Archive of Our Own ^beta

Somewhere down in the Tokyo Harbour in an abandoned warehouse, the Legendary Ten Riders stand together around an operation table watching as Rider One and Riderman operated on a young man.

A young man who should be dead, but their cyborg and bionic sensors detected that his body was still clinging onto life thanks to a strange mystical orb that had been embedded into his body, a demonic inheritance so to speak.

Riderman while operating on the young man's brain was making sure to be as delicate as he could with the surgery, he was prodding and searching for something that was not meant to be in this person's head, something foreign and made by hands of evil that he's far too familiar with.

Rider One was tending to the injuries but the wounds themselves were self repairing themselves including the complex and highly advance cybernetics, this impressive technological and biological recovery was astounding to him, it was something he's never seen before and it was something that intrigued him as a man of science.

Once the operation had been completed after Riderman removed the Emotion Intensifier Module chip that was fused to the brain tissue of their patient, he quick moved aside for Rider One to stitch the scalp back to the rest of the man's head. And much like how his body reacted to the early treatments given to heal his bruises and cuts, his head and skull began to heal at rate that would be impossible for any mortal man.

The Riders gave space and watched as the man began to reawaken as if he was rising back from his own grave.

But suddenly this man's brain went into overdrive as his memories, all of them began to rush through out his body and soul, he started to scream in terror and anguish as he latched onto his head with his hands and even more so when he sees the Ten Riders being cautious around him. He leaped away from them still in absolute terror of everything.

The young man screamed at them to back away. All he saw was their bug-silhouettes and just that alone terrified him.

He had believed he's in Hell or worse.

His body began to mutate as a mental response to defend himself. His skin, muscles and bones tear themselves apart and change to being more insect in appearance. His eyes lighting up with a neon green hue and his bug mandibles opening up to bare his mechanical jaws inside, powerful enough to bite through the strongest metals.

The Riders started getting closer to him but all he could do was shout for them to back away, still screaming with fear audible in his voice and tears streaming down his eyes.

They realize that he was afraid of them and they all began to revert back to their true forms as humans. One by one as each Rider return to their natural form, the young man started to ease up and his anxiety started to fade from his mind.

"You're all humans?" He asked confused but still wary of them all.

Riderman, removing his helmet and reverting back to Jôji Yûki, stepped forward and the light from one of the windows shined upon his face, "Yes, but more accurately we're all much like you."

The young man then started looking at his hands, realizing that they've become monstrous and as he looked to his side, he saw a mirror and he saw what was in its reflective surface. A horrible grasshopper-like monster.

Many thoughts rushed through the man's head as he prolonged his view on the mirror's glassy surface, seeing what he has become.

What he believed to be a nightmare was his reality.

One of the ten could see the fear and pain in the young man's eyes despite his inhuman appearance and reached out to him with a hand on his shoulder to apologize what has happened to him.

Shaking from this revelation, the man's body then in a puff of steam and smoke reverted back to his human form, the mirror showing his face filled with shock and horror still.

The horror of being human no longer.

The man then looked to the ten, asking who they really were.

They gave him their honest answer and nothing but the truth of who they were.

"We are the Kamen Riders, men who have been augmented against our wills by the forces of evil." Answered Rider Two.

Rider V3 then stepped up to add on to his comrade's statement, "and we use this evil powers to fight to protect human lives. We are just like you, Nobuhiko."

The man known as Nobuhiko clenched his hands into fists, shaking angrily as he started to step away from them. "No, I'm nothing like you ten. I'm not just some monster made by science. I'm a monster destined to become this universe's devil."

As Nobuhiko left the warehouse, he covered his eyes just as he's flashed by sunlight for the first time with his own eyes in a long time, feeling the warmth of the solar rays on his arm and face.

His eyes readjusted to the light outdoors and slowly puts his arm as he stand by the port's edge, taking a deep breath smelling the sea.

He looked down to his hands, staring at them with hate for himself as he remembers them being drenched in blood.

Nobuhiko could clearly remember everything he's done and he done it all willingly and he couldn't understand how could he possible do such depraved acts of evil against living being.

Suddenly he felt a hand on his shoulder once more, Rider Two also known as Hayato Ichimonji asked if he was feeling okay.

"No, I don't think I ever will." Nobuhiko replied as he shuts his eyes with his fists shaking with anger.

Ichimonji seeing the pain in this man's heart had him sit down on the edge with him to watch the cargo ships sailing in and out of the docks. He understood Nobuhiko's anguish of no longer being human and used as a tool of destruction. He saw a lot of himself in the young man and felt sadness for him even more so because of just how young he was.

"This pain you're feeling. It's towards yourself for becoming a weapon isn't it?" Asked Ichimonji.

Nobuhiko's eyes opened with surprise as he looked to Hayato.

"You know what I'm feeling?" He asked Ichimonji, still surprised.

Hayato sighed as he scratched the back of his head remembering what he's done when he became a cyborg assassin, that anger caused him to reveal his surgical scars on his face. "Yeah, believe it or not. Some of us didn't get the chance to escape before we had our minds altered."

Nobuhiko hearing this Rider's blunt response was about to apologize but was stopped by Ichimonji as he tells him with a smile that he doesn't need to say sorry for anything as he wasn't responsible for what happened to him.

Hearing those words and seeing how upbeat the man was, Nobuhiko was still thinking to himself about all the blood on his hands wondering how could this man by his side be so calm about taking a life previously and not being in control when doing so.

Seeing him still in a mental fog, Ichimonji snapped his fingers asking if Nobuhiko was still with him and it quickly got the young man's attention, saying he was just trying to compose himself especially with all the memories he was recollecting.

Before Nobuhiko could speak again with the second Kamen Rider, he took a deep breath and asked how Ichimonji can be so calm about what he's done as a weapon of evil and if any of those memories torture his soul.

Acknowledging what Nobuhiko's asking, Ichimonji answers as simply as he could while looking back to the sea. "I suppose I remain this calm when I think about what I'll be doing for the future instead of lingering on my past. Yes, I'm still haunted by what I am and what I've done but I guess after having my soul saved by a man I greatly admire, I try to focus on what I could do instead of what I could've done."

Nobuhiko looked at Ichimonji with awe before he too looked to the sea as a memory flashed in his mind. A memory of conflict for him and his brother, Kotaro.

He closed his eyes again and remember so vividly when his brother pleaded with him to return to his senses, telling him that the disaster he's created was not a utopia but rather Hell on Earth, begging for him to join forces to defeat Gorgom, the organization responsible for both their forced mutation.

All he could feel from that memory was regret.

Regret for not being able to fight against whatever was influencing his mind to join his brother for the good of all innocent lives that were at stake.

Another memory came to him and it was the memory of him killing Kotaro.

Nobuhiko looked to the sky before folding in and covering his face with his hands and started to say sorry to the people he cared the most for hurting them.

He looked to sea again with tears streaming from his eyes again as he stands up and plead for forgiveness from his sister Kyoko, his girlfriend Katsumi and lastly to the one he's harmed the most as an agent of Gorgom, Kotaro, his brother.

Ichimonji stood up too and tell him that he believes when he sees his family again, they'll forgive him.

Nobuhiko asks Rider Two how could he be so certain and he answered that they will. Saying he's got a hunch that they never stopped believing in him.

Hearing those words, Nobuhiko still shaking in pain, nods and wishes in his heart that wherever his family was in the world, that they're safe and happy.

Then suddenly, Rider ZX came rushing out the warehouse to alert Ichimonji about Black RX being in trouble against Crisis again.

Crisis. That name all too familiar to Nobuhiko already, and Black RX? That name he was now just remembering.

Black RX. Kotaro. His brother was still in Japan and still fighting against evil on his own.

As Ichimonji returned in the warehouse to hear the details of what their next move was, Nobuhiko interrupted the discussion saying he was coming with them but Jôji Yûki was initially worried, saying he just woke up from surgery and therefore shouldn't go out rushing into combat but would be cut off by Nobuhiko saying he has to if he wants to make up for all he's done.

He slams his hands into the metal operating table, leaving his hand prints in the hard steel as he bows his head to the Ten Riders pleading they allow him to join them to help Black RX. They looked to each other and unanimously agreed. "From this point on Nobuhiko, you are one of us!" Spoke Takeshi Hongo, the first Kamen Rider.

Ichimonji smiling with his arms crossed, "since Black RX is Rider Eleven, that makes you Rider Twelve!"

"Not yet." Stated Kazami Shiro, the third Kamen Rider as he walked towards Nobuhiko with a gift in hand. As he hands the gift to him, Nobuhiko could see it was a green scarf. He wraps the long bright piece of fabric around his neck and looked to Kazami as he thanks him.

"Now you're a Kamen Rider." He says with a smirk.

Nobuhiko holding onto the scarf he has around him, he felt somewhat complete. "I may still be Shadow Moon, but like my brother as he is currently, I too am a Kamen Rider." He says with his first genuine smile in a long time.

Elsewhere in the mountains of Nagano Prefecture, Black RX was struggling in a battle against Crisis Empire's newest monster, Grand Zairus.

Their battle could be felt all throughout the country as the ground beneath them cracked and shook the forests near them, Grand Zairus was arrogant as he gave Kotaro the beating of his life, being able to counter his powerful Revolcane's star blade and reflecting its damage output onto him and causing RX's body to ache with his eyes and Sunriser were flashing brightly to alert him that he can't keep this fight on if he doesn't escape now.

Then Zairus knocks Kotaro's plasma sword out of his hand and launched him towards a mountain with a powerful kick.

As Kotaro's body crashes into the side of Mount Yari, Grand Zairus laughs mocking as he tells RX that he'll burn to ashes in the flames of Hell before firing his arm cannon. Without a second to waste, Black RX quickly evades the deadly blasts from the cyborg monstrosity that is Grand Zairus, barely escaping the flame blasts with his life but would be intercepted by Crisis Empire's Naval Commander, Bosgun as he demands RX to prepare himself before he swung his sword down on the Child of the Sun.

But out of no where, his blade would shatter against another's, then Bosgun would be hit with a swift but powerful punch that sent he backwards.

The Naval Commander rushes to stand back up demanding who dared to interfere with Crisis Empire's business.

Kotaro was in shock to see who it was as he slowly rose back up on his feet.

Flowing in the wind a green scarf and in one hand a crimson blade. "I dare to interfere!" Declared Nobuhiko Akizuki.

RX rushed to Nobuhiko's side with surprise and joy, "Nobuhiko! You've returned to your old self!"

Nobuhiko looked back to his brother with a glance of sadness before looking towards both his and his brother's enemy with absolute hatred. "No, not quite yet. Stand back and watch my transformation, Kotaro."

As his brother stepped forth with his scard flowing against the wind, Nobuhiko took a deep breath before he swung his arms to the left clenching his hands into fists to materialize his Shadow Charger around his waist, continuing with his transformation sequence, Nobuhiko would then quickly swing his arms right then back left to spark the levers in his cyborg body as he shouts out his transformation phrase.

"SHADOW CHANGE!"