V was currently in the bathroom of the room in the No-Tell Motel Dex had been using for them to hide away in if things had gotten dicey during this gig. Right about now though, "dicey" was the understatement of the century. Instead of a clean getaway from the penthouse with a ticket to the top, Saburo Arasaka showed up, then Yorinobu strangled him, and she and Jackie were forced to flee the scene of the crime only for a drone to spot them, pinning them as the prime suspects no doubt.

V was currently rubbing the blood off her ballistic coprocessor under the sink before splashing some water on her face to clean herself up, staring herself in the eyes as the events that happened in the past 2 days washed over her.

This was her and Jackie's chance at hitting the major leagues, her chance to prove that she was more than just some fucking nomad runaway, that she could make it to the top in this city. And instead the job got fucked in every way imaginable, she was likely gonna have to leave Night City after this, and the one person who's had her back since she came here was dead! All of this shit was for fucking nothing!

…

V didn't even process the blind rage that just hit her until after she drove her fist into the mirror, a bloody mark now staining in the shattered glass. Deciding she's had enough of this she steps away from the sink and opens the door… only to be met with a fist that knocked her into the doorway and onto a knee, Dex's bodyguard standing before her and Dex standing off to the side watching. Realizing what was happening she attempted to stab at the bodyguard with one of her Mantis Blades only for her forearm to be caught in his fist, his other arm catching her other blade just afterwards when she attempted to stab him in the head.

The two struggled against each other as he slammed V into a wall, doing so a second time to stun her long enough to land a punch to her face to leave her dazed before moving to put her in a chokehold. V had stared Dex dead in the eye as he approached, saying as she was trying to continue breathing in her current position "The fuck are you doing Dex?!" Only for Dexter to respond with "No risks are gonna be taken with somethin' like this V. If 'Saka's gotta have you to settle this, then it's gettin' settled." And Dex proceeds to put his cigar in his mouth before nodding to the bodyguard as he proceeds to start strangling V. As the former nomad started to feel herself losing consciousness, she saw Jackie lying in the Delamain cab dead, the light faded out from his eyes. She heard one sentence in her mind as she felt herself slipping away.

"It will not end like this."

V's eyes then proceeded to jerk open as she pushed herself backwards with her feet until they hit a wall. Using the advantage she now had she flipped Dex's bodyguard off her back, now getting up fully with a vivid hatred in her eye. As the bodyguard attempted to throw a punch at V she sliced his cyberarm off with one of her Mantis Blades before using them both to cut at his leg and chest, following it up with stabbing both of them into his chest before looking Dex in the eyes, the fixer stumbling back as he saw a clear desire of revenge in her eyes.

As he fell over backwards V started approaching "So much for your fucking blaze of glory you son of a - " and then she felt her arms spark as the Mantis Blades started sheathing. What the hell was going on? Was there a netrunner here? She needed a second to decide she could figure it out later, now reaching for Yorinobu's custom-made Liberty pistol that she took from his penthouse. She took aim at Dex's head, ready to -

BANG

BANG

April 19, 2077

V woke up on the floor of her apartment flinching from the dream-induced flashback, her body too weak at the moment for her to lurch up. Just as she started wondering what she was doing on the floor she saw the spilled bottle of pills beside her, which gave her reason to recall what had happened last night.

(So that was Johnny Silverhand) V thought to herself, (Fuck, this whole thing I'm in is worse than I thought if he could manipulate my body like that.) and deciding she needed to get off the floor V proceeded to go over to her bathroom, intending to take a shower and hopefully figure out a plan. Just like back at the hotel, she knew one thing for certain: it will not end like this. Even if she was gonna die, she was sure as hell going to die trying to stop what was happening to her.

Bonus: She had managed to track the Delamain's destination to the No-Tell Motel, marking the woman who exited it and caught her outline seemingly fighting someone, likely whoever had her sent to Konpeki in the first place. She then watched as the marked woman dropped dead before the outline faded entirely. Her eyes then lit up to call someone "I found 'em. Followed their ride. Two were sighted at the scene but only one came out of the car, sure you can guess what that means."

"And the one who exited the vehicle?"

"Just watched her get shot... I'll see about identifying the shooter. No chance in hell they weren't involved in this."

"Understood"

"Gotta say, bold decision of Hellman to sell out Yorinobu like that... we finally clear between each other?" Though deep down she knew the likely answer

"Not yet, there is no certainty that this individual was the culprit. See if you can learn what they were after, then perhaps we can discuss a conclusion to our partnership Kiwi."

Kiwi sighed before responding "Understood..."

Author's note: So, hey, looks like I'm back for a little. Can't promise too much right now though since irl things are ramping up, but I hope to be more active with my writing in the near future.

As for this bomb-drop at the end, I was honestly trying to piece together what to follow up with on this story until I eventually settled on a flashback, plus this seemed like a good opportunity to reveal what I intended with V's cyberarms. I'm not going to reveal everything about the alteration of Kiwi's fate yet, and it'll probably be a while before I do, but I didn't want to have V wake up with busted Mantis Blades just hanging out of her arms which meant Dex couldn't have just shot her straight-up, so I was in need of a netrunner.

Anyway, there will be more to come, hopefully it will be soon, and if anyone wants to take a guess at Kiwi's latest circumstances feel free to do so. See you all next time