Ch 1. Night Lights

Jaune splashed water on his face, his messy blonde hair absorbing it all, shimmering with the reflection of the bathroom lights. Jaune looked at his hands and saw the dried blood leaving them. He sighed, it had been months since Jackie died and only weeks since V had left Night City, he remembered a time when the three of them would go to a bar and drink to their heart's content.

He examined his face, his eyes were starting to turn red, tears were close to leak from his eyes. Jaune looked at the sink and retreated from the mirror. He walked out of the bathroom and into the Afterlife's main room, he made his way over to Rouges area and waited to be allowed in.

"Jaune, good to see you. Take it the job went well?"

"Without a hitch"

Rouge smiled at him "good, just what I like to hear" she patted to a spot next to her "sit, come on. Need to finalize some details"

Jaune nodded and sat next to her, he picked up a shot and drank it in one gulp. He coughed a bit, Jackie always poked fun at him for being weak with his liquor. Jaune hated when he said that, now he wishes he could hear him say it one more time.

"So, kid not bad for a small job. Really impressed me out there, for someone your age your really good"

Jaune smiled wryly, "learned from the best"

Rouge nodded at that, she knew what had happened to him. How he, and V were closely knit. Jaune didn't blame him, he had a killer chip inside his head and although he isn't here, V had become a legend in Night City.

"Hey, kid. Pay attention"

Jaune shook his head and looked at her "sorry, just thinking"

"Well stop that and pay attention, your cut has been transferred to your account. Now I have another job open if you want to take it?"

Jaune looked at Rouge and nodded at her offer.

"Alright, everythings on the chip" she slid Jaune a small chip and he inputted it into his neck. Soon Jaunes vision was filled with multiple different tabs.

"This job is a bit more complicated than your last one but shouldn't be too difficult. So Arasaka has been developing a new form of transportation. Well more like instantaneous teleportation, the job is simple, sabotage the power relays that link up to the teleporter. We need to prevent Arasaka from green lighting the project, if they do then who knows what it could be used for in the future"

Jaune placed his hand under his chin "Is the power grid connected to the relays?"

Rouge nodded at that.

"What if we overheated the power grid, causing all of Arasaka tower to turn into a massive emp?"

Rouge smiled at him "I like how you think kid. In doing so you won't be able to use and air lifts to get out, so it's best if you took your own mode of transportation"

Jaune smiled and removed the chip, he left the Afterlife with a small smile. Hopefully the job would go smoothly and it would be a simple in and out mission.

Jaune ducked behind cover as gunfire hailed above him. He grit his teeth as he injected a booster into him. Looking over his pistol, Malorian Arms. V had given him the pistol as a gift for his birthday, it was a useful little friend that has helped him out in many ways.

Jaune looked over the crate he was hiding behind and discharged two shots at the arasaka guard. He heard a pained cry and a thud, the gunfire was now concentrated over his box.

Jaune pulled from his Rockerjack a splinter frag grenade and chucked it overhead. Jaune heard the ensuing explosion and some cries of pain. Looking over he saw the torn corpses of Arasaka guards.

Holstering his pistol Jaune looked at the power grid, opening the console he began to overheat the main grid. Once he got out he would detonate the building turning all of Arasaka tower into a massive emp. It would screw over Heywood, but it was worth the risk.

Jaune's cyberware began to glitch and spasm since he was in close proximity to the overheated power grid. Jaune left the room and hit the fire alarm, running towards the exit he entered a room by chance.

In the middle of it was a large tube, wires were protruding from it, data pads, and computers.

"You like what you see?" Jaune turned around and drew MA, in front of him was a man, he had the trademark Arasaka uniform, his hair was slicked back and wore simple glasses

"Before you is the newest in Arasaka production, our instant teleportation device is sure to bring great joy to many around the world. However we won't be able to distribute it if you destroy it"

"Well, that's more a you problem, than a me problem"

"That is correct... or so you think" with that a loud gunshot echoed through the room. Jaune collapsed onto the floor clutching his left thigh. Blood began to stain his loose fits. Behind the man a tall woman entered the room a sniper in hand.

"Fuck" Jaune cried through grit teeth. He went to pull out a booster but it was swiftly kicked away by the woman. He glared at her, opening his quick hacks he tried to for a neural meltdown but was promptly kicked in the face.

"Y-your an edgerunner?"

She simply smirked at him

"Thank you, Kysha-sama. Now, would you mind helping me place the first test subject in. The woman nodded and dragged Jaune into the chamber. Jaune tried to struggle out of her grip, but with his bloody thigh and broken nose he couldn't really do much.

She laid him on the pad and walked out, a clear glass wall separated him from the other two. The man began to type on the computer while she looked at her nails. Jaune drew his katana and tried to stand up but collapsed.

"Please, do not try to move too much. The process would be short and won't take too long. Beginning our first test, destination five miles into the sonoran desert"

Jaune looked at the two corpos, he heard the humming of the machine. Jaune with shaking hands pulled out the detonator. The woman's eyes widened and before she could stop the man Jaune pressed the trigger.

The computer began to sputter and then exploded. The woman clutched her head and collapsed onto the floor, smoke was emerging from her scalp. The lights flickered on and off. Inside the chamber Jaune looked at the man and flipped the bird before a blinding white light was all he saw.

The city was always a loud area, the honking of cars, the sound of engines, peoples inaudible banter, and the blinding lights that the skyline gave away

But sometimes it was always nice to hear the quietness of it all, so was the case of Mr. Gravy. A middle aged man, he walked out of his clinic, locking it. He checked his watch and sighed, another long night.

Before he left the gate of his clinic he heard a strange noise near the back alley. He cautiously walked in, he checked wherever he could to find what made the noise.

His fox ears twitched as he heard a groan. spinning his head into a nearby alley, to where the large dumpster was. Looking over, his amethyst eyes widened when he saw a young man, with blonde hair. He had a red jacket, a black t-shirt with an oni-mask, long black pants, and high boots.

What was most peculiar about him was the metallic lines running under his eyes to his cheeks and intersecting by his neck.

"Ughh, please h-help m-me" the boy struggled to breathe out.

Gravy eyes widened, he dove in and fished out the boy. He groaned, he really weighed a ton. Opening his clinic he made it to the operating table, there he found the main source of the boys strife. A high caliber round was in his left thigh.

Gravy wiped his brow, before he could begin to work the distinct clatter of metal hitting floor alerted him. Looking down he saw a pistol. The doctor picked it up and placed it on a table, he checked the boy to see if he had anything else, to his surprise he found a katana.

The good doctor sighed and began to work. The boy had a lot of explaining to do.

Jaune groaned as he got up. He rubbed his eyes and blinked a bit, his optics began to reboot and after a while he could see again. Jaune used his arm to cover his face to shield his eyes from the light.

Looking around he saw an all white room, he looked to his left and saw some old age monitors, weird since even the most run down of ripperdocs had at least the newest models.

The creaking of the door opened and he saw a blonde man with greying bits, his eyes widened when he saw the two extra appendages above his head. He thought theh were fake but was surprised when they began to twitch individually.

The man gave him a questioning look and Jaune didn't seem bothered

"Before I begin questioning you I need to know if my faunus heritage is going to be a problem?"

Jaune blinked, faunus? He never heard of a sub-species like that. Sure there was the word that was used to describe mother nature.

"Um, not to be rude but I haven't the slightest idea what a faunus is"

The man eyes narrowed, Jaune just raises his arms defensively.

"If your trying to be funny, then you might as well get out"

"Look, honest to god I don't know anything about faunus. Also why do you have old age tech?" Jaune pointed at the heart monitor

"What are you talking about, that's the latest medical hardware out on shelves"

"Look, just ask your questions"

The man nodded and began to write down on his notepad

"Name"

"Jaune Arc"

"Date of Birth"

"Sept 7th, 2058"

The man looked at him, then back to his notepad

"Age"

"19"

"Gender"

Jaune rolled his eyes "male"

"Race"

"Caucasian"

"City you were born in"

"Night City"

"That's real funny. Now what city were you born at?"

Jaune looked at him "Night City, I already told you"

"What kingdom"

"What do you mean kingdom? I was born in the United States"

"Cut the shit kid, where were you born?"

"I already told you"

The man reached for something behind his pocket, Jaune expected the worst and lunged at him. He grabbed him by the neck, but the man overpowered Jaune due to his weekend state.

Jaune looked at what the man pulled out and saw that it was a small phone like device.

"Hello operator, connect me to VPD I got some psycho here in my office"

Jaunes heart began to race, he knew he was a wanted criminal and getting in trouble with the police was the last thing he needed. Jaune scanned the room looking for his gear and found both the MA and his katana.

He grabbed them when the man wasn't paying attention. Jaune aimed the gun to his head but paused when he saw a photo of him. He saw the man with a mature woman and a little girl with fox ears. He hesitated and instead holstered his gun and knocked the man out.

Jaune waddled out the clinic and looked outside, what he saw surprised him. People walked around as if there wasn't a threat in the world, no gunshots were heard, people drove properly. Even more so Jaune saw more of those faunus in the streets.

Jaune didn't know where he was but one thing he was certain of, he wasn't in Night City anymore.

This is a small little project I was thinking of. I am truly enjoying Cyberpunk 2077, I don't care what others think and I wanted to take a twist on the genre.

Update wise I'm not sure, currently working on other stories that will take most of my time so I'll see.

The main focus of the story is Jaune being more of a third party. He will interact with the main cast, both villians and heros but how he interacts with them will be different

Other than that I hope you enjoy.