"Never heard of it." She told him bluntly.

"Which is why it's such a good hiding place, no one has!" Ratchet was getting visibly excited at this point. "Veldin is a sweltering rock on the very edge of Solana with nothing special about it!"

Rivet's eyebrow raised at his enthusiasm as he bad-mouthed his own home before she realized he had said Solana. "It's in another galaxy?" He nodded.

"My dad took me there so I would be hidden from Tachyon, and it worked. Honestly I can't think of a better place for someone to hide."

"Well then let's get going!" She said excitedly. She opened the communicator and called Periapsis, telling it to meet them in orbit. They quickly decided to just fly together with her ship following behind on its own. The distance to Veldin was quite large and even at both ships' top speed they were looking at close to ten hours of flying and both would rather spend that time with someone to talk to right next to them instead of through a screen.

Once Periapsis met them, they locked in the course and took off. And mere minutes after Rivet's stomach made clear just how empty it was, and quite loudly at that. She tried to give as cute a smile as she could when Ratchet glanced from her gut to her face. "Hungry?"

"A bit. Mind if I give that fruit a try? An 'only grows in one place' plant sounds kind of interesting."

"Sure. I'll open it for you." He said, then grabbed one and broke off the pointed part near the top, revealing a yellowish interior that sprayed water as it split. He then turned the tip over in his hand and pressed the pointed part into the body of the fruit. The wedge split it open with another splash of water, splaying the fruit open like a flower. "A trick you pick up when you're eating about three a day." He explained and handed a section to her before popping one into his own mouth, clearly savoring the taste.

She giggled at the happy noises he was making as he chewed. "You really like these that much?"

He nodded. "I've actually missed these. They don't keep for very long and I haven't been back home in over a year now. Give it a shot." He encouraged. She laughed again before shrugging and throwing it in her mouth.

To describe the flavor in one word?

BITTER.

So bitter in fact that she immediately spit the chunk out, gagging on her own tongue as she tried to keep the contents of her stomach down. The chunk itself hit the dome in front of her with a splat before sliding down onto the floor.

"Hey careful, I just had that redone." Ratchet complained.

"I'm dying from your terrible fruit and you're concerned about the upholstery!?"

"I think dying is a strong word. You didn't like it, no one does the first time they have one." He explained, but that only made her glare at him with all the more fury.

"You couldn't have told me!? Warned me that this garbage fruit doesn't taste like, oh I dunno, a fruit!?"

"Oh, that's because it's not a fruit." He said casually before popping another one into his mouth, seemingly unfazed by her anger.

"THEN WHAT DID I JUST PUT IN MY MOUTH!?" She shouted at him while grabbing him by the shoulder. He chuckled a bit before putting his hand on hers in an effort to calm her down.

"A nutrient packet. The toberlisk cactus grows them before the dry season so it can survive and packs a bunch of vitamins, minerals and water into it. It keeps all its sugars near its roots, so that's why it's bitter."

"You called it a fruit!"

"Oh, sorry. It's what we call them on Veldin." He did actually sound somewhat apologetic. Rivet shook her head and moved on from his (supposedly) accidental fopa.

"So you eat a few every day for the water?" She asked, now connecting the dots. He nodded.

"What water Veldin does have is too salty to drink and large scale desalination isn't economical for a planet with no resources. So the locals started farming these to get their daily water, alongside essential vitamins and minerals. Otherwise no one could live there."

"So it's either eat enough of these a day or die?" He nodded. "I choose death." She said flatly.

He laughed again. "Come on. They're not that bad. There's even a few recipes for how to cook 'em. None of them really work until you develop a taste for the raw version, but they help kids eat them." He suddenly got a far off look in his eye as he remembered his childhood. "I remember when I was a kid I would kick and scream everyday when Grim tried to make me eat a few. I'd tell him to try and cook it, or just to make it taste good."

He smiled and chuckled as he remembered the aggravated look on his adopted father's face. "He'd complain and say 'I eat 'em just fine, so can you.'" He did his best impression of the gruff fongoid, drawing a giggle from Rivet. "But then he'd turn right around and throw it in a recipe anyway."

"He must have really loved you." She said and he shot a sideways glance at her, breaking his trance.

"He still does."

"Huh?"

"He's not dead. He just retired with his brother to Pokitaru and left me his garage. I haven't seen him for a few years now, but we still talk on occasion."

She gave him an annoyed grin before socking him in the shoulder. "You couldn't have made that a bit more clear?"

He rubbed the spot she had hit. "Where's the fun in that? There's far more fun to be had in ambiguity."

"Right up until I punch the ambiguity out of you."

"Oh please. I know you're actually too nice to ever do something like that." He looked over at her and was greeted with a face that screamed 'are you sure about that?' "To me at least?" He offered.

She seemed to think it over for a second before nodding and sceding the point. They both shared a good laugh at the exchange before Rivet's expression became a bit more serious.

"So now that we're on our way to actually see him, is there anything you can tell me about Alister?" She asked while also retrieving some snacks that had been stowed away so she could actually eat something.

"I think I'll just tell you the whole story of how I met him. We've got time for it after all and that's probably the best way for you to come to your own conclusions about him." She nodded for him to continue while opening a bag of fried junk food. Normally she wouldn't touch something like that, but given the alternative… She took a few bites and settled in.

"Well, it all started when Clank was kidnapped by the Zoni…"


And so he told her the whole story. Of his search for Clank, meeting Alister, traveling through time, and then, ultimately, the events on the Great Clock.

"After we stopped Nefarious, Clank decided he wanted to stay on the clock to protect it, like his father wanted. I told Alister the same thing I had before. The lombaxes were gone from our dimension, and there was nothing we could do to change that. I would leave Clank, and then we would both leave the clock forever. Then he… he…" Ratchet trailed off, his heart hurting from the memories and the knowledge of what happened next. "If Clank is to be believed… he killed me."

"What? What do you mean he killed you?"

"I mean just that. I walked away from him to take Clank into the clock, and he was ranting behind me, angry that I wouldn't help him. Then, he threw a bolt of plasma at me. I…" He took a deep, shaky breath. "I never thought he would actually attack me. I thought if I just left him there he'd eventually realize why, that what he wanted to do wouldn't work."

"But you said he killed you. How are you alive right now?"

"Clank used the clock to turn back time six minutes. Any more and it would've destroyed it. After that, he used the reset to save me. He didn't tell me I had died until months after, and honestly? I get why.

"After that, Alister ran for the Orvus chamber and we went after him. We got there too late to stop him from activating the clock. So, we fought there in the chamber while the clock ripped itself apart around us. I tried the entire time to tell him he was wrong, but he wouldn't listen. He'd just call me embarrassment or a traitor, that my father would be ashamed of me. That I'd be alone… forever."

"Are you about to tell me you believed him?" He shook his head.

"No. If I hadn't known for sure that using the clock would destroy the universe then maybe. But then well, I probably would have been right by his side."

"Is that why you were so afraid to go to the lombax dimension then? Because of what he said?"

"Would you laugh at me if I said yes?"

"Never." She said with all the seriousness she could muster.

"I just… When Clank first gave me the dimensionator again, I heard his voice in my head, telling me that I was a disappointment. And I had no reason to believe he was wrong. The lombaxes did amazing things. My dad did amazing things. I kept asking myself if I really thought I had lived up to the legacy they had left."

"That's ridiculous!" Rivet's sudden outburst shocked him from the funk he was in with a jump. "How many times have you saved your home dimension!? How many people are alive now because of you, including me!?"

"You?"

Her ears went stiff, apparently not having realized what she had said until he asked. She hesitated and rubbed the back of her head before deciding to answer. "Before the rifts opened, I stole an info-bot with a hitlist from Nefarious. It had all of the resistance members on it, me included. If you and Clank hadn't shown up when you did and helped us take him down, I probably would have turned up dead at some point. So if you ask me, it's the lombaxes that have been sitting by in their dimension that need to prove themselves to us! We're the ones that have proven ourselves time and again."

"...Thanks Rivet. You're right."

"Yeah, like I always am. Now, what happened next?" She still wanted to know how the story ended. Unfortunately…

"Alister wouldn't listen, not until it was too late. The clock was seconds from failing completely when he realized his mistake. The energy was building up and I tried to turn it off, but the lever broke off in my hand. I was going to run back in and try again when he stopped me, not to keep the clock from being fixed but so he could do it. I think he at least wanted to fix that mistake… And he paid with his life to do it, the energy build up released and killed him instantly. He apologized before it was over but… there was so much we didn't get to talk about."

He pulled out the pocket watch that had been resting like a brick of lead in his pocket throughout the whole story. He opened it and showed her what the old lombax looked like. She didn't ask about the other one in the picture, figuring he'd explain in time. She did note how remarkably similar they looked though, the only real difference being some extra scruff on the pictured lombax's chin, plus some extra stripes in the same spot. She had to admit that she could see some of that same scruff starting to make itself known on Ratchet."I don't think a day goes by where I don't think about what could have been different if I had convinced him sooner. Would he still be alive? Would we already be in the lombax dimension?"

"What's the point in worrying about things like that?" She said rather bluntly, earning a shocked look from her counterpart. She quickly raised and waved her hands in defense. "Sorry, sorry. That came out wrong. What I mean is, if anything I think that should have taught you that mistakes of the past are truly unchangeable. We learn from them and then we move on, because if we dwell on them they'll consume us."

"You sound like you have some experience."

"I do." She hesitated for a time, clearly having an internal debate as to whether or not she should elaborate. After some time she continued. "When I lost my arm I locked myself away for a long time. I stopped responding to calls from the other resistance members and wouldn't even answer the door for the morts. I just sat and played that night over and over in my head, thinking about how it could have been different. What if I had double checked the patrol schedule, or had a faster hotwire on the door? And more recently, what if Kit hadn't fired and decided to help me instead, or helped me right after she did? I would stare at my stump and feel a phantom pain and imagine a world where I had succeeded. I was still whole and had beaten Nefarious, brought his whole empire toppling down. Instead all I did was embarrass myself and end up with this." She held out her right arm and gestured to it with derision.

"You hate it that much?"

The pensive look on her face told him it wasn't so cut and dry. "Not any more. Well, not like you think. It used to just remind me of the time I failed, but eventually I started to see it more like a promise to myself that I'd do better next time. That I'd carry the weight of my mistake and learn from it so I could make things right. That's what I think we all have to do. Remember our mistakes and carry them, but don't let them weigh us down."

She looked over at him and saw a deep well of admiration in his eyes. Like what she had said had struck a chord deep within him. "Thanks. But you mentioned Kit there for a second. Did Kit… while she was still with Nefarious…" He seemed to not know how exactly he wanted to ask the question. Rivet nodded, understanding what he meant anyway.

"I've… Well, I wouldn't say I've completely come to terms with it but I can say that I've forgiven her and don't blame her for what happened."

"I had no idea. Oh! I'm so sorry for yelling at you for being scared of her back then." The memory of their fight at Zurkies had popped into his mind just then, and now he fully understood the way she had been acting.

"It's ok, really. I said some pretty crappy things back then myself." She admitted.

"Well, if we can both admit we said some stupid things back then, then no harm done." He said and they nodded to each other in agreement. They chuckled after, but for Ratchet that led right into a yawn. He was reminded that it had been about twenty adrenaline and caffeine infused hours since he had last slept. "I think I'll catch some shut eye if that's alright with you."

"Sure. In fact, I might join you." She replied without thinking and only realized the connotations of what she had said when he looked at her puzzled. "OH, ah- I mean, uh. I'll probably also get some sleep in. Here. In my chair. G'night!" She said a bit too loudly before snapping her chair back with far more than natural force and speed, then rolled over to face away from him as she laid down.

Ratchet chuckled to himself briefly, marveling at her odd behaviour before deciding to let it lie. "Goodnight." Was all he said himself, replacing the watch in his pocket and facing away from the other lombax for some sweet, sweet rest.


Hours later, both were roused from their sleep by Aphelion when they were a few minutes from their destination. They rolled over to watch their arrival.

Or at least they tried.

When both made to rise from their reclined chairs, they felt an odd tugging sensation on both their tails. Glancing behind them, they locked eyes before they looked down where they saw their tails had twisted around each other in their sleep. They were entwined like threads in a rope, or more apropo for how they both saw it in that moment, like the hands of a pair of lovers, the tips of each tickling the base of the other.

They looked up at each other's eyes once more, but neither could hold the gaze for very long before they both made it a point to look anywhere else. The cabin suddenly seemed to get quite a bit hotter as they tugged their appendages free. "So." Rivet started, her voice cracking as she did while still looking at not him. "We're almost at Veldin huh?"

"Yup!" He responded quickly while mirroring her behaviour. "Should come into view any second now!" They both shot straight up from where they had been laying down and looked out the viewport, their… situation had taken enough time that as they did the ship decelerated and the planet materialized in front of them.

When Ratchet laid eyes on his home, a wave of nostalgia swept over him. It really had been over a year since he had last been here and he felt every last minute of that in his chest right then. For Rivet, it was her first time seeing the planet. From orbit it looked strikingly similar to Fastoon. Almost the entire surface had a dry, rocky color to it with sparse oceans and lakes dotting the surface. Thankfully there was no evidence of cragmite ships. Actually there wasn't any evidence of any ships or lights from the dark side of the planet to denote where any cities were. It was in every sense barren.

"Where should we start looking?" She asked.

"If he's got a lombax ship we should be able to detect the reactor signal from orbit. Aphelion, can you scan for that?"

"Done." She responded immediately. "There is a signal coinciding with a lombax built craft on the Kyzil Plateau. It's signature is strikingly similar to Alister's from our dimension."

Ratchet's brow furrowed when he heard that. "Really? He's in Kyzil?"

"Is there something bad there?" Rivet asked.

"Depends on your opinion of messy garages. That's where I live in my dimension." He clarified.

Rivet hummed in thought. "Maybe it's a coincidence. There aren't that many population centers in the first place, so he probably just happened to pick that one."

"Yeah, probably. There's actually even less people here than my version somehow." He said while he looked at the planetary report Aphelion had brought up. Not only did the planet have a lower population, but there were entire cities and towns that simply didn't exist here. "Aphelion, lock onto that signal and take us in."

The ship cut through the atmosphere of the dry planet, then dipped down into the winding cliffs and rock formations. Both the lombaxes stayed quiet as they flew, anxiety over the meeting to come staying both their tongues.

Eventually the high cliffs gave way to lower ones, Ratchet recognizing this as being the relatively flat area of the plateau. They coasted past clutches of buildings built into the sides of the shorter cliffs and flatter areas of land. Many of them were in familiar spots, but none of them were exactly the same. He couldn't see the school he had attended as a kit or the general store he used to frequent. It instilled in him an odd sense of dysphoria, feeling like he was home but not at the same time. The land around him was so familiar but also distant and strange. He felt his breathing start to speed up and his heart was trying to beat its way through his chest. As panic lit his brain on fire, he felt a hand land on his. It was a reassuring presence, a reminder that he was here with someone.

"You alright?" She asked. He looked over and felt his heart and breathing both slow down when he saw the worry in her eyes. He had seen her direct it at others before, but never at him. He nodded.

"Yeah. Just got a bit overwhelmed for a second there. You know how it is." He said with a small grin. She returned it.

"Careful there slick. I don't wanna have to explain to Alister why you're tied to the hood." She joked and retracted her hand. He immediately wished she hadn't but moved on.

"We should be coming up on him soon." He said as he looked at the map. "Seems like he posted up in a mine. Does every lombax from this dimension live in a cave?"

"Hey, home is home. Especially when you have an entire galactic empire hunting you." She told him. Aphelion and Periapsis settled on a flat area not far from the entrance to the mine.

"Ready?" They both asked each other at the same time, making them both chuckle. When they were done they locked eyes and nodded before opening the hatch and jumping out.

They both stretched their aching limbs, sloughing off sleep and inactivity with every pop and groan. (They also most certainly did not sneak glances at each other while they did, no sir)

With the effects of their journey shaken off, they approached the mouth of the mine. Inside was a dimly lit path leading to a large solid metal door that reminded Rivet of her own front door. They carefully approached it, slowly creeping closer on the balls of their feet. They both knew full well that they were walking into the home of a fugitive lombax, the odds that the front door would have no defences were slim to say the least.

And they were proven correct. A few meters from the door, panels disguised as rocks opened and produced weapons of every shape and caliber. Spinning blades and loaded barrels were leveled on them from every direction, so they froze. None of the defences fired immediately, instead they waited. The tension in the air made the moments pass like hours before a robotic voice told them to hold still for a scan. They complied, knowing they stood no chance of getting past the dozens of weapons pointed at them, much less blast their way through the door.

"Scanning. Lombax DNA detected. Welcome home." The voice chimed before, just as fast as they had appeared, the defenses retracted back into the walls, ceiling and floor. A moment later there was a series of loud clicks and clangs as the large door started to lift out of its place. From behind it a billow of green smog started to seep out and fill the cave. Both their helmets automatically covered their heads, their life support systems detecting the aerial contaminant. They looked at each other.

"What is this stuff?" Rivet asked as she swept her hand through a thick cloud. It swirled around her fingers like it had been suspended in water.

"No idea. Maybe a weapon or gadget malfunctioned inside? Whatever it is, our life support has flagged it."

"Do you think the helmets will be a problem? He won't be able to see our faces."

"I think it should be fine. Only one way to find out." He said and stepped forward, the smog curling around him to almost look like it was drawing him in. He ducked underneath the still rising door, Rivet following close behind.

Inside looked like a mini junkyard. Scrap metal and electronics covered vast swathes of the floor and were piled high in the corners. Steel I-beams acted as supports for the ceiling and held the hanging lamps that provided the sparse light, with the brightest spots being over the variety of work benches that hugged the walls. On the other side of the room they could make out stairs that led up to a more normal sized door, but saw no signs of life.

"Hello?" Rivet called out.

"Alister?" Ratchet tried, but both heard nothing back. They looked at each other again and shrugged. "Maybe he's not home."

"Maybe." Rivet mumbled to herself as she separated from Ratchet a bit, walking over to a nearby bench to examine what was on it while he turned on his helmet lights and started looking into the distance.

Neither noticed the figure slinking in the shadows above them, watching their every move as it walked over the criss crossed support beams. The figure moved right over them before it dropped, its landing kicking up a cloud of smog around it. When the two lombaxes spun to see what it was, the only thing they saw at first were red, binocular optics that narrowed before the figure suddenly moved in a blur of speed.

Using a pair of omni-wrenches with one gripped in each hand, the figure swung at Ratchet before he was anywhere near ready to block it. The hit caught him in the side and knocked him away, sending him prone onto the floor. Then the figure turned to Rivet, pivoting on one foot as it stabbed at her, wielding the wrench like an ice pick. She had more time to prepare than Ratchet, but that didn't mean much.

She brought her right hand up to block the swing, but only managed to slightly deflect it up. Rather than impaling her chest, it instead went around her neck and wrist before stabbing into the solid rock of the wall behind her, pinning her arm to her chest and her to the wall. While she wasn't being choked by it, there was too much pressure on her throat for her to speak or cry out. She looked at the figure now that it had stepped into the light.

It was distinctly a lombax, there was no doubt about that. The ears and tail, on top of the overall body shape were unmistakable. They were built a bit bigger than her with a bit more width on their shoulders, probably due to age, and covering it all was armor that looked just like the photo of Alister that Ratchet had shown her. The only difference was the helmet covering their head, a respirator in place of a mouth and a pair of binocular, red tinted lenses over their eyes.

They raised the other wrench to presumably finish her off when Ratchet roused himself from the ground. The figure decided that it needed to handle him first, so they hit some kind of switch that made the forks of the wrench clamp down on either side of her neck, leaving her nailed to the wall. They rushed Ratchet who, while ready this time, didn't want to fight back. They were here to try and get him to help them, not beat him up. So he just dodged the swings as they came.

This was no simple feat however. The swings came fast and hard, always keeping him on the back pedal. "Alister, wait!" He tried to appeal to the figure as ducked behind a support beam, the wrench colliding with it with a resounding clang. "We're not assassins, we're lombaxes!"

"Unlikely." He replied in a deep voice before he swung again. "The empress is truly an idiot if she thinks I'll be fooled like this!" He spun around the pillar Ratchet was hiding behind and delivered a swift kick to the smaller lombax's chest, sprawling him onto the ground.

The entire time, Rivet was straining against the wrench that pinned her in place. She gripped it by the handle with her free hand to try and pull it away, but the angle made that unlikely. When she saw Ratchet get knocked onto the floor again, she knew she had to get out quickly. She curled her legs up and braced them against the wall behind her while she gripped the wrench near the head. She heaved with all of her might, her muscles crying out from the effort. Despite all her effort though, it seemed like she was making no headway at all. Then she saw Alister raise the wrench he had like an ice pick again, clearly about to bring it down into Ratchet while he laid on the ground, out of breath from the kick he had taken.

Every neuron in her brain fired, screaming at her to save him. Adrenaline replaced the blood in her veins and she somehow pushed even harder, to the point where it felt like something might tear.

The wrench in the air closed to a single point and plunged downward, Ratchet still in too much of a daze to stop it. With one final heave she tore the wrench from the wall and flung herself forward from the force of her pushing. She didn't even have time to cry out or say anything, instead, with her instincts and mind still ablaze, she dashed forward to where the other two had been fighting.

Ratchet was struggling to catch his breath, his heart and lungs screaming as he tried in vain anyway. The kick to his chest had come between heart beats by chance, and now that chance would kill him. He could tell Alister was about to do it. He saw the raised wrench about to come down like a dagger. A hope passed through him that when Alister at least saw blood come from beneath the armor he would realize his mistake and spare Rivet, but right now that was all he could do.

Then he heard a clatter, saw motion to the side, and the wrench came down. He thought he'd feel a stabbing pain, but instead felt nothing. His armor's life support kicked in and injected him with a small steroid dose and flooded his mask with oxygen.

In moments he found his breath again, and saw that Rivet had just barely managed to make it in time. Her hands were locked around the tip of the wrench that was now aimed right at her own heart. She had put herself right in the path of danger to block the hit. His mind raced at a mile a minute, trying to think of how to end this before someone got hurt. That was when Rivet shouted at him: "Ratchet! My helmet! Take it off!"

He leapt up to do it as soon as she told him, something in his head telling him to just follow the order without question. "Hold your breath." He said before he reached behind her ears and pressed the manual disengage for the helmet, overriding the contamination safety measure. The helmet digitally dissolved from around her head, revealing her white fur and stern eyes staring right up into Alister's helmet. Ratchet could see her puffed cheeks from behind and in a scenario where they weren't in danger he might have thought that it was rather cute.

Right now he looked past her to Alister to see how he would react. He looked down at both of them, the eyes of his helmet widening in shock. He let off the pressure from behind his wrench slowly and stepped back. "You… you're both real?" Ratchet stepped up to answer since Rivet still had to hold her breath.

"Yes. That's what I was trying to tell you. I'm Ratchet, and I'm gonna guess you know who Rivet is." He let loose a sigh of relief. They could finally just talk.

"Oh, yes. I've seen you on the news. You can breathe by the way. Only cragmites are affected by the Qunrian flower's poison." He managed to keep a cool demeanor despite having been confronted by two lombaxes at the same time. In fact, Ratchet couldn't even hear anything like labored breathing. He had just single handedly almost killed both of them and it didn't show. Rivet let out the air she had been holding and took a deep breath, then gagged on the air.

"Augh" She retched and Alister winced.

"Sorry. I know it doesn't smell great. Personally I'll keep my helmet on until it clears up a bit. Oh, and sorry for attacking you. I thought the empress had finally found this place and sent some assassins to finish me off."

"Don't worry. You did the same thing in my dimension. And this time you didn't even try and blow me up!" Ratchet said happily, his breathing still a bit heavy. He saw Rivet somewhat adjust to the smell of the smog. Enough so that she could ask a question.

"Vorselon mentioned her too. Who is the empress?"

The eyes of Alister's helmet widened again in shock. "You don't know?" Both lombaxes shook their heads. "The empress is Percilla Tachyon, ruler of the Solana galaxy and death of the lombaxes in this dimension. She's the one who just launched that invasion on Polaris."

"So this dimension does have a version of Tachyon. I should have seen this coming the second I saw another Nefarious." Ratchet lamented. In truth, the topic had been pushed from his mind in all of the chaos surrounding his arrival in this dimension in the first place.

"That reminds me. There any other big, life altering villains we need to know about?" Rivet asked. He knew she was being sarcastic but…

"Well there's the Prog twins, I remember hearing something about Drek being a sheep so he should be good. There's also Otto Destruct, and yes, I know that sounds made up. Oh! Then there was Artemis Zogg and his attempt to build a whole galaxy. Gah, I hate the ultra rich. They're always villains." Rivet narrowed her eyes at him.

"You've mentioned none of them before!"

"They never came up before."

"That's it! C'mere you!" She shouted and lunged at him. He gasped in surprise as she grabbed him by the scruff and brought his head down into the smog. "I shouldn't be the only one smelling this anyway!" She yelled, Alister deciding to stand by and let this play out. She had Ratchet's head locked in under her right arm while her left searched for the release on his helmet like he had done to her's. Eventually she found and hit it, making his helmet dissolve. The thought passed through him that he could just hold his breath until she let go, but he knew she'd just keep him under the smoke line until he took a whiff or passed out, so he went ahead and took a breath. It smelled like a rotting pile of fish had somehow died a second time right inside his nostrils and he immediately choked on the air.

Once he had clearly gotten a lungful of the smog she released him and he shot back up, desperately looking for clean air. While he was gasping he noticed Alister freeze in place when he saw his face. He figured this might happen. If there was an Alister, then there had at one point been a Kaden and he probably looked just like him too. Because of that he had wanted to wait a bit before taking off his own helmet, but that apparently wasn't an option anymore.

"You… you look like…" The sorrow in Alister's voice told him everything. He was looking at the spitting image of a deadman.

"My dad, Kaden. Yeah. You told me in my universe that I look alot like him."

"Oh, so that was your dad in the photo you showed me. I thought you two looked alot alike." Rivet cut in.

"Yeah, that's what everyone says. That I look just like…" He trailed off as he watched Alister reach up to the sides of his own helmet.

His armor decompressed with a hiss as the helmet segmented and separated from his head, lifting with ease. He saw the white fur of his neck and then the red stripes that he recognized from the older lombax.

Except he didn't…

Instead the helmet lifted and he saw "...Kaden?"