Chapter Text
They've been searching for almost four days.
There is no trace of Blitzø. At least no recent trace.
And they’ve looked everywhere.
They’ve been to all the places Loona knows Blitzø goes to on a regular basis. Then to a few places where he's been a few times with Millie and Moxxie (whether they agree or not). And even to places none of them knew about, but discovered by searching for him on Sinstagram.
Their initial theory was that Blitzø had been frustrated by recent events and decided to let off some steam.
But he wasn't in any of the places he might have gone if that had been the case.
They then feared that he may have gone on a solo mission to Earth, that something went wrong and that he somehow got stuck there.
Except that they’s gone through every single paper in I.M.P. offices and haven’t found anything about a new mission. The last one they were hired for was when they went to that awful hotel.
(Moxxie still has nightmares of that ghos…demo… thing with the glasses. Some nights he wakes up in cold sweat and Millie has to cuddle him until he can sleep again.)
That’s when they started scouring Blitzø’s Sinstagram. They went back for weeks, looking for the slightest clue. And what they discovered disturbed Moxxie enormously. He senses that even Millie is troubled, even though she's usually as solid as a gargoyle.
Sadly, they haven’t found anything about Blitzø’s whereabouts.
And then Millie offered to search his apartment. The fact that Loona agreed without so much as a word says a lot about her level of distress towards her father figure.
It's the first time they've been there. Although Blitzø is unconcerned about their private lives, he keeps his as secret as possible. The only thing they know for sure is that Blitzø has an affair with Stolas Goetia. Or is it an arrangement? Moxxie isn’t sure of anything when it comes to these two. Millie seems convinced that it’s more than sex, but Moxxie sometimes wonders if Blitzø can even feel the same way as other people do. He doesn't judge him for that…
(Much)
… but Blitzø’s behavior is far from normal, even considering that he began his life as a circus clown and spent time in prison. After all, when he set up his own business, Blitzø decided to kill humans for money. That’s not the kind of thing a person capable of empathy or even compassion does.
Moxxie wouldn't have gone so far as to call him a psychopath, but he had been convinced for some time that Blitzø was simply incapable of feeling certain emotions, such as tenderness or romantic love. He was also certain that nothing in the world could shake his confidence.
But then he started scrolling through his Sinstagram and began to doubt himself.
And now that he's in his private home, the place where Blitzø can be most himself, Moxxie finally realises just how wrong he's been all this time.
« Is this where he sleeps? » asks Millie, in an incredibly gentle voice, pointing to the beat-up sofa, where a purple blanket with horse and a small horse plush are still in disarray.
Loona nods in silence.
« So… he left you the bedroom and lives in the living room. »
Loona nods again and her nose begins to twitch.
Moxxie can sense her discomfort, but he has to ask.
« Who did this? » he exclaims, pointing to the photos pinned to the wall.
He winces at the one of him in that horrible puffy white dress his father made him wear the day he tried to force him to marry Chaz. What interests him most (and worries him to no end) are the photos in which Blitzø's face has been violently scrawled, as if the person who did it simply wanted to erase him from existence. He suspects the answer, but hopes it's just Loona on one of her days off. Lucifer knows she can be a bitch in more ways than one.
« I don’t know about the older ones, but that… that was dad on one of his bad days », the hellhound whispers and her voice trembles, like she’s trying really hard not to cry.
Moxxie’s first instinct is to try and comfort her with a hug, but he's learned the hard way that it's a bad idea to touch Loona, especially when she's in distress.
He looks at the place again, this time with new eyes, embraces the pathetic sleeping space, all the photos from which Blitzø has cut himself off and a horrible idea occurs to him.
« Are we sure he didn’t try to… » he begins, in a barely audible voice.
« Mox, don’t » Millie cuts him off, widening her eyes and pointing at Loona with a discreet nod.
He realizes his smart, wonderful wife has already had the same idea and that she doesn’t want to express it in front of Blitzø’s daughter.
« I don’t understand », whispers Loona, « I know he was upset that Stolas finally got bored with him. But I was sure he would get over it and find someone else to hook up with in no time. It’s not as he had feeling for that asshole Prince or anything! »
She sits down on the sofa, takes Blitzø's blanket in her arms, holds it to her chest and starts shaking. This time it's impossible not to see the tears in her big red eyes. Moxxie exchanges a worried glance with Millie. They’ve had this conversation before, more than once. And while he shares the hellhound’s assessment of the situation, Millie is convinced that Blitzø has much deeper emotions than he lets on. That's one of the reasons why she's usually so patient with him.
(The other is that she says she needs the practice for the day when they have a baby imp of their own.)
However, instead of correcting Loona, Millie simply sits down on the sofa next to her, so that his whole body is glued to her side. She gives Moxxie a little nod and, after a moment's hesitation, he sits on the other one, so that Loona is surrounded by imps. Her trembling subsides, at least in part.
« What do we do now? » asks the hellhound after a few minutes.
« Maybe… maybe we could contact Stolas? »
« NO! » Loona growls, going from despair to absolute fury in less than two seconds. « That asshole broke up with dad and THE NEXT f*ckING DAY he’s singing in public like HE’S THE VICTIM? He can go f*ck himself sideways for all I care! If he dares come anywhere close to me, I’m going to kill him and bury the parts all over Pride! »
Oh Lucifer.
Moxxie runs a hand down his face. It’s not that he doesn’t understands where Loona comes from. He'd seen the videos on Sinstagram too. He also saw that dozens of people had tagged Blitzø, with messages ranging from contempt to outright hatred. The strangest thing is that at least half of these people are victims of I.M.P. and most of them weren’t even killed by Blitzø himself. Yet their hatred seems to be focused solely on him. Moxxie imagines that this is because Verosika’s party was called "BLITZO SUCKS", not "I.M.P. SUCKS", but it still seems more than a little unfair.
So… yeah, Moxxie understands Loona’s rage towards Stolas. He shares some of it. Blitzø may be an ass, but he doesn’t deserve this much hate. However Moxxie can’t concentrate on both finding Blitzø (whatever his condition might currently be) keeping his hellhound daughter out of jail or an even worse fate for murdering a royal.
« Okay then. Let’s leave Stolas out of it », Millie says with a forced smile. « How about we print up posters of Blitzø and put them up all over the neighborhood? Maybe someone saw something that could help us? »
Loona looks at her with so much hope in her eyes that Moxxie’s heart clenches painfully in his chest.
« Do… do you think it could help? » the hellhound whispers.
« We’ll never know until we try! »
Millie’s cheerfulness seems almost genuine. At least, it’s enough to fool the hellhound.
« Do you want to come and stay with us… until we find your daddy? »
Loona shakes her head.
« No, I’d rather stay here. In case… in case he’d come back. »
All three of them know that won't happen. Wherever Blitzø is, he's not coming back of his own accord. But the imps pretend to believe the argument.
« You’re right » says Moxxie, carefully patting the hellhound’s arm. « If your dad comes back, he’ll be happy to see you. »
A few minutes later, the couple leaves the apartment. Knowing the keen ears of hellhounds, Moxxie waits until the end of the street to ask his wife:
« What if Blitzø… what if he’s dead? »
Millie expression hardens.
« If he's dead, I'll help Loona bury Stolas' dismembered body. Because what happened the last time they saw each other affected Blitzø deeply. I could see it in his eyes on our last mission, but I thought he needed time to recover. He's not very good at expressing his feelings, as you know. And I was so angry that you got hurt… »
Her voice breaks and tears appears in her eyes.
« I should have talked to him », she whispers.
Moxxie takes his wife in his arms and holds her close.
« What’s done is done, Millie. And it’s not your fault. Tomorrow, we’ll print a thousand posters. And we won’t stop until we know what happened to Blitzø. One way or another. »
« One way or another », repeats his wife, and it sounds like a promise.
« But I’m going to buy a shovel and prepare an alibi. Just in case… »
