📗👀 (no rush of course, whenever you have time ✌️)
OKAY. Time to ramble about one of my long aus :)
If you have played Supergiant's game Pyre YOUR A REAL ONE AND WILL UNDERSTAND SO MUCH MORE AND I GIVE YOU A <3
For everyone else, Pyre is Supergiant's 3rd game and I adore it so I made a little very big crossover au. Im just gonna describe the premise. All you have to know is that it is set in a magic fantasy setting and Irkens, Vortians, and other IZ aliens are just different species that inhabit the same world as humans (ie they are not aliens to the world (also Irkens are not cyborgs btw, they are just biological buggy species with secondary brains and extendable legs)). Other stuff will be explained as it is relevant.
We start with Dib, Gaz, and Prof Membrane traveling in the wastelands of the Downside, the land of exiles. Prof Membrane and Dib were exiled for the crime of literacy and publishing and Gaz for conspiracy.
They see a dead.. wait no not quite.. actually living Irken! Half dead in the canyon who after being shaken awake and given some food calls himself Zim. With him he has an Imp named Gir and a Beyonder computer crystal named.. Computer. Irken exiles are rare but even rarer is one that wasn't rescued by the Essence, a coalition of Irken exiles in the Downside. Even weirder, Zim says he is not an exile and is actually military invader on a secret mission, sent by the Tallest’s of the Commonwealth themselves! The encoding brand on his left arm (An Irken ritual practice of burning your purpose onto you) confirms this, though weirdly Zim has many brands from scientist to invader to.. cook? But he is indeed an Invader at the moment (Dib and Prof Mem can read the brand, Zim recognizes the word as a symbol for invader but can’t read per say).
What neither side know (yet) is that Zim was branded as defective before being exiled. While knocked out, it was placed between his shoulders on his back where he cannot see it himself.
The Membranes are investigating an ancient ritual known as the Rites. A way they can become free again and get released from the Downside, but they need another member to perform the rituals. Zim thinks this seems like a good lead as to what he is supposed to be invading and for the Membranes, an Irken would make a powerful ally in the rites. They make a deal to free Zim with them.
What follows is a journey across the world, performing ritual combat with other Triumvirates for the chance at a glorious return to the Commonwealth, but the path is filled with danger, betrayal, and maybe love, found family, revolution and discovering that even in the worst situation, there can be a future worth fighting for.