A short thunk, as well as soft footsteps toward Al's desk, accompanies a polite tap on his shoulder. "I'm ready, you can wake him now."

"Oh," he blinks in shock, not expecting her to pop up this soon. The tools are politely dropped, giving his full attention back to his visitor. "You burned through that book already? Jeez, you really are dedicated to this."

"Well," Nova shrugs, "A good chunk of it is history and theory, and that's not what I need, so I skimmed through that part. What I really need is the how, not the why. That part's interesting too, but I really want to focus on the future for now."

"Think you can do it?"

"I think so. I hope so. No, wait," the markazian corrects herself, straightening her posture a bit. "Confidence is the key. I can do this, and I will."

Al gently taps a small stylus to Clank, a short burst of faint electricity that signals for him to begin the process of rebooting. The subtle hums and ticks of his systems slowly come back to life, and his eyes blink open once more. His organic companion is the first thing he sees, as well as the wide grin across her face.

"Good morning. Al says you've got a clean bill of health."

Amidst Nova's greeting, he notices that there's something in her eyes, an excited gleam that wasn't there before he shut down. Perhaps Al taught her something while performing the check, he assumes. Whatever it was, he can tell that it's made her completely and totally happy. "That is good to hear. My own personal scan confirms that I am fully operational."

"Good." Nova claps her hands together, turning her focus straight to Al. "Now that everyone's awake, we can start on those tests, right?"

Summoning a data pad from his personal storage, Al creates a document for the occasion, fingers ready to type. "Sounds good to me. You said at the party that you can look into the past with some things, right?"

"Yeah. I remember doing it with Alister's wrench, and the holoflux armor. I saw…Well, I'm not really sure what I saw. Colors, feelings, but not solid memory."

The mechanic hums, tapping away at the pad. "Then maybe it's exclusive to things tied to your past life," he theorizes. "I have an idea, wait here." The pad dissolves for a moment, and Al moves behind the counter. Quiet mumbling emanates from the space as the drawers are combed through, and after a moment, a pile of trinkets are dumped onto the workbench. "Try that little black cap. It was removed when I first installed Clank's helipack."

The smallest robot looks down at the haul at his side, and tilts his head at his old friend. "You kept my removed components after all this time?"

"Call me sentimental, but yeah," Al shrugs. "I normally keep parts to reuse for other projects, but this stuff is different. I have my own tech here too; there's a dedicated drawer for it."

"Okay then. I'll try this first." Nova carefully wraps her fingers around the tiny piece, trying to picture the scene when it was removed.

Clank and Al watch as her eyes flicker to green, and she hums in concentration. "Interesting," Al mumbles, pulling out his data pad once more. "What do you see?"

"I don't see anything. Nothing new or interesting, at least." The markazian squints her eyes, trying to pick up more information. "I can kinda hear...something? A drill bit, I think. It must have been loud, but this isn't telling me much."

Nova puts the piece back into the pile, and Al begins to shuffle through it once more. "Then let's try something else. What about this old thing?" An outdated data pad is offered to his test subject.

The markazian turns the pad in her hands, searching for some kind of on switch. Clicking the button at it's side does nothing, and she gives a slightly disappointed pout. "Does this thing still work?"

"It should, other than the power," Al explains. "It would only need a new battery, but those models have such outdated software that I wouldn't really be able to use it anymore. This thing's back from my Q-Force days, when the Biobliterator was a threat. All the data's been transferred elsewhere, anyway."

"I see." Nova focuses, and her eyes switch once more as she gets back to work. "Hmm...okay, this has something more. I see...yellow, and I can hear some distant music in the background. Like from a hologame, but I don't think I've played this one. There's some weird, faint smell, too…" She shakes her head a bit, and sniffles to confirm her suspicions. "Is that banana? There isn't any food here."

Al excitedly scribbles this new information down. "That's gotta be one of Ratchet's memories for sure! Nova, my Q-Force uniform was yellow, and no organic person alive should know that. As for the banana, Qwark was held on the Starship Phoenix when he lost his memory. Ate a lot of bananas, so the smell lingered for a while afterwards.

Qwark's cage was in Ratchet's quarters," Clank adds. "After Qwark recovered, Skidd was left in that space while we reversed the Biobliterator's effects. I believe the music you may be hearing is from the Qwark Vidcomic series; the volumes we played at the time were very useful in stopping Nefarious."

The young hero smiles at this new information; such small details, yet just as interesting as the overall stories she's been told. Excited by the idea and bouncing at the opportunity to test this power, Nova sets down the device and opens her personal storage. "Maybe there's something else I can try!" A ball of light materializes into the time capsule, which is quickly set down next to Al's pile.

Surprised, Clank blinks at her readiness for this situation. "You brought this with you?"

"Yeah. I've had it sitting in there since Al suggested these tests. Figured some of this might be useful, when we got around to visiting." With a hiss, the seal opens, and a few other trinkets are laid bare.

"Wow, this stuff is pretty well preserved," Al notes, but stops himself before revealing anything more.

"Let's see..." After digging under a pile of papers and other artifacts, Nova locks eyes with a single bullet casing. "What about this?"

Clank scans the object in her hand, and raises a finger to object to the idea. "Nova, that shell bears the Dreadzone insignia. Are you certain that you want to see where that came from?"

Nova thinks on it for a moment, turning it in the shop's lights. "Yeah. It's not a pleasant memory, but that doesn't make it any less important. I want to know." She squeezes the casing, but nothing happens. "Come on..."

"Maybe it's a blocked memory," Al suggests.

The trinket is rolled between her fingertips as she takes in the smaller details. Despite it's age, there seems to be very few spots of tarnish in the metal, which is otherwise polished to the point of being a bit gaudy. "You wouldn't be in that box if you weren't important," she whispers to the casing. "Show me." With that order, there's the sensation of a snapped string, and any resistance leaves.

Immediately, the markazian scrunches her nose and groans in discomfort. "It smells like gunpowder and smoke. Strong perfume and cheap alcohol too."

"Sounds like Dreadzone, alright." Al grumbles, looking away from the scene and staring into the floor.

"Wait," Nova interrupts, her head snapping to the side slightly as if a sharp sound caught her attention. "Something opened. A metal latch? There's relief, and hope, maybe? It's very-"

Green eyes grow wide as the sound of a gun's blast makes her ears ring, and the clinking of a bullet shell bouncing to a stop. The thud of a larger body hitting the cold floor. Her neck suddenly burns like a fire spreading across her entire body, and she drops the bullet shell to pull at her shirt collar and expose the skin.

It barely registers in her mind that the two boys called to her, and that Clank is beside her with a comforting hand to her back. When she opens her eyes, she realizes that she's on her knees, on the ground. The sound is gone, the smells are gone.

Just Al's Roboshack.

Her breath settles, but her body recoils as she stares at the casing. "Why?" There's so many questions, all of them pushing through her mind all at once. Why was that particular vision so powerful? Why would someone be driven to willingly shoot someone as sweet as she knows Al to be?

Nova decides on one, turning to the person who might have the best answer as her voice continues to tremble. "Why would he keep such a horrible thing?"

Clank searches for the right way to phrase it. "Believe it or not, I once asked him the same thing. He told me it was a lesson to himself."

"What could that memory teach someone?"

Clank picks up the casing, and the Dreadzone logo catches the shop's lights once more. "Before that moment, there were actually times that Ratchet fantasized about the life that Ace Hardlight and the other Exterminators led. They had access to great fortunes, and were recognized for their talents." An old memory of that day resurfaces.

…

The ambulance's shrill siren still echoes through the area as the vehicle hurries to Dreadzone's medical wing. Clank can still feel the weight that was briefly lifted from his shoulders, but the collar that still remains seems twice as heavy now. They were so close. So close to freedom, and the very thought of it will very likely cost them Al's life. Ratchet drops onto the rust colored bench in pure defeat, his eyes glued to his hands.

"This never should've happened. It's all my fault."

The shimmer of a single bullet casing catches his optics, twirling between the lombax's fingertips. Every twinkle it gives off burns his circuitry a little more, and if he had teeth to grit in fury, he absolutely would. "No, Ratchet. Ace Hardlight did this, and Gleeman Vox gave the order."

"They made a mistake bringing us here, Clank." That same quiet fury seems to move into Ratchet, and the defiant fire the warbot has always known returns to Ratchet's eyes. His fists tighten, gripping the bullet shell tighter.

"Now they're gonna pay for it."

…

Clank never saw that bullet shell again, until today.

"I believe that when this bullet nearly ended Al's life, it reminded him that such fame and power can easily corrupt a person." The item is handed to the taller robot, who seals the time capsule once more. "He defeated Vox, who in turn detonated Dreadzone. The heroes who escaped were free to seek therapy, or closure through serving time. I believe Ace Hardlight was one of them."

Al carefully breaks his own moment of tense silence. "I had no idea they actually shocked Ratchet. I was out cold. I mean, I knew it was a possibility if we were caught, but...are you okay?"

A breath is pushed out of Nova's mouth, and she stands back up. "Y-yeah. I'm okay now."

"You sure? You still look really pale."

Waving off his concerns, the organic takes a full breath to recover. "Just a little tingly, I think. And I just remembered something Ratchet told me." She thinks back to the garage within her subconscious.

…

By now, the aurora's streams have begun to fade, glowing just a bit dimmer than the moments prior. "While it's on my mind to ask, Ratchet, can you use the Aphelion here to travel to other biomes, or other places here? You said the Apogee Space Station was here."

"Yeah," he confirms. "She still works, I just like to take her apart and put her back together sometimes. It's, I dunno, therapeutic I guess. And Aphelion's cool with it, so maybe it's a lombax thing and she's used to it."

Nova hums, content with the answer, then points into the skies. "Have you been to that moon?"

"Hm? Oh, that. Yeah, I have. I call it the Museum."

"What's up there?"

"All sorts of stuff, really. Some of my old stuff, journals, and there's a door. Leads to…" Ratchet cuts himself off. "Well, it's not important anyway."

"Can I go up there? I'd love to see it all."

"I wouldn't recommend it," he deflects. "There's not time, anyway; You'll probably get pulled back pretty soon."

Squinting at his tone, the markazian slowly leans in, and Ratchet maintains his distance. "That's oddly cryptic for something that's 'not important', Chet."

The lombax's eyes widen, and he freezes as the phrase sinks in. His right hand moves to his chest, jaw hanging open slightly as if composing himself after a personal blow. "Chet?"

The markazian playfully tilts her head, raising her eyebrows and giving him a gentle nudge as she presses on. "Come on, you slipped up. Now you have to tell me."

The lombax mockingly mirrors the look on her face. "I'm way too old to be taking orders from you." The grin then drops, replaced by mild offense. "Also, Chet?"

"I'll stop calling you that if you tell me."

Ratchet rolls his eyes in defeat. "Okay, fine. But, I can't really say what's directly behind it. It's not something physical. It's more like, if memory lane was an actual road you could walk down. But it's not exactly an actual road, if that makes sense."

Nova backs away, bringing her hand to her chin in thought. "So opening that door would mean that I'd unlock your life's memories?"

"Before you get any funny ideas, no."

Pulling her hands away, she returns her direct attention to Ratchet. "Why not?"

The former hero stares into the skies, his gaze locked onto the moon above them. "Look, kid. My life, for all it's great moments, really, really sucked sometimes."

…

"Nova?"

The markazian brushes her fingers over her neck, the static that seemed to fill the area having faded as she reminisced. "'It's bad enough you inherited my problems, you don't need my personal demons too.' At the time, I wasn't sure what he meant by that."

"I see," Clank nods. "I have to agree that it is for the best that you do not hold any of his memories. It is interesting that you can dig this far, but it may not be wise to use this power often."

"Yeah." Nova picks up the time capsule, brushing her fingertips over the top. "I don't need to crack the door open any further than I already have. I won't be using any weapons from Dreadzone unless I absolutely need to, just in case there's some subconscious tie to that power. Certainly won't try to 'read' them again."

Clank looks over to the time capsule, watching as the brooch key shimmers in the Roboshack's lights. "I believe that would be best."