Welcome to Gaia! ::

The doctor tapped furiously at his keyboard. He had managed to patch all of the holes in Remus's programming, but alteration were still needed. By all means, if this programming were inserted into a suitable body then it would be capable of functioning. However, the doctor was concerned that memory might be a problem.

Also, there were some other issues he needed to correct.

"A few more lines aaaaaaaaand..." He continued typing, almost finished. He tapped enter on the keyboard and typed another line of code. With this additional coding, Remus... at least this version, would trust the doctor's decisions completely. One last line before...

"Done! Now to download Remus V2 into a shell."

He hooked up the prototype shell that he had made based off of the Golden Gladiator's internal systems. Sure, he had a much more finished shell, but that would have to wait until everything was certain.

The doctor waited patiently for the download to finish before clearing his throat.

"Ahem... Remus, awaken."

The doctor smirked, glad that it seemed to have worked.

"Yes... you have downloaded into a new shell. Sorry if it doesn't seem very finished. After all, I've gone to quite a bit of work to get you back in a shell. Tell me, what was the last thing you remembered happening before your shell was destroyed?"

He wondered how much he'd need to brief him on.

"...That is not necessary, Gladiator. The war has been over for quite some time. Your current shell is in no shape to go off fighting. While your new shell is being constructed, allow me to tell you all that has happened..."

The doctor informed Remus of everything that had happened over the time since the wars. He told of Mother's invasion and attempt to consume the Earth (though he hid the fact that he was responsible for Techno Rome's destruction, instead blaming Mother). He then told of Remus's transfer to a human body and the subsequent rise of the GRE.

As he neared the end of his story, he told about Vaswedes.

"And lastly, I bring you to why you are here. Remus, you are dead. Or at least, were dead. Your brother, Romulus, sabotaged your resurrection technology and killed you in cold blood. Then, he took over your empire and began genocide against all of the non-human denizens. Thus, I had to rebuild you from old shells that were tossed aside. Now..."

He turned away, looking at his monitor and it's 'New Body Completed' text.

"...Even Alnette is against Romulus and his reign of terror. Will you join us in our fight? Would you be willing to fight against your own? Do you have the will to fight, even if you knew that you would be the destruction of your own empire?"

The doctor, still facing away from Remus, frowned.

Well, so much for taking down the GRE. I guess those alterations to make him trust me more weren't enough.

He turned around and walked to his computer.

"Now... I am going to give you a new battle shell. Keep in mind that unlike your other bodies, this one has not been produced in countless numbers. While most damage can be fully repaired, if you are completely destroyed then it may be some time before I can get you up and running again."

With that, he pressed several keys on his keyboard. After the press of the last key, Remus shut down. More keys later, a light turned on in the capsule next to the computer. With a hiss as the capsule opened, Remus's new shell was revealed as light shined on it.

The body powered up, the visor turning on.

"Awaken, Gladiator of Paradise."

The doctor smirked.

Perhaps I can still gain something after all.

"Follow me."

The doctor led him to an elevator, where the doors promptly closed behind them. At the press of a button, the elevator took them up to the surface. As the door opened again, the doctor led the Gladiator down a hall and up a stairway, were two heavy doors blocked the way. He opened the doors and exited the complex with the Gladiator.

"Look as far as the eye can see. Utter wasteland. That's what this planet has been like for quite some time, due to a war between your Empire and an alien race. I do not ask that you help restore this planet. It will do that itself when time allows it to. Instead, I have one simple request."

He sighed and turned away.

"Leave this world out of your Empire's business."

He turned.

"Viper? Ah, yes. She is supporting the resistance in their attempts at restoring you to power. Now, I must tell you something important. Your future self, the Supreme Imperator, who was killed by Romulus, may have stored important data in a remote facility. Your future self had a large railgun built for the purpose of causing heavy damage to entire planets. I know. He did more than enough damage to Earth using that railgun."

The doctor looked out across the wasteland and sighed.

"There's a reason I equipped you so heavily. The resistance is planning on sending a vessel to the facility to obtain this data. I believe that this data has codes for activating the railgun. They must not succeed. If they do, they will only be making it easier for Romulus to obtain this data. If he does, then there will be countless deaths as he uses his new toy to commit genocide across several systems."

Some of the sand of the wasteland started to twist, and a hatch opened as a large shuttlecraft was lifted up.

"Our ship has arrived. It is time to go meet up with the rest of the resistance. Also, for the purpose of keeping Romulus uninformed, in case he has spies, you should go by a different identity for now. I would suggest that you come up with something."

The doctor led Remus into the shuttle and set a course for the Resistance's hideout.

"Damn it... another night wasted."

Injecting himself with a chemical of his own design, the doctor had his energy levels restored. It was no replacement for true sleep and his muscles were wearing out, but it was the only thing that would keep him awake through the day.

In front of him, his computer screen flickered a 'ERROR: DNA SEQUENCE UNSTABLE' message. For several days, he'd been staying up all night working on a cure for gender bending. So far, there had been no luck.

"If only I had the DNA of the person who started all this madness."