Author's Notes: First off, SWEARWORDS ahead. Just two. But it is worth noting because I don't want people freaking out on me. Second of all, yes, Gravy, I borrowed Krane for this. Look, I'm sorry, I should have asked first, but you've borrowed several of my RP characters on Neopets, so we're even. I needed an insane murderer who would fit into the RC universe, okay? On that note, nothing belongs to me but the madman in this scene belongs to my friend Gravy. Used without permission.
Please note also that this theme is technically Why?/What for?/I guess/probably/I guess it's for..., all of which had to be put in as dialogue. Which is why rather than having Ratchet ask all these questions, I kind of divied it up between them. I am not a freaking miracle worker; all those questions out of one person would've sounded forced.
This, like the Blood chapter, is another fic idea that never got off the ground. So, enjoy the taste of what could have been.
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"Why Clank? Answer me, you bastard. Why him?"
Ratchet is about to die. He knows that, he knows it beyond a doubt as he holds Clank's limp body in his arms. He knows Clank has a soul. He knows they'll be together in under five minutes. That doesn't stop any of his anger towards the person who did this.
The person in question shrugs rather nonchalantly. "I hate robots."
"Why?"
"Because."
The answer is so juvenille and stupid Ratchet wishes he had any kind of weapon right now. He'd kill this man with a single shot if he had to. Anything to get him back for this travesty.
"That's your whole reason? Because?!" Ratchet mocked him, no longer afraid to die.
For a moment, the face of the murderer twists. Beyond his dark brown eyes, memories are playing before his eyes, and Ratchet realizes that 'because' is not the reasoning behind this murder spree. 'Because' is not why a good two hundred organics and four hundred robots are dead right now.
"Why did you do this? What for?"
Clank's body is pressed against his, all light gone from his eyes. Ratchet can't take the sight. It's driving him insane to see Clank dead for no reason. There has to be a reason for this, has to be logic to it. After all this, they can't die in vain. They did so much, accomplished more than they'd ever dreamed, and now a random person was going to bring it all down in the span of ten minutes? Ratchet could see one of his guns a few feet away, but to get to it, he'd have to drop Clank, and he wasn't willing to do that.
"I guess..." he trails off, trying to put it into words as he absently pulls one of his knives from Qwark's body, "I guess... Probably..."
Ratchet can see his life flash before his eyes when knives are pulled from other bodies. The madman is getting ready to end it. His mind is screaming at him to run, to grab his gun, to do something, some last act of self preservation. He stays still, cradling Clank to him as if that will make everything better. As if holding onto Clank will make the human in front of him vanish.
"I guess it's for every robot who ever hurt anyone I knew." This logic seems to satisfy him, as Ratchet can only watch in horror as telekinesis raises twenty knives into the air. "Now shut up. You're the last one in this area; after this, I've got other cities to hit. Bigger cities."
"Clank never did anything to you," Ratchet hisses, before he can stop himself. "He never did anything to hurt anyone. Why him?"
The killer rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his thick nuclear orange hair, bored. "He was a robot. Why the hell do you care?"
"I..." Ratchet doubles over as at least ten knives go straight through him. He doesn't let Clank go, in spite of the massive pain. "I love him." He glares at him, angry green eyes meeting indifferent brown. "But you probably don't understand that."
"I guess not."
Ratchet's body was later buried with Clank's.
