Hey all! The chapters are still coming. For this story at least...

Talking of chapters, this one gets a bit mushy halfway through. The next chapter on the other hand is gonna be leading up to some action :D

Now enough talking. Enjoy...

I found myself under the moonlight sky. The stars were scattered around the moon, filling up the empty darkness we called space... It was a beautiful night. The city below us was quiet, like everyone just decided to sleep at once. The only lights that were visible the stars in the sky, and the dim green like on my lovers belt. He walked across to the middle of the bridge, straight toward me. His smile contagious. His eyes the perfect shade of green. His walk, so relaxed it almost washed away the deja vu feeling that was niggling at the back of my head.

"Hey, Tal," He spoke softly when he was close enough. "It's a beautiful night tonight, isn't it?"

"Yeah..." Was all I said, voice drifting off. But as beautiful as the sky was, I couldn't keep my eyes away from the golden Lombax standing next to me.

"But not as beautiful as you," He wrapped his arms around me. I felt warm suddenly, full of joy and excitement. After all this time would he finally say the words I have been aching to hear? Yet at the same time this whole scenario felt very familiar...

"I love you, Talwyn. I love you more than you know..." I almost couldn't believe it. I almost couldn't contain my shriek of joy. But somehow I managed both and remained calm enough to say;

"I love you too." He smiled a crooked smile, but he didn't look happy. His arms became stiff. The moon turned red and the stars disappeared. The wind picked up a gust and howled around us, and Ratchet kept talking, almost chanting;

"I love you, Talwyn... I love you, Talwyn... I love you, Talwyn..." His voice got lower each time he said it. By the seventh time it was sounding demonic. The monotone chant filled up the wind and it now seemed like Ratchet wasn't the only one chanting. Suddenly I heard a scream. Shouts followed as well as laughter and that familiarity struck me again.

When I turned around to look at the commotion, Ratchet gripped my arms and held me close. I couldn't move, I could only look at the mob walking past. A mob of people who I hate most in this universe.

Pirates.

They screamed and shouted and laughed their way across the wide bridge and it took me a while to find out about what all the commotion was. They were surrounding something. Holding it at shoulder height... It was Ratchet! The real one. He was tied to a stick, struggling against the chains that held him 6 feet off the ground. I tried to scream but between the pirates and the demonic chanting my voice went nowhere. All I could do was watch.

Thier leaders hand went up and the group of pirate stopped shouting. They all looked expectantly at the fat figure who in turn stared them down.

"Today Lads, is a glorious day! The Lombax menace, otherwise known as Ratchet," He spat the name, "Is held captive... By US!" The crowed cheered at his statement.

"And tonight! For the first time in many moons. Tonight, under the Red Moon. Tonight... We feast on Lombax!" The crowed cheered again, their excitement welling up to the point where one of them got knocked out for getting too 'close'.

The leader pulled out a knife. Held it high up in the air.

"What shall I do!?" he asked expectantly, the machete in his hand gleaming red from the moon.

"Slit his throat! Slit his throat! Slit his throat! " They started chanting in time with now know unrecognisable chant from the demon holding me. I tried to look away. I tried not to see the scene unfolding before me, but it was too late. That and the fact that my head was being held in place by my captor. My eyes couldn't help but follow the blade as the leader taunted me with it. Lining up the kill. Practicing on the air. The chanting hold louder and louder until it was just screams and shouts. Then for a split second, my captors grip tightened on me.

"I loved you." He yelled in my ear the second the blade went down. I fell to the ground as I watched it strike home. It all went silent. It was a loud unsettling silence.

"No!" I screamed as loud as I could before breaking down into tears. I barely registered the fistful of pirates looking at me on the floor from a distance, but when I did see them, they were smiling... And that was the last thing I saw before a sharp pain struck through my back.

I had been lying in bed with her for close to half an hour now. She had fallen asleep almost straight away, but I knew I couldn't. There was just too much on my mind. How the hell did we get here? Why here? Why was that device still on? It just didn't add up, none of it did. My thoughts drifted over to Clank about ten minutes in. Just the fact that we were back together was great, even if 90% of the time one or both of us has been unconscious… I had never felt more alone through those months without Clank. Even though Tal was right by my side the entire time, I was missing the other vital part of me that I needed to be, well, me. But it was still great to have Talwyn around… It was even better now. Things between us were being fixed up. I could hardly wait to show her all the amazing things I used to, and still do, take for granted on this planet. It was only until she started quivered in her sleep that I thought there would be nothing to worry about for the next two weeks.

She was shaking almost uncontrollably like she was trying to get out of something, like someone was holding her in place. Her arms kept pushing at mine, yet I still had an adamant grip. I didn't want to let her go.

"Tal..?" I spoke with a soothing voice to try and wake her up. I could tell this was one heck of a nightmare that she didn't want to be in.

"C'mon, Tal. Wake up." She calmed down a little. Maybe hearing my voice helped a bit? I wonder if she could actually hear me… Well I think I was wrong, because all of a sudden the slight quiver turned into an earthquake. I stopped bothering to keep a soothing voice.

"C'mon, Tal. Wake up now." I said again. As if that was going to help. But what else could I do? She was already shaking so much I couldn't shake her awake... I could only watch as tears coated her eyes and she became limp. A hoarse scream filled the room, and then she bounced upwards, waking up and narrowly avoided my face. I looked into her blue eyes for a second. They looked traumatised like something really bad had happened… I pulled her into a hug as I wondered what she was dreaming about. Her father? Me possibly? To be honest I really had no clue.

"You okay?" I finally asked after two minutes of her calming down on my shoulder. She moved her head up slightly as if she was nodding, but it seemed like she didn't really want to move either. All in all I took it as a yes. Now for the second question…

"What's it about?"

She slowly pulled her head up off me and looked at me for a bit before answering. And even without her saying anything, that look told me just about everything.

"It's about me isn't it?" The sort-of interrogation continued, and she sighed knowing that she'd have to tell me sooner or later.

"Yeah…" She finally spoke. It was so good to hear her voice cut through the earlier scream of hers that was constantly playing through my head.

"What happened?"

She thought about this for a second before responding. The seconds of silence between our words was not very comforting. But she replied eventually…

"You… Died…" I barely heard her. But wow that was not what I was thinking about at all…

"This isn't the first time either…" She added as an afterthought, and now it was my time to think of what to say. I quickly put two and two together. It was probably ever since I left her to find Clank that these dreams had been going on.

"You're afraid of me leaving you again, aren't you?" I had to push the words out of my mouth. I felt so bad for doing that now… She gave a minute nod, and I could tell that she was holding back some tears.

"Look, Tal… I'm never going to leave you again. We're together now, you and I and I intend to keep it that way." She smiled for what felt like the first time in forever. I think I smiled too. But then I started stumbling on the last bit…

"And I… I'm...We're…Polaris" How the hell did I even get that last word out? C'mon Ratchet. Just say it!

"I love you."

Talwyn stared at me almost in shock, like I was going to disappear or fade away in front of her. She even squeezed my hand just to check if I wasn't a holo projection… To make sure she knew I was still real and very much here, I decided to close the gap between us…

Our kiss was slow. The last one we had back in the ship was a bit more passionate, but this was different. More slow, sweet and possibly romantic? I can't say describing kisses is something I have done a lot of in my life, describing battles is another topic though… Nevertheless the kiss was just as great as the last one, and along with my lack of sleep it almost sucked me into a calm slumber that I desperately needed. But in the end my eyes still opened.

The mood was completely different to the one filling the room a couple of minutes ago, and I think I did a good job of fixing things up too.

"I love you too" She broke the short silence. Yeah, I definitely did a good job of fixing things up. Also, I wouldn't mind if this moment lasted a while. Just looking into her eyes for another 10 minutes would be nice…

DING DONG

"I'm back with food!" Tools voice rang through my garage. So much for staying in the moment.

"Coming" I hid my irritation as best as I could and let my stomach speak for me. The word 'food' had just reactivated my hunger pang.

Talwyn and I hopped off my bed and went to greet Tool after a quick hug, but as soon as I stepped through my bedroom door I knew something was wrong. Clank was on the floor. He had somehow fallen off the desk while still in shutdown mode, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that that shouldn't really have happened.

I rushed over to my friend and lay him down properly. Everything seemed okay as far as I could tell… I'd have to plug him in to my computer to check everything else though.

"Is everything alright?" The other two in the room said almost simultaneously. It was uncanny.

"I dunno. Clanks' fallen over somehow, yet he's still shutdown."
"Hmm, odd."

"Tell me about it..."

I continued inspecting my friend just to make sure he hadn't been physically damaged. His antenna seemed intact and there were no major scratch marks on his head which was a good sign.

Suddenly an awfully familiar sensation overcame me. I wasn't kneeling down on my concrete floor anymore, I was kneeling on a cold silver metal. I also felt smaller, like I had suddenly shrunk…

"Hey, there you are! Mind helping me fix your friend here? Bloody Cragmite virus got 'em"

So yeah, that's that. Any guesses as to who it is?