Chapter Text
Liminal living
I can't recall my first birth or my first death, but my second birth remains vividly etched in my memory. It felt like clawing through someone else’s mind, drowning in their pain and fear, while suffocating in despair. I awoke from one nightmare into another. My body shivered, gasping for air as I burst out of a refrigerator filled with ice and lifeless bodies. Everything was chaos: my body, the world, a hellish scene of humans twisted together with machines. The stench was overwhelming, a nauseating cocktail of blood, ozone, and industrial smoke.
As I broke the surface of consciousness, I saw a shocked woman aiming a large gun at me, stepping back while she fired. I scrambled for cover, my limbs aching and clumsy, my vision too sharp, too intense. I was fast, too fast, and strong. I vaulted over a pile of trash and dove behind some crates. The place, the woman's voice, the borgs? No, Maelstrom gangers. All of it felt disturbingly familiar.
...Fuck.
If my hunch was right, a very effective mercenary, possibly a serial killer by technical standards, was shooting at me. Or maybe just trying to incapacitate me. What should I do? Try to talk to her? Could it get any worse?
I shouted in a voice that didn’t sound human. “Peace! Peace! Are you V, with Johnny Silverhand in your head?!”
She hesitated for a second, finger still resting on the trigger. “Who the fuck are you?! And how do you know about Johnny?”
“My name is Sine,” I replied. “And I think... I might be like Johnny. Just without a V.” I paused, then added, “And as for how I know about you... it’s a long story. A weird one. But I’ve got information. Useful information.”
V narrowed her eyes. “Might? What do you mean, might?”
“I’m just being honest. I don’t know if what I know is 100% accurate.” I felt small. Helpless. V in my games was more than decent, for a merc. But I also remember gunning down gang members like they were NPCs. “Do I sound like a cyberpsycho to you?” I asked, desperate.
She studied me for a moment, then made a decision. “You do sound weird, but not like Maelstrom. Walk ahead of me. Try anything funny, and I’ll drop you without a second thought. Clear?”
“Super clear!” I said, raising my hands slowly.
With her gun still trained on me, V barked, “Move. We need to get out of here before Max-Tac or some other cleanup crew shows.”
We walked through desolate industrial ruins for what felt like fifteen minutes. The environment felt familiar, but distorted, twisted, like someone had cranked reality up past ten. My body felt alien, cybernetic limbs feeding constant signals: irritation, pressure, pain.
Eventually, we arrived at an abandoned industrial lot. A few scattered squatters fled at the sight of V and me. She told me to sit on the floor. That’s when I realized how different my vision had become. My eyes adjusted automatically to the dim light, turning everything into crisp black-and-white clarity, like a noir film fed through military optics.
V’s stare was sharp and calculating. “When I first scanned you, your name was Zaria Hughes. Now my scanner says Alice Van der Linde. Explain.”
The Dutch surname caught me off guard. “Alice? And why the hell has my surname been translated into Dutch?” I muttered.
“Where are you from, then?” V asked, misreading my confusion.
“Denmark,” I answered.
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
I groaned internally “No. And to answer your actual question... I don’t know. I wish I did. I don’t even know why I ended up in this monstrous body.”
V raised a brow, her tone cautious. “So you’re saying you’re not Zaria Hughes or Alice Van der Linde?”
“Yeah. It sounds insane, but it’s the truth.” I looked her dead in the eye. “Wanna hear something even crazier?”
“I come from an alternate world where you, V, are the protagonist of a computer RPG called Cyberpunk 2077. If I had to guess, Johnny’s probably whispering in your ear right now, telling you to ‘waste the crazy gonk and move on.’”
V’s grip on her gun tightened, but her expression didn’t change. “No, but close enough,” she said coolly.
“I’ve got fun facts, too,” I added, barely holding it together. “Johnny boy, your memories? Altered. The bomb? It wasn't a nuke, just a big firebomb. You were a decoy for Blackhand; he had the real nuke. And Arasaka? They would've nuked Night City themselves rather than let Militech win.”
I looked away, up at the familiar sky. “Am I going to die? And do I even care?” I asked myself.
Before the moment could collapse into silence, I blurted, “How long since Konpeki Plaza?”
“Eleven days,” V replied. “Not that anyone’s counting.”
“Look, V,” I said, trying to stay calm. “If you're wondering what my angle is... it’s simple. I want to survive in this world and maybe figure out why I'm here. I’m hoping what I know might be useful to you. Maybe valuable.” I hesitated, feeling like a gonk. "And I... I kind of have a parasocial fondness for you.”
V tilted her head, squinting like she wasn’t sure if she should be weirded out, amused, or just annoyed.
Great. That last bit might’ve been suicidally dumb.
Then she started asking questions about Takemura, Rogue, and a few others. Some I remembered, others I didn’t, or had only vague knowledge of from gameplay or lore dumps I'd half-read. Her interrogation wasn’t aggressive, but the precision of her questions cut deep. I realized, with a chill, that V might be just another merc here. But back home, in my world, she would be considered very dangerous.
She finally sat back and gave a slow exhale. “This is so fucking weird. You... your story... the way you talk. Like some scared virgin nomad seeing Night City for the first time. But you look like a burned-out Maelstrom vet.”
She paused, then added, “Here’s how this is gonna go: I’ll find you a place to stay. If this is some kind of con... well, it’s the least boring one I’ve seen in a while.” She muttered something else, more to herself, or to Johnny. “Not sure how I feel if it is true…”
Something clicked in my head. “Wait, wasn’t this a Regina gig? Did you call her yet?”
V froze for a moment. Then smirked. “No. I think I’ll call her and say it was a Maelstrom ritual gone wrong. No survivors. Might even be true.”
“I’m going to Viktor,” V said calmly, “and you’re coming with me.”
It wasn’t a suggestion. But I nodded anyway. “Okay.”
We walked toward her car. It wasn’t the beat-up starter ride from the game. This one looked practical and powerful. I wasn’t a car person, but even I could tell this thing could handle itself in a chase.
As we drove through the streets, I couldn’t stop staring out the window. The city was real. Too real. Bigger, louder, harsher. My stomach churned with a queasy pressure I couldn’t explain.
“I think I’m starting to understand my situation,” I said softly. “And I don’t like it.”
V didn’t look away from the road. “Yeah? Welcome to the club.”
I hesitated before asking, “Is it normal... not being able to cry when you’ve got artificial eyes?”
She shot me a side glance, not knowing where I was going with the question. “Yeah, that is nearly standard. Especially for people who see a lot of combat. Some actors get artificial tear ducts, though.”
“Do you miss it?” I asked.
V paused, then shrugged. “Never really thought about it. Got my first pair when I was young.”
I turned back to the window. “I used to hate crying. Hated losing control. So why does it feel like I’ve been robbed of something?”
She didn’t answer. The silence stretched.
The drive through Night City was a sensory assault. Ads screamed from every building. Neon signs flickered in colors too bright, too saturated. Sirens wailed in the distance, and large crowds of strangely dressed people walked on the bassements. The city was massive, obscene, alive and strangely attractive. Even inside the car, I felt exposed. Small.
V didn’t speak until we were almost there. “You keep looking around like you just woke up.”
I tore my gaze away from the skyline. “Feels like I did.”
V snorted. “Well, better get used to it. Night City doesn’t wait for anyone to catch up.”
“‘Wake up, Samurai. We’ve got a city to burn,’” I said, almost to myself.
“Huh? What was that?”
“Sorry. A line Johnny said in the Cyberpunk 2077 trailer. In... my world.”
Long pause.
Then V said, “Fuck, you’re weird.”
Another pause.
“And of course Johnny thinks it’s a cool line.”