After her talk with Abe Angela felt fear begin creeping into her heart, she could feel herself becoming smaller and smaller as she headed back to her room.

It had not been easy to keep these feelings at bay but it was even harder now that she had spoken the truth to Abe. The things she had been denying to herself were now out in the open and she could not from them.

"Angela." A voice called from the doorway.

She jumped at the sound but turned to see Manning standing there. "Angela I know it's nearly midnight but you are needed in the medical bay." He said.

"Alright I will be right there." She said. She took a breath in, trying to gather herself before entering the room.

Hours past and Manning had her do test after test. Tests to test her strength, blood tests. Respiratory tests. But most of all tests of her flight.

"That was good, now can you do it again please." He said through a loud speaker to Angela who was lifting fifty-pound weights and flying them over to the other side of there room. She had electrodes all over her body to sprint out readings of her body as she performed the tasks. This was the thirty-second time she would be doing this.

"Look at this." Said Broom as he surveyed some x rays of Angela's body. "See this Mr. Manning," he said pointing to her chest. "She has three lungs, fascinating, her heart is enlarged and her ventricles number thousands more than a human her size. This is how she supplies the needed blood flow to her wings." He said. "Notice here, she has a cardiovascular capacity unlike any I have ever seen, so that she can remain in flight for hours at a time. I wouldn't be surprised if she could hold that fifty-pound weight in the air for twenty four hours straight." he said staring again at Angela as she did her task yet again. "My god, I wonder how long she can hold her breath?" he said to himself.

"That's a good idea, we should test that." said Manning. He turned to the loud speaker again. "That's fine Angela, could you come back up here please." He said.

"Now, wait it was just a passing comment, she has been up for almost twenty four hour straight, it is three in the morning, I don't think this is safe." Said Broom.

"Good, then we can test how she does with sleep deprivation." He said as he called for the Agents to come forward as Angela started up the steps beck to where Broom and Manning were.

"I must insist against this, she is not a test animal, we are practically keeping her prisoner here as it is. We cannot push her like this, it is to risky, she could…" Said Broom again in protest.

"…Could what professor." Said Manning with anger. "Die! Listen Trevor, this is not something we can wait on, we need to know her weaknesses and her strengths. I have let you and Abe try with research for long enough. Its time to take action." He stopped and lowered his voice, calming himself. "If you and Abe don't find anything more for us to work with, I will be forced to take matters into my own hands. The fate of the world is at stake here and the responsibility has been given to us to protect it. I consider one life a justified sacrifice against the billions that would die otherwise. Make no mistake, I will not hesitate twice to kill her myself if the need arises." He said.

Professor broom was silent, he knew he would not get anywhere with Manning now. A part of him was furious at the heartlessness of Manning's words but another part knew they were true, and he wondered. If the world were at stake would he be able to kill Angela to save it?

Angela entered the room and Broom pulled himself from his thoughts to address her. "We want to see how long we can hold your breath under water?"

She smiled and nodded. She was exhausted but did not complain. Just keep thinking about how nice your bed will feel when this is all over. She thought.

Three hours later Angela was holding her breath underwater in Abe's tank.

"I don't believe I have ever had a guest before." he kept on saying as he swam around her.

He had said that same thing about ten times and had she been able to speak she would have told him it has stopped being funny two hours earlier.

"How long has she been holding her breath?" asked Broom.

"2 hours 46 minutes and 6 seconds," said Manning as he sat in a velvet chair at the desk.

Broom tapped on the tank and gave her a thumb up and thumbs down signal, asking how she was doing.

She responded in kind with a thumb up. But then began waving her hands at him.

"What does she want?" asked Manning.

"I don't know."

"She says she is fine but that her hands are all wrinkly, and she has to pee." Said Abe. He immediately swam in front of her with concern. "Don't pee in here. I have to breath this stuff." He said.

Angela looked at him as though he was crazy for even suggesting it.

"Manning I think this has gone on quite enough, she has been in there long enough, we can continue to marrow but we are all tired and I am certain she is hungry." Said Broom.

"No, she can handle this." He responded.

Broom looked as though he was going to blow a gasket.

"Hey what's going on?" Said Red as he walked in the room looking as though he had just come from a battleground. He looked around at Manning and his father and then saw Angela in the tank who waved hello with an expression of annoyance as Abe chattered in her direction about the dangers of inhaling urine.

"So…um…what are you doing." He said very matter of fact.

Broom opened his mouth to speak but Abe interrupted him, now finished with his chattering to Angela. "She wants to go to bed, she says she could hold her breath longer but asks if you could just start again tomorrow." Said Abe.

"Yes." Said Broom. "That would be fine."

"No." responded Manning with agitation. "Stay in the tank."

Angela looked at him and though She was tired, nodded her head telling Manning she would stay.

Hellboy sighed, and shook his head. "You people are nuts, im goin to bed, expect my report in the morning." He said as he headed out the door. He Gave Angela one last glance, thinking silently to himself how nice it was to see her again even from between a piece of glass.

Hellboy headed to his room, rubbing the bandages that covered his arm and hand. These creatures had been rough.

Once there he plopped down on the sofa and took his tattered jacket off. What a night he had been through. Three of these damned monsters that seemed like they would never die.

Twice he had to save Myers from their jaws.

That kid was more trouble than he was worth sometimes.

The image of Angela on the team made his skin crawl. He thought about how many times he might have to get her out of trouble, but then again he had never expected the skill she had with a sword he thought to himself. So anything was possible. Perhaps he was underestimating her.

He didn't know if she would have been ready for the fight tonight or not.a smile crossed his face. he knew that with the training he would give her in the weeks to follow she would be ready for anything.

She would have to be ready, he supposed. It was either that or death. The smile quickly faded as he thought about the situation she was in. what he might have to do.

Hellboy was a practical guy. Not to good with expressing himself, he defiantly lacked subtlety, he was big and mean at times and much of himself he kept at a distance from the rest of the world, shadowed by the sarcasm, by the skepticism, by the brassiness.

And it was because all of these things were such a part of whom he was, that he was so bewildered at how quickly they took a back seat when she smiled at him.

He was never unsure, and always brutally truthful. But with her he was for the first time in his life, weak and uncertain, his heart beat faster. His words seemed tied in knots and flowed like water all at the same time. He was tender in a way that he knew was the most natural he had ever felt and yet had never before experienced. As though they had known each other all their lives.

This was new territory for him. He thought, as he got up and looked at himself in the mirror, looking at a cut on his forehead.

He glanced at the cut and then backed up for a moment Nope, nothing had changed; he was still big and red.

A scowl appeared on his face as he began filing his horns. Not the face of don Juan for sure.

Once finished he began getting ready for bed.

"You wont think about her anymore tonight." He said to himself as he bent down to feed the cats. But for some reason he knew he probably would.

Angela meanwhile was just getting out of the tank, finally, it hadn't been to long after Hellboy had left that she could no longer hold her breathe and while Manning was going on and on about how he wanted to do it again tomorrow to test her when she hadn't been up for nearly twenty four hours, Angela's mind kept drifting off to Rasputin.

She headed off to her room and all the while felt some presence with her. She knew in the back of her mind that it was her fears playing tricks on her, but they seemed real enough.

She had been stalked and hunted for nearly thirty years. No weapons, no advantage over the stronger beasts. But she had still survived, and though it didn't show on the outside, there was a part of her that would be brutal and fierce if backed into a corner. She knew the most efficient way to snap a dragon's neck, stop a welrogs heart or kill a blog demon. She had been killing and running for nearly thirty years. She was so exhausted, so tired of running and fighting for her life. And now it was even harder. A creature that moved in predictable patterns wasn't stalking her. this was a highly intelligent, ruthless force of destruction. If the evil resonating from his servant was any indication of his power she couldn't imagine how she would be strong enough to fight it. It was evil unlike anything she had ever even come close to experiencing in hell. How could he be so powerful? It didn't seem possible. But from what she had heard of the ritual it would take a far greater evil to successfully perform it than any she or any angel she knew had ever encountered.

Angela tried to push the thoughts and fears in the back of her mind as she stepped into her apartment.

Yet as she settled into her room and got ready for bed a very real fear began to settle in her chest. It twisted its way around until she realized she had dropped the mug of cocoa in her hand and was shaking with from head to toe.

She went quickly to the bathroom to take a shower. She turned on the water and leaned with both hands over the sink staring at herself in the mirror. "You are alright." She said to herself. "Be… brave, be brave," she said. But she could feel herself shaking inside.

She took off her cloths and stepped in the shower, the steamy water running down her body.

She fought back the tears as she washed her hair and ran the soapy water everywhere.

Then turning off the water toweled herself off and changed into a pair of flannel shorts and a large t-shirt with two elastic holes in them for her wings.

She felt cold as a draft filled the room. She was so scared, why wouldn't this feeling go away. She closed her eyes. "There is no one here but you, just chill out,"

Maybe, if she got some sleep, maybe if she could just close her eyes and stop thinking about him, Rasputin, she could find some strength.

This was ridiculous, she was never like this, and had learned that death was nothing to be afraid of.

But then A sudden realization came to her that it was not death she feared. It was ushering in the end of the world. This was bigger than her, this was Armageddon.

Angela puffed out and shivered her feathers, getting all the extra water out of them. Then she drew back the sheets and blanket and snuggled down in them. She closed her eyes and tried to sleep. The room was dark, and Angela heard a noise. She sat up quickly and looked around. In the corner, she saw a man standing in the darkness.

She jumped out of bed, with her blanket. She ran to the front door but forgot the sofa was in the way and ran into it. Then scrambling back up she ran to the Garden door, swung it open and ran over to Hellboy's door. She banged on it as hard as she could. "HB." She yelled.

He didn't answer. She banged on the door again and yelled for him. "RED!!"

He still didn't answer so she grabbed the door and rushed in.

"iwastakingashowerandthenigotdressedbutasiwenttobediheardanoiseandthereamaninmyroom." She said as she wildly flew her hands about her as she told him about the man in her room.

But just as suddenly as she had burst through his door she gasped and her face turned a bright red as she whipped around to stair at the wall. "Y-your naked!" she said with embarrassment.

Hellboy was standing with a towel around his neck. Drying himself off after a shower.

"Uh, yeah," he said as he dropped the towel and began frantically trying to put his night pants on. He mistook the right leg for the left and fell over before putting them on correctly and pulling his pants up all the way. He stood up once more and scratched the back of his head. He closed his eyes and rubbed his face with his hand mortified. Trying to think of anything to say that would alleviate even a fraction of the uncomfortable tension in the room.

"O-ok you can turn around." he said. he couldn't think of anything.

"You know, um, t-that's ok, I-I um can…um talk to you tomorrow." She said in a half shaking half mortified voice.

her face was still bright red. She still had her eyes closed as she felt around for the door, she found it and grabbed the knob, opening it quickly and stumbling out with the huge blanket still clenched in her hands. leaving Hellboy wondering what just happened. She was a ball of nerves at this point, shaking all over uncontrollably. Her heart was pounding both from fear and embarrassment. But as she took a few steps toward her room she eyes the swinging door and stopped. Everything was dark, and she could only make out the outline of the pathway.

She started down it again, clutching the blanket more tightly and breathing heavily.

Each step was more and more frightening. The air became cold for no seeming reason and she could suddenly see her breath in front of her. She stopped dead in her tracks. What was going on?

A wind blew out of nowhere and her hair flew back behind her. it was a strong gust and as she turned to go back in the other direction a harsh, deep, and terrible noise filled her ears, its far off sound became closer and closer until she felt it was right behind her. "You can not escape."

She whirled around to see who was there but met only another harsh gust of wind and the same terrible noise that had sprung from it the voice. Her heart lurched in her chest as she felt the evil it carried with it, the same that she had felt before, the most terrible.

She wasted not another moment to kick up dirt from beneath her feet as took off, flying low against the grown faster than she ever had before away from the noise. Her heart beating fast and furiously. The air was pitch black and she looked behind her, certain she would find someone following.

"OOF," she flew straight into someone.

She looked up to find Hellboy standing there looking confused. "um.. are you alri…"

Angela grabbed hold of him. Grateful to find him.

"What's wrong?" asked Hellboy. Angela was shaking, she looked terrified.

She looked up at him. "Can I stay with you tonight?" she said. "I am not usually like this, things just don't get to me like this, I am usually stronger than this, more courageous, but I… I don't know…this is different somehow…"

"Of course you can." He said, he didn't need an explanation. He didn't need her to tell him she wasn't weak, he knew she was strong. He knew also how scary things could get. He knew that bravery was not about always being able to do it alone, it was about being able to admit you are scared and need help. Something he had never been brave enough to do.

"Come on, I will make the sofa up for you." he said with a smile.

Once inside Hellboy took her blanket and a few extra pillows from his bed and formed a comfy bed on the couch/truck.

"I feel like I'm going insane ya know, and everything is so dark. My mind has been playing tricks with me for a few days and I am just so terrified that I am going to turn a corner, open a door, and he will be there, this is driving me nuts, just sitting here waiting for him." She said as she crawled in the bed eh had made or her.

"He can't, get you here, I have told you. This place is far to well protected."

But she shook her head, "you don't understand, Rasputin is the most powerful evil I have ever felt."

Hellboy sat next to her and wrapped an arm around her. "He can't getcha. He wont, I promise." He said

Angela looked up at him. His hair was still wet, just as hers was. His black hair hung about his face and neck and he looked so handsome.

Hellboy could feel her still shaking, and he hugged her more tightly.

His warm grasp was comforting and slowly she could feel herself coming down from the fear. He moved beside her so she could lean on him and kept his grasp on her.

"Come on birdie, let's get your mind off this." He said turning on some cartoons for them to watch. "Try to sleep."

The cartoons were soothing over the next several hours and though she couldn't seem to shake the sense that things were not going to be alright, her fear slowly faded away in his presence, Until there was none left and she drifted off to sleep.

Hellboy loomed over her long after she had been sleeping peacefully. Her fears may have been gone, but his unspoken ones were with him all the time. He could understand why she was afraid. He was afraid also. And no matter how he tried, he could not convince himself things were going to work out. He peered at her as she slept. An angel from Hell, nothing made sense anymore. She was so beautiful, so at peace. Even when she was afraid, they way she moved, that way she talked, even the way her hair swayed, all exuded the message that she had once inhabited heaven.

She was not human, her human features, though so like a humans were also as far from earthly as they could get. It was an ironic twist of fate he thought. That she could look so human and yet at a glance could be recognized as something other than human. Anyone could see it. It wasn't a certain way she looked or a particular feature that set her apart, though the wings were a dead give away, it was something in her presence, something that he could feel when she walked into a room. Something everyone could pin her as an angel.

He wondered then, that with such angelic qualities, how much of her had been changed in Hell, and what made that change the one thing that Rasputin could use in his ritual.

He looked down at her again, moving a strand of hair from her face. As he looked at her he thought for a moment what he would do without her, how would he go on. Knowing he had once seen her smile, touched her face, held her hand, how would he continue on with his life if she should be killed.

Hellboy up to this point had told himself time after time that the reason he could never kill her or see her come to harm was because he cared for her so much. But now looking at her so close another more selfish reason crossed his mind. If anything were to happen to her, it would be as though a knife had cut his heart, he could never survive such an attack. He would die.