"Well done, Nova! I knew you could do it," Clank congratulates his partner before shuffling to release himself from his perch.
"No." Nova huffs as she recalls her staff, placing it back into her left hand as she gestures for Clank to stay put with the other. "Too quiet. It's not over yet." Carefully stepping forward to assess the damage, she keeps the crystal pointed ahead.
There's a sudden orange glow in the smoke as thrusters suddenly roar to life, and a sleek metal frame launches itself against her. Pinned to the ground, the markazian grunts as she struggles to push the attacker off of her. Suddenly, the harsh reality of whose familiar face shape lies underneath the metal hits her, and Nova freezes.
The biobliterated Saros grabs her neck, lifting her to his eye level then immediately tossing her into the Zahn statue's rubble. Pushing against the crumbling stone, the young woman stands up once more. "Saros, stop! Fight it!"
"He can't hear you this time; don't waste your breath," Nefarious taunts unseen as Saros' fingertips stretch and sharpen into claws. He rushes forward without a word and Nova dodges his attacks, blocking with her staff and keeping her distance. His cold, dead silence is deafening as the robotic zombie manages to clip her hair pin, sending it flying into the grass. The curls fall from their confines, draping across her shoulders-
And right over Clank's line of sight. "Nova!"
"You okay?!" she calls back to him.
The tiny warbot freezes, calculating his options and finding they're slim. Moving Nova's hair at this angle would risk his joints pulling on it, especially without the time and care he'd use in calmer circumstances. If the hair yanks at her scalp, the shock and force could cause her to miscalculate her dodges and get her infected—even if the hair itself wasn't so thick that attempting to move it would be futile anyway.
There's no time to warn her as an unseen figure slices her armor's back straps, causing him to yelp as he's harshly snatched from his perch.
"Clank!" Nova whips around at the sudden lack of weight at her back, but freezes upon feeling something cold and sharp hovering right at the base of her neck, ready to strike.
"That's enough," Nefarious orders, and Saros slowly retracts his claw. The doctor steps forward as the smoke finally dissipates, with a menacing grin plastered on his face. He watches as the grip on her weapon tightens, and a familiar rage fills her eyes as she slowly turns to face him. "I wouldn't recommend whatever you're going to pull, Ratchet."
Nova scoffs, narrowing her gaze as she lowers her voice. "Don't call me that."
"Seems to me like you're not in a position to demand anything." A claw points behind her, and Nova's stomach turns at the sight of the robots slowly pouring out of the temple's shadows. Deathly still and stiff, standing right in front of her is everything she's ever known; twisted into robotic servants that have the gall to wear her loved ones' faces.
Standing in front of her parents is her childhood friend Alpheus, holding Clank with a hand over his mouthpiece.
"Your parents, your elders, all of them," Nefarious taunts. "I assume you thought they were dead?"
"Leave them out of this," Nova nearly growls. "Alpheus is still a kid, he hasn't even gotten his vocal tick. My parents have nothing to do with you. None of them had anything to do with any of this!"
Unphased, the doctor nonchalantly rolls his shoulders. "I didn't biobliterate them right away, you know. After you ran off, like a coward," he adds with a devilish smirk, "I stayed behind for a while to gather intel. After some…persuasion, they were more than happy to share just the kind of things that would make you crumble under pressure. You can thank them for inspiring your little gift."
Nefarious confidently steps forward, enjoying the look of pure, cold rage in the markazian's eyes. Still blue for now, but perhaps…
"Of course, biobliteration is completely reversible—if there's an original psyche to go back to." He pulls a small remote with a single red button out of his personal storage, turning it in the light to reflect the nearby flames. "With a single push of this button, I could wipe their memory banks. Completely. Every biobliterated squishy under my control would remain a soulless husk until their bodies withered to rust."
Every ounce of fear and fury shakes the markazian to her core, mixing with the one question that's bugged her from the start: "What do you want from me, Nefarious?!"
There, just for a brief moment, there's a flash of green to those eyes. "I want you to make a choice for me," he calmly answers before pointing to the crowd of hostages. "You. Alpheus, right? Bring Clank to me."
Nova's feet remain planted, but she glares at the scene unfolding. "Hey! Let him go!"
Nefarious simply ignores her, continuing his speech with a smile as Clank struggles to break himself free from the doctor's grasp. "Here's the deal: I'll give you your little boyfriend here, or this button. You could destroy it, of course. Save your people, and this pathetic little simp beside me," he gestures to Saros, "-from a fate worse than dying. Your choice."
"If you dare to so much as scratch Clank's finish, I'll destroy that button and send you to Orvus and Ratchet myself."
The villain simply smirks at the thought, and the back of Clank's head is gently tapped. "Oh, is that a threat?"
"It's a goddamned promise," Nova scowls, eyes flickering once more with quiet rage.
Turning the button in his palm, Nefarious stretches a claw to scratch his chin with a mockery of a thoughtful hum. "That is a nice thought, but I don't think you're in a position to make threats either, are you?"
The markazian's fists curl in defiance, but the pose is broken a bit when Clank calls out to her. "He is bluffing, Nova!"
"Maybe I am." Glancing at his hostage for a moment, the villain raises an eyebrow plate at the young hero silently cursing his very existence with her eyes. "But is that really a risk you're willing to take?"
Despite her best efforts her mind pictures it; smoke and ash filling the air, coating the village as everything lies still as stone. Every inch of her home, reduced to rubble, and the suffocating silence of a dead world overtaken by cold metal. On the other end, she recalls the worst of her more recent nightmares. The sound of a snapped sisterboard. Her heartbeat grows louder and louder in her chest as the thoughts swirl in her mind like a hurricane.
Her weapon, once gripped to the point of shaking and pointed toward the villain, lowers. She takes a deep breath, and makes her choice. "Okay. I get it. I know what you really want."
Nova's staff clatters to the ground, and stunned silence hangs in the air. Ratchet's voice fills the back of her mind, but her expression remains blank. "What are you doing?!"
The staff is kicked toward Nefarious, and the young woman stares into her nemesis. "It's me you wanted from the start, isn't it? Take me. I won't fight, I won't run, as long as you leave Clank and the others out of this. Promise me their safety, and you win."
"Nova!" All of the fire he's always heard in her voice is gone now, and it would turn the warbot's stomach if he had one. "I cannot let you do this!"
"And I can't let you die," she weakly responds. "Not you, or anyone else. Not for me."
Nefarious blinks in shock, watching as the staff at his feet loses its glow. As the last of it's light fades, he quickly dons a triumphant grin. "That's not the weapon I want, moron. Give me yours."
Nova then stares into her hands, sighing as Ratchet's omniwrench materializes from the deeper parts of her inventory. Why she even bothered to pack it, she's not sure. It simply felt right to do so, to keep the memento with her whenever she went into combat, but now…
Upon seeing his weapon, Ratchet's wisp speaks up into her ear. "Throw it. Aim for the crack, it'll stun him so you can grab Clank and the remote."
'He's right,' she silently answers him. 'I can't take that risk. I'm sorry.' Her reflection shines in the tool's metal and she scoffs, looking away from it in disgust. "Fine. Take it." The weapon is tossed forward, smacking against her staff and landing just in front of its old foe. "I haven't earned it, anyway."
"Kid…"
"Looks like we can both agree on that," Nefarious sneers at her. A man of his word, his claw reaches towards the omniwrench, dropping Clank and crushing the controller in exchange. "One last thing: Saros! Start broadcasting to every major news channel in the galaxy." The robotic markazian steps forward, heeding his master's order. His solid red optics zoom in on the scene, and Nefarious continues. "Attention, to all of Polaris and beyond!"
His claw outstretches towards Nova, shoving her to her knees and pushing her hands behind her head. "I give you your great savior; the galaxy's favorite space rat with a fresh coat of paint!"
Clank runs for her, calls for her, but her mother grips his arm to stop him. Her father steps forward, taking hold of his other arm.
Ratchet's spirit glares daggers into the villainous doctor. He almost rushes toward him to stop this, but Nova's inner voice cuts into his mind. 'Don't. It's not worth it.' Unfortunately, she's right, and he hates it. Assuming he even could hack Nefarious, if he had the power left to draw from…it would only be temporary and draw far too much attention.
Nefarious hunches forward, gripping Nova by her cheeks and lowering himself to her level. Saros moves to the side, getting a better view of the scene. "Too bad that this one's nothing more than a cheap knockoff of the original." A claw scrapes against her face, and is drawn from the base of her neck to scratch her chin and lift it upward. "A desperate fool that tried to fit into shoes much bigger than they ever dreamed of and failed. Miserably."
The crimson of his eyes burns deep into her mind. Anger, fear, shame, it all blends with the scent of smoke and flames as Saros watches intently and artificially. "He's trying to screw with you, Nova. Don't listen to him," Ratchet says, but his protege doesn't stir.
Nova's face is shoved away, her gaze hardening onto the grass as she tries to focus her thoughts on anything but the villain's words; attempting in vain to push away the current nightmare she's living through. 'Ratchet, listen to me. Stick to my brooch completely, while Nefarious isn't paying attention.'
"I'm not leaving you," the specter argues.
'Just do it!' Nova insists.
Clank yanks at one of his arms once more, and gets an idea. He harshly retracts both of his arms to his sides at once, and the force slams Nova's parents together. The commotion breaks her focus, and she whips her head to watch as the diminutive warbot ducks underneath them, dodging metal fongoids that try in vain to tackle him to the ground. The light in her eyes gives him strength, he's so close!
For a moment, hope fills her heart, but it's quickly dashed when Nefarious' hand crackles with a sickly purple aura that blasts her companion straight into a wall. "No!"
"That's what he gets for breaking the script." The doctor ignores the look Nova gives him, but he could swear the very air around him feels frigid somehow. He didn't hit Clank that hard, not really. It was basically just a puff of air meant to look scary, but he doesn't let her know that.
Clank quickly stirs, lifting himself off the ground and glaring daggers into the villainous doctor. Before he has a chance to move, the robotic servants surrounding him have had ample time to recover, and hold on tight once more. "Nova, do not throw your life away like this!"
The villain continues, addressing the camera. "Let this girl be a lesson to anyone that dares to cross me; don't bother trying to play 'hero'. This galaxy belongs to me now," Turning back to Nova, Nefarious grips Ratchet's wrench and points it toward her. "And you have this one's weakness to blame for it."
Clank's look of pure horror turns her stomach. Shame turns her face away from him, before a single choked out phrase pushes itself from her lips.
"Take care of yourself, my light."
The young woman makes one final decision, to face her fate head on. A blank expression washes over her, and the last thing she sees before the world goes black is a flash of silver and blue.
…
Saros stops the recording at his master's signal, and Lawrence steps over to the unconscious markazian at the doctor's feet. She's carefully lifted out of the way, giving Nefarious space to jump and tap his feet with glee. He finds Clank in the crowd, struggling to free himself from the iron grip of his captors.
"Oh, that was perfect, Lawrence!" With a gleeful chuckle, Nefarious inspects the tool in his hand closer, lost in the way it's metal reflects the flames around them for a moment. "Nice to not be on the receiving end of this for once."
Looking back, he gets a closer look at the young woman at the center of it all. Squinting at her limp form, he mutters to himself. "Now, then…" In the corner of his vision, the robotic Saros waits for further instruction. "You," he orders, handing him Nova's armor generator as he deactivates it. The light within it shines on as it shrinks down to reveal the tank top and leggings underneath. "Collect her weapons, and any other stuff she might have lying around here, then teleport onto the ship. You have five minutes." With that, he and Lawrence disappear.
The inactive staff that was once at his master's feet is picked up, and quickly disappears into his personal inventory. Clank remains held back, the order to release him having never been given, although the metal Saros pays it no mind. He performs a quick scan, comparing it to previous records of Nova to find whatever might have been hers, and stops at finding a flash of metal in the grass. Zooming in reveals it to be a pentacle forged in polished raritanium.
Clank watches as he leans down to reach something in the grass, and freezes upon touching it. A powerful charge seems to spread in his body, glitching out his limbs and bringing his hands to his head. The metal markazian's optics flicker to darkness, and he crumbles to the ground.
...
"Hey, crap for brains! You in there?"
Saros opens his optics, startled by the stranger's voice, and he sees the grass between his fingertips. But he doesn't feel it, or smell it. Things are both far too quiet, and far too loud as he can now sense his inner fans and gears churning. "What the-" He cuts himself off, in shock at hearing his own voice as he tries to catch up to the now.
"Yeah, I'm talkin' to you, dumbass."
The glint of the pentacle calls to him once more, and a pop up notification startles him. Given the context it's familiar enough, and it includes a timer as well as instructions.
* Collect Nova Albedo's Belongings, Then Return to Ship
"Are you…Ratchet? But how are you-"
Clank squints at the sight, watching as the other robot circles around in an attempt to talk to something he can't see. "Saros!"
"Clank?" Saros shoots up, rushed as he struggles with all the thoughts in his mind that spill out all at once. "How'd I get here? How's Ratchet here? Where's Nova, I have to warn her about-"
"As much as I would love to answer your questions," the warbot begins, sarcasm oozing from his tone, "I would prefer not to do so from this position." In a flash, the robots holding Clank are knocked away. He's scooped up as Saros hops onto bits of rubble, giving them ample space away from the metallic zombies. Normally he'd be insulted at a stranger-borderline enemy lifting him like this, but considering the circumstances he doesn't really have another option. The metal markazian gently puts him down when they land on a nearby building.
"To begin," Clank says, brushing himself off as his feet touch the ground, "It seems that when Nova charged the brooch for Ratchet to reside in, it seemed to gain a bit of her own spiritual powers, and reacted to her hair pin. The pentacle, I must have subconsciously charged with a protective charm. The Zoni are strong in numbers, after all." The robotic markazian simply stares at him completely dumbfounded, as if he'd spoken in an entirely different language. "As for seeing Ratchet, well, I suppose I should make this easier for you."
Saros twitches, as if his very mind is now it's own communications device and just got sent two texts from Clank. The first message appears to be a short text document, meant to catch him up to speed on zoni-based magic among other things. The second file is much more complex than that, however; it's a set of very detailed instructions. A robot-specific thing, he assumes, and accepts the new installation.
His internal scanners seem to get a complete overhaul, one that he can only compare to wearing a new glasses prescription, and said glasses allow a ghostly lombax figure to appear right in front of him.
By the look of shock on the other's face, the Zoni robot can tell it worked. "Now onto more pressing matters; Nova is already gone," he says, optics tilted in anger as he glares in his direction. "Although I suppose that was your intention from the start."
The pentacle in Saros' hand shimmers in the light, calling forth older memories of the young woman who once wore it. "My orders are to return once I've got Nova's stuff," he explains, watching the looming figure of Nefarious' ship as it casts a huge shadow over the wrecked village. Looking down to the smaller robot, he smiles. "Doc never said to return alone."
"Well come on, then," Ratchet says, condensing back into the armor within Saros' storage. "We've got a space witch to rescue."