Ratchet was sitting in his bedroom, solemnly looking down at the pocket watch that contained the picture of his father, whose name was Kaden, and General Alister Azimuth, when he suddenly heard a knock on his door.
"It's open," he said as he turned to face it.
The door opened and revealed Rivet, Ratchet's female counterpart from another dimension. She walked into the room and sat down next to Ratchet on the bed.
"Hey, Ratchet," she said. "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, I suppose so," said Ratchet as he looked back down at the pocket watch.
Rivet also took a look at it and noticed the picture of Ratchet's father and Alister.
"Two other Lombaxes," she said to herself in surprise. Then she said to Ratchet, "Who are those two?"
"That's my father," said Ratchet, pointing to Kaden. Then he pointed to the general and added, "And this is his best friend, General Alister Azimuth."
"I never got to meet them," said Rivet. "What were they like?"
"Well, all I know about my father is that he was the keeper of the original Dimensionator," replied Ratchet. "As for Alister, he was like a father figure to me. He taught me so much about the Lombaxes and so many other things."
"Wow," Rivet said in awe. "He sounds like an amazing guy."
"Yeah, he sure was," Ratchet said with a smile. Then that smile was slowly replaced with a sad frown as he closed the pocket watch.
"What's the matter, Ratchet?" asked Rivet.
Ratchet sighed heavily and said, "I was just thinking about what happened to him. You see, he was the one responsible for what happened to the other Lombaxes. He granted this Cragmite, whose name was Tachyon, full access to their technology, because he thought it would help him to protect them. But it turned out that Tachyon wanted to use it to wipe out the entire Lombax population and bring back the Cragmites. That's how my mother and father died. Tachyon killed them."
"Oh my gosh, Ratchet," Rivet said in shock. "I'm so sorry."
"It's okay, Rivet," said Ratchet. "Anyway, Alister was exiled for his crimes from joining the other Lombaxes when they fled to another dimension. And he felt so horrible about what happened that he wanted so badly to fix his mistake and give me my family back. He thought that using the Great Clock as a time machine to prevent what he did from happening would make things right. But the Great Clock was created only to keep time, not alter it. If it were to be used as a time machine, then it could destroy the entire universe. But he didn't know that. And when Clank and I tried to warn him not to do so, all of his guilt built up inside of him so much that he eventually snapped. We tried to get to the Orvus Chamber before him, but we were too late and he used the main switch to go back in time. Then, as the clock started to break, Clank and I fought him and I tried to move the switch back to where it was supposed to be, but the lever broke off because it was jammed. Eventually, Alister realized that he was making an even bigger mistake than the last, and he sacrificed his life to fix it by putting his wrench where the lever was and setting the time flow back to normal. He was successful, but then an explosion from the quantum energy occurred, killing him in the process."
Rivet placed her hands over her mouth in shock and surprise. She couldn't believe what she had just heard. It was a lot for her to process. Then she suddenly heard Ratchet sniffling and saw him wipe away a few tears.
"Aww, Ratchet," she said. "Are you crying?"
"I'm sorry," he said, wiping away more tears. "It's just that after I met him, he told me that he would've taken me in and raised me as his own son if he had known I was still alive. And then, he reassured me that from that day forth, he and I were a family. And now he's gone forever. And I feel so alone."
As Ratchet hugged himself and continued to cry, Rivet gave him a sympathetic look. She couldn't stand seeing Ratchet look so sad. So she gently placed her robotic hand onto his shoulder and softly caressed it to comfort him.
"There, there, Ratchet," she said in a soft, gentle voice. "It's gonna be okay. I promise. And you're not alone. Remember? You'll always have me by your side. Not to mention Clank and Kit, too."
After hearing what Rivet had just said, Ratchet looked at her and managed to give her a small, tearful smile. He did remember that she was also a Lombax and he felt a lot better knowing that she would never leave his side. And neither would their robot buddies.
"Thanks, Rivet," he said, wiping away the last of his tears and starting to calm down. "That really means a whole lot to me."
And the two of them slowly pulled each other into a warm embrace.