An audible explosion could be heard from outside the IRIS computer terminal, followed by gunfire, crashes, more explosions, and quite a few inappropriate slurs. Moments later, a space pirate came crashing through the sealed doors, broken into bits and pieces. Smoke followed the space pirate inside the terminal and from that smoke, a figure walked through it toward the supercomputer.

"Hello Nathaniel. I've been awaiting your arrival," IRIS greeted.

"That's nice to know." Looking around, Nathaniel saw other monitors, each one showing a random video on different parts of his life. He was uninterested in them, for he knew them all. Turning to face the large monitor that represented IRIS, Nathaniel continued, "that being said, you know what I'm going to ask for then."

He pulled out a small notepad from his relaxed hood and fished in his pocket for the pencil he brought with him. Finding it, Nathan opened the pad to the first page and rested the pencil tip on the paper.

"Indeed, you wish to know about time travel, more specifically, Travel The Days."

"That's correct. What can you tell me of it then?"

"Very little. The Agent Of Time kept the secrets of the artifact well protected, even from my knowledge. However, if you are truly bent on seeking it, you should first consider bringing Ratchet and Clank in on this."

"Those galactic heroes from Solana who currently reside here Ratchet and Clank?"

"They are the only Ratchet and Clank."

"Just making sure then. Continue."

"Travel The Days is an artifact granting its user unlimited altering of time. Made shortly after the Near Temporal Disaster and the construction of the Great Clock, its location has been lost to history. You would need to speak to those who are knowledgeable about time travel."

Nathan gritted his teeth and silently swore. Time travel was a scoffed at subject. The only people who believed in its existence were the Fongoids, but when he tried to talk to them... it didn't go over well. Writing something on the notepad, Nathaniel inquired another question.

"The Great Clock. What is that exactly?"

"The Great Clock. Designed by Orvus in response to the Near Temporal Disaster eons ago. The clock serves as the focal point for temporal normality of the universe and beyond. It is not meant to alter time, only keep it."

"Near Temporal Disaster?"

"Eons ago, the Zoni leader, Orvus gave the Fongoids the gift of time travel."

"Why?"

"The Zoni thought it would enrich their lives as it did theirs but unfortunately—"

"—something went wrong, I presume?"

"Yes. The Fongoids were overzealous in the use of their new gift. After three thousand years, the Fongoids wore the space-time continuum thin. Rips and tears became frequent, rendering several celestial entities asunder."

Nathaniel whistled as he watched footage of the Disaster—the rip destroying everything in its path—it kinda reminded him of someone he knew.

"So, Orvus acted immediately in rectifying this mistake of theirs?"

"That is correct. The response to the Disaster was The Great Clock. It is currently overseen by its Senior Caretaker, Sigmund."

"Has anyone tried to use the Clock for time traveling purposes since its commissioning?"

"It has in fact been used. Twice."

"By who?"

"Alister Azimuth and Orvus' own son Clank."

"Those two?!" Nathan cried out, taken by surprise. "Why?"

"To bring home the Lombaxes and to save Ratchet respectively."

"How'd that happen then?"

"Watch."

(Minutes Later)

"It's not working, why isn't it working?" General Azimuth asked, confused as to what was happening to the Clock.

"Because it's not a time machine Alister, the clock isn't meant to alter time, only keep it!" Ratchet told the general, voice rising, trying to get the point across.

"Thirty seconds until total system failure," the Clock's supercomputer announced. Staring at the monitor in complete amazement, Nathaniel watched as Azimuth looked around hopelessly at what he caused...

"I'm so sorry."

...as Ratchet struggled in vain to change the lever's position, but instead breaking it. Getting up, Ratchet tried to do something only to be stopped by Alister.

"No, let me." Alister slowly walked toward the control switch, struggling pass the intense energy given off. "What are you going to do?!" Ratchet called out to him. Looking behind him, the white furred smiled weakly. "Take care of yourself Ratchet."

Forcing his wrench in, Alister pushed to the right, shifting the inside gears to stop the Clock from making the impossible jump into the past. Although it took a massive effort, Azimuth succeeded and held his wrench there, keeping it from moving back to its old position. Ratchet and Clank ran away, hoping to escape what was to come. Then, a blast of energy came down upon Azimuth, blanketing the room with an intense white light.

The IRIS monitor went dark.

"What happened next?!" The human demanded.

"Azimuth was killed in the explosion. Ratchet, Clank, Sigmund and the Zoni fixed up the Clock afterwards. Then, Ratchet left Clank, thinking that he would choose to stay at the Clock as its caretaker. However, Clank abdicated that position to Sigmund before proceeding to run after Ratchet, hoping to reach Aphelion before they took off."

Nathaniel blinked. Tearing his gaze from the screen, he wrote:

"To keep, not alter" The Great Clock – Orvus

"To alter, not keep" Travel The Days – Unnamed Agent Of Time

"All this will change and nothing will be the same," Nathan whispered. Closing the notepad and returning it to its spot inside his hood, he asked, "IRIS, where can I find Ratchet and Clank now?"

"At the Intergalactic Museum Of History in the Lombax Wing," the computerized voice responded.

"Alright, th—"

"—hold it right there, ye scaly-wag!" A voice cried out from behind. Nathaniel turned around to see seven pirates in total. Standing out in front, three were wielding cutlasses. Behind the cutlass pirates stood four more, all brandishing Combusters. One of the cutlass-wielding pirates stepped up to Nathaniel.

"If you knew what was good for you, you would have taken my warning to your mates seriously," Nathaniel leveled at the approaching pirate.

"And fer that matey, ye'll be swimmin' with ther fishys," the pirate responded, a couple cubits away from Nathan. Several cheers went up from the others.

"I love the invitation, but I am deathly afraid of the 'fishys'," the human replied, looking around. The pirate took his chance and lunged forward. Nathaniel easily sidestepped it, still keeping his eyes off his opponent. He found what he was looking for as he dropped down to avoid a fast, side slice from his pirate foe. Picking up a sword from the broken space pirate, Nathaniel came up instantly, swinging with enough force to disarm his combatant. The cutlass pierced the ceiling. And everyone looked up with relative surprise on their faces.

"Hmm," Nathaniel said, smiling. He looked down to find the pirate slowly backing away from him. "Let's finish this, shall we?"

However, the other two cutlass-wielding pirates decided to take a stand and charged the human. Simply, Nathaniel vanished. All seven pirates paused. They looked around themselves, dumbfounded.

"Whe'd the landlubber go?"

"I'll gut 'ee!"

"Do't let 'ee git away!"

The pirates continued to look around, some taking to investigate outside the supercomputer while the others stayed inside. "Hey," someone called out. The pirates turned to find Nathaniel standing next to them, his sword sticking through one of the Combuster-wielding pirates. Using his sword, Nathaniel tossed the dead pirate to his closest mateys before pulling it out. He charged inside the supercomputer, blocking another lunge with a parry before stepping to the side and coming in to swing upward, slicing his opponent in two.

Nathan stepped back immediately, dodging another swing. He then heard the pop of Combusters and glanced in the direction he heard the noise. Several orange bullets closed in on him and his combatant. Nathaniel again vanished, only to reappear behind his enemy and push him in the way of the bullets. The pirate fell too, yelling in pain as the molten bullets incinerated him. Fishing in his pocket, Nathaniel pulled out a bomblet and activated it.

"Catch!" Nathan called out, throwing the explosive toward the Combuster pirates. Alarmed, they tried to run away and were soon blown to bits. However, what happened next Nathaniel didn't expect at all. It was a blow from behind, square in the back, that sent him down hard on the floor. The next thing Nathaniel knew he was turned around, forcibly grabbed by the collar of his sweater and facing the pirate he'd unarmed. The pirate bored anger right into the human's eyes. Mere centicubits separated the two of them.

"Yur gunna to pay fer this," the pirate spat. Nathaniel grimaced. "Your breath smells like grog. Did you know that?"

The pirate didn't reply. He instead pulled back a fist, ready to ram Nathaniel's face in. As soon as the pirate came in swinging, Nathaniel caught the fist with ease, purple electricity jolting around his hand. The pirate noticed this and tried to pull away. However, he quickly found out he couldn't.

"As I said," Nathaniel began, smirking as more purple electricity started jumping around his body. "'If you knew what was good for you, you would have taken my warning to your mates seriously'."

Now frightened, the pirate let go of Nathan and used his other hand to try and pry his caught hand free. Nathaniel raised his free hand and watched as a purple aura lifted his sword off the ground and came flying into his free hand. Nathaniel let go of the pirate and pointed his blade right at the base of the pirate's chin. The pirate froze in place. "But, obviously," Nathaniel continued. "You didn't."

Nathaniel lowered the blade tip down til it was pointing at the top of the pirate's torso. Instantly, he pushed, and the sword passed through the pirate cleanly, who stood dead on the spot. Pulling out the blade, Nathaniel watched as the pirate fell to the floor. He dropped the cutlass after that, calmly noting the loud clang as it came into contact with the floor. The electricity calmed down and also disappeared.

"Well, that's done."

He turned around and walked back to a nearby teleporter and beamed himself back to the entrance. When he arrived, a voice called forth from the shadows. "You sure took your sweet time."

Nathan chuckled lightly. "Turns out Terin it wasn't a simple 'get in, get out' mission like I thought it would be."

"Knowing you, I'd say you toyed with them."

"It's not every day that you come across insignificant trash beneath your notice."

The other gave a sigh and stepped into the light. He wore a body-tight silver and green armor that was similar in design to the Hyperflux armor. The helmet was retracted back revealing a Lombax face. His fur color was dark silver, and dim green triangles appeared on his ears. His eyes were gold colored with crimson irises and his nose was tilted upward, as if it had an attitude of its own. A small mouth was currently smirking at his friend, revealing his incisors. "'Insignificant Trash'," he said, testing out the phrase for himself. "That's new."

"Yeah, thought that 'pathetic weakling' was getting old."

"A little bit. So Nathan, where are they?"

"The Intergalactic Museum Of History—you owe me five bolts."

"Like that's going to happen," a deep, almost haunted voice started, scaring Nathaniel and putting Terin on alert.

"Zenith!" Nathaniel cried, getting over his shock attack. Terin's ship started up and hovered menacingly above Nathaniel. Nathaniel glared back at the ship with hands at his side, purple electricity crackling between his fingertips.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, take it easy Zenith," Terin said, getting in between the other two. The Lombax ship lowered and hovered near Terin, flashing holo-net symbols at Nathan.

"Well, if we're going to ask Ratchet, we better get a move on," Terin commanded, activating his hoverboots and flying up to his ship. Zenith opened his hatch and Terin landed in the seat.

"Agreed," Nathaniel replied, following Terin inside, taking shotgun. As the canopy closed, Nathan turned to Terin, the tiniest hint of smile in his features as he asked, "So, how about those five bolts now?"

Terin laughed before quoting his ship's words. "Like that's going to happen." With that, both flew off into space heading for Igliak, hoping to recruit the famous intergalactic heroes for their plan.

R&C

Gazing through his binoculars, a monstrous figure followed the pair as they left the comet and headed off into space. A tiny flying object approached the creature and showed a recording of the conversation. When the recording was finished, the drone folded itself up into a cube shape and fell into the creature's outstretched claw-like appendage. It then released a maniacal laugh which reverberated through the area, cracking icicles and scaring any remaining pirates out of their already-soiled trousers.

The creature then one-eightied and walked back to his ship: a black stealth fighter with purple claw marks on the wings and nose. The ship was also thrice the size of any standard Lombax fighter. He hopped in and the canopy closed behind him. After putting in coordinates, the ship's engine turned over and ignited, slowly rising higher and higher. Finally, it took off, opposite of where the lombax and human were going. He'd follow them, but first, some things needed to be set in motion.

AN: (12-21-16) Edited. #2 (12-16-17)