Strange mission

Another chapter set in the 'present time' as opposed to karl's past. There will be another one about the past coming next. These next few 'present' chapters are the ones with the large amounts of German (with translations), for no good reason... Anne Frank apperars, and Karl goes time-traveling. Also for no good reason.

It seems, Hellboy, that this time I have triumphed," Karl said, his blade pressed against the daemon's throat.

"So be it Nazi!" Hellboy growled, "I'm ready to face my death."

Karl laughed, and was about to plunge his baton sword into the red-skinned creature's neck, when he was stopped by a cry from behind him.

"Wait!"

It was Joe Rochmann. Karl did not take his eyes of Hellboy.

"What is it?" he snapped, angry at the interruption.

"You must not kill him. He has important information that we need. It involves you."

"Is that why he was here?"

"No." Hellboy replied instead. "I just came to kill you. But that knowledge was my ticket in here. Felix was easy to deceive."

"Wunderbar!" The German exclaimed sarcastically, "Why is it that my whole life is this strange? I just returned from a mission that almost killed me, then I have to fight a crazed daemon, and now this! I know it can't be anything good."

Karl got to his feet, letting Hellboy rise. Joe and the Chinese Empath, Hai-Tsan, came up behind him.

Hellboy snorted. "How exactly do you think you're going to get me to talk?"

Joe and Hai smiled.

"I don't think we've been introduced," Joe began.

We're Empaths, Hai added, speaking as always, mind-to-mind.

The daemon started at this, a flicker of doubt and perhaps fear passing across his features.

"It doesn't matter if you want to tell us or not."

We don't need your consent to read your mind.

Karl could feel the strange presence of the two Empaths' minds as they reached out to find the information they sought.

Behind his mask, the Nazi was smiling.

Karl and the two Empaths gathered around the table in the lounge as soon as they had finished.

"So what did you find?" Karl asked. Joe and Hai-Tsan had taken a surprisingly long time to extract this mysterious information from deep within Hellboy's brain.

"Well…how can I put this…it's weird," Joe said, shrugging.

"When is it not?" Karl replied.

It seems that this Hellboy has met someone who is almost certainly the granddaughter of Anne Frank!

"Was! What! I thought she was killed…"

"Not quite. She died of typhus at Bergen-Belsen."

And that's not all. You're connected to all this somehow. We think…

"That maybe you're supposed to go back in time and save her," Joe finished.

There was silence for a moment as Karl digested this.

We know it seems strange…

"Das ist eine ungenugende. That's an understatement "

…But that's the only possibility.

"Well I have to do it, don't I. We can't risk the consequences of failure. Although I can't fail, since I've already done whatever it is I'm supposed to do," The Nazi laughed briefly. "How exactly am I supposed to get back though? I don't know of any way to do that."

Well, that wasn't quite true. In fact it was a complete lie, and he knew that Hai-Tsan could sense that, but what he did know, what his father had told him, he was loath to reveal.

"Hellboy knows," Joe said. "But quite how we're going to get him to tell us…we can't read his mind to find out; someone's placed some seriously powerful mental blocks on it."

"The BPRD," Karl told him, his voice cold.

Abe?

"Almost certainly." The Nazi sighed. "Maybe I can convince Hellboy."

Hai-Tsan raised a slender eyebrow.

"If I can convince him how risky it'll be…I know he'd be glad to be rid of me."

As you wish then.

"Did Abe tell you where I was?" Karl asked, closing the door behind him. Hellboy was sitting facing the door, his tail curling around the arm of the chair. He had obviously tried to escape; there were pits in the wall and door where he had hit it with his stone fist.

"Why should I talk to you Nazi?" the daemon replied angrily.

Karl sat down opposite him.

"It can't hurt can it? Besides, I know you wouldn't want to take too long getting back to a certain human. If you wait too long, there might not be anyone to go back to."

"You wouldn't!"

"Of course I would," the Nazi replied, amused. Killing came easily to him.

Hellboy looked down, defeated.

"Yes, it was Abe. He found something of yours back in Russia, and we've been looking for you ever since. The President met Abe at one of those parties, and as soon as they shook hands he knew. I came straight here."

How much did they know? Karl wondered. Obviously they didn't know that he was actually the son of the original Kroenen; to use his predecessor's words, 'aclone of myself'. But did they know about…No; he couldn't even allow himself to think about it here. Who knew who might be listening in.

"And what about this time-traveling machine?" The Nazi tried to sound nonchalant, rather unsuccessfully.

"What makes you think I know anything about that?"

Karl tapped the side of his helmet; a gesture meant to symbolize mind reading.

"Even if I could tell you, I wouldn't!"

The Nazi chuckled. "I think you will tell me actually. No matter how long it takes. I know your weakness, and you know I wouldn't think twice about killing her…or worse."

Hellboy growled in frustration. Karl smiled widely behind his mask. He knew that the daemon would have to tell him. He cared about Liz too much. The Nazi had never let emotions get in the way of duty. The original Karl had been even more heartless.

"Fine, fine." Hellboy sighed. "It's at the BPRD."

"That might make things a little difficult."

"You don't stand a chance."

"Don't be so sure. I have a lot of tricks up my sleeve. Where, exactly, is it? I'll need to know if I'm going to go back."

The daemon seemed surprised. "I didn't think you'd actually go."

"Why not? I know better than to mess with the time stream. If I've already done it, I can't not do it."

"It just doesn't seem like something you'd do."

"Wenn ich wahlen konnte, ich wurde es nicht tun, Given a choice, I wouldn't. " Karl said, rising.

He glanced behind him as he left the room.

"I'll give you a little time to think…when I get back, I hope you'll have decided which is more important to you. Liz or duty."

Outside, Karl sighed and leant against the wall, thinking. His normally clear thoughts seemed tangled. The whole business seemed like a paradox; none of it made any sense! He was going back to save a Jew, and despite the fact that he tried not to mind that, he still hated this.

His father had taught him too well.

Anne Frank was a very famous Jew. Rescuing her would be changing history, he thought, but since he had already done it…Could you in fact change history, or was it immutable, unchanging? There seemed to be no answer to his questions.

Karl pushed himself away from the wall and began to walk slowly down the corridor, heading back to his room. He felt strange in the clothes the police had given him, and wanted to get back into his normal attire; the black leather trench coat, the leather SS jacket, black shirt, the sleek navy blue body-suit, and SS jackboots. He might have to buy another cap on eBay; he had lost what could have been his last one in the fight with the were-wolf. He frowned as he remembered the way the beast had changed; the moon had not been full. He would have to speak to President Sheila about that.

Hellboy sat alone in the interrogation cell, thinking. A deep, cold anger filled his heart; anger at having failed again to kill Kroenen, anger at the Nazi for threatening his beloved Liz, anger that he would now be forced to tell all he knew about the new time traveling technology the BRPD were testing.

He had been surprised to learn from Abe thatKroenen was still alive. The daemon hadn't thought that anyone could have survived that; spikes penetrating right through the Nazi's body, the huge piece of metal crushing him. But when they had returned later, Kroenen was gone, leaving only scraps of cloth, flesh, and the sand that served the assassin for blood.

But now that he thought about it, Kroenen had been hurt in their battle, and though it seemed impossible, Hellboy was sure he had seen blood. Real blood. That couldn't be true though. Kroenen had made a pact with Ogdru Jahad; he was barely human any more. He didn't have blood, because he wasn't really alive.

That wasn't the only thing that was strange about Kroenen. When he had entered Area 51, he had been wearing…well, not anything that the daemon could really imagine him wearing. The clothes hadn't suited him, and had fitted badly. When they fought, the Nazi hadn't seemed as fast or strong as the last time they had encountered one another, as if he had been hurt badly, and had only just recovered. Despite this he looked slightly younger, and less machine-like than before. Could Abe have been wrong? Was this really Kroenen? Hellboy didn't see how it could be anyone else, despite these anomalies.

Kroenen would be back soon, and he had better have something to tell him, or Liz would suffer the consequences...

Thank you for the reviews Psyco-Llama and Flying Fish15! Glad you liked the battle. Please review everyone!