*Ratchet's P.O.V*

After Rivet and I hugged each other and took some time to comfort one another one of the doctors asked if we wanted to come back to where alister was if we felt up to it and with a hesitant nod from rivet we both did our own breathing excercises that we have adapted to calm our nerves and went back to where Alister was and relized he was surprisingly awake a lot faster then anyone figured he would be. When we got closer we could hear him hissing from the pain he was in but, what concerned me was the fact one of the doctor's had uncovered a stab wound that had been hidden previously and it was obvious that it was a fairly deep wound from a very sharp object and if it hadn't been for Alister's armor and his foresight to wear another armor piece under his pratorian gear he would of likely never been able to use his arm again.

Despite having a really good guess on how he got it I had hesitantly asked "who attacked you Alister?" and I got a rather snappy reply with a slight growl with him saying "the bastard and his sceptor!"

Despite not meaning to I had taken a visible step back which got me several confused looks from the others as if I was in the wrong just because of my reaction however, a couple seconds late Alister calmed his anger much like Rivet and I when we got pissed before he told the others that it was ok and that I had my reasons on my sudden reaction. Hearing this the others were obviously curious and some were seemingly concerned though they had simply nodded before backing off a little.

They were all stunned into silence when Alister's ears went down and those that knew him on a personal level had asked the others to quiet down which confused me though soon enough Alister faced me with direct eye contact which gave me a major sense of deja vu as the memory linked with the clock and the last time I thought I would see him alive flashed in front of me before my thoughts came back to the current time just as Alister apologized saying "sorry that I snapped at you Ratchet just frustrated and angry that he's back after so many years. He managed to blindside me back then and instead of helping us like he promised me and the council he instead ruined everything for all of us."

The room had filled with various responses of agreement and instead of them acting hostile like I figured they would from being reminded of why they left originally they instead considered Alister's words carefully before they all seemingly relized at the same time what exactly alister had said.

Almost every single one of their eyes drifted to the ground, their tails went limp behind them and their ears folded down. I didn't say anything as it seems they have all ultimately decided silently that they had all unfairly punishing him instead of hearing him out on why he did it because they had been blinded by anger and had been hurting with the loss of so many lives and the loss of their homes. I knew even though they acknowledged this they would likely still have a grudge against him but, at least now I nor rivet had to worry too much on them suddenly wanting to kill him out of anger. One thing I was wondering however was how did Alister get so banged up if he had a team unless he was trying to fight Tachyon and kill him himself without any help.

Honestly it seemed like something he would do but, that also made me a bit angered as it was reckless behavior to fight Tachyon single-handedly and though I knew my dad had to do the same and died trying I knew in his case there was nobody he could go to. When it was my turn to fight Tachyon years later I had help for my first half from Talwyn, Cronk and Zephyr but, by the second half I was struggling big time. I had nearly ran out of all ammo in my weapons except for my wrench, my pistol, the tesla spikes, the constructo bombs and mr. zurkon as they had minimal effect on the armor Tachyon's throne had.

I had felt true fear of being killed that day and that fear was rearing its head again as Tachyon was back and more powerful then ever with a army ten times bigger then when he brought the craigmite over to our side of the dimensions. We may have a army ourselves but, our numbers are drastically smaller compared to the craigmite that was likely regrouping somewhere else right now.

Before my thoughts could spiral into 'what if' scenarios I felt Clank's hand on my leg which broke me out of my mind instantly though I didn't miss the look of concern he gave me and though I hated lying Clank didn't need more to worry about so I told him that I was just thinking of some sort of battle plan for Tachyon and he had nodded before clank himself said "I know thats not the full truth ratchet but, I won't pester you about it just.. please don't try hiding stuff from me I may be a robot but, I also have a soul like you." With that clank had walked off and went back to where alister was.

As I milled over Clank's words I could hear Alister trying to get out of the cot with obvious discomfort and could hear Rivet and a couple others trying to get him to lay back down but, as expected he had refused and grabbed his duel wrench using it as a cane to get off the cot and to his feet and I didn't miss the warning glare he sent to everyone including myself that he wasn't to be told to sit or lay back down. I could see clank mouth something along the lines of "stubborn lombax" before he looked to me and I'm guessing rivet who I had just relized was back by me instead of by her dad as her metal arm brushed against mine which sent a slight chill up it but, nothing extreme and simply repeated the same phrase except it was "stubborn lombaxes" instead.

Alister's P.O.V

This is by far one of the most angering injuries that could of been avoided if I would have just been paying more attention. In all my years of fighting this is the most enraging next to being imprisoned by Vorsalon and getting saved by a literal kit in lombax standards who shouldn't of had to fight so early in life in the first place. All because of a mistake I made.

Ratchet could of gotten severally hurt back then and instead of giving him some praise for coming on his own to save a old lombax like myself that didn't deserve saving I instead had snapped at him. I hadn't missed the fact that he flinched when I got mere centimeters from his face and could see his ears go back very briefly avoiding eye contact when I did that.

He had every right to snap back at me back then and I just made him flinch again though this time it was a lot more aggressive as I didnt miss that he took a couple steps back and was again avoiding direct eye contact which reminded me yet again how badly I had treated him.

It was a wonder how he still cared about me enough to have grieved for me and made me also wonder why orvus would bring me back to the physical plane except for the brief explanation that Ratchet had needed me and that I deserved a second chance after sacrificing myself to save the universe.

I'm not ungrateful for what Orvus did though this didn't seem well thought out. I have a feeling I'm going to have to do some major damage repair when we hopefully succeed in defeating this new uprising. Ratchet and Rivet need someone with similar experiences to try to help them through. They needed a parent figure for the more sensitive subjects.

They both have Ptsd which may throw a wrench into their new relationship and it could make or break it. The caliber their ptsd branches from is on the extreme side more so then even my own. That fact alone hurt to acknowledge that two kits that wouldn't of even been considered to fight in battles until at least twenty five had to do the complete opposite and had to fight at sixteen in Ratchet's case and I was unsure for rivet as she understandably doesn't talk about her experiences as it had costed her an arm early on.

They were literally kids tossed into the cruel reality of war and attempted takeovers. Hooverboots which were originally created for racing and a way to have fun were now mine and their way of getting around battlefields quickly, helped give a tactical advantage and assisted in making quick getaways. The hooverboards weren't as useful in that respect as they were bulky and took up quite a bit of space meaning menuverablity was low.

I had hoped I could end this war before it officially started by taking down the ring leader but, instead I'm forced to stay in the relative safety of the cave as I couldn't use my arm which unfortunately for me was my dominant arm which added insult to my already angered state. Seems the universe either thinks I'd be in the way or it somehow knows that Ratchet and Rivet as well as the others could hold their own weight in battle.

With everything going on its a wonder how almost everyone has yet to go stir crazy with the waiting game. I say almost because despite being injured himself Ratchet was showing obvious indicators that he was about to bolt outside regardless of his current condition just by looking at the figity movements going on with his tail. His hand was another indication as like his late father kaden the kit kept a constant rhythm of squeezing and releasing the grip on his omniwrench when he was itching to fight and Rivet was mirroring it subconsciously with her hammer's handle. I knew the two would of instantly taken posts outside if it hadn't been for the fact the way out was currently being guarded by two pratorian members. The guards had nominated to keep a vigil just outside in case of ambush and to help them from being seen they had found some camo gear in one of the old storage units and had put it on.

After Ratchet and Rivet relized this they had taken a seat on one of the currently empty cots though as things would have it the pain from Ratchet's injuries were finally catching up to him as the pain killers that were administered while he was out were starting to wear off. Unfortunately for him however he had to wait at least another twenty minutes before anymore could be sent in as the pain killers were potent and could actually make him see things that aren't there as one of the side effects of using it too soon after it started to wear off was hallucinations.

Looking back i've felt its effects personally when I had been admitted to the hospital for a broken ankle during training when I first became part of the guard. The nurses that had recently graduated back then happened to be doing a training day as well and I had been assigned a young male nurse who had accidentally used a centimeter too much of the pain killers which resulted in me being put on observation for a day after. The young male that had made the mistake had been paired up with a training nurse right after for six months to help them understand the potency of medications and IVs because by the time I finally snapped out of the state I was in from the effects of the pain killers the bed under me had been shredded in spots as well as a few scratch marks on the dresser next to me.

When I came out of my thoughts I had no clue how much time had passed. I had figured it had maybe only been a few minutes at most however it became rather obvious something didn't seem right which made me start looking around. Using my ears I had tried to hear anything out of place and at first I didn't hear anything that seemed out of the ordinary. I could hear clank and kit in sleep mode, mags could be heard talking to rex about dimesions he had visited in the past, the sounds of ships being refueled in the hanger just below me could be heard and there had been no alerts from the guard outside.

Soon enough I started wondering if it was just my paranoia messing with me like it did on Torren IV which as ratchet knew first hand had made me very untrusting however it soon became apparent that there was indeed something wrong as I couldn't hear ratchet or rivet at all. Them missing shouldn't have been a problem as there were several that could of seen where they went or they may of just wanted some personal time away from everyone else but, what made me concerned is the fact tachyon could come back at any time and ratchet seemed to be his main target just from the attempted murder of him not even a couple days ago. As I slowly got to me feet to check on them a loud crash could be heard in the main area where the two last were and instantly everyone including clank and kit who were startled awake went towards them only to be met with tachyon holding both ratchet and rivet who were both unconsious with blood running down their foreheads.

Rex had been the first to recover from his shock and went to swing at the arm holding the two hostage only to be swatted away with another arm of Tachyon's throne and was sent barreling into me which damaged my shoulder again though I didn't care as I wanted to get the two from his grasp and went to stand back up only to watch as mags was the next to attack as he had grabbed the cryomine glove and tossed a mine at the arm holding the two kits to try to get them free that way. At first it had froze the arm and caused it to loosen the grip on Ratchet and Rivet however it seemed tachyon had though ahead and the ice started melted off as the arm became red with heat which in turn made ratchet and rivet aware enough that they cried out. Everyone had paused in their movements and all around me I could hear growls which triggered my own and through our anger of what tachyon was doing we had all failed to relize that in the background clank was trying to calm kit. She was pushing against his arm as hard as she could which caused clank to lose the battle quickly and after getting him out of the way she had shifted to her warbot form and charged at tachyon. This had stunned him enough that he dropped Ratchet and Rivet who were promptly caught by the guard members from outside and as they tried to get them out of the area and to safety Kit was outside fighting tachyon in the air. From my place on the ground I could see that kit had the advantage in the air however that relief was replaced with concern when she got slammed into by a larger then average leviathan that even I didn't see till it was upon her which sent her into a skydive before she smashed into a area of rocks just outside the cave.

As soon as the crash was heard Clank had bolted outside despite not standing a chance against tachyon and the leviathans without his scepter which he had clearly left behind but, what happened next had left me and the others speechless when a flash of blue light came seemingly out of nowhere and orvus himself had handed clank a time scepter that seemed specially made just for him before orvus had once again disappeared though in his place was a rather large group of zoni ready to assist their 'sire'.