survivor. genius. father.

Now, that would be a lie, wouldn’t it? True, Ratchet was still quite furious with the man– to the point he didn’t think he could ever speak civilly with him again. But his heart was too soft, he couldn’t bring himself to hate him.

But, he had no choice in the matter. He closed his eyes and took in a breath–

“Lunaris is absolutely terrible and I hate him!”

@mxdamecurie

If he had a heart, it would have stopped and sank. Of course this was what his granddaughter had to ask him. He should have expected nothing less than a reminder that Fulton had been no saint before his untimely passing.

It was a reminder of how he, too, had failed as a father.

How he’d spent far too many months away from home, in pursuit of his research. How he’d foolishly prioritized work over family. He still didn’t understand why Martha remained so faithful to him, even considering how the times were.

He had failed to set a good example for Fulton, and his son had, much like himself, chosen to distance himself from his family. Perhaps it was an attempt to cope– Fulton had not found a kind partner, and he had a suspicion he’d never quite felt love for her in the first place. It was a marriage of necessity, in a time when Fulton’s true affections were frowned upon. Punished, even.

So Fulton had turned to a familiar comfort in a loveless marriage– science. Tinkering, inventing, throwing himself into his work. Did Fulton love his children? Yes, Ratchet had no doubt of that. But did he show it enough? No. Like Ratchet himself, he’d failed in that regard.

Up until the day of the explosion, and his life cut tragically short.

All of this weighed on Ratchet’s mind as he stared at his granddaughter, and considered her plea. To not topple the pedestal Gyro had placed his late father upon, and insisted on following his footsteps. To keep the truth from him, for his own good. But would it really be…?

Finally, he sighed, defeated, tired.

stolen from: @lunargeneral

How did this thing know of Lunaris? Well, of course he should know. Lunaris was their mighty leader, who all on the moon should know and respect. But the rest of her questions were left unanswered, much to her distaste. He didn’t even seem phased by her pointing her blaster at him, like he thought she wasn’t going to blast him if he didn’t comply. The nerve of this guy!

“I am the one asking the questions here! And I will not repeat myself again! What are you and what are you doing here?!” She insisted, ignoring the friendly gesture he was giving her.

Ah, a bit of a spitfire, it seemed. It was no matter, he didn’t expect everyone to be so welcoming of his presence-- hence his decision to stay away for the time being. Ratchet straightened up, replacing his hat, though his smile didn’t fade for a second.

“Well, ah... the answer to those questions is rather closely linked, to be completely honest with you. How can I put this simply, without getting too long-winded?” He pondered, bringing a hand to his beak in thought.

@resilientgearloose liked for a starter!

The patrol of the badlands had resulted in something very unusual being discovered. Penumbra wasn’t sure what was before her eyes, but it wasn’t going to have her backing off either.

“What are you?! What are you doing here!” She barked the questions at him, raising her blaster at the spectral figure.

Ratchet had quietly taken to gazing at the universe beyond, since he’d first parted ways with his new acquaintance, Lunaris. He’d decided not to go with him just yet, feeling it would be better not to just barge in on his people’s lives out of the blue. He’d barely gotten his bearings on the moon as it was. It was nice, really. Quiet, clear skies, a perfect view for him to stand and reflect on his new existence...

At least, until he’d been discovered by someone else.

This was new.

There were many times that he had visited the manor and the Money Bin, to check on his old friend and see how things had changed without him. Even though they had fallen out merely a decade before his untimely demise, he still cared about the duck, after all. This, however, was the first time Scrooge had ever reacted to his presence.

@resilientgearloose

☽   Each word pierced him, striking him with a pain he hadn’t felt in cycles. He listened, every word Ratchet had ever spoken about his home stayed in his memory. Yet his mind had been plagued by a fear he insisted he could overcome if he just beat Earth to the punch - not run like his father did. In doing so, he heard and pushed it all aside. Even if his friend the Earther was right about the good in his planet, Lunaris was too scared of the ‘what if’s’ to possibly believe any of it.

   Seeing the pain in the other’s eyes made him regret not trying harder to understand. But it was too late to turn back time and stop himself. The general dug his grave by blindly following his fear, and now he got to lay in it for the rest of time. He was the first to look away. He didn’t have the right to try and claim dignity anymore.

   “I’m but a fool who thought the only way out was to fight. My father refused to face his fear and caused hundreds of deaths, including his own, as a result. I thought if I did the opposite, I could remedy it all. I didn’t want to accept a different solution out of fear that I would end up like him.” It was all he could do to keep his tears at bay, knowing he couldn’t fix anything anymore. He never planned to find a friend like Ratchet, let alone deal with the aftermath of the damage he caused him. He could only clear up one lingering question.

   “You were never a pawn, Ratchet. I did think of you as a friend. You always were. I was just too stupid to realize that there were more important things than proving a useless point.” Not that those words meant anything anymore. He didn’t blame the other for questioning it; it wasn’t as if the Earther had any reason to believe him at that point. He knew he deserved every ounce of distaste and anger the other must have felt towards him.

“Damn right you were a fool!” Ratchet snapped, eyes burning with unshed tears. His chest heaved with heavy, furious breaths, teeth clenched and his fists curled at his sides. His stare was transfixed on Lunaris, the pain and anger in his eyes only seeming to grow stronger when the other looked away. Like a coward.

The world he’d called his home had nearly been destroyed-- first with mass extinction as the orbit was upset, and then Lunaris had tried to actively destroy it himself. Billions of lives almost lost, and who knew how many actually were in the invasion? Ratchet himself only knew of three: His grandson’s clones (or maybe one of them was the original... not even they knew.) and his grandson’s original little helper. His family. And his old business partner Scrooge had nearly joined that number by Lunaris’ own hands.

He was furious.

“Forgive me if I find that hard to believe.” His tone was cold, harsh. “I almost lost what survived of my family because of you. No-- you damn near destroyed all life on Earth! Even before your little kamikaze stunt-- Pulling the planet out of its orbit, that would cause mass extinction! You didn’t think any of this through, cared not about the consequences!”

The tears finally spilled over, and the ghost’s voice began to waver.

@resilientgearloose

Reign ☽ Accepting 

☽ “R-Ratchet!?” He was never supposed to be able to find the war room - he purposefully built the hanger far away from everything in Tranquility and but extra security to hide the room itself within it.He never thought the ghost would catch him sneaking out to his hanger and find him stalking into the war room to look over the data he had recently acquired. He let out a gasp when the other made his presence known.

   This was not how it was supposed to go! He wasn’t supposed to know anything about the Earth invasion. Why did the chicken have to follow him to his secret base? He had no business being there, so why did he feel the need to find out what he was doing?

  His mind tried to rationalize it all, for once failing to find words to tell the other. But it was the other’s words that finally made something click. Lunaris was the one who had spent his whole life trying to figure out why his father feared the not-so-distant planet so much. Was was once an investigation to soothe his  fears over became an obsession after he discovered the greed that controlled the Earthers. He had to stop them before they hurt his people and planet.

  “I have a whole planet of people to protect! I want to believe you when you say Earth is a good place, but I’m not naive enough to believe that everyone there is like you! I know the kind of people on your planet - they would destroy us in a heartbeat if they knew what we have.” His focus was on keeping his composure, and avoiding that foreign pain that was spreading through his chest as he spoke to his friend.

The pain of betrayal was one that stung deep. It felt like a knife had been plunged deep into his heart, and every word, every picture he saw on the screens around them only served to twist it in deeper. Ratchet had trusted Lunaris-- he had believed him a good man, told him about the Earth he’d known, both the good and the bad. He had even opened up and told him about Krakatoa one quiet evening full of hushed tones and trembling embraces. But the evidence was all laid out before him: It meant nothing.

Ratchet couldn’t keep his eyes from the screen that displayed Scrooge’s face, clear as day. Scrooge, and his family. His niece, his nephew, and their boys. They were targeted, marked for death, and that was bad enough as it was. Even more damning was on the small list of connections Scrooge had-- Ratchet’s own grandson Gyro.

No. There was no way Lunaris could justify this to him. His eyes stung with tears as he forced himself to look at the other, his hands curling into fists at his sides. “So what-- you’re going to destroy them first? Is that it? How brave and noble of you. I’m sure you’ll be lauded as a hero. The man who invaded a world that had done nothing to strike first, and slaughtered everyone who opposed him, down to the last child.”