Whew, sorry for not updating in a while. Things are getting crazy. And I thought the holidays were stressful. More action this time around, things kinda starting to clear up. And well, enjoy the 7th stage. Which I wrote while listening to the Fourze and OOO soundtrack + Zedd. It was awesome!

Stage 7 - Spectrum

"Oh this is not good." Kendall moaned, struggling to his feet as the Dustards surrounded him, Ryusei, and Tomoko. Ryusei flipped the Meteor Driver's switch a few more times, but nothing happened.

"Damnit." Ryusei cursed. "Gentarou, hurry up!"

"I didn't think it would end like this." Kendall said, breathing hard.

"Keep it together Kendall." Tomoko said, panting. "Ryusei, I don't know what's going on, but Gentarou will pull through for us."

As the Dustards advanced, the door to the roof opened and Carlos poked his head out. The Latino's eyes widening as he took in the scene before him. The Dustards stared back at the intruder, giving Carlos a curious look before the hockey player let out a loud war cry and charged.

"Keep away from my buddy!" Carlos roared as he tackled a Dustard, creating a domino effect, knocking more over in the process. Ryusei took advantage of the opening and sent more Dustards flying off the roof with a loud "WATCHA!" Tomoko and Kendall, held their ground as Carlos and Ryusei fought the remaining Dustards, Carlos easily overpowering the group that charged him while Ryusei smashed the rest of them to dust with his fists. Soon only one Dustard remained, its head twitching as it realized it was the only one left. Ryusei approached it, and the Dustard jumped off the roof voluntarily and exploded into dust when it hit the ground.

"Man, that was awesome!" Carlos exclaimed, panting.

"You were awesome Carlos." Kendall gasped as he and Tomoko ran over to join Carlos and Ryusei.

"Thanks. I owe you one." Ryusei muttered quietly, clapping Carlos on the back.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Kendall asked as Carlos leaned against the wall to catch his breath.

"I found the rest of the legend about the ghosts." Carlos explained between pants. "My friend who's into horror stuff, Stephanie, helped me find the info and the records. Everything in the town archive's has been digitized and uploaded onto the local library's server. It's really interesting! But how cool is this? You guys were fighting the ghosts. We're like… super heroes!"

"They're not ghosts." Tomoko said, glancing at Ryusei. "Those things that attacked us were Dustards. They're made up of cosmic energy generated by a Zodiarts."

"What?" Kendall and Carlos gave her blank stares.

"Guess it's time to explain ourselves." Ryusei said, nodding to Tomoko.

"My friends and I are part of the Space Kamen Rider Club at Amanogawa High School." Tomoko said. "Since last year, our club has been fighting Zodiarts, beings of cosmic energy created by switches that pour the energy of the cosmos into the human body, transforming it and giving the user superpowers, at a cost. Over time, the user is driven mad by the power."

"Normally, the Zodiarts are born from these switches." Ryusei explained. "But it seems that there's other ways they can be created. This entire town sits beneath what's known as a "Hole". It's spot on the Earth where cosmic energy freely flows down from space. Earlier this year, the Hole above Amanogawa University town collapsed, so the amount and intensity of energy hitting the planet in other places as increased. That's what we fear has given birth to the Zodiarts here."

"No, I swear it's got to be a ghost." Carlos interrupted.

"What makes you say that?" Ryusei raised an eyebrow as the Latino got off the wall and walked over to Tomoko.

"Can I borrow your tablet?" He asked. Tomoko nodded and handed it over. Carlos tapped the screen, opening a few documents and gestured for the other three to come over. "These incidents have happened before. Never on this scale, but there's been documentation of these 'Dustards' as you call them dating back decades ago. I found all these written accounts of a white masked figure lurking around from as far back as 100 years ago."

"So, that doesn't mean it's ghost. Cosmic energy's been hitting this land for well over a century." Ryusei argued.

"No, but does it explain the kidnapped blondes?" Carlos retorted. "It doesn't, but this might. You know there's a painting in the gallery that looks like James, right?" Kendall and Tomoko nodded. "Well, that painting was painted by a man name Schmidt. Parts of his journals were found and placed into archive here at the school, Stephanie came across them while she was scanning old documents in the library and this is what she found."

Kendall's eyes scanned the text on the screen.

My Dearest Shane,

I suppose I'm writing this out of guilt, knowing that I was the cause of your death. I would like for there to be some proof that I cared for you so much. You were more than just a good friend. Deep down, I wish that I was not forced to marry, that'd I'd agreed with your idea and left this town for good. Now it's too late, and I regret not being able to give you the answer you deserved. I loved you, more than anyone else. Even though we can't be together, I pray that wherever you are, you are finally happy. I'll never forget you.

Forever yours,

K. Schmidt

The two Japanese students looked up. "What does it mean?" Ryusei wondered.

"I think this Schmidt guy was in love with Shane. But back then, homosexual relationships were a huge taboo." Carlos explained. "But here's the freaky part. I checked the town records from around the 1900s, when Schmidt did that painting, and found out that Schmidt disappeared not long after he was married in 1907."

"What was the cause?" Kendall asked.

"It doesn't say, but it gets freakier: I looked for a 'Shane' in the obituaries before Schmidt's disappearance and found him, only…" Carlos changed the window and Kendall felt his blood run cold when he saw Shane's full name: Shane Diamond.

"He died. Committed suicide a few days after Schmidt was married." Carlos said. "But after doing some checking, it looks like James might be a descendant of Shane. I remember James saying at one point his family's been in this town for a long time. We'll have to get a look at his family tree to be sure, but…"

Kendall sank to his knees. Question flooded his mind. Was James being possessed by Shane's ghost? If so, what did Shane want with him?

Meanwhile, James had spent the last five minutes dry heaving in the bathroom. Exiting the stall, he slumped over the sink, hands gripping the cool porcelain basin, his eyes slowly raising up to stare at his reflection. He splashed some water on his face and continued to stare as the water dripped off his facial features, but in the mirror, what was falling off his body wasn't water, it was blood.

"Shane." He whispered. "Stop it. Please."

"I can't do that James." His reflection winked back at him, grinning devilishly. The Zodiarts appeared in the reflection as well, caressing James' body. "Not when I'm so close."

"You promised you wouldn't hurt him." James said harshly, reaching into his shirt and pulling out the ring with the orange stone, hanging from the chain on his neck. He moved to take it off but the Zodiarts in the mirror grabbed his, Shane's reflection, and suddenly James was unable to move.

"Now James, we both know that you need me." Shane whispered from the mirror. "You keep the ring on, and there will be a happy ending for you."

"What about Kendall?" James asked fearfully as he felt his body turn against his will back towards the mirror.

"Hm… what about Kendall?" Shane replied in James' voice, eyes flashing orange.

Kendall left the rooftop before the others. Lunch was almost over and the last 15 minutes had been intense. It was all a lot to process. He sighed, gripping the railing in the stairwell, the sweat from the fight cooling in the air conditioning. His brow furrowed as the words from Schmidt's letter to Shane repeated themselves over and over in his brain. Something inside his chest stirred, causing an overwhelming sense of loneliness to wash over him. Sympathy? What was causing this? Kendall shivered, wrapping both arms around himself, letting his gaze drift out the window in the stairwell. A hand on his shoulder made him yelp in surprise.

"Hi!" Cat squeaked, giggling as Kendall clutched his heart from the shock. "Haha, your eyebrows are all funny when you get all surprised."

"Now Cat, stop giving the guy a hard time. It's only his first week." The girl standing next to Cat who looked suspiciously like Jade, scolded. Kendall frowned because the resemblance was uncanny, including the way she cocked her eyebrow. The only difference was Cat wasn't running away from her screaming.

"It's… it's ok, really uh Jade?" Kendall said, his heartbeat returning to normal.

"Hee hee. That's not Jade." Cat laughed. "It's her cousin, Heather!" The red head lowered her voice. "Jade doesn't like it when I hang out with Heather. She thinks I like her better."

"I…" Kendall started, unsure what to say as Heather groaned.

"Cat, you know that's not true." Heather said.

"Yes it is!" Cat cried. "I mean…" Cat turned and looked down the stairwell before saying loudly. "I think Jade is prettier than Heather!"

Kendall raised an eyebrow as Heather buried her face in her hands, Cat shaking her head at both of them mouthing 'No she's not'.

"Anyways, Kendall, James Diamond was looking for you. Told him if we saw ya he'd be waiting in the music room." Heather said. "Lucky guy, having the hottest guy in school chasing after you." Kendall felt his face turn red.

"Second hottest!" Cat called down the stairwell, then turning to Kendall and Heather whispering. "It's more like a tie."

"Cat, do you have any more of your special vitamins?" Heather asked suddenly as she turned to leave.

"Yeah, why?"

"No reason." Heather said, winking at Kendall as the two girls disappeared into the hall landing one floor down.

Not wasting any time, Kendall ran to the arts building and to the music classroom, the sound of the piano playing a slow, melancholy tune leaking out into the hall. James stopped playing the moment Kendall had closed the door behind him. The brunette started playing a different tune and Kendall suddenly couldn't move freely. His body refused to obey as it took one heavy step after another towards the piano. He tried to speak, protest, scream, but his voice was coming out in harsh, barely audible whispers. The moment his feet landed him next to the piano bench, James slammed his hands on the keys, the horrid noise made the blonde cringe mentally as James stood up and turned to face him, staring into him with glowing orange eyes.

"Shane…" Kendall gasped, control returning to his body as staggered back.

"So. You know." Shane growled, striding forwards. Kendall turned on his heel and tried to make a break for it, but the Zodiarts appeared, phasing through the door and grabbed him. "It's useless to struggle Kendall, so just don't." Shane smirked as Kendal was now immobilized by the Zodiarts. "I waited for so long… and now I finally can have what I want."

"What do you want?" Kendall glared, struggling as Shane cupped the side of his face and leaned in.

"You. Kendall. The reincarnation of my beloved." Shane lightly brushed his lips against Kendall's, and suddenly the blonde felt his world fading away. He could hear Shane laughing. "You can feel it, can't you? I know you're the one now. I don't have to wait any longer."

Meanwhile, Carlos had left Tomoko and Ryusei alone on the roof, saying that all that fighting made him hungry and gave him corn dog cravings. While the Latino went off to scarf on deep fried batter and meat, Tomoko cornered Ryusei.

"When the driver wasn't working earlier… was it?" Tomoko asked as Ryusei played with the Meteor switch.

"Yeah. Without Tachibana on the M-BUS to perform maintenance on the Meteor system, I've been having problems transforming." Ryusei explained.

"Still! Why didn't you tell me?" Tomoko spat angrily. "You could have been hurt! Gentarou should have came here instead of you."

"Gentarou's up on the M-BUS trying to fix the problem. Communicating with him has been difficult because of atmospheric interference." Ryusei said, his gaze drifting back up to the sky. "He and Kengo managed to get the system working again, but there's still problems and Gentarou…. well, you know."

"Oh." Tomoko said softly, her anger dissipating. "Yeah, he's not very good with computers."

"He's probably trying to be friends with the satellite." Ryusei laughed. "Some things never change."

Tomoko smiled. She missed her fellow Rider Club members. But something caught her eye, disrupting her train of thought. Kendall was being carried across the school's lawn by the Lyra Zodiarts, followed by a flock of Dustards and James. "Oh no, Kendall! Ryusei, we gotta go!"

To Be Continued

OK, well, gonna try to wrap this up in the next two chapters. I feel like I dragged this on long enough... finally got a kiss in... But yea, that's the goal here, hope you guys liked this and stick around for the final! Also, I put in the bars to split the scenes up. Did it make it easier to read? Just thought I'd try something else. Thanks for reading!