A/N: Fast note, thanks to some reviewers correcting me on the location error I made. Ratchet got wounded on Veldin, not Megalopolis. I'll try and go back to fix that later. Also, to answer another question. This does not hurt any plot of the story, so it won't hurt for anyone to know. Rivet had the dream because she and Ratchet, though not the same individuals, are in sync with each other. Being counterparts to SOME varying degree, they'll have moments like this where one will be aware of the other's pain without necessarily being involved.

Chapter 10

I Will Find You

Ratchet opened the door as Rivet stepped out of the room first before he followed. At the desk, the large four-armed gorilla alien was typing away on two computers. One pair of his hands-on separate keyboards as he worked at blinding speed. Rivet groggily approached desk and stood on her tip toes to reach the top in order to slap the keys on the desk. Alloy moved his massive head in the lombax pair's direction. A big toothy smile creasing his wrinkly face.

"I hope sleep was well with you, my friends." He thanked her while taking the key and putting it back on the storage shelves.

"Oh, it was!" Rivet laughed as she got a nearby stool to stand on in order to reach the top of the podium to face her friend with better ease. "You really did a bang-up job with this place since you first found it!"

"Your words mean much to me, thank you. My friend."

As the pair began shooting the breeze, Ratchet found his vision beginning to fade to darkness. Pain still was present over his left eye from being punched black. That stranger, his mind could barely recall the event from being so plowed. With a touching his wounded face, he turned and noticed a nearby door cracked open. The room inside didn't have any lights on, but he could see the dim blue flicker of some monitors inside. Ears slowly raising up in curiosity, Ratchet looked hesitantly to Rivet and her friend. As both were completely distracted by their catching up, the male lombax breathed in a cautious sigh.

'I need to know how that individual found me…' he thought, tapping a nervous finger on his knuckle. But he didn't want to intrude on someone else's personal property. Until the words spoken last night about the stranger taking Rivet's arm jarred Ratchet up. With great caution, he tip-toed away from his distracted companion.

Checking his surroundings once more, and seeing the coast was clear, he quickly slipped into the room. Before him were many security monitors stacked on top of each other along a high-standing wall. All connected to one keyboard below. He carefully ran a finger over one screen, carefully analyzing the whole setup. It defiantly was outdated from all the dusty cables poking out. Ratchet got onto the keyboard and quickly began to type on some codes.

The monitors began to rewind to the middle of last night. Ratchet clicked the mouse, scrolling through each hallway camera until he found the one focused on his room. The clock read '1 am', precisely three hours since they arrived. The hero leaned against the desk; hands intertwined as he watched the screen with intensity. All the screens suddenly broke out into static. Startling the hero, he quickly tried to rewind and refocus the cameras. But still, all he got was static before the monitors went back to normal.

"What?" his jaw dropped as he pulled up the program settings to check what happened. "How could they be fine and get static for one brief minute?" Ratchet saw nothing wrong with the setting as he stared in horror. "No, no no no no… this seriously cannot be," he slammed his fist against the keyboard.

"Damn it!" he cussed, rubbing his forehead in deep frustration. "This is just great, whoever assaulted me last night must've jammed the cameras somehow…" Ratchet growled and let his hands dangle to his sides. "Great, I can't…" suddenly, he saw a figure dashing out the exit on one camera screen.

Ears shooting up, he quickly got the mouse and clicked the cryptic camera footage. He saw Alloy standing at the desk with his back to the exit, having no clue when someone ran by. Though unable to see a face, he noticed this individual was tall and built rail thin. Blue tentacles hung out the back of said-stranger's head, tied together like a ponytail. Guessing the gender as male, Ratchet noticed this individual wore a dark red jacket and black pants.

His ears flattened again, this wasn't right, the person that attacked him had fur. Plus, the amount he was able to feel, his attacker was built very strong. This guy rushing out of the lobby clearly didn't have fur and didn't look like he could bench anything more then forty pounds. Ratchet knew some people could be stronger than they looked, but recalling how the attacker's body felt, it was defiantly not a slim-built individual.

About to dismiss the footage as random, the time emerged up on the clock. Blinking Ratchet zoomed in a bit closer.

"Wait… 1 am?" he quickly went back to the other footage feed where the static cut off a section of the videos. "1 am… this guy left at the same time this video was altered." Tightening his fist, he held up a small camera device and snapped a quick photo of the screen. Getting a clear copy of the strange blue creature darting out of the motel.

"I don't know who you are," Ratchet whispered while glaring at his image copy. "But if you're connected somehow, I will find you."

"Ratchet!" Came Rivet's voice, "where are you? We're leaving!"

Jumping in alarm, he quickly shoved his photo-taker into his pocket and darted out of the room. Lucky for him Rivet was standing by the exit and didn't see the room he left. Rounding the corner, Ratchet gave the white lombax an awkward wave.

"Sorry! Guess I wandered off."

"Well," Rivet sighed. "Please try not to, with the scares you've been giving me lately, can't say I'm in the mood the handle anymore." She opened the door to let the hero walk out first before following him out.

"Yea sorry, guess saw some cool stuff and… got curious." He shrugged, telling a basic form of the truth.

Rivet raised an eyebrow at him, "O…kay, long as you don't get hurt further. Let's go."

Once both lombaxes made it back to Rivets' starship, they clamored in as the rebel took the driver seat. Ratchet looked out the window as the ship quickly activated its fire thrusters and took to space. So many thoughts ran across as he glanced at Rivet, who was busy watching their flight path.

'if I tell her now… she'll want to get involved.' Ratchet put a distressed hand to his forehead, eyes shut tightly. 'I don't want to lie to her, but how can I possibly explain this?' His thoughts whispered out in grief.

His mind then jumped back to the memory of getting assaulted last night. The words this individual spoke, 'he' said he was going to give the hero a fighting chance. If he didn't play along, then the stranger would attack Rivet. But why? Ratchet clenched his fists, until remembering the pair of kisses he got. Rivet's aggressive make-out session with him, still remembering the roughness on his lips. It bought warmth to his mind that eased his stress. But the gentle joy was replaced when he felt the bloody teeth gouges within his gumline from where the stranger's teeth practically attacked him. Why would a dude kiss him to 'give him a hint' on who they were?

Ratchet then thought back to the sound of the voice that spoke to him. It was electronic and deep, kind of static-filled as well. He narrowed his eyes, studying the stars that flew past Rivets' ship as they flew through the beauty of deep space. Maybe this individual wasn't a male?

'Technically I can't say for sure this person is a male… a synthesized voice can disguise anything.' Ratchet leaned his head back against the seat, not noticing Rivet glance over to him.

'Whoever I'm dealing clearly wants me to search for them, and whoever it is… they're obviously much smarter than I've originally considered. Taking out the camera footage… following me across dimensions?'

The distress grew on Ratchet's face as Rivet tilted her head, baffled at the male lombax's weird far away expressions.

'This is not good, clearly, this person knows how to find me AND Rivet. But what do I do? If I get Rivet involved, she may lose her other arm… or more.' This thought caused Ratchet to turn a ghost white, tail beginning to tremble as he gripped his chest. Stress stinging his wound beyond belief.

"Ratchet?" Rivet suddenly asked aloud.

'I need to find them before he… or she… decides to hurt Rivet.'

"Ratchet!"

"Huh?" the male lombax shot his head around to see Rivet's baffled face. "Uh, sorry, lost in thought."

"We've been flying for thirty minutes; you haven't said a word since this morning." She extended her robotic hand and caught his own in a gentle hold. "What's wrong? Did… us having a drink make you uncomfortable?"

He stared at her hand on his own, head titled a bit. Fighting away the blush, he waved his free hand, not willing to shake off her hand like he did every time she tried to get close.

"No, not at all, it was nice to do something different!" He laughed nervously, knowing the female lombax clearly didn't remember her clumsy attempt to seduce him at the motel. "You were… uh, fine!" Ratchet awkwardly patted her hand and gestured for her to keep her eyes on the flight path before them. "I had fun, don't worry about me. We should do it again sometime!"

"Yeaaa," she narrowed one eyebrow in a slight skeptical nature. "Sure, guess we could, but we won't drink next time. Thought I learned my lesson from the night before you came," Rivet laughed a bit, trying to brush away the situation.

After a bit more of talking, they eventually reached Sargasso.

Inside Rivet's garage was a small table seated in the home's center. A few candles lit as Kit sat on a small stool, hands in her lap as she happily shuffled her feet.

"How much longer?" She called out, unable to contain the traces of joy in her voice.

"Here," Clank came out with a tray in hand, a red bowtie placed on his neck. "Some freshly grounded scrap with carbonated oils to drink, all fresh!" he bowed to his lady friend while presenting the freshly made robo-deliciously to her.

Kit pressed her hands together in excitement before grabbing a fork and gently scooped the metal into her jaw. Crushing it a bit before pushing it down her throat compartment. Her taste receptors buzzing with joy as he shoveled in another happy bite.

"Mhm! Clank you're an amazing cook," Kit paused and placed a baffled finger to her chin. "But you can't really 'cook' scrap and oils. So, does this count even though it's not organic?"

"Oh, I believe it does," Clank straightened his bowtie before politely taking his own bites. "If the process is preparing edibles to be consumed, I believe the organic term can be applied here." He gave his little deep laughs at his date's happy grin. "But matters not, let us simply enjoy each other's company."

As both clinked their glasses of oil, Rivet and Ratchet stood in the doorway. Staring with wide eyes at the sight of their little robot friends having a five-star dinner right in the middle of Rivet's garage. Then the lombaxes glanced at each other, eyes squinted weirdly.

Ratchet lifted his hand to cover his mouth as he whispered into Rivet's ear. "Did you see this coming?"

"Nope," Rivet whispered back. "We're gone for one night and they're already having an extended date night?"

"Forget the date, when the heck were they even dating?"

"Why you asking me?" The female lombax asked quickly.

"Well…" Ratchet facepalmed. "You live with her, don't you?"

"And you live with Clank!" she snapped back in an angry whisper.

Ratchet raised his finger to respond, but his mind remained. "Point taken," he chuckled at the sight of Clank pulling his suave charm on his yellow counterpart. He's defiantly doing better than Ratchet himself did all night.

Not wanting to disturb the bots, Rivet got Ratchet's arm. "Meet me outside, we can come in when they're done."

Ratchet nodded as he paused, altering Rivet.

"Let me… put my stuff up really quick. Meet you outside."

"Okay, be quick."

As they parted ways, Ratchet snuck past the distracted bots and went up to the office he and Clank stayed in the previous night. Once the door was shut, he made sure to lock it. He gave the office a quick scan to make sure there were no recorders or cameras. Seeing no such security things present, he felt safe to remove his evidence from his pocket.

Staring at the picture he took from the motel's cameras; his ears began to droop. Mind racing back to his observations of Rivet's arm. Then he applied a hand to his chest, feeling the wound beneath him that hid his artificial curse. His attacker then came to mind, barely recalling the shadowy face that haunted his dreams. Now recalling their black eyes as clear as day.

"I don't know who you are…" Ratchet whispered, slowly putting his camera down. "or what you want… but you clearly want me to find you."

The hero walked over to the mirror, staring at his reflection. His fur was pale with eyes possessing dark circles beneath them. Man, he looked like a rundown mess, especially with the knowledge of his missing pieces that practically left him halfway helpless.

This attacker, whoever they were, clearly is a lot smarter than he previously thought. They knew his tricks, location, and even friends. But, the purpose of last night was just to kiss him before knocking him out so he could have a hint?

He clenched his fist over his chest, staring harder at his reflection. "I tried to take you on as a hero, and you ran me down in one night." Ratchet's mind drifted over to Rivet, "then… you somehow hurt a master rebel. Taking away one of the things she greatly relied on. Whoever you are… it's clear you know how to hurt someone. Far more than I ever thought possible."

The hero closed his eyes. "That's what scares me… because you even said I was running out of time. It's clear… you're holding back and know me well. How can I fight you when I don't even know 'who' you are?"

Then his mind drifted back towards the memory of Rivet kissing his lips last night. Her on his lap, their tails intertwined. Ratchet gripped his wound, mind racing in a million different directions. Anger began to boil up in his gut. First, he loses the thing that gave him his strength, now… his stalker threatened to kill Rivet if he didn't 'play along'?

"Alright," Ratchet pulled his lips back to expose his fangs, glaring at his reflection as if it was the attacker themselves. "Obviously I can't beat you, I can't involve Rivet or my friends, seems like you put me in a box. Or at least that's what you want me to think."

Looking at his omni-wrench, Ratchet clutched its handle. This weapon was by his side every fight he ever partook in. From the first to his supposedly last. It was his whole identity, almost bearing a physical representation of the heart he once had. Rivet was his counterpart; her hammer held a similar significance as his wrench. Despite being a rebel, she was still a hero in her dimension's eyes. This tool was everything to him. It was basically him.

The wrench slowly fell from his glove, clanking against the floor. Its glowing lights slowly dimming off as the lack of movement signaled to shut off its power.

Ratchet stared long and hard at the device. Grief beginning to grow heavy as he forced himself to turn towards the exit. Every fiber in his body screamed at him to stop, to order his legs around, and retrieve the weapon.

"If I can't beat you as I am…" Ratchet snarled, thinking about Rivet holding him securely in her arms. "Then I will face you as somebody else."

Refusing to look back at his weapon, Ratchet opened the office door and stepped out. Turning off the lights as he made his way down the stairs. Mind beginning to grow number every step he took. Heart aching at the plans beginning to form in his head. Mentally picturing the suspect from the photo he did manage to see, the blue creature with tied-back tentacle hair.

'I swear on what is left of my life, whoever you are… If you touch Rivet… I will find you. '

Ratchet stopped at the doorway that'd lead him outside where Rivet was waiting. His eyes growing more hallow by the second.

'Then I will end you. Permanently.'