It had been a while since the Lombax and robot duo had stepped foot into the Polaris Galaxy. While their adventures they had in this galaxy were fun, and they made a multitude of friends here, they both felt home sick for the familiar Solana Galaxy. They spent a few months there just kicking back; seeing old faces, putting new souvenirs into their complex at Metropolis, and staying up until 3 AM playing hologames. It was a fun and relaxing ride, but eventually the two felt the need to check up on the damage that had been done by the Z'Grute on Luminopolis… and to see if Qwark had caused any more trouble for the galaxy while in office.

The visit back so far was enjoyable, aside from the always unbearable paparazzi practically shoving microphones up their noses and cameras in their eyes. They somehow managed to escape later in the evening, finding an elevator to take them up to one of the tallest towers in order to overlook the large city.

Ratchet walked into the elevator, "Wow, I know it's been a while since we've been to the Polaris Galaxy, but I'm really impressed by how far these guys have got." He pushed the button indicating for the device to take them up to the top floor, "I mean, the place looks like it's never been touched!"

Clank looked up at his friend, "Indeed." He put a finger to his mouth piece, "Except for, uh, the Luminopolis Light Tower."

The Lombax winced remembering how the two of them, as well as Qwark and Nefarious, had a hand in the total devastation of that tower, "Oh yeah, that… that definitely needed some repairs." He scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

"What I'm looking forward to seeing is how things are going on Magnus."

"Oh yeah! Susie showed me some photos of how the reconstruction there was going - it's looking really good so far!" Ratchet smiled, "They've really come a long way in just a few months."

The robot looked up at his friend, suspicion written on his metal features, "You've certainly got a soft spot for that girl."

"What! I just keep in touch with her. She's really excited about how the Tharpod community is coming together and—" Ratchet looked back down at his friend, noticing the suspicious look wasn't going away. "OK, she also reminds me of me when I was her age; fun, headstrong, throwing myself into trouble—"

"And an orphan."

The elevator doors finally opened to the top of the tower. "Well, yeah – Hey! How did you know she's still an orphan?" It was Ratchet's turn to give a suspicious look as the two exited the elevator.

"I took a fair gander since I know most Tharpod parents are still too busy trying to find their own children, and everyone else is still trying to get back on their feet." There was a pause before the robot added, "I also saw you forgot to close some windows pertaining on adoption laws."

Ratchet's ears fell, "… Oh."

Clank watched his friend look awkwardly away at the night time cityscape before speaking up again, "Ratchet, are you really considering adopting her yourself?"

"Well—"

"Because that would require a lot of commitment, and I recall you recently telling Sasha that, with us having not retired, you don't have the time for that."

The Lombax frowned as he remembered that encounter with Sasha. She had brought up starting a relationship again with him when he and Clank had returned to Solana, and her look of disappointment at his response broke his heart. It wasn't that he didn't still love her, but he had realized on Magnus he shouldn't be in something as committed as a relationship while he was in his line of work.

Clank waited patiently before his friend responded. "Clank, relationships and adoption are some things I'm not thinking about for right now. They're more… things for the future," Ratchet said, walking forward near the edge of the roof as he continued. "Y'know, some time when we're not so busy. Who knows, it may even be in the near future since things so far seem to be pretty peacefu—"

"Ratchet, look out!" The robot yelled from behind him.

Ratchet looked over to see a blast heading his way. With his quick reflexes, he rolled out of the way toward Clank, with the blast just barely skimming his tail. The two looked to the source of the attack, seeing an all too familiar shiny, green cranium.

"You two!" The familiar figure yelled, stomping towards them.

The Lombax rolled his eyes, "What's it this time, Nefarious?"

"You two have been a real pain in my circuitry these past years, but this time you have drawn the last straw!"

Ratchet and Clank exchanged confused looks before the smaller robot inquired, "Uh, pardon me for asking, but what did we do?"

Nefarious glared down at the other robot, "Don't you play dumb with me! You two—"

Suddenly a bright yellow taxi cab had pulled up, with the passenger door swiftly opening up (knocking Nefarious over in the process) and revealing the large, shining chin of Qwark.

"Ah, there you are my sidekicks!" The suit and spandex clad man waved to the cab behind him, which then quickly left the top of the tower, speeding off into the distance.

Ratchet tilted his head, "Uh, hi Qwark?"

The so-called superhero stepped close to his 'sidekicks,' his large figure towering over them, "Alright, you two!" He pointed an accusatory finger, "I always knew you were both jealous of my sharp wit, my awesome figure, and my dashing charisma, but what you did today was just underhanded!"

"Wait, what? What are you talking abo—"

"You!" Apparently Nefarious had snapped out of his daze from being slammed with a door, as he walked over towards Qwark, "What are you doing here?!"

Apparently Qwark did not notice the supervillain was even there to begin with, which wasn't all that surprising considering his self-absorbed personality, "Nefarious? How were you able to get over he—"

"Hold up, hold up!" Ratchet came in between the two, holding his hands up, "Why are you guys both here? What are you guys talking about?!"

"Well, as I was saying before I was interrupted," Nefarious shot a venomous glare at Qwark before returning it to the Lombax and his friend. "I'm here because you two submitted this," he whipped out the recent Holo News, "to the press!"

"Yeah! What he said," Qwark chipped in.

Ratchet stared at the photo, "Whoah, whoah, wait- WHAT?!"

"Why would we even think to do something like this?" Clank asked.

"Well, I figured it was because you wanted to ruin my reputation so you could steal my place as the galaxy's greatest superhero gone celebrity gone President," Qwark said.

Nefarious rolled his optics and muttered, "As if your reputation was that great to begin with."

"Excuse me, what was that, villain?"

The robot folded his arms, "I'll have you know I was very respected and an inspiration to supervillains everywhere before this happened!"

"… Even with all of Magnus proclaiming you a hero?" Clank spoke up.

Nefarious scowled as he remembered how he had to threaten the entire planet of Tharpods to get them to shut up about him being a 'hero,' "We don't mention that."

Ratchet pinched the bridge of his nose before speaking, "Listen. Guys. Clank and I didn't submit the photo!"

"But you guys were the only ones with us on Magnus!" Qwark said, Nefarious nodding next to him to indicate he had the same logic.

"Yeah, but we didn't have a camera," the Lombax explained. "You can't really take a photo and submit it to the press if you don't have a camera."

Both the President and the supervillain simply stared, the cogs visibly turning in their heads (literally with Nefarious) as realization dawned on them.

"Huh, I never thought about that," Qwark said, rubbing his chin with his hand.

Nefarious, on the other hand, fumed, both from having forgotten about something so stupid, and for being in this whole situation in the first place with no one to blame except for one person. In his rage, he did the first thing that came to mind. "YOU TWIT!" He threw his empty Combuster at Qwark's head, "This is all your fault!"

Qwark, somehow having not been knocked over by the weapon, grasped at the sudden pain inflicted on him, "OW! Hey, I already said I was sorry!"

"Sorry doesn't cut it right now! In fact, it never cut it in the first place!"

"It was an accident! I can't help it that I tend to cuddle up to whatever's closest to me in my sleep!"

"I was fifteen feet away from you!"

As the two bickered back and forth, with Nefarious being mainly on the offensive and Qwark on the defensive, Ratchet and Clank talked amongst themselves.

"Ratchet, who do you think submitted the photo?" The small robot looked up at Ratchet.

Ratchet rubbed his chin as he thought, "I don't know. I mean, it'd have to be someone who knew where we were…"

"And who happened to have a camera."

The Lombax thought hard, searching through his mind for someone who owned a camera that would have been on Magnus, "Camera… camera… wait a second!" A realization had hit him.

"What is it?" Clink tilted his head curiously.

Ratchet smiled, "I know who it is."

"Who?"

"Lets just say I'm going to have a long talk with someone once we visit Magnus," although secretly Ratchet was also planning on giving this someone a fist bump for doing this to the two individuals that made his adventures all the more difficult.

Clank, realizing who his friend was referring to, shared a knowing smile with him before their attention was grabbed by a sudden raise in volume from Nefarious.

"THAT'S IT!" Nefarious yelled, tackling Qwark to the ground. "I'm going to kill you right here and now, Qwark!"

As soon as Nefarious said that, the two found overly bright spot lights being shined down on them. They looked up to find the source of the lights to be a series of ships belonging to Holo News.

"Oh my!" The familiar voice of Kip Darling sounded from the largest ship, "Look at this, folks! It looks like the President and his lover are having a moment here on this tower!"

Both of the "lovers" looked with wide eyes, spotting all the cameras recording them before scrambling off each other.

"How did they manage to find me?!" Qwark asked once back on his feet. Normally he was all for being in front of the cameras, but this event was an exception for him.

"You moron, you led them here!" Nefarious shrieked, a hint of panic in his voice.

"I thought I lost them!"

"It's impossible to lose a huge chin like yours!"

"Why thank you, it is an impressive, masculine feature of mine—"

"That wasn't supposed to be a compliment!"

As the two bantered back and forth, the two anchors looked on from above in their ship. Kip commented, "Uh oh, it looks like these two are having a sort of "lovers' spat!""

"Awww, how cute!" Pepper cooed.

Kip slowly looked up from the scene and over at his co-anchor with bewilderment. There was an awkward beat before Pepper finally noticed the silence and looked over at Kip.

"… What?"

Ratchet and Clank awkwardly watched as the scene took place before them, with Nefarious and Qwark exchanging immature insults, and the news anchors above them coming up with theories on what they were arguing about.

"Lets leave before we become a part of this mess," Ratchet whispered to his robotic friend.

Clank looked at all the video cameras recording the President and the supervillain, "Good idea."

And with that the heroic duo left the scene, making a beeline for Aphelion.

"That's it! I've had it with this paparazzi, and I've had it with seeing your stupid face!" Nefarious snapped, fumes practically coming out of his head. "LAWREEEEEEENCE!"

On cue, a small ship drifted into sight before the villain and the politician, driven by one nonplussed butler. "Leaving already, sir?" Lawrence inquired, the usual sarcasm laced into his tone as his boss jumped into the ship.

"YES! Now hurry and get us out of here!" The mad scientist hissed, glaring around at the cameras, the anchors, and most importantly Qwark as the ship sped off into the sky and out of sight.

The Galactic President now stood alone in the lights, awkwardly wondering how he was going to get out of this can of man-eating worms… or somehow turn it into something to help his campaign for next year. Maybe he could reel in the supporters of robot/not-robot relationships? That was a hot topic right now…

However, after a few moments, the anchors seemed to have gotten their fill for the night. "Lets sell this information to the tabloids!" Kip said, almost too excitedly.

Pepper seemed to share his enthusiasm for the idea, "Ooo! What do you think the headlines will be?"

"Probably 'Rendezvous for Questionable Lovers!'"

The two laughed and continued to exchange ideas for the new gossip as all the ships and cameras left the area, leaving Qwark completely alone atop the building.

For once in his life, the superhero-slash-charismatic-politician was relieved to not have the cameras on him.

Staring up at the night sky, Qwark voiced his opinions to no one in particular, "Ah, Nefarious. When will you finally come around to this blossoming… thing between us? Whatever it is, I know that, even if the universe isn't ready for it, it exists… somewhere, down in the cockles of… whatever it is that robots are made out of." A sigh escaped him, "Maybe someday, my insane archnemesis."

After such a heartfelt monologue, the Galactic President came back down to Polaris, having realized the situation he was in. "… How am I supposed to get down here?"

-END-

Sorry it took so long to post this chapter! It'd been finished for a while now, but it kind of got buried with the rest of my documents and I got distracted by that great, big thing we call ~*~life~*~ (blech). But I was reminded to upload this by watching the new Ratchet & Clank trailer that just came out! (GET HYPE) Thank you all for the reviews, and I'm glad you enjoyed the first chapter! Hopefully you enjoyed the ending as well. :D