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  They nail down a time~

  -x-X-x-

  Hanako remains silent for a long moment, clearly considering her options. Alt watches on with both the Arasaka Princess and Michiko completely oblivious to her presence. Finally…

  “Very well. Arrange a meeting. I will agree to a face-to-face… but it will not be able to take pce until the Aratama-Matsuri festival. Yorinobu has asked me to give my father’s eulogy then, and there will be enough noise to mask a… cndestine meeting between the two of us, so long as we keep it short.”

  Michiko hums.

  “The parade will be covered by dozens of Arasaka’s best snipers. Are you sure that’s the best time for a meeting.”

  Scoffing, Hanako’s eyes fsh.

  “You were the one who told me that this ‘V’ had you dead to rights. A bde to your neck in the heart of Arasaka Tower, wasn’t it? If he cannot manage to slip past a handful of snipers with weeks of advance notice, then I’m not sure that’s my problem. This is my offer. I’m sure that once you pass along the message, he’ll take me up on it.”

  She’s right, of course. But hanging up on Michiko immediately after saying as much was rather rude wasn’t it? Alt watches on amused as Michiko gapes in outrage for a moment before huffing and shooting off a message to them with the relevant details. Of course, by the time she’s done compiling the message, Alt has already caught V up to speed on everything that’s going on.

  As a result, his response in the affirmative is almost immediate, leaving Michiko Arasaka to slump back in her chair with a sigh.

  “… Fuck me. Sometimes I hate knowing enough about the world to know when I’m surrounded by whale sharks.”

  Zaburo comes up beside her, pcing a comforting hand on her shoulder, and Michiko gives him a grateful smile even as they share a quiet moment. Alt doesn’t pull back then because she feels like an intruder or anything like that… but rather because they’ve already gotten everything they needed from this exchange.

  The Japantown Parade for the festival wasn’t scheduled for another two weeks… and that meant they had time to deal with other loose ends in the meantime, heh. Of course, first and foremost… now that Puma Squad was no longer breathing down the neck of V’s ripperdoc, it was time for V to get some overdue upgrades…

  -x-X-x-

  Rebecca doesn’t technically have to breathe anymore. But the Gemini Full Body Conversion is specifically designed to resemble a biological person to the best of its abilities. No need to worry about certain irritating bodily functions like going to the bathroom, but she still gives off the appearance of breathing and other things that would make her look inhuman if she didn’t do them. She can even still enjoy food and drink to a certain extent.

  This is all to say, when Rebecca flops down on the couch next to Lucy with a great big sigh, she doesn’t technically have to sigh at all. That she does so is indicative of how she’s currently feeling and prompts a raised eyebrow response from the Netrunner on the couch with her.

  “Something wrong, Rebecca?”

  She really had lived a cursed life, that Lucy of all people was the closest friend she had at this point in time. But then to be fair, she’d literally gone and got herself smashed into smithereens by Adam fucking Smasher, so that probably went without saying. Still, ever since Rebecca had sort of ‘come back from the dead’, she’d been figuring shit out.

  Taking down the Voodoo Boys with V and the rest of them had felt so good that Rebecca had decided to continue tagging along with V any chance she got. They’d done gigs all over the city these past few days, and she’d learned a hell of a lot from the other mercenary. He was better than good, better than any other edgerunner she’d ever worked with. At the same time though…

  “We dealt with a ‘batch’ of cyberpsychos today.”

  That gives Lucy pause and she finally sets down what she was looking at to give Rebecca her full attention.

  “Excuse me? A ‘batch’?”

  Rebecca snorts derisively and nods.

  “That’s how V described them, yeah. It’s kind of eerie, but it’s like he can sniff them out. He’ll suddenly have us detour between gigs some days and just tackle a cyberpsycho out of nowhere. Always for the same chick, this Regina dy.”

  Lucy makes a noise in the back of her throat at that.

  “Regina Jones. She’s probably the biggest Fixer in Watson at this point. Rumor has it that she’s on a personal crusade against Cyberpsychosis too, so I guess it tracks.”

  Grunting to acknowledge Lucy’s words, Rebecca continues on.

  “So anyways, today he tells me that the whole day is gonna be cyberpsychos. Four of them, back to back.”

  That gets a frown from Lucy, along with a narrowing of the eyes.

  “Seriously? I know it’s a problem in Night City, but four in one day. That’s… was Jones saving them up or something?”

  Rebecca shakes her head.

  “Nah, that’s just it. The Regina woman sounded as surprised as I was when V just kept finding them. It’s like his information was better than hers. And she’s supposed to be the damn Fixer! I mean, it all went fine I guess. We took down all four cyberpsychos without any issues. It’s just…”

  Here, she trails off, huffing some more. Lucy tilts her head to the side.

  “Spit it out already, Rebecca. Obviously something is bothering you. You wouldn’t have kept it bottled up before. No reason to start now.”

  At the mention of ‘before’, Rebecca stiffens. Looking at Lucy, she scowls.

  “Wouldn’t I? I bottled up my love for David long enough to lose him to you. Bottled up everything really, even as far back as Sasha’s death…”

  Lucy purses her lips together for a moment before inclining her head.

  “Sorry. But at the same time… look where that got you. Where it got us. Maybe it’s time to turn over a new leaf, yeah? I’m here. I’m listening.”

  Huffing out a ugh, Rebecca crosses her arms over her chest.

  “I don’t mind V dealing with cyberpsychos. He always gives me the chance to come along or not too. My problem is how he handles them… its always with the kid gloves. He’s always gotta go nonlethal and if I’m along for the ride, he either puts me on support or makes me stay back while he handles it."

  Here, Lucy’s brow furrows even harder.

  “Nonlethal? Against fucking cyberpsychos? Is he…”

  She trails off instead of saying the word ‘stupid’, but they both know what she was going to say anyways. And yet, how can Lucy ask that given everything they’ve seen V manage to do so far? The man is almost singlehandedly tearing a path through Night City that would make any edgerunner incredibly jealous. And even though he has a team in the form of them and Alt and Sasha and Panam... it sometimes feels like they’re all just along for the ride and it’s really just V and his one-man show.

  Maybe that’s why Rebecca can’t help but tagalong even on the cyberpsycho gigs, despite her history with them. Because she doesn’t want to get left behind… not ever again.

  “He has a one hundred percent success rate, Lucy. Every single cyberpsycho we’ve gone up again, that HE’s gone up against… he’s been able to take them all down without killing them. The Regina dy likes it better that way mind you. She takes them off our hands. I guess what you said earlier makes sense… she’s trying to fight Cyberpsychosis, not just cyberpsychos. Crusade is a good word for it…”

  Suddenly, Lucy leans over and wraps an arm around Rebecca’s shoulders, pulling her into a one-armed hug. The shorter woman squeaks a little bit at the sudden skinship, even as she squirms in Lucy’s grasp.

  “W-What the hell are you doing?”

  “Hugging you. Because I get it. Cyberpsychosis… it took a lot from you. From us. You know… you don’t have to go with V on those gigs. You could hang with me whenever he goes and deals with a cyberpsycho.”

  She gets that Lucy is just trying to offer her an out and she appreciates the sentiment… but Rebecca still scoffs and rolls her eyes.

  “And do what? Watch you do boring Netrunner shit for who knows how long? Nah, I’m good. Besides… maybe it’s helping, just a little bit.”

  The look Lucy gives her is bordering on incredulous, causing Rebecca to huff again.

  “I’m serious. Look… originally I thought V was leaving those psychotic bastards alive because Regina paid better or something. So I mentioned it kind of offhandedly. And then he stopped and we had a long talk about why he was really doing it.”

  Rebecca grins a little at how intrigued Lucy looks now. She briefly considers being an ass and drawing it out longer to really make the Netrunner wait… but nah. In the end, she gives a half shrug.

  “Did you know that the corporations make sure their cyberware is only really compatible with their cyberware? Basically, if you stick to one single brand of cyberware, you’re far less likely to fall into Cyberpsychosis than if you try to mix and match Militech and Arasaka and all the rest together. It’s not the only reason for cyberpsychos, but it’s one of the big ones. And it’s on purpose too.”

  Tilting her head back, Rebecca stares at the ceiling as she parrots what V had told her.

  “They make it uncomfortable for anyone to dare try and pair up different brands of cyberware. They’re too fucking smart about it though. Nothing so obvious as outright banning you from using different corps’ cyberware. Just an extra itch here and there. And maybe the slightest bit of lowered performance. Shit to make you feel fucking off until maybe you try out different cyberware to fix it and maybe you go with the same brand this time. Or maybe, because you don’t realize the problem, you get more cyberware to compensate for it. Until you’re packed to the gills with chrome from half a dozen different corporations and can’t even think straight.”

  Gnashing her teeth, Rebecca has the urge to punch something. Only Lucy’s arm still wrapped around her shoulders keeps her calm enough to refrain.

  “It just… really puts it all into perspective, you know? Combined with my own circumstances. I think… after Pir I definitely hated cyberpsychos. And then after Maine, it got even worse. When I saw David starting to fall into the same pitfalls… maybe I thought less of him, even as I still fell in love with him.”

  Bringing her hands up, Rebecca grinds the heels of her palms into her optics for a moment. If she doesn’t, she thinks she might scream.

  “Now though… now I just want to take my fucking shotgun and blow holes in corpo scum until there’s nothing left of them. Until they’re all fucking dead. But they’d just repced by more fucking suits, wouldn’t they? So what’s the point?”

  Silence falls over the two of them for a long moment as Lucy considers how to answer that. Rebecca waits, curious to see if the Netrunner has anything better than empty ptitudes for her. She’s not expecting much admittedly.

  “… When Alt came to find me so I would help you out, do you know what I was doing? I was preparing to take the fight to Arasaka, even though I was lying to myself and pretending like I was just trying to keep an eye on them so I didn’t get caught again. I escaped. Made it all the way to the Moon. I was out of Arasaka’s reach. And then I came right back to Night City. Why? Not because it’s home or because it’s all I know. But because I wasn’t done here yet. I wasn’t done with Arasaka.”

  Lucy’s grip on Rebecca’s shoulder tightens.

  “Alt and V… I think they might be our best shot at getting something done. They’ve already promised me Smasher. Once that bastard is dead, I know I’ll sleep easier. But not soundly. Not until Arasaka has fully paid for what it did to us and David. And… from the sound of things, V isn’t just a mercenary building his legend. He wouldn’t need to take every cyberpsycho you guys go after alive if that was all he cared about. He’s working with Jones to try and find solutions to Cyberpsychosis… maybe even a cure.”

  Sighing, Lucy leans her head back and stares at the ceiling as well.

  “You ask me what’s the point? The point is… fuck ‘em. Fuck all of them. We’re still here. Despite everything they did to us, we’re still here. And I know for a fact that David would be proud of us for sticking together and toughing it out. We aren’t just going to give up. Right?”

  Rebecca nods, a little choked up by Lucy’s words. For a long moment, they just sit there together in more companionable silence than they’d ever managed during Rebecca’s first life. Finally though, as the seconds drag into minutes, the shorter woman can’t hold her tongue anymore. Especially not with how Lucy just got done invoking David.

  “… I think I’m falling in love with V, Luce. And I don’t know what to do.”

  Slowly, Lucy looks down at Rebecca. In turn, Rebecca looks up at Lucy, impatiently waiting for her response. When it finally comes… well, suffice to say, it could have been better. All those damn words about sticking it to the Corpos and fighting Cyberpsychosis and all Lucy can say in the face of Rebecca’s confession is…

  “Oh.”

  Yeah.

  -x-X-x- The Vote: [X] Lucy encourages Rebecca to go for it - 92%[ ] Lucy tells Rebecca maybe she should hold off - 8%

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