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The first time Ratchet saved his life, Clank wasn’t awake to see it.
Ratchet braved vicious wildlife and warbots to find the crashed escape pod, scooped Clank out of the wreckage, and brought him to the garage Clank would soon learn to call home. He would later modify the story to include a countdown and explosion, though Clank doubted the veracity of this.
Regardless, Ratchet was the first person he saw when he opened his eyes, the first thing his young mind, fresh from the robot factory, ever associated with safety.
The young lombax saved him. Maybe he could save the galaxy as well.
*
The second time Ratchet saved him was on Endako, after he’d been kidnapped by the mysterious Megacorp thief. Ratchet spared him the details, which Clank appreciated since it seemed to involve at least some degree of torture. He was grateful that he didn’t remember it.
Conversely, he vividly remembered the third time Ratchet saved him. Clank watched from his tiny cage as Ratchet battled his massive evil clone, Klunk, atop a moving skytrain on Kerwan.
He was already overloaded with emotions that day—terrified by the biobliterator, ashamed for his unwitting role in Nefarious’s plot. But, watching Ratchet fight, watching him fearlessly dodge volleys of rockets, all for him… he began to feel something else as well. Upon further inspection, he suspected it was awe.
Ratchet was incredible. Clank could play a hero on the holovision all he wanted, but he could never come close to the real thing. The realization made him slightly jealous, but also incredibly honored. He was grateful that he had such a brave friend.
As the years went on and the stakes of their adventures rose ever higher, Clank had an unfortunate propensity for falling into dangerous situations, or being forcibly yanked into them. But Ratchet, deft and ferocious, was never far behind to swoop in and save the day.
The awe he felt for his friend quickly morphed into a fluttery feeling he couldn’t explain and felt silly trying to analyze. The rescues came so fast and frequent that it was difficult to keep track of them. It never stopped being scary, but goodness… whenever Ratchet liberated him from certain doom, there was a certain thrill that he didn’t entirely hate—and certainly didn’t understand.
Resolving to decipher these strange sensations some other time, he instead decided to address the other emotion that had emerged, one that was far easier to explain: guilt.
One evening, after a treacherous trip to Thyrranosis, Clank found Ratchet hard at work in the garage, furiously attempting to attach a B6-Obliterator to a Plasma Coil. He waited until Ratchet set down his tools and twirled the franken-weapon around for inspection.
“I would like to thank you, Ratchet,” he declared.
“You’re welcome.” Ratchet answered without looking up. After a moment, he stopped and flipped up his welding hood. “Wait, what for?”
Clank sheepishly teetered back and forth, remembering the henchman who dangled him over an incinerator until Ratchet’s perfectly-timed comet strike freed Clank from his clutches. “You saved my life today. Thank you.”
“No problem.” Ratchet replaced his mask and returned to his work. “It’s what I do.”
“Yes, it is. You are quite adept at it.”
Clank climbed atop a nearby crate and watched Ratchet work. Ratchet seemed to sense the unspoken words hovering between them, as he powered down his equipment and silenced the sounds of machinery.
“Something wrong?” he called as he doffed his protective gear.
“Ratchet… am I a burden?”
Ratchet sharply stared at him, aghast. “What? No! No way.” He tossed his apron to the ground and took a crate next to Clank. “What would possibly make you think that?”
Clank self-consciously kicked his feet against the crate. “Well, in the most literal definition of the word… I am excess weight that you carry on your back.”
Ratchet laughed. “Buddy, you weigh less than most of my guns. Trust me, you’re fine. And it’s more than worth it to have a friend out there. And a helipack! I can fly because of you!”
Clank shrugged and averted his eyes. “I suppose.”
Ratchet raised an eyebrow. “Okay then… what about less literal?”
“It has not escaped me,” Clank sighed, “that I fall into peril far more often than you do. I appreciate your devotion to protecting me, but I worry that our partnership is… somewhat uneven.”
Clank felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up into Ratchet’s stern gaze.
“Hey. I never want to hear you say that again. Listen, did you forget about the Dreadzone? Did you forget about how many times I would have died on that stupid space station if you weren’t in the control room doing all the hard stuff? We defeated Vox and saved all those people together.”
“Hmm.” Clank tapped a finger to his chin. Of course he remembered, though in his memory, Ratchet was the one doing “the hard stuff.”
“What, you need more proof?” Ratchet shook his head in disbelief. “Okay. That thing you do with the gadgebots? Super cool. And you’re way better with people than I am. You charm the pants off everyone we meet. You’re the puzzle guy, and the sneaking-around guy, and the diplomacy guy… I can’t stop thinking of reasons why you’re the coolest person I know!”
Clank couldn’t hide his burgeoning smile. Ratchet thought he was cool?
Ratchet slouched forward and set his chin in his hand. “I never thought I’d be the one to say this, but there are a lot more ways to be helpful than just shooting stuff. Shooting stuff is all I can do, so… I really admire you.”
Clank was stunned into silence until Ratchet nudged him softly with his elbow. When he met Ratchet’s eyes, there was a tenderness he had never seen before.
“You, um… you keep me going, you know?”
Touched beyond words, Clank beamed and rested his hand on top of Ratchet’s. “I do now.”
As he took his hand, Clank felt a surge of pride, and that bizarre flutter again. Ratchet was so brave and clever and strong… and yet Clank was the one he admired?
Clank was his hero’s hero.
Well, he couldn’t argue with that.
Ratchet held his gaze and his hand for a moment, then shook off the solemnity of the heart-to-heart by clearing his throat and sitting up straight. “So, no more of that ‘burden’ stuff. Deal?” He hopped to the ground and began to recover his tools.
Electrified by his new sense of purpose, as both a hero and a partner, Clank shot him a wink and left him to his tinkering.
“Deal.”
*
It all happened so fast.
He didn’t know how he got to Vapedia. He certainly didn’t know why he was plummeting from the top of the Valkyrie stronghold.
He woke up to the sound of Ratchet screaming his name. Then, before he had time to even realize that he was terrified, Ratchet plucked him from the air and Clank was safe in his arms.
It was in that moment that Clank fell in love with him.
The Great Clock, Nefarious, the Zoni… for one brief moment, none of that mattered. He and Ratchet, falling through the murky sky, were together again. He looked into Ratchet’s eyes for the first time in far too long, and he was so very happy.
It was the worst possible moment to realize this, and he knew it.
He had a duty now, one that would require him to seal himself away in the Great Clock, away from the rest of the universe. Away from his best friend, the light and love of his life.
He didn’t know how he was going to break the news to Ratchet, so for the moment, sitting beside him in Aphelion as they flew to the Agorian Battleplex, he decided that he simply wouldn’t.
“It is wonderful to see you again, Ratchet.”
Ratchet smiled at him sadly. “You have no idea how much I agree.”
“I have some idea.” Clank gazed at him in the pilot’s seat, committing this image and these emotions to memory.
He wanted nothing more than to reach out and hold Ratchet’s hand. To look in his eyes and tell him in no uncertain terms everything he felt for him, and had ever felt, since the day they met on Veldin. To be as close to him as possible before they were forced to part ways forever.
For both of their sakes, and the inevitable heartbreak he knew was coming, he resisted.
“Thank you,” he finally offered, “for rescuing me from the Valkyries.”
“You’re welcome.” Ratchet’s voice was hoarse and exhausted. “That’s all I’ve been dreaming of for two years.”
“Plummeting at 120 miles per hour?”
“No… just… getting you back from the creeps that took you.”
Clank studied Ratchet and wilted slightly. He hadn’t noticed it until now, but Ratchet had changed more than he thought since he last saw him. He was his old sharp-witted self on Vapedia, which fooled Clank at the time, but now it was clear. Two years of burning both ends of his proverbial candle all alone had utterly drained him, emotionally and physically.
Now that Clank was back, Ratchet could finally allow himself to relax.
You keep me going, you know?
“Part of me was worried that you wouldn’t remember me, or something,” Ratchet muttered.
Clank tilted his head, confused. “How could I ever forget you?”
“I dunno. The Zoni, like, put a spell on you before they took you away. It seemed like you really wanted to go with them. I was worried that when I found you… you wouldn’t want to come back.”
Clank frowned. Somehow, he hadn’t thought much about the moment he was taken from Ratchet, and he only now realized it was because he couldn’t remember it.
Ratchet must have been terrified.
“Two years?”
Ratchet nodded.
Clank looked down at his hands. “I am sorry.”
“For what?”
Oh, there were so many answers to that. Clank took one look at his brave, battered friend, and knew he was responsible for everything.
The pain in his eyes, the wear on his body.
The loneliness in his future.
“Ratchet… I owe you so much. I will make it up to you someday. I promise.”
“Hey.” Ratchet reached over and set his hand on Clank’s shoulder. “You, being here right now? That’s all I need.”
Clank knew that was not only true, but exactly why this journey would end with him breaking Ratchet’s heart.
Of course, once their journey lead them back to the Great Clock, Clank would have his opportunity to repay Ratchet for the years of daring rescues, far sooner and far more drastically than he expected. Additionally, in a day filled with heartbreaks, he was able to spare Ratchet of at least one by ultimately returning home with him. He never once doubted that he made the right decision.
*
Some weeks after the Nether invasion, Nefarious made his grand return. After a prompt trouncing courtesy of Ratchet and Clank, he disappeared again. And returned again. And disappeared again. Ad nauseum until Polaris Defense Force Captain Talwyn Apogee officially appointed the two as the leaders of the Nefarious Response Unit.
Contending with Nefarious’s madcap gambits kept them on their toes, to say the least. On a nigh-weekly basis, Nefarious unfurled a new scheme, a new plot, a new hook to force the galaxy to pay attention to him.
One such scheme involved abducting Clank off the street and holding him hostage for approximately two weeks, until Ratchet found them in an old pirate base in the Verdigris Sector.
Sequestered in a laser brig in Nefarious’s control room, Clank knew his cavalry was inbound when claxons began warbling across the station. After Clank shot him a very smug smirk, Nefarious halted his villainous gloating to growl, promise Clank this wasn’t over, and disappear through a remote teleporter courtesy of Lawrence.
Clank simply waited, his stomach pleasantly full of butterflies. Through the control room door, he heard gunfire and the mechanical clattering of minions being torn to shreds by an eccentric arsenal of weapons.
Once the opposition was silenced, Ratchet, fresh from shattering both the hideout and Nefarious’s dreams, slammed open the door, frantic and breathless.
“Clank! You okay?”
Clank waved cheerfully. “Hello, Ratchet.”
Ratchet’s face softened. “Hey, pal. Sorry I’m late.”
He turned to the console in the wall and punched buttons until the energy grid around Clank dissipated. Ratchet knelt in front of him, wracked with embarrassment and shame.
“I can’t believe he took you away again. I should have—I didn’t—I’m sorry I—”
Clank silenced him by rushing forward and throwing his arms around him. “I knew that you would find me, Ratchet. I was not one bit worried.”
“Heh. That makes one of us.” Ratchet returned the hug and gently held him for a few peaceful moments, then pushed Clank out to arms’ length so he could inspect him. “Did he hurt you?”
“Not unless you count some painful monologues.”
Ratchet snickered. “Well, I’m still gonna kick his ass, if that’s cool with you.”
Clank smiled. “By all means.”
“Good to have you back.” He patted Clank firmly on the shoulder, then stood up and surveyed the office. “Any idea where he went?”
“I have a few theories. We will find him.”
Ratchet, perturbed by Clank's nonchalance, raised an eyebrow. “You’re in a strangely good mood for a guy who was the prisoner of a mad scientist a few minutes ago.”
“Oh…” Clank coyly shrugged. “It is possible that I am beginning to enjoy this.”
Ratchet gave him a skeptical look. “You like being kidnapped by weirdos?”
“That aspect is less than pleasant. However…”
He beckoned Ratchet down to his level. Ratchet leaned over and Clank whispered into his ear:
“I very much enjoy being rescued by my handsome lombax knight in shining armor.”
Ratchet pulled back, blushing and flustered, but not unhappy. “Your… um… wow.” He shook his head and laughed self-consciously. “Heh. Okay. You’re a dork, you know that? Let’s get out of here.”
He held out his hand to swing Clank onto his back. Clank grinned and accepted it.
Halfway down the hall, Ratchet stopped and craned his head back to see Clank in his periphery.
“Wait, did you say ‘handsome?’”
Clank giggled. “Perhaps.”
“We-ell,” Ratchet shrugged, “just because you’re a dork doesn’t mean you’re wrong.”
“I am never wrong. When will you learn?”
Ratchet chuckled. “Oh, you know. One of these days.”