Ratchet waited, barely breathing, watching the situation unfold. His hearing's good, but every floor of the building has a high ceiling, so at this distance it's hard to make out what's being said. He's assuming Clank is just getting the Loki's guard down, trying to convince him he's won.

This'll be simple. Ratchet just has to keep watch for any sudden moves. One twitch from not-Talwyn and he'll throw a Zurkon out for Clank to jump to, just as the Loki inevitably comes for him. He kept a sharp eye on the shadow looming over Talwyn, waiting for it to make its move. The Loki sure is taking its time. He shifted uncomfortably as his lower ribs dig into the carpeted floor –

and then he notices he's not floating anymore.

And the visual cues – Clank's aura, Perihelion's glow, the Loki's shadow – they melt away into the flat fluorescence of the living room's lighting.

And his head starts to swim and he feels short of breath.

Wait.

Wait, no. Not this again. The last time Zoni energy filtered out of him, he passed out. This can't happen again –

Talwyn moves. Knife! She's got a –

She stabbed him. She stabbed Clank.

Ratchet claps his hand to his mouth.

Talwyn staggered, and drops to the floor in a heap. Clank is on his knees. Ratchet can't see anything except for those two, and he has no idea whether anyone's in the right body. Clank's talking. Ratchet strains to hear, although he can't hear anything over the hammering of his heart, blood rushing over his eardrums. Is Clank talking to him, or Perry, or – ! When Clank finally collapses, Talwyn struggles to sit up, and the look on her face is absolute stark panic as she sees Clank's body.

Ratchet was panicking too – already weak from the sudden dearth of Zoni energy, he felt numb and shaky. The chassis doesn't look active. Where is Clank? Where's the Loki? What happened?!

Desperate, he flung the Zurkon out, hoping it'll know what the right target is, or whether the Loki has escaped.

It dropped. It never even made it into the living room, clanging uselessly on the tile outside the front door.

"Fuck!" Ratchet pounded a weak fist against the floor. "Fucking – dammit…!"

And now Clank is up again. Or is it Clank?

He has to do it.

He has to take the shot. If the Loki is in there, they can't risk letting him escape again. They're all out of trick cards.

But WHAT IF CLANK IS STUCK IN THERE?!

Huddled up on the floor, Ratchet flattened his hands against his temples and let out a thin, exhausted scream. It's much quieter than he feels it should be. Every cell in his body seems to protest what he's about to do. Every self-accusing thought he never expected or wanted to think piles on him at once, suffocating him.

Clank reordered time itself for Ratchet, and there's a fifty-fifty chance that Ratchet is about to repay him by destroying him, forever.

The universe has a cruel fucking sense of humor.

Ever the rash, impulsive one, he yanked the butt of the plasma striker against his shoulder, desperate to get the damn thing over and done with. In one perfect, smooth motion, he sights it in and pulled the trigger.

The shot flies true, straight through the other Lombax's brain.

Then, with what trace of strength is left in him, he's heading downstairs. He doesn't waste time with the elevator, vaulting straight off the mezzanine. The sloppy, inelegant jump nearly wrecks his knees for good. Talwyn – or maybe it's the Loki, who even gives a fuck – flew through his peripheral vision as Ratchet collapsed at Clank's side, tugging him into his arms.

He's dead. After a shot like that, how could he not be?

But who's dead?

It's too much for him. Just the way Clank did a couple hours ago, when the stress of his new organic existence and the chase from the out-of-control ghost of Alister wore too much on his nerves, Ratchet absolutely shatters, crumbling into hysterical tears as the stress of these past two days finally crushes him.

Cradling the other Lombax, not mindful of the blood, he sobs convulsively and hoarsely against his shoulder, crying harder than he's ever cried in his life. "I'm sorry!" he groaned. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry – "

A surge in his veins, by now a familiar one, suddenly takes his breath away. Words printed themselves in his subconscious.

Do not be afraid, the Zoni sing. Sire is safe.

It's probably for the best that at that point, Ratchet completely blacks out.

Clank, in Talwyn, felt time slow down to a crawl, hearing a distant clatter followed dully by the sound of a shot. In what felt like eons, but was probably just half a second, a searing beam of plasma, red hot and prickly, burned down from an angle above them.

Clank's almost new body had a hole where his brain should have been.

The room began to smell like the world's worst barbecue. Clank and Talwyn collectively wobbled. [He did it,] Clank whispered mentally, despite the fact that no one but Talwyn could hear in their heads. [Let us go and make sure he is okay, then I need to go and get myself patched up.]

[Through the-] was all Talwyn could stammer in shock. The only reason she hadn't passed out was Clank in control, jogging back to the elevator once a warm pulse fed through Talwyn's body. Clank couldn't see them, but the Zoni were giving them the metaphorical thumbs up.

Ratchet tore down from the floor above, his leg twisting from the jump in a panic. Immediately, Clank felt Talwyn's relief as she saw Ratchet, the real one, with her own eyes. [When I'm not scared, confused, and a little angry, you're going to tell me what the hell just happened,] she squeaked out.

[Most certainly,] Clank replied, turning heel. Ratchet sobbed next to Clank, drenched in blood, before suddenly perking up, sniffling.

And then promptly passed out with Clank in his arms.

[Oh dear,] Clank thought. [Talwyn, I am going to sit you down and then move out. We need to dispose of my body and then get me back to the Clock, soon as we can. Okay? The minute I leave you need to not pass out on me.]

Clank sat Talwyn down in Ratchet's favorite chair, then hopped over into his friend, willing Ratchet's body to let go of his own corpse. "Talwyn?" Clank said, testing out his voice. Clank felt Ratchet's presence at the back of his mind, mentally exhausted and passed out. "Ratchet has passed out from stress. I need a few minutes to calm his body down. We need to fly back to the Clock. Sit and decompress, please. I cannot even begin to comprehend the stress you faced."

Talwyn shook like a leaf, sobbing.

"Everyone is okay," Clank cooed, talking quickly as he started stripping Ratchet's armor off his corpse. "That was my new body. The Loki did force me into Ratchet a few days ago. I have already bound to him."

"Was the Loki lying about- about soul shattering?"

"No," Clank replied, stripping the corpse nude and rolling it in a sheet so he didn't need to see it anymore. "However, the Zoni helped me with a clone. I did not displace or kill anyone before I shattered Ratchet, though it was dangerously close. He is simply unconscious from the shock. We had no way of letting him know I wasn't in my body. He had to take that shot blind."

Clank threw his corpse in the incinerator, shuddering as he pressed the button to vaporize the trash, before realizing he should have done that last. The incinerator buzzed angrily and did not fire.

The building's system detected a dead body. The police would be there soon.

"Talwyn, we need to go. Now." Clank thought out to the Zoni, grabbed his chassis in one hand and Talwyn in the other. Covered in his own blood, Clank ran right out the open veranda window, before his stomach went up in his throat and the Zoni levitated the three of them straight up to the parking deck.

"Can you fly?"

"I… Should be okay to get out of atmosphere."

"Follow me in your ship. We will be too many people on the return trip."

Sirens already blaring, Clank gently let go of Talwyn on the roof, swung into Perihelion, and gunned the engine.

"Could'a been worse," Perry grunted out of his own speaker and Clank's chassis. "I'll evict my programming after I bail you two out, kit."

"Thanks, Perihelion," Clank replied, going through the motions of liftoff just before Talwyn's own engines lit to life. As soon as they were out of planetary reach, Clank initiated comms. "Miss Apogee?"

"Clank?"

"Set your ship to shadow Perihelion. Do not store these coordinates. I am taking you to the Clock. If you can in any capacity, I need you to send our security camera footage to the police. My dental records do not match Ratchet's, and the video will show us both in frame. I do not need Ratchet pronounced dead, that is going to make things far more complex later. If they ask, a shape shifting species broke in and began aggression in our home."

Clank breathed out a giant sigh he'd been holding back, as he heard Tal's own comms in the background ringing off the hook. Talwyn could take care of that wrinkle. Ratchet and Clank still had one more of their own to do.

Clank felt Ratchet beginning to rouse inside him. [You did it,] Clank said softly. [Everybody is safe.]

[We just have one thing left to do, Ratchet. Well, two.]

Before Clank could face Sigmund's wrath and go back in the cloning machine, they needed to land.

Landing meant facing that fragmented memory of Alister.

[Disconnected again.]

[Suspended in the void, Ratchet can't bring himself to care how he got separated from his body or what happens to him now. Maybe the Zoni were mistaken. Maybe the Loki has won and absorbed him. It doesn't make any difference to him, now that Clank is – ]

[ – wait.]

[He isn't alone. The presence reaching out to him, speaking to him, the mind he's stuck inside now is – ]

[Clank! You're okay!] [If he had control over his body right now, he'd be sobbing with relief. So it was a lucky shot after all.] [Buddy, listen – I didn't mean to take so long – I lost my Zoni-power-thing, and I couldn't tell who was where. I'm so sorry – ]

[Even as he thinks it, though, Clank's relative calm reassures him that the apology probably isn't necessary, and whether intentionally or not, he's given non-visual, non-verbal images of everything he missed while unconscious, and learns that Talwyn is also safe, and currently getting the authorities out of the picture.]

[Well, Sigmund's going to be pissed.]

[But first, there's Alister to deal with.]

[Ratchet lapses into silence, drifting into the void until they near the Great Clock – he can tell because his perception once again opens up to try and take in the entire fabric of space-time again. This time he sees it coming, and manages to narrow his focus to Clank's experience, so he isn't overwhelmed. He can sense Alister's shadow out there, a ghost on a perpetual time loop.]

[He nudges Clank. Let me drive?]

"No," Clank replied out loud, so Perihelion could hear, before turning on the comms so Talwyn could as well, adding, "Ratchet is awake, by the way, and I am not loosening my control on him just yet, and for this I apologize. Ratchet, you are weak and exhausted, and in shock. I am concerned that if I recede, you may pass out. Just… try and relax a little, please. I may have an idea of how to take care of that memory imprint, as well. Once we have landed, I will go back into the cloning tank so you can get some proper sleep- so long as Sigmund does not decide to murder us first."

With that, Clank reclined and stretched out in the chair, before jolting up.

"I did salvage your armor off my body, but I do not have any spare clothing with me!" he yiped.

~X~

The rest of the ride was relatively uneventful, with Clank finally filling in Talwyn on the details of the past few days, and she in return, after getting the authorities to check the dental records against Clank's corpse's teeth, as well as the video feed of a Loki entering the duplicate's body.

Thank goodness Ratchet had that root canal two years ago, as well as installing that security camera at the entrance. The Polaris Intelligence Agency quietly disposed of what they thought was a Loki for them, and was even cleaning up the place as if the entire ordeal never happened, new plexi, carpet, and all. They'd even dry clean Ratchet's armor for them.

Clank made a mental note to send their case worker a box of fruit and flowers later.

~X~

Perihelion circled the Clock, noticing the Alister cycle still running on loop. Clank pinged down to Sigmund.

"No luck yet, Sigmund, with disabling that memory?"

"You're back," Sigmund nearly yelped on the other end of the line. "No, Ratchet, I got nothing, or… was that Clank?"

"Technically speaking, Clank," Clank replied drolly. "Though I would like a new starter cell on standby, for myself, please, and a warm bedroll and some hot food for three. Ratchet is near to blacking out again, and I cannot hold us together much longer."

"You didn't do anything… stupid out there, did you, sir?" Sigmund nearly screeched.

"I? No. Us? Absolutely," Clank replied. "The Loki is disposed of, and we have a friend in tow.

"As long as your friend isn't here for the Orvus Chamber…" Sigmund left hanging. "I'll freak out later," he finally added. "Zoni are already making you a new cell from the master, and there will be beds and hot food as you need it. But how are you gonna land?"

"Carefully," Clank replied. "Ratchet, I am giving you back your face," he added. "You know him better than I ever did, so I am counting on you. Do not pass out on me, and if you can handle it, I will pass more back to you. As soon as he is gone and we have landed, I will vacate to that cell."

"It's standing by, sir, just let me know when it's safe to have me come and get you," Sigmund said nervously. "I'll carry you two idiots in myself if I have to. Don't die on us."