Seeing Ratchet and Twilight staring at him, Alister sank back against the wall to answer their questions. "I...made a mistake," he explained, closing his eyes against the pain of the memories. "After the Great War, Polaris was a...dangerous place. Even with the Cragmites gone, I knew steps needed to be taken to protect the galaxy."

"Not everyone agreed?" Ratchet asked curiously.

"No," Alister confirmed. "Even Kaden didn't like the idea of developing weapons technology further. We...had quite a few heated debates over that. That made things...even harder when it looked like opportunity came knocking."

"Opportunity?" Twilight asked curiously.

"One day, we were approached by an inventor with incredible ideas," Alister explained. "Technology light years beyond of what we were using! The inventor was someone...someone Kaden warned me not to trust-"

"Percival Tachyon," Ratchet and Twilight both stated together.

Seeing Alister's startled expression, Twilight smiled softly. "It's not that hard to put the pieces together," she explained. "He had to get the technology from somewhere."

"Yes," Alister replied. "From the Lombaxes...from me. Despite the fact that everyone else on the High Council distrusted him, I granted him full access to our technology, all of our secrets. I thought his plans could be used to help keep the entire galaxy safe!" He sighed, lowering his head. "But instead, he helped himself...to the whole galaxy. And we were his first targets.

"Most of us took refuge in the Court...but Kaden refused." Alister's head rose, pain visible in his eyes. "Vashiir had only just finished delivering you, and neither of you were stable enough for ship transport yet. He rushed back to save you both, but...by the time he got there, it was too late for her."

Twilight and Ratchet listened in stunned silence, both knowing to a certain extent that this was how their story began.

"After that, Kaden fled with you," Alister continued. "I...didn't hear from him again after that, so...I have no idea how long he survived before Tachyon caught up with him...but I know...I was responsible for his death. His, and your mother's. Your life without knowing your own kind, Ratchet, and the hardships that caused you...I am the reason. For these crimes...I was forbidden from joining the Lombaxes when they removed themselves from this dimension, in the hopes that doing so would limit Tachyon's destructive rampage as he turned his attention to pursuing us...and those of us that remained in this universe. Since I created the situation trying to protect the galaxy...I was left to try and protect the galaxy by keeping Tachyon in check."

As Alister sat in silence, Twilight tried to comfort him. "It's...it's not your fault..." she began.

"Yes it is," Alister countered. "How can it not be? None of it would have happened if I hadn't dismissed Kaden's concerns about Tachyon off as more 'anti-weapons tech paranoia'!" He almost spat the last words. "If I'd only listened to him...this is all my doing..."

"Thank you," Ratchet stated calmly.

Alister and Twilight's heads both shot up. "What?" they both demanded, shocked.

"So you're saying everything in my life - being raised by Nana on Veldin, raising Twilight, all our adventures together - happened because of what you did?" Ratchet asked. "Thank you. I wouldn't trade it for anything. Sure, I've wondered what it would have been like being raised by my parents, especially since finding Aphelion, but..." Reaching out, he stroked Twilight's cheek. "Wouldn't be worth trading away even a moment of being Twilight's father."

"...Daddy..." Twilight whispered, her eyes shining as she looked up at him.

"But...to never know your parents?" Alister countered. "Your own people?"

"If I want to know more about the Lombaxes," Ratchet countered, "I can ask Aphelion, or Angela, or you. But my people?" He shrugged. "My people are my family. That's Clank, a robot who is apparently part Zoni somehow; Twilight, a magical winged unicorn from who knows where; Aphelion, a living spaceship that's bigger on the inside; Qwark, an overgrown manchild who desperately wants to prove himself a hero, but even more just wants to belong and not be alone..." He smiled up at Alister. "And now you...Uncle."

Alister stared at Ratchet, completely poleaxed. After a time, he finally smiled. "Thank you, Ratchet."

"And Angela," Twilight spoke up. "And Sasha. And Talwyn, and by extension Cronk and Zephyr-"

"Yes, Twilight," Ratchet groaned, shaking his head as Twilight giggled at his discomfiture.

Alister managed a chuckle as he stood up. "Still...that doesn't mean we can't fix what went wrong. With the clock under our control-"

"Seriously?" Twilight interrupted. "You're seriously considering trying to use the Great Clock - a time machine - to alter time in such a way to negate the events that caused you to use it in the first place? Do you have any idea what that sort of Paradox could do to you? Do you even have any idea how it even works?"

"Do you?" Alister countered.

"No, but I wouldn't try to use a technology I just discovered until I knew everything about how it worked. In the case of the Great Clock, that'd be at least a year of study, if not two, from the sound of it."

As Alister and Twilight glared each other down, Ratchet stepped between them. "Look, let's set this aside for a moment, okay?" he spoke up. "Can we agree that letting Nefarious or any of his allies use the Clock is a bad idea?"

"Absolutely!" Twilight agreed.

"Most assuredly," Alister confirmed.

"In that case, let's focus on stopping him and saving Clank," Ratchet suggested. "Table any discussion of actually using the Clock ourselves until the danger of someone else using it has passed."

As he got nods of agreement from the two of them, Ratchet suppressed his own thoughts of wanting to use the Clock to try and track down Twilight's homeworld. Like he'd said, it wasn't the time for that.