So guys this is the re-write of the fic Legacy which has gotten changed to The Monster you Made Me. So, I basically changed a few things and combined the first two chapters. Then I'm going to continue on from there with stuff you haven't seen yet! I hope you guys enjoy this new version, and review to let me know how you like it!
Disclaimer: I own nothing except for Amelia and the plot!
Chapter One: Hero Let Down
What makes a monster a monster, and what makes someone human? Is it the exterior what everyone can plainly see, or is it the inside you must dig to? What qualities make you human, and what makes you worthy to be called as such? How far gone must you be until you are no longer human, but monster? I never really thought about it, and even if I had what qualified me to make the judgments? It's a difficult question to ask someone. Who is the monster, and who is the man? I never thought that one day the monster could be me.
Amelia Winhart sighed as she settled the last of her bags near the door with another tug at her turtle neck. She looked back at her grandmother with a frown, and walked back to her taking her tiny weathered hands in her own.
"Nanna, you're sure you'll be alright here alone? I don't know if I'll be able to come back." Her wistful blue eyes looked back up into Amelia's mossy green ones with a smile. She nodded and pat her cheek softly as if nothing bothered her.
"Of course Melly, this new job will be good for you. Your old gram will be fine." Amelia smiled half-heartedly at her grandmother's reply.
She frowned at the thought that the strong World War II nurse was no longer as active as she used to be. The thought of leaving her alone made Amelia uneasy, but this new job prospect couldn't be passed up. It paid well enough for her to provide for her grandmother who was starting to wither away.
"Do you need anything before I go Nanna?" The older woman shook her head with a soft smile stroking Amelia's brown hair lovingly.
"I'll be fine. Your uncle Rolph will be back from the market soon. Take care Melly you hear me?" The younger woman nodded with misty eyes as her uncle walked in through the door with a slight narrow of the eyes, and a biting remark as her farewell.
"Aren't you late for your fancy new job Amelia?"
She just watched the outside world pass by quickly with her head against the window. Her eyelids were heavy from the sleep she deprived herself of the night before. She felt the cab slow as they were approaching their destination. She picked her head up and cleared the window from its fogginess, and looked outside it as the cab came to a complete stop. She instantly became bewildered as she saw they were in front of a waste management building. She looked to the cab driver in confusion and slight annoyance.
"Are you sure you have the right address? This can't be right." He nodded with an equally annoyed tone.
"I'm sure lady, now pay up. I got work to do!"
She got out of the cab with a roll of her eyes, and waited for the driver to take out all of her belongings. She stood in front of the gates of the building and watched as the cab drove away leaving her in the chilly, foggy air. She walked up to the gate and analyzed her surroundings and saw what looked like a buzzer. She walked up to it and pressed the button giving an impatient sigh. She heard a voice come from the box making her jump, and she answered after recovering from the scare.
"I'm Amelia Winhart, I was told to come to this location for a job offer." The voice responded and a retinal scanner of sorts protruded out of the box and blinded her for a second. The gates opened and she walked in. She looked around in slight vexation wondering why she was at a waste management building in the first place.
She was taken from her thoughts as she heard the voice of the man at the front desk.
"Three steps forward miss." She complied and as she felt the floor begin to sink beneath her she let out a squeak. She saw the man from the desk smirk at her reaction. She was tense and getting more nervous by the second. As the floor beneath her stopped moving she saw nothing but chrome. She looked around at the chrome walls and stepped off the platform and looked around until she saw a man with light brown hair and eyes.
He was dressed in a work suit and had an earpiece in his ear. He smiled to her and walked up with his hand outstretched.
"Amelia Winhart? I'm Agent John Myers and welcome to the B.P.R.D, otherwise known as the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense. I assume you've accepted our offer?" Amelia shook his hand and nodded her eyes still scanning the chrome walls. He smiled and signaled her to follow and she complied with his request. As her awe at the hidden place began to fade she looked to Myers and tucked a lock of light brown hair behind her ear.
"So Agent Myers, what exactly is the B.P.R.D? The last I heard it wasn't supposed to exist."
Myers looked back and smiled to her as they entered a study that unlike the other halls was not chrome.
"You can say we are a secret organization, but we are anything but bad. What do you think about the paranormal, Ms. Winhart?" She looked at him strangely and then shrugged.
"I don't think about it much. I prefer not to spend my life worrying about ghosts and such." He smirked a bit as he looked toward the large tank of water to their right her gaze followed his.
She went into immediate shock as she saw the amphibian like man floating in the tank before her. She went into even more shock as it spoke to her with its hand pressed against the glass.
"Amelia Winifred Winhart, age 22, December 3rd, your grandmother was a World War II nurse. Welcome." She looked shocked as she turned back to Myers with her mouth hanging open like a fish.
"How did it know that?" Myers looked to her with a stern eye, and this made her shrink back slightly from his gaze.
"He not it Ms. Winhart."
She nodded and looked toward the fish man again and analyzed him.
"What's his...?" She was cut off by the fish man and her attention immediately went to him.
"Abraham Sapien, pleasure to make your acquaintance Ms. Winhart." She shook her head and continued to look into his glassy, fish-like eyes.
"This is so unreal. Um, the pleasure's all mine Abraham."
She looked back to Myers a bewildered look upon her face, and slight fear in her eyes.
"So you mean to tell me all those legends, myths, superstitions, they're all true? There are unicorns, fairies, and leprechauns running around?" Myers chuckled and nodded giving a hand gesture to show he wasn't sure about her examples.
"To every story there is a seed of truth. Although, I'm not sure about the unicorns and everything else you said." She was trying to process the information, and finding it hard to fully comprehend that the things she was seeing were real. She switched her gaze back and forth between Myers and Abe pinching herself to make sure it was truly real.
"So, again, what exactly is the B.P.R.D Agent Myers?" He walked closer to her and then looked from Abe to her.
"Well, as a wise man once told me on my first day-'There are things that go bump in the night Ms. Winhart, we're the ones who bump back.' "
She nodded slowly letting all the new information sink in. She fell into a plush chair holding her forehead before she heard a new voice in the cozy study making her jump.
"Did you have no information about the paranormal world before you came here Ms. Winhart?" She looked over to an old man walking down a winding staircase in the back of the room. She ran her hand through her hair and shook her head.
"It's all a bit much to take in at once. I've heard stories, but I never thought they were real." The older man put out his hand shaking hers.
"I am Professor Trevor Broom. Ms. Winhart I was a very good friend of your grandmothers. Am I to believe she never told you any stories of the paranormal variety?" Amelia looked up at him with confusion for a second before giving a scoff.
"You mean those stories about Hellboy? I used to fall asleep to those stories, but I stopped believing them years ago Mr-Professor Broom." The professor smirked slightly, and gave a look to agent Meyers making her moss green eyes go wide. "Wait, wait, wait, you're telling me he's real? Hellboy is real?" The older man had a knowing smile on his face that made Amelia uneasy, and slightly nervous to find that the object of her bedtime stories was alive and real.
"Why do you think I picked you for this job Ms. Winhart? As far as I am concerned you are a trusted friend. I also believe you to be an open-minded individual. Was I wrong?"
"I am, but this is a lot to take in. What job do I have exactly Professor?" She felt herself becoming nervous as she saw the smile on Myers's face. The Professor gestured for her to exit the door and she did so entering the chrome hallways once again. He walked beside her and explained a few things to her then getting to her job.
"Well Agent Winhart, you were on my list of people best suited for this job." Agent Meyers spoke again giving her a soft smile easing her nerves slightly.
"You are going to have the job I had my first time here. You are going to be the nanny, chef, and best friend of one of our 'guests' here at the B.P.R.D."
She stopped as they did when they reached a door that looked like the safe to a bank. He unlocked it with a weird key letting the thick steel door open to reveal a room. She walked in after Myers and saw papers strewn across the floor along with Red Bull cans and cats. She picked up a cat that rubbed against her leg, and waited for the surprise of what the thick door kept in. Her attention was fixated on the cat and she jumped as she heard a deep voice from within the room.
"Hey Myers who's the girl?" Amelia looked up slowly and stopped as she spotted a red torso. She put the cat down and slowly looked up the rest of the way letting out a gasp.
"Holy crap, it's Hellboy. It's actually Hellboy!" Hellboy looked down to her with stern eyes as Myers answered him.
"This is Amelia Winhart and she's taking my old job Red." He narrowed his eyes to her and she noticed the cigar in his mouth as he blew a puff of poison in to her face. She turned and noticed that the Professor hadn't joined them in Hellboy's room, and she silently wished he had been with her. She waved the smoke away from her face and coughed a bit. She looked angrily up at the big red man. Her jaw dropped at the statement that came from Hellboy's mouth soon after.
"Don't need her. Send her back from where she came from." She looked from Myers to Hellboy and back with confused eyes.
"He hates change, don't worry he'll get used to you." She just nodded and sighed letting the statement pass. She had always been taught not to heed the hurtful words of others from her grandmother and so decided to apply it here. A feeling in her stomach told her that she was going to be enduring a bit of this from now on.
Amelia took a breath as she unlocked the huge metal door and pushed the little cart of food through it. She looked to the sleeping Hellboy whose tail twitched slightly in his sleep. She walked to the bed and sighed tapping her foot slightly.
"Hellboy, time to wake up." She received a loud snore in response to her statement making her roll her eyes. She grabbed the small whistle that was in her pocket just for a situation like this one. She took a deep breath pressing the whistle to her lips and blew making it release a shrill scream.
She jumped in surprise as the big red male fell to the floor in surprise from the loud sound with a pounding thud. She regained her composure and feigned stringency, her eyebrow raised and foot tapping softly against the chrome floor. Her eyes portrayed her falter as Hellboy looked at her with blazing golden eyes from the cold ground. She cleared her throat when he began to speak.
"What the..."
"It's time to get up. You have pancakes coming" She smirked inwardly as she spotted the dumb founded look on Hellboy's features.
She turned on her heel and walked out of his room the door closing behind her. She let out the breath she had been holding in the entire time and looked down at her shaking hands. She closed her eyes for a second as she walked back to the kitchen where her other cart for Hellboy awaited her. She felt herself collide with another body and looked up at Agent Clay.
"You okay there Ms. Winhart or should I say Agent Winhart?" She stammered a bit over her words and took a breath before looking back at him.
"Excuse me. Yes, I'm fine, just a little shaken up. I just had my first encounter with Hellboy on the job."
Clay chuckled a bit and pat the women on the shoulder lightly.
"Sounds like Red all right. Don't worry he'll get used to you eventually." Amelia nodded and sighed looking at her watch and straightening out her new uniform.
"Well I'd better get that breakfast to him before he has any other reasons to hate me." Clay chuckled again as she gave him a curt wave and walked off to the kitchen to retrieve her breakfast cart.
When she entered the room again she tried to avoid the burning eyes she felt on her. She visibly shuddered as she remembered the feeling that they had shot through her earlier. She had felt like they were boring into her soul peeling away her facade. She broke from within herself as she felt the touch of one of the wandering cats against her leg. She tilted her head to the side and wondered if it would be to forward to pick it up. She ignored her nagging thoughts as the cat jumped up onto the cart in front of her. She picked it up and scratched under its chin lightly making it emit a loud purr.
"Sorry kitty this food isn't for you, but I'll be more than happy to bring you something." She leaned down and let the cat jump from her arms gracefully. She mentally took a breath as she looked up to Hellboy and ignored his stare to ask him a question. "Do you need anything else?" He seemed inwardly impressed at her gall and answered her with a bout of surliness.
"Not from you miss."She narrowed her eyes at him for a second then settled all her weight on her right foot.
"Look my name is Amelia, I'd prefer you call me by my name. I'm gonna be doing this job whether you want me to or not, and I'm not doing it to please you. I'd actually appreciate it if you didn't give me any trouble." She gulped as he got up from his sitting position on the bed. His size was intimidating and made her shrink back as he approached the cart. His hand moved forward and the only thing that kept her from flinching was the fact that she was a woman, and she was certain her would never harm a women. He chewed on a pancake as he looked at her intimidating her even further.
His golden eyes were like fire, scorching the walls that her own moss green eyes held.
"Well then you're doing the wrong job. What makes you special enough to push my pamcakes miss?" Amelia smirked slightly at the fact that he had just mispronounced the word pancakes ignoring the biting tone of his voice, and that her grandmother had mentioned the 'pamcakes' in her stories. She was severely disappointed that the Hellboy from her childhood turned out to be such an ass, and felt sort of like a hero of hers had just run over her puppy.
"Did you seriously just say pamcakes?" He moved closer to her his eyes narrowing, and making her flinch back to avoid the burning golden gaze. He let out a chuckle which made Amelia turn around and take the Baby Ruths Professor Broom had given her out of her skirt pocket and throw them at Hellboy's chest embarrassed by her actions.
"You really can't stand me being here can you? Meyers said you didn't like change, but he didn't say how much of an ass you would be about it!" She glared at him clearly angry at his blatant attempts to intimidate her. He just looked fiercely back at her having no qualms about voicing his distaste for the new employee.
"Well then maybe you should go back to doing whatever it was before you got here. I don't need'ya." She glared at him her fear ebbing away slowly at his harsh treatment and words.
"Well then I guess if you need something else, get it yourself you big baby!" She stormed out of the room the heavy door closing behind her.
Hellboy let out a laugh as he picked up the Baby Ruth from the floor after Amelia had stormed out. He bit off the first half of the candy bar replaying his first victory against the new girl. She had been almost too easy to get a rise out of, and he hoped she'd gotten the message that she should leave. As he remembered her face as she threw the candy at him he realized that the look in her eyes had looked so very familiar, like he had seen those hard, colored, eyes somewhere before. Then it hit him that the buried memory of that familiar face saddened him. He lay back on his bed burrowing through his memories trying to find that face again. He couldn't place where he had seen that look before, and it was almost annoying that this girl was on his mind in the first place.