This is a pseduo-sequel to "Trust Me, I Tried", essentially taking that short story and expanding on it (and elaborating as it were). I recommend reading that before reading this!
Warning: Contains major character deaths, weird lore, and sometimes really bad jokes.
Chapter One
What William remembered first was waking up.
His eyes opened slowly and adjusted to the room around him, and it took a moment for him to realize that he was exactly where he was when he blacked out.
Except, no one else was here.
Well. That didn't make much fucking sense.
The screen was down at the far end of the wall, flickering with a white static noise that wasn't changing. There was no sound, but he was thankful for that. He didn't need to hear the static. That was the worst part about falling asleep with the TV on.
Only…he hadn't fallen asleep with the TV on. He wasn't even in his bedroom.
He was in the band's meeting room.
This was where he blacked out.
He remembered it now, he was sitting where he was now, playing with his knife, waiting for their meeting to start. There was no sign of their new manager, so people were goofing off.
Toki and Skwisgaar were on their side of the table, Skwisgaar messing around with his Gibson like he always did, and Toki was on his phone.
Pickles was drinking a beer, but wouldn't give William one. Nathan was writing something down in a notebook and occasionally checking his phone, mostly keeping to himself.
They were sitting there waiting for a while, and William was about to complain about their new manager not showing up, but that thought died off really fast.
Then men dressed in black came crashing through the windows of the room, and a fight started to break out.
Skwisgaar started to hit guys off with his guitar. Pickles and Nathan were throwing punches. Toki kicked a few guys and started to beat on them on the ground.
A man came up to William and grabbed his left arm hard, ripping off the bandage that surrounded his wrist, and the man pressed his thumb into William's cut, making it bleed.
Purple. It bled purple.
Then, William blacked out.
Then, William woke up in the same room.
"Fuck this," He muttered, standing up from his chair, and moved past all the other chairs, nicely pushed in against the table, and went to the door.
He opened it and walked through, only to find himself in the exact same room. "What?"
He went back to the door and opened it, and again found himself entering the door from the far end of the room. This happened a few times, before he screamed "What the fuck is going on!?"
"My friend, screaming will not help you."
William jumped at the sound of the voice behind him and he turned towards the table to see the priest guy sitting in what was normally Charles'– erm, their new manager's seat. "Please, sit down."
"What the fuck, how did you get in here?"
"I used the door. Please, sit down."
William's eyes narrowed, but he did so anyway, sitting back down in his original seat. "What the fuck is going on?"
"My friend, I'm afraid you have died."
Rolling his eyes, William crossed his arms over his chest, "Psh. Yeah. Right. Like I'm supposed to believe that!"
Ishnifus – was that his name? William couldn't quite remember but it seemed right in his head – turned on the screen behind him.
The white static turned off and what turned on was commotion. There was fighting. Actually, it was the fight that he remembered before. Except, he was there.
He was there, fighting against everyone and with the strange ninja-like men. It was like he was watching a movie, but he was in it.
"What the fuck is this?"
"Someone has taken you over, and now you fight for the other side." The Priest said, sitting tall in Charles' seat, his hands clasped over each other on the table. Ishnifus' back was to the video, We have to go! Nathan's voice came through the video, punching a guy who tried to get in his way, We have to go! Now!
On the screen, Nathan and Pickles were fighting their way through towards the door, knocking a few guys out in the process. Skwisgaar was using his guitar as a weapon as much as he could, able to seriously harm some of the guys, and called out for Toki.
Toki was fighting the best that he could, but Skwisgaar couldn't get to him in time. Toki screamed in pain as a knife went through his heart.
William knew that knife.
It was his.
"Turn it off!" He screamed, but the man in the robes didn't budge, and William slammed his fist into the table.
The man sitting in Charles' chair simply turned around to face the screen, and even though William didn't want to watch, he did.
"Toki!" Skwisgaar screamed, his eyes trained now on Murderface, though he knew enough to know that wasn't really him. "Yous fuckings bastard, I'll kills you!" Skwisgaar lunged forward, but was stopped by Nathan.
"No, Skwisgaar! We have to go. We have to go." Nathan's hands grabbed at Skwisgaar, and soon Pickles was there, pulling back the screaming guitarist, struggling against his bandmates trying to make an escape.
The three of them fled the room, Skwisgaar leaving his guitar behind, as the traitor was soon surrounded by the mysterious men. He wasn't killed though, instead, one of the men handed him a match book, and the traitor lit a match and set the room on fire.
At this point, William closed his eyes and looked away. Was he being punished for something he didn't know he did?
"That wasn't you, my friend." It was as if Ishnifus read his mind, and William opened his eyes, looking up at the other man. "A long time ago, you were infected, and these men activated that. Who you are…died when that happened."
The bassist – could he even be called that anymore? – looked down to his left wrist and pulled back the bandage that was there to find there wasn't a mark on his skin anymore. "So...when did this happen?"
"Right when you woke up."
William stayed silent for a moment, trying to formulate a good thought. Nothing was coming.
"But Toki…" He started, but Ishnifus just turned around to face him again, and nodded.
"He'll be here soon."
"Oh…" He started to say something else, but William's voice hesitated, as he watched on the screen that the room he was in was fully on fire. He looked around the room he was in now, to see that it wasn't.
This wasn't the easiest thing to understand.
The screen shifted to following the four men who survived now, but William couldn't watch it. He didn't want to watch it.
It was one thing to believe that he was dead. It was another to believe that he was now 'watching over' everyone else. Though, it wasn't really watching 'over' as it was just watching. He wasn't in heaven, that's was for sure. But there was something for certain.
They had lives.
He didn't.
Fuck, this sucked.
When Toki woke up, he was on the floor of the meeting room, feeling as though there was something sharp in his chest.
He pushed himself off the floor slightly, leaning back on his elbows as he ran a hand over his heart. Nothing was sticking out, nothing sharp anyway. He was still intact.
So why did he still feel like there was something sharp sticking out of his chest?
He groaned in pain as he found a nearby chair, and rolled it out towards him, and pulled himself up using it. Toki sat in the chair, and put his head on the table, groaning again, "Ow…"
As far as Toki knew in that moment, he was alone. He muttered to himself, and lifted his head, only to feel shocked when he saw William across the table.
Toki's eyes narrowed and he stared at William, who looked ashamed.
"Your eyes ams not purple no mores..." Toki finally said, and William looked away.
"Do you know what happened, Toki?" Ishnifus asked, and Toki looked over to the priest, surprised to see him.
"I...ams not too sures, but I knows you ams dead!" He shifted his seat away slightly from the priest, his eyes wide and scared. Toki heard William sigh.
"Yeah, well we're dead too," William said, slouching in his chair, his eyes looking up at the screen following the survivors. "Ask weird dead Santa about it."
Toki blinked a few times, as he looked over to the screen William was looking at. On it were Nathan, and Pickles, huddled in a circle talking about something. Skwisgaar was off to the side, looking visually upset. He looked like he had been crying.
The screen continued to show the three remaining members, as they headed towards what looked like the Church of the Black Klok, and were greeted by Charles in his robes. The four of them talked, with Nathan visually angry, Pickles visually confused, and Skwisgaar not reacting to anything. Charles just listened, and nodded.
Something else seemed off. They all seemed...older. Minus Charles. Which was weird.
Ishnifus started to explain once more what had happened. Toki and William listened intently as the past-priest talked about the traitor and the Half Man. The battle had begun, and Toki and William were the first casualties.
He explained something else: "You can't leave this room. Not yet. Consider this a...waiting room."
"When can we?" Toki asked.
"When you have all been reunited. The five of you."
"So you are saying we are stuck here until they all die?" William asked, angry, "and we have to sit here and watch it happen?"
"An hour here is a year in the real world." The rest of his meaning, that they wouldn't be waiting long, went unsaid.
Before them on the screen, a battle was playing out. Blood was shed. People were dying. What remained of Dethklok fought as they recruited people to their cause. They aged. Charles stayed the same.
It was hopeless, watching it all play out like this. There was nothing Toki or William could do. Nothing. All they could do was sit, watch, and wait.
An hour passed.
It appeared that after a year, things were only getting worse.
They watched as Skwisgaar became a hardened man, focused on revenge and battle more than focusing on his own well-being. The guitarist fought with anger fueling him, taking out men twice his size, using any blunt instrument he could find to aide him. His guitar was long gone, and what took its place was a man who went into a blind rage, unable to control himself when he became overwhelmed with grief.
They watched as Nathan took up guns, shooting the enemy clear between the eyes with no remorse, but struggled with the pain of wounds once the battle was through. The front man screamed as he ran head first into groups of the enemy, and killed them mercifully, though he didn't seem to take any pleasure in the act.
They watched as Pickles screamed and sliced his way through hordes of the Half Man's troops, leaving limbs and blood in his wake, but became silent once it was over and they had retreated back to their safe zone. The drummer no longer drank, apparently feeling like he needed to keep his wits about him, though that didn't help blocking out the memories. Because of the lack of loss of memory, he would go into a strange state where he would zone out and just kill anyone who crossed his path – the remaining members seemed to avoid Pickles whenever that happened.
They also watched as Charles never aged, but became more ruthless. They watched him come into his own with his powers, taking down hundreds of men with a flick of his wrists. They watched as Charles planned out battles, conferring with the other three as the next course of action. The newly appointed Priest fought with more conviction that he ever had before as if he felt he had something to prove. As if he blamed himself for everything.
Toki and William watched from their seats, unable to pull themselves away from what was unfolding.
They saw everything.
Battle after battle.
Death after death.
It was getting to be too hard to watch.
For William and Toki, it had only been a little over two hours.
For those who still fought, it had been almost two and a half years, and things were not getting better.