The Membrane family quickly discovered that as unlikely as it was, it was possible for irkens and humans to procreate. It wasn’t long after that, however, for them to find out that the way the irken and human DNAs mix didn’t always result in a healthy baby/smeet. Actually, it was very lucky for the child to be born healthy at all. It was way more likely for the smeet-baby to not even make it past the first year, and that’s if the smeet managed to be born at all.
Dib and Zim Membrane were very lucky. When they first discovered that they were having children, one was healthy and another managed to survive. Even then, another didn’t make it past the first hour. They were supposed to have triplets.
Gaz and Tak weren’t so lucky. So many of their children miscarried. Through many tests, the Membranes discovered that the more human genes that were in a child - as opposed to more irken genes - the more likely they were to be healthy. Gaz and Tak were beginning to lose hope of them ever conceiving a child naturally, but they really wanted a child so they began to discuss splicing their DNA to scientifically create their child. Just like how irkens were created for generations; even though it had been decided and agreed upon that no child would be created in such a way ever again when the irken Empire was defeated.
That’s when another pregnancy occurred. This one actually seemed promising. They took extra care to ensure their baby’s health. When tests revealed that their baby’s DNA was 78.3% human, they began to hope. The baby was showing itself to be healthy. They could survive. They could live.
When their baby girl was born, as healthy as a baby could be, they couldn’t be happier. Their baby was a very pale green - almost a pale human skin colour, with a mop of violet hair, and antennae that curled the same way Tak’s did. Her eyes were bright purple and had a sclera but no pupils (or rather; the purple orbs were the pupils). She was perfect.
Then she was taken. The Membranes frantically looked everywhere for her, using every resource, turning the whole city - the whole world upside down to find her. Only for the search to prove fruitless.
Gaz and Tak were as worried as they were seething - promising a gruesome vengeance on whoever it was that dared to take their daughter. Underlying all that however, was a helplessness that crept up the more time passed without so much as a hint as to where their daughter could have gone.
Finally, the kidnappers decided to contact Tak, telling her to do one thing: come alone. They didn’t demand a ransom, or so much as told her what they even wanted. They just gave her a location and demanded she come alone if she wanted to see her child unharmed. They assured her that they had ways to find out if she were to bring backup; whether the backup was organic or not - they would know.
The kidnappers were intelligent, and more importantly they were prudent. The Membranes’ hands were tied; there was no getting around the fact that Tak had to go alone. Still, as cunning as the kidnappers were, so were the Membranes. They may not be able to provide immediate backup, but if there was one thing they knew how to do, it was to find impossible ways out of impossible situations.
And with their - admittedly questionable - plan settled, Tak headed for the meeting place. When she arrived to face three relatively tall irkens using her daughter as hostage, it all clicked into place. Why they took her daughter, why they waited for so long before they called, why they didn’t ask for a ransom, and why they wanted her, specifically, to come. These were irkens who refused to accept and assimilate to the New Order, even after so many years. They loathed the Membranes because it was their contribution that had led to the Empire’s defeat.
Tak was isolated specifically because they believed her to be the strongest and most dangerous out of the four. If it were another situation where her daughter wasn’t in danger, she would have found this to be amusing. She had long since accepted - although very reluctantly - that that wasn’t the case. Gaz was incredible in a way she couldn’t hope to match, Dib had the capability to be more dangerous than anyone she had ever known, even Zim had some merits that she didn’t possess.
Irkens like these kidnappers, what made them so easy to defeat was that they couldn’t acknowledge that. They refused to see Gaz and Dib’s astounding capabilities simply because they were humans, just as they refused to see Zim’s competence due to his height and apparent defectiveness. They were narrow minded, speciesist and so assured in their superiority that they couldn’t see how much of a threat they actually were.
Tak did though, she had come to terms with that a long time ago, even before she chose to marry Gaz. Underestimating Gaz, Dib, and Zim was the biggest mistake she ever made. It was the Empire’s biggest mistake. It would be the kidnapper’s own fault that they hadn’t learned from them and it would end up becoming their mistake too.
Tak was confident that they’d do their part in the plan, and that the plan would work. But first--
“It's me that you want. Let my daughter go, this instant. Take me instead.”
Tak would do everything in her power to save her daughter.