Kamen Rider Tarock, Re-Dealt – Reading Twenty: A Night of Hope and Fear

So far on Kamen Rider Tarock, Re-Dealt…

Delinquent Liss Decker found herself caught between combatants from a strange alternate world called the Sphere, and afterward found herself with the ability to transform into Tarock, a warrior of awesome powers. Tarock's creator, a mystical immortal being called an Arancum, asked Liss to become a champion for his people, who were being plagued by the reappearance of monstrous beings they call the Mythos. Mainly seeing an escape from her oppressive everyday life, Liss agreed.

Many battles followed, testing Liss's fortitude but also giving her the chance to gain powerful allies such as some of the Arcana, immortal beings who inspired the Tarot deck, and Ben Corland, her ex-boyfriend who can change into Vaga, a powerful warrior form of his own. However, some Arcana automatically consider Liss a menace because the first Tarock was responsible for the death of one of their number.

After her last few battles Liss was able to rescue a girl who only refers to herself as Lost, and is the source of the Mythos monsters. Directed to the Inverted Sage, a reclusive Arcanum who might be the only one able to tell Liss how to cure Lost of her affliction, they journey deep into the wilds of the Sphere, hoping to find a solution.

Meanwhile, Ben accompanies Liss, having been warned that she may be turning into something dark and dangerous…

The small card bearing the image of the moth sat on Paige Decker's small kitchen table, while both she and her partner Kelly stared at it, almost afraid to touch it.

"Look, Paige," Kelly said gently, "I know your sister's slaying monsters and that's better than cutting school, but this is really dangerous stuff she's involved in. Please don't let yourself get dragged into this too…you'll get killed."

"My crazy little sister's decided to save the world," Paige replied quietly. "She doesn't have anybody else now."

Kelly sighed and stood up. "I'm going to get a few things, but after that can we please still go to the play tonight?"

Paige nodded. "We will, I promise."

Having heard that, Kelly got up, got her purse and walked to the door. Paige waited until she heard the lock click and the rickety metal stairs stopped echoing from her shoes before she picked up the card.

She recognized it from the selection of gifts Liss had gotten from the strange being calling himself Jack, but it had still scared the daylights out of her and Kelly when it had shown up outside their window in the form of a giant crystal bug in the small hours of the morning. It had changed into the card in her hand, but she hadn't tried to figure out how to use it until now.

Kelly was right; Liss was involved in some dangerous things. Some very dangerous things. But for once in her life, Liss was doing something and making a positive impact. At least, that was how it seemed with the beautification projects Paige had been seeing around town, and that millionaire coming in to redevelop the area thanks to the local hero Liss had become, whether she'd meant to or not.

To say nothing of those two people who'd come from whatever world Liss had disappeared into. They'd said Liss had decided to spare them even though they'd tried to kill her multiple times, and they'd come to protect the town from monsters while she was gone.

But that was the thing, wasn't it? While Liss was gone. To wherever the monsters were coming from, for who knew how long. Paige had supported Liss at the beginning, hoping it would do Liss good to have better outlets for her frustration than pointless little displays against her parents and teachers. But Paige hadn't thought it would take Liss away from town. That she wouldn't be around to keep an eye on her crazy sister as crazy things played out.

That hadn't been the case, and Paige was afraid to see what the card revealed. Had Liss's luck finally run out, and this was a message telling her she'd never see her little sister again?

Paige took the card in both hands and tried to imagine passing energy into it, like Jack had said when telling Liss how they worked. There was a momentary feeling of warmth on her fingers that she felt seeping into the card, then a rectangular picture formed in the air above it.

There was Liss, sitting on a rock in front of a campfire. Next to her was a skinny girl in a ragged black robe. "Hi, Paige," Liss said. "This is Lost," she indicated the girl next to her. "The monsters I've been fighting are coming from her, but we've got a lead on how to stop that."

"Hello," Lost said timidly.

"She isn't dangerous like the monsters," Liss said. "I'm sorry I'm going to be away for a while, but don't worry about me, I can take care of myself. Even if I have Ben around holding me back."

Lost tapped her on the shoulder. "There's no need for that…"

Liss looked up as if scanning the horizon for something, then turned back to where she'd been facing. "I'm doing fine, don't worry about me. I'm sorry if you had to wait but obviously I can't just call."

There was a sound of a branch snapping somewhere nearby. "I think Ben's on his way back," Lost said.

"Where'd he go?" Liss muttered, but said, "We're doing fine, Paige! Don't worry! And tell Sensei I'm okay!" Then the pictured faded out.

Paige set it down, got up and went to get ready for her night out with a slightly reassured smile on her face.

The sky of the Sphere turned a deep red as Shift Runner led the small, ragged procession late into the afternoon. At the end where he was supposed to be keeping an eye out for trouble, Ben urged his mount forward to walk beside Shift Runner.

"Are you sure taking them all along was such a good idea?" Ben whispered, unobtrusively pointing behind him at the youths following behind.

Liss shrugged. "They agreed to it," she reminded him.

"That's not what I mean. I got enough food for you, me and Lost because I thought it was just gonna be us. All of them? What if we run out before we make it?"

She shrugged again. "They can have mine. I haven't really felt hungry in a couple days."

"Right, because all your training," Ben said. He had to keep the fear she was turning into a monster to himself. Even though Shardak had put him in charge of stopping Liss if they turned out to be right, he had no doubt Liss would destroy him if it came to a fight. He had to have a plan, and he had to keep the fact that he was coming up with a plan to himself…

"Feh. You're taking this work-class hero thing pretty serious after all, huh? We gonna rob from the rich or some shit like that if we get the chance?" Ben said, hiding his unease behind a joke.

Lost looked at him quizzically while Liss ignored his remark. "I don't think we're going to run into any rich people out here…what does 'rich' mean?"

One of the boys they'd saved called out, and they turned to see what was going on. "Hey…I heard what you said about food. There's this man who lives around here. Name's Oben. He could probably help us," he explained.

"And the Mythos won't have gotten him?" Liss said, asking the obvious question.

The boy shrugged. "Oben's been hiding out in the mountain for years. He's probably staying out of sight even more these days."

Liss exchanged a glance with Ben. "Well, if you think he'll let us find him, why not?" she said. "Which way do we go?"

He pointed at a low mountain a few miles away. Liss turned Shift Runner toward it, and started their procession again in its direction.

Nema and Lurian, the former envoys of the Arcana and now exiles from their home on the Sphere, rose early and left the small campsite they'd made for themselves on the edge of the town. Together they made their way to the once-abandoned amusement park to meet with the man in charge of restoring it.

Carl Stanford.

Workers stopped and stared at the pair in their outlandish black and white robes as they approached the gate in the chainlink fence. They'd clearly been told to expect the two, though, and waved them through. Near a row of trailers was a table covered in blueprint diagrams. Standing around it were men in orange vests and hardhats, and between them a man in a hardhat and a million-dollar suit.

At first glance it seemed impossible he could be the one in charge of all the people running back and forth with supplies and climbing up and down scaffoldings carrying out repairs on the attractions. He was short, and had a full, slightly doughy face behind his thick glasses, and a large gauze pad taped to one cheek with the edges of a dark bruise peeking out around the edges.

He was nothing like the Arcana, who radiated raw power onto everyone in their presence. But this man commanded the attention of everyone at the table who were obviously the heads of the various aspects of the project. No doubt a large part of his authority was the funding he was providing for the project, but when one of the supervisors said something the man in the suit suddenly whipped toward him brandishing a finger and bellowing something loud but indecipherable over all the activity.

But the man he pointed at and the two on either side stepped back suddenly in surprise, nearly spilling their mugs of coffee. There was no denying Stanford was a man possessing a force of personality belying his outward appearance.

And he wanted to meet the two of them, who he apparently saw as the guardians of the town in Tarock's absence. He'd had his people contact them and made it clear he wanted to know everything about them and the Sphere, to have a book published so everyone on this new world would know about the fight. Lurian had been unsure, but Nema had reminded him they were trying to start things off in a new place and winning over the locals was probably in their best interests.

So, here they were.

Stanford and everyone else at the table looked up as Nema and Lurian approached, and Stanford waved the others off and skirted the table to approach the two strangers. "Thank you for coming down!" Stanford said and flashed a blinding smile. "I hope you won't be offended if I say I'm still hoping to meet Tarock herself, but I'm glad you've agreed to come out and talk to me. I can't wait to hear all about this other world you're from!"

Lurian looked back and forth at the entire scene of construction and controlled chaos unfolding around them. "You certainly seem to have high hopes for this one, if you don't mind me saying so," he said. "All the work you're having done here…"

Stanford shrugged and smiled again. "They always told me the world's a cruel place, but people are the ones who made the world the way it is, so I thought that could only be true if the people in it were cruel. So I heard about someone protecting their town from monsters, I had to jump right on that and fan those flames, didn't I? Show people this is what we as a species are capable of if we stand firm!"

The couple exchanged confused looks but looked Stanford in his grinning face. "I suppose that's how you got where you are," Nema said. "That passion you have."

"Oh, you don't know the half of it!" Stanford said. "This park? This is nothing. I've got people getting that band, Dragon Sound, to come up all the way from Florida to play a concert when it opens. Some act called Blood Angels from out in Rittersburg. I already got L-Mitless to agree to come and perform too after the finish up a gig at Siren's Point. They've got a new member who's supposed to be pretty popular. Maybe even Shattered Manacles themselves …ah, but there I go. You're not from around here, you've probably never heard of any of them."

Nema replied, "Well, we do have performers that are famous in the empire…Benzer Giben, the Teryln Sisters…"

"They sang 'Against the Purple Sky,' didn't they?" Lurian asked, smiling faintly. Nema nodded and smiled as well. Stanford took a step back, his own grin not diminishing.

"You asked the band to play that the second time we went out, didn't you?" said Nema.

Lurian's face fell. "It was the third time." He paused. "Wasn't it?"

"Maybe," Nema said, smiling slightly dreamily at the memory.

"Hey," Stanford said, "I know some people who might able to sign them, if they're interested. Is that what you'd like to talk about first, maybe? It's pretty quiet in the trailers, we could get you folks some coffee."

Nema and Lurian looked at each other again, then nodded and followed Stanford to a nearby row of shiny trailers. He ushered them inside one, told someone passing by to bring refreshments, then closed the door and sat down at a table in the middle. He got a recorder out of his briefcase and motioned for the pair to sit down opposite him.

"Pardon me for saying this," Lurian said, "but you seem like a very busy man. Isn't this the kind of thing you'd have someone take care of for you?"

"Normally, yes," answered Stanford. "But I've got two people from another world who've agreed to tell me about their home and the powers they've been given. This is a once in a lifetime chance, and I'm not going to delegate that to anyone."

Nema nodded, still a little uncertain but feeling more and more reassured by the passion Stanford seemed to radiate for every project he was involved in. "I don't know that we can fit everything into one afternoon…"

"I'm willing to make more than one afternoon for this," Stanford said with a nod.

"Well," Lurian said, and took a deep breath, "We are from a world we call the Sphere, from an empire called Mazones…"

Trees had begun to surround Shift Runner, blocking out the view of the mountain they'd been approaching. Liss curled her hand into a fist as a slight feeling of cold traveled up her arm, but then it was gone. Maybe it was the cool of night settling in this time, and not a monster lying in wait…?

"Are you guys sure there's somebody who lives out here?" she asked the refugees, sounding a bit disbelieving.

"If he's here the Mythos probably didn't get him. Doesn't exactly look like there's been any big fights with monsters around here," Ben pointed out. "There's no huge holes ripped in the ground and all these trees are still standing."

"Yeah, but who says they'd need to wreck everything to get an old guy? They can disguise themselves as regular people sometimes," Liss pointed out right back.

"Oh yeah? Which ones? Maybe you better bust out your Pokedex or something and check."

Liss rolled her eyes at the remark. Lost, however, tried to intervene. "Maybe if we hurry we'll have enough food to get there before we run out?"

"What about the trip back?" Ben asked.

"Shhh!" Liss hissed suddenly and everyone went silent, even the murmured conversation of the refugees they were escorting. There was a faint rustling in the trees nearby, and Liss silently swung herself down from the saddle. She disappeared into the trees, and Ben sighed in frustration as she left him behind once again.

For a minute Liss crept through the trees in the direction of the sound she'd heard, then stopped. She looked around and listened for any other signs of what had made the noise. Suddenly her left eye seemed to throb and the forest around her seemed to be reaching her eyes through a dark green filter. But through it she could suddenly see a bright white shape big enough to be an attacker.

She didn't notice the haze at all, instead Liss launched herself at it, grabbing for its arms to pin it before it could attack. It swiped at her feet with something, and although it seemed to be moving in slow motion to her strange new sense there was a sudden compulsion in her mind. To let it strike her, even though it would do no damage. As it did Liss threw herself backward as if the blow had knocked her off her feet, and after she landed on her back she laid there a few seconds as if stunned. All part of a trick to make her attacker think she wasn't a threat…

Her attacker stood over her, the wooden staff he'd used to attack her pressed to her throat. He was a man with a thick white beard, dressed in rugged brown clothes and a hood. "Just who do you think you are," he demanded, "bringing a parade of children into this forest with all the monsters running loose?"

"I'm Tarock," Liss answered. She pushed the staff out of the way and got to her feet. "And I'm guessing you're the old man who lives around here we've been looking for."

"The old man who just knocked you on your ass," he replied. "Not too encouraging for a new Tarock, if you really are. What would Tarock be doing all the way out here?"

Liss didn't answer right away. Instead she whistled and sent a mental command to Shift Runner to join her. She heard Lost let out a yip of surprise as the horse started moving closer. "We're looking for the Inverted Sage," Liss said, "We heard he might know how to stop the Mythos."

The man scratched the side of his head with his staff. There was suddenly a very old, tired glimmer to his eyes as he stared at Liss. "The Inverted Sage, eh?" he asked incredulously. "Nobody but the Arcana have talked to him in at least century."

"You know that from experience?" Liss asked.

"Girl, I been here long, but not that long," he replied, a sigh creeping into his voice. "But I've still seen a good many people go looking for the Inverted Sage, saying he'd tell them how to be rich, or how to win the heart of the prettiest girl in the village. All of them came back empty-handed."

"Yeah, well the frigging world wasn't about to end over what they wanted to know, was it?" Liss replied. The small procession of the youths she'd been leading came into view through the trees, Lost mounted on Shift Runner in the lead, Meo and her friends behind and Ben on Air Talon bringing up the rear.

Liss looked up at the old man, and said, "They told me you could help us with food and a safe place to spend the night. Is that true, mister?"

For a split second Liss could see the face of her father on top of Oben's, the face she'd hardly seen since the night her older sister had been kicked out of the family. It felt weird asking someone older for help, after all the effort she'd used to put into making life miserable for them since that night. They'd been the enemy, someone to prove she was better than or didn't need. Even Jack and Shardak still kind of seemed that way, with how badly they'd needed her to be Tarock even though they hadn't completely trusted her.

But asking for help also felt weird after all the power she'd gained as Tarock. She could crush the biggest, strongest monsters she'd ever imagined, it didn't seem like looking after a bunch of kids would be anything she'd need to ask for help with.

Liss had a good number of skills…sneaking, getting into places she wasn't supposed to be, tricking people into underestimating her, and killing monsters it turned out. But, she had to admit, camping wasn't one of them. Providing for a bunch of other people wasn't one of them. She was a city girl; Sandy Burger was open 24 hours a day and one was never more than five blocks from where you were.

That made Liss stop and think for a second about a time, not all that long ago she'd failed. After weeks of hiding in the city of Mazones, recovering from her previous battles, she'd made a friend of a girl named Rexia. Liss had destroyed a monster attacking the city, even after the empire's strongest warrior had failed. But after exposing herself as Tarock, Rexia had felt betrayed and told Liss to stay away from her.

As soon as they talked to this Inverted Sage, she was heading back there to let Rexia know Tarock the killer was the one who'd gotten rid of the Mythos once and for all. See what she thought of that…

Oben coughed, bringing her back to reality, and pulled on his beard, making Liss wonder if people grew beards just so they could pull on it and look wise. "The Mythos have been coming by more and more, all headed the same way, toward the city," he mused. "They're up to something…maybe this little quest of yours can stop them before they have the chance. If you really are Tarock, anyway."

"Swords Suit!" A red flash followed and Oben turned to find the girl he'd been talking to replaced by a figure in gleaming red armor. "I'm either Tarock or the best impersonator you'll ever see," she said.

He smiled faintly and said, "Well then, maybe you and your friends had better spend the night with me. But don't make any noise, and step exactly where I do," Oben warned.

Tarock faded back to Liss, who waved the others to follow. "Well, you heard the guy…"

"You know, I'm sure they'd be willing to let us have a place to stay in town…"

"Let's endear ourselves to the locals tomorrow," Nema said, "I've had enough after talking to that Stanford person all afternoon."

Lurian couldn't deny feeling pretty exhausted himself, even though all they'd done was sit in a climate-controlled trailer and answer questions about Mazones, the Sphere, the Arcana, the Mythos, and even everyday life before they'd gotten their powers, like that year's yield crops coming in twice their normal size before Lurian and Nema had left. Although the pair had spared him the details of why their marriage had been on the rocks before they'd been approached by the Arcana…

He lay down inside their small tent and sighed with relief as soon as he was inside. "I can't believe he wants to know even more," Lurian groaned. "What's he going to want? All the regulations I learned in the academy?"

"Would it really surprise you?" Nema asked, sitting down beside him with a trace of a smile.

"No, it wouldn't," Lurian answered her. "But…I don't know, it felt good to tell it to someone. Do you suppose he'll want to know about Tarock next?"

Nema gently stroked her fingers through his hair. "I wonder what we'd tell him…what do we even know about her, besides how she didn't kill us when she had the chance?"

"Maybe that's enough," Lurian replied, almost seeming to purr at his wife's stroking. "At least for now…?"

"Until we can meet her again and ask her ourselves, I suppose," Nema said and smiled gently.

Lurian sat up, and he and Nema exchanged tentative glances before he leaned over and placed a soft kiss on her lips before pulling away. When he looked into his wife's face she was smiling gently back at him. It shot to the core of his being, affecting him as deeply as any vision the Arcana had shown him of the emotional moments of their life together to rekindle those feelings.

"That was…nice," he said.

"Maybe we should see if we can work our way up from 'nice'," Nema suggested, smiling.

Lurian smiled back. "Let's."

"…and she hit the bull right on his head, and he started to fall apart! And she hit him again, and he just started to fall apart even faster!"

As they ate supper around a fire in the cave Oben called home, Meo seemed even more excited to tell the story even though her friends had already heard it. Oben himself raised a bushy eyebrow and chewed on a leg of meat, saying nothing. Everyone else in their entourage stared at Liss as they ate, while she just looked back with an expression of hopeless confusion as to what they expected from her.

"And I missed all of it," Ben muttered. Oben moved closer to him.

"And just what might your part in all this be, young man?" he asked quietly enough that the others couldn't hear.

Ben sighed. "Apparently I'm the guy who holds the fort while everyone else gets all the respect."

"And is that so bad?" Oben asked. Ben knitted his brow and narrowed his eyes at him in confusion, but mainly annoyance at such a ridiculous question. Oben shrugged. "Well, look at her," he said. "Your friend's getting all that respect you're so jealous of, and she looks to me like she has no idea what to do with it. Maybe it isn't everything you think it is."

"I don't care about impressing them," Ben replied irritably. "I got my powers to help Liss…we used to be an item, and I want her to see how strong and brave I can be. But every time a monster shows up she handles it all by herself. All I do is make sure Lost doesn't get hurt or kidnapped or whatever."

Oben nodded and took another bite. "Ah yes, Lost. She's pretty important to your friend's plan I'd guess, isn't she?" he said.

"Yeah," Ben muttered.

Oben shrugged. "And if she lets you guard this Lost girl, maybe she trusts you more than you think."

"Or maybe she knows nothing's going to happen and doesn't want me getting in her way," Ben grumbled.

"Maybe," Oben said. "Or maybe she trusts you more than you think."

An annoyed grunt escaped Ben's mouth. But he looked over at Lost as she sat with the other refugees. She saw him looking and gave him an appreciative smile in return. Just like the time she told him she thought he and Liss were heroes, even if he wasn't slinging power attacks around in every battle.

He smiled back a little himself, then looked over at the overwhelmed Liss as she retreated to an empty corner of the cave to eat her dinner in peace. She met his eyes for just a second, looking back at him with a curious eyebrow perked slightly, rather than annoyed at why he was looking at her. A second later he looked away again.

Finally Ben looked up at Oben, and gave the old man a sober nod.

It looked like the old man was smirking behind his beard.

Hours later the fire had died and the party had settled in to sleep. Lost had fallen asleep with her arms wrapped around one of Liss's for reassurance, but as the rest of them huddled together for warmth as they slept, Liss carefully pulled free of Lost's embrace and slipped out past her sleeping companions to the entrance of the cave.

A chill wind was blowing through the forest but Liss didn't bother pulling her duster tight to keep out the cold. She stood and stared in the dark, waving trees that hid the entrance and waited for several minutes until three shapes melted out of the darkness. They were three faceless Changeling Mythos, and they stopped in front of Liss without attacking.

Her left eye bulged for a second and turned a dark, poisonous green as wiry hairs sprouted from the back of her left forearm…

"Ben! BEN!" Lost cried, shaking him awake from dreams of a formal ball where everyone wore monstrous masks. "I can feel monsters fighting nearby!"

Ben jumped up, staggering around the cave as he tried to wake up the rest of the way in a hurry. He fumbled for his change card, already having a feeling Liss had everything under control.

He wasn't far wrong. As he stumbled toward the sounds of fighting, his eyes finally clear enough for him to identify an attacker, he could just make out Tarock swinging her sword and cleaving a Changeling in two. It disintegrated into dust before its parts had even hit the ground. The card ejected from her belt and she changed back into Liss.

"Come on," she said, "They found us, we have to get moving right now!"

"Wait!" Ben yelled. "How'd they find us? Isn't this place supposed to be secret? Lost didn't cough up anymore monsters in the middle of the night."

Liss pointed at what had once been a stack of crates and sacks, but as Ben's head cleared he recognized them as Oben's food store; Ben had helped carry some of it in and prepare dinner. Now it was all smashed, trampled and burnt. Something twitched behind the biggest remaining stack, and Ben turned away in disgust.

"Everybody, get up!" Ben yelled, his voice echoed through the cave and was answered by a chorus of groans as the others woke up. "Get ready to go, the Mythos found us!"

"Is Liss all right?" Lost asked anxiously, and heaved a sigh of relief when Ben nodded. They hurried outside and Ben quickly climbed onto Air Talon. As Liss ran out he finished a headcount and noticed Oben was missing.

"What happened to Oben?" he asked Liss, trying to hide a note of worry.

"The Mythos got him," Liss answered as she pulled Lost into the saddle behind her. "I heard him fighting them and that was when I jumped in. But come on, we need to get moving! There's probably more on the way!"

Liss led them away from Oben's hideout and into the dark forest. None of them noticed the shadowy figure slipping away through the trees.

Against the darkness of night, the large Ora Stone resting on the floor in the Empress's chambers flared with light. Finally, she thought, something to distract her from all worsening reports of the violence near the wall spreading toward the core of the city. That would require drastic measures, but it could wait until after she'd heard this report.

A pillar of light rose from the gem, and in it formed the image of Thena, the Empress's most trusted envoy, still dressed in her immaculately maintained armor, her face hidden by the visor of her winged helmet. "Empress," she said, "I have…unexpected news."

"Productive news, I hope," Maeve reminded her.

For a split-second, Thena shuddered. "Yes, very much so," she replied. "I've located the lost soul, the source of the Mythos. That is not all, however."

"Oh?"

"Yes, Empress. Tarock is guarding her," Thena answered.

Empress Maeve's eyes went wide at the news. "Well then, it seems we have a chance to end all our problems at once, doesn't it…?"

Next time, on Kamen Rider Tarock Re-Dealt…

(Jack stops in shock outside the hill where Shardak's hideout was located, the entire thing having been leveled)

Jack: The purge…it's beginning.

(Lost vomits up a huge pile of black slime and a gang of monsters start to arise)

Lost: It's getting worse…I don't want this…help me! Please!

(Tarock in her Swords Form disarms Vaga and then starts to strangle him)

Ben/Vaga: This isn't you, Liss…I won't believe it…

(Glowing with violet power, Empress Maeve flies down to confront Tarock and Vaga)

Empress Maeve: It's who Tarock's always been, a murderer.

Narrator: Your fate is in your hands.

XXX