A/N: So everyone is enjoying, so I shall keep writing. NEW CHAPTER!

Chapter 17: Frozen Wrath

Nickoli flew back into Angel, her dropping to his rear with Nickoli in his arms… covered in blood. Nickoli threw a hand to his chest but blood was starting to pour from between his fingers. Salvador bellowed "Get the medic!" Justin and Lynn dropped to Nickoli's sides and started trying to stop the bleeding while Angel was wide eyed. "So… so much blood…" Angel thought as she watched Lynn and Justin try to save Nickoli.

Nickoli coughed "First stages of shock… cells start to produce pyruvic and lactic acid… to compensate for lack of oxygen." Angel immediately responded "D-don't talk! Save your strength!" She looked at his chest again to see his shirt completely soaked in blood, triggering the thought "So much blood." Nickoli started hyperventilating and continued "Second stage of shock… hyperventilation… to increase blood pressure…" Angel felt tears start to run down her face as she cried "Stay with me! You're going to be okay!"

Lynn snapped "If he hits third stage it could start doing damage. We need to stop the blood loss or we're going to lose him." The tears started to roll down Angel's cheek faster as she pressed her own hands against Nickoli's wound. Justin nervously replied "I have an idea, but it may or may not work…" Angel snapped "What!? Anything!"

"You could… freeze him."

Angel responded nervously "I-I-I don't know if I can do that… I'm not that good with my powers." Lynn urged "You're going to have to try. If you don't… then he's gone already…" Angel felt tears pouring down her face as she pulled Nickoli close, focusing her ice abilities. "Please let this work." Angel quietly plead as she released her ability. Ice began to form around Nickoli, starting at his wound and spreading around his entire body until he was completely encased in ice.

Two soldiers ran over to see Angel with her arms wrapped Nickoli, who was completely frozen solid. Salvador placed a hand on Angel's shoulder and proclaimed quietly "I'll see if I can get Commander Lilith to have Nickoli transported back to Crimson City." Angel didn't even respond, she continued to hold onto the frozen Nickoli as tears poured down her face. Z-12 took a knee next to Angel and wrapped his arms around Angel, doing his best to comfort her in her time of need. Lynn did her best as well, but only placing a hand on her shoulder.

Salvador walked away from the group and pulled out his ECHO device, dreading the call he was going to have to make. He pressed a few buttons and raised the device to his face as Commander Lilith exclaimed "This had better be good Sal." Salvador sighed "Quite the opposite."

"…What happened?"

"Sniper. Tried to take a shot at Angel, but Nickoli took the hit."

It was quiet on the other end of the line until Lilith questioned shakily "Is… is he…" Salvador responded "No… at least I don't think so. Angel froze him to stop the bleeding and keep him alive. He needs to go back to the city for real medical attention."

"Alright, I'll boot up the fast-travel stations for just a moment. Have two medics bring him back to the city."

"Understood."

Salvador ended the call and bellowed "Medics! Get Nickoli to the fast-travel station! He's going back to the city." Two medics moved to Nickoli and practically had to pry Angel off of him to move him. She let go of Nickoli and wrapped her arms around Z-12, practically wailing into his shoulder as the medics carried him off. Salvador approached the group, who all seemed in shock of the event before them, and exclaimed "Take up residence in the barracks. We'll discuss what we do now." Everyone nodded and headed into the barracks, Z-12 practically carrying Angel as they walked in.

Z-12 set Angel down, who immediately curled up into a ball, trying to keep herself quiet. Everyone put an amount of distance between themselves and Angel as Z-12 questioned "What do you think? Is Nik going to make it?" Patrick responded "He should." Justin added "Since Angel cryogenically froze him, his blood should have stopped flowing. Now it is up to the doctors to save his life." Lynn looked back at Angel, who had stopped sobbing and remained quiet.

"I'm going to go check on her." Lynn stated as she walked away from the group. She took a seat on Angel's bed, placing a hand on her shoulder and questioned "How are you feeling Angel?" Angel was silent for a while, but then responded "Cold… I feel… cold." Lynn could feel it, Angel did feel colder than she usually did. Lynn laid down next to Angel and wrapped her arms around her, exclaiming "Don't worry. Everything is going to be fine. You saved him Angel, you saved Nickoli."

"Then why do I feel like it was my fault? Like I was the one who pulled the trigger on him?"

"Because he took the shot for you. You feel guilty because you knew the shot was for you, but Nickoli jumped in the way."

"He shouldn't have… it should have been me…"

Lynn didn't know what to say, so she pulled Angel close, trying to keep her friend from freezing herself to death. Angel's tears stopped, frozen as she felt her own temperature drop. But deep down… down in her very core… was fire. Angel clenched her fist and gritted her teeth as she snarled in her head "They did this… Maliwan. They shot Nickoli… they tried to kill me…" The fire in her core burned brighter, filling her full of hatred and rage.

"They've tried to take everything from me… and for what? Because we saw a group of psychopaths…"

Angel looked around to see everyone else had fallen asleep, giving her the chance to slip from Lynn's embrace.

"They are going to pay for what they've done."

Angel snuck past every guard without notice and climbed into a technical.

"What they've done to me, to Nickoli, to Z-12, and Lynn."

She drove the technical to the Friendship Gulag and hopped out, her tattoos flaring a bright blue.

"They're going to pay… every last one of them."

O00000O00000O

Lynn shifted a bit in her sleep, noticing the missing body from the bed. Lynn slowly woke up to see that Angel had gone missing. She sat up and looked around, seeing no sign of Angel anywhere. She slid out of bed and went to Z-12, pushing on his shoulder. "Z. Z!" Lynn hissed as she shook Z-12 awake.

Z-12 groaned "What?"

"It's Angel. She's gone."

"What do you mean gone?"

Lynn dragged her palm down her face and groaned "I mean gone. As in not here, somewhere else." Z-12 looked around and had a look of panic on his face. "I have a very bad feeling." Z-12 exclaimed as he jumped out of the bed. Lynn raised an eyebrow and questioned "What do you mean?"

"Just call it a feeling, but we need to get to the Gulag. I bet she's there."

O00000O00000O

Angel had her Siren hand against the door to the Gulag since it wasn't opening for her. Once the door was completely frozen, she pulled her hand back and drove her fist through the door, shattering it like it was glass. She walked into the Gulag with a trail of ice following her out of pure rage and no control of her powers or emotions. Two soldiers saw her and barked "What the hell!? Hands up!" Angel threw her Siren hand up and created two ice spikes, spearing the soldiers.

Angel walked past the bloody spikes, completely ignoring the fact that she just murdered two people. Sirens started to blare and Maliwan drones started to emerge from the building to attack Angel. She flung her arm and fired several ice spikes that speared the drones. Three of the drones were able to dodge the spikes and charged her, their red guns glowing bright. They started to fire their guns at Angel, but she threw up a wall of ice to block the bullets.

Angel then slammed her fist into the wall, shattering it and sending a shower of ice spikes at the drones. The drones were impaled again and again until they looked more like frozen spike statues. Angel heard more movement to her right, seeing a firing line of soldiers lining up to take her down. Angel threw her hand to the side, summoning up another ice spike and speared the soldiers. Another group of soldiers lined up on the rooftops and readied their weapons at Angel.

She slammed her fist onto the ground, creating a dome of ice around her as the bullets started to fly. She waited until she heard all of the guns stop firing for a moment, she then threw her arms and detonated the dome, sending another shower of ice spikes at the soldiers. The soldiers either fell back on the roof or fell to the ground, only one soldier surviving. She walked over and grabbed the living soldier, snarling "Start talking or start dying." The soldier groaned "What do you want to know…"

"What is this place? What does Maliwan do here?"

"It's a bio lab. We do genetic research here, mainly with Project Assassin. We have the armory, main lab and power station."

"Thanks for that."

She dropped the soldier and started moving through the Gulag, practically freezing everything in her path. Another group of drones came at her with their guns raised, so she raised her Siren arm and created a freezing wave. The drones froze in place and fell forward, shattering into pieces. Angel looked around and saw what looked like the entrance to the main lab and started making way towards it. Another siren blared and an electronic female voice announced "Emergency protocol initiated. Releasing experiment specimens."

The doors opened and a mass of mutated looking human beings charged out of the door at her. Angel snarled "Get out of my way." The first mutate had massive arms that it dragged on the ground charged her, swinging for her head. Angel ducked under the swing and created an ice spear in her hand, plunging it into the mutate's chest. The mutate stumbled a bit before it fell to the ground, blood pouring from its wound.

She looked to the rest of the mutates and snarled "The rest of you… leave… now." The mutates ignored her warning and charged her, murder in their eyes over their fallen comrade. Angel created an ice blade in each hand and charged the mutates with a war cry of rage and pain. She ducked under the swings of two mutates and sliced them in half, continuing her charge against the mutates. She continued slicing through the mutated humans, covering the frost coated ground in blood.

She continued her attacks until there was nothing left standing, all of the mutated humans cut into pieces. Angel looked around and let out a cry of pure pain and a massive wave of ice, practically freezing the entire Gulag. Angel dropped to her knees as snow started to fall from the now darkened sky. She heard the doors open and close, so she looked up to see four robots that looked bigger than any other drone. One was red and had two large tanks on its back with barrels on its arms and a green one looked exactly the same. The next one was blue and had two large pylons on its back with sparks coming off of them.

The last one and two small tanks on its arms that dripped slag. Angel stood up and growled "Just what I needed, some bots that can take some hits." The red one stepped forward, pointing its barrels at her and ordering "Siren, stand down or be eliminated."

"I'm not the one that is going to be eliminated."

Angel shot forward and ducked under the column of flames the badass pyro bot. She slammed her ice blade into the stomach of the bot, the blade shattering as she continued on. She jumped over the spray of acid the badass caustic bot and slammed her other ice blade into the head of the bot, shattering it as well. She was about to kick the badass slag bot in the legs, but the badass shock bot hit her with a jolt of lightning. She flew into the air but landed on her feet, drawing her real blade and readied her ice powers.

She stood up and growled "I know you can hear me Maliwan. Consider this the start of my revenge against you, for what you've done to me, to my family, and to my friends." The badass pyro bot repeated "Siren, stand down or be eliminated." Angel charged forward, firing a column of freezing air at the badass pyro bot who returned with a column of flames. The clashing elements slammed together, Angel continuing her charge until she jumped over the collision. She dodged the flames and slipped past the pyro bot, slicing the hoses on the tanks.

Napalm started to spray everywhere as Angel blasted the pyro bot with another blast of freezing air. The blast slammed into the bot, the cold air connecting with the heated metal of the bot, causing it to start to collapse on itself until the bot fell to the ground. She turned to the caustic bot, which had its own barrels raised at her and ready to melt her down. Angel charged forward as the caustic bot sprayed acid at her, Angel narrowly dodging it as she sliced at its side. She spun and drove her blade through the back of the bot, cleaving the bot in half as she dragged her blade up.

She turned to see the badass slag bot begin to spew slag at her with the badass shock bot firing a bolt of lightning at her. Angel rolled out of the way and fired an ice spike, slamming the slag bot in the chest but the spike shattered. Angel continued her charge and sliced the shock bot in the chest a few times while the slag bot recovered from its strike. Angel immediately swapped targets and stabbed the slag bot in the chest, putting her ice powers through the blade and into the slag bot until it was a statue. She ripped her blade out of the bot and shattered its top half, turning to the final bot.

The shock bot raised its arms to fire some more bolts, but Angel acted quick and summoned an ice spike beneath the bot and speared an arm. She struck the other bots arm, and then its legs, and then its body, and finally speared its head. The bots head came off with the spear, wires still sparking until the bot shut down. Angel sheathed her blade and dropped to her knees, taking a moment to gather herself before moving forward.

O00000O00000O

Lynn and Z-12 drove a technical to the Gulag to find the door completely shattered and coated in ice. "Did Angel do this?" Z-12 questioned as he dragged a finger along the broken door. "How many other people do you know that can use ice powers?" Lynn questioned as one of her hands caught fire. The two entered the Gulag to find the ground covered in frost with snow beginning to fall from the sky. Z-12 looked in horror at the two impaled soldiers, knowing that only his sister could have done this.

"I can't believe it… I can't believe she…" Z-12 gasped. Lynn put her non-flaming hand on his shoulder and comforted "She's in a dangerous place. She isn't in her right mind. Anger and rage are guiding her right now, not common sense."

"Yeah… I'm going to see if I can find Angel."

"Alright. I'm going to see if I can pull any information out of the computers."

Z-12 nodded and started making his way into the Gulag, seeing the grizzly path his sister made. He eventually found her on her knees in the middle of a mass of carnage. He ran over to find her barely conscious and freezing cold. "Come on sis. Let's get you out of here." Z-12 exclaimed as he pulled Angel away from the carnage. He looked back at the carnage and noticed among the bots were mutated human, or more accurately Zer0 clones.

He looked away, fighting back crying when he felt Angel tug on his jacket and quietly apologizing "I'm sorry Z… I'm so sorry. I… I wasn't thinking clearly… I was just so angry… I'm sorry." They made it to the entrance and Z-12 leaned her against the wall, replying "It's okay… I'm actually glad that you did what you did. They were being tortured and experimented on them. You brought them peace that ended their atrocities." Angel smiled and started to feel herself nod off, but before she passed out she saw three figures walk through the shattered door. All three of them looked like Z-12.

O00000O00000O

Angel woke up a bit later, seeing her mother and father asleep at her side while Z-12 stood outside the window and talked with three other Zer0 clones. Angel shifted a bit and Zer0 quietly exclaimed "You should be resting." She looked to her father to see a small smile on his face. He took a deep breath and sighed "What were you thinking? Taking on the Gulag alone? You could have been killed." Angel looked at her lap and replied "I… I was just so angry… I lost control of myself."

"What is one of the rules of being an assassin?"

"Remain calm and collected. Do not allow emotions to determine your actions."

"Correct. We still have more training when it comes to that, but I'm just happy that you're still alive."

Zer0 reached over and took his daughters hand. "Thanks Dad… how is… how is Nickoli?" Angel questioned nervously. He pointed to Angel's left, showing Nickoli lying in a bed with some ice still around his edges but a large bandage over his chest. Commander Lilith sat by his side, looking pretty pissed off but keeping her cool. "Aunt Lilith…" Angel tried to explain.

Commander Lilith raised her hand and cut off "You… are very lucky that Lynn was able to pull a large amount of important information, or else you would be in a serious amount of trouble. The mission was successful. Do I make myself clear?" Angel lowered her head and replied "Yes Commander."

"Nickoli is going to be fine. Freezing him saved his life. Just thought you should know."

"Yes ma'am. Couldn't let my boyfriend die on me."

Lilith chuckled a bit and exclaimed "I'm going to head back to my office. Zer0, let me know when Nickoli here wakes up." Zer0 nodded and replied "Of course Commander." Lilith left the hospital and headed into the Crimson Raider HQ and went straight for her office. She walked in and then shut and locked the door, she needed a moment to herself. She took a deep breath… and then let out a massive yell as she threw everything off of her desk and onto the floor.

She continued her scream as she grabbed one of the chairs and threw it against the wall. Lilith continued her tantrum until she received a call from Maliwan. She took a minute to calm herself before answering, seeing Lady Maliwan on the screen. "My, my, my… what a little mess we have on our hands." Lady Maliwan practically mocked. Lilith took a moment and replied "What do you want? Kinda in the middle of something."

"Well, I just wanted to address the little stunt that was pulled at one of our outposts."

A video was pulled up that showed Angel going berserk at the Gulag. "As you well know, we at Maliwan cannot take this act of aggression lightly." Lady Maliwan continued. Lilith replied "And? What are you going to do about it?"

"Well, Commander Lilith, we here at Maliwan officially declare that we are at war with the Crimson Raiders."

"Alright then, I'll be seeing you on the battlefield."

Lilith immediately hung up and stared at the blank screen, hoping that she wasn't going to be the reason that civilized life on Pandora was about to end.

A/N: Well wasn't that just an action packed chapter dipped in drama? So much going on, and still much more to come. Hope y'all enjoyed the chapter. PM or review your thoughts. Comments, or concerns. Until next update.

-Chief