Fanfic Recs / Ratchet & Clank

Proof that the remaining 10% is worth collecting all the Gold Bolts for.

These are recommendations made by tropers for Ratchet & Clank, which have been signed. No-name recs will be exploded with a RYNO. Feel free to add a fanfic of your own to the list, but remember to use the template found here.

Do warn when a fanfic may head into sexually explicit or non-canon territory. Some people just don't like it, and as we all know, Shipping is Serious Business.

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Authors and Websites

General Fics

Stories focused on the family and the friendly relationships of the cast. Plot-focused stories or light day-in-the-life stories. Pretty much anything that isn't focused on romance.

Maternal Operations Machine by Kirmon64

• Recommended by Blazichu
• Status: Complete
• Synopsis: A Day in the Limelight / Elsewhere Fic for the Material Operations Machine in charge of building robots for Drek's cause. Very heartwarming and very different. It contains minor spoilers for the original game and references Going Commando and Up Your Arsenal.

My First Duty by Night N. Gail

• Recommended by Blazichu
• Status: Complete
• Synopsis: A oneshot from Clank's point of view, reflecting on his partnership-turned-friendship with Ratchet. There are major spoilers for the series as a whole, but especially A Crack in Time.

Ratchet & Clank Future II: In Search of Clank by Stephan Stryker

• Recommended by Blazichu
• Status: Dead
• Synopsis: An Alternate Universe Fic branching off from Tools of Destruction, so it's parallel to Quest For Booty and A Crack in Time. It's very long and, thus far, incomplete, but well worth the read.

Supermarket Chaos by Purple Armadillo

• Recommended by Cybertoy 0
• Status: Complete
• Synopsis: Dr. Nefarious runs out of creamer, and there's no way he'll take his coffee black. But it's not as if he can just walk into the supermarket to buy more, right?
• Comments: A hilarious 'just-for-fun' fic that manages to get the characterizations of the characters perfect.

Ailuraphobia by divisionten

• Recommended by Bookworm Gal
• Status: Complete
• Synopsis: Clank hadn't been born… actually, he had been born yesterday. He probably should fill his data files on Lombaxes if he were to be traveling with one.
• Comments: Snippets set over the course of the first game from Clank's point of view. Very entertaining.

Carpe Diem by The Authoress Complex

• Recommended by The Logical Thinker
• Status: Complete
• Synopsis: Ratchet is suicidal. Clank is learning to live. And a vicious cycle has begun. A Ratchet and Clank Dramatization, with spoilers for future games, added dialogue and changes to the script. No pairings.
• Comments: This Fanfic just feels like a novel, with changes to the original games that fit with the characters. A definite must-read!

Breaking and Entering (alternate link) by C-Puff

• Recommended by Bookworm Gal
• Status: Complete
• Synopsis: After 10 years, Max Apogee has been found and rescued from an isolated planet. Ratchet and Clank, originally just planning to check in how Talwyn is handling this, get roped into Max's passion for ancient technologies, specifically Lombax related. Things seem fine until this passion starts bordering on obsession. And as fun as learning more about your own species might be, inevitably it scratches open some old wounds as well. So how do you know when things start going too far?
• Comments: Originally written 2012 and takes place shortly after Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One while including the comic as canon.

Taking Down Heat by Night Rider 7

• Recommended by V_j1109
• Status: Complete
• Synopsis: After an incident involving a strange object, Ratchet is rendered unable to operate any machinery.
• Comments: A fic that manages to get the characterizations of the characters perfect while telling a story that wouldn't be too out of place in an actual Ratchet & Clank video game.

Cry of Metal and Misery by Tai-ke-ai

• Recommended by Inner Glow
• Status: Dormant (last updated February 2017)
• Synopsis: Tachyon the cragmite had intended to use the lombax pup as leverage over the Keeper of the Dimension and then kill them both. But then a more deliciously evil plan came to mind. He would raise the Lombax pup himself, but while Tachyon's life had been spared out of pity, the pups would be spared for revenge. This is an alternate dimension from the prime Ratchet and Clank.
• Comments: An AU that retells their origin story. It's fantastic, a must read! (Spoilers for just about every Ra C game.)

The General and Kaden by Night N. Gail

• Recommended by Inner Glow
• Status: Completed
• Synopsis: "After the Great War, Polaris was a dangerous place..." This is the history leading up to the fall of the Lombaxes, as seen through the eyes of young Alister Azimuth and his best friend.
• Comments: Very creatively shows Alister and Kaden growing up and how they got to where they are in A Crack in Time. (Mostly spoilers for A Ci T and To D.)

You Make Me Feel Alive by TheLilyoftheValley

• Recommended by MMX 3
• Status: Complete
• Synopsis: For Ratchet Appreciation Week 2021. Seven drabbles for the Lombax boi to honor him through the second week of March.

Widget & Clank: Lombax Bebop by Tangent Also on TV Tropes here.

• Recommended by Awareness Bringer
• Status: Ongoing
• In a universe where a white Lombax arrived on Veldin, and Captain Qwark is at least somewhat more competent and less self-aggrandizing than his dimensional counterparts usually are, join Widget as she and Clank set out on their first grand adventure as the newest members of the Galactic Rangers! Rated T for innuendos, copious amounts of gratuitous violence, and shenanigans.

Rivet & Klunk by RivettheLombax Also on Archive Of Our Own with a TV Tropes article

• Recommended by Awareness Bringer
• Status: Complete
• A small smirk spreads across Rivet’s muzzle, and despite the fact the toad is now gone, she waves. “Byyyee! Hope you guys learned your lesson this time ‘round!”

With that, the feline lifts her Mallet over her shoulder and settles the multi-purpose tool onto the magnetic mount on the back of her top. She steps outside, retying her orange scarf so it’s more secure around her neck. She turns around and gazes at her shop with an almost sad expression.

Almost.

“So long,” Rivet murmurs, pressing a square blue button on the glove of her left hand. The shop door hums, and starts rolling shut. “Adventure awaits.”

Three Stars of Veldin by Tatsurou-san Also on Archive of Our Own And has a TV Tropes article.

• Recommended by Awareness Bringer
• Status: Ongoing
• Many parallels exist between Ratchet's story and that of the Prog twins. Both orphans in a world not their own. Both socially outcast young. Both far smarter than all around them. It's easy to believe that had their paths been different, Ratchet could have been the villain and the Progs the heroes.

But what if they walked their path together from the first day? What if Vendra and Neftin were left on Veldin when they were expelled from the Nether?

This is that story.

Ratchet & Kit by Awareness Bringer Also on Archive of Our Own

• Recommended by Anon-Metonic-Fan
• Status: Ongoing
• Synopsis: In a universe terrorized by many villains, including a nefarious emperor, one Lombax and one special robot are about to make a difference.

A Prog in the Machine by MBIII Also on Archive of Our Own

• Recommended by Awareness Bringer
• Status: Ongoing
• Synopsis: Deep inside the Vartax Detention Center, Vendra Prog isn't coping well with the loss of her purpose or the guilt of what she did to achieve it. However, when the discovery of a new Surinox Shard brings a former enemy to her cell door, the space witch's knowledge of interdimensional physics might just be put to good use for once... If there's any good in her for Ratchet to find.

Ratchet & Clank: Orphan by Rickudemus

• Recommended by Jalpo 99
• Status: Dead
• Synopsis: In an alternative universe, Clank is the one who finds little Ratchet all alone on the planet of Veldin. Clank sees potential in the child and takes him along, trying his best to raise him well while being forced into a battlefield.
• Comments: A twist on the Role Swap AU. Clank is the leader of a resistance team fighting against Chairman Drek that slowly covers the events of the first game, all while he looks after a younger version of Ratchet. The story frequently switches between various POVs which is cool to see. Sadly though, the fic hasn't been updated since April 2016, and the author hasn't posted anything since November 2017, but what is there is a fun read.

Ratchet & Clank: The Long Road Home by ASmash4Lucario

• Recommended by MMX 3
• Status: Complete
• Synopsis: With Rivet's and Kit's dimension finally liberated from the remainder of the now-exiled Emperor Nefarious' forces, peace begins to spread across their small corner of the universe and the two Lombaxes are finally about to make that final pitstop Ratchet alluded to at the end of Rift Apart. Finally, after years of dreaming about it, the two Lombaxes are finally going back to their kind - home. However, something terrible has happened in the other corners of the universe while Ratchet and Clank were away, and the two Lombaxes and the two bots will need to rely on each other if they are going to survive the long road ahead of them.

Shipping Fics

Stories focused on the romantic relationships between the cast.

Ratchet and Clank: All For You byStohne Rohse

• Recommended by Orvus Corvus
• Status: Discontinued
• Synopsis: Three weeks after Ratchet, Clank, and Nefarious' journey on Magnus, Lawrence has noticed something strange with Nefarious. The usually loud, angry doctor hasn't come out of his room since they landed. At a complete loss, Lawrence has no one to turn to but the doctor's old teammates. Will they hinder more than help? The one Lawrence is most worried about is Qwark...
• Comments: A cute little shipping fic I found that's not quite done yet, but I have a feeling that the next time Qwark comes around, they'll finally realize that they don't hate each other as much as they thought.

Crossover Fics

Bad Alert: The Extreme by Gastrodon Amy

• Recommended by Mysterious Zorua 1994
• Status: Complete
• Synopsis: A musical horror that is a crossover with Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep and Crash Tag Team Racing. A rare fanfic that happens to be a video, but indeed a fanfic. Technically a Take That! to Lady Tremaine (and her daughters) and Courtney Gears, as they are portrayed as nothing but cold, heartless villains.

The Sparkle in his Eye by Tatsurou

• Crossover with My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
• Recommended by Awareness Bringer
• Status: Complete
• Synopsis: In a remote corner of the Solana Galaxy lies a backwater planet called Veldin. Nothing important ever happens there. Nothing exciting, either. Ratchet, a Lombax with no idea of his origins, is beginning to grow bored with his life, and dreams of excitement. He wishes on a falling star for some excitement to find its way into his life.

The falling star answers by crashing into his home in the form of a basket carrying a tiny creature with a horn, a pair of wings, and four hooves. The name on the basket reads "Twilight Sparkle".