The Shield Liger's core is destroyed and the Liger becomes a gray, motionless figure as Zeke ejects from the Zoid. The Organoid falls to the ground and Fiona rushes over. Zeke opens up and Van falls out from inside him. Raven takes Rudolf over to Prozen's gang and gives the kid to them. He tells Rudolf that he doesn't know what happened to Van, but the Liger is dead. Raven leaves and Prozen's gang demands the ring from Rudolf, who doesn't have it, but the gang manages to figure out that Van has the ring. Meanwhile, Van thanks Zeke, who is resting, for saving his life again. Dr. D shakes Van out of his self-pitying state and tells him that he has more work to do (read as: save Rudolf). Dr. D explains that Rudolf's ring proves that he is the Emperor, and if Prozen had the ring then he could take over the Empire. Van reveals that he has the ring. Everyone doubts that Prozen's gang would honestly trade Rudolf for the ring, so Van and Irvine come up with a plan. Then Dr. D and Moonbay sit by a fire and get some rest, since they figure Raven won't be bothering them anymore. While Fiona tends to Zeke, she hears a strange voice calling her name (sounds like she's hearing it in her mind).
Van and Irvine go to rescue Rudolf, with Irvine in his Command Wolf. They've come up with a good plan. Rudolf tells the gang that Van and the others would never come and trade the ring for him, but then Van shows up an a hover board. The gang demands the ring, but Van tells them that he's hidden it in a safe place, and once they let Rudolf go he'll tell them where it is. Just then a flash bomb explodes near them and Van races forward on his hover board, grabs Rudolf, and speeds off. Irvine shoots at the Dark Horns with his Wolf, but the guys manage to get into their Zoids, shoot Irvine a bit, and chase Van and Rudolf, who get trapped in a gorge by some falling rocks. They run into a mine and the gang chases after them. Van and Rudolf find a ladder and climb it, but the guys find them and start shooting. Irvine shows up and drops some smoke bombs to force the guys away and Van and Rudolf join up with him and try to find a way out of the mine, though Van's mad at Irvine for almost hitting them with the bombs.
Van and the others are trapped by a large hole in the middle of the mine by Prozen's gang. Van shoves Irvine and Rudolf back, making the guys shoot at his feet, which causes him to fall into the hole, but he lands on a board, gets bounced back up, grabs onto one of the guys, leaps over his head pushing the guy back into the hole, and the other two guys end up hanging from the edge of the hole since they tried to save the first guy, their leader. Van and the others try to find a way out of the mine but they get stuck at another dead-end, and Van gives Rudolf the ring. Van sees a hole above him, climbs up it, and gets spotted by Prozen's gang, who have managed to pull themselves out of the hole. They run for it and go down a long passageway. Irvine gets in a mine car and tries to help Van and Rudolf, but the gang starts shooting again and Van and Rudolf are forced down another passageway while Irvine travels down the long one.
Van and Rudolf are trapped on a ledge of a cliff with a river flowing a long way down from them. Prozen's gang demands the ring, but Rudolf threatens to drop it into the river unless they let Van go safely. Van starts to walk away, but then turns around and throws a flash bomb. He gets into a mine car, pushes it forward, grabs Rudolf, and goes over the edge into the river. He and Rudolf survive it and start laughing, but then the Dark Horns show up. Irvine arrives in his Wolf to put all of them out of commission. Rudolf tells the leader of the gang to tell Prozen that he will be returning to Guygalos to take back what's his. Meanwhile, Fiona goes into her freaky mode and stands up to look at the Liger. Zeke gets up behind her, takes her into him, and both of them fuse with the Liger, which glows brightly and then a large pink swirling bubble thing forms around it. In a weird dream-like thing in Fiona's mind, she's standing on top of a grassy hill looking at herself (which means that there's two Fionas there).
Quotes:
"Then when we hand over the ring, they'll use us for target practice." -Moonbay
"Hey! Heads up! Fire in the hole!" -Irvine
"They saw me! Let's get out of here!" -Van Freiheit
"This time I'm going to have to be the one to save you, Van." -Rudolf
