Before Rift Apart (Complete)

Unknown Variations

Ublik Passage, Praxus Sector, 3 months later

Rivet hadn't spoken much since her enocunter with the IRIS super computer, in fact she even avoided Resistance meetings. She seemed uninterested in her reading and such as well. Phantom and the others had tried to comfort her in some way, but nothing was working. The new pirate base set up near Ublik Passage was thanks to another finding of Rivet's from the tablet Phantom had handed over to her. According to the information from IRIS this place was going to be set up as a base at some point anyways. One of the few places the Emperor could never find.

Something was clearly bothering Rivet but all the others could do was watch her just read from that tablet of hers. No one had really seen her this quiet before, and even Pierre didn't want to mess with the status quo. Everyone knew that when even Pierre wouldn't risk bothering Rivet, that it was really a bad idea. Phantom and Pierre had talked about strategy, all the while asking eachother if anyone had talked to Rivet lately. Everyone had the same answer, which was no. Phantom sighed and thought about what to do for Rivet.

Eventually Rivet was nowhere to be seen at all which had everyone scrambling to find her. It didn't take long for them to find a ship missing, a note, and the tablet. The note said to "Destroy the damn thing.". To Phantom's dismay the note never once mentioned where Rivet was going so now everyone was trying to take guesses as to where she was headed. Pierre hoped it wasn't dangerous since he wanted to "see his Rivet" again, alive and well preferrably. Pierre being into Rivet made Phantom chuckle considering he wasnt exactly her type perse.

All that aside, they needed to figure it out, and fast.

Corson V, Verdagris Sector, Nefarious City, Rivet's POV

I landed the ship near the outskirts of Nefarious City and got out quickly. Carrying my hammer I ran up to Nefarious Tower, careful to avoid any guards. The door I tried to get into before was clearly unguarded this time and I wasn't going to wait for another giant yellow death machine to show up. "I have to stop the Emperor before explore outside space and time like that tablet said..." I said to myself, eager to try and stop him.

I wondered to myself if this world was even worth saving considering how under Nefarious' control. It used to be such a wonderful world full of trees that were green and yellow. Bright sunny days as well as calm nights. Now it's just tall buildings, damp ground, constant rain, and bright neon lights. "Can't how far gone he's made this place... Hard to believe I grew up here." I sighed, feeling depressed from the sight of it all. I managed to get inside the tower and look around as I walked through a rather lengthy hall, my heart beating fast.

I looked at a specific door, everything about it screamed experiment room and so I went in. My instincts could not have been more right as I saw a massive weapon-like machine. I stared in awe at it for several moments before going from console to console, trying to figure out what it did. Eventually what I found worried me, extremely as it was exactly as the tablet had said. "That computer thing was right... Nefarious plans to control time, space and something else with this thing..." I start to make every effort to sabotage it and unsure if it's successful.

I started sweating profusely as I tried to sabotage this machine, imagining all the things Emperor Nefarious could do with something like this as his disposal. He could undo everything the Resistance or anyone else has done in an instant. In the heat of the moment I took out my hammer and hit the machine hard. The machine reacted with some kind of electrical fizzing noises and I got up quickly. "uh oh..." I said to myself as I ran out just as the following explosion occured. The explosion rocked the area enough to throw me off my feet.

The destruction of the machine has some kind of effect, because when I looked up I managed to see myself as a kid with my hand being held. I couldn't make out who it was before I was suddenly dragged back to reality. It then happend again, but this time I was seeing the future I guessed. Considering I didn't remember being in some underground cavern recently. I could hear myself speak, a loud gasp at first. "It was you?!" was all I mangaged to hear myself say as I once again snapped back to reality and shook my head.

"I really need to get out more often..." I said to myself before running out. I made it all the way out to the main plaza of Nefarious City when I looked back and witnessed another explosion take out a nice sized portion of the "Almighty Emperor's" tower. I giggled to myself and took a picture for the memory, and sort of a victory. It showed he wasn't all-powerful after all. I smirked at said picture. "Sweet... The guys are gonna LOVE this!" I looked around for a quick get away and found just was I was looking for. A grind rail.

A few of Nefarious' death bots tried chasing me and shooting me off the grind rail. As I dodged and weaved the weapons fire all I could think to myself was "Keep grinding Rivet, come on!" In hindsight, probably a bad choice of words as I giggled to myself. When I giggled I stopped paying attention to the weapons fire and I nearly got hit. It was enough to snap me back to the moment, albiet too late, way too late since it forced me off the grind rail and straight onto the ground.

I got up as quickly as I could despite the pain and looked around noticing I was surrounded by Nefarious Troopers. I gulped as Nefarious' assistant could be heard laughing her little robotic head off. I glared at her as a last act of defiance as she was about to give the order to kill me. In that moment though, several troopers were destroyed by random weapons fire. With the assistant suddenly on the run and most of her gaurds destroyed, I took the opportunity to make my own retreat as I looked around to see who could've fired all those shots.

After not seeing anyone, I counted my blessings anyways and just ran off. I wasn't in any shape for a real fight. I guessed that the fall had broken a rip or two. The good news was my lungs hadn't been punctured by the event. Another blessing counted. I managed to get to the ship I had stolen from the Pirates before engaging the auto-pilot. Breathing heavily from the injuries I knew it was only a matter of time before the pain made me pass out. Yet despite a largely risky adventure, I came out on top. And alive.