Kamen Rider X Kamen Rider Witch & Amp: The Dark Side of Hope is a crossover fanfic by Michael Ravencroft, featuring characters from his two other fusion fics, Bring Us Hope, Kamen Rider Witch! and Heroes From Another World.
Luz Noceda and Anne Boonchuy are transported to an alternate version of the Boiling Isles, one ruled by Empress Oscura, an alternate version of Luz. While Luz tries to team up with this world's version of Amity, Anne is welcomed into the Witches Against the Throne, a group of rebels consisted of people Luz knows. Can Luz and Anne find a way to liberate this Boiling Isles from Oscura's reign, and is Oscura truly Beyond Redemption like she says she is?
The fic, part of the Disney Riders series, can be read on Archive of Our Own here
, and on Fanfiction Dot Net here.
Kamen Rider X Kamen Rider Witch & Amp: The Dark Side of Hope provides examples of:
- 11th-Hour Superpower: Luz uses the Philosopher's Stone to create a new ring, not only having access to altered versions of Oscura's Sin Rings in this new form, but also ways to directly counter them with seven rings based off the Seven Heavenly Virtues.
- Adaptational Badass: Because Oscura cured Eda of her curse before she rose to power, Eda still has her magic here.
- While she isn’t a Kamen Rider in this fic, Amity knows more types of magic than she does in canon. Not only is she able to transform herself into an Abomination like Darius, she also knows Construction magic.
- And Then What?: Alt!Luz asks Oscura this right before she rejects her evil side and Witch and Amp defeat her.
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: Right before Witch and Amp defeat Scyn Oscura, they're transported to Oscura's mind, where they're able to convince the younger version of Luz to reject the darkness entirely.
- Bittersweet Ending: Oscura is defeated, the version of Luz who was corrupted by the Philosopher's Stone is saved, and thanks to Vitimir and Hettie Cutburn, her scars are healed. After two tyrannical dictators, the Boiling Isles will hold their first election for a council of representatives as the monarchy is dissolved. In addition, before she and Anne are sent back to their respective universes, Luz uses her new Twilight form to restore the magic of Oscura's victims. Raine and Eda have also gotten together, and are expecting their first child, choosing to name her Luz if the baby is a girl. However, Luz wasn't able to bring back any of the innocent people killed by Oscura's forces, and the temporary council votes to permanently exile Alt!Luz from the Boiling Isles for her crimes before destroting the portal door, and Amity chooses to go with her as atonement. And finally, while Oscura is no longer a threat, Mason and Mabel Gleeful seem to be recruiting Dark Riders from across the multiverse.
- Break the Cutie: Hoo boy…Where do we begin?
- Alt!Amity has been put through the wringer! She’s distanced herself from everyone, has been personally fighting Oscura all by herself, and had to bear witness to such atrocities as her own mother being killed before her eyes.
- Alt!Amity’s mindscape has become a prison. She blames herself for her Luz becoming Empress Oscura and plans to atone for her mistakes…by killing herself after killing Oscura.
- Alt!Luz has arguably had it even worse than Amity. Due to the everlasting oath, she could never practice magic again. Eventually she’s begging Amity to rescind the oath and she’s covered head to toe in scars all from trying to go against it. Only Amity’s pride wouldn’t let her. Leading Luz to become so desperate and broken that she goes through with the Sabbath ritual.
- The Bus Came Back: This fic features the return of the Phantom generals (Tiamat, Ifrit, Set, Ahuizotl, Typhon), albeit alternate versions of them.
- Bystander Syndrome: Just like Tsukasa, Sougo doesn't get too involved in the final battle as to not hinder the development of the Riders, but he is very uncomfortable standing back while so many lives are on the line.
- Contrasting Sequel Setting: While the last crossover fic took place in Amphibia, this fic takes place in an alternate version of the Boiling Isles.
- Crossover: Just like the last fic, this features Luz and Anne teaming up, in addition to a surprise appearance from Sougo Tokiwa/Kamen Rider Zi-O and Woz/Kamen Rider Woz.
- Death by Adaptation: It’s revealed that Gwendolyn and Dell Clawthorne were both killed by some Phantoms for resisting Oscura.
- Decomposite Character: Even though Witch fights another version of Asura, it isn’t Bria like what happened in her world.
- Evil Me Scares Me: Luz is naturally horrified by all the atrocities her alternate self committed. When she goes through Amity’s memories to learn more about this world, La Lechuza has to encourage her to keep looking, as painful as it is.
- Exact Words: Eda tells Anne about how Luz rose to power as Empress Oscura, and Anne is shocked since she teamed up with Luz before. The only problem is that Eda is talking about how the Luz in her Boiling Isles became evil, not the Luz Anne is thinking about.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Oscura. Pretty much her whole body is covered including an x over her face. Turns out in this reality, Luz lost the duel against Amity and the everlasting oath was never called off. So every time Luz tried magic the oath would hurt her.
- In Spite of a Nail:
- Even though he isn’t working with Belos in this fic, the Collector is still betrayed by his new "friend" instead of being freed.
- The portal door is still destroyed.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When Oscura first encounters Luz and Anne, she muses about how much the premise of this fic sounds like the setup of a Kamen Rider movie.
- Ms. Fanservice: Oscura thinks she looks pretty hot. In her own words she wanted to go for the whole sexy-villainess look.
- Mythology Gag:
- Who else should come to help Luz fight an alternate version of herself where she’s a tyrannical ruler? None other than Kamen Rider Zi-O of course!
- Oscura condemns Belos for getting upset when "his big bro got a hot witch girlfriend", similar to something Masha said in "Thanks to Them".
- One-Winged Angel: Oscura channels the powers of all of the Seven Sin Rings to take on a more monstrous form called Scyn Oscura. Fitting the seven deadly sins theming, she becomes a full on dark angel.
- Poor Communication Kills: Because Anne isn’t aware that she’s on a different version of the Boiling Isles than the one the Luz she knew came from, she initially believes that Luz tricked her into helping her defeat Lich for not obeying her. It doesn’t help that Anne already had trust issues before she came here thanks to Sasha and Marcy’s betrayals.
- Shout-Out: Boscha's outfit and weapon of choice in this fic, a crossbow with potion vial-tipped arrows, is taken from a Moring Mark comic.
- Tragic Villain: At the end of the day, Oscura is this. She just wanted to learn magic and be like her hero, but because of her own impulsive actions and her loved ones not being able to stop her from going down a path of darkness and hate. It's thanks to the intervention of Luz and Anne than Alt!Luz is able to get a second chance at life, even if it isn't as a witch.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: When Luz wonders if she has the possibility of going down the path Oscura went one day, La Lechuza reminds her of all the good she’s done in the past.
