When we last left Nadia, she had just gone into labor. Because, all babies need a dramatic entrance, right?

Warning: There will be some gore. Obviously.

Chapter Thirty-Six: Hard Labor

Not now.

Stars above, not now!

But, the baby wiggled in her stomach and the liquid steadily gained speed as it soaked her jeans and a sudden pain shocked Nadia's abdomen.

The baby couldn't come here. Not with Mallory and the Electrode. But, they wouldn't just let her leave, would they? Probably not, since Mallory had seemed so adamant about getting rid of the baby. Nadia had to give them the slip somehow. Mallory was still turned away, whispering to the Electrode something that Nadia couldn't hear.

Another contraction jolted through her. She would have to be fast. She raised her hand toward them. Nothing happened. She concentrated, imagining the frigid blast shooting from her hand, encasing her opponents in ice. Still nothing. Her powers had been weaker throughout her pregnancy, but they'd never stopped working before!

Another contraction. Nadia gritted her teeth. Just a little longer.

She grabbed a branch from the tree behind her and yanked it off the trunk. Mallory turned around at the noise, but before she could react, Nadia had already slammed the branch into her skull and knocked to the ground, unconscious. Suddenly, Nadia regretted doing that. Mallory had really seemed to believe that Nadia was in danger among non-mutants. The woman was obviously "out there" to put it nicely, but she may not have been totally evil. Just mistreated. Much like other mutants.

Much like Nadia had once been.

I'm so sorry Mallory.

A growl came from beside her. Hector looked rightly pissed.

Hector. The Electrode. A Pokemon known for causing massive explosions.

"We won't have to worry about Ford and his crew, anymore."

Grief and fury coiled and collided and morphed together. It was one thing to hate someone. It was something else to kill someone! Pokemon only did bad things if their masters told them. Crazy or not, Mallory had gone too far.

Hector sparked and glowed and let out a harsh buzz. Knowing what was about to happen, Nadia raised her branch. With a cry of "Fore!" she blasted it into the Pokemon, knocking him into the sky like an over-sized golf ball.

...Well, that's she'd expected to happen.

What actually happened, was that Hector rolled a little but was still too close to her. Apparently, she had really misjudged how much those things weighed.

As another harsh ripple tore at her insides - Please, please, just hold off a little longer. - Nadia half-ran, half-hobbled away from the Electrode. She'd managed to get far enough that the explosion didn't seriously hurt her, but she wasn't so far that the debris couldn't attack her and send her flying forward. She barely managed to keep herself balanced and kind of running.

Then there was something wet on her shirt. Well, under it. Nadia swallowed back the burning in her throat. She didn't need to look down to know what was happening. Then scars on her abdomen had been frequently opening up since her daughter had started growing. She'd never told anyone, because she had always managed to use her powers to heal them before they got too noticeable. Besides, Ford, bless his Protector instincts, had been overprotective enough without that knowledge. She hadn't wanted to worry him any more than was necessary.

Too bad she hadn't counted on her own powers not working.

"We won't have to worry about Ford and his crew, anymore."

They had to be okay.

They had to be okay!

Ford's skin screamed and felt like it had turned against him. He forced his eyes open and instantly regretted it as harsh light assaulted his senses and made his head pound even harder. As the grogginess faded, pain all over his body grew and spots coated his vision, making him blink them away. Warring with dizziness, he tried assess his situation. A round creature - for the life of him, he just couldn't seem to remember what it was called - had self-destructed, and the whole cave had collapsed. Where were Nadia, Tad, Starclops, and Igneous? Oh, right, Igneous had left Nadia out there alone. So, where were the demons?

Protector instincts took over and gave Ford the strength to pull himself out of the pile of stones that had buried part of him. His vision was red, but something was still off about his sight. He took off his glasses and squinted at the lenses. Sure enough, there was a sizable crack in one lens. It didn't really obscure his vision, so he didn't worry about it as he put his glasses back on.

Grabbing on to a larger stone for support, Ford grunted as he forced himself to his feet. Only to fall over again. He'd managed to land on his arm instead of the stone, but the spots and nauseating pain came back anyway as his Protector-Mode died away. He lay there for a few minutes or hours - he couldn't tell - with the side of his head growing wetter by the second. He couldn't tell if the blood was coming from his head or arm, but he was too exhausted to care. Eventually, his stomach won the war, and he coughed up its contents. He noted that he probably had a concussion.

Still he rolled over, threw up again, and attempted to stand. To his dismay, he still couldn't get his legs to-

...He couldn't feel his legs.

He could not feel his legs.

They were there, but they were numb. No, that wasn't right. It was as though they weren't even there. Every breath became a massive effort, and Ford's entire being was an earthquake. He gulped the lava back into his stomach. His legs were there, but they weren't. They didn't move. He tried to move, tried to stand, kneel, wiggle his toes, something. They didn't move.

They did not fricking move!

Were his tears from pain or terror or a mixture of both? He grabbed the nearest blue-gray stone and heaved himself up. He glanced down.

The stone had a familiar face.

Ford let out a decidedly unmanly shriek and rolled off the stone in shock and horror. Igneous's lifeless face was trapped in his short-term memory, and it would surely reside in his long-term memory soon enough. Then, it dawned on him; it was Igneous's dismembered body that had crushed him. Even though Igneous had been made entirely of large rocks, so was no gore other than Ford's own, nausea still ran through Ford's body and exited through his mouth. He definitely had a concussion.

He soon became distracted by something in the corner of his vision. Suddenly, all the pain and nausea evaporated from his body as Protector-Mode took over. Nadia was stumbling and bleeding from some open wounds on her stomach. Running to her was pointless, so he half-crawled, half-dragged himself to her, calling her name. Her eyes widened when she saw him, and she cried out in pain and collapsed into the grass.

Ford pulled himself over the rocks, not caring how badly they were scraping his torso and probably his numb legs. "Nadia! What happened!?"

"I-I-I-" Nadia cried out again. "The baby!"

Shit. Oh, fricking shit! Ford pulled himself in front of her as fast as possible and propped himself on his elbows to undo the zipper and button on her jeans. Gripping the waist of them and the underwear beneath, Ford pulled them as far down as he could, which would have been easier if his legs would stop rebelling against him.

"F-Ford? Are you okay? Your legs look- Ugh!"

"Forget about me!" Ford demanded, really wishing that he'd paid more attention to that "Miracle of Birth" video in high school. Then he would know things like, how much blood was normal and was she supposed to be in so much pain and how would he know when the baby was about pop out and how much blood was normal. "Just-Just push! I'll catch her. I promise."

Nadia screamed. Her nails scraped the ground and tears ran down her agonized face. Ford's heart was both breaking and pounding with every passing second. Blood and amniotic fluid flung itself all over his hands and arms as he braced himself for the baby's arrival, and he fought back another wave of nausea.

After what was either a moment or a year - more likely the former - Ford gaped astonishment. "I-I think I see a head! Keep pushing!"

As Nadia grunted and moaned and shrieked, the baby's head became more visible. Thinking quickly, Ford rested his hand under the head - thank God that baby was facing upward - and gently guided her out. For a moment, it seemed like the baby had stopped moving, then she suddenly burst the rest of the way out, her head being much larger than the rest of her body. Mutants apparently didn't have umbilical cords, which was a big relief since he didn't know how he was supposed to cut that.

Ford forgot how to breath.

She was perfect. The baby's body was too small for her head and lacked fingers, toes, a nose, and ears, and her closed eyes seemed to take up most of her face. She was covered in blood and amniotic fluid. The Protector-red of his vision made it impossible to tell what colors she was. But, she was his. And, she was perfect.

...She also wasn't breathing.

Pretending that he was not on the verge of a panic attack, Ford tried to remove his trench coat with one hand, the other propping up the baby's large head. After far too much struggling, he flipped the coat over his back and shifted to grab the other end. He rubbed against the small wet bundle, cleaning the fluid off of her and praying to whomever was listening.

Then, the baby squealed in protest, and Ford almost fainted with relief.

"Nadia," Ford said breathlessly. "Darling, she-she's okay." No response. "Nadia?"

Nadia was out cold. Ford couldn't tell what was spinning, his head or the dimension itself. Was someone talking? Was that Tad who grabbed the baby? Was that orange light Heaven or Starclops? The only thing Ford knew for certain was that sleep suddenly felt like the most wonderful thing in the multiverse.

VEVI HVV GSV KLDVIKFUU TRIOH? DVOO, GSZG'H DSZG GSV YZYB OLLPH ORPV.

Whew! That took some research! And, no, I've never had kids of my own, so I apologize if I got anything wrong. Review!

Can't get enough of my OCs? Then read "Bill is Back" by PFDroids5198. It contains Tad, Starclops, Nadia, and possibly the baby. That said, I'm considering it non-canon to this series. Nothing against the fic, but I have plans of my own for the characters. You know how it is.