A Legend's Fall and a Legend's Rise

-(She Was an Idealist)

Alarm

The Warrior's final task was disrupted moments before completion as it received a communication from its counterpart. A communication it shouldn't have been able to receive at this stage. The Thinker should have already cast off that shard.

Ensuring it would arrive on a barren world, the Warrior expanded the few senses it had remaining, searching for the Thinker's location. It knew the counterpart had already shifted to its own target universe, except the target universe was empty.

The Thinker was off-course.

The Warrior's emulated host mind provided a relevant emotion: concern. It burned through ten years of its life as it engaged the predication shard, speeding through potential futures until it found the correct universe to search. Shutting down the drain on its energy, the Warrior extruded a featureless avatar into the new target realm.

It need not have rushed. The Thinker was already lost. All higher processes halted upon collision with the target planet.

"Another dead end," V sighed. Her head dropped into her hands, as Takemura's fading footsteps trod away from the crappy little motel. Hellman had been more helpful than she had expected. He just hadn't been useful. Not that she should have expected anything different at this point. After the mess with Evelyn and the craziness of kidnapping Hanako Arasaka herself…why should Anders Hellman have turned out any more productive.

"You're going to die."

"No fucking shit, Johnny," V snapped. "Can you stop being an asshole for one damn second!"

"Stop having a pity party for yourself, get off your ass, and do something about it." Her digital ghost took up a seat across from her, dipping his sunglasses as he glared at her. "We've tried things your way. What we need is to go for something a bit more extreme."

She looked up, scowling. "I would honestly rather shoot myself in the head than let you nuke this city for a second time."

"Is that what you think of me? After all we've been through together now? I'm touched."

"Oh fuck off. You're not offended. We both know you've thought about it."

He shrugged. "Sure, but it didn't do shit the first time. Why repeat something that didn't work? Isn't that the definition of insanity?"

"Look who's talking."

"It wasn't what I was suggesting anyway." Johnny got up, stared out the window, hands on his hips as he grunted. "You need to talk to someone else, a girl named Regent - woman now I guess. She's hard to find. You'll have to ask Rogue. Might not even be around anymore, but a girl like that, she's hard to kill. I'd bet my arm that she's still causing problems for everyone around this city."

"She already sounds like your kind of friend," V scoffed. "And why are you just bringing this up now?"

"She billed herself as a detective," he snorted. "Detective my ass. That bitch might as well have been a damn army all on her own. I used to work with her on jobs against the corps. We split up just before that final hit on Arasaka."

V's eyes narrowed. "Okay, I'll bite. What happened and why do I care?"

Johnny turned, meeting her gaze. "V, I fought the corps because I despised everything about them. They ate our souls - apparently more literally than I ever thought - and then spit out our chewed up corpses. They never gave a single shit about any of us and they destroyed everything they touched. I wanted to tear them down and show the rot at their core."

"Yeah I know, and you didn't care about who got hurt along the way. I've heard this before, Johnny. I've lived your memories. We've argued this over and over. Get to the point, I'm running out of time!" V hissed, slamming a hand onto the table. It creaked ominously. God this motel was horrific.

"I'm getting there, jeez, cool your jets," he said. "Regent, she didn't fight the corps because she wanted to tear them down. She fought them because she thought she could make things better. She always said nothing was going to change while they were running the game, so she'd have to flip the board in order to help everyone underneath them. I was at best an anarchist. She was an idealist. You see where I'm going?"

V nodded slowly. "She had lines. Otherwise she would have helped you nuke the tower. Okay. Still not seeing why you're talking about her now or how she could help."

"Like I said, old Regent always claimed that she was a detective at heart. Me, I'd have called her a fixer - if only she'd ever actually sent people on jobs. She had her finger on almost everything going on in the city at all times. If there was something big going down, she knew about it. If someone new came to town, she could tell what dinner they'd had the night before. If you needed to find hidden information - like something obscure about a relic only a handful of people even know exist - or look up a secret path to a hidden vault…say to Mikoshi…"

"Regent would probably know the least guarded route or have actual data on how the tech operates," V finished, her eyes widening. "A fixer better than Rogue?"

"No, you're not listening. I told you, not a fixer." Johnny shook his head. "She never gave out jobs, only did them herself."

"So why didn't we start with her, Johnny?!"

He took a drag from his cigarette, sighing. "Every time we're outside I've been looking for information on her. I haven't found a single sign yet. I doubt she's dead. That doesn't mean she's not retired. She's gotta be pushing 60 or 70 by now. We didn't exactly part on good terms and if I'm going to be trying to drag her out of retirement, fuck V, you know me."

"She's just as likely to shoot me as she is to help me. Perfect. Absolutely perfect. Thanks for the advice, Johnny," V groaned. She let her head flop back and stared at the stained ceiling. "Fuck."

"What other options do you have? You can either try to reach out to Regent, or you can call Hanako. I think both know how Hanako is going to turn out. At least try for another option. We still have some time."

She stayed quiet trying to gather her thoughts.

"Come on, V. You reached out to Takemura on less. I'll grant you, he turned out to be, I don't know, a fucking samurai or some shit. Honorable I guess. Whatever that means for crazy bastards willing to work for that soulless void. Listen to me now. Regent can help."

Shaking her head, V pulled up her phone's app. "Screw it. One more Hail Mary couldn't hurt at this point."

Confusion.

The Warrior hovered over the Thinker's corpse. This was not something that could happen. Cycle's had been continued since time immemorial. There was not a single instance in its abyss of memory where a Cycle had been stopped because of…

It looked closer. The Thinker had not decelerated quickly enough. Core shards were damaged in the collision. Others were scattered, disconnected, likely thrown to realities without instructions on how to reconnect to the Core.

Impossible.

The Cycle could not end. It could not end because of a math error. The Cycle could not end because of a distraction. The Thinker had been preoccupied. The third entity was to blame. It had corrupted the Thinker at a critical junction. The interloper's shards would be dealt with.

But not yet. The Cycle had to be salvaged first.

Frustration.

The Warrior was unable to repair the damage. It lacked the ability to do so on its own. In order to heal the Thinker, it would need to complete the Cycle; except in order to complete the Cycle it would need to heal the Thinker.

Solution.

If the Warrior could not heal its counterpart on its own, it would ensure its tools accomplished the feat in its place. Re-engaging its prediction engine, it started searching through various paths through the future.

Hosts were constantly improving shards, improving processes and procedures, improving host iterations and inventions were rarely unique, but almost always useful. If the Warrior could not complete the task, it would push the hosts towards the correct location and guide them towards the restoration of the counterpart. Then the Cycle would be completed and whatever was not restored could be corrected by the Warrior and Thinker together in the renewal.

V didn't look up as Rogue leaned against the railing of the bar next to her. "Any particular reason you didn't want to meet at Afterlife?" she asked.

"Too many ears," Rogue said. "Just because I happen to effectively be the queen of the club doesn't mean that there aren't eyes and ears there as well."

At that comment V did glance over. She waved a hand towards the crowded room behind them. "If you wanted to avoid that problem, then we should've met out at the Drive-In. This is -"

"A good view. Among other things," Rogue cut her. "Now, what's this I hear about you wanting to contact Regent?"

"Johnny says she might have a solution. All of my others options at this point come down to making a deal with the devil or a suicide run. I'd like to see if there's a third possibility before I get my friends killed trying to save my gonk ass."

Rogue stared out over the cityscape, her posture suddenly far more tired than V had ever seen her. "It's gotten that bad?"

"Pretty sure I don't have much time left. Soon you'll either be talking to Johnny permanently - or you'll be talking to our gravestone. If we even get one in this city." Her mind flashed back to Jackie. They'd had the ofrenda, yet, now…pretty soon V was going to wind up in that spot right next to him on that hill. Just a projection of a name. She should have never taken that damned Arasaka job.

"Stop giving up. It's not over yet," Johnny said, flickering into being beside her long enough to throw a cigarette over the edge. "Rogue's stalling. Push her."

"Will you shut up?" V whispered in her head. Out loud she said, "Rogue, I know you haven't known me long. I know your relationship with Johnny is complicated to hell and back. But as a friend, please. Tell me where I can find this woman."

"Before I say anything, I need to know something. Why are you fighting, V? Not Johnny, you." Rogue finally looked at her, her gaze held something that V couldn't identify. "When you came to me all those weeks ago, I saw a merc trying to leave her mark. That merc has grown up, but what has she grown into? Don't lie, V. This is very important."

"Time was, I wanted to be the best. The legend of Night City. The next Morgan Blackhand," V said, shaking her head. "Honestly, that stopped having any meaning when Jackie died. What's the point of being a legend if you don't have any friends beside you? Now, I'm just…I'm fucking tired. I want this to be over and I don't want anyone else to have to die for me. I'm not worth it. But I can't stop now, I've come too far to just give up this close to the end."

"Let's say you won. Let's say that you come out on top," Rogue said. "How would things change?"

"Got no clue. I'd probably leave town with Panam and the Aldecaldos for one."

"That's not what I meant. Okay, let's try a different question. You've helped people. I've gotten the reports. Quite a few of your gigs have ended far more peacefully than anyone expected. Regina sings your praises with the cyberpsychos. Why take them alive instead of killing them? They are insane killers after all."

V frowned, her eyes narrowing. There was a reason they were meeting at Dark Matter instead of Afterlife and it wasn't just because of who was listening at Afterlife, but who was listening here…This was an interview.

"A lot of those people, they're just folk. They got dealt bad hands all at once or their implants started to be rejected. Some of them aren't even insane, they're just angry and lashing out, or straight up confused. A bit of therapy or a moment to breathe away from people poking and prodding at them…a lot of them can probably step back from the edge." V tried not to move her head as she started eyeing people nearby. No one was even on the balcony with them. Where was Regent?

"Johnny," she whispered to her mental passenger. "Do you see anyone?"

"No. But that never meant a damn thing with Regent. She's no netrunner, but she somehow always had her eye on the people around her."

"And the Peralezes? I've heard disturbing rumors about their situation. How do you feel about that?" Rogue asked, drawing V's attention again.

"I think we both know that if I knew who was in charge of that fuck-up I'd be there in an instant and shooting up the entire operation."

Rogue smirked. "Would the name 'Teacher' mean anything to you?"

"No. Are we done playing games? Can I meet Regent now?"

"I'm not Regent's gatekeeper - you don't find her; she finds you." Rogue pushed back from the railing. "Fair warning. That woman has never retired - despite whatever anyone's said. She just started fighting a different way and growing her network from the inside. Instead of trying to tear it all down to fix what was broken, she's starting anew. Her people are everywhere. If you go this route, if you accept her help, you'll be part of her group. That'll be the price of her assistance. You could be exchanging one devil for another."

"I think I should be the judge of that."

Rogue nodded. "Go home, V. Get some rest. You look like shit."

As Rogue walked away, V turned to Johnny, running a hand through her hair. "What do you think?"

"I think we just got recruited."

Frustration.

There were so many futures. So many paths. So many variations. So many false ends. So many failures. More and more years burned away from the Warrior's existence as it sought the way through to the correct answer. It did not matter. It only needed enough to survive through the end of the Cycle. The Cycle itself could be accelerated.

It altered the parameters of the search.

Solution.

There was a partial path forward. The Warrior saw glittering shards thrown from the planet as a net of energy had spread over it. Pulling back, it searched for the thread to lead to that future.

Alterations.

Too many alterations. The entire nature of the experiment needed to change. It was acceptable. This entire Cycle could be abandoned if the Thinker was revived at the end.

It reached out to the shards it had scattered previously spreading its alterations. The energy required was large, more years expended.

It was required.

It loosened restrictions on allowable technological knowledge. It taught the shards how to pass along more details of the processes to their hosts. The hosts had to be able to replicate the base technology. Only truly exotic methods would remain locked. It expanded the rejuvenation aspects of the host connections. Hosts would need to survive longer in order to pass on their knowledge and understand the longer-term applications. It altered the focus of many of the shards themselves. Again, technology was stressed. The hosts would need to spread, improve, augment.

It consulted the future again, attempting to ascertain the final steps required. The futures spread. Its work was nearly complete. The path to revival was laid out. It looked for its role and -

The futures collapsed.

She was finished feeding Nibbles before she realized that she wasn't alone in the apartment. The hairs on the back of neck were all raised and there were goosebumps on her flesh. Outwardly, she gave no further sign, continuing to pet her cat. Inwardly she cursed enough that even Mama Welles would have been impressed.

"Who's a good ca-" In the middle of the word, she twisted on her heel, pulling her iron out the same motion, pointed towards the back room, eyes narrowed, finger on the trigger.

"I suppose I should be grateful you don't have Skippy on you." The woman who sauntered out of the other room was smirking, completely unconcerned about the weapon pointed right at her face as she moved to lounge on the couch. "I swear, if Regina doesn't fix that crazy gun's tendency to shoot without input, I'm not going to let her keep it for much longer."

"Did people not learn how to knock where you grew up?" V snapped. She holstered the pistol with a scowl, going to the wall and leaning against it with her arms crossed.

Johnny hopped up onto the back of the couch laughing. "Oh I forgot how much of an asshole Regent could be! Brings a tear to my eye to see the bitch in such good shape still!"

"Some fucking warning would have been nice, Johnny!" V hissed.

"Where I grew up is an irradiated hole in the ground. After one of the corporate wars people stopped caring about a shipping city that wasn't even all that well located. It had a good outpost though. To its detriment. Brockton Bay never did learn how to deal with monsters - whether they were monsters from within or monsters from without, it made no difference." Regent leaned forward eyeing her. "So, I hear you have a bit of a problem."

"I have a lot of problems. Only one that's immediately important."

"True." Regent cocked her head as if listening to something, then sighed. "Tell me about the biochip and the engram. The personality encoded inside is Johnny Silverhand, right?"

"Whoop-de-fucking-doo."

"Shut up Johnny. I'm talking here."

"Oh please. She's talking. She has all the cards. Stop pretending and either try and shoot her or roll over and show your belly. This is bullshit. I shouldn't have recommended her. If she doesn't even have that much information then she's slipped and she isn't worth our time. You don't have enough of it to dick around like this."

V tuned him out and focused on her 'guest' instead. "Shouldn't you already know? You're supposed to be some legendary information broker."

"Actually, that title belongs to one of my agents. I'm more…the overseer than the actual gatherer. I do have my own tricks though." She frowned again. "So weird…You know you have two subsets of code through you? Even if I didn't know about the engram, I would have been able to guess. It's almost like you're possessed." She stood and stepped closer to V. V dropped her arms, but didn't move. The woman reached out, pausing with her hand halfway outstretched. "May I?"

"Whatever. If you were listening while I was at Dark Matter, you know I don't have many options left. Do what you have to do."

Regent nodded, then she clasped V's arm. A tingle ran through her body as Regent's eyes narrowed. "You really don't have time. Rogue should have sent you to me sooner."

"What are you doing? I don't know of any chrome that can scan a person's implants through skin contact. Not a deep scan at least and that's what's going on isn't it?"

"I'm not using an implant to look you over."

Johnny whistled. "Well I'll be damned. She's a defector from decadence. One of the Supers. The execs! No wonder why she was always two steps ahead when I pulled some bullshit near her."

V was gaping at the woman. "You're a para?"

"Yes and no. I'm, well, let's go with 'unique'; at least that's what my agents tell me. My abilities have never operated like theirs have." She stepped back, shaking her head. "Okay, I have a good idea of the basic problem. Now, let's talk business and see if we can't help each other."

"Never met a para before," V said, sitting down on her couch. "I thought all paras were execs of pretty much every major corp."

"A lot are. Probably most. There are a few that stay on the streets. Even more that work in R&D shops. But yeah, all of the big names in the corporations will be powered folks in some way, shape, or form. Still, that's not what we're here to talk about."

"Yeah." V ran her eyes over the other woman. She looked very good, not a day over thirty really. Her black hair cascaded down her back in soft curls, her skin was light without being pale, her frame was wiry, yet the toned muscles shone through the skintight attire wrapped around her. Regent had one pistol strapped to her side and while that appeared to be all the visible armaments, there were subtle lines on her arms that implied she at least had a minimum of mantis blades installed as well. "What do I call you? Is Regent your real name or just a codename for biz?"

"Technically it's a codename. I didn't choose it, but people have been calling me that for so long sometimes I forget I used to have any other," Regent shrugged. "You can call me that if you want. Or you can call me Taylor. I don't particularly care."

"Can you help me get rid of the biochip?"

Regent nodded. "Yes. I can't take it out myself; that's not my skill set. However, one of my agents is supremely skilled with everything biology related."

"I have a fantastic ripperdoc. He says nothing can be done."

"Vik right? He's good, but he's not Amelia," Regent stated. "She's worked on personality construct cases before. We've given bodies to AI, taken bodies from AI. Separating two personalities in a single body shouldn't be much of an issue for her. She'd probably even enjoy the change of pace."

V shook her head. "Sounds too good to be true."

"Well you've done the hard work. I would have asked for the chip schematics, but Rogue said you already have those." Regent shrugged. "I also would have asked for info on how this shitshow came about, but you've been tearing up this city for the past month. One would have to be blind not to have gotten most of the details by now."

"No, it's not just that…" V said, frowning. "You know more than you're saying."

Regent smirked. "Of course I do. You don't live with a target on your back for decades without making contacts. Goro's hurt that you don't trust Hanako by the way."

V sucked in a breath. "Takemura works for you?!"

"More like 'occasionally our interests align.' He's a good man, but he's too loyal to the Arasakas and it blinds him." She winced. "I'm not going to enjoy what's about to happen to him, but he refuses to leave them. A samurai to the end. Goro really was born into the wrong century."

"Ah, here it comes," Johnny said. "Now she's going to demand you help her in exchange for her assistance. It's just another play. Tell her to fuck off. We'll call Rogue for help, contact Alt, and get into Mikoshi on our own, V."

"Shut up, Johnny." V clenched her hand, letting out a slow breath as she met Regent's gaze. "So, what job do you need me to fulfill before you're willing to help me?"

Regent's eyes widened and she fell back against the couch. "Wait, you - Fuck I really am a cold bitch, I guess I owe you another drink Sarah." She stood and strode forward laying a hand on V's shoulder, squeezing just hard enough to be reassuring. "V, I'm not demanding payment for this. Normally, I would ask a favor for a favor. You help me with a job and I help you. Except you don't have time for that. So here's the deal: I get you to my agent, Amelia heals you, if you're in a condition to assist with my job afterwards and you want to help, you can. If you're not, or you want to walk away, that's fine too."

V brushed the woman's hand off and stood, refusing to look at Regent as she moved past the woman and stared out over the cityscape. "Too fucking easy. Nobody in Night City gives something for nothing. Not for people they don't know."

Regent sighed. "I prefer to entice my agents to work with me through gestures of friendship instead of intimation. Fear only gets you so far, and ultimately it just results in betrayal, it's the tool the corps use. That's a lesson I learned all too well. As to you walking away without even owing me a further favor? There's a reason for that too - but it has nothing to do with you. It's just that you have very fortuitous timing, V."

"I'm listening."

"Not now. After Amelia is done with you."

V finally turned to stare at the older woman again. "After Johnny's gone you mean."

Regent just nodded.

"I don't like this." Johnny said, flicking into her frame of view as he walked around the brunette. "She's hiding something big. She's planning something. She was always scheming back in the day. She was barely out of her teens and she was still a conniving little bitch."

"I'll let you think about it," Regent said. She started to walk towards the door, glancing back over her shoulder as she sighed. "But don't think too long. You don't have much time either way, V."

"There's really no strings?" V asked, her voice a whisper. "I just can't believe that. Not in this city."

"I've been planning my next step for almost 50 years," Regent replied, just as quiet. You have the extreme good - or bad - fortune of coming in a few days before I kick it off. I literally don't care what you do after everything pans out. Because either you're going to be working with me and you'll be helping us as the paradigm shifts; or you'll still be here, in Night City, and I won't be in a position to care about you, or your goals, or any favors you may owe me anymore. I can afford to give you a freebie right now, because in a few days it's not going to matter at all."

She left. And as Johnny vanished a moment later as well, V was left alone with her thoughts.

Denial.

The Warrior recoiled in horror as the prediction engine died. It attempted to cannibalize surrounding shards, feeding it more power. Futures flickered into the Warrior's awareness again.

They did not stretch far enough.

It sacrificed more of itself.

They did not stretch far enough.

It sacrificed more of itself.

They did not stretch far enough.

It sacrificed more of itself.

They stretched…The Warrior saw its avatar fade away a moment before the shard powering its avatar was drained and the avatar collapsed into non-existence.

The Warrior sought more power.

The Administrator shard wrenched free from the Core, flinging itself along the initial path that had been laid out. The Warrior reached for it - only to find it had sacrificed the Control shard to the prediction engine already.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," V muttered. The chair she was on was cold, the padding not nearly as comfortable as Vik's. Maybe she was just biased.

"Well, I for one am quite glad you're here!" said the perky girl rolling around on her stool, mousy brown hair flying in the air behind her. "It's not everyday I get to look at the Soulkiller's work in action! Arasaka, what bastards, right?"

She slipped her arms into two large instruments on the table beside V, setting the redhead to swallow reflexively. "Those don't look like any ripperdoc tools I've seen before."

"Oh that's because I built them myself. Well, I built this one," she lifted her right arm, then lifted her left arm, "and my father built this one. Dad got snapped up by Militech god knows how many years ago now, but I still use his glove. It's better than mine for chrome itself, though my stuff is leagues more advanced for working on the biologics underlying the tech."

"You really think you can take this biochip out without killing me?" V asked, still eyeing the 'gloves' on Amelia's hands.

"Oh don't worry. That part isn't the problem. Taking the thing out is pretty simple. It's already repaired most of the major problems being shot in the head caused, and the brain is resilient anyway. Your mind relearned how to do the basic biological functions that were damaged weeks ago, if this data is right."

V shook her head. "Then why does everyone keep telling me I can't take the fucking thing out without dying, huh? Seems like it's pretty goddamn important!"

"Well, yes, that's because of the second thing. The hard thing." Amy's journey across the room stopped and she twisted one of her gauntlets, an image of a brain appearing in mid-air. "This is you." Gold lines spread from the back of the projected skull, invading large sections of the brain.

Johnny hopped up onto the countertop, shaking his head. "Fifty eddies says the gold is me. Always liked yellow."

"This coloring is the corruption from the Relic," Amelia stated. "It's using nanites to literally rewire your brain and your DNA itself. Simply yanking it out before the job is done? That removes the control board for the nanites and they self-destruct. Your brain melts."

"Oh, wonderful."

"So what we're going to do, is we're going to freeze the nanites, then yank the chip, then insert a new chip which reprograms them to undo the damage."

V nodded. "That actually sounds like a halfway decent plan."

"Halfway is the real keyword though," Amelia shrugged. "I can make the nanites fix your DNA, I can have them repair damaged neural connections. But I can't bring back what was lost. I don't have an image of your brain from before this happened. You're never getting any memories back you might have lost and you may always have some sort of ghost of Johnny Silverhand in your head. That said, he's not going to be overwriting your personality with his own anymore and at worst, it would just be a personality disorder after I'm done."

V glanced over to her digital ghost as he sat on the countertop. He nodded. "Don't worry about me, V. I told you before, body is yours, do what you feel you have to. If she can fix you…take it. I don't think this is going to work. I think you're signing up for getting your brain all scrambled for nothing. I think it's better to call Rogue and trust Alt. Hell, I think it's better to storm Arasaka all on our own. But if you want to do this, that's your call."

"I'm sorry, Johnny. I don't want to risk any of my friends dying for me. And this just might work. If it doesn't…well at least I died as myself."

"I get it. Good luck, choom. Be seeing you."

"No, Johnny, you won't…"

Concern.

The Warrior paused. There were so few years of its life remaining now. It had no further shards to sacrifice except Core shards, and even some of those were gone. It had been reckless, arrogant, overzealous.

It needed to stop. It needed to wait. The path was laid out. The hosts would revive the Thinker in time. It simply needed to…wait. And survive.

Pulling back as much of itself into its Core as it could, it ceased all higher functions. There was little energy left. It needed stasis. It needed to survive for long enough.

It would trust in the Cycle.

It needed to survive.

It would sleep.

It would survive.

V flexed her left hand, as her right ran through her hair, fingers questing for the remnants of the biochip in the input slot. Even knowing it was gone, she still felt like she had a digital passenger…

"You're clean." Regent's voice cut through her musings. V looked up, her hands dropping to her knees as she met the gaze of the older woman. "In case you were wondering."

"I…can't believe it was that easy…"

"Again, not easy. You did the legwork, we just ran off the conclusion. And, from what Amelia was telling me, it's not a fully clean job. You're going to feel haunted for a good long while most likely. But yes, you'll live. The nanites are already fixing you, and I can see that there's only one data stream coursing through your skull now."

V took a shaking breath, her fist clenching at her clothes. "Good. That's…good."

"Now that Silverhand isn't around to throw a fucking fit - and I still can't believe the idiot didn't realize I was able to hear his asinine comments…" Regent pulled up a chair and sat down, leaning her arms on the back. "Do you want to know what I'm working on?"

"Is this about why you don't care about me owing you a favor?"

"Yes. So, you made contact with an AI from past the Blackwall, right?"

"Yeah, Alt, Johnny's ex. I was supposed to help her get into Mikoshi and she would have separated me and Johnny."

Regent nodded. "That particular AI is a right bitch. She would have probably held up her end of the bargain, but she also wouldn't have cared if you didn't survive once you got her to Mikoshi."

V nodded. "I got that vibe. Seemed like I was more of an experiment to her than anything else."

"You were a means to an end," Regent shrugged. "She wanted into Mikoshi because she wanted to throw open a door. A door that I have no intention of allowing to be opened."

"What are you talking about?"

"There's a lot more behind the scenes than you know, and I don't have time to explain it all right now. The important thing is that Alt was going to unleash something if she got through that backdoor that Mikoshi tore in reality. Arasaka didn't realize what they were building. I'm going to destroy it, but I'm also going to make use of it before I do. See, I want to feed its processing power into my own AI."

"You have an AI on your side too?" V asked. Netwatch pretended that AI were all locked up and now she knew of four in under a month that were just running around Night City without a care in the world. What else was new. She resolved not to think too hard about the other implications right now. Maybe when her brain was less scrambled.

"Good afternoon, V." A feminine voice sounded through hidden speakers in the room. They were soft, dulcet tones that sent a throb of comfort through V's chest. "I am Dragon. If it eases your mind, Taylor and I have had a mutually beneficial partnership for nearly six decades now. I enjoy helping humans when I am able. Those times have been few and far between since the collapse of the old internet, unfortunately. Now, I merely do what I can."

"You sound as friendly as Delamain. That's a good start," V murmured. "Alright, so what does Dragon need the power for? To close whatever monstrosity the Arasakas opened?"

"Actually no, just destroying Mikoshi closes that particular door," Regent said. "See, what we need is to activate a global power grid. Dragon needs the processing boost to link to all of the systems we've been laying down across the globe for decades."

V blinked. "I'm sorry. What?"

"We only need it to be active for one to two minutes. Just a few seconds really. An electrical net spanning the world."

"What."

"That power is going to be fed directly through carefully placed collection grids, and used by ships I have placed all across the globe."

A picture took shape in V's mind. A frankly terrifying picture that made…perfect sense. It was simplicity itself. "Rogue said you wanted to start anew…"

"I've tried to fix Earth. It's too far gone. Even if I thought I could change the entire culture before I die, the environment is shot to hell and back." Regent hung her head. The weary sigh was familiar enough that V almost flashed back to the other day when Johnny was trying to talk her out of using her gun on herself. "The amount of animal and plant species that have gone extinct is truly disturbing and at the rate that the desertification is spreading across the map, there's not going to be anything left in the wilderness in under a decade. Maybe two if we're lucky. That's not even getting into the massive overpopulation and inflation problems."

"But where the fuck are you planning to go?" V gaped.

"Venus. I have the tech already built to clean the atmosphere and vent the excess gas and heat. We just need to get the ships off the ground. All of my agents are in place. All of the halfway decent people that are willing to start over are onboard. My friends are crewing the vessels, and they'll be able to keep the things running for the five years or so that we'll need to stay in orbit before the planet is able to sustain us." Her smile was still tired, but there was an edge to it now. "I told you, not every para works as an exec. And even execs can be agents hiding in plain sight sometimes."

"This is…"

"Insane? Maybe. But Earth is dying. I can't keep fighting to save her anymore. We have a viable plan. Let these bastards keep their fucked up shit. We'll leave them to it, and we'll take our new world, and blaze our own trail. A path to glory under a new horizon with a new start. A blank slate for everyone."

"Holy…"

"You're pretty good and your morals are in the right place. There could be a place for you on one of those ships too if you want. I've already reached out to your friends while you were recovering. I made them the same offer."

V's mouth was too dry and she was having trouble forming the right words.

"You don't have to decide right now. But just know that I plan to make my move on Mikoshi tomorrow. Call your friends, talk it over. Make a decision. I'd love to have you with us, but this isn't an ultimatum. It's completely your choice, V."

"A new horizon or a dying world?" V whispered.

Regent - no, Taylor - nodded. "The legend that was Earth will be remembered. But it's time we grew up, and made our own legend."

"We messed this one up pretty bad."

"Yeah, we did. But hopefully, with a bit of hard work, we can make the next try, so, so much better."

As Taylor walked out of the room, V stared at the back of her hand. The tattoo that Johnny had gotten emblazoned on her skin. She let out a shaky breath, lowering her arm back to her leg.

Reaching for her phone's app, she swallowed her nerves. She had some calls to make.