Zim wasn't entirely sure what had happened. All he knew is that he blacked out about ten hours after having left and he was sure that THAT wasn't a good thing. He tried to examine it, think back to what had caused the black out, but his head was hurting too much. He was also concerned about the fact that he couldn't hear anything and that the air felt very unfamiliar.

"Zim," He heard Lix call and his ok antennae twitched in response. He felt the younger irken's claws on his face and he had to open his eyes to the relieved face of his son. "Oh thank Irk!" He cried, hugging Zim tightly.

Zim sat up, hugging Lix to him and picking the smaller's form up as he stood. "Where are we?"

"I'm not sure." Lix said, looking around as well. "I'm not very good at flying, I couldn't pay attention to where I was steering AND the map or we would have run into something."

Zim had to stifle a laugh. Though he'd never admit it he always ran into the same problem.

All around them was dense jungle full of green and leafy things. The air was slightly humid, though not enough to cause damage it still burned Zim slightly. The ship lay a few feet away, and judging by the tracks in the dirt around it Lix had dragged Zim out of it when they landed... rather shakily it looked like.

Or maybe it was that they crashed, the ship didn't exactly LOOK like it had take serious damage, but the area around them certainly did.

"What happened?" He asked Lix, setting him down. The young irken was very tall, though light. He came up to Zim's chin, and was quite proud of that fact.

"You set the ship to auto pilot once we were out of irken territory and were complaining of a head ache. But the autopilot tipped off some runners a little ways away and they came at us." Lix explained frowning. "They didn't believe us when we tried to lie our way out of trouble and they fired on us. You hit your head and passed out. I got worried when your pak wouldn't wake you up so I flew for the nearest planet and they stopped chasing us once we entered the atmosphere. I sorta... crashed and had to get you out in the open to take a look at your pak. That was about an hour ago. I ran a diagnostic and it seemed your pain receptors just over loaded, so I gave you some pain killers and waited for them to take affect so your pak could take care of the rest."

Zim smiled. Though it was less of a smile and more of a gloating smirk. His smeet was so talented! Any parent would be happy for one of their own!

"How's the ship?" He asked.

Lix's antennae wilted. "Sorry, didn't think to check."

"That's fine." Zim said, walking over and maneuvering himself inside the tilted ship and powering it back up. Quickly he ran a system's check and a few tests. Nothing seemed badly hurt, though the ship responded rather sluggishly. Quickly he pulled up a map.

To his surprise they were just one system away from Earth. Granted he wasn't sure what that system was since it was on the other side of the Irken Empire, but the Milky way was right next door. It seemed the Massive was much closer to Earth than he remembered it being.

"Come in here." Zim called to Lix, who climbed inside the ship. "We're going to try and take off."

Lix sat himself in the co pilot's chair and strapped himself in as Zim piloted the ship up and through the atmosphere. All the while the ship gave him readings on how it was doing.

"It looks like we won't be able to get far." He mentioned frowning. The controls got more sluggish as they pierced the atmosphere and entered space once more. "But we should be able to find a back alley neutral zone where we can hide out."

Lix looked at the map. "It looks like we'll have to pass through rebellion territory to get there though." He pointed. "Think we can make it?"

"If we lay low." Zim said, turning away from the controls a moment to examine the map. Unfortunately he wasn't sure how much the Rebellion had progressed. For all he or even the Empire knew, they could have an army of ships guarding every inch of their territory.

But he flew on. His mind was now much clearer than when they'd departed and he did his best to concentrate on where they were going.

The entered Rebellion territory and Zim kept his eyes peeled while Lix watched the scanners. Nothing seemed to be approaching or even within firing range. But they stayed alert all the same.

Then, it seemed, out of nowhere there were at least three ships on their tail and before Lix could say anything they were being fired on.

The ship rocked this way and that, but when Zim wasn't able to put up much of a fight (they didn't exactly steal a battle cruiser) the ships decided to contact them.

"Zim!?" A vortian screamed on the screen, eyes wide with rage.

Zim narrowed an eye at this angry alien, confused. "Have we met before?"

"You don't remember me!?" The vortian yelled. "Well that just figures! You are an idiot after all!"

"Hey!" Lix yelled, quickly coming to his caretaker's defense. "Knock it off! Who are you!?"

The vortian just laughed. "I'm the vortian you beat up on that human rebellion station Zim!"

Zim continued to look confused a moment before a look of realization appeared on his face. "You're one of the creeps who ganged up on me and tried to get me kicked off the station!"

"You're the creep!" The vortian yelled and was about to fire when he received a communication on the head piece he was wearing. "What? No it's Zim!" He paused, listening to the voice. "Why can't we just blow him to pieces!? ... no it's not personal!" He paused again. "Fine, fine, WHATEVER." And with that directed his attention back to Zim. "Looks like you get a personal escort back to the station, insect." And with that the three ships surrounded Zim's and they were directed toward a planet for on the outside of the Empire's hold over the Milky way, and to the space station that orbited it. This was not the original Membrane station. This was a colony of that, with Membrane's logo stamped on the side, but without all the showing off that the original did.

"Why aren't we fighting back?" Lix asked, looking worriedly at Zim.

Zim hesitated to answer before finally saying, "We don't really have that option. This ship is barely able to defend itself, and I've had dealing with the human resistance before. If we tried to run we'd be shot, but the humans' familiarity with me might keep us alive."

"This is a human rebellion station?" Lix asked, suddenly looking around curiously as they entered the hanger and instructed to touch-down.

Zim nodded. Hopefully that would be a good thing.

They obediently walked out of their ship when instructed to, Zim holding Lix's shoulder tightly, almost like he was marking his territory, showing no one was to touch him.

The human's did not take the hint and a few in soldier looking uniforms came to separate them to put them in cuffs.

Zim quickly reacted when one grabbed Lix roughly. He wasn't really thinking about it, but the prospect of them being separated frightened him, so he wrenched himself away from the human's who had merged on him and slugged the one who had his hands on Lix in the mouth.

This set off a violent reaction, all three soldiers pulling out their weapons and firing on the irken. Zim was pelted twice in the stomach and Lix, trying to get to Zim, took a shot in the arm, making him cry out in a way that most irken soldiers didn't. Pain was new to Lix. He couldn't ever remember feeling it before. Maybe he experienced a little emotional pain every once in a while, but he'd never so much as scraped his knee or broken a bone in his life. This made Zim ignore his own pain and wrap his arms around the scared little irken, pulling him close to protect him.

"What happened? Move!" Barked an authoritative voice, shoving the crowd that had gathered out of the way. A tall human with black hair and thin rimmed glasses pushed his way through to the front, grabbing one of the soldiers' guns and asking, "What happened!?" Once more.

"That irken attacked us!" The soldier defended, though sounding more like a child who got caught doing something he wasn't supposed to be doing. He pointed to Zim in a pouty sort of way.

The tall human, obviously a high authority figure here, looked to Zim, eyes widening in surprise. "Zim!" He barked.

Zim's good antennae perked up and he turned to the human with surprised eyes as well, his limbs holding the crying hybrid tighter.

This person he recognized right away.

Zim carried Lix with him as Dib escorted them to the med-bay. He'd offered to carry the younger irken, but he was so traumatized already that Zim told him that wasn't necessary and endured the pain in his stomach so his child could have some comfort. He even held the other as he sat down on a bed, waiting for the medic.

For a while Zim and Dib just stared at each other, the human almost looming over him.

It looked like Dib was about to speak when Nils came in, saying smugly, "Well well well, if it isn't Zim? Never thought I'd see you here again but then that would be just too good wouldn't it?"

Zim opened his mouth to reply but Lix whirled around, yelling, "Shut up! Don't talk to Zim like that! You don't know anything!"

Everyone in the room was shocked, Lix just glaring at Nils as he sniffled and shook with pain.

Nils though, did keep her mouth shut and went to take care of Zim, but he just shook his head and said, "Take care of Lix first, you can see he's in more pain than I am."

Nils just rolled her eyes and nodded. The area where he was shot was bleeding badly, but that's as far as the damage went. She cleaned the wound and dressed it and gave him a shot close by to immediately kill the pain (and sedate him somewhat.)

One Lix was lying one bed over Nils grudgingly started taking care of Zim's wounds, which required her to run a quick scan to make sure there was no damage, and to yank the bullets from their holes. She then cleaned the wounds, rubbed some sealant over it to stop the bleeding, and dressed them.

"There, now go somewhere else." Nils said with a glare before turning to leave.

Zim pulled his shirt back on, watching Dib the whole time, who was also watching Zim.

"Why're you here?" Dib finally asked.

Zim's good antennae twitched once more. That wasn't the question he had expected to hear... or maybe it just wasn't the one he'd hoped to hear.

"Running from the empire." Zim said, keeping his face just as stoic as Dib's. Or he wished it was. "What am I ever doing?"

Dib rolled his eyes, obviously in no mood to pity Zim. "I'll have someone here in a bit to escort you to your room. I'll check on you later to see if you're actually ready to talk."

Zim and Lix were provided with single rooms right next to each other that resembled studio apartments with the kitchen barely separated by a wall and the only other room being a washroom. They were also provided with some human like clothes so that they weren't mistaken for trespassers.

About an hour after Zim was lead to the room there came a knock at his door. At first he thought Dib would be there, but instead there was a little girl with dark-violet hair standing there. Her bright-green eyes sparkled up at him mischievously and she let herself in.

"Hi!" She said, putting a styrofoam box, one people take food around in, on the kitchen table. "My name is Hollin! Just thought I'd bring you by something to eat! Daddy said you like waffles!"

She then turned to give Zim a wide smile. "But he didn't say what kind you liked, so I made you bunches! I like waffles too!"

Zim just stared at her a moment. The girl was completely unfazed that he was irken. In fact, she scared HIM a little. "Should you... be here?"

"Nope!" She said with a laugh before going over to Zim's couch and sitting. "But I like meeting the new aliens. And Daddy seemed to think it's a good idea. He says I disarm them. Daddy own this whole place, you know?"

"Hollin!" A woman yelled, running down the hall before back tracking when she saw Zim still there at his open door. "Excuse me." The woman said, getting Zim's attention and pulling it away from Hollin. She had the same green eyes only with light hair. "Have you seen...?"

"Little girl?" Zim finished for the woman. He then pointed into the room. "In there."

The woman nodded and went inside, yanking the little girl up into her arms in a hug. "Don't run off again!" She said, sounding relieved. "I was so worried about you!"

"I'm fiiiiine." Hollin whined. "I just came to drop off the waffles."

"Doesn't matter. Start listening." The woman, obviously Hollin's mother, said.

Hollin pouted as she was carried out the door.

The woman quickly turned back to Zim though, saying, "Sorry about that, she's got her father's talent for worrying me half to death. I'm Karen, by the way." She offered a hand for shaking.

Zim took the hand, looking at the woman curiously. "I'm Zim."

"Zim, right, Dib told me about you. Welcome to the station." Karen said happily.

Zim was getting a bit worried, the way everyone talked, it was like, "Is Dib her...." He nodded to Hollin.

"Her father?" Karen finished, still smiling kindly, though it was obvious she was sympathetic. "Yeah."

"Oh," Zim asked. Yes, she did look a lot like him. "How old is she?"

"I'm turning seven in TWO WEEKS!" Hollin cried excitedly, turning to Zim. "Will you come to my party!?"

"Shush," Karen told her daughter, giving her a look that said she was being rude. She then turned to Zim with her smile back on, "We'd love it for you to come to the party."

"Maybe," Was all Zim could say, too busy trying to wrap his mind around all of this. It was happening too fast! He was sure his pak would over load!

Karen could obviously see this and said, "I'm sure when Dib stops by you can RSVP with him. I'll let you get settled in now." And with that she left, closing the door on her way out.