Before Rift Apart (Complete)

Early Years

Introduction:
The last message of the Lombax Mapper known as Mags, is that of a verbal letter to other Lombaxes that were left behind during the move of the entire race from dimension to the next. One of the lost Lombaxes is the son of the Keeper of the Dimensionator, Kaden. The father of Ratchet, a well known Lombax. But this, isn't about Ratchet, or Kaden. But one of the lost Lombaxes in particular: Rivet. Her story starts here.

Corson V; Megalopolis

Layden's parents had taken in an especially young Lombax, she was an infant, he was already a teen and fascinated by his new sister. She was unlike anything he had seen, but his parents had heard rumors from a world known as Savali. Her infant years weren't much to talk about. But at around 5 she was a mechanical genius for her age. Layden's parents had given her a name, but Layden gave her a new one that felt more appropriate: Rivet.

Layden helped his sister grow and highly encouraged her love of engineering. By age 10 she was working on ship engines, and even made income that helped her adoptive family. Soon she was well known after that. Anything that broke down, she could fix in a matter of hours. In all her time of fixing things she wasn't too concerned about her safety, so Layden, the worrier that he is got her the goggles you see on any typical engineer.

It wasn't much, but any protection for his one sister was enough to put him at ease a little bit. Rivet also had a habit of wandering the city, following all the MegaCorp signs and buying some things at their shops. Some parts here, a little Raretanium there, but one day, one thing caught her eye. She didn't get cold easily. However her adoptive brother Layden, did. She used what was left of her earnings that day, even had to talk the price down, so she could get her brother a scarf in his favorite color: Orange.

(Now it will mostly start going into Rivet's point of view.)

I walked in about as happy as I could be. My brother knew something was up and it was incredibly hard to keep a gift away from him, especially since he thought I was just causing mischief. "What do you have Rivet??" Layden had asked. "You aren't stealing things, are you?" Slightly offended but also afraid of upsetting my brother, and more so of letting him be disapointed I quickly grabbed the receipt plus, his gift. "Y-you always say winter here is too cold for you. So I went out and got you this. I'd never steal..." Layden smiled rather warmly and took the gift apprehensively. "It's perfect" Layden said.

I smiled, happy that he liked it, and more so knowing full well he'd put it to use. And now came the reason why other than loving my brother as to why I had gotten him a gift well before winter... "So Layden, I was thinking... I feel like it would be a good move if I put my work into Drek Industries." I waited for it. The stare of utter disapointment. But it never came. But I could hear it in his voice. "Working for that shrill would be a waste of your talent. The real talent goes to MegaCorp. And you're good enough to keep your own shop open." He said. He was right to a degree but I had other things on my mind.

"Well, yeah, maybe. But without a big name backing up my shop it's not enough. I have to earn more. Our parents are going to retire soon and you're still working on your degree!" He smiled almost sweetly and shook his head and simply said "Rivy, you're working too hard. If I fall behind on things a bit that's my own problem. You gotta focus on yourself before you can help others. Doing it your way is incredibly nice.. But if you over-extend yourself, that's it. And you're so busy picking up the pieces of everyone else, who's gonna pick up yours?" The question hit me harder than expected. I didn't want him to be right. I don't want to leave him to his own devices. So I responded. "But you've always helped me.. It's only fair right?"

Layden looked at me with his usual amount of paitience. "Fair? Maybe. Is it the same? No Rivy. You're my little sister. That's just how it works. It's not always about fairness. But it is normally about priority. You were my priority. And I couldn't be more proud with how you turned out." I smiled, any sort of argument I had went out the window. My brother was proud of me, and that's really I ever wanted. "So the choice is mine then? I can work for Drek Industries?" Layden was reluctant to answer, but gave one all the same. "Sure Rivy." He said simply. After all Layden has helped me with I don't think I could imagine a kind of life without him around, nor would I try.

Life had continued for the brother/sister duo in other ways. Rivet had gotten accepted and started working for Drek Industries so her shop could bear the name. Layden had continued his studies, though he never said what they were. There was always a secret eerie feeling, but Rivet ignored those feelings. She certainly never asked either. Asking was almost baseless, and Layden would probably be offended at the idea. Working for Drek wasn't all bad, sure he admitted to polluting his own homeworld, Orxon in the Solana Galaxy, but after moving many of his factories, he had used other worlds to discuss technology changes that could be used to restore Orxon to how it once was.

Rivet wanted nothing more than to use her engineering skills to help others, and that project seemed like the perfect fit. But since her expertise wasn't in terraforming or restoration, but instead in ships. Her expertise in ships landed her shop a contract using the brand name, and even giving her more customers. Rivet still wasn't quite satisfied with this, even though it was originally what she wanted. She still wanted to prove she could be useful as something more than a local mechanic, she wanted to a part of something a little bigger, something worth while.

She figured the only way she was going to get to help out was to personally request a position in the project from none other than Drek himself. But before she could actually see him, she seen the news from one of the local shops she had to walk by on the way to his office, and what happend is not what she had in mind...