Ratchet knew something was wrong. He wasn't sure how he knew it, but he could tell Clank was bothered by something. Ratchet had wondered about it for awhile before a possibility came to mind. Was it because Ratchet wasn't enthused about Clank's acting career? He'd felt left out for the longest time, even before he'd been fired by the director. It was humiliating to be considered unworthy despite the adventures he'd been on. It made him feel like he had after he'd been sent away. So maybe it was because Clank thought Ratchet didn't approve or like what he'd done. But the movie had been great.

Ratchet had needed time to consider what to say, but as the day wore on, he got a different sense. It wasn't him. Ratchet knew that. Clank was as friendly as ever, but there was a distance about his mannerisms that wasn't usually there. He didn't think it was him. But what else could it be?

Clank's answer to his roundabout question didn't please him either. He didn't want to wait for his robot friend to come to him. But as he stood there outside Clank's bedroom door, he couldn't think of one thing he could use to reason that Clank was in danger. So he slowly padded to his room to go to bed. At the door, he hesitated then left it open for once. He wanted Clank to feel welcome if he came to talk during the night. With that thought, Ratchet went to bed, feeling sad and confused as to why this victory against Nefarious didn't feel like a victory at all.

Ratchet was awoken late in the night to a shrieking screech of metal on metal and the zapping of electrical energy. He sat up, his heart pounding, and heard a clank then the quick patter of footsteps. Clank appeared on the doorway, his optics flickering, sparks dripping from a damaged charging port. Little gasps came from him as his vents snapped open and closed rapidly. He fell to his knees, reaching out one hand to his friend.

His reflexes kicking in, Ratchet bounded from his bed, realizing just how wrong he had been about Clank being in danger. His little friend was rattling against the floor as his vents continued to stutter and energy seemed to bleed from his damaged charging port.

"Clank!" Ratchet exclaimed. "It's okay! I've got you!" He scooped Clank into his arms and bounded to the workroom he'd had made for Al to give Clank his tune-ups. He laid him on the table, very aware that Clank was far too warm. Without hesitation, he turned and banged the emergency button Al had insisted upon giving Clank 'just in case.' Now was a 'just in case' time if there ever was one.

Tapping his foot impatiently, Ratchet was relieved when Al appeared on the screen.

"Ratchet? This better be good," he said. "I'm in the middle of the new Qwark vid-comic." Then he took in the alarm on the Lombax's face and saw Clank rattling against the table and all irritation vanished. "Great gracious! What happened?"

"I don't know," Ratchet said, trying to control his panic. "He plugged himself in for the night and then showed up in my room like this just a minute ago. What do I do? He's not stable."

Al scratched his head then began to relay instructions. "Turn the system on to do a full body scan. Stand back and let the machine work. I'll get to my computer so I can see the results myself."

Ratchet took a moment to re-familiarize himself with the computer then followed Al's detailed instructions as he activated the computer and began the scan. Clank was still rattling against the metal table as the light from the scanner washed over his body.

"Okay, give it a minute. I should get the results in a minute."

It was the longest minute of Ratchet's life, and when Al suddenly looked panicked, Ratchet nearly collapsed. Clank had been in more danger than he'd thought. He should have pushed.

"Oh, this isn't good," Al said. He began typing frantically at his computer, and lines of text began to appear on the screen in front of Ratchet. "Okay, you'll have to start the repairs. I'll hop the fastest shuttle ship I can find. The instructions on the screen will guide you through the process of transferring his memory banks from the corrupted chips."

"His memory chips?!" Ratchet squawked. If Clank lost those, he wouldn't even know who Ratchet was and all their adventures would be forgotten. He was in bad shape if his memory chips were in danger. That system was one of the most protected, at least in Clank's model, and the threat of losing his friend while his body was still functional scared him.

"Unfortunately, yes," Al said grimly. "Did anything happen to him on your latest adventure?"

Ratchet began to shake his head then remembered that Clank had been captured by Nefarious and had in fact been away from him for almost twenty-four hours. "I don't know what happened when he was being held prisoner by Dr. Nefarious," Ratchet said weakly. "We haven't had the chance to talk to each other yet."

Al frowned. "Okay, well, you have to try and save as much memory as you can while I head that way. You can review the memories with that visor over in the corner. If you spot any glitches, note it down for me. Do not try and retrieve them yourself, or his memory banks could fail completely. Just follow the instructions to access Clank's memory banks and start reviewing. I will be there as fast as I can."

With that, Al hung up, leaving Ratchet with the knowledge that if he screwed up, he'd lose his best friend. Taking a deep breath, Ratchet read the instructions as Clank continued to rattle amid waves of electrical energy, some of which leaked from the damaged connector. He read them until he had them committed to memory then turned to Clank and began to work very slowly and very carefully.

It took him two hours before he had completed the hookup and transfer to the memory machine, and Clank was still now. He was very low on energy, having leaked out most of what he'd had. Ratchet couldn't connect anything to his main recharge port, but he could access the emergency one. Without hesitating, Ratchet opened up Clank's mainframe to plug in the small emergency plug so he could have some energy, and his entire body froze at what he saw. Only one thought came to him through the horror.

'No wonder Clank didn't want me to tune him up.'

The damage looked ugly, and though Ratchet could tell it wasn't affecting Clank's working mechanisms, it eventually would lead to catastrophic failure of his systems. Ratchet stared at the scarred metal. Some of it was melted as if a welding torch had been used, other pieces were discolored, weakened, perhaps with some kind of acid. As Ratchet turned and bolted to a trash can to vomit up what was left of his dinner, the word came to him.

'Tortured. Clank was tortured,' he thought, heaving violently.

It took him a few minutes to stop gagging, even after there was nothing left to throw up. He went to the bathroom to wash his face and hands then swilled water and spat it into the sink before he came back to Clank and probed the metal door that hid the access panel to his emergency recharge port. It was whole and undamaged, so Ratchet opened it and plugged Clank in. Sparks flew from his damaged port and blue drops of energy began dripping slowly out of it. That meant Clank had minimal power and would be safe from offlining.

Ratchet checked over all the damage inside of his friend, taking an abundance of detailed pictures to show Al as soon as he got there. When he was done with that, he slowly walked to the memory machine and flipped a switch to turn the visor on. He picked it up in shaking hands, unsure of what he'd see but determined to save whatever parts of his best friend that were left. He was terrified that it was too late though. With one final glance at Clank, lying still on the table with dim optics and no expression on his face, then he slipped the visor on and played Clank's memory banks.

He saw just how Clank was captured, and he sincerely wished that he'd gotten in a few more good hits on Courtney Gears as he watched her betray Clank. As the scenes played out, Ratchet watched Clank grow more and more uneasy at being captured. Nefarious was definitely out of his mind. Clank's distress over discovering Klunk was with Ratchet was touching to the Lombax. After Nefarious had shown off his machine that turned organic life into robotic life, Ratchet saw just what had prompted Nefarious to torture Clank.

"You are truly a miserable creature if you think spreading misery to every organic creature in the galaxy will fix your past humiliations from Captain Qwark," Clank declared.

Nefarious went very still then spoke to Lawrence. "We have a bit of time before that Lombax gets here. Get my kit, Lawrence. I want to show Agent Clank some hospitality."

Lawrence retrieved several vials and a blowtorch, which he held for Nefarious. Nefarious turned to Clank with a wicked grin. "What say you, Agent Clank? Will you join me in subjugating the squishies?"

"Never," Clank replied.

"Very well," Nefarious replied. "Hold him for me, Lawrence."

Lawrence once again grabbed Clank, allowing Nefarious to open his chassis up…

The screen glitched as Nefarious wicked grin seemed to freeze in place as he reached for Clank. Before Ratchet could mark it down, alerts flashed up, warning of corrupted files.

"Clank!" Ratchet shouted, and immediately the memory resumed.

As his heart rate slowed again, Ratchet settled back down to watch through Clank's optics, the visor beaming the experience directly into Ratchet's senses. Never before had he experienced being a robotic being, but he was now seeing some of the downsides as he watched what happened.

Lawrence once again grabbed Clank, allowing Nefarious to open his chassis up. Clank yelped.

"What are you doing?!" Clank yelled, his robotic voice crackling with static. He was not happy about this turn of events.

"You might not have talked when Incisor Krupp interrogated you," Nefarious said with a little giggle. "But I'm not looking for information."

Clank heaved and struggled, but he couldn't get out of Lawrence's grip. Nefarious reached in again and there was a click. Instantly, Clank's entire body went slack, and he realized with growing horror that Nefarious had used his emergency protocols to force him into a half-stasis. He was aware of everything that was happening, but he physically could not move. Nefarious took up the welding torch as Lawrence left Clank's vision.

"Now where to begin?" Nefarious asked, and he lit the welding torch.

Panic thrashed around inside of Clank's processor. His mind was going a million miles a minute, but he could do nothing. He was frozen and helpless as the flame approached then slid below his vision. The sensation of heat scoring his insides was terrible, and Clank began shrieking inside his head. He did not like this. Not at all. All he could do was scream Ratchet's name inside his head as Nefarious exchanged the welding torch for a vial of green acid, the sadistic grin never leaving his face…

The visual field glitched even harder than before and Ratchet tore the visor off with a gasp, dazed by the flashes of light and numbers. He saw Clank shaking on the table again, wave after wave of electrical energy passing over his small body. Ratchet clicked off the visor, deciding that this was a case that Al had to handle. He walked over to Clank and sat next to him. All he could do was talk to his friend, tell him stories of his life before they'd met. Ratchet wasn't sure if it was his voice or the stories, but the electrical waves slowed and stopped. At one point, his optics flickered green for a moment.

"Rat-chet?" Clank muttered brokenly.

"I'm here, Clank," Ratchet said, reaching out to grasp his hand.

Clank tried repeatedly to sit up until Ratchet crawled onto the table and pulled the robot into his lap. Clank pressed himself close and went still again. Ratchet clutched at Clank for several more hours until Al arrived and took over, an interminable amount during which he wondered just what would happen if the Clank he knew didn't make it. It was with relief that he heard the hissing slide of the door and Al's voice.

"Ratchet? What's his status?"

Ratchet was too tired to answer, but he refused to let go of Clank. Al came bursting in.

"Ratchet? Status?" Al demanded, looking around.

Ratchet pointed at the pictures he'd taken. Al huffed with frustration as he walked over to look at the pictures. His entire body stiffened and he began flipping through the pictures with greater speed.

"What do we do, Al?" Ratchet asked.

"What happened?" Al demanded, throwing the pictures down and hurrying over to look inside Clank for himself. He sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth when he saw that the pictures hadn't been an exaggeration.

"Nefarious. Like Incisor Krupp. Except it was real."

"That's the one who interrogated Secret Agent Clank?" Al asked, but both of them knew the answer. It had been quite the episode, and Clank had told Ratchet that he did not like performing that scene. Now he'd lived it.

"What do we do?"

"A lot of this needs replaced," Al said. "But Clank is a unique model."

"Can you do it?"

"With the right equipment, but it won't be cheap. We'd have to purchase a machine that can make individualized metal pieces out of the rare metal that he's built of, for starters."

"I have the bolts," Ratchet said. "Whatever you need, let me know. Money is no object."

Al nodded and the two of them began to figure out just how they could save Clank, both his mind and his body, from the damage Nefarious had done, desperately hoping that they weren't too late.