THREE DAYS AFTER THE RESCUE OF EVELYN PARKER

"You know exactly how it's going to go if I show up."

"I do." said V "You should still be there."

Lucy's current predicament was whether or not she would end up going to Judy's place to check what little she had managed to get from the still unconscious Evelyn. She wasn't particularly keen on the idea of visiting. Especially since whatever that girl had managed to get out was probably not going to be any more significant than what Lucy already knew.

V still wanted her there. Judy had mentioned getting some half-broken BDs out of Evelyn's chip, so Lucy would be useful there, or so he said. To her, it looked like it was a matter of trust. Trust that V seemed to want to force upon her. Maybe he thought them saving each other on the raid on Charter Hill power plant pointed towards a common ground, but Lucy had simply not wanted V to die from a purely practical standpoint. She couldn't have the one crazy and desperate nut in Night City die before she got what she wanted.

"We'll get there and I'll check the brain dances. You can leave if you want by that point. Happy?"

Lucy didn't say a thing. After almost a week of working together, V probably had the wrong idea. It's not that she hated Judy. She didn't particularly like her either. But she was way too busy scheming and trying to come up with a way to get to where she wanted to be to bother hating someone over some words. That last time had been… her emotions had just gotten the best of her.

It had been a very tense month. Her… situation didn't help her nerves either. Constantly having to care for a thousand different things. About… taking care of herself. About Falco being on top of her, at all times. Putting up with V's meddling personality. The need to be up to date with everything that happened in Night City, to look for any leads…

And she was supposed to just stand there and let a nobody talk shit? No. She wasn't going to let that happen. She didn't know what it was like to lose someone? That was the only thing she had ever known.

Well, maybe not the only thing…

V passed her on their way up the stairs. "I'll knock first."

"Don't bother, I'll go."

When they arrived at the door, it was Lucy who ringed. But there was no answer. She pushed the door and found out it was unlocked. She nodded at V, then the door. They both took out their guns.

They burst into Judy's apartment, expecting to fight someone. Instead, what they found was Judy, sobbing on her sofa.

"Judy?" said V, approaching her with his gun still aimed and ready. "What's going on?"

The girl looked at V with empty eyes. And Lucy recognised those eyes.

"The… the bathroom…"

Lucy opened that door.

The air on her lungs left. The eerie atmosphere in the room. The dry blood on the floor, and what was still dripping from Evelyn Parker's inanimate arm. Lucy felt her right arm hurt again for the first time in weeks. She felt hot, abruptly. The razor blade on the floor. The bloody water inside the bathtub. The cloudy eyes staring at the ceiling and the red, puffy cheeks after having cried for a while. Her heart rate skyrocketed. The limits of her field of vision were becoming blurry as she hyperventilated.

Next she knew Lucy was running down the stairs.

"What the fuck…"

V stared at Evelyn's body. The blood everywhere. The smell of a dead person. He wasn't new to the smell of a fresh corpse. He had grown up with Padre after all. But there was always a reason for someone to have their brains splattered across a room, or their entrails inside out. They fucked with the wrong people. They had been at the wrong spot at the wrong time.

But Evelyn… she had done it to herself. She couldn't even move her eyes on her own when they got her out of Charter Hill. What immense desperation, what fear could have moved her to do that?

It must have been something that happened in Charter Hill. That was the only time where she had been on an unknown course. Clouds was a safe environment, and Fingers, despite his greasiness, did sound genuine in his attempt to help her.

Could it have…

Could it have been Lucy?

No, that made no sense. Lucy had zero reason to kill Evelyn. She knew V needed to follow that part of the trail, and she knew V had put her through that gig as a test. She wouldn't just kill Evelyn just because.

V looked around him. In the living room. In the hallway. There was no sight of Lucy anywhere. V noticed something close to the stairs, a pack of cigarettes. The same brand Lucy used to smoke.

"Ah, fuck me." he took out her phone and dialed "Falco."

"Good morning." Said the man at the other end of the line "Need a ride?"

"Lucy's gone."

"What do you mean gone?" V noticed a hint of alarm on Falco's voice "Did she bail on going to Judy's apartment?"

"No, no, she came. Listen, I need you to look for Lucy, I have to stay here and look out for Judy."

"Something happen?"

"Evelyn fucking killed herself, that's what happened."

"Did Lucy see it?"

"She was dead when we got here, but Lucy saw the body, yes."

"I'll go take care of Judy. Go look for Lucy at this adress."

"Hold on, wait, wait, wait." Laughed V "You want me to go look for her?"

"Yes. I've tried speaking to her a hundred times. Maybe she needs someone new, someone she isn't familiar with yet."

"Falco, this isn't a good idea."

"It's the best we have. Maybe that way you two will finally trust each other. Get going, kid."

The call ended. V groaned in frustration. That wasn't what he had planned his morning to be. An hour, maybe two at Judy's place, going through braindances. Maybe discuss a bit on what to do next. Figure out how to help Evelyn, if he could. Sitting down with Lucy to speak about their work relationship.

But Evelyn was dead. Lucy was missing. Judy was crying in her room.

Everything had gone to shit.

It didn't take long for V to spot Lucy.

He didn't have to drive all the way to the address Falco had texted him, which was a relief considering it would take him almost an hour of dodging traffic.

No, instead, he found her at the halfway point from Judy's house. Standing on the side of the street, staring away from V towards one of Night City's many enormous publicity banners. Something about a romantic trip to the moon. V parked his car.

"What are you doing here?" He said "You just delta'ed the fuck out of Judy's place."

"Like you were worried."

"You make zero fucking sense, you know?!" Said a very exasperated V "You come into my life, out of nowhere, dig through my brain and tell me you want me to help you fight Arakasa! Why the fuck wouldn't I worry about whatever hint of sanity you have left?"

"Just leave me alone."

"Like hell I will, I need to know what's wrong with you. Listen." V laid his hand on Lucy's shoulder "Why don't we talk…"

That turned out to be a mistake. A very big mistake. The next thing V saw was Lucy's handgun pushed directly against his forehead.

"I can't be fucking bothered with your meddling. Do me a favour, tell Falco everything's okay, and then go fuck yourself!"

Even in the situation V was in, what caught him off guard the most wasn't the sudden gun, the immediate threat to his life. No, he was used to that. Too many trigger-happy junkies in Night City. No, what surprised him was the angry tears running down Lucy's cheeks.

Her eyes and cheeks were red and irritated. Her makeup had faded away. Her expression was halfway between anger and fear.

V just leaned into the gun.

"What happened to not standing out in public? Go on. Shoot."

Lucy took a step back. "Try me."

"Do it. Show me you can."

Lucy's hand shook, but the end of the gun's barrel didn't break contact with V's skin.

"We are working together because you fucking wanted to." said V "Because I am desperate for a cure, for someone that can get this parasyte of a man out of my mind. And because you are desperate for someone who is desperate. Someone that can help you chase after that ridiculous dream of yours burning Arasaka to the ground. You need me, but I am not sure I need you."

"Fuck!" Lucy's gun finally stopped aiming at V's forehead as she threw it towards the ground in frustration.

"You and I have a lot of things to talk about." He picked the gun from the floor, checking the magazine. Full of bullets, plus one ready to be fired. "Get in the car."

Lucy reluctantly got into V's car. V soon followed. He melted into the driver seat with a long sigh of relief.

"I really fucking thought you were gonna shoot me."

Going to the top of Lucy's apartment brought bad memories for V.

There were way too many parallels to his little escapade with Jackie on Konpeki Plaza. The height of the building, the cars and people looking like pebbles and ants below… Of course, he didn't have several tens of Arasaka and hotel employees armed to the teeth chasing him. That was a plus.

V reached for his pocket and took out two cigarettes from Lucy's packet. One for himself, one for her. She took it and immediately lit it.

"You refuse a drink, but you smoke like a chimney."

"Syn-Lungs. They filter everything out."

Johnny whistled. "Wish we had those in my days. Lung cancer's a massive bitch.."

"It's still around today." said V, taking a puff "Y'know, not everyone can afford Syn-Lungs."

V was interrupted by Lucy offering him the cable she used to plug herself into Evelyn.

"What am I supposed to do with this?"

As an answer, Lucy just pointed to her own neck. She lifted her hair, showing her unique connector on her nape. V had never seen anything like it before. Not even remotely similar. His own cable outlet was simply a retractable one on his wrist. And even T-Bug, who was usually at the very front of Netrunner tech, had what basically was a slightly improved version of his.

"Great, now you are jacking into someone else."

"If I wanted to kill both of you, I would have pressed the trigger."

"You heard the girl, Johnny, she… wait, what?"

It took a few seconds for V to realise that Lucy wasn't just speaking out. She was answering Johnny.

"Wait a minute, you can hear this asshole?"

"This thing back here…" she tapped on her nape "It's… Let's say that it's top rate Arasaka tech. What you hear and see, I hear and see."

Johnny whistled once again. "I like my girls like that, resourceful."

"You said you wanted to figure out how to work together, didn't you? I figured I would bring out everyone. Including that psychopath inside your head."

"It's also a pleasure to meet you."

V sighed as he lay on his back, staring at nowhere.

"You know, everyone that I've worked with after coming back to Night City has given off the worst first impression imaginable."

"How so?" asked Johnny.

"You are seriously asking me why? You fucking asshole, the first thing you tried to do when you had even a hint of control was pulling the Relic off and killing us both."

"A little slip, I told you I wouldn't try to kill us again."

"Then Lucy was there, digging through my brain when I first woke up at Viktor's and telling me I was gonna fucking die."

Lucy didn't say anything.

"Even Jackie, you know? When I first met him I was this close to stealing a fine-ass car. Then he put a gun to my head, and the next thing I saw was both of us with cops about to throw us into the sea. Why are you all such terrible fucking people?"

"And you ended up trusting Jackie with your life, you fucking dumbass." chuckled Johnny

"He was a cool guy in the end. Y'know what he told me, when the cops released us? No harm no foul, let's go grab something to eat."

"You are an absolute idiot." commented Lucy

"Maybe I am. But it was fun while it lasted. Plus, I want to bet that David ended up trusting you over some shady shit you did."

Lucy grimaced, which in turn made V grin.

"I was about to steal some data chips from him. For resale. He caught up to me with his Sandevistan. And then I called the rest of the gang on him, to see if we could take his Sandevistan, before he joined us."

"There you have it. Giving off terrible first impressions is a trait of yours." laughed V.

"A trait of yours would be trusting people a bit too much."

"For sure." said V, in an abruptly more serious tone. "And I want to trust you too, Lucy. But I can't bring myself to rely on you when you may have an episode like you did today."

The silence that ensued was so dense it could be cut with a knife. Lucy's left arm trailed her right forearm, grasping it hard enough for her hand to go white.

"How much do you know?"

"More than I probably should, less than I would want to. Were those days… that bad?"

As an answer, Lucy took off her netrunner gloves. Under the left one, nothing out of the ordinary other than her monowire. But under her right one…

Scars.

"Those aren't for attention." Said Johnny, gazing at Lucy's forearm. "One of the girls in my band had her rough days, but she always cut from side to side. Those, though…"

The deep cuts ran almost from her elbow to her wrist. Three, maybe four lines of scar tissue. V felt the sudden urge grasp his own arm. Like the raw instinct that pushed people to close their eyes when they saw someone getting hit in a particularly bad way.

"Must have been rough."

That was it. That was all V could come up with. His genius and gift for word was unparalleled. It was so bad that V could hear Johnny facepalming to the side, even if he wasn't looking. An awkward silence enveloped them again for a few minutes.

"After that night… I holed up in Falco's apartment. For some reason, my access to David's was revoked." Lucy continued as she scratched her forearm, as if it itched "What else was there to do? David was dead. Kiwi was dead. I never really got along with Rebecca, but she was dead too. After that, it was just a month of falco being on top of me every single day after I got discharged from the hospital. I found a few things I had to take care of. Some reasons to keep going."

V wanted to say he had been there too. That he had felt the same. But had he? Frustration, rage, maybe. But not that kind of helplessness, to feel like he needed to take his own life. Trying to comfort someone wasn't easy when you didn't know what they had gone through.

"I see why you don't want to rely on anyone. Everyone you trusted is dead."

"I never trusted anyone other than David."

"Not the way I see it. You can't work with people, not in our line of work, without trusting them to some extent. Maybe not like you would trust a friend, but at the very least trust them not to stab you in the back."

"And you want that from me." Groaned Lucy

V sat up "I am not going to ask you to trust me. With what little I've heard, it's just not gonna work, and I respect that. I just need to know you won't try to sell me off at the first chance you get."

"You have that already. I need you. Can't afford you getting killed."

V held his hand out. "How about a small token of trust?"

It took several seconds for Lucy to shake V's hand, albeit reluctantly and with an unwilling frown.

"Want a token of trust? Fine by me. Evelyn's employer. I have an idea on who they could be."

Author's notes:

Sixth chapter out!

This one was a bit tricky to write. I have written before with dark themes, like bullying and things of the sort, but this is the first time I write regarding things like suicide and suicidal tendencies. I hope I was able to make that justice.

This brings the "Save Evelyn" kind of arc to a close. We will have fresh, new stuff next time around! And for the sake of preparing for that, I will have a small break. Not much longer than the wait you had for this chapter, but there are some other (private) projects I want to work with and I want a bit of a break from 2077. I promise I will be back! For now, I hope you enjoy this. Until next time!