Hellboy lay among his pillows with half a dozen of his pet cats rubbing their heads and swishing their tails against him, and others nestled on his broad red chest. He was trying hard to cool his temper and anxiety over his inability to find Em. It had been almost four days since she had gone missing. On top of that, he was irked that there had been no more incidents since their last encounter with the tree god. He was sure that the prince could be up to no good; was almost sure that the BPRD should invade the troll market and capture that kill-crazy pile of pus, and finish off this Golden Army business once and for all.
Tom Manning and Krauss seemed to have become steadily more agreeable to Princess Nuala's suggestions. It was she who had persuaded them all that attacking the troll market would only incense the fae population and make them side with Prince Nuada for protection. Hellboy had then suggested an ambush strategy to flush the prince out of his hiding hole, but Abraham Sapien had vehemently protested against it, saying that the prince was too cunning to fall into a trap, and it would only be a waste of their resources.
Abraham: he was on HB's growing list of irks, too. The blue merman was so completely smitten with Princess Nuala that it was comical to watch him prancing and preening to catch her attention. He had tried on various pairs of his eye lenses, hoping for the best attractive effect and gone around asking the agents their opinions; but they saw no difference. He had asked Liz to loan him some of her face creams to smooth and shine his scales. And he had just suggested to HB that maybe, if he wore the same style of duster coat, he might look more 'dashing'. HB desperately hoped that he hadn't appeared this ridiculous when he was first trying to date Liz.
When his door was suddenly opened wide by that very friend, HB remained as he was, not disturbing the scene.
"Brother Red!" Abe cried. "Dr. Bruttenholm has returned!"
HB sat up so quickly that his cats took fright and jumped away. "What?! Where is she?" He hustled to meet the merman who was recovering his breath, having run all the way to deliver the news.
"With Tom Manning."
They rushed down to the director's office, and as they neared the room, they heard his raised voice through the open door.
"It was very irresponsible of you to leave your issued firearm discarded on the pavement like that. It was a serious breach of security!"
"Manning," HB warned from the doorway.
"I was just telling Dr. Bruttenholm -"
"And nobody cares about that right now." He looked Emerald over and let out a sigh of relief. She was alright, after all.
Emerald smiled brightly at HB and came forward to hug him. It was then that he felt her awkward movement, and suspected that she was hurt.
"I'm so glad to see you, Hellboy!" She buried her head in his shoulder while he gently patted her back.
"Em! You're back! We've been so worried," came the voice of Liz from behind them.
She let go of him and turned to get a hug from Liz; but couldn't stop herself from wincing. "Ouch!"
"Oh, sorry...what's wrong?" Liz asked, concerned.
"Uhh...it's my arm...nothing serious," Em dismissed. But Hellboy had heard her attempt to brush it off.
He growled the question. "Did that Prince Nuada hurt you?"
Emerald hoped her response would soften his mood. "No, he didn't do this, but there's something I need to tell you. Can I talk to you? And Liz, too?"
"Now, wait just a minute," Manning interrupted. "You haven't told us where you've been all this time. We've been looking everywhere for you."
"You should've asked her that in the first place, instead of ranting over security breaches," HB snapped. He swept Emerald out of the office with Liz and Abraham behind him. "Let's go to my place. We'll get your arm fixed up, whatever you need."
Tom Manning remained standing behind his desk, mouthing like a goldfish at his agents' audacity.
By the time they reached Hellboy's door, Abraham had disappeared.
"He was right behind us!" Emerald noted.
"He's definitely gone to tell his new girlfriend," Hellboy replied, punching the code to his room.
"Wow! Abe's got a girlfriend?! I thought he was the only one of his kind here."
"Nah, it's not what you're thinking. He's gone to Princess Nuala." Leading her into his room, he caught her change of expression at his remark.
"Before we get into explanations, where'd you get this cape?" asked Liz.
"A cloak, Liz. A friend lent it to me." Emerald removed it and draped it over a chair.
"Let's get a look at your arm, now," Liz suggested, coming up close to inspect.
"It's alright. My friend took care of it. I'm sure it'll be fine in a few days."
"Don't tell me you've been having a sleepover for four days!" Hellboy scolded, with gruff humour.
Abe walked in on them then, accompanied by Princess Nuala. Emerald had missed her chance for a proper look at the elf princess the last time, and now she took in her tall stature, elegance of pose and her elvish features. She realised with a sharp pang that Nuala's eyes resembled those of her brother, except that they were not rimmed in black. And the rosy tint of her lips was opposite to Nuada's charcoal black.
Before anyone else could speak, Abe stepped forward, flourishing his webbed hand towards the princess. "May I introduce you to her Royal Highness, Princess Nuala." He finished with a short bow.
Princess Nuala looked gratified while HB and Liz snorted at Abe's elaborate courtesies.
Her layered long skirts rustled as the princess approached to meet the agents, extending her hand. Openly wary, Emerald reached to take Nuala's hand. But as soon as they'd clasped together, she felt an odd sensation of being touched over her head and her heart. Thinking the cause might be some sort of insect, she shook her head in agitation to get rid of it. Nuala's eyes widened with surprise.
"Miss Emerald! How did you do it?" she asked.
"Do what?"
"You blocked your mind against me."
"Huh?"
"Princess Nuala has very strong telepathic powers," Abe explained. "She learned all about me by means of her touch. My own powers of telepathy are nowhere near as sharp as hers."
Emerald looked affronted. "I don't know what your game is, Princess, but it's rude to do that without the other person's consent. You've been blessed with speech, so why not use that to question me. Your brother at least had that among his manners, even though he lacked many others."
"I knew it was him!" HB snarled.
Nuala blushed deeply, obviously embarrassed while Abe fluttered around her, making excuses along the lines that she didn't mean it.
"Please do forgive me, Miss Emerald. It is as Abraham says; I did not mean to upset you. As for my brother, he is not adept at the skill of mind reading. Had he been, I'm sure he would not have thought twice before using it on you."
Emerald didn't answer, but continued to glare at the princess. Abe loudly cleared his throat. Ignoring him, she turned to HB and said, "I want to talk to you and Liz...alone."
"You heard her," said HB unceremoniously.
Abe looked miffed but was swift to recover. "That is fine, Red. Please allow me to escort you back to your quarters, Princess Nuala."
As soon as the pair were outside, HB grinned at Emerald. "Didn't know you had that much sass in you."
With a weary sigh, Emerald sat down on the edge of the large bed. "I don't trust her...or anyone else at the moment. That night when Prince Nuada unleashed the forest god, I did run away. He appeared out of nowhere in my bedroom and kidnapped me. I don't know how he knew where I lived or whether he had followed me; but the guy's a cruel creep!"
Hellboy swelled with anger, his muscles flexing.
"What did he do to you?" asked Liz.
"He tied me up with some faerie magic rope that cut through my wrists; manhandled me; was absolutely horrible to me! He paraded me in the troll market and that's when this happened," she said, showing her arm.
"I'll get that bastard for roughing you up!" bellowed HB.
An intruding shout protested, "No, you won't!" said Abe. He had returned, unnoticed.
"You're back?" Red rebuked. "Em needs to talk to me and Liz, alone."
"That may be; but I cannot allow you to bring harm to the princess!"
"What the hell are you saying, Blue? No one's talking about harming her," Liz answered.
"Remember what she said," Abe persisted. "She is linked to her brother - whatever he feels, she feels, too. If you hurt the prince, you'll automatically hurt the princess. I can't allow that!"
HB groaned. "Abe – what the hell's wrong with you?"
"I have come to care very deeply for Her Highness. She has no one to protect her," Abe defended, his voice going steadily more hoarse.
"Do you hear yourself?! And stop calling her 'Highness'. It's not like you're her subject."
"It's a mark of respect."
"Are you listening to this, Babe? Blue's finally lost it."
"Abe, no one's doing anything for now. We're not even done hearing Em's entire story. Just relax," Liz counselled.
"I'm sorry to be rude, Abraham," Emerald reminded, "but I would really appreciate it if you let me speak to my cousin and his wife privately. Please." HB and Liz exchanged brief, satisfied grins.
"I'm sorry! I mean his girlfriend. Sorry, I didn't mean to freak you guys out. It just came out. Sorry!"
"Don't drop bombs like that," Liz laughed.
"Fine." Abe coolly backed down. "I shall allow you privacy since you're somewhat... acquainted."
"Acquainted? Uncle always said that HB's his son! I consider us related."
"Seeing as you were both adopted by the late Bruttenholm brothers, and this is only the second time you are meeting, I thought it the appropriate term. Excuse me," Abe delivered coldly, and walked out.
"Never mind him," HB countered. "He's just being an idiot in love." But he stopped smiling when he saw that Emerald had gone horribly pale and was starting to shiver.
Liz stepped in to rub her shoulder. "Are you ok, Em?"
"What he just said...it's not true is it? I'm not really adopted, right? How would he know, anyway?"
HB looked at Liz. He knew that Emerald had been adopted by Alasdair Bruttenholm on an investigation in Europe. "Em...uuhhh...you didn't know?"
All Emerald could do was shake her head in bewilderment. Her recent conversation with Carol Evans flashed through her mind, and it dawned on her that it might not have been only her mother, but also a lost, unknown father who had been different. That there was a very good chance that she might not even be human.
Liz and HB were clearly at a loss for what to say to their new family member who had just been hit with the reveal of her adoption. HB wrapped an arm around Emerald's shoulders and she let herself sag against him. He held her, while all remained silent except for the occasional sounds of purring.
"Em...it's gonna be -" he began, but before he could finish, she abruptly threw off his arm. With a sudden jump, Emerald got up from the edge of the bed, her eyes flashing brightly. She turned to face Liz and HB, seeing their relief at the return of her spirited attitude.
"This is not the time for me to fall to pieces!" she cried. "I've got things to tell you and I've got to do it before someone else interrupts!"
Liz crossed over to sit beside HB. They watched her, attentive and silent.
"Prince Nuada kidnapped me because he saw what I did to the forest god. I was the one who made it shrink back."
"It was you? But how?"
"I've got this bizarre ability to make trees grow fast...like really fast. I can channel the earth's energy into them to give them a boost; except this time I did the opposite thing. I sucked the life energy out of the forest god and shrunk it back into a seed."
Before the eyes of the veteran investigators, she took the large glowing seed from her pocket and placed it in her palm.
"Whoa!"
But Emerald put up her hand to stop HB from asking anything further, and went on. "The prince knows what I can do. He nearly bled me to death to find out. Then he decided that it would be fun to parade me through the troll market and that's where someone did this," she said, pointing to her injured arm. "Luckily, I managed to escape and was rescued by a friend. She's part fae, and tonight she took me to some sort of fae soiree and I found out more about Prince Nuada and his sister."
"Stop calling him 'prince', would ya?" HB grumbled.
In spite of herself, Emerald smiled at that, and continued until she'd related every detail of her experience. She sat down on the chair that Liz had vacated earlier, and waited for them to analyze and respond.
"Wow," said Liz. "Sounds like a twisted fae vendetta."
"Yeah, but now I know what we've gotta do," HB ruled.
"And what's that?"
"We gotta spruce up Abe, make the princess fall for him and unbind her from Nuada. Then, I go kick his royal white ass!" He flashed a malicious grin. "The bastard's got a lot to pay for."
"But Hellboy, what about the end intent of the tale's prediction? We need to find a way to put a lid over this whole Golden Army situation, or it won't take two seconds for national security to launch a nuclear missile on Northern Ireland."
"We could evacuate and seal the area, and then mount an attack."
"It's not that simple. This army is magical – not companies of mere creatures that can be blown apart. It can't be destroyed by any means; it can only be controlled. I don't want the world erupting into a nuclear war because if it happens again, nothing but the Golden Army soldiers will survive!"
"Like I said; you ladies go and get Nuala warmed up to Abe. And I'll show Nuada what he gets for picking on a woman."
"Can you keep this from Tom Manning until we figure out a plan?"
HB scratched his chin, thinking. "As long as his royal assness doesn't stir up any more trouble, we can pretend to go on with our current research."
"You know what's surprising though?" Liz considered.
"What, Babe?"
"The fact that we heard all this from Em and not from Nuala herself. We've been trying to find out all we could about her race, but she hasn't really said much, has she? Come to think of it, she either spends her time in her room or in the library with Abe. I'm wondering if she's told him anything."
"If she did, Abe's keeping it close. Doesn't make me trust her any better," HB sneered.
"Em, do you want to talk to Red about your dad now? I can give you some privacy."
"Thanks, Liz...but you know what? I don't think there's anything to talk about. Father did such a great job of being my dad that I don't really care who my parents were. I have a feeling that he didn't know either, or he'd have told me. It did come as a shock...but I'll just let it be for now and think about it later."
"You're right about that!" HB agreed. "He left the BPRD right after he brought you back from Norway. He loved you since the day he got you."
Emerald nodded, warmed by his kind reassurance. "Can you find a place for me to stay? I can't go back to my house because he might be there."
"No problem! Come with me."
"Thanks, Liz. And can you get me a cellphone too? I promised I'd call my friend."
"Sure."
"Oh, and Hellboy! My friend said she'd like your autograph."
"Really?!"
Emerald laughed at HB's pleasure.
"How about that, Liz?!" he called out to his mate, as she led away their sister.
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Author's note: Hope you guys liked the new chapter! Lots of thanks to Flint and Feather for guiding me to write about Hellboy and the BPRD agents. If you're a Hellboy fan, you should definitely check out her stories. They're all brilliant!
I'm not sure whether Abe's fans would like this chapter too much but I always felt that in the movie he became a little reckless in his love for Nuala. Of course, that's how people get when they're in love. Anyway, I would love to hear your opinions on it too. Please review!
Beta-reader: Flint and Feather