Hello, dear reader, and welcome to the sequel for Lost Time, which, obviously, if you haven't read it yet, I very strongly suggest you do so to avoid confusion when it comes to… well, everything about this premise. And if you're a reader who has been following it and are caught up, I also suggest you read my previous little fic of 'Times Like These', as there are a few events in there that are referenced in this story, so, again, I recommend reading that to avoid some confusion.
Anyway, now that I'm done assigning homework via fanfiction like this is the world's weirdest and most unorthodox class, I once again welcome you and hope you enjoy this fic. which, in another world, wouldn't have even existed in the first place. More on that little anecdote at the end!
Nefarious City was always cold and rainy.
Rivet always wondered if that was just the norm for Corson V's weather, or if it was somehow controlled by the Emperor to intentionally keep it that way. After all, robots were all unfeeling, so being cold and wet didn't make any difference to them, but to a 'disgusting squishy' like herself, it was miserable weather. The kind of weather that'd make any organic being tend to avoid this place if they could help it, and make any stay here mildly uncomfortable at best.
Not like that was the biggest deterrent, of course, with the planet chock-full of Imperial Troopers looking to capture any squishy that dares set foot in this robot-only city, but it was a deterrent nonetheless.
Not that it was an effective one, given that Rivet made sure to equip her custom-made robot disguise to be completely waterproof, and also with some very mild heating elements in case she had to undertake a mission here on particularly chilly nights, such as this one.
She was currently walking amongst a crowd of robots of various models, simply making their way to whatever it is they do, blending in with her disguise, a nondescript, expressionless face displayed onto the front of her visor as she calmly yet apprehensively walked her way down the congested road.
In her prosthetic hand, she was nervously fiddling a drive she snatched from an Imperial outpost near Nefarious Tower, the Resistance getting word about intel getting dropped off there so that the Emperor's Assistant can grab it when she's back micromanaging some other patrol on the other side of the city.
As for what kind of intel, they don't know, but if it concerned the Assistant's attention, then whatever it was must've been good, and so, it was up to her to snatch it so they can take a look for themselves. She did a good job as usual, sneaking in unnoticed, avoiding the guards, blending in with the rest of the crowd when she could, until she got close enough to take the drive for herself before just as quickly slipping back to blend into the rest of the robotic citizens, but not quickly enough that she couldn't hear the troopers begin to freak out upon suddenly noticing it was gone.
And so, she was currently trying to get to her ship ASAP, but making sure to not draw attention to herself, since it was more than a terrible idea to try and start a firefight in the Empire's capitol with no backup, even though she'd love nothing more than to crush their fishbowl-looking heads with a nice and cathartic swing of her hammer.
She rounded a corner, and could see her ship parked on a large landing lot in front of the bazaar, and she was beginning to internally pat herself on the back for another mission accomplished until she heard a small trio of troopers behind her.
"Remain calm, citizens!" One declares as the other two methodically scan any citizen they pass right behind him. "This is just your friendly neighborhood security check, you have nothing to worry about!"
"As if." Rivet mutters as she tightens her grip on the flash drive in her hand.
With an annoyed huff, she turns her head to find an alley right beside her, and after looking over her shoulder to make sure none of the troopers were paying her any mind, she quietly slips into the small corridor in between the buildings. Her robot disguise was damn good, if she said so herself, but there's only so much she can do to hide her very conspicuous ears and tail if she were scrutinized with more than a passing glance, let alone a full-on scan that would undoubtedly detect the drive in her hand.
Out of sight from the troopers, and now in the safer back alleys, she no longer maintains a brisk speed walk and instead takes the liberty to jog, trying to beeline her way to her ship using the long way around, always checking around the corner before runs across an alley to see if any Imperial guards were looking down this way, as they'd no doubt investigate if they saw a suspicious individual lurking in the shadows.
There were a couple of times where she thought she was caught, peeking around to see a trooper, but then snapping her head back from around the corner, and tightly hugging the wall with her back before counting to ten, and checking once more to see if they passed.
But, after a few minutes of run, stop, look, and run again, she finds herself at the edge of the bazaar, and looks around the corner to see the landing lot in front of her, with her ship right in her sights, only a small ways away.
She grimaced, however, as there were easily about a dozen Imperial troopers standing around in front of all the ships, no doubt waiting for their little thief to try and catch a ride out of here.
She leans out a bit further to get a better glance at the rest of the bazaar, but unfortunately, can't seem to find anything that'd help lure them away from their posts, only more troopers floating around, scanning citizens all over.
She then looks back at the drive in her hand, and back up to her ship, and across all of the nearby guards. And after a moment's thought, she closes her fist around the drive, and then rolls her neck a bit while shaking out her arms, exhaling a breath.
"Let's do this." She states as she manifests her hammer out from her Arsenal, simultaneously demanifesting the drive into it as she then sprints towards the troopers, some of whom turn to notice her.
"Greetings, citizen!" It states as it begins scanning her. "Please hold still for just a moment for a mandatory—"
He is silenced as Rivet leaps up into the air before bringing her hammer down onto his head with a cry, unleashing a very loud crash of crushing metal and shattering glass, startling the other troopers beside him as she quickly dispatches two more around her with a wide swing.
They then begin to try and shoot at her as the citizens in the bazaar start screaming and running away while the other patrolling troopers quickly move in for support as she simply flips and dodges their blasts, systematically taking out the other nearby troopers before she turns her attention to the other ones quickly closing in on her, blasters raised.
Rivet then quickly takes out a blaster of her own, and begins shooting back at them, expertly hitting their weak points while she quickly moves and dodges from their own fire, with her hearing them calling for backup, saying they've got a positive on the rebel Lombax.
But, being the typical cannon fodder that they were, poised up against a seasoned rebel, their dwindling numbers quickly thin in mere seconds, and with one final shot, Rivet dispatches the last trooper, making his lifeless body crash down onto the ground with a thud, lying among the dozen other guards, sparking and leaking oil.
She doesn't take the time to savor in her victory, however, as she then quickly holsters her gun and runs back to her ship, the cockpit opening before she even reaches it, and she jumps in and initiates a takeoff sequence, just in time to see a horde of troopers coming down the road, heading straight towards her to avenge their fallen comrades laying amongst the bazaar's stalls.
"There she is! Get her!" The one in front cries out before he starts shooting at her, followed by several more of his companions as the rest continue down the road, seeking to capture her.
"I don't think so!" Rivet says as she finishes preflight checks and procedures, gripping the steering controls as she yanks up while flooring the accelerator, making her ship take off partly into the bazaar, knocking back into three nearby Imperial troopers, sending them flying as she turns around in the air, and blasts off into the atmosphere, the rainy clouds obscuring her vision before they clear to reveal the inky blackness of space, the raindrops against the cockpit window quickly getting windswept away as she leaves Corson V's atmosphere.
She turns on her radio to hear Imperial chatter, and sure enough, listens to a guard on the ground reporting that the rebel Lombax flew off into the atmosphere, and gives off her last seen coordinates before they lost sight of her in the clouds so that any nearby air support can investigate and capture her ASAP.
She gives a short, curt laugh as she flips a few switches on her cockpit to engage her hyperspace boosters. "Going to suck for them when they find nothing here." She says amusedly as she grips onto the steering once more. "They better hope their commanders are in a good mood today!"
And with a final press of a button, Corson V disappears behind her as she blasts off into the depth of space, headed for Sargasso, safely out of the reaches of Nefarious' guards.
And so, after engaging the autopilot, her robot disguise's helmet fizzles away as she leans back in her seat, exhaling a relieved breath as she rubs her face with her natural hand.
"Mission accomplished." She mutters, bringing her hand down as she takes a moment to enjoy the relaxing silence of the cockpit, always a welcome guest after her missions.
"Alright… time to see what kind of dirt we got on Nefarious, then." She states, bringing the drive out of her arsenal, inspecting it for a moment before looking down at her console, and thankfully finding a compatible port that she promptly plugs it into.
It takes a few moments for something to pop up, with Phantom's custom decryption installed into her ship to work its magic before the contents of the drive finally appear before her on the ship's holodisplay.
"Nice. Now, let's see…" Rivet says, leaning forward a bit, hand resting on her chin as she inspects the screen, finding only a list of a series of letters and numbers, making her tilt her head slightly.
"They're… serial numbers?"
Now this could be something big, the thought. Maybe these were serial numbers for an upcoming generation of new warbots and troopers? Or perhaps for prototypes of some kind of weapon Nefarious was developing? Or, maybe, possible coordinates for facilities scattered across the galaxy, holding something big enough that this drive was intended for the Emperor's eyes only.
Whatever the case, she wore a smile on her face as she read through the list of numbers and letters, pumping her metal fist in triumph, knowing that whatever intel this had, and after confirming what it was once they have Phantom poke around for himself, it'll be something that the Resistance could definitely use to be one step ahead of Nefarious, and if they're lucky, it'll really be the thing they've been looking for to take him down once and… for…
Wait…
She pauses in her internal celebration as her eyes land on a specific serial number, finding it to be… familiar, for some reason. She wasn't sure why it was familiar, but she got a feeling that she's seen this thing before. But where?
And as she was racking her brain for ideas for what about this specific serial number was familiar, an idea suddenly pops into her head, and she opens up her ship's holonet interface to search for it online, keeping the drive's contents pulled up next to it as well.
If this was really some kind of clandestine secret project of the Emperor's, then she highly doubted there'd be anything online about it. But then again, if it was a clandestine secret project, then why in the hell did she think she saw it before?
She quickly types in the series of letters and numbers, and hits enter, and after a moment of loading, thanks to the lag provided by her hyperspace boosters, a result finally pops up, and her eyes widen in surprise as she finds…
A lamp.
It was the serial number for a lamp. It was a nice lamp, she had to admit, realizing that she saw it as the Morts where shopping for some new furniture and browsed past it, but a lamp nonetheless.
"Wait, what?" She states dumbly, disbelieving that this was on the same drive that she had to sneak into one of the most dangerous cities in the galaxy for a rebel like her, having to spend over an hour to get close enough to snatch it, and full-on fighting a mob of troopers to escape with it!
Confused, she quickly inputs another serial number, and a couch appears. Another one, and a large pot for a plant. Another, and it's a picture frame. A desk. A bookshelf. Another lamp. A chair.
She searches up over half the list before she gives a very large groan, rubbing her face with a grimace as she realized that this drive didn't hold some kind of valuable intel that would give her and the rest of the Resistance a much-needed edge to win this war, but instead, a list of furniture that was probably going to be used to redecorate that pompous bastard's office if this thing was supposed to be for his eyes only.
"Goddammit!" She cries out in frustration, slamming a fist against the armrest of her seat, slumping back into with defeat, realizing that she pretty much just risked her life for Nefarious' interior design plans.
"Well… take that, Emperor Dickhead." She says dryly with a scowl. "Guess you'll have to wait another week before you can redecorate your office because of me. I'm sure you can feel the end of your tyranny on the horizon now, huh?"
She silently stares at the current page open on the holonet display as she stews in her frustration, talking about a magnificent and grand desk that will surely turn heads when people walk into your office, made of only the finest Pokitarian maple, retailed at the low price of five hundred thousand bolts, because why not.
Sure, that's money that could be spent to try and make your citizen's lives a little easier and not an absolute hell between the gouging tax prices and living under constant fear of execution or imprisonment, but hey, who needs any of that when you have a nice desk to rest your feet on as you pat yourself on the back for yet another innocent civilization crumbled under your conquest? It'll go great with the matching chairs, on sale for only one hundred thousand bolts each.
She sighs as she closes the display, alongside the one with the drive's list of furniture, and simply reclines back into her seat as she watches all the passing stars and planets flying by through the cockpit window.
She knew she'd have to report to the rest of the Resistance about what she found on the drive, but she was too exhausted to tiredly explain to them that, yes, it is just a list that the Assistant probably made for an interior decorator of his, and, no, there isn't anything else that they could actually use from it.
And now, because of this little infiltration, Nefarious City's probably going to be on high alert for the next week at least, meaning that it's off-limits for any future missions in the time being, and they don't even have anything to show for it.
One step forward, and two steps back. Sounds about right for the Resistance.
But… even knowing that she effectively wasted the last hour to steal something utterly worthless from the Emperor, she looks back down at the flash drive, and a small swell of pride fills her as a small smile creeps onto her face.
She was able to sneak into the heart of his empire to grab that little thing, and it went off practically without a hitch, aside from that little hiccup with the firefight at the end. It wasn't much, but it was a successful mission, which is more than what she could say half the time.
And with every mission accomplished, be it successfully or not, she always learns a little something new. Watch out for patrols here, making sure to pack this gear for another infiltration like this, and aim a little to the right with that certain gun, because it tends to like to go to the right.
With every mission, she sharpens her skills, preparing her to be more successful on the next one. And with every infiltration, they always learn a little something more about the Empire, which the Resistance will be sure to exploit as much as they can for further operations. And as long as they grow stronger, so does the hope that one day, one glorious day, they can finally be free of that goddamn tyrant.
But is it going to be soon? As optimistic as she was, she knew that wasn't going to be the case. It might take months, years, or, hell, even decades.
But as long as she lived and breathed, and she had her friends with her to share in that rebellious fire to fight for a better galaxy, they will not stop in trying to take down the Emperor.
Someday, she knows she'll be able to finally relax, no longer having to sleep with one eye open in case that bastard tries anything funny. Able to spend time with those that she loved without worry that they'll be taken from her life in a mission gone wrong. Able to see the rest of the galaxy cheering, finally free to live their lives how they want without being crushed beneath an iron fist.
Someday, she knows that she'll finally get to live a happy, and peaceful life. And that was the day that she held in her mind in times of doubt, whenever she questioned herself for why she was putting herself through hell to battle Emperor Nefarious. Because someday, she'll be free, along with the rest of the galaxy.
Someday.
…
But that day wasn't today. Today, she just stole a list of furniture. And right now, she was tired, physically, and mentally. As good as she was at espionage, it always felt exhausting having to blend in with a crowd of robots, and as sweet as her robot disguise was, it was admittedly a little heavy, which adds up on these longer missions.
So, with a small, content sigh, she grips onto the steering controls once more, disengaging the autopilot, and elects to let her mind wander as she cruises along to Sargasso, thinking that she definitely deserves a little R&R from a successful mission accomplished with the Morts and a little lemonade.
So, as I said, this fic was close to not existing at all.
That's because once upon a time, when I was first playing around with the idea of Lost Time, I originally planned on that one taking place after Rift Apart, and letting it be a Rivchet story where they visit the Lombaxes, then, gasp! Kaden's alive!
However, as I got to thinking about it, I realized that I would've had to write a lot for that to be a coherent story, in that I'd have to deal with Ratchet meeting Kaden, them figuring all of that out, Ratchet and Rivet getting together, develop more on Rivet and Kit's relationship, and of course build up the bond between Ratchet + Kit and Rivet + Clank on top of everything else. And for what was going to be my first fanfic ever, that was waaay too much stuff to put on my plate, so I made the executive decision to set it before Rift Apart so that I could solely focus on Ratchet and Kaden bonding together.
But then, now, that left me in a sticky situation, as because I still wanted Rivchet, I had to actually go ahead and introduce her into my AU to even begin on writing that, getting her and Ratchet back to square one and have them meet each other for the first time.
"No biggie," I said to myself in my naivete, "I'll just basically rewrite Rift Apart beat for beat, and throw Kaden in there too, so it'll be different. It'll be easy!"
Spoiler alert, it wasn't easy. In fact, it was really difficult. Because, as it turns out, writing the exact same plot for RA is really boring to read and write, especially when Kaden had nothing to really do, and not only that, but the fact that Ratchet was missing his entire 'hesitant to join the Lombaxes' arc like in RA because of my AU basically made over half of the game's developments automatically invalid, especially between him and Kit.
So, I had to start from the very scratch, making my own idea of RA that was completely different for both the sake of entertainment, and to actually make it work with the AU that I've established. And, again, it was extremely difficult, as creating plot isn't my forte; character interactions are. I must've come up with and threw away at least a good dozen iterations of the plot before I decided on one that I would be satisfied with. In fact, there were more than a few times where I came very close into just giving up on doing a sequel entirely and just retconning my AU to say 'Yeah, RA already happened, and Rivet and Kit weren't in the last one for some reason that I won't explain, but they're here now, so deal with it and don't ask questions.'
And to tell you the truth, I've only got about half the plot figured out, as my dozens of attempts at writing a draft really enlightened me to the fact that I absolutely suck at planning things out, and I instead thrive on making up things as I go. So, while I'd say I have a pretty decent takeoff for this story, I am just hoping that I'll be able to land it.
Shoutout to all those people telling me not to be a little bitch and to actually keep working on this, your support is very much appreciated, and I thank you so much.
But, to make a long story short:
Do I regret not setting Lost Time after Rift Apart in the first place so I could avoid this entire headache and just skip straight to the dating? Maybe.
Do I hate myself that I've made an AU that makes it extremely difficult to make RA with all of its character dynamics actually work with missing character arcs? Also maybe.
And do I wish that I was a better writer who was actually good at making a plot that isn't just people standing around and talking like the majority of the first story was? A strong yes.
But, will all of that stop me from trying to make this fic anyway so I can attempt to craft a good story that me and my readers will enjoy, allowing me a unique opportunity to develop all of these relationships up from scratch whilst also introducing Kaden into the world of RA? It might've tried to stop me, but I'm too stubborn, so hell no.
And, just in case that all of my doubts were right, and this fic does turn out to suck in the end because of my lack of confidence and/or poor planning, all I ask is that we all pretend that Rivet and Kit are established characters based on RA's events and that it did happen in my AU after all, so that I can continue writing them for future fics I've got planned after this.
So, once again, I hope that you enjoy the rest of this story, while I work to try and make it a good one.