"Are we really doing this?"
"Yes."
"But why must I do it?"
"Well, because you're the one who called and insulted the lizard in the first place, so it's natural that you are the one to fix it so my baby can go back to conquering Sobr."
Purple grumbled in a low voice. He hated to admit it, but his co-ruler had a very good point. He was the one to call and insult the Shuryo, so he was the one who had to apologize to him if they wanted any chances of stopping the war. Purple usually would never stoop that low; he had a reputation to maintain, after all. But they were talking about Ilk's mission and safety, so he begrudgingly agreed to call the Shuryo and... apologize for the misunderstanding.
Then again, perhaps the old lizard would aim his anger at Mizorant. She was the one who sent the attack unto another planet's flagship without his knowledge for personal revenge, and as far as Purple knew that counts as 'dishonorable' according to the Sobrekt's honor codes.
In part, he could understand why the Shuryo had been so mad, though. Nobody likes to be accused of a crime they didn't even know about, after all. But back then he didn't know it was all orchestrated by Mizorant to get back at him for what he indirectly did to her family, and to her. As much it twisted his squeedly-spooch to acknowledge it... he could understand her anger too now that he was a father himself. Purple, too, would go to great lengths, even start a war with a rival empire, to get revenge on whoever brought harm to his family.
"Fiiiine, but only because I want Ilkie to keep her head on her shoulders." He whined.
Red glanced towards the screen in the main lounge. "Computer, send a transmission to the Shuryo."
Purple took a deep breath as the Tallest Tower's AI did as told, thinking carefully of what he was going to tell the Shuryo when he took the call. Hopefully, he wouldn't and he could keep his ego intact for a little longer-
"Well, look who it is." Damn it.
"Greetings, Shuryo." Red began calmly. "I hope you're having a nice day."
"Well, I was until you two called me.." The Shuryo growled, crossing his legs on his throne, tail twitching. "What do you want?"
"I know that my co-ruler here," Purple felt Red's glare on top of him. "Disrespected you a few months ago after... Well, you probably know what happened." Purple was grateful that Red didn't rub salt over the sound.
"You mean when he called me to insult me out of the blue for no reason just because whoever attacked your flagship was of my kind? That's quite hard to forget, you know." Shuryo hissed.
"Well, if you must know, liz-" Purple bit his tongue before he could call him 'lizard' again. He's supposed to make amends, not make things worse. "The person behind the attack, and the war, kidnapped me and my wife not long ago, and she revealed herself as the mastermind behind all of this! Does the name Mizorant ring a bell?"
"Mizorant...?" the lizard rubbed his chin. "That sounds familiar..."
"Sir, if I may," a younger Sobrekt next to the Shuryo raised his hand timidly. "There was a Mizorant Clan living on the colony planet Zetronok at the time of its invasion by the Irken Empire. According to the data, they all perished."
"Well, your data is clearly wrong, because there's still a living, breathing Mizorant out there, out to get me." Purple snapped. "She made her intentions very clear. She wants to have revenge on me because she blames me for the death of her mate and kids!"
"It is your fault, considering that you're the one who poisoned the ancestor-damned planet and then enslaved its inhabitants." Shuryo countered matter-of-factly. Purple bit back his tongue again to refrain from shooting back.
"The point is," Red interrupted. "Shuryo, how about we go into... A temporary... suspension... of fighting while we negotiate... thingie."
"Ceasefire." Purple and Shuryo corrected simultaneously.
"Yeah, that! How about we do a temporary ceasefire while we deal with the madwoman? From what I understand of your culture, what she did must be considered 'dishonorable', right? I mean, she went behind your back and attacked the Irken Empire's flagship while letting you get the blame. I bet that must piss you off, right?"
The Shuryo's expression was unreadable, and yet Purple could sense a deep rage bubbling underneath the surface. The Sobrekt was tapping his claws on his armrests, pupils gone to slits as he thought of what he just learned.
"Give me a moment." The screen went static.
"Is that a good or a bad thing?" Purple wondered out loud.
"Well, at least he didn't shout at us, so I guess it must be a good thing."
It wasn't until a few minutes later that the Shuryo called back. Purple noticed that the room looked like a tornado made of carnivorous shark just passed through; there were claw marks on the granite walls and a few curtains had been torn to shreds; heck, not even the Shuryo's chair was spared the lizard's wrath. Speaking of which, the Shuryo's claws were dripping with purple blood, probably (hopefully) his own. And yet he just sat there as if he didn't feel a thing at all.
Red coughed uncomfortably. "Um, Shuryo... Your fingers are bleeding."
"So what? Are you worried that I might bleed to death or what?" the lizard said simply. Guess he mustn't give it much importance. Then again, this must be nothing compared to the wounds that left him all those scars on his torso and face.
"It's nasty!" Purple said, utterly and completely creeped out by the Sobrekt's indifference to his own blood dripping from his claws. Shuryo rolled his eyes and dug his fingers into his loincloth.
"There. Happy now?"
"More or less." Though I don't think I'll be having any grape slushee anytime soon, Purple thought.
"Anyway, back to the matter at hand, I thought about your proposal, your Tallest. Indeed, what Mizorant did was a dishonor to herself and the clan she wishes to avenge. She has recurred to underhanded methods and innocent blood was spilled because of her actions." The Shuryo's tone grew angrier as he spoke, his spines bristling. "May she live a long life so that the ghosts of her past actions may haunt her forever more! May she never join her Ancestors in the halls of- "
"Sorry to interrupt you, mister, but could you go straight to the point? We don't have all day!" Purple said impatiently, to which he received a hard elbow on the ribs from Red.
"I have but two conditions to accept your proposal of the ceasefire, your Tallest," Shuryo said, turning serious. "First of all, you." he glanced straight at Purple. "Owe me an apology for insulting me for no reason."
"That he can do!" Red said quickly before Purple could even try to protest.
"I'm waiting."
All eyes were on him now. Purple swallowed hard. Okay, he could do this. He just had to say he was sorry to the lizard, completely forgetting of his pride and blowing his ego to bits.
"Must it be spoken? Can't I write it down or send an Irk-mail?"
"Purple!" Red hissed warily when the lizard narrowed his eyes. Purple gulped again.
"I offer you my most sincere apologies for the misunderstanding, Shuryo. I hope you can forgive my recklessness." Purple said at last, exhaling. Good thing they weren't back on the Massive, or all of the soldiers would have something to gossip about for the next few cycles.
"See? That wasn't too hard, was it?"
"You said you had two conditions. What's the second one?" Red asked warily.
Shuryo's toothy sneer sent a shiver down Purple's spine. "Hitorken Zim."
"What?"
"I want you to hand Hitorken Zim over to me."
Purple couldn't contain himself this time. "Are you nuts?! Why on Irk would you want him?!"
"It's quite saddening to see that you don't seem to notice Hitorken Zim's potential, your Tallest. Someone who single handedly ruined the Irken Empire's first attempt at galactic conquest, killed two of its previous leaders and caused two blackouts on your homeworld must be a remarkable warrior indeed!"
"More like a remarkable walking disaster." Red muttered.
"That is my other condition for the ceasefire. You could consider it a compensation."
Purple was about to protest when Red spoke. "Of course, Shuryo! No problem, you can have Zim for all we care!" Purple stared at his co-ruler, agape. Even the Shuryo seemed surprised that Red was agreeing to it just like that. "Just let us have a word with him, then we'll contact you!"
"...Okay." The screen went static again.
"What on Irk, Red?!"
"Purple, think about it this way. You know as well as I do that Zim is a walking disaster; everything he touches goes to hell or blows up in thousands of pieces. Who knows? He might end up destroying the Sobrekt's military assets and make conquering it easier for Ilk. Sweet Irk, you've seen how those lizards worship the ground he walks on!"
"So what do we do now? I don't think Zim will be very happy to hear about this."
"Perhaps, but you know Zim would jump off a cliff if we told him to."
"Good point." Purple sighed. "Do we call him now?"
Red thought for a moment. "...Nah, it can wait. We didn't tell the lizard when we'd call him, after all, and I don't feel like dealing with Zim right now."
"Me neither. Anyhow, I'm going to check on Mor. I bet he misses his daddy!"
"Well, I will make sure Stalker hasn't eaten a gardening drone. Again." Red murmured under his breath.
Purple and Red parted ways for the time being, with the former making his way to the nursery. He expected to find Tenn and Lena inside cradling their respective smeets. Oddly, he only found Lena in there. She was fruitlessly trying to soothe Mor down; the smeet was wailing loudly, tiny tears streaming down his cheeks.
"What's wrong with Mor?" Purple asked.
"Nothing serious. He just isn't used to being away from his mama yet, that's all."
"And where did his mama go?"
Lena shrugged. "She didn't specify, she just asked me if I could look after Mor while she was gone."
Though a bit caught off guard, Purple didn't give it much thought. By now his relationship with Tenn had improved considerably, so he didn't need to worry about her trying to run away from him again. He was a bit put off that she'd leave her smeet, though. Lena couldn't be two minutes away from Ilk or Rouge when they were born.
"Aww, don't cry, smeetie-pooh. Daddy's here." Purple cooed as he took Mor in his arms. The smeet quieted down almost immediately. "Don't worry, mommy will be back later."
Lena looked down at Rouge as he played with his colorful blocks. Purple could tell she was a bit sad that the little one wasn't as clingy to her anymore. "How did the talk with the Shuryo go?" she asked to distract herself.
Purple sat down on the couch, sighing in dismay. "It's official. I reduced myself to apologizing to the lizards. I can already hear future generations talking about me, and not in a good way." He shivered in disgust at the idea. "On the bright side, though, he agreed to a mutual ceasefire. If I'm lucky, he'll deal with Mizorant himself and I won't have to see her ugly, scaly face again..." he thought for a moment. "Actually, I might ask him to hand her over to me so I can personally make her pay for everything she's done to my family."
Purple unconsciously tightened his grip on his son. Just thinking about that lizard made his blood boil. She killed his unborn smeet, and if that wasn't enough, she was responsible for the war with the Sobrekt in the first place. None of this would have happened if...
Then again, I killed her family first, didn't I? I can't really blame her for this.
Purple pushed the thought out of his head. He merely acted on behalf of the Irken Empire. So what if the lizard happened to be living on that particular planet?
Mor whimpered at the sudden darkness in his father's voice. Purple quickly bounced his smeet. "Don't worry, my little Mor. Daddy will deal with that ugly, scaly witch. Yes, he will!" he tickled Mor's stomach, earning a fit of laughter from the smeet.
Lena smiled fondly at the sight. It faltered after a few seconds, however. "Purple, can I ask you something?"
"What is it? If it's about the missing smeet food, it was Stalker!"
"It's not about that. It's..." Lena sighed. "It's about Tenn."
Purple turned to Lena. "Is something wrong with Tenn?"
"No! Well, not exactly..."
"What do you mean?"
"Have you not noticed any... strange behavior in Tenn lately?" Purple raised his lekku.
"Define 'strange'."
Lena licked her lips. "Well, for starters, she left her few-weeks old smeet in someone else's care. Remember when Ilk was born? I was so protective of her that Red didn't get to even hold her until a few days had passed. I'm not sure if you've noticed, but she doesn't seem to have any attachment to her smeet at all. I'm thinking that this might actually become a problem later on if left untreated-"
"Whoa, whoa, wait a second! You're making it sound as if Tenn were sick or something." Lena hesitated. There's something else. "Whatever it is, just tell me. I can handle it!"
"...Have you heard of psychological disorders?"
"It's when inferior species go nuts, right?"
"More or less. I'm not implying that Tenn is losing her mind if that's what you're thinking!" Lena added quickly. "I'm just noticing that her behavior somewhat fits with something called postpartum depression." Purple was more or less familiarized with depression, as he had witnessed Red go through it when Miyuki died. Heck, he had experienced it somewhat when Tenn miscarried their first smeet, though in his case he coped with it via snapping at everything around him.
"Tenn isn't depressed."
"It's not exactly that kind of depression. Sometimes, new mothers experience postpartum depression after childbirth, especially if they had a difficult birth. It tends to develop a few weeks after giving birth, or at times, during the pregnancy or right after birth. You don't have to show all of the symptoms, but one or two is enough to worry about. In this case, Tenn shows little to no interest in her smeet and finds it difficult to bond with him. And I think you've mentioned that her 'mood swings' are still around."
"Well, let's not forget that Tenn used to be an Invader. They're trained to avoid having any attachments that could compromise their mission, it's normal that she's not used to motherhood yet."
"That's the issue, Purple. Tenn never experienced maternal love because she came straight out of the smeeteries, just like most Irkens these days. Heck, even you, Red, and I never knew what it's like to have a family. My point is that Tenn cannot feel something that she never learned even existed. And like you said, she was trained as an Invader. She was taught to avoid emotional attachments."
Purple wanted to deny it, but the truth is that he could not. As much as he hated to admit it, Lena had a point. Tenn hadn't been very helpful with Mor and mostly left the care to him. In the few times that he managed to have her hold Mor, she became tense and avoided looking at him, almost as she didn't want to...
"I'm sure she'll just get over it. Come on, who wouldn't love this cute little thing!" Purple blew into Mor's belly, earning a giggling fit from the little one.