Guess what, everyone? Reviews! :)

Max Chronicle: *goes back to re-read the original for comparison purposes*

Some added descriptions here and there and altered sentence structure for flow purposes..., I like it. :)

And as for this being a gift, thank you. Also, I can tell you this: You keep up the quality of this rewrite as you've done here, and I'll definitely enjoy as much as the original story, if not more. Good luck Cortana!
Max out.

Reply: Thanks, Max! :) I'll do my best to keep it up and I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this chapter as well.

KayxClankForever: I love this, nerd-reading your fics are always nice and I'm flattered that you made it as a sort of gift to me and Max (even if I don't feel like I deserve it). I'll 100% enjoy reading this rewrite and look forward to seeing what you have in store for us! :D

Reply: Thanks! I'm probably going to do a lot of diverging from the original story, starting from this chapter. So you might see some similarities, but also a lot of differences. :)

. . .

In the Holo-Room... a Black Water City Simulation

Ratchet leapt forward off the ledge and activated his Swingshot. The grapple shot out from its little socket, soared through the air for a few seconds, and latched onto a street lamp. The Lombax held onto the cable tightly as he swung to the edge of the sidewalk. He disengaged the grapple at just the right second and let the momentum take care of the rest. Ratchet landed safely on the sidewalk feet first.

"I wish that you would wait until you have actually latched onto the lamp before jumping off the ledge, Ratchet," Clank spoke up. "That would greatly increase our chances of not plunging to our deaths."

"Oh, come on, Clank! Where's your sense of excitement?" Ratchet asked as his Swingshot disappeared. He tele-equipped a Combuster as a robotic practice dummy rounded the corner, brandishing a Warmonger. He shot its head off with one blast, leaving the the dummy to flop over, sparking. "This holo-program is so easy. It's way too predictable. Shoot a few dummies, swing around a bit. Shoot a few dummies, swing around a bit. It could use a bit more variety, ya know?"

"Perhaps." Clank was silent a moment while Ratchet mowed down a few more dummies before switching to his trusty and slightly rusty Omniwrench. "Ratchet, do you not find it odd that Nefarious is sitting in one of our cells right now? He should be dead. The odds of surviving that explosion of the Deplanetiser are one in fourteen million six hundred and five."

"I find it pretty strange, yeah," Ratchet replied, smashing a dummy's face with his wrench. "But it doesn't change the fact that he's here, right now, alive and well. And a robot."

"Unless perhaps he is one of Nefarious' creations?" Clank theorised aloud. "It would make much more sense. After all, it was proven by science that it is impossible to convert biomatter into mechanical matter."

"You never know. A few thousand years ago people used to say Slipspace travel was impossible. And yet, years later, we've got it." Ratchet pressed a big, shiny red button on the wall of a building, ending the Holo-Room simulation. The buildings and other obstacles disappeared, revealing a large, cubical room. Ratchet was standing next to a wall, where the button was located. Clank hopped off Ratchet's back and turned around to face the Lombax.

As Ratchet's Omniwrench disappeared, the Lombax said, "I'm not saying that this robot couldn't be one of Nefarious' creations. I'm saying we should be careful about this. There could be more going on than we know, and if it's bad, then we can't take any chances."

"I agree," Clank replied simply as he and Ratchet left the Holo-Room.

While Ratchet headed off to do something, Clank decided to go speak to Elaris about possibly making the Holo-Room simulations more challenging for his Lombax friend.

As he walked down the corridor, the lights flickered a moment. A small ball of pale blue energy phased through a wall into the hall, levitating above the floor. The ball of energy was actually a small, purple alien encased in a metal suit. The alien's large, blue almond-shaped eyes scanned the room.

"Hello?" Clank addressed uncertainly. The strange alien turned towards him in puzzlement. Clank continued, "If you are looking for Captain Ratchet, I am afraid he is not here at the moment. Perhaps I can help you find him?"

The purple alien slowly blinked curiously. It approached him, and stopped a few feet away, hovering above the floor. "Zoni?"

"Come again?" Clank asked. "What is a 'Zoni?'"

The alien moved closer to Clank until it was about a foot away. "I am Zoni."

"Ah," Clank replied. "What is your purpose here, Mister Zoni?"

"Danger in the Clock," the Zoni told him. "You must stop them before they can use it again. Senior Caretaker not at post-" The poor Zoni suddenly gasped in pain and fell to the floor, clutching its chest. "... you... are the only one..."

With that, the Zoni slumped over, dead. Its body vanished in a flash of light, leaving only its armour behind.

"Oh no," Clank murmured sadly. He reached a mechanical hand forward and nudged the metal suit, a vain hope in his circuit board. Nothing happened. Clank pulled himself together and picked up the armour. "I must speak to the other Rangers about this."

. . .

Soon, in Elaris' new lab...

The Galactic Rangers stood around a small desk on which the Zoni's armour sat. Elaris had examined some scans she took of the suit and determined that the small holes in the armour were from a Beta Disruptor.

"While the Disruptor itself probably didn't hurt the Zoni, it did damage its armour," Elaris said. "My guess is that the suit acts as a shield for the Zoni when they enter our dimension. It's likely that their home dimension is different from ours, so they can't survive here without protective gear."

"So that's why the Zoni died?" Ratchet asked.

Elaris nodded.

"It talked about some sort of Clock," Clank informed them.

"A Clock, huh?" Cora thought a moment. "Well, according to Fongoid lore, the Zoni are the guardians of time. They protect something called a 'Keeper of Time', which is supposed to act like the universe's pacemaker after the Great Ripple occurred... maybe that's what the Zoni was referring to?"

"But I thought those were just myths," Elaris said. "And anyway, since when did you know squat about Zoni mythology?"

"It was a required course in high school," Cora muttered, looking annoyed.

"Look, either way," Ratchet spoke up, "it can't be coincidence that first Nefarious shows up, then this Zoni. Maybe he knows something about what's going on. I say one of us should interrogate him and see what he knows."

"I volunteer," Elaris said, raising her hand. "If we're going to get any information out of him, he may find it easier to connect with a similarly-minded person- in terms of intelligence, anyway."

"Great idea!" Brax exclaimed. "And afterwards, can I use him for target practice? The Holo-Room is so boring now, it's ridiculous."

"Uh, no, Brax," Ratchet said, looking at Brax. "We'll worry about the Holo-Room another time." Then he turned to Elaris. "Elaris, I like your thinking. When do you think you can start the interrogation?"

"Now, I suppose," Elaris replied. "I don't have anything else I really need to do right now."

. . .

Elaris opened the door to Nefarious' cell and walked in cautiously. She held a data pad in her hands. "Dr. Nefarious?" She saw the robot sitting in a corner, moping. "I'd like to speak with you."

"Go away," Nefarious snapped, irritated. "I'm not gonna take any bribes."

"Look, if you cooperate with us," Elaris spoke calmly, "then we might be able to reduce your sentence. I just want to ask you some questions. That's all."

"Such as...?"

"Earlier today, there was an incident. One of my colleagues was approached by a creature that called itself a 'Zoni.' We did some research and were hoping you can fill in some gaps. Do you know anything about the Great Clock?"

Nefarious' eye twitched. He crossed his arms and leaned against a wall. "And if I do?"

"Like I said, maybe your cooperation with us will reduce your sentence," Elaris told him.

Nefarious pretended to think. He didn't believe for a second that his cooperation would help him in any way. "Hm... no. I don't know anything. Now unless the universe is in danger of complete and utter annihilation, leave me alone, lady."

"My name is Elaris!" Elaris snapped angrily. She took a deep breath, and calmed herself down a bit. "And we don't know much at the moment, but from what we could gather from Clank's story-"

"Clank!" Nefarious' eyes flashed with anger. "Did he tell you how I helped him and his dimwitted squishy friends save Magnus?!"

"No, he didn't," Elaris replied, barely containing the urge to roll her eyes.

"You think I'm crazy, don't you?" Nefarious interrupted. "That's the problem with you squishies- you don't know anything. You always think that some theory is true when there's the possibility it may not be. Next thing you know, you're gonna be claiming that the Aleerans are descended from monkeys, or something just as idiotic!"

Nefarious stopped himself before he said any more.

Elaris lost it. "I do know things. I know that a super-condensed supernova that's bombarded by teraxium particles at fourteen million six hundred and five giga-hertz a second can create a laser that has enough power to destroy a planet. I know that the Pixelizer uses pure cationic energy to break down organic and inorganic molecules and rearrange them before reinitialization.

"And there's another thing I know! You can while away the last of your days in this cell for all I care!" Elaris whirled around and left the cell, slamming the door shut behind her.

Nefarious stood there, very confused. "What just happened?"

. . .

And that, my friends, is the end of that. :) And there's a reason why I made it so Elaris' interrogation with Nefarious go badly, but I'm not gonna tell you why, obviously.

Sorry this took so long, but I wanted to extra polish this chapter before publishing.