My face – ? Pal, if you want me to shake him off I'm gonna need –

"– a lot more than my face – ?" Ratchet trailed off as he notices he's speaking out loud all of a sudden, brought effortlessly back in the realm of words and sight and time as Clank withdraws a little bit. He glanced around, quickly taking stock. Clank is landing the ship, and there's a figure hurrying across the skyway to the dock. Ratchet thinks it's Sigmund for just half a second, before it dawns on him that it's Alister's ghost again.

He doesn't freeze up this time. He can't. Not with Clank at the helm, steadily unbuckling the seatbelt, propelling his body out of the cockpit. He doesn't get to hesitate, he doesn't get to think. What is he supposed to do?!

Duck! DUCK! he urged Clank as Alister raised his wrench.

They go tumbling across the deck, a bolt of negative energy crackling above them and flying harmlessly into open space.

"I'm sorry, Ratchet!" Alister's furious, anguished shout is a perfect echo from five years ago. "I've come too far to fail now!"

"General, stop!" Ratchet burst out, in spite of himself.

And suddenly, memory fails him. And Azimuth hesitated.

He can hear him. He can see him. When Clank said this was a recording, he didn't mention it was a live recording. Ratchet felt his blood run cold. Don't pass out, Clank says. Yeah. Now he sees why he isn't being allowed to drive.

"No! I'm not about to let you stand in my way after twenty years of – "

"I'm not – nobody's standing in your way, Alister, dammit, look around you!" Now Ratchet was the one shouting, and now that he'd started, he can't stop, with five years' worth of hurt and betrayal and rage and heartbreak bubbling just beneath the surface and threatening to burst out.

"You lost! You tried to use the Great Clock as a time machine, after everything I said and everything I did, even after I spelled it out for you, No, this isn't right, this isn't what I want! And what did you do?! You tried to kill me! You were the closest thing I ever had to a family, to – to a father, and you tried to kill me!"

Tears are streaking through his fur now, but he doesn't even notice. "And as if that wasn't enough, you almost destroyed the universe and then you killed yourself fixing the Orvus Chamber because you finally decided to shut up and listen! And you wanna know something, General?! You're not even real! And you can't change the past – because you are the past! And I'm done playing your stupid games! And I'm going inside the Clock right now and you can't stop me, so back off!"

Ratchet stood there as he's met with silence, panting, and he would be clenching his fists and shaking if Clank didn't still have control over most of his nervous system.

Unexpectedly, Alister dropped his wrench, and he glanced around, eyes as frightened and despairing as the distant moment when he realized he had all but destroyed the Orvus Chamber.

"I see…" he rasped. "I understand. So I…I failed after all. But I didn't…clearly I didn't destroy the Clock?"

"No. You reset the master switch before it could melt down. You saved the Clock. Left us to fix all the damage you did, but still."

Alister sank to his knees, staring down at his hands for a moment as if in wordless horror and awe, and finally hides his face.

"Then what," he implored, mournfully, hopelessly, "am I to do now, Ratchet?"

If there was even anything left of his heart to break, it crumbles now.

"I don't know, Alister. I really don't know," he said, voice cracking. "Just…stop. You've already made your choice, remember? Just let the past rest. Just rest, for once."

"I'm not very good at this 'resting' business," Alister mumbled, shaking his head with a rueful half-smile, half-cringe. "I'm getting old – hell, who am I kidding, I am old. Sometimes I think if I stop for too long, I'll…I – " He lifted his head abruptly, looking alarmed. "I don't have much time left. Ratchet, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I don't know what to say – "

"Don't say anything," Ratchet pleaded, anguished, but Alister talked over him.

"I was so close to going home. So close to seeing my family again, my friends – I was willing to sacrifice you to get there. Nothing is worth that, I can see that now. Not even….Elders, what could I say to your father?! I wouldn't be able to face him. I…"

Alister bit back a sob behind a clenched fist, pulling himself back together with all his strength.

At this point Ratchet is begging Clank to give him control again. Please, please let me go to him, please. I'm not going to pass out. I'm not going to do anything stupid, please just let me –

"I never set out to hurt you. I swear I didn't. I…guess I was so desperate to have my family back, maybe to get yours back – I didn't see that it was right there, by my side all along."

Ratchet can't tell whether it's by his own efforts or Clank's, but he takes a shaky step toward Alister, hand outstretched.

Alister sniffled, reached out. "Oh, if they could see you now, you parents would be so – "

And he disappeared.

After all, he was a time ghost all along, and he fizzled as he reaches the end of his loop and the Clock chimes for six minutes. He doesn't reappear.

Left reaching out for nothing but empty air, talking to nobody, Ratchet hit the ground, weeping brokenly, shattered by five years' worth of buried grief. He doesn't hear Talwyn landing behind him, and doesn't even know she's there until she's holding him, and then he clings to her almost for dear life.

Talwyn wasn't the only one come to greet them. Sigmund was there, too, hung back, with as much pained nervousness as his robotic features allowed him. Clank felt hot tears streaking down Ratchet's fur, as Talwyn scooped him up in a warm embrace. Clank felt like… he was intruding, somehow, on a moment that was supposed to be private. If he were at least in his own body, it wouldn't be nearly as awkward.

Clank heard a loud thunk, and Ratchet turned his head to look. Clank's own chassis was- right. Perihelion was still operating it. On unsteady, tottering steps, Perihelion wobbled over to the group, standing close enough to commiserate and far enough to not enter their space. What Clank would have done until he was invited in to comfort Ratchet.

Talwyn took an arm off Ratchet, letting not just Perihelion, but Sigmund into their circle as Ratchet cried it out.

"Uuuuuh," Sigmund eventually piped. "I hate to cut this short, but we really need to get XJ in another body. Better for both of you. C'mon, warm meal, warm beds, and as punishment for running off on me like that, you're all taking one week off. Here. You're not running off again until I'm sure both of you are physically stable," he added, helping pull Ratchet and Clank to their feet.

"What are you gonna do, put me on lockdown?" Perihelion asked, laughing. "You can try to crack our security, or you could just ask nicely. Though if they wanted to be asses and leave in Tal's ship…"

"Naaaah," Sigmund replied. "They'll stay if they know what's good for them. Clank, I have your cell with me. In you go. You shouldn't be in there any more than you need to, that's no good for Ratchet."

Clank did as instructed, pushing himself from Ratchet towards the petri dish and…

he gasped for air, goo in fur, blind and deaf. Clank was lifted yet again from the cloning chamber in Sector Eleven, and washed down. This time, though, once he'd been toweled off, whoever lifted him didn't have Ratchet's claws. Talwyn, then, and she immediately started snuggling Clank, stroking him with a finger. Eventually, Sigmund teased him out of her grasp, giving him a quick checkup before he was put back in the tank.

When he drew breath again, he did his best to spread his limbs so the Zoni could cut his nails, before being dropped back in again. Twice more, he was lifted out of the gel just for clipping, before he was pulled again off the netting and washed.

"Two," Sigmund told him while Clank was being scrubbed in the basin, and he nodded, ears flopping. His head was so big and his limbs were too small. "How you handling?"

"Okay," Clank squeaked out before giggling. Of course he would sound like a toddler- he was one. He purred loudly, content, as the Zoni in charge of cleaning off the tank goo stuck to him scrubbed more shampoo in his fur. Clank himself discovered his coordination was still heavily lacking, as he tried to turn around in the basin, and resigned himself to the assistance.

Finished, the tub was drained and Sigmund motioned to Ratchet and Talwyn that Clank was now safe to touch. Immediately, Talwyn scooped Clank into a big warm hug.

"Clank, I'm sorry, but I could just cuddle you all day. Oh, no, wait, not sorry. You're soft and adorable."

"If you plan on keeping me out of the tank for any more than my checkup, can I at least have a towel?" Clank asked, as he tried to wriggle out of Talwyn's grasp. "I find it an invasion of Ratchet's privacy."

"Uh-uh," Sigmund replied, shaking the entire upper half of his chassis. "You're getting a shave, and some clothes the Zoni made for you, and your shots, and then we're kicking you out."

"But I'm a toddler," Clank protested.

"And you're not leaving the Clock 'till all of you are rested. There's your punishment for flying off on us and getting yourself killed."

"But I can barely walk!"

"Maybe next time you won't be so… so… gosh-darn crazy," Sigmund countered, tweezing Clank from Talwyn so the Zoni could shave down his fluffy fur. "Not too much… he'll get cold," Sigmund added.

"We know what Lombax children look like," the Zoni replied in unison.

"Gah, even I forget you guys have been around the block. Well, hop to," Sigmund said with a nod.

"Are you really keeping us here a whole week? I have to get back to Ig-"

"You were possessed by a Loki, weren't you? And you want to just run off? Ooooooh no," Sigmund said, gently holding Talwyn in place with his hands on her shoulders. "You're getting a diagnostic and rest, just like Idiots Number One and Two here. Ratchet needs time to heal, you need time to heal, and Clank absolutely needs time to heal and get used to his new body. Properly this time. Nobody's running off. Capice? Ratchet? Oh, great, see? He's fallen asleep on the floor and he's still drenched in blood. Come on, if there's any reason at all- that's it right there," he added, gently turning Talwyn to face Ratchet, who'd finally passed out on the floor.

"Let's at least get the blood out of his fur and that shirt off, the Zoni can make you both some fresh clothes and get you some food later after some rest. Come on, bed, all of you."

"Yes, mom," Talwyn replied.

[Crack.]

Outside, Ratchet's body suddenly stopped crying as Sigmund swoops down on them, fussing like one of the hens he used to tend, but Ratchet himself is absent from the conversation, as a sudden, painful crack, as startling as a shot, causes him to lose grip.

[It's not even a sound, it's a feeling, like the occasional sudden jolt right back into wakefulness before sinking into a peaceful night's sleep – except it feels more like a crushing weight, more violent, more…final.

It hurts, beyond comprehension, beyond any possibility of comfort or relief. Ratchet loses material consciousness, sinking once again into the quiet darkness at the back of Clank's mind and, once there, being swept away by the undertow of pain, unable to fight it, unable to convulse or scream or do anything at all. He can't bear it. He can't, not for another second. One more second and this pain is going to kill him.

This is how Master Yorn was lost. It dawns on him, a cold, hard truth. Shattering. This is it. This is how a soul shatters.

He's as good as lost, and after all he and Clank have been through over the past few days, after fighting tirelessly to keep each other alive, Clank is inadvertently killing him.

Well. He's killed Clank's organic body, so now they're even. At least one of them gets to go home.

It's probably a good thing that the pain is so intense it doesn't give Ratchet any time to dwell on everything he's losing, the life he's leaving behind. Except for one part, the most important part.

At least let me say goodbye…

And suddenly,

relief.

The pressure lifts. The pain dissipates. Clank fades away. It's not the end. Ratchet still exists.

Utterly drained, he fades into darkness] and his body collapses on the cloning room floor the moment Clank evacuates to a new cell.

X

How many days later is it that Ratchet wakes up?

Without even opening his eyes or moving, he can tell he's properly settled in his own body, soul still intact.

About time. And thanks, Loki, for making him an overnight expert at judging his own existential state.

No light filters through his closed lids, and everything is quiet. It was pain and pressure that almost tore him apart earlier, but right now his body is lapped in warmth and comfort and that shattering pain seems impossible, only a bad dream. A faint whiff of lavender tells him he's in one of the sleeping pods in Sector Four, where some air filters from the nearest garden in Sector Three.

He also catches Talwyn's scent, notices her body tucked next to his in a tangle of blankets, her arms warm and heavy around him. Her quiet, even breaths tell him she's sleeping peacefully. Grateful that she survived her brush with the Loki, he kisses her temple.

There's another warm, soft weight settled next to him, but he can't smell it so he opens one eye. Oh, that's why.

It's Clank. His new body is finished. Or is it? He's just a cub – Ratchet's no good at guessing ages, but he'd have to say about two or three. Doesn't take him long to figure out why Clank hasn't been aged up yet, and he chuckles silently. Sigmund, you bastard.

Clank yawns, his tiny ears twitching and his fingers stretching out and kneading the blanket in his sleep, and Ratchet carefully disentangles one of his arms from Talwyn's hug so he can scratch behind the kit's ear, causing Clank to roll on his back, purring loudly and contentedly.

He smiles and nuzzles the little ball of fluff. Babysitting should be a breeze compared to what he and Clank have been put through this week, after constantly being within an inch of losing each other…His stomach and throat clench and his eyes sting, but with a soft sigh, he calms himself back down, dwelling only on the present. That's all that matters, now. Everyone is safe.

So for now, Ratchet goes back to sleep.

The Zoni lift their voices in a gentle chorus as they thread their way around the rifts in spacetime, healing and mending.

THE END

wrenchmxster and I wish to thank you for reading! Comments/feedback/prompts greatly appreciated. I'll have some new stories (or more chapters to existing) soon-ish.