Revelations
Chapter Summary
Having just barely escaped the ruined Lombax home world of Havenon IV in Ratchet's and Clank's dimension, the heroes' moment of reprieve is short-lived as their ship is attacked by a 'Lord Valen' who attempts to capture and kill them. Fortunately the heroes are rescued in the nick of time by a group of starfighters and a large vessel named the "Phoenix".
What exactly is going on in this galaxy? What happened to Ratchet's and Clank's dimension while they were off in Rivet's and Kit's, helping rid it of imperial influence? Answers await them aboard the Phoenix - answers that will have a very particular, and frightening, meaning to Ratchet.
The seconds stretched on into minutes, the only sound - the roar of the Phoenix's engines dying down to a dull hum as they reached their peak velocity. Their bodies relaxed as the G-forces pushing them into their seats eased.
Kit broke the silence.
"Are we… safe now?"
"Well… We're not dead yet, so… that's good, right?" replied Rivet.
She unbuckled and hurried to the back of the ship.
"Talwyn, you got any nanotech back here?" she called.
"Wha? Oh! Yeah, lemme grab it for you, it's up here."
Stopping by Rivet's side, she reached up for one of the shelves and pulled down a small canister of nanotech – glowing a bright, brilliant white.
Rivet took it then, after a brief pause - "…Thanks… and… you're a good fighter."
The Markazian blinked, then smiled.
"And you. I'd hate to get on your wrong side."
Rivet turned silently and walked back to Kit with the nanotech, but Ratchet saw the corners of her mouth twitch.
He too unbuckled and stood up, and Clank leapt onto his back. The Lombax looked at Rivet for a moment, watching her apply nanotech to Kit's wound. Remembering how she had caught Clank before he could fly to the back of the ship, he cleared his throat.
"While we're uh… Thanking each other… Thanks for watching out for Clank back there." "Wha? Oh, yeah, no biggie. And hey, you did all right after all… Flying, that is."
His stomach gave a small leap and he turned, facing the door of their ship, away from Talwyn and Rivet. Trying to act as though her words were no more than a throwaway comment, he shrugged.
"Yeah, well… Ya know."
He looked back at his best friend.
"You uh… you all right pal? Sorry for all the jostling…"
"*sigh* Do not worry Ratchet, you did what you had to. It could have been worse; It was not as bad as the time you had the brilliant idea of building a nuclear-powered rocket sled for your commutes back in Kerwan."
Talwyn and Kit gasped.
"Nuclear-powered-!? Jeez, Lombaxes… One day you're gonna get yourself killed, Ratchet.", Talwyn said disapprovingly.
Rivet however began to laugh. "You built a nuclear-powered what now?", Still prone from patching up Kit, she grasped onto an armrest as she doubled over, her laughter interspersed with an occasional snort - a sound that made Ratchet's heart flutter and his tail swish slowly from side-to-side.
Thunk, thunk, thunk.
All five of them jumped as the sound of fists came rapping on the side of their ship, breaking their moment of ease.
"Hello? Anyone still alive in there?" demanded a muffled voice.
The Markazian looked at Ratchet who, though grateful for their escape, grasped his Omniwrench tightly all the same.
'(wouldn't be the first time we got 'saved' then wound up havin' fight our way out…)'
Taking the cue, Talwyn pressed the button that opened the door, which hissed before it swung slowly outward, the ramp extending onto the ground outside. As they became accustomed to the bright light of the hangar, Talwyn gasped.
"C-Cronk? Zephyr?!"
"'Cronk'? What the blazes is a 'Cronk'?"
"And what's 'Zephyr', a disease?"
Two voices, strangely familiar, were carrying through the open door – voices belonging to two old warbots he had not seen for a very long time, not since they…
"I'm sorry, you… You just look so familiar…" Talwyn said, her voice somewhat brittle. "…I see. Well come here missy, let's get you to the infirmary and check there's no damage." "Damage…? No, no I'm fi-"
"Nope, sorry ma'am, it's procedure. All thanks to a flaw of you organics, I'm afraid. Your chassis are much too soft and, no offense, but yours are a fair bit larger than any others' here; they're particularly vulnerable!"
"Wait, excuse me?"
Ratchet blinked as the impact of what the voice had said struck him.
"Oh boy…"
He turned away; Talwyn may not be as strong or fiery as Rivet, but she was still imposing when she went off.
"Derek ya bloody fool, that's not something you say to an organic female! Pardon my comrade, miss; he's never served alongside anyone that wasn't machine."
Rivet snickered, turning away, an action mirrored by Kit who likewise showed signs of amusement.
"Wait, did ya hear that, Derek? Is somebody else on that ship with ya miss?" Ratchet turned as a head appeared around the corner – a very familiar one at that.
"Ah, two bots, and- and…You… You're a Lombax…!" The warbot gasped and took several paces back in shock. "Derek! Derek, look!"
Another head appeared around the corner – also very familiar to anyone who had known Zephyr.
"By Zoni's eyes…! Two of them!"
Now the first warbot appeared again.
"TWO Lombaxes…", the taller one said, sounding awed.
Talwyn turned to look at Ratchet and Rivet, confusion in her eyes. "Uhh… Yeah, they're travelling with me." She said.
Ratchet and Rivet both looked back at their robot companions, who shrugged. The two in the doorway simply stared at them; they stared for so long in fact that Ratchet felt himself starting to blush.
"Uh… Hey! I'm Ratchet." he said uncertainly.
This seemed to send the two warbots into deeper throes of shock and awe.
"Ratchet! Dip me in breadcrumbs and feed me to a snagglebeast, of all the Lombaxes we coulda found, we found the Ratchet!", said the shorter of the two
"Then you must be Clank!"
"Umm… Yes."
Rivet and Kit looked at their counterparts, surprised. Though both Ratchet and Clank had told them of their notoriety in their home dimension, neither had expected to see such reactions so hastily.
"Well…Well! Come on then, step into the light!", continued the shorter one.
Ratchet started forward, but, noticing a missing pair of footsteps, paused, looking back at Rivet. She was staring just as intently back at their visitors as they had stared at her and Ratchet. He suddenly remembered her distinct distrust of their kind, which even now he could feel emanating from her like heat.
"You uh… you coming?", he asked.
She looked back at Kit, who nodded encouragingly. Rivet sighed and, following Ratchet's lead, stepped off the ship.
In the light of the hangar, the differences between the two warbots and Ratchet's old friends became less pronounced – they were younger, though admittedly not by much, however, their metallic bodies were free from rust and squeaking. The differences continued in their coloration; while Cronk had been painted a navy blue color, the paint on his doppelganger was a deep shade of violet, and the one resembling Zephyr, Derek, was a dark forest-green color.
As they stepped into the open, Ratchet could sense heads turning in their direction, and could hear a low but excited hum as the passersby whispered together as they walked. Weren't Lombaxes common in this galaxy? Attracting whispers and being gawked at was not foreign to Ratchet and Rivet in their respective homes, but here… Something didn't seem right.
"Well, I'd call that a successful mission! Maybe those fools're worth more than we gave 'em credit for… So, where's Korey, Haggard, and Skorge, then?" asked Derek.
The three looked at each other, then the two Lombaxes looked back at their robot companions curiously.
"Uhh… Who are you talking about?" Ratchet asked awkwardly.
"The Vullards…! Ratchet…" Clank gasped suddenly.
"Yes! Yes, the Vullards! Where they at? They came with ya didn't they?"
They all hesitated. Ratchet once again felt that rush of frustration he experienced after he heard the third Vullard brother die.
"They -" began Kit. " - They did not make it."
The two simply looked at them all – from Ratchet and Rivet and the two bots, then to Talwyn.
When nobody contradicted Kit, Derek's head sank.
"'Fools', indeed… That's three more of us lost. If they had just waited like I told 'em, they'd still be-"
"They saved our lives." Talwyn interrupted, making both warbots pause and look at her.
"Yeah they… I wanted to save them but-", Ratchet broke off, remembering the Vullard forcing them to save themselves.
"-He said that they had gone there to do exactly what they did for us… Whatever he meant." Clank finished.
"I see… Well… Thanks to their recklessness we have the Lombaxes back with us… There may be hope for the Alliance after all… All right, come on, there's lots to discuss: monsters to shoot, plans to review, ships to blow up, more monsters to shoot, shipments to intercept, etcetera, etcetera… Name's Locke by the way. Welcome aboard the Phoenix."
Locke and Derek turned and started walking away, the trio hurrying after them and their confusion mounting.
"Wait, 'Alliance'? What is this?" asked Rivet, temporarily broken free of her distrustful and pointed silence.
"And what is all this talk of monsters, shipments, and blowing up ships?" Kit added.
They walked through a large set of sliding double-doors that hissed and hummed as they opened and closed of their own accord, leading them into a hallway off which branched many other, smaller doors to different rooms and passages. Ratchet could see people gathered around tables, discussing things in serious voices, though he could not catch what it was about which they spoke. Other rooms appeared to be break rooms, as he caught a glimpse of a couple of Fongoids playing a tabletop game, and one which he was quite sure was a lunchroom, as enticing scents wafted into the hallway.
Locke's head spun around on his neck and looked back at the female Lombax and the diminutive bot on her back, still walking forward.
"You pulling my servos? You just escaped from the sand shark's den and you're askin' questions like that?" He turned his face and kept walking.
"No, really, you guys gotta tell us what the hell is happening here. We don't know anything about an 'Alliance' or-", began Ratchet, but Derek cut him off with a mirthless laugh.
"These two… dead set on that façade, eh? Well, I gotta hand it to ya – ain't never met a Lombax so dedicated to keeping it going!"
"Locke, Derek, listen!" said Talwyn angrily.
The two warbots paused and turned around, looking surprised at the Markazian's tone of voice.
"I don't know what's going on either – none of us do!"
"Agreed." said Clank.
Derek and Locke looked at each other, evidently confused.
"You sayin' you expect us to believe that you are utterly clueless about this operation?", asked
Locke incredulously. He looked at all three of them – Clank and Kit being on the two Lombaxes' backs, and skepticism in his eyes.
"Precisely!" answered Kit.
Derek and Locke exchanged another look.
"You mean to tell us that none of you, not even you two - ", said Derek, looking from Rivet to Ratchet. "- have any clue about what's going on in this- no, in every galaxy in this system?"
They all shook their heads.
"But… what the sam hill were you doing on Havenon IV then? Everybody knows that every surviving Lombax pulled back there weeks ago! Don't tell us you had no idea what you were getting into?!"
Ratchet, feeling the heat in his face at their incredulity, scoffed.
"Pffft, well, of course we did!" he began, but Clank nudged him hard on the back of his arm. "I mean, yeah, sort of, buuut, actually no." Ratchet added, rubbing the spot Clank had hit him.
"Look, whatever's going on in this system, we're completely in the dark; all five of us have been in another dimension for-", Talwyn began, but Derek cut her off.
"'Dimension?! Right, that's enough messin' around! There's too much to go over right now without-"
"Perhaps this will convince you." Clank interrupted.
He had drawn the Dimensionator at which both warbots gasped and leapt back.
"You-?! Where did you get that?! It was destroyed nearly eight years ago!" Locke demanded, his red eyes wide with shock and - was it possible? – fear.
"And it should have stayed that way!", Derek added, sounding just as shocked and fearful.
Ratchet stared at the two warbots. It was odd, seeing these two figures who so-sharply resembled the fearless, if clumsy, warbots he had known for so long, full of tension.
"So, you know what this is then… Do you believe us now? We can talk about how we got it later.", he asked, his brows contracting closer together.
Both warbots looked at each other again.
"I think they're tellin' the truth, Locke…"
The taller warbot eased up, but looked no less dumbfounded.
"So… you… you really aren't Lombaxes from Havenon IV, aren't apart of the Alliance, and you really don't have any idea about what's happened…?"
"You gonna tell us or what?" demanded Rivet.
Both warbots sighed, then jerked their heads up the hallway.
"Come with us, there's a LOT to tell you."
Minutes later the seven of them were seated at a long, curved table, each seat facing the center of the room in the center of which was a large console, and on the wall behind was a large holoscreen.
"All right then listen up rooks…" Derek had gotten to his feet and walked to the center of the room, his voice firm and determined.
Ratchet sat up straighter, the muscle memory from times gone by when he had served as a Galactic Ranger and a Commando for MegaCorp clicking in.
"It all began about sixty-two hundred years ago, when the—"
"Oh for lamb's sake, save the long story for later! Start with the present! You know, the essentials!
"But they gotta know how it began in order to appreciate the gravity of the situation! Or have you forgotten new recruits need this info in your age? Run a checksum on your sisterboard ya dolt, you're missing critical sections of memory!"
Ratchet felt the tension in the room break instantly as the two warbots began bickering over details. The sight reminded him so forcefully of Cronk and Zephyr it filled him with as much joy and amusement as it did grief.
Rivet nudged Kit.
"Five bolts on the big guy striking first?"
The small yellow bot narrowed her eyes, frowning slightly at her friend, but snickered as Rivet raised an eyebrow at her.
Talwyn got up and moved between the two warbots, pushing them apart.
"Locke, Derek, cut it out! Look, whatever's going on is obviously critical, so we can't waste time arguing over details like which part of the story to hear first! Tell us what's been happening here like you said earlier and we can hear the details later if necessary."
The two warbots looked at her for a moment, then relaxed, stepping away from each other.
"You ever considered a job as head of the Defense Force, missy? We could use someone with a temperament like yours if we get outta this alive!"
Talwyn rolled her eyes and returned to her seat, but Ratchet saw her smirking as she sat back down while the warbots gathered their thoughts.
"Okay, here's the short version, so get ready – we're at war, rooks, and we're losing. The enemy is growing larger every day – if not from the emperor's experiments, then by those bowing to him out of fear of his Heralds… the yellowbellies."
"Wait, 'Heralds'? 'War?' 'Emperor'?!" blurted Rivet, looking tense. Kit, seated on Rivet's right, placed a hand on her bionic arm and made a 'shh'-ing gesture.
"Heralds – foul alien-machine thingamajigs you undoubtedly became acquainted with on Havenon IV – created by the emperor for his imperial military." Derek supplied. "This Lord Valen fellow you lot just met - he's one-a those yellowbellied fools that crawled up to the emperor when he showed up on his homeworld, sniveling and begging for mercy… And unfortunately for us, the emperor did a bit of research! Lord Valen was once a renowned scientist and inventor; his
resources and influence armed the Heralds with stronger weapons and turned many who would have risen against the emperor over to his side... cowards…"
"As though the emperor and his Heralds on their own weren't bad enough, things have just gotten worse since Valen went over - Every day more of us die, more planets fall, and the enemy grows more powerful." Said Locke.
"It's not just domination though! He's looking for something and he's tearing the entire system apart in his search." Derek added.
"And he doesn't seem to care how much destruction he causes to get it." supplied Locke. "Doesn't surprise me, given his heritage…"
"No idea where he even came from… Thought his kind were extinct! Well, so did everybody else!" Locke added, defensively.
"Five months ago he just… showed up and invaded Kerwan! He an' his 'Heralds' destroyed half of Aleero City in hours. By the time we got there it was too late; the city had fallen and there weren't enough of us to take it back."
Ratchet felt shock course through him. Kerwan, fallen… He and Clank had once lived there before moving to Corson V. He glanced at Clank beside him and saw his own despair and shock mirrored back at him in his friend's vibrant green eyes.
"But it didn't stop there –", Derek went on. "-He destroyed half the Solana Galaxy, then moved to the Polaris Galaxy, then Hexton, Phyrgos, and finally here! Imperial outposts cropping up all over the system, patrols, prison convoys, you name it."
"BUT…" Locke intervened, dramatically. "The Lombaxes - they returned! Outta nowhere just like the emperor did. They established the Rebel Alliance, and at last things were looking up – if they could pull miracles like defeating the Cragmites in the Great War, they could do it again. Aaaand for a while it looked like they would but-" Locke broke off, his mechanical teeth bared, the memory apparently painful and frustrating.
Derek resumed for him-
"The Emperor knew they would show themselves. And when he'd learned they'd come back, made himself vulnerable. Of course, we thought we had caught him an' his forces off-guard, but no – he baited us like puffoids in a fishing competition on Pokitaru!"
Locke picked back up -
"One minute a legion of Lombaxes rushing in to take him an' his army out, the next, EVERY one of them were GONE!"
Locke smashed his fist into the table in anger at the last word, making Kit jump.
"So now Derek an' I are in charge… But that's beside the point. The emperor had some sorta… Heaven knows what… still not sure what it was after all this time… Seemed like Lombax technology; tore right through their armor like it wasn't even there!"
Ratchet's eyes widened, a knife of dread piercing through him like this weapon that had slain his species.
'(Lombax technology)'…
The fear he had experienced briefly and the thoughts that had passed through his mind as he looked at the fallen Lombaxes on Havenon IV resurfaced, more certain and terrible than before.
"This emperor… what's his name!?", Ratchet said urgently.
Rivet, Kit, and Talwyn looked at him, surprised.
Again, he felt like he already knew the answer, but… he had to know for certain.
Locke and Derek stared at him too.
"…Seems a wonder you don't know his name already, son; Every one of your kind knows-"
"-Tell me!" Ratchet shouted, standing up, his hands splayed on the table.
"…Percival Tachyon." said Derek.
Talwyn gasped, and Clank looked up at the male Lombax in shock. Ratchet simply stared at the two warbots, his mind struggling to come to grips with what he had just heard. Sure, he had suspected this in the back of his mind, but just… how…? Tachyon was supposed to be in exile – trapped eternally in dimension A2-66 after the first Dimensionator was destroyed. How the hell could he have escaped?
'(the Dimensional Cataclysm…)', a small voice said in his mind.
Of course… This was the only thing that made sense. When he – Ratchet – had shot the Dimensionator during the Festival of Heroes, the universe had become riddled with dimensional rifts. And then it was stolen by Emperor Nefarious, who had used it so recklessly that the dimensions had come to the point of imploding. And hadn't Derek and Locke said that Tachyon had appeared five months ago? This would place his return at roughly the same time the Dimensional Cataclysm took place, or rather, was averted, and when he and Clank had returned to D2-416 with Rivet and Kit to liberate their dimension.
As Ratchet stood there, dazed and coming to terms with what they were facing, something much more alarming suddenly clunked into place in his stupefied mind. Tachyon… the bloodthirsty, genocidal leader of the Cragmites, who carried a burning vendetta against Lombax-kind… back.
Ratchet's head jerked in the direction of Rivet, who was sitting beside Talwyn. He stared at the female Lombax, his chest flooding with ice.
This fear… it was unlike any he had ever felt. It wasn't like the fear he experienced when he had realized, seconds before fighting it, that the Blarg's secret project was a remote-controlled snagglebeast, not even the fear that coursed through him when the Nethers had infiltrated their world… For the first time, he was not scared of what might happen to him – a fear that was manageable and which he could control - no, he was scared of what might happen to her – to someone for whom he harbored feelings. Whatever danger she had been in under Nefarious' rule, she was in a hundred times more in a system where Tachyon was Emperor.
Rivet stared back, curiously at first, but then she saw that look in his eyes – an emotion she had never seen there before.
"Uhh… Ratchet…? What's wrong?"
He didn't speak; he didn't even move- he just continued to stare at her, his mind stuck in limbo.
She started to blush and shook her head. Directing her attention to the room at large and trying to rid the look on Ratchet's face from her mind, she asked –
"…Who's 'Tachyon'?"
"Tachyon… is the reason the Lombaxes went into hiding – the reason you and Ratchet were in different dimensions." Clank said quietly.
Kit gasped and looked up at Rivet, who stared at Clank. She was silent for a time, then, putting two and two together, gasped.
"You mean he did… that to the Lombaxes on…?"
"Well, in a manner of speaking, miss - ", Derek said suddenly.
Everyone looked back at him.
"That's the uh… Last part of the story, see?" Derek Continued - "When the emperor laid waste to our assault, we scattered; most rebels returned to the Phoenix, and the Lombaxes who survived fell back to Havenon IV to regroup and plan their next move… But Tachyon was determined this time to not let them escape as they had some twenty-five years ago."
"He's a lot more powerful now than he was in the stories I heard… Been buildin' an army using all manner of foul experiments and-", Locke began, but Derek interrupted him.
"-He's got somethin' else now too - He released it when he found 'em on Havenon IV… Some… some sorta beast… What the Heralds didn't kill, that thing did… Never saw anything quite like it, the way it just… tears them apart… We were actually on our way to try and help when we ran into you bunch caught by that fool Valen."
Ratchet's mind raced as he took this information in. So they had arrived in Havenon IV mere hours, if not minutes after Tachyon's attack…
The silence was at last broken by Talwyn. "The Lombaxes… they're all… gone?"
Ratchet's eyes flickered briefly onto Rivet, and he could have sworn hers had done the same to him. He felt the heat in the room rising as the implications of Talwyn's question, and one particularly specific, possible answer the bots could give crept into his mind.
"Well, at last I have some good news for ya-", said Locke, and Ratchet gratefully jerked his mind back to the present, away from a fantasy that had begun to threaten the corner of his subconscious.
"-Those Lombaxes always got them a plan B, a plan C, a plan D, and of course they also got their plans E, F, G, H, I, J, K L, M, N-"
"Cut to the chase ya bucket of bolts!"
"Okay fine! The point is… No, there are a handful who survived. Turns out some pulled back and fled to someplace besides Havenon IV – someplace that, honestly, I don't even think they knew about. But we received a holomessage from one of their archivists about an hour after the attack, informing us that he and about a hundred others had gone someplace else. No clue where, but rest assured they're safe… for now."
There was another long silence during which all five heroes looked at one another. Ratchet's mind flooded with possibilities and the road ahead, finally falling on Rivet… How he wished he could take her back to her home dimension – where she would be safe. But he couldn't. As their eyes met, he saw that fire that he had become so-attached to flickering in them once more – the fire of adventure and justice. He knew she would never back down – that she would fight until the very end.
Much like how he would have never backed out until her dimension was free from Emperor Nefarious, she would not rest until his was free of Tachyon. As these unspoken words flew between them, his heart flooded with resolve as well as renewed confidence. He stood up once more.
"Sign me up. I'm joining the Alliance." he said, firmly.
"And me." Rivet added, also standing. She still had a fairly distrustful glare in her eyes as she looked at the two old warbots, but she couldn't back down with so much at stake.
The Lombaxes' companions leapt onto their respective friends' backs.
"Me as well", they chorused, and the two diminutive robots glanced at each other before chuckling softly.
"EXCELLENT!" barked Locke. "We will go over plans tomorrow at first light; lots to disc-"
"We're travelling at warp-speed ya bafoon, there's constant light, remember?!"
"It's an expression ya lousy brainless-!"
"Who are you callin' 'brainless' ya ancient, wasted package of-"
Talwyn got to her feet, once again pushing the two bickering warbots away from each other.
"Guys, enough!"
Both warbots ceased their arguing and stepped away from each other and Talwyn, looking curiously at her once again.
"Okay… Looks like you guys will be needing some support. Count me in too. I'll be able to help you both on the field and from the bridge."
"We call it 'Command' in these parts, missy!" said Derek indignantly. "Cut it with the 'missy' crap; the name's Talwyn Apogee." Both warbots looked aghast.
"'Apogee'…?! My apologies, madam!" Derek said hastily, bowing his head in an apologetic gesture.
"You… never knew a 'Max' Apogee, did you?", asked Locke
Talwyn blinked. "He was my father."
Both warbots looked astonished before they saluted her.
"Why didn't ya say so?! Locke and Derek at your service, Madam Apogee!"
Talwyn stared at them, evidently lost for words as well as in her own thoughts.
As Ratchet, Rivet, Clank, and Kit made for a lower level where the barracks were located, Talwyn remained behind with Locke and Derek, being brought up to speed on her new role as head of Command, to which the two old bots could be heard swearing to guard her with their lives.
'(I'd be willing to bet a hundred bolts that Tachyon isn't the only one who came here from another dimension…)', Ratchet thought to himself.
They reached the rooms Locke and Derek had told them of, coming to a halt outside the two neighboring doors.
"Our own rooms…?", Rivet asked, surprised.
Indeed, what they had expected to be two rooms full of beds and fellow rebels was in fact two small rooms, complete with bunk-bed, bathroom, and even what resembled a small living room, complete with chair and window, through which Ratchet could see the vibrant colors of the millions of stars they passed.
"I got top bunk." Clank said. He dashed into his and Ratchet's room and leapt onto the ladder, scrambling up to the top bed and kicking back, his hands behind his head.
"As do I." said Kit excitedly, and she too dashed forward and leapt onto the top bunk.
The corners of Ratchet's mouth twitched at the sight and he started forward. His face averted from the female Lombax, he said –
"Night Rivet".
But Rivet caught his arm. He seized up instantly and felt goosebumps erupt up his back. He blinked and looked down before turning to look her in the face. The lights from the window danced in her eyes, making it hard for him to read her expression.
"Are you okay, Ratchet?", she asked.
Looking at her so close was like trying to look into a brilliant light after spending a day in darkness
– so attractive, so warm and making his insides swell, yet difficult to keep his eyes open at the brilliance thereof.
"Y-yeah! Just… Just a lot to think about, y'know." he said, his ears drooping and his tail flicking around nervously.
Rivet looked at him for a moment, her ears straight like normal, her tail relaxed behind her, and her face expressionless. It was impossible to tell what she was thinking with those lights from outside the ship dancing so vehemently on the surface of her eyes.
"…We'll take your dimension back Ratchet… I swear it."
"Oh."
Ratchet's ears flicked back up, his nerves relaxing slightly.
"Right… Yeah!" he said, a hint of his old confidence present in his voice.
"…Just like we did mine." she added.
Ratchet blinked then smiled, his confidence growing.
"You bet we will."
A slight smile appeared on her face as she released his arm.
"Thanks Rivet." He said as she turned toward hers and Kit's room.
She paused and turned her head slightly, her eyes flicking back at him.
"Thank you, Ratchet… For all you did for us… Night."
She walked into their room and the door shut with a soft hiss.
"G'night, Riv…" he said softly.
His chest swelled with affection for her as he stood on the spot, staring at where the door had shut, hiding her from his view, though still seeing her as though her image was burned into his retinas.
"Ratchet, are you sleeping outside? There is a perfectly warm and comfortable bed below mine, you know."
The voice of Clank was like a drop of cold water, jerking him from his trance. Wrenching his gaze from Rivet's and Kit's door, he spun on the spot.
"Sorry pal! Just… that was a hell of a briefing, huh?", he said animatedly, gesturing his hands all around, his mind still reeling from his little one-on-one talk with Rivet.
Clank stared at him then shook his head as Ratchet entered their room and shut the door.
From around the corner, watching from the base of the stairs and unnoticed by any, a certain Markazian had been standing; watching and listening to the Lombaxes' interactions.