Weekly Oneshot #24: Memories

Where was he? Where was he? He had to be around here somewhere.

Ratchet frantically looked all around the area, his head whipping back and forth, his green eyes scanning every inch of everything that came into his sight. His fur was covered in rust and grime from digging through various piles of old metal junk. His eyes were constantly wide and his breathing was quite fast. He cupped his hands over his mouth and called his name, in hopes of getting any response. But nobody responded. This made his ears lower and his hands turn into fists. He should have kept a better guard. He should have watched his back more and have been more prepared, then he wouldn't be worried about whether Clank was dead or alive right now.

It had just been a simple mission. One simple mission: find some parts for a new warp drive that Elaris could modify. And what better place to look than a small scrap yard? Ratchet and Clank had been going about their, business, digging through the piles in hopes of finding something useful. Clank constantly scanned piles from Ratchet's back; they were making quite the search team. However, when Clank scanned the area, he found something, but it wasn't something that they were looking for. A mean looking Arogrian stomped over to them and tried to pick a fight. When Ratchet tried to shoo him off, the Argorian shoved him and called him some foul names, and the two got into a fight.

The fight didn't last too long. But, at one point, the Argorian let tacked Ratchet to the ground, making Clank detach from his harness. The Argorian noticed this and grabbed the small robot, insulting his size and then throwing him over his shoulder. This was of course when Ratchet kicked him in the face with all of his might, then beat the guy with his Omniwrench while saying that anyone who insulted Clank would not get away unharmed. The fight ended several minutes after that. The Argorian, bloody and bruised, limped away quickly and left Ratchet alone from then on. Ratchet called out to Clank to see if he was alright after being thrown. With an Argorian's ridiculous amount of strength, he most likely took a ton of damage when he landed. But, when the robot didn't respond, Ratchet began to panic, and this was when the search began.

Every minute that went by without Clank made Ratchet's heart rate increase faster and the sweatdrops rolling through his fur grow bigger. He ran his fingers through the fur on his head as he yet again failed to find his friend. Why did he decide to fight that stupid Argorian? Why didn't he tell Clank to go and hide while he dealt with him? There were so many things that he could have done in order to avoid this situation, but he failed to do any of them. And knowing that made him feel like a horrible friend.

Ratchet, becoming desperate, called out Clank's name again, then he jumped as a pile of gears somewhat collapsed behind him. And from that pile came a small moan. Ratchet's ears twitched as they picked up the noise and he quickly rushed to the pile. He grabbed several large gears and pushed them away to reveal who he had been looking for. The Lombax was glad that he had finally found Clank, but the relief only lasted for a single second after he took a good look at the robot. He thought that being thrown with an Argorian's large amount of strength would make Clank suffer a lot of damage. And it looked like that he was right.

Clank, who was on his back, had his eyes narrowed and dim, some dents and scratches covered his metal shell. And, in the center of his torso, a metal pole stuck out, impaling the small robot. Black, oily blood leaked out of Clank's chest compartment and ran down the rest of his body until it formed the smallest pool under him.

"Clank..." Ratchet murmured, his eyes wide. He reached down and very carefully grabbed the small robot and lifted him up. Clank yelped as he experienced a large amount of pain in his torso. Ratchet apologized and gently set him down on the ground outside of the pile. Ratchet observed the damage done to his friend's body. In short: it was bad. Very bad. The Lombax shook his head, "Oh no. This is really bad. Clank? Clank, pal, can you hear me?"

"I...I can hear you..." Clank said weakly.

"Thank god," Ratchet said with a sigh of relief. "Okay, buddy, I umm...I-I can fix this! D-Don't worry!"

The small robot blinked several times before relaxing his head and closing his eyes. Ratchet grabbed the side of his head and shook him slightly, "No! Come on, Clank, stay with me! Don't you dare close your eyes! Just umm...uhh...wh-what's your favorite color?"

"G-Green..." the warbot replied, opening his eyes slightly.

"That's right. You love the color green. I remember that you would get excited whenever you saw a green nova in the sky on Veldin during the nighttime."

"Yes..." Clank's voice faded a bit and he seemed to be fading away again.

"No no no! Come on Clank, keep talking to me!" Ratchet said as he tried to wipe away all of the blood and observe the internal damage. There were jammed gears and cut wires. Plus some major oil leakage in several parts of his body. If Clank powered down now, there was a good chance that he would never power back on. He had to keep Clank awake and talking. "Remember when Grim would kick us out of the garage and we would go to the canyon where you crashed and look at the stars?"

"I do remember that...I enjoy doing that very much..."

"I-I enjoy doing it too, pal."

"I also recall when...when I first crashed on Veldin...you saved my life..." Clank said, trying to keep up with himself.

"Yeah, that was when we first met," Ratchet said with a small smile as he observed the pole that was sticking out of the robot. It was in there good, and part of it was sticking out of his back. He kept up the conversation, "We went to Kerwan and became Galactic Rangers and we stopped Chairman Drek and Nefarious. Then, when it was all over and I came back here, you followed me home."

"I had nowhere else to go...and you were the closest friend that I had...I did not want to leave you so soon..."

"Now you live with me at the garage, so you got your wish," the Lombax said with a nod. A somber looked then came onto Ratchet's face as he thought about what he had to do. He looked at Clank and placed a hand on the robot's head, rubbing his head gently. He took a deep breath, hoping that this would be not as painful as the thought that it was going to be, "Alright, Clank, I'm going to take the pole out of you. It's gonna hurt, and your systems may want to make you black out, but I need you to keep talking to me and stay strong, alright?"

Clank nodded and tried to prepare himself for the incoming pain, but before Ratchet could grab the pole, he placed a hand on top of his friend's. Ratchet looked down at him with a slight sad face, he wasn't prepared to hurt the robot, but he had to in order to get the pole out. Clank spoke in his weak voice, "Will you please...please give me another memory to talk about? It will...help me greatly."

"Of course, buddy. Let's see...oh! Remember that time you caught me sneaking snacks in the middle of the night?" Ratchet said, his ears lowering as he wrapped two hands around the pole. He took a deep breath.

"Yes, I remember that. You...you woke me up in the middle of the night...and I found you eating cookies under the blanket-AGHH!" Clank yelled in pain as Ratchet began pulling the pole out of him. The Lombax, though he really didn't want to, moved the pole around a little in order for it to get free of all the gears and knotted wires. He tried to block out the sound of Clank's cries of pain, but they kept finding ways to into his ears.

Then the pole slid out. Ratchet was even knocked down onto his rear because the force of it coming out was so great. The metal pole dripped with oily blood and had scratches all over it from the gears that it was rubbed up against. But, it was out. It was out of Clank and couldn't do anymore damage to him. Though there was a lot more blood coming out of the robot now, and seeing this made Ratchet's heart skip a beat. He quickly removed his shirts and wrapped it around Clank's torso, where it started to become black with blood.

The Lombax then sighed in relief, "That thing was really in there. But, it's out, and that's all that matters. Are you alright, pal?"

Clank was slightly whimpering due to the pain, but he nodded, "I should be fine...though I am in a fair amount of pain..."

"I know, buddy, and I'm so sorry. I tried to make it as quick as possible."

"I do not blame you for it, Ratchet..." Clank said with a small smile. "And discussing past events really...very much helped me...thank you."

Ratchet smiled and nuzzled Clank's antenna with his hand. Then he very carefully slid his hands under the robot and lifted him up and cradled him in his arms. He attached his Omniwrench to his back and began walking towards the ship. Clank blinked a few times at Ratchet, having a request on his mind. He reached up with a shaky hand and tapped the Lombax on the now bare shoulder.

"Ratchet?"

"Hm?"

"May we continue talking about our memories? I find it rather enjoyable."

Ratchet gave Clank a quizzical look for a split second before smiling, "Sure, pal."

So this was a quick idea that I thought of this morning. A nice oneshot that had the readers both worrying and saying "aww!", and it all comes down to a happy ending. I love those kinds of oneshots.

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This is Amberdiamondswords, Lordess of Diamond Swordness, pledger to Tobuscus, signing off!