"This can't be fucking it," Johnny mumbled beside me, sitting on the edge of his seat, peering over the rim of his Aviators through the windshield.

After pulling up the coordinates Rogue had given us, confirming we were in the correct location, I shrugged. "You know Rogue to be wrong often? If ever?"

Johnny's suspicions were sound considering "Los Alamos Labs" appeared to be nothing but a small, rusting, run-down motor home—an acre of barren land surrounding it on all sides.

"No, but fuck, V. Look at this hunk of junk. The Nomads live in better conditions and this s'posed to house some fancy fucking lab?" Johnny flicked his hands at the window before shoving back in his seat with a huff.

I tapped the steering wheel with my fingernail, surveying the windows of the trailer, the entrance—no signs of trip wires or alarms. "We should 'least get out and take a look. Yeah?"

"Fine," Johnny grumbled, glitching from the passenger seat to the car's hood, sitting on it with crossed arms.

The surrounding area was so damn quiet you could hear the wind rushing past, rattling a rickety street sign at the corner. Even a fucking tumbleweed rolled by in front of us as we approached the front screen door.

"I'll be damned," Johnny said, smirking and pointing.

A sign no bigger than my fist was attached on the trailer on one side of the door, barely holding on with the one rusted screw still intact. One "a" in Alamos was nearly rubbed away, but it still read plain as day.

"You ready for some answers?" I raised my brow to Silverhand, pausing with my hand raised at the door, ready to knock.

Johnny traced his hand around the entrance, keeping one hand on his hip as he lowered his glasses to scan the area—again. "So long as whatever or whoever is in here doesn't fucking shoot us. You keep your hand on that piece o' mine. Hear me, Val?"

Wicked thoughts coursed through my brain and I let my gaze drop to his dick with a devious smile before snapping back to his face.

Johnny shook his head, doing a horrible job of hiding his grin. "Fucking horn dog."

"And you love it."

Johnny pushed a hand above the door, full-on smiling at me now. "Not denyin' that."

Fading my smile, and fluttering my fingers over the Malorian's hilt shoved into the back of my pants, I knocked twice.

Silence.

"Of course," Johnny mumbled, turning his back to the trailer and leaning against it.

Furrowing my brow, I banged several times, harder and more frantic.

"I'm comin', I'm comin'. Christ. Can't a woman take a shit in her own damn house without—" The door whipped open and an older woman, her right arm replaced with cybernetics, stood on the other side of the screen door. Her silver hair had highlights of blonde—no doubt the color she'd been in her youth. "Who the fuck are you?"

This was going well.

Does she look familiar to you?

"I have no idea who this broad is." Johnny leaned forward, squinting at the woman behind his sunglasses.

"Name's V and I'm gonna cut straight to the chase. Name Johnny Silverhand mean anything to ya?"

The woman's entire demeanor changed, an angered expression melting into shock and hope. The screen door swung open and she rushed me inside, panic laced in her eyes as she looked around, hurrying me.

"I wasn't exactly going to—" Grunting, I stepped inside once she pulled my shoulder, my hand fully locked around the gun's hilt now. "Alright. Calm the fuck down."

"What happened to keepin' your head on a goddamned swivel, Val?" Johnny barked, glitching through the door to stand beside me in the trailer's quaint kitchen area.

Your name obviously rattled her. Let's play this out.

"Fuck me sideways," Johnny muttered, spinning on his heel to lean against the sink.

The woman gasped, her blue eyes widening, staring at my ass. "You have his—is that the—"

"Malorian?" I raised one brow, still not letting go of the only thing keeping this situation from turning into a bad eighty's horror movie.

The woman's eyes filled with tears and she reached for it.

"V," Johnny shouted, pushing from the sink to stand beside me.

Holding one palm up at the woman to halt her, I lifted the point of the pistol from my pants, but still kept it behind me as to not spook her. "Not another step. I'll let you look at it, but first—need some answers."

The woman's cybernetic hand dropped at her side and she frowned. "Of course, I'm sorry, I—it's been a long time since I've seen anything of his."

"His? As in, Johnny?"

Johnny glitched to the mysterious woman, walking circles around her. "Still got no idea who this crack job is. Former stalker seemin' more and more likely."

"Yes." The woman smiled at nothing, her eyes glazing over. "My love."

Johnny froze and slid his Aviators to his nose. "The fuck I was. Val, this woman is a few strings short of a goddamned guitar. This ain't worth it."

I got it handled, Johnny. Trust me.

Not letting my grip loosen on the gun and keeping my eyes focused on the woman's actions, I paced the small open area between the kitchen and seating booths. "Know anything 'bout Johnny's remains? Trail went pretty damn cold after Arasaka Tower."

The woman squinted at me, motioning to the booth seat across from her as she sat. "Please. Sit. I'll tell you everything I know if—" She paused, eyes darting the air around her after Johnny appeared behind her seat as if she could sense his presence. Unease wrenched up my spine until the woman shook her head with a smirk. "—if you'd only do me the courtesy of tellin' me what your connection to Johnny is."

"Careful here, Val. You tell her we're 'ol chooms and she'll call your bullshit given you don't look a day over thirty."

Thirty? Gee fucking thanks.

Removing the Malorian from my waistband, I rested it in my lap as I sat, playing the point of it at her from under the table. "Been a fan since I was a kid. Been researchin', findin' out what I can the past decade or so."

The woman nodded and smiled, tapping her grey and gold metal hand against the plastic resin. "I, too, am a big, big fan. Possibly one of his biggest. Name's Angel."

"Alright, Angel." I bobbed my brow. "I'm listenin'."

Angel sighed and leaned back in her seat. "As I said, I'm a huge fan of both Samurai and Silverhand. Poured most of my hard-earned money as a scientist into memorabilia and the like even. But nothing was more prized than Johnny's body after the incident."

Johnny slammed his hands down on the table between us after tearing off his sunglasses, his gaze fuming. "She's out her fucking mind, V. You need to get out of here."

Did you not hear her? She might know where your body is.

The realization washed over Johnny's face before he blinked and slowly backed away—strangely quiet.

"It was 2038. A contact of mine, Samantha Stevens, she'd been on the hunt for this Arasaka nuclear device, found it too once she hired a group of edgerunners to handle the transport."

"What does a bomb have to do with me?" Johnny asked, keeping his distance.

Just listen, Johnny.

"Unfortunately, the radiation gave Samantha cancer in the process, but she'd fulfilled her mission, and brought the bomb to my lab for safe-keeping." Angel frowned, flicking at a scratched groove on her cybernetic forearm. "Only she and I really knew that it wasn't a bomb. Laces of the radiation still remained, but Samantha, she'd found Johnny's body in the rubble and stored it in there—" Angel's eyes lifted to meet mine. "—on ice."

Johnny's jaw dropped and he crossed the room, pressing his palms on the table. "Gotta be fucking kiddin' me. Ask her where I am. Am I still frozen?" He pushed away, traipsing from one end of the trailer to the other, looking in every doorway. "How could there be a goddamned cryo pod in this heap of shit?"

Johnny, calm the fuck down. Let me think. Please.

Clearing my throat, I traced my thumbs over the grooves on the pistol's hilt. "And do you—still possess said body?"

Angel sighed and shook her head, tears building in her eyes again.

Johnny's hands flew into the air and he screamed, "Fuck!"

"What the hell happened to it?" Anger swirled through my stomach, partially my own, but mostly Johnny's. Enough so it made me wince.

"The lab lost funding several years ago. I came upon desperate times and the only thing I could do to even scrape by was sell off the only things I had worth a damn." She nudged her chin below the table.

Blinking, I slowly lifted the Malorian into view, staring at it as if I hadn't been holding it this entire time.

"Looks good on you actually. How the hell did you find it?" Angel cocked her head to one side.

Johnny overtook my body for a fraction of a second, making me slam the gun onto the table. "Tell us where the body is now." Our voices melded together.

Growling under my breath, I forced him out, his body spinning to the side in spurts of glitches.

Fucking hell, Johnny.

Angel held her palms out, bottom lip quivering as she stared at the gun pointed at her. "Uh—us?"

Grounding my teeth, I spun the pistol to face the side wall. "So, you sold what possessions of Johnny's you had to make ends meet. Still doesn't tell me a fuckin' thing 'bout his body."

Angel gulped. "A big fan. A uh—a borg, I think. Offered me an insane amount of eddies for him. I'd sold my lab, fought to keep the land even. So, I couldn't turn him down. You have to understand how difficult it was for me."

Johnny furiously rubbed a hand over his mouth. "Yeah. Real fucking hard to sell a dead man's frozen body to the highest bidder."

"Do you know where this borg is?"

Angel's head shook rapidly, making strands of silver hair fall over her gaze. "It was long ago. But the name, I do remember. I can write it down for you?"

Nodding once, I motioned with the gun she was free to move to grab a pad and pen.

Unease coiled through me at the implications of the path we'd started down. On the one hand, to find Johnny's body intact would not only be a miracle, but a huge fucking win for him. On the other, what would that have meant for me? For—us?

"Hey. Don't you go thinkin' like that," Johnny said, appearing beside me and leaning his ass on the table.

Thinking like what?

Johnny arched a brow over his glasses.

Fuck. I really hate that sometimes. A couple shouldn't have as much insight into the other's mind as we do.

"Couple?" The word came out sultry and gravelly. It made my thighs pinch together and a lump form in my throat.

"Here you are," Angel announced, making me jolt as she shoved a piece of paper at me.

Standing, I snatched it from her grasp and shoved it in my pocket. "Thanks, Angel. I'll be outta your hair."

"Wait." Angel scurried to a drawer in the kitchen, rustling sounds bouncing off the trailer walls as she rummaged through its content. Returning to me, she held her fist out. "Here. It was the only thing I couldn't seem to part with and I think—you should have it."

Cinching my brow, I lifted my open palm. Cool metal pressed against my skin as a small key landed in my hand. "What's this?"

"It's a key to a storage crate in the docks nearby. Number 3017652."

I shifted my eyes. "And what will I find in said container? Not gonna explode and kill me on the spot, is it?"

Angel cackled and shook her head. "No, no. But—you remind me a lot of him for whatever reason. Are you sure—I mean I don't know how it'd be possible with how young you look but—"

"Wrap it up, Val." Johnny said, strutting between us with his arms folded.

"Thanks. I'll uh—I'll check it out. And thanks for the information." I gave a single nod.

Angel rubbed her real arm with the metal hand. "G'luck."

Once I'd turned away from her, I didn't look back. That same unease pulling at my bones even as I stepped outside to the warming sun.

"Val," Johnny said, walking backward in front of me as I stormed for the car.

Ignoring him, I gritted my teeth, hand raising for the car door handle. Johnny's hand wrapped around my wrist, stopping me and forcing me to look at him.

"Valerie," he boomed, tearing the Aviators from his face. "Would you listen to me for a fuckin' second?"

"What?" I seethed, not caring if Angel were watching me from her window thinking I was just as batshit crazy as she was.

"Listen to me." Johnny's hands gripped each of my shoulders, rubbing them. "Whatever this leads to—whatever happens—it won't change a thing between us."

"Don't make promises you can't keep, Johnny. You never thought this would be a possibility. And now that it is?" I tried to wrench away from his touch, but he held firm.

"Give me some goddamn credit here." He pointed at the dog tags nestled under my shirt. "Did my words when I told you to wear those not mean a fuckin' thing to you?"

Yeah. That stung.

"Even if—and I can't believe I'm about to fucking say this, but—even if we find my body preserved and we somehow find a way to revive it and put me back in said body." His chrome fingers lightly gripped my chin, tilting my lips up to meet his and he placed a tender kiss there. "It won't change a thing. I'll just have a real cock instead'ah one fabricated from memory."

It'd been such a tense moment I couldn't help the laugh pushing from my lungs and the warm smile gracing my lips.

"Holdin' ya to that, Silverhand. Cock and all."

A devious glint formed in his eyes as he pushed forward, pressing the rock-hard dick straining through his pants against my stomach, my ass colliding with the car. "Please do."

Biting my lip and stifling a moan, I lifted the key between us. "Any idea what this might be?"

His smile broadened, shambles of chocolate hair falling over his brow. "Yeah. I do. Let's go get it." He pushed off the car door after pressing a kiss to the center of my forehead.