fic: R+C; Mnemonic
Rating: K+/PG
Genre: Hurt/comfort, perhaps, with some friendshippyness on the side? (Not so much romance.)
Pairings: Ratchet/Clank
Some sort of sequel-type thing to Closure; read that first.
Sorry SL, there's rather less Sigmund/Klunk than I intended |D Not entirely happy with it either.... but at least I finished it amirite
mne•mon•ic [ni-mon-ik]
-adjective
1. assisting or intended to assist the memory.
2. pertaining to mnemonics or to memory.
-noun
3. something intended to assist the memory, as a verse or formula.
Clank wondered, briefly, where in the world Sigmund's technical proficiency had come from.
Then he felt guilty for thinking that. Sigmund was... not the smartest, it was true. That didn't mean he was stupid. He'd spent thousands of years at the Clock, after all, and besides the Clock's AI itself he was the person that knew the most about its workings. It was not so far-fetched to think he might be able to adapt some of its mechanisms.
The holograms had been quite the surprise. A pleasant one, to be honest. He was by no means... obsessed with organics like Sigmund now seemed to be. Their forms were generally pleasing to the eye, however, and he certainly didn't loathe them as Klunk did.
(On the other hand he was somewhat reluctant to admit that a certain organic's form was rather more pleasing than it should be....)
It wasn't precisely the holograms themselves that he was glad for, though. It was more the distraction of them. The last time he and Ratchet had landed here, his world had crumbled before his eyes. General Azimuth was gone and Ratchet was whole once again, but he couldn't shake the feeling of dread that had plagued him when Ratchet insisted on coming to the Clock as well.
Ratchet didn't know. How do you tell someone they died? But do not worry, Ratchet, it is alright. I put the universe at risk and rewound six minutes of existence to bring you back because I could not imagine living without you.
No, Ratchet didn't know. Clank had decided some time ago that he never would.
So he was glad for the next distraction that Sigmund offered, however obliviously: the Mnemonic Chambers. They were quite interesting - that in itself certainly was not a lie. Nor had he been aware of the full scope of their abilities. He hadn't had time to learn. (And there was some sort of irony in that, he was sure.)
"So... this is a whats-it chamber...?"
"Mnemonic." Clank replied automatically. He was trying to figure out if they would both fit properly. Or if they should even go in the same one. Perhaps there would be unwanted side effects....
"How does it work? Sigmund mentioned brainwaves, so... what? I stick my head in something?"
Clank stifled a chuckle as Ratchet began to inspect the machine. "Not quite. You climb into the central chamber, like so...." The familiar feeling of weightlessness enveloped him as he was pulled into the chamber. There was an accompanying ping to his CPU; 'Engage mnemonic process y/n?'
He ignored it for the moment. First Ratchet needed to join him. Which was in itself a conundrum. Sigmund had said that the Chambers could process brainwaves as well, and Clank certainly didn't doubt him, but would Ratchet actually be able to respond to the command query? Or would it even send him one? Too many unknowns.
"...That's gonna be a really tight fit." Ratchet was eying the space. Not doubtfully, simply with the eye of one who has gotten used to squeezing into small spaces. He was gauging whether or not he could fit. Preferably comfortably.
"You are not much larger than Sigmund, Ratchet. You will fit."
He pondered a moment longer, then - "Okay then. Don't blame me if we get stuck."
"I am sure we will be fine," he replied placidly as Ratchet climbed in. He had been prepared to turn himself, assuming Ratchet would prefer that they were back-to-back, but Ratchet simply flashed him a grin as they were pressed chest-to-chest.
"Looks like you were right. Gonna be hard getting out, th - whoa, what was that?"
Ratchet hadn't gotten a new suit, Clank realized. Strange how it had never occurred to him before. He could almost see the phantom-electricity crawling over it, the result of its shorting out from an unexpected energy blast to the chest....
This was the suit Ratchet had died in.
"It was likely the command query. Wait until I am in; then engage." Even to his own audios he sounded distracted. He caught Ratchet's quizzical look just before he closed his optics and engaged the program.
----
Oh.
Oh no.
This wasn't what he wanted to create. To relive. It was most certainly not what he wanted Ratchet to relive. If he hadn't gotten distracted - perhaps there was time, if he acted quickly enough. He could change the landscape before Ratchet arrived -
"...Whoa."
Clank closed his optics. (Eyes, the pedantic part of him muttered. He was in the Lombax-form, after all. And how had he managed to do that but not pick a different landscape...?)
"This is the Great Clock. Why are we here, though? ...And why is everything frozen?"
His eyes opened against his will. In front of him was Ratchet, safe and whole, and casting a puzzled gaze over Clank and the structures behind him. Behind his Ratchet was a memory. One Lombax, snarling in uncontrolled rage - a tiny robot standing off to the side, stricken with horrified surprise - and blue lightning crackling over dead armor....
Something must have shown in his expression - of course, how could it not? - because Ratchet began to turn.
"No, Ratchet -"
Too late. The real Ratchet was frozen in place, taking in the tableau. If it wasn't for the rise and fall of his chest he might have looked like he was part of the scene.
"Clank - why -" His eyes locked onto the General for several seconds before he managed to tear himself away. "This isn't what happened. This - why did you pick this....?"
Clank shook his head. No, this is what happened. No, I didn't pick this.... "Ratchet... I have not been - entirely forthcoming. This is what happened. It is simply that you cannot remember. I did not wish to show you...." Words failed him, and he gestured helplessly at the memory-Ratchet.
The real Ratchet stepped toward the memory. He stuck his hand out, moved to touch the memory - and his hand sunk into it. Not solid, then. "Show me what happened."
"Ratchet -"
A note of steel crept into his voice. "Show me, Clank."
He made no reply. The scene started up again. He closed his eyes. He already knew how this went.
"I SAID STOP!" The General - a furious voice that neither of them had expected. His own terrified shout as Ratchet fell off the platform - fleeing the murderous Lombax, racing to the Orvus Chamber, Sigmund's last-ditch effort to buy him some time -
"Six... minutes...."
It had been five minutes and forty-nine seconds, Clank remembered. The longest five minutes, forty-nine seconds of his life.
Time rewound.
Clank opened his eyes in time to see himself dive at Ratchet. He recalled that he hadn't cared whether or not he took the blast. Just that Ratchet didn't.
He watched the memory-Ratchet and Clank leap onto a rail after the General. The scene slowed to a stop. Yet... he couldn't look away.
"That is what happened," he murmured. Even when he felt the real Ratchet move to stand beside him he couldn't tear his eyes away. And to think, he thought miserably, I had told myself he would never find out.
"Why?"
Ratchet could be asking any number of things with that one word. Why don't I remember? Why could you rewind time without any negative effects? Why did you know it'd work? Why would you risk everything just to bring me back...?
"I could not... imagine living without you." A loaded sentence, one that he knew Ratchet would decipher correctly. Today was the day of things-he-didn't-mean-to-say, it seemed. He'd resigned himself to the position of best friend years ago, and he was content. And he meant that. That was all he needed, and he certainly did not want to endanger that position.
There was a long pause.
Ratchet's hand came up to rest on his shoulder. "...Thanks. You know I'd do the same for you, Clank." There was so much more to those words than there seemed. They spoke in coded truths.
It was then that he could finally look to his friend. The expression he wore made him startle. His head was ducked, just slightly, and the sheepish smile couldn't hide the fact that he was biting his lip. Clank hadn't seen that expression for years - not since Sasha -
The realization made him blink. Ratchet's hand crept around to Clank's other side and slid down, toward his hip. A far more intimate embrace than they had ever shared.
The scenery changed around them seemingly of its own volition - no, of Ratchet's volition. He was a quick learner. Clank might have guessed Veldin to be their location, but he couldn't be sure, and besides he was far more focused on Ratchet - Ratchet who was leaning closer -
"Just this once, pal," Ratchet said, and his smile turned impish.
----
Somewhere far away in the Clock's massive structure, there was a flicker of energy in a sheltered crevice. The view was beautiful; the Clock and the nebula that hid her stretched away into infinity.
"They seem to be enjoying themselves." The Clock murmured.
"Ahh," said Orvus' ghost, "Young love."
Genre: Hurt/comfort, perhaps, with some friendshippyness on the side? (Not so much romance.)
Pairings: Ratchet/Clank
Some sort of sequel-type thing to Closure; read that first.
Sorry SL, there's rather less Sigmund/Klunk than I intended |D Not entirely happy with it either.... but at least I finished it amirite
mne•mon•ic [ni-mon-ik]
-adjective
1. assisting or intended to assist the memory.
2. pertaining to mnemonics or to memory.
-noun
3. something intended to assist the memory, as a verse or formula.
Clank wondered, briefly, where in the world Sigmund's technical proficiency had come from.
Then he felt guilty for thinking that. Sigmund was... not the smartest, it was true. That didn't mean he was stupid. He'd spent thousands of years at the Clock, after all, and besides the Clock's AI itself he was the person that knew the most about its workings. It was not so far-fetched to think he might be able to adapt some of its mechanisms.
The holograms had been quite the surprise. A pleasant one, to be honest. He was by no means... obsessed with organics like Sigmund now seemed to be. Their forms were generally pleasing to the eye, however, and he certainly didn't loathe them as Klunk did.
(On the other hand he was somewhat reluctant to admit that a certain organic's form was rather more pleasing than it should be....)
It wasn't precisely the holograms themselves that he was glad for, though. It was more the distraction of them. The last time he and Ratchet had landed here, his world had crumbled before his eyes. General Azimuth was gone and Ratchet was whole once again, but he couldn't shake the feeling of dread that had plagued him when Ratchet insisted on coming to the Clock as well.
Ratchet didn't know. How do you tell someone they died? But do not worry, Ratchet, it is alright. I put the universe at risk and rewound six minutes of existence to bring you back because I could not imagine living without you.
No, Ratchet didn't know. Clank had decided some time ago that he never would.
So he was glad for the next distraction that Sigmund offered, however obliviously: the Mnemonic Chambers. They were quite interesting - that in itself certainly was not a lie. Nor had he been aware of the full scope of their abilities. He hadn't had time to learn. (And there was some sort of irony in that, he was sure.)
"So... this is a whats-it chamber...?"
"Mnemonic." Clank replied automatically. He was trying to figure out if they would both fit properly. Or if they should even go in the same one. Perhaps there would be unwanted side effects....
"How does it work? Sigmund mentioned brainwaves, so... what? I stick my head in something?"
Clank stifled a chuckle as Ratchet began to inspect the machine. "Not quite. You climb into the central chamber, like so...." The familiar feeling of weightlessness enveloped him as he was pulled into the chamber. There was an accompanying ping to his CPU; 'Engage mnemonic process y/n?'
He ignored it for the moment. First Ratchet needed to join him. Which was in itself a conundrum. Sigmund had said that the Chambers could process brainwaves as well, and Clank certainly didn't doubt him, but would Ratchet actually be able to respond to the command query? Or would it even send him one? Too many unknowns.
"...That's gonna be a really tight fit." Ratchet was eying the space. Not doubtfully, simply with the eye of one who has gotten used to squeezing into small spaces. He was gauging whether or not he could fit. Preferably comfortably.
"You are not much larger than Sigmund, Ratchet. You will fit."
He pondered a moment longer, then - "Okay then. Don't blame me if we get stuck."
"I am sure we will be fine," he replied placidly as Ratchet climbed in. He had been prepared to turn himself, assuming Ratchet would prefer that they were back-to-back, but Ratchet simply flashed him a grin as they were pressed chest-to-chest.
"Looks like you were right. Gonna be hard getting out, th - whoa, what was that?"
Ratchet hadn't gotten a new suit, Clank realized. Strange how it had never occurred to him before. He could almost see the phantom-electricity crawling over it, the result of its shorting out from an unexpected energy blast to the chest....
This was the suit Ratchet had died in.
"It was likely the command query. Wait until I am in; then engage." Even to his own audios he sounded distracted. He caught Ratchet's quizzical look just before he closed his optics and engaged the program.
----
Oh.
Oh no.
This wasn't what he wanted to create. To relive. It was most certainly not what he wanted Ratchet to relive. If he hadn't gotten distracted - perhaps there was time, if he acted quickly enough. He could change the landscape before Ratchet arrived -
"...Whoa."
Clank closed his optics. (Eyes, the pedantic part of him muttered. He was in the Lombax-form, after all. And how had he managed to do that but not pick a different landscape...?)
"This is the Great Clock. Why are we here, though? ...And why is everything frozen?"
His eyes opened against his will. In front of him was Ratchet, safe and whole, and casting a puzzled gaze over Clank and the structures behind him. Behind his Ratchet was a memory. One Lombax, snarling in uncontrolled rage - a tiny robot standing off to the side, stricken with horrified surprise - and blue lightning crackling over dead armor....
Something must have shown in his expression - of course, how could it not? - because Ratchet began to turn.
"No, Ratchet -"
Too late. The real Ratchet was frozen in place, taking in the tableau. If it wasn't for the rise and fall of his chest he might have looked like he was part of the scene.
"Clank - why -" His eyes locked onto the General for several seconds before he managed to tear himself away. "This isn't what happened. This - why did you pick this....?"
Clank shook his head. No, this is what happened. No, I didn't pick this.... "Ratchet... I have not been - entirely forthcoming. This is what happened. It is simply that you cannot remember. I did not wish to show you...." Words failed him, and he gestured helplessly at the memory-Ratchet.
The real Ratchet stepped toward the memory. He stuck his hand out, moved to touch the memory - and his hand sunk into it. Not solid, then. "Show me what happened."
"Ratchet -"
A note of steel crept into his voice. "Show me, Clank."
He made no reply. The scene started up again. He closed his eyes. He already knew how this went.
"I SAID STOP!" The General - a furious voice that neither of them had expected. His own terrified shout as Ratchet fell off the platform - fleeing the murderous Lombax, racing to the Orvus Chamber, Sigmund's last-ditch effort to buy him some time -
"Six... minutes...."
It had been five minutes and forty-nine seconds, Clank remembered. The longest five minutes, forty-nine seconds of his life.
Time rewound.
Clank opened his eyes in time to see himself dive at Ratchet. He recalled that he hadn't cared whether or not he took the blast. Just that Ratchet didn't.
He watched the memory-Ratchet and Clank leap onto a rail after the General. The scene slowed to a stop. Yet... he couldn't look away.
"That is what happened," he murmured. Even when he felt the real Ratchet move to stand beside him he couldn't tear his eyes away. And to think, he thought miserably, I had told myself he would never find out.
"Why?"
Ratchet could be asking any number of things with that one word. Why don't I remember? Why could you rewind time without any negative effects? Why did you know it'd work? Why would you risk everything just to bring me back...?
"I could not... imagine living without you." A loaded sentence, one that he knew Ratchet would decipher correctly. Today was the day of things-he-didn't-mean-to-say, it seemed. He'd resigned himself to the position of best friend years ago, and he was content. And he meant that. That was all he needed, and he certainly did not want to endanger that position.
There was a long pause.
Ratchet's hand came up to rest on his shoulder. "...Thanks. You know I'd do the same for you, Clank." There was so much more to those words than there seemed. They spoke in coded truths.
It was then that he could finally look to his friend. The expression he wore made him startle. His head was ducked, just slightly, and the sheepish smile couldn't hide the fact that he was biting his lip. Clank hadn't seen that expression for years - not since Sasha -
The realization made him blink. Ratchet's hand crept around to Clank's other side and slid down, toward his hip. A far more intimate embrace than they had ever shared.
The scenery changed around them seemingly of its own volition - no, of Ratchet's volition. He was a quick learner. Clank might have guessed Veldin to be their location, but he couldn't be sure, and besides he was far more focused on Ratchet - Ratchet who was leaning closer -
"Just this once, pal," Ratchet said, and his smile turned impish.
----
Somewhere far away in the Clock's massive structure, there was a flicker of energy in a sheltered crevice. The view was beautiful; the Clock and the nebula that hid her stretched away into infinity.
"They seem to be enjoying themselves." The Clock murmured.
"Ahh," said Orvus' ghost, "Young love."