Shadows of the Empire Prologue

Shadows
of the Empire: An Invader Zim Fan-Fiction

Prologue: Part One

It was raining outside. Liquid death,
pouring out of the sky like tears. Revitae watched the drops coming
down, her hands clasped behind her back, her eye narrowed. She hated
this city, Spirex. Hated the crowded, dirty slums that her people
were forced to crowd into, hated the apartments that the humans lived
in. If only it were oil falling, and not water.

Then, just a quick message to the
Irken population, a single match, and...

“Ma'am?” someone behind her
said, breaking Revitae out of her thoughts. She glanced over her
shoulder to see a pink-eyed Irken male, her assistant, Idell.
“Everyone else has left. Don't you think you should head home?”

“Everyone else” being the
seven other members of the New Armada. One self-proclaimed sniper who
couldn't hit the side of a building if he was standing in front of
it, two engineers who had once worked at an electronics lab, and four
others who considered themselves the saviors of Irkenkind just for
joining the resistance.

“No, I'm going to stay here and
guard Headquarters,” Revitae replied, her lopsided gaze once
again fixed on the world outside the window. The dim light behind her
meant that she was reflected almost transparently. Only the outline
of her head, the vague shapes of her antennae, and her single
sea-green eye were truly visible.

Idell glanced around the abandoned
warehouse that they called Headquarters and sighed. There wasn't much
to guard. The building itself was on the verge of falling down, the
walls were covered with the graffiti of all the gangs that had called
this place home before them, and what little valuables they had
barely deserved to be called valuables. There was the case of
PAK-friendly hologram generators in the corner, which could get them
all either arrested or killed. And the similarly-dangerous Mission
Statement tacked up near the door. But the police had no reason
to raid this place.

“Ma'am, please, let's just go,”
Idell pleaded. “I'll even walk you home, if you want.”

Revitae sighed and walked away from the
window. “Fine. But once as soon as we get to my place, you go
back to your own little hovel. Understood?”

She did not like Idell, and made no
effort to disguise this fact. To her, he was a self-serving,
cowardly, patronizing suck-up, but somehow he had weaseled his way
into the position of her second-in-command. Revitae still didn't know
how it had happened, but until she could figure out a way of getting
rid of him without making the New Armada weaker, he was here to stay.

“Understood,” Idell
replied. Revitae retrieved one of the emergency umbrellas beside the
door and opened it. Idell took it from her, insisting, as always, on
doing everything for her. She glared at him, then reached over her
shoulder and activated her hologram generator, which immediately
cloaked her in a human disguise. Glancing at Idell, she saw that he
had done the same: a tall, handsome boy with brown hair and pink eyes
stood in front of her. Revitae's upper lip curled slightly, and she
mentally added vain to the list of things she hated about her
assistant. This was definitely not the disguise he had been given.

Idell looked pointedly at the strange
logo on her shirt. “Did you make some modifications?”

“Yes, actually.” Revitae
put her hands on her hips and smiled. “Do you like it?”

“It's the symbol of the fallen
Empire,” Idell replied. “Lovely, as is everything about
you, but...don't you think you could be a bit, oh, I don't know,
subtler? I mean, it's already on your eyepatch...and your
earrings...and your necklace.”

Revitae scowled at him, but
nevertheless zipped up her jacket to obscure the alien shape, which
looked vaguely like an Irken without a mouth. The jacket was part of
her hologram, but the engineers had rigged it up so that the separate
parts of the disguise reacted to the environment around them as if
they were solid. So even though she couldn't feel the leather of the
garment, it sensed her movement nonetheless.

“Alright, let's go,”
Revitae said, flicking off the lights of the warehouse, then opening
the door and stepping out. Idell scurried after her, maneuvering the
umbrella so that it covered both of them.

The two Irkens, cocooned in their
holographic disguises, vanished into the rain.

***

“This way!” Dex hissed,
pulling Teyo into an alleyway. “Hurry, turn on your disguise.”

“It's on, it's on!” Teyo
snapped, his red-eyed, green-skinned form shimmering into that of a
dark-haired human boy. “Happy?”

“Quiet.” Dex switched on
his own disguise, and the two hunkered down among the trash cans as a
hovervehicle hummed overhead, its searchlights illuminating the
backstreets of the rain-soaked city. When it was gone, Dex breathed
an audible sigh of relief and turned to Teyo. “You still have
it, right?”

“Yep.” Teyo produced a data
cartridge, a small, silvery tube with softly throbbing blue accents
on it. Dex took it from him and stared at it. It was smaller than his
finger, and yet it had the potential to change the lives of his
people. Recorded on it were the designs of a new breed of weapons
that could finally arm, or at least bring into existence, the Irken
rebellion.

Of course, it was stolen. Otherwise,
these weapons never would have reached the alien community. They
weren't allowed to have anything that could potentially harm a human;
even their PAKs had restrictions placed on them.

He handed the data cartridge back to
Teyo, who stowed it away. “Come on, let's get this thing to
someone who might actually be able to do something with it. We'll
have to hurry; we don't want them to catch us with it.”

“They won't catch us,” Teyo
replied as they stood up and walked out of the alley, in the general
direction of the Irken ghettos on the other side of the city.
“They're looking for a pair of Irkens, not humans.”

Dex nodded. He upped the strength on
the shield that his PAK was generating to keep the rain off of him as
they walked down the sidewalk. Relief was making him feeling much
less exhausted than he actually was. He always felt this way when
something went according to plan, like stealing something important
or freeing a prisoner that never should have been put in jail in the
first place. Much too often, things didn't work out, so he tried to
enjoy it when they actually did.

“Hey. You two.” Dex froze
at the voice, and slowly turned around. A black-armored police
officer was coming towards them, frowning underneath his tinted
visor.

“What?” Dex asked, getting
ready to bolt. He and Teyo had never been caught once in their
extensive career as thieves, and he wasn't about to break that
perfect record. If the worst-case scenario played out, they could
always extend their spider legs and escape over the tops of the
buildings. It would compromise their human disguises, yes, but they
could always get different ones. He hoped.

“What are you kids doing out so
late?”

“Oh, uh, me and my friend here
are just...going for a walk,” Dex said, gesturing to Teyo, who
nodded. “You know, Spirex at night...when it's raining...it's,
um, beautiful.” He gagged a little on the last word. Under
normal circumstances, the city was hideous, and with rain falling, it
became a nightmare for Irkens.

“Don't you know how dangerous
this part of town is?” the officer demanded. “It's no
place for human kids. Where are your parents, anyway?”

No place for human kids. He
didn't suspect that they were Irken. Gaining courage, Dex told him,
“Near the middle of town, in the Forest building. They're okay
with us being out here.”

“Yeah, actually, they encourage
it,” Teyo added. The police officer sighed.

“People just don't get how
dangerous Spirex is now,” he muttered. “You boys had
better get home, before you get mugged or something.”

“Yeah, okay, thanks,” Teyo
rattled off, then he and Dex turned and dashed off.

“Humans aren't very observant,
are they?” Dex remarked as they wove skillfully through the
streets. Teyo laughed.

“I don't think they would notice
we were Irken even if we walked around without our disguises.”

They entered a busier part of the city,
where holographic signboards flashed ads and stores boasted neon
displays in the windows. Despite the late hour and the rain, human
shoppers bustled back and forth. The few Irkens stuck to the shadows
and tried not to make eye contact. Almost unconsciously, Dex gritted
his teeth. This was exactly why he and Teyo had just broken into an
experimental weapons facility.

“Come on,” he muttered,
grabbing his partner's arm and attempting to drag him through the
crowd. The amount of people around made him nervous: the chance that
someone would notice something...off about them was that much
greater.

“Hey, look!” Teyo
exclaimed, pointing to one of the holoboards. Dex paused and glanced
at it. The ad disappeared, and was replaced by four images. On the
left were two head-shots of a blue-eyed male Irken, one of him facing
the camera and the other a side-view. On the right were a pair of
identical pictures, except the Irken depicted was red-eyed and had
different antennae. Dex's blood ran cold in his veins.

Rapidly, the images covered the rest of
the holoboards. Information began to scroll beneath them: These
Irken fugitives recently robbed a manufacturing plant. They are
considered extremely dangerous, and civilians are not advised to
approach them. If you see them, please contact authorities...

Dex rounded on Teyo, hissing, “I
thought you said you took out all the security cams!”

“I did!” Teyo responded
defensively. “And the guards, and the retina scanners, and
everything else.” He glanced at the screen again and frowned.
“Manufacturing plant? Is that what they're tell everyone it
is?”

“Forget about that! How did they
get clear enough pictures of us to design mug shots?!”

“How should I know?”

“Let's just get out of here
before anyone notices us.”

***

“Ma'am, pardon my asking, but was
it really necessary to stop for coffee?” Idell asked, his voice
slightly strained as Revitae paid the cashier.

“Yes, Idell, it was,” she
responded, grimacing as she peered into the depths of the synthepaper
thermos. Human beverages...the most disgusting substances in the
galaxy.

“Thanks for choosing Red Planet
Coffee,” the cashier, an Irken male, muttered. He had silver
eyes, fixed on the register in front of him, and only one antennae.
The other was either folded under the admittedly-stupid-looking hat
that he was wearing as part of his uniform, or gone. “Please
come again.”

“Thanks, sweetie.” She
turned and walked away, Idell shadowing her, and “accidentally”
dumped the contents of her thermos into the lap of a man with the
insignia of the Anti-Bug Militia tattooed on his neck.

“Agh!” he exclaimed,
leaping out of the booth that he was sitting in and swatting
ineffectually at the boiling liquid covering his lower body. “I
hope you're tired of living, buddy, because I am going to murd—”
Looking at Revitae, he fell silent. She knew that she must look like
some sort of skyscraper heiress, with Idell following her around like
a bodyguard and her eccentric accessories. And you definitely did not
want to anger one of those.

“Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry,”
she gasped, hoping that the sadistic glint that was almost certainly
in her eye wasn't noticeable. “It just slipped out of my
hand...”

“Hey, hey, it's fine,” the
man said, giving her a smile that looked more like an agonized
grimace. He swept his gaze up and down her hologram-clad body, an
approving look crossing his face. “I'll buy you another one.”

Revitae's lips drew back in a snarl,
and she was seriously considering extending the laser-tipped spider
legs from her PAK and letting this guy feel some actual heat when
Idell tapped her on the shoulder.

“Ma'am...” he murmured,
pointing to something outside the coffee shop. Revitae looked, and
saw two boys maneuvering their way through the crowd of late-night
shoppers outside. Both were dark-haired. One had blue eyes, a gray
hat, and a black jacket over a blue shirt and black leggings. The
other was red-eyed, with a shirt of the same color and black leggings
under a short-sleeved black jacket.

Revitae's eyes widened slightly, and
ignoring the man that had offered to buy her another cup of coffee,
she headed outside.

After six years of leading the New
Armada, Revitae had learned to pick up on several things that denoted
an Irken in disguise: the vicious way that they smiled, the graceful
way that they moved, the fact that their faces usually remained
expressionless, even when exposed to something that would shock
actual humans, because the cloaked antennae were indicating emotion
instead of the holographic eyebrows.

And considering the way that the two
boys had reacted when the mug shots had come up on the holoboards,
there was no question as to what they really were.

“Slow down,” Idell panted
as Revitae made a beeline towards them. He was struggling to keep the
umbrella over both of them.

She was now close enough to pick up on
what the two boys were saying. As she watched, a human woman
accidentally bumped into the red-eyed one, knocking him to the
ground.

“Hey, watch it!” he
snapped, glaring at her.

“Sorry!” the woman replied.
Evidently feeling obligated to help him up, she reached for him. He
attempted to wave her efforts away, but she ignored him and returned
him to a standing position.

“Yeah, okay, thank you—”
the boy began, but he stopped talking and his eyes widened as the
woman's hand brushed momentarily against his backpack. Immediately,
his image wavered, and then disappeared completely. Where only
seconds before a human boy had stood, there was now an Irken male.
For just a second, the time that it took the crowd to make the
connection between the image on the holoboards and the being in front
of them, he looked a little frightened. Then he extended his spider
legs from his PAK and aimed the tips at the humans around him.

“Alright, everyone, get back,”
he yelled. Revitae noticed that his blue-eyed friend had also shed
his disguise, and now had a rather large machine gun.

“Just let us go, and no one gets
hurt,” the blue one added. Wordlessly, the crowd made a path
for them, and they bolted with their weapons still at the ready.
Predictably, chaos ensued.

Amid the chaos of everyone stampeding
to get home, whipping out their cell phones to call the police, and
just generally being idiots, Revitae grabbed the umbrella out of
Idell's hand.

“See you tomorrow,” she
told him, then turned and dashed after the fleeing Irkens.

“Revitae!” Idell
yelled, mentally activating a shield to keep the rain off of him,
although his hologram adapted as if the water was actually hitting
him. For a moment, he considered going after her, then abandoned that
idea with a sigh. There was no way he'd catch her in this crush of
humans. The best thing would probably be to go back to Headquarters,
and wait for Revitae to show up there.

Gritting his teeth, Idell turned and
walked through the panicked mob, knowing perfectly well that the
leader of the New Armada was capable of taking care of herself, but
hoping that he wasn't wrong.

***

The second that the human had
accidentally turned off Teyo's disguise, Dex had switched off his own
before anyone could get any pictures of it. They had never planned
for being exposed; as a result, the little routine that they had just
carried out was mostly just winged.

Now, they were running through the
darker parts of Spirex, hoping to find a place where they could hide
until the uproar that they had caused died down. Teyo had retracted
his spider legs and Dex and put his gun back into his PAK, although
neither of them had turned their disguises back on. They couldn't
risk those getting compromised.

Finally, they came to a stop between
the twin pools of light created by a pair of streetlamps. Dex glanced
around, looking for anyone that might notice them. Most of the
buildings around them appeared to be abandoned, thankfully.

“Are you alright?” he asked
Teyo, who nodded.

“Yeah, I'm fine.” Suddenly,
his eyes narrowed, and his head snapped around to look behind him.
“What was that?”

Rapid footsteps reached Dex's antennae.
Without another word, he and Teyo dove into a nearby alley, crouching
down behind the piles of refuse. As he watched, a human girl walked
into view, then stopped. She had shoulder-length magenta hair with
black streaks in it, and sea-green eyes. She was wearing a black
leather jacket, a red ruffled skirt, and black combat boots. She had
a green-and-black backpack, and was holding an umbrella. Dex blinked
in surprise when she glanced into the alley. Her left eye was covered
by a black eyepatch...

With the insignia of the long-dead
Irken Empire on it in red.

“Hello?” the girl said. “I
know you're there. I can hear you breathing.”

She had to be Irken. Humans could never
pick up Dex and Teyo's near-imperceptible inhalations, with their
lack of antennae. So Dex stood up.

“What are you doing?!” Teyo
hissed, staying where he was. Dex ignored him and calmly stared at
the girl.

“Who are you?” he asked.
She smiled.

“I am Revitae,” she
replied. “Temporary leader of the New Armada.”

Dex frowned. “The what?”

Revitae scowled a little. “The
Irken rebellion. We are dedicated to restoring the former glory of
the Empire. Our people have been wronged, and it is our goal to right
it. We will—”

“If you're wearing a disguise,
could you please turn it off?” Teyo asked, standing up. “It's
creeping me out to listen to a human say these things.”

She rolled her eye, but nevertheless
reached over her shoulder and tapped something. Her human image
shimmered and vanished, revealing an Irken female with a single
sea-green eye. There was only a patch of scar tissue where the other
should have been.

“Happy?” Revitae asked
Teyo. He nodded. “Good. Anyway, did you know that Irkens used
to be much, much stronger than we are now? Invaders were genetically
and surgically augmented as an addition to their training. The humans
outlawed anything like that. Our scientists were forced to pour over
what little data they had to rediscover the 'pure' Irken genome...”

“Listen, you're preaching to the
converted here,” Dex said, holding up his hands. “But...why'd
you track us down?”

Revitae smiled, admittedly a little
creepily. “Because we both know that it wasn't a manufacturing
plant that you robbed. Your skills are impressive, and could benefit
the rebellion. I want to invite you two to join the New Armada.”

Teyo and Dex glanced at each other. Dex
replied, “Thanks for the offer, but we work alone.”

Revitae blinked. “What?”

Dex switched on his human disguise, and
Teyo did the same. They walked out of the alley, past Revitae, and
Dex turned to face her.

“You heard me. We aren't
interested in joining your little Armada-thingy.”

“But—” She looked
furious. “Listen to me! You can be vigilantes for your entire
lives, but you're never going to make a difference unless you
actually have someone backing you!”

“Yeah, we're going to take that
chance,” Teyo said as he and Dex walked off. Revitae watched
them go, rage twisting her already-marred features, then sighed and
extended a communications device from her PAK.

“Idell? Could you come and get me? No, they're not with me, I'm
alone...”

Prologue: Part Two

“Do
you promise to follow the ways of the Empire?” Revitae intoned,
her gaze fixed on the Irken in front of her. He nodded.

“Yes.”

“Do
you promise to give your life for your Tallest if needed?”

“Yes.”

“And
do you promise to kill every human that stands in our way?” She
gave him the most serious look in her arsenal, but the young Irken
barely hesitated at all before proudly saying, “Yes.”

“Then
as temporary leader of the New Armada, I welcome you to it,”
Revitae said warmly, nodding to him. “Now, turn around.”

He did as he was
told. She selected a hologram generator from one of the two boxes at
her feet, the one labeled “Male.” She affixed the
metallic disc, which had a large blue circle in the middle, to his
PAK in a place where he would have no trouble reaching it. It took a
moment to align itself with his symbiont, then turned magenta, the
same color as his eyes.

It had been about
a month since Revitae had tracked Dex and Teyo to the alley, and they
had turned down her offer. Since then, the New Armada had had an
influx of new members. Young, fierce Irkens, who had learned about
the duo's daring raid on the “manufacturing plant” and
wanted to follow in their footsteps. They were a little disappointed
to learn that Dex and Teyo (or, as the human media was
unimaginatively calling them, Blue and Red) weren't actually
affiliated with the NA, but they had all stayed so far. In a way,
even though Dex and Teyo hadn't accepted her offer, they were still
helping her.

Revitae inspected
the five new recruits she had just sworn in. Two females and three
males. Reika, Makovi, Gavetai, Juxtin, and Yongi, the one that she
had just barely administered the Oath to. All were only about a year
or two younger than her, actually. They had spent their Smeethoods
being raised by broken-down machines in the cloning facilities that
the government had reluctantly allowed the Irken population in order
to reproduce, and their adolescent years on the streets of the
ghettos. They all bore marks of human hatred, but none quite as
severe as Revitae's.

“Alright,
to prove your loyalty to the New Armada, I am going to take you all
on a mission,” she announced, stepping off of the brand-new
ceremonial platform and walking over to the Armory, which was full of
recently-looted weaponry and armor that had been reformatted for
Irken use. “Come on, let's get you all outfitted.”

Makovi, teal eyes
narrowed in confusion, raised her hand. Revitae wondered where she
had learned that gesture; their kind weren't allowed in schools.

“Yes,
Makovi?”

“Tallest
Revitae—”

“Don't
call me that,” Revitae snapped. “I'm not your Tallest.”

“Revitae,”
Makovi amended.

“Not
that, either.”

“Then
what—”

“'Ma'am'
will do just fine. 'Captain Revi' if we're on the battlefield.”

“Ma'am,”
Makovi said uncertainly. When she wasn't reprimanded, she continued,
“What kind of mission will it be?”

“My
personal favorite,” Revitae responded, grinning viciously as
she picked up a computerized laser rifle, capable of being synced
with her PAK, and examined it. “Random acts of violence.”

***

“That
doesn't even look like us,” Teyo complained, glaring at a
holoboard that depicted a computerized image of two dark-haired boys.
“I mean, they got my eyes and hair all wrong, and your clothes
are totally different...”

“Yeah,
shh,” Dex replied, examining a map of the city displayed in the
window of a nearby informational kiosk. “'Extraterrestrial
Correctional Facility 981.' That's got to be it.”

They were
currently focused on releasing a pair of so-called Irken criminals
who had been arrested simply for defending themselves when they were
attacked by humans. Belthai and Corren, portrayed by the media as
berserk alien psychopaths. While 'psychopathic' accurately described
the majority of Irken psyches, it definitely didn't apply in this
case.

“So,
what's the plan?” Teyo asked.

“Double-check
the security cams this time,” Dex replied dryly, turning away
from the kiosk and heading for the street that would take them to
ECF-981. “Other than that? We get in, we get out, and we run.
As soon as we get Belthai and Corren to that safe house that we set
up, they're on their own and we can start planning our next move.”

“There's
some sort of big government meeting next week,” Teyo commented,
falling into step beside him. “They're making a new law about
Irkens. Maybe we could sabotage it?”

“Maybe,”
Dex agreed.

Suddenly, a woman
screamed. She was standing on the other side of the street, with a
few other people. She pointed at Teyo, frantically telling her
companions, “That's him! That's the Irken that robbed that
factory—the one that I knocked over!”

Dex cursed,
flicked off his disguise, then ran, Teyo beside him, as the humans
gave chase.

***

“Alright,
Yongi, Makovi, you go in first,” Revitae decided, critically
examining the human building in front of her. It was a bank or
something; whatever it was, it was adorned with gaudy marble figures.
It was just begging to be attacked. “Keep your disguises turned
on until the rest of us come in.”

“Yes,
ma'am,” Yongi said, saluting. Revitae barely refrained from
rolling her eye.

Just as the two
disguised Irkens were about to go in, she hissed, “Wait.”

They glanced at
her.

“What's
that sound?” Revitae muttered, her antennae twitching inside
the helmet that she wore as part of her combat armor. “It
almost sounds like...”

Just then, a pair
of Irkens ran past, pursued by a large and angry-looking mob. They
were gone too fast for Revitae to get a good look at them, but
nonetheless, there was something familiar about them.

It clicked, and
she muttered something under her breath.

“Okay,
change of plans,” she announced, rounding up her new recruits
with a “come hither” gesture. “We're going on a
rescue mission instead.”

“But—”
Juxtin began.

“First
rule of the New Armada,” Revitae interrupted. “Do not
question me.”

“I
thought the first rule was to denounce all things human.”

Revitae gritted
her teeth. “Let's just go.”

***

“Great,”
Dex gasped as he stared at the brick wall in front of him. “Just
great.”

He glanced at the
mob behind him, which was rapidly getting closer. There was no escape
that way. Climbing the wall was out of the question—they'd be
too exposed. The only other option seemed to be...

Surrender? Never.

Just as he was
steeling himself for a fight, six figures clad in black combat armor
raced onto the scene. One yelled at two others, “Juxtin! Reika!
You have flash rounds, distract the crowd!”

“Flash
rounds?! I thought we had real bullets!”

“Surprise!
Yongi, Makovi, Gavetai—you're with me.”

The one that
appeared to be the leader turned to Dex and Teyo as two of her
number—presumably Juxtin and Reika—opened harmless fire
on the crowd and incited a panic.

“Come
with me if you want to live,” she said. Dex and Teyo glanced at
each other. They didn't seem to have much of a choice at this point.

The
armored creatures led them away from the mob of humans, through a
twisting maze of narrow streets, and finally ducked into what
appeared to be a condemned apartment building. As Dex glanced around
at the dingy interior, he realized that it was
a
condemned apartment building.

“Thanks—”
Teyo began. The leader flipped up the visor of her helmet, revealing
the face of a one-eyed female Irken.

“So,”
Revitae said dryly. “I take it you were in a little bit of
trouble back there?”

“Yeah,
you could say that,” Dex said. “Thank you.”

“Sure.”
Revitae glanced at the doorway as the other two members of her squad
entered. “Before you go, I just want you to know that my offer
still stands.”

Dex looked at Teyo, who nodded. He looked back at the leader of the
New Armada.

“Then
I guess we're in,” he told her.

End of Prologue