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[The six hour cart ride from shore left Hellboy with a crick in his neck and a bad taste in his mouth. Not much surprises him anymore, and after spending who the hell knows how long being hunted by the Baba Yaga, he was glad to be out of her reach, even if he knew he was nowhere near familiar ground.

The guys who fished him out of the ocean had no problem telling him where he was or how he got there, but after a few moments of conversation, Hellboy realized that he just didn't give a crap. Wherever this "In Between" was, he knew it couldn't be good. It was only a matter of time before the real reason he was here reared its ugly head.

Until then...]

Anyone know where a guy can get a drink around here?

[He looks like utter crap, every inch of him cut and bruised, his hair falling out of its knot at the base of his neck, and his jacket blood-soaked and tattered to pieces, but looking presentable is obviously the last thing on his mind.]

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Earth Sector. Sign on the door says EA-1B. Hope you know where that is, because I sure as hell don't.

[... So he's close enough to be a neighbour. Good to know.]

I'll be there in a few minutes. [And true to her word, she knocks on Hellboy's door a few minutes later.]

Hellboy?

[He opens the door, still leaning slightly on the doorframe as he takes in the sight of her. His coat is off, and most of his upper torso is covered in white bandages that have been bled through in patches. A cigarette hangs limply from his mouth.]

Hey.

Edited 2012-09-14 00:36 (UTC)

Hey. [The sight of him injured is worrisome, but at least he's had that tended to.

... Though he'll probably need to change those bandages sooner rather than later.]

It's good to see you. [To really see him, and not just see him on some screen.]

[Aw, hell with it. He reaches for her with his normal arm and pulls her into a half-hug, paying no attention to his wounds.]

You too, kid. You too.

[Then he releases her, but stays close. He's still half afraid he'll wake up from the dream soon and she'll be gone.]

You wouldn't believe the crap I've been through.

[The hug is appreciated. It's another reminder that, yes, he's really here.]

With everything that happened back home, I probably could.

[His expression turns grave again.]

I've been living in the middle of the ocean for the last two years. I haven't got a damn clue what's going on.

[Part of him doesn't even want to know.]

Edited 2012-09-14 01:55 (UTC)

Trouble getting to Africa? [Poor attempt at humour. But... yeah.]

A lot has happened since you left.

I guess swimming there wasn't my best idea. [So much deadpan humor. So much.]

[He searches her face, that familiar stab of guilt expanding in his chest.]

You should come in.

[He moves out of the doorway to let her through.]

A plane might've been a better idea.

[She steps inside and... doesn't really know what to do next. So she'll just start from the beginning.]

You remember I went to Agartha before you quit, right?

Edited (because i suck at remembering to change the subject line) 2012-09-14 02:24 (UTC)

[He sits himself down on one of the stone window seats with a grunt. Definitely gonna be sore in the morning.]

The place with the monks? Yeah.

Edited 2012-09-14 02:40 (UTC)

I was there for two years. Learned how to stay calm and keep control over my powers. [She sighs.]

We were invaded. As it turns out, Earth's hollow. There was an earthquake, and then some little guys came in and took me... my spirit. They took my spirit and used my fire to power some kind of war machine.

I was calling out to Abe, and somehow it managed to get to him. Roger and Johann - used to be a physical medium, but his body was destroyed, and now he's living in a containment suit. Anyway, Roger and Johann came along with Abe to find me.

Edited (GOD DAMN IT SELF USE THE RIGHT DAMN SUBJECT) 2012-09-14 02:43 (UTC)

[Hellboy just listens silently, afraid where this story might go. If the guys who fished him out of the ocean where right, there's a chance she didn't make it out of there alive.]

We got out okay, and I joined back up with the B.P.R.D. Things were okay for a little while - or as okay as things can be, in our line of work.

... You remember Cavendish Hall, right? With the frogs? [She knows he does, but she just... wants to make sure.]

Not something I'm gonna forget, Liz. That was a bad one.

[Only a few of the jobs he's done over the years have reached the level of horrible enough to be called "bad ones", and in his mind, Cavandish Hall will always be one of the worst. One of those frog monsters killed his father. He'll never forget that.]

They came back. The frogs and Sadu-Hem.

Investigators found some kind of fungus growing in the ruins of Cavendish Hall. They brought it back and let it grow, and then some guy came in, shot the person monitoring it, and took it with him.

He let the damn thing take over the body of the guy he shot - Sadu-Hem came back as a goddamn mushroom, and then invaded a dead man's body. And then it turned an entire city into those frog monsters. Every single person there was turned into one of those things!

Holy crap. I should've known none of those goddamn tentacle monsters ever stay dead.

[He takes one long, last drag out of his cigarette, then pitches it out the window.]

A whole city of frog monsters. A whole damn city.

Yeah, except it didn't stop at a city.

We tracked them down, and I burned Sadu-Hem again. So far, it hasn't come back.

Somebody killed Abe, although he came back shortly after. Everything would have been okay, except the frogs didn't need Sadu-Hem. They kept on spreading without it.

The Bureau brought on Ben Daimio - he was an army guy, was killed in duty, but came back to life. He was made the new field commander while Kate and Abe were gone checking something out. We ended up being relocated to an old base in Colorado.

Except some old German guy was living in a sub-basement that nobody knew about. He tried to summon a seraphim, but Johann managed to close the portal and Daimio killed the guy that started it.

We then spent the next couple of years fighting the frogs as the spread across the states. [There's more, but it's still a lot to take in. If Hellboy wants her to continue, she will. If not, she'll save it for later.]

[It is a lot to take in. Normally he could handle this. Normally he'd be okay. But with all the crap happening to him lately, his mind just blanks. All that time spent at Harry's he never cared to find a television or pick up a newspaper. He didn't want to know.

He didn't want to know what he'd left his friends behind to.]

I shouldn't have left.

[Now he really needs that drink again.]

No, you shouldn't have. [A quiet agreement. But... well, there's still more.]

During one attack on a place infested with frogs, some old woman somehow got past the people keeping watch. She gave me a flower, and... [And the visions started.] I fell into a coma. I had this dream with a man that told me the frog problem was worse than I thought, and when I woke up I coughed up a piece of paper - apparently it had some writing on it that said Katha-Hem was coming.

Then... Roger was sent on a mission. Except he never came back.

Somebody calling himself 'The Black Flame' somehow took control of the frogs, but... the place Roger and everyone was in. He destroyed it.

... Roger was nothing but a chunk of rubble when they brought him back.

[He runs a hand over his face. Roger. He was a damn good guy. Ended his own life to save Liz. It was a stroke of luck they brought him back, but that doesn't make it any less tragic. He related to Roger. Took him under his wing. Made sure he had a future and a life with the B.P.R.D.

When he left, he knew something like this could happen. They planted a damn bomb in him. Half of him had been expecting Liz to tell him they decided to pull the trigger.

Hellboy sits there for a long while in silence. Outside the window, darkness has begun to fall, casting him in shadow.

There's nothing he can say.]

[Liz is quiet for a moment - it's hard to keep going after poking at old wounds - before she finally continues.

She tells him everything that happened afterward. Katha-Hem, Liz destroying it with the artifact that was kept in Roger's room, Kate trying to find a way to bring Roger back, Abe and Ben's trip that ended in saving the world and bringing back Panya, and... well. The fact that the dreams haven't stopped.]

The man in my dreams stopped showing up when I was brought here, but they're still happening. [Hah. As if that even matters compared to everything else that's happened. Maybe it'll be important in the future, if she ever returns home, but right now it's hard to focus on the future.]

You should have been there, Hellboy.

It probably wouldn't have made a difference, but... we needed you.

I needed you!

What was so amazing about the other side of the world that kept you there for so long?

[And he listens in sullen silence. He listens to every damn word, that pit in his chest growing with every second. But he owes her every minute of it. He deserves every ounce of pain and guilt.

It's only when she asks a question does he lift his eyes.]

Nothing. Not a goddamn thing.

[He keeps his voice level, but there's pain there. Pain and more anger than he can express. And mourning for the person he once was. The man she remembers him to be.

But he isn't that man. He never was.]

[Liz is at a loss for what to say next. What else can even be said, at this point?

She honestly isn't sure.]

... I'm pretty sure Abe still has that picture of us all. [The one of Hellboy, Abe, Kate, and herself just... posing and being happy together.] Or at least, I think I saw it somewhere the last time I was in his room.

[Liz doesn't really know where she's going with this, but it's something, at least.]

[He just nods, his focus somewhere in the middle distance. He can't make himself look at her anymore.]

Did you guys get my letter?

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