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Chapter Text

On planet Veldin...

Ratchet stuffed the Ranger poster into his back pocket and sighed, leaning against a random crate before sliding down onto the floor. He knew they would never let him become a Ranger. So why bother? He was barely getting by anyway, and every hour he spent away from the shop was another 100 bolts lost.

Ships don’t fix themselves.

Ratchet hugged his legs and settled his chin on his knees, sighing. Things had been really hard after Grim died. Heck, things were still hard. Grim had gotten horribly sick, wheezing and vomiting, his temperature dangerously high. Whatever it was, Ratchet must have been immune to it— he experienced no visible symptoms.

And the doctors? Well, there weren’t very many doctors on Veldin to begin with, and any doctors on the planet charged horrendous prices.

Ratchet cared for Grim until the man had passed in his sleep. He buried him in the backyard, which was more like a wide cliff overlooking a valley. But Grim loved the view, so it… felt right, for a resting place. He’d strung up some lights, and lit a few candles as the sun began to set— a small ceremony.

A knock roused the young Lombax from his thoughts. Huffing, Ratchet stood and made his way to the door. He smacked the button on the wall and the garage door hummed to life, slowly rising up towards the ceiling.

On the other side stood an elderly Tharpod with a walker whom the Lombax recognized as a frequent customer.

“Hi, Mr. Micron,” Ratchet greeted pleasantly, but he couldn’t keep the frown off his face for very long. While Micron was a good source of money due to the fact that his speeder was a lemon and kept breaking down, the Lombax was starting to grow concerned about the Tharpod’s financial situation. Surely that old man’s pocket couldn’t be bottomless— it had to end somewhere. Ratchet had suggested more than once that Micron should get a new speeder, but the old Tharpod was too attached to this one and refused.

“Good morning, Mr. Dinkles,” the Tharpod greeted in return. Oh, yeah. Mr. Micron also seemed to think that Ratchet was his long-deceased pet. The Lombax had given up on correcting him about that a long time ago.

“Alright, let’s see what the problem is.” Ratchet grabbed a toolbox from his worktable and walked up to Mr. Micron’s speeder. The Lombax pried open the hood with his Omni-Wrench and coughed as a cloud of smoke and ash blew right into his face from inside.

Just as Ratchet guessed. Another charred regulator.

-00000-

Meanwhile, on planet Quartu!

A lightning storm raged across the planet, thick clouds reigning supreme in the sky. It had been many years— decades, even— since a single ray of sunlight had touched the planet.

But we are not here to discuss the weather.

We’re here for the robot factory situated here on Quartu.

“Dr. Nefarious!” Drek’s voice boomed into the room as he rode his scooter into Nefarious’ office, nearly crashing into a nearby computer console in the process. The Blarg put on his brakes just in time to avoid the thing and looked over at the tall, green-skinned pointy-eared scientist in question. Nefarious had turned his gaze upon the smaller alien and was watching with an unamused scowl.

“Heh— uh, Dr. Nefarious!” Drek repeated, quickly composing himself.

“You said that already—”

Drek didn’t let Nefarious finish. “The mad scientist who made all of this possible!”

Nefarious scowled and retorted in annoyance, “Ahem— ‘mad’ suggests cognitive impairment. I prefer... a ‘vengeful scientist,’ thank you not very much. I trust you’re here to meet the troops?”

“Well, obviously!” Drek drawled, an evil smile spreading across his lips. “So? Where are they? Where’s my warbot army to-be?”

“Follow me.”

Nefarious led the Blarg down a dimly lit corridor. The faint light being emitted from the ceiling lights was reflected by the metal walls and floor, illuminating the hall in an almost dramatic glow. “Loooove what you’ve done with the place, Neffy—”

“I thought I told you to stop calling me that,” Nefarious grumbled indignantly. Drek didn’t seem to hear him over the sound of his own voice.

“— I can literally feel evil radiating the halls—”

“Actually, what you’re feeling is the radiation from the Quartonian ore I’ve been using to power the factory,” Nefarious tried to explain to no avail. Did this moron ever shut up?

No, apparently he didn’t.

“— ooooh! I know, I know! We should make matching evil T-shirts! T-shirts that say, ‘We’re evil, so don’t mess with us bitches—’”

“Oh, look at that!” Nefarious cut in, about two decibels away from practically shrieking in relief as he and Drek stepped onto the hexagonal platform overlooking the manufacturing chamber. “We’re here! Chairman, meet the troops!” The scientist waved his hand at the warbots in question, who stood inert on the many slowly moving conveyor belts.

“Each one has been outfitted NOT with the latest missile technology— heat seeking missiles, x-ray vision, blah blah blah, I mean, who needs that crap these days—” Nefarious quickly shook his head, realizing he was getting off track. “But!! Rather, they’re outfitted weapons and gadgets of my own personal design. Unhackable software that can only be accessed via a six-pass alpha key with my or your digital signature, adaptable nanotechnology capable of self-upgrade, and last but not least: Groovitron immunity. I’d like to see Megacorp offer you that quality of service! Ha!”

Drek stared down at the deadly machines in awe. This was perfect! Nefarious had really outdone himself, honestly—

His awestruck expression warped into confusion as his eyes locked onto something on the nearest conveyor belt. He pointed to the aforementioned object and asked, “What’s that down there, Neffy?”

Nefarious’ gaze followed Drek’s finger and locked onto on a small, silvery robot that was standing on the conveyor belt just as inert as his warbot companions. That is, until the little robot reached the activation point. Said defect’s metallic eyelids slid open, revealing a set of large, green orbs. He lifted his gaze to the large, metal arm that was bolted to the pillar attached to the side of the conveyor belt. On the top of the arm sat a small green light that could pass for an eye.

“Hello,” the tiny machine greeted politely, lifting his hand to wave at the arm. “My name is... is…”

The defect paused.

“Odd. This is… very odd. I cannot recall my name.” He blinked, and raised a finger. “I do not suppose you—?”

A cone of yellow-green light burst from the robotic arm’s “eye” and enveloped the little bot, effectively cutting his sentence short. At first the tiny defect just felt a mild discomfort— after all, it wasn’t very polite for one machine to scan another without at least indulging in the return of a greeting beforehand!

The light then shut off abruptly, and the arm’s speakers blared, “Defect detected! Preparing for immediate destruction, in three, two...”

“I— I do not understand— defect?!” The little robot, in a fit of panic, wasted little time and threw himself off the side of the conveyor belt— which, on second thought, probably hadn’t been the best idea since he hadn’t bothered to check to see if there was a platform below.

But thankfully there was. His body crashed onto the platform, the impact leaving dents in  his alloy shell. The defect did not seem to notice the damage his body had sustained, however, and scrambled back onto his feet before sprinting down the hall.

Nefarious’ shriek of  “VICTOOOOORRR— GET THAT DEEEEFECT!!!” ricocheted off the walls, painfully grating on the audio receptors of the defect in question.

Almost there! While the defect could not remember his name, or anything else about himself for that matter, the factory building’s plans lay in his software crystal clear. If they were accurate, he was fairly close to vent that he could use to reach the hangar. Drek’s plans also sat clearly in his mind. And he knew he had to warn the Rangers somehow before it was too late.

The defect was about six yards from the vent when a colossal metal machine tore through the wall more easily than a knife could cut through butter. “There you are— defect,” said machine sneered, tele-equipping a Negotiator into his massive titanium hands. “Time to die, you useless piece of scrap!”

The “piece of scrap” in question scurried to the side as fast as his little legs could carry him, already calculating another route of escape. A tangled mess of seemingly nonsensical code nearly overwhelmed his system, but he quickly overrode the strange program and filed it away for later examination. His priority was to get to safety.

Nothing else.

The giant machine fitted with the oddly-designated missile launcher stomped after him, shouting expletives and insults all the while. The defect zigged and zagged from side to side, hoping that this would throw the Negotiator’s targeting systems off. A pipe lining the wall to the little robot’s right unexpectedly burst— spraying water right into his pursuer’s face.

“EEEUGHH! WATER!!!”

The tiny defect used this opportunity to slip into another vent right before the other machine could grab him. He tumbled down the vent, each collision of metal against metal eliciting an “Oof!” of pain. Finally, the beat-up defect tumbled out of the chute and onto a stack of bolt crates below. The crates tipped over, sending the robot flying onto the metal floor below.

After a few stunned seconds, he scrambled onto his feet and raced to the nearest shuttle.

He jumped inside and slammed his tiny fist on the ignition. The ship sputtered to life, and blasted off into the sky. It seemed to the defect that he was in the clear, and he let out a sigh of relief. However, his respite was extremely short-lived. Something smashed violently into the back of the ship, bursting into flames upon impact. The defect yelped in fear, tightly clinging to the pod’s leather seat.

“Destination, please,” the ship’s computer requested. The terrified little machine didn’t seem to hear it, so the computer repeated, “Destination, please.”

“Galactic Ranger home base!” the defect commanded, still clinging to the chair for dear life.

The computer responded in an emotionless tone, “We will never make it, but hey, what are you gonna do?”

“Oh dear,” the robot murmured fearfully in response.

Was this all for nothing?

-00000-

Ratchet sighed tiredly and folded his arms behind his head as he lay sprawled on the roof of his garage. “I’m never getting off this rock... am I?” the Lombax muttered to himself, his gaze flicking from star to star.

One star in particular seemed to grow a centimeter or two in the past few minutes, but Ratchet didn’t think much of it. It was only when the star grew even bigger that he really took notice. It was another full ten seconds before he realized— it wasn’t a star at all. The little ball of light had evolved into a streak of flames and black smoke painted upon the sky before crashing violently at the other end of Kyzil Plateau.

Ratchet tele-equipped his Swingshot and grappled his way down the ground. “Better get there before the other scavengers do,” he muttered. “If there’s even anything left…” That looked and sounded like a pretty nasty crash.

The Lombax switched to his handy Omni-Wrench and, as he headed down the sandy path, smacked a pair of Horny Toads (who the heck came up with this name anyway?) square in the face. While one of the reptiles hopped away yelping, the other Horny Toad stayed behind and snarled threateningly at the Lombax. Ratchet brought his wrench down harder on the alien, effectively knocking it unconscious.

The Lombax then went on his way, occasionally stopping to shake the sand out of his fur and clothes. He eventually reached a high cliff face which, with the help of his trusty Swingshot, he barely managed to scale. Just as he had hoisted himself over the side, the roar of a massive ship engine snatched his attention.

“What the…” Ratchet looked up to see a colossal-sized ship of an unfamiliar configuration clouding over the sky, blotting out most of the stars. The Lombax gulped. A massive door on the starboard side of the ship creaked open and out of it flew dozens— perhaps even a hundred— smaller ships. The ships split up and started flying over the area in a systematic manner.

Whoever they were, they were looking for something.

Ratchet finally tore his gaze away from the mysterious ships in the sky and resumed his journey to the crash site. Thankfully, the crater was only another couple of yards away. Ratchet stopped at the edge of the cliff and carefully grappled his way down to the burning wreckage below. He carefully weaved around the gnarled, half-melted shards of metal and glass, and finally reached the cockpit section. Inside, a tiny robot sat, deactivated.

Ratchet took a deep breath and quickly grabbed the machine in question, biting his lip in pain as hot metal burned his flesh. He scurried away from the wreckage as quickly as he could and set the robot down in the sand, whimpering a bit from the intense pain his gloved hands and arms had been subjected to.

After giving both himself and the deactivated robot a chance to cool off, Ratchet decided to examine his newly found prize. He had just knelt down to take a look when without so much as a warning, the machine sat up in a flash. Its head smacked violently against Ratchet’s, sending the feline tumbling backwards into the sand with a pained yelp.

“I— oh!” the robot stumbled towards the Lombax and offered a tiny hand to assist. “My sincerest apologies, sir, I—” The robot looked up just as a ship landed a couple of yards away from them. “Oh dear.”

“Huh?” Ratchet was back on his feet in less than a split second, Omni-Wrench in hand. A million thoughts raced through the Lombax’s head as he waited for something to happen.

“I think we should run,” the robot at his side murmured, hovering close to Ratchet’s leg.

“You’re tellin’ me.” Ratchet picked up the mysterious robot, despite the latter’s protests, and reaching around his back, he secured him onto his back with the help of his harness’ Versa-Magnet.

At this same moment, the cockpit-window of the ship in front of them flipped open, revealing a disoriented Blarg inside.

“Oh man, I think I’m gonna puke!” the Blarg murmured, rubbing his stomach and groaning, before promptly losing consciousness. Ratchet grabbed the Blarg by the back of his uniform and yanked him out of the ship.

“Yoink!” Ratchet settled in the pilot’s seat while his new robotic companion took the copilot’s. The Lombax shut off the autopilot controls and pulled shut the cockpit-window. “Okay, altimeter, check. Grav-o-metric warp drive, check…”

“Are you a pilot?” the robot asked, a tinge of worry in his voice. “That ‘altimeter’ is actually the radio— oof!” The ship hummed to life and jerked off the ground, ending the little bot’s sentence short.

Ratchet glanced over with a grin. “We’re about to find out!” He steered the ship upwards into the sky, not away from the other Blarg ships— but towards them. “Time to blow some shit up.”

“Oh dear,” the little defect murmured.

This was definitely not going to end well.

-00000-

Ratchet swerved the ship to the side, dodging a spray of proton disrupter charges. He then flipped the ship around and smashed his thumbs down on the “fire” buttons attached to the steering. The ship launched a pair of missiles, both of which quickly tracked down and blew up an enemy ship.

“Okay, start talking,” Ratchet said, glaring over at his companion. “Who the hell are these people and why are they attacking my planet??”

“According to what little uncorrupted data is left in my central processing unit—” The defect’s words were cut short as Ratchet barrel-rolled the ship, narrowly avoiding a suicide jet. Vaguely the tiny robot wondered if organics ever heard of this thing called “seatbelts.” “Ahem— as I was saying: the alien species currently invading your planet is known as the Blarg. They are after me, as I managed to escape from one of the warbot factories on Quartu—”

The little robot’s words were cut off a second time as something smashed into the back of the ship and exploded.

“Hold on!” Ratchet shouted as the ship started to spin round and round while it descended at increasingly dangerous speeds. “We’re goin’ down!” The Lombax yanked the steering to the left, the ship just barely missing a jagged rock, and instead violently smashing into the sandy earth.

Ratchet pried the cockpit window open with his wrench and stumbled out. The defect quickly followed. “Are you alright, sir—?”

Ratchet whipped around to face the little machine. “You brought them here?! You brought these guys to my home planet!?!”

“This is not the time nor is it the place,” the defect interrupted. “We should acquire another ship and get off-world as quickly as we possibly can. I will explain everything when we are no longer in danger.”

Ratchet heaved a sigh. “Fine. Whatever. But if I don’t like your story, we’re turning right around and I’m giving you back to the Blarg.”

“… I… I suppose that is fair.” The tiny robot climbed up onto Ratchet’s back without further ado. The Lombax turned to face a narrow, sandy trail.

“I know this trail— it leads back to my garage,” Ratchet explained as he started running down the path, Omni-Wrench in hand. “I’ve got some stuff there I might be able to use to fix the ship.”

Heilo-Grubs dotted the night-blanketed sands of Veldin, illuminating the path in a soft green glow. Ratchet spotted a rusty old Swingshot target hanging over the small gap before him. One good swing, and he was on the other side of the gap in no time. He then crossed a metal bridge into a small building and heard voices outside. The Lombax scurried behind a stack of crates and waited.

“Fan out and find it!” a shrill voice ordered. “The defect couldn’t have gotten far!”

“Yessir!”

Ratchet stayed crouched in the shadows of the crates, gripping his wrench. As soon as one of the bipedal lizards came walking past, the Lombax grabbed him by the back of his uniform and bashed the back of his head— knocking him out upon impact.

Ratchet then pulled the unconscious Blarg behind the stack of crates and left the body there. He peeked around the corner. No other Blarg were in sight.

The Lombax slipped out of his hiding place and moved slowly and silently to the exit of the building, sticking close to the shadows.

Ratchet moved to the side of the exit, and peeked around the corner to see a lone Blarg standing near a cliff edge, his back to the Lombax.

“Jerry here,” the Blarg said into his wrist, around which his comm was looped. There was a pause before he continued, “Uh… no— we haven’t found the defect yet.” Beat. “Hey— do I look like a magician to you?! It’s not like I can just whip out a freakin’ top-hat and pull out a defect for you, is it?” Beat. “Yeah, well!— Jimmy’s a pretty bad name too, so I guess we’re even!”

Ratchet rolled his eyes and proceeded to sneak up on the Blarg, who continued to grumble angrily.

“Tell me how to do my job, will he?” Jerry mumbled. “I’ll show him a thing or two!” A moment later, Ratchet was dragging Jerry’s nearly unconscious body behind a rock. Another blow of the Omni-Wrench, and the Blarg was completely out cold.

“Impressive,” the defect on Ratchet’s back remarked.

“Uh huh,” was the Lombax’s only response as he tugged on Jerry’s holster, trying to free it. Finally the strip of leather came loose and Ratchet looped it around his own waist. He then pulled a gun out of the holster— a slightly modified Lancer. “Nice, a weapon! And it’s still got some ammo!” Ratchet put the Lancer back into his holster and went on his way, crossing yet another bridge.

As soon as he got to the other side, a Blarg spotted him, and stealth quickly no longer became an option. “It’s a Lombax! And it’s got the defect! Get them!!” The other two Blarg soldiers turned their attention to the feline in question and started firing at him. Ratchet dove behind a rock for cover and yanked his Lancer out of his holster. In his other hand he twirled his Omni-Wrench. “Three...”

“Hmm?” the defect hummed.

“... two...”

“Why are you counting down?”

“... one!”

The Lombax leapt out and fired at the nearest Blarg, missing by several feet. Ratchet zigzagged around the battlefield, dodging blaster fire. He managed to get a Blarg in the kneecaps with his wrench at one point. Another Blarg threw a grenade at Ratchet in that same moment, but the Lombax dodged, and the grenade wound up blowing up the kneecapped Blarg instead.

Ratchet then aimed his Lancer at the grenader Blarg and fired, missing again. The Lombax huffed and holstered his weapon for the time being— deciding that relying on his Omni-Wrench was his best bet. The Lombax dodged the grenader’s shots and then leapt towards him. He brought his wrench down hard against the Blarg’s skull,  knocking him out cold.  Ratchet then whirled about as the only remaining Blarg decided to turn tail and run. The Lombax shrugged— it was one less person to fight. He resumed his trek back to the garage, the trail winding down an incline so steep that Ratchet chose to simply slide down to the bottom.

“I have sand in my mouth,” came the slightly muffled voice of the defect on Ratchet’s back. The Lombax chose to ignore him and instead shook the sand out of his clothes, wincing as he felt it squishing in his shoes, before continuing down the trail. His garage quickly came into view, as did the Blarg soldiers currently ransacking the place. 

Ratchet scurried behind a rock as the soldiers chit-chatted loudly.

“Of all the jobs Drek could’ve given us,” one Blarg complained, “we gotta look for some defect.”

“Hey, it’s a lot better than Quartu!” another protested. “We got clean air, the warm heat of the sun… this is nature! We never had any of this back hom— YEEOWCH!!! MOSQUITO ATTACK— run for your lives!!”

“… a bit overkill, doncha think? Look, I crushed it, it’s dead! See, it’s not gonna hurt you now…”

The other Blarg kept sniffling.

“Oh come on!”

Ratchet shook his head, mildly exasperated by the exchange, and leapt out from his hiding place, whacking the back of the whimpering Blarg’s skull. The other two Blarg soldiers didn’t put up much of a fight, and before long, their unconscious bodies were being dragged behind a stack of crates. Ratchet then began gathering up the parts and tools that the Blarg had been stealing and brought them back into the garage.

“Alright,” Ratchet said. “It’s gonna take me a couple of minutes to get the parts we need. Think you can keep watch in case any more of those guys show up?”

“I can,” the defect answered, sounding slightly indignant. He jumped off of the Lombax’s back and moved to the garage’s entrance.

The tiny robot watched silently for any sign of danger as he waited.

-00000-

Ratchet and the defect returned to their downed Blarg ship with the parts, only to find it swarmed with Blarg soldiers. Luckily, a few well-placed grenades— which Ratchet had previously swiped from the body of one of the Blarg he had taken out earlier— took care of them. He may be a bad shot with guns like the Lancer, but Ratchet was pretty good at throwing things.

Ratchet stepped around the smoldering bodies and reached the ship.

“While you clearly have not been in combat before,” the defect on his back observed, “you seem to be rather desensitized to—”

“Okay, I’m gonna stop you right there,” Ratchet told him as he pried open the damaged hood of the ship with his wrench. “My past isn’t up for discussion period.”

“What about your name?” the defect asked.

Ratchet huffed in annoyance as he began to repair and replace some of the damaged parts in the ship. “Ratchet. My name’s Ratchet. How ‘bout you?”

“What about me?”                   

“Well, what’s your name?” Ratchet explained. “I told you mine, didn’t I?”

“I do not remember. There are several gaps in my programming which may account for this,” the little robot said. “Perhaps my software was damaged during my production, and that is why I cannot seem to recall my designation.”

“Alright… then maybe I can give you a name?” Ratchet suggested, closing up the hood of the ship.

“Yes… yes. I do believe a new designation is in order.”

Ratchet opened up the cockpit window of the ship and let his robotic companion get in first. “Okay… how about Clank?”

“‘Clank?’” the defect repeated as Ratchet got into the pilot’s seat beside him.

“Yeah. I dunno why, but… it kinda suits you.”

“Clank” nodded in agreement. “Very well. Clank will do.”

Ratchet smiled and pressed the ignition. The ship sputtered to life, black smoke spurting out of the exhaust pipe before the fumes returned to normal. The ship lifted off the ground, and this time Ratchet steered it away from the other Blarg ships. He felt guilty for leaving his home planet and its inhabitants to deal with the Blarg invasion, but if they were going to be of any use in defending Veldin, they needed help.

“Alright, start talking,” Ratchet told Clank. “Why do the Blarg want you so bad? Why do they want you bad enough to attack my home planet?”

“I am a defect that was produced at one of Chairman Drek’s warbot factories on planet Quartu,” Clank explained. “As such, my databanks contain Drek’s plans to launch an attack on the Galactic Ranger home base on Kerwan. I must go there to warn the Rangers— if they are to be killed, Drek will be able to continue his plans unhindered. This is why the Blarg are after me, and why they came for me on Veldin.”

“I guess we do kinda need each other,” Ratchet muttered. “If what I’ve read about the Blarg in the history books is true, then Veldin’s in a lotta danger.”

“Oh. The giant Blarg warship in the sky did not tip you off?” Clank asked. He did not wait for a response as continued, “Nevertheless, I am inclined to agree. Without the Rangers, we stand no chance in protecting Veldin— or the rest of the galaxy for that matter.”

“Okay, so we just need to get to Kerwan, find the Rangers, tell them the Blarg have invaded Veldin and are planning to attack them next, and then we’re home free. Right?”

“Even if we manage to reach the Rangers in time, it may be too late for Veldin. By the time we reach Kerwan, the planet may be already under Imperial control.”

“But maybe with the Rangers help,” Ratchet told him as their ship jumped to warp speed, “we can free it. Veldin’s my home, Clank. I may not have been born there, but I lived there my whole life. I know the people down there, and I care about what happens to them. I have to try.”

For them, and for Grim.

“You were not born on Veldin?” Clank asked. “That would explain why I cannot find your species in my database.”

“Well, at least you didn’t mistake me for a Cazar,” Ratchet remarked. “People do that all the time.”

“Where were you born?”

A minute or two passed, and Clank became convinced that his organic companion was not going to answer when Ratchet simply replied, “I don’t know.”

-00000-

A moustached Novalian sat dozing in his sun-washed office. Light seeped in through the tall windows adorning the wall behind him. The door of his office slammed open and an agitated Terachnoid raced in. “Sir! Sir!”

The Novalian was already awake— having been startled by the other alien’s abrupt entrance— and had his phone to his ear as he pretended to talk to someone at the other end. “What? No no no— oh, yes, that works. No, that— what?”

“Sir!” The Terachnoid yanked the phone out of the Novalian’s hand. “I have three brains— I’m not an idiot! I know you were sleeping! But that’s not—” He huffed loudly, and took a deep breath. “I just got word from our lunar outpost on Cyros. There’s a massive Blarg invasion force headed for the planet!”

The Novalian’s face went from mildly irritated to petrified in two seconds flat.

“Oh… f—”

Chapter Text

Ratchet dropped the ship out of warp unexpectedly. The ship slowed as a green and blue planet came quickly came into visible range.

“Why are we stopping?” Clank asked.

“I’m picking up some kind of distress signal from Novalis,” Ratchet explained, pointing at the small, dimly lit screen in front of him. “Looks like it’s being jammed though. By what, I have no id—” Something impacted their ship from behind, blowing up the exhaust and mangling other vital hardware in the wake of its extreme heat. “Oh come on!”

“Oh dear—!”

“I’ll try to set us down safely— hang on!” The Lombax’s brows furrowed as the ship’s altitude speedily decreased. His grip tightened on the steering as he piloted the vessel to a small cliff overlooking one of the planet’s towns. The ship smashed violently into the earth front first, practically destroying Ratchet’s hard repair work from earlier that day. Dirt flew up in the air and dispersed onto the ship’s cockpit window, making it hard to see outside.

Both Lombax and defect were silent for a long moment. Clank broke the silence. “Well… history certainly has a way of repeating itself.” Ratchet just shook his head as he equipped his Omni-Wrench and used it to pry open the cockpit window. It popped open without a hitch, and the ship’s occupants were free. Ratchet hopped out first and quickly surveyed the damage.

“There’s no way we’re gonna get this fixed without new parts and some help,” Ratchet told Clank, who was crawling out of the ship. The diminutive defect looked towards the cliff, where just beyond sat a small town.

“Perhaps we can acquire assistance from one of the inhabitants,” Clank suggested.

Ratchet raised an eyebrow as a Blarg ship swooped in just then and razed one of the town’s bridges. “Yeah— if there are any left. C’mon, let’s move.” Clank got the message, and allowed himself to be fastened back onto Ratchet’s harness. The Lombax stepped onto the cheery yellow elevator pad in front of him and almost jumped when the thing jerked and began its descent to the town below. Swarms of yellow Blargian robots of various sizes roamed the small valley, trashing the place and leaving everything crumbled and ablaze.

Ratchet shuddered nervously and lifted his wrench into a defensive position. “Okay— here we go…”

For a moment, all was calm. Like the calm before the storm.

Then, as the Lombax charged forth, chaos ensued. He swung his wrench hard, smashing in the nearest robot’s metal head. The machine stumbled backwards, sparks flying from its damaged head. Another robot turned at the sound, and saw what was transpiring. It raised the small grenade launcher attached to its arm and started firing at the Lombax.

Ratchet leapt to the side, barely managing to avoid the first grenade. He yanked his Lancer out of his holster and shot at the enemy robot, hoping he could land a hit.

Something strange pulled at his guts, slipping in between them and warming his chest. Time seemed to slow for second, and everything came into focus.

A cloud of sparks burst from the machine’s head, quickly followed by a small explosion. Everything that happened after that moment was a fiery blur to the Lombax. Within moments, all that remained of the Blargian invasion force in the area were piles of mangled scrap metal.

Ratchet stood silently for a moment, surveying the destruction he’d just caused. “Intriguing,” Clank finally commented.

Ratchet jumped, startled. “Don’t do that!”

“My apologies,” Clank replied. “But… when you were fighting, my sensors detected a faint energy signature emitting from your body. However, it has now dissipated.”

“… and?”

“I do not know,” the little robot replied. “I may be able to identify its nature, given time.”

“I… see…” Ratchet said uncertainly. “You… yeah, you do that.” The Lombax came up to the bridge, which— if it hadn’t been for the massive gap that had been left behind by the Blarg, would have led to the other side. He thought for a moment, considering his next move, when he heard something heavy thump behind him.

“Er… Ratchet?” Clank’s voice sounded afraid. Before either Lombax or machine knew what happened, Ratchet had already turned around— Lancer in hand— and blasted their would-be attacker right in its shiny yellow chest. The enemy robot swayed from side to side for a moment as sparks flew from its now damaged chassis before it finally fell onto its side, a smoldering heap. Ratchet stood there for a minute, trying to comprehend what had just happened.

Was it even physically possible to turn around that quickly?

The Lombax shook his head and turned back around.

Clank said, “I saw the gap in the bridge when you turned around. I believe I may have the technology necessary to get us across. Like all the Warbots, I have been outfitted with a Thruster Pack.”

“I guess you’re not totally useless after all,” Ratchet snarked, taking a step back from the gap. “I’m guessing I’m gonna have to jump?”

“Yes,” Clank answered. “My Thruster Pack will do the rest.”

Ratchet took another step back and then raced forward, leaping off the edge. Just as Clank had promised, the Thruster Pack kicked in, propelling both Lombax and defect safely to the other side. Ratchet wasted no time and resumed his trek down the path, mowing down more enemy robots along the way.

They quickly reached a small space nestled away in the rock, where a damaged Novalian vessel sat. Ratchet, keeping his Lancer out in case any more Blarg— robots, soldiers, otherwise— showed up, walked up to the ship’s back door and knocked on it. “Hello?” he called, and waited for a response.

“Go away— I’m not home!” came the reply.

“Uh, yes you are,” Ratchet countered. “I heard you.”

“We do not wish to harm you, sir,” Clank added. “Please come out.”

“You don’t sound like the Blarg… fine, fine. I’m coming out.” Ratchet took a step back as the back door began to lower to the ground. A middle-aged Novalian with a moustache stepped out onto the ramp. “Hello, uh, sirs,” the Novalian greeted nervously. “Eh, what can I do for you?”

“Well, you can start by telling us why the Blarg are attacking,” Ratchet replied. “C’mon, let’s get you somewhere safe in the meantime. We’re kinda exposed here.”

The Novalian nodded and stepped out of the ship. “I have a safe house not far from here. That’s probably where I should’ve gone in the first place, but—”

“But you’re a coward and wanted off the planet?” Ratchet cut in.

“Ratchet!” Clank reprimanded.

“What?” Ratchet sounded almost scandalized.

“No— I was hoping the Blarg would follow me and leave Novalis alone. It’s just me they want, after all,” the Novalian replied, leading the Lombax down a narrow path. “I’m the Chairman, you see. Ehh, maybe I should just surrender myself to them. Maybe then they’ll leave.”

“I doubt it,” Ratchet replied. “They attacked my planet too— I don’t think the Blarg are gonna give Novalis up without a fight.”

The Chairman thought a moment. “I have a fighter jet in the hangar of my safe house. Boldan Class— first edition collector’s package.” He went silent. “I don’t suppose you can fly?”

At the same time Clank said “No”, Ratchet said, “Yes.” There was a small pause before the Lombax continued, “Lemme guess— you want me to use that jet to take out the Blarg?”

“Yes, if at all possible,” the Chairman answered. “If you can do that, I’ll make it worth your while— eight thousand bolts! What do you say?”

“How about this: I take out the Blarg for you, and you get us someone who can help us fix our ship,” Ratchet told him. “Deal?”

“Deal!”

-00000-

Ratchet coughed as dust billowed from the cloth that the Novalian was currently removing from the fighter jet. “Geez, how long’s it been since you last cleaned this place?” The Chairman gave him a look that shut him right up.

“Since the Cragmite Purge of 2142, Boldan Class missiles are now illegal across fifty systems,” the Chairman explained. “But the jet still has its blasters— hopefully they’ll do the trick.”

“So why do the Blarg want you?” Ratchet asked, brushing dust off the jet’s cockpit window.

“I… eh, may or may not have said some not so nice things about Chairman Drek during one of my recent speeches,” the Chairman told him. The Lombax looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. “I said he could go space himself.” Silence. “What can I say, the guy messed up his own planet!”

Ratchet rolled his eyes as he pried open the jet’s cockpit window with his wrench. He turned to Clank and asked, “You coming or what?’

“Are you always this disagreeable?” But he climbed into the fighter jet with Ratchet anyway.

“Only on Mondays,” the Lombax answered, starting the ignition. The engine came to life with a sputter, and after a moment, settled into a rough hum.

“Today is Wednesday,” Clank corrected. Ratchet just shook his head in reply and waved for the Chairman to move out of the way. The Lombax pressed his foot to the gas, and the jet shot out of the hangar like a bullet.

-00000-

Most of the Blarg battle ships were destroyed, so the rest decided it was high time to pack their bags and leave. Ratchet managed to crash the jet in the woods just outside the city, and thankfully not into a building.

“Is there any vehicle in existence that you do not crash?” Clank stumbled out of the fighter jet’s smoking cockpit and smacked his hand against his head when his optics started to glitch. His vision quickly returned to normal.

He turned to look at the culprit.

“Well, look at it this way, at least we’re not dead, right?” Ratchet quipped, shrugging and then dusting off his clothes.

“Not yet.”

“Look who’s being disagreeable now,” the Lombax muttered.

“My audio receptors are thirty times more sharp than the average organic’s,” the defect pointed out. “In other words, I can hear you.”

“Look, we held up our end of the bargain,” Ratchet growled. “So, we just need our new Chairman friend to find us someone who can help fix our ship.”

“True.” Clank allowed Ratchet to pick him up and slip him onto his harness’ Versa Magnet. The Lombax started to head down the narrow trail leading back to the town, Lancer and Omni-Wrench in hand in case one of those Blargian bots were still lurking around.

“The Blarg aren’t gonna leave Novalis alone, are they?” Ratchet asked, his eyes scanning the nearby bushes cautiously.

“I doubt that they would,” Clank replied. “It is likely that they will return soon with more troops.” A small yellow Blargian warbot leapt out of the bushes, its gaping metal maw wide open in a threatening snarl. A shot or two of the Lancer took the bot down, leaving it in smoking heap of twisted Raritanium alloy.

Ratchet brushed aside some low hanging branches and stepping into a clearing. They were getting close to the city now.

-00000-

 “There you are!” the Chairman greeted as Ratchet and Clank entered the safe house. “I was beginning to think the two of you had been killed!” He paused. “Ehhh… where’s my jet?”

“Uhh, it’s— safe,” Ratchet answered, scratching the back of his head awkwardly. He wasn’t about to admit that he kind of totaled the thing. “And so are you. So we’ve held up our end of the deal. Now it’s time for you to hold up yours.”

“Ah yes, yes— someone to help repair your ship. Don’t worry, I know someone.  He’s probably still at his shop. I can’t imagine him leaving it during the lockdown.” The Chairman made his way to a communications console. He pressed a few buttons and the device hummed to life.  The console screen fizzled and crackled, then settled as a face became visible. Said face belonged to a grey skinned Novalian, complete with a black beard, thin-rimmed glasses, and pale orange overalls.

“Oh, Buckwash! Hello!” the Novalian greeted pleasantly. “Is the invasion over yet? Plumbin’s not goin’ to do itself.”

Ratchet’s ears twitched, and he and Clank shared a dubious look. Why was he calling up a plumber??

“Yes, the invasion is over,” the Chairman answered. “But I need you to come over to the safe house. There are a couple of people here who could use your help in fixing their ship. I’ll pay you—”

“Nonsense!” The Plumber waved off the offer. “I’ve been waitin’ for this call awhile now— I’ll be there in two clanks of an Omni-Wrench!”

With that, both the exchange and transmission ended. Ratchet shared a confused look with Clank, who then turned to look at the Mayor. “I do not understand,” Clank said. “How is a plumber supposed to help us fix our ship??”

“He’s not just any plumber,” the Mayor told them. “He’s been to the ends of this universe and beyond. I’ve seen him repair things that… that are so utterly destroyed that they shouldn’t even be able to be fixed. He’s got a gift— and a very rare one at that.” He paused. “My daughter had that gift too,” he added sadly.

“Oh,” Ratchet said, his features softening and ears drooping slightly. He said “had.” “I— I’m sorry, man.”

“You have nothing to be sorry about. She’d been sick for years, and there was nothing anyone could do for her. Not even her gift could save her, in the end.” A beep resounded through the room, interrupting. “I’ll get that.” The Chairman moved to the door and pressed a button on the panel next to it. The metal door slid open with a light squeak.

“Alright, where are they?” the Plumber asked. “I ain’t got all day— and neither do they, for that matter.”

“In here,” the Chairman replied, stepping aside. The Plumber walked in and settled his gaze on Ratchet and Clank. “You two need to stop with improvin’ the high def— this is the second time I almost didn’t recognize you.”

“Umm… but we’ve never met,” Ratchet told him, reaching for his wrench cautiously. He didn’t trust this plumber one bit— no matter what the Chairman said.

The Plumber shrugged. “That’s what you said the last time. Ehh, it doesn’t matter. Buckwash said you were havin’ ship trouble?”

“Yes,” Clank answered. “Our ship crashed not far from here, and we need help repairing it. We appreciate any assistance you could offer us.”

The Plumber smiled and said, “Of course!” He lifted up his toolbox and continued, “I have my toolbox right here. And I have my Gadgetron PDA— I can have any parts we need teleported right to us.”

“Okay then,” Ratchet said, Omni-Wrench in hand. “We’ll take you to it then.”

The journey was a short one, and thankfully the trio didn’t encounter any more enemy robots along the way. The Plumber took one look at the still-smoking wreckage and asked, “This is what all the fuss was about? I’ve fixed worse.” It took all of Ratchet’s willpower not to roll his eyes.

“So you will be able to help us?” Clank asked.

“Yep!” The Plumber set down his toolbox and started taking out tools. He looked up at Ratchet and asked, “What are you two just standin’ around for? You expect me to do all the work or somethin’?”

“Okay, okay!” Ratchet waved his hands for the Plumber to calm down. “You got a hydrospanner in there?”

-00000-

A few hours later.

“That should do it,” the Plumber said with an air of finality. He turned to face the Lombax and his robotic companion. “I even made a few tweaks— they’ll be useful, with where you’re goin’.”

Ratchet raised an eyebrow. “Uh, yeah. Sure. Thanks?... I guess?”

“No problem. Just, eh, do me a favour, and stop crashin’,” the Plumber told him. “Just because I travel a lot doesn’t mean I’m goin’ to be there every time the two a’ you get into a pickle. Oh! I almost forgot!” He reached around his back, and Ratchet’s face scrunched with horror at the implications as the Plumber pulled out a small cube with buttons on it. “Don’t open it until you reach Kerwan.” He threw the cube towards them, and Clank easily caught it, cradling it with both hands.

Ratchet nodded, and with that, the Plumber waved them goodbye before trudging off to his next job. As soon as he was out of earshot, the Lombax muttered, “That guy was so weird.”

“I agree,” Clank said, slipping the cube into his chest compartment. “He seems to know more than he lets on. But we should get moving now… I can only hope we will not be too late.”

-00000-

Kerwan Star System…

“Try hailing them again,” Clank— who had taken the privilege of flying ships from now on due to Ratchet’s rather incessant habit of crashing— ordered, putting on more speed.

Ratchet shook his head and looked over at Clank worriedly. “Nothing. I’m not getting anything from Kerwan, Clank.” The Lombax turned his gaze back at the coms.  “I think we might be too late.”

“We will not know for certain until we reach the planet,” Clank replied. As he spoke, a bluish-grey planet splashed with white clouds came into view. Tiny red-orange spots dotted the planet ominously. The defect took the ship in closer, entering the atmosphere. Soon enough, the dots stretched into blazing fires. Bridges were obliterated, unfortunate ships were lodged in buildings, and the tallest towers were decimated— leaving behind nothing but scorched stubs in their places.

“We… they… there’s got to be someone down there…”

“No one— organic or machine— could survive something like this, Ratchet. There is no one left.” The defect piloted the ship out of Kerwan’s atmosphere and settled it into an orbit around the planet.

“So what are we gonna do now?” Ratchet asked quietly, staring out into space. “We can’t stop Drek without the Rangers, and we don’t exactly have the power to raise them from the dead. One Lombax and one robot versus the entire Blarg army— yeah, that’s not gonna end well…” He froze, and looked at Clank. “You still have that cube thing the Plumber gave us?”

“Yes… why?”

“Lemme see it.” Clank removed the cube from his compartment and passed it onto Ratchet. The Lombax turned it over in his hands, examining it carefully. He pressed one of the buttons and jerked back slightly in surprise.

The holo-emitter on one side flickered to life, projecting an image of what looked like a group of star systems. Most of the planets, as well as space stations and moons, were blue— much like the rest of the map. However, four of said planets were highlighted in yellow.

“It is a map,” Clank observed.

“Astute as always, Captain Obvious.” Ratchet rubbed his chin. “The question is, what’s it for?”

“The highlighted planets must be important locations,” Clank said. “The Plumber said not to open this until we reached Kerwan… do you think he knew about the attack?”

“I mean, the Chairman was yapping about some ‘gift’ mumbo-jumbo, so…” Ratchet shrugged. “Yeah, I think he knew.” He went quiet. “Do you think that maybe…”

“I find it doubtful, but… not improbable— if you are thinking what I am thinking,” Clank interrupted.

“Then we might still have a chance.”

“A very low chance… but yes.” Clank steered the ship out of orbit and into space. “Aridia, Grelbin, Sargasso, Reepor— what do they all have in common?”

Ratchet leaned back in his chair, deactivating the map and turning the cube over in his hands. “Well, they’re all planets with very little population density… so they’re a lot more isolated. Fewer people means a lower chance of drawing attention to yourself if you’re someone with a target on your back.”

“Precisely,” Clank replied. “There were four Senior Galactic Rangers in the group— including Captain Qwark. There are four planets on this list.”

“Which means they could still be out there,” Ratchet added. “And we’ve still got a chance.”

“There is the possibility of it being a trap, though to what end, I cannot fathom,” Clank said.

“Well, we’re not gonna find any answers if we stay here. I say we head to Aridia and see what’s there— it’s the closest planet to us.”

-00000-

On planet Aridia!

As Ratchet leapt out of the ship, Clank already attached, he asked, “So you think there’s something in that old Drophyd mine up ahead?”

“Yes— it is one of the few Drophyd mines left that are still stable— more or less. It also still draws power from its underground geothermal generators,” Clank replied. “However, I do not recommend using the elevators. I doubt that they are as stable as the rest of the structure, after all this time.”

“Yeah, probably not.” Ratchet tele-equipped his Omni-Wrench and whacked a Sandshark square in the face as it came close. The desert reptile scurried away, yelping in pain. Two more Sandsharks came running, their gaping maws wide open in a snarl, and both suffered the same fate as their friend.

Both reptiles also ran off, whining as yellowish-green bruises began to spread quickly across their scaly faces.

Ratchet wasted no time and resumed his trek down the path to the Drophyd mining facility. More Sandsharks, of course, came charging for the kill— only to receive bruises in return, courtesy of the wrench. Most of the reptiles ran off, learning their lesson, but some stayed behind and tried to finish the job. Ratchet had to whack them a couple more times until their teeth started to fly out of their mouths. By this point, the Sandsharks determined that this course of action was a lost cause and scurried away yelping. The Lombax ran past them and continued down the trail, intent on reaching the mines.

In less than a minute, the desired building came into view.

Ratchet walked up to the entrance, and started to press a few buttons on the panel next to it. “Looks like it’s locked, but in a minute here I’ll have it open. Got any spikes?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Computer spikes,” Ratchet explained. “So I can slice into the system. You got any?”

“Oh.” Clank opened up the compartment in his chest and handed it to Ratchet. “Here.” The Lombax injected the spike into a small outlet just below the panel’s keypad and set to work. Just as Ratchet had promised, the door was quickly opened and the duo free to enter.

Ratchet stepped into the darkness and tapped a small button on the side of his pilot’s cap. The room lit up in an instant, illuminated by the tiny flashlight sewn into the leather.

“Alright,” Ratchet said. “Let’s see what we can find.”

Chapter Text

Finding the light switch was fairly easy. Ratchet flicked it on, and then switched off his cap’s mini-flashlight. The mine’s lights lit up with a crackling buzz, flickering as electricity flowed to the bulbs for the first time in many years. The Lombax blinked quickly as his eyes adjusted to the sudden change in brightness. Once his vision had cleared, Ratchet let his gaze trail across the room.

There was a pair of rusty elevator doors at one corner of the room, and another door leading up to a set of stairs in the other corner. Large stacks of metal crates were pushed up against the walls, all of them closed. The scent of long-oxidized Raritanium still lingered in the air.

And it smelled awful.

Ratchet walked up to the door leading to the stairs and found it locked. But he was able to slice into the system with the help of another computer spike and unlock it. When the seals inside the door gave a satisfying click, the Lombax smiled and pressed a button on the panel. The door slid open with a light squeak, and Ratchet was free to enter.

He stepped through to the other side and started down the staircase towards the mines. “You really think one of the Rangers would’ve come here?”

“Yes,” Clank answered. “The high amounts of Raritanium in these mines make it nearly impossible for scans to penetrate— and in turn, make it an excellent hiding place for people such as the Rangers.”

The staircase hadn’t aged well in the past couple of decades or so— it was crumbling in many places, most of the metal red with years of oxidation. Ratchet made certain to step carefully, onto the less rusted parts of the stairs. “One thing’s for sure— the Drophyds couldn’t build a thing to last even if their lives depended on it,” the Lombax grumbled as he continued his way down the stairs cautiously. Ratchet huffed in annoyance when a large gap in the staircase came into view. “Looks like the stairs here have seen better days.”

The Lombax sighed and looked over at the railing next to him. It didn’t look all that stable, but aside from the elevator, it was their only option. “Hey, you think this rail can support our weight?”

“The staircase rail? Considering the amount of oxidation, I believe the odds are unlikely. Not impossible… but unlikely,” Clank answered. “Why?”

“Getting creative,” Ratchet answered. “How much fuel does your Thruster Pack have left?”

“Not enough to reach the bottom safely.”

“Unless we make it part of the way down by another means,” the Lombax countered. “As long the rail doesn’t break, I might be able to use my Swingshot to get us most of the way down. Think your Thruster Pack can handle the rest?”

“I believe so,” Clank replied. “Be careful, Ratchet.”

Ratchet latched his Swingshot hook onto the railing in front of him and gave it a gentle tug. The rail held. “Here we go…” The Lombax jumped over the rail and hung onto the Swingshot cable tight as it remained slack for a split second, then jerked taut.  Breathing a sigh of relief as the rail remained intact, Ratchet began to reel out the cable, starting his descent. At first the odour was faint— it was noticeable, but faint. But as the minutes ticked by, and the duo descended further, the stench intensified. “The smell is worse down here than it is up there!”

“Odd,” Clank mumbled.

“Hmm?”

“According to my scans, it appears that the lower levels are much less stable than the upper levels,” Clank explained. “I am not certain as to why. But I think we ought to exert caution when we reach the bottom.”

“I was already ‘exerting’ caution when we were on the upper levels,” Ratchet replied. The cable clicked as the Swingshot locked in place. “Okay, Clank, I’m gonna need you to—”A long, ominous creak resounded from above the duo. Ratchet looked up and squinted in the dim lighting as his gaze focused on the rail his cable was grappled to. “Uh oh… Clank, Thruster Pack—!” The rail snapped and both Lombax and robot were left to plunge into the depths below.

-00000-

Ratchet stirred, the feeling returning to his body as he returned to his senses. Wet mud caked his fur, thoroughly chilling him to the bone. “Nnnhhhggg… Clank? You there?”

“I am here,” Clank replied, kneeling in front of the Lombax. “Are you alright? Do you require Nanotech?”

“I’m okay,” Ratchet told him, slowly sitting up. He rubbed his head and winced. “Cold and muddy, but okay. What happened?”

“The rail broke loose and we fell,” Clank explained. “I was able to activate my Thruster Pack at the last moment. We were lucky it cushioned our landing as much as it did. At our initial velocity, you… likely would have broken several of your bones.”

Ratchet nodded in response, carefully standing up. He surveyed his mud-covered fur and sighed tiredly. “As soon as we get off this planet, we’re stopping at someplace with a tub. Or a shower. I need a bath,” the Lombax grumbled. He looked up towards the tunnel ahead of them and saw that the lights were out. He reached up and turned on the little flashlight attached to his pilot’s cap. Ratchet cautiously tele-equipped his Omni-Wrench. While Clank had explained on the way to Aridia that the chances of encountering underground wildlife was slim (apparently Raritanium ore had the reputation of being toxic to most Aridian wildlife), the Lombax still wanted to be careful.

There was no telling what was down here— Blarg soldiers, wildlife, or otherwise. He covered his face with his free hand as a wave of putrid stench hit him. “Ugh— it smells like something died down here,” he muttered. “There must be a lot of Raritanium still down here, for it to smell this bad.”

“Actually, even only a small amount of oxidized Raritanium can produce a strong and foul odour.”

Ratchet rolled his eyes at the correction and kept moving, coughing a bit as the stench only got worse. He came up to a small cliff overlooking what looked like another path leading into a dark tunnel below. However, unlike the mining tunnels to the Lombax’s left, this tunnel was much bigger, and it seemed it was made more recently. “Clank, what species on this planet did you say weren’t affected by the toxins of Raritanium ore?”

“There are three known Aridian species that are immune to the ore’s effects,” the defect explained. “The Cobalian Krath beast, the Wigwump, and the Spitting-Dune Crawler.”

“And which one of those is needlessly huge?”

“… the Wigwump,” Clank answered. “Why?”

“Because I think we’d better pick up the pace,” Ratchet answered. He turned away from the massive, possibly Wigwump-made tunnel, and continued down the path to the next set of mining tunnels. Bits of shattered, ebony-coloured Raritanium crystals lined the floor and walls. Some of the crystals were slightly lighter in shade, making them a dark grey— sometimes even a medium grey. A few patches of the crystals were a pale white-blue colour, with some shades of pink splashed in. Ratchet decided to take these crystals for himself— he could trade them in for some weapon upgrades, or break them down and weld them into something useful.

Either way, he was taking the crystals.

As the Lombax stuffed the non-oxidized Raritanium into his pocket, he kept a close eye out for anything suspicious. So far the only thing he saw were some fungi and some weird, slimy seaweed-like organism growing on the walls around the Raritanium crystals. Now and then, there were some small-to-medium sized holes in the dirt of the walls— indicating the past presence of Spitting-Dune Crawlers.

Whether or not any were still lurking around remained to be seen.

A tremor violently wracked the cave, nearly sending Ratchet tumbling to the ground. “Yipe!” The Lombax held out his hands to steady himself, stiffening his legs. “I thought you said that this part of the planet didn’t have earthquakes!”

“I do not believe that was an earthquake,” Clank replied slowly. “What I told you was accurate— this part of the continent does not experience seismic activity.”

“Then what was that??”

“Most likely it was a Wigwump.”

“Greeeaaat,” Ratchet muttered, straightening up now that the tremors had stopped. “I’m starting to think this was a bad idea—”

“Hello…?” a voice called from the end of the tunnel ahead of them. A small, bobbing light came into view, cautiously moving towards them. “Who are you? What’re you doing down here?”

The Lombax lifted his wrench towards the light and demanded, “You first.” Ratchet squinted at her, partially blinded by the other person’s flashlight. She seemed to realize this, and lowered her light. Ratchet blinked a couple of times. His eyes then widened slightly as they focused on the person in front of him. “Wait a second— you’re one of the Rangers! Elaris Kaaoz!”

“And you’re clearly not one of the Blarg,” Elaris retorted. “I know a hologuise when I see one. And you’re definitely not wearing one, so… what’re you doing down here?”

“We were looking for you,” Clank answered.

Elaris tilted her head slightly and leaned to the side, trying to see better. “Are you wearing a robot for a backpack??” she asked, looking back at Ratchet.

“This is my… uhh, ally Clank,” the Lombax told her. “Listen, we don’t have a lot of time, the Blarg are planning something—”

“We know. That’s not news to us,” Elaris interrupted. “That’s why they attacked Kerwan. Someone— we don’t know who— sent us a message telling us that they were coming. We didn’t get it in time, though. We had just started a planet-wide evacuation when the Blarg came.”

“We saw the destruction, when we flew to Kerwan,” Ratchet said.

“A lot of ships didn’t make it. All of us Rangers were able to make it out, though, and we managed to escort the surviving ships to Marcadia,” Elaris explained. Her face hardened. “I’m not going to say another word until you tell me why you were looking for me.”

“The Blarg attacked my home planet Veldin, and they tried to take Novalis too,” Ratchet explained. “Clank and I couldn’t stop the invasion on Veldin, but we were able to defend Novalis. But the Blarg are just going to attack again— and until they’re stopped, no one’s safe.”

“So what— you’re hoping to reunite the Rangers against a threat whose base’s location is completely unknown to us? We don’t even know what they’re planning!”

“Actually, that is not true,” Clank told her. “I am a defect warbot produced by one of Chairman Drek’s factories on planet Quartu. I have all the schematics for the building in my database.”

Ratchet looked over his shoulder, peering at Clank through his peripheral vision. “Wait. So you’re suggesting that we break into Drek’s warbot factory??”

“If we can gain access to the factory’s primary terminal, it may provide clues as to what Drek’s plans are.”

“It’s a good idea,” Elaris amended. “But the three of us don’t really stand a chance on our own.”

“I agree,” Clank said. “It would be better if we could try and gather the other Rangers together and then formulate a plan to break into the factory.”

Ratchet huffed and crossed his arms. As much as he didn’t like to admit it, they were right. And anyway, it was their original plan all along— to reunite the Rangers so they could stop Drek’s plans, whatever those plans were. “Fine. But we also don’t stand a chance against the Blarg if we stay here and get mauled to death by a rabid Wigwump or something. So let’s get back to the surface, and figure everything else out up there, okay?”

“Alright, alright, don’t get your tail in a bunch.” Elaris waved for him to follow. “C’mon. I know an easier way back up to the surface than the way you two came down. How you didn’t break your neck is a mystery to me.”

-00000-

 Tundor Wastes, Grelbin. 

Clank carefully directed the ship down towards the snowy dunes, and set it down gently on a flat piece of land. The Plumber was right about them needing those upgrades he made. The new sensors helped to ensure that they landed on actual land, and not on a thin sheet of ice or something.

“We have arrived,” Clank announced to his two passengers.

“Great, so we went from a steaming hot desert to a freezing cold tundra,” Ratchet complained. “You Rangers sure like to pick the ones where no one wants to go.”

“That’s kind of the point,” Elaris said. She unbuckled her seatbelt and pushed open the cockpit window. A breeze rushed into the cockpit, chilling the organic occupants to the bone— even with the winter gear that they had purchased from Maktar Station, which they had stopped at briefly to get some equipment and other supplies before resuming their journey to Grelbin.

Ratchet pulled the hood of his coat up over his head and climbed out of the cockpit after Elaris. “So which Ranger do you think we’ll find here?” Clank secured on his back, Ratchet followed Elaris, trying to untangle his scarf so he could better wrap it around his face.

“Probably Cora,” Elaris answered. “She got the highest score of all of us in arctic survival training.” There was a pause. “Sensors picked up a small settlement a little ways to the east, and what might be an old enclave in the mountains just beyond it.”

“You believe Cora may be there?” Clank asked.

“I doubt she’s at the settlement, but she might be hiding out in the enclave,” Elaris replied. “We won’t know until we get there though.”

“Well, we’d better get going,” Ratchet said, looking towards the horizon as he tele-equipped his Omni-Wrench. The sun was already beginning to set, its blue light quickly shrinking into a squint as it started to sink behind the mountains. “I really don’t like the idea of us walking in the dark.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Elaris amended, equipping a Plasma Coil and checking the ammo count. “The YETIs are bad enough, but running into a Leviathan would be a lot worse. C’mon, let’s move out.”

“Hey, who put you in charge?” Ratchet demanded.

“I am the only Galactic Ranger in this group. You’re just a civilian and—”

“Ahem,” Clank interrupted. “If you continue this useless debate of who should be in charge, then it will be dark long before we reach the settlement. I suggest we hold off on arguing over this until we are no longer in danger of becoming a meal.”

This managed to get Ratchet and Elaris to drop it for the moment. The two began trudging quickly towards the settlement. “So how exactly did the two of you find me so easily— I mean, I know I about the mysterious map part, but how is it that the first mine you break into—”

“Hey!”

Elaris ignored the interruption and continued, “How is it that the first Drophyd mine you break into just happens to be the one I holed up in?”

“‘Breaking into’ are such harsh words,” Ratchet said slyly. “I prefer the term ‘letting myself in without the key.’”

“I’m sure you do.”

“And anyway,” the Lombax continued, “it’s not like we knew which one you were in. We just picked one of the ones that were the least dilapidated, and went in.”

“I still think that’s a bit convenient,” Elaris said.

“Well, that’s what happened.”

“I’m not denying that. I just think it’s a bit convenient.”

Ratchet rolled his eyes.

After about ten minutes of climbing over snowy dunes and keeping a wide berth between themselves and the YETI dens in the area, a small settlement came into view. Ratchet estimated that it was only another couple hundred yards away, and so he started to pick up the pace a bit.

Elaris called after him to slow down, but he didn’t seem to hear her.

All three were completely unprepared for the attack that came.

Elaris, hearing the crunching of snow behind her, whipped about exactly 180 degrees, Plasma Coil at the ready. She had barely enough time to duck as a warrior fully clad in metal armour swung a Versa-Hammer at her head.

“Ratchet!” Clank shouted. “Elaris— she is in trouble—!”

Ratchet turned on his heel, gripping his own wrench tighter. He lunged at their assailant, swinging his weapon; the wrench smacked into the attacker’s helmet, stunning them for a brief second.

Elaris switched over to her Razor Talons. The small, wrist mounted devices were engulfed in a soft blue glow as sharp aqua energy spread out into blades. 

Elaris leapt towards the assailant and slashed at them with the Talons.

The attacker barely managed to block with their hammer. The blades of the Talons sunk a few centimetres into the metal of the hammer’s handle from the heat, but the latter weapon held up.

The armoured warrior tugged their hammer, pulling it away from Elaris. At the same time, they took a step back and turned their gaze on Ratchet, who had his own Omni-Wrench raised for another swing. Just as he brought it down towards the assailant’s head, said assailant lifted up their hammer to block. “Fighting alongside an outlander, huh?” the warrior snarled, their voice distorted from the helmet.

“If by outlander you mean Elaris, then yeah—” Ratchet swung again— this attack was also blocked. “What’s it to you?” The attacker only snarled again in response, swinging their hammer more violently than before. Ratchet jumped to the side, barely managing to avoid the attack. “Can you stop trying to kill us for two seconds so we can talk?!”

Elaris again attempted to slash their foe, but the warrior jumped backwards, dodging the Ranger’s Talons. “Or I could just kill you and leave your bodies out here for the wildlife to fight over. Free lunch, after all,” the assailant declared, swinging their hammer at Elaris. The latter jumped out of the way, and Ratchet used this opportunity to whack their attacker in the front of their helmet.

The warrior stumbled backwards a bit from the impact. The Lombax didn’t want to give them a chance to react, opting to hit them in the helmet again. This time however, the attacker lifted up their hammer and blocked.

“Playtime’s over,” the assailant growled, twirling their hammer and knocking Ratchet’s wrench out of his hands.

At that same moment, Elaris moved behind the warrior and swung her fully-charged Shock Ravager forward, striking the armoured attacker in the back. The warrior was frozen for a moment from the electrical current running through their body, then collapsed. “Yeah, you’re right,” Elaris said. “Playtime is over.”

Ratchet looked at the unconscious form of their assailant, then at Elaris. “Think you could’ve done that five minutes ago?” The Lombax bent down and started searching the snow for his wrench.

“Do you know how long these things take to charge?” Elaris asked, unequipping her Shock Ravager and kneeling down to help. “I don’t like using the Shock Ravager except as a last resort.”

“Aha!” Ratchet triumphantly pulled his Omni-Wrench out of a clump of snow.

“Look out!” Clank shouted. Both Lombax and Elkai whipped about to see a large group of similarly armoured feline-like warriors of varying sizes closing in on them from the village, most armed with Omni-Wrenches and a few armed with what looked like heavily modified Alpha Disruptors.

“Greeeaaat,” Ratchet muttered, lifting his own wrench into a defensive position. “Just what we need— more of these guys to fight.”

One of the warriors, whose armour was much older than that of their companions and seemed almost ceremonial in design, stepped forward. Their helmet was tilted towards their fallen ally, whose chest occasionally rose and fell with each breath. “You spared her.” They removed their helmet and settled their gaze on Ratchet. “Sorry for the way my little sister greeted you. She’s still young and impulsive.”

Both Ratchet and Elaris stared at the warrior’s face, stunned.

“You’re…you… you’re like me?” Ratchet asked, a long-dead hope rising in him. The warrior’s fur matched his own in terms of colour, as well as the shape of her ears and  her facial structure. “The same… species…?” Aside from being at least a foot taller than Ratchet, the resemblance was uncanny.

“C’mon,” the warrior said. “I’ll explain when we’re in the village. It’s almost nightfall.” She turned to one of her fellow warriors and ordered, “Get my sister. I’ll deal with her later.”

“And we should trust you why?” Ratchet demanded, crossing his arms and looking up at the taller Lombax. Same species or not, he wasn’t about to put his trust in this stranger. Especially considering her sister just tried to murder them.

“Because it’s almost night, that’s why,” the warrior shot back, waving her hand in the direction of the sun— which was almost completely obscured by the mountains at this point. “So unless you want to become food for the locals, I suggest we get a move on.”

Ratchet looked over at Elaris, who shrugged. “They might be able to help us,” she said. “And anyway, it’s not like we’ve got much of a choice.” She gestured vaguely to the group of warriors who had swarmed around them and started leading them to the settlement.

“She has a point,” Clank agreed.

Ratchet scoffed. “Oh, now you’re siding with her—”

“I am not siding with anyone—”

“Guys!” Elaris cut in, glaring at both of them. “Can we not do this right now? No one is siding with anyone. The sooner we’re in the settlement, the sooner we can start looking for Cora.”

“Okay, okay,” Ratchet said, barely holding back a scowl. “Fine. We’ll do it your way.”

Chapter Text

The Lombax warrior— whose name they came to know as “Angela”— lead the trio into an old compound in the centre of the settlement. While on the outside the building was plain, made from treated Raritanium ore to withstand the harsh arctic elements, the inside was the precise opposite. The inside of the compound was equipped with somewhat elegant furniture, although said furniture looked as if it had seen better days.

Ancient glyphs in a language Ratchet didn’t recognize were painted on the metal walls. They seemed vaguely familiar to him, these symbols. But what these glyphs said, he didn’t know. A work table sat at the other end of the room, occupied by a small, ceremonial-looking Omni-Wrench sitting on a stand. Also occupying the table were various other tools, though these looked like normal tools one might find in a toolbox.

Angela turned quickly on her heel and looked at her guests with a stern expression. “Alright, tell me why you’re here.”

“We think one of the Galactic Rangers might be hiding out on this planet,” Ratchet explained. “Her name’s Cora.”

“She’s a Markazian,” Elaris added. “About my height, short brown hair.”

“Well, she’s definitely not in our village, I can tell you that much,” Angela replied. “You’re the only outsiders we’ve let into the settlement since Captain Slag’s attempted raids. Since then, no outlanders have been allowed to enter.”

“So why have you let us in?” Clank asked, locking his luminous green optics on Angela and continued, “Is it because Ratchet is a member of your race?”

“Yes, that, and…” Angela paused for a moment and then went on, “You look like someone I once knew. The resemblance… it’s really uncanny…”

“What are you talking about?” Ratchet asked, starting to feel a bit unnerved by the way she was looking at him.

“Our leader, Kaden— he and his friend Alister Azimuth left the planet almost nineteen years ago to assess the rest of the galaxy and determine whether or not it would be in our best interests to reveal our presence.”

“They never returned, I take it?” Clank asked.

“Correct,” Angela answered, turning away slightly. “My mom was Kaden’s advisor. Before he left, he promoted her to be the leader of this settlement. It was supposed to only be temporary, but it eventually became clear that Kaden and Azimuth were never coming back.”

“‘Azimuth,’” Elaris muttered to herself. That name sounded familiar, albeit vaguely. But where she remembered the name from, and when, she couldn’t recall.

“After my mom died,” Angela went on, unaware of Elaris’ quiet ruminations, “I inherited the position. And now here we are.”

“You said Kaden looked like me?” Ratchet pressed, hoping for more answers. “Are he and I related?”

“The last transmission Kaden sent to my mother was about eighteen years ago— I’ve got it here, if you’d like to see it.”

Ratchet nodded cautiously, and Angela moved towards a cabinet. She opened a drawer and pulled out a small holocube, which looked a lot like the one the Plumber gave them. Angela held it out in front of her guests and pressed one of the cubes’ buttons— projecting a 3D rendering of a Lombax who looked eerily like Ratchet.

“Lorna? Is this a bad time?”

A second, taller female Lombax flickered into visibility in front of him— wearing the same armour Angela was. “Hmm? Oh, no— have you made any progress in the mission?”

“Well, so far so good,” Kaden answered, his stiff body relaxing a bit. Ratchet realized that, despite the slight distortion caused by the age of the recording, Kaden’s voice sounded a lot like his own. “The Solana Galaxy seems to be very stable in terms of its government, and most of the people don’t seem to remember the Lombaxes at all. We’re still not entirely sure if it’s safe yet, but things are looking promising.” There was a short pause. “That’s, uh… that’s not why I called though.”

“Oh? Is there something else?”

“I met someone, not too long ago,” Kaden explained, averting his gaze from Lorna. “A Cazar. Her name’s Áilísh, and, well… um… she’s… we… may be… dating.”

“That was a bit painful to watch,” Lorna told him, shaking her head in amusement. “Well? Is she pretty? When’s the wedding? I better be invited—”

Kaden smiled for split second, then whipped his head around as if he heard something. After a moment, he turned his gaze back on Lorna. “Looks like I gotta go. I’ll call again tonight.” He gave her a quick salute, which was returned. And then the holograms froze in place.

“That’s it,” Angela said.

Ratchet stared at Kaden’s frozen form for a moment. “You think Kaden might be my father?... and this ‘Áilísh’ is my mother?” He shook his head slowly, taking a step back. “But… what happened? Why didn’t they… why didn’t they raise me? If I was their kid… why?”

“Perhaps something happened to them,” Clank replied, looking over at Ratchet with concern. “Perhaps something happened, and they were unable to care for you.”

“I know that name,” Elaris said quietly. “Áilísh. Áilísh Terrashot.”

“Do you know what happened to her?” Ratchet asked, turning towards Elaris.

“She’s dead. She died a long time ago,” Elaris explained. “My predecessor was involved in the investigation. He believed that it may have been foul play, but Captain Qwark shut down the investigation before it could go much further.”

Ratchet was silent for a moment, and then said, “One thing at a time. We’ve still gotta find the other Rangers and stop Drek.”

“I agree,” Clank replied. “Since it appears that Miss Cora is not in the settlement, the only logical conclusion is that she is hiding out inside the enclave in the mountains.”

“I guess it’s possible your friend is there,” Angela amended. “But there’s no way she could’ve gotten in through the front door— if she has found a way in, it was probably through one of the underground passages.”

“What’s wrong with the front door?” Ratchet asked. “Did it get blocked by an avalanche or something?”

“No, no.” Angela shook her head quickly. “I mean the door is sealed. It’s made from Trillium ore. Only those descended from the Azimuth bloodline are able to get in that way.”

“So we’ll have to go through the tunnels?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Angela answered.

“What do you mean ‘unfortunately?’” Elaris asked. She thought for a second and went on, “There’s something down there isn’t there?”

Angela nodded slowly. “The tunnels used to be where we’d send potential warriors to prove their worth before initiating them into the Pratorean Guard. But in recent years, that’s become impossible. A beast decided to make itself at home in the caverns. If your friend did take that route, she’s probably dead.”

“What sort of beast are you talking about?” Clank asked, his programs bringing up his biological database so that he could do a search.

“We know it as a Grunthor,” Angela explained, “but the space pirates prefer to call it a ‘Carjan Krath Beast.’”

“Where are these caves?” Elaris asked.

“I’ll take you to them,” Angela replied, turning around and moving to her worktable. She removed the ceremonial Omni-Wrench from its stand and then walked up to Ratchet, holding it out for him.

“What are you doing?” Ratchet asked, looking at her in puzzlement.

“This belonged to Kaden,” Angela explained. “Why he left it here, I don’t know. Perhaps he had forgotten it, but I don’t think he’d be that careless and neither did my mom… but I think he’d have liked you to have it.”

Ratchet took the wrench and held it in his hand. It fit perfectly in his grip, as if it had been meant to be there. He tele-equipped his other Omni-Wrench in his other hand and studied them both a moment before twirling them. “Nice!! Two are way better than one!”

“Alright, we’ll head out at first light tomorrow. I’ll take you guys to your lodge.” Angela looked at Ratchet, who was twirling his wrenches again. “And try not to break anything while showing off, please.”

 -00000-

Somewhere in the Porthos Sector.

“LAWWWWWRRRREEEENCE!!!!”

The robotic butler sighed tiredly as his boss’s screech reached his audio receptors. “Oh dear— I hope his head is not stuck in the freezer again,” Lawrence muttered, dumping the laundry into the washer and turning the machine on.  

“LAAAAWWWWWWWWRRREEEEEENCE!!! GET OVER HERE!!”

As if Nefarious couldn’t shriek loud enough already.

Lawrence set the laundry basket onto the dryer and made his way to his boss’s office— which wasn’t even a proper office, but rather a glorified broom closet. Some things never changed. Nefarious sat in the corner across from his mechanical butler. He was fiddling with the hologuise attached to his belt, leaving a mess of wires dangling from the tiny electronic device. Parts of his disguise were gone, revealing the scratched mess of metal underneath.

“You screeched for me, sir?” Lawrence drawled in his typical monotonously unimpressed tone.

“I need you to get me that hydrospanner—” He waved vaguely across the room, as though that would answer the question of where the thing was to begin with. “My hologuise is on the fritz again.”

After a moment of fumbling and listening to Nefarious’ intermittent curses at the hologuise, Lawrence found the hydrospanner under a pile of magazines that the butler was not going to comment on for his own sake.

He handed it over, and Nefarious snatched it without so much as a thank you.

Lawrence left without another word, looking around the hallway once to make sure that no one was approaching the office, before tucking his laundry basket close. He still had more duties to attend to.

 -00000-

Tundor Wastes, Grelbin: outside the caverns.

As the four of them approached the mouth of a massive ice cave carved into the rock face, Ratchet tugged his scarf higher over his face— it kept sliding down due to the wind whipping wildly about the snowy dunes.

The little robot pulled the scarf off his face and tried to shove it back behind his head— a difficult feat, considering the fact that he was on the Lombax’s back and could barely move.

The path carved through the ice cave was somewhat cramped, but so far it was relatively easy to navigate. The thick, pale blue ice walls reflected the light shining from the group’s shoulder lamps. About three hundred metres or so into the tunnel, the cave opened up from a narrow passage into a massive, dome-shaped cavern. Long, thick icicles hung suspended from the ceiling of the cavern, tiny droplets of water occasionally trickling down. The walls were riddled with thin, nearly invisible cracks. The icy ground itself was decorated with larger, more disconcerting cracks.

“Hmm,” Clank murmured, scanning the chamber. “I believe this section of the caverns may be on top of a geothermal vent, which would explain the accelerated rate at which the ice is melting.”

“Huh,” Ratchet muttered. “That’s actually kinda cool. For a nerd fact, anyway.”

“Follow me,” Angela told them, stepping out into the chamber. She carefully maneuvered around the cracks, giving them as wide of the berth as possible. Ratchet and Elaris followed her, stepping where she stepped. Ratchet looked up and spotted a narrow tunnel on the other side of the chamber, and assumed that to be their destination.

It was at this partially distracted moment that Ratchet stepped on an unstable section of ice. An ominous snap crackled throughout the chamber, and the Lombax froze. He looked up at Elaris and Angela with a comical expression. “Oh crap.” Another snap could be heard, and the next thing he knew, he and Clank were plunging through the ice into a small, winding shaft below.

“Waaaaaoooooohhh!!”

Both Lombax and defect tumbled down the shaft in a less than graceful manner, and landed in an even less graceful heap at the bottom a moment later. Ratchet just laid there for a time, stunned, before sitting up and wincing in pain from the bruises already forming. “Yup. That hurt. You alright, Clank?”

“More or less,” the aforementioned robot replied, spitting snow out of his mouth. “You really should be more careful.”

“We’re really gonna do this now?” The Lombax stood up and shook the snow out of his fur. The comm fastened to his wrist beeped, demanding his attention. He lifted his arm up and pressed the button on the panel adjacent to the speaker.

“Ratchet!” Elaris’ voice crackled through the speaker. “Ratchet, are you okay?”

“Yeah, we’re fine,” Ratchet told her. “Just a got a little banged up is all.”

“Is there any way you can get back up the way you came?”

“Not sure,” Ratchet admitted, moving back towards the shaft through which they had fallen. It looked too flat and slippery to climb up by hand, and at some point on the way down, his climbing axe must’ve gotten caught on something, because the loop on his belt where said axe was supposed to be was more or less shredded, and the tool itself nowhere to be seen. And while wrenches were good for smashing things and screwing in bolts and such, Ratchet doubted that they would be any good for climbing. Clank’s Thruster Pack was also out of the question— it only had so much thrust power, which could be used for either gliding, or very brief flights across a short distance such as a small gap. And the thing ran out of fuel so quickly anyway, it was ridiculous.

Clank seemed to be thinking the same thing Ratchet was. “We will have to simply keep moving,” the defect said quietly. “At the moment, it appears to be our only option.”

“Clank and I are gonna have to find another route,” Ratchet told Elaris, turning around and facing the very narrow tunnel before them. “There’s another passage down here. Looks like a tight fit, but we should be able to get through. Hopefully this leads back up to where you guys are…” The Lombax really didn’t want to think of what the alternative might be. “You two be careful up there, okay?”

“We will,” Elaris told him gently. “You be careful too.”

With that, the exchange ended, and Ratchet resumed his trek through the tunnel. It became extremely narrow at some points, requiring some careful maneuvers to squeeze through safely. Soon enough it opened up into a wider passage, and eventually into another massive chamber. Thankfully, this one had no visible signs of being on top of a thermal vent. What was unusual, however, was the giant metal door installed in the ice wall of one side of the chamber. The door was intricate in detail— it was made out of a bronze-like alloy and inlayed with a trim that washed the cavern in a soft, pale blue glow. Whether the light was due to a phosphorescent compound, or an organism, or simply just technology, the Lombax wasn’t sure.

Clank climbed off of Ratchet’s back, his little feet clanking as they hit the ice floor. He turned around and studied the door curiously. “Hmm…” The defect took a few steps closer to the structure. “This door… it seems to be almost familiar to me… however, I am not certain as to why…”

Before Ratchet could stop him, Clank had already stepped on a small, circular, ice covered platform that seemed to be made of the same material as the door. The platform sunk slightly into the ground from the little robot’s weight.

“Please hold for Identi-Scan,” a feminine computerized voice boomed from seemingly out of nowhere. A bright red cone of light flashed to life from a small bulb installed in the frame lining the top of the door itself— enveloping Clank for a few moments. The red light flickered, then changed to an aqua-blue hue. “Identi-Scan complete. Identity has been confirmed. Greetings, XJ-0461. You are cleared to proceed.”

The cone of light vanished, and a rumbling started to shake the chamber. The door slowly slid open, revealing a wide, metal hallway made of the same materials on the other side. “Whoa…” Ratchet murmured, walking up to where Clank was standing. “I… I don’t think that this is a coincidence…” The Lombax shook his head. “Never mind. Let’s… let’s check it out.”

Clank nodded silently, and clambered up to his usual spot on the feline’s back. Confusion ran rampant throughout his circuitry. He was not quite sure what was happening right now, and something told him that whatever lay beyond that door would only lead to more questions.

-00000-

Meanwhile, Elaris followed Angela down the next tunnel. They had to inch their way through one at a time, as the passage was extremely narrow to the point of being claustrophobic. The tunnel quickly widened up again, thankfully, and Elaris was free to breathe easy.  She opened her mouth to say something to Angela, but the Lombax raised her hand for silence. Angela’s fluffy ears were perked up, the fur on her barely visible neck slowly rising.

“What is it?” Elaris whispered, tele-equipping her Plasma Coil. It was obvious from Angela’s body language that she had heard something.

“There’s another chamber at the end of this tunnel,” Angela explained in a hushed tone. “I hear something…” The Lombax tiptoed closer to the edge of the tunnel, gripping her Omni-Wrench tightly. She gestured for Elaris to stay put.

Angela peeked around the corner, her eyes scanning the chamber slowly. Her gaze quickly locked onto a fully-grown Grunthor curled up in a ball in the corner of the chamber, its breath rising and falling steadily in the rhythm of sleep.

“Well, good news,” Angela said quietly, looking back at Elaris. “We now know where the Grunthor is. The bad news? It’s right in our way.”

“So what’s the plan?”

Angela thought for a moment, quickly considering their options and discarding most of them. She stepped away from the mouth of the tunnel and said, “Okay… here’s what we’re gonna do…”

Chapter Text

The plan fell apart in an instant. Apparently this particular Grunthor was immune to electrical shocks— likely a genetic modification that the Lombaxes forgot about during their nearly two thousand years of isolation. Elaris wondered what else they had forgotten as the centuries passed; the Lombax settlement was a bit primitive in comparison to the vast Empire they ruled over prior to their disappearance. At least now she remembered where she had heard the name Azimuth before, and the family’s long, bloodshed ridden role in intergalactic history.

Not that that information really helped Elaris and Angela with their current predicament— which involved a very angry Grunthor disturbed from its nap. A genetically modified angry Grunthor, at that.

Angela twirled her Omni-Wrench in her hands, both ends of it glowing a soft gold as it began to charge up. Elaris equipped her Annihilator— she was never really fan of weapons as destructive as this one— but at the moment, she was more concerned about making sure neither her nor Angela got killed. She aimed the missile launcher at the Grunthor and pulled the trigger, unleashing a swarm of rockets. The rockets impacted the beast’s scaly hide and exploded in a burst of fireworks. As the smoke cleared, however, it seemed that the only thing the missiles did was piss off the Grunthor even more. It turned its attention to Elaris and snarled, corrosive saliva dripping from its gaping maw, and charged. The Elkai jumped out of the way, tucking and rolling.

Angela’s wrench had charged to full power by this point. The Lombax swung the weapon, spinning around twice, and launched a ball of crackling flames at the Grunthor. The giant reptile yelped upon impact and stumbled backwards. Its scales where the blast had hit were now blackened, but the creature wasn’t out of the fight yet. It charged at Angela, who leapt to the side— barely avoiding the Grunthor’s open, drooling jaws as it tried to clamp down on her.

Elaris took aim and fired at the Grunthor again. The missiles hit their target once more— some even landed on the giant animal’s scorched scales. The massive reptile snarled in pain, and looked back and forth between Angela and Elaris, as if considering which one to charge next. Angela took this moment to aim her Omni-Wrench at the Grunthor and let the weapon charge. As soon as the reptile turned its head back towards her, the Omni-Wrench unleashed another ball of fire— which crashed violently right into the creature’s open mouth.

-00000-

As Ratchet walked down the bronze-like hallway, he stared up in awe at the ancient glyphs carved into the metal walls. Something about this place seemed awfully familiar to him, but he wasn’t sure what. “Clank, is it just me, or… does this place give you, I dunno, déjà vu vibes?”

“I do seem to find this place be rather familiar as well, yes,” Clank replied after a moment or two of consideration. “But I do not see how either one of us could have possibly been here before…”

Ratchet lifted his hand and let his fingertips brush the wall, slowly tracing one of the glyphs. “… Zoni…?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“These symbols,” Ratchet explained, his voice now a bit steadier. “They’re Zoni. But how the heck could I know that— that— that’s impossible! I’ve never seen these symbols before in my life!”

“Do you know what they say?” Clank asked, his tone sinking into concern. Things were becoming distressingly weird.

“Sorta…” Ratchet pointed to a series of glyphs on one section of the wall. “These here—” Clank hopped off of the Lombax’s back so that he could actually see where he was pointing. “— these talk about some kind of tear in the universe… and then it talks about something being built… a ‘Keeper of Time?’”

“Hmm…” Clank scanned the symbols with his optics carefully and relayed everything to his translation matrix. In a moment, he replied, “I believe your interpretation of these glyphs is indeed accurate. According to the text I have translated so far, there was a tear in the universe at one point. This ‘Keeper of Time’ you mentioned was apparently constructed by the Zoni to repair the damage. However, I can find no similarities to the events these symbols narrate and what is provided of historical events, or even mythological fables, in my database. Either these events took place outside of known space, or they occurred before the Technomites rose to power in the second century.”

“I really didn’t think today I’d be getting a history lesson,” Ratchet muttered, rolling his eyes. “At least there’s no test.”

The comm on the Lombax’s wrist crackled to life, and Elaris’ voice greeted them. “Ratchet, Clank— are you there?”

“Yeah, we’re here. Is something wrong?” The feline resumed his trek down the hall, his eyes locked onto the glyphs. The more he studied them, the more he seemed to understand. The language seemed to come to him naturally, as if he had learned it a very long time ago, and was just now remembering it. But that was impossible… right? Clank walked beside Ratchet, also scanning the ancient symbols.

“No, just checking in. We took care of the Krath Beast, and now we’re back on track and headed for the enclave. Have you guys made any progress?”

“You could say that,” Ratchet replied. “Clank and I found some kind of door down here and… it’s kind of hard to explain. I… I think this place might’ve been constructed by the Zoni. There’s ancient Zoni symbols all over these walls—”

“Ratchet, hold on, Angela is trying to tell me something— okay, it looks like she wants to talk to you?”

A moment passed, and Angela’s voice could be heard over the com. “You and Clank— you said that you got through the door??”

“Yeah— wait, wait! Did you know this was here?”

There was a pause, and some nervous mutterings on the other end of the com— then Angela said, “I… I can’t say anything else. I’m sorry, Ratchet.”

“What?” Ratchet stopped walking and quickly looked down at his comm. What did she mean by that? She obviously knew something about this area that they didn’t. “Angela— what’re you talking about??” There was no answer. Great. Ratchet looked at Clank. “Looks like we’re still on our own with this, huh?”

“It appears that way,” Clank amended.

“C’mon, let’s see what else is down here. Hopefully we can get some answers— whether it’s here, or from Angela.”

-00000-

“What was that all about?” Elaris demanded, following after Angela— who had picked up the pace and was speed-walking down the passage. “Angela?”

“I… I can’t say,” Angela told her in a low voice, stopping at the mouth of the tunnel and motioning for Elaris to do the same. “Your friends— they’re… special. That’s all I can really tell you. Now hush. I can smell them— the YETIs. They’re in that chamber up ahead. Get ready.” Elaris nodded quietly in response, equipping her Plasma Coil.  She would let the matter rest— for now. The Elkai moved to the other side of the tunnel’s mouth and waited as the Lombax warrior lifted her hand and lowered each finger one at a time.

One. Two. Three! 

Angela took the left, and Elaris took the right. Elaris’ Plasma Coil unleashed blast after blast of electrical energy, leaving heaps of unconscious YETIs in their wake. Some only became groggy, and needed an extra shot or two put them to knock them out. Angela swung her Omni-Wrench and smashed every YETI who came in a three foot radius of her right in the face. Her movements where quick and calculated, yet also smooth— as though she had done this a thousand times before.

Soon enough, every YETI in the chamber was out cold, and the duo resumed their objective. Elaris tried to question Angela further about Ratchet and Clank, but the Lombax hushed her and said, “It’s not time yet.”

Elaris felt a stronger rush of annoyance. You’re not getting out of this THAT easily.

-00000-

If Ratchet thought the ancient glyphs in the hallway were strange— which he did— then what lay beyond the door at the end was just downright bizarre. On the other side of the hall was a massive cathedral-like room— the bronze ceiling extending upwards for several stories, and leading up to a jagged hole at the top, where the sun shone through— as well as a strange aqua-blue light that seemed to defy the laws of physics, and split into multiple separate streams that curled around the room. The walls were even farther apart, and were accompanied by thick stone columns supporting the ceiling. Some of these columns were partially disintegrated, however, and some particularly large chunks that should have fallen to the floor during erosion were instead suspended in mid-air by the aforementioned blue light.

Clank stood beside Ratchet, staring in awe at the strange, yet wondrous— both aesthetically and scientifically— scene before them. “Hmm… intriguing. It appears this room is trapped in a state of temporal flux.”

“English, Clank,” Ratchet requested, not taking his eyes off the blue light. His tail flicked from side to side.

“Time in this room seems to be frozen— at least, wherever that blue energy touches,” Clank explained. It was at this moment that the broken pieces of column trapped in the energy shifted suddenly, and moved to slot back together to reform the destroyed columns— and then shifted again back into mid-air suspension. “Hmm. It appears time is not only frozen, but… well… I do not believe I have any possible explanation for what we just saw.”

“Well, we’re not gonna learn anything if we just stand here,” Ratchet said. “C’mon, let’s take a look around. And… uh, not touch that blue stuff…”

Clank gave a silent nod in agreement. “I will take the right side of the room, and you take the left.”

“Since when did you start giving orders?”

Clank merely shrugged, and moved off to the right, bright green optics scanning the ancient runes engraved on the wall and translating them.  Ratchet took the left, albeit begrudgingly. The Lombax studied the runes on his side as well, reading them to the best of his ability.

“Clank?” Ratchet called from the other end of the room.

“Yes, Ratchet? Have you found something?”

There was a moment of silence before Ratchet said, “Back on Veldin… what was it you were gonna say?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“You were about to say I was desensitized to something,” Ratchet explained. “What was it you were gonna say? I’m desensitized to violence? Death?”

Clank tilted his head curiously. “Is there something you are trying to say, Ratchet?”

A long moment passed, and the defect started to think that the Lombax wouldn’t answer, when Ratchet finally said, “I didn’t grow up on Veldin alone. There was someone… he adopted me from the orphanage when I was a kid. His name was Grimroth. And… well… he… got really sick… and…”

Clank at once realized what had happened. “I am so sorry, Ratchet.”

“Not your fault,” the Lombax said gently. “I just… that’s kinda why I’m not too fazed. I mean, we’re all gonna die in the end, aren’t we?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “C’mon, I don’t think we’ll find anything helpful in here. Looks like there’s another room ahead.”

Clank merely nodded and followed after the Lombax. He wasn’t ready to let this go yet, but he’d leave the subject be for now. Ratchet would talk to him about things when he was ready.

The door slid open as they approached, revealing another hallway— though, unlike the previous, it wasn’t exactly empty. In the center of the corridor stood a tall, thin robot made of the same bronze-like material as the rest of the Zoni structure. In its motionless hands rested a long metal staff also made of the same metal compound. Its eyes, which initially were dark, suddenly lit up a bright greenish-blue— indicating activation. The ancient machine straightened up, took one looks at the Lombax and the defect, and said, “Intruders detected. Initiating Protocol 66.”

“Greeeeaaat— so if it’s not a Krath Beast, it’s gotta be a robot guard armed with who knows what,” Ratchet groaned, motioning with one hand for Clank to get on his back and tele-equipping his Lancer in the other. The Zoni robot chose to lift its staff and fire an energy blast at Ratchet. The feline barely managed to jump out of the way in time. The blast flew by and got caught in one of the blue streams of light curling about the area. Ratchet scrambled back to his feet as the machine slowly walked into the room, feet clanking against the metal floor ominously.

Ratchet didn’t waste a second— already he had raised his Lancer, took aim at the robot guardian, and pulled the trigger.

-00000-

Ratchet back flipped, narrowly avoiding the crackling ball of energy that the mechanical sentinel had lobbed at him. At the same time— just as the Lombax’s feet returned to the ground— he lifted up his Lancer, took aim at the robot’s head, and fired. The Lancer’s blaster bolt ricocheted off to the side with a loud ping upon impact— the weapon was useless against this machine.

Great. Just great.

Ratchet equipped his Omni-Wrenches and ducked as the sentinel swung its staff and lobbed another ball of energy at him. The sphere sailed over the feline’s head and crashed into the wall behind him, shattering it. Ratchet scurried forward and dropped to one knee as he swung both wrenches forward, intent on disabling his foe by smashing in its kneecaps.

The sentinel jumped backwards, barely managing to avoid the Lombax’s strike. Ratchet didn’t hesitate and lunged forward, lifting his wrenches up in the air and bringing them down hard upon the robot’s bronze-like exoskeleton. The exoskeleton instantly crumpled underneath the impact. However, even as sparks flew dangerously from the machine’s damaged head, it still had some fight left in it. The sentinel kicked Ratchet in the chest, knocking him off onto the floor in heap.

The Lombax lay there for a second, stunned. The guardian robot straightened up and aimed its staff at him— the weapon quickly beginning to charge. Ratchet sat up in a flash and smashed his Omni-Wrench into the weapon, diverting its aim away from him. The staff fired and launched an energy orb into a nearby wall. At the same time, Ratchet brought his other Omni-Wrench down onto the sentinel’s head over and over again, wincing as sparks flying from the circuitry underneath brushed against him, singing his fur a bit.

The mechanical guard sunk to its knees, its aqua eyes flickering intermittently. “Sy… syst… systems failing, master—” Ratchet smashed his wrench into the machine’s head one more time, effectively silencing it for good. The sentinel slumped forward onto the floor, no longer sparking, and instead emitting a steady stream of smoke. 

“You alright back there, Clank?” Ratchet asked after taking a moment to steady himself— he was starting to wonder if all this adrenaline was any good for his body or not.

“I am intact,” Clank answered, his voice muffled again by the Lombax’s scarf. He struggled to move it back over behind his head as he went on, “I also noticed something rather strange— the energy signature you emit during combat was much stronger than in previous enemy encounters. And it appears to be similar in composition to the energy here in this room.”

“So what, you’re saying…” The Lombax paused as the thought fully formed in his mind. “… so what does this mean? That we were destined to come here?” The words came out almost bitterly. He never did like “Chosen One” tales. They were always so frickin’ preachy. Not to mention the implications of not being in control of one’s own future. And he absolutely loathed the very possibility that this could be the case with him and Clank.

“I do not know,” Clank replied after a moment. “And that is what troubles me.”

Ratchet didn’t respond— instead he walked back over to the hall from which the sentinel had come, both wrenches still in hand. He stopped, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath. The Lombax then opened his eyes and muttered, “Let’s hope whatever is in this stupid temple-thing-whatever is worth it.”

“A route back to Elaris and Miss Cross would certainly be worth it,” Clank pointed out. Ratchet shrugged— that was true. He’d really rather not die of dehydration or hypothermia down here. Clank would probably be fine for a little while, but eventually his power cells would run out and…

Ratchet shook his head. Stop it, he told himself.

They would find a way out, somehow.

He started walking down the corridor, eyes occasionally flicking to the runes carved into the walls. Was it just him, or did they seem to be glowing as he walked past them? At the end of the hall, in the floor in front of the door, there was a small circular platform— much like the one they encountered in the cavern chamber.

“Hey, Clank, think you can get this door open?”

“Hmm… if this door functions similarly to the one in the caverns, I believe so.” Clank walked up to the platform and stepped onto it. It sunk into the floor slightly from his weight, and a red cone of light flashed to life, washing the robot in its glow. After a moment, the light switched to an aqua-blue colour.

“Identi-Scan complete. Identity has been confirmed. Greetings, XJ-0461. You are cleared to proceed. Please watch your step.”

The door slid open with a soft hiss.

Ratchet and Clank stepped through the newly made opening, and was greeted by a wide, mostly cylindrically shaped room. Save for one unusual feature, this area was more or less unimpressive. This unusual feature was on the other side of the room, taking up a massive section of wall, was a black, orb-shaped structure with a small, dull blue optic in the centre. Light blue trim lined the structure with strange geometric shapes. Whether this served any purpose, the Lombax didn’t know. What was obvious, however, was that this was clearly some sort of machine. As the duo stepped closer to it, the optic installed in the machine lit up, and a soft hum could be heard as it returned to life.

“Ratchet. Clank,” the structure greeted in a computerized voice. Ratchet lifted his wrenches cautiously— who knows what weapons this thing could be equipped with. And the fact that it knew their names just made it all the more creepy, to say the least. “I have been expecting you for quite some time.”

“What are you?” Clank asked, tilting his head curiously. “How do you know our names?”

“I am IRIS,” the machine “IRIS” answered. “I was constructed fifty-four million, three hundred sixty five thousand, and eight Veldin cycles ago by the Technomites to help the Zoni. It has been a very long time since I have seen either species. In fact, it has been a long time since I’ve seen anyone.”

“Wait, you said Veldin cycles?” Ratchet asked, looking at IRIS for a moment before turning his gaze on Clank. “That would’ve been thousands of years ago, wouldn’t it?”

“Yes,” Clank answered. “It appears IRIS has been around for quite some time.”

Ratchet looked back over at IRIS. “So why did the Technomites build you? What’s your purpose?”

“I was constructed to be the most powerful supercomputer of my era,” IRIS explained. “My purpose is to not only provide vast quantities of information, but to also anticipate future events using that information. These algorithms were put into my programming so that the universe would never have to experience anything like the Great Tear ever again.”

“What do you mean by ‘The Great Tear?’” Ratchet asked, a sinking feeling settling in his stomach. Somehow he knew the answer before it even left IRIS’ vocal processor.

“The Great Tear was a horrific event that occurred almost three hundred years before the establishment of the Inter-Galactic Calendar. The Ekari— whom you now know as the ‘Fongoids’— became particularly careless with their use of time travel. This carelessness resulted in the space time continuum ripping apart. The entire universe was nearly destroyed. If it had not been for the Zoni, all life would most certainly have been extinguished. They constructed a great technological wonder at the exact centre of the universe— give or take fifty feet— called the ‘Keeper of Time.’ 

“This Keeper of Time is even more complex than I, and was designed for a singular purpose. To repair the damage done to the universe, and control the flow of time so that another Great Tear may never happen again. The Technomites aided in its construction, and then built me so that the Zoni could use me to anticipate future threats to the stability of the time stream.”

“Where are the Zoni and Technomites now?” Clank asked.

“The Technomites were all wiped out when Adair Azimuth took control of the Solana Galaxy in 488 Standard Inter-Galactic Time. The Zoni remain at the Keeper of Time to keep it maintained. They have ceased to make any major influence upon the universe, with Orvus being the only one to leave on occasion. Time has all but erased their existence, leaving the Zoni as almost nothing more than a myth to the universe.”

“And how are Clank and I tied into all this?”

“Processing… processing… processing… I am sorry, but it seems that the last person to access my mainframe has purposefully installed a block to that information. I am unable to retrieve it for you.”

“Wait— if you can predict the future—”

“Anticipate future events,” IRIS corrected.

“Right— then— can’t you tell us what Drek is planning?” Ratchet pressed.

“Processing… processing… processing… processing…  I am sorry, but it seems that the last person to access my mainframe has purposefully installed a block to that information. I am unable to retrieve it for you.”

Ratchet sighed. Of course. “Is there anything at all that you can tell us that may aid in our objective?” Clank asked.

“Processing… processing… processing… processing…  I am sorry, but it seems that the last person to access my mainframe has purposefully installed a block to that information. I am unable to retrieve it for you.”

“Well, this was a huge waste of time,” Ratchet grumbled. “Can you tell us how to get outta here? So, y’know, we don’t die and doom the whole galaxy and all that? Or did the last person install a block-whatever thing for that too??”

“I will upload the necessary data to your nav-unit. Connecting… uploading… there. You should be able to find your way to the enclave now.”

“One more thing before we go…” Ratchet’s eyes flicked down to the floor, as if he were afraid to ask the question on his mind. “Are Kaden and Áilísh my parents?”

“A moment please… yes… and no. Safe journey, Ratchet and Clank. I know that one day, you will both be able to find what you are looking for.”

Chapter Text

At least IRIS’ map proved to be helpful. Ratchet and Clank managed to reach the other entrance of the Lombax enclave— which was basically a massive whole in the wall caused by thousands of years of oxidation— at almost the exact same time as Elaris and Angela.

What did IRIS mean? Ratchet wondered. “Yes and no?” That doesn’t make any sense—

“Did you guys find anything down there?” Elaris asked, cutting the Lombax’s thoughts short.

Ratchet shrugged. “Nothing helpful. Except for the map that led us here, anyway. We still need to find Cora.” Angela entered the enclave first, her Omni-Wrench at the ready. After a moment, she gave the all-clear signal and the rest of the group followed in after her. It was clear that the enclave had seen better days— the walls were a fiery red from all the rust, and in some places there were large holes that exposed chewed-on circuitry underneath.

Stacks of metal bolt crates leaned against some of the walls. Large piles of bolts could also be found on the floor, indicating that wooden bolt crates were stacked there at one point too, and obviously fell victim to time… and bacteria.

Ratchet pocketed these loose bolts, much to the chagrin of the others— his reasoning was that since no one was here and was using them, why waste perfectly good bolts? Besides, he wasn’t going to go so far as to try and destroy the metal crates— not when this place was more or less very unstable and likely to collapse on their heads if one were dumb enough to lob a grenade at a couple of crates.

The group made a slow and thorough sweep of the enclave. Aside from some precious treasures they found in the armory— a pair of still-functional hoverboots, a semi-legal kinetic tether, and a Gyrocycle that had been modified to have a set of wings and blasters— so far they had found nothing. No sign of Cora whatsoever. Soon enough, there was only one room left to search— the control room. One computer spike from Clank, a little hacking skill from Ratchet, and the door was open a minute later. And no Cora.

Elaris walked in first, muttering to herself, “No no no…” Ratchet and the others followed in after her, and spread out to search. If Cora was here at one point, maybe they could find a clue as to what may have happened to her.

“Odd,” Clank murmured as his gaze traveled slowly across the room.

“What’s odd?” Ratchet asked, turning towards the defect. He didn’t know how to explain it, but he felt it too. There was something in this room. Something… weird, for a lack of better words.

It was Clank who clarified precisely what.

“It appears that some sort of residual energy was left behind by… well, what, I am not certain of,” the defect explained. “It appears to be distinctly similar to that left behind by a gravo-metric warp drive. However, I doubt that such a device is the cause of this energy.”

Angela picked up an object from a nearby table and examined it, turning it over in her hands slowly. “A three and three fourths centicubit hexagonal washer…”

“A what now?” Elaris asked, a degree of incredulousness in her voice. What in Solana was a common plumbing part doing in an ancient Lombax enclave?

“A three and three fourths centicubit hexagonal washer,” Angela repeated. “It looks like this one is broken though, but…” She turned towards Clank. “You said that you detected energy in this room. Similar to a gravo-metric warp drive— correct?”

“Yes. Why do you ask?”

Angela thought a moment and then shook her head. “We won’t know for sure unless we keep searching the room. Let’s keep looking.” After a moment of them all rummaging through the metal cabinets and chests, Clank triumphantly pulled out a small datapad from one of the cabinets’ drawers.

“Hm. I believe I may have found something.” The defect plugged his finger into a small outlet on the pad and the screen brightened, indicating the device was powering up. After a moment, the screen changed and displayed a set of images that appeared to be blueprints. Clank translated the Lombax runes as best he could and went on, “I believe these are plans for something called… the Dimensionator? But it does not appear to be Lombax technology.”

“What’re you talking about?” Ratchet asked.

Clank removed his finger from the pad’s outlet and turned the aforementioned object around so the others could see the screen. “I have recovered some information from this datapad about the Lombaxes and their technology— however, the design of this Dimensionator does not match up with any of the designs used in Lombax technology. At least, not that I can find in the data I have downloaded.”

“That’s because we didn’t build it,” Angela clarified. “Our ancestors stole it from the Cragmites during the Great War. The Empress of the Azimuth Empire at the time— Juhani Azimuth— used the Dimensionator to send her warships to various worlds, both Cragmite and not… Reepor, Orxon, Umbris…”

“Those were worlds that were glassed during the Great War,” Clank said. Angela gave an affirmative nod in response. The defect continued, “You are saying that Juhani had used the Dimensionator to send her warships to those worlds and have them glassed?”

Angela nodded again and lifted up the three and three fourths centicubit hexagonal washer. “This is a crucial part of the Dimensionator— it can still function without it, but it’s a lot more erratic. Unpredictable. It can send its user to a completely different world than they intended— or even rip the user apart atom by atom if the portal is unstable.”

“… guys?” Elaris’ voice was very quiet and uncertain. Ratchet looked over and saw her at a nearby computer console, holding a small tiara in her hands. The tiara was simple in its design-the only distinct feature being a large, pale blue jewel inlaid in its centre. “This tiara… it was Cora’s….”

A shiver passed over Ratchet. “Do you think…?”

“It’s possible that your friend took the Dimensionator and used it to leave this planet,” Angela explained, her voice a note lower. “But without the washer in place to keep it from malfunctioning, who knows where she ended up. Or if she even survived the trip.”

“But why?” Elaris asked, still looking down at the tiara clutched in her hands. “Why would she just up and leave— and use a device that she doesn’t even know how to operate— what if she’s—”

“Elaris,” Ratchet interrupted gently, waving his hands in a “calm down” motion. “Take a deep breath.” Elaris turned her head towards him, locking her worried gaze on the Lombax. “I’m sure Cora had a good reason to do what she did. And anyway, we don’t even know for sure if she used the Dimensionator or not.”

“But why did she leave this behind?” Elaris demanded, clutching the tiara tightly.

“I don’t know…” The Lombax trailed off, uncertain.

-00000-

After setting up camp, everyone sat around the fire as Angela explained and showed them how to cook YETI meat. Ratchet could’ve probably gone without knowing that people even ate YETIs to begin with, but he couldn’t argue with how good it tasted when it was done.

They all spent the night talking, and then retired to sleep. Ratchet slipped into his sleeping roll, lying on his back and staring up at the ceiling. His mind was still burning with unanswered questions.

Yes AND no?? What kind of an answer is that?! That’s not an answer at all, why couldn’t IRIS just TELL ME—

His ear twitched. He looked over and saw Elaris rolling over in her sleeping roll, clearly frustrated. He sat up, and she looked up at him, frowning.

“Everything okay?” Ratchet immediately winced as the words left his mouth. Stupid question. Of course she wasn’t okay. They had no idea what happened to Cora, only that she took the Dimensionator and may have been killed using it because that three-and… three-and… that washer thing was broken. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Elaris said quietly.

Ratchet winced again. It wasn’t fine.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Elaris began again. “Why would she do that? Why would she take the Dimensionator and risk… risk it??”

Ratchet didn’t speak, knowing Elaris wasn’t really asking him— she was thinking out loud.

“Something must’ve happened,” she murmured. “Something really bad must’ve happened here and she had no other choice.”

Ratchet climbed out of his sleeping roll and shuffled over to her side. He cautiously placed a hand on her shoulder. She didn’t pull away. Hell, she put her own hand on top of his, gripping it tightly.

“Stay,” she whispered.

Ratchet looked down at her and saw the fear in her eyes. The fear of losing the people she cared about. The fear of being alone. The exact same fear Ratchet would see in his own eyes, whenever he looked at his own reflection when Grim was dying.

“’Course,” Ratchet told her gently.

She shuffled over in her sleeping roll, and Ratchet slipped in beside her. Elaris gripped him tightly, and he stiffened for a second, before returning the favor. They held each other throughout the night, not speaking, not talking about whatever was on their minds, but still knowing that they were in the same boat.

Together.

-00000-

Lombax Village— Tundor Wastes, Grelbin!

In the morning returned to the village. Just as they had reached the outskirts, Angela turned towards them and said, “Before you three leave, I want to talk to my sister. Please go and wait inside the main compound for me. My sister and I will be there soon.” Before any of the others could get a word in, the taller Lombax had already turned around and was making her way towards one of the igloos inside the village.

 Elaris shook her head and looked at Ratchet and Clank. “Alright, you heard her— let’s go.”

“What does her sister have to do with anything, aside from attacking us?” Ratchet asked irritably as he and Clank followed Elaris to the compound.

“I suppose we will have to wait and see,” Clank answered as the three of them trudged through the snow-blanketed settlement towards the compound. “Angela has been very helpful to us, it would be rude if we did not extend the same courtesy.” By then, the trio had entered the compound and stood waiting.

Ratchet merely huffed at Clank’s logical response. They didn’t have to wait very long, however, and soon enough Angela returned— with a shorter, pale blue Lombax in heavy winter clothes at her side.

She was the same size as the Lombax who attacked them when they first arrived!

“Ratchet, Clank, Elaris— this is my sister Sachari,” Angela explained, gesturing to the feline beside her.

“But everyone calls me Rivet!” Rivet grinned, offering an awkward smile and a wave. It was then, without the armor covering her body, that they saw she had a yellow robotic arm. “Sorry I attacked you guys earlier— not really used to visitors who, y’know, aren’t trying to steal our stuff…”

“While I don’t understand entirely what’s been going on in the Solana galaxy in recent years, from what Elaris has told me of the situation this Alonzo Drek poses a dangerous threat— I want to help stop him.” Angela paused for a moment and went on, “In other words, I want to join you. And I’m bringing my sister along.”

“For the record, she blackmailed me into this,” Rivet claimed, only to get a painful nudge in the shoulder for her trouble.

“As much as we appreciate your offer of assistance,” Clank said, “there is only enough room in our ship for three people.”

“You three aren’t the only ones with a ship,” Angela told them. She waved for everyone to follow, “Come on, I’ll show you.”

-00000-

The Hanger— The Lombax Village!

“Here she is!” Angela waved her hand towards the medium-sized Cobalian cruiser near the front of the hangar.

It was clear the ship had gone under some very extensive modifications— with turrets outfitted on both the starboard and port sides, an additional turret at the top, and thin layer of Trillium covering the outer hull.

The ship looked like it could carry about six people total in the front. The back appeared to be big enough for people to move from one end of the ship to the other— though they would be very cramped in doing so. “I got her when we raided one of Captain Slag’s outposts just outside the Wastes. She may not be as fast as your ship, but she’s a lot sturdier and can hold her own in a fight.”

“What about our ship?” Ratchet asked. While he had only had the ship for a little while, he couldn’t help but feel some degree of attachment to it. After all, it was the first ship he had ever been able to truly call his own. 

“I can send a party out to get it for you and bring it here,” Angela answered. “It’ll be safe in our hangar.” After giving their permission— Ratchet, begrudgingly— to do so, Angela relayed the orders into her comm.

“So are we going now?” Rivet asked when Angela was finished, meanwhile adjusting the slightly oversized goggles on her head. The goggles slid back down a couple of inches. “Frick.”

 -00000-

The Swamps, Sargasso!

The ship set down gently on the massive metal dock jutting out of the swampy waters, and quickly powered down. “We’re here!” Angela announced.

Ratchet was the first to walk out via the lowered ramp. It was really stuffy in that ship, but it turned out to be even stuffier outside, what with the planet being one global swamp and all. It was also very humid, and by the time everyone else had gotten out of the ship, the Lombax was practically soaked in his own sweat.

As Rivet, the last occupant to exit, walked out of the space faring vessel, Ratchet caught the faint sound of footsteps echoing on the platform across from them, obscured by the low hanging trees. The Lombax tele-equipped his Omni-Wrenches and whirled around. He spotted a feline of a species he didn’t recognize rounding the corner. The alien stopped when he saw Ratchet, and adjusted the small pack on his shoulder nervously.

“Uhh, hello,” the alien called out timidly. “I— ha— uh— I can just go find another dock—”

“Oh, hi there,” Elaris greeted him pleasantly, hoping this would make him a little less tense.

The alien seemed to relax a little at this sign of non-aggression, and stepped closer so he could get a better look at the group. He stood there for a moment, studying each member, and then locked eyes on Rivet. He seemed to take notice of the fact that she had a tail and his body seemed to relax a little more.

He held out his hand for her to shake. “Hello,” the alien repeated, this time more confidently. “I’m Em’al. And you are?”

“Rivet,” the Lombax in question answered, raising an eyebrow and taking his hand cautiously— all the while both herself and the others scrutinising this newcomer (although perhaps it would be more accurate to describe them as the newcomers) cautiously.

Instead of having fur like most humanoid feline species such as Lombaxes and Cazares, Em’al’s body was covered in small, blueish-green feathers— most of which were covered by the slightly ragged clothes he wore. The only visible places where he had no feathers were the insides of his twitching cat-like ears, the short graceful horns curling out from his upper forehead, and his small pink nose.

His eyes were almost entirely orange, bits of white being visible only at the corners— and in the center of his eyes rested black slits that were more likely than not his pupils. In addition to feathers, he also had some hair, midnight blue locks reaching just below his ears. His tail flicked back and forth, mostly covered in small feathers, with a plume of larger and more colourful ones at the tip.

All in all, none of these features put together matched any species that any of the group remembered reading about. Elaris was certain that if this species was native to the Solana galaxy— or even Polaris, or Bogon— that she would recognize it from the historical archives.

“Well, I’m glad you’re not beating this one over the head like you tried to—”

Rivet quickly cut her sister off, severely annoyed with having been reminded of the incident. “You’re never going to let that go, are you?”

“When it gets old, then and only then, baby sis,” Angela explained, a smirk of amusement spread across her lips. “So far that hasn’t happened yet.”

“So, what brings the five of you to this… slime pit of a hellhole?” Em’al asked, his voice lowering with bitter disgust as he uttered those last few words.

“It is not that bad,” Clank said.

“Yes it is,” Em’al retorted, shaking his head. “But never mind that. Why are you all here— if you don’t mind my asking that is?”

“We’re looking for someone,” Elaris explained. “His name is Brax, and he’s an Aek'ex. He’s big and burly, and wearing the same uniform as me. Have you by any chance seen him?”

Em’al shook his head no. “No I haven’t. If your friend has come here though, he picked a pretty bad time.”

“What do you mean ‘he picked a pretty bad time?’” Ratchet demanded, crossing his arms.

“I mean, Captain Slag set up an outpost just a few miles south of here, and ever since he’s been trying to raid my village,” Em’al explained. “Which means if your friend is here, then he’s in for a rough time. The jungle’s a lot more dangerous now, especially if you don’t know it well.”

“Do you have any ideas where Brax could be?” Elaris crossed her arms.

“There’s an abandoned Kerchu gelatonium factory to the east,” Em’al answered. “It’s possible he’s hiding there. It’s also a possibility he’s been captured by Slag, but I find that unlikely.” He paused, and then went on, “I don’t suppose… well, no, I don’t…”

“What seems to be the matter?” Clank asked.

“I don’t even know if you’re good fighters, and anyway, you’re not here for us— you’re here for that friend of yours,” Em’al rambled, tensing up again. “I— I’m sorry— I— I should just go—”

“This is about Slag, isn’t it?” Angela cut in, stepping towards the alien and putting her hand on his shoulder. She looked over at Ratchet and the others. “Maybe we could… split up? It’s not like all of us have to go into the gelatonium factory, and anyway, I still have a score to settle.”

Elaris nodded and turned towards Ratchet, Clank, and Rivet. “Do you think the three of you can handle the factory on your own?”

“I want to stick with my sister and help,” Rivet answered. She then added after a moment, “If that’s fine with the rest of you.”

“Clank and I can handle the factory,” Ratchet told her, giving her a gentle pat on the shoulder. “You go help out your sister and Elaris.”

Rivet seemed to brighten up at his words and offered a smile. “Thanks, Ratchet.”

“While I would have appreciated it if you had asked my thoughts on the matter beforehand,” Clank said to Ratchet, “I am inclined to agree. I am confident we will be fine.” After having the little defect attached to his harness, Ratchet equipped his hoverboots (which he may or may not have modified a little bit during the trip to Sargasso) and was about to blast off when he heard Em’al ask, “Wait— won’t you need a map?”

Ratchet looked over at him and nodded. After having the map uploaded to his nav-unit, the Lombax turned away and took a couple of steps backward, and then lunged forward, kicking his heels back on the small pads on the insides of the hoverboots— igniting the thrusters and propelling him off the platform and onto a stretch of land about two hundred feet or so away. The duo then vanished into the swampy jungle.

-00000-

Abandoned Gelatonium Factory!

Ratchet deactivated his hoverboots just as they reached the entrance of the gelatonium factory. “Ratchet, are you certain it was wise to simply leave them with Em’al? I understand time is of the essence, but—”

“They’ll be fine,” Ratchet interrupted, though with less bite than usual. “Elaris is a Galactic Ranger, and Angela and Rivet are warriors who trained for this sorta thing. I mean, I’m a little worried too— but I do know they’ll be able to handle whatever’s being thrown at them.”

“I suppose you are right,” Clank amended.

Ratchet began to approach the factory, which had clearly seen better days— half of the ceiling and wall of the entrance was collapsed, the front door was currently MIA, and thick vines swarmed as much of the outside of the structure as they could, covering nearly every inch of it.

As Ratchet stepped closer to the building, a strong musty odor wafted up to his nose. “Ugh!” He waved his hand in front of his face, trying to get the stench away from his nose. “This place smells even worse than the Drophyd mines,” he muttered, covering his face with a gloved hand and stepping inside. The air inside felt even thicker and warmer than it did outside, to the point of being almost suffocating. “Where’s an O2 mask when you need one?”

“Perhaps had you not wasted your share of bolts on that Enforcer when we stopped on the way here—”

“It was on sale!”

“— then you could have purchased an O2 mask.”

“But I needed it!”

“Let us hope that your purchase does prove to have been worthwhile,” Clank shot back, “and not a waste of bolts.”

Ratchet just rolled his eyes and settled his gaze on the dust-and-cobweb-ridden hallway before them. “It does look like something or someone was here recently,” he said, kneeling down to examine the floor.

The dust had clearly been disturbed some time ago, if the patches of shiny metal riddling the blanket of wheeze-inducing particles were anything to go by.

“Only one way to find out.”

Chapter Text

“Sir?”

Lawrence received no response.

Nefarious was hunched over in his chair, grumbling to himself. Hologuise now repaired, he was fiddling with a Rubik’s cube. If the butler had eyebrows, they would be raised. The doctor hadn’t even come close to solving it, and who knew how long he had been at it.

“Sir,” Lawrence began more firmly.

Nefarious’ hands froze, and he glared up at his assistant. “What do you want now, Lawrence?”

“I am just wondering how much longer you are going to continue this pointless crusade.” Nefarious’ eye twitched. “You do realize infinite dimensions means infinite—”

Nefarious dropped his Rubik’s cube. He stood up from his chair and walked up to Lawrence, who’d gone silent. He loomed over the butler, seething with silent, deadly rage.

A shrieking Nefarious was predictable. A shrieking Nefarious was one that Lawrence could handle, especially when his malfunction acted up— then he could do laundry in peace. And a shrieking Nefarious was never terrifying for Lawrence. He wasn’t nearly as dangerous when he was yelling and screaming. He was more likely to smash up his own work than to attack his own assistant.

A quiet Nefarious was not predictable. A quiet Nefarious was more dangerous.

“I don’t pay you to question my methods,” Nefarious growled lowly.

“You don’t pay me at all, sir.”

Nefarious lunged forward. Lawrence slammed into a wall, leering back as the doctor’s face came too close for comfort. His boss growled again, smashing his hand into the wall right next to Lawrence’s head.

“I will end every last one of them,” Nefarious snarled, “even if it takes me a thousand years.”

Lawrence didn’t bother to point out that he would never be done. He would never be finished. He would be at this forever and ever, or at least until his own trail of destruction finally caught up to him and ended him.

“Very good, sir,” Lawrence said. “I believe I still have some dusting to finish. If you would please—”

Nefarious stepped aside, letting his butler go. As Lawrence left the room, and long after the door had shut and he just stood outside, looking back at it, he could feel Nefarious’ eyes on him, boring into his soul.

A shiver ran down his servos, and he toddled away.

-00000-

Ratchet speed walked down the hall, wiping sweat off his forehead with his glove every now and then. It was kind of useless, since his glove was also already soaked.

The only sources of light the Lombax had on him at the moment were the flashlight in his pilot’s cap, and the green glow of Clank’s eyes. Ratchet reached the end of the hall and pried the door open with his wrench. On the other side, there was a platform surrounded by railing, overlooking a long shaft with no visible bottom.

The Lombax turned his attention to the machinery on the wall to his right, and noticed that there was little to no dust on it. His gaze trailed along the wall and eventually reached a platform on the other side. If the ceiling had been higher, Ratchet could have used his hoverboots to leap to the other side. However, with the ceiling being as low as it was, it probably wasn’t the best idea— he’d more than likely whack his head against it in the process and possibly injure himself severely.

“Hey, Clank— got any idea what might be able to move this equipment around?” Ratchet turned around so that Clank would have a better view of the machinery. The defect scanned the inert pieces of metal and then silently considered their options for a moment.

“Hmm… I believe we have only one option. Since it is unlikely that we can bring the power for this factory back online, you would have to use that kinetic tether you took—”

“I prefer the term ‘borrowed indefinitely,’” Ratchet interrupted.

Clank chose to ignore that and went on, “— from the enclave to move the equipment into traversable makeshift platforms. I presume that is your intention?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Ratchet said, equipping the kinetic tether in one hand and one of his Omni-Wrenches in the other. He attached the tether to the side of the aforementioned tool and screwed it into place. “Alright… let’s see if this works.”

Ratchet lifted up his wrench and pointed it at the nearest machine.

The wrench sparked a light blue, and a thin stream of magnetic light curled out from the tether’s emitter, reaching towards its target. The light wrapped around the machine, trapping it in what resembled a net. Ratchet took a step back, keeping a firm hold on his wrench as he did so. The kinetic tether tightened as he continued to step backwards, and the massive chunk of metal creaked as it was slowly pulled by the Lombax. Once it was in a favorable position, Ratchet disengaged the tether, and repeated the process for each of the machines, one by one. Soon enough they had a relatively traversable route to the other side, provided Ratchet didn’t slip or something.

“Here goes nothin’,” the Lombax murmured to himself as he approached the first machine.

He reached his hands up onto the edge of it and hoisted himself over the side and onto the top. He stayed there a moment, poised in a low crouch as he regained his bearings. Ratchet stood up and then, after taking a small step back— making sure he didn’t go back too far so as to fall off— charged forth, leaping off the edge and reaching his hands out to catch the next piece. He landed onto the machine front-first, grunting in pain as the wind was violently pushed out of his lungs.

Ratchet stood after a moment, and then he repeated his previous actions for the next one. By the time this was over, he was definitely going to have a very nice collection of bruises.

-00000-

Meanwhile, on the way to the Aez’ear Village— on the Outskirts!

Em’al gave a wave for the others to stop just as they all reached a small house quite literally dead smack in the middle of the swamp. “I kinda need to call someone anyway to let them know we’re coming,” he explained. “There’s someone I wantcha guys to meet anyway.”

He knocked on the door, earning a startled yelp and a voice calling, “It’s open!”

Em’al opened the door, and looked over at his companions, waving them over. Elaris hung back a little, her eyes automatically scanning for any sign of trouble. One could never be too careful. Hesitantly, she followed her companions into the house and squinted as her eyes adjusted to the change in lighting.

It was a lot darker inside, being illuminated by only a few lamps and some candles here and there. She slowly took in the room around them, observing the colorful quilts hanging on the walls, the furniture (which was made of wood and decorated with some handmade cushions), and the wooden floor— which was covered by several colorful rugs. Some were old and fraying, but others were fairly new, having been knitted very recently.

“Oh! Hello there, young whippersnappers,” a light voice greeted. Elaris whipped her head about to see a very old and rusty warbot (what model he was, she didn’t know— he seemed vaguely familiar however) hanging up an apron. Em’al walked over to the warbot and was instantly pulled into a hug. “You’re right on time!” the warbot exclaimed. “I thought I was going to have to go up to the docks and drag you back down here myself!”

Em’al chuckled and returned the hug before pulling away and turning towards the others, beaming with happiness. “Angela, Elaris, Rivet— meet my dad Zephyr,” he said, gesturing to “Zephyr”.  “Dad, meet my new friends.”

“Lombaxes!” Zephyr exclaimed upon taking a closer look at Angela and Rivet. “I haven’t seen one of you since the Great War! Then again, I haven’t really gotten around much since then… age catches up with you pretty quick, you know? Appreciate your youth while you can, whippersnappers!”

“Uhhh… it’s nice to meet you too?” Rivet replied uncertainly after a moment.

Zephyr guffawed. “I like this one!”

-00000-

Back at the Gelatonium Factory!

“AAAHH! KILL IT, KILL IT!!” Ratchet, clutching his Enforcer, scurried to safety on a tall stack of metal crates as a small group of Teratropes swarmed towards him, snapping their little pinchers. He dropped into a crouch and whirled around, taking aim at the nearest Teratrope and firing. The electrolyzed shotgun pellets violently burst into flames upon impact, applying a not-so-light sear to the Teratrope. Ratchet wasted no time and continued to rain a downpour onto the oversized arthropods. Soon enough, nothing remained of the Teratropes except for charred husks and piles of ash.

“Ratchet,” Clank addressed in an exasperated tone. “Was that really necessary?”

“I hate bugs,” was all Ratchet growled in response as he clambered down from the crates.

“That much is quite obvious.” Ratchet rolled his eyes at Clank’s response and, after stepping around the smoldering remains on the ground, resumed his trek down the dilapidated hall. He kept his Enforcer equipped, not wanting to risk another unexpected attack from those things.

Ratchet quickly reached the end of the corridor and was forced to switch to his Omni-Wrench so he could pry the door open. After a brief struggle, it slid open with a squeak— crumbling slightly in the process from rust.  On the other side lay a massive room with four large pumps in it, each one placed in each corner of the room. Unscrewed bolt cranks were also placed in front of each of the pumps. Wide slots littered the walls— their intended purpose Ratchet wasn’t all too sure about, but they seemed to be conveniently placed like a staircase…

“Hmmm…” Ratchet thought for a moment. Unlike the rest of the building, this particular area seemed to be in decent condition. It was definitely falling apart, yes. But it was in slightly better condition than everything else. “Clank, do you think we might be able to get any of this stuff working?”

Clank hopped off of Ratchet’s back and took a slow look around the room. “It may be possible. I believe these bolt cranks control the gelatonium pumps, which— if my database serves me correctly— powers this factory.”

Ratchet nodded, scratching his chin. “Okay— let’s see if we can get her up and running again.”

-00000-

Back in the Outskirts!

Elaris, taking a bite of her broth, glanced over at the door across the room, from which muffled voices could be heard talking.

“He’s been in there for a while,” Angela said, a hint of concern in her voice. “Is everything alright?” She turned her gaze towards Zephyr, who was drinking oil from a small mug clutched in his metal hands.

“Em’al… well… let’s just say… well… he figured some things out that… the community doesn’t really approve of,” Zephyr explained. “And he was cast out. Ever since then, it’s just been him, Scrap, Cronk, and me. We haven’t had much contact with the village over the years, but Em’al’s friend keeps him up-to-date on things going on there. She was the only person there who really understood and cared for him.”

“Scrap? Cronk?” Rivet asked blankly after slurping some more of her soup.

“Scrap is Em’al’s pet,” Zephyr replied, taking a sip of oil. “And Cronk is my husband—” The door swung open abruptly, and out stepped Em’al, a small robot with large, luminescent pink and blue eyes, perched on his shoulder. Zephyr looked over at them and went on, “That’s Scrap on his shoulder right now—” he cleared his throat and asked his son, “So how’d it go?”

Em’al settled onto an empty stool placed at the table they were all sitting at, an unreadable expression on his face. After a moment, he looked up at Elaris and said, “The mayor’s willing to talk to you. He’s not exactly enthusiastic about outsiders— or me for that matter— coming to the village, but he’s desperate. We’re to meet him tomorrow afternoon, in the Central Complex.”

Elaris and her companions nodded quietly in response, none of them quite sure at what to say. Zephyr asked with a concerned note in his voice, “Are you alright, Em?”

“I’ll be fine, Dad,” Em’al answered bluntly. Scrap, who was still hanging out on his shoulder, nuzzled the side of his head. The Aez’ear brightened up and shifted in his seat so that his guests could have a better view of the robot. “This is Scrap!” he told them happily, a smile on his face now. His eyes also changed color— just a moment before they were a reddish-orange, and now they brightened to a light yellowish-orange. “She’s a little trouble maker!”

Scrap looked over at Em’al, her head tilted as if to say, Me? A trouble maker? No, I’m innocent!

Angela, who was sitting the closest, reached over to Scrap and scratched the top of her metal head. “It’s nice to meet you, Scrap!”

Scrap purred softly in response.

 -00000-

Ratchet quickly found that turning the bolt cranks was not going to be a very easy task— all of them had gears that were heavily oxidized, and bound to fall apart if put under too much strain. But there was no other way to get all this working again that he or Clank could see, so the Lombax decided to take his chances.

He attached his Omni-Wrench to the nearest crank, the tool clicking into place easily. Slowly, but steadily, Ratchet began to push. With a painfully loud screech of rusty metal against rusty metal, the bolt crank started to turn.

At first, the movement was rough and slightly bumpy, but as the crank continued to turn, it quickly smoothened out. After a minute or two of this, the crank clicked into place. The gelatonium pump it was next to started to hum to life.

A speaker somewhere in the room crackled, and a computerized voice announced, “Gelatonium Pump Number Two is now online. Plant is now at twenty five percent power efficiency.” A few thin platforms slid out from their slits, including right underneath the exit that they needed to reach if they were to go deeper into the factory. Ratchet gave the platforms a brief survey— if he was careful, and had just the right amount of thrust, he could easily hoverboot up there.

Ratchet took a few steps back and bent his knees slightly. “Hang on tight, Clank.”

“Ratchet? What are you—?!” Clank was cut off as the Lombax’s hoverboots crackled to life and Ratchet leapt up to the first platform. Before the defect could get another word out, the feline was already leaping to the next one. In another two lunges, they reached the exit. Just beyond lay a dimly lit corridor, the lights flickering intermittently due to insufficient power supply.

“See? Nothin’ to it!” Ratchet stood up from the crouch he had landed in and started down the corridor.

“One day,” Clank spoke up, “you are going to get us both killed.”

Ratchet just rolled his eyes. “Let’s just keep moving— the sooner we find Brax, the sooner we can get away from all those stupid bugs…”

-00000-

The next day— just outside the Aez’ear Village!

Em’al stopped and motioned for the others to do the same. Elaris watched him carefully as he approached the armored guard at the front gate. The guard stiffened at the sight of the much smaller Aez’ear and lifted his Tesla Claw defensively. The guard practically spat at Em’al, venom gushing from each word spoken.

Elaris couldn’t understand the language, but the way in which Em’al was being addressed worried her.

“I’ve come to see the mayor,” Em’al said, standing his ground.

The guard guffawed something in response.

“I’m not a frea—!” Em’al shook his head and set his face in an angry scowl. “Now you listen here— I’m here because the mayor wants to see these people,” he explained, waving to his companions. “Ask him yourself if you don’t believe me!”

The guard snorted, but he lifted his wrist and pressed a couple of buttons on the panel of the comm attached to it. After a moment, a deep, dreary, questioning voice crackling with static could be heard coming through the speakers.

Whatever was asked, the guard seemingly answered, a smug expression on his face as he glared at Em’al, who glared right back at him.

There was a short moment of silence, which was finally broken when the voice replied firmly. And with that, the communication ended. The guard stared at his comm in shock for several silent seconds before looking up at Em’al with a snarl.

“You win this round,” the guard growled, stepping aside and barking an order at the person in the tower to open the gates.

Em’al smiled smugly and replied, “Yes, I did.”

He turned around and motioned for the others— who had both seen and heard the whole exchange transpire— to follow.

As Elaris followed Em’al and the rest of her companions through the gates, she was completely caught by surprise from what awaited inside. She wasn’t quite sure what she expected when they got to this point, but whatever her expectations were, they never even came close to this.

This section of the village was clearly the marketplace, if the large stands filled with various items and being sheltered with brightly-colored cloths were anything to go by. The merchants shouted various things in their native tongue, most likely trying to draw attention to the items they were selling.

A couple of passersby gave Em’al dirty looks, but otherwise the group was more or less ignored.

Rivet was drawn to a particular stand, which had some sort of freshly smoked meat out on display. The merchant at the stand looked over at her and asked in a thick accent, “Ah, ahe vou intehested in puhchasing zhat wood-smoked Cobahliahn Khath Beast?”

It took Rivet a long moment to translate what he said. “Huh…? Well, how much is it?”

“It’ll cost vou ten amgahds,” the merchant answered.

“Ten what?”

“He said ten amgards,” Em’al replied from behind her. Rivet let out a startled yelp— she really shouldn’t have let him sneak up on her like that. It was a careless rookie mistake. “Did I startle you?”

“Something like that,” Rivet mumbled in annoyance as well as embarrassment. “But I don’t have ten amgards.”

“And we also don’t have a lot of time either,” Elaris cut in. “We really should get moving.” As much as she would have enjoyed seeing more of the village and learn about their culture, they didn’t have much time to spare.

“I wonder how Ratchet and Clank are holding up,” Rivet muttered.

-00000-

The previous day, at the Gelatonium factory.

As Ratchet started down the hallway, he could hear the faint sounds of voices… singing? “… a PIRATE evermore!!”

More like screeching.

A series of loud guffaws and shouts followed, and as the Lombax listened closely, he pinpointed the sources to be in just the next room. As he moved closer to the door (which was basically half gone due to centuries of oxidation), his nose caught a whiff of grog. He wrinkled his snout in disgust, and peered his head up over the lower half of the door. Down in the room below, a group of robotic space pirates sat sprawled on the many crates littering the area— chugging down huge mugs of grog all the while.

One of the pirates— who was a little less scary-looking than the others (though not by much)— stood up, waving his mug around drunkenly and hiccupping. “Hic!— this place is perfect for singin’!” he declared. “Listen— hic!— to those acoustics! We should start a band— hic!”

“Hic!— what should we call ourselves?” one of the other pirates asked.

“Rusty Pete plus— hic!— plus three?” the previous pirate suggested, a dazed smile plastered on his face.

“That name makes ye sound like yer full a’ yerself,” another pirate answered. “Howzabout the… hic! The… uhhhhh… gimme a minute… hic!”

Ratchet could only raise an eyebrow incredulously. “You have gotta be kidding me,” he muttered, shaking his head. “As if the Teratropes weren’t bad enough.”

“What’re we talkin’ ‘bout— hic!— again?” Rusty Pete asked. He didn’t wait for a response as he went on, “Oop! I think I gotta take an oil leak—”

“Good gawd, ye don’t need to announce it every dang time!” one of the slightly more sober pirates retorted, a disgusted expression on his face. “Just go!”

“Okie dokie!” With that, Rusty Pete stood up and proceeded to stumble out of a random hole in the wall. Ratchet equipped his Omni-Wrench, smirking all the while.

“Ready for some action, Clank?”

“Do I have a choice?” Clank asked wearily.

Before the Lombax could respond, a new and equally grating voice bounced off the walls of the room. “You idiots,” the small Blarg soldier hissed as he stepped out of the shadows. “We’re supposed to be looking for that Ranger— and instead here you are drinking the day away with grog—” The red reptile started to reach for one of the bottles as he spoke.

The nearest pirate snarled viciously, then yanked their sword out of its sheathe and held the blade at the Blarg’s throat. “Hic!— The— hic!— the one place ye don’t wannae be caught in is between a pirate and their grog.”

“The Blarg are here too?” Ratchet murmured to himself, lowering his wrench. Maybe he should wait a minute or two, to see what was going on— the sight and sound of that same pirate sniffing the air halted his train of thought abruptly.

“Odd,” the pirate murmured, lowering their sword and turning around, facing the direction Ratchet was in. Luckily the Lombax was still hidden by the half-a-door, not that it mattered at this point as the pirate continued, “I— hic!— I think I smell Lombax.” They pulled a small blaster out of the holster looped on their belt. “Get— hic!— Rusty Pete, and tell him we’ll be feastin’ tonight!”

How a robot could possibly smell Ratchet was beyond his comprehension. The Lombax rolled his eyes, muttering, “Great. Just great.”

“Perhaps you should use your Omni-Wrenches for the pirates and the Blarg,” Clank offered. “It would be best if we kept them alive. They could provide us an explanation as to what they and the Blarg are doing here.”

“Good idea,” Ratchet replied, equipping his other wrench in his free hand for the time being. “Here goes nothin’.”

Chapter Text

Elaris, Angela, and Rivet sat on the benches outside the mayor’s office, waiting while Em’al spoke to the mayor himself. Scrap— who had come along with the group— was sprawled across Rivet’s lap, purring as the Lombax gently stroked the droid’s head.

After a moment or two of this, the office door swung open and Em’al peeked his head out. “He’ll see you now,” was all he said. They all quietly stood up, one by one, and followed Em’al into the mayor’s office— Rivet carefully cradling Scrap in her arms while still petting her head gently.

Rivet’s gaze trailed across the room as she observed the high stone ceiling, supported by matching stone beams and walls. Colorful banners hung from hooks attached to the walls, their bizarre patterns so bright that her eyes hurt just from looking at them— so she settled her sight on the mayor. He resembled Em’al to some degree, in terms of facial features— however, his feathers were a dull brown littered with dark spots and his frame was more wide and stocky. His eyes, instead of being orange like Em’al’s, were a bright turquoise.

The mayor gave a polite bow in greeting— in contrast, his facial expression was anything but polite. “So… you are the supposed ‘help.’ The ones meant to assist us in driving out the space pirates?” He scoffed. “Not as… impressive as I expected…”

“The feeling’s mutual,” Rivet snarked back, earning a light smack on the back of her head from her sister. “Ouch!” She rubbed the spot Angela slapped, glaring in annoyance.

Elaris didn’t pay them any mind. “I’m Elaris— this is Angela and Rivet,” she introduced, gesturing to each person as she spoke.

“Hmm,” the mayor hummed. “I am Ey’az. And of course you met Em’al.”

Em’al whipped his head up as Ey’az said his name with such venom, a biting retort resting on the tip of his tongue.

But he stayed quiet. Rivet frowned, looking back and forth between Em’al and his uncle.

“Now that introductions are out of the way,” Ey’az spoke again, “shall we get started?”

-00000-

One day ago…

Incapacitating the space pirates was no easy feat, but equipped with his Omni-Wrenches and Clank’s help (having a robot riding around on your back had its perks, such as making it impossible for enemies sneak up on you), Ratchet managed to bring them down one by one. Within a few minutes, both the space pirates and their Blargian buddy were tied up in a bunch by a vine the Lombax had ripped off the nearest wall.

“So, you guys feel like talking now, or do you wanna go another round?” Ratchet asked, leaning against the aforementioned wall and regarding the pirates and Blarg with an almost amused expression. Clank stood beside him, looking around the room and scanning for anything suspicious. His sensors found nothing out of the ordinary.

“Yer makin’ a big mistake, Lombax,” one of the pirates growled right before hiccuping.

“You guys are the ones who are tied up.”

“We’re also the ones who don’t have guns pointed at them from behind,” the Blarg added, smiling evilly.

“What—?”

Both Ratchet and Clank turned around at that and saw a row of space pirates and Blargian soldiers standing behind them— nearly all of them equipped with stealth generator belts and Plasma Coils. The only one not equipped with a Plasma Coil was a heavy-set pirate with a hook on one arm in place of a hand, a peg leg, and complete with a pirate Captain’s hat. “I am Captain Romulus Slag,” he told the duo, “and ye’re trespassin’! I don’t like trespassers!”

Before either Lombax or defect could react, the pirates had fired their Plasma Coils, electrocuting them. Everything went black.

-00000-

Present…

After discussing the situation in more full detail, as well as the space pirates’ capabilities, Elaris, Angela, and Rivet came up with a plan to hit the pirates where it really hurt so as to discourage them from bothering the Aez’ear people ever again.

The plan would start out simple.

Rivet and Scrap would take the modified Gyrocycle and make her way to the outpost through the ancient underground Kerchu sewer network, blasting away any not-friendlies she met along the way. Then Elaris, Angela, Em’al and the Aez’ears’ warriors would follow behind, all armed with weapons constructed by Elaris and Angela themselves, and take the outpost by surprise. They’d thin out Slag’s army of pirates, destroy their armory, and— hopefully— give Slag himself a good enough scare to butt out.

The mayor, after reviewing the plan, approved it without hesitation. He’d apparently changed his tune when he realized that these people knew exactly what they were doing.

And so Rivet found herself standing alone in the Aez’ear armory, slipping on some fancy-shmancy armor called “the Wasteland armor.” Apparently it had been found in an excursion in some ruins off to the west, though it was a bit big on her and missing a few items. Namely the helmet and boots. But Rivet could make do with what was there.

As Rivet made her way out of the armory and down the hall to her quarters (she planned on catching some winks before the upcoming battle) she heard a quiet sobbing from the broom closet to her right. She moved towards the door of said broom closet and knocked gently. “Uhh, you alright in there?”

A voice on the other side yelped. Evidently she had startled them.

After a frantic shuffling, the door swooshed open, revealing a puffy-eyed Em’al. “Yes, I’m perfectly fine— why wouldn’t I be— I’m totally, totally A-okay—”

Rivet raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms. “Really? You sure don’t look it.” There was a pause. “Do you… wanna talk about it?”

Em’al shook his head no. “Not really… don’t worry about me, okay? I’ll be fine,” he told her, his voice quiet. His eyes couldn’t quite seem to meet hers. But Rivet could see that they held a sadness inside. A sadness that seemed aged, a sadness that had likely always been present, and only now has made itself known. “We’ve got more important things to worry about right now.”

Rivet pulled him into a tight hug. “Just remember that you matter too. Okay? You matter.” Em’al stiffened and then he relaxed a little and returned the gesture.

“I’ll try.”

-00000-

The suffocating muggy feeling only seemed to increase as Rivet piloted her Gyrocycle into the sewer system. She steered it through the shadowed tunnels, the only sounds being the whirring of her vehicle, the hum of Scrap’s power node, and the occasional drip-drip of water falling from the ceiling. The flashlight installed on the front of the Gyrocycle lit up the tunnel, making it easier to see. The vehicle rolled steadily down the tunnel, and as Rivet reached the end which split into two more tunnels— one on either side of her— she spotted a small patrol of space pirates walking down one of those tunnels rather haphazardly, stumbling about in a zigzag fashion.

No doubt they had been drinking.

Rivet turned her Gyrocycle around to face them and pressed the “fire” buttons on either side of the cycle’s handlebars, mowing down the pirates to smithereens before they had the chance to fire or alert any other patrols in the sewer.

She then steered the cycle down the tunnel, her mind drifting from the mission to Em’al’s predicament. While Rivet didn’t exactly have a clear idea of what happened between Em’al and his people, it was obvious that whatever did happen wasn’t good… she wasn’t really sure if she truly wanted to help the Aez’ears or not— not with the way they treated Em’al. But in spite of his strained relationship with his people, Em’al clearly still wanted to help them.

Still, Rivet decided that as soon as this mission was over, as soon as the space pirates were out of the picture, she was going to rip the mayor Ey’az a new one.

A really big new one.

Nobody hurts my friends and gets away with it.

-00000-

Sometime later, in Ratchet and Clank’s cell!

Ratchet picked at the Suppressor Node that the space pirates attached to his neck. Since his Gadgetron Quick-Select chip was imbedded in his body and couldn’t be removed without “making a mess”— as Captain Slag put it— the pirates opted to just stick the Node on him and then throw him and Clank into a cell. A violet forcefield separated them from freedom.

“Clank, think there’s any way we can get this thing offa me?” the Lombax asked, wincing as the Node gave him a little shock. “Oww!!”

Before Clank could respond, a whoosh resounded from behind them. Both Lombax and robot whirled around at the same time to see a trio of strange, glowing, bug-eyed aliens levitating in front of them. The duo stared at the aliens, and the aliens stared right back.

This went on for about a minute, before one of the aliens floated towards Clank and asked uncertainly, “XJ-0461?”

Ratchet stepped in front of Clank, glaring at the visitor suspiciously. “Who are you?” the feline demanded.

The alien seemed to ignore the question. “XJ-0461,” they repeated, this time with more certainty. They turned around to face their companions. “Free.” The other aliens nodded in agreement, and the closest one turned back to face Ratchet and Clank. The alien then raised their hands— which were now glowing— and the others did the same immediately after. “Free,” the aliens repeated in unison, right before zapping Ratchet.

The Lombax yelped, closing his eyes and raising his hands defensively— but it was unnecessary. The Suppressor Node disintegrated instantly.  Ratchet stood there like that a moment, frozen, until Clank told him, “Ratchet, you can put your hands down.”

“Oh,” was all the feline said. He opened his eyes and lowered his arms, face burning a bit in embarrassment at his reaction.

The aliens then backed up a bit and waved their hands around, conjuring up a soft, glowing ball of light. It grew in volume to be slightly larger than a fist, and then dissipated, revealing a copper and silver colored metal glove. Floating beside it was a projector of some kind with a hook-like thing attached to the side— it looked as if the device was meant to be worn on the ear.

Ratchet hesitantly reached forward and pulled on the glove, and let out a noise of surprise— it fit his hand perfectly. Then he took the projector thing and settled the hook part around his ear. He regarded the aliens for a moment and then asked, “Are you… are you the Zoni?”

The aliens were quiet for a few seconds and then merely replied, “Omniglove,” as they gestured to the glove on his hand. “Escape.” In a flash of light and a whoosh, they were gone.

Ratchet sighed and helped Clank onto his back. “Well, I guess now’s the part where we break outta here, huh?”

“I suppose so,” Clank agreed quietly. The aliens, he thought, had to be the Zoni. They had to be. This only further solidified the fact that he and Ratchet were clearly connected to the Zoni somehow. For what reason or purpose, remained a mystery to the defect.

Ratchet lifted his hand up and from the projector a holographic visor flickered to life before his eyes. The visor displayed what seemed to be some sort of anomaly in the hall outside the cell.

“Here goes nothing,” the feline murmured to himself before deploying the grapple. He felt his and Clank’s bodies phase out of reality for a moment as they passed through the thick metal wall and onto the other side. “Whoa, I feel woozy!” Ratchet had to stand with his feet wide apart for a couple of seconds as his vision seemed to spin.

“That tickled my central wiring harness,” Clank observed, letting out a little giggle.

Ratchet shook his head and equipped his Omni-Wrenches, twirling them in his hands as he turned around to see a space pirate standing a ways away, drunkenly fumbling with his radio. Before the pirate could say a word to his buddies, the Lombax had already thrown a wrench into his face, knocking him out upon impact.

The space pirate slumped to the floor in a heap and Ratchet quickly retrieved his wrench. He made a mental note to build a device or something to allow his wrench to return to him mid-air.

As he looked around the hall, his visor detected another rift that appeared to be outside the compound. Ratchet took a deep breath, lifting his hand again and then deploying the tether.

The duo phased through a couple of rooms before finally reaching the rift and thereby exiting the compound— and entering a battlefield.

At least thirty decommissioned space pirates lay strewn across the hillside, half-fried, gnarled pieces of metal and circuitry exposed for all to see. A ways away, on a nearby hillside, a familiar feline with an unfamiliar little robot hanging out on her shoulders could be seen fighting none other than Captain Slag himself.

Rivet boosted off the ground with the help of her hoverboots and hurtled through the air towards Slag, bringing her Versa-Hammer down and striking him directly in the face.

The hammer smashed one of his eyes, sending shards of glass flying through the air. Ratchet whipped his head around to his left and saw Em’al and a group of Aez’ear warriors fending off a swarm of pirates and Blarg who were thundering towards them— the feathered felines mowing down the grogged-up machines with relative ease.

And to the Lombax’s right Elaris and Angela could be seen, fighting back to back— Elaris blasting away everything in sight with her Predator Launcher and Angela incinerating with her Omni-Wrench any pirate who came within a six foot radius of the duo.

“Ratchet, behind you!”

Ratchet turned around at Clank’s shout to see a group of space pirates and Blargian soldiers charging towards them. The Lombax switched to his Enforcer and was about to take a shot at the swiftly approaching enemies when a loud crackling and squelching could be heard above them.

In that moment, everything seemed to freeze.

The fighting stopped, and everyone turned towards the massive spire that stood proudly in the centre of the battlefield. Attached to it were about three giant screens, which were filled with noise before it cleared up and revealed the one and only Dr. Nefarious. The green alien glared down at them all, his nose wrinkled partially in disgust.

“Why hello, Slag,” Nefarious snarled at the space pirate in greeting. He then locked eyes on Ratchet and Clank. “Ahhh— you must be the troublemaker who helped that defect and ‘saved’ Novalis from invasion. Wasn’t really much of a rescue if you ask me. While you were off gallivanting across the galaxy doing Nexus knows what, Drek sent in an even bigger army. Novalis is ours. Just like your precious Veldin.”

“You— you—”

Nefarious cut Ratchet’s words short with a vicious snarl, and then turned his gaze back on Slag for a moment. “Oh, and one more thing…” The scientist then locked eyes on the Blargian soldiers. “Kill them all. Leave no survivours, or you won’t survive my wrath.”

“WHAT?!!!” Slag practically roared as the Blarg soldiers fearfully turned all their weapons on him and the other space pirates. “NEFARIOUS!!!! WE HAD A DEAL!! YE’RE NOTHING BUT A SLIMY, SLIPPERY, TRAITOROUS PIECE OF SHI—!”

“Ah ah ah,” Nefarious interrupted, wagging a finger. An evil smile spread across his lips. “Now now, none of that. I promised that we’d pay you, Slag. I never said we’d let you live long enough to enjoy it. It’s nothing personal, it’s just— well, we don’t need you anymore.” There was a long moment of silence as everyone stared the Blarg down, each waiting for the other to make a move.

Finally Nefarious screeched, “WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR, YOU NUMB-SKULLS!?! KILL THEM, KILL THEM ALL!!!”

As the screens all went black, there was a short moment of calm before the storm. Then the battlefield erupted into fire once more.

Chapter Text

Many of the Blarg soldiers went down in just a matter of minutes, and the survivors eventually decided that they were much more likely to get away with their lives intact if they made a hasty retreat.

Ratchet stood in the middle of all that destruction, bent over and panting heavily. He turned his head towards Rivet, who was still tightly clutching her Versa-Hammer and poised in a battle stance. Em’al and the other Aez’ear warriors swiftly approached Captain Slag and Rusty Pete, weapons up and ready to fire. Elaris and Angela watched uncertainly from afar, and started to approach them.

The two pirates where the only ones left standing at the moment. Slag’s eyes met Ratchet’s, and the pirate let out a low growl of contempt.

“Ye just can’t stay out of people’s ways, can ye, Lombax? No, ye’all have to go from bein’ a mere nuisance to bein’ in my way. The lot of ye should’ve stayed on Grelbin where ye belonged! This won’t be the last ye’ll see of us! We will be yer reckoning!” He roughly nudged Rusty Pete’s shoulder with his own. “Pete, the smoke bomb. Now!” Slag hissed as the Aez’ear warriors deactivated the safeties on their rifles as one.

“Aye aye, cap’n!”

Before anyone could do anything, Pete had already thrown down the smoke bomb, covering both himself and Slag in a giant cloud of smoke. When the cloud had finally dissipated, neither pirate was anywhere to be seen.

-00000-

Sometime later…

The mayor had thanked Ratchet, Clank, and their companions profusely for their help, presenting them with medals and the like. Rivet took the guy to the side afterwards and tore into him about his treatment of Em’al. Ey’az claimed, “I can treat her however I damn well please—”

Rivet’s metallic knuckles scraped harshly against his cheek, a resounding, satisfying crack echoing and droplets of blue blood spraying from his lower lip. She knew how Em’al felt all too well, and she wasn’t going to let this bastard of an uncle have the last word.

“Ey’az,” Rivet growled, so tempted to just keep punching him, but just managing to hold back, “you are the most despicable son of a bitch I’ve ever met.”

“I think it’s time you left,” Ey’az snarled at her in anger.

“I agree,” Rivet said, her words sizzling with barely contained rage. “Goodbye, Mayor Dipstick. Go sit on a cactus with your pants down.”

-00000-

On the way back to their ship, Em’al offered to let them stay at his family’s place for the night— the sun was beginning to set, and the Aez’ear explained that it really wouldn’t be safe for them all to be wandering around the swamp by then.

Zephyr cooked them all dinner and smothered them all with questions like, “What’s a ‘Drek?’” and “Which one of you whippersnappers ate my stash of Sargassian pine nuts when I wasn’t looking?”

After dinner, everyone went to bed. There wasn’t enough furniture for everyone to sleep on, so some had to sleep on the quilts Zephyr laid out on the living room floor.

Ratchet was peacefully curled up in a ball on one of these quilts. Clank sat a few feet away on his own quilt, unable to power down. He knew he should rest, but he couldn’t.

He was too high-strung. Too anxious. The defect groaned in frustration.

His irritation at the predicament was quickly forgotten when a soft whimper reached his audio receptors.

Clank looked up and saw that, although Ratchet was still asleep, the Lombax had a tense expression on his face. His closed eyelids were slightly scrunched, his teeth gritted, and his normally floppy, fuzzy ears stiff. His tail flopped back and forth, as if to emphasize his current subconscious anxiety.

“Ratchet,” Clank addressed quietly, so as to not wake anyone else. He stood up and walked over to the Lombax, who was now twitching anxiously in his sleep. “Are you alright?” The defect nudged Ratchet’s head with a cautious little hand.

Ratchet jerked awake with a yelp, scrambling back a bit. His stiff body relaxed a bit. He locked eyes with Clank, who was now looking back at him in worry. “Clank? What are you still doing up??”

“I have been experiencing difficulty in powering down,” Clank explained, sitting down beside Ratchet. “In short, I cannot sleep.”

“Hmm, sorry ‘bout that.” Ratchet gently patted Clank’s shoulder. There was a moment of silence. “I wonder what happened to Brax… do you think the space pirates might’ve killed him…?”

“I do not know. I do not think so… the pirates and Blarg were looking for him, if you recall?” Clank asked. Ratchet shrugged. “It is probable he left the planet before we got here… and, Ratchet, I am beginning to think we do not need the Rangers.”

“Whaddya mean?” The Lombax regarded him with a curious look.

“In our search for them, we have already obtained new allies,” Clank told him. “Elaris, Angela, Rivet, and quite possibly even Em’al, assuming he does not change his mind about joining us in the morning. Perhaps even Scrap.”

The defect looked up at Ratchet, his bright green luminous gaze steady as ever.

“Ratchet, as I said we do not need the Galactic Rangers. We already have a team. And the more time we spend trying to search for the Rangers, the closer Drek becomes to reaching his goal, whatever that may be. He must be stopped while we still have time. Once that is done… we will resume our search for the Rangers.”

Ratchet thought this over for a moment and then nodded slowly. “You’re right, Clank.”

“You… agree with me?” Clank asked, now looking surprised.

“Clank, the clock’s ticking,” Ratchet told him. “And it’s like you said, we’ve already got a perfectly good team right here.”

“I am pleasantly surprised, Ratchet,” Clank said.

“Now don’t you start gettin’ all mushy on me,” Ratchet replied, laughing softly. “Anyways, I guess I better go back to sleep… or try to.”

Clank nodded, patting the Lombax gently on the arm. “Yes, that you should. I will be nearby if you need me, Ratchet,” the defect promised. “I am not going anywhere.”

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you thought we were friends,” Ratchet said, looking somewhat surprised— albeit pleasantly.

“Are we not friends?”

Ratchet considered this for a moment, and finally smiled down at Clank. “Yeah... we’re friends.”

“I am quite pleased to hear that.”

Ratchet curled up into his usual sleeping position and closed his eyes, still smiling. “’Night, Clank.”

“Goodnight, Ratchet.”

 -00000-

 The next morning…

“So here’s the plan,” Zephyr started, gesturing to the giant sheet of paper laid out before him and the rest of the group. “Ooh hoo hoo, this is so exciting!! This is the first time in centuries I’ve drawn up a plan! I wish Cronk were here right now! ‘You’re not tactically minded’ my rear end!”

He cleared his throat and decided to get back to business before he got sidetracked by his own enthusiasm.

“Ahh, anyway, so— here’s the plan Clank and I drew up together: so, Elaris, Em’al, and Scrap will go into the factory first and make their path to the Primary Security room, blowing up any warbots they might encounter on the way. Once they’ve secured Primary Security, they’ll shut down the Secondary and, uhhh, Third-ary Security systems for the south end of the factory.”

He gestured animatedly to the crude drawings on the paper in front of him as he spoke. “Then Ratchet, Clank, Angela, and Rivet will go in and split up into two groups. Angela and Rivet will provide a distraction so most— if not all— the warbots will be out of Ratchet and Clank’s way. You two—” Zephyr pointed at Ratchet and then Clank. “— will make your way to Chairman Drek’s office at the other end of the factory. Hopefully there you’ll find something about what Drek is planning…”

Zephyr trailed off for a moment and then let out a shout as he remembered something. “I’ll be right back!” he said, standing up and making his way to the back of the house. Elaris looked at Em’al questioningly— he shrugged. In a few minutes, the warbot returned with a dusty old blaster rifle clutched in his rusty hands. Zephyr brushed the dust off as best he could and held it out to Em’al.

The young Aez’ear stared at the weapon blankly for a moment, not moving. “Is this… for me??”

“Indeed it is, you li’l whippersnapper you,” Zephyr told him, a deep fondness in his voice. “I fought with this rifle back in the Great War! Back when Cronk and I were just a couple a’ bots lookin’ to make a living…” He trailed off again, and the fondness faded from his voice. He shook his head after a moment of silence and held out the rifle closer to Em’al. “And now, I want you to have it. The ion coils might be a bit rusty, but that’s nuthin’ some decent oil won’t cure.”

Finally, Em’al took the rifle into his hands, marveling at the cool metal underneath his fingers. He blew off the rest of the dust and then smiled up at Zephyr.

“Thanks, Dad.”

 -00000-

Later, on Planet Quartu, outside the warbot factory!!

Ratchet, Clank, Angela, and Rivet crouched low behind the large boulders a ways outside the warbot factory, waiting patiently for Elaris to let them know when it was time for them to initiate their part of the plan.

Ratchet’s comm beeped twice, and so he answered. “How’s it going in there, Elaris?”

“We encountered heavy resistance, but we made it. We’ve shut down all the security systems we needed to, so it’s time for you guys to move,” Elaris explained.

“Okay— we’ll be in there in a sec,” Ratchet told her. “Over and out.” He looked over at Rivet and Angela. “Let’s go.” The team of four made their way towards the entrance, keeping a close eye out for any enemy warbots. None were in sight, thankfully. And so they entered the factory and split up as planned.

“You know what the best part of this is gonna be?” Rivet asked Ratchet before she and Angela left the duo. She didn’t even wait for the other Lombax to respond. “It’s the target practice.”

Ratchet had to refrain from rolling his eyes.

For the most part, the south end of the factory was clear of any warbots— and any that still happened to be there swiftly met their end at the shotgun pellets of Ratchet’s Enforcer. It wasn’t until they entered the factory’s production chamber that they were met with a serious problem.

And that serious problem came in the form of none other than Victor Von Ion himself.

Ratchet, who just stepped off the bridge and onto the platform where Victor awaited them, switched to his brand new Devastator.

“Ahh, so you brought the defect,” Victor snarled, an evil grin spread across his metallic face. “Excellent— the boss is going to be very pleased when he hears I’ve taken care of you two nuisances. I might even get a promotion!” The machine equipped a Negotiator. “If you surrender now, I’ll make your deaths somewhat painless…”

“And if you surrender now,” Ratchet snarked back at him, smirking, “then we might let you walk outta here.”

“Pfft, whaddya gonna do, Lombax?” Victor taunted, childishly sticking out a metal tongue at the feline. “Claw me into submission?”

Ratchet just gave a good long yawn and pointed his Devastator at Victor, pulling the trigger. A barrage of missiles hit their target, sending the villainous robot flying across the room. Victor smashed into a wall a ways away.

“Nope!” the Lombax finally replied. He started walking towards the centre of the platform, and said, “That was less climatic than I hoped.”

“Ratchet,” Clank addressed, his voice laced with disapproval. “Are you trying to provoke him on purpose??”

“Maybe,” Ratchet admitted.

“This is not going to end well…”

Victor’s foot thrusters kicked in, and he managed to push himself out of the massive dent his body had left in the wall. He settled his fury-filled gaze on the feline still standing on the central platform. As the now very pissed off machine pointed his Negotiator at them and fired, Ratchet ran as fast as he could towards the edge and equipped his hoverboots. Just as the missiles hit the platform, the Lombax propelled himself off leapt onto one of the rooms’ many observation decks. The central platform crumbled to pieces, huge chunks of it crushing the conveyor belts underneath, metal screeching against metal.

“Now look what you’ve done!!” Victor snarled, outraged. “Dr. Nefarious will have my head for this! Do you even know how much that cost?!” He took aim at Ratchet and fired again, but the Lombax was too quick— this time he used his Omniglove to phase over to another deck, and in turn, safety. In his frustration, Victor practically screamed, “WHY WON’T YOU JUST STAY STILL?!?!”    

“Ehh, maybe you were right, Clank,” Ratchet said. “Provoking him probably wasn’t the best idea…”

“Ahem— ‘probably?’” Clank repeated, incredulous. “‘Probably’ is a severe understatement.” Ratchet hurtled off the deck to one of the few still-intact conveyor belts down below.

Victor dropped down onto another conveyor belt parallel to Ratchet’s and started shooting at the Lombax. The feline blasted down the strip as fast as he could, the barrage of missiles decimating the belt behind him, leaving nothing left of the belt.

Ratchet switched from his Devastator to his Bomb Glove and leapt off the conveyor belt as what little remained of it crumbled— and, with the help of his Omniglove, phased right onto the belt Victor was on. Before Victor could escape, the Lombax had already lobbed a bomb at the hulking robot’s feet. He didn’t even have time to react. The bomb exploded, obliterating Victor’s legs, his Negotiator, and the strip underneath him.

“Thanks for the memories,” Ratchet called, mocking, before leaping off the belt as it quickly collapsed— taking the vicious warbot with it. He hurtled onto the platform that lead straight into Drek’s office, ignoring Victor’s quickly fading screams of vengeance. “Now that he’s out of the way…”

The desk— which was in the centre of the room— was sparse of anything personal, save for a photograph of a young Blargian child and Alonzo Drek himself, and a couple of other items.

While Ratchet took the photograph in his hands, Clank climbed into Drek’s desk chair and began to hack the computer that was installed in the piece of furniture.

“Huh… Drek’s got a kid?” Ratchet murmured, looking down at the photo. Drek and the child appeared to be having a good time— they were dressed in matching T-shirts and poised standing in front of a giant Captain Qwark statue.

“Hmm— there is a file about something called ‘The Deplanetizer,’” Clank told the Lombax, having been too absorbed in his hacking to hear him. He looked over at Ratchet, who was prying open the photograph’s case. “However, it is locked by a passcode. It may take me some time to… what are you doing?”

“I wanna see if there’s anything important in here,” Ratchet explained, finally getting the thing open. The photo fluttered out of the case and settled silently on the floor. He bent down and picked up the fragile piece of paper, setting down the case as he did so. The feline turned it over in his hands and read the name and date, presumably the birth date written on the back of the photo.

“‘Aphra, Tenemurary second, 5340…’” Ratchet felt a chill sweeping over his body. He had a feeling something really bad happened to this kid. He quickly shook the feeling off and turned to Clank. “Try that.”

Clank typed in the code and pressed Enter. The file opened and expanded to fill the screen. “Oh dear…” the defect murmured.

Ratchet walked over to him and looked over his shoulder to see what was on the screen. The Lombax’s jaw dropped slightly.

“Drek had Nefarious build the Deplanetizer to destroy planets… so he could make a new one for the Blarg??” As his gaze trailed down the list of destroyed planets, his heart sunk at one name in particular. Novalis. “There’s plenty of uninhabited planets to choose from! Why is— why—?!” Ratchet shook his head. “It doesn’t make sense. There’s gotta be more to this.”

Clank nodded. “I am inclined to agree. This is not logical…” the robot trailed off as his gaze landed on the list of Drek’s next targets. The planet at the very top of the list caught his attention. “Ratchet, if I am reading this list correctly…” He turned his head to look at the Lombax.

“Their next target… is Veldin.”

Chapter Text

Meanwhile… in the north side of the factory!

Rivet hissed at the last incoming warbot and brought her Versa-Hammer down, sending an electrical shockwave that electrocuted the enemy machine, disabling it permanently. The warbot collapsed in a heap on top of one of its fallen allies. The Lombax stood there, slightly hunched over, for a long moment, panting heavily from exertion. Angela plopped down on a nearby bolt crate, also clearly exhausted.

“Think… that might be… the last of them?” Rivet asked, finally straightening up and steadying her erratic breathing. It was in that moment that their comms crackled to life.

“Elaris to Angela and Rivet— Ratchet and Clank found out what Drek’s been planning, and they say they have additional information that might help us stop him. Meet us back at our ship, we’ll talk more there.”

“Understood,” Angela said into her comm. “We’ll be there soon. Angela Cross out.”

Soon enough, a few straggler warbots— which were easily taken out— later, the whole team was back at the ship. “So what did you guys find?” Em’al asked, pulling his rifle’s strap up over his shoulder, and petting Scrap. The little bot leaned into the touch and purred happily, her eyes closing with pleasure.

“Drek had Dr. Nefarious construct for him a device known as ‘the Deplanetizer,’” Clank explained, stepping forward a bit. “As the name implies, the weapon’s purpose is to destroy planets… so Drek can use pieces of that planet to build a new one.”

“One of the planets he destroyed was Novalis,” Ratchet continued, his gaze flicking away from Elaris for a moment. “His next target is Veldin. Another inhabited planet… and my home.”

“At the moment, the Deplanetizer is stationed at a place called ‘The Blarg Tactical Research Station’ for maintenance,” Clank added. “I have the coordinates downloaded on my hard drive. If we can make it there in time, we may be able to destroy the weapon before it leaves the station.”

“Then let’s go pay them a visit,” Elaris said. She started to walk to the ship, and then turned her head to look back at her allies— no. Her friends. She smiled softly as she told them, “You all did great today— now it’s time for us to show Drek and Nefarious what we’re made of.”

-00000-

Later, outside the Blarg Tactical Research Station…

“Please hurry it up, you guys! I don’t know how much longer I can hold them off!” Angela shouted at the others from the ship’s turret. In the rather cramped airlock section of the ship, Rivet slipped on her O2 mask. On their way to the station they made sure to stop and purchase several O2 masks.

Ratchet also wore one, and was complaining vehemently about how stuffy it was.

Clank finally got him to shut up by asking, “Ratchet, which would you prefer— dying from asphyxiation in space, or enduring the helmet for just a few minutes longer?”

It was obvious which one Ratchet preferred.

“Okay, I’m all done,” Rivet announced into her comm. “We’re moving out now.” As she moved towards the outer airlock door to open it, she looked over at Ratchet and said, “This plan of yours better work.”

“It’ll work,” Ratchet reassured her. “Trust me.”

“Actually, this plan has only a 22.5555694% chance of succeeding,” Clank corrected, shaking his head slowly. “We are most likely doomed.”

“C’mon Clank,” Ratchet groaned, facepalming. “Work with me here!”

“On the bright side,” Clank added with an amused tone, “it has a much higher chance of succeeding than the other plans we discussed.”

“That’s better.”

Rivet rolled her eyes and opened the airlock door. “Here we go...” Both Lombaxes stepped out of the airlock and into the abyss of space. Ratchet activated his hoverboots and headed for the Blarg Tactical Research Station— Rivet quickly followed suit with her own hoverboots.

“Woohoo!! Yeah!” Ratchet whooped enthusiastically as the trio sped closer and closer to the Station. If he thought his hoverboots were fast on the ground, well— the velocity he was rocketing at in space at this very moment was so many times higher.

“You ready, Ratchet?” Rivet asked, grinning at her friend’s excitement.

“I was born ready,” Ratchet told her, smirking, before turning his attention to the Station ahead. He saw the hangar on the side opening to let out more enemy ships— most likely as reinforcements to try and fight off Angela’s ship. Little did the Blarg know that they fell right into the trap. Angela’s ship, which was currently busy blowing up Blarg fighters left and right as it weaved in and out between the blaster fire, was just a distraction. 

Ratchet just hoped Elaris and the others would be okay.

The two Lombaxes slipped in through the hangar doors just as they started to close, and landed on the floor feet first. 

“Intruders!!” a Blarg technician shrieked upon spotting them. 

Ratchet only smirked as he unequipped his O2 mask, Omni-Wrenches at the ready. Rivet followed suit, twirling her Versa-Hammer.

“So who wants concussion first?”

-00000-

The hangar instantly erupted into chaos, blaster fire flying rampant as Ratchet dodged a Blarg soldier’s attempts to shoot him. The Lombax backflipped, narrowly managing to avoid being burnt to death by the barrage of fire the Blarg’s Heavy Lancer unleashed. Just as the frustrated reptile was about to take aim and try to shoot him again, Ratchet lifted his hand and grappled onto a rift not too far behind the soldier. The feline phased right through the Blarg’s next hailstorm of fiery rounds, and right through the reptile himself to the other side.

The Blarg stood there for a moment, blankly staring at the spot Ratchet had been in just a few seconds before. “Did I get him?...” the reptile started jumping up and down excitedly. “I think I got him— OWW!!”

The Lombax, rolling his eyes at the display, whacked the soldier on the back of his head. The Blarg fell to his knees, starting to lose consciousness.

“Jerry… you, uhhhhh, you get thhhheee uhhh number of that truck…” He slumped the rest of the way down, unconscious. By this point Ratchet was already ignoring him and was now trying to fight off a genetically-modified Blarg Snapper that, at the moment, was trying to bite his tail off.

“Strange,” Clank said to himself. “According to my database, normally the scientists on this station are supposed to keep these creatures in cages.”

“Any idea on why they’re not??” Ratchet swung his wrench and struck the critter square in the face, knocking a couple of teeth out of its oversized lower jaw. The snapper let out an indignant screech and reared its front up in the air, preparing to charge. A missile landed square in its chest, and the Snapper fell backwards, this time screeching in pain and twitching grotesquely. After a few seconds, it stopped moving.

Ratchet looked over to see Rivet with a Megarocket Cannon resting in her hands. She switched back to her Versa-Hammer and snarked, “You’re welcome.”

The other Lombax observed all the knocked out Blarg soldiers and no-longer-breathing Snappers she’d taken out and just shook his head. He then made his way to the other end of the room and started messing around with the control panel that was placed a few feet from the door that led deeper into the station.

“Clank, got another computer spike handy?” Ratchet asked. For answer, Clank rummaged around in his chest compartment and handed him one.

“Indeed I do,” Clank replied as the Lombax took the spike and inserted it into an empty slot on the panel. Rivet smashed open the bolt and Raritanium crates that were littered all across the room— after all, it would’ve been a waste to just let Drek keep them! Within moments, Ratchet had the door open, and Rivet had smashed open the last crate and retrieved the treasures that lay inside.

Both Lombaxes made their way down the hallway ahead, ears twitching at the slightest noise.

It was… eerily quiet.

Ratchet could feel something was off. His fur puffed up ever so slightly. The only sound that could be heard was the creaking of the metal support beams of the station. And then a hatch in the ceiling a few metres ahead of them swung open, and out came a swarm of ugly green frog-like creatures that trailed slime in their wake. Ratchet made the mistake of attacking one with his wrench and wound up having the critter literally explode in his face, coating his fur, armor, and poor Clank in disgusting pukey-green slime and who knows what else. This didn’t deter Ratchet and Rivet from quickly dispatching the rest.

Soon enough, all the Swarmers were dead, and both the Lombaxes and a certain defect were thoroughly covered in the goo.

“This is disgusting,” Clank grumbled.

“At least you don’t have to smell it, unlike us,” Ratchet snarked.

“Let’s keep moving, guys,” Rivet told them, already jogging towards the other end of the corridor. “We’ve still gotta destroy that Deplanetizer before it leaves the station!” Ratchet followed after her, keeping a steady pace behind. Rivet didn’t bother trying to hack the door to try and open it— instead she smashed the control panel with her hammer. The weapon sent a small surge of electricity through the panel, and the door slid open. On the other side lay the armory section of the station, which was currently occupied by a circle of Blarg sitting at a table in the corner, playing poker.

“I TOLD YOU THOSE WEIRD NOISES IN THE HANGAR WEREN’T FROM LARRY MESSING AROUND WITH THAT STUPID TANK AGAIN!!!” the scrawny Blarg at one corner of the table shrieked, scrambling to his feet and already yanking out a weapon. Some of the other Blarg at the table were about his size, albeit slightly taller. One of the soldiers there, however, was much taller and more muscular than his comrades.

The soldier in question growled, “Going somewhere, pipsqueaks?”

“Oh boy,” Ratchet muttered.

-00000-

Meanwhile!

Elaris’ piloting skills in the middle of a firefight left something to be desired, to say the least.

At least, that’s what both Angela and Em’al were thinking as the Elkai swerved the ship wildly to the side to avoid a barrage of enemy fire. Em’al and Scrap almost smacked into a wall more than once while trying to get back to their own turret to try and help out, and

Angela was having a really hard time getting a decent shot in. I wish my sister was here, she thought as she took aim at a Blarg space fighter jet and fired— only to miss for the hundredth time when Elaris chose at that exact moment to do a barrel roll.

But Angela continued to do the best she could in holding off the enemy ships. She just hoped Ratchet, Clank, and her sister got in and out as quickly as possible.

Things only seemed to get worse when a Blargian Class G Dreadfighter decided to show up. The smaller jet fighters held back when the Dreadfighter arrived— most likely the pilots thought that it would be able to destroy Angela's ship. 

Angela yelled at Elaris, “Looks like the Blarg called in some backup!!”

“I see ’em!” Elaris called back, steering the ship and flying it straight towards the Dreadfighter. “If you could destroy its power node with the turret, it should cause a chain reaction that’ll ignite the fuel tanks and blow up the whole ship— problem is, according to sensors, it’s shielded. And the shield generator is made of Raritanium…” She paused a moment as she swerved the ship up to avoid a giant missile that the Dreadfighter launched. “I got it!! Angela, you mentioned something about having an Ecto-Magnet installed?”

“WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ANYTHING?!?” Angela practically roared as she mowed down several other rockets the Dreadfighter had fired.

“Can you both please stop arguing and maybe come up with a plan before we all end up dead!?!” Em’al shouted at the top of his lungs, petting the currently-trembling Scrap in his lap in an attempt to calm her, all the while trying to aim at the same time so he could shoot something. Thankfully he managed to destroy the few missiles that Angela had missed just a few moments earlier.

“I think I know how we can disable that shield generator, but we need to use the Ecto-Magnet to do it!” Elaris turned the red button that was crudely labelled “Ecto-Magnet, use with caution!” in slightly smeared black marker. She piloted the ship towards the smaller Blarg fighters— which were now starting to back away for fear of being blasted— silently hoping that the device would even work.

Thankfully, it seemed that the magnet was functioning properly— several of the Blarg fighters got caught in the magnet’s field and started floating slowly towards Angela’s ship. Elaris swerved the ship back around and flew it right towards the Dreadfighter. She hit the booster, and the ship sped up, shooting towards its target like a rocket.

“I’ve got to time it just right,” she murmured to herself as the ship continued its approach. “NOW!” Elaris slammed on the brakes and turned the ship around, turning the magnet’s dial at the same time. She hit the booster again as soon as the Blarg fighters slammed into the Dreadfighter’s shield generator, barely avoiding getting roasted by the resulting explosion.

Just as Elaris had hoped, the shield generator was disabled. Well— to be more accurate, there was actually nothing left of the generator, save for some billows of space dust that quickly dispersed into nothingness. She turned the ship back around and started flying towards the Dreadfighter once more. “Okay, Angela, Em’al— once we’re in range, I want you to fire with everything the turrets have got! Aim for the power node— it’s that big giant cylinder with the orange lights on it, on the Dreadfighter’s bow!”

“Got it!” Em’al called back.

“Understood!” Angela also called.

As soon as the node was within range, both Em’al and Angela fired at the same time— unleashing a barrage of blaster fire and a couple of mini-rockets for good measure. They all hit their intended target, and the Dreadfighter was instantly engulfed in brilliant display of fireworks and smoke.

The pilots of the smaller Blarg fighters saw all this and started to fall back to the station— knowing full well they were going to be next.

 -00000-

Back in the Blarg Tactical Research Station!

For the most part, Ratchet, Clank, and Rivet met little resistance— no doubt most of the Blarg had hopped into their fighters and were busy getting blown up by Elaris and the others. And what few Blarg soldiers who were still lurking around on the station were probably just too cowardly to go out into space and risk their lives in that firefight. Occasionally, while walking down some of the corridors of the station, Ratchet and his companions would see the battle going on outside— including the destruction of the Dreadfighter.

“Your girlfriend’s really something, Ratchet,” Rivet remarked casually as they resumed their trek through the station.

“My what??” Ratchet asked blankly. “I don’t have a…” At that moment, just as the two Lombaxes entered a wide circular room in the centre of the station, a giant Blargian Snapper dropped down from the ceiling, drool dripping from its massive, gaping maw.

“Uhhh, maybe we should talk about this later?” Rivet suggested, already leaping towards the massive beast and bringing her hammer down right on its face.

“Agreed,” Clank replied as Ratchet did a dodge roll when a smaller Snapper— about same size as the one they encountered in the hangar— dropped down and tried to snatch him up into its toothy mouth.

The Lombax equipped his Devastator and pulled the trigger— sending a rocket flying right and true into the Snapper’s wide-open jaws. The creature roared in pain, and then gurgled as it sunk to its “knees”— if the joints in its many appendages could even be called knees. And then it sunk all the way to the floor, no longer posing a threat. Ratchet whipped around and shot at the next Snapper that approached him, also dispatching it.

Meanwhile, Rivet was trying to take out the giant Snapper— the “Sovereign” of the Blargian Snappers— smashing its brightly colored carapace in various places with her Versa-Hammer. While the impact itself left little more than a dent in the alien’s shell, the electrical pulse that the hammer delivered thoroughly cooked the beast’s hide, and thus proved itself to be a powerful weapon against the Sovereign Snapper.

Once all the smaller Snappers were done away with, Ratchet turned his attention to the Sovereign Snapper to see Rivet had already dealt the final blow that deterred the Sovereign from attacking further. The alien hissed viciously at the two Lombaxes and backed away from them to the wall at the other end of the room. It crawled up the aforementioned wall and back to its place up on the ceiling, evidently not in the mood for any more fighting. Ratchet, who was breathing heavy at the moment from all the fighting they’d been through in just the space of ten minutes or so, just shrugged tiredly and looked over at Rivet. “Nice work there…”

Rivet, who was hunched over and panting even more heavily than Ratchet, turned her head and gave the Lombax something that was a mix between an annoyed glare and an amused grim. “I just fought a big giant space bug… that’s maybe over half the size of this room!... and all you can say is ‘nice work!’”

The two Lombaxes made their way to the door at the other end of the room, trying to ignore the fact that the Sovereign Snapper was no doubt still watching them warily from above. Rivet took the honor of opening said door by smashing the panel next to it. And on the other side lay the Primary Control Center. The one location where, according to the data supplied by the file they found on Quartu, they could initiate the Deplanetizer’s self-destruct sequence and destroy the weapon once and for all.

Ratchet and Rivet walked over to the console in the middle of the room and looked at each other.

“Well… this is it,” Ratchet said, a note of concern in his voice.

Something bad was going to happen. He knew it. He could feel it in his gut, the organ quickly tensing up for the inevitable. Whatever that inevitable was. Clank approached the computer. He clambered up onto the side of it and observed the keypad. “Hmmm… there is something off about this computer… I am not detecting any—”

A giant Mag-Net engulfed all three heroes from behind, holding them in an electrical field suspended a few feet above the floor.

A horrible grating laugh emanated from the room’s entrance as the net turned exactly 180 degrees, allowing the three to see their captor. And it was none other than Dr. Nefarious himself— but as a robot who looked like he’d gotten caught in the middle of a warzone.

Thick, black cracks lined the robotic mad scientist’s legs and torso, deeply engrained in his armored carapace. His left eye’s pupil shined a bright blood-red, while his right pupil was dull and lifeless, not even a spark of electricity lighting up the damaged lens. A long, wide, black crack lined that same side of his face, starting from just above his upper jaw and ending in the middle of the green glass dome that made up his head.

“Don’t make me laugh,” Nefarious said between giggles, unequipping his Mag-Net Launcher for the time being. “Oh wait! Too late! I’m already laughing, aren’t I?”

The nefarious robot chortled a bit more before finally stopping and getting serious.

“Honestly, you people have to be the biggest idiots in the entire galaxy!! I mean, did you really think that I’d just let you waltz on in here and blow up my stuff will-nilly?!” the scientist shrieked, starting to approach them.

“Lawrence was right about one thing— if anyone can beat a moron at their own game, it’s me. And I just beat a whole bunch of them!! You literally walked right into my trap!”

He stopped walking when he was just a couple of inches away from where Ratchet was trapped in the net.

The Lombax glared down at Nefarious defiantly. “You’ll never win, Nefarious. Even if we can’t save Veldin, do you really think that the rest of Solana is just gonna let you and Drek get away with this—”

“Excuse me!? Can you repeat that?!?” Nefarious didn’t wait for Ratchet, or anyone else, to respond. “‘Drek and I’ aren’t getting away with anything! I did away with that nuisance of a Blarg… just like what I’m going to do with you.”

He paused for a moment, pondering. “But I have a much more fitting end for you than being blasted off into space as a sheep. No… I’ve been preparing for this very moment for far too long!”

“What’re you even talking about?!” Rivet snarled at Nefarious. “Up to this moment, none of us have ever even met you!”

“Ever heard of a multiverse??” Nefarious snickered before continuing, “Maybe we never met in this reality, but in others…”

An evil glint appeared in his one good eye, along with… something else. Something Ratchet couldn’t quite place. That “something else” only seemed to become more visible to the Lombax when Nefarious turned his attention back onto him. The doctor pressed a button on the band wrapped around his wrist, which apparently activated the small thrusters installed in the Mag-Net.

As Nefarious led the net, and the three heroes inside, to what was likely to be their doom, he snarled, “It’s time for me to finally kill you… again.”

Chapter Text

Ratchet couldn’t help but think there was something disturbingly familiar about all this as Nefarious had a couple of Blarg soldiers strap all three of them to giant asteroid, which was attached to a catapult.

But how could he find any of this familiar?

Last he checked, this was the first time he’d ever been tied up to an asteroid— an asteroid on an oversized slingshot, no less. An oversized slingshot that was aimed to send all three heroes flying into space, and thereby their doom. One of the Blarg, who was apparently coming further up the ramp to make sure the strap was secure, sneakily slipped something into Ratchet’s hand.

“If you manage to survive this and come back like the Plumber guy said you would,” the soldier whispered quickly to him, “make Nefarious pay, will you? Oh, and the Plumber told me to tell you he says ‘hi.’ But seriously though—”

The Blarg rambled a little more while he gave the strap a final tug, “— make him pay… please?”

With that said, the Blarg stepped away and turned around, giving the maniacal mad scientist a salute.

Not that it mattered— Nefarious was too busy fussing over the console to care. “I specifically asked for RED buttons!! RED!!! Not GREEN!!”

While the doctor was still distracted, Ratchet moved his arm as best he could and slipped whatever it was the Blarg had given him into his pocket.

The soldier blinked at him. “Sir?”

“WHAAAATT?!? Can’t you see I’m busy?!”

“The strap is secure,” the Blarg told him, scurrying off the ramp and taking his place beside his brethren. Nefarious smiled at this and forgot his rage over the buttons for the moment.

“Excellent!” the robotic scientist growled, rubbing his hands together enthusiastically. His eyes flicked up to look at the three soon-to-be-dead prisoners strapped to the asteroid, and his evil smile widened.

“You know, there was a time it would’ve broken my mechanical heart to do this to you,” Nefarious hissed that them. He locked his gaze with Ratchet’s, and his red eyes narrowed. “There was a time I might’ve even called you my friends. But now? I feel absolutely nothing. And once I press this button— WHICH IS STILL NOT RED LIKE I SPECIFICALLY ORDERED!!!— the only thing I’ll feel is joy at your demise at my claws!!”

The nefarious doctor burst into a fit of giggles, which quickly morphed into his trademark evil laughter. He slammed his fist down on the button, and the asteroid flew past him with a whoosh. Out of sight, out of mind, Nefarious thought to himself.

Nefarious turned around and faced the small group of Blarg soldiers, who were still standing attention in a short line behind him.

“You there, Steve, or whatever your name is,” he said, pointing at the soldier who was responsible for making sure the strap was secure. “Stand over there. Now.”

“Steve” gulped and nodded in response, wordlessly making his way to the spot that Nefarious was now pointing to. Once the soldier was standing there, the mad scientist turned his attention to another soldier in the line.

“You— Barry is it?— step forward a bit and pull out your blaster.” Barry’s eyes widened as he realized what Nefarious was about to make him do. He stepped forward, trembling as he slowly pulled his Lancer out of his holster.

“Now aim at him,” Nefarious ordered, pointing at Steve, who too realized what was happening. Barry hesitantly lifted his Lancer up, pointing it at his fellow soldier.  “Fire.”

Barry didn’t. His finger curled around the trigger, but he wouldn’t pull it. “I can’t do it— he’s my friend-”

Nefarious practically roared at Barry and— in one motion— had stepped forward and ripped the Lancer out of his hand. “I’m sorry, can you repeat that?! Your FRIEND?!? If you won’t do it…” The mad scientist took aim at Steve, who was looking back at him in wide-eyed terror. “… then I will!”

And he pulled the trigger. Steve fell, the scorched hole in his chest smoldering, and before anyone could react, Nefarious put one in Barry’s skull as well. He turned towards the remaining Blarg, relishing in their terror.

“Anyone else? No? Good. NOW GET BACK TO WORK!!”

-00000-

Not much later!

“Wha— the Deplanetizer! It’s… it’s leaving!…”

From where she’d parked the ship a safe distance away from the Blarg Tactical Research Station, Elaris could see through the cockpit window that the Deplanetizer was detaching itself from the station. The thrusters lining the bottom of the superweapon kicked in, propelling it away from the station. A swarm of Blarg fighters left the now-open hangar of the aforementioned station and followed after the Deplanetizer to protect it.

Em’al, Scrap, and Angela made their way up to the front of the ship to see what was happening. “We failed,” Em’al murmured to himself softly. “Drek’s won…”

“My sister— we need to get in there and save her!—”

“No!” Elaris whipped her head around to look at Angela. “Angela… I’m sorry, but… if they weren’t able to destroy the Deplanetizer then—”

“Don’t you dare,” Angela hissed, her sharp claws extending through the cloth of her gloves. “Don’t you dare say it. She’s not dead— they’re not dead—!”

“Angela!” Elaris snapped. She got up out of her seat and glared at her, crossing her arms. “If we don’t try to finish what we started, then more innocent people are going to die! Veldin is populated! And he’s not gonna stop there! Not until he has enough pieces for his ‘perfect planet’— and by then there might be nothing left of the galaxy!”

She paused and sighed, trying to calm down. “I think, regardless of whether or not they’re still… I think they’d want us to keep going.”

Angela closed her eyes, silent for a long moment. Her claws retracted back underneath her gloves. “Fine. We’ll do it your way. But only because it’s what my sister would’ve wanted.”

-00000-

Sometime later… location unknown…

“Ngggh…” Ratchet slowly got up onto his knees as consciousness returned to him. Two sets of hands were supporting him— three hands were cold and metallic, one warm and gloved. “Wha… where are… where are we??”

The Lombax opened his eyes and was greeted by the sight of Clank’s and Rivet’s concerned faces.

“No idea,” Rivet answered as she and Clank helped Ratchet to his feet. “I’m still trying to figure out how we even survived the impact. And getting fried in the atmosphere, for that matter.” She tilted her head in the direction of the scorched asteroid resting in a crater a ways away, still smoking from the crash.

“It’s the Zoni again,” Ratchet told her. There was an odd edge in his voice as he spoke. The feline turned away from his friends and just stared at the asteroid for a long moment, troubled.

“Ratchet?” Clank addressed, his voice low. “Are you… alright?”

“No, Clank,” Ratchet growled, turning back around to look at them. “I’m not ‘alright!’ We just lost— we LOST— obviously I’m not alright! Nefarious won, and now he’s gonna destroy Veldin and who knows how many other planets!! And here we are, stuck on some stormy, rainy, lifeless rock of a planet— or moon, or whatever— and we don’t even have a ship! And don’t even get me started on the stupid Zoni!!” 

He gave a mirthless laugh and plopped his rear back down in the muck, resting his elbows on his knees and letting his face fall into his hands. “It’s hopeless…”

There was a few seconds of silence. Rivet broke it by saying, “So, you’re just gonna sit here, wallowing in your own self-pity while Nefarious wipes out your home and everyone on it??”

Ratchet lifted up his head, mouth open to say something, but she didn’t let him get a word in.

“What about my home?! What if Nefarious goes after Grelbin, my people— our people!? There are billions of people who will die if we do nothing! At least my priorities are set straight!!”

“Rivet, while I agree with everything you have said, please allow me to handle this,” Clank told the silver-furred Lombax gently.

Rivet scoffed and turned away.

Clank stepped forward and, after a moment of consideration, put a hand on Ratchet’s shoulder as he said, “Ratchet, we have come so far already. I know in here—” He pointed to his metal chest, where his heart would be if he had one. “— that we can do this. We will stop Nefarious. We just need to keep going for a little bit longer.”

The whole time Clank spoke, Ratchet didn’t look at him— instead, he just stared down at his feet. He was still staring at his feet when Clank finished. When the Lombax didn’t move, or even respond, the defect felt the small sliver of hope left in his circuitry beginning to fade. And then Ratchet did do something.

He tugged on Clank’s arm, pulling him into a hug.

“You’re right,” Ratchet said quietly. “We might still have a shot. And we’ve gotta use it while we have the chance.”

“I am pleased to see you have returned to your senses, Ratchet,” Clank replied, pulling away from the Lombax after a moment. “Also, your previous statement in regards to this planet being lifeless is inaccurate. My sensors detect various wildlife nearby in this part of the canyon. In addition, I am picking up an odd radio signal approximately three kilometers to the south. If you and Rivet are still able to use your hoverboots, I believe we will reach the source within the hour. Perhaps there we may find something that can help us.”

Ratchet smiled, and allowed Clank to climb up onto his back as he replied, “What’d I ever do without you?”

“I would not know,” Clank answered with some amusement.

Ratchet looked over at Rivet, still smiling. “Race you there.”

“You’re on,” Rivet told him, smirking back at him. And with that said, both Lombaxes activated their respective transportation equipment and rocketed down the canyon. As they sped across the rocky terrain at near-breakneck speeds, Ratchet could see numerous gloomy ruins along the way, the massive stone structures jutting up into the rainy sky. Cragmite ruins, something told him.

This planet… it was Reepor, wasn’t it?

A very fitting name, considering the bleak, rampant storms currently plaguing the area.

As Clank had said, they were able to reach the source of the transponder signal within the hour. Ratchet deactivated his hoverboots as he came to a stop before a massive stone temple, which was carved into the rock face of one of the canyon walls. Rivet landed a few paces behind the other Lombax, and walked up to where he was standing.

“So… it’s in there?” she asked.

“Only one way to find out,” Ratchet replied, pressing activating the flashlight in his pilot’s cap. The inside of the temple was illuminated, allowing them to see as they stepped inside. Ancient glyphs and runes were carved all over the walls, and some even on the ceiling. But unlike the runes Ratchet and Clank saw in the Zoni temple on Grelbin, these weren’t glowing. And they were in a different language, whatever language the Cragmites in this area used to use. Ratchet couldn’t read them.

Thunder clashed outside the temple, and lightning briefly shone through the temple opening, brightening up the somewhat cramped corridor for a split-second. The two Lombaxes continued their trek, going deeper and deeper into the dark, dank temple.

After a long time of walking down the narrow— and windy— tunnel, Clank announced, “We are now approximately ten meters away from the source of the signal.”

Soon they entered a massive cylindrical stone chamber that was brightly lit up by a giant bulb attached to the ceiling.

“Whoa…” As he turned off his cap’s flashlight, Ratchet looked around the room in amazement— scattered all across the Raritanium tables and the tile floors were half-finished projects, random parts in general, and tools of all sorts. Whoever lived here— and for all this equipment and machinery to be here, someone had to be living here, or at least come here often— was very technologically minded and took pleasure in their work. “Look at all this stuff!”

“Is this a grav-o-metric warp drive?” Rivet asked, picking up from a nearby table a small sphere with several cylindrical rods sticking out of it.

“I’d be careful with that, if I were you,” a high-pitched, slightly scratchy voice called from across the room. Ratchet, Rivet, and Clank turned their heads to see an odd-looking creature sitting at a worktable a ways away, tinkering with… something. Ratchet couldn’t really tell what it was from where he was standing.

“It’s highly unstable, and very likely to explode if you drop it— so, if you please…” The alien pointed with a hydrospanner at the table Rivet had gotten the device from in the first place.

She quickly and gently put it back, and then followed Ratchet and Clank as they approached the alien.

“My name is Percival Tachyon,” the alien “Percival” explained, now seeming more cheerful upon Rivet following their suggestion. They clambered up onto the table and swung a random wrench up in the air dramatically as they went on, “and I am the greatest inventor in the universe!” 

Their oversized goggles slid over their eyes in the process, and they were forced to push them back up onto their forehead. “Ahem— anyway… Zurgo might say otherwise, but don’t listen to him— he just keeps trying to steal all my work! He’s a really petty fellow, that one. Outshine people like him just once, and all they ever do is copy you so they can make a few more bolts an hour.”

“You are an inventor, you say?” Clank asked. He did not wait for an answer as he went on, “Are you not also considered a criminal in both the Bogon and Polaris Galaxies?”

“A criminal?!” Percival seemed taken aback by this accusation. Rivet smelled bull all over them, but she didn’t get a chance to say anything as the alien continued, “I’m not a criminal— sure, I did a few favors for Megacorp, and they paid well! Plus I needed the money for a project of mine. And anyway, the people I… disposed of were crooks. At least… that’s what they told me. To be honest, they kinda kept me outta the loop on some things… make that a lot of things…”

There was a long pause.

“… make that everything… but whatever, it’s not like I can resurrect the dead. I’m an inventor, not a miracle worker.”

Ratchet shook his head. “Are you the one who’s been broadcasting that radio signal?”

“Huh?” Percival stared at him blankly for a moment. “Oh!! I’ve been tinkering with some old communication equipment. Guess I turned on something by mistake.” The alien shrugged.

“Well, we kinda need to get off this planet,” Rivet said. “It’s a matter of galactic importance… to put it one way. Got anything that might help us?”

Percival was only half-listening, as their eyes were glued to the glove Ratchet was wearing. “Oooh— is that a Omniglove? I haven’t seen one of those in over three Galactic Standard cycles!” They turned to look at Rivet as her words were finally processed by their mind. “Hmm? Oh, yes, I have something! Hold on a moment.”

The eccentric alien slid off the table and made their way over to wide, short pathway that led into another chamber— one that was twice as big as the previous. Percival stopped and turned around to face the others. “Well?? What are you three just standing there for? You’re the ones who wanted help, so get over here!”

Ratchet shared a look with Clank. “Someone’s kinda bossy.”

“I heard that!”

-00000-

Percival led the three heroes towards an old, rusted ship tucked away in the corner of the chamber. “Aphelion,” the eccentric little alien called to the ship, readjusting their goggles. “Aphelion! Wake up!”

The ship— which was painted a light red-brown, yellow runes in the Lombax language painted on each side— hummed to life. Aphelion lifted up in the air a bit, took one look at Percival, and scoffed. “What is it now, you incessant little prick—”

“Now now, none of that,” Percival interrupted. They gestured to their companions as they went on, “We have guests!”

Aphelion then turned her attention to the people her current owner was referring to, and her voice soften as she said, “A Lombax! Oh— two! I haven’t seen one of you in a very long time… it has been many, many centuries. The only company I’ve had of late is this absolute loon—” Percival let out an indignant “Hey!” which went ignored as the sentient ship continued, “— who won’t even let me out of the hangar for a loop or two around the canyon!”

“Anyway,” Percival spoke before anyone else had a chance to comment, “Aphelion here is installed with one of my more… experimental grav-o-metric warp drives. Feel free to take her— if you survive the trip, she’ll get you where you need to be. If you don’t, weeeelllll… there probably won’t be anything left of your bodies for a proper funeral.”

“You must be real fun at parties, huh, Percy?” Ratchet snarked.

Percival poked Ratchet in the chest with their wrench, glaring daggers at him. “Don’t call me Percy.” They didn’t wait for a response as they said, “And if you do survive the trip, and finish up whatever it is you need to do, please be sure to wire me some bolts— there’s a guy on Qwark’s List from Pokitaru who’s willing to sell me his Persuader, and I want to make sure I get it before Zurgo does.”

“Do not worry, friend,” Clank told them. “Once the galaxy is safe from harm, you will be compensated for your services.”

“One more thing before we go,” Ratchet spoke up, pulling a small object out of his pocket— the same object that the one Blarg soldier had given him moments before the trio got launched into space. He handed the object to Percival and continued, “Is there anything you can do with this?”

Percival looked up at Ratchet, instantly realising what the object in their hands was. They smiled and responded, “Yes, I believe there is. But I’m going to need a pair of Omni-Wrenches though… and a nav-unit.”

-00000-

Sometime later… planet Veldin!!

“Hey, that’s weird,” Ratchet said as Clank piloted Aphelion into Veldin’s atmosphere. The Lombax was busy studying the viewer for the ship’s sensor array. “I’m picking up what looks like… hit the brakes, Clank!”

Clank halted the ship for the moment and looked over at his friend in puzzlement. “What is it?” Rivet peeked between the front at the viewer screen, also curious.

“Angela’s ship is in front of my garage!” Ratchet looked over at the defect sitting beside him. “We should land.” Clank nodded in agreement and carefully set the ship down next to the garage. Aphelion opened the cockpit without waiting for the order, evidently having anticipated this as being their next command. Ratchet, Clank, and Rivet climbed out the ship one by one.

“Ratchet!” Without warning, Elaris had pulled Ratchet into her arms, squeezing him in her “tight as a vice” version of a hug. “You’re okay!”

“I can’t— breathe,” Ratchet gasped, feeling the air being pushed out of his lungs. Any tighter and his ribs would probably crack.

“Oh— sorry!” Elaris quickly released him, and the Lombax felt the sweet sensation of oxygen rushing back into his lungs. Ratchet turned his head to see Angela and Rivet hugging each other, both happy to see that neither was dead. Em’al stood off to the side a bit, smiling at them.

“We still need to stop Nefarious before he destroys my home,” Ratchet said. He turned to Rivet. “You and the others should get off this planet while you still can—” The silver-furred Lombax had opened her mouth to object, but Ratchet raised his hand for quiet. “There’s no guarantee I’m going to be able to stop him… and if I lose, then it’s up to you guys to finish what we started.”

“We’re not leaving,” Elaris said firmly.

“Elaris, please—”

“We’re supposed work together!” Em’al added. “That’s what teams do.”

“But—”

“And if we all die together, then so be it.” Angela smiled gently. “At least we’ll be at each other’s sides.”

“Don’t you get it?” Ratchet’s voice rose, soaring high with his frustration. He clutched his head, fingers digging into his pilot’s cap. “I can’t lose you! Any of you!”

“And we can’t lose you!” Elaris’ breathing was quick with her anger. “So let us help! We got this far together, I know we can stop him if we keep working as a team!”

“Elaris is correct, Ratchet,” Clank spoke up. “Against all odds, we have managed to make it to this point in time. We can do this, but it has to be together.”

Ratchet heaved a sigh, dropping his hands. “You guys really aren’t gonna budge on this, are you?”

Rivet’s hands settled on her hips as she grinned in amusement. “What do you think?”

Ratchet rolled his eyes, smiling a bit. “Alright… can you guys do aerial support?”

Elaris looked up at Angela’s ship and Aphelion. Both were armed with decent weapons. She looked back down at Ratchet and smiled. “I think you’re in luck, Ratchet.”

-00000-

Sometime later…

Ratchet took a deep breath as he tightened his grip on his newly constructed Double-Ended Omni-Wrench and stepped up off the sandy trail and onto the platform before him. Ahead he could see a giant mech just sitting there, and Nefarious sprawled in a chair inside the big, green glass dome.

He’d been waiting for the duo for some time.

“Ahh, it’s about time you two showed up!” Nefarious drawled gleefully upon spotting them. He sat up straighter in his chair, hands already making their way to the controls.

“I was beginning to think that asteroid might’ve actually killed you. Which would’ve been a shame, honestly, I’ve been looking forward to disemboweling you here, on your own home planet. Your little adventure has come end, at the same place it began. Poetic, isn’t it?”

Nefarious smirked evilly down at the Lombax as he activated the mech and began charging up his weapons.

“This is the part,” Ratchet said, gripping his wrench and crouching low, “where you lose!”

Chapter Text

Ratchet yelped as Nefarious’ mech shot up the Magne-Rail directly in front of him with a barrage of missiles, which forced the Lombax to leap off the rail and use his Omniglove to warp onto the undamaged one running parallel to it. His hoverboots continued to propel him along the rail at high speeds, allowing him to keep up with the mech.

“Why won’t you just STAY STILL?!?!?” Nefarious shrieked at the top of his vocal synthesizers, once more blasting up the railway. Ratchet leapt, his fur getting slightly singed from the flames left behind in the missiles’ wake. He equipped his Swingshot and grappled onto a nearby canyon rock face.

The Lombax ran across the side of the rock wall and disengaged his Swingshot as he boosted off, just as Nefarious decided to lob a massive ball of purple energy at him. Ratchet’s hoverboots propelled him onto another Magne-Rail and he resumed his chase.

“Stop MOVING!!” the mad scientist screeched, raising his mech’s arm and smashing the rail ahead with it.

Clank activated his Thruster Pack at the same time Ratchet jumped, allowing the duo to sail over the massive gap— barely. The rail then ended as it reached a wide, circular platform in the middle of the canyon.

A series of other rails were attached to it, leading to who knows where. Ratchet switched back to his new Omni-Wrench and, just as Nefarious’ mech came in close to try and squash him with its fist, the Lombax swung his wrench— catapulting a ball of ice directly at the mech’s dome. The frozen water coated the outside of the dome, rendering it impossible for Nefarious to see through it.

Ratchet took this opportunity to tele-equip his Devastator and bombard the mech with missile after missile.

“You think you’re so clever, don’t you?!” Nefarious shouted as he switched on his sensor array.

The scientist lobbed orbs of explosive purple energy at the Lombax, one after the other, naturally forcing the feline to jump out of the way of each one. And just as Ratchet leapt to dodge the last one, the torso of Nefarious’ mech opened up and catapulted a small metal disc that sparked with electricity— and hit the Lombax dead centre in the chest. Ratchet hit the ground front-first with a cry, and whimpered in pain as the high voltage coursed painfully through both his body and Clank's.

Just as Nefarious swung his mech’s fist downward to crush them, and Ratchet closed his eyes, bracing himself, there was the sound of fire bursting from above. The Lombax’s eyelids opened, and he saw Aphelion and Angela’s ship firing on Nefarious’ mech. He grinned and fist-pumped.

“Way to go, guys!” he called, even if they couldn’t hear him at the moment.

Nefarious swiped his giant claws at them— the ships weaved wildly away, but the near collision instantly spoiled Ratchet’s mood, and now he was pissed.

“Nefarious, this needs to stop!” Ratchet snarled, equipping his Predator Launcher.  

“Excuse me!?” Nefarious growled right back. “You’re not the one in charge of this evil scheme! I AM!! So why don’t you zip it and just die already?!”

He then started bombarding the platform with missiles, forcing Ratchet to leap onto the nearest Magne-Rail.

He hurtled across the rail, Nefarious’ mech following close behind. The mech rocketed past him, one of its arms transforming into a giant, heavily modified version of the Megacorp Zodiac.

Nefarious pointed the mech’s newly-transformed arm at the rail ahead of Ratchet and started blasting it, leaving nothing left of the long rod of metal— save for blackened ash that blew away in the wind. The robot pointedly ignored the ships firing on him, all too busy trying to kill the two heroes on the rail.

Ratchet leapt, and used his Swingshot to grapple onto another rock face. “Is it just me, or does it seem like Nefarious really enjoys the idea of us falling to our deaths?”

The Lombax disengaged his Swingshot and boosted off the rock wall, falling a little ways before landing on a large, stony plateau. He blasted across it, weaving between the laser blasts Nefarious shot at them, before ramping off an incline jutting out of the edge of the plateau and— with the help of his Omniglove— phasing onto another Magne-Rail.

“I think I see the Deplanetizer dead ahead!” The Lombax gritted his teeth as the realisation came to him.

Nefarious had purposefully led them here.

Ratchet jumped off the rail just before he reached the point where it winded away from the superweapon and hit the Deplanetizer’s central upper platform feet first. Nefarious’ mech settled down across from him, and the glass dome dissipated. The mad scientist rubbed his hands together gleefully as he stepped out into the open.

Ratchet just stared at him disbelief.

“What’re you looking at me like that for?” Nefarious asked, seemingly amused. “I got a little bored with my mech— I’d much rather end your wretched existence by slicing your throat open with my own claws. It’s more personal that way.”

“In your dreams, Nefarious!” Ratchet snarled, equipping his wrench once more. “I’m not gonna let you destroy my home!”

“Always gotta play the hero, don’t you?” Nefarious drawled, his hands now beginning to glow a violet-red. “We’ll see how much farther that gets you today. You, Clank, and even that bumbling moron Qwark— you acted like you cared— got under my circuitry… and not a single one of you even had the decency to tell me to my face that I meant nothing to you!!”

“You sure you’re not the one who drove them away?!" Ratchet shot back, getting into a battle stance and charging up his Omni-Wrench. 

“Enough talk already,” Nefarious hissed, his voice darkening as he slowly approached the Lombax. “Fight me,” he growled, an evil smile spreading across his face. Ratchet barely had enough time to dash out of the way as a holographic copy of Nefarious darted forward, slashing at him with its claws.

“One dead little Lombax,” Nefarious sang gleefully as he launched another holographic version of himself at the feline in question, “and one dead little robot!”

Ratchet tucked and rolled out of the way, panting heavily from exhaustion. He scrambled to his feet and swung his wrench towards the villain, sending shards of ice flying at him. Nefarious flung up a protective shield, blocking the attack.

“Is that all you’ve got?” the villainous robot snarled. “I’ve killed countless versions of you who could hit harder than that!!”

“So how come you haven’t been able to kill us yet?” Ratchet snarked back, swinging his wrench again and launching a long shard of ice hurtling towards Nefarious.

“Maybe I want to savor the moment!”

Nefarious leapt straight up into the air and, as he rocketed back down, slammed his hands down hard on the platform, sending a purple-ish black shockwave rippling across the metal. Ratchet, with the help of Clank’s Thruster Pack, managed to jump over it.

A computerized voice spoke up from the speakers installed in the Deplanetizer. “Activation codes received. Initiating Deplanetization in three… two… one.” A loud hum began to rise from the machine underneath Ratchet’s feet as it powered up. A laser shot out from the Deplanetizer’s massive nozzle, starting to carve into the planet’s crust. “Deplanetization will be complete in T-minus five minutes.”

“You won’t be able to stop it now!” Nefarious laughed maniacally as a purple orb of energy appeared in each of his hands. “Even if you manage to kill me, Veldin will be destroyed with you on it!”

And in that moment, his Omniglove’s visor registered a new rift opening up in the Deplanetizer’s core chamber. A light bulb went off in Ratchet’s head. He switched over to his Omniglove and grappled onto the anomaly, phasing through the layers of metal and into the central chamber of the superweapon.

“Ratchet…?”

“I have an idea!” Ratchet told him. He could faintly hear Nefarious’ frustrated shrieking from somewhere above. No doubt the scientist would be climbing into his mech momentarily and tear the weapon apart just to get to them. “But we’re probably not gonna survive it.”

Ratchet re-equipped his Omni-Wrench and started smashing the Deplanetizer’s power core with it.

“Ratchet, what’s going on? Where did you go!?!” Elaris sounded terrified over the comm, and Ratchet felt a pang in his chest.

Sorry Elaris.

“If that is the case…” Clank looked up at the Lombax. “… then may I say it has been a pleasure to be your friend.”

Ratchet smiled at the defect’s words and resumed smashing the core. Clank stood beside him, not moving, informing Elaris of the situation and getting an earful from her. But there is no other way. The core started to crack under the impacts, and flames spurted out of the newly created gaps.

As Nefarious’ mech started to tear open the Deplanetizer to reach the duo, the power core exploded.