[Author's Note: And this one is about the many, many, many, many rumors and leaks that have plagued Kamen Rider Gotchard. Most of them were confirmed recently, though the amount of rumors and leaks we got for this Rider were at an extremely absurd level compared to the last times we got rumors and leaks for Riders that I wanted to at least address them for this chapter.]
Daenerys was on her ship, her Unsullied army armed to the teeth with weapons and armor. She would have waited a little bit longer to get better experience, a larger army, and her dragons to be more obedient (and larger), but the news of chaos brewing in Westeros proved too ripe for an opportunity for her to strike.
She had heard rumors of creatures of darkness that could wipe out entire cities within a single day and even plunging Westeros into an even worse succession crisis than the War of the Five Kings could hope to be. However, with a single word, her dragons could wipe out an entire army within half that… give or take. Still, Daenerys wished she could have had some backup…
"Hey! Dany!" Damn it… She jinxed herself.
"What do you want this time?" Daenerys glared at Ash, who was on a separate, smaller boat. He now sported a hide leather jacket to replace the shirt that Drogon burnt.
"I have proof of Gotchard's power!" Ash said.
"Really then? Very well. Show me." Daenerys smirked and awaited at the side of the ship to see him. The awkward air of silence caused her to realize that, no. He has none.
At least until he pulled out his phone.
"Let's see… Um… I have monsters I made a contract with." As Ash said that, Daenerys' eyes lit up.
"So, you too can tame monsters! Perhaps we can train together. I'm not really getting my 'children' in check…" Though Ash kept rambling.
"My motif seems to be based off the elements, and I use a card system that I can slot into the belt." Ash then looked at Daenerys.
"Cards? Like… The kind you use for gambling?" Jorah asked.
"Well, no. I think they're meant to be more like cards you use at the arcade." Ash said.
"An arca… Are you some sort of priest for the Lord of Light? Is this how you're able to use these strange powers like accessing that item?" Daenerys pointed to the phone in Ash's hand.
"Oh, this? The goddess who sent me here said she'd give this phone an infinite data plan, and so far, it's really good. A whole-ass gig per second, you know how much shit I can download?" Ash asked.
"I'm sorry, you mentioned a goddess? So, you are a priest!" Daenerys said.
"More like her humble servant after I didn't bother to look both ways before crossing the street." Ash said.
"This… is peculiar…" Daario stepped in. "I only heard about this sort of thing happening in stories… Reincarnating to serve the Gods. If I recall, this is something that only happens with the YiTish pantheon. Tell me, did she say what her name was?"
"Well, she did, but because she knew I'd butcher it, she just said to refer to her as the Maiden-Made-of-Light." As Ash said that, Daario nodded.
"So, technically, a Lord of Light, just not the one the Queen is thinking of." Daario said.
"What sort of task did she give you?" Daenerys asked.
"So… You remember that whole 'Mad Queen' thing I talked about?" Ash asked.
"Yes, I do remember your ramblings, they happened just a few days ago, after all." Daenerys said.
"She told me to stop that from happening." Ash said.
"And what proof does she have of that?" As Daenerys asked that, Ash sighed and, a few seconds later…
"Tired of watching ads? Get one month of YouTube Premium on us!" Ash awkwardly looked at Daenerys and chuckled. "Ads, am I right? Ah! Ah! Here we go!" Ash then showed Daenerys a video of her sitting atop of a large dragon flying over an even larger city. At first, Daenerys gave a smirk as she had assumed this would be showing her ultimate victory…
But as the bells continued to toll and as the Daenerys in the video flew her dragon over the civilians that fled in terror, she could only watch in a similar fear as she watched them all be incinerated in dragon fire.
"You see what I mean now?" Ash said before Grey Worm suddenly looked over, then went to inspect closer.
"Hey, look! I'm on there too!" Grey Worm pointed to himself on the phone as he glared at an army inside the city.
"Ah, yeah, well, I don't think it's that necessary to showcase your descent because I'm here to stop Daenerys' descent-" Just as the footage showed Grey Worm fling a spear right at a soldier.
"Oooooh! Good throw!" Daario patted Grey Worm on the shoulder. The footage then shifted to show another person, one the four have never seen before. "Hey! Skip to the good part!"
"Um… This wasn't the point but… Okay…" Ash mumbled before skipping over the bearded man's moment to resume Grey Worm battling more soldiers and massacring them.
"Wait, I don't get this. Am I fated to be a great warrior or would showing me this vision cause me to avoid it?" Grey Worm asked.
"Um… Let's put it this way, if I prevent Daenerys from doing this," Ash points to her dragon burninating the city, "then you taking on an army won't happen, but I don't think it's gonna interfere in the trajectory of you being able to take on an army in the future."
"Then there's nothing to stop me from just using my dragons to burn down entire cities in the future?" Daenerys asked.
"N-no! There were circumstances that led to you becoming the Mad Queen! I'm here to prevent those circumstances and ensure you sit on the Iron Throne with your dignity intact!" Ash exclaimed as Daenerys facepalmed.
"You know what would be better? If you just told me these circumstances and I'll just avoid them." Daenerys said.
"Well, there's a difference between me saying 'don't fuck your nephew' and actively being there to make sure you don't actually fuck your nephew!" There was a pause before Daenerys asked.
"You're not serious, right?" One pause later and she facepalmed. "No, I did not…" Daenerys then noticed Ash going onto his phone before showing her, only for her to scream. "NO! DON'T! The last thing I want is for people to see me have sex with my nephew! I didn't even know I have one!"
"Wait, this thing even shows visions of people having sex?" Daario raised an eyebrow.
"ALRIGHT! Ash! You make a good point about being a valued asset to the team and this strange viewing block you have seems to be proof, but you and I both know what I want to see." Daenerys said.
"Oh, right, my powers. Let's see…" He went back on his phone. "Ah, whoops, motif changed. Now I'm a steam train and a grasshopper."
"What?" Daenerys asked.
"And it seems I also have dancer and mantis as a secondary form." Ash continued.
"What about you being this monster controller?" Daenerys asked.
"Huh? Oh, I guess it's just me using cards… In fact, I need to buy booster packs like an actual children's card game." Ash said.
"Well, at least you know you need to be supplying yourself with those." Jorah said.
"Oh! At some point, Decade will get involved!" Ash exclaimed.
"Decade?" Daenerys asked.
"Oh, like, one of the strongest Kamen Riders, self-proclaimed Destroyer of Worlds and all that jazz." Ash said.
"Wait, destroyer of worlds? And we're hearing news of the end times in Westeros… Maybe this is his doing! Damn him!" Grey Worm said.
"Wait, wait, wait, he hasn't arrived yet! Plus, this is all just speculation and rumors!" As Ash said that, all of the crew stared at him.
"… Excuse me?" Daenerys asked.
"Oh, yeah, the official suit got leaked, the Driver got its preview, and we even got a synopsis of the setting, but we don't really know how the Rider's going to function as a Rider…" Ash said.
"So… Like before… You have nothing to show for this." Daenerys asked.
"Hey, hey! That's not true!" Ash showed her a picture of Kamen Rider Gotchard. To his credit, Daenerys was impressed by the sleek reimagining of a knight's armor, having lighter armor on the chest, arms, and legs while keeping the body protected. Then there was an outright unique color of a sky-blue with a centermost fire-decal. Perhaps she could ask him to change it to instead sport the emblem of House Targaryen.
Though… It still reinforced her cynical outlook on Ash and it got her back to her question.
"And yet, you yourself aren't able to become this Gotchard." Daenerys said.
"Not yet… But… Soon!" Ash said.
"How soon? We're about to go into Westeros!" Jorah protested. "Rumors state that a threat worse than the fabled White Walkers are wrecking the area, and you're here telling us of a mythical knight that may never come!" As Jorah continued, Daenerys held up her hand.
"You have shown more truth than lie at this point, even warning us of a future to come… But if you can't even guarantee your own future, how can you ensure that future doesn't come to pass?"
"… I… didn't think of that…" Ash muttered.
"Jorah raises a good point. Westeros is in the midst of chaos and our army is not as strong as I had hoped for it to be. If you cannot pull your weight, you'll drag us down. Which is why I have no other choice…" She pointed at Ash just as Drogon approached her… Then, directly at the boat beneath him. "Dracarys." She muttered as Drogon went to the side of the boat.
"Hey, wait, what are you doing?" Ash asked as Drogon looked, almost giving a chuckle before he spat a flare at his boat. "OH SHIT!" Ash leaped off the boat just as it caught fire.
"You think it's wise to leave him to swim in shark infested waters?" Daario asked.
"We'll let his patron goddess deal with that. We have a larger issue to worry about…" As though on cue, Daenerys noticed a large dragon flying overhead. It almost looked like the dragons her house had rode long ago, but there were several key differences.
For one, this dragon didn't seem to have any scales on it. Rather, it seemed to be more cloud-like, complete with its tail seemingly tailing off rather than it being an actual tail. She couldn't even describe its texture as skin, but rather something smoother. Even looking at it, it seemed out of place, as though it was ripped right out of a sunset and placed right into a night sky.
The webbing between its fingers looked more like paper fans, allowing it to glide further into the air. Its horns were akin to red spiked lightning rods, and its belly was lined with smaller limbs that clashed golden cymbals together, as though to announce its arrival.
What unnerved Daenerys the most was its head. It almost felt too human-like, given its flat-face, a full head of blonde hair with darkened tips, and what seemed to be a snow-white beard with an emblem on it: a black heart with a red barbed X on it as the bottom of the heart tails off into a fleur-de-lis.
Atop the dragon's head rested a man in black robes who looked down upon the ship. Upon seeing Daenerys and her dragons, especially comparing their small size compared to his own dragon, he pointed at one of them and rasped out:
"Jura…pira!" To most of the crew, he spouted utter nonsense, but to Daenerys, it wasn't a simple taunt. This tone was the very same tone she used whenever she passed judgement on those who opposed her… And the moment she heard it, her eyes widened.
"Get to the ski-" Daenerys could only get out that much before the large festival-themed wyvern shot out a lightning beam out of its mouth and atomized its chosen target: Rhaegal. Daenerys couldn't even move as one minute, one of her 'children' was standing there, and in the next, it was gone. Then, as if it unloaded all at once, she gave off a wail.
Yelling at herself for not being more prepared, yelling at Ash for wasting her time, yelling at the dragon rider for killing Rhaegal, and yelling at her army to ready themselves… It was now fight or die.
Ash salvaged what he could of the wrecked boat as he heard several crashes of thunder coming from the direction where Daenerys' ships went. Realizing she might be in danger, he tightened the grip of his paddle and began to row.
"Daenerys… I won't give on you…" Ash muttered as he continued… No matter how many times he fails…
He won't get charred again.
[Author's Note: Wow... When I started writing this, there was just a preview for Gotchard but now we got a lot of previews such as the cameo or the Driver preview. However, this is still a tale about going in half-cocked with just previews to work with. Depending on how I want to end it, the final chapter will be out either sometime after the press conference (when we get our full trailer establishing the concept) or after the series premiere.]