Ratchet and Clank: The Long Road Home

by ASmash5Lucario

Rivet's and Kit's dimension is finally liberated from the remainder of Emperor Nefarious' forces, and the two Lombaxes are finally about to go to the Lombax Dimension. But something terrible has happened in Ratchet's and Clank's dimension while they were away, and the 4 heroes will to need to rely on each other if they're to survive the long road ahead of them

25. Where It All Began

NOTES:

If you want a better-formated version of this story,

some of the chapters of which will contain pictures and illustrations of certain scenes,

head over to Archive of Our Own!

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Where It Began

Chapter Summary

The heroes have found a potential lead to the Lombaxes' whereabouts that is pointing them to Taleba V, a hidden planet in the Cerullean Sector. However, conditions on Taleba V are harsh, and there's no sign of life anywhere.

However, there's more to this frozen, barren wasteland than meets the eye...

"There it is-", the Markazian called over her shoulder, "Taleba V."

Ratchet straightened up, attempting to look over the top of the pilot and co-pilot seats and catch a glance of the unknown planet.

The Phoenix exited warp speed only a few minutes prior. It was fortunate they had already been near the Cerullean Sector prior to the jump; Ratchet had almost expected for them to be stopped by another Imperial Interceptor, after what happened the last time they had tried to warp across sectors.

Talwyn explained, as Ratchet curiously watched Skidd and Phantom working on the ship, that, taking note from what Rivet had said during the meeting at Command how it was only too likely that activity around a supposedly empty, hostile planet would catch the attention of Tachyon's Empire, the cam-o-matic cloaking field generator would allow them to land upon and explore Taleba V for as long as they needed with no fear of retribution.

"You'll still be solid as a rock-", Phantom had said, "But these bad boys suppress every light, every sound, and every signal its user gives off. The user in this case being your ship."

Skidd had gone on to explain how while Ratchet and Rivet were exiled on Veracros, the pirates' use of the Defabrication Transmitters netted the Alliance with several of these devices, and the two Aridians had taken lead on charging up the Phoenix with these miracle tools making it much easier, as the advertisements said, 'for the user to carry out dubiously legal activities'.

"Though to be fair-" Clank said in response when Kit had raised this point, "Tachyon's new laws are of themselves far more ethically and morally questionable, so I feel no remorse in bending a few rules."

All had boarded the starcraft and been prepared to launch when a slight hold-up in the form of the

two Lombaxes arguing over who would pilot surfaced again. It was quickly dissipated however when Talwyn marched straight passed the two arguing Lombaxes, dragging a confused and startled looking Zedderek in her wake, and sat right down in the pilot's seat before, with a significant look and flicking of the eyes, Zedderek complied and sat beside her, leaving both Lombaxes aggrieved and resentful.

"The flight is less than five minutes." Talwyn said sharply, "You two can sit in the passenger seats for a change, it won't kill you!"

And so, the HG-06 starship had departed a mere two minutes later, its frame, signature, and roar of its engines vanishing into oblivion as Talwyn activated the cloaking field generator, and both the vessel and all its passengers vanished.

True to Talwyn's word, the trip was indeed very short, for not two minutes had passed before the ship vibrated subtly as they approached Taleba V's atmosphere, which swirled with white and gray clouds, clearly in the middle of a storm of some kind.

"Hang on guys!" Talwyn called again, redoubling her grip on the yoke, "We got some-" *KATHUNK, BUMP CRRRREAK* "-Turbulence!"

"Thanks for the warning." Rivet said under her breath, straightening up and rubbing her head from where she had banged it against the window as the ship had jolted and shook in the wind.

Ratchet, who had fallen to the floor from his seat, pulled himself up on a handrail.

"Don't you say a word." He snapped, as Clank, looking smug, watched the Lombax resume his seat and buckled in. He knew Clank was just bursting to say 'told you so', in respect to Ratchet's objections to strap in for such a short trip.

The ship jerked, rattled, and trembled, the wind beating fiercely on its side as though determined to keep them from landing.

"Tal… Are you uh… REALLY sure about this?" Ratchet asked, trying to hide any trepidation in his voice as one of the engines sputtered and Talwyn was forced to redirect their course to avoid being rolled over by the fierce push of the wind.

He had flown through thousands of storms, and even through black holes and never broken a sweat, but… well, he wasn't the one in the cockpit right now. Sure, Tal was a good pilot in her own right, but, well… she wasn't experienced in such situations.

"Yeah! Don't worry Ratchet, I got this!" Talwyn said, and though her voice was firm, he could tell she was having second thoughts about not letting the Lombaxes fly.

"Zedd-" Talwyn said briskly, making the rigid-from-fright Tharpod scientist-turned-DJ jump in his seat, "Run a quick terrascan of the planet and please tell me we're almost outta this."

Fumbling slightly, Zedderek brought up the console and initiated the scan, wincing slightly and gripping the arm of his seat as the ship rumbled again.

"Y-yes!" he said, sounding relieved, "seven-hundred meters! And…"

Zedderek cut off, his eyes widening momentarily in surprise.

"…How odd…" he said quietly, his eyes fixed on the holo-screen in front of him.

"What? What's odd? What do you see?" Talwyn said, frustration in her voice now as Zedderek continued to muse in silence over what he learned of the planet and the ship rocked violently again.

But then, as suddenly as a lightbulb bursting, dull sunlight flooded through the windows, the roaring of the wind stopped, and the ship's rumbling ceased as it stabilized.

Everyone blinked, their eyes unprepared for the sudden, instant transition from artificial to natural light.

Talwyn rubbed her eyes impatiently and blinked again.

"What the…"

Ratchet mimicked the Markazian and directed his attention past Rivet and out of the window, and felt a jolt of surprise.

The swirling storm through which they had floundered was gone. The sky was now full of wispy grey clouds, through which passed shafts of light from the distant sun, and the clouds themselves drifted about on a gentle breeze, contrasting starkly with the powerful gale through which they had flown earlier.

"…This, Miss Apogee…" Zedderek finished.

Taleba V was a rocky, mountainous planet, covered in a thick blanket of snow, and littered with crevices and ravines that descended into deepest darkness. Scattered sparsely were occasional clusters of some variation of evergreen trees, capped with a canopy of white.

Other than the stunning beauty of untouched, pure-white snow and the towering mountains however, there wasn't a whole lot more to say about the place as far as Ratchet was concerned.

Rivet however, seemed quite entranced.

"So this is snow?" she asked, glancing back at Ratchet, Clank, and Kit, her ears perked up in interest before pressing her nose to the glass once more. "I've heard people talk about it but I've never seen it myself…" she finished, her eyes glittering as she took in the sight, as though she had never seen anything so stunningly pretty in her life.

But then, Ratchet reminded himself, she had grown up under the tyranny of Emperor Nefarious, and spent all of her adolescence and young adult life prior to the Cataclysm helping lead the Resistance. It was unlikely she had ever had the luxury of travelling far to see new places other than the few planets in whatever galaxy she lived in.

Safely free of the turbulence above, Ratchet unbuckled and inched closer her side, his heart thumping.

He smirked, a terribly cheesy thought springing to mind at what he could say over her entrancement of the beautiful scene laid out before her, but he thought better of it.

"Quite a sight, isn't it?" Ratchet asked softly, placing a hand on her shoulder, and a small smile curled her lips.

"So-", Talwyn said, and both Lombaxes looked around. "What's going on? Why'd it stop storming all of a sudden? Clank? Kit? Zedd?"

"Atmospheric Gatekeeper." Said Zedderek, and both Clank's and Kit's optics flickered in sudden

understanding. "I have heard of them before, but never have I actually seen one in action."

"Atmospheric Gatekeeper-", Kit repeated, "-A rare, but highly advanced defensive mechanism designed to force back raiders. To the skilled pilot, the winds would prove a powerful weapon to instill fear and unease."

"To the lesser-skilled – Death." amended Clank, solemnly.

"…Well-" Talwyn said, and Ratchet could tell she was smirking, "Looks like you guys-" she turned around and pointed back at the two Lombaxes- "-Just earned yourselves a new ace pilot!"

"For the record Tal-" said Ratchet, a little defensively, "I never said you weren't a good pilot."

"Yeah, but when's the last time ya let me fly, huh?"

"Tal-"

"C'mon Fuzzy, no games, you know as well as I do the answer is 'never'!"

"Talwyn, if I may interrupt-" Clank began, but Talwyn went on as Ratchet interrupted Clank.

"Do I hear an apology coming?" she teased.

"Tal, look-"

"It's all right, take your time Ratch, I can wait all day if I have to."

"Captain!" Zedderek shouted.

"What?"

Talwyn turned around, and promptly swore at the top of her voice as she jerked the yoke hard to avoid crashing into a grove of trees atop a hill, to which the ship had lowered without the Markazian's realization.

"Eyes up front, slick!" Rivet jeered, and Talwyn flushed, feeling a mixture of embarrassment, frustration, and amusement, remembering how she had used to direct those exact same words at Ratchet when he would get distracted while piloting in Kerwan.

"All right you guys-", Talwyn said, apparently choosing to act as though nothing had just happened, "Keep an eye out for anything odd. If this planet has defense systems set up then there's definitely something hidden here. Clank, Kit – keep your scanners at the ready for possible anti-air weaponry. I doubt a snowstorm is the worst that our hosts could think of to keep intruders out…"

And so they flew, eyes raking the mountainsides, the little frigid clusters of woodland, the snowy fields, and icy rivers. Talwyn and Zedderek checked the radar continually, while Clank and Kit ran regular sonar scans.

An hour passed, and no sign of anything interesting.

Ratchet was beginning to feel cold. The heating in the HG-06 starship wasn't the best, and though there was no gale, the frigid air from outside seemed to creep its way in through the glass.

Another hour passed, and the sun was showing signs of beginning to set.

Rivet rubbed her eyes.

She looked as tired as Ratchet felt; Both Lombaxes were running on twenty hours of no sleep. Talwyn appeared to be tired as well, but she showed no sign of slowing down or wanting to turn back.

Another silent, thirty minutes, and Ratchet's patience were beginning to wane.

It was just an abandoned, freezing planet. There was no way anyone or anything could live here, it was too remote, too harsh. And who knew? What if this was all a big, elaborate plot set in motion by the pirates, or Tachyon himself? What if Styggs purposefully allowed his transmission to be intercepted, and the Map was planted on Kelith Minor specifically to lure the Alliance to Taleba V, where the storm would wipe them out and spare the empire any more trouble?

They flew on, and eventually the smooth, glassy surface of a frozen lake passed below, reflecting their starship in near perfect detail.

"Wait-!" Zedderek barked, sitting up and leaning forward and making them all jump. "That island…! Captain, take us down! Take us down now!"

Looking stunned and confused, Talwyn nevertheless obliged, and the ship began its descent.

"Wait, what?! We're landing? Here?" spluttered Ratchet.

Ratchet had seen it too – a small island, bathed in a dull ray of sunlight that shot through the clouds.

Had Zedderek lost his mind? They had been flying over this wasted, frozen planet for two and a half hours without so much as a hint of anything odd or dangerous, but at the sight of this totally nondescript island the Tharpod was suddenly possessed by an insane desire to go galivanting through the snow!

Talwyn ignored Ratchet's protest however and brought the ship lower.

There was a small *bump* and the ship's engines disengaged.

Zedderek leapt up and spun around, hurrying to the door.

"Tawlyn, what's the idea?" Rivet asked incredulously as the Markazian rose from her seat, "Look the snow's pretty n' all, but I'm freezing! Are we really about to go an' check out some frozen island? There's no way Zedderek saw anything from up there!"

Rivet wasn't looking at the Tharpod directly, and Ratchet could tell she still had misgivings about him. Sure, he had changed sides and worked for the Alliance now, but as far as Rivet was concerned, he was still half-responsible for the mess the universe was in now. He had helped bring Tachyon back to power, and helped the Cragmite exterminate thousands of lives, particularly Lombaxes. To Rivet, the fact that he had assisted the Alliance meant little. He could easily be a double agent, trying to lure them all to this frozen wasteland before jacking the ship and leaving them there to freeze to death.

Talwyn seemed to read Rivet's mind.

The Markazian approached the Lombax as the Tharpod began entering the code to open the door.

"Listen-" she said under her breath, "I know you guys haven't been around him long enough for you to have built trust in him, but he's been a big help to us since he changed sides. I don't understand how he could have seen anything either, but we have to trust him now. We're out of

options otherwise, and I've no clue where to go next if there's nothing here. It's a small island, it won't take long."

Rivet didn't appear convinced as Talwyn straightened up and joined Zedderek's side.

The female Lombax looked around at Ratchet, her ears drooped slightly.

Ratchet looked around at Clank, who gave the male Lombax a reassuring nod, and Ratchet gave a sigh.

There was no way to get around this one…

"Well… Let's go." He said, resigned, and he stood up, helping Clank onto his back and holding out a hand to Rivet.

Rivet glanced down at Kit, and like Clank, the yellow bot nodded.

The female Lombax sighed like her boyfriend, then took his hand, getting to her feet before Kit leapt onto her back.

The door opened, and the temperature dropped exponentially.

Ratchet, already chilly, felt goosebumps erupting all over his body, making his fur prickle and stand on end.

Knowing that delaying would only make his discomfort last longer, Ratchet steeled himself and followed Zedderek and Talwyn down the small ramp and onto the snowy bank of the frozen island.

Ratchet's eyes widened and his arms clung to his body as he began to shiver. The air was thin and freezing, and there was a breeze that, though light, seemed to wick away what little heat the Lombax had left in his body.

He had just started following after the trail of footprints in the deep snow leading up a small incline and into a thicket of trees when he heard Rivet gasp behind him, and he looked back.

Her tail had twisted around her body and her ears had flopped. Her teeth were chattering, and her mismatched arms were wrapped around her for warmth.

Though freezing himself, his nerves protesting as though enduring physical pain, Ratchet felt an overwhelming sense of sympathy for her that erased everything else. The sight of her standing there, shivering so violently and looking so uncomfortable was exercising an extraordinary pull over his heart.

Ratchet walked back and reached around her, pulling her close to his side.

"W-w-what are you… D-doing?" she gasped, her breath rising in a misty fog.

"Sh-sharing the w-warmth, Riv…" he gasped back.

Rivet's cheeks glowed slightly pink, her breath still shaky, but a grateful and affectionate smile appearing on her face.

"'Tis unfortunate you left all your armor in D2-416." Clank sighed, "Long sleeves would have benefited you both greatly in such conditions."

"Th-thanks for the info b-buddy…"

The two Lombaxes, their robot companions at their backs, set off again, following the trail left in the otherwise undisturbed snow from where Talwyn and Zedderek had passed earlier.

"You two okay?" Talwyn asked a couple minutes later when the four had finally caught up in a patch of trees, which thankfully blocked the breeze.

"F-f-fantastic… heh…" Ratchet answered, with a feeble attempt at a chuckle.

"F-frickin' great…" Rivet added, squeezing Ratchet more closely, and making the male Lombax's cheeks feel, in spite of the frigid climate, exceptionally warm.

"S-so… W-we found anything yet?" Ratchet asked.

Talwyn raised an eyebrow at them. It was obvious that they were both freezing, but it was only -4 degrees C with the sun still out, and she knew the Lombax had been in cold environments like this one before. Were they really that cold, or were they just trying to hurry them up?

But before she could answer or pose any further questions of her own-

"Lombaxes, Captain, Robots, come! Come look at this!"

Distracted, the two Lombaxes and the Markazian hurried in the direction of Zedderek's voice.

Rounding a turn in the trees, they found themselves in a small clearing, in the center of which were a group of rough-looking monuments, some small, others large; a few angular, the rest smooth. The one thing they all had in common however, was they all seemed to be made of the same kind of blackened stone.

"What are those…?" Kit asked from Rivet's back, clearly having just done a scan of the perimeter, "They are unlike any memorials I have seen in my studies on Savali."

"My database holds no records of such creations either." Clank added.

Though not wishing to step away from one another, their curiosity overruled, and the two Lombaxes separated, each to examine a different obelisk.

"How the heck did you know this was here, Zedd?" Talwyn asked, looking over her shoulder at the Tharpod, who was running his long fingers slowly over one of the larger stones as though searching for something.

"A sun-bathed island, in frozen heart of a lake..." he breathed, his eyes still on the rough surface of stone. "They always loved their riddles…"

Talwyn raised an eyebrow and stared at him.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"…"

"…Oookay." The Markazian muttered, a little confused, and she turned around to look for more clues.

A short distance away, Ratchet, shivering violently, bent forward to examine another obelisk.

"(…This is s-s-stupid…)" he said privately as he examined the small stone from front to back. "(F f-f-freezin' our t-t-tails off… N-nothin' here but some f-f-frickin' rocks…!)"

His eyes drifted over to Rivet.

Her tail was wrapped close to her body again, and even from fifteen feet away Ratchet could see the female Lombax quivering with cold, rubbing her exposed left arm vigorously with her metal hand in an effort to warm up.

He suddenly realized his own tail had whipped around him for warmth, though the effect was much less satisfactory than he was sure it would have been had his tail been as bushy and fluffy as Rivet's.

Little though he wanted to, he returned to examining the mundane stones with a shaky sigh.

The freezing conditions put him in mind of the pleasant Spring air of Veracros, and how it was never too hot, and never too cold. He soon after found himself longing for the mornings he and Rivet spent there, the lazy early daylight hours cuddling and caressing each other beneath the warm blankets helping her wash in the shower, the room filled with hot, comfortable steam…

"What does it say, Ratch?"

"W-wha?" Ratchet gasped, his wistful fantasies bursting like a bubble from Clank's sudden, unexpected query. "W-what are ya t-t-talkin' about?"

"That writing, on the stone you just examined. What did it say?"

Writing…? There was no writing on the obelisk… In fact, as far as he could tell, Ratchet saw nothing on any of the stone obelisks in the snowy clearing…

Nevertheless, Ratchet turned back around and bent over the small stone monument once more, examining it more closely.

Clank hopped down, and promptly sank chassis-deep into the snow.

Freeing himself with Ratchet's assistance, Clank's glowing green optics narrowed, cocking his head to one side, and his chin in one hand.

Ratchet stared at the place where Clank's eyes had fixed, but there was nothing there but blank, rough stone.

At least, that's what he thought.

The longer he stared, the more he saw it – gouge marks in the rough, weather-beaten surface of the stone, vaguely resembling letters, though so worn and aged that it was very difficult to make out.

"I think…" said Clank, "…Yes, it appears to say, 'Rest'… I cannot make out anything more, unfortunately."

"'R-rest'?" said a soft female voice behind them. Rivet and Kit had just joined their side. "The heck's that s-s'pposed to mean?"

"It is possible-", said Kit, "-this this singular word could be an indicator of what this site was created for."

"'Rest'…" repeated Ratchet. "S-so… this some sorta graveyard?"

"It is impossible to say with absolute certainty." Replied Clank, still contemplating the stone obelisk. "But it is a reasonable conclusion to reach based on observations."

Ratchet felt a nudge of frustration.

"So… Zedderek brought us to a f-f-frickin' graveyard?"

"But it's so much MORE than that!"

"So it isn't one? Wanna t-tell us what it is then?" Ratchet asked impatiently, approaching the Tharpod from behind along with Rivet and Talwyn, Clank affixed once more to his back. He was desperate to find some warmth now, and he wasn't in the mood for cryptic puzzles or deliberating the point for the sake of drama.

For answer, Zedderek silently dug the tip of his finger into one of the gouge marks on the large stone he had been examining.

*Clunk*

Talwyn gasped as, with a puff of dust and rubble, a chunk of stone dropped out of the large monument, leaving a large hexagonal depression in its place.

"I knew it!" Zedderek exclaimed, his voice jubilant, and he turned back to face the stunned group behind him. "This, my friends, is undeniable proof!"

"…Proof? Of what?" Kit asked, confusedly.

"'Of what'? My dear sentry bot-"

"(Warbot…)" Clank muttered.

"-It is proof that here, this very spot, was the birthplace of the resistance to the first Cragmite Empire!"

Silence followed this outrageous declaration. The only sound was that of a breeze passing through the sparse limbs of the surrounding trees that remained free of snow, and everyone was staring at the Tharpod, who remained where he stood, still gesturing toward the large slab of rock as though it were a sacred relic for which they had been searching for months.

Ratchet felt his frustration mounting.

He was cold, he was tired, and the Tharpod was making utterly ludicrous pronouncements with absolutely nothing on which to base them.

Talwyn broke the silence.

"Zedd, I… Don't think that's right… The Great War began when the Lombaxes launched a surprise attack on Praxus XII…"

"That's just what they wanted us to think!" said Zedderek, in a tone akin to somebody explaining that 'one plus one equals two'. "It was all a part of the Lombaxes' plan! They needed this place to remain secret so they could have somewhere they could plan and hide if they needed it!"

"'Hide' m-my ass…!" Rivet gasped, scowling at the Tharpod, "N-no way the Lombaxes would… C-come here! Waaayy to… C-cold!"

"Rivet-", Kit said calmly, "He might be onto something; My scans of the vicinity are returning some most intriguing results below us."

"Kit is correct. There is open space and a network of caves in the immediate vicinity." Clank added.

"W-we're on a f-frozen lake, Clank!" Ratchet snapped, the cold biting into his very bones now, "Of c-course there's gonna be caves an' open space b-b-beneath us!"

"Th-this is stupid-" Rivet scoffed, trembling worse than ever, "You guys can… play out here all you want… Ratch n' me are g-goin' back!"

"Ratchet, Rivet wait-", began Talwyn, but the two Lombaxes had already turned and were walking back down the slope to their ship, Ratchet's boots sinking several inches into the thick snow again.

*Thunk*

Ratchet swore loudly as the sound of leather thudding into something large and heavy broke the uncomfortable silence, and next thing Ratchet knew, he was sliding uncontrollably down the hill, the world spinning all around him and snow flying in every direction, every inch of his body suddenly ice-cold.

Rivet gave a startled cry somewhere out of sight, and Clank was grunting and shouting something indistinguishable as they continued to rumble and tumble down the hill, Ratchet's vision becoming obscured as he was enveloped in a ball of snow.

*FLUMP*

As suddenly as it began, everything stopped, and Ratchet's vision cleared.

He was upside down, his back against a tall tree at the edge of the frozen lake, his tail hanging down in front of his face.

"Ugghh… W-what the hell jus… Wait, Clank? Clank!" "Mrf-Mmrrrfff."

Ratchet hastily rolled over and sat up, freeing Clank from being sandwiched between his back and the trunk of the tree.

"S-sorry 'bout that… Y-you all right pal?" Ratchet asked, clutching his head, which felt like it were still spinning on his shoulders.

"Other than my gyro sensor in need of recalibration and the throbbing pain in my cranium, yes I am quite well."

"Ratchet!"

"Clank!"

Ratchet looked up and saw Rivet and Kit hurrying down the slope… Or rather, a seemingly disembodied yellow robot torso struggling through the deep snow and Rivet making strides longer and wider than was natural to try and keep from sinking into the thick white sheets or slipping herself.

"Y-you all right, hotshot?" Rivet asked as she approached, and even through her chattering teeth and her gasps form the cold, he could tell she was fighting the urge to laugh. "That was… q-quite a fall!"

There was a tiny *crack* from above.

Ratchet looked over his head, and promptly had a clump of snow fall on the end of his snout.

His eyes crossed as he struggled to register what had just happened, before they suddenly began to water, and his nose bristled.

"Uhh… Ah…"

Clank looked around, and Rivet and Kit stared.

"Ratchet…?" Clank asked.

"Ahh…! Ah-CHOO!"

Clank was jolted off Ratchet's back as the male Lombax sneezed violently, and the snow blew off his snout as he jumped where he sat.

Rivet snickered, her face working madly, but after a few seconds of spluttering in her effort to maintain her composure, her restraint slipped and she burst into a fit of giggles.

"Rivet…" Kit said in a reproving tone, but the female Lombax merely doubled over as her laughter increased, her mirth at the situation so great that she began to snort.

Though a little annoyed and still unbalanced from what had just happened, the sound of her giggles flooded his heart with warmth and her snorts opened a positive flood of dopamine in his disoriented mind.

"Ratchet, Clank!"

Talwyn was hurrying toward them now, her voice high pitched, as though worried.

She didn't come within ten feet of the quartet however, before she said-

"You gotta get up here! Quickly!"

And she turned back and returned up the trail without another word.

"W-wha… What was that?" Ratchet asked, confused, and feeling a little aggrieved at how she hadn't asked if he was all right.

"Only one way to find out…" Clank said, and he settled himself onto the still-sitting Lombax's back.

Rivet extended her left arm and took Ratchet's hand, effortlessly pulling him to his feet.

Ratchet, almost fully recovered from his disorientation, promptly felt his head spinning again, and he nearly swooned in a rush of pleasure at how easily she could manipulate him, flooding his body with heat so intense he could have sworn the snow around him had begun to melt.

His reaction was not missed by Rivet, who, though still shivering violently, leaned in, a mischievous smile on her face now and her eyes narrowed.

"M-mind on the mission… hotshot~" she hissed in his ear, and Ratchet felt fresh goosebumps that had nothing to do with the cold erupting up his back as she traced one of her metal fingers down his jawline and over his chest.

"And hands to yourself outside of the bedroom!"

"Ow! Kit! D-did'ja have'ta-"

"Mind on the mission, Rivet."

"I… But…! F-fine... Killjoy…"

Grumbling, Rivet started forward again, leading the way back up the path toward the clearing.

The two Lombaxes and bots re-entered the clearing, and saw Talwyn and Zedderek examining something in the snow.

Roused from her disgruntled silence, Rivet's ears perked up in undisguised curiosity.

"W-what're you guys… doing?" she asked, shivering.

Clank however, gasped.

"That… surely is not…"

"But it is…!" Zedderek gasped excitedly, springing to his feet and bounding toward them, making Rivet take several hasty steps back, her eyes wide in trepidation.

He thrust out a hand and grabbed Ratchet by the arm and jerked him forward.

"H-hey! What're you!?"

"You found it! Ratchet you clever son of a Lombax, you found it! How did you know it was there?!"

"F-found? W-whaddayamean f-"

But then as Zedderek released him and he straightened back up, he suddenly realized what the Tharpod and Markazian had been looking at.

It was a large, hexagonal slab of stone, black and worn, just like the large monument the Tharpod had been so entranced by, and still half-buried in snow.

Ratchet's eyes widened and his ears flicked up in sudden understanding. It looked the perfect size for fitting into that depression Zedderek had pointed out earlier.

"I-I mean… Yeah! I just had a th-thought it'd be close by an'… w-well… After all, L-lombaxes got a really keen s-s-sense of smell an-an-and hearing… an' stuff!"

Talwyn raised an eyebrow at him, Zedderek appeared awe-inspired, but Ratchet could hear Clank pressing a hand to his face behind his back.

Rivet however snickered again, and he felt confidence swelling in his chest.

"Well-" said Tawlyn, breaking the chilly silence, "-C'mon then Fuzzy! You sniffed it out, so why don't you do the honors?"

Feeling a little startled at the sudden prompt, Ratchet nevertheless bent down and lifted the large stone out of its white, chilly blanket.

It was quite heavy, but he had managed worse in his many adventures than a hunk of stone.

He negotiated his way through the collection of snow-buried monuments, his frustration of the past two hours extinguished as undeniable excitement began tingling in his fingertips. It still sounded stupid… The Lombaxes? Here? It made no sense at all… But Zedderek had seen something about this island that no one else had, and he knew there was more to this apparently mundane block of stone than met the eye. It was their last lead… If this obelisk didn't have answers, then they had nowhere else to turn.

With all eyes on his back, and everyone holding their breath, Ratchet lifted the stone and slid it neatly into place.

He took a step back and waited.

…And he waited some more.

Nothing whatsoever happened.

The Lombax stared at the memorial, his shaky breath rising in a mist before his eyes.

"(C'mon… C'mon, please do something…)"

But the stone monument merely sat there, looking old and mundane, doing exactly what a rock does best.

Ratchet scoffed, his frustration skyrocketing and threatening to boil over again as he turned around and started walking back.

"I don't wanna hear another word." Ratchet said sharply, passing the stationary Markazian and Tharpod. "W-waste of time, just like I said."

"But… But how?" Zedderek asked, gazing wistfully at the large stone ahead, "Everything else adds up perfectly! How could it not-"

But Ratchet wasn't listening.

"L-let's go, Riv…"

The female Lombax looked as frustrated and cold as he felt.

She gave a curt nod and spun around.

"But Ratchet-" Clank began.

"D-don't wanna hear it, buddy! I've had enough f-f- fun for one day."

"But Ratchet, the hexagon!" said Kit.

"S-stone's nothin' more'an' a broken piece of j-junk, Kit!" Rivet snapped, wrapping her scarf around her neck more securely as she fell into step beside Ratchet.

"It is improperly inserted!" Clank blurted out.

Ratchet froze, and so did Rivet.

The male Lombax looked over his shoulder.

"What…?"

"W-what're you t-t-talkin' about, Bolts?"

Clank hopped down from Ratchet's back, hurried past the still-dumbstruck Markazian and Tharpod, and halted before the monument.

"Look at these markings…" Clank said, and his optical shutters closed, reducing to little more than pinpricks, and the light from his fluorescent green eyes focused into brilliant beams of light that pointed up at the stone slab.

Ratchet remained rooted to the spot.

'Improperly inserted… If that wasn't the silliest thing he'd ever heard… It fit perfectly! How could it be 'improperly inserted?

All the same, Ratchet trusted Clank's intuition. How many times had they been in tight corners, or posed with impossible mysteries, and Clank hadn't been able to see them safely through?

Ratchet sighed, his breath dissipating thickly, and he turned around.

After a brief pause, Rivet turned and followed after him.

"All right… W-what about the markings, pal?" Ratchet asked, wearily.

"Do you not recognize them?" Clank asked, the beams from his eyes moving quickly from one deep gouge mark to the next.

Kit suddenly gasped.

"Yes… Yes, I see it too!"

Kit suddenly jumped from Rivet's back and began scanning the various obelisks around the clearing, as though each one contained priceless information.

"R-really? Cuz we don't…" Rivet said flatly.

"Look more closely." Clank replied shortly. "The rough patches around the edges… The deep holes congregated near the center… It is this very clearing in which we stand."

"And these-" Kit added excitedly, gesturing to the obelisks, "-are the holes in that stone!"

"Precisely!" Clank said, sounding delighted, "If we take that this stone and its markings are a replica of this clearing, and that we are intended to look at this monument from the front, then it follows, logically, that this stone is improperly inserted!"

Talwyn gasped, and both the Lombaxes' ears twitched.

Could it really be that simple?

Ratchet stepped forward again, and Kit returned to Rivet's side as Clank jumped onto Ratchet's back once more.

The male Lombax gazed up at the stone hexagon, cocking his head to one side.

Upon closer inspection he saw, quite clearly, that Clank and Kit were correct; though the stone

hexagon fit perfectly, the etchings and gouge marks loosely resembled a forest clearing, and were all oriented upside down.

"(The details that don't escape you, pal...)"

He dug his fingers into the groves around the edges and prized it free, turning it clockwise until he was looking down on what could be considered an aerial view of the small, wooded clearing, and he placed it back in the large stone monument.

The moment the stone slab was set in place, all the stone monuments in the clearing hummed as if coursing with energy.

A second later, each of the obelisks were illuminated by what appeared to be a circuit of light, all of which flashed brilliantly before sinking into the ground and flew toward the male Lombax.

Ratchet yelped and leapt aside as the streaks of light in the ground flew toward him and Clank, but they merely vanished into the large stone monument.

It began glowing, brighter and brighter, until all six rebels were shielding their eyes from the intense luminosity.

The humming was growing louder, and Ratchet took several hasty steps backward, half expecting the stone monument to explode in a shower of rubble and flame.

But then the light vanished, and the humming stopped.

His eyes watering from the unexpected explosion of light, Ratchet's vision was blurry and he could not immediately discern his surroundings.

"Ratchet…!" Talwyn gasped.

The Lombax blinked rapidly, then lowered his arms.

The light in the monument had condensed into the small ring resembling the wooded clearing, connecting between all the deep gouge marks that represented the stone obelisks that littered the vicinity to make a symbol… One that Ratchet knew only too well.

"Ratchet…" Clank breathed, "That… is the Polaris Coat of Arms…!" "Th-there's a… P-Polaris Coat of Arms?" Rivet gasped.

Ratchet was on the verge of asking her what she meant, but then he remembered. Of course, the Polaris in her dimension wouldn't have a Coat of Arms… Not yet, anyway; The only flag that ever flew in that galaxy had likely belonged to Emperor Nefarious.

"But…" began Talwyn, looking amazed, thought sounding thoroughly confused. "…But what's the Polaris Coat of Arms doing here…? These stones… They date back hundreds of years before Polaris had an established government!"

Talwyn turned to look at Zedderek.

"How did you know this was here?" she demanded once more.

"A reference to a frozen island bathed in light was made in the archives you lot recovered from the Neptune Research Facility." he replied, simply. "It said this place was a cursed Cerullean Zombie burial site... Such nonsense; everyone knows the Cerullean Zombies don't exist… in the Cerullean

sector. That's a myth! They're actually from the Breegus sector! Naturally this was a Lombax-made rumor to keep people who might have learned of this place away. Every half-decent Lombax researcher knows that!"

"Er… Right…"

*CRASH*

Everyone jumped as the ground quaked violently.

There was a sound of grinding and the humming noise had returned.

Ratchet drew a burst pistol, half expecting an ambush, but no. What happened next was the last thing he would have expected.

The clearing in which they stood was sinking slowly into the earth, the trees rising higher and higher, the stone monuments vanishing from sight.

"What… Where are we going?" Kit asked, startled.

Ratchet redoubled his grip on his burst pistol, and, still keeping her good arm wrapped around her own body for warmth, Rivet drew a viper with her metallic one.

"No hostiles detected." The two bots hastily chorused.

Deeper and deeper they descended into the earth, bathed in a ring of light from above, all their surroundings shrouded in still, echoing darkness, the only sound – the continuous humming and grinding of the cropping of earth, which echoed off the walls of the large cave into which thy sank.

There was an echoing *THUD*, and with a jolt, all movement ceased, and the opening above closed shut, throwing them all into shadow.

Ratchet looked around, his eyes open to their fullest extent, and his chilled hand still clutched tightly onto the grip of his burst pistol.

Though Clank and Kit detected no immediate threats, standing here in the middle of what he could only assume was a large, cavernous room in total darkness was making him immensely uneasy.

"What is this place?" Kit asked in a whisper, her blue, fluorescent eyes glowing dimly. "Zedd?" Talwyn hissed, "This part of those Lombax rumors too?"

But before the Tharpod could reply, there was a soft humming sound, like that of an old generator starting up somewhere deep within the recesses of the cave, and a trail of blue lights appeared on the floor, highlighting a path through the darkness.

Ratchet looked around at Clank, who nodded, then to Rivet, who copied the robot, and the male Lombax led the way forward, turning on his flashlight.

As he expected, the room they had been taken to resembled that of a large stone cave. The walls were damp and rough, and there were icicles hanging from the overhanging stones. What was odd however, was the entire floor was made of some sturdy metallic material, that Ratchet had an odd, silly idea it was not a natural cave formation.

"W-whaddaya think, b-buddy?" Ratchet asked shakily, his breath momentarily sparkling in the light from his chest harness.

Clank shook his head.

"I do not know… Dating methods on the stone walls indicate this cave has been here for eons, but the floor is only a few millennia old."

Ratchet had an urge to point out that eons and millennia didn't sound that far apart in his opinion, but the chilly air was painful on his throat now, and he instead opted to keep his mouth shut.

He felt Rivet sidle up to him in the dark as they came to a slight incline, and they began ascending the twisting path.

Cold as he was, he felt his heart flutter momentarily with pleasure as the female Lombax wrapped her shivering left arm around his right.

Ratchet glanced at her, but she had slightly averted her face and her ears were drooping slightly.

"D-don't mind… D-do ya hotshot?" she chattered, and Ratchet could suddenly tell, by the subtle heat she was giving off, that she was blushing. "N-never been this… cold before…"

His cheeks likewise felt suddenly warmer, making them twinge slightly in the cold, but he smiled weakly and tightened the grip she had started, trying to keep his mind focused on their present situation rather than the muscles he could feel through her short fur.

"'C-course not, honey…" he whispered back, and in the dim reflection of light off the cave walls, he saw her give a shaky, embarrassed smile, neither Lombax noticing how Clank and Kit both were silently pretending to vomit behind their backs from their friends' open displays of affection.

The seconds stretched into minutes, the winding, glowing trail leading deeper and deeper into the cave, with nothing making a sound outside of the dull thuds of their footsteps reverberating off the walls.

They rounded a final corner, and the two Lombaxes halted in their tracks, their hearts leaping into their throats.

"Ratchet…!" Clank gasped.

"Ratch, Rivet, what's up? Why'd you sto-", Talwyn began, rounding the corner behind them, but next thing she had come to a halt to and gasped, just like Clank had.

There, standing right before them, was a towering door, made completely of raritanium, shining brilliantly in the light from Ratchet's chest, and emblazoned upon it, was none other than the Lombax insignia.

For a while all six of them stood speechless, gazing at the door as though unsure whether or not it was real.

"The L-lombaxes…!" Rivet gasped. "They… they were here…!"

"I knew it!" piped Zedderek eagerly, pushing past the two Lombaxes and their robot companions to examine the door from every angle. "I KNEW it! This is it! We're… We're just seconds away from having the brightest minds and the most stalwart fighters this universe has ever seen back on our side! The Alliance… my home…! It will all be made right soon… Ratchet-"

Ratchet blinked at being addressed so suddenly.

"Ratchet… Come. Use your wrench... It was designed only to permit those who carried the tools of deliverance."

"('Tools of deliverance'…)" Ratchet repeated silently, barely suppressing a scoff of amusement. Nevertheless, in spite of Zedderek's theatrical emphasis, Ratchet couldn't pretend he wasn't excited.

At long last the moment he Rivet both had been looking forward to for so many years was nigh.

He looked at her, and Rivet nodded eagerly, letting go of his arm.

Drawing his Omniwrench, Ratchet approached the right-hand side of the door, where a hole in the rather conspicuous shape of a wrench head was molded.

He inserted his tool into the hole and turned it, with the sound of an old crank turning large gears.

The large door swung outward, creaking, clanging and scraping, the sound echoing off the walls of the cave, and revealing a large room, bathed in soft, blue-ish light.

Ratchet's heart beating harder than usual, he pulled his wrench free and led the way inside, Rivet and Kit right behind him.

The door closed slowly of its own accord behind them with a deep, echoing *clongggg*.

As soon as the noise died, the dim light strengthened, illuminating the entire room.

They stood in what appeared to be a large conference room, lined with columns and doors. There was a vast, round table in the center of the room, with a large circular gap in the middle, in which sat a console covered in dust and flecks of snow.

Ratchet scanned the room. The place was deserted, and judging by the state of the place it had perhaps been deserted for years.

Crates, stacks and stacks of weathered, wood and metal crates lined the walls, some with their lids lying haphazardly around the room, others still sealed shut tight. Charts and weathered bits of ancient paper littered the table and the floor, some small, others larger than life. Ratchet could still just barely make out a sketch of what appeared to be the Polaris Galaxy, though it lacked many of the celestial bodies that the Lombax was familiar with. And finally, hanging from every column, was the same, tattered banner, bearing the Polaris Coat of Arms.

Clank and Kit hopped to the ground and approached the large table, and they began scanning through the disheveled notes and scattered bits of paper.

"This…" said Rivet quietly, her heard turning in every direction as she walked along one of the walls, peering into the crates as she and Kit passed by, "Th-this is… all that's left…?" she asked, in a hollow sort of voice. "B-but where are they…? I thought… Where're the Lombaxes…?"

Ratchet peered through some of the doors as he walked past. Some led into smaller rooms, and others led off into shadowy halls. But there was no sign of life apart from themselves. All was dusty, echoing, freezing silence.

"I… What about…?" Ratchet began, but words failed him.

The door had the Lombax insignia on it… But the room was full of Polaris banners… Why? This place was obviously old. Was it perhaps a trap? A way for the Polaris Defense Force to round up

and capture any remaining Cragmites or their supporters, and seal them in this room where they would freeze or starve to death?

Cold, bitter disappointment was welling up in Ratchet's chest.

His ears drooped, and he looked into Rivet's face, which mirrored his feelings of despondency. He had been so sure this was it… But it was nothing more than another dead end.

"Polaris?" Talwyn whispered, looking curiously up at the old, worn hangings above, and clearly following her own train of thought. "But… The Lombaxes… Why would they…"

"Because-" said Zedderek, and to Ratchet's amazement, the Tharpod looked, not distressed like he, Ratchet, felt, but positively joyous. "Because the Lombaxes designed it, of course!"

The two Lombaxes and the Markazian whipped around, doing a double take.

"W-wha?" Ratchet stammered. What was Zedderek talking about?

"Zedd-", Talwyn began, clearly confused and frustrated at such a silly proclamation, "The Polaris Coat of Arms wasn't conceived until a year after the first Cragmite Empire fell. Everyone knows that, it's basic galactic history!"

"Correct!" said the Tharpod, though he continued to grin, "History does tell us that! But how extensive are the history books on the Lombaxes, eh? They're documented of course, and documented well, but haven't you noticed how they just sort of… fizzled out of history after the Great War? They only resurface again on the chapter detailing Tachyon's attempted genocide! The Lombaxes didn't want the attention, see? Minds as brilliant as theirs? They wanted to be left to their own devices, inventing things as they always did for the betterment of all! They were the ones who created the Polaris Coat of Arms, as a symbol of hope, and the rebellion made it their emblem."

Zedderek approached one of the pillars, and lifted his eyes to the tattered hanging above, an almost reverent look in his eyes.

"N-no they didn't!" Rivet protested, "You s-saw it yourself! We've g-got our own ins-signia! Why the hell would we n-need another one?"

"True!" conceded Zedderek, "But if you were leading an uprising against an all-powerful race of unstoppable, power-hungry monsters that were obsessed with conquering the universe, would you not wish to unite all races?"

Rivet opened her mouth to speak. Of course she knew what that was like!

But Zedderek carried on, cutting Rivet short.

"The Lombaxes started the war, and they ended it too. But what happened in the middle?"

"I dunno, a lotta shooting?" Ratchet replied sarcastically.

But Clank suddenly gasped, and the Lombax turned around to see what had happened.

"Ratchet… Zedderek is correct…!"

"Huh?" Ratchet gasped, wrapping his arms back around himself again. "C-Clank… What're ya-"

"These records-", Kit interrupted, "They specifically mention the formation of the rebel alliance

before the Great war… They contain plans for battles and raids, extensive use of guerilla tactics."

"And this map-" Clank said, and he held up a large, rugged sheet that looked like it had been ripped from an ancient mattress, obscuring him from their line of sight. "This map highlights locations historically known to have been associated with the Lombaxes and their efforts in the war."

"And this-", added Kit, eagerly, hurrying up to rivet with an old, flickering PDA in her hands, "THIS specifically details the citizens of Polaris joining forces with the Lombaxes, their combined efforts in the war, and how all peoples worked together as one, united against the Cragmites."

Kit looked up at the ragged old banners once more, then back at Rivet.

"I am forced to conclude Zedderek is correct; The Polaris Coat of Arms was designed by the Lombaxes."

"Yes, all evidence points to this being the case!" said Clank. "The Lombaxes used this underground facility as a base, where they could plan and coordinate, and where they could keep track of their-"

Clank stopped abruptly as his optics flickered and spun once, and his mechanical jaw went momentarily slack, as he was struck with sudden inspiration.

"Which would mean…" Clank said slowly, "That this… is 'where it all began'…"

"…'It'…?" repeated Talwyn, looking thoroughly thrown off balance at the sudden influx of revelations.

"It!" Repeated Zedderek as though 'it' were obvious. "…The beginning of the first Cragmite Empire's fall!"

Ratchet's mind reeled. He had almost completely forgotten about that cryptic riddle the Lombaxes had left behind, and which Rivet had recovered from the pirates on Halua III.

Was it possible? Had they uncovered the second part of the riddle at last? Had this been what they meant?

The longer he thought about it, the more sense it made – The door leading into this room was emblazoned with the Lombax insignia, the room was large and featured this massive table on which were scattered old notes and maps upon which were scrawled long-forgotten battle plans, and the tapestries, now he looked at them more attentively, differed from the one he knew so well; the features were less defined, and the encompassing swirling disc that represented the galaxy of Polaris was missing a few stars that represented the various sectors, perhaps due to not having been explored or discovered yet.

His eyes now raked the walls more carefully.

There were weapons he hadn't noticed before; old weapons. He recognized what looked like a prototype Alpha Disruptor lying on a distant table, several jagged, bladed weapons that looked Cragmite in origin, several old-fashioned tools, an early Omniwrench among them.

"B-but… why would the L-Lombaxes've come here?" Rivet asked, shakily, rubbing her left arm vigorously in an attempt to warm it.

"Because it's the last place the Lombaxes wanted to go." Said Zedderek, and all eyes turned on

him. "Based on what I found in the archives, the Cragmites of the First Empire used this planet as a place of exile for those upon whom they showed mercy… which were more often than not their 'allies' from other races once they had expended all use from them."

"Th-that can't be true!" Ratchet protested, a sudden doubt flaring in his frozen mind. "Th-there's no place Lombaxes w-wouldn't go…! W-we built the Dimensionator for gods' sakes!"

"This is true-", said Clank. "But why, I ask, would the Lombaxes come here?"

"What do you mean, Clank?" Talwyn asked, raising an eyebrow at the small silver bot.

Rather than answering right away however, Clank walked up to Ratchet's side and looked up at him.

"…W-what're ya…?"

"Frigid climates are not a Lombax's natural habitat." the silver bot stated plainly.

He looked from Ratchet to Rivet, who stood nearby, shivering quite as violently as the male, and looking just as uncomfortable.

"Ratchet grew up on planet Veldin, a desert planet… Rivet grew up, unless my assumptions are incorrect, upon Sargasso - within a humid acid swamp, specifically… the Lombaxes originate from planet Fastoon, another desert planet. And where did they go when they fled Tachyon's assault? Havenon IV, which is itself a desert planet."

"Of course… It makes perfect strategical sense!" Kit said, excitedly. "The Lombaxes were known for being a race that thrived in warm or at least temperate climates… They would have avoided visiting places such as this, and they used their own weakness to their advantage! The Cragmites would have known the Lombaxes were susceptible to the frigid air. This is the last place they would have searched for them!"

"The Lombaxes could plan all their attacks, develop all of their weapons, and lay the foundations for the rebel alliance here, in the very place in which we stand." Clank finished, solemnly.

"Precisely!" the Tharpod said excitedly.

Ratchet looked over at Rivet, and saw her already with her eyes fixed on him, both her bright blue sapphires wide and, though she continued to shiver with cold, alive with an excitedly flickering flame.

Zedderek suddenly dashed off toward one of the doors.

"Where ya going?" Talwyn called, surprised.

"A teleporter!" Zedderek called over his shoulder, hurrying through a door. "This is the place! There must be a teleporter around here somewhere! That leads to the Lombaxes!" he added, as Talwyn, looking confused, hurried after him.

Ratchet remained where he stood, gazing around in silence, an odd, echoing sensation in his chest.

It was an almost sobering thought, knowing that the place where they stood was the very same in which Ratchet's and Rivet's ancestors had once walked, designing new weaponry, charting maps, studying patrol routes, and plotting their uprising against their genocidal overlords.

But then suddenly, the realization that he was faced with accomplishing the very same task crashed over him, and his ears drooped.

The Lombaxes had been well in the several hundred thousands at that time… And now they were down to only a couple hundred left in the universe… two in his dimension…

Ratchet was not new to facing overwhelming and seemingly impossible odds; he had stopped Drek from destroying Veldin when he, Ratchet, was fifteen; he had defeated Dr. Nefarious only a year and a half later, when no one else besides Captain Qwark had ever managed it, and he had even defeated Tachyon himself… But the Cragmite had underestimated the eighteen year old Lombax and his robot companion, and only by damaging the Dimensionator and destroying the Cragmite's throne had Ratchet lived to tell the tale.

Tachyon was much more powerful, far more intelligent, and vastly more intimidating than he had been seven years ago, and not only did he now wield two powerful Lombax weapons, but he had also made himself practically immortal with the forbidden Lifehold Crystal, in addition to holding command over trillions of Cragmites, as well as several hundred thousand imperial loyalists, and all this wasn't counting Heralds or the warships and devices the Cragmite Empire now controlled.

All of this swirled around in Ratchet's mind. He would never openly admit it in front of others, but he felt suddenly as small an insignificant as an ant beneath the fading indigo sky outside. He was one Lombax… One Lombax against an intergalactic empire that was hell-bent on slaughtering him and his kind. He would not back down, no, of course not; He would fight to the last breath. But would his strength alone be enough to take down the most powerful and dangerous force the universe had ever seen?

Ratchet started slightly.

Clank had noticed the way his ears had drooped and how still and silent he became, and had approached the Lombax, placing a cold metal hand on the Lombax's exposed elbow.

Clank was gazing up into his best friend's bright emeralds with such soft, genuine understanding that for a brief moment, Ratchet forgot that he was looking into the optics of a robot.

Clank remained silent, but he continued to look into his eyes, and Ratchet didn't look away.

A thousand words passed noiselessly between them; words that spoke clearly of comfort and reassurance, in the soft, deep, monotone voice of his closest friend, and Ratchet knew at once that no matter what challenges lay before them, as terrible as Ratchet knew Clank recognized, the small silver bot would be right at his back as always, and the knowledge that his logical, cautious best friend was willing to cast aside the obvious warning signs and push on with his companion was worth more than Ratchet could express in words.

There was a soft shuffling of feet, and next thing Ratchet knew he was breathing in a most pleasantly aromatic, flowery scent, and Rivet's left arm wrapped around his right once more, and he turned his head to look at her.

Her eyes, her brilliantly sparkling eyes, were still burning, though the flame within had calmed subtly. It now burned in a way that felt soothing to look upon, and despite the chill of the surrounding air, the male Lombax suddenly found himself feeling strangely, comfortably warm, as though the fire in Rivet's eyes extended beyond the reach of those magnificent sapphires.

"I'll b-be with you… Every step…" she said, softly. "We'll t-take your dimension back, Ratch… Just like we did mine."

She squeezed onto his hand, and he felt her tail curling around his as she leaned closer and nuzzled into his neck.

Ratchet felt suddenly as warm and cozy as though he had been sitting in front of a roaring fire for hours, and he smiled, leaning into her, and squeezing back with his hand and his tail, unable to speak for the overwhelming gratitude and the love he felt for her.

"Agreed." Kit added determinedly, and Ratchet beamed.

There was a distant, echoing *thump*and muffled voices from the room into which Talwyn and Zedderek had vanished, sounding like one of them had knocked something to the floor as they searched, and the two Lombaxes jumped slightly.

Both Lombaxes looked at each other again, smiled, then gently released each other's arm.

As much as they wanted to remain linked together at the arms and hands, this place was large, and they needed to cover as much ground as possible.

"There are adjacent passages branching off this room." Clank said. "I suggest Ratchet and I search the west wing, while Kit, you and Rivet search the east."

"Very good." Kit replied, and she hopped onto rivet's back. "Come, Rivet. All motion scans are clear; we may search the Lombax base freely without fear of attack."

"R-Right!" the female Lombax said, her voice still shaky from cold. "Well…"

For a moment the female Lombax hesitated. Ratchet looked curiously at her for a while, focusing on the emotion behind her eyes.

The flame within her eyes was dancing more excitedly now, and he suddenly remembered how he had seen it there before, on the time she had asked him to go to the shooting range aboard the Phoenix all those months ago, when she challenged him to a body count during their mission to Club Esoteric in Megalopolis, and on the occasion she had challenged him to a race back to their room on Veracros.

The temptation to make finding the teleporter into a race was burning strongly in Rivet's eyes, and Ratchet could tell she wanted to make a wager really bad.

But even as he watched, the small, excited flame fizzled slightly.

She was, after all, immensely uncomfortable, and he, Ratchet, didn't feel much better.

As fun as it would have been to race through this old Lombax ruin with his girlfriend, he knew as well as she did that this was not the time nor place… There'd be plenty more opportunities for messing around after they found what they came here for.

Sure enough, the female Lombax gave a small shake of the head, and the smile that appeared upon her face was one of warmth and affection, rather than the smug grin of superiority from presenting a challenge she knew only too well she would win.

"Let's g-go find us a t-teleporter!" she said, looking back over her shoulder at Kit, and the diminutive yellow bot nodded in eager agreement.

Rivet turned next to Ratchet.

With a small smile and a wink, the female lombax spun around and hurried off through the door leading to the east wing.

Ratchet watched her go, giving a wistful sigh as her tail whipped around the corner.

"*Ahem…*"

Ratchet looked back at the sound, and saw Clank standing close by.

Blushing slightly at the look Clank was giving him, he lifted the small silver bot onto his back and set off through a door on the opposite side of the room.

The passage was long, curved, high ceilinged like the conference room behind them, and lit just as subtly with that same blue-ish light. Cables ran along the walls and hung from the ceiling, their colors faded with age.

Some led to pieces of equipment, so worn from a combination of age and being left to the elements that their original purpose was a mystery. Others branched off into shadowy rooms which the duo peered into momentarily before Clank's scanners indicated there was nothing of use to them within. Still more cables had been routed straight through cracks and holes in the walls, undoubtedly to power some long forgotten device in a room on the opposite side of the base.

They pressed on down a set of stairs and into a short hall, passing racks of dusty old devices mingled with what were unmistakably yet more Alpha Disruptors. Given the placement of these old worn bits of hardware on the racks, and their size and placement, Ratchet could only assume these at one time had been racks full of weapons, though like the old pieces of equipment they were so worn from the effects of time and the cold temperatures that they had decayed beyond recognition, indicating to the Lombax that these weapons must have been manufactured during a time when the omnifusion process that vastly extended the durability and lifespan of products was still in its infancy.

They ascended a staircase, Ratchet's footsteps echoing throughout the hall, and they emerged onto a landing off of which branched a single door.

Ratchet paused, his eyes registering the old, dead security cameras, the un-functioning versa-turrets, and noting the way the doors, which were partially ajar, were several inches thick, and made of solid raritanium.

"This room appears to have once been highly-secured." Observed Clank. "Let us investigate."

Ratchet moved forward and slid sideways, squeezing through the gap, and emerging into the dark room.

Straightening up, the first thing that caught Ratchet's attention were the large, old-fashioned mainframes lining the wall on the left side of the room, and a single computer on a long desk.

Propped against the desk were a large double-ended Omniwrench and an unrecognizable weapon that vaguely resembled a photon blaster.

The sight of the wrench put the Lombax strongly in mind of Alister Azimuth.

Ignoring the hollow feeling in his chest the sight of the weapon had occasioned, Ratchet focused his attention on other details of the room.

Along the opposite wall were several worn books, and in front of the computer was a large

holoscreen that perhaps at one time displayed either security footage or plans the original guards who occupied this room had monitored and studied.

Ratchet felt a rush of excitement. If there was any place they would learn about potential hiding places the Lombaxes had fled to, then this sure looked like a top candidate.

Unfortunately however, this excited, hopeful spirit that had so recently flooded Ratchet's chest was quickly crushed. The computer would not power on, and after Clank ran a scan of the hardware that comprised the system, it quickly became obvious that the old machine had been destroyed, likely intentionally as a safety measure prior to the Lombaxes abandoning the base.

Clank and Ratchet then proceeded to the shelf of old books hopefully, but the pages were sticky and brittle from being closed for so long, and the writing on what few books they opened without accidentally tearing the pages was totally illegible from where the ink had stuck to the opposite pages.

A little disappointed but determined to continue after coming so far, the duo left the room and continued their search.

All the same, after another thirty minutes in which they had their hopes shot down again and again, Ratchet was growing frustrated once more.

He was as cold as he had ever been, he was running on nearly twenty-four hours without sleep, and there wasn't so much of a hint as to where the Lombaxes had gone, nor how to even get there.

"(A 'teleporter'… Seriously?)"

"(But what about that portalizer Tal, Skidd, Phantom, and Qwark used?)"

"(Only possible because of the Phaze Quartz. Tal took it back to Secure Storage after she got the Terachnoids to upgrade the gun. A portalizer isn't strong enough to support linking to more than a single dimension, and judging by that riddle the Lombaxes left, they came up with a way to get to their dimension during the Great War. The portalizer wasn't invented until 501 UCE, remember?)"

"(You're right… Without Phaze Quartz, dimension-hopping is impossible. And let's face it, Clank woulda picked up on its energy signature if there was any lyin' around. Or Kit, Riv, Tal, or Zedderek woulda noticed.)

"(Besides, there's nothing in the universe strong enough for Dimension-hopping besides the Dimensionator.)"

"(Yeah, exactly! 'Teleporter' my ass… What a waste of-)"

"Ratchet?"

"Huh?"

Ratchet jerked back to the present with a bump.

"That archway back there. The room beyond was almost pitch black, as opposed to everywhere else. I believe we ought to go and investigate."

A little surprised he hadn't noticed it himself after the pattern of every room being lit, Ratchet turned and retraced his steps.

Sure enough, as he approached a large arched doorway, he saw that the room within was as dark as though someone had thrown a thick veil over it, making the light fade and stop short of illuminating anything inside.

Curious, Ratchet activated the light in his chest harness and walked inside.

The room was large, rather like the place into which the fake ground had descended when they first entered the Lombax base, and seemed just as empty.

"The heck is this place?" Ratchet asked, his voice echoing through the room.

"I do not yet know; I am running a scan of the immediate area now."

Ratchet continued walking toward the center of the room, looking left and right. It really seemed to be just some large empty room. But what on earth would the Lombaxes have built an empty room for, of this scale?

"…Ya th-think maybe they planned to use this room as l-like a hangar or a b-bay of some sort?" Ratchet asked, his breath dissipating quickly in the glow of his flashlight.

"I do not think so… I am detecting traces of- Someone is coming!"

Ratchet turned sharply as the sound of a door echoed through the room, its humming and hiss crashing over his large ears in the otherwise dead silence.

But his grip on his Omniwrench relaxed as he saw the silhouette of two large ears and a bushy tail imprinted against the soft, dim, blue-ish light of the room beyond.

"Riv!" Ratchet sighed with relief.

He saw her ears twitch.

"Oh, it's y-you guys!"

The female Lombax entered the room, turning her own light on, and approaching the two boys.

"K-Kit said sh-she saw movement in here. Guess the b-base wraps around, huh?"

"It would appear so." Answered Kit. "So, what are you two doing in here? This seems an odd place to be… I sense no immediate points of interest in this room."

"That is understandable-", Clank replied, his glowing green optics focusing on a place somewhere beyond the line of Ratchet's and Rivet's sight. "I have been running a full area scan… And I see something most peculiar… There is a large open space beneath us, and a vast structure of some kind. Its design is elegant, but I am unable to determine its purpose."

Ratchet looked over his shoulder, his stomach leaping.

"R-really? How do we get to it?"

"Actually, the question we should be asking, is how do we bring it to us."

There was silence during which there was no sound except for the distant echo of what sounded like Talwyn and Zedderek growing closer as they continued their search.

"Well, that's good-", Ratchet chattered, "I was afraid you'd b-be real c-cryptic."

"Oh, fine-", Clank said, sounding a little disappointed and cross at the Lombax's impatience. He looked again toward a spot on the floor ahead. "There is a panel in the floor up ahead. Pull it loose with your kinetic tether."

Ratchet looked around into the darkness, in the direction he could Tell Clank had been focusing his gaze, and he felt his heartrate quicken.

"Rivet, there is a hammer crank along the far wall. No, not that way, that one."

Ratchet approached a panel of metal flooring in the center of the room as Rivet headed off toward the cave wall, and Ratchet heard the metal *clunk* of her affixing her hammer to the crank.

"I see now what Clank meant!" Kit said excitedly. "It is vast… But do not turn the crank yet-" Kit added as Rivet braced, preparing to tug on the handle of her weapon, "It is locked; Ratchet will need to finish his part first."

Back in the center of the large room, Ratchet got on his knees, examining the floor closely.

Sure enough, after a couple seconds, he saw it.

Etched in a corner and almost invisible to the eye, was the Lombax insignia, boxed in by narrow grooves.

Ratchet pressed on it, and with a loud, metallic *clack*, a small chunk of the metal flipped up, revealing a place for Ratchet's kinetic tether to latch onto.

His heart thumping, Ratchet swung his wrench downward, and the head of his Omniwrench fixed onto the hook.

Ratchet tugged, and with an echoing, grinding sound of aged metal scraping against metal, an opening was revealed and a dull groaning, humming sound began to reverberate off the walls.

Everyone looked around tentatively for the source of the noise, but saw nothing.

Ratchet turned back to look down into the opening he had just created, and gasped, taking a few hasty steps back in surprise at the sudden appearance of a large, thin column of some kind that had emerged from the depths below.

"Ratchet, Rivet?"

Both Lombaxes looked around at the voice.

Talwyn was hurrying into the room, Zedderek close behind her.

She stopped short of the male Lombax, her eyes wandering up the towering structure.

"We wondered what all the racket was." She said. "What exactly is this?"

"I-is that what'cha saw, B-bolts?" Rivet added, shakily, still clutching onto her hammer, and gazing up at the large column-like device, her bright blue eyes wide with wonder.

"No." Clank replied. "Its design is unfamiliar to me, but judging by its internal make-up, I can only conclude it is a battery of some kind."

"A battery? Like a power source? For what?" the Markazian asked.

"Only one way to find out…" Kit breathed, dramatically. "Rivet?"

Rivet nodded, looking excited, and began pulling back on the handle of her hammer.

With a loud, grinding, clunking sound, the old gears broke free of the multi-thousand-year dust and turned. The floor began to vibrate powerfully as the large battery in the center of the room began to glow, and Ratchet, Talwyn, and Zedderek all backed up.

But right as the dull light emanating from the large battery started to grow bright enough to illuminate their surroundings, the electronic humming faded and the dim glow vanished.

"W-wha? B-but… No…!" Rivet said, frustration and disappointment in her voice. "Why'd it stop?"

"I… I think... its power source has drained from the many years it went unused…" replied Kit, her voice somber and disappointed now.

Rivet looked devastated.

"…Ya d-don't suppose there's any m-more of these things around, are there, B-bolts? K-kit?"

But neither bot answered her.

"So…" Talwyn said, quietly. "…That's it then…?"

Ratchet's ears drooped and he felt a lead weight drop into his stomach.

They had come all this way, gotten so close, and right at the foot of their goal, they found themselves unable to proceed.

"Wait…!" Clank said, so sharply that everyone jumped, "Ratchet! The Phaze Quartz!"

"W-whuh?"

"The Phaze Quartz! Do you have it? Did you hold onto it?!"

Ratchet stood motionless for a moment. His brain was working sluggishly from the lack of sleep and the overabundance of freezing temperatures.

And then it hit him.

Ratchet's ears flared, and he floundered momentarily, feeling his pockets and around his shirt, before he remembered it was stored within his omniglove.

The small shard of Phaze Quartz materialized in his hand, glowing and sparkling brilliantly in the darkness, and drawing the eyes of everyone in the room.

"Ratch… Why do you have the Phaze Quartz…?" Talwyn asked.

But Ratchet and Clank both acted like they couldn't hear her. There would be time to talk about that later.

Ratchet clutched the Phaze Quartz tightly. If this didn't work, then nothing would.

"There is an open port on the back where it appears objects could be inserted to charge the device." Clank said breathlessly.

Ratchet crouched down and, his fingers trembling with a mixture of cold and excitement, he inserted the shard of Phaze Quartz.

There was another dull clunking, grinding sound as Rivet turned the hammer crank once more, and Ratchet held his breath.

The old, tall battery hummed, much more powerfully than before, and glowed with a flickering purple light.

But then, it stopped.

The room fell once more into dark, echoing silence.

Ratchet's blood boiled, and a sense of hopelessness spread throughout his body.

"Damn it…" he spat, and the Lombax kicked the old battery in a spark of anger.

*BRRZZZZZ*

With an explosion of sound and light, the male Lombax and his best friend were hurled through the air, Ratchet yelling at the top of his voice and his arms flailing.

Clank was thrown off his back and hovered safely to the ground, but Ratchet rolled and tumbled across the ground, coming to rest face down on the floor at the entrance to the room, his fur sticking up in all directions.

The male Lombax rolled onto his back with a groan, and opened his eyes.

His vision was blurry and his head spun. But through the darkness he saw something bright, white, and a flicker of brightest blue.

As he blinked, trying to regather himself, a glowing light bloomed from behind the blur of white, and he saw the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen in his life appear before his eyes.

"Ratch! Ratch, are you okay?!" Rivet yelped, bending over him and placing a shaking hand to his forehead, then his neck to feel his pulse, her bright blue, anxious eyes gazing intently into his unfocused green ones.

A stupid smile spread across Ratchet's face.

"As long as you're here…"

Rivet's face burned.

"Ratchet!" chorused two voices, and the male Lombax sat up laboriously to see Talwyn and Clank, now brightly illuminated, hurrying forward, a low, dull humming filling the room.

Rivet grabbed Ratchet's hand and helped him to his feet once more.

"Are you all right?" the silver bot asked anxiously. The worst of the electrical blast had hit Ratchet, leaving Clank unharmed.

"Y-yeah... What the hell jus-"

"Ratchet, look!" Talwyn interrupted, pointing.

Ratchet focused his attention on the direction of the Markazian's index, and felt his jaw drop as the source of the humming noise became instantly apparent.

The ceiling, which had been hidden in shadow, was now fully illuminated by a ring of soft amber lights that ran all around the wall, and it was sliding slowly open to reveal the indigo-blue colored night sky, and the peak of a nearby mountain.

But even as they watched, mesmerized at what they saw, the ground shook violently and the groaning and the grinding sound grew louder.

An alarm buzzed deafeningly, making the two Lombaxes clamp their hands over their large, sensitive ears, and the floor split down the center, revealing a seam that had blended so well with the floor that it had been impossible to see.

All six of them backed up hastily as the opening in the floor widened, the rumbling growing louder as though there was an oncoming stampede of Argorian Beasts, and for a while the male Lombax wondered if they might ought to make a run for it as the walls began to tremble.

But then Ratchet saw it.

Rising slowly from the void, was a vast circular mechanism of some sort, so large that Ratchet thought the entire Phoenix could soar through it with ease. Supporting this vast ring was a network of mechanical and electrical devices, with exposed turning cogs and shimmering lights of what was undoubtedly extreme high levels of electrical power, jumpstarted by the Phaze Quartz.

The tower rose higher and higher, emerging from the ceiling and ascending to the skies above.

As Ratchet watched, he saw the sky flicker and distort, before finally returning to its natural color, and he knew that the Atmospheric Gatekeeper had been disabled.

At last, after what felt like an age, there was a final *crash*, and the tower stopped rising.

A purple light flared in the exact center of the ring, small at first, but the tesla coils lining the interior edge of the vast hoop sparked, sending bright, violent jets of electricity into the central light with loud *cracks* and *pops*, and the light expanded, growing larger and more brilliantly bright, until at last, with a pulsing, electrical sound and a blinding flash that illuminated the night sky, a portal leading to the void between dimensions opened.

"This… this is it!"

Ratchet suddenly became aware his mouth was wide open, and closed it hastily.

Zedderek had broken the stunned silence, jolting everyone back to the present, a look of ecstasy on his face.

"You did it Ratchet! Rivet! All of you! This is our ticket straight to the Lombaxes' final retreat – the place they fled when Tachyon attempted to finish what he started twenty-five years ago! Through this rift, we will find our universe's saviors! We can still win this war!"

Talwyn's eyes flooded with sudden, unmistakable excitement.

Quite apart from finding the Lombaxes at last, all sources she had tracked down in her search for her father, Max Apogee, pointed to him having gone to the Lombax dimension. Whether that meant the 'fake-out' in which they remained in Ratchet's dimension, or this, she would soon find out at last.

She brought up her hand and touched the communicator in her ear.

"Locke, Derek! Get down here ASAP! …No, no everything's fine; more than fine! …Yes, they're fine too, there's no trouble- no listen! We found 'em! The Lombaxes! We're-"

"Ya bloody what?!"

Talwyn jerked away, wincing as the shout from the old warbot through her communicator crashed on her pointed ears.

"Yeah-" Talwyn said, looking slightly aggrieved. "There's a rift down here the Lombaxes left behind that leads to their dimension… Get down here! We're going in!"

Ratchet, all thoughts of his exhaustion, all awareness of how cold he was, vanished. He felt suddenly, inexplicably warm, and his chest flooded with unmistakable, irrepressible euphoria.

He looked down at Clank, who wore an expression of the utmost excitement and joy, and the two friends laughed as the gloved hand clapped with the smaller metallic one, and they embraced.

He set Clank down and turned for his girlfriend in time to see her releasing a thoroughly squeezed, but no less happy-looking Kit, and she turned to face him.

Ratchet barely registered the wide, toothy, ecstatic smile across her lips and the flame dancing in her eyes again, before the female Lombax launched herself at him, throwing her arms around Ratchet's neck, and pulling him in for a tight, loving embrace.

Stunned from the explosion of pleasure that erupted in his mind and the sudden flood of warmth in his body, Ratchet was momentarily speechless.

"We did it Ratch…!" she said softly, her eyes closed, still grinning widely, her head resting on his shoulder. "We… We actually did it! We're… We're going…"

"Home." Ratchet whispered, finding his voice at last, and feeling his smile returning.

It was almost hard to fathom. For fifteen years he had lived on Veldin, not knowing the fate of his family, unaware that his kind were living in exile, and believing he was the only one of his kind in the universe. For the next seven, he spent nearly every waking moment dreaming, longing to find his family – to return where he belonged, with his own kind, then giving up, believing he was better off to never return, and eventually feeling that desire and longing to see them again that meeting Rivet had inspired.

Finally, after eleven years, they were at last going back to where they were supposed to be. They would be among their own kind once again.

Twenty minutes later, the six heroes returned to the HG-06 starship and were leading the way to the colossal rift that had opened just above the mountain peak, with the Phoenix close behind.

It had been Clank's and Kit's idea, and Ratchet had to admit they made a good point. The Lombaxes were on the verge of extinction and were only too aware they had a multi-garzillion bolt reward placed on their heads. If the Alliance flew the entire Phoenix into the Lombax dimension, the Lombaxes might think they were under attack.

So instead, Talwyn had relayed to Locke and Derek to keep watch and await further orders. Ratchet stood behind Talwyn, who was piloting again, with Rivet at his side, and with Clank and

Kit at their backs.

He glanced down, at the small fragment of Phaze Quartz he had used to power the battery.

Clank had insisted he reclaim it, with assurances that his scans of the battery showed it would hold the charge as long as it took for them to cross the dimensions.

The shard of crystal glowed, then dematerialized into his glove as he looked ahead again, his heart thumping.

Ratchet fidgeted restlessly, and beside him, Rivet was kneading her hands together again, her tail flicking around behind her.

Both Lombaxes were restless with anticipation and, though they tried to hide it, both felt a degree of trepidation.

For Ratchet, his concerns flew back to those he expressed to Clank all those years ago, and then to Kit at Kedaro Station. Would the Lombaxes be what he expected them to be? He had heard so many stories, so many incredible tales, and seen so many of their inventions with his own eyes, that he felt concerned they had altered his expectations. What if they were less than what he'd been told? Would he be disappointed, after spending eleven years searching for them, that they were not everything he dreamed of? And what would they think of him? He was an 'inventor', sure, but none of his machinations were ever of much success. On the contrary, they often times got him into trouble. Would they be disappointed that one of their own was such a failure in the realm of invention and innovation?

Rivet meanwhile struggled with her own thoughts.

She was used to being an outcast, someone who was shunned and whom people wanted dead. She practically helped found the Resistance, and thus had no need to ask to join; she was merely another sower, alongside Quantum, Moydoy, Phantom, and Clatchky, whose seed wound up becoming something bigger. And that 'something bigger' also ended up becoming a contributor to the disdain she had garnered, perhaps not by her Resistance allies, but by the synthenoids and the organics who were oppressed under Nefarious' rule, and whose lives were only made harder because of people like herself resisting his will. In fact, not counting the Morts who raised her as their own daughter, it wasn't until she met Ratchet that she finally met someone outside of the Morts and the Resistance (if only temporarily) who had been kind and friendly toward her. There was also the fact of her prosthetic – a continual reminder of her failures. The Lombaxes were heroes – saviors of the Polaris galaxy and beyond for stopping the first Cragmite Empire from expanding its borders. Would the Lombaxes accept her as one of their own, when she had such a stigma associated with her?

"Ready everyone?" Talwyn asked. She was looking straight ahead, into the vast, purple void that linked between dimensions. Her voice was hoarse, and Ratchet supposed her throat was dry with anticipation. The whole situation reminded him forcibly of five months prior, when he, Clank, Rivet, Kit, and Talwyn had crossed dimensions to fly to Havenon IV… And the sight that waited them there.

Ratchet gave a small jerk of the head.

No, this time was different. The Lombaxes were alive. Here. He knew it.

"Ready." The two Lombaxes chorused.

"Seconded." Said Clank and Kit.

Talwyn eased the ship forward, the engines humming a little more powerfully as acceleration was applied.

"You kids tell us when we're all clear to fly through!" Locke's voice sounded over the radio.

"An' make it quick!" added Derek. "We've been huntin' these rascals down for the last five months since their leader said they were safe an' went radio silent! There's no time left to waste! We need to get in there an' figure out what the plan is!"

Talwyn smirked.

"Copy that, Derek. We'll keep you guys informed. HG-06 out… All right… Hold on guys, we're about to cross over."

The tip of the HG-06 starship entered the void, and slowly Ratchet felt the temperature stabilizing as the soft howl of the chilled breeze grew quieter, until all noise save for the rumble of the engines ceased.

For a time, they seemed inexplicably suspended in a network of dull, glowing, purple light and a positive cascade of windows offering glimpses into other dimensions.

Ratchet looked around eagerly, trying to guess which one was the Lombax dimension. But before he had really gotten started, a window to another dimension appeared before them, glowing brilliantly in bright, afternoon sun.

Brighter and brighter it grew, and the six passengers aboard the starship were soon covering their eyes to shield themselves after the night time sky of Taleba V and the dull purple glow of the void.

At last, feeling as though someone had just removed a thin pillow from over his ears, all noise returned.

He blinked rapidly as his eyes adjusted, then they flew open.

They were in what appeared to be a gas giant of some kind, though not like any Ratchet had seen before. Clouds spanned as far as the eye could see, both above and below. They were white, fluffy, and calm, and he could see blue sky above them. The temperature was much more pleasantly warm, and he could sense the increase in humidity compared to Taleba V, though it was not uncomfortable or unpleasant. Mountain peaks poked through the top of the clouds, and Ratchet saw, to his wonder, islands floating in the sky above and below, covered in forests and one even with a lake and waterfall that cascaded to the planet's surface below the clouds.

Far ahead, and milky from the distance at which it sat, was a massive structure of some kind that resembled a small space station, with long, thin spires and a several dishes and crevices running along its surface.

And in front of this large mystery structure, much closer at-hand and surrounded by a large translucent force field, was a cluster of flattened mountaintops upon which were hundreds of buildings, some small, others large. More still with grand designs that Ratchet recognized immediately as those he had seen on Fastoon, and some influences he had seen on the ruins at Savali.

But before any of them could utter a single word, the console in both the pilot's and co-pilot's sides lit up with red lights, and an error code began flashing on the dashboard.

"What the-?!" Talwyn said.

She tried to turn the yoke, but it had locked up and would not yield to her efforts to steer.

She tried to override the system lockdown, but would have had more success had she kicked her seat back and crossed her boots on the dashboard.

"What's goin' on?!" Rivet asked sharply, but-

"Multiple Lombax ships, assuming combative formation detected!"

Ratchet's heart sank. What were they doing? This ship was clearly unarmed, and carried two Lombaxes! Any simple bioscan would prove that!

Suddenly their radio blared to life, and an unfamiliar voice barked from the console.

"That's far enough! We got thirteen A-GL Starfighters locked onto you and we're not fussed on which part of your ship we trash first!"