Next morning, as she started to awaken, the first thing she noticed was that Xibalba's wings were not wrapped around her, as he had tended to do unconsciously ever since she came back. In fact, as she sat up in bed, she noted he was not in bed, or in the room. She wondered if Zipacna had come early and dragged him out of bed again, but then she saw a slip of paper on his bedside table. Guessing it was a note from him, she reached out for it and unfolded the paper.

Muertita

I went to tend some business. I will be back in a while with something for you.

See you two soon, mi amor.

Balby

La Muerte giggled, placing the note down and rubbing her abdomen gently. "Well, baby, looks like papi will be back in a while. How about we relax today?" she received a gentle squirm in reply.

La Muerte got dressed in one of the maternity dressed Aimé had given to her the day before, she didn't think it would be good to use her casual dress now that her abdomen continued to grow. She made her way out of the bedroom and towards the dining room. Regina was already there, just placing a cup of tea for La Muerte when she noticed her coming in. "Buenos días, milady." She said, bowing politely.

"You know you don't have to be so formal right now, Regina. Remember Xibalba is not currently in charge, and he said you could speak informally." La Muerte said, smiling.

"Indeed he did, but it's a matter of habit, milady. How are you feeling this morning?"

"I'm feeling much better these days, thank you. I wanted to ask you, Xibalba left somewhere?"

Regina nodded. "Early in the morning. He said he had to do something."

"I hope he doesn't take long. The baby misses her papi."

Just then, they heard a loud neigh coming from outside. La Muerte smiled, seemed like Xibalba thought the same. He just couldn't spend five minutes away from her, as he had shown her these past days. He merely told Zipacna how to do things, and then came back to her, which had ended in Zipacna messing things up more than once. As she made her way towards the entrance doors, she wondered what Xibalba would have brought back for her.

But as she opened one of the doors, she had a bad feeling.

Juarez was having trouble in grabbing Medianoche's reins, for the stallion seemed frightened of something. He was neighing loudly, stomping his hooves on the ground and trying to release the reins from Juarez's hold, but what caught her attention was the fact that Medianoche had arrived alone. Xibalba was nowhere to be seen.

"J-Juarez?" La Muerte spoke out loud, climbing down the steps carefully.

Juarez lost the grip on the reins momentarily when he saw La Muerte approaching. "Milady! Step back, Medianoche's lost it!" he yelled, barely avoiding being trampled on by the large hooves.

Medianoche looked stressed out, she was sure Xibalba's absence had something to do with it. Medianoche turned around a few times, his ears flat against his head as he shook his head, snorting and whinnying. Warily, La Muerte approached the Friesian, making sure to stay out of his blind spots or kicking range. She was certain one kick from him could harm the baby.

"Medianoche!" she said firmly, recalling how Xibalba and Epona spoke to wild horses. She had to stand her ground and show them who was the dominant. "Calm down!"

Medianoche's ears perked up at the sound of her voice, and though he did stop rearing up wildly, he still looked upset and continued to snort. La Muerte got close and her hands gently grabbed his head, moving his head towards hers so she could see into his eyes. She saw fear and worry in his gaze. She was certain something was wrong now.

"J-Juarez…" La Muerte said, her voice trembling in worry. "I think something happened to Xibalba."


Zipacna thought he could take a few hours to relax today. He had been stressed out to the point he had not taken any naps lately, and that was starting to get to him. However, when he got an urgent letter from La Muerte saying something had happened to his hermanito, he was out off bed in less than a few seconds, and in the last moment he recalled he was forgetting naked. He dressed up, then he teleported to the Land of the Forgotten just in time to meet with Epona, who was outside on the stables with a worried-looking La Muerte. Medianoche still had the saddle on, but he looked beyond upset.

"What happened?" Zipacna asked as soon as he was within earshot range. "Where is Xibalba?"

"I don't know…" La Muerte replied, staring at Medianoche's empty saddle in worry.

"Medianoche arrived on his own, Lord Zipacna, and he was very upset. He nearly trampled me, in fact!"

Epona was already doing her 'magic'. She grabbed Medianoche's head and moved it to face her so she could look into his eyes. She continued to stroke his neck to keep him calm, despite Medianoche's attempts to release the reins and apparently go somewhere.

"He wants to show us something." Epona concluded, to which the stallion gave a snort of agreement. "He knows is the only one who knows where Xibalba is, he knows it. We have to let him take us to wherever Xibalba is!"

"Well, what are we waiting for?!" Zipacna snapped unintentionally. He was too worried to mind his manners. "Let's go!"

"I'm going with you." La Muerte declared.

"Are you sure?" Epona asked her in worry. "I don' think you should ride Medianoche in both your states."

"I can handle it. I'm not standing by as my husband is who knows where, maybe injured! Medianoche wouldn't have returned alone unless Xibalba told him to!" With that, La Muerte boldly climbed unto Medianoche's saddle, much to Zipacna's surprise. He didn't know that horse would let anyone other than his brother on top of him.

Epona nodded. "Okay. Zipacna and I will follow you through the air."

Zipacna simply nodded. Now was not the moment to complain about his opinion. La Muerte whispered into Medianoche's ear. "Take me to him, Medianoche."

The horse didn't need to be told twice. He burst out into a gallop almost immediately; Epona barely had time to climb unto Zipacna's back for him to take off and go after Medianoche. La Muerte gripped unto his mane as he galloped down the bridge and into mainland, he was ignoring any potential danger from the Forgotten Beasts, but she saw Zipacna's shadow on top of her, recalling they would not approach as long as he was near.

Medianoche's ears were pointing forwards, he was in high alert and she could tell he as desperate to get back to whenever he had arrived from. Soon, he had galloped out of the same cavern La Muerte had used to return with Blanca months ago, ignoring the cold water that poured on top of them and continuing to gallop through the tunnel until he went into yet another waterfall, this one leading into a dense forest. Zipacna flew out of the waterfall a few seconds later with Epona on his back, but La Muerte ignored them for now. All she cared about right now was to find her husband.

At last, when they came into a beautiful clearing filled with colorful flowers, Medianoche stopped, neighing in alarm. La Muerte somehow found that place very familiar, but she was too worried to try and remember. The goddess got off the horse just as he started to stomp his hooves again, this stretching out his neck and centering his gaze on a particular spot in the field of flowers. As she approached, she noticed the flowers in that part looked as if someone had been lying on top of them, and there were black feathers scattered around. What gave her a clue to what had happened was the pool of dark blood scattered on the flowers….

"La Muerte!" Zipacna landed a few feet away, allowing Epona to climb down from his back before rushing over to meet La Muerte. "What did you-!?" he stopped in his tracks when he saw the black feathers and the pool of blood.

"Medianoche, where's Xibalba?!" Epona turned to see the horse, but he looked as much surprised as they were. He snorted in frustration, giving out loud neighs that were seemingly directed at their surroundings, as if he were calling out for...

"Xibalba!" Zipacna called out to his brother, but there was no reply. "Xibalba!"

Epona joined in, going over in one direction. "Xibalba! Where are you?!"

La Muerte knew something was wrong now. The signs were there, Xibalba had been here, but something had happened to him, and he was injured. But if that were the case, why would he have walked away after sending Medianoche for help? How had he managed to move? There didn't seem to be a trail of blood to follow.

"Zipacna, could you go fetch Xibalba's hounds?" she asked, her voice trembling.

Zipacna nodded, and was gone in a swirl of crow feathers. Medianoche got closer and helped La Muerte get back on her feet just as Epona got closer, running a hand through her red hair.

"Xibalba, where did you get yourself into…?" she muttered under her breath. "It's very strange."

"We don't even know how deep the wound is, or if he's alright…!" La Muerte added, trying to calm herself down, but she was too worried.

"D-Don't worry, I'm sure his hounds will be able to track him down. He was always bragging they could track a fly from miles away."

"They do have a good smell sense!"

A few minutes later, Zipacna returned, barely managing to teleport twelve of Xibalba's hounds, Garra and Colmillo among them, back there. He looked exhausted, but he was too worried about his brother to think about taking a break. La Muerte grabbed one of the feathers on the grass and held it out for the hounds.

"Find Xibalba, chicos." She whispered worriedly. "Find your master for me."

The hounds started sniffing the feather thoroughly, and a few seconds later they were sniffing the surrounding area to look for any match with the scent. Some of them gave whines of disappointment when they found none, or caught a small trail only for it to vanish shortly after. The group spent a few hours looking around the forest, trying to find the tar god's whereabouts, but it was as if he had simply vanished into thin air. La Muerte felt more and more anguished as time passed and she found no sign of Xibalba.

By the time it was midday, La Muerte was sweating, exhausted and hungry, she felt the baby squirming uncomfortably because of it.

"La Muerte, you should go back to the castle." Zipacna told her at last upon noticing her condition.

"I can't go back without Xibalba!" she protested with a growl.

"You're tired, hungry and it could affect the baby!"

"And if I just stay in the castle without doing anything while my husband is probably dying, I'll just get worse!"

"Zipacna's right, La Muerte." Epona added. "If you stress too much, it could affect your baby, and we all know Xibalba wouldn't have wanted that. He would make you go to bed, actually."

"Besides, we won't be able to find him by ourselves. I'll go to Aztlan to get some backup, that way it'll be easier to find a track." Zipacna added. "Come on, La Muerte. Think about what Xibalba would want in this situation."

La Muerte wanted to keep arguing, but she knew they were right. She had an unborn baby to worry about, and Xibalba would have wanted her to home and take a long break. Reluctantly, La Muerte headed over to Medianoche, but Zipacna wouldn't allow her to teleport herself and Medianoche back to the Land of the Forgotten. He stepped closer and cast a teleportation spell on them to save his sister-in-law the trouble. La Muerte shivered when the energy and black feathers disappeared, and the felt the familiar freezing air. She had to lean on Medianoche for a few seconds before managing to recover, the black horse nudged against her arm in worry.

"I'm okay, don't worry…" La Muerte sighed in worry. A few seconds later, Juarez approached, looking even more worried than before.

"Milady? Did you find him?" he asked, grabbing Medianoche's reins to lead him into the stall.

"Not yet…" La Muerte sighed in dismay. "I hope he is okay…"

"He surely will appear soon, milady."

La Muerte gave him a thankful nod, and gently patted Blanca's nose before going back inside. She made her way back to her room, where Regina was waiting anxiously. She looked at the goddess with a worried expression.

"What happened, milady?" she asked, bringing her hands together. "Juarez said Medianoche arrived on his own and then you left with Lord Zipacna and Lady Epona…"

"Xibalba is missing." La Muerte said as she sat down on the bed, brushing away some hairs from her face in worry.

"What?"

"Medianoche led us to a forest, probably where Xibalba had taken him, but when we returned he was gone. We only found some of his feathers and a pool of his blood! We looked around, Zipacna even came to fetch the hounds to see if they could track him down, but not even they could find his trail!"

Regina's eyes grew wide as she continued to hear the whole story. La Muerte took a few breaths to calm herself down, and lay down on bed. Not even Ponzoña had been there, she wondered if he was with Xibalba. She guessed he must, he had never been apart from Xibalba. He must have been in his natural form, if he wasn't found as a staff near where Xibalba had been.

"Would you like some tea, milady?" Regina asked in worry, noticing her mistress was very nervous, and she was worried about the baby.

"Yes, Regina, please… right now I need to calm down…" As Regina left, La Muerte rubbed her abdomen tenderly. "Don't worry, baby, papi will be okay… We will find him, you'll see…"


As days passed, La Muerte grew more and more anxious and worried. Zipacna had gone back to Aztlan to inform Quetzalcóatl and Tezcatlipoca that Xibalba was missing, and all the gods went to the forest to look for him. However, none of them could even find a clue to his whereabouts, it was almost as if he had just vanished. Lord Itzlacol assisted in the search, though La Muerte and Zipacna could tell he just was keeping up appearances, and guessed he secretly hoped he wouldn't be found. During that time, Aimé and King Sol went down to the Land of the Forgotten to keep La Muerte company. La Muerte would stare at the snake bridge that connected the castle to mainland, hoping to see something. A sign that Xibalba was coming home, or that someone had found him, but all she could see were the Forgotten Beasts that roamed near the edge of the lava lake. Two weeks went by…

"Muertita, you have to eat something." Aimé said, taking her sister's hand, glancing worriedly at the untouched plate in front of her sister.

"I try, Amy, but…" La Muerte sighed sadly. She knew she had to eat for both her and the baby, but she couldn't think of it while her husband had been gone for so long, and she didn't have a clue of where he might be. She hadn't heard any words from Zipacna either; she guessed he was in the same situation as her. "I can't think of eating with Xibalba lost and injured…"

"Don't be afraid, my daughter. He has proven countless times that he's capable of handling anything life throws at him." King Sol pointed out. After all, if he could survive war, an attempt on his life, and a trial he was certain he wasn't easy to get rid of… not that he wished for it anymore.

"He's never been gone for so long, not without sending a letter or something to explain why." He had sent Medianoche for help, maybe he didn't expect he'd disappear… This didn't make any sense. What could have happened to him?

Unless… Could it be…?

There was a knock on the door, La Muerte technically jumped from her father's embrace and to her feet, her hat dropping to the ground, and she rushed to open the door. Emilio was there, and he looked nervous, almost fearful.

"Milady…" he said. "The Kings are here… They s-said they wanted a w-word with you…"

"Gracias, Emilio!" La Muerte said, rushing past him and down the hall, ignoring her father and sister's calls. She ran into Xibalba's study hoping to find her husband in a weakened state, or at least something that told her they had finally found a trace of him… But she found only Quetzalcóatl, and his expression was grim and sorrowful. She felt a shiver down her spine, and the baby squirmed uncomfortably inside her womb in reaction to her mother's fearful state.

"La Muerte…" Quetzalcóatl said in a low voice. He didn't wish to tell her such news in her state, but it was better to let her know at once instead of letting her find out from another source. He didn't mind she had forgotten to give the proper bow, right now was not the moment for such petty things. King Sol and Aimé, however, minded their place and gave a bow as soon as they entered.

"Your majesty, any news?" King Sol asked. "Did you find anything…?"

However, upon noticing the expression on the feathered serpent's face, he had the feeling of what he was going to say. Warily, he placed himself behind his daughter in case, placing his hands on her shoulders.

"Where is Xibalba?" La Muerte said, her voice trembling in fear.

"La Muerte, I'm afraid it has been two weeks already… We have found no trace of him, but the amount of blood he lost is alarming, and when Itzamna examined it… he found traces of a very deadly poison in it…" Quetzalcóatl wanted to stop when he noticed La Muerte's expression turning into a frightened one. "We believe he sent Medianoche away because he knew… there was nothing he could do."

"What are you saying...?" La Muerte knew what the answer was, but she didn't want to hear it. She refused to believe it, it simply couldn't be, he couldn't have left like that

"… My brother and I have decided to declare Xibalba dead."

Silence.

La Muerte just stood there, frozen, her eyes wide, and her hands unconsciously going to her abdomen in a protective way. Dead… everything around her became a blur, she didn't realize she had taken a step back, her sister's comforting words and Sol's attempts to call her attention were nothing but whispers, Quetzalcóatl was but a blur even though he walked closer, apparently asking her if she was alright. She didn't hear his voice though he was technically in front of her, she could only hear her own heartbeat accelerating as she processed the information.

Xibalba, the love of her life, her husband, her Balby…

Dead…?

Gone forever…?

No

No, no, no!

The last thing she remembered was falling into her father's arms as everything around her became blackness.