When Alis woke the morning after arriving at Apogee Station, she found herself exhausted. The plans that she, Ratchet and Talwyn had made to visit Fastoon the next day had to be put off so that Alis could rest. She spent most of the time sleeping, but when she was awake she was doing her best to pick up common. She and Talwyn spent a lot of time pouring over books in hopes that she could pick the language up as quickly as possible.

Ratchet, however, spent most of the week away from the station. He said it was to find a pair of hearing aids for Alis, and of course that was the truth but it wasn't all of it. Being around Alis left a knot in his stomach he couldn't cover up, and he couldn't stand. While they were out he and Clank didn't speak a word of it, they just worked on their mission. It wasn't until the very end of the week that he, with the help of a few friends, found a pair of hearing aids made for a Lombax. It was a pair that had been owned by another Lombax before their death likely at Tachyon's hands. They were thus an older paid and a bit broken, but he spent a night fixing them up and brought them out to the main room the following morning.

By then, Alis was out of bed and sitting at the table while Talwyn cooked something for breakfast. He raised an eyebrow when he saw her. "Hey look at you, out of bed." He said with a small grin.

Alis looked back up at him. She tried to watch his lips, attempting to peace together words based on his mouth's movement but it came to no avail. She just kind of smiled. "...good morning." She said quietly.

Ratchet sat down at the table besides her, and he held out his hand with the hearing aids laying in the palm of his hand.

Alis's eyes fell on them and immediately lit up. "-Hearing aids!" She exclaimed in Lombax. She quickly snatched them up from his hand. She checked they were working before she placed them in each ear.

Almost immediately she was assaulted with noise, and it took her a few moments to sort it all out. She had to take them out and adjust them before it was at all bearable. Once they were at alright volumes she began to sort out the sounds around her. She could hear the hum of the ship instead of feeling it's vibrations through her feet. She could hear the sound of Talwyn taking plates down from the cabinet, and she could hear the sound of Ratchet's voice right besides her.

"-well? Are they working?"

Alis looked up at him with wide eyes brimming with excitement. "I can hear!" She said first in Lombax, then she tried again in his language. "I-I can hear! It works!"

Ratchet broke out into a full grin, and he burst out into a laugh of joy. "-yes!" He said. "I'm so glad! Y-You can hear everything?"

She nodded. "I am hearing everything!" She said.

"Try, 'I can hear everything', Alis." Talwyn said as she turned to place a plate on the table for Alis and one for Ratchet. "Here you go, I assumed you might want something."

Alis repeated what Talwyn said, muttering it over a few times to get a feel for it. She firmly nodded, and said it one final time. "I hear everything."

"There you go." Talwyn said as she sat down herself. "...did you work all night on those Ratchet…?"

"Yeah…" He admitted. "Me and Clank. He's back there charging for right now. I think I'll follow him here soon."

"Actually, we were thinking...Alis is finally doing better. We were going to go out to Fastoon. I figured you'd wanna go." Talwyn explained.

Ratchet perked up when she mentioned Fastoon. "-oh! Listen, I'm tired as hell but I've been more tired." He said. "I know it's important to you anyways, Alis."

Alis nodded, reaching back to run a hand through her own white hair. "...yes." She said quietly. "It is…"

"Let's finish up breakfast and we'll go." Ratchet said with a firm nod. He then dug into the food on his plate and rushed to finish up. He knew Alis had been waiting to say goodbye to her husband one last time for the entire week. He wasn't going to hold her back just because he was tired. The moment they were done with breakfast they gathered up everything they might need including wrenches, weapons and robotic backpack buddies, and then they were off.

The plane ride there was short. Alis spent most of her time looking out the window at the stars and various space debris around her, until suddenly she was looking not at stars, but at the pale yellow surface of Fastoon. "-oh!" She said as she recognized it. "Were here!"

"Yeah, we're here." Ratchet said as he maneuvered the ship to land as near as he could to Alister's grave, lying near the Court of Azimuth. Once they landed the top of the ship popped open and the four of them hopped out.

Alis's feet hit the dusty stone beneath them, and she looked up at the court in front of her with a smile. "The Court of Azimuth…" She whispered in her own language. "It has been a long time since I was here. Everything does look…" Alis paused, searching for the right word as she leaned on her wrench.

"...rough? Destroyed? Run down?" Ratchet suggested. "All of those fit."

"...yes." She said with a nod. "Run down...no one has been here for a long time."

"...yeah. Talwyn, Clank and I are the only people who visit this place anymore, and we barely visit it. Only to visit Alister." Ratchet explained. He looked towards where he knew the General was buried. "...are you ready, Alis?"

"Yes. I am ready." Alis answered. She followed his eyes towards the court. "...he is buried here?"

"Yeah, we figured it might be important to him." Ratchet explained as he walked towards the Court with Talwyn and Alis in tow.

"It is named after him, isn't it?" Clank asked from Ratchet's back, holding up a finger.

"The Court….?" Alis asked as she tilted her head. "The...The…" She paused, trying to find the word in common.

"...court. It's called the Court of Azimuth in our language." Talwyn explained to her.

"The Court of Azimuth…It was not named for Alister." She explained as a small grin grew on her face. "It was named for me."

Ratchet just about stopped, looking back at her with furrowed brows. "...named for you?" He asked.

"Yes. The Court of Azimuth was named for me." She explained. "I m...made it. I...um…" She faltered, and then made a motion like she was drawing on paper.

Talwyn blinked. "You're an architect?" She asked her in Lombax.

Alis' face lit up. "Yes! Architect! I made the blueprints, and of course helped build it. I did not name it the Court of Azimuth but the name was given to me as an honor. As a thank you for my service, I suppose."

"...your service? For building it? Or designing it? Or…..?" Talwyn asked. Ratchet and Clank just looked between the two as they talked, wondering what they were talking about.

"I was the elder councilman over city planning and Architecture in general for the planet." Alis explained, standing tall with her wrench at her side. "They named the building for me after I had been in my position for quite a few years."

Talwyn kind of blinked again, and then looked at Ratchet. "...she says she was the elder councilman for city planning and architecture for Fastoon. They named the building after her as an honor for her service." She explained.

Ratchet stared at Alis, blinking a little bit himself. "...I...really thought for a little bit you were just like...a wife…"

Alis laughed a little. "...most people were surprised I was not just a wife. Sometimes I thought that maybe it would be nice to be just a wife." She admitted. "...I was very….busy." She said, glancing at Talwyn to make sure that was the right word.

Talwyn nodded to her. "...yeah, I can imagine."

"I did love my job…" She said with a slightly wistful sigh. "It is...bad to see it all run down…"

Ratchet came to a stop in the shade of the Court. He stood by a slab of stone half buried in the dirt, and etched it into was the name Alister Azimuth in Lombax. He looked up to Alis, "...here he is, Alis…"

Alis' eyes fell on the headstone, and for a moment it was as if everything around her just stopped. It was as if the weight of the realization she was standing at her husband's grave fell onto her shoulders, and she slowly lowered herself to the ground to sit in the sand besides him. She slowly lay her wrench down in the sand, and reached out to brush her fingers over the stone.

She found herself thinking back to the night they decided to split up. They stood on Jasindu together. Alister held her as tight as he could, knowing that when he let her go she would be gone forever. She too held him tight, pressing her face against his chest and relishing the moment.

She knew she'd never see him again, but she never thought she'd have to stand by his grave. Somehow, this was much much worse. Now she knew there was no chance of him being alive, and happy and safe.

She put her head in her hand, staring at the stone in front of her. She saw Ratchet walk around the grave in the corner of her eye, and sit down besides her. He offered her a hand, which she thankfully took.

"I'm...sorry." She said quickly, reaching up to wipe tears from her eyes. "...I never thought I would actually...be here. At his grave."

"...I know…" Ratchet said softly. "I'm really sorry, Alis…"

She shook her head, and managed to smile after taking a long breath. "...it's alright. Thank you for letting me see him, one more time." She said. "Fastoon too…"

He nodded. "Yeah, of course. It's no problem…"

Alis took a deep breath, and picked up her wrench. She leaned over to place a hand on the sand over where he was buried. "...I'll see you again someday. I guess the universe will have to decide when, but whenever it is...I can't wait." Alis whispered. "I love you, Alister. I'll see you later."

She took her hand away from the ground, and used her wrench to stand up. "...there is no point in standing here and being sad." She said as she fully got to her feet. She reached out to offer Ratchet a hand and help him get up. "I can show you the old government building. My office could be still...together."

Ratchet looked at Talwyn with a look of surprise before he shrugged. "If you're up to it, Alis."

She nodded. "Yes, I am believing I am."

"I think I am." Talwyn corrected her, then motioned for her to go ahead. "Lead the way!"

Alis turned away from the Court and began to make her way towards a large building across the stone covered plaza. She used her wrench like a staff that was much too big for her. As Ratchet followed, he couldn't help but wonder if she had earned that wrench.

She glanced back at them. "So, have you met other Lombaxes?"

"Uh...no?" Ratchet answered, scratching the back of his neck. "Just Alister, really."

Alis stopped to fully look back at them with clear confusion written on her face. "...you haven't…?"

"No, I thought all the other Lombaxes, you know, left…?"

Alis turned to continue walking, taking them to the nearly collapsed entrance. She ducked inside. "Most Lombaxes did leave after Tachyon attacked." She explained. Her voice echoed around the empty hall. "...but, do you think every Lombax in the universe was on Fastoon when he attacked?"

Ratchet paused at that, his mouth open slightly as if he was going to say something but stopped himself. "I...mean…" He faltered. "I guess not…?"

"I do not think that ever occurred to us." Clank muttered. "We have never seen other Lombaxes."

Alis looked around, spotting a somehow still together staircase for plot convenience. "Maybe they are just hidden." She said as she began climbing the staircase. "Follow me, watch the holes."

Ratchet and Talwyn threw each other quizzical looks before following the other Lombax up the staircase. She lead them down the hall, looking at every door they passed, muttering the names on the plaques as she passed. "Garfield...Johann...Killian...Magnus...Alis! There it is!" She reached out to push the door open, and stepped into the old office.

Over a decade of dust flew into the air as they walked in, leaving everyone but Clank coughing. Alis powered through to the window in the back and opened it as fast as he could. "So much dust…" She muttered. "At least everything is still here…" She said, looking around her office.

It was rather spacious. There were bookshelves lining the walls with many pictures in fancy frames and moth eaten books sitting in rows. There was a desk and an office chair in the middle room stacked with blueprints and paperwork, and a dusty old futon no one was brave enough to sit on.

Ratchet walked over and picked up one of the blueprints to look it over. He found it was full of details and so well done he was impressed. "Hey, Alis! This is good!" He said as he passed it back to Clank.

Her face lit up. "Thank you!" She said, then looked to the window and the smile faded. "It is sad to look at it all….wrong now."

"...yeah." Ratchet sighed. He looked over at Alis then, watching the look on her face as she scanned the ruined buildings. "Just...no one lives here anymore. It's an abandoned planet."

Alis nodded, falling dead silent. Ratchet and Talwyn just looked around the office. Talwyn looked through a few of the books to see if there was anything interesting, and Ratchet continued to look through the blueprints. He only glanced up at her every once in a while to be sure she was somewhat okay.

A few minutes after she'd stopped talking, she looked up. "Ratchet?" She asked. "What if we fixed Fastoon?"

Ratchet blinked, and slowly sat down one of the blueprints. "...I'm...sorry?"

"What if we fix Fastoon?" She repeated her question, looking at him with a curious and determined look on her face. "...we can stay here. We can fix this first. If we build...h...homes….and find all the other Lombaxes...maybe we can re...redo?"

Ratchet glanced at Talwyn, and then slowly he shuffled his feet. "...that's a good idea and everything Alis but...I'm not sure we can do that. I've been alive for well over 20 years and so has Talwyn and we've never met another Lombax besides Alister…"

"Yes. I know." Alis said quickly. "...but they must be hiding somewhere!"

"But Alis, what if we don't find any other Lombaxes…?" Talwyn spoke up in as gentle a tone as she could. "Then...who are we rebuilding Fastoon for….?"

Alis paused at that question, and she looked over the ruined buildings again. "...we can rebuild it for others, then. For...For…" She stopped, unable to think of the word in their new language. "Refugees. We can rebuild for Refugees coming from other planets. Even if there are no Lombaxes...we can make use of this planet. I loved this planet and its cities, and I'm sure that they will love us back and be useful as long as we rebuild."

Talwyn raised an eyebrow, and turned to repeat everything she just said to Ratchet. "...that's not a bad idea, Ratchet." She said as she finished. "We've seen entire planets be destroyed in supernovas...those people they have nowhere to go. What if we did rebuild Fastoon…? For people like them?"

Ratchet rubbed his chin as he thought. The little robot on his back hopped off, and then climbed up on the desk to be somewhat even with them. "I do not think this is a bad idea either, Ratchet." He said.

"...I mean...yeah it's a good idea. But...in order to really work on this we'd have to find the supplies, find the money. We'd have to like...live here while we fixed it." Ratchet explained. He had doubt written all over his face, and he bit his lip. "...but...I...I think I know a guy who could help us get supplies. We can donate our money, Tal…" He said. "...and maybe it'd be nice to live here again…"

"It sounds like you're on board." Clank suggested with his signature laugh that the author isn't quite sure how to describe.

"...I guess so. This is way out of nowhere but…..yeah, Alis. Let's rebuild Fastoon!" Ratchet said as he looked up at her.

The Lombax's entire face lit up, and she dashed to her desk. She began to clear her desk, putting blueprints on the floor and finding old sheets of clean paper. "We make a plan!" She said quickly. "List of b...buildings we need to do in the beginning! You call the guy who can help us with supplies!" Alis said as she grabbed an old pen, scribbling over the paper until it worked and began to scribble down notes, talking in both Lombax and common as she started to plan.

A/N:This came out a bit faster than I anticipated! I'm glad to be able to post it though! I'm taking a small break from school this week so I'm really exctied to get more of this done!

Thank you so much for reading! I suuuuper appreciate it! 3