Disclaimer: Kamen Rider belongs to Toei and Shotarou Ishinomori. Any original characters (while may reference either of the aforementioned property) are exceptions.

The first thing she saw were stars. Literally. Bits of red and white dwarves and yellow suns floated alongside distant orbs of what could've been other planets. When the girl stood, she realized those planets weren't other alien worlds in the cosmos.

Nope. They were all Earth. Different versions of the same planet standing in rows. Big Earths, small Earths, and Earths of different and similar shades. They all floated around, each one reflecting off the other like on some sort of invisible mirror.

Tiny and transparent slivers floated by the girl, each passing piece forming what could have been a mirror. She stepped back in shock at what she found in that mirror. There was a normal girl with long blond hair, dressed in the red jacket atop a white and pink skirt. She wasn't in her armor. She wasn't a Kamen Rider. She was just Lyra, a normal nineteen-year-old human girl… well as normal as a Rider could be.

Lyra's sneakers softly squeaked on an invisible floor, and her eyes scoured the void. Having not been in this place for two years, her chippery voice croaked out a question: "I'm… I'm here again?"

Lyra's ears perked up hearing her own voice say, "Yes, you are…"

Knowing she did not speak those words, Lyra whirled and froze. Another mirror had formed from the fractured and disjointed pieces. However, it held a different face.

Well… not exactly. The reflection had Lyra's face, voice, and even hair style, but that wasn't Lyra's. Matching the other girl's purple and dreary jacket was a dark and sullen stare, angered by how the starlight in the void gleamed on Lyra's cheeks. It was the expression of a someone who had been wronged and did wrong things in turn.

"Hello again, thief," the other Lyra spat from her side of the mirror.

Staring at her mirror self, Lyra again stepped back in shock. Her lips almost quivered at what might as well have been a ghost. "You… you can't be here!" she said.

"And why can't I? After all, we're linked."

"It doesn't work like that, and you know it." Lyra frowned a bit, regaining some composure and looking back to the void. "None of this makes sense. What are you… I… we doing here?"

"Still an airhead…" The floating shards came to Lyra's side, showing her reflection's condescending frown. "Tell me, what do you remember?"

Lyra's memories answered before her mouth could. Her mind flashed to when she and the other Kamen Riders infiltrated a base covered in pale white walls. It was supposed to be a mission, one of several looking into Foundation X. A few other Riders had gone ahead to let herself and the rest in, disrupting whatever operation was going on. Sadly, no mission ever turned out a hundred percent perfect.

That sentiment came true when the white light came. Darkness had followed, leaving only the glowing glares of monstrous creatures that came out of the woodwork. Lyra threw down a portal, hoping to make a getaway. Everyone escaped through it before she did, so it worked.

But only Lyra was here. Well, she and her reflection. Without any armor.

Lyra immediately thrusted her left forearm forward. "Lynx Gauntlet-On!" she announced, expecting something to appear.

Nothing happened.

Lyra thrusted her arm out again. "Lynx Gauntlet-On!"

Nothing happened.

Lyra repeated the same action and call again, and again, and again. And three times, nothing happened.

Lyra stared at her normal and unarmored arm. "No… it's not possible," she said.

"Yes it is," sneered the darker Lyra, and the lighter Lyra whirled across the void to face her. "It happened to me too, you know. That's how I got here… I don't regret it, though. Better to be proud of your own work."

Lyra lurched, as if struck by the smug smirk in the mirror. "You… but why?"

"You know why, thief."

A light pink swelled on Lyra's face. Guilt had been the first cause. Then, a righteous anger rose to replace it. A second later, the worlds floated back into Lyra's peripheral view, so she suppressed her emotions and turned away to the task at hand.

"You probably should stay here," her other self taunted. "After all, neither one of us would want to deal with the danger out there. Here, you could be safe and wouldn't be alone."

"I'll pass, thanks," Lyra said, placing her hands together. Even without her armor, she got in this void somehow. Maybe if she did it again… "You could always leave, too."

"Maybe, but I'll have to deal with the police or the Foundation. You're familiar with how they work, after all." Lyra ignored it, letting irritation and impatience grow her counterpart's voice. "What are you even doing?"

"Trying to make a portal," Lyra replied.

"Why?"

"'Cause I need to get out."

"That doesn't answer my question," the reflection almost snarled. "Is it because of the other Riders? They can't protect you now."

"I don't need them to protect me. I want to protect them," Lyra responded honestly, thinking back on the Riders who helped and taught her everything good she knew. Those thoughts sparked a light between her hands.

"Why?"

"Because they're my friends-"

A bang on glass cut through Lyra's focus and killed the tiny light. Startled, she looked at the enraged face glaring at her with venom. With fists slamming from the other side of the mirror, the other Lyra spat venom too and shouted, "They aren't your friends! They were mine, and you took them from me!"

Feeling guilty, Lyra said, "I didn't mean to-!"

"No!" the other, angrier Lyra snapped. In the following silence, the moment of rage passed, but the reflection still spoke with a thick layer of negative emotions. "No… You may think they're your friends. That's only because they think you're me. So go ahead, run. Go back to them. Hide if you want, but let me tell you this…"

Having heard enough, Lyra brought her hands close again. The light she tried to summon before appeared one more time and formed into a ball of coalescing energy. Lyra's heart pounded with fear and anxiety, so much it almost clouded out her other self's next words and let her only focus on the light.

"... no matter how much you've changed…" the reflection said, her voice rising while Lyra threw out the ball, "... no matter what good you do, even if you sacrifice yourself, the truth is still out there. And I know it!"

A portal forming out of the ball, Lyra ran towards it. She left the void of stars and other Earths for the Earth beyond her exit. However, she heard her other self's last words before returning 'home.'

"I know what you really are: a thief!"

AN: Just a little one-shot idea I had while trying to write and figure out my style for a specific Kamen Rider fanfic idea (if you've read the last idea entry, then you can guess what that is). I don't think what I've written is bad, and I hope this will make my fanfic better in the long run. Until whenever (or if I ever) publish that story, take care.

Raika out.