As Twilight stepped into Vox's office, she didn't know what she expected. Many possibilities had occurred to her mind. Perhaps she was about to enter a new level of arena combat. Perhaps she was going to be reassigned in the leagues now that she was a Liberator. Maybe he was going to gloat about how far she'd come. Given how money oriented everything she'd seen had been, she'd even considered the possibility that Vox was going to try and get her to sign a contract to let him sell merchandise of her.
What she did not expect to see was the shark faced head of Dreadzone looking down at her somberly, a look of obscure pain on his face. "Come in, Twilight," he said softly. He gestured to a seat in front of his desk. "You should sit down for this. I'm afraid I'm the bearer of...bad news."
Confused, Twilight climbed into the chair. Everything she'd seen of Gleeman Vox on the screens screamed at her instincts that something was seriously off here. The gloating, conniving, manipulative, money grubbing maniac did not fit this somber faced gentleman. One of the two had to be a facade, and it felt like this one should be. She did her best to be on her guard, and decided to probe with a question to try and set the pace of the conversation. "How come I didn't fight Ace at the end of the Liberator Tournament?" she asked.
Vox closed his eyes, a pained expression on his face. "Because he fought in the Liberator Tournament of the original league first...and the champion of that league - the new champion of Dreadzone - murdered him in the ring."
Twilight gasped in shock. "But...but Daddy wouldn't do that..."
"It wasn't your father," Vox said quickly. "You're right that he wouldn't do something like that."
"But..." Twilight began, tears in her eyes. "But Daddy was in the other league..."
Vox covered his eyes with his robotic hand. "I wanted to ease you into this..." he murmured. "I'm sorry, but...Team Dark Star has been...eliminated. By the new champ."
Tears began to pour down Twilight's face. "No..." she whispered. "Daddy...Clank...they can't be..."
"I'm afraid it happened early on," Vox said softly. "It...when it happened, Ace decided to take you under his wing. He...hoped that by the time he had to tell you, you'd be close enough to him that he could help you through your grief. And now this..." Vox closed his eyes, tears visibly beading the corners as though he were struggling to hold back tears of his own. "I wish I could help you more...but I've lost one of my own closest friends now, too. Ace...he was more than just the champ..."
Within her own grief, Twilight made the connection. This was why Vox was acting so different from before. She struggled to marshal her grief...and found a flicker of rage beginning to burn inside her. "...if he's the new champ," she whispered, "when do I face him in the arena?"
"He's not, technically," Vox replied. "To be the champ, the winner of the tournament has to sign a contract with Vox Media, so we can properly represent them. He refused to sign the contract. And..." He shuddered a bit. "From what I've picked up in chatter, he intends something rather horrible."
"What?" Twilight asked, the tiny flicker starting to burn a bit brighter inside. "What could be more horrible than what he's already done?"
"There have been several attempts to hack into the Dreadzone network from inside," Vox explained. "I haven't been able to get a trace on the point of origin, but given how much of the Dreadzone related tech has been hacked around him, I have reason to believe it's him. If that's the case, he's been looking at specs for the Dreadzone itself...floor plans, customer density flow charts, the physical location of the central computer...and the protocols to initiate the self destruct program."
Twilight's eyes widened. "Why the heck does this station have a self destruct program?" she demanded, her sense of logic temporarily overriding her emotions. "That doesn't make any sense!"
"It used to be a military outpost before it got decommissioned," Vox explained. "I bought it up cheap, but the self destruct can't be deprogrammed, or the bombs it's connected to disconnected. It's hardwired in."
"Oh..." Twilight replied. She floundered for a bit, her mind reeling between logic and emotion.
"As best I'm able to determine," Vox continued, "he plans to set off the self destruct when the station is most populated, creating a massive massacre."
"Then he needs to be stopped!" Twilight insisted.
"I've been trying!" Vox replied desperately. "But his Deadbolt collar's been rewired so any signal sent to it redirects to a different collar, and nobody I have working for me is tough enough to take him down! He's biding time now - I've even sent him into the hardest course ever designed for Dreadzone...one that calculations prove to be mathematically impossible!"
Twilight raised an eyebrow. "Why do you even have a course like that?"
Vox glanced away. "...Ace asked for it to be made...for you." At Twilight's confused grunt, Vox continued. "You've been clearing every challenge we send your way so easily...Ace wanted to give you a real challenge of a course for after you beat him, before you took the mantle of champ." Vox chuckled softly. "Ace was so certain you'd beat him someday...and he told me that he enjoyed being your spotter on your last gauntlet run so much that...starting with that new course, he was going to retire from active combat in the arenas after you took his title...to work permanently as your spotter."
Twilight remained silent. She wanted to cry, for Ratchet, for Clank, for Ace, for the life she could never go back to now...but she couldn't find the tears. The flames of rage were burning too hot for tears, but they were without direction.
Vox sighed. "But with how he's been progressing, he might just clear that 'unbeatable' challenge...and then there'll be nothing to stop him from destroying everyone..."
"Except me," Twilight said quietly.
"Eh?" Vox asked, seemingly caught off guard.
"You know the path he's going to take to try and set off the self destruct?" Twilight asked. "Put me on it. I'll end him. I'll make him pay."
Vox shook his head. "I can't," he said softly. "The security protocol in there is quite strict. A Liberator can't go in there. He's going to have to disable it before he can go in, and if I disable it sooner, he'll know we're onto him. And I'm all out of Exterminators to send-"
"Then make me an Exterminator!" Twilight snapped, stomping her hoof. The chair buckled from the impact, barely staying intact.
Vox stared at her for a time, then pulled out a contract. "To keep all the protocols intact, we'll have to go by the protocol. Just sign here-"
Before he'd even finished speaking, Twilight had signed the contract. "Now what?"
Vox smiled softly as he pulled the contract back. "A new color scheme," he replied.
Twilight's armor flashed. The Liberator suit had been black and gold. The Exterminator colors were silver and red.
"One of the Exterminator bots will show you where to go," Vox explained. "You won't be able to bring your battle bots with you, though."
Twilight nodded. "I'll handle it," she said firmly.
As she turned to go, Vox rested his flesh and blood arm on her back. "Ace cared deeply for you. He wanted to take care of you, after what happened to your Father. The...least I can do to honor my friend's memory...is to take care of you in his stead."
Nodding without speaking, Twilight closed her helmet tight, marching out to her post.
Vox watched her go, his face still somber. Once she was well out of range of sight or hearing, he grinned widely. "Too easy," he chuckled wickedly, picking up the contract Twilight had just signed, his eyes going happily to the fine print Twilight hadn't even noticed, let alone bothered to examine.