My Only The Only One

Chapter 10

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.