Ratchet and Alister:
Good VS Evil
I DO NOT OWN RATCHET AND CLANK, INSOMNIAC GAMES DOES! I OWN ANYTHING ELSE!

Chapter 26: Just Tell Me Why

Ratchet stayed on Torren IV's moon for a while longer until the tears stopped. Once they did, he gradually got up and walked back towards Aphelion. The said Lombax climbed into the ship, and pulled off his O2 mask, before leaving the moon. As he flew, he was still having a hard time trying to cope with his emotions - rubbing his cheeks dry from the tears - but managed to recollect himself.

He bet Hunter was having a heck of a time watching him in this emotional state. How hysterical he must think it would be to torture someone and laugh right in their face; but he didn't, because no one had done it to him before! Ratchet didn't have the strength to beat him, not with how far all this had gone on for, not that he would do it. He was a hero, not a torturer. He wasn't that messed up in the head-

Great. Why did I just think that? Hunter is properly hearing all of this like he normally does? The younger shook his head, trying to clear it out, not that it helped much anyway - his head started to pound. Damn headaches.

It was about five minutes later when he landed outside Alister's house. He jumped out and walked up to the front door. He sneaked back into the house and closed the door behind him without disturbing anyone who was already asleep.

He stood in the living room, looking at the clock that was hanging on the wall above the holo-TV. It read: 3:30am. Alister would most likely be getting up in about three to four hours - he wasn't that type of person to sleep in; properly because of what happened years ago.

His eyes scanned the room as if he was expecting someone to be there: but no one was. A sigh. This nightmare had to end soon - Ratchet couldn't take much more of it. Something needed to be done. Perhaps he could end it quickly, or speed up Hunter's process. What if he could please Hunter? He shivered at the thought of it. All these mixed emotions were pulling at him, trying to attract his attention but only a few seemed to come forth: sadness, scariness, and worry.

An idea then popped into his head, he wasn't keen on it but it was the only thing that he could think of. Instead of going straight back into his bedroom, Ratchet went into the kitchen. He didn't need to turn the light on as it was already starting to get light outside. Emerald eyes spotted the knife rack on the window sill. The sharp tools shined, even in the dull light, as they reflected back on his big eyes, tempting him.

Walking to the window, Ratchet tip-toed and stretched over to grab a knife. He took a step back and looked at the object in his grasp; the longer he held it, the more he thought it was calling out to him to use it. Eyebrows knitted together; the idea was wrong but no one else would find out if he used nanotech after, right?

The younger made his went to his bedroom quietly - not wanting to wake anyone up. He clicked the door shut behind him before placing the knife on the night stand. He stripped down to his boxers - as it was a hot night - then crawled into bed, laying his head on the pillow.

Emerald eyes flickered over to the murderous tool not that far away from his reach. Should he? Shouldn't he? What if someone did found out about it? How would he explain? More lies? He heard that many teenagers do it if they were feeling down... or suicidal by bleeding to death. In a way he, himself, wanted to end it but, at the same time - the slightest bit - didn't. After thinking about it for a few minutes, he decided to do it.

He grabbed the knife with his right hand again, placing the cold, sharp blade in his left wrist and then slicing slowly through the skin. He hissed lowly at every cut, baring his canines too, but he tried to ignore the pain as much as he could.

While slowly engraving cuts in his wrists and forearms, flashbacks of previous events with Hunter filled his head as he watched the blood seep forth gently.

...

With no pre-warning, the metal bat was slammed into Ratchet's side. Another swing onto the chest. Swing after swing. Each one a yelp of agony left the defenceless Lombax. The last swing was aimed at the other's nose. The hit wasn't hard enough to break his nose, but it was hard enough to leave a bruise and start bleeding.

...

Tears started to form in his eyes as more unwanted memories slipped in his mind. The knife was placed in his other hand and then began to cut his other wrist and forearm - still hissing and groaning at the stinging pain.

...

He let the grater smash against Ratchet's face again, however this time the swing was hard enough to knock the chair over.

He gritted his teeth together as he felt blood seep out of the small, but painful, cuts on his cheeks. When he was falling to the floor as the chair got knocked over to the side, his left side of his head and face crashed against the ground, making it bleed slightly. He tried his best not to scream out in agony.

...

The tears fell, soaking his cheeks once more. A final memory entered his head - the last torture 'session' he had with Hunter.

...

Tears streamed down Ratchet's face from the pain. He couldn't do anything to fight back, but he still jerked, wanting to defend himself. He yelled out again as he felt the knife get deeper in his open neck. He could feel blood flow down his neck and run down onto his chest, soaking the fur; a lot of it dripped onto his trousers too.

...

Ratchet had lost count of how many times the evil Lombax had horribly hurt him - too many. By that time, his wrists and forearms were stinging with pain as a small amount of blood dripped down his arms; however he was use to this pain by now all thanks to Hunter. He mumbled to himself, "Are you happy now? Is this what you want it to come to?" His voice was still quiet and croaky from Hunter hacking at his throat, damaging his voice box slightly.

Hunter, fortunately, did not appear but he knew he was most likely watching.

Gradually, his eyes began to feel heavy, seemed like sleep was catching up with him already. Too quickly as he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, forgetting about his cuts and the knife. The tool slipped out of his hand and dropped to the floor, out of sight of the door.

Meanwhile in Axiom Hospital...

A knock at her office door brought her out of her paper work. She pushed her glasses up her small blue nose, and her blonde fringe was moved out of her face. "Yes? Come in." She called out, a bit annoyed due to being busy at the time.

The door opened and a male Cazar doctor entered the office room. The Cazar stood at the opposite side of the desk from the female sitting down.

She was a rare species called the Viric. Her skin was a medium shade of blue with dark blue-purple stripes - they were on her short pointy tail, cheeks, the corners of her eyes and down her forehead that ended just above her nose. Her eyes were pale-yellow and faded-green. Two cream coloured horns poked out of her short blond hair. She wore very professional clothing too, including a red and white tie. She was known as Zafina Magnes, head of Axiom Hospital.

Her green eyes glared up at him. "What is it, Vitalis? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"My apologises, Miss. Magnes, but there is something I need to tell you." Dr. Vitalis replied. "Something about Jackson-"

"Oh, please, not this again." Zafina interrupted him. "Why do you constantly make excuses to try and get my best doctor in trouble, hmm? I'm getting fed up with it. Now get back to duty, you've already wasted enough of my time."

Dr. Vitalis ignored her and carried on talking. "It also has something to do with that young Lombax, the one with the Jolf infection." Oh, how he loved revenge - to try and push Jackson back down so he, himself, could be at the top of the board once again.

The female Viric frowned. "'That young Lombax' you say?" I've already given that Cazar enough chances to fix things up, or maybe Vitalis is lying again. She ran her hand through her hair. "Well, let's hear what you so importantly have to say. Come on, cough it up." She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest.

He nodded and started to explain what he saw yesterday - he didn't have time to tell her as the hospital was very busy. He told her about Dr. Jackson keeping quiet about the younger's attempted attack on doctors, and telling other doctors to not speak of it, all just to protect the Lombax.

Dr. Jackson was seen as a really kind person. Maybe too kind if he was risking his place in the hospital to look after the younger. He was disobeying rules whether he was being nice or not, so something must be done.

"...Alright. Thank you for this information, Vitalis." A pause. "I'll talk with Jackson once he is free. You can go now." Zafina glared lightly at her paper work from what she had just been informed with to not notice Dr. Vitalis leave the room. She sat in the silence for a while longer before sighing heavily. "Oh, Mark. What have you gotten yourself into now?"

The following morning back at Alister's house...

It was about half six in the morning when Alister got up. Ever since Tachyon's attack on the Lombaxes, about twenty or more years ago, he had never been able to sleep for a long period of time. He'd always have some kind of nightmare linked with the attack, which is why he would get up early and do things to get it off of his mind once more.

Clank wasn't up yet, but would most likely be soon. At the time, he was recharging his batteries to full percent like he did every night instead of sleeping.

Right now the clock read: 9am. The elder Lombax had already tidied most of the house up, finished the washing up from yesterday - him and Ratchet ended up eating late so the washing up was going to be done in the morning anyway - and polished his wrench. He was now on his way to Ratchet's room to collect the younger's dirty laundry.

He quietly opened the door, careful not to wake the other up, and stepped inside the room. He spotted the unclean clothes and started to pick it all up. Once it was all grabbed, ready to be washed, Alister turned to the door. Before leaving the bedroom, his amber eyes glanced over at the sleeping younger. However what he saw made his eyes open wide in shock. The way Ratchet was sprawled out on his bed, made his cuts - and dry blood from Hunter's previous torture event - on his arms visible. Alister's mouth dropped slightly due to being speechless, but he didn't want to wake him up to talk about something like that.

Without a word or sound, Azimuth simply clicked the door shut behind him and headed to the spare room to put Ratchet's laundry in the washing machine to be cleaned. Once that was done, he sat on the couch and looked down in sorrow - clearly in deep thought.

It wasn't long after that Clank woke up, he walked into the living room to find the white Lombax sitting in silence. "Is something on your mind, General?" He asked, worried as he made his way to the arm chair.

He looked up from his hands, and glanced at the younger's robotic friend. "N-No, nothing much..." He trailed off. He shook his head. "Sorry, I'm just tired, I guess. So, I'm fine, you don't need to worry about me." He didn't want to tell Clank what he saw as he knew the robot would be concerned by a huge amount.

Clank sat down in the arm chair as he listened to Alister's answer. He detected a lie within the other's voice but he wasn't sure why the elder would keep something from him. Maybe it was personal reasons. Nightmares perhaps? He did not question the white one's reply, instead he picked up a book from the coffee table and began to read.

It was a couple hours later before Ratchet slowly woke up. He blinked a few times and then sat up, stretching his muscles in his arms. A slight pain shot down his limbs making him quickly return his arms to his sides. The pain triggered his memory in forgetting to heal the cuts with nanotech before he drifted off to sleep in the early hours of the morning. He immediately realized his mistake, as his dirty clothes were not seen meaning the General must have taken them to be washed, so there could have been a hundred percent chance that the other had seen the cuts and blood.

It was too late now to cover it all up. His ears fell as he gradually got out of bed and changed into clean clothes. Ratchet prepared himself before placing his hand on the door's handle and twisting it to open the door. He made his way into the living room to see what Alister was making for breakfast in the kitchen. Strangely, he couldn't hear much movement or sound going on - no footsteps or chopping. Ratchet swallowed.

The younger stood in the living room entrance to see Clank sitting on the arm chair, once again, reading another thick book. However this time, Alister was met on the couch instead of being in the kitchen - explained why there wasn't any sound going on.

The sound of the other Lombax's voice was heard after a few minutes. "Ratchet, could you come here for a second?" He didn't even turn his head around to look at Ratchet, in fact, he didn't really move at all; he looked very tense.

Step by step, the green-eyed hero made his way to the couch. He eventually sat down next to the other, looking slightly scared as he knew what was going to be coming his way. He was sitting at an angle, the same as Alister, so they could face each other easily. Hands were placed onto Ratchet's shoulders and black eyebrows knitted together in worry. "Just... Tell me... Why are you putting yourself through this?" He tried so hard to not stutter.

Ratchet opened his mouth but nothing was said so he closed it again. Even if he did talk, the other two would be even more worried as his voice box was damaged - he's rather not go back to the hospital, not yet at least. He didn't have an answer, so he turned his head to the side and closed his eyes, still aware of the other's looks.

After a few minutes of waiting to try and get an explanation out of him, a long and shaky sigh escaped from Azimuth's mouth as he tried his best to hold back the tears. He got up without saying anything and slowly made his way to the front door, going outside and closing the door behind him. He sat down on the front step and buried his face in his hands - letting the tears fall for the first time in ages.

He whispered to himself, "I'm sorry, Kaden. I know you could've done better."

Clank glanced over at Ratchet who looked down at his hands in guiltiness with his ears flat against his head. It then came to him, the elder Lombax must have been worried about something to do with the younger. His sight travelled to the other's cuts on his arms. His jaw dropped, much like Alister's earlier. "Ratchet? What happened? Are you alright?" He put the book down and walked up to Ratchet, pulling at one of his trouser legs.

At first he didn't reply back, until a few seconds later. He whispered, "I'm fine." He then got up and walked to the bathroom to take a shower to wash off all the dried blood from Hunter's torture from last night.

Clank watched his best friend move away in depression, sliding his feet along the floor - not bothering to pick them up. His tail was hanging limp, not even twitching the slightest bit. The ears were as flat as they could go, clearly showing sadness or it could be a tad bit because of tiredness, but Clank wouldn't believe that after what just happened.

When the bathroom door was shut, and Ratchet was out of sight, Clank sighed. As time passed by, the young Lombax had been keeping to himself more often than normal. It was very obvious why. Nothing needed to be explained. Unless the other was keeping something locked away, however Clank did not want to talk about it as Ratchet could easily flip and loose his temper or simply break down.

It had already been quite a few months now since Ratchet and Alister had been on planet Grenpud, about six months ago - he couldn't believe it had been that long. He just wished his friend would get better quickly, and soon.

It was half an hour later once Ratchet was finished cleaning himself up and dressed. He stepped out of the bathroom and entered his bedroom - wanting to keep to himself and be out of everyone's way. He climbed onto his bed, and laid down on his side, looking at a couple of pictures on his night table. One of them was a picture of him and Clank smiling after their first adventure together, while the other one was of him and Alister on their last adventure when searching for Clank. Tears formed in emerald eyes as both picture frames were picked up. Ratchet held them close to his heart as he silently cried to himself, slowly drifting of to sleep once more.

Hey there people! Sorry for the late update ^^; I've been busy with things (a lot has happened so I haven't been able to upload anything in a while). And sorry this chapter is kind of shorter than the last one, but the next one shall be another long one!

Anyway, this chapter was a bit jumpy from going to one scene to another, but I really couldn't think how to do it any other way. But look, at new character has been added - my new OC too! I hope people don't hate her, and I think I really should have added her in earlier but she likes to keep to herself when doing work (and busy the head of a hospital must be tiring).

So, by now, Ratchet is showing suicidal behaviour by cutting himself (fetchmoney on DA gave me this idea - so I'd like to thank him for helping me with this chapter!). I've got plans for future chapters so hopefully the next chapter will be up quicker.

Also, Alister is getting more and more suspicious as time goes along - how long would it be until he finds out? Would he ever find out? All will be revealed in good time, so stick around for some great stuff coming up soon! Plus, I hate to say it, but it's not long before the story is finished (properly about 5-8 chapters left is they're long ones). GVE would be the first main story I've finished that I've actually really enjoyed writing, but I couldn't do it without you guys! :D

Right. Well, that's it, I guess. Stay tuned for the next chapter!

Ratchet, Alister, Clank, Lombax species, Cazar species (c) Insomniac Games
Hunter, Zafina, Dr. Vitalis, Dr. Jackson, Viric species (c) Me