The Universe(es). Always a strange place to live in. No matter what dimension or time.
Well, have I got some tales to tell you.
Some around a fated pair of heroes.
Some around the personal servants of the Grey God.
"Some...about the days before the assault on Fastoon. Orvus contacted me with a hologram, and told me to leave my son behind in Solana. 'I would not regret it.' was his choice of words. We were dear partners for the sake of each other's safety on the two occasions that I knew he'd left the Great Clock. He was surprised that I even knew as much as I did about the Zoni. Somehow...he meant for my little boy and his own son to meet. I never found out why. After all the years of watching my son in secret, and eventually leading Percy to him on accident...
"I had no idea the adventures that it caused for them would be so grand. Orvus was right. I do not regret him and Clank ever having met. I had no idea...because...I'm still stuck inside this berth capsule, healing slowly from my own battle with Percy. I thought it cost me my life. I felt my soul letting go. But then, like Orvus has said to me once or twice, sometimes the universe has a funny way of doing things. I believe it, considering where I am.
"If my son had never met Clank, Drek would have destroyed the world he lived on. Clank would have been scrapped; never would have made it to the Clock at all. But why am I still alive, in all this?"
"Perhaps..." A silhouette of a Lombax stood in front of a bright light that surged into the dark medical berth chamber from the hallway, "Because I can't allow myself to let my husband die, Kaden."
"Ah. Trüst."
"I'm glad that you're finally awake, dear. Telling you all those reports about your son while you were a vegetable was getting depressing." Kaden chuckled.
"Well, General, some part of me was paying attention. I just wish I could have gone to the Clock and told Alister off myself. It would have saved his life."
"Alister was exiled on Hathor's orders, not your opinion. I believe he knew more than you did about what was going on."
"I tried back then, tried my hardest to tell him not to trust Percy. I even tried to tell him why. The Great War ended right in front of that little one's eyes, Trüst. He might not have acutally been on Reepor when the Dimensionator was used to move the Cragmites, but considering that record of it was left...the difference is the same. I couldn't take him back. Not after seeing the fury and the vengeance burning in his eyes.
"I knew that he was going to return the favor, somehow. Make us suffer for leaving him to be the last of his kind in the universe. That's why I tried to tell Alister to not go through with getting his help. Hathor agreed with me, saying that Percy had changed, and was now more like a Cragmite than whatever my social experiment was trying to prove."
"Alister ignored us both until that day."
Ratchet & Clank: The Tales of Kaden
1
"Hey-hey! Ratchet, ol' buddy!" Qwark said as Ratchet entered the room, and had to stifle a laugh.
"Wh...what happened to you?" Qwark waved his free arm, the only part of him that wasn't in a cast.
"Oh, just a little trouble with Snowball. You know, war groks don't make very good pets unless you carry about fifty pounds of ground beef for every now and then. I think I learned that lesson the hard way."
"How'd you escape? Or even end up here?" Qwark pointed at the table next to his hospital bed. On it were a book that said "Don't Freak" in silver letters on the cover, a ring large enough to fit Qwark's fingers, and a blue pyramid that looked very familiar to Ratchet.
"Those, an asteroid, and some luck." Ratchet picked up the blue pyramid, and turned it to see that there was Lombax writing on one side of it, that read M E M O.
"Qwark. Where did you get this?"
"Oh, that? I found it in Nefarious' station while I was undercover." Ratchet touched the base of it, and it sprung to life, displaying a hologram that looked like an older Ratchet, but in different armor.
If you're playing this message, then hello, Ratchet. You probably don't remember me, but that's because I left you on Veldin to keep you away from Tachyon.
I know that he was bright for a Cragmite. That's natural for their royalty, but at least he fell for the trick involving using a gravometric warp drive that was incapable of passing through the Deepspace Helioshields. That stalled him for at least eighteen years now, even with Terachnoids working on a solution. I still laugh about it, but today is a horrible day for the both of us.
Tachyon's fleet passed by Veldin while I was relaxing there, and here I am, at the assault on Metropolis, to protect Mayor Sasha. She tells me that you're a love interest of hers. You dog, you're already chasing Cazars at your age. Haha. But anyway, I have a story to tell you. A story that, naturally, you're going to run into bits and pieces of with each of these hologram storage units. I want to begin, I think, with how we managed to escape from Fastoon, and yes, Sasha and Helga are listening to every word right now, too.
HELLO, LOMBAX! Helga said from off-vision, as the image changed to that of a shinier, intact Fastoon.
----------------
The Assault on Fastoon, 21 Years Ago
Kaden looked forlorn as Percival gave the Lombaxes a cheery wave while he walked up the ramp of his star cruiser. He turned to face his rust-red colored ship and sighed. They were totally oblivious to what might happen to them in a matter of hours, if not days.
"Aphelion. I'd like for you to give me a link to your radar, so I can keep an eye out for the zero hour."
"You know that he's going to attack today for sure?" Kaden looked up at the star cruiser as it flew into the sky.
"He's leaving, and he's fairly satisfied. I assume that today is the day. I pray that it's not. Getting the baby away from Rayna so I can move him to Solana is going to be tougher for me than staring down an army of Drophyds empowered by our own weapons." Aphelion did as Kaden asked, and he walked towards the main citadel.
"Kaden!" A fat yellow Lombax jogged up to him, donning a size-adjusted suit for the Praetorian Guard. "What's going on in that half-robot head of yours now?"
"I have to get my son to Solana, Hathor." Hathor looked a little scared. Kaden was definitely the most brazen Lombax he'd ever met, and he was only an unranked soldier in the Praetorian Guard for ever since he joined.
"What? Without even Naming the boy? You know Rayna won't let him go without a name!"
"That's why I said to myself what I said near Aphelion. It's that part that's going to be hard. Half a brain of positronic circuitry, and I still haven't Named him even after two years."
"Why is it so hard?"
"Because...that little Cragmite up in our orbit by now...that was the name I was going to give my son. I treated Percy with...all the love and care that a father could give. When he packed up and left in front of me, well...I suppose that's when the whole experiment fell apart. Rayna having a new baby didn't help things."
"You tried to rescue Percival from being a Cragmite, I know. But that's...Kaden, that's what he IS. There was no changing it. If anything else, the experiment sticks in his head as some, I dunno, some kind of blatant lie that makes him hate us more for tricking him."
"The sad thing is that I still feel attachment to him. I feel like there is some kind of redemption that I have to offer to Percy. Some way to try and...I suppose you can have your disgust at me for saying this, but some way to tell him that I still love him enough that I didn't want to see him get so hurt over it all."
Hathor laughed.
"What?"
"You wanted me to feel disgust about that? Kaden, I've known your oddball family for ever since Percival was hatched! I've gotten used to it! I know, you're uneasy and kind of expecting trouble at any given moment, but-"
----
Percival watched the surveillance feeds from high orbit on his ship. He allowed himself a smirk, half-brazen, half-amused, all-enraged. So his 'father' had the gall to still pity him, even after all the warnings he clearly and cleverly caught. That softness had to go. He turned his attention towards Hathor for a brief moment, and thought THAT softness has to go, too, the ridiculous butterball. Then he turned back to Kaden.
----
"So, you got a name for the boy, yet?" Kaden shut his eyes and turned to face the door to Creche Chamber 13. He took a deep breath and exhaled.
"Nope. I'm still going to try and get him to Solana." Hathor let out a sqwak.
"Kaden!" The Creche Chamber door opened, and Kaden walked up to the female Lombax and the toddler that stood next to her, happily munching a Pabocac fritter.
"Rayna?" She turned to face Kaden.
"Dah!" The toddler raised up his arms, signaling that he wanted to be picked up.
"I'm sorry, but...I...I couldn't. There wasn't any other name that I was going to use than Percival Tachyon Koba. I couldn't think of anything different, and I really didn't want to-"
"I know. Associate our real son with that? Haha. Kaden, it's fine. You really wanted that name for our son, then go ahead." Kaden looked at the toddler.
"Is that okay with you? Percy?"
"Buh-crab scawy, dah!" And the todder shoved his fritter at Kaden's face. He sniffed it a couple times and lit up. Somehow, this went by easier than he thought it would.
"Is this Pabocac?" Rayna nodded.
"Fresh from Torren IV before I made those fritters. Bless the Vullards when they do have produce." Kaden and Rayna both laughed. Kaden, however, stopped after a few seconds, with an alert look on his face.
"Something's wrong. Aphelion! Why'd the radar go out?!"
[I have confirmed camera visual, Kaden. Tachyon's dropships are entering Fastoon's atmosphere. They're jamming all communications that monitor the planet, so I expect-]
"Aphelion? Aphelion!!" Kaden turned to face Hathor. "We're being invaded by Tachyon! Get the civilians into the Court of Azimuth! Alert the remaining active Praetorian Guard!" Kaden turned around to face Rayna again, and she was met with silence.
"Can't decide whether to ask me to fight or to hide with the others?"
"Rayna...if everything goes...as I think the universe's order goes...then it won't make a difference either way." Alister ran up into the doorway as Hathor jogged away.
"What's going on?! Kaden, what are you doing just standing there?!"
"I have to get my son to safety. I'm going to the emergency docks. Tell Aphelion that I order her to lend you support. Rayna."
"Yeah?"
"Go with Alister." Rayna shook her head.
"No. I'm going with you. We can't expect to protect Percy and fight this invasion all the way to the escape dock. I'll hold him."
"Right. Alister, get going and help protect the others." Alister nodded and they all went separate ways.
"We'll cut through the citadel to the docks, hopefully there won't be anything to fight on the way there!" Kaden lead the way, and stopped Rayna a few meters away from a large blast that tore a hole into the right side of the hallway.
"We've got escapees running for the emergency ships! Blast them!" Several Mech-Bots with blasters started to open fire at the three Lombaxes, and Kaden jumped in front of the shots that were aimed at Rayna and his son, and deflected them back at the Mech-Bots with his Omniwrench. Sending their own fire back at them, Kaden prepared a cluster of bombs that armed in mid-air after he tossed them towards the startled Mech-Bots.
"Let's go!" Kaden took Rayna by the hand and they ran past the stunned group of Tachyon's Mech-Bots.
"Don't let them escape!" Kaden's son clapped his hands and squealed in excitement at the explosions and sounds of battle as Kaden fought off the Drophyds whenever they caught up to them. He clapped his hands and pointed at the Drophyds that had their containment tanks busted, which were quite frightened without their big robotic toys to attack with.
"Gow-fish! Gow-fish! Aw. Go squish gow-fish."
"Yes. They go squish because they're bad goldfish, son." They were almost to the docks and Kaden heard loud clunking noised from behind him. "Oh, that can't be good."
He turned around and tried to urge Rayna to keep running for the docks. Three Enforcers and Tachyon himself were approaching casually, Tachyon's eyes fixed not on Kaden, but on Rayna and the toddler.
"So. You thought you could keep even one of your kind away from me. A pity that everyone else is rushing off to die and you're running away with your family. Coward! I think I'm going to take that child of yours for myself, and he will be my junior! Yes, one day, he will be the prince of my empire, and you, dear Lombaxes, will be gone, leaving him the only one of his kind! How does it feel to have revenge exacted upon you?!"
"Strangely enough, I've been expecting this for so long that I really don't feel that frightened of it. I honestly don't know what to feel." Kaden said with a stern look on his face.
"Then how about I SHOW you what to feel?!" Percival charged up a pair of lasers from the arms of his walking throne, aiming one at him and one at Rayna, but hit the ceiling instead as Kaden threw another cluster of bombs, one exploding right in front of Tachyon's face. The rubble blocked him and the Enforcers from being able to reach them immediately, but the time they had was short.
"Let's go!" They ran to the docks, and Aphelion sat there waiting. "No, Aphelion. Go help Alister and the Praetorian Guard. We'll try to come back for you."
"They're already gone. They've vanished from the Court of Azimuth."
"Then...protect what's left there. It's too valuable to let Tachyon run into it even by accident. Please. Where I'm going with them, you can't follow just yet."
Aphelion hovered upward, and turned to face Tachyon's walking throne coming in from an alternate door. She understood. Kaden was following Orvus' orders.
"Kaden, take Percy and run. You know where you were going to go, don't you?" Rayna offered the toddler to him. In a dumbstruck moment, he actually took Percy in his arms, who whispered 'buh-crab scawy, dah' to him. Rayna jumped into the cockpit of Aphelion.
For one moment, he could only watch in horror and shock, and remember one word, constantly reverbing and echoing in his mind.
Destiny.
He ran for the nearest emergency ship. They were unarmed, but swift enough to escape any blockade of larger vessels. Turning it on, and flying in the opposite way of where Tachyon was, he nosed the ship up and out of Fastoon's atmosphere.
Destiny. It continued to ring in his head.
"Mama, dah." Kaden looked at his son, and he started to cry.
Destiny. He was at a loss for words. He couldn't tell the boy she was gone.
"Dah?"
"Dad's...very sad, Percy. Mama gone."
"Afeeon, too?" Kaden turned back to look where he was going.
"Yes...Aphelion, too."
Destiny. He didn't curse Orvus. He couldn't curse Orvus. He cursed time instead. In the back of his mind, he cursed time. He also cursed the fact that three assault ships had turned around and given chase to him. He set the ship to jump towards the Solana Galaxy, and got hit by a lucky potshot near the underside of the ship, which thankfully didn't rip it open, as it sped up and disappeared into hyperspace.
----------------
21 Years Later...
They're all gone. Who was left have escaped, all except my wife. We're probably the last ones, now. Us and a few scattered families. But...as long as I can get you away, my son, I won't regret ever having listened to Orvus. After all, when he's being serious, he means every word.
One day, boy, you'll play this message, and I hope the first thing that you do is save yourself. Please. I beg of you, save yourself from Percival Tachyon. What?! No! Sasha, run!! And the message fizzled out.
"Qwark. Where did you say you got this?" Ratchet said with a shaky voice.
"Nefarious' lair, of course! While I was undercover, I saw this little pyramid thing on his desk and...well...I took it."
"This is a-" Ratchet choked on a sob, "-meh-message from...my...my dad. It was...recorded the day that Tachyon attacked Metropolis."
"Oh! That's right! I remember him now! That Lombax left you on Veldin in a nursery's care program, saying-"
"He wanted to keep me away from someone dangerous, right?"
"Er, yeah." Ratchet looked about ready to leap up onto Qwark in excitement.
"Tell me what you can tell me!"
"D'huh?" Ratchet gazed at Qwark with expectation. He might have been an ego-puffed moron ninety-nine percent of the time, but this could well be the only one percent of genuine memory Qwark ever possessed.
But, how did Qwark know Ratchet's own father?
"Oh, alright. Don't get your tail tied in a knot. I don't have much better stuff to do than to ogle a nurse that doesn't have half Helga's looks." Qwark sighed and let out a small 'ow' from inside of his near-full body cast. "Anyway, it all began on Planet Veldin..."
----------------
Kyzil Plateau, Planet Veldin, 21 Years Ago
"Dammit, those Drophyds ruined the warp drive! Augh, the ship's useless now." Kaden cursed his luck. He'd made it to Solana, but just barely. It was a fringe planet of desert and cliffs, and looked like it barely had any settlements to it at all. Not that it was uninhabited, though. He picked up Percy and started walking to the nearest gathering of buildings in the place.
After a few hours of walking, he'd seen a crowd of Novalians, with a few robots, Cazars, and Markazians, even a Tyrhhanoid; men, women and children--especially children, nearby a man in a green and grey spandex suit, who bore a chin that made Jay Limo's look like a tiny wart.
"Come one, come all and get an autographed poster of Captain Qwark! Now at the Kyzil Plateau!" A speaker blared in repetition nearby. It reminded him of the GrummelNet booths back in Polaris.
Another twinge of homesickness. He loved making crazy things for GrummelNet in his spare time. He sighed and walked up among the crowd, who parted at the sight of him. Among all of the others, he and his son were the only ones in the galaxy they'd probably seen that looked the way they did. That's right. They've probably never met a Lombax in Solana before.
"Whoa." Even Qwark said with a margin of awe. "Never seen guys like you around, and I get all over this galaxy. Saving the innocent and stuff, you know."
"I've seen you on holovision shows that would air in the Polaris galaxy when I was a kid. You're Captain Qwark?"
"I'm real enough to be awesome for me!" Qwark said with a flourish and a flex of his arms. "Here. The tyke might not remember it, but have an autographed poster."
"Thanks." Kaden looked around at the crowd, "Does anyone here run a nursery? Someplace that I can keep him safe from a dangerous man?"
"Buh-crab scawy, dah." Kaden chuckled as the toddler buried his face into Kaden's chest.
"That's not 'buh-crab', son. That's Captain Qwark." The toddler looked up at Qwark and pointed.
"Kee-pom Quack!" And the toddler squealed in laughter, as Qwark picked him up and looked into his eyes.
"You know, I get the feeling like this little tyke's hero material. I see adventure in his eyes." Kaden looked up at Qwark as a Markazian couple approached.
"If he ever does get into that kind of trouble, he gets it from me."
"Excuse me," The Markarzian woman spoke to them, "Did you need someone to keep your son safe?" Kaden nodded.
"We're foster parents. I'm Chase, and she's Matre." The man spoke next.
"Really?"
"Yes. We've sheltered children before from dangerous circumstances. The Blarg aren't too friendly in this galaxy. You're both Lombaxes, right?" Matre asked.
"Yes. How did-"
"It was only ten years ago when the Great War in Polaris ended. We heard the Lombaxes were victorious, but now you're saying someone dangerous is after you."
"There's still one Cragmite left. He attacked Fastoon with an army of robotically-enhanced Drophyds, and...far as I know, me and my son are the only refugees." Matre put her hands over her mouth.
...guess I'm going to have to come to terms with it, sooner or later. Kaden looked toward the ground.
"Terrible." Matre whispered.
"We'll take him, so that even if you don't make it, he'll be safe, at least. What's his name?"
"His name?" Kaden looked at the toddler in Qwark's arms, and saw a hangar-like garage nearby. He stared at it for a while, and then turned to face the couple, Qwark, and his son. That's right. His name isn't Percival Tachyon. That name has become synonymous with our grief.
"I never did give him his Name." I'm a fool. All the brilliance I have didn't prepare me for...destiny. Orvus, what do I do?
'Trust in him.' echoed in the wind. Kaden's ears twitched.
"Ratchet." The baby turned to face Kaden. "He'll answer to that." Qwark let Ratchet down to the ground, and he clumsily waddled to Kaden. "Ratchet."
"Dah?"
"Dad has to go far from here. I won't even be on this world. They'll be here to take care of you. Is that alright?"
"Hungry, dah." Kaden smiled. No, you don't even care at all.
"Come take him." Chase and Matre picked Ratchet up, and carried him to their home.
"Oh, I've got to get back to Kerwan shortly." Qwark said.
"Wait, Qwark." Qwark turned his head to face Kaden. "Take me with you. I need to be able to get a new ship, and it'd be better if I didn't get it here. Less paper trail."
"I see. You don't want that guy following you that easily." Kaden shook his head.
"No, I don't. His name is Percival Tachyon, and I'm not sure how far away he is from chasing me."
"From the sound of him, he's a pretty rotten guy. I'll do what I can for you! After all, I am a superhero!"
----------------
Back in the Present
Ratchet hung on every word that Qwark could recall, and despite the amazement in the back of his mind that Qwark could remember so much, Ratchet could tell he was on the verge of crying.
He named me...after my hangar. Why in the world did I think that was my name? Did I know I was going to own the place one day? And Qwark...Qwark wouldn't remember my father this easily unless...
"How often did you two, er...go on a wild adventure?"
"Like the ones we've had against Dr. Nefarious ourselves? Oh, I can't remember how often, but it was a lot. Come to think of it, I dunno if your dad was or wasn't involved with my first fight against him. It's all...kinda blurry after he got his own ship. I just saw him around a lot."
He must have become a hero here himself. A 'sidekick' in the shadow of Qwark, like me.
"I remember he was looking for something important. Something about hairs." Ratchet looked at Qwark with a sudden incredulous expression. Hairs? "Aah, Al might know a little more than I do."
"Qwark?"
"Hmm?" Ratchet put a hand on Qwark's uncasted arm.
"Thanks, for everything. You aren't as much of a buffoon as I thought you were."
"Hehe, your father always said that I had the right stuff. And that I wasn't as much of a moron as anyone who says so thinks. Better remember that, Ratchet." Ratchet smiled. Yeah. I think I'm beginning to see that.
"I will."