BONUS CHAPTER: SHINICHI VS. RENA

Shinichi's feet felt heavy as he walked down the hallway with Alan beside him. Of course, his legs felt heavy since they were now purely cybernetic along with his arms. He had quickly adapted to them, and just in time soon, as he had gone up to confront Gebok and put him away for good.

Now, it was time to face the music as he stopped in front of the conference room. Alan stood beside him, providing emotional support.

"She's in there, waiting for you," Alan said.

"I know," Shinichi acknowledged.

"Do you need me to come in with you?"

Shinichi shook his head.

"Nah, this is something I need to do by myself."

"OK, well, call if you need anything."

"Thanks."

Alan walked away, leaving Shinichi alone. He took a deep breath and put his hand on the handle. He hesitated for a moment before twisting it and pushing the door open.

He had faced monsters, demons, and psychopaths, but this had to be the scariest thing he had to do.

He was about to talk to his girlfriend if she still even was his girlfriend after this.

He stepped inside and closed the door behind him after he went in. There sat Rena in one of the chairs, sitting at the conference table, with a cup of tea. She heard him come inside, looked up, and stood up.

"Shin-kun," Rena said.

"Rena-chan," he responded. "How are you?"

"I'm OK. How about you? You seem to be looking well," Rena answered, her eyes glancing at his new cybernetic prosthesis.

"Oh, well, my new limbs are working fine now, thanks to the nanomachines. Really makes the connections fluid," Shinichi said as he raised his hand and flexed his fingers and rotated his wrist.

An awkward silence passed between them for a few seconds before Shinichi spoke again.

"Rena-chan, I'm so sorry," he apologized. He was sorry for a lot of things.

"Do you really think an apology will be enough to fix this?" Rena questioned.

"Well, no."

"I gave you a chance, Shin-kun. When you left, I waited for you, and when I saw you at Alan's school festival, I was ready to forgive you because I know why you did what you did. But then you just left again, and without saying goodbye."

"I-"

"And then you nearly died, Shin-kun! I had to see your broken body and I couldn't do anything! I just kept thinking if there was anything I could've done!"

"Rena-chan-"

"Why didn't you ask me to come with you!?"

Shinichi was stunned.

"Rena-chan, you wanted to come with me?" Shinichi asked.

"Yes, I wanted to come with you," Rena said as she walked toward him. "I wanted to be there for you."

"Rena-chan, I couldn't ask you to come with me. It was too dangerous and I couldn't lose you like I lost Lina. I don't know if I could take it," Shinichi answered.

"It's worth the risk to me for me to stand by your side. Alan told me how you were acting while you were hunting Gebok. You weren't yourself. Maybe if I was there, maybe I could've helped you stay grounded," Rena explained.

"It was still too risky. Gebok already took everything from me. He took my memories, my childhood, my first love, I didn't want him to take anymore," Shinichi retorted.

"I get that but I know you would've protected me. Also, I'm not weak or helpless," Rena insisted.

"Rena-chan, you know what Gebok was - is capable of," Shinichi argued. "Even if I could protect you, he'd find a way to get to you and use you against me. I could not take that chance. Not with so much on the line."

"Then why not work with ARMOR?"

"Because Lina died when we tried that. And this was personal, this was something I needed to do my way."

There was something he was not telling her.

"Something else happened to you, something you're not telling me."

Rena could always tell when her friends were lying, and she hated it when they lied to her. Of course, she had gotten better at understanding them and why people needed to lie sometimes. However, she was not going to let Shinichi go without him telling the truth.

Under her intense gaze, Shinichi's heart pounded and his lips trembled as he wanted to tell her but couldn't. However, she continued to gaze into his eyes and immediately he cracked right then and there.

"I SAW YOU ALL DIE!" Shinichi blurted out, startling Rena.

"The DHS tried to break me by forcing me to experience a time loop where I had to watch you all die, over and over and over and over..." Shinichi paused to take a deep breath. Just talking about it was painful as it reminded him of the deaths of his friends, ones that he could never forget despite them all being undone already. "And over again." He slapped his hand over his face, "Every. Single. Fucking. Time. I tried to save you all and I only fail each time. And I keep failing until they decided they had their fun.

"These are the people that I'm forced to deal with. They take and break everything that I hold for their sick games. Everything that I love, everything that I want to protect. They see it all as nothing but breakable pawns. They think that because they have the power, they can abuse whoever they want without consequence because they can. And they will never stop until they are dealt with. Gebok had to be stopped and I had to be the one to do it. In the end, it was me he wanted."

Rena stood silently, staring at him. Was this how Shinichi felt all the time whenever he fought against evil?

"Shin-kun...why didn't you ever tell me...?"

He clenched his fists.

"What could I say? How could I possibly tell you that there was a time loop where you died repeatedly in front of me? Do you honestly think it would be that easy? None of you remember it but I did. I have to remember and I can never forget. I see it in my nightmares but I keep those memories anyway because they are my burden to shoulder."

"But look at what it's cost you," Shinichi took his hand in hers. "Your arms, your legs..."

"I've been cybernetic for a long time now. These are just new additions," Shinichi shrugged. "I can live with that."

"But you nearly died! If your mother did not have that spare Spark Core, you wouldn't be here. And what if the next time your whole body was wrecked beyond repair? What if they had to put your brain in a robot body? Then what? Would that be worth it?"

"I've had to put up with self-righteous creeps for a long time now, Rena-chan. I'm still going to do it to protect you all, to make sure an evil psychopath like Gebok never hurts anyone again. You guys are the reason I'm me. You guys are the reason I have something to fight for, a life, and a possible future. Gebok took my childhood from me. I won't let him take anything else."

Rena's eyes welled up with tears as she rested her forehead against his chest, her arms wrapped around him.

"You've carried a lot on your shoulders, haven't you?" Rena asked. "Like Rika-chan. You had to deal with all this all on your own."

"All the time," Shinichi whispered, "Hell Rika-chan still had all of you, even if they were just versions of you from other timelines. And even then Hanyuu was with her the whole way. Me? I had the emotions of a rock and I'm practically three years old. Then I find out that I'm a mass murderer and I killed my teammates and my first girlfriend.

"Could you imagine waking up one day and finding out that you've killed a lot of people? I've got blood on my hands, Rena-chan. It doesn't do much good for your psyche when you wake up and realize what kind of monster you are. People say that I'm arrogant and cocky. That I have some kind of ego. Fine. Let them think that. If I have a big ego then it just means I try to hate myself a little less."

And honestly, he hated himself a little bit for the terrible things he had done. But if he could just do some good in the world, then maybe he could stop hating himself a little bit more.

Rena slowly wrapped her arms around his waist, her tears staining his shirt, "I'm sorry..." sobbed, "I'm so sorry..."

"I'm sorry too, for keeping things from you, and for not talking to you first," Shinichi apologized as well. "Maybe things wouldn't have gotten so crazy if I had just talked to you instead of running off."

"No," she said, shaking her head, "I get it. Lina-chan's death just really scared you. I might've done the same thing if it happened to you." That was true. Rena could be impulsive too, especially when trying to right a wrong.

"I don't want to lose anyone anymore," he said, putting his arms around her. "Not again. Not ever again."

Rena understood him better now and Shinichi learned that he could not keep his feeling bottled up.

"You know, you'll need to talk to the others too."

"Will you be there with me?"

Rena smiled and looked him in the eye.

"I will. Now how about we go home, alright?"

"Am I still welcomed?"

"It's your home too."

Shinichi smiled and gave her a kiss.

Of course, after this, he needed to talk to his mom and stepdad.

That was going to be one hell of a conversation.

KRC: This was a scene that should've been put in KAMEN RIDER SHOWA GX after Gebok was defeated for good. Of course, back then, I just wrote stuff on the fly. Pretty much just went with the flow. This would've added a bit more to the scenario as it shows Shinichi and Rena talking about him going rogue and why, and basically how fragile Shinichi's psyche really is and how he copes with his self-loathing and his hatred for Gebok. I wanna thank Tailsmo4ever for helping me. He's been a good friend with helping add to this.