Disclaimer: Nope, still don't anything

JUMP!

The Rising Hopper ProgriseKey. The last gift my father gave me. How did he have it? Did he know what it could do?

I have so many unanswered questions about everything. Zero-One, Decade, Chaldea, so many questions, but the first has to be my ProgriseKey.

He said it would be the key to unlocking my dreams but how? It was powerful, yes, but there was nothing about it that could change the status quo of the world.

But… it wasn't supposed to be used in the ForceRiser. I remember in my dreams of the Driver Zero-One had. It was unique, no one else had it so… Does that mean I need the Zero-One Driver to change the world?

No. I can't change the world. Not even with a new Driver. At this point, the world was too far gone to be saved…

Section 11: To Tie Things Over

Within the alleyways of Tokyo…

"...Say, Mash?" Ritsuka said after a few minutes of thinking as he, Mash, and everyone else were making their way to the area the new Rider was apparently in.

"Yes, Senpai?"

"I've been thinking, since there's a version of me, Kadoc, and Ophelia here, is there a version of you here?" Ritsuka asked Mash. "Or even Chaldea for that matter?"

"Hmm…" Truthfully, Mash had wondered about that a while earlier but did not have the time to really think about it.

"Well, I don't think we've met our world's version of you," Hiden decided to pitch in as he was walking along with the two of them. "Granted, I'm not sure where you're from so maybe that might be why."

"I'm from Antarctica," Mash answered with a straight face, catching the natives of this Lostbelt off-guard.

"Excuse me, what?" The most vocal out of all of them was, of course, Kadoc. "What do you mean, Antarctica?"

"Chaldea's base- Well, first base… It was in the South Pole," Ritsuka explained. "Mash was born there so I guess that would be her home country."

"I would say Antarctica isn't a country, but it might be in your world," remarked Ophelia. "...Is it?"

"No, it isn't."

"I see."

"Why would anyone build a base in the South Pole of all places?" Kadoc did not see much advantage in being based somewhere so cold and remote.

"There were… reasons." Ritsuka frankly cannot remember much about Director Marisbury's reasons for building Chaldea in the Antarctic other than maybe to deter an invasion.

Needless to say, that last one did not work out too well.

"Aren't you guys getting off-topic?" Decade spoke up from the back of the small group. "I thought you were talking about a version of her being here?"

"Oh right," Hiden exclaimed, "Well, I would say I've never heard of Chaldea before, but that does mean much seeing as… you know?"

Just a look around at the empty buildings around them and they understood what he was talking about.

"Chaldea was formed back in '04 so there might be a chance that Marisbury guy did it," Decade added in his two cents. "But that would rely on that war happening, wouldn't it?"

"War?"

"That's… true…" The Holy Grail War in Fuyuki was pivotal in Chaldea's creation so if that did not happen, Chaldea wouldn't exist so neither would Mash.

"So, I might not exist here then." Mash did not know how she should feel about that. She knew she was at least thankful another version of her did not go through a robotic apocalypse.

"Actually, since Hiden brought it up just now, why were you here in Japan when… you know…" Ritsuka did not want to mention the incident specifically. "Aren't you from Poland?"

For Ophelia, they already knew why she was living in Japan when the HumaGears took over. Kadoc, on the other hand, was a complete mystery to them.

"If you think that my family was involved in what was going on in Daybreak, you're wrong," Kadoc answered with a huff. "My family just happened to have moved here before everything went down. I was a nobody who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Yet, you survived for so long. That's got to count for something," Ritsuka tried to reassure him. Since the Kadoc Chaldea knew had a (massive) inferiority complex, he assumed that this one might be the same.

"You say that as if surviving in this world is not all that bad."

...Okay, admittedly saying that him living in a robot-controlled world and having to fight every day for survival meant something was not the smartest move.

"If we're done discussing whether being alive is good or not, there's something I would like to ask Decade," Ophelia spoke up.

"Go ahead," shrugged the Rider in question.

"You mentioned that you knew who the Rider is."

"No, I said that there were three possibilities," Decade corrected her, "And before you ask, Agito, Gaim, and Faiz." Well, that was her next question answered. And to emphasize his answer, he pulled out the three corresponding KamenRide Cards. "Hiden's informant said that it was someone that Jin had fought so it has to be one of these three. Either the god-kicker, the space god, or the ash zombie wolfman."

"...Excuse me, what?"

"No, the god-kicker didn't kick the space god, he kicked a normal Earth god."

"Again, what?"

"...Wait, wasn't Takumi dead?" Decade muttered loudly, earning more confused looks from the others. "I really need to keep up with what everyone's doing. Maybe pay them a visit."

All across the multiple Rider timelines, 20-odd men shivered for reasons unbeknownst to them.

"Anyway, we better get a move on," Decade pushed the others, mainly Hiden, to go faster. "We don't have all day, right?"

"Hey, there's no need to push…" Hiden complained but was ignored as the group continued to go to their destination…

Sometime later, elsewhere in the city…

"Eh… There's really nothing around here…" Jin muttered as he spun around while walking down the empty street with Izu. "Hey, Izu. Are there any of our friends that live around here?"

Knowing that Jin meant that if there were any HumaGears that had taken residence in this part of town, Izu made a quick search before answering him. "No, this part of the city is completely abandoned. Only HumaGears in the architecture sector visits this area and seldomly at that."

"So no one would've seen if that guy came this way," Jin sighed as he stopped skipping. "Hmm… Maybe another aerial view would help."

"The chances of that helping us is low; there is a high likelihood the person we're looking for has hidden inside one of the buildings," Izu told him before he could pull out his ForceRiser.

"Is that so? That's boring," Jin sighed again. "So what do we do now? While it'll be fun, I don't really feel like busting down doors for the rest of the day."

"..." Izu's red HumaGear modules lit up briefly again as she looked something up. "The electricity grid had been accessed by one house in this area. It is safe to assume that is the place we should be investigating."

"Woohoo! Come on!" The easily excited android cheered before he pulled Izu along.

"Wait, Jin, it's the other way."

"Alright, come on!'

Takumi Inui glanced out of the window, keeping an eye out for any sort of movement. The last day he's been camping out in Tsukasa's house had been quiet, too quiet. He had been waiting for the sudden downpour of killer robots coming for his skin.

"Damn it Tsukasa, why don't you keep a phone on you?" The Orphanoch cursed his friend under his breath. 'Actually, maybe he does but didn't tell us.'

They– as in most of the Riders –tend to blame him, usually as a joke, for every major thing that happens so Tsukasa wouldn't want them to contact him.

Knock, knock

"...What?" Takumi looked out of the window again. He couldn't see the front door from his spot but he would've noticed someone outside when he checked earlier… Unless they came from the other end of the street.

After cautiously making his way across the house to the front door, walking around the Auto Vajin which he had put inside the entrance hall, Takumi looked through the peephole to see who it was.

Standing outside was a redhead man with glowing golden eyes… Not the weirdest thing he's seen but more than enough to make Takumi pause.

"Who are you?" He asked in a low voice.

"..." The golden-eyed man didn't answer right away and for a second, Takumi thought he didn't hear him. "I'm someone who can help you."

That didn't really clear it up. If anything, it just made Takumi more distrustful of the man.

"You're waiting for a destroyer, correct?"

"...Go on," Takumi replied.

"There are two here in this… Lostbelt." The man hesitated in calling this place that. "There are two here that can fit that description although I'm assuming you're searching for the older one."

'Older one?' Takumi thought in confusion. 'Did Tsukasa pick up a new sidekick or something?'

Either that or the man was talking about Zi-O. It was a coin flip at this point.

"All you need to do is wait and he'll appear," the man on the other side of the door told him before, in the blink of an eye, disappearing.

"...Damn cryptic wizards," grumbled Takumi before he slinked back into the house to take a nap… again.

Later…

It did not take long (that's a lie, it took a couple of hours) before they reached the general area where their target had disappeared to.

"I'm just saying, this guy better be good if we're gonna be sitting ducks out here."

"Stop whining, Gorilla."

"Ow! Hey!" Kadoc shot Decade a glare after he was kicked out of the alleyway into the empty main street.

"Not too loud. Even if there's no one around, this is still a stealth mission," Ophelia quietly scolded him as she walked past him.

"Why are we walking out in the open again?" Both Ritsuka and Hiden asked at the same time– "Ow!" "Ouch!" –only to get kicked out as well.

"Senpai, be careful."

"Mash, you saw him kick me… us!"

"No whining from you two either," Decade told the doppelgangers.

"Are we really banking on whoever-it-is seeing up through the window?"

"You want to get kicked again, Gorilla?" The Rider Servant threatened with a small smirk.

"I can't be the only one who sees a problem with this plan? Come on, Ophelia, back me up here."

"Yes, this is a terrible plan but it's the fastest way to get in and out of the city," she agreed with Kadoc.

"It's also the fastest way for us to get caught by the Huma- Ow!"

"No whining."

"How long will we be out in the open?" Mash politely asked, "I agree with them, this is not the best of ideas."

"Don't worry about it, Shielder. I came up with hundreds of plans when I was alive and only two of them got me killed," Decade (tried to) ease her worries.

"Were they two separate plans or…?"

"Don't think that's the part you should be thinking about…" Mumbled Ritsuka at Hiden's question.

"Again, don't worry about it," Decade told his Master, "Knowing the people here, all we have to do is take ten steps and-"

KABOOM!

A nearby explosion rocked the area, getting all their attention.

"...Looks like we found him," smirked Rider.

"AHHH!" A scream filled the air before, at the end of the street, something came crashing into the ground.

"Is that…?" Ritsuka muttered. Through the dust cloud, they all could see the silhouette of a Rider getting up from the crater.

However, the others easily recognized who it was. "No, that's Jin."

"Ow…" The falcon-themed Rider groaned as he got to his feet. He quickly noticed them at the other end of the street. "Ah! You guys are here too?!"

The two gun-tottering Riders of the group immediately reached for their ShotRisers but they didn't need to.

"I'll deal with you later! I'm-"

Blade Mode!

"HAAAH!" Another cry filled the streets as something came flying down from above Jin. The pink Rider barely managed to jump/fly back to avoid the attack.

"...Okay, now that's who we're looking for."

Standing there now was a Rider with a crimson red suit that had black lines all over his body. Additionally, he had silver armor on his upper body along with a belt that had an empty buckle. His weapon was a massive technological sword that had a yellow blade.

"That voice is…" The new Rider muttered upon hearing the voice and turned around. "Ah! Tsukasa!" He shouted in an annoyed voice, "You are involved in this!"

"Yo, Takumi." Decade, or rather, Tsukasa replied rather calmly like he was addressing an old friend… which he was.

A/N: And done! This didn't take me that long at such a low word count… Wait, what do you mean it's 2022?

Joking aside, I'm really sorry for putting this on the back burner for months, I followed a plot bunny and have been falling for months with Across the Kaleidoscope. So I really have nothing else to say but sorry for leaving this on hiatus.

Honestly, I genuinely don't really remember most of the plot points I've set up for the future of this story. I know what I plan with this "Lostbelt" though so don't worry about that.

Other than that, I don't remember what else to say so, again, sorry for leaving you guys hanging