting to figure some stuff out, but without the filter I… I just feel more of… everything."

Zim had said almost the exact same thing, less than an hour before he'd proven to have earned his soul. Plus, Ira had said something to the effect of not accepting an apology from Red 'until he knew he meant it.' That meant unfiltered, I realized. Unencumbered by Brain regulation.

"You weren't looking so great on the Meekrob ship," Dib said, causing Red to shiver somewhat. "Like, you looked sick and exhausted after getting whiplash from piloting the Runner through those explosions. Is the filter thing why?"

"Possibly," Red said with a shrug. "I don't know. Maybe my tolerance for pain has gone down a little, who knows. All I know is that whatever happens next, on Irk, I hope I can still be helpful to you once we set foot anywhere near the Brain cluster."

"What do you mean by that?" my brother wondered.

"I just mean… without my filter, they're saying I'm not a part of their Empire," said Red. "They've locked my weapons systems so I can't attack, they've cut out my levitation system so I can't function as one of their Tallest. I still have plenty of PAK functions, but the fact is, they'll probably go for something vital next. Atmospheric processor, memory, or life support. That's all in there, and my PAK coding is still in their system so they could literally cut out any of those things any time they wanted. From me, or from any Irken," he added, his tone becoming softer with the realization.

"We won't let that happen," I said quickly.

"I was already planning to land pretty far from the Brain core," Tenn offered. "And you said yourself, Red, that they won't attack till attacked, so you should be safe while we figure out a plan."

"Thanks," said the Tallest, actually sincerely, "I appreciate that." He held back for a second, as if processing what he'd just said, then shook his head to get back into the conversation.

"We'll hit them before they can hit us, or any Irkens," Dib said. "We'll be met with retaliation, I'm sure, but I do want to figure out a way that we can beat the Brains without it being too devastating a blow for, y'know, society. I have a feeling Miyuki has the answers, so let's just start with trying to find her. And as far as things go for you, Red, I mean… the filter, is that still gonna be a thing for all Irkens once this is over?"

"I honestly couldn't tell you," Red said, "but based on intuition, I'm assuming not. There's going to be some kind of shift once the Brains are gone, and every Irken will be able to feel it, whether they can process it right away or not."

"Well, then, you'll just have to be the one to help them figure it out, right?"

Red paused a moment, then grinned. "Right." And, after another moment of contemplation, he added, "Actually, I'm looking forward to it."

– – –

Everyone had a chance to rest a while before we made it to Irk (even Red, surprisingly, before he shifted back into looking Irken for the rest of the trip). When the planet was nearly in view, Tenn called us all forward; standing next to my brother, I watched from behind the pilot's seat as a massive grey planet came into view. As we drew closer, I realized that the planet itself wasn't grey in any sort of atmospheric sense—the color was metallic. The most visible thing about Planet Irk from space was its immense surface computer structures.

Here and there, I could see patches of reddish brown land and gleaming purple, green, and yellow lights, but for the most part, the planet was a shell of robotic activity, leading me to believe that there may have been land beneath the surface, but how far down was anyone's guess.

"Well," said Red, his eyes scanning the complete horizon, "here we are. Home."

A sting hit my chest when he said that word. Home for me was so far away now. Months away, lightyears away. But this place was pulling me, too. This was my mother's home, and therefore a part of my own history. My spine felt warm, as if bone had been replaced by coils of hot wire; my stomach felt dull and empty, not sick, just void. And it made me want to cry.

Looking down at that planet, feeling the pull toward it, feeling the sharp, angry energy that surrounded it, I thought about Red's words, about PAK regulation, about how sick it had made Zim while trying so hard to break from it and be his own person. About how much control Dib's PAK had had over him during Tak's Invasion back on SEC grounds, and how frightened I had been to see the people I loved and cared about become so manipulated by the parasite that the Brains called 'order' in their system.

And about how I did not want to be a part of that. I wanted to respect that this was where Mom was from, where everything started and where something new was about to begin, but my back hurt and my heart was heavy and I had never felt so overcome with such a feeling of overwhelming sadness.

Dib could tell, and when he put one shaking hand on my shoulder and asked, "Are you okay?" I knew that he could feel it, too. Possibly even more than I did, based on how he'd felt on the Spike. His eyes seemed dim and his face looked pale; he was holding himself together, if barely, while trying to comfort me.

"I'm trying to be," I answered, my eyes watering all the same. "I just… Dib, it's all about control."

"I know," he said, and when he squeezed my shoulder his hand felt hot. "The energy's out of balance."

"I feel out of balance," I admitted.

"Me, too."

So how long until we both lost what little control we had? How long until the Brains tried to shut us down? How long could they keep toying with us, knowing that we were coming for them?

How could we destroy an entire government that was counting on being attacked?

Tenn veered left, and as we came around to the darker side of the planet, the gleaming computers faded away with the stars, and more of that reddish ground became visible as she eased us into our descent.

"Head for the old testing grounds," Red advised her. "Nobody uses that place anymore, it should be around here somewhere."

"What's at the testing grounds?" Lex asked.

"Nothing much, really," said the Tallest. "Just abandoned workshops and undeveloped ground. If we're looking for Miyuki and wanting to keep away from the Brains, this is our best shot. Pretty sure she set up shop around here."

"Shop?" I wondered.

"To make weapons," Dib remembered. "Miyuki made tons of weapons, she said. An inventor needs a lab."

God, our parents were so matched, it was weird.

Tenn flew us over what looked like a desert of red-brown clay; every few hundred feet or so, we passed over a dilapidated building or row of buildings. Many were of the warehouse variety, but some looked as though they could have been lived in, a long time ago. I wondered if there were such things as Irken ghosts—the place looked hauntable enough—assuming there had once been such a thing as an Irken soul, and then I felt gross for having thoughts usually reserved for my brother's obsessions and dropped the idea. But I couldn't deny that I was at least a little curious now.

"Why abandon all this?" Lex wanted to know, scanning the ground below us with consternation. "Wouldn't it be perfect real estate for… I don't know, training grounds or something?"

"It was, centuries ago," Red answered. "But everything changed when the Empire annexed Devastis." After a second, he followed up his thought with, "I feel like shit."

"What about?" Dib wondered.

"Just… all the blind conquering," Red admitted. "The Brains literally programmed the notion into me. Into all of us. Being Irken meant being a conqueror, and being Tallest meant taking credit and seizing power."

"And you don't want that?" I challenged him.

"No, kid, not anymore," he said honestly. "I don't want to conquer. I just want to lead."

And that convinced me. Red would be a good leader, once the time came for it. I figured that Ira had seen that potential in him, which was why he knew a real apology was inside Red somewhere. The worst part of it was, Red could have been the leader the Irkens needed, and the Brains had obviously sensed that and squashed it by controlling his executive actions as Tallest.

He really was a threat to them. Everyone on board was. Tenn, who had deviated from the system of her own volition; Red, who no longer felt shame for having empathy; Lex, completely human and knowing of the broad spectrum of emotions associated with free thought; and Dib and me, who straddled the line between Irkens and humans, susceptible but resistant to Brain control. And somewhere hovering a safe distance away were our top allies, the Meekrob—skilled healers and collectors of knowledge who were well suited to the opportunity to make history in the Empire.

The beginning of the end.

"Any ideas on where to land, Red?" Tenn asked. "I could fly us in circles around this dusty old place all day, but I really don't want to."

"Well, where are we most likely to find a secret weapons lab?" Dib offered.

"Maybe literally underground," Red muttered, scanning the horizon. "But our best bet would be somewhere near a Tavis mine. Close enough to get her resources, but far enough away that she couldn't be caught."

"Cool, yeah, that's really helpful," Tenn said sarcastically. "That could be anywhere. What does a mine even look like? I've never been to this side of the planet."

"I don't know!" Red shot back. "Some big pit where you dig shit up, I guess!"

"Like that one?" Lex pointed out.

Looming ahead of us to the right at this point was an enormous black and grey drill, unused and rusting, poised over a canyon that looked held together by skeletons of red scaffolding. Semi-crumbled towers stood desolate watch nearby, and gears of broken machines were strooned half sunken into the clay around the mouth of the pit.

"I'm guessing it's a good place to start," Tenn agreed, and flew a few yards past the pit to land on solid ground.

Once landed, while Tenn sent a call to the Meekrob ship to inform them of our landing, Dib, Lex and I took stock of our supply of oxygen tablets and made sure our respective weapons were at the ready. Lex had packed plenty of extra arrows for her crossbow, but remarked that she'd use what she had conservatively until we made our way to the Brains. I unsheathed and re-sheathed my twin daggers, as a subtle reminder to myself that they and my body and my mind were all I needed in terms of weapons; as a message to whatever Irken parasite kept biting at my spine that I wasn't about to let it make a different kind of soldier of me.

When we disembarked, a rusty smell filled the air, and the ground was hard and cracked, the clay having been drained of whatever resources it had had years ago. The drill was still in view, but we kept our distance, looking for inconspicuous places where Miyuki could have hidden herself during her pre-Tallest days as an independent weapons technician.

"Kinda wish Dad was here," Dib remarked, kicking up dirt on the ground with one foot to see if he could uncover a hatch anywhere. "He knew how she liked to work."

"We could call him," I offered. "I mean, they might be fighting by now, but it could be worth it."

"Nah, we can save a call to him till something bigger comes up," my brother decided. "Dad's never been to Irk, it'd be tough to describe it."

"Not really," I said, splaying my hands out in front of me. Faking a call, I went on, "So, hey, Dad, if Mom had her pick of where to build a lab in a desert wasteland—"

"Okay, I get it," Dib said with a bit of a laugh, rolling his eyes.

We walked around the area for ten or so minutes with no changes in atmosphere, and no sense that the Brains or anyone else had any visuals on us. When nothing seemed to stand out to us, Dib asked, "Okay, do we try the pit?"

We made it to the ledge, the drill hanging over the righthand side of the vast canyon, and looked down. I saw no sign of the base of the canyon from where we stood.

"Shit, that's a long climb," I remarked.

"It would take hours to get down there, at best," Lex agreed.

"Yeah, so that means hours to get back up," Dib added.

"I'd offer to fly us down," said Tenn, "but my ship's too big."

"And," said Red, "I'd suggest teleporting, but I'm not sure that's the best choice. Besides, we don't even know if we'd find her down there."

"I hate this!" Dib erupted, kicking a rock into the pit. Backing away from the canyon, he shouted, "Thanks so much for telling us anything about this planet, Miyuki!"

"Dib, what are you doing?!" I hissed, storming up and grabbing him by the arm.

"If she won't give us any hints, I'll just try pissing her off till she shows up," he snapped back.

From the ruins behind us, I heard, "Is that how you would choose to say hello?"

We turned together, and there she stood. Mom was wearing her deep blue, long-sleeved cloak, her hands covered by black gloves and her hood up to cast her face in shadow. Every time I had seen her lately—which had been, what, three times?—she'd seemed more and more shrouded, if only in her demeanor. She was trying to shut something out, or protect herself. Or both.

"Given that you're generally the one making calls," Dib said, "and not answering them, I figured it was an option."

"All you needed to do was arrive," said our mother. "The Mirror would have led me to you soon enough."

Dib groaned and grabbed at his bangs, pushing his palms against his forehead. "Right, yeah, thanks for telling us that up front," he complained.

"Mom, please tell us you can actually reveal a little bit more now that we're here," I asked. "The riddles really aren't helping. You helped out a lot when you met with us and Dad back home, but…"

Carefully, she drew in a breath, and cast a look around our immediate terrain. Then, passing a glance to the others as well, she said, "Follow me."

"Guess we're doing that, then," Dib muttered, dropping his hands and striding forward. As he walked, he rolled back his shoulders uncomfortably, shivered somewhat, then went on as if it had been just a mild inconvenience.

I cast a glance over my shoulder at Lex, who pressed her lips together and began walking forward as well. Our concern for Dib was so mutual at this point we didn't have to say anything. She could probably feel the negative energy coming off of him as well as I could. And it was negative only in the sense that Dib was angry, and doubtful, and those traits were so incredibly Irken that they were probably seething into his own dormant PAK and making that energy stronger.

I really wasn't afraid for myself so much as I was for him, and I knew it.

Lex walked ahead, linking her left arm with Dib's right as they spoke quietly while traveling a safe distance behind the ever unpredictable Miyuki. As I continued on at a few paces behind them, I was soon flanked by the two complete Irkens in our party, both just as confused as Dib and I were.

"Is that really how she's been this whole time?" asked Tenn, hologram on and blue eyes wide with questions.

"Yeah, since my fourteenth birthday," I answered. Remembering Zim's time update, I added, "Guess that was over a year ago now, and I'm fifteen. Weird."

Red let out a dissatisfied snort of air. "I don't see any difference," he said. "Aside from the whole being human thing."

"Nah, she was nicer," Tenn argued.

"Nicer than the Commander," Red reminded her. "And better'n Spork, but Skutch woulda made a better leader than Spork."

Tenn shuddered. "Don't say that. He'd be the worst."

"Yeah, okay, bad example, but come on."

"So," I interrupted, "all the riddles, all the weird… I dunno, mystical creepiness. But not, like, cool creepiness, the stupid kind. That's how Tallest Miyuki ruled?" I wondered.

"Look, I had the Control Brains telling me how to operate," Red said, "and I was never a Talisman keeper. I'm sure there was only so much she could do having that Mirror around all the time. Talismans can make you nuts. I held one for a couple of hours and… anyway," he said, shrugging off the thought. Yeah, I knew where he was going with that and I didn't like it.

"I had one," I pointed out, realizing again the implications of what that ring had been. "Even when I wasn't wearing it, I've technically had it for five years."

"You didn't know what it was," said Red. "Plus, you seem a lot more naturally resistant to power than anyone else I've crossed with a Talisman, so there's that."

Beyond the fact that Tallest Red had just complimented me, he'd shed more light on the issue of control that I'd been working through in my head. Irkens and humans are so very alike in the want for power that many of them possess. Tak had wanted to manipulate; Miyuki had wanted to hold on; the Commander had wanted to conquer. All of that came from that ultimate power of being the keeper of one of those things that were direct links to the Control Brains, to the center of the Empire.

If there was anything I wanted, really, it was to protect. I hadn't needed the Shield to do that, I would've done it anyway.

Once we destroyed the Mirror… what would happen to my mother? And while we were here on Irk, what was the electric pressure surrounding the planet going to do to Dib? He wouldn't admit it, but he was power-hungry in his own way. And I didn't like it.

"Thanks," I managed to say to Red, and we continued following in silence.

The five of us followed my mother to a run-down warehouse, and she led us smoothly around tables and toppled cabinets covered in red dust to a thick black door. With a harsh breath, she ripped the door aside to reveal a lift, which appeared to be in much better condition than the rest of the building.

That didn't stop Dib from asking, "Is that thing structurally sound?"

"It is our only method of entrance to my old labs," Mom answered straightforwardly. "I have been keeping it operational myself."

With that, she gestured for us to get in, walked in behind us, shoved the door back into place, and slid one hand over a gleaming green pad on the righthand wall. The lift creaked, then gave and began its descent. Nobody said a thing for the few minutes it took for us to reach the intended level, and when the lift stopped, a much finer door slid open to reveal a vast, mostly empty room.

The room was carved into the ground in a more or less pleasing way, with thick metal walls on all sides. There were compartments lining the far wall to the left, obstructed only by a circular seven-foot hole in the wall, leading down to some other corridor; near the center of the room were two long tables, upon which were strooned small scraps of things—wires, chips, gears, radio antennae. On the far wall facing the lift was a computer screen; I wasn't too well-versed in Irken technology, but based on everything else I'd been seeing, I could tell that this screen was outdated. The control panel in front of it, too. But it gleamed softly, showing that it was operational.

I stepped forward to grab my brother's shoulder. "Look familiar?" I asked him in a whisper.

"Yeah, seriously," he answered.

Dad would've loved that lab. Maybe he'd even inspired it. Or been inspired by Mom's descriptions of it. In that way, the room felt oddly comforting.

But the most glaring thing I noticed was what was not in the room. "Where's the Mirror?" I asked outright.

Mom took a few steps into the lab, glanced around, then removed her hood and turned to face us as the others stepped off of the lift. "It is here," she answered, "further in. Before we address it, I should like to say a proper hello."

She tugged off her gloves, and ticked her head to acknowledge the others. "And you have brought… guests? Reinforcements?"

"Allies," Dib corrected. "Friends. Oh, and by the way, we've got the Mee—"

Mom brought one hand quickly to stop him, and said, "Best not to give away everything at the moment."

Dib and I exchanged a quick glance, but neither of us said anything about the Meekrob who had followed us. While it was unlikely Mom's lab was bugged, per se, she was definitely being watched. Somehow.

"In that case," said Red, "I'll be the first. It's been a while, Miyuki."

Mom almost smiled. "Tallest Red," she greeted in return, not moving. She looked him up and down and observed, "You are walking."

"The Brains cut out my anti-grav," Red explained, sounding bored of saying it, "but this feels more natural anyway."

"And you are helping my children?" Mom asked, rather harshly.

Red moved forward a little to confront her, despite his obvious nerves. "I am," he said. "I've got to say, I'm impressed by how fast these two have been learning."

"Do not be, their father is a genius," my mother said. I heard Lex stifle a laugh. Honestly, I would've laughed too if I hadn't been so curious as to how this situation was going to play out. "And if I recall," Mom went on, striding toward Red but not giving him the satisfaction of coming directly face to face, "it was under your jurisdiction that Invaders-in-training were sent to retrieve him, was it not?"

Red winced, taken aback. "Miyuki, that was a Brain order, I had no—"

"You certainly did not," she interrupted. "Nor did you have the right to imprison the man that you mistook for my husband."

"I didn't imprison him!"

"You most certainly did!" Mom threw her gloves to the side and glared up at Red, who in turn shrank back a bit. "A dear friend of mine became your prisoner, and then your partner. Would you have done the same to Charles, Red? Would he have been so lucky?"

Dib hissed out a breath and commented, "Shit…"

"I don't know!" Red erupted. "I don't think the way I used to, so I couldn't tell you! Maybe, but I'm really not sure anymore. There are tons of things I wish I hadn't done now, so it's making hindsight a little murky for me, but—"

"Then tell me this: was the order to kill him?" my mother demanded. "What was your order, Tallest Red? What was to happen to him? And to our children? Was there any order, or was it all a trap for me all along?"

When she said that, Mom slapped one hand over her mouth, and her green eyes flared wide. She drew in a harsh breath through her nose and looked around, half trembling. She was definitely on watch. Which basically explained all of her 'won't and can't tell you' attitude when it came down to explaining herself around us.

Red waited for her to settle down, then took his time with his answer. "The order wasn't entirely clear," he admitted. "It was a step-by-step process. It was sold to me as a good training mission for my future Invaders, but it was probably more of a test for my own loyalty, now that I think of it. To see if I'd play along with the Brains as the Tallest. Which I did. It's where I wanted to be. And as far as things were supposed to go for your husband, the only order I was given was to bring him to the Brains. But obviously that never happened, so I don't know what they were going to do next. Or that 'heirs' meant necessarily your kids, at the time."

Mom took pause, meditating on his words, then clasped her hands to her stomach and sighed. "You did not go back for him," she said, after the silence threatened to thicken.

"No," Red said. "You disappeared again, so there was no point. Plus, I had Ira. I—w-we had Ira. He was still a friend of yours, so you might've tried to… anyway. For all of that, Miyuki, what I set out to do and failed to do and did anyway, I'm incredibly sorry. I'm on your side now."

Nobody said a thing for a moment, and then my mother drew in a long breath, let it out slowly, and nodded. "Very well," she said. "I appreciate the help you have provided my children thus far, and trust that you will continue to be an asset in this endeavor and beyond."

"I'll try," Red responded.

"That is all that I ask. Now," my mother said, brushing past him and toward the rest of us. "Please introduce me to the rest of your group."

Dib cast me a discerning look, but went ahead with the introductions. I could see him hesitate and weigh exactly how he'd talk about Lex in front of our mom, so he opted to procrastinate on that. "Miyuki," he started with a motion of his hand toward our pilot, "this is Tenn, the Irken I met on Meekrob. She and I were both named Ambassadors there."

"A pleasure," Mom answered. When she didn't prompt a handshake, Tenn did, and Mom accepted after a second. "Forgive me my informality," she said.

"No problem," said Tenn. "You were a Tallest, you probably weren't in the business of shaking hands with Invaders. Especially Invaders who quit."

Mom balked somewhat. "Do the Brains know?" she wondered.

"I hope so," said Tenn with a grin, drawing her hand back. "I quit because Red screwed me over, but things've been looking up since then. I just don't think 'Invader' is the right title for me anymore."

"Then Ambassador more than suits you."

"I—wow, thank you," Tenn managed, in awe. After another quick moment of processing, she did cast a smug look over at Red, who just shrugged as if to agree with my mother's declaration.

"And this…?" Mom prompted, finally turning to look at Lex.

Lex cleared her throat and took a step forward before Dib could introduce her. "I saw you briefly when you came to Earth," she said. "It had been years since I'd seen you last, and I'd have hardly been able to recognize you had I not seen a photograph of you recently."

Mom's eyes lit up a little, and she almost smiled. "Alexandria."

Lex did smile, and waved somewhat. "Hello."

"And what has brought you all the way here?"

Lex shrugged. "A bit of love, a bit of logic," she answered. "Which, when it comes to your son, go hand in hand."

It took Mom a second to get it, but then she looked over at Dib and asked, "Is that so?"

Dib managed a bit of a grin and said, "Surprise?"

"Of the finest kind," Mom said. "Now, tell me, Alexandria, are you prepared to face what may lie ahead on this planet?"

"Honestly, I've been preparing myself as I go," Lex answered. "I'm confident in my ability to fight, and in the knowledge I've gained about the Irkens thus far. But mostly I hope that I can be the voice of human reason if there's any backlash against us as a species. Or… whatever the Irkens might think of us."

"I admire your bravery," Mom complimented her. Then, casting a glance around at all of us again, she asked, "No other companions?"

"Not with us," Dib said. "The rest, Dad included, went back to Earth to fight off Tak's remaining army."

"They were planning another Invasion," I added. "Their leader said something about wanting to convert Earth into a new Brain hub as the last phase of Tak's super loose plan."

"Loose," Dib repeated with a mocking laugh. "She's never had a solid plan."

"Yeah, no kidding," I agreed. "The instability is scary, though. I mean, she still managed to recruit an army based on a seed of an idea."

"Seriously. Which actually brings me around to something we need to ask you, Miyuki," Dib said, looking back at our mother. "When we destroy the Brains here… what'll happen to the PAKs of Irkens throughout the Empire? I mean, we're just destroying a system of government, right? Not an entire race?"

"No, if all goes well," Mom answered. Dib and I exchanged a nervous glance. "We have many things to discuss. Follow me."

With that, she turned to lead us further into her lab, down a corridor that illuminated as soon as we'd entered. Midway through, Mom slowed her pace and asked, "Zim… is his business completed in the Mirror? I have not felt a presence in there in quite a while."

"He succeeded, yeah," I answered proudly. "Soul and all. He's helping lead the resistance back home."

I could hear the smile in Mom's voice when she said, "I'm glad."

In that moment, for just a breath of time, I wondered what life was going to be like when all of this was over. I wondered if Mom would come home, if she and Dad would get back on good terms; if Zim and I were going to be able to just take our lives one day at a time and breathe and not have antagonizing intergalactic forces interfering with our lives all the time. I wondered what normal was going to be. And then I was back in the present, getting ready to make it all happen.

"Hey, Miyuki," Dib said after a minute. "What exactly do you mean when you say stuff like you can feel a presence in the Mirror, or it can find things? Is it… sentient?"

"Not in the traditional sense," Mom answered. The corridor grew dimmer. "It remembers things it has seen and places it has been. It reflects life in all senses—image, ambition, spirit, and self."

"And 'spirit' is different from 'soul?'" Tenn asked. "You kinda lost me."

"One's spirit is drive, motivation, inspiration," Mom said. "One's soul is a wholeness of self. Something the Irkens lost long ago to the machines."

Dib shuddered. "I repeat: we're not going to kill them all when we destroy the Brains, right?" he asked.

"There is much we need to plan in order to ensure that that does not happen," Mom said. "Dib, could you give us some light?"

"Huh? Oh, this?" As easily as one can blink, Dib swept one hand through the air in a liquid motion to gather energy into one palm using the Meekrob method. I hadn't really noticed how different his Meekrob skills were from his Irken ones until then; Meekrob energy manipulation was more of a flow of an electric current, while Irken manipulation was derived from creating a sharp spark with static.

The corridor was then dimly illuminated with the soft white glow from the orb, and I saw Mom smile almost proudly. Dib glanced over at Tenn, who shrugged and went through the same motion Dib had to create another orb of light, giving us twice as much glow.

Red stared at Tenn, who shrugged. "What?" she said. "I learned from Nacea, too. Just cuz I don't use it as much doesn't mean I don't know how to do it."

In the newly illuminated corridor, Lex was the first to draw in a gasp and call our attention to what surrounded us. "The walls…" she said, stepping closer to the one nearest her.

The metallic walls were marked up from floor to ceiling with dusty red paint. Chickenscratch Irken writing was echoed by hashmarks, ones and zeroes, and English counterparts to the Irken words. In among the words were equations and standalone numbers. Schematics. Sketches.

Dib walked a little further down the corridor while Tenn kept our immediate surroundings lit so that they covered more ground. "Miyuki," my brother asked, "what is all this?"

"Much of my life's work," Mom answered. "In my generation, when I was very young, we heard talk of the Brains' supposed Prophecy in murmurs throughout our early years of training. We were only told enough to make us wary of it, to keep us loyal to them."

"'Us' meaning Originals like you?" Red guessed, scanning the walls.

"Indeed."

Slowly, Mom walked up to one of the walls, and lightly ran her fingers over the words and equations she'd carved in there who knows how long ago. The more I saw of her surrounded by her work, the more she was reminding me of Dad. No wonder the Brains had come after her, if they knew she'd become involved with a human with the same ingenuity she possessed.

"Many complied," Mom said. "I refused. I did not want to exist only knowing that there was a Prophecy. I wanted to know what it was. I wanted to learn."

"And you learned too much?" I asked.

"Precisely. I'm not sure why they did not simply send me away, lock me up. Instead, they gave me the Mirror."

"Which," Dib concluded, "from what you've said was its own sort of prison, huh?"

"The worst kind," Mom agreed.

"So that's what's written here?" Dib guessed. "Is this the Prophecy?"

"Some of it," our mother said. "Others are pieces of ways I tried to figure out if I could halt it, or rise above it… or escape it. It never made much sense to me."

"Where does it start and end?" Lex wondered.

Mom walked along the wall, searching with her fingertips much more than her eyes. When she stopped, and took in a very audible breath, Dib moved to shed light over the portion of the wall she'd stopped in front of. "Everywhere," my mother said.

The first thing I saw was the unfinished sentence, "SHE WILL BETRAY—" followed by multiple numbers and much less legible words in Irken letters, jumbled together like a thicket of weeds.

Under the words was a sketch of a portal, not dissimilar to the active chamber of the machine Tak had made herself all too familiar with, that Zim and Skutch knew intimately, that now lay dormant on Devastis. To the right of that, several other quickly written sentence fragments:

"They will rise, the Others, they will rise—"

"—the Talismans to keep Us from burning—"

"—and Our greatest soldier fall among Them—"

"Half Ours, half Theirs, the Heirs will strike—"

And the much more complete: "Their Past shall destroy Our Future aims; Should They rise, We shall fall in flames—"

Further off still, the words became smoother, forming a rhyming canto:

Should her Heirs rise to overturn —

Our towers shall crumble, Our Empire burn,

The Others Our soldiers' own shall earn,

And all that was lost shall return.

All that was lost shall return.

"Lot of, uh… lot of fire imagery, huh?" Dib said uncomfortably.

Lex set one hand on his arm, then added, "All of this 'they' and 'our…" I assume 'they' and 'other' refers to humans?"

"It does," Mom confirmed.

"And I'm assuming," Red added, "that 'our' doesn't mean the Irkens as much as it means the Brains."

Mom nodded. "Precisely," she said. "These fragments go on. The Brains discuss the Irkens as their soldiers, but little else."

Tenn let out a huff of breath. "Sounds about right," she said. "That's all we ever really were to the Brains."

"Expendable soldiers," Red agreed. It sounded like a lament. "And the 'greatest' that it talks about, switching sides I guess…"

"The same as 'soldiers' own?'" I wondered.

"My thought exactly," said Red.

"Zim," I realized aloud.

What the words were getting at was that the Brains knew that someone important to the Empire would ally with the humans. The 'Others:' according to the few lines I could make out, the humans were referred to as both 'Other' and 'the past.' What the Irkens could have been, still able to think freely without the use of machines, rising up against the futuristic progress of an entirely mechanized and ever-expanding Empire.

"We're a threat," I said, looking over the words again.

"Huh?" Dib asked.

"They knew the humans were coming," I worked out, "and that we'd always be a threat. Look how many times it mentions 'Others.'"

"And we're the ones doing the rising up," Dib added, finally following my train of thought.

"The Heirs," Tenn agreed with an awkward nod.

"What about this?" Lex asked, pointing to the repeated line. "'All that was lost shall return.' Is that… emotion? That sort of thing?"

"That'd make sense," I said.

"They didn't want us thinking," Red agreed. He was glaring at the engravings, clearly trying to process the whole idea of the Brains' Prophecy now that it was here in front of him and not some vague idea. As had been happening a lot lately, the Tallest looked pretty obviously uncomfortable. "They didn't want any of their soldiers defecting and joining the humans. So they took everything, before we could figure it out."

"Like Original genes?" Tenn guessed.

"That and… everything else," Red said. He drew in a staggering breath. "I never used to be able to feel so much. Every time the Brains break one of my PAK locks, I'm opened up to more of what I always figured the Brains saw as weakness.

"They just fed it to us as weakness," he went on, angrily, still glaring at the engravings, as if he could see right through to the central Brain core. "Trust and empathy and all that. They took it away and told us it was useless and stupid. They knew we'd get rid of them if we just plain figured out what they were trying to do."

"So the Prophecy," said Dib, "is really just a string of propagandized paranoia the Brains fed the rest of the Irkens? How'd they see this? The Mirror?"

Mom nodded solemnly. "That is what I have always assumed. The Mirror reflected a future they did not agree with, and that realization turned into this.

"They had droned this on and on; a lamentation for a future that did not see the Brains' continued success," she said, her eyes glassed over as she stared at the engravings. "When they realized they could protect themselves with seemingly unbreakable Talismans, they easily took the opportunity."

"Unbreakable?" Dib repeated skeptically. "No offense, but Red smashed the Cabochon in one hand. Gaz blew up the Shield with static and pressure."

"Not unbreakable in nature," Mom corrected, "but in essence. Those who have watched over the Talismans throughout their history have been loath to destroy them. Wielding one provides power and opportunity, so much so that it often outweighs the burden."

"Speaking from experience?" I guessed.

Mom looked like she wanted to be sad, but the closer she was to the Mirror, the harder it was for me to tell what she was feeling. I'd only ever seen her far away from it, back on SEC grounds. She'd been tethered to it all the same, just not standing so close the glass seemed to overtake her eyes.

"I couldn't be rid of the Mirror if I tried," she explained quietly. "I cannot break it on my own. The Brains know this. They have always known this."

"Can they keep tabs on you through the Mirror?" Dib wondered.

"Presumably."

"Then we need to stop talking about them and destroy it already!" Letting go of the Meekrob energy, Dib's hands now burned with borrowed static from the air, gleaming green in his fists.

Darting forward down the corridor Mom held out her hands between the door to the Mirror and my brother and commanded, "No! Not yet."

Dib grit his teeth, let out a dissatisfied growl, and shook his hands to release the energy back into the air. I felt it. My back hurt.

"So, what?" Dib said angrily. "What do we do? If Gaz and I are supposed to be the ones changing things, what do we do? How do we attack the Brains if they already know we're coming, and what we are?"

He winced after he said that, and shook his hands out again. Sparks flew in the space between his fingers, and once the static was released, he let out an uncomfortable groan and leaned back against one of the walls.

The longer we waited to make some kind of (Irken) move, the worse the energy on this planet would eat into him, I knew it. If the Brains were watching Miyuki through the Mirror, they were watching us. Him, specifically, I realized. Dib, who had been inside the Mirror. Who had seen his prophesied Irken reflection in the Mirror.

What did they know about me?

The only time I had seen the Mirror in person had been back on Devastis, and the only person I'd ever seen in the glass was Zim. Then the glass had gone dark; preoccupied. The Brains were expecting me, sure, but I hadn't made my presence as loud and clear as Dib had been over the past few years.

I had seen and helped destroy clusters of Control Brains before, but I had no idea if they had communicated. MiMi, a Satellite Brain by design, could have given them plenty of dirt on me I'm sure, since she'd been keeping tabs on me (and on all of us) through that stupid game she'd basically handed to me during the Incident.

That was it, though. That's where I was formidable, in my own comfort zone. And if the Brains knew anything about me, they knew that. But somehow I doubted they were expecting that of me. They were expecting two half-Irken heirs to Miyuki's more rational ways of ruling the Empire, not… well, not me in the way I could fight back home.

"Hey, Dib," I said, slowly formulating my thoughts as I went. "Can we talk about something?"

He cast a glance over at Mom before pushing away from the wall and turning to me to ask, "Sure, where?"

"Right here," I insisted. "Right here, we need to make a plan and we need to do it here, and I need to say something and I want to say it in front of everyone, just so we're all on the same page."

Dib looked around at the others. When Lex gave him an encouraging smile and nod, my brother asked, "All right, what're you thinking?"

"Well," I said, "a lot. So here goes.

"Listen, the Brains are expecting heirs, and maybe it's from some weird stuff I've read, but that sounds to me like people who are lined up to accept some sort of destiny," I explained. "Here's what the Brains have on us. They've got this Prophecy. They know we've inherited some of Mom's residual Irken abilities. They're expecting us to behave like the half-Irken threats they saw coming however many hundreds of years ago."

"What are you getting at?" Dib wondered.

"They're expecting us both to be just that: half Irken, half human. But bear with me here. They're not expecting one of each."

As I should have expected, Dib froze. For a moment, I wondered if he was even breathing. Then his eyes flashed red; he shook his head and took two steps back, staring at me. "You're not suggesting…" he started. He looked at Red and at Tenn, avoided looking at our mother, then clenched his hands into fists and huffed out a breath. "You're absolutely suggesting what I think you are," he asked, looking me in the eyes, "aren't you?" I nodded, and his eyes flashed again. Keeping his rage under control, he demanded, "Why?"

"Because of who we are," I said, "and what we've done, and what we can do if we go about it this way."

"Gaz," he managed, "I don't even know if that's possible."

"Mom, do you hear what I'm getting at?" I wondered. "Is there any way I could just… not go through with it? If we've each got, what, a quarter of what you had… is there any way we could keep going with me giving my quarter over to Dib?"

She fell into a moment of contemplation, looking back at the door that led to her Talisman.

"Yes. It is possible," Mom explained slowly, "for one of you to reflect your abilities onto the other. That would mean surrendering your Irken capabilities, for one… and the full power of an Irken Tallest, for the other."

I grinned. "There, see?" I said, glancing up at my brother. "We could—"

"What?! No! No way!" Dib cried, looking frightened for the first time in quite a while. "Trade off part of my humanity to be more Irken? Are you insane?!"

"It would not be a trade," Mom said, in that eerie calm tone. "It would be a relinquishing on Gaz's part, and an acceptance on yours. Neither of you will be any less human than you currently are. The variable is in the abilities I passed to you."

"How do you figure?!" Dib demanded.

"To be fair, I am not entirely sure."

"Cool, cool, I've lived to hear you admit that for once," Dib muttered.

Mom looked possibly slightly hurt by the comment, but continued. "For all intents and purposes, I, too, am human," she explained. "But my time in the Mirror between one life and the other rendered me unable to separate from the Empire completely. I was left on Earth with, as Gaz adeptly surmised, residual abilities, which I then passed to you, despite both your father and myself both being equally—physically and spiritually—human."

That actually got Dib to take pause for a moment. He grabbed at his hair a little, and his eyes watered when his fingers tipped his glasses slightly askew. He corrected them, and folded his arms close to his chest. "That's… Miyuki, I think that's weirdly enough the most comforting thing I've heard you say," he said.

"That being?"

"You calling yourself human."

Mom looked like she was going to respond, but chose to simply show a ghost of a smile. She cast her gaze between us, as if evaluating my suggestion. As far as I could read (on a very difficult to read person), she seemed okay with it. I just had to get Dib on board, because the truth was… he really could do more damage if he took on more abilities, just as I felt I could be better on the attack without.

Hoping to convince him, I continued: "Look, Dib, one major difference between us is that you've seen your reflection in the Mirror. You've seen yourself as an Irken, and you've picked up the proverbial mantle and have been honing your powers for I guess like two years now. I haven't seen that for myself. The last time I looked in a mirror, it was a plain old bathroom mirror back home and it was just me and I think my hair looked a little brittle because it was freezing outside but that's it.

"If I have some kind of destiny in that Mirror, I haven't seen it, and I don't have to make myself see it if I don't want to," I continued. "I'm in control, and they are not expecting that."

"Why only me?" Dib wondered aloud. He didn't sound angry. Scared, maybe. Nervous, but not angry. "Why am I the only one who saw an Irken reflection? Why just me?"

"Because I think it was meant to just be you, Dib," I said. I caught his gaze, and went on: "Think about it. You've taken to this stuff way better than me. You've always been open to this kind of thing too. I mean, you've been able to do that Meekrob stuff for years. You get it, Dib. You're a natural."

"You're good with your abilities, though," Dib offered.

"Only because I have to be in the moment," I said. "If I could get rid of these powers completely, though, I would. Would you?"

"Well… I mean… they're useful, so…" Dib tried to fight it, but I saw in his expression that he couldn't. And that was eating at him. His eyes watered, but he didn't let himself get too emotional. "No," he admitted, glancing down and away. "I wouldn't. Maybe at first, but not anymore."

"And you've accepted that you might get the ability to turn Irken. That's fine. I haven't. That's not me, Dib. But it is you. Every bit."

Slowly coming around to the idea, Dib warily admitted, "Okay. Okay, I get that me taking on full Irken capabilities would be useful, Gaz, but what about you?"

"Think about it, Dib," I said, splaying my hands out I front of me as if to illustrate the possibility. "If I'm one hundred per cent human, I'm more of a weapon."

"What?! How?"

"I'll be impervious to the Brains' electric current. And if you get my abilities, you'll be twice as resilient. We literally attack from both sides! We can balance each other out better this way. Don't you think?"

"But… my PAK," Dib said, visibly trembling. "How would I…?"

"Your sister is right, Dib," Mom told him. "With fuller Irken abilities, you would have more control."

"O-okay, but… I'll be able to turn back, right?" Dib asked, nervously. His eyes wandered in a panic, and I could see his hands shaking.

"Of course you will," our mother assured him. She slowly reached out her hands, and though Dib flinched, he let her set her hands on his shoulders. "The two of you together have inherited half of what I once was. By taking on Gaz's abilities, you will only be amplifying your own, not changing entirely.

"You will gain the ability to change at will," Mom went on, smiling somewhat. "You have a human soul, dear, and nothing, nothing can take that away from you. You have a good conscience, and people you love, and people who love you. You call Earth your home, and it always will be. I promise you this."

"Like Mom said, Dib, it's ability," I offered. "You'll be able to be Irken, or use Irken powers. You don't always have to be. And I just… won't be able to do any of that stuff, and that's fine."

From the side of the corridor, Red finally spoke up. "Honestly, I think I could be more helpful to you that way, too, kid," he said, matter-of-factly. "You were asking me about control. There's your control. Your sister's handing it to you, and I think that's a smart choice."

"Plus," Tenn offered, "don't forget about your Meekrob abilities. You'll still have those to balance you out."

"I just… I don't want to lose myself," Dib admitted, staring down at his open palms. "I don't want to favor being Irken. I don't want to lose the last of my humanity."

"You won't," Lex told him, causing him to glance over at her. Giving him a bright smile, she added, "I won't let you. Remember? I'm going to make sure we can prevent that."

"Same, Dib," I added. I stepped back up to my brother and, after a second, hugged him tightly. "You're way more in tune to the Irken stuff we can do, yeah, but there's no way you're not going home human. If I'm gonna just hand over my abilities to you, the least I can do is keep them from making you go super crazy. Okay?"

Dib sighed a little, and said, hesitantly, "Okay."

"Okay?" I repeated, clinging tighter.

Slowly, Dib moved his arms to hug me back, and in that moment he allowed himself to be vulnerable.

For a while now, Dib had been saying things about wanting to protect me. Some of that was from the threat he used to think Zim was, sure, but he always had that protective air about him whenever things got too deep. And I think that part of his overprotectiveness of me came from a want to not expose weakness himself, which itself was telling of his very Irken stubbornness but which manifested itself in a human way. Now, though… now he was finally letting go and admitting that he needed help. That he needed protecting in some way. He said that Lex was his anchor, but Dib also needed a shield.

Only recently, upon discovering that the singular Irken Shield had been with me for the past few years, had I realized my own ability to be that shield. To be armor. To unflinchingly protect the people I loved most. I was Zim's shield and I would absolutely be one for my brother as well. No questions asked.

"Okay," Dib answered me, a little more strongly.

"You're gonna be fine," I said to him. "I promise."

We stepped back somewhat, and I saw that he'd sort of cried a little. He removed his glasses, wiped his eyes with the heel of his palm.

"Hey," I added when I was afraid his resolve was faltering. "I've been worried about you. About the way this static keeps affecting you. I want you to be in control, and I think you have to want that, too. I'm gonna make sure you get out of this okay."

Dib cracked a grin, then shook his head and let out a sigh as he slid his glasses back on. "Man," he said, "I kind of lucked out with having you for a sister."

"You're welcome," I said, mock-haughtily.

Lex stepped forward at that point and placed her hands on Dib's arms from behind, leaning her head against his shoulder from the side. "I believe in what you can do," she said. "Whatever happens, you're going to be amazing."

Dib looked her over for a few seconds, then gently wrapped one arm around her waist and kissed her hair. He didn't say anything in return; nothing needed to be said. I love you was in every gesture.

After a moment in silence, Mom spoke again: "If your choice is to relinquish and accept," she said, "the only place to do that is within the Mirror."

"It really is too helpful," Dib noted.

"Are you ready?"

Dib looked at me again, and I managed a real smile for him. That seemed to keep him consoled and confident enough to draw in a deep breath and say, "I am. Let's do this."

– – –

The Mirror was suspended in a hollow, dark room. Every breath around it seemed to echo, making us all hyperaware of the fact that we were in the presence of something terrible.

When we approached it, the glass was black, and against what little light gleamed from the curving dark grey walls around it the frame cast swirling, snakelike shadows on the ceiling and floor. There was only one way into and out of the room from the rest of the lab; the Mirror was locked in a dead end cave-like encasement all its own.

Only family walked through that door, with Mom leading the way and Dib and I shoulder to shoulder, taking the same breaths, matching each other's steps. We stood so close I could tell that even our pulses were keeping equal time.

I felt for the ring on my hand to twist it around, and felt my eyes tear up when I remembered it wasn't there. I closed my eyes for a few steps and thought the words stay strong to myself. I said it in my head with each heartbeat. Stay strong; stay strong; stay strong.

The others were just outside, with Tenn still providing light. Mom had instructed them not to enter the room unless they heard glass shatter or a cry for help. Or both. Hopefully not both.

Mom stepped up to the Mirror, and the glass did not change. Just black. Not the calming black of a starless night, but of a void. An absence of space, of matter, of thought. It was emptiness, and it was everything. And it was horrifying.

She drew in a breath, and touched her left hand to the frame. Suddenly, the frame was illuminated silver, and the glass swirled to life with a pulsing dark grey light—just enough of a change in color to show that something was happening. That the Mirror was awake.

When Mom paused, then, staring into the glass, I said, "You need to let go of it."

She didn't respond.

"Mom, you've been stuck with this thing forever," I continued, seeing just how attached to the Talisman she really was. "If we're gonna move forward…"

"I know," she said softly, her shoulders tensing. Slowly, she turned to look back at us, her green eyes almost grey against the Mirror's throbbing light. "There is no time better than now to begin."

"What can we expect in there?" I wondered.

"Confrontation," was her answer. On a breath, my brother and I grabbed each other's hands and held tightly. "Do not be surprised if you are separated, but do not try to leave until you have found one another. Know that time is meaningless when you are inside, and that fears have the ability to manifest. But enter with resolve. Know in your hearts what you want to accomplish. Be ready to relinquish and accept."

Carefully, Dib asked, "Once we've, uh… gone through the changeover or whatever… can we break it? Can we get this fight against the Brains moving once and for all?"

Mom pressed her lips together and her grip on the frame tightened. But, after a few breaths, she let go, and took a step back. "Please," she said somberly. "Do what must be done." Her eyes misting up somewhat, she added, "I am afraid I cannot be of any further help to you until it is gone."

I felt a shiver run down my spine. A shock hit me between the shoulderblades. I tried so hard to ignore it, and focus instead on what I had proposed we do. I wanted to end this the same way Zim did. Human. I wanted to be human, to fight as a human, to win as a human. To prove to the Brains what humans are capable of. To prove that we weren't so Other from the Irkens as the Brains wanted their Empire to believe. And I wanted Dib to not be in so much pain from standing between worlds. I wanted him to be able to accept, fully, everything he was.

I wanted this to be over. I wanted to go home. I wanted our mother to come with us. I wanted the Mirror to be gone.

Silently, Dib and I looked at each other and nodded. Then, on the same breath, on the same step, we walked forward until we had passed through the glass.

It was like walking through mist. Everything around me felt cold. My skin prickled. Static rose around me. I closed my eyes as we walked.

And then came a shock of static so jarring and abrupt it felt like something had jumped up and bitten my hand. I yelped and stupidly let go of my brother in order to wring my hand out. The pain gone in an instant, I gasped and opened my eyes, aware of what I'd just done.

"Dib!" I cried out. But he was nowhere to be seen.

My only companion now was an insulting, lonely grey void. I felt like I was at the center of a stormcloud—rather than looming over me, it encircled me, shifting and changing in hues of grey from darkest slate to nearly silver. I tried to move forward, to search for Dib, but only void followed. I called out again and again until it was obvious that I was accomplishing nothing, and my voice felt raw.

I wanted to cry but I felt too empty to do so. I felt as hollow as the room we'd been in moments ago. Or hours ago. Or months ago. When you experience a loss as great as the one the Mirror can project upon you, time is absolutely meaningless.

We'd only been separated, but that was what it felt like.

Loss.

The loss that my mother must have felt when she left her family behind, sacrificing herself to this thing. The loss that drove my father crazy. The void left behind when Ira had been stripped away from his life and his home, the incomprehensible nothingness that had been left inside Zim in place of the memories he'd tried to bury of his violent past.

The nothingness that existed inside every Irken when they had forgotten what it meant to have a soul.

I was no longer breathing but gasping. I was only afraid. I wanted to know where my brother was. Just that. Just some sign.

Nothing. Void.

But after another several moments, or lifetimes, I became aware of my heartbeat.

Stay strong; stay strong; stay strong.

Know what it is you want.

I wanted the opposite of loss, whatever that was. I wanted to fix, build, create, live. Be alive, really alive, with other life around me.

"Where is he?" I asked the Mirror.

I clenched my hands into fists, and static sparked into them from the angry air. "Where is he?!" I shouted.

Nothing.

Know what it is you want.

"I want this over with!" I cried out.

Know what it is you want.

I want to be human. I want to be. My goal could help me find Dib if I just had it in me to stay strong; stay strong; stay strong.

"I renounce my Irken nature and abilities!" I shouted into the swirling grey void. "I relinquish all of my inherited Irken abilities to my brother!"

I was met with an insulting silence, so crushing I thought my ears would burst for want of something to tune into. Then, it came.

My back was on fire; I cried out and dropped to what I assume was the ground. The grey quickly melted to pitch black all around me, so thick I could not see my hands in front of my face, and the silence was replaced by a static hiss.

"Are you sure that is what you desire?" a voice whispered. It came to both my ears at once, surrounding me and yet keeping terrifyingly close. So close I knew, with a shudder, that it was coming from inside me. My empathy for Zim's struggles washed over me like a wave for a moment, and like the tide it was gone again.

For a moment, my empathy was gone. Not only for Zim but for my brother, for my parents, my friends. For everyone but me. And it was replaced by a whisper.

"Why renounce the power that is rightfully yours?" it asked. "This is your kingdom. Your birthright. Your Empire."

My heartbeat drowned it out and I felt my eyes water from the overwhelming pressure exuding from my back, and from the sheer terror of having forgotten, for an instant, how to feel.

For so long in my life I had written off feelings. I had stayed cold and alone, but that wasn't me anymore. I had grown, and learned, and become open. Little by little, I had discovered the good in humanity, just as Zim had. Just as Dib had always defended. I wasn't about to lose that now.

"I don't want it," I said aloud, forcing more strength than necessary into my tone. "I don't want this stupid Empire. I don't want an Irken parasite infringing on the way I live my life. I don't want these abilities. I want to give them to my brother, so he has a better grasp on them. He'll know what to do."

"You run," the voice whispered, and I felt a surge from my back push me down further into the increasingly solid ground. "You cower. You fear what you do not appreciate."

"I fear becoming something I don't recognize as me," I corrected it.

"You admit fear."

"Gladly." Caving into it would make me no better than Tak. "And I'll be fine."

"Your confidence is Irken. You would relinquish your nature?"

"My confidence is mine," I spat, forcing myself to stand up. "You hear me? None of who I am or what I've made of myself is anything other than a whole bunch of experiences I've had. Relinquishing my abilities isn't going to change what's already happened. It's not going to deplete what I've already become. I'm human and proud of it, and my mother is Irken and I'm proud of that. What I'm saying is I don't need that.

"I don't need that!" I repeated, louder, as the heat from my back began to cool, as the grey, misty clouds began to swirl again through the darkness. "I don't need what an Irken PAK can offer me, but Dib does. I relinquish whatever abilities I have to him, so we can be what we both know we are and get on with our lives!"

"There you are!"

I cried out in surprise and turned when I felt something brush my arm. The haze had made my surroundings visible again, and I turned to see that Dib had caught up with me. Both equally overwhelmed with the sheer magnitude of the Mirror's changing environment, we hugged each other, neither of us wanting to have to face that place alone.

The contact sealed it. The static around me died down. The hissing in my ears stopped. My back was entirely relieved of pressure.

As soon as I'd felt that shift in myself, Dib's grip tightened, and he winced. I suddenly found myself holding him up, and I pushed him a bit to stay solid on his own feet. "Hey! Dib, are you okay?" I asked, panicked.

"I'm—I don't know," he admitted.

"What's going on?"

"I… I think it worked?" he managed, forcing himself to pick his head up, while still holding tightly to my shoulders.

"Okay. Okay, good," I said, still worried. His breathing had become staggered, as if he'd just sprinted a mile. "Dib, if it worked, we can get out of here. D'you know how to get out?"

He pressed his lips together tightly, then stood back, taking in a long, deep breath. Blue sparks of static energy began to snake around him, up and down his arms, reaching for the spot between his shoulderblades. Dib stepped back, and flicked his fingers out a few times, gathering still more static into his palms. As the color of the energy changed gradually from blue to red, he answered, as if he'd known all along:

"We break out."

His voice wasn't hollow, as it had been the last time his PAK had forced influence over him, but it did have a strange, reverberating ring to it. I'd noticed that with Irken voices. With Red, with Zim before, with Ira as Purple, even with Tenn. It was a singular voice, but with the impression that it had some kind of echo. The body and the PAK, both speaking at once, symbiotically. Harmoniously.

"Dib…?" I began. Without any way to read the static in the air around me, I could no longer create my own shield, should we find ourselves in a tornado of broken glass.

"The Mirror has to be broken from the inside out," my brother said, taking a look around us, as if to locate a weak point.

"Are you assuming this, or do you know?" I demanded.

Dib showed a little bit of a nervous grin, then looked at me again and admitted, "Both?"

"Oh, shit. Dib, we can't just—"

"This'll work, Gaz. Trust me."

Simply the fact that he'd brought trust into it convinced me. He was in control. This wasn't a PAK self-destruct trick. This was Dib doing what he'd always done: obsess over minute details until he could reach a logical solution. He'd just done it in record time.

"Okay," I said. I took in a deep breath. "I trust you."

"Get down," he advised. "I really need to release some of this energy."

"Got it."

I ducked down into a crouch such that I could easily spring back up should I need to take any kind of action, and covered my head with my arms out of pure instinct. The red static grew in intensity within my brother's palms.

Slowly, steadily, Dib raised his arms, palms out, to either side. An enormous shield of energy immediately engulfed us, but with his palms exposed outward, the static could still travel. Neither of us had ever done a simultaneous attack and defensive move with Irken abilities before now. So this was one of the results of relinquishing my half to him. He was more capable, and, more importantly to me, he was in control of his actions. Gaining my half had helped him gain an understanding. And for me, now fully having the outsider human perspective on things, being unburdened freed me up to move faster if I needed to, both physically and mentally.

The energy charged, Dib shouted out, "Miyuki, we're breaking the Mirror!"

He'd said we, and in a way he was right. He was executing the final action, but we'd both had to prompt it.

I had to squint, the light from the static became so bright. Then, in a flash, Dib released the energy through his palms, and a burst of light and pressure followed.

I heard glass shatter, and a second later, Dib dropped to his knees, put his arms around me, and doubled the strength of the energy barrier around us.

I had to keep my eyes open; I had to know what was happening around us.

Red light shot like lightning off of imperceptible walls, shattering what had to have been hundreds of thousands of panes of glass. The Mirror had indeed seemed infinite, but it was a hall of mirrors unto itself. It had to begin and end somewhere.

Then indeed glass began to fall all around us, in various dark shades of the terrifying, hollow void that had been housed inside the Talisman for so long. And with the glass fell objects. Chains, gears, half-hewn chunks of metals I couldn't identify, and beautifully crafted weapons. Pieces of our mother's life that had been eaten by and absorbed into the Mirror fell with the glass, freed from the intangible nothingness that had held them, trapped with her.

And finally, I heard her cry out. The pressure around us died away, our shield faded, and Dib let out a relieved breath, head bowed.

An instant later, Mom was on her knees beside us, and she flung her arms around us both at once. I exchanged a brief glance with Dib, and only then did I realize that, at some point in the last few minutes, all the brown had gone from his eyes, leaving them a bright, alert red.

I couldn't think much about that for now, since something else had startled me even more: Mom was crying. Her shoulders shook, and she clung to our backs so tightly, as if to take the place of the shield Dib had created moments before.

Her voice was trembling as she said, "I am so proud of you both."

Startled, I moved one hand to lightly touch the back of her arm, to give her the all-clear that we understood, and we were fine. She took that another step further, and sat back on her knees in order to hold my face in her hands and look me in the eyes.

And there she was again, emerald eyes shining and alive as they'd been in the photograph I'd stolen from Dad's lab years prior. Mom smiled brightly before she leaned in and kissed my forehead, then my hair, and then gathered me into an embrace like she'd done in the furthest reaches of my memory. She was still crying as she patted back my hair, brushing little wisps into place in my probably very messy ponytail.

"Mom?" I tried, warily. I took a light hold of her shoulders to try to return the hug a little. "You okay?"

"I missed you," was all she was able to say at the moment. She had said such things before, but never with such raw honesty, never with such weight. "You have become so strong, and I am so sorry that I was not there to help you find your way."

"It's… it's okay," I tried. This was almost more overwhelming than just being inside the Mirror.

This, I realized—this love and care and honesty and, well, sheer humanity must have been what Dad had seen in her so many years ago. What Mom must have been like on Earth before the Brains found her and the Mirror literally consumed her.

Pulling back, Mom kissed my forehead again, then turned and repeated the embrace for Dib. She wasn't crying as much now, and I noticed that while she held him delicately, she clung with the very tips of her fingers. To him, she said gently, "I am so sorry."

"It trapped you, huh?" Dib guessed, looking a lot more uncomfortable with Mom's new display of emotion than I'd felt. "The Mirror. I felt it in there. It was like an extension of a PAK, the way it can manipulate…"

"It was a scrying portal created by and for the Control Brains," Mom answered. "It had its way with time, and with space, and with anyone or anything that could be assimilated."

"Assimilated?" Dib repeated, more cautiously.

"And now it is gone, and that is thanks to you."

Dib looked like he wanted to say more, but there'd be time enough for discussions soon. For now, for what truly felt like the first moment in over a decade, my brother and I just took in a moment of feeling whole, each in our own way; of feeling safe, and secure, knowing that our mother was there to help us, and that somehow everything would be all right.

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Author's Note:

Thank you for reading! Sorry again for the radio silence; life continues being quite busy. Every time I get a chance to sit down and work on this story, though, it makes me glad for how much working on it has been helping me learn about writing and editing as I go... ^^

All chapters are going to be pretty lengthy for the rest of the arc - there's a lot of ground to cover! Working on 19 and 20 now...

Thanks again for sticking with this series~! 3

~Jizena

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