A/N: Apologies for the shortness of this chapter, but before the big final blowout, I felt there this was important to explain before it happens. So everyone can have the proper mindset of what could potentially happen.

Chapter 23

Heart of the Weakness

Ratchet tore through the third room of this hidden bunker beneath the sands of Torren IV. Ever since Aurora radioed the mission was a success and was heading back, he knew there was very little time left. One file after another was discarded on the floor as he rushed through as much as his hands could grab. There wasn't much time left before Aurora got back, he needed to do something. With Rivet and his friends still under her claws, he couldn't risk going against the beast lombax. Especially not in front of her.

"Come on, come on!" He cursed to himself while throwing another tablet away. "There has to be something here, some kind of idea, her weakness, anything I could use to stop her!" But all he could find was his medical records, maps with all his allies' locations, and other useless items. How could something this intelligent not have anything written down? He suddenly paused, maybe that was it, she was TO smart. Maybe too much for her own good.

"Okay," he raised his hands and took in a deep breath to calm himself down. "Maybe I'm coming at this all wrong…" Ratchet hooked his hands behind his back and paced around, talking to himself. "This situation is obviously not the same as our battle with Dr. Nefarious or the Emperor…" gloves squeaked loudly under his clenched fist. "If she truly had anything personal against us, why save me… or even Rivet? If she wanted us dead, why didn't she just leave us?"

This was so confusing; this creature explained her pain was personal. Alister took her life away and apparently killed her groom. Rivet was Alister's daughter, so of course, she'd go after her! Ratchet remembered the last moments of Azimuth giving up his life to fix his last mistake. Aurora was seeming to have similar behavioral patterns, but unlike Alister who fought until he physically saw there was no way he could acquire his goal… Aurora clearly backed down several times. How could this be?

"Something is not right here," he tapped his finger against his head. "Something must be holding her back, but what? She knew where we were the whole time, even Rivet!" Ratchet turned to stare at the wall covered in claw marks made by an apparently angry beast. "Our enemies don't terrorize us… and then make up for it."

Growling, he smashed his foot against the wall and began stomping to the door. Until a loud scratching sound wheeled Ratchet's attention back to the wall. Head tilted, he cautiously approached the barrier and ran a hand over it. A loud knocking sound vibrated against his fingers until the wall slid open and exposed a dusty monitor. Ratchet fell back, gasping in shock at the sight. The TV was huge, clearly had not been touched in who knows how long, from all the dusty and rusted controls around it. When he ran a finger over the screen, it powered to live in a radiant blue light.

The face before him was Aurora, except… the beast lombax was not missing an eye, ear, all her claws, and not greying from old age. This version of his warden was young, lustrous black fur and rich gold eyes. But the light he saw in her eyes seemed to be fading.

The recorded version of the younger beast lombax huffed, holding her forehead in an effort to hide her tears.

"Isomer was just trying to help ones like me… why did the Lombaxes take his life?" She chuffed and ran a towel over her face to dry her watering eyes. "What have I done to them… to deserve such a fate?"

Ratchet tilted his head and leaned forward. "Isomer?"

"It's only been five days since I escaped. Returned to the mental institution to find him, but his body is gone. Wanted to bury him with proper respect, but they took him… and even put down some of the rest like me… I ask this again, WHAT have I done to you all…?" Running her snout against the rag to dry her nose, her reddening eyes from grief slowly reopened. Face getting extremely serious.

"I never wanted this level of malice, just wanted my family. But even then, I find out all creatures like me are infertile, as if the universe hasn't done enough to further this cruel joke. We, I, ones like me… never wanted this. But you know what? I've reached my limit, if I cannot be welcomed amongst my own kind, then I will just have to fix this mistake…!"

Ratchet's eyes widened as the recorded Aurora turned away from the camera to gather her thoughts. He remembered Aurora explaining to him she simply wanted to be normal, to create more like herself. Then this video hit him, she couldn't have children. None of the ones suffering this so-called genetic illness could.

"I swear on my grave, the moment I find Alister, he'll regret the day he first drew breath. He's the only one what I want, my the All Maker help anyone who dares get in my way of feeling him crushed in my jaws…!"

Then the video suddenly jumped to another recording. Now Aurora seemed to have aged, a big bandage wrapped around her head, ear, and fingers. Dry blood stained her entire black pelt till it looked like a ginger. She was smiling as if all insanity had left her at that moment.

"Twenty years, I have done something no Lombax has ever done! I… became the champion of the Pits of Heision. The race terrorized us and other species, by abducting them into a game called The Blood Bowl tournaments. I killed ALL of them… at the sacrifice of my most vital weaponry, I… I did it! Hah! Someone whose supposedly defective, inferior, and a flat-out incapable animal… I did something no Lombax has done!"

She smashed her fist against the metal table, snapping it in half like a toothpick. Rage burning in her single gold eye.

"If any of those blasted scientists were here listening… this would be my testimony. Single-handedly, one against one, thirty-five of the most fearsome warriors' vs me in individual rings of fire, in a game where no weapon or armor is allowed, a fight to the death… with only your bare hands as your defense. I killed them, every single one of them…" She showed her banged-up teeth against the camera, fogging up the whole screen. Her breath was heavy and filled with venomous rage.

"I would only ask the Lombaxes this… are you happy? Because I sure am…" she snarled, a river of tears leaking from her one good eye. "Twenty years I dedicated myself to this damn sulfur smelling lava pits, and I proved you wrong… all of you wrong! I hope one day this video is discovered and you hear this…"

Aurora whipped her head away, more tears flowing down her snout.

"Hope you know, because… because…." She tightened her fist and smashed the screen until static flooded it.

Ratchet froze, unable to believe what he had just learned. "She thinks… all the Lombaxes would've rejected her? But here she was only referring to the scientist." He rubbed his hands together, mind going a million miles per hour. Until a new answer hit him with a harsh swing like a spiked mallet.

He's heard of the Pits of Heision when he himself was abducted into the gladiator games. It was similar, except there were no cameras to broadcast the fights for entertainment. It was a hellish place on a planet filled with nothing but Lava. A base hidden into its deep and darkest pits, only the most bloodthirsty came of their own free will. An unusual and mysterious race went around and took innocent creatures to pit themselves up against. No weapons or anything was allowed, and if you refused to fight, you would just be tossed into the lava. Ratchet remembered reading some of this in a book he stumbled upon.

"The Pits of Heision, I remember… some kind of… deadly event went down. All the faces listed to be seen there were never heard from again. Except one that apparently slipped away… the one that supposedly became the first-ever champion to win it." Ratchet looked back to the static-filled monitor before it faded to an offline mode.

"Aurora was that… winner…" he couldn't believe his ears. "She went there… just to prove a point?" Ratchet smacked his forehead, recalling the insane look she held in her eyes' vs the younger recording of herself. "She didn't have the guts to chase after any other Lombax other than Alister, so she… took the anger out on herself…"

Now understanding the beast that had terrorized him for weeks on end, he started to see clearly the once blurry picture. Aurora never killed them, but she wanted some kind of revenge, but her emotional capacity refused it. She must've not known what anger really was until she walked into a situation that caused the emotion. She didn't completely carry through with these crimes because she didn't have the guts to do it! Because she didn't understand till she started doing it, then her guilt caught up to her and she tried to go back!

"Which means… if she has ANY kind of heart left, I can talk her out of this." Ratchet quickly rushed out of the room; eyes dilated from the mental stimulation overload. Everything just made sense, he had been facing this threat like he did his past enemies, ones with true payback on their hearts. Of course, Aurora couldn't do some of the things she threatened.

He finally understood her secret weakness. It was so obvious, yet he also understood why he could've missed it. Most assume the answer was the least obvious one, but in this case, it was the opposite.

"Pierre!" Ratchet yelled while stumbling into the main quarters. His yells startling the French pirate as he almost dropped the sleeping kid.

"Monsieur! What be of your problem?" He grasped Lance Jr. as close as he could while hoping the bot didn't wake up crying. Shooting Ratchet a nasty look, he took his hat and smacked the male lombax over his head. "If harm comes to le Garçon here, that monster will have my head for sure!"

"No, she won't," Ratchet reaffirmed while standing back up after pushing the smelly pirate hat away. "Aurora… this place… I got it figured out now, we can stop her, we just need to find a way out of here before it's too late!" When he went scrambling around the room to find some kind of secret exit, Pierre busted a gut laughing. This caused Ratchet to cut the overly flirtatious pirate a baffled look.

"Oui, you cannot be serious! You say this as though that thing would listen to you." He pointed over to the chair that once housed emperor nefarious' body. "Not be seeing? She does not care about anything, not even herself. She even tore meh former pirate maties in half before they—well… did same to me!"

"Don't you get it? This whole talk thing about logic, payback, justice… it's just been a fat lie to keep everyone from seeing her real self!" Ratchet shoved some broken equipment out of the way to examine a corner. "She does care, a bit more than I originally thought! Somehow, she's got it in her head that this…" He snapped his fingers, trying to find the correct phrase. "That this is some kind of justifiable payback, she's denying it all, and blocked out her guilt… She thinks the deaths she already caused were necessary because it was for this weird retribution. Justifiable, therefore not wrong, and just detached herself so she wouldn't feel any kind of guilt and keep ongoing. if I can just get to her, maybe I can talk her down from this!"

"You… are feeling pity for her?"

"No, I mean… ugh maybe!" Ratchet put his hands against his face. "There was a time long ago I met… another Lombax, someone I thought understood. Turns out, this… lombax was someone close to my dad. He became obsessed with saving my kind from an error he caused that he… almost killed me. If Clank hadn't been there, then I would've defiantly been a goner!"

Ratchet slowed his frantic search, mind racing back to the memory of Alister's heartfelt goodbye before fatally fixing the last mistake he almost caused. Looking at his hands, he could recall the horrible guilt he felt over Azimuth's death. The one called a failure to his entire race.

"This whole thing…" he looked hesitantly to Pierre. "Can't believe I didn't see this sooner…"

"What you talking about? Speak clearly!"

"We need to get out of here and intercept them before Aurora drops Rivet off, I know she wouldn't bring her here!" Ratchet suddenly spotted a small crack of light out of the corner. Getting a big hammer Nefarious used to fix the machines, he began rapidly banging against the corner. Massive cracks began to vein up the wall.

"If Rivet starts a fight with Aurora, it might be too late!" Ratchet hit the corner harder. "She's more mentally unstable than I previously thought, I don't think she'll have enough emotional restraint to stop!"

As Pierre watched the Lombax's frantic bashing against the wall, he looked hesitantly at the kid. Till Ratchet's words hit him again.

"Aurora is… Alister's dimensional counterpart." He whispered until he made the hole big enough for him to crawl through. Tightening his teeth, he looked to Pierre and nodded.

"Once I find a ship, I'll come back for you, I promise!" He slid through the hall and fell right through a vent.