J: It's getting close to the end my duckies. This is sadly the second last chapter and unfortunately for you guys I'm on a roll with my writing, meaning the last chapter will come up quite quickly. Since this is the second last chapter I decided to make it fairly lengthy :3

THANKS TO:

Venetiangirl92: Shhhh! Don't give away spoilers! And as it stands I'm not sure HOW I would incorporate things from the third movie.

Hedgi: I'm with you, I've never broken a bone though I kinda wish I had just for reference ahha.

Standout4Christ: Jolt wishes he had rocket boosters. Sadly he doesn't, he just put his own energon through his engine to give him some boost.

Keacdragon: Was it when Starscream let Roxie fall to her death that you had a panic attack? "Headtilt"

Azura Tyrant: Almost, they are SO close, read and you'll see :3

Sarasblackcolt: Heh, I can see where the admiration for Jolt out does Tools XD

Gelly619: "Applaudes" Good job reading everything in one day. As a reward here is a new chapter update faster than usual.

Dontgotaclue88: Heh, Roxie shares that same thought, you'll see towards the end.

Tailsdoll123: Yup pretty much, but bad luck always has to end eventually right? And yes I have seen it and it is quite sad :(

LynxbyLynx: I would honestly rather login and find it back to the old model before this nonsense, finding the names of the people who reviewed was SO much easier! The good work shall hopefully continue with this chapter!

Lightwolfheart: Congrats on being reviewer 350! You've already been sent the title and summary which you seem to be looking forward to XD

Psychotic Coconut Observer: I have to say I'm getting more and more interesting reviewer names every chapter XD

A special thank you to Khalthar for being my Beta for this, I wish I'd found you sooner!

Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro. Tools belongs to Ironaft30. Roxanne belongs to me. AND a character you may or may not recognize from another fanfiction called "Spark Bondage" is briefly mentioned towards the end and he belongs to LynxbyLynx.

- Chapter Thirty One - Collecting Pieces

Jolt had followed after Tools as fast as he could, he watched with zoomed in vision when Tools caught Roxie and descended to the ground. He kind of wished that his estimate of damage hadn't been accurate. Approaching the two humans he heard Tools gasping and groaning in pain. "Ratchet whatever you're doing needs to be dealt with later. Roxanne and Tools need immediate medical attention."

'I'm on my way, Ironhide took over for me. Do you see Optimus?' Jolt had honestly forgotten about Optimus when he'd seen Roxanne get dropped out of Megatron. Searching the skies now he spotted Optimus going hand to hand with Megatron still. "He's making small talk with Megatron. I'll let you know when he's done punching his face plates in…He's done punching his face plates in." Jolt smirked crookedly as Optimus got another fist into the side of Megatron's face where Alice had taken out his optic. Unable to fly he was willing to accept this method of revenge.

Megatron put distance between the two of them, without his right optic he was being brought down by Optimus. He wasn't going to win this fight, not that it mattered that much to him. Starscream had taken his gift to safety…Or so he thought. Starscream's signal had vanished off his radar, but the collar on Roxanne told him she was within the immediate area. 'Consider yourself dead Starscream.' Megatron had lost the All-Spark only because he'd been off-lined. He would not lose his gift from Primus. Letting out a loud roar containing no words Megatron dove down towards the direction of the signal. Optimus saw what he was aiming for and took chase.

Jolt cursed and put himself in the path of the on coming Megatron. He didn't understand how Megatron had known she was still there or where she was. Optimus had kept him distracted so there was no way for Megatron to have seen Starscream deliberately let her fall. "Wait…" Staying in his position as living barrier Jolt glanced over his shoulder at Roxie. His sight narrowed in on the collar around her neck and the glyphs carved into it. The collar was the only thing different from when he'd last seen her. But he couldn't move to try and take it off; he also didn't have the necessary equipment. "Ratchet, you need to get here faster."

'I've got a visual of you. I'll be there in two minutes.' Ratchet's gruff tone had more of an edge to it, Jolt worried that he'd taken damage.

Optimus got close enough to Megatron to grab hold of his foot and pull back with his thrusters in reverse. This only enraged Megatron more, his hand shifted to his blaster which he fired at Optimus' hand. The shot took off two of his fingers causing him to lose his hold. Megatron boosted his thrusters to advance further. Setting his optics on Jolt Megatron brought out his largest blaster shifted out from both hands. "She is MINE!"

Jolt smiled at the circumstance he was in. At the beginning of the month he'd viewed humans as barbarian nuisances that didn't deserve his attention. Now he was putting himself in the path of death to keep two humans alive. If this was his time to join the Matrix then he would depart from life clean of regrets.

Megatron's blaster was fully charged and he was nearly to the ground. His finger began to pull the trigger only to stop from that and his descent.

Megatron wasn't making sense, what was he doing? A small whimper below Jolt explained it. "Roxanne get back behind me." He'd been so intent on keeping himself between Megatron and Roxie, that he didn't notice or feel Roxie crawl over between his legs and lean against the right leg with one of her arms outstretched. She looked childish with her right leg raised but her expression was pure stubbornness.

Her right leg throbbed with pain that made her want to curl up in a ball and cry. When she'd woken up she'd been utterly confused to find herself outside lying in Tools' arms. The pain jogged her memory to what had happened before she'd succumbed to exhaustion. A large shadow and a heart shuddering roar helped her to figure out what was happening. Megatron was on his way to collect her and Jolt stood in his way to protect both her and Tools.

During the time she had been in darkness Megatron must have placed her closer to his spark, for the cruel voice that sang to her gloated about Megatron's long thought out plan. Back when he was still frozen Megatron had decided to use her for his goal of destroying the Autobots. To guarantee his claim to her if he got the chance to collect her he had purposely looked for her mech creator (she figured that meant her dad) and killed him. The day he had done this he had wanted only the All-Spark so he chose to leave her alone. After his resurrection and need of audio dampeners he recalled her existence and usefulness.

In conclusion it was her fault that her father had been killed. This distressful realization had woken her up.

Grasping the current scenario she disentangled herself from Tools and struggled over to her protective position. No one else was going to die because of her, and that included the mech assigned to her for a guardian. "I'm not going anywhere. As soon as I'm somewhere else he's going to kill you. I'm not letting that happen."

Their debate over who was protecting who didn't get much further thanks to Optimus pile driving Megatron into the ground. Being forced to watch various sports, including wrestling came in quite handy. Megatron's spinal column didn't fair well from the attack, his systems cried out for medical attention. Megatron wanted his property but he needed to be alive to use her. With this thought in his processor Megatron made a quick shot that knocked Optimus over. Glaring straight at Jolt and Roxie he pointed while telling Jolt something in Cybertronian. He transformed and flew off for outer space.

With Megatron and the threat he imposed gone, Roxie let her body do what it wanted, which was to fall on to her side in a moaning heap. Jolt crouched down to get closer look and run a scan over her, this only made her moan more since he'd forgotten how horrible a scan sounded to her. The results showed a lot of problems but none of them life threatening. Roxie paused in her pained moaning to ask in a weak voice, "What - what did Megatron tell you before he flew off?"

Jolt didn't answer right away, when he did it was in avoidance, "I'll tell you when you're back to full health." Roxie didn't bother to argue. Jolt's answer was enough to let her know it wasn't anything good. She agreed that in her current state, hearing bad news wasn't going to help her any.

Relaxing as much as she could, Roxie closed her eyes and fell back into a more peaceful abyss of good dreams and memories knowing she was going to wake up in a bed safe and sheltered.

Optimus had watched until Megatron was completely gone from his sights. Reports from the men and Major Lennox informed him that the Decepticons were attempting to retreat, the military picked off as many as they could to prevent further sightings in the future. "The threat to Roxanne has diminished."

"Not entirely. Did you hear what Megatron said before he left?" Activating his holoform Jolt very gently picked up Roxanne; he would have to thank Ratchet for allowing his holoform to interact with physical matter.

Optimus gave a single nod. "I will allow you to take care of my property for now. But I will return for her. The extent of Megatron's injuries will prevent him from following through with this promise long enough for us to prepare for it." As Optimus repeated Megatron's warning Ratchet pulled to a stop by Tools.

He activated his holoform and lowered down two stretchers that he could retract into his hold for monitoring. Ratchet got Tools on one of the stretchers that earned a few loud groans and moans. Jolt put Roxie on the other stretcher although a bit reluctantly. Once the two injured humans were safely loaded in Ratchet's alt mode; he spoke to them through the comm system, "First and foremost both her and Tools need rest. No one will bother them about anything until I say so." Optimus and Jolt held up their hands to show compliance with Ratchet's orders. Since Ratchet announced this over the general communications system the other bots were aware of the order as well. It didn't stop the triplets, along Beth and Alice from pestering him when they met up at the bunker.

"I want to see with my own optics how she is." Chromia stood right up against Ratchet's bumper with her hands on her hips.

Ratchet backed up from Chromia growling, "I already told you that neither of them will be bothered."

Flareup came over to Chromia and put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. Using a soft voice Flareup asked, "Would it be possible for us to visit Roxie in the med bay after you've gotten her bandaged and everything?"

Ratchet vented a sigh, "Fine, but not today, tonight, tomorrow, or any time immediately."

This did not sit well with Chromia, "Then WHEN are we able to see her Ratchet?"

"Can we please discuss this AFTER we get back to base? Our rides home will be here shortly and I just want to get back without a problem so I can tell Sarah and Annabelle that Roxie is safe." After all the stress Will had been through for the past few days, getting back to Diego Garcia to deliver good news and getting into bed seemed like a beautiful thing to do.

Ratchet and Chromia huffed but agreed to hold off the argument for later.

Tools didn't need to open his eyes and see the cast on his left arm and the wrap around his ribs to know those areas were broken. His throat was paper dry restricting him to make a single groan. "Good to see you're awake, Tools. I was beginning to wonder if you'd jostled your brain too much in your landing."

The fluorescent lights on the ceiling took a second for Tools' eyes to adjust to, when his sight came into focus he was being looked down on by Ratchet. Instead of the water he needed Tools instead asked in a rough voice, "Roxie?"

Ratchet rolled his optics and got Tools a glass of water using his holoform. "Roxanne is here, safe and recovering. She hasn't woken up yet, but she should soon. Now drink that and stop worrying, you're far more damaged than she is."

Tools drank the glass of water and then the entire pitcher of water in record time. His throat more at ease Tools ignored Ratchet's words about not worrying and persisted, "How long have we been asleep? What happened to Megatron?"

"Nnngh…..Tools, stop talking. Trying to sleep over here." A weary scratchy female voice drew their attention to the bed on the other side of the room. Tools smiled upon seeing red hair and lightly tanned skin.

Roxie had her eyes still closed; she'd been having a nice little dream with her flying down the road on her motorcycle with Jolt beside her and Tools on the seat behind her. Being taken away from that to wake up in a reality where she was stuck in bed with her leg raised up in a cast and sling as well as a thick bandage of some kind taped to her back was not an uplifting experience. Ratchet sent his holoform over to her with a glass of water; she only needed two drinks to satisfy her. "How are you feeling Roxanne?"

"Good enough to keep nagging Tools if necessary. My back is insanely itchy though. " Roxie wiggled under the sheets to try and get rid of that maddening itch.

"Stop that or you'll make the strings keeping your gown tied together come undone." Ratchet was pleased and annoyed. Both of his patients were stable mentally and physically but they were already beginning to make his processor hurt.

Roxie stopped immediately. Tools had almost seen her bare chest once; she did not need to give him a full show. "He did ask a good question. How long have we been asleep?"

"You've been unconscious for five days, it's late afternoon now. Meaning your regulars should be here any minute." Ratchet expectantly looked towards the doors. Roxie and Tools raised an eyebrow when the doors opened for Jolt, the triplets, Ironhide and Sideswipe to walk in.

Seeing them awake, Chromia glared at Ratchet, "Why didn't you tell us they woke up? We would have been here sooner." Flareup and Arcee went to Roxie's bed to check her over and lightly hug her.

Facing Chromia down Ratchet answered, "The last thing they need is to be smothered when they first wake up." Chromia grumbled something under her breath about Ratchet being mean on purpose then went to snuggle Roxie.

Ironhide and Sideswipe went to check on Tools. "How do you feel after being the first human pellet from a Cybertronian sling shot?" Sideswipe smiled with a bit of respect to his human friend. They'd all heard the story from Jolt about their grand rescue of Roxanne. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker had boasted that only one of their friends would be brave enough to even try anything as dangerous as something like 'Jet Judo' even though they're human.

Tools looked down at his arm and ribs to reply, "I feel absolutely fantastic. I'd be more than happy to do it again."

"I don't think Ratchet will ever let you out of the med bay if you keep saying things like that." Ironhide nodded his head over to Ratchet. Ratchet had heard everything and pointedly glared at the three of them for being idiots.

Jolt had a decent amount of things to talk to Roxanne about, but with all the visitors and the rest that were sure to come he held back. He waited at the door until no one was paying attention to him then slipped out. For the past couple of days he'd been thinking of a new project, reassured that Roxanne would be okay he decided it was time to get started on it.

Throughout the rest of the afternoon and well into the evening Roxie and Tools were visited by all the Autobots and all the soldiers that had participated in the rescue mission that they'd labeled "Mission: Rocks." There had been a lot of rock formations in the area of the battle and the focus of the mission was to rescue Roxie.

Beth and Alice fought with Ratchet until he agreed to let them set up cots on either side of Roxie's bed. Roxie nearly cried three times, all the visitors that talked to her showed genuine concern for her well being. She never thought that so many people cared about her. Though the one being that she was worried about had her baffled. She recalled him being one of the first few to come into the med bay after she'd woken up, but he'd left without saying anything. She asked Ratchet about his condition, Ratchet reassured her that he was 70 percent recovered.

Trusting in Ratchet's word Roxie did what she could to enjoy the company of her friends, including Wheelie who she thanked 20 times over for helping the others figure out the mystery of her capture. Towards the end of the afternoon everyone but Beth and Alice were kicked out of the med bay. Tools had fallen asleep earlier due to his medication. Beth and Alice had gone to the mess hall promising to sneak some food back for her what with Ratchet only wanting her to drink a simple chicken broth. Left alone Roxie's mind went back to thinking about Jolt.

The doors used by the Autobots slid open and the mech of her thoughts walked in. His armor had been replaced as well as his fingers, all in all he looked exactly as he had before the hell they'd gone through. Smiling she asked in jest, "What? Did you just remember I exist?"

"It wasn't you I forgot about, it was all the loud attention hogging others I forgot about." Jolt walked into the room and locked the doors behind him. He'd been hovering around the med bay on and off to check if it was empty. This being the only chance he could see he didn't want others butting in before he finished telling Roxanne what had been on his processor.

Roxie followed Jolt with her eyes as he moved to the wall opposite from her and sat down on the floor. From what he'd just aid she guessed he wanted to talk to her without an audience. He was being serious so she would listen and keep any remarks until the end.

Making eye/optic contact he started with a sigh, "Two days ago I asked Optimus to be your permanent guardian. He agreed, from here on out you're stuck with me."

'Screw not making remarks.' "Does that mean I get to look forward to you tying me up to a tree more often?" Jolt rolled his optics as she smiled.

"If you keep being a smart aft like that then maybe…Roxanne do you remember what happened before you fell back asleep?"

She remembered every last little detail, she replied with a nod. "Before Megatron flew off he told me he would come back for you. That's part of why I asked to be your guardian." Jolt could see that this news was upsetting, Roxie had broken eye contact to look down at her balled up hands. "What happened before won't happen again. There will always be one or two Autobots with us when we leave base." This eased her fear enough to look back up at him.

"You said Megatron's threat was part of the reason for why you wanted to be my guardian. What's the other part?" Roxie wanted to get away from the topic of her nightmare and it seemed that Jolt had intended to talk about it anyway.

Jolt shifted just a tiny bit, a sign that he was going to stumble awkwardly over this. The first thing he said was both comical and confusing, "Because you're a parasite." Seeing her confused expression with a twitching smile he clarified, "Okay not a parasite per say but something like it, ivy maybe. What I'm trying to say is that you've somehow grown on me. When we first met I wanted nothing to do with you. But then I learned about your history, about the person you've become because of what you've gone through. The kind of pain you've endured psychologically has consumed numerous femmes and mechs I've known. Despite all that you've kept it together. Almost." Roxie glanced away recalled the different times she'd broken down when on her own and the odd time where her anger over came her depression.

"On Cybetron I was supposed to follow Jazz's orders in Tyger Pax. I was taking care of three femmes that had managed to escape detection. They were regular femmes; they had no defensive programming or weapons. Jazz got called to join Optimus leaving me solely to defend them. Before he left he told me exactly what you said a few days ago. He told me to run until a tactical advantage presented itself. I was over confident at the time and brushed off his words. To this day I don't know how but a vicious ruthless Decepticon named Berserker found our hiding spot. Berserker is a stupid Con and I took more confidence from that. Berserker's stupidity is actually a trick. He waited for the right moment and took me down. Right before he could finish me off Cliffjumper showed up to save my aft. I recovered and got the femmes out and in hiding spots using cloaking shields Wheeljack had made just for those situations. I went back to help Cliffjumper but it was already too late. Berserker had destroyed his spark and left while the going was good. Because of my overconfidence and ignorance to the advice Jazz gave me we lost one of our best comrades. I couldn't accept myself after that, I changed myself into a mech that could follow all orders and handle any situation." Jolt didn't know why he felt compelled to tell Roxie about his greatest failure but it felt right, once he finished he felt better. He felt like his old self and he realized that he missed that feeling of inner peace he didn't know he'd given up.

Roxie wanted to leave her bed to hug Jolt wherever she could. He understood exactly what she was going through. They both had caused a loss to happen, though his was a far more depressing tale and he had come to terms with the realization long before she had. She couldn't get out of the bed to hug him so she cried just a few tears. Just enough tears fell for him to know that she appreciated him sharing his story, and that she would see him for who he truly was from then on. Wiping the remains from her eyes and face Roxie sniffed, "We're both a little less than ourselves then. And I can see that you need me just as much as I need you. How about a deal? You protect me from Megatron or anything else that could maim, torture, dismember, or kill me and I'll do my best to be a friend that will never turn their back on you no matter what idiotic thing you do." The tears gone she gave him her brightest smile.

Jolt thought about this offer for a second, and then much to Roxie's horror he shook his head," Nope, you're not really friend material for me."

"But- "

Jolt raised a hand, "If anything you're just going to be an annoying little sister." Roxie blinked in awe at the genuine smile that Jolt gave her. 'He must have smiled like this all the time before the war. I want to see that smile more often.'

Her own smile back on her face she giggled, "Oh yes, you need a little sister. I gladly accept that position. You're going to have to share me with Annabelle though."

"No argument there, just keep your femme nonsense away from me…Looks like my time is up. Your friends went running to Ratchet when they couldn't get the doors open. You need more rest anyways." Jolt got to his feet a bit stiffly, his own gears were in need of more rest as well.

Roxie waited until he was just at the doors, "Hey Jolt?" He stopped and looked back at her. "You should hear the original version of my mom's lullaby. It sounds a lot better than what you got from me."

Jolt gave her a half smile, "I sincerely doubt that."

He left the room ignoring the curious looks Alice and Beth gave him as they walked past.

Once the doors closed Alice asked, "What was that all about? Was it a love confession?"

"EW! No way! Not in a million years, I do not swing like that." Roxie found her denial funny. They believed her to be claiming to not take an interest in other species. In reality she was denying romantic affection towards her big brother bot. 'Besides, I have another knight in shining armor to flirt with.' She cast a small glance and smile towards Tools that unfortunately did not go unnoticed. That night was spent pretending to sleep when Ratchet came to check on them, then gossiping about boys when he left.

Her back was forever burnt with Megatron's claim upon her, her leg was in a cast, and there was a horrible ring of a bruise around her neck (Ratchet had managed to cut through the metal and successfully remove the collar and ear buds without ruining her ear drums.) Even with all this damage Roxie was happier than she'd been in years.

J: SOOO! As I've mentioned before following this story there will be a generous of one shots! What I want to know is would you guys enjoy the one shots each on their one with their own little summary OR put them together under one title? I will start a poll to let you guys decide, either option works for me :3