AN: I'm so sorry I am so late on the chapter everyone! As you know, it is the holidays and I have been out of town spending it with my loved ones, but I'm back now and ready to buckle down on the writing! I hope everyone enjoyed their holidays, and Happy New Year!

Chapter 15. The Fridge

They trudged through the snow in silence. Axton was unsure of where exactly Maya was heading, but he thought better than to question her. He figured they would stop soon to plan their next step.

Surprisingly, a message from Angel came through. "I know you're angry at me right now but we don't have a lot of time. I'll explain everything just…get to the Fridge, it's the only way to reach the Highlands. I detect Lilith may have phased your city there."

Maya scoffed, her tongue in her cheek. "Unbelievable…" she said shaking her head.

Axton cleared his throat. "Well, we don't really have a choice but to trust her at this point…"

"As if my opinion on the matter would even matter at this point, Axton."

"Maya, I'm sorry! You're right, we should have listened to you. We shouldn't have been in such a rush to use that power core without knowing more about what it does. But what's done is done now, and if were gonna get back to Sanctuary we need to work together. I need you."

Maya felt some of her anger ebb away and was replaced by guilt. She knew he was right, now was not the time to be upset. No one had any ill will against her when they didn't listen.

"Look, I know we had every reason to trust the power core. And I know that I had no reason other than a bad feeling for us to not trust it. So…I can see why no one listened anyway. You're right, being angry isnt going to change anything now." She sighed. She looked back to him, "you're still an asshole."

He grinned his famous shit eating grin, "I'm your asshole," he handed her her echo. "You should probably message Lil and Roland. She's worried about you."

Maya felt a new wave of guilt wash over her for making Lilith worry. The red head was probably already blaming herself for accidentally teleporting them away, now she could add worrying to death to her list too.

Maya stepped away from Axton for some privacy, and sent her communication to Lilith.

"Lilith, it's me. I'm…I'm sorry I didn't message you back sooner. I was angry," her voice began to break, and she swallowed hard. "We're okay, me and Axton. We have a plan to get back to you guys."

She was met with nothing but silence on the other end. "Lilith?"

Had she broken her echo in her fit of rage? It would be just her luck. "Axton, can you try echoing Lilith?"

He pulled out his device and held it to his lips, "Lilith, you there?"

He gave Maya a confused look, before looking back to his echo. "Roland?" he tried again. "Ugh, nothing."

Great, they now lost coms with Lilith and Roland. Maya's stomach turned, "you don't think something happened to them do you?"

Axton shrugged, "I'm sure theres just something wrong with the network. Come on, there's a catch a ride not far from here. The Fridge is pretty far, it could take a days drive to get there. Sooner we leave, sooner we'll get back to Sanctuary."

Maya followed Axton toward the catch a ride station, worrying gnawing in her stomach. She knew how irrational it was to trust Angel given the circumstances, but right now she was the only one who knew the way back. There was no other way.

They drove for hours through Three Horns Divide, it was nearly nightfall by the time they reach Three Horns Valley. They were close to the entrance of the Fridge when Angel spoke, "You'll be able to reconnect with your friends after you get through The Fridge."

"Guess it was just the coms," said Maya. "I bet whatever is in The Fridge cant be good."

They got to a building with a metal set of stairs that led up to a rocky ledge. "Map says the entrance is up there. Guess we're on foot from here," said Axton as he hauled himself out of the runner, Maya following in suit.

They climbed up the stairs to the ledge. The path led into a cavern with what looked like an enormous steel door built into the wall. They approached, pressing the button to open it, but nothing happened.

"Son of a…a witch," said Angel. "let me help you with that."

Sirens began to sound off, Maya took a step back raising her weapon. "the fuck is this bitch up to?"

Flames burst forth from some piping that ran along the edges of the door, as though it was put there for that purpose. The ice around the door began to melt, and the door began to creak open, leading to a steel room. They walked over the threshold and the door closed behind them.

"Do you feel that?" asked Axton, his voice echoing.

"Yeah," Maya replied. "its freezing in here."

There was an ammo machine against the right wall of the room. Axton went to it while Maya looked around. The room was relatively dark and empty, save for the ice creeping up the walls. A fast travel station was up a few steps from the ammo machine. Looking to her left there was a giant red glowing sign that advertised "Fink's Slaughterhouse" with a bright flashing arrow pointing to a door. It was not where they needed to go, but perhaps a place to return for later. Maya never passed up an opportunity to showcase her talents.

Straight ahead from where they came in stood another steel door, presumably the one leading out to The Fridge. Angel began to speak, "I've been following Jack's orders from the beginning. Jack modified the power core you found to have a Hyperion network uplink. Through it, I was able to hack Sanctuary's defenses and lower them. It was all…part of Jack's plan."

Maya had enough of Angel, "you mean your plan too!" she hissed into her echo, but there was no response. "Why are you even fucking telling us this?" she demanded. Silence.

She sighed in frustration and put back her echo. She turned to her friend, "you ready?"

He smiled and cocked his weapon, "born ready sis!"

The door to The Fridge opened and Maya felt as though her soul left her body. "Jesus fucking Christ its freezing!"

Axton too sucked in a breath, his face turning bright red. "What the actual fuck!?"

Maya shivered and pulled her monks hood over her head. "Definitely wasn't ready for this."

The Fridge appeared to be a long glacial cavern with high icy walls. There were a few snowy buildings on either side of them, a couple with small fires built into cans outside. Eerie statues of frozen bodies lined the path which led toward a bridge. According to their map, they had to make it to the other side of the cavern which was quite a ways from where they were. Maya hoped they didn't freeze to death along the way.

A shrill scream broke her from her thoughts and she immediately crouched down with Axton behind a slab of concrete. "What was that!?" she asked.

He pointed over the slab to a figure coming across the bridge. It was a gangly human-like being, wearing black clothes and a gas mask. The figure was carrying what looked like a small SMG.

"It's a rat," he said. "They used to live and work in the toxic mines underground. They went through years of mutation due to the toxicity. It caused their bodies to shrink and their minds to go mad. Hence the gas masks. I guess they have…cannibalistic tendencies as well," he whispered.

"Fuck eh? How many can you see?"

Axton paused a moment. "Well, I only see the one right now, but the rest will surely pop out of the woodwork when attacked. We might as well just hit them head on, it shouldn't be anything we cant handle."

"That's the spirit Axton ol' boy," Maya said with enthusiasm. She pulled out a shock infused sniper, taking her aim at the rat. "Boom," she whispered, and pulled the trigger.

The rat's head exploded on impact, then there was silence. Maya shot Axton a look of relief, before stopping, listening.

A slight hum began to reverberate through the Fridge's walls. The hum was getting louder, higher. It slowly turned into shrill screams and the scurrying of many sets of feet. Maya's look of relief quickly turned into one of horror. "Don't tell me-"

"Here they come," Axton finished. As though on queue, snow began to kick up I'm bursts as hatches buried deep in the ground began to fly open all around, with rats of all sizes filling out screaming all the way. On the bridge, more seemed to come from the other side. Unlike human's the rats didn't care much to find cover which was unsettling to the pair. Instead they ran out as a great horde, Maya felt like she could see at least thirty. Not to mention the ones creeping on the buildings and hiding in the shadows that she couldn't immediately see. One of the rats stepped forward from the group, pointing a long clawed finger at them.

"SSSSSSSLICE THEM OPEN RATSSSSSS!" it screamed in a shrill, gravelly voice.

The horde erupted into shrieks and they scattered in different directions, Maya's eyes could barely follow them all. Again, they didn't run for cover, instead they used their agility to dart back and forth making aiming a clear shot nearly impossible.

She unclipped a grenade and lobbed it at the bulk of the group. Thankfully it sent a good chunk of them exploding in every direction in a cloud of pink mist.

"Axton!" she shouted over the hail of bullets, "We have to try and kill them in bulk! You got grenades?"

"Tons!" he called back. He unclipped one of his own and sent it over the slab, the shrill screams after the explosion was a good indication that the projectile hit its mark. Maya pulled out an incendiary shot gun. "Time to warm em up!" Axton shrugged off his own shot gun alongside her.

The rats were slightly dazed from the multiple grenade explosions and there was a large cloud of smoke that hung in between them. Maya and Axton leapt through the cloud like bats out of hell, slugs bursting forth from their guns spraying holes into any unfortunate rat waiting on the other side. The scent of blood and the wails of the fallen had filled the air. There wasn't many left now.

She quickly switched to a high accuracy assault rifle and started picking off the ones that were still a ways away, while Axton deployed his turret in order to clear up the rest. By the time all of the rats had been turned to sludge, the pair were still whirling around glancing in every direction.

"Is that it?" Maya asked, breathing hard.

"I think so," Axton replied, equally out of breath. "Let's take a moment to do an ammo check."

"I've spent quite a bit of my shells, so hopefully there won't be too many more large hordes. I'm still alright for everything else."

"I think we should be fine. Any injuries?"

Maya gave herself a once over. "Surprisingly no. They're fast but terribly inaccurate."

Axton scoffed, "probably because they're brains are literal mush from all the fumes they endured down below."

Maya gave him a smile. She wondered about Lilith a moment. She hoped she was okay, that she wasn't making herself sick with worry. Maya couldn't wait to see her smile again, to taste those red lips. She really did miss her. Her heart ached with the memory of the night they shared, the intimate moment of cleaning her Goddess as they opened up to each other in a way neither of them ever had before. Axton was a true friend, and she would gladly put her life on the line for him, but Lilith was worth dying for, killing for, living for. She would gladly bring this whole Fridge down in order to see her face again.

The sound of Axton getting up brought her back to the present. "Come on," he said. "Map says we got a ways trek north, there should be an entrance to the highlands there."

She got up and followed, crossing the bridge alongside him. Other than the rats, the place appeared to be abandoned. There was a burnt out car sitting on the bridge along with broken boxes and crates. The buildings that surrounded the area were decrepit and crumbling with torn up curtains and flags.

The made it to the other side of the bridge where a large concrete overpass hung over them. Angel began to speak again, "five years ago I tricked Roland and his friends into opening the Vault. I told them it was to protect Pandora from a great evil. That was a lie. Jack knew he could make a fortune off of the Eridium held within the Vault, but he was too much of a coward to open it himself. Through me, he got the Vault hunters to do his dirty work," she sighed. "I'm so tired of manipulating people."

Maya almost sympathized with her, but part of her felt like this was all a show in order to gain their trust once again. For all she knew, she could be leading them to their certain deaths at the end of The Fridge. The only reason they were following her now, was the fact that she was the only one who knew how they could get back to Sanctuary.

Now on the over side of the bridge, the map pointed west. They walked through the snow onto a metal platform overlooking a great icy lake. To the left they could see more houses lining up the bank of the frozen water. Maya was looking through her scope for any immediate threat when-

"What the fuck? Axton what the fuck is that thing?" she said nudging him, pointing down toward the lake.

He peered through his own scope in the direction she was pointing. He lowered his scope with a confused look on his face, squinting. He raised the scope once again. "I honestly have no idea…" he said trailing off.

It was a behemoth of a creature. Its jagged dark skin looked as though it was made of stone other than what would be its feet which had giant golden yellow crystals jutting out in a cluster. The beast walked on three legs like a tripod, moving at an exceptionally slow pace. The mere size of the creature still made it quite intimidating to Maya.

"Maybe its docile?" said Axton.

"Hah, on Pandora?"

"You're right."

They watched the strange monster saunter around some more. "Let's kill it," Maya suggested.

"I'm down!" Axton said excitedly, shouldering his weapon. He let out a breath and took his shot, hitting the beast in what looked like its head.

Nothing really happened. It barely took any damage at all, which was surprising because Axton had a very powerful rifle. Axton threw his hands up in the air, "WHAT!?"

Maya began to laugh earning a glare from her friend. "Let's see you try then!"

"Hehe-ah shit, I'm sorry," she said wiping her eyes. She shouldered her own sniper still trying to contain her laughter. She figured since the creature appeared to be made of stone, maybe-

She took aim at one of it's golden crystal feet and pulled the trigger. Chunks of the crystals blew off and the monster seemed to limp with the impact. It lowered it's health a good chunk too.

She smiled at Axton who rolled his eyes, "yeah yeah aim for the feet."

Together they continued shot after calculated shot, blowing out all 3 of the monsters "feet" and watching as it exploded before their eyes in dozens of pieces of golden chunks.

"Maya…do you think that's real gold?"

"I think it could definitely be worth something…wanna go get it?" Maya wasn't by any means too hard done by as it was, but more money was always handy. You never knew when you might need to buy your way out of a situation.

"Yeah, quick, then we need to get on our way.".

They shimmied down the slope to the frozen water below. She covered Axton as he gathered the gold rocks, inspecting them as he stuffed them in his bag. He began to laugh with glee, "Christ you know something Maya? I think this is real gold!"

Maya was distracted. Across the ice, where the buildings sat that they eyed from the slope, she swore she saw movement coming out of a garage in the building. She raised her scope, peering through to get a better look.

"Axton," she said in a low voice.

"I mean goddamn, were gonna be rich!"

"Axton!" She hissed. There was definitely a hulking figure inching towards them. She couldn't really see what it was. It somewhat looked like a man, but it dragged towards them slowly in such an alien way. It reminded her of a badass psycho, just…slower. Perhaps it was injured?

"-think of the shit we could buy. We could afford one of those fancy manors, or-"

"Axton!" she had spun around with a finger to her lips. "Theres definitely something over there!"

He threw on his backpack and went to stand beside her. "Over there," she said pointing to the buildings. Looking through his own rifle he spotted it. "It's a lab rat," he said. "it's one of the different mutations of rats. When that behemoth exploded it must've drawn some attention. Shit for us cause that's the way we gotta go. It'll probably attract more rats, so be on your toes. Oh, and we cant let it get too close. They have a sort of laser that comes from their eyes, and it can kill you in an instant."

Maya didn't see much of a problem considering how slowly this thing moved. It was still a good few hundred meters away, "look into my eyes!" the rat wailed, its raspy voice travelling over the ice to their ears as though it was closer than it was.

"So you've ran into these before? You know how to kill it?"

"Just the same as you would kill anything. Lots and lots of bullets?" He said shrugging.

"Smart ass," Maya said smirking. She raised her hand and put the rat in an unsuspecting phaselock, while Axton deployed his turret which began to rain hellfire on their victim. The large rat seemed to have a massive amount of health, when Maya released it it came thudding down on its feet and began to shuffle toward them once again.

"Uh shit?" she remarked. "Come on let's fall back abit!"

They doubled back across the ice to the bank and crouched behind some empty ammo cases. The rat continued to wail and pant as it dragged its deformed body towards them.

"I'm throwing a grenade!: Axton called as he lobbed it towards the mutated rat. A devastating explosion sounded off followed by a few smaller ones, sending a hail of ice crashing down around them.

There was a silence and they dared to peer over the boxes. There was nothing to be seen except for a large hole in the ice with chilled water sloshing about.

"Huh, must have fallen through?" said Axton.

"Let's avoid that hole just in case." Maya suggested. "We need to keep moving. It shouldn't take us too much longer if we keep a good pace. God Axton I hope she's alright…"

He looked at her with raised eyebrows. "Everyone! Everyone I meant I hope everyone is alright!" Maya said quickly, a light blush dusting her already red cheeks. "And I wanna get out of this frozen fucking wasteland!"

"Maya, all I want is for you to be happy. As long as she treats you right we good. Otherwise, I might have to kick her ass," he said with a wink.

"God you're such a brother."

"The brother you never had," he said playfully, putting her in a headlock. She shoved our of it, laughing as she felt her chest grow warm. He really was the brother she never had. Maybe she really did find where she belongs, a real family.

They began to walk down the frozen lake, the light sound of their feet echoing through the cavern. The way to the highlands was just on the other side of the body of water, they opted to walk the lake in order to avoid more chaos around the buildings. They expended a lot of ammo at this point, and would need to replenish soon.

"She does," Maya said quietly. "she treats me…like no one ever has before. When I'm with her it's like I'm a whole different person. A better person. She just gets me Ax, she doesn't shy away from her own bullshit or mine."

Axton smiled, clapping her on the back. "I'm happy you found someone to experience this with. Someone who takes care of you. Are you guys gonna…"

"Gonna what?"

"You know, take the next step."

Maya's thoughts immediately went back to those tantalizing breasts and she felt her stomach flip. "Oh…uh…I don't know. Maybe one day," she said shyly. "I'm still trying to navigate through all this. Besides I wouldn't know what I'm doing. What if she doesn't like me?"

"Who couldn't like you Maya! You're a badass and beautiful to boot. I think she likes you just the way you are. Besides, she knows your history, and that this is new territory for you. I think this is really good for you," he said warmly.

Maya couldn't help but smile as well. This was good for her. It felt better than anything she felt in as long as she could remember.

She checked the map, and saw the end of the Fridge was still nearly a days walk away. To their dismay there didn't appear to be any catch a ride stations anywhere. She couldn't wait to hear her Siren's voice again. The thought spurred her on, gave her newfound energy. She had to get to her, she moved move hell itself to do it."Race ya!" she called to Axton, already taking off. She could hear him follow and laughing behind her. Hold on Lilith, I'm coming.