Kamen Rider Tarock Re-Dealt: Rising From the Ashes

by starofjustice

Lost has been captured, the Sphere is in ruins, and the evil of the Mythos is beginning to spread to Earth. Liss has her work cut out for her, but soon she'll see just how far her influence has spread, and she'll be more than a little surprised to see how many are willing to help her carry her colossal burden.

1. Chapter 1

Kamen Rider Tarock Re-Dealt: Rising from the Ashes

Book Six: Forthcoming Influences

Reading Twenty-Six: Dark Marvels

Note: This is a continuation of my story Kamen Rider Tarock Re-Dealt, which obviously assumes you've read the other part with the first 25 chapters. If it's not showing up make sure the box to show M-rated stories is clicked in your account.

So far on Kamen Rider Tarock, Re-Dealt…

It seems an eternity ago that delinquent Liss Decker found herself caught between combatants from a strange alternate world called the Sphere, and afterward found herself with the ability to transform into Tarock, a warrior of awesome powers. The mystical being that was the creator of Tarock's powers asked Liss to become a champion for his people, who were being plagued by the reappearance of monstrous beings they call the Mythos. Mainly seeing an escape from her oppressive everyday life, Liss agreed.

Eventually, not entirely by her decision, Liss was joined Ben Corland, her ex-boyfriend who can change into Vaga, a powerful warrior form of his own. They discovered the source of the monsters, a young girl named Lost, and the monsters' controller, the White Lady.

Liss and Ben attempted to find a way to save Lost and keep her from creating anymore monsters, but Lost was kidnapped by the Empress, one of the most powerful of a race of immortals called the Arcana, and who had thought Liss to be a danger since the beginning. The Emprss intended to execute Lost and let her people know the Mythos threat was on its last legs. But instead the White Lady was able to use the state of affairs to stage an invasion of monsters in the Empress's capital city.

By the time the fighting stopped the White Lady had captured Lost and the two of them combined into a single being that escaped to gather its strength. In trying to stop them Liss's face was clawed by the combined monstrosity, leaving her with an artificial eye and lingering scars, more emotional than physical.

She's returned home to recover and plan her next move.

It had better be a masterpiece.

XXX

Liss needed a cigarette.

She hadn't touched them in ages. Not since the day she originally became Tarock. At the time, a giant spider had seemed pretty scary.

Now it was just another monster to obliterate. In spite of all that, she was having a hell of a time, and she wanted a cigarette.

But as she walked past a gas station it struck her that she wasn't a licensed driver and couldn't legally prove her age to someone who might otherwise be willing to sell some to her. And since she'd dropped out of school to become a mystical warrior, she wasn't sure how to get in touch with anybody who'd been willing to buy them for her before.

Besides, she could just forget about that kind of favor from Sensei. If he wouldn't even let her eat fast food, smoking was out of the question.

She sighed and turned a corner back toward his place, supposing she'd have to content herself with an actual hot shower in the tiny bathroom she shared with three other people. The thought of who she lived with back there on Earth made her want it even more. Liss badly needed to spend some time on the world she was used to after everything that had happened on the one her powers came from.

Liss let herself in up the back stairs. She could hear feet slamming into foam mats out in the main room, but wasn't feeling up to joining class at the moment. Instead she made her way up to the living room on the second floor, hung her duster on the hook behind the door and then went into the bathroom and picked up the first bottle of shampoo and bar of soap she saw.

After living rough for so long the steam and hot water washing over Liss were like stepping into another world even stranger than the Sphere. The dirt washing off her body left a black trail on the bottom of the tub Liss was sure she was going to be forced to scrub out later, but right then she didn't care. It seemed ridiculous, but something so simple was helping her feel like she was starting fresh, and maybe her injuries weren't as bad as they seemed. Maybe she really could still find some way to save Lost…

After a few more minutes Liss shut off the shower, wrapped herself in a towel and walked into the living room. As she did she ran right into someone, a black girl with a head covered in dark red finger coils. It took Liss a second to recognize her as Virginia, Angelo's younger daughter.

For another second Virginia stared up into Liss's face, saying nothing. Although whether that was thanks to running into someone just coming out of the shower or the milky white crystal Liss had in place of a left eye, Liss couldn't tell.

The scars across had healed in the days since returning to Earth. The only signs of her last desperate attempt to save Lost were her new eye, the missing tip of her left earlobe and a stream of silver stains on her left arm in the shape of teardrops, which was close enough to what they really were. Virginia stared at her for another second, and Liss knitted her brown in surprise as she realized Virginia was looking at her crystal eye and starting to blush.

"Sorry," Liss said and walked past Virginia and into the little backroom they'd given her. She sank to her knees and opened the foot locker at the foot of her bed and got out a set of clean clothes: jeans, shirt, socks, underwear. Liss dropped her towel and started getting dressed. She was pulling her pants on when she felt eyes on her and saw the door was still a crack open.

"Everything okay?" Liss called over her shoulder.

"Yeah, but, um…you were just gone for so long, we wondered what happened to you," Virginia said, and stepped into the room, looking unfazed at seeing Liss in her bra. "Your sister brought this over," she said, holding up a card with a picture of a brown moth on it. "But then you came home all alone, and…I don't know."

Liss tugged her shirt on. "You were worried about me?"

"Yeah! We all were! Well…me and dad were. And dad wouldn't admit it."

"What wouldn't I admit?" asked the hulking black man who suddenly the entered the room as he shut the door to the stairwell behind him. It was Angelo Bell, Liss's teacher and Virginia's father. "And what do you think you're doing, young lady? I told you to give Liss her space until she was ready to talk."

"It's okay, Sensei. I don't really mind," Liss said. "Maybe you and me can talk tonight about it, though? I could really use your input."

Angelo nodded. "Sure. You'll have to excuse Ginny, she's kind of a fan of yours."

"Dad!" Virginia exclaimed. "I don't want to be called that name anymore!..." Then she looked up at Liss again. "What happened to your eye?"

"Bad guys ripped out my old one," Liss answered. "Scary, huh?"

Virginia shook her head so fast it looked like a red blur. "It's cool!" she gushed, and behind her Angelo groaned.

He touched Virginia on the shoulder. "Hey, you wanted to be in my class, remember? You can't go ditching now that Liss is back because you're hoping she'll tell you about her adventures. Right, Liss?"

"Uh, right."

"There, right from your hero," Angelo said. "So get changed and go downstairs already. I'll be down in a minute."

Virginia sighed. "Okay, dad…" then she slipped into the bedroom she shared with her older sister and shut the door.

"Hey," Angelo said more quietly and came up to rest his palms on Liss's shoulders. "Is everything okay? That stuff you said about your eye, is that true?"

"I'd say the evidence speaks for itself," Liss answered him with a shrug. "It's as close to the truth as I remember, anyway. Mostly I fell then I blacked out after something hit me in the face. Besides, Sensei, you knew this shit about Riders was real before you ever knew me, right? What about Gorgom and the Black Sun, and the bat monster who clawed your shoulder?"

He smiled a little at the question she'd asked him in reply. "You still remember that, huh?"

"I'm kind of trying to learn to appreciate it in a new way since…," Liss pointed to her fake eye, "…this."

Angelo pulled something out of his back pocket and handed it to Liss: an envelope. "Here's a little something…it's not as big as it would've been if you were here and helping teach class more often, but maybe you can go out and enjoy yourself a little now that you're back."

Liss opened the envelope and pulled out a small stack of not-quite-so-small bills. She looked up at Angelo uncertainly, as if she didn't quite believe he should really be giving it to her. He just smiled and patted her on the shoulders in reply. "I know you're fighting inhuman evil and all that, but you're still young, Liss. You ought to enjoy it sometimes."

"Thanks, Sensei."

"Thank you, Liss," Angelo said, then leaned in to whisper to her, "But Virginia is not going to be your sidekick. Ever. I don't care what she tells you, I didn't agree to that and I never will."

"I wasn't even thinking it."

"Make sure you don't," Angelo said, then patted her on the shoulder and went back down to rejoin his class.

XXX

The tally of the casualties from the Mythos siege of the city slid across Captain Uthar's red-rimmed eyes again. The number of deaths was barely 180, but Uthar still couldn't stop asking himself if that number might have been smaller if the Emperor hadn't still been there, if the engineers had had the corps leaders' equipment ready sooner, or if he had been more alert…

…or if Tarock and that idiot friend of hers had been more concerned with being where they were needed, instead of running all over the Sphere doing who only knew what.

Tarock was supposed to be a mortal champion with power rivalling some of the greatest of the Arcana, wasn't she? Where had she been while people were cowering in their homes at night as Mythos continually threw themselves at the walls with their unending numbers? How many more lives might have been spared in all those attacks?

"Hey," said someone who dropped a large hand onto his shoulder in concern. It was Loi, his over-sized right-hand-man who also liked to imagine himself as Uthar's conscience. "Are you still up? Don't you think maybe you'll be better prepared for what comes next if you're actually rested, Captain?"

"I'm just thinking about the losses. Sentos is gone…"

"And that's tragic, but this isn't over, and we have to prepare for the future," Loi reminded him. "You're not going to make it through this without at least one night's sleep."

Uthar sighed and glared weakly over his shoulder at Loi. "Can you try to help me a little, Loi? Can you at least tell me where in the hells Tarock's been while we were trying to keep our people alive?"

"Well, no…"

Uthar pulled away. "As I expected. In that case—"

"…but it so happens I know she's gone back to her own world to recover after a battle that almost levelled Mazones," Loi replied and set a card with the image of a horned beetle on it beside Uthar on the table.

He picked up the card and started at it for a second as if that was how he would learn what secrets it held, then willed a portion of his energy into it and an image appeared in the air above the card. It showed the young man Uthar remembered as Tarock's companion, who'd helped Avalon fight a few Mythos with extreme reluctance and let them study the results in order to create power suits of their own. He'd been in a hurry to let them take what they needed so he could rejoin Tarock. At least it seemed he'd found her…

"I'll keep this short," his image said. "We got into a fight with a whole army of Mythos up here and most of this city was smashed up real good. We were trying to save Lost…she's this girl who's the source of the monsters, but I don't really understand how. The White Lady took her, apparently, and now we don't know where they are.

"Liss is hurt, and she's gone back to our planet to heal before we go after the White Lady again. I'm wrapping up a couple things here before I go with her. She wanted me to make sure you guys down there in Avalon knew what happened, so I'm sending this. No idea what our next move is, but at least I can let you know what happened." Then the image faded out.

Uthar set the card down and then staggered toward his cot in the corner of the room. "Loi, come wake me in a few hours," he said. "Then we'll go and see what Tarock has to say for herself."

XXX

"Well, look who's home."

Ben had been expecting this. His mother was glaring at him from her spot in front of the muted TV, and his father stood in the doorway to their bedroom glaring at Ben in the front door just as hard. His younger brothers peered out from the door to their room, but for a second Mr. Corland shifted his glare to them and their door slammed.

"And just where do you think you've been, mister?" Mrs. Corland demanded.

"I've been saving the world, thank you very much," Ben replied, displaying the wrist with his Vaga Brace.

"Oh, I bet," his mother replied scornfully. "I'm not dumb enough to think those weren't real monsters, but you were the one killing them, huh? More like you were going to dives with that Decker girl again."

"I was with her, actually," Ben replied, clenching his teeth. Why had he even come back here? Because he'd wanted to let his family know he was still alive after all the time he and Liss had spent chasing lead after lead to finding some way to save Lost.

Even if it had all been for nothing.

He didn't completely blame his parents not to be happy to see him again. Ben had left in a hurry and had been on one adventure after another since then. But he'd had to, hadn't he? Mythos had even started showing up in their town, he knew where they were coming from and had been trying to help find a way stop there from being any more.

But he'd really been doing that, and he was proud of it.

"You're right, I was with Liss Decker…let me show you what I was doing. Change Vaga!" Green energy ripped from his bracelet and the pile of dishes in the sink crashed onto the floor while the doors and windows rattled in their frames.

Then the energy solidified into gleaming dark green armor on Ben, who stood framed in the front door with waves of power rolling off him like some kind of mythical demigod who'd appeared before them. It only lasted for a second before it flickered away and Ben was standing in Vaga's place, but his parents were staring at him slack-jawed now.

Ben didn't say anything, he just shut the door and walked back down the stairs to the street again, feeling a little ashamed of using his powers just for a display like that. He'd wanted to at least notify his family that he was all right and what he'd been up to, but they'd assumed he was just off being a degenerate. With Liss, an even bigger degenerate.

Maybe they'd relax after a while, but until then Ben supposed he should find Liss, maybe see if she was up to figuring out what they'd do next. He'd been hoping for a break, a chance to enjoy some normality for at least a little while, but…maybe they were in too deep in the weird new world they'd joined when they'd accepted their powers. Maybe they needed to finish up things with the Sphere and the Mythos before they truly could return to the world they left when they became Tarock and Vaga.

Then he spotted a black-haired girl in a long coat coming out of a pawn shop down the block with a guitar case in one hand.

He jogged closer. "Liss?" he called out, and when she turned toward him his question was answered. That bulbous white eye couldn't belong to anyone else. "You bought a guitar?" he asked, then smirked. "Or is that a machine gun and you're gonna rob a bank or something?"

"It's a guitar," she answered, and opened the case to show him. Indeed, it was an acoustic guitar. A little scuffed around the sides, but to Ben's untrained eyes at least it looked like a usable instrument.

"You play guitar?" Ben asked, slightly surprised.

"I did for a little while, once," Liss shrugged. "I thought maybe I'd see how bad I really was."

Ben nodded thoughtfully. "I bet you're not that bad."

"You didn't even know I ever played one of these a second ago."

"Can't I just say something nice to you?"

"I…I guess?" Liss said, sounding like he'd caught her by surprise with his question. She closed the case and started up the street.

"Sooooo, why you pickin' up a guitar all of a sudden?" Ben asked, following her.

Liss shrugged. "Sensei gave me some money but not enough for me to buy a brand new one, so I had to get a used one."

"No!" Ben said. "I mean, why now? After you haven't played one in so long I didn't even know about it?"

"I thought I'd…," Liss paused and searched for the right words for a second. "I thought that maybe it'd be good if I had something to do while we weren't fighting. Like learn guitar again."

Ben cocked his head. "While we're not fighting? Huh…so there's stuff you want to do besides fight monsters after all."

"Don't get the wrong idea," Liss said sharply. "We're gonna find the White Lady and we're gonna get Lost back. Soon."

"We?"

"Yeah, 'we'. You saying you're backing out or something?" Liss answered him.

"…no. Of course not," Ben said, smiling a little. "Hey, maybe we can—"

"Liss? Ben?" someone called out to them. The two of them turned and saw a girl a year or so younger than they were. She had on jeans and a windbreaker and her long red hair hung down covering half her face. "It really is you guys? You just disappeared. We thought you skipped town or something."

It was Mallory Quinn, a girl Ben and Liss had seen at a couple wild parties while they'd still been going out. She looked like she hadn't aged at all since then.

"Sort of," Ben answered. "But it was because of those monsters around town."

Mallory looked at them incredulously. "You mean you guys think that stuff was real?"

Liss pointed to her crystal eye. "You think I got this just to piss off my parents? They fricking left town when I warned them about the monsters."

Mallory stared at her. "Seriously? A monster did that to you? That's real?"

"Sure. I'll prove it," Liss said and shut her real eye. Tentatively Mallory walked to her right. Liss moved her head, tracking Mallory easily. She walked to the left, and still Liss followed her even when Mallory stopped suddenly and walked the other way. Mallory jumped and Liss looked up as she rose into the air and then back down as Mallory landed.

"Holy crap, that thing's real," Mallory gaped. "But hey, I wanted to talk to you guys about something else. There's this big concert tonight, out at the old theme park. Some rich guy rebuilt it and he's getting bands from all over to play the opening."

Ben shrugged. "Sounds like the tickets would've been sold out ages ago for something like that."

"It's free to the public. Why don't you guys go? Maybe I'll see you there." Without waiting for them to answer Mallory jogged off, but cast a glance over her shoulder at Liss one last time before she was out of sight.

XXX

Liss opened the door to the roof of the building where Liss lived with Angelo's family, and gently set down the guitar case and opened it, then leaned against the side of the opening of the stairwell and experimentally strummed the strings, trying to get used to the feeling of the instrument again after years away.

And a feet away, Ben watched her intently. Watching as her hands slowly strummed over the taut strings as she listened to how they sounded and then twisted the pegs at the head of the instrument and tested the strings again until she was satisfied with the sound she was making.

"She's out of my life," Liss slowly sang as she picked at her new instrument. "I don't know whether to laugh or cry…I don't know whether to live or die…she's out of my life…"

"Oh god," Ben chortled and Liss looked up at him, annoyed but also questioning. "Sad love songs? C'mon Liss, even you're not that emo. You must know something happier."

"You do, huh?"

"Sure. Let me at that thing," Ben said and held out his hands. Liss gave him a warning look, then handed over her new-old guitar.

"Ahem," Ben coughed and experimentally strummed with his thumbnail. "We took the floor and she said…oh don't you dare look back, just keep your eyes on me! I said you're holding back, she said shut up and—"

"Give me that back…"

"No, wait. I know a better one, promise. Here we go…Until the very moment, when I see you agaaaaaaain, I'll keep speeding along the road to the sun, the burning sun! Hear the roar of my car, I'm nearly round the bend! Searching for the love that we did shaaaaaare…there's no-one who can stop me now!"

Liss sighed and reached out to grab her guitar away from Ben, but he jumped back. "I promise, I know what I'm doing!" he insisted.

"You do not!"

"Sure I do!" Ben grinned. "Eight-six-seven-five-three-oh—"

"Give me that!" Liss said and grabbed the guitar back from Ben, but she was actually grinning and laughing despite herself. "God, you are being so stupid…"

"It's working," he pointed out with a teasing smile. "I must be good for at least one thing."

"At least you didn't do 'Come on Eileen'," Liss said, then her smile faded. Ben couldn't blame her: the air had suddenly seemed to…change around them. Liss's crystal eye buzzed in its socket and she dropped her guitar with a cry to cover the eye with her hands as if that could somehow muffle the feeling.

Ben knew he should run to her side and make sure she was all right, but at the same tiem it was as if he shouldn't. That he knew it would pass in a second and that whatever had the power to cause this was something to be feared, but not by them. Not yet.

Then suddenly someone else was on the roof. A girl in a plain, faded brown dress and her orange hair dancing for a second on the last breath of a chilly breeze. "Hello, Liss," she said.

"Trideka!" Ben said before Liss could reply.

"What?" Liss asked after she recovered enough to confront the newcomer herself.

"It's her! She was the one in the black cape from back in Mazones!" Ben exclaimed. "Who are you, lady?"

Liss looked at her in disbelief for a second and then walked over to her. "Rexi. It's you."

The girl nodded and smiled faintly. "You remember me after all. Somehow I thought you wouldn't. The great Tarock has the fate of the entire Sphere on her shoulders, after all. And another world as well by the look of things."

Liss sighed and rubbed her face with her hands, like she couldn't believe what she was seeing. After collecting herself she looked Rexia in the face and expected her to flinch from the new decorations Liss had picked up on her face. She didn't. "I was trying to save Lost," Liss said, feeling like shrugging but for some reason it feeling inappropriate.

Rexia laughed lightly and took a step closer and gently wrapped her arms around Liss's shoulders. Ben gaped at them as Liss hugged the other girl back, smiling just a little.

But then Rexia asked her, "Is that all you saw, Liss? One person's life in the middle of all that destruction? Soon, Liss, very soon you'll need a much wider perspective than that."

Ben walked over to them and gave Rexia a suspicious look. "Excuse me, who are you again? And what the hell do you know about perspectives?"

Liss glared at him, which was downright chilling with her eyelids narrowing around a huge bead of white crystal. "Ben, don't. She's—"

"It's all right, Liss," Rexia interrupted her. "He and I didn't meet under the friendliest of circumstances and I didn't have a chance to explain myself. I can't really blame him for being suspicious of me." Rexia broke their embrace and faced Ben, handed politely extended. "Hello, Ben. My name's Rexia. Liss and I met while she was staying at my father's house to recover from her injuries. I…I wasn't very… very receptive when she revealed her powers to me."

Guardedly, Ben accepted her handshake. "And what about her when you showed your powers? Or did you, yet?" he asked, a little more pointedly than he might've meant.

"Not that I'm not glad to see you again, Rexi," Liss said, "but Ben's got a point. When did you get powers too?"

Rexia made a "hmmm" sound and looked at Liss's feet for a minute. "Rexi?" Liss prompted after a few seconds of silence.

Finally she looked up and met their eyes. "Master Mortis took an interest in me, and gave me a portion of his powers to fight the Mythos."

"Master Mortis?" Ben asked in disbelief.

"You mean that Grim Reaper guy for the Arcana you told me about?" Liss asked, and Rexia nodded. "…why did he take an interest in you?"

"Because I died," Rexia said, suddenly and bluntly.

Ben and Liss recoiled a step, but Rexia laughed. "Really? I helped you in Mazones, didn't I?" she asked.

"It's nothing personal," Ben replied, "but the undead aren't usually friendly."

"I'm not a zombie," Rexia replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Master Mortis restored my body so I could see Liss again. Maybe reevaluate how I treated you before. But in exchange I have to kill Mythos and absorb their essence for Master Mortis.

"But that's also what I meant when I was talking about wider perspective, Liss. I've been able to see just how far this entire thing with the Mythos stretches, and like it or not you've made yourself the center of everything that's gone on before and everything that's going to happen from now on. Many more people will be counting on, and you won't be able to afford think of the fate of one person any longer."

Ben frowned. "Hey, leave her alone, whoever the hell you are. She's still bouncing back from losing a friend of ours. Come on Liss, let's go."

"Go? Go where?" Liss asked, sounding slightly dazed.

"What about to that concert Mal told us about?" Ben suggested.

"I'm not going to a concert," Liss said, recovering herself. "Rexi, do you know what—"

"God damn it, Liss!" Ben snapped. "Would it kill you to just go out and have fun like a regular kid sometimes?" She turned and stared at him in surprise. Ben froze for a second and felt an urge to back down, but then gathered himself and gave her an exasperated glare in reply. He wasn't doubting that her conviction to fighting Mythos was a good thing, but even superheroes got to enjoy themselves inbetween ends of the world, didn't they? Otherwise, sooner or later, they'd go insane. Ben looked at her again and vowed to stand firm.

After a minute Liss nodded slowly at his question. "Maybe that'd be a good idea after all. Rexi, you want to come on?"

"Wait, her too?" Ben asked.

"Yeah, her too," Liss replied. "She was my friend and helped me out when I was in rehab. And we had an argument but she wants to make things better, sounded like to me." Liss glanced over at Rexia, who seemed surprised to realize they were both looking at her as her cheeks suddenly turned pink. "You okay, Rexi?" Liss asked.

"I—I guess," she said and glanced around, not seeming like the person just talking about wider perspectives and being chosen by the Grim Reaper. If anything she seemed surprised to be welcomed back so eagerly in spite of all that. "I didn't think you'd be asking me out socially tonight."

Liss smiled and cupped Rexia's cheeks in a way that made Ben grind his teeth. "Hey, I only got beat up by monsters, you came back from the dead. If I need a night out, so do you," Liss said with a playful smile.

"Well, when you put it like that..."

XXX

When Liss and Ben descended the stairs back into the living room, Virginia was sitting on the couch trying very hard to pretend she was reading the book in her lap. She gave herself away when she jumped at seeing another person come down with them.

"Who's that?" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, Liss, who is that?" Angelo asked, quirking an eyebrow at Rexia, seeming able to tell there was much more to her than met the eye.

"She's one of my superhero friends, Sensei," Liss told him. "We heard they're reopening the old amusement park and there's some kind of concert tonight we were gonna check out."

"Can I go too?" Virginia blurted out.

She went rigid as her father turned and stared at her with deeply questioning look in his eyes. "All three of you are you going to this place, huh?" Angelo asked slowly. "You're not expecting any…trouble there, are you?"

"Sensei, I'd already be there if I thought monsters were sneaking around," Liss replied, giving him her most honest face. After a few seconds he nodded in response. A very slow nod, of a concerned father who trusted the person before him but unsure if he trusted them quite that far.

After a while he said, "All right. BUT. Nobody even thinks, let alone talks about powers for Ginny or her being within five hundred feet of any monsters you guys see. Now or ever. Is that perfectly clear?" He declared.

Rexia took a slow, deliberate step forward. "The Mythos are growing even now, and this one—"

"I said, am I clear!" Angelo repeated, more forcefully now. Rexia didn't flinch or step back, but she didn't try to refute Angelo's assertion again, either.

But Virginia stood up, and spoke up. "Why do Liss and Ben and their friend get to fight monsters and have powers, but not me? Why am I different? Even if I wanted to be a Rider like her, and I'm not saying I do."

"Because I'm your father," Angelo said darkly. "That's why it's different." Virginia looked back at Liss, appealing silently for her to say something, but then her eyes fell on the the white orb replacing Liss's own eye.

Virginia turned to look up at her father again. "All right, daddy. All right."

Angelo nodded, then gave her a playful shove on the shoulder. "All right. Then go have some fun."

XXX

Marvel Land had been nothing but a deserted ruin for longer than both Liss and Ben could remember, but as Shift Runner rolled to a stop behind the fifth row of cars parked around it, it was obvious it wasn't anymore.

Giant strobe lights streaked back and forth across the night sky. Colorful lights flashed on rides and buildings, and as they watched an elevator finished climbing to the top of the drop tower before plunging back down at incredible speed. Behind it the train of the Dragon Prince, the park's rollercoaster, screamed by. Just beyond the raised tracks there was what looked like a large stage, and the group could just barely hear the sounds of blaring music above the ocean of noise coming from the rest of the park.

"I've never seen anything like it," Rexia whispered into Liss's ear from the back seat, although it was as if she was talking more to herself.

"I heard it was nothing special for a theme park," Liss answered, shrugging gently. "But I never been to one, so don't listen to me."

Rexia smiled. "All right, I won't. Let's go look around!" she said and took Liss by the arm and all but dragged her off the bike and into the crowds. Behind them Ben and Virginia rode in on Air Talon in its motorcycle form, and Ben held out his hand in a futile gesture to stop them as they disappeared into the crush of people coming and going around the park.

"What about Ben?" Liss asked, dragging her feet behind her and wondering what had gotten into Rexia. She hadn't been this eager about anything when Liss had been staying with her before.

Rexia gave a slightly teasing smile. "You said people come here to scare themselves for fun, right? They shouldn't be in any trouble, then, should they?"

"What does that mean—" Liss started to ask before Rexia hauled her toward a row of game booths.

They got to a booth with a row of squirt guns that contestants were meant to spray at targets to make little rocket ships fly up a bar to win prizes. On a shelf above the targets were rows of colorful teddy bears and other plushes.

"What are those?" Rexia asked, pointing at a display of colorful dinosaur-like dolls wearing dark red saddles and hiking boots.

"Um, I think those are from a video game, or a cartoon, or something? I don't know, I haven't really paid attention to anything like that for a while," Liss shrugged.

The operator, an unshaven college kid, gave them a look of annoyance. "Ladies, if all you're gonna do is watch, would you mind taking a step back? We got people here who actually want to play."

"We'll play," Rexia said, then looked to Liss. "Um, do you have money?"

That got a small laugh out of Liss, something that took Rexia back to when Liss was recovering under her care and challenged her beliefs about the infallibility of authority figures. Liss had seemed so confident and in control back then, even before Rexia had learned she was Tarock. Now, it seemed so obvious to link them, she felt a little foolish not to have made the connection before.

Liss slapped a handful of change onto the counter. "What's the matter, your Grim Reaper not giving you an allowance?" she asked. "Good thing mine did." They stepped up the counter and closed a hand around the handle of one of the water guns. The operator blew a whistle, and Liss and Rexia both squeezed the triggers and streams of water reached to the back of the booth and pounded into the targets.

As her finger tightened completely around the trigger, everything in Liss's view turned gray and seemed to stop for a second and she could see her shot was just a little off-center. She tilted the gun slightly and hit the target head-on. The little rocket ship shot up to the top and a plastic sign at the top flashed "WINNER" as an electric bell buzzed.

A second later Rexia hit the bell, and she actually threw up her arms and cheered, making a surprised Liss retreat a step to her side and bump into the kid next to her. Rexia turned and grinned at Liss, then grabbed her hands. "We won! We both won!" she gushed. "Aren't you excited?!"

"It's just a game…"

"But we WON!" Rexia insisted, her grin not moving at all.

"You sure did," interrupted the man behind the counter, "And what prize will it be for the big winners tonight?"

"Ooooh, I want the pink one," Rexia answered him, pointing at the assortment of booted dinosaurs. The operator got on his tiptoes, awkwardly grabbed the toy down and handed it to Rexia before he turned to Liss.

"And what about you, young lady?" he asked, sounding gradually more disinterested.

"Um, the turquoise one, I guess?" Liss answered.

Rexia shook her head. "No! The yellow one! They'll look cuter together!"

Liss squinted at her friend. Friend. That almost sounded like a foreign word in her mind. "When did you get all…like this?" she asked as she was handed her doll.

A lighthearted giggle was Rexia's first response. "I think it's because I'm finally out of Mazones," she answered. "There we were always waiting for the next Mythos attack. I was just staying inside all the time like I thought someday it everything was just going to be better somehow. I should've been out doing something with myself like you were, Liss."

Then without waiting for Liss to answer, Rexia pointed out a building billed as The Bug House with a brightly painted mural of smiling cartoon ladybugs and caterpillars climbing up beanstalks on the side. She led Liss inside and though Liss's eye got a few uneasy looks from the employees, they let Liss and Rexia into a twirling ride with the cars in the shape of smiling beetles. For a few minutes they spun around and around while Rexia clung to Liss's arm and giggled like it was something she'd never done before.

After a minute Liss looked down at Rexia as they whirled across the room again and again, and found she couldn't help but smile herself. She hadn't even thought about wanting to visit any place like this since she'd been little, but sitting in a silly ride with a smiling bug on the outside was actually making her feel like she had when she'd been practicing guitar again for the first time in years.

She was enjoying herself.

For the first time in she didn't even remember how long, she wasn't thinking of some vital goal she had to accomplish or sparing thoughts toward the Arcana who were after her. She wasn't being Tarock, she was only being Liss Decker, a regular girl enjoying a night out with afriend.

As they left Liss thought she saw Ben and Virginia in line to go in, but Rexia dragged her to a food stand and had Liss buy her a funnel cake and two corndogs. Rexia gobbled them down, but she didn't rush to their next stop as fast as she could anymore.

XXX

"I don't see them anywhere," Ben said, but he hadn't thought they would even before he and Virginia had gotten on the Ferris Wheel.

He hadn't even thought there were that many people in their whole town, but underneath them people moved like some kind of constantly-shifting blanket on the ground, going from ride to game booth to food cart. Virginia was leaning hard against the bars on the other side of their car as she looked out over the park too.

"No, we weren't really going to, were we?" Virginia sighed and sat back, biting off a mouthful of cotton candy, totally oblivious to the wads that had stuck in her hair while she was looking out over the crowd. "But this isn't so bad, right? It's kind of pretty up here."

"I'd like it better if I knew where Liss was," Ben replied. "I know she doesn't need anybody to protect her or anything like that, but—"

"Yeah," Virginia interrupted, a soft sigh escaping her lips. "Liss is pretty cool, huh?"

Ben looked away again so she didn't see his bemused expression. "Yeah, but didn't your dad tell you not to get too involved with her? I mean, the Mythos are still out there. Even Liss couldn't keep their boss from getting away. She's probably getting stronger and getting ready to send out even worse monsters than we already had to fight."

She frowned and wolfed down the rest of her candy. "I'm gonna be sixteen in another month. One month," Virginia said, her words muffled by the mouthful of cotton candy until she swallowed. "He can't tell me what to do for much longer."

The Ferris Wheel clacked to a stop and the door of their car opened. Ben looked at Virginia for a few minutes as they got out, studying her, before he said what he said next. "You know, this is the first day Liss has actually gone out and tried to relax since she quit school to be Tarock. Everything's so dark and dangerous with here. She's obsessed with it, or something."

"I know it's—"

"No, you don't," Ben interrupted, freezing her with an icy stare. He'd wondering in the back of his mind if he'd done the right thing by becoming Vaga for a while, but now he had actual experience to pass on. Maybe he could use it. "The first time I went to the Sphere I had to protect a bunch of old soldiers, but then I ended up having to kill an old friend of theirs…the guy was named Saal. The Mythos took him over. Do you have any idea what it's like to kill an actual person, kid?"

"Don't call me kid! Of course you have to fight, and sometimes you have to kill! Do you think I'm stupid or something?!" Virginia exploded. Ben stepped back in surprise and alarm, but she wasn't finished. "My dad's always saying how great it is Liss decided to fight monsters to protect our stupid little town! And she gets to frigging skip school and avoid her family and risk her life fighting monsters, and it's the best thing in the world and everybody in his kung-fu class should be just like her and support the community and all that kind of crap!

"But not me! I'm his precious little daughter! If I think about trying to get involved like the two of you, I'll get grounded til I'm thirty! What makes me so different?! And what if you and Liss can't beat all the monsters yourselves? You're the one who just said they're probably gonna be back, and they'll be even worse than before!"

Ben stared at the scowling girl for a minute in silence, not sure what to say to something like that. When he managed to find his voice, all he could say was, "Let's go find Liss."

XXX

Liss led Rexia over to the stage to see what kind of bands were playing and let her recover from her devastating meal a little. Rexia leaned on Liss heavily as she tried to regain her composure.

The band on stage, a bunch of toned Asian men in jeans and tanktops whose drum said "DRAGON SOUND" over a picture of a Chinese dragon breathing flames, pounded on their instruments for another minute as the girls came up, then all combined their efforts to produce a final blast of sound echoed by a shower of colorful sparks from the light rigging. The spectators cheered almost as loud as the last chord had been, and the musicians took a bow and filed off the stage.

A minute later stage hands appeared and started removing the instruments and most of the microphones, and then an unassuming man in a dark gray suit, with a gauze bandage covering half his face took the stage, and confused murmuring broke out among the crowd. Nonetheless the man smiled as he stepped up to the central microphone.

"Hey folks, how's everybody doing tonight?" he said, and no-one called out an answer, but the man only chuckled. "Oh, I know what you guys are thinking. 'We came to see a real band, not some old white guy!' Something like that I'll bet, huh?" he went on, his smile not dimming a bit. A few laughs here and there. "Well, just in case there's somebody who cares, my name's Carl Stanford and I'm the one who put this place back together and got the talent to come in for the concert, and I wanted to thank everybody for coming out tonight and making the park's reopening such a big hit!"

A cheer went up all over the crowd, and Stanford smiled and waited for it to die down. "And before L-Mitless comes out to entertain all you nice people," Stanford steamrolled, "it's come to my attention that we have a local celebrity here tonight! Your own hometown hero who was brave enough to fight the monsters who've been appearing around here! She's been gone for a while, but now she's back! Everybody give it on up for Tarock!"

Spotlights on the stage suddenly swiveled forward and focused on Liss. How they knew where she was, she had no idea, Out of the corner of her fake eye Liss could see a ghostly image of Lost, crying out and reaching out for her with one hand and the silver marks on her arm from Lost's tears felt like they were burning into her skin.

Then Lost was gone and the burning subsided, but suddenly Liss's stomach clenched and everything seemed to spin.

Something was very, very wrong.

Rexia shook her gently. "Liss? Are you all right?" she asked, but Liss staggered in the direction she remembered the last bathroom they passed being. She had to recover and get her guard back up so she could defend herself from whatever was going on.

"Well folks, looks like Tarock's a little camera shy!" Stanford called out, and a few ripples of laughter from the crowd drowned out the noise of the people who'd been standing near Liss puking all over the ground. "But hey, she's probably earned the right to some privacy—" Stanford went on, but Rexia looking after Liss, gasping in disgust at what the people around were doing but also detecting a feeling of something wrong, some sickening power in the very air. But at the same time it was something so dark and so alien as to be undetectable to a normal person.

But she'd been taken outside of normal a while ago.

Even at that distance her eyes locked with Carl Stanford, and a sly smirk formed on his lips.

XXX

Liss staggered into the first ladies' room she saw and kicked the door shut behind her. She felt she shouldn't have run, should have faced what was happening head-on, but Liss wanted to prove she was strong, not suicidal. Even as her stomach seemed to unknot and the urge to puke weakened, Liss was sure something from the Mythos was nearby, and with the way she'd been singled out in a crowd she was even more sure it was coming for her and had something terrible planned.

All of a sudden something smashed into the back of her head and knocked Liss forward, and her forehead banged against the edge of a sink as she went down. Everything seemed to be filled with green and blue fireworks for a second, and when they started to clear Liss realized she was looking up into the face of a huge, muscular man with close-cropped blond hair. He scowled down at her and reached for her torso, but wasn't sure if she was more or less alarmed when he instead felt in the recesses of her duster and pulled out her Fate Driver and four form cards.

"Not much without these, are you?" he grunted with a slight Russian accent.

Suddenly Liss lunged at him and bit his arm. He yelped in surprise and Liss grabbed the Fate Driver and wrenched it out of his hand. "No!" she screamed. "This is mine! Nobody can take it away!"

Her attacker jumped back toward the door and sneered at her. "Enjoy it if you can, without these!" he held up her four form cards, and sprinted out of the bathroom.

Liss grabbed the edge of the sink her head had crashed into and hauled herself up with a speed more than belying the bloodied bruise that was already forming. She could thank a rush of rage and adrenaline for that. Those cards and the power they held were hers. She'd reached out and taken the first when a killer monster had been on the loose in her town. She'd fought and suffered to gain them, to master them. There was a damn crystal in her head now to show for it.

And she nearly ripped the door off its hinges as she chased after the man who'd stolen them.

XXX

The next band, an all-female quartet, had taken the stage and launched into a captivating set with Carl Stanford off to the side, leering lightly. Rexia stared hard at him, sure something was wrong and that he was the cause, but unwilling to make any move with such a huge crowd around. She briefly entertained the thought of going to find Liss, but dismissed it since she didn't dare let Stanford out of her sight if he was up to something and wielding power as dark as she'd sensed.

A huge man appeared from the wings of the stage, walked up to Stanford and handed him something. Straining her eyes Rexia could make out four colorful cards with very recognizable golden symbols on them…

"Dark Embrace," she said immediately, and dark smoke billowed out from her body, forming itself into a dark suit and hooded cloak. A silvery gauntlet ending in a vicious curved blade three feet long flashed into existence around one hand. She'd become the powerful Trideka again, and seemed to fly over the crowd, trailing clouds of dark smoke as she landed in front of Stanford. The band members screamed in terror and jumped back, but Trideka paid no attention to them and leveled her scythe at Stanford.

"Give me those!" she demanded, but Stanford didn't look the least bit intimidated. Instead, he grinned and ripped the bandage off his face. Underneath his face was covered with green scales and the skin of his cheek had peeled back to expose sharp, needle-like teeth.

"You don't scare me! Oh, I know who provides your power, little one!" Stanford jeered, a hideous gurgle now resonating in his voice. Trideka slashed at him with her scythe but a white staff with a dark purple crystal appeared in his hand, parrying the attack, and he disappeared in a flash of light. "And I serve a power darker and greater than that!" His mocking words hung in the air for a few seconds after he was gone.

Trideka looked around, swinging her cloak wide and sending wisps of choking black smoke flying. The man who'd handed off Liss's cards to Stanford was gone, though she guessed he'd just disappeared into the crowd. As she scanned for him Trideka spotted a familiar face pushing her way toward the stage.

It was Liss Decker, and no-one tried to stop her as she climbed onto the stage and walked right through the clouds of deathly smoke coming off her body and looked into Trideka's skeletal mask without flinching.

"What happened? Why'd you change?" Liss asked. "Did you see the guy who stole my cards? Please tell me you did."

"I did, but he gave them to that man who organized this park opening…he's a Mythos, and he disappeared."

Liss growled. "Any idea where he disappeared to?" But Trideka didn't get a chance to answer her. The ground started to rumble, knocking Liss and the band members off their feet. Trideka stood firm, unaffected by the shaking.

In just a second the cause became obvious. The rollercoaster whizzed along its track just below a giant shape that rose to the sky just beyond it. It was like a black tree with huge twisted branches reaching out with no rhyme or reason, swaying in the air as if perhaps they were…arms, instead. It seemed impossible that something so dark should be visible against the night sky, but at the same time the thing seemed so ugly and out of place it was impossible not to stare at it in disgust and terror.

On top of whatever the hideous thing was, there was a huge, shapeless mass with pyramid-shaped blocks or crystals sticking out in all directions.

And coming from between two of the strange pyramids was a dark purple glow.

XXX

Stanford reformed within a circle of tall standing stones of numerous colors. It had cost a pretty penny to find specimens threaded with just the right veins of minerals to enable him to escape to them as he had, but it had saved him from an angel of death in the nick of time. It was worth it ten times over, in spite of the brave face he'd put on to keep her from thinking that even power such as hers was intimidating.

Yes, he'd felt a moment of fear when Trideka had attacked him. Even a being of power like himself could die, but then, a being of power like himself could outwit even death if they knew what they were doing.

And Stanford knew what he was doing, as he was about to prove.

He walked out to a balcony at the top of the crystalline mass atop the dark tree that had grown up outside Marvel Land. Already he could see a pair of winged shapes flying closer to him, carrying a large rectangular object between them. As they closed in he could make them out as a horned, red-skinned devils, but they didn't matter. All that mattered was the carefully-sculpted block of clear crystal they carried.

He banged his staff on the floor and a window appeared in midair and floated slowly around the room in a circle.

And in the sky above the park, huge floating windows showing what was unfolding in Stanford's private chamber. Exactly what he wanted.

Stanford stepped out of the way to let the two monsters land on the balcony and carry in the object that was the ultimate example of the power he wielded. As they set it down and moved it into position he waved his staff and changed even further. The scales spread across his entire body while a dark cloak formed around him as his body shrank and stooped forward, leaning hard on his staff and leaving only his shimmering yellow eyes peering out from underneath his hood. He had become the Warlock Mythos once again.

His transformation complete, Warlock shambled over to the crystal block and tapped it reverently with the tip of his staff and ripples of light traveled through it to its corners. The crystal block creaked and then four arms sprouted from the corners, each with fingers held up as it meant to clutch something.

Warlock reached into the recesses of his cloak and placed the red Card of Swords into the first hand, then charged it with a bolt of energy from his staff. "Rise Djinn, rider of the roaring gale!" he said, his voice half a hideous gurgle now. The card glowed with a crimson light and above it appeared a transparent image of a woman whose lower body was made of a miniature tornado. She held a long sword in one hand whose blade also seemed to be made of rushing winds.

Next he dropped the green Card of Pentacles into a hand and tapped it with his staff. "Rise Golem, wrecker from the earth!" The card glowed and a hulking human-like figure who seemed to be made of stone or clay appeared, with gigantic fists and mystical writing engraved on the monster's forehead. A pentacle was engraved into the material of his chest.

Then Warlock slipped the yellow Card of Cups into the next hand and energized it. "Rise Undine, deadly but beautiful!" The card glowed and an image of a woman with flowing blue hair and a fish's tail in place of legs appeared. In her delicate hands was a long golden spear with a barbed shell as its point, with streams of water rushing off it and disappearing as they got too far away from the magic weapon.

Lastly he placed the blue Card of Wands into the last crystalline hand, and charged it with a tap of his staff. "Rise Ifrit, bringer of a thousand agonies!" A final image appeared, of a vaguely female shape covered in licking blue flames. In one hand she carried a golden scepter with a ball of white fire rolling and spewing tiny flickers of flame every few seconds.

"Now, my creatures of the elements, go forth!" Warlock croaked with glee. "Let this be the dawn of the Order of Shining Darkness!"

The monsters' images turned into streaks of colored light and flew out of Warlock's stronghold then reformed as they hit the ground.

XXX

Djinn's long hair billowed out behind her as she brandished her sword and flew through the park, knocking people off the ground. Right behind her flew Ifrit, swing her scepter and shooting fireballs that blew up game booths and anything else they hit.

Undine swooped through the air at the stage, aiming her spear at one of the band members before Trideka dashed into the way and took the spear on her chest. Trideka only stood there, unmoving and giving no indication she was hurt before slicing at Undine's head with her scythe. The watery monster ducked back out of the way and swam through the air into the chaos that was unfolding in the park with Trideka hot on her trail.

In town Golem appeared, stretching up to his full twenty foot height, and started to batter the roofs off buildings at his shoulder level.

And as bricks flew from one of Golem's hammer-blows, a pair of dark-skinned men in outlandish uniforms appeared in the street.

"Wondering what Tarock's been up to now, maybe?" Lieutenant Loi asked his friend.

"I think we have other things to think about," replied Uthar.

Loi grinned and produced a rectangular device from his backpack and held it up to his waist, where a strap shot from one side and looped around his waist to lock into his new buckle on the other side. In his other hand he held up a card with a picture of a white stone tower being struck repeatedly by lightning.

"I think it's time we got involved," Loi said. Uthar nodded gravely as Golem saw them and stomped closer. Loi's grin didn't waver at all.

It was going to be the beginning of a long night.

XXX

Next time on Kamen Rider Tarock Re-Dealt…

(A Rider in a green and black mini-mech trades punches with the Golem)

Loi: Find Tarock! She'll know what to do!

(Vaga duels with Djinn, and jerks in surprise as two groups in green and yellow uniforms suddenly join the fray)

Ben: Liss, where are you?

(The band performs in the middle of the chaos, and in the crowd Virginia claps and cheers)

Virginia: She's wherever she has to be. I know everything will be all right…

(A pair of dark silhouettes watch as Liss and Uthar enter an opening in the black tree)

Narrator: Your fate is in your hands.

XXX

It appears I'm back, beginning a new portion of the story. This is where things start to ramp up for Liss, but also where she finds she's got more allies than she thought, some of them kind of unexpected.

Got to give credit where credit's due. The song Liss tried to play originally came from the mouth of Dave Lister, and while I can't find anything to indicate it's a full, real song, it sounded like it'd be a good one if it was. Ben's repertoire of cheesy, but awesome, love songs is thanks to Walk the Moon, Road Avenger and Tommy TuTone.

The band Dragon Sound was from the obscure but also awesome movie The Miami Connection. Check it out. You'll love it.

Hope you'll look forward to what comes next.