//------------------------------//
// Interlude: The New Prisoner 
// Story: Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Following the defeat of the Loki Master, and his utter destruction by someone from another dimension, Autumn spent a bit of time with Virtuous, Croid, and Nevo on fixing the sections of Magnus that had been wrecked by the Loki Master getting everything ready for the other creatures. In addition to that Starswirl discovered something interesting when he studied the remaining fragments of Toranux, while they possessed the same fearsome energy that the scientists had uncovered, he found that none of them possessed any Loki spirits, meaning the Master must have drawn them into himself to silence any of his rivals to fulfill his dark plan. If that was true the sudden destruction of the Loki Master meant his race was no more, a fact they could rejoice about since it meant none of them would have to worry about the remnants of the Loki hunting them down to exact revenge or use them to conquer the universe. It also gave them some time to help construct new places for the Tharpods, to fix everything that had been broken during the siege of Spog and his minions, though along the way they also discovered where the Steward was resting, thanks to Nevo helping them.

Spog took great pleasure in crushing the Steward, a small little round drone that was usually plugged into something, as the others watched, though with that done he fully retired and left Magnus, as he couldn't stand the Tharpods, even if they, despite the harm he did to their world, tolerated him.

After making their way through the asteroid belt Ratchet was happy to see that his siblings were safe, in fact he knew that none of them had to worry about Autumn and Starswirl, but he was a little sad that he missed this adventure, especially since they had tackled all of them together since the first one. Of course he wasn't too happy to hear that the Plumber had no additional information to tell him about Rivet, that annoyed him the most, but since his parents were sure she was fine he said nothing on the matter, letting the man off this time. He was, however, worried about the fact that the man told his siblings, in a roundabout way, that something was going to happen in the near future, where he suspected it might be the event that his father was worried about, a dimensional cataclysm, even if he hoped he was wrong. Other than that he did spend some time on Magnus, seeing the sights that his siblings had gone through as they informed him about the entire adventure, allowing him to understand everything they had done since Ephemeris abducted them and the others, along with the now eaten Z'Grute.

Autumn and Starswirl also put the empowered Grivelnox to sleep, so it wouldn't wake up and devour the rest of the vast amount of predators that were in Ephemeris, while creating a lone facility on the moon for it to be contained in, just in the off chance it woke up and broke free.

Once they returned to the rest of Polaris, and picked up where they left off, Autumn resumed constructing the seventh tier of weapons that would be available whenever their next adventure was upon them, including the RYNO VII, a weapon that was even stronger that the last version. In addition to that she and Starswirl assisted Kaden and Orvus with tending to the damage that had been caused so far, healing the temporal damage that had been done and trying to mend the breaks in the dimensional barrier, which was next to impossible with the villain still out there. Of course Kaden and Millie were sure they were drawing closer to the one responsible for this mess, since it meant that they couldn't fix or even attempt to use the Dimensionator, not without undoing all of their hard work to fix everything. Ratchet, on the other hand, continued to keep all three of the galaxies safe, keeping his ears open in case threats showed up, though usually the other heroes were able, allowing him and his wives to relax and spend their time maintaining the peace or helping rebuild the parts of the city that the Z'Grute had wrecked after being awakened.

What surprised them was that Nefarious seemed to disappear entirely, as if he wanted nothing to do with them after their latest adventure, but they knew better, as he had to be tracking Qwark's movements and was likely preparing to attack at the best moment possible, or maybe he was focused on Ratchet and his siblings, meaning it would be some time before he showed himself to them.

Due to their heroics many of the citizens of Polaris wanted a museum of sorts for Ratchet, Autumn, Starswirl, and many of the individuals they had come across in their long travels, such as Slag and the Pirates, the Cragmites and Tachyon, the Zoni and the Great Clock, and even things from Solana and Bogon. Qwark was more than willing to allow such a thing, due to the fact that, with Autumn's aid, the budget allowed for such a thing and he had it built on Igliak, in a place where any and all could visit it, after paying a fee of course. He included plans to build all sorts of wings and exhibits, complete with a natural history section, a Bolt exhibit, the Raritanium wing, not made of the actual substance since he knew someone in the universe would try to steal it, a Groovitron experience room, a room to experience part of Solana's history, the hall of villainy, and a hall dedicated to the Lombaxes. In addition to that Starswirl created a statue of Tachyon with what looked like the Dimensionator, though he assured them that it wasn't the real deal, it was just a hat, modified to fit on Tachyon's head, that was under an illusion spell that made it look like the ancient artifact.

He knew that villains would come seeking it if they left the real one on display, hence why a fake of sorts was installed in the new museum, though at the same time he also knew that many would ignore the signs and try to take it anyway, just to if they had foolishly left it on display, meaning they were for in for an unpleasant surprise.

Other than that not a lot happened across the universe, at least for the siblings, until something happened six months after the end of the adventure on Magnus, where Pollyx Industries was attacked by a pair of assailants, an infamous pair known as Vendra and Neftin Prog. The guards reported a vicious assault on the building they worked in as the siblings tore into the entrance, wounded many of those who stood in their way, and Neftin, a hulking brute who was the muscle, made off with Pollyx himself while his sister, a shorter figure, stayed behind to cover his escape. In order to do that she used her own telekinesis to mess with those coming to capture her, no doubt assuming that she would be able to escape after the guards were taken care of, only for a guard to get a lucky shot on her backside and knocked her out. Autumn, of course, was called in to create a containment cell that would keep Vendra contained, cancelling out most of her powers, and even a cryo system to ensure she stayed asleep, though to ensure no damage was done to Vendra she also set up systems that let her awaken for an hour every now and then.

The interesting thing was that Vendra, while being fitted for her new cell, something she complied with oddly enough, had a single request for the officials, she wanted to speak with Ratchet before she was put under for some time, so he did and discovered that she had a slender body and was roughly his size, wearing a purple clothing and her reddish pink hair was done up in two ponytails that looked like horns.

"Vendra, I hear that you wanted to talk with me?" Ratchet inquired, where he stood outside the spherical prison that his sister had created for Vendra, while at the same time Clank had gone off to aid the others in making sure the cell had no problems so they could put her under once this was done.

"Yes, I did. I heard that you recovered the Dimensionator, but refused to use it to find your family." Vendra replied, which was the story most of the universe knew, even though the truth was that it stopped working before he could use it to find the one person that was important to him, though she tilted her head a little as she continued to levitate in the center of her cell, "Why? Weren't they important to you?"

"Of course finding the Lombaxes is important to me, as I've been looking for them since I met Angela and learned more about my race," Ratchet said, where he crossed his arms for a moment as he considered the information he could give her and the information that was better left close to his heart, all while finding that Vendra's skin was pale colored, she had light green eyes, similar to his own, and she had slit eyes, "however your information is outdated, as I'm married to one of the remaining Lombaxes, I found another Lombax during my second adventure in Polaris, and discovered my parents at the end of that adventure. Do I want to meet the rest of the Lombaxes? Sure, I'd love nothing more... but I can't."

"And why not? You have the Dimensionator!" Vendra remarked, almost as if she was silently accusing him of not seeking his race, like she loathed him for some reason and wouldn't tell him why, as he could see the icy look in her eyes, which only made him wonder what in the universe was driving her and Neftin, "You have the key, and yet you abandoned your search for your own kind."

"With how the barriers between dimensions are weakened, doing so would result in the utter destruction of everything, or at least so my father says." Ratchet replied, as he remembered what they had talked about when he asked why he and his siblings couldn't just repair the Dimensionator and use it to track down the dimension his sister was in, though he found Vendra raising her eyebrow at that statement, "We've been tracking the villain behind it, as my siblings and I are certain that someone is purposely messing with the barriers between dimensions, but until they're taken care of, and all of their damage is undone, I can't use the device. I haven't abandoned the search for the Lombaxes, rather I've put it on hold for the time being... after we do that, well, I'll use it to track down where Autumn and Starswirl came from, since there has to be a planet out there that they came from..."

He noticed the look in Vendra's eyes and informed her that the simplest way to explain things was that they were sworn siblings, much like Liu Bei and his oath brothers Guan Yu and Zhang Fei, and they grew up on Veldin before heading out into the universe after Clank found them, where his tales of his time with Autumn and Starswirl greatly interested Vendra as she listened.

"You know Vendra, you're lucky to have Neftin... must be nice living and working with your sibling." Ratchet said, where he thought about Rivet and everything that they could have done together, if the Plumber had bothered to open the way for him to rescue her, even after the attack that took off her right arm, causing him to stare off into space for a moment as he thought about Rivet again.

"Ratchet?" Vendra inquired, as she noticed the sudden change in his body language as he thought about her and Neftin, all while knowing that Autumn had likely run tests to confirm that she and her brother were, in fact, related, though now she had to wonder if she had broken him without trying to.

"Most of the universe knows that I have two siblings, but they don't know everything... I have a twin sister, and I've been on a mission to find her for a long time." Ratchet continued, something that caused Vendra to pause for a moment, due to the fact that, as he claimed, this was news to her since it wasn't in the bio he had posted on Gadgetron's site, just like both of his siblings had done in the past, "I figured it out after discovering that the pod I landed in had another name on it, one that was smashed off during Tachyon's attack on Fastoon... her name's Rivet, which I learned during my adventures... and I have been searching for her, in vain, for most of my life. During my first visit to Polaris I even got a chance to see her, on the other side of a breech in the barriers between dimensions, and despite my efforts I was unable to bring her over, and when I got my hands on the Dimensionator it stopped working after I sent the Cragmites back to the dimension that my father originally sent them to. Rivet... she's the first one I'd open a portal to if we stabilized the barriers and repaired the Dimensionator... I haven't forgotten about her, rather I've been hunting the villain messing with the dimensional barriers so I can safely go to her, without risking the entire universe."

"Ratchet..." Vendra said, though in that moment one of the guards opened the door and informed him that it was about time for them to activate the machine and place her in cyrosleep for some time, but as Ratchet got up to leave, before all three of the moving rings could activate, he heard something he was sure he wasn't supposed to hear, "...I'm sorry..."

Ratchet really had no idea why she would say something like that, though he seriously hoped she wasn't the one behind all of the damage his father had been fighting, before rejoining his siblings as they activated the machine, placing Vendra in cyrosleep while they waited for the judges to decide her final fate, even though none of them had any idea what the future held in store for them and the now slumbering Vendra.