Ratchet & Clank: Fractures In Time
4. Rescue
Ratchet followed the co-ordinates to Vorselon's ship, the giant green cruiser parked as if the cyborg criminal was simply waiting for him to show up like he had promised. Far too honourable for someone like Vorselon, but the Lombax would take it to save one of his own. The troopers inside the ship did little to stop his progress to where Azimuth was being held, mostly thanks to his severely upgraded weaponry. He checked a small radar display on the inside of his wrist, following the signal on his nav unit to track down the General's signature. Azimuth had made it clear that you needed to be prepared for anything, something Vorselon found out the hard way when he intercepted Ratchet halfway.
After forcing the cowardly assassin to flee like a sore loser, Ratchet had dismissed him and reached the very bowels of the ship, one of the lower engineering decks that Vorselon had transformed into a makeshift holding area for his Lombax prisoner. As he looked above him, he could see the cell was now reinforced with what seemed to be a forcefield around the bars themselves as an extra security measure. Maybe this wouldn't be quite so simple, but at least the cyborg owner of the vessel had been dealt with.
Azimuth peered through the bars as he heard the younger Lombax come in, his face creased into a look of frustration at what he was seeing. What on earth was Ratchet doing here? He'd been specifically ordered not to come to Vorselon's ship and yet he had disobeyed for some folly of a rescue mission! He called down, noticing Ratchet's more than casual stance betraying the seriousness of what he'd done. Every second wasted was a second more for their enemies to act.
"Ratchet! What are you doing?"
"Relax, General, rescue missions are kinda my thing!" he grinned back, only hardening Azimuth's frown at his flippancy.
"You know what I mean!" he exclaimed. "I told you to find the Clock!"
"And I will! But we're going find it together, so I'm gonna get you out of there first," Ratchet insisted. "Now, how do I lower the containment field..."
The Lombax mechanic analysed the situation, noticing a mixture of versa-fuses sticking out of exposed points around the top of Azimuth's cell. Vorselon had done this as a quick job to get it working in time, the wiring and power management clearly sloppy work. All it'd take would be a few quick tugs with the kinetic tether and it would power down and release the bar mechanisms all in one. Simple, right?
As Ratchet got to work, flicking out the head of his wrench to attach to the first fuse, Azimuth was still making it obvious that he was not impressed with this impulsive decision to rescue him.
"Look, you're wasting your time! Forget about me, get to the Clock!"
"There's one..." Ratchet muttered to himself, pulling out the first fuse and noticing a substantial drop in brightness to the intense glow of the forcefield. He move on to the second.
Azimuth pressed himself harder against the bars that held him.
"Reinforcements will be here any minute! You have to go!"
"And there's... two!"
Another yank, another destroyed fuse. The forcefield itself dissipated into nothing, leaving only the moving parts of the bars to override to shut off power to. One more fuse.
Azimuth audibly growled in irritation, stepping away from the bars with a hard shove of himself off the cage. What was wrong with this boy? He insisted he was fine when hurt, he disobeyed direct orders from his elder, he was nearly every bit as stubborn as Kaden was and not in a good way. The General ground his teeth together with a huff, only mildly paying attention to the final failure of the last fuse when the bars in front of him moved upwards out of sight.
Ratchet leaned against the pile of broken fuses he'd created directly below the cell, trying to act casual at being able to get past all of Vorselon's forces like this. Surely Azimuth would be impressed at that, right? In a way, it was returning the favour for the General's help with his injury in the caves. He felt the vibration of the General landing on the floor out of his cell, pushing himself up with his wrench.
"I know, I know, it was touch and go there for a little while!" Ratchet spouted off with a cool shrug, clearly playing up on it for effect. "But the ol' Lombax instinct kicked in and-"
"You fool."
Ratchet stopped dead in his tracks, feeling a sudden chill down his spine at the sheer anger in that voice. His posture froze up, his previous sense of false bravado dissolving into nothing as Azimuth turned on the spot to face him. His amber eyes were glaring at him with the same ferocity he had shown their enemies, suddenly making the golden Lombax feel very small. Very small indeed.
"What...?" he asked meekly.
"I told you to leave me!" Azimuth snapped, taking firm steps towards Ratchet. "You shouldn't have come back!"
The last word was punctuated by the elder slamming his wrench into the ground by Ratchet's foot. The younger of the pair flinched, finding himself leaning back as the General loomed over him.
"Wow. That was... not the reaction I was expecting," Ratchet mumbled, braving a smile to try and lighten the mood. Surely it wasn't that big a deal.
"Enough, Ratchet!" Azimuth yelled, wiping that smile right off his face. "You know you wasted valuable time coming here, time that you've let our enemies have to reach the Clock before us!"
"I wasn't going to just let Vorselon hold you here when-"
"I ordered you to stay away! The Clock is our top priority and every moment we waste is another moment our chance to save our kind slips through our fingers! We're so close and you put it in jeopardy with this stupid mission!"
Azimuth exhaled harshly, turned away from his younger counterpart and began to walk away, punctuating every other step with a stamp of his weapon into the floor. Might as well make tracks now that he was out, otherwise they'd end up losing even more ground in their race to find the Clock against Nefarious.
Ratchet opened his mouth to speak, his words failing him as such an aggressive response to his rescue had completely bewildered him. He knew that Azimuth had trouble keeping his more powerful emotions in check at times, but he had exploded at him with a fury that he'd never thought he'd ever see put his way. He tried to follow the General, attempting to get his attention.
"Look, it's not all bad! I can tell you what I learned about the Clock!" he protested. "Just give me a chance to explain."
"Unless it's a location, explain later," Azimuth growled. "We've already lost enough time in here."
"Look, I've not been just sitting around all day! I travelled back in time, I found out what happened to Orvus-"
Azimuth stopped mid-step, whirling around on the spot as his rage vanished into thin air. His friend had allowed him to use the Clock to time travel on Zanifar? He'd actually gone to the past?
"Back in time...?" he repeated, desperation rising in his tone at the implications of this news. "When? How far?!"
Ratchet's face fell, rubbing behind his head and bracing himself for another round of shouting since he knew the answer wasn't going to be what his elder wanted to hear.
"Not... far enough."
To Ratchet's surprise, and internal relief, Azimuth did not raise his voice or yell. He simply turned his gaze to the floor and nodded with a sigh.
The elder mentally kicked himself for losing control again, knowing that it had been the same thing that had happened back on Lumos. It was so hard for him to stay collected these days when so many years of hoping and searching was starting to come to a head. His expression turned softer as he retracted his staff into a more portable form and stepped towards Ratchet.
"It's alright," he assured, his voice much calmer. "I... I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that."
"Well, you had a point," Ratchet admitted with a weak shrug. "I shouldn't have charged in here when you told me not to."
"It's still no excuse for how I acted. It's just... we're the only ones who can fix the past," Azimuth said, kneeling down until he was on the same eye level as Ratchet. "We can't chance it going wrong."
"Then we won't," the golden Lombax replied, clenching a fist in determination. "We'll get to Clank and the Clock before Nefarious comes within light years of them."
Azimuth smiled, patting his young friend on the shoulder as he stood back up.
"I know I've been poor at showing it. But I'm proud of you, Ratchet."
At that very moment, a siren suddenly burst into life over the two Lombaxes' heads, drawing their attention upwards as red light bathed them in what was clearly an alert of the prisoner being set free. Ratchet readjusted the grip on his wrench, spinning it loosely in his wrist as if he was preparing for another battle.
"Come on, it's time to go."
Azimuth concurred, readying his own weapon and gesturing for Ratchet to take point to see just how much he'd improved in their short time apart. They were getting out of there, both of them.
After escaping Vorselon's clutches in characteristic explosive fashion, Ratchet and Azimuth had used information stolen from the criminal's flight computer to get coordinates to the Bernilius Sector. Because of what had happened with Orvus, it was only lead they had to go on, a lead that did thankfully seem to pan out when Ratchet could detect the Nefarious-shaped structure of the doctor's space station at the edge of his radar. He rolled his eyes at the obvious display of "supervillainy", but it was at least a step in the right direction.
"Ratchet, come in," Azimuth's voice announced over the comms, breaking him out of his thoughts.
"I read you, General," he replied, adjusting his frequency to deal with some lingering static. "What's up?"
"I just picked up a looping transmission on one of the emergency frequencies. It might be nothing, but tell me what you make of this."
"Patch it through."
It was a repeating fluctuation of tones and noises, a specific beacon pattern that Ratchet had definitely heard before. Sparingly, but it was instantly recognisable. He should have been elated at managing to establish some sort of connection after the Eye had failed, but the fact it was coming from this sector where the Clock definitely wasn't concerned him.
"That's a distress call with Clank's signature!" he exclaimed, tapping a few of the keys on his display in order to launch a tracing program. "Aphelion, can you track the source?" Thanks to the ship's Zoni improvements, she'd calculated it in mere seconds.
"The origin appears to be planet Vapedia. Acquiring coordinates now."
"Just think!" Azimuth declared, sounding jovial at the news. "By tonight, your friend will be safe and the Clock will be ours! I'll be there as soon as I can."
"Roger that, General. See you planet side."
Ratchet cut off the channel and turned the ship towards the planet, the one near the far end of the sector. If what Azimuth had told him about the Valkyries was true, then this was probably going to be a base of operations for them. All the more reason for him to doubt that the distress call was genuine. It reeked of a set up, just like Vorselon with Azimuth's capture before.
But... it was Clank. He wasn't going to risk it not being real, not when his dream of reunion was so close he could nearly touch it. Ratchet exhaled to steady himself. It wouldn't be long now.
As predicted, Vapedia wasn't going to just give Clank to them. The Valkyries had erected a floating Citadel high in the clouds above the actual surface of the planet, a forced necessity after their previous colony had been atomised in a supernova according to the General. Clank's distress signal was coming from somewhere inside, calling for a rather aggressive but simple operation. A 'smash and grab' as the elder put it. Ratchet concurred.
After using a small craft to reach the central Citadel islands, the two Lombaxes were stopped in their tracks by a legion of Valkyrie soldiers with weapons trained on their heads. As much as Ratchet wanted to toast them all to keep moving, Azimuth held him back with an arm. The leader of the group herself, Cassiopeia, had made an appearance to handle their intrusion personally, meaning it was a good chance to get some information if she was the sort to gloat her power like her fellow already dispatched Valkyrie leaders.
As much as she didn't seem like a true threat because of her reliance on an armed platform to face them, Cassiopeia was still the boss of a legion of murderous women all the same, all of their sights targeted at the two Lombaxes. Ratchet eyed her down, knowing he would have to restrain himself from launching into a shouting tirade for kidnapping Clank. As the duo were held in place by the Valkyries surrounding them from all sides, their leader graced them with her voice.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the galaxy's favourite Lombaxes!" Cassiopeia cackled. "Come to rescue your little friend, hm?"
"Our quarrel isn't with you, Cassiopeia," Azimuth snarled. "Hand over Clank and we'll cause no more trouble!"
"Ahahahaha! Cause no more trouble, huh?" the Valkyrie sneered, her face suddenly turning murderous as she screamed down at them. "Carina and Libra are dead thanks to you! Countless more of our pilot squads and foot soldiers! And you dare to say it's just 'trouble'?!"
"I don't care what you call it!" Ratchet cried, an insistent anger punctuating every syllable when his restraint failed him. He even braved taking a step forward despite the weapons aimed at him. "Give him back, you-!"
"Easy, Ratchet," Azimuth hushed under his breath.
"Ooh, well if you put it that way..." Cassiopeia smirked, gazing at one of her hands if to check her nails is a blatant dismissal of the Lombax's threat. "You can have him soon. We've gotten what we need from the Caretaker, so his time has come!"
"I swear, if you've hurt him!"
"Don't make threats you can't keep, space rat! Valkyries, destroy the Lombaxes!"
Cassiopeia's platform rose up and disappeared behind one of the towers of the Citadel, just as her legions suddenly lunged with their bulky melee weapons. Ratchet and Azimuth raised their wrenches, blocking the incoming blows and parrying with a flurry of counter-attacks. Ratchet himself was even more aggressive than the elder, every swing and thrust of his wrench head boosted by the raw power of his anger. The thought that vile woman was going to hurt Clank made his blood boil. Azimuth could sense it, prompting him to act in order to wrap this up before the impulsive youth made a mistake.
"If she's going to kill Clank, we need to be quick! I'm going after her, you try and keep those troops off my back!" he ordered.
"Got it!" Ratchet answered, watching as Azimuth used his weapon's longer reach and his own weight to somersault over a large gap towards the spire Cassiopeia had fled to. The younger Lombax turned his attention to the outer buildings, knowing that a lot of the Valkyries would either be suiting up or getting ready to head out to defend their leader. But they weren't going to stop him. Nothing was.
His intuition was right as the Valkyries threw everything they had to try and stop him. Flying units, ground troops both ranged and melee, even training courses that had been converted into death traps three times, no less. Still, nothing even managed to slow him down, eventually to the point where he was finding the over-reliance on elaborate killing machines to be a little bit cliche.
Though, given how this was part of an "Unnecessarily Evil Initiative" that kept being screamed about between Cassiopeia and Nefarious over a comm channel, he was hardly surprised. Plus, seeing them have relationship drama kept him from slipping into a full rage because of how dumb it all sounded.
The Lombax didn't get a transmission from the General about how he was faring, but could only assume that he was too busy fighting off troops of his own, if not Cassiopeia herself. He could handle himself for now. The thing that worried Ratchet more was that he didn't know if Clank could. What had the Valkyries done with him? As he whacked his wrench into one of the door mechanisms of the Citadel to force it open, the most awful off possibilities started flooding his thoughts, an overreaction of sensing his partner was in danger.
What if she had captured and tortured him like Orvus? Cut him apart or sliced open his circuitry? Dissected him for the secrets of the Clock from his brain? Or was she actually on the cusp of killing him, like she threatened she would be...? He swallowed hard. Every mental image of Clank in such a state made Ratchet cringe, distracting him from what he was supposed to be doing.
It didn't matter in the end. If Clank was hurt, he'd fix him. If Clank had been restrained or captured, he'd free him. If he needed anything at all, Ratchet would provide. Nothing was going to get in the way this time, not an malfunctioning Eye or a bloodthirsty syndicate of female soldiers. The door moved out of the way as Ratchet slid himself past the walls of metal before they had even fully retracted, finding himself running right into Cassiopeia in the centre of the room.
"Hold it, Cassy!" Ratchet taunted. "You're not flying away this time."
"Oh, on the contrary, my fuzzy friend," she spat back at him. "I was hoping I'd get the chance to end you myself."
"Where's Azimuth?"
"Oh, he's a bit pre-occupied with a handful of death squads at the moment. But he doesn't concern me. You're the real prize."
"Still sore about me blowing up your friends, huh?"
"Ha! Such bravado! All the more reason to make sure that what you did to them isn't as painful as what's going to happen to you!"
At her words, the entire chamber vibrated beneath Ratchet's feet. The floor started to rise, revealing the room's true purpose as an elevator to the very top of the Citadel. It was probably intended as a way to cut him off from outside support, from Azimuth, but it still wasn't going to stop him. Cassiopeia could try everything in the book and all it would do would delay him from finding Clank.
"I'm actually happy you survived the training course," the Valkyrie admitted. "It would have been a shame to lose such a worthy opponent to some cheap machine!"
"Flattered," Ratchet answered with a defiant glare in his eyes. "Speaking of cheap machines, how much is your boyfriend paying you to do his dirty work?"
"Ah, quick tongue," the Valkyrie cooed, her voice in a mock tone of seduction to get under his fur. "And an amusing observation coming from some orphan doomed to spend his entire life alone! Hahaha!"
"You don't know what you're talking about!"
"I don't?" she asked with a tilt of her head, suddenly appearing elated as if something had finally clicked for her. "Oh, you don't know! How delicious." The smug attitude rubbed her opponent the wrong way quite severely.
"Out with it!" Ratchet yelled, brandishing his Constructo Pistol and aiming right at the Valkyrie's chest. She could only laugh in response, relishing the fact she had exposed a weak spot in the defiant rat's defences. Now to break them even further.
"You didn't know that little robot of yours was ready to kick up his little metal feet and stay in the Great Clock forever?"
Ratchet's angry face faded in mere moments.
"What...?" he murmured, his aim faltering and lowering away from her.
"Yeah! He wants to leave you, didn't you know that?!" Cassiopeia howled, finding that dejected look worth all of the destruction he had unleashed on her Valkyries. It was no fun crushing opponents if you didn't crush their spirits first. "And he didn't even have the guts to tell you himself! Ahahahaha!"
"Y-You're lying!" Ratchet snarled, raising his gun and clutching the handle so hard it was shaking with an audible rattle. It was ridiculous, ludicrous even. It had to be some sort of trick. Clank wouldn't just up and leave him like that, he just wouldn't. It was a ploy, to try and play on his fears before they fought. It wasn't going to work.
"Stop flapping your lips and tell me where he is!" the Lombax yelled.
"Ah, there's the fury I was hoping for!" the mad woman grinned. "All the more satisfying to extinguish when I destroy you!"
"Oh, you're gonna regret this..." Ratchet growled, baring his teeth with a finger ready on the trigger.
"No need to worry, my furry little nuisance," Cassiopeia pouted. "I'll kill the both of you before he gets the chance!"
As she finished talking, the elevator suddenly halted with a jerking motion that caused Ratchet to stumble. They were now outside, poised at the very top of the Valkyrie Citadel in the clouds. A storm had descended, lashing his face and suit with high velocity bullets of rain, but the movement of Cassiopeia's arm to gesture off to her side distracted him from it. His eyes followed, landing on a cylindrical container that suddenly opened itself up like a storage unit as if to display something. And in the middle of it, hovering in a suspended animation field, was Clank.
"Clank!" Ratchet screamed, instinctively reaching an arm out as if to try and grab him. He didn't appear outwardly or obviously damaged, but who knew what Nefarious and his goons had done in the meantime. It hurt to see it. Clank was literally metres away, in person, tangible and real. But he was deactivated, maybe hurt or worse. If he could only just get there...
"What have you done to him?!"
"Oh, nothing!" Cassiopeia snickered. "Compared to what I'm about to do to you!"
The fight that followed was brutal. Cassiopeia's fondness for acid weaponry while remaining on her platform kept Ratchet's attention split between her efforts in the air and where he was planting his feet with every dodge and step. His ears could pick up on the characteristic hissing noise of the chemical eating through whatever it touched, hoping that the foul smell from the corrosive reactions weren't mixed in with the scent of burnt fur. But he persevered, launching Mag-Nets, launcher fire and anything he had to make sure she stayed as far away from Clank as possible. If she so much as touched a finger to his metal casing...
Ratchet back flipped out of the way of Cassiopeia's cannons, counter-attacking with the Rift Ripper in order to try and hold her in place. 'Fred' appeared out of the portal with a trademark gurgling rumble, green tentacles wrapping themselves around the machinery of the Valkyrie's craft and making her a sitting duck.
"Argh! Vile creature!" Cassiopeia spat, forcing her hands rapidly against the controls in some effort to get herself free.
"Takes one to know one, Cassy," Ratchet replied, twirling the barrel of his Constructo Pistol to aim right at a weak spot on her platform, a poorly maintained seal in the metal work that exposed the fuel and electrical lines. "Eat up, Fred!"
'Fred' obliged with a low growl, the portal to his dimension snapping shut with a large burst of energy to knock Cassiopeia off balance. As she shrieked in frustration from her dizziness, Ratchet closed one of his eyes to steady his aim and squeezed the trigger of his Pistol. The round soared through the air with a resonating zip, the Lombax holding his breath in a hope that he was as good a shot as he thought he was to pull this off.
He got lucky. With a burst of flames from around her feet, Cassiopeia was suddenly launched sideways into a spiralling twist, the engines of her craft combusting underneath her and spinning out of control.
"No! No, curse you filthy r-ARRGHH!"
With another failure of the propulsion systems, the Valkyrie was left clinging for dear life when her platform's acceleration suddenly maxed out and careened her over the edge of the footholds atop the Citadel. Unfortunately, her trajectory sent her sailing right into the last place Ratchet wanted her to go.
The Lombax gasped sharply as Cassiopeia smashed into Clank's storage unit, shattering the glass into sharp fragments and sending the small robot sailing out into the open air with nearly as much force as she had. His eyes went wide, watching the Valkyrie screech in horror as her craft finally gave out, plummeting out of sight and disappearing into the dark clouds that surrounded them. And Clank was starting to follow her.
He didn't even consider the danger, precautions be damned. In an instant, Ratchet had flung himself over the edge, streamlining his body to catch up to his tumbling friend before they both ended up meeting the ground in the worst way possible. As his partner's body spun helplessly in the chaotic winds of the storm, he strained his voice with how loud he had to yell. He pleaded, begged that the robot would be able to hear him.
"Clank! WAKE UP!"
To Ratchet's eternal relief, Clank responded. The green glow of his eyes briefly shone through the grey shades and shapes of the clouds, giving the Lombax the necessary beacon he needed to follow their fall. But those eyes were only partially open and the robot's body was still limp in the air as though he hadn't gone through a total boot up.
'I'm not fast enough! I can't catch him!' Ratchet thought. He only knew one way that he could be, a way that would be considered stupid in any other situation. He twitched his heels and activated the thrusters on his hoverboots, propelling him downward even faster than before to the point his face hurt from the chilled air slamming into him. Clank was still falling over himself, dangerously unaware of any obstacles coming up to meet him.
'I have to make it!' Ratchet swore, adjusting his trajectory to aim towards the curved surface of one of the Citadel's lower tower walls. If he was able to time this right, he could use the building as a ramp to snatch Clank right out of the air. But the window to do so was tight. If he made even the slightest hesitation, the slightest wrong angle, then they'd miss each other. And then both of them were goners.
Just like before, he didn't even think. He couldn't, no room for doubt or they were both dead. He flew down towards the wall like a bullet, feeling the exhaust of his boots cause resistance against his feet as he was now on the home stretch to make the jump. He wanted to brace himself, to close his eyes as though he couldn't bear to watch the end result. But he braved the stinging lashing of rain against his face to ensure he didn't fail.
Ratchet kicked off the wall and flew in an arc forward, stretching out one of his arms to catch his friend.
"I got you! I got you!" he cried, his eyes meeting the robot's own as they came to meet each other. With a hard yank around the little synth, freezing metal chilled his hand and his torso as he pulled Clank towards himself in a tight embrace with just that one arm. Ratchet had done it. The two looked each other in the eye, even despite Clank's lethargy keeping him weighted and heavy in the Lombax's grasp. But Ratchet allowed himself the beginnings of the biggest smile of his life.
Clank was here. He was physically here, pressed against the damp outer layer of his suit. He could feel the subtle vibrations of the robot's internal workings against his fingertips, the contrast of hard synthetic material against his ribcage. For the first time in two years, in a moment that had felt like an impossible depressing dream all that time ago, they were together again. And it made his heart surge with elation.
It was just a shame that such an elation was dampened near immediately when it became obvious that Ratchet had not considered how he was going to land.
Another set of buildings appeared out of the thick vale of fog like a brick wall, causing his eyes to widen in shock. He was going way too fast to brake, but he had nowhere else to land despite it. In an instinctive move, Ratchet pushed his legs forward and sprung the pair of them off the wall, sailing down a little lower to a building on the opposite side where he did the same again. Essentially recoiling off each hard surface, he was relieved to see the much more organic island shapes of the lower Citadel come into view.
'Almost there...!' he encouraged himself, repeating his previous action and pushing his boots forward to act as air brakes. Grass and soil came up to meet him quicker than he had anticipated, his boots slamming into the surface and sending a ricochet of pain through his joints from the impact. He pushed even harder than before, digging his heels into the ground and creating a small, trailing crater in the process. He had almost reached the edge of the floating land mass before he finally, thankfully, came to a crawling stop.
Ratchet fell backwards, his harsh clawing grip on Clank loosening enough to allow the two of them to flop down next to each other in the moist grass. The Lombax's chest burned for air, his muscles screaming at him to stay still after what he had just pulled off. The adrenaline during their fall had kept it at bay to start with, but now "ouch" was the lightest way to put it.
He and Clank laid there, the gentle patting of rain against the robot's outer shell and the Lombax's strained panting the only noises to accompany them. It was Clank, just like through the Eye, that finally said something to stop the quiet. It felt a little off to go so long without words now they were back together for real.
"Hello, Ratchet."
"Hey, pal..." came the huffed reply, the Lombax turning his head to look at Clank in the eye. "How ya doin'...?"
"Fine. You?"
"Yeah... fantastic... I'm just... I'm just gonna lie here for while though, 'kay?"
As Ratchet looked back up towards the sky and the impossible height they had just plummeted from, miraculously not getting hurt in the process, Clank copied him. He smiled.
It was definitely earned.