The blaring alarms roused Panam. . .awake? Or, was she still dead, and this was the beginning of Hell? If so, she already had complaints about the numerous interpretations of being after death. While she couldn't place a direction, Panam could feel her mind swimming and throbbing about, coming in short, powerful bursts, unlike those of a wicked hangover. What was she doing before? Her eyes opened to show the tops of her boots, caked in grease and dust. Her mind began to piece together all of her sensations with her thoughts.

It made even more sense when she managed to crane her head up and to the right to see Mitch in the same position, hoisted to a ceiling by chains with his eyes closed.

Bell Mountain, her chat with Mitch, then the call from Marcus, and then; V.

''Fuck! Where is V?!'' Panam's breath hitched in her filter mask, attempting to free her bonds which only resulted in wicked chafing. ''Mitch! Mitch, wake up!'' The tone in Panam's voice would have surprised her if not for the more incredible feeling of dread beginning to creep up on her in fear of not knowing V's status. Drat, these chains were digging into her jacket the more she fought, slowly cutting channels of blood off the longer she hung. ''Mitch!'' Panam called again, managing to swing her weight to and fro enough to nudge him awake her boot as the experience felt like a bad roller coaster ride.

''. . .Ugh; my head,'' Mitch began to stir, craning his head forward to alleviate the tension. ''Pan? That you?''

''Finally,'' Panam sighed in relief. ''Now the only thing is that we need to get out of here,'' Panam responded, gesturing to their bonds. ''I have no idea where V is. That other cyberpyscho must have taken him deeper into the plant, and I have a feeling the other two put us here as bait.''

Performing a small survey of their immediate surroundings, Mitch agreed. This had to be a way to bring V to them; so they at least weren't brain-dead from the way they fought, but what concerned Mitch more was the unsettling realization of them being underground in this age-old plant, where it could go any moment.

Add onto that, Saul and the rest of the family no doubt coming, guns blazing at the mention of Arasaka after Cassidy passed the message, and this entire day just got much more complicated. ''Well, knowing V; he should be able to handle his own, for a little while that is,'' Mitched quickly changed his tune at the raise of Panam's eyes. ''And here I am, guessing 'Saka would have all they would need to interrogate and experiment on folks proper, but I guess not,'' Mitch replied, his voice betraying his body's language. Being encased in a panzer back in the war gave him PTSD as it was, and being suspended by chains on the mind of Arasaka slowly did the same. Luckily, the pair needed a hand, and Mitch was able to provide it.

FWISSSH! CHINK! THUMP!

''Been a while since we relied on that dog and pony trick,'' Mitch hit the ground rather unsteadily, almost losing his balance with bound hands. Having a torch attached to his chrome rarely came in handy, but of the few times, it made all the more sense to keep it. There was a bit of twisting and shifting, and the chains fell to the ground. Breathing a silent chuckle, Mitch worked on getting Panam free, taking stock of the lack of their weapons, meaning they would have to handle the situation the old-fashioned way. ''We need to hurry, V could be in real trouble,'' Mitch noted the look of concern in Panam's voice, feeling for his sister about the fate of his brother.

Mitch winced. ''While you won't hear me saying no to that, we also need to get our bearings, and more importantly, some backup.''

''If we had a guide to navigate back to the entrance, we could trace our steps from there,'' Panam tried to establish a link to V, only for static to fill her ears. Grimacing, she tried an alternative frequency, only to be met with the same piercing noise. ''And our comms are too apart to form a connection. Great; out of one shithole and into another.'' Pananm cradled her head in one of her hands, wanting so badly to drink.

''Perhaps I can be of assistance.'' an inquisitive voice with a hint of glee chimed from the ceiling with a wave of static, nearly scaring the daylights out of the pair, who headbutted each other, leaving Panam kneeling on the ground hissing while Mitch scrambled to find the source of the voice. ''Oh, apologies; did I startle you?''

''What the hell. . .or who are you?'' Panam asked in a hushed voice, rubbing her tender forehead.

''Oh, right; introductions. You would have to excuse me, it had been quite some time since I interacted with anyone outside of the net in this manner.'' the voice said apologetically. The nearby terminal covered in dust soon came to life, the screen displaying the image of a woman, with a darkened complexion, filled with painted line face tattoos, peering around all four corners of the screen before her focus settled on Panam and Mitch. ''Ah, there you are. My name is Lia, Nice to meet you.''

Mitched stepped closer warily, raising an eyebrow when Lia looked up right at him in the most natural way, a smile decorating her face. ''Lia, huh? And why is it you decide to come out of the woodwork now? Pretty sure even you can see that we were held, and who's to say you're not the one who put us here?''

Humming, adopting a neutral face, Lia agreed. But she was getting off track. ''And who is to say that I am not here to rescue you?''

''Enough with the passive bullshit!'' Panam stood up, turning to face the console, feeling the sudden urge to send a bullet through the center. The way this. . .Lia spoke, the way she looked, and especially her sudden appearance only amplified the underlying rage that grew with each passing second. V needed their help, Saul and a good handful of the family would no doubt be on their way to help, and there still was the matter of Arasaka being a factor in her equation of bullshit. ''What do you want, AI?''

Craning her head toward Panam, Lia slowly began to understand bits and pieces about what V saw in her, and even more so, what he stood to gain by staying with her and her family; one in the truest sense of the word. Love, trust, respect. All things that Lia either was too out of touch to recognize fully or held a substantial amount of regret at not having a greater bond with the last piece of flesh and blood she knew in this 'life.' The realization would only push her further in the right direction, and hopefully into the arms of a new family. ''Actually, wanted to talk about what you want,'' Lia said, quoting straight from her brother. ''You may not believe me when I say this, but I know where V is.'' Lia waited for one of them to outburst. Given the circumstances, coupled with statistics, and their supposed closeness with her brother, she figured that-

''-Where is he?!'' Panam shouted, momentarily losing her composure.

If that were to be a bet, Lia would have won that one.

''Wait,'' Mitch said, placing a hand on Panam's shoulder to quell her anger. She gave him a side eye, but it failed to work. ''If you know where he is, then you know how he's doing?''

''Very perceptive, Mr. Anderson,'' Lia said, splitting the screen to display, albeit in a lower quality, V's aggressor being pushed back by a flurry of strikes from V's Mantis Blades. In a moment of what either Mitch pegged for him being gassed, or Panam guessing was his cybernetics pushed to their limits, the merc was picked up and tossed out of frame. ''V is. . okay, for the moment; he would require aid from both of you when it comes to the other cyber psychos in our midst.''

Panam wanted to know what kind of programming was done to this AI who claimed to be V's sister; which she still had yet to believe. Was she seeing the same thing as she and Mitch? ''You call that okay? V is getting manhandled, we need to-''

CREAK! BOOM! BOOM! FWISSH! The room shook, spreading dust around the room and causing old, broken machine parts to fall off the numerous shelves, nearly knocking Mitch and Panam out. ''What the hell was that?'' Mitch asked.

The screen turned back to normal, displaying Lia's eyes turning white as she went silent. A ping sounded before her response came. ''That would be what seems like the rest of the Aldecaldos breaching the South entrance with charge explosives,'' another ping sounded from the console. ''One Saul Bright and Mr. Cassidy Righter are leading the charge into the assembly line area with approximately 25 other Aldecaldos.''

''Well, Pan, you wanted backup, looks like we got it.'' Mitch joked, standing up and steadying himself as he walked over to the console. ''Lia, how far is V from where we are?'' Mitch felt Panam's eyes boring a hole into him, though he was mostly sure that it was directed at Lia.

''About 10 minutes with all foreseen obstacles, and if you manage to avoid the other cyber psychos on the way to assist my brother.''

''You know, you seem a little too convenient for an AI claiming to be V's sister,'' Panam narrowed her eyes. ''Or giving us directions, for that matter either.''

Somehow, even though V told her that she would be as trusting as Mitch would be in regards to reaching out, Lia still had to admit that it interested her the amount of fire and spirit in her eyes about her brother. She. . .admired it, if nothing else. But, V did give her a phrase that was as good as a done deal to convince her, and by extension Mitch. ''Well, if the timing fails to convince you, V did give me a bit of information that only the two of you would know.''

Raising an eyebrow, Panam's emotions were at the seams, and for her to claim such a thing? It might as well have been a slap in the face. ''Try me.'' Lia smiled, ignoring the distant shouting of multiple voices in the distance.

''The night before the Mikoshi Raid, you and V sat over a cliff overlooking the camp. You confided in him about your internal struggles with being a leader of your people; only after a bit of back and forth, you asked him if he was afraid to die.'' Panam wished she could have seen her own face at hearing those words. It also transported her back in time to that very moment, and everything in it. The family, the atmosphere, the look on V's face when he pulled her close, wanting so badly to become one in that moment. ''He said: ''Not as much as I'm afraid for you.'' If that fails to convince you, I could also recite the cheesy line he gave you as the two of you made way for the border of Night City.'' Lia's chuckles were halfheartedly suppressed.

''No, no, God no.'' Panam thrust a hand out, her voice a mix of embarrassment and silent understanding. ''If that gonk told you that, then I can assume he's told you other things that he shouldn't have.''

''Just the parts that matter,'' Lia chipped back. ''But, being sentimental about the past should be put on pause until everyone can get out of here safely.''

''And on that, we can definitely agree,'' Mitch walked over to the nearest door, searching for anything remotely close to a weapon. ''Can we get you out of here? Would hate to leave you here.''

''No worries; I've merged with V for the time being, At least until we can disentangle and get either my body recovered or insert my conscience into a different body. As V put it, 'no biggie'.'' Lia did a poor imitation of V's voice. ''I can guide to him from the CCTV systems.''

For the third time today, Panam nearly burst a blood vessel But, she smiled at the same time. You weren't an Aldecaldo if you weren't always into or up to some kind of shit. "Why am I not surprised at that gonk?''