The bright lights of the operating table momentarily blinded Chase as he woke up. He felt numb all over and cold, probably due to the fact that he had a few IVs and wires in his arm and he had nothing on but a sheet draped around his torso. Memories of Banno's tests on him, his forced brainwashing and modification, and Gou's memories of being in this similar situation flashed through his mind, sending more shivers throughout his body. He closed his eyes, forcing himself not to let his tears fall. At least Gou and Krim were safe now and there was nothing Banno could do to him that he hadn't done already.

"Proto-Zero, you've been such a bad little Roidmude, going against your master like this. It hurts that you would attack me after I've done so much for you. I'm the reason you even EXIST." Banno grabbed a fistful of Chase's hair and yanked his head up, forcing the Roidmude to whimper and open his eyes to stare at the gold Rider. The scientist let go of the black hair and leaned down, wrapping his fingers around Chase's throat, tightening his grip every few seconds until Chase was gasping.

Banno quickly let go to allow the Roidmude to catch his breath. "Don't forget that your life is MINE. Everything you are is MINE. And I am actually quite delighted that you've managed to evolve despite your primitiveness. Your body is remarkable from what I've been able to examine, blending mechanical and organic elements to work co-dependently. You've even surpassed what I did to Gou's body. It works quite well for my advantage of being able to use normal human numbing agents on your body while keeping you awake. In hindsight, I'm glad I based your Roidmude body on the human form instead of an animal. Your body will do quite nicely for my use when I return to the real world."

Chase's eyes grew wide. "What?!"

The scientist cackled, walking around the table. "Don't think I don't know what your teammates have done. They've cut me off and destroyed every backup of myself I had and it won't be too long before they destroy my main consciousness and rescue you, so I've decided to delete your mind and Core from this body and upload my mind into it, much like I did to 006. They wouldn't even realize it wasn't you until it was too late. After all, it took FIVE months for you all to figure out that you were actually talking to me instead of Krim."

Chase struggled weakly against his restraints, hoping that his mechanical parts would override his organic parts and break his bonds. Banno turned from the machine he was working at and chuckled. "Oh Proto-Zero, it's useless for you to try that. I made sure to take every consideration for that body of yours. One of those wires sends electrical shocks throughout your body, scrambling the signals to your…well I guess it would be easier to call it your brain. It's certainly shaped like one."

Banno pulled the sheet off of Chase's body and poked a few places on the Roidmude's upper chest, searching for something. Finally he placed his gloved finger just above where Chase's Number plate would be if he were in his Roidmude form. He held up a sharp scalpel and slowly lowered it toward where his finger was placed internally smirking that the boy's eyes had a glazed dead look on his face. "So, I see that you've finally realized it's hopeless for you. Now…let's get this useless Core out of my new body."

—-

Gou inwardly cursed as he hurriedly made his way through the ruined labs of Banno's mind. His entry point this time was nowhere near where he and Chase initially were transported or even close to where Banno's secret lab was. Signal Mach helped as best it could, but without knowing where they were, finding Chase was going to be difficult.

To make matters worse, he was finding it difficult to move his body even in his Rider form, no doubt the result of his human body not being able to adapt to the virtual world as well as his Roidmude parts. He pushed forward, ignoring his weakness as he desperately tried to see something that was familiar. There was no telling what Banno could and would do to Chase and both were running out of time.

"Chase…where ARE you!?"

"G…Gou…?"

Gou stopped and his eyes widened when he heard Chase's shaky reply in his head. "Chase…can you tell me where you are? I'm here to rescue you but I didn't enter in the same location as last time."

There was a whimper from the Roidmude. "Is…is there anything you can identify like a specific machine or room?"

Gou looked around the hallway he was in. "There's three rooms where I'm at, all on the left side. Lots of chemicals in each and big glass windows."

"Y…you're not far. Take a right at the end, go down that hallway, that will…be the…the hallway that the…lab is in. It's where we…rescued Krim."

The whimpers and groans in Chase's voice were apparent and Gou frowned. "Just hold on Chase! I'm coming!"

The Rider ran as fast as his legs would carry him, knowing that Banno was probably well into whatever he was doing to Chase. He summoned his gun and ran through the hall to Banno's lab, slamming into the door and blasting the scientist's hand just as he was about to reach in to pluck Chase's Core from his chest.

"Gou! How dare you!" Banno clutched his injured hand as he tried to reach for Chase's Break Gunner on one of the other tables.

The scientist reacted a split second too late as Gou initiated a speed boost and grabbed the gun before him. Using both, the Rider quickly shot and punched the gold Rider into one of the machines on the back wall and shot the machine to damage it. Banno screamed as electricity traveled to his body, short-circuiting it and the blackened body fell soon after, crumbling into dust as it hit the floor.

Gou de-transformed and made his way to the table Chase was strapped to. Although his eyes were pained and full of tears, Chase had a grateful smile on his face. "Gou…you shouldn't have co…"

"Oh no Chase! You're not doing the noble sacrifice to save me without any regards to your safety this time! This time, I'm the one doing it! And of course I would come! You're my brother! I wasn't about to leave you to that madman."

Gou quickly made progress in releasing Chase from his restraints, taking careful measures to remove the IVs and wires. He frowned as he saw the incision in Chase's chest and his Core peeking through the hole. "Chase…I don't know how we'll…"

"I just need something to seal it for now. Since this is a virtual world, when we return to the real world, I'll be okay since this is all in the mind. But the more pressing matter is that we need to take out the main reactor of Banno's mind. Otherwise he'll come back."

Chase digitized himself new clothes after covering his wound with a bandage and after the two transformed back into their Rider forms and set a signal for Harley to bring them back, ran down the hallway to the main lab where the last of Banno's consciousness was.

—-

The reactor was surrounded by several numberless Reaper Roidmudes, but without direction of Banno, the two Riders quickly made work of them and ran up to the control panel.

The communication devices were still active and Krim's voice entered their helmets. "From my time in that reactor, I've pinpointed the exact places you need to hit to destroy it. Proto-Zero, take Break Gunner and Zenrin Shooter and shoot the areas I'm sending you. Gou, I'm sending the data of the Signal Ax to you. Materialize it and hit the exact center of the areas Proto-Zero shoots. After that, get out as fast as you can. The reactor will explode, destroying everything."

Chase began to shoot the areas as Gou came up behind him and struck them with the Ax, going around in a circle. Once the last one was hit and the reactor started to crackle with electricity, the two began to run as fast as they could back to their signal point.

Around halfway to the point, Gou's legs buckled beneath him and his knees hit the floor hard, forcing him out of his transformation. He started shaking and breathing heavily, feeling his body start to shut down as his human body finally started to die. He closed his eyes. "Sorry Harley…Chase… I can't…"

"Gou!"

Gou looked up to see Chase had de-transformed and was running back to him. "Just forget about me Chase! I…don't think…I'll be able to survive in the real world anyway. I transferred my entire body in here to rescue you so my human body is dying. I've tried to create myself a Core…but… I'm sorry… I can't…"

Chase took in all the information Gou had told him as he scooped up the boy, momentarily glancing at the large explosion forming in the main lab and started to run as fast as he could with Gou in his arms. "We'll think of something when we get back. You're NOT going to die on me. You've gone through too much to just die like this! So hold on!"

The Roidmude reached the signal and activated it moments before the explosive blast hit their location and the two boys found themselves back in Harley's lab, Gou still in Chase's arms.

Gou looked at Chase with pain filled eyes and smiled softly at him before he was wracked with a coughing fit that resulted in blood coming from the boy's mouth. He started shuddering and convulsing violently, his skin growing cold and paler than it was.

Chase looked up to see Harley running to the two and the man got to his knees, taking in Gou's situation. "I…I had made a healing device based on Mad Doctor…but I didn't know it would be this bad. It can only heal his body if it's alive, but at the rate his human parts are dying… I think his Roidmude parts are the only things that have kept him alive for this long…but they'll soon fail. Oh Gou…my son…"

As Gou's body grew colder and his shuddering started to slow, Chase looked at Harley's shaking body as the man sobbed and then looked down to Gou's prone face. His hold on his brother grew tighter as he closed his eyes and concentrated as his own tears began to fall. "Please…let this work…Please…I can't lose him. I can't fail him again."

A sharp golden light enveloped the two, quickly taking over the entire room.