Chapter Text
They’d picked up a tail somewhere around the border. Whomever it was, they were skillful and cautious, but even still the Aldecaldos were able to lose them in a sandstorm across the Mojave. After a few weeks, it seemed that maybe they had even died out there in the hot sands.
Panam had taken V to a few experts, people who had done work for the family but so far, there had been little more than additional pills to take. She was swallowing a pharmacy every morning just to keep blood out of her mouth, but the worst of the seizures were under control and well— there was still time. Six months Alt had said, but maybe more. One had already passed and V felt better .
Well. Physically at least.
Inside her head things had changed, for better or for worse, was an academic argument that V hadn’t the time to ponder. She had, god forbid it, gotten used to having Silverhand in her head. The lack of Johnny’s familiar presence in her mind had left a strange sort of… loneliness in her. A feeling that wouldn’t leave her, a gnawing sensation that something was missing .
She had Johnny’s memories still and her own of him, though it did little to console her. She sat on the dusty fender of one of the trucks, rubbing a smudge from Johnny’s aviators, one of the handful of tangible mementos she kept of the old rocker. The sun above was already searing hot, the heat like a burn on the back of V’s neck.
“How far out did you spot um?” Mitch’s voice cut through her thoughts and V squinted against the bright daylight up at the two younger nomad drivers, Fiona and Tiger. They’d been sent out on a water run, returning from the nearest town several miles out with gallons full to keep the Aldecaldos going further across the desert.
“Cut us off. Started a fire fight. It was fuckin’ dicey , Mitch. We got lucky. Fiona clipped him and then his hood. Whole ride started smoking and then died under him.”
“Was it Arasaka?” V asked, replacing the aviators over her eyes.
Tiger and Fiona shared looks and then with a tentative nod, Fiona answered in the affirmative.
“We think so. He moved like a damn one man army, even with how fucked up he seemed.”
“Fucked up?”
“The guy was a monster, but it was like… I dunno. Like he was hurt?”
“Never corner a wounded animal…” Panam offered cryptically from where she sat alongside V, shooting her a worried look.
“Wounded animals got nothin’ to lose,” V said in agreement, then got up with a sigh, “You said you shot him? His car broke down too?”
“Yeah, probably right where we left um… you want us to go back, Panam? Make sure he dropped?”
“I’ll tag along. Hitch over with you both.” V said, Panam frowning at the suggestion, “I could jack in, find out what info he has got. I know Arasaka, Panam, I’m the best to check it out.”
“You don’t need my permission, V—”
“But?”
Panam scowled, turning her eyes to the other Aldecaldos and jerking her head to the side in a silent scram . They left, Mitch stayed, crossing his arms.
“The guy is toast. Why not just leave him?” Panam said, a sigh in her throat, “I dunno. I don’t like this, V. Arasaka hasn’t made a peep since we left. Thought we were keeping under the radar…”
“Clearly not.” Mitch said with a shrug, “And he might be toast. Or he mighta had back up. He might be on his way back to the NC to give up our location. We should make sure he is flatlined, if anything.”
Panam was the head of the family now, her word given final weight of law, but more often than not they had worked together as a sort of “council”. Panam was still getting used to Saul’s absence, an empty void that no one attempted to fill, because no one could ever do so. She looked to V and Mitch for guidance and right now it was obvious in the way she worried her bottom lip and flashed a look up and down V that she wished Mitch had agreed with her.
“You’ll keep outta trouble?” Panam said and V couldn’t help but crack a smile.
“I’m already dyin’, what other shenanigans could I get up to?”
Panem scoffed, clearly not liking the answer.
“Ugh, just be safe! Come back in one piece... or this shitty ass trip has been for nothin’.”
This was what having a family was all about though. Caring. Scolding. And now that she had it, V wouldn’t trade it for anything. Not for all the eddies and fame in Night City.
“Be back soon then.” V said, meeting back up with Fiona and Tiger with a short wave behind her.
It wasn’t a long drive to the spot where they had tangled with the possible Arasaka soldier and that actually genuinely worried V. They’d gotten close. Too close.
“There it is, can you see?” Fiona said, pointing her cigarette towards the ever larger growing mass of grey smoke.
“Pull off up here… Fiona, you stay with the car and I’ll take Tiger with me. You hear shots or us hollerin’ you peel outta here and go get the others, alright?”
“Yeah, yeah. Got it.” Fiona flicked ash unto the sand as she pulled the car up slowly to the patch of dried red earth, hidden in the shadow of a high rock and threw the gear into park.
Tiger followed V out, his rifle at the ready as he hung back a few steps. V had Johnny’s— no, her pistol. It was strange how well it fit in her hand, a perfectly balanced weapon that she loaded and readied with the familiarity of one who had used it for years , not a few short weeks.
The remnants of the enemy jeep were still burning, fire crackling faintly from beneath the blackened and smoke streaked hood. The thing was already doomed before it took a few good shots to the metal, the paint peeling from the sides everywhere from overexposure to sunlight and rough sands. It was a junker, not exactly the kind of thing an Arasaka soldier would drive.
V came up around the drivers side while Tiger kept back, rifle ready for long shots. No one seemed to be in the car. V checked the handle with the back of her hand, feeling only the heat from the sun on it. She opened it quickly, hand going back to hold her pistol ready as she checked the passenger seat and back.
No one.
Frowning, she noticed blood on the driver’s seat, smeared across the old cracked leather. The trail continued on the ground, darkening the already caked red dirt with splotches. Any rations or water the truck held were taken and whomever was driving had begun to walk , following the tire tracks Fiona and Tiger had originally left behind.
V felt her blood run cold as the depth of her mistake fell on her.
“Tiger! Turn ‘round, get back to Fiona!”
“W-what?” the young man sputtered, gun up and ready as the panic in V’s voice clearly showed through.
“Get back to the damn car!”
V broke out in a run, leaving him behind as she tried not to let her heart surge with panic. Her eyes caught the blood trail on the ground… making its way to the same rock, the only place of shade, where they had parked the car.
By the time V was back in the shadow of the dark rock formation, her fear was confirmed.
Fiona was out of the car, her eyes wide and fearful and her hands behind her head as the man behind her pointed a gun to her temple.
A man whose cold, mechanical grey eyes cut right through V’s chest and threatened to suck the breath from her lungs.
Takemura’s lips twitched into a smile that was more sneer than anything. Surprise registering just for a moment on his features, or maybe it was more like shock.
“The very woman I have been looking for.”
Tiger had been right. Takemora was a mess. Even without the gunshot wound bleeding sluggishly at his side, his usual immaculate bun was loosened, strands falling across his sun-scorched face, darkening his already warm complexion with deep reds.
He was indeed a wounded animal, a wounded wolf, snarling and ready to take its prey with it to the grave.
V brought her hands up, holding her pistol out and quickly ejecting the clip and then the bullet in the chamber. Carefully, she set the pistol on the ground.
“A wise choice.” Takemura said, accepting her silent surrender.
“Let her go, Goro.”
“You insult me.” he spat, Fiona crying out as his grip tightened and jerked at the back of her neck.
“Fine! Fine— Takemura . Let her go. You came out here for me, yeah? Don’t need the kid.”
“What is one more life to you, V? You already have so many to answer for.” Takemura said, but despite his words, his grip relented on Fiona, “I am here only for one . One that mattered most…”
Takemura took the gun from Fiona’s belt, tossing it far off into the dirt before shoving Fiona away from him impassionately.
“Do not move.” was all he said to Fiona, his eyes never leaving V’s. Takemura staggered forward. He tried not to let the pain show, but it was obvious he had lost too much blood. He wouldn’t survive that wound without help, but something in his eyes made V think… he didn’t intend to.
V didn’t run, didn’t even struggle as he reached out and grabbed her throat with a hand, sticky with dried blood. He dragged her in close, close enough that she could smell the smoke on his clothes and feel the heat of his breath.
A quiet seemed to come over him, an almost peaceful stillness. His eyes were half lidded as he looked down at her, his hand moving to hold the back of her neck more gently, almost in an embrace as the other held the pistol close to her head.
“... you should have left me to die that da-”
Takemura’s words were cut off with a strangled cry of pain as Tiger’s rifle thundered and a shot grazed over his shoulder and tore fabric and flesh from him. The impact was enough to throw Takemura off balance, giving V enough time to force him back onto the ground, scrambling for the pistol in his hand.
It was a dirty fight— more of a scuffle than anything as blood loss and dehydration seemingly had already sapped the former Arasaka bodyguard of much of his strength. V did him the favor of knocking him across the head with the butt of his pistol before he could get up and risk another shot from Tiger. Somehow, V felt the younger man wouldn’t miss the second time around.
Tiger clamored down from the rockface, rifle still up and ready for another shot.
“No! He’s down! Don't shoot, he's down!” V hovered over Takemura, shielding him from Tiger’s barrel.
“I missed um, V! Fucker still breathing.”
Fiona had scrambled up from the dirt, rubbing away the clean spots where her tears had made trails down her cheeks.
“Yeah and he’s gonna stay that way, alright? Just… just check on Fiona and get the damn car going. We’re taking him back to camp.”
“V, what? No. No, no way. We can’t take some Arasaka spy back with us!”
“He ain’t Arasaka.” V said behind clenched teeth, straining to haul up the dead weight of her former partner in crime, “Eh… hey, help me here will ya?”
Tiger stared, dumbfounded as his rifle went lax in his hands.
“Look, we need to know what he knows. We can do that better somewhere safe and with him not leaking to death so help me get him in the damn car.”
If V had thought Tiger and Fiona put up a fuss on the drive back, she had not fully imagined how Panam would react. V wondered to herself if Saul had ever yelled at Panem this way before, because it certainly matched the kind of ferocity she had seen between the pair.
“Are you listening to me, V?!”
How could you miss it?
V’s inner voice, which sometimes still sounded a lot like one Mr. Silverhand, provided in his deadpan voice. It was an imagined voice, but it still brought a smile to her lips as V let herself indulge in the fantasy that he remained with her.
“Jesus… completely ignoring me. V . You brought an Arasaka spy to the camp. We can’t let him go now! Our best bet is to put two in his skull and burying him in a sand drift and hope his friends don’t come looking!”
“No one is gonna come lookin’, Panam. He’s former Arasaka. Outcasted. Exiled— whatever you wanna call it. He doesn’t got any back up. They don’t even know he is here and would kill him as surely they would any of us.” V said, leaning back in one of the camp’s creaky metal folding chairs.
Even in the firelight it was easy to see the lack of faith in Panam’s expression as she paced around the firepit, raking her hands roughly over her face.
“Former Arsaka, current Arasaka. Shit, V, you think that matters? I got a half dead highly trained killer in this camp who wants to off you.”
V shrugged.
“Oh my god , you are impossible!”
“I’m the only one he is a danger to, so I don’t know why—”
“Do not finish that sentence. You know damn well why.”
Still managing to piss off everyone, I see. Fucked off to the furthest outer reaches of the net and Johnny’s words still somehow played in her head.
“Sorry.” V said with a grumble, resting all four legs of the chair back to the ground, “He might know something. And if he does or doesn’t, we can just patch him up and drop him at the nearest town.”
“Oh, yeah. Real nice, V. So he can come after us again?”
“I’m not gonna kill him.”
Panam sighed— well. It was more like a half assed hoarse yell from the back of her throat, but V thought she meant it as a sigh.
“... Tom manage to fix him up at all?”
“Yeah… yeah it looks like he had one shot of Bounce Back left. Kept him from flatlining when he took that hit to the side. He was already healin’ up. Bullet was through and through. Tiger only managed to graze him. Kid got nervous or else your old friend wouldn’t have a face right now.”
Panam crossed her arms, still fidgeting from side to side.
“That ain’t even his worst problems. Guy probably hasn’t eaten in days and his water ran out long off too. This… well. I don’t think he was planning on going back to NC.”
After a moment, V stood, rubbing both hands up behind her neck and then back down with a groan.
“I don’t think so either.”
“You… gonna see him?”
“You got him restrained?”
“Yeah, V. He’s in and out. Was delirious for a bit, but they managed to get some water in him. V… he’s in a bad way.”
“...s’my fault.” V said, words a half mumble, “You heard on the radio. Our plan got Hanako Arasaka killed. I… didn’t want that, but Alt had her own plans, ya know? Christ, at the time I didn’t even think to know, I was just trying to keep alive.”
Panam shook her head, “We lost people too. Saul. Teddy. Bob. … fuck, nearly lost more. You didn’t know Alt was going to stage a hostile god damn take over. He can’t blame you.”
“He will.” V said, her voice quiet, “I… I’ll try to talk to him. At least keep him from doing anything stupid thinking we got plans to flatline him.”
“Yeah, just… be careful, V. Like I said. The sun does weird bullshit to your head out in this place.”
V only nodded, gripping Panam’s shoulder just briefly as she passed towards the tent where they were keeping Takemura.
Two armed nomads were outside the tent while another two had been inside while Tom, a former ripperdoc and current nomad senior, had worked on Takemura. The three had left to give V some space, but the other guards remained outside nearby.
Takemura was laid out on one of the cots, his ruined shirt cut and stripped from him, leaving him bare from the waist up except where bandages were wrapped tightly around his middle and then up around his shoulder and back. V had always seen the exposed trace of chrome that wrapped around his neck and along his jaw, but now she could see where cyberware traced across his bare arms and lined one side of his ribs. Their purpose, V couldn’t say, and most likely, they didn’t work anymore given Takemura’s burned status with Arasaka.
The rest of his body was, at least by appearances, organic. Smooth olive complected skin over toned muscle. Takemura’s face gave away his age. The lines on his forehead and around his mouth indicated years of deep thinking… or deep scowling, but otherwise he had kept himself at peak condition. A work requirement no doubt of being a top Arasaka bodyguard.
His breathing was sharp, but steady enough. His eyes were closed, but a grimace rested permanently across his features even in sleep.
V pulled up a chair, turning it backwards as she straddled it and leaned her arms against the back frame.
“... you look like shit, man.” she said, not expecting an answer. She didn’t get one either, not a vocal one. Instead she got the faint clatter of metal against metal as Takemura moved and the cuffs holding his arms to the bed rattled against the frame.
She had flinched at the sound, embarrassing herself.
His eyes opened, the pale grey like moonlight slicing through darkened clouds. He looked hazy, drugged up… his eyes looked over at her with only the vaguest recognition.
“... V?”
“Yeah, it’s me.”
“I am… not dead. A disappointment.”
“Sorry— you were hoping we’d put two in your head while you slept?”
Takemura made a gruff sound that V took as an affirmative.
“Would have made it easier.”
“Uh huh, you know they got hotlines for this kinda thing.”
Takemura groaned, “I remember. You said same thing in Night City.”
“I’m sure someone in camp would be happy to help you out if you try shooting me again.”
Takemura went silent at that, turning his eyes upwards towards the top of the tent with a deep frown. Like he was remembering something he had, for a moment, forgotten.
“I will kill you, V. For what has been done.”
“I didn’t have anything to do with Hana-”
“ You insult her by speaking her name .” his voice was harsh, pain straining the words as he tried to sit up and found himself unable to bear his wounds.
“...I’m sorry, Takemura. I didn’t— it wasn’t— I didn’t want anyone to get hurt… I was dying. Like literally in that moment fucking flatlining. I did what I had to try and sever that relic from my head and… and that AI did what she wanted.”
“You let it in . It turned systems against Arasaka. Hanako-sama— Hanako-sama was shredded by hacked mech units. Beyond recognition! And you tell me you didn’t know? You knew it would be nothing good.”
“... when I was there, when Alt took over… she was only attacking soldiers who attacked us. I don’t know what happened with Hanako-sama, but—”
“And now I have told you what happened to Hanako-sama.” Takemura said, his words clipped, “Get out— better still, let me die having done my duty.”
V swallowed thickly, rolling her lips together before she said quietly, “I’m not gonna do that.”
Takemura did not respond. He shut his eyes, as if he refused to even give V the dignity of looking at them. His brow was tight, pained and yet still grimly determined.
There were things she still needed to ask him— did Arasaka know where he was? Did he still plan to bide his time and kill her? V felt her heart throb at the very idea that this man who she had trusted, had worked with, had saved her… now utterly hated her.
He had sent her one message after she had left Night City, standing among the rubble and ruin of Arasaka Tower.
Rot in hell, クソ野郎 .
In all honesty, the way he had spoken, the things he said… well, she hadn’t expected to hear or see him again. V had done with that knowledge what she did with most things… hit delete on the message and then buried it in the back of her thoughts with Jackie and the other countless people she had let down. These things were all just part of the sins she figured she would pay for in six months when her body finally succeeded in killing itself. A part of her had even wondered if the agony of that, the pain of each seizure, the waking exhaustion, nausea and memory loss… if her suffering could tip those scales even the slightest. Make it even .
Just another fairy-tale dream. Johnny’s voice scoffed in her imagination.
Maybe suicide was still his intention, but it was obvious now to V the means of that demise had changed. Takemura couldn’t get Yorinobu now, but he could get her. The one who had promised to help him gain his revenge and then denied it for him forever.
V stood and quietly left through the tent flap, barely giving an appreciative nod to the guards out front as she staggered off to her own tent, feeling sick from the faint throb that had begun to pulse in the back of her neck… from regret. From guilt.
Her vision cut, lines of static racing across her sight and making shapes turn into nothing more than incomprehensible blurs. V felt the world shift and jerk from side to side, the ground rising up to meet her as she tripped over her own feet and fell with a thud to the dirt.
Even laying there, voices of alarm tuned out and far away, faces blurred and unidentifiable, V could feel the churning turning sensation as the Earth spun slowly through space. Falling, through silent cold space.
Like Jackie, like T-Bug. Like Johnny.
Like all the dead that had come before her.
Breathing deeply, V curled her fingers into the red sand, and held on.
Not yet, V. Not yet.