//------------------------------//
// Arsenal: Zeldrin 
// Story: Ratchet and Clank: The Starlight of Solana 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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	Because they chose to leave the Hyperion behind, and more importantly leave Searing in the hands of someone who would make sure that she stayed in her cell, it took Ratchet and his family a bit longer to reach Zeldrin. He had uninstalled the gravimetric warp drive from their starship and attached it to their smaller ship, that way they had the ability to return to the Hyperion in case something happened while they were gone. He wasn't expecting Searing to try and escape, because she had basically turned herself over to them with the express purpose of figuring out if Nefarious was lying to her or not. They knew that Qwark was alive, and so did the rest of the Q Force, but they needed to be sure of it before they told the demon anything... and even then Ratchet wasn't about to let her know where the former Captain was hiding.

He had the feeling that Searing would skip the normal destruction and simply blow up wherever Qwark was hiding, just to make sure that he stayed dead this time. It was something that he and his family wanted to avoid at all costs, because two planets had suffered major cataclysms that had reshaped their entire world... destroying another one was out of the question.

"I just got a message from Sasha," Starlight commented, opening the message in question so they could see if there were any changes with Searing since their departure, "Let's see here... apparently Searing is just fine with her accommodations, as she hasn't tried to break out since we put her in that cell, though that leaves me worried. Sasha also says that Searing likes to talk to whoever is around for fun, whether that someone is one of the AI or Sasha herself, and that the demon tends to mention events that haven't occurred yet."

"Great, so she's talking about prophecies and the whole nine yards," Angela replied, resisting the urge to moan, though she was thankful to have left the Hyperion if that was what Searing spoke about, "Does she have anything interesting to say? Or is she just wasting Sasha's time with whatever nonsense she's making up?"

"That's just it, she's not talking about prophecies," Starlight said, looking at the list that Sasha had included in the message, "It appears that Searing has mentioned that she and Sunset have fought multiple times in the past, which we already knew about thanks to recent events, but then she mentions several fights that haven't occurred... almost as if they had happened in the past. She mentioned that Sunset fought demons from other realms, combated dragons and other forces of evil, and managed to defend a world that, and I'm quoting Searing here, 'deserved to be destroyed'. None of what Sasha is reporting to us sounds like any prophecy I've heard about, which means..."

"Searing is talking about Sunset's past?!" Angela exclaimed, as she had come to the same conclusion that Starlight had, all while noticing that Ratchet was nodding his head as well, "Of course, that blasted bracelet was designed to keep Searing in check, but that also meant that it had to suppress everything that made Sunset who she used to be. Sunset is only beginning to remember everything about her old life, thanks to the Cores that we've recovered, but Searing somehow knows everything and she's taunting us with it. The demon knows who Sunset used to be... which is why she's so much stronger than Sunset is in terms of magical ability."

"She has access to every spell that Sunset learned before her memory was erased," Ratchet spoke up, as he actually knew what the others were talking about, "and yet I don't think we've seen Searing at her full power."

"What make you say that Ratchet?" Clank asked, though he knew that he was echoing what Starlight and Angela were currently thinking, though they were a little shocked that he had understood what they were talking about.

"Searing constantly mentions destroying things, not breaking them as she has already done," Ratchet replied, maneuvering the ship a bit to avoid some pieces of a ship that got hit by an asteroid, "When Searing was originally released on Yeedil, which we all saw, she was way too calm, as if she was mimicking someone that was meditating or something, and her power merely reshaped the world. When Nefarious released her, quite foolishly I might add, she was fueled by her anger towards the doctor and her attacks caused more devastation to the planet, but not enough to destroy it. Something is preventing Searing from truly destroying any of the worlds that we have visited... though I think we all know what that something is... or rather someone."

"Sunset!" Starlight and Angela said at the same time, as they had finally realized that Sunset had been holding the demon back the entire time, while being shocked that Ratchet had figured it out before them.

"Sunset will keep the demon in check until she figures out how to completely destroy her," Ratchet commented, spotting the place where the pieces of the Leviathan had crashed onto Zeldrin's surface, "Until then it is up to us to make sure that Searing stays trapped in whatever cell Sunset puts her in... and we can start by searching for clues as to what really happened to Qwark."





When they finally landed on the outskirts of where the piece of the Leviathan crashed into the planet, which was easy to spot from the air, they also noticed that there were quite a number of robots patrolling the area... though they looked like the ones from Planet Daxx. Starligt stared at them as Ratchet landed their ship, because she had the feeling that they were also looking for something and, judging by how they were searching at the moment, it was clear that they hadn't found it yet.

"It seems that Nefarious wants to find Qwark as well," Ratchet commented, looking at the amount of enemies that laid between them and the ship's wreckage, "though it appears that we'll have quite the fight on our hands."

"Good, because we could use the exercise," Angela said, extending both ends of her lightsaber as she noticed several of the ninja robots walking around, though she spotted at least two of them carrying their own sabers as well, "Who knew that Sunset's weapon would have become so popular with our enemies?"

"So we hack, slash, and blast our way through them all," Starlight said, choosing to keep the RY3NO in her bag at the moment, because she saw no reason to use it at the moment, "Let's get the party started."

Starlight leapt off of the platform that they had landed on and levitated herself down to where the robotic soldiers were patrolling, though before they had a chance to react to her presence she started loosing discs from her Disc Blade Gun. She managed to strike several of her targets as she touched the ground, though she didn't move forward as she waited for Ratchet and Angela to catch up with her. The moment Ratchet was standing to the left of her, and Angela to the right, she threw up a shield and loosed a new of her little minions, who surged to the back of where their enemies were standing and detonated on them. As their enemies were thrown into a state of confusion Ratchet added to the carnage as he used his rifle to take down the enemies that were further away from them.

Angela, on the other hand, stayed at the back and defended their rear from the ninja robots, who had apparently been smart enough to get around the hill to their right the moment Starlight started her assault. She was actually glad that she had decided to extend both ends of her lightsaber, because there were more of the ninjas than what she had seen when they landed. She needed both ends of her weapon out at the same time so she could combat all of the enemies that were trying to attack them from behind, which she accomplished by cutting off arms and legs, cutting their own weapons in half, and most of the time carving her foes in half. Soon the area had robotic pieces everywhere, as there appeared to be an entire army of robotic ninjas working along side the rest of Nefarious' forces.

"Seriously, where did he acquire all of these robots?" Angela shouted, taking a leap back towards where Starlight and Ratchet were, after carving two of her foe in half, "Its like he's got a facility somewhere that's just churning these guys out nonstop."

"Reminds me of Quartu," Ratchet commented, blasting one of the larger robots ahead of them in the chest, causing it to explode the moment he struck its core, "The first villain we fought had a factory that was constantly producing more and more robots for his war effort, in an attempt to basically tear worlds apart and built his own 'perfect' world..."

"...and Searing blew him up." Angela finished, already knowing where the story was going, as she had been told the specifics of their first adventure after the events on Yeedil, "Starlight, please tell me you have a way to get rid of these robots, otherwise I'm sure that we'll be overrun in a matter of minutes."

As much as Angela hated to admit it, and there were only a few things left in the universe that she hated to admit, but with the seemingly increasing amount of enemies that were converging on their location she knew that they needed help. The reason she hated to admit it was because of who they could have asked to join them, but knew that it would have defeated the purpose of them coming here in the first place. Searing would have made short work of their enemies, and likely the entirety of the area around them, but it was an option that none of them had considered until this point. Even with the RY3NO on hand they were being overwhelmed, which only made Angela wish they hadn't been so keen on coming here without scanning the planet and devising a plan.

As she backed up and pressed her back against Ratchet's, who was using the last of his ammo on several of the approaching enemies, Starlight surprised them by dropping a small shield around them, which actually protected them from the ship fire that came out of the atmosphere. They watched as one of the Galactic Dropships landed near their location, to which the Galactic Rangers, lead by the four upgraded Rangers that Sunset had created, charged into the enemy lines and started to push them back. They were then surprised to find Helga and Sasha on board the ship as well, though that was before Angela noticed that the two of them were carrying her style of weapon.

"Ratchet, don't be mad at us," Sasha said, beckoning to the back of the dropship for a moment, "She told us that the three of you would be needing our help to escape this ambush, though how she knew about it before hand she refused to tell us, because we would have come with you in the beginning."

Ratchet, Angela, and Starlight looked at the back of the dropship and their eyes widened for a moment, because standing there was none other than Searing... or at least they assumed that it was her. The form that Searing was wearing this time looked exactly like the human version of Sunset that they had designed for her to use on the Secret Agent Clank show. The only difference between the actual appearance of the character and what they were seeing was that Searing's skin still had a crimson hue to it and that her eyes were still twisted... not to mention the horn and wings were still there. The flaming dress was missing and had been replaced by a robe, though most of the other identifiers that one would associate with the demon were missing as well, which almost made her look like their sister.

"What? No 'thank you' for saving your lives?" Searing asked, actually sounding disappointed as she walked off the dropship, "I'm out of the picture for five minutes and you four nearly get yourselves killed. Seriously, do I need to babysit you guys all the time?"

"What's... going on?" Ratchet said, as he had no idea why Searing was suddenly acting more like Sunset than she had previously been, unless Sunset was halfway in control and this was what that form would look like she when she was taking her body back from the demon.

"You know, saving my brother, his girlfriend, his best friend, and my sister from certain death," Searing replied, as if she was actually Sunset and not the demon, though Ratchet knew that wasn't the case, "Did you get hurt before we arrived?"

"Searing... they're confused because you are acting like you care for them," Sasha commented, letting out a sigh as she spoke to them, or mainly to the demon, "they're used to you wanting to destroy things."

"What? Sunset and I are two sides of the same soul, so why wouldn't I care what happened to them!" Searing exclaimed, as if she truly believed that she was also Ratchet and Starlight's sister, "Let me ask you this; every time I took over Sunset's body what was the one thing I never did? I never once turned my powers against my family... in fact I yielded when Starlight used the power of the Core against me."

"Sunset stopped you from destroying the entire planet," Ratchet countered, not believing that they were having this sort of conversation, when there were still enemies around no less.

"Ratchet, both Sunset and I care about you and Starlight," Searing replied, pulling out something that resembled Angela's weapon, though when she extended both sides they noticed that the beams were crimson red, "You may not trust me, but I will not let my brother and sister fall to one of my enemies..."

Before Ratchet or the others could say anything Searing charged forward and carved one of the enemy robots in half, though that was followed by her spinning around and repeating the process with two more of them. The Rangers charged in after her, blasting every enemy that came within their sights, while Sasha and Helga remained near the dropship and watched the fight take place. Ratchet knew that Searing was playing a game with them, as there was only reason that she would really come to their aid and save them from being overrun; she wanted them to find what Nefarious gave them. He knew that they needed to get her back in the cage the moment they were done with this planet, otherwise they would never figure out if Qwark was actually alive or not.

Starlight nodded her head to his unspoken statement, before refilling her weapons and charging in after the demon, because she didn't want something important to be destroyed on accident.

It took them some time, but eventually they found an intact escape pod that had a data disk waiting for them, though as Searing and the Rangers cleared out the rest of the area Ratchet and the others gathered around the other piece of information they found; a message that had been made from this exact pod. The message showed Qwark, in a makeshift dress, calling a cab to take him to an unknown destination, as if he expected someone to come looking for him and didn't want to give them any clues as to where he was going. It wasn't much for them to go on, but they now knew that Qwark was definitely alive... though the only problem was keeping that information from Searing until they figured out where the former captain was hiding.

Ratchet sighed as he and the others returned to their ship, knowing that they were going to have to talk with each other and go over their notes before they figure out where Qwark had wandered off to... all while making sure that Searing was in the dark.