Back in Imp City, Blitzø looked like he was preparing for war as he armed himself to the teeth with every expendable weapon and firearm they had in the building. Loona was watching him, showing some concern for her adopted father. He hasn't exactly been himself for a while. Ever since he heard from Stolas and Verosika about his brother, he has been unnerved, on edge, hasty and just acting a tad bit more psychotic than he usually does. Fortunately, Loona new how to get his attention, and hopefully out of this funk of his.
"Uh...dad?" She said, acting making Blitzø pause for a second as he turned to look at his daughter, making some ammo fall on the floor. "...What are you up to?"
"What's it look like, Loona? I'm busy getting ready for a target that one of our clients has hired me to knock off." Blitzø said impatiently while working with bullet belts and holsters for guns around his waste and at his back.
"Uh...Shouldn't you wait for...Fatty and his wife to come back here?" Loona then asked, knowing that it's been while since they embarked with Benny. And she was making sure not to bring anything her dad's brother in any subject. For she feared that he may flip out at any mention of her...uncle.
"They're...indisposed at the moment. I'll give them some more time off. Hopefully, see them again soon. Hopefully...I can handle this by myself. It'll be real easy if I don't fuck anything up on this job. I don't stop for a snack, I don't make stupid jokes. I just end the bastard's life and we get to meat tonight. Sounds good? Good."
While Blitzø continued to gear himself up, Loona could tell that she was not getting the whole story as she asked "What do you mean they're indisposed?"
Blitzø didn't answer. In fact, he was processing that his daughter was actually showing concern for his employees.
"Blitzø, I know when you're hiding something. You're better off just telling me and I'll when to back off."
Normally, this would turn into a petty argument where Blitzø would go on and on and on about how they shouldn't be talking about, how it should be dropped, and hope that Loona could just take that as an answer. But since he's not really been himself in a while, he actually decides to humor her and give her a proper answer...sort of.
"Alright..." He started off. "Moxxie and Millie may be stuck in a...very bad place. Horrible even, considerably the worst place in all the rings."
Loona arched an eyebrow, thinking that her dad might be exaggerating. Could Limbo City really be that bad? She wanted to take Blitzø's Brother as an example and think that it could just be like any place in Hell. But Blitzø kept explaining.
"They treat both Hellborne and Sinners alike like the worst, most disgusting piece of crap one could ever shit out and flush down the toilet."
"Ew..."
"Yeah. I've...never been there myself, but that's what I heard. It's run by...an angel of all people, who particularly enjoys the torture of lower lifeforms. Like you and me."
Normally, Loona would be insulted, but this angel got her curious. Benny barely talked about it, but she recalls that he said he worked for Samael, the being who promised to return his life and soul if he completed the assassination job of Stella, Octavia's mother. Now she was beginning to wonder what it was really like past that city's walls.
"It's not safe for anyone unless they're outside the place's borders. Normally, I would drop everything to go over and get M out. But, if it's Limbo City...then, no. Fuck it. They're on their own."
"Limbo City?"
"Where you know nothing of Hell, according to the trademark."
"So, you're just gonna leave them there."
"They're smart, Loony, just as you are. They can look after themselves I only ever make sure that they do." And with that said, Blitzø finished arming himself to the teeth before walking through the already conjured portal. "Now, I'm gonna be out until I can kill the next fucker for our list of clients.. I'll keep in touch with you, if need be. If you see Moxxie and Millie...tell them the time for bailing on their work is coming out of their paycheck."
Soon, Blitzø was off, and even though it seemed as if he was ready to take on anything, Loona knew he was hiding his real emotions. Never did she think she would care so much for her adopted father to be this concerned for him. There was telling how complicated this was gonna get. Hopefully, she could take her mind off of while she watched the front desk and looked through her phone. But, not even a few seconds later, the work phone started ringing.
"Immediate Murder Professionals. If you want someone gone, we-" She started to say the motto in her nuetral tone before a harsh voice cut her off through the phone.
"Yeah, yeah. Shut it and listen. Is there a Blitzo over there?"
"He just stepped out. Who's asking?"
"Asmodeus. The Prince of Lust."
And...then Loona froze. An actual sin personified, the one of Lust of all the seven, was calling for Blitzø, and did not sound very happy.
"Now. I'm gonna make this very clear..." Asmodeus started to say. "That bitch of Imp had a brother I only heard about a few weeks ago, when he came to my place of business and took out one of my eyes and then actually took my best star!"
Oh shit, now Loona was even more terrified since they told Benny about Fizzaroli, but never really knew what he did to him.
"I'm gonna make this very clear...Where is my little Fizzy Pop? And where's that dick-head's brother? Where...is Benny Rorscach?"
While she was very tempted to put the phone down and act like nothing's happening, the Hellhound knew better than to just hang up on a sin. Loona had a feeling she was gonna be paralyzed on the phone for a while...
Speaking of which, whatever happened to Fizzaroli? He was almost forgotten about, wasn't he? Well, after the little "friendly reunion" Benny had set up down at Ozzie's, partly blinding one of Ozzie's heads and giving the clown a long waited beating, Benny had taken Fizz with him and dragged his disable ass back to Limbo, where he left the poor defenseless imp under the care of the mysterious Incubus Associate of his, Todd Virtue.
Now Fizzaroli finds himself in a state of agony and pain, as he had been subjected to a horrible experiment. As of this moment, he was in an isolated cell, arms chained up to the wall by hooks. Now, one might think that they used his prosthetics to chain him, or get rid of those and just hold him by his arm stumps. But no...no...Fizzaroli has been feeling a pain he hasn't felt in a long while.
Pain...in his arms...
Fully regrown and attached to his body, completely organic arms...as well as matching legs...and horns that he has not had the comfort of feeling in a long time.
Yes, the experiment Fizz has been subjected to has made him whole again, body and all, yet at the cost of feeling nothing but torture at this moment.
He would be considered unrecognizable for how he looks now, for even the red color that was replaced with a white mark has returned all over his body...course, that could just be stained blood.
Breathing heavily, the poor imp bit back the pain he felt all over. The urge to scream still rendered every time he flinched. The rejuvenation process was excruciatingly horrible to feel as he went through getting back every bone, every muscle, every nerve from his four lost limbs. Feelings that were phantom-ized by the prosthetics, but this was definitely real.
At another time, he would've been happy to be whole again. But now? Well, you know what's feeling at this point.
"Good evening, Mr. Fizz. How are we doing this evening?" spoke the voice of Todd Virtue as he walked into a room while holding a razor-sharp knife. Fizzaroli did his best to glare, but winced at the pain of his pulled restraints. "You know, I'm not sure if I told you this yet, but when Benny handed you over to me, I was expecting you to be so boring. But your reputation proceeds you as an entertainer. This is some fun I've had in a while."
"RRRRRGGH. DROP DEAD, YOU SADISTIC HE-SHE FREAK!" Fizzaroli managed to yell out before biting back the pain. Virtue only smirked and walked up close, fiddling the knife with his finger...and then sent a slash down Fizzaroli's forearm.
"Keep that up, and you might just lose another limb." The Incubus said ever so casually and sultry-like.
Tears rolled down Fizz's eyes and he struggled to not let out a scream of pain. He saw the cut on his arm bleed out before regenerating so quickly. It would've been fascinating if it wasn't so hellish. But then again, hellish was the idea down here.
"I bet you're wondering how exactly we got you your limbs back. It's quite simply, really." Virtue started to explain. "See, part of my line work, as one of Samael's lieutenants, is doing some experimentation on the regeneration of demons. It's part of his thing, you know? Being the Lord or Hound of Ressurection, as some know him by. But in some cases, he only brings some people back...just so that he can torture them some more."
"The Hell are you...talking about?" Fizz winced through anguish to say.
"It's the Prometheus Project. Every wound that has ever been inflicted on one's person, permanent or otherwise, is healed almost instantly. Yet they still feel the most excruciating pain that they'll ever feel in their lives. All so that they can go through every pain they've ever felt. Again, and again...and again." As Virtue explained this, Fizz could only think of it as the most sadistic thing he's ever heard of. Much worse than having a circus tent get dropped on him. "Only those who we lock down here, indefinitely of course, and for good reason, go through the experiment, orchestrated by Samael himself. But dear old Benny has the exception of throwing in whoever pisses him off."
Benny, the very thought of Blitzø's literal deadbeat of a brother disgusted Fizz. First, he beat him when they were kids, had the decency to get erased by Exterminators, and now he comes back and this is what he put him through. But if that bastard was aligned with a freaking angel of all things, an angel that Asmodeus himself feared, then he might not be able to get out of this so easily. But that train of thought was derailed by a stab wound Virtue just gave him by the side of his ribs.
"It is an extraordinary experiment, you know?" Virtue went on. "I could rip out your heart and it would just regrow back in your chest. I could cut you to pieces, and you would still come back the way you are now."
Fizz felt like he would break his teeth gritting them as the Incubus dug the knife deeper, making the wound bleed excessively.
"We haven't even started. If you haven't gotten comfortable yet, I suggest you do, since only a few get to know the true meaning of Hell."
The poor former circus imp wasn't getting out of this one anytime soon. He could only hope that someone will find him and save him from this nightmare.
Somewhere else in Limbo City, Moxxie was walking beside the Imp that looked much like him, Moto. They were walking down a street and Moxxie could see a lot of strange things around them. He already knew that this was like a prison by the way Benny described, but those stories did no just to how realistic that description was. A lot of demons, armed, up on roofs, looking down at them or anyone else, scowling, looking for an excuse to pull the trigger on any sidearm they carried or unsheathe any blade they have. And as he saw before, there were cameras at block after block. Graffiti was written at around every wall to send messages to anyone who dared to stand against who ran this town. Even the billboards basically said to obey Samael. None of that was of great concern to Moxxie at the moment, while he was basically still being forced to follow this...doppelgänger of his.
"Uh...Moto, was it?" He finally decided to ask.
"...What?"
"Where...are we going exactly?"
"...Father wanted you...see mother..." Moto answered. "...That...where I'm taking you."
This is another time that Moxxie kept hearing about Moto's Mother. What does that have to do with him? Then again, the big demon, the gang leader and who seems to be Moto's Father, said that his 'old lady', his wife, had another child. He asked about Moxxie's own father, Crimson, and seemed to have been curious as to what it all meant. His train of thought, however, was derailed when they accidentally bumped into someone. A ragged demon who looked like he just come back from war, his breath was stinking from alcohol, and his clothes were torn with blood cuts and scratches.
The sight of him made Moto snarl "...Another rule breaker."
That made Moxxie curious as to what that meant, as looked back and realized another thing...that demon was missing his middle finger...on both hands. In fact, he continued to look around and saw that lots of demons did not have middle fingers. Like they were cut off. Was that just a thing here, or...what did Moto mean by rule breaker? Looking at his doppelganger, he saw that Moto had both his middle fingers, yet there were silver rings with angelic engravings on them. A lot of questions about this place rattled his mind, but he didn't have time to ask any as they seemed to reach their destination. A building of a city's red district. The two semi-identical imps headed up and Moto had led Moxxie to a bar on the second floor, where it was empty, except for a woman sweeping the floors. An Imp Woman who was fairly tall and with light red skin, a tail with two white spots, hip-length charcoal hair that was tied with bands into a ponytail with split ends, as well as the white-striped black horns that female imps usually had. Her back was turned to the two, showing that she was wearing a dress coat that covered her up her to lower legs, but showed that she wore some very familiar shoes, white heels with red bows.
"...Mother." Moto said. "...I'm here with guest."
Stopping at her sweeping, the female imp turned and showed her face; black lips and eyes with yellow sclera, long eyelashes and black eyelids, a few winkles around her face some eyebags, and as freckles on her cheeks, much like Moxxie's. Speaking of whom, the moment he and she met face to face, they froze with the female imp dropping her broom and dustpan. Moxxie couldn't believe it, for he was staring, at the only other woman in his life whom he lost long ago, the woman his father tricked him into throwing away...his own mother.
She couldn't even believe it herself, taking a moment to see her own son.
"Moxxie? My hijo..." She let out in a whimper.
...And then, Moxxie passed out.
Meanwhile, back to the actual "Hero" of this story, Benny had already wrapped up his shift at the Blaze of Glory and made his way down to the Greed Ring. Apparently, his brother's been down here, since some thugs mistook him for Blitzø. Because of this, he had to get his hands more dirty than he wanted and stained the grounds of Mammon's territory with burning, boiling, greedy demon blood. All this is done by the very weapon, the Kandarian Dagger, which he intends to run through a certain cowardly bird. He tracked Stella down to the safe house that Paimon had set up in a place called the "Gold Star District", just as Andrealphus said. This would be where she would be cornered and where Benny's mission would reach its end.
"Stella Ars Goetia..." He says in a low voice, looking up at the safe house, holding up the weapon. "Before this day's end, I will have you at the edge of my blade and look into my eyes while you breathe your last...painful breath."
He sheaths the blade and readies his final hunt.