Fanfic / Ruby Pair

Ruby Pair is an Invader Zim fanfic by Zim'sMostLoyalServant.

Set at some point post-canon, the fic centers on Zim crossing paths with Invader Tenn, who has since been stripped of her title for her failure to conquer Meekrob and exiled from the Irken Empire. After being forced to work together to survive an encounter with some minor enemies of Zim's, they decide that they make a good team, leading to Tenn agreeing to join Zim on Earth and help him conquer it in order to regain her lost status, leading to a new series of adventures for them both.

The story is ongoing and can be found on FanFiction.Net as a single volume, or on Archive of Our Own as a series of oneshots.

Tropes in Ruby Pair

• Abhorrent Admirer: Tenn is utterly disgusted by Keef's obsession with her.
• Abnormal Ammo: The Carne Bees use meatballs, ribs, sausages, and other pieces of meat as cannonballs.
• Action Girl:
  • Tenn, being a highly trained Irken Invader.
  • Gaz is an unstoppable fighter when she's motivated enough.
• Alliteration & Adventurers: Gaols & Ghouls, from the chapter of the same name, is a blatant parody of D&D.
• Alpha Bitch: Jessica, who is obsessed with popularity and is condescending to anyone who she feels is unpopular. Zita swears she's not that bad when you get to know her, but Tenn isn't buying it.
• All for Nothing:
  • In "My Fair Tenn", Dib agrees to give up on watching Mysterious Mysteries for a year if Gaz will enter the beauty pageant in order to spy on Tenn for him, because he's convinced Tenn is entering it as part of an Evil Plan. In the end, he learns that Tenn was only competing out of pride and spite, and is despondent that he agreed to the deal for no reason.
  • In "Frosting the 13th", after all of Zim and Tenn's efforts to steal Larb's holiday snacks, GIR eats them all on the way back to Earth.
• Alternative Calendar: The Irken calendar, what little shown of it in "Frosting the 13th", has all its months named after food, with the ones listed being Garnish, Frosting, and Pudding.
• Alternate Self: The main plot of "Multiplying by Tenn" is that an accident involving GIR, pudding, and Zim's Dimensional Looking Glass opens a Negative Space Wedgie that starts spitting out Tenn's counterparts from across The Multiverse as well as Zim's counterpart Palindrome.
• Ambiguously Human: Zim suspects that Keef is not human due to all the times he's tried to kill him, only for him to come back completely unharmed with no explanation.
• An Arm and a Leg: When fighting the pirate bees' first mate, Ned, Gaz cuts off his wings, stinger, and all six limbs.
• And I Must Scream: At the end of "Gaols & Ghouls", Zim uses his mind control spores to order the Gaol Master to bash himself against a wall for eternity, which he is last seen preparing to do.
• Ascended Extra: In the original series, Tenn was a one-shot character who only appeared briefly in "Megadoomer". She was an Irken invader who was supposed to receive a Megadoomer to help her conquer Meekrob, but instead got a box of insane malfunctioning SIR Units. In this story, she is promoted to a main character as a member of Zim's Quirky Miniboss Squad and his eventual love interest.
• Ax-Crazy: The aptly-titled Crazy Tenn, one of the alternate versions of Tenn who appears in "Multiplying by Tenn", was so traumatized by the rampaging SIR Unit incident that she went completely insane, and now is constantly trying to blow up everything around her.
• Badass Adorable: Minimoose is basically a living plushie... and is one of the most dangerous characters in the story.
• Bar Brawl: In "Meeting of Ruby Eyes", Tenn accidentally starts one when she attacks Zim over him getting the Megadoomer that should have been hers.
• Beauty Contest: The plot of "My Fair Tenn" is built around the skool hosting one of these, the Miss Skoolyard Pageant. Tenn enters to spite Jessica, while Dib convinces Gaz to enter and keep an eye on Tenn because he's certain that it's part of an Evil Plan.
• Berserk Button:
  • Minimoose does not take being dismissed as a serious threat very well.
  • When Dib refers to Tenn as Zim's minion, she flips out and almost attacks him.
  • Tenn vaguely threatening to blow up a Bloaty's Pizza Hog restaurant is enough to make Gaz unleash her Killer Robot toys on her (and Zim too by association).
  • Also, Gaz hasn't been able to stand the taste of pork ever since the Pig Girl incident. When the Carne Bees accidentally shoot some into her mouth, she goes into an Unstoppable Rage against them.
• Best Friend: Zita becomes this to Tenn, who befriends her in order to increase her human cover, but seems to legitimately enjoy her company.
• Big Brother Instinct: When Gaz gets talked into helping Zim and Tenn's plot in "Frosting the 13th", Dib immediately jumps to the conclusion that she's been kidnapped and rushes after them to "rescue" her, much to her annoyance.
• Big Damn Heroes: In "Meeting of Ruby Eyes", Minimoose bursts onto the scene just in time to save Zim and Tenn from the amoeba gangsters.
• Big Red Button: Dib hits one to shut down all the security in the Vortian prison in "Frosting the 13th". Tenn is incredulous that such a button was even installed.
• Big "WHAT?!": Jessica, when told that she's only getting third place in the beauty pageant.
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • The meat-obsessed alien bees in "Beefus Megabombus" are called Carne Bees, and are from the Viande Nebula. Carne and viande are the Spanish/Italian and French words for "meat", respectively.
  • Dib curses in Spanish at one point in "Frosting the 13th", a reference to Jhonen Vasquez's affirmation that the Membranes are of Mexican descent.
• Brick Joke: When showing Tenn around the base early in "Welcome to Urth", Zim mentions the time (from Issue #27 of the comic series) he was stuck in Xooxi the Dooxisi's own base beneath it, being bored to death by him. At the end of the chapter, Dib is subjected to the same fate.
• Butt-Monkey: During his appearance in "Beefus Megabombus", Skoodge is repeatedly used as a battering ram by Zim, and then gets used as a battery by Tak's ship for its weapons, which fries him to a crisp.
• Call-Back: Every chapter is full of references to past adventures from the show, movie, and comics.
• Cats Are Mean: In "Welcome to Urth", Keef brings a cat to Zim's base to try and gift it to Tenn. It promptly attacks Zim, who has to chase it off.
• The Cat Came Back: Zim just cannot get rid of Keef, the annoyingly cheerful human boy who always tries to be his friend, no matter how hard he tries.
  Tenn: Why not just get rid of him, then? I've literally seen you blow up more for less of a reason.
  Zim: I've tried! I've ripped his eyes out, blown him up, vaporized him, even tossed him into a tree shredder one time, and nothing works, he just comes back! I think he's not even really human, but some kind of force of pure annoyance that wills itself into existence just to make my life miserable!
• Chainmail Bikini: Discussed and defied in "Gaols & Ghouls", where the fantasy adventurer costumes that Tenn and Gaz are placed in when sucked into the titular game are much more concealing than this trope, which Gaz dismissively describes as male fantasy fulfillment.
• Chirping Crickets: At one point in "Multiplying by Tenn", Tenn asks her counterparts whether any of them actually managed to conquer their version of Meekrob. There's absolute silence in response, except for the sounds of crickets chirping... which turn out to be coming from one Tenn who has giant cricket legs sticking out of her back. Apparently they do that on their own when she's agitated.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • Early in "Gaols & Ghouls", Zim reveals that his latest plan involves spreading around mind controlling fungal spores. This gets sidetracked by him and the others getting sucked into the game, but then at the climax Zim uses the spores to take over the Gaol Master so that he'll send the group home.
  • In "Frosting the 13th", while packing for the mission to Vort, Gaz attacks Zim with a brain-eating squid for annoying her. At the chapter's climax, Zim uses that squid to attack Larb as a distraction so that his team can get to his snack stockpile.
• Commonality Connection: Dib feels a bond with Lard Nar when they meet in "Frosting the 13th" and the latter starts ranting about how he was the only one who saw Larb as the threat that he was, much like Dib's situation with Zim.
• Continuity Nod:
  • "Meeting of Ruby Eyes" ends with Tenn joining Zim and his robots on the trip back to Earth, with it being noted that the Voot Cruiser is a little too small for that many passengers. "Welcome to Urth" opens with them at the end of this trip, with both Irkens complaining about the cramped ride.
  • Clembrane is still living with the Membrane family following the events of the movie. They've apparently just learned to deal with his presence.
  • The Zimvoid arc from the comics is repeatedly mentioned in "Multiplying by Tenn", and a reference is also made to the "Freaky Friday" Flip from Issue #21.
  • "Frosting the 13th" references both Gaz's time dominating Arcadikon in Issue #16, and Tenn having the high score on Dancing Arcade Game but for Aliens, which was established in the final issue. The chapter also establishes that Zim still makes use of the wormhole from "A Room With a Moose", as he sends Keef through it in yet another attempt to kill him, and mention is also made of Zim stealing Gaz's liver in "Dark Harvest".
• Countrystan: In "Welcome to Urth", when Dib demands to know the name of The Old Country that Tenn claims she and Zim are from, Zim blurts out "Oldcountrystan". While Tenn finds this idiotic, everyone else naturally believes it.
• Dark Horse Victory: In "My Fair Tenn", first place for the beauty pageant ultimately goes to GIR, who isn't even a contestant, because Beauticiatron finds him cute.
• Didn't Think This Through: It takes the Computer pointing it out to them for Zim and Tenn to realize that being exiled, they aren't entitled to the free Frosting the 13th snacks.
• Dimension Lord: The Gaol Master is the ruler of the Gaols & Ghouls world.
• Dirty Cop: The law enforcement on Cyberflox are all corrupt and in the pocket of local criminals.
• Does Not Like Spam: Gaz has hated pork ever since the events of "Gaz, Taster of Pork". So much so that in "Beefus Megabombus", when the pirate bees attack the Membrane house using meat products and hit her in the mouth with a sausage, that one little taste of pork instantly enrages her enough that she goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge against the offending aliens.
  Gaz: (with Fireball Eyeballs) You. Made me. Taste pork. Prepare to enter a nightmare world!
• Dragon Their Feet: In "Beefus Megabombus", after the rest of the pirate bees are all killed, first mate Ned shows up for one last fight with the Irkens. They immediately vaporize him.
• Enemy Mine:
  • In "Beefus Megabombus", the Irkens are forced to ask Dib and Gaz for help fighting the pirate bees, because with their base incapacitated, the Membranes possess the only other technology on the planet (namely Tak's Ship) which can fight back properly.
  • In "Gaols & Ghouls", the Irkens and the Membrane siblings got sucked into the titular game and have to team up to beat its quest so that they can be returned to their own world.
• Epic Fail: All of Zim's attempts to use magic attacks in "Gaols & Ghouls" literally blow up in his face.
• The Exile: Tenn was not only stripped of her Invader rank but was then banished from the Irken Empire altogether.
• Expendable Alternate Universe: One of Zim's hobbies in the story is scrying alternate universes that don't have a Zim in them and then destroying them for the perceived affront.
• Eye Scream: A minor example — Gaz finishes her fight with Ned by kicking him in the face. When he shows up again later, he's wearing an eyepatch over the eye she hit in the process.
• Failed a Spot Check: The Membranes and Irkens do this at one point in "Gaols & Ghouls", leaving them surrounded by the Knights Who Say Icki-Icki. Gaz name-drops the trope, with Tenn exasperatedly questioning what it even means.
• Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: At the beginning of the story, when Zim encounters Tenn, she's working as a waitress on the planet Cyberflox to make ends meet after being declared a failure of an invader and exiled from the Irken Empire.
• False Reassurance:
  • When Tenn expresses disbelief that GIR will be able to get her and Zim out of a Cyberflox jail cell in "Meeting of Ruby Eyes", Zim scoffs that GIR is "perfectly reliable at least 75 percent of the time". Naturally, this does nothing to make Tenn feel better.
  • In "Beefus Megabombus", when Tak's Ship is hooking itself into Skoodge's PAK, it tells him that the process will "only hurt a lot". He barely has a chance to question this statement before he's screaming in pain.
• Fictional Holiday: Frosting the 13th, from the chapter of the same name, is an annual Irken holiday, where every years on the 13th day of the month of Frosting, every Irken gets free snacks (with the amount depending on their rank).
• Flat "What": Tenn, upon hearing that GIR is taking first place in the beauty pageant rather than her.
• Flipping the Bird: Both Gaz and Dib do this to Zim and Tenn at different points in "Frosting the 13th". Neither of the Irkens quite understand what it means.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: Tenn does this to a horde of monsters at one point in "Gaols & Ghouls", using a frozen-solid Zim as a battering ram to run them down.
• Glad I Thought of It: Zim has a habit of taking credit for the good ideas of everyone around him.
• Got Volunteered: When Tak's Ship needs an Irken PAK to tap into in order to bypass its damaged weapons systems so it can fight the Carne Bees — and refuses to use Zim, because of his Defective nature — Tenn backs away so that it looks like Skoodge is volunteering.
• Hive Queen: The Queen of the Carne Bee hive that the Irkens encounter, who doubles as the captain of their pirate crew.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Tenn was one of the Empire's finest Invaders, but after failing to conquer Meekrob she was exiled and ended up reduced to working as a waitress on Cyberflox. She considers working with Zim (the most despised Irken ever) as barely an improvement over this.
• I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: The campaign quest that the characters have to go on in "Gaols & Ghouls" leads them through places called "the Plains of Suffering", "the Forest of Certain Death", "the Canyon of Agony", and "the Mountain of Dread" to reach "the Vile Lair of the Beast King". Gaz lampshades the theme naming when she hears it all.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: Zim's accuracy when shooting varies depending on the situation, but in "Meeting of Ruby Eyes" he completely fails to hit any of the amoeba gangsters filling the room in front of him, despite shooting the place up.
• Jerkass Gods: The Gaol Master is essentially the god of the Gaols & Ghouls world, and it ultimately turns out that he doesn't intend to return the group when they complete their quest, instead planning to make them do more adventures for his amusement.
• Killer Rabbit: As part of the parade of Shout Outs to Monty Python, the Beast King of "Gaols & Ghouls" turns out to be a fluffy white rabbit which is quickly revealed to be a deadly fighter.
• Love at First Sight: As soon as Keef first sees Tenn in "Welcome to Urth", he falls head over heels for her.
• Mini-Mecha: Minimoose turns into one to aid Gaz in rampaging across Vort in "Frosting the 13th".
• Mythology Gag:
  • "Beefus Megabombus" is based on a plot concept for a canon episode that was never made.
  • The archetypes that the characters are turned into when sucked into the game in "Gaols & Ghouls" are based on similar roles they had in one of the alternate universes seen in Issue #40 of the comic series (except for Tenn, who wasn't in the comics).
  • The fact that at the climax of "Frosting the 13th", there's a sudden cutaway from what's clearly meant to be an awesome action sequence, with the characters offhandedly discussing it after the transition, is meant as a nod towards a similar gag in "Gaz, Taster of Pork".
• Never Live It Down: In-Universe, the one thing that Zim has never managed to shake from the Zimvoid arc of the comics is that he's the only Zim in The Multiverse to have choked on styrofoam packing peanuts something that Palindrome enjoys rubbing in his face.
• Noodle Incident:
  • Zim's attempts to kill Keef prior to the start of the story.
  • Clembrane apparently once filled Tak's Ship with pudding.
• Not Me This Time: Upon learning that the Megadoomer she should have gotten ended up with Zim while she got the insane SIR units that ruined her mission, Tenn accuses Zim of stealing it from her. Zim has to explain that he had nothing to do with the mixup.
• Official Couple: According to the author, the story is geared towards eventually pairing together Zim and Tenn.
• Off with His Head!: Zim and Tenn does this to Gabo Amebo. Being an amoeba, he survives it, but is left completely incapacitated.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • The amoeba gangsters barely have time to react like this before Minimoose smashes them all with levitated piles of debris.
  • The Queen Bee, right before Tak's Ship blows up her hive ship.
  Queen Bee: Oh, beeswax.
• The Old Country: How Tenn refers to the country she and Zim claim to have emigrated from. When Dib pushes for a name, Zim blurts out "Oldcountrystan".
• Oracular Head: The Gaol Master is a giant floating head.
• Other Me Annoys Me: Tenn is not at all impressed by all her alternate selves who pop up in "Multiplying by Tenn" while Zim is constantly butting heads with his own counterpart, Palindrome.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: As per canon, Zim's taste in disguises goes in this direction. He even forces Tenn to abandon a perfect holographic human disguise in favor of a wig and contacts like his.
• Pardon My Klingon: The Irkens occasionally swear in their native language. Tenn furiously calls Zim a "vrik na tishanti" when she thinks that he stole the Megadoomer that was meant for her and caused the chain of incidents that led to her being stripped of her rank and exiled.
• Patchwork Fic: A minor example. The movie Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus and the Invader Zim comic series appear to canonically be in separate continuities, as the movie recreates the first part of the first comic issue, only to diverge into its own plot at a key point. In this story, the author decided that the movie took place instead of Issues 1 and 2, and then was followed by the rest of the comic series.
• Police Brutality: The corrupt law enforcement agents who arrest Zim and Tenn in "Meeting of Ruby Eyes" beat Zim up while transferring him to Gabo Amebo, because they were paid extra to inflict pain on him.
• Prison Riot: Dib triggers one at the Irkens' prison on Vort in "Frosting the 13th" by switching off all the security, allowing the prisoners to fight back and escape.
• A Rare Sentence:
  • Twice, regarding the very idea of the pirate-styled meat-obsessed bees in "Beefus Megabombus".
  Tenn (to Dib): That's right, we're being chased by pirate-themed space bees that want to steal all your planet's meat. And I cannot believe my life has reached a point where I can say something that bizarre with a straight face.
  Dib (to Tak's Ship): Look, I don't like it either, but right now we're temporarily teamed up to fight some meat-obsessed pirate space bees. (to Tenn) Wow, you're right. That does feel weird to actually say.
  • After Minimoose learns about the Room With a Moose and gets upset about Zim having had another moose minion before him, Dib comments that he's never seen a jealous moose before.
• Running Gag:
  • The canon one about the size of Dib's head returns.
  • Tenn trying to kill Keef to get rid of him.
• Screw the Rules, I Make Them!: Beauticiatron's rationale for overriding Tenn's victory and giving it to GIR instead is that her company's financing the pageant, so she can do whatever she wants with it.
• Shout-Out:
  • A vague one, but Zim dismisses the thought that his reaction to learning his mission is fake would be him either rebelling, or going native on Earth, or becoming emo and depressed, all of which are common plots for IZ fics.
  • Zim tries to scare off Gabo Amebo with a thermal detonator, which fails when Gabo points out that he's actually holding a can of tomato soup.
  • "My Fair Tenn" is based on an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy.
  • "Gaols & Ghouls" is a loose parody of Dungeons & Dragons, and is also filled with references to Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
  • Early on in the above chapter, Dib mentions a rug that can swap people's bodies.
  • In "Beefus Megabombus", Tenn's reaction to seeing the pirate bees about to attack Gaz is "Oh, blitznak."
• Stalker with a Crush: Keef becomes obsessed with Tenn, much to her disgust.
• Super Window Jump:
  • In "Meeting of Ruby Eyes", Zim and Tenn jump out a window to escape Gabo Amebo's lair. Though since Tenn tackles Zim to do so, from his perspective it's more a case of Destination Defenestration.
  • In "Beefus Megabombus", the Irkens escape the Carne Bees' hive ship by jumping out of its bridge's window, which Zim uses Skoodge as a battering ram to break.
• Swiss-Cheese Security: As usual, Dib is able to break into Zim's base fairly easily on a regular basis. In "My Fair Tenn", the Computer reveals that it, Minimoose, and GIR take turns on reporting this to Zim, which is why he gets away with it so much.
• Talk Like a Pirate: Ned, the first mate of the pirate bees in "Beefus Megabombus", insists on talking like this. The Irkens can't understand a word he says, and even the other bees call him out on the stupidity of this.
• They Killed Kenny Again: Keef just won't stay dead. In addition to all the times Zim tried to kill him before the start of the story, Tenn has strapped him to a rocket and launched him into the distance, locked him in a locker with a grenade, and shoved him in front of a speeding bus, and he just keeps coming back.
• Trapped in Another World: The plot of "Gaols & Ghouls" is that Dib, Gaz, Zim, Tenn, and GIR are sucked into the titular game and have to complete a quest campaign in order to return to the real world.
• Undying Loyalty: Zim's loyalty to the Tallest is so absolute that learning that his mission is fake is treated with more annoyance than anger, and he's determined to conquer Earth to regain his place in the Empire.
• The Unintelligible: Minimoose, as per canon, only communicates by squeaks, but is apparently very eloquent.
  Zim: Curse you! Why did I make you such an eloquent and charismatic speaker?!
• Unknown Rival: Zim has no recollection of previously encountering Gabo Amebo when attacked by his forces on Cyberflox, despite remembering everything else from that past adventure.
• Whole-Plot Reference: As noted above, "My Fair Tenn" is based on the The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy episode "My Fair Mandy".
• You Do Not Want To Know: Both Miss Bitters and Zita say this to Tenn in regards to what happens in the Chamber of Worthiness.
• You Didn't Ask: In "Welcome to Urth", this is Zim's justification for why he didn't warn Tenn about the acidic effect that Earth's polluted water has on Irkens. Later, the Computer uses the same justification for not warning him sooner that Dib was breaking into the base.