Lost

Epilogue

"What do you think they are talking about?"

Red ignored his co-Tallest and continued to pace outside the Tyrannus's bridge, whose doors had been closed shut, so he couldn't know what was going on inside. He felt uncomfortable in an alien ship, but there was no way he'd allow the lizards into the Massive to contaminate it with their alien germs. He was starting to regret it, though, especially with the Sobrekt guards outside the doors, staring at him warily.

"Chill out, she'll be fine," Foxtrot assured the two Tallests. "The Shuryo might not seem like it, but he is pretty open-minded."

"No offense, but he really should fire his decorator. I mean, hanging heads don't give exactly give a good impression." Purple commented.

"It was nice on your part to let her talk with the Shuryo alone, by the way."

Red smiled. "She could handle a pack of sobrekt, a cannibalistic carnivore, a bunch of psychopath aliens and Zim. I think she can handle an old crocodile."

Purple narrowed his eyes. "Okay, who are you and what did you do with Red?"

"What's a crocodile?" Masouri inquired.

At last, the doors opened. Red whipped his head around just in time as Ilk and Captain walked out. The former was rubbing her arm. "So?" Purple got ahead of him, much to his chagrin.

"The Shuryo let me go free in exchange of some DNA," Ilk explained. "They only need the flower's cells in my blood to create another one from scratch."

"They can do that?"

"We could bring back an extinct species if we wanted*," Masouri said proudly.

Red took it from there before Purple said something stupid. "What about the... war? After this, think we're good, or...? If we aren't, could you at least give us Foodcourtia back?"

"We are still pretty crossed at you for the theft, but after hearing all that happened the Shuryo was willing to... negotiate." Captain patted Ilk's head. "She handled it pretty well."

"The Shuryo is willing to hand Foodcourtia, Agricultia and half of the planets they took back to Irken control as compensation for what I went through. However, they wish to keep the Conveyor Belt Planet and Zootopia*; both planets will be open for us, but are to be considered Sobrekt territory from now on." Ilk explained.

"Why the Conveyor Belt Planet? Zootopia, I understand, but the Conveyor Belt...?"

"Let's say we owed a favor to a Screwhead..." Captain said sheepishly.

Red and Purple exchanged looks.

"Sounds fine to me."

"We can sleep at night without those two. Now would you mind taking us back to the Massive? There's a mountain of snacks with my name on it."

The Irkens were led back into the Ibris, which flew out of the Tyrannus's hangar and towards the Massive. The Irken flagship had stationed on the other side of Foodcourtiaalongside the Armada, so the flight took a while. Blue found Ilk on the lounge, watching as the yet-unnamed indokuro hatchling tried to get Fury to play with him, but the older indokuro didn't move from his spot.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, just wondering how to tell Uncle Pur that we'll have to leave the hatchling behind. He got attached to it."

"No offense, but from what I've seen I got the feeling he'll forget about it by tomorrow."

"Yeah, Uncle Pur has a short attention lapse."