Author's Note: If you're curious, the title comes from the song "Born of Anger" by Chris Jericho's group Fozzy. Look them up, you might find something interesting...
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Lita Halford had some time to ponder as she was riding up the mountainside, and it was mostly about how much she had come to truly appreciate vehicles. Without them, this trip that was taking about an hour could have easily lasted the better part of a day, and have been far more dangerous and uncomfortable a trek. Cars made it so one could just ride wherever one needed in a short amount of time, and resting on a seat as plush as one could make it with just a little extra stuffing.
Right now, she and Mangus were in her car...a cherry red recreation of Eddie's, though with a roof built over the top...and traveling their way up the frozen mountainside that ran along the former site of General Lionwhyte's Pleasure Tower. Mangus took his appointment as the Queen's chauffeur rather seriously, although Lita sometimes felt she would have preferred to learn how to drive herself; at the same time, it made Mangus happy and made him feel useful, so she simply bit her lip and kept her opinions to herself. That was something new for her, but she'd promised Eddie that it was something she would work on.
Eddie Riggs, the half-Coil roadie from the future, was the entire reason she was even on this little excursion in the first place. Though it had taken a little coaxing, he'd finally accepted a position as her royal adviser...but for whatever reason he insisted on something of a reclusive lifestyle despite that fact. In fact, the place he had taken as his new home seemed, at least to her, to have been purposely chosen to be as far away from the main civilizations of all the others as possible, nearly equal distances from Bladehenge, the Zaulia jungles, and the Fire Barons' enclave at the top of Death's Clutch. Of course, she knew the obvious answer was simply that Eddie had decided to live in the shadow of his father Riggnarok's statue, but even given for that, the area was simply so inhospitable that she frequently wondered about his thought process when it came to arriving at the decision. (She supposed maybe it wasn't so inhospitable for him; being a demon halfling probably made him a bit sturdier than most, but she didn't dwell on that thought.)
What this meant for her, though, was that whenever she needed him to actually advise her on something, or to help out with something, or whatever, she had to pack up for a drive to go and visit...and considering how often he was away from the small stone cottage he had constructed in that area, she usually found herself needing to wait around for him to get back from whatever bizarre adventure he'd taken off on this time. Particularly annoying were the times she sought his insight to a particular situation going on in the world only to discover on his return that he'd simply handled it already himself, without really needing her involvement at all.
Lita loved Eddie, she knew that. She'd gotten the notion during the last days of the Second Rebellion, as they'd come to call their great war, that her feelings for him might be something more than the feeling a woman would have for the man who was responsible for the liberation of her people. She might have had those feelings longer, if not for the sudden revelation that Ophelia was still alive, and Eddie, who had held out that hope all along, was still obviously in love with her. But Lita knew better than to try and interfere in that, so those feelings had been quietly squashed and she had returned to loving him merely as an extraordinarily talented peer and very good friend.
And sure, when he and Ophelia had come to her, told her what Doviculus had told Eddie of his heritage, for a while she'd been torn about what to think. Demons were evil, without exception, in her experience...and for a while she'd really had to struggle to come to terms with the fact that Eddie's bizarre shape-changing wasn't a strange side-effect of demon poison. But eventually, either through reason or rationale, it was clear that Eddie considered himself human...albeit a human with some unusual powers. He despised the demons with a passion, and it seemed obvious the issue of his mother caused him some conflicting emotions. Besides, he didn't try to hide it, he wasn't that type of guy, and the simple fact that he admitted to it gave credence that he had no intentions of exploiting it in any way. And even after he'd told many of the Ironheade army the same thing, and clearly expected some issue from doing so, almost no one had really had much to say about it. Quite the opposite, it had actually only added to the aura of awesomeness and heroic stature that followed the roadie wherever he went. Which made sense...he was a man who had kick-started a war to free humans from demons, brought all of them out of horrible situations into a place to fight for their freedom, and then granted it to them by slaying the leader of the monsters himself. Even the Artifacts of Legend proclaimed that the fact that Eddie was part demonic directly led to his being able to free them from the oppression they had long toiled under.
No, she didn't much like it, but Lita knew that to turn her back on Eddie for that would only be repeating the mistake of judgment she'd made before, with Ophelia. And all of that aside, she still loved Eddie as a dear friend. The matter of his parentage would just have to be a non-issue.
But even with all that good will, she was often frustrated by the roadie's peculiarities and tendency to want to do things on his own. He had said once that he knew nothing about being a leader, although he had taken the helm of their battles very well. But for normal, day-to-day activities that didn't involve coordination of the army or construction of buildings or vehicles, he was sort of...flaky, at best, downright irresponsible at worst, seeming to prefer to go off rather than stay and do any work that wasn't "roadie-ing" as he put it. He fell asleep in meetings with the Baron, Killmaster and Rima, wandered off from scouting stints to ride around on whatever wild animal happened past, and after they somehow ended up with a fountain filled with Raptor Elk blood instead of kegs from the Sacred Beer Tree at one celebration, asking him to handle delegation of anything beyond battle or concerts was a nightmare Lita didn't care to repeat. (Eddie insisted he would have gotten it right if Lita had just let him do it himself, she had insisted on his learning to depute things outside of music or war...and regretted it ever since.)
Still, he was an extremely valuable ally to her even now, as his popularity amongst the citizens of the world made it so that the people would do nearly anything for him. She herself wasn't hated by any means, but Lita knew perfectly well that if it had been up to everyone else, Eddie would have become the new King of Bladehenge. Instead, he'd thrown his support behind her immediately, proclaiming that she was the ruler Lars would have wanted. And now, nearly a year later, things were still relatively peaceful and harmonious in their lands.
And simply enough, when it really came down to the crunch, Eddie was always there when she really and truly neededhim, and in the end she supposed that was all she really was worried about.
None of this stopped her from letting out a huff of annoyance as they pulled up to Eddie's domicile to discover that his car was gone from it's garage, which meant he was off yet again. "Goddamnit," she grumbled, resting her head against the window next to her. "I was hoping we could make it quick today."
"You know better than to expect Eddie to be quick about anything that's not cars, construction, or battle," Mangus said good-naturedly, parking their transport and quickly getting out, hurrying around to open the door for her.
"You don't have to do that for me, Mangus," Lita said, stepping out of the car, though a bit of a smile still played on her face.
"Well, you're the queen, it's the least I can do," Mangus replied, a wide grin on his face as he swung the door shut for her, then offered her an arm as though to escort her. "Besides, even if you ain't the queen, you're still my lady."
Lita chuckled, then rather playfully took hold of Mangus's arm as they approached the cobblestone house that was practically built into the base of Riggnarok's statue.
Lita imagined that the majority of Bladehenge had been absolutely baffled by her choice of Mangus as a consort several months after the end of the Second Rebellion, but if they had been paying much attention, it might not have come as such a shock. Eddie, Mangus and herself had been the three at the head of the war all along, with Eddie basically fielding orders for everything through the two of them. And during the long periods of time that Eddie had for one reason or another during the rebellion had to leave the main forces behind, she and Mangus had been essentially forced to come together and work to keep everything going. At first, she hadn't thought much of Mangus, as he'd more or less fallen into his position by dint of being the one standing next to Lars when an "engineer" was needed. But it hadn't taken very long for Lita to discover that despite his appearance and bizarre habits, Mangus was in fact a highly responsible and diligent worker, nearly as skilled with his hands as Eddie and bright enough to be able to quickly grasp whatever plans were given to him. Even that unfortunate thing with the diaper, Lita eventually came to realize, was simply Mangus's desire, however improperly handled, to do everything he could for Ironheade.
In the time since, Mangus had gradually moved from being Eddie's right-hand man to being Lita's, running necessary errands, maintaining lines of communication between all the pockets of civilization across the land, and even when necessary, taking command of delegations when Lita couldn't get away for whatever reason. And gradually, she'd come to respect him, and then, to like him, and finally, to care for him, with the feelings developing to be mutual. Though officially, he was simply the royal chauffeur, unofficially he handled a great deal more.
Even as she was psyching herself up for a long wait, Lita heard a sound that pleased her immensely...the sound of a car roaring up the path from the direction of the jungles. "Looks like for once our timing was perfect," she said, turning to look in that direction.
"For once," Mangus agreed. "Good thing too since we didn't think to bring anything warm to wear."
Lita waved a hand dismissively, going to the door at the front of the small house and leaning against it, just waiting. Thus far there were only a few cars in existence...Eddie's, her own, and one or two that had been made for general use...the motorcycles belonging to the Fire Barons or Killmaster and his man sounded vastly different, and since the end of the war, the tour bus had only been moved a time or two for maintenance. Some of the Headbangers were at work harvesting more parts to start making more vehicles, but for now, that was all that had come to be. So this pretty much had to be the Deuce. Lita moved to lean against the wall of the house, crossing her arms...and behind her, the door came open, and a slightly amused voice came from within. "Somethin' I can help you with, your majesty?"
She nearly lost her balance when the door open, and turned quickly, eyes wide, to see Eddie Riggs, half-demon roadie, standing in the doorway of his home, dressed rather casually in a pair of ratty old jeans and a sleeveless black T-shirt, long black hair matted and wild, looking for all the world as though he had just rolled out of bed. "Eddie? But then who's driving the car?"
Eddie chuckled slightly, rubbing his eyes, then turning his gaze to the path as the Deuce came from around a corner in the road. Lita was able to swiftly recognize the brunette behind the wheel, even as the woman peeled the car around the corner and pulled it into the driveway beside Lita's car, parking it and hopping out quickly, a bundle of something wrapped in leather in her arms.
"Ophelia," Lita said, nodding her head slightly as the other woman approached. Ophelia could normally be found wearing her T-shirt and jeans, but since coming here to live with Eddie, her dressing had, more through necessity than anything, become a bit more modest, tending towards cloaks and shawls over her usual uniform. Again, that came from the area in which she had chosen to live, alongside her beau.
"Lita," Ophelia replied with the same brief nod to the woman, a little bit nicer as she addressed the man beside her. "Mangus."
"Yo," Mangus replied, with a bit of a gestured salute and a warm smile.
The two women had never particularly liked each other, for a great many reasons, and even though they had made their peace after the war was over, they still had no real sense of friendship for each other. But after long talks about the nature of Ophelia's supposed betrayal and lots of coaxing from Eddie and Mangus, the girls had been able to at least gain civility, though thus far not too much beyond that.
But Ophelia actually gave a bit of a smile to Lita as she approached, to all of them, in fact. "Guess who's pregnant?" she said happily.
There was a brief pause, before Mangus turned his gaze to Eddie, who was still rubbing his eyes sleepily. "Anything you'd like to confess, boss?"
"Oh, not us," Eddie said with a faint chuckle. "No, Ophs has made it clear that we have a while to go before children."
Lita, however, actually seemed to be contemplating the question before smiling back at Ophelia. "So Rima and Kage finally have a baby on the way!"
"You better believe it!" Ophelia replied, grinning. "Killmaster confirmed it yesterday!" The two women, cool though their relationship might be, actually shared an excited squeal over this news, causing Eddie and Mangus to share bemused glances.
"Gotta say, Kage is the last guy I'd have ever expected Rima to hook up with," Mangus finally said to Eddie, as the two women momentarily babbled together with excitement.
Eddie shrugged a bit, reaching up to try and straighten his hair out a bit, apparently more from habit than any real desire to make it look better. "Well, she was always on the prowl for...uh...someone strong. And he and his mortar did spend a lot of time defending the temple for them while they were helping us out." A pause. "Besides, the last guy she'd hook up with would have been the Baron."
"Oh yeah, good point."
The girls apparently regained their awareness of their situation, and Ophelia made her way past Lita, carrying the leather bundle to Eddie, holding it out just a bit to show him. "Speaking of Rima, here's that Hextadon hide you asked her to finish."
"Oh, awesome. You let her know I'd fix the drum pyro in exchange, right?"
"She said you didn't have to, but I insisted." Ophelia made a faint chuckling sound as she scooched past him and into the house, heading towards the back.
Eddie stepped back with a bit of a shrug, motioning for Mangus and Lita to come in as well. "No reason to stand out in the cold, c'mon in here. I was just lighting a fire."
Lita shook her head somewhat. "Nothing that intense, Eddie. I just wanted to ask you if you could come by the Screaming Wall this afternoon. We need to repair some of the speakers for the stage and you're the only one who can get at the ones we need."
"So you drove all the way out here to let me know you're gonna need me to fly to the top of the Screaming Wall for amps?" Eddie's voice was more amused than annoyed, though there was a tinge of the latter emotion to it as well. "You're going to actually let me fly, right, you're not gonna try and make me arrange a committee to build an enormous ladder to get up there?"
"We already tried that-," Mangus started to say, but Lita elbowed him in the ribs hard before he could say much more, casting him a look of irritation, though Eddie was already grinning more from the words.
"Right. So you need me and my good ol' wings to go do the job ourselves." He chuckled a bit. "Now see, Lita, if you'd just let me do more stuff on my own, we wouldn't have so many problems."
"I'm not having this conversation with you again, Eddie...at least not right now. So, do you think you'll be able to make it out today?" Lita responded, immediately reverting to her "cool and queenly" tone of voice.
Eddie snorted a bit. "Lita, you're the queen, you're the only reason I ever have anything to do besides screw around. If you need me there this afternoon, I'll be there this afternoon."
Lita nodded, and let the littlest hint of a smile come back to her face. "All right, thanks, Eddie. I owe you one."
"Nahhh." Eddie waved a hand a bit dismissively, turning his gaze to the red car Lita had traveled up in. "Bloody Mary still running fine?"
"She's doin' great, boss, I'm takin' real good care of her," Mangus replied happily, and Eddie nodded with an unusually smug face, holding up his fist, which Mangus punched back lightly, in some sort of affectionate male gesture Lita had yet to figure out the significance of. Though she was fascinated by cars, Eddie and Mangus, when they got together, could spend hours chatting together about every last little aspect of the engines, the wheels, the paint, and things Lita couldn't even make out the names of, the men bantered about them so quickly.
"All right. Well, if you don't wanna stay for breakfast, you might want to head out before you both freeze to death," Eddie said with a chuckle. "I'll meet you at the Screaming Wall after lunchtime, how about that? That'll give me some time to come help with rigging up the new stuff on the stage too."
"That sounds perfect," Lita said, nodding again, as Mangus turned to start for the car. "See you in a few hours then, Eddie."
The roadie waved with a somewhat sleepy smile, then retreated back into his house, closing the door quickly behind him.
"He's about to go back to bed, isn't he?" Lita asked, as she and Mangus made their way back to the red vehicle.
"Probably...but he'll be sure to catch up. This is something he can handle just fine." Mangus chuckled, running to open the door for Lita, waiting for her to settle into the car before closing the door and coming around to get into the vehicle. "Don't worry, Lita, he'll be on time."
"Yeah...you're right." Lita settled back into her seat, looking out at the passing scenery again as they started on their way back up the mountain to work back around and to Bladehenge. She had a long day of work ahead of her in their blossoming village, to keep building it into something bigger and better, and she was just glad now that this errand had gone off without a hitch. With luck, the rest of the day would be the same.
