Author's Note:

Another has been completed Hopefully it's your enjoyment as much as we keep making them

To my knowledge Apzeta should be back soon, so for now I'll continue like I did a while back

Till next chapter, Bishop

[ Shade Academy – Exterior – Just Outside the Library ]

The heavy doors of the Shade Academy library creak open as Yang and Blake storm out, their footsteps echoing sharply on the sunbaked tiles.

The late afternoon light casts long shadows as the shattered moon glows eerily above. Both women are tense, expressions tight with frustration.

Blake: (arms folded, voice low and bitter) "I can't believe they want to keep reading about him. Like this is some sort of study session—"

Yang: (cutting her off, pacing) "Yeah, well, I don't want to see more data about Akira. I've seen enough."

Inside the library, Tsukasa narrows his eyes, watching them go.

Tsukasa: "Let them walk. But they better cool off before they mess something up don't want to do cleaning this late."

Sougo: (uneasy, glancing toward the door) "They're not themselves. All that pressure... it's getting to them."

Kaito: (quietly, flipping his NeoDiendriver in hand) "Or maybe they're becoming exactly who they really are under the pressure."

Woz: (grimly poetic) "The weight of destiny does not create heroes. It reveals whether the soul cracks... or burns brighter."

Winter Schnee: (studying the screen data) "This isn't just about Akira... If this information is correct,

Dr. Polendina might be able to engineer something to rival even the Ark. An AI—built from hope, not malice..."

But outside, away from plans and talk of data and other plans

[ Shade Academy – Courtyard ]

Yang leans against a stone pillar, fists clenched, breathing hard. Blake stands beside her, arms crossed, her gaze distant.

Yang: "You know what sucks the most? I want to fight him... really fight him. Not some half-assed, one-sided disaster like last time.

Just me and him—equal footing. And I want to win. I want to prove that I was right."

Blake: (softly) "Yang... this isn't just about him anymore. It's about what we've become while chasing him..."

Suddenly, a faint melody begins to drift through the air—twinkling notes of a music box.

The world slows. Then everything stops.

Blake freezes mid-blink. The birds halt mid-flight.

The shadows on the ground pause, unmoving.

Only Yang remains in motion, heart thundering.

Yang: (whipping around) "Blake?!" She waves her hand in front of Blake's face. Nothing.

Yang: "What the hell—?!"

A slow, theatrical clap echoes from behind. She turns

There stands Geist.

Geist: (cheerfully eerie) "A wonderful frame. Sturdy. Sunlight-hardened. I'd use ash wood for your arms… something that bends but does not break."

He bows dramatically, his top hat tipping forward.

The blue emblem under his eye catches the dim light.

Geist: "You may call me Geist. And you, golden girl… You wish for strength, do you not?"

Yang: (guard up, defensive stance) "Who are you?! What did you do to Blake ?!"

Geist: "I merely paused the play. The scene was getting a bit too loud, don't you think? But I ask again, is it true? You wish to fight this Akira… on equal footing?"

Yang: (gritted teeth) "Yeah. I do. I want to knock that smug attitude out of him. Show him he's not unstoppable."

Geist: (softly chuckling, circling her) "Ah... still burning so bright, yet chained to something perhaps malice ?.

Geist: You wish for power not to protect... but to prove."

With Geist humming a tune as he moves around Yang once again.

Geist: "London Bridge is burning down... burning down... burning down..."

Geist: "All I need... is your name."

Yang hesitates. But there's a hunger in her rather malice starting to grow, an ache that outweighs the warning bells.

Yang: "...Yang. Yang Xiao Long."

Geist smiles. He flips open a drawer in his coat and produces a sinister object: a jet-black and puruple Anotherwatch with a warped reflection of Ryuga's emblem.

Geist: (holding it up) "Then this, my fiery lioness, is yours."

He flips open the watch.

Geist: "With this, you will gain the strength of Kamen Rider Ryuga.

One watch to match him blow for blow..." (He hands it to her) "...and one more—" (he reveals a second watch, blank ) "...to take his power."

Yang: (eyes wide, a twisted smile forming) "So I get to fight him and take him down for good?"

Geist: (singing): "Build it up with mirror lies, mirror lies, mirror lies… Build it up with mirror lies, my little flame…"

Yang: (whispers, almost reverently) "I can even stop Salem with this..."

Geist: (whispers back) "Perhaps. Perhaps not. That's up to the story of this play."

The watches glow as Yang grips them tightly. Behind her, time begins to hum again—but still frozen, as if the world itself waits for her choice.

Geist: (turning to go) "Enjoy your curtain call, Miss Xiao Long. I'll be watching... and composing."

With a tap of his marionette controller against his music box, the tune resumes as the air starts to tremble.

Yang stares at the watches in her hand, her golden eyes flickering with a dangerous spark.

[ Shade Academy – Courtyard ]

As time resumed, the melody of the music box faded into nothingness. The sun resumed its arc across the sky, the breeze stirred again, and Blake blinked back into motion.

Blake: (shaking her head) "...What... just happened?"

Yang: (walking up quickly, breath shallow, trying to stay calm) "Blake—look." (She holds up the Another Ryuga Ridewatch, the crimson emblem pulsing faintly, and a blank Anotherwatch next to it.) "These... these are what I got from him."

Blake: (narrowing her eyes) "Him? Who? Yang—what did you do?"

Yang: (still trying to process it herself) "I—I met someone. He called himself Geist. He stopped time like that Kaito punk,

Blake, I was the only one moving. He just appeared, like he was watching us from the start."

Blake: (tense) "You made a deal with a time manipulator?! Yang, that's not just dangerous, it's—" (she glances down at the watches, her voice lowering) "...it could be a trap."

Yang: (firmly) "I didn't make a deal. He didn't even ask for anything. Just... gave me these." (She lifts the Another Ryuga watch again.) "He said this could help me fight Akira on equal footing."

Blake: (growing skeptical) "These things—they're like what that Zi-O guy uses, right? Those... watches? You seriously think he just gave them to you?"

Yang: (shrugs) "Maybe. But... this one? It's called Ryuga. It might be our only chance."

Blake: (arms folded, looking at the blank one) "...And the other?"

Yang: (shaking her head) "Don't know all I know it can shutdown Akira's power."

Blake: "Yang, you realize how dangerous this is? You talked to someone who can freeze time. That's not Aura, that's not Semblance—that's something beyond understanding."

Yang looks away, clutching the watches tightly.

Yang: (low, almost whispering) "But what if it means we can stop Akira? Stop all of them—Amethyst, Adam, Onyx, Neo..." (She looks at Blake) "Even get Ruby back..."

Blake stiffens at the mention of Ruby.

Yang: "We could stop her before she goes too far. Bring her back before she loses herself completely."

Blake doesn't answer right away. Her golden eyes flicker with uncertainty, staring at the watches like they were cursed objects.

Blake: (quietly) "And what if she's already gone?"

Yang: (clutching the watches tighter) "Then I'll bring her back myself. Even if it means becoming something she hates."

Before Blake can respond, her gaze shifts—out beyond the far courtyard wall. She sees something... or someone.

In the distance, a figure clad in blue and gold, top hat tilted, stands on the far rooftop—fiddling with a music box that shouldn't echo so far. The music echoes faintly.

Blake: (eyes widening) "Yang… is that him?"

Yang: (without turning) "Yeah. That's Geist."

In the blink of an eye, Geist is gone. Vanished into thin air—like he was never there.

Blake stays frozen, the echo of the melody still chilling her spine.

[ Vacuo – Outskirts of Shade Academy – Makeshift Laboratory – That same night ]

Pietro Polendina sat hunched over a glowing screen, surrounded by stacked holo-displays, static-filled data feeds, and hushed ambient sounds of the wind howling outside.

His eyes flickered across the latest transmission—data recovered by Team CFVY and Team SSSN from a half-buried ruin laboratory near Daybreak Town.

Pietro: (scrolling through data) "So it's true... Akira wasn't just a fluke. He was... one of them. A survivor of the Daybreak Incident…"

A beeping sound interrupted him—a message flashing on his screen.

Winter Schnee [ Text Message :

Dr. Polendina.

If the Ark was created from malice... is it possible to create something from the opposite?

Perhaps the opposite of Malice — benevolence ?

Pietro's hand tightened into a gentle fist. He leaned forward, thoughtful.

Pietro: (softly, to himself) "...A counterbalance..."

He flipped through the data again, piecing together blueprints and corrupted code strings.

A corrupted program signature labeled: MBJR000. But deeper, below it, he found something else.

A theoretical shell—one not fueled by chaos or hate. But idealistic... raw potential in its infancy.

He tapped in a name.

Pietro: (resolute) "Then let there be light in the dark. I'll call it... 'There'."

He began mapping neural architecture, already pulling backups of Penny's personality templates, cross-checking combat data. If Ark was destruction...

Then 'There' would be redemption.

His fingers froze as another file came up.

Project File: CYCLONERISER – Prototype Driver

Pietro: (eyes wide) "...You were meant to harness balance, not malice..."

A smile broke on his tired face. He immediately began his next input.

Pietro: (typing fast) "Cycloneriser: initiated."

Pietro: (soft chuckle) "Let's see what happens when the wind blows in the opposite direction.

With what I have currently in hand maybe I could create one driver at the moment...

Pietro looks at the damage Zetsumerisekey and Zetsumeriser that Winter had giving him

Pietro: I could recreate the Cycloneriser and create a new driver but it will also need a name... Let's say 02

[ Shade Academy – Library ]

The air buzzes with tension as Tsukasa, Kaito, Sougo, and Woz stand before a holographic table, maps of Remnant and overlapping timelines shifting across the surface.

The shadow of Salem looms large—literally, as Woz manipulates the projections.

Tsukasa: "She's closer than we thought. Guess we are destroying the world faster than I thought it would be."

Kaito: "So we hit her first. A preemptive strike."

Sougo: nods firmly "If she's going to burn the tree down... then we'll be the storm that puts out the fire."

Woz: "My Demon Lord… what a prophecy this shall be. Let us pen a new chapter—in fire and finality."

They prepare to teleport out, Rider gear at the ready. The mission: Fight Salem, Reset and Destroy Remnant

[ Shade Academy – Strategy Chamber ]

In another wing of the Academy, pictures of the Amity Tower Ark flicker on a screen.

Winter Schnee: "A second mission—back to the Ark. We send out the warning. We let the world know we're not done."

Weiss: tight smile "Ironic, isn't it? We're fighting to save a system we used to doubt."

Ren: "But people need believe in it again. In that theirs hope. That matters."

Nora: "So we get loud, we get flashy, and we make sure Salem hears us scream 'hope.' "

Taiyang: "Good. Let's give her something to be scared of."

Oscar (Ozpin's voice): "We'll divide into teams. Some of us secure the tower. The others… reinforce the front lines."

Qrow: smirks, loading his weapon "Hate to say it, but I miss this. But I miss punching Grimm more."

Summer: ( softly, yet fiercely) "We fight for them all. That's what matters."

[Amity Tower Ark – Command Deck ]

Grimm roar in the distance as alarms begin to blare. Inside, steel and glass gleam under crimson lights.

Akira standing atop a platform before his army and Raiders Units, former Huntsmen, and armored Giger Units

Akira: "You were abandoned by a system that asked you to die quietly. And I say no more."

The crowd murmurs, eyes burning with purpose.

Akira: "You're not cannon fodder. You're not expendable. You are the new future. And they—the creatures that prey on weakness—they're the past."

Akira: "So when you charge into that horde of Grimm—don't do it as soldiers. Do it as liberators. Show the world that Zaia believes in its people!"

Bullheads roar to life. Raiders pound their weapons. A sea of black and silver armor begins to mobilize. The Giger Four Units descend first, followed by waves of Trilobite Magias.

Amethyst (over comms): "Targets confirmed. Team Two, moving on Mercury Black."

Onyx: "Team Three heading for Gillian and Jax Asturias."

Akira: "Ruby, with me. Tyrian is the thread. Pull him out, and Salem unravels."

Ruby nods silently. Her eyes burn with a mix of purpose and buried rage.

[ Shade Academy Courtyard – Moments Later ]

Back outside, Yang stands alone in the courtyard. The Another Ryuga Ridewatch glows in her palm, pulsing like a heartbeat. Then…

Another Ryuga Ridewatch: [ Ryuga ! ] Distorted digital beeping echoes.

Black and purple energy erupts around her. Her eyes glow as her armor shifts into place. She grows taller, darker—more monstrous.

Blake: (rushing in) "YANG! What the hell are you doing?!"

Yang (Another Ryuga form): voice deeper, distorted "Just… testing the edge."

She throws a punch at a nearby statue. A mirror snaps into place—then reflects the force back in a blast that shatters the stone.

Blake (worried): "You need to stop! That thing—it's messing with you!"

Yang: pauses, looking at her reflection in the courtyard's polished surface. Her black armor flickers.

She grits her teeth and forces the energy to fade. The armor vanishes. Her knees buckle slightly—but she catches herself.

Yang (breathing hard): "I'm fine. I just needed to feel it… the kind of power we're up against."

Blake: "You felt like him. That's not a good thing, Yang."

Yang (quietly): "No. It's not. But if becoming a monster is what it takes to beat that monster—then so be it."

She looks up, eyes blazing with defiance.

Yang: "We're going to find Akira. Beat him down. Drag him back here—and make him see that he's wrong."

[ Distance – Rooftop in Shade Academy ]

Geist watches the scene from the Academy's spire, twirling his marionette controller.

Geist (singing softly):

"Fair lady, foolish and proud…

A monster now beneath her shroud…

The mirror cracks, the light is gone…

Will she burn out… or carry on?"

He chuckles darkly, eyes gleaming with twisted amusement.

Geist: "How poetic. They call him a monster. But I wonder, Yang Xiao Long… what will you become when the fire goes out?"

He snaps his fingers. The music box resumes its tune.

Geist: "London Bridge is falling down… my fair lady…"