Mitch noticed what was happening and headed over. "Everything alright?" Mitch asked. "You look a little spooked. And you're bleedin'."

V nodded. "I'm ok. Just got a strange call on the holo."

Panam spoke up. "From whom?"

"Stormtech. Said they could save me, wanted to know if I'd take a deal. But they said we gotta be in Idaho in a week."

"What kinda deal?" Mitch asked.

V frowned. "No idea, they wouldn't say unless I could get a ride."

Panam frowned. "A week? Do they know where we are at? We might make it, but it will be close. And our vehicles are designed for the desert. I do not know if we can cross the mountains. Of course, we will try V. But it would be easier if we had..."

"A hoverplane. That's what we need, a fuckin' hoverplane." Mitch spoke up.

"Mitch, are you drunk?" Panam asked. "Where are we going to get a hoverplane way the fuck out here, and who is going to be crazy enough to fly us to Idaho?"

"A hoverplane... I got just the guy." Mitch pulled out his phone. "Hey, yeah its Mitch. Yep, with the Aldecaldos. Yeah, he's here too. Listen, I got a favor to ask, can you get to this location with your plane? I'm sendin' coords' now."

V heard a man's voice laughing from the phone. "You want me to go where?" More laughter. "Why?"

"That aint all. We need you to take us up to Idaho. In the mountains."

More laughter from the phone. "Are you fuckin' high?"

Shit V thought, that voice sounds familiar. But who was it?

Mitch again. "Listen, V needs help, and you don't need to come right now. But if we need you, can you make it?"

The laughter stopped. "Ok. Yeah, I can. V helped me get my shit together, I owe him. You let me know when, and I will be there."

"Who was that?" V asked. He was trying to think who he'd know that would have a hoverplane.

"You'll see" Mitch said. "Call Stormtech back. Tell em we got a ride. Let's hear their deal."

V dialed the number he' d been given and put his phone on speaker.

The same male voice on the other end. "That was quick V. Nice to see you are as connected as I'd heard. I assume you have a ride, or you wouldn't have called. Would you like to hear the deal?"

V looked around the room. "Yeah, let's hear it."

"V, I think we can save your life, but once I tell you how, Arasaka will come for you. We believe they have been intercepting our communications. They do not know what we are working on yet, but once I tell you, they will. It will take them a few days to break our encryption, and learn of our discussion, but they will come. It is critical that you leave as soon as possible after this conversation. Even if you do not accept the deal, you will be on the run from Arasaka for the rest of your life. Do you understand?"

Panam spoke up. "Arasaka? I thought they were in ruins when we left NC."

The voice from the phone. "That is not true. Arasaka wanted you to break in, to upload Alt to Mikoshi."

"Why? She killed all those people?" V asked.

The voice continued. "That was a small price to pay for them to enslave an AI from beyond the Blackwall. Mikoshi was not designed just to hold engrams. Its original purpose was to hold an AI. With Alt, they are stronger than ever."

V gasped. "Holy shit. Alt... Johnny...all those people in the secure your soul program."

"Slaves to Saburo Arasaka.. Not even Ortega knew it, but Saburo is alive, in Mikoshi. Soon they will be unstoppable, no amount of ICE will be able to protect us from them. This is where you come in V."

V was flustered. "What does all this AI shit have to do with me? I don't get it."

"Sebastian told you about our experiments with curing cyber-psychosis. He didn't know it, but there is another, experimental branch of that project. We have been having trouble finding test subjects though."

"I'm not followin." V said. He didn't like where this was heading.

"V, I think that we can help each other. We need someone that has been Soulkilled; as you can imagine subjects are hard to find. If we can study Soulkiller, how it has affected you, we can reverse engineer Arasaka's encryption algorithms and get through their ICE. This will let us fight back against them, and you will get what you have been looking for. A real cure. V, we can save you, cure you permanently."

V dropped his phone.

The voice from the phone. "V, are you still there?"

He picked up the phone. "Yeah, I'm here. How are you gonna cure me? Ortega knew his shit and he said it was impossible."

The voice laughed. "Ortega was brilliant, but he didn't know everything we were doing. He only knew what he had to. Our research is theoretical, but I saw what happened with you and Ms. Palmer in the machine at Ortega's, it was remarkable. We think this gives you both a good chance of surviving the procedure."

"A good chance? What's that mean?" How fuckin' good?" V yelled into the phone.

The voice again, it was eerily calm. "Better than your chances of surviving the relic, raiding Arasaka Tower, finding Ortega, or surviving our machine as an engram. These are your best odds yet V."

"Ok, let's say I accept. How are you gonna to do it?"

The voice again. "You are an engram, its remarkable you've lived this long, but you can never survive in a human body permanently."

V looked at Panam, shrugged. "Are you gonna make me some kinda robot body?"

The voice laughed. "V don't be ridiculous. Of course not. Trust me, we have tried, you would not want to live like that."

Panam spoke. "Are you going to grow him a new body?"

The voice laughed again. "No, that is still beyond us. We can grow the tissue, but we cannot transfer a consciousness into a brand-new body, the mind never survives the trip. We may be able to eventually, but V, you do not have that kind of time."

V was running out of ideas. "Ok, spit it out then. What's the plan?"

"V, we can cure you, but it will be much more difficult than curing cyber-psychosis. After all, Ortega was still human. You are a machine. Ms. Palmer will need to sacrifice part of herself to save you. Call it her spirit, her essence, her soul, whatever you wish. This will plant a seed of humanity into your mind. Eventually, that seed will grow, replacing the parts of you that have been Soulkilled. You will not be the same as you were before the relic, but you will live. Ms. Palmer will also be changed forever. And like Ortega and Isabelle, neither of you can survive if the other dies. Let me reiterate, this procedure is dangerous, and untested. We hope that you will agree to proceed, but we understand if you do not want to take that risk. If either of you has any doubts about each other, even subconsciously, the procedure will fail, and you will both die, or go insane."

He looked at Panam, neither of them spoke.

The voice on the phone again. "We will study the entire process; we will learn much if it is successful. But V, think it over, discuss it with Ms. Palmer. Decide quickly though, Arasaka will be after you now. You know too much."

There was a click as the phone disconnected.

Panam was looking at him. "V, you know you cannot stop me from doing this right? If not for you I would have died at Ortega's."

V looked down, shook his head. "If not for me, you wouldn't have been there. I can't ask you do this for me. It's ok, Panam. You heard him; you'd be changed forever. We got a lotta weapons, lotta tech, I think even with Arasaka after us we'd be ok. Nobody knows this desert like us."

He felt her metal hand on his shoulder. "V, you are not asking me. I want to do this. Neither of us could have gotten here without the other." She lifted his head up, looked him in the eyes. "Besides V, you've already changed me forever."

He didn't know what to say to that. Shit he loved her. She'd already done so much, and now she was ready to do this. He pulled her in for a kiss. "Thank you Panam. I love you."

She smiled at him. "I love you too. But V..." She reached into his pocket, grabbed his phone, handed it to him. "Make the call. Let us finish this."

V dialed the number again.

The same voice on the phone. "V, that was quick. What did you decide?"

"We accept your deal. We're on the way"

"Perfect. I'll prep our equipment." Another click as the phone disconnected.

Panam looked at Mitch. "Call your guy, let's get to Idaho."

"You got it." Mitch picked up his phone. "Yeah, It's Mitch again. When can you get here? Oh, shit really? Perfect. Thank you!"

Mitch looked a V and Panam. "He headed this way after our first call. He'll be here in about thirty."

"Mitch, who is this fuckin' guy? How'd you pull this off?" V asked again.

Mitch laughed. "V, he likes to make an entrance. He wants it to be a surprise."

Panam and V walked around camp, letting everyone know their plan. After saying their goodbyes, Panam grabbed V's hand, pulled him into the command tent. Mitch and Dakota were seated at a table.

Panam addressed Mitch and Dakota. "You two will be in charge while we are gone. It sounds like we have good odds, but if V and I do not come back, take care of the family."

Mitch nodded. "Couse. You got it. You take care of yourselves up there in Idaho."

Panam again "And Mitch..."

Mitch's face looked concerned. "Yeah? What is it? We will keep the family strong Panam. Don't worry"

She shook her head. "No, it is not that. Your basilisk? Does it need to be tuned up?"

Mitch looked confused. "I don't think so. Maybe... I'll check it out."

Panam looked at Dakota, and back to Mitch, and laughed. "I heard some funny noises coming from it last night is all."

Mitch cracked a grin, Dakota looked down at the table. Mitch grabbed her hand.

"Har har, laugh it up." Dakota said, then she looked up. "But we will look out for the family. We know you gotta do this. We will be here, rootin' for ya."

Then everyone heard a faint sound.

BOOOOOOM

Panam tilted her head, listening. She looked at V, he shook his head.

Then again, louder now.

BOOOOOM. BOOOOM

"Gunshots" Dakota said. Then she shook her head. "Wait... no..."

BOOOM BOOM BOOOM BOOM BOOOOM

What the fuck was it? He recognized the rhythm. He looked at Panam. She shook her head as well.

BOOOOM BOOOOM BOOOM BOOOOM BOOOM. More background noise too. Was that... A guitar. Shit, he was hearin' Chippin' In. Johnnys old song.

The plane's hoverjets kicked up sand as it landed just outside camp. Everyone in camp was looking at it, puzzled.

Strobe lights started flashing. Chippin' In was blaring across the desert. V almost had to put his hands over his ears it was so loud. Mitch, Dakota and Panam headed out to join the rest of the camp, V followed shortly after. He wasn't sure how to process what he was seeing.

It looked like... like a fuckin' rock concert. Then Chippin' in stopped, the lights stopped flashing. The airplane door slid open, and smoke flowed out of it. A figured appeared, started walking down the ramp out of the plane, through the smoke. V could barely make out a bottle of liquor in the figure's hand.

V was trying to figure out who this guy was. Who fuckin' does this?

The figure looked around, saw V, and started walking over, out of the smoke. V could see it was a man now.

As the man got closer, he spoke. "Hey V. Been awhile. How you doin'?"

Shit, he knew that voice. It was fuckin' Kerry, he looked a little drunk.

V laughed. "Kerry... holy shit." Then V looked at the plane. "Was all that necessary?"

Kerry took a swig from the bottle. "Yeah man. 'Course. You know me."

V looked at Kerry and laughed. "Yeah, I guess I wouldn't expect anything else." V looked over at Panam. "Kerry, this is Panam."

Panam spoke, she sounded sincere "Thanks Kerry. For showing up with that plane. We appreciate it. You saved our asses."

Kerry eyed Panam from head to toe.

"This your fuckin' output?" Kerry looked pleased. "Nice V. You have good taste." Kerry took another swig from the bottle.

Panam looked like she was going to punch Kerry. "Output? Did you call me his fucking output? Who the fuck do you think...?"

V cut her off. "It's cool. Kerry will grow on you. He does take a little getting used to."

Panam still looked like she was ready to punch Kerry.

Kerry smiled. "Anything for V. If not for him, I'd still be drinkin' away my sorrows, livin' in the past." Kerry looked back at the plane. "We gonna delta or what? Heard you're in a hurry."

Panam looked at Dakota and Mitch, Mitch was laughing, Dakota looked shocked.

She addressed them both. "Take care of the family."

Dakota nodded. "You got it boss."

V looked at Kerry and grabbed Panam's hand. "Let's delta."

Kerry took another swig from the bottle and threw at the ground. It shattered. "Let's fuckin' delta!"