A/N: Real quick, just to answer some questions about this story.

Ratchet's age is speculated to be eighteen in the first games in early 2000. Here, in this story, I'm making him and Rivet around their early 30s. To mostly explain why Ratchet has calmed down a bit.

Many people miss Ratchet's former personality, his angrier self. Others like that he mellowed in Rift Apart. I prefer his Rift Apart self, but to try and balance everyone's wishes. This story is going to return some of Ratchet's former grit, add a bit of temper and stubbornness, but it's going to be tied in with his softer self. He's going to be more balanced, but still a bit mouthy here and there.

People see Ratchet as his direct counterpart to Rivet, that's why they don't like the pairing. To me, I don't see them as direct copies, because so far they're the only 'counterparts' with swapped genders while everyone else's counterpart is the same. Like Quantum and Qwark. Because of this, I see the logic in their romance. As they're still different enough to not be labeled as direct copies.

Chapter 3

Losing Hope

Ratchet sat in the empty confines of the downtown gym. Normally this place was more packed, but given the early morning hours, it was not a huge surprise. The male lombax grunted as he hoisted the weights above his head. Doing eight reps before a sharp jolt of pain struck his shoulders, forcing his hands to release their grip. Both weights hit the floor hard, rolling away as Ratchet quickly sat down, holding his shoulder. Green eyes smashed together in total pain; breath heavy from exhaustion.

But this physical pain was nothing compared to his emotional state.

Looking at his hands, he took notice of the big rough callouses starting to form. His fingers tightened, nails digging into his palms. This was not right, stuff like this never happened to him. Forcing himself to his feet, he walked up to the nearest sink and ran some cold water over his face. Once the smelly sweat washed off, he sighed and allowed his heavy eyes to stare at his reflection. He wore a grey tank top with long black sweats. The pilot hat he usually wore still firmly in place. Even with his shirt covering his mid-section, he still could feel the wound that painfully marked him. Marked him with a curse that soon could cost him everything.

His ears fell further and further till both laid flat against his neck. Ratchet turned away, not having the stomach to look at his reflection any further.

… … …

… …

…

Hands touched his shoulders, moving in small repeated circles in a steady massage. He shot around, startled at the sight of Rivet behind him. Both her mismatched hands tightly clung to his shoulders. Those familiar blue eyes looking tenderly into his own emerald green ones.

"Ratch…" She whispered in that voice he could listen to all day. "Why are you here alone? You're usually with Clank."

"I um…" he awkwardly gave a cheeky smile as her hands still lingered on his shoulders. "Just felt like being alone. Give Clank a break since I've been kinda…" he paused, finger to his chin, trying to properly pick the right words. "Been kinda getting on his nerves lately. Ya know, the usual reasons." Ratchet casually laughed despite his heart suffocating with misery.

Rivet gave her fellow a long blank stare before grabbing his arms and roughly forcing the male lombax to sit down. With Ratchet seated on the bench, right below her eye level, she turned and grabbed one of the discarded weights. Using her single organic arm, she began doing the reps he formerly tried.

"You shouldn't force your body to tackle weights this heavy, especially if you haven't lifted in a while." Her jacked arm budged her lean bicep as she proceeded to do some curls. To show the male how to properly handle them. "Or else you might hurt yourself."

Her words faded out as Ratchet watched the muscles in her arm flex and relax like a perfectly synced dance move. Rivet always was a better dancer than Ratchet, even her muscles could move better. He laughed and held out his arm till it was next to her own.

"Even with my best efforts, you still got bigger biceps than me!"

"That… a problem?" She asked, slowly her curls.

"No, actually I prefer that. BUT can you beat this?" Ratchet twirled around and flexed his back muscles, popping those handsomely large blades out. Rivet saw this and almost dropped the weights, blue eyes sparkling in total amazement.

"My my, you've been holding back on me haven't ya?" She laughed as she rushed to put her organic hand under his shirt to feel those beautifully chiseled back muscles.

"Nah, these are natural, never had to get any work done." He winked at her, flexing some more to send the female lombax into a bigger excited tizzy. Unable to contain a big female as she began to massage is back. "You just were looking for an excuse to touch them, huh?"

As Ratchet laughed, her hand slithered to his chest. Feeling her metal fingers graze over the tip of his scar, he yanked away. Stumbling back, Ratchet almost tripped over the bench. Hand firmly shielding his chest as his heart almost beat out of his rib cage. Fear quickly overwhelming his second-ago joy. Rivet, just as startled, yanked her hands back to her side.

"Ratchet, what's wrong?" She took a step towards him, eyes wide in fright at his sudden reaction.

"Nothing! I—it's nothing," Ratchet turned his back to her. "I—I think… I'm… n—no it's nothing."

Rivet gently placed her robotic hand on his shoulder to slowly guide him around. Once he faced her, she caught his snout in a firm kiss. Not using her typical forward aggression, this sudden gentleness startled the male lombax. So much so he didn't even melt into it.

"Please, don't keep anything from me." She whispered when momentarily parting her lips from his to take a breather before greedily returning. The second round of kissing became hungrier as her teeth started biting his lips and even his nose. Ratchet could barely breathe as the female hooked her strong arms around his neck, anchoring him into place.

"Don't you see how much I need you?" She whispered into his ear.

"Rivet… I…" Ratchet started, reaching a hand out to touch her shoulder, till he only grasped air. Shooting his eyes open, he didn't see Rivet. He quickly glanced around, seeing the empty workout stalls with untouched equipment. Not a single soul in sight.

Shoulders beginning to shake, Ratchet slowly slid to the floor till his knees were propped against his chest. Hands grasping his ears, his jaw began to quiver. Why was his mind doing this to him? He and the female lombax had been friends, that's all they ever been. Never had he felt this. These dreams were intrusive, playing on desires he tried to talk away. To rationalize, but now these dreams started to become mid-day hallucinations.

"I'm losing my mind; I need to nip this in the tail." Getting up, Ratchet went up to the nearest treadmill. Turning it up to maximum speed, the hero broke out in a fast-paced run. The wound married to his entire midsection began to burn. But he ignored it.

Rivet had lost her entire arm, not even a stump remained, yet she still was able to fight. Ratchet forced his legs to move faster. He even watched the female lombax fight with only one arm once! She was handicapped with a mechanical prosthetic and still was able to do the same amount he did.

A monitor hooked to his arm began to pulse loudly, its meter detecting his heartbeats. It began to beep crazily as the stubborn hero pushed himself harder. Till his vision started to blur, the energy quickly faded as his lungs refused to supply his mouth air. Gasping, he tripped over his feet and landed on the treadmill. Its high speed instantly caught and catapulted Ratchet's entire body right into the wall five feet away. Giant cracks lining the barrier where he made a full impact.

Ratchet rolled onto his back, lower half arching up as veins creased around his eyes. His heart, oh the pain! He quickly looked over to his coat, reaching a weak hand to the nearest pocket. Fingers grazing the knitted hem enough till a small blue bottle rolled onto the floor. Snatching it up, Ratchet ripped the lid off and tugged out four turquoise-colored pills. He quickly shoved them into his mouth and swallowed.

After fifteen seconds of wallowing in pain on the floor, the agony finally started to dissipate. He inhaled a sharp breath of pure relief. Ratchet got his wrench, using it as a cane, and slowly wobbled to his feet. Looking at the pills in his hand, the prescription's words reflected in his eyes.

'Bio-Rewriters… or BR for short. Pills that forced his biology to accept the items placed inside of him so he could live.'

Growling, he shoved the pills into his pocket. His mind went right back to Rivet, she didn't even have all her arms and still could do the same amount he did. But now…

"Guess…" he put a hand over his chest, eyes glazing over. "We're really counterparts now. Seeing as we both lost something…" Except he was soon going to cost him much greater.

"Help!"

Ratchet shot his ears up to see a distressed green fish alien on the other side of the street. Grabbing his jacket and throwing it on, the lombax raced out the door. He must finish his grieving later. Lost something or no, he still had a job to do.

The citizen was sprawled out on the ground, a massive gash imprinted on his head. Tears dripped from his eyes as Ratchet darted next to his downed form.

"Oh my gosh, what happened?"

"T—that robot… h—he took my ship!" The citizen breathed while trembling. "Please, sir, my daughter is in the back seat!" He cried out, grabbing Ratchet's arm.

Eyes widening, Ratchet looked both ways across the street before raising a handout to calm the distressed father. "D—don't panic, call the guards, I'll get your kid back." He gave the bipedal fish a small device in order to radio help. "Which way did they go?"

"To the north, please, hurry!"

Ratchet nodded as he broke out into a fast sprint towards the back of the gym. Amongst many parked ships was his own. A stylish red one with yellow racing stripes. He hit the keys and popped the cockpit open just in time for him to jump upwards, do an acrobatic spin, and land perfectly into the seat. Engines roared to life like an angry tiger and put the pedal to the metal. The ship didn't skip a beat as massive flames spewed from its back and launched itself into the air until the anti-gravity hover struts kicked in.

Ratchet quickly typed onto his monitor, pulling up footage from sixteen different street corners up north. "Come on, come on," he sweated nervously, eyes darting between all different camera angles. "Where are you?" All he saw were normal hover cars going the speed limit! Until one thick green ship swerving past several others caught his attention.

Zooming in a bit closer, he saw two robotic thugs, broad-shouldered builds and wearing thick black masks. In the back, though hard to see, Ratchet could barely make out the shape of a tiny object shaking in the seat. A small blue stuffed animal clutched in its grip. His eyes widen, oh no, this was the car!

"You two better not hurt that girl or so help me…" Ratchet hissed as he thrust the controls forward. His ship picked up speed and shot past the neighboring hover cars. The buildings almost became invisible at the warp speed he flew. Frightened drivers barely dodged him; fury caused his pupils to become slits. All he could see was that frightened girl. No, he wasn't going to let anything happen to her.

It took him only mere minutes to get into the right coordinates till he could spot the stolen hovercar. The thugs, barely visible through the tinted windows, seemed to be laughing. The driver clearly not paying attention to the airways while driving like a drunk as his buddy in the passenger seat turned around and seemed to mock the little girl. Seeing this caused angry veins to stretch across his forehead. These guys were going to get it!

"Ratchet, come in!" Clank's frightened voice came to life upon his monitor. "Ratchet, where are you? I came by to check on you and you weren't at the gym!"

"Not now Clank, doing something!" Ratchet yelled till he quickly shut off the monitor. He knew what was in store for him later, but that was the last thing on his mind.

Ratchet maneuvered his ship right above the fleeing bandits, then putting the controls on autopilot, he opened the cockpit and slowly guided himself out. The wind beat him to a built, sending his loose appendages (ears & tail) flapping around like crazy. He grabbed his ship's rim to slowly guide him to the edge, shielding his eyes from the murderous wind. Once he was in a perfect position, he launched his ship.

The lombax dropped like steel block, the wind whistling around him. The target vehicle rapidly grew in size as he powered on his visor. Right when he was in grabbing distance of the stolen aircraft's bumper, he drew a large electric gun and pulled the trigger. A huge bolt of lightning shot forth from the barrel and hit the cockpit, shattering the glass. This startled the bandits as they rapidly lost control of the car.

Ratchet drew his tethering line and snagged it onto the wing. "Woah!" He yelped as the car begin doing zig zags and barrel roles, flinging Ratchet around like a ping bong ball. "Can you idiots not fly straight?" the words snarled through his teeth as he grabbed the rope and began climbing.

Once to the top, Ratchet grabbed a broken section of the cockpit, the glass slicing right into his palm. This didn't phase the angry lombax as he drew his wrench and flipped into the cockpit. Both bandits were struck repeatedly as Ratchet slammed another swing to the passenger before driving his boot into the driver's neck. The ship then did a fast decline and fell into a free fall nosedive.

Seeing the ground merely feet below, Ratchet hurried into the back and grabbed the girl. She cried out in fear to the tiny masked lombax, but not having time to comfort her, Ratchet regrettably yanked her to his chest. Once both were secure, he gave one last smack to the driver's head before launching them both out. A large shoot popping from his back slowed their fall to a steady sail.

The ship exploded on contact, several enflamed pieces rained from the sky with sparks and fire joining alone. The girl clung to Ratchet's chest, tears staining her cheeks as she cautiously looked up to her unknown savior.

"It's okay… you're fine now." His visor powered down to show his calming green eyes. This soothed the girl a bit as Ratchet applied a gentle nuzzle to her head. "I'm sorry I couldn't get here sooner, but you're okay now. I promise."

Once they landed safely on the ground, guards were quickly on the scene. Accompanying them was the girl's father as he bailed out from the police cruiser and to the mysterious lombax that protectively held his daughter.

"Thank you, sir, thank you!" He wheezed as Ratchet returned his daughter to him. "Oh, thank goodness you're okay…" he cried, hugging the girl tightly to his chest.

"Just be careful, okay?" Ratchet flashed a thumbs up.

"What is your name?" The father sputtered through grateful tears. "As senator visiting from a neighboring planet, you must let me reward you!"

As Ratchet opened his mouth, something stopped him. Glory, a chance to gloat, to receive praise. That was always something he enjoyed when smacking around bad guys. It was sort of part of the motivation. With a hand pressed to his chest, he felt the wound beginning to burn again. Closing his eyes, the lombax shook his head.

"Just… a concerned citizen trying to help out." He fists bumped the father, "take care of her and yourself." With that as his finishing words, Ratchet darted away. His ship quickly responded to his summons as the hero leaped into the cockpit and flew off before the alien father could stop him.

Once the excitement vanished in his rear-view mirror, his shoulders collapsed on him. Hitting the button to keep the ship on autopilot, Ratchet grabbed his chest in agony. Wallowing into the floor beneath his seat, sweat pumped itself out of him in gallons. Every fiber of his muscles refused to obey him as they seizure under his fur. The energy, excitement, and adrenalin left him absolutely drained. Helpless, he never felt so vulnerable.

Blood started to pour down his arms, staining his shirt and ship's interior. Grabbing a rag to stop the blood flow, Ratchet gathered the remaining of his strength to drag himself back into the seat. He reached a shaky hand into his pocket and retrieved his pill bottle. As he popped the top and readied himself to swallow, he took a long look at his reflection. With mouth agape, he noticed his fur's once golden bronze color was fading to a sickly yellow. Trembling, he angrily took his pills and tossed the bottle across the front seat and into the passenger side floor.

"Why…" he whispered to himself, feeling a tear threatening to fall. He couldn't believe it, the one thing he was always good at… was now something that would kill him if he kept going. But how could he stop? People relied on him, his friends, Rivet for crying out loud.

Ratchet quickly dried his tear and stoned his face to a serious stare. Forcing himself to sit up straight, he grabbed the controls and switched the autopilot back to manual. No, if he was still breathing, he WILL remain useful to people. He could never face anyone again if he truly lost the strength to fight.

He would never forgive himself if he couldn't keep up… especially with Rivet. Nothing will stop him; he must remain strong. Ratchet ironed this thought into his head as he steered the ship in the direction that would take him home. Knowing an angry lecture from his best friend was waiting for him.

A/N: I know the last chapter was short, but I'll try to make the next set longer. To give everyone a better read. Anyways, thanks for reading, look forward to chapter 4.