Disclaimer: None of the universes that appear in this work belong to me.

Author's Note: There are massive spoilers for Blade and Decade in this chapter, and mentions of things from pretty much every Heisei Rider series (nothing that'll tell too much about the others, I don't think, but fair warning). There is also a fair amount of gore, and a lot of playing with theology.

Part Ten: Things Fall Apart

"So." Tsukasa comes into the studio and sits at the table with his usual flourish. He's in fresh black pants now and a light pink, long-sleeved shirt. Crossing his arms over his chest, he fixes his gaze on Kenzaki. "Tell us what's going on."

Kenzaki studies his hands, clasped together on top of the table. He's also fully dressed again, in one of Natsumi's grandfather's shirts and a spare pair of Tsukasa's pants. For the first time since he joined them there's no evidence of his inhuman blood showing. "What do you know so far?"

"Yuusuke was tricked into becoming the Ultimate Darkness. He's changing people like our friend upstairs into Grongi. When we tried to find Yuusuke, he sent us to you." Tsukasa speaks to a point just to the left of Kenzaki, though his tone is very matter-of-fact. "And whatever you did to us, to Natsumi and I during the Rider War, is going to destroy us."

"No!" Kenzaki's head snaps up, hands clenching into fists. "It wasn't our fault. It's not our fault. And it doesn't have to turn out that way."

"Isn't your fault?" Tsukasa stands, eyes sliding over to meet Kenzaki's. He moves slowly, stalking around the table toward the other man. "Who was it that forced me to become the Destroyer of Worlds, Kenzaki? Who hounded me, chased me, turned my friends against me?"

"I didn't—"

"Tried to turn Yuusuke against me. Was he really willing to help me, when my survival would mean the end of his world? Better he just stood back and did nothing. Better he be paralyzed by fear and doubt than act on behalf of a friend. So self-righteous, so determined, trying to save the universe from the human monster." Mouth curled in a disdainful snarl, Tsukasa shoves the other man.

"You did it on purpose!" Kenzaki surges to his feet, hands shaking, curling towards Tsukasa before he pulls back. "You're human, to your core, and you knew what was going to happen. Every world you walked through would be dragged into the chaos and destroyed, and you didn't care. You still kept traveling. As long as there was something there for you to rule over in the end, you didn't care."

"That's not true." Shaking his head, Tsukasa prowls around the other man. "I didn't know that the worlds would die because I visited them. How could I? I had barely seen a decade's worth of life when I started traveling."

"You worked for DaiShocker. Purposefully. With no qualms or hesitation." Kenzaki's knuckles are white, his nails undoubtedly digging into the skin of his palms. "Traveled for them, with the intent of conquering every world you visited. You intended to kill us all so that you could have your little empire."

"Yes." Tsukasa stops, head tilting back, and grief flashes across his face. "I did. I was wrong, then. But the way you went about forcing me into the War was wrong, as well. I wasn't the boy you hated anymore."

"I didn't—"

"But I suppose you couldn't help it." Tsukasa starts walking again, completing his slow circle back to his seat. His tone changes as he sits down, becomes more contemplative, the words slower to come. "You were so lonely. Tachibana hadn't chased you for over three years. Not since the time he sat and cried for nearly an hour, and you were so close. So close. All you had to do was reach out, trust your instincts, and you could go home. But you were still scared of the beast inside you, uncertain of yourself. But now Hajime wasn't even looking for you anymore, turned his thoughts to you less and less. Kotarou's book was already being forgotten, the latest craze, every detail already picked apart and analyzed to death. Your existence doubted, or, worse, the ones who concluded that you and Garren were responsible for all the deaths. How many human lives to save one monster? And you still couldn't go home, because Hajime was there and because what would you say? They had obviously moved on by now. And they left you behind as a lonely, terrified monster that would live forever. Who wouldn't even get to see those he loved grow old, because you couldn't trust yourself enough to be near them."

"Shut up." The words are the barest whisper. Kenzaki's whole body is shaking, his face pale. "You don't know anything."

"I do." Tsukasa studies the ceiling as he speaks. "I know you, Kenzaki. You were so ecstatic when you found the other Riders. When they reached out to you and asked you to be a hero again… Wataru handing you Blade's belt, giving you a purpose again, and comrades. Friends."

"That's not why. We did what we had to do. We wouldn't—"

"Of course you only did what you had to." Tsukasa's arms wrap around his chest, hold himself tight. "For the universe to live, one man had to die. For your new friends to survive, for you not to be alone and hiding all the time, Kadoya Tsukasa had to be sacrificed. If you were in my place, you would have killed yourself a long time ago, when you first realized what the problem was."

Kenzaki doesn't say anything, seemingly frozen in place.

"And I understand. At least get the gist of it. Who was it that kept confronting me? Pushing me to finish what needed to be done? Who hated me the most, or pitied me the most, or a twisted, painful combination of the two? Kurenai Wataru and Kenzaki Kazuma. The two Riders who are also monsters, who have to suppress an inherent part of their nature every day of their very long lives, because they won't hurt people. And here I am, a nominally normal human, deciding to be a monster. It hurt so much, made you so angry…"

"How… how the hell do you know any of that?" Sitting back down with a quiet sigh, Kenzaki very gently places his hands palms-down on the table. "Not that it's all true, but…"

"But enough of it is." Tsukasa smiles, though it's a tired expression. "Because you're his, Kenzaki, at least in part. The monster and the wise man; the temper and the unbounded love. And you people fed me to him, made me his avatar completely. What he would know, I can know."

"That's great." Kaitou pulls his hand out from inside his jacket, letting his finger fall from Diend's trigger. Despite initial appearances, they apparently aren't going to have another Rider brawl in the middle of the photo studio. "Care explaining it to those of us who have no idea what the hell any of that meant?"

"During the Rider War, they made me Shiva." Crossing his legs with a flourish, Tsukasa reaches out to grab a cookie from the arrangement in the center of the table, completely ruining the effect. "The one who brings destruction, and thus creation. Apparently it stuck."

"No." Kenzaki shakes his head. "It wasn't our doing… not like you're thinking. The potential was already there. How many children do you know who can walk between worlds? Sometimes… sometimes godlings are born into the worlds. Avatars, you could say. Children who can tap into fundamental forces in the universe, shape things, create things in ways that normal people couldn't. It… very rarely goes well, for them or for those they love. You can ask Kido Shinji what happened to the ones he knew in his world, though if you do please be… kind about the time you choose."

"So you think I was one of those godlings?" Holding up the plate of cookies, Tsukasa offers one to Kenzaki, then to Natsumi, and finally, almost grudgingly, to Kaitou.

Kaitou takes one, anyway. No use spiting Tsukasa in a way that's only going to hurt himself.

"That's what we think." Kenzaki leans back in his seat. "Whatever you were trying to do, when you started manifesting your power, it resulted in a… it started twisting the worlds. Drawing every one that you touched closer and closer together. Creating bridges between them, but those bridges almost immediately started contracting, drawing the worlds after you. It would have destroyed everything."

"I brought back a flower for her, you know." Tsukasa studies his cookie as though the chocolate chips can tell him the secrets of the universe. "Before I got lost, I brought back a flower for my sister, so she could see how wonderful the worlds she touched were. I always planned on showing the worlds to her, one day. Making it so she wasn't afraid. Each time I changed worlds, I'd try to remember exactly what the last one was like. What beauties were there. What terrors. So I could give them to her, when I finally got home."

Silence reigns, and Kenzaki looks absolutely miserable when he finally continues. "Whatever you planned to do, you ended up working for DaiShocker instead."

"They found me. Brought me home. Let me be lord, called me Great Leader, gave me so many new toys to play with…" Tsukasa grins, a sly, whimsical expression. "You were twelve once, weren't you, Kenzaki?"

"I was." Hands clenched into fists again, Kenzaki's tone is as pointedly calm as any Kaitou's ever heard. "I was in an orphanage because I'd watched my parents burn to death and couldn't do anything to stop it. I already knew I wanted to keep other people from suffering like I was."

"Touche." Tsukasa inclines his head, just slightly, a little bow to Kenzaki. "You're a better man than me. I suspect most people probably are, though I like to think I've learned. Though I think I'm going to lose that, soon."

"Don't say that!" Leaning forward, Kenzaki glares first at Tsukasa and then at Natsumi. "Don't think it, either of you. The second you start giving in to it, the second you start accepting it… that's when you'll really start losing yourself."

"I played the part of a god tonight, Kazuma." Tsukasa settles back into his seat with a slight shrug. "And I did it well. I command fire. I think there's more of him than—"

"No." Natsumi's hand grabs Tsukasa's in a fierce, desperate grip. "You're still Kadoya Tsukasa. I'm still Hikari Natsumi. We're still human, and we're going to stay that way. We're going to bring Yuusuke back to us, and we're going to stay human. Understand?"

"Ah." As his fingers tighten briefly around Natsumi's, Tsukasa smiles. Kaitou's not sure he likes the look of the smile, though. Too much sorrow, not enough determination. "I understand."

"Well, I still don't understand." Kicking Tsukasa's leg under the table makes Kaitou feel slightly better; so does dodging the retaliatory strike. "Who's Shiva? What's this got to do with Natsumi? And how does any of this connect back to Yuusuke?"

"Live a sheltered life, don't you, Daiki?" Tsukasa's smirk is infuriating as he leans back, arms going behind his head.

Kaitou would never admit that seeing the smirk makes him feel better. Just like he'd never admit that he doesn't know the first thing about most religions, the strange concepts having been banned for several generations on his world.

"Shiva's one of the primary Hindu gods." It's Kenzaki who starts answering the question. "He's—"

"The Destroyer. The Dancer. Dancing worlds out of existence." Tsukasa doesn't look at Kenzaki as he makes his additions.

"That's just a part of what he is." Kenzaki manages to mix both annoyance and desperation in his tone. "He's the transformer. The force of change in the universe, depending on who you ask. He helps people, banishing ignorance, allowing growth in the world and the individual."

"I think I know him better than you, thanks." Stretching forward, Tsukasa reaches for another cookie. "We're destroyers. The Destroyer of Worlds."

Natsumi slams her hand down on top of Tsukasa's, causing the cookie to explode in a shower of crumbs. Pulling back with a snarled invective, Tsukasa cradles his wrist and glares at her.

She simply crosses her arms over her chest and glares right back. "No more self-pity. You're not a monster. You're not a destroyer. And you're damned well not Shiva, either."

"Care to dance some of the lasya with me, love?" Tsukasa hits the inflections perectly, and Kaitou can't help but shiver.

Natsumi pales, hand rising as though she means to strike him. Studying her palm, she shakes her head, setting her hand back down with a trembling sigh. "I'm not playing games with you, Tsukasa. And I don't care if you're scared. Stop picking fights. We'll get through this."

"I…" Tsukasa pulls his injured limb in close to his chest. "I'm not scared."

"Oh?" Her smile is both tender and exasperated. "Because I am. I'm terrified, but I'm going to do the best that I can. She… I… she said it. We're too human. It twists the power. Makes it into something simpler than it's supposed to be, and thus more dangerous. Easier to abuse. But we don't want to be monsters, so we won't be. That's what being a Rider—that's what being human—is all about."

"Right." Placing both hands flat on the table, Kaitou looks at each of the other three in turn and speaks as slowly as he can. "Can we get this explanation to be a bit more linear? Because so far all I'm getting is Tsukasa may or may not be Shiva, who may or may not be a force of destruction, and it may or may not be Kenzaki's fault."

"In little words for you, Kaitou." Tsukasa points at himself. "Tsukasa. Shiva. The Destroyer. Natsumi. Parvati. Shiva's wife. The one who can tame him and stop his destruction."

"And Kali." Hunching down, Natsumi fiddles with her skirt hem. "Parvati's… dark form. Or… related to her. The destructive, threatening feminine force, I guess you could say. Shiva stops her bloodlust by throwing himself under her feet, shocking her back to her senses."

Tsukasa shakes his head. "I don't think that's going to happen, Natsumikan. You'll just have to have better control than that."

"Same to you." Giving his shoulder a shove, she grins. "We'll both have perfect control."

"All right." Kaitou kicks Tsukasa under the table again, just for good measure. He doesn't wince when Tsukasa's answering kick connects. "So you guys are gods, or are channeling gods? And how is this Kenzaki's fault?"

"Kenzaki would like to point out, once again, that it is not his fault." The kaijin-Rider raises his hand as he speaks. "We didn't make you a focal point; we just… helped push your story into one that the universe knew. One that could have a happy ending."

Tsukasa raises an eyebrow at Kenzaki. "A happy ending where I died."

"A happy ending where your friends lived and you had a chance to live, as well." Kenzaki sighs. "It wasn't an easy choice, Tsukasa. It wasn't something we wanted to do. But you didn't give us any choice. You attacked us first, remember. You almost killed Godai."

Tsukasa's face goes blank at the name, eyes dilating. "Godai… Yuusuke."

"Yeah." Kenzaki speaks slowly, leaning forward. "You didn't remember?"

"No." Tsukasa whispers the word.

Natsumi's hand inches forward, moving to cover Tsukasa's. His fingers curl around hers in a death grip.

Kaitou just sighs. This is why he doesn't work with people. Getting explanations out of them takes way more time and patience than he has. "Who's Godai Yuusuke?"

"Kuuga." Natsumi whispers the word. "He was another world's Kuuga, wasn't he?"

"Yes." Tsukasa nods, a jerky movement. "He was the most dangerous of them. I thought I should get rid of him first. It didn't… go well."

"To put it mildly," Kenzaki says. "He's the one who gave you amnesia. I guess it would make sense it's the last bit to come back."

Tsukasa finally looks at Kenzaki again, shaking off the effects of whatever memory he'd been surprised by. "Godai agreed to your plan?"

"No. Godai hated our plan. But it was already in action by the time he was capable of doing anything about it, and Godai… he wouldn't hurt us." Kenzaki's smile twists into a bitter grimace. "Be disappointed in us, but not hurt us. Especially when he couldn't think of anything else to do. He's the one who filled Onodera in afterwards, though, and sent him to help bring you back."

Kaitou considers having two of Yuusuke in one place before shaking his head. He's definitely not ready for something like that. "Right. Back on track, please. Tsukasa is channeling Shiva's energy. Natsumi is channeling Parvati's energy. And Yuusuke?"

Shaking his head, Kenzaki takes a drink of water before continuing. "Yuusuke wasn't part of the initial story. He's a victim of the Man in Black. Him, and everyone else that was involved in the Rider War. Have you three seen him yet?"

All of them shake their heads.

"Good. Then there might still be time." Kenzaki leans forward, voice dropping lower, talking faster. "We don't know who he is, what he is, but he's not human. He's been attacking Riders, attacking Rider worlds. We lost contact with Shouichi first. When Hibiki went to see what was wrong, Shouichi's world had just… gone insane. Agitos were being captured, tortured, murdered, experimented on. Entire families had been wiped out. There was so much fear, so much paranoia, and it came on so suddenly. Too suddenly. We should have seen what was happening, but we thought it was just people being… well, being the worst that people can be. They'd been talking about rounding up Agitos in his world since we first met Shouichi. The rest of us started organizing missions, sending help. Shouichi and Ashihara wouldn't leave, were determined they could still save their world, but we evacuated others. Children with Agito potential, elders, anyone who couldn't or wouldn't fight for some reason…"

Kenzaki shudders, a deep, convulsive movement, and stands up to start pacing. "We were horrified, but we were also proud of ourselves. We were being useful. Being heroes. Saving people who otherwise would have died, giving them relatively safe new homes to go to. Something good had come from Decade's story, after all, if we could help each other like this now.

"But then Kido stopped coming to help. When I went to his world, to see what was happening… the Rider War in the Mirror World was over. He was supposed to be free of it. But it had started again, and he didn't remember me. Akiyama tried to kill me. We started investigating that, too—we had the resources. We had people who were really good at organizing the resources, too. Hibiki's people are amazing. If every Rider had the type of organization that his do…

"He stopped showing up next. More Makamou than ever were appearing in his world, with new abilities. And because that wasn't enough, couldn't come close to breaking Takeshi, someone started bombing their facilities. Killing support staff, murdering and maiming Oni where they were supposed to be safest. Why? Because they were consorting with devils and demons. Because someone was telling people the Oni and those who supported them were evil, were the cause of the makamou appearing. People are so easy to confuse, to scare, to make afraid of things that are different from them.

"Everything escalated from there. The Orphenoch started open rebellion in Takumi's world; the human response was devastating, striking out at anyone who was Orphenoch no matter what their involvement. Wataru… Wataru killed a man with his Fangire powers. By accident, after… after more than enough provocation, but they videotaped it. They videotaped it and played it over and over again, on the news everywhere, hideous proof of the monsters and killers among us. And he was starting to believe them."

Kenzaki starts crying. He swipes ineffectually at the tears running down his face before sniffling and continuing on. "We were still trying. Everything was going to hell everywhere, but we were still trying to help each other. We started losing even the minimal contact we'd had with people, though. We'd go to their world, use the bridges, but we wouldn't be able to find each other. Would be met with resistance as soon as we stepped between worlds. One by one, world by world. And then… mine."

He stops moving entirely. Standing in the middle of the living room, the kaijin-Rider hybrid shakes and cries silently.

Natsumi goes to him, smoothes his dark hair away from his eyes and wraps her arms around him. Without hesitation Kenzaki hugs her back, burying his head on her shoulder.

Tsukasa's eyes narrow as he watches Natsumi comfort the other Rider. He tries to rise and move toward them, but it's easy enough to trip him. Kaitou shakes his head, just slightly, as he helps Tsukasa sit back in his seat.

Growling low in his throat, Tsukasa nods. He won't interfere right now, doesn't need to interfere right now, but it's obvious that he's still not happy about the situation. Kaitou's going to have the bruises to show how unhappy Tsukasa is, the man's fingers digging into the muscle of his shoulder with almost inhuman strength.

"I don't know where he gathered them from." Kenzaki's voice is rough, his breathing labored. "They said… they said they were humanity's defenders. That they were after the monsters that were trying to infiltrate humanity, and those who would betray their own species and associate with the monsters. Everyone thought they were crazy, just this fringe group of psychotics… they made me angry, but I didn't pay them much mind. Not at first. Not for weeks, because they weren't important compared to what was happening in the other worlds.

"They captured him and held him for three days. Tortured him to try to get a confession out of him, but he didn't give them one. They posted it all on-line when they were done. They… called it a trial. A mockery of justice. He looked… so sad. Just so damn sad as they led him to the gallows, and read out their… sentence. For failing to kill Joker; for siding with Joker and thus endangering all life on Earth… they said he was guilty of murder. That the blood of every human who died during the Roach invasion was on his hands. They killed him. And I watched it, but I couldn't. Do. Anything."

Kenzaki throws back his head and howls, a sound of pure grief that starts human and ends in a haunting, inhuman wail as his kaijin form rises to the surface. Natsumi's arms stay around him, holding the kaijin tightly against her. Eventually Kenzaki's cry fades and his knees buckle, though Natsumi lowers them gently to the ground.

Kenzaki's voice is grittier in his kaijin form, harder to understand. Given the man's propensity for slurring words, that makes him almost impossible to comprehend, and both Kaitou and Tsukasa move closer as he starts talking again.

"I watched with my co-workers as the news-stations showed the live Internet stream. That was a mistake. I wasn't… ready to see something like that. To watch Tachibana die. I lost control, and when they saw my Joker form… they ran. Running from Joker is a bad thing to do. I don't think I killed anyone, but I… hurt some people." Kenzaki's eyes squeeze tightly shut, masking the most human feature about him, and Kaitou finds his gaze focused on Joker's too-prominent teeth. Teeth that are very close to Natsumi's neck, and he snakes out a hand to grab Tsukasa before the man can do something stupid.

"You didn't mean to, Kenzaki." Natsumi's voice is rough, too, and there are tears in her eyes. "You tried not to. It wasn't your fault."

"I should have done better. If I can punch God and come out on top, I should have been able to do better." Kenzaki draws in a shuddering breath and, with it, pulls his human form around him again. "The police captured me—or I let myself be captured. But they didn't keep me. They gave me to them. Gave me to the Man in Black. He smiled at me, so pleased with the situation, and asked what I thought of his work. Asked which world was the best. Asked what should be done to hurt Godai, hurt Tendou. He's a monster. Inhuman. He's good at pretending to be human, but when he drops the façade… his eyes…"

"Oh, come now, Kenzaki." The voice is a rich purr, coming from just behind them, and Kaitou spins, hand diving inside his jacket to close on DienDriver. "I rather like my eyes."

They're beautiful eyes. A rich, deep black, the iris somehow seeming even darker than the pupil. Or maybe there is no iris, no pupil, only deep, empty, swirling, awesome—

Tsukasa spins Kaitou around, pulls his head down and presses it tight against the pink fabric of his shirt. Drawing a deep breath, Kaitou tries to get his body to move as he wants it to again. It shouldn't be this hard. He shouldn't have the image of those eyes seared into his mind. Into his soul, and he pulls away from Tsukasa, turns back to the monster with only the faintest trembling of his hands to betray what happened.

The Man in Black is a good name for the creature. It's dressed sharply, in a black suit, black dress shirt, black trench coat and black boots. Fine black hair sprouts in a wild mass from its head, and black eyes peer out at the world. Its mouth is a deep blood-red, its teeth sharp white as it smiles and laughs. "So this is your little resistance, Kenzaki? Pitiful. Kotarou will be disappointed to die for something so… desperate. You do know I've touched all three of these already?"

"Don't you dare hurt him." Kenzaki surges to his feet, lunging toward the Man in Black before pulling himself up sharply. "I didn't run. They found me. Brought me here, and were asking about how to stop all this. So even if you've touched them, you don't own them."

"Once you let me inside, Blade, there's no going back. You should know that. Or do we need another demonstration of what you really are? Of the monster that lurks at your core?"

Kaitou can see Kenzaki's determination crack, fade as he meets the creature's gaze, and after a few seconds the Rider whimpers and takes a hasty step back. Kenzaki's eyes start darting frantically around the room, looking for an exit.

Anger surges through Kaitou, and he lets it run free, acting on instinct. DienDriver is out of its holster before anyone can react, and his shots find their target easily, five point-blank blasts into the creature's eyes.

The Man in Black simply laughs, wiping blood and bits of gelatinous substance off its face before fixing Kaitou with an amused look. Despite the blood, it seems completely unharmed. "Still childish as ever, Daiki. I like it, though. So straightforward, so simple, so easy to use."

"No one uses me." He looks at a point just above the creature's eyes. He's not getting snared in them again. "And I've never 'let you inside', whatever your creepy metaphor means. And I'll keep shooting you in the head until you leave, so you might want to consider relocation very strongly."

"Haven't you let me in? Running world to world, taking what you will, chaos ahead and chaos behind… I know you well, Kaitou Daiki." The Man in Black takes a step toward him, and the world bends around the creature.

The single stride moves the Man in Black farther than it should, puts him far too close to Kaitou, and watching the process makes the thief feel light-headed and nauseous. He doesn't appreciate either feeling, or the negative effect they have on his aim, but he whips Diend up and goes to pull the trigger anyway.

Tsukasa's hand on Diend stops him, and he looks over at the man.

Fire flickers in the depths of Tsukasa's eyes, though it doesn't dance along his skin now. Yet, maybe, and Kaitou takes a single step away from the man. Better safe than crispy.

"This is our place." Tsukasa's hand moves to rest gently on the Man in Black's shoulder, pressing him back first one step and then another. "You should leave it."

"You have several of mine here, little god." The creature smiles. "I'll come to see them whenever I want."

"Kenzaki's more mine than yours. Mine and Vishnu's, and if we're going to talk about overstepping boundaries…"

"Kuuga always belongs to me." Taking a step back, the Man in Black tilts his head in an expression that is almost coy. "Humans trying to bind me, and we all know that's a mistake. If you then made the mistake of trying to trump my power… well, that's not my fault."

Natsumi stands by Tsukasa's side now, though Kaitou can't remember seeing her move to get there. "Humans have the right to choose. Yuusuke had the right to choose. What you've done, these last months… it's wrong. It goes against all you are meant to be."

"Wrong? No. I break no rules. If I whisper, and they listen... if I cry fear, cry doubt, cry death upon the outsider, and they act upon it… Indeed, humans are free to choose. You only protest because they choose me rather than your bonny handsome light." The Man in Black laughs, and there is a black hat upon his head now that he tips forward, shading but not blocking his deep, haunting eyes. When he speaks again, his voice is sonorous, rich, and completely serious. "I do what I am meant to do, my lady. When I am called forth, chaos will crawl across the whole of creation."

"Then tell me, creature." Natsumi meets its gaze, hand sliding over to wrap around Tsukasa's. "Who called you forth?"

"Ah, now." The Man in Black fixes Kenzaki with his dark stare. "Who indeed was playing with the primal forces of creation? Who indeed was brash enough, brazen enough to think they could turn the basic stories of all things into their tools? Two of you had met your own Gods and struck them, but the universe is still much bigger than you, little Riders. Much bigger, and governed by balance. You bought your happy ending for your little corners of the multiverse, but did you ask what price you were paying?"

Kenzaki's head droops down, a slow, steady fall, and tears are trickling from his eyes again.

Kaitou starts screaming a second before the kaijin does, drowning the sound of inhuman heartbreak in his own fury. Diend's recoil feels wonderful in his hands as he shoots at the creature. Fumbling his henshin card out with trembling fingers, he slots it as quickly as he can into the weapon.

How dare he? How dare he make this their fault? How dare he imply they hadn't paid a price already? Before the War, Kaitou had always considered his own world to be the epitome of misery. People held hostage but smiling, terrified but unable to show it, the intelligent and the truly good among them either picked out early in life and groomed to work for the monsters in the government or hounded and killed if they ever tried to step out of line. Sure, other worlds had monsters, but the monsters didn't own your soul and your mind in most places.

The Rider War World, though… that was worse than his world. Tsukasa's disillusionment; the hopelessness and misery of watching the Riders—the heroes, the good guys, the ones he mocked because he was afraid they shouldn't really exist—hunt Tsukasa and then be slaughtered by Tsukasa; the terror and grief of watching first Yuusuke and then Tsukasa fall and being unable to do anything about it… unable to do anything about anything, for those miserable fucking days… that was more than enough price for the few months of happiness they've had since then.

"Don't, Daiki." They speak in perfect harmony, move as one. Natsumi hugs him from one side; Tsukasa places an arm across his chest, grabs the hand that's holding Diend.

Tsukasa forces the end of the weapon down, toward the floor. "You can't kill him with that. Not here, not now."

"Not ever." The Man in Black grins, cleaning off his face again and flicking blood against the wall with a flourish of his hand. "Poor little human, so angry and outclassed. So helpless, from the start of your life to its fast-approaching ending."

Tsukasa somehow manages to stare down at the creature, though they're about the same height. "Leave, Chaos. This is our place."

"Chaos?" The creature laughs again. "That's the only thing you can think to name me? I thought you knew me better than that, Shiva."

Natsumi shakes her head, the disdain she feels for the creature clear in her expression. "You've given yourself over a thousand names. But chaos will always be at your heart, and is as good a name for you as any. Now be gone, unless you'd care to test your hand against us."

"And tear this world to pieces? Ah, but that could be interesting." He grins, an expression that fades as he studies the two of them. "Soon, we'll meet in battle. Already the seeds of the end are spread far and wide… spreading wider with every moment, every heartbeat. The universe will die this time. And I will make it die beautifully, singing a song in praise of me."

They don't answer, and the Man in Black sighs. "Until the time is ripe, then. Hold the two of mine if you will, but know that you hold my poison close to your heart. Or have I already stolen your heart, and painted it black?"

The smile that he throws them could cut steel as the creature bows, coat becoming a cloak of deepest black velvet that swirls with the movement. Between one thought and the next the Man in Black is gone, leaving silence in his wake.

A silence deep and empty as the nothingness in the Man in Black's eyes, that can't even be broken by the soft sounds of Kenzaki's keening grief.