Clank had no idea how much time had passed since the Zoni appeared in Talwyn's station and abducted him, but he did find that he was drifting in and out of consciousness, never for enough time to do anything or learn anything about what was going on right now, even if one of his scanners indicated three people were nearby.
"Sir, the Zoni are inquiring about our progress." a voice said, where Clank determined that it was Lawrence's, the butler that worked for Nefarious, meaning he was currently in the hands of one of the greatest villains the universe had ever seen, a foe far smarter than Tachyon as Autumn would say.
"It'll be the same answer as before: you're trying and not making progress." another voice said, one that Clank knew was Starswirl's, which was interesting since he assumed that if the Zoni had taken Ratchet's brother he would have been freed by this point in time.
"The annoying part is that he's right... I'm running out of ideas to try." a third voice stated, confirming that Nefarious was nearby and was likely working on his body for some reason, though the odd thing was that the doctor was calm and not in his usual rage, like his defeat had humbled him.
"Sire does not remember. You must fix!" a new voice said, where Clank's sensors informed him that three Zoni appeared in the area that they were in, likely whatever domain that the energy beings came from, and it seemed like they were bossing Nefarious around.
"I know that! I'm trying to 'fix' him." Nefarious replied, where it sounded like they had been through this several times since Clank's arrival in this place, before he heard that something was starting a scan of his sisterboard, likely whatever device he was trapped in, "Let's see... his favorite color is green... his favorite number is eighty-three billion and four point seven..."
In that moment whatever Nefarious was trying to do failed as Clank's neural safeguards were activated, causing the doctor to groan as he realized that something inside Clank was resisting his efforts to do what the Zoni wanted him to do, all while the Zoni were oddly silent.
"That was the last possible combination I could try... his safeguards to prevent outside tampering, be it the beneficial type or the hazardous type, are annoying." Nefarious commented, once more making Clank wonder how long he had been like this, how long he had been separated from Ratchet and the others, even if Starswirl was nearby, before he paused as a new idea came to him, "Fine. If I can't fix him, then we'll do things the hard way. Lawrence, wake Clank up."
As Lawrence informed his boss that it would be as he commanded Clank found himself being pulled out of whatever state he had been trapped in, where he quickly discovered that he was in a chamber that was more advanced than anything else he and his friends had seen over the years.
"Clank, it is wonderful to see you again. Did you have a pleasant nap?" Nefarious asked, where Clank found that the doctor had upgraded his body, as while the design was the same, and it had the same blue coloration, it seemed more advanced than what he and the others were used to.
"I am uncertain, given that I was abducted, have no idea how long I was out, and woke up with you nearby." Clank replied, as all of that would have caused him to go on the offensive immediately, given what he knew of Nefarious, and the only reason he refrained from doing anything was because Starswirl hadn't knocked the robot out yet, "Tell me, what sort of evil plan do you have in mind this time?"
"Nothing. Oh, don't give me that look, I know you and your family well enough to know that you'd come running if I messed with the people of Polaris, so I didn't." Nefarious stated, something that Clank sincerely doubted, even if Starswirl was off to his right, but the logic was sound when he thought about it, Ratchet and the others would have flown into this part of Polaris if they knew Nefarious or another villain was here, before the chamber shuttered, "Not again! Stupid dimensional energy, causing chaos on the Great Clock."
As Nefarious headed outside the chamber Clank followed and found out what he meant by 'Great Clock', as they were in a massive space station that looked like it was made to resemble the insides of a clock, before a crack in reality broke open and a device using sonic weaponry burst through, causing great damage to the station.
"What is that thing?" Starswirl asked, where he and the others watched as it terrorized the Zoni, some drifting off into the depths of the section of Polaris they were in, while also telling Clank that this was the first time he had seen the machine in question, and even Nefarious was surprised.
"The Hypersonic Brainwave Scrambler... a sonic weapon I once considered making, but then scrapped when I found that it could cause serious damage to the Great Clock." Nefarious remarked, where he was definitely annoyed by what he and the others were seeing right now, where Clank determined that he was telling the truth, he had been thinking of making a new weapon and then cancelled it when he figured out how much harm it could do, "Since it came from another dimension... or maybe another timeline, hard to tell given where we are... I would hazard the me that made it was planning on betraying the Zoni at some point. Great, how Lawrence and I are going to have to deal with this and make sure this is the only crack in the barriers between dimensions... our allies aren't going to be happy... Clank, you and Starswirl should find Sigmund and get to know the station, as I have a feeling this is fate's way of telling me that only you can fix yourself."
Clank really had no idea what was going on, he was totally lost, and when Starswirl informed him that he had been in that container for a year he had to wonder what Ratchet and Autumn were up to, since the family had to be worried after what happened to him and Starswirl following Tachyon's defeat.
Ratchet sighed as he took stock of their situation, because Clank had been abducted by the Zoni, he and Autumn spent a long time hunting down leads before using an artifact that pointed them towards the lawless section of Polaris, and now he, Autumn, and Qwark were stranded on a planet after a surge of energy knocked Aphelion out, causing them to crash in the process, even if Aphelion was trapped in a pillar of energy.
"So, what's the situation?" Ratchet asked, though he knew sending a distress call wouldn't work since Aphelion was offline right now, making him wonder if he was ever going to see Starswirl or Clank ever again, since they landed on a planet that looked like it had no modern technology.
"We can't do anything about Aphelion... that stream of time energy is keeping her safe, and unless we find something that allows us to direct it we'll simply destroy her." Autumn replied, as she had spent a while studying the energy and found that it was temporal in nature, though something had caused it to act so strangely, "I'm sure Starswirl would have come up with some sort of way to explain all of this, he was the most magically intelligent one out of the two of us, but I'm afraid that it wouldn't change anything... either we find another ship and come back for Aphelion when we learn more about this energy, find a way to control the energy, or get used to living here."
"Personally, I prefer the first two." Qwark said, as he came with them because he felt that they might need some help, not to mention potential emotional support since Clank and Starswirl had been taken, so he had a blaster primed and ready for whatever the future could throw at them.
Ratchet sighed as he picked up his wrench and followed Qwark as they started to explore the planet they had crashed on, as there was nothing they could do for Aphelion right now, where he noticed a few temples that looked like they were well maintained, meaning some sort of species had to be living on this forest planet. This time they had a new weapon to try out, a pistol that, according to Autumn, could be customized a little once they found the components to do so, and there were two others in the Constructo line, a bomb and a shotgun, and the pistol proved to be great against the small purple critters that tried to bite them. When they reached a long river, with no good way to cross without getting swept up in the water, Ratchet and Autumn found that Qwark, apparently, couldn't swim, causing them to sigh as they found some stones to carefully jump over to reach the other side. It was then that they found a Bolt Crank and that it was attached to a bridge that could be raised in the water, giving their friend a path to walk on so he could catch up with them, all while Autumn knew that someone definitely lived on the planet with the limited technology they had discovered so far.
Qwark decided to smash through a wall to make a path forward, allowing them to see that time seemed to be broken in some manner, at least in the area they were entering, allowing Ratchet and Autumn to make their way to a higher point to jump over another wall, not that it mattered since Qwark smashed through it with a fungus monster chasing him.
While they took care of business Autumn made an interesting comment, their last adventure dealt with dimensions, one could almost call it space in some manner, while this one seemed to be dealing with time itself, like how Tachyon said that he was the 'Conqueror of Space and Time'. Ratchet had to agree that it was interesting, though as he dealt with another bridge, to help Qwark across yet another bridge, Autumn found a Vendor and purchased the Constructo Bomb, giving the two of them another weapon to use against their enemies. Once their friend caught up with them Qwark smashed down another door and they were able to use the new weapon to quickly wipe out the smaller fungus creatures, where Ratchet had to wonder how much power Autumn packed into the explosives when she made them. After that they found a female creature, a Fongoid she called herself, who was in trouble, her children were missing and Qwark decided to protect her as Ratchet and Autumn explored the surrounding area, using their weapons on more fungus creatures while keeping an eye out for the missing children.
Two of them were easy to find, as they were being attacked by Zyphoids, the fungus virus creatures, though the third was trapped in a broken area that was being repaired and destroyed again by a time loop, not that it mattered since Ratchet was able to save him in due time.
After that they found their way to a door and found that the female Fongoid had to lower the wall, allowing her to speak to her husband about what was going on, especially by mentioning someone called Orvus and the 'Time Keeper', but the pair was more than willing to escort the group back to their village. Sure enough they found an army of Zyphoids that were in the middle of trying to break down all of the stone walls that surrounded the Fongoid village, where the siblings fired on their enemies without delay, as it would put them in good graces with the natives. Qwark asked why Autumn wasn't using her magic and she informed him that, after the events with Tachyon, she had become more in tune with the energy that came from the Dimensionator, as cracks were still appearing and she wasn't about to take a chance. Of course Starswirl, on the other hand, might be able to figure out a safe way to use magic without doing damage to reality, like the Plumber said when they tried to help Ratchet back on Sargasso, but for now she was focused on tracking him down so they could pull the family together.
The villagers were more than happy to have newcomers visit their home, where Ratchet and Autumn found their way to a temple that should have something that would help Aphelion, with Qwark taking a moment to stare at a statue of the hero of the race as Autumn claimed a new weapon, the Sonic Eruptor, before the Elder turned towards them.
Apparently he wanted to know if they could keep a secret, where the siblings confirmed that they could and Qwark was up in the air, but he had been rather good in the hunt for the Dimensionator so he could be trusted, this time around, where the Elder informed them that there was a vessel that would help them repair their ship. Of course only one of them could go inside and Autumn did it this time around, where Ratchet and Qwark stepped on two of the three pads, with the Elder on the third, to open the door for her, as the moment it was down she headed inside and started the deathcourse, since it seemed to be what she was dealing with. What she discovered was that it happened to be flaming lasers and a couple of gears with flames moving on top of them, nothing too exciting, though she did learn from Ratchet that the vessel allowed one to capture Zoni and harness their bioenergy, one of the most powerful sources of energy in the omniverse, or at least Orvus claimed it was that way. She had no idea who this 'Orvus' was, but Autumn figured that he might be someone who watched over the Zoni, meaning that they might have an encounter with him at some point during their journey to find Clank and Starswirl, though it wasn't long before she found the circular vessel and used her magic to capture the pair of Zoni that happened to be nearby.
When she returned to the others, however, they emerged from the temple to find that a warship was attacking the village, with robotic enemies that reminded them of the Tyhrranoids, making Autumn wonder if Nefarious might show himself in the near future, before a slim being teleported down to them, who looked like a commander.
"Azimuth!" a voice said, which came from the figure in question, who ignored Qwark entirely and stared at Ratchet, which reminded them of what they learned during their previous adventure, all while his hands were behind his back, showing them that he wasn't too afraid of them, "Were we not clear as to what the repercussions would be if you left your hovel? The Clock is..."
"Sorry, but you aren't intimidating anyone." Ratchet replied, though at the same time he altered his stance and revealed a weapon that the figure, Vorselon as the Elder had called him when he noticed the oddly shaped warship, hadn't seen, as it was the last variation of the RYNO, though the trick was that it was empty, not that he knew it, "Now then, whose Azimuth? What's this 'clock'? Oh, and who are you working for?"
All Vorselon said was that he 'wasn't Azimuth' before teleporting back to his ship, along with a number of villagers, which caused the siblings to move forward as they followed the Elder, only to find that Qwark had been captured as well in his attempt to stem the tide. Such a thing worked in their favor, as Ratchet could link their nav units and follow Qwark to the area that Vorselon would be stopping in, since he had to go somewhere after attacking this planet, which Autumn agreed with when she heard what he had to say. Even with two of them it took them no time to clear out the village of enemies, all sorts of robots that were different from what they were used to while reminding the pair of the Tyhrranoids, before the two found another Zoni as the Elder lead them to a teleport pad, one that connected to an ancient one outside the village, near the area they had crashed in. Once they were ready to go Autumn raised the vessel and they watched as the Zoni did their work, weaving temporal energy over Aphelion as her color turned blue, Zoni blue Ratchet guessed, and with her back online they could leave the planet, as it looked like they might have a lead as to where Clank might be located.
Once they were sure Aphelion was fine, and she confirmed it, Ratchet and Autumn climbed in before telling the Elder that they would free his people from Vorselon's worship, who nodded as they blasted off, as it was time to truly start another adventure and see who the grand villain they'd be taking down this time around would be.