"Dammit, dammit, dammit! Where did I put the screwdriver?!" Mags frantically cries out, looking under every paper, random gizmo, tool, and scrap part on his now extremely messy workbench holding the Dimensionator. "I just had it, where the hell did it go?! Where is it?!"
He suddenly snaps around, startling a concerned-looking Julie sitting on a stool opposite the workbench, pointing at her.
"Did you take it again?! Julie, I swear to the stars that I DO NOT have the patience for you messing around again!" He says, staring at her with a ferocity that she doesn't think she's seen since she destroyed his first ship, Taurus.
"Hey, do I look like I'm holding anything, Mags?!" She quickly responds, holding her hands up defensively, showing they were empty. "You need to calm down!"
"How the hell can I be CALM, Julie?!" He cries out, instantly snapping back to the workbench as he bends down, yanking open the cabinets underneath it to rip through all the contents inside. "They've been gone for HOURS and we haven't heard ANYTHING!"
"Well, I mean, obviously we haven't heard from them because they're stuck in another dimension, Mags!" Julie says, rolling her eyes while holding a hand up. "What do you expect to do? Just call them up?"
"YES, JULIE! I ALREADY TRIED DOING THAT, REMEMBER?!" He snaps back, still in the cabinet. "DID YOU ALREADY FORGET WE INSTALLED A CROSS-DIMENSIONAL COMMUNICATION UNIT INTO CLANK?!"
"I… Okay, that might have slipped my mind, but—"
"And every time I've tried to call them, there's been NOTHING!" He says frantically, the loud search of the cabinets ceasing. "And the only way that can happen is if he got—OW!"
He bangs his head against the roof of the cabinet upon trying to get out of it, throwing his hands up to his head as he stands up, and making Julie get off her stool to suddenly rush over to him.
"Shit, Mags, that sounded like it hurt! Are you okay?" She asks worriedly, raising her hands up to him.
"NO, JULIE! I'M NOT OKAY!" He snaps at her again, staring back at her face with an intensely worried and frustrated look. "FOR ALL WE KNOW, KADEN AND RATCHET ARE JUST DEAD OUT THERE!"
"Mags, please, just take a sec and calm the hell down." Julie says firmly, grabbing onto his shoulders, staring into his eyes. "Stop thinking about the worst-case scenario, because Kaden or Ratchet aren't dead! You and I know them both, and if Tachyon couldn't kill them, nothing can!"
"Julie, they've been gone the entire fucking day!" Mags argues, throwing his hands up—but calming down at least the tiniest bit at her grasp, she noted. "They left to get some goddamn books in the Archives! There is NO WAY that should take more than an hour, tops!"
"Well—You heard Kaden when he said they were going to go sightseeing or whatever, too!" She replies. "They're probably just doing that!"
"For the whole day?!" He demands, crossing his arms as Julie lets go of his shoulders.
"I mean, I dunno, maybe?" She asks with a shrug. "You and Kaden talked about how pretty that place is, why not? Hell, you even said there's some hot springs over there, so maybe they just went for a dip, who knows?"
"Hot springs?! Julie, I—"
He huffs a deep breath, slapping a hand onto his face before dragging it down and clapping his hands together, pointing at her with a frown.
"Julie. I said I called Clank multiple times—who can communicate between our dimensions—and there's been nothing! Not a thing! And the ONLY reason that would happen is if his comms module was destroyed!"
"So, Clank's stuff is on the fritz, so what? That doesn't mean anything bad happened!" Julie tries to argue with a shrug, holding her hands up.
"Yes it does, because then why didn't they immediately come back here to fix him?!" He asks. "So the fact of the matter is that one: They left to Archives to grab books, the Map, and some blueprints, and that takes an hour, sightseeing included! Two: I tried to call them a bunch of times to check in when it took longer than it possibly should have for them to do that, and there's nothing but static! Three: They have the Dimensionator, so as soon as something happened to have made Clank's comms malfunction, they should've been able to just instantly come back here for repairs! And four: It's been the entire day and we haven't heard a WORD from them!"
Julie opens her mouth to try and assuage his fears and paranoia in an attempt to calm him down from his sudden frenzy to repair the second Dimensionator as quickly as possible.
"It's just—I can't lose them like I did Kayla and her family!" He says, the frustration in his voice now forming into desperation. "I-It was my job to protect them and I failed! They're dead because I didn't think to keep a close enough eye on the colony to see that they left before the evacuation! I should've seen that they shouldn't have flown to that sector of the galaxy to keep them from that… Empire, or whatever the hell it was!" He says, throwing a hand up.
He then folds his arms to bury his head inside of them, Julie silently watching with wide eyes as he takes a deep, shaky breath.
"And now, Kaden and Ratchet left to that goddamn dimension where I lost my sister, and now they might be gone, too!" He says, his voice muffled. "I should've gone with them, maybe then I'd be able to do something than just sit here on my ass trying to fix this stupid Dimensionator to follow them through, even though I might be too late already…" He says miserably.
"Mags… Mags. Hey. Look at me." Julie's voice says firmly yet softly as he feels her hand on his back.
Hesitantly, he lifts his head from his arms, the beginnings of tears starting to form in his eyes as he looks over to see Julie's face next to his, staring into them.
"You need to shut up." She says. "Stop blaming yourself for what happened to Kayla. Like me and Kaden have been telling you since then, it wasn't your fault, Mags. No one could've seen what happened to them coming, and there was nothing you could have done."
He opens his mouth to rebuttal her statement, but she immediately presses a finger to his lips.
"No, I know what you just said, but you're wrong, and that's just you being mean to yourself about woulda, shoulda, coulda, like Kaden always did with Marie. It already happened, and yes, it sucks it did, but it's in the past now. So stop torturing yourself with it." She says, rubbing his back.
He regards her for a moment, sniffling a bit, but then he looks back to the table with a sigh.
"I… I know I shouldn't, but… The past is just repeating itself right in front of me right now, Julie. How can I not—"
"It's not repeating, because nothing bad happened to them, Mags, I swear on it." Julie says with a smile and a nod. "We both know Kaden and Ratchet, and we both know they're the biggest badasses ever, standing up to Tachyon and living through it! Hell, Ratchet beat the bastard! Even if something funky happened over there, they've got it taken care of, no sweat!" She says, waving a hand across.
"But even if they do, I can't just sit here and twiddle my thumbs hoping that something bad didn't happen." Mags says, slowly standing back up, planting his hands back on the workbench. "I… I might not have been able to do anything to save Kayla back then, but I can do something now, goddammit. Even if something bad happened to them… I at least want to know that I did something to try to help it."
"Well… Even if that's the case, you still need to chill out, Mags. We both know you're never great whenever you start panicking like crazy like that." Julie says with a small chuckle, patting his back. "I mean, come on, you just yelled at me a second ago blaming me for hiding a stupid screwdriver. And is that any way to treat your lovely girlfriend?" She asks, batting her eyes.
For the first time in the last couple of hours, she hears Mags huff a small laugh through his nose before looking back over to her.
"Considering that she's a dumbass who does stupid things all the time, then probably." He says amusedly.
"Shut up, you smartass, you're always so mean to me." She says with a small pout, crossing her arms.
"And yet, you were the one who made the first move to have us date each other despite dealing with me being 'mean to you' for years, you hypocrite." Mags points out with a smirk.
But as Julie scoffs with a roll of her eyes, Mags looks back at the Dimensionator half-finished from its repairs, and as his gaze wanders down, his eyes widen with a smile.
"A-ha! There you are, you little bastard!" He says triumphantly, snatching a screwdriver off the table. "Now I can get back to work on this!"
"Just try not to kill yourself doing it, okay? Like I said, I guarantee they're perfectly fine." She says with a small smile. "Hell, if they aren't, I promise that I will never, ever ask you if I can fly your ships ever again!"
Mags, however, only looks at her and her smiling face for a few seconds before raising an eyebrow.
"No, you wouldn't." He says flatly.
"…Yeah, you're probably right." She concedes, slumping a bit before then immediately perking up. "But hey! If It'll make you feel better, I can help you fix the Dimensionator so you can get it done even quicker!"
"I really appreciate the offer, Julie, thanks." He says earnestly with a smile, right before then immediately turning to the Dimensionator to continue working on it. "But I don't trust you enough to not worry that you'll secretly build a gun on here when I'm not looking."
"Oh, come on!" She cries out, hanging her head before pointing at him with a frown. "I'm telling you guys, you need to put one on there to make it the greatest device ever!"
"Oh, so you were planning to do that?" He asks smugly.
"No! I'm just defending my totally correct professional opinion as head of the Weapons Division that the Dimensionator needs a weapon!"
"And it is mine and Kaden's professional opinions as heads of the Interdimensional Division that it does not, Julie, so suck it up."
"Screw you! I didn't even want to help you fix that thing anyway!" She pouts, crossing her arms.
"Good, because if you did, it'd probably explode like how all of your prototypes usually—"
Before he could finish his jab towards her, they both freeze as they hear the telltale shattering sound of an interdimensional portal being opened up, prompting them both to immediately snap towards the source. And upon turning around, they find a portal in the middle of the lab, just as expected, seeing Kaden standing in front of Ratchet and Clank, holding the Dimensionator and a small book while the duo behind him were almost completely obscured by very large volumes of cross-dimensional theories.
And as Mags stares slack-jawed, Julie snaps towards Mags to point at him with a smile.
"A-HA! See? I told you they were fine!" She says triumphantly. "Now you can suck it!"
Mags, however, completely ignores Julie as he then shakes his head to rush over to the portal as Kaden starts to walk through—noticing that they looked a little… On the rougher side, with some minor bloody cuts and scrapes and dirtier clothes than what they left with.
"Kaden!" Mags says in a mixture of relief and anger.
"Hey, Mags." He greets casually before holding up the small book with a smile, raising his eyebrows. "Hey! Guess what? Got your book! 'The Life and Times of a Teenage—''
"I don't give a FUCK about the book, Kaden!" Mags yells, immediately slapping it out of his hand before pointing at him. "WHERE THE HELL WERE YOU GUYS?! You were gone the entire goddamn day and you weren't answering my calls! I thought you guys were DEAD!"
"My communications system was destroyed." Clank answers calmly as he and Ratchet start to walk through as well with their books stacked in their arms. "Which, would you mind repairing me while we are here, Ratchet?"
"Yeah, no problem, pal." He replies, grunting a bit at the weight of the giant books he was carrying.
"HOW?!" Mags demands as Julie also walks over, looking over them as her brows furrow.
"Damn, just what happened to you guys?" She asks, seeing the shape they were in.
"Oh, you know, just had a little detour on the way to the Archives." Kaden says casually, waving his hand. "Met some monks, got kidnapped, broke out of prison, get kidnapped again by some space pirates, beat the space pirates, break out of prison again, help the space pirates and a resistance, and then topped off the day with helping overthrow an entire galactic empire lead by a genocidal robot Emperor. The usual." He says with a shrug. "Oh, then we finally grabbed the books and the map and stuff, too. Obviously."
Neither Julie nor Mags say anything as they simply stare at Kaden's smug grin, slack jawed and utterly flabbergasted as Ratchet and Clank walk past them with their books.
"…WHAT?!" They both cry out in unison.
"How could you have left me behind while you were doing something so awesome?!" Julie asks indignantly.
"HOW THE HELL DID YOU WIND UP NEARLY KILLING YOURSELVES GRABBING BOOKS?!" Mags angrily demands, throwing his hands up. "Do you know how goddamn scared I was thinking that you guys just left and died, Kaden?! Like Kayla and Dex?! What is wrong with you?!"
"Hey! Hey, I know that you were probably worried considering what happened, but don't worry, because it was all worth it." Kaden eases him, raising his hands with a smile.
"And HOW in the hell was fighting space pirates and some Empire worth it, Kaden?!" He demands, crossing his arms with a scowl.
"Wait a second…" Julie mutters beside him, leaning over to look past Kaden.
"Because, Mags, we ended up on that wild-ass trip because we found something that I know will make you incredibly happy." Kaden says with a nod.
Mags closes his eyes, taking a deep breath before glaring at Kaden.
"I swear to the stars that if you're about to say you found out 'Tales of a Teenage Terraklon' has sequels and you almost killed yourself getting them to me or something, Kaden, I will kill—"
"Nope. Even better." Kaden says simply, stepping aside while gesturing to the portal.
"This better be goddamn worth it, or else I'll—"
Mags instantly freezes as he looks back at the portal with Kaden standing beside it, crossing his arms with a beaming grin while Ratchet and Clank stand next to Julie, who was now glancing between Mags and what hesitantly stood beyond the portal.
Still on the Savali side and visibly nervous, Rivet stood just beyond the portal's threshold with Kit standing by her side, anxiously gripping her prosthetic arm as she too stood similarly frozen, now locking eyes with Mags as they both look over each other.
There is a thick, tense silence that befalls the lab as the two relatives stare at each other, not moving a muscle, broken only by the soft hum of the portal.
But after about ten seconds of silence, Rivet manages to tear her gaze away from Mags to glance over to Ratchet, feeling an overwhelming surge of emotions at seeing actual Lombaxes—and her family—that were paralyzing her to keep her from doing anything but shakily breath from a mixture of nervousness and excitement, unsure of which one was taking charge at the moment.
And as she meets Ratchet's eyes, he simply gives her a comforting smile with a nod and thumbs-up, added by Kaden's own nod as he stood next to the portal, patiently waiting for her to step through.
She then looks back down at Kit at her side, and even though she knew that Kit was also nervous—mostly just because Kit was just a shy person at heart—she could see Kit give her own small smile with a nod, a silent reminder that she was going to be here for Rivet along with the rest of them—just as she promised.
And truth be told, there was still a part of Rivet that was screaming for her to run away and that she wasn't ready for this, still reeling from the fact that Nefarious was finally dead and gone and that she was free for the first time in her life, and not sure if she was ready to quite literally step into this new chapter of her life where she knew the species and the family she never knew.
But then again… She remembered Ratchet's words back when she thought they were coming here the first time on Savali, and how he too felt when he first met the Lombaxes. About how he also felt scared to finally meet the Lombaxes. And how she asked him to not be scared, and he just said he didn't, but he went through it anyway.
"It's going to be okay, Rivet; you're not alone. Just remember—It's a leap of faith. And you can do it."
Rivet closes her eyes, trying to ignore how her heart was pounding, taking a deep breath as Ratchet's words echoes through her mind, telling herself that if she managed to take down Emperor Nefarious after a lifetime of suffering, then she can step through a goddamn portal.
Mustering up every bit of her will, she opens her eyes, and slowly walks through the portal, with Kit right by her side.
And as she stops inside of the lab that she surmised Kaden must work in, the portal quietly closes shut behind her as she feels Kaden's gentle hand on her shoulder—something that honestly felt comforting with what was happening right now.
"Mags," Kaden says softly, still holding a grin as Mags and Julie both continue to silently stare at Rivet. "Meet Rivet. Your niece."
Mags still doesn't move at all, still frozen with his mouth agape while Rivet gulps, knowing instantly just by looking at him that this man must be related to her with just how similarly they looked with their stripes, fur color, and eyes—save for the fact that his sclera were yellow, and the fact that she was much shorter than him. She hoped Ratchet was wrong about them both being small for Lombaxes, but upon seeing two more that both were taller than her, that unfortunately didn't seem to be the case.
"Wha—Niece?!" Julie asks, snapping her gaze away to look at Kaden in bewilderment. "But… I thought all of Kayla's family died with her on that ship! Mags said so!"
"I thought so, too, but obviously, that's not the case." He says with a chuckle, gesturing to Rivet. "By the sound of it, Kayla and Dex managed to put their daughter in an escape pod before they were shot down, and it crash-landed on Sargasso, where she's been living this whole time. We caught wind of her from the monks, went off to find her, got roped into that Empire stuff, and now here are."
"That's… I… Just… Holy shit, Mags!" Julie says happily, wrapping an arm around him while putting on a huge grin. "Your niece is alive! Isn't that great?!"
Mags, however, doesn't respond, nor hardly even registers Julie suddenly wrapping her arm around him. Instead, he shakes his head a little to snap out of whatever thoughts have frozen him this entire time, and brushes Julie's arm off him as he slowly walks up to Rivet.
And as he does, Kaden lets go of her shoulder to step aside, but Rivet too hardly notices as she just focuses on Mags as he stops before her, still remaining silent while he continues to look over her.
Rivet gulps, and having had enough of being awkwardly silent (and also attempting to distract herself from her own frenzied mind), she opens her mouth.
"Erm… H-Hi." She says, wearing a small, anxious smile while hesitantly waving her hand. "I-I, um… It's… Nice to meet you. I've… Heard a lot about you."
Finally, Mags seems to break out of whatever trance he was in as he too gulps, putting on a smile with a shaky breath.
"I just hope they're good things." He says, huffing a small laugh through his nose. "I know how Kaden likes to exaggerate and joke around."
Kaden rolls his eyes with a smile, now standing with Julie and Ratchet, watching with apt attention, but Rivet gives a nod with a smile.
"Erm, y-yeah, don't worry, he said how you were a good friend and… Stuff." She tells him before sighing, rubbing the back of her head while looking away. "I'm sorry, it's just… I… Didn't know I had a family up until a few hours ago, or even where the Lombaxes were, and it's just…"
"How do you think I feel?" Mags asks with a smile, the beginnings of tears forming at the corners of his eyes. "I thought you've been dead for the last twenty years, Rosie… It's… It's just so good to see that you made it." He says, his breath growing shaky, softly placing his hands on her shoulders.
Rivet snaps her head back up to him upon hearing that, her breath catching slightly in her throat, and growing strangely emotional at seeing Mags tear up at seeing her, somehow feeling a love reminiscent of the Morts despite knowing this man for a grand total of two minutes.
"R… Rosie?" She asks quietly. "Is… Is that…"
"Your name." Mags says with a nod, grinning. "Kayla was too excited about your name to wait for your first birthday to announce it, so she told me in secret. I said it was a perfect fit for you."
And as Rivet remains silent at that revelation, knowing that in another world she'd be called 'Rosie' instead of 'Rivet', Mags gives a shaky chuckle as he looks over her again.
"You were just a little baby when I last saw you, and now you look just like Kayla." He says happily, tears starting to spill down his cheeks. "You're even wearing a red scarf like how Dex always wore his red bandana, too… And it's just… Just… It's just so good to see you again!"
He suddenly closes the gap to take her into a tight hug, surprising Rivet, but with most of it being from how unexpectedly comforting it was to be held by someone was practically a stranger to her.
"I finally have my family back…" Mags says, his voice starting to crack as his grip tightens. "I'm sorry Kayla or Dex aren't here for you to meet, too, but… I just hope you believe me when I say they loved you with all their hearts, Rosie, and that you were the most important thing in their entire lives. I just hope that I can hold a candle to how much they'd care for you from here on out, because I missed you, too."
A moment of silence passes as Rivet remains frozen in his grip. Then a second. Then another.
But then, finally, Mags feels her arms wrap around him as well as she hears him take a deep, shaky breath.
"This… This is really happening, isn't it?" Rivet asks, her own voice on the verge of tears. "You're… You're really my uncle… My family… I-I… Have my family back too…?"
Mags nods his head with a smile.
"You do. We do." He says quietly, savoring her hug. "This is happening."
"Don't forget your Aunt Julie, too!" Julie suddenly says, rushing in to take them both into a tight hug with a beaming grin. "Not only is your uncle the greatest uncle you could ever ask for, Rivet, but I'm the coolest aunt you'll ever have, too! I'm going to give you so many kickass guns from my lab, you'll have no idea what to do with them!"
Mags lets out a sigh at Julie jumping in, but even then, can't help but smile.
"Julie…" He says.
"Hey, if I'm dating you, then that makes me Rivet's real aunt, too! And if she's your family, then she's my family, too, and I'll love her just as much as you do!" She says happily, making sure to squeeze Rivet even tighter for emphasis. "So, welcome to the family, Rivet! Welcome home!"
Mags huffs another small laugh, but then readjusts his arm to include Julie into the hug as he tightens his grip even more.
"What she said." Mags says. "Welcome home, Rivet. We love you."
And in the middle of their hug, with Rivet now finding herself in the arms of two Lombaxes that were now her actual, real family, she begins to fully shed tears as she grips onto them both, the fears and doubts and worries she had upon being met with the prospect of coming here melting away with every passing moment upon hearing their words and feeling their comforting touch.
To think that this morning, she woke up as she always did; Knowing that she was the only Lombax in the entire universe, and complacent with the fact that she'd likely be the only Lombax she'd ever meet in her entire life. That she never knew her family, where she came from, or who her species even were, with the only faces coming to mind with the word 'family' being the Morts, and the word 'home' bringing up her hideout on Sargasso. That she'd spend the day fighting an impossible war against Emperor Nefarious as she had for nearly her entire life, and knowing that she'd likely be fighting for the rest of it too—most likely when he kills her after he's tired of pretending she has a chance.
But now… Now… Everything was different.
Nefarious was dead and gone, and the Empire was no more. She was free. She's in the arms of her uncle and (apparent) aunt, standing in a dimension full of other Lombaxes like her. All the questions she ever had about her origins have been answered, and she's come out of this entire ordeal with a new partner in an unlikely friend.
And to think that it was all thanks to Ratchet, who if she didn't just happen to stumble into while trying to destress from a bad mission at Zurkie's, she wouldn't be here right now. Hell, she'd probably be dead. She knew that he said she didn't owe him anything for all he did, but she absolutely owed him her life, because thanks to everything he's done, her life is finally in a newer, brighter chapter where she doesn't have to worry about genocidal robot tyrants anymore.
Now, all she had to worry about was getting to know the family she never knew she had.
All she had to worry about was learning all about her species and culture that she never knew still existed.
All she had to worry about was strengthening this bond with her new partner that she swore all her life that she never needed.
All she had to worry about was repaying Ratchet for that debt that he insists she doesn't have, even if it's as small as a round or two at Zurkie's, because it's the least she can do for everything he's done for her.
Now… Standing here in the Lombax dimension in the arms of her Uncle Mags and Aunt Julie, her new friends in Ratchet and Kit standing nearby in the wake of a total victory against the now non-existent Nefarious Empire…
Rivet felt a great ease that she has never felt in her entire life up until now, that for the first time ever, all she can see in her future is happiness instead of anguish and suffering.
Now, after years and years of questions, fighting, misery, loss, doubt, and exhaustion…
She was home.
Well, after a year and a half, that's finally a wrap on this story.
I was NOT expecting it to take this long considering Lost Time only took 8 months, even knowing that I knew it'd suck since 'action-packed adventure' is not my forte when it comes to writing, but at least I'm finally done with it. And even though it did suck to write for some parts—REALLY suck, honestly—I think I can look back over this whole thing and be satisfied and proud of this story. It was definitely one hell of a journey getting here, and even though I hated this thing's existence for damning me to be stuck in this chunk of my AU, it'll still hold a place in my heart because it is still a big part of the pride and joy that is my AU.
Which, by the way, yes, my AU is still going to continue after this! And thanks to being stuck on this goddamn story for a year and a half, I have the rest of my AU ridiculously planned out with a slew of stories and character arcs and all that good shit (all the way to Ratchet's children having children of their own, even, lmao). So, be on the lookout to the continuation of my series that is hopefully coming soon as college permits me, with a little sneak peek being that it'll mainly be about Ratchet and Rivet finally getting together alongside Kaden and Wells (I told you this slow burn would extend into another story, lmao).
And another little side-project I'm planning to do as well is a redux version of Lost Time, rewriting it from the beginning to both fix some retcons (like Ratchet's name) and punch up the writing that makes me cringe since it was the very first fanfic I published, and also including some illustrations of characters that I've since gotten throughout (although I'll also include them in later stories, too!) But, again, I've been DYING to move on in my AU, so don't expect that to come in a timely manner or anything, lol.
But with that, I sincerely hope that those of you who have followed this story have thoroughly enjoyed it despite having to be patient between every update, no matter when you decided to pick this up. Even though it sucked to write some parts, I still feel like they helped me grow as a writer, which will hopefully make future stories a lot better.
Thanks to all of you who have read this story, and to those who have been so generous as to leave comments as well, as I cherish them all greatly, and always eagerly look forward to reading them all!
Until next time!