SINE of DESTINY (Ratchet & Clank AU SI)

[Tangent]

With prereading and editing assistance by Tatsurou
​

---

There was a flash of light and a crack of thunder, both blinding and deafening in intensity, and so close together that it was impossible to tell which happened before the other.

Alister Azimuth rolled into where he remembered the nearest cover would be, then shook his head and rubbed his ears as he tried to recover his sight and hearing as quickly as he could. That lightning strike had come out of a clear blue sky, and had struck down far too close to him for it to have been any sort of coincidence.

As his vision and hearing cleared, Azimuth swore he could still hear the faint crackle of electricity, accompanied by pained whimpers from a way too young voice. Taking a risk and poking his head out from behind the rocks, bushes, and partial wall he had ducked behind, he looked towards where the sounds were coming from and almost gasped in horror.

There on the ground, right where the lightning had struck, lay a young, orangish-red Lombax kit, barely older than a toddler, with electricity still arcing across her body and a carbonized outline with negative space matching her silhouette underneath her.

This wasn't an attack, this was an emergency teleport gone very very wrong! There must have been a receiver located here at some point in the past. One that this child's parents or guardian knew the address of and still expected to be here, even if that had proved not to be the case after all.

Azimuth quickly rushed forward and gathered the child as quickly and carefully as he could before retreating behind cover again and arming himself. Everything about the situation screamed emergency to him. For one thing, an adult should have come through first to ensure that the receiving area was safe. The fact that the child had come through, naked and alone, spoke of very bad things happening at the origin point. And the more time that passed without an adult, or indeed any, Lombax following the child through the teleport spoke of even worse possibilities.

After an hour, Azimuth carried the child further back and took shelter in what turned out to be what was left of an old foundation. Solid enough to provide better cover without restricting any avenues of escape. The child, for her part, stayed mostly quiet, barring the occasional spark of discharging electricity followed by a pained whimper. Something would have to be done about that soon…

---

Azimuth kept vigil over the area where the child had appeared for several more hours before giving up on any other Lombax (or anyone else) showing up, friendly, hostile, or otherwise. The girl showed signs of recovering from what he assumed to be severe teleportation strain, brought on by both extreme distance and lack of a proper receiver at this end. Fortunately, the ruins they were holed up in were what remained of an old Lombax settlement that had been abandoned hastily just prior to being attacked. No bodies, thankfully enough, but not much left to search through on the surface.

Several of the crumbling foundations did turn out to have concealed entrances to underground bunkers, workshops, or just plain old storage cellars, and it was among these hidden rooms that he found clothing, tools, and other supplies to help him take care of the girl. Azimuth even thought he had a solid clue to who the girl's father had been. Or at least an uncle or older brother.

Vector Sine had once had a laboratory/workshop/garage relatively close to where the child had appeared, and there were definite signs that there had once been a fully intact teleport receiving pad present before the attack had destroyed it. Not much was left in the way of readable notes, unfortunately, just some barely legible scribbles, a photo ID badge for the Center of Advanced Lombax Research that looked enough like the girl to be a relative, and fifteen cases of those damnable Tasty Lombax Snax!

Really, if Azimuth ever met whoever this Frumpus Croid was who had somehow mislabeled Lombaxes as a highly advanced species of domesticated pets, he was likely to do something violent.

And, of course, Tachyon continued to allow Tasty Lombax Snax to be made even though there were supposedly no Lombaxes around anymore to feed them to. Damn brat probably thought it was funny.

Not being an idiot, Azimuth made sure that every package in all fifteen cases was thoroughly scanned for contaminants, degradation, or poison. Then he added them all to the sledge that he would be dragging back to his ship. Rations were rations after all, and Tasty Lombax Snax would keep damn near forever as long as the packaging remained sealed.

And the girl seemed to love them, which was another sign that she was probably related to Vector. He couldn't stand the things himself, but they did supposedly have everything a Lombax needed to stay healthy…

Assuming, of course, that she didn't eat herself sick by shoving an entire bag's contents into her mouth all at once!

"Stop that! You'll choke if you eat like that! And not so much! We have to make those last until I can find someone trustworthy to get supplies from!"

The girl, with great reluctance, stopped stuffing her face and carefully closed the bag, pressing it to drive as much air out as she could before rolling the open end shut.

"That's right, little one, save the rest for later. Here, I'll tie some string around it to keep it shut for you so that you don't have to hold it constantly…"

"T'nk 'oo," the words obviously came with difficulty, and the girl still showed signs of disorientation and discomfort, but at least the random sparking had stopped.

"Ah, she speaks!" Azimuth declared in false cheer, hoping to raise the child's spirits after her traumatic experience. The slight, brief giggle he heard turned his fake smile more genuine. "Anyway, I'm General Alister Azimuth, Four-Bolt Magistrate of the Lombax Praetorian Guard. You'll be safe with me until I can get you back to your family. Now, do you have a name, little one?"

There was a pause, and then the girl mumbled quietly. "Tang'nt…"

A math pun.

That solidified it in Azimuth's mind. Tangent had to be either the daughter, niece, or other close relative of Vector Sine. He'd make a point of searching the ruins carefully for any sign of the Sine residence so he could gather as much of her heritage as they could reasonably haul back to his ship. An exile and a failure he might be, but he was the only one around who could care for the girl… for Tangent…

The thought was daunting, but he would not turn away from his newly self-appointed task.

Alister would not fail again!

---

The two spend another week or so in and around the ruins, making numerous trips back to Alister's ship to drop off supplies as well as things for Tangent. Not a lot, just some clothes, learning aids, a few games and toys, and a starter tool set. The last of which she got into more than the toys, but that wasn't unexpected for a young Lombax.

They had also, much to Alister's disgust and Tangent's apparent delight, hauled back every single case, box, or package of Tasty Lombax Snax they could find, just so long as it was unopened and thoroughly scanned for health hazards. Sadly, every single bag registered as clean to Alister's scanner, and he was too much of a pragmatist to lie about it just so that he wouldn't have to pack the obnoxious things into his ship.

On the other hand, they had found some Omnitools of various types and designs that had been left behind by the previous residents, and Tangent seemed to have taken particular interest in a long handled Omniwrench that was practically a glaive. It was far too early in her physical development to do any serious conditioning, but light play fighting should be harmless enough for now. It also gave her a way to help out against the occasional horny toad or other small but aggressive animals that he would otherwise clear out himself, but were minor enough nuisances for her to safely deal with given her new advantage in reach and leverage.

"Take 'at! An' 'at! An' 'at! An' 'at!" The underaged Lombax swung wildly at each horny toad around her with reckless abandon, barely hitting any of them at all.

"If you keep flailing around like that, you're going to lose control of your… and there it goes." Azimuth stood up as Tangent's Omniwrench left her hands and went sailing into a fortunately shallow ravine.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" the little red Lombax ran screaming from the horny toads now chasing her. Not that they'd have a hope of actually catching up to her as fast as she was going.

"As amusing as this is, I can't let you lot actually hurt my charge," Azimuth commented as he spun his double ended Omniwrench around and swiftly launched each toad a fair distance away in mostly random directions. There wasn't any real need to kill them, as a single hit was usually enough to dissuade small creatures like this from sticking around.

"Iz't safe?"

"Yes, I dealt with all of… How did you get up there!?"

"I'unno…" Tangent called down from the top of a tall spire of stone.

"Can you get down on your own?"

Tangent looked carefully around herself, shuddered, and gripped the top of the spire tighter. "No…"

"Hold on, I'll see what I can do to help you down…"

 

[Tangent]

SINE of DESTINY
A Ratchet & Clank fanfic by Tangent
With prereading and editing assistance by Tatsurou​

Chapter One

---

Azimuth knew that he was staying on Lumos much longer than he had originally planned prior to Tangent appearing in his life. Not that he was too worried about being discovered by Tachyon's forces as the newly self-proclaimed "emperor" of Polaris was still in the process of consolidating his hold on the galaxy now that the Lombaxes were apparently extinct. A former Lombax colony world that had already been abandoned by the time the Drophyds had rolled through and leveled everything left behind just wasn't high on the Cragmite's priority list.

Whereas Azimuth's motives for being on Lumos had suddenly shifted from half-hearted nostalgia while rooting through the ruins of the world where he and Kaden had gotten into so many teenage misadventures on, to an intense and thus far mostly unfruitful attempt to discover as much as he could about the Sine family. In part to try to discover any clues about where any of them may have gone off to had they chosen not to go to Fastoon to be sent to the other dimension, but also so that he could tell Tangent about her heritage once she was old enough to actually care about such things.

At the moment, the little red Lombax's interests seemed to mostly revolve around chasing bugs, running from bugs, turning over rocks only to find even more bugs, and climbing onto or into everything she could. And, of course, taking things apart that were best left alone so that she could see how they work. And then not being able to put them back together again in a functional manner afterwards because she didn't have the skills to actually do so yet.

Azimuth had also half hoped that Kaden would come back to their childhood home himself at some point, but the last he had seen of his friend was right after the exodus at the Court of Azimuth, when the last group of refugees had gone through the portal. Vashiir had not shown up, so Kaden had left to look for his wife and newborn son, taking the Dimensionator with him and refusing to allow Azimuth to accompany him as his honor guard.

Azimuth still second guessed himself as to whether or not he should have followed his friend anyway, despite their falling out. Maybe if he had done so, Vashiir would still be alive instead of being buried in a shallow grave marked only with her picture. He could only hope that Kaden and his son were still alive out there, somewhere…

"Fud!" Azimuth recoiled from the steaming plate of… something… that Tangent had shoved before his face. The little scamp looked inordinately proud of her efforts to produce… whatever it was, and her own mouth and chin bore evidence that she at least considered it to be edible.

It looked to have zugunut butter, tongo berry jam, mayonnaise, breegus nectar, and bits of what Azimuth hoped were jerky and not old shoe leather. All tucked between two somewhat burnt slices of instant toast. Knowing Tangent, it probably also had bits of Tasty Lombax Snax mixed in there somewhere, but he didn't really want to look at the mess closely enough to find out.

"Iz gud!"

"I'm… sure it is," Azimuth blatantly lied as he eyed the lunch his charge had prepared for him with suspicion and worry. "Now why don't you go wash your face off in the stream while I… eat… this?"

"Kay!" the little red Lombax called out, already running off to do just that.

As soon as he was sure that the little red Lombax was out of earshot, Azimuth quickly dumped the plate behind a rock and promptly shot the mess with his ion blaster to get rid of the evidence.

So far, Tangent's experimental attempts at food preparation were hit and miss, with some surprisingly good (if unconventional) results, some disasters, and one meal that had laid him out for three days and had proven to be the only thing he had ever seen that could kill a tetramite upon consumption (although, to be fair, he may have hallucinated that part while he was recovering).

Tangent had refused to even try cooking again for a solid month after that incident, and had gotten somewhat better about making sure that her ingredients were actually edible before she put them into whatever she was trying to make.

Still, the fact that she had even attempted to make him a meal meant that she was trying to cheer him up because he had been spending too much time brooding again.

He watched the little scamp wash her face in the stream, then come running back to him with… most… of the mess gone from her mouth and chin. Fishing one of the kerchiefs he had started carrying around out, he put some sanitizer on it before kneeling down to finish wiping her face clean.

"Wuz gud?" Tangent asked once Azimuth was done and stashing the cloth away to be cleaned later.

"Yes, Tangent," Azimuth lied again to spare her feelings. "It was good. But I'm a bit bigger than you, so I think I had best get myself something more to eat…"

"'Sokay!" Tangent replied cheerfully. "Made more!"

"You… did, did you?"

"Yup yup! Made lots!"

"Aheh…"

---

The Sine family was probably making waves in their new home, wherever they had gotten off to, just going by how quickly Tangent was learning her letters and numbers. At least if the Lombax educational and development guide Azimuth had found in the cellar of one of the ruins meant anything (he was far from being an expert in such matters). Sure the script used by Galactic Standard seemed to confuse her with the way that some letters, words, or even entire phrases, could be written backwards without losing their meaning, but she was definitely picking up the Lombax alphanumeric system easily enough.

Almost frighteningly easy, if he thought about it too much, given how much her current progress resembled that of Percival Tachyon when the Cragmite was at about the same stage in development…

But maybe he was reading too much into the comparison.

Gifted Lombaxes weren't all that rare after all. Both he and Kaden were considered as such, as had Vashiir and Lorna. Or any Lombax who qualified to be a member of the Center of Advanced Lombax Research, really.

It was probably just Tangent showing her heritage as a Sine. Nothing to be worried about.

TH-THUP-SPLAT! TH-THUP-SPLAT!

"Take 'at! An' 'at! An' 'at! An' 'at! Ahahahahaha!"

Upon investigation, Azimuth discovered that the precocious red-furred scamp had weaponized the automatic toaster to launch flaming pieces of instant toast at some piles of rocks that had obviously been set up as targets. Granted, she was missing her mark about nine shots out of every ten, but it was still impressive.

Whelp, time to lock up the tools and hide the technical manuals until she was older. Or at least until she was less likely to weaponize their basic camping equipment while they still needed it as basic camping equipment...

---

Azimuth had to admit to himself that he was moderately impressed. After a full year searching through the remains of every Lombax community and facility he could find, he had yet to find any evidence that suggested where any of the former occupants had gone. And that was even with him knowing that the majority, if not all, had most likely left for Fastoon to join the exodus.

He was, however, beginning to suspect that at least some Lombaxes had chosen to stay behind. At least in this dimension if not in the Polaris Galaxy itself. The biggest clue for this hypothesis wasn't in any of the information that he had found, but rather in the information that he wasn't finding. Specifically information about Lombax colonies and facilities, as the only records of such were of just the most commonly known ones that would have been available in any travelogue database. And even then, only those that happened to be within the Polaris Galaxy itself.

Everything else? Every colony, facility, or outpost in any other galaxy the Lombaxes had visited? Not a single mention about any of them, nor any mention that Lombaxes had ever left Polaris at all. A cover up of this grand of scale simply reeked of Cypher's touch, as Azimuth simply didn't know anyone else who could have pulled it off.

It hurt that yet another friend and associate hadn't trusted him enough to let him in on what was going on, but he couldn't really blame either Kaden or Cypher for their distrust given how enamoured he had been with the charismatic little Cragmite who didn't behave anything like the rest of his species had - right until the point where Tachyon had betrayed his trust.

All this suggested, to him at least (not that he was with anyone else who could provide an alternate opinion on the matter anyway - Tangent didn't count), that there were still Lombaxes who had chosen to remain in this dimension. Most likely in either the Bogon or Solana galaxies, if not both. And perhaps in either the Kavorian or Thyrullian galaxies as well, although neither of those was particularly likely for various reasons.

And there wasn't a damned thing he could do about this revelation!

Sure, his ship could technically make the trip to any of the other local galaxies, but such a journey in such limited confines would be a hardship for even a full grown Lombax, let alone an energetic child. Being essentially trapped in such a small space for the weeks or even months it would take just to clear the intergalactic void would be torturous to a rambunctious young Lombax!

He couldn't… wouldn't… do that to Tangent.

He'd have to wait until his charge was older before he went galivanting off to find any of the Lombaxes who might have stayed behind.

Getting a bigger ship would probably be a good idea as well.

However, it was probably time to consider moving on to a different planet. Maybe a few more weeks to let Tangent get used to the idea of moving first, and to make sure that what they couldn't take with them was well hidden while still being recoverable later.

Azimuth watched on in bemusement as the much abused automatic toaster ran by on mechanical legs that it hadn't had that morning, with Tangent chasing after it.

"No no no no no! C'm bak here! M'not done yet!"

Oh, and he definitely needed to child-proof the ship. And the tool chest...

---

Azimuth and Tangent looked up as they heard the low rumble of a ship flying high overhead, only a few short days before they had planned to finally leave Lumos. Which, oddly enough, actually lessened Azimuth's immediate worries as most modern vessels were much quieter. And, if nothing else, the ships that Tachyon had supplied the Drophyds with were state of the art.

They kind of had to be, because nothing else but the best could have pushed the Lombaxes so hard. Of course, the idiot Drophyds took it as another sign that the Cragmites favored them, when anyone looking over the actual history of Planet Zaurik could plainly see that the only reason the Cragmites had spared them when they had wiped out all of the native species that had been a threat to the relatively helpless Drophyds was that the Cragmites hadn't even known that they were there.

Granted, once the Lombaxes had banished the Cragmites, it took a long time for anyone visiting Zaurik to realize that the Drophyds were actually sophonts instead of regular fish. Far too long, really, as by the time anyone had found out about this important fact, the Drophyds had become widely renowned throughout Polaris as a sought after delicacy.

Not exactly civilization's brightest moment there, and just the sort of propaganda tool Tachyon could exploit to turn the entire Drophyd species into fanatically loyal soldiers. And then, after equipping them, aiming them straight at the Lombaxes under the claim that, as galactic leaders, the Lombaxes should have known better.

A bit of a grain of truth there, perhaps. But really, who would think to check a semi-amphibious fish with fins that could only just barely function as manipulators, as actually having sophont level intelligence? It'd be like assuming a muse was as intelligent as a Lombax just because both were vaguely feline and happened to have similarly shaped ears!

Still, enough reflecting. It was time to see just who their visitors were.

"Tangent, I need you to… Where did you go?"

"Shhh!" whispered one of the nearby boxes, it's former contents spilled messily on the ground. "Hiding!"

"Good girl, because that's just what I was about to ask of you. But you need to pick a better spot."

"Kay…"

Azimuth palmed his face as the box Tangent was hiding in shuffled over to another box and two little hands reached out from under it to try to tip the other box over.

"I mean something other than a box that has had its contents dumped out!"

"Can't fit in full box…" Tangent pointed out reasonably, earning another facepalm from her guardian.

"Look, just stay here and out of sight while I investigate, okay?"

"Kay!"

 

[Tangent]

SINE of DESTINY
A Ratchet & Clank fanfic by Tangent
With prereading and editing assistance by Tatsurou​

Chapter Two

---

Azimuth allowed himself to relax more as he drew close to where the ship had landed. He easily recognised the beings around the ship as Vullards, which were generally harmless despite their great strength, as they were culturally inclined towards personal pacifism. Not that they couldn't or wouldn't request or accept the assistance of someone more willing to be violent on their behalf if they felt that it was necessary, but in general they were not a direct threat to either Tangent or himself.

If a former Lombax world was to be picked over by scavengers and salvagers, the Vullards were certainly better than if any Nanophytes had shown up. Vullards could at least be counted on to be non confrontational. Unfortunately, their unwillingness to fight back directly tended to make them inviting targets to bandits and pirates. Not an immediate issue, to be sure, or the Vullards wouldn't have bothered landing at all, but definitely something to be wary of.

Still, Vullards would be safe enough to approach, and maybe he could get news on what was going on in the galaxy.

With this in mind, Azimuth chose to approach the scouting Vullards openly and in a nonthreatening manner.

"Hello!" Azimuth called out, drawing attention to himself. "I'd ask what brings you to Lumos, but I think we all know the answer to that."

"Greetings, stranger. We were not aware that there were any survivors of the attack on Lumos."

"I have yet to find any myself either, I was not on Lumos at the time. I have seen no reason to object if you are intending to set up salvaging operations on this world. I have already gathered as much as I would seek to claim and will be leaving shortly."

"Much appreciated, stranger. For what purpose did you seek this meeting then?"

"News of the greater galaxy, if you have any."

"Specifically, where Emperor Tachyon is currently concentrating his forces, I expect."

"That would be appreciated, yes. As would keeping my continued existence discrete."

"Understandable. For a small fee of, oh say, a thousand Bolts, I can give you an infobot that has recently accessed the Polaris Galactic Newsfeed."

"Done. I have the Bolts on me."

"Very well, stranger. Wait here for just a moment, I'll retrieve the infobot from my ship and we can make the exchange…"

---

Azimuth half listened to the news from the infobot as it followed him back towards where he had left Tangent. Tachyon was, of course, moving to consolidate his power in the Polaris Galaxy. One of his first moves after he had "wiped out the Lombax Menace once and for all," had been to seize control of the refineries on Coballia, the Gelletonium Capitol of Polaris, where the majority of the fuel used by hyperspace capable ships was produced.

This would complicate matters a bit for those who relied on travel, but there were other planets with swamps that naturally produced gelletonium, and not all of them were listed in the publicly available databases. There were also innumerable fuel and maintenance service stations scattered in various systems throughout the galaxy, and not all of them got their supplies from Coballia anyway, so it wasn't an insurmountable issue. Just one he'd have to keep an eye on.

The formerly Lombax owned Verdant Gardens Luxury Resort on Mukow had been leveled and was currently being rebuilt as the Imperial Fight Festival theme park. Which was a travesty. Both Mark and Lorna Cross, and later Kaden and Vashiir Gyro had spent their honeymoons at Verdant Gardens, and Alister had once had hopes that he and Candace would eventually do the same.

Not that Candace had stayed with him after Tachyon revealed his true colors and started his war against all Lombaxkind. Nor could he blame her for leaving him. He was just glad that she was safe, forever out of Tachyon's reach in another dimension. Forever out of his own reach as well, for that matter, but safe. That was what mattered.

Kortog, once a major tradehub world, was under occupation by Tachyon's Drophyd forces, with civilian traffic to and from the planet still being heavily monitored, with no end in sight. Stratus City University had been officially closed down, with no word on when it would reopen. Assuming it ever would, given that most of the deans, professors, and general staff were still officially listed as "Missing: Presumed Eaten by Ravenous Lombax Savages."

Nevermind that Azimuth knew for a fact that several of those listed as missing were actually Lombaxes themselves. Who were hopefully among those who had joined the Exodus. Fortunately the general lists posted by the media only showed their names, without noting their species or showing the pictures. So Tachyon did not have full control of the media yet.

Good to know, but not something to be counted on as a stable situation.

Hmmm… Professor Radian Sine.

Clicking on the name for the attached file and doing a little digging revealed that Radian was indeed a red furred Lombax (okay, so the media wasn't being quite as discrete as he would have hoped after all, but in this case their lack of discretion worked in his favor). Far too old to be Tangent's mother. Likely too old to have been her grandmother too, but great grandmother or a great grand aunt was possible. Doctorates in high energy physics and hyperspace geometry. Taught both theory and practicals for hyperspace travel before going on hiatus and never returning. A quick check on the dates showed that this was at about the same time that six other professors and several students and staff members had also left Stratus City University for "personal reasons." All prior to the blockade the Drophyds had set up around Kortog, so presumably they had joined the Exodus on Fastoon. No other information available in these files.

Azimuth would have to try to look up more information on Radian elsewhere if at all possible, so he could tell Tangent more about her when she started asking about her family. But at least he had another picture to add to the album that he would eventually show her, along with a name and a few details to go with it.

---

Azimuth looked around the gully where he had left Tangent, and while he saw plenty of signs of the little red Lombax's activities, he saw no sign of the girl herself. Many of the boxes had been overturned, spilling their (fortunately packaged) contents, and arranged into makeshift mini-forts. On which Tangent was not hidden inside of any of them.

"Okay, while I'm not happy that you made a mess of the supplies we've been gathering, I do have to admit that you've hidden yourself pretty well. You can come out now, Tangent."

"Up here…"

Azimuth looked up to where he heard the voice of his charge coming from, a small crevice located roughly halfway up the side of the cliff. "How did you get up there?"

"Climbed."

"And why, pray tell, did you feel the need to climb halfway up the ravine wall?"

"Hiding. Crate-fort iz distraction. Better hidey-spot up here."

"Did you at least remember to take a rope up with you this time?"

"Umm… maybe?"

"That would be a 'no' then," Azimuth sighed. "Hold on. I'll get you down…"

---

"Where goin'?" Azimuth heard Tangent ask as they took off from Lumos. The little red Lombax was already out of her safety harness, with her face and hands pressed up against the cockpit canopy, allowing her to stare at the planet below.

"We are heading for Torren IV," the elder Lombax replied as he grabbed Tangent by the back of her shirt and sat her back down on the seat beside him. "Now would you please stay seated and redo your harness? I'll get your books out for you or put on some music once we're safely on our way, but now is not the time for you to be loose in the cockpit."

"'Kay."

Azimuth allowed himself to relax as his energetic ward seemed content to settle down for the moment.

"We there yet?"

This was going to be a long trip…