Disclaimer: Ratchet and Clank and all related characters, locations, and concepts belong to Insomniac Games. All other ideas and characters are my own. I am not a lawyer.

Author's note:

I'm being a bit slow with posting right now since I've started school. My schedule's a bit hectic. (I have not one, but two math courses.) Expect slower updates as I try not to fail.

(I'm still working on my other fic, for the record, but I'm currently editing the next chapter. Oneshots are quicker, since there's less continuity to worry about. But yeah, I'm not on hiatus; I'm just a bit slow.)

Now, it's been years since I've played Secret Agent Clank, but it seemed to fit the prompt. There may be some inconsistencies with the plot of the game. I like to stay close to canon, for the most part (at least, plausibly close) so go ahead and let me know if anything is terribly inconsistent. I don't spoil SAC entirely here, but there are some hints pertaining to its plot, so beware.

Now that I've whined about my workload and abused parentheses, I'd better shut up and get on with the fic. Well, not before begging for reviews.

As usual, reviews are appreciated! Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far.

Chapter Summary: Ratchet thinks he's innocent, but is he fooling himself? May contain traces of spoilers for Secret Agent Clank. Contains some swearing.

8. Innocence

Nobody believed Ratchet when he said he hadn't done anything wrong. He thought he'd been unfairly arrested, but who would listen to the ramblings of a suspected thief?

He was more than a suspected thief, too. Even he had to admit that the evidence against him was pretty convincing. The fact that he didn't have a proper alibi didn't help his case.

To tell the truth, he had no idea what he'd been up to during the robbery. No memory. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Despite his misgivings, he decided that it was still better to pretend that he'd stolen the jewel—the Eye of Infinity, as it was called—even if he had no idea what he'd been doing at the time.

No, shit. If he claimed to be innocent, the other prisoners would think he was weak, and they'd beat him to a pulp.

The one thing he could be sure of was that prison was no cakewalk.

Ratchet roughed it out, putting on his best don't-mess-with-me act, walking with his head held high and his tail raised. Even as he suffered the indignities of prison, he still kept up the charade. His reputation preceded him. Many of the other prisoners were there because Ratchet had caught them himself. He'd obliterated entire armies with barely any backup. If he'd survived DreadZone, then prison should be a cakewalk.

Still, it was a bit harder to be confident when you were thrown into a prison for something that you wouldn't have done, and that you didn't remember doing.

The first day had been the worst. The last thing he remembered was brushing his teeth, and then, nothing. It had been a shock. A baton had poked Ratchet awake, and he'd found himself in a prison cell, with no clue how he'd gotten there. He'd looked up at the ceiling, which was a lot higher up than usual, rolled over on the lumpy and uncomfortable cot, and looked around to find himself facing an overly-cheerful but easily-bribed warden. Unfortunately for Ratchet.

None of his friends had been in the cell with him, either. That had been a bit unsettling. Usually, whenever he was trapped or thrown into a holding cell or stranded on an unfamiliar planet, he had at least one friend—or acquaintance, in Qwark's case—with him. This time, there were plenty of familiar faces around, but they were the faces of people he'd thrown into prison.

The court case had been his one chance to avoid imprisonment, but it hadn't gone well. All the defences he had thought up for himself were based mostly on his lack of motive. Why would he steal a jewel? He had plenty enough bolts to live off. Besides, he'd barely even heard of the Eye of Infinity before it had become the reason for him being stuck in jail. Still, those arguments didn't hold up in court when they showed him the tapes. Nobody believed him when he said that he would never do anything like that.

It didn't matter how you phrased it, my body's acquired a will of its own was a terrible argument.

As things turned out, pleading guilty was the way to go. The prosecution had evidence against him. If he couldn't escape the charges, he could at least get away with a slightly milder sentence.

Of course, he'd still been left here, in this dark, smelly cell. He'd been left to harass others or be attacked, fight or be crushed; trapped in the mind games typical of a prison setting.

Mind games was right, too, since he was pretty sure the prison was doing something with his head. There were gaps in his memory, times when he couldn't remember what he'd been doing before, times that felt like he'd just woken up from a deep sleep. Yet everyone else acted as if he'd been awake for the whole time.

Maybe he should've pleaded insanity. As much as he didn't like the idea, he couldn't help but think that being in jail was getting to him, just a little. The sooner he got out and found out exactly what had happened, the better.

Ratchet hadn't committed the crime of his own free will. Or had he? He couldn't remember now, but he was getting flashes of half-remembered memories, and some of what he'd seen in the videos started to seem familiar. He could've been caught, and someone could've hit him on the head which would've made him forget… But no, surely he wouldn't have stolen that jewel willingly. He wouldn't have. Would he?

There was video evidence.

But surely, he hadn't done that of his own free will.

…Had he?

He hoped that Clank would be able to prove his innocence. Preferably before he managed to convince himself that he was, in fact, guilty.