Chapter Text
V never would have guessed such a quiet place existed in the middle of Watson. The sheer height of the building and the sprawling mass of skyscrapers surrounding the roof had dimmed the fury and noise of the metropolis below to a distant lull. She was grateful to Misty for the much-needed respite, especially now that she was running out of time, to consider her options, but also for sharing this part of Jackie's life with her, part that only belonged to the two of them.
It was six months now since he passed, but tears still welled up easily at the mere thought of the lovable goof. He was never shy to express how fond he was of Misty, how good of an influence this kind soul had on him. V felt lucky to share, in what could very well be her last moments, the peace her friend felt here.
"Not so easy decidin' which one of your friends gets to die, isn't it?" Johnny interrupted.
Even if she had several options, none of them felt right.
Hanako Arasaka had let slip the info that Mikoshi could be accessed from beneath Arasaka Tower. Her salvation was finally in sight and with a wicked irony, so was her demise. After the violence of the Relic malfunction in Embers' elevator, V knew the next one would be the last. All she had to do to live, was break into the deepest part of the headquarters of the most powerful corporation on Earth.
She simply could side with Hanako, it was the path of least resistance.
She wouldn't have to break into the Tower when she could stroll around with the fucking heiress of the company. Even if she already heard Johnny jumping at her for even thinking about helping someone named Arasaka. I'm not exactly thrilled either to exact revenge on Yorinobu for getting rid of the biggest piece of shit the world has probably ever seen.
Not to mention that V had picked on something fishy the woman had said, when she dismissed the idea she was simply staging a coup to take over the corp’.
'I know my place.'
If she wasn't gonna take the throne, who was?
The only limitation a man like Saburo Arasaka had, was his own mortality. It didn't take a genius to put two and two together. Like the 'Secure Your Soul' billboard blinking too brightly in front of her was painfully reminding her, the project wouldn't even have been advertised, some random rockerboy like Johnny wouldn't have been granted digital immortality (albeit here to torture him forever in a sterile prison, like many others in Mikoshi), if all this wasn't a test run for his benefit.
V had spent enough time in Arasaka's hallways to know that you should never outlive your usefulness — she even felt stupid for spelling out the obvious.
At the second she'd give credence to Hanako's story with the testimony of Saburo's murder; at the second she'd place the chip in the hands of Hanako's lab coats, V would wake up in the best-case scenario with the ole Saburo's engram in her head or more likely dissected in a cold room, for them to understand why the biochip worked this time, to perfect it for the tyrant's resurrection.
Left open. Forgotten. Tossed away like trash again.
V knew she could always call Panam.
She had helped the estranged Nomad and the clan she reunited with, every step of the way, and she knew her fast friend would jump at the opportunity to do the same for her. Not to mention that contrary to what Johnny said, the Aldecaldos weren't amateurs. Many were hardened veterans of the Unification War, competent fighters and techies. And they now had a freakin' Militech Hovertank.
Still, not all of them were fighters, and V would forever put a target on the clan's back, if they even were lucky enough to survive a frontal assault on Arasaka.
She couldn't put that many lives in the balance for her.
It was also possible to simply trust Johnny and let him handle it with Rogue.
V had no doubt anymore about the annoying passenger.
Even if he took his sweet time about it, gave her the worst hangovers of her life for it and an embarrassing heart-shaped tattoo with their initials on the wrist, Johnny had always kept his word when he had control of her body. He always helped her on her leads with the chip's removal. Johnny even pestered her to stay focused when V was getting distracted by the madness that had become of her life. When she wanted to give up. When she just wanted to enjoy the few moments she had left...
Especially those with Judy, her only solace.
V without a doubt considered him a friend, and knew he would get this shit done, with Rogue and a competent crew, happy to give Arasaka a last middle finger before giving back control.
She was on her last legs, so V knew Johnny had the right idea, popping some pseudo-endotrazine, he would be perfectly fine to go.
It was her best option but she hated to admit that the only reason she had against it was her pride. All the sweat, blood, and tears she had shed in the past months, to find a way to survive. She even started it all by literally clawing her way out of her grave. Just... to sit by now?
If it all went to shit, she wouldn't even be conscious to see herself go.
That prospect alone terrified her, when even the positive outcome left a sour taste in her mouth. She would be 'The Merc' that stuck it to The Man and lived to tell the tale' to everyone, taking on glory she wouldn't have earned. Johnny didn't have the monopoly on hating Arasaka, she always welcomed an occasion to get back at her former employer...
She wanted in too.
And finally, she could simply put all this to rest.
She was so tired.
Some nights, the hopelessness of her situation was too daunting to let her mind stop spinning a second to sleep; leaving V distressed when she noticed the crack of dawn through her dry eyelids, wondering where the night had gone, wondering if she wasn't better off to stay wide awake and not let herself drown in her recurring nightmares.
The almost constant headaches, the random Relic malfunctions splitting her mind in two, and the fear of the next one — always around the corner, glitching and buzzing around the edge. The doubt behind her every action, wondering if Johnny and she weren't so different or if his persona was bleeding over hers. The fear of losing parts of herself without noticing, wondering if her memory was always this fuzzy because V never cared much for introspective trips to her past or if it was the Relic, slowly eating away at her to make room for Johnny.
And above all, the dreaded certitude that it was already over.
The process couldn't be stopped.
Just like Jackie was doomed before he even realized his side had been mowed down by this Arasaka armored AV's machine gun, V was doomed too when he pushed the biochip in her neural port, thinking the last thing he could do was to make sure his friend got the money and the good life they dreamed about.
V cursed Arasaka for designing this slow as fuck piece of tech. Instead of erasing her immediately, she had spent the last months hoping she had another chance...
A walkin' talkin' corpse.
She had turned this whole forsaken city around, inhabited by a renewed fury and hunger to live, to leave a mark. She had come to a head with every major gang and corp in town and somehow lived to tell the tale, even more often than not came out on top, but in this moment, V wasn't even sure she had the strength left to stand up off this chair.
She felt alone, weak and so goddamn sad; she had tried, so hard, but she had nothing to show for it.
Nothing other than to rely on the promise of the dead ex-output-turned-AI of a terrorist-turned-parasite.
Hanako was wiser than her: she should have known her place. She flew too close to the sun and acted surprised when she got burned.
'Quiet life... or Blaze o' glory? '
She chose wrong.
"Hey, hey don't go there, kid." Johnny glitched in front of her, on his knees. "You have every right to be sad and angry, and to feel whatever you want to feel but don't sell yourself short, don't give up on me now. You deserve the world and you have what it takes to go grab it by the balls. You're not alone. If I have to list all the people you helped, we're gonna be here all night. And I shouldn't even have to remind you of the people in your life that would give their kidney for you on the spot.
"These two fools downstairs, the humble autistic spending every wakin’ moment saving your life but too stubborn in his loneliness to have a proper conversation to make sure it doesn't happen again. The hippie, mad with grief, distracting herself of her own by soothing the one of others and pseudo-spiritual crap. Your new pal the lunatic hobo and her tarmac rats, that pretty much adopted you on the spot but took their sweet time to ask you to join them, too afraid to be told by the former Ice queen that she has nothing to do with them. And don't even get me started on your hysteric output that thinks the world will stop being owned by pigs if she keeps squeaking 'it isn't fair' ..."
V clutched the blue omega-blocker and the red pseudoendotrizine pills in her right hand and reached for the Unity 9mm to her left, its grey glint catching her eye in the corner of her vision, once more.
She aimed it deadpan at Johnny's forehead, then caught herself threatening an afterimage, aiming at the wrong target and pressed it on the side of her neck, her Relic throbbing in her neural port on the other side.
Johnny clicked his tongue angrily, not in the mood for one of her jokes, knowing that she wasn't either, so why pretend? And why were they stupidly glad that she could do so, even now? Why were they proud of her for being able to lift her arm up and keep it still?
"...V."
She sighed and let her left hand fall to join her right on her lap. "Johnny. Is insulting everyone I love your idea of a pep talk?"
"Yep. My point is, they all hurt and they're all messed up. 'Been there, 'done that so I can tell, but that's precisely why they need you. It's nothing compared to the mess they'll be if you go out like this. I repeat, you're not alone. Which is kinda the problem: you have me, I'm always in your corner."
"… I know, Johnny."
"Good. I'm glad you trust me, so know that I trust you too. Whatever you choose, I'm in."
"That's the thing, I don't know and I don't have time to hesitate between the shitty, shittier, and shittiest option."
"First of all, ouch. You know damn well I could-"
"Blow up Arasaka-"
"Blow up Arasaka while taking a piss- HEY! Fine, while we're ending each other sentences and before we start braiding our hair, I was sayin', I followed your musings and I get it. I might have another idea. We could ask for help, your friends or mine, but their lives would hang heavy on our conscience, or good news, we could just delta right now. You have right here a choom who's already dead, and you look like you already have a foot in the grave, so why the fuck not? I'd be honored to join you on a wild suicide run."
"Wha' ? You, me and Arasaka Tower?"
"'Kinda sounds like a Kerry Eurodyne lyric I know, but trust me, I've seen you work, we'll go fucking nova."
"That plan... What would it entail exactly?"
"'Plan'? Might be how Rogue operates, but I say you grab the hottest iron you can find, stride into the Tower's front door and cut your own path down to the lower levels. If Mikoshi is deep underground like Hanako claims it, you just have to find the elevator."
It was probably the dumbest thing she ever heard, the most reckless thing she could ever do, but V couldn't help but smile at the prospect.
"Alright. But even assuming this is the only problem with the whole thing, the last malfunction left me rattled, I don't have any strength left... I'm not even sure I can stand up."
"Mmm, 'sure you can."
On that, Johnny stood up and so did V. Her body seemed to move on its own, without effort... A serene moment of understanding passed between the two when their gazes met.
"That far gone?"
"Yeah, as I said — body listens to me."
"Did I even need to take the pseudoendotrizine to let you take the wheel?"
"Hmm? Yeah, I think so. I'm still the passenger, but the clock is ticking and I can put my hand on the wheel now... and steer if you don't oppose any resistance, if we're on the same page. And we are, V. Lean on me if you're about to fall, point and I'll shoot and I promise you, we'll carry your useless meat sack to Mikoshi and get your life back."
"...Thanks, Johnny. I mean it."
V gripped tight her Unity and holstered it beneath her Samurai studded jacket. She gripped tight her pills and took quick strides towards the roof's edge to swing them towards the Arasaka billboard in front of her. Unlikely that they reached it but she simply needed to stop by her weapon stash to find gear much more potent to get her point across for the real deal.
She reached for her inner pocket and her cigarette case to lit herself one up, passing her thumb on the golden heart on it, her mind cleared now that she could see herself move with ease thanks to Johnny's support, her thoughts drifting to the beauty that had gifted it to her, smoke flowing then, on Judy's rooftop in front of the neon lights of Night City's skyline, just like it did now in front of her.
V and Johnny turned on their heels and started their way down the rooftop, catching to their right on the side of it, the graffiti glitching over a blank wall, the 20th strange occurrence that had riddled their journey. 'The World.' And with it, only two Tarot cards to go. The ticking of an unknown countdown V wasn't any eager to see through, as those never heralded to her something merry. V shook away the dread creeping, holding on to that window of opportunity she still had, her step picking up its stride as she left the rooftop.
"Don't worry, V. I got you."
"'Not worried," she said, glancing to Johnny at her side and their synchronized gait. "'There's nothing to fear-"
"'Nothing to doubt'."
"And if I gotta die — I'd rather fall into my grave gun in hand and on fire, rather than dragging anyone with me."
"Huh, look at you go, kiddo. You just discovered what it takes to become a legend."