After a few days of traveling through space, Cayde-6, along with the Noble Team and the unconscious Ratchet, went to the planet Vorkun, where the Iron Lords had their HQ. The Exo male decided that this would be the best place for his nephew to be safe.
However, there was a small problem.
"Uh, boss? Are you sure you gave us the correct coordinates? I'm asking because the sensors are going crazy and this massive snowstorm isn't helping us," Mike said.
Cayde slapped his forehead. He just realized that every time he came here, it was Clyde who took care of the landing, because, from what the Awoken man said, the mountain, where the Iron Temple is on, has a security system that protects it from intruders. Because of this, the man instructed the youngest member of the Noble Team to land the ship on the nearest possible terrain.
After a few hours of flying, they managed to land on the ground near the mountain.
"Nice job, buddy. I'll give you a ramen coupon for this landing," Cayde praised Mike. The Exo then left the bridge and went deeper into his ship. On his way, he saw Sant and Vincent maintaining the weapons, making sure they worked as best as possible. He praised them for what they did, for which they thanked him, and then moved on. After a while he found himself in the infirmary, where Don and Clank were taking care of Ratchet. "Any improvement?"
Cazar took his eyes off the holo-notebook and looked at Exo, adjusting his glasses slightly.
"His condition is stable but hyperactive. I suspect that since Thorn was with Ratchet for most of his life, its aura and twisted magic must have been affecting the body and psyche. This is a common, but also very delicate, situation, as such "disconnections" can often lead to various changes and side effects. Plus the brain activity is now at high active, which may suggest dreaming," he explained.
Hearing this, Cayde sighed deeply. He looked at his nephew with sad eyes, then sat down next to him and grabbed his only hand.
"You've been through hell, haven't you? I hope you dream about pretty girls, kid," Exo said with a slight smirk.
Oh how wrong he was.
All Ratchet could think about now was to run. Get as far away from this monster as possible.
Our Lombax was currently back on Zariman. As soon as he woke up here, the first thing he did was scream out all his anger, all his regret and sadness.
Angry at himself, because after Thorn's disappearance he realized what he had done. Those Eliksni in Eramis' Fortress? These were ordinary civilians who had nothing to do with his torture.
Regret, because he realized that since he managed to escape from the imprisonment of the House of Salvation, he had never once gone to the graves of his parents, or even spent a moment with Grim, but had moved forward for his revenge.
Sadness, because all this made him realize how not only his actions had dishonored the Iron Lords, but also deprived him of their dignity. Instead of taking care of the Order, he only followed his own will. If the old Lords would see him, they would probably be disappointed with him.
For the next few minutes, Ratchet knelt on the ground and screamed loudly, hitting the ground with his only hand.
His very intense emotions got into the Void itself, and it, or rather a certain entity within it, loves them.
"Hmmm…Let's have some fun! Tag! You're in, kiddo!"
Ratchet heard someone's voice echo around him. Demonic and distorted. However, before he could do anything about it, he heard a loud screech behind him and the scraping of metal against metal. The boy turned around and saw a monster coming towards him.
Its body resembled a humanoid with each of its four limbs ending in blades. There was a deep cut extending from the bottom of the torso to the top of the head, revealing the blue pulsating inside. Two curled blades that resembled wings sprouted from his back. The entire body is made of something that resembles metal, the coating of which looks as if it were liquid.
This is the Void Angel.
"Oh shit," Ratchet said. The boy quickly got to his feet and started running, with the Angel following him.
And so here we are now in the present. Our furry hero has been running away from the monster for who knows how long. He hide, used shortcuts, or blocked the doors by overloading them. All this was supposed to slow down the Angel, but it did nothing. The bastard could teleport.
"Fuck!" shouted Lombax, who started running away again.
A few minutes later he found a room with only one door leading to it. He quickly closed them and tried to quiet his rapidly beating heart. After a while he managed to calm down. Then he slid back against the wall and sat on the ground. All of it felt like a horror movie where the crew members had to hide from a dangerous alien.
Having a moment of peace, Ratchet closed his eyes and began to think about his current situation. He realized that he was not actually physically here, that his real body was somewhere else, but everything he felt, such as the lack of breath, were very real. He came to a conclusion that if this beast got him, he would die here and in the real world.
After a few minutes, he heard someone sobbing next to him and someone moving around the room. So he opened his eyes and saw that he was not in a deserted and destroyed room.
He was in a sort of classroom with human children.
Each of the children sat either on chairs, on tables, on the floor or in the arms of other children. A few of them were crying hard, a few more were hyperventilating, and a few of them were calming the others down.
Ratchet was surprised by the sight. Why does he see them here? What's that supposed to mean? And why doesn't anyone react to his presence? Was he invisible to them?
Suddenly, the door next to him made a loud noise. Something hit them hard, but the pile of benches seems to be doing its job as a barricade. This impact, however, made the children who were already panicking or crying even more scared.
Seeing this, Lombax wanted to get up and calm them down, but someone beat him for it.
It was Tenno.
"Hey, are you okay?" Tenno asked another child. He looks much younger than the one Ratchet met in apartament with Drifter. His short brown hair and green eyes were dirty and tired, but not like when they met. They did not show the veteran of the war that Tenno said he was.
"Yeah. Thanks, Jack," the child replied.
Satisfied with this answer, Jack began walking around the other children, asking how they were feeling and reassuring them if necessary. After a few minutes everything was normal.
Delighted by all this, Jack walked over to the desk next to the window and sat down on it, then looked out the window. On the other side was a turquoise abyss with blue clouds of energy flying around. Even though it is a chaotic dimension, the Void has a certain charm in it.
At one point, Jack heard someone next to him tapping on the wall. He looked there and saw a child sitting alone. So he approached him with a flashlight in his hand.
"Hi. Do you need light? I can give you mine," the boy said.
The second child didn't say anything for a while, but he stopped knocking. He then turned around, and what Jack and Ratchet saw stunned them.
"Thanks, kid. I'll probably need it."
In front of Jack sat himself. The same short hair, the same dirty markings. Only the eyes were black like a black hole.
"What the…" - but before the boy could finish the sentence, he felt the words literally stuck in his throat. He tries to say something, even scream, but no sound comes out.
"Ahhh…Good. I prefer people to listen first and ask questions later."- he said "Jack". He then moved closer to the real one with a wide smile. "I've got a proposition for you. I see what's going on here. Your jump from the Solar System to the Tau System failed. You wanted to fly through the Void, but your engines get destroyed. Your parents and the adults start panicking and gone mad because of their emotions and the way the Void affects them. And now instead of protecting you, the entire crew, your mothers and fathers, WANT TO KILL YOU."
Suddenly something hit the classroom door again. This time stronger than before. The children began to cry and panic again, even though they tried to be quiet, begging for the adults to go away.
Jack looked at his companions and then at his grinning Doppelganger.
"Time's running out, kiddo. I can save them. YOU JUST WANT IT. How about we finish this deal… with a handshake?"- then "Jack" put his hand out in front of him. The whole hand looked like it was made of the same material as the Void Angels, with an addition of a turquoise flame escaping from it.
Jack looked like he was considering the offer for a moment. Finally, he nodded and shook Doppelganger's hand. Suddenly, the entire ship they were in disappeared, and in its place was replaced by the Void itself. A grimace of pain appeared on the boy's face, but he continued to squeeze his hand. After a few seconds, other people started appearing next to him. Some of them looked just like Jack, some looked like other kids in the class. A few of them even looked like representatives of other races. There were even some Lombaxes, Markazians and Cazars here. Some of these people were lying on the ground, dead. Ultimately, it looked like a huge network that only had one point.
Shaking hands with Doppelganger.
Ratchet saw it all. He was terrified by this. Could these various people and their variants be from other dimensions? The counterparts from their universes?
After a while, it all disappeared and our Lombax found himself in a ruined classroom again.
And this time he wasn't alone.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. It's not nice to peek, kiddo. Did your Mother not teach you manners, hmmm?"
In front of Ratchet was his Doppelganger. The Void Entity mentioned by Tenno and the Drifter.
"The Man in The Wall," said Lombax.
Upon hearing its name, the entity laughed loudly and then approached the eighteen-year-old.
"So you remember me. Good. I thought I would have to introduce myself again."- said Doppelganger. Suddenly something hit the classroom door and then let out a terrible screech. This put a smirk on The Man in The Wall's face. "Ahh…I see some of the crew came for you, kid."
"What do you mean?" Ratchet asked.
"Hmm? Did you think that the monster chasing you was from the Void? Oh, no, no, no. MY Void Angels are simply members of Zariman's crew, from each and every version of it. Adults who have been driven mad by the Void and transformed by it. Aren't they adorable?"- replied the Entity. It then approached the Lombax. "I advise you to hide well~. This game of tag and hide and seek must finally end~."
With that, The Man in The Wall evaporated, leaving Ratchet alone. The eighteen-year-old decided not to waste time and started looking for a hiding place. The choice fell on the large cardboard box next to him.
A few moments later, the Angel burst into the classroom. The beast let out a screech and began to search for its prey. It looked at every corner of the room, but found nothing. Disappointed by this, the Angel left the room and went deeper into the ship.
Once the danger was over, Ratchet got out from under the box and quickly ran out of the classroom. In the direction where his legs will take him.
After dozens of minutes of hiding and running, Ratchet managed to find a familiar place. The apartment where he met Tenno and the Drifter. He quickly ran inside and closed the door. Relieved to be somewhere safe, Lombax sank to the ground and took a deep breath. All the fear he had was gone.
Too bad it was replaced with something else.
"Ratchet? What are you doing here?"
Lombax looked straight ahead and froze. On the other side of the room stood Yor. In just a towel and wet fur.
"Aaah! Get dressed, old man! I don't want to see you half naked!" the eighteen-year-old shouted.
"Okay, okay! I'm going! Geez!" Dredgen said. After a while, he returned wearing a plain black T-shirt and black cargo pants. "Happy?"
After this rather embarrassing situation, Ratchet and Yor went to the Living Room. There, Lombax saw that the entire room was filled with books, records, holo notebooks and similar gadgets. There was even a TV on the wall with a movie playing.
"Can you believe the people on that ship didn't have TV? I thought I would go crazy here! Luckily for me, the Void allows me to visit with other dimensions, so I went in and took some movies and stuff to make them play. I'm currently doing a Star Wars marathon. You want to see it?"
Ratchet thanked for the offer, but he declined it and simply sat down on the couch. There is a huge storm of thoughts going on in his head. Memories from a few months ago, like Taniks' torture and Eliksni's screams of agony. Just thinking about them made him want to puke.
"I am a disgrace. A disgrace to my family, to the Iron Lords. I'm pathetic," Lombax said about himself.
"I doubt it. The members of your Order told me otherwise."
At the sound of these words, the eighteen-year-old's eyes opened wide.
"Wait, what? What do you mean by that?" he asked.
A smile appeared on Dredgen's face. Then he gestured to the door leading to the dining room. Without any thought, Ratchet ran towards it and opened it.
On the other side at the table sat all the Iron Lords he knew in their lifetimes.
"Kid! You finally showed up! Come, we have a rich feast here! - shouted Radegast, who then continued eating his meal. The other Lords looked towards Lombax and waved.
Ratchet's parents, on the other hand, got up from the table and walked over to their son and hugged him tightly.
"Hey, champ! Nice to see you again," Clyde said.
"Ooooh! My little boy is so big now! I missed you!" Lilith said.
Once in his parents' arms, Ratchet immediately fell to his knees and began to cry, hugging the married couple in the process.
For the next few minutes, Clyde and Lilith tried to calm their son down. Lucky they succeeded. Then they took the boy with them and sat him next to the table with the others. Each of the Lords looked at the Lombax with a sad smile. They were glad to see him again, but they also cursed everything that happened to him.
After a moment of silence, Ratchet finally spoke.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"What do you mean by that?" asked Radegast.
"I failed you. I have dishonored you and the whole Order. I'm pathetic."
"That's not true, honey. Don't talk about yourself like that."
"But it's the truth, mom. I left the Temple unprotected, I did not visit your graves and I did not pay my respects. I didn't even spend time with Grim, I just flew out looking for revenge. That's not how an Iron Lord behaves."
The members of the order looked at each other. The boy was right. The tradition requires that the funeral rites had to be performed by the Iron Lord. And Ratchet is, after all, a member of their Order.
Then everyone turned their attention to the only person who didn't say anything about Lombax's appearance. The Iron Lord ex-leader, Saladin Forge.
Cazar has just finished his meal. He then looked at Ratchet, who was looking at the floor.
"You're right," Saladin said. "Your deeds have not brought us glory. You killed civilians who were Eliksni from the enemy House, but were still civilians. You have failed in your duties as the last living Iron Lord. You should be expelled from the Order for such antics!"
With each of the man's words, Ratchet only made his body bend more and more under the weight of his actions. He agreed with the former leader, he should be thrown out of their organization. Then he felt someone place their hands on his shoulders. So he looked ahead and saw Saladin kneeling in front him.
"But I would be a fool if I didn't take a few factors into account. After all, you are still a child, considering that we live, or rather have lived, for several hundred years, and you are only eighteen. We have not taught you proper rites and rituals. Instead, we turned you into a weapon to fight evil. I will add the fact that we approached it wrong, because you do not have Light, but the powers of the Void." - then a warm smile appeared on the man's face. "How about we fix these mistakes, hmmm?"
After these words, the dam in Lombax's eyes opened and a waterfall of tears flowed out. The boy hugged Saladin, who returned the gesture. The other Lords looked at this with smiles. They were given a second chance to fix what they screwed up and actually prepare Ratchet to be the new leader of their order.
For the next hours, the Lords and Lombax practiced, talked, and discussed what was important. The boy learned a few simple rituals that he would have to perform after arriving at the Temple. He was also introduced to a few important elements that only the leaders would know. The other things he will need to learn from the Library in the Iron Temple. Eventually, what had been neglected was repaired, and Ratchet was ready to become the new leader of the Lords. He just needs to get to the Temple.
"What about this? Do we have any prosthetics at home?" Lombax asked, pointing to the place where his arm used to be.
"I don't think so. We usually did such things in Lux City, because we don't have the right tools to attach implants and replacement limbs," Felwinter replied.
"Then I'll have to go there first. Without the other hand, I won't be able to forge new armor or perform the rituals," Ratchet said.
Suddenly Yor entered the dining room, wearing his armor and armed with a shotgun.
"I have a proposition."- the man said, swinging his weapon like it's a lever action shotgun.
For the next several dozen minutes, Yor, Ratchet, Clyde and Lilith wandered through Zariman's corridors. Lombax informed them of a Void Angel prowling on the ship, so they prepared for a possible attack and moved in a formation that gave them good protection.
"Remind me what we're looking for?" Clyde asked.
"One time, when I was going around the Zariman, I saw one of these humanoid statues losing its arm and then grow it back. It looked like the liquid took its form and then hardened and turned into metal. Maybe the same will happen with the kid," replied Yor.
"What if not?" Lilith asked this time.
"Then we got a big game over."
After passing through the next corridors and the Lunaro stadium, a kind of ball game where instead of kicking it, you throw it into the enemy goal, our 4-person team found a place where there were many of these statues. The eighteen-year-old Lombax looked at them, sadness appearing on his face. He still had the words of The Man in The Wall in his head, that these were once crew members of this ship, and now they are just a mark of what kind of horror happened here.
The team approached one of the statues and began cutting off its arm. The sound of cutting metal echoed through the ship's corridors. After a while, the limb fell off and turned into a liquid, which then turned into a small crystal. Having what they came here for, all of them started walking back to the apartment in no time.
However, they were not aware that someone was watching them. Someone with bright green eyes that occasionally flashed with a white energy.
After returning to their safe haven, Ratchet decided that there was no point in wasting time and that he needed to act immediately. Radegast placed the large dining room table in the center of the room, and then Lombax lay down on it. Knowing that this could end badly, Ratchet said goodbye to everyone, thanking them for spending the time they had with them. Felwinter then stab the crystal into the place where Ratchet's arm was missing and then moved away.
Each of the Lords watched as Lombax writhed in pain and screamed, his eyes flooded with tears. Lilith wanted to run to her son, but Clyde stopped her. After a while, everyone saw the end result of the operation. However, before they could do anything, Ratchet vanished from their sight. Probably going back to the real world.
Cayde has seen many wonders in his life. Talking guns, ghosts, or that old grandma next to the ramen shop.
But a metal hand suddenly appearing out of nowhere was something new.
"What the fuck?" asked Exo.
"I'd like to answer that, but I don't know what happened," Don replied.
After a moment, both men and Clank saw Ratchet wake up and sit up on the bed. The boy looks around the room for a moment and then looks at his new metalic hand. A smile appeared on his face and he moved his new limb a few times. Then he looked at the other people in the room.
"So...you probably have a lot of questions, huh?"
In the Void, The Man in The Wall watched it all through a some kind of mirror and laughed loudly. He loved it when something happened in front of his eyes! He then placed his hands on the said mirror. One of them was missing a finger. So he use other hand to start knocking on the mirror.
"rap, tap, tap. Rap, Tap, Tap. RAP, TAP, TAP."
Bonus:
"Text": this will from now mean that it is The Man in The Wall speaking.
"Text": this will mean that some other entity, like demon or ghost, is speaking.
