Aphelion jumps out of warp, and the Great Clock comes into full view. Nova audibly gasps at the sight, and whatever doubts or worries she had before melt away in an instant. The Timekeeper is the cornerstone of everything she's been taught as a child. The birthplace of the Zoni, the heart of the universe. It's a sacred relic, and she's mere moments away from stepping foot inside of it.

"This is incredible," she squeals. "I can't believe we're actually doing this!"

Clank looks through the window with far less enthusiasm. He can't help but feel a twinge of sadness at returning to this place, despite it being his home, and it shows in his voice. In all reality, he never wanted to return with any part of Ratchet. Not after that. "Agreed."

"I wonder what they'd say back home? Me, getting to see the Timekeeper in person! It's such an honor!"

Her eyes hold so much enthusiasm in their blues, and Clank can't bring himself to rain on that parade with his own doubts. "I will give you a quick tour of the facilities, but first, we will attend to our business."

Pressing a button, Clank sends out a transmission. Aphelion beeps to indicate that the message is ready to be received by the other party. "Sigmund, come in. Nova and I are visiting for the day, and request permission to land."

Sigmund answers quickly, audibly excited by the visitors. "Of course, sir! You're welcome to land. Thanks for giving me a heads up."

"There is no need for 'sir', Sigmund. You are the Senior Caretaker now, after all."

"I know, I know. Force of habit, you know?"

The comm link breaks, and Aphelion slowly moves in to land. The gears hiss in place as Aphelion comes to a stop, and Clank jumps out first. Looking up to Nova, she seems a bit pale. Her hand is pressed to her temple, and she's obviously not comfortable. "Are you unwell, Nova? We can turn back if you are not up to continuing. There is no shame in that."

Nova moves her hand away, shaking her head gently as her eyes adjust. They're burning, like there's a migraine at the back of her eyes, but why? "No, I'm fine. Just a bit lightheaded. Probably the lights, I'll be fine." She shakes her head, determined to finish what she started. "I need to see this through, then I'll rest."

"As you wish."

Nova drops out of the ship, meeting back up with Clank. Her steps are slow as she looks around, taking in the colors, the sights, the sounds. Speaking of sights, there's a crimson bot floating towards them now. An arm is raised in a gentle wave at the new face. "Hello, you must be Sigmund. Clank talks about you all the time. I'm Nova."

Sigmund moves closer to the markazian, reaching out a hand to shake hers. In his other hand lies the Chronoscepter, the Caretaker's most valuable tool. It's parts swirl around in a perfect orbit around its centerpiece, and it's more beautiful than she thought. The statues of Orvus holding the thing on Quantos really don't do it justice, in her opinion.

Sigmund greets the new visitor with confidence. "It's a pleasure, Nova. It's always nice to have company here. So, what brings you here to the Clock?"

Nova sheepishly runs her fingers through her hair as she gives her request. "Well, I wanted to ask for a favor. Could I use one of the mnemonic stations?"

Sigmund blinks at her; a bit surprised by the question, and curious to her reasons. "Why are you looking to dig into your subconscious?"

"Because if Ratchet is in there, I'd like to speak with him if it's possible. I've already discussed it with Clank."

"Alright, If you're sure. We've never used them on organics before, so I wonder if it'll work? No harm in trying though. I'll take you to the teleporter and we'll go to a different sector; the stations aren't here." The crimson caretaker floats ahead, and Nova follows. Clank sticks close to her side, trying not to panic as they cross the bridge. Sigmund talks clearly and calmly, giving a tour of the facilities as he moves.

"So as you know, The Great Clock was built by Orvus in order to repair time after the fongoids overused time travel. It's got more moving parts than anything else in the universe, and it's made of..." Nova wants to listen, but the headache worsens. Sigmund's voice turns to garbled mush as her ears ring, and she stops dead in her tracks.

It's almost as if there's a faint mist over her eyes, making things a bit blurry. It feels like she's..saying goodbye, but Clank's right there. Her hearing is muffled, like her head is below water. A voice seems to say...something behind her, but she can't tell what or who.

Clank freezes, looking at Nova after she suddenly goes still. Her eyes are clouded over, a film of Zoni bioenergy over them. No, this is exactly what I was afraid of. "Nova?" There's no response, so Clank tries once more. "Nova, are you there? What do you see?"

Sigmund stops his ramblings, and his voice trails off as he looks back to see the scene before him. What's happening?

The voice is angry, but vaguely familiar. It screams at her. She turns around slowly, like her body has a will of its own, and for a split second, she sees a flash of crimson and white. Her chest suddenly burns, and it spreads like fire in her veins.

Clank's sisterboard fills with dread as Nova coughs, wheezes, and finally falls to the ground. Her body suddenly convulses, shaken by forces that aren't there. "NOVA!"

Clank rushes to her, and his sensors are telling him the worst case scenario. Nova's completely unresponsive, and she's not breathing. Her arms, legs, and tail twitch back and forth, and Clank moves the hair from her eyes. She's staring right through him, and her eyes flicker between a clouded green and Zoni blue. There's a strange noise coming from her throat, a mixture of a gurgle and a cough. It's so much like the first time, yet terrifying in a completely different way.

The cuckoo clock in Sigmund's chest bursts out in shock as he cries out. "Sir, what happened?"

"I-I do not know! Please, you must help, Sigmund! I cannot lose her yet. Not now." Clank's memory banks bring forth Ratchet's vital records from that day, comparing it to Nova's current records, the same lack of a heartbeat. He can still feel the static in the air, still see him fall. "Not here."

Sigmund sets down the Chronoscepter, gently moving the girl onto her side. There's blood in her mouth, pooling onto the glass, but at least this way she can't choke on it.

"I've seen this before, but only through watching other planets with the Clock's screens. It's scary, I know, but it'll be alright, sir."

"Is there any way I can help?"

There's so much panic in Clank's voice, and it makes Sigmund wish he had a better answer. "Support her head, and wait it out. Other than that, there's nothing else we can do."

Three minutes later, the trembling stops. Sigmund lays Nova down flat as her breath returns, but she doesn't wake up. Despite this, Clank would breathe a sigh of relief if he were able. He moves to wake Nova, but Sigmund stops him. "Wait, give her a bit more time."

"But why? The seizure is over, is it not?"

Sigmund types on his computer, putting in new data and running simulations as he speaks. "Yes, and no. Orvus once told me an organic's brain is like a computer, and that it has electricity running through it just like we do. Seizures are the brain getting overloaded, like hitting itself with an EMP. Her body is basically rebooting itself after a hard crash, so we have to wait until she 'turns on' again so to speak."

Another three minutes, and she stirs.

There's a bright light, but the world is blurry and unfamiliar. There's a throbbing pain in her mouth, and she tastes metal. Did I bite my tongue? Two figures, now a bit clearer, look at her: a large, red body, and a tiny gray one with green eyes. Where am I? Who are they? Who am I? The smaller bot walks over to her, as if he knows her.

"Nova, you are awake! I thought I lost you."

Nova..That's right. That's my name. The little silver man grips her palms, and he seems so familiar. He makes that little noise as he walks. What's his name?...Oh, right!

"Clank?"

Although whispered out, it was said, and that's what matters. She's alive, with no permanent damage from the episode, and relief washes over Clank. "Yes, Nova. Do you recall what happened?"

Confusion in her eyes, Nova's gaze wanders as she takes in her surroundings. What is this place? What am I doing here? "No, I don't. Was I passed out or something?"

Clank's eyes darken, flickering, and something tells Nova that's a robot's way of crying. The rest of the fuzzy memories about who she is and where she's at returns as the robot speaks.

"You were unresponsive for...six minutes, dead for three. You convulsed, and you stopped breathing, and I could not do anything to stop it." Clank grips her hand, and Nova returns the gesture. "Nova, please do not ever frighten me like that again."

Nova sighs, and squeezes his hand with the strength she has. "I'm so sorry, Clank. I shouldn't have asked to come here, I didn't want to scare you. You didn't want to bring me here, and I asked anyway."

Sigmund swings his computer around, typing out something before showing it to Clank and Nova. She sits up slowly to watch whatever video is on the screen. "Well, you're okay now, and I don't think that we have to worry about that happening again. Take a look."

On the screen, there's a cartoonish looking Nova walking along happily. There's a ball of light in her chest that seems to swirl blue and gold. "Time is a sensitive thing, and any changes to it can cause seperate timelines or the space time continuum itself to wear thin. In other words, there's two chronological imprints of events here."

The animated Nova is shocked by something, stiffening straight as a board, and falls back like a plank of wood. The light shakes and flickers in her chest. "Nova, your body seems to give off a small amount of Zoni bioenergy, plus two distinct patterns that bounce off of each other. The three energies in your system got all tangled up with the quantum energy in the Clock, and your soul had to realign itself to this timeline."

With a little pop, the Nova toon disappears, then returns alive and well with a smile and a thumbs up for the camera. The light in her body seems calm again, lazily shifting in its two colors, and on the screen there's a chart of vitals that seems stable, each one with a check mark. "Everything seems on the up and up now, though."

Sigmund puts away the presentation, and Nova considers his words with a question. "That makes sense, I guess. Wait-changes in time? But the Clock can't change time."

Clank backs away from Nova, looking into the ground where she sits, and Sigmund gives them space. "Not by a great amount, no. But it has been done before. Nova..the very spot you were standing, Alister Azimuth fired his wrench at Ratchet. He missed the second time."

"The second..oh. Then that means..."

Clank slowly walks toward the end of the platform, staring into the emptiness below them. With a brief pause, he musters the strength to tell the story. "The first time, the blast struck him directly in the heart. I watched his body fall off the edge, and I could not save him."

Nova thinks about it for a moment. Knowing that Clank is robotic, and that she herself was born many years after Ratchet moved on, it makes perfect, yet morbid sense that the robot had to see his organic friends die. But to imagine seeing your best friend die not once, but twice, and be unable to stop it…Her hand lies over her chest for a moment. "That must have been so horrible."

"I never told him for two reasons," Clank explains. "First, Ratchet thought highly of General Azimuth, and blamed himself for his demise. I did not wish to interfere with his grief by telling him the truth. Secondly, the Clock was never meant to be a time machine. I used the Clock's power to save him alone, while simultaneously denying the two of them the chance to save their race. My own father's single rule for the Clock's use is to never use it as a time machine, and by doing so anyway, I feel that I betrayed him."

Clank rambles on, and Nova listens, allowing him to unpack everything that he's held in for decades. "What kind of hypocrite does that make me, Nova? What would my father have thought of me? What would Ratchet have thought of me, after he risked everything to prevent Alister from doing the same thing I did? We both watched him sacrifice himself to undo his own attempts to misuse the Clock, when I myself used it mere moments ago on a whim from the Plumber."

His optics narrow in shame. "My meddling with time saved Ratchet back then, but nearly killed you today."

Nova can see the distress in his frame, and sighs, hoping that she says the right thing. "I can't say for certain what Ratchet would have said, but I'm sure he would have been grateful that he meant that much to you." The little caretaker is brought into a hug. "For what it's worth, I think you're pretty great. You're a wonderful friend, and I'm lucky to have you."

They part, and Nova offers him a smile. "I won't be going anywhere for a long time, Clank. I promise."

The brightness returns to Clank's optics once more, and he offers his hand. "Thank you. Can you stand, Nova?"

"I think so. Can you two help me up?"

Sigmund moves closer, and he extends his own hand. They aid Nova to her feet, and her balance stumbles a bit. There's more strength to her legs than she expected there to be, despite being sore from head to toe. The headache that once plagued her is gone too, thank goodness. "Thanks. Now, let's get to work you two."

...

*Author's Note*

This particular scene is one that I've planned for a while, but I do recognize that epilepsy is a very traumatic thing. My mom, for example, struggles with it, but it's something that she hasn't experienced in quite a long time, thank goodness. It's for this reason that I chose to include it in my story: I can write it with accuracy and educate others because I've lived it. (The flickering eyes and vision of the past thing Nova experiences, however, is fiction.) Seizures are terrifying, and a very real condition, but I hope that this chapter does educate the viewer on the subject if they're not already aware of it. Seizures are, more or less, the brain shocking itself too hard. If you ever see someone having a seizure, lay them on their side, support the head, start a timer, and call for medical help. It's usually about 1-3 minutes, but if it's over 5, get medical help. The best way you can help is by staying calm, as stupid as that sounds. When they awaken, they will be disoriented, so be patient; try not to bombard them with questions. Their senses will return in time. To those who experience seizures in any way, directly or indirectly, I sincerely apologize if this chapter is upsetting, as that was never my intention.