“Let’s get her inside,” I heard another voice… Viktor… Please… Please, help… Jackie… He needs… help…
“I got her legs,” Takemura spoke before collapsing beside me… “I just… need to rest first…”
“Wait… that your blood?” Viktor shouted as he ran over to Takemura’s aid. “Misty!!”
–
“Louder… Samurai…”
“Pressure’s tanking!” Viktor shouted as he observed me on the gurney… “Shit!”
“It’s neurogenic shock, she’s dying,” Delamain explained.
“Hm… Shot went above the left orbital socket… gonna have to cut through the occipital bone. No other way!”
“There is risk of h–”
“I know what I’m doing!"
Jackie…? Jackie, can you hear me…?
Please, Jack… I can’t do this without you…
Say something… Just… Just say something… anything…
Why can’t I hear you…?
I’m scared…
–
“…is ultimately to defend the well-being of my family and my employees,” a voice echoed over a speaker. I couldn’t… even rotate my head… I just angled my eye… Viktor… he was sitting… watching an interview… I still can’t see… See anything… from my left eye… Can’t feel it…
“That is why I’ve decided to double the amount of Night City security forces…” his voice ended abruptly.
“President Myers has called this a flagrant breach of the Arvin Accord, a provocation targeted at the NUSA and Militech…”
No… Not again… Jackie… I can’t do… this again…
The fire… I can… I can feel it… burning me…
“What the fu–” Vik shot up, “Shit, she’s spiking!”
No, Ayuzawa… they… have AA batteries set up… to the west. Two divisions… to our south…
“Get me some morphine! Misty!!”
Yamada… reconned the northeast… She hasn’t come back, but last reports were clear… That leaves Militech… fronting an attack… from down the Interstate…
"Administering sedative! Get the norepinephrine!"
-
“How is she?” Takemura spoke… I could see him… standing before my bed…
“Slower on the mend than you, but lookin’ better every day,” Vik replied earnestly, “Frankly, it’s a fuckin’ miracle she survived at all…”
–
Jackie…? No… Takemura… What… What are you doing… Leave me… No… kill me… please… I can’t…
Help… me…
-
“V? You in there?”
“Grrnnhhnn…” I roused myself awake, blinking a couple times and holding my hand up to make sure I wasn’t dreaming… Jackie… What… “Jackie…”
“Jackie…?” Vik asked me, “What happened? You know where he is?”
“Hnnngh… Heist…” I thought back.
“He was… uh… shot… in the stomach… We got downstairs… Got in the car… but we… were both in bad shape… headed, uh… back to… motel… Dex…” I paused, “Dex… D–Dex…”
“Dex met with you two?”
“N-no… Jackie… had to… wait in the car…”
“He couldn’t… couldn’t move. Fell unconscious… I went up to go get help… Dex… Uhm…”
“He what?”
“I’m… trying to remember…”
“So Jackie’s in the car,” Vik elaborated, “Passed out. Where was he, your left or right?”
“My left… he, uh… gave me the Relic… told me to take care of it… Those were his last words to me… He made me promise.”
“So you went in, was Dex alone?”
“No… there was a, uh… Oleg… Oleg, he…”
“He what…?”
The shot… I clutched at the plastic covering my chair. The shot… It was all I heard… All I will ever hear again… A distant, muffled shot… Jackie…
“Jackie…”
“Yes– What?!” Vik’s attention suddenly shot to my vitals.
“JACKIE!” I screamed as loud as my lungs would let me, “JACKIE!!” I let out a frantic, blood-curdling scream as I clutched the remains of my face.
“V! Fucking hell– oh my God, V!!” Vik scrambled into action, “Your new eye hasn’t taken hold yet! Easy!!”
“JACKIEEE!!” I screamed so loudly that anyone – everyone – may hear. The world deserved to know his name… To remember him… The man who saved my life… Who sacrificed… No… who was killed… over my stupidity!! “JACKIE!…” Tears streamed down the right side of my face, mixing with the blood of open wounds. “Jackie…”
“I gave you a mild sedative… Are you okay?!”
“J… Jackie…”
“Breathe, V… Just breathe…”
“He… he killed him…”
“Who?”
“Oleg… He… went to the car… and shot him…”
“Shit…” Vik frowned, licking and biting his lower lip, “And… uh… And he came back in?”
“And handed… Dex the gun… And…”
“Tried to kill you…”
“Sayonara… he said… And…”
“It’s okay… You don’t have to go on… Take it easy, alright?” he rested a hand on my shoulder, “You’re safe… I’mma put you to bed ‘til tomorrow. Make some phone calls… People need to know…”
“Let’s try that again…” Vik roused me awake once more, “How ya feelin’?”
“Urrgghhh,” I groaned and shook my head, “Like I’ve been shot…”
“Heh, well what a coincidence, huh,” Vik chuckled, “Welcome back to the land of the living.”
“What… What happened…” I muttered, “What day is it?”
“It’s, uh… 6:43 PM. On May 26, 2077.”
“Jackie’s birthday…” I sat up, groaning in pain, “Urgh… Poetic.”
Stolen story; please report.
“Mm… What’s the butcher’s bill?”
“Apart from the obvious, you mean? You were shot, just above the left eye socket… Lost most of your cornea, iris, everything. Compromised your optic nerve, too. Had to send a sample of the remains to Biotechnica, they whipped you up a new one. Still on their grace period so you even got it at a discount. Color might be slightly different, but shouldn’t be anything too dramatic.”
“Heh… grace period… lucky me…” Color be damned, as long as it’s natural eyes, I guess…
“Other’n that… Suffered third-degree burns on your left shoulder, parts of your torso and second-degree burns across most of your back. Face was mangled beyond recognition, but I managed to work my magic, restore most of your original appearance… Though I kept the scar from the entry wound on your forehead. Figured you’d wear it with pride.”
“Appreciate it… Anything else?”
“Lots. Took a full house… Five rounds total. Two handgun, three rifle-caliber… Kidney and guts, thigh, back, shoulder, and of course your head. Had to dig out about two feet worth of intestines, plus about 70 percent of your liver… All those will heal up. In time.
“And the optic nerve? Would I need surgery for that? That won’t regenerate.”
“Mm, more on that in a bit,” he nodded, “But nah, shouldn’t need surgery… Anything else you noticed that’s unusual?”
“Actually,” I stopped and thought to myself, “Something does feel wrong…”
“What’s that?”
“It’s… it’s like a… I don’t know… a ringing in my ears… And… I’m seeing double-vision. Striations in the light… Weird glitches… even though that shouldn’t be possible with my natural eyesight… Plus, I think I had some… some sort of hallucinations…”
“Hm…” Vik pondered as I stretched my legs out, “These hallucinations… describe ‘em to me.”
“Actually, I don’t think that ‘hallucination’s’ the right word… I… it was vivid. I… uh… remember standing up on a stage… Blinding lights… And I was so full of hatred…” My eye darted around the room, as if it was searching for answers. “Then I let it all out into a mic. All the hate. And I realize that I didn’t feel any better. It didn’t help…”
“Go on.”
“Promise not to laugh… I… imagined I was Johnny Silverhand… on August 20. Planting a bomb in the old Arasaka Tower…”
“Nothin’ there to laugh about,” he said reassuringly.
“Night City… I looked down upon it. And… And I hated it… Hated everybody. Everything I saw… God…” I teared up, my voice shaky and my lips trembling as Vik sat down in his chair, likely trying to absorb all this. “It was too real… even for a lucid dream… I think… it was a memory of some sort… Sorry, I must sound like I’m insane… Maybe I am insane… I was shot in the head, I mean…”
“No, you’re not insane, V,” he interrupted, “Those were memories… The Relic. There’s a personality construct on it… Those were his memories, which you relived for yourself.”
“How’s that even possible?!” I shook my head in disbelief, a single tear rolling down my cheek, “You mean to say that there’s an actual terrorist living inside my head right now?!”
“That’s right. Johnny Silverhand,” Vik nodded matter-of-factly, “Had his crowning moment ‘bout 50 years ago. AHQ bombing. Assume you’ve heard of it?”
“Yeah… the nuke detonated over the second Arasaka Towers. I’ve visited the memorial many times… Done my own research on it. Team led by Morgan Blackhand went through the bottom, Johnny went down the top. Bomb detonated on the 120th floor, killed a half-million people…”
“Mhmm, so the estimates say. Who knows how many actually died. Not to mention all those affected right through to the 2060s.”
“Yeah… the amount of work we had to put in to rebuild the plaza was… well… a lot…”
“Of that I have no doubt… People say he was buried under the rubble… Hmmph… But that’s not what’s important right now…” Vik slumped over on his stool and glanced down at the floor, unable to bring himself to say anything more.
“In all our years, Vik… You’ve never given me that look… What is it. Please.”
“Y-You… uh… don’t got a lot of time left, kid…” he spoke through a shaky, dead-serious tone.
“What…? Vik…?”
“The biochip. It’s ba…sically a bomb… fuse is lit already… You don’t have much time left, much… life… If things progress the way they are… maybe a month, tops… Silverhand’s construct is… overriding your consciousness – gradually taking over your body. One day, you’ll be just… gone.” He rubbed his temple and shook his head before removing his glasses and wiping away a tear. I could barely hold myself together… I don’t… I can’t… What… “V, it’s important you get all this…”
“I… I don’t believe this, Vik… I’m sorry, but… what are you talking about?! I just dug myself out of the grave and now you’re telling me I have to go right back in it?! I can’t accept that! You know why? Because it doesn’t make any goddamn sense!” I shouted and cursed, slamming my hand on the chair, “There’s got to be a rational explanation for all of this and that isn’t it!… You’re the best, Vik! You’ve been there for me through far worse than this! Why can’t you help me?!”
He took a long pause and shook his head before interlocking his fingers and resting them over his mouth. “Alright… You want the long story or the short?”
“You know the answer I’m gonna give, just tell me.”
“Mm,” he nodded, “Long story? Okay – There was… is… a construct on the chip. A psyche. That of Johnny Silverhand. You jacked it into your chip slot. Nothing happened, right? Until you died.”
“A bullet to the eye courtesy of Dexter DeShawn… But how do you come back from that?”
“Ever heard of a guy named Phineas Gage? Got a railway spike shot through his orbital cavity, came out of the top of his skull. Destroyed most of his frontal lobe… He was a changed man after that, of course. But he survived. As for you… Looks like a lucky shot.”
“Yeah, I feel real lucky…” I muttered.
“Glancing blow. Bullet went into the eye before exiting out of the side of your head, taking a chunk of your blood vessels with it. The round embedded itself in your skull on the inside, had to carve out a large portion of your forehead to remove it… Meanwhile, all those blood vessels… well, you had a stroke, and that took out some, but not everything… Not before the Relic activated, anyway. The nanites off the chip started fixing the damage.Then they took your hand and coaxed you off the path towards the light.”
“And that’s why I can… see these bizarre glitches…?”
“I assume so. The nanites likely repaired most of your optic nerve already. Probably have been doin’ it since you first rose outta the grave, should get your sight back in a day or two at the rate they work.”
“No, Vik, you don’t just die and come back to life… I’m… I don’t even know what… I feel like the Bride of Frankenstein…”
“Your body’s only a body,” he continued, “You can modify it, chrome it, get a new eye for it – hell, you can get a whole new one if you want. Your mind, though? That’s a whole ‘nother story… From the biochip’s perspective, your brain cells are like a tumor that needs to be scooped out. Your body’s an empty shell that can be used to house the construct.”
“So this fucking terrorist is gonna take over my body and walk around like nothing ever happened?!”
“It’s not willful on his part. It’s automatic, inevitable. And neither of you can stop it.”
“Then can’t we just take the fucking thing out? Or turn it off?!”
“Outta the question, you’d die immediately.”
“Why?”
“V, those nanites are the only things holding what’s left of your brain together. The only things. If they fail, you’ll suffer the mother of all strokes and flatline in minutes. Even if you did survive that, you’d be nothing more than an empty vessel at that point. The brain can’t adapt when there’s nothing left of it.”
“Fuck… And to think… this is what they intend to sell to people… ‘Secure Your Soul,’ my ass…”
“Yeah, that’s the commercial one, though. This is a prototype, by the look of things. Probably never saw the outside of an Arasaka lab ‘til Yorinobu stole it. I have no idea how it works, I’m just seein’ what it’s doing and can tell you the consequences of yankin’ it out.”
“Vik… you’ve always come through for me…” I spoke through tears, desperate for any sort of comfort, “If there’s nothing you can do personally, then tell me… What do I have to do?! Why don’t I just end it right here!?”
“Nah, don’t talk like that… You’re better’n that… But… I get your point…” he stood up and crossed his arms, “I wish I knew, kid…” Without another word, he turned his back and headed towards the door, calling out for Misty with a pained, horrible inflection in his voice.
Misty pushed in a wheelchair, lining it up with my bed as Vik left the office. “You’re asking too much from an old-timer like Vik…” she frowned, “Come on, V. Let’s get you home…”
–
“...And then he died… Shot… in the car… And I… I couldn’t stop it… I tried. But I couldn’t…” I confessed as Misty wheeled me into my apartment. “I called out to him, in my sleep… Couldn’t tell if it was sleep or death…”
“Sleep’s a… small hint of death… the inevitable.”
“Can’t tell if I’m actually dead or not… I mean, how would I know?”
“Not something to focus on right now, V… Here, I have some meds for you…” she crouched in front of me, producing a pair of pill containers – one blue, one red.
“Omega blockers,” she shook the blue bottle, “These will help to slow the progression.”
“By how much?”
“Tough to say… Though I suspect it’s at least partially up to you.” Enigmatic, as always… “They should keep that guest of yours quiet as well.”
“And the other one?” I nodded to the red container as she handed me the blue one.
“Pseudoendotrizine. Effect will be the opposite… free the demon, so to speak… Right now, you’re fine… but down the road, who knows… it could be agony. Just given’ you options, honey. Your psyche will slowly fall away. Soon, you won’t even be able to recognize yourself. At some point, your personality will simply… die away. It’ll be terrifying… it’ll be painful. But it doesn’t have to be.”
“Then why bother with pills at all? Why don’t I just take my sword and stab it straight into my gut and be done with it?!”
“Well, that way, you’ll kill two souls. Is that what you want?”
“None of this is what I want… All I want… is… I want to lie down…” I muttered to myself, “I’m sorry, Misty…”
“It’s okay… Vik understands too, I’m sure…”
“Yeah…” I sighed before shifting over to the bed, with Misty sitting down beside me.
“One more thing…” she whispered, handing me a pendant on a chain, “Vik pulled this out of your skull… A lucky charm, perhaps?” The copper jacket was entirely intact, as was the projectile itself… Must’ve been a glancing blow… I can’t believe she did this… after everything… After Jackie…
“I’ll never take it off,” I smiled, carefully donning it and feeling the weight.
“Just remember… as long as you’re alive, there’s hope. You can do this.”
“Misty… be honest with me… Do you really believe that…?”
“Course I do… I mean, you already died and came back once, didn’t you?”
“Hah, fair point,” I laughed, “Look, Misty… um… about Jackie…”
“Yes?”
“I… I tried… I have no words to express…”
“I know… it’s okay…”
“He loved you, you know… Talked about wanting to own a bar… with you… raise children… He… knew… you were the one…” I broke down in tears, “I tried… so hard… and I wasn’t there when he needed me most… I’m so sorry…”
“Hey… it’s okay…” she gripped my shoulder, “It wasn’t your fault…”
“No, it was… I was… supposed to… be there… And I couldn’t… I should… should have…”
“You can say that about so much…” Misty whispered, “Let me tell you a secret… I still feel him… Jackie was rich… Spiritually rich. Perhaps the richest person I’ve ever known… If you want to talk to him, all you have to do… is speak from your heart. Not cry… not scream… Just talk…”
Not scream…
“He touched so many people with his love, you included. He’ll never leave your side.”
“Thanks… Misty…” I said through blurry vision, carefully wiping away the tears so I don’t disturb the bandages encasing the top of my head. She placed her hand on my shoulder and smiled… I never thought I’d see her smile after all of that… After everything… Yet there she was. Smiling.
“Sure you’ll be alright?” I asked her before she left.
“Oh, I’m sure I will…” she nodded, “Life is so beautifully powerful… so much more powerful than death. But right now, you need to rest… So please, sleep.” She gave my shoulder another gentle pet before getting up and collecting the wheelchair, heading out the door and leaving me alone.
I couldn’t… absorb this… all of this… She was right… I desperately needed to sleep… if only to ponder all this in my head…
---
Nanites are why cyberware exists. A nanite is a microscopic machine which interfaces between organic tissue and machine, facilitating the implantation and healing process so the body doesn't reject the metal, or vice-versa. All implants require some form of immunosuppressants or biological compatibility - cyberware, on the other hand, especially those which are far more invasive in nature, necessitate something more potent. Without nanites, the dermal layers under a person's RealSkinn would turn necrotic, for example.
