A/N: To answer a previous question from the last chapter, no, it was not entirely rushed. I don't have an editor, so I'm going to make occasional typos and errors. However, in referring to dialogue, that is just how Aurora talks. She leaves out certain words, talks more 'to the point' etc. The point of it is to show even the unusualness in how she speaks.

And to answer another question, if Aurora's motive(s) is still confusing, I apologize if I overcomplicated it. It's basically this, Aurora has been locked up her whole life, driven mad, she knows she's been driven crazy, and now she wants revenge for what the Lombaxes did to her. However, the problem is her conscious, which is very sensitive, (making her a very empathetic person) was preventing her from dishing out the pain she wanted to inflict on others that were linked to the cause of her torment. Her guilt complex wouldn't allow it, so she managed to justify it in her mind that the bad deeds she caused were retribution rather than revenge. IF her guilt complex was found out, she knew she could be talked into surrendering, so she made others think she was heartless, therefore ensuring there'd only been violent conflict. It took a LOT of mental strength to keep the denial going on in her head, until the final fight where she just lost her crap and forgot all sense of emotional control.

The primal disease makes all those who suffer it posses a very limited grasp of reality. They only have instincts to rely on. When given the cure her groom provided, she was a young adult who was just given an IQ boost and could finally understand everything. Think of a child suddenly thrown into an adult body. She still needed to learn to be able to function properly. But her groom was ripped away in the most critical stage of her development. Now she's left with these emotions and feelings without the knowledge of how to master self-control. Cause she basically didn't have the time TO LEARN emotional control. That's when things got out of hand.

Hope that clears up any confusion about Aurora. She's basically just an emotional mess who never had the proper help to manage a proper living, so confusion led to self-destruction before it became rage that then fulled a hunger for revenge.

Chapter 25

Please

Rivet tightened her eyes the closer Aurora's dripping wet jaws came. Snapping at the air in aggressive hunger, as if the white lombax was nothing but a tiny morsel waiting to be eaten. Her hand tightened on the Drillhound's handle with a finger flexing against the trigger. Its drill-like nozzle began to hum, preparing the electric needles to fire right between Aurora's eyes. With a precise lock, factoring in with how close to fanged menace was getting, this headshot would be this freak's last moment.

"Got you…" Rivet hissed and pulled the trigger.

"No!" A voice snapped her out of her haze when a pair of gloved hands threw themselves on the gun's barrel and popped it sideways. The shot veered past Aurora's head and stabbed into a tree, missing the target by mere inches. Ratchet stood there, sweating up a storm, his shaky hands held her gun tightly.

"R—ratchet!?" She yelled while snapping a panicked look to the beast picking up speed to close in on them. "What are you doing? Are you nuts!" With desperation she tried to wrestle the gun away to get another shot in, but Ratchet's adrenalin-filled grip simply yanked the gun away. Frightened beyond belief, she raced to grab her missing lover's arm, but he resisted with a firm push and knocked her away from their spot.

Rivet fell into the grass as Aurora charged and lunged with all her might to the spot she had been previously standing. Ratchet barely dodged the bite and crawled beneath the giant and zipped up behind her. Aurora slammed her head against a tree, shaking like a dog to clear her vision before turning a pissed-off look right at Ratchet. The male Lombax gasped, seeing those gold lifeless eyes locked onto him. But it was not the dangerous look that froze him up, but the familiarity in them…

Like Alister's eyes the moment he sent a massive shockwave at him to prevent him from walking away. A look that was intended to kill. All of the rage built up from a life of struggle and regret. It was the exact same look he could see in Aurora's eyes. Then the flashback ended with seeing Alister dead on the ground. Fur fluffing up in deep dread, he barely noticed Aurora rear up over him. Her goliath-sized shadow mimicking an eclipse shaded him. Only Rivet's frightened cries stung his ears as those giant black paws covered in scars prepared to squash him like a bug.

"Aurora, please!" He cried out; hands raised to prevent the bone-crushing impact. Her ears twitched and movement halted, eye staring down at him blankly. As if baffled by the cry. Taking her moment paused, the interdimensional hero took the moment and executed his plan.

"Please, don't…" Ratchet begged while taking a step away to avoid her paws in case, she decided not to listen. "I—I know what they did to you, those doctors, it was wrong for them to hurt someone that did no wrong… I can see it in your eyes, you're hurting more than I previously understood…!"

Rivet cocked her head and rose to her feet, preparing for a mad dash to pry Ratchet away from the monster that lingered over him. But her man's words also halted her.

"Ratchet? W—what the hell are you doing? Don't just stand there, run before she kills you!"

"Rivet, shh!" Ratchet snapped back, sending his mate into shock at his angry rebuttal. "Just please, trust me…" he quickly looked back up to Aurora who stared down at him, look still filled with blankness. "Y—you're probably confused, you've always been confused. I… know someone… who was in a similar position as you. He… was also hurting… desperate to fix his mistake, was even willing to kill me so I couldn't stop him."

Her eye began to twitch, some color returning to it. Ratchet saw this and hardened his tone to ensure she didn't detect his fear of being mauled.

"He died to prevent the last mistake he would've made. To this moment, I feel the pain in my heart for not being able to stop him. T—to make him see reason, understand that his goal would've hurt more than helped!" Ratchet looked back to Rivet and then to Kit who remained stuck in the mud.

"Aurora, please… you need to listen to me. I don't know exactly what happened to you, but I know you're hurting, just like HE was…" Ratchet knew not to mention Alister's name, fearing this might trigger Aurora into another fit of rage. "You're angry because our kind rejected you, in turn, you're going to make more like you… so you can finally feel accepted. But don't you see?" Opening his shirt, he made sure Aurora looked at the scar she had caused.

"I don't blame you for being angry, if I was you, I'd be furious too! B—but hurting ones that did not do this makes you no better than the ones that hurt you!" Ratchet then pointed Aurora's gaze to Rivet's arm, forcing her to reflect on the problem she caused. "You think this is some kind of justice, but it's not, this is revenge… if you carry through with this plan, more innocents could be killed! What makes you think the ones you make will also not carry out your current actions?"

When Aurora looked back at him, Ratchet gripped his chest and yelled his last words.

"Is this what your husband would've wanted when he lost his life?"

Aurora's one organic eye snapped back to its normal look. With each passing second, she slowly lowered her claws till they were retracted. Her mouth sluggishly closed to hide her fangs with her mane also flattening. As if deflating like a whoopie cushion, Aurora lowered herself from an attack stance to a submissive posture. Pupil trembling from the words that berated her brain with violent seizures. Everything from her muscles to fur shook as if an unbearable winter had just blown through. Ratchet allowed himself to breathe a sigh of relief when his assailant backed away. With a hand raised, he cautiously reached out to her.

"I lost a friend to himself, I… couldn't let the same happen… again."

Before he could touch Aurora, Rivet ran full speed and tackled him like a football dummy. With the male securely held in her arms, she ripped him away from the beast. Blue eyes burning as if they were going to red glared down at Ratchet as if he had lost all his marbles.

"What are you—!?"

"I—I… thought…" Aurora whispered out, cutting Rivet off as both Lombaxes shot her strange look.

Ratchet hooked his arms around Rivet, holding her securely in his arms as both watched the beast lower her ears even more. The white rebel could barely contain her swirling emotions as she grabbed Ratchet's whole head in her heads and forced a deep kiss on him. Small droplets of water building up around her tightly closed eyelids. He blushed deeply at the violently romantic onslaught her mouth assaulted him with. But still, Ratchet let his eyes drift towards the black giant slowly losing herself in a thousand-yard stare. Ratchet placed a halting hand on Rivet's shoulder, silently asking her to wait as he slowly left her arms and re-approached Aurora.

"What… did you think?" He asked slowly, trying to be as gentle as possible.

Lowering her head, she slowly turned her bulk around and moved away. In cautious steps, her black fur blended her into the shadows while retreating away. Ratchet gasped and took off, leaving a frightened Rivet as she shot after him.

"Ratchet, get back here you freaking moron!" She angrily yelled, "And start explaining what the heck this all is about!"

"I lost a friend, Rivet!" Ratchet yelled back, a tear threatening to fall down his cheeks. "I'm not going to lose another one!"

"She's not a friend Ratchet!" Launching herself forward, Rivet barely was able to grab Ratchet and yank him back. Tethering her frantic lover in her arms with an iron grip, ensuring he didn't go a step further despite his struggles to get away. "Are you freaking crazy? I don't know what you know, but all I DO know is she freaking hurt you! Don't care what excuses she has; no true friend does that to you!"

"Rivet, she—"

"Alister…" Clank said aloud, wobbling around the corner as he struggled to keep up. His barely charged battery proving to be a burden to his mobility while almost falling over. "Was a Lombax we knew long ago, Rivet…"

"Ok, I am getting sick and tired of hearing that guy's name without knowing who the heck he is! That dark-furred psycho said he was my long-lost father or something, and that our kinship was why she attacked me. Why does this matter!" She shot Ratchet a look that clearly said her patience has been met. "We're going back to the garage right now!"

"Ratchet messaged me the details, while I was repairing myself, I managed to look into this… Rivet, Alister really is your father, a lombax Ratchet had befriended long ago. He was also friends with Kaden, Ratchet's own father!"

Slowly, her frustration melted away and was replaced with befuddlement. Even her grip on Ratchet loosened a tiny bit.

"What are you saying…?"

"I mean is… well…" Sighing, Clank looked off to the side. He approached the couple and whispered something in their ears. Rivet's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates as Ratchet started at his mini robot friend in disbelief.

"No… that… didn't happen…" Ratchet shook his head, taking a step back. "He ALMOST shot me, it didn't completely…"

"Ratchet, it's true. If it hadn't been for the clock, you would've…" Clank trailed off, unable to mutter such words he had kept hidden. "When I re-winded time, you had no memory of what happened, because I prevented the event. However, if I had been too late… then…" he lowered his head, tightening his little metal hands.

"No…" Rivet whispered, looking to Ratchet who remained frozen to the spot, his eyes even bigger than her's. "You mean he actually…"

With a tear now falling, Ratchet shot away from his friends' sympathy and ran full speed in the direction Aurora vanished. "Aurora, please!" He cried out, horror coaxing his tired legs to move even faster. All this time he blamed himself for Alister's death, someone who would've given him the father figure he lost as a child. Now Clank confirming that if he had not gone back in time, Alister would've successfully killed him? No, this could not be.

"Please wait!" He yelled even louder, his green eyes frantically covering every spot around him, desperate to find the big scary lombax. The whole time, he didn't even see it. This whole entire crazy adventure that left him reeling, it was like… a do-over in his struggle with Alister. Dare he say, a second chance.

Finally rounding the corner, he spotted Aurora leaning against her cargo ship. "Wait, what are you doing?" Ratchet yelled while dashing right towards her, till she raised her massive head to look up to the setting sun, jaw left agape, as if unable to finish whatever was going on in her head. With a paw raised, she typed in a few codes onto a device strapped to her wrist.

"Project code… Genetic Revision #89578… … … ALL FILES… DELETED. PROJECT… … … DECODED… … … BACKUPS REMOVED…" A loud AI rang out.

Slowly sinking to sit on the ground, she weakly exhaled a shaky breath. "I am… so sorry… for what I have done to you… to both you and your mate." She whispered, voice cracking under great stress and strain. "I thought… I was rewriting a terrible wrong. But now… I see I almost made that terrible wrong even more catastrophic. Even then, I still took very important things away from you both…"

Ratchet stopped a few feet back, barely hearing Rivet's yells for him to return as she rushed from out of the trees. He leaned a little closer to Aurora, watching the giant begin to cry. "You are right, all my logic was wrong. Took the gift of knowledge my groom gave me… and I chose stupidity. Brutality. Opposite of what I thought I was doing."

"Aurora…" he extended his hand to her arm.

"I wasn't born an animal… I chose to become one. The problem really was me, this whole time. I have failed…" she gently took Ratchet's hand and pressed it against her paw. How much larger her hand was in comparison to his, it made her sick to look at. Swallowing the lump in her throat, she bowed her head before him.

"I have deleted all the files… the project… is destroyed." She whispered just as Rivet ran up and grabbed Ratchet to pull him back. "There will be no more threats to you."

"Ratchet, what—"

"Where… are you going to go?" Ratchet asked as he grabbed Rivet and pulled her to him. Thankful to feel her so close, granting his exhausted body some relief. But still, the tension left his body shaking like a leaf in the wind. His eyes were big and glassy as the grief-stricken black lombax looked back to the ship.

Without answering, she sluggishly lifted her bulk near the ship. Dr. Nefarious still sat in the seat, surprising the big lombax as she had forgotten he was still there. "Will return the doctor and child to his home, then free the bug-like pirate. Then… will… go where should've been long ago."

Rivet looked to Ratchet, unsure of what to make of this. Ratchet's emotions ran on high alert as he struggled to come up with something. Some kind of excuse to get the beast to stay. Then an idea crossed his mind, causing his eyes to light up.

"Aurora, wait…" he quickly grabbed her stumpy tail to pull her back. "Like I already said, I lost someone dear to me long ago. You… are… well… a sort of 'counterpart' to this individual. I can't and won't watch you fall to the same fate."

"Ratchet, where are you… going with this?" Rivet asked, eyebrow-raising in alarm.

"Aurora, please, stay here… with us." Ratchet finally asked aloud, startling the big lombax and the white rebel hooked to his arm. "Please…?"

"Ratchet…!" Rivet hissed as she grabbed his ear and turned him around to keep the whispers out of all outside ear shots. "Are you mad? We're not letting the one that almost killed us sta—"

"Rivet, we need answers, to many things, she could very well be the only one who can give us these answers." Ratchet whispered back in an urgent manner. "She's your dads' dimensional counterpart, she knows even more about our race, and we are someone who can also help her see we're not all the same. We can't let her leave, look at her, she won't make it…!"

Staring at the male that had won her heart, she gave a low growl and smacked her forehead. So much was on her mind, this unknown family history of hers, along with this possibility of finding out more about their race?

"This is such a dangerous idea, how we do know she won't try to finish her work?"

Ratchet slowly looked to the big Lombax that propped herself against the ship. Hollow eyes locked onto the ground in a dead-like trance. That look, again, the same kind he saw in Alister's eyes. The look of someone whose been completely defeated. Feeling his eyes go downcast, he whispered back to his frustrated mate.

"Trust me, she won't."

Growling, Rivet smacked her forehead and cut him the darkest look we can muster. "We're not deciding on anything until we all sit down and discuss all that went on… this instant." She hissed with much anger before shooting Aurora an angry look. "I'm going to go help Kit out of the mud, for now, don't you DARE pull anything while I'm away. Got it?"

With that as her final word, she stomped away. Ratchet lowered his ears and ran a hand over the back of his neck. "Yea, had a feeling a talk like this was in store for my future." His ears shot up at the sound of Aurora opening the capsule to her ship, he gasped and ran up to her. "What are you doing? I thought—"

"You are free, Doctor…" she tossed him the key to activate the ship which he caught. Staring at the beast a good long time, Nefarious slowly wormed his way into the seat. Aurora, with eyes still downcast and dead, muttered another whisper. "The factor on Torren IV is unlocked with all security breaches down… retrieve the child, and return…"

Staring long and hard at the Lombaxes, Nefarious found himself unable to say anything witty to smart mouth his former kidnapper. Sighing, he decided all he wanted was to go home. With the ship pushed into power, it slowly hovered upwards and took the sky.

Watching the ship vanish, Ratchet gave a nervous look to the giant that once housed his worst nightmares. "I thought you were actually going to leave for a moment."

"IF… I can somehow offer you two ANY compensation… I'll remain to do so. But afterward…" trailing off, she said no more and went away. "Will sit away from your domicile, as not to agitate your mate further… may call when ready to speak."

Nodding, Ratchet inhaled a deep sigh before rushing off to help Rivet with getting Kit unstuck.