The ship came to a stop in a harbour in England. Lucy looked out the window of the boat and decided that now would be a better time than ever to get off.
She briefly considered casually walking off and just killing anyone who came near her...but then she thought about it...She seemed to be in a different state altogether...It was possible no one knew of what she was capable of just yet...Maybe she could finally live a normal life...
That's when she decided to take a more stealthy approach to her exit. Unfortunately for her, she wasn't used to stealth. She had just managed to exit the room, when she was spotted.
"Hey! We've got a stowaway!" One of the crew members shouted. Lucy's eyes widened. She considered fighting...but if she wanted to attempt a normal life, that probably wasn't a very good idea. So, she took the next best option.
She ran.
"After her! Don't let her get away!" One of the crew members called out. The diclonius heard the sounds of footsteps and yelling behind her and internally sighed.
"Why can't anything in my life be easy?"
Meanwhile...
The tiny five year old hugged his knees tightly as he waited. Every second felt like an eternity. When was Uncle Vernon coming home? Just getting his inevitable punishment over with was better than the agonizing wait. Maybe he was lucky tonight, and didn't do anything wrong?
Doubtful. Vernon always found something to punish him for. Missing a spot while he was cleaning, overcooking the bacon while cooking breakfast, someone's clothes shrinking in the wash...It was all his fault. Why did he have to be a freak? Why couldn't he be normal like the rest of his family?
A half hour later, Harry had grown sleepy. His eyelids drooped, and he felt himself entering sleep...
The sound of the front door slamming open snapped Harry awake almost instantly. The sound of his uncle's stomping footsteps didn't exactly bode well...
"BOY! WHERE ARE YOU?!" Harry heard the large man bellow from down the hallway. The little boy gulped.
"I-I'm in m-my cupboard, u-uncle Vernon..." He whimpered. The scrawny child flinched as the cupboard door harshly opened. Harry forced himself to look into the scowling face of his uncle.
"Dudley's room isn't clean, boy." The walrus-like man said menacingly as he loomed over the scared five year old.
"I-I did clean it, though, Uncle Vernon..." Harry whimpered. The small child saw his cousin on the stairs, shooting him a smug grin. That explained it...
Vernon roughly smacked Harry across the face, knocking him against the wall of the cupboard. "Don't you lie to me, you worthless little FREAK!" He spat. And with that, the larger man grabbed the small boy by the back of his oversized shirt and hoisted him up. "You know what happens when you lie." Harry whimpered. He was in big trouble now...
Meanwhile...
Lucy panted as she ran.
"They just don't give up..." She thought as her pursuers shouted after her. She had managed to slow them down by using her vectors to drop objects in their path, so they were a fair distance behind, but she couldn't keep running forever. She had to lose them somehow.
Then, something caught her attention. A tool shed in the backyard of a small suburban house. She turned towards her pursuers, and noted that they were probably too far behind to notice if she ducked into the shed... Quickly, she leapt over the fence, picked the lock on the shed, ran inside, and slammed the door shut. Nothing to do now but wait and hope her hiding spot fooled them...She really hoped she didn't have to resort to killing them...
In the house...
"No good, worthless little freak!" Vernon shouted as he rained blows upon his nephew with the buckle end of a large leather belt. "We take you into our home out of the goodness of our hearts, and you can't even bother to perform one simple task?!"
Harry gritted his teeth as the belt added more scars and welts to his ever growing collection. He bit his tongue to keep from whimpering as he felt the buckle break through his skin, causing blood to ooze out of a deep cut in his back.
"Why...?" Harry thought as the assault continued. "Why can't I just be normal? Then Uncle Vernon wouldn't have to hit me anymore..."
Then the belt hit a very sensitive area...right on a still tender bruise Harry had sustained from an earlier beating. The buckle connected hard enough to once more destroy the skin, causing more blood to flow.
The terrible pain was too much for Harry at this point. He found himself unable to hold back the agonized scream that escaped his lips.
Outside the house...
Lucy sighed in relief as she heard the ship's crew give up on looking for her. She waited a few moments, partly to catch her breath, partly to give the crew members time to leave. She cautiously opened the door to the shed and looked around outside. No one in sight. Lucy wiped some sweat from her brow. Now she could-
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"
Her thoughts were interrupted as a pained scream filled the air. Lucy's eyes widened. She looked over at the house, the source of the scream.
That scream...Normally she would just ignore it...Just leave people to their own devices. But...something about that screen felt...wrong to her. She was oddly disturbed by the pained sounding nature of the yell. Something about it compelled her to see what it was about. Slowly, she approached the door...
In the house...
Harry's eyes widened in horror. Oh no...What had he done?! He wasn't supposed to do that!
He had absolutely no time to dwell on it, however, as the much larger man had flipped him over, grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, and lifted him up to eye level. Harry noted that his uncle's face was literally red with rage.
"WHAT. DID I SAY. ABOUT SCREAMING, BOY?!" Vernon roared as he wrapped his beefy hands around the small child's throat and started to wring his neck.
Harry's eyes widened as he felt his air supply get cut off. The small boy weakly struggled to escape his uncle's grasp and regain air in his lungs, but it was all in vain, as Vernon's grip was too strong.
Vernon decided not to strangle Harry to death, but he was far from done. He released his hold on Harry's throat, and as the little boy gasped for air, Vernon roughly tossed him away as hard as he could. Harry slammed into the wall with a sickening crunch, then fell to the floor.
Harry was unable to keep a few stray tears from falling at the agonizing pain. He was pretty sure Vernon broke some of his bones again...
"Stand up, boy." Vernon demanded. Harry weakly pulled his upped body off the floor, then moved to stand...but cried out slightly in pain at the terrible pain in his leg as he stood. The pain caused Harry to collapse onto the floor. "I said STAND UP, BOY!" Vernon roughly grabbed Harry and forced him onto his feet. Harry's legs once more gave out beneath him as the pain shot through them. "YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING LITTLE FREELOADER! YOU CAN'T EVEN STAND!" Vernon roared as he began raining punches down on the small child.
Harry thought Vernon was going to kill him...
They both froze at the sound of the door falling apart...
Lucy stared at the scene before her in shock. Then the shock quickly turned to absolute disgust and hatred for the man in front of her. The pink haired diclonius's one visible eye narrowed into a red slit.
Vernon was unnerved by the woman that had just somehow sliced apart his front door. The glare she was sending him only added to that. Still, he put on some false bravado to defend his property.
"Wh-What are you doing here?! This is breaking and entering! I have half a mind to call the police, and-"
Lucy was in no mood to listen to this man-no, this monster talk, so she instead let her vectors do the work.
Vernon stopped mid sentence as he looked to stare in shock at the stump that used to be his left arm. Shortly afterwards, his right arm fell off right along with it. And immediately after that, both of his legs were sheared right off, causing the overweight man to fall flat on his face. The pain was too intense for him to even scream.
Lucy stopped the vibrations of her vectors, and used them to balance the now limbless man on the stubs of his legs. Vernon stared in horror and agony as the woman slowly approached him. When she was close enough to reach down and touch him, she stopped and shot him the most terrifying glare he had ever seen.
Then, she spoke.
"It hurts. Doesn't it?" She asked. Vernon shivered at her tone. It was so cold, so malicious... She wasn't done, however. "How does it feel? To be absolutely helpless? To be unable to fight back against your tormentor? To have someone inflict so much pain upon you while you can't do anything about it?" Vernon said nothing, only managing to let out a pained whimper. "There's another in this room that will agree with you that it's not a pleasant experience." And with that, she focused her gaze on Harry as Vernon succumbed to his injuries and died.
Harry stared in horror at his uncle, now limbless and absolutely helpless. What had this woman done to him...? Harry's eyes drifted to his uncle's tormentor...and promptly widened in fear when he realized she was now looking at him.
Harry whimpered and pulled himself to his feet. He desperately tried to run...but cried out in agony as his legs once again gave out beneath him, causing him to fall flat on his face.
Lucy's eyes softened at the sight of the pitiful little boy before her. Something about the scared child just tugged at her heartstrings... Maybe it was just the concept of seeing such a young child in so much undeserved pain... Slowly, she began to approach the child.
Harry looked at the woman, wide-eyed in terror, as she began walking towards him. He couldn't walk, he wasn't fast enough to crawl...He would just have to wait for the inevitable...This was all his fault...He didn't know what he had done, but it was his fault... Whimpering, Harry covered his face with his arms and braced himself for the inevitable. He felt something touch him and flinched, awaiting the agonizing pain...
It never came.
Instead, the small boy found himself being gently adjusted into a sitting position. Harry opened his eyes and slowly lowered his arms from their position in front of his face. He looked at the woman who had just ripped his uncle's limbs off, the terrified expression never once leaving his face.
Lucy frowned at the expression on the child's face. Maybe she shouldn't have dismembered his uncle right in front of him, though the bastard did deserve it...She felt the need to assure the child that she meant no harm. So, slowly and gently, she reached out and placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder. He looked surprised at the gesture, quickly looking at Lucy's hand, and back to her face...which was now giving him a soft, reassuring smile that somehow melted away all his fear.
"It's alright." She assured him softly. "I'm not going to hurt you." Harry blinked at her.
"Wh-Why did y-you kill uncle Vernon...?" He asked softly, scared she might hit him for talking out of turn. To his relief, she smiled in response.
"I...I felt the need to save you from him..." She responded.
"B-But did you have to...to kill him?" He asked. Lucy frowned. Maybe there was a chance no one would know it was her...
"...I just...couldn't control myself..." She explained softly. She made a mental note to try to avoid killing around the child...
"Oh...Like me and my freakiness..." Harry said. Lucy blinked at this, but shrugged it off.
"Listen...I can tell this is not a very good home for you, and anywhere else would be much better...How would you like to come with me?" Harry looked up at her, and thought about it.
This woman seemed nice...and he didn't want to know what Aunt Petunia and Dudley would do to him if they saw what happened to Vernon...
Harry looked up at the pink-haired lady and nodded shyly. Lucy smiled, then gently took Harry into her arms. Harry flinched at the physical contact at first...but when he saw she wasn't hurting him, he relaxed. The feeling of being gently held in the woman's arms, with his head rested against her shoulder, was actually quite comforting. In fact, it was the most comfortable he had ever been.
Harry let out a small yawn, and then he fell asleep in the diclonius's arms.
Lucy looked down at the sleeping child...and then let a small smile grace her features. Not wanting to spend any more time in that house, she quietly walked out the door, Harry in tow.
In the house...
Petunia Dursley noticed things got eerily silent after listening to her husband giving the freak another well-deserved beating. Unsettled by the silence, she got out of her bed and went to see what the problem was. She walked down to the living room.
"Vernon?" She called. "Is everything al-" Her face blanched when she saw her husband's corpse. She let out a shriek comparable to that of a banshee.
With Lucy...
Lucy scowled back at the house when she heard the scream. So there were other people in that house that either condoned or had a hand in this child's abuse... They were lucky they weren't in the room, or she would have killed them as well...
She noticed the sound of the scream slightly disturbed Harry's slumber, as he shifted uncomfortably in her arms. Quickly, she stroked his back, which almost immediately brought the slightest hint of a smile to his face. Lucy smiled at the sleeping child, but one thought ran through her mind.
'What am I going to do with you?'
