An Open Gate
"Oh Mangus; you are so dead when I get out from under here!" called Lita from underneath a pile of stage rubble.
"Well if you're going to kill me, then kill the Fire Baron as well. He pushed me through it!" came the indignant cry of the head roadie.
"I dids noo suchs fing," slurred the completely plastered Baron, looking convincingly annoyed at the accusations, although he grinned at Mangus, who was desperately clawing the wreckage off of Lita and falling over a lot. "Jush becush I'm drunk, you blame me!" The Kill Master sat in another corner beside Rima, each taking in this brilliant, photo worthy scene, as Eddie would say. What was a photo anyway?
Rima was almost like a cat, curling beside her boyfriend, who was calming her to sleep with the low primal tones of his bass. To Rima, it sounded like the snoring of a fire beast, and as long as the fire beast slept well, so would she. Kill Master felt a tap on the shoulder, and he turned around to see Ophelia standing there shivering.
"Hi." she said simply and walked towards the fire to warm up. He nodded in welcome. It had been a cold winter, but Ophelia felt it more-so than the others did these days. Eddie had not returned since the autumn, and Ophelia missed him deeply, more deeply than the Brides of the Drowning Doom had made Lita feel about Lars, which was nigh impossible.
Then, she heard a familiar sound echo across the plains of Bladehenge, but it was so loud that she held her ears to protect them. "IRONHEADE!" Lita clawed her way out from beneath the wreckage and leapt up, looking at the group around her in surprise.
"Well, well, well. Eddie returns to the Screaming Wall. Let's go find out what the nutball wants." Nevertheless, she laughed at the thought of seeing her old friend again.
"Can I bring booze?" came the question from behind her, obviously from the Fire Baron.
The trip was short, but feelings were high with the thought of seeing Eddie Riggs with them once more. The Baron was too drunk to ride so the Kill Master dragged him behind his Thunderhog, while Rima slept on the back of her Fire Beast, which knew where to go as it followed Lita's directions. The Screaming Wall was frozen solid this time of year, so no feedback was likely to occur, but they were cautious as they descended to the supply stores where the Roadies kept their amps. The battle stage of Ormagöden loomed at them out of the darkness as the shadowy figure of Eddie leapt down to greet them.
"Ironheade! My friends it's great to see you again," he said as he hugged those whom he knew would accept it. Then he picked up Ophelia in his arms and they kissed openly, so joyous to see each other again. "Those must have been some long bloody errands mate," said the Kill Master jokingly. "I've been killing demons and chilling with the Ironheaders in the west, out near Death's Clutch. I was gonna surprise you guys, but I found something weird happening at Ormagöden's temple on my way back."
"The temple of the Fire Beast? What's wrong? Tell us." questioned Lita, for whom the temple was sacred.
"Well, you know that we rebuilt the bridge last year so that we could clear the place of Coil? I visited yesterday to clear my head and to jam in peace. The thing is, there's a giant freaky portal opened just below the big statue." He looked around at his friend's faces which were etched with dismay.
"But Eddie, you can't leave for your home, we need you man!" begged Mangus.
"What? I'm not leaving. Come on, have you seen this world around you. It's awesome! I could never leave my friends. Besides, I looked through it, and that's not my world through there. It's new. My mom and dad travelled through hundreds of portals together, and the worst thing to come out of that was me." Rima sniggered at that.
"So what are you saying Riggs?" asked the Kill Master. "Will you guys come with me?"
"What seriously?"
"Yes Mangus, seriously."
"I'm with the boss on this."
Kill Master spoke up, "As long as Rima and the bass come too."
"I will follow the son of Riggnarok to whatever end." called Rima as she rode back towards the jungle to gather her stuff.
"Road trip!," chirped up the Fire Baron, as he stumbled back towards the outline of Bladehenge against the moonlight.
"I will go too, it will be nice to see something new for a change. Plus, a suntan is always a bonus. I will need to get someone to watch over Lars' grave though," said Lita thoughtfully. Then she turned and stepped down one of the mountain slopes, skidding at the bottom.
"Did you teach her to do that?" asked Eddie to Ophelia. "Hmm, yeah with a little help from Rima. Lita's been so nice when you were away Eddie," she said sadly.
"I'm not going away anymore, Ophelia." Then Eddie pressed his lips to hers, and the night was lost to them.
1010101
The sun rose on a new scene, the seven of them walking up the highway which led to the temple, and a sense of respect was paid by each of them to the creator of their world. Each of them was silent, so quiet as if a word would awaken the dead or worse, the Fire Beast himself. The enormous wooden gates which had once held any attackers at bay, and which were destroyed by Eddie within ten minutes of his arrival in their world, still lay in tatters with the brass hinges bent in half.
They trod past the Relic Raiser tab-slab and began to climb the causeway of bones towards the ruined temple of Ormagöden. Rima and the Baron, who had never seen the scale of the temple before, stood in awe of the size and awesomeness of the structure, which rivaled the Zaulia pyramid in the jungles to the east.
"Whoa, that's a lot of dead stuff Eddie," said Mangus.
"Yep, creepy dead stuff too," he replied. They clambered up the last few bone piles, and were helped up onto the courtyard floor by Eddie and the Kill Master. The deformed skeletons of a few Coil monks lay headless or fried around the towering, majestic monument which stood in reverence and remembrance to Ormagöden's sacrifice and glorious death. Lita raised her eyebrow at Eddie and folded her arms neatly.
"Well what would you do if you were being attacked by freaky demons and there just happened to be a shiny axe stuck in the ground in front of you?" He patted the Separator on his back lovingly. Lita laughed appreciatively.
"Well, there it is," said Eddie, gesturing with his axe at the pulsating blue void in front of them."
"Whoa, that's spaced; boss man!" exclaimed Mangus.
"Do the words 'silver machine' mean anything to you Kill Master? They may do one day." Kill Master looked at Eddie, confused. Eddie saw the look and shook his head. "Never mind."
"So are we going into this thing or not?" asked the Baron impatiently. "One small step for a metalhead, one giant leap for rock and roll." said Eddie with some sort of sentiment which the others couldn't put their finger on. Then he stepped forward with grace and composure. And tripped on a rock and fell in head first.
"Really graceful Riggs," admonished Lita before following him into the void.
