This is another part of the Soul Kingdom series! Introducing Ratchet's story! Hope you enjoy and be sure to leave a review! All characters belong with their respective series!

Prologue: Pre-Paradox

Is this the gateway to the afterlife? I clearly remember Allister firing at me with his Omniwrench. I felt so much pain, so much. I could barely stand. When I looked at him... the first lombax I had ever met in my life... all I saw was betrayal and pure rage. And then, I felt myself falling.

I thought I heard someone call out to me as I fell. It sounded like Clank.

Clank. After we have finally reunited, he had to leave to take care of the Great Clock. But in the end... it was me who left. Left him to defend the Clock from Azimuth. All... by himself. Clank... forgive me...

"Step forward," a sudden, disembodied voice called out.

Who is that? And where am I? To find that out, I did what the voice had requested and stepped forward.

"Please take this." A Combustor appeared before me. I immediately checked where I keep my weapons and I find it empty. Maybe it's because I'm dead... maybe? But if Im dead, why am I being given a weapon? This is too weird, this is Clank's territory. So I just grabbed the Combustor by the handle.

A moment later, a second platform appeared followed by a bridge that connected the three.

Right. The platform far away with that... thing. Really, what is that guy? I have no idea what is going on. Maybe that... thing has an idea? With the thought in my mind, I slowly crossed the bridge towards the center platform that was created. Maybe I'll finally get some answers about who that guy is once I finally meet him face-to-face?

Step forward and meet your link."

"My 'link'?" I couldn't help but ask. "I don't even know what that thing is."

"He is not your enemy. I promise." Looks like I still didn't have a choice. I turned my focus to the guy, who was staring back at me in bewilderment. Nothing new to me, being a member of an endangered species in this dimension... if this even was my dimension.

The guy was really strange. He had no arms, no legs, no neck - how does he breathe?! - but his hands, feet and head seemed to be kinetically connected to his torso, which was purple with a white ring and a red hood. His head looked like a peach colored vegetable was stuck on him and his yellow and orange (or is it ginger?) hair looked like rabbit ears. So in all, he's strange, but a little goofy looking.

We both were cautiously walking toward each other. When he noticed that I was carrying my Combustor, the thing got defensive, raising his gloved fists. I quickly hid the shotgun to not show harm.

"Whoa, hold on," I said, holding a hand up. "I'm not here to fight. But I would like to know what you are." The thing only stayed in his current position.

"I was wondering the same thing," he said. Did...did he really talk? With no voice box? With no neck in general? I literally felt my Combustor slip out of my grip in the shock.

"You can talk?! How is that possible?!" The guy seemed to be slightly amused and relaxed.

"Not even I know the answer to that."

I stared at the thing in bewilderment. Not even he knew how he's able to talk? This guy's really starting to confuse me more and more. First I discovered that bizarre appearance of his and then I find out that he can somehow speak.

"Um... Hope you don't mind me asking, but what are you?" He chuckled nervously.

"That's a long story." Then, he looked me over again. "I could ask the same to you, umm..."

"Ratchet. I'm a Lombax. There's not many of us left." I decided to take the peaceful initiative and held out my free hand. To my relief, he smiled back. The guy seemed like he couldn't even be close to my age. Then, his gloved hand took mine.

"Lombax, huh? That's a new one in the Glade. I'm Rayman. Nice to meet you." Rayman? That's an unusual name. I wonder what that's about.

"The Glade? I've never heard of that place before."

"Well, it's a little bit complicated to explain, you see," Rayman said. "I would ask you about where you're from, but I have a feeling that it's also complicated too."

"I guess I don't have to go into too much detail about that now, huh?" I asked while chuckling sheepishly.

I caught a strange sound a moment later and some kind of barrier came between me and Rayman. We both stared in surprise and I tested the barrier with my hand. It was like there was a wall.

"Sometimes, you need to fight on your own..." the voice said.

"Am I the only that..."

"Heard a voice? Good, I'm not completely crazy," Rayman commented. Thank goodness I wasn't losing my mind either.

Dark monsters appeared a moment later. "Uh, have you seen anything like this, Rayman?"

"I've definitely never seen anything like these things before back at the Glade!" Rayman exclaimed.

The two of us slowly backed away from the strange monsters as they slowly approached us. Seriously, what are those things, anyway?

"They're not Nightmares..." I heard him say.

"Nightmares?"

"Either way, don't let these beasts touch you!" Quickly, Rayman began swinging his fists at the creeps. They're sent flying, but they got back up. Quickly, I grabbed for the Combustor and started blasting them.

I kept attacking them, but my weapon seemed useless. Just what are these things?

"Okay, these things are definitely not normal!" I exclaimed in surprise from the fact that my weapon did nothing to the creatures.

"Just what's with these things anyway?" Rayman asked. "It's like they're completely immune to everything we do to them!"

Suddenly, the things just disappeared and I heard the barrier go down.

"And sometimes, you need to fight alongside others." All of a sudden, a giant, distorted, grey monster with a strange symbol on its head climbed onto the platform.

"Wh-what is that thing?!" Rayman asked, obviously frightened.

"I-I don't know! Why would I recognize that thing?!" The monster attacked, swinging its claws at us. Both of us quickly jumped out of he way.

"We have to at least try to take this thing down!"

"I'm not sure if our attacks will do anything to this guy, but I guess it couldn't hurt to try!" Rayman said.

Sadly, however, our hopes of actually doing any to the creature immediately faded away. No matter how many times I shot at it with the Combustor or how many times Rayman hit it with his fists, not even a scratch appeared on the monster.

I felt nervous. Not like the usual live-or-die nervous on the battlefield like I'm used to, but we're-going-to-die nervous. That thing could really destroy us with one hit. We were both backing away from the monster, but we came to a halt when we saw that we had nowhere else to go.

I stared up at the creature, dread clutching my heart. I never felt more... terrified.

"You have been ill prepared to fight the new threats to your worlds," the voice said. I was about to snap that of course we were, but then the voice spoke again. "We will help you this one time."

In a flash, the creature was struck by a large bolt of lightning. The creature cried out in pain for the first time. I heard the sound of a sword - A sword? Something that ancient? Come on - and a few seconds later, the monster fell apart and melted into darkness.

"Do not worry. You will make connections on your new journey. These connections will give you powers you can only imagine."

I glanced over at Rayman and I could tell just by the look on his face that he was just perplexed as to what just happened before us as well.

Suddenly, the entire platform we were standing on soon became completely engulfed in a bright light. And for a split moment, I thought I heard the sounds of a loud, old fashioned clock.

"Who are you?" I heard Rayman ask.

"You will meet us soon." 'Us'?

"Hey Ratchet!" Rayman called through the light. "We'll meet again, right?"

"After what we've gone through, it is definitely possible."

I heard Rayman give a light chuckle.

"I had the same thought as well," Rayman said. "And until that day comes, I'll definitely keep thinking about this experience, Ratchet."

"Yeah. I'll definitely be thinking about this meeting with you too, Rayman," I said as a small smile began to form on my face.

"See you soon."

"Yeah, see ya." The last thing I remembered was... a warm, blinding light.

Tick tock... ding...!

Clank pushed me out of the way of Azimuth's attack. Wait, when did that happen? He was so fast. I felt like something else happened, but hitting the glass floor broke that thought. I got up and stared in disbelief as Azimuth.

He tried to kill me. He tried to kill me so he can bring back the Lombaxes.

Was the encounter with Rayman just a dream? It felt so real.

But whether it was a dream or not, I couldn't stop staring at Azimuth. Both of the thoughts of Rayman and the fact that Azimuth had attempted to end my life flooded my mind with seemingly no end.

Azimuth then took off on his hoverboots. I pushed all those thoughts away and began to pursuit him with Clank on my back.

End chapter.