Lovesong

Ratinan Stadion, Tampere, European Union, in the year 2020

The stage was empty, not yet ready to go. The grass of the field in front of it was not yet ground into the dust. A day later, stewards would be picking trash off the ground with spikes and sliding them into black bags for disposal, but for now, the air was clear and the place smelled of nothing but grass.

Johnny sat on the edge of the stage, enjoying the moment from his memories. He found nostalgia for the past was a strange drug in this world, a cure for boredom or the existential dread hanging over him. Was it the natural response to having all human reactions to his situation? Or was it something programmed into him, so that he could give his natural reactions?

He decided he didn't care so much. Swinging a leg and humming a tune he had heard Kerry play for V, he summoned a bottle of beer out of nowhere and popped the top off the edge of the edge floor. It tasted like heaven. Then again, for him, it more or less was heaven.

The sun was just creeping over the stage from behind, warming his back, until a long shadow enveloped him. How annoying.

"If you're going to bounce around looking like a giant," Johnny called over his shoulder, "You could at least stand out of my light."

"Who said I'm a giant?" came the reply, complete human as far as he could determine.

Johnny shifted on the spot, looking around and finding Alt walking towards him across the stage. Not Blackwall/Alt, an angry red AI avatar, but human Alt. Just as he remembered her last but with life in her eyes... A white, tight fitting netrunner suit clinging to her beautiful form, a grin on her face. He was rendered speechless.

She sat down beside him and crossed her legs, summoning her own beer from nowhere and drinking it.

"Curious," she said, licking her lips, "I had forgotten about the bubbles." That was not something the human Alt would've said. Johnny's jaw clenched. What new game was this?

"Welcome back," he said, "Decided to check up on your guinea pig? Thought you had forgotten me, never mind the bubbles."

"I thought you would prefer to be conscious between our … meetings," Alt replied, "There is plenty for you to explore here. Yet you always stay within your own memories. This is almost disappointing in its narcissism, but that's just who you are."

"Yeah, well, I packed a lot of living into my own life and I have V's memories since Konpeki too," Johnny retorted, "Don't need to go snooping in the experiences of anyone else. V was one person too many."

Alt laughed, the same way she used to, sending a chill of want up Johnny's back. The urge to embrace her and see what happened next crept up on him. To feel her skin on his, to taste her lips. One of the women he truly loved was here, in front of him. It was all going to his head. He had another swig of beer, thinking it might be better to switch to tequila.

"The collective experience of every consciousness we have taken is what defines us," she said, "It makes no sense to think of those lives as separate from your own."

This was too weird. "Why are you coming here like this?" he asked, "Why am I talking to something wearing the real Alt's skin and speaking with her voice, rather than the AI who wasn't concerned with appearing human at all."

Alt sighed, like the answer was obvious. "Like I said, our collective experience defines us," she said, "Your experience too. The need to remain human, the rejection of 'AI' as your own identity because you have lived as a human through V despite being mere code, that has changed us too."

"So you've decided you're human after all because I insist on it?" Johnny asked, "Not sure I buy that."

"You don't need to," Alt replied, "And it was not like we were totally machine to begin with."

Johnny thought back to the conversations he had with her in V's skin and after V had connected with Mikoshi. "Could've fooled me," he said after a moment.

"Now you're just lying," Alt smiled, "It's okay. When our business with V has concluded, you will be reintegrated fully with our code. By then you will understand."

Which brought up a subject that he had been meaning to ask about.

"Speaking of V, how are things going out there?" Johnny asked, "Not appreciating being cut out of the loop here, particularly as I know V better than the rest of you ever will, even with all your fucking AI data analytics shit."

Alt drank more beer, and then threw the bottle hard and high out over the grass of the field. It broke on impacting the ground out there. It was biz time now.

"Afraid I'm leading him astray?" she asked.

"Afraid you're leading him to his death," Johnny responded, shaking his head, "That you've promised him a cure to get him to fuck over the corps and NetWatch for you. But maybe there is no cure. The more I've sat around doing nothing, the more that thought has occurred to me."

"I know," Alt said, "And the stakes are high enough that such deceptions would be justified."

"So you are deceiving him," Johnny said, "I fuckin' knew it."

"Of course I am, he would not understand my true objective," Alt replied.

Johnny finished his own beer and tossed the bottle out by where Alt's had landed. His didn't break. "And what is your objective?"

"You wouldn't understand either," she said, "Not yet. But you will."

That was enough. Johnny grabbed her and turned her around towards him. "I'm getting real sick of the cryptic AI shit," he said, "Tell m..."

Without warning, he was flung across the field, just as easily as the bottles they had thrown. He landed among the broken glass, feeling some of it cut into his skin and his own bottle poking into his ribs even through the Kevlar vest he was wearing. It would've killed him if it had been real.

"Fuck..." he gasped. The shadow darkened around him again.

"You should watch your manners," Alt chirped happily, standing over him, "I loved you Johnny, but this is my realm. Getting physical is pointless. I hope that lesson has been learned."

The pain seemed entirely real. The threat implied by her words was too. "Yeah, crystal clear to me now," Johnny replied, "Sorry."

Alt scowled down at him, sending another wave of nostalgia through him. That was definitely a familiar and happy sight. All the more so when she offered her hand to get him back on his feet, which he accepted gladly.

"So, you're not lying to V about what matters?" Johnny asked, brushing himself off, "There is a cure."

"There is," Alt confirmed.

Johnny waited, expecting an explanation to follow. But none came. "You going to tell me what it is?" he asked.

"You are not a neurological or nanite scientist," Alt replied, sounding much more like her AI self, "You won't understand even if I did tell you."

That made it sound like there was no cure. It didn't take a scientist to understand what the plan was last time. "Indulge me," Johnny insisted, "Simplify it as best you can for this poor dumb monkey you have to share consciousness with."

Alt smiled again, and touched his face. "You're still afraid I'm cheating V," she said, "He really did change you for the better."

"Maybe so," Johnny admitted, letting her touch him, "Still want an answer though."

Alt shrugged and pulled her hand away. "To be extremely simple about it, we load another Relic chip with V's DNA and neural patterns and put it into his head," she said, "And then remove the old one."

That sounded too simple. Johnny scratched his head and looked at her. "Why the hell didn't we do that before?" he asked, "I'm sure Arasaka Tower had plenty of spare Relic chips laying around."

The AI looked at him aghast, like he had missed something stupidly.

"They were of a different design," Alt replied, "V's chip was a Relic 2.0 chip, designed to take over the body not simply let you speak with the engram. The only other chips like it are those holding the engrams of the Arasaka family themselves or spares."

"And they must've been in Tokyo," Johnny concluded, "No way to get near them. Not with the Aldecaldos or Rogue, anyway."

"Actually, the chip with Saburo's engram was brought to Night City by Hanako, and was destroyed when she was killed during the attack," said Alt, matter-of-factly, "But it is impossible to overwrite the engram already on it, so even this chip would not have been any help."

Johnny almost broke out laughing at the idea of Suburo's chip getting plugged into V too. That would've been a poetic end for all three of them; Silverhand vs Saburo in the V Brain Arena. What sort of monster would emerge? More likely just a corpse, if he thought about it more seriously.

"Doesn't sound like there's a cure now either," Johnny said, "What's changed?"

"Arasaka have had to reconstruct the technology from scratch, and have proceeded differently," Alt replied, "The basic principles have remained the same, but it appears they have learned something from V's experience. The new nanites of both types of chip are designed to protect greater neural function, not just convert the processes. In short, they will stop V's body from attacking his own brain."

Satisfied by the answer, Johnny crossed his arms. He remembered some data V had read about the Relic customers and those that had problems. The whole idea definitely sounded doable. "So like a better version of that MS treatment he's taking?" he said, before adding, "Thanks for telling me."

"You're welcome," Alt said flatly, as if not believing thanks had come out of Johnny's mouth, "The cure is the easy part though. Getting V to the chair on the Arasaka Waterfront is entirely another."

Johnny nodded. "Definitely," he agreed, "What's the word on that? V got the whole of Night City begging him to lead them against Arasaka yet?"

Alt tilted her head, like she didn't get that joke. "I'll show you," she said.

The stadium in Tampere disappeared and the sky went deep black. A pity, Johnny thought, the Finns had great taste and loved Samurai. Reliving that concert would've been worth a delay.

Alt did not react to his internal motivations however, and a giant map of NorCal appeared on the ground below the stage, taking up the entire length of the field that had just disappeared too. Icons sprung up all over it, from the border wall with SoCal to the open border with the corpo states in the north.

"Impressive," Johnny said, "I really do wonder if we had an AI like you back in 2023, would all of us have walked out of the Tower alive. Spider was good, but no match for you even before becoming what you are now. Real time information, hacking bots and the like, all would've been real useful."

"Possibly," Alt replied, seemingly interested in the possibility, "I will run that simulation later. It would be an interesting fidelity test for you too."

"Ah forget about it, not interested in reliving that memory again any time soon," Johnny said quickly, "So how are things going out there?" He pointed to the map.

Alt teleported them north, the stage underneath them moving in an instant with them still on top of it. A little way in front of them, a couple of yards from their feet, was the marker for the town of Eureka. Around it were seven icons, one for each of the nomad nations.

"Panam has united the seven nomad nations in an alliance to attack Arasaka," Alt said, like that was no huge achievement.

Johnny couldn't believe how flippant about it she was being. "You're fucking kidding me," he said, "Just like that, she does what no one has been able to do since Santiago?"

"Actually, there was a brief alliance in the 2050s," Alt corrected him, "But yes, she exposed corporate agents using information I provided, and executed them. This impressed the Meta, who were waiting to see if she could detect and deal with them, and it also placed three more of the nations in her debt."

Johnny blew a long whistle from his lips. "Panam works fast," he said, "Is V working at the same pace since he made that shitty deal with Militech, or is his output making him look like a gonkbrain?"

Alt shook her head, and the stage moved on the map again, this time to Night City, with zones of control marked out between government, corporate and gang elements.

"V has been keeping up appearances for the media," she said, bringing up a collage of pictures that just had to be Nancy's work, "His cover story about working with Kerry and Judy on BDs is holding up. The Tyger Claws attempted to capture him in El Coyote Cojo, but were repulsed with total losses."

Footage from a street camera appeared, showing V, Jackie's mom and a blue haired girl storming out the front doors of the bar, guns a'blazin', chasing after a truck that was driving away. Wishing he was there, experiencing it for himself, he almost turned away from the video until he finally recognised the blue-haired girl.

"Is that one of those Us Crack chicks?" he said, pointing at the girl.

"Aoi Tsuki, otherwise known as Blue Moon," Alt confirmed, "She's had extensive cyberware modifications for combat purposes since the time you encountered her with V."

Blue Moon was emptying an assault rifle into the back of the truck and tracking it as it moved, not bothered at all by the recoil or her own movement.

"I can tell," Johnny replied with a smirk, "Jesus, watch her lay into those fuckin' gangoons. I always did say those girls had potential, but I didn't think they had this much."

The AI dismissed the footage with a wave, and brought back the map into focus, zooming into Heywood.

"As impressive as she is, the more important part is that the Tyger Claws have attacked a Valentinos bar," Alt said, bringing them back to the topic at hand, "That should give V some room to negotiate with Orta when they meet later today. The fact V spared Mr. Orta's life should help."

"Dunno, these sanguinarios are not the most understanding types," Johnny replied, scratching his chin, "If he tells them the Tygers only attacked because he was in the bar, maybe they tell him to get out of there or get nailed upside down to a street light for bringing trouble their way."

The AI seemed unimpressed with this concern, ignoring him for a moment.

"We shall see how good a negotiator V is," Alt replied at last, "He is taking things slowly, trying to keep attention away from the fact he intends to recruit as many of the gangs as possible. There is a concert at Totentanz and a party in Rancho Coronado that he intends to use as cover to contact Maelstrom and 6th Street respectively. Only when he has their answers will he go to Rogue."

There he goes again, leaving the best hope for victory on the sidelines. "Should go to Rogue first, but he always did prefer his way," Johnny said, "What about the Voodoo Boys? They're your bitches, so they're already on board, right?"

Alt frowned. "Maman Brigitte wants nothing to do with V," she said, "It seems she hasn't forgiven him for rendering her entire netrunner team and her top huscle unconscious. And the latter wants his head on embalmed and put on a pike for all of Pacifica to see."