Author's Note: I'm in a rare Aphelion mood. XD This is for you, ITman496!

It's short, but there's not much going on. SO DON'T BLAME ME.

Also, Word isn't working for me. So I'm not going to submit much for a while. Once I completely restore my computer again, then I'll submit more again. Sorry! All fanfictions I'll submit will be from school until it's fixed – or until I get OpenOffice.

Disclaimer: WRRRYYYYYY I wanna own a cool ship like Aphelion! And a cool Lombax like Ratchet! And a cool robot like Clank! (Although he doesn't show up in this fanfiction – sent him off to be checking databanks with Al. … Actually that makes no sense since Ratchet is risking his life. OWELL NO ONE CARES. We had enough of Ratchet and Clank FRIENDSHIP shtuff lately anyway.)

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Drat, drat, drat!

To think, that Lombax left Aphelion all by herself. Sheesh, his manners! She could easily follow along, fight with him, but noooo, he just has to leave her docked at the end of the island.

Earlier that same morning, that Lombax, Ratchet, that Aphelion now called her companion these days, decided that he'd go off without telling Clank (not that the robot would notice his absence; after all, he was too busy with Al – or maybe he would? Aphelion didn't know) and hopped into her, and the two of them took off into outer space. The both of them (more so her, though; Ratchet wouldn't notice a freight train if it rammed into him) noticed a planet that was being bombarded by some vicious Blarg that just wanted to rip a new one. (If they really wanted to do that, though, they could just steal that RYNO and be done with it. Oh, how Aphelion hated that weapon.)

So, Aphelion landed on the planet's surface, leaving them to have another conversation of Ratchet telling her that she should stay there like any other old ship while he goes and saves the planet by himself. All. By. Herself. The nerve of that Lombax!

It was almost funny how the Lombax completely ignored the fact that she actually had a mind of her own and she wasn't just some robot for him to do whatever he pleased with. She had to wait, wait, wait for him to come back, and gosh darn it, she was bored. She had absolutely nothing to do while he was gone, she couldn't even count how many miles away Fastoon was (as she had done that thirty times already and she was quickly tiring of that), and she was lonely—

Wait, lonely?

Scratch that! She wasn't lonely. She couldn't possibly be missing Ratchet, missing the rest of the Lombaxes, those ungrateful creatures—

The ship sighed, lowering herself to the platform. She had been levitating over it as she usually did – she only landed when she was too tired to actually stay up in the air or when Ratchet needed to crawl out of her. She wanted to flaunt the fact that she actually wasn't just some run-off-the-mill ship. She was special – she had to be, since she had been made by the Lombaxes. And what better way than to hover above land without a pilot to give the order? There was no other way to show off that would be seen as humble. Yes, she was a great ship – and so she would remain.

Something on her sensors caught her attention. Beep, beep, beep. Something was approaching her, something fast, something dangerous. She promised she'd stick around for Ratchet's sake, but after the Lombax abandoned her, what would it matter, anyhow? She wasn't going to stay around just to be bashed by some Blarg that got their kicks out of destroying ships. Lifting up into the air again, the ship turned for her sensors to blare in alarm as a large creature came face to face – no, rather, face to ship muzzle – to her. Its glowing black eyes narrowed as it focused on her. Since when did Blargians grow that size!?

SHHHHH!

A claw whizzed past her wing as she quickly maneuvered out of the way of it slamming down into the ground. That monster could have easily chipped her wing off! If Aphelion could glare, she would glare at that stupid, stupid claw. What did she do to deserve that? She didn't even attack the Blarg!

'This is all that stupid Lombax's fault!'

"Duck!"

A raspy voice, sounding tired, caught Aphelion's audio receptors. Were she not faced with a gigantic Blarg, she would have tried to calculate the owner. However, the ship dived down without question as a claw whipped above her and suddenly flew back. Her vision just barely detected the large, scaly green creature falling down and slamming into the rock-hard ground, sand and chips of stone flying everywhere. She nearly screamed as the large boulders sent in the air nearly whacked into her, and she swiftly started up her missile launchers.

Whirrrrrrrrrr…

CROOOOOOOO!

Crack!

The red fireball-like missiles with trailing white circles sliced the rocks, and they fell down plainly before they could possibly ram into her. She almost breathed a sigh of relief as the imminent rock threat was conquered.

Almost.

"AW SHIT!" her hero screamed as the creature flailed its limbs, including its gigantic tail (she knew some Blarg had tails, but that big?) which crashed into a furry creature that had been standing not too far away from her. The creature was armed, as she could tell, but she could hardly process who it was – considering that who was in trouble.

Thinking fast, Aphelion put all of her power into her thrusters, which spewed blue fire behind her, and shot forward, slicing the air in half like a knife through butter as she spun in the air, flipping to a certain angle and opening herself up so the top of her, the windshield and some of her metallic skin flat, was flailing in the air. The creature flew in the air, and she made sure to cushion the seats as it landed inside her, skidding on the seats. She lowered her windshield and closed herself as she used her previous momentum to fly away from the creature as it leaped back to its feet, roaring in protest.

"Thu-thanks, Aphelion," the creature within her panted – and now her audio receptors picked up that this was indeed the Lombax's voice, the very one who ditched her.

"You shouldn't be thanking me now," Aphelion responded – she felt frustrated with him all over again. Why did he even lead that stupid Blarg monster all the way here? "Little Lombax, you have got some explaining to do after this is all over."

She would have continued, but the monster didn't seem to want to wait. What a rude bastard.

Once again dodging a close call as she felt the claw slightly skim over her right wing, the ship turned to the monster. It glared at her furiously, looking much more frustrated than when she first encountered it. Somehow, Aphelion felt like she was within a movie from Tokyo or something as she started shooting yellow bullets at the creature, which, although it winced, did not seem too phased.

"Let me ride on top of you," Ratchet croaked.

If Aphelion could scowl at him, she would. What, he wanted to help now? And continue to be stupid, as usual?

"No."

"But I want to help you."

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

The Lombax was silent for a few minutes as Aphelion huffed from a boulder the monster threw skimming over the top of her. Ouch. It would take forever to repair the paint up there.

"Aphelion, as your captain, I demand that you let me ride on your muzzle."

"No."

"Aphelion, I'm your captain. Do as I say!"

"No."

"Aphelion, I demand that—"

"No."

"You didn't even let me finish!"

"And?"

"Let me up! Do it now!"

"No! Give it up!"

Now Aphelion didn't know whether or not the war was between her and that Blarg monster, or her and Ratchet.

"Do."

"No!"

"It."

"No!"

"Now!"

"Okay fine, just shut up and stop distracting me!"

Did everyone want to be annoying to her today? Her vision receptors were focused on the Blarg monster, but she could almost imagine the smug smirk that was on Ratchet's face now. Score one for the Lombax, score zero for the pissed off ship. She twisted out of the way of a fire breath that streamed out to the Blarg's jaw as her windshield once again lifted. She would have winced as she felt the Lombax climb out of her, his motions very clunky, like as if he had the grace of a dodo.

"Could you at least be a little careful?"

"Well so-rree."

As she felt Ratchet's tail slide out from the cockpit, she closed it carefully, and the Lombax settled down over the windshield and a bit back from her vision receptors. She was grateful that he at least did not sit on her muzzle literally. That would have made it impossible to see.

SHIIRRRRRR…

She heard the tell-tale sign of the Alpha Disrupter, and she would have blinked if she could have. She hadn't heard that sound in so long. Where was it coming from? She picked up the noise as coming from on top of her, and realized that it was Ratchet, charging up the Alpha Disrupter. She suddenly inwardly smirked as she prepared the strongest missile she could possibly manage.

"Three…" Ratchet whispered, the monster almost completely cutting off his voice with a roar.

"Two…" It had been such a long time since she had done a combo like this with a Lombax, and she felt excited.

"One…"

BOOM!

The Alpha Disrupter and her missile collided into one huge light blue blast that slammed into the monster with a powerful, roaring fury. The creature screamed as it swung its arms randomly in the air, flying, flying… cutting through the air… and then falling off of the very surface of the island itself and falling into a deep, deep chasm. The Blarg monster, which had been intimidatingly big, was easy to see growing smaller and smaller and then finally disappearing at the bottom of the chasm. Two points for the Lombax and the Lombaxian ship.

She felt something sliding down onto her windshield, and as her vision receptors blurred and tried to re-orientate themselves, she noticed her charge lying on her muzzle, legs and arms splayed out. It wasn't the fact that she was tired was alarming – it was the fact that he was bleeding all over, and she never noticed it.

"Fuckin' Blarg…" Ratchet drawled in a tired, coarse voice.

"I still haven't spoken to you!" Her computerized mind was racing. How didn't she notice that earlier?

"Oh, great," Ratchet groaned, trying to sit up. Needless to say, the word trying doesn't mean succeeding.

"Do you know how long I've been waiting here?" Aphelion continued, her voice gradually rising in volume. But she wasn't mad at him. Well, she had been – but she was far from it. She didn't know exactly what she was feeling, now that he was actually here. "You always leave me by myself! It's so annoying! I'm capable of fighting, you know. I helped out in the Lombax war. You know how worried I was?"

"Yeah, yeah… Open up."

"I don't feel like you're listening to me," Aphelion sighed as she lifted the windshield, complying without protest this time. Orders, orders, orders. She was just a ship to him.

He clambered into the chamber within her, sliding into the pilot's seat, blood pouring from his wounds at an alarming rate. Aphelion made a mental note to get those checked as soon as was possible. "I am listening to you," Ratchet protested weakly.

"Well, well, I don't think Clank and Al will be too happy about me bringing you back like this," Aphelion ranted on. "And what am I, chopped liver? I mean, I can help you, you know. I'm a combat ship, not just some spaceship that shoots off willy-nilly. I'm actually happy to help you. It gets rather lonely when you're not – are you listening to me?"

"Sorry for bleedin' on your seats," Ratchet replied blearily, as if he hadn't heard a word she had just said.

"It's fine," Aphelion sighed quickly. "All I'm saying is, I worry about you. I can help you, if you just allowed me to. But you never allow me to! So I just want to go on more missions with you. I just don't like staying docked – I'm not used to that. I mean, we do go out in space, and…"

She just realized that her charge had fallen asleep out of exhaustion.

The little furry creature usually had an intense expression on his face, but when he was asleep and had his arm draped over his chest, he looked so soft. It was hard to imagine Ratchet being this way, but after all, he was a living, breathing thing… a living breathing thing that Aphelion was proud to call her charge. She rocked back and forth a little as if cradling a baby, helping to make his sleep a little more settling. She would be heading off in a few minutes to get him checked over, but right now she would help him stay asleep.

"I just don't want to lose my charge, again, like I lost Kaden."