This Unabating Wakefulness
'Magi Magie Moonlight Makeup!'
Light flashed, petals fell from the blossom, and with the chime of bells, her feet lifted from the ground, dancing on moonbeams as she turned, her radiant hair splayed out around her, ribbons emerging from godspace, her makeup brush transformed into a wand tipped with crystal, armour of lace and satin wrapping about her as stardust and refracted rainbows emanated from her being, the warm, rose red glow of immense spiritual power radiating outward from her being.
Her white ankle boots, bejewelled and decorated with pearls, landed upon the grass once more, and she turned to regard Josh, her ash white hair shimmering and lustrous.
"I hope you can appreciate my disappointment, Joshua," she said softly.
With a cry of anger, Merlin charged, leaning into the wind as he closed the distance between him and the figure of the girl, her face away from him, her eyes set solely on Josh McClain. At his feet, the soil churned, his fists blistering with phoenix fire as he pulled back his arm—and was thrown backwards through the air, crashing into the dirt behind Genki.
The Authoress remained with her back towards them, her attention focused solely on Josh.
"I spent a long time arranging for your transformation into Armoured Hero Saturn and this is how you replay me?"
"Y-You're not Jennifer," Josh whispered, regarding her fearfully from behind his black visor.
She smiled softly.
"There never was a Jennifer. I invented that memory for you."
Angrily, Merlin pulled himself up from the ground.
"I'm not done yet!" he shouted, sliding each of the four rings onto his hand.
The belt stirred into life once more and from his robes, he took out a final golden ring.
'Phoenix.'
'Djinn.'
'Golem.'
'Leviathan.'
Deftly, he slipped the ring onto the index finger of his other hand, then passed that over the belt's buckle.
'Grand Ziz!' the machine cried out with jubilation.
From about him, it seemed as if the shadows of his other forms flickered into existence, converging about him in the manner that Orion's armour had once done. The sigil of his ancient calling flashed brightly, brilliantly upon the ground, the whisper of voices chanting in that old angelic language, Enochian script carved into the soil at his feet—and then Merlin Seno cast his arm out, dispensing of the illusions, revealing himself in armour of glittering gold and darkest shadow, the facsimile of all his other forms presented as mere facets of this new armour.
Tamashii Genki drew forth the tuning fork again from his pocket and glanced in Senkai's direction.
"We better get moving, little bud, or we're going to be left out," he said with a grin, striking the fork against his leg, flames ignited, his armour called forth, not entirely dissimilar from that which Kazama had once wore, yet distinct in its serpentine design, the helm transformed into the likeness of a dragon, a suggestion of his familial crest.
Hesitantly, suddenly plagued with doubt, Mashuto Senkai looked down at the belt about his waist, remembering the horror of the Creeper Weed, its consumption of his very being, vines wrapped about him. Doubt consumed him, the sudden fear that he would once more be eaten alive by the keys he had been given, that somehow all of them had been poisoned—
—"The keys adapt, they transform," Atsumi said clearly, her hands folded before her, the vast white emptiness of the digital space around them. "It would be remiss for Demonseed Innovators to bring to market a product line without durability, thus any attempt to mod or otherwise hack the keys you hold in your hands will result in resistance, the mechanism learning from attempts to exploit perceived weaknesses will result in the mechanism learning and adapting in kind."
Doubtfully, Senkai turned over the key in the palm of his hand, silver and red, the words 'Illusion Fox' clearly marked upon its side.
"What if it's out of reach of the satellite?" he asked, lifting his eyes to regard her, her simple grey uniform, her dark, bobbed hair. She was not exactly unattractive, he thought in that moment, and for a brief second he tried to imagine what a relationship between them would be like, what romancing a gynoid would mean, and even more, what it would say about him.
Blushing suddenly, he pushed the thought from his mind.
"The satellite is not required for the keys to learn and adapt," Atsumi responded, oblivious to his secret considerations of her form. "Of course, it is beneficial to maintain contact with the satellite so that all knowledge can be collated and incorporated into the database, yet the keys are capable of independently learning."
He looked down at the key for a moment longer, considered this, and then shrugged.
"Well, I guess that solves that, then," he remarked. —
—From the pockets of his trowsers, he brought forth two keys, sliding them one after the other into the belt, the machine stirring into life.
'Flying Falcon! Authorise! Blazing Tiger! Authorise!'
From his waist, light shone forth, the insubstantial shapes of a falcon and a tiger momentarily glimpsed before him as the mechanism of his complex belt rendered the blood red and purple armour about, sheets of metal gliding together, disguising his grubby clothing and dirt-stained face, transforming him once more into an armoured hero.
'Firestorm Gryphon!' the belt's voice announced, and then stuttered, the display flickering in an obvious glitch. 'oh shit whaddup!'
"Hmm, might need to work on that," Senkai muttered with disapproval.
With disdain, the Authoress turned her attention from Josh, her hair sweeping behind her as she faced them, the whisper of ancient starlight about her. She regarded each of them in turn, Merlin, Kurogane, Kazama/Rocket, Genki, and Senkai, and her expression remained cold, indifferent.
"You boys are distracting me," she announced, eyeing Kurogane especially, "and I expected better of you, to be honest."
With a wave of her hand, a wall of mercury sprung up from which emerged four armoured warriors, their helms decorated with antlers, their white armour arrayed in gemstones; emerald, amethyst, topaz, lapis lazuli.
"C3! Dáinn!" cried the first, unsheathing his sword, emeralds glittering on its hilt.
"C6! Dvalinn!" cried the second, pulling forth a staff decorated with amethysts from his back.
"F3! Duneyrr!" announced the third, pulling an arrow fashioned from topaz from his quiver and drawing back the string of his bow.
"F6! Duraþrór!" called the last, drawing forth four playing cards and tossing them to the ground, watching as each one transformed into a tiny little robot shaped from lapis lazuli.
"Harts there are also four," they cried in unison, "which from its summits, arch-necked, gnaw. Dâinn and Dvalinn, Duneyrr and Duraþrór!"
Behind them, the silver faded, revealing the shape of the Authoress once more, Josh McClain at her back.
Hesitantly, Kazama/Rocket glanced in Genki's direction.
"What is up with these guys?" he murmured.
"The four harts," Kurogane growled, "the Authoress's Royal Guard."
"I thought you might have forgotten us, Kurogane," Dáinn growled, hefting his sword up and glowering at the other man from behind the brilliant green of the two swollen omnilens that decorated his helm.
Kurogane shook his head.
"I haven't forgot you, no," he murmured, "I just hoped I would never see you again."
Behind the four figures, the Authoress sighed and rolled her eyes.
"I tire of this," she remarked, lifting her hand, "we need somewhere quieter to talk, Joshua."
She glanced in the direction of her four knights, then at the assembled group they faced, and shook her head with displeasure. There was a moment in which no one moved, and then she snapped her fingers—
x
—and they were elsewhere, the two of them still arrayed in their glamour, sat at the back of the 144 bus between Muswell Hill Broadway and Turnpike Lane bus station.
She turned to regard Josh, trees in autumn glimpsed outside the window at his shoulder.
"Joshua," she said softly, turning away and looking at the empty seats before her. "I wonder if you understand the importance of who you are."
Behind the black mask, Josh McClain was silent.
"I understand that you lied to me," he announced, his voice firm yet devoid of anger.
"And yet by now, you must understand that you were also complicit, yes?"
There was silence between them for a moment.
"You mean that I have always been Saturn?" he asked.
She smiled but did not return her gaze to him.
"Whoso keepes the fig-tree shall eat the fruit thereof," she said aloud.
He did not challenge her, did not question the meaning of her words, and yet he remained glaring at her, watching her as she, in turn, watched the emptiness of the silent bus crawled along the curve of Greater London's northwardly outskirts.
"Why wasn't I told the truth?" he asked after a moment.
She waited a heartbeat.
"I was worried it would consume you. What is that Robert Caro quote about how power reveals your true intent? Once you get power, then you see it, what he really wanted to do. I was worried that the intent of a child with such power would prove too great for any of us."
"So you waited?" he asked.
She nodded.
"I waited until you were old enough, until I knew you had received the proper tutelage."
"And now I have this power, what do you want me to do?"
She was silent again, and then, at last she sighed and shrugged.
"I don't know. Destroy this place for starters."
He looked aghast at her.
"B-But this is your realm?" he protested.
She scoffed.
"It's a prison just as much for me as it is for Merlin. I thought I was so clear, cheating Death, but, in the end, all I brought was isolation. This is no place for stories. This," she said and gestured at the silent autumn beyond the window, "this is a vacuum."
x
Kazama/Rocket stepped forward, cracking the knuckles of their worn leather gloves.
"Guess I'll start this one off," they remarked from behind their Union flag bedecked helm.
"This isn't your fight," Kurogane growled, "they are my foes."
Kazama/Rocket shrugged.
"She summoned them here to deal with all of us. I figure I've got just as much say in this as any of you."
Without waiting for them to complete their conversation, Dvalinn abruptly launched himself forward, staff turning through the air as he rotated his body and stepped forward, driving the amethyst tipped weapon forward and causing Kazama/Rocket to throw up their arms to block the blow.
Kurogane took a step forward and stopped, a topaz arrow thudding in the ground at his feet. He looked up to see Duneyrr glowering back at him.
"Wait your turn, old man," the other snarled.
Dvalinn lifted himself up into the air, pirouetting, spinning his staff about and slamming into Kazama/Rocket again and again, a growl of displeasure rising from them with each fresh impact.
Beneath the unusual armour, itself the result of the fleeting temporary consumption of Kazama's soul by Punk Rocket, the two men struggled to hold their ground, managing at last to jump back out of the way of Dvalinn's whirlwind attack for just long enough to regain their senses, duck beneath another blow, and bring their right fist up in a devastating uppercut that caught the newcomer beneath the chin, lifting him from the ground.
Mashuto Senkai glanced at Kurogane, Genki, and Merlin, smiling mischievously beneath his mask.
"That's my cue," he shouted, sprinting suddenly forward and launching himself into the air, purple and red light spinning out from him like a secondary set of wings as he leapt over Kazama/Rocket's head.
'Dual Impact!' the belt announced as he closed the distance between him and Dvalinn, flames igniting as both feet slammed into the other's chest once, twice, and their enemy was thrown backwards, tearing up the ground as his entire being was consumed in the flames of Senkai's attack.
Staggering, clutching his wounded side, the warrior with the amethyst tipped staff tried to steady himself and then dropped to one knee, his armoured likeness scorched and burnt. Shakily, he rose to his feet only for Dáinn to restrain him.
"I thought I told you no more messing around," Kazama/Rocket said with displeasure.
Senkai shrugged.
"Guess I forgot," he smirked.
Abruptly, he twisted, sensing danger, narrowing dodging an arrow as it sailed past him and was swallowed up in the fog.
"I see you whelps aren't good with manners," Duneyrr growled, readying his bow once more.
"It's not a case of manners," Genki called out, drawing his guitar from his back with one hand and pushing Senkai back with the other, "it's about getting this over with as quickly as possible. None of us here have time to waste on you guys, and we've all got a bone to pick with your mistress."
"In that case," Duneyrr snapped, pulling back the bowstring once more, "you'll have to—"
His head was thrown suddenly back as Merlin flashed into existence beside him, smashing the back of his fist into his mask and sending him flying back.
"Way of Blessing number 26! Brush of Apollo's Cloak!" Merlin shouted, a fireball igniting in the palm of his hand tossed outward with the flick of his wrist.
Angrily, Duneyrr twisted and struck the blistering ball of flames away, sending it out at an angle where it burnt up into nothing before it touched the ground.
"You three certainly have high opinions of yourself," the archer remarked, and then turned to regard Kurogane, "and you, I thought better of you, siding with these ruffians against our mistress."
Kurogane Weiss let out a grunt.
"Our mistress," he mockingly said, "has been lying to me about my past."
"Or perhaps you've been lying to yourself," Dáinn remarked.
Kurogane tensed, a sudden fear overcoming him. Slowly, he turned away from the four knights and saw, standing amongst his new colleagues, another with his own likeness, dressed in a smart white suit and grinning cheerfulness.
"Hello," the other version of him remarked, his cadence and speech so utterly different from Kurogane's own. "You ready to come home now, Weiss?"
x
"Don't you own this world?" Josh asked with confusion. "Don't you have some kind of responsibility to it?"
Again, the Authoress sighed.
"Yes and no," she murmured, resting her arms on the chair in front of her. "It is mine in that I won it in a game of skill but it's also a burden. Merlin thinks I incarcerated him here as some sort of wicked scheme to steal away his power, but, in truth, as much as I disliked him back then, I simply didn't want to be left here by myself."
A sudden anger seized Josh.
"And so you changed my future? For that you changed my future? You played these games with all these people because, what, you were lonely?"
She looked at him, confused as to why he would be angry.
"Yes," she answered simply, "if anyone is going to understand what it's like to be trapped somewhere haunted by yourself it should be you, Josh."
"But you did this to me," Josh retorted angrily, "you stole my childhood from me! You made me believe I had let a sister I didn't even have die."
"He that waits on his master shall be honoured," she remarked with a playful grin.
Reaching back, he lifted the helm from his head, shaking his hair free and looking at the young girl sitting beside him with a mixture of frustration and anger.
"I want to go back," he said firmly.
"And do what?" she asked, not turning to look at him.
"I don't belong here," he said, and then quietly added, "I don't belong with you. You're not my sister."
She was quiet for a moment.
"You will do great things, Josh."
A chill ran down his spine.
x
A chill ran down his spine.
"Yes," the other grinned, "I'm exactly who you all think I am."
He turned from the Royal Guard to the gathered heroes, to Senkai, to Genki, to Merlin, to Kazama/Rocket and Kurogane. And with a sigh, he gestured with his hand.
"I'm Death, you guys. Christ, you're slow on the uptake."
The fog seemed to thin, pale rays of sunlight touching them, affording, for the first time, a view of that world, its vast horizon of emptiness, its endless gravel pits and warehouses, its lonely, uninhabited cities.
"A-Are you here for us?" Genki murmured softly.
Death shook his head.
"Weiss notwithstanding, no, I'm not here for you. I'm here for this world."
"We won't let you take him," Senkai said, suddenly full of determination.
Death offered the boy a sour look.
"Oh, do behave. Haven't you worked out who he is yet?"
There was silence for the longest time.
"Guys," Death said with exasperation, "Weiss is me. We're the same person."
Senkai turned to ask Kurogane a question and realised that he was no longer amongst their number.
"W-What happened? What did you do?" Kazama/Rocket demanded.
Death shrugged.
"I took him back into myself, absorbed him, I guess you could say." He looked around at the endless vistas of nothingness, the lonely, empty expanse of a realm deserted by its caretaker. "And now, I shall take this place also."
He smiled and offered them a wink.
"Whilst the cat's away and all that."
"Wait, what will happen to us?" Merlin demanded, suddenly anxious, as if being separated from the realm he had been trapped in for so very long, the world he wished to be free of, would somehow render his struggle meaningless, pointless.
Death shrugged, and there was a sudden shift, the Royal Guard absent, the bitter taste of black sand on the wind, the endless nothingness of the lonely Sands of Time.
"Each to their own place," Death remarked.
"Wait, we don't belong here!" Genki cried out in alarm.
Again, Death shrugged, and then gestured to a shredded jacket decorated with red flames laying abandoned nearby.
"Oh, look, someone else has been here before you, another visitor to your world. Maybe if you hurry, you can catch up with him."
Kazama/Rocket looked from the abandoned jacket to the man with Kurogane's face.
"I hope we never meet again," he growled.
Death smiled patiently.
"We will," he remarked.
And with that, he was gone, leaving the gathered heroes alone in the bitter wind and the endless dunes of the Sands of Time.
A/N: Genki Tamashii created by Rider09 ~ u/1938693
Punk Rocket and Ryunosuke "Ryan" Kazama created by Kamen Rider Chrome ~ u/676659
Zackery Masayoshi Orion created by Lewamus Prime 2019 ~ u/6878339
Merlin Seno created by Timelordkid ~ u/4006703
Mashuto Senkai created by Kamen Rider Yokai ~ u/4133255
Josh McClain created by dannyrockon122 ~ u/5185539
