"Mom!" The three kids shouted upon seeing her and rushed toward her and their father the next day, hugging their parents and Ratchet chuckled, patting their heads and rubbing their shoulders. Rilena sighed, still feeling sore from her heat and having an odd walk but nonetheless smiled at her children. "Hey kids." She crooned softly, kneeling down to kiss their foreheads and wipe Riley's tears away as the little girl was crying. Ragar and Ratchet Junior snuggled up against their mother's sides, trying to comfort her.
Looking over at Leon, Ratchet saw Leon sigh with a nod. The twins knew but Riley was left in the dark. That's how Ratchet would prefer it to stay as well. While Riley was obviously wise beyond her five year old body, she did not need to continue knowing the harshness of the world or how it treated her mother. Walking toward him, Leon leaned against Ratchet with a smirk, making the Lombax flush. "So, enjoy your night?" Ratchet looked away, blush growing darker.
"I am not going to dignify that with a response." Ratchet muttered, side-eyeing Leon whose smirk grew. "From the walk Rilena has, something tells me you two rather enjoyed your night." Leon teased and Ratchet grumbled, slapping a hand to his forehead. "Her heat is…insatiable." Ratchet muttered, still flushed. Oh yes, he enjoyed last night…doesn't mean he enjoyed the ribbing from one of his best friends. Now though he knew how Rilena felt, she was embarrassed by acting so needy, even to her husband but she had been conscious. She just…she couldn't control her body.
After their little rumble between the sheets, she explained how the drug prevented her from having control over her body. The signals her brain sent to her body were not going through and thus, her body acted on autopilot. She was used to something similar with her heat cycles but it was never as intense, painful or scary as the drug. Not to mention, it wasn't May so her heat hadn't acted up. With Ratchet not there and having four kids, she had thought her heat cycle was gone due to stress. Obviously, she realized her body still recognized the signs.
Ratchet had asked how Drek made it but Rilena had shrugged, she didn't know. She knew Drek had taken samples of her blood and maybe he found out how to make a chemical that responded interestingly to her blood but she wasn't sure. At the moment, Ratchet wasn't going to worry about it. Clank told him, when he came to get him, that Karla was working on recreating it so she could make an antidote. "Anyways," Leon speaking grabbed Ratchet's attention, "I'm going to head to research and relieve Takeria of watching my wife. Kyle showed too much interest with the syringe." Ratchet nodded, watching Leon leave.
Leon entered the research facility and what he saw made his blood boil. Kyle had Karla's wrist pinned to the wall above her head, both had their teeth bared at one another. The syringe held protectively in Karla's tail. "Don't make me force you to give it to me." Kyle hissed and Karla growled louder. "I DARE you even TRY something." She sassed, bringing a leg back before surging forward, slamming her head against Kyle's nose. As he let off a string of curses, she brought her knee forward, getting the other Lombax in his groin, making him fall to the floor.
Jumping away from him, she sighed softly before she saw her husband and relief filled her. "Oh Leon, thank Zoni." She hurried to him and he kept her close to him. "Are you okay? Where's Takeria and the others?" Leon asked and she pointed to her desk where Takeria was unconscious. "He used a taser with enough volts to render her unconscious and the others are grabbing food for us." Karla explained, nuzzling her head under Leon's chin, grabbing the syringe she was inspecting. "He was after this." Leon looked at the syringe before turning dark brown eyes to Kyle.
"Stay here." She nodded as Leon walked toward Kyle and yanked him up with his robotic arm. "I gave you a few chances but now…" He pulled out a pair of brass knuckles, "No one is here to stop me from giving you your proper due." Leon's fist surged forward, catching Kyle on the jaw and almost dislocating it. He was going to make sure Kyle didn't try anything like this again. "Karla, actually can you take Takeria to med-bay and then alert the Commander?" Kyle's eyes went wide at Leon's words. "I'm sure she'd 'love' hearing what I'm doing to him." Karla nodded and headed over to Takeria.
Kyle was most likely going to be in med-bay after Leon was done with him.
**(Later, Medical Wing)**
Rilena, Ratchet and the kids rushed into med-bay where Karla was with Takeria, checking her over. "Takeria!" Rilena shouted, rushing toward the black Leopardis that was now awake. "Hey sugah." Takeria replied, giving Rilena a smile when the younger Leopardis hugged her. "Oh my Zoni, are you okay?" Rilena asked her friend, blue eyes showing concern and Takeria merely smiled. "I'm okay sugah." Takeria gave a toothy grin. "It takes more than a few knocks to hurt this noggin'." Takeria stated, tapping her knuckles to her head a few times for emphasis.
Rilena sighed, shaking her head a bit, looking at her friend in worry. "If you say so." She backed up a bit, allowing her kids to see how she is. "What all happened?" Ratchet asked Karla, making the cream colored Lombax sigh. "Kyle…he went too far." Ratchet's green eyes went wide, before darkening with anger. "What did he do?" Ratchet asked, making Karla hold up the vial. "He was after this, showed far too much interest in it." Karla looked to Takeria, seeing her smiling and laughing with the kids.
"He tasered Takeria, enough of a voltage to knock her out but not seriously hurt her." She explained, looking back at Ratchet. "Once she was down, he pinned me to the wall, demanding I had the vial over. I told him no and got him between the legs…after headbutting him." Karla explained and Ratchet smirked. "Bet Leon liked seeing that." Karla giggled with a shrug. "Dunno, Leon was pretty angry and even told me to take Takeria to med-bay." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "He's probably still beating Kyle into a bloody puddle."
The doors opened. "No, the other researchers stopped me." Leon walked in, rubbing his sore shoulder. "As much as I am all for you beating him," Rilena said as she walked over to the three, "do it when I'm around." The blue-gray Leopardis said with a smirk. "Not only would I like to see it but I have a better chance at stopping you BEFORE you kill him." The three laughed at Rilena's words, before someone pulled on Rilena's pants. "Hm?" Rilena looked at her daughter and picked her up.
"What's up sweetie?" Rilena asked Riley, when she held Clink up. "Clink is making a weird sound." The little girl replied, making Rilena hum as she looked at Clink, the robotic dragon was, indeed, making an odd whirring sound. She put Riley down, before looking Clink over and tapped the robotic dragon's head, making it turn mechanical blue eyes at her. It tilted its head at her and gave a weird cooing sound. "Clink, release." Rilena said as she set the robot down, making its eyes glow a brighter blue. Suddenly, a light shot from his eyes, hitting one of the walls in med-bay, where they looked over. It was Lombax writing, with a few words of ancient Leopardis scattered about but it was a message…a message from Derek! When did he-?!
'Arrest Kyle! I intercepted a message from Drek's where he's spoken to someone called Kyle! If he's there, arrest him!'
Eye's went wide, fangs barred and anger radiated from the four adults. "Takeria," Rilena's voice was unnaturally calm, making Takeria tense, looking at her Commander with serious green eyes. "Send out an alarm." She turned to look at Takeria and the kids paled at her expression. It was so dark, so murderous and filled with anger and betrayal. "Kyle is being arrested for treason." Takeria's eyes went wide before she growled and she lifted her arm, pressing the emergency button on it.
Ratchet Junior, Ragar, Leon, Ratchet, Karla and Rilena did the same, before Rilena looked at her kids. "You all stay here with Karla and Takeria, keep the doors locked." Rilena called her combustor to her. "He's not leaving here alive." Rilena ran out with Leon and Ratchet by her side, even as Karla closed and locked the doors, before looking around. "I might be able to analyze the vial here…" Karla muttered, before pulling equipment out to examine the sample. As the alarm rang out and everyone saw their commander, Leon and Ratchet with weapons, others also called their weapons out and followed the commander. "Commander Rilena!" Conner called out, grabbing her attention as she stopped.
"What?" Rilena asked as Conner rushed toward her. "Kyle escaped confinement!" He said through a pant and Rilena hissed. "Dammit! He's the traitor!" Rilena shouted and everyone froze and starting yelling at one another. Qwark with his rangers ran on ahead to try and stop him, while Ratchet and Leon headed to the ship area. It's very likely Kyle would steal the pod ship they had in order to leave! "I'll send out an announcement!" Conner said, hurrying to the teleporter and typing a code in it so he could go directly to the Commander Center. Not too long after; "There is a traitor among the Rebels! Arrest for Kyle has been warranted!" Then, those not nearby began moving, calling their weapons to them and heading for the dock area.
As Ratchet and Leon entered with the Rangers, they saw Kyle get in a ship that wasn't there before. "Kyle! Stop!" Ratchet said as he pointed his combustor at the brown and black Lombax who growled. Bringing his own weapon out, a Devastator, Kyle turned it and let off two rockets. "Whoa!" Ratchet pushed Leon out of the way and Kyle let off two towards the rangers, forcing them to dive to dodge the rockets. Kyle got in afterward, starting the ship up and looked over his shoulder to see Ratchet bring out his own Devastator.
Kyle hissed, pushing the cockpit lid up and letting off a rocket to the ceiling. "Ah!" Ratchet tried to dodge but wasn't fast enough to prevent his leg from getting trapped underneath some of the ceiling that broke. "Ratchet!" Leon shouted, before dodging a rocket nearly hitting him. Deeming it safe enough as the Rangers picked themselves up, Leon quickly closed the cockpit lid and took off out of The Rebel homebase. "No!" Qwark tried to fire a few rockets after Kyle as he sped down the runway that emerged from the ground but soon the Lombax was in the air. The rockets missing him. "Dammit." Qwark hissed, before turning to Ratchet as Leon and Brax got the ceiling pieces off the Lombax.
"You okay?" Elaris asked and Ratchet nodded, teeth gritted in anger. "Yeah. Just pissed he got away." Ratchet hissed, standing up with Cora's help. "How did he know we would find out?" Leon wondered, rubbing his chin. To know Kyle had been the traitor this whole time…but why would he betray Rilena when he had been trying to have her as his own? "The Command Center has been hacked." Rilena said as she walked in, frowning a little as Conner walked in soon after. "A bug?" Leon questioned, seeing the small device Conner held up. "That day he broke into the Command Center, he planted this device." Conner said, turning it this way and that.
"We didn't think he had anything like this, so we didn't check. We knew files had been touched but not much else aside from that." Conner explained and Rilena sighed, rubbing her temples. "With Kyle going back to Drek though…we're not safe on Veldin anymore." Rilena said softly, making those in the room look at one another sadly. "We have to move or we risk getting caught." Rilena muttered, making them all sigh. "Or one other option." They looked at Ratchet confused.
"We attack Drek." Leon jolted. "Have you lost your fucking mind?!" Leon snapped out, brown eyes wide at his friend's remark. "Drek is most likely still scrambled over the fact I'm alive." Ratchet reasoned. "If we attack now while he's trying to scramble his forces together, we can take him down. He won't have as much protection since he's sent his forces to places we've struck." The Lombax explained, making Rilena sigh. "My concern is Derek." They looked at the Leopardis confused.
"Kyle knows we had an insider. The file he touched was messages I had decoded. It won't be hard for Drek to learn his insider is my son." Rilena explained, unaware of two children at the door. "We need to get Derek off the flagship and bring him here where it is safe. While we strike the flagship, it will give everyone here enough time to get everything packed and shipped to Zigas who can then keep everyone on his ship." At least…until they found another place.
"Aridia would be a good place, the planet was abandoned as it didn't have much resources." Leon said and Rilena nodded, they could do Aridia. "Quartu as well, it has an underground settlement from when the Blarg were driven underground." Elaris explained, they could also fortify the area if need be. "We'll look into options but our time is limited." Rilena stated, before looking at Conner. "Call an emergency meeting. We need to relocate." Rilena muttered, looking annoyed, even as the two at the door left to make plans.
She wanted Derek back? Well, so did they! Time to save him!
**(One Hour Later, Meeting Room)**
Rilena was confused at the excitement her two sons had, yet when she said they might have to relocate, they looked upset. They might have just been happy that Kyle was gone. As everyone filed into the Meeting Room, Rilena sat down in a chair, sighing as she rubbed her temples. "Everyone, we will have to relocate soon." Rilena said to them all, surprising them. "What?" "Is this because of Kyle?" "Of course it is!" "He always disappeared during patrol, I never trusted him to begin with." "Even the Commander was getting suspicious of him." Everyone spoke in low volumes, seeing their Commander's worry.
"General Zigas will be contacted later today to help with the relocating, he can keep his ships camouflaged as we evacuate." Rilena said, looking at those who fought with exhausted eyes. "However, that is not all." Everyone turned their attention to her, ceasing their murmuring instantly. "We have another option that Ratchet brought up." Everyone looked at him, before looking back at their Commander. "While we evacuate, we attack Drek." Everyone's eyes went wide at her words.
"I know we have to save Derek, it won't take long for Drek to figure out my son was our insider. Kyle touched the file that had the decoded messages, getting info on who sent them." They all winced at her words. "As such, if Kyle reveals this information to Drek, he'll take his own son into custody…or worse." They knew Drek wouldn't hesitate to kill his own son. "I don't know what reward Kyle has been promised for betraying us, it could be multiple rewards or even a single, simple one." Rilena explained, rubbing her head a bit.
She spoke once more. "All I know is Drek is still scrambling himself and his forces since Ratchet's proved himself that he was, indeed, alive. Drek will know that we are underground though and his 'contract' with Veldin won't stop him from using the Deplanetizer on the planet to stop us." Rilena explained, sighing once more. "Our options are limited, so is our time. General Zigas has no qualm keeping us with him but we needed a base. So, here is the plan," On the table in the middle, a hologram floated up, words, as well as battle plans showing on the hologram.
"While me, Ratchet, the Rangers, Leon and Takeria infiltrate the ship, grab Derek and one escape with him, the rest will stay on the planet." Rilena showed the positions the battle cannons were at, hidden from space view. "We'll take the covers off the cannons we have and shoot planes that try to land, we can't let anyone get close to home base." Rilena explained, making others nod. "While that happens, Ratchet Junior and Ragar will be helping people into the teleporter that will take us to General Zigas' ship. When Derek appears, he will help as well as whoever brought him to the base." Rilena explained, lines pointing from one area of the map to the other.
"The escape pod will land on the runway and be deserted, a sign to not be shot down." Rilena then spun the hologram around, Drek's Flagship appearing soon after. "While we board the ship, we'll split up at that point." Rilena pointed to the docks, the area highlighting. "Rangers, I want you to go down and sabotage the docking area, all except Elaris." Elaris looked confused. "Elaris, you will go…here…" She highlighted a middle area, looked to be a big office of some sort.
"This is where Drek's office is, unless he changed the ship after my imprisonment. You will download and sabotage all reports and files Drek has." Elaris nodded, reminding herself to get all virus programs she had ready. "You will be with Leon, he'll keep you safe." Rilena stated, making the white and red Lombax nod. "Takeria, think you can grab Derek and run with him?" Rilena asked the black Leopardis who nodded, smiling. "Sure can sugah." Takeria replied in her thick country ascent.
"Me, Ratchet and Clank will go after Drek personally." Ratchet nodded from her side, they always worked exceptionally well together. "General Zigas will be contacted tonight. The earliest he can be here is when we'll start the evacuation. So, for now we will all get everything ready and packed up. Bring only what you need and what will be useful." Rilena said and then clapped her hands and everyone left the meeting room. Afterward, Rilena slumped forward but Ratchet caught her before she fell out of the chair. "Mom!" The kids shouted, rushing toward their mom, yet she was merely passed out.
"She's worn herself out. With the reveal of Kyle as the traitor and getting everything together, she's exhausted." Ratchet muttered, brushing Rilena's fringe from her closed eyes. "We'll start packing tomorrow, kids." Ratchet said, lifting his wife. "For now, let's head home and get some sleep." The kids nodded, even as Ratchet Junior picked up Riley, giving her a piggyback ride but the twin boys looked at each other and nodded. As soon as they could.
So...I think this is self explanitory, correct? As we can see, Kyle knew he would be found out eventually, he just didn't know when so when they had that break-in, he planted a bug and downloaded a few files, trying to find out how the insider on Drek's end was. Needless to say, he's not pleased...and neither will Drek once we see him. Rilena had a feeling she knew who the traitor was in the last chapter but, without proof, she wasn't sure if she was just imagining things. When Drek sent the message, and Derek caught it...sending it to Rilena...she knew her gut had been right. She wished she had acted further.
Anyways, stay tuned, only a few more! ^^