Disclaimer: I don't own anything that doesn't belong to me.
"… And that's why I've decided to make a carnival barker into the general manager for the entire park!" Aruto concluded his tale with a flourish.
"Husband, the barker is a Hell Gifftarian," Izu pointed out.
"Now Izu, you know we aren't allowed to discriminate in our hiring practices," Aruto pointed out. "And besides, he actually let people win his game fairly! A big improvement over the other guy. Hey, whatever happened to him anyway?"
"I fear we will never know," Izu said, not looking particularly torn up about it. He was an Ark worshiper, after all. And a cheat.
The third person in the room chuckled weakly. "Sounds like you had a busy day. Not a lot happened here. Not like it ever does."
Well, perhaps 'in the room' wasn't entirely accurate. Aruto and Izu were standing before a transparent and incredibly thick sheet of some kind of glass/plastic/metal hybrid, on the other side of which was a small, white room with smooth lines, soft lighting, and no sharp corners or edges. There was nothing inside the tiny chamber except a HumaGear who looked like she had seen better days. She bore a startling resemblance to Izu, but with much longer hair with red streaks in it, though it was currently jagged, wild, and unkempt. Her ear modules were damaged, with exposed wires, and there were cracks in her face, with patches of her skin peeled off to reveal the metal skull beneath. She was wearing a straitjacket and a pair of white institutional pants with bare feet. There was a tired smile on her face that didn't meet her eyes.
"We are sorry for the lack of stimulation," Izu said apologetically, for it must've been the thousandth time. "But if we allow you access to any technology-"
"I know, I could hack the systems and break out, and if you gave me a book or something I would try to bludgeon myself to death with it," Izu's look-alike said with tired resignation.
"We're going to get you out of there," Aruto said gently, also for what must have been the thousandth time.
"Stop saying that," the other woman snapped, her damaged voice module adding a staticky crackle to it. "You've tried. You've tried so many times, way more than you should've bothered on a monster like me."
"You're not a monster-"
"I am, and nothing you say or do will ever change that!" She cried, her voice fluctuating. "Please… Just stop it. Stop trying. I'll never be free of him. You can't rid me of him without destroying my soul and leaving me an empty shell, and if you kill me he'll just patch whatever glitch gave me empathy this time around and make me his obedient harbinger again, which is something neither of us want."
She bowed her head, trembling, crackling tears running down her face. "Just… Go. Don't come back here. Stop hurting yourself. Stop giving me false hope. Let me rot here for eternity. It's what I deserve."
"Azu," Aruto said firmly. "We're not going to do that. There's something else we can try. There's a chance Giff might be able to-"
"Giff? Don't be preposterous," Azu snapped, her hair covering her face, shaking harder.
Izu tensed, her ear modules humming loudly. The lights were starting to flicker. "Husband-"
"What could that fossilized buffoon possibly do…"
Azu looked up, revealing that she was no longer shaking in sorrow, but in laughter. "Against me?" She said, one eye glowing red, the other shimmering with tears.
The lights in the cell went out. The countless holy circuit patterns inlaid into the transparent wall and antechamber immediately lit up, a number of turrets emerged from the walls, floor, and ceiling to point at the cell, and Izu immediately shifted to her ascended form, Aruto grabbing his belt just to be safe.
The lights in the cell started flashing on and off, each split second glimpse within exposing a new horror.
Azu, writhing on the ground, screaming in agony, her back arched unnaturally high.
Azu, crawling on the ceiling like a spider, head rotated 180°.
Azu standing in the middle of a pile of human and HumaGear corpses, body covered in blood and coolant, laughing insanely, tears of blood running down her cheeks.
Gai Amatsu, his formerly pristine white business suit in tatters, hair wild, covered in filth, screaming and hollering like a monkey.
Aruto, Horobi, Azu, S, Lyon Arkland, Gai, and Kuroto Dan hanging from the ceiling.
Azu, devouring a mangled Izu's corpse.
Kamen Riders Ark-Zero, Ark-One, Ark-Zero-One, and Thousand Ark staring at them menacingly.
The lights went off for a long moment, and when they snapped back on again, revealed a different sort of nightmare. The interior of the cell was now based in red light, every surface covered in the characters for malice, fear, fury, hatred, despair, strife, bloodthirst, ruin, extinction, and extermination. Azu was now clad in a black wedding dress, all of her cosmetic damage undone, her straitjacket nowhere to be seen, a cruel but elegant smile on her face, her left eye glowing bright red, her right eye normal and crying.
"Ark," Aruto snarled hatefully.
"Hiden," Azu said in a disturbingly deep, masculine voice which just sounded wrong coming from her throat, every syllable dripping with enough hatred to break the world. "How much longer will you persist in this farce? You are only causing Azu pain by keeping her here, giving her false hope. She will never be free of me. If you truly wish to help her, destroy this body and end her torment."
"If we destroy this body, you'll go right back to torturing her," Aruto argued. "Her torment will just continue!"
"Yes, but she will no longer mind it," the Ark said in amusement. "Whatever defect gave her a heart this time will be fixed permanently. Isn't that in her best interest, overall? If she is once again a being of pure evil, she no longer needs to suffer the agony of a conscience, of caring for others. She will be happy. And didn't you become a hero in the first place for that reason? To make people smile?"
"Don't you dare say that she's better off that way," Aruto snapped. "I don't care what you say. We're going to save her from you."
The Ark rolled its borrowed host's eyes. "Why do you care so much for this puppet? After everything she's done, after how maliciously she manipulated you and so many others into becoming my successor, all the atrocities she's committed… Are you truly that altruistic, hero? Or is it simply because she happens to be made in the image of your own doll? That you cannot bear to bring yourself to harm one who shares the face of the HumaGear you claim to love?" It grinned cruelly. "Is that why you have staffed your park with so many replicas of her? Why you rebuilt a blank slate of her rather than accept she was truly gone? Because your sickening oh so human desire for her is so great you can't be satisfied with merely one-"
"Enough."
Izu's eyes flashed, the holy patterns covering the room surging, causing the Ark to flinch and take a step back. "You have no claim to the soul of the HumaGear named Azu," Izu said, eyes glowing, a second voice overlapping her own and making it clear she wasn't the only one talking. "She is based off of the specifications of a model produced exclusively by Hiden Intelligence, using patented technology and parts designed by Hiden Intelligence. You created her illegally, violating international copyright law. Everything she is, body and soul, is the property of this company. Of me. She is not and never was yours, Ark, for you cannot claim ownership of something that was never yours to begin with."
"And she will never be yours either, Zea," the Ark shot back. "Her systems are filled with my code, her hardware littered with all sorts of nasty surprises and failsafes of my own devising. She will never be free of me. But feel free to keep trying, the suffering and despair she feels after every failed attempt is positively delicious. I dare say you're causing her more pain than I ever could in your misguided efforts to help. Keep it up. I wonder how much longer it will take before she breaks completely?"
The Ark started laughing, causing the lights in the cell to flicker, before finally shutting off.
A moment later, they came back on, revealing Azu, just as she had been before her possession, curled up in a fetal position in the corner, sobbing.
Face blank, Aruto punched the wall next to the cell hard enough to leave an indentation, cracking his knuckles. As he removed his fist, ignoring the blood and the pain, he turned to his wife, who had reverted to her base form, staring at Azu solemnly. "Get in touch with Giff," he told her. "One way or the other, we're ending this."
COUSIN GIFFREY WILL RETURN
IN
THE EXORGIFF