There are very few Angela fics around these days, as far as I can tell. For the most part, it's Sasha instead. So without further adieu... I present to you... ooh, it rhymes... an Angela fic! Yay? (shrugs) Anyway, on with the fic!

Disclaimer: Insomniac Games owns all of this. I suppose my 'why-Angela-looks-so-different-from-Ratchet' theory belongs to me, since as far as I know it's completely non-canon, but whatever. The theory: that Ratchet is a pure lombax from Veldin, while Angela is a hybrid of one from Veldin and one from Grelbin.

This was heavily inspired by the song "Misunderstood" by Better than Ezra. Skye Sweetnam's "Number One" was a bit of an inspiration too.

Planet Grelbin, Tundor Wastes, Angela's house
1:25am local time

She called Ratchet. But it was Clank who answered. "Hi, Clank."

He looked slightly uncomfortable. "Hello, Angela." She opened her mouth to speak, but Clank beat her to it. "...Ratchet is...away..."

The way he said it should have alerted her. "Oh... well, I thought, you know, that you guys could visit for a while."

The little robot smiled slightly. "I will come. Ratchet... I am not sure he will be able to."

Angela cocked her head slightly in a 'why' gesture.

Clank fidgeted a bit. "He..." he heaved a robotic sigh. "I will be blunt. He has a girlfriend. A close girlfriend."

The answer hit her like a ton of carbonox. They talked for a while longer, but Clank could tell that her mind was elsewhere, so he politely excused himself and logged off. Angela buried her head in her hands, almost wishing that she had never called.

Two weeks later...
10:58pm local time

Angela started when the doorbell rang. She rose to get the door and then smiled, seeing it was Clank. "Hi."

Clank looked up at her, slightly worried. Her eyes appeared red and puffy - more than likely from crying. "Are you... alright?" he asked, stepping into the house.

Angela nodded, but it was apparent that she wasn't. "Where are you sleeping?" she asked.

Clank shrugged. "Where do you have a power outlet? I will sleep there and recharge."

Angela led him into another room. "It's my bedroom, but it's the only room that's got a recharge socket."

The robots left the few things he'd brought there, and they went back out into the main room. Angela looked down at Clank, and half-smiled. "Normally, I'd ask if you wanted something to eat, but..."

Clank returned the smile. "It is alright."

"Do you mind if I...?"

The robot shook his head. The lombax moved away into another room and poured herself a glass of Grelbian ale. An alcoholic beverage. She'd been drinking a lot of it over the past two weeks. Coming back into the living room, she saw that Clank had made himself at home on the couch. He looked at her disapprovingly. "Angela, that is alcoholic."

She sat down beside him, surprised. "How do you know?"

"After that Protopet business, Ratchet came of age to be allowed to drink. He... delighted... in trying many different varieties. I learned to differentiate between different kinds so I would know the best way to... er... calm him down." He looked Angela straight in the eye. "For example, that is Grelbian ale and Ratchet would have a terrible headache the morning after drinking it."

Angela shook her head, amused, at the sheer oddity of it. A robot knowing the properties of drinks better than three-quarters of the organics in the galaxy... She took a sip of her own drink, sighed, and set it down on the table. Clank laid a comforting hand on her arm. "If it is any consolation, I know how you feel."

"Really?"

He nodded miserably. "Do you remember that female infobot, Marie?"

"The one that Qwark almost killed?"

"Yes." He took a deep breath, even though technically he didn't breathe. "She left my apartment on Endako a few days before Ratchet and I returned to Solana. I never saw her again."

Angela felt sorry for Clank. "Do you know what happened to her?"

He nodded, looking even more miserable if that was possible. "She is married to a wealthy Smolgian robot."

Angela's heart went out to the little robot. She wanted to console him somehow, but she knew that nothing she said would really help. Without thinking, the lombax pulled him onto her lap and began to stroke his head. By the time she realized what she was doing, it had been at least five minutes. But he hadn't objected at all. Angela looked down at Clank. He looked almost 'asleep'; his eyes were closed and he was laying very still. But he couldn't be; when he slept, he drew his head, legs, and arms into his body like a turtle, and right now they weren't. He couldn't be asleep. Could he? Clank began to shift, so she resumed stroking his head. Carefully, so as not to disturb her peaceful companion, Angela reached over to grab the remote for her vid-screen. She flicked through the channels, hoping to find something interesting. After going through all 280 channels twice, she finally realized what she was doing. But that didn't matter, since she was so comfortable... She shifted into a laying posture, hugging Clank's warm body to hers. She just managed to shut the vid-screen off before the remote slipped from her hand and landed softly on the thick carpet. Neither robot nor lombax stirred after that.

Later that night...
01:46am local time

Angela moved groggily after hearing her name being called. Clank...? No, it was a higher-pitched voice, more like... "Cassie?" Angela sat up, curious as to why her lombax friend would be at her house. Gently moving the semiconscious Clank over, she rose and unlocked her front door. A Grelban lombax leapt in, covered from head to foot in snow. She shook herself like a dog, spraying snow everywhere. She was about Angela's height and build. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail like Angela's, except long bangs covered one eye and it was sky blue. Her fur was silvery-white with purple stripes, and, like Angela, she was tailless. "The village... it's under attack!" she gasped, trying her best to catch her breath.

Angela drew in a breath sharply. The village that Cassie belonged to was a nomadic one, moving throughout the Tundor Wastes, and as result, their defenses were very weak - especially when dealing with off-world threats. "Cassie!" she asked urgently, "What's attacking?"

"Robots..." she panted. "...And YETIs... there were reports of a leviathan too..."

Robots... the only robots near the Tundor Wastes were deep underground in the raritanium mines... but there was no way that the YETIs would team up with them anyway. But Cassie wasn't a liar, so it had to be true. "Where?"

Cassie gestured and Angela slid a GPS unit into her hand. Quickly, the white lombax typed in the co-ordinates. The yellow lombax glanced down at them, then sprinted into her bedroom. A minute later she emerged, wearing her old thief armor, minus the mask and cape. Her modified Lancer and Gravity Bomb weapons along with an unmodified Plasma Storm were strapped to her belt, as well as a metallic tube of some sort, a canister, and a pouch. A Multi-Star Launcher was attached to her wrist. She dashed to the door, pausing just long enough to say, "Stay here, Cassie." In those few seconds, Clank leapt and neatly attached himself to her back. She hesitated a moment, then ran out into the freezing cold climate of the Tundor Wastes.