Oh my gosh suddenly it's 2 oclock in the morning. Writing can be annoying... :P But I do it anyway.
Now you're not going to get much here because I am dead tired so, just read and enjoy
It had been two weeks since the accident. Varl had managed to hide well for these past two weeks, but something told me that he was going to show up sooner or later. It's in his nature, he just can't leave me alone, and after a short while we found out why.
While Tal and I were recovering in hospital, Clank and done a bit of snooping. The Planetary Defence Centre had his file which had all his information, except for one thing.
His race.
But from the high quality pictures, as well as all the mugshots they had collected from over the years, Clank was able to easily identify Varl as a Cragmite. And boy did that explain some things. It really just drew me back to one conversation I had with him when I was 10. He had attacked out of nowhere, and I defended with my wrench.
'Why do you hate me so much?' I asked at one point during our brawl. His answer confused me at the time.
'I feel it in my blood'
His quote had spooked me for a while, though I eventually forgot it enough to quit thinking about it. But now that I knew of our heritage, the Great War, and Emperor Tachyon himself coming to kill me, it made sense.
And now it made even more sense for me to leave him here locked up, instead of free to roam the universe...
A small moan crept out of Talwyn's mouth as she started to wake up. We had been sleeping together in my room for the past 3 days, finally out of hospital. She wouldn't leave the place with me still there, so even though she could've left the place 4 days earlier than when we got out, the 'My leg still hurts' excuse gave the doctors something to think about till I was ready to escape the place.
Also in these past 3 days, I had noticed that Talwyn had stopped having her nightmares. She got them a couple of times at the hospital, which would eventually get me in trouble because no matter how much pain I was in, I'd go over to her ward for the night so she could sleep peacefully. But now she seemed fine, and I was glad. The few nightmares she had told me about were enough to keep me against the idea.
She made another groaning noise, a second, slightly louder one which told me she'd be up soon. Soon enough for me to initiate my plan for the day, and the best part; she had no idea.
Finally a felt the weight on my chest lighten as she stopped using me for a pillow and sat up on the bed. Still half asleep, she yawned, which caused me to yawn with it's spell and I began thinking about why all creatures that existed yawned. It was almost pointless, but we did it anyway.
"Goodmorning." I spoke the first words of the morning though yet another yawn.
"Morning." She rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, then blinked a couple of times as to wake herself up some more.
"How long have you been up?" She asked. This was almost a ritual now, that question. The first question of the day would alway be her wondering how long I had been up.
"An hour."
"Doing what?"
"Thinking about Varl and how stupid yawns are. Watching you sleep. The usual." She leaned onto my shoulder as I said this, and sighed.
"I need to teach you how to sleep in. It's great for holidays."
"I need to teach you how to wake up. It's great for everyday." I laughed at my own joke.
"Sure, just one more hour, please?" she snuggled back into my chest, hugging me tight. I could only return the hug and smile. It was great to be able to do nothing each morning, instead of figuring out how to save the universe yet again.
"40 minutes till 11, then you need to get up. I have some plans for us today..."
"What plans?" Her voice perked up with curiosity. The tease was already working.
"Oh, you know. Plans..." She got up off me to look me in the eye.
"What plans?" She spoke more seriously this time, like something I said had gotten to her.
"Just some sightseeing"
"Oh, okay." Now she seemed disappointed. Well at least she still didn't really know what I had planned…
"First, I have something for you." She spoke quickly, and shot out of bed. Now this was unlike her, and now I was the curious one. Oh how the tables had turned…
She came back into the room not a minute after she had left, a black box in her hand. The smile on her face was contagious, she seemed really excited to give this to me and I was already excited thinking about what could be in that box.
"This is a late-ish 'Welcome Back' present I organised for you, along with Clank," she sat down next to be on the bed, "It was my fathers, but I figured you would appreciate it more."
When the box was in my hands, I pulled on the ribbon securing the lid. As it fell away, I went in for the lid, not even hesitating to think about what this might be. What I found shocked me quite a bit.
I was holding a piece of adamantite carved into the shape of a wrench like Alister's. The red stone glistened under the light as I left my mouth open looking at the artefact. The Praetorian Omniwrench itself was carved most intricately, with spirals and gears all over it. A most magnificent piece of art, and I wondered where Max Apogee had gotten it from. But the most surprising bit was yet to come.
Underneath the ore was the base, made out of obsidian. But it was what was inscribed on there that shocked me the most.
"It reads; 'Congratulations on your graduation, Kaden. The Lombax Praetorian Guard awaits you. Alister.'"
I dropped the ornament.
All the memories broke through the floodgate at that moment, all the memories surrounding Alister. The person whose death I had yet to mourn, whose death I was distracting myself from in hope that if I ignored it enough, it would go away and Alister would show up one day. The whole Cragmite business, and not to mention Varl had almost achieved the realistic part of that goal. Almost.
"Ratchet…?" Talwyn's uncertain voice somehow went over the sounds of the rushing water and I was sapped back to reality. A different reality, almost.
"Are you okay…?"She asked me. If only she knew what I was thinking about.
When I opened my eyes, I found my head in my wet hands. Wet from the tears that had finally come. Talwyn was right there in an uncertain embrace, doing the best she could to support me through this, even though she had no idea.
"Now that you've calmed down, can you tell me what's up?" I gave her a small nod before actually talking.
"I knew him." I looked up at her when I said this. She looked a bit surprised, but also very confused.
"Kaden was my father. Alister was his best friend, and when I was out finding Clank I found him. Hell, without Alister I may have not even got to Clank in time…" That thought only just occured to me. I didn't even realise it before! I guess the distraction worked out pretty well…
"After finding Clank and stopping Nefarious. Alister tried to kill me to save the Lombaxes by going back in time… But when that failed, and he realised his mistake and to make things right, to save the universe, he…" I couldn't get the last word out. I barely knew what was happening, and I don't think Talwyn understood too much seeing as she knows nothing about the Great Clock or anything. Everytime she tried to talk to me about our adventure, I shut her down, pushing my thoughts lower into the ground. But if anything, she knows what has happened. She knows what I'm going through. She knew that…
"He died" I finished.
If possible I was pulled into an even tighter hug from her as I cried. I didn't think I would ever get like this, sobbing for hours on end about the death of the only father-figure in my life.
"Never keep something like this from me again." Talwyn said after probably 5 or 10 minutes of my tears. I finally had calmed down enough to look her in the eye for the small lecture that I knew I would face eventually and nodded. Dwelling on something is not good for the mind. I should've just told her about it on the day she rescued Clank and I in space…
"Now, before that ruins the day, I remember you saying you had plans?" I nodded slowly, barely hearing her. My mind was someplace else.
"Well, I'm going to have a shower. Then we can get ready for the day, that sound good?" I think I nodded. I was paying no attention to her, until she kissed me.
"That sound good?" She asked again.
"Yeah." I barely got the word out, but Tal seemed content with the fact that I had spoken. In what I thought was a blur, she walked over to the bathroom, closing the door behind her. Eventually, I heard the water running and I picked up the Adamantite carving.
Somehow I knew that Alister had craved this himself. He put his effort into it for my father. I wonder how old it is… But there doesn't seem to be a date. I could guess that it was around 30 years old, then again, I knew nothing about Lombaxes. For all I know Alister could've been 80 when I met him, and still being considered a healthy age for field work. How long was I going to live? What was the life expectancy of a Lombax? Multiple questions formed in my head, distracting me from what I should be thinking about.
Distractions. Now there was something I was good at.
When Talwyn didn't come out after 5 minutes, I decided to say hi to Clank, tell him what had happened earlier. But when I got into the main area to greet him, the look on his face told me he already knew.
"Are you alright, Ratchet?" He asked in a forgiving tone. I nodded mutely.
"It is good to let it out." The robot smiled, and I couldn't help but agree. I'm sure even Alister would've told me this. Fatherly advice… But now that I had let it out, I could see that I still needed to distract myself. Forget about it in a better way.
"So you remember what we're doing today?" I asked Clank. He nodded confidently with a smile.
"Surprising Talwyn" he said with his signature laugh and now it was my turn to laugh.
"Yeah, pretty much. You got everything ready?"
"Yes, Ratchet. From the swingshots to her new Grindboots. Everything is packed."
"Great. Now where did those Qwark-O's go…" I sifted through the panty in search of a quick breakfast snack. When I didn't find what I was looking for, I settled with a nut berry bar which took my mind off hunger for the time being. I knew that in an hour we wouldn't be hungry anyway as the days itinerary involved lunch… As well as a great view.
"Hey guys." Talwyn called from the entrance to my room, walking towards us. I couldn't help but think that she looked great in her dark green shirt. Red headband on her head, blue eyes sparkling towards me. She gave me a massive hug that said more than 1000 words when she got close enough, and we stayed that way for a while, in eachothers arms, not really wanting to move. Maybe today should've been a stay in bed day.
"So what's the plan?" She asked, and I almost laughed at her question. The fact that she was still trying to find out what this mysterious plan was just reminded me of how similar we could be. I know I would've done the exact same thing.
"It's a surprise, Tal. Don't try and get information you're not going to get." She rolled her eyes, and this time I actually let out a small chuckle
"So is lunch on the schedule? I'm close to starving."
"Oh don't worry. Everything is planned. I've book us a spot at a very nice restaurant…" I teased some more. It was a very nice restaurant indeed. They served one of my all time favourite dishes.
"Good, because if it wasn't, I would -
A beep from outside cut her off and signalled the arrival of the taxi. The three of us headed outside, and I locked my garage as the other two were entering the taxi. With Clank up front and Talwyn and I at the back, we got ready to set off to our destination. The Taxi Driver was a friend of Tools, so he knew not to say anything. But I had one more precaution set up. I pulled a black piece of leather over Tal's eyes as a blindfold so she couldn't see a thing. Almost instantly she complained, without taking it off luckily.
"What's that for?" She almost yelled inside the hovercar. Clank and I just chuckled.
"It's a surprise."
Done! That took longer than I thought it would. It been a loooooong day. Awake from 6:15 - 2:12 as it is right now. Gosh. I really need to get on top of all this.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading! :)