After several marathon viewings, I've finally seen all of W, and been struck by the writing bug, so this is my first offering. I apparently really like to make Philip and Shotaro suffer though.

Shroud was the kind of person who planned ahead. As long as Raito lived it didn't matter what she had to do. What if she had forseen Philip's 'deletion' and come up with a twisted solution.

Unwanted Gambit

With a half choked sob being held back on nothing more than willpower, Shotaro released the Extreme Driver. Philip nodded, feeling the earth pulling him back, fading back into data.

Wakana was safe, the Gaia Memories were gone, and Shotaru would protect the city. He had no regrets.

He closed his eyes, savouring the feeling for one last time, when something slammed into his chest, a vice pulling him back to reality. He gasped, collapsing to the ground as the green lines of data from the Extreme memory flew around him erratically, the hazy pull of everything vanishing for the ice cold dose of reality. Everything hurt, and his ears were full of wind, reminiscent of a cyclone. Philip tried to focus, tried to figure out just what was happening, when he realised the sound he was hearing wasn't wind.

It was Shotaro. He was screaming. And not of loss...his partner was pain...no...He was being tortured...

"Shotaro?" Philip shouted. "Shotaro!"

His partner didn't, or couldn't hear him.

Philip lunged to his feet, stumbling slightly but running towards wherever data was the most dense. "Shotaro! Shotaro!"

He couldn't find him, and now even the data was disappearing, fading into little green strips, leaving him in the dark. Philip jerked, then froze, his feet refusing to move. Underneath, data flew around, and his body shone as Extreme began to upload. "Shotaro!"

What was going on? Why hadn't he vanished? What was Extreme doing? And why was Shotaro screaming?

"Raito..."

Philip stiffened, and slowly turned his head. Appearing in the sky as she had once before, held together with words and numbers, was Shroud. Even hidden by her mask, Philip could see the pain and sorrow that bled through.

"Mother..."

"I'm so sorry Raito" she began. "I never meant for this. It was never meant to be him..."

Dread began to fill Philips stomach. "Mother...what did you do to Shotaro? I thought you'd accepted him!"

His mother was crying, he was certain, even if she didn't show it.

"I did" she insisted. "I'm so happy that you found him Raito. I just...I just wish I had realised it before it was too late."

"Too...late?"

"I knew what your father would do. I knew the chances of you being taken for Wakana's program, even if Terui Ryu was your partner, that would almost certainly happen. And you would begin to disappear. I...I couldn't lose you again Raito."

Shotaro's screaming was beginning to fade, but Philip's own frame began to buckle, pain rippling through every inch. The green was enveloping him, even shrouding his vision. But he kept his eyes on his mother, desperate to hear the end of her story.

"CycloneAccelExtreme would have been fuelled by hate" She continued. "I saw what hate had done to Terui Ryuu. That he would happily die if it meant achieving his goals. And that you would disappear if you were to be taken. So I thought...if that happened...why shouldn't you live if he didn't mind dying?"

The final pieces were beginning to form in Philips mind, the last keywords making his mothers wish painfully clear, but he shook his head, refusing to acknowledge them.

"No..."

"I programmed Extreme with a failsafe" Shroud said. "Should your body become damaged; Extreme would run a program to combine two into one. A program to save the strongest mind...in the strongest body."

"No..." Philip choked.

"Shotaro's mind will become data, and you will live Raito" Shroud sobbed. "I'm so so sorry..."

"No!"

Philip forced himself up, desperate to reach this memory of his mother, to make her stop this, to take it back. She might just be a figment, but she had to do something!

But she was already gone, along with the light, and Philip found himself falling...

When Philip woke up, his vision was obscured. Something was blocking his eyes. He groaned, pushing himself up. Normally after a transformation he would fall forwards. Backwards was unique.

Whatever was in his way quickly shifted, falling into his lap, and his eyes focused in.

A white hat. With a torn brim.

And suddenly, everything came back in one horrifying shot. He stumbled to his feet, staring in horror as he brought his hands up for inspection.

His hands were not this calloused, used to nothing hardier than marker pens. These were the hands of a man who had lived a life helping others. His clothes were soft and relaxing, not stiff and restricting, made for appearance more than comfort. The body of Philip was frail and weak unless fuelled by Fang...

Hidari Shotaro's body was strong and capable...

He slid the not!his hands along his jaw line, up past the nose and into the light brown hair, and broke, falling to his knees and slamming fists into the ground.

It was not his face; it was one he knew better than his own.

"Why?...Shotaro...Shotaro!"

The body of Hidari Shotaro collapsed into the dirt, and sobbed.