Chapter 4: Month Two; Part 1

Lucy had just barely made into the neighboring town after the next few weeks had passed. Travelling by foot was a tedious process, especially when her pace was slowed by the ever-growing pounding inside her skull. She had been trying to ignore it, but it seemed that with each step the pain intensified in her temples. In a way, she saw it as a good thing; pain prevented her vectors from manifesting. No vectors, no blood trail to follow. However, the non-stop pain had eventually created a feeling of light-headedness. Well, the headache wasn't the only factor of her dizziness. The food poisoning hadn't been letting up, and the inability to keep food down was putting Lucy through her own personnel level of hell.

The young Queen stumbled as she walked at a snail's pace down a dirt path on the outskirts of the next town she had her sights on. Her head was pounding with each beat of her heart, and her stomach was swimming...despite the fact that she hadn't eaten anything in days. She had avoided consuming anything for that period of time, both to conserve her rations of food and drink, and also because anything that reached her stomach didn't last there for more than a few minutes. She had become far too nauseous to pay attention to her hunger, but the lack of food was beginning to take its toll. Her muscles shook with weakness every inch she walked, and her cheeks were beginning to flush red with a fever.

Just as the main roads of the town came into view, Lucy felt her ankle roll. She gasped as her leg gave out under her weight, and she skidded down the small hill where she stood. She reached out, feebly attempting to grasp at the soil as she fell, but it was no use. Her body hit the dirt; not with enough force to cause major injury, but the sudden shock to her already-weakened system was too much for her. Lucy made a useless attempt to sit up, before going limp and collapsing onto the ground. After four weeks of holding out, she had finally exhausted herself.

"Ma'am?" A voice echoed inside a dark void. "Ma'am? Can you hear me?"

Lucy woke with a start. Her sore eyes blinked against the light reflected off of four white-washed walls; and she began to thrash in a blind panic. God, no! She was back! They'd caught her! She was back in the facility! Lucy felt someone grasp her flailing arm and pin it down. Out of self-preservation, Lucy tried to manifest her vectors to cleave the assaulting hand off, but cringed instead. Her head was still pounding. Lucy growled at the back of her throat when she found she was still without her weapons. Still blinded by the light, she began swiping and clawing at whoever it was that was touching her.

"Ma'am!" The voice seemed to belong to the owner of the hand. It was the deep, gruff voice of a middle-aged man. Lucy fought her captor harder. "Ma'am, stop it!"

"Let go of me!" Lucy cried. Despite the pain, she was still trying to use her vectors. "You won't take me back!"

"Take you back?" The man sounded confused. "Ma'am...you're in a hospital."

Lucy stopped her struggling. Blinking away the light, she suddenly realized she wasn't back in the clutches of her tormentors. Instead, she was lying in a bed in a neat little room. A needle IV was taped into the back of her left hand, connected to a bag of clear liquid hanging on a pole over her head. Lucy's heart was still pounding, she'd never been in a hospital before...and it still reminded her far too much of the facility.

Her heartbeat jumped to her throat as she realized she was dressed in a thin, cloth garment. Her clothes! where were her clothes?! And her horns! Lucy gasped out loud when she raised a hand to touch the edges of her horns. They were bare. Here she was, in public...with her horns exposed. She started to panic again when her eyes suddenly focused again to see a man standing next to her bed. He had a very concerned look in his eyes as he stared at her.

"Ma'am," He said softly. "You were brought here last night by a police officer. He apparently found you outside of town, completely unconscious. He was worried you might have been attacked."

Lucy brushed her hair out of her eyes and sneered at the man she assumed as a doctor of some kind. "Well," She muttered, glaring at the human. "I wasn't. You can let me go now."

"I'm afraid we can't, Ma'am." The doctor gently patted Lucy's arm.

Lucy yanked her limb away from the doctor. "What?" She growled in anger.

The man backed away some, visibly shaken by the 18-year-old's sudden aggression. "We've run several tests on you," He flipped though a clipboard. "You're very malnourished. It's clearly been a while since you've had a good meal."

"Well..." Lucy paused. "I'm a bit of a drifter. It comes with the territory."

"I assume you haven't been able to keep anything down?" The doctor inquired in a timid voice.

Lucy shot him another red glare. "Maybe..." She answered vaguely.

"Forgive me if I'm invading," The doctor flipped a page on his clipboard. "But the reason we can't let you go just yet is that...our tests tell us you're pregnant."

Lucy's squinted eyes widened. "What did you say?" She asked in a hushed voice.

"Blood tests confirmed that you're pregnant." The doctor continued. "We assumed you didn't know; but, yes, you're roughly a month and a half along."

Lucy blinked at the man. She couldn't help but feel a corner of her mouth lift in a mild half-smile. "Well," She chuckled quietly. "What do you know?"

"Now, about those growths." The doctor pointed his pen at her horns to change the subject. Lucy felt her breath catch. "We don't know what those are...but they'll probably need to be removed. The last thing we want right now is to allow that growth to enter your brain."

"They're fine." Lucy insisted, trying not to sound frightened. "They don't hurt."

"It could very well be cancer, Ma'am." The doctor scribbled something down on the papers. "We'll need to remove them for further testing." He looked up at her over his glasses. "The officer who admitted you didn't know your name. To perform the surgery, we'll need your name. Do you have any family members we could contact?"

"N-No..." Lucy lowered her head and closed her eyes. "I don't...and I'm not giving you my name. You can just turn around and walk out."

The doctor blinked in surprise. "Okay, Ma'am." He said, quickly backing out of the room. "We'll try again tomorrow. Just push that button next to you when your liquids run out."

And with that, he was gone. The minute the door shut, Lucy began looking around the tiny, white room. She immediately started searching for a possible way out. She couldn't let them find out who she was. Hell, now that her horns had been seen...it was only a matter of time before the facility could track her down. She tried again, but she still couldn't use her vectors. She was still too weak, and her body still ached too much to be of any use. Feeling her mouth go dry, the young queen realized that, until her body's lost nutrients were replenished...she had no chance of escape. All she could do...was lay there and wait. Hopefully, she would regain her strength before it was too late for her and her unborn.

The full reality suddenly reached Lucy: she had succeeded. The Queen, the original Diclonius, was carrying her first brood. What lay nestled deep inside her body was the future of her race...and she knew that if the facility ever got their hands back on her, they would destroy that future...and would make sure it would never return again. She couldn't let that happen. She wouldn't let that happen. She wasn't just protecting herself anymore...she was protecting her entire kind.