I don't own Invader Zim okay? Well I was sitting around thinking after watching Close Encounters of the Third Kind about the line where one of the landing crew says, "They haven't aged a day" and an idea popped into my head, "You never see Dib and Gaz's mom, what if she was abducted and then dumped back on Earth 25 years later, how would a young woman and new mom take being dumped when her kids are adults in today's world. (Using the year 2016, 25 years earlier is 1991 and God knows 1991 seems like a different world than now...)You have future shock in there as well. Well that is the premise of this fic, so enough of this A/N, on with the fic!

The young doctor scratched her head looking around. Last she knew she was on her way home from the hospital and was in the middle of the park when a bright light appeared around her and took her away from where she was standing. She had just come back on duty after the maternity leave wore out after the birth of her second child. She did not want to leave the kids at home to their father, knowing how inept he was with children at times, but then again, this was her first year of being a full blown doctor. This was one of the best hospitals in the city and she was determined to prove her own worth, not just ride her husband's name. After all, when you were married to the infamous Professor Membrane whose big discoveries were making changes that would bring the world into the 21st century like the visions promised in the pop culture of the day, one could easily imagine their De Lorans being made to fly in the sky and hover boards powered by moving your foot beside it by the time 2015 came around, people would talk and doubt your merits.

"Uggghhhhh..." The young woman with flowing purple hair said as she walked over to the park's water fountain. "Where am I?"

"You're in the park." A random voice said. "And you look like you need help. Bad. You sure you didn't take one or two bad Oxycotins or something?"

"Oxy what? I didn't think that was approved yet!" Last Dr. Penelope Membrane knew, that drug was still in the early development stage and only for people dying of cancer.

"Ummmmmmm... you been sheltered somewhere since 1998?" The voice asked as he walked up to her and looked at her clothes, "No, you look like you just appeared out of 1991. But so you know, there has been a opiate problem in this country for nearly 15 years now. You sure look like you have been part of that."

"No! Hell no!" Penelope said in shock. "Any way back to the hospital? I think I worked myself to exhaustion and just blacked out in the park. You see I just got off maternity leave early and I think I went back to work too soon."

"Ummmm..." The random person who found Penelope said looking around. He didn't believe this young woman's story one bit. She just seemed like a junkie who took clothes from the back of the retro consignment store that was now getting fashions from the early 90's in stock. But if nothing else, she looked like she needed help and the best place to do that would be the hospital. They could check her in and maybe call social services and get her young kids to the care of someone who wouldn't neglect them. God knows how kids could turn out if they were ignored their whole childhoods.

"How about you just wait with me here. I'll call an ambulance." The man said as he reached into his pocket.

"I got a quarter..." Penelope said. "But where's the pay phones? There were a ton over there by the bathrooms just yesterday! I walk this way to and from work every day! I swear there is pay phones all over the place. I called my husband's labs the other day from one to make sure my daughter wasn't too close to the Gameboy! She doesn't need to fall under the influence of video games!"

"Nah, I can call on my iphone..." The man said as he pulled out a phone and put in his passcode unlocking it and dialing 911 on the touch screen. This woman was delirious and seeming to think it was 1991. Either she took something bad while watching a movie from the 90's, things did not seem too good for her kids. That 'lab' of her husband's could have been a drug lab and they just hooked young children to video games to keep them quiet.

"What the hell..." Penelope asked as she looked at the iphone in the man's hand. "What is this?"

"A smart phone... they have had things like this since 2007, almost 10 years now." He said shocked. "Yes, 911? I found a woman in the park who is pretty confused and needs an ambulance to the hospital. She seems to think it is still 1991 and doesn't recognize an iphone...great... thanks." He pressed the end call button and looked at Penelope. "There should be an ambulance to take you to the hospital soon. They can figure out what is going on."

"I am not mental!" She said knowing what the hospital she worked at did to people who seemed crazy. It was sinking in that something had to have happened in the time she was blacked out. She looked down at her reflection. If the phone the man had mentioned had been out for nearly 10 years from 2007, that would mean that nearly 25 years had passed since she was last aware of the world. However, she did not look like a woman of nearly 50, she still looked like she was about 26 herself. Chronologically, she was born in 1965 and she was to be nearly 50 years old. But nothing felt like it should be 50. She still felt like she was in her mid twenties. Looking over her shoulder, she heard a siren of the ambulance and knew that she could not let herself be admitted to the mental hospital. If somehow had gone 25 years in the future, the time-line she was in now would know her as missing if not dead. Proving yourself alive was hard enough legally without explaining you didn't know where you were for 25 years. Quickly, she shoved the guy who called the ambulance to the ground and started to run towards her house. She knew the route well, she preferred to walk to and from work anyway. It helped her to lose the baby weight with her first child.

Meanwhile, back at the Membrane home, Dib lay on the couch watching old episodes of Mysterious Mysteries he had saved on his computer. He was waiting for a message from Tak for when she would come over, but she still hadn't sent it. He had just come home for the summer from college working on his master's degree. Never having given up on his paranormal ambition, and having freakish Meekrob powers bestowed in him he had managed to control, he was going to strive to make something that his own father would be made seem like the armature chasing dreams. To quell Professor Membrane's nagging, he majored in physics and biology in college with a small minor in military history upon Tak's suggestion that if he was ever going to beat the Irken Armada, he should at least know something about how to conduct battle. Dib had asked Tak to teach him, but it was tough enough on her to make their long (very long) distance relationship work while they were going to bring down the Irken Empire she did not want to be the one teaching him. It was hard enough just gathering the intel that they needed.

"Don't you have those dumb shows from 10 years ago memorized by now?" Gaz asked as she yanked Dib's headphones off his head.

"What's it to you?" Dib asked as he sat up. "You're pretty involved yourself with the paranormal." He scowled at the thought of his sister, the one he vowed to protect from harm since they were little, dating Zim.

"So are you." Gaz said, knowing full well he was meaning her relationship with Zim.

"Shove it." Dib said. "Tak is different than Zim."

"Whatever, I got to work on that project for the Gameslave company." Gaz said walking off to her room. She was heading for her master's in game design herself and had gotten an internship with Gameslave to make some of their games right after she got her degree.

"Go do that." Dib said as a ding was heard on his computer. "Finally Tak. I didn't think you were that many lightyears from Earth." He said to himself as a portal opened up in front of him that Tak stepped out of.

"Figured I would see you for a little bit. The Irken Armada is just hanging around Foodcourtia and refueling. That is when they actually have their guards up."

"Isn't it usually the other way around, at places like Foodcourtia the guard would be down?" Dib said as he looked over at Tak with a smile on his face heading over to her. "Where did you get that portal gun?"

"Fell off some Galactic Federation prisoner." Tak said placing it down on the table.

"Don't they have some sort of treaty with Irk?" Dib asked, making sure his intel was correct.

"Treaty of neutrality. As long as no Federation planet is Invaded, they won't attack Irk." Tak looked at Dib's face. "And no, don't try to get Earth in to prevent Irk from attacking. They know about Zim but not that he isn't an Invader to the Tallest. Cause more trouble than it's worth."

"What would I do without you?" Dib said as he pulled Tak closer.

"Lose horribly." She said as she pulled him close.

By this point, Penelope Membrane had made it back to her house, despite how much things had appeared different to her. The roads themselves did not change, so as long as she followed the street signs, she knew where she was going. Once she got to the door, she tried to open it, only to find the door locked. "What the hell is going on?!" She yelled as she turned the knob in frustration. "This door is never locked! I keep getting onto him to lock it!" She yelled referring to Professor Membrane. She placed her foot on her door and pulled.

Dib broke his kiss with Tak and looked up. Dib had a habit of keeping the door locked if for no other reason than to piss Zim off when he came to see Gaz. But that voice seemed vaguely familiar as if he had heard it in a very distant memory. "Put your disguise on, I don't know who that is." He said to Tak as she quickly put her disguise to look like a 26 year old young woman.

"Will you stop trying to rip the door down?" Dib said as he unlocked the door opening it. His face fell as he stared into the eyes of his mother. Those eyes were just like his own, only without the need for glasses. The hair fell down her back in the same color as Gaz's, only flowing. It was as if a distant memory from when he was a baby had come to life. "What the hell is going on?" He said as he walked backwards onto the couch. "You can't be... you died...years... ago..."

"Is that what your father told you?" Penelope groaned. "I can assure you I am not dead, but I have no idea what is going on, and that you would end up looking so much like your father, except for the eyes. Mine."

"This can't be happening..." Dib gasped as Tak looked on.

So how was that? I wanted the first chapter to have a cliffhanger but trust me the DATR and ZAGR won't be in there for shipping sake. And see if you can't find the Rick and Morty reference in there. I am sure you can, it isn't hid that well. But I don't have much to say here other than I listened to a lot of late 80's and early 90's music when writing Penelope. So remember to read (well you just did) and to review. Ciao for now,

otherrealmwriter

aka

Realm

PS Check out my other works as well. I know I should be working on them but when inspiration hits, you have to answer.