//------------------------------//
// Rift Apart: Celebration 
// Story: Ratchet and Clank: Family of Heroes 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
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Ratchet found that he, Autumn, and Starswirl were able to relax for the first time in a long time, as usually they were doing all sorts of training or patrols to make sure the galaxies were safe from criminals, and he felt happy that he was allowed to do so without having to worry about anything. His parents and Orvus had confirmed that there were no villains for him and his siblings to take down, as Nefarious had gone into hiding shortly after his attempt to end Qwark with the Z'Grute, so the other heroes were able to pick up their slack for the first time in a long time. In addition to that he found that he was able to spend more time with Angela, Sasha, Nika, Talwyn, and Vendra, sometimes just him and one of them and other times all of them just hanging out, enjoying the peace that the galaxies were enjoying right now, without any galactic threats to worry about. Such a thing reminded him that Vendra and Neftin were no longer seen as dangers to the rest of the universe, all due to their hard work fixing the damage they had done to the Zarkov Sector, and were allowed to actually explore the rest of the universe that they were calling home these days.

He also discovered that Vendra was generally happier than when he first met her, even Neftin had improved greatly, so it made things better for him in the long run since they didn't have to deal with all of their trauma, since Virtuous claimed the pair had nothing more to worry about on that front.

Ratchet found that going on a tour of the other galaxies was of great interest to the Twins and they enjoyed traveling in the Helios for a time, especially since Autumn had created most of the systems that it used, in fact Vendra set aside a day just to see everything that was inside it. He was able to show them Veldin, causing the Twins to wonder why Kaden had picked it in the first place, even though Ratchet explained that it was to make sure Tachyon didn't discover his existence, like how Angela had been sent to Bogon and hid her tail for a long time. Another thing he discovered during their travels were that the Twins were interested in the stories of everything he and his siblings did, and the second one, involving the trio meeting Angela, along with the seventh one, meeting Alister and his parents, were the ones they were far too eager to hear. He understood why, of course, as he had encountered members of his race and either learned more about them or improved his life in some manner after doing so, though those stories also brought some sadness with them, since there was one member of his family that he was still searching for, despite his failures.

While he did that, and the Twins finally finished their community service, he did notice that Clank was much friendlier to Vendra than he was expecting, as they would often talk about things and work together from time to time, but since they seemed to be talking about complicated stuff he left them to their discussions.

As time went on he found that his parents actually went out into the galaxy, instead of staying inside the Great Clock like they did in the past, though he was interested in why they picked Corson V as one of their frequent destinations, which made him wonder what they might be doing. Since they were his parents, however, he decided that it was best not to pry into their personal lives, as now that the barrier was fixed, something his father told him about, ten months after Vendra and Neftin helped bring down Mr. Eye, it meant they were no longer tied down by part of their duties, at least until one of the next villains damaged it again. Qwark also came by once and said that he was planning something big in the future, a festival of some kind, and Ratchet wished him well, because it was likely going to be mostly about the man and everything he had done since becoming a hero, as while he knew Qwark had matured he also knew that their friend enjoyed having people cheer for him. He was also surprised by the fact that Virtuous and several others were helping him set up his big event, even his parents were getting involved, while he was mostly ignored, though Angela and the others helped him turn his attention to other things so he didn't have to think about the festival Qwark was throwing, at least until it happened since he found it to be a little interesting.

The oddest thing about this was that even Clank was involved in some manner, everyone save for him seemed interested in helping Qwark set things up for the future, even though it was scheduled to happen on the date that was the birthday of himself, Autumn, and Starswirl. He wasn't one to jump to conclusions, but it seemed weird that Qwark would set up a festival on that date, instead of picking a date before or after it, though it did make him wonder what in the world he had planned, since he usually had some odd plans, especially since everyone he knew was helping him out. Still, he let them do whatever it was that they wanted, as he wasn't interested in bothering them when they were busy, not over something as odd as this, especially since he'd be brought in once the big day was upon them. Ratchet decided to go on patrol anyway, just to be sure that the other heroes had everything under control and didn't need assistance, though he found that many of them were interested in attending the festival, making him wonder how many people Qwark was planning on inviting to his event.

In the end, however, Ratchet just focused on enjoying the break from heroics and let some time pass, even though he did know what when the date eventually arrived he and his siblings were going to have to do some damage control, given the man's plans in the past, and hoped it was everything Qwark had hoped for.





Eventually the day of the Festival of Heroes arrived and Ratchet found that a good chunk of people, from every galaxy, had come to attend the celebration that Qwark had planned, though he did suspect that something was up when Clank brought him to what appeared to be a dead end.

"Hey Clank, don't you think it's weird that he'd throw a celebration on our birthday?" Ratchet asked, as while he didn't care all that much about the fact that it was happening today, of all days, he did think it was odd and was hoping Clank might shed some light on the situation, or at least offer an opinion.

"Ratchet, the Festival of Heroes isn't about Qwark... I mean, he's got a small role in it, but he's not the main attraction this time around: you are." Clank replied, because it was time for him to drop the ball and reveal what was going on, in part, to his best friend, who turned and looked at him with a look of surprise in his eyes, all while they could hear Qwark speaking to the crowd, "You, and your siblings, deserve something special on your birthday and Qwark decided that this was the best he could do, celebrating all of your accomplishments."

As Ratchet formed a remark in his mind, however, he heard the door behind him start to open and Clank took his place on his back, though this time around he was only wearing his casual clothing, his normal attire, which his siblings would have done as well, but as he noticed what was on the other side he stopped. The turnout for the event was far larger than what he originally expected, there were stands packed to the brim of people from Solana, Bogon, and Polaris, as he was sure that Mr. Fizzwidget and the residents of their home on Veldin had come to see the event. There were parade floats that formed a line and seemed to tell the story of how he and his siblings met Clank, went on their first adventure, and saved the galaxies more times than anyone could count, since there were floats from each galaxy. The fact that this festival was for him, and not Qwark like he expected, had put a smile on his face as he stepped out of what he had assumed was a dead end, which he now knew was an access point for him to take part in the event, just as everyone had planned.

He also spotted Qwark, Skidd, and Pete standing on some circular platforms, likely the hosts of the event, while he spotted Angela and the rest of his lovers all over the place, no doubt addition security since he even located Alister and his parents keeping an eye out for trouble, all while Qwark informed everyone that he and Clank were the Grand Marshals of the whole parade, as odd as that sounded.

"Yes, folks, we have a momentous day in store for all of you, which started with my opening act," Qwark said, speaking into a microphone as the three floating platforms headed down to the first float, while Ratchet took his place on the main one so he could get this event started for real, before he gestured towards the pair for a moment, "though it will end with a surprise gift from Clank to Ratchet!"

"Wait... you actually got me a gift?!" Ratchet asked, because in all the years he and his siblings had known Clank he hadn't given them anything, which was fine since Autumn and Starswirl were hard to shop for anyway given their positions and all of the magic they had access to.

"Yes, it is waiting for us at the front of the parade... I also expected Qwark to mention it, so I'm not annoyed that he partly ruined the surprise." Clank answered, something that caused Ratchet to wonder what in the world he might have picked out as a gift, given their history, though he also knew his friend well enough to know that he wasn't going to say anything until it was time to do so.

He found that the Veldin float depicted him, Autumn, and Starswirl in the days before they became heroes, leading up to an image of them meeting and befriending Clank, putting a smile on Ratchet's face, all while he activated a few fireworks that Qwark had set up, to set the mood for everyone watching. After that he used another platform and let it bring him over to the next float, the Blarg invasion of Kerwan, where he actually had to throw his wrench at the gate blocking the way and let it break apart, allowing him to find that his siblings were waiting. In that moment Autumn handed over the first weapon of her eighth tier, a blaster known as the Burst Pistol, allowing him to collect some ammunition before taking down a trio of floats that represented the Blarg ships that attacked the planet that day. As he did that, however, he and his siblings noticed that there were a few unscheduled ships flying through the air, in fact Ratchet knew this area had been cleared out before the festival had started, causing them to wonder who in the world was trying to ruin this day.

What surprised them was the marking on the ship, as it was the symbol of Thugs-4-Less, or Goons-4-Less since Autumn had noticed their newest commander had rebranded after being beaten by them twice, and some dropped down to attack the siblings, even though they were more interested in Ratchet.

"So, someone put a bounty on us... or on me, I guess." Ratchet commented, as these Thugs, or Goons he guessed, weren't anything to worry about and with his siblings backing him they were able to clear out the first pair of enemies while the ship flew off to another part of the parade route, to set a trap for them, "Nefarious?"

"Has to be, since he's the only villain left." Autumn replied, though she wasn't too surprised by this, in fact she and Starswirl had expected someone to come and try to ruin the event that they had put together for Ratchet, to which she readied her weapons once more as the others did the same.

They were so used to being dragged into adventures that this barely bothered them, to which she and Starswirl used a pair of platforms, designed for them, while Ratchet followed the rest of the route that had been planned for him, even though all three of them knew that playtime was over. He didn't get too far as one of the Goons blasted his platform and sent him flying over to the next float, the Kalebo III float, where he utilized the Grindboots and Magneboots features of his boots, which Autumn had adjusted and implemented in his normal shoes, like she did to hers and their brother's, in case something happened when none of them had armor on. Fortunately Skidd deployed a Swingshot target for Ratchet to use to get to the next float, even though he did drop him so he could jump across some balloons and blowups, as there were a few of himself, Clank, both of his siblings, Al, and even Qwark, though a Goon blew one of Al's up and caused him to glide down to the Ardolis float. Of course they had to fight through a few more enemies, this time being joined by Robomutts, of all things, before they were able to move onto the Great Clock float, giving the siblings a chance to battle the dropship that was trying to kill them, causing Qwark to set his note cards away as he fired on some Goons as well, just like what the other heroes and guards were doing.

In the end the siblings overcame the challenge and destroyed the dropship, allowing Ratchet to ride the main platform up to what seemed to be the final parade float, all while his siblings used their platforms to do so and Qwark made sure that the coast was clear as Ratchet and Clank reached the end of the line.

"I had a short speech prepared, but, due to the assault, I'll have to scrap it and cut to the chase: Ratchet, I do not know where I would be without you or your siblings, and I know you have sacrificed much to..." Clank said, taking a moment to touch down on the ground as they approached the main part of the final float, a flat surface with a raised section, before he decided to just skip most of his remaining speech entirely, to which he tapped a small hidden button and gestured to the ring that was opening, "We have repaired the Dimensionator, so that you can use it to find your twin sister."

Ratchet's eyes widened as he looked at the device, as it was no longer the helm he remembered it being recently, rather it was the gun version with the crank and controls that he remembered seeing when he was just a baby, and he understood why everyone had gone to such lengths to make today a special day... but before he could even say anything a metallic claw grabbed the Dimensionator and brought it up to a Nefarious balloon, which was actually a robotic head with the very villain they had been looking for.

"I should have known you'd survive the assault, despite the bounty on your heads." Nefarious remarked, confirming that he was the one behind the Goons showing up to take them all down, even though it seemed to be on Ratchet's head right now, but he seemed happy and they knew why as he reached down to claim his powerful prize, "No doubt all of you are wondering what I want: allow me to demonstrate!"

In that moment Nefarious spun the crank and, without using any of the other controls, fired the Dimensionator right at the space in front of him, causing a series of purple cracks to appear some distance in front of him before it broke open into a breach in the dimensional barrier, as if a section of glass had been removed from a window. This was the far more stable version of what Ratchet and the others had seen, allowing them to stare into the swirling mass of energy for a time as Nefarious waited for something to happen, only for a fish to hit the front of his vessel. Such a thing enraged him as he swung the device and hit the controls of his odd ship, forcing it to move and get tangled with two of the tethers keeping a Qwark balloon held down, while pulling their platform away since the other two were still connected to it. Unfortunately it also caused the structure to be sundered in half as Nefarious flew out into the city, forcing them to grind on a rail to keep up with him, though since dimensional energy was involved his siblings refrained from using their magic, so Ratchet used some of Qwark's pyrotechnics to blind Nefarious.

Even though it was temporary his actions caused the doctor to alter his course and their ruined platform went flying down toward one of the buildings, causing Starswirl to use a bit of magic to make sure no one was harmed before they jumped off, landing near a train station. As they regained themselves, however, they found that Ms. Zurkon was nearby, as she, her husband, and her son were now no longer weapons to be bought and used by heroes, rather they either sold the rest of the weapons or whatever else they wanted to do with their lives. Ms. Zurkon was a weapons Vendor now, allowing the three of them to find two new weapons were available, the first being the Shatterbomb, a grenade weapon that was far stronger than those that came before it, and the Enforcer, a double-barreled plasma cannon, which they claimed without wasting time. With the new weapons in hand Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl wasted the Goons that dropped down into the area that they were in, making sure that the citizens moved out of the way so they weren't caught in the crossfire, so it wasn't long before the way to the station was open.

As they moved through the small station, however, Nefarious raised his ship nearby and even lowered the protective shell as he stared at them, no doubt slightly annoyed that they had bested all of his Goons, though they had to get the device away from him, before he did something dangerous with it.

"Put down the Dimensionator, Nefarious, before you do something you'll regret." Ratchet stated, though even then he had a feeling that the doctor wouldn't listen to him or his siblings about the matter, because he had the key to the dimensions in his hands and likely wouldn't relinquish it no matter what.

"No! Today, YOU will see and understand what losing feels like... spoiler: it's exhausting." Nefarious remarked, though as he said that he glanced down at the controls of the powerful device and seemed to be fiddling with part of it, the section that the coordinates to the other dimensions could be input into, "I just have to figure out these stupid coordinates..."

In that moment Ratchet pulled out his Burst Pistol and fired it at Nefarious' chest, intending on knocking him down before he could use the Dimensionator, only for the doctor to make a stupid decision as he swung the device at them, allowing the blast to strike the crystal core with ease. As Nefarious shouted at him, as if it was Ratchet's fault and not his own, the crystal exploded with enough force to knock him and the ship backwards from where he had been standing, though it also sent Ratchet and his siblings backwards into the train station. In the following second they realized the danger they were now in as dimensional rifts, both small ones for small creatures and massive ones for larger creatures, started to phase into existence all around them and the city, where small prehistoric birds flew through the sky and one of the large docile critters of Sargasso crashed into the bridge in front of them, breaking it in half. In addition to all of that Autumn found a purple crystal shard near where they landed, something she picked up before handing it to Ratchet, who just stared at all the damage that was being done, knowing his father was going to be cross with him once this was over.

As it turned out the Phase Quartz shard allowed Ratchet to interact with certain rifts, allowing him to traverse the gap that had been left after most of the bridge had been broken, to which Autumn quickly found a few more pieces and outfitted them into their right gloves, allowing all three of them to use the rifts. Such a thing seemed to make some fights easier, as one Goon tried to fire at them from above and Ratchet surprised him by using a gift to get behind him, allowing them to take him down before entering the building that more Goons and Robomutts were coming from. Autumn noticed that the rifts they could use turned reddish orange when one of them raised their new gloves in their direction, giving them an idea when to use them and when not to, though as they entered the building more portals to other dimensions opened up for them to observe or deal with. Some summoned plants that captured some of the civilians, another brought Sandsharks out, a third actually dragged a poor guy into it, and the fourth snatched some Goons by way of kraken limbs wrapping up the two and capturing them without delay, before another massive one brought out a large mech that smashed the rest of the path they were following.

Such a thing caused them to drop down onto another area and utilize another path to get up to the taxi station, since it seemed to be the only thing that got close to where Nefarious' ship had crashed, so the siblings dealt with the Goons that were in the way. With that done they were able to use the taxi and get closer to where Nefarious had crashed, though as Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl did so another dimensional rift opened and some sort of metallic centipede, armored to the teeth by the looks of it, surged out and moved through the air, though they didn't have to worry about it as it went into another one and disappeared. After reaching the outside of where Nefarious was located the siblings opened fire on all of the Goons that were guarding the way to their target, blasting them into submission as each group tried to claim the bounty that Nefarious had placed on their heads some time ago. The most interesting thing about these Goons was that in a year they had actually improved all of their skills, forcing the siblings to dodge more often than they were used to, but even then it didn't matter as they blasted through all of them and walked into the area their target was in.

"See, this is why I need an assistant!" Nefarious stated, where he picked himself, and his armed ship, up from where they had crashed and growled when he noticed the siblings coming his way, causing him to engage the defenses and ready any weapons he might have installed inside his vessel, just in case this happened.

Ratchet, Autumn, and Starswirl found that he was capable of firing a fair number of small rockets at them, usually hitting a certain patch of ground that they were able to avoid, there was a laser he could fire at whoever he deemed to be the most important target of them all, and backing off to allow either Amoeboids or Sandsharks to attack them, but it took them no time to break his machine, much to his annoyance.

"You think a quick, crushing defeat is enough to stop me?!" Nefarious remarked, where they could see that his vessel was on fire and should be destroyed at some point, though as everyone informed him that each of them believed such a thing he pulled out the Dimensionator once more, "Well think again! We're going to a dimension where I always win, so you can finally understand how defeat feels!"

As Ratchet opened his mouth, to stop him from using a damaged Dimensionator, Nefarious blasted the air and opened a dimensional rift, one that actually sucked in his vessel and caused him to disappear not a few seconds later, causing the opening in question to close after he vanished. He had no time to consider what that might mean as a portal burst open in front of him and dragged both himself and his siblings into it, causing them to enter a reality where there were all sorts of portals to a number of dimensions, a plane between planes he guessed. After that they were flung through more portals, one bringing them to a planet that looked like Torren IV and put them on a grind rail, another forced them to just slide down a skyscraper on Corson V, while the next caused them to land on some flying lizards above what appeared to be another version of Torren IV. Not too long after that they flew through another with their mounts and entered a robotic city that seemed depressing, all while Nefarious suffered the same fate that they were suffering as he was pulled through dimensions, before they were bucked off the flying lizards and went through another portal, landing on a pirate ship on what had to be Ardolis, and as the pirates attacked the kraken they were fighting ignited some explosives and knocked the siblings through yet another portal.

This time they crashed into the ground on a balcony, in what appeared to be the same city they had passed through not that long ago, and as they regained themselves another portal opened and spit Nefarious out, along with the device that had started all of this.

"Did I do it or what?! Is this..." Nefarious said, sounding like he was going to announce his victory before he had actually beaten them, before he stopped as he noticed something odd about the city, there were a large number of neon signs, as if whoever ruled this place liked them, "What's with all the neon?"

Ratchet declared that this was the part where Nefarious would lose, just like he lost in the past, but as he rushed at him all of them brought their attention to the impending terrible nature of what he had done, as the Dimensionator was starting to shudder. It wasn't the ordinary shudder of something in use, it was the violent type that meant something was wrong and that they were in terrible danger, and that wasn't the only terrible thing, it was leaking dimensional energy, with dark purple smoke building around it as Clank tried, in vain, to do something to stop this. Normally either Autumn or Starswirl would use their magic to seal an explosive in a separate space, protecting them from the danger, but given the nature of what was going on right now neither of them could, not unless they wanted to do more damage than Nefarious had done earlier. All they could do was watch as it violently shuddered for a few more seconds before the inevitable happened, the Dimensionator detonated with enough force to send everyone flying and released enough energy to deal some serious damage to the dimensional barrier.

Clank, however, found that he appeared elsewhere in the city they had landed in, though as he discovered the damage the Dimensionator's destruction had caused he also noticed that his right arm was missing and he was locked in his backpack form, as he couldn't release his legs.

"No... what have we done?" Clank asked, though he did hear a groan and found that Autumn had landed nearby, meaning at least one of the siblings was with him right now, which was great since he had no idea where they were and had no idea on how to fix the mess he, Kaden, and Vendra had allowed to happen, before he heard another sound.

"...what have we done?" a feminine voice inquired, where Clank turned his head and his eyes widened as he laid eyes on the one person he wasn't expecting to see, so soon after everything had happened, Rivet herself, though her right arm had been replaced by a metallic gold yellow appendage she must have made to replace it.

"Clank, thank goodness you are..." Autumn said, as she was able to recover from the explosion without discovering any damage to her body, though as she walked out of her landing area she paused as well, noticing the figure that was near her and her brother's best friend, "Rivet?!"

"How do you know my name?" Rivet asked, showing that she didn't trust strangers, especially those who already knew her name, though she also had her weapon at the ready, a large hammer that looked like something a Lombax would use as a melee weapon, given the more mechanical nature of it.

"That's... complicated. If you know a safe place, we can explain on the way." Autumn replied, though she knew that Ratchet was going to throw a fit when he learned who she and Clank had bumped into, especially after everything he had done to find his sister and make sure she was fine.

Rivet stared at them for a few seconds before beckoning for Autumn to follow her, though she did pick up Clank and place him on her back, much like Ratchet did during their adventures, before heading off into the city, causing Autumn to follow as she hoped that her brothers were fine and hoped that they could stop Nefarious before he did anything else.