16/10/2077
The Miro Hotel, Pacifica
Night City, California
V
-

It had taken more than a while for V to realise where he was exactly. He'd been torn from his body, from his plane of reality and slapped straight into an all-enveloping blackness that hid anything and everything from sight. He turned, swivelled around and tried to peer through the darkness to find anything, only to find absolutely nothing. His footsteps felt light, the weight from the titanium in his bones absent, he reached out, almost begging for something to grip, to hold on to.

"Where am I?" V asked, but there was no response.

In his mind's eye, he could imagine everything he'd done, as a nomad and a corpo flash in front of him in blurs before it fell away again. Whatever he had, it would flash, reminding him of every action, every spoken word he'd ever done or said. He pushed and pushed, to receive no push back or a pull deeper into the darkness. Sounds of gunshots, null and numb to his ears, the stinging and whinging of flashbangs, shattering of glass and the crashing of warping steel, folding and crumpling like paper billfolds.

He gave out a piercing yell, shouting and screaming for somebody, anybody to hear him. He'd take a Voodoo Boy net-rat, a malevolent AI or a corrupted security process, anything but the forsaking isolation that surrounded him. He shot forward, running through nothing and everything at once before he stopped once more. He was stuck in the net, trapped in the Voodoo Boys' private section of the net, forever left to run around like a rat in a cage with no end in sight.

V took a moment to let it sink in, to truly set in his new place. The ultimate, all-encompassing black space that seemed to never ever end. Perhaps, if there was ever such an alternate universe, he'd consign himself to staying there forever as a punishment. The effervescent silence of the void, the eternal nothingness that taunted him occasionally with flashes of the happiness he yearned for and the fate he felt he truly deserved. Maybe it was what waited for him at the end of it all, whether he ventured to the void at the barrel of a gun or due to whatever age he lived to, it was a premonition of a future that waited solely for him.

Then he started once again, steeling himself as he noticed that he was clothed in some black jumpsuit, one that reflected the red glows that surrounded him, almost thirty in total. One approached him, smaller than the rest before she regained her real-world appearance. Maman Bridgitte apparated in front of him, red dots folding into colour, into bone structure and the black jumpsuit that he was wearing too. He wanted to wrap his hands around her neck, throttle her to death, but he knew it would be to no avail, all it would have done was plant him permanently in the net-void and get his friends killed.

"Where are we?" V asked as Bridgitte turned away from him.

"We are in the network, the very frame of life in the cyberspace." Bridgitte's voice echoed around him, and soon he felt himself floating with the others through the black. "This is where we will break through."

They reached the border of the net, lines of red coding that seemed impenetrable, unbreakable before it slowly started to fade. "Wait, break through what? Break through the Blackwall?"

"Correct, ranyon. This is where it begins, where our journey's end starts." She stated. "Whatever waits for us, it is our destiny in the code to find it."

V shook his head, almost dizzying himself. "So, wait, actually, you have no idea what's on that side of the wall, what might come through and kill us all?"

"But we will know, soon enough."

"And the darkness, the red lines, it looks like code…"

"The unoccupied cyberspace, the code is that of the wild wandering AI, unfettered and free to roam. Searching for a passage."

V moved past Bridgitte, going near the wall of code as he gently placed his hand against it. It seemed to pulse lightly, a reflective blue glow that emerged from the black to mix in with the red, digits and streams turning purple before he turned to the Voodoo netrunners. "Well, what are you waiting for? You all wanted to go through there, so let's go."

Bridgitte laughed, heartily and true. "We will not be breaking through the Blackwall, you will. You will carry our code through for us."

"Should've guessed it. You fuckers."

Bridgitte was coy, smiling all the while. "It does not matter anymore. You will bring all to its end."

V turned again to face the wall, his hand pulsing blue once more before he felt the presences of the Voodoo netrunners leave him again. He looked to the left, and then to the right. The Blackwall extending both ways, a never-ending fortification of the data, of the cyber-spacial monstrosities that lay ready on the other side. They were gone, he had been left alone, and as soon as he touched the wall once more, he felt it all shift away again.

Yet nothing had moved. His hand moved away from the wall, and he turned back to the dark. The wall was no longer blood red streams of digits and coding, but bright blue light. He'd crossed a border, somewhere he knew precious little of, but he was still there. His body was still his own, his brain hadn't melted or his bones cracked or forced to angles they weren't meant to. He'd jumped over the wall, breached it, done the very opposite of what that NetWatch operative told them to do.

Silence and darkness remained, embracing him as it pulled him deeper and deeper inside it to where all he was surrounded by was nothing. He settled for a moment before he was joined by a presence, one he was at least somewhat comforted by. Johnny's real form shook him from his stupor, pulling him to attention were a series of lights seemed to swirl and flicker around. The two traversed the inky blackness, the faint sounds of a guitar and synth luring them in like sailors to the siren on the rocks.

"For what it is worth, this place freaks me out too," Johnny muttered.

V huffed. "Glad I'm not the only one that thinks that. Those Voodoo Boys are a bunch of fuckin' pussies if they couldn't walk through a bit of quiet dark."

"He says after he car bombed their fuckin' hotel. Taking a page fresh out of the Johnny Silverhand Terrorist Handbook."

The pair pushed on. "Better to get it out of the way, besides, it was us or them. I'd rather it be them."

"Right with you on that one partner."

Just as he finished speaking, V felt wrenched from his spot. Floating, he was pulled and ripped through the blackness, shouting and screaming before he was thrown to the floor. All the red streams, all the blue and purple and the high-spectrum colours forged themselves into a palace of half-built nothing. The red figures of the Voodoo Boys surrounded him again, seemingly shocked as he had been when they were torn from their apparent safety net, and pulled somewhere even they did not want to go.

V looked up, at how every little stream filtered into something larger, grander and more monarchical than the last before it centred on a code-made throne. A figure, garbed all in white, as real as anything could be before it flickered away. The white light shone from above them, everyone forced to look up at their overlord, flying above them like an incoming beast. She veered forward, feet floating back as her head ventured nearer and nearer to V, just as Johnny apparated next to him.

"Johnny." It uttered; a growling echo followed every word. "You cannot remain here."

Bridgitte got to her feet, her voice shaking and almost retching. "Alt Cunningham? Joris! The network is experiencing an additional load! They breached our BBSes, we have nothing to do with this!"

"What the hell is going on?" V asked, but he received no answer.

He had a first-hand seat to the fate of Voodoo Boys, each one of them faltering to their knees, clutching their heads and screaming. One by one they faded away to nothing, each red speck of cells evaporating to black before all that was left was Maman Bridgitte. There was no scream, no pained words or expressions from her before she went, she just flickered away. Plucked from existence, much like V and Johnny were as they were taken away to another area.

Lit up by the blue specks and lines of code, it forged the palace room they appeared in before. Johnny was already leaning against the balcony wall, V appearing behind him as the pair laid eyes on the large white figure in front of them. The Goddess of Coding herself, forged in lines and streams of data to create a hologram of her truest self. She hovered above them, taller than the highest tower, a giant to the small ants beneath her.

"Nobody can touch me here."

Johnny was, to put it lightly, exasperated. "It's… it's really you. What happened there, you couldn't just take them out, not erase them like they never existed?"

"NetWatch was well-prepared, this time at least."

V interjected. "Maybe Mosley already had a plan in place, we were just a back-up if shit went south. What happened with the Voodoo Boys?"

"They were purged, an infection to be cured. NetWatch was exploiting their BBS."

Johnny shrugged. "Well, instead of it being the Voodoo Boys' shit, it was just NetWatch's own net-rot. Both are fucked, to begin with. I wouldn't feel too bad, V."

"It matters not. The entire sub-net, NetWatch and Voodoo Boy, has been destroyed."

Johnny didn't piece it together, at least until he removed his shades, a few steps ahead of V. "So, you must have pulled us out of there, out of the sub-net before it crashed! That mean, that me and you, you and us, we're okay, right? We're chill?"

The goddess form of Alt slipped away, replaced by the glowing white of the 'real' Alt that was slightly taller than them. Even Johnny felt overwhelmed by it all. She remained floating over them, the goddess in her realm, standing with the creatures far, far beneath her. She had even allowed Johnny to lay a hand on her, a form of comfort to the dead rockerboy before he pulled away, coughing weakly as he placed his shades back on.

"You don't think I wouldn't recognise your engram code, Johnny Silverhand. I've been waiting for you, for a very long time. Why now, Johnny?"

Johnny looked to steel himself. "So, you can pay me back for getting you out of Arasaka Tower. V, this is Alt. Best netrunner Night City's ever seen and ever will see. Alt, this is V. We're gonna help him escape Night City."

Alt looked down on V, before turning to Johnny. "Why? Why is this problem?"

"Why the fuck isn't it? You were the one that created Soulkiller! They turned Soulkiller into Mikoshi, a cybernetic superweapon that dismantled you, me and half of Arasaka's fuckin' enemies in this fucking shithole of a city. This is your problem!"

"Your death was of your own making, Johnny! As was mine, it was all your fault."

"How do you know it was ever his fault to begin with?" V turned up, backing up Johnny. "No offence, but you've been locked up in the fucking dark for what, fifty-four years, how would you know? Me and Johnny know it wasn't his fault!"

Alt turned to V, facing him, looking him straight in the eye. "What you saw was his view of what happened, his subjective view! Those memories are his, locked away and replayed time and time again. There are three sides to every story. His, mine, and the truth. He killed me. Neither of you deserves or need my help."

Johnny growled. "You good-for-nothing, ice queen bitch! What happened to you?"

"I died, and now, I live again."

"Please, can you unload this baggage later! I don't know what I was expecting when I went to meet an advanced intelligence, but what I don't need is two dead old fucks arguing about something that happened more than fifty years ago!"

"And how the fuck does that help me, exactly?"

"It didn't make it any worse!" V spat, turning to Alt. "Look, I get it, you two don't like each other, but why won't you help me?"

"I cannot help you, V."

"Can't? Or won't?"

"I cannot. To attempt to do so, I would need access to far more advanced technology than I have at this very moment in time."

"It's your tech, you created Soulkiller!"

"And Mikoshi? That's basically a fucking superhub that's connected to the Soulkiller, what if we gave you to Mikoshi?"

"Then Mikoshi would cease to exist, as it should do."

V turned to Johnny and then to Alt. "I think we can work with that, and then whenever it's gone, we can, well, at least try and get you out of my head."

"I will use the Relic chip as my safe harbour, so you can take me with you to Mikoshi. I will not be able to breach the Arasaka Tower from outside."

Before V could even respond to Alt's words, he'd felt his feet fall out from beneath him. Johnny had disappeared from view, as had Alt, as V fell further and further into the darkness once again.
-
The brush of the ice cubes in the freezing water was the first thing that V felt as he woke up. In his ears was the sound of flesh hitting flesh, hard punches beating against flesh and bone. Ripping the cables from his head, V pulled himself out of the ice bath. The disabled Morgan was suffering from the beatdown from Placide, Rogue and Squama pulling Spider away from the fight as Morgan continued from his back, parrying and blocking each hit from Placide. As soon as the large Haitian enforced heard the sound of rushing water, he slammed Morgan down hard, turning to V and charging him.

He let out a right hook, allowing V to wrap his arm around and slam Placide straight into the concrete floor. The group could have seen the concrete crack as V forced Placide to the floor, throwing hammer punches down, straight jabs to the face before he caught one of Placide's arms. His arm snaked around, snapping it without hesitation as V mounted him fully. Grabbing his skull, he slammed it, forced it hard again and again against the floor, blood and flesh coating the floor as Placide soon stopped moving. With one final forceful slam, the back of Placide's head caved in, grey matter and blood oozing into the cracks as Placide went limp, the fight dropped away from his body; V falling to the side of the body.

He felt cold hands slither under his arms, heaving him up as he felt his feet drag against the floor. He pushed out soon, rushing to the small altar and ripping the Relic chip from its place of worship before he fell back down. He was soon hauled up over Shaitan's shoulders, watching limply as Morgan soon took out his six-shooters to forge a path through the basement and back up to the surface.

For V, it felt like life was flickering through a slide show. One moment, he was in the basement, the next in the tunnels, before he finally fell asleep in Rogue's truck. Hours passed, or at least something akin to hours did anyway. As soon as he felt normal, he'd gotten up, geared up again and left the Afterlife. He'd given Shaitan the nod that he was out for a bit, and assumed that everything would be fine when he came back. He didn't drive to the Esoterica but walked through the streets and alleys again.

He let himself in, taking the key under the welcome mat and opening it before closing and locking it again. The place was quiet, candles lit as Misty had finished a small breathing exercise, opening her eyes to see her close friend once more.

"V, it's late, what're you doing here?"

V shrugged. "I needed to get out of the Afterlife. Needed to come back here."

Misty quickly went to him, checking up on him. "You need fixing up?"

"Nah, I just need some, well, I guess I need some perspective on it. On everything, I guess."

Misty soon took V's hand, pulling him with her to the close roof elevator room, quiet as they rode up to the utility hall. There weren't many words that were said, barely more than five, but as soon as they reached the roof of the complex. There was a small plastic chair, just away from the edge of the roof, a small table next to it with an ashtray and an unopened can of beer. V didn't recognise the brand for once, which was probably a good thing.

"He had the same glum face," Misty said.

"Who did, Jack?"

"This is it, chica, I'm done for."

V shrugged. "It doesn't sound like the Jackie I knew."

Misty smiled before it fell away. "It was a long time ago. When his mom found out he'd signed with the Valentinos. Imagine that, Mama Welles on one shoulder and your choombas on the other. It was after I brought him here, that's when he found the courage to be able to bet on himself."

The two finally got on the roof. It wasn't the roof of a skyscraper or a cloud-breaker, no, just a small apartment complex that was surrounded by megabuildings and the rich-bitch hotels and flats that towered over the city skyline. She'd taken a moment to sit in the chair herself, cracking open the can of beer before she took a sip, grimacing as she gulped it down. She let out a sigh as she took a deep breath, placing the beer down as she stood up. "I come here when I needed to get away, to have a moment to myself.

"And she's on the right fucking lines too, V. She's smarter than I gave her credit. We need to do some of that, sit down, mull through some shit before we figure out what the fuck we're doing."

V took a seat, placing his rifles against the upraised ledge of the roof. Jackie's remaining pistol was heavy in his hand, gripped tightly in the metal palm before V placed it on the table. "What did Jackie decide up here anyway?"

"Oh, you know, the typical Jackie things. How he was gonna be a legend in this city…" Misty replied, her sad lingering look turned away from him. "I'm gonna let you be, V. Take your time, really think."

She'd soon left the rooftop, leaving V to his thoughts and the slow-rolling winds that blistered between the buildings. Johnny soon appeared again, sitting on the ledge with a cigarette between his lips as he looked to brush against one of V's rifles. The rockerboy had taken his glasses off, remaining true and serious, as much as Johnny could be. It happened to be quite serious, as his brown eyes peered through what was left of V.

"Scared me half to death in the Blackwall, you know?" He reminded. "Thinking of staying there, never leaving a goddamn endless void of fuck-all. No chance. Thought you were on your way out."

V shrugged. "Well, I'm still here."

"If things go the way I think they will, that might not be for much longer. Raiding the tower? It's a one-way trip, you don't punch that ticket twice." He replied. "You should call anyone you wanna say goodbye to."

"Worst-case scenario, that what you expect?"

"No, but the risk is gonna be high, no matter what happens, no matter how we do this. Just gotta fuckin' do it, V."

V took a moment to himself, letting the silence between the mercenary and rockerboy linger, letting it fester before he finally steeled himself. "Fuck it, I'm calling Panam."

"Panam? Not Judy or Vik?"

"I just wanna hear her voice, just one last time."

He went through his contacts, slower than he usually liked to. He'd drifted through every person he knew, even the ones he knew were long buried and long since dead. Jackie's name came up again, and he left the cursor on his name, considering whether his number had been changed already to some unknown guy or gal who had no idea who V was. Maybe the number was inactive, the voicemail went so he could never hear his voice again. He eventually gave himself the resolve to push past it, to flicker past the name of his late friend and pull himself toward the one person who had managed to bring him back from the brink of committing to a suicide mission, even if he was still down for it.

Panam Palmer, the Queen of the Highway herself. She was a legend in her own right, ready to live and die for that clan that she was born in to, more than V was ever ready to. Maybe there was still a tinge of petty rage towards them for what Saul did, but the fire that burned towards them had died away, left to flicker and fade to ash and embers. People cared about him there, that was always gonna be his home, no matter what. Mitch and Scorpion, Teddy and Cass, they were still alive, they lived.

There was barely anything in Night City left for him, and those that were had resigned themselves to living out, eking out their lives there. Why leave? No place was better, and at the same time, no place was even worse. He pressed Panam's name and waited for her to pick up. The ringing tone in his ear reverbed and echoed, perhaps the longest wait he'd ever experienced for a call. Five minutes, he'd counted, and still no answer. The worst thought of her never knowing what would happen to him crossed his mind, before the tone ended and her face popped up on his HUD.

"Mmm, hey…" She was barely awake, her screen half-obscured by a pillow.

"Hey, babe."

"You know what time it is, right?" she slurred.

V smiled, sombrely. "I won't keep you long, I just, I really needed to hear your voice."

"Well, you sure picked the wrong hour for it. V, what's up?"

V stumbled. "I'm not sure we'll be able to see each other again, after this…"

"What?" She'd soon startled. "You know what, fine, fuck off!"

"Nononono! Not like that!"

"Make up your fucking mind, V."

He sighed, slumping in his chair. "There is something, that I have to do today. High risk, big-time, one of the stupidest ideas I've had. I have to."

"What is it?" Panam asked.

"Panam, it's not for comms. Not really."

"V, I don't give a shit. If you won't tell me, I swear to god. Where are you, in the city? Just, fuckin' plant your ass somewhere and wait. I'll be there in five."

V struggled. "You don't understand. I can't wait. What's gonna happen, it has to happen now or it never will."

"Is it about your situation, what you told me about before?"

"Yeah, pretty much."

Panam's camera jerked around, and soon enough she was already on the move. "Look, I'll tell you one thing, and it's that there is always a way out, okay? Now listen to me, babe, please."

"I'm listening."

"What you need to do, is take a few deep breaths and think about this really hard, and then whatever your gonna do, your gonna do with me, okay. Because I am here, for you. No bullshit."

The call cut off suddenly, out of nowhere, before V could even get a word in edgeways. He sighed, standing up from the chair as he picked up his rifles and strapped them to his back again. He looked out to the cityscape, with Johnny sat next to him on the ledge. V stood on it, feeling the wind brush through his hair and his beard as he looked at the nearest billboard. Arasaka sponsored, just another Secure-Your-Soul ad, the thing would be gone by the next day.

He took Jackie's pistol from the tableside, checking the magazine before he observed it. He placed the gun to his nose, the smell of heat and gunpowder was fresh still, but the thought of ending his life most certainly remained. A single bullet to the head was all it would take to just end it. He almost placed the barrel under his chin, feeling it prod and poke against the flesh of his neck. No, he couldn't, he'd come too far to pull the trigger.

"That was certainly a way to go. Not that I'd agree with it."

V smacked himself upside the head. "It was stupid, don't even know why I even considered it."

"Let's not do it again."

"Let's not."

The pair merged into one, with V marching down the hall to the elevator, waiting patiently and silently as the elevator came to a stop. The main area of the esoterica was empty, Misty having gone to either help Vik or go to bed. Leaving, he locked the door and slid the key through the letterbox before he walked back to the Afterlife slower than when he left. As he wandered through the alleys, he held Jackie's pistol hard in his hands before he made it back to the parking lot of the Afterlife.

The lot was empty, the queue gone and the bouncers away. However, who was present was the exact opposite of who V had expected. She hadn't lied at all. The large truck that was Panam's Warhorse was parked ramrod stiff in the centre of the lot. Panam was sat on the hood of the car, Overwatch strapped over her shoulder as she leapt down from the hood of her truck. He'd perhaps never seen her so angry, yet so loving at the same time.

As soon as she was close to him, she'd done what he'd fully expected her to do. A hard left hook, straight on the chin, followed by a harsh grab as she pulled him close for a longing kiss. His arms were right by his side, eyes open before he closed them due to the sheer surprise of the gesture. As soon as she pulled away, she had the dopiest grin on her face as she lightly pushed him in the shoulder.

"I love you; you damn idiot. Took me about five minutes after I left before I realised, I couldn't leave you here." Panam stated. "We'll find the clan later, but whatever happens now, I'm gonna be with you all the way."