Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Finding Tilly

Chapter 1:

‘‘What in the- SIR?’’ His boss was not the last person Moxxie had expected to bump into in the bushes, but not the first either.

‘‘MOXXIE? What the f*ck are you doing here?’’

‘‘Uh-trying to finish the job you gave me.’’

‘‘Christ on a stick, you're still workin’ on that? It's been like a f*cking week! THIS, is why I don't trust you with d*ck Moxx.’’

‘‘And what exactly are you doing here sir?’’

‘‘Apparently helping finish your botched job…But mostly I'm looking for my sister-’’ Blitzø didn’t explain further and instead proceeded to kick the door down.

‘‘BARBIE!’’

‘‘BLITZØ!?’’

‘‘You know her?’’ How does he-

‘‘Do I know her? That's my sister, f*ckface!’’

Oh, yeah, that makes sense.

‘‘What the f*ck are you doing here sh*thead?’’ The sister yelled.

At least now he knew the yelling was genetic.

‘‘I should be asking you the same thing! You check yourself out of rehab, no call, no note, and I have to track you down to this sh*thole with- who the f*ck is this?’’

‘‘No one, he works for me, and who’s the little twink here?’’

Ouch.

‘‘No one... He works for me.’’

Gee, thanks, Blitzø. ‘‘Sir! That guy’s the target!’’

‘‘Oh, sh*t Barb! Looks like your little boy toy got himself into some trouble.’’

‘‘The f*ck are you talking about?’’

‘‘He killed our client, and now our client wants to kill him back.’’ He explained.

‘‘You f*cking WHAT?’’

‘‘He found out about your drugs.’’ The human kid tried to defend himself but Barbie wasn’t having it.

‘‘I don't want to f*cking hear it kid.’’ She then turned to her brother: ‘‘Look you're not killing my supplier.’’

‘‘Oh f*ck... supplier of what? You're not back on that H-8 are you?’’

H-8!?

‘‘FUCK, NO! It’s just heroin.’’

‘‘Oh, thank Satan!’’

‘‘So now you're peddling heroin? What's the point? That sh*t barely gets rid of a headache.’’

Of-F*cking-course Blitzø would know that.

‘‘It's honest work okay? And I thought it would be sure to keep me as far away from you as possible.’’

‘‘And you teamed up with genius here because?’’

‘‘Do you have any idea how easy teenage humans are to manipulate?’’

‘‘Heeey! No, I'm not!’’ The human whined again.

‘‘Oh Jimmy-Wimmy can you pwease keep loading up deez dwuggie-wuggies for me?’’

‘‘Heh, sure Barb. Whatever you say.’’

Okay, that’s enough. ‘‘Sir... I've spent a week on this... I'm finishing it, one way, or another...’’

‘‘Don't you dare!’’

And then chaos.

Moxxie couldn’t even do his job properly because whenever he tried to attack the kid, she got in his way, and whenever he tried to get past her, Blitzø got in his way because he didn’t wanna hurt her.

Then eventually a firework got the guy.

What happened next, however, was not something he could’ve guessed in a million years.

‘‘SATAN F*CKING DAMNIT!!!’’ Barbie was mad. Again. ‘‘Thanks a lot, Blitzo, I'm out of a job! F*CK!’’

‘‘Barb wait!’’ Blitzø begged her. Moxxie hadn’t thought he’d see the day. ‘‘I want help you- Let me help you. Please? You're clean now right- let's... grab dinner, we'll catch up, and we'll talk about-’’

She interrupted him with a laugh that made the smaller imp feel nauseous.

‘‘You don't f*cking get it!’’ She shouted in his boss’s face. ‘‘Just cause I'm outta rehab doesn’t mean I wanna see you! I never wanna see you, EVER!’’

And then she yelled at the top of her lungs, the words that would haunt Moxxie for weeks on end.

‘‘AND I DON’T CARE ABOUT YOU, YOUR BUSINESS, YOUR LIFE, OR THAT HELLHOUND B*TCH YOU REPLACED TILLY WITH!’’

Blitzø’s entire body went still, in clear shock, he didn’t respond. Probably because he physically couldn’t.

Moxxie seriously -and genuinely- worried for the guy for a minute there that it took a minute or two to realize what his sister had just implied.

‘‘Next time you want to find me Blitzo- DON'T!’’ Then she left.

For the next several minutes he watched his boss stare into where she was standing previously.

‘‘Sir?’’ He approached him, treading cautiously. ‘‘Blitzø?’’

But the guy lunged forward and pinned him to the ground.

‘‘Moxxie.’’

Oh, no. He knew that tone of voice. His father used it whenever Moxxie saw something he wasn’t supposed to. Slightly choked him to get the point across.

Like Blitzø was doing now.

‘‘IF YOU TELL ANYONE ABOUT WHAT YOU JUST HEARD, INCLUDING MILLIE, I WILL END YOU.’’

Then he got off him like nothing had just happened.

‘‘Go find Millie and get back to the office.’’

And then he left.

>>> Weeks later

If he knew avoiding Moxxie was going to get him kidnapped, Blitzø might not have left the office midday.

Okay, no, he would’ve. He just wouldn’t have run off to Greed of all places. One of the few places no one in the office would look for him.

Then he wouldn’t be stuck with… Fizz. Struggling to get out of the tape that he wasn’t gonna do so with that attitude.

‘‘Oh, chill out, jester! Christ on a stick, it's like you've never been tied up before.’’

‘‘Sure, but not by a bunch of psychos! And a piece of sh*t!’’

‘‘Am I… Okay... okay, am I the psycho or the piece of sh*t?’’

‘‘Both.’’

‘‘Yeah, that checks.’’ He’d accepted long ago that that’s what Fizz thought of him now.

Not that he didn’t deserve it after everything.

‘‘How is this happening!? I was just supposed to grab some gas station milk and rehearse some juggling!’’

Did this guy used to whine this much back when Blitzø was in love with him?

‘‘Oh, relax, I'm sure your big royal chicken ain't gonna let anything happen to his peppy lil' f*ck doll.’’

‘‘Ooooh, playin' that card huh? Ok... What about you? Seems your tastes have gotten more.... regal, lately?’’

Of course, he wasn’t going to let what happened that night at OZZIE’S go. Figures. ‘‘Yeah, well unlike you, I f*ck who I want when I want. I'm not gonna be tied down to some big blue-blood a**hole!’’

Not when I-

‘‘You could’ve fooled me the way princey was cozying up to you at Ozzie's.’’

‘‘Hey! Stolas only cares about having a rugged peasant raw-dog him into his mattress. It's nothing, ya know...’’

Stolas didn’t actually like him. ‘‘It's nothing else...’’ It wasn’t like Blitzø himself liked the guy.

‘‘Then why were you even there?’’

‘‘OTHER! …very important reasons of course.’’

‘‘Whatever, I don't actually care.’’

Of course he didn’t. Why would he?

It’s not like he knew- NO. DON’T GO THERE.

Divert! ‘‘I mean, Stolas is just a loud, thirsty, b*tch who loves feeling the thrill of getting d*cked by the lower class… It's a novelty to him.’’

‘‘Literally just said I don't care.’’

‘‘And THEN! He'll call me and try and see how *my* day was, and he'll pretend to care about me, and comment on my photos and... Laugh at my jokes-’’

‘‘Oh! Well, that's definitely your clue right there that it's all bullsh*t.’’

‘‘I KNOW, RIGHT?’’ What else can it be? ‘‘He's just a fake privileged asshole.’’

‘‘Sounds like you just hate him for bein' a prince.’’

No, I don’t.

Blitzø thought. He was a lot of things, but he was not the kind of person who’d blame people for what they were born with.

He was alright when we met, but now he’s changed.

‘‘Because no one, and I mean no one, pretends to care that much just for a cheap lay.’’

Blitzø didn’t blame him for being a price, he resented him for turning into the same kind of a**hole all those other royals were.

And Stolas didn’t care.

‘‘Point is... Royal demons don't give a sh*t about guys like us, they're all the f*ckin' same.’’

‘‘Thats not! A-always true...’’

Oh, God. He must have misheard. Don’t tell me you-

‘‘But, I guess you're right, They can't all be the same if some have taste, and some wanna f*ck YOU.’’

‘‘B*tch, I took your virginity!’’

‘‘Would you two shut the f*ck up already?’’

Oops. Forgot the caw-boy was still there.

‘‘Bicker like a couple of teen skanks...’’ He climbed down to face them. ‘‘As far as I'm concerned, you two are both embarrassments to our kind for meddlin' with blue-bloods to begin with.’’

‘Kay, that hurt a bit.

‘‘But at least loud-mouth here has the sense to only f*ck his rich bitch, instead of bein' a little purse dog.’’

‘‘Oh, great! The f*cking supremacist is on my side, wonderful!’’

‘‘Neither of you filth-bags know what you're even talkin' about. If you think you're superior to anyone, then you're no better than any royal-’’

‘‘DON'T. You. Dare... finish that sentence, clown.’’

The bastard had the nerve to touch-

‘‘HEY! Hick-for-hire!’’ Crimson intervened. ‘‘I said watch em', not f*ck em'. Keep yer hands off the merchandise!’’

The f*cker let go, Fizz yelling behind him.

‘‘Ever heard of mouthwash!? F*CK FAAAACCCEEEEE!’’

And continued to struggle against his restraints, forever futilely. He wasn’t even doing it right!

‘‘Ya know? You're really bad at this.’’

‘‘Hmm... Ya know? Last time I checked, I was a F*CKING JESTER, NOT an escape arti-’’ Aaaand, he banged his head. ‘‘I just wanna go home.’’

Bingo. ‘‘Hmm... You want me to get you out?’’

‘‘Y-yes...’’

Time to show him how it’s done, then. Thank Millie for giving him the idea of knife-in-boots.

‘‘You had a knife… this whole time!?’’ He whimpered as Blitzø cut the tape. ‘‘Aaahhhh!’’

‘‘Now stop bitchin' while I work this.’’ The 8 ball there, the incompetent fools there… And the crate’s remote. ‘‘BINGO!’’

‘‘So, what now, genius?’’

‘‘See that remote?’’

‘‘I mean, I could stretch down there.’’

‘‘No, no... I have a better idea...’’ All he had to do was knock over some boxes, and everything came undone.

But of course, the other wouldn’t appreciate that out loud. ‘‘Show off.’’

And then Moxxie’s dad came back, and hell broke loose.

And trying to cover Fizz while avoiding bullets and shooting people was not easy.

‘‘What the f*ck Fizz!? How is someone this flexible, this useless in combat?’’

‘‘I'm a performer! I sing, I dance, I promote products that I don't actually use, I DON'T DO DANGER!’’

‘‘Well, good to know you're still a wimpy circus puss.’’

‘‘I'd give you a comeback, but that'd imply I give a sh*t what you think.’’

‘‘You always cared what I thought!’’

‘‘Ohoho, after what YOU DID TO ME?’’

‘‘I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!’’ WHY WOULDN’T ANYONE BELIEVE HIM!? ‘‘It was an accident!’’

‘‘AN ACCIDENT!? ARE YOU KIDDING ME!?’’

Why wouldn’t he believe him?

‘‘You always had it out for me, because people liked me better! You wanted me gone because you were jealous! Just wanting the spotlight!’’

‘‘That’s…’’ That’s what Fizz thought?

‘‘I looked up to you, I thought you were my best friend... YOU RUINED MY LIFE!’’

No, I didn’t…

‘‘And then you just left me...’’

I would never!

‘‘I lost so much because of you, and you selfish piece of sh*t... YOU DIDN'T EVEN CARE!’’

‘‘I DID CARE!’’

Why did he look at him like he’d lost it?

‘‘How can you think I didn’t care when I’d-’’ GET IT TOGETHER! ‘‘Okay, you're right, it was all my fault, okay? I... I should've done more to help, I was.. I was TRYING! There was so much going on, I was trying to get help, Fizz! I just... It was still my fault.’’

His teenage love looked like, just for a moment, he believed him.

For a moment.

‘‘Glad you could admit it, want a medal?’’

‘‘Look I'm sorry, Fizz... I am so sorry you got so hurt... I'm sorry for what you lost, and I...I know I can never make that right, but you have no idea what I lost in that fire...’’

Well, technically there was no way Fizz didn’t know about his mom’s death. No way he hadn’t heard.

‘‘I mean it’s...it’s all my fault, and I'd hate me too… I mean I do hate-’’

‘‘YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT I WENT THROUGH!’’ Fizz couldn’t help but feel sympathy for the guy he grew up with, and hated himself for it. ‘‘I LOST HALF MY BODY, ALONE IN THE HOSPITAL-’’

‘‘YOU THINK I WASN’T ALONE!?’’

‘‘… You had Barbie-’’

‘‘SHE HATES ME! THE ONLY REASON SHE STUCK AROUND BACK THEN WAS-’’

‘‘YOU SCREWED IT UP YOURSELF THEN! I SPENT YEARS IN AND OUT OF THE HOSPITAL-’’

‘‘I HAD-’’

‘‘IF MAMMON HADN’T GOT OZZIE TO HELP, I’D BE DEAD!’’

‘‘I WAS PREGNANT!’’

Then, -thank-f*cking-Satan- the guys with the guns trying to kill ‘em found them and interrupted them so Blitzø didn’t have to explain what he had just let slip, and Fizz couldn’t ask him.

Chapter Text

Chapter 2:

Avoiding Fizz trying to ask him about it every time they were left alone longer than one second wasn’t going great, and he was failing anyway.

‘‘Why didn't you try to tell me any of this? That you were- Satan’s f*cking a**, Blitzø! Why didn’t you come see me??? Even once would've been fine!’’

‘‘I tried! You were all I had left, Fizz, but they told me you didn't want to see me!’’

‘‘I never told them that!’’

‘‘Bullsh*t... You didn't?’’

‘‘No? And no one told me you came!’’

‘‘…’’ They simultaneously came to the one and only conclusion of the facts in front of them.

MOTHERF*CKING CASH BUCKZO!

Then the guys shooting at them came back.

‘‘CHRIST ON A STICK!’’ Blitzø yelled and shot the guy that came behind them.

‘‘TRYING TO HAVE A F*CKIN' EMOTIONAL MOMENT, HERE!’’

They had to move all around and fast to avoid certain death while trying to have a conversation.

Or, rather, Fizz was trying to have it, Blitzø was trying not to.

‘‘I-I know it’s been fifteen years and... that's so much time... how could you not tell me!?’’

‘‘You mean like it would’ve changed anything!?’’ He couldn’t help but yell. ‘‘Like it would’ve changed that you hated me? That you… you didn’t wanna see me, or hear from me-’’

‘‘I DID!’’

‘‘Why would you!? I ruined your life!’’

‘‘You… didn't really.’’

‘‘What, you're telling me getting blown up didn't ruin your life?’’

‘‘It was painful... and challenging, and you know, fuck you, still… but, it's not like I'm broken. And I now have someone who understands me and-’’

Some other guys came around again.

‘‘HYAH, HAH, F*CK YOU.’’ Fizz yelled at them as Blitzø shot them. ‘‘My life has actually been pretty great.’’

‘‘Yeah, that's lovely. You got a good thing going on with that horny rooster f*cker dontcha?’’

‘‘Oh, yeah, it’s been... fantastic...’’

Oh, God. He’s fallen head over heels for the guy, hasn’t he? Blitzø thought as Fizz got out of his haze.

‘‘UH, CUZ YOU KNOW! IT'S A GREAT GIG! And...and... And he's got the BIGGEST C*CK! You know? LIKE MASSIVE!’’

Oh, Satan-

‘‘I mean imagine like... THE BIGGEST, JUST A GIANT, HUGE, LIKE A KAIJU, but it’s a c*ck, ya know what I mean? LIKE A BIG MONSTER! It’s BIG, it’s HUGE-’’

‘‘Yeah, yeah, yeah I get it, I get it! I'm happy for ya, Fizz.’’

Then, for the first time in over fifteen years, his best friend and first love looked at him with something other than hatred or disgust.

But that was interrupted when the mafia guys circled them.

Crimson looked pissed. So did Striker.

‘‘If ya wanna prove yourself, cowboy, here's your chance!’’

‘‘You been a pain in my ass long enough, Blitzø!’’ He approached them. ‘‘NOW! I'm gonna break you like a f*ckin' horse!’’

‘‘Ohhhh, don't you dare talk sexy to ME!’’

‘‘You're still on the horse thing!?’’

Blitzø ignored him as they backed up a bit and he came up with a plan.

‘‘Fizz! Remember how you used to distract my dad so I could steal his booze?’’

‘‘I mean, yeah? Why?’’

‘‘Yeah well, I need to get up to that window there to bust us out.’’

‘‘Ohohooo!’’ God, he liked that one look on Fizz. ‘‘One distraction, comin' up!’’

>>> One musical number and a blown up warehouse later…

‘‘You know, you're actually pretty good at this action-hero bullsh*t!’’

‘‘And you really know how to put on a show!’’ He complicated him back as he gasped for air. ‘‘Which is almost as impressive as the thing you said I was good at!’’

Then… no more bad guys keeping them from having a conversation.

‘‘You weren’t lying.’’ Fizz said. It wasn’t a question.

‘‘I’m… surprized you believed me.’’

‘‘I know when you lie… and the only reason you’d hide it is if it’s… If it was mine.’’

‘‘She… is yours.’’ He admitted, and Fizz’s eyes went wide.

‘‘You actually… She’s alive?’’

‘‘I-I don’t kn-’’

That’s when Blitzø paid the price for getting distracted while still in, while not imminent, lingering danger.

Striker popped up out of nowhere and grabbed Fizz.

‘‘ARH!’’ The bastard pulled him away, holding his neck from behind with the gun pointed at his head.

Blitzø raised his own pistol. ‘‘Get... your.. f*cking, sh*t-stain claws off him!’’

‘‘You think I'm just gonna let you get ways after all this? I'm through losin' these fights!’’

He looked desperate.

 ‘‘This worthless little pet reeks of his over-bloated master... I'll at least enjoy gettin' rid of him.’’

‘‘Okay... Is it bad that I'm getting hard?’’

F*CK’S SAKE, FIZZ!

‘‘SHUT THE F*CK UP!’’

Blitzø looked around for a way out. Only saw one.

‘‘WHY'S IT ALWAYS A SEX THING?’’

With no choice, he shot the oil bottles.

BOOM… and fire.

Striker ran away, Fizz got trapped.

‘‘FIIIIZZZZZ!’’

He looked around, his mind on autopilot, determined not to lose someone else.

He jumped, jumped again, onto the crate, reached down, and grabbed Fizz, pulling him up.

They both gasped for breath for a moment before: ‘‘YOU BLEW ME UP AGAIN, YOU F*CKIN' PRICK!’’

‘‘I did... Do you hate me?’’

After a moment of silence, he was answered with a hug.

‘‘… Fizz?’’

‘‘Yeah?’’

‘‘Can you not ask?’’

The other looked him in the eyes.

‘‘Just… Not now. Please?’’

‘‘… Okay.’’

Well, it certainly made their drive back in a hot-wired car awkward, but eventually they made it to Blitzø’s van, and he dropped him off at the big guy’s palace.

‘‘Promise you’ll tell me?’’

‘‘Eventually.’’

‘‘Soon?’’

‘‘…Fine. I promise.’’

‘‘You have my number.’’ He stepped out. ‘‘See you later, Blitzø.’’

F*ck iiiiit. He was smiling.

‘‘See ya.’’

Then he spent the next hour trying not to hit any signs on the way to the office with how distracted he was.

The interrogation that started the moment he walked back in there didn’t help either.

‘‘Where were you!?’’ His Loonie asked. It was kind of odd that she cared.

He hadn’t promised her anything today, right?

‘‘Sorry Sweetie, just got into some trouble.’’

‘‘We had to go on two hits without you!’’ Millie was mad too.

Sh*t.

‘‘I promise to make it up to you guys, okay?’’ He reassured, and before Moxxie could complain: ‘‘Moxx.’’

‘‘Sir, you can’t just-’’

‘‘In my office. Now.’’

Time to stop running away.

Chapter Text

Chapter 3:

‘‘Uh, hey… Loonie? Can we talk?’’

She looked at him like he’d gone mad. Maybe he shouldn’t have brought it up right after they arrived home.

‘‘I’m not dying.’’

‘‘Why did you scare me like that for then?’’

‘‘I just said I’d like to talk… about something. It’s-it’s not about you, Sweetie. You don’t have to worry.’’

‘‘If it’s not about me, what is it then? Why are you talking like that? Like something bad is about to happen. What is it?’’

‘‘Nothing-’’

‘‘Like Hell it’s nothing! Just tell me the truth! Is it about I.M.P.? Is that why you’ve been avoiding work for weeks?’’

‘‘No, Loona-’’

‘‘ARE WE BROKE? ARE WE GETTING EVICTED-’’

‘‘NO! Loonie-’’

‘‘WHAT IS IT THEN!?’’

Was this really a good idea? ‘‘It’s about me.’’

‘‘… You said you weren’t dying.’’

‘‘I’m not. Loona, I promise. It’s just something I want you to know.’’

She stayed quiet for a bit, before speaking up. ‘‘Why are you acting like whatever it is, it’s going to ruin our lives? Will you cut the cr*p already!?’’

‘‘You remember we had a fight the year we first started I.M.P.? No office, no sinner clients? You claimed I only adopted you because I wanted a secretary?’’

‘‘Uh, yeah… I-I know that’s not true, we talked. Why are you bringing it up again?’’

‘‘I wasn’t lying when I said that’s not true, but… I didn’t tell you everything either.’’

He watched her expression shift from annoyance to worry. Doubt.

‘‘I just hope you won’t hate me.’’

Loona wanted to, at that moment. She wanted to yell, but she knew the guy. She knew Blitzø. She knew whatever he did, he must be regretting it.

‘‘Fine.’’ She caved. ‘‘Tell me.’’

And that’s how she found herself sitting at the table sipping hot coffee because they didn’t have cold coffee at home, watching Blitzø trying to choose where to start.

‘‘I know they say start from the beginning, but maybe start from the most shocking part so we can get past that?’’

‘‘I got pregnant when I was seventeen.’’

She choked and coffee got into her windpipe, burning her insides.

‘‘You what!?’’

‘‘You told me to start from the-’’

‘‘You officially lost the right to have any sort of “safe sex” talk with me. EVER!’’

‘‘I… can live with that, but I do know the consequences, Sweetie. I just don’t want you to-’’

‘‘I KNOW BETTER!’’

‘‘Okay, Roger that.’’

‘‘What happened?’’

‘‘There was a fire, the circus went down, I… got my scars.’’

‘‘Yea, not what I’m asking, what happened to the baby?’’

‘‘My father told me to get lost, I had nothing but the burnt, thorn clothes on me-I… My sister hated me, but, she stuck around when I told her. She… took pity on me, said the baby was innocent.’’

‘‘She helped you.’’

‘‘I was lucky that it was summer. I stayed in a tent in a small alley no one used… Barbie brought me food. I was two months along.’’

‘‘You weren’t showing yet, then?’’

‘‘No, I… did some work for a while before people started noticing.’’

She tried not to think about what that “work” might have been.

‘‘We both saved a bit but we kept that money so I could stay at a motel with an actual roof when… when it was time.’’

‘‘You said it was summer when you were two months along, then… when did you-’’

‘‘Late fall. We had enough for two days at the cheapest place, the rest, we were going to save for when…’’

‘‘Winter… This is Hell, it’s always hot, but those two weeks… when it freezes over-’’ Wait. ‘‘What do you mean you “were going to” save the money for…?’’

He was crying… Loona’s never seen him cry before, not like this.

‘‘I bled too much… and got sick. I was too weak to even go to the bathroom, we had to stay for a week.’’

‘‘The baby?’’

‘‘She was so small… She-we had no money, she wouldn’t have survived the winter, I had to… I had to…’’

‘‘You had to what?’’

‘‘I didn’t want to, I-I had to…’’

‘‘BLITZØ!’’ He flinched, making her regret yelling, but she didn’t let it go. ‘‘What happened to her? What did you do?’’

‘‘We took her to an orphanage.’’

Oh, f*ck…

‘‘I had to. I-I knew those places are terrible, but…’’

‘‘For a new-born it’s better than the streets.’’ It’s not your fault.

‘‘Even if it wasn’t for the winter, I couldn’t have taken care of her. I had nothing. A-at the orphanage she would at least have good enough food, she’d have clean water, she’d have a bed with a roof over it.’’

He was sobbing now. Loona didn’t know what to do about it.

‘‘It was more than what I could give her.’’

She went to the couch to get his blanket. That’s what people did, right? Put a blanket over the person in distress.

‘‘I was looking for her when I met you.’’

‘‘At a hellhound pound?’’

‘‘I went to the one where we left her, but… she wasn’t there. I found out it was closed when she was seven. That all the kids there were sent off to other orphanages randomly.’’

‘‘Across the seven rings?’’ That was insane.

But he nodded.

‘‘T-they told me they don’t keep records of where kids were sent off to. They only keep records of the kids that get adopted. Otherwise they just take note of if they ran away, or sent somewhere else. They couldn’t tell me where she was if they wanted to.’’

He’d tried threats with gunfire too. They really didn’t know.

‘‘You… must have looked everywhere else to have come looking at the pound.’’

‘‘I did.’’

‘‘Then… she must have ran away.’’

‘‘Yeah.’’

‘‘You don’t even know when that happened?’’

‘‘No… I’m sorry, Loona.’’ He’d practically buried himself in the blanket by then, but she could still hear his sniffles. ‘‘I swear I didn’t get you to replace her.’’

‘‘B-Blitzø-’’ Of course, I-

‘‘Please believe me.’’ His voice was little above a whisper.

‘‘DAD.’’ She pulled the blanket down, and pulled him in for a hug. ‘‘I know.’’

‘‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before… I’d… I’d given up.’’

‘‘What happened today then?’’

‘‘I… ran into her other dad.’’

She let go as she felt the conversation get serious again. ‘‘… It wasn’t from a fling? Or a one night stand or something?’’

‘‘No.’’

Oh, my, Satan… ‘‘You were in love with him.’’

He looked at her like she told him she was dying. ‘‘How did you…?’’

‘‘Because it makes sense. You wouldn’t have kept her otherwise.’’

The Blitzø she knew would’ve gutted himself out with a knife if he had to.

‘‘It doesn’t matter anymore. Th-that was so long ago, I… I’m over it now.’’

Well, he was feeling good enough to deflect a subject now.

‘‘What was her name?’’

That, made him smile. ‘‘Tilly. Tilly Buckzo.’’

He got up to go wash his face, glad and relaxed that Loona didn’t hate him, but at that exact moment they heard a knock on the door.

‘‘Blitzø?’’

Oh, f*ck, no.

‘‘Blitzø? Are you in there?’’

WHAT THE F*CK IS STOLAS DOING HERE?

Chapter Text

Chapter 4:

Fizzarolli could only think about everything that had happened throughout the day once he watched Blitzø drive off.

Then after he didn’t know how many minutes of overthinking everything the other had said today, he remembered Ozzie was in there with a lawyer that wanted him to sign his everything away.

‘‘Oh, f*ck!’’ He ran in, went up to his boyfriend’s office and found him strangling the lawyer instead. Better than the alternative, though.

‘‘FIZZIEEEEE!’’

F*ck, he’d missed those giant arms. ‘‘OZZIEEE!’’

Then he got so busy with the lovey-dovey kisses of the relaxation that came from being reunited with Oz, that he almost missed Stolas leaving.

‘‘Get f*cked, little one.’’ The prince said to the lawyer before heading for the door.

Thankfully, Fizz was able to stop him.

‘‘Ah, wait! Prince Stolas?’’

‘‘Uh, yes?’’ He turned to Fizz.

‘‘You might wanna check on Blitzø.’’

Those five words filled the owl’s body with sheer dread.

He had sensed that something was wrong earlier, courtesy of the magic distress signal he’d put on the imp many moons ago, but he hadn’t been able to leave, and the alarm had silenced about half an hour ago.

He’d assumed that whatever the situation was, Blitzø had handled it on his own.

But hadn’t Asmodeus said that Fizzarolli hates Blitzø? ‘‘May I inquire as to why?’’ He asked politely.

‘‘We were kind of kidnapped together.’’

WHAT!?

‘‘He broke us out, and-uh, he drove me all the way here, but, umm… I think he might need it? If you’re not busy?’’

What had happened? ‘‘I’ll make sure to see him. Thank you, for letting me know.’’

‘‘It’s fine.’’

>>> 

Now, over an hour later, Stolas was pacing in circles in his bedroom trying to decide what to do.

Do I call? Or should I just text? Should I call him over? Should I go see him?

The decision, however, was made for him a few minutes later when the distress sensors went off again, letting him know that Blitzø wasn’t okay.

‘‘Oh, f*ck this!’’

He checked with a scrying spell to see if Blitzø was home, seeing him cuddled in a blanket by Loona. His heart broke.

He portalled to the outside of their apartment, then stood there for several minutes to calm himself down first, before knocking on the door.

‘‘Blitzø? Blitzø? Are you in there?’’ He asked as if he didn’t know.

Couple second later the hellhound swung open the door.

‘‘He doesn’t wanna f*ck you today, dipsh*t!’’

‘‘LOONA!’’ The imp called from inside the apartment.

‘‘Uh, hi.’’ He tried not to think about what she must’ve thought of him to jump right into that conclusion. ‘‘I’m not here for that. May I speak to your father?’’ She still looked unamused. ‘‘Fizzarolli mentioned they were kidnapped together today-’’

‘‘YOU GOT WHAT TODAY!?’’ She shouted at her dad hiding behind the couch.

‘‘It’s no big deal-’’

‘‘Wait did you say Fizzarolli?’’ She asked him.

‘‘Ah, yes?’’

‘‘…’’

She turned around to shoot a death glare towards Blitzø’s direction. The imp stayed quiet.

‘‘FIZZAROLLI THE LUST GUY’S BOYFRIEND?’’

He wasn’t sure which one of them she was asking the question to but he nodded.

‘‘OH, MY, F*CKING, SATAN, DAD!’’

Why she was reacting this way, Stolas didn’t understand.

‘‘Are you for real?’’

‘‘I didn’t plan for it.’’

He couldn’t see Blitzø but his voice sounded hurt.

‘‘Okay, this is it from me.’’ Loona declared. ‘‘I am going out, bye.’’

‘‘Okay, Sweetie, stay-’’

‘‘I SWEAR TO F*CK, IF YOU SAY “SAFE”-’’

‘‘HAPPY!’’ He diverted. ‘‘Stay happy, Loonie.’’

‘‘Urh.’’ She headed down the stairs and away from sight.

‘‘Umm…’’ Stolas wasn’t sure if it was okay to get in since he hadn’t been invited in yet, standing by the door still. ‘‘May I-’’

‘‘Yeah, get in.’’

Finally having permission, he walked inside and closed the door behind him, yet still unsure what to do.

Blitzø was sitting on the couch now instead of hiding from sight completely, but he had his face in his hands. His expression hidden.

‘‘You didn’t have to come all the way here. I’m fine.’’

‘‘I wanted to make sure. I was worried.’’ When Blitzø didn’t say anything, Stolas went on. ‘‘I just wanted to-’’

‘‘Why do you care!?’’

He would’ve answered if he hadn’t been so shocked upon finally seeing Blitzø’s face as he turned to him while he yelled.

For how long and how much had he cried?

‘‘Blitzø-’’

‘‘I couldn’t bother to visit you in the hospital after you were f*cking tortured! Why are you here checking up on me now? I’M FINE!’’

No, you clearly are not. ‘‘Blitzø. This-this isn’t about that.’’

‘‘Then what is it about!? Here to check if your boy-toy was broken? Well, I assure you, I’ll be just fine plowing your feathery a** into the mattress in…’’ He leaned back to look over to the calendar. ‘‘exactly eight days!’’

He didn’t know what to say to that, and the imp went on after a long sigh.

‘‘Unless you don’t want to. It’s been, what? Three days since you left the hospital? Why aren’t you home, resting? WHY ARE YOU HERE?’’

‘‘…’’

‘‘They said you were hurt, you don’t look hurt.’’ He snorted. ‘‘Should’ve known Moxxie was exaggerating.’’

‘‘I do heal fast. Just need to go easy on my shoulder for a while… I appreciate your concern even if you didn’t visit.’’ He had feared Blitzø didn’t care.

Now he was thinking he might have been wrong about that.

‘‘I can leave if you want me to.’’

‘‘I… You probably should.’’

‘‘Alright.’’ He opened up a portal but didn’t step through yet. ‘‘If you need anything-’’

‘‘Nope. I don’t.’’ He deadpanned.

He didn’t know that sometime in the near future he would regret those three words.

‘‘You can always call.’’ Stolas let him know before leaving.

Leaving Blitzø to cry himself to sleep.

>>> 

In the evening of that same day, a certain peahen in the Ars Goetia got a phone call from the same assassin that had failed her twice now.

‘‘You have the nerve to call me after you failed to bring Stolas in? I will admit seeing his pathetic a** in the hospital was amusing but still!’’

‘‘My apologies, Ma’am. However, I just happened to find out a spicy piece of gossip about the imp that’s been f*cking your husband that I think you might want to know.’’

He had her at “gossip”. ‘‘I’m listening.’’

‘‘For a price.’’

‘‘Don’t test me.’’

‘‘He has another kid. With who? You’ll never guess.’’

‘‘I’m assuming it’s someone important or this call is useless to me.’’

‘‘Asmodeus’s imp boyfriend.’’

‘‘How the f*ck did that creature land- oh, wait, right. He’s an imp too. You guys f*ck like rabbits.’’

‘‘His hellhound is almost as good as he is, and they’re hard to sneak up on, but I doubt a fourteen year old imp girl can hold her own against me. If I can track her down, I can bring her to you.’’

‘‘And I can use the little cretin as leverage against Stolas! I can make him even more miserable than before-’’

‘‘And get all his money so you can pay me, right?’’

‘‘…Yeah, sure, why not?’’

Chapter Text

Chapter 5:

One whole week after Moxxie met his boss’s sister, and “the incident” happened, he was finally going to find out what the tea was, if you will.

Blitzø had told him to come into the office late at night and to NOT! tell Millie about it.

He arrived exactly at 22.30 as promised and knocked. He was then pulled in and Blitzø locked the door behind them.

‘‘Sir, with respect, why the secrecy?’’

‘‘Gee, I don’t know? Maybe because I don’t want anyone to know about my SECRET, Moxx.’’

He said it in such a demeaning way, it kinda gave away how stressed he must’ve been about this.

‘‘THAT’S WHY IT’S CALLED A MOTHERF*CKING SECRET!’’

‘‘Got it.’’

‘‘Don’t… make me regret this. Please.’’

‘‘Did you just say please?’’

Okay, seems I will regret this.

‘‘Sir, are you dying?’’

‘‘No.’’ He deadpanned. ‘‘Look, I need to talk to my… kind-of-ex about something, I’m going to use you as a guinea pig for practice, and you’re gonna find out about my secret in the process so you can stop acting weird as sh*t around me in the office, ‘kay?’’

‘‘Technically, I haven’t acted weird around you at all, cause you’ve been avoiding me since that day at the boathouse,’’ Moxxie said as the other imp’s expression turned foul. ‘‘but sure! I’d love to help. What are you going to talk about with Miss Mayday?’’

‘‘…’’ Blitzø facepalmed.

This was gonna be a looooong night.

>>> 

One would think finding a fourteen year old would be easy.

But Striker, who usually found people when he needed to within hours, had been at it for three days and all he’s done so far was follow false leads and find lots of fourteen year olds that weren’t who he was looking for and make himself look like a pedo.

He had no problem killing kids, but he didn’t get off on them, f*ck it!

Not to mention those ridiculous rumours everyone was talking about a group of teenage lower class kids that allegedly used magic to kill people, seemingly at random.

The victims ranged from mafia bosses to people taking a walk outside.

He hadn’t laughed that hard in a while. Seriously?

Teenage kids doing magic? When royals volunteer at soup kitchens!

‘‘F*ck this.’’

He left the bar. People here were clearly just making sh*t up.

And he had to follow up on that one last lead he had.

In Wrath.

>>> Back at the office

‘‘Wait-wait-wait! Let me get this straight… Tilly is your kid.’’

‘‘Yes.’’

‘‘And you had her with Fizzarolli of all people?’’

‘‘Yes.’’

‘‘Back when you were in the circus? Which makes her… Fourteen.’’

‘‘Yes.’’

‘‘And you don’t know where she is or if she’s alive.’’

‘‘Yes.’’

‘‘…’’ Moxxie just stared at the white board he’d written this stuff all on before turning back to him. ‘‘Could’ve had a million guesses and I wouldn’t have gotten that.’’

‘‘Great, now you know exactly as much as Fizz knows.’’

‘‘Sir! You kept this from us all this time? I understand it must’ve been painful, but we could’ve helped you look!’’

‘‘I don’t wanna hear it, Moxx! This isn’t about that.’’ *sigh* ‘‘I just need to practice what I’m gonna say to Fizz. I mean it went well with Loona, but I did skip lots of stuff and-’’

‘‘Blitzø.’’ Moxxie raised his voice a bit to get the said man out of his spiralling.

‘‘What!?’’

‘‘If you’re gonna use me for practice,’’ He said, accepting his fate. He wanted to help, and if this was how Blitzø wanted his help, then this was gonna be how he helped. ‘‘I should also know stuff like where was he when all this was happening?’’

‘‘…He was in the hospital after the fire.’’

‘‘And you didn’t tell him?’’

‘‘I couldn’t visit because of my sh*ta** dad… but he had enough going on anyway. He didn’t need to worry about a kid of all things when he’d lost four limbs.’’

‘‘Oh… well, umm. What I’m wondering the most now, and what I’m guessing Mr. Fizz is wondering the most as well, is what happened to her? Because you said you don’t know where she is and…’’

‘‘We left her to an orphanage. I had to.’’

‘‘Okay, I’ll take that at face value.’’ The smaller imp said, treading cautiously as to not piss Blitzø off. ‘‘Now I’m guessing he’ll ask you to explain.’’

‘‘He probably won’t.’’

‘‘Buuuuuut… You will explain anyway cause it’s the right thing to do… Maybe?’’

‘‘It was almost winter.’’

‘‘Oh.’’

‘‘We had money but not enough for the whole two weeks. Not even for ten days.’’

Christ on a stick, why was this so hard?

‘‘So, we -me and my sister- decided to instead use most of it to get Tilly her shots down in Sloth, because those orphanages say they provide the shots, but they actually just pocket the charity money for the said shots, and then I gave Barbie the rest of the money because I felt bad for her and she used most of it on drugs and I spent the winter in random guys’ places that were desperate enough to bed even my one month post-birth bod that was not in shape at all. Not one bit.’’

‘‘…’’ Moxxie should not have let him spiral. Now he just wanted to ask him if he was okay but he’d probably knock his teeth in as an answer.

‘‘It wasn’t the best choice okay? It was the only choice.’’

‘‘Blitzø, I’m not blaming you about any of this, because, aside from the fact that I do not have the right, you did the right thing.’’

That was nice of Moxx to say.

But Blitzø didn’t need to hear it from him, he needed to hear it from Fizz.

And maybe one day Tilly. If he ever found her.

And if she forgave him.

>>> Somewhere else in Pride

A teenage imp jumped from one rooftop to another.

She felt like a criminal. No, a f*cking dirtbag piece of sh*t. That’s what she was.

She was f*cking breaking the pact!

They’d made a vow and she was on her way to break it. What kind of friend did that?

She made it to the alley behind a building that she lived in the first nearly eight years of her life.

She then made sure no one was watching before hanging onto the bars protecting the window to the basement, her hands glowing, and pulled the entire thing off in mere seconds.

She did the same thing to the window without breaking it, practice makes perfect, and slipped in. Feeling worse with every step she took.

God, she was a criminal! Coming back to the scene of the crime!

All those years ago, after having been told that night that the orphanage was being closed, and that they were being shipped off to other places at random, she and her group had cried about being separated the first half an hour.

Before coming up with a solution. That night they had made two decisions.  

The first was to run away.

The older kids who had been through many transfers before mentioned how easy it was. They just needed to sneak off when the busses stopped at another orphanage at random.

The second, was the problem.   

The orphanage kept any and everything the parent left behind with/for the kids in locked cabinets in the attic -if they left anything that is- and gave ‘em back only when the kids turned eighteen and were practically kicked out.

But they’ve been told of this transfer at noon, and no one had said anything about those.

When they asked the same older kids they were told the orphanages didn’t usually gave those away when kids were being transferred in masses, because they didn’t want that “sh*t” taking up space in the busses they rented using money.

Their only connection that they had to their parents was a waste of time.

Tilly had proposed sneaking in to the attic to take back what was theirs. They had backpacks for their initials -the two sets of clothing, one toothbrush, and stuff like that- so as long as what was left behind fit among those items, they would be fine!

But her friends disagreed.

Their parents had left them behind, so why did they deserve the effort? Her friends had said, and she’d agreed.

But that hadn’t stopped her from sneaking in anyway, which led to her finding the letter left behind -that she was too scared to read back then- and hiding it away, in the basement.

They had made a pact the day they escaped, to never go around investigating. To never look for the a**holes that left them behind.

Tilly took a deep breath, opened the box she’d left behind seven years ago, and took out a very yellowed envelope, still unopened, and broke that pact.

Chapter Text

Chapter 6:

Loona jumped down one roof and landed inside the top floor of the next building, crashing through the window, landing in a pile of glass. She knew she probably wasn’t going to find anything here but she sure as hell was gonna try.

The now closed Hope’s End Orphanage. Where Tilly lived for more than half her life.  

It’s been seven years so Loona wouldn’t even get a scent, but there was always the chance she might find a clue or two.

She used to stay at Section A, third floor, room 65.

On her walk there she found that most rooms were ransacked. Probably by people who broke in to take whatever they could. She went in, and looked around, which didn’t take long, aaaaaaaand… bingo.

Scratched on the wall on one corner was a list of names and their signatures.

Tanya

Rook

Tilly

Ash

Zeth

Vice

Just six names together in a room meant for eight people, they must not have gotten along with the other two.

F*ck, that must’ve been the dream life. You know what the chances of getting along with five of your seven roommates are? LOW.

She took a picture of it and headed out to leave but on her way out, she picked up a scent.

First she thought it might be a random homeless hobo breaking in to spend the night… or move in, but the smell was distinct.

It was the smell of a fourteen year old imp girl… whose scent resembled Blitzø’s to the point of no denial.

Loona ran down there a little too fast. She panicked okay? Sue her!

She followed the scent along with the hasty footsteps, but once she reached the basement, there was no one in sight… However, she could still feel the presence of someone else in here.

Then she heard panicked breathing from inside a cabinet.

‘‘Tilly… Is tha-’’

A bright white light flashed inside the cabinet, and the panicked breathing disappeared.

‘‘SON OF A-’’ She ran over, wrecked the cabinet’s lids apart, and found it empty...

Empty of people, that is, there was a f*cking diamond in there.

WHAT… THE… F*CK…

>>>In Wrath

It took him a couple of hours to gather info, but after following his initial lead and talking to the locals in several small cities in Eastern Warth, he found that random kids -mostly under the age of 18- were popping up on Farmer’s market days, who were somehow able to pay for everything they bought in full, cash, and then disappear into thin air.   

But some claimed they’ve seen the kids head east the first couple times they’ve come around these parts.

Which was odd.

The easternmost part of Wrath was said to be crawling with Hellbeasts too wild, they were impossible to hunt down as food, let alone domesticate.

It didn’t sound realistic… but it was a nice excuse to go see the monsters.

Only problem was he had almost reached the mother*cking border and there were no Hellbeasts in sight.

In retrospect, that should’ve been a clue that something was off, but instead, he got ambushed.

At least now he knew the rumours about magic kids weren’t BS… Cause they got him.

One moment he was riding on Bombproof, the next the terrain shifted, and not in an earthquake way. Walls of rock and earth shot up from the ground, surrounding him, and left little to no light to move around.

Then before he knew what was going on, he was knocked out.

>>> 

Tilly thought maybe she could sneak back in without anyone noticing… but she was wrong.

She was confronted the minute she walked in the cave.

‘‘Tilly.’’

Remona. She turned around to face her… She looked fricking mad.

‘‘Where were you?’’

‘‘I-uh…’’ Now, Tilly didn’t s*ck at lying but she wasn’t a pro either.

And Remona wasn’t to be messed with.

She was the oldest among them. The now twenty four year old imp had had three weeks before her eighteenth birthday when the orphanage closed down. She could’ve just left like all the other young adults her age did, but she hadn’t.

They -Tilly and her friends- did not know what to do the minute they managed to run away, and they had no experience of the outside world.

Remona had stuck with them. Taught them how to survive.

And not just them either, but all their other friends that joined them along the way to where they stood now.

She was like a big sister/mother to all of them.

‘‘The truth, Tilly.’’

‘‘I’m sorry… I just… Really wanted to know.’’

‘‘You looked for your parents?’’

She sounded judgemental… but not mad? ‘‘I’m sorry I broke the pact. I regret it already. It turned out to be bullsh*t anyway.’’

‘‘You found them and they s*cked?’’

‘‘No. It’s just a letter my dad left me, apparently. But there’s no way it’s true.’’

‘‘How come?’’

‘‘I googled him. Blitzo Buckzo. He’s the owner of his own company? With three employees? That’s managed to stay in business for longer than a year? No way. Someone must be pulling a prank on me or something. People with enough money to start a company don’t give their kids away, they hire nannies.’’

‘‘It’s only been fifteen months since he started the company, only ten months since he got an office, and one of those employees is his adopted hellhound daughter.’’ Remona said, looking at her phone.

‘‘Did you just google him too?’’

‘‘Yes, and I’m not just looking at the first thing that comes up. This guy doesn’t look the worst I’ve ever seen.’’

‘‘Really?’’

‘‘He’s not by far the best either.’’

‘‘Oh… Wait did you say a hellhound?’’

‘‘Yeah, did you not look at any of the pics?’’ She turned the phone to her and showed a group pic of the crew.

The hellhound was the one that almost caught her in the basement.

She’d just assumed the woman was maybe related to one of the guys they’d killed? Who was after her for revenge maybe?

But no… She was the daughter her dad apparently adopted.

Had he replaced her?

‘‘Why’re you making that face?’’

‘‘He got another daughter… The entire letter was about how much he loves me and hopes to find me one day… and he got another daughter…’’

‘‘…’’

Remona then pulled her in for a hug and held on as she cried.

‘‘Parents always fail us, Tilly. I told you guys many times before.’’

‘‘I know. I’m sorry.’’

‘‘I don’t know what I need to do to get you guys to listen to me, but what I do, I do for you. But I can’t protect you, if you don’t trust me.’’

‘‘I’m sorry.’’

‘‘It’s okay. Just come to me next time.’’

‘‘I promise.’’

They got rudely interrupted, however: ‘‘Uh… guys?’’

‘‘What is it, Zeth!?’’ Remona yelled.

‘‘Y’know how you asked us to interrogate that cowboy guy that came way too close to the caves?’’

‘‘Yeah?’’

‘‘Well, he didn’t talk no matter what we did, so we threatened to kill his horse, and once he noticed that we weren’t kidding, he folded.’’

‘‘Great. Why’s he here and who’s he working for?’’

‘‘He’s here because he was looking for Tilly, and I don’t know, because I rushed here the minute he confessed that.’’

‘‘He what?’’

Chapter Text

Chapter 7:

Striker had held on for quite a while but these kids were monsters. They threatened to hurt Bombproof!

And one of the kids could tell even his best lie. He tried everything but he couldn’t fool her.

A while later he realized that was probably also magic related, and nothing was going to work.

Then he admitted he was looking for Tilly to protect Bombproof, and the kid had not liked that.

Less than five minutes later, a young woman that immediately gave out “in charge” vibes.

Long loose hair, brown leather jacket over a black shirt, dark blue ripped tight jeans, topped off with leather biker gloves and boots.

‘‘Everyone, out. Now. Tanya, you stay.’’

He watched the kids obey, confirming his hunch. This woman was the boss here.

‘‘Why were you looking for Tilly? And don’t you dare lie, you can’t fool Tanya.’’

‘‘I noticed.’’

His restraints which covered him from neck to toe -also made from earth- got tighter around his body.

‘‘You trying to deflect, B*tch?’’

‘‘He doesn’t care about himself, you should try the horse.’’ The girl named Tanya warned the Boss Lady.

‘‘Thanks, Tanya. Go tell Raven to get the horse, I’ll skin it right here.’’

‘‘Fine. I’ll talk.’’

‘‘Who sent you?’’

‘‘Goetia.’’

‘‘Who the f*ck in the Goetia would want anything to do with Tilly?’’

‘‘Her name’s Stella. She wanted to-’’

He cut himself off once he noticed the look on her face.

He considered for like three seconds if she could be faking it for an angle for a plan or something, but no, she wasn’t.

This imp B*tch knew the Goetia B*tch. Personally.

>>> 

Blitzø didn’t know what to say to the sex guy Fizz was in an extremely obvious relationship with when he called to see if he would help with convincing Fizz to give up working for Mammon.

On one hand, him doing this behind Fizz’s back felt like maybe this guy wasn’t the one for Fizz. On the other hand, Mammon s*cked worse than anyone else in Hell, so…

Maybe he was onto something.

But this gave him two days before he had to see Fizz in person. Texting, he had gotten used to, but face to face was gonna be… something.

His thoughts were interrupted by Loona kicking the front door open.

‘‘Argh!’’

Wow. Hadn’t seen her this mad since… last week.

‘‘Loonie? You okay?’’

‘‘…’’ She just stared.

‘‘You wanna talk about it?’’

‘‘… Not yet.’’

She closed the door real hard, leaving Blitzø crying in tears of joy that she was even considering telling him whatever it was.

‘‘I LOVE YOU, LOONIE!’’

‘‘Let it go, dad!’’

‘‘Okay, Sweetie.’’

>>> Back in the Lost Kids Cave™

After the imp lady in charge stormed out in a panicked manner, and the much younger kid followed behind, Striker waited about half an hour to ask to pee so it wouldn’t be suspicious, and attempted an escape, but…

The rock magic woman got him before he could get to Bombproof.  

‘‘We all know you treasure that horse, did you really think we’d leave it alone?’’

‘‘Can’t blame a guy for trying.’’

‘‘Oh, but I can.’’

The rock-hold-grip tightened again. He was starting to think she was enjoying this.

‘‘Here’s the deal cowboy,’’ She then suspiciously raised walls around the only two exits of this particular cave.

Almost as if she didn’t know anyone else to know about what was about to go down.

‘‘you are going to go, and bring Stella to me.’’

‘‘WHAT!?’’

‘‘You have forty eight hours. At the end of which I’ll kill your horse.’’

‘‘Why do you want her? Seriously? Who would want her?’’

‘‘It unfortunately ain’t any of your business.’’

‘‘No, seriously, she’s the most insufferable B*tch I’ve ever met, and I’ve only ever talked to her on the phone!’’

‘‘Of course she is, the backstabber.’’

‘‘…’’ The f*ck!? ‘‘That B*tch… Backstabbed you?’’

Her eyebrow twitched. ‘‘None of your business. Now go.’’

>>> 

Tilly couldn’t sleep, so she went topside for some fresh air. And by topside I mean up to the surface from the underground caves.

She cried on her own for a while because she couldn’t tell anyone else about what she’d done, but she didn’t stay alone for long.

‘‘Tils.’’ Remona placed a blanket over her shoulders. ‘‘You okay?’’

‘‘I don’t know.’’

The older imp noticed the letter she was still clutching.

‘‘Can I take a look?’’

‘‘Sure, why not?’’ She handed it over. ‘‘Not like it matters.’’ He replaced me.

‘‘Thank you.’’ She started reading.

Hey, Tilly.

I’m your dad, but your aunt Barb’s writing this, because I s*ck at spelling.

I don’t really know how to do this, and it’s really hard cause you’re sleeping in my arms at this very moment, but I felt like I owe you this. An explanation.

I don’t want you growing up thinking I left you behind because you were unwanted or unworthy of your parents’ love. Or worse, that it’s your fault.

Because It’s not. It’s my fault. I set fire to our family circus. By accident, that is! I didn’t mean to, I swear!

And your other dad got hurt real bad. He’s been in the hospital since and he doesn’t want to see me, and I don’t blame him for it. It’s my fault he has to go through this.

Anyway, he doesn’t know about you, because I didn’t get to tell him, but if by some miracle he finds you one day, please don’t blame him. He’s a much better person than I ever was, and I know he’d love you if he knew.

Me? I have nothing. I have no actual roof over my head, I have no money, no job at the moment, and I can’t depend on your aunt to help me with everything. That’s not fair to her.

I’m giving you up because what little that orphanage will give you is more than what I can.

The two week winter is only five days from now, it’s already really cold, and I don’t want to hear you cry one more time because I can’t provide what you need.

I’d hate it if someone else adopted you, because then I might not be able to find you -and maybe they’re a**holes- but you deserve better than me. So, I hope you do find a warm loving home where you feel safe.

I will think of you every day we’re apart, and in case I can’t find you, and say it in person, I want you to know that I love you, Tilly.

And once I have a stable job and an actual roof, I’ll come find you.

I just hope you’ll accept me.

Your dad, Blitzo Buckzo.

Remona’s first thought was: How dare the bastard write all this and then replace Tilly?

Then she thought it a little more over and maybe this guy deserved the benefit of the doubt?

But Tilly wouldn’t know.

She wasn’t going to risk any of her kids going through what she did.

No, Remona was going to check this guy out for herself and then decide if he gets to be anywhere near Tils.

And that was a promise.

Chapter Text

Chapter 8:

Striker was desperate. How the f*ck was he supposed to get the Goetia B*tch? She never left her brother’s castle! Or so he thought.

After looking into her for real this time as opposed to when he had scratched the surface before taking her offer for the prince’s hit, he noticed she did leave often.

She went to the third circle to shop, she went out to parties, and she met with her ex to talk about finalizing the divorce.

Parties would have security, and the divorce talk would include the prince. Getting her while she shopped would make the most sense. He had to get a van though, because he didn’t have Bombproof.

A van, dude! Like Blitzø! He was gonna be sick.

The look on her face though, was worth it.

‘‘Sorry, Ma’am.’’ He said as he placed her in the back of the van, tied up with regular rope, because why would he need blessed rope for a Goetia with no magic? ‘‘Just doin’ my job.’’

‘‘You *************!’’

He closed the van doors. Wow. She could swear.

>>> At the Clown Pageant.

‘‘You gotta come down here.’’ Blitzø told the Sin of Lust on the phone.

‘‘Why? DID SOMETHING HAPPEN TO FIZZ!?’’

‘‘Uh- yeah? What were you expecting?’’

‘‘What happened?’’

‘‘He got bullied by Mammon, bullied by the much younger and sl*tty competition, and then bullied and harassed by a crazy stalker fan that I remember meeting way back, like when-we-were-in-the-circus-together back.’’

‘‘I’ll be there in two.’’ He then hung up.

And Blitzø felt bad.

He should’ve been able to comfort Fizz himself, he knew him better, for f*ck’s sake! But he felt like they’d lost their old connection in a way that… that he was afraid they’d never fix.

Maybe he should just be grateful that Fizz accepted him back into his life and leave it at that.

>>> At Stolas’s Palace…

‘‘WHERE IS MY SISTER YOU B*TCH!?’’

Andrealphus was there, and he wasn’t hearing Stolas telling him he didn’t know where Stella was, or why Striker took her.

‘‘What part of “I don’t know” do you not get? WILL YOU CALM DOWN!?’’ It was disturbing him in ways he never thought of that Andrealphus was this worried about Stella.

Had Blitzø been this angry when the cowboy got him?

‘‘No, I won’t calm down! AN ASSASSIN HAS MY SISTER!’’

‘‘You’re going to alert Via!’’ Stolas raised his voice for the first time since his brother in law had come into his house.

Making it clear that he wouldn’t tolerate involving Octavia in this.

‘‘Why would I believe you have nothing to do with this? I know that you know who hired that guy when he tortured you.’’ The Marquis lowered his voice this time.

‘‘Well, unlike that person, I care about my daughter, and therefore, would never hurt her mother.’’

‘‘…’’ Andrealphus seemed to genuinely consider that fact, and then admitted: ‘‘Right… You’re soft that way.’’

‘‘Thank you.’’ He answered sarcastically.

‘‘But then who would want her?’’

‘‘How would I know? She gossips about everyone in the Goetia, maybe she pissed someone off?’’

‘‘I don’t think so. She’s usually careful.’’

‘‘And are you even sure this isn’t that guy acting on his own?’’

‘‘He’s a hire who works for money, why would he act on his own? He can’t pay himself!’’

‘‘I don’t know, maybe someone missed a payment?’’

‘‘No, they didn’t.’’

‘‘Then I’m out of ideas. Maybe whoever it is will call for ransom?’’

‘‘I hope so, then at least I’ll know why this is happening!’’ Andrealphus finally quieted, probably thinking, and Stolas didn’t interrupt him.

Even though he and Stella had done some horrid things to him, he could be the bigger person here. The mother of his daughter was kidnapped, after all.

Speaking of Via… the door to the drawing room they were in that was slightly open creaked.

Oh, f*ck. ‘‘Via?’’ She’d been listening in on us this whole time. ‘‘Sweetie-’’

‘‘Mom got kidnapped?’’ She was crying now.

Stolas couldn’t stand it. He went over there, pulled her into the room, and sat her down on one of the chairs, holding her hands.

‘‘We’ll find her, okay?’’

‘‘The…the same guy that… you were in the hospital, dad.’’

‘‘Oh, Via… I’m fine now, don’t worry, okay? Your mom will be too.’’

‘‘But that guy got you! And mom doesn’t even have magic.’’

‘‘I didn’t either, when he got me. I was bound with-’’ Oh… OH! ‘‘BLESSED ROPE!’’

He turned to Andrealphus who was looking at him weird now.

‘‘I was bound with blessed rope, so I couldn’t be tracked down, but Stella doesn’t have magic, and I bet Striker knows that!’’

Now, the other understood. ‘‘If he used regular rope on Stella we can track her!’’

‘‘I’ll call Vassago!’’ Stolas yelled aloud and grabbed his phone.

The Marquis’s face had a scowl on it now. ‘‘Do we have to?’’

‘‘Dad.’’ Via interrupted them. ‘‘Maybe you can scry on her too?’’

‘‘Ah, yes, I should be able to!’’ He quickly looked around for a reflective surface, deciding on the mirror on one side of the room.

He cast the spell, it showed Stella on the back of a van Striker drove, screaming… naturally.

‘‘TELL ME WHERE WE’RE GOING YOU PIECE OF *********!’’

Stolas felt the need to cover Via’s ears which probably wasn’t working.

‘‘Yeah, see! She looks fine, let’s not call Vassago.’’ Andrealphus suggested and the other two just shot him judgemental glares.

>>> Inside the Kids’ cave.

‘‘Tilly.’’ Remona knocked on the part of the cave where the kids stayed in several rooms, usually three or four in one.

‘‘Come in.’’

She opened the door to see Tilly, Rook, and Vice. Ash didn’t seem to be there for whatever reason.

‘‘Girls, I need a moment with Tilly alone.’’

‘‘Okay.’’ Vice said, hopping off her bed, and so did Rook.

Then she was alone with Tilly.

‘‘Is this about how I broke the pact again?’’ She looked sad, and a bit scared. ‘‘I meant it when I said I’m sorry.’’

‘‘I know. This isn’t about that.’’ She walked up to her bed, and sat next to her. ‘‘This is about me.’’

‘‘Oh.’’

‘‘You know how I always tell you guys to stay clear of the Goetia? And to not engage, even if they piss you off first?’’

‘‘Yeah. Because they’re dangerous. And they don’t care.’’

‘‘Those are both true. But they’re not the only reason.’’

‘‘What other reason is there?’’

She took a deep breath before continuing. ‘‘Tilly I’m going to tell you something I never told any of you before. Can you keep a secret?’’

‘‘Yeah. Of course.’’

‘‘I used to have a direct connection to the Goetia. Well, technically I still do, but it’s not like before… and I was able to hide that the last eighteen years… almost nineteen actually.’’

‘‘…’’

‘‘But now… that connection, is threatening what we have here. You guys are all in danger because of my past. And I’m taking care of it… but I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know if I can protect you guys.’’

‘‘… how can I help?’’

‘‘You’re good with your illusions.’’

‘‘And?’’

‘‘I was wondering if you can break an illusion spell that was cast on someone by an actual Goetia.’’

‘‘I think so… but why?’’

‘‘Because this isn’t how I really look.’’ Remona finally admitted to someone after all these years. ‘‘I’m part Goetia.’’

Chapter Text

Chapter 9:

Tilly had difficulty processing what she had just heard. Remona? A Goetia? It felt like a twisted nightmare. Remona hated the Goetia with all her might.

She had taught them to avoid the nobles and the royals of the Goetia family. If they saw them using magic, it would be game over.

“They’ll kill us all, and get rid of the crystal mines for good” She’d said. “They don’t give a f*ck about us.” , “They see us as insects.” and vice versa.

‘‘How?’’ She managed to ask, still not over the initial shock.

‘‘Most of you started your lives as orphans. Through and through. I didn’t. I had my mom ‘till I was five.’’

‘‘She died?’’

‘‘Yeah. I was blindedsided. Not only because I had never once spent even a day without her, but because I’d never left our apartment before.’’

‘‘What? Why?’’

‘‘Because of how I looked. I didn’t even know who the Goetia were, nor was I aware of the traits I had that were not at all imp.’’

‘‘But then she died.’’

‘‘And I didn’t know what to do. And then a man came through the door. Said he was my dad. Gave me hugs and promises that I couldn’t recognize were fake back then.’’

Tilly could tell it was hard for the other to open up about this. She promised not aloud but internally that she would do her best to help.

>>>

At the end of the day, Blitzø was happy about the whole thing. Fizz was now free of that a**hole’s bullying. Everything was okay… but it didn’t feel okay.

He was so lost in thought he almost didn’t realize the limo had reached his place.

‘‘Blitzø?’’ Fizz seemed to have caught on.

‘‘Oh, yep. This is me, see you guys later.’’ He reached for the door to get out, but Fizz put his hand over his.

‘‘I’ll walk you up.’’ He said with a tone that made it clear Blitzø didn’t get to argue.

Then suddenly Blitzø was waiting for the elevator next to him, not knowing what to say.

‘‘Are you okay?’’ Fizz asked, but kept talking before he could answer. ‘‘I was so overwhelmed the whole day, I didn’t notice until now. Not to mention you’ve been looking out for me this whole time.’’

‘‘It was nothing. I did my job.’’

‘‘Your job was to protect me physically. You did a lot more than that.’’ They got out of the elevator on the sixth floor where Blitzø lived.

Loona probably wasn’t home yet. She’d been coming home late after midnight as of late. Probably hanging out with friends at parties. Blitzø wasn’t about to scold her for that.

‘‘I can’t help but feel was this how it was those entire fifteen years that we were apart?’’

‘‘What do you mean?’’

‘‘I hated and avoided you. Meanwhile you were alone, and you were suffering. And I was so caught up in my own problems, I never noticed your pain.’’

‘‘Fizz.’’

‘‘No, you’re not gonna do that. You keep acting like it’s nothing but it’s not.’’ He held the other by the shoulders. ‘‘You helped me, and now I’m okay. It’s my turn now. I mean-uh… If you’re okay with it, like, uh- I don’t wanna push you.’’

‘‘No, no, I-ummm… I want to tell you.’’ He admitted as he opened the door to his apartment. ‘‘You have a right to know.’’

‘‘Okay. Just gimme a moment I’ll text Oz not to wait for me.’’

‘‘Got it. He doesn’t know, does he? It didn’t feel that way when we talked.’’

‘‘No, I wanted to hear about the whole thing from you first.’’

‘‘…Thank you.’’

>>> 

‘‘I can’t find her.’’

Vassago declared, and Stolas was genuinely surprized.

Sure, his primary field was finding lost objects. Treasures, artifacts, sometimes even secrets… not people, but he knew for a fact he should’ve been able to locate a missing person as well with maybe some effort.

Unless someone or something was blocking the parrot’s magic.

‘‘WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN’T!?’’ Andrealphus roared.

Stolas quickly shushed him.

‘‘I’m sorry about his behaviour, he’s very worried about Stella is all. But may I also inquire as to why?’’

‘‘You said the terrain appeared to be Wrath when you scried on her, which I can confirm, but I cannot locate where she is in Wrath exactly. It’s like she’s unreachable.’’

‘‘Unreachable? UNREACHABLE!?’’

‘‘CALM DOWN. Andrealphus.’’ The owl was losing his patience. ‘‘My darling Via here isn’t even a full on adult yet and she’s acting twice as mature as you right now.’’ He said before turning to the said darling. ‘‘I do not mean to undermine you, of course, Starfire, I was pointing out how unfit of his age your uncle is behaving.’’

‘‘I got that, dad.’’

‘‘Is there anything else we can try?’’

‘‘There’s this technique where we use the blood of a relative. But I can’t guarantee it’ll work.’’

‘‘You have anything Angelic?’’ The brother of the missing lady asked.

‘‘I should have a quill around here somewhere. You can prick your finger with it.’’

>>> 

‘‘My father took me to this castle made of ice. It was sparkling in the light, and the inside wasn’t as cold as I thought it would be.’’

Remona kept explaining.

‘‘Later, I learned it belonged to my father’s oldest son, Andrealphus. Who was turning twenty in a couple months, when he could be given the title of Marquis, and become a member of the Goetian Council.’’

‘‘The Ice B*tch Andrealphus?’’

‘‘Yes.’’

‘‘The guy who made his area of Hell freeze over? Permanently? Then everyone who could leave left, and now he can’t collect enough taxes from the area to satisfy Mammon? Slowly going bankrupt?’’

‘‘I know I told you guys to keep tabs on the Goetia to protect yourselves, but you don’t have to study them like it’s a college course, Tils.’’

‘‘Just doin’ my best. What kind of guy is he, in person?’’

‘‘Cold.’’

They both laughed their a**es off at that, before the older imp continued.

‘‘He just ignored me, mostly. But I was given an actual room with a bed way too big for me, and suddenly I thought maybe things could go well. Maybe I’d have a life there.’’

‘‘But then things got bad?’’

‘‘Not immediately. I met Stella soon after arriving.’’

‘‘His younger sister? I remember hearing about her. Married to a prince, right?’’

‘‘She wasn’t married yet back then. And the maids had warned me that my siblings would probably ignore me because I was only their half sibling, and that I should be careful around them, but Stella wasn’t like that. She was nice to me.’’

‘‘Really?’’

‘‘Yeah. She spent time with me, allowed me to help with her wedding preparations, I even chose the desserts -aside from the wedding cake- that they’d serve when we went taste testing, and she said I had fine taste.’’

Why do I feel like this is gonna end terribly? Tilly thought but didn’t say.

‘‘She even helped me do my hair, saying it was much easier than feathers to style, with much more options. She said, that I couldn’t come with her to the prince’s palace after she married, but she’d visit. And we could call, send letters.’’

Tilly saw a drop hit the floor from Remona’s face, and realized the older sister she thought could never be hurt, had already been hurt, so much.

‘‘She convinced father to let me attend her wedding too. She said if I wore a dress that’d cover up most of my body, and wore body paint on my face to hide the red, I’d be fine. No one would know.’’

‘‘What happened?’’

‘‘It was a week before her wedding, father called for me. He’d never done that before. He asked me what I’d done with Stella’s jewellery that she’d gotten for the wedding.’’

‘‘He… ACCUSED YOU OF STEALING THEM?’’

‘‘He said, that Stella told him I was the only one who knew where in her room they were, and how to open the boxes. And I did. I had helped her choose which ones went with her dress the best.’’

‘‘She told him that you took them?’’

‘‘Apparently. Father said if I didn’t confess he’d punish me, but I hadn’t touched them, so I just told him that… He wasn’t happy.’’

‘‘What did he do?’’

‘‘He cast a spell… using a crystal.’’

‘‘Like how you taught us? That’s where you learned it from?’’

‘‘It’s where I first saw it, yeah. He cast this illusion spell to make me not just look like, but practically be a regular imp.’’

‘‘What do you mean be an imp?’’

‘‘These horns aren’t real.’’ She said, touching the black, white-lined classic straight imp horns she had. ‘‘They appeared when he cast the spell. I can feel them, they’re there, but they’re not real.’’

‘‘Like the stuff I make sometimes from out of nothing…’’ Tilly got it now. ‘‘But those usually disappear after a while.’’

‘‘They didn’t. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because it was an actual Goetia who cast the spell.’’

‘‘But why would he need crystals to cast spells? He’s a Goetia.’’

‘‘Not all Goetia have magic. All royals of the Goetia do, but some nobles don’t. Stella doesn’t either.’’

‘‘… What happened after he cast it?’’

‘‘He said I was a disappointment and a waste of his time… like my mother.’’

THAT MOTHERF*CKER!

‘‘He told the guards to take me out, and I was thrown into a carriage. They took me to the orphanage, and just left me there.’’

‘‘…’’

‘‘I never heard of any of them again… until that guy came looking for you.’’

‘‘What does that have to do with it?’’

‘‘He said Stella sent him to get you.’’

‘‘… What? But why would she?’’

‘‘I don’t know. But I’ll find out, Tils.’’ She pulled her in for an embrace. ‘‘I promise.’’

‘‘I’ll help too.’’ She hugged her back.

Chapter Text

Chapter 10:

Blitzø had practiced, he’d used Moxxie as a guinea pig, he was supposed to be ready… but he wasn’t.

‘‘Blitzø. We don’t have to do this today if you’re not comfortable with it.’’ Fizz said from where he’d sat down on the bean bag.

‘‘No, no. I can do this, it’s just… you want something to drink?’’ F*ck, he was spiralling again. ‘‘Coffee? Tea? Wate-’’

‘‘Blitzø.’’

‘‘Okay, okay. I got this.’’ He then finally sat down on the couch, facing Fizz.

He took a deep breath, and started explaining everything in order, instead of how it had gone down with Loona. And Fizz listened.

He reacted to everything visually, but he was simultaneously trying not to interrupt Blitzø’s telling the story, which was appreciated. He only asked one question ‘till Blitzø got to the part where he and Barbie had checked into the motel, trying to hide Tilly’s existence as just extreme weight because no way the owner of any motel would just let them check in for you know what.

That’s when Blitzø broke down, and let Fizz hold him.   

‘‘She was so small, Fizz.’’ He cried. ‘‘Her face was shaped the same as me and Barb’s… and she had hair like mom, and her horn nubs looked to be straight…so I think by now she should have mom’s horns too.’’

‘‘She sounds lovely.’’

‘‘She was perfect… She had your eyes.’’

‘‘You’re just saying that. I bet she looked a lot like you.’’ Fizz teased him a bit.

‘‘No. They really were shaped the same as yours… but I guess she did have her tail pattern the same as mine.’’

‘‘There you go.’’

His childhood love made him laugh again. And for a moment, everything felt okay, except they weren’t.

Because then came the story of how they had to leave her. How he had to leave her.

‘‘I wanted to keep her for a few more days.’’ *sniff* ‘‘But Barb said if she got sick from the cold, then no orphanage would take her… and she was right.’’

‘‘I’m sorry, Blitzø.’’

‘‘Don’t be. It’s not your fault.’’

‘‘… It kind of is.’’

*chuckle* ‘‘Not funny, Jester.’’

‘‘Then why’re you laughing, B*tch?’’

The moment of silence that followed was a nice breather. Blitzø actually felt a weight lift off his heart and soul as they just stayed that way, in each other’s embrace.

‘‘Did you ever see her again?’’

‘‘No. I went back looking, but the place had closed down, and I couldn’t track her from then on. And I-uh… I’d left her a letter, but she never came looking either, so I don’t even know if she read it.’’

‘‘You’d said “I don’t know” when I’d asked if she was alive.’’ Fizzarolli now realized what the other had meant when he’d said that.

‘‘I don’t.’’ Blitzø admitted, finally free of this secret he’d kept for so long.

Not to mention Fizz still being here with him, not having left after finding out the truth, meant so, so f*cking much to him.

‘‘Maybe I can ask Oz? It’s not really his thing but maybe he can get someone to do some magic sh*t to help us find her?’’

Us? ‘‘You… you wanna help?’’

‘‘Uh- yeah. Of course, I do.’’ Fizz’s smile fell in a way that made Blitzø’s heart beat twice as fast with panic within. ‘‘Did you think I wouldn’t?’’

‘‘I don’t know what I thought.’’ I didn’t really think we’d get this far in the first place.

‘‘Well, I know that I’m going to help. She’s my kid too, right?’’

‘‘Of course.’’

‘‘Then it’s settled.’’

>>> 

Striker got stopped by the same rock walls shooting out of the ground again, once he got close enough to where he assumed were the caves that he had been a prisoner in previously.

‘‘WHY ARE WE STOPPING, YOU REPTILIAN PIECE OF SH*T!?’’ The b*tch screamed again.

He really should’ve taped her beak, but it probably wouldn’t have held anyway.

‘‘I’m sorry, would you rather we kept going?’’ He teased her, but then just left the van before she could answer.

Walking out, he saw the boss lady walking his way.

‘‘You got her?’’ She asked, and got her answer a few seconds later:

‘‘TELL ME WHERE WE ARE, YOU **********!’’

‘‘Yeah, I got her.’’

She seemed satisfied, nodding slightly. Then she handed him a folded map.

‘‘Your horse is at the marked location.’’

But as she was handing the map, she also grabbed his wrist and squeezed hard enough to twist the bone.

‘‘Don’t you forget this though: If you come near these parts, or anywhere near any of my kids, especially Tilly, I. Will. End. You.’’

‘‘That’s mighty merciful of ya.’’ He teased. ‘‘Here I thought someone in your position would never let me go alive.’’

‘‘You’re free to go and try to out our secret.’’ She said, smiling wickedly. ‘‘But let’s be real. Who’d ever believe you?’’

She wasn’t wrong about that, but she was wrong to think he’d ever let this go.

Regardless of getting paid by the Goetia Lady, he had too big a bone to pick with Blitzø. He was going to get revenge even if he didn’t get paid for it.

That kid would walk free for now, but he’d be back soon.

>>> 

Vassago had asked for a map of Wrath, and nothing more for the spell. Now all they needed was Andrealphus’s blood.

‘‘Make sure it drops to the middle of the map, directo al centro.’’

‘‘Yeah, I got that the first time you said so, Vassago.’’

The parrot just rolled his eyes, then started casting the spell, and the Marquis pricked his finger with the quill Stolas had provided, black blood dripping on the map.

Together they all watched as the blood slowly flowed towards Eastern Wrath in a thin stream. However, the flow came to a sudden stop a little South of a city called Iron’s Edge.

The blood refused to go further, and instead the stream of blood bubbled up, becoming the size of a grape before it popped, sputtering all over the map.  

‘‘Sooo… is she at Iron’s Edge?’’ Andrealphus asked, though he could tell something was off.

‘‘No.’’ Vassago answered. ‘‘The trail of blood was supposed to lead to where she is and then dry up. No se suponía que iba a burbujear y explotar.’’

‘‘So, what does this mean?’’ The other Prince of Hell asked.

‘‘The trail was mayormente constante hasta que eso pasó. I mean in an almost straight line as you can see, so she is probably somewhere equally consistently South East of where it stopped, but…’’

‘‘But what?’’ The Ice Queen questioned impatiently again.

‘‘This confirms that there’s something or someone in the way of us finding her.’’

‘‘What or who in Wrath could do something like that?’’ The peacock kept questioning why they couldn’t find her already.

That’s when his niece joined the conversation unexpectedly. ‘‘Dad.’’

‘‘I don’t think so, Via.’’ The father of the said niece said, as if he knew what she was going to say somehow.

‘‘But it’s literally right there.’’

‘‘What’s right there?’’ Andrealphus demanded an explanation.

‘‘Hammer’s Ridge.’’ She pointed at a small mountain at the very edge of the map, but it was in the exact direction of the trail the blood had been leading, he’d give her that. ‘‘The crystal mines are there.’’

‘‘¿De qué estás hablando? What crystal mines?’’ Vassago asked before the Marquis could.

‘‘The magic crystal mines some of the Goetia tried to harvest long ago, but a very little amount could be utilized, so they decided it wasn’t worth it, and sealed off the mines seven, eight centuries ago.’’

Stolas explained.

‘‘But I really don’t think they’re connected to this.’’

Oh, how wrong he was…

‘‘What kind of crystals?’’ Andrealphus asked, hoping to be wrong in the thought that had just lit up in his mind.

‘‘Some Demonic Chalk, Ostines and Perdalits here and there, but mostly Zyrraliths.’’

Stolas said, confirming the peacock’s fears.

Because his father used those crystals, and would know about the mines.

‘‘Why?’’ The owl asked.

‘‘Just curious.’’ He answered.

‘‘It’s quite late, why don’t we retire for the night and we can go survey the area tomorrow? Maybe question some locals to see if anyone’s seen or heard anything?’’ He then offered his soon to be former brother in law instead.

Before turning to Vassago. ‘‘We thank you for your coming to our aid, Vassago. I owe you one.’’

And the parrot shook the hand he was offered but he wasn’t about to let this go. Andrealphus had just thanked him.

Something was definitely wrong.

Chapter Text

Chapter 11:

Picking up the phone and calling the man had been hard, but Andrealphus had to do it, for Stella.

Because something was in their way of finding her, and he had a feeling that maybe it had something to do with the mines.

Maybe.

‘‘This better be important, boy, I don’t got time for your f*ck-ups.’’ The man said the moment he picked up.

Yeah, you have your own f*ck-ups to worry about. Andrealphus wanted to bite back, but he held himself back.

‘‘It is, in fact, of utmost importance, father.’’

‘‘Then speak.’’

‘‘Stella got kidnapped-’’

‘‘And you can’t find her on your own?’’ He mocked. ‘‘I’m hanging up now.’’

‘‘She’s somewhere in South East Wrath.’’ The Marquis said, and the other stayed silent, but did not hang up like he said he would either. ‘‘Somewhere quite close to Hammer’s Ridge.’’

‘‘…’’

‘‘You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?’’

‘‘No, I don’t.’’ He answered. ‘‘And that is a problem indeed.’’

>>> 

The idea of seeing Stella in person after all these years made her nauseous, but she had to do this. She made sure they’d be alone, didn’t even let Tanya in.

She didn’t want any of them near the b*tch before she knew for sure what the other was up to, though Tilly was waiting nearby.

She readied herself, and then turned the wall around to walk into the room she’d put Stella in earlier, but she hadn’t seen her face then.

‘‘Stella.’’

The Goetia looked at her, not screaming yet. She looked confused, which made her think maybe she recognized her.

‘‘Do I know you?’’

Then the magic disappeared and she turned back into her usual self.

‘‘IS THAT WHY YOU HAD ME BROUGHT HERE YOU B*TCH!? DID YOU USED TO WORK FOR ME OR SOMETHING?’’ She then added fake concern to her voice. ‘‘Oh, did I hurt your feelings?’’

‘‘You really are heartless.’’

‘‘I just don’t see the point in caring about you worms.’’ She said, her confidence unfaltering.

‘‘Nice of you to say about your own kin.’’

‘‘My own what?’’ She got confused again, trying to understand what was being said.

Remona didn’t have patience for that anymore.

‘‘Tils.’’ She said, signalling the younger imp to cast her spell to break the spell in place, and letting the façade drop.

Looking her true self for the first time in years.

She watched Stella freeze in place on the chair she was tied to, as her horns disappeared, her eyes turned their regular Goetia red, with her white pupils apparent. The skin over her torso under her shirt that couldn’t be seen had a layer of small feathers on it now. Her claws a tiny bit less sharp.

She didn’t know what she had expected her older sister to do upon this reveal, but it wasn’t this.

‘‘You…’’ She spoke in a tone a little above a whisper first, but then that whisper turned into a raging storm. ‘‘YOU TRAITOR!’’

What was she talking about?

How could she call her a traitor when she was the one who-

‘‘YOU BACKSTABBER, B*TCH! YOU’RE THE ONE WHO KIDNAPPED ME!? WHAT’RE YOU GONNA DO NOW? STEAL THE ENTIRE CASTLE!?’’

‘‘Y-you’re sick…’’ She managed to say before running out of there, not looking back.

>>> 

When Andrealphus had called his father, he had been hoping to gain the most amount of information he could from the guy, which he hadn’t imagined would be much.

But now his father was at least three times more interested in the whole ordeal, and the Marquis himself was the one getting interrogated.

‘‘How do you know she’s kept somewhere close to Hammer’s Ridge?’’

Was the first thing he was asked, and he explained the earlier events of the day where he’d gone over to Stolas’s palace in detail.

‘‘I didn’t even know there was a mine of Zyrraliths there.’’  The son explained himself. ‘‘But once I learned, knowing you use them, I had to ask you. And you clearly know about the mine there, father.’’

 It was evident from the way he’d spoken ‘till now.

‘‘Of course, I do, I own it.’’

WHAT!? ‘‘You do?’’

‘‘Did I stutter?’’

He bit back.

‘‘I discreetly purchased the land it’s on, and therefore, everything it contains, about a century ago once I found out what was hidden underneath. Most Goetia had long forgotten about the mines, so no one suspected anything, and those who could’ve, never found out.’’

‘‘But then why would anyone take her there?’’

‘‘You can’t expect me to know that.’’ His old man said, but then hummed a bit before continuing: ‘‘However, I have a spell in place there.’’

‘‘For security?’’

‘‘Yes. It is supposed to alert me if anyone trespasses.’’

‘‘And you haven’t been alarmed.’’ It wasn’t a question. ‘‘Why would that be?’’

‘‘If a descendant of mine is there, the spell might not alert me, it would presume they have the situation under control.’’

‘‘Are you saying it didn’t alert you because it was Stella that entered the area?’’

‘‘…’’

‘‘Father?’’

‘‘You don’t see the problem. Figures.’’

He didn’t answer. He knew better by now.

‘‘This fella that did the kidnapping,’’

‘‘Striker.’’

‘‘His name is irrelevant. He didn’t come up with the idea of taking Stella there on the spot, did he?’’

‘‘How would I know?’’

‘‘You really are a lost case, boy. Hammer’s Ridge is in South East Wrath. It’s populated by unstoppable murderous Hellbeasts that would kill anyone that comes too close, you can’t reach it alive unless you have magic. Why take her there, when you can go anywhere in Wrath, or even Hell?’’

‘‘Are you suggesting something else is at play here?’’

‘‘This can’t be the first time this man has gone there.’’

‘‘But it’s the first time Stella is… which means another of your blood is there.’’

‘‘I don’t see why any of your brothers would have your sister kidnapped.’’ The man was right to think.

If anything, their other siblings had a problem with Andrealphus, mostly jealousy because of him being the only one with a seat at the council in the family, none of them had a big enough reason to do this to Stella.

Not to mention none of them -as far as he was aware- knew of their father’s lack of natural magic. Not even Stella did.

‘‘But then who else could it be?’’

‘‘…’’ His father’s silence was about to cause him a panic attack, but the man finally spoke, revealing something the Marquis was not expecting to hear. ‘‘There’s one more kid of mine who knows of my… situation.’’

‘‘Who-’’ He was about to ask but stopped himself.

Because his brain came to the conclusion that there was only one other person his father could be referring to.

‘‘You don’t mean-’’

‘‘Remona knew.’’

>>> 

Tilly found Remona crying in her room, which the kids normally avoided. They did all live together but respected privacy above all.

‘‘Remona?’’

‘‘I’m sorry, Tils.’’

‘‘What? What’re you sorry for?’’ She walked in, closing the door behind her.

‘‘This wasn’t supposed to be about me. I brought Stella here to find out why she sent that guy after you. But I went and made it all about myself.’’

‘‘What? I don’t blame you for that. And none of the kids would either. You didn’t plan for your sister to come after us.’’

‘‘I still should’ve put you first.’’ She wiped off the snout and tears from her face before getting up from her bed. ‘‘I’ll go back there and talk to her. Find out what she is up to, and why she was after you.’’

‘‘Okay.’’

‘‘I just need to get my head around things… Can you cast the same illusion spell on me? I don’t want the others to see me this way.’’

‘‘Actually, I think it’ll turn back to how it was soon. I think you were right, even if we both use the crystals, a Goetia casting the spell is still more powerful than me doing it.’’

‘‘Alright. Thank you.’’

‘‘It’s what you would do.’’

She left the room, but she wasn’t going to let it go. She’d take Tanya with her and go talk to the b*tchy sister herself.

Chapter Text

Chapter 12:

Remona was probably gonna get mad at her for this, but Tilly wasn’t about to give up before she even started.

‘‘Should we really be doing this?’’ Tanya asked.

She was two years younger than her, and as an established rule, the older kids were supposed to look out for all the others younger than them.

But Tilly was sure about this one.

‘‘Yes. She’s tied up with Remona’s rocks anyway, it’s not like she can do anything.’’

‘‘Okay. If you say so.’’

‘‘Do you want me to get Gray?’’ She asked her to reassure her.

Gray had the ability to hide in shadows by melding into them physically, and he could hide other people with him too, for short periods of time.

‘‘She won’t see you that way.’’

‘‘… No. I don’t think I’m that scared of her. I just got this bad feeling.’’ The younger imp explained. ‘‘How come a Goetia noble with no magic scares Remona?’’

Tilly shouldn’t have been surprized that Tanya caught up to that. Aside from detecting lies, she was really good with reading people.

‘‘I don’t think she’s scared of her per se.’’ Tilly tried to explain. ‘‘I think she’s scared of other Goetia finding out about us because of her, but don’t worry. We have the safe house, remember?’’

‘‘Okay. Let’s do this.’’

‘‘Remember, you promised not to tell anyone about what we’re gonna be talking about.’’

‘‘I know. I won’t.’’

With that, they entered the specific room where Stella was imprisoned. She looked too tired to scream, which Tilly was grateful for, but you never know.

‘‘What do you vermins want?’’ She asked upon noticing them.

‘‘I should be asking you that.’’ Tilly bit back. ‘‘But I’m not here for me. I’m here for Remona.’’

The lady seemed just as uninterested as before if not more, that is, before Tilly brought up the two’s past.

‘‘I don’t understand, what could she have possibly done to you? Why did you frame he-’’

‘‘I FRAMED HER!? THAT’S WHAT THAT B*TCH TOLD YOU!?’’

‘‘You… didn’t?’’

‘‘Not unless she taught you little brats that snitching is the same thing as framing, then yeah! I SNITCHED!’’

‘‘You-’’

‘‘THAT TRAITOR DESERVED IT!’’

Okay, so she clearly wasn’t as tired as Tilly had thought.

‘‘I DID EVERYTHING I COULD TO MAKE HER HAPPY BECAUSE HER MOM DIED AND SHE WAS ALONE, BUT THAT UNGRATEFUL WITCH STOLE MY JEWELS! AFTER EVERYTHING I DID FOR HER, THAT’S HOW SHE REPAYED ME!’’

‘‘NO, SHE DIDN’T!’’ Tilly yelled out, and the woman shut up, looking confused. ‘‘She didn’t steal your jewels.’’

She turned to Tanya, looking for an answer, but what she heard didn’t make sense.

‘‘You’re both telling the truth.’’

‘‘WHAT? But…’’ Tilly walked up to her and started whispering so the lady wouldn’t hear. ‘‘That can’t be right.’’

We can’t both be telling the truth.

‘‘It actually can. Ask a nun, they’ll say God exists, ask an atheist, they’ll say no. Which is lying?’’

‘‘… Neither.’’

‘‘Exactly. It’s more about perception than facts. What you believe is true, becomes your truth, and you can still lie without knowing it. But one overrules the other.’’

‘‘We live in Hell, we know God exists.’’

‘‘But humans don’t. Not for sure.’’

‘‘Sooo…’’

‘‘Remona knows she didn’t steal them, obviously, she’s the one who’s being accused, she knows what she did and didn’t. But this lady doesn’t.’’

‘‘She genuinely believes Remona stole them? But then… Someone lied to her?’’

‘‘That would be the most logical explanation, yes.’’

‘‘But who could’ve…’’ Oh… OH!

She turned around and addressed the older sister again.

‘‘When you noticed your jewels were gone, did you talk to you two’s dad?’’

‘‘What? Why would that concern you!?’’

‘‘Doesn’t matter, JUST TELL ME! DID YOU TELL HIM SHE STOLE THEM?’’

She looked as if she would refuse to answer for a couple seconds before she clearly decided what the Hell.

‘‘No, I told him they were missing.’’

‘‘But he told her that you told him that she stole them! THAT ONLY SHE KNEW WHERE THEY WERE!’’

‘‘I NEVER TOLD HIM THAT! I-’’ She looked in distress for about a minute before she screamed again. ‘‘YOU’RE LYING!’’

‘‘I’m not.’’

She then realized the woman didn’t seem to want to talk, and just gestured Tanya to get out of the room with her. She’d talk to Remona again, hopefully she’d understand, and-

‘‘Wait.’’

They turned around to see the Goetia lady somewhat… compliant?

‘‘Get me something to eat and water… I’ll tell you about it.’’

Oh… Oh, they’d gotten too caught up in all this drama they’d forgot to get a meal or at least water for their prisoner.

Guess it worked out?

>>> 

Fizz hadn’t exactly known how to say: “Hey, by the way, I have a fourteen year old kid out there somewhere, probably alive but maybe not, from when Blitzø and I used to f*ck before the fire.”, but at the end it hadn’t gone that bad.

He was really understanding of the whole thing.

‘‘If I have a hard time believing all this, then I don’t know how you must feel, Fizz.’’

‘‘I just can’t believe he went through all this mostly on his own. And I wasn’t there when he needed me.’’

‘‘You couldn’t have been Fizz.’’

‘‘I know that. But he needed more than just money and physical help. I could’ve been there for him for emotional support. He could’ve been with me in the hospital when… when it happened.’’

‘‘Why wasn’t he?’’

‘‘Cash.’’

‘‘You guys needed-oh, you mean the guy.’’

‘‘Yep, the a**hole. Blitzø told me that he-’’ F*ck, this was hard. ‘‘he kicked him out even after he told him about Tilly, and he said it was Blitzø’s problem, not his.’’

‘‘Question: IS HE ALIVE?’’ Ozzie asked with his voice turning harsh and cold with murderous intent.

‘‘Don’t know.’’

‘‘I’ll find out.’’

‘‘No. He’s not worth our time, even for revenge.’’ Fizz told him instead. ‘‘I just wanna find Tilly. For Blitzø’s sake more than mine.’’

‘‘I’ll look into it.’’ Ozzie said before he kissed him passionately, in a more comforting manner than usual. ‘‘I promise.’’

‘‘Thank you.’’

>>> 

Stella looked a lot more content and perhaps ready to talk once she had eaten, and to their surprize, hadn’t even complained that it was just plain pasta with spaghetti sauce.

She even thanked them… Odd.

‘‘I never told our father about her knowing where my jewels were.’’ She then told them.

Tilly looked over to Tanya for the younger kid to slightly nod. The lady wasn’t lying.

‘‘I only told Andre. He thought maybe she’d taken them but I said no. I didn’t think she would. He said he’d look into it to make sure, then the next day, he brought me my jewels back. Said they’d found them in Remy’s room.’’

REMY!?

‘‘He told me that father had gotten furious with her for what she did and dismissed her. Sent her somewhere else. That I didn’t have to worry about her traitor a** anymore. And I was glad!’’

She shouted suddenly.

‘‘She almost ruined my entire wedding! Made it even worse for me than it already was, that’s for sure. AND I’M GLAD I WAS RID OF HER! THE BACKSTABBER!’’

‘‘You lied.’’ Tanya then said, Tilly hadn’t been expecting it.

‘‘I DID NOT-’’

‘‘You weren’t glad back then and you’re not now.’’

She said, and Tilly watched as shock took over the woman’s face. Her expression unsure.

‘‘You felt enraged, betrayed by what happened, but you weren’t happy she was gone. You thought maybe she didn’t know what she was doing, she was just a little kid after all, or maybe she had had some other reason for what she did, and you have been wondering why ever since. WHY? Why would she betray you? What could you have done to deserve it?’’

She then stayed quiet for a while before finally asking: ‘‘How did you imp kids get magic?’’

Tilly didn’t answer, and instead just pulled Tanya to the side again.

‘‘She really wasn’t lying?’’

‘‘No… It’s probably the brother who really did it.’’

‘‘Oh, my, Gosh… WE HAVE TO TELL REMONA!’’

‘‘Tell me what?’’

They froze at the said imp calling for them from the entrance of the room, back in her regular look, Tilly noticed.

‘‘What are you two doing here?’’ She asked in a “I’m too tired for this bullsh*t” tone of voice.

Chapter Text

Chapter 13:

‘‘What are you two doing here?’’ She asked in a “I’m too tired for this bullsh*t” tone of voice.

‘‘Heyyy… Remona.’’

‘‘You dragged Tanya into this too?’’ She sounded disappointed. ‘‘Tilla, how could you?’’

‘‘But I was right. I thought something didn’t add up, and I was right.’’

‘‘What? What did you guys do?’’

‘‘They asked me about the jewels.’’ Stella then spoke, her younger sister turning to look at her with a surprized look on her face. Trying to understand what was going on. ‘‘You really didn’t take them?’’

‘‘What? I’d- OF COURSE I DIDN’T!’’

‘‘But… Andrealphus said they’d found them in your room.’’

‘‘I don’t know about that! I DIDN’T TAKE THEM! BUT YOU TOLD THEM I DID!’’

‘‘I-’’

‘‘I WAS KICKED OUT BECAUSE OF YOU!’’

‘‘I NEVER SAID YOU TOOK THEM! THEY TOLD ME YOU DID!’’

‘‘…’’ What?

‘‘She’s telling the truth.’’ The youngest in the room spoke. ‘‘I think you two were set up. Well, mostly you, Remona, but she was told you were the culprit, somebody made sure she believed that version of the story.’’

‘‘They didn’t want her looking for you.’’ Tilly noticed. ‘‘And they didn’t want you going back anywhere near the place. Tanya’s right, you two were set up.’’

But what the two girls thought would liberate the two women, made them feel even more uneasy, and Remona sent everyone to bed early that night instead.

Morning arrived not too long after, but the morale wasn’t much better. Of course, none of the other kids but Tilly and Tanya knew about the whole story, but they noticed the prisoner wasn’t dead yet, so…

‘‘You think we did the right thing?’’ Tilly asked Tanya as they were having breakfast in one of the common areas.

‘‘We uncovered the truth about a huge event that’s been haunting them both all these years.’’

‘‘Yeah, but Remona’s distressed, and the Goetia lady is… I don’t know.’’

‘‘They just need time to process, I bet they’ll get back to how they were, just as close in… maybe a few months.’’

‘‘You think so?’’

‘‘Yeah.’’

Then they left to head for the room in which Stella was being kept, and…

They found her unbound, she and Remona sipping tea and laughing.

‘‘And then, she said: “Then move to Envy”.’’

‘‘Slay Queen!’’

‘‘And literally too! We killed that guy like right after.’’ Remona said and laughter erupted again.

‘‘Okay, so I was wrong. It’s not a few months of reconciliation. It’s a few hours of talking.’’

‘‘Remona?’’ Tilla asked to get their attention. ‘‘You two okay?’’

‘‘Ah, yeah. Girls, let me introduce you, properly this time, Stella, my sister. Stella, these are Tanya and Tilly, two of my kids.’’

‘‘Hey.’’ The noblewoman waved at them. ‘‘Tea?’’

‘‘… No thanks, we’re good.’’

‘‘So, you two are good now, I see.’’

‘‘Ah, yes, we talked.’’ Stella said.

‘‘It was most likely Andrealphus who did it.’’ Remona then explained for the two of them, saying it like it was a conclusion they had reached together.

‘‘I’ll talk to him when I get back.’’ The peahen told them.

‘‘So, you don’t want anything to do with me anymore?’’ Tilly asked, since that was how this started to begin with after all.

She looked confused though. ‘‘What? What are you talking about?’’

‘‘That hitman with the horse said you sent him to find her?’’

‘‘…Oh! Oh, you’re that girl.’’ She now remembered. ‘‘Yeah, no, you’re fine.’’

‘‘Why did you sent him in the first place, what did you want with Tilly? I thought you were messing with me, but now I know you had no idea.’’

‘‘Oh, it’s nothing I wanted with her, technically.’’ Stella explained to them: ‘‘It’s just something that assassin offered, and I said yes, you see, your father darling, f*cked my husband, so I wanted revenge.’’

‘‘…’’

‘‘… I’m sorry what?’’

‘‘My husband cheated on me with your dad. I wanted revenge, but we already tried getting to Stolas himself once, and it didn’t work, I can’t and won’t use Via, and the imp himself is an assassin, so when Striker offered, I said yes to using you. No offence.’’

‘‘That bastard!’’

‘‘I know, he cheated on me!’’

‘‘I was talking about Tilly’s dad actually.’’ Remona said. ‘‘He gave her up, why is she being subjected to his sh*t? He doesn’t have that right.’’

‘‘I, uh-’’ I don’t actually know what he’s like… maybe he’s not that bad? 

She thought, and her older sister/mother figure answered as if she heard her:

‘‘Don’t worry Tils, I’ll check that a**hole out, see what kind of an a**hole he is, but you two stay out of it for now, okay?’’

‘‘Okay.’’ Tilly said yes, and the older imp turned back to Stella.

‘‘You cut all ties with that cowboy once we get you back home, alright.? You don’t need ‘im anymore.’’

‘‘What? Why?’’

‘‘Cause me and the kids are gonna kill your cheating husband for you.’’

‘‘Oooooooooh.’’

Later, Tilly teleported Stella to a spot nearby to Andrealphus’s castle’s entrance. She just headed for her own room, but the said brother came running before she even made it there.

‘‘STELLA!’’

‘‘Yes?’’

‘‘STELLA!’’ He hurried over, his expression unbelieving. ‘‘How the f*ck are you here!?’’

‘‘Tiredly. I slept mostly on a chair last night.’’

‘‘Mostly?’’

‘‘Do you mind if I get some rest?’’

‘‘I… I’ll call for a physician right away.’’

‘‘No need, I’m just tired.’’ She said as she entered her room, then added before slamming the door shut: ‘‘Leave me alone for at least eight hours.’’

And the door was slammed to the Marquis’s face… He was gonna have to call their father again.

Hopefully, he wouldn’t scold him for wasting his time.

>>> Later

‘‘-and then she asked to be left alone. She’s sleeping now, I think.’’

‘‘She didn’t explain anything? Odd.’’

‘‘It’s like she’s a whole new person! She talked calmly to the maid I sent to bring her some light food for over five minutes.’’

‘‘Just update me if anything pertaining to Remona or the crystal mines happens.’’

‘‘Yes, father.’’

‘‘And figure out if it really was Remona there or one of your other siblings, cause one of them has got to be the one who orchestrated all this.’’

‘‘Of course, I will make sure to do so. Whether it’s Remona or one of the others.’’

‘‘Good.’’

He hung up, however, he nearly had a heart attack like two seconds later.

‘‘What about Remy?’’

Stella who had apparently been standing behind him for he didn’t know how long asked.

‘‘AACH!’’ He almost tripped and fell. ‘‘STELLA! You scared the living daylights out of me!’’

‘‘You didn’t answer the question.’’

‘‘What?’’

‘‘I asked what about Remona? Why were you talking about her, and with whom?’’

Chapter Text

Chapter 14:

‘‘What about Remy?’’

Stella, who had apparently been standing behind him for he didn’t know how long asked.

‘‘AACH!’’ He almost tripped and fell. ‘‘STELLA! You scared the living daylights out of me!’’

‘‘You didn’t answer the question.’’

‘‘What?’’

‘‘I asked what about Remona? Why were you talking about her, and with whom?’’

‘‘You’re… You’re already better? I thought you’d sleep till late evening.’’

‘‘Wasn’t as tired as I thought I was. The snacks from Nila certainly helped, thank you for sending them.’’

‘‘Whose snacks?’’

‘‘Nila. The name of the maid. Who brought the snacks.’’

‘‘… What the f*ck happened to you?’’

‘‘Why are you so fixated on me? I’m fine.’’

‘‘You were kidnapped! How did you even get back here!? Did they just let you go?’’

‘‘You didn’t answer my question.’’

‘‘What are you-’’

‘‘I asked: What about Remona? Why were you talking about her, and with whom?’’

‘‘Why’d you wanna know? You hate her.’’

‘‘Am I gonna have to keep asking until you answer?’’

‘‘It’s father. I was talking to father. He was worried about you.’’

‘‘… If you’re gonna lie to my face, don’t let it be something so obvious.’’

‘‘Okay, fine, so he was worried about the family’s standing in the face of a possible scandal, you know how he is.’’

‘‘And what about Remy?’’

‘‘Why do you wanna-’’

The tired and confused brother stopped himself from asking again ‘cause they have been talking in circles long enough, he thought.

‘‘He thought maybe she was involved, wanting revenge for what happened to her, but now that you can tell me what happened and who did this, we can know for sure.’’

‘‘What do you mean, what happened to her?’’

‘‘… You know what happened.’’

‘‘No, I mean, shouldn’t you have said something like “what she brought upon herself” or something? Why say something happened TO her?’’

‘‘What’s gotten into you today?’’

‘‘What’s gotten into you?’’

‘‘STELLA! I don’t know what happened, but please, get back to reality.’’

‘‘Oh, I am, seeing reality. For the first time in years, in fact.’’

‘‘Why are you acting like this?’’

‘‘Because I know.’’ She stepped closer and closer until she backed him against the wall.

The marquis didn’t know how to react. What was she doing?

‘‘I know what happened to her, and I know what you did.’’

‘‘What are you-’’

‘‘I know you’re the one who took my jewels.’’

‘‘WHAT!?’’

‘‘And you told me father sent her somewhere else to be taken care of where she wouldn’t get in our way or be a stain on the family name, you lied. She wasn’t sent somewhere else, she was kicked out.’’

‘‘Stella-’’

‘‘SHE WAS FIVE! NEARING SIX!’’

‘‘Stella, I-’’

‘‘YOU GOT A FIVE YEAR OLD KICKED OUT! WHAT DID SHE EVER DO TO YOU!?’’

‘‘STELLA!’’

‘‘OH, WAIT, I KNOW! NOTHING!’’

‘‘I DID NOT STEAL YOUR F*CKING A** JEWELS!’’

He wasn’t lying.

She didn’t need, what was her name, Tanya? She didn’t need Tanya to tell her that. She knew her brother better than anyone.

She knew he was terrified of their father, she knew he hated Stolas for acting the way he was, and she knew he was extremely attracted to the parrot prince, it was obvious, really.

And she knew right now that he wasn’t lying.

‘‘Then who did? Because I know she didn’t.’’

‘‘… I don’t know.’’

At least he wasn’t claiming Remy took them anymore. But he was still hiding something.

‘‘Then guess.’’

‘‘So, it was her who got your hitman to kidnap you.’’

‘‘Answer the question.’’

‘‘Or what?’’

‘‘Or I’ll make this a scandal.’’

‘‘Wha-’’

‘‘I’ll make it public.’’

‘‘…’’ He looked at her like she’d just lost her mind.

Maybe she had.

‘‘I will. I really will.’’

‘‘What has happened to you?’’

‘‘ANSWER THE QUESTION! WHO TOOK-’’

‘‘IT WAS FATHER.’’

‘‘…What? He’s the one who brought her in.’’

‘‘She herself was a problem, he only brought her in to keep an eye on her. To make sure the fact that he had a bastard kid stayed a secret.’’

‘‘But then why bring her here right before my wedding?’’

‘‘I don’t know all the details, okay? It’s mostly speculation.’’

‘‘When did you start suspecting him then? And why?’’

‘‘He wanted an explanation for your missing jewels, I don’t know how he found out, but the staff gossips like their lives depend on it after all, so I didn’t question it, then I told him about all possible suspects, and mentioned she knew about your jewels, I didn’t claim it was her! I am a lot of things, but I’m not about to frame a five year old for no reason.’’

‘‘… Then what?’’

‘‘He called me over the next day, told me he had the staff search her room and they found the jewels.’’

That’s a lie.

‘‘He said that wasn’t going to be tolerated, and that he would have her taken somewhere else. Said she clearly couldn’t stay here anymore. I had a feeling it was odd how he searched her room first, before all other suspects who could’ve taken them, and that he altered her look before sending her off, but I didn’t know for sure he did all that and blamed her!’’

‘‘You didn’t do anything.’’

‘‘What could have I done? He had made up his mind.’’

‘‘You didn’t even try.’’

‘‘How would I know he was going to ship her off to a random orphanage, she was his kid too! And did I feel guilty about it when I found out years later, maybe… A little. But come on Stella! Be real! She wasn’t our family, she was a basta-’’

He got cut off by her slapping him on his face. He wasn’t expecting it, ended up on the floor.

And she turned around, walking away.

‘‘Where are you going!?’’

‘‘AWAY FROM YOU.’’

Later that day around dinner time, a certain owl prince’s butler informed him of his soon to be ex, and also missing, wife at the door.

He portalled over immediately to see her holding a single suitcase, standing there like nothing had happened.

‘‘You mind if I stay for a while? Andre and I had a fight, and I ended up slapping him, so don’t really wanna see him right now.’’

‘‘You have it on video?’’

‘‘No.’’

‘‘Bummer. Come in.’’

He might have hated the woman with everything he got, but her being here would help Via feel better, so he wasn’t about to refuse anyway.

He also decided to be a gentleman and took the suitcase as they walked towards her old room.

‘‘You seem fine for a recent kidnappee, and I would know.’’

‘‘I am fine, thank you.’’

‘‘I’ll tell Via you’re okay. She was worried.’’

‘‘Since when does she care?’’

‘‘You’re her mother, of course she cares.’’

‘‘She frowns the entire duration of each of her visits, whenever we do anything in the same room, why does she care now?’’

‘‘… I don’t know. Ask her.’’ He deflected.

‘‘Alright, I shall.’’

Then later into the night, a certain imp boss got a series of texts from the guy towards whom he had no unprofessional feelings. Nope, none at all!

‘‘So, about the full moon in two days.’’

Chapter Text

Chapter 15:

Then later into the night, a certain imp boss got a series of texts from the guy towards whom he had no unprofessional feelings. Nope, none at all!

‘‘So, about the full moon in two days.’’

‘‘Whut abaout it?’’

‘‘I thought I should inform you. Stella is back here at the palace. However, the divorce is of course still in process nothing has changed on that front. She’s here because she was kidnapped, by her own henchman too, Striker, guess that’s karma. Anyway, Via was scared the same way she was when I was in the hospital, so I thought it would ease her worries for Stella to stay here, and didn’t oppose to her staying here for the time being. She doesn’t appear to be violent at the moment as well. So, if you wish to join me for the night, it should be fine, however, as always, I know you’re often busy, and understand if you wish to postpone or cancel.’’

‘‘Nah. I tink I’ll cum this time’’

‘‘I left u alone 4 to long, ur wyfe came back?’’

‘‘She neds a riminder she dosen’t own u anymoar’’

‘‘Oh, this makes me most glad.’’

‘‘Juss make suer ur kid don’t walk in on us’’

‘‘Of course, I shall. See you then, Blitzy.’’

‘‘Yea. Cya.’’

On one side of the text chain, a certain owl was happy about this. Blitzø hadn’t said no outright! Well, the Asmodean crystal hadn’t arrived yet, that would be soon before the next full moon, but this was nice. It felt like maybe it was one of those small mercies the universe allows you. One last night of passion with the man before it all went down in flames.  

And on the other side, the boss of I.M.P. was tired. He could use a night with Stolas, let off steam, after everything that had happened recently, and Stolas could too, probably. It would be fine, and a night on that bed was sure to do wonders.

If only he knew what else that night would do.

The next day, an uninvited guest showed up at the office, but maybe not a foe, but a new friend?

‘‘I wish to talk to your boss.’’ She said as she entered, Millie and Moxxie staring as she talked to Loona, since she sat at the secretary desk. ‘‘I have an offer I’d like to make him.’’

‘‘What kind of offer?’’ Moxxie asked before Loona could say they weren’t interested.

‘‘Oh, that’ for me and the boss to discuss, but you could expand.’’

Now that, they knew Blitzø would wanna hear about.

‘‘Blitzø!’’ Loona called out, and the man appeared out of his office.

‘‘Yes, Loonie?’’

‘‘This lady says she has an offer for you.’’

‘‘Ain’t interested, lady.’’

‘‘She said we might expand.’’

‘‘Let’s talk in my office, shall we?’’

Moxxie facepalmed, but they walked in and closed the door anyway.

‘‘This isn’t gonna end well.’’

‘‘You can’t know that, Moxx. Blitzø is usually good with business stuff.’’

‘‘He also offered a job to Striker.’’

‘‘Okay, yeah, I guess he did do that.’’ Millie admitted.

‘‘This isn’t gonna end well, I’m telling you.’’

Inside the boss’s office, Blitzø was skeptical, but excited to hear what she had to say. He hadn’t expected her to drop a bomb.

‘‘You know this place is kinda small for a business funded by a Goetia.’’

‘‘Wha- what do you mean funded by a Goetia?’’

‘‘Well, he’s letting you use an ancient magic tome for it, doesn’t that count as funding?’’

‘‘Tome?’’

‘‘The book.’’

What!? ‘‘How do you know about that?’’ No one was supposed to know.

‘‘Oh, relax. You’re hardly the first to steal from a Goetia.’’ She waved it off. ‘‘However, I believe you are one of the first to get caught and live. I myself simply didn’t get caught.’’

‘‘Stop talking all cryptic, B*tch, just tell me what your offer is or get out!’’

‘‘Wow, you’re hostile. Calm down though, this is a sincere offer. I noticed you’re currently the only one in this market, having invented it yourself, quite an accomplishment, might I add, but for how long do you think you can keep it that way?’’

‘‘What do you mean?’’

‘‘Well, your prince’s book isn’t the only way to get to the human world. Surely you know that.’’

‘‘Why would any incubi or succub*tch would wanna open up an assassination business with my model?’’

‘‘You don’t have to be from Lust to own an Asmodean crystal, not necessarily.’’

‘‘So what’s your big solution?’’

‘‘You currently only kill on Earth, yes? Which, no offence, but anyone can kill. That’s easy. What if you could offer something else? Another option that your clients might as well like even more.’’

‘‘What would that be?’’

‘‘Curses.’’

‘‘Curses?’’

‘‘Yes. Your clients cutting their enemies’ lives short and then double-killing them down here is fine, but what if you could offer different options? What if you could offer a long life of misery? Surely some of your clients would prefer it over their foes going through a short life of pain.’’

It did sound good. ‘‘I’m listening.’’

‘‘One of my people is kind of an expert on curses. We have crystals we smuggle from Goetia, and no, we don’t get caught. We use them for a variety of things. He uses them for curses. I could make the case that he helps you out.’’

‘‘Okay, so let’s say I offer this as another option to my clients, and the people upstairs live long but miserable lives, then what? When they eventually die and make it down here will be a long, long time from now, my clients won’t get to kill them probably, with those exterminations happening twice a year now.’’

‘‘Not everyone’s most hated goes to Hell when they die. There are some who make it to the good place, yeah?’’

‘‘Yeah, it annoys the cr*p out of the sinners, then they ask for refunds, and I tell them to f*ck off, they try to fight, they lose, we throw them out the window… Yeah.’’

‘‘Imagine all the clients who don’t come to your office at all, because they know the person they want to kill will end up there, what if you could offer them the certainty that the years that person has left on Earth each will be miserable?’’

‘‘Okay, you have my attention, lady…?’’

‘‘The name’s Remona.’’

‘‘Last name?’’

‘‘Don’t got one. Was an orphan. Aged out.’’

‘‘Don’t they assign you one?’’

‘‘I ain’t using it if it kills me.’’

‘‘Got it, but you might wanna come up with something for the papers we’re gonna sign, cause I’m seriously considering this.’’

‘‘I’m glad to hear it.’’

>>> At the Lust Palace, around dinner time…

‘‘So, I have some news.’’ Ozzie broke their regular ritual of talking about their days at dinner by announcing.

‘‘About what? Did the new shipment of parts for the new prototype arrive? You promised we’d test it togetherrrr…’’

‘‘Oh, that will happen as soon as I get my hands on them, Froggie, you have my word, but the news is about Tilly.’’

‘‘YOU FOUND HER ALREADY!?’’

‘‘No, no, not yet.’’

‘‘Oh…’’

‘‘I had given the people I employed for this the info they needed after you told me about everything you knew, and they were able to confirm everything Blitzø has told you.’’

‘‘Then what’s the news?’’

‘‘They did discover one more thing. They interrogated the people who were in charge at the time, and who were there the day of the transfer.’’

‘‘When she ran away?’’

‘‘Yes, but that’s the thing, it wasn’t just her who did.’’

‘‘It wasn’t?’’

‘‘No, they said around ten to fifteen kids ran away at the same time. It wasn’t random either, those kids clearly planned it.’’

‘‘So…’’

‘‘She’s not alone. She was a part of a group who acted together, who ran away together, and there’s a big chance they’re still living together, taking care of each other.’’

‘‘She’s not alone… She has people with her that she can trust.’’

‘‘Froggie.’’ He got up to take him up in his arms once he noticed his boyfriend got emotional.

‘‘She has a found family… Thank you, Ozzie.’’

‘‘Anything for you, Fizzie.’’

Chapter Text

Chapter 16:

The day of the full moon arrived, and Blitzø opened up the office as always, but with the intention to close early that day. Remona stopped by again during lunchtime as they had discussed, but this time she had a fifteen year old with her, whom she introduced as River.

A light grey hellhound with a chill attitude who didn’t really talk unless he was spoken to… could’ve been worse.

‘‘He might be underage, but he’s a tough kid and can carry his own weight. You don’t have to worry about him being on the field, he will not be dead weight, I can guarantee you. He also knows how to use a gun, though he’s not an expert like yourself and your employees.’’

She said once they were alone again.

‘‘You can take him with you on a job, see for yourself how it works.’’

‘‘I’ll probably take you up on that.’’ Blitzø was usually skeptical about these types of things, but he didn’t sense any shady behaviour at play here.

She didn’t feel like she had ulterior motives either. Boy, was he wrong.

‘‘I’m closing early today so it either has to be one of the two hits after the lunch break or tomorrow instead.’’

‘‘What are the hits like?’’

‘‘We got a rich b*tch who lives with his family on an island, and a nobody who lives in the middle of the woods.’’

‘‘Both tempting, I’ll ask him which he wants.’’

The kid decided to come to the rich b*tch’ mansion on the island.

‘‘Good choice. The man only has security around the island, not at the mansion itself. The fool.’’

‘‘Cool.’’ The teenager said though it was clear he did not care at all.

Remona stayed at the office with Loona and the others went through the portal to the mansion, which felt more like a small palace, almost half the size of Stolas’s, which was BIG.

It took them about fifteen minutes to locate the target, another half an hour for him to end up alone finally, away from the other members of the family.

‘‘Okay, kid,’’ Blitzø said to River: ‘‘we need this guy dead, but I need to see your cursing at work, can you come up with something that’ll get him dead like as soon as possible?’’

‘‘Hmmm… There are a couple choices. I think you’ll enjoy this one though.’’

The boy took out what Blitzø assumed was one of the crystals Remona had mentioned they smuggled from Goetia out of his hoodie’s pockets. She had said they were magic which explained how a hellhound kid could put curses on people.

The crystal was round shaped and sparkling white, but once he tore out the see through plastic cover off it -which he didn’t understand why, but whatever- it turned black for a moment before getting drained of all colour, turning into what looked like a trinket made of glass, and the kid’s hands were what was glowing now.

‘‘I call this one “Embodiment of Nightmares”.’’

‘‘Why?’’ Moxxie asked.

‘‘You’ll see.’’ River said, smirking.

He threw a small magic… glowy-smoke-thing at the human, the man not even realizing it but then he shook as if he’d gotten the chills.

That’s when things got interesting.

The man started turning around and ‘round as if there was someone haunting him.

‘‘Who-who’s there!?’’ He shouted looking scared off his a**.

He kept acting that way until his eyes focused on something that wasn’t there, and he started screaming harder and louder.

‘‘NO… NO! IT CAN’T BE!’’

He then ran away into his room but the screaming and begging for mercy didn’t stop, until a few moments later, they heard a gunshot.

‘‘Come see.’’

River said, getting out of their hiding space and sprinting over there. He opened the door for them to see that the guy had shot himself in the head as if he already knew that would happen.

‘‘You got him to kill himself?’’ Millie asked, surprize evident in her voice.

‘‘You got him to hallucinate.’’ Moxxie realized.

‘‘A personal favourite, yes.’’

‘‘That was awesome.’’ Blitzø declared, and texted Loona to open the portal for them to return to Hell.

‘‘Remona with no last name, we have a deal.’’ He later said as he shook hands with her, not knowing what this would lead to.

‘‘Glad to do business with ya.’’ She replied.

Later that evening, Blitzø had made sure to prepare dinner for his Loonie since she wasn’t going out tonight, saying she wasn’t going to waste hr night alone at the apartment and was gonna chill.

Which was fine until he decided to stay a little longer and have dinner with her instead of just leaving to head over to Stolas’s, and they ended up talking about the hit today.

‘‘Yeah, I don’t think we’ll regret this one, Loonie.’’

‘‘He seemed chill for sure. I don’t think he’ll be a problem either.’’

‘‘He put a curse on the guy that made him hallucinate his greatest fear and it scared him so bad, he killed himself to stop it, it was so f*cking cool.’’

‘‘Yea, how did he do that again?’’

‘‘She had said they use crystals they smuggle from Goetia, and it did seem that way, I saw him doing it. He had this oval shaped white stone that he used to do it.’’

She stilled completely. Like, it creeped him a bit.

‘‘A round shaped stone that glowed?’’

‘‘Uh, yes, why-’’

She ran into her room, crashing sounds coming from inside.

‘‘Loonie?’’

She had thought it was a diamond at first, but then realized it looked a lot more like glass. At best it was a fake diamond, she had assumed.

She finally found it from where she had hid it, and ran back into the kitchen, shoving it in her dad’s face.

‘‘DID IT LOOK LIKE THIS!?’’

‘‘Uh… yes. After he used it. Before, it was white, not glass-looking like this. Where did you get this one?’’

‘‘… Nowhere. You’re gonna be late, you should go.’’ She said as if she hadn’t just freaked out.

‘‘What? Loonie?’’

‘‘Don’t keep the bird waiting.’’ She shut her door behind her, staring at the stone in her hands.

Who she was about 90% sure had been Tilly in that cabinet that night… she hadn’t imagined it! The girl had f*cking teleported away! She had used magic.

And Loona didn’t know for sure, but she had a feeling deep in her gut that said this was connected to their new partners.

>>> Later at Stolas’s Palace

A certain imp climbed up the wall to a needy owl’s bedroom, spotting him waiting on the bed just as expected.

‘‘You really have nothing to do but wait for the next full moon, dreaming about this bod?’’ He asked teasingly, gesturing to himself.

‘‘Can you blame me?’’ The prince asked back. ‘‘It is usually the best night of the month.’’

‘‘Oh, yeah? What do you have planned for us tonight then, Birdy?’’ He said, stripping down most of his clothes, but not getting completely naked yet since Stolas still had his robe on too.

‘‘I thought we could switch places in between rounds this time?’’

That was odd, Stolas had never suggested such a thing.

‘‘I’m aware that it was a rough month for both of us, and I think it’ll be nice if we both get taken care of, just the way we like.’’ He said seductively.

It was out of their ordinary, where Blitzø just went along with whatever the owl had planned, long as it wasn’t something he was against doing -which the other was understanding of, because as selfish as Stolas acted at times, the prince of Hell had never forced him to do anything he didn’t want to- however, the bird had never suggested they both get to choose before.

But Blitzø wasn’t about to say no to a possibly even better night than he had originally thought this would be, and he trusted Stolas enough by now to let him top for once.

‘‘I’m down for it if you wanna, you needy owl.’’

‘‘You know I always want it with you.’’

‘‘Whatever you say.’’

Chapter Text

Chapter 17:

The next day Blitzø opened up the office at noon -since Stolas needed to do his magic-prophecy-star stuff that he did with the book after each full moon, but also because he felt like sleeping in- and now near closing time, still had not insulted Moxxie once, which made it clear to the others he was in a good mood, but why wouldn’t he be?

He was about to enter a business deal which sounded amazing -though Remona hadn’t stated what she wanted in return yet- and he had just had his best full moon sexcapade so far.

Aside from the regular “plowing of the feathered a** to the fancy mattress” thing, which is always wonderful to do so, he really hadn’t expected Stolas to rock it as a top -since he’d only ever topped his wife before- but the owl had performed very well considering his level of experience, Blitzø had let him top for an extra round.

‘‘Alright, gang!’’ He announced, ‘‘We have time for one more, I chose one that feels like it won’t take long, so let’s get it going!’’

>>> At Stolas’s Palace

‘‘Dad?’’ She peeped into her dad’s study to unsurprisingly see him hunched over a book.

‘‘Oh, Via, dear, did you need something?’’

‘‘No, I’m fine. Me and mom are ordering food, I wanted to ask if you wanted anything?’’

‘‘Oh, I suppose we don’t order that much, what did you guys get?’’

‘‘Ramen from a Korean place she said was good.’’

‘‘…’’ She what?

‘‘Yeah, I know, I had the same reaction. She said she heard it from a friend.’’

What friend of Stella’s would… ‘‘I don’t believe I’ve tried it before, have you?’’

‘‘No, but we’ve ordered a lot since she came back. We had pizza yesterday. She ate it with her hands.’’

Had the kidnappers replaced Stella with someone else?

‘‘Should we be concerned?’’ She asked, and Stolas wasn’t sure.

‘‘Probably not, maybe she’s just too tired mentally to act the proper way we were taught to do so growing up, I’ve never cared enough to force that stuff on you anyway, I don’t really care if she wants to let go as well.’’

‘‘Okay. Do you want ramen? There are a sh*tton of choices.’’

‘‘Language, but yes. You can choose for me, Darling, just nothing too spicy, please.’’

‘‘Alright.’’ She said, then made a move to leave but the prince stopped him.

‘‘Via, Sweetie?’’

‘‘Yes?’’

‘‘Can we talk for a bit?’’ He didn’t want to burst her bubble, but also knew that he needed to have this talk with her, and sooner was better than later.

He got off his seat on his desk to sit on one of the two couches in the room, and patted next to him, gesturing for her to sit.

Which she did.

‘‘Via, I feel I need to tell you, because you should know, that I am glad, happy even, that your mother is here spending quality time with you, but you also need to know this isn’t going to change anything regarding our divorce.’’

‘‘I-I know that.’’ He hated how her face dropped. ‘‘I saw your boyfriend’s van outside last night-’’

‘‘Oh…’’

‘‘and it’s not like she’s talked to you more than she had to since she came back.’’

‘‘You know we still love you the same, and I’m glad your mother is actually showing it in her actions finally.’’

‘‘I guess it’s been nice.’’

‘‘So, are you okay? I mean so much has happened in these past few weeks, we haven’t really talked.’’

‘‘I’m okay now, dad. I think.’’

‘‘Alright. But let me know if you ever feel down? About anything?’’

‘‘I will, dad.’’

>>> A ring and a lot of miles away… At the Kid’s Cave…

Remona had said she’d go see her dad. Both to check if he was trouble -in the sense that it was his f*cking a prince that had led to this chain of events, who knew what else was going on in the guy’s life?- and to see if… if he was safe to be around.

If it was safe for Tilly to maybe(!) meet him.

But she had to sit around and wait until Remona gave her verdict, the woman having made her promise that she wouldn’t go anywhere near the man until then.

Well, technically she could’ve gone on literally any of the ongoing missions they had.

There was this demon-trafficking piece of sh*t in the Greed Ring, and a sh*t eating gaping a**hole in Sloth who not only used kids whose ages ranged from seventeen to f*cking five as mail people to deliver his drugs to clients, but also got the kids above ten hooked up so he could keep controlling them.

They both needed to be taken out and Tilly had been excited to join at least one if not both, but they were both in the planning process of the mission, not the actual action, and she was so anxious about everything that’d been going on, she would probably just get in the way.

Not to mention there was the job Remona had offered to do for her sister, which included killing the guy her dad’s currently f*cking -gross- that Remona had said she shouldn’t join.

Shouldn’t. She hadn’t forbidden it, but said it wouldn’t be the best.

Maybe she was right. Maybe it was best if Tilly rested, stayed out of action for a while. She could go see Thorn!

That would cheer her up for sure.

>>> Later at Blitzø’s apartment…

Hanging up the phone from his talk with Fizz, Blitzø hadn’t felt this peace in forever.

Fizz had just told him everything his boyfriend had found so far, and sure, they still didn’t know where Tilly was, but knowing she had people with her was a huge relief.

Everything was just so great, that he couldn’t help but feel like something was wrong. He couldn’t think of a single thing going wrong at the moment that something had to be.

Something was going to go horse sh*t real soon real fast, but he didn’t know what.

He just hoped it wouldn’t leave him or anyone he cared about in pieces, and spent the days rolling around doing his job and finalizing the deal with Remona, discussing details and stuff.

She wanted 50% of all the hits where they had River’s help for curses, but did not go over the line and asked for the 50% of all their profit, because even though that would obviously be unfair, this was Hell, and Blitzø had been worried about that, but the woman turned out to be a decent person.  

She wanted the money cash though… Nah, Blitzø wasn’t going to make that a big deal when he was the one benefiting more from the deal.

They would start advertising the new deal that weekend and start implementing it in the hits for real the next month.

The moment he was waiting for, though, where it all went down horse sh*t, happened three weeks after the full moon.

Chapter Text

Chapter 18:

It had been his turn for a coffee run, so he had been on his way to the decent coffee shop two blocks away -not the sh*tty one across the building- when he noticed a certain cowboy f*cker just standing idly by in an alleyway, feeding apples to his horse without a care in the world, along his way.

Then when he looked that way directly, he waved as if he’d been waiting for Blitzø to notice him. What the heck?

This f*cker had hurt Stolas though, like really hurt. And had almost hurt Fizz. Blitzø wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity to get revenge.

He approached with caution, a hand over his gun, but the other was chill, and didn’t reach for his own.

‘‘Hey there, Blitzy.’’ He said, not giving a f*ck that Blitzø had his gun out.

He even casually stopped Bombproof from getting near Blitzø, the f*cker. The horse probably remembered how nice the imp had been to him back when they met in Wrath.

‘‘The f*ck are you doing around here? Looking to get your a** handed to you again? Or have it set on fire instead maybe?’’

‘‘No, not this time. I just heard you’ve found yourself in a tough spot, and thought I’d help you out.’’

‘‘What are you talking about, you reptilian psychopath?’’

‘‘I just thought I’d help a desperate dad looking for his firstborn.’’

Blitzø reacted so fast it surprized even himself. He knocked the guy down to the ground, holding him by his neck with one arm while holding his pistol against his face with the other.

‘‘SAY THAT AGAIN?’’

‘‘The little imp girl. I know where she is.’’

Blitzø then proceeded to lose it.

He saw red, punching the guy bloody murder, but the other hadn’t fought back, and just when he thought maybe he’d knocked him out completely, the hybrid rolled around, and now had a very tired out Blitzø pinned under him with his gun tossed aside.

Why was he this tired though? He’d beat the guy up for what? Five, maybe ten minutes max? He wasn’t supposed to be… F*ck! He’d threw up that morning. He was gonna get sick now of all time wasn’t he?

‘‘She lives in a cave in Wrath.’’ Striker said so in between heavy breaths from the beating he’d just taken. ‘‘And I’ll give it to them, it’s a very nice cave, but at the end of the day… It’s a cave.’’

He was lying, Blitzø just knew it. He had no idea how he’d found out but he was making it up. He had to be. Not to mention there was about a billion caves in Wrath.

‘‘And I wouldn’t piss me off I were you, since I’m the only one who might tell you where she is… for a price.’’

That implied that there was at least one other person Blitzø knew personally who knew where Tilly was, but he couldn’t focus on that thought at that moment.

Because there was a chance this B*tch might not be lying, and if so…

‘‘What do you want?’’

‘‘Help with a job.’’

‘‘I. AM. NOT.’’ Blitzø made it clear. ‘‘Going to help you hurt Stolas. In fact, if you go anywhere near him again-’’

‘‘Calm down, wow, you don’t even deny it anymore, huh?’’ He said, getting off Blitzø as they both got up. ‘‘Does he still call you a plaything? Or are you his pet now? I’d say c*ck warmer but those birds don’t got that.’’

Blitzø ignored him as Bombproof got next to him again but this time he didn’t let Striker stop him from petting the horse. He liked that horse.

The bastard just stared for a bit before continuing to tease Blitzø, probably to get him riled up.

‘‘Comesl*t? Broodmare?’’ He grinned.

Okay, so it was for fun.

‘‘Shut up, douche bag. What’s this job?’’

‘‘I’mma kill the peacock lady.’’

‘‘… Why?’’ Why would he want Stolas’s wife killed?

‘‘She did me wrong. Didn’t pay the last time she hired me ‘cause I couldn’t kill or bring in the guy.’’

‘‘… Wait-wait-wait-wait-wait… SHE’S THE ONE WHO HIRED YOU?’’

‘‘He didn’t tell you?’’

‘‘HE KNOWS!?’’ Wait… ‘‘HE KNOWS AND HE F*CKING LET THAT B*TCH BACK IN THE PALACE!?’’

‘‘He did? Didn’t know she was there.’’

‘‘IS HE INSANE? IS HE OUT OF HIS MIND!? IS HE-’’

‘‘You gonna help me or what?’’

‘‘… You can’t possibly get into the palace without him noticing.’’

‘‘That is why I need you, but I am paying you handsomely, yea?’’

‘‘How do I know you’re not lying?’’

‘‘You don’t, but it’s not like doing this is gonna cause you harm, and wouldn’t your bird appreciate this problem gone?’’

But she was still Via’s mom… Though they weren’t that close from what he knew.

‘‘I won’t help you with the hit… but I can tell you how I got in the first time.’’ He offered instead. ‘‘Information for information.’’

‘‘Hmm… fine. You got a deal, but I’ll need to go check for myself if it’s true, if you don’t mind.’’

‘‘Then how do I know you won’t just vanish into thin air once you get it done and leave me dry?’’

‘‘Hmm… How ‘bout you keep Bombproof with you ‘till I’m back.’’

‘‘…’’ How was he supposed to say no to that!? ‘‘Fine.’’

‘‘Great, so how do I break in?’’

‘‘The northwest corner of the garden has some special plants that have a strong, icky smell. The hellhound guards hate them, so they usually skip it during patrols. Not to mention, even if they don’t, the smell will stop them from smelling you being there.’’

‘‘That is… extremely convenient.’’

‘‘Yeah I know.’’

And so, the freakshow of a hitman left, and Blitzø called Stolas as soon as he was sure the other had gone away.

‘‘Hey, Stolas.’’

‘‘ Hello Blitzø… Via isn’t there again, is she?’’

‘‘No, but I’m not too busy today, are you?’’

‘‘No… Did you wanna stop by?’’ He asked excitedly. ‘‘Did I do that good last time?’’

‘‘You did great, but no, this isn’t a booty call, I-uh… you remember that one time we bumped into each other at Stylish Occult? The girls had liked it, so I thought maybe the four of us could go again? Like right now.’’

‘‘Oh, I’ll have to ask Via, but I’m sure she’ll be delighted!’’

‘‘Great, see you there.’’

‘‘See you soon, Blitzø!’’

He hung up. Now Stolas and Via wouldn’t be at the palace when Striker arrived, but the guy would still get the b*tchy wife.

So that was fine… Right?

Anyway, now he just had to find a temporary place to take Bombproof -shame that he wasn’t gonna be able to spend time with the horse but the owls’ safety was more important- call Moxxie to close up the office and ignore his complaints about professionalism, and convince Loona to come along.

Shouldn’t be too hard, yeah?

Chapter Text

Chapter 19:

Now having Loona, Stolas and Via all within eyesight helped the imp relax, but he couldn’t stay in the moment knowing what was about to happen.

‘‘I have to say, it is quite pleasant to see the girls get along, and even having fun together, Blitzø.’’

The owl said, looking at their daughters at the other side of the store, picking up outfits to try on.

‘‘For sure.’’

‘‘Would you like to look at outfits for ourselves? The vibe here isn’t my usual style, but I’ll give it a go.’’

‘‘It wouldn’t hurt I guess.’’ Blitzø agreed, and they started looking around the rows of various clothing.

‘‘It’s also nice to spend some time with Via. She’s mostly been spending time with her mother since she was kidnapped.’’

‘‘Since who was kidnapped?’’

‘‘Stella. I’d mentioned it before, remember?’’

‘‘Oh, right.’’ His head’s been all over the place for a while now. He’d kept forgetting stuff, some of which turned out to be important later. Probaly because he’s been so f*cking tired. ‘‘How did you guys save her again?’’

‘‘We didn’t. We were going to, then I’m not sure what happened, all I know is she got back to Andrealphus’s estate somehow -maybe he saved her, I don’t know- and they had a fight so she left to come back to my palace, and I didn’t say no for Via’s sake.’’

‘‘Oh.’’

‘‘Surprizingly, she hasn’t caused a single problem or thrown a single tantrum since. It’s like she’s a different person. She even spent time with Via doing stuff that Via enjoyed. Willingly, too.’’

‘‘Sh-she did?’’

‘‘Yeah, she’s been acting like a decent demon being for once since I met her. Like, it’s been three weeks and I haven’t felt the need to tell her to get out.’’

Stolas was destroying Blitzø with those comments and he didn’t even know it.

‘‘Oh, but don’t get me wrong, we’re not getting back together or anything. NEVER.’’

‘‘Yeah, I’m aware of how utterly gay you are.’’

‘‘Only for you…’’ He teased. ‘‘But anyway, this actually helped me out too, the divorce proceedings have been moving much smoother since this started, and I’ve been thinking about the custody agreement, I’m seriously considering agreeing to joint custody. I haven’t decided for sure yet, though.’’

You might not need to decide soon.

‘‘Via’s been so happy these three weeks, I don’t want to get in the way of it continuing.’’

The-the B*tch had been nice to her kid?

Via’s been happy?

The moody teenager Octavia’s been happy?

Okay. This is it.

‘‘Hey, you keep looking okay? I’mma go get us all coffee.’’

‘‘Oh, we could go to a coffee shop all together later-’’

‘‘Yeah, but Loonie’s only had three cups today, so she might get irritated soon if she doesn’t have another anyway.’’ He deflected.

‘‘Well, then I suppose-’’

‘‘You like Vanilla Latte, Via’s a Pumpkin Spice person, right?’’ He kept on deflecting.

‘‘Ah, yes, but-’’

‘‘Be back in a jiff!’’ He practically ran out of the store.

He needed-no. He had to stop Striker before it was too late.

He drove like there was no tomorrow. The twenty minute ride was turned into a five minute one, and he climbed right in, looking around to find rather the assassin or the b*tch who apparently wasn’t that big a b*tch anymore.

He was way too frantic about it, though -he couldn't help himself- that Pringles of all people noticed him.

‘‘Master Blitzø?’’ He seemed surprized to see him. ‘‘What are you doing here?’’

‘‘I-uh… Stolas sent me to get something.’’

‘‘He… couldn’t just portal?’’

Sh*t. ‘‘That’s what I thought, but he’s silly like that sometimes, y’know?’’

Now that, no one could possibly deny, and Pringles didn’t either.

‘‘I suppose, what did he send you for?’’

‘‘Oh, I uh- he wanted a book from his study.’’ He made up on the spot.

‘‘Didn’t you pass it on your way here?’’

What was this? An interrogation? ‘‘Well, excuse me if I didn’t take the time to memorize the layout of this huge frigging place!’’

‘‘I’ll show you.’’ He started walking in the opposite direction, gesturing Blitzø to follow.

‘‘I was-ummm… Also trying to avoid the wife, she’s not around this side of the palace is she?’’

‘‘Oh, she’s not currently at the palace at all.’’

WHAT!?

‘‘She left soon after Prince Stolas and Princess Octavia did.’’

Blitzø tried hard not to scream in frustration before they made it to Stolas’s study, and he picked a book at random just to save face before leaving. He went back to his van, threw the book in the glove compartment, and tried not to panic.

But he was, in fact, panicking.

Striker was nowhere to be found, and Stella wasn’t here either, but then did Striker follow the peacock to ambush and kill her or did he come here to find the palace empty of any birds and thought Blitzø double-crossed him.

Because if the latter was true, then the hitman was most likely out there looking for Blitzø. He was going to hunt him down, and definitely not going to tell him anything about Tilly-

‘‘What’cha thinkin’ about?’’

Turns out the other assassin wasn’t that far after all. Blitzø was an idiot who hadn’t noticed the man inside his own f*cking van while getting in, and now there was a gun pressed against the back of his neck.

‘‘I didn’t double-cross you, I only got Stolas and Via out, I don’t know why his wife left the place, I swear-’’

‘‘Oh, I know.’’

He… He did?

‘‘This is me double-crossing you.’’

Then, before imp boss could possibly react in any way, he felt the needle of a syringe prick the side of his neck, and his vision blurred.

‘‘That peahen wasn’t my target. Not today.’’

The guy said as he pulled Blitzø’s limp body from the driver’s seat to the back of the van.

‘‘It’s really your fault for believing I’d willingly give up my greatest bargaining chip.’’

Blitzø heard him say before he got sleepy from whatever he had been injected with, he couldn’t think straight anymore.

‘‘The location of your kid is the one thing that’s going to keep me alive if and when you or your blue-blooded master capture me. That little secret is not leaving my mouth until then.’’

How did I let this happen? Was the last thing Blitzø thought of before it all went black.

In a whole other part of Hell, the daughter he was so concerned with was getting ready to join the mission in Sloth. They were going to bust the yearly meeting the guy they were trying to take down arranged.

All groups of dealers from the various cities in Sloth that worked for him were going to be there, so it was the perfect opportunity to wipe them all out in one go.  

‘‘Tils?’’

‘‘Remona.’’ She hadn’t noticed the other coming in.

‘‘You’re going to join the Sloth mission, I take it.’’

‘‘Yeah. The distraction and the getaway, as always.’’ She wanted more, though.

The older kids always told her to wait until she was a little older. Always, a little older.

‘‘Alright. I’m glad. Where were you earlier though? I couldn’t find you.’’

‘‘Oh, I went to see Thorn.’’

Thorn was the youngest in the cave. Only six years old. They had placed her room in the deepest part of the cave, behind hidden chambers and walls, and at least three kids above the age of twelve with her at all times to keep her as safe as they could.

Because if they got discovered, if the Goetia came for them, Thorn couldn’t possibly protect herself, or run.

Her ability wasn’t something she could fight with.

And she couldn’t walk.

‘‘How was she?’’

‘‘Just minor aches, like usual, but she wasn’t upset. We read some of the comic books the guys brought from their last mission. She’s slowly getting the hang of it.’’

‘‘I’m glad. I don’t care if she’ll never leave the cave, she should know how to read.’’

Tilly nodded in agreement before grabbing the last of the stuff she needed for the mission.

‘‘Take care, okay? I’m not coming along to this one, Polio’s in charge.’’

‘‘Yeah, he mentioned you were busy with the demon-trafficking maniac case.’’

‘‘It’s a lot more serious, so I have to.’’

‘‘Okay. Don’t worry, I’ll be careful.’’

Chapter Text

Chapter 20:

Blitzø woke up from a bucket of water dumped on him. Classic.

‘‘Welcome back to the realm of the living, royal pet.’’

He was busy coughing so he couldn’t answer. He also couldn’t move, but that wasn’t surprizing.

He found himself bound as tightly as possible with thick rope, his coat and boots were gone, too -which meant no hidden knife- and his tail bound to a piece of metal on the side of the wall.

It wasn’t tied with rope, by the way. The cowboy scum had tied his tail up and knotted it as if it was rope.

Tying one’s tail in a knot was one of the lowest of the lows you could sink down to here in Hell. Still above killing babies and graping children, but only a little below hanging up various demons on walls/pipes by their horns.

And this guy himself had both -not all species did- so it was even more degrading. Being treated as if he wasn’t a person.  

He tried to get over it as he looked around to see he was placed in a really old, dirty, cracked bathtub in a sh*tty bathroom, and thought maybe the guy had brought him to a motel for whatever reason, but the wooden walls were cracked all over and there were spider webs everywhere.

Even a sh*tty motel owner wouldn’t let this pass.

So, he was probably in an abandoned old building.

‘‘You know I was just gonna kill you, and then use your body to get to the owl, and kill him, and then the wife would be left alone and I’d kill her, then that f*cking imp lady would come next, but a particular gentleman offered a hefty sum for ya.’’

Who the f*ck would pay half a penny for Blitzø?

‘‘We’re talking details. Soon as that’s done I’mma drop your a** at his place and be done with you forever. I seriously doubt you’ll make it out alive.’’

‘‘Who in Hell would want my a**?’’ Besides Stolas.

‘‘You’ll find out soon.’’ The other said with a wide a** grin before leaving.

Blitzø wasn’t sure how he was going to get out, but he knew that he was gonna.

He had to.

>>> In a warehouse in Sloth

Barbie wouldn’t have gone to the mother*cking meeting if she knew it was gonna end up like this.

She’d only gone because she got an invite through a contact, and thought maybe she could find a new supplier to work with, or a new dealer she could work for, since she didn’t really get to choose at this point.

But it had gone up in flames… or rather red smoke. Reapers.

The whole warehouse was quickly filled with their signature smoke and everyone inside was surrounded.

She thought she was gonna die.

The Goetia didn’t really care about the lives of their citizens unless it intervened with theirs, but sometimes they engaged in various “hero acts” that usually involved kids -which she had suspecting these guys might be involved in because of the vibe she picked up once she was already inside- for publicity that only worked on each other, really.  

But why the reapers were here didn’t change what would happen if she got caught.

She hid behind some trash on one corner, trying to keep as quiet as she could. It took her about two minutes before she noticed something was off though.

The reapers didn’t kill -they captured people- unless they were attacked first, but these reapers were attacking first, and not even trying to capture anyone.

Not to mention the magic they were using to kill people wasn’t normal reapers’ magic either, normal reapers didn’t possess magic of this level.

Whatever was going on, she didn’t wanna be a part of. She was crawling towards the back entrance when one of those weird a** reapers cornered her.

I’m dead. She thought, and the axe it was holding was swung down on her, but it stopped right before the weapon fractured her skull into tiny pieces, and retreated it.

Then it kept staring before it spoke.

‘‘Your tattoo.’’ It said, barely above a whisper.

‘‘What of it?’’

‘‘You’re from the Buckzo circus.’’

How would a reaper know that- she was thinking but her train of thought was interrupted by a flash of light coming from who she had thought until that moment to be a reaper, but now could see clearly wasn’t.

It was a teenage girl, but Barbie’s own face staring back at her with mama’s hair and horns and Fizz’s eyes.

She almost choked on her own spit once she recognized who the girl was.

‘‘Tilly…’’

>>> Back at The Stylish Occult

Stolas had called Blitzø one time about half an hour after the imp had left, after he had felt the distress signal on Blitzø had fired an alarm.

Well, it hadn’t lasted long, and the signal was connected to Blitzø’s mental state, so it was prone to fire alarms from time to time when there was no imminent danger and his beloved was just having a bad day, so he had decided not to rush over there, thinking Blitzø was probably having a fight with a worker at whatever coffee shop he had run off to.

Maybe a poor worker had spelled his “o” without crossing a line over it, who knew?

But now it’s been another hour, the girls were almost done with their shopping and the imp still wasn’t anywhere to be seen. He called again, but it once again wasn’t answered.

Odd.

‘‘Dad!’’ He got startled from Via shouting out for him, and put his phone away, turning to face the girls coming over with the outfits they’d chosen.

‘‘We’re done choosing. Did you get anything?’’ She asked excitedly.

‘‘Unfortunately, no, Starfire. Not that I don’t share your interest in “goth” style clothing, but I haven’t tried it since before your mother and I married, and I doubt I’d be able to pull it off at this age.’’

‘‘Why wouldn’t you? Grandfather does.’’

‘‘… I’m sorry?’’

‘‘I mean, he wears dark brown and red usually, but the style is very goth that it would be outright goth if he just chose them in black, and he pulls it off.’’

That hurt in ways he knew for a fact his Starfire hadn’t intended, but was also just such a big punch to the face, like, ouch.

‘‘Perhaps we can look together another time then, Sweetie.’’

‘‘Where’s Blitzø?’’ Loona asked then, sounding neutral, but he could tell she found it odd that he was nowhere to be seen.

‘‘He left saying he’d get us all coffee a while back but hasn’t come back yet and isn’t answering his phone.’’

‘‘How much is “a while”?’’

‘‘More than one and a half hours.’’

‘‘I’ll call him.’’ She said, picking up her phone.

He didn’t pick her call up either.

Dread was now slowly filling the owl’s heart. Blitzø always took Loona’s calls.

Had he made a mistake not going over to where the imp was when he’d felt the alarm? Because he couldn’t now.

He’d respected the other’s privacy and adjusted to spell to only let him know of Blitzø’s location if the alarm was actively sounding.

He wouldn’t be able to find him unless it rang again.

Chapter Text

Chapter 21:

Stolas quickly had the girls pay for their stuff -he’d actually wanted to tell them both to use his card but he felt that would make Loona feel belittled, as if she couldn’t pay for her own stuff, so he’d just given it to Via- and portalled them back to the palace, to his study.

‘‘Are you gonna try to scry on him like you did with mom?’’ Via asked him, and he indeed had had that idea.

‘‘That would be best, Starfire.’’

Loona didn’t say anything, but the prince could tell she was uneasy. She didn’t wanna show it, but she was worried too.

But before he could reach for the mirror on the wall, he was overwhelmed -deafened even- by the sound of the alarm he had grown familiar to in these last few months, now ringing louder than it even had.

And something that had never happened before took place. He felt Blitzø’s pain.

Ending up on the floor, he couldn’t move for a while from just how much and how sudden it had been, faintly recognizing Via’s shouts for him, before he managed to pinpoint Blitzø’s location through the signal, and shutting it off.

He then tried his best to get his breathing back to normal and get over the panic he had felt. He had to get to Blitzø!

‘‘DAD!’’ Via was scared and wanted answers.

But Stolas had to hurry. ‘‘I will be back as soon as I can, Via.’’ He said as he got up. ‘‘You two wait for me here.’’

He opened a portal and flew through before either of the girls could protest.

>>> Back at the warehouse in Sloth…

‘‘Tilly… Tilly? TILLY!’’

‘‘You-you look like…’’ She looked like Blitzø. Could she be the sister? Her aunt? What was her name…

‘‘It’s you, isn’t it?’’

She asked, and approached Tilly when she didn’t answer, but another kid, also one with a reaper disguise -illusions, courtesy of Tilly- got in between them and stopped her.

‘‘Step back.’’ He warned her before dropping his disguise.

‘‘Tilly, what the f*ck!?’’

‘‘Polio.’’

The twenty-three year old baphomet was the second oldest in the cave, and in charge whenever Remona wasn’t with them. In fact, those two had even dated for a short while a few years back.

Needless to say, if Remona was the mother figure in the cave, he was the father figure.

‘‘Why is she still alive?’’ He asked and Tilly couldn’t answer.

Then, she didn’t have to, because Barbie cut in: ‘‘Who the f*ck are you?’’

He ignored her. ‘‘Tils, we’re wrapping up, we already got the boogey-man.’’

‘‘BOOGEY-MAN?’’ Her aunt asked as if they were talking gibberish.

FYI, it was what they called the main target of each mission.

‘‘What’s the hold up? Who is this b*tch?’’

‘‘I’M HER AUNT!’’ Barbie then roared, no longer fearing for her life, apparently. ‘‘WHO THE F*CK ARE YOU?’’

He kept looking in between them upon that reveal, noticing the clear resemblance.

After a minute or two, he turned to her and commanded with a stern tone of voice: ‘‘Tilly.’’

She understood immediately that there would be no saying “no”.

‘‘Go help the others. NOW.’’

>>> Somewhere else in Hell…

Blitzø had thought that maybe he could get the slithering f*cker to set him free since he knew where Bombproof was, so he brought it up when the other came in to bring him water.

Something about not wanting to damage the goods? The f*ck did that mean?

But he’d asked, only for it to be revealed that the other assassin had followed him and had already recovered Bombproof.

Now Blitzø had no other choice but to try and escape on his own somehow.

He couldn’t possibly get out of the tub without making noise and alerting his kidnapper, so his best bet was to get his tail free first, which led him to breaking the piece of wood his tail was tied to.

Thank Satan the wood cracked and the piece his tail was tied to -now free from the wall- broke off without making too much noise. Then he spent the next ten to fifteen minutes trying to undo the knots with his hands that were tied together, and when that didn’t work, he had to resort to more gruesome things to try.

The wood was old and already breaking apart, so he tried to break it by biting it into smaller pieces, which proved harder than he had thought.

He bit his tail by accident three times, which hurt worse than Stolas’s beak, to be honest, but eventually the wood crumbled, and he was able to free his tail from the knots.

It now ached though, even hurt if he bent it the wrong way, from how much it’d been stretched.  

‘‘Christ on a stick…’’

He then had to endure the pain, and use his tail to undo the ropes tying his legs together, which hurt like a b*tch, but he managed and freed his legs.

That’s when the guy chose to come back.

‘‘Good news, Blitzy.’’ Striker called out from he was walking towards the bathroom, Blitzø wasn’t sure how far, he just knew he had to get the f*ck out before it was too late.

He began to slowly get up and get out of the tub.

‘‘The b*tch might have forsaken me, but her brother is going to pay a hundred grand for your sorry a**.’’

A HUNDRED GRAND!? Blitzø panicked.

And tripped -but let’s be honest, who the f*ck would give that big an amount for him?- which alerted Striker.

His footsteps got faster, and he ripped through the door just as Blitzø had gotten back up.

The hybrid got mad, and lunged for Blitzø, but couldn’t land the hit.

Because right before he did, Blitzø took the only way out that he saw available, and jumped through the window, breaking the glass.

There’d been only one problem with that plan. He hadn’t known what floor they were on until he broke through the glass and looked down.

Too many. The answer that been too many.

For the better, or maybe worse, the metal garden fence -which, THANK LUCIFER, hadn’t had any barbed wire on it- broke his fall.

But he only felt the gratefulness for half a second before he hit the ground on his side, rolling ‘till he stopped, face first to the dirt, and saw white.

He hadn’t felt this much pain in so long, it hit him worse than a ton of bricks. He could barely see, his vision blurred, he could barely hear anything, and all he could comprehend was pain, PAIN, PAIN…

He could tell he broke a few ribs at the very least, but that wasn’t the source of whatever was hurting this bad, he couldn’t understand what was going on.

‘‘YOU IDIOT!’’

He heard Striker yell from he didn’t know how far,  but soon enough, he felt himself being turned around.

‘‘Do you have any idea what you just cost me?’’

He was alive, what was the snake complaining about? He wondered as he felt Striker check all over him, rough hands touching him all over, mostly around where the garden fence had collided with him, a little above the d*ck, also thank Satan!

Not thankful for the touching though.

‘‘He’s not gonna pay anything more than five grand for you now, maybe ten, if I’m lucky!’’

‘‘Who’d-’’ He’d managed to speak, but the other cut him off.

‘‘You know what? You’re already broken! I might as well screw him, and take my revenge on you right here right now.’’

He stomped on Blitzø, once again in the exact spot the fence had almost pierced him.

He saw white again, and even thought he might black out from the pain, and he probably would’ve, if someone hadn’t ripped the guy off of him.

‘‘YOU DARE?’’ Someone roared.

He knew that voice, but where did he know it from?

He heard voices again -lower voices- two people talking, for a while before someone touched him again, holding his face, but the touch was far, far softer than before.

The hands familiar.

‘‘Blitzø!?’’

Stolas.

‘‘Blitzø… you’re hurt, what happened?’’

Did he really expect him to answer questions right now?

He felt him rip off the ropes that’d been keeping his arms tied, checking him over like the bastard had done, but gently.

‘‘You’re bleeding.’’

He was? He didn’t remember his skin getting pierced anywhere, or anything stabbing him.

‘‘I didn’t…’’

‘‘You didn’t what?’’

‘‘I… wasn’t injured.’’

Stolas then reached for the zipper of his pants. ‘‘I’m taking them off to see where you’re bleeding from exactly, hope you don’t mind.’’

‘‘Perv.’’

The prince ignored his comment and pulled his pants down, his boxers following close behind. He then for some reason stayed quiet for what felt like a little too long to Blitzø.

‘‘What?’’ He asked, not knowing what was going through the other’s mind.

And how shocked and scared sh*tless Stolas was.

‘‘Blitzø, you’re bleeding from… Oh, Gods…’’

Lucifer… Please, oh, my stars, I beg you, do not let it be that.

‘‘You need a doctor. I’m taking you to Sloth.’’

Chapter Text

Chapter 22:

Stolas carried a passed out Blitzø through a portal to Sloth in a panicked haze, but tried to be as discreet as possible, asking for help from a nurse instead of making a scene. He knew Blitzø wouldn’t appreciate it if he caused a scene or made a fuss.

The nurse alerted a doctor who asked a few questions while she guided them to a room where she began assessing Blitzø’s condition.

The owl answered the questions the best he could while also explaining to her what he thought had happened.

She then paged another doctor, and asked Stolas to please leave the room while they would take care of Blitzø, but the doctors needed their space to focus and all, as expected.

He told them to give him the best care possible, and that he would pay for everything, before doing as asked, and leaving the room.

He sat on the nearest bench he could find, trying to calm down. It wasn’t going great in the first place before the first doctor that had tended to Blitzø left the room, and approached him.

‘‘Your Highness.’’

‘‘Is he okay?’’

‘‘His condition is not life threatening at the moment.’’ She soothed his worries, but only for a few seconds before she explained further: ‘‘However, he needs surgery.’’

‘‘What?’’ The worry came back tenfold. ‘‘For the…?’’

‘‘We, umm- did some imaging.’’ She explained nervously. ‘‘The child was an egg, Your Highness.’’

A lot of thoughts flashed through Stolas’s mind upon hearing that, the first of which was “WHAT?” and the second; “F*CK”.

The last they had been together was three weeks ago, before that had been three months almost, so it was clear when it had taken.

Knowing that, he knew enough to understand what she’d meant.

Around three weeks was when Goetian avians’ eggs were the hardest. They started softening after three to four weeks and were very smooth and slippery when it was time to lay to make it easy for the mother.

Blitzø must have endured tremendous force for it to break and kill the baby, the leftover pieces of shell still inside.

They would be no different than pieces of thick, tempered glass inside, most likely causing… ‘‘Does he have internal bleeding?’’

‘‘A considerable amount, yes, but thankfully not deadly. You saved his life bringing him in, Your Highness.’’

‘‘I’m guessing the surgery is to remove the pieces?’’

‘‘Yes.’’

‘‘How soon can you do it?’’

‘‘There’s an opening in half an hour, but he most likely won’t wake up until then, which is best, actually. We tried to contact his healthcare proxy, though, but the woman who answered said, and I quote: “He can go *********.”’’

‘‘I can get his daughter if you need anything signed.’’

‘‘That’d be great, thank you, Your Highness.’’

‘‘Thank you.’’

He said, then he was about to reach for his pocket to fish out his phone, but she turned around, standing there in front of him, nervously, for a second or two before she spoke.

‘‘Uh- this may be out of line, Your Highness, but umm… the baby probably wouldn’t have made it to full term anyway.’’

He just stared so she continued.

‘‘When Goetia and-uh, non-Goetic demons have kids, full on hybrids are extremely rare. Usually, it’s either an impling with some Goetic features, or in your case, it’s a Goetic baby with some of the other parent’s features.’’

And? He thought but didn’t ask.

‘‘Species that lay eggs are problematic because they’re often not genetically compatible. If a female avian were to get gravid with an impling, or a non-Goetic demon were to end up with an egg in their womb, like Mr. Buckzo here, it just doesn’t work out. Because it can’t.’’

Why did he feel like crying? He hadn’t even known ‘till less than half an hour ago.

‘‘Their bodies just aren’t made for that.’’

‘‘He would’ve lost it anyway?’’

‘‘Most definitely, yes.’’

‘‘…Thank you, for explaining.’’

She just bowed and left.

He spent another five or so minutes trying to calm himself down before he reached for his phone again to call Loona, only to see he had left it in his study.

He then opened a portal there, instead, but before he could step in, the girls stepped through to his side.

‘‘DAD!’’ Via lunged herself at him.

‘‘Starfire.’’ He wasn’t about to refuse an embrace from her now of all times.

‘‘Why are we in a hospital?’’ Loona asked, not caring that they were having a moment. ‘‘Where’s Blitzø?’’

He didn’t know how to answer her, really.

‘‘He’s being taken care of,’’ He tried to reassure her. ‘‘but he needs surgery.’’

Her white as snow face somehow got paler. ‘‘He what?’’

‘‘He has internal bleeding.’’ He explained, hoping she wouldn’t ask further.

He really didn’t want to tell her, not only because he didn’t know if Blitzø would want her to know, but also because Blitzø deserved to be the first to know.

Stolas didn’t even know if Blitzø had known he was carrying.

On one hand it would explain why he had asked to see the owl and even to spend time together when he’d literally never done that before -without clear ulterior motives, aka OZZIE’S- because maybe he was going to tell him?

He had run away nervously the moment they were left alone by the girls after all.

But Blitzø’s reactions that he’d seen before the imp had passed out suggested otherwise. He hadn’t known, Stolas was near sure.

‘‘How did that happen?’’

‘‘… Striker.’’ That wasn’t lying!

‘‘The same guy that landed you in the hospital?’’ Via asked, clearly scared.

‘‘It’s okay, Starfire.’’ He hugged her again. ‘‘He didn’t see me coming and is now in the dungeon under the palace.’’

‘‘You got him?’’ Loona asked in a somewhat offensive tone of voice.

‘‘I… portalled him before he could reach for something angelic.’’ He admitted. ‘‘Anyway, the doctor needs you to sign some papers so they can get him to surgery in about fifteen minutes I think.’’

‘‘Whatever.’’ She said as if she didn’t care.

But when the doctor came around and handed her the paperwork she was required to sign, she must have cared enough to have a quick look at what it said, because she gave him a death glare that was evidently not an empty threat.

She now knew.

He -in what was not his proudest moment- got behind Octavia.

‘‘I DIDN’T KNOW! I SWEAR, I DIDN’T.’’

‘‘Didn’t know what?’’ His confused daughter asked, but what was he supposed to say?

Loona signed papers while still glaring, and waited until the doctor was out of sight to beat Stolas up.

Not with knuckles though, but with words.

‘‘Hasn’t he suffered enough?’’

‘‘Loona-’’

‘‘You had to go and add this -this, out of everything- to the pile of sh*t that life gave him?’’

‘‘I didn’t know. If I did-’’

‘‘What? You would’ve what?’’

‘‘I would’ve done my best to help.’’

The hellhound snorted. ‘‘And what would that be like exactly?’’ She mocked. ‘‘Would you have paid for it to be done painlessly or something?’’

‘‘LOONA!’’ He couldn’t help but yell.

How could she think that?

‘‘Dad.’’ Via interrupted them. She looked worried and confused. ‘‘What’s going on?’’

He didn’t know what to say, so he turned to Loona, but she just deadpanned:

‘‘You did it, you tell her.’’

She then turned around and walked away, though he doubted she’d leave the building. Going out for a smoke was more likely.

He then faced his daughter.

‘‘Via, Blitzø, he… he encountered the same assassin that I did about a month ago.’’

‘‘Yeah, but why did Loona blame you? You saved her dad, right?’’

‘‘I was a little too late, I’m afraid.’’

‘‘Why? What happened?’’

‘‘Blitzø, he, um… he had a miscarriage.’’

He’d kind of expected her to scream and shout but she just stared, blinking rapidly.

‘‘I-It was yours?’’

He nodded yes. ‘‘I didn’t know. I don’t think he did either.’’ He still doesn’t.

‘‘I’m sorry, dad.’’ She looked upset for sure now, still sitting on that bench. ‘‘I know you like him more than mom.’’ She averted her gaze.

Stolas kneeled in front of her, he couldn’t bear to see her sad, especially knowing he was the cause.

‘‘I love you most.’’

‘‘I know.’’

‘‘Via.’’ He held her face, small tears present the same as they were in his two sets of eyes. ‘‘If you had had a new sibling, I would’ve loved them too, but that would not have taken from your share or anything. That’s not how that works.’’

‘‘I know. I’m sorry it died, and you even felt it, and-’’

‘‘What are you talking about?’’ He wiped her tears off with his thumb. ‘‘I didn-’’Wait…

He had.

He thought he’d felt Blitzø’s pain from the alarm, and that it had gotten through somehow, maybe because it was so intense? But… that wasn’t possible, was it?

The spell wasn’t designed that way.

What he felt wasn’t impact from the fall Blitzø had received, he’d felt something crushing him.

Like the egg had been crushed.

A consciousness that had barely begun forming had been able to feel itself die. And Stolas had shared it with them.

He cried. Even knowing Via was there couldn’t stop it and he cried.

Chapter Text

Chapter 23:

Waking up s*cks, Blitzø realized.

At least he wasn’t in that bathtub again, he could clearly feel the covers above and below him. He was in a hospital, he could tell even before he could open his eyes.

Next he started hearing voices, which he noticed were people fighting soon after. He couldn’t tune in enough to understand what the argument was about though.

He then finally opened his eyes, confirmed that he was in a hospital -f*ck you, Stolas- and attempted to sit up.

Which proved to be a mistake. It hurt like sh*t. He could tell he was on painkillers though, so it probably could’ve hurt worse. 

He must have groaned out loud, because by the time he could check over himself and notice that he had stitches, not sure why, three demons barged in panicked.

‘‘BLITZØ!’’ Stolas and Fizz yelled while his Loonie shouted: ‘‘DAD!’’

‘‘Why do I have-’’

‘‘DAD!’’ He hadn’t expected her to outright hug him, especially with other people in the room, but he didn’t want to push her away.

However, he had to, cause his chest hurt like a**, too.

‘‘Loonie… ribs.’’

‘‘You broke five.’’

‘‘Then why are you…’’ squeezing?

‘‘So you remember not to be stupid again.’’

‘‘Okay.’’

She then let go, and Fizz approached him, Stolas standing a couple feet away from the bed, watching.

His oldest friend held him from the shoulders and stared into his soul. ‘‘You okay?’’

‘‘I… think so?’’

‘‘Good,’’ He then pressed their foreheads together and stared deeper. ‘‘cause if you go pull a stunt like this again, I. WILL. F*CKING. KILL. YOU.’’

Blitzø wouldn’t have been terrified… except he knew Fizz wasn’t kidding. 

‘‘We clear?’’

‘‘Crystal.’’ He nodded.

‘‘Good.’’ The jester hugged him too, though he was careful of the ribs and the stitches.

Blitzø had needed that.

‘‘Is anyone gonna answer me though? Why do I got stitches? I don’t remember getting injured. The glass from the window had only hit my face.’’ Which must have been why he had band aid patches all over his face.

He hadn’t thought it was that big a deal but everyone got so f*cking quiet, he got anxiety from it.

‘‘What? Did I need something removed or something?’’

They kept staring quietly, Stolas especially looked like he was in physical pain.

‘‘I’m still kicking and my boner is still there, why are you guys acting like somebody died?’’

Stolas started crying, Loona cringed, and Fizz facepalmed.

Then Loona and Fizz shared a look before turning to the owl and stating in unison: ‘‘You’re telling him.’’ And then proceeding to head for the door.

‘‘No, no, please don’t!’’ Stolas begged them, but they ignored him.

‘‘We’ll be right outside, Dad.’’

‘‘Shout if you need anything,’’ Fizz let him know: ‘‘or if he makes you feel bad. I will kick him out, I don’t give a flying f*ck who he is.’’

Then they left, the door closed, and Blitzø and Stolas were now alone.

The latter seemed distressed. Fidgeting, and keep acting like he wanted to say something, but he didn’t speak. Blitzø could only take so much of it.

‘‘What? What is it?’’

*deep breath* ‘‘Okay, I can do this, I have to do this…’’

‘‘… Are you thinking out loud right now?’’

‘‘Sorry, sorry! I just… I don’t know how to do this.’’

‘‘How to do what!? Just tell me!’’

‘‘You were gravid.’’ The owl blurted it out finally.

‘‘… The f*ck is a grave aid?’’

‘‘... Oh, my, Lucifer, I can’t do this!’’

Stolas then proceeded to hyperventilate for a short while before taking deep breaths and calming himself down, then he spoke again, still looking like he was in pain.

‘‘The word is “gravid”, it means pregnant with an egg.’’

‘‘… Excuse me, say that again?’’

‘‘You had a miscarriage, and I’m so sorry, Blitzø. I really, REALLY, didn’t know it was possible for that to happen between us, we’re different species for f*cks sake!’’

He who couldn’t get off the bed ‘cause it still hurt stayed silent for a good ten seconds at least before speaking up: ‘‘Why are you doing this?’’  

He looked so sad and hurt, the owl felt even worse.

‘‘This isn’t funny.’’

‘‘Blitzø, I’m not joking, I would never. Not about something like this... I’m sorry.’’

‘‘No.’’ Not again. NOT AGAIN! ‘‘Get out.’’

‘‘Blitzø-’’

‘‘GET OUT!’’

‘‘Blitzø, please-’’

Fizz yanked the door open, almost off its hinges.

‘‘I heard “get out”, you’re out.’’ He declared, and gestured for Stolas to leave the room.

‘‘No, please, I didn’t even get to expl-’’

‘‘OUT.’’ He ushered the prince out and shut the door right after yelling: ‘‘Loona, dear, could you please make sure he leaves?’’

‘‘You got it!’’ She yelled back, and Fizz walked back to Blitzø’s bedside.

‘‘You okay?’’

‘‘No… Is what he said…’’

‘‘Yeah. I’m sorry. You didn’t know, did you?’’

‘‘No.’’ He cried because yes, it was already gone, as if it’d never happened, but still hurt.

Fizz hugged him while he let it out and didn’t even say a word.

‘‘How long was I out?’’ He asked after a while.

‘‘Just half a day. You feeling a little better?’’

‘‘A bit. Fizz?’’

‘‘Yeah?’’

‘‘Why does it hurt this bad? I-I didn’t know.’’

‘‘Blitzø.’’

‘‘And now it’s gone.’’

‘‘Blitzø. I’m… I’m sorry.’’

‘‘He said it was an egg?’’

‘‘Uh, yeah, Loona told me about it. I-It broke apart, apparently, and they had to get the pieces out so they got you to surgery.’’

That’s why none of you wanted to tell me what the stitches were for.

‘‘She called me, y’know? Said you’d want me here.’’

‘‘That’s my girl.’’ He sobbed, he was so proud of her. ‘‘H-how is she?’’

‘‘Seemed mostly okay to me. She was worried about you, but now that you’re awake, I’m sure it’ll be fine.’’

‘‘Okay.’’ He had just started to calm down from the tornado of emotions he’d gone through when they heard voices from outside.

‘‘LET ME THROUGH, YOU HOUND B*TCH!’’ A voice they both recognized shouted.

‘‘YOU ARE NOT GOING ANYWHERE NEAR MY DAD! YOU **********!’’ His Loonie bit back, swearing like the adult she was.

Fizz ran out before it could escalate further.

‘‘Barbie!?’’ He asked, closing the door behind him.

‘‘Fizz!? What are you doing here?’’

‘‘I came for Blitzø, what are you doing here?’’

‘‘I came to talk to him. The hospital called me like four times, I thought I’d see for myself if he was dying or something.’’

Fizz was glad Loona’s growl wasn’t aimed at him. ‘‘Shut her up, or I’m gonna kill her.’’

‘‘I’d like to see you tr-’’ Barbie was saying, but for her own safety, Fizz cut her off.

‘‘Okay, let’s take five.’’ He got in between the two and turned to Loona. ‘‘Loona, why don’t you talk to your dad, see if he needs anything. He’s probably hungry by now, we can order anything you two’d like, okay?’’

‘‘… Fine.’’ She got back into the room, and he turned to Barbie now instead.

‘‘Look, he’s not dying but he went through a lot today, and I know you guys aren’t exactly talking. What was it you wanted to tell him?’’

‘‘How come you two are talking again? Last I checked, you didn’t give any more a damn than I did what he does.’’ She deflected.

‘‘We made up, fifteen years of hate was enough.’’

‘‘He killed mom.’’

‘‘Barbie-’’

‘‘He told you about Tilly, didn’t he?’’

F*ck. ‘‘I, uh-’’

‘‘He did, oh, my, Satan, of course he did! That’s how he got you back?’’

‘‘BARBIE! Stop it! I chose to forgive him, it doesn’t concern you!’’

‘‘So you’re just gonna let him exploit you just ‘cause he had your kid fourteen years ago? Seriously?’’

‘‘Oh, my, God, you are so far gone, I can’t believe this!’’

‘‘I can’t believe you!’’

‘‘Just tell me why you came so we can go about our own ways.’’ He demanded annoyedly, but he had not in any way expected what she told him next:

‘‘I saw her today.’’

‘‘… You what?’’

‘‘I saw Tilly today.’’

Chapter Text

Chapter 24:

Blitzø’s reaction and then kicking him out had broken the prince’s heart but he wasn’t about to blame the imp for feeling overwhelmed or not wanting to see Stolas in that moment.

But he couldn’t just sit around and do nothing while waiting for Blitzø to contact him, so he decided to talk to the person responsible for all this pain instead.

‘‘Chained to the wall on a cell?’’ The lizard b*tch had the audacity to joke. ‘‘A tad bit cliché, don’t you think?’’

‘‘You really think you’re in a position where you can make jokes, you scum?’’

‘‘What are you gonna do? Kill me?’’

‘‘That is certainly an option I’m considering.’’

‘‘I wouldn’t if I were you.’’

‘‘And why exactly is that?’’

‘‘I happened to have some information that is vital to your imp slut.’’

‘‘YOU DO NOT CALL HIM THAT!’’

He couldn’t help but let his eldritch voice come out. Striker somehow held up a straight face, which made him wanna punch it in.

And he was going to, but then his phone rang and the caller ID read Blitzy.

… Well, he hadn’t been expecting it this fast, but he wasn’t about to complain.

>>> 

‘‘… You what?’’

‘‘I saw Tilly today.’’

‘‘… I’m sorry, you what?’’

‘‘I saw-’’

‘‘I heard that! F*CKING EXPLAIN IT!’’

‘‘So, I went to this meeting where there was a bunch of drug dealers so I could find a new supplier.’’

‘‘Oh, God.’’

‘‘But it turned out to be real shady, and I was gonna leave anyway, but then reapers raided the place.’’

‘‘… How’re you alive?’’

‘‘It turned out they weren’t real reapers.’’

‘‘Who would-’’

‘‘The kids she had with her! I don’t know how, but they could use magic. They pretended to be reapers with magic disguises!’’

‘‘… What?’’

‘‘And she recognized me by the circus tattoo, but then an older kid, he was a baphomet, came and sent her away-’’

‘‘HOW MUCH OLDER EXACTLY?’’

‘‘He looked twenty something.’’

‘‘Oh, my, Satan.’’

‘‘He wanted to kill me, but Tilly confirmed that I’m her aunt, so he instead threatened to kill me if I tell anyone about it and promised to make it slow before letting me go.’’

‘‘What did she-’’ He was about to ask, but Loona exited Blitzø’s room.

‘‘He wants a hot pocket and is okay with any kind that has cheese in it.’’

‘‘Got it, no problem, and what about you, Sweetie?’’

‘‘I’m fine with anything that isn’t a hot pocket.’’

‘‘Got it, hey, there’s got to be a place nearby that has those, why don’t you take my card,’’ He ignored the “you’re seriously giving her your card!?” face Barbie was making at him. ‘‘you can get yourself whatever you want too, and get us all something to drink. I’m not hungry myself but there’s gotta be a café somewhere around here, get me a cortado too, if that’s alright.’’

‘‘Sure.’’ She took the card. ‘‘By the way, Blitzø asked for his phone and then said he was gonna make a phone call and asked to be left alone.’’ She then walked away.

‘‘You’re really letting her do that?’’ Barbie shouted once she disappeared from sight. ‘‘This is why he got you back in his life, you idiot!’’

‘‘Shut up, Barb, you don’t know everything!’’

>>> 

It had been little over an hour since he’d left the hospital and now Blitzø was calling him?

He was scared, but he gathered the courage needed to take that phone call, and got back upstairs before answering:

‘‘Blitzø?’’

‘‘Stolas.’’ His voice sounded so broken. ‘‘I’m sorry.’’

‘‘Blitzø, why are you apologizing?’’

‘‘You saved me and I was rude to you.’’

‘‘Are you crying?’’ Was he still hormonal from the miscarriage?

‘‘I just- I’ve been thinking about what happened, and I’m… I’m scared, Stolas.’’

Yep, still hormonal.

‘‘What? Why? Blitzø, I have-’’

‘‘I-I know you got Striker. Loonie told me.’’

‘‘Then why are you scared?’’

‘‘I just… I thought about some of the things he said.’’ *sob* ‘‘I think he knew.’’

‘‘What? How? You didn’t know.’’

‘‘I don’t know.’’

‘‘What makes you think he knows?’’

‘‘He talked about how he wanted to kill me, but he had this client that wanted him to hand me over to him instead.’’

‘‘… You think-’’

‘‘He said the client was willing to pay him a hundred thousand hellbucks. I’d wondered who the f*ck would pay that much for my sorry a**… but if he knew about it…’’

‘‘I’m going to kill that b*tch.’’ Stolas whispered, Blitzø probably hadn’t caught it.

‘‘And after I jumped off the window-’’

‘‘WAIT YOU JUMPED!?’’

‘‘Why are you yelling at me?’’ *muffled crying noises*

‘‘I’m sorry! I just thought you’d fell off, didn’t know you jumped, why did you jump?’’

‘‘I was trying to get away and he caught me and I was still tied, and that was the only way out… I didn’t know it was that high. I’m sorry.’’

‘‘Oh, Blitzø. It’s alright. It’s not your fault.’’

‘‘Thank you.’’ *sob* ‘‘After I fell he got mad.’’

‘‘…’’

‘‘He said that I’d… “damaged the goods”. He got mad and then you got there.’’

Stolas remembered the guy had been stomping on Blitzø when he’d arrived, too.

‘‘And before that he’d called me your broodmare along with some other insults, but I hadn’t cared because I thought he was just making fun of me and us in general.’’

‘‘… Blitzø I need to take care of something first, but can I please come visit you?’’

There was a pause long enough for the owl to consider if the other had hung up before Blitzø talked again: ‘‘I’m just gonna eat and go back to sleep. I feel tired.’’

‘‘Oh, alright-’’

‘‘But I kinda wanna cuddle, too.’’

‘‘Would you like me to-’’

‘‘Fizz’ll just kick you out again though.’’

‘‘Yeah, how did you two go from mortal enemies to him caring about you like this?’’

‘‘… Stuff happened.’’

‘‘Okay. Well, how about you save the cuddling privileges for Loona tonight, she seemed concerned about you, and I can come visit tomorrow, and if you want, we can cuddle all day long.’’

*sniff**sob* ‘‘Okay.’’

‘‘Do you need anything from me?’’

‘‘… Just don’t let him get away.’’

‘‘No, never. He’s not leaving that cell alive.’’

‘‘And can you not kill him yet?’’

Wait, did that f*cking a** a** in- ‘‘He mentioned he had some information you needed when I told him he’s gonna die, was he telling the truth?’’

‘‘Yeah. I’m sorry-’’

‘‘Stop, apologizing, please.’’

‘‘Okay.’’ *sniff*

‘‘You should rest. We can talk later. I’ll be there tomorrow?’’ He asked for permission once again.

‘‘You promise?’’

‘‘Yeah, of course.’’ He knew it was probably the hormones but man, this version of Blitzø was pleasant. 

F*cking sh*ta**! How can you say that! Stop it! The imp was so cute like this though. No! Stop it!

‘‘Call you in the morning?’’

‘‘Okay.’’

‘‘Goodnight, Blitzø.’’

‘‘Goodnight.’’

Stolas had one more thing to do before going to bed himself, though, and for that, he marched in to the living room where he found Stella.

She was sipping on a fruity looking drink with a straw of all things. She really wasn’t okay, was she?

‘‘Hey, Stella, I ran into that Striker fella of yours today, he was- Oh, my, Lucifer!’’ Sh-she was… ‘‘Are those pants you’re wearing?’’

‘‘Yes, and?’’

‘‘… I think you should see a doctor, but aside from that, your hitman tried to kill my -kind of- boyfriend today. You wouldn’t have anything to do with that, would you?’’

‘‘No, I cut him off after what happened.’’

‘‘Could it be-’’

‘‘Andre? Yeah, probably.’’

‘‘Okay.’’ He then walked back to head to the dungeon again.

‘‘Let me know how it goes!’’ She yelled.

‘‘I probably will not!’’ He shouted back.

He had to confirm with the assassin if it really was Andrealphus.

Then he could kill a peacock.

Chapter Text

Chapter 25:

‘‘You.’’  Striker had been napping when he got back to the dungeon. He felt content, waking the guy up by levitating him with magic and slapping him against the metal bars. ‘‘WAKE UP.’’

‘‘Hnhnnhhh… Why so cranky, Birdie?’’

‘‘You knew Blitzø was carrying.’’ It wasn’t a question. ‘‘HOW?’’

‘‘Horses can tell. Mine was being cute with ‘im, so I figured.’’

‘‘That’s…’’ all it took? ‘‘Who was your client? The one who wanted Blitzø delivered to him?’’

‘‘Yeah, can’t tell you that one, sorry.’’

‘‘I don’t think you understand the situation you’re in.’’

‘‘I already told you, you can’t touch me. I have infor-’’

‘‘Information that he needs, yes, he mentioned. I still don’t know what this information entails though.’’

The cowboy cackled. ‘‘Well, that’s rich. He didn’t tell you?’’

Stolas didn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing any form of shock flash across his face.

‘‘Not only did he let you breed him without telling you about it first, but you put a baby in that cunt, and you’re not aware you’re not the first?’’

‘‘…’’

Stolas then changed his entire act upside down, trying to look surprized instead, but he must’ve fumbled it bad, Striker didn’t look at all fooled by it.

‘‘Satan’s a**… You knew? And you still f*cked him?’’

‘‘None of that concerns you. I’m the one asking the questions here.’’ He tried to look confident, and not make it apparent that he was now concerned.

He knew about Blitzø’s firstborn because of reasons he was ashamed of, but he’d assumed the kid had died.

What kind of information could the assassin have about her?

‘‘What is it that you could possibly know about her?’’

‘‘I know where she is. He doesn’t.’’

What?

>>> 

‘‘Blitzø. Blitzø?’’ Fizz gently shook him awake, his head hurt.

Probably from all the crying.

‘‘Fizz?’’

‘‘Food’s here.’’

Ah, yes. He was hungry. ‘‘Loonie?’’

‘‘I got your hot pocket, dad. With cheese.’’

‘‘You’re the best Loonie.’’

‘‘I know.’’

Fizz helped him sit up without tearing his stitches and they ate. But then Blitzø noticed how he was only sipping a cup of coffee, must’ve been worrying over his sorry a** for longer than anyone should.

‘‘You’re not gonna eat?’’

‘‘I’m fine. I had a big lunch.’’

‘‘It’s eight PM, Fizz.’’

‘‘I’m fine, I promise.’’

He probably wasn’t. Blitzø could tell he was lying. He wondered if the royal chicken was okay with this, but he didn’t ask. He didn’t wanna be rude, or make Fizz think he didn’t want him there.

Nobody said anything and just sat in silence for quite a while before his Loonie went out for a smoke, and Fizz began talking immediately as if he’d been waiting for her to leave.

‘‘You know how Barbie dropped by?’’

‘‘Yeah… She didn’t come in.’’

‘‘I told her not to, because she was only going to be a B*tch and make you feel even worse, it was obvious from how she was acting.’’

If this was literally anyone else, Blitzø would’ve beat them bloody. His sister had come in to see him and someone stopped her?

Fizz knew her well enough that what he said was probably true, though. And Blitzø couldn’t be mad at him after everything.

‘‘She did tell me something though, and it’s serious, but I want you to keep calm.’’

‘‘What? Why? Did something happen? Is she in trouble?’’

‘‘No-’’

‘‘Is she in danger!?’’

‘‘NO! Blitzø! That’s not it.’’

‘‘Oh, okay… Why did you scare me like that?’’

‘‘Barbie saw Tilly.’’

‘‘… She what!?’’

>>> Back in the Kids’ cave…

Her mom and dad figures were fighting because of her. This might’ve been the worst day of Tilly’s life.

She was sitting outside the room, but could hear every word.

‘‘This is a disaster.’’ Remona sounded frustrated which made her -potentially- more dangerous than if she’d just gotten mad.  

‘‘I know.’’

‘‘Why did you let the woman go?’’

‘‘She didn’t seem to be a threat, and I panicked when I saw Tilly panicked.’’

‘‘So, now she knows about us using magic, and Blitzø knows about us using magic, gee, I wonder how long it’ll take for them to connect the dots.’’

‘‘It’s not my fault you decided to get involved instead of letting it go.’’

‘‘I had to keep an eye on the guy!’’

‘‘Why? He wasn’t even close to finding Tilly.’’

‘‘I don’t have to explain myself to you!’’

‘‘Come on Remona, this isn’t like you. You’ve been acting off since you reconciled with that Goetian sister of yours.’’

Lio knew about Remona’s secret!?

‘‘That doesn’t concern you.’’

‘‘I know you got Tanya to interrogate her, and you have reason to trust her, and I’m glad, but you need to get your act together!’’

‘‘I need to get my act together!?’’

‘‘Yes, and you need to stop focusing on who f*cked up and instead focus on the fact that we might get exposed because of this!’’

‘‘Ah, that’s fine. The only connection that guy has to any kind of magic is Stella’s cheating husband.’’

‘‘So?’’

‘‘So, we’ve already been planning to kill him. I promised my sis, and when we do, they won’t have any way of tracking Tilly here. Blitzø might ask me, but he can’t prove or know for sure I’m connected.’’

‘‘Huh… guess it could work out.’’

‘‘It will. I’ll talk to her again, try to see what he’s up to.’’

‘‘Alright.’’

Well… at least they weren’t fighting anymore?

>>> Back at the Hospital

‘‘Barbie saw Tilly?’’

‘‘She said so.’’

‘‘WHERE!?’’

‘‘In Sloth.’’

‘‘Where in Sloth?’’

‘‘Calm down, I’m explaining.’’

‘‘EXPLAIN FASTER!’’

‘‘She went to this meeting with several drug dealers to find a new supplier, she said-’’

‘‘WHY WAS MY BABY THERE!?’’

‘‘I’m getting there! Then the reapers busted the place- wha-what are you doing?’’ Fizz tried to stop Blitzø from getting off the bed, but the guy wasn’t hesitant about fighting.

‘‘I’m gonna go get my baby!’’

‘‘BLITZØ, YOU’RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE! And she’s already gone! Barbie said she checked.’’

‘‘… Tilly’s gone?’’ He was now crying.

‘‘NOT “GONE” GONE! Just gone from that warehouse, will you let me finish?’’

‘‘Fine.’’ *sniff* He let Fizz help him back on the bed from where he’d managed to get off it… about sixty percent, but you can’t blame him, it still hurt to move.

‘‘Did you just rip your stitches!?’’ Fizz asked with a very judgemental tone after noticing the small red stain that appeared on his hospital gown.

‘‘No…’’

‘‘I’m getting your doctor.’’

‘‘No, Fizz!’’

Fizz, having called for the doctor who came in and fixed Blitzø’s stitches, refused to answer any of Blitzø’s questions until after the doctor left the room. As a punishment he said.

The piece of sh*t.

‘‘It wasn’t the real reapers, and Tilly wasn’t there because of whatever reason that popped into your head. The reapers were kids in magic disguises and Barbie said they didn’t have Asmodean crystals, so I don’t know how exactly they got the disguises, but Tilly was one of them.’’

‘‘…’’

‘‘Apparently, she was in disguise too, but then she recognized Barbie’s tattoo, and Barbie even said Tilly recognized it as the circus' tattoo.’’

‘‘… She must’ve read my letter. How else would she know?’’

‘‘But… if she read your letter, it mentions your name. It should take her little more than a quick google search to find you by that point.’’

‘‘So, she knows but she hasn’t come see me… But why?’’ He was crying again.

‘‘Hey, hey, it’s okay, it’s fine.’’ Fizz hugged him. ‘‘I’m sure there’s a reason.’’

‘‘What else did Barbie say?’’

‘‘Oh, yeah, she said there was this older kid in charge and the reason why they were there was to kill everyone, but he let Barbie go after threatening her into silence, which obviously didn’t work.’’

‘‘… How much older?’’

‘‘Barbie said he looked, and I quote: “twenty something”.’’

‘‘Christ on a stick.’’

‘‘I know.’’

Chapter Text

Chapter 26:

Via was confused about everything that’d been going on for weeks. Not only had her mom finally started to give two sh*ts about her, but her dad was sad and angry about what had happened with his boyfriend -rightfully so, she guessed- and her mom’d been acting off.

Like her personality had been switched upside down.

She knew she’d been kidnapped, and didn’t really know what had happened, but her dad hadn’t gone through such change after his encounter with the same man.

She’d be lying if she said it didn’t make her worried, but the most she could do was be there for her.

She wanted to check on her dad too, but there wasn’t much she could do about that, so she went over to her mom’s room. She hadn’t seen her all day, and wanted to say goodnight at least.

However…

‘‘Can’t it wait a few more days?’’

She heard her mom on the phone right when she was about to knock, so she thought she’d just stand outside and wait for it to be over.

She hadn’t meant to listen in.

‘‘I know that I asked for it, but I kinda need him for something tomorrow. And he hasn’t really been that much annoying lately.’’

Was she talking about her dad?

‘‘Something about the imp? I mean he said the cowboy scum attacked him today. Why?’’

…

‘‘Ah, yeah, that sounds like a problem. Not to mention father asked to see me today.’’

Her mother had went to see her father?

‘‘I had to go, okay? I’ll tell you about it later, it was a sh*tshow, but I managed to take care of the situation, rather professionally, if I do say so myself.’’

…

‘‘Oh, you bet your sweet a**, I did.’’

Who the f*ck was she talking to?

‘‘Okay, but at least wait until after tomorrow, I really don’t wanna go over to Andre’s on my own.’’

…

‘‘No, but I might kill him if he pisses me off too much.’’

Kill Uncle Andrealphus?

‘‘Okay, I’ll let you know.’’

…

‘‘Love you too.’’

The f*ck!?

She definitely needed more than half a minute to process that, but her mother hung up, and her footsteps approached the door, so Via panicked.

She opened a portal and ran to her room before her mom reached the door and saw her.

>>> 

Stolas was overwhelmed by everything that had happened and just wanted to go to bed when his bedroom door was knocked on.

*Tap, tap, tap… tap, tap*

Huh… none of the servants knocked that way, who could it be?

It was Stella.

‘‘AH!’’ He almost had a heart attack. ‘‘STELLA!’’ She was wearing PJs.

Not a nightgown… PJs. With a top and a bottom, since when did she have that thing?

‘‘You almost gave a heart attack!’’

‘‘I knocked.’’

‘‘I NOTICED! Who knocks like that, by the way?’’

‘‘Don’t be ridiculous, I always knock that way.’’

‘‘I have never once witnessed you knock in the near two decades I’ve known you.’’

‘‘… I require your assistance with something tomorrow, if you can.’’

‘‘What is it?’’

‘‘I need to get the rest of my stuff from Andre’s castle and do not wish to go alone. And didn’t you need to talk to him to see if he’s the one who sent the hitman after your imp? You can do that while I pack.’’

‘‘I guess, but I don’t have sufficient evidence to prove that, so it won’t go well.’’

‘‘Isn’t that scum in the dungeon? Don’t tell me you couldn’t make him talk?’’

‘‘He has sway.’’

‘‘What kind of sway?’’

‘‘He has some other really important information I need, I can’t hurt him. Also why’re you helping?’’

‘‘Just curious. But also I just asked you for help, so I fix this problem, I won’t owe you. What is it that he knows?’’

Stolas would later wonder what possessed him to trust Stella. It was probably the lack of sleep, his brain hadn’t been functioning properly.

‘‘He was information on the whereabouts of someone dear to Blitzø.’’

‘‘…’’ Her face then lit up as if she’d just had an epiphany. ‘‘Oh, you mean-’’ Then she laughed.

Out loud. Wildly cackling, like she found it amusing. Her voice was filled to the brim with… satisfaction? Joy maybe?

‘‘Oh, my, God, this is awesome.’’

‘‘…’’ Well, there was the Stella he knew.

‘‘I’ll be right back.’’ She then said and turned around to walk away.

‘‘Where are you going?’’

‘‘To make him talk.’’ She turned back around. ‘‘Oh, where was the armoury again? I’mma need blades for this.’’

She said that with way too much excitement.

>>> 

Andrealphus hung up the phone with unease coursing through his veins.

He’d just ratted Stella out to their father. Or, rather, he’d called and asked him to tell him about anything illegal Stella had done, and Andrealphus hadn’t been able to lie or refuse.

But it wasn’t like their father was actually going to make that information public!

He was most likely just going to use it to blackmail Stella to make her stop doing whatever it was that she did today that clearly pissed their father off.

She just had to bite her tongue and agree to whatever he wanted, they’d both been doing it their entire lives.

She just had to obey.

So why did he feel like he just killed her?

>>> 

Stella had been down there for about twenty minutes and Striker had been screaming for… eighteen minutes.

Stolas was scared to go down, but then he didn’t have to because a couple minutes later, Stella came back up, still in her PJs, but also covered in blood.

‘‘He’s agreed to testify in court on Andrealphus’s offences, and Andrealphus’s offences only. None of mine.’’

‘‘Did you get him to tell you where Tilly is?’’

‘‘Who that?’’

‘‘… Blitzø’s missing daughter!’’

‘‘Ah, no. And he’s not gonna tell you that one now. I beat him up bad.’’

‘‘WHAT!? Why would you do that?’’

‘‘I don’t care about the daughter of the imp you cheated on me with.’’ She said it like it was weird of him to ask, and frankly, she was right.

He should’ve known better.

‘‘I’m gonna go to bed now, see you in the morning, and we can go to Andre’s at noon.’’ She said, and walked past him, not turning back this time.

Leaving Stolas to try and figure out how to explain this to Blitzø.

Chapter Text

Chapter 27:

‘‘Blitzø asked me to come, I swear!’’ Stolas found himself shouting at Fizz before the latter could say anything so he wouldn’t kick him out again.

‘‘Yeah, I know. He told me during breakfast.’’

‘‘Oh, thank Lucifer.’’

‘‘He’s in the room, I’mma go get a coffee from the cafeteria but the rules are the same as yesterday. He wants you out, I kick you out.’’

‘‘I will not hurt him.’’

‘‘You better not.’’

Fizzarolli warned before walking past him, and Stolas didn’t say anything, and instead just walked up to Blitzø’s room and knocked.

‘‘Blitzø?’’

‘‘Come in, Stols.’’

He did. ‘‘You seem a bit better.’’

‘‘I-I think I am. They said I have to stay at least three weeks, so I’ve been doing everything they asked so maybe they’d let me out early.’’

Stolas chuckled. That did sound like Blitzø.

‘‘I’d much prefer if you did that so you can get better with no issues.’’

‘‘That’s what Loonie said too, though not with those words. She went home to take a shower and get some proper sleep. She didn’t want to, though. I made her. She shouldn’t have to look after my sorry a**, especially while Fizz is already hovering over me.’’

‘‘I’m glad you have people with you though. Having a support system is important.’’

‘‘You sound like a shrink, please stop. I’m bored out of my mind. I can’t even leave the bed!’’

He pointed to the medical draining tubes that were still attached to him.

‘‘The doc said they have to stay there for another two days.’’

‘‘Maybe you could use this opportunity to try reading for once?’’

‘‘Hah! That’s funny, didn’t know you could make me laugh though.’’

‘‘Hmm… A shame you shot that down so fast. How ‘bout a change of scenery then?’’

‘‘What?’’

‘‘I picked up the Grimoire from your office like you said, since it’s going to be closed for at least this week.’’ He brought it out while he explained, and then opened up a page Blitzø hadn’t looked at before. ‘‘I’ve always wanted to show you.’’

The room illuminated with light as the owl prince cast the spell and the imp on the hospital bed suddenly found himself in the void of space, looking up at the stars and planets…

He panicked.

‘‘What the f*ck.’’

‘‘It’s fine, don’t worry, we haven’t left the hospital, see.’’ He pointed to behind the bed Blitzø was still on.

The wall with all the medical equipment attached was still there.

‘‘We-we won’t float, right?’’

‘‘No, no of course not. Think of it like a 3D portal, I can take it down though, if you prefer. Do you-umm… Do you like it?’’

‘‘It’s pretty but I still feel like we’re gonna float away.’’

‘‘We won’t, I promise. It’s better than staring at the hospital room’s walls, though. Yeah?’’

‘‘Yeah. This is what you do with the book?’’

‘‘Well, I also look for prophecies, and try interpreting any that I find, report my findings to the council, but yes. I do love watching them.’’

‘‘I can see why.’’

They sat there, staring into the void of space, filled with nothing but the light from stars far, far away.

But Stolas had a talk he needed to have with Blitzø, so even though he hadn’t wanted to, he had to break the peaceful silence.

‘‘Blitzø, I’m sorry to bring this up when you’re still recovering but there’s something you should know.’’

The man in the bed just stared at him, so he continued:

‘‘I’ve talked to Striker,’’ More like Stella did, f*ck. ‘‘And he agreed to testify in court about the client that wanted to buy you. I had a hunch it might be Andrealphus, and turns out I was right.’’

‘‘Who’s that? An enemy of yours?’’

‘‘He’s Stella’s older brother.’’

‘‘Oh, great.’’

‘‘But umm… unfortunately, Blitzø, I couldn’t get him to talk about the information you wanted from him. I’m sorry.’’

‘‘…’’ The imp looked sorrowful for a few moments before he brushed it aside. ‘‘Never mind. He was probably bluffing anyway. There’s no way he knows.’’

‘‘Alright. I’m going over to Andrealphus’s castle this afternoon to confront him about this. I imagine he would rather die than let this get out, so I plan on using Striker’s testimony as blackmail to force him to leave you, Loona and your employees alone. Oh, and maybe a hefty compensation too, just to put a dent in his ego.’’

‘‘Leave him dry, Stols.’’

‘‘I’ll do my best. And uh, Blitzø?’’

‘‘Yeah?’’

‘‘I’m sorry, that this is all I can do. No matter what I try, it’s never going to change what you just went through, and you only had to go through that sh*t because you were with me.’’

‘‘Stolas.’’

‘‘It’s true, Blitzø. That wouldn’t have happened to you if you were with literally anyone else. Andrealphus wanted to get hold of you because you were carrying my egg. He wanted to use that as leverage to get whatever it is that he wanted from me. And you were hurt, because of me.’’

‘‘You didn’t know.’’

‘‘But does that change anything? I’m still responsible for this, however indirectly.’’

‘‘I-I don’t think that.’’ Blitzø started speaking in that overly emotional tone of voice again.

Stolas’s ten-minute internet search must’ve been correct. Google (Hell’s version, of course) had told him someone in Blitzø’s condition would still be hormonal for 1-4 weeks.

‘‘I don’t blame you. You already did everything you could, you saved me.’’ *sniff* ‘‘And you’ve been so caring, I don’t know what to do about it.’’

‘‘What? What do you mean by that?’’

*sob* ‘‘It’s just… People don’t care about me.’’

‘‘Blitzø.’’

‘‘Fizz is only here because he feels bad for me and Loonie’s… okay, maybe she cares, I don’t know, but no one else does.’’ *sniff*

‘‘Blitzø, I don’t know your other friends that well, but I’m pretty sure Fizzarolli wouldn’t go to the lengths he has if he just pitied you. He even got Asmodeus to pay for your stay here.’’

‘‘Oh, yeah.’’

‘‘Yes, I mean, I was going to, I even told the hospital staff, but apparently Fizzarolli got Asmodeus to call the hospital instead, and I can’t exactly go over a sin’s head. Why would he do that if he didn’t actually care?’’

‘‘He said he didn’t want me to owe you.’’

You wouldn’t have!

‘‘Said that if I really want to pay him back, I could do bodyguard work for him after I’m fully healed, but he said he doesn’t want me to owe you.’’

‘‘Blitzø, you know I would not have held that over your head, right?’’

‘‘I-I know.’’

‘‘I care, too, Blitzø.’’ Stolas reached out to hold his hand.

Blitzø tensed but didn’t resist the touch.

‘‘Why?’’

‘‘What do you mean why?’’

‘‘I’m not important.’’

What?

‘‘I just f*ck you once a month, you can have anyone do that-’’

‘‘BLITZØ!’’ He retracted his hand and stood up from where he’d been sitting next to the imp. He hadn’t wanted to yell, but he couldn’t stop himself. ‘‘How can you say that?’’

‘‘…’’

‘‘Blitzø, do you truly think I only care about the act of “f*cking”? You really think I’m that apathetic?’’

‘‘I don’t know what that means.’’

*Deep breath* ‘‘Do you truly think I only care about us f*cking, that I would just get someone else to f*ck me if something happened to you?’’

‘‘… I don’t know.’’

‘‘Blitzø.’’

Stolas then held him with both hands from the sides of his face to convey how serious he was.

‘‘I only enjoy our time together that much because it’s with you. You are the only person who has ever made me feel such things, and it’s thanks to you, that I could move on from the nightmare-fuel memories of how it was with Stella.’’

‘‘You-you mean that? Like, you’re genuinely attracted to me? It’s not just for the sex itself?’’

‘‘No, of course it’s not. How long have you been thinking this way? Is it- Oh… Oh, this is what you were talking about that night after OZZIE’S?’’

‘‘I-yeah.’’

‘‘I thought- Oh, Blitzø, I thought you meant something else entirely. I’m sorry.’’

‘‘I’m sorry, too.’’

‘‘No. No, don’t be. It’s not your fault, Blitzø. I’ve just… never really been with anyone -I don’t think Stella counts- and I’m often clueless about these things.’’

Blitzø then chuckled as he wiped tears off his eyes. ‘‘How about I just tell you flat out when you’re being a fool?’’

‘‘I’d be okay with that.’’

Chapter Text

Chapter 28:

‘‘So, what exactly happened with father?’’ Remona asked her sister when she came over for tea.

Stella had been visiting regularly since they made up, and had even met most the kids in the cave. She was also progressively moving on from the racist piece of sh*t she’d become in the last two decades, and Remona was proud of her for trying.

‘‘He summoned me, not literally of course, but like, he called, and I didn’t say no because I didn’t want him to think anything was wrong.’’

‘‘Then?’’

‘‘He immediately began questioning me about my kidnapping, and kept asking if I’ve spoken to any of my siblings besides Andre recently. I refused to tell him anything, and he got mad, but I was also mad -even though I was hesitant to show it- so I didn’t care.’’

‘‘What did you do?’’

‘‘I didn’t do anything, he changed the subject, and started asking me about my divorce with Stolas. Apparently he thought we were getting back together because I’ve been staying at the palace again. So, when I told him the divorce is still happening he wasn’t exactly happy about it.’’

‘‘What did he say?’’

‘‘Just the regular stuff. That it’s a wonder how I still call myself a woman, and that I couldn’t even stop my husband from cheating on me with an imp of all things… His words not mine.’’

‘‘I’ll kill him by the end of the week, okay? You have my word.’’

‘‘What would I do without you? Though you might have some difficulty timing it. His boyfriend was attacked, like I told you, and I imagine he’ll keep visiting him in the hospital until he’s out.’’

‘‘Then we’ll just plan accordingly.’’

>>> Later that afternoon

Stolas found Stella waiting for him in the living room at the exact time they’d agreed upon, dressed in light pink pants and a plain bright green shirt.

He tried not to look distressed.

‘‘Before you ask, these are the colours Andre hates the most.’’

‘‘If you say so.’’

‘‘Come on, open the portal so we can get this over with.’’

He did do that, and they walked through to the entrance of Andrealphus’s castle, Stella bringing out her shining personality immediately:

‘‘ADREALPUSS! GET YOUR A** OVER HERE, B*TCH!’’

Oh, God.

‘‘Stella.’’ The Marquis appeared before from not too long after. Then he noticed Stolas, and he made a displeased expression. ‘‘Stolas, what an unexpected surprize.’’

‘‘Why unexpected?’’ He bit back. ‘‘Did you truly think I’d do nothing?’’

‘‘Certainly didn’t think you’d come here so soon after someone you love went through such an accident.’’

He had the nerve to call it an accident!?

‘‘Stella.’’ He then turned to her again. ‘‘Whatever are you here for, dear sister?’’

‘‘The rest of my stuff. Then, I’d like the pleasure of never seeing your face again.’’

‘‘How very affectionate of you. Well, I suppose as your older brother I should be the bigger man. Go ahead and pack your things. Have the staff help you.’’

‘‘How very generous of you.’’ She said before walking past them both, but she turned back before she rounded the corner. ‘‘Oh, Stolas, do save me some leftover stew, yeah?’’

‘‘What leftover stew?’’

‘‘The peacock stew you’re about to cook of my dear brother’s a**.’’

He tried not to laugh, and somehow managed to keep it in.

Andrealphus just stared with a blank expression at her direction, even for a while after she left.

‘‘Well, I’d hate to disappoint your dear sister.’’ He eventually told him. ‘‘Shall we move to a more private area?’’

>>> At I.M.P.

River walked into the office to find it empty of any sign of life. No one was in sight, but then, why wasn’t it locked? Had they gone on a hit without him? But then where was Loon-

He then heard the click of a gun right behind him before it was pressed against the back of his neck.

‘‘Don’t make any sudden moves.’’

‘‘Miss Buckzo?’’

‘‘Don’t.’’ She warned him. ‘‘And don’t try your trick with the crystals, I will pull the trigger, and it’ll be faster than you can reach ‘em.’’

He seemed to understand as he stilled.

‘‘I got a couple questions, and if I don’t like your answers,’’ She pressed the gun a bit more firmly against him.

‘‘Yeah?’’

‘‘Yes or no, you know Tilly?’’

‘‘I don’t-’’

‘‘Don’t test me.’’ She warned him again.

‘‘… Yes.’’

‘‘Where is she?’’

‘‘I’m not gonna tell you.’’

‘‘Oh, yeah?’’

‘‘You’re not going to kill me.’’

‘‘Oh, you don’t think so? I’m an assassin, B*tch, try again.’’

‘‘I know the game. I have something you want. I’m safe.’’

‘‘Don’t count on it.’’

She said before she reached inside his pockets to take his unused crystals. She checked for a phone too, but he didn’t have one. Then she gestured for him to move to the briefing room.

‘‘Walk.’’

>>>

‘‘I will make this plain and simple, Andrealphus.’’

Stolas told him once they were alone in the other’s study.

‘‘I have Striker in my custody and he has agreed to testify about what you have done.’’

‘‘And what exactly have I done?’’

‘‘You paid an assassin to capture Blitzø and bring him to you so you could use my child that he was carrying to blackmail me. I wonder what the council will think.’’

‘‘And how exactly are you going to prove that? Your witness is the same guy who kidnapped both you and Stella last month.’’

‘‘Ah, yeah, except, only we know that. No one else saw his face, so.’’

‘‘V-Vassago did! When we scried to find Stella!’’

‘‘And which one of us do you think he’s going to side with once I tell him about all this?’’

Stolas said that with the full knowledge of who did the dumping when those two broke up, many, many years ago.

‘‘… You’d dare come between us again!?’’

‘‘Oh, please, I didn’t come between you two, I never even talked to him about your relationship.’’

‘‘He broke it up because of you! HE LEFT ME BECAUSE OF YOU AND YOU DIDN’T EVEN DATE HIM!’’

‘‘I’m sorry, would you rather I dated him? I was engaged to your sister!’’

‘‘YOU TOOK HER AWAY TOO!’’ He got really mad this time. ‘‘IT’S ALL YOU’VE EVER DONE! TAKING AWAY ANYTHING AND ANYONE THAT I EVER GAVE TWO DAMNS ABOUT!’’

‘‘So, you seriously thought you’d get back at me for that by harming my unborn child when I hadn’t even wanted to marry your sister or had anything to do with your fight with Vassago!?’’

‘‘Don’t act innocent.’’

‘‘Then don’t swim in DeNile.’’

‘‘You and your never ending sass.’’ The peacock complained before he got back into topic.

Mostly because he’d been losing the argument.

‘‘And do you really think the council will care enough to actually hold a trial once they find out the child in question was a half-imp hybrid?’’

‘‘That’s irrelevant.’’

‘‘Oh, you really think your father is going to think that way?’’

‘‘The child is dead, so yes, I really don’t think he’s going to dwell on that. He’s heartless that way.’’

‘‘So, you’re saying he’d thank me for a problem solved?’’

‘‘No, if anything, I think he’ll like that I will be using you as PR to clean my image. Of course, that’s not why I’m doing this, but I will make sure he sees it that way.’’

‘‘Clean your image?’’

‘‘Instead of people talking about me siring a hybrid child with an imp, they’d be talking about how you tried to harm that unborn child, not to mention your actions led to its death.’’

Obviously, Stolas wasn’t doing any of this to clear his image. It was to protect Blitzø from any further pain and avenge their now late child.

But Paimon wouldn’t know that.

‘‘I am willing to let it go quietly, though, if you agree to my terms.’’

Andrealphus let out a rage filled groan, but he couldn’t do anything at this point.

Unless…

‘‘And what about Stella’s involvement in all this?’’

Chapter Text

Chapter 29:

Unless…

‘‘And what about Stella’s involvement in all this?’’

‘‘Whatever do you mean?’’

‘‘She was the one who planned the assassination on your head, in fact, I stopped her and convinced her to call it off. You’re only alive thanks to me.’’

‘‘Gee, I have no idea how to express my immense gratitude.’’

Andrealphus ignored his snarky comment. ‘‘You tell them about what I did with that hybrid assassin, then I will tell them about who it really was that paid that man to torture you. You can’t pin that on me, there are phone records, money transactions. I go down, she goes down, and it’ll be you who will have to explain why to dear Octavia.’’

How dare he- ‘‘You’d do that to your own sister?’’

Stolas asked with genuine curiosity. Those two had always been thick as thieves, he didn’t know what happened right after Stella had gotten kidnapped that changed that.

‘‘Less than a month ago you were losing your mind over her being taken by the man we’re talking about.’’

‘‘Yes, and then she went and left me for a B*tch.’’

What? What B*tch?

‘‘Doesn’t matter. You can tell them about what Stella did all you want, I won’t press charges.’’ Not while his Starfire still needed her mother.

And especially not now when she had finally started being supportive and loving towards their daughter.

‘‘It will still be documented though. The entire council will know. How long do you think the truth can possibly stay hidden?’’

The owl didn’t answer. He didn’t know how to, because the marquis was making a strong point. Now, how could he-

‘‘Stol-a**! You done?’’ Stella chose that moment to interrupt their conversation. Entering her brother’s study without even knocking. ‘‘I’m finished packing.’’

‘‘That’s nice, Stella, but I’m still busy with your dear brother here who was just telling me about how he’s going to stab you in the back.’’

She didn’t answer but looked pissed. She walked up next to him, facing Andrealphus.

‘‘Don’t expect sympathy now of all times, Stella. You’re practically helping him with all this you’re throwing me under the bus too.’’

‘‘Oh, I wonder why.’’

‘‘You really care more about her than me?’’

‘‘After everything? YEAH! I DO.’’

‘‘So, you would betray me for the sake of that bastard child-’’

Stella cut him off by jumping on him, therefore pinning him to the ground, and then beating the living daylights out of the guy.

Well, at least she didn’t have anything angelic so this wouldn’t leave any physical evidence.

Eventually though, he threw her off him using magic, and Stolas caught her. She then wanted to continue, but he didn’t let her.

‘‘LEMME AT HIM!’’

‘‘Give up, Stella.’’

The man holding onto his desk to be able to stand -though his Goetic genes were working its magic and healing him as he spoke- told her.

‘‘If I go down, you go down, and even if you don’t, your daughter will never look at you the same again. You can decide whether that’s a risk you want to take.’’

He recovered further, now able to stand back up and walk.

‘‘Now get out! Both of you!’’

>>> 

So, they returned, and Stella started avoiding him from the moment they reached his palace. He didn’t really care, he was far more concerned with other things right now, but he hoped she wouldn’t go and avoid Via too.

Oh, Lucifer, what was he to do? He had two options here.

He could either crush Via or let Blitzø -and their dead child- down.

He could take this to court and destroy Andrealphus for what he did to Blitzø and their unborn child, but then the ar*ehole would expose Stella, and his beloved Octavia would be heartbroken, perhaps mentally broken as well.

But if he did nothing he would be letting the murderer of his second, now dead child -and the man who was the reason why Blitzø was hospitalized right now- walk free with no consequence for his actions.

What was he going to do?

>>> 

Via had been crying on and off for a while now. She wasn’t sure for how long, but most of the day, surely.

She just felt so betrayed.

She thought her mom had only started showing love and compassion for her now because of what happened to her last month, although she had always loved her. She thought the time they’d spent together these last few weeks was proof of that!

But turns out she was just distracting Via and her dad so they wouldn’t discover her secret. The kidnaping must’ve been a coincidence.

Played them like fools-

‘‘VIA!’’ Her dad swung her door open, shutting it behind him with his feet before crouching before her bed as she sat up, holding her by the arms.

‘‘ARE YOU OKAY? WHY’RE YOU CRYING?’’ He must’ve heard her from the hallway.

She broke, throwing herself into his open arms and crying against his chest.

‘‘I’m so stupid.’’

‘‘Why? What happened?’’

‘‘M-Mom. She lied to me.’’

‘‘What?’’

‘‘I-I heard her talking on the phone with someone… And I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop but then I listened in on more of her conversations because of what I heard. I thought maybe I heard wrong.’’

‘‘What did you hear wrong?’’

‘‘That’s the thing, I hadn’t! I was right! She doesn’t love me! She was just being nice to me so I don’t find out her secret.’’

‘‘What secret? Via, Starfire, please talk to me.’’

‘‘I think… She cheated on you too.’’

‘‘What? What makes you think that?’’ He truly didn’t believe Stella would cheat.

Not out of loyalty for him or principle of course, but he was under the assumption that she didn’t have such… desires.

‘‘I heard her say “I love you” to someone on the phone.’’

‘‘… That is… Odd. To say the least.’’

‘‘I kept listening in on her conversations after that. I know it’s rude, and unethical, but I wanted to know.’’ *sniff* ‘‘They call each other at least twice every day.’’

‘‘Via. You still shouldn’t have done that.’’

‘‘Dad. I-I don’t know who she was talking to, but… I think they have a kid.’’

What? ‘‘What did you hear that makes you think that!?’’

‘‘In some of her calls she said “I love you” to someone she called “Remy”. I first thought she was talking to her lover, but I listened more, she was talking to someone a lot younger than her. I could tell. She called them “Sweetie” and “Honey”, too.’’

‘‘Starfire.’’ He was trying to keep calm, she could tell. ‘‘That does sound concerning, and I understand why you felt bad about this, but we can’t know anything for sure, you only overheard one side of private phone conversations.’’

Guess he was right about that.

‘‘I will talk to your mother, so that we can get to the bottom of this, but afterwards, I want you to apologize to her. No matter what you thought was going on, it’s not okay to listen in on someone’s private calls.’’

‘‘Okay. I’m sorry.’’

‘‘I’m not mad, darling. Though, your mother might be.’’

‘‘I know, but… what if I’m not wrong? What if she really did have a kid with someone she loves? I mean, you two don’t love each other, and you had a kid with Blitzø. I mean, I know you didn’t plan it and it’s dead, but it happened.’’

‘‘I personally don’t believe that’s what’s going on, Sweetie.’’

‘‘But what if it is? What if… She leaves with her lover and her new child that she actually loves and leaves me?’’

‘‘Via, I-I can’t speak for your mother, but I truly think it’s far more likely that you misunderstood whatever is going on.’’

‘‘If you say so.’’ She let him break their hug as he reached for her face to wipe her tears away.

‘‘Why don’t I stay until you fall asleep, and then I will talk to your mother, okay?’’

‘‘Okay.’’

‘‘I love you, Starfire.’’

‘‘I love you too, dad.’’