The Fall of an Empire (invader zim fanfic)

Chapter 3: revelation

Red was in a state of disbelief after coming to the conclusion that the planet was alive. He undermined the thought that something like this was possible before moving on. As much as he would like to convince himself that's something like this shouldn't be possible and the date of recorded was a coincidence, he knew deep down it was true. For something like this to be a coincidence would be similar to saying the empire's rise of power was one too. This thought plagued his mind as he continued to ponder this new world they've discovered.

Once everything was finally in place, red returned to the cockpit with Purple. Upon arriving, Purple was still eating his bag of donuts from earlier while staring at the footage of the red planet before him. It seemed like he was in a trance-like state staring at the object while trying to figure out what it was. His train of thought was soon interrupted by Red speaking up.

"Still looking?" Red asked casually.

Purple jumped in response to Red's sudden comment, surprised to see him back so soon.

"Hey! Don't scare me like that!" Purple exclaimed.

Red chuckled a bit before replying, his mood seemingly uplifted by Purple's reaction, "I wasn't trying to. You just weren't paying attention."

Purple sighed before he continued eating his donuts and looking at the object in front of him. A few seconds passed by before Red began asking again.

"Hey Purple, out of curiosity, how long have you been staring at this for?"

"Well.. uh.." he thought for a moment before finally answering. "Since you first left to prepare that exploration team."

Red looked at him perplexed, "So you're telling me you've been staring at this for the past 6 hours?"

"It's been that long already!?"

"Yeah... how long do you think it's been since I first left?"

"Uh... 10 minutes, I think?"

Red looked at him, puzzled and wanting to ask more, but decided not to, seeing how he responded. Instead, he started asking about the object itself to get an idea of what was on his mind. He was about to ask before Purple made a comment about it himself.

"Hey Red, have you ever felt a certain way when looking at a planet?"

"Elaborate."

"I mean, have you ever felt like there was more to a world than what you see?"

Red didn't know how to respond. This kind of question was the last thing he would ever hear from someone like him. He thought about it for a second before answering.

"No... I haven't," he said before following up with a question of his own. "Are you alright, Purple? You're asking some weird questions."

Purple looked back at him after hearing his comment before realizing just how strange what he asked really was.

"Oh yeah, sorry about that," he apologized. "I think I was just too deep in thought. I'll just go back to our quarters for a bit."

Purple soon left the cockpit back to his room as he stood behind. Red looked back at the image and tried to figure out what led Purple to think about such a thing. After staring for a few minutes, Red noticed something strange. He wasn't entirely sure, but the surface seemed to have somehow shifted the last time he saw it. He turned to one of the navigators present and spoke to him.

"You think you can make a time-lapse of the recorded footage of the object for me?" He asked

The Irken simply nodded before rewinding the footage and speeding it up as requested by his tallest. As the video was shortened from 6 hours to 30 seconds, what Red suspected was just proven to be true. Within the time frame from when he first left to when he came back, the vein-like structures on the surface of the planet moved. It shifted in a way similar to how the flow of rivers changed through time. Everyone, including red, was freaked out by this. This was undeniable evidence that this world was alive and possessed a dynamic equilibrium.

Right when the Empire thought they knew everything they needed to know about the universe, right when they thought they were truly the Masters of the Galaxy, this thing popped up out of nowhere. It's unknown just how many of these things exist; it's unknown how long they've been around for; it's unknown what they even are, and it's unknown just where they came from. All that is known is that they exist and that their presence alone violates the rules that they thought governed everything.

"Shoot it..." Red whispered.

"I want you to shoot that thing into oblivion!!" He quickly shouted.

"B-But sir," one of them replied timidly. "Don't you think th-that's -

"That is a direct order! Kill that thing!" He quickly cut her off, demanding that they fire regardless.

That navigators contacted the ones in control of the planet buster and relayed the message, telling them it's time to prepare fire.

The Massive began charging its laser as the object stood motionless before the Armada. After a few minutes of filling with energy and the ship shifting to aim towards its intended target, the built-up energy was finally released and was fired at the object. The beam of concentrated energy flew through space for a few seconds before finally reaching the object, destroying obliterating it from what they could tell.