Upon returning home to their apartment complex in Meridian City, Ratchet turned in for the night with his girlfriend, Talwyn Apogee, while Clank tucked in his arms and feet in the room next door. It rained heavily accompanied with a chorus of thunder, not that it would disrupt a scheduled sleep cycle. However, before it could engage, his little antenna stood stiff and high and blinked red.

"Oh my," he said, perplexed. "I wonder who it could be at this hour." He untucked his arms and legs and pressed the sensor on his chest to allow the signal to go through.

"Hello?" a high pitched, frantic, and familiar voice buzzed. "Is this you, sir? Do I have the right number?" Clank's eyes fluttered in surprise.

"Sigmund? Is that you?"

"Eureka!! I got it!! Yes, it's me, Sigmund!! How have you been, sir??"

"You are the senior caretaker of the Great Clock, now. You do not have to call me "sir".

"As senior caretaker, I'll address you as I please, sir."

Clank sat dumbfounded and amazed.

"Fair enough," he said. "I have been well, Sigmund. And yourself?"

"I've been incredibly busy," Sigmund replied. "It's why I'm calling you now. I have something really important to ask."

"Oh?"

"Did you ever use the Great Clock at any point in time you were here?"

Clank froze.

"I did not," he said swiftly.

"Maybe not in this time," Sigmund said. "But the Great Clock documents any time it was ever accessed for time travel and retains the memory. It says you did indeed use it to travel back six minutes." Clank pressed his fingers together nervously.

"Is that right? I did not know it could do that."

"Nor did I know that it would even allow time travel at all," Sigmund said. "No real harm was done, but what it did do was sprinkle cracks in time all over the far reaches of the universe. Objects have been passing through them from various points of time past and future alike." Clank clasped his hands together and teetered himself back and forth.

"That actually sounds like a serious problem," he remarked anxiously.

"What's worse is that they suddenly ripped wide open!" Sigmund explained. "Wide enough for anything and anyone to come through! The Zoni said it was caused by an astronomical dimensional rift! Can you believe it??"

Clank stopped and hunched forward; he knew exactly the chain of events that led to the crisis and who they're bound to.

"Oh dear…."

"So I've been busting my muffler with the Zoni to get them closed and send the unwitting travelers back where they came from!" Sigmund added. "But every time we do, a new one pops up! It's like whack a wall mole I tell ya!" Clank shuffled his feet.

"I…. I am sorry, Sigmund," Clank stammered.

"So I was thinking of anything we haven't tried yet," Sigmund rambled. "And then I remembered Orvus made you, too! You could possibly act as a power cell to boost the range of the Zoni's sealing capabilities and keep the portals closed!"

"I will do what is necessary to fix this," Clank said blindly.

"Great!" Sigmund cheered. "I'll send the Zoni to pick you up!"

"Wait!" Clank gasped suddenly. He sat up straight on high alert. "Not yet, Sigmund! Please! I need to tell Ratchet!"

"We literally are running out of time!" Sigmund argued. "A moment more and the very fabric of our existence is doomed!"

"I just….."

They both went silent; the seconds that passed felt like minutes.

"Are you alright, sir?" Sigmund asked at last. "It's not like you to be indecisive." Clank tapped his fingers together.

"I believe in you and the Zoni," he said softly. "Do you believe you all can hold on until morning comes?"

"We're already holding on as best we can without running the risk of our lights going out."

"Pardon?"

"Ah-- I mean we're holding on already what's another day going to hurt?"

"Thank you, Sigmund." Clank looked out the droplet covered window.

"I do have a question," he said. "How much time passed from when I was first brought to the Great Clock to when I awoke?"

"I'd say about two years," Sigmund answered. "But what does that have to do with our situation?"

"It does not" Clank said in a saddened tone. "But if it is true two years had gone by, I cannot leave Ratchet's side again without saying goodbye."

"When you do, please make it quick. Speaking of, I need to do a headcount to make sure I have enough Zoni for this next portal. Call me as soon as you're ready."

"I will, Sigmund. Goodnight."

"Yes. Have a good night, sir."

When the call ended, Clank stood himself up and approached the window. He stared out into the dark, stormy sky above. As the lightning bleached the background white, he clutched his chest, sinking into a sea of doubt and despair, and the horrific memory of his best friend's death that he undid with the Great Clock in the first place.

"All I wanted was to save my friend," he whispered shakily. "And with the Dimensionator, to help him be happy. But if my actions hurt everyone else, then him, too… The galaxy, the universe…. It's all because of me…."