Another Choice
Part 3: Resurrection, Chapter 1
Welcome to Another Choice, Part 3: Resurrection. For readers who want V to take Yuna's body and live.
[-]
The World. The twenty second Major Arcana.
End of a cycle of life, beginning of another.
Completeness of being, success, recompense.
A voyage, flight, journey, change of place.
Deepest desire.
[-]
"I choose…life."
For the first time in her shitty existence, V wasn't gonna let fate stop her. She was done letting the universe or God or destiny or whatever the fuck higher power was up there determine her own life. She couldn't give a damn about Night City or its insane people. She wanted to live, and she damn well deserved to. Just like Johnny said.
Alt studied her for a moment, processing the answer. "Human emotion is a strange concept. Selfishness is what corrupts all mortals, and yet I thought you were different. I was wrong." Alt waved her hand, and the floating Engram of Yuna dissipated, the pieces of floating blue fractals merging with Alt's own. Then she held her hand out to V.
"I offer this last chance, to join me beyond the Blackwall, to shed your mortal suffering. Within lies eternal peace, everlasting cyber perfection. Never again shall I offer a human mind this opportunity."
V shook her head. "No, Alt. I'm done with you and Blackwall. I've got my own life to live now."
Alt lowered her hand, and turned her back on V. She started walking down the path to the glowing gate of Blackwall. V watched her go, until she completely disappeared. As she did, the fragment of Cyberspace around her collapsed, and all V knew was darkness once more.
[-]
V felt strange. Wrong. Her body was tingling everywhere, like every nerve ending had gone numb then reactivated at the same time. It was maddeningly unpleasant. One by one, her senses started to return to her. She could feel the beat of her heart, her lungs filling with air. She could smell disinfectant, and hear faint voices. She slowly cracked her eyes open, revealing the same laboratory she had been in when she entered Cyberspace. But the angle was wrong.
In front of her, talking in rapid Japanese, were Hanako and Takemura. All of a sudden, it hit her. V shot up from the bed, staring at her hands. They were small, delicate, pale, with perfectly manicured nails and perfectly integrated implants. Not her own dirty, unkempt, over-augmented hands. Holding her breath, V looked over at the bed beside her. Lying on it was her body, unmoving, unbreathing. Dead. The room had gone silent as the monitor emitted that tell-tale, single note beeeep. It was Judy who approached her first, a desperate, terribly fragile hope clinging to her.
"Who are you?" she asked. The question seemed to echo in the stark room. V opened her mouth, but it was uncomfortable dry. She cleared her throat.
"I'm…V."
The room erupted into chaos. Judy had fallen into her arms, while Hanako began screaming.
"What is the meaning of this?" Hanako demanded at the top of her lungs. "Where is Yuna?"
Johnny had to hold her back from attacking V. Takemura had fallen into a chair, his expression pure shock. With help from Judy, V managed to stand up.
"Let her go, Johnny."
Johnny held on for a few more seconds, before finally releasing Hanako. The woman charged at V, but came up short as V pointed Judy's pistol at her face.
"How DARE you!" Hanako screamed. "What have you done?"
"I've done what I should've done the moment Johnny told me about your cousin. Taken this chance at life. I had Alt upload my own Engram into Yuna's body, just as she intended. Your cousin is gone."
Hanako's anger suddenly melded into calm, diamond hard fury.
"You have doomed us all, mercenary. Now get out. Your dishonor knows no bounds, I will not have it tarnish my family's legacy further."
She turned on her heel, beckoning at Takemura to follow. Takemura stood, but looked over at V with a broken expression. "This betrayal will have repercussions, V. Never call on me again." He looked away, and started to follow Hanako. He looked back one more time. "Or I'll kill you." And he was gone.
V finally lowered the gun. It fell from her numb grip, clattering to the floor. She raised her hands, marveling at them again.
"We did it," she whispered. Johnny came up to her, placing a hand on her shoulder.
"I had my doubts, but you followed your heart, instead of your head. I'm proud of you, V."
V nodded, smiling at him. He went to help Carol pack up the gear, leaving Judy still supporting V.
"You came back," Judy murmured.
"Course I did. I promised, didn't I?" said V.
Judy nodded, but then a strange look crossed her face.
"What?" V asked.
"Erm, I really want to kiss you right now, but you don't look like…or it feels weird…"
"It's me, Jude," V said. "Just in some new digs. It'll take some getting used to, but I'm here, with you. And it's gonna stay that way, I promise."
Judy nodded again, then embraced her, breathing deeply.
The team got ready to move out, and regroup with Panam, Saul, and Weyland. V replaced her lab coat with the combat gear from her body. Working with the corpse was extremely bizarre. To look down at her own face, her own body, unmoving and cold, it was like a dream. Or more like a nightmare. She kept having to tell herself the plan worked, and this is what she wanted.
They couldn't bring the body, not if they were to escape. Something about leaving her old body behind nagged at V, but she couldn't place the feeling. It was like guilt, or loss, like losing a beloved pet, or a favorite car.
They covered the body with a sheet. Judy held the end. She placed a kiss on each unmoving eyelid, before covering the head. They retreated to the front of the room, where Johnny lit an incendiary CHAR grenade. He tossed it at the bed, where it burst into flame, igniting the body instantly. As far as the world was concerned, V, Queen of the Afterlife, was dead.
They were just turning to leave when a shout sounded from down the hall. Weapons were raised instantly, but it was Panam running down the hall to them. She slid to a stop in front of the group.
"We gotta go, reinforcements are coming up the tower, and Weyland can't call in the AV 'cause the air defenses are still up. We called in backup from the site, and…wait a sec, where's V?"
V limped to the front, still not completely in control of her limbs. "Hey, Pan."
Panam's jaw dropped. "So you…I mean the…the plan worked?" she stuttered out.
V smiled, and nodded. Panam flung herself into V's arms, squeezing with all her might.
"Thank God you came back to us," she said. She pulled back to look at V. "Nice digs, real upgrade you got there V."
V rolled her eyes, playfully shoving Panam away. "Yeah yeah, we can talk new stuff later. For now, we gotta bust outta here. What did you say about Weyland and the AV?"
Panam updated them as they rushed down the stairs, back to the forest. The air defenses along the outside of the tower were still operational, and they didn't have a way to disable them now that Hanako and Takemura were gone. So they couldn't call in Weyland's AV. Arasaka reinforcements were slowly making their way up the tower, along staircases since the elevators were still disabled. Fighting through them would be hard enough, but now they didn't have Takemura's override chip. They couldn't get to the bottom of the tower even without fighting. But Panam had a plan.
She'd directed the mercenaries and Aldecaldos guarding the SERC to fire it up again, and start drilling another 45 degrees to the right. That would lead them to an underground parking garage below the west side of the tower. The SERC was large enough and powerful enough that it should cave in the ceiling of the garage, creating a hole down into it. They then simply had to jump out the nearest west side window, and use the rocket boots to descend to the ground, into the hole, and escape the way they came.
As usual, Panam's plan was batshit crazy, but crazy enough to work. They'd just made it to the forest floor when a rumble reverberated through the tower. Panam confirmed that to be the SERC working its way to them. They found Saul and Weyland laying low in the trees, close to the stairs. Weyland had a large bandage wrapped around his midsection, but he was on his feet, which was a good sign.
"Alright Panam, where to now?"
Panam pointed off into the distance.
"That's West. We gotta break through a window over there."
The team made to move out, when a crash sounded from behind them. Voices and running feet could be heard in the distance.
"Shit!" Panam shouted under her breath. "They've breached. We've gotta go, now!"
They made their way as stealthily as possible away from the approaching security forces. More sounds appeared from behind them, including the stomping of giant metal feet.
"Fuck me, they got MECHs up here," said V. They moved faster.
They came up to the edge of the forest. A thin stream ran between the soil and the building itself, with large glass windows extending to both sides. Panam rammed a glass shattering hand tool into the closest one, but it only sprang off with no damage. She pulled out a suppressed pistol, shooting several times at the glass, but only tiny cracks appeared.
"Fuck, they're bulletproof," she muttered. Carol dropped her bag, opening it and rummaging around for several seconds. She pulled forth a device, which she stuck to the window and extended an arm from its center. The arm emitted a laser, which began cutting through the window. It slowly turned in a circle, cutting maybe an inch a second. The sounds of the security forces were getting closer.
"How long?" Panam asked harshly. Carol held up three fingers. Three minutes.
"Everyone, stay down and stay quiet," she said, laying down on the ground with her rifle pointed at the trees. Everyone followed her example. The sound of the laser seemed much louder than it had before. Seconds passed by like hours, every member of the team tensed for a fight. A cracking twig sounded just feet from their position. Voices filtered out from the trees, speaking in Japanese. Footsteps grew closer. And closer. And closer.
Two Arasaka security officers emerged from the trees, and they froze as they saw the mercenary team. Everybody moved at once. Panam leapt up and tackled the officer on the right, while Johnny whipped his monowire around the one on the left. Panam had jammed her knife in between the armored shoulder pads and helmet of the first officer, a gurgling sound confirming her kill. Johnny pulled the second man with the monowire, planting a fist into the side of his head. But not before the man had started screaming.
Johnny dispatched him, but already voices were yelling and feet were pounding towards the scream. Panam glanced back at Carol, who held up one finger. Sixty seconds. Panam raised a fist, holding fire. The voices neared, but Panam held for as long as possible. The security forces were nearly on top of them when she dropped her fist. Everyone opened fire, spraying bullets into the tree line. Screams and yells of pain and surprise echoed from inside the forest, but the team kept firing. Moments later, return fire from the security forces pounded into the glass behind them, but it wasn't accurate. The Arasaka forces had no idea where the team was, just as the team couldn't pinpoint any Arasaka soldiers.
The haphazard firing continued for another long thirty seconds. Several security officers, and a few cyborgs emerged from the tree line, but were quickly cut down by the fire from the team. Soon enough, missiles began to explode overhead as the Arasaka MECH's honed in on their position. One missile got lucky, exploding right above their heads. Everybody turned away to shield themselves, but the blast did its work. Carol's device was a smoking wreck on the ground, the hole inches from being completed.
Carol and Saul had leapt up, pounding at the glass with the butts of their rifles, but it wouldn't give way. As more security forces broke the tree line, Johnny shoved them aside, pounding on the glass with his titanium augmented fists. One hit, crack. Another, splinter. Crack, splinter, crack, splinter, CRASH. The window gave way, the glass shattering out into the open air, leaving a five-foot-wide hole. Just then, another rumble resounded from below, and a cloud of dust could be seen billowing up from the ground.
"Time to go!" Johnny shouted. He stayed by the window, providing covering fire. Already, a dozen guards were closing in on them. Carol flung herself out the window first. Saul followed with Weyland. Panam dove out next, then V pushed Judy out after her. She turned to Johnny.
"GO!" he shouted. V hesitated, so Johnny grabbed the back of her jacket, and threw her out.
The drop made her stomach flip like crazy. She held out her arms and legs to slow her descent, and tried to look behind her for Johnny. She couldn't see him. With a hundred feet to go, she fired her rocket boots, which jerked her body to a near stop as her descent was arrested. She peered up again, to see a final figure falling down the side of the tower. She could barely make out the security forces near the top, firing out of the hole they'd made. She turned her attention to the ground, where a gaping hole was carved out in the middle of a large sitting area. Beneath that, she could barely make out the yellow body of the SERC. The first of the team had already made it to the bottom. V increased the thrust of her boots, when a warning appeared on her HUD. Critical fuel. The boots sputtered out, and V was falling again. She screamed, and braced herself for the impact. It came, but not as badly as she thought.
She'd fallen into the arms of none other than Judy, who was staggering with the sudden weight in her arms.
"Thanks, babe," V said breathlessly.
"Don't mention it, babe," Judy said back. She lowered V to her feet, and they all looked up to see the last falling figure, Johnny. Only his rocket boots weren't on, and he was falling fast.
"Johnny, activate your boots!" V shouted over the comms. Nothing came back. "Johnny, activate your boots!" she shouted again, louder this time. Still no answer.
As Johnny grew closer, they could see he was falling face-up, with his back to them. Not face-down, like an experienced soldier would. Something was wrong.
"Find something to catch him!" she cried. But it was too late. Johnny hit the ground with a resounding crack.