Kaden kneels down, sucking in a breath while leaning on his OmniWrench for support as he grips his injured side. Most of his body hurt, hurt badly, with blood trickling from various wounds he'd sustained during the short, but incredibly fierce battle.
Picking his head up, he glares at the Cragmite that towered over him in his mechanical throne, appearing slightly damaged, but nowhere near enough to call it an even match by a long shot, only making Kaden scowl even more.
"I knew we should never have trusted you, you son of a bitch." Kaden says coldly, wiping the blood from his mouth.
Tachyon laughs, a shrill and grinding noise that only makes Kaden want to kill the bastard even more, if not for how goddamn annoying the little pest he was on top of the genocidal maniac that destroyed their home.
"You really shouldn't have!" He taunts giddily. "It was fortunate that pathetic Lombax friend of yours was gullible enough to believe I would actually help your kind. Me! Help! After what your inferior race had done to mine! Perhaps I should find him and thank him personally after I'm done with you?" He questions, dancing a tip of his finger off of his chin with an evil grin.
Kaden grimaces at the mention of Alister. It's only been a few days since their confrontation, and his tumultuous feelings towards his former best friend haven't subsided.
In fact, after leaving Kipler in Solana, and having to painfully excavate Marie's corpse from the rubble to bury her, he felt even more fury towards him, having been his mistake to slave through such torturous and soul-wrenching tasks. He was half-tempted to go out of his way to try and find Alister to murder him as one of his final acts in revenge of everything, but the only thing that stopped him was the fact that he had no idea where to start looking.
But… even then, that didn't give Tachyon the goddamn right to threaten him like that.
Because at the end of the day, he was the one responsible for all of this. He was the one who summoned an army to shoot every Lombax they see. He was the one who orchestrated a genocide of an entire species. He was the one who dropped the bomb that sealed Marie's fate in their home. Not Alister.
Kaden looks away, clenching his fist.
"You won't ever find him." He says coldly. "He might have underestimated you the first time, but that doesn't mean he's stupid enough to make the same mistake again. And even if you did… He'll put up even more of a fight than me." He warns Tachyon, staring up at him while he spits blood onto the floor.
Tachyon, however, shrugs, completely unfazed by his attempt of intimidation.
"Perhaps you're right, Keeper. Perhaps I will never see that traitor's face again. But in the end, who cares? His whereabouts and mere life are ultimately inconsequential to me and my plans, for victory is already mine! And besides, what is the point if that exile is likely going to just end his own life out of shame, knowing he's the reason his inferior species will become extinct? What a fitting end that would be to a pathetic disgrace such as him!" He laughs.
Never before had Kaden seen such a sick bastard, relishing such monstrous thoughts. Kaden wanted to kill Alister for what he had done, there was no question, but hearing this cockroach talk about his childhood friend in such a way boiled his blood all the same. Where does he think he has the right to be so goddamn—
"Ah, but that reminds me," Tachyon breaks into his thoughts, calming down from his laughing fit to lean onto his throne, staring into Kaden's eyes. "Speaking of abandoned Lombaxes… Tell me where you hid your son, Keeper."
Kaden freezes, his eyes widening as his boiled blood suddenly runs cold at Tachyon's statement, almost dropping his Wrench out of shock.
How does he know about Kipler?
For all this Cragmite knows, he died in the bombing of their home, like Marie. In fact, how did he even know he had a son? A family? Kaden was merely Keeper to him—a living pedestal for Tachyon's true goal of the Dimensionator. Something like his family should be pointless to an "Emperor" such as him.
However, Kaden tries not to give him the benefit of his shock as he nearly immediately stiffens his features, gripping his wrench while staring back into his eyes, masking his surprise with fury.
"He's dead." Kaden tells him flatly. "Same with the rest of my family you killed, you bastard. Why else would I be here fighting you if I had family to live for? I thought you were supposed to be smart."
To his surprise, Kaden watches Tachyon's face shift into an expression of anger from his usual smugness.
"Don't lie to me, Lombax!" He demands, pointing to him from over his throne. "You think I'm an IDIOT?! Your home was the first place I searched for the Dimensionator I know you hid, and I. Looked. Everywhere." He says slowly and coldly.
Kaden hides his unease. Why is he saying this?
"And I mean everywhere. That includes your poor excuse for a grave—or what's left of it, now." He says, waving his hand with disgust. "I admit that I'd think it strange if the Keeper hid the Dimensionator with his wife's corpse, but universal domination demands that I take no risks in finding it. And while I found nothing in that pile of dirt… I could not help but notice that those family portraits in your home told me that there was a second body that should have been rotting with her." He says wickedly, grinning a toothy smile.
Kaden feels numb, almost hearing a buzzing in his ears as Tachyon's words echo through his mind.
Your poor excuse for a grave.
Your wife's corpse.
That pile of dirt.
Rotting with her.
This… Monster—DEMON—DUG UP MARIE'S GRAVE?!
Kaden knew that Tachyon was a sick psychopath, a cruel abomination, a goddamn sick FREAK. You need only to look outside at all of the bodies of victims he so heartlessly slaughtered in the attack to see, but… But…
This… Atrocity? This inhumane cruelty? Desecrating her final resting place—DEFILING her body?! And he had the GALL to INSULT it?! To insult HER?!
That.
Filthy.
FUCKING.
BASTARD.
Kaden snarls with an anguished yell as a rush of adrenaline drowns all of his pain, powering every muscle in his body to leap up from the ground to swing his OmniWrench at that dirty fucking Cragmite. His vision goes red, getting tunnel vision while he focuses on his Target; Tachyon's small, disgusting face. He already imagines how cathartic it will feel like to have the blunt metal connect into that giant, bulbous head of his, cracking it open like the rancid egg he came from.
He feels gravity aid him as he swings his arm down, watching his Wrench fall in slow motion.
For a few beautiful moments, he thinks he has him as good as dead. He won this fight. He avenged Marie.
But before the wrench is finished traveling even halfway down its descent, an arm of Tachyon's throne simply smacks him away like a ragdoll, slamming his body against the wall, cracking it slightly.
"That was close, Lombax, I'll give you that!" Tachyon says with an evil smile as Kaden coughs up a phlegm of blood on the floor, lying facedown as the adrenaline starts wearing away for the pain of broken ribs and bones to take its place. "But I can see you're done fighting. But, luckily for you, I'm feeling merciful for such a great show. So… I'll give you a choice.
"Tell me where I can find the Dimensionator, and I will spare you and your son, letting you live your miserable lives in peace on whatever rock you'll call home. Sounds fair, doesn't it?"
Kaden breathes a ragged breath, painfully picking himself off the floor, only able to muster enough strength to kneel on the floor, using a shaking hand to lean on his Wrench once more while he stares daggers at Tachyon, wiping blood from his mouth with his other hand.
"You… Say you'll spare us…" He says, now finding that it was painful just using his lungs to talk. "Just like how you said you'll… Help us protect the galaxy before you… Began to raze it?"
Tachyon waves his hand to dismiss the notion.
"I have no need to lie now, Keeper. What have I gain at this point? I got what I want from your people, and now I have the upper hand. I have no need to fear you stopping me, as this skirmish of ours has proven I can easily kill you if I want, with how pathetically you fight. Plus, what's the cost of letting two Lombaxes live if it means the opportunity of exterminating the rest? I can assure you, Keeper… I am offering you and your son salvation."
But as Kaden stares, showing no emotion, Tachyon's smug smile then shifts into a frown.
"But… Should you reject my gracious offer, I'll have no choice but to kill you. Slowly, and painfully. I will turn this galaxy upside down to find the Dimensionator and return the Cragmites to their former glory—but not before I pay a visit to your precious son. And believe me, Keeper… When I do, I will make. Him. Suffer." He finishes slowly and coldly.
But then, he simply clasps his hands together as he leans forward on his throne, resting on his elbows with a pleasant smile, as if he did not just threaten torture on an infant child like the monster he is.
"So… what'll it be?"
Kaden glares up at him, mouth curled into a stiff frown.
For the first time ever, he doesn't doubt Tachyon's words about sparing him, because he was right. There would be no way to stop him if he was allowed to live. Not even the Praetorians could stop him, and Kaden has seen—felt—that he could do no better, either.
And as he kneels on the floor, bleeding with a broken body, feeling weak and tired, the temptation of making it out alive and raising Kipler on his own was admittedly great. After all, all he has to do is tell him the Dimensionator is on Rykan V, and he gets to spend the rest of his life with his son. He gets to live, and be a father.
But before he can even spend a fraction of a second in that daydream… He thinks of Marie, and all the corpses lying on the road outside.
If he tells him where to find the Dimensionator, the rest of his people will suffer that same fate. He could survive, but how would he live with himself if he permitted such horrors to happen? To aid in such horrors?
He was the Keeper of the Dimensionator. He was the protector of his people. He was not a coward. And most of all, he would not fail them like Alister did.
Tachyon might have said that Kipler would die a horrible death if he found him, and he knew it was true. But he was in another galaxy, somewhere too far for Tachyon to dream of looking. It'd be finding a needle in a haystack world. He wouldn't be found. Nor would the Dimensionator, either.
And he might threaten Kaden with a painful death all he wants, but the real joke was on him. He was talking like Kaden hadn't already accepted his fate the moment he stepped into the Court of Azimuth, already taken care of his affairs, already made peace with his imminent demise. You can't threaten a dead man with death, after all.
Tachyon had no upper hand, and the thought was enough to put a smile on Kaden's face as he closes his eyes.
"Okay." Kaden says calmly as he shakily stands up, using his Wrench to help prop himself up, finding that it hurt badly to stand as well. "I accept your terms."
Tachyon's eyes widen as he smiles in glee, rubbing his hands together.
"Oh?" He asks eagerly. "You are taking my offer?"
Kaden opens his eyes, staring back up to Tachyon, and continues to grin as he manages to pick up his OmniWrench to point it directly at him.
"Yep. The second one." He says smugly. "Give me your best shot, you dirty Cragmite. You better make it count."
Tachyon blinks in surprise, but after a few seconds, huffs angrily with a scowl.
"You pathetic Lombaxes and your 'courage'. Do you even realize what you've done? You have just sealed your son's fate, despite all of your efforts to protect him. You have made a grave mistake, Keeper, for I will make sure that your death pales in comparison to the pain he will endure when I find him."
But then, he rests a finger on his chin, a small smile creeping upon his lips.
"Or, you know what? I think I'll keep him as a prisoner instead. A pet. And I'll make him watch the extermination of his race firsthand when I find the Dimensionator. It'll be a relaxing break from the torture he'll receive in his downtime, too! Oh, the fun I'll have with him!"
He gives another wicked laugh, but Kaden's smile doesn't fade as he lowers his Wrench, content with the knowledge that Kipler wouldn't ever be found. He knew Tachyon was just trying to make himself feel better after Kaden ripped any remaining power from him. Freaks like him don't like it when their prey give up and accept their death, after all, and know that he robbed that joy from him was a nice treat.
However, Tachyon's laughter soon dies down, and he sits back in his throne while recollecting himself.
"But, enough daydreaming. I've got a pest to squish first."
He presses a button on his throne, and a large blaster emerges from the chassis, and points directly at Kaden as he hears a subtle hum emanating from it. He doesn't recognize what kind of weapon it is, but it didn't matter. He knows it'll kill him. The how didn't matter. Only the result.
And as the blaster charges, a high frequency whine ringing in the ear, Tachyon smiles a devious smile.
"Any last words?" He asks.
Kaden shifts his gaze from the device of his death to stare into those vile yellow eyes of the monster that has killed his people, his wife, and soon, himself. He stares down the bane of their people's existence…
And grins.
"Happy hunting, Percy." He says gingerly.
He watches Tachyon's face curl into a furious snarl at the mention of a name that everyone knew he loathed back when he was a fellow Lombax citizen, and seeing such rage at such a simple word gave Kaden one last wave of satisfaction.
"It's! EMPEROR!" He cries out before he slams his tiny hand onto the glowing red button.
The gun beside him begins to glow and hum with a charge, at such a rate that Kaden guesses that he has maybe two or three seconds until it fires. But instead of jumping or running or dodging or even walking out of the way, he just continues standing there, closing his eyes as he takes a deep breath.
Despite his impending death, facing the barrel of a gun about to end his life… He feels… calm. At ease.
His son is safe, too far for Tachyon to even think of looking. The Dimensionator is just as hidden, secured in a secret and nigh impenetrable bunker on a planet of lava, protecting the rest of his people from the genocide. He had fought Tachyon in an attempt to avenge his people, and although he had lost the battle, he had done his best. And most of all… He won. Because as he dies, so too will the location of Kipler and the Dimensionator.
After so much fighting… So much pain… So many tears… So much death…
His job was finally over. He was done. He had fulfilled his duty as a Keeper, and as a father.
He dimly thought about how he was scared out of his goddamn mind when he first walked into this place ten minutes ago, heavy with the knowledge that he wouldn't walk back out.
But now that he's standing right here, moments away from oblivion… He felt peaceful.
Now, he can finally rest from this living hell. He was done.
Still closing his eyes as the gun's charge reaches its peak, Kaden smiles.
"I'm coming, Marie." He whispers. "See you soon."
He hears the blaster fire.
…
WHAM!
To Kaden's shock, the world doesn't go dark.
Instead, he is knocked down to the ground as whatever projectile was fired connects into his chest.
He gasps in pain as he looks down and sees the front of his jumpsuit torn slightly, but the skin beneath undamaged. He wonders how he's even alive as adrenaline starts pumping through his wounded body, and he wonders why a blinding pain begins to flare throughout his chest even though he couldn't even see broken skin.
"I hope you like my latest invention—aided by your technology, of course." Tachyon says with a wicked smile, Kaden barely registering the words over the white-hot pain. "It fires a concussive blast that sends the muscles of your heart into disarray. They'll start to contract out of sync, ever so slightly deviating from normal. It'll be a dull throbbing pain at first, but as time goes on, it will start to become unbearable as your own muscles start to pull and fight each other, like a morbid game of tug-of-war. In my trials, after about ten minutes or so, the metaphorical rope will snap as your own muscles will literally tear your heart apart, finally ending your miserable life."
He chuckles as Kaden grasps his chest, feeling a sharp pain with every rapid beat of his heart, feeling it start to get more irregular and oh so more painful, making him gasp for breath.
Tachyon, however, then turns around and starts to walk out of the chamber on his throne, its steps rumbling the ground slightly.
"I do wish I could sit here and watch you slowly die, but a soon-to-be Ruler of the Universe has more important duties than watching a furball get a heart attack. I'll send a soldier to throw your corpse outside with the others. Until then, though, enjoy your last few minutes of life. As best you can, anyway!"
Kaden hears his laugh echo through the room before he hears the door slam. He lies on the ground, gripping his chest as he can feel his heart failing. It was painful, so painful, too painful to stand up or even curse Tachyon one last time.
But even throughout the white-hot pain, he couldn't help but think that this was a pathetic way to die.
Not in some blaze of glory in a last stand against his people's enemy, but from a heart attack.
He would laugh at the absurdity of it, but it was beginning to get harder to breathe. It seemed that estimation of ten minutes was a little optimistic if it was worsening so quickly at this rate.
Kaden closes his eyes while he clutches his chest, tears of pain running down his cheeks as he just waits for it to all be over. He internally apologizes to Marie for making her wait a bit longer for his arrival to the afterlife. She'd probably make some joke about it when he finally sees her again, being late for even his own death. The thought was comforting.
But as he tries to distract himself from the pain with imagining what he and Marie's time in the afterlife will be like, he hears a strange sound.
It was coming beneath him, and he sees a glow begin to emanate from the ground. As he looks down, he dumbly and confusedly realizes it is a portal, and a moment later, he suddenly falls, landing hard on his back, making him involuntarily cough at having some wind knocked out of him, also spitting out blood in the process.
But before he could even begin to wonder what the hell was happening, he is just as quickly surrounded by two concerned-looking Lombaxes, unable to recognize them from vision that was beginning to blur, and above him, he make the portal he fell through, purple and cracked at the edge that appeared to be shaking in an unstable fashion.
"Close it before that Cragmite gets through!" The vaguely blue Lombax to his right says, sounding like a man. Even sounds were getting fuzzy. "Holy shit, I can't believe it worked!"
The portal then closes, and the Lombax looks over him from behind a pair of what looked to be glasses. "Kaden, are you alright?"
"Does he look alright, dumbass?!" The other Lombax says, looking yellow, and sounding like a girl. Why did they both sound familiar? "Look at all that blood! We need to get him on nanotech ASAP!"
Kaden feels himself being picked up as the first Lombax hurriedly agrees, but before Kaden could formulate any kind of question about who or where they were, his vision darkens as he finally starts blacking out from the pain, making his last conscious thought be wondering if this is just how dead people got sent to the afterlife.
Maybe he'd wake up to see Marie again, or he wouldn't wake up at all.
Both sounded comforting.
A Drophyd soldier sighs as he walks to the Court of Azimuth, where Tachyon ordered him to dispose of the Lombax apparently waiting inside.
He didn't understand why not just let leave him in there, being a useless furball and all, but orders were orders, even if they were tedious. Just why did he have to get stuck on corpse duty, huh?
He opens the door, groaning at his situation, contemplating whether or not to ask for a different post, but as he walks in, he finds…
Nothing?
Sure, there were bullet holes and the occasional blood splatter from the fight they had, but there wasn't a body.
Was Tachyon wrong? No, he couldn't be, Tachyon was hardly wrong. But at the same time, he can't exactly just go and tell him there wasn't a body, can he now? He was done for if that was the case! What is he even supposed to say if Tachyon asks why there isn't—
"Sentry!" Tachyon screeches through his communications, making the Drophyd jump in fear.
"Y-Yes, sir!" He responds quickly, cold fear washing over his body.
"Have you finally disposed of that wretched body yet?"
"…Uh…"
He glances back up to the empty room… And a realization dawns on him.
Well… It's not like Tachyon was going to check for it. All he wanted was for a body to not be here anymore, and… Well… It wasn't here anymore. For all intents and purposes… The body was disposed. Perhaps not from himself, but the job was done.
"Answer me!" Tachyon demands impatiently.
"…Erm, yes, sir! It's rotting with all the others as we speak!" He replies dutifully, trying to mask his nervousness of his white lie.
"Good, good. And did you find anything of interest on it, perhaps? A note, a set of coordinates, anything?"
"Um… Nope. Not a thing, sir."
He hoped that body didn't have anything on it, at least.
But thankfully, instead of following up on that line of questioning that'd expose his lie, Tachyon just grumbles annoyedly.
"Lombaxes…" He mutters before clearing his throat. "I have another task for you, then. Clean up the mess he made as soon as possible. I'm setting up a base of operations there, and the last thing I want is to track blood all over the place. Got it?"
"Sir, yes, sir!" The Drophyd answers as the transmission cuts out.
And as it does, he gives a very large sigh of relief at dodging that bullet—quite literally, as he wouldn't doubt that Tachyon would probably shoot him for managing to lose a dead body.
But then, as his relief fades away, Tachyon's next task suddenly registers in his mind as he looks around the room, seeing all the blood and spent ammo and scorch marks from their battle. That he had to clean.
The Drophyd then gives a deep breath before groaning, walking away to try and find a mop to get started.
He might not have been executed, but being a glorified janitor was almost as bad. He didn't sign up to be a soldier for this, after all.
I'll vent a little bit and say that I HATE Tachyon in the series.
Not for what he's done, but for what he's SUPPOSED to be, and never becomes.
Like, you're telling me that THIS little cockroach is the one who ended the Lombaxes? The most technologically advanced species in perhaps the multiverse? He's the one who killed Ratchet's father, being what has to be Ratchet's most personal villain ever (aside from Alister), since HE'S the entire reason Ratchet's life is the way it is? He's supposed to be SO terrifying that the only logical choice for the Lombaxes were to just abandon an entire dimension?
All that's well and good, and makes for a great villain, but they just SQUANDER it by making him this whiny, pipsqueaked cockroach whose incompetence and silliness makes you wonder how THIS little shit is the one who ENDED THE ENTIRE LOMBAX RACE?!
I fucking hate Tachyon because he NEEDS to be this evil, competent, and actually threatening enemy for him to be so feared by the Lombaxes and being what is essentially Ratchet's Darth Vader (probably not an accurate analogy, but the only one I can think of), but yet, Insomniac decides to make him some comic relief villain that makes goddamn DR. NEFARIOUS seem more threatening than the person who killed Ratchet's extremely skilled father, as per canon.
So, if Tachyon seems more dark in my story compared to canon, then that's why, because he SHOULD be this dark and twisted monster to actually be threatening instead of a glorified squeaky toy.