Again, surprise! I'm not dead!
I know I sound like a broken record at this point, but again, sorry for the delay, I have been swamped with all kinds of busyness with college and whatnot, so that unfortunately means that I don't have as much time as I'd like when it comes to working on this fic and pushing through the inevitable writer's blocks that pop up from it, hence the nearly 2 month long gap of updates.
But! That is just to assure you that the gap is simply because of life getting in the way, and not because I have lost the motivation to continue writing this fic or my AU with it, because I am still very much determined to finish this fic and continue writing stories for my little AU that I've crafted!
So, in case yet another large gap of updates occurs, just be sure to know that it's not because this fic is abandoned, but just that I need to find the time to write it among my hectic schedule, and that I very much appreciate your patience!
But, with that aside, I hope you enjoy this (long overdue) chapter!
"Huh… Can't say I was expecting a cave." Ratchet muses as he follows Rivet into the mouth of a large cavern, its entrance adorned with large satellites and sensors, with Kit on her back also taking inventory of the surroundings.
"Well, what were you expecting, then?" Rivet asks amusedly over her shoulder as she walks along a rocky pathway up to a large door.
"I don't know—Not a cave I guess?" He responds with a shrug, focusing his attention back ahead onto her. "Maybe a garage like mine, seeing how you seem to be a mechanic like me."
"Yeah, well, a garage is a pretty crappy hideout if it's just sitting out in plain sight, isn't it?" She replies with a smirk. "And besides, when I got old enough to get a place of my own, this cave was the first place I saw, so after a few years, I installed a bunch of stuff to make a home instead of… You know, just a random cave in Sargasso." She says, now stopping in front of the giant blast door, turning around to face Ratchet while slapping a hand onto it with a smirk for emphasis.
Ratchet stops as well, but also while crossing his arms with a raised eyebrow and a smirk of his own.
"So… For your 'super-secret' hideout, you thought a perfect installation would be a bunch of giant satellites hooked up on the entrance of this cave outside to show everyone just exactly where you are?" He asks, thumbing to the entrance behind him.
Rivet frowns, planting her hands on her hips while he continues to smirk. "Oh, whatever! It's still better than a random garage just sitting out in the open, at least!"
Ratchet sucks in his teeth. "I'm just saying."
She simply looks at him for a few seconds before scoffing with a roll of her eyes, and promptly reaching behind her to manifest her hammer out of her Arsenal, taking it into both of her hands.
Ratchet's smirk falls off his face as he sees her brandish a weapon with an unimpressed look, eyes widening as he raises his hands up defensively, unconsciously taking a step back.
"Erm, Rivet?" Kit speaks up worriedly.
"H-Hey, now, I was just joking!" He hastily explains. "There's no need to do anything, alright?"
Rivet doesn't respond, instead raising the hammer over her head, and as she swings it, Ratchet lets out an involuntary small cry of surprise, closing his eyes and looking away for the impact.
However, instead of feeling half his teeth fly out of his mouth for making a stupid joke, he instead hears a loud 'clang' of metal on metal, shortly followed by a small sound of exertion from Rivet, and an even louder sound of scraping metal.
Confused (and relieved), Ratchet opens his eyes, and sees that Rivet had actually just slammed her hammer into some sort of mechanism not unlike a bolt crank that allowed her to use it like a lever—a lever that appeared to open the large blast door that led to her hideout proper.
But as she pushed on the hammer with some force, Ratchet once again can't help but just look at her, from look of concentration on her task displayed on her face to her muscles flexing with every added rotation to the lever, marveling at her strength that allowed her to open this giant door so effortlessly. Sure, there were definitely some mechanisms built into it that allowed someone to lift a door that looked like it weighed a good few tons, but not enough that it didn't look like it was still a bit of a workout.
But fortunately for Rivet, this was definitely a workout that she could handle no problem, judging by the looks of her bicep and legs and they way they bulged and rippled and looked strangely alluring and—
"There!" She suddenly calls out with a small huff and a smile as the door stops with a large 'clunk', allowing her to pull her hammer out of the mechanism to instead plant it on the ground for her to lean onto, gesturing into her home with a smug look. "Home sweet home."
Upon noticing Rivet's gaze onto him, Ratchet snaps out of his ogling of her, straightening up stiff as a bored while quickly averting his gaze into her home, barely registering it as his mind yells at him for almost being caught staring at her for a second time in just ten minutes, and without any good reason why, either.
"O-Oh, erm, yeah! Looks good!" He answers with a nervous chuckle.
To his surprise, he then hears Rivet chuckle, prompting him to look back at her in slight confusion, and seeing her pick up her hammer to rest it on her shoulder as she looks back to him with a grin.
"Wow, you're really worked up from thinking I was seriously going to smack you with my hammer?" She asks amusedly, rolling her eyes as she then walks past him and into her hideout, holstering her hammer back into her arsenal as well. "Calm down, Ratchet; Unlike Emperor Dickhead, I can actually take a joke." She says, haughtily throwing her head up while placing a hand on her chest.
"Oh… Erm… Silly me?" He replies, beginning to walk in after her, and breathing an internal sigh of relief at the fact that she didn't seem to notice him gawking at her just now.
However, it seemed like someone else noticed, as when he walks behind her, Kit on her back just stares at him with a bewildered expression, optics furrowed in confusion from his odd behavior. He thinks back to when she blatantly asked him why he was acting so weird back when they were leaving Zurkie's, knowing by that look on her face that she was silently asking that very same question right now.
However, just like back then, Ratchet had no intention of answering that question, so he just simply gives a grin and a thumbs-up in an attempt to assure her that there is absolutely nothing the matter with him, and that she should definitely stop looking into things that simply aren't there. Totally.
"So," Rivet speaks up, yanking Ratchet and Kit out of their unspoken exchange, "Assuming that Clank and your dad are still in the galaxy—hopefully—my scanner here will be able to break into the Empire's communication systems, I'll set it up to see if there's any chatter about a rogue Imperial ship flying out and about, and that'll at least give us a lead to where we can start to find them." She says, walking over to a large computer station mounted onto the wall.
"You think we can really find them this way, then?" Ratchet asks, joining her by her side as she then begins typing away, Kit taking the liberty to hop off of her back as well.
"Hey, those 'giant satellites giving away my hideout' aren't just for show, hotshot." She tells him with a smirk, right before she focuses back onto her typing. "And besides, I've done this a bunch of times before, breaking into Nefarious' stuff is how I know how what outpost or factory to blow up next, so this should be easy." She says confidently.
"So… How long will this take, then?" Ratchet asks curiously.
"Just a few minutes, is all." Rivet explains with a smile, right before turning around whilst pressing a single key on the keyboard, to which a bunch of code begins flying across the monitor's screen. "Now, we just need to wait for Phantom's program to work its magic and scrub through their comms to pick up anything about stolen ships, and we should be golden!"
And as she then flashes Ratchet a confident smile with a nod, he gives a glad one in returning while breathing a small sigh of relief, right before looking down to Kit beside him.
"Phew, feels good to have an actual lead on this whole adventure for once, huh?" He asks her.
"Very much so, I agree." Kit replies contentedly with a smile and nod. "I am sure we are soon to be reuniting with your family, Ratchet. I know it."
"Let's hope you are, Kit." He says contentedly as he looks up to the monitor, still throwing up gibberish code that he didn't understand, only the fact that it'd be the key to finally rescuing Clank and his father.
But as he looks at it, he is snapped out of his thoughts as he hears Kit utter a small, pleasantly surprised 'oh!', prompting him to turn his head to see her looking over the center of Rivet's hideout, where sat a couch, a TV on a stand, and some random potted ferns.
She points to them while looking over to Rivet with a smile. "You partake in indoor gardening as well?" She asks cheerily.
"Oh, uh, a little bit, yeah!" Rivet responds pleasantly, right before furrowing her brows. "Wait, 'as well'? Does that mean you take care of plants, too?"
"I do! On top of overseeing the Interdimensional Archives, I am also it's designated gardener, taking care of the various flora inside of it." She explains, beginning to walk over to the plants to inspect them. "And I must say that you take quite good care of your own plants, they look pretty!" She says, looking back to Rivet.
"Oh, erm… Thanks!" Rivet responds, a little taken aback by Kit's apparent hobby of indoor gardening while Ratchet cracks an amused smile, glancing between the two of them. "I admit I'm not really an expert or anything, but I admit I have a soft spot or two for plants."
"As do I." Kit agrees with an amused chuckle while she turns, looking over to a more homely corner of Rivet's home, decorated with even more potted plants. "There is just something so magical about fostering life, caring for it and watching it grow from such a dull and small seed into something beautiful and prospering, is there not?"
"Huh… Can't say I've ever thought of putting words to it like that before." Rivet muses, walking over to join Kit, overlooking her plants with a small smile, placing her hands on her hips. "But… Yeah. I'd say that's pretty spot on. It feels nice caring for something instead of shooting things like I almost always do."
"Yes… I suppose so…" Kit quietly affirms, looking over the ferns and trimmed, leafy bushes sitting in pretty little pots, reflecting over Rivet's comment for a few silent seconds, finding almost too much truth with that statement.
But she soon senses a curious look from Rivet, prompting her to snap out of those thoughts as she instead turns to her with a small smile.
"W-Well, erm, how long have you been partaking in plant care, then?" Kit asks in a more cheerful mood. "Because while you claim to not be an expert, I can at least sense that it is very difficult to care for plants like these in a climate such as Sargasso."
"Well, it's nice to see that someone actually notices the work it takes to make little Ferny here look healthy!" Rivet replies with a chuckle, using a finger to lift the leaf of the small potted fern next to her holovision set.
"But, yeah, I've been taking care of plants since I was a kid, back when the Morts gifted me Ferny here for my… tenth birthday, I think it was?" She continues, pausing for a moment to look up in thought before chuckling. "Honestly, I think it's just because they forgot it was my birthday and just shoved some bush into a pot and called it a gift. But, hey, can't say it was a bad gift I liked it so much I expanded my little indoor garden space thing." She says, gesturing out to the more homely corner of her hideout, where several more plants laid in various places around her bed and closets.
"Interesting!" Kit responds. "I admit that I am relatively new to this practice, having started only a few years ago, but I enjoy it very much!"
"I can tell!" Rivet responds with a smile. "So, what kinds of plants do you take care of, then?"
And as Kit starts explaining the different kinds of trees and bushes that have been planted at the Archives—be it by monk or prior Lombax resident—Ratchet tunes out of the conversation as he looks over Rivet's 'bedroom' area. And more specifically, towards the closet that hung up several robotic arms like Rivet's, some of which clearly looked like early prototypes of the finished design that she wore right now as she and Kit gush over plant care.
And as he looks at them, he could feel the gears of his inventive mind begin to grind, now finally confirming his thoughts that her arm was a home job with all of those early prototypes hanging up in all their imperfections and wire guts hanging out. It was clear that Rivet knew more than a thing or two about gadgetry if she managed to create an arm as good as he's seen like that, what with it being able to stand up to abuse like he saw at the Battleplex.
He glances back to her, seeing that she was still sucked into her conversation with Kit, and looks back to the arm, his curiosity of their designs and machinations beginning to move his feet forward.
She wouldn't mind if he took a little look at them, right?
"And I believe that covers all of the various species of miniature trees I am cultivating in the Archives…" Kit states thoughtfully, placing a hand on her chin.
"Man, they all sound so pretty!" Rivet replies with a smile before her eyes widen in realization. "Oh, when this whole thing is over, do you think I'd be able to stop by there so I can grow some for myself?" She follows up eagerly.
"Why, of course! I would be more than happy to supply you with some saplings!" Kit agrees with a nod and smile of her own. "It is such a pleasure to meet someone who loves to care for plants as much as I—"
She is cut off as they both suddenly hear a loud crash, making them both jump and snap over to the source of the noise, finding Ratchet standing in front of Rivet's closet, standing frozen and with his eyes wide, staring at the pile of prototype arms now sitting on the floor in front of him along with the rod they hung from—save for one, however, which was currently being held in his outstretched hand.
"…Whoops." He mutters in a quietly embarrassed and fearful voice, looking to the pile, then the arm in his hand, then back over to Rivet and Kit, staring at him in surprise and confusion.
He doesn't say anything, dread sinking in his gut as he watches Rivet's eyes dart between him, the arm in his hand, the arms on the floor, and the closet behind him, all the while wearing a slightly bemused expression.
He just sauntered over here, deciding to poke around in her stuff without even asking, and he absolutely trashed it! She invited him into her home so that she could help him, and he did this? Just what in the actual hell was wrong with him?! Was she going to get angry, yell at him, say that he was an asshole, maybe refuse to even help in the first place? But he thought things were going so good! But then he had to wreck all of that just because of his stupid curiosity making him—
He is snapped out of his increasingly frantic thoughts as he hears Rivet begin to laugh, and he watches with slight confusion as she begins to walk over, waving a hand as her laughter tapers down.
"You're good, I knew I needed to replace that rod sometime anyway, but I kept putting it off because I'm too lazy." She says, reaching the pile of arms, and bending down to pick up the offending rod in question, and inspecting the broken tip of it that allowed it to fall out in the first place. "Welp, that's what I get for procrastinating I guess, huh?" She asks Ratchet, tossing the rod aside with an amused smile.
"Ratchet, are you okay?" Kit asks, joining Rivet as she looks over the pile of arms and up to Ratchet with a concerned expression.
"I am, Kit, don't worry." He nervously chuckles as he lowers his hand holding a prosthetic arm, rubbing the back of his head with the other while looking away. "But, erm… sorry for being the one to knock it down, anyway. Still my fault, after all." He tells Rivet with a shrug.
"Hey, you're fine, like I said, that thing was on its last legs anyway, you just forced me to give a reason to finally fix it." Rivet assures him with a small chuckle before looking down to the arm in Ratchet's hand and pointing to it. "What were you doing, anyway, though?"
"Oh, um… I know it sounds dumb, but I thought these prototypes looked neat, and I kinda wanted to get a closer look at them, is all." He responds with a smile and small shrug, holding up the prosthetic to her. "I just have a bit of a knack for gizmos, and I thought your arm looked pretty cool."
"Wait, really? You think so?" Rivet asks with some surprise, widening her eyes slightly as she looks at her own arm, holding it up.
"Well… yeah! I mean, I can see that thing's super robust with how you were able to tear stuff up back at that Battleplex, able to punch things and swing your hammer and whatnot, and yet, you have great dexterity and control with the fingers with how they move, and how you were able to operate your ship with them like it was nothing." Ratchet explains, gesturing to it as he did so. "And, well, I like the design of it, with how practical and mechanical it looks and stuff. I can see you've put in a lot of work making it through all these prototypes, and I think it's really cool!"
"Even I must concur I am impressed with your prosthetic, Rivet." Kit adds, looking at it while standing beside her, right before then glancing back to Ratchet with a chiding expression. "Although I believe Ratchet should have at least asked if he could have inspected your prototypes instead of attempting to handle them himself."
"That's… fair, yeah." Ratchet attempts to argue, raising a finger before he instead crosses his arms, looking aside.
"That's…" Rivet looks back up to Ratchet's face from her metal palm, and upon meeting her eyes, he wears a genuine smile, and along with it, Rivet sees the flicker of inventive curiosity that she herself could sympathize with very well, very often having such a spark herself.
And upon hearing all of his compliments to her work given so casually, she couldn't help but give him a large smile in return, placing her hands on her hips, feeling a strange kind of warmth within herself, made only better with Kit's own praise as well.
"Thanks!" She replies earnestly, looking between the two of them. "I'm glad to see someone appreciates all the work I put into making this thing not suck, let alone actually good. Unlike these things—especially this one." She says amusedly, looking down to gently kick an arm laying on the ground beside them.
"Wait, really?" Kit asks, tilting her head as he too looks down with similar confusion. "What's wrong with that one? I do not see a difference between this one and the one you are wearing?"
"Let me just show you." Rivet says with a smirk, leaning down to pick it up.
But as she does, she places it under her natural arm as she grabs onto her metal shoulder with her hand, and after some movement, a 'click' is heard, and Ratchet watches as the blue lights of the palm power off while she disconnects the prosthetic, shortly before Rivet holds it out to him.
"Erm, mind holding this for a sec?" She asks with a small chuckle.
"Oh, uh, yeah! Totally!" He replies with a nod, snapping out of his small surprise to take it out of her hand, and immediately noting that it was much lighter than the other prototype he currently held in his other one—the drastic weight difference clearly being one of many improvements of her design.
But he returns his attention back to Rivet, he sees her installing the prototype back into her shoulder mount, shuffling a bit before another click his heard, and seeing the lights on it power up as she moves the arm a bit, flexing the fingers in and out.
"Oof, forgot how heavy these things were." She comments, looking at the palm. "Glad I decided to switch to trillium plating instead of nanosteel for these things!"
"Wait, trillium? That's what you use on this?" Ratchet asks, looking at back at her arm in his hand.
"Yep! I figure if it's light enough for most spacecraft to be covered in it, then why not my arm? It's durable as hell, too!" She responds enthusiastically.
"Huh, why didn't I realize that? It seems like the obvious choice now that you say it." Ratchet muses with a small chuckle.
"Yeah, imagine how I felt though once I went through about four generations before realizing that myself? I needed to massage my shoulder for a good half hour every day back when I wore those!" She replies with a small laugh.
"Well, I can feel the difference that trillium made, at least, so good job." Ratchet responds amusedly before looking to the arm she was currently wearing, gesturing to it. "But, uh, again, what exactly is the problem with that one? It looks to be working just fine aside from the nanosteel thing."
"Oh, yeah, right! Hmm…" Rivet hums, placing her natural hand on her chin, and looking around before her eyes light up. "A-Ha!"
She then walks back over to the closet rod she tossed aside a moment ago, and picks it up off of the ground with her natural hand before walking back over to Ratchet and Kit, the former of whom raises his eyebrow as he glances between it and her smiling face.
"…So?" He asks uncertainly with a shrug, Kit tilting her head as well.
Still smiling, Rivet simply places the wooden rod into the hand of her robotic palm, but upon closing her fingers around it, the sheer amount of strength applied to it shatters the rod into pieces with a loud 'CRACK', making both Ratchet and Kit jump in surprise as Rivet turns her hand back down to let the splinters and pieces fall onto the floor.
"…Oh." Kit simply mutters, staring at the pile of shattered wood at Rivet's feet with trepidation.
"Yeah, turns out that cool 'dexterity' thing you were talking about doesn't exist for the particular kind of pistons I used for the fingers here." She explains, casually brushing the rest of the rod fragments off her palm. "So, whenever I go to close my hand, it does it with full force and zero in-between, leading to things like that. And, well, it wouldn't exactly be ideal if I crushed whatever gun I was holding like a tin can all the time, huh?" She asks with a smirk.
"Probably not, no." Ratchet simply answers, looking at the hand in slight fear, and admittedly more than a little anxiously at seeing her put her other hand in its palm so nonchalantly like that after seeing that solid wooden rod get absolutely annihilated by it.
"I've been thinking of remaking this thing into a novelty can crusher or something so I can get some actual use out of it, though. Maybe someday." Rivet says with a small chuckle as she disconnects it from her body, tossing it onto the floor with the rest of the prototypes as she holds her sole hand out. "Can you…?"
"Oh, yeah, here you go." Ratchet replies as he hands back her arm that she clicks back into place with a satisfied smile.
"Ah, there we go." She says, flexing it just as she did with the prior prototype, and this time, with Ratchet staring at it with an extra appreciation for the work she had to do to make it perform to such an effective degree, given how that prototype acted just now.
"Well… Nice job on the arm, then, you did a good job on it!" He tells her, flashing a smile and a thumbs-up. "Did you rig it to do anything special, too?"
"Special?" Rivet repeats, tilting her head slightly with a curious look.
"You know, like, does it have a blaster in the palm, can you hack into things, have the hand flip into tools…?" He clarifies, gesturing between his hands while raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, no, not really. I just focused on making an arm that's as close to natural I can get with it being sturdy as hell and easy to repair, and adding extra fluff like that would just give it more places to break, and stars know that having a malfunctioning arm in the middle of a firefight is… less than ideal to put it lightly." She replies amusedly, looking back down to it, turning her hand to look over her both the palm and back of it.
But then, she glances back up to Ratchet, who awkwardly puts down the prototype he was currently holding back inside the closet from attempting to hang it up on the nonexistent rod he found it on. "Why do ask, anyway?"
"Oh, well…" He replies, turning back to face her. "I actually got a friend back home in my dimension who's got himself a prosthetic arm like you—same side even, now that I think about it." He replies, motioning to hers with a small smile.
"Wait, seriously?" Rivet returns, widening her eyes in surprise.
"Yeah. He got shot by this jerk while we were being held hostage for this blood sport, and they had to save his life by giving him all kinds of artificial replacements on the side of his body. The arm, face, head, ear, all that stuff." Ratchet explains nonchalantly, pointing a finger around at his own head.
"Oh, dear…" Kit responds, placing a hand over her mouth.
"Yeah…" Rivet mutters in quiet agreement, great concern adorning her features as she begins to unconsciously grab her robotic arm, knowing the pain of losing just one of your limbs, but not imagining the trauma to lose so much of yourself like Ratchet's friend.
"Yeah. He was lucky to live, honestly." He says with a shrug, right before a small smile appears back on his face. "But, you know, he actually took it really well. I mean, his whole career was being a robot enthusiast—even to the point that he was the one we trusted to do Clank's repairs and upgrades—and he modded the hell out of his prosthetics to make his job even easier. Like, he built this really neat thing in his arm where it flips up into a ton of microelectronics tools in like, a second, and he can just fix all kinds of tiny robot problems just like that, it's pretty cool!" Ratchet says amusedly, holding his own arm up and miming him soldering something for clarification, wearing a small smile as he does so.
But as he does, Rivet instead tilts her head slightly, furrowing her brows a bit. "Really? He just… Embraced it like that?"
"Yeah, I even remember him telling me that getting those prosthetics made him even more effective at his job, and it gave him a new hobby in trying to make his arm or eye upgrades even better." He responds. "It was as if he didn't really view the whole thing as him losing parts of himself, but instead, earning new parts of himself through his prosthetics. He never really let himself feel down about it, he was always excited to show me and Clank his newest features he installed since we last saw him, and telling us about how much of a great conversation starter it was with other nerds like him whenever he busted out his tools." He adds with a chuckle.
"…Huh…" Rivet hums thoughtfully, looking away. Mulling over his words.
"Your friend sounds like a very strong person to take his accident in such stride." Kit tells Ratchet earnestly. "I do not believe that there are many who would adopt such a mindset such as him."
"Yeah, no kidding. I remember how I used to only think of him as this giant nerd who liked robots maybe a bit too much than what was comfortable, but after that, I honestly respected the hell out of him." Ratchet says with a smile. "I know that even after all of the stuff I've had to go through my whole life as a big ol' 'intergalactic hero', I'd still probably take it a lot harder than he did. He's definitely one of the toughest people I know now." He finishes with a nod.
"Yeah. Sounds like it to me." Rivet replies, glancing back to him, breaking out of her thoughts. "So… Is he going good now, then?"
"Oh, more than good. He managed to grow his RoboShack shop from—Well, a shack on Kerwan to an entire franchise across the Solana Galaxy, all while running his own entire show about battlebots too!" Ratchet answers her enthusiastically, right before he then falters a bit, tilting his hand back and forth. "I mean, not that I'm a fan of it personally, but still—He's doing awesome with his life."
Rivet chuckles a bit at that last remark, but gives him a nod and earnest smile in return. "Well, from someone who knows a thing or two about what he's been through, I hope you pass along my best wishes to him, and tell him to keep on keeping on."
"Well, hey, once this all of this is over," He replies, gesturing broadly all around him, "Maybe you can tell him yourself?"
"I—Wait, what do you mean?" She questions, raising her eyebrow.
"Well… I know you're probably going to be a bit busy over in the Lombax dimension if my dad really does have some kind of idea of who you are like I think he does, but maybe I could, you know… Show you around mine sometime?" He offers with an awkward smile and shrug. "So, you know, you could talk to Al yourself instead!"
"Wait, really? You… Want to show me around your dimension?" Rivet asks with some surprise.
"Erm… Yeah?" Ratchet answers uneasily, now suddenly realizing how weird it was to offer her a tour of his dimension given the fact that they barely know each other, let alone the fact that she almost literally has no incentive to visit his now that the Lombaxes live in their own now.
Why did that idea just pop into his mind, then? And—even bigger question—why did he decide to instantly propose it and not realize how weird the idea was to begin with?
He opens his mouth in a hasty attempt to dismiss the notion entirely to try and salvage the situation, but Rivet beats him to the punch by smiling with a nod, much to his surprise.
"I'd like that." She states simply and pleasantly. "I'll be sure to take you up on that offer sometime. It sounds like it'd be fun!"
Ratchet visibly relaxes, his anxiety washing away as he looks upon that warm smile of hers, feeling a mixture of relief and happiness at her confirmation, making him give a node and smile in return.
"Sure thing," He says, "I'll be looking forward to it, too, whenever we get to go ahead and do it." He finishes with a small chuckle.
"Oh," Kit interjects, prompting both Ratchet and Rivet to look back down on her to see her turning away, "It seems as though that time may be soon, hopefully! It appears that the program has finished its decryption!"
They both then turn to look back at the computer, and confirming her statement as they see a large "COMPLETE" written across the monitor, bringing a large smile to Ratchet's face.
"Whew, we're almost there!" He says happily as they all immediately walk over to the console. "Just a matter of time before I can see Clank and dad again and put this horrible day behind us."
"Yeah, getting snatched by the Empire is a hell of a way to put a damper on your day, to put it lightly." Rivet says amusedly as she begins typing away with unfettered access to Nefarious' communications. "Just give me a sec, and we'll be on our way to meet up with them in no time!"
"At last we have a breakthrough in today's events, is it not?" Kit says thankfully as she looks back up to Ratchet beside her with a smile.
"You can say that again!" Ratchet says with a smile of his own, planting his hands on his hips. "I'm honestly super relieved, because as far as my adventures go, this one's actually turning out to be al—"
"Uh…" Rivet suddenly interjects, Ratchet stopping as he senses a not good tone from Rivet's vocalization, causing both him and Kit to turn back to her to see her staring at the screen.
"What?" Ratchet asks, glancing between the hodgepodge of miscellaneous communications displayed on the monitor and Rivet staring back up at it with furrowed eyebrows and a frown.
But then, she turns her head back to him, raising a hand. "…Are you sure they stole an Imperial ship?" She asks gravely.
"I… Erm… Not really?" Ratchet responds uneasily. "We just know that they aren't on the monks' ship that they took."
"Why are you asking?" Kit adds on worriedly. "Can you not find anything about it?"
"No, I did find something, about an Imperial ship that was reported as hijacked after a prison break on a transport ship." Rivet explains, albeit in a troubled tone.
"Is… Is that not good news, though?" Kit follows up.
"Yeah, because that sounds exactly like where Clank and dad went off to." Ratchet replies, a sinking feeling growing in his gut. "So… Why aren't you exactly painting this like it is good news?"
"Because, erm…" Rivet taps a few buttons, and the mess of communications of lines on the monitor clear away as one is highlighted and enlarged, making the sinking feeling in Ratchet's gut drop into a black hole as soon as he reads it, freezing instantly.
"According to this, that ship lost all communications about an hour ago in the middle of their flight." She continues soberly. "And the only reason that could happen is, well, they… erm…"
"No." Ratchet simply states, shaking his head as Kit puts a hand over her mouth. "No, that thing's wrong, it has to be." He says, planting his hands on the console in front of him as he stares at the screen.
"Ratchet…" Kit says softly.
"Look for them again! I-It has to be a mistake, it has to be!" He cries out, throwing a hand up to it as he looks back over to Rivet, panic setting into his voice. "That ship didn't crash or explode or whatever, and even if it did, Clank and my dad were not on that ship, got it?!"
Rivet holds up a hand, some surprise showing on her features as she does so, a little startled by his intense reaction. "Ratchet—"
"They're not on there because I am not losing them! Not again!" Ratchet continues, ignoring her as he snaps back to the screen, some tears beginning to fill in his eyes. "I'm not losing Clank again, a-and I'm not losing my dad after I just got him back! I'm not!"
"Ratchet—"
"I knew I should have gone with them, or have them stay with me! I know I could have done something to prevent this if I was with them, I-I should have argued harder with him to let me go, I should!" He says in a shaky voice, feeling a sting in the back of his throat.
"Ratchet—"
"But I didn't, and now they're gone! I don't know where they are and I don't know what to do now, a-and if this thing's write, th-then I just don't know how I'm supposed to move on or keep going with my life after all they've—"
"RATCHET!" Rivet cries out one more time, now forcefully grabbing onto his shoulders to turn him around, staring him dead into his tear-filled eyes while he gawks back at her stern expression.
"Ratchet, please, calm down." She states in a firm yet somehow soothing tone. "Look, yeah, it sucks we found that, and in hindsight, I should've probably also said this, but that wasn't the only ship that left." She says, shaking his arms slightly for emphasis.
"I only singled it out because it was the only hijacked Imperial ship that looked like it was headed to Savali, but there was at least a good dozen others that made it out, just in different places."
"I… But…" Ratchet sniffs, rubbing away the tears from one of his eyes. "H-How could it not be them if it was headed to Savali?"
"Hey, there were other planets on the way to Savali, it was just pointed in that direction, so maybe it was just a random prisoner that tried to get back home but got bad luck and got caught by Nefarious' troopers before they could make it." Rivet reassures him, still staring into his eyes. "But Clank and your dad could have been on any one of those other ships and are safe and sound and not gone, got it?"
"But… Why wouldn't they head to Savali from the get-go?" Ratchet hesitantly asks, albeit in a voice that was audibly more calmed down than his anxious panicking and lamenting mere moments ago.
"I don't know, but by the sounds of it, they went through a lot of shit since they got kidnapped, so maybe they had some kind of change of plans we don't know about and had to go somewhere else first." Rivet replies, rolling her eyes as she takes a hand off his shoulder to wave it around a bit.
But then, she looks straight back to him and replaces her hand back to its original spot on his arm to give it another shake. "But, the important thing is that they're probably still alive and well and that we just need to find out which one of those ships they were on, so—look at me—Just hang onto that hope, because I'll be damned if I'm letting you lose either that or your family if I have anything to say about it, I promise." She says firmly, still staring into his eyes. "Okay?"
And as she does, Ratchet stays still for a moment, and in his mind, he almost doesn't register the world around him—only Rivet's soothing words, her firm grip onto his body, and that piercing look in her eye that told him that she absolutely meant what she was saying with every fiber of her being, filled with a passionate fire that was determined to fulfill that promise.
And it was a fire that he recognized burned within himself as well, being a fellow hero who has devoted many years of his life risking everything in order to protect people with every ounce of determination and courage he had. But while he was usually the one to give said promises that he'll do anything he can to help rescue or save someone from his latest adversary, he couldn't say that he was much used to be on the receiving end like this.
But, even if he wasn't wholly used to it… From her, Rivet… He could somehow feel the weight of his burdens lift away, allowing him to breathe a little better, taking comfort in her words and touch, and beginning to believe that maybe things weren't as bad as his hectic, anxious mind has been making it out to be all day after… everything.
In a word, he was extremely thankful that he had Rivet here with him to at least bring in one positive aspect to this disaster of a day.
He brings up his hands, wiping away the remnants of the tears at his eyes to look back at her, a small smile crossing his lips as he gives a nod in response.
"Okay." He responds contentedly and calmly. "Thank you, Rivet. Really."
She smiles, returning the nod. "It's no problem, Ratchet. I know this whole situation sucks for you—really sucks—but I've been through tougher, and probably so have you judging by how crazy some of your stories have been, too. And if we've pulled through all of that, then I know we can pull through this, so just be sure to hang on until then, got it?" She says, giving his shoulder one more firm squeeze.
"Yeah, okay, I will." Ratchet says, taking a small breath as Rivet removes her hands from his shoulders.
"And just remember that you are not alone in this either, Ratchet." Kit advises next to him, reaching up to place her hand over his at his side with a reassuring pat, giving a small, hopeful smile. "You have Rivet and I here to help you, we promise."
"Exactly." Rivet agrees with a smile of her own, placing her hands on her hips. "We've only known each other for, like, an hour, but that hasn't stopped me from helping whoever I can before, and it sure as hell won't now."
Ratchet glances between the both of them, wearing a glad smile, already beginning to feel much better and optimistic from the… well, not optimistic news that their search wasn't going to be as easy as they had originally anticipated. But that didn't mean that he wasn't going to be able to find his family, as this was just going to be a small setback, and one that he knew that he could overcome.
Plus, it helped once he recognized that he had a feeling that he could begin to find some friends in Rivet and Kit much like he always did for his allies in his past adventures.
"Alright. You're both right, we can do this." Ratchet says with another nod, wearing a thankful smile. "We just need… need to follow up on those ships that escaped the transport ship, and we'll be sure to find Clank and my dad in no time, right?"
"Yep!" Rivet agrees with a nod of her own.
"That is the spirit!" Kit optimistically agrees.
"Right. But, erm… Where exactly do we start?" Ratchet follows up, now glancing back to the monitor and the large list of reports of hijacked Imperial fighters from the prison break.
"Yeah… Can't say I have a good answer on that." Rivet says, also turning back to the computer while sucking in her teeth, staring at it for a few moments before shrugging. "I guess we'll just have to just go down the list and track down the ships one by one, and see if they were on board. And if not, then we just ask the escapees if they've got any clues about where they might've gone otherwise."
"That… Does not sound like an efficient plan." Kit states, raising a finger.
"I mean, it's not like we've got a choice, though, right?" Ratchet responds with a shrug. "At least we've got a lead on where to go next now."
"Well…" Rivet mutters, prompting both of their attention as they see her place a hand on her chin, inspecting the list on screen. "You know, a good chunk of these ships seem to be going towards Zurkie's, given by their last known headings. I think that's a great lead!" She says optimistically, putting on a smile as she looks back to Ratchet and Kit.
"What makes you say that?" Kit inquires, tilting her head.
"Because, if they're heading towards Zurkie's, that probably means they're all in the Resistance and celebrating successfully avoiding getting locked up in Zordoom, and the more people that are there, the more people we can ask for even more leads on Clank and your dad!" She explains, gesturing towards Ratchet. "And even if they don't, we can at least get the word out to the rest of the Resistance to be on the lookout for them, which should be pretty easy since Lombaxes stick out pretty well in a galaxy with only one of them." She finishes, thumbing to herself with a wink.
"That sounds like a great idea!" Ratchet says happily, flashing a thumbs-up. "So, I guess we should hurry up and get back to Zurkie's before the party ends, huh?" He asks, thumbing to the hideout's entrance behind him.
"Sure thing!" Rivet answers with a nod, right before she then turns back to the computer, quickly typing away. "But before we go, let me just download the list so that we can actually follow up on the other leads once we're finished at Zurkie's in case we don't get anything when—Wait, huh?"
As she's typing away, the screen begins to glitch and warble, making her pause as they all look to it in confusion.
"Oh, come on!" Rivet says in frustration, reaching up to bang her metal hand against the side of the large monitor. "I know this thing's old, but I don't think it's that old! Just hang in there for, like, thirty more seconds so I can do this, you stupid thing!" She says irritably.
"Erm, I do not believe that is the proper way to rectify a technical issue, Rivet." Kit hesitantly chimes in, raising a finger.
"Hey, the majority of my 'technical issues' can be solve by me hitting them, be it a monitor on the fritz, or a Nefarious trooper just asking for a hammer to the face." She argues with a smirk, looking back at her with a smirk before returning her attention to the monitor, whose glitching gets even worse. "But, damn, I can't say I've ever seen it this bad! Just what's—"
Before she can finish her sentence, the screen becomes indecipherable before it simply cuts out, leaving nothing but a large 'SIGNAL LOST' flashing on and off.
"Oh, COME ON!" She cries out in anger, throwing her hands over to it.
"Normally I'd say otherwise since it usually works for me too, but I think I have to agree with Kit here." Ratchet says a little amusedly. "I think you just broke it."
"I did not!" She huffs, crossing her arms while shooting a look. "I swear this thing's just messed up somehow, it never does this!"
"Then what caused it, if not your bashing against it?" Kit queries innocently, placing a finger on her chin.
"It wasn't bashing, Kit, calm down." Rivet scoffs with a roll of her eyes. "And secondly, I'm not really sure what it—"
Suddenly, they all feel a large rumble making them wobble a bit on their feet as they snap their heads all around the room, seeing the hanging fixtures shake, various parts rolling off of shelves and counters, and the furniture beginning to move slightly from all the vibration as well, beginning to hear a loud noise come from outside.
"What the hell is that?!" Ratchet cries out, eyes wide in fear and surprise.
"I don't—"
She is cut off as the loud rumbling is no longer heard over the sound of a deafening explosion, the sheer force of it sending them all down to the ground with a cry with the debris of Rivet's wall showering past them, a large plate of which falls on top of Rivet, making her grunt in slight pain and surprise from the impact.
And before she could even begin to push it off of her, simply needing a moment to recover what the hell just happened, Ratchet near begins to sit up, shaking his head from the shellshock, but being met with the complete lack of an entire wall to Rivet's hideout, opening out to the expanses of the Sargasso wilderness.
The wilderness that he saw was now teeming with Nefarious forces, with a large transport ship hanging in the blue sky above, troopers flying out and about across the immediate landscape, but almost all of them being blocked by the view of a large centipede-looking robot with giant pincers, a trooper seen manning its cockpit as a blue scanner was gazing right back at him.
"Lombax located!" It announces as it promptly swoops its head in, making Ratchet instinctively try to scramble to his feet to back away, but unfortunately too late as he is caught in its large pincers.
"Ah, hey! Let me go!" Ratchet cries out, trying to wriggle himself free from its grip, his arms pinned to his sides, but to no avail.
"As if, we have you now, rebel!" The large robot's pilot replies as it begins to back out of the hideout, taking Ratchet with it. "The Emperor is going to be most pleased about this!"
"I've already met him once, I sure as hell don't need to see him again!" Ratchet bites back.
But as the robot is backing out, Rivet—finally having her senses about her—shoves the plate covering her with a large shove, making it fly across the room, and just in time to see Ratchet being carried away, making her eyes widen as she bolts upright to her feet.
"Ratchet!" She calls out.
"Rivet!" Ratchet answers back, looking back at her in a mixture of fear and relief that she was alright. "I'm okay, but I can't get out of this thing's grip! Help!"
"Ratchet, no!" Rivet suddenly hears Kit cry out, making her turn to see her running to the ledge formed from the wall's opening alongside Rivet, hopelessly holding her hand out as he is quickly carried off, the robot constraining him telling its captive to quiet down and stop being so fussy.
But as Rivet looks back to it in shock, and Ratchet's protests hurriedly fading away, she suddenly becomes aware of the surroundings, and the influx of Imperial forces littering the area around her hideout, making anger and dread begin to boil in her gut while she clenches her fist with a scowl.
"Oh, no, it appears that Nefarious is invading!" Kit calls out anxiously with a gasp, looking around as well.
"Not invading—attacking." Rivet corrects her. "Nefarious just loves torturing me by attacking Sargasso whenever he's feeling really bored, but he's not messing around this time if he decided to destroy my freaking hideout to get me!" She calls out angrily, broadly gesturing to the debris surrounding them.
"But what are we supposed to do?!" Kit answers back. "That Seekerpede just kidnapped Ratchet!"
Rivet gives an angered huff before looking down to Kit beside her. "Same thing I always have to do whenever Emperor Dickhead pays a visit; Give him a really warm welcome."
She then holds her metal hand out to Kit, a mischievous smirk forming on her lips. "So, you say you hate Nefarious—So how about helping me save Ratchet while we kick his tuna cans' asses?"
Kit looks back at her with some surprise, glancing between Rivet and her outstretched hand, admittedly a little taken aback in seeing her so willingly asking for assistance even after admitting her hatred of robots not even an hour ago.
But it was in Rivet offering the gesture that made Kit smile nonetheless, feeling great relief and happiness in seeing that she herself appeared to be one of the few exceptions to Rivet's stigma, and it was something that she was not going to take for granted.
With a nod, she takes Rivet's hand into her own. "With pleasure." She says firmly.
"Sweet." Rivet says with a nod of her own, lifting her up by the hand to swing her around to mount her onto her back as she manifests her hammer out of her Arsenal, rolling her neck a bit as she looks out to the Seekerpede growing smaller off in the distance, making her clench her hand around her melee weapon.
"Let's dance." She states with a determined smile.
And with that, she jumps down, ready to give Nefarious one hell of a warm welcoming to Sargasso.
While I've been much too busy to get enough decent time to actually sit down and write this story, I've been busy in other regards, so shameless plug time!
Firstly, I have a Twitter now, and one that I have filled with a lot of art of my AU and my many plans for the future of it, so be sure to find it at ACleverName_8 if you are interested in things like seeing what the hell my OCs actually look like!
Secondly—or more like point 1.5, honestly—I also made a tumblr as a backup in case Twitter burns down from everything that's happening with it at the time of this writing, so be sure to check me out at aclevername8! It's honestly filled with pretty much the exact same stuff as my Twitter, but hey, the option's there if you want it.
And, thirdly, just more of a little clarification that I've actually published another fic in this AU that's technically set before this story called 'Close Friends': In which I have made it canon that Julie and Mags are a couple now (and don't worry, this was just something I was sitting on for like a year now, so it wasn't me procrastinating off of this story to work on it instead lmao).
Little warning that it is explicit/is a smutfic, but big idea is that it just sets the standard that they're a canon couple now, so I thought I'd make sure to just state that in case there are those out there a little too squeamish to read about all the details of them bumping uglies, lol. And if you are squeamish, then fear not, as I have made a T-Rated version with all the naughty bits cut out (mostly so FF doesn't hide its existence lol), so be sure to check it out if you just want the plot!
Is it convoluted to retroactively say "Pretend Julie and Mags are a couple by the time this story takes place by the way?" A bit. But hey, that's the beauty of AUs, in that you can do whatever the hell you want with them, so deal with it, lmao.
So, until next time, where I will hopefully be more timely about the next update!