"So let me get this straight... Nefarious is trying, in vain, to find the Great Clock, despite telling his allies he's found it, and his other self, Virtuous, is working to keep time intact?" Alister asked, as Clank and Starswirl had explained much to him and the others upon their return to the Helios, where he was amazed by the starship that Ratchet and his family used during each of their adventures, though there was a lot of information for him and everyone else to digest.
"That's right. I have also been told that using the Great Clock like a time machine will have disastrous consequences for the rest of the universe, especially with the dimensional damage that's going on," Clank continued, though the downside to his and Starswirl's explanation was that neither of them could reveal the existence of Orvus, Kaden, or even Millie, two of which would break Ratchet when he thought about it, but he was interested in the fact that Alister seemed to understand what he was saying right now, "however, we are unsure if Virtuous is the good half of our dimension's Nefarious, split in half to make our lives that much easier, or if he's from another dimension and used a portal between the dimensions to come here. We were, however, told that the Valkyries needed to be taken care of, hence why we set up that distress call so you guys would come in and deal with them... yes, I wasn't in danger, but it was an important event you needed to do."
"The Caretakers of the Great Clock told us that certain events had to take place, that's why we did this." Starswirl added, all while discovering an easy way for him and Clank to tell the others about the people working in the secret structure, without actually giving away any information on who was currently watching them right now, all while noticing that Autumn was interested in his new powers.
"Okay, so now we just have to head to the Nefarious Station and bring down Nefarious." Ratchet said, as he understood that part of their tale, while he was still digesting the rest of the information on the reasoning behind Virtuous' existence, as in was he the other half of Nefarious or was he a dimensional counterpart, and right now he was leaning towards the former, since there was only one Lawrence in their universe, "Once that's done we should be able to return to the Great Clock and ensure that everything is just fine... we can do that, right?"
"We can. The Caretakers told us not to return until Nefarious was dealt with." Clank replied, confirming Ratchet's thoughts on the matter, though at the same time he could see that his friend understood that he and Starswirl were keeping part of their time in the Great Clock from everyone, but he seemed to accept it without asking questions.
With the final destination of this adventure in mind the group departed from the Helios with Aphelion and Alister's ship, as Nefarious knew about the starship and was likely scanning for it, so keeping it on the opposite side of the sector might lure him into a false sense of security. The group discovered that the station had all sorts of asteroids floating near it, big ones that were obliterated by it's powerful laser that it fired a few seconds after their arrival, making it look like it was designed to clear the area of hazards so the station could remain safe. In addition to that Ratchet found that, while he landed at the edge of the station and picked a floating rock area of sorts, there was gravity outside the station and Autumn quickly discovered how it was possible, Nefarious must have found and contained an anomaly before creating a device to carefully turn it into power for his large station, including the outer gravity field. Alister, having landed nearby, wasn't even surprised by the fact that Autumn had figured that out in no time at all, in fact he could see her getting things set up for a hacking session so she could learn everything there was to learn about the station, but she checked out the Vendor first, arming everyone with the last weapon of this adventure, the Rift Inducer 5000.
Basically it was a weapon designed to open small portals to another dimension, without causing harm to the barriers that were already under extreme pressure right now, so tendrils could come out and snatch enemies, dragging any unfortunate foes into a dark dimension to be devoured, once more causing Alister to be thankful that he was on their side, otherwise he knew he'd be in real danger.
"Ratchet, come in." Qwark said, speaking as soon as they were done with the Vendor, using the same method Alister used as soon as they recruited him to join their cause, causing Ratchet and the others to pause for a moment, since it meant he must have found something for them to use, "I'm waiting on an asteroid between the outer ring and the main station, and, before you ask, I have a genius plan to get us inside the station!"
"Roger, we'll be there soon... oh, and both Clank and Starswirl are with us." Ratchet replied, as he figured that they might as well tell their friend the news that the missing pair had been found, and that they were here to deal with Nefarious, but before he got a response he cut the connection before turning towards the others, where everyone readied their arsenals for the fight of their life, "Let's do this!"
As the group started to move, using the Swingshot to head over to another platform, Autumn noted that there were a few sections they wouldn't be moving by in their quest to meet up with Qwark, containing power stations and nodes that held oil sections, but for the most part everything to the left of the landing area was worthless. Of course they found that none of the troopers were happy to see them, as they gathered in great numbers to tear Ratchet, Autumn, Starswirl, Angela, and Alister apart, but with the siblings reunited there was nothing they couldn't handle, especially given the weapons that they possessed and the magic Starswirl commanded. Such a thing allowed them to witness Starswirl's new power for the first time, where he showed far greater control over his magical powers as he carefully moved his arms and staff, creating bolts of purple energy that rushed through the space between them and their enemies, blasting the robots in the chest as the others moved forward. The Rift Inducer, on the other hand, tore through a group of enemies without much delay, as all of the tendrils that emerged from the other side snatched some of the troopers, dragging them to a dimension that just tore each of them to pieces and then, before the rift closed, burped out all of the remnants and Bolts that came from one of them taking a foe down.
In addition to all of that Ratchet found that Clank had a new trick up his sleeve, he was capable of manipulating time and could throw what he called Time Bombs, which the pair used to trap groups of enemies in a single area and then use one of the rockets from the Negotiator to blast them to pieces.
At the same time Alister found another reason to be thankful the group was on his side and not against him, as Ratchet, on his own, was a force to be reckoned with due to the size of his arsenal, his skills with his wrench, and everything else he had learned over the years, and with Clank he just wrecked everyone else. Autumn, when she wasn't spending her time on hacking into Nefarious' systems, used her weapons with lethal precision and skill, once more confirming that she and her siblings had military, often picking enemies that Ratchet and Starswirl weren't attacking. Starswirl, on the other hand, had all sorts of elemental powers that Autumn either didn't know about or didn't want to use on their enemies, as he seemed to use fire, water, earth, wind, lightning, and who knew what else against his opponents, wiping out his targets without a care in the world. Angela, the last of their number, while not possessing any powers of her own was able to fight on par with Ratchet, if not more so when he thought about her parents, one an inventor and one a warrior, just like Kaden and Millie, which just meant that the troopers were in for some trouble as the four of them tore through the defenses like they were made of paper.
Thanks to their power it wasn't long before they punched through Nefarious' defenses and reached the asteroid that they were supposed to meet Qwark on, where Ratchet simply shook his head as he found that the man was wearing a nurse's outfit, somehow sized to fit his massive body, and that he was happy to see everyone again. Qwark, knowing that time was of the essence, wasted no time in launching into his ingenious plan, where they would be using the nearby trash chute, an area he had convinced the troopers to reroute it, thereby allowing them to use it to enter the station. After that he would be taking on the guise of 'Shannon Hates Captain Qwark Mcgee', the persona he had created to infiltrate the base, where he even admitted that he was surprised that he got away with it since it was so obvious who he was, meaning Nefarious wasn't as smart as they originally assumed him to be. With his disguise in hand he would bring them to a vent that was, to their amazement, exposed and lead right to Nefarious' quarters, where Clank would make his way through it and quickly scan Nefarious' body so they could use his form to get to the Hypernova Defense Laser, thereby allowing them to wipe out the fleet before dealing with the mad doctor.
While most of them were in agreement with the plan, even with Autumn adding in a Hologuise to make them look like the troopers they had wiped out so far, Starswirl wondered if they should find Virtuous to enlist his help, but for now this did seem like a good plan, a shock for sure given Qwark's previous track record, and they used the transport to head inside the station.
When they entered the trash chute, however, things instantly went south as the machine turned on and Autumn hacked into the systems to make sure they weren't crushed, turning them off and opening the door in front of them, though that happened to be the easy part of the operation. As Ratchet expected the troopers who were on duty didn't approve of the group being here, even with Qwark trying to convince them that Nefarious was expecting them, and they issued an order to kill them, leading to the group waging war on the guards as their large friend lead the way to their next destination. Of course they would be surprised if Nefarious didn't stop them from reaching the vent in question, but since he had no idea Qwark had infiltrated his staff, due to the fact that the man was still alive, no one was holding their breath and suspected they would get through this without their foe realizing what in the world was going on. Alister, despite being old fashioned in terms of combat, fell back on the new arsenal they had gifted him and helped tear through the enemies that had come to stop them, where he found that he liked the weapons, even if he preferred Lombax weaponry, and continued to join the group in laying waste to the remaining enemies.
As the group made their way to the vent in question Autumn did a few more things to aid their cause, she claimed Qwark's device and fine tuned it so that it had Ratchet's actual measurements, so he could be correctly sized to match Nefarious in the end, and she cut off most of the station's communications, preventing their foe from realizing what was going on, or at least not until it was too late to stop them.
Once Clank claimed the scan of Nefarious' body, and returned to the group, Ratchet attached it to his belt and shifted into their foe's form, while at the same time Starswirl combined his magic with Autumn's Hologuise, allowing them to make a military escort for Ratchet. To anyone else they were troopers serving under Nefarious, while Ratchet was the big boss of the entire station, and Autumn was more than pleased to find that her alterations were making things easier for them, as none of them had to raise their weapons for some time. When they reached the main elevator they discovered that it was like what was in Axiom City, one of the callers that Alister used, and that it connected to Pollux, the Terachnoid who just so happened to be Nefarious' business partner, and even he was surprised by the arrival of his partner, as if expecting him to be studying the Great Clock. In the end, however, he activated the elevator and allowed them to reach the main command center, where Ratchet ordered all of the troopers that happened to be in his way to get out of the way, like Nefarious likely did in the past, before seizing control of the Hypernova Defense Laser to destroy some asteroids as Pollux recalled their fleet, a terrible mistake on his part.
As soon as the fleet was in position Ratchet fired the laser and tore them apart, as his target ended up splitting and that caused every other ship to be destroyed as well, though when the alarm was sounded the group dismissed their disguises and wiped out the security force, though as they used the elevator to escape they found Nefarious, with some of his own guards, standing on the other side of the door.
"Ratchet and Clank... and Autumn, Starswirl, Angela, Qwark, and even the elder!" Nefarious said, as it was clear that he had no idea that they had invaded his base, wiped out his forces and his fleet, and had basically crippled his plans to dominate all of time, even though Ratchet had no idea where Lawrence was, "I know what all of you are thinking: 'you can't use the Clock as a time machine!', 'it'll ruin the whole universe'... however, allow me to share with you my reasoning! Initiate super wavy flashback effect!"
That caused a machine to drop out of the ceiling and show them the memory he was talking about, his annoyance over being trapped on an asteroid for years, his crash landing on Zanifar, the soul quest he partook in, all of the classes that he took to manage his anger, and his discovery of the Great Clock, which started all of this madness.
"Of course, I don't remember finding the Great Clock... plus I'm sure that spirit quest tore my soul in half... but soon that will change and I'll be able to rewrite all of history!" Nefarious stated, though while the group wanted to say something, to stop him in his tracks, they decided to let him speak as several of them armed their weapons, as the guards clearly didn't want to be here and their boss had no idea they were backing off, "I will be able to wrong all the rights of the universe, make it so the villains win while the heroes lose, until my reality, a reality where the heroes always lose and I always win, is born from the ashes! You won't be able to stop me, not with..."
Before Nefarious could say anything he noticed that the group was readying their weapons and quickly warped out of the station, allowing them to lay waste to it, and Ratchet meant in the sense that Starswirl crushed it with his magic, as Pollux had escaped as well, allowing them to end this adventure on a high note as they left the wrecked station behind and turned their focus to what the future held for them and the universe.