Notes / Disclaimer / Etc.: A/U in which Rasputin employs the help of an old demon (my OC) to capture Hellboy, Kroenen is still mostly human, and the bad guys eventually win. Yes, I am a bit twisted. No, I'm not writing this because I have something against Hellboy and/or the BPRD.

Contains (in later chapters) some sexual material, gore, violence, and other things that might make people want to throw up. I suggest you press the "back" button now, if you don't think you can handle it.

I don't own any characters original to the Hellboy comics and/or movie. Serylia, however, does belong to me.

Constructive criticism and feedback is appreciated.

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What? Karl Kroenen groaned inwardly as he paced back and forth in his makeshift operating room, letting a ragged piece of paper slip out of his hands and onto the cold, blood-spattered tile. A new recruit? Another groan was loosed as he bent to pick up the fallen piece and scan it once more, just to make sure he'd read right. This would be the eighth time he'd read it, however, and much to his dislike, it still held the same message. Rasputin had a new recruit, and Kroenen was to show her how things worked in their twisted game. Short, simple... agonizing. He didn't like being torn away from his experiments to have to show some new kid how things were done, and he was even less impressed by the fact that this recruit was female.

Eyes squinted and lips twisted in a frown and as the paper fell to the floor once again, he pulled his surgeons gloves off, replacing them with a pair of more comfortable leather ones. As much as I hate this, he growled to himself, I could always use her for an experiment. With one last look over the room, and a few muttered curses, Kroenen ventured out into the night in search of this demon he was to train.

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The demon tucked a stray strand of hair behind a fur-covered ear as it huddled inside what appeared to be a simple, yet old and torn, leather coat. She's got ears like a dog... and eyes to match, Kroenen thought to himself as he watched from a slight distance, curious as to what this creature was made of. All Rasputin had said was to be careful... and that she had quite a temper. The demon's left ear twitched as it waited, perhaps at a bothersome bug? The ear twitched again, even a third and fourth time, before Kroenen realized it was twitching in rhythm to his ticking clockwork. Why did she continue to wait, if she knew he was standing not twenty feet away? He grunted lightly and tilted his head in a bird-like motion as he continued to watch her, now curious as to how long she'd sit there, knowing where he was.

The demon didn't wait long, though, before she leapt into the air and that leather cloak was shown to be something entirely different. "She has wings," the Nazi muttered behind his mask, almost in disbelief. Almost. It was something else, though, that really piqued his interest. The large spiked tail protruding from her backside. It only took Kroenen a heartbeat to realize that she was on the attack, however, and with bladed tonfa's brought to hand, he jumped to offset her attack, slamming himself into her left wing.

The collision was enough to knock her off balance, and sent her falling - a mass of wings and hair. Kroenen landed nearly on top of her, with one blade-tip pressing lightly onto the back of the mutt's neck. "That's no way to greet a comrade," he managed to growl from behind the mask, but his words were only met with silence. A thought circled through his mind, perhaps she's weaker than I anticipated,but was quickly dismissed as the creature's spiked tail shot out at him, accompanied by a rather annoyed shout of "Get. Off. Of. Me!"

Caught by surprise, Karl twisted enough to roll quickly to his feet again, standing to await another attack, but none came. The mutt pushed herself to all fours - an odd position for someone with a human body, but she appeared comfortable to stand like that - and shot a glare to Kroenen through her yellow eyes. "What was that for, Nazi!?"

"You lunged. I countered," he replied calmly as he placed the tonfa's back inside his coat and knelt to the ground to look this oddity in the face.

"Oh... right," she sniffed lightly at the air before she pushed herself to stand erect, awkwardly. "I'm supposed to help you get a hold of this... Hellboy... and bring about the Ogdru-Jahad." So that's what this is about,Kroenen thought idly. Rasputin was employing new help to rid them of the ever-annoying B.P.R.D.

"And have you got a name?" Kroenen muttered, watching her.

The demon paused, regarding him with a flat stare through those yellow eyes, before lips quirked into a tight smile. "I am known as Serylia."

The Demon, Serylia... Kroenen recalled the old legends, tales of many torturous murders brought about by a demon that'd vaguely resembled the product of twisted bestiality gone wrong. As one story said, she'd obliterated a village and gruesomely mutilated its inhabitants, all because one human had rubbed her the wrong way. Quite a temper, indeed.. He ended the thought there, and turned to head back towards the place he called home.

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Serylia trailed only a few feet behind the Nazi, eyes staring hard at the back of the mask that covered his head. Why was he so quiet? She sniffed loudly at the air, before tucking her wings and tail tightly to her body in an attempt to look as human as possible - she certainly didn't need anyone screaming "Monster!" to the tabloids. The demon sniffed loudly once more, but this time it was a vain attempt at getting Kroenen to turn around, falter, speak - anything that might give her a vague idea of what was going through his head. When she was met with complete and utter silence, however, she pinned her ears hard against her head and snarled in the way a dog would have. Maybe that'll get the walking clock's attention.

"You don't scare me and you hardly impress me. Just keep walking." Kroenen tilted his head back and to the side, eyeing her through the mask. Serylia gawked openly and paused in her steps, as the spiked end of her tail dropped to the ground from under the cloak of her wings. Not impressed? She shook her head vigorously to clear the thoughts, before her tail was tucked away again and she quickened her pace to catch up. For the remainder of the walk, Serylia kept herself silent, eyes staring curiously at the buildings, the streets, the trees - she was even awed watching the darkened windows of the stores they passed, the way things had changed.

It was amazing, how different the world had become. No matter how hard she tried to focus on the changed times, however, she was repeatedly brought back to what Kroenen had said. You don't scare me... She wondered, momentarily, if evil had grown and progressed as much as the land itself. For the slightest of moments, she almost felt afraid to meet Rasputin.