Character: Liz Sherman
Fandom: Hellboy
Rating: PG
Setting: Hellboy II
Prompt: Fight Club - Narrator: This is your life and it's ending one minute at a time.
AN: Expanding the scene. What Liz is thinking and doing after Nuada stabs Red. Borrowed dialog. Borrowed mannerisms and memories for BPRD Hollow Earth.
"RED! BEHIND YOU!" My arm goes up in what feels like slow motion, the words tumbling out of my mouth just seconds too late. I stand frozen as I watch the Prince plunges the staff into Red's chest with a horrible look of satisfaction on his face.
No…no…no!
"You may have mused in the past," Nuada taunts him…taunts all of us. "Am I mortal?" He smirks and twists the staff, snapping the point off as Red groans in pain.
"You are now." The blade extends again as he steps back, leaving Red to fall to the floor in a heap. He's helpless. My rock, my hero…is dying in the floor.
"RED!" I'm rushing over, crouched beside him a moment later, frantically feeling for his pulse. He's panting, gasping pained breaths as Nuada continues to gloat.
"Abraham. Many people have died for this crown, and he will too." My eyes dart up to watch Nuada grip his sisters arm as she twists attempting to work herself free. He'll stop at nothing to get that crown and gain control of the army. I know it. Red knows it. And he's got us. The son-of-a-bitch has got us cornered, at his mercy.
I can't lose Red. Not…now. Now that I know for sure that I'm…pregnant. I need him. I needed him before, I've always needed him but now…there's so much more at stack than just him and me. I wonder for a moment if the wave of nausea is from the pain of watching him lose consciousness in my arms or if it's like this damn bitchy attitude I can't seem to shake; a perfectly normal human pregnancy symptom.
"If you want to save him, and see her again." Nuada pulls his sister's arm as she winces, the blood still pouring from both their faces as he speaks. "You will find the missing piece and bring it to me."
I drop my eyes to Red for only a moment, and that's all it takes. Nuada and Nuala are gone when I raise my eyes again, the black suited agents crowding around where they were second ago.
I cling to Red desperately as 6 agents pull him from the floor, carrying him away to the med lab. My body gives out a moment later. I can't hold myself up anymore; the weight of this is too much. Abe tries to pull me to my feet but I can't. I curl into a ball, my knees tucked into my chest like they were when I was 11. When he first came to me, when I was in that cell being studied like an animal. Everyone was afraid of me, everyone but him. He took care of me, he protected me…he loved me. It took me way too long to realize, but…I always loved him, too. From the moment he treated me like a normal girl. Just an ordinary normal girl and not some freak.
The tears are pouring from my eyes as I finally gather the strength to stand. I reach my hand over to the rubble of Broom's old desk, now in pieces on the floor from the fight. My hand trembles as I pick the cylinder up. This is where we have to go to save him…the only man I've ever felt safe enough to love. The only one who loved me, just the way I am.
We will find Nuada, there is no doubt about it. And if it's too late…if the father of my children is dead when we reach him, I will kill him, with my own hands if I have to. Abe will hate me, because Nuala will die too…but he'll understand. After all, he finally understands what it is to have someone to love. He'd do the same for her. There's no doubt about it.