I do not own Hellboy. I only own Tiffani and Lexi.

Story start

A small yawn escaped Lexi as she watched her friend swim laps in the college pool. "I don't see why I had to come sit here while you swim," Lexi muttered even though she knew her friend could not hear her.

Tiffani stopped after a few more laps. She gave her friend a big smile while taking off her goggles and getting out of the pool. "I love swimming. It is great exercise," she said as she took off her swim cap.

"You're a fish. I swear you are," Lexi said and laughed as she dodged Tiffani's swim cap, which was thrown at her face.

"Oh shush, how about we go grab something to drink? I'm thinking a delicious fruit smoothie," Tiffani said before she rushed to the locker room to change into some warm clothes. She was already shivering at the thought of walking out of the gym and into the cold air of January.

"She wants a cold drink when it is freezing outside. Crazy," Lexi muttered even though she had a smile on her face. She was a little worried though because her friend had been acting strangely lately. The two of them had moved to this city to get away from home. Tiffani had travelled overseas earlier that year and when she returned was when Lexi started to notice her friend acting strange.

Tiffani would spend almost all of her time back home in the forest. She even brought home poisonous snakes, which acted like a spoiled cat when they were with or near Tiffani. She would also spend most of her time at her grandmother's garden. Lexi always knew her friend loved nature, but she knew for a fact that Tiffani used to never go anywhere near snakes.

"She always loved to swim, but never this long at one time," Lexi thought as she realized that she had watched her friend swim for three hours.

"Are you ready to go?" Tiffani asked with a happy smile as she exited the locker room and walked over to Lexi, who looked deep in thought. "What's wrong?" she asked as she placed a hand on one of Lexi's shoulders.

Lexi jumped before her eyes locked with Tiffani's, which were becoming greener as the days passed. "Huh, sorry, was lost in thought. Yeah, let's go, but I'm getting coffee," Lexi said with a small smile to her friend, who just smiled and looped their arms together. Lexi tried not to frown as she noticed that Tiffani's skin was growing paler as the days went by as well. She was pale anyways because of the winter season, but she was becoming too pale.

"It's not normal," Lexi thought worriedly as they exited the gym and entered the cold winds of the city surrounding them.

"This city has been great so far, but I'm sad we missed all the excitement earlier this year," Tiffani said as the friends walked on the sidewalk to their favorite little coffee shop near the gym.

"That sounded crazy but definitely interesting," Lexi said as she thought back to when Hellboy fought that giant plant in the middle of the city.

"Poor plant god," Tiffani whispered and Lexi gave her a one armed hug.

"You big hippie," Lexi said jokingly and received a little smack from her friend.

"There is nothing wrong with that," Tiffani said before they entered the coffee shop.

"Girls," the coffee shop owner yelled happily, when the two friends walked inside. "What have you two been up to?" he asked as he already started making their usual orders.

"She was being a fish again," Lexi said with a big smile as she was handed her coffee.

"I was not," Tiffani said before cheering when her fruit smoothie was done. "So any cool new stories about the city?" she asked as the two girls took a seat on stools in front of the owner.

"You two just want to hear about Hellboy, don't you?" he asked with a smirk.

"Duh," they both said before he told them that he had not heard anything new about the big red guy.

"Well that was fun," Lexi said as they left the coffee shop and started to head to their apartment.

"Yeah," Tiffani said with a smile before she gasped and grabbed her throat.

"What's wrong?" Lexi yelled as she crouched down to be beside Tiffani, who had fallen to her knees on the concrete.

"Hurts to breathe," Tiffani wheezed out before she started coughing. Her hands were beginning to shake as well as she shut her eyes tightly.

Lexi gasped as she green vines appearing on Tiffani's skin on her wrists and around her neck. "What is happening to you?" she whispered in a scared voice as she picked up Tiffani and put her on her back. "Move," Lexi screamed at people in her way as she rushed to their apartment. She could not take Tiffani to the hospital when such strange stuff was happening.

"What in the world did you do overseas?" Lexi hissed as she raced right past Hellboy and Liz, who were in an alleyway trying to find the new person connected to the Earth that Nuala had told them about a week ago at the meeting.

The battle for the golden army was settled as Nuala and Nuada becoming part of the team. Nuada was not going to give up his army, but his sister's feelings for Abe and wanting to keep living had overwhelmed his desire for revenge against the humans. He still took every chance he could to anger Hellboy.

"Red," Liz hissed when she caught sight of the pale girl's wrist as another woman raced past with the pale girl on her back. The pale girl's eyes flashed open as they passed the alley. Her bright green eyes made Liz gasp and for Hellboy to almost go chasing after them. "Wait," Liz said as she grabbed Hellboy's arm.

"I'll follow them and let you know where they are going," Liz said and Hellboy went to shake his head, but Liz had already left the alley.

"Hey Blue, we found the new tree girl," Hellboy said with a grumble as he worried about Liz. The two of them had two little twins lying in a crib back at the base.

"Oh good, do you have her with you and Liz?" Abe asked over the walkie-talkie.

"No, some other girl was carrying and running with the tree girl on her back. Liz took off after them. I'm heading back to the truck," Hellboy said as he went to grab a cigar, but cursed when he remembered that Liz had thrown all of them away. He remembered how she had nagged at him, because he should not smoke around the babies. He said that she was smoking all the time, which got him a few nights on a couch. Liz did not like his joke about her smoking because she creates fire all the time, usually directed at him, which always amused the babies.

"Tiffani, please be alright," Lexi said as she fumbled for her keys to get into the apartment complex.

"It hurts, Lexi," Tiffani whimpered before she saw the vines on her wrists. "What," she whispered before Lexi set her down on the steps. Tiffani watched Lexi try to quickly unlock the door, but she was having trouble. She looked down at her wrists again before jumping when two warm hands were placed on top of hers. "Lexi," she whispered before looking up into a face that did not belong to Lexi.

"You're going to be alright. I can help you," Liz said kindly to the scared young woman in front of her.

"Who are you?" Lexi asked as she turned around after hearing Tiffani say her name, and she saw a woman crouched down in front of Tiffani and holding her hands. "I asked, who are you?" Lexi said again growing a little angry and stressed since she did not know this woman or what was happening to her friend.

"My name is Liz, and I can help your friend," Liz answered as she stood up and faced Lexi.