A/N: Thanks for the reviews, the longer the better, makes me happy everyone is enjoying it all so far. To give one quick answer, the armor Ratchet will be using to begin his hunt will be the armor he wore from the game Deadlocked where Ratchet was forced to be a gladiator. With minor adjustments.

Also, last note, all flashbacks, and memories will be in italics. I messed up when forgetting to have Rivet's dream in italics.

Chapter 11

A Hunter's Guilt

A fish-like creature rushed through an alley, his skin a deep azure blue. Fear tainted his red eyes as three big shark-like creatures with hulking muscles cornered him. Four of them surrounded the thin creature, spiked weapons held firmly in their grips. They whispered amongst each other as the thin creature coward before them, his back smashed against the wall.

"Please go away!" the blue marine alien pleaded, his jaw fins flapping in sheer distress.

"No way," one thug said, aiming his weapon at their victim's head. "You owe us way more money!" his muscles budged out from beneath his stretched black tank top.

"And you have precisely… eight seconds," he held up eight fingers, "to tell us where you're hiding the loot!"

"That's um… e—eight fingers," the andromorphic fish stuttered out nervously.

The shark thug twisted his hands back to re-count his fingers. Then balling his fists up in anger at being corrected, he grabbed the smaller creature's neck. "You callin' me dumb huh!?"

"N—no!" he pleaded, grabbing the assaulter's wrist in a desperate attempt to get his neck free. But to no avail. "Please, I can't breathe!"

As the thugs pointed their guns at the fish's helpless face, a loud clanking of boots alerted them. All four turned their heads to the entrance of the ally way. A short figure with a very broad frame came into light. Powerful-looking armor adorned the individual with a red T-shaped facial visor. Two slight points hanging on the individual's helmet with sharp spikes lining the shoulders and knees. A very narrow waist hooked to a heavily armored torso. Five thicker plates lined the stomach and chest area, extra heavily reinforced protection metal flickering its defensive power in dull red lights. Hands lined with powerful clawed gauntlets.

"Hey, who are you?" The thug holding their target by the neck asked. When the intruder did not answer, he flexed his snaggly yellow teeth and threw the bluefish onto the ground. "You deaf or something!"

"Bro," his fellow mob mate punched his shoulder. "Think it's a robot or something, might be de—de… um… the smart word that means stupid or something."

"D—defective?" the fish whispered out in fear.

"Shut up!" the brute that had him by the throat yelled before kicking him by the stomach. Then turning to the intruder walking closer to their gang, he raised his weapon. "Stop right there, or else you'll be joining this little maggot runt in the ground!"

The small but muscular bot did not answer, its visor flickering as it got closer and closer. Once within range of the four, it stopped within the place. All four thugs raised their brows, baffled at the silent treatment until two big saws slid out of its wrist. Then they became frightened when the saws burst into flames.

Before they knew it, the deep maroon-colored bot darted towards them. All yelled in fright as they were cut down one at a time. Five seconds passed till all four laid on the floor in terrible pain, holding their near-fatal lacerations. The bot picked up one of the guns and approached the blue fisher creature.

"W—who are you?" the skinny finned man garbled out, eyes shaking in total fear.

Looking at the gun and then back at him, the bot aimed the weapon at his head. "Don't move," came out a deep snake-like voice. This scared the individual badly as he curled up like a cocktail shrimp, hands covering his eyes in fear.

The bot slowly pulled out a small electronic camera hidden away in its chest compartment. Scanning the photo, it then turned its visor and flashed the same laser onto the cowering fish. He froze in fear as the laser-scanned him from head to toe. Beeps erupted once the laser disappeared, the bot staring long and hard till a loud buzzing sound came.

"Analyzing… facial recognition acquired. No match confirmed." Came a strange-sounding AI voice that did not match the bot's first set of words.

Lowering its head, the bot retracted the gun and broke it in half. It dropped both snapped pieces on the ground, causing the fish to peak between his fingers.

"W—what are you doing?"

The red lights flared up again, scaring the victim back as he jumped to his feet and ran past the bot. It heaved an electronic sigh before vanishing into the darkness. Just in time before the intergalactic police showed up. All cops shocked to see the awful scene of the thugs lying on the ground with burn marks all over them.

"What happened here?" One cop asked as he touched one shark's neck. A bit relieved to feel a pulse.

"Don't know, but whatever happened… best get this scene under investigation." Another answered while staring up into the dark sky.

~Rivet's Garage: Early Morning Hours~

The rebel laid snugly in her bed, her arm lying beneath the comfy neck pillow. Her eyes shut in peaceful sleep, completely clueless to her surroundings. Even Clank and Kit laid in sleep mode near her bed, both male and female bot mates pressed snuggly together.

Ratchet peaked around the corner to make sure all were still asleep. Relieved to see that was the case, he sighed with a hand to his chest. Tiptoeing into the room, he quickly slid out of a dark red jacket combed with black leather pants and boots. Stripped down into his underwear consisting of the white tank top and grey boxer shorts. He disposed of the clothes into the laundry hamper Clank insisted on getting for them and scootched over to the near couch.

Lying down onto the soft green couch, he sighed in deep relief. Muscles finally relaxing into the firm yet soft dirty fabric. The smell of the couch was a bit smokey, like the kind you get from burned-out equipment. Ratchet chuckled to himself, not surprised by the scents his nose took in. With Rivet being a true-blue grease monkey, he expected everything else to smell like her work. Even the stuff just for luxury alone.

The couch was just a few feet from Rivet's bed, a spot she finally talked him into sleeping in when they returned from the trip to the bar in Former Nefarious City. That had only been two days ago, a lot has happened since their return. But nothing bad in Ratchet's opinion as he turned to lie in the other direction that faces him to Rivet's bed. The female lombax still fussed over him, it was getting harder to hide his wound. Meaning now he'd have to stop drawing attention to himself and try to act more normal. Or at least as normal as he can muster. Whatever 'normal' was.

She still liked standing near him, staring at him when she thought he wouldn't notice. When he questioned her odd behavior, she'd get tongue-tied and start working on any tool she could get her hands on. Like a sort of action-based deflection. But right now, Ratchet didn't have time to analyze this behavior. He sighed and pressed his head deeper into his pillow, desperate to get comfy and wear down his exhaustion. To much was currently on his mind.

Eventually, he dozed off. An unknown amount of time passed before he groggily got up and yawned. Stretching his arms till he heard a much-needed shoulder pop. Once the back muscles were loosened, he blindly fumbled off the couch and towards the bathroom. Oh man, he rubbed his heavy eyelids, Ratchet concluded he was not a morning person. He found the doorknob and opened the bathroom, still walking in with eyes half shut, feeling around for the sink.

"Ratchet?"

The male lombax groaned as he splashed some water on his face, "Yea?" he asked. Recognizing the female voice combed with his location caused Ratchet to his eyes open. Rivet stood by the shower, eyes wide with only a towel covering her dripping wet fur. Both her eyes wide as dinner plates.

They stared at each other for a good five seconds until Ratchet's cheeks flared up red. "Uh…" He raised a finger to make sense of what he was seeing.

"Ratchet!" she yelled and zipped back into the shower to hide behind the tinted glass. "What the hell!?"

"Sorry!" Ratchet yelled as he ran to the door with hands covering his eyes. Running right smack into the wall and falling on his tail. Back on his feet he clumsily stumbled out of the bathroom door. He halted by the door and put his ear against it in order to hear Rivet.

"I'm so sorry!" he called out again, "the door was unlocked, I was tired, i—I didn't know you were in there!"

He heard a groan through the thick metal panel and footsteps that stomped over to the sink. "It's okay Ratch, you didn't know I was in here." The sound of clothing was tossed around before the footsteps came to the door. "I should've locked the door, that's… on me. Not used to having guests this long."

As she opened the door, Ratchet saw her dripping wet fur hanging from her face, a new set of matching baggy clothes hugging her small frame. A black hoody and lose fitting jeans torn at the knees. She slapped her usual goggles back onto her head while rubbing her face dry with a towel.

"It's… fine," she answered sheepishly, "least I was in a towel." Her eye then glanced down to his clothes, then she titled her head. "Would you like to take a shower? You smell kinda sweaty."

Ratchet froze when her eyes lingered on his broad chest, afraid Rivet might've seen through his fabric, he quickly turned sideways to hide any evidence.

"B—by myself, right?"

"What?" The rebel gawked in horror as she sourly crossed her arms. "I'm not going to stand in there and watch you shower, not a creep Ratchet." She got him by the shoulder and drug him into the bathroom before she allowed herself to exit. "There, just go ahead and get cleaned up," Rivet sighed outside the door. "Hurry though, the Morts are gonna come over today. Maybe we can do something today."

"O—oh," the hero stuttered while slowly pulling down his shorts then wrestling his shirt off. Freezing for a second, he darted over and locked the door. Making sure the female lombax couldn't get in once he was completely exposed. "That sounds like fun," Ratchet stopped at the mirror, eyeing his wound.

"Yea," Rivet called out again, still standing near the door as if waiting for him to finish. "We could do anything you want to, like go out to eat, maybe another picnic?" She placed her hand on the door, anxiously awaiting his answer.

Ratchet didn't take his eyes on his wound; it didn't look as red today. The stitch line looked like fifty-plus black tally marks scraping across the giant scar. How could he have let this happened? He sighed, running a bare finger down the line. Hopefully when his fur grew back in it'd hide the mark a bit better since the doctors had to shave parts of him in order to completely fix him. Wasn't just his heart that was lost, but so many nerves were damaged in the process. No wonder his body felt random bouts of pain at unpredictable times. Everything was so whacked out.

Then he quickly remembered to answer Rivet before she got suspicious again. "Oh, another picnic? Sure!" Ratchet hit his forehead, "come on dumbax…" he scolded himself below a whisper. "Act normal…"

"You say something besides 'yes' to a picnic?"

"Uh, just reminding myself to… wash my fur!" he laughed nervously before getting the shower.

"You… have to remind yourself to do that?"

"I know, stupid right?" he cackled nervously when removing his pilot hat. "It happens, I'll be out in a minute!" The water came on and caked him in comforting warmth. Loud enough to drown out all outside sounds.

His body shivered as he quickly caved against the shower wall to support his weight. The soreness of his muscles was killing him, but at least the mark was not burning him. He had taken his pills early this morning to prevent this from happening. This soreness was better than the burning of his artificial heart at least… Ratchet massaged his shivering joints.

"Man, last night was quite the workout," he whispered, enjoying the hot water caress his small yet lean body. Glistening his golden fur as the water ran off him in droplets. Some shampoo was placed in his hand as he began to run it over his head, body, and loose ends like his tail.

Outside the door, Rivet still lingered with her hand sandwiched against the door. The clock's hands ticked away as she idly stood there, watching the doorknob.

"Rivet," came Clank's curious tone as the little robot came up behind her. His eyes squinted in confusion. "May I ask what you're doing?" he peeked around her leg to see if there was something wrong with the doorknob. "Is there a problem with the door?"

"N—no," she blushed and ripped herself away from the door. "Just um, I have no explanation."

"Well… perhaps come down for breakfast, Kit and I have prepared some hash browns and eggs."

Rivet lingered at the door a second longer before sighing and forced her hand away. Following Clank down to the kitchen, pausing to take one more glance back at the bathroom. The rebel rubbed her neck sadly and went into the kitchen.

Within the bathroom, Ratchet sighed as he massaged his face. Body starting to release tension the longer he lingered in the hot water's grasp. His mind started to slowly drift off.

~Flashback: Last Night~

Ratchet walked through the darkness of night, the armor from his gladiator days clung firmly to his frame. The visor was opened, giving him a clear vision of the night. Not that he needed it, but all he wanted was some fresh air. The breeze was cold and crisp, much to his comfort. Many sheets of metal clamped around his weakest point, to guard his torso and chest. Only spot he couldn't afford to have any mistakes.

"Calculating vital readings…" came the artificial voice Ratchet had programmed into the suit to help him keep track of his body. "All normal, organic bodily functions operating at average capacity."

Not having Clank was such a hard thing to adjust to, which was one of the inspirations to pre-programming this armor with its own AI. It kind of mimicked the presence of Clank, which brought him much comfort.

'Okay,' the hero thought to himself, feeling guilt trying to creep into his mind. 'I need to do this, just until I find the target… then won't ever do this again.' He reasoned with himself like he had been doing all night since sneaking out of Rivet's garage when she went to bed.

Eventually making his way into the city, he glanced down at the photo consisting of his only lead. This blue tentacle creature, "I hope you don't make me hurt you…" Ratchet whispered with much grief as he stood at the entrance to the city. Its colorful appearance reflecting off his green eyes. He breathed in a shaky breath, taking a moment's pause to mentally collect himself.

'If there is… some kind of… higher power listening. Please, forgive me in what I'm about to do.' Ratchet prayed to himself till powering on the fiery red visor that hid his face. With his whole vision now caked in a computerized red screen, he powered on his breathing monitor.

This suit was a bit more comfortable than the day he was first fitted into it. Still wishing he had more room to expose his tail. But given as this operation had to be done in secret, just showing small parts of his ears was risky enough. Doubling in with his easy-to-spot-short height, he had to hide as much of his presence as possible.

Turning his visor onto the city, he quickly darted into the shadows. The suit began to project an external scan, a satellite GPS aiding his hunt from above. Different windows popped up on his screen, giving him a complete layout of his surroundings within a fifty-mile radius. Every living individual gave off a type of heat signature, showing up as little orange blips on his monitor. Organics were orange, robots were redder. Easy enough to figure out.

Then his signals began to beep as five nearby blips moved nearby at a fast pace. Studying their heat signatures, he figured out these were organic. He ran towards the location with activity readings off the charts. The suit guarding him provided incredible support, its joints replacing the strain of using his muscles. Almost like he had on full-body support, even his wound wasn't burning at the fast-paced sprint.

Right around the corner, Ratchet saw four hulking shark thugs ganging up on a much smaller individual. With his camera zooming in, he saw the victim was blue in color. Like the individual in the picture, the disguised lombax swallowed a thump in his throat. Time for action.

Closing his eyes, he willed himself to detach from the situation. One step at a time, he moved in closer till one of the thugs saw him. When their postures became aggressive towards him, Ratchet knew he didn't have much of a choice.

Two large saw blades slid from his wrists. The sight clearly didn't scare the thugs as they took a step towards him. Activating the thermal energy, both weapons sparked into a blazing flame. With both beginnings to spin, the twirling bladed flames seemed to scare the brutes. But still, they refused to back down as they aimed their weapons.

Ratchet shut his eyes, biting his tongue. Steeling his nerves, he raised one arm and went for them.

… … …

~End of Flashback~

Ratchet's eyes shot open as he quickly stared at his hands, body shaking. He could barely remember anything else beyond that point. Thankful for it as he really didn't want to remember.

With his shower now done, Ratchet turned off the water and stepped out. Going back to the mirror, he became even more thankful the glass was fogged up. He couldn't stomach looking at himself right now.

'Please… let this be over soon,' he prayed again to himself before getting his clothes on heading to breakfast.