Duty

~Everything I know, and anywhere I go, It gets hard but it won't take away my love~

Ratchet's ears twitched at the sound of crying. He cracked his eyes open to see Talwyn next to him and his arm around her. He sat up on the bed before shifting to look at the clock.

3:00 am.

Talwyn opened her eyes at the feeling of his warmth leaving her as she too heard crying. She turned to Ratchet and he reached over to keep her down before she got up. He pulled the covers up past her chest and brushed a hand through her hair. "I'll get her." He smiled. "Go back to sleep."

"Are you sure?"

With a nod of his head he slipped on his black pants and padded barefoot to the door. He closed it behind him and silently walked down the hall to the girl's room. The crying grew louder as he drew closer, something had to have woken her up. She was teething, so maybe the pain had come to her in the middle of the night.

Pushing open the door, he stepped in to see Susie standing next to Elani's crib, trying to soothe her by rubbing her back through the openings on the sides.

"Susie?"

The Tharpod turned to him and smiled, "I tried calming her. But I don't think it's working."

Ratchet sauntered over and picked up the crying infant. After checking her diaper and seeing she didn't need to be changed he held her up to his face, his nose touching hers. "Are you teething again?" He questioned even though he knew she couldn't answer him.

"Go back to bed Susie, I'll take care of her." He patted her head affectionately. "You don't want to be tired for school tomorrow."

The young girl nodded and dragged herself back to her bed as Ratchet pulled the covers over her. She was out in an instant. Shaking his head and smiling, he left the room with Elani in his arms. Going downstairs to the kitchen, he went to the freezer and grabbed a teething ring for her to bite on, hoping it would relieve the pain. From the looks of it, it did. Elani chewed softly on the item, her face showing instant relief.

Before Ratchet could go sit down on the couch to try and get her back to sleep, he heard a beeping. A beeping that could only be coming from one place. The communication link in the office. That line was for emergencies only. And he didn't like the fact that someone was calling this early in the morning.

Great.

Switching directions, he headed to the office and sure enough, the communication link was blinking red. With a heavy sigh, he clicked the button, and the screen flickered on before he saw Qwark's face appear.

"Qwark?" Ratchet raised a brow at the men dressed in his usual green attire. He looked pale and freaked out before he hesitantly cleared his throat.

"Um hey Ratchet, Uh, I need you on an urgent mission." He twiddled his thumbs and swallowed nervously.

"What happened?"

"Uh, it appears that a ship crashed onto Zanifar, they were barely able to send us a distress signal before we lost all contact." Qwark cleared his throat again. "We believe, it was a family of four that were traveling, parents and two kids."

While Qwark was no Captain, the PDF gave him a job delivering mission details to their officers. Very rarely did Qwark ever see any real action in the field.

"Okay…anyone can do that mission, and the Fongoids should be able to supply them with food and water."

"I don't have anyone else for this mission. Everyone else is out on patrol or have been sent on other missions in other sectors."

Ratchet sighed. "The Fongoids don't have much technology, I mean I could take my tools and some spare parts to see what I could do to help them."

"Great!" Qwark cheered a little too happily, and suddenly Ratchet felt that something wasn't right with him.

"Qwark, are you okay?"

"Me? Oh yes, peachy, never better." He grinned. "Now you be careful out there."

Ratchet paused for a second, as he considered the man's last statement. Shaking his head, he ended the call and looked down to Elani. She was out cold, the teething ring still clutched in her hand. Laughing slightly he went upstairs to put Elani back to bed.

After he made sure she wouldn't wake up, he went back to the room he shared with Talwyn. She was asleep, he hated he'd have to wake her to tell her where he was going. Sighing he made his way to the closet to put on his Nebulox armor, he thought for a moment before deciding he would bring along his weapons which were stored in his glove, thanks to nano technology and pocket dimension tech.

As soon as he was fitted in his suit, the material forming to his body, he moved to Talwyn's side of the bed. He sat down and leaned over and touched her face with his gloved hand. "Tal?"

She stirred, her eyes opening suddenly at seeing him so close to her. "What's going on?"

"I have to go on a mission. Search and rescue on Zanifar."

"But that's so far." She frowned. "You were gone for a month when you went to search for Clank over in that sector."

"I was only gone that long because I was searching for Clank while fighting Nefarious and his troops." Ratchet explained. "But I know where I'm going already, so I shouldn't be gone more than five days."

She sighed sadly. "Who called you, so I can kick their ass."

Ratchet laughed. "Qwark, and don't do that, that's what he was hired to do."

Talwyn grabbed a shirt from her nightstand and slipped it on, the material reaching to her knees as she stood up. After grabbing some pants she turned to him and pulled him into a tight embrace.

"I don't like the idea of you going out there by yourself, just promise you'll be careful."

Since Clank would be with Sigmund until eight, Ratchet was on his own for this mission, and that alone scared her.

"I'll be fine Tal. I'll send you a voice transmission when I get there okay?"

Since he'd be going to another sector, contact was limited to voice transmissions only; video and holo com wouldn't work out there.

She grabbed his hand. "I'll walk you out."

Ratchet threw the bag he had filled with water and food into Aphelion's passenger seat, along with a toolbox filled with whatever he would need to repair a ship. He turned to Talwyn who stood on the steps by the front door. He ran over to her and grabbed her in a fierce hug before kissing her on lips.

"I'll be back before you know it." He assured her. "And I have a part coming in tomorrow for our neighbors ship-"

"I'll take care of it."

"Thanks Tal." He smiled softly and looked back to the house.

"Susie and Elani are going to miss you."

"I know." She didn't miss the sadness in his tone.

"Hurry back."

With one last kiss goodbye, Ratchet went back to Apehlion and hopped into the drivers seat and imputed the coordinates to Zanifar.

With a wave he was gone.

Talwyn moved around the kitchen, cooking breakfast for Susie as the young girl sat sadly at the table. She missed Ratchet, lately after school twice a week he would teach her about flying ships. Today was supposed to be that day. She hated whenever he had to go out on a mission, she loved spending time with him, like father and daughter were supposed to do. But inside she knew he still had a job to do to protect all of them.

"Here you go sweetie." Tal placed a plate in front of Susie who smiled up at her.

"Thank you…um Mama?"

Tal smiled at her uncertainty about calling her that, but she took it in stride and nodded.

Talwyn grabbed a jar of pureed veggies just as Clank walked through the basement door.

"Good morning Mrs. Apogee, Susie.." Clank greeted with a wave. "How are you today?"

"Good, just had a long night."

"What happened? And where is Ratchet?"

"That's why it was a long night. Elani woke up at 3 am, and then Ratchet ended up receiving a call to go on a rescue mission."

"Where to?"

"Zanifar."

Clank looked confused. "I do not understand, why would they send him so far out there without calling me for back up?"

"Please don't make me have doubts about him going alone, he assured me he'd be fine."

Clank inwardly cringed, well as best as a robot could cringe anyway. "I am sorry. I just worry about Ratchet, it's been that way since I met him."

"No worries Clank, I feel the same way, but he'll be back before you know it."

The communicator in the room began beeping and Clank excused himself to go answer it. Talwyn looked up, no, it was way to early for Ratchet to have arrived. Curious, she followed Clank after asking Susie to keep an eye on Elani.

She walked into the room to see her fill in Captain on the screen. Clank turned to her when she walked in.

"What's going on?"

"Talwyn, who called Ratchet about the mission?"

She glanced from the Captain to Clank. "Ratchet told me Qwark did."

"Impossible."

"Clank, what happened?"

"Kip, is it alright if I use your first name?" Clank asked as he paused before the Captain nodded. "Kip is telling me that they never gave out a mission for Zanifar. And according to their roster, Qwark hasn't been to work in five days.

"He's been missing?" Talwyn questioned incredulously. "And you didn't inform us about that!"

Kip looked down in shame, he knew he screwed up. Talwyn was pissed. No. She was beyond pissed. Anger and fear rushed through her veins at the thought of Ratcbet heading into a trap. She composed herself and looked to the man on the screen

"Kip Nova, I hereby relieve you of your Captain status." Talwyn stated professionally.

"But Miss, who will act as Captain?"

"I am returning to duty." Talwyn's tone of voice left no room for argument. "Because of your actions, my husband could be flying into a trap. You didn't follow protocol when one if our own went missing, you will face the consequences."

"I understand Ma'am. But at least let me assist you in finding Ratchet and afterwards I will answer for what I've done."

Talwyn considered his words carefully. She would need as much help as she could get, most of the PDF troops were on other missions. "Very well, assemble whatever squadron you have available and I want the carrier fully locked and loaded with six fighters and a medical transport. Have the rest of the squad fly in formation around the carrier."

"Yes ma'am." With a salute the screen went dark.

Clank glanced to Talwyn, the Markazian was upset. No, she was angry, very angry by the look on her face but underneath he saw worry as well. "Talwyn, we must go immediately."

"I know, but who's going to watch Elani and Susie?"

"They will have to come with us." Clank stated and she knew he was right. It was too late to get a babysitter. "Alright, I'll call Susie's school and let them what's going on. See if you can get in contact with Ratchet."

Clank nodded. Hopefully the transmission would work, they didn't know who they were dealing with, or if they had already somehow blocked Apehlion from receiving messages. He just hoped Ratchet could hold his own until they arrived, he was going in blind.

The flight to Zanifar seemed like a long one, but with the ever advancing technology and hyperspace travel, Ratchet made it within a day. Having been asleep for the better part of the ride, Aphelion woke him when they neared the planet.

A transmission had tried to come through 19 hours earlier but it was filled with too much static for him to make out whatever the other person was trying to say. He had hoped it wasn't important, but he felt a bit uneasy about this whole situation.

"Apehlion can you send a message to Talwyn?"

"Negative, my communication system seems to be getting blocked."

"That's weird" Ratchet raised a brow. "Did we hit any unknown anomaly while I was out."

"Negative."

Ratchet sighed, Talwyn was going to kill him for not calling her. He scratched his chin thoughtfully, actually she was going to castrate him. He cringed inwardly and shook his head. But what could he do? His eyes scanned the planet. He couldn't see very far, but something had to give a hint as to where the family was.

"Where do we look first?" The Lombax muttered to himself. "They didn't exactly give me a specific area." After realizing it was already dark on Zanifar, he decided he would make camp and resume his search when daylight broke.

Since he wasn't very familiar with the lifeforms on this planet, he made sure to stick close to Apehelion as he set up a fire pit. The only thing that bothered him was the silence, everything was quiet. If there were any wild animals or lifeforms on this planet, they were sneaky about it.

What is going on?

Deciding he would check the village first to see if the family had found their way to the Fongoids, he went in for landing. It was weird to see no sign of life anywhere, and in that sense he became increasingly worried and suspicious.

Leaving Apehlion under the shade of a large tree, he walked towards the village. The closer he got, he felt more and more of his fur standing on end. He couldn't shake the feeling in the pit of his stomach.

Somethings wrong.

Hoping his link to Apehlion still worked he pressed his communicator. "Apehlion?"

"I can hear you Ratchet, seems I can still get close range communication."

"Are your scanners working?:

"Unfortunately not."

"Damn, I guess I'm going in blind."

Ears twitching, he raised his wrench into a defensive position. He hoped he wouldn't have to use it, but it was better safe than sorry right? As soon as he cleared the trees, his heart dropped immediately, he saw nothing but cages. Steel cages for that matter. And inside those cages? The Fongoids and Qwark?

He sprinted over to where Qwark was trapped with a Fongoid family. "Qwark?"

The man's eyes widened with surprise before they turned sad. "Ratchet, I'm sorry. He said he'd kill them if I didn't get you here."

"He who?"

"Me!"

Ratchet turned and before be could brace himself or activate his armor, a metal claw came down, slashing him across the chest from his right shoulder to his left side . "Ahhh!"

He went flying into the mountain side and crashed to the ground as blood seeped through the new wounds. Ratchet coughed, blood leaking from his mouth. He clutched his chest and groaned before looking to see who had attacked him.

Tachyon.

How?

"I'm going to enjoy killing you Lombax. Just as I enjoyed killing your father and your mother. And as I will soon enjoy painting your daughters room red."

Ratchets eyes widened at his words. Anger and agony shot through his body as he stared at the Cragmite. The new robotic throne he sat upon had many more upgrades than the last. Including the four metal tentacles with steel claws.

"Too bad you won't be around to see me take over this universe." Tachyon smiled menacingly. "You may have won our last battle Lombax, but theres a war that has yet to be one." He cackled.

The metal tentacles shot towards Ratchet as he scrambled to his feet to rollout of the way, only to land on his side. Clenching one of his eyes closed due to the pain, he stood on shaky legs and turned toward the Cragmite emperor. One of his gloved hands pressed to his chest, desperately trying to stop the bleeding.

I shouldn't have left the nano-tech in the ship.

"Prepare to die!" Percival screeched as Ratchet raised his wrench with one hand.

Talwyn stared into the blackness of space, the emptiness made her skin crawl. Ratchet had beaded into something be wasn't prepared for. She was even sure the PDF was prepared. Whoever this unknown enemy is, she would make sure they regretted setting a trap for Ratchet.

"Ma'am, we should arrive within an hour."

Talwyn nodded to one of the lower ranking officers.

"Prepare the ships, we have to be ready for anything."

A/N: Sorry it's a bit short, but I don't want to reveal too much too fast.