Hi! Lilrose here!
I apologize for not updating much. Family and school keep happening! But, I'll try to update more.
By the way, Thelasticephoenix, I appreciate your review. It really got me going on this one. Actually, I appreciate all of your reviews! Even the one guest one about me not knowing that Ratchet's mother was dead, even though it seemed to be written with slight disdain (no offense, Guest, but it really did sound like you were insulting me), but anyway, it all helped me along.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything in the Ratchet & Clank universe apart from my OC, Lynxion/Zanora.
Now, on with the chapter!
Zanora cursed as Aphelion locked her in place in the storage hull. She ditched the idea of struggling immediately, knowing Aphelion wouldn't have any of it from her at this stage. She tried to listen for any sounds from Ratchet, but Aphelion had taken extra precautions in keeping her there. Not that Zanora blamed her. She was just notoriously known to disappear away from confining or dangerous situations whenever she wished.
Speaking of confining, Zanora felt her wings bend uncomfortably against the titanium roof of the storage hull. She flapped them, trying to move them to rest under her. But no luck came of that. She pouted, put out by the lack of space and the way Aphelion was treating her. Then again, it had been at least eleven years...
'You are coming along, Zanora. There is no way that I am leaving you behind again.' Aphelion's tone of beeping made her sound dangerously calm, which made Zanora sweat a little.
'Got it.' She replied nervously, tails instinctively curling around her legs in submission.
The ride lasted a few hours before the engine cut and the faint sound of footsteps rung out in the cockpit. She listened as the steps faded away into the distance, leaving her trapped in the AI ships cargo hold.
She squirmed, hissing at Aphelions buzzing warnings. She then brought her tails to tense above the cargo opening, slamming them down to force the door open. She flapped her wings, slapping the thin wires with them and breaking them, releasing her. After a lot of cursing and thoughts of 'Why didn't I think of this earlier?', she discarded the wires still on her person and spun in a fit, ready to give that bloody ship a piece of her mind-
"Before you start, you've lost already." Aphelion interrupted her thought process, "You promised me, remember?"
Zanora opened her mouth, only to close it. She ignored her burning cheeks and Aphelion's chuckles, pointedly looking away from her friend. She then noticed where exactly they were.
"Hey, Aphelion?" Zanora asked, gaining a hum of acknowledgement in between the mechanical chuckles, "You said Alister was last seen in Volgram Pass, right?"
"Yes, that is close to where we are. Ratchet wanted to find him."
"Does he know Alister is his godfather?"
"No." Aphelion sighed, "But Sir Azimuth will surely tell him."
Zanora sighed, opening her wings, "I'll talk to Alister. You watch over Ratchet and help him out, alright?"
Aphelion made a few protesting beeps before sighing under Zanora's narrowed eyes. She flared her thrusters in reluctant agreement and put her self in sleep mode to save energy.
"Keep me posted." Zanora bid as a last remark before flapping her wings and lifting herself quickly off the ground.
She noticed the shut down gatekeeper easily, raised to face the sky in silence. The head had been cleared out and was full of bits and pieces of information on the Great Clock, the legend that Kaden thought to be true.
Zanora frowned from her vantage point, peering through the creatures knocked out eyes into the mess of a hut that her old friend now occupied. Speaking of Alister...
Zanora turned her head toward where she last saw him, wondering the canyon walls. He had been patrolling for the last hour, from what she'd seen, his infamous weapon clutched at his side and emitting a few sparks here and then. She noticed he wasn't as clean and well-groomed as he once was. Large bags weighed down his eyes and his ears drooped hopelessly behind him. She knew the feeling.
She flapped both sets of wings, leaping into the sky easily with the speed only granted by the thrust of two giant pairs of wings. She felt her feathered wings spread out as the feathers realigned with the wind. She tilted downward, diving silently and straight toward where Alister was standing, landing quietly a few feet behind him.
She instantly noticed his stance and stood still, a few feet away from him. He was clenching his electric-powered double-ended long wrench tightly, a easy sign that he knew someone was there.
He turned his head only slightly toward her, not enough to see her, "How did you get there without me noticing? Have I really been so blinded by my mistakes?"
She crossed her arms, "You were simply not looking up, my friend."
Alister tensed, shock easily read on his shoulders. He turned slowly, as if not believing he had heard right. Zanora stood patiently as his blood-shot eyes came into view. Grieving red came into contact with knowing green, and Alister crumbled.
"Zanora!" he whispered raspily, pulling her into an embrace she easily recuperated.
She ignored the tears she felt on the shoulder his head was resting on, not wanting to ruin the moment by wounding his pride.
A few minutes later had Zanora in Alister's new home, watching as he made some tea for them both. She sat back on her seat, wings curled close to her body to save room in the small area. Her dangerous tails were safely tucked away, her furred tails circling at least three quarters of the table. She spent most of that time watching Alister with concern or eyeing the drawings and writings on the Great Clock, or 'Keeper of Time' as the writings say.
Alister put her tea in front of her, sitting on the opposite end of the table as a slightly awkward atmosphere surrounded them. Zanora shifted slightly, not knowing what to say after not seeing him for fifteen years. Luckily, he happened to know how to start.
"I thought you dead." He started, his voice a mournful rumble, "I saw Kaden taking you back to the house for Ratchet, but I saw him die, and the hut collapse with you still inside."
"Do you have the Dimensionator?"
"Of course. We have to get him away from here, it isn't safe!"
"Take him, I need to get Aphelion's main drive!"
"Why?!"
"I can't leave her behind!"
"ZANORA, LOOK OUT!"
Zanora shook her head, the memories an unexpected cloud on her mind, "I don't really understand what happened either. I gave Ratchet to Kaden, who got him away using the proto-type dimensionator..."
"Wait." Alister looked up, eyes sharp, "Your son is alive? He got away? Where is he?!"
"That's why I'm here, Alister." Zanora replied, "Ratchet is very much alive, and he is coming here for you."
"Whatever for?" Alister asked, bewildered.
"He is looking for a friend of his, who was taken by the Zoni. He was told that you were the best thing he could get to figure out where he is."
"Why don't you just go with him yourself? He knows you, doesn't he?"
Zanora paused, looking at the ground. Alister picked up on it immediately.
"You didn't tell him."
Zanora shook her head, eyes cast downward as she took a sip of her tea. No more words were needed on the subject.
After explaining to Alistair what she wanted him to do, Zanora flew back to Aphelion. The few minutes she had in silence were spent wandering within her memories, looking for something she knew was important for some reason.
"Now now, Zanora. Remember to be careful around the ledges."
She couldn't put a face to that voice, but she knew it somehow. The voice of her Nykril mother, telling her stories and legends about her race and their lessons. She couldn't recall everything she said, but the stories she knew off by heart.
"Play with me, mummy!"
White wings too divine for this universe, the only thing she remembered clearly. Her mother spoke of an ancient planet made by the will of the first of them. She spoke of dragons and griffons and demons that guarded the night. She never told Zanora where the planet was.
"I can see a bright future for you, gorgeous girl. And I intend to ensure you see it."
She always wondered why mummy said that when she pretended to sleep.
"I won't be gone long. Just a business trip to get through and I'm done. I'll be back soon."
"Promise on your wings?"
A laugh as soft as the wind she flew through.
"I promise on my wings."
If only the world worked in lighter ways, then things might of been different. But the universe can be hateful sometimes. As she found out back then.
Chemery never came back for her seventh birthday.
Zanora's memories faded as a long buzz sounded from Aphelion's cockpit. She looked toward her AI friend as she started to drift upward. Jumping up quickly, she darted after the ship as it shot toward her son's location, her two wings keeping pace with Aphelion easily. She then tried to pull away toward a hiding spot behind the mountain.
The thing about organic wings is that it's a lot easier for wind to knock them off coarse. So, say a sudden strong wind blew in an upward diagonal into one side...
Zanora only had a few seconds to realise what was about to happen before she was turned upside down and left flailing as she rocketed to the ground. She angled herself downward with her primary wings, the feathered pair, before turning herself to face the ground with her secondary pair, the demon/skin wings. She slowly angled herself upward until she was flying straight again, getting a rhythm before she looked for Aphelion.
Nothing. The ship was gone.
She cursed, turning around and landing on a canyon wall. She examined that land around her, looking for signs, but there were none. She growled, whip-tails lashing out and making several loud cracks into the darkening sky. Then, something buzzed in her ear and her tails jerked to a halt, the silence sudden. She reached back and pressed a button that brought the buzzing to life.
'... exactly are we looking for in Axiom city?'
Ratchet. So, a com-transmitter. Zanora smirked. Aphelion must have planted it in her ear while she was locked in the storage hull. Sneaky little-
'We're looking for the location of an Obsidion Eye. Axiom City is said to hold it's location.'
As stiff as ever. Alister sounds just like he did in the old days, during the Cragmite War. Still the soldier.
'An Obsidion Eye?'
Zanora's eyebrows furrowed. Ratchet sounded... hesitant. From what she had seen from him in his short stay, he was as bold as Kaden was. So hesitation is a cause for concern.
Stupid mother instincts.
'Correct. If we do this quickly and quietly, we'll have a head start before Nefarious catches on to us.'
With that, the transmission cut off and the headset turned off. Zanora waited for a few seconds before giving up and starting to walk away. Maybe Alister had a map in his home? Or a tracker on his ship? Who knows, but she has to find them.
"Excuse me, outsider?"
Zanora halted, fur on end for a few seconds before flattening. She turned, watching the approaching robot.
It considered her for a few seconds before speaking, "You wouldn't happen to be following the young Lombax that went by recently, are you?"
She nodded slowly, not quite understanding the point of the conversation.
"Well, they're looking for the Obsidion Eye in near one of our villages, aren't they? My friend there knows the way through the temple that houses it." It stopped bringing a hand up in an imploring gesture, "I could organise a tranport for you, if you wish?"
Zanora smiled, head already filled with plans and optimism, "That would be lovely."