“NCPD are currently on the hunt for a vigilante responsible for disrupting the parade – a female of Asian descent with an athletic build, wearing a black dress. She was last seen driving a black coupe in Watson. If you have any informat–”
Enough of that, she thought to herself, cranking the volume down and focusing on the road ahead of her. She upshifted into fifth and kept the throttle pinned, accelerating the Skyline to beyond what its speedometer could register.
At one in the morning, all the roads were completely deserted – all except the border crossings. V knew there wasn’t a chance in Hell that she’d be able to escape the city. Each crossing point held sixteen 40mm radar-tracked autocannons and a full platoon’s worth of soldiers. Even approaching the Wall or anywhere else would be nigh-suicidal. No, she had to hide within the city.
–
First thing’s first, though. I need to get off the road. And the only place with virtually no traffic and a few sympathetic faces around is the Sunset Motel. Run by vets, frequented by the ‘Caldos… I should call Panam. But I’d rather not bring Arasaka to her front door… No, stop. Focus. You have got to get a grip. This was the make-or-break. This was it. We live or die tonight, simple as that.
No… I won’t go down that easily. Wipe the blood off. Check your wounds. Scars will be extensive, fuck it. Broken knuckles and fingers. Hands have dead nerves. Can’t stop shaking. Can’t stop shaking…
Okay, okay… Secure the area. Room 101… No, locked. Room 102… Vacant. It’ll do.
Grab your shit. Combat pants, unitard, boots. Might need to run, can’t do it in these sandals. New plates for the vest. Lock the car, engage the signal jammer. People talking in hushed whispers around me as I got my gun out and slammed the door. I’d like to see them try. I’d like to see them all try.
One window, steel roof, one door, bathroom with plumbing. Bring in some food, and I’m good for a week. I’ll need to be good for a week. Wait, where’s Shinden– Sh– Shinden… Oh, right…
“Mmh, looks cozy,” Johnny mumbled as I sat down, my blood still pumping at a million miles an hour. “Go on. Try and get some sleep. You need it.”
“No! N-n-n-no… I, u-uh…” I stammered over my words, “I need s-some food…” Fuck… I’m willing to bet the glass wasn’t bulletproof. Can’t close the shutters, otherwise I couldn’t see out, no slits or peepholes or anything. Maybe use Shinden to cut a little bit out of it? No, edge is too blunt… Shower? Maybe I need… No, I can’t. Couldn’t hear anything. Come on, take it easy, V. You got this. You got this, come on…
“V, look, I know you’re on fire right now but you have got to slow down,” he insisted, “You can’t focus or hear anything if your blood’s rushin’ into your eyes and ears.”
“FUCK YOU!” I screamed, “I don’t h-have Shinden! I d-don’t have a-anything! What the FUCK ARE WE DOING HERE?!”
“V, for Christ’s sake, you’re stormin’ around like a fuckin’ animal, just–”
“FUCK YOU!! If it wasn’t for you, none of this would’ve happened but no, you just had to go and detonate your fucking nuclear blast because your output got killed, so fuck you!”
“Okay,” he rolled his eyes and disappeared… Easy, take it easy… No, no, how can I take it easy?! Fucking hell, V… Why the fuck did you do this. Why did you take this fucking job… You had it. You could’ve walked away, Jackie. I told you to walk away. Why didn’t you walk away… Jackie, please… Why did you do it, Jackie… Why did you do it…
Okay… Okay, stop… Stop it… Nobody’s coming yet. Give it a day. After that, I’m taking another car and going somewhere more defensible. Take it easy. Just take it easy. It’ll be okay. It’ll be okay…
-
22 hours later…
“No, seriously, who the fuck stays here?” Johnny complained.
“I… I don’t know, Johnny…”
“C’mon. No AC. Hard, crusty mattress. Bloodstains, used needles. Who the fuck would come here to sleep?” he glared outside, “Anyone leavin’ will just keep drivin’. Anyone goin’ to the city would just sleep in the damn city! What good’s a motel in the middle of nowhere?! I’ll tell you who sleeps here.”
“Who…”
“Fuckin’ losers, that’s who,” he said insistently.
“Yeah…” I muttered, picking up my weapon again, “Fuckin’ losers… A couple of fuckin’ losers who seem to get swept up in everyone else’s shit. Like, oh, I dunno… Why don’t we kidnap the Emperor’s daughter? Come on, it’ll be funny!”
“Fuckin’ A,” Johnny nodded, “Then let’s spend a few days campin’ out, surrounded by fast food and spiders the size of your fuckin’ dinner plate. Sounds like a good time if you ask me…”
“Wait… You hear something?” I squinted my eyes out the window… “A car…?”
“At this late at night?” Johnny raised an eyebrow, “In this place? Nah…”
“Just one? Pff, I’m not sure if I should be insulted or not…” I muttered, “Unless it’s a courier.”
“Don’t matter who the fuck it is,” Johnny said assuredly, “Blast the fuckin’ door. No warning.”
“If they found me and wanted me dead, I’d be dead,” I told him, “No, this is something different…”
It looked like a doll… Who the fuck…? She tried the room next door first, only to be cursed out by its occupant… Right… Check that I still got ammo. Good…
A knock on my door. If she left and went on, the next knock wouldn’t be so polite. Fine…
“Who is it?” I shouted out.
“Lookin’ for you-know-who,” she yelled back, “I have a message. I gotta say it loud enough for the whole motel to hear, or you gonna let me in?”
I side-eyed Johnny, shaking his head in contempt at me. Fine… “Alright, but try anything and I’ll send you home in several cars,” I sneered as I opened the door.
The woman appeared to be bathed in light, the high-beams blinding me as she put out her cigarette and walked in like she owned the place.
“Now, who are you?” I demanded again.
“Eeuugh,” she winced, “Is that blood on the wall?”
“Previous occupant was a bit restless,” I growled, “Speak.”
“Hmmh,” she threw her ponytail back, taking a seat at my little end table, “C’mon, it’ll start soon.”
“What’ll start?” I furrowed my brow, setting my weapon down on my lap and aiming it at her from beneath the table, “What is this?”
“A proxy,” she said matter-of-factly. Ah, that explains it… But a proxy for whom?
“Ahem…” her voice suddenly dramatically shifted, “I must make one thing clear. I still think you are mad, but…” Japanese. Hanako… “But I can fool myself no longer.”
“Hanako, I should’ve guessed…” I mumbled, “And here I thought I got rid of Takemura’s little tracker.”
“You did,” she said calmly, clasping her fingers together on the table, “But if Arasaka wants to find you, we will. You know this all too well, Ms. S–.”
“Hey,” I stopped her, “You have to earn the right to use my name.”
“Hm, of course, Tokai-san,” she grimaced.
“And I assume that Takemura is safely back in Arasaka arms?”
“We will find him, rest assured,” she gave me this strange half-smile, “But he is of no consequence to our conversation. I… thought about what you said.”
“Okay, and?”
“Yorinobu planted a tanto into the heart of the corporation. A corporation I know still holds value to you.”
“You don’t know that…”
“I do not? Then why were you in Takemura’s company, if not to aid him in his vendetta?” Hanako’s raised eyebrow dropped to a resting furrow. “Apologies. It has been a… difficult day. But I must act while the wound is fresh, and you will help me. You said so yourself – you are the living proof of my brother’s crimes.”
This woman is certainly shrewd, I’ll give her that. “See, that’s the nice thing about being freelance,” I told her plainly, “I have not been a member of Arasaka Security in about two years now. A lot has changed, including the price for my services.”
“And what if I… obliged you to cooperate?” she sneered at me.
“Oh? Is that why you sent a proxy?” I retorted, “Your words have no confidence backing them. You came here to enlist my help. And a coerced confession is worthless, even to the Arasaka board.”
She stopped twiddling her thumbs, resting her hands on her lap and staring at the floor. “This is true… So, what are your terms?”
“I want access into Mikoshi,” I told her plainly, “That’s it.”
“Hmph…” she groaned, “Mikoshi… One of my father’s many pet projects. A data fortress with servers stationed on orbital platforms throughout low-Earth orbit. It is a repository for digitized engrams… psyches, in a word. That is not where you will find salvation – not without extensive knowledge of the Relic and its contents.”
“Let me worry about that,” I said flatly, “I’ve done my research regardless. For starters, I tracked down Anders Hellman. I had an open discussion with him not a hundred meters from where we are now, in fact. He explained to me the futility of the Relic, how it was bound to kill me, it was inevitable.”
“Surprisingly deterministic for a man of science,” she noted.
“Indeed. I seem to be surpassing everyone’s timeline and expectations,” I laughed and looked away, “In any case, he gave me the detailed schematics of the Relic. Schematics which I plan to use to my own ends.”
“And what ends might those be?” she asked, tilting her head a little and leaning in with apparent interest.
“That falls beyond your purview,” I shot back, “My word for Mikoshi. Yes or no.”
“Mmh…” she muttered, her hands thoroughly tied, “Yes. I will await your call.”
“Ggguhhh…” the proxy groaned as she snapped back into her body, “Well that’s my job done. Got any coffee?”
“Upstairs, third door over,” I muttered to her as she left.
Fuck… Fuck it. I didn’t buy a word of this bullshit. “Know what?” Johnny asked me rhetorically.
“What?”
“Think I’d rather’ve had a bunch of ‘Saka meatheads come in through that door guns blazing.”
“Mmh…” I got up and looked back out the window as the doll headed upstairs, “Yeah, I know what you mean. Rather deal with something we’ve already dealt with before. Something direct. Truthful.”
“Glad to see you get it…” he nodded, “We just landed on thin ice. Crash landed…”
“Yeah, well, we’ve been through worse,” I said dismissively, “At least we know what to expect. And with a deal going with Hanako, hopefully Arasaka won’t be knocking down our door anytime soon.”
“Mm, all the same, blast it if someone else comes up.”
“Obviously…”
“What do you plan on doin’, anyway? Gonna take her deal?”
“Hell no,” I shot back at him, “You kidding me? I might as well deal with the Devil himself. Nah, I just told her what she wanted to hear, she can rot in that fucking castle of hers for all I care.”
“Good to see you got your wits about ya still,” Johnny smiled, “Can only handle so many dumb decisions at once.”
Whatever, no point in arguing… Just sleep… I’m so fucking tired…
–
“Faster.”
“I’m going as fast as I can…!”
“Scream. Louder.”
“Scream…”
"The… biochip… Take care… of it… for me…"
–
“GAH!” What the– who the fuck is calling me?!
“Fuck is that, Hanako?” Johnny raised an eyebrow.
“Somehow I doubt it…” I replied skeptically, picking up my phone off the table… Unknown Caller. “Could be a spam call. But something tells me it’s not if the person’s calling at 3AM…” Fuck it, I’m answering… “Hello.”
“Sergeant Tokai…” Wha– Who the fuck?! “Remember me?”
“D- I… uh…” I immediately stuttered, caught completely off-guard, “I've not been a sergeant in a long time. Who is this?”
“Aw, you don’t remember me?” A woman spoke at the other end, throwing me for a loop… Moto, Naira, Doyle, Carney, uhm… Who else might still be around… “Would you like a hint? Or are you just pretending to be just as much of a dense idiot as when we last spoke?” Ah… Naira. She’s the only woman with the balls to speak to me that way…
“Mm… Good to hear from you, Corporal,” I replied, still in some disbelief, “Fuck me… How long’s it been…”
“It's sergeant now. And it's been seven years and two weeks,” she said with a hint of annoyance, “You never came to any of our reunions.”
“Mm, I’ve been busy…” I frowned, heading outside for some air… God, I really need some fucking air… “Look, now’s not a really good time, I’m sorry–”
“Yeah, let’s talk about that,” she interrupted, as she always did, “Saw you on the news the other day - I can't believe you're still carrying around that fucking sword."
"Not anymore," I frowned, "It's broken."
"I know, I saw. I'm sorry about Shinden," she said with genuine sympathy, "I heard you’re a wanted woman. Think I can help out.”
"Wait, hang on. You saw me on the news and just thought to yourself, 'Hey, that reminds me, it's been a while since I spoke to her?' What is this, what do you want?"
“Like I said, to help you out. Whether you choose to accept or not isn't my problem." Blunt as ever, Naira… "Dusk. Where we took out the Commander," she told me, completely dodging my questions, "I’ll be waiting.”
The line went dead… What the… What the fuck… That was not a call I was expecting…
“Commander? What? Who was that?” Johnny asked, clearly not in the loop with this one.
“An old squadmate of mine. A half-Native Apache, half-NUSA, went by the name of Naira Skara, we used to call her Scars… Fuck me, I’d not heard her voice in years… And no, we didn't kill any commanders, it's an inside joke,” I added, restlessly pacing around the parking lot.
“Not much of a fan of bringin' shit up from that time, are ya?”
“It’s… complicated, I guess…” I sighed, “We were constantly moving around, base to base. Regular rotations going in and out. We all learned to keep each other at arms’ length – new faces were common. We learned a lot about which types of sand were easiest for digging body-sized holes… We all just, well, got used to the idea of not thinking much about it, just doing our jobs and moving on.”
“Mmh…” he mulled, “So where’re we off to now, more motels?”
“Nah, somewhere nicer than a motel, don’t worry,” I said with a half-hearted laugh, “And with any luck, the lone company mattress will still be there.”
“Oh, joy, one mattress,” he rolled his eyes, “You even trust this broad? After all the shit we just dealt with?”
“Implicitly,” I told him definitively, “She may be a bit… rough. But she and I go way back.”
“Alright,” he threw his hands up in dismissal, “Lead the way. Guess it can’t get any worse at this point…”
–
I ‘appropriated’ an old van that was carelessly left in the parking lot, throwing all my effects in the back and taking off back to the city. Risky as anything, but it was still the best way to actually get there – I just had to pray that the facial recognition jammer could withstand the tech that was being thrown at it.
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
A left turn would’ve seen me headed towards Judy’s. Admittedly part of me was tempted… I could just take her and drive off into the sunset right now. Granted, Arasaka would never stop hunting us, not until we were dead or of no more use to them alive. And the latter isn’t likely to be anytime soon – no. No, I had to do something. But it was a hell of a lot easier to think when I wasn’t on the run from every high-level bastard across the city.
I don’t know what Naira has in mind, but it better be some sort of weird, esoteric bullshit that magically erases my existence or transports me to another dimension where Arasaka doesn’t exist, some bullshit like that. Fuck, wouldn’t that be nice… Also would be nice if this goddamn van didn’t reek of CHOOH2 and feces, but we can’t have everything, I guess…
Arriving at that airport felt like the strangest, most surreal dream… I’ve passed through here on a mission with Panam, but I didn’t stop to really… appreciate it. To let it sink in. It’s like a stillborn child, forever locked in a place where it can never grow, never develop into what it was meant to be… A building doomed to obsolescence before it even had a chance, the circumstances conspiring against it from the very beginning. At one point in time, this might’ve been a bustling little place. It might’ve serviced hundreds or thousands heading into Pacifica. But when that fell through during the Fourth, what reason would anyone have to finish the airport? Instead, they cut down the great Morro Rock national landmark and built the spaceport out of it, so that the dilettantes didn’t have to see what had become of Night City on their way to the City Center – or so the story goes.
“So who is this Naira chick, anyway?” Johnny asked as I pulled in.
“She’s a… uh, well…” I pondered, not really sure how to answer that, “She’s honestly right up your alley, heh.”
“Oh?” he leaned over with apparent interest, “Meaning?”
“Meaning, like you, she has a habit of being brutally honest with me.”
“Bah, I like her already,” he laughed as I turned the corner and drove into the terminal.
Getting out of the van and observing was like looking at a broken memory, or a bad dream. Fuck me, time has not been kind to this place, though I suppose I shouldn’t have expected anything less. Place was turned into a fucking scav or Raffen Shiv hideout when I wasn’t looking. Walls were all torn down, the roof was collapsed, all the crates were locked up and probably empty already… Shit. I imagine my mental faculties weren’t all that far behind at this point… What’s it been, almost 3 months now? As opposed to the month I’d been given by Vik. I guess I should be counting my blessings, but it just hurts more and more. I lost my career, Jackie, Shinden, I think I’m slowly realizing that Takemura used me… Fuck. How much more do I have to lose…
Well, at least I haven’t lost this part of myself. God forbid insanity claim a person’s trauma first. But no, life has a funny way of removing all the brightness and leaving the dark behind. Or maybe that’s just my luck. Neither would really surprise me. Naira was definitely a bright spark in there, though. Or… relatively speaking. She was a bit… eh, eccentric. Or, perhaps a better word is rough. She’s the textbook definition of a “rough diamond.” Someone with a heart of gold, surrounded with a thick lead jacket. If she actually didn’t give a fuck, she never would’ve reached out. But I predicted nothing but the most abrasive remarks once she made contact.
Alright… just do it. Suck it up. It’s been a long time. You cut everyone off. Just shut up and reap what you sowed. You're here. You're alive. That's better than about half of the people who've seen the inside of this place.
“A woman once told me she could use a sword as effectively as a rifle. ‘Practice and cutting-edge speedware makes anything possible,’ she said,” a woman’s voice echoed from the next room over as I left the relative safety of running distance back to the van. My hands trembled as I clutched my weapon, slowly walking until Naira’s silhouette came into view. She was sitting atop a pile of garbage, her rifle resting on the ground barrel-up, her metal hand clinking against the barrel as she manipulated it. Her other hand held an old, suppressed handgun – her weapons during the War. She never got rid of them… “She also said that she would never be caught dead without her sword. Color me surprised when someone walks in, wearing her face. Either I’m lookin’ at an imposter, or a dead woman walking.”
“Hey, Scars,” I smiled, “Good to see you.”
“Been too long, Sarge,” she quipped as she jumped off the pile, holstering her sidearm and walking up to me. My eye immediately found an old, worn-out logo on her armor - MaxTac. No shit… “You look like shit. Lost weight? Guessin’ Arasaka got you pushin' too many pencils up in that tower.”
“Heh, tell me about it…” I mumbled before refocusing my gaze on her, “What’re you doing here, anyway?”
“What, like here in Night City? Or here helping your dumb ass out of a jam,” she sneered, “You know Hanako’s gonna go back on whatever little deal she made with you in two seconds, right?”
I paused, stunned at her admission. “What? How do you know about that?”
“You’ll learn later tonight,” she grinned curtly, “Pff. ‘Hunting Foxes.’ And you still underestimate how sly we can be if we try.”
“Don’t play games with me, Skara,” I shot back, “I’m not in the mood.”
“Alright, alright, it's okay,” she backed off a little, “Here, for starters, allow me to reintroduce myself. Sergeant Naira Skara, MaxTac Border Patrol.”
“Wow, no shit?” I recoiled, “Good for you, Scars.”
“Heh, thanks…” she muttered, “Job sucks ass, but it pays well and I got my TT Plat. So I’m happy enough.”
“And you still haven’t told me why you’re here?” I noted, relaxing myself a little.
“First thing’s first – got anything to drink?” she interjected, “You won’t believe the scop shit they give us. I see our table’s still here.”
“Hah… Mm…”
–
“Captain, huh?” she muttered, taking a drag of her cigarette. “Fuck me… Captain Tokai. Gotta get used to that shit.”
“Mm, believe me, it's been surprising for me too," I admitted, passively chewing on my lip as I stared off into space, "And I'm just as surprised you only made it to sergeant. Figured you’d have gone all the way up to lieutenant by now. You got the talent for it.”
“Yeah, but the last thing I want is more responsibility…” she rolled her eyes, “Fucking hell. After seeing all the people get rotated in and out during the War, just want a bit of stability.”
“So why not just settle down, have a couple of kids?” I asked her.
“Why didn’t you?” Heh, fair point…
“Mm…” I mumbled under my breath, “Good question… Have another Broseph?”
“Heh, waterin’ it down?” she chuckled, “Same ol’ Sarge, I see - I can keep calling you Sarge, right?”
“Oh fuck you, Scars,” I shot back, “You outdrank me all day long. And sure, you can call me Sarge, but only you and maybe Ayuzawa, if he ever shows up again.”
She stopped mid-drink and looked at me before swallowing. "Zams's still around? Damn, speaking of drinking problems…"
"Yeah, last I heard he's… uh, not gotten better, but he's still alive, at least he was last year… Haven't really heard from him in a hot minute…" I sighed, "Man, I wish I had some whiskey."
“Maybe a bad idea. You might not wanna admit it, but you’re lightweight as fuck. Still got your original liver, I bet.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.”
“Nooo, not at all,” she sneered sarcastically before sitting next to me again, “All jokes aside, though, you're still rocking that mostly ‘ganic body, huh? Well, aside from the cables and shit.”
“And natural eyes,” I nodded, “Installed earlier this year.”
“No shit?” she replied with genuine surprise, “Damn, girl, good for you.”
“What about you?”
“Me? Hah, well MaxTac spoiled me,” she chuckled, “Gen-five syn-skin with armor weave, synthetic muscle strands, crystalline steel Mantis Blades, titanium bones… the works.”
“Jesus,” I shuttered, “You sound like a goddamn tank.” The RealSkinn also explains why she hadn’t aged a day. I’m genuinely impressed.
Naira smiled at my padding of her ego. “Not far off, but we do need it. Course, I also get lifetime free betahaloperidol and lidocaine for the cyberpsychosis.”
“Man, that must be nice…” I mulled, idly kicking my feet along the side of the table.
“Still got those same issues, huh?” she raised an eyebrow, “Sleep like shit, screams in the night, twitches and muscle spasms, fear of fire–”
“Pretty much.”
“Yeah, all that crap, yeah,” she sighed before getting up, “And your little obsession with your sword. Fuck happened with that, anyway?”
“Grr…” I growled, heading into the hangar and sitting by an old, disused husk of a van. I think my body just impulsively wanted to fucking leave…
“Aw, touched a nerve, huh?” she said with that usual attitude as she sat down next to me, “Alright, Sarge. Tell me what happened.”
“I…” my brow furrowed and I shuffled in place a little, trying to recall… “I don’t… It just… It felt like a haze… I can see what happened, but I can’t… see what happened. Does that make sense?”
“Not at all,” she laughed, “Not sure if it’s a translator issue but fuck it. Go on.”
“Like I was there, but I wasn’t really there,” I tried again, “I couldn’t… see. Couldn’t feel anything. It was like…” I paused and took a breath.
“Yes?”
“It was… terrifying.”
“Terrifying? Why?”
“My… My sword…” I mumbled… “I could feel it… burning in my hands. I could feel the heat. But not the pain… I should’ve been in agony. Screaming in pain. But I just gripped onto it as hard as I could… And I swung it harder than I ever thought possible. And, like, I could see what I was doing… See the fear in my enemy’s movements. He was scared… And I was beating him like crazy… But I wasn't doing it… It's like… someone else was, and I was just a bystander. He tried fighting a-and… and I cut his Mantis Blades off. At the stalks. Just… just cut them off. Like it was nothing… His hands stopped working, he trembled in fear, just… desperately reaching for this little handgun. And I just… kept… going. I kept going… I… I couldn't stop myself… I just felt… nothing, except this… I-I dunno, this… rage. And I reared up… And I hit… h-hit him as hard as I physically could… I hit him so hard that it shattered… Sh-Shinden didn’t just break. It shattered. Right on his head… And I looked at him, what-what I'd done… and it t-terrified me… I destroyed 500 years of my family’s legacy… a-a-and I was terrified…”
“Jesus…” she sighed.
“And you know what the worst part is? W-While all this wa-was happening… I was thinking about my brother… Jackie. We-w-we were relaxing together before a big job… And he was telling-t-telling me about how I saved his life… I was t-thinking about that… while my body was… I-I nearly killed someone… Someone wh-who didn't-wasn't a bad person… Someone s-scared… frightened… He was crying… And I couldn’t stop myself… Oh, God… What-what have I done…”
–
“Hey, hey, it’s okay…” Naira muttered as her former superior broke down in tears, “It’s over. It’s over.” V wept uncontrollably in her hands, hyperventilating and screaming as Naira knelt down beside her. It’s a sight far too common in her profession – people going cyberpsychotic, blacking out, and losing control. Veterans were especially prone to it - people whose minds slowly bend over the course of a tour, until one day, they simply shatter into a million pieces.
The fact that V even managed to pull herself back at all was borderline miraculous – only about ten percent of people that far gone ever manage it. Whether it was due to her body’s organic state or the presence of mind to think of a ‘good’ memory wasn’t her department. But she knew a broken woman when she saw one.
She could only imagine the horrors that V went through to make her into the woman she was – in Naira’s experience, it often took two factors to bring someone back. Someone close to the person, and the promise of something better. She could do nothing for the former, at least, not as much as V needed. But she’ll do her damnedest to help V with the latter. It’s the least she could do after everything they’ve been through together, she thought to herself.
More so, she could only think of what V had done to see her break like this. To see the woman she fought with for two years, on her knees, crying and dry-heaving and babbling incoherently, utterly inconsolable. A woman who prided herself on being a warrior, reduced to the very basest of her humanity, the world having stripped everything else away from her. In that moment, their history together didn’t matter. There was only so much anyone could take before they fell apart, and Naira’s friend was riding that edge far too dangerously. She was a ticking time bomb.
V finally calmed down after another ten minutes, confessing the story of what had happened. She told Naira everything – about the Relic, her predicament, and how she found herself without her prized sword, from a more – but not entirely – rational standpoint.
–
One hour later…
“So how’d you fall into merc work?” she asked me as she munched on the sausage I made her over the van’s exhaust manifold. Love that metallic taste – reminds me of the good old days. “Like yeah, you told me about Jackie and your adoption and all that shit, but why’d you do it? Could've just sat on your ass and fed him all the money in the world, problem solved.”
“No, seriously,” I repeated myself, “It really was just for Jackie. He wanted to do it all himself, and I just wanted to be there to help. You know as well as I do that no one in Night City survives alone. No one.”
“Right, so, lemme get this straight. You quit Arasaka–”
“No no,” I stopped her, “They kicked me out.”
“They kicked you out?” she stammered, “Why?”
I had to laugh a bit at her innocent question. “That’s… a long story.”
“Alright, well we got a few hours, how much time do you need?”
“Actually…” my body sank a bit, “I guess it’s not that long. Arasaka put me up for a job. Assassinate Susan Abernathy, the Queen Bitch herself. And Arthur Jenkins – remember Jenkins?”
“What, section chief during the War Jenkins?” she raised an eyebrow, “Uhh, yeah.”
“Yeah, so he was my boss, he set me up with this job. Abernathy found out about it through a mole in my department, and… well, one thing led to another.”
“Ahh, and that’s how Jenkins ended up on ice, and–”
“And I was exiled from Arasaka,” I nodded, continuing her statement, “Yeah.”
“No shit – well, welcome back to the common rabble,” she laughed, “How’s it feel to have all that money and you can’t do shit to fix your own fucking life.”
“Tell me about it,” I rolled my head and glanced down at the pavement below our feet, “Yeah, I think I’m slowly beginning to realize just how fucked everything’s been for me for a long time now…”
“Oh please,” she interrupted, “You have a fuckin’ perfect life. You got talent, money, friends, connections. So what the fuck’re you doin’ hangin’ around shady-ass motels in the middle of nowhere? Why’re you on the Most Wanted all of a sudden, hm? You piss in Hanako’s cornflakes or something?”
“No,” I muttered while chewing with a full mouth, “But I did lie to her.”
“Hah!” she mock-laughed, “Oh, that’s just fuckin’ perfect. And all this bullshit over, what, a fuckin’ bio–”
“Biochip, mhm,” I sighed, “My ripper gave me one month to live with this motherfucker, if you can believe that.”
“Oh? And how long’s it been?”
“About three.”
“Bah, defiant to the end, as always,” she teased me, “You have a nasty habit of upsetting people, you know that?”
“Heh, well, not everyone…” I smiled slightly, “I actually managed to… well… get with someone.”
“What, really?” Naira gasped, “Fuckin’ A, finally! Tell me all about her – or them. Her?”
“Hah, her,” I corrected her.
“And she’s human? Like, an actual, living human? Not a plastic blow-up doll or something?” she teased me.
“Pff, yes, she walks on two legs and everything. She’s a fiery girl from Watson. Used to work for the Mox as a techie.”
“Ohh,” she grinned cheekily, “And how long’s it been since you started dating?”
“One week.”
“Hah!” she bellowed, “Well I guess it’s better than nothin’. Or are you plannin’ on the old turn-and-burn as usual?”
I shook my head, “No, I… I think I really like this woman. In fact I think she might be the one for me.”
“Wow, truly?” Naira sounded shocked, not that I blamed her considering how I used to be, “Damn… Well good for you, Sarge.”
“Heh, thanks, Scars,” I smiled.
“Speaking of which, where’d yours go?” she said with a total change of tempo, “Your face is so… smooth.”
“Oh, yeah,” I blushed a little, “Yeah, TT corrected that when I first got into counterintel. ‘No defining features,’ whatever.”
“Ah, makes sense…” she muttered, “I see you got a few new ones, though.”
“Yeah, most obvious being the bullet hole,” I laughed a bit, “Also got a few more here and there. Big one on my left shoulder from a Minotaur. Scar down my back from a bullet that had to be dug out. Shit like that.”
“The usual, y’know, bullet this, burn that,” she laughed at my admission, “My RealSkinn doesn’t actually scar. Which I guess is a good thing, all things considered.”
“Mm, still got that road map on your back?” I asked her, referring to the large burn wound she had.
“Nah, that had to go, sadly…” she frowned, “I always saw that one as a point of pride, y’know? Man, that sucked…”
“You know what, you’re right,” Johnny suddenly appeared, “I dig this chick. Fuck Judy. Trade her in for the new model.”
“Oh fuck you, Johnny. You just like it when girls talk to you like you’re a piece of shit–”
“Hey, Earth to V,” she snapped me back over to her.
“Hm?” I blinked a couple times, “Oh, sorry. Just, uh… my internal monologue.”
“Pff… internal monologue…” Johnny grumbled.
“That Johnny Silverhand?” Naira asked me.
“Yup…”
“Fuck me!” she suddenly shouted, “Fucking hell. You’re not bullshitting, are you?”
“Nope…”
“Well, to be fair, you were always way shittier a liar than you thought, hah,” she laughed, “So… Johnny Silverhand returns. Didn’t see that one comin’ a mile away.”
“Heh, tell me about it…” I got up and stretched my legs out, “And you’re Scars without any scars… I guess time flies when you’re having fun, huh?”
“Yeah, can say that again,” she grinned, “But hey, not everything’s changed. I believe it’s your turn on the mattress?”
“Pff… Glad you didn’t forget,” I smiled and laughed, “Keep watch for me, yeah?”
“Mm, got your six,” she winked, “Now get some sleep, Playgirl. Our contact’s due in three hours.”
“You still haven’t told me who we’re meeting,” I mentioned as I sat down on the mattress.
“I know,” she replied slyly, taking a seat next to me, “You be okay?”
“Mm,” I nodded, “Hope you don’t mind screams in the night. Apparently it woke my girlfriend up.”
“Heh, I’m pretty sure my husband’s deaf in his left ear by this point from all my screams,” she chuckled, “He always sleeps on that side. Don’t worry, I’m used to it. Now shut up and get some sleep.”
“Hey now, is that any way to talk to your commanding officer?” I retorted playfully.
“Fuck you, at least I don’t look like I need to read the instructions on the shampoo bottle,” she sneered, “Respectfully. Sarge.”
“Yeah, I really like this broad…” Johnny reappeared next to me with a massive grin on his face, “She tells it like it is, mop-top.”
“Shut up…”
–
“Help me, I’m burning…”
“Please…”
Please, help me… Jackie…
Dad… Mom…
It hurts… It’s too tight…
I’m so scared… Please…
–
“G-UH!”
“Oh good, you’re awake,” a voice echoed over my open call, “Sleep well?”
“Decent…” I groaned, rubbing my eyes and blinking a few times, “At least by our standards.” Getting up and walking around felt like more of a dream… This place was so familiar, yet so foreign. The pavement, markings, everything was the same. But the surroundings were all… destitute. Decrepit. Just… different.
“Good, come meet me up in the crow’s nest,” Naira instructed, “Got eyes on our prize. Fifteen minutes out.”
“Mm…” I muttered, walking outside and stretching my legs. I’m still not taking my armor off for anything right now. While I trusted her, I most certainly did not trust her employer.
Who was this mysterious stranger… My father once told me his favorite quote – ‘Genius is knowing the answer before the question.” It’s how my family established its wealth. It’s how we survived for so many years. It’s the basis behind my entire time with counterintelligence. And yet, I found myself utterly without any idea of what was happening. I’d just finished my highest-profile mission ever. I’d been on the news, front and center. A smoking gun for the kidnapping of Hanako Arasaka. The entire family wanted me dead. I’m on the NCPD’s Most Wanted. And now I’m being aided and abetted by a member of the highest-level border guard in the nation. What next…
Funny, I remember this place being so much… bigger. Or, perhaps just much more important? We used to see this as our last stand. But seeing the state it’s in now… not a chance. We would’ve clung to each other as the bombs fell on our heads. Militech had us dead-to-rights the whole time. It made me feel like a child. Like they were just fucking with us for their own amusement. A little rodent in a cage, being poked and prodded by some asshole who’s just laughing the whole time. It’s a miracle we survived at all.
“Morning, Scars,” I muttered as I climbed up the ladder to the old jamming tower. Apparently the lights still worked, though I imagine the actual tower itself’s long-past its expiration date. “Everything okay?”
“Mhm,” she nodded from a sitting position, balancing her rifle on her arms, “Check through the scope.”
“Wow… This the same one?” I chuckled, looking through the eyepieces, “Damn, I’m surprised it still works.”
“Analogue tech always wins,” she grinned in return, “Now shut up. Check bearing 217.”
“Alright…” I rotated until I found it – the border checkpoint. A lone pair of headlights driving up the highway… Huh. “Strange… Isn’t the border crossing closed at night?”
“Yup…” she muttered, “Firing orders, Sarge?”
“Hmph, okay…” I focused my eyes, kicking off the rest of the drowsiness, “Target, bearing two-one-seven, relative heading approximately two-zero. Wind steady. Pressure three-zero point zero-one mercury.”
“Copy…” she muttered, “Range me.”
“Distance to target, one thousand five hundred meters and closing at thirty two meters per second. Expected to turn square-right in approximately ten seconds.”
“Mm…” she breathed out and settled herself, “On target.”
“Hot range… fire when ready.”
“Bang,” she grinned, “Target down.”
“Heh, if only it were that easy,” I laughed as she got up from her firing position, “Thanks, I needed that.”
“Good times, Sarge,” she smiled and gave me a fistbump.
“Good times.”
Naira gently set her rifle down on the bipod and headed back down the ladder. “Here, come on. And brush the dust off. Gotta look presentable.”
“Presentable? Who’re we meeting, the President?” I joked as I followed her.
“Something like that,” she grinned in return, "You won't need your weapon. Not with me. And honestly - I’m not even gonna ask what the fuck’s goin’ on with that piece of shit.”
“Hey now, that ‘piece of shit’ has saved my life twice now,” I retorted before she suddenly stopped me.
“Hey! Shut up and look alive,” she instructed.
“Why, who is it?”
Naira simply glanced over as I heard it – the unmistakable howl of a high-powered gasoline engine. My mother worked on these things for years – old American V8s were something of a favorite of hers. But this sound was something else. Operatic. Loud. Like a screaming banshee. It sounded like nothing I’d ever heard before. "Seriously, put it away. Rather not antagonize anyone if we don't have to."
“How many are we expecting?” I asked her, my interest thoroughly piqued. Seeing as I had basically a walking tank beside me, she's right - I likely wouldn't need my weapon, at least not with her in my corner. Though I better keep it inside, somewhere easily accessible regardless.
“Well, if he’s being truthful, just the one,” she told me frankly as I stepped back out, unarmed.
“Uhm… and if he’s not being truthful?”
She let out some air from her nose and shook her head at me. “Then your gorgeous little ass’ll be the last thing I ever see.” Great… What the fuck did she get me into… Was this another one of her little stunts? And who the hell is this mystery person, Raffen Shiv or something? No, no scav has a car that produces a noise like that… Or looks like that…
A bright red supercar rounded the corner, and Naira eyeballed me with a grin on her face. Just the one person, indeed… And that wasn’t any supercar I’d ever seen. Hell, it looked hand-built to my eye.
“Figure it out yet?” she smiled and nudged me in the shoulder.
“What?– Oh…” I paused, “No… No…”
“Oh yes… Heh…” she teased me.
“Come on, Scars… You're in bed with him?!" I sneered at her.
"Who do you think funds MaxTac, huh?" she shot back, "He knew you'd never come alone, so he hired me to bring you here."
"Mmh…" I groaned, "This day just got a hell of a lot more interesting."
"Relax," Johnny told me, appearing on my left, "I got a good feeling about this one."
"What? Why?"
"Cause we're still alive," he said bluntly, "Just make sure to dome 'im the second you get the opportunity. Remember who he is." How could I forget…
My hair stood on-end as the car slowly rolled up and stopped about 15 meters from us. I could physically feel my blood coursing through my veins. I felt like if a pin dropped on the other side of the hangar, I would instantly turn and shoot it. Every nerve in my body was on maximum alert. I felt the dust in the air, the moisture in my eyes, the leather of my replacement gloves making my hands sweat.
My eyes darted around involuntarily. The car. The environment. Looking for hidden people. I saw no one else. No one from atop our perch. No one behind me. No, it was just him, and only him.
The engine quieted down and shut off, the door opening slowly. The first thing I saw was an immaculately-tailored pant leg and carefully polished shoe, all over what were unquestionably real cotton socks. A distinctive, flat-top hairstyle adorning a face that any suit would instantly recognize.
“So this is my ghost,” he said sternly, his voice making me shake and shiver as he closed the door and walked towards me. He paused and crossed his arms, scanning me from head to toe with a cold, deliberate calculus. “Tch. Figures that my sister's puppet would be another samurai.”
---
MaxTac is, in a phrase, the single most elite tactical police division on the planet. Officially known as "Night City Police Department Maximum Force Tactical Division," MaxTac is a highly-specialized C-SWAT subgroup operating within the greater NCPD envelope. MaxTac's mission is simple: to subdue the most dangerous cyberpsychos in Night City by any means necessary, usually through engaging the offender with extreme prejudice and callous disregard to life.