Weekly Oneshot #26: I'm Coming

Fear and despair had never burrowed so deep into Ratchet's being. It struck with every gunshot that was fired at him. With every footsteps he heard behind him. With every drop of blood that dripped out of his body.

His armor was cracked and torn, barely proving to be of any use anymore. It could survive many hits, but not this many hits. Some types of armor had its limits, and Ratchet had pushed his own way past its boundaries, and his punishment, his consequence, was blood stained orange fur on a body that was tempted to be littered with bullet holes. The Lombax's lungs struggled to hold on as another bullet smacked him in the back, a good chunk of his armor falling off and revealing more orange fur and shirt.

Ratchet had always put up a good fight through the years, and at this point, he swore that he could take on anything. He was wrong. So very, very wrong. The moment that he let his guard down, the split second that he took to breath and looked over his shoulder at Clank, he triggered the alarm system by accident and everything went to hell. A flurry of security bots and Thugs swarmed them, shooting at them the moment that they were spotted. The ambush was so sudden and the shots were so fast, Ratchet didn't have the time to grab a weapon of his own, all he could do was run.

A storm of bullets pelted them, most of which were entirely unavoidable. The load on Ratchet became lighter, and a shocking realization struck his mind. His innocent green eyes became wide and misty as he was forced to leave behind Clank, who was now dead on the ground, a bullet hole in his torso and head. Ratchet, in an attempt to avenge his fallen friend, managed to quickly equip an Alpha Distruptor, but it was blown out of his hands before he could launch a single shot. There was nothing to but run. Run and get to the head of this ship to complete the mission.

Ratchet could feel his body becoming weaker, his legs screaming for him to simply stop and rest, but he pushed himself. He pushed himself as hard as he could. If he gave up now, there would be no hope for the Planetary Defense System. All methods of resistance towards the enemy would be destroyed, and the galaxy would have nothing to help it. As much as it pained his draining body, Ratchet kept drawing in painfully sharp intakes of breath, doing his best to simply stay standing. No matter how many bullets were hitting him.

Then he made it. As more bullets came soaring towards him and threatened to hit him, Ratchet ducked inside the warship's control room and slammed the doors shut. Then, as soon as he received the slightest glimmer of safety, he keeled over and spat out some blood. He placed a hand on his chest and took some deep breaths. Almost done, he told himself, just take down the warship. Then he could find some nanotech. Find so nanotech, get patched up at the hospital, and...and...oh, who was he kidding?

Ratchet lifted his head and looked at himself in the reflection of the metal door. A stream of blood was running from his head and down his face, going down his cheek and dripping on the floor. There was no way that he would make it in time. He knew that there was too much blood loss for him to recover. Even now, as he was standing in breathing, he could feel himself begin to fade in and out, no matter how many times he snapped back into focus. He didn't have much time. If he didn't do something, then there would be nothing to stop these maniacs. This warship had to be destroyed...even if it meant that he had to go down with it!

Ratchet took a moment to gather himself before standing up and stumbling towards the control panel. He nearly collapsed on it when he got there. His green eyes scanned over the many buttons and controls, letting out a small gasp as he found what he was looking for. Ratchet raised a hand and slammed it on the large red button, shattering that glass that it was concealed under. Red lights then began flashing as a voice over the speaker system announced:

WARNING! SELFDESTRUCT SEQUENCE ACTIVATED!

Ratchet's ears twitched as he picked up the sound of a mass panic outside. A small smile formed on the Lombax's face; they knew that they were all about to die in a fiery explosion. What a way to go down.

He pushed himself up off the control panel and stumbled back over to the door. He would have left and watched all of the chaos, but at this point, his legs couldn't take it anymore. They didn't have the strength anymore. Ratchet slammed his back up against the door and slid down, leaving bloody smears all over the door. He let out a large sigh of relief as he sat on the ground and simply waited. Waited for death to come. Truth be told, he never thought that it would end like this. Actually, Ratchet never really gave any thought on how he was going to die. Not even when he was back on Veldin.

A small smile found its way onto Ratchet's face again as he recalled his memories on Veldin. He never realized just how much of an adventurous little punk he was back then. Living alone in a garage, using spare parts to build a ship so he could explore the galaxy, only wearing pants and suspenders. He could almost picture himself like that in his mind...he could see himself, too.

In front of Ratchet, something very hazy appeared. His green eyes were filled with curiosity as he began to make out what he was seeing in front of him. Ratchet then blinked and his ears lowered a bit as he realized that he was staring at himself. It was him when he was younger, that little punk that he had talked about. There he was, standing there with the pants and suspenders. He just stood there, looking down at him. Ratchet smiled again and even chuckled a bit. Great, now he was seeing things. The joys of massive blood loss.

He looked at the ghost of his younger self and spoke, "Heheh, I've really changed since I was you. I grew up and matured. I became a hero and decided to do what was right instead of doing things for my own personal interest." His younger self said nothing. Ratchet took a moment to ponder out loud, "Though...I wonder what caused that sudden change. It's been so long...I've nearly forgotten...anyway, be happy, kid, you've got a great life ahead of you. And it could start at any time, so pay attention, alright? It could even...wha..."

Ratchet squinted his eyes as another figure formed right next to the ghost of his younger self. It was much smaller, roughly half the size of him, and the other him looked happy about. Then the figure formed. Seeing it shocked Ratchet for a moment, then his eyes went big and tears flooded his eyes and ran down his face. His hand turned into a fist, wanting to grow tighter and tighter as he tried to stay strong.

"Cl...Clank..." Ratchet said quietly as tears dripped off of his face and onto the floor, where a small blood of blood was forming.

The ghost of what appeared to be a younger Clank stood next to younger Ratchet. He stood there, staring at bloody Ratchet, and tilted his head. Then he giggled that familiar giggle as the younger Ratchet rubbed the top of his head.

"Come on, pal," younger Ratchet said with a smile.

Clank nodded and happily jumped up onto the young Ratchet's back, taking his usual backpack form. Ratchet's tear flowing eyes stared at the young ghost of Clank. He reached forward, reaching a hand out towards the robot as the two ghosts walked away and faded into the darkness. He...he never even got to say goodbye. Clank was simply gone in span of seconds, and Ratchet never got to have closure with him.

Ratchet placed his back on the room door, more tears running down his face. He kept staring at where the two ghosts had disappeared. The selfdestruct countdown was nearly at its end. And within the seconds that he had left, Ratchet made a vow. When it was all over, when it all came to an end, he would find Clank in the afterlife. No matter where he had to look, no matter how long it would take, Ratchet was going to be with his best pal again.

"Don't worry, pal...I'm coming..." Ratchet said to himself, one last tears rolling down his face and splashing onto the ground.

The warship's selfdestruct sequence reached zero, and the entire ship exploded, taking any living thing aboard down with it.

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...Sorry.

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This is Amberdiamondswords, Lordess of Diamond Swordness, signing off!