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Timespace Riders	Black Lake Twin Peaks, WA (2014) 2:45 PM     Twenty-five years ago, Laura Palmer was found, dead and wrapped in plastic, by Pete Martell on the shore of this large freshwater lake. Martell is too old these days to live this far from town, much less in a place with as many stairs as his lakefront house. He hasn't been able to find a buyer, given that he's stubbornly holding out on a steep price as a decidedly old-man-pathetic flex on his former wife. It's complicated.     What isn't complicated is that most townies who would conceivably be here are either tied up at work or school. The lake is, meanwhile, close enough to town for a viable retreat to the Warpgate. It's the perfect time and place, then, to enact a highly personal, highly inadvisable scheme.     Tsukasa Kadoya, the enigmatic adult delinquent, is here with Sougo Tokiwa and the Demon King's retainer, Woz. The passing-through Kamen Rider shoots Sougo a look, as if to say, 'ready?' When Sougo nods his assent, Tsukasa extends his hand. A screen of shifting silver energy forms before them. But Tsukasa's brow furrows, and he frowns. "Something's wrong--" Is all he has time to say before three blasts of energy race from the screen, sending the three Riders dashing for cover.     An armored figure in a blood red bodysuit steps through the screen, as each Rider gets back to their feet. His breastplate is half-armor, half-industrial steamworks, with thick cabling and tubing running down the length of his arms, and a distinctive, asymmetric teal visor. A rifle is propped casually up against his right shoulder, muzzle pointed skywards, frame balanced jovially alongside his helmet. The afternoon sun gleams upon a blunt crimson horn that juts from the center of the helmet.     That rifle looks more like stolen university or factory property than it does a weapon--there's a small purple bottle of some sort serving as 'ammunition,' and a red steam valve near the muzzle, while the stock is striped in yellow and black. "The Demon King and the Destroyer of Worlds, in one place! I should ask for autographs," the figure says, with a chuckle. "Cheeky, *cheeky,* trying to go to the future! Too bad about the Skywall preventing that." He strides breezily over to a small dock, taking a seat on one of the pilings the local outdoorsmen use to tie their boats to. Legs splayed and bent at the knees, he looks more like a gracious host than a man who'd just opened fire on the three Riders.     "There was no mention of any such capacity of the Skywall in this book," says Woz, glancing down at the book tucked under his arm, before scowling suspiciously at the blood-red figure. "You will state your name and intentions."     The armored figure laughs, lowering the rifle so that he can applaud the retainer, clapping one hand against the weapon's frame. "That's exactly the kind of legwork I'd expect from you, Woz," he says, making an amiable two-fingered salute towards the retainer that does little to dispel the unease in the air. "It wouldn't be much of a countermeasure if anybody from any old AR World could look it up, would it? I think it's a little early for names--but intentions, sure. I like a little moxie every now and then. So I did you a favor, and brought the future to you."
Timespace Riders	Two more figures step out from the screen--unwillingly, by the way they pause and look around. One is undoubtedly the Demon King of Time, clad in regal yet menacing black and gold armor which follows Zi-O's wristwatch motif into kingly airs--swept shoulders, a diamond-studded bezel on his watch-face-mask, a golden watch wristband as a royal baldric, and a silver cape resembling the hands of a clock. His retainer, however, looks nothing like Woz.     In truth, this future retainer's armor is more reminiscent of the enigmatic blood-red figure. His is black, his chestpiece and visor gold, following a bat motif, his helmet sporting a similar, singular horn.     "And there we are! Sougo and Woz, meet Sougo and... well, you'll see! Best of luck in changing the future, boys!" says the red figure with a menacing chuckle--his black-armored counterpart clenches his fist so hard that the suit can be heard audibly creaking, drawing a similarly industrial laser pistol with the other hand, and opening fire on the red figure.      The red figure dives from his perch, tucking into a roll and shouldering his rifle, taking cover behind an overturned rowboat. He makes a farewall gesture with one hand, before popping out of cover, aiming down the rifle at Tsukasa. "Ciao!" A pull of the trigger summons a crimson mist, which envelops both the red stranger and the Destroyer of Worlds. The wind picks up, and both men are gone, spirited away somewhere else.
Timespace Riders	Black Lake Twin Peaks, WA (2014 2:52 PM) BGM: https://youtu.be/LUWFmhWVezI      "Stop him!" cries Sougo from the ground, de-transformed and sporting a few new bruises. "He's your retainer, isn't he?! So stop him!"      OHMA ZI-O observes dispassionately, as his retainer, NIGHT ROGUE, holds Woz by the throat, slowly strangling the life from him one-handed.      Sougo gets back to his feet, and helplessly, uselessly beats his fists against his seemingly impassive future self's cuirass. "WHY AREN'T YOU LISTENING?" he screams, his voice raw and desperate.      "This is for your own good, sire," answers the retainer, his gold visor briefly turning Sougo's way. His voice is smooth, low and deep, like an undercurrent that threatens to violently drag incautious swimmers away. "This man told you his intentions; who he truly served. You couldn't do it, so I will. You'll thank me for this later." Woz chokes and gasps for air in vain, his fingers clawing at Night Rogue's wrists in a futile effort to pry them from his throat.      "He's not like that anymore! Please--"      "He lies."      "I ORDER YOU to stop!!" Sougo howls, tearfully, turning and rushing down Night Rogue. His arms spread and he lowers his center of mass, pushing forward in a tackle which fails to budge the retainer from the future. It only succeeds in that Night Rogue drops Woz, to throw Sougo to the ground.      "Sire, don't make this any harder than it has to be," he says, stomping on Woz's wrist before the time traveler can reach for his dropped Beyondriver.      Out of options, Sougo does the only thing he can think to do, short of transforming again: he calls for help. A rugged hybrid of a cell phone and a laser pistol is procured, as Night Rogue turns his back on him. <J-IC-Scene> Sougo Tokiwa shouts hoarsely, "Someone help!! I'm in Twin Peaks--they... he's going to kill Woz, and the future me won't stop him!!"     Strangely, no matter how far away you are, no matter how many Warpgates need be crossed, you arrive just in time. This quiet lakeside neighborhood won't be that way for much longer.
Remee Halcyon	Where's Remee? Remee's in space. She's possibly the farthest away out of everyone, since her trip not only involves racing through the station (dodging the usual complement of bears, with and without laser eyes) and then from the endpoint teleporter to the nearest warpgate and *then* however many jups through the warpgate network, and so on. "Oh! Woz is in trouble! There's no way I'll make it in time, though!" Somehow she does. Remee's approach to this is delightfully uncomplicated. There's just a big ol' wolf that runs in and tries to tackle Woz's assailaint right to the ground, with teeth bared. That's all there is to it.
Raziel	<J-IC-Scene> Sougo Tokiwa shouts hoarsely, "Someone help!! I'm in Twin Peaks--they... he's going to kill Woz, and the future me won't stop him!!" Raziel did not need a second to consider.  Sougo and Woz were members of the Concord.  They were allies.  More importantly... They were comrades and friends, who have done more for him than he could ever be grateful for.  Being called to risk his life to save Woz was something he wouldn't think twice to do.  He was through the portal in a heartbeat.   He was running through Twink Peaks towards Sougo's location even quicker.  By the time he was at the stairs, the Soul Reaver itself was drawn, and he was leaping through the spirit world to get closer and closer.   Once he reaches the house, he was in fact still shifted into the spirit realm.  He needs only a second to see what is going on and immediately acts.  He runs under Woz, and appears, aiming to send a wave of psychic energy into the chest of the retainer, followed by slashing upwards towards the wrist of the man.   Despite his size and stature, he twirls the blade and holds it forward, aiming to place himself between Woz and his attacker.  "Forgive me for striking first, but your actions made it necessary.  Allow me to simply state the following..." "Leave, or I will kill you where you stand for placing your hands on my friend," Raziel will not broker any other way for Night Rouge to get out of this situation.
Rita Ma	It's hard to tell exactly when Rita arrived. Keen eyes might notice the ripples in the lake; keen ears might hear pattering steps approaching and the quiet swoosh of a leap. But the din of the fight tends to drown those things out, and so she almost certainly goes unnoticed.      Unnoticed, right up until the cardigan-and-sundress-clad girl appears with her arm wrapped around Ohma Zi-O's neck (which requires she be on tiptoes) and a handgun to his temple. "Stop," she says to Night Rogue, just sharply enough to get him to turn around and pay attention to her.      The handgun is fake. The threat is not.      She may not know their relationship, but she can guess they're allies. This is a terrible, terrible plan, but if it can get him off Woz...      Her eyes dart to Sougo. She can't ask him 'are you okay?', but her gaze asks it for her.
Kukuru	Sougo calls for aid, and Kukuru doesn't need long to to respond. She only takes as long as necessary to find out where Twin Peaks is with the aid of her phone, opens up a portal beside her bed, and drops into it. It takes a little longer to find where in Twin Peaks Sougo is calling from, but a combination of sharp eyesight and dumb luck give her a glimpse of what's going on just in the nick of time. The strange timing only registers briefly in her mind before she sees her favorite Riders in trouble, and she hurtles into another teleportation cloud that sends her hurtling straight at the ground, and then another that sends her flying up out of the ground just in front of NIGHT ROGUE, massive metal claw splayed open as she slashes it upwards at the purple figure. "Stay away from my family!" She shouts in almost anger, certainly sounding more aggressive than she usually does as she flies upwards out of that teleportation cloud, spinning once in midair from the momentum before landing on her feet with a heavy concrete and wood-cracking impact on the ground besides Sougo and Woz. Rows of sharklike teeth are bared for a moment, and then she turns quickly to the two on the ground with some of her usual concern returning. "You two are gonna be okay. We'll take care of everything here." She murmurs gently, pulling herself over with her claws and quick hops to deliver some of her usual healing nanites while keeping her own body between them and Night Rogue. In her haste to actually get here, Kukuru hasn't even bothered to put on her usual glasses, and she's just wearing some kind of oversized green hoodie and flip flops instead of her usual blouse or combat gear or anything.
Hamada Haru	"You're not supposed to be here yet," Dynamic Era isn't immediately present at the scene with Ohma Zi-O because he is present at the scene with Blood Stark and Kamen Rider Decade, some distance away from the main fighting on the shore of a convenient lake that he's used as a camping site more than once and, further conveniently, has plenty of room for choreography. He holds his gunblade up against his shoulder in a posture not at all dis-similar to Blood Stark's own casual handling of the steam rifle. "I bet it would be a real problem for you, if I didn't have to go help clean up the mess you just made..." The locust-themed silhouette of Dynamic Era dissolves into a bank of smoke with a vague wave of his gunblade, leaving Blood Stark to ponder the meaning and implications of the exchange. He does not need to arrive in time because he was already here. The bank of fog swirls and coalesces into Dynamic Era just to one side of Night Rogue, comfortably within his line-of-sight on the side from which he holds Woz. Up comes, not the gunblade, but-- the transteam gun. And just like that, Night Rogue almost certainly knows what's coming before it comes. Steam pours out of the transteam gun, and-- it's not harmful at all. It's not an attack. Rather, Dynamic Era is trying to momentarily turn Night Rogue intangible so he is physically incapable of holding on to Woz. This might cause mild problems for other attackers-- and it might not.
Hiromi	Hiromi has never before been to Twin Peaks, but she knows Sougo, and has previously (and violently) given her wisdom to Woz. That should be enough of a reason for her to appear where she does, bounding out of the warpgate on two feet and leaping directly over intervening terrain, showing little concern for what she can't see in the direction she's heading. It's more likely to break than she is, and a little road damage here and there won't trouble her any. She barely takes in her surroundings on the way, so focused is she on what's ahead of her.     That acquaintance and history should be enough of a reason, but she barely glances toward Sougo or Woz when she arrives. It's half a moment to take in the situation, and then she focuses on man from the future with the golden clock face.     "Are you him? The future king? I've waited. Come! I am Hiromi." The introduction is swift and thorough, carrying with it that many-sided meaning that others, though not all here, have experienced. It skips the mind's language processing center to carry the senses of 'Archwolf,' 'The Final Huntress,' and every other epithet that could be used as impressed, conceptual information.     "I'll test you. Show me what he may be. Show me hopes and fears."     She approaches, looking to neither side.
Hibiki Tachibana	Someone help!! I'm in Twin Peaks--they... he's going to kill Woz, and the future me won't stop him!!     The sound of Sougo Tokiwa's voice, desperate and pleading, contrasting his usual kind demeanor so much--that'd be enough to make anyone's blood run cold. Much less Hibiki's. She even entirely mentally glosses over 'the future me', still focused on the hoarse call for help before...Woz... "Woz is..."     There's no way she's going to leave them. Especially not when they went out of their way to help her, back then. No way.     Predictably, she doesn't give much thought to the whatever way she happens to be right on time. Just the fact that she is, that she's already ready for combat, and that her entrance is one of her usual high-speed ones with a fist stretched out in front of her.     Which is kind of just going to crash into Night Rouge's mask straight from the side, and have her body keep on going past after until she spins in midair and brings Gungnir's heavy metal boots down to skid to a screeching halt before she gets too far. "Woz! Sougo--!" The fact that she--they /are/ on time before the worst came to pass is enough to fill her with an instant relief, moving defensively towards them.     Rather than relaxing though, it's the bat-themed retainer and his own king from the future that she glances back to after confirming their safety, narrowing her eyes. It's actually Ohma Zi-O that her confused and more than just a little angry words are spat towards, however.      "You're supposed to be--Sougo from the future, but you'd let someone try and kill Woz without a second thought!? Why--!?"
Petra Soroka	Petra would, typically, struggle to be stirred to action by a threat on Woz's life. She's not so callous that she wouldn't help at all-- even Petra can't help but feel sympathetic tears burn in her eyes, hearing Sougo's voice tear with desperation that way-- but it's hardly out of attachment to Woz that Petra rushes to the Warpgate.     Instead, when Sougo's call for help rings through the radio, Petra is sitting on a stool in a beige lounge in L-corp, cigarette between her knuckles to gesture as she talks. Her radio sits on the bar beside her, alongside her old revolver, cleaned and buffered back to peak condition after Lilian returned it to her. On the stool next to her is Cinder, who's being subjected to the steady stream of thoughts coming directly out of Petra's mouth.     "... you'll love this, they're like-- they're like halfway between rabbits and mice-- you know what those are, right? They're these really small round rodents, and they're *so* cute, and they take baths by rolling around in dust because water isn't--" <J-IC-Scene> Sougo Tokiwa shouts hoarsely, "Someone help!! I'm in Twin Peaks--they... he's going to kill Woz, and the future me won't stop him!!"     When Sougo's voice crackles out of the poor quality speakers of the cheap replacement radio Petra was forced to pick up, she barely seems to notice the content of the message at first, seamlessly switching conversational tracks with the same casual tone.     "Oh, that voice is Sougo, have you met him? Right, you have, he was there at-- during the Meltdown before, when we met too. Woz is like, his servant, and maybe his boyfriend, and also a huge asshole. Sougo is--"     "Oh, wait, I should--" Sougo's tone finally registers, and Petra fumbles for her radio and gun, sliding off the stool to head for the door, when another voice comes through the channel. <J-IC-Scene> Hokma says, "Ah, the Manager has elected to send aid. We will be there shortly."     Petra twists back to look at Cinder over her shoulder. "Well, I guess I'm heading out anyways, but maybe you could get sent out too, if you want to come along?"     Petra arrives on scene with three shots from offscreen aimed at Night Rogue, with booming echoes rather than lightshow toy jingles. She's wearing a slim fitting androgynous suit with a red tie, along with an armband labeled 'M', revolver held in two hands.     "Aren't you Sougo from the future? Why would you be trying to kill Woz? Is this some kind of competitive thing?" Then, striding over to Sougo himself, "Why are they even here?"
Kuroto Dan	A FEW MINUTE AGO: <J-IC-Scene> Sougo Tokiwa shouts hoarsely, "Someone help!! I'm in Twin Peaks--they... he's going to kill Woz, and the future me won't stop him!!"      Upon hearing this within his office, Kuroto Dan frowns for the briefest of moments, before a malicious grin spreads across his face. He could just let the man die here, it'd even be advantageous to do so, given that it's clear He Knows. But, well...      He pulls upon a cabinet on his desk, retrieving a puke mustard gold Gashat from within, before stepping into the conveniently appearing warpgate.      NOW:      As the drama unfolds, a purple and black Rider steps out from behind a building, slowly and menacingly putting one foot in front of the other in a rhythm as he slowly applauds. Or at least, applauds as best he can. There's the sound of clanking plastic as the weird, giant gaming handheld he's holding in one of his hands bangs against his other empty palm.      "I really should thank you... Ohma Zi-O correct?"      He stops right alongside the Golden Demon King, seemingly having aligned himself with the man. Genm tilts his head at the scene at display before, clearly amused as he motions towards Woz's pending demise, before turning his attention back to Ohma Zi-O.      "Unfortunately, there's just one problem..."        His voice, having previously been saccharine, suddenly takes a more menacing, gravely tone as he points the device in his hand at Ohma Zi-O, pulling a trigger on it as he fires a pair of lasers directly at the Future King's face.      "Only I'm allowed to decide when he dies!"
Angela	Sougo is an ally of the Concord and so irrespective of how Angela feels about it, the Manager is inclined to help them--but the truth is, Angela doesn't... DISLIKE Sougo. In fact, if she were not in a position where she had to depend on Outsiders, maybe she could actually by pretty fond of the guy but as it stands it's tough having to work with a guy who can peek in the past and future when knowing the latter is the last thing Angela wants and not having control of who knows the former is out of her hands. Doesn't mean she wants him to become a widower though. And so... Tennant, Captain of the Records Department, is an enby with short black hair. They are, some distance away, climbing up a tree. "You know something you don't hear talked about a lot is the breadth of the media they have out here in the multiverse and you wouldn't believe how many movies they have out there of robots going crazy after being mistreated by their creators and going on a killing spree. Though sometimes, like in Robocop, which is actually really interesting since it actually tells a story about how police get bought out by corporate interests like the guy Murphy he is literally a corpse shoved into a robot, totally like a Sephirah you know?" "Fascinating Tennant. Focus on getting position." "HOUFF! I got it, don't worry, climbed trees all the time in the Nest I just weren't normally carrying a rifle at the same time. So anyway, the corporation--get this--is the BAD GUY. The Senior President of the corporation is the guy who got the guys to kill the guy--but this isn't to say like the cops are good if not for the corporate meddling because it's pretty clear that the meddling is just a metaphor for how they operate in the world that movie was made in. It's sort of like how in our world instead of having cops we just have Agents who work directly for the Wings and get all sorts of Singularity Powered Gear but there's a push in these other worlds to totally militarize cops like crazy like Wing Agents are even though that is a real big part of why our world is such a living hell, pretty wild right?" "Can you take the shot?" "Oh yeah let me just line it up." Tennant says, apparently oblivious to the irony of how they themselves are essentially a soldier of a Wing as they lay down across the branch... MEANWHILE Cinder is also a smoker. This time she used a lighter rather than her EGO gear because this isn't the middle of a fight (yet) and she's sort of twiddling the cig between her fingers. Cinder also has a mostly untouched tequila on the table because she's been too busy smoking and talking to get at it too much. "Oh that's so cute--yeah we've got rabbits and mice for sure, but like--I don't know of anything quite like ... Unless maybe you mean like... Raccoons?" Cinder wrinkles her nose. "I had a pet raccoon once, super friendly, it liked to claw up my arms when I..." Sougo's voice crackles on the comms. "Oh, yeah, I remember Sougo. He's helped out and visited on his own a couple times. Well with the boyfriend. He does kind of look smarmy--" Hokma confirms that aid is being sent even as Petra's tablet buzzes--nevertheless, Cinder quickly downs the bulk of her drink, squishes her cigarette into the ashtray and says, "Course I do, we're a team." She smiles. She follows along with Petra but doesn't get an opportunity to strike due to being a little slower on the Speed Die but also because she's caught off guard by a blue portal appearing nearing the dude holding Woz and a bullet flying out for the NIGHT ROUGE'S neck! "See? Anyway, where was I? Oh right, how Robocop feels like a prequel to our world."
Timespace Riders	NIGHT ROGUE is hit dead-on by Remee, the impact so forceful that it sends him skidding as he tries and fails to maintain his balance. He's forced clear of Woz, who gasps for air and clutches at his wrist. Realizing that his balance is lost, the black-armored retainer presses his gun to Remee's stomach and pulls the trigger, sending out a rapid-fire blast just as his back hits the ground. He creates further precious breathing room with a superpowered elbow to her neck, rolling clear in time to meet Raziel's blow.     Sparks fly from the fighter's chestplate as he rises, willingly taking the trade to initiate a clashing of weapons, the sturdy industrial frame of his laser pistol sending forth a heavy clang as it meets the Soul Reaver. "Find someone more worthy of that dedication," he says coldly. "I did."     GUN is a respected power even among Riders--Rita's threat draws a pause from NIGHT ROGUE, his pistol lowered. But, concerningly, it draws an amused rumble from OHMA ZI-O. "Rita Ma. How nostalgic."     Sougo is not okay. Rita can see it when she meets eyes with him. She has seen the look in his eyes before. She's seen the desperate pleading, to be seen as anything other than what he is, in this moment--to have his self-perceived worst qualities, the overwhelming terror of that which he's capable, politely ignored. His wounds are mending, thanks to Kukuru's nanites. His eyes, teary, shut tightly at Kukuru's words of comfort, wanting more than anything to believe that he'll be okay.     The next thing that Rita finds out about NIGHT ROGUE is that he is a deeply unstable man. "More pawns of Blood Stark. Sire, I warned you this disturbance was an attempted coup," he says, his visor sweeping manically across from Rita, to Era, to Kukuru, before, in spite of Rita's threat, he attempts to shoot Woz. Era's steam renders him unable to shoot.
Timespace Riders	Are you him? The future king? You're supposed to be--Sougo from the future, but you'd let someone try and kill Woz without a second thought?! Why--?! Aren't you Sougo from the future? Why would you be trying to kill Woz?     "Yes, that's me. Sougo Tokiwa--the Greatest, Kindest, Demon King of Time." He's telling the truth, if anyone able to do so bothers to look. OHMA ZI-O rumbles a laugh, before he makes a sharp grunt of effort. The 'gun' and its constituent parts rapidly age and wither, yet somehow without harming any of Rita other than what's necessary for him to step forward, decrepit camoflatged tentacles snapping. The king, it seems, is not nearly so violent as his retainer.      His voice, deep and gravelly, answers. "I am here because of my younger self. And I became who I am because I listened. Not the least of all, to Petra. Go on, my younger self," says Ohma Zi-O, stomping the ground and sending out a shockwave of golden energy. "Tell Petra why we're here."     Sougo can't bring himself to answer her. "...I'll never become you," He can only even muster looking at her for a moment, before he shouts: "I'll never be someone who lets a twisted, paranoid man like that get close to me!" Sougo's distress mounts, as does his volume. He slams in the Zi-O watch, then the Decade watch from his downed position. "Henshin!" his voice raw, Zi-O gets to his feet and charges forward with the watch-themed sword, the Ride Heisaber, raised. His furious flurry of blows is effortlessly parried as each is made, the despot's golden armguards brought up with only the slightest shift in his footing. Each impact fails to budge Ohma Zi-O even the slightest, the momentum stripped from the younger Rider's blows by golden bursts of temporal energy. The elder Zi-O is toying with Sougo.
Timespace Riders	"*Become* me?" A palm thrust expertly sneaks past the Heisaber, and strikes the younger Zi-O squarely in the chest, sending him flying off of his feet and skipping across the ground, his travel halted one-by-one by the pilings of the nearby dock, which splinter into fine sawdust from the force of the blow. "What did Rita tell you, in Lampport? 'You can't forgive someone on behalf of their victims, and the dead can't forgive anybody."     The elder king's ruby lenses fix on Hiromi, and he engages her in single combat. He is far from the honest, inexperienced fighter that Sougo is, his blows accurate and his posture immaculate. He vies for position with her, his gravelly chuckling giving rise to the idea that this is indeed nostalgic for him. Her blows are strong enough to budge him, but once he discovers this, he mitigates it by his command of time, visible by the hands on his helmet's watch-face rotating. Bell chimes sound as golden temporal energy strips her strikes of their speed and distributes their force over several seconds, while his crisp counterattacks seem to strike several times at once.     Genm's lasers halt in the air, burning brightly, hot plasma suspended in time. "You, yourself, are a perfect example of my younger self's folly, 'Genm.' Ironic--considering how you, too, warned him." The lasers multiply in the air, pulled from countless parallel timelines, and with a swipe of his hand, Ohma Zi-O sends them out across the battlefield.
Remee Halcyon	Remee gets hit and thrown off. She goes rolling along the ground but springs to all four feet, aided by some frame-perfect transformation shenanigans for when arms are more useful than extra legs. And Sougo (the elder) mentions... Petra? Remee's nose wriggles. That's weird. Petra isn't here. There's a couple new people, though. Remee moves to interpose herself between the enemy and them - and abruptly, she's huge, and on two feet, looking like the movie monster version of a werewolf. "Hey, newbies! Watch out! Don't worry about me, I can heal through this!" Indeed, whatever lasers hit her instead of the two new people, she manages to just power through them. There's an unpleasant smell of singed fur, but within seconds she's already looking better. Abruptly, she shifts again - back to a more reasonable two legged size, with fingers that'll fit the sniper rifle she's already drawing and aiming at Night Rouge.
Raziel	"Find someone more worthy of that dedication," he says coldly. "I did." Raziel's blade and the laser pistol clash. That clash is enough to keep him occupied while the redirected laser strikes him across the side causing dangerous burning, but fortunately, Raziel was not made out of flesh and blood. However, it still looks quite bad. "Do not lecture me on who I should put my faith in. I know better than /you/ about what misplaced faith gets you.." he says, growling and trying to push Night Rouge back. Trying to leverage his superhuman strength to try and force the Rider away from the other Sougo. His head only turns for a second towards that other Sougo. "I do not know what happened to you, Sougo, but this can not be the future you wanted..." he says before trying to use the free claw to wrap around Rogue's hand, and attempt to flip him over one shoulder and towards the exit. Rather that is through a wall, a window, or a door. "I put my faith in Sougo, and he has put his faith in Woz. I am duty-bound to honor that trust, regardless of who he holds consul with now," Sougo, his Sougo, wanted a fight with his future self... well he's going to make sure he gets it without any interference. "What do you put your faith into? From your words before, very little... but you did choose to stay and face death so that at least is something worth being respectful towards."
Hiromi	Hiromi takes that straightforward approach -- counting time manipulation as "straightforward" -- in perfectly good humor. A one-on-one fight is what she wanted, though the number of people gathered makes that unlikely to last. While it does, she trades blows with little apparent sense of self-preservation, only slightly moving to allow strikes against denser areas of muscle that instantly harden like stone when tensed. Her own blows are testing, unusually quick for her usual style, without the aggressive follow-through.     Really, she's more focused on feeling out the elder demon king's strength, which gives him plenty of opportunity to position and to realize the need for those temporal defenses prior to her getting serious.     "'Greatest, Kindest.' Are you? He thinks not. You know why, yes? Why you feared this."     A stomp from Hiromi craters the ground beneath her, but the point of it is only to raise a cloud of dust that obscures how the ground rises away from her foot in sheets. Rather than impacting Zi-O, the earth flows right around him, hardening in an attempt to slow him down long enough for Hiromi's wind-up to get through those delaying time tricks.     "'Petra.' 'Rita.' 'Coup.' 'Victims.' Is it him? The one you can't forgive. Your old packmate." There are a few meanings tangled up together in the almost-word she chooses. Companion, friend, possible subordinate, with mixtures of obligation and affection.     The next strike, carried through with a step forward and a twist of her hips all in a single, fluid motion, might still qualify as 'testing,' but simply taking her fist honestly and head-on would be decidedly lethal. Hiromi expects her opponent to survive it only because she expects him to put in the effort. She must, or she wouldn't be talking like she expects her questions to be answered.     "'Retainers.' A leader must take care, in choosing. You know this." She doesn't quite ask where Night Rogue came from, but it's softly implicit.
Kukuru	"Blood Stark? What's that? And who are you?" Kukuru asks Night Rogue with a wary look in her eyes as she stays where she is in between him and the downed pair, eyes widening briefly when she sees him aiming at Woz. She throws herself across Woz with one arm going over him protectively while her back faces NIGHT ROGUE, and she braces for... Nothing? Nothing. Thanks, Dynamic Era! She'll realize his involvment in this eventually, but for now, she'll just be momentarily confused. That confusion grows greater when OHMA ZI-O introduces himself as Sougo, but her Sougo's right over here. "How can you be Sougo? Sougo's right here, and you..." She looks over at Woz, then back at OHMA ZI-O with a slow shake of her head. "You wouldn't let Woz get hurt like that if you were really Sougo." He gets her attention, though, by indicating Petra and suggesting that Sougo's reasons for being here might be related to his own presence here. Looking over at the besuited Patra and Cinder with that direction, she gives them both a confused look before calling out. "Do you know what he's talking about?" She certainly doesn't, so any more information would certainly be welcome. When those lasers come sweeping forward, though, Kukuru once again puts herself between them and Woz and yelps at the resulting effects explosions on and around her, hissing through clenched teeth at a smoking wounds on her back even as they steadily mend themselves. "I... Can't believe you're Sougo. My Sougo would never fire on his friends and family like this. So stop using his name!" Digging her claws into the ground, Kukuru tears out a huge chunk of terrain and overturns it in front of herself and Woz, creating a convenient makeshift wall right there. She's not using it for cover, though, but instead using it as a projectile as she swings it around herself in a wide arc before flinging it right at the Future King, keeping her distance for now so she can keep acting as physical cover to Present Sougo's retainer.
Hibiki Tachibana	The Greatest, Kindest, Demon King of Time.     He doesn't sound like he's lying at all.     And Hibiki can't find it in her to come to terms with that. The fact that the Sougo she knows would ever become someone who'd let Woz be killed right before his eyes just doesn't find a connection. All that much more when she gets jolted where she stands first by Genm's arrival and words to her - Gawking is all you're good at. - and then by the intentional mention of Petra.     She glances first to her, and then to Sougo. His hesitation to answer straightforwardly gets her mouth to fall open wordlessly for a moment, but only for as long as it takes to force his re-transformation and lunge back in. "Sougo--!" She doesn't get much more out right away, on account of Genm's barrage being multiplied back at them, forcing Hibiki to quickly shift to ensure Woz is physically protected and bunker down as they erupt and explode around her, throwing up sparks and singing at skin.     "What's supposed to be--so kind about this...!?" Hibiki forces that out through the barrage. "I don't know the first thing about--however you ended up like this...or whoever this guy with you even is..." When there's a break in it - she lowers her arms down and starts forward.     Because Dynamic Era's intangibility placed onto NIGHT ROGUE isn't going to last forever, and as Raziel goes to grapple him first chance he gets, Hibiki goes to follow up - right as the bat-themed badman is hopefully sent flying, she kicks off the ground and into a spinning kick to guarantee that he's not tossed but /booted/ out and away before he can threaten Woz again.     "--But don't you dare call yourself 'the kindest' when you're trying to kill someone Sougo cares about!!"
Hamada Haru	"Coup? I couldn't be less interest in governance if I tried," Dynamic Era rumbles, rising from a crouch to survey Night Rogue with loose interest. He's noticing the similarities in their suits, now. Sensing an imminent danger he sweeps his transteam gun in an arc, a shower of steam engulfing him. Lasers diffract and collapse in unevenly, their force diluted by the screen and drawing only a sparing shower of sparks. After a moment or two, he adds, "That guy does seem like the type, though. Wonder what he's really getting out of this. What does a few moments without Zi-O look like, in the future..." He inhales deeply, his attention turning from Night Rogue to the present-day Sougo, and the path that's being cleared for him. An objective changes in his mind. It does not seem reasonable to expect the defeat of future Zi-O, but the current Zi-O's existence probably still has an influence on him. Slowly, Haru looks about at the surroundings. It was within this very town that he destroyed his own belt because it was a wicked thing that brought harm to those that were around it-- himself included, but it was more important that it brought harm to the incidentally involved. A flash of duplicating himself and annihilating his own belt -- more importantly, of ceasing to be a Kamen Rider as a result of that action -- passes through his mind. A bared fist strikes the face of an Orphenoch he has no business engaging while powerless. "... Tokiwa," Dynamic Era meanders to one side, disengaging from Night Rogue and Oma Zi-O to look at the present-day Sougo. "This isn't a fight that has to be fought. If that's not you, this scene never unfolds. Kamen Rider, why are you still wearing that belt?"
Rita Ma	Rita does know it intimately, that dreadful forlorn look in Sougo's eyes. She swallows and tears her own gaze away, giving him the mercy of not being looked at. It's what she'd want.      "Rita Ma. How nostalgic."      She soon has more pressing things to think about, anyway. "What?!" 'The future me', he'd said on the radio, but she hadn't fully absorbed what that means. Her grip on his neck tightens, but more from surprise than anger. "You know me?? But, then... we spent those nights together, at the pizzeria and the arcade. You helped those kids out of the goodness of your heart! Why... don't you remember how kind Woz is, too?"      The implication that she won't be around in the future passes without comment. When the gun withers, she lets go of him and drops back onto her heels into something like a ready stance, informed more by instinct than practice.      "What did Rita tell you, in Lampport?"      "I didn't mean it like that. Even if you're a Sougo, you're not him. He doesn't have any victims yet." The withered bits are severed by each other and reabsorbed; it's as if the gun's remains turned into confetti and disappeared.      She shoots a look at Petra, and then smiles meagerly- she looks nice- but the smile isn't why she looked. She's here, so I'll have to be careful. It feels awful to be 'careful' at a time like this. But I'm too selfish not to be.      Just before Hiromi and Ohma Zi-O make contact, Rita plants a foot between Ohma's shoulders and kicks off of him to leap across the battlefield, hopefully unbalancing him ahead of Hiromi's strike.      She lands smoothly next to Woz and Kukuru, and holds her hands out to conjure a crackling spherical bioelectric forcefield around her and the former. That'll buy them a few moments; projectiles largely bounce off, and hitting it in melee is a self-evidently bad idea.      While they have a breather, she slips an arm behind Woz's shoulders and halfway hoists him up, both frantic and reassured. "Mr. Woz! You're not hurt too bad, are you? It seems like they only want you, so... is there any reason we couldn't just run?"
Kuroto Dan	"What?"      There's genuine bafflement in Genm's voice at Ohma Zi-O's statement. How would he know? Wait, if Ohma Zi-O is Sougo's future self, then that means...      The thought is cut short as the Rider's consumed in the time space explosion, being sent flying back several feet before being lost in the blinding light. He's still alive, however, and he takes advantage of the loss of visibility to insert a new Gashat into his belt, for all the good that does him as the noises produced are distractingly loud.      Gachan! LEVEL UP!      Hand in Hand! Hand to Hand!  Let's Go Uchinuku Fighting!      A orange and white robot (that looks suspiciously a bit like Hibiki) flys in and splits itself apart on top of Genm, forming a set of armor on top of him, and more importantly for what he's about to do, a giant set of gauntlets over his arms.      "I see... If you exist, then that means... Well. I have to thank you again, you've been quite a help. More so than your past self has ever been!"      Genm's lets his head flop to the side as he adopts a sweet tone once more, taking a few, delicate steps forward before suddenly breaking into an unhinged sprint towards Ohma Zi-O.      Right before he reaches the golden rider, he jumps into the air, flipping through it several times for dramatic effect before diving back down, arm outstretched as he puts all of his weight and then more into delivering an earth shaking blow directly into the Demon King's (True) visor.      UCHINUKU!CRITICAL FINISH!
Petra Soroka	"And I became who I am because I listened. Not the least of all, to Petra. Go on, my younger self, tell Petra why we're here."     Petra was only slightly interested in the answer when she asked, mostly in case it was relevant to getting rid of the pair of future Riders, but she perks up at her name. Sougo charges in, away from Petra, and then is subsequently knocked back towards Petra when Ohma Zi-O bats him away, and she positions herself in front of his crumpled body, facing away with her gun readied, as if to defend Sougo from a followup before he recovers.     She projects her voice over her shoulder towards him, though she doesn't take her attention away from the fight. "... I feel like I just connected the fact that, like, future you is *you*. Does talking to me make you evil? Do we talk more, in the future?"     Her raised revolver sinks a little, and she turns to look at Sougo with an unsure mixture of derision and confusion, the kind that practically emanates an awkward laugh followed by 'what's wrong with you?' "Is that why you don't want to answer why you're here? Was running away from your donuts while crying, like, a key part of your arc to become an evil dictator? Seriously? Come on, dude."     Seeing the array of lasers multiplying into a glowing-hot lattice, frozen in time, Petra raises her gun back up, glances at Rita for some reason, and then says right before the attack goes off, "At least future-you proves that you're capable of growing some balls." "Hey, newbies! Watch out! Don't worry about me, I can heal through this!"     When Remee jumps in front of Petra and Cinder, Petra naturally adjusts, firing another trio of shots over Remee's head at the laser spray. Each bullet is coated in a globule of writhing morphmetal, to make it slightly more believable-- at least, to Rita's eyes-- when they collide with the lasers midair and spray outwards into molten silver, dispersing the heat and plasma before it hits her. <J-IC-Scene> Remee Halcyon says, "Why's everyone talking about Petra? She's not here." <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka says, "What the fuck, Remee, I know it's been a few months, but seriously?" <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka says, "I-- I've *worn* different clothes before! It's not like I fucking turn invisible when I'm not wearing my jacket!" <J-IC-Scene> Remee Halcyon says, "Oh, you got new clothes finally? That's great! You'll have to show me sometime." "'Petra.' 'Rita.' 'Coup.' 'Victims.'"     Petra automatically straightens up at Hiromi's use of her name, turning towards her. After a moment of confused silence, she realizes that Hiromi wasn't actually addressing her, and goes back to yelling at Remee in the radio. <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka says, "What is this?? You-- everyone else can see me, right? Am I being gaslit??" <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka says, "Is this like, a psychological trick? Are you angry at me? Is that what this is?" <J-IC-Scene> Angela says, "Are you relying on senses other than sight?" <J-IC-Scene> Remee Halcyon says, "Sight? ... ... Petra?! That's you?" <J-IC-Scene> Hiromi says, "Scent, different." <J-IC-Scene> Hiromi says, "Voice, similar. I'll take your measure, later." <J-IC-Scene> Hiromi says, "You've changed, yes?" <J-IC-Scene> Petra Soroka says, "I-I-I mean, I don't really-- want to say how? But I-- I'll-- I can show, you, later?"     Petra meets Rita's smile, and, unbeknownst to either of them, the pair of girls have an almost identical thought process. In her fumbling attempts to avoid mentioning being a robot to Hiromi, out of wanting to avoid Rita overhearing the exchange, she instead promises to fight the Archwolf. That's a problem for Petra in the future.
Petra Soroka	"Do you know what he's talking about?" All that much more when Hibiki gets jolted . . . by the intentional mention of Petra.     Petra groans, stalking away from Sougo when Dynamic Era replaces her as the one standing over his body. Both Kukuru and Hibiki get flashes of glares, as well as Remee, when Petra shoulders past her on her way over to Night Rogue.     "God! Fucking stop looking at me like that! If a guy turns fucking evil because I *gently* scolded him for the way that his fucking spinelessness can get people hurt even though he's saying all the empty nice words that everyone does, that's not my fucking *fault*! That just means he's *like* that! So don't look at me like I'm just a bunch of fucking *shrapnel* when it's *you* all that are this unstable!"     Petra flips the revolver backwards in her hand, not slowing down her forwards march at all when she gets close to Night Rogue, and fires behind her to propel her fist into him. With him off-balance from Hibiki's kick, Petra tries to send him stumbling enough that her followup kick-- purely brute force, with no gunpowder propulsion behind it-- knocks him into the ground.
Angela	Cinder frowns as Future Sougo calls himself the Kindest and Greatest Demon King. "I mean, it sounds like the competition must not've been that fierce if the Kindest Demon King is trying to murder his own boyfriend. That's..." She takes a breath. "That's NOT okay! Even if they're a little smarmy, being a little bit of a jerk sometimes isn't anyw reason to choke someone out." She pauses and seems to reconsider. "I mean unless that's like..." Her cheeks pinken as she runs out of herospeak (she doesn't get a lot due to being an Agent). "A..and why are you blaming Petra for this? That's my friend and co-worker you all keep pointing fingers at and...and I wanted to hear about the chinchillas. I would appreciate it if you stopped using her as a reason to be a jerk! Be a jerk for your own reasons!" She draws out her EGO, intent on advancing but gets blasted back in the side by one of the TIME LASERS and is thrown back--even with Remee getting up in the Demon King's business. That's the power... of TIME LASERS for you. STill it probably would've been worse if she got hit dead-on instead of the side. Groaning, Cinder grabs at her wound with her free hand, and sweats for a bit. Meanwhile Petra's Angela pad lights up and Angela appears, taking a long look at the scenario, eyes focused not on Ohma Zi-O, but rather slanted out to gaze directly at Sougo. She lets out an exhale. "Demon King." Her tone is as cold and clinical as ever, her words as ever a scalpel. "Because we are allies we are here to assist but..." She sighs rather than finish that thought. "What is the meaning of this, Sougo. Why has this come to pass?" Her eyes slant towards Ohma. "To clarify I am speaking to the one I know. I want to know why this situation happened in NO vague terms so I can properly express my displeasure at the correct party." MEANWHILE Tennant lines up another shot. "So the forces of capital, I think the movie is trying to say, is trying to devalue our own identities so they strip away all the things that make us human. Like, stealing our names is just an extreme that we're used to, something they do in the movie, but in like less dystopian realities it could be--" "Careful, there may be more quantum trickery." Hokma says, mostly to cut the conversation off. BACK TO CINDER Cinder is given a task. "I'm going in." She says to Petra. "I've got a plan!" Cinder's plan seems to be to swing 4th Match Flame down so a wave of fire sends her spinning into the air--she's using the jet boost trick she learned while jumping onto a train. She angles her 'flight' towards the dust cloud between Hiromi and Zi-O, swinging another wave of flame down towards the Future Kamen Rider as she aims to reach out with her free hand and 'catch' Hiromi by the bicep and swing back and forth off Hiromi's arm. Why is she doing this silly thing? She wants to look cool in front of Petra obviously. "Like this??" She asks, face rapidly turning beat red as she finally starts thinking about her life choices. "G..geeze you're even bigger than Nonon..."
Timespace Riders	"Kukuru... there is no family without its warts. If only you had taught that lesson to your 'fan club.' But then--there is someone else who could have said something, isn't there?" He extends a palm to stop the massive projectile, keeping it frozen in space--he earns a punch to the jaw from Hiromi, for his trouble, and for the first time in the fight, thanks to Rita's ploy, he stumbles backwards.      Her forcefield buys Woz just enough time to put his belt back on. The younger Sougo has been belted out by the laser barrage. His gets to his feet, shakily, effortfully, recoiling from his older counterpart's words as if struck. His pink shirt is matted to his body with sweat, his auburn hair a mess. He sports a split lip, which quivers as he pleads with his retainer. "Woz, don't. Listen to Rita. Okay? It's you they're after, and you're hurt. I still... I still have to do this. But I need you to go home, and I need you not to argue. They won't kill me."      There is a painful, silent exchange between the two. Woz relents. "Yes, sire. ...Thank you, Rita Ma." Flinging his scarf outwards, Woz attempts to teleport, but finds himself unable to. She'll probably have to follow through with her original plan, then.      Night Rogue escapes Haru's mist, and Remee engages Night Rogue with the sniper. The bullet hits him just as he emerges, sending up a shower of sparks. The black-armored retainer initiates a running gunfight down the lake shore, his leg lifting up an empty bait bucket to fling towards Remee hard enough to make an audible crack as it passes through the air, following up on the attack with a burst from the pistol. He the nimbly runs up the wall of a nearby house, eliciting a frightened shout from a retiree whose car soon peels out and drives away. "My faith is in my king, and the nation he's built. I would kill, live and die for either."      The pistol is combined with a long serrated blade to form a rifle, which he uses to open fire on the battlefield, taking shots of opportunity, before Raziel, Hibiki and Petra rush him down. He can't escape the vampire's throw, leaving him open for Hibiki's kick and Petra's punch, hastily raising the rifle to block. The combined force of their blows drive deep ruts into the shingled roof and send him flying into the treeline. He impacts the sturdy bark of a Douglas fir hard enough to crack it, rolling down the length of the tree.      "I am allowing my retainer to do that for which he was selected, Hibiki. In so doing--I am showing my younger self a kindness."
Timespace Riders	"Yes, Hiromi--I know why he thinks this," answers Ohma Zi-O. "It is the folly of youth. His forgiveness of Woz despite his intentions is only one pardon of many. You see--Rita is unfortunately mistaken. My younger self has plenty of victims. He let Kukuru enable Netzach's substance abuse, because he thought she would see the error of her ways. He forgave her in that moment, on Netzach's behalf."     The cloud of dust obscures all but the Demon King's ruby lenses, light gleaming off of them through the cloud. Her question about Night Rogue is answered as they duel, vis-a-vis a lecture given to the younger Sougo. "My younger self... Petra told you to listen when someone tells you who they are. I have accepted the person *my* retainer is--I know too well he is 'violent.' 'Paranoid.' This is precisely why he is my retainer, because these qualities recommend him to the role. You, however, live and breathe the benefit of the doubt!"      He grunts, as the earth hardens around him, the hands on his mask moving rapidly forward as he timelapses the natural erosion of rock face. "The scheming prophet Moebius, who smilingly sends your friends down roads fraught with danger and despair. How many chances did he get, before you could finally see who he was?" It only just works, as Hiromi has plenty of time to get through with her strike, and Cinder, after her, the elder Demon King losing a little more ground.     He fights like someone who has fought Hiromi before, who remembers distantly but has that recollection flooding back to him. With a growl of effort, he weaves around, planting a leg between hers, and brings the opposite knee up. The same time-folding trickery is at work, several blows forced into one instant. A stomp, as his leg comes down, sends out a shockwave meant to toss Cinder away.     "The murderous Bugster Parado, who treats human lives as pieces of a game; the fractious Sephirah, who all make Angela's life, and the lives of each other, so much more difficult. You still hold out hope for them, don't you? That they will each 'figure it out.'" It seems miscalculated, at first, the directionality of the strike conveying the idea that he thinks he can pop her, the inveterate master of Shizendo, into the air.      It's a bait--the silver hands of his cape spin rapidly, and an orb of weaponized temporal energy flies forward from him. Finishing strikes from across timelines--some Hiromi may even remember--play out across its glimmering surface as it races towards her.      Given a moment's time, his helmet slowly swivels towards the younger Sougo. "Well? Why *don't* you throw that belt away, my younger self? 'Era' raises a good point." Genm's finisher hits him dead on, the explosion sending up a spray of sandy debris and weedy shoreside grass. The Demon King is still standing. "It was my pleasure," he says to Genm. "And it has been most interesting to meet you again." He lifts a fist and makes a crushing motion, as he answers Petra's question.      Kamen Riders pulled from several different timelines--some familiar, some distant memories, some from far-flung futures and some that never were. They all emerge and stand upon the frozen chunk of earth from Kukuru's earlier toss, leaping down to pelt the gathered Elites with powerful finishing kicks before disappearing into golden motes of energy.      Ohma Zi-O lets loose another gravelly chuckle. "How I've missed your repartee, Petra. You aren't wrong. He couldn't take your advice. Rather than heed it, or any of the advice given to him, by so many others, he *ran,* to me, looking for an answer which pleased him more."
Timespace Riders	"SHUT UP!" Sougo hoarsely screams, as tears streak down his dirtied cheeks. So, in other words, Angela probably has her answer--this was a misguided attempt to cheat an answer that he could accept, after being given several that he can't, even though it's all objectively good advice for someone like him. The older Sougo has internalized it, though perhaps a bit too well.     The younger one procures another Ridewatch, this one different than his usual. It's larger than the others he tends to use--because it's made of two halves, one silver and bearing Zi-O's face, the other black with gold inlay. When he presses the stop, they split apart, and the black half shows a negative image of Zi-O in gold leaf. But neither will activate for him, even as his grip on both is white-knuckled. "Why won't it work?!" he shouts, his voice wavering as his tears unevently fall upon the faces of the twinned Ridewatch.     "You know why," says Ohma Zi-O coldly. "You have known since before you came here. Since Tsukasa Kadoya told you that photographs cannot exist without negatives--and you were reminded, on the way here, though you had neither the will to accept the reminder nor the stomach to speak up, at the time."     "What are you talking about?" Sougo asks quietly, fearfully. His hands are still held up defensively, as if he could hope to stop his older self, should the Demon King seek to attack him.     "You want to be king, yes. So you will not throw that belt away. But tell me--would a king wish to be safe from other people," says Ohma Zi-O, his ruby lenses fixing heavily on Sougo, as Rider Kicks rain down all around. "Instead of *worthy* of them? I remember still, how Lilian's insight formed a pit in my stomach, at the time. Because it was *correct.* It is the height of arrogance to believe that your actions would never hurt someone else. That you may rid yourself of blame and accountability simply by being the most permissive. It is pride, beyond belief, to imagine that preparing for other people like natural disasters could ever be mistaken for kindness." A deep, throaty chuckle rises from the Demon King. "'Become' me. Laughable. My younger self... you already *are* me. You simply haven't learned as much."
Raziel	"My faith is in my king, and the nation he's built. I would kill, live and die for either." Raziel returns to his stance, blade pointed down as Night Rogue recovers from the assault. His eyes glow brightly, pupilless in his head, as he speaks again. "I thought the same once. I thought nothing but honoring and serving Kain. I thought nothing of his motives, or how he operated. I was rewarded by the privilege I received..." "Until I committed the most heinous crime...growing what he could not. Tell me, knight, when will he betray you for your blind loyalty? Your paranoia is out in serving your king, but blind loyalty will only get you one reward in the end," Raziel says. "Death. Do not put your faith so blindly in one... or become a phantom-like I am." "The scheming prophet Moebius, who smilingly sends your friends down roads fraught with danger and despair. How many chances did he get, before you could finally see who he was?" "You forget, future Sougo... whose choice it was to spare him. Mine. I spared him because I /chose/ to spare him. Because he was a man out of his depth. He is lower than a speed bump on my journey... and now that Kain continues to live, he will likely be completely out of options." "I wonder if this is for 'your own good' and rather the possibility of wanting to turn something into reality. Interestingly that you should choose to speak of Moebius, while you yourself pursue the same game as that old snake." "/I/ choose to believe in Sougo, for whatever reason he has chosen to do this..." Raziel says, putting blind faith in Sougo. This is a good idea, and will not come back to bite him in the ass in like ten seconds. The shot fires from Night Rogue, and Raziel is no longer clenched with the man in a duel. The moment the bullet would strike him... he seems to fade completely into energy and smoke. He is completely gone, before appearing in the air right above him, his blade swinging down at him and attempting to strike him so hard he'd bounce off the ground. He turns towards the Future Sougo in the same action, the Reaver now BURNING with energy as he swings the blade in a pair of crosses, the X slash rushing across the battlefield, aiming to try that man across the face, but also provide Woz a method of escape. "GO! He told you to go, and you should! I can hold them off with the others. The worst he can do to me is kill me!"
Remee Halcyon	> "He *ran,* to me, looking for an answer which pleased him more." "Oh no... Sougo..." That's like... going and talking to your family to get answers, which is something nobody should ever do. Meanwhile Petra's wearing a suit, and has a job, which is... something! "I'm sorry if I sounded kinda surprised, I'm actually really proud of you. I want to hear all about it, okay? What they have you doing, how you're doing..." Remee says over her shoulder, her eyes on Petra instead of Night Rouge. She's really eager to talk. She's dying to talk to Petra right now. "What are you-" Oh wait, actually that's... literal. Down she goes, with a bullet in her heart, a crumpled pile of wolf on the ground in a spreading pool of blood. "... U-ugh... no..." She levers herself up. "Head in the game... Talk to Petra later... Woz needs help..." Shakily, she grabs for her dropped rifle, and aims for Night Rouge. "Sougo, we're here for you..."
Kukuru	<J-IC-Scene> Kukuru says, "Rita? Eheh... Thank you. We'll protect them together!" <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "Mmmm. You're doing a good job, Ms. Kukuru." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "I might just take Mr. Woz and run." <J-IC-Scene> Kukuru says, "Okay. I'll cover you, then. I can be pretty hard to ignore if I set my mind to it...!" <J-IC-Scene> Raziel says, "If you take Woz and run...I will hold them here." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, tense but trying to be warm, "Thanks, Ms. Kukuru." Rita's not the only one that sounds kind of tense. Kukuru's straining a bit to try and sound like her usual upbeat and reassuring self, but more and more things are weighing on her mind. What if this really is a future Sougo? Wouldn't hurting him hurt their Sougo, too? What of Woz? Where did the future Woz go, and who's this new purple guy acting like the future Sougo's retainer? Will this be enough to mend things? She'll just have to fight now and hope for the best later. Hibiki's fighting her hardest despite those past hangups that Kukuru's heard about, after all, and she has her family in Hiromi, Raziel, and Remee to help, too! Clearly, nothing else could possibly go wrong as long as- 'God! Fucking stop looking at me like that!' Flinching at Petra's outburst, Kukuru has no immediate retort for anything that's being shouted. There's plenty of confusion at first, as though she's not quite getting what Petra's talking about, but the longer she thinks, the more it starts to click together no matter how much she doesn't want it to. "It's not... We're not..."
Kukuru	She doesn't even get a chance to finish getting out that weak attempt at a response before future Sougo speaks about things that only Sougo himself would know. He knows about the fan club, and he knows more about it than what she's seen. ".. Huh? W-wait, what are you saying? I've only been teaching them how to..." She hasn't really taught them anything, has she? She's said the nice words, she's given them food and warmth, but there's never really been any discipline. Even Nothing There... She truly wants to believe they've learned how to be better, but were they really learning anything at all? Or was she just refusing to accept that a monster like her couldn't be redeemed? It wouldn't be the first time Kukuru's unwillingness to be hard on people she knows ended up causing problems, either, and it sounds like it won't be the last. He mentions Netzach's substance abuse, and she remembers failing to convince anyone on that station. He mentions making Angela's life harder, and she she remembers failing to make anything truly easier for Lilian, for Petra, for Ishirou, for Rita, for Liza, for Remee, for Sougo... Would this all be different if she had been stricter on even one of them? Shivering visibly as her false confidence from before starts to fade rapidly, Kukuru takes several shallow breaths as she tries to calm herself, and then she quickly realizes even her careless decisions in this very fight is already causing problems for everyone. She even gets kicked right in the face by the ghost of a Kamen Rider from another timeline, stumbling backwards over herself and not getting up right away despite the physical wound mending far faster than the mental wounds ever could. "If you knew about all this, why...?" No. She's just trying to find someone else to blame for her own incompetence. Isn't that why so many people she's been trying to befriend have stopped trusting her? Would they trust her now if she just showed them she could be strong enough to overcome all that? Maybe... No. That's definitely the right way to fix things. There's no possible downsides to that plan. Kukuru certainly doesn't look like she has it all together, though, as a somewhat anxious, possibly even panicked look starts to cross her face while she seems to melt into the ground at first (by dropping into another teleportation portal beneath her). She comes back out from a cloud that appears behind OHMA ZI-O, throwing her entire body forward into a rising swing of one claw before following it up with a wide back-handed swing from the other claw, although... Her heart's not in it, just her body. "All this stuff you said you learned... Did you really learn from it? Did it really work for you? Do you..." She sounds almost afraid to continue that line of thinking. "... Are you still happy like this?"
Hibiki Tachibana	Hibiki still knew, of course, that Genm had the Gashat modeled after her. Seeing him actually use it once again gives her a moment of whiplash, though. It's something that looks like a literal toy based off of her powers, it's not /that/ big of a deal. It's hardly even the first (and likely won't even be the last) time she's been copied.     But seeing /him/ use it so shamelessly, the power she has, the same thing she's been trying and failing to use for what she wants so often lately, especially after what he just said to her--     She really hates it. Was running away from your donuts while crying, like, a key part of your arc to become an evil dictator? Seriously?     At least future-you proves that you're capable of growing some balls. So don't look at me like I'm just a bunch of fucking *shrapnel* when it's *you* all that are this unstable!     Who takes you out to karaoke to fix you? Don't people take you out places to ingratiate themselves with you?     Which is probably why she can't stop herself from whirling on her heel. Towards Petra. "/I'm/ unstable...!?" Her eyes are wildly wide, voice shuddering with what sounds like...disbelief?     "Where...Where the hell do /you/ even get off saying that!? First you look like you can't hold yourself back over the idea of having made Kale quit, now you're making fun of Sougo when he's hurt, too? Fighting as hard as he can over there!?"     "Are you here to help him or not!? Do you think something sounding stupid to you means it couldn't be the world to somebody else!? When it's one of those little, stupid things that you constantly keep holdi--"
Hibiki Tachibana	Hibiki is cut off almost too perfectly by Ohma Zi-O summoning a rain of Rider Kicks down onto them, which promptly replaces any words she'd form with yelps and gasps of pain, momentarily vanishing underneath a hail of explosions, sparks, and golden light. She's sent away, hits the floor hard, and catches herself on her hands and feet before coughing. Combined with the potshots from Rogue, she's had better days.     Out of everything Ohma Zi-O has said though, one thing sticks as she forces herself back up, the heat from a moment ago still lingering in her chest. Preparing for other people like natural disasters. Rid yourself of blame by being the most permissive. She painfully exhales from deep in her throat and through her teeth, back to her feet.     "Sougo--! You of all people better not let yourself get caught up because of what some jerks say! Even when they're right! 'Giving everyone the same treatment doesn't work! Not everyone is the same!' You said that yourself! You want to be the actual kindest king, don't you!? Have you given up on that!? Or on the people you've helped, or want to help!? On Woz, like he apparently has!?"     "If you haven't, then do what a king does and just learn from your screw-ups! No one is perfect from the start! You can do better without becoming /this/ guy!"     More than anything, she doesn't want to have to see him lose that kindness she's seen out of him, or the will that drives him, watch him stall out entirely. She knows /he/ can manage, even if she has so much trouble doing it herself.     Or maybe that's just what she wants to believe, for her own sake too.
Hamada Haru	"Kamen Rider isn't about what 'you' want," Dynamic Era strides towards Sougo, light streaming momentarily across the locust wing emblem on his chest. "It's about what the world and people around you need. Sometimes, what that is, is for you not to be Kamen Rider. There are two possibilities-- the first is that this is an anomaly in your future, something that goes wrong along the way. The other is that this Kamen Rider is what was needed, in some fashion, and which you were able to provide." "But..." He reaches to his belt and draws a cartridge, pressing it into a receiver at the back of his gunblade and moving to meet a familiar silhouette. Kamen Rider Super One is a silver-armored figure, red-gauntleted, though definitively of a previous era. Haru meets his rider kick with a swing of his gunblade, depressing the trigger and bringing his opposite hand up to the back of the blade to clash with the kick. For a moment they are suspended together, and then an explosion sends the both of them hurtling opposite each other-- Haru against a tree, Super One out into...well, wherever he returns to, probably. Dynamic Era straightens up and levels his gunblade at Sougo. "A Kamen Rider who cannot make their belt obey is a Kamen Rider whose spirit is fading. Will you even be able to transform again the next time you need to?" "Being Kamen Rider is reaching madly for the impossible. Every voice telling you that you must be harsher because that is only realistic is the enemy, including your own," Dynamic Era glances towards Ohma Zi-O. "If you are going to wear that belt, you mustn't settle. Not even for yourself. And especially..." He tosses his head into the surroundings, "Not for any of us."
Rita Ma	"...Thank you, Rita Ma."      "You're welcome," Rita murmurs, with the sort of smile that would ordinarily accompany tears. She flashes it back over her shoulder at Sougo, too, where it takes on a grateful cast. Woz's arm is maneuvered over her shoulders. She slips her other arm beneath his knees to hoist him up, and then crouches in anticipation of her crackling forcefield failing.      "Mr. Woz... I..." Her face squirms between uneasy expressions as she tries to find words. What can she say? They're friends, she thinks, but she still barely understands all this. But she settles back into a brave look, more confident than she feels.      "I hope this brings you closer together. This never happened to 'him', did it? The other Sougo. So if the two of you take advantage of it, then I'm sure it'll turn out differently for you. I know so."      The forcefield gives. "Good luck, Ms. Kukuru," she has time to say. "You've always been good to me." Then Rita makes a forty-foot standing vertical leap with a grown man in her arms to dodge Ohma's shockwave, sticks the wallcling landing on a fir tree's trunk, and kicks off that with a backscatter of bark and splinters to dodge Night Rogue's shots, leapfrogging her way towards the lake. Through the howling wind of one of those bone-jarring leaps, she says urgently: "Mr. Woz, how long can you hold your breath?"      Jumping is an ordinary kind of power. Ms. Petra won't think anything of it. She won't.      Regardless of his answer, she twists around backwards on the final jump towards the lake, 'draws' another 'gun' while cradling Woz in just one arm, and lines it up with Night Rogue in the half-second of vantage she has before she hits the water. Anyone else would hold their breath during the plunge, but Rita shuts one eye and pushes out a steadying sigh.      In that fraction of a second, it's easy to miss how it's her arm, and not the gun, glowing a brilliant white. A six-inch-wide beam of luminous concussive force lances out and strikes Night Rogue straight in the helmet.      Then there's a hard splash, and it isn't arms anymore that are holding Woz, and he's pulled down and away at alarming speed until the light of the surface dims.
Hiromi	"Which is it?" Hiromi asks, before Cinder arrives. "Paranoia? Future sins? Past sins?" She gives a rumbling "hmm," of thought while retracting her arm, only for the agent to land on it. Hiromi lifts her arm, without looking, and Cinder is dangling, feet off the ground. The relaxed moment prior was a more usual feeling of firm flesh, but holding onto her while her bicep's tensed, it's more like the hardness of stone. Something that feels like that shouldn't, intuitively, be as flexible as it obviously is.     Hiromi still doesn't let the agent down while she takes Zi-O's attack on the chin -- literally, raising her head, and striking it downward. Every part of her body having the same potential for strength without apparent limit, it would be simply expected for the motion to parry her opponent's weapon into the ground. Since it's a ball of temporal energy filled with finishing moves, it instead splashes against her, disrupted but not negated, filling the background with toku explosions.     Betraying the fact that she has actually noticed the woman hanging onto her in the midst of all this danger, Hiromi twists to pull her arm and Cinder out of the way of the worst of it, immediately removing her from the ground as Zi-O's stomping shockwaves would have sent her flying.     "'Who people are.' 'Chances.' 'Figure it out.'" Another rumbling "hmm," and Hiromi grabs Cinder by the back of her suit, and tosses her up in the air with a casual swing. It's fine. She'll figure it out. She wasn't even thrown that hard.     "You've grown. Stronger. Harder. Found your answers. Did you grow well? Your shape, will it give? Is it brittle? What have you cut away? Him... not yet."     She can't spare the attention to really take notice of the others now, even those striking Zi-O from the sides. There's no conscious acknowledgement, but instinct moves to take advantage when her opponent's attention is shifted in any direction but toward her. It's a naturally vicious fighting temperament, but one she knows the future king already knows. Knowing, of course, isn't the same as having a counter prepared.     More testing strikes and footwork, stomps that break the ground but will as easily break or pin feet in preparation for a follow-up are just the setup, until Hiromi's steps cause a nearby wooden fence to shatter off its posts, pickets flying everywhere. Hiromi catches several between her fingers, and they're immediately coated in her divinity, sent flying again at Zi-O, but now as hard as the mountains.     "'Arrogance.' To think you'll never hurt anyone. This, is true." The Archwolf acknowledges that, easily enough. Hurting others is nothing strange, in her philosophy.     "But, 'who they are'? 'Chances'? Did you let them change?" The last two pickets she hasn't thrown she swings like clubs, adjusting her grip her shorter, then longer, then thrusting one like a spear to the throat. She's by no means slow, but time powers can deal with a lot, at the speed she's moving, so long as she's given appropriate attention.     "What is your strength for? To lead. If they won't change, change them. Do you see? Did you hear? Growth is change. The leader is the guide."     Even with her powers, when used hard enough, her weapons will eventually shatter. First one, then she takes the other and throws it out and past Zi-O -- a clear, clumsy miss. It impacts a utility pole, which slowly creaks and begins to fall.     "Weren't you strong enough? Did I fail to guide you?" The pole falls right to Hiromi. She catches it, rips the wires away with a twist, and brings it around and down in a spinning downward strike onto the King of Time.
Kuroto Dan	Genm is once again consumed by the attack, this time a bombardment of rider kicks, and once again he takes the opportunity to switch forms. Though, unlike last time, he completely replaces his driver with the weird purple handheld he had been carrying while also stuffing a stark white Gashat into it.      BUGGLE UP!      DANGER! DANGER! GENOCIDE! DEATH THE CRISIS! DANGEROUS ZOMBIE!      The belt lets out a strained, guttural cry followed by a heavy metal riff, as the sleek and pristine purple and black armor he had been wearing before is now replaced with a black and white armor filled with various cracked and scrapes, with the most stand out of the battle damage being his broken red visor and a cracked HP display on his chest.      While the Rider had been falling in and out of a composed state for the entire fight, Genm finally decides to drop the act, hunching forward and shuffling forward at Ohma Zi-O like some sort of undead creature as he starts verbally going off.      "For someone who used to be such a gullible brat, that high and mighty attitude of yours is beginning to get under m-"      He's cut short as another kick squarely hits him, causing a giant explosion and a reveal of the assumedly now deceased man in a crater. He's not 'dead' for long, however, as his body bends and contorts itself in unnatural ways until he's standing back up. He simply brushes a bit of dirt off his shoulder before continuing both his rant and his slow shambling walk.      "MY SKIN! You think because you've lived longer that you know better than everyone here? That because you know who I am that you can act like I'm an old friend? GET REAL! You're nothing more than bad fan fiction, only allowed to exist because I gave you the chance! You should be groveling before me for forgiveness, not lecturing children!"      Genm stops moving, with Ohma Zi-O still out of his physical reach. It doesn't stop him from pressing one of the buttons on his Driver however, releasing a dark miasma across the battlefield that pulls up underneath the Future Rider's feet, manifesting itself fully as a bunch of shadowy figures that are desperately trying to claw their way up him and drag him down.      "HEY! SOUGO! Kill this man! Do it right now, or I'll do it myself!"
Angela	Angela gets her answer in the worst way to receive it. She hoped her instinct was wrong and some villain was responsible. ''He never had 'an exact person' in mind. Even that's doing him too much credit. He didn't so much as want you to be 'someone', as he wanted you to be 'something for him'. Your creation, your birth, was supposed to give him something that he wanted more than anything; something that was supposed to fix his life and make everything better again; to make it all go back to how it used to be, back when he was only a little bit awful and a lot more happy. I'm sorry, that you tried to be 'a worthy person' for him, when he only wanted to have something, not for you to be something.'' "...Is there any purpose for me telling you why I cannot trust you, Demon King? It is partly because of what your partner did but that a mistake like that alone is not why I rejected your assistance--it was simply the more polite excuse I had available." Her tone is ice. Her gaze is not full of caring. Of love. Of appreciation. She does not see the Kindest Demon King before her. The strongest. And there's even two to choose from. "If anything I pity Woz. I pity him for putting his faith in someone like you. No, not just faith. A little bit of faith, that is not pitiable. No, he loves you enough to give you his everything but your sights are not on him, are they Sougo? No, like that pathetic Man you put him in danger just because you could not stand the reality you lived in. What is the point of having a dream, Sougo, if you sacrifice everyone you care about on the way to your perfect little reality?" Angela's eyes are positively glaring. "I hate you. I hate people like you. I hate dreamers who need to be told 'It's okay, you're not bad, you're not bad at all, you're a good person, you're the Kindest little Demon Lord'." How many hours has Angela looked at that distressed face of his? Angela takes a breath and turns her gaze away from him for a moment, a look in her eyes that briefly shakes out of the steel gaze she's been holding. Those golden eyes squint for a moment like she's about to cry out--maybe in frustration, maybe in sorrow--but that act is even more brief--yet proof that Sougo can indeed hurt his friends and comrades--before she closes her eyes, rallies, and turns back refortified. "This is why I cannot trust you. I am an objective for you, an objective to prove you're the Demon King who is not the one I see you rapidly becoming no matter how you shriek you won't be him. Because you are not the first man to become his future self--nor would you be the last. A man like you, who sought to hold the past and future in his hand and shape the world, himself, and all he knew into the kind of people he wanted them to be even after he threw them away thinking that this was the path to achieve his goal. That man, so like you, who told me that a machine must be as a machine. That man who wanted me to reassure him that he was good after he would not look at me. It would not surprise me that you will achieve your goal with nobody left by your side, Sougo, because I've seen it happen before." She says the harshest words she can say to anybody to Sougo. "Yes... You remind me of the man whom I once saw as father." And then she says the second worst thing she can say to Sougo. "...When you left the facility that day in that way, I hoped you might be different." She should not have been so honest, she knows, but after that dinner with Lilian she finds it harder to hold back her feelings on that man. Binah was right. Binah was right.
Angela	Cinder is being murdered while Angela strikes for the heart. Or at least that's what would be happening if Hiromi can't LIFT. Readily just FLEXING Cinder out of the worst of it, Cinder takes the worst of the shockwave into her legs, flailing them with rocks and dust. She hisses through her teeth but she doesn't lose them. Or her organs. "Ah! Thanks Hiromi!" Cinder beams. "That was a close one--ah??" Hiromi is now lifting her up by the back of her suit. Cinder looks into Hiromi's eyes. "Haha, ah? I--er--" She's blushing super hard. Steam is practically blowing out of her ears. "--just trying to look a little cooahhhhhh!" She's flung into the air, forcing Cinder to use 4th Match Flame to position her body back straight even as Tennant, some distance away, prepares another shot. "Well fortunately, it's only the last bullet that'll hit a loved one right?" Tennant says to themself as their fire AT Cinder-- --Only the bullet to appear in a portal from behind, striking at Ohma's back even as Cinder throws herself into another flaming swipe at the Demon King from the Future! "Uwaaagh!" That's the sound of her being flung back to the ground from the force of her own swing.
Angela	Cinder is being murdered while Angela strikes for the heart. Or at least that's what would be happening if Hiromi can't LIFT. Readily just FLEXING Cinder out of the worst of it, Cinder takes the worst of the shockwave into her legs, flailing them with rocks and dust. She hisses through her teeth but she doesn't lose them. Or her organs. "Ah! Thanks Hiromi!" Cinder beams. "That was a close one--ah??" Hiromi is now lifting her up by the back of her suit. Cinder looks into Hiromi's eyes. "Haha, ah? I--er--" She's blushing super hard. Steam is practically blowing out of her ears. "--just trying to look a little cooahhhhhh!" She's flung into the air, forcing Cinder to use 4th Match Flame to position her body back straight even as Tennant, some distance away, prepares another shot. "Well fortunately, it's only the last bullet that'll hit a loved one right?" Tennant says to themself as their fire AT Cinder-- --Only the bullet to appear in a portal from behind, striking at Ohma's back even as Cinder throws herself into another flaming swipe at the Demon King from the Future! "Uwaaagh!" That's the sound of her being flung back to the ground from the force of her own swing.
Petra Soroka	"G..geeze you're even bigger than Nonon..."     Petra furrows her eyebrows at Cinder, hanging from Hiromi's arm. Petra, for once, does not look impressed by Cinder's attempt to be cool, though the performance itself seems to have almost no bearing on that. Instead, Petra just awkwardly says, "I don't think you should say it like that..." "My younger self... Petra told you to listen when someone tells you who they are. I have accepted the person *my* retainer is--     That gets Petra to pause, her head snapping to Ohma Zi-O while she ducks behind a tree, sparks from Night Rogue's rifle shots flashing in bursts around her. "Wait-- is Woz not, like, with you anymore? Even an evil future Woz? Did you... get rid of him?"     That, more than future Zi-O's attempt on present-Woz's life, seems to upset her. The idea that, regardless of the timeline or the moral arc, there should be people who *belong* together, is more ingrained in Petra as cruelty than anything as vague as 'being a murderous dictator' could be. Petra struggles with that thought for a couple seconds, revolver clutched to her chest, before combat instinct senses a gap in the gunfire and she abandons her position, and the train of thought.     When Night Rogue is thrown against the tree, Petra isn't long to follow. She stomps on his chest, pinning him to the ground while she snaps out the cylinder of her revolver, pulling out a ring of cartridges to push into it with her thumb. The motion feels nostalgiac, like riding a bicycle for the first time in years.     "Is this guy really your replacement for Woz?" That *really* seems to bother her, for some reason. "He doesn't even seem to have a *personality*!" She fires down into his suit while he struggles to get up, launching herself away with a shower of sparks before he can get in a counter attack. "/I'm/ unstable...!? Where...Where the hell do /you/ even get off saying that!?"     Petra's acrobatic return to the lakeside where Zi-O and the rest are is met almost immediately with Hibiki storming at her. Petra's breath catches, and she doesn't manage to turn to face Hibiki at first, with a few moments of stunned silence quickly evolving into barely contained trembling. A sick feeling bubbles up in her throat, and she doesn't even try to hold it back anymore.     "Of course you'd say that, right? Me. Of all people. Calling someone like you unstable. Where do I get off?" Petra finally turns to look at Hibiki, moving much more evenly than the magical girl, but the tiny tremors in her chest and the rising shriek of her reactor are anything but calm. "'How dare I', right? Why don't I understand my fucking place, as someone who's *worse* than you, so you can look so fucking good for dragging me up to-- almost, but never actually-- your level? I mean,"     Petra's voice drops to a rasp. "You're just trying to help, right?" Petra grabs Hibiki's collar, arm trembling, but doesn't move to hit her yet. "God, I hate you. This is what it took, for you to start saying 'you' like you can't stand the sight of me? Just call me a slur and get it over with. But don't act like you know me, Tachibana." *Now*, Petra hits her, swinging her free hand in a backhanded slap hard enough to send Hibiki stumbling into the barrage of Rider Kicks. "How I've missed your repartee, Petra."     Still rigid and steely-eyed, Petra's glare slides over to Sougo. "God. At least I know one of you becomes tolerable in the future. I guess that's proof that second chances are worth something sometimes, huh, Sougo?"
Timespace Riders	I guess that's proof that second chances are worth something sometimes, huh, Sougo?      Ohma Zi-O throws his head back and cackles. "That's exactly right," he says, knowing full well it'll twist the knife in his younger self.      "I am only here but for the folly of my younger self, and the scheming of my would-be usurper. It will be most amusing, to see the result of your mercy, and your belief in me," says Ohma Zi-O to Raziel. He's not the same as Moebius--he's worse. At least with Moebius you can be sure he's manipulating you. Sougo... we're here for you...      Sougo peers intently down at a Ridewatch Woz had given him. Its face is the impassive helmet of a Rider wreathed in fire, over a backdrop of world-ending, all-consuming flame. It would be so easy to use. It feels good to do--felt good, to turn the will to Crush towards those Yummies. How good would it feel, then, to turn it towards his future self? To let blind force and will overwhelm him? Are you still happy like this?      Sougo looks up from the Ridewatch.      The hands on Ohma Zi-O's helmet spin in fast-forward, and he turns uncannily to meet Kukuru, one hand raised to swat her claw aside, the other placed perfectly to catch the backhand by the wrist, her strength still pushing him back in the dirt. "*You* will be happier when you learn what kindness truly is."     For Kukuru, and Kukuru alone, time stops. Black Lake is a distant memory. She exists in a darkened throne room, with the sole source of light being a blinding sunbeam that occludes the face of the elder Sougo Tokiwa, unarmored and in full regalia, sat on his throne before her. The light filters through finely made blinds, casting a glow about the seated king that makes him seem almost otherworldly.     "We are so alike, it's comical. Kukuru... you truly are a fool. 'Nice' and 'kind' are different. Did you decide on kindness because you wanted to be liked? Or, perhaps, because it was easy? Are you truly willing to smile in the shadows, while those you claim to love tear themselves apart?" A throaty chuckle escapes the Demon King. "I look forward to seeing the future you'll create."      In an instant, she's back in the present, being thrown by her wrist at Hibiki, as Rita escapes with Woz (who assures her the answer is 'long enough). Did you let them change? If they won't change, change them. Weren't you strong enough? Did I fail to guide you?      "No." The King of Time lifts a hand to parry the pole, trying the same trick as before. Even with his command over time, Hiromi's strength drives him to one knee, sending up a dramatic plume of sand, water, and loose cobblestone from the now-ruined shoreside walkway. The dock nearby splits down the middle, floating in pieces down the lake. He doesn't say more, but he doesn't need to. She understands, in the heat of the fight, that his failures were his. Her lessons were what was needed--but his ears, and his heart, were lacking. The hands on his helmet reverse, and the crater undoes itself, Hiromi's swing reversing (though the damage to Ohma Zi-O doesn't seem to)--just enough for him to generate some distance by temporal trickery, retroactively adjusting his position to attack by summoning an honest to god red dragon, which roars and opens fire on her with a fireball, before descending in an effort to constrict her.
Timespace Riders	You of all people better not let yourself get caught up because of what some jerks say! Kamen Rider isn't about what 'you' want. If you are going to wear that belt, you mustn't settle.      Sougo squeezes the watch. It would be easy, wouldn't it? To deny everything.      Night Rogue, everyone discovers, is not Woz. The voice was different, of course, so it was reasonable to assume. But the punishment he's taken, from Petra, Raziel, Remee, Hibiki, and now Rita, too, is more than his armor can endure. It dissipates in a cloud of purple mist, revealing a bruised man with a wild, manic, dangerous look in his eyes. His 'personality' in that moment is evident to Petra--this is a deeply unwell man, whose paranoia and tendency towards violence so happens to make him the man for the job, in his timeline. If Era is right with one of his posed possibilities--that Ohma Zi-O and this man meet some need of the future--it must be a fucked up place indeed.      His dark hair is a short but mussed-up mess, and his goatee frames a thin scowl of concentration. He wears the uniform of some sort of high ranking functionary, stained with sand and mud from the lake, sporting the emblem of a nation yet to be. Before he can transform again, Ohma Zi-O extends a hand, sending him back to the future with a hurled screen of golden light, rimmed with disembodied clock faces.      The Demon King takes a bullet to the back from Tennant, the impact budging him and earning a glare over the shoulder. He is, however, barred from retaliating by the miasmic morass called forth by Genm's Dangerous Zombie armor. "I have that effect on people," says the Demon King, showing a ghost of his younger self's sense of humor.      Sougo had told a certain person, on a certain day, that he needed to gather the power of all Riders. As zombies claw at his armor, the Demon King sinks, slightly, beneath the ground. "But you did do me a favor, too, Genm. If it weren't for you, I'd still be that gullible now. Enjoy this--call it a 'demo,' if you like," he says with a chuckle, before gesturing with his right hand in a motion of command. "A celebration of your genius."      Level X-0. The Rider that emerges from a golden portal is almost certainly using Genm Corp technology. More than that--he is absolutely not using any cartridge currently on offer to the Ministry of Health. The fist that crashes into Genm's chest and knocks him back is something that could only come from the mind of one man--his. Ohma Zi-O draws the miasma into his boot, lifts his leg and holds it out, a toxic purple spray blasting from his sole towards Genm.     What is the point of having a dream, Sougo, if you sacrifice everyone you care about on the way to your perfect little reality? I hate you. I hate people like you. I hate dreamers who need to be told 'It's okay, you're not bad, you're not bad at all, you're a good person, you're the Kindest little Demon Lord'.     Tears splatter upon the face of the Surtr watch. When she accuses him of being like Ayin, he forces himself to look at her. A pathetic, sniffling, dirty wretch, and not a beloved Demon King of Time.
Timespace Riders	HEY! SOUGO! Kill this man! Do it right now, or I'll do it myself!      "I don't know who you are. Not really. Not like he does. But... trying to kill him, literally, in my mind, with how I act... it's exactly what got me here. I can't. Because Angela is right. And so is Era." He pockets the Surtr watch, earning a curious glance from his future self. The Zi-O II Ridewatch is out, instead. He separates it, once more, getting shakily to his feet. "Acting like I'd never be him, like it wasn't even possible--like I'd never hurt anyone as long as I just wished it away hard enough. He exists inside of me. Good and evil... light and darkness. Harm and care. I..." He reaches up, and wipes the tears from his eyes. "I accept it all lives inside of me," he says, voice wavering. BGM: https://youtu.be/y9EBSb-9NfQ      As Sougo presses the stop, the watch at last activates. Zi-O II!! A sonorous tenor and a rumbling bass voice call the name in unison, as he slots each half into the belt. A synthwave keyboard melody plays, as two opposing sets of disembodied silver clocks flank him on either side.      "Henshin!" He shouts, his voice cracking and hoarse, spinning the Timespace Driver. The tenor and the bass voices triumphantly announce, in chorus, as both sets of clocks collide to form a rapidly spinning silver-gold backdrop:                                    RIDER TIME!                                                     KAMEN RIDEEER.. (RIDER..!) ZI-O--ZI-O!! II!                          The Rider's cuirass is now formed not of one, but two silver watch wristbands, and his helmet, still bearing the distinct pink RIDER katakana, now sports two symmetrical sets of hour and minute hands. The hauberk and pauldrons sport gold trim, and he carries a silver straight sword.      He charges in to fight Ohma Zi-O with renewed vigor, who handles him exactly the same, laughing--but he can at least recognize: "That is the smartest thing you've said all day." Ohma Zi-O, like many old men, has little patience for rambunctious children, however, and eventually simply ends the engagement with his younger self, by way of a point-blank deathball which carries Sougo clear to the other side of the lake.
Timespace Riders	Ohma Zi-O extends a palm, and a series of golden portals appear, each leading to the worlds that all the assembled Elites arrived from, near or far--down to the precise second they came. "It was very amusing, seeing all of you again," he says, flicking a wrist and banishing Genm Level X-O so the Genm of the present can take a breather. The dragon, he leaves for Hiromi, knowing she'd probably get at least a small kick out of fighting it.      "I will return to my own time."      He opens a portal--but looks over his shoulder. "Petra--give Angela my thanks. Perhaps this meeting was not a complete waste of time."
Hamada Haru	"Quit it." Dynamic Era de-transforms with a hiss of released steam, his armor vanishing into the ether from which it had come. His gunblade is still in hand, the base of it formed of his transteam gun. Where Dynamic Era had the sound of somebody who was merely annoyed, Hamada Haru looks vaguely upset, in that guarded way he has where it's not quite certain it's not just some form of resting bitch face. He waves his free hand, "It doesn't make the world better to have its heroes burning themselves up for it, even if it's not physically. It just leaves different scars. Having the spirit to use that belt with the hollowness you have in your voice isn't impressive." "It's revolting." He sweeps the gunblade in a broad arc, and himself disperses into a bank of fog that vanishes.
Kukuru	'No one is perfect from the start! You can do better without becoming /this/ guy!' ''Arrogance.' To think you'll never hurt anyone. This, is true.' 'What is your strength for? To lead. If they won't change, change them. Do you see? Did you hear? Growth is change. The leader is the guide.' Hasn't Sougo been working on improving himself to become the kindest king? Is becoming like OHMA ZI-O where it would all lead to anyway? Is all that's happening here, all that's happened before, all the shouting and anger already proof that all that the utmost kindness might not be the right answer? 'Because you are not the first man to become his future self--nor would you be the last.' Wouldn't it make more sense to start taking the bitter medicine now and start towards truly changing himself, towards becoming a better king and creating a better world sooner? Shouldn't Kukuru be doing the same? Caught by the wrist in that backswing, Kukuru's pupils dilate briefly as she sees something beyond what she can normally see, suddenly going from the heated battle to... A throne room? An older Sougo, the one that she'd just been swinging at, but he's talking to her. Directly, even. He asks her pointed questions, and she can't answer right away even while gazing at his form. "A-are we? Then you should know..." What should he know? What does he mean? Niceness versus kindness is a distinction she might not know the definition for, but thinking about it... She kind of knows already. One's been her default method for so long, but what she really needs is... Before she can finish coming to terms with all that, she's back where she was, and then she's getting hurled at Hibiki. Yelping at whatever/whoever she collides with, Kukuru rolls herself off quickly enough, but her gaze is still distant as it's still focused on what she had seen before, and her mind still focused on what she had been told before. "Can... Me?" Kukuru's voice is barely a whisper at first as she stares lifelessly at the sky, still shaken at the vision she was shown and the words from the Future King. It looks like she might even be hyperventilating for several moments before finally counting down rapidly to calm herself, then exhales deeply before looking towards the future Sougo slowly by the time he opens up his portal. Another portal appears besides his, and Kukuru's upper body leans out of it, but she's not making any movement to intercept him. "Can you show me? What that... Kindness really is, and how to save them. What it means to actually be better for them, and to be... Better than this. To be someone they deserve."
Raziel	"I am only here but for the folly of my younger self, and the scheming of my would-be usurper. It will be most amusing, to see the result of your mercy, and your belief in me," "It sounds like you've already seen it..." Raziel says, but he does not (interestingly) ask a follow-up question. "...But the future... of this world, of this multiverse is not set in stone. Just because you exist now, does not mean you will continue to exist..." and perhaps, even Kain's coin will land on its edge. However, he watches the current Sougo. There was much for him to come to terms with, so many things to accept on such a young heart. If Sougo would break here... Raziel could not fault him for it. The weight of these things is too great even for him to bare, even if he only just. However... Inspirationally, he overcomes. He accepts the parts that are ugly to look at. For a moment, he questions... Would he be able to? There is much about his past that he still does not know. However, for this moment, he is proud of his friend... even if he's handled no differently than before. To the leaving Zi-O he looks back. There wasn't anything else to say, even if he wanted to. He takes a breath... and instead of taking his portal, he goes to find Sougo.
Angela	''I don't think you should say it like that...'' "Like..." Cinder's eyes widen as she replays those words in her head. She covers her face and groans into her hands. "Isn't that a bit harsh..?" Hokma transmits privately to Angela. "...I know you don't care about what I said about Sougo." "...Do you think our faith is pitiable? If you lose faith in everyone when they stumble, what will you have left?" "Do you think... I gave up on him when he first stumbled?" Angela says softly to Hokma. "Why do you love him more than me?" Hokma has no answer to that. But Angela watches the Demon King cry and hates it. She hates it. Wasn't he supposed to be more than human? That's what Demon Kings are, right? Angela says she's leaving and is about to disconnect when-- ''Because Angela is right.'' Her hands curl into fists but Sougo says more and... What's the point Carmen whispers to her. Just another man saying the right words, right? But words are just word words words, and you want murder. You've been shown the power of ACTION. Thrice now. Words hold no power over you anymore. Angela blips out without saying anything. MEANWHILE Tennant is putting away the rifle. 39, "Anyway,") Tennant says. "A pretty good movie that's critical of excess power in the hands of an increasingly beligerent and insolent enforcement class but I feel that also perpetuates a myth that without that power, without 'more cops'--even ones that are not Robocops--crime will just explode out of control into riots like even in the Backstreets, it isn't just chaos all the time, there's an order to everything, right? Even if we don't neccessarily where the strings are being pulled... But it seems a little careless to blame the state of affairs on the people WITHOUT the military hardway." "What is your point, Tennant?" Hokma has finally had enough. "...I mean isn't it obvious? This all comes back to how even a company critical of the Wings can fall victim to the very vices it's trying to fight against. That's why the Robocop movies increasingly glorify the pigs because that mythology became a kind of 'Wing' in of itself. It's like--expecting the problem can be the solution, you get me right? Anyway, I couldn't hear what the Riders were talking about all the way from over here." Tennant shoves the gear into a duffel bag and adds, "But the guy transformed so everything's probably okay right? Good to go!" They hop back down to the ground, making their way to a portal. "Oh but if you want to talk about a film that REALLY gets into the reeds about its topic, we should get into some real Cinema." "And that is...?" Hokma sighs. "Cats Don't Dance." Tennant says with absolute confidence in themself. "A story about a Wing behind the times if I ever heard one."
Rita Ma	The lake's surface shivers. Tentacles squirm down there, just a little too deep to see.      Some of them are wrapped around Woz's waist, and others cradle his body and legs, and one or two more still entwine his arms and interlace with his fingers, like they mean to comfort him. Like something so cool and boneless could be comforting. They're almost as cold as the water of the lake, but only almost.      They pull him backwards so fast that he leaves bubbles behind, and others stream around and in front of him. A hand- a familiar hand, which might be the most surprising part- comes to rest on his shoulder halfway through. It means it's okay, and it also means don't look back.      It's shockingly little time until he's pulled up on the far rocky shore, and the boneless flesh withdraws from him and knits itself back with a squelching noise, and by the time he might turn around it's just him and ordinary Rita again.      "Sometimes you have to let go, don't you," she says. Her eyes scan the opposite bank warily, but it doesn't seem they've been pursued. She sits down next to him cross-legged after a little pause; her cardigan doesn't even look wet. "Thank you for being strong enough to. Even if it feels wrong, sometimes it's the only way to keep them safe."
Hibiki Tachibana	When she's gripped by the collar, Hibiki doesn't shy away. She doesn't fight it. She doesn't even glance off to the side, as she's so fond of doing. It's straight on - on the edge of either going deathly silent or raising her voice again, lower lip trembling and pupils narrowed. Like a wounded animal ready to lash out at a moment's notice. Why don't I understand my fucking place, as someone who's *worse* than you, so you can look so fucking good--     "When did I ever say that's how I saw things!? I never cared about how I looked to you! .../Especially/ not to you." It comes out harshly, even quiet as it is. More than she'd otherwise intend it to be, for what she actually means by it. God, I hate you.     A twitch of an eye. Her arm shudders at her side, fist clenched tight. "...I don't need you to like me." It makes her chest hurt as soon as she says it. This is what it took, for you to start saying 'you' like you can't stand the sight of me? Just--     That, out of everything, is what gets Hibiki to actually stop, blink, and lose an extremely noticeable amount of the edge on her face and in her voice to just stare at the other girl for a second. "What...? Why would I ever c--"     Slap.     And it's not long before she's getting Kukuru thrown at her, too.     Hibiki is reeling in more ways than one after the fact, only getting enough sense back to register Sougo's transformation, Haru's pained exit, and Kukuru, right near her...talking to herself? What did she see? Is she...?     Rolling over onto her hands and knees herself, a hand comes up to her cheek for a second...and then falls away. A click of her tongue becomes a low grunt of frustration. It's the most she can manage, with the stinging on her cheek feeling inexplicably like a splash of cold water. But don't act like you know me, Tachibana.     "...Maybe I never will, the way she does. Maybe I'll never really get her either," she murmurs to herself, and continues to keep it low afterwards.     "...'Tachibana'. Fine. That's fine too." It's not. But she'll tell herself that it is. For now. Until...     ...At least Sougo is beginning to come to terms with a path forward, shaky as he may be, instead of giving up on the spot. She'll be going back to the exact second she left looking considerably worse for it, but at least...she'll have that helping put some strength back in her legs.
Petra Soroka	"I never cared about how I looked to you! .../Especially/ not to you."     'You', 'you', 'you'. Every time she says it, it feels like she's spitting the word out, like she is something barely tolerable to refer to in the first place. "... I know it wasn't about me. Yeah. It was always about you, and the rest of you, and maintaining your fucking kayfabe. It doesn't make a difference anymore. You have yours, I have mine." "...I don't need you to like me."     Glaring into Hibiki's eyes and only seeing what she interprets as loathing and rejection almost makes Petra flinch in return. It hurts-- really, really badly. Why couldn't any of their talks before have meant anything? It feels so, so deeply wrong, to talk like this to Hibiki, but what other choice does she have?     "Say that all you want. You need my approval more than I need yours. You're just empty and replaceable, Tachibana, so don't think that your rejection of me means as much as mine to you." "I hate you. I hate people like you. I hate dreamers who need to be told 'It's okay, you're not bad, you're not bad at all, you're a good person, you're the Kindest little Demon Lord'." "Yes... You remind me of the man whom I once saw as father."     Petra glances down at the tablet in her pocket before Angela disappears, then glares at Sougo. They're all just like Matthew. I need to make sure to check in with Angela later, after a conversation like that. "Good and evil... light and darkness. Harm and care. I... I accept it all lives inside of me,"     It's a healthy revelation, and Petra shouldn't need to say anything cutting in response. After all, the acknowledgement that he was harming people even despite his good intentions was something she was specifically mad at Sougo about; his fixation on forgiveness and second chances as panaceas.     With all of her latent disgust stirred up by Hibiki, it's not so easy for Petra to pass up an opportunity. Petra slides her revolver into her hip holster, dismissively lighting up a cigarette even before Ohma Zi-O opens up the portals. "Real proud of you for admitting you're able to hurt people. Let me know when you figure out how to actually help them." "Petra--give Angela my thanks. Perhaps this meeting was not a complete waste of time."     Brazenly, with the hard edge of cruelty still razor sharp in her voice, Petra calls out to Ohma Zi-O casually. "Sure, I'll pass that along. It was nice meeting you, Sougo. Want to head back to the City now, Cinder?" With that, she walks through the portal, though returning to the chinchilla talk is far beyond her, for a long time.