Chapter eight: Epilogue

(Grelbin)

Skidd handed Angela another shirt. "You like, sure you wanna do this, Angela?"

"Of course." Angela said as she accepted the shirt and packed it on one of her suitcases. "Mr. Fizzwidget is okay with me taking time off because I've always worked real hard at Megacorp."

"But, you'll be in a different galaxy, man." Skidd said. "You won't be used to anything."

"It won't take me long to do so, Skidd." Angela insisted. "And besides, I think it's about time for a change of scenery."

"Well, okay." Shidd shrugged as he handed Angela another shirt. "If you're positive that it's okay with you."

"It will, Skidd. I promise." Angela replied. She paused as she looked at her new boyfriend again. "Say, what are the rest of the crew on the ship like?"

"Hey, they're a cool bunch." Skidd said, flashing a thumb's up. "The only thing is that I like, suggest you stay away from our head trainer Helga during lunch. She can get like, pretty touchy."

Angela chuckled. "I'll keep that in mind." She was silent for another few seconds. "How do you think everyone will react when they find out you're not dead?"

Skidd shrugged. "I dunno. But after all we've been through with those dudes back on Damosel, I'd take any reaction."

"Yeah." Angela said as she placed another kiss on Skidd's cheek. "I still can't believe you did all that for me. You have no idea how wonderful it felt to have someone care about me enough to do what you did."

"Hey, it's cool, man." Skidd chuckled. "Angela, I love you. Even though I was like, totally terrified, I swore to myself that I would like, get you outta there."

Angela's smile vanished as she sighed sadly. "But there's one thing. You did so many things for me back there. You came after me, braved the base, defeated the leader and got us both out of there before the bomb went." She wrapped her arms around Skidd. "I just wish tere was a way for me to make it all up to you."

"Hey, I think we're even, man." Skidd said as he returned the hug. "You saved me from my ship, helped me recover and now you're actually like, coming back to the Solona Galaxy with me. That's totally awesome to me, Angela."

"Well, thank you, Skidd." Angela said as she pulled away from the hug. "Come on. Let's get me packed so we can start our journey back to the Phoenix."

Skidd nodded. "Will do." He said as he grabbed a couple more shirts and a pair of pants.

(Phoenix)

In all honesty, Skidd wasn't expecting much when he got back to the Phoenix. A few people saying they were glad to see him at most. However, what he received instead was something he wouldn't have expected in a million years.

He couldn't see anything until Angela had actually flown her ship into the Phoenix docking bay. Once Skidd got a good look at the docking bay, his eyes widened.

Everyone aboard the Phoenix was standing around cheering wildly for the ship that had just puled in. Ratchet, Clank, Sasha and Skrunch stood at the left side of the bay, each of them looking extremely happy. It was then that Skidd noticed an adorable little protopet sitting on Ratchet's shoulder, but the Rilgarian paid it no mind.

On the right side of the bay were Al and Helga. Each of them was cheering, and Skidd was shocked at how happy Helga looked. He had never seen the trainer express so much emotion at one time. Scattered around the docking bay were the robotic rangers, cheering at different times.

Skidd suddenly noticed a banner posted above the doorway leading to the platform that went to the bridge. Written across it (pretty poorly, Skidd noted. One of the rangers probably wrote it) were the words 'WELCOME BACK, SKIDD' (although the K in 'BACK' was written backwards).

Angela looked around in awe, then looked at Skidd. "I had no idea you were so popular here!"

The look on Skidd's face showed that he was even more surprised than his new girlfriend. "Neither did I, man."

After Angela parked the ship, the hatch opened and the two new lovers jumped out, landing on the ground. Almost instantly, the rest of the people started swarming them (mainly Skidd, though).

As some of the galactic rangers were swarming Skidd with questions and friendly handshakes, the Rilgarian suddenly saw Helga coming through the crowd. Skidd was surprised at the large smile plastered on her face, but stood still as she approached.

Once she reached him, Helga did something completely out of character for her: She wrapped her arms around him in a huge, bone-crushing bear hug. Shidd gasped for breath as Helga's grip felt like it crushed his rips.

"Hey…Helga…" Skidd said, gasping for breath. "What's…Up?"

"Ve haff been so vorried about you, McMarxx!" Helga exclaimed. "Ve think you vere dead! I haff to admeet dat I haff never been so glad to see you!"

Skidd let out a very painful-sounding chuckle. "Heh…Really?"

Helga placed Skidd back on the ground. "Und dat's not all. Vhile you vere gone, I made a new training course in your honor!"

"It's really fun, sir!" A nearby soldier pointed out. "It trains us all how to hoverboard! It's supposed to be real good to keep us alert!"

"Really? That's cool, Helga!" Skidd said, secretly rubbing his rips. "I like, have a feeling that you'll totally have more people coming in!"

Suddenly, something jumped on Skidd's back from behind, making him stagger forward slightly. Once he regained his balance, the Rilgarian looked at the ground and saw Ratchet's protopet at his feet, jumping up and down excitedly.

"Hey, little guy." Skidd said as he picked up the little ball of fuzz. "Where'd you come from, anyway?"

"Hey, Skidd!" The Rilgarian turned around and saw Ratchet coming over. "I see you've met Skidder."

"Skidder?" Skidd asked. "Heh. That kinda sounds like my name, bro."

"That was the point, actually." Ratchet replied, rubbing his head sheepishly. "After you had 'died', the soldiers got me the little guy. I decided to name him after you."

Skidd blushed. "Wow, man. I never thought anyone would do that for me."

"Well, I sorta owed it to you." Ratchet replied.

"You did? Why, man?"

Realization suddenly dawned on the lombax. He had never told Skidd what he had done in the dogfight over Grelbin. "Hey, Skidd? Can you and I talk in private for a second?"

Uh…Sure, bro."

Skidd followed Ratchet away from the little party everyone was having. The two ended up in the entertainment room. Once they arrived, the two friends sat on a couch.

"What did you wanna say, Ratchet?" Skidd asked.

"Well…There's something you don't really know about that battle we had over Grelbin." Ratchet replied.

"Really? What is it?"

"Look, you know that shot that took you down and sent you falling towards the planet below?"

"The one that blew off my wing? Yeah, man. What about it?"

"Well, as it turned out. The leader was aiming at me when he fired the shot." Ratchet replied, looking at the floor. "You accidentally flew in front of the laser, and it struck your ship."

Skidd's eyes widened, but remained silent as Ratchet continued.

"Skidd, that shot was meant for me, and yet you were the one who took it." Ratchet sighed. "You saved my life then, Skidd. You saved my life and the only thing on my mind after that was how much I had let you down."

"What? No way, man!" Skidd replied. "What makes you think that, Ratchet?"

"Ever since you went down over Grelbin, I spent a lot of time thinking of how much more I could have done to save you. Being more aware, spotting the Thugs-4-Less leader earlier." Ratchet sniffed as he wiped his eyes of the tears starting to form. "I just feel that there could have been something I could have done to prevent you from getting hit."

"Look, bro. I don't blame you for what happened, man." Skidd said, placing a hand on Ratchet's shoulder. No one could have like, prevented what happened back there." He let out a light chuckle. "In fact, I'm sorta glad that it happened."

Ratchet looked at his friend. "What? Why?"

Skidd smiled. "Because if it never happened, I wouldn't have like, met Angela."

Ratchet chuckled weakly. "Yeah. I guess not." His small smile vanished as he looked at the floor again. "I just can' help but feel guilty about it, though."

"Hey, even if I had known the laser was coming, I would've taken the shot, man." Skidd said.

"Really? Why's that?"

"Look, Ratchet. What I'm about to tell you has to be kept secret, man." Skidd replied. "Not even Clank or Sasha can know."

Ratchet nodded and wiped his eyes, urging Skidd to continue.

"I doubt that you felt the same about me, but I always considered you my best bud. I always looked up to you, man. The whole reason I even like, came on the mission to Aquatos on my own accord was like, because I wanted to hang with you and see if I could help you out." Skidd replied. "Of course, during that mission, I was like, terrified of anything besides you and Clank. And I felt really guilty for bailing on you two when we encountered that totally freaky thing in the cylinder." Skidd paused for a few seconds. "Hey, by the way, man. What WAS that thing, anyway?"

"Uh…Nothing." Ratchet said, knowing that Slim Cognito wanted everything about him to be kept a secret.

Skidd shrugged. "Well, I wanted to make it up to you dudes by like, coming on the Obani Moons mission. You all know how that went." He sighed. "I just like, wanted to have a chance to show my thanks to you, man. You've let me come on missions, totally hung out with me more than anyone else on the ship, and saved me from spending the rest of my life as a robot. Hey, if I had to take a shot for you to show you how much I like, consider you a pal, I would totally do it."

The Rilgarian looked his small friend in the eye. "Look, bro. What I'm saying is that I totally don't blame you or what happened because you're my best bud. So like, stop blaming yourself, man, because it SO wasn't your fault."

Ratchet's eyes got teary again. Never in his wildest dreams did he think that Skidd considered him that much of a friend. Now that he thought about it, Skidd was right. Ratchet was almost the only one on the Phoenix to spend a lot of time with Skidd, and the only missions Skidd ever went on were ones the Rilgarian said he wanted to help out in. Never once during Qwark's time on the ship was Skidd called for a mission. It was all Ratchet, Clank and, on occasion, Skrunch. Skidd had come along, on his own free will, to give Ratchet a hand on a number of occasions, even after the Dr. Nefarious war was over. He definitely acted terrified during those missions, but he still came on his own, with the sole purpose of assisting Ratchet and Clank.

The lombax never really had many people he could consider his 'best friends'. Clank was actually the only one up until he met Sasha. And up until now, there was no one else that could have been considered a best friend to Ratchet. Just Clank and Sasha.

Well, now there was three.

Ratchet stood up on the couch and walked over to Skidd. He gave his friend a tight hug, surprising the Rilgarian.

"Thanks, Skidd." The teary-eyed lombax said. "You're the best."

"I told you, bro. You're my best bud." Skidd assured, hugging Ratchet back. "Hey, thanks for letting me talk, man. That really took a load off my chest."

"Yeah. Me too." Ratchet said as he pulled away from the hug. "Well, I'm done. Now, you go out there and see your girlfriend again."

"Thanks, bro." Skidd said as he stood up. The two of them left the entertainment room and started walking down the hall again.

Ratchet dried his tears for the final time and looked up at Skidd. "I know this must sound strange, Skidd, but I think you and Angela make the perfect couple."

"Really, dude?" Skidd asked. "You don't think it's strange that we're two different species?"

Ratchet shook his head. "Nope. You forget that Sasha and I are different species as well?"

"Oh, yeah. Sorry, man."

"Don't worry about it. I don't know why you do, but I just think that you two look so good together." Ratchet explained. "There's just something about you two that seems to click. It's almost as if you were destined to be together."

"I sure hope so, dude." Skidd said hopefully. "Angela's like, the best girl I've ever met. I just hope I can like, make her happy."

A thought suddenly occurred to Ratchet. "I think I know a way to start."

"Really?" Skidd asked, stopping his walk. "What is it, bro?"

Skidd bent over as Ratchet whispered something into his ear. Skidd's eyes widened as he looked down at Ratchet. "Are you serious, dude!"

Ratchet nodded. "I've seen her in action before, Skidd. Trust me, she likes it."

Now it was Skidd's turn to nod. "Okay, man! After this party is over, I'm SO gonna take her there!"

(Rilgar)

Skidd and Angela walked along part of Blackwater City on Rilgar. Well, Skidd was more the less guiding Angela along, as she was blindfolded and unaware of where Skidd was taking her.

"Where are we going, Skidd?" Angela asked. "I know we're on Rilgar, but I've had this blindfold on ever since we entered the city."

"We're almost there, Angela." Skidd said. "We're totally getting close."

Angela allowed herself to be led through Blackwater City, which was almost finished being reconstructed after the Thyrranoid attack. Eventually, Skidd stopped walking and looked at Angela.

"Okay. We're here, Angela. You ready?" Skidd asked.

Angela nodded. "Yes."

Skidd undid the blindfold around Angela's eyes and removed it. Once her eyes were able to see again, Angela saw a vast track spread out across the ground, like a racecourse.

"Wow!" Angela looked around in awe. "Is this a racetrack?"

"Not just any racetrack, Angela." Skidd said. Angela turned and saw him holding two hoverboards. "It's a hoverboard course. The most totally wicked course on the planet, and my personal favourite spot."

"How did you know I like to hoverboard?" Angela asked, still stunned at the length and size of the track that lay before her.

"One, you packed your board with the rest of your things, and two, Ratchet told me."

Angela chuckled. "That would do it, I guess."

"So," Skidd said, handing Angela her board. "You wanna take it for a spin and have a race?"

Angela smirked. "You're SO on, Skidd." She planted a kiss on Skidd's cheek, jumped on her hoverboard and took off.

"WOOHOO!" Angela shouted as she turned the first corner.

Skidd stood in silence for a few seconds before leaping into the air. "WOO! What a woman!" With that, Skidd threw his hoverboard to the ground, jumped on and took off after Angela.

Meanwhile, Ratchet and Sasha looked over a railing, watching the two lovebirds race.

Sasha looked at Ratchet and smirked. "So are you through playing matchmaker?" She asked playfully.

"It wasn't me." Ratchet chuckled. "They already had the relationship. I just gave it a kick-start."

"Well, I'm glad you did." Sasha said, draping her arms around Ratchet's neck from behind. "Just look at those two. They're perfect for each other."

"Yep." Ratchet says. "And the best part? They deserve each other."

"You know, Ratchet? You still haven't told me why your eyes were puffy and red after you had your talk with Skidd back on the Phoenix." Sasha said.

"Oh, nothing much." Ratchet replied with a warm smile. "Skidd just made me realize how much of a friend he is."