Zim was reinstated into the irken race as 'caretaker'. This was a position mostly given to females, and their job usually included watching over the smeets and their education, making sure they got their nutrients on time, measured them, and trained them. The reason females mostly did it was because, well, they looked better in the uniform.

Zim was to be his smeet's caretaker alone though because the Tallest did not want him anywhere near their other soldiers. The only reason they were even letting him live at that point was because the half breed didn't seem to be able to separate from him.

Over the next couple days a few things were figured out about the smeet. It was impervious to the acid H2O, it had an astounding growth rate, and its skin had an odd pigment mixed in with the green. Not that anyone could tell this just from looking, but the green of its skin, when under a microscope, was off green, making it look darker from farther away.

It was definite that Zim's child would be standing out in a crowd.

There were a few rules that came with Zim's new position, however.

First, Zim was not to be involved in the education of his smeet. That would be the Tallests' job. They wanted to teach him of the irken ways personally.

Second, Zim was not to go anywhere that housed any chemicals or engineering equipment unless escorted by a high ranking guard.

Last, He was not to tell the smeet of their relation. This had Zim's antennae wilting. The other two he figured he could handle. But the smeet couldn't know who Zim really was?

"Of course not. That would create an unnecessary bound." Tallest Red had said. "Can you imagine if anything were to happen to you? He would be devastated. Nope, better off if he doesn't know."

"Yeah," Purple said with a small laugh as he chowed down on some chips. "Besides, who would want you for a mother anyway? You're the laughing stock of the entire planet. You're a traitor!"

Zim frowned, but they were right. So he agreed to all of the conditions and he was allowed to raise his smeet.

The first few months of life for Lix (that's what the smeet ended up named) were a learning experience... for everyone. Once he had a pak he became a little too independent for both Zim and the Tallest, and would often wander off when they weren't paying attention.

Of course he never got very far. His muscles were very human in nature and weren't strong enough in his first few months of life to allow him to walk, so despite the pak he had to crawl everywhere until he was strong enough to walk.

His personality, it was quickly discovered, was very much like his mother's. Or so the Tallest thought, Zim was convince Lix was more like Dib than himself. Zim was, admittedly, very single minded, and while he did show a lot of interest in a lot of different things, like Dib, he wasn't able to multitask very well. Lix had a million things he found interest in and would often be trying several of them all at once. Like he would tinker with a gadget while reading up on Invader files and medical reports with a schematic of one of the main control brain fortresses off to the side somewhere.

While Lix was very irken he had some very human habits. Like, for a while Zim was allowed to keep the nice room he'd been staying in, simply for the fact that Lix had to spend the night with him. He would wake up in the middle of the night hungry or thirsty, or he would have to go to the bathroom, and Zim had to help him with all of these things. This led to nights of almost no sleep for the irken, but deep in his exhausted brain he just enjoyed the fact that Lix needed him and was more than glad to help his offspring.

The Tallest seemed to enjoy Lix as well. He was a very quick learner, despite how often his attention wandered. They didn't really care though, as long as Lix turned out to be less destructive than his mother.

Five years flew by much too quickly for Zim. He'd thought about escape a few times, but every time he did he quickly banished the thought. He couldn't leave Lix, he discovered. He couldn't leave his child. Despite being unable to really have a mother/son relationship with his own child they HAD bonded, and Zim just couldn't imagine leaving his amazing half breed with the Tallest. He couldn't do it. And he couldn't take Lix with him at this point because the Tallest had programmed him perfectly for loyalty and Lix would never stand for it.

Not unless Zim did some programming of his own.

It was clear that Lix enjoyed Zim's company, something that the irken was proud of. If he wasn't with the Tallest or doing some kind of training he was with Zim, indulging one of his many hobbies and asking Zim questions about things that normal irkens just didn't think of, didn't question. He was practically a philosopher.

"How come the Empire wants to rule the universe?" He would ask Zim while playing with a syringe.

"Heeeeeeh... what?" Zim asked, the question catching him off guard.

Lix turned his huge eyes to Zim. "Why do we have the invasions and all that?"

Zim looked around, as though he was being tested or something. What a silly question right... well then... what was the answer?

"B-because, the brains tell us to." Zim finally said, satisfied with that answer.

Lix was not.

"Why do THEY want to rule the universe then?"

Zim froze up once more. How the heck was he supposed to rewire a lighting fixture with all these questions?

"Just... because." He finally said, ducking his head as though that would protect him.

"That's not an answer." Lix pouted. He wasn't stupid though, he knew he'd stumped his caretaker, so he just went back to pretending to give irken vaccines or whatever it was he was doing.

The questions did not stop there, and again, he wasn't stupid. Over the course of the next year he'd discovered that he was natural born because of a study he'd read up on some natural borns being able to live without their paks and him being able to live without his pak. When he inquired though, Zim just told him to stop being silly that studies like that were a waste of money anyway.

"But Scooge is a natural born and he can live without his pak." Lix pointed out.

"Have you ever seen Scoodge?" Zim asked, crossing his arms. Lix wilted. Though Zim knew he was right, of course. Scoodge would constantly wander around without his pak on. He'd take it off and forget it somewhere.

But Lix knew all of this anyway. He knew he was a natural born, and that he was different. He took showers in water, instead of using cleansing chalk because that stuff irritated his skin. His eyes were a pigment that didn't even occur in the irken race, and his claws were a little more dexterous that a normal irken's.

There was no denying it for anyone, Lix was different, and he knew it.

By the time Lix was seven the Tallest decided he didn't need Zim anymore. They already had the smeet's future mapped out and he was living in a different room than Zim now. At this point it looked to them like Lix just hung out with Zim by force of habit.

"We can get rid of him now!?" Purple asked excitedly, clapping his hands like a happy smeet.

"Of course, we have to. He's bound to blow something up; he hasn't done so in years. He's probably overdue for an end of the world type deal." Red said, scowling at the thought.

Lix stood outside the door, waiting for his lesson to begin. They were going to kill Zim? But... he needed Zim!

When the Tallest opened the door to let Lix in there were tears in his eyes.

"You aren't really gonna kill him, are you?" He asked, wringing his hands. "He won't do anything bad. I promise!"

Much to Purple's astonishment Red simply smiled and said, "Of course not. We were just going to send him away, but if you want him here then I'm sure we can figure something out."

Lix smiled and nodded, walking in for his lesson.

Once that was over Purple was practically raging. "We can't keep him Red! We can't! Look at my claws! The anxiety of having him here is just torture on my claws!"

Red frowned and pushed Purple's claws out of his face before putting a hand on Purple's shoulder. "You need to CHILL OUT!" he commanded. This put a short rest to Purple's fretting. "We're still getting rid of him Purple, but do you want Lix to hate us?" Purple shook his head and Red removed his hand, turning and floating around the room. "He will die, Pur. But if we want to keep Lix's trust we'll have to do it carefully. It'll have to look like an accident.

Over the next two years over ten attempts had been made on Zim's life... that he knew about. A deadly bug was released into his room, someone jumped him and injected him was some kind of virus, his pak was broken into, his pak was smashed, he was almost thrown out a window, a fake mugging was staged, he WAS thrown out a window, every pipe in Lix's bathroom broke while he was in there, and then the Tallests' personal guards 'mistook' him for an assassin.

By the time Lix's seventh birthday rolled around he had several scars all over him from acid burns and fire burns and countless other injuries. At one point he was told he would need some kind of surgery, but he told that doctor where to shove his medical degrees, knowing it was another plot from the Tallest to try and kill him.

Lix could see right through this as well, and tried to talk to the Tallest about it, but they just kept playing on like Zim was just clumsy and stupid.

"You have to leave." He told Zim finally as he pulled broken glass from his arm. "you're gonna get killed!"

Zim just shook his head and winced before saying, "No, they've been trying to kill me since they first became Tallest, and they haven't succeeded yet. I'll be fine."

Lix shook his head and sat on the bed next to Zim, talking as though he was the parent. "It just takes once, Zim. You have to keep dodging their attempts but it just takes them succeeding once for it to be over! And you're all injured. It won't take too much more!"

Zim shook his head again before cleaning his cuts with some kind of antiseptic wipe. "I can't just leave you here." He admitted.

Lix looked confused.

"Why? The Tallest love me, nothing'll happen."

Zim just gave a laugh. "Something will happen." He turned to give Lix a look. "What are your interests, Lix? What is it you would like to do more than anything?"

Lix paused and thought about this a moment. "A medic lord." He finally answered. "I want to be the Medic Lord! I'd be really good at it!"

Zim nodded, saying, "Of course you would, but that's not what the Tallest want. They want you to be a soldier, their perfect little solder, and the moment you tell them that's not what YOU want they'll want to get rid of you too. I have to stay and protect you."

Lix frowned. Would the Tallest really...?

Seeing Zim told him that yes, yes they would.

"Then I'll go with you!" He said finally, nodding.

Zim shook his head. "I'm sorry Lix, but there's no way out." He sighed and got up, moving to take a soothing bath of cleansing gel. Using the chalk anymore hurt, so he was restricted to showers of a cleansing product that was usually just for luxuries.

By the time Lix was nine he'd began to notice some peculiar things about Zim. Like, how he refused to answer any of his questions about his natural parents when the Tallest would gladly inform him about who they were (it was all lies, of course) and how he would get sad at the same time every year. He also noticed that Zim was getting increasingly restless. He would wring his hands, his antennae would flick constantly, he couldn't sit for more than ten minutes, and if he HAD to, his legs would jump and he'd fidget constantly. It was almost like watching someone have a fit.

Not that Lix had much time to concentrate on his poor caretaker. He'd already made Elite and was constantly being sent on missions. He wasn't ever doing anything dangerous though, no he was much too young and small as it was (small for an Elite soldier, but extremely tall for someone his own age.) No, he took to guiding and advising and watching while on these missions. He always came back having learnt something new but he also always came back to Zim having another injury.

On one mission he came back to find Zim in the med ward with a broken antennae.

As soon as he arrived he found Zim once more arguing with the doctor over that surgery that he supposedly needed.

"You're squeedily spooch is in danger of rupturing!" The medic lord yelled.

"Yeah? And where did you come up with THAT one?" Zim yelled back. "You come anywhere near me with your drugs then I'll 'rupture' your head!"

The argument went on, Zim refusing everything, even pain medication for his antennae. Lix watched as every turn of the head made Zim wince, watched as several irkens began talking behind his back. It wasn't fair how Zim was treated. He didn't care what his caretaker had done in the past; he felt that he didn't deserve any of what was happening.

He walked up to Zim when the coast was clear and put his hands on the other's, whispering, "Please Zim, let's go. You can't take much more of this."

Zim's sad eyes met Lix's sad eyes and they held each other a moment before Lix said, "I'll get a ship ready and my stuff together, you get your own stuff, ok?"

Zim just nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

Lix hopped off, moving quickly. He couldn't afford to let anyone know what was going on or that he was up to something.

As soon as Zim was finished being checked out he went to his room and got his stuff together. Lix was right... Lix was usually right. They had to leave. He was feeling more run down than ever, like all these attempts on his life were finally taking affect... or were just beating him into suspicion. He didn't have as much energy as before, he could barely keep himself focused on anything and would just fall into a trance. Nothing meant anything to him anymore. Nothing but Lix.

"Ready Zim?" Lix asked, checking on Zim in his room. The non-broken antennae flicked in response.

Zim hulled up his stuff, a few uniforms, some tools, that was it, and nodded, saying, "Let's go. We should get out of here."

"There we go." Lix said with a smile. He couldn't wait to get Zim out of that place, away from the Tallests' hard grip.

Together they headed for the docking bay. No one questioned this because it looked as though Lix was leading Zim. Surely they couldn't be up to anything if Lix was in control.

"Where ya' going now, Lix?" One guard asked, smiling pleasantly.

"Commit smashing." Lix said with a wide grin. "I need more practice with a laser."

"Alright, just be careful out there." The guard warned with a wink before letting Lix into the ship.

Lix took off, but once they were out in space Zim took over the controls. "Where should we go?" He asked his guardian.

"There's only one place we can go." Zim said, setting the course. "Away from Irken territory."