PinkiePieParty122894

Everything Stays is one of my favorite songs/lullabies and I felt like it blended well with the theme of this story.

Invader Johnny

Zim is a good little alien brother. Thanks for reading!

Zim'sMostLoyalServent

Family is a very important subject for me, with so many families in america in disrepair and me myself being part of a broken family, I love writing stories like this to remind me that the family I do have loves me very much.

RandomDragon2.0

Thank you for the review. And thanks for checking out this story in the first place.

Megxolotl

GIR is essentially the definition of a lacky who wants nothing more than to please his master(s) but just doesn't know how to do it. Glad I could pull at your heartstrings a little.

I'm sorry it's taken me so long to update. Christmas season and holiday business and all that jazz, so thanks for being so patient. Anyway, on with the show!

xXxXx

Dib awoke to the sound of Zim violently banging on a pot with a large wooden spoon.

"Your early morning consumption time has commenced!" he said with a wide grin stretched across his zipper-like teeth. "Come stuff your face holes!"

Dib glanced over at his alarm clock. 5:20 AM. With a groan, he rolled out of bed, almost landing directly on GIR, who was lying curled up on the floor. Following Zim down the stairs to the kitchen, he found a dead-eyed, exhausted-looking Gaz and Professor Membrane, who was the definition of "Alive, Alert, Awake, Enthusiastic."

"Good morning, son! Your green brother was just telling me about how he was preparing some of his own native foods for us!"

"Native foods…? You mean-!"

"Yes, he told me all about his early life in Holland and how he learned to cook from a young age."

Dib shot a look of confusion at Zim who couldn't stop smiling at his own ruse going over so smoothly.

"Yes, yes. I have prepared plenty of delicious "Hall-End" food for you to gorge your disgusting faces on."

Zim military-marched back to the stove and came back with a plate of some kind of purple bitterballen and four bowls of endive stew that looked and smelled like, well, urine.

The reactions from the three humans differed quite a bit. Professor Membrane downed the whole meal without complaint, even complimenting Zim for the unique flavor. Dib pretended to eat, but when Zim wasn't looking, he dumped the contents of his dishes down GIR's throat when he came and sat underneath the table to play with Dib's old Mail-Men action figures. Gaz didn't even make an attempt to eat her food, instead opting to lay her messy, purple head on the table and sleep.

After their meal, Membrane went to his home lab to get ready for work while Dib went upstairs to get ready for school. Gaz stayed where she was, mumbling something about taking a sick day.

xXxXx

That day, Zim was introduced to the primitive human game of Dodgeball. Credit where credit's due, Zim's small size and speed made him very hard to hit and he was quite enjoying himself, up until he got hit in what he called his "speedily-spooch" and had to sit out for the rest of the game.

At lunch, Zim ate his peanut butter and jelly sandwich (one of the few human meals he found that he could stomach without having a serious allergic reaction) and noticed a boy about his size with a big, happy smile and bright red hair walking towards him and Dib's table.

"Hey, Dib. Who's this?"

"Oh. Hey Keef. It's been a while. This is Zim. He's… well…"

"I am the latest, most brilliant installment to the Membrane household," Zim said much louder than he needed to. Keef didn't seem to notice as he reached up and shook Zim's hand.

"Wow! I didn't know you had a brother!"

"Well, he-"

Before he could continue however, an explosion reverberated around the cafeteria, causing all students and staff members to lose their balance and fall to the floor. The west-side wall had been blown apart, and in the center of the smoldering bricks was a small female irken with teal eyes and a dark blue tunic with several bionic attachments that connected to her PAK. She surveyed the children with cold, unblinking compound eyes.

"I am Bountyhunter Kitch, elite agent of the Irken Empire. I seek the dangerous criminal known as Irken Zim. If you hand him over quietly, I will leave without causing further damage. But if you don't… well, that's one less planet, I suppose."

The whole cafeteria remained silent as Kitch walked across the linoleum floors, her finely polished boots making a clicking sound as she went.

"No one? Oh, come now. Surely one of you has seen him. I tracked his ship here and this city's not this big after all. Tiny? Green? Screams a lot?"

Not getting anywhere, a limb resembling a large, green eye folded out from her PAK and began scanning the room, casting everything it's light in an eerie light. Finally, after everyone had been holding their breaths for several seconds, the scanner went over Dib's table and the light turned red.

"Ah! There you are!"

One of the extra limbs on her PAK launched towards them, latching onto Zim's PAK and pulling him out from his hiding place under the table. He flew, flailing his arms and legs towards Kitch and her smug expression.

"Irken Zim, by the power invested in me as a bounty hunter of the mighty Irken Empire, you are under arrest. You will be transported to Judgementia where you will be judged for your crimes by The Almighty Tallest and Control Brains."

"Release me, you horrible-!"

Zim's rant was cut off by Kitch sending several volts of electricity through Zim's PAK, causing him to spasm and go limp. Then, without a word, she whistled and a ship, one much larger than Zim's voot runner, appeared hovering a few feet above the ground. A beam of pink light appeared, lifting the Irken Bounty Hunter and her prisoner into it. Then, it blast off into the sky, blasting most of the children off their feet.

Dib took advantage of the commotion and ran out of the cafeteria towards home. This was bad. This was very, very bad. He had to get home. He had to go after him. He had to-

"DIB!"

Dib turned around to see Keef running towards him. He came to a stop as Keef slowed to a stop, panting for breath.

"What… huff… what just happened…?"

Dib sighed.

"Zim's been taken prisoner and I have to go save him."

"Can I help?"

"What?"

"Can I help you save your brother?"

"Uh… I don't know…"

"C'mon! There's strength in numbers, and you're my friend! I want to help!"

Dib sighed again. He wouldn't really call him and Keef "friends", but he did see his logic. He probably shouldn't do this by himself.

xXxXx

"So, let me get this straight. Zim's an alien who crashed in your backyard. You're dad decided to adopt him and he's been living here since?"

"Yep," Dib said, stuffing his bag with food and supplies for their journey.

"How long ago was that?" Keef asked.

"About a week."

"Why was he on the run anyway?"

"Zim isn't the best at… logical thinking. He made some bad choices in the past and his race wants him brought in for it."

Dib recalled the conversation they had on Zim's first night here. Apparently he had caused several blackouts on his empire's planets, inadvertently caused the death of two of their leaders. Zim described all of these events as misunderstandings. He had thought he had the smeet equipping room to himself when he accidentally caused the hatchery tube to overload, or his biological experiments had simply grown out of his control and eaten the Tallest on two different occasions.

But it had all culminated to the reason he went on the lam in the first place. In an effort to expand, Irk had announced Operation Impending Doom, and to keep Zim out of trouble, the Tallest had told him to stay in a drawn circle just for him. But Zim didn't realize that they had never left Irk, got ahold of one of the giant mechs in the armory, and went on a rampage through the capital city. The Tallest had decided that they've had enough and commissioned Zim to be erased, but he escaped and had been on the run ever since. Dib could honestly simpethise with Zim's story even though he couldn't exactly agree with the choices that had got him there in the first place. But he knew what it was like to do everything in your power to receive the respect and love of people who shun you.

Dib was knocked out of his thoughts by the sound of Gaz clearing her throat. She was standing in the door of his room with a duffle bag slung over her shoulder.

"I'm coming too."

"Really? What's the catch?"

"No catch. I'm going to help you two idiots save the green idiot."

"Really? Because you're not exactly the kind of person to help people out of the goodness of your heart."

"Shut up! Despite what you think, I like having a family. I'm not gonna let that get torn apart just because Zim decided to get captured."

"Really?"

"Yes. Now, let's go get an alien."

xXxXx

Dib groaned. Zim's ship had finished auto-repairing itself a few days ago, but the over-the-top, complicated controls were completely "alien" to him.

"Does it come with an instructional manual?" Keef asked from beside him.

"Don't be stupid!" Gaz hissed from her spot on the floor in the back.

"Wait. That's actually not a bad idea. Fan out. Look for a book of some kind."

After a few minutes of searching the ship, Dib located a thick book with a teal cover and Zim's alien insegna on the front.

"All right, guys. Let's get this puppy into the air-"

Dib's voice stopped in his throat as he opened the manual and he almost screamed. It was in a language that he couldn't have read after eight years of studying.

"Well, that's just great. Now what do we do?" Gaz said scowling.

"I CAN DO IT!"

The three children looked down from the cockpit to see GIR sitting in the front lawn.

"What's that?" Keef asked.

"It's Zim's stupid robot." Gaz mumbled.

Dib ignored his sisters comment and turned his attention to the tiny robot.

"You can fly this thing?"

"Yeah! I see Master fly it aaaaall the time! I can do it like potatoes!"

"You can't actually be telling me we're letting this idiot fly, right?" Gaz asked, worry evident in her eyes.

"What choice do we have, Gaz? We just need to-"

xXxXx

"-scream like little kids!"

The voot cruiser jolted through the air at a sporadic and unpredictable pace. Keef had already vomited all over the windshield, but GIR was unperturbed and continued to pilot the craft in this shakey manner until they had finally broken through earth's atmosphere. Once they were free of orbit, GIR finally slowed down to an agreeable pace, and the trio shakily got to their feet.

"That was FUN! Let's do it again!"

"NO!" Gaz screamed in an uncharacteristically loud voice. "I'm driving from now on!"

"So how do we find Zim?" Keef asked.

"You could search for his bio-signature and have me fly you there," the computer's voice boomed, shocking all who were present.

"Wait, you've been here the whole time?!" Dib yelled.

"Yes."

"Then why didn't you fly the ship?!"

"You never asked."

"I hate you," Dib grumbled.

"Believe me, the feeling is mutual. Now tracking Master," the computer said as the ship blasted off into the unknown.

xXxXx

And scene!

Hey everyone! Thank you for sticking with me throughout this entire journey. And now I'm gonna thank you by leaving you with this awesome cliffhanger.

See you next time!