Ratchet & Clank: Fractures In Time

1. Meeting

It had taken a long trek and a couple of detours on the side to reach this point, but Ratchet had finally made it through the Vullards' Hollow and into the cavernous valley of Volgram Pass. The intensity of Torren IV's sun glaring on him in the distance was enough to cause a wiping of his brow, the slow descent of the star on the horizon doing little to ease the heat. In a way, it reminded him of Fastoon during the day, the arid air and rocky terrain almost a perfect fit if not for the mountains of scrap lying around.

Ratchet cast his gaze upward, emerald eyes gleaming in the light as he took in his surroundings. The remains of one of the larger robots, the Guardians, towered above with its inactive circuity and massive frame acting as a silent sentry over the land. A myriad of power cables and other wiring twisted around the mech's chassis like synthetic vines, the instantly recognisable hum of power generators catching the attention of the Lombax's ears. If there was power, that usually meant someone was using that power. And if that was someone here, Ratchet could only assume that it was Alister Azimuth.

Azimuth. A name that had started to appear more and more frequently the further Ratchet had travelled in his quest to find Clank. It had first shown up back on Fastoon, confronting Tachyon and his stolen Dimensionator within a court named after them. Then there was mention of the name again when searching for clues on the Zoni in the archives that detailed the history of Polaris. And, most recently, Vorselon had spoken of him in a less than flattering manner, apparently confusing Ratchet for this stranger.

Whoever this Azimuth was, he was someone that actively opposed people like Vorselon and Nefarious. He was also seen as important enough to the Lombaxes to be honoured in their past and on their home planet. If someone like that had managed to tangle themselves up in battling Nefarious, then they had the potential to be a powerful ally. Enemy of an enemy is a friend and all that. The only problem right now was trying to find this rogue.

Ratchet squinted, peering up a little harder at the Guardian's head when something caught his attention. It was a subtle glint in the evening sun, something metallic flashing in his eye. As the initial bright spot faded, the young Lombax could see the outline of what seemed to be a person stood on a platform high above. Was this was the one who was using up all this power? It was possible they were using the Guardian's hollow body as a place to live in the Pass, just like Qwark had said in his transmission.

It stood to reason that this could be Azimuth himself, or at least someone who would know where Azimuth could be hiding. Ratchet cleared his throat, raising up a hand in a friendly wave to try and get their attention.
"Excuse me? Uh, hi!" he called cheerfully. "I don't mean to barge in on you like this, but, uh... do you know where I can find Alister Azimuth? I was told that he lives in this Pass and..."

Ratchet's wave faltered when he suddenly felt an odd sensation spike in his senses. The feeling of being watched, almost as fiercely as the sun's glare, locking onto him like the laser sights of a rifle. It took another blink and a focus of his eyes to realise that the stranger was the one eyeing him down, like a predator spying on their prey from afar before they struck. It was more than a little unnerving, catching him off guard to the point that he almost didn't notice the bomb flying towards his head.

The stranger had thrown it while Ratchet was distracted, sailing through the air and reconfiguring itself to prime an explosion like his own Constructo variants. The Lombax's eyes went wide as it suddenly became apparent that he had been classed as a trespasser.
"Uh oh..."
Ratchet swung his wrench instinctively in the nick of the time, the blunt edge of his tool striking away the explosive and causing it to discharge against the nearby canyon wall with a resonating thud. But another sound caused his ears to perk, a small tinkering noise of metal bouncing against the rock.

'Secondary charges too?' he mentally groaned to himself, forcing his legs to leap away from the the inevitable flames and over the edge of the Pass' cliff edge. As his instincts proved right and a fireball barely missed singing his tail, Ratchet tucked his body in and aimed for one of the twisted metal beams beneath him.

With a stretch out of his arm, Ratchet swung himself under and around to the top of the rusted steel, the magnets of his grind boots kicking in as his feet made contact to send him sliding down it in a shower of sparks. As he adjusted himself to get his balance back after the bomb's shock wave, he saw something flying ahead of him on the rail as well. It was the stranger, apparently having thought of using the same tactic of escape.

"You've lost the element of surprise! Killing me won't be so easy!"
The rough male voice managed to break through the scraping noise of Ratchet's boots against the rail, the young Lombax shifting his body left and right to make sure he could keep up in the tight corners.
"I just wanna talk to you!" he called back, trying to reason with someone who was quite clearly paranoid about any outsider threats.
"Lies!" the stranger called back. "You're not interested in talking, no hired killer ever is! You're here to assassinate me!"
"What?!" Ratchet shouted back in bewilderment. "No!"

The stranger was not interested in excuses, arching an arm in an smooth movement behind him as another explosive charge hurtled towards Ratchet. The young Lombax barely managed to avoid it, leaping over the resulting fire and catching his balance back on the rail with a clunk of metal.

"Who sent you? Vorselon? Nefarious?!" came the accusations. "Hah! Figures they'd send a spy rather than confront me themselves..."
Frustration bubbled up inside Ratchet as he could only keep trying to talk this man down. What on earth had made him so anxious about being attacked?
"I'm not a spy! I'm just trying to find someone who-"

Ratchet's voice suddenly failed him. A powerful feeling shuddered through his chest, almost making him forget to breathe for the briefest of moments. Shock. It hadn't been easy to see anything about his fleeing target when they were on the Guardian. It was only now, up close and in pursuit of this stranger, that he realised this man was not so strange after all.

Their body was taller than his, a set of broad shoulders, a muscular build and a skill to his movements that was clearly trained in how effortlessly their own grinding appeared to be. But the similarities were all too apparent. And all too impossible. Two large ears, striped down their length and tapered off into a sharp tip. A tail that twitched to aid in balance, ending with a larger tuft of fur. A staff-like weapon strapped to their back, two heads resembling Ratchet's own wrench.

Even if that fur was a different colour, or they didn't share many physical similarities in overall shape, the pieces added up. It was why Vorselon had confused the two of them, why the Lombaxes had named a revered court after them. There was no denying who this person was. What they were.

This was Alister Azimuth. And he was a Lombax.

Ratchet's urge to speak exploded out of him, calling out even louder than before with a desperation in his voice that surprised even him.
"W-Wait! Please, just let me talk to you!"
"Stay away! You'll only end up being sorry you tried!"
"Look at me! I'm a Lombax!"
"The Lombaxes are gone!" came the reply, almost shutting Ratchet up mid-sentence. "And I know a holo-guise when I see one!"
"Holo-guise? Oh, for the love of..." Ratchet muttered. "Will you just stop trying to kill me for two seconds so we can talk?!"

Azimuth was clearly having none of it, leaping from one of the twisted beams towards a platform near the Guardian they started from. With a flash of light from boots that Ratchet didn't recognise, the other Lombax soared out of sight as he circled around to catch up from behind. Ratchet saw a way to spring up ahead, figuring that if this crazy guy could pull off that stunt, he could too. He used his momentum to jump forward, rebounding off the edge of the platform to somersault through the air and onto the ledge above.

With a harder landing than he expected, Ratchet pushed himself up on slightly stinging legs with an alert twitch of his ears. Despite having only been moments behind him, Azimuth seemed to have disappeared without a trace. He whirled his head around, trying to find some sort of clue or sign, but he saw nothing. No scuff marks, no noise, nothing. Whoever this crazy Lombax was, he was good. Very good.

Ratchet's head swirled with questions, questions that he never would have thought in a millions years he'd be asking himself. Even just the fact that he was having to think about it was more than a little mind blowing. After all, a Lombax...? How? Why? What was he doing fighting with Nefarious? Why was he on this backwater planet? Why had he stayed hidden for so long?

Ratchet exhaled harshly, his gaze falling to the ground. The initial rush of adrenaline that had pulsed through his body when he had realised who Azimuth was had started to dissipate. With the fact that he had lost sight of Azimuth and the rogue was keen to keep it that way, he felt a little dejected. The first good news he'd had in a long time regarding... well, anything, and it had already slipped through his fingers.
'Great,' he thought to himself. 'First time I ever see another of my own species and he wants nothing to do with me.'
And it was that moment of dejection that left Ratchet an easy target.

Before he could dwell any further on the thoughts invading his mind, something from behind him clutched Ratchet's collar and pulled him backwards with a surprising amount of strength. He braced himself as a hard metal wall came up to meet his back, letting out a noise of pain as he felt like he'd been pancaked onto it. As he began to slide down to the ground, another impact from the front caught him off guard as well. Two metal prongs closed in around his neck, pinning him to the wall with their tight grip. He reached up to them with clawing hands for support, oddly feeling a surge of electricity through each prong start to make his fur stand on end.

After he could finally breathe again after having the wind knocked out of him, Ratchet opened his eyes. The prongs belonged to the wrench-like weapon he had seen earlier and its owner was now mere inches away from his face. Azimuth was glaring at him like a madman, yellowed eyes and irises of amber piercing into him like daggers. Up close, he could note more of the Lombax's features.

A more defined jaw than his own, a pale white fur colour with red stripes covering his exposed body and whiskers of thinner hair on the sides of his face that almost resembled the beginnings of a beard. From that alone, Azimuth definitely seemed much older than Ratchet, though one would never guess if they were basing it on his raw strength. The strange Lombax tightened his grip on the handle of his weapon, the corner of his mouth almost curling upward in a victorious smile.
"Now I've got you!" he declared, his voice quieter than before, but just as threatening with how gruff he sounded. "This'll teach that mad doctor and his subordinate to-"

To Ratchet's relief, it was now Azimuth's turn to go quiet. As he strained in a breath from the hard grip around his neck, he saw the other Lombax's stern glare dissipate into one of equal shock as his own when they first met eyes. Now that he had a good look at his attacker, Azimuth could now see that the 'assassin' wasn't wearing a holo-guise.

The way the light reflected off the golden fur, the subtle movements of his ears and face as he struggled against the weapon holding him. No technology could replicate that properly, far too organic. He had obviously made a big mistake in his judgement. And if his hunch was right, it was even bigger than he initially realised. But it was impossible. Simply impossible. There's no way that he could have survived after the Departure, not after Tachyon's purge of the galaxy for every one of their kind.

"It can't be..." came the near whispered reply, Azimuth's hold on his wrench loosening enough to gently lower Ratchet back to the ground as he pulled the head away from the golden Lombax's neck. Ratchet rubbed at the spot where said neck connected to his shoulder, clearing his throat with a look of restrained annoyance creasing his brow.

It only took a second of seeing Azimuth's face again that such annoyance faded into nothing. Ratchet's previous excitement was building again, the chance of actually meeting someone he never imagined he would making him seem hopeful.
"I am a Lombax," he insisted, his heightened mood hard to disguise in his tone.

Azimuth scanned over Ratchet's face, taking in every detail around his muzzle, his eyes, even the way his brow had wrinkled beneath the fur when he had been angry. It was... identical. Exactly the same as he remembered from decades ago when he had last seen him. Something of the Lombaxes had survived Tachyon's purge.
"You're... you're Kaden's son...?" Azimuth asked, his own voice sounding just as hopeful that his suspicions were proven right. Ratchet blinked. Son? Was Azimuth talking about... his father?
"Kaden?" the younger repeated, almost as if asking to clarify. Azimuth didn't respond for a moment, as though his thoughts had consumed him before the name snapped him out of his daze.

"Ah... forgive me," he insisted, taking a step back and pressing himself down onto one of his knees with one of his hands clasped into a fist against his chest. It reminded Ratchet of a military salute, his instincts proving to be correct when the older Lombax spoke again. "General Alister Azimuth. Four-Bolt Magistrate of the Lombax Praetorian Guard, Elder Councilman for the Centre for Advanced Lombax Research, and you..."
Azimuth paused. His mouth parted for a moment as if he was about to speak before he broke out into a broad smile.

"My dear boy... you look just like your father."

Ratchet's eyes were filled with wonder as he walked into the room. His intel had been right regarding the Guardian as a living quarters, basic living amenities of seats and cooking appliances in a space that could've been no bigger than his old garage back on Veldin. The walls had a few shelves, pieces of scrap metal and other maintenance equipment on them that Azimuth probably salvaged from the Vullards to continue the upkeep of his armour and other gadgets. It seemed simple, but considering the circumstances of the Lombax race in Polaris, simple was fine if it meant you stayed hidden.

On the opposite wall, something far more methodical had taken up the entire surface. Numerous sketches, notes stacked on top of notes, blueprints for devices that Ratchet had never seen before. Yet they all bore a strange similarity to them, almost as if they were rejected designs or ideas for the same machine over and over again. Sure, Azimuth had said he was a Councilman for the Centre, but he was also a military man from his rank as a General. What purpose would such things have for him? And especially in this obsessive level of detail?

"Apologies for the mess. Volgram Pass isn't known for being easy to reach for outsiders so I've been caught unprepared," Azimuth murmured, taking a few steps past Ratchet with a roll of one of his shoulders. Ratchet himself turned in a circle as he took in all the details of Azimuth's home, his head swimming with possibilities of what to ask and what to do next. Of all the things he had expected to find out here, this was definitely not one of them.

"You alright?" the General asked, breaking through Ratchet's daydream as he shook himself back to reality.
"Huh? O-Oh, yeah! I'm... I'm good..." he mumbled. "I mean, I just... I have so many questions."
Azimuth chuckled for a moment, reaching into one of the back pockets on his Praetorian Guard armour to fish something out, taking a few steps towards the youth with an outstretched hand.
"Then let's start with this," he suggested, opening his clasped palm to reveal what he had taken. "To show I'm genuine too."

It was a round object, an intricate engraving of gears and markings that looked like the Lombax alphabet. Ratchet's fingers brushed over the surface. Even despite the relative smoothness and shininess of the metal, the object appeared quite old from the scuffed edges and marks. He took it from Azimuth, noticing a catch on the side that he flicked open with his thumb.

The object split open, joined at a hinge on the back. A moving set of cogs and turning ticking parts on the inner right side made it obvious that it was some sort of pocket watch. But it was the other side of the clock, a picture surrounded by the circular metal in a display, that caught Ratchet's attention in a way that made a lump in his throat build when he realised what it showed.

Two Lombaxes, posing next to each other and smiling towards the camera in a confident pose, holding their wrenches as though they were prized weapons or trophies. The Lombax on the right was Azimuth, albeit a much younger version of him. But the other... golden fur, darker stripes along the ears and arms in the same way as Ratchet's own. And with a warm expression that seemed like something out of an old memory that he could no longer recall.

That alone proved it, that feeling of unfamiliar familiarity. This Lombax was Kaden. His father, friends with the Four-Bolt Magistrate that Ratchet now stood in the home of. He traced a finger against Kaden's face, as if in some vain subconscious hope that he'd get something tangible back.
'Dad.'
This was the first time he'd ever seen what his father looked like. He was too young to remember when he was still alive. He swallowed to contain his emotions, his brow creasing inward on itself.

"That picture was taken shortly after Kaden became one of the members of the Praetorian Guard. Just a keepsake for the day," Azimuth explained. "He'd always wanted to try and make a difference ever since we were young."
"How did you know him?" asked Ratchet.
"Kaden and I were good friends ever since we were children. And he was as smart as they come. Because of his work in both the Guard and the Centre, it was only natural he'd be named Keeper of the Dimensionator. He was a good man."
"Yeah..." came the younger Lombax's response as he closed the watch. Of course he couldn't agree with any certainty. He never knew Kaden properly to really know.
"Now, I have a question of my own," said Azimuth, folding his arms. "What's so important that you'd go to the effort of tracking me down?"
"Well, that's... I mean, it's... it's a real long story," Ratchet admitted with a shrug.
"I have time," the General insisted, raising a brow with a subtle smile.

So, even despite them being relative strangers with one another, Ratchet told Azimuth everything. About his survival of the Lombax extinction, the battles with Emperor Tachyon, about Clank and the Zoni. How he had searched for his best friend for two years and that Nefarious was somehow involved in all of it. He also told Azimuth about how his name had come up and that he'd sought him out to potentially be an ally in his fight against the doctor.

As Ratchet spoke, Azimuth just listened intently, nodding every once in a while as he came to learn more about his younger acquaintance's past. But it was only when the golden Lombax started speaking about the Zoni did his interest really pick up. After Ratchet finished his story, he turned towards one of the windows made from one of the Guardian's eyes and gone quiet. Ratchet awkwardly stood there, not sure if he'd been insensitive in some way or if this was just his elder's way of processing new information.

"Did I... say something funny?" he eventually piped up, the silence become a little uneasy for his tastes. Azimuth turned his head slightly over his shoulder.
"You said your friend was taken by the Zoni? And he's somewhere in Breegus?"
Ratchet nodded, watching the General turn on the spot. His eyes darted back and forth, as though his brain was in overdrive trying to fit the pieces together. He suddenly snapped his fingers.
"It was under my nose the whole time..."
"Um... what was?" asked Ratchet.
Azimuth hurried towards the opposite wall, the one with all of the blueprints and frantic scribblings as he scanned over the rapidly. Of course, the runes that spoke about it being 'at the centre'. It made sense!
"I think I know where your friend is."

Ratchet sharply inhaled. Another thing he hadn't expected to hear today in his wildest hopes. He honestly didn't have an idea on where to look in Breegus for Clank, Darkwater's Obsidian Eye not being nearly as accurate as he had hoped it would be. But Azimuth knew this place better than he did and it showed with just how quickly he had managed to think about and deduce a location.

"Where? Where is he, where'd they take him?!" he blurted out, causing Azimuth to turn and gently press a hand against Ratchet's chest to keep him calm. The younger Lombax nodded sheepishly, stepping backward. He knew he was being a little more emotional than normal, but it was hard not to be given circumstances. Azimuth simply smirked, appearing to forgive the youth for his outburst.

"You said you met the Fongoids, correct?" he asked, getting a nod from Ratchet back. "Well, according to their lore, the Zoni are the guardians of time itself. If your friend is connected to them, he must play some part in its operation..."
"The operation of what?"
Azimuth's expression turned serious as he gave his answer.
"The Great Clock."

Ratchet blinked, not sure what the General meant with such an official name. It certainly didn't sound like a planet.
"Clock...?" he repeated, tilting his head a little confused.
"It's a machine or a... construct of some sort, referenced in ancient runes found in numerous Zoni sites across this part of the galaxy," Azimuth explained. "In fact, back home during our own research into it, Kaden was the first one to theorize that it even existed."
"And this 'clock'... you think Clank's in there?"
Azimuth rolled his shoulders a little as he tried to be a little clearer.
"Well, 'clock' is a rather crude translation of the runes found on Quantos. Specifically, they say "Keeper Of Time". But, yes, I suspect he is."
"And that's what all this is? The Clock?" Ratchet pointed, gesturing to all the documents on the wall.
"Yes. It's been... an interest of mine for some years now," Azimuth said simply. From his tone of voice, it seemed he didn't wish elaborate on it further.

Not wanting to pry, Ratchet wouldn't ask about it either. Though there was one question that kept repeating in his head, even as he tried to focus on the new information regarding this weird Clock holding Clank. Despite the wonder and relief at having found another Lombax, the impossibility of it still nagged away at the back of his thoughts.
"General?"
"Yes?"
"I thought my father was the only one to stay behind when the Lombaxes left. Why didn't you go with them?"

Azimuth's posture slumped a little, his eyes trailing off towards the floor. Ratchet internally cringed. If he hadn't said something wrong before, it felt like he definitely had now. The General forced a weak smile onto his face with a gentle shrug, almost as if he'd picked up on his younger friend's hesitation.
"Sometimes the universe has a cruel sense of humour."

The statement did little to shed light on the reason, but it made it crystal clear to Ratchet that it was a subject that was definitely off limits. He watched Azimuth move past him towards a chest on the other wall, seeing the older of the pair begin to rummage through it without a word. Ratchet frowned. Even if he logically knew better than to pry, the questions didn't leave his head.

What had happened to this guy?