~•Flatlined•~ [Female V + Judy]

[XXVII]_holding_on_[27]

Sandevistan? Kid, ugh, you really think-

No, I don't. I KNOW. My body has taken to the new lungs, new legs, why so stubborn when I ask for the Sandevi?

I knew a kid like you before, a bit younger albeit. Thinking he could chrome the fuck up without blowing his brains out. Seemed to handle chrone just fine until the Sandevistan. Kid became a grade S cyberpyscho case, very violent. Very bloody. Took 40 Max Tac Alphas to finally flatline him, after he killed a few thousand innocent people.

Just cuz some kid went pyscho, you don't trust me?

It's not just about the chrome, V. What if you go pyscho too?

I won't.

You will. I see it time and time again.

Then, these fuckers better call in the big guns, cuz I'm not dying to some wimpy Alpha. Don't care how many guns they got.

(Sigh) You really hell bent on this huh?

Vik, if I couldn't handle this, I'd hightail my ass outta this city asap. I have nothing left in life to lose so if I do go mad, oh well.

Your call, kid. I'm not gonna stop you anymore. Lay on the chair.
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The ringing in my ears, the smoke in my lungs, debris all around me. The bloody bomb worked.

"Thank you Mitch," I whispered under ny breath before hightailing it through the smoke and rubble, mantis blades at the ready. Alarms blaired and sirens screetched as we bolted down empty hallways. "ARE ALL THE SAKA FUCKERS ON VACATION?!" I yelled, getting more and more worried I fucked everyone over with this half baked plan. If everyone's dead because of me.....
I shook my head at the thought.
They're Marksmyths, they'll be fine.

The thunderous echo of boots against tiled flooring filled the soundspace as we turned down a coridoor into a wide office hallway.

"They're ready for us," Judy spoke. I cracked my neck and stood infront of the group, feeling myself drift off the edge of sanity.

"There's no going back from this, Juds," I looked at my lover with uncertainty. "If I don't come back this time....leave me. Run." Something inside of me snapped like a broken cd under car tires. I knew the pyschosis won. Feeling the rage and malice overwhelm me, I smiled as dozens upon dozens of Saka agents aimed their rifles at me.

"Surrendure or die," one of them yelled. I scoffed as my Sandevistan activated. Sprinting around the group, I pulled the trigger of my pistol into the back of six of their skulls, their bodies collasping in mere nanoseconds. As the effects of it wore off, I stood behind the army covered in blood.

"COME GET ME THEN, FUCKERS," I roared as I unleashed my mantis blades. Bullets ricorchet off the chrome exoskeleton suit as I smiled, feeling blood drip from my eyes. "You've messed with the wrong merc!!!" Plasma blades ripped through Saka flesh and chrome with ease as damned screams echoed throughout the building. Standing in tainted blood, I looked up at Juds, Panam, and the others before continuing towards the bottom levels.

"She's ruthless," I heard Panam whisper. You bet I fucking am.

"So when we get to Mikoshi, what then, V?" Violet asked. I shrugged.

"I'll jack in and then....we'll see." I replied blantly. Stopping at an armored door, one, two, three punches and it shattered onto the floor. White tile flooring, white tiled walls and a pool of water surrounding a tall data center. "Must be it." As I took a step forward, I fell to my knees as the agonizing pain in my head came back full throttle. "SHITTTTT!!" I scrambled into my pocket for the last anti-pyschotics and swallowed them. Gasping for air, I found myself laying on the floor as blood dripped from my nostrils. "This....this is it. I'm getting this shit done one way...or another...." I spat out some blood into the pool of water as I stood to my feet.

"WE'RE HERE," Vel yelled as they gasped for air alongside Mitch, Saul and the rest of my siblings. I smiled and walked over towards everyone.

"Thank you guys....for everything." Saul placed a C4 into my hands before I could get sappy.

"Don't thank us yet. Thank us when that virus is gone and you're out safe." I nodded.

"We are gonna see you outta here, right, V?" Vincent asked.

"I'm not going down without a fight, lil bro. I'mma see you again." He nodded but I could tell he didn't truly believe my words. There was simple pleasurly exchanges between the rest of the Aldecaldos and myself and then I turned towards Judy. "I will see you again, mi amor." Judy looked at me with tearful eyes.

"Promise?" I felt guilty for giving false hope to everyone but I nodded.

"Promise." I gave her one last kiss before walking towards my end, the inevitable demise. Placing the C4 on the router, I chipped in and fell back into the cooling waters of Mikoshi, all I heard was a familiar voice saying "Wake the fuck up, Samaurai. We have a city to burn."
_____

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...
.....

"Ugh....my head...." I groaned. I rubbed my forehead and stood up, finding myself in a void made of coding. My body, my thoughts, all reduced down to ones and zeros. The feeling of tv static never leaving my bones-skin-whatever you call this body that isn't truly a body. It was a sensation not unusual to me. "This better be the last time I'm soulkilled." I grumbled as I walked up the illuminated stairway infront of me.

"Night City's most pyschotic killer, reduced to mere coding, tsk tsk tsk. How shameful." I snapped my head to find a discombobulated coded figure behind me, like a shadow into the floor.

"Vaya," I growled.

"What's the long face? Mad because you got zapped?!" Ignoring the creature, I continued walking until I saw a familiar rockerboy standing ontop of the stairwell.

"JOHNNY!" I ran up to him and hugged him. Despite being made of numbers, he felt real enough.

"Kid, you're here?! That means-"

"Yeah, she zapped herself, good riddance I'll say." Vaya chimmed in. Johnny scoffed and lit a cigarette. "So when you gonna tell her she's doomed to die?" If there was a feeling to describe speedrunning through the stages of grief, I felt that emotion. Johnny sighed and flung his cigarette into the void below.

"Alt was gonna mention that-" Johnny began before a giant pixelated women in an all white runners suit coded before our very eyes.

"The virus and Johnny are right, V. Your body will be doomed. The biochip has become too, how you say, 'corrupted'."

"But it's MY BODY!!!" I yelled.

"The biochip has conformed to Johnny. If he were to take full control of the body as sole host-"

"Now now now, listen here Alt. Isn't there a way to co-exist without, ya know, killing the poor fucker?!" Johnny looked enraged at the thought of taking my body.

"What about me?!" Vaja yelled in frustration.

"You and V are bound as one. You'll also perish being in her body any longer."

"Well, how long would she have to live?" Johnny asked. "A few years or-"

"No. V will die in six months give or take. The biochip will destroy her from the inside out. You, however, are the perfect host for the corrupted chip-"

"Do it." I blurted outloud. Johnny looked shocked at my words. "Silverhand, I know we haven't been great friends. You tried to kill me, I tried to kill you and myself but....." I sighed. "Been kinda fun having you around, making life a bit more chaotic and bearable, in some ways. Maybe I was wrong to think of you as nothing more than a rockerboy terrorist. Wish we could've been friends longer but..." I peered over the edge into an endless void of night.

"Do you wish to become part of the vast engram system, and join me beyond the Blackwall, V?" Alt asked. I took one last look and Johnny before hugging him tight.

"Take care of Juds for me." Were my last words to him as I jumped into the abyss, dragging Vaja screaming down with me. "Finally, I'll be free." I took one last breath before closing my eyes and accepting the code shattering experience, beyond the Blackwall.