Well look at that, I did have enough time to write another chapter, and not only that, but the longest one yet! Enjoy!
The Council's meeting room is abuzz with the sound of conversation between all of the members currently present, absent one that was presently in the middle of recording Ratchet's memories. And among them sat Julie, Mags, Kaden, and Clank in the front row, now having quieted down substantially from their bickering, much to the relief of nearby members.
Their argument with each other ended as they always did, with an agreement to disagree. Kaden was pleasantly surprised that it ended quicker than he expected, though, at only seven minutes, aided by Clank's internal clock when asked.
"Seems like you two are getting closer to ending it once and for all." Kaden muses to them. "That must be a record time."
"I would love to spend more time to convince Julie that she's a terrible pilot, but I don't want to get worked up when Ratchet comes back." Mags explains. "Plus, I don't want to chance letting her have the last word in the middle of an argument."
"At least we can agree on that." Julie adds. "And speaking of Ratchet, shouldn't he be back by now? You said we'd get the meeting going again after ten minutes, and I'm pretty sure it's been that long since he and Harold left."
"It has been eight minutes and forty-seven seconds, actually." Clank pipes up, still standing next to Julie from a lack of seats available for him to sit.
She rolls her eyes. "Close enough."
"You don't think he just gave Ratchet to a security guard and had him locked up again, do you?" Mags asks with some worry. "He thinks that he's just some random criminal, after all."
"I doubt that." Kaden answers. "He wants to prove me wrong in front of the entire Council to make me look like an idiot, and he can't do that if he just gets rid of Ratchet. And I can wait however long it has to take for him to get those memories, because the look on his face will be worth it when everyone sees that they're the idiots instead." He says with a smirk. "It'll be amazing."
As he says this, Clank begins to chuckle, making them look over to him.
"What is it?" Julie asks.
"I must say, you sound just like Ratchet when he gets cocky. It's amusing to see that it appears to be a hereditary trait." Clank explains.
"What? I don't think I sounded cocky." Kaden says with some doubt.
"No, you did." Both Mags and Julie tell him.
Before Kaden could argue with them, the doors to the meeting room suddenly open, and reveal Ratchet and Harold, the latter looking somewhat uncomfortable, and the former wearing an absolute smug look of satisfaction. Kaden can't help but join him as he sees the uncertainty written all over Harold's face, as if he knew they were right but refused to believe it. The rest of the room silences as well as Kaden stands up and joins the duo at the podium, where Harold greets him.
"I must say, Kaden, whatever story you told this Lombax to play, he sure is… vivid in his descriptions." He tells him with some unease.
"Seriously? Even now, you're still denying that I'm right?" Ratchet asks.
"Once we see garbled nonsense on the screen, you won't be looking so smug, boy." He bites back.
Ratchet rolls his eyes with a huff. "Whatever you say, old man."
Kaden couldn't help but chuckle at them before he turns raises his hand to gain the Council's attention, silencing whatever conversations were still being carried out.
"This meeting may once again resume." Kaden declares. "Now, Councilman, why don't you go ahead and play that holotape that you can swear is not forged, correct?"
He gives a curt nod as he produces it from his pocket. "Correct. There is no possible way that tampering of any sort occurred, so don't blame me once we see that you and your accomplice here are wrong."
He rolls his eyes. "Whatever you say, then. I will now let you have the floor." Kaden says as he backs away from the podium to let Harold take his position, but not before he takes a moment to insert the holotape into a player beneath the large screen above them.
Kaden decides to stand next to Ratchet instead of sitting back down, however, and takes the opportunity to ask him something while Harold sets up the player.
"He didn't give you any trouble or anything, did he?" He quietly asks Ratchet.
"Outside of calling me names, no." Ratchet reassures him. "He did offer a deal to let me go if I admitted he was right, though, since he thought it 'unfair' for you to 'coerce' me like this, apparently."
Kaden scoffs. "Typical."
"Now," Harold speaks up, a remote in hand. "I asked Ratchet here a few simple questions. I asked him about his childhood, because if he grew up on Veldin as Kaden has advised us time and time again, then he is right about this Lombax here being his son. Then, I asked him to describe his supposed encounters with Tachyon, if he happens to be miraculously correct in the first place, to make a case for Kaden's inane request to repeal the Dimensionator prohibition as he originally intended."
He then turns and looks right to Ratchet. "This is your last chance to tell us the truth. Because if we see you living on the streets of this city we stand in right now, then I assure you that you will never see the light of day again."
Ratchet simply crosses his arms. "Just hurry up and play the tape, old man."
Harold frowns. "Very well."
He then turns and presses a button on the remote to turn on the monitor, but it only shows a black screen. It remains like that for a few moments, making Kaden start to worry if something went wrong with the recording, but soon enough, a picture fizzles onto the screen, showing a pair of small hands working on something.
"Woah…" Ratchet mutters in awe next to him. "You guys can read memories!"
Kaden feels a twinge of happiness at being able to impress his son with his invention, but he becomes too intrigued by the memory to dwell on it for more than a moment.
The memory shows Ratchet taking apart what looked to be some kind of clock, with random parts and tools spread about in the dirt in front of him as he sits underneath a tree. Judging by the shadows around him, it looked to be completely dead and devoid of leaves, but after visiting Veldin himself, Kaden was just surprised to find that a tree managed to grow in those conditions at all.
"Huh, so that's how that works." Ratchet mutters to himself onscreen, as he spins a hand of the clock with his finger to see the gears inside moving accordingly with it. Kaden notices how high-pitched his voice sounds, and realizes that this must have been when he was around eight years old. It was also around that time when most Lombaxes are old enough to learn how to use tools themselves to satisfy their natural curiosity to learn how things work.
It was a dreaded period for most parents, since that's when things start getting destroyed by their children, but it always made Kaden feel miserable that he never got to experience it himself. At least now, he supposed, he got to see a small snippet of that phase in his life, and seeing his son indulge in his curiosity like this did bring a small smile to his face.
But as Ratchet uses a screwdriver to take off another piece of the clock, the picture suddenly becomes blurred as a 'pop' is heard, followed by laughter.
"What's the matter, kitty?" A young, high-pitched voice is heard. "Don't like getting wet?"
A hand obscures the picture for a moment as he wipes away the water, before it clears to reveal a small Veldinite child laughing at him with two others, holding what looks to be water balloons in their hands.
But Kaden hardly registers it, his eyes going wide as he recognizes the building behind them as the orphanage he left Ratchet in. And from this angle, he could tell it was from the side opposite to the entrance, as beyond it he could see the very same scenery of buttes and mesas that he remembered so vividly from that night. He could even see that small city lying among them in the distance, although it has appeared to have grown since then, since there were skyscrapers that he doesn't remember being there.
It was nothing short of surreal to see that landscape once again. It wasn't uncommon to see it in his dreams, being either a nightmare where he has to relive the moment where he abandoned his son, or a lifelike fantasy where he's able to actually return and rescue him, prompting him to wake up and painfully realize he's still gone.
But what really made him take a pause was the fact that seeing that desert on the screen in front of him only reinforced the fact that this Lombax standing right next to him was his son. His son that had to live his life looking out at those very same rocks and buildings that Kaden did all those years ago. And now, he was actually here.
But before he could dwell on it any further, he is snapped out of his thoughts as the memory once again becomes blurred as one of the kids throw another water balloon, eliciting even more laughter from the children.
"Stop it, Freddy!" Ratchet's young voice yells. "And stop calling me a cat! Ms. Perigee says I'm a Lombax!"
"Then why aren't you with the other Lombaxes then, kitty?" Freddy taunts him, priming another balloon in his hand. "Were you too ugly for a Lombax orphanage?"
"I… I don't know, okay?!" Ratchet says shakily as he stamps his foot. "Just leave me alone!"
"Why? Do you need to lick yourself, kitty?" Freddy laughs even more.
As he and his friends laugh, Kaden could feel the glare that Ratchet must have been giving them right then. And after a few moments, Ratchet looks down to himself, seeing that the pair of dirty, patched-up overalls he was wearing were completely soaked, the dirt beneath him stained dark from the moisture as he continues to drip.
But then, the screen centers onto the clock he was working on, lying on the ground, then back up to Freddy, and back down to the clock again. Ratchet suddenly leans down and grabs it with his hand before throwing it at Freddy with a small grunt.
Freddy, unable to dodge it from being too busy laughing, gets hit square in the chest, and falls down to the ground, his friends next to him looking at him in shock.
"What's the matter, Freddy?!" Ratchet yells back at him in a mockingly similar tone of his own voice. "Don't like getting clocked with a clock?!"
His friends help pick him up off the ground, and Kaden could see that he was starting to cry, his clothes getting soaked from landing on the water balloons he was holding. And instead of taunting Ratchet again, he instead turns around, and starts running back to the orphanage behind him, his friends in tow.
"Ms. Perigee! Ratchet hit me!" He cries out.
Ratchet watches them run into the building, but then he sighs as he walks over to the clock that he threw, now resting in the dirt. He crouches down and picks it up, but the extra pieces laying on the ground around it accompanied with a small dent in its side showed that it must have been damaged badly in the impact.
He takes his finger and tries to spin the hand of the clock around again, but it only makes a half-rotation before it jams, and after a moment of fighting it, a couple more gears pop out before both of the hands simply swing loosely, utterly broken. He drops the clock with a dull thud before sitting on the ground and burying his head in his arms in defeat, his vision beginning to get cloudy with tears.
"Why can't I be with other Lombaxes?" He mutters miserably to himself, his voice starting to get shaky. "I'm sure they would like me. And they wouldn't call me a cat, either."
Kaden feels his heart shatter as he listens to the sound of his child crying fade into nothing as the memory ends. But on top of the devastation, he also felt rage. He looks over to the rest of the Council, who all look onto the screen with shock in seeing that he was actually right. But more importantly, he saw guilt all over their faces.
Guilt that their decision made his son suffer a childhood like that. Confused, alone, and bullied. How easy could it have been if they said yes, and let him build a Dimensionator to swoop in and out in five minutes to save him from those water balloons?
But then he looks to Harold at the podium, who is also looking at the screen in shock and dismay. But unlike the rest of them, he actually manages to face him and Ratchet, but struggles to meet their gaze.
"I… I'm sorry." He mutters quietly.
"Oh? What's that?" Ratchet asks smugly, leaning over while holding a hand up to his ear. "We were right? I am that Lombax you guys abandoned and left for dead? My dad was telling the truth the entire time? Wow! I think you all deserve a round of applause, because it only took you twenty years to figure that out!"
He then proceeds to clap his hands together while staring daggers at Harold with a smile on his face, and after a few moments, they hear another set of hands clapping as well. They look over and see that it is, unsurprisingly, Julie.
She is stopped quickly, however, when Mags forcibly lowers her hands with his own. "Julie."
"What?! I can't just go out and say 'all of you guys can suck it because we were right this whole time!' Oh, wait… I guess I just did." She says with a completely unapologetic shrug. "You hear that? All of you guys can—"
"They heard it, Julie." Mags cuts her off. "You can gloat later."
"Damn right I will." She says as she crosses her arms.
Kaden doesn't pay her any real attention, however, as he can't help but be a little taken aback at how Ratchet is acting so cocky despite the nature of his memory. It especially worried him, however, because unless Harold explicitly asked him to 'talk about the time you were bullied as a child', Ratchet chose to show this on his own volition. If he wanted to prove that he did live on Veldin, then why didn't he show something like playing with his friends instead of something so distressing?
But then a cold feeling sinks into his gut as he realizes something. Maybe he didn't show any happy memories because he couldn't. What if this was his entire childhood? Getting picked on just for being the only Lombax on Veldin, different from everyone else around him? Kaden desperately hoped that wasn't the case, that his hasty decision to choose Veldin as his son's home planet didn't damn him to a miserable life, but he knew now wasn't the time to ask him about it, what with the entire Council before them right now.
Instead, he clears his throat, trying to shove those nasty thoughts aside as he speaks up once more to Harold. "Would you please continue?" He asks calmly, his mood too soured to gloat like Ratchet and Julie.
"Erm, yes." Harold hastily replies, thankful for an excuse to tear away from Ratchet's burning gaze on him. "There was one more memory of his childhood he shared, but I think we've proven enough already, so I'll—"
"No, play it." Ratchet interjects. "We don't want any doubt about this, do we? I think we need to see another one just for good measure."
Harold looks at him with unease and doubt, but with the way Ratchet glared at him, all he could do was sigh, and take the remote in his hand once more. "Very well."
With another button press, the screen remains black for a few moments once again, but then fades into a picture of a desk and an elderly Veldinite woman sitting behind it, crossing her arms with a stern, but mostly disappointed look on her face. Behind her on the wall were many pictures of children, the varying quality implying that they all must have been taken at different points in time, especially indicated by the inclusion of a more youthful depiction of the old woman in some of them.
"Ratchet…" She begins firmly.
A sigh is heard. "I know, Ms. Perigee. I shouldn't have built that thruster for my scooter." Ratchet speaks, albeit in a lower voice from the previous memory, leading Kaden to safely assume this must be a few years ahead.
She raises an eyebrow. "And?"
Another sigh. "And using it so I can chase Marcus all around the orphanage until he started crying." He adds, but without a hint of guilt.
Ms. Perigee looks at him for a moment, before she simply sighs and drops the disappointment and anger to instead look at Ratchet with sad concern.
"Ratchet, why do you and the other kids fight so much?" She asks. "You get into an incident like this every week."
"Because they always make fun of me for being a cat!" Ratchet replies angrily. "They always try to get me wet, they pull my tail, they sneak random leaves into my food calling it catnip, and they just laugh at me when I tell them to stop!"
"Ratchet, please calm down." She says soothingly.
"I've had to deal with that for years now!" Ratchet continues, ignoring her. "And even when some of them get adopted, all the new kids just join in on the joke! I can't escape it! No matter what I do or say, they still just make fun of me just for being different!"
The picture on the screen begins to blur slightly as tears start building up in his eyes. "I… I just don't get it, Ms. Perigee!" He says, his voice starting to break. "Why do I have to be different? Why can't I just be a Veldinite like the rest of you, so I don't get picked on all the time? I hate being a Lombax!"
He starts to sniffle, and the picture is momentarily obscures as Ratchet wipes his eyes. Kaden, however, only stares at it in shock. Hearing his son say that just makes him want to crawl through the screen and comfort him and tell him that everything was going to be okay, like a father should. But instead, he was forced to stand here and simply watch him suffer.
As the memory continues to play, Ms. Perigee stands up and hurries around the desk before grabbing Ratchet's hands in her own, giving him a comforting look that was filled with a maternal love that instantly reminded Kaden of Marie whenever she gazed onto Ratchet as a baby.
"Don't say that, Ratchet." She tells him, looking straight into his eyes. "You should be proud of being different, it's what makes you special, and the other kids are just jealous of that. I mean, most kids your age struggle with multiplication, and yet, you just built a working thruster for your scooter using nothing but scrap parts!"
He sniffs. "But… why am I even here, though, Ms. Perigee? Why aren't I with the other Lombaxes?"
She sighs. "I'm afraid I don't know that, Ratchet. I wish I could tell you, but whoever left you here never even left a note. Any research about your species I've done comes up empty, and everyone I ask says they haven't even seen a Lombax before. It's as if they fell off the face of the universe, except for you."
Kaden grimaces as he glares at the rest of the Council once again, all of whom look even more guilty and saddened than last time. Just five minutes with a Dimensionator would have been all he needed, but no. All because they were spineless cowards who made their decision 'for the good of all Lombaxes'. Every Lombax except for his son, apparently, who had to grow up thinking he was abandoned and unwanted.
"What am I supposed to do about everyone else, though?" Ratchet continues. "It's not like I'm getting adopted anytime soon. And I can't just get run away from them for good, either."
He stares at the floor as a moment of silence passes between them, broken only by his increasingly infrequent sniffles, before Ms. Perigee speaks up once more.
"Well… maybe you can." She says optimistically.
Ratchet looks back up to her. "What do you mean?"
She gives him a warm smile. "Like I said, you have an amazing talent with tinkering, Ratchet. It's how you got your name, after all! So why not put that to some good use?"
"Like what?"
"Well, I can't promise anything, but maybe I can talk with the local mechanics around here and see if they're willing to give you a job. I understand how you're still technically a child, but you're a very smart child. And besides, I know how you've said you always wanted to work with ships, right?"
"Wait, you'll do that? You really mean it?!" Ratchet asks, excitement returning to his voice, cheering Kaden up a little bit.
"Of course! You'll still have to live here, obviously, but if you make enough bolts, I'm sure you'll be able to find a place of your own. Ordinarily, I wouldn't suggest such a thing to any of my children, but I trust you, Ratchet. Ever since you were a baby, I've known you would be a wonderful person, and I wish nothing but the best for you. And if that means letting you leave my little nest here, then so be it." She tells him with another smile.
Ratchet doesn't say anything for a moment, but then he suddenly stands up and takes her into a big hug.
"Thank you so much, Ms. Perigee! You're the best!" He tells her with utter delight.
"Oh, don't thank me yet!" She says with a small laugh. "We still need to find you a job first!"
"When can we start looking?" Ratchet asks eagerly, breaking from the hug.
"Right now, actually. I'm sure the kids will be fine for the next hour or so, which is plenty of time to go and introduce you to some people I know." She replies. "But first, there's something I need to give you."
"Huh? What is it?"
She grabs a jar from her desk and reaches inside it before presenting Ratchet with a cookie. "Why, a treat of course! And I know chocolate chip is your favorite, right?"
"Thanks, Ms. Perigee!" Ratchet says as he takes the cookie from her hand and immediately begins munching on it.
She chuckles. "Now, let's see if we can find your future boss."
The memory then begins to fade out once again as she takes Ratchet's hand in her own and leads him out of the office, all the while he happily eats the cookie in his other.
The meeting room is once again bathed in silence as they process the events they just witnessed. But instead of glaring at the Council once again, Kaden instead turns to Ratchet, and takes him into hug.
"I'm sorry you had to suffer all of that, Ratchet." He tells him. "And… I'm glad that Ms. Perigee was there for you when I wasn't."
"You don't have to apologize for anything." Ratchet says, a little surprised from the hug. "I mean, my childhood wasn't all that bad. And besides, it wasn't your fault that you weren't there. It's theirs." He says pointedly, using a free arm to gesture to the rest of the Councilmembers, who shrink back in their seats. "And, well, you're here now. And that's what matters, right?"
"Yes, but…" He sighs. "I still can't help but feel like I should've done something to help you."
"Dad, don't worry about it." Ratchet tells him, breaking the hug to look him right in the eyes. "If there's anything that I've learned, it's that you can't change the past. Worrying about what you could and couldn't have done will do nothing but hurt you, so all we can do is focus on the here and now. Especially since I'm here now. So, please, don't beat yourself up for something you can't control."
Kaden would've just assumed that it was his son giving him common advice in an effort to reassure him, but… there was something in the way he said it, and a certain look in his eyes, too. It was as if it was a plea for something he didn't understand. It unnerved him in an odd way, but he just gives a nod, regardless.
"You're right."
Ratchet smiles, and Kaden sees him visibly relax. That was definitely something he was going to have to ask him about later, but once again, getting this pardon out of the way came first. And this time, it was Ratchet who decided to command the meeting.
"Now, since I am, without a doubt, that Lombax you all willingly abandoned, how about you play the tape, old man, so I can show you that I am also not lying about Tachyon?" He tells Harold at the podium.
"It's Harold." He says with a small frown. "Not 'old man'."
"And I'm not 'an old, rotting pile of bones'." Ratchet says with air quotes.
"Ha!" Julie exclaims, eliciting a facepalm from Mags.
Harold looks between the both of them for a moment, clearly wanting to argue back, but he instead sighs as he uses the remote once more.
"This is, apparently, Ratchet's first encounter with Tachyon." He announces to the rest of the Council, who gives the screen their uneasy attention.
The memory fades in, but this time, it isn't of a peaceful or ordinary scene like the previous ones. Instead, it seemed to practically be in the middle of a warzone, with Ratchet grinding on a rail amid a busy skyline with warships whizzing right past that were all too familiar to the rest of the Council. And as Ratchet glances behind himself in the memory to see one such ship tailing right behind him, it begins to fire a laser right at him that he deftly jumps out of the way, all the while dodging the debris of falling chunks of buildings around him.
Seeing him in the throes of battle like this utterly shocked Kaden. It was one thing to hear him talk about it, but seeing it for himself… it was more than unnerving. Knowing that one small slip-up would end his life right then and there scared Kaden, even knowing that he walked out of this alive and well if he was standing right next to him.
It was also at that moment that Kaden now perfectly understood all of Marie's constant fears about his safety back in his Praetorian days. Back then, he thought she was being overprotective. He was trained, he had plenty of experience, and nanotech meant that it would take a lot to take him out for good. In his mind, she had nothing to fear.
But seeing his own son in a life-threatening situation like that made him realize that all those things didn't reassure him one bit. He could get grievously wounded and end up with missing limb, even after nanotech. He could be sloppy and get captured and tortured by an especially heinous enemy. One of those ships he's dodging could just get plain lucky and manage to fire a laser through his head.
One small slip-up, and he'd be gone from Kaden's life for good, and the thought terrified him. He began to internally apologize to Marie for dismissing her very valid fears all the time, while also wondering just how the hell he thought so selfishly back then.
As the memory continues, the rail that Ratchet is currently grinding on abruptly ends, and he is forced to dismount onto the platform waiting below. As he lands, he is immediately surrounded by Drophyd soldiers, giving Kaden unpleasant memories of the Exodus as he looks at their fish-like faces. And judging by several shocked gasps behind him, he wasn't alone.
But then the warship that was chasing Ratchet decides to instead land on the same platform, and a hiss is heard as the door opens, extending a ramp almost right to him. But then, an even worse sound is heard, something that played so vividly in too many of Kaden's nightmares. The large mechanical thuds of metal legs hitting the ground. Kaden refuses to believe that it's actually him, but all of his doubts are crushed as a mechanical throne comes into view, manned by a red-clad Cragmite.
"Behold!" His shrieking voice declares as he walks up to Ratchet. "The last Lombax in the universe!"
The room erupts into shocked cries as they see Tachyon again for the first time in years. And hearing that voice, that horrible, screeching voice, it threw Kaden back to his battle with the Cragmite. He could hear how he taunted him, bargained with him, and threatened him. But most of all, he could hear his words when he said he defiled Marie's grave in the search for the Dimensionator, and how he promised to kill his son.
And to see that he was this close in fulfilling it, in finding him at all… it shook Kaden.
"Truly a pathetic specimen of the race, I'm afraid. So weak…" Tachyon continues in mild disappointment as he looks to Ratchet over his throne.
"And you are?" Ratchet asks, completely unimpressed and oblivious that the creature before him is the cause of his people's suffering.
"Emperor Percival Tachyon!" He declares proudly as he stands on his throne, scepter in hand. "Crown Prince of the Cragmites, Conquerer of Space and Time, and, pending the obliteration of a few insubordinate species, Ruler of the Universe!"
It was enough to terrify the rest of the Council, but in the memory, Ratchet isn't heard cowering or begging for his life, Instead, he's heard laughing.
Laughing.
"Your name's Percival?" He asks, glancing over to Clank, who also joins Ratchet in his naïve giggling.
"EMPEROR!" Tachyon yells onto him, silencing him. "See the crown? See the scepter? The giant walking throne and legion of robotic commandos? EMPEROR! Not that a treacherous furball like you could—"
He stops as he sees Clank walk in front of Ratchet and stand in front of him protectively. But as Tachyon looks down onto him, he only chuckles.
"Such a primitive robot companion… and your kind used to be such renowned engineers." He says condescendingly.
Kaden can't help but clench his fist, and there are more than a few Councilmembers who cry out insults towards him as well.
"Oh, I'd be careful if I were you." Ratchet says. "He's got poso-morphic blaster cannons in each fingertip."
Clank proceeds to aim his fingers at all the surrounding Drophyds, all of whom cower, except for Tachyon, who only rolls his eyes.
"My gripe is not with the people of this archaic planet, but with you!" He says while pointing down to Ratchet with his scepter. "Surrender your… deathbot, and simply allow us to kill you. No one else need be harmed."
"Fair enough." Ratchet replies.
Before Kaden could begin to possibly fathom what the hell he meant by that, he could see Ratchet take out a wrench and hold it next to Clank, who grips onto it. He then swings the wrench, flinging Clank right past Tachyon and onto the ship behind him, to which he hurriedly scuttles into.
And as Tachyon looks back in surprise, Ratchet swiftly runs under him, and hits the knee of one of the throne's legs, sending the whole thing toppling as he runs onto the ship beginning to take off, and Tachyon is heard screaming at the guards to shoot him.
But their mediocre weapons do nothing to harm the heavily-armored warship, and Ratchet and Clank quickly leave the atmosphere and into the darkness of space. But before they could enjoy their victory and survival, a voice is heard from the console.
"Hyperspace boosters online. Engaging cryosleep." An AI announces before a gas is released from the vents.
Ratchet scoffs. "Cryosleep? There's no way that's gonna—"
The memory very abruptly ends as he immediately passes out.
"Huh." Ratchet mutters indifferently, next to Kaden. "That… was a little more embarrassing than I remember."
"What?!" A Councilman cries from the audience. "You met Tachyon, laughed in his face, kneecapped his throne, stole his ship, and all you have to say is that you're mildly embarrassed?!"
He shrugs. "I mean, yeah."
"Just what is wrong with you?!"
He shrugs again, but with a grin this time.
"Is there more?" A Councilwoman asks anxiously.
Harold gives an apprehensive nod. "Yes. This is when he… defeated Tachyon." He says with some reluctance.
He plays the next memory, and a few moments later, a view of the Court of Azimuth appears on screen. And around it, the crumbling ruins of what were once homes and businesses also appear into view, all of which Kaden was able to recognize, even after twenty years. To think that the last time he and everyone else in this room saw these buildings, they were bustling with Lombaxes going about their lives completely worry-free.
But now, it was reduced to complete dilapidation that made it a wonder that anything lived there at all, save for all the flora that was halfway finished reclaiming everything. It was awful seeing their original home in such a state. It only served to remind him of everything else that Tachyon took from him besides his family.
In the memory, Ratchet glances behind himself, seeing Clank with him as usual, but also a Markazian girl accompanied with two clearly aged warbots. They give him a look of reassurance, and with a deep breath, Ratchet turns back around, and enters the Court. As he enters, the interior of the structure gives Kaden a sense of déjà vu much like seeing the Kyzil Plateau, even more so in seeing that practically nothing about it has changed since the last time he was there. In fact, as Ratchet looks around, he could still see the holes in the wall from his skirmish with Tachyon.
But suddenly, his voice echoes through the chamber.
"With their city decimated by my enforcers, your race took refuge behind these walls. They believed if they left this dimension, then I would leave Polaris unscathed." He then utters a maniacal laugh as Ratchet looks up to the rafters, raising his wrench.
"You're lying!" He says firmly. "Lombaxes don't run!"
Despite the fear and unease, Kaden felt a swell of pride towards his son as he hears that.
"Is that so?" Tachyons asks.
A peculiar sound is then heard, one that delivers a cold feeling in Kaden's gut.
"Dimensionator! Find the Lombaxes!"
A portal then opens right in front of Ratchet, sending shocked gasps throughout the Council as they can see the image of the very city they're standing in right now beyond the shimmering surface.
"He found the Dimensionator?!" A Councilwoman cries out.
"How could that have happened?!" Another adds.
Kaden doesn't respond as he watches on and sees Ratchet slowly walk up to the portal, stopping just short of it. He hesitantly reaches his hand up to it, and a blue mist dances across it, making him stare at it in awe.
"Cowards! All of them!" Tachyon suddenly cries out.
Ratchet looks up to the rafters, startled, but finds nothing.
"Only two stayed behind; the Keeper of the Dimensionator, and his infant son."
The heavy thuds of his throne can be heard.
"I took great pleasure in destroying your father, Lombax. Pity he sent you to Solana before we could meet."
Kaden clenches his fist with a snarl. "You wish, you filthy bastard."
"But, I offer you this once chance: Go home—Join your race. Or stay… and suffer."
Ratchet gazes onto the portal once more, and at the buildings that lay just behind it. He turns around to look at his companions, who all share an expression of concern and apprehension, almost fearful of what he might choose. But then, Ratchet stares at the floor for a moment, before just walking away from the portal.
"If I leave you with the Dimensionator, no one will be safe. Not the Lombaxes, not my friends. I'm not going anywhere until it's destroyed."
The portal then closes, popping out of existence as Tachyon jumps down before him, wearing the device on his head with a look of annoyance.
"Typical Lombax; So noble, so courageous, and so very dead."
A fierce battle then ensues between the two, which quickly boils down to absolute chaos as a flurry of missiles, lasers, and other projectiles fly every which way, made all the more disorienting with Ratchet's constant flips and dodges, rendering the memory almost unwatchable through sensory overload.
But unlike the rest of the Council, who are on the edge of their seats in tense apprehension, Kaden only stares at Ratchet, who watches on with some amusement before noticing his father's gaze on him.
"You… you had a chance to come back?" Kaden asks in disbelief. "Even though it was right in front of you… you decided to fight that Cragmite instead? Even after knowing what he's capable of?"
Ratchet nods. "I did what I had to do to protect everyone, and if that meant I never got to meet another Lombax, well…" He shrugs. "I made it this far without them. Erm, you, I guess I should say."
Kaden only stares dumbfounded at him, which makes Ratchet sigh while rubbing the back of his head. "I know I could've come back sooner and met you earlier, but I didn't think you were alive. And, like I said, I knew it'd be dangerous to just let Tachyon have the Dimensionator. So… sorry, I guess. Maybe if I'd know that you were here, I might've—Gah!"
He is cut off as Kaden suddenly embraces him into yet another suffocating hug. "Don't be. I couldn't be more proud of you." He says warmly. "Even if I'm a little offput that you were still a teenager."
"Huh? Weren't you just yelling at me earlier for fighting him?" Ratchet strains to say.
"Yeah, but that was before I saw what you had to sacrifice in order to do it." He lets go of Ratchet, much to his relief, and gives him a smile. "And I guess I can't help but be glad that you're just like me."
"What do you mean?" Ratchet asks, distantly wondering if he should start doing breathing exercises to help prepare for these constant bear hugs.
"Tachyon offered to spare me and you if I gave up the Dimensionator's location, but I told him to go to hell. Just like you did."
"Huh." Ratchet replies. "I guess that explains his last comment about Lombaxes being typical, then."
"Yeah, but… it seems like you had better luck than I did." Kaden says as he returns his attention to the battle onscreen, still trying to get used to the idea that it was his son behind all those missiles and lasers and fireballs being thrown at Tachyon. But even then, seeing his throne quite literally on its last legs as he visibly fears for his life was nothing short of euphoric for him.
He suddenly stops trying to fight back, and instead goes to pull the cord on the Dimensionator in an attempt to escape. But nothing happens as it instead hums down and starts to shrink back into its idle form.
"What's this? No, NO!" He begins to cry out, hitting it with his small fist. "WORK, you infernal machine!"
It suddenly shoots out another portal, but one that is nothing but blackness as it starts to drag Tachyon into it. He begins to scream in fear, his cries sounding like music to Kaden and the rest of the Council as he desperately tries to claw away to no avail.
He eventually loses his grip, and is sucked through almost unceremoniously, leaving Ratchet and Clank standing away to witness the whole event.
"Huh." Ratchet says, resting a hand on his chin. "You were right, wormhole devices are dangerous."
He looks over to Clank, who only returns an expression of unamused irritation, something that Kaden could sympathize with if that was his reaction to defeating his entire people's sworn enemy.
"What? Oh, come on! This isn't like one of those holofilms where you think the guy's dead and suddenly—Ah!"
He is suddenly pulled through the portal screaming, dragging Clank along behind him before landing face-first on the ground. When he looks up, he sees he is on a rock in some strange space that Kaden and Mags could recognize as a pocket dimension, but also with Tachyon right in front of him.
"No! What have you done?! You ruined EVERYTHING!" He screeches at him, arming his throne with even more weapons than their previous fight.
"We are so screwed." Ratchet mutters, before dodging a blast from Tachyon's throne.
And so, the Council is once again subject to another heart-pounding fight of Ratchet fighting Tachyon, this time with Kaden's full attention as well. And although the whole thing couldn't have lasted for more than a few minutes, it felt like hours to him.
Kaden was thankful that his son seemed to have plenty of combat experience to survive for longer than a few moments with Tachyon, but at the same time, he still couldn't help but be disquieted by it. He was a teenager, and yet, his skills and reflexes were clearly better than most soldiers in the Praetorian Guard. Just why did he have to lead such a violent life?
He was just glad that Ratchet said he retired from all of this, at least.
Eventually, though, Tachyon is thrown out of his weaponized thrown, now completely destroyed, and lands onto the ground, knocking the Dimensionator off of his head, where it rolls away from him. Ratchet immediately walks over, intending to finish the job.
"You can't kill me, Lombax!" Tachyon tells him. "Only I know your true purpose in this galaxy, only I know your true name!" He stands up, seemingly in complete denial of his defeat as there is an insane look in his eyes. The ground around them begins to crumble, likely as collateral damage from their fight, but he doesn't seem to notice.
"The Cragmite return is inevitable! Your kind will never be safe, you hear me?!" Tachyon yells. His throne falls from behind him, and shortly after, he does too as the ground falls away to an inky black wormhole far below.
"NEVEEEEER!" is the last thing they hear before it fades into nothing, Tachyon swallowed by the darkness.
But before Ratchet could celebrate his huge triumph, he rushes over to the Dimensionator and opens the cover to begin fixing it as even more of the platform he's standing on becomes increasingly unstable.
"It's broken!" He cries out, fishing in the internals. "Looks like something snapped off the primary reflux coil!"
Kaden is impressed how quickly Ratchet managed to diagnose it, despite never having built one before. And seeing it for himself, he could tell that the missing piece was—
"A three and three quarters centicubit hexagonal washer!" Clank says, producing said piece.
Ratchet quickly takes it and affixes it into the Dimensionator before throwing it onto his own head, grabbing Clank into his arm as he pulls the cord with the other.
"Dimensionator, find home!"
There is a flash of white, but then darkness for a few moments. But then, a blurry image comes into view, as does Clank's voice.
"Ratchet, are you alright?" He asks, his face coming into view.
"Where… where are we?" Ratchet's dazed voice asks.
He slowly sits up as Clank backs away, and they see the Markazian and warbots from earlier watching over him as Clank smiles.
"We are home, Ratchet." He says happily.
The memory once again fades into blackness, before the sound of the holotape ejecting from the player is able to be heard, the rest of the room shocked into an awed silence. They all stare at Ratchet, who, instead of feeling uncomfortable from their stares like when he first walked into the room, smiles proudly as he places his hands on his hips.
"That was awesome!" Julie suddenly cries out. "You actually kicked that Cragmite's ass!" She then begins to clap enthusiastically, eliciting some odd looks towards her from the rest of the Council. But then, Mags starts to join in next to her.
"You really are a hero!" He affirms with Julie.
Ratchet beams at their compliments, but then he hears another set of hands clapping. And another. And another, until in a matter of seconds, nearly the entire room is clapping for him, with Councilmembers expressing how great it is to finally have Tachyon gone for good and their people avenged.
It surprises him to have this reaction after all of these people were calling him a criminal ten minutes ago, but he wasn't complaining. He looks over to the podium, and saw that even Harold was giving him some applause, albeit in a begrudging fashion. But he thought that just made it all the better. He feels a hand on his shoulder and turns to see Kaden giving him a proud smile, the endearing look in his eye giving Ratchet a warm and fuzzy feeling as well.
He was used to getting this kind of congratulations from being a hero for all these years, with formal celebrations and parties and interviews and whatnot, but receiving it from fellow Lombaxes, especially his father? It felt even more rewarding.
After about a minute of applause for Ratchet, Harold raises his hand to regain everyone's attention, and all the clapping quickly dies down. Well, all of it except for Julie's, who is quickly silenced by Mags once again forcibly lowering her arms.
Harold clears his throat before turning halfway to Kaden and Ratchet. "On the behalf of the Council, I think you deserve our utmost gratitude for protecting us from that murderer, Ratchet, along with our sincere apologies as well. Especially to you, Kaden. And while there is little we can do to possibly begin rectifying what we did to you for all of these years, I do think we can at least do this."
He then turns fully to the rest of the Council. "All in favor of granting Ratchet here a full pardon for all of his crimes?"
Every hand is raised, a resounding unanimous vote.
He nods. "And all in favor of repealing the prohibition of Dimensionators and other dimension-hopping devices, and all the punishments involved wherein?"
Another unanimous vote, an amazing sight for Kaden, seeing the Council finally listen to him after all this time.
Harold nods again. "It is decided, then. Now, are there any words you would like to say before we end this meeting?" He asks Kaden.
Kaden snaps out of his thoughts and gives a nod. "Absolutely."
Harold then backs away from the podium, allowing Kaden to take his place instead. He looks up at all the Councilmembers before him, and at all the faces that he's had to look and grovel before for over twenty years. But instead of annoyance, irritation, boredom, or complete dismissal of his pleas, they all gave him their eager attention.
"In light of today's events, there is something that I wish to share with you all from the bottom of my heart." He announces.
He takes a breath, and gives them all a wide and genuine smile.
"All of you can go fuck yourselves for having the gall to tell me that my child was dead for over two decades. And while you may have finally listened to me today, it still doesn't change the fact that you were very, very much too late in your decision, and for that, I will never forgive you. This meeting is adjourned, and may you all burn in hell right along with Tachyon."
He ignores the assortment of offended cries and protests coming from the audience, save for Julie's laughter and Mags' chuckling, and instead turns back towards a surprised Ratchet, all the while still wearing a grin on his face.
"I think it's about time we get home, Ratchet. I'm starving."
Surprisingly, I also found enough time to also write a little oneshot called 'Joyride' that's all about that incident Julie and Mags argued about at the end of the last chapter, when she crashed his ship. Be sure to check that out if you want more of our Lombax trio's hijinks!
And I'd also take this moment to shoutout a Discord channel all about Ratchet and Clank, with discussions, fanfiction, fanart, and most of all, memes. You too can join at /YjJ6xpzJ8A, all are welcome!