Hellboy Wake Me Up When November Ends

This is NOT a sonfic. I wrote the fic and was trying to think of a name and this song came over the radio and I felt like it fit so... There we are.

I own no one but Charlotte Jameosn.

Enjoy.

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><p>On November 15 the fight began again.<p>

For the seventh time in three months the B.P.R.D agents met with the same evil they had before.

Many had died, many had deserted, and the fight raged on.

The current mad sociopathic paranormal creature had announced himself as Lethaut, the general of the third right. Abe had found him in the professor's library and they had learned that he was something of a sandman gone wrong.

He was pale, paler then Nuada and Nuala, with skin that was literally translucent so one could catch glimpses of the glowing cheek bones beneath his skin and the front of his skull. His face was the only thing not perpetually covered. He was large, as tall if not taller than Hellboy, but he lacked the breadth of back and shoulders that made the large demon and even the elven prince so intimidating. The dark robes he wore, like an anorexic wizard, and his curved back did nothing but make his emaciated form all the more pathetic. But the eyes that peered from beneath his hood, blinking past stringy strands of faded brown hair, were enough in and of themselves to cancel every other deceptively weak looking trait. His eyes looked, for all the world, like color wheels, constantly spinning and flexing, combining and separating in hypnotic and dizzying patterns.

It was those eyes that had begun to haunt the B.P.R.D agents in their dreams and resulted in few dreams and little sleep which, in turn, resulted in tired, cranky, careless agents. Easier targets. The only ones who remained unbothered by Lethuat's dreamland intrusions were the paranormal agents and a very few human agents who seemed to be able to banish Lethaut out of sheer will power.

The call to battle arrived in the form of one such agent. Agent Charlotte Jameson had galloped into the library moments after the alarm began to blare. She gave a quick brusque briefing as well as the command that they proceeded to the garbage truck before turning and disappearing down the hallway with the same speed and silence with which she had arrived.

It was fitting, really, that the day's nightmare would be introduced by her.

Charlotte Jameson was about as unimpressive as they came, with flat brown hair, a medium, slightly lanky build, and the coldest eyes any of them had ever seen. Her brown eyes, as normal as they seemed, always held a steely edge that was mirrored in her tone and the scowl that habitually darkened her face. It was that look, cool, disdainful, and distrusting, that the paranormal agents had come to despise as much as they did her.

Early into her stay, Agent Jameson had managed to establish herself as a cold woman who followed the bureau rules to the letter. It was, presumably, for this reason that she had been named the paranormal agents' guard. No one bothered calling her a babysitter, as they had with previous guards, because she had made it clear early on that she didn't care to know any of them.

She was, in that way, an enigma. She fell into neither of the categories that Hellboy classed the bureau employees into; Scared or suck ups. Jameson treated them with the same cool uncaring that she treated the rest of the world with, but had, more than once, pulled her gun on an escape intent demon. In fact, everyone but Nuala had at one point stared down the barrel of her pistol and gaped at the icy brown eyes that glared at them.

As such, Agent Jameson had been one of the first suspects when the sleep invasions began. One of the only agents unaffected by the hauntings, many were convinced she was a turncoat and she had been imprisoned for over a week. The strange part was that, once released, she had acted no different than before. There was no visible animosity for the ridicule and abuse she had received during her confinement.

It was this which had initially tipped off some of the more observant agents. Nuada, Krauss, and Abe had begun to wonder at her demeanor and had even begun to guess that Agent Jameson's cold behavior was more from habit than any dislike for her peers. They had offered this idea to the other paranormal agents and while several blew it off, it stayed at the back of all their minds.

Slowly, understanding began to dawn.

It was, presumably, for this reason that, as they crowded into the garbage truck, Agent Jameson wasn't jostled once. Nor was she shoved, pushed, punched, tripped, mocked, or assaulted in any way. She sat in the seat that had, for the first time been, left open for her and peered suspiciously at the agents, put on guard by their unprovoked civility.

The paranormals tried to strike up conversation repeatedly but they received nothing more than monosyllabic answers and a mistrusting stare. It quickly became clear just how guarded they had made her.

The nearer they got to the current battlefield, an underground cavern under an abandoned warehouse this time, the quieter the truck became as the occupants became lost in their own musings.

Nervous ticks were showing all around as the agents grew restless. Nuada kept sliding his spear from spear to long handled knife to spear again. Abe was flicking through several old books on mythical beings, books he had read a thousand times. Liz was making sparks appear at the tip of each finger, rolling them down to her palm and smothering them before doing it again. Hellboy petted Liz's hair as his hand clutched Big Baby in nervous convulsions. Krauss sat still but his vents seemed to moving faster than usual. Jameson was in the corner between Nuada and the wall and was cleaning her spotless gun repeatedly.

Nuada had started watching her, still flicking his spear, after Abe started into his third book. He had been watching her since, and she had disassembled her gun, polished it and reassembled it five time when he spoke. "Why do you do it?"

"Do what?" she asked without looking up. She was the only one in the truck who didn't. The prince's question had caught everyone's attention.

"Why do you stay with the Bureau? You've stayed several times longer than any other agent. You could leave if you wanted."

"I could." She agreed, starting to take her gun apart for the sixth time.

"Then why?" Nuada pressed.

Agent Jameson said nothing. Staying silent long enough that they began to think she wouldn't. Suddenly she stopped polishing her gun and looked up, staring at the wall of the truck. She stared at it for a long moment before saying "Someone has to."

This answer was unsatisfactory to the prince and he shook his head. "Someone does do it. If you left you would be replaced." It came out harsher than he had meant it to and Agent Jameson turned to look at him, brow raised, giving him a sardonic look.

"Just because I would be replaced does not mean someone would be doing it." She turned back to her polishing. "Most of the agents don't last long enough or are too scared to ever do their job properly."

"But there are some who would do it. And you could assist the Bureau without dealing with us. So why do you stay? We are considered the worst assignment in the Bureau."

At this Jameson snorted. The paranormal agents watched in bemusements as her shoulders shook with laughter. Slowly Liz began to grin and laugh softly as well. A wave of chuckles spread about the truck until everyone, even Nuada were laughing.

Finally, Jameson looked up, wiping tears from her eyes and grinning a quick, radiant smile. "Well, they couldn't be more right. You lot are a pain in the ass."

Grins appeared around the truck again. Still, Nuada pushed.

"Why do you stay?"

The agent shrugged, fitting her gun back together. "People hate you on impulse because you're different. And you're homicidal." she added nodding to Nuada. The elf accepted the comment with a shrug. "For all they scream about monsters and demons, if you lot weren't here, they'd be seeing a lot more strange creatures and those wouldn't be looking out for them. Without you, most of them would probably be dead by now, a couple times over." She shrugged, laying her polishing rag across her knee. "I figure I might as well do my part."

The truck was quiet for a moment and then Abe asked "That's it? You're just doing your part?" When he received a raised brow, he hurried to add "Not that that isn't a perfectly good reason."

Jameson shifted, staring at the opposite wall again. "I just figure it's better if someone like me is in danger rather than someone with a family." She shrugged again, looking uncomfortable for the first time.

"I'm sorry." Liz said softly.

"Why? I'm not." She sat up straight, and rolled her shoulders. "It is what it is and that's never bothered me."

The truck was silent for a moment before Nuada said "My sister says I should thank you for dealing with us."

Jameson looked at him and shrugged. "Unusual does not a monster make."

Several minutes later the truck began to slow and finally stopped. The agents stood and began to file from the back of the truck. Just after she hopped down from the truck, Agent Jameson felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to find Liz behind her. "Be careful." The Pyro said, offering her hand

The agent was silent for a moment before gripping the hand. "You too." They nodded at each other and turned to join the group as they received a final briefing.

Ten minutes later the agents emerged from a narrow winding staircase into the huge underground cavern. The walls looked like carved rock and the ground was packed dirt with large boulders, some as large as cars, that appeared to have fallen from the ceiling. The ceiling itself was impossibly high and seemed to have stalactites hanging from it. There were what looked like gopher holes every few hundred feet.

"Pleasant place, this." Jameson muttered from the front where she was spearheading the group. She took another step and another. The next moment, all hell broke loose.

Hundreds of little men with ruddy skin and varying shades of red hair came flooding from the gopher holes. They mobbed around the agents, the tallest one no higher than Nuada's knee. Still, they began climbing legs, hitting, kicking and babbling in high pitched voices.

"Jesus!" Hellboy yelped as one of them bit him. He stumbled out of formation, trying to kick the little monsters from him. Several had attached themselves to his shins and the mob around his ankles seemed determine to trip him.

"What are these, Agent Abraham?" Krauss asked, swatting a little man away with his hand.

"They seem to be Leprechauns." Abe responded catching one of them and holding it a at arms length. The thing let out a cackle and sank its teeth into Abe's hand. "Ow, it bit me!"

"Just keep moving." Jameson ordered. Plowing through the sea of Leprechaun, she kicked several out of the way. "They won't be any trouble as long as you don't let them over run you."

Nuada waded up behind her, stepping on several Leprechauns as he went. "These are only a distraction. They can do little damage. They are meant to hide something."

"Joy." Jameson grunted, making her way over to Hellboy and swatting a Leprechaun off his shoulder. "Don't waste your ammunition." Hellboy looked up from where he had a Leprechaun by the neck with his gun in his face. He grumbled and holstered his gun, drop kicking the creature instead.

Liz came up behind them, the only one of them unbothered by the little men since she was flaming up to her knees. "There's something moving up there." She pointed over Nuada's shoulder and the group turned to peer into the darkness.

A shadow was moving up ahead and, as it stepped in to the light of their flashlights. It was huge. About the size of a moose but with what looked like twice the bulk, most of which seemed to be muscle. It had what looked almost like grey scales except they gave the distinct impression that they were exuding some sort of slime. A scarlet horn spiraled from its forehead, nearly two feet long and ending in a murderous tip.

"It's a Unicorn." Nuada stated, straightening from his crouch and flicking a Leprechaun from his thigh.

"That's a Unicorn?" Hellboy asked, looking as utterly disillusioned as he sounded.

Nuada ignored him. "They're passive creatures unless threatened, so as long as we don't rush toward him, he won't bother us."

At that point the Unicorn raised its head, stepping forward and they could see its eyes. They were the same colored pinwheels that Lethaut had.

It opened its mouth and spoke in a gravelly voice. "All hail Lethaut, general of the third right."

Lights suddenly flashed into existence, white and harsh. It blinded the agents for a moment and, when they could see again, they wished they couldn't.

The whole cave was now illuminated by what looked like car sized flowers that floated twenty feet above their head and they found that they were surrounded by not only obnoxious little Leprechauns but nearly fifty Unicorns and what had to be a hundred sandy creatures that were in the half rotted figures one might mistake for zombies. They had run into these creatures before and, while Abe had been unable to find anything about them, Lethaut called them his Sand Minions. Every creature in the room but the agents had color wheels for eyes. Even the Leprechauns were staring at them with those dizzying eyes.

Hellboy looked around the room "I think I've seen something like this before. In a medicine induced dream." He looked around again, nodding to himself. "Yeah, everything looks like a tripped out dream. I wonder if-"

A high voice interrupted him. "Well, looks to me like we have guests, my lovelies." Lethaut was perched high above them, hanging on a trapeze bar attached to one of the stalactites. "Let's show them a good ti-" His words choked into silence as Jameson's bullet whizzed past his head. He let out a furious screech. "Kill them all!"

With that, the army of creatures lunged forward and everything was chaos.

Hellboy had Big Baby out and was stomping crazed Leprechauns and shooting Unicorns and Sand Minions left and right. He had lost sight of all the other agents and was fighting just to keep from being overrun. The Unicorns were particularly difficult since being shot didn't seem to do much more then enrage them. One particularly furious one nearly skewered Hellboy more times then he liked to admit. He lost count of how many near misses he had and how long it had been since the fight began. He just kept forging his way forward, whereever that was.

Suddenly he backed into something solid and, sparing a glance behind him, found it was one of the large rocks they had noticed before. Quickly he scrambled up it and proceeded to protect the rock like it was his world. Speaking of his world, he could see Liz several hundred feet away, on a similar rock, toasting every thing that got within ten feet of her rock.

From his current vantage point Hellboy could see that the sea of crazed creatures had seriously diminished. Unicorns were lying dead on piles of Leprechauns and sand. He could see Krauss near one of the walls with Abe, holding their own against several Sand Minions. All he could see of Nuada was his spear flashing occasionally above a group of three Unicorns. He couldn't see Jameson but he could hear her gun, somewhere to the left of Liz.

He had just kicked another Unicorn in the muzzle when he saw Lethaut clambering up a particularly large rock. Hellboy had to look away long enough to dispatch several Sand Minions and when he looked back over, his heart stopped.

Lethaut was making hand gestures, his eyes glowing. They had seen him do this before. Rainbow colored light would spring from his fingertips and twist themselves into a blinding white beam of light. There would be a flash and his victim would be dead. No exceptions. And Lethaut was aimed directly at Liz.

With a furious bellow, Hellboy vaulted from his rock, plowing his way toward Liz. Deep in the part of him that was more soldier than slacker, he knew he could never make it. This did nothing but make him run faster.

He could hear Lethaut yelling his spell above the sounds of the battle and then a brilliant light blossomed, and as his sight faded, he heard a bang and an earsplitting scream. He knew that scream. Liz's scream.

"Nooooo!"

It took several minutes for his sight to come back and he thrashed against the other creatures all the while. Even when he stopped feeling other bodies around his, he continued to fight. Finally, his sight returned and he froze, staring at the empty top of Liz's rock. His eyes followed the rock to the ground where Liz lay.

"Liz!" he croaked running toward her. He fell to his knees, scooping her into his arms, sobbing uncontrollably. "No, Liz." He pressed his face into her hair and broke down completely.

"Red?" the words were soft but he heard them and his head snapped up. He stared unbelievingly at Liz who who blinked back at him.

With another sob he hugged her franticly. For once, Liz didn't complain. "Never do that again." he ordered, his voice breaking.

She patted his head. "Promise."

It wasn't until Krauss and Abe approached him that he looked up. He stood, still holding Liz and, when she wiggled, refused to put her down. "What happened?"

Krauss shook his head. "After Lethaut attacked, there was panic for a moment and then they all started running."

"Where's Lethaut?" Liz asked, having given up on getting down.

"Dead." Nuada said, walking up to them. He gestured with his spear, toward a scrawny corpse behind him. "Shot through the head."

"So that's what happened?" Hellboy asked, looking at the woman in his arms.

Liz shrugged. "I remember looking up at that light, then something hit me, I screamed and fell off the rock. I blacked out and woke when Red was holding me."

"Something hit you?" Abe asked. "What could that have been?"

There was silence for a moment and then Nuada spoke, solemn. "Where's Jameson?" The group stared at him for a moment before they fanned out, horrified at what they might find.

It didn't take long to find her. Nuada was the first one to see her and called the others over. She lay on the opposite side of Liz's rock. They approached her prone figure silently. It was Nuada who knelt to confirm what they all already knew. If you were hit by that flash, you were dead. No exceptions.

She could have been asleep, her eyes were closed, her shoulders and neck relaxed into the packed dirt. A gash was still dripping on her right cheek and the left side of her uniform was smoldering. Liz pated the fire out with her hand.

"She hit me off the rock." The statement was brittle and she turned back to Hellboy, wrapping her arms miserably around him. He returned the gesture before scooping her back into his arms. She didn't fight him.

Nuada bent and picked Agent Jameson up, cradling her head on his shoulder. Silently, the agents turned and left the room as the flowers above them dimmed and the bodies about them cooled.

On November 15 Agent Charlotte Jameson died.

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><p>So, I hope you enjoyed it. I've considered doing a epilogue to this but I haven't decided if I should. I'd love to hear responses. So please, review.<p> 


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