All of us were still processing what had happened, each in our own way. The general mood was understandably somber, but everyone seemed in much better shape mentally than I would have though. Losing companions, losing your battle buddies, had to hurt. Yet, the troops were already willing and able to jump right into the next conflict. This showcased that everyone's emotions were much clearer to me now, then they had ever been through the Psifield. A function of Voice of the God Emperor css probably.

  What a fucking name. I didn't like it. It made me feel like I was some fucker's puppet. Cross Universal puppetry? That sounded like a storybook nightmare. I was deeply rattled. The breathing techniques that John had shown me helped, but I could barely keep using them. It would be ages before my mind had been reordered into a bastion of quiet reflection. Time we simply didn't possess right then.

  I was reviewing my actions in my head from the fight. Something had been off, I'd been barking out orders like I had known what to do. Again, I suspected the influence of my new css. My only other exposure to battle command would have been war movies, and the majority of those were highly exaggerated. They were hardly a decent basis to start my combat command career. No, everything had felt like something remembered from a long time ago, having the dust brushed off once it was needed again. I ran the situation through my mind again, calmly analyzing what I had gotten wrong and what I had gotten right. How I even knew what were the proper actions would have been was a mystery, but every critique seemed logical, each suggestion for improvement was part of an obviously consistent methodology.

  That my thoughts seemed to move faster now was both a blessing and a curse. It had led me to start reviewing my actions since my arrival, and consequentially quite a few strong moments of self recrimination. All the opportunities I had squandered, were written rge in my mind's eye. Time spent whining when I could have been improving. Allowing myself to get catch up in my own misery at the exposure to the horrors of this city. If everything was rotten, I had to do everything I could to recim it. Then I could turn it all towards a better purpose, a better tomorrow. No matter the cost. Even the costs to myself. I was not important, I was merely a vessel to bring order to this benighted nd...

  What the fuck was that?

  There it was, all the proof I needed that my csses, and particurly the newest one, were affecting my thoughts. Insidious ideas were burrowing their concepts deep into my psyche. Was that on purpose or merely a consequence of gaining knowledge from this fucked up system? How much of "me" would be left, when all this was said and done? That line of thinking earlier was some kind of sideways tyrant's justification for future atrocities. It's not for me, it's for your own good. Easy to say, but almost impossible to trust if you studied history at all. Maybe some of the great despots had genuinely sought to improve the world, but that didn't mean their definition of "improve" matched everyone else's in any way, shape, or form. So what were all of these alien thoughts going to do to me?

  No, hell no. Let's try to stay off that path for the moment. Sure, I wanted to help people, but at any cost? Absolutely not, too much had already been lost. More loss was inevitable, but I should exhaust very option to keep the colteral damage as low as I could. The "victory at all costs" mentality, often left you with nothing worth having. Let's not forget that I'm ultimately here to bring life back to this world, not destroy it further. Patience would allow us to reach the required goal as well as aggression. Spread the clean water and then expand the areas of greenery. Soon enough, our efforts would have new life marching over the nd again.

  And there was the Druid css shifting my thoughts into its preferred methodology. My mind was caught in a rollercoaster, while pying pin the tail on my brain. How could I even be sure that any of my thoughts were truly my own?

  When we had arrived at Lizzie's it was packed to the rafters. I had to guess that fire codes were not a thing in Night City, because the club was at the level of standing room only. Even the lobby was jammed with bodies. Some supposedly preem band was pying there. I hadn't known that live music was a thing in this city. But I thought that maybe it showed that all hope was not lost for these folks.

  The band, Rev/Des, had quite a rge and rabidly loyal following. Being a bunch of street kids who had found the path of music together and then used it to channel their struggles into a form of art. Then they sold that art and made millions of dolrs, but I digress. I had some strong feelings about artistry vs commodity, and I found most people didn't agree with my take, especially the "artists" themselves. However, Rev/Des were on the cusp of becoming a once in a generation phenomenon. Maybe they would as big as the greatest names of previous eras, like some band called "Samurai". Maybe they would crash, and then burn out before they got there.

  So why were these up and comers pying Lizzie's? Turns out, that they had run with Mox for a while to make ends meet. Heh. This club was a second home to them, and these howling lunatics were their people. While they remained mostly independent, the Corpos were circling the band, smelling all of the money they could extract from the genuinely talented band. You could see a lot of them mixed into the crowds of street folk and gangers. They stood out quite a bit, and I had to wonder why no one had zeroed them yet?

  I'll say that I liked a band in this overly automated world that still pyed real instruments. So I thought that it might be nice for us to check out what passes for live entertainment. The boys needed the break and so did I. Hmmm. On one hand the crowd would be a ton of stress for us right now, on the other the right kind of music could help lift the spirits like nothing else.

  Nah, these crowds were way too crazy, we needed something at least a little more quiet than this. I was just about to get everyone back into the truck, when Rita caught sight of us.

  "Hey Ryan! Wait up!" I turned to see her just plowing her way through people like they weren't there. For some reason, I found that funny. Especially since she was smaller than most of the folks in the area, not that size meant quite as much in a cyberware den future. Watching her shove a giant gonk out of her way with barely any effort proved that. He want to start shit, but saw it was Rita and didn't say a thing, though his eyes did fsh. I was chuckling when she arrived, which stopped cold when I realized that John had turned all his attention on her. Even Raynor who was pying herd dog with the fels, had stopped to watch this little bundle of "fuck you" come our way. Now that would be an interesting fight, but no I liked Rita, she was a good egg in a carton full of bad ones. I held up my hand to calm everyone down.

  She stopped in front of me, and she seemed excited. Which couldn't bode well for me. Then she noticed the others and her excitement grew. Then I was sure that this wasn't a good thing for us, but I'd been wrong before, especially with the Mox.

  "Ryan, help! We ain't got enough girls to cover all the angles. Especially out here." She was scanning the crowds jamming up the parking lot with quick side gnces before refocusing on me. Now that I thought about it, her appearance was disheveled, as if she had already been through a fuck ton of something bad tonight. It wasn't surprising, trouble and special events go hand in hand with the Mox in my experience.

  "Rita... " I owed the Mox nothing. That said, I had nothing against them either, and I did appreciate their attitude in the face of this city's bullshit. Use what you got, make others take notice of you. Then take what they were willing to give, and a bit more besides. "Fuck to Death!", indeed. I could see how that was a valid response to this world. Maybe even a sane one.

  "Don't say no! We can pay well and the after party will be nova, once we clear everyone out." She looking like she was more than ready to kick some ass, but her tone suggested she was actually worried. This really didn't sound like anything worth our time, until she mentioned the after party. That sounded like a swell idea.

  "Raynor, are the boys good to go on crowd control?" I wasn't really expecting the answer to be yes. Part of me was hoping it would be a no.

  "We covered a few lessons on it. So a tentative yes?" He nodded. He started going over the best methods to works a crowd with the troops.

  "John, you good to work a concert?" There were less reasons to refuse. My earlier trepidation was being eroded by the thoughts of a party.

  "Not my first time." John smirked. His body was already facing the crowds and his new eye were scanning for threats. You know what, fuck it. It beat trying to find a new pce to hang out on short notice. Though that did beg the question, what kind of concert started at this ungodly hour?

  "Alright, you keep Susie out of my hair and we'll do it Rita."

  I'll give Rev/Des this, I felt their pain.

  The music itself was kind of a bnd, bass heavy, fast rhythm, and light melody sound, simir to a thousand other pieces of music, even from my world. The notes served as an innocuous background to the message of shared suffering. The vocals though, were amazing. Truly marvelous. The lead singer's performance was so haunting, so soulful that I caught myself a few times becoming entranced by their voice, even though I was trying to ignore the music and pay attention to the people swaying in the masses outside. I was curious if the voice was somehow the product of chrome or not.

  The band itself was pying on the roof, with only a small select crowd getting to be up there to see them live. Big eddies changed hands for that privilege. Likely all wheelers and dealers, perhaps some idle rich, with just a handful of super-fans splurging on a once in a blue moon show. The Security up there was all run by the Mox's heavies. No one was getting near the band, without major iron and a lot of split blood.

  The main portion of the club was jammed full of folks getting a full live broadcast or BD experience for a lighter, but still considerable price. Most of the folks in there were behaving and the general vibe was one of joyful sorrow. The Mox had a lot of their mid-liners keeping the peace in there. The outside had been sectioned off from the public and only a small fee was charged to hear the band from here. To be fair, it was still a great experience out here. You could hear everything and felt like a part of the show. To all of our shocked expectations, no one caused any major trouble. A few folks getting too handsy, and a brief scuffle over some imagined slight. Easily diffused by the boys.

  We where working the event in pairs, I was with Jarous. Who was one of the first folks summoned by us at the founding of New Lordaeron. He was a calm and jovial fellow, always with a lite quip or jape. A really likable guy. Mostly we talked about how different things were here. Though the consensus amongst the troops was a morbid fascination at all the technology. To them, it was almost as if they were part of one of the darker legends of their world. Well, I'll try my damnedest to make sure they really were legends in this world. Living ones.

  When the show was over we helped hustle people out of the area. Then we helped with the clean up. A few Probes would have sped this up considerably, but I wanted the outposts all connected as soon as possible so I didn't call any of them out here. Though that did highlight that the Psifield now covered a good portion of the eastern half of the city. I could sense them working if I concentrated on it for a moment. Nothing seemed out of sorts and I had no messages when I checked briefly. Hmm, I wonder if the Corpos could detect anything at all through the cloaking fields.

  Once everything was tidied up, we were allowed into the club for the after party. Which was a far more subdued affair then I thought, at least by Mox standards. Softer music, and the lights were turn down to a normal level. Most of the Mox were showing their real personalities rather than their working personas. It was almost like they were ordinary folks trying to have some fun, imagine that.

  I was sipping a modest whiskey while sitting at a table with Rita, Raynor, John, Kimmie, Mateo and the Lead Singer of Rev/Des, Revy. Revy was a spitfire of a tall redheaded woman, and she lived and breathed the stereotypes of redheaded women. Lots of fire. It didn't hurt at all that she was quite a stunning woman. If I hadn't had Sally and Megan waiting for me, I might have made a fool of myself. She was hard not to fall for.

  The boys were mingling with the Mox and thankfully everyone seemed to be getting along just fine, maybe a little too fine... Nah, let them have their fun. We'd have some other crazy bullshit to deal with soon enough.

  "Remember when you pulled Mateo down and spanked his ass in front of the whole club, all because he hit on your sister?" Rita was half way to drunk, but seem mencholy which had me wondering what was wrong. Though the out of pce question had pulled my thoughts back to the table. I scoped out Mateo to see how he took it. The answer, with a nonchant shrug.

  "I liked her, still do." Well that was interesting, something had happened to the sister?

  "Well, she needed to focus on her studies. Plus, we all know how all of your retionships end up Mattie." Revy ughed while making a spanking motion. Rita went quiet, thinking of something. Probably something bad judging by her face.

  Kimmie chirped, "You sister was Saphie, right?" Her tone was off. Ah, suspicion confirmed, I saw where this was going.

  "Yeah. A toast to my sister. May her name live a little longer." A toast for the departed. Revy did have an interesting way with words. We all lifted our gsses to that. What heartless bastard wouldn't? After the toast, I saw that Rita was looking at me with a thoughtful expression. I raised my eyebrow at her, almost daring her to do what I'd seen coming, and circled my hand. Even in this pce it meant "Get on with it."

  "Ryan you still have those drones right?" She began softly. I was sure she was thinking of the st time she'd asked me to use the Probes and how that all turned out. She was weighing how badly she wanted to know the sister's fate.

  "Sure." Where would I be without my Robo-Buddies?

  "Would you be willing to do me another favor?" She was subdued. Haunted maybe, that spoke of all kinds of unpleasantness.

  "Spit it out Rita, I promise the worst I'll say is no." I stared at her, she had my undivided attention.

  "Saphie's been missing almost a year now. We have no clue what happened to her, none at all. Would you be willing to look into it?" She was looking down, she knew that asking thiswas crossing a bit of a line. Poking a sore point. Sinn was still someone I had a hard time thinking about.

  "Rita... " I struggled with myself for a moment. Then I saw the look on Revy's face. Her expression was one with a sick kind of hope. She knew her sister was gone, but not knowing the how or the why of the situation was slowly eating her up inside. I must have some hidden stat that made me a sucker for a woman in trouble.

  "Fuck. Okay, I'll look into to it. Send me all the detes, and I mean all of them. I don't care if you think they aren't relevant. I don't care if it makes somebody else look bad. All. Of. Them." I tapped my finger loudly on the table to emphasize those st three words. Yeah, I was going to cheat my ass off. Feed all of that data to Alina, between the Probes and an Observer or two, if there was anything to be found we would find it.

  "I'll pay you." I wasn't liking this version of Rita. Meekness didn't suit her.

  "Shut up, Rita. Tell me how you think you screwed up." That was the only reason I could see her behaving like this with an acquaintance like me.

  "I was suppose to be her escort for a run up to Portnd. We were going to meet up at Tom's for breakfast and head out, but she never showed." Her head was between her shoulders. She was slumped and had a defeated look.

  "Rita, you gonk. Let me guess, you bme yourself. You think you should have let her stay with you the night before or something. Run herd on her all the way, right?" She nodded, "Yeah, I'd likely carry that weight too. It ain't your fault but it sure would feel shitty. Hindsight's a bitch." I growled. I looked at John. He nodded. My gnce at Raynor confirmed he was doing the same. "Look, we'll do what we can. I don't need payment. Money's not our problem. We need connections here in the city. Promise to help us meet the right folks, and get us wired into the pulse of this town and we'll do everything we can to figure this out."

  "Tha... " she pulled herself up a bit. A little of her usual fire returning.

  "Yeah, none of that. I'm not promising we can find anything, it's been way too long. So don't thank me for effort that will likely end up with nothing. If and when I find anything, then you can py kiss ass." I tried to show I was joking with a grin.

  Rita gave me a half-hearted smirk, "If that's what you want."

  Kimmie chimed in, "Can I help?" I gave the little hyper-sexual fiend my best, "Are you Serious?" look.

  Rita ughed, "He's dating Longshot Sally and Murdermind Megan, you'll have to talk to them about sharing." What's this? Why is this the first time I've heard those names? Kimmie bnched. So, my dies had quite the rep built up.

  Revy whistled, "You must be some input. No one's ever had the balls to actually date those two. Though I know about a few of their conquests if you want to hear... " Sounds like someone was a fan of their work.

  "Let me stop you there. The past stays in the past, at least where that kind of thing is concerned." I've never understood the sick fascination of dredging up the past. Everyone's got one and it only matters if it's particurly egregious. If I needed to know, they needed to be the ones to tell me, or it was all going to end badly.

  Shit, they had jammed that worm into my thoughts now. Stick a pin in it, I didn't need another thing to worry about right now. However, I was going to have to have a conversation with the dies when I got back.

  The rest of our time there should have been full of light conversation and good company, with a few more drink thrown in. Of course, it wasn't.