Within the Mimic Lair, Sheave-Far-Tar was busy explaining everything that had happened from his point of view since becoming a prisoner in his own body.

"But now, thanks to the Maleficore, I'm finally free." He chuckled, only to then sigh. "I'm sorry, master. Because of my weakness, I became a problem for the Mimics and caused a lot of trouble. All I can do if say that I'm sorry and offer my undying loyalty to the Mimic cause from now on."

The holographic image of the man nodded. "I am willing to accept your forgiveness. This isn't the first time we Mimics have faced issues. I'll admit, this is the first time Mimics have been turned against their own kind. But we can learn from this and once we've conquered this world, we will work to make sure this never happens again."

"Of course," Sheave nodded. "I thank you, master...um..."

"Tie," the master stated. "Tie-Ray-Ant. I have been leading the Mimics since our early days. Ever since we started our mission, to wipe out all non-Mimic life in the universe. But, you can call me Sombra. I've come to quite enjoy that name."

"Thank you, Master Sombra. You honour me with your presence." But then, he frowned as something seemed to come to mind. "Forgive my ignorance, but may I ask. Why do we travel from world to world, wiping out anything that isn't a Mimic?" Sombra raised an eyebrow at this. "I'm not questioning the cause. I'm just curious what made us decide to do such a thing."

The other Mimics chuckled at this, Sheave turning to glare at them. "Of course you wouldn't know," Maya stated. "Your education was interrupted. You should have learned this as soon as you captured your human host. But since you disappeared, you never got the chance."

"Not my fault I disappeared," Sheave stated. "Stupid Corvyn."

"By the way," Frill stated. "Any idea where the heck that guy is located? If we can find him and take him out, the other Riders won't have a prayer."

Sheave sighed. "Unfortunately, no. All I know is that it's in a city close to the royal castle."

"There are like....four cities close to the royal castle," Maya stated.

"Well that's the best I've got. My host wasn't paying attention to where he was going when he drove to the castle." The Mimics sighed, clearly annoyed that they wouldn't be able to find the one who had started this whole Kamen Rider annoyance. "Now, can I finally be educated about Mimic history?"

"Of course," Sombra nodded. "It's quite a story. Going back a long time. Over three centuries. Maybe longer. To the origins of our race, in a universe much like the one your host comes from. It was a world divided by war and hatred."

A long time ago.

Explosions filled the air, as a battle was going on. Said battle was between two races of human-like beings that were very different.

One race were a bunch of lanky blue-skinned creatures, with four arms and four eyes. They were wearing suits of robotic armor, which looked highly advanced. Meanwhile, the other race were taller and bulkier. They had red skin and a single eye. They didn't have hair like the other race, each one instead having horns of different shapes, sizes and positions. Their weapons didn't look as advanced, appearing no better than a human's weapon.

The two races ran towards one another, the blue ones firing their weapons and blowing up several areas of the battlefield.

The red race braced themselves, their strength allowing them to endure the explosions and keep charging. They shot at the blue race, but the robotic armor was able to shield them from the bullets as they got close to one another. And soon, the fight broke into hand to hand and a few weapon clashes.

The guns had been practically forgotten, with fists, sword, maces and anything else being used to destroy the others. It was absolute carnage and by the time it was over, both sides had been completely destroyed.

A single blue soldier staggered through the remains of the battlefield, his robotic suit falling off of him from the damage it had received. Once they were out of the suit, they staggered around trying to return to their base whilst keeping the injuries they had suffered from bleeding out.

But then, as they stepped over the remains of a dead red soldier, their foot landed on something and a clicking sound filled the air.

He looked down and saw it was some kind of landmine, with lighting beginning to switch on around the side. And when the final light switched on, a burst of energy filled the battlefield and disinterested the soldier and all the bodies around him within ten meters.

"I don't know what caused the war to begin, but it would not end until one of the two races was wiped out."

In a base, the blue race were looking up battle plans as one with an eye-patch slammed his fist into the table. "Damn them! Those brutes continue to match us, no matter what weapons we develop."

Another member of the blue race sighed. "They may not have the brains, but they evolved in the wastelands. You don't survive in a place like that without becoming difficult to kill."

"There has to be some way to take them down!" Another yelled out in anger, "a way to get past their practically indestructible bodies." The others frowned, clearly not knowing what to do. "Maybe we just need bigger guns and weapons."

"Sir. We've constantly been increasing the power and size of our weapons. But that doesn't seem to make them any more effective. If we want to defeat them, we need an entirely new strategy."

"And what would that strategy be?" The leader asked, but his adviser said nothing.

"More and more weapons were developed to destroy the other, but the battle continued to remain at a stalemate. But then, something was created that would change the tide of the battle. And the future of that entire dimension."

The blue soldiers marched through a corridor, until they arrived at the metal doors leading to some kind of lab. And there, several blue race scientists could be seen working on something. "This better be good. You said it would allow us to win this war."

"Indeed," the head scientist nodded. "With this, we can destroy them from the inside out."

"What is it?" Another soldier asked, as the scientist picked up a jar of orange brown sludge. "That's it?" The scientist nodded. "How is that supposed to destroy them?"

"Is it some kind of bio weapon?" Another asked. "Will it infect them and spread a disease they won't be able to survive?"

"No. It will do something far greater than that. This creature will copy any living thing that it comes in contact with. Trapping the original in a state of perfect hibernation. The creature will gain all the knowledge of its host, but will be completely obedient to us. They will allow us to turn our enemy's strength against them."

The blue soldiers didn't look convinced, but the scientist had prepared special weapons to use them. "Very well. Let's see how well these...Mimics, do in the field."

"In order to test their newest creations, they found a small company of their enemies. The perfect test subjects."

The blue soldiers were hiding on a cliff overlooking a small valley, where a quartet of red soldiers were marching. "Prepare the Mimic Launcher!" A blue soldier raised a bazooka-like weapon and aimed, firing once he had a clear target.

The projectile fired and the metal casing fell apart, allowing the slime to shoot through the air until it slammed into the red soldier.

The others were shocked, as the slime began to spread around his body. And before they could think to run or help him, three more flew down and slammed into them. They all screamed, as they were suddenly overwhelmed by the slime and completely trapped.

The soldiers above were amazed, as they watched the Mimics cocoon their victims. And as they did, some of the slime began to grow off the side of the cocoon and form a new form. As the soldiers climbed down off the cliff, they were amazed to see perfect copies of the red soldiers standing besides the cocoons.

"This is incredible," one of the soldiers smiled. "Just amazing!" The others nodded, as they reached the Mimics whilst they stood there. "Better test them. Stand on one foot." They did so, "stand on the other foot." They swapped. "Do several push-ups." They got down and did just that, the blue soldiers laughing at them.

"This is awesome," one stated. "But enough messing around. They've got work to do." The others agreed, as they began to give the Mimics orders. Soon, the four were returning to the red base whilst the cocoons were taken back to the blue base.

"That was the beginning of the end for the other side. The Mimics infiltrated their side and started passing information to the other side, allowing them to have the tactical advantage. And more Mimics soon followed, replacing grunts that worked to climb up the chain of command. And eventually, they were overwhelmed."

"Are you sure this is the right place?" A red soldier asked his commander, as they made their way through a forest. "Why would they send us here?"

"The general ordered us to this place. So it must be a place of significance." But suddenly, a bunch of slime slammed into them and they were all quickly overtaken by the cocoons. They screamed, but it did nothing to help them. Within moments, they were overwhelmed.

The blue soldiers stepped out, as the Mimics finished forming. "Perfect," the blue commander smirked. "Go back to their base and wait for further orders." They nodded and began to head back the way they came, as the cocoons were collected and sent back to the blue's base.

"On and on this went, until almost half the opposing side was replaced. And when that happened, the end came to be."

The blue soldiers attacked the red bases, the lot of them flying in using more advanced armor suits. And as the red soldiers tried to fight back, they suddenly found the soldiers next to them turning their weapons upon them. "What are you-" He didn't finish, as he was shot down.

The red soldiers were soon completely wiped out. And by the end of the battle, the only red soldiers alive were the ones trapped inside the cocoons.

Back at the red base, the cocoons were being placed inside large holes in the ground. They were roughly five meters deep and once the last hole was filled, the Mimics walked in carrying large barrels of some kind of white liquid.

Each one emptied the large barrel into the hole, filling it up and covering the cocoons. And once the holes were completely filled, they waited for the liquid to solidify with one of them using a stick to test it. When the stick bounced off the liquid without sinking, they turned to the Mimic.

"Do it." The Mimic nodded before its body began to melt, the creature releasing its host from its control and reverting back to its natural slime state. The blue soldiers gathered up the Mimic and placed it in a jar, as another one listened to the concrete grave.

He felt it begin to shake as something started hitting it. But the concrete remained and after a few minutes, the shaking stopped. "Perfect."

"With that, the Mimics had completed the mission they had been created for. As such, they no longer had a purpose. And that meant they had no reason to remain."

"You want me to destroy the Mimics?" The scientist asked, as he and the general moved down the corridor towards the lab.

"Your Mimics were the perfect weapons. Thanks to them, we're the only race on this planet. We can finally build a perfect society. But now that the war's over, we have no more need for them. They're nothing but weapons in a world without conflict. It's either we destroy them now, or let them sit on a shelf somewhere with no purpose. I'd say that would be worse than death. Wouldn't you?"

"I guess," the scientist nodded.

"Exactly," the general nodded. "So do the right thing and put them out of their misery." He stopped before the lab and patted the scientist on the shoulder. "But make sure everything related to the Mimics is safely catalogued. Whilst I hope we'll never need them again, there's no telling what the future might hold."

"Understood." The general left and the scientist headed into the lab, which was filled with the jars of Mimics. And that wasn't even all of them. "Well, my brilliant little creations. You've served your masters well." He picked up a jar, "now it's time for you to rest." But as he opened the jar to take it out and dispose of, something happened.

The slime suddenly leapt out of the jar, something the scientist didn't think should be possible.

The blue humanoid screamed, as the slime surrounded him and within seconds, he was captured within the cocoon and the Mimic replaced him. Now having access to a much more intelligent host than last time, the Mimic found its knowledge base expanding and smiled before looking down at the cocoon.

"We can't rest yet. Not until we've completed our mission. You created us to exterminate all the inferior species on this planet. We were the reasons you won that war, so I think that makes us the more superior specimens. So it's only right that we be the ones to come out on top of is evolutionary race."

He turned towards the other jars and smiled, as he started taking the lids off.

But strangely, the Mimics didn't try and move. It was almost like they couldn't move, unlike him. This confused him, but he shrugged before getting to work.

"And thus, we broke away from our creators and did what we were made to do. And it wasn't difficult."

In a large hall, many of the blue race entered dressed up for some kind of party. As they looked around at all the tables, they noticed a bunch of metal tubes sitting on each chair. And when everyone picked one up, they saw the same instructions to open them at the exact same time.

Nobody seemed to question this and enjoyed the party, eating the food they had ordered to celebrate their victory over the red race. And when the time came, everyone picked up their metal tubes and opened them up. They all looked inside and didn't see anything, so turned them upside down with an open palm.

And almost at the exact same time, the slime slid out and landed on their hands. And when they realised what it was, they gasped. But it was too late.

They all screamed, as the Mimics began to surround them. Within seconds, they were all encased in the cocoons as the Mimics took their forms. And the first Mimic stepped into the room, smiling when he saw the rest of his kind having replaced some of the most important members of the blue race.

He smiled, realising her was one step closer to completing his goal.

Sombra smiled at the memory. "In just a few weeks, we captured every member of that race. At the same time, we began producing our own Mimics using what we had learned from our creators."

"Amazing," Sheave smiled. "So what happened then? When did you choose to make the jump from planetary conquerors, to multi-dimensional conquerors? If the two races you were fighting were so focused on killing one another, I doubt they would have made much progress in any non-war related sciences."

"True," Sombra nodded. "Honestly, our multi-dimensional discovery came about through pure accident. Or maybe it was fate." Sheave wondered what he meant, as he began to explain what had happened. "We had conquered our home-world, but it was barely worth taking once we had. The war up to that point had depleted it of many of its natural resources. Resources that had been destroyed in the conflict."

With the Mimics now in charge of the planet, many of them simply sat around all day doing nothing.

The Mimic that was leading them, the one that had liberated the Mimics from their created, had come to name himself Tie. And he sat in an office, with absolutely nothing to do. He was still in his scientist form, knowing that without it he would revert back to his gel form. He had all this knowledge, but no idea what to do with it.

"Master Tie!" Another Mimic raced into the room. "Something's happening down in the street below." The Mimic frowned before looking out of the window and seeing some kind of light down on the street. He quickly raced out of the building and ran down to the light, as the Mimics in the area were staring at it in shock.

"Everyone, stay back!" Tie pushed himself through. "We don't know what this is." The others kept their distance, as they waited to see how things worked out.

Then, from out of the light, a fight leapt out. Some kind of humanoid insect. It had four legs, a large abdomen and two long antenna. "It worked!" He laughed, only to suddenly see the creatures around him. "Oh. Hey. Nice to meet you. I'm-" Before he could finish, a long stream of Mimic slime flew out and struck the insect in the head.

The Mimics gasped, as they looked around and saw Tie moving towards him. "I don't know what you're doing here. But I will soon know" Within moments, the insect was sealed within a cocoon and everyone watched Tie change into a perfect copy of it.

"As soon as I took his form, all his knowledge was mine for the taking. And it opened a vast world of opportunity for us. No longer were we bound to a single universe. The entire multiverse was now ours for the taking."

In time, the Mimics had used what Tie learned to create a device that could open a portal to another dimension. And using the insect being as an anchor, they opened the portal and stepped inside. And sure enough, they soon found themselves in an entirely different dimension. One which was filled with creatures like the one Tie had mimicked.

"After that, our mission became clear. We travelled from universe to universe, wiping out the natives and replacing them as the dominant species. Whenever we entered a new world, we would send Mimics to replace several of the inhabitants. I would always be one of them, finding someone is a place of significant power and using them as my host.

Over time, those of the first generation of Mimics died. Either in a fight against the inhabitants of the worlds we were conquering, or simply through natural causes. I do not know why Mimics seem to have such different life spans. Some live for several decades, whilst others only live for a few weeks. Likewise, I do not know why I have been able to survive as long as I have.

As new Mimics were born, we discovered other abilities. Not only could we Mimic a creature, we could reshape that form into anything we wanted. They could also copy two creatures at the same time, shifting between the forms when the time was needed. Thus, many Mimics captured animals from the universes and reshaped them to be more humanoid and easier to fight as.

With each world we conquered, our technology also improved. We acquired and developed devices that allowed us to travel between worlds easier, capture and defeat the world's inhabitants and even wipe them out easier. Such as with the Doom Pillars. With them, no world was able to stand up to us. And whilst we occasionally faced opponents that were harder to defeat than others, each universe inevitably fell to us."

"Which brings us to now," Sombra announced. "Where we are in this world, attempting to take over the human realm."

"I see," Sheave nodded. "This world should have been an easy one to conquer. But now, thanks to Corvyn creating the Rider System, our efforts have been stalled. And it's partly my fault."

"Maybe. But don't threat about it too long. I haven't lead the Mimics to conquering so many worlds without having a backup plan or two. The Doom Pillars might have been destroyed, but I have other plans."

"That's good," Sheave smiled.

"But before that. I want to know how you taking control of that body has affected you." Sombra stared down at Sheave's waist. "Are you able to summon the belt?"

"The Mimic Driver," Sheave stated. He closed his eyes and after some thought, the belt appeared and he smiled before taking out the Mimicores he had.

"STRIKE!"

He activated his Mimicore and placed it within the Driver, the other Mimics around him preparing to attack if he suddenly lost control to Flash again. "Henshin!" He slammed the Driver shut and activated it.

"MIMIC! LIGHTNING BUG!" Everyone watched, as the pipes unleashed bursts of slime. Seeing such a thing close up was rather a sight for them, who now knew that this was just the driver causing the Mimic's changing abilities to be different from its usual transformation.

The cocoon formed and after several moments, exploded to reveal Kamen Rider Shifter. The armor slammed into him and formed, as the Driver spoke. "Illuminate the light, striking through the darkness!"

Shifter looked himself over, as the Mimics gave him a curious look. But then he gave them a thumbs up before turning to Sombra. "This body is still mine to control."

"Excellent. This whole situation might have been helpful to you. Now that you can change your form to any of the ones your host had been using against us. And with the Maleficore powering you up even further, nothing will be able to stop us." Shifter nodded, believing the same thing.

But in that moment, Greye stepped forward with a device in hand. "We may have a problem."

"What is it?" Sombra asked, as Greye showed him the tablet-like device he was using.

"When I sent the Mimics out to distract the Riders, I implanted each of them with a small device that would allow me to keep track of them. That way we would know if too many of them had been destroyed before we were ready to drop the Control Pillar. I just checked it and to my surprise, one of them is still transmitting."

"What does that mean?" Maya asked, as Frill spoke up.

"It means one of those Mimics is still alive. They were supposed to deactivate upon the Mimic's termination. The fact that it hasn't stopped, means the Mimic is still alive somewhere."

"Exactly," Greye nodded. "I doubt the Riders would have allowed a Mimic to survive, which meant the Mimic didn't fight. It ran. And since it hasn't returned, that means it doesn't plan on returning. We have a coward and a traitor on our hands." The other Mimics frowned, knowing that a Mimic out of their control was a risk they would need to locate the Mimic and destroy it.

"But where is it?" Sheave asked, "and which Mimic ran away?"

Night had fallen in Canterlot and the city was recovering from the near extinction every living thing had almost suffered.

Everyone was so focused on that, nobody noticed as something was making its way through the back alleys of the town. That something was the blue and pink Butterfly Mimic, the creature staggering around trying to not injure its damaged leg and wing further.

It staggered against the wall of a building and took its weight off its hurt leg, which hadn't healed since Morphic blasted it.

Its side was also bleeding slime, whilst one of its wings had a large hole in it. If it tried to fly, the tear would grow larger and the Mimic would be in serious trouble. It needed to find a place to hide so it could recuperate.

Despite lacking a lot of intellect as a pure mimic copying only a butterfly, the creature knew it should return to its masters and heal up. But doing so terrified it, fearing they would send it out to fight the Riders again. If that happened, it might not survive.

As it staggered out of the alleyway, it suddenly spotted something in front of it. A large building, surrounded by a gate. It was some kind of school, with red walls and a blue roof that looked like it was made of crystals. The Mimic could tell there were no humans within it. The perfect hiding spot.

Author's Note

A bit of a breather chapter, where we learn about the origins of the Mimics. Just goes to show, you shouldn't play god. Even when trying to win a war. Now, how will things with this Butterfly Mimic play out? Could we have a new general on our hands?