When Steve and Arachniss made it back to the Hotel, they were expecting everything to be just dandy. But instead, they find the place in shambles once more, as they stood in the aftermath of yet another battle that went down around her. Worst of all, they were given the new of Charlie's been taken by one of the moldy freaks who attacked the place.
"Well, that's just great." the young red-head said "Just when we start to gain more people, we start loosing others."
"Yeah, and Vaggie's taking it badly." Brad explain to Steve as he shows Vaggie sitting in her and Charlie's room, folded up into fetal position, mumbling to herself as she rocked back and forth. Steve got the idea that it was best to leave her by, but Octavia came by and it pitied the Moth in her depressed state.
"I only meet Charlie's girlfriend once." She says. "She seemed nice...and a bit territorial. But she doesn't deserve this."
"Yeah, and neither does Charlie for getting abducted by a giant dragon."
"Right now, we simply need to recover and figure out our next course of action for doing anything drastic." Brad said as he walked with them back into the main lobby. "If there is a way to find Charlie, and fast, we'll get it."
"Maybe this could help." Husk said, as he took out a phone that was turned on to reveal a map on the screen. It was pointing to a place somewhere outside of Pentagram city.
"Husk, where did you get that?" Steve asked.
"Oh, that Winters guy dropped it off before he split. I'm to assume it'll help in finding the princess."
Enrico was the one to take a look at the map and thought about it.
"If I may..." said a voice he didn't recognize and looked up to see the Owl Prince Stolas looking down at him, holding his hand out. Enrico hesitantly gave him the phone, and Stolas had an eyebrow raised when saw the location pointed on the map.
"The location seems to be out in the middle of nowhere." He said. "There a few cities outside of Pentagram, but other than that, just miles and miles of endless scorching deserts."
"That's actually pretty smart." said S.T.A.R.S B-Team Pilot, Kevin. "No one would ever suspect looking out in the middle of nowhere."
"Well, if we're planning to go out into the middle of a desert, we'll need to be prepared." Enrico said before turning to the two pilots. "Enrico, Brad. Get the chopper ready. We'll sent out a team as soon as we can."
"You guys had a chopper this whole time?" Arackniss asked.
"One that's still in need of repairs, but functional." Brad replied. "She's not gonna be stable if we keep her in the air for too long."
Steve then said "Then make it a quick drop-off, at the edge of the desert than the team can take care of the rest. I'll go. Charlie welcomed me in, and I need to return the favor."
"She welcomed us all in, Steve." Enrico said to the kid. "You don't have to do this."
"Well, definitely not alone. That's for sure."
"I'll go." Octavia said, surprising everyone. "Princess Charlotte is a good friend of mine. And she's stood by me before."
"Octavia?! You can't do this! It is too dangerous!"
"We just survived escape from our own home, dad! Not to mention getting here. I still have the sickle from that last infected demon." To prove her point, she pulls the said sickle from behind her back, which had blood at the tip."
Stolas did not like the idea of sending his daughter into any kind of danger, but he knew these were drastic time and with his powers somehow compromised, he couldn't protect her forever. Besides, she's already shown prowess. Whatever happens, he wants to believe she can handle it. And with that, the prince turns to Steve with a threatening glare.
"You will defend her with your life." He said to the sinner. "If any harm comes to her, I will put you through more hell than you'll ever experience. Understand?"
Steve came a nervous nod while Octavia facepalmed.
"I'm coming too." Everyone turned to see Vaggie, spear in hand and with a face of anger and determination. "Charlie is my girlfriend...and we will...save."
"Okay...that gives us three. Anyone else?" Steve asks, looking for a volunteer.
"I'll do it."
Turning to who said that, much to their surprise, it was Loona who volunteered.
"Blitzø and the others haven't been answer their calls, or the radio...and I haven't done anything else since I got here. So...I want to help."
"You sure about this, Loona?" Joseph asked. "You told me Blitzø never let you in on assassinations."
"I'm sure. I can hold me own just fine."
"Well, I guess that's everyone then." Steve said. "When do we head out?"
10 minutes later, the helicopter was getting ready by Brad and Kevin as the team now heads to depart. Loona and Octavia now had their own guns at their disposal, with Loona having a Browning Hp, an M79 Grenade Launcher and if worst comes to worst, she'll have to rip apart enemies with her bare hands. Octavia still have the MAC-11 from the infected she scavenged it from, along with a M92F as a sidearm. As they boarded onto the chopper, Octavia decided to make small talk with the Hellhound.
"Where is the rest of the company?"
"Probably dead by now." Loona said simply as she cocked her pistol.
Octavia replied "You don't sound that broken up about it."
"...Why would I be?" Loona asked, to which Octavia only shook her head as the ascended into the air. Loona didn't want to admit it, but she was getting worried about the rest of the I.M.P. It's been some time, and she was now anxious for her adoptive father to come and smother her. She never thought she'd miss that. Not to mention, Moxxie and Millie. She remembers that they're racing the clock to save Moxxie's life. Wondering how they were faring, Loona could only hope to see them again soon.
Back in Imp City, coming out of manhole cover was Luis and the imp couple, one of which wasn't looking so good. Getting out the sewers, they found themselves in a parking garage. Looking around, the coast seemed to be clear as Luis helped Millie bring Moxxie up. Moxxie was holding his arm, looking nauseous and in pain as the spikes that were coming out of his forearm grew at the progression of his infection. He was forced to support himself on his wife's shoulders, as he didn't how much longer he could take.
"Hang on, Moxxie. We'll get you your cure in no time." Millie says to him, trying to keep the hope up.
"...Blitzø...we left Blitzø..."
Millie that it was some time since they lost their boss in the depths of the sewers, but it seems like Moxxie couldn't take his mind off of it. Luis said that one of the symptoms of infection was the victim's mindset getting reduced to the simplest of thoughts before they're completely turned and changed into a mindless zombie. Speaking of whom the Spaniard saw a working elevator, but it was guarded by ganado demons. Hiding behinds some cars, the three peaked and saw one of the guards wearing a key around his neck.
"Okay..." Luis started "We're gonna take the elevator, go up to the top floor and find what we need to curb Luis' infection."
"You think we can find something like that here?" Millie asked "We don't even know where we are!"
"I believe we're right below the building the other ganados passed. This place is heavily guarded, so they must be protecting something."
"Protect...protecting the drugs..." Moxxie stuttered in saying, catching the two's attention. "They're here...15th floor."
"How do you know?" Luis replied.
"...I just do."
Millie turned to Luis and said "Let's do this quick and go through them."
"Whatever the lady once." was Luis' response as their pulled out their guns. In moments, the sinner and female imp open fired on the two guards, unloading and them both and filling them up with holes. But before they could move forward into the elevator, one of the bodies still moves.
"Ugh! Nothing dies here!" Millie shouted as something erupted from the corpse, which turned out to by another giant mutated insect, capable of flying. But Millie had enough of these parasitic bugs as she grabs it brings it down and stabs it repeatedly with a knife. Luis and Moxxie stood idly by as Millie practically rips the thing apart. Then, when she was finished, she turned to see the two staring at her in awe.
"What?" She asked.
"You're just...amazing." Luis said, with Moxxie nodded in agreement. Millie smiled at the compliment as Luis took the key from the guard and they all got into the elevator. There was a slot where the key was supposed to go, allowing for it to be operational. Inserting it and giving the key a turn, the elevator turned on as Luis pushed the button to the 15th floor. But as they headed up, Moxxie once again fell to his knees.
"Moxxie! Moxxie stay with me!" Millie said to her husband. "We're almost there."
"It's...too late." He said, facing his wife with eyes glowing red. "La plaga...me consume."
"Annnd...now he's speaking spanish and has glowing eyes...is that bad?"
"Extremely." Luis says as he holds his Mauser. "Worst comes to worst, we might need to off him."
"NO!" Millie shouted back. "I can't forgive myself if I kill Moxxie! We will save him! We have to..."
They wished the elevator could go fast, as about a minute later, they arrived on the 15th floor. They rushed through the hallway until they came across some double doors, and through them was a lab filled with everything they needed...possibly. There so many tins and canisters full of drugs and chemicals that they now had a new problem, finding the right one.
"Is the cure in here?!"
"No, but the drug needed could be here. Start looking!" Luis said as he and Millie started looking around the room. Looking through the canisters of pills, the Spaniard and the Imp were practically throwing them off the shelves looking for the right one. Meanwhile Moxxie looked across the room, slowly moving his head from left to right until he stopped at a shelf, that had a canister with a red cap on it, and then he pointed towards it.
"M-M-...Millie..." He said, getting his wife's attention as he saw him point to the canister on the shelf they haven't touched yet. Running towards, she picks it up and shows it to Luis.
"Is this it?!" She asks, to which Luis replies "Yes! This is it! Now, we can keep his infection from growing!"
"Yes! You hear that Moxxie?"
(thud)
"...Moxxie?"
They turn to see that the male Imp fell to the floor, but before Millie could move towards him, Luis stopped her as they saw him rising again, showing him angry, red glowing eyes and a knife in hand.
"Voy a matarte..."
"Moxxie..." Millie whimpered in fear as her husband's infection seemed to be completed. The imp opened his mouth and growled as a plaga mouth came out of it. And then suddenly, he leaped at the two, attempting to slash them both before going after his own wife.
"Moxxie, no!" She cried, shielding herself with a shelf she pried off the wall as Moxxie attempted to stab her. Luis knew that saving Moxxie now was near impossible without removal of the parasite, and the drug was useless now with the Plaga's mouth coming out of his own. But the equipment that the lab has, there might be something they could use to push back the infection, have Moxxie adapt to it with a new type of cure. All the while, Millie scurried away from her infected husband, not wanting to hurt him while he very much wanted to hurt her.
"If I can amplify the drug, add new components, have it injected, I might be able to save our friend here." Luis said as he started to get to work. "But it'll take time. Millie! You need to keep him alive long enough to make a cure for him!"
Pushing Moxxie away again "I'll try! But he really wants to kill me!"
"¡Te voy a hacer picadillo!"
"Okay. Give me about five minutes to work with." Luis said. "No pressure."
But Moxxie didn't seem to like what he was doing. The plaga sensed the sinner was making something harmful to it, as it suddenly changed targets from Moxxie's wife to the former scientist. Millie had to keep Moxxie away from Luis while he worked, she tried to get his attention...but throwing a book at him. That made the infected imp easily turn his attention to her again.
"Sorry, Moxxie, but I need your attention right now!" She said as she fired her gun near his feet. "Come on! Follow me!"
"¡Te voy a matar, puta!" And with that, Moxxie chased after her, heading back into the hall as it gave Luis space and time to work with.
"As long as I can work in peace, this will go a whole lot easier."
He just had to jinx it, as suddenly coming out of the elevators were more Ganado demons that were inside the building.
"Aquí están. ¡Mátalos!"
"Oh, for God's sake." Luis said as he was forced to pull out a TMP as he say the infected demons coming for him. "Millie! You're gonna have to do a lot more distracting than I thought!"
All the while, Millie dodged an incoming blade from her crazed husband. She groaned when she heard the commotion coming from the hall leading to the the lab Luis was in, and as she ran back their with Moxxie right at her tail, she decided to make it easy on herself by throwing a grenade at the horde of the infected. Pushing her husband back to avoid the blast, she braced herself as the blast blow them back a little and she lands on top of Moxxie. Picking herself back up, she looks into the widened-eyes of her husband, who looks to be in shock as she could no longer see the reddish-glow coming from his eyes.
"Moxxie?" She asks, only to be greeted by that disgusting plaga mouth that came out of Moxxie's mouth, Xenomorph style. She quickly gets back up, but so does Moxxie, who then suddenly grabs her by the neck with his left hand, and coming out of his right were spikes of bones turning black from his infection. Millie quickly grabbed his arm before he could stab through his face, but she couldn't stop his plaga mouth from coming any closer.
"Aah! Hurry up, Luis!"
"Okay, almost done." said Spaniard, working on the serum needed to treat Moxxie, as he was still mixing chemicals together. "Just need a drop of this, and...it's done!"
He then loaded up the stuff into a syringe and rushed over to were the feuding couple were.
"Just need to inject him with this, and it should reverse the effects! Hopefully..."
Moxxie's bone spike was inches away from tearing out Millie's brains. She was driven to tears to see of what has become of the imp she loves.
"Come on, Moxxie! I know you're in there!" She screamed to him. "I love you, dammit! You don't want to hurt me!" Only for Moxxie to respond by forcing him onto her, slicing her arm and then throwing her onto a desk, which broke on impact. "Or...maybe, you do." She groaned in pain. Then, coming down the hall was Luis, running with the syringe in hand.
"I got it!" He said, but before he could reach them, bursting out of a door in the hall was another infected demon, who tackles and brings down Luis, who accidentally lets go of the needle as it rolls across the floor. Millie sees it and grabs it as soon as it reaches her, and just as soon as Moxxie picks up off the ground in an attempt to finish her.
"¡Ahora te mueres, puta tonta!"
"Moxxie...time to take your medicine!"
Kicking her way out of his grasp, Millie quickly then leaps and tackles Moxxie, rolling across the floor until she ends up behind him with her arm against his throat and him roaring crazily with his plaga mouth. Without another word, Millie stabs him with the shot and injects the serum, which quickly works its way into his system and begins to attack the parasite, weakening it and forcing it to relieve its whole of the imp's mind. Moxxie starts to scream painfully as the plaga mouth begins to wither and retreat inside of him, same for the speaks that were now moving back into his arm. The male imp began to breath rapidly, wheezing until it seemed like he was no longer able to breathe. Millie quickly moved to his side as they looked into each other's eyes.
"Moxxie?"
"...M-Millie...I..." And then his passes out. Millie quickly puts her head at his chest and heard a faint heartbeat, but she was still afraid that what they've been through may have already taken its toll on the one she loves. Luis manages to kill the infected as quickly as he could, moving to where his companions are and sees the state Moxxie was in.
"...Let's get him out of here." He says, with Mille responding with a nod. Luis carries Moxxies as they head back to the elevator and push the button for the lobby. As they are heading down, Luis notices that Millie is still looking at Moxxie with great fear.
"...When we exit this building, I want you to head back to Pentagram City, and to the Hotel." He says to her. "I'll continue on my own."
"What?" Millie said.
"We've already lost one man." Luis explained. "And I was a victim to this nightmare in my lifetime. I'm taking it upon myself to cut down Saddler and lackeys, as a friend of mine did in the human world. I don't want anyone else to suffer for this."
"You sure about this, Luis? You don't know what you'll be up against."
Luis replied "On the contrary. I have a pretty good idea. Besides, your husband needs you."
Seeing Moxxie in a comatose state was enough to show that he was right. Millie didn't want to leave with business unfinished, but Moxxie's life was more important. She continued to think about this as the elevator continued to go down...