Cyberpunk 2077: V

Chapter 73: Lock In

Light rippled across the black in faint red and pink balloons of color, popping back to dark. V's ears rang, her body feeling like it weighed twenty tons. Suddenly a med diagnostic spat across her HUD, the info scrambled a moment before it read clearer. Something about minor cuts and lacerations. Something about her right ankle.

A stab of pain woke V up sharply and she gasped, eyes snapping open to see nothing but red and Jackie.

Jackie groaned as he pushed himself up. He lay a few feet away from V, the Relic case haphazardly askew between them.

V blinked, focused. They were in some sort of maintenance room. Corrugated, open metal flooring under V's fingers caught her nails. The heat of steam and smell of hot electronics curled up around them. The wall to their left was concrete. The wall to their right held machine interfaces and dials and levers. She looked upward, blinking as a spotlight flitted over the shattered skylight high above.

"Oh shit," Jackie breathed, propping up against the wall, reaching out a hand to the Relic case.

V focused on it now, her head clearing, and inhaled sharply when she finally saw just how bent and battered the case was; as well as the splash of blood across the top of it. Judging by the cooling trails of red flowing under her white shirt from glass cuts, V figured some of her blood got on the case as they fell. It was the only explanation. The blood couldn't be Jackie's.

It couldn't.

Jackie grimaced in pain and fear as he called out, "The Relic! Case is beat up bad... ¡Madres! Agh... Oh, this ain't good... agh..."

Another stab of pain jolted through V's leg and she looked down at the source—her right ankle. She froze when she saw it swollen, canted at an angle she knew wasn't right. As if acknowledging the injury finally registered something in her brain, the pain came in full force, pounding in time with her racing heartbeat, causing her to gasp and grab at it.

This was not good; this was NOT the right time (not that there was ever a right time) for an injury like this. V hissed and held on to her ankle, feeling the swelling, grimacing as she pushed her fingers through the purpling flesh to feel bone and tendon.

Fix yourself, V mentally snarled. No time, no time—fix yourself, we gotta move move move!

With a silent scream she hid from Jackie's view with her arm, V felt what she needed to, then pulled out and to the right. The sensations were hellish and the pain intense, but she felt everything seem to "click" into the right place again. Felt warmth flood through her leg like fire. And a sort of crackle of electricity. Felt things... knitting back together almost, maybe? Felt-

V looked over at Jackie, sweat dripping down the side of her face, mingling with the blood flowing down her chin from a cut on the left side of her cheek.

"We-" she started to say; but then Jackie moved again, propping himself up further, hissing with pain, face shining with sweat as a hand came up to his abdomen. His hand was dark, darker than his suit.

She smelled it then. Jackie's blood. She could tell. She heard a dripping sound.

V's heart stopped.

"J-Jackie!" she stuttered, tears springing to her eyes. "You're bleeding!"

A light of defiance roared to life in Jackie's eyes and he gestured with his hand, red droplets flying across the space between him and V as he continued to lean over the Relic case protectively.

"Worry about me later! Relic's bashed up!" He looked down at the screen inlaid into the carry case. "It says, 'Container depressurized. Biochip integrity at ninety-four percent.'"