A few months have passed since the events involving the Great Clock. A lot has happened with Kim and Ratchet since their outrageous adventure. After they were able to reestablish and rekindle their feelings for each other, they have decided to pursue their relationship and promised to always remain together, never allowing anything or anyone to stand in between them ever again.
Since those events, Kim had not returned to space as she was working diligently to fix up her apartment within the ISSF. She does remain in contact with Ratchet, of course since they are very much in love and want to remain in touch. He has also visited her on Earth time and again and they have spent a lot of their time together. She, however, does not let him see the apartment or allow him to help her with it because she wanted to surprise him once she has finished with it.
Eventually, the apartment was completed and the ISSF was launched back into the Polaris Galaxy where Ratchet still lived with his best friend Clank. After receiving the news of the arrival of the ISSF, Ratchet decided to pay a visit to the space station.