Goddess Rising

Early the next morning Valerie got a short letter from Zim, explaining that Dib had passed.

But she didn't need that courtesy, as she had stumbled upon the satellite feed and, along with damn near the entire universe, witnessed the event for herself.

After it was over, Gaz went to her room and remained there, alone, for three days. When she emerged, however, she was in good spirits. She was proud of them both. The good Professor Membrane hailed his son as a hero, and suddenly the attitudes of Nirvana's citizens changed drastically. Dib and Zim had new respect among the human race...

...And many other races as well. Many citizens of the planets already taken by the Irken armada had been forced to watch the event as part of their "All Irken, All the Time" programming, and immediately revolted against their Irken leaders when they witnessed the deaths of the Tallests. It only took a few days for the Universe to finally seize their chance to eliminate the Irken race once and for all.

When the Destroyer arrived at Irk, it was in the midst of an awesome battle. The Meekrob, Vortians, Captulinites and assorted other races had already begun attacking, though they were making little headway against the Irken base of operations. As soon as a wave of soldiers was shot down, another wave of cadets, newborns, or other Irkens were ready to take its place.

But the chaos was all that Zim needed to make his move. His countrymen didn't even think twice when he masqueraded as another Irken commander, claiming that he had narrowly escaped the destruction of the Massive, and was returning to help Irk win in the battle against its enemies. They easily let him past their formations, closer to the planet than any of the other combatants had gotten.

The Meekrob, however, knew who was inside the ship.

"Irken Zim... Do you have a plan of attack?"

"Just keep them away from me," Zim answered curtly, promptly cutting the communication link.

They did, easily.

"I would advise you all to get as far away from Irk as possible," Zim transmitted just as he entered Irk's atmosphere.

The last explosive device was placed into the Destroyer's fuel generator, effectively tripling its power when the ship finally made impact on the planet's surface.

Hundreds upon thousands of witnesses were on-hand to see the planet Irk get knocked off of its axis, drifting slowly into space as it broke into billions of smaller and smaller pieces. Most of the Irken ships that were previously fighting froze in their place, disoriented. They were picked off like fish in a barrel, save for a few that escaped to very likely be discovered and destroyed later.

All of the planets previously conquered by the Irkens were liberated, and every Irken colony was razed. In the several months following the destruction of Irk, every member of its race was apparently killed.

There wasn't an Irken to be found throughout the entirety of the universe. If there were any left, they were hiding very well.

Valerie finally saw fit to publish Dib's memoirs, and they soon became the most downloaded, most translated documents in the universe. Dib and Zim were soon looked upon with so much admiration that they were nearly considered deities to many races.

Nirvana prospered, and soon the human race began to bloom. They too started to travel through space, and though they mostly kept to themselves, they were welcomed to other planets with open arms.

Both Dib and Zim had wanted to leave a mark among their people. They wanted to be remembered for their deeds. Neither one probably realized how many trillions of people would recall their names fondly for many, many years to come...

...Though they would have probably preferred to be alive for such accolades.

Such is the bitter irony prevalent in love and life.