Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

“DumDum, Boss man wants to see you.” The walkie interrupted the quiet he was enjoying. Going to Totentanz later, he was already sick of the music he knew would be blasting.

“What’s he want?”

“Fuck if I know, man, just go see him. I’m just the messenger.”

He sighed, took a huff of S-Keef, and stood up. “Fine, on my way.”

He left the comfort of what he called a room: just a couch, some piles of clothes, and some food boxes in the corner. He made a mental note to pick up the trash later as he walked out the door. A couple more huffs as he stomped his way to Royce’s area. Always on the fucking clock, not that he had anything to do. BD’s maybe, get high and just sit on his couch.

As he turned the corner to the office, Lars stopped him with a hand out. “Hey man, boss is in a fucking mood.”

“When is he not?” Dum scoffed, as though there was ever a time when Simon wasn’t a ticking time bomb. He pushed past Lars, who shook his head.

He walked into the room, not bothering to knock, just rolling in. Royce was pacing back and forth, gun in one hand, absentmindedly waving it for effect. Phone in the other. “We get the fucking scrolls at least? Fuck. Fine. Yeah, yeah.”

He motioned for Dum to have a seat; Dum did. Extending his arm out on the back of the couch, he took another huff. The lace took the edge off. He knew with the half of the conversation he was hearing, he was going to be busy with some dumb fucking job.

“Fuck me, K.” Royce, as he wanted to be called, hung up the phone and sat down in his chair. Pushing the gun on the table between them. “Got a fucking merc problem.”

This, this was new. Normally, mercs left them alone. Everyone did.

“So zero ‘em?” They killed anyone who crossed them; almost no one survived them. That was just the order of things.
“Can’t catch 'em. They took out a bunch of our guys, then disappeared.” So a good merc.

“Okay, they leave the territory? We’ll get ‘em when they come back then.”

“There's more to it; they hit us at the clinic, swiped Lucy.”

“Fuck.” That was… not the biggest hit, but three ripperdocs really helped things run more smoothly. Down one wasn’t good news.

“They also hit the Haven. Klepped a scroll of initiation.” Now that, that wasn’t good. They had secrets, secrets they didn’t want out. Someone having that? Fucked.

“Fucking hell.” He paused for a moment in case Royce wanted to continue, he didn’t.

“What you want me to do?”

“Investigate. Get the merc. None of the scrolls from the guys can be taken, but maybe the cameras.”

“Why no scrolls?” He turned his head, that wasn’t usually a problem for them. They always had everything scrolled, and it was easier to zero anyone who wronged them.

“No fucking heads.” He said it point-blank, deadpan. As if it didn’t bother him, but Dum knew his face ticks from even before he got chromed, and his chin tensing gave him away.

“Shit.” He scratched the back of his head, a nervous habit. He could barely feel it anymore, but the motion was instinctual. “Want me to hunt ‘em down and zero ‘em when we find them?”

“Fuck Dum Dum, no, I want you to tell them we love their work and kindly ask that they stop killing our guys. Fucking of course you fucking zero them. And make sure they got no fucking head after. Got it.”

He stood up, hands on his knees, “Got it. Guess I’ll go to the clinic now. Have to miss Totentanz.”

“You can start tomorrow if you wanna get fucking loaded first.”
“Nah, I’m good, just gonna hunt this merc down.” He knew no one else would have been given that option; being second to the new boss was a good place to be in the gang. He and Simon joined around the same time; it wasn’t really something you thought about in Maelstrom. Being friends with your fellow gang members, but he was confident they were chooms. He got…closer to special treatment than anyone else did.

Especially after Dum helped him pull off a coup not long ago, they worked their first hundred or so gigs together in the early years. Now here they were, the boss and the boss’s right-hand man.

“K. And Dum, I’m serious about the head thing. I want it fucking gone.”

The drive was quiet; Dum liked it. He had Lars and Vex with him, but they knew they drove in silence when Dum was the one driving. First, they went to the clinic where Lucy had been. It was late, dark out, but it’s not like the dark made it hard to see.

Probably made it easier with the optics. He pulled up to the lot on the left. Getting out, they walked around to the front. Bodies, seven. Blood, real and synthetic, drying on the pavement. They were used to violence, of course, but this was a lot, and Vex still had to walk back around to catch some air.

“Lars, look if there’s any cameras left. If there is, pull it and bring it to me.” The guns were gone. And like Simon had said, not a single fucking head intact. Based on the bits left, necks, and what heads were just taking chunks out of, shotgun to the head, most likely—every single one.

He stood back up and walked to the other side. There were bullet holes in the pillar, the merc must have used for cover. There was also a puddle of dried blood a couple of feet out, probably took a bullet. Scanning the puddle showed some tire marks, might’ve been a car here.

He walked in the building now. Vex was examining a panel in the ceiling. “Merc must have climbed up the back, come through the window, then jumped down.” Then got in a shoot-out in the front? That’s weird.

Dum and Vex were both just staring at the ceiling panel when Lars spoke up. “One camera. Got some of the outside, but most of the inside. Didn’t see her sneaking around. But got her gunning down the guys. Looks like she snuck Lucy out, then came back and shot up the place.”

“Her?” Dum would have raised an eyebrow if he had one; he didn’t know why, but it being a woman was surprising to him somehow.

“Yeah, face blurred, but definitely a woman.” Lars handed over the chip. “There’s also one guy without a head on the operating table. Looks like Lucy was working, and she just zeroed the guy. I think it was Otto.”

“Fuck. Someone's gonna have to tell Kurt.” Vex expressed. “Fucking unbelievable.”

Dum slotted in the chip, watching the camera roll. Nothing happening at first, then the camera picked up the movement outside. Guns blazing, several guys shooting at where the car would have been. Couldn’t see that far—one guy down, second guy down. Third guy got it to the face and hit the ground. Some more gunfire, then it was silent.

Walking into the camera view, then, face blurred, but jet black hair. She went up to the bodies on the ground. Shotgun blast to the faces, a double tap. He smirked at that. Sure, she was killing his guys, but he had to recognize the commitment. She walked more into the building, on camera, picking up her whole form now.

Black hair down her back, a bright pink shirt, bold for slaughtering gang members, given how easily it could be spotted. Black pants, and heeled boots. She had a pink shotgun and was aiming it at… He looked up with the optics not watching the scroll.

Yeah, she had shot the camera in that corner, and then the other corner. She was looking at the one camera, the one he got the scroll from. Or at least, facing it. She turned around, and he saw the car that had been out front pulling out of the parking lot.

She had stolen their ripper, killed eight guys, and clepped one of their cars. Fucking hell.
“Alright, I think we got everything here. Let's head to the Haven.”

As they climbed into Dums's car, Vex spoke up, “We thinking the same merc zeroed the guys there too?”
“Think so, yeah, also got a scroll of initiation.” The drive wasn’t far, just a couple minutes.
“Fuck, why? What use they got for that?” Dum didn’t know the answer. But it wasn’t good letting any non-Maelstromer see that.

Even if they had no clue what they were watching, that shit just wasn’t good for looks. Not that the gang had a positive reputation, or that it could get any worse, really. “Don’t know. But we gotta get that scroll back, and get the head of our mystery merc.” Vex and Lars scoffed at that.
The look was the same as they pulled up to the Haven. Bodies scattered around, all headless, no guns. No cars neither. Don’t know how she would have managed to steal another car and leave the scene with both of them.

Dum kneeled down to look at one of the bodies. Brandon he’d been on patrols with him for a couple years, but got posted guarding for the past two. They weren’t friends, but Brandon had saved his ass once or twice.

There was nothing left of his head; only knew him by his jacket and boots. Not even his neck cybernetics were left intact enough to tell.

He sighed, scratching his head with his gun. “Lars, go look for a video. Vex, see if you can figure out how she got in, or if she came in through the front. I’ll have a look around.”

He did a walk-through, mystery merc took quite a lot, all the meds lying around, all the eddies, less the goons decided to do some cleaning and organizing, but unlikely. She even jacked into some of the networks; it seemed, at least, that’s what he imagined with how stuff was pushed out of the way in front of two of them.

She had exploded some spots of the upstairs, must have shot the tanks. Scorch marks in concentrated spots. The room where the scroll had been kept, where they kept most of the scrolls, had its door brute-forced open. She had some strength or guerrilla arms.

He’d have to check if they got a video back. He made his way back to the front, with Vex meeting him.

“She climbed in the back window, I think. It was opened, some crates pushed closer to climb up.” Dum laughed at that. She snuck in, grabbed what she wanted, then what?

Just started firing again. Why even do the whole sneaking thing if she was just going to start a firefight anyway? Must of been she got caught. No way she’d be that gonk to sneak, get away with it, then still pick a fight with Maelstrom. That or girl had no fear, or just wanted to see them all dead. “Lars! You get anything?”

“One, pulling it off now.”

Dum glanced up in the corners where cameras would usually be. Shot out, of course. He took the chip as Lars came up behind them, slotting in to watch the girl in action again. Felt a weird emotion with that, like…it was exciting to see her put down his own gang. She was good.

This camera was from out front, same story as before, but with full view. She was wearing the same outfit, but with a jacket this time. Using a different pink gun, a revolver.

She ran out of bullets and, without a care, just flicked it with her wrist to pop out the old round while spinning behind the corner. Bullets hitting the wall. She just popped back out and point-blank shot the three left. Direct to the face. Like she was using their optics as targets.

It was….insanely impressive. For a split second, he wondered if they could find a way to recruit her. She’d be a fucking powerhouse. Clearly better than any of his guys by far.

He didn’t realize he had been smiling till he felt his mouth twitch. This shit was crazy, and he was absolutely admiring her work.

“Dum, what the fuck, man?” Vex asked, starting at the smiling man.

“She’s a fucking powerhouse, man, I ain't never seen anything like it.”

Lars just looked over at Vex and nodded, “It’s fucking impressive. She doesn’t even flinch.”

“Shit, can I see?” Dum had been rewinding and fast-forwarding a bit. Just to rewatch her spinning behind the wall. It was… he didn’t have the word for it.

“Shit, sure, yeah.” He pulled out the chip and handed it over.

Vex chipped in and watched for a minute while Lars and Dum just watched his reaction.

“She just leave the one camera?”

“Yeah, just the one. You see her stare it down before she got in the car? Then come back a couple minutes later, and take the other? Where the fuck are the cars?”

“I didn’t even watch to the end. I was watching that spin behind the wall. I’ll watch it though. She really just walk back for the car?”

“Yeah, man, but like… kept hidden under the camera, so you just see the car driving off.”

“Fuck. She’s… a professional that’s for sure.”

“It's kind of hot.” Lars smirked at that, looking at Dum. But immediately realizing what he just said, he dropped it.

“Ha. Ha. Shit man, it kind of is.” Matching his smirk, and leaning in a bit, to remind him that while he was technically above him now, he could still say gonk shit to him.

“You’re both fucked in the head.” Looked like Vex was done watching. “That’s fucking insane. What are we gonna tell Royce?”

“Dunno yet. We gotta get that scroll back, but I don’t know where to even start.”

“Finding a merc in Night City who got a personal vendetta against us? You think she’ll come back around, pick a fight. Or we gotta hunt her down.” Vex handed Dum back the scroll, he pocketed it in his vest. “Y’all wanna head back to All Foods, or Totentanz?”

The two looked at each other, then back at him, and in unison, “Totentanz.”

Chapter Text

Dum had just dropped the guys off, wasn’t in the mood to pretend to fucking enjoy Tinnitus. He made it back to All Foods in less than an hour, settling in to his room on the couch with a beer, a couple huffs of S-Keef, then the video back replaying.

Partially to try and get any fucking lead, but… he found himself rewinding and rewatching that spin. The way she didn’t even care that she was being shot at, that she was incredibly outnumbered. She spun behind the corner like she had been dancing.

He thought about it, if she danced, if she seemed like the type who’d hang out at Totentanz, or if a different bar would be her type. Fuck, what the fuck was he thinking about? He was supposed to find out who she was so he could fucking kill her. What the fuck was he doing?

He was on the second beer before he decided he needed to focus and actually find something fucking helpful.

He restarted the video, then zoomed in. Tried to tinker with the settings, see if he could get her face unblurred, nothing. She must have had some higher-end deck and optics for him not to be able to change it at all.

Cyberware, that’s something he could look for. He paused and zoomed in on her more so, she had monowire, not sure what kind, but definitely monowire. So no guerrilla arms, she was just strong.

She looked it, her shoulders and hands looked strong. She had tattoos, but he couldn’t quite make them out. Looked like a V on her neck. That could be something. He wished he could see her face.

For the obvious reason of identification. But he quickly found the thoughts going a different direction. If her face was as preem as the rest of her… Fuck. What the fuck. He was supposed to kill her, and here he was wondering if she was as hot as he thought she was. What the fuck.

It had been a couple weeks since the merc had started a one-woman war with Maelstrom. No progress. Dum had even reached out to their middleman for the local fixer, Regina something. Their middleman got in front of her, but she refused to answer a single question.

As far as they knew, she’d never heard anything about stealing from Maelstrom. No ripperdoc kidnapping, nothing maelstrom. The middleman got kicked out for asking too much. Reported back to Dum with fucking nothing.

A couple more guys got killed, some who had been holeing up at some shipping containers near the dock. They nabbed some monks and chromed up one, before they started ripping into the other, all of them got the no head treatment.

One camera left yet again. This time, the heads were taken off with the monowire.

More spinning around corners and sneaking about. She freed the monk, then came back to finish the job. Her use of the wire was amazing in such close corners. It was thermal. Catourizing the wounds as she made them, slicing heads and limbs.

There were, of course, no scrolls, though, as she took the heads off with the wire, the heads still got the fucking shotgun.

He couldn’t help but feel this was a bit personal at this point. Unless she was just as brutal with every other gang she shot up. If she went after others, she didn’t seem like she noticeably aligned with one. Maybe the Valentinos, if anything. She didn’t seem local to just Northside; she’d disappear for a while.

No longer than a week before another crime scene matching her MO would show up, though. So once a week, she’d hunt some Maelstrom.

Dum and Lars were on the scene of the shipping containers as soon as alarms went off, triggered when the monk had disappeared.

They were in the car and on the road, and there in ten from the factory, but she had decapitated all the guys, stolen the guns, and swiped a car in those ten minutes.

Another squad car showed up, too; some guys just in the area. They followed her a ways up the road, but she killed half of them before they even got out of the car, and the other three were spread around the car in the street.

All guns taken, and the car with the bodies was left just in the middle of the road. This time, Lars was able to get a partial scroll of one of the girls in the car. It cut in and out, but showed just the same as they were used to.

Blurry-faced merc, this time a revolver, same damage as the shotgun, so she must have a good model and added mods on top of that. Not a lot of the scroll got her, just her coming up to the window and shooting twice. Then the rest was just gunfire and the scroller dying. She didn’t go back to double-tap the heads in the car, just took their weapons.

Dum found himself wondering about her while doing his regular work, too. Did she have an armoury? Did she sell everything? Could… could they trace anything by selling?

Surely she wouldn’t be stupid enough to sell the guns at the vendors around Northside, but it was worth a shot. Asking about her if they could. They had a couple vendors who didn’t close up shop when Maelstrom walked up. But still, he figured he’d try to go this alone, just in case only seeing one strommer would make someone more likely to talk.

He’d have to find out what guns she had taken. That night, he watched back the cameras, and while most of the guns he saw on screen were generic as fuck, he figured maybe asking about someone selling in large quantities would maybe jog their memory. It was a pathetic lead, but it wasn’t like she was going to walk into their den and turn herself in.

The next day, he told the guys he had on patrol with him, Ash and Vex, that he’d just be a couple minutes pulling up to the Cargo Bay.

Ash offered to go check up on the guys on their newest patrol. Royce had gotten some new BD editors, he said were the best in the biz. Not sure if he bought them or threatened them. But they built them a whole new office and had just started a new patrol of guys; it had been an abandoned place, but like all the territory maelstrom had, you just kill or kick out the squatters, and it’s yours.

It didn’t help much, but Dum wore his hoodie up, just to hide as much as he could from the cops in his periphery. Everyone still moved out of his way, even though he walked slowly and left his bigger iron in the car, he still had DoomDoom hidden, of course, but from the back and some of the side, he just looked like every usual guy in the city.

He didn’t go anywhere without his guys all that often, probably only a handful of times in the past ten years. It was different when you're a solo maelstrom, rather than a crowd. He walked slowly, so as not to attract the attention of any trigger-happy cop or solo. Kept his face down, but that wouldn’t help much either. Just a habit. But he was in front of the iron vendor fast enough.

“What the fuck do you want?”

“I uh, got a question for you.” He never thought about how his voice sounded different; it was so normal to him until he talked to someone whose voice wasn’t tinted in chrome.

“This look like a question stall? Fuck no. You buy, or you leave.”

God, was this a good idea? Fuck no. Why did he think this would work at all? He should have sent one of the less chromed up, the middleman, or at least one of the girls. Why the fuck was he here?

“Look, I just wanna know if anyone sold a lot of guns here recently.” The vendor has his arms crossed, but was definitely tensing, no doubt prepping to grab whichever iron was loaded and aim for his face. “Some of ours… uh.. Went missing.” It seemed easier to add more to get him to talk, but his shift in tense shoulders showed this was a waste of time.

“You think I keep clientele if I answer any ganger who asks about them? Fuck out of here, ‘fore I show you what I sell.”

Dum backed off and turned to leave. “Fine.” Fuck what a stupid idea.

Back to square one. He shuffled out of the market and down to the new base. He took to the right, avoiding the squad car on the left and the badges in front. It was weird, cops looked the other way if it was him and Lars, but just him. He so rarely found himself… nervous wasn’t the word. But aware of his…choices.

It wasn’t far; he was there in less than five minutes, nodding to the guys out front. He didn’t know their names, but they knew him.

A vastly different reaction than the fleshies he was walking near moments ago. In Maelstrom, he was respected, a leader. Not the leader, but he far more a leader than anyone else in the gang. They came to him if they had a problem, more often than not if they fucked up and someone had to tell Royce. It was just universally accepted that Royce took bad news from him better than anyone else.

He made his way up the stairs, where they all motioned that Ash and Vex had made their way up to. He got to the editing room, the two new men, a father and son bd editing pros. Fucked up family business. Ash was actually talking to the duo about a scroll of theirs he appreciated.

Vex had walked in with two coffees, handing one to Ash. He silently offered it to Dum, but Dum shook it off, Vex just taking a sip and then contributing to the conversation they were having.

These guys seemed that talking to Maelstrom didn’t bother them. Probably couldn’t with the fucked up shit they saw every day.

Dum took a couple of huffs as he waited to the back, just letting the guys have their chat. He found his eyes on the screen to the right, left on some messages. Descriptions of the BD’s on the editing menu. Disgusting shit. The side of business Dum preferred not be a part of.

He was not new to the fucked up shit, but he’d rather zero mercs than step foot into the BD sets. That shit was always more Brick. If they were gonna be a nightmare gang, then they might as well go for every type of nightmare.

Royce seemed far more ambivalent, but Dum knew he enjoyed the XBD’s more than the slave trade they sometimes dabbled in. Dum spent the last however long since he joined up, just doing patrols, getting in shootouts, and handling the guys with… internal conflicts.

He found himself smirking at that. When he thought about it that way, it was like he was a one-man Maelstrom HR department.

He’d wandered out of the office area, headed outside, and leaned on the railing for a bit. Staring out at the brown sludge they called an ocean. It wasn’t a conscious thought, but he found himself wondering if it had ever been blue. He can’t imagine how.

A bike came down the road interrupting his thoughts, loud, fast, it was instinctual to look at it… Fuck. Holy fuck. It was her. He saw her face for just a split fucking second, but the same pink shirt, jet black hair.

Before he knew what he was doing, his legs had carried him down the stairs and out the back gate. He caught himself just standing in the road, watching where she had just driven away.

It was her, wasn’t it? How many people wear the same bright pink shirt? Same black hair? Well, now that he thought about it, probably a lot.

“Dum, what you doing, man?”

Fuck, the guys were out, standing where he had just been on the railing, watching him, still just standing in the street. The other guys on patrol just watching him now.

“I thought…” That he saw the merc they were chasing?

That she just drove past, and he was going to follow her without wheels. That she’d magically stop her bike?

“Never mind. Doesn’t matter. We ready to go?” The guys both pushed off the bar and made their way down the stairs, meeting him at the bottom.

They all piled into his car in silence, but he surprised them when he flipped on the radio, Vexelstrom. He did not miss the glance they shared.

He wanted to avoid any questions, though. He didn’t know how to explain that…weird situation. Or how the failed questioning went. He was fucking up this job from Royce, and everyone knew it. Not that they had any way to catch her either, but every fucking week more bodies added to her tally and Dum was fucking nowhere. Except standing in the road watching her drive away.

Fuck.

Chapter Text

He’d been tinkering with their latest toy, some militech convoy they fucked with last month. He was making the bot work with their Raven tech; it wasn’t the easiest transition, but it worked well with optics, synced with their systems well.

It was fun too, he kept wanting to just climb with it upside down and follow around his coworkers in optical camo. No reason other than it was fun, Keef made the going upside down even more fun.

He got Lars to mess with it a bit, too, but Vex and Ash weren’t as keen on the upside-down or up walls. Royce scoffed when Dum asked him if he wanted to give it a spin. Royce was never about the toys or the tech.

Fuck he didn’t even have an opinion on the chrome they slotted in his skull. Dum never told him, but obviously, Simon got slotted with the worst-looking optics. In his opinion, anyway, not that he had a great looking mug neither, but at least he had some style with it.

Spider optics, the guys called his setup; they even made some jokes about it when he wouldn’t leave the spider bot alone. It’s not like that was new, though; there were the spider bot maelstrom graffiti on nearly every corner.

It’d been so long since those started showing up that Dum couldn’t even remember if they were around before he initiated, and maybe he picked the spider design because of the graffiti.

Royce once pointed out that every corner got painted, and he thought it was maybe one of the girls trying to tell Dum something. Dum only replied, “Nah, I got more eyes than that.” Royce was probably right, though.

The patrols of one of the girls matched with where they got put up. This was a couple of years back, of course. Dum was still in his twenties at the time. She’d been one of his hookups back then.

Then one day, she just disappeared. Probably some cops or solo, or something. Whole patrol just gone, never back. He didn’t think about it often; he didn’t like to.

Feelings weren’t involved really, but it was easier to just push himself into work. Always the next gig. Always the next target to zero. That was easier than taking a minute to think about his old hookup.

Most days, he couldn’t remember what her name had been.

“Hey, Dum Dum, need to talk to you for a minute. Put the bot away.” Royce was still in his chair, shouting it as though Dum was halfway across the factory. He’d been on the couch, feet away, but Royce had no volume control.

“Fuck. Gimme a second.” He walked the bot back to its case and put the chip back in with it. Shoving himself off the couch and into Royce’s area, “Whatdya want?”

“Your bot. Brick sold it.” Royce wasn’t getting up, it seemed, one of those weird conversations with someone who's half there. Unsettling, but Dum did it all the time, just unsettling to be on the other side of it.

“When the fuck did he sell it?”

“This morning over tea, what the fuck do you think. Before we put him in a fucking cage. Dumbass.” Dum flinched at the old insult, been a while since someone called him that.

“When’s it go?” He wasn’t going to miss it, but it was a fun way to kill time for a while.

“Meetings tonight. You handle it?” Dum looked back at him.

“You want me to lead the meeting?” He’d taken point before, but not since Royce took over. That was usually for much smaller meetings that Brick just didn’t give a shit about. This was fucking high-end tech. More eddies than most chrome.

“You got a problem with that?”

“No.” It wasn’t a problem; he knew more about the tech than anyone else, so him selling it off made sense.

“They already paid Brick, and while I got the cred chip, I wanna see if we can knock 'em for more.” Ah, there it was. Scamming the buyers.

“Who is it?” He had crossed his arms and leaned against the wall, while no part of this was new, it could be more complicated if it was someone they knew, especially if this person had done business with Brick before, and knew their faces as well.

“Some small-time mercs don’t know who Brick dealt with.” So easier than a deal with Claws, they’d already traded with at least. Much easier to scam if they got no one backing them up.

“How’d you find out about him selling it?”

“Found the cred chip and asked him.” He knew Royce was running and wasn’t looking at him, but he still moved his face to hide his smile.

He knew Brick was back in the cage, and he had his suspicions. Of course, Royce was keeping him around to ask shit. Royce had no fucking clue what he was doing. Brick been at this for decades, and Royce just started a gig he had no fucking clue about. He also knew he would never have admitted that to anyone else.

“Alright. I’ll get the bot ready.” There was nothing to do, but he wanted to spend the next couple hours enjoying it while he could.

“I want 10k eddies for that bot.” So client paid that once, and now he’s asking for them to pay it again. Twenty thousand creds ain’t all that much, but definitely too fucking much for that tech.

At least it won’t be traced; that’ll be a selling point to get the suckers to pay again. Dumb as it was, that’s the business Royce wanted to run. Not like they had a rep that Royce could damage at all. “Kay.”

Dum turned to leave, “‘Fore you go, we catch that solo yet?” Fuck, he had been dreading this. It was easier to come to Royce with other peoples fuck ups, not his own.

“No. She’s hard to track down.”

“She?” Fuck, Dum tried to give nothing away. “Guess you can never underestimate a bitch.”

Dum felt some weird desire to defend her; he didn’t know anything about her, but he didn’t want Royce talking about her like that. Course, he couldn’t say none of that.

“I’m working on it.”

“Fine. Let me know when you put the bitch down.”

He walked out, but as he got back to the couch, he realized he had been clutching his S-Keef angrily that whole time. Taking a hit, he sat back to be comfortable. And slotted in the spider bot's chip.

Started moving it around with his head leaning flat back on the couch, as comfortable as he could be. Till he saw a Lars face pop up in front of him upside down. He thought no one else had been in the room, at least no one was while he was in the garage with Royce.

“You like her, don’t you?” Lars had that stupid smile, hard to tell and harder to tell upside down, but Dum was used to seeing it. The bottom lip moving up in the corners overtly so, as though compensating for the lack of upper lip movement.

It was weird how they all sort of became more animated to give away what they could with what was left of their face.

“I got no fucking clue what you’re talking about.” Lars walked around the couch and plopped down right beside him.

“That merc. You don’t wanna listen to Royce.” Lars wasn’t his… well, he guessed he was… closest choom.

A time when he would have called Simon that, but it’d been years since that was the case. Chooms, undoubtedly. But this rapport, this gonk ass question, no way would that have come from Simon in the past ten years at least. Not since he decided to stop going by his “flesh” name.

“She’s got style, it’s impressive, but I’ll zero her if that’s what you mean.”

“Not what I mean at all, but sure. You tell yourself that. She is impressive and has a great ass. Been a while since you had a consistent docking.”

Dum pushed his arm; he was right, but still, this was a merc he had to zero. “Fuck off, BDs are better than the chrome chasers you guys pull.”

“Nah, not better than the real thing. They always got eyes for you, you know. I think it’s the authority.” Lars wasn’t looking at him, but his head was tilted more towards him.

“Ha. Ha. I’m good man. You enjoy your groupies.”

“Oh, I do. You enjoy your hunt for the merc.” With that, he stood up, “I think I’m gonna grab a pizza, you want a beer or anything?”

“Sure, we got a meeting with some solos to pick up the spider soon, so in like an hour, grab the guys and make sure we put on a show.”

“You got it, boss.”

Chapter Text

They didn’t know when to expect the mercs, but assumed after five. Dum had all the guys he wanted where he wanted, mostly a scare tactic, intimidate them into compliance.

Kurt offered to be on guard; he had avoided the guys for a couple days, since Vex had to break the news about Otto. But he couldn’t avoid them forever, and it’s not like they killed his friend.

“Dum, we got some bodies walking up on the cameras.”

“How many?” Dum stood up. He wasn’t nervous, but this was a new part of his job. He hadn’t been able to catch the merc, didn’t want to fuck another task up. He knew he was on good graces with Royce, and his threshold for fuckups was larger than the others, but he also knew Royce.

“Looks like two, they both got iron, but it’s holstered. One's a big guy, looks ‘tino.” The guys were all just standing around.

Royce was there, but in his chair, the garage door closed. Dum had a feeling he’d interject at some point, that was the part he was on edge about. This could become a shootout at any second. He didn’t think he’d be the one to start the shooting, but anything was possible.

“Whose the other?”

“She’s blurred, don’t know. Lot smaller though.” Ash was on the chair while Kurt was watching from the laptop. Lars turned to face him, giving him a subtle yet clear message.

“What are the odds?” Dum shook his head and shrugged his shoulders, nodding him off. When the alarm for the intercom went off. Dum had been standing in front of it and tried to shake off the intruding image of the merc driving past him. He pressed the button and spoke, “Hm. Don’t know you.”

Lars gave him a look.

“Wanna talk to Royce. Dex sent us.” Her voice was clear when she spoke.

“Main room. We been waiting.” Lars was standing behind Dum and moved over to stand near the bot, looking at Dum. His face, while hard to read for most, was easier for Dum; he knew who Lars was expecting to walk through those doors.

He also knew that only two people in the room knew that possibility. He didn’t think Lars was threatening or implying what he needed to or should do. But he shook his head and moved his chin in an animated way to say “absolutely not”.

He hadn’t seen the cameras, but it was easier to think this deal was going down with a stranger rather than the woman he’d been hunting and was supposed to kill. But he’d know in a minute either way.

As if to answer, Lars put the gun he had on the table, in his holster.

It couldn’t have been more than a minute or two, but that wait felt like fucking eternity for Dum, and while standing at the elevator doors, he felt Lars’ eyes on him like lasers. Kurt had caught on to the intense stare, but with no context, he just kept all his attention on following the mercs, Ash was turning off the turrets and mines.

Kurt gave them all the warning seconds before the elevator gears sputtered to life. Dum fought the urge to look back at Lars, or at Royce’s door. He’d know in a second.

The elevator doors opened.

Dum found himself looking at the man, a big guy, definitely Valentino, or at least ex. “So whatdya want?” he was almost purposely not looking at the woman. Until she spoke instead.

“You got a bot - model MDTOD12. Called the Flathead.” Her voice was pretty.

“And? The hell you care?” This… this was her. He knew it. He felt that feeling deep in the part of his stomach that wasn’t chrome.

“Guy I represent already paid Brick for it. I’m just here for the pickup. I can talk direct to Royce if necessary.”

Fuck. No way she could talk to Royce. What if he knew or put it together? That… he couldn’t… “Nah. You’ll talk to me. Name’s Dum Dum.” He had shaken his head a bit, and sort of motioned to himself. “Now. Couch. Plant it.” Fuck, had he ever spoken to a woman in his life? What the fuck was he doing?

The merc and the man exchanged a glance and followed the maelstrom over to the couch. He walked slowly and looked back at them every other second. Lars was sitting on the edge of the… table where they would put the flathead.

The woman sat down on one. Dum was looking at her, for a split second he thanked that his optics couldn't give away how intently. This was definitely the woman he saw on the bike, and if he could just focus a second, he could probably figure out if the tattoos matched.

Her hair was the same color… the man was still standing. Fuck. He had propped himself up with one leg, but the man was just…still standing.

Did he not fucking hear him, or was he trying to make this a fight? He was looking at the woman who had now put her arm out on the back of the couch.

“Ahh, well, shit, goes for you too.” His grip tightened on Doom. He didn’t want this to be a fucking fight. That would… just… fuck.

“I’ll stand.” He was still looking at the woman.

Fuck, he did not need this to be a fight. Dum reached for the man, pulling on his shoulder a bit. Just fucking sit down, and they could move forward without putting iron in the pretty girl's head… Fuck.

The merc. The merc's head. “This so fucking hard. Fucking ass on the fucking couch!”

He spoke before he thought, usual instinctual barking of orders. He didn’t expect when the man stood even taller and got in his face.

“Make me.” No one dared challenge him anymore; this was… a new experience. He wasn’t scared, but the emotions were a different type of stress than he had expected.

“Thought you’d never ask.” The man could kill him, but being so outnumbered, probably wouldn’t. “Sit your ass down before I plant a bullet in your skull.”

Fuck it, if this did become a shootout, he might as well be the one to start it. Maybe if that happened, they could get rid of the guy, and… he didn’t know where that thought was going when he caught the woman moving behind the man. She put her hand on his shoulder.

“Jack, sit down.” She pulled him down a bit, and he shrugged her hand off. Dum looked at her again, had the man well-trained on his leash. She was the brains of the duo. Not like he couldn’t have assumed that.

He felt the man shove him back, catching him off guard a bit. “This ain’t gonna end well…but…shit…” If this had been anyone else, Dum would probably have fired the gun he didn’t notice he had already raised, but this was… he put the gun away.

“Well, alright.” He pulled out the S-Keef and moved his way in between the table and the man named Jack. Sitting down directly across from the woman.

The woman he had been chasing for weeks. The woman he was supposed to kill. She was looking at him, directly at him.

“Come on, gotta lighten up.” His arm moved to offer her to Keef before his mind had agreed to do so. “Take a hit,” he had motioned himself even more forward.

“What is it?”

“S-Keef, shit kicks you in the ass.” The man clearly wanted none, good thing Dum wasn’t fucking offering him shit.

“It’s a fucking rush, man. Gotta feel it for yourself. Come on, give it a whirl.” He wasn’t used to anyone saying anything but enthusiastic fuck yes to any drug.

She thought for a moment till she reached forward and quickly grabbed it from his hand. She took a huff, and he saw her body heat spike and her face twitch slightly. He also saw her instantly smile, and her shoulders relax.

He clapped his hands and smiled, “Better?” He took it from her hand and took another huff. Shit made everything easier, he let the high shake his shoulders, and he threw his head back. “Now we can talk.”

Lars brought over the flathead, slamming it down on the table next to Dum. “Here we go.” He was looking at Lars, Lars didn’t linger, but Dum got a ping from his phone on his optics. “The Flathead. Model MDOD12.”

“Militechs not gonna come looking for it?” The lace didn’t take her mind out of the situation, maybe not her first time.

“Fuck 'em. They can hop around and try.” He gestured around, and his optics caught the man glaring him down. He turned back to look at the merc. “We removed the serial number and lifted access using our soft. Once it’s yours. It’s yours.”

She narrowed her eyes and looked at his face more intently. Trying to read it, see if he was lying about that last part. “Need to see it.” Or maybe she was even less trusting, didn’t even believe they had it, or if it was even in the case.

“Suit yourself.” If she had been the one to blow the head off their guys, undoubtedly, she had no trust in Maelstrom.

Did that bother him? Did he want her to trust him? He opened it up and grabbed the raven control shard. Showing it to the merc and Jack.

Impromptu demonstration, sort of, he had been essentially practicing this exact thing the past couple of hours. “Fuckin’ tricked out, this thing. Dynamic, thermo-optic camo armour.”

He was animated for this, demonstrating the bot going invisible and moving its limbs. He heard the garage door open, but ignored it. Another ping from Lars. “Full cognitive immersion with a Raven controller.”

His center optic sometimes turned blue for certain things; he had some control over it, but never thought about it or even paid it any attention since he was implanted, that was… until now.

Her cybernetics, the outline of the eyes, the kind that sort of looked like glasses, reflected back blue, and her features were suddenly illuminated against the sea of red.

He froze for a second before continuing, “Pimped out, prototype actuators made of titanium-vanadium-kevlar composite. ‘N watch this.” He made the bot leave its case and start his little party trick of climbing up walls. “Fully integrated link too, so when the spider starts crawling up walls, danglin’ from ceilings…”

He suddenly felt overwhelmingly horrible, holding back. He did this several times before, but maybe never as animated, and probably not directly after a huff. Plus, he wasn’t in his usual station, sunk into the couch comfortably…

“Mhmm. Could lose your lunch.” She responded, a hint of humor in her voice. Mocking him, maybe. He shook it off and put the bot back in the case.

“So whatcha’ think?” He said it more excitedly than he wanted. Like he was showing off to the pretty girl to impress her, but it probably came off as more of an active salesman.

“Eh, Ravens not the dedicated control unit for the Flathead.” Shit, she knew her tech.

“Ha, Course not. Militech controllers autolink to Militech systems. I mean, you wouldn’t want them trackin’ their stolen tech back to your hands. Yeah, Ravens our baby. Got improved neural sync and no pesky tracing. You ask me, we oughta sell that shit.”

“Yup, we’ll take it.” He took the chip out and set it back into the case.

“Preem, sure, yeah.” This was the hard part now. “Let's see your cred.”

He knew Royce was right behind him, waiting to jump in and start some shit. He felt it; he prepared to have to make that move in seconds. He just hoped this merc could get past this without shooting or making Royce shoot. Dum didn’t want this to be the end of this job. This be how the merc dies. That just didn’t seem fair.

“Brick got it, it’s all paid up.” Fuck.

And there it was, the thud. He whipped his head back around, shuffling to his feet as fast as he could. Hand on his iron in seconds. Royce was doing exactly what Royce does. He couldn’t help but feel… disappointed in the merc. Not that she knew the game he was making her play, but still.

“Brick got it! Heh!” Royce had his iron out, directly in the face of the man, then to the woman. Fuck. Fuck. This couldn’t be the end. Dum had his iron out and to the face of the man in seconds.

He may not agree with Royce, but he had followed him this far. He just…needed the merc to make different moves. “I don’t see no fucking Brick around here, do you!?”

“Fuck Brick, then. Let’s cut a new deal.” Well, maybe it wasn’t the end of the mystery merc.

Royce had his iron to her skull, and she wasn’t even flinching. Staring him dead on, he pulled back slightly, and she… she looked at him for a second? For reassurance or something? Maybe she thought he could rein Royce in or some shit.

“Hmmm…” Kurt and Vex were also now aiming their guns at the duo. Lots of ways for this to go wrong, but everyone followed Royce’s lead. “Now that’s good business sense. All right, you want the flathead, better see some eddies.”

“Got the scratch. Be chill.” Ah fuck, Royce hated being told to calm down in any way.

Dum knew they were seconds away from shooting now. Dum turned slightly to exchange a look with Kurt; Lars was right behind Jack, aiming a rifle at his skull. It wouldn’t be a long shootout; it would be two seconds.

“I am VERY fucking chill! You know… You never did say who sent you. Never did say who you were working for.”

“Dexter Deshawn, that’s who.”

“Dexter Deshawn, the lard ass who punching-animal-fucked half o’ Pacifica. You mean he ain't dead?” Royce turned round to the guys as he said that. The sign he wanted was laughter.

Sometimes he was funny, most of the time he wasn’t, and it was just for intimidation. They all obliged, even though this one wasn’t funny.

“So, gonna consider my offer now?” She was still just sitting on the couch, chill as could be. Like this was a regular Tuesday for her, having a gun waved in her face by a dangerous, near-cyberpsycho.

“Here you go, paid in full.” Her eyes lit blue. Royce put his gun down, backing up and mumbling his agreement. He probably wanted a fight, but hadn’t gotten the reason he wanted.

Fuck, that was… it was hard to tell cos of chrome and constant lace, but Dum felt like he had been holding his breath that entire time. He let out a sigh of relief before speaking again, “Hey. Flathead’s good gear. It’ll do the trick for ya, whatever the trick is.” Why did they want this expensive tech anyway?

“Got what we came for.” She said as she grabbed the flathead and chip, handing the bot to the big guy.

“Nova, so now leave. And hey, after you get Dex’s dick out of your mouth, tell him I say hello.” Royce went back into his garage, and Dum, who had moved onto the couch where the merc was, stood back up. Lars was cackling in the background. That one was more funny than the last.

“Alright, better show you guys out.” He moved to the elevator, a bit rushed. He just wanted this over with.

Jack spoke for the first time in what felt like forever, “What the hell for? We know the way.” He was carrying the bot with him; it looked small compared to his large frame.

“Easy compadre, you’ll be outside in no time.” And out of harm's way, he thought to himself as he glanced at the woman. “Get in.”

The mercs both followed him into the elevator, and with the different lighting, she looked even more gorgeous.

He really needed to stop letting his mind go down these tracks, he thought, so he forced himself to look away. ‘’Here we are. Show you a shortcut.” The elevator stopped, giving him the chance to put some room between the two of them. He stood up a bit straighter as he started leading them through.

He felt he needed to offer some explanation for the leader's explosiveness, “I know what they say about Royce, not everyone's bought in. But I’ve known him a long time. Could even say from the very beginning.” He paused in case they wanted to respond, but kept walking.

“Royce know you’re loyal?” That was a bold question, he thought. But, a good one.

He answered honestly, “Doubt he ever gives shit like that a thought… Know what he believes in, what drives him? Chaos. Brick? Predictable, he said a thing, he did the thing.”

Brick was obviously a better leader in every way, actually knew what he was doing and had a vision for the group.

“With Royce, you’re on your toes. Always guessin’. I mean, he could blast your face off at any time. Who knows? No one.” He was saying what he truly thought about his friend, but it was also tinted. He turned back to face them, making sure they understood his warning. He wanted this merc and her friend to stay away.

“Eh, sounds like a natural born leader,” Jack replied. Dum turned back around and kept going.

“Garage is this way.” Waving with his hand. “It’s a god damn vault, where we keep all our merch.” Why did he fucking say that? Maybe continuing the warning. They could know this, and could also know how many red optics would be watching them at all times. Never try it.

“Bjorn, look! DumDum made some new friends.”

“Fuck off!” He felt defensive, more so of the merc than his reputation. But the kick didn't help. They were right, though. It was weird. He noticed the merc was looking around at everything and everyone; she even did a slow circle looking around.

He… froze for a second, waiting for her to catch up. And thinking about the spin. This was definitely his girl. His merc, the merc, the merc he was hunting. Shook off his shoulders of the thought and kept going.

“Giving tours now, Dum Dum?”

“Yeah, gonna show them your dildo collection next. Now shut it and get back to work!”

He didn’t turn to see if she had reacted to that, but the man was standing closer, still carrying the bot. He did crack a smirk.

“Think that’s everything.” He turned back around to the two. This time, looking at her again, this was…hopefully the last time he’d see her. But he didn’t want it to be.

He looked down and scratched his chin, hitting the metal he had forgotten was there.

“And uh, avoid coming back. That’s good advice. Repeat business, not really our thing.”

Before he knew what he was doing, he was sending her his contact. The man looked at the merc as he saw their eyes light up. She accepted the link.

He didn’t send her a message, just his contact. He put his head back down and started walking back in. He didn’t want to try to read her face. She’d either heed the warning or she would use his contact. It was her choice from then on. He was halfway across the garage when his implants picked up their conversation.

“That guy rubbed my dick the wrong way.”

“Wha… Dum Dum?” She had been looking at him walk away. That was undoubtedly a jab at him, having sent her his details, her friend giving her a warning.

“I mean, what the fuck kind of nick is that anyway?” They walked out the door. Not technically out of his hearing range, but they didn’t say anything else.

Dum made his way back to his room. Lars was waiting by his door, Vex behind him.

They said nothing till he opened his door and they all walked in. He sank down on his couch, and he hadn’t even taken a huff before Vex had closed the door and Lars sat down beside him. “So that was fucking her right?”

Chapter Text

*Incoming contact* His eyes had lit blue, and he was looking at her, waiting for her to accept. He just told her to stay away, but was sending her his contact anyway? Did he want her to stay away or not? She accepted the contact.

He did a sort of nod and walked back to where they had just come from. She was watching him, and Jack had to nudge her along.

“That guy rubbed my dick the wrong way.” She was walking out the door, but still had her eyes on the maelstrom. Only turning to Jack when he was completely out of her sight.

“Who… Dum Dum?”

“I mean, what the fuck kind of nick is that anyway?” She didn't know, didn’t try to answer. Must have a story for why that’s what everyone called him. And they even called him that, with respect, it seemed.

He wasn’t in charge; Royce was. But he had taken point on this meeting, and the others did listen to his orders. He was probably second in command.

The meeting went off smoothly in her opinion. Jackie shared a different one when they got to the car. Something about wanting to have just put iron in all their heads, he hated the maelstrom. Hard not to, she did too.

Took out loads of them in the past couple months. Since she started working with Jackie. But there was something different about the one she had just spent time with. He was animated, and that was kind of funny.

She’d spent plenty of time looking at the horrifying and sometimes downright disgusting-looking optics of lots of different gang members all over the city.

He was… definitely the most attractive maelstrommer she’d ever seen. He seemed confident and respected, he knew his tech, and he was funny.

“V!” Jackie clapped in her face.

Snapped back, she jumped, “What.. Sorry, what were you saying?”

“Chrome? V? That’s what does it for you?”

“I… no. I was just thinking about how that went.” He scoffed, she knew her face was getting red, and prayed the streetlight was at an angle that didn’t give that away. “I was thinking about the bot.”

He laughed. “Sure, Yeah, Whatever. Unlock your car so I can put this in.” It was then she realized he had just been balancing it on his bike to hold it up.

Their new twenty thousand tech. She immediately unlocked the car and opened the back cargo hold for him. “No begging, no debt. No corpo strings attached. And the Flathead’s ours. That’s the way to do biz V.”

“Hard to argue.” She nodded, now biting the tip of her thumbnail.

“Yeah, ‘cos I’m right, always. Nice of you to notice.” She was still staring in the direction of All Foods as she locked the back of her car and walked up to the driver's side. “And I’m right that you got eyes for that chrome.”

“Oh shut it, Jackie. I do not.”

“Fourteen years, V, fourteen years we’ve known each other. How many guys have caught your eye in that time?” She got in the car, purposely ignoring him. He had climbed on his bike, but her passenger window was down. A bad habit.

“Shut it, Jack, I’m not playing this game. I don’t have a thing for him.”

He was leaning on the front of his arch, pulled in front so he was looking at her directly through the window. “Sure, yeah. There’s some other reason you stared at him the entire meeting, and decided to play this as peacefully as possible when we both know you love blasting those target heads.”

“Matter of fact, there is, I got the feeling he knew me.” She had been fidgeting with the radio, clearly just waiting for him to drive off so she could leave.

“Knew you? Sure, he had eyes just as bad for you. Or whatever the fuck that red is where his ojos should be. You two would make a cute couple.”

“Oh fuck off, Jack. I gotta call Dex. I’ll see you later.”

“Sure, chica. Gotta go see Misty anyway.” He waved and started walking his bike into the road, but only got a foot or two before he turned back. “Just lemme know if he texts you, you may have the hots for him, but I still don’t like the borg fucker. Adiós hermana.”

And with that, he was off.

V settled on a station and pulled Dex up on the holo. She updated him and set her sights for home. After a peaceful drive, she pulled into the parking garage and carried the bot back to her apartment, finally setting it down in her armory. She didn’t trust it in the car, not in this or any other megabuilding parking lot.

She wanted some food, so she made her way down a floor to the stalls around. Got some wontons and beer, and headed back upstairs. She sank on her couch and turned on the TV, a new episode of Watson Whore was on, and while she stared at the TV, eating, she didn’t focus on the telly for a second.

She was thinking about that new contact. Still had the notification on her holo, the dot defining new. Maybe he sent it as a precaution, if she ever needed to deal with Maelstrom again.

Maybe he meant it as a “Hey, I think you're hot, text me,” or maybe it was a trap. She had, in fact, destroyed the heads of about thirty of his gang members, and if he was right under Royce, that meant she killed his guys.

He had no way of knowing that, though, right? Except… she purposely left a camera at every location. And while her face didn’t turn up on cameras, the rest of her did. It was entirely possible he knew it was her.

If… if they investigated gang member murders. Maybe not the murders, maybe more the actual gigs; she had rescued one of their hostage rippers.

They surely couldn’t have been happy about that. She also jacked that initiation scroll for Regina. That had to have been valuable with how many guys were guarding it. Or even the fact that she drove off with several of their cars.

Plus, there was that monk ordeal. Shit. There were a whole lot of cons on the columns of texting that number.

There was only one pro. Jackie was right. She definitely was… interested… in him.

Maybe it was romantic, but she felt like it was more the intrigue. He was very interesting, she wanted to ask him so many questions, get to know him. Fuck, did he even know her name? Did she even introduce herself?

She finally looped in her thoughts enough that she left herself no choice but to focus on the TV; she was a couple beers in. Enjoying the show and occasional thought of those red optics, there was no way they actually warmed her skin from that distance.

Undoubtedly, that was the S-Keef, but she felt warm in her stomach just thinking about him.

Nevertheless, this was at worst a crush; it would go away like all the others had. She wasn’t really a date-type person. Single life suited her just fine; there was nothing anyone had to offer her anyway.

She had everything she could want. A great apartment, she had just painted entirely pink, several cars with her eyes on a bike, and after the big gig they’ve been working on, the eddies to drop on that bike.

She had a sweet gig, and in a couple of days, hopefully, the living legend status.

Life had kicked her on her ass half a year ago, but here she was, better than she ever had been at Arasaka. Sure, significantly fewer eds, but just about everything else she could ever want.

Pretty soon, she’d be walking into the Afterlife with Jackie, and everything would be even better than it already was. Plus, they just got the bot, and that went off with no problems at all.

They had to pay again, but she didn’t spend the money the first time, so it felt like she only paid once. And sure it was her eddies since Jack put all his money on his bike and Misty, but that’s okay. She was used to dropping eddies on dumb shit. Spent almost that much on bottle service at a club she didn’t even want to be at once. This was much easier.

She finished her second beer and debated a third but decided against having to put shoes back on. She took her shower, took off her makeup, and lay down for sleep. It had been a good day, a good week, month, half a year.
Her holo still had the new contact notification. She looked at it for a while, till her eyes shut for the evening.

She dreamed of bright red lights in a dark place.

Chapter Text

Vex helped himself to the small fridge in the corner of the room, handing a beer to Lars then one to Dum. Dum took it as put his head completely on the couch and he shut off his optics, he didn’t do it often, but sometimes just pitch black for a moment felt nice.

He sighed, and stayed silent for a minute, but his lips formed a line. Both Lars and Vex joining him leaning back after a sip or two.

“Did you even see what I sent you?” Lars finally asked.

Dum forgot about that actually, his optics all flickered on as he opened up the holo. He had sent two pictures, one was a screenshot from the scrolls they caught of their merc that first day. The second was her as she sat in front of them for the meeting. Same boots, same hair, same tattoos, the ones that were visible. It was her.

“Did you send it to Vex?”

“I took the screenshot. Sent it to Lars. Yeah.”

The three sat in silence, still all staring at the ceiling, they hadn’t bothered to turn on the fluorescent lights, just using their optic night vision to move in their usual areas. They all took sips of beer almost in sync, and then Dum and Vex both pulled out their S-Keef.

When Dum finished his huff, Lars stuck out his hand waiting for it. He was usually just bumming their shit for lace, but he did always carry cigarettes. It was a trade.

Remembering this, Vex sat up and leaned over asking Lars if he had any. Lars silently obliged, reaching for the pack and lighter without even sitting up or looking down.

Passing them over. Dum grabbed it, grabbing one out, not asking. Vex grabbed one then passed it over to Lars who happily accepted. Still not once looking down, he then shut off his optics as well.

Vex then lit another and switched it with the one Dum had grabbed. Soon all three had their beer, lit cigarettes and optics off. It was silent for a couple minutes.

“What are we gonna tell Royce, Dum?” Lars finally spoke.

“Why we gotta tell him shit?” Vex said, he was almost always for following the boss, but that loyalty ended when the boss became Royce. He was loyal to his chooms more now. Royce wasn’t one of them.

Dum laughed at that. He was the loyal one. He felt he owed Simon… Royce. But it wasn’t like he was a good boss, or knew what the fuck he was doing. Sure he got them twenty thousand credits today, but his anger could have gotten even more of them killed.

Besides, it wasn’t like he actually gave a shit about the thirty guys who she had killed already. He didn’t care about Lucy, that was a deal Brick had done. He didn’t give a shit about initiation, he was far more into the fear and violence…the chaos of Maelstrom.

Brick had been into Lilith. Brick and his main guys, most of whom Royce and these three men here had put down less than a month ago, they were the part of Maelstrom that could be considered religious. They were believers in Liliths promise, and the rituals, the ascension and the merging of flesh and metal ideals.

Royce just didn’t have another option, no one else to turn to and no where else to go, that’s why he ended up in Maelstrom. He didn’t give a shit about the ideals, fuck probably wouldn’t even have gotten chromed if it wasn’t required and promised to allow him to kill even better.

He didn’t give a fuck about joining the digital afterlife, all he cared about was this life, and how much fucking blood he could spill, chaos he could sow and pleasures he could enjoy.

These three landed somewhere in the middle of both leaders, Vex was definitely more into the ideals, the rituals and afterlife shit. Lars cared more for the community and… almost found family he had here with the gang. Dum, Dum was almost fucking numb to all of it. Nothing fucking mattered, not this life nor the next.

He was however, loyal to Royce, he was also loyal to the two guys on the couch with him. He’d probably be bummed if he heard Ash bit the bullet, but that would be gone with a huff.

Normally, with anything else, he wouldn’t hesitate. Go straight to Royce. That had changed some with his new position of course, but it was also…very different with this specific situation. Fuck, maybe Lars was right. And now that he had met her.

He surprised himself when he answered “I don’t want to kill her.” He let that linger for a moment, taking another drag from his cigarette, then a sip of beer from the other hand. “We don’t tell Royce anything.”

Lars and Vex both turned to him then, the not killing her, expected honestly. But keeping something from Royce?

That was the first time since either of them had joined that Dum had ever, ever gone against Royce. He’d rebelled against then leader Brick a couple times before sure, but that was entirely backing Royce, even before they all overthrew him.

It was a few more minutes of silence before Vex looked at him again, “Are you sure about this?” He waited half a minute for a reply before continuing “To be clear, we’re taking the side of a merc who killed thirty of our gang, because… you like her.”

Lars laughed at that. When you put it like that, it sounded insane. But that’s…well that’s exactly what was happening.

“She could be useful to us.”

“Sure, useful, cos we need a merc for merc work right?” Lars said. “Or useful cos Dum hasn’t fucking gotten laid in… how long has it been? Ten years?” He laughed as he took a drag of his smoke.

“Oh fuck off!” Dum said, shoving his shoulder, making his beer spill a bit on the couch.
Vex was smiling at this interaction, enjoying his beer as well before Dum spoke again.

“It hasn’t been that long.” Vex snorted at that.

“Sure man, delusionally tell yourself that.”

The truth was, it was not just about how good she looked, or that Dum absolutely wanted to bang her, it was more than that.

Sure he barely knew her, but there was something about her. He wanted to get to know her. Maybe see her in action in person one day, hopefully she wouldn’t be shooting his targets when that happened though.

While he thought a quiet lull set over them again. They enjoyed their silence with Dum, he was one of the only members who ever had silence around him. Nearly everyone else in the gang was constantly making use of their cochlear implants.

“I sent her my number.” He said as he raised his beer.

Lars slightly shifted his head, still on the back of the couch. It was clear all three of them were feeling and enjoying the combination of lace and nicotine, with alcohol slowly knocking on the door. “She accept it?”

“She did.” Lars lifted his beer for a cheers, Vex following suit, Dum cheers them both.

“You gonna text her? Or wait for her to text you?”

“I don’t know. The fuck would I say?”

“Good question.” The silence went on for a moment once again, but felt heavier this time. “Maybe she’ll text you.”

“Maybe.”

Chapter Text

Jackie and V planned to meet Dex the next evening at the Afterlife to go over the plans. They were looking at a timeline of two weeks. Two weeks until the biggest gig of their lives.

She didn’t know if she should tell Dex the truth about Evelyn wanting to cut him out. She hadn’t even told Jackie that part, in case he did want to tell Dex.

Evelyn had never done anything like this, she was a doll, she hadn’t been a part of or maybe even aware of the unspoken rules. V wanted to give her the benefit of the doubt. She liked the her, didn’t want her ambitions to fuck her over, she also couldn’t blame her, wanting more out of life.

She had two days to fill until the meeting. Starting her day off she went to Toms for some coffee, not much better than the vending machine bought stuff, but it was warmer, and the synthmilk creamer always tasted better. While sitting in her usual booth, she went through her phone messages. Mama had texted her about dinner on Friday, she was making V’s favourite, albondigas soup. V never missed a dinner, but Mama never failed to text her a reminder.

Her next text was a gig from Regina, a pastors kid was murdered, wanted the scroll.

Hoped it would help them find the killer. The editors were a father and son duo, fucked up family business, they worked out of maelstrom turf, a new editing office near the cargo bay. She sent a message back saying she’d get it done that day.

Her next text was Misty, saying she heard about V’s crush. And to follow her heart.

God she was going to kill Jackie. Misty always a supportive friend, to a sometimes irritating degree. She’d known Misty for over a decade now, longer than Jackie had.

Misty was younger than them. They all grew up in Watson, Misty and V in the same corpo apartment building. They weren’t like super rich, but V’s parents worked Arasaka and had company money. They moved out of the company housing when they decided to have children, and into the same building they lived in till they passed.

Misty had some old family money, her line had been in Night City since the beginning. Her great grandparents had even known the Richard Night. It’s why she could afford to spend her life with spirituality and surrounded by chakra inhancing incense. Unlike most people in NC she could just rent out the small block she owned and not worry if it cost more than it brought in.

“Mist, I’m not about to pursue a maelstrom gang member.” She texted back, read it over again and then rolled her eyes. Honestly, how could they even think that was an option.

“V, I checked the cards for you last week, they said you were going to meet someone who was going to change your life.” She remembered, Misty texted her an update nearly every week.

“Yeah, and then I met several people for this gig we’ve been working on. I am positive that’s who it was talking about.” Finishing up her coffee she put the cup in the bin and started back to her megabuilding. Her car was in the garage and she had some father and son to fuck up.

“Come by for a reading, I get the feeling that wasn’t what the cards meant.”

“Sure Mist, maybe tonight or tomorrow. For now I got some work. Talk to you later.”

“Okay, be safe V.” Misty was always worried about her and Jackie. Sure they had a dangerous job and in the most dangerous city, but Jack always bragged he was bullet proof. And V was starting to feel that way too.

She had still been looking over her holo on the way to the garage, finished up her messages but was confused by the feeling of disappointment. A certain someone hadn’t texted her. That must mean she had wanted him too, right?

God this was confusing. She wanted to text him, wanted to… do something. Get to know him. Talk to him. Something. But how was she supposed to do that when she was on her way to go take out a maelstrom nest.

She can’t… text a guy from the gang she is actively hunting.

Ugh. Maybe she should go see Misty. Talk to her about this. She would understand, way better than Jackie would. Whatever this even was, was she getting advice about a crush? A friend? This was too much on her mind.

When she got to her car she decided to shake the whole thought process off, and blast the radio on the way there. She switched the radio station every time she found her mind wandering. This was an important gig, she needed to focus.

It was only about twenty-thirty minutes till she was there. She parked near the vendors and snuck around the left. There was a gate, it was easy to break off. She took out one of the cameras with a quickhack and snuck around getting half the guys without making a sound. She eventually did resort to shooting everyone. But this felt significantly different.

She normally enjoyed the work. Damn this… this was making things difficult. The heads no longer felt like targets. She found herself… shooting limbs and chests, not headshots. That was entirely out of her ordinary.

She made her way inside after about fifteen minutes, and walked in on the father and son editing. She found herself barking demands to know where the scroll was. For a moment she felt mercy, but it was just a moment until she remembered what it was that they did.

She had never watched an XBD, but she knew of them. Everyone in Night City did. This scroll? This was a kid. A child. Murdered in cold blood. And the conversation they walked into? Talking about the beauty of the aspects they found in the scroll, which was undoubtedly horrific and disgusting.

These fuckers weren’t making meditation technique BD’s, these were the worst things known to man. The shit these men have seen? And done nothing about. Together.

It wasn’t a conscious thought, she hit her first headshot of the day. Directly to the son, she wasn’t even aiming to. It was so easy.

The father dropped to his knees, begging for his son to wake up. Again, a tinge of guilt, immediately filled with anger. He did deserve to lose his son like the pastor had. He didn’t deserve to live or he would find a way to keep doing what he did.

Obviously it would be better to take down the BD studios, maybe she should add that to her to-do list, hitting those next.

She let the father grovel for a bit, sobbing on the ground. He had resorted to asking her to leave now, let him mourn in peace. She wouldn’t of course. He didn’t even see her aim, till he was just as dead as his son. If anything, it was kind of her to unite them.

She did her usual rounds of gathering the guns and carrying them back to her car. She didn’t shoot all the corpses in the head, it was unlike her. But something, and she didn’t want to admit it, made her think about their humanity consciously.

She debated what to do with the cameras, and decided it was probably best to shoot all of them out. Not heads but all cameras. Changing it up.

She usually was a strong believer in the double tap, old Arasaka training. Not that she had been in the field much, but enough to know people had a strong tendency to play dead, and Araska instilled ruthlessness.

She did make sure all the guys were dead, but… found herself scanning them. Did any of them have names? Families? Surely not. Maelstrom wasn’t the type to recruit family men.

It was different with each gang, her morality scale and therefore brutality.

She did her best to never kill a 6th street member. They were a family in her eyes, they had names, family, friends, they… had… God it sounded horrible to say, humanity to her. Not that she was the one to decide that for every gang.

But Maelstrom? They actively and vocally spoke that they cut that part of themselves out. That was like… a goal of theirs. To ascend humanity by destroying the flesh. Did Dum Dum believe that?

She shook the thought off as she noticed beeping had started coming from a office in the corner, disconnected from the editing studio. It must have been an alarm.

She hadn’t gathered everything she wanted, but didn’t want a repeat of the tail following her like last time. She got her second bag in the car, and took off down the pier.

Chapter Text

Kurt walked up to Lars and Vex standing near the coffee machine, Lars waiting for his to fill up. “Hey, Dum around?”

“He’s in his room, isn’t out yet. Why?”

“That BD editing place got hit, another merc. He wanted us to let him know about those.”

“Oh, shit. Yeah. We’ll go get him, anyone headed that way already?”

“Ash and Bjorn and a couple of the other guys were close by. Headed that way as soon as the alarm went off.”

Lars and Vex exchanged m a glance. Should they tell him anything? Those were their… chooms for lack of a better word. Vex spoke, time was of the importance for matters like this. “Call Ash, tell them not to follow anyone.”

Kurt had started walking away, whatever that look was it wasn’t meant for him. “Sure man.” His eyes lit up as he walked through the door.

The two made their way up to Dum’s room, banging on the door. “Dum! Another hit.”
They gave him a second or two, but barged in anyway. Dum had gotten off his couch and was shrugging on his vest. “Whose on the way?”

“Ash and Bjorn, we had Kurt call them, tell them not to follow anyone.”

“Great. Okay, I’ll meet you at the car in just a second here.” Dum was digging through the side of his couch, his S-Keef must have fallen somewhere as he slept.

Maelstrom didn’t sleep long, and usually had at least one optic or background device working as a precaution. Dum had been getting more hours of shut eye these past couple weeks. It started as sitting and thinking about how to catch the merc, but after a few weeks he was closer to a regular human sleep pattern.

Lars and Vex were waiting in the car when Kurt came up to the backdoor, right as Dum was opening the front. “You coming with Kurt?”

“Ash didn’t answer.”
There was no response, but it was understood.

The four made it to the studio in twenty, no car out front. Bodies everywhere. Cameras out. Heads… intact. If this was the same girl, they had a new problem. There was a ton of evidence, and with a personal scroll it would be much easier for anyone to see who had done this killing, also matched the merc that walked through their building a couple days ago.

Dum didn’t even need to look at them, Lars took charge immediately. “Kurt, you go look round the back, maybe Ash and the guys went that way. Vex you check the bodies inside. Dum and I will take out here.”

The silent part of that order, grab all the scrolls.

Kurt was still walking up and down a bit, no car, no guys. He was starting to feel anxious, but not having definitive proof his friends were dead helped.

Lars and Dum jacked in to all the bodies and pulled each scroll, scrubbing the whole days recording. Vex had finished, and came back out. Each of them holding three to four scrolls now.

“You scrub the ones inside?” Lars was saying, but finished much quieter as Kurt was walking back through the gate.

A silent nod, “This was a theft gig, they stole all of the past weeks scrolls in the office. Zeroed the Perrson’s.”

Kurt looked up at the… where camera should have been, then back at the bodies.”Anyone scrolling catch the killer?”

“Nah, checked ‘em. They must of scrubbed todays scrolls.” Dum responded.

“Everyone?”

“Everyone inside” Vex said, allowing the inflection to let one of the others respond.

“Yeah, nothing outside.” Lars agreed. “You see Ash’s car?”

“Nah, nowhere up or down on either side. Why’d you say for him not to follow?”

“You remember that merc that killed the guys for chroming up some monk?”

“Yeah?”

“Same merc killed the girls in the car directly after. They followed them leaving and it got into a shootout.”

“So, what you're saying is all these hits, they’re the same person?”

Lars tilted his head to Dum, a signal to jump in at any second. How did he want to run this? “Or the same group. No scrolls from anything. Only one camera. But this doesn’t have a camera.”

“And it has heads.” Vex interjected. “The past couple the killer didn’t leave heads left. This might not be the same group. So Ash might be fine.” Vex was never the best at lying or omitting anything. He also held much more emotion in his voice than his coworkers.

Kurt was able to detect sympathy. They all liked Ash, Bjorn was fine. Didn’t know who else would have been with them on this patrol, but it’s not like they wanted to lose any members. They lost on average one a week to psychosis anyway.

“Well if they managed to take out all the guys here, and scrub all their scrolls, they must be damn good at their job.”

“Yeah” the three said in almost unison. Dum finishing up “They really are.”

Chapter Text

She had sold the weapons at Wilsons on her way up to her place. He asked where she got so many, but she just gave him a look.

“Gotcha, Dumb to ask.”

Once done with that, she made her way to her apartment. Took a shower, she had been covered in blood, mostly regular, but some synth. So she threw her clothes in the wash.

She sat down for some food, but halfway through her first beer and about ten minutes into the news, she realized she still needed to go visit Vik before her meeting with Dex, and also go see Misty.

For the card reading, and maybe some advice. She’d spent the day on and off thinking about those optics, it wasn’t like her to …daydream… is maybe the word.

She wasn’t imagining anything, just… didn’t stop thinking about whether or not she wanted him to text.

Half an hour later she was parking her car near Garry the local prophet as she called him.

“No! Not reptilians, but werewolves.” God Garry was always amusing.

“Hey V!” He stopped his rambling, it was nice to be known around the city, even if it was the crazier characters that knew her name.

“Hey Garry, preaching the good word?”

“Always, would you like to hear the truth?”

“Not right now, got a date with Misty. Chat later ‘kay?”

“Sure V.” She walked off to the esoterica, hearing Garry prattle on about the “werewolves” hunting off in the night with their fangs.

“Hey V. Good to see you.” Misty was in her usual spot, cards in front of her.

“Hey Mist, how’s it going?” She was making a spread.
“Oh, you know, you’re the first person to walk in in two days. Want that reading, about the maelstrom guy?”

“Jesus, what did Jackie tell you.” V was messing with some of her trinkets around, she’d been in here a hundred times, but always found something new to look at.

“Just that he gave you his number, and you might have been daydreaming about him.

“Ugh, that’s not… yeah, he gave me his number.” She was purposely not looking at Misty, to avoid whatever face she had to have been making. But then again, Misty wasn’t one to judge. Never had before.

So V turned around to look at her, she was gathering up her cards and getting them ready to pull for V.

“Has he texted you?” V pulled the stool a bit closer, and sat down. Still not looking at her face.

“He hasn’t.”

“Have you texted him?” She’d pulled a couple, placing them in her box shape.

“I have not. I don’t… I don’t know what to say. Like why’d he give me his number?”

“Maybe you should just ask him, or we can ask the cards.” She looked at V then, and flipped the first one over, not looking at it yet.

“Yeah, let’s ask the cards.” She had made decisions based on the cards before, old work moves, somehow always paid off. She’d never admit to attributing that to the cards though.

“The first will be what you want from him. Why is he so intriguing to you.”

“Hey now, I never said he was intriguing.” That was immediately proven a lie as they both looked down.

“The Chariot, reversed.” Misty was about to elaborate, but V cut her off.

“What does that mean?” It wasn’t that she found the practice silly, she didn’t. She just didn’t want to admit just how much faith she was putting into this to figure out her own feelings.

“Normally it means direction, willpower. Reversed it’s a bit more complicated, lack of direction. You don’t know what you’re doing.”

“Well yeah Mist, that’s why I’m here.” She smirked in response.

“The cards can’t tell you what to do, only help figure it out. They’re a tool, not an instruction manual. Besides, that was the first one. Chill.”

“Okay, so what’s next.” She flipped the next card to the left.

“Strength card. Compassion. Bravery. Confidence. The cards might be telling you you know what you want, so you should go for it. Be brave.”

“Be brave? Helpful. Does that mean I avoid the murderous cyberpsychos or go with my gut.”

“I think you just answered your own question V. If your gut is telling you to not avoid him, then maybe you shouldn’t avoid him.”

“Okay then what? I start talking to a potential cyberpsycho?”

“Aren’t most of us potential cyberpyschos?”

“You aren’t.” Misty had very very few cybernetics. A chip implant of course, but that was par for the course of everyone in Night City. But she was mostly natural, sometimes V admired that. She got chromed young, Misty even went with her a couple times. And now she did all her upgrades at Viks, Misty was usually there or just around the corner.

“I’m not. Sure. But lots of people have lots of upgrades. Do you think he’s dangerous?”

“‘Course I do.” She paused, it was an immediate answer, but for a second she wondered if it was true. “He’s a maelstrommer. They’re like the most dangerous of all of Night City. Like minimum of one a week goes psycho.”

“Maybe it’s that you don’t think he’s dangerous to you.”

“He could be, for all I know he only gave me his number because he knows I’ve flatlined like forty of his guys the past two months. Maybe he’s hunting me, and I walked right into his web.”

She took a moment to look at the two flipped cards, pushing her blonde hair out of her face before she spoke “Do you feel like prey to him?” V practically slammed her head down on the table, just gently cushioning it with her hand.

“That’s a difficult question. I guess yes. Like why should I text him? What could I gain out of that.” V mumbled with her head still down.

Misty flipped the next card. “The Fool.”

Without looking up V replied “I feel like one.”

“The Fool, like all the cards, has lots of meaning. It’s a card that focuses it’s meaning on you, it could mean innocence, new beginnings, a free spirit.”

Finally raising her head, she looked at the cards “That sounds like a no.”

“A tool V, like every other.”

They looked at eachother, before V glanced back down at the unturned card. Misty flipped it.

“The Hermit. Contemplation, searching for meaning and truth, inner guidance.”

“So I’ll be alone forever?”

“Did you hear what I just said?”

“No I just heard Hermit.” The two girls smiled at each other.

“I think the cards are telling you to follow your heart.”

“My heart says to text the dangerous murderer because I found him hot. That’s for sure foolish.”Misty laughed at that.

“Maybe, but sometimes connection isn’t found following the most reasonable paths. You feel connected to him, don’t you?”

“Okay, really, what did Jackie tell you?”

“Just that you found a chromer hot. And kept staring at him. And also let him give you his number.”

“Fuck me. Yeah. All that. But like, can maelstrom even talk to people outside their… gang or whatever? Like what would he want with me.”

“Dunno, but he sent you his number. So, something.”

V moved to stand up “Helpful.” She flicked over a couple eddies.

“V, I told you to stop doing that.” Misty’s eyes lit up rejecting the money.

“Fine, fine. Readings a reading though.” V not so slyly put a cred chip on the stool. “So lets say, I do text him. What do I say?”

Misty was gathering her cards back now, “Say whatever you want to. Ask him why he sent his number if you want to. Ask him for a drink? I don’t know V, I have cards but I don’t have answers.”

“Ugh, fine. You coming to dinner on Friday?”

“You know the answer. Mama Welles still doesn’t like me. Doesn’t think I’m good enough for Jackie.”

V always asked, but also knew it hurt, but one day Mama would have to have her over for dinner, she and Jackie had been officially dating for over a year now.

“I’ll hound her about it again on Friday then, won’t I?”

“Please don’t, I don’t think it helps. Not when she compares me to you.”

“Ugh, who the fuck knows why. She’ll have you over for dinner soon, I know it.”

“Oh yeah, you got cards or something telling you that?”

“Nah, just my gut, which I think I will go with.”

“Good. When are you gonna text him?”

“Fuck, didn’t think that far. How about after I see Vik, get that new upgrade. Maybe the anesthetic will give me courage.”

“Always making healthy choices.” She smirked, not being mean to V, just joking as they have for years.

V was walking out the back door “Hey, you’re the one who just convinced me to hit on a maelstrom boy.”

Chapter Text

“Hey, it’s V. Picked up the bot from you a couple days ago.”

Fuck. Fuck. She texted. She actually texted him.

He had been in the middle of a meeting with some of the guys, something about new patrols. Some Tyger Claws had been encroaching on their territory a couple blocks.

Ash and Bjorn were fine, they had found out about the claws and went after them rather than the merc. Came to report back about the new developments. Vex had asked for the meeting, Royce was barely paying attention, Vex and Kurt were the ones who had taken over and got some of the newer guys to pick up the routes. It was a couple minutes later when it ended that Lars walked over.

“Man, what a fucking waste of time. Royce doesn’t even give a fuck.”

“Royce doesn’t want the job.” Dum found himself saying before he meant to, looking around to see if anyone loyal to him was around, they’d all mostly cleared. Ash and Kurt chatting in another corner. Vex giving more specific instructions to the guys. “She uh, she texted.”

“Oh shit, really?” Lars coughed a bit, caught him off guard, he had been hitting his lace.

“Yeah.”

“You reply? What’d she say.”

“Her names V.” He was looking at Lars now. “How… how do I fucking reply?”

“Fuck man, I don’t fucking know. You think I ever been in your situation? Never.”

“Has anyone?” They both looked around at all the guys near them, both shook their heads, never.

Not in maelstrom at least. No one knew anyone outside the gang, not that they knew of at least. It wasn’t like forbidden. But it was the opposite of encouraged. You were supposed to cut all ties when you joined, but no one joined up if they had any. With the very rare exception of siblings joining, there were only a couple of those, and one pair of triplets. That was a big day, but also fifteen years ago. Two of them were dead now anyway.

“So. Text her back. You wanna hit that don’t you.” Dum hit his shoulder with his own.

“Fuck off.”

“I’m serious man, text her back. Now.” Dum looked back at him “Or don’t, live forever wishing you had.”

“Fuck, fine. I’ll text her. I just… don’t know what to say.”

“Hello is usually accepted.”

“Fuck you, just hello? That's so damn gonk.”

“Fine then man, text ‘Hey I wanna bend you over then maybe hunt you down.’ Better?”

Dum started walking away at that, back to his room, he didn’t say anything just flipped Lars off. Lars laughed as he walked away.

Twenty minutes later he was sitting in his couch, a couple of huffs and a beer in hand, he stared at the text. What the fuck did he want to say. What did he want. It took a couple drafts, lots of deleting.

“Hey V. Stand for anything?”

He was half way through his beer again, but it had been less than a minute, anxiety drinking.

“Nope. Just V.”

“Well, V. Didn’t know if you would text me.” Her response was almost immediate.

“Yeah, about that. I was wondering why you sent me your number.”

Shit. Fuck. He didn’t know. He wanted to. Could he just say that? He didn’t even know his own reasoning.

“‘Dunno actually. Like your style.”

“Hah, thank you?”

“It’s a compliment, you’re welcome.” Fuck, what was he doing? How was he supposed to talk to her when he couldn’t even remember how to talk to someone outside.

“Did you like, want to talk or just have eachothers contact?” Did he want to talk? It was a quick thought and a quicker answer, yes. Yes of course he did. He really did.

“Sure, we can talk.”

“Okay then. I don’t know what to say.”

“Me neither.” Third beer down, it’d been minutes but he downed them quick. Lace wasn’t hitting, he wanted a cigarette, but had none. So he got up and walked around. Had to find Lars.

Lars wasn’t in his and Ash’s room, but the door to Vex’s room was open. Dum walked in, Lars sitting on the table in front of Vex’s area. He had the room sortof with Kurt but he wasn’t around.

“Lars, can I bum a smoke?”

“Hey, how’d it go?” Lars reaching for his smokes already, handing one over, Vex had one already and handed over the lighter.

“I don’t know.” He lit up his smoke. “She asked if I wanted to talk, I said yes, but then neither of us knew what to say. Hasn’t replied since.”

Vex was amused, smiling like a gonk. “Shit man. No game.”

“Oh fuck off. How would you reply?” He said it harsh, but a genuine question.

“You asking me how to sweet talk a fleshie? Fuck if I know man. Chrome chasers usually fucking chase us. Real easy to get in their pants.”

“I don’t think she’s one of those, we’d know if she was right?” Some vulnerability came out, what was he even asking.

“‘Dunno, she could go after those pretty boy chromers. You certainly ain't one of those man.” Lars let out a laugh after he finished. Fucking stupid to be chasing this mercs tail, but Dum was Dum and he never quite did what the others did.

They were silent for a minute, and Dum’s face must have given away his worry, cos Lars spoke up, “You could like… get a booster. Learn how to talk to girls or whatever. Those can’t be hard to find.”

Dum thought for a minute before replying “I don’t know. That feels weird man.”

Vex interjected “Nah man, they’re like your personality, but just…boosted. You’d know how to talk to her. It’d just help you put the words together.”

Both Dum and Lars looked at him with bewilderment. How the fuck would he know that. He answered their question before they even asked it “Thought about it once, looked into it. One of the chrome chasers, she was real cute, wanted to chat some.”

“But you didn’t get it?”

“She never showed back up the next day, never saw her again.” As was par for the course in Night City, you know someone one day and they could be gone the next. Moved on unlikely, but dead, most assuredly.

“Well shit, yeah, get a personality booster man, if anything it’ll help you text her.”

Dum finally shrugged onto the couch, as the two moved over to let him fit.

“Why the fuck am I even texting her.” He said, shaking off his shoulders as he shrunk in.

Lars and Vex shared a look before turning back to him. “You like her dude. Don’t know what that means, could mean a lot of things. But you been thinking ‘bout her since we first saw that scroll and you know it.”

They were right of course. He liked her, obviously liked how she looked, but liked how she fought first. She was fucking vicious. Vicious.

“Yeah. The fuck use is liking her though. What the fuck do I think I’m doing? Like I’m gonna make a fucking fleshie merc my god damn input. Like I got a fucking chance.”

Watching Dum put himself down was new, actually something neither of them have ever seen. Not that he went around bragging about himself, but he wasn’t a humble guy.

He was second in command, and before that even respected, built a solid rep for himself amongst maelstrom. Had since he was an eager fuck just joined up. He had been there longer than either of them had, but only by a year for Lars.

Neither of them knew what to say, just all three sitting in silence as his question hung over them. What the fuck was he doing.

A text came over his holo, “So, are you like Royce’s Lieutenant or hype guy?”

Ha. He laughed as soon as he read it, “She just asked if I’m Royce’s Lieutenant.” They both joined in his laughing. “You kinda are, aren’t you.”

“Guess so.” He texted back the same.

Their cigarettes had almost burned out. All three waiting for her reply it seemed.

“So… you gonna be friends with or try to immediately dock her?”

Dum shoved Lars in response, “Fuck man. How do I even be friends with her?”

“I don’t know man, she’s fucking hot. It’d be hard as fuck.” They all laughed at Vex’s accidental double meaning.

“Another smoke man?”

Lars had gotten on the couch earlier, but gestured to the pack on the table. Extending his hand for either the box or lace, Dum didn’t know. So he handed him lace, then reached for the smokes.

“Well, that’s… cool I guess. Idk, not a huge fan of maelstrom.”

As his eyes lit up both the guys looked up at him. “What’d she say?”

“She uh… hates us.”

Though it was a rough sentence to take in context, they both laughed. “Shit man, that makes sense.”

“How do I even reply to that?” He asked, still staring at his holo.

“You gonna ask us for every fucking text? Or you gonna grow some fucking balls and download a booster to talk to the chick?”

Dum stood up, if he was going to talk to her, he should do it alone. “I’ll see y'all later, I’m gonna turn in.”

“Oooooh, alright man. Have fun. You probably got enough of her to tweak the good bd’s”

“Nah man, I’m not gonna…ah fuck off. Nevermind. See y'all.” He made his way back to his room and sat back down, another beer in hand. How to fucking reply. How to talk to her, maybe the guys were right. He should get a booster.

“We’re not all psychos if that’s what you’re worried about.”

That would have to do, he looked up what he needed to and was sorting through the options. There were thousands, thousands of ways to boost a personality. Thousands for… friendship and romance. Hundreds overlapped between the two.

There wasn’t a clear cut one, and definitely not one for “I’m a gang member who horrifies her and want to see if I can even form a connection.” Like that would be a fucking option.

He closed the searches, maybe he’ll get one later, but for now he knew what to say.

“If you think I would hurt you, I won’t.”

It was bold, and he honestly didn’t even know if it was true. It felt true. He didn’t want to hurt her ever, he… he barely knew her. But he felt some way about her, and he wouldn’t hurt her. Even if he was supposed to be hunting her down. He wouldn’t. Guess he was going to go against Royce.

Chapter Text

“If you think I would hurt you. I won’t.”

Jesus, how was she supposed to take that. Obviously, that should be a good sign, if she could take him at faceplate value, but that seems difficult. Was difficult. She did just tell him she doesn’t like his gang. Who does? They’re a terror in NC. Shit. This was a lot.

Fuck. It was like two in the morning and she had a feeling Misty would be with Jack, but she texted anyway.

“Hey Mist, advice again?”

It was a couple minutes till she called, V expected a text, but she wasn’t about to decline.

“Hey Misty.” Jackie appeared in the corner, shirtless, almost expected at this point. Especially this late. “Hey Jackie.”

“Hola hermana, you been texting that chrome?”

“Yeah, I uh.. I don’t know what to say, or do, or what I’m even doing?”

Both of them shrugged to each other, before Jack replied “Send it over.”

V’s eyes lit up seconds before both of theirs did. It was silent for a minute with the exception of some quiet music on their end.

“I think you should stay away, there’s no way this gonk ain’t trouble V.” Misty smacked him on his arm.

“I think he’s telling you that you can trust him V. Jackie might be right about the trouble, but he’s trying to gain your trust.”

V shook her head and stretched her arms in front of her, as if to reach for a conclusion. “What the fuck do I say?”
“You either trust him or you don’t V.” Jackie yawned half way through, she must have woken them up.

Misty looked at V directly before she replied “Or you let him gain your trust, but he wants to.”

“So what do I say guys?”

Another look between the two, “That’s for you to decide V.”

“Yeah, I know. Alright. You two get some sleep. I’m sorry for waking you up.”

“Oh we weren’t sleeping.” Jackie winked, another smack from Misty.

“Night V” Misty hung up the call.

It was another ten till she replied, her beer now gone.

“How can I know that?” She thought he would reply quickly, and turned off all her lights, laying back down, she’d see it in the morning.

She got a ping moments later, but kept her eyes shut.

She woke up around nine, no immediate meetings or gigs or anything, but several texts on the holo. Her most recent was from Regina, a cyberpsycho attack, a couple blocks away, message from twenty minutes ago. Fuck.

She got out of bed, dressed, teeth brushed and out the door in ten. She wasn’t far from the sighting, and got in her car headed that way. Her radio turned on, she still hadn’t looked at her texts. It would have to be after this.

An hour later she was victorious, the guy lying on the ground hands covering his eyes.

She called Regina, and her guys were there within twenty. Poor man had been fucked over by his past corp. She took a shotgun to the abdomen, the medics had wanted to check her out, but it just grazed her.

Ribs definitely broken, but the bleeding wasn’t a lot. Plus Vik was only a couple blocks. After getting the towel from the trunk she kept for this specific reason, she made her way there. Vik was not happy about the wound, he never was. But it was dealt with quickly.

“I may be a ripper V, and I don’t encourage that many upgrades to the skeleton. But if you’re gonna be doing stupid shit like this, you oughta consider getting your ribs chromed. The shot and bleeding is one thing, easy to take care of, but broken ribs is an entirely different one. You’ll heal fast, but you need to take it easy the next couple days. Don’t go running into fights. No cyberpsychos and V for the love of god don’t jump off any buildings. Just rest a couple days, will ya?”

“Fine, fine. Bed rest. Sure. But I got that meeting at the afterlife tonight.”

“Meetings are fine, don’t break anything else. Don’t do dumb shit V. Doctors orders.”

“Okay, okay. I won’t do dumb shit. I’ll rest a couple.” She was out of the chair and making her way through the gate “I promise.”

She tried to jump up the stairs two at a time only then realizing how fucking bad her side hurt. Electing to take the next four slowly. Seeing Misty couldn’t hurt, so she walked through the back.

“Hey Mist.”

“Hey V, how's the ribs?”

“How… I just got out, how did you already know about that?”

“Vik tells me everything, plus I got cameras in the alley, I heard you come in so I watched.”

“Creepy.”

“Sortof. Have a seat.” V sat down in one of the chakra alignment chairs. “You reply to the guy yet?”

“His names Dum Dum and I did” she then remembered she hadn’t looked at her texts with him since last night and he definitely did text her. “Oh shit.”

“You want a chakra rebalancing? Tech clean or anything?”

“Sure, if I can text while you do it.”

“You know you can.” Misty had V jack in and booted up the program. She also got the incense going, and her chime things.

V finally looked at the texts.

“You can’t. But I won’t hurt you. Not on purpose. I swear.”

“V?”

“Sorry, that’s… you can trust me, or I’d like to prove that you can trust me.”

Fuck. How do I reply to that. She took a deep breath and let Misty work her magic. The incense tickled her nose, but she ignored that.

About thirty minutes later she woke back up from her mini-nap. Misty was back at the counter. “Hey V. Welcome back to the land of the living.”

“Haha. I’m gonna head home, get some more sleep before heading to the Afterlife.” She was walking out the door as Misty repeated “land of the living V.”

She was home quick, it was like a five minute drive. Back in her apartment she took a shower and threw her clothes in the wash. Lying in bed she finally replied.

“Okay. You can prove it.”

Before he replied, she had drifted back off.

It was about five when Jackie was calling. “Hermana! I’m outside the Afterlife, you on your way?”

“Shit Jack, be there in twenty.” She shrugged on some clothes and was out the door, she’d forgotten to move the bloodstained towel, so she threw it on the passenger seat.

She wouldn’t admit to speeding, mostly because it was the crime NCPD was most lenient on, but she got there with two minutes to spare. Walking up to Jackie was when she noticed she had another couple messages from Dum. So he was a triple texter it seemed.
“Hey V. Kept me waiting. You ready? The Dexter Deshawn is waiting for us right inside. The Afterlife V. We fuckin made it.”

The meeting went well, 30% cut wasn’t great, but of a massive gig like this, best new time mercs could get possible. She elected to not tell them about Evelyn, it would just complicate an already good plan. Two weeks till they pulled the heist of their lives, and hopefully became living legends. Stealing from Yorinobu Araska. It was absolutely batshit.

V and Jackie got a drink at the bar, cute bartender got them what they wanted. Johnny Silverhand and a David Martinez. V didn’t know who that was, but it sounded good. Let Jack have his Samurai moment alone too, his weird almost spiritual connection with a dead rockerboy. Which was funny because he had next to nothing in common with his ideals.

Jackie gave the bartender, named Claire, his recipe, “Just in case you know. But then again, I’m bulletproof.” V laughed at that and downed her drink.

“So you text that borg fucker?” She just rolled her eyes and turned her head to lightly glare at him.

“He’s… I don’t think he’s a bad guy Jackie.”

“So… if you really want to chica, go climb his wires like a tree, just make it back in one piece and say adios.”

Smacking her head on the table was a regular occurrence it seemed, but Jackie cut her off halfway through her dramatic moan.

“Shit V, that’s her. Queen of the Afterlife, Rogue. I heard she even knew Johnny Silverhand, stormed the tower with him and all.”

“I thought everyone died there?”

“Nah, some of them made it, just Johnny, their runner and a couple others. Like that one guy Morgan Blackhand, he just disappeared. But every so often runners swear they hear echos of him all over the net. Like maybe he’s still out there. Who knows, maybe Johnny’s still out there. Maybe he ran away to Brazil and lived a quiet life.”

Her head was back up having watched Rogue, but now she was laughing, she didn’t know much about the rockerboy, but the quiet life. That wasn’t him.

The two made their way out to the parking lot. Jackie hugged her goodbye and got on his bike, undoubtedly to go see Misty. Reminding her dinner was tomorrow night.

“Got it Jack, wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

She climbed back in her car, she wanted to go out and do stuff, maybe clear a couple NCPD hustles in the area, but she felt her ribs with just climbing in the car and decided the better of it.

Back to the house. She still had three texts from Dum with the notification staring at her from her peripheries. She decided to pick up some beer from the vendor past Fred’s.

One of her neighbors, Barry she thought his name was, was perched on the railing right in front of the stairs. They’d chatted a few times, always in the garage though, she didn’t actually know where he lived in the building.

“Hey Barry, right? How’s it going.”

“Oh hey… V… did I get that right?”

“Yeah, it’s V. You live on this level?”

“Yup” he pointed back to the apartment almost directly below hers. “That’s the place, I live with my friend.” V thought about how small her apartment was and she got one of the bigger ones on the block, his must have been tiny and with another person, very cramped.

“Oh that’s nice. Good to have roommates sometimes. We’ll I’ll let you get back to whatever it is you were doing. Have a good night Barry.”

She made her way up the stairs, again forgetting her ribs hurt, so she took them slowly having to use the railing. Once she was in her apartment she changed into her pajamas and turned on whatever show was on, that talk show with the gaudy presenter. She microwaved some rammen, and grabbed some nicola. Sitting down she finally opened her messages.

“Okay.”

“I ‘dunno how to do that.”

The next one was almost an hour later “But I want to.”

This was so… romantic. Confusing? Should she read it as romantic? It felt romantic, how else was she supposed to read it. What was she supposed to say.

What the fuck was she doing. She finished up her food and sat there waiting to reply. She typed out several different things and ended up deleting it. It had been about six hours since she sent her last message.

Maybe she should go the route of telling him how to gain her trust, but she didn’t know what that was. Or she could tell him that was sweet. Or she could just fawn over his texts. It was about fifteen minutes of not being able to figure out what to say. Doubling down on stupidity it was.

“Why?” She pressed send, god what a dumb way to reply. But, all of this was new fucking territory. Even just the talking to someone with maybe romantic intent behind it, that wasn’t something she had done in years.

Sure she’d talk with some guys for a couple weeks, bang a couple times, then go their own ways. Maybe it was the type of guys she went out with, too fucking boring to be anything longer than a month long tryst.

This was different, she was actually intrigued. She wasn’t just bored of the guy already and wanted to bang him and get it over with. This was very different.

“I like you V, seem like a preem chick to know. And you fight vicious.”

Wait, how would he know how she fought? That….

The cameras. Fuck, so maelstrom did know she hit their clinics and studio. A new kind of fear crept into her stomach, he had just said he wouldn’t hurt her. But maybe he would just get one of the other guys to do it after she confessed. Playing dumb seemed to be her go-to play with this guy.

“I don’t know what you're talking about.”

“Sure you do, it was preem work.” Well thanks for the compliment I guess. But this definitely felt like he was trying to coax a confession.

“I’m just gonna ignore that I think.”

“Okay.” She figured he’d text again in a couple minutes so she went to get ready for bed, brushing her teeth and putting up her hair. He did.

“So what are you gonna do with the bot?”

She laughed at that, usually people didn’t want to know the dirty details of merc work even if they give you the access codes. “Bit unprofessional to ask don’t you think?”

“Maybe.” V had climbed into bed now, taking some drinks from her water bottle near the bed “Guess I’ll just assume the worst. Maybe you’ll be using it to break into another Watson clinic, klepping a scroll from a certain gang.”

Oh, so he absolutely knew.

“No clue what you’re talking about. But we are using the bot for some gonk gig with a big payout.” She sent it before realizing she probably shouldn’t have told him, or anyone. Maybe it would distract from the fact she absolutely killed his goons.

“Of course, it must have been a different vicious merc with jet black hair, a little braid, and tattoos that match yours.” She should probably stop leaving the one camera. It was an intimidation tactic she thought would be fun, but here it was maybe putting her in danger. Or at least, cover up her tattoos.

That seemed like a reasonable compromise. She’d just destroy the cameras of Maelstrom terf then. Tyger Claws be damned, they can hunt her down and she’ll flatline those that do. She was working through this whole process when his next text came through.

“Merc did snag some highly confidential information of ours, ripped a couple doors open.” Hah, yeah.

That door was difficult to get open. He must have been talking about the MedHaven, so he knew about that, and… knew about her before they met? How long had he been… watching her. “Jacked about six of our cars too.”

She finally replied to that one, “Couldn’t be me, I’m sure I’d know if I had six cars lying around.” Moments ago she was worried about him coming after her, and here she was giggling and texting back a joke. She found it easy to let her guard down with him. That was an entirely new feeling.

“Well I’d let the merc know I’m fucking impressed. Better than thirty of my guys. Not a person I’d want to be on the bad side of.” Haha. Impressed, he was impressed that she killed his guys.

“Really? You compliment the person who zeroed your chooms?”

“Nah, not chooms. They just work with me. ‘Sides, it's all part of the gig.” She had been laying down but was now sat in her bed, giggling over texting about killing.

“Well damn, remind me to never work with you.”

“I’ll just be on the lookout for another black haired merc then.”

“When you find them, lemme know. They sound so cool.”

It was a couple minutes before he replied again. She found herself just scrolling the feeds. “So a big pay out. How gonk?”

“Super. Could be dangerous as fuck.”

“Well, hope the bot keeps you safe. Don’t want to hear you died on a gig.” He cared, she was feeling extra bold now. It was getting late, she should sleep, but she felt almost giddy.

“Aw, you care about me Dum?” She shortened his name before she realized it, Dum Dum was a dumbass name anyway. Wonder how he got it.

“I don’t know if I’d go that far with it.” Oh sure, backtrack the care. That was expected, maybe she was… too flirty? She didn’t know how to reply to that. She could keep teasing him, but even that… was that okay?

“Okay, maybe. Just don’t want you flatlined, think you’re real interesting V.”

Ah, interesting. What did that even mean. She wasn’t sure she’d call herself interesting, but fucking blowing up one life and then restarting on the streets was something she didn’t know about anyone else. That was pretty interesting. But he didn’t know that.

She found herself wanting to tell him about herself. Man, she really wanted to actually get to know this guy. She looked at the time, it was shortly after midnight, did she want to stay up late talking to him? Would he stay up talking to her? Did cyborgs even sleep? She didn’t have anything to do tomorrow except dinner, plus she napped earlier.

Besides, Vik told her to take it easy. She shouldn’t be out going on gigs. So, sure she could stay up all night talking to him if he would. It was late, she was bold, and he had shown interest.

“Okay, so get to know me.” She sent the text with butterflies in her stomach and got up to grab two beers, sitting back down she opened one and her phone pinged.

“Alright. I can try to do that.”

Chapter Text

He was on the couch in his regular spot, it had been an hour since they started texting, but now she was replying quick. She must not have been doing anything else. It wasn’t super late, but he figured she’d go to sleep some time soon. This was going better than he expected.

“Well, how about you ask me something.” Haha, she could have asked him something but sure, he’d play this game. There was so much he wanted to know. Honestly it was hard to narrow down the questions, his mind running wild with hundreds of them. But what did he want to know first.

“What do you do for fun V?” It was gonk, but it was all he could really think of as a solid question. It would also tell him a lot more about her, she didn’t seem like the curl up with a good book type, but also not the get high and watch BD’s night after night type.

Her response was quick “Haha. Fun, don’t think about that much. I go out with friends sometimes, trying to hit all the bars in NC. I watch tv and movies sometimes. But don’t spend a lot of down time just having fun.”

So, more the latter option then, but not exactly. “Ever been to the Totentanz?” Only bar he went to, only one on their turf, and it was their turf. They controlled everything at the bar, the music was shit. The messaging was annoying. But it was a start.

“Once actually, it was not really my scene. Bit loud for my liking. Beer was cold though, that’s all you can really hope for.” She liked beer, and didn’t like the music. He had the stray thought that was compatible.

“Yeah, music’s shit there. Royce likes the band though. A beer drinker might have expected wine or something for you.” He didn’t, that wasn’t true. But he typed the teasing before he meant to.

“Back in my old days maybe, but nah. Beers better.” He liked her already but that was a good sign. Maybe one day they’d share a beer. Stupid, stupid idea. That would never happen.

Phone pinged again “How do you have fun?”

He should have expected the question to be turned back, BD’s and lace every night.

Beer or something stronger. Sometimes with the guys, usually alone. Could he just tell her that? Would that sound bad. He’d offered her lace, she knew he smoked it. But still, she’d taken a hit even. One hit to ease tension is different then going through a huffer every other day though. Plus, she knew the BD’s that were scrolled by them, maybe that would give her the wrong idea. He thought about his words carefully.

“I stay here and smoke lace, some BD’s, occasionally TV. Never was much a movie guy tho. Beer usually.” Hopefully, she wouldn’t read too much into that.

It was only a minute till she replied, but felt like longer. Maybe she’d drop him since he even mentioned BD’s knowing the shit maelstrom borgs dealt with. That was a sinking feeling, unconscious as it was, that she would stop talking to him. He didn’t want that.

Not now, maybe not ever. Maybe she fell asleep he thought right before his holo lit up again.

“That lace was nice, good edge. Both took it off and kept it on differently. Not one for often use though.” That was an unexpected reply. To focus on the S-Keef. He didn’t know how to reply.

Should he ask another question? Would she ask another question? Texting people was weird.

“Why Dum Dum? Bit of an odd name, even for a Maelstrommer” Ha. That was… a long story. Should he tell her, or just let her make up her own story.

“Invasive, I like it.” He settled with not answering, but then she doubled down.

“Not an answer, but it’s fine if you don’t want to tell me. I guess I’ll just assume the worst.” The worst assumption was probably correct.

“Long story, but really got sick of being called dumbass.” It was true, there was a lot more behind it. Been over a decade since anyone had used his real name.

“Ah, were you a dumbass?” He laughed loudly at that, almost spilling his beer and his legs propped on the “table” shifted the first two pallets. He was, most definitely.

“Yeah.” Probably could have had a better reply, but that would give enough.
“I like Dum Dum, good name.” He wanted to ask her again about her name, but that conversation was just as shut off as his was. Maybe it was also a long story, or she just hated her name. Lots of people changed every part of them in the city, names included.

She texted again “What are you up to now?”

Ah, he could play along, pretend to be interesting, but assuming she was just doing about the same.

“Sitting on my couch, texting you.” He went with the truth and laziest answer, made it seem like she was his priority at the moment.

She was of course, he could have been doing stuff, some guys were out now, most people at the bar.

What’s his face was doing inventory of the guns, hoping to sell some. He could have been helping him, or doing anything really. City was his oyster of…. Well the Northside was his oyster. Whatever that even meant.

“Ah, I’m in bed, texting you.” That was the same reply, but he got stuck on the in bed part. He tried to shake that thought from his mind, he couldn’t…shouldn’t try and encourage this…. thing.

These feelings he had about V. It was stupid. Unrealistic, he had no fucking shot with her. Why the fuck would she even want him, fuck, why was she even talking to him.

Maybe that was more stupid of her than of him. Actually, it was definitely stupider of her than him. He was dangerous, so was she, but he was very dangerous. More red flags than half the city, fuck he didn’t even have a face. She had to have been just bored.

That made sense. Maybe she was so used to her regular life that texting a maelstrom seemed like fun.

That was okay maybe, being fun for her. But fun things get dropped, one day she’d drop him. He had to know that in every part of his chrome form. That she would find something more fun, different fun, less dangerous.

Hell, she’d probably meet someone, that couldn’t be hard for her. And if she ever did, theres no fucking way they’d want her texting a maelstrom.

He hadn’t replied, just sortof let his thoughts spiral for a moment. He’d have to get used to her dropping him. They’d barely texted, and he’d only known about her for a little over a month. She didn’t even know that. He was just a person to text for her.

“You still there?” He shook out of his spiral, if she was temporary, and she was. Or he was. Then fuck it, he’d enjoy this time.

“Yeah, sorry. Got distracted.” That was true of course, he got back up to grab another beer, when he sat back down he noticed it wasn’t as comfortable as it had been.

“Oh, was it the thought of me in bed? XD” He spit out his beer. She… That, fuck. She really was having her fun with this. Blatant flirting.

She must have just been flirty, or wanted to tease him. No way that didn’t cross her mind for being dangerous. Maelstrom were often known for their violence. He had to justify it with her just being a flirty daredevil. She couldn’t have actual interest.

But what if she did. “Well shit, I didn’t mean to scare you off like that.” So she texted back quickly.

“Haha. Nah, some guys came in.” A lie of course, but easier to lie than admit she was right and he was spiraling. “You in bed doesn’t scare me off at all.”

Bold of himself he thought. It did in fact scare him, but not off. Probably nothing she did could scare him off, she’d already killed his goons. Hell he was supposed to kill her for doing so, but here he was, flirting with her instead.

“Well, now I’m blushing.” He smiled at that, to see the skin in her face warm up with something he said. She was probably joking, but the thought made his stomach feel warm, probably showing the color her human face could.

He wanted to reply something to that, that he’d love to see the red on her face. Her blush, her anything. He’d just love to see her again. In a different context. He gave up that idea, and asked another question.

“What’s your favourite color?” Dumb, dumb fucking question. Stupid. But he texted it quicker than he thought.

If she asked him back he would want to say the color of her blush, which he’d never seen, the lace probably made her face red. But the meeting room was too red to even tell if it was. Fuck, now he had to think about what his favourite color was if she did ask.

“I like pink, or yellow, like dark yellow? Mustard color.” Mustard yellow. He’d always thought that was a weird looking color. Almost like when there are dust storms, bad days for maelstrom. The dust fucked with chrome worst than rain. Pink made sense though, he didn’t take her for a super feminine girl, but her guns were pink.

“Good colours.” He was expecting the answer back, but she surprised him.

“What were you like when you were a kid Dum?” Dum, she had called him that before, just shortening his name. Lots of people did, but she’d done it without… hearing anyone else. She changed his name, that felt good.

He reread the message, and thought real hard about his response. What was he like as a kid. Not a lot he could remember actually.

Shit in school, a shithead outside of school, joined the gang young, he’d already told her he was a dumbass. But none of those answers were worthy of the tough question she was asking. She didn’t ask for those answers. She wanted to know…him.

He let the question sit for a moment. It was a couple minutes before he replied, and honestly he was expecting her to text again. Maybe say something along the lines of you don’t gotta answer. But, he wanted to. Wanted to let her know him. So what was he like as a kid.

“I was a dumb kid. Didn’t like school, I liked art and music classes though. Math was shit. History was fun, but became bummed ‘bout that real quick. I ate a lot of sandwiches, climbed a lot of dumpsters. Tagged a lot of shit. Used to draw on the walls all the time.” It was an answer, true, but closed. He didn’t remember his childhood, who does. It was so long ago. But he knew that was true of himself.

“Your parents let you draw on walls?” Ha. Ha.

“Nah, ma hated it. But she gave up on trying to stop me.” Did he need to add more?

“Gotcha. I liked those classes too, phys ed as well. But my rents had me working on maths and tech way more. Wasn’t allowed to do much more arts after like grade three.”

Strict parents.

“Sorry to hear that. Art is fun. Are you creative V?” He was pushing the thought of counting her kills as an art form. But why. It was. She absolutely had a form of art. Checks out for the phys ed kid.

“I wouldn’t say I am. Don’t do nothing creative. Can’t even dance well.” She may not have been able to dance on a floor, but her movement, her spinning. That was like dancing. He subconciously let himself replay the spin on his scroll. He’d watched it many times before but never while talking to her.

“I’m sure you can dance real good V. I’d love to see it sometime.” Not that she’d ever let him. What were they gonna do, go dancing? He didn’t dance neither, it was a vague idea, but not one he’d discount. At this point he’d allowed himself more day dreams about this woman than he had had in the past two decades probably.

He was always thinking about her, imagining. Imagining what, he couldn’t even say. Not that any of it would ever come about. But there was something that felt very human in allowing himself to daydream anyway, something he hadn’t felt in a long time.

“I guess you’ll have to take me dancing then.” He spit out his beer at that. It made sense as a teasing text. She’d sent several of those, but still. It surprised him. He rushed to put the beer back down on the pallets and replied.

“I guess so. When and where?” He meant it, but he didn’t mean it.

He wanted to mean it, but it depended on how she took it. He really was just following her lead with all of this, from the beginning.

That was also irregular, Dum taking orders. Obviously he took them all the time from Brick and then from Royce, but in life, in relationships not including his very specific work, almost never. But here he was, letting her lead.

“Hm… How about one of the bars city center area, say in two and a half weeks?” She texted back quickly. Specific timeline, and not taken as a joke.

Shit, maybe he was actually going to go out with this woman at some point. He didn’t let himself get all that swept up in the excitement of the idea, but he couldn’t help some.

Two and a half weeks, must be after her big gig. So that would be soon.

He typed and deleted the texts several times before settling and sending it anyway.

“Sure, can’t wait.” If she wasn’t kidding around, he actually… he would actually be seeing the merc again.

She didn’t reply immediately, and he had hit the Keef enough that his head was clouded entirely. Ended up shooting a text to Lars.

“I think we’re gonna go dancing in a couple weeks?”

Lars replied immediately. “I’d never dance with you.” Dum snorted at that. And before he could reply Lars had barged into the room, and shrugged onto couch with him. His drink in hand.

“Shit man, you got a date with the merc?”

“I don’t think it’s a date.” Dum shut off his eyes and leaned back. Waiting for her to reply.

“Why not? You said dancing. That’s date shit man.” Lars had reached over and grabbed his S-Keef out of Dum’s hand and took a hit.

“I highly doubt she wants to go on a date with me man.” It was easy to let down his guard and express any negative thoughts with Lars, and only Lars. But he stopped himself from saying the rest of his thoughts. Self depreicating as they were.

He wasn’t sure he could allow those thoughts out of his head. Why the fuck would she even want to see him, a date? She was gorgeous, if she was a chrome chaser, wouldn’t they have seen her before.

Maybe the guys were right though, that she just chased that higher end tech chrome and Dum was just the fun fuck around flavor of the week.

“Why not? You’re a good looking dude, for someone without a face.” Dum laughed at that.

“You’re one to talk.” Dum didn’t have the top half, that was certain, but he definitely had a more human looking lower half of his face than half the guys. Lars had a giant part of his face just protruding, his optics and upper lip all one big connected piece. He certainly looked less…. human than Dum did. More machine. Even though with the rest of their chrome, they were pretty evenly matched.

“Well, you kept that pretty face of yours for a reason, didn’t ya? Why’s it so hard to believe she might like it?”

Dum fought the urge to loudly sigh. He did keep his faceplate mostly intact. He had his optics sure, but they definitely looked… well different from the other guys.

He was one of the few that did. He didn’t know exactly the reason he chose to keep his looks relatively the same as before he went through initiation. Most chose their chrome, or just ended up with it after injuries.

It was all required, for initiation and the whole ritual and rites. But he definitely made the conscious decision to keep himself… like himself. Probably the same reason he got and kept a memory implant. To not lose himself entirely.

V texted back. “It’s a date then.” Dum laughed at that and showed it to Lars.

“Fucking told you man. You got a date with the hot merc.” Lars was horizontal on the couch and kicked Dums leg for emphasis. “She likes you dude.” Dum smirked, he didn’t want to let himself really allow all the thoughts to go wild, but he couldn’t help but feel the excitement creeping up.

Chapter Text

V yawned, she was enjoying texting Dum. But sleep was creeping up on her, she had only finished one beer and hadn’t even opened the other, but her plans for staying up all night were unrealistic anyway. That rib injury really was exhausting.

It was a couple minutes from her last text, she wondered if maybe she had scared him off with the word date. Not like that was something people really did all that much in NC. It was far more of an old fashioned idea.

She decided to text again before he replied.

“Hey man, I enjoyed talking to you, but I am fucking crashing. I’ll talk to you tomorrow if that's cool.” She sent the text, then went to go brush her teeth and by the time she had climbed into bed he replied.

“Sure thing V, talk tomorrow.”

She smiled to herself, and then drifted off to sleep.

Chapter Text

It had been a couple of months since they last talked. The date never happened. He texted a couple of times, but never got a reply. The break-in at Konpeki Plaza was plastered on the news for weeks, and as the cycle. They only reported one body, other than whats his face emperor. But still…

Dum was stone faced, kept his head down, simply said “Got it” and walked off.

Lars and the guys gave him space. A day or two later they decided to break into NCPD evidence lockup, and stole back the bot. If he couldn’t have the merc, he could at least get the spider back. Dum just nodded thanks, and went back to work.

Royce noticed something was up, but comforting his guys wasn’t gonna happen, so he did the next closest thing he could do and sent Dum to hunt down a good half of their “enemy” list.

Mostly to intimidate into submission, but some to just put down. Dum, like any good attack dog, attacked. It didn’t seem to help.

“Dum Dum, you wanna go get hammered?” Lars didn’t barge into the room, the door was propped open with a gun, but just barely enough to see the couch. Dum was there, making no attempt to respond or move.

It had been weeks, but that didn’t stop Lars from trying to get Dum alone, to sit and talk. Dum wasn’t avoiding him per say, but he wasn’t hanging out with him socially as of late. Avoiding any conversation he could have with anyone that wasn’t barking orders.

He wasn’t much crueler than he was before, but there was a brief moment in which he was a lot calmer, cooler, kinder even.

Everyone knew, not everyone knew why. He’d actually been approached a good couple times by some guys asking what the fuck he changed about his lace and how could he hook them up. They all got the same answer, “Nothings changed. Same lace it’s always been.”

The few who did know about the merc, did their rounds to get him to let loose, mostly at Lars’ request. But no one, not even Royce could get Dum to open up.

Sure he’d join sometimes for Totentanz, he’d pound as many drinks as the next guy, but he’d still shun the groupies. Nothing had changed.

Everything had changed, but nothing had changed. It was as if he never met the merc, never got the call to hunt, never did anything. He was the same Dum he had always been.

Maybe, maybe, just a tad bit more closed off. Eventually, a couple of weeks in, most of the guys had forgotten that he’d ever changed.

It really seemed like he never had. Even to Ash, Vex and Royce it began to feel like they had imagined that for just a brief moment there, that Dum was different. Lars knew, Lars knew way too much, and it was starting to piss Dum off. Constantly being reminded that he couldn’t go back to normal.

Everyone else would let him go back to normal, but Lars just wouldn’t fucking back off.

“Fuck off Lars, I already got beer and a good BD, just fuck off.”

He made no move to get off the couch, but maybe a fidget to sink further in.

“Okay, I’m coming in though.” Lars lifted the gun, pushed the door open with his foot and let it close behind him. He stood at the entrance just waiting for Dum to say something, move, do anything. It was looking like he never would, and the silence was getting too long when Dum shot an arm up, palm open.

“Outta smokes, you got any?” He did, and he moved to put the gun on a table between the couch and door, while the other hand started digging in his pockets. Took him a second without the lights, but eventually he passed the pack to the outstretched hand. It was the most interaction Dum had willingly allowed with anyone, Lars especially, in weeks.

Lars stood there, closer to the side of the couch, waiting for further instructions. He’d gone the whole route of trying to talk, get him to open up, let loose, get drunk, anything. But Dum was a stone with everyone's attempts. The singular time Lars had actually asked sincerely, since Konpeki hit the news, Dum threw a bottle at his head, missing by mere inches.

Lars had asked before, but the only time he said her name, he later switched to saying Merc.

And even asking in front of Royce how the hunt was going for the killer, Dum didn’t look his way for nearly a month. The next two months he spoke to him were barking directions. He got his nose …well, the metal where a nose would be, hit by a door once or twice in that time.

Ash even got punched for asking. Dum was volatile and violent, and more importantly not speaking.

Funny enough, the kids, the newest recruits clung to him like glue. His aloofness only made him more appealing to them. Nearly every new groupie begged to go out with him on patrols, learn from Royce’s right hand. Royce was happy enough to send the kids out to die with Dum.

Happy enough to send anyone out to die, but happy enough to send the untethered even more.
More than enough of them got killed first, second, maybe even third job, but by the fourth they seemed about good enough to get initiated.

Dum didn’t give a shit about the dead, Royce didn’t care about the initiation, but it allowed one to cull the herd, and the other to go into a fight with expendables. No real harm to him.

Some of the guys started going out as snipers after Dum returned for the second month with everyone half dead. Kurts command, at Lars suggestion. Royce didn’t give a shit either way, they weren’t initiated, they weren’t real maelstrom, only idiot kids who wanted to join up.

Dum had shut off everyone, gotten a ton of recruits killed and yet instilled respect in everyone who hadn’t died on the job with him. Lars hadn’t given up, but he did almost stop trying.

Not today though, today was the first and only time anyone in Maelstrom had even noticed Royce gave a shit about anything.

“Lars, follow me!” It was a regular work meeting concluding, Dum wasn’t there, he had been skipping those a lot, he used the excuse of training the latest batch of idiots. Kids barely chromed, most even still had faces.

Kurt had taken point, he had become a sort of point leader for Royce. Royce wanted an area, some tygers snuffed, Kurt took the time to devise a plan, ride the routes, get the intel. Royce didn’t give a shit, he fucking hated all this shit, but he wanted the terf. So Royce was fine with letting Kurt make the calls, as long as it was direct to Royce’s whim.

The voice suddenly coming from the back of the group was a shock to all of them, Royce spoke up in meetings sometimes. Mostly to announce there would be more blood than Kurt was asking. A lot of meetings had started going that way, since Dum stopped showing, Royce was now standing to the back, completely letting Kurt run shit.

Everyone turned to look at Lars, as he turned around he felt the imagined heat of fifty red lights spread over less than twenty tethered. The hum they all heard went silent for just a second as everyone had the shared question.

Royce hadn’t asked for anyone since the merc problem. For just a second Kurt, Ash and Vex all stepped slightly forward, till Royce was completely turned around and clearly walking away.

It was clear, this was a request like the merc had been, and all four knew how that went. Kurt didn’t ever hear it from Lars, and Dum never talked about it, Vex would let a couple things slip every once in a while, but nothing too clear. It was the merc, that was what made Dum different.

For a while Kurt thought it was that Dum failed to put down the bitch. But after some semi lucid conversations in which Vex did his best to hold back, but chrome liver be damned, twenty shots is twenty shots even if you can physically handle it with no negative consequences. The bitch who killed his oldest choom was exactly the bitch Dum got fucked up over, for a brief second after the dots connected he felt an emotion about it. But by then Dum had been fucking weird for almost three months. Vex didn’t need to tell the whole or even the rest of the story. “Konpeki” was the last thing before he hit the bar and nearly fell off the stool. Kurt knew. He knew the story ended with “the merc is gone”. And he knew that gone was why Dum was… different. Or maybe he had been different, but he was back to normal now. So when Royce stomped off, Kurt stuck his left hand slightly more to the side of him, as if to signal to Ash and Vex that they didn’t need to follow their instinctual pivot forward.
Lars had already started his second step following with the rest of the guys disbanding to their jobs, he didn’t need to look back to know that his friends weren’t following him, but he would be lying if he said he didn’t notice they all stepped forward. He patted his hand in the air just slightly behind them as if to say “Stay”. Chooms they all relatively were, Royce wasn’t the enemy, only the inconvenient change.

Lars followed a few steps behind Royce, he had little reason to be on edge, but getting called out by the leader was always just a little bit intimidating. Even if they’d known eachother a damn long time.

It was silent the whole walk to Royce’s garage. Lars debated the whole walk if this was personal, and about Dum, or a job. A job he could handle, even if he’d never technically taken point on one, a personal conflict was a little trickier. But mostly he was worried about the one-on-one with Royce.

The change he had seen in this man in the past decade was intense, volatile as they all were, and psychosis as common as it was, Royce surprised him nonetheless.

“Shut it.” The garage door was never fully closed, theoretically one could lock Royce in if it were to be completely closed. Sure hacking was easy, and of the items in the room, the garage door wasn’t THAT tough, but a chain is still a chain, and any variation would require effort.

As his boot took over the handle pushing downwards Lars thought to himself that not once in over a decade had he seen this door closed.

Royce shocked him again, when he ducked down and twisted a single wire on his chair, all the mechanisms made a whir of change and went silent.

The lights flickered on and off in the room, as all the screens went black. Now he knew for certain that he had never ever seen this room, or any Maelstrom “leader” room, only lit by their optics. It was just the two of them, Lars and Royce staring at each other, just red.

Neither said anything for a moment, and while it was around only eleven in the morning, it felt so silently of a full moon at that moment.

“I need you to disconnect,” Lars stared at him incredulously. Though he technically knew such a choice was possible, he’d never tried to get off the network. It was easy, a choice, basically pushing a button internally, but Lars was nevertheless hesitant to “press” it.

A few seconds later he did, he felt a slight sting like a headache oncoming, but dull enough to ignore. Royce turned his optics blue, Lars did as well, the room illuminated differently than it ever had been previously.

“Okay. Done.” They both knew it was, but for the first time in a long time Lars felt truly defenseless.

“Preem.” Royce stared at Lars, and Lars stared back.

It was a moment of silence before both spoke.

“Is this about a jo-” …

“Dum.”

The next moment of silence felt like forever as they cut each other off and waited. Royce waiting for Lars to offer up anything he knew. They had rarely ever spoken one on one, and they had definitely never spoken about Dum. And Lars was waiting for Royce to tell him…what?

He didn’t know, but he had the thought begging Royce not to ask him what he was afraid he would. The silence stood heavy, both waiting for the other to speak.

Royce wasn’t going to ask him to… No. He wouldn’t be. Technically, all of Maelstrom could just make the call, and the higher powers that initiated were, could put another down without a second thought. It was subtle, how she worked. But to kill ones brother in arms was just as easy as genuinely asking. Before Lars was able to add the factor of Lilith herself, Royce spoke.

“You know more than me. I need you to tell me what’s going on with Den.”

For a moment Lars stood there, Dum had had the name so long he forgot his previous name. He had met him as Den, and pretty quickly Dum. But no one had said his flesh name in a long long time.
“Look, I know I don’t…” Royce paused for a moment. “I know I don’t give a fuck about who we are, we are Maelstrom. We’ve been this way for a fucking god damn long time. But he is still the closest thing I got to family. And I know something is fucking wrong.”

Lars stood there in silence, not knowing whether to say anything. How fucking mad would Dum be if he knew he was being talked about right now, how mad he would be if he was called by, if Royce called him his name.

Royce broke his thoughts. “I know it was that merc. What I need you to tell me is if it was her at the pickup with the bot. If there was more.”

One of the benefits of sacrificing your facial structure is that it could become completely unreadable. Or to not maelstrom it was unreadable. Royce got fitted with a very very obvious lower face to read, Lars couldn’t show anything outside of his lower jaw moving. But still, he kept his face as steady as possible.

It was weird, being disconnected from the ability to emote.

Yet he felt the phantom flesh in its desire to move. He couldn’t raise his cheeks to indicate any thought, but he felt his “cheeks” move to indicate anyway.

He felt his “cheeks” grow hot, despite only metal standing there. He waited for Royce to say anything else, with anticipation for his holster to be popped open any second. It wasn’t against code technically to shoot another Maelstrom.

To be completely honest, they had very little of a code to work with. Maelstrom was a gang of trust. Any tethered could make the call, they just needed enough of them to make a change, and for Lilith to agree. And while Lars had been in her system for over a decade now, she so rarely made a single change to any of them.

Her greatest strength, and the only reason Lars had ever felt her at all was in the moments of “battle”. When they could all be granted the ability to kinda tell what the others were thinking. Or rather, Lilith, would tell them what the others were doing. Technically, this was the first time Lars had ever asked her to step back.

She said nothing.

“Jesus Fuck Lars. I need you to tell me what’s going on. It was the same merc, what happened. Was he fucking her? Why the fuck has he shut down?”

“He wasn’t fucking her.” Royce took a moment to think that through.

“So the bitch who killed the Arasaka Emperor.” It wasn’t a question, but Lars nodded anyway.

Royce shifted his weight on his feet for a moment, before reaching into the seat to grab his lace, Lars watched as he took at hit, Lars’s fingers twitching to grab his smokes.

Royce offered him the next hit. But holding it far enough it was clear this was a reward for his next response.

Lars had known Royce going on thirtteen years, not once in that time had Royce indicated a sharing of his personal drugs. Most Maelstrom carried their lace, their dope, their vices, and kept them close.

Lars had never had this moment, but he reached for his pocket and before lighting his smoke, offered his cigarettes to Royce, whose hand was still outstretched with the Lace, but still his shoulder was stiff as though he would throw a punch with it clenched in his fist. As upgraded as they were, Royce was right handed, it was his left extended.

Lars took the lace, and before the palm was retracted he placed a cigarette and a lighter.

Royce wasn’t expecting this exchange, but he took the offering nonetheless. Lars hit the lace. Royce lit up a smoke. They both stared at each other. Lars took a moment.

“They weren’t fucking.” He took another moment. Royce did nothing except another drag of his cigarette. “They were friends. Or became that. They were sending each other messages. It was a couple of weeks.” Royce said nothing with the pause. Lars took a breath and continued. “They were talking. Texting. Planned like a date.” Foreign a concept that was.

Royce said nothing, but his next exhale was vocal. Lars waited, for a moment he thought of how fucking stupid that was to tell him.

Maelstrom wouldn’t date, and if they did in any capacity wouldn’t that be more problems down the line. And even then, Royce was the guy who sent Dum to kill her, and here he was telling Royce that Dum was planning on dating her. Fuck. Fuck. Fu-

Royce spoke next. “He liked her a lot.” It wasn’t a question, but it was. Lars thought through the next few seconds, half death row panic, half self preservation.

“Yeah.” He gave the answer. Royces shoulders dropped. Though he had half a face, he only expressed anger. This was new. His visible jowls indicated what registered as concern.

Lars knew Dum and Royce had a history. Sometimes Dum had slipped up, called Royce his flesh name. They had known each other in their past lives.

Never had Lars, or anyone to his knowledge, ever called Dum’s name since Brick changed it.

“She died?” Dum had once told him about the spider graffiti. He wasn’t new to loss. But hearing Royce say it was different.

“She died.” His words hung in the air.

“There’s nothing left of her?” This was a new development he hadn’t been expecting “We can’t find her?”

For a moment Lars was dumbfounded. He had never heard Royce be so human. To even ask. He had never asked. Lars paused, taking several drags of the cigarette, it being his only line of defense.

“She’s gone.” They stared.

“So how do we make him right?” It was such an odd question, Lars had several ideas…but not a single one had gotten them anywhere.

“I don’t know how to get him back” His sentiment wasn’t gone. He just had gotten tired of getting nowhere.

“Have you tried..” Though he responded in seconds, the silence, the lack of her, it felt like forever. Royce had started his thought, then cut himself off. “How is he?”

Lars took a moment to respond. Royce continued. “Look…” He took a heavy pause. “I can't do this without him. So you get him on board. Or I’ve got to.”

He took another pause, the heaviest of the evening. The heaviest pause Lars had ever felt.

“Lars, if you are willing to help me bring him back, then I know what you have to say.” He knew what Royce was asking. But he didn’t know what he would say next.

It wasn’t a request for death, for destruction. This was a different journey than he’d ever gone on with maelstrom. This wasn’t even a Maelstrom thing at all, this was human. A human request for human connection. This was almost against everything Maelstrom stood for, everything they stood by. Lars nodded. “What do you need?”

Chapter Text

“Fuck off.”

Lars wasn’t moving. No footsteps, no difference.

It had been 32 days since he gave Lars a command. But fucking hell was he suffocating.

It wasn't his fault obviously. But, Lars being the only person who knew, really knew. Sure Vex and Ash kinda knew, but Lars knew knew. And here he was crowding him, reminding him about the girl. The one who made him wish for something different for just a second.

It had also been four months since her last text. He wasn’t keeping tabs on purpose, he just couldn’t stop thinking about it, every single day.

She was going to dinner. Dum knew the address. He knew where she lived. He knew the names of every one of her neighbors. He knew Jackie had died. He wouldn’t have gone to the funeral, but he knew there was no funeral for V. Not that he knew of. Part of that gave him hope. But if she was alive, she wasn’t reaching out to him…

So she was gone...

Either way, he’d lost her. Not that he ever had her, or knew her. He spent weeks watching the security feeds of her megaplex; there was never an eviction notice posted to her door, but it also never opened. If anything, maybe she paid out the year.

He didn’t start searching for her until after he found out about the bot at Konpeki, so it was possible she had made it back in, and then he just never saw her come back out. He hoped she wasn’t dead behind that door. Part of him wanted to go check, go to her megaplex, up the elevator, to her door and just knock. Find out. But he wasn’t looking. If she was there, she didn’t want him.

But part of him was terrified someone else would open up if he did check.

Dum lit up a smoke. Neither spoke for a moment, but Dum did move on the couch so Lars could sit.

“Are you okay?”

“No.” The answer was no, and the room felt heavy. And the answer wasn’t the whole truth, it wasn’t the right question. Of course he wasn’t okay. He didn’t know if there was ever a time he was okay. But, he certainly wasn’t now.

“What can I do to help?” Lars wasn’t looking at him, he was staring ahead, there was a tv there now, but it was off. The sincerity in his voice hurt more than the question to begin with. Nothing, nothing could help.

How could it, how could he? There was nothing wrong to begin with, so what could fix it.

Yeah, for a brief second there, there was a different Dum, he was different. But to hold him to what he was, or what he is now. It seemed superfluous.

There was what was right before her, there was what was since her.

But it never felt right again, not to Dum, not to Lars, not to Royce, or any of them.

She, in her brief appearance, changed Maelstrom. Not only the personal level several members felt it, but by her actions. Sure, Maelstrom knew Dum never caught the merc, but the murders stopped happening.

Yet, for just a moment there, something other than cyberpsychosis felt like a genuine threat to the gang itself. For so long the biggest problems they faced were clearly their delicate mental health, though Lilith prevented many many episodes. Though they all lived on the brink of melting down, they rarely did, melt down.

NCPD and other gangs were always a threat, but even then, they so rarely had anyone venture into their turf, kill their men. It was usually disputed territory, or encroaching on stray gangers like vultures. Even the Scavs left them alone most often.

That one was more a logistical aspect of that particular situation. Scavengers went for high end tech sure, but shit they could pull then sell. What Maelstrom were slotting was unique, different, special.

Most of the guys worked on their own chrome. Or Patricia, it was often Patricia and her special sect of the gang that built most the tech they got. Anything operating Raven was essentially made bespoke for them.

With all this in mind, Lars didn’t wait long enough for Dum to answer, or the silence he gave him wasn’t enough silence before he spoke again.

“Look man, I’m not the only one. You got guys who care about you here. Fuck the whole gang does. You’re like a hero to the recruits. All the new guys want to be like you. The strongest of us.”

He fully turned his body to look at Dum, and while Dum was still facing forward Lars knew he tilted his head just a bit, his center optic adjusted frame slightly. He continued, “And you are man. You are literally the strongest of us. No one else could do the shit you did, fuck you sat for the whole of initiation barely flinching, barely moving, no one else has been able to do that. And you did it so easy.”

Finally Dum spoke, “I’m not the strongest.” He turned his head to look at Lars now. “I cheated.” Dum faced back forward, and Lars dropped his jaw on instinct. How the fuck was that even possible?

“What the fuck do you mean you cheated? How?” For the first time in a long time, Dum’s corner lips tilted upwards, Lars would have barely caught it, except his lip rings reflecting back red.

“I took some experimental drugs, I felt it. But I couldn’t move. I was kinda paralyzed.” Lars stared back at him. He wasn’t expecting any form of cheating to have been possible, but to cheat so you couldn’t move, rather than not feel pain.

That was fucking insane. Lars just stared.

“Simon went before me, he couldn’t stop squirming. You weren’t there, but I remember it. Brick was laughing the whole time, telling me he didn’t think Royce could do it. But he was fucking determined. He moved so much though, there was so much blood. And you know he doesn’t give a fuck about any of the other shit, about the ritual part of it. He just wanted to prove he could suffer and survive. That’s why he’s got that fucking ugly mug.

The ripper tried two other optics, but just had to keep going deeper, taking more skull. Took Si forever to stop screaming, didn’t shut up till he blacked out. Blood loss I guess, but holy fuck man he was gripping those chair arms like all hell.”

It was the most Dum had said to Lars since Konpeki. Since he was last teasing him about his date with the hot merc. Most he had said in a long fucking time to anyone.

Lars thought back to the night he went through it, to be honest he blacked out as much as he could. The drugs they give you after, once you flick on your reds for the first time, most guys never even considered getting off those drugs.

Hell, if you took all of Maelstrom and made ‘em go sober, more than half of them would start wailing from the constant pain of just remembering. And Lilith, Lilith was god. Once she could control you, as much as you would ask her to, she took away all the pain, there was only pleasure if you just asked her. Lars asked her to take away all his pain, but he never thought to question how much he would have to begin with. He’d been in the gang a long time, a decade and a half almost, time blurred together after a while.

But the more he thought about it, he wasn’t sure he would ever make the same choice. Joining up again. He didn’t know where he would be without it, probably dead, but to go through initiation again? Never.

“I told Brick I was terrified, and I was, man. I was just a kid, watching Si on that table. All the fucking “chants” and shit we did, I was the only one in that room who wasn’t on Lilith yet, ‘cept the Ripper .” Dum finished his smoke, and extended his hand for another. If he was going to keep talking, Lars was going to keep paying.

Lars immediately handed him the whole pack. “Brick didn’t say shit, he just kept on watching Simon scream.” He lit his cigarette. “I was supposed to get slotted a couple days later, but the next day, one of Decks’ guys asked me if I wanted anything. Said that Deck had asked him to. I thought it was a trick, but I was so fucking scared man.”

“I was, what? Nineteen? Twenty? I was so scared, and Simon hadn’t woken up. I figured if I shot up and it killed me who gave a fuck. I got no one left to give a shit. I was probably gonna die either way. From shooting that shit, from being caught in a loyalty trap, or from getting my fucking eyes gouged out.”

Dum took a long drag from his cig, then balanced his wrist on his thigh. “I thought I was gonna be dead no matter what.”

No one joined Maelstrom without being passively or even actively suicidal. No one joined up who had any family left. That made them different than any other gang.

Tygerclaws joined up as family, for family glory and honor, or to just sell sex. But they almost always were locals with life in the area. Valentinos were definitely the same, if not more family oriented. Kids born and raised Valentino, could die Valentino fifty years later. Sixth street was almost all veterans, but there was their own family in that. And if they had family outside the gang, there was nothing stopping them from leaving or going back to their family. They mostly stuck together because they served together, or all got thrown out and displaced together

Other gangs like Scavs, if they could be called a gang, were just out to make eds. Animals were like that, not the eddies but to mod themselves as much as they could.

If anything, Maelstrom was most like the Mox. Not many who had family, who had any other option, would join up. But when they did, they looked out for each other. They became a family. Maelstrom, looking out for themselves. Mox, looked out for themselves. No one else would.

Maybe the only difference was how much your life meant to you, and how much you were willing to let go of being human. The Mox kept their lives, their humanity, reveled in it, sold it even. They tried to stay alive, they wanted to stay alive.

Maelstrom? Maelstrom joined when they got nowhere else to go, and they’re too cowardly to pull the trigger themselves.

That’s why Lars joined. No one left to care about him, no one to care about. Nothing to live for, no reason to keep living. Just, the right place at the right time when the right people showed up.

One conversation later and he had a bed to sleep on, food, all the booze and drugs he could ever want. The only thing they asked for were their eyes. He was so exhausted from trying to survive in this hellhole of a city on his own that he willingly gave them that.

The two guys sat there in silence for a couple minutes. It had been so long since either of them thought about the most painful experience they ever had.

That type of pain, it bonded you to your gang. The only people who would ever know what you went through, and why. But it isolated you even more.

Once you were Maelstrom, once you survived, you could only be with them. There was no where else in this whole fucking city that would ever think you were supposed to be there.

No one who would ever think you were one of them. You only had Maelstrom, you only had that life. And the only way out was death. But even then, if their most devoted fanatics were to be believed, you never escaped Maelstrom. You just became a part of the digital storm.

Dum picked his beer back off from the pallet, finished the rest, and dropped his hand and bottle heavy on his lap. The metal fingers clanking with the green glass.

“I don’t know what to do.” Lars knew there was more, so made no effort to even think of a response. There was a deep emotion in his voice, metallic as it was, the desperation somehow leaked through. “What do I do?”

Lars still made no effort to respond verbally, but stood up, grabbed two beers that hadn’t even made it into the mini fridge but were on top. He popped the tops off with a divot on his wrist, and handed one to Dum before he sat back down. They both took some sips before he spoke next.

“I don’t know man.”

“What do you want to do?” He balanced his beer on the upper half of his thigh, right where the synth skin ended and the metal began.

Dum had been slouched a bit, but still upright, now he exasperatedly sunk into the couch and knocked his head back as far as it would go. Once comfortable in his new position he replied.

“Delete her.” A heavy pause “like from my memory.” This was, technically, entirely possible. The only thing they would have to do was ask her, and then spread it to the guys to never mention anything about the whole situation. Lars could tell them all, or ask Royce, and he would make fucking sure no one said shit about fucking nothing ever again.

“Sure man, you could do that. But you don’t want to.” Dum turned his head to look at Lars. He breathed as dramatic as a sigh his vocal chords could muster.

“I know I don’t.” He threw his hands up to cover his face, dimming the light in the room significantly. “I can’t delete her. I can’t stop thinking about her. And she’s fucking gone. I’m fucked man.” If his voice could break, which it couldn’t, Lars knew it would have here.

Maelstrom weren’t exactly a physical comfort type of people. Outside of the occasional arm punch, or shoulder nudge, it had been a long long time since either of them had been physically touched.

You reach a certain point in chroming up where it literally didn’t matter. Half the chrome was designed to feel nothing, and the parts that were designed hypersensitive could easily be shut off. Most of Maelstrom went through life feeling physically nothing, but experiencing realms as much mentally as they could.

Still Lars, who hadn’t known much physical comfort in almost two decades, felt the desire to reach out to his friend. Give him some form of comfort he could.

He didn’t know how though, so he reached into his pocket and offered the next closest thing, Glitter.

Nudging his hand into Dum’s elbow. Dum took his hands down, and looked at the offering. While Maelstrom could easily handle what nearly no one else could, benefits of every single inch of them being modified to all hell, combined with a tethered rogue A.I operating as their conscience most of the time, glitter wasn’t nearly as common as it would seem to be.

It wasn’t hard to find, but it was often viewed in NC as the end. Once you started glitter, there was almost no going back.

Even in Maelstrom, once you were on that shit, you were going to die faster than anyone on Lace or any other combination of chemicals. If not from the chem itself just stopping your heart, then from the lapsed judgement and time processing getting you blasted in the heat of battle.

It made you slower overall, but in the moment you felt like a god. Half of Maelstrom dead were too slow to respond because of heavy G use.

Lars wasn’t offering Dum death though, hell not even an out. Just the only thing he could think of that would truly help. Though hesitant, Dum took it.

Chapter Text

V bolted upright from bed and rushed to the toilet as fast as she could, she stumbled forward knocking over two of her decorative shells and proceeded to puke over half the seat.

It was a couple of minutes hunched over till the nausea went away, but knowing it would likely be back in minutes, she only made an effort to get off her ankles, and sit against the wall, half shower half in the beads. She was too exhausted to move from the spot.

“Well done, you’ve spent four whole days throwing up nothing but stomach acid.”

The imaginary dickbag popped up every couple hours to piss her off it seemed. The pills were scattered on the floor still, she should probably pick those up. If she could handle even crawling across the floor.

There was an airhypo in the medical box under the sink, but even those few feet felt blocks away from her in this moment. She tried to steady her breathing best she could. Maybe make an effort to try and shower. Cool water might feel good for her skin.

“Yeah, it might also make you throw up more.” She made the tiniest effort to flip him off, and swore she saw him smirking a bit before she closed her eyes again. For now, the cold floor on her ass felt like the only thing grounding her in this world.

-

There was light streaming down on her face, she blinked quickly and reached for a cover or anything to block the sun. She never slept with the blinds open, or backwards in her bed. She found a pillow and covered her eyes as best she could.

“Yeah, I opened the blinds. You need to get up. It’s been days.”

“Fuck off, it’s my body. I don’t want you using it.” Her voice broke twice as she spoke, parched and starving she finally relented to getting up. The second she sat up, her brain felt like it split in half. “Shut it.”

The parasite hadn’t said anything, but she felt he was about to. Glancing up to the flickers, he slunk back on the window seal and lightly put his hands up as if to say “not saying or doing anything here”. She wondered how it was that she felt him there.

He wasn’t real right?

“Do you want me to answer that?” He was really starting to piss her off.

First everything goes to fucking shit, and now she has this jackass to answer to. It had been a couple of weeks since everything blew up. Jack was, Jackie was gone.

Mama had texted her at some point in the past couple of days, but was too out to read the message. Like she had ignored many messages when she, Jack and Misty were hungover from drink, it seemed so often. And yet so far now. She thought about checking it but…

“You need food, a shower, maybe coffee.” Kicking herself off the bed, she stopped to reach back for the pillow and threw it at the window, only for the engram to disappear like a glitch.

The pillow laid on the ground as she stumbled back to the restroom, first time in days she wasn’t sick to her stomach. She didn’t even want to look in the mirror. Had to have been over a week since she last did, over a week since her last shower too. Her hair felt matted and heavy, she flipped on the shower to warm up.

She was barely standing but she might as well try to clean the toilet before she used it, pretend to have some semblance of normalcy.

To her surprise the seat was cleaned, and the decorative shells, that Misty had given her as part of an house warming gift, replaced in their spots.

She knew for certain she didn’t do that, though disgusting looking, she pulled up her holo to call Misty, see if she stopped by before he spoke again.

“Yeah, I cleaned it for you. Don’t expect me to do that often though.”

For the first time since they met, V looked at him directly. “What do you mean you cleaned? How is that possible?” He was twiddling his fingers as though rotating a pen between them.

“When you sleep, sometimes I wake up.” He wasn’t looking at her.

The bathroom was filling up with steam as she squinted at him. Suddenly it occurred to her she had been naked nearly this whole time, with some man living in her brain, just watching her every move. And apparently Taking Control Of Her Body When She Slept. That felt incredibly weird.

He still wasn’t looking at her, “It’s not like I have a choice either. I didn’t mean to take over, figured I’d be helpful as long as I did. Take a shower, we’ll talk when you're out.” With that he disappeared again, and V was alone.

-

Showered, clean clothing, and her hair in a towel, she sat on the couch with a disgusting vending machine burrito drinking some shitty vending machine coffee when she finally checked her holo.

“Call me mija.” Seven missed calls from Mama Welles. She felt guilty looking at the texts. Guilty for not calling, for being sick, for dying, and for Jack. After finishing her food she did.

“Hi Mama.”

“Hola V” (Hello V) Lupe had eyebags so dark they looked almost like bruises, it seemed V wasn’t the only one not getting good enough sleep. “¿Como estas mija?” (How are you?)

Shit, fucking shit. Everything had gone to shit again, and now Jackie was dead. How the fuck do you answer that question to a woman who just lost her only son?

Here she was, Lupe Welles, about to bury her only son. Yet she was asking V, genuinely asking her how she was doing. Her face showed only concern. And suddenly, V felt the tears well up. And before she knew it they were escaping.

“Shit. I feel like shit. I miss Jackie. I think I’m dying. I can’t sleep. And there’s a terrorist in my brain.” She said it all so quickly but portions of her words were cut out by deep sobs.

“It’s just all so fucked Mama.” She could still be seen on the holo, but she ducked her face down and covered her mouth to stop the deep guttural sobs that reverberated up her spine.

“Ah, V. Lo siento. Pero entendo.” (I’m so sorry V, but I understand) She had started crying, small tears just escaping her eyes. It was so easy for either of them to put on a face when it came time to it. But with each other, with family, they couldn’t hold back even when they tried.

“Lo extraño más que a nada.” (I miss him more than anything).

They didn’t speak for a few minutes, just crying with each other for a moment. V hadn’t seen her since dinner. Jackie and his mom had argued before dessert. Jackie insisting this was the last dinner they would have as a family if Misty wasn’t invited to the next one.

They didn’t have dinner the next week. V hadn’t asked him if he spoke to his mom again. She didn’t know if they had made up before he…

“La ofrenda es este jueves. ¿Lo lograrás?” (The oferenda is on Thursday. Will you make it?)

V nodded, wiping away tears. Johnny was there now, on the couch next to the window, just watching her.

“V, ¿puedes pedirle a Misty que se una a nosotros?” (V, Can you ask Misty to join us?) V blinked away her final tears, and looked at Mama directly now. Her tears still flowing, V answered. “Sí, sí lo haré.” (Yes, yes I will.)

“She needs something encouraging V. Give her something.” It was the first indication this guy had a heart at all. V stared at Mama, what could she possibly say that would bring her any comfort at all. “Tell her you love her, and you will be there for her. As long as you can be.” V found herself speaking before thinking.

“Te amo Mama, estaré ahí para ti, mientras esté aquí. Prometo. Te quiero mucho mamá. Puedes llamarme cuando lo extrañes y yo te llamaré.” (I love you Mama, and I will be there for you, as much as I can be. I promise. I love you so much Mama. You can call me when you miss him, and I’ll call you.)

“Gracias V, lo haré.“ (Thank you V, I will.) Lupes voice broke, she looked like she was reaching for a tissue as she hung up the call. Her last look, a look of pity. Viktor must have told her about her condition. Of course he would have.

“So the terrorist has a heart after all.” She looked at him pointedly now.

“Yeah, or maybe I’m just helping you use yours.”

Chapter Text

“Dum! Get your ass to Royce’s NOW!”

“I’m busy. Get Lars.” He wasn’t busy. He had been fucking around with Doom Doom “supervising” the newest recruits. Half had never even hit the targets. And the ones that did would have missed any shot on a human.

With the exception of one guy who switched factions two weeks ago. Blaine was his name. From Tygerclaw. The most conversation any of these leaders had had in months was discussing whether or not they could even take him in.

Logistically they could. But… this guy already had chrome eyes. Red optics. What were they gonna do? Rip out his already functioning optics to put in new ones? What was the point? Just the pain?

Half the guys were arguing he should be put through initiation just to feel what they all did. The other half arguing his twelve years in Claw grip would be enough, just slot him with her and he’d be Maelstrom.

Dum was somewhere in the middle. Not speaking up for either side. He was however, only offering to “train” to see where this guy could fit. He was better than most of the guys they had already.
-

They’d only been on a single car ride, the best way to test the new guys. Take ‘em out, see how they do and what they do. Blaine noticed some NCPD assholes targeting some homeless kids. He was out of the car faster than Dum, and though he had the skills to kill, he chose to hack the cops to the ground. Get the kids away from them. Dum stood back and watched. Blaine offered them a ride to anywhere northish.

Completely different than Dum would have handled it, Maelstrom fucked with cops all the time.

Mostly in defense. And saving kids wasn’t something they did often, but they did do. As the four kids piled into his three seater backseat, Dum moved the one cops body out of the middle of the road. They hated cops as much as the next gang, and murder was absolutely on the table, but a murder by wiping their systems and leaving them in the road to get run over? That seemed too cheap.

“Can we give them a ride to a place in Little China?” Blaine had been a quiet guy. Mostly nodding, or walking away from requests or conversation. This was the first real time he’d actually spoken to Dum.

Dum was pulling a downed cop by his legs, over a curb and into some grass area under an overpass. Their patrol car was close enough, he’d make it back easy if he didn’t get his head squished under some tire. “What’s in chinatown?”

Blaine had four teens now in the back of the car, now locked. He grabbed the other downed cop, pulling him along side the cop Dum was “A shelter.”

“A shelter? Like food and beds and stuff?”

Blaine huffed with the weight, his cop was slightly bigger, but less distance to move. “Yeah, they’re orphans, haven’t had a proper meal in days. Prolly no bed either.” Dum dropped his dead weight and looked at Blaine as he pulled the guy of the sidewalk.

“We can feed them, and give them a place to sleep.” He hadn’t done much recruiting, but this is usually how it went. Find the vulnerable, save the vulnerable, rip their eyes out eventually.

They had gone back to the car, standing outside the driver and passenger door “They’re kids. Kids.”

As they got in, Dum looked back. At four kids, none of them could have been older than thirteen.

It was rare, but sometimes they would pick up kids, kid kids, too young to recruit. They’d drop them off at a soup kitchen that operated out of the docks. Dum had only seen it one or two times in his fifteen years.

He sighed mechanically as he spoke “Y’all got any family?”

One of the kids stared back at him, young, the youngest it seemed. “No…uh…no sir. We been alone for a while.”

“How long is a while?”

“My mom died last year.” His voice was small, he had barely reached puberty. “I’ve been alone since Biotechnica took the house.”

Biotechnica took this neighborhood seven months ago. This kid had been on the street for seven months. Dum looked at him, really looked at him. He had green eyes with a little bit of blue in the center.

“When was the last time you ate?” It wasn’t directed at the other kids, just this one.

“I had half a pizza a couple days ago.” The kid was looking sheepishly at his hands, he was messing with a tiny pocket knife he must've found.

Dum turned to Blaine. “Where do I go?”

-

They dropped the kids off, Dum sent the youngest a couple of eddies to help him get some food. Blaine got out and talked to the lady at the desk. Her eyes lit blue. He was back in their spider marked car in minutes.

“You pay her?” Dum looked at him. Shelters didn’t require money to take anyone in. They were mostly corporation tax write-offs. This one Arasaka, but they got scraps in terms of funding.

“Yeah. Enough to feed four kids for a couple of months.” Dum didn’t start the car, and Blaine turned to look at him. “So if Maelstrom don't initiate me, I’m out of my savings.” He sort of smirked. It wasn’t a request, nor threat, just a comment. Dum smirked back, then started the car.

-

“Dum, it’s urgent.” Vex was at the door of the garage.

“Fine. I’ll be there in a minute.” Vex turned away, and Dum put away Doom. He walked up to Blaine. “You train them. You know what you're doing.” Some twenty-something hit the target square center. He looked back with his human eyes, like he wanted some validation. Dum said nothing, moving nothing in his face.

Blaine however, turned to the kid “Great. Now do it again.” He turned his head left and right to the other seven around him. “You see his hand placement on his gun?”

Dum started walking towards the door, still listening. “I want all of you to grip your guns like he is, and breathe into the shot. You need to breathe as you squeeze the trigger. Letting your breath guide when you shoot. Dum didn’t look back, but if he had, he would have seen three guys shooting the target dead center.

-

He followed Vex close behind, but didn’t say anything till he got to Royce’s open garage door. He hit his lace on the way, to just tint the world before he heard whatever bullshit Royce was about to say.

“Dum. Get your fucking ass in here right now!” Royce sounded elated.

Lars, Ash and Kurt stood around him in the garage. None of them had really readable faces, not to non-borgs. But Dum had known them a long fucking time. Borgs could read each other. When you can't rely on the facial movements intrinsic, you learn to read whats left.

The eyes can’t show it, but the cheeks moving up against chrome can. And if someone was all borg, nothing visible left organic, there were always tells that became obvious after years.

Movements, twitches, metal shoulders still followed the spine, and even if the spine was replaced, the movement, the human movement of shrugging ones shoulders, was always there.

Not one of them was showing anything other than excitement. Royce was running in his chair. Lars and the guys standing around him, staring at the TVs in his room.

Dum and Lars had their heart-to-heart or drug transfer about a month ago. They’d been chill since. He hadn’t talked to Royce. But he was more…normal. The merc died, so what. He still had a whole life and digital afterlife to dread.

Chapter Text

Royce had been watching a BD, some fucked up new one that came out. It had been advertised all over the city.

“You see them ads about the crucifixion?”

If he had eyelids, he would have blinked in surprise. “What?” The guys all laughed at his response.

Lars spoke up, “You know, that shit they’ve been hyping up the past couple of weeks. They said they were gonna crucify a man on braindance.” Dum looked from one face to another, though they were excited, they gave him nothing to work with.

Why the fuck would they all be excited about some fucked up way to kill someone? And even more, wasn’t the guy recording the one who fucking got killed? Yeah, they’d all BD’d death before. Was this one special for it’s fuckedupedness?

“Why the fuck are you all excited? It super fucked up or something?” Royce was getting up from his chair, as Vex and Ash moved closer, crowding Dum towards it.

Royce gestured to sit, after a moment or two of silence, Dum not moving in any direction, just looking face to face.

“Fucking Christ, just sit the fuck down, D. Now!” Royce barked orders near constantly, probably didn’t even know what an inside voice was. Still, he rarely barked them at Dum. Dum obliged, though, slowly shuffling to the chair. Not that it was necessary for watching BD’s, hell, he could have done that just about anywhere.

It felt very much like his initiation. Lying back, and looking up at all the red optics just staring him down. And they were staring him down, not a single one made any effort to move at all. Just watching him, when finally Royce spoke.

“You gotta see this shit.” Though the guys shared BD’s all the time, it was usually one kind, and it was usually sent to be enjoyed alone. This crowding was new. The patented boot-up sound of a mainstream BD rang in his head.
-
He was being guided to the cross. First, he sat on it. Dum felt this man's conviction, the sick twisted desire, the religiosity. The level of delusion necessary to do something like this. He felt the anxiety too, and Jesus fuck, this man was anxious.

Most BD’s ending in the death of the recorder was a surprise of some kind, or immediate fear of knowing death was about to greet you in a fucked up situation. This was different; this was planned. A carefully planned and expected, yet still horrifying death. And a slow one.

Knowing that pain must be endured is one thing; knowing your death is coming is another. Knowing you will die in one of the most painful displays of humanity…

The idea of crucifying a man on death row. This fucking idiot chose to be crucified, too. He chose this. His heart was beating out of his chest, and yet he laid down on the wood.

Dum felt the wood on his back, not warm, not cold, just…wood. The fear he felt, extending his arms. The conviction he felt as he looked at his executioner.

And suddenly Dum felt his stomach drop.

There she was. Her face in full form, not blurred, not hidden.

Clear as day. Red of the room illuminating her cybernetics. Her eyes were different, something flashy, moving, logo of the studio maybe. Her makeup exaggerated, perhaps to not be as distinguishable, a bit clownlike.

She looked deep into his eyes for a moment, then readied a nail at his left.

He felt the metal tip on his wrist, stinging as she pushed it deeper. She looked at him, and he nodded to her.

She spoke, “Do you not fear God?”

The first swing of the hammer as his flesh tore. “You stand condemned under the same sentence.”

A second swing. Dum felt everything the condemned felt, and while BD’s usually took over all senses, Maelstrom had background processing.

So he could feel his own just the same. And he felt heavenly. She was alive.

The hammer came down again. He felt himself speak, a human voice, “Father. Forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

She certainly did, though, as she matched the pain on his left.

He felt himself scream. A second blow. A third blow. His left hand went numb, and the pain in his left hand he felt at the base of his skull. A pain he hadn’t known in many years.

“We are punished justly.” The pain in both hands was incomparable to the pain that came from the top of his right foot. This fool used no meds before he experienced it. Must have dulled the pain too much to get the full experience of the death he chose.

Dum felt his conviction, his dedication. To show people “the truth”.

To show people Jesus Christ, he wanted to bring people to the faith.

Though Christianity wasn’t dead, a BD like this could only ever be made in a city like Night City. BD’s didn’t record everything, but they felt memories. He felt a prayer said before. Her voice in his memory, praying with him. This prayer brought him comfort.

“For we receive what our deeds deserve.” A violent, white-hot pain through his whole being with the second swing. “But this man has done no wrong.” Her voice.

He’d heard it only once, but it felt like a favorite song long forgotten. “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He screamed out.

She walked away, the BD could only face forward as it was raised. “Truly I say to you, today you will be in paradise.” He was left hanging, to gaze upon her face as his breath grew heavier and heavier. To feel the weight of his form, not giving a second of release.

Dum could feel all the guys looking at him, but he refused to look away from her, even though peripheries of the form. V was looking at something, not the man crucified.

Something else in front of him. It looked as though she couldn’t face what she had done. Staring instead at his legs in front of her. She looked solemn, but there was something else there.

He died, and the BD ending sound released him from this torment.

The guys were standing around him as he powered down the sequence.

“She’s fucked up.” It was Royce, he was beaming ear to ear.

“But she’s alive.” He felt himself speak before he thought. As he found himself doing often when it came to her. A wave of relief, but then the crushing realization came just as quick. She was alive. But she threw him away. He stared at his chooms. All of them ecstatic to have found her for him.

Dum moved from his position to stand with them in silence. Slowly, the smiles faded as they all came to the realization he did. She was alive. But she was still gone.

“You should…” Vex slowed to choose his next words carefully.

“You should tell her you liked the BD.” No one spoke again. Gonk as it fucking was, that was an option. He still had her contact, and they were far past the time where phone numbers changed.

All the optics became displaced, looking elsewhere. They had brought him good news, or maybe they hadn’t. This was good, she was alive, but…

Ash was the next to speak, directed at Vex, Kurt, and Royce, “Let’s go get loaded. We’ll get one of the new guys to drive.” It was clearly not an invitation to him.

Lars nudged Dum’s shoulder, a movement indicated. His voice quieted to Dum directly.

“I got a case and a new Lace. Let’s move.” The guys all moved towards the garage door, Vex and Ash both ducking under the almost completely open door.

They both looked back and started towards the shooting range. Kurt stood there, looking at Dum. His face indicated as much pity as it could. As if to say “Sorry.”

Lars started walking out as well. Dum moved, his metal legs seemingly locking, but moving their best. He took the right following Lars. He heard Kurt say something, quiet.

He could have heard what he said if he was paying attention; it wasn’t out of his range, but it wasn’t for him. He kept walking further. Around the corner. Following Lars.

For a second there, he didn’t know the steps, but the heaviness gave it away. Simon was following him and Lars. They said nothing as they made their way to Dum’s room. Lars ducked into his room and followed the parade behind Simon.

Dum sank in the middle of his couch; he didn’t bother to grab a beer. Simon popped one open and handed it over before he slunk to Dum’s right. Lars followed immediately after.

Simon had only been in his room a handful of times since he got it, only a couple of months ago. He’d never sat on his couch before. Simon held his beer to be cheered by the two. Dum reluctantly lifted his to clink before he took a swig. Two swigs. Half the beer down. All of the rest down.

As he lowered his now empty beer, Simon's hand was extended with his Lace, and to the left, Lars had a lit cigarette to offer, but moving it as he rustled with something on the ground.

Dum grabbed the cigarette and pushed his empty bottle to Simon to push his Lace away.

Simon dropped the Lace in the couch and instead grabbed the bottle, turning to put it on the ground beside the couch. Dum switched hands and took the beer Lars had opened for him.
But he couldn’t bring the bottle to his lips to take another sip, so he sank further into the couch.

And gazed up.

He switched his thoughts to the situation. Lars was probably his closest choom. Simon was different. But he’d never been with both of them to just hang out.

Following that thought, he realized Simon had never, not once, ever, passed up the opportunity to go to Totentanz.

Yet, here he was, with Dum. It had been years since Simon was someone he could rely on, really rely on. But he chose to be here, with Dum, in this moment.

“She’s alive.” Simon turned to him, and Dum sat up to look back. “How do you feel?”

This was the second time Lars had ever been in a “friendly” moment with Royce. He’d known both of them his whole time in Maelstrom. He knew they had history; he knew they were close. But he’d never seen Royce ever choose to be there for someone.

It was known in the gang that they would have each other's backs. But he didn’t think Royce would be here now. He was surprised to be walking behind Royce after grabbing his case.
But it made sense.

What shocked him more was hearing Royce’s question. He sat up to see how Dum responded. He had no plan to comfort him; in fact, he had thought this would be good news. And it was.

But it wasn’t. He was excited when Royce called him into the room to witness. The other guys had been in the room and joined to see what Royce was yelling about.

Lars shared his excitement. The merc was alive. And they had to tell Dum.
Now, though, now he wondered if that was the right call.

To be clear.

It was.

Dum needed to know V was alive. But the ramifications of that discovery? That wasn’t on his mind when they sat him down. That wasn’t considered when they booted him up. It wasn’t conscious when the guys all nodded and smiled as Dum experienced the crucifixion. In fact, he was the first to realize what was happening.

Unlike most people, borgs kept their faces steady during BD’s. But something on Dum’s face was more. For a second, he thought maybe they should all leave the room to let him have this realization, before she had even shown up. And it wasn’t the pain.

As she appeared, his face was steady. To anyone, it would have read as steady. But to him, he saw the difference. He saw the slight change in jaw. He saw the shoulders tense. And it wasn’t the BD, it wasn’t the pain. He saw the relief. He saw the pain, not the nail being felt in the wrist. He saw something else.

Royce noticed too. Lars looked to the others, and the atmosphere hadn’t changed. They were happy, of course, they should bring this to Dum. How the fuck could they not.

This was huge. Dum would change. Obviously, he would change. He changed when the merc first showed, he changed when she left.

“She ghosted me?” It was a question, but it wasn’t a question. It was a statement.

For a moment, he felt the humor of the situation. No one used those phrases anymore, though the meaning didn’t change. It was a phrase known as old.

“She did.” Royce spoke.

Dum threw his head back into the couch. Lars looked at Royce. Red optics indicate almost nothing, but Royce was different than most of them.

His entire face wasn’t ripped out. Almost all of them, himself included, had switched to synth skin for their facial features. Royce had gotten his optics implanted, replaced both legs, upgraded his arms, but his skin was mostly intact, still his skin. Including his face, his beard still growing on real skin.

Neither Dum nor Lars could relate. Both of them having had near all their skin replaced. Royce’s hands, though augmented, were still his hands.

Royce looked at Lars and nodded towards the door. Lars didn’t want to leave. His friend, his closest choom, was sitting between them, but with all the severity that a lower jaw could indicate, Lars understood. And then Lars stood up.

“I forgot my Lace.” He didn’t: it was in his pocket. But he stood. He texted Royce as he walked. “I’ll be back.” He understood the request. He walked back to his room.

Chapter Text

“What’s the hesitation?” V normally walked into every room like she controlled the world. She was one of the biggest names in merc work. Having survived the disastrous Konpeki plaza fiasco, and literally rising from the dead. And she had a 50 years dead terrorist living in her brain.

Nothing scared her, except now.

Now she was straddling Jack’s Arch, staring at a building like it was going to attack her. Borgs were easy eds; this was just going in, grabbing the media, and getting out. But still V stared at the borgs outside the door. Scanning them for signs of…

“I uh, might run into someone.” V kept very, very little from Johnny; it was hard to do when you share a brain. He’d gone through her contacts before; he’d lived days of her life already. He knew everyone she knew. This was new territory for both of them.

V finished her scan and turned to Johnny. “I haven’t told you about everything.” Johnny glitched his glasses off. Holding them for dramatic emphasis, gently putting the tip of it at the corner of his mouth. It was once a minor seduction technique, could get Ker to do anything with just a tiny bit of flirting.

It was a habit now. V laughed about it the first couple of times, but she wasn’t laughing now.

“Before I, uh, got you-”

“Died.”

“Yes, Johnny, before I died. I was talking to someone, and he might be here. I kinda ghosted him.”

“This is why you didn’t entertain that BD editor, or the one-eyed fuck.” He knew, without knowing, he knew.

“You fucking know their names. And yes, actually.”

“Damn V. Cold. Ghosting someone. Kinda a fucked move.” He was teasing her, as he did near constantly.

It had been an uphill battle finding some common ground, then a friendship sort of. And now, they were enmeshed in ways they couldn’t understand; no one else could either. They had become like…one.

Some days it was more like being an old married couple, except both “living” in the same body.

V sharing the faces for both of them. Other days, it was a nightmare. Stepping on each other's toes in the very same body constantly. Some days, V wanted to be alone. Wanted to have privacy. To just think. She spent so much energy trying to keep this one door closed in her head.

“So this… person. They’re in there, you think?” Johnny could tell this was a delicate situation. She went lengths to not let him know about it.

She wanted just this one secret. Everything else he could share, but this one thing, she didn’t want to. But it might be in that building, right behind that group of borgs. Borgs. Cyborg.

V barely let the mental wall down, and it all flooded in. She let herself think about Dum for the first time in a long fucking time. Really think about him.

Johnny plopped his ass on the ground and just sat on the concrete for a second. V turned off the bike.

“Christ V. You wanna fuck a Maelstrom borg?” V shot him a dirty look.

It wasn’t just sex; it wasn't even sex. She had liked the guy, barely knew him, barely. Just weeks. But she had liked him. And just cut him off completely.

“Yeah, well, don’t beat yourself up about that too much, you did actually die.” He could tell this hurt her; it was a genuine connection, stupid as fuck that it could be. But it had been at least.

“But I didn’t. I came back. And I never talked to him again.” She swung one leg off the bike, but felt herself stop. She needed to walk in, but she didn’t want to. Her legs suddenly felt like they were melting into the concrete.

“So why’d you stop talking to the guy?” Johnny was leaning back on his arms, legs outstretched and crossed in front of him. Fully enjoying this moment. V had seen some of his worst memories, met his ex output, seen his girl die in his arms, watched him break up his band with high emotions.

She felt it all. Seeing her be just as vulnerable as he had been in those moments, he was enjoying. Not for any cruel or painful sadistic reason, just he had never seen her like this. He saw her memories of Jackie as she slept, and high emotions easily.

But this was different.

They had butterflies in their stomach.

“I fell asleep last time we talked, then I was busy the next day, and something Mama said over dinner made me want to just…”

“Distance yourself.” He finished for her. He felt the memory, could hear the words.

“V has a crush on a borg.” Jack had tattled on her to Mama. It was lighthearted pointing, but still. Making fun of V for her crush.

“Yeah, well, at least it didn’t take me seven years to ask out the girl I like.” V joked back, but the table got quiet.

It was the catalyst for the fight.

Mama still didn’t like Misty, and she did not hold back from telling Jack that. V and Vik just held hostage as they ate their food.

It honestly had nothing to do with Dum.

Nothing at all. It wasn’t about him in any way. But if Mama could bitch about Misty, both of them being the sweetest women V had ever known, then she would have a lot to say about Dum. If she ever met Dum.

And suddenly, sitting at that table over soup, listening to Jack and his mother scream in Spanish, too fast for her universal translator to pick up, and almost too fast for her own mind to translate, V thought about the situation critically. Jack was yelling at his mother that he planned on marrying this girl, and V was here, doing what?

What the fuck was she doing talking to a borg? What the fuck did she hope to gain?

Chapter Text

It was Dum and Simon now. Like it was in the early days, before.

They sat in silence for a few minutes after Lars left. Dum wasn’t sure why Simon had sent him away, but maybe to just be the brothers for a second.

Simon had never seen Dum fucked up like this before. Not since…

“She’s alive, Dum.” Dum didn’t turn back on his optics, just shrugged. “She’s alive and we can find her.” Sure, they could find her, but what was the point?

Dum didn’t want anything she didn’t want. He wanted her to want to talk to him, want to know him, want to…

“She’s gone Si. She fucking left, and she didn’t care.” His voice was sad, or as sad as a metal voice could sound. “She doesn’t want to talk to me.”

Simon moved onto the couch, pulling Dum down a bit on the cushion. “But she’s alive. We thought she was dead. But she’s not. That’s something.” It was rare to see the old Simon. The Simon no one else in this world had ever known.

“She’s gone, though. Still. She’s still gone.” Dum smoked the cigarette that had at some point appeared in his hand. “Why’d you send Lars away?” He flicked his optics back on now. To look at Simon.

“Thought maybe I could talk to you, try and cheer you up.” The two men looking at each other, bright red lights in the dark room.

“You couldn’t do that with Lars here?” Simon silently pulled up his holo and sent a message to Lars, who both were aware was just standing outside the door.

“Den, you and I used to talk. Used to. Haven’t in a damn long time.” It was true, they barely interacted anymore. Most of the gang had no idea they were anything other than boss and second-in-command employee.

“Yeah, well. You’ve been busy playing boss, and before that, you were fucked up every damn day.” It was true, but also true for Dum as well. They spent entire years of their lives just absolutely loaded up on every drug they could find.

“Den, hey- look at me.” Dum had wandered his optics around the room, not focusing on anything, and that was the problem. He never had any focus; there wasn’t anything that he wanted to focus on. Not until her. But he turned his head slightly to make direct red-to-red contact. “We can find her. You can find her. If you want to talk to this merc, then we’ll find a way for you to talk to her.” Simon never would have said anything like this to anyone else at all. Just Dum. Just Den. “We’ll kidnap every senator's kid and hold ‘em hostage if that’s what it takes. We’ll slaughter entire nightclubs, whatever to find her.”

Dum laughed at that, not a true laugh, just a “That’s ridiculous,” but it wasn’t. Si was serious, they would do this for him. Not that he wanted to. “We can’t kidnap every senator's kid. She probably won’t even respond to that. She’s crucifying bigger fish now.” He laughed at that, actually laughed at how silly that was.

“Oh yeah, your girls fucked up. That was intense.” The door opened now, Lars walked in. His lace conveniently in his hand from his prior excuse.

“Whose kid are we kidnapping?” Now Simon and Dum both laughed.

“We’re not kidnapping any kids,” Dum replied.

“Damn shame.” Replied Royce.

They drank, they smoked, they got higher and higher as they kept on with the night. And they talked about all the ways they could find to get her attention. Both Lars and Simon repeatedly bring up that Dum should just text her. He had her number. He could just do that.

But they didn’t feel the rejection he did. To them, it was just a hot merc that Dum got the hots for. For Dum, it was a once-in-a-lifetime connection that walked away from him.

But still, knowing she was alive felt like it was almost enough. Dum was smiling, he was laughing. Yeah, she wasn’t talking to him; she had left. But still, she was alive. And that felt like enough for him to continue living without constant misery.

They joined the guys when they all got back, Lars and Royce excitedly detailing all their fucked up new plans, that Dum would make sure they never put into motion.

Several many beers and drugs in he found himself somehow answering questions. Questions he definitely wouldn’t have answered if he hadn’t been semi-effected by all the substances. Questions or sentences they wouldn’t have said to Dum unless they were too.

Questions like “Holy fucking shit, she crucifies men. That’s fucking brutal.” Which wasn’t a question, but he responded like he was answering it.

“She is vicious.”

And “Do you think she is religious?” He shook his head to that. He didn’t think she would be. But he heard her prayer ringing in his ears. Somewhere deep in his brain, or maybe Lilith giving him the answer, he knew it was the Lord's Prayer. Whatever the fuck that was. And even in the BD, it was a memory.

They had fun, for the first time in a long time. They had fun. All the borgs in Maelstrom had fun, and Dum was right beside them.

She wasn’t dead. She wasn’t dead, and that was enough. That would have to be enough for him. Maybe he’d see her one day, maybe he never would. But she was alive. She had survived the fiasco at Konpeki. She was alive. And that had to be enough.

Chapter Text

Not much happened after the crucifixion.

Dum now knew, definitively knew, she was still alive. But gone, just gone. The guys tried to spur his hopes up for a little while, Lars spent a solid four days trying to convince him to text her. Dum couldn’t let himself get… he didn’t want to think about it. So they attacked Militech.

And Kang Tao.

And Arasaka convoys.

And expanded their territory a couple more blocks into Tyger Claw.

They had a small memorial birthday party for Brandon and Otto. It was Otto's birthday, Kurt needed…. Something. Someone else to acknowledge his loss.

Maelstrom wasn’t good with loss; it was part of life, part of being in a gang, part of… well. It was inevitable. There are no happy endings in NC. Everyone you know dies. And nine times out of ten it’s fucking brutal.

It wasn’t exactly rare to celebrate life, but it was pretty much just pour out a shot with the night's drinking for the downed dude and move on. Brandon was a good guy, and he had his crew. He really worked with Pat the most, so the guys assumed she and her tribe did more of something for him.

Months later, for their birthday? That was different. Kurt was still struggling. Noticeably drinking more, more keef, more fights.

Maelstrom didn’t have to sleep the whole night; most didn't. Most stayed buzzed till they got knocked out in combat, if that. Some stayed awake all the time. Hell, it had been fucking years since someone saw Patricia even sit. As human as she looked, every bone in her body was chrome. And that’s the thing about chrome, it didn’t need rest like flesh did.

So it was a surprise when Kurt was choosing to sleep, and then shot up in the middle of the night, screaming. Lars and Ash rotated out of the room with him when they weren’t staring into the void on Dum’s couch.

But after weeks, it was pretty fucking clear they needed to do something.

Help wasn’t really something you did in Maelstrom. Why would you need to? Lilith would just turn up the chems, make the lace hit harder, get you drunker, or keep you sober. Whatever you asked. There was no reason to have nightmares, sleep even. So, it had to have been a choice. A conscious one, one Lars and Ash were fucking tired of.

If it wasn’t a man screaming in their room any fucking hour of the day, then it was the entire room being trashed in a fit of rage when he woke up.

Including stepping on an entire pack of Lars cigarettes. That was probably the final line.

“Dum, we gotta fucking do something.” They’d been on the couch, sunk in their usual positions for hours now. “We gotta do something about Kurt, or I’m going to fucking kill him.” Dum moved his body for the first time since his smoke went out, a small, tiny smirk. It was always funny to hear threats, honestly.

Ash was looking at him now, Lars having sunken in deeper, and flicked off his optics. “Dude, we gotta fucking do something. I don’t know what, but something. Kurt is not handling this well.”

Dum didn’t know what to say. Neither was he. But he was choosing no sleep, not too much sleep. And rather than feel anger, he forced himself into chemical acceptance. Can’t miss a girl if you're too high to think.

It was Lars who spoke next, Lars, somehow the most in touch with his human emotions. The least expressive face of the whole damn gang.

“Hey.” It was a slow hey, a very high hey. Like he was thinking this thought for the first time ever. “How… how do… did Kurt and… Otto know each other?”

Ash's red immediately brightened. Dum also sat up.

How did they know each other? It’d been months, and no one even asked. Surely no one knew. Or… maybe Royce did. But even more likely, he didn’t. Royce didn’t give a fuck about anything.

Lars had his second genius thought of the hang seconds later. “Can…. can we ask Brick? He’d know.”

They weren’t supposed to acknowledge or talk about Brick. No one had for months. He’d been there, in that cage they all knew was there. In like a meditative state. They all kindof assumed he was with Lilith in those moments.

Even Dum, who knew Brick, could even say he was friends with Brick at one point; he’d only seen him a few times. Said less than a few words. Brick hadn’t been interested in anything.

They also all knew that Royce just couldn’t kill him. Then he’d be flying blind, with Dum as his co-pilot, and here he was every fucking night getting loaded and missing a merc. It was the blind leading a dumbass, and both could crash at any fucking minute.

Honestly, Maelstrom was doing well. It had been obvious with the change, when Royce took over, everyone got… a little bit more. Patricia was running the ground operations. Dum was taking the intel they got, and turning it into action, and turning that into eddies. Royce was…. There.

Kurt was… Kurt was taking a lot. Diving into work, obviously, but he was the planner. Yeah, Dum would take the intel and make it happen, but Kurt was getting that intel. Handing it to Dum to make him do something. Actually, most times, he was really the driving force.

Dum was barking the orders, but those orders were advice said to him moments earlier. And before that was Royce shouting, “Make it fucking happen.”

Everything had gotten back to their new normal. Even Dum was bouncing back. Everything except Kurt.

The gang had sat in silence for a few minutes after the question. Each lost in their own thoughts. Dum had started to worry; he didn’t know anything about his chooms. Lars had started to wonder if he had ever even talked to Kurt about something not work or getting drunk. Ash was sitting there thinking about thinking about this question.

When one finally spoke, it was even slower than the last question, somehow.

“Do you guys know my name?” Not an answer to the previous question, but a question that meant something almost as much. Some of the guys went by their names. Lars was born a Lars, so that was easy. Ash wasn’t born an Ash, but had picked it up. And Dum had been given the stupid name after a lot of bad choices.

Names were yet another way you lost your identity in their world. One of the many things that Maelstrom required as a sacrifice. Not always, as with Lars, but most times.

“Your name is….” Ash stopped himself, or paused. He might have just been incredibly high off Lace, but the name wasn’t in his memory bank at all. He had never known it.

“Your name is Dennis.” Lars spoke. He dragged his bottle up to his mouth for a drink, only to find it empty.

“Whoa. I didn’t know your name.” Ash looked wide-eyed at Dum and then at Lars, the movement between the two a snailspeed.

It was a bit rare that they got this high, or at least this stuck. Dum had been trying to get back into things, trying to be a little more relaxed. She was alive, and he couldn’t do anything about it. So he was going to enjoy this as much as he could.

“Yeah. How did you know my name?” Dum was looking at Lars now. Who had shuffled around to find another beer and was opening it rather than looking at Dum.

“Heard Royce say it once.” Dum looked at him, confused. He hadn’t heard Simon say his name out loud in a long time, and definitely not in front of people. But he chose to lean back into the couch and forget that strange thought process.

“My name was Paul.” Both turned to look at Ash now. He was smiling to himself because right now, Paul was the funniest name in the world. All three laughed for a while.

“So, we gonna talk to Brick?” The laughter had died down, but the high hadn’t; they all just looked between each other for a moment. It was a valid question, but man was it a worrisome one.

Until Dum realized they were both looking at him.

He was the closest to him, he was the one who knew how to talk to him, and when would be a good time.

“Fine. Yeah, I’ll talk to him.” He sunk into the couch more than he had previously. He didn’t think he liked being in charge, but he found himself there often.

“Cool.” They both said in unison.

The rest of the night faded away in lace smoke. They would try to do something about Kurt soon, but for now, they enjoyed their evening off.

Chapter Text

She breathed, or tried to. She had just thrown up whatever coffee she drank that morning. Just behind the barrier of the building. She didn’t realize how sick she would be walking in. How much her nerves controlled her body.

Johnny wasn’t making fun of her exactly, but he did laugh at her as she tried to hold herself steady and move her hair away from the stream of vomit.

She rarely threw up, and definitely never from nerves. Hell, she hadn’t even been this nervous before that fucking disaster of a gig that was Konpeki Plaza. But here she was, so fucking nervous to see a not-even-ex that she was throwing up. A few pillars down, another person was throwing up.

“V. Seriously. Relax. He might not even be in there. He works more at All Foods.” She hadn’t told him anything of the matter, but he scanned her memories to find every piece of information she had been blocking from him as she threw up. “He probably won’t be here.” He was leaning on the pillar as she spat several times to get the taste out of her mouth. Coffee was always the worst thing to throw up.

“But what if he is?” She wiped her mouth with her hand. They’d walked away from the bike. She could have grabbed another shirt if they were closer. Instead she just tried to wipe the mess off on her jeans.

“Then we’ll talk to him. I’ll take over if I have to.” Oh right. They were here to see someone Johnny once knew. That media, Bes Isis, his old bandmate. They were both fucked up about whatever was about to be upstairs.

Perhaps that’s why they both immediately locked eyes and nodded when her NCPD notification popped up. It was weird, Johnny saw from his point of view, but he also saw through her eyes, and saw her view too.

Neither spoke before she bolted around the building. Some cyberpsycho was causing a ruckus. Running headfirst to a crazed, violent, murderous cyberpsycho somehow had less worry than talking to old…friends.

It took a solid thirty minutes, hiding and ducking behind every possible surface to shoot this guy as many times as it took to take him down. He was previous or maybe current maelstrom. His face all fucked up. V had to aim for his optics and pray the bullets weren’t at the angle to go straight through his chrome skull. Lucky for them, he was chromed the fuck up, including metal plating.

Besides, she was able to shoot repeatedly till the entire faceplate was nearly gone. But the dude was still breathing.

She called Regina, and offered to wait for her team.

“That was easier than I expected.” Johnny was smoking his digital cigarettes, standing over the twitching body.

“Oh fuck off, you didn’t do shit.” She was covered in synth blood now. Her hair slightly matted with the sputtering from the many hits this guy took. Mostly from the final blow, as she stood over him and brought the bat down at an angle to take out what was left of his red.

This was not how she wanted to look when she saw him again, if she saw him again.

“I’m here to keep you calm during the fights. And also to tell you, you look like fucking shit and gotta change before we find out if he’s in there.” Johnny was smiling at her, like her covered in blood was the funniest thing possible.

Reginas guys got there quickly, the psycho strapped into their transporter board, and then loaded up. Regina sent over some eds for the job well done. The guy was barely there, completely blind, and barely breathing. But he was alive. It’s not like his eyes were real anyway; who cared if he lost them?

“Sweet, now we got some eds to blow on drinks before we save my friend, and meet your boytoy.” She scowled at him now. Boytoy, he was barely a friend, definitely not a -

“But you want to.” Fuck, it was so annoying not being able to hide thoughts from some asshole living in your brain.

“Fuck off, Johnny.” She had made her way back to the bike, peeled her blood-soaked shirt off her torso, and threw it into the bag she would have to try and remember to clean later. She probably could have looked around to see if anyone would notice a woman stripping in the streets, but it wasn’t like it mattered. After wiping off the blood that she could, she shrugged on a new jacket.

“We gotta find a place for you to wash up your hair.” V looked at herself in the bike’s tiny side mirror.

“Is it bad?” She was trying to brush her hands with her fingers; her braids were intact and not covered in synthetic bodily fluids, but the top of her head was disgusting.

“Yes.” He snuffed out his fake cigarette with his shoe, then made a point to stare at it on the ground. V felt that he wanted to pick it up, to not litter or whatever. But also, it wasn’t real, he wasn’t real, and nothing he interacted with was real. It wasn’t something they talked about much. How it felt to be them.

“Okay, there has to be a bathroom or something in there.” With that she stepped back off the bike and started towards the door to Totentanz. So nervous before, but after a good fight, she felt much calmer.

“That’s probably not a normal way to feel about violence, V.” He was walking beside her now. His shades reflected the sunset off the windows of the hotel.

“It’s how you feel about it.” She was running off adrenaline now, getting into that building, facing her fears. She couldn’t have done it without her blood already pumping from a violent and bloody duel.

They reached the doors, the first set permanently held open. “Do I look like a good influence, V?” They had crossed the threshold and started to slow their enthused walks as V looked around for a bathroom, or anything that might have clean water.

Her eyes settled on the Samurai graffiti on the wall. She looked back at Johnny now. Raising her brow at him, she spoke, “They seem to think you are.”

He scoffed. He had been dead fifty years. And yet here, in this building that had lived a whole life after his death. It was designed, built, used, abandoned, and then brought back to life in the fifty years. And here was a memory, a reminder of his message, painted on the wall. Was he a good influence? Who's to say, but he was an influence felt half a century later.

“The bathrooms probably to the left.” He started walking ahead of her to turn the corner. “Yeah, here it is.” She didn’t know how he could do that, walk ahead of her and see something different. How did that work? But it did. She glanced up at the corners to see if there was a camera he was somehow hacking. There was not.

-

It took her about twenty minutes, first trying to wipe it off with a wet, cleanish-looking towel, then putting her head under the faucet, which didn’t work, then just shoveling water onto the top of her head with her hands. She chose to dry her hair with the inside of her jacket for a bit. Touched up her makeup and then was just staring at herself in the mirror.

“You should keep the black eyes on.” He had his foot up on the wall behind him, standing in that cocky leaning way he did often.

“Yeah, that’s a good idea.” She had the spirals, currently, but black seemed more business. Especially business with borgs.

They could feel the thumping of the walls with the insane sounds coming from three stories up.

“Jesus, how could people listen to music that loud?” Her eyes flicked black as she inspected herself in the mirror more. Turning her head to both sides. There was no more blood on her, not that she could see anyway. And her makeup looked fine. Her skin was fake, so it was perfect.

She’d gotten that faceplate a while back; it still looked like her, it was still her face, and still expressive. But it was a synth skin. God of all the technology on her, that felt the craziest. For just a second, she considered the possibility. That she could change her face for this. Not have to see him in her face.

“Don’t even think about it. You need to be you when you see him. He’s been looking for you.” Johnny was right behind her now, his fake shades in his hand, his eyes inspecting himself in the mirror as well. Or inspecting her. Or they were inspecting themselves as them. It all felt like it was bleeding together now.

With that comment, she stood back, but still steady on the sink, him mirroring the movement.

“You don’t know he’s been looking for me.” She turned to look at him, or stared at a wall to anyone if they were witnessed.

“We do V. We know he’s been looking for you. He always was.” Since the fucking cameras. If she knew it, then Johnny knew it. Why did she leave those cameras? She pushed off the sink and started walking towards the doors.

“Come on, let’s go find Bes.”

Chapter Text

“Dum, you were supposed to kill them, not leave them to come back and haunt us later.” Patricia’s voice was loud; everyone was in this giant speaker they pretended to have normal conversations in.

It wasn’t like he left them alive on purpose; the two got away when Dum was reloading. And the guys he was with could have shot them. And they didn’t. Why did it have to land on Dum? He had enough on his plate. He didn’t need to be berated for accidentally leaving some animals alive. They may have been huge, but they were still chromed up to be fucking fast.

“Fuck Pat. I don’t need to take this fucking shit from you.” He pushed off the railing overlooking the liquid mass of people below them. “I already got an earful from Royce. I’ll get them next time, just fuck off.”

He hadn’t really liked her. Never had, she had walked in with more bravado than nearly anyone who joined the gang before or since. Most had gotten… recruited of some sort.

Not Patricia, she walked in with a goal and demanded to talk to Brick as soon as she was in the door.

She had a goal, and that goal was to be Maelstrom. Just as much as she could.

“You fucking dumbass. This matters. These guys got back to their base in Pacifica. What if they bring back a team? Maybe they show up with twenty of them at All Foods on a random day. What the fuck would you do then?”

“What the fuck would I do. Why the fuck would they do that? They don’t fucking come to Northside; we don’t know why the fuck they were here to begin with. But they won’t fucking come all the way up here to come after fucking Maelstrom, Patricia.” Her name was said with disgust. He hated that somehow, after all this time, they would still be the same rank. It wasn’t like a rivalry, but it was the opposite of camaraderie.

They were both in charge of big things, and sometimes, unfortunately, the same things.

Their dislike for each other was well known to all of Maelstrom. They didn’t fight persay, but never got along. Even if they were in agreement. Despite working for the same team and towards the same goals, their motives were entirely different. Or, at least hers were to him. Dum could never quite figure out where he leaned on the spectrum that was Maelstrom.

Patricia believed, with her whole form, that if she lived this life, if she kept to this path, then one day she would be free beyond the blackwall, but safe. If she did everything Lilith asked her to, she would be granted her digital heaven. The one she demanded existed. Still, she was entirely practical. Not an idealist, not a daydreamer, not even on anything half the time. She was truly just a player on the chessboard to serve her queen, and she had no qualms with that of any kind.

Dum… wasn’t that. He had had the same conversations over and over for a decade and a half, with no decision either way ever. He was here, he was in Maelstrom. He would do what he needed to do to continue being alive. The rest didn’t matter.

Sure, he was tethered; they all were. But that was practical, that was for combat, and better access to pretty much everything in the world. He’d sacrificed his eyes, but he hadn’t been particularly loyal to those to begin with.

Dum was here, he was Maelstrom, he was doing what he needed to do. Why the fuck couldn’t that ever be enough for Patricia, who seemed hellbent on going above and beyond in all things possible?

“Fuck off, Dum, go get flatlined by some animals then. Don’t bring fucking trash to my side of the street, you fucking asshole.”

He took a hit of his lace and walked away as she was still speaking. Royce was in the back with the media, being interviewed. Wild that Royce would take an interview from an official media, but he never passed up an opportunity to talk about himself or music he liked. At least that had been consistent in all the years he’d known him.

He was meandering through the moving bodies, with no real goal. He supposed he could make his way to the bar; he hadn’t had a drink in his hand for a while. Having the cochlear implants allowed him to muffle the screeching sounds from every speaker, but the thumping that vibrated through his body was something he could not block out. The way the bodies moved was fascinating, but only if you were buzzed enough to enjoy it.

“Hey, Dum, you gotta come to the door.” Lars’s voice came through with static, but the ability to hear him clearly was there.

Without thinking, Dum was turning to head that way. He hadn’t really wanted a drink; he had wanted something to do.

“On my way.” He’d been called to the door a thousand times. But there was never any reason other than verbal intimidation. This wouldn’t be much different.

Chapter Text

“Dude, the merc. She’s here.” The guys were standing behind the closed door. The one the merc would walk in at any moment. Suddenly, Dum felt nerves all over.

“Shit, fucking seriously? She’s here?” He looked from one face to the other. All of them stared at him, waiting.

“Yeah, man, she’s here. Some guys caught her on their scrolls; she’s on her way up now.” He wondered if the guys had known to flag someone down. Or maybe Lilith was tinkering with their shared knowledge. She hadn’t had told him. She had told Lars, Ash, and Vex. And he wasn’t told. But why would Lilith have any interest in–

“Who?” Lars looked at him like he was an idiot.

“Why does it matter who?” It didn’t. But why would Lilith have noticed? Maybe it was an alarm of sorts. She could start shooting at any moment.

It’s not like she liked Maelstrom, and she had ghosted Dum. So why was she here now?

The doors opened just enough for the guys to step outside, Dum took a hit of his lace and took stand. She would be coming around the corner any second. His entire body on edge.

What if she said something? What if she said nothing? What if she never acknowledged him in any capacity other than business-related? What business did a merc have at the Totentanz? Ah, it must have been the media Royce was kindof holding hostage.

He felt his breath catch as he caught the first glimpse of her. Her hair was the same, maybe a little damp. Just a jacket over a metallic-looking bra. Her boots were loud; she must have upgraded her legs. She looked very different, but also the exact same. Like, there was something fundamentally changed about her. But he couldn’t tell what it was.

-

He was here, he was right here. Right at the door. Her feet kept moving, but every part of her wanted to turn heel and bolt out of the building. He was here. He was there, he was right in front of her, and he looked good. The same as before, still shiny and red-eyed and –

“Damn, okay. You do have big feelings about the guy. Jesus.” It sucked that someone in her brain could feel that too. She wanted so badly to say something. To rush out an apology. To explain, she died, and she had a terrorist in her brain now sharing her crush. “Well, I’m not sharing it. For a chromer, he looks more human than these other guys. But fuck V. Just climb him, why don’t you? I’m sure people fuck in the bathrooms here all the time. Hell, you probably don’t even need to go to a bathroom. Right here would probably be just as—”

“You. Again. Alone this time, huh? No punk ass amigo today?” God his voice, and his comment. Immediately asking about Jack, bold of him. But his fucking voice.

“God V, metal tinge, and you're practically dripping.” Johnny was smirking widely. She knew it. She wasn’t looking at him, but she knew it.

“One more word about him and I stomp you out like a roach, got it?” Wow, immediate threat to the man she forced herself not to think about for months. He nodded immediately.

“Bold V.” Johnny was snuffing out another non-existent cigarette.

“Where’d you get those chompers done?” It was the only difference. His teeth were all chrome; the two canines looked a little sharper than before.

“Ah, shit! Forgot you ain’t seen these beauts yet.” He smiled wide enough for her to confirm, yes, his canines were now fangs. “You seen the “before”, now ya see the “after”. Whaddaya think?” He stood there proudly, waiting for her to pay him compliments or something.

“Want the same – twinsies?” Why was that the first thing out of her mouth. What the fuck was wrong with her.

“Jesus, if this is you flirting, do you ever get laid?” Shut up, Johnny fucking christ.

“Nah, you’d look gonk as fuck.”

Holo text incoming from Dum Dum: “You look good.”

“Noisy in here. Renovating?” The music was pounding through her skull, or maybe it was the nerves seeing the text.

“Ha. Ha. Good thing Royce can’t hear you. Tinnitus - apple of his eye.” He looked calm on the outside, but even with metal, his face looked like he needed to see her reply. The chat held their last texts. Her saying she’d talk to him tomorrow… and then several unanswered texts from him.

“Thanks, I died.” What the fuck was wrong with her?

“Royce, eye. Ha ha. You a fan of your little gang group, too?” The conversation looked normal to the gangers surrounding them. No one would know that she was absolutely losing her mind every time she heard his voice.

“Well, more a fan of the classics. Samurai an’ all that…” Johnny flickered up without the glasses now. He was right in front of Dum, inspecting him.

“Like this guy already.” Great, the long-dead terrorist parasite approved.

“Just, not a word to Royce, hey?”

“You serious? What the fuck?”

“Looking for Bes Isis, N54 News. Know she’s here.” Merc work never quits. She had to do the job. Nerves about the handsome hunk of metal in front of her be damned.

“I seriously died. Yeah. It didn’t take.”

“She is. But she’s busy. Talkin’ to Royce.” He was looking down as he spoke. Like he didn’t want to disappoint her with the answer that this might be a problem. “He told me not to bother ‘em.”

“Oh, I’ll do the bothering. Lead the way.”

“Come on then.” The doors opened, and he turned to walk, and her to follow.

“Glad you didn’t die. I thought you did.”

“Dude likes you, V. Don’t fuck this up. You could find out what metal he’s packing if you don’t blow his boss's brain out.” She pinched herself as if she could make Johnny feel that. Somehow, forgetting synth skin barely felt it.

“Thanks. Sorry.”

What the fuck was she doing? Apologizing with a single sorry. But maybe it didn’t matter. Maybe he hadn’t thought much about her since her death/not death.

“You don’t gotta be sorry. You died.”

As far as ghosting goes, it was a great excuse. The last they talked, they had planned a date. It didn’t seem like the right time to bring it up now, though. But when the fuck would be?

“We should still go on that date.”

Johnny didn’t need to walk, but he did for dramatic effect, and to feel more real to at least himself and her. He did pause his walk, though, with that stupid thought. Just to look at her and wipe his hand over his face. Like he could push the stupid out of their face.

-

“We should still go on that date.”

He stared at the text in his eyesight and walked forward. The music was booming, the bodies around them moving in that stupid way inebriated people at 4 in the afternoon do. Couples in every corner, a fight in another, several people throwing up.

She hadn’t forgotten their date. And she had died. Apparently, for real, which was a really good excuse to not text him back. Or to talk to him. So why the fuck was she bringing that up now? Like it could all be swept away. She had died, but she also didn’t reach out. He couldn’t stop himself. As his shoulders turned to move between bodies, she was right on his heel. If he stopped, she would bump him. If he turned, she would be right there. Right in front of him.

All of these months, that felt like years, since he last spoke to her. And she was right here. Right behind him. Asking him on that date again. He couldn’t bring himself to look backward. Or stop.

Chapter Text

She was out; she had done her job. She wanted so fucking badly to run back in, despite having snuck out. And run right back into him. Ask him out loud if he wanted that date.

Instead, she got Nancy in the car and made it back to her bike. Straddling it upright, just staring at the building. They had talked about Bes, about his teeth. But he hadn’t replied to her text. She had tried, and he rejected her or ignored her.

She deserved that; she hadn’t talked to him in months. She let him believe she was dead. She never replied, and never went on that date.

God, that date they barely planned felt so long ago, a different her. One that wasn’t dying, one that wasn’t half a terrorist. She wasn’t who she was. But still, seeing him. That felt the most like a strong memory of her past life, stronger than anything she’d felt in a long time.

Her whole life was different since that fucked up heist. Her entire life had changed, and yet her attraction to chrome hadn’t. Or that specific chrome.

She laughed to herself about Jackie having teased her about it as she started up the bike.

Maybe this would be the last time she would ever talk to Dum again. Maybe he’d delete her contact and move on. He probably should.

If going on a date with a maelstrom ganger felt stupid before, it felt so much more stupid now. She was dying. What was the fucking point?

“Don’t be that hard on yourself. You did die. That’s like the perfect excuse. But he’ll text. I know he will.” He wasn’t with her; she couldn’t see him. But he was with her, always. And he was trying to cheer her up. She didn’t think it was helping. “I’m serious, V. He will. He absolutely has the hots for you. That ain’t gone.”

She didn’t even realize it was happening until she felt a tear escape the confines of her chrome eyes. It’s crazy how an entire face could be replaced, but they still added tear ducts. She swerved corners and raced home. If he didn’t reply, then she’d move on. She’d have to. Or she didn’t have to because what was the point? She was going to die anyway. She was just crossing off a checklist of shit to do beforehand.

“V. Stop it. We’ll figure this shit out. You won’t die.” He wasn’t on her bike, and she didn’t know how any of it worked, but she felt him squeeze around her waist, like he was holding onto her to dear life as she took those turns. Probably the closest thing to a hug he’d ever given her. He didn’t touch her often. It was weird, feeling someone who isn’t there touch you. But her brain was telling her it was real.

“What if we don’t. What if I die? And what if I never got to do anything I wanted?” Most of the time, she just thought things. Since that time at Tom’s, he pointed out that they could communicate entirely in thoughts. But sometimes, it felt nice to say it outloud. She often did at her apartment, in fights, or alone. Like now, on the bike. As they passed road after road of broken dreams. No one got a happy ending in Night City. What was the point of a crush if you don’t bang it out and move on?

“Like fall in love.” Stopping at the light, she took the time to wipe the tears from her eyes. Yeah, like fall in love. She wouldn’t get to fall in love because this fucking parasite was killing her. And god what a stupid fucking dream that was.

She never dated much before; she hadn’t had crushes on many people, very, very, very few experiences with actual partners, mostly just a bang and then move on. And yet here she was, facing her fucking mortality, and wishing she had gotten to fall in love first. Like that was a thing that ever fucking happened in Night City.

“Fucking stop, V.” He did not mean stop crying; in fact, he felt like he was crying too. “You aren’t fucking dead yet. And if you want to fall in love so fucking bad, you could pick anyone.” She knew she was hot; Johnny knew she was hot. And the borg knew she was hot. But he was right.

She could pick anyone. She could just call River, who definitely had a thing for her. Or she could call Judy, ask her out instead. She had spoken to her some since the Evelyn thing, mostly to chat. Grab coffee, be there for her. But it wasn’t like that wasn’t on the table at all.

She didn’t want to, though. In all her twenty-seven years, a crush like this, an immediate, immediate attraction, had never happened. Maybe not since like the seventh grade, and it took her years before she realized she had had a crush on that person. She just thought he was really annoying, and she wanted to bother him all the time. But that was… honestly not unlike this feeling.

“You just don’t want to pick anyone.” He said quietly and squeezed her sides again. He was comforting her, or trying to. They both wondered if he had ever actually successfully comforted anyone before. And was it working now?

Chapter Text

“Hey, I’m sneaking out the back. Sorry. But seriously, we should go on that date.”

He stared at the text, expecting it to rearrange itself back to something that made sense. He’d ignored her text earlier, and now she was telling him she was sneaking out. What was the point of sneaking and then texting him anyway?

Obviously, it was just meant for him. Her texts were just meant for him. And she wanted to go on that date. Why would she even still want that?

And she had died, she had actually died. Her friend, the big guy, must have died. At Konpeki Plaza. And she was the nightmare felt all over NC. The biggest merc, yet she hadn’t fucked with any maelstrom recently. So she was still alive, still working, still not killing Maelstrom, and still wanting to go on a date with him.

“DUM! How did it go. She looks fucking great. I wonder what she did; she looks really similar, but also different. At least than she did in the BD.” Lars shrugged beside him, hit his lace, and clapped Dum on the shoulder. Ash was walking up, carrying a beer, which he shoved in Dum’s hand.

“Where’d she go? Wasn’t she supposed to come back this way?” He asked.

“Snuck out the back.” Was all he said before the bottle touched his lips. “Texted me she was leaving that way.”

Lars and Ash looked at each other and shrugged.

“So, did you talk to her?” Like they weren’t standing there for half their conversation, and the other half was in front of Simon.

Had he talked to her, barely. And he wasn’t replying to her now. What was the point?

She wanted to go on a date with him, but what the fuck for? Why did she want to in the first place, actually? How could she seriously be interested in him? There was no way she actually was.

“She texted me. Wants to go on that date.” Ash spit out his beer, and Lars’ entire face contorted, all the jaw of it to the widest grin Dum had ever seen.

“I fucking told you, man. She’s still got the hots for you.” The two guys in front of him were ecstatic. Right as Kurt walked over to the group.

“What’s got you smiling like that?” Kurt didn’t usually join them at Totentanz; he usually just slunked off to a corner and drank by himself. Before he would join, of course, he would. Otto was a fucking party animal. And now Kurt was just…

“Dum’s got a fucking date!” It was Ash, incredibly excited.

Then the entire situation shifted focus in Dum’s brain. Yeah, he could have a date if he wanted to have a date. She had asked him before, and she had asked him now. And she was also the merc that shotgunned Kurt's best friend's face off.

She had killed his guys, lots of his guys. Hell, according to the NCPD scanners they were tapped into, she’d zeroed hundreds of goons on the street, from every gang.

Ash must not have put it together, but Lars absolutely did when he smacked Ash in the arm.

“He might have a date. With a merc. It’s not like a big deal.” Did Kurt know? Did they ever tell Kurt what happened? Or who it was who killed his closest choom? Was that on their to-do list ever? Letting Kurt in on the information they had. Or had they just not, because he had been in fucking mourning for months.

Dum felt himself sending a silent prayer to Lilith to lessen it for Kurt, if he did put it together. If he already knew, or if he was about to find out. Just make it easier for him.

Dum felt sick to his stomach. He wanted to text back the girl who killed his chooms choom. This was why Maelstrom kept to Maelstrom, and Mercs were not Maelstrom.

“I’m gonna go talk to Si– Royce.” He pushed himself away from the conversation; he didn’t want to talk to Royce. But he had to not be there. Not be there for that moment, that conversation. God, please, Lilith. If you fucking do anything. Make it easier for Kurt.

Chapter Text

It’d been four days since she saw him again. He still hadn’t replied to her messages. In a desperate attempt to get over her feelings, she sent out an SOS text to her chooms.

“Hey, I’m going crazy over a guy I like. Who wants to get a drink? Afterlife, 7 pm.” It went to Judy, Misty, and Panam.

Judy and Misty texted an enthusiastic yes. Panam was gonna try to make it, but she was far out at camp. Misty continued the chat, asking how cute they were dressed for the occasion.

Drinking with friends, so she didn’t fucking drink alone in her apartment with only Johnny to talk to. In fact, she wondered how much of that text was actually him pushing her to talk to someone. Just because he couldn’t handle it anymore.

“I never get sick of you, V, but I do get sick of you saying the same shit on repeat over and over for days. Calm the fuck down. And wear the new silver dress.” They had gotten as used to this as they could at this point. Sharing a body. Plus, in the first few days, she had been naked the whole time, so it wasn’t like she hid from him. But she had been staring at her closet, wondering what to wear for like ten minutes. The bar wasn’t far, and she had another twenty minutes to choose.

“Okay. What makeup?” As she shrugged on the dress and some old heels she had worn to her old job, she thought about how it was kindof nice. She didn’t have to talk to herself; she was talking to herself, but it wasn’t just herself. And she didn’t have to think about the response. They thought both, almost all the time. But still talked.

Merging with another human soul. Not how she had pictured it would be. But it was nice, sometimes. When you didn’t think about the reality of it.

“No black eyes. Add like, gold or something.” He knew he meant eyeshadow, she knew he meant eyeshadow. Still, it was kindof fun to just–

“Gold lips it is, got it.” He scoffed and dramatically fell off the side of the couch, disappearing before he wouldn’t have hit the ground.

She smirked at him. It was fun to tease him sometimes. And he had fun teasing her.

Sometimes she wondered if circumstances were different, if he had had a body, if he wasn’t part her, what would their relationship have been like? A rockerboy from the 2020s, and an assassin/merc from the 2070s.

“We wouldn’t have met.” He glitched in the bathroom as she walked over. It was true, obviously. Or was it? If he hadn’t died, he might still be alive. His bandmates were; his old fling Rogue still was. They could have met.

“And I would be like 80.” So? Kerry was 80, still V would have barked up that tree if she had a chance. “Gross V.”

“Oh fuck off. He looks incredible for his age. Rogue too. All of them do.”

It felt ridiculous that he chose to digitally light a fake cigarette with a fake lighter every time.

Two seconds in the mirror, her eyes were their natural brown, with gold eyeshadow. She settled on a dark red lip and pulled her hair into an updo.

“Want a real cigarette?” She rarely asked him. She hadn’t smoked before Johnny, but it was becoming more and more regular. The fact that her apartment had a vending machine with cigarettes just happened to be an added bonus to her, and a constant point of stress to him.

God, he was itching for a cigarette. His digital ones did something to help calm his nerves. Or the act of lighting them, holding them, smoking them, did something to help. But a real one, that was a real treat. She could feel his skin itching for that real buzz, her skin, their skin. What the fuck.

“You know the fucking answer.” She pressed the button, got the pack, and opened it dramatically slow for the anxiety to build just as much as it possibly could. And then grabbed her jacket and walked out the door with one smoke just held in her teeth.

“Come on, V, you’re fucking killing me.” It was fun to tease him. But it’s not like it mattered if the cigarette hurt. She wanted it too. They made it all the way down the elevator before he was practically begging, pulling at her skin like it hurt. She could feel how desperate he was.

She was planning on waiting till she was in her car, a car cigarette sounded nice. But it was clawing at her skull before the elevator door even opened. She dug around in that little purse she had, not that there was anything much in it. And somehow, had forgotten a fucking lighter.

“You got one on the nightstand, please, V. I need a fucking light.” There was probably also one in her car, but a slightly more demented thought occurred to her.

“Hey, do you think–” His face lit up.

“Might as well try it.” They shared a devilish grin. This was fucking stupid, and probably wouldn't work, but if it did, what a god damn party trick.

Her right hand held the cigarette in her lips, her left snaked its mono-wire out just inches. Her arms were all chrome and fireproof, so her fingers gently gripped the wire and held it gently to the end of the cigarette.

“Not in the fucking elevator at least.” The doors were open, so she walked out a few feet. Not to her car, not in the elevator, just standing there. They both glanced around to see if anyone would be witness to the probably stupid shit they were about to try.

She activated the thermal and held it gently to the cigarette. It lit up instantly, smoke filling the air around them as she huffed.

“Fuck V.” He sighed with relief. He was smoking his own false smokes with her, but then glitched out of existence. She felt him all around as they retracted the monowire into her wrist.

Sometimes, they actively shared the body. In moments like this. With every movement she made, she could feel him. With every huff, every arm shift to put the cigarette by her side.

“Be there in five.”

They slunk into the driver's seat, V remembering to put the window down, she’d never smoked driving before. But Johnny took over the movement of her left hand as she got the car out of the garage and on the way.

She could see the silverhand in her periphery as it smoked the cigarette. They weren’t sure how it worked. How any of this worked. In fact, fucking no one in the entire god damn world could answer it. But they breathed in unison and felt the relief of nicotine hit their veins.

Chapter Text

“Whose the guy?” Panam texted her with cosmic timing, just as she got out of the garage.

“I’m trying to get a date, or drinks with him. Just want to talk about him, plus he hasn’t responded yet when I asked him.”

“Do you need me to tag along to date?” Kind of her to offer, but she couldn’t imagine that going well.

“Nah, I’ll let you know when it happens, though. Just in case you never hear from me again or something.” The bar was close, still she took the quieter roads, easier to drive with her new cigarette that way.

“Risky V. This nosey bitch is absolutely gonna ask more questions, and you never answered her.”

“Is he not particularly trustworthy?”

“Uh, no. Not particularly.” She swerved slightly to avoid an abandoned car half in the street.

“But you like him?” She was only a minute away now.

“I don’t know. Yes? I think I do. He’s funny and cute. He’s weird as fuck, but I like that about him.”

“You would, wouldn’t you. Still stuck at Camp. Saul’s being a dick right now.”

Should she tell Panam? Panam would obviously be incredibly judgmental, definitely more so than Judy or Misty. Who had arrived at the bar, judging by their recent texts to them.

“Rip off the bandaid, she’s gonna find out at some point?” She sighed, pulled into a parking spot, and then sent the riskiest text of her short life.

“His name is Dum Dum. He’s a borg.”

“Cute V. Be coy about shit. She’s gonna tear you apart.”

“A borg. All modified?” She was asking about the full-body conversion, of course. Some borgs had it, some borgs didn’t. Technically, V was a borg herself. But one that chose to look more human. Still, not even her face was real anymore.

“Yeah, all modified.” V had gotten out of the car and lit up another cigarette, leaning on the hood of her car. There were a bunch of low-time mercs hanging out outside, scattered throughout the parking lot. Lots of cigarettes being smoked, and now she had joined the fray.

“Where from?”

“Ha. Moment of truth. She’ll know for sure.” He was relaxed beside her, blowing out digital smoke as she blew out real.

“Northside.” Panam would know in an instant. There were borgs everywhere, but the specific combination of words and way she chose to say it made it clear. Plus, with a name like Dum Dum, it was obvious.

“Shit, V! You fucking serious? A MAELSTROM BORG?”

“I am serious.”

“You seriously like a fucking maelstrom borg? Are you out of your fucking mind?” She hoped Judy and Misty would be calmer about this when she walked in.

“I definitely am out of my mind, what kinda question is that?” And that felt like a very Johnny answer.

She snuffed out what was left of her cigarette and started walking to the door when her phone started ringing. She rejected the call. It rang again. She rejected it again.

“V! ANSWER YOUR GOD DAMN FUCKING PHONE.” She rejected the third call. “I WILL KEEP CALLING YOU CRAZY BITCH.”

She did text back, though. “I’m walking into the bar, I’ll call you after.”

This answer clearly wasn’t good enough for Panam, who texted that she was in the car on her way.

V jumped down the steps in two, waved to the bouncer, and made her way to the booth where the other girls were.

“Heyyy!” Judy and Misty were already there when V and Johnny walked in. Judy said hello to V, and Misty had also greeted Johnny. Johnny chose to sit across from Misty due to this.

After all the greetings were had, and Claire had handed them all their beers and a round of Jackie Welles on the house, the girls zeroed in on V.

“So who the fuck is the guy?” Judy immediately started the interrogation. “Is it that one-eyed cop?” Judy’s eyes lit up with an incoming call. Panam would fucking call her when V wasn’t answering. She was already on her way. “Hang on, Panam is calling.”

“Hey Panam, you on your way?”

“Put me on fucking speaker right now.” Even without being on speaker, the whole table heard it. Still, Judy did, pulling out her physical phone and placing it on the table.

Misty was looking at V and then also glancing over to Johnny beside her. V may have been able to hide speaking to him in public, but she still acknowledged him. Judy and Panam never liked acknowledging him as there, as a part of V. But Misty saw it as another spirit, and she wanted him to feel as included as he could.

“It’s… a guy I knew. Before the heist.” As if that would answer the questions right before –

“WHY THE FUCK DID YOU ASK OUT A MAELSTROM GANGER?”

“Hello to you, too, Panam. Jesus.” More than one head in the loud bar turned.

“Jesus Fuck V. Flesh ain’t good enough for you, you follow fucking chrome?” V dropped her head back down to the table. She did not have the courage to look Judy in the eye.

Misty was looking between her and the nothingness beside her. As if she could communicate with Johnny at all.

V mumbled into the table about liking the guy. Panam could not have heard. So Judy repeated it to the phone.

“Why the fuck would you like the guy? He’s fucking maelstrom.” The speaker did not need to be on. Panam should have just come to begin with. Maybe this wouldn’t have been so embarrassing and public. Or maybe she would have made more of a fuss.

She looked back up, finally, to Judy giving her the strangest stare.

“What do you like about him?” Misty stepped in to be helpful.

“He’s funny, and we text. I think he’s cute, and I really like his voice.” She felt her cheeks growing hot.

“It metal?” Panam’s voice came over the phone. “Fuck V. There aren’t any human-looking guys that pique your interest? You gotta find a fully fucking replaced dude?”

“You don’t even know what he looks like.” But she had told her he was fully replaced. That decision felt stupider now.

Judy spoke, finally. “You got a picture?”

“Yeah, that would be helpful if we have to slaughter all of Maelstrom after they kill you.”

“Rude. He’s not gonna kill me.” The beers arrived, and Claire clearly had been listening in as she made a face at V as she thanked her.

“You don’t know that V.” Judy was picking at her bottle and extended her other arm behind Misty. It was true, she didn’t know that. She felt like she knew it to be true, though. But she didn’t, not really.

V went back through her implant and pulled when she saw him at the door. Scrolling a bit to find him smiling and showing his fangs.

“Not the fucking fangs, V, Jesus. You fucking idiot.” Johnny had been in a sortof staring contest with Misty. One-sided. She was trying to look at him, but she kept looking a little to the left of him. Johnny kept moving to the left to make sure she was looking at him. It was nice to pretend to be acknowledged.

V sent the picture of him to the group chat. Both girls' eyes lit up, and all three were quiet for a moment. Clearly inspecting him. She worried about Panam driving in that moment. Hopefully, she wasn’t observing too much and had her eyes on the road.

“Thats… that’s what does it for you?” Oh, the face Judy was pulling was utter fucking judgment, how you look at your friend when you realize they might be the dumbest fucking bitch you’ve ever met.

“I thought you said he was cute?” She didn’t expect Misty to betray her in this moment. V said nothing in response and downed half her beer, waving the bottle slightly at Claire to get another. Claire nodded back.

“Why haven’t you told us about him before?” First off, it was only the second time the three girls had hung out. The first was a few months ago, when a drunk V and Johnny decided all their friends should be friends. Second, there was no fucking way she wanted to tell them. Look at their fucking reactions now.

“I.. well..” Johnny was enjoying his false eye contact with Misty, but he turned to look at her. Somehow, like a fucking witch, Misty looked back at V at the same time. She couldn’t sense him, could she? V would have to ask her sometime. “I kinda ghosted him. But then I died.”

They all nodded in agreement and took their sips of drinks. She did die, she knew that, but somehow also kept forgetting that. She was dead. But only for a minute there.

“Did you ghost him before you died, or was your death ghosting him?” It wasn’t a joke, but Panam put emphasis where it needed to be to come off with impeccable comedic timing. The four laughed, finally breaking the tension.

“I… well… I was going to talk to him. But then Mama and Jackie got in a fight, and I started thinking that maybe I shouldn’t have been talking to the guy. And then I died like the next fucking day or whatever.” She rushed through the thought. Misty had known about the fight from Jackie, but hadn’t ever heard V’s side of it. They’d made peace at his oferenda, but to V’s knowledge, had never talked about how Mama had felt about her.

“You definitely shouldn’t be talking to the guy.” Judy with the unhelpful comment, like V didn’t fucking know that.

“And I’ve, like, killed a lot of their guys.” Panam cackled at that. V swigged the last half of her beer in response.

“That’s always the fucking problem, man. What if you had killed their chooms?” She said all of this through laughter. It was not a common problem, but maybe Panam could relate. She had gotten people killed before. But that accidentally got them killed, not killed them.

V and Johnny hadn’t asked about it, but it felt implied that Panam had gotten Saul's wife killed. Mitch alluded to it a couple of times. Hell, V had felt responsible for getting Scorpion killed. Even if Mitch never said anything about it, he didn’t seem to hold it against her. It was one of the things that stopped her from wanting to think about how attractive that man was. She had gotten his closest choom, his oldest buddy, killed. And now, now she couldn’t ever think about Mitch that way… Or wouldn’t let herself. And instead, she crushed on a fucking borg.

“I’m almost there. I’ll see y’all in a second.” Panam hung up the phone, which Judy now stuck back in her pocket. She must have raced the entire way back; maybe Claire should have picked that merc for her races instead.

Judy was sipping her beer, then dropped her hand off the seat to rub her eyes. “V.” This was going to be bad. “He’s got no fucking eyes, V.”

“Lots of people got no eyes. Besides, he’s got optics. It’s not like he’s got nothing.” She was playing defense now, and clearly not winning. This is exactly why she hadn’t told them, and why she had kept it from Johnny. She hadn’t expected him to be as understanding as he was.

“I feel what you feel, dumbass.” That was true at least. She sometimes felt what he felt, but he always felt what she did.

“This is like…” She was careful with her words at least. Judy tried to be, but Panam did not at all. “This is like the dumbest shit you’ve ever done.”

V scoffed, “I’ve certainly done much dumber shit than go on a date.”

“Why’s his name Dum Dum?” Misty was still looking between Johnny and V. V thought to herself that she needed to let Misty know he really appreciated it.

“I–” She started, then stopped, then grabbed her second beer from Claires tray and drank to avoid answering, and then coughed slightly cos she drank too fast and it went down the wrong pipe. “I don’t fucking know.” Misty at least had a kind question.

Panam slid into the booth beside V in an instant; she hadn’t even noticed her walk in. Panam also grabbed the beer from V’s hand and downed the entire thing before she spoke.

“I think I caused like four accidents.” She was out of breath. “Whens your date with the cyberpsycho?” She waved Claire back over.

“Hello. Jesus. And he’s not a fucking cyberpsycho.” Panam gave her a look. Misty had adjusted as V and Johnny did.

“I thought you were gonna finally admit your crush on Mitch, not this fucking shit. Jesus fucking christ. He’s not even a good looking borg. He’s fucking creepy, too many eyes. Looks like a spider.” Judy laughed at that as she drank. Panam looked back at V again, “Hey, if you wanted sympathy, you would have just told Misty. Not us two, we’re gonna fucking judge you to your face. Because you’re being stupid.”

“I just said that to her.” Judy smiled, Panam smiled. For a second there, if she hadn’t been constantly reminded that her friends are just ganging up on her, she would have felt joy about her friends all liking each other, and now they were friends. They had their group chat with daily texts, and she was pretty sure they all started hanging out even without her when she was busy or on missions or some shit.

When Claire came back over, Misty had ordered a round of Jackie Welles for the table. And Panam had ordered everyone more beers, and declared she was sleeping on V’s couch for the evening. It was not a question or a request.

Judy was still to take a sip, and instead cradled the Jackie Welles in her hands, just tapping her fingertips gently on the glass. Looking directly at V. Like she was staring into her soul.

“So how did you even meet the creep?” She regretted the entire evening already.

All three of the girls stared at V, Johnny had disappeared again, until she felt him pulling her beer up to her lips. “Hey, unfair. You can’t just make me drink to avoid answering.”

“Can’t I?” Her other hand went to her purse for the cigarettes.

“Hey, you guys wanna see a cool party trick?” When he moved her, she saw his arms glitching over hers. When he spoke, she heard his voice over hers. It was exemplified when she took the pills to give him control, but she hadn’t done that tonight. Nor had she drunk enough to lose herself to him. No, this was something different. This was something both were choosing to participate in.

Neither made the conscious choice, and the party hadn’t answered, still, V’s monowire was gently caught in her fingers as she pulled the cigarette to her lips. Just barely, gently holding the live, now on fire, wire to her cigarette.

“Whoa, that is really cool.” Panam was staring, Judy had an unreadable face, and Misty was smiling. “How did you learn that?”

Johnny's voice spoke. “Dunno, just realized I could do this.” The monowire retracted, and her cigarette was held back to her glass.

“You didn’t answer, though. How’d you fucking meet? You said you killed his guys?” Judy wasn’t one to not cuss; it just wasn’t like her main form of communication, like it was for Panam.

“Guys, it’s clear she doesn’t want to answer.” God, Misty, that actually wasn’t helpful. Not with these two fucking idiots. It wasn’t her voice that thought that, and it definitely wasn’t her voice that said that outloud. It was the overlay of them.

V had said that outloud. Her three friends were just staring at her.

“FUCK!” As if for dramatic effect, or maybe because Johnny had more say than she wanted to admit, she downed her Jackie Welles and slammed it on the table. “I’M SO SORRY, GUYS. THAT WASN’T ME.” If anyone in all of history had used that excuse, it wouldn’t have worked. Except for people with multiple personalities, maybe, but still. This wasn’t that, and that excuse sounded ridiculous. It wasn’t, of course. It was real. She was right. It wasn’t her who said that.

Her friends thankfully knew that too. They all knew the truth, the truth about Johnny and how much of V wasn’t herself, and how much it was actually Johnny. But did they? Did any of the five people at this table knew who was speaking to them, and how much they weren’t themselves.

“Well, that was fucking rude, Johnny,” Misty said. She also didn’t cuss often. And she was glaring at the spot where Johnny had been sitting. Like an obedient dog, he appeared there just in her line of sight so she could glare at him.

V laughed at that.

“Tell them I’m sorry. I didn’t think they’d hear me because I didn’t think your stupid ass would say it outloud.” She also glared at him, and now Panam and Judy were both glaring at the empty seat with disappointed faces.

This was girls' night, as much as it could be. And as much as the other two didn’t want to admit it, Johnny was here, as half of one of the girls for girls' nights.

Panam cleared her throat as Judy waved over Claire. “So, you both don’t want to tell us about this guy so fucking much that Johnny took over to insult us. Fucking rude by the way.”

V slammed her head on the table, not even bothering to lessen the blow with either hand. She did that a lot these days. Both were busy, one with a cigarette and the other with a beer. So her head just hit the table.

“Dammit, V. You spilled my drink.” She and Johnny could piss off Panam or Judy, but Johnny felt apologetic to Misty about spilling her beer.

A Johnny voiced sorry came out of V’s mouth. The lines were becoming blurred more and more every day.

“How the fuck am I supposed to date when I’m two people. It doesn’t fucking matter who it is. I am not me. I’m…” She barely lifted her head, just to take a huff of smoke before setting her head back down gently this time. She felt Johnny touch her arm, like he would have comforted her in this situation. “I’m not me anymore. You two haven’t known me, but I’m not me. Not anymore.” All of this was said muffled in the direction of the table.

Still not knowing how it worked, Johnny made notice that Panam and Judy both made sympathetic faces.

“You are still you, V. Just a different you. But still you. I promise.” Misty was squeezing her arm now, just where Johnny had been. They felt strange about that. And also paranoid that she really could sense him.

Chapter Text

“Who you are is a new experience.” Judy spouting out genuine knowledge. “But you can still share with us.”

Claire was walking over; there were a few other bartenders, and usually she was behind the counter. But she seemed to like V after that last race. They had gotten second place and were planning the next one in a week from now. Somewhere in the badlands.

“Another round, you guys?” V didn’t know if it was her or the other part of her that kept adding the adjectives. The pretty bartender. They still had untouched beers on the table, and Claire was cleaning up the empties. It was also clear that she wanted to hear more.

“Only if V gives us something more about this guy.” Panam was just looking directly at V. She hadn’t wanted to come to the afterlife last time, not since her encounter with Rogue, but they were hidden in the corner by the door. Still, Rogue knew just about everything. Of course, she knew when Half-Johnny was sitting with Panam. She had introduced them.

“I’ll have another Jackie, please.” Even in the fucked up world they lived in, Misty made the effort to be kind at all times.

“Can I get a martini, whatever well is fine.” Judy was looking at Claire as she spoke. Panam nodded without looking away from V.

“A martini or another beer?” Claire’s voice was so beautiful. Maybe in another life, if she hadn’t been obsessed with a borg, and Claire had ever wanted to move on…

“A round of beers and another round of Jackie’s and a martini.” V found herself saying. The glint of silver in her periphery exemplified the fact that it was Johnny’s voice. No way she would have ordered that much alcohol.

“Do you want me to fuck off? You want to be alone with the girls?” He said to her. She instinctively turned her head to look at him. Everyone, including Claire, was looking at her, and she was looking at the wall. Even without him there, she left room for him.

He appeared as she needed. Then she said something on purpose, outloud.

“Do you guys mind if Johnny is here? He offered to disappear.” She turned her head from the nothing to the friends. Misty looked where he should be with her sympathetic look. Claire was still there, but she doubted Rogue would have told her anything. Claire just liked knowing, that was kinda her entire job. Know things. She probably knew.

“I don’t mind if he’s here.”

“Isn’t he always here?” Panam motioned to his spot. He still hadn’t appeared there.

“Can he even leave?” Judy was still tapping on the glass in front of her, having declined Claire taking her stim movement.

“He offered to disappear if we want. For it to be just us girls, as much as it can be.” Johnny moved, made the image of scooching out of her body back to his correct placement. Not that it mattered.

Still, she saw the change in view, from her eyes to slightly closer to the wall. If only anyone could actually answer what the “Secure your soul” ads were about. But they hadn’t been able to. Not to her knowledge, at least.

“I’m fine with Johnny being part of the conversation.” She saw Misty looking at her through his eyes. God, how the fuck did this fucked up tech work? Claire’s tray was filled, and she walked back over to the bar.

“Yeah, I mean, he’s like you, right?” Judy, ever insightful. She and Panam shared a look. Panam didn’t seem pleased that Johnny was here, but she had never known a V minus Johnny.

Claire appeared with the tray of drinks. Each person shared their appreciation as she placed the two drinks in front of them.

“You need to tell them V.”

“I can keep some mystery.”

“True, but you should share something. If you want real advice.” He didn’t voice the next part, but they both thought that she did need real advice.

For a second there she wanted to forget everything and go back to Jackie making fun of her crush on the borg. Even if he never approved.

“I met him at a gig. We bought a bot from him. We flirted. We text. I just saw him a few days ago at another gig. He’s funny.” She lowered her voice to mumble the next part. “I think he’s hot as fuck, okay?”

“Whose hot as fuck?” Claire clearly wanted in on the fun. Judy did not even think twice before she pulled her phone out and pointed it at Claire, who was putting even more drinks down. The drinks were probably an excuse to get that exact information.

When she finished setting the drinks down, she put her tray down and grabbed the phone. Pulling her glasses from her pocket to look closer. Her face went through a thousand emotions before she gave it back.

“Fuck V. You want a chrome cock theres like twenty in here right now.” She took her glasses off and continued her judgmental looks at V.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure Mitch has one.” Fucking Panam and her obsession with Mitch and V. She once even said she shipped them, whatever that meant.

“Good for him. I’m not interested in his, though.” V had started her third beer, but the drinking did not seem to take away the embarrassment she felt.

Claire walked back off, probably to go pretend to do more work, only to be back in a second. V wondered if they could ask her to pull up a chair and join.

“What…” Panam had drunk three beers and had started on her Jackie Welles. Still, alcohol made her mouth go slower, but her thoughts just as fucking fast. “What are you looking to get out of this. Cos something tells me he ain't the settle down, and kids type.” Crazy that Panam would make that comment; she knew V. And all of them knew V was dying.

“Good thing I ain’t looking for that.”

“And you like… what. Wanna date the guy, or just…” She motioned her hand in a general wave, implying everything else.

“When did you wanna go dancing, V?” Impeccable timing of fucking course. Still, she felt herself smile, and knew she had the eyes light up with texts feature currently on.

The girls all looked at her. She decided to answer.

“Tomorrow, The Ho-Oh. 7 PM.” The Ho-Oh did not have dancing.

“Can a fucking maelstrom date outside their cult?” Thank you, Panam, for voicing the internal thoughts of everyone here.

“I don’t fucking know.” V’s voice came out quiet. “But he just texted.”

“What did he say?” Misty asked.

“He said he would like to go dancing, the date I tried to set up before Johnny.” V felt her face grow hot. She hadn’t meant to find herself interested in a maelstrom. Never in a thousand years would that old Arasaka assassin in her have been in this situation.

“You asked him on a date?” Panam had been drinking and started her question before she swallowed her drink, spitting up a bit as it came up.

“I did. Yeah.” She turned to look at Johnny or stared at the wall. He was looking at her with some form of pity. As if to say, “This is fucking stupid, but I’m sorry.” He was partially responsible for being in this situation.

When she turned back to the girls, all of them were looking at the corner of the booth/wall where he had been. As if they could see him too.

“And you…” Judy and Panam were now looking at each other as if the other could ask the other stupid questions.

Some part of her soul, or maybe Johnny’s soul, appreciated this. Seeing their friends get along and communicate silently. Even if they were judging them.

“Hey, V. Can I speak?” She looked back at the wall and nodded.

“Hey. It’s Johnny.” He was in her again. She heard his voice over hers. “It’s fucking stupid. I know.” When she nodded, she did not expect to be fucking insulted by her parasite. She had expected him to speak for her, but not to — “He’s a maelstrom.” They already established that. What fucking use was he if he couldn’t answer more? “She killed his chooms.” Jesus fucking christ, Johnny. Just because you use her voice doesn’t mean you can– “But she likes him. He seems like a chill dude. Yeah, he’s a killer. But she’s a fucking merc, so of course she–” V took control to drag the beer to her lips, and down half of it before he could finish.

“I’m speaking.” Yeah, she knew that. Hence the drinking.

“She’s killed a lot, too. Hundreds, if I’m counting right.” Hearing about herself with her own voice was a fucked up experience. She had killed hundreds, at least fifty under her belt, before she was let go of the fucking corporation she had spent her life working towards.

“He’s funny. He makes me laugh.” She kicked him out of her body. Her voice came out. First person. He made the dramatic fake scooch back over to the side of the bench he had been on before. She turned to look at him as she finished. “He’s weird. I like him.” She was staring at Johnny but directing her voice to the friends in front of her.

None of them spoke, but all drank. Misty gave her and Johnny the same face. The “Are you going to say more?” question.

“We’ve got a date tomorrow, at seven, at the Ho-Oh.” She said all of this as she lowered her voice, as if to hide. Like she was ashamed of this crush.

“You are ashamed of this crush. Not “as if.”

“Fuck you, Johnny. You don’t know what stupidity I’m admitting to our friends.” He looked at her, showing up with his glasses in the corner of her eye just so he could dramatically remove them slowly to make sure she paid attention. She saw herself from his eyes with her head on the table, and through her own eyes between the strands of black hair.

Seeing themselves from each other's point of view was a fucked up side effect of the fucking disintegration of reality that was having an engram. If she should do anything, she should warn the buyers of how fucking weird it was to see everything with a variation of view and four eyes.

And yet Dum Dum had seven optics; she wondered how he saw the world.

“How many optics did he have again?” It wasn’t a question from Judy. Just A question to understand the situation more.

“Seven.” She still hadn’t moved her head up from the table. Just mumbling it into her hands, one wrapped around the Jackie Welles in front of her. “He has seven optics.”

Johnny made note of the faces; V did not.

“I want to go dancing with him, or drinking, or something. I don’t fucking know.” She lifted her head, but directly up. As if the ceiling was the most interesting thing she’d ever seen. Looking at her friends in the face felt too much as she admitted this stupid fucking crush. “Yeah, a date. Not just sex. But that would be cool too. I just… I wanna get to know him.”

“And you knew him before konpeki?” Panam was gripping her beer like it was the only thing holding her here, like it was the only way this felt real. That she had made a friend so fucking stupid she would fuck a maelstrom borg.

“He’s like second in command, too.” She was still finding everything in the room to look at that wasn’t her friends judgemental faces. Or maybe it was more questioning her sanity.

She didn’t need to look at Johnny to know he was smiling about this. It felt good to admit things outloud rather than just to him. Even if he only found out about Dum a week ago, it was nice not to keep that mental block. He knew. She knew. And now her friends knew.

“And you want to go on an actual date with this guy. Not just fuck? I mean, he’s never gonna leave his cult for you. V. Be serious.” Panam's voice came across as a question, but the implication was there. It was fine to fuck a borg if you just want to experience a chrome cock. But it was something different to be genuinely interested in romantic prospects with a gang member, from a gang, where a good third was notoriously actively cyberpsycho.

“Yeah.” She did not mean for it to come out so breathy. But she breathed the word out anyway. “I don’t need him to leave his fucking cult, okay?” Her voice came out stronger, but still hesitant; she was also now questioning her sanity. “It’s not like I’m going to fucking live long enough for that to matter.”

“Seriously? You gonna pull the ‘I’m dying’ card here?”

“Hey, it’s a great card, probably the best I've got. And I clearly don’t have a long life ahead of me, I wanna have some fun with someone I genuinely like before I’m dead or…” She motioned to where he was sitting, arms folded, leaning against the wall. “Before I’m Johnny.”

“Well, if you’re going on a date. I am gonna be there.” Panam finished her fifth beer, seriously, when did she get a fucking fifth one? She wrapped her hand around the cocktail as she looked at her directly. “But V. We could find a scroll if you like… seriously want a maelstrom.”

There was nothing V could do to get out of that. Still, she tried.

“I don’t want a fucking maelstrom. I want him. And you don’t have to be there. I trust him.” Judy scoffed and stared forward at her.

“I’ll be there too.” Both of them clearly declaring that if V was going to be this stupid, they were not going to leave her to be stupid alone.

Johnny thought that was nice. He liked that her friends would want to be there as protection in case anything went wrong. He also nudged her again to the thought of “reply” as if this was an acceptable thing to do, if her friends were guarding her.

V was a living NC legend, a nightmare. She’d heard it many times. From many encounters at this point, just the name “V the Merc” or even just “V” was enough to get a good half of her victims to bow their heads and gracefully give up. She knew her name meant something on the streets. She could have been the boogie man to most of NC.

“Still there?” She texted. The Ho-Oh had gone under new management since she wiped out the claws that ran it two weeks ago. It hadn’t had dancing before; there was no dance floor. It wasn’t a club, it was a bar. Still, semi-neutral territory.

“Fine.” She looked at Panam in the eyes, finally.

“I’ll be there.” Panam turned her form to look at Judy this time. “Will you be there?”

“I’ll be there,” Judy replied with a nod and a swig of the drink. “Misty?”

Misty was still looking at Johnny, who had materialized to look directly at her. Like it helped to pretend to be acknowledged.

“I’ll be there.” Misty took her drink too.

“I’m bringing Mitch.” Oh wonderful. Like that would help. It might, Mitch was strong as fuck. But still, V had just agreed to a chaperoned date with a maelstrom borg.

“What do you like about him. Is he like really cult?” Two separate questions tied together with vocal cadence. Panam had a wonderful way of taking many sentences and making them sound like a run-on sentence.”Still, you can’t fucking trust Maelstrom V. They’re like all fucking insane and culty. They worship that rogue AI.”

It was a valid question. V had never asked him anything really. She didn’t know why he was Maelstrom. How he ended up Maelstrom. Hell, she never even asked his age. He could be like fifty or something.

“I don’t know if he does.” Was all she could answer. It was true, she didn’t know anything about him. Still, the desire to get to know him pulled at her stomach like there was a stab in her. She wanted to get to know him. “I’ll ask.”

Panam gave an even more dramatic version of her judgment on her face. V didn’t know this guy. She knew that. But she wanted to get to know him. Wanted to know why he joined. How old was he? What he was doing.

She was really just running off attraction. Something about him drew her to him. She wanted to get to know him.

No one asked the question; they just looked at her. Still, she answered the question that had been bouncing around in her head for months.

“I asked him. Before the heist.” She brought up the text, his text. He hadn’t answered yet.

“And you like….like the guy? For real?” Judy questioned. She was looking at V with nothing but concern. The fact that she told them she met him before Johnny didn’t help. She could have used that excuse. That she had met him before these two. Which means she had this thought before she changed.

She pondered that thought. She had been attracted to the man before Johnny. And she had hid it from Johnny. It wasn’t Johnny that made her want to do this. But what was the point of trying to date before she died? Which she was going to do.

“Get your dick wet, V. Before you lose your fucking mind. You’ll just die, but you got to climb those wires first.” He hadn’t said anything for a minute, and this wasn’t particularly helpful.

She glared at him.

“Look, no one’s made me laugh as hard since Jackie, okay. And he made me laugh. I like him, I really like him. I know it’s fucking stupid. I’m well fucking aware. But I’m gonna have some good laughs before I’m fucking dead.”

“You’re not gonna die, V. We’re still working on stuff. Carol and Teddy have been looking for information. Saul mentioned that he’s been looking into proxies. Vik’s working on it. You don’t have to live life like you got a death wish and a time limit.”

“Yeah, I know. But you don’t get it. I want to do this. I want to get to know him.”

“Seriously, though, what’s to know. He’s part of a cult, maelstrom. That’s like the worst one. They pretty much all have the same story, and they all go cyberpsycho.”

“He’s his own person.”

“Actually, I think they have a hive-mind.” V glared at Judy, who hadn’t said much in this conversation previously.

She sighed before she responded, “Look… he’s… he’s not like the rest of them. He’s got a personality. He’s not always spouting that religious doctrine. He hasn’t mentioned much about the gang. Maybe it’s just like a job to him.”

“Okay, so you go on this date, and you keep dating. And then you’re the merc with a maelstrom boyfriend. Wouldn’t that fuck up your rep?”

“Why should my output have any say on my rep?”

“I don’t know, maybe a fixer won’t want to work with the input of someone who sells XBDs and literally sells lives. Like the optics on that look like fucking shit, dude.”

She hadn’t wanted to think about all that much. She did the jobs, she saw the shit, she knew what fingers Maelstrom had in what fucking pots in this city.

“I… I don’t know if he’s done all that.”

“You haven’t checked? He’s Maelstrom V. They’re literally fucking evil.”

“Yeah, and you said he was like second in command, so if fucked up shit is happening, he fucking knows about it.” Misty made a sympathetic look at V as she kept slowly drinking her Jackie. Which V downed, and then her martini in two sips. There wasn’t enough alcohol in this fucking city to make her feel less like an idiot than she did in this moment.

“Look, guys. I’m already stressed about this, and you’re all just stressing me out more. He said he won’t fucking hurt me. But what if he is like the rest?”

“Shit, V. I’m fucking sorry, okay. But let’s be fucking realistic. He’s done fucked up shit.” Panam at least tried to lessen the blow with that apology.

“So have I.” It was true, V had killed so many fucking people. Just littered the streets with corpses. She killed every gang, corpos, and accidentally gotten a few civillians killed. She crucified a fucking dude for christ sake. Plus, there was that time, and that other time, and that other time she got involved in politics all over the city, pulling the strings behind the curtains.

“Come on, V. You know that’s not what I mean. You kill the bad guys. He is, by fucking definition, mind you, one of those bad guys.”

“Yeah… I know.”

“So then… like. We’ll support you, I guess, but fucking why? And don’t say it’s cos you're dying or cos he’s cute or cos he’s funny because there are a fuck ton of options in this city if those are the parameters.” She knew she should slow down on the drinks; she definitely couldn’t drive home at this point. Rogue would probably let her leave her car here; Claire definitely would. Or she could just send it home; this one did that.

“I don't…” She started and stopped, and then reached for Panam's drink and drank some of that. “I don’t fucking know. Okay. He… he seems different. Even Johnny said so.”

“Different how?”

“He doesn't seem to care about the gang, and it’s just like a job. I don’t know how he got in, but I can’t imagine it was for the fucking weird-ass religious reasons. He’s probably on the hive-mind. But he’s got his own mind. He’s got personality. And he is interested in me. And I just want to fucking do something before I’m dead.

“A job doesn’t completely rip off your skin and replace it with chrome and a cult mentality.”

She laughed at that. “Ever been to Konpeki Plaza?” Jobs absolutely do that, all the time, actually. Panam, a nomad, might not know that.

“I have not. You got me there. Do they really have the gold skin?” She took her drink back.

“They do. It’s so fucking shiny and with the bright lights. Ugh. Fucking corpos.”

“Didn’t you literally used to work for Arasaka V?”

“I did. Wait, I’ve never told you that.” She told Panam a lot, that didn’t seem relevant information.

“Judy did.”

“You guys hang out?” She knew Misty and Judy had seen each other outside of her, but still, Panam and Judy didn’t make as much sense in her brain.

“Without you? Sometimes.” Judy had finished her drinks and was piling all the bottles to the edge of the table now.

“The world doesn’t revolve around you, V. I’m sorry to be the one to tell you that.” She glared at the wall.

“Anyway. Yeah. I worked for Arasaka, and they put chrome in me, and instilled doctrines, and that was just a job.”

“It was literally your whole life, V.” Misty was the only one who knew her back then, and before. She wasn’t wrong.

-

Eventually, they stopped talking about how stupid V was. And updated each other on other shit. It was a few hours till they left; the evening had been quite fun. If you didn’t count the beginning part, where everyone minus Misty, just tore into V for like an hour and a half. But Johnny had fun with the girls. He spoke a few more times. And Claire offered them all rides back to their respective houses. She even dropped Panam and V off in the garage since it started raining.

Panam slept on the couch, and V lied in bed and stared at the ceiling. Worried about her date tomorrow. He still hadn’t texted back. But she was keeping it as a set plan. Even if he never texted, she would be there, she thought. Maybe she was stupid for that. Eventually, sleep took her. And she dreamed she had a conversation with Johnny in person, about Dum. That was a strange dream.

Chapter Text

“Tomorrow. The Ho-Oh. 7 PM.”

He just stared at it for a couple hours. Literally did not do anything else but sit on his couch and stare at the text. Couldn’t even bring himself to reply to confirm or deny or nothing. What the fuck could he do? He had a fucking date with the merc tomorrow. He would be there. Of course, he would be there. He had to be.

And then he just kept spiraling. A fuck ton of questions in his brain. Some of them were good, practical, fun questions. Like, wondering what she would wear, and if they would actually dance. And others were more serious, like, what the fuck did a merc want to go on a date with a maelstrom borg for? Was she going to kill him? That sort of thing.

He didn’t do anything but sit and think until he made himself go a bit fucking crazy. He was planning on doing absolutely nothing else until about 6pm tomorrow. Just sit and think and go fucking insane…

“Dum! We’re getting loaded, come on.” He did not want to do that. Surprisingly, he hadn’t been indulging in anything except his own insanity. He wanted to think through everything clear, and as sober as he could be. Just to think about it.

Like, what the fuck. That was a question that popped up every few minutes.

He never thought he’d be here, not when he met her, not when she disappeared, not when he saw her again.

And even more importantly. They had used the word date a couple of times. Did that actually mean a date? Did she actually, for real, want to go on a date with him? Not like a chrome chaser who would have met on his turf and maybe taken a drink before they were docking in a utility closet. A date, at a bar, at a real bar. In a real place. With actual people.

Like she didn’t want to hide, she wanted to be seen with him. She didn’t shy away from it. And she had asked him somewhere, not Northside. Man, it must have been years since he left Northside proper. That felt crazy to think about. He hadn’t left Northside, and he hadn’t really gone out places in a long time.

He probably hadn’t been to a non-Maelstrom bar since he got his optics.

Had he ever even been on a date before? Like for real? Maybe a few back with uh… his ex input. The one who…

He decided he’d never been on a date before. And had no idea what to do. He wanted to do everything. Learn everything. He thought about searching that shit up on the net. Find a fucking tutorial or something. Like, what does someone do on a date? Food? Drinks? Movies, according to the old ones he watched. Had he ever even danced with someone?
“Dum, what the fuck, we’re all about to head out.” Lars barged in, not bothering to knock or anything. Also, he had probably left the door open a bit anyway.

“I ain’t fucking going.” Lars kicked some stuff off the table in front of him and sat down.

“Why the fuck not. You talking to that merc?” He wasn’t talking to her; he probably should have been. Instead, he was paralyzed, thinking nonstop about the hot merc, and every question under the god damn sun.

“Date tomorrow.” Lars looked at him, bewildered. Dum had an actual date tomorrow with the merc. With V. The girl he’d been obsessed with for like a year now. He had a real ass date with her.

“FUCK DUDE! FUCK YEAH!” Lars pulled up his walkie before Dum could say anything, “Leave without us, we busy.” And then he extended his hand to help Dum up.

Dum looked at his hand; he wasn’t fucking moving anywhere.

“Yeah, get your ass up. Let’s go find you some clothes. Where you going anyway?” If anything, that was a great reason to get up. He somehow, had not considered what to wear to a fucking date with the merc. Even with the hours of thinking, he hadn’t thought it all through.

“Okay, yeah. That’s a good idea.” He took the hand and got up.

-

A few hours later they were walking the markets. There were two of them, so everyone moved out of the way. From the back, they looked like just two dudes with hoodies on. From the front, they still glowed. This time though, they were laughing. Chatting. Talking about his date. It was a weird sight to all the vendors and customers strolling the streets.

“How about this stall? They got some good threads.” Dum hadn’t bought actual clothes in… who knows how long. If he ever even had.

“Do I look like I’d wear anything jean?” Dum hadn’t worn anything other than his vest and a few pairs of pants in over a decade. The word “Style” was written on every billboard, but he’d never considered his own. He was Maelstrom; everything he wore was Maelstrom.

“You could.” Lars had moved to the stall, where the vendor was standing stiff, terrified of the borgs in front of him. “How much for this jacket?”

The vendor stumbled over his words, chosing not to look at either of them. As they ignored everyone else in the market staring. “200 eddies.”

“Jesus. Fucking two hundred? That’s fucking robbery.” Lars was still holding the jacket, lifting it off the rack and holding it up to Dum. A jean jacket. He looked ridiculous. Lars laughed as he put it back.

Dum however, did find something on the stall that caught his eye. A simple black hoodie, with some holographic threading. It wasn’t flashy, it was subtle, it caught the light better than anything. And now that light was reflecting red.

“A hoodie. Good idea.” Lars grabbed the piece and held it up to Dum, it looked good. Weird, but good. They had hoodies back at All Foods, they grabbed one whenever they needed to do their best to blend in, like the ones they wore now. But this one was nice, new, a little shiny. “How much for this one?”

The vendor was still not looking up, finding everything under the counter entirely too enchanting. He didn’t even look up to see what they had picked up. He clearly wanted the entire encounter to be over as soon as possible. “Hundred.”

Without a second thought, Dum sent over the eddies as Lars took the hoodie off the hanger, and folded it over his arm. One piece down.

The vendor looked up with relief as they started walking away. The hoodie had cost more than that, and Dum had sent more than he said.

“Cool, got a hoodie. Can we leave now?” Dum was looking anxious, Lars, however, looked thrilled.

“Fuck no. You got a fucking hoodie, now you need a shirt, pants, and stuff.” He motioned with his free hand all over Dum. “And like… new boots probably. You’ve never taken those off like ever.”

Dum allowed himself to smile at that, it was probably true. They continued walking for a while till they found a stall with racks of pants. Dum stuck to his usual cargo style, but these were nicer threads than he’d ever worn. After paying that vendor, Lars suggested they get food.

Borgs did not eat in public often, or if they did it was around their own. Not that they couldn’t eat, it was just one of those very human things they didn’t often show to non-borgs.

“This place has great dumplings, come on.” Lars dragged him into a restaurant, and they sat down at a table. A real table. In a public setting. Lars was purposely ignoring the glares and stares from everyone. Until a waitress came up, then he looked up.

“Hey sweetie, good to see you. The usual?” Lars smiled widely and nodded, he also order the usual for Dum, and a few brosephs.

Dum, however, looked shocked, and felt very awkward and out of place.

“Relax, Chels like’s me.” He smiled with his jaw, since when did Lars go to restaurants.

“You’ve actually been here before?” Lars had started on his beer, pushing the second one closer to Dum. Who nervously picked it up, and looked around before he drank.

“Loads of times. You think I spend all my time at All Foods? Fuck no. Gotta get away when Royce is screaming sometimes.” Lars was shockingly at ease. Dum was shocked; he had never taken him out to a restaurant or anything not Maelstrom owned before. “Besides,” He leveled his face to Dum’s slouch. “You haven’t had any fucking practice in a real setting in forever. How do you think you’d do on your date? Figured you needed some practice in public.”

It was nice, Dum felt grateful, and really fucking weird about it. Lars was right; he hadn’t been in public, and he hadn’t sat down at a table. He was surprised Lars did.

“I keep telling you, man, you gotta get out more.”

“I have that date.” Chels brought their food out and set it in front of them. Lars immediately dug in. It was still steaming, but the insides of their mouths didn’t burn much, really. Even if it was mostly flesh on both of them.

“Yeah, you do.” Lars had somehow scarfed down two dumplings and half his beer before he looked back at Dum. “You nervous?”

Dum was poking at his dumplings with one chopstick. The other still on the table. Was he nervous, of course he was. What the fuck was he doing?

“Yeah. I am.” His voice sounded weird, admitting to something so human.

“Well, eat. You will feel better.” Lars made a point of grabbing the other chopstick and jamming it between Dum’s metal fingers.

Dum took the chopsticks, realigning them on the plate, and started eating. What if he ate when he was out with V? What if he ate weird? What if he chewed with his mouth open?

Suddenly aware of all his insecurities, he stood up straighter and started eating slowly.

“You don’t gotta be fucking nervous. The merc likes you; she wants to go on this date.” Lars was looking at Dum proudly. The TV behind him replayed the crucifixion BD ad.

“Why?” He managed between breathing out deeply, the dumplings were still very hot, and the liquid inside was near boiling.

“Why don’t you gotta be nervous? Well, she asked you out, dude, I don’t know.”

He was asking why she even asked him out. Why would a mercenary want to get a Maelstrom borg on a date? Why would she call it a date? His face must have given away how much he was thinking about this.

“Dude, seriously. Calm the fuck down before I ask Lilith to calm you down.” If it was possible, Lars’ optics gleamed at him, like he knew something Dum didn’t. “She wants to go out with you. What more could you want?”

Dum slowly ate and stared into the void of neon behind Lars as he thought. That was true; she did want to go out with him. Or she wanted to get him alone to end him, too. Too.

“Did we ever tell Kurt what happened?” The sudden conversation shift shocked Lars, who choked on his dumpling, washing it down with the rest of his beer.

Of all Maelstrom, Lars easily had one of the hardest faces to read, but Dum saw the gears turning in his head anyway.

“Shit, man, I don’t think we did.” Before, before they met the merc, it seemed clear that they were gonna tell Kurt when they downed the bitch. To both their knowledge, he had never seen the footage of the clinic.

They both sat in silence finishing up their food, Lars ordered two more beers as the waitress picked up their plates.

“We fucking can’t, man. We cannot tell him it was V.” Dum perked up at hearing her name; he hadn’t heard it said since he told the guys what it was. He felt torn; part of him loved hearing her name, the other part of him acknowledged that while they did their best to hide it, they were still human. And humans usually had strong emotions about their coworkers getting a shotgun to the face.

Not for the first time, Dum felt conflicted. Yeah, this was the merc that killed his…semi-chooms. But it was also the merc. The one he hadn’t stopped thinking about for what felt like half his life now.

They both stared at the walls behind each other, a mutual silent understanding; they could not tell Kurt it was V. But also, how could he not figure that out? A couple of the other guys knew, and they would put it together. Especially if this went anywhere, if Dum and V had another date, or…

“Do you think she’d ever become borg?” Dum’s optics slowly blinked in surprise; it did not feel like he did that on purpose, but on the most basic processing of human instinct.

The thought hadn’t occurred to him. If V would become borg. Well she was borg, already. No way she hadn’t chromed up more since their first meeting, and she was already borg then. Her legs had to have been replaced if she climbed out the window of Totentanz. That jump would have crushed anything human.

But that wasn’t what Lars was asking. Sure, he used the word borg, but they both knew what he meant. And what he meant was Maelstrom. Would V ever… convert…. To Maelstrom.

No fucking way, she gunned their men down. Or… had, before. Now she was just knocking their guys out.

There was no world in which V would become Maelstrom. She hated Maelstrom, but she didn’t hate Dum.

“Fuck no man. Never.” He kept all seven optics locked on the window behind them. Watching cars drive by, a near miss here, a near pedestrian death there.

“Yeah, didn’t think so. I mean, why would she?” The silence grew, Dum’s lip piercings occasionally clinking on the glass bottle.

They finished their second beers quickly and then got back on the street. Dum had insisted they already had pants and a jacket and some new boots; he didn’t need anything else. What was he gonna do, accessorize?

Lars, however, had insisted that he couldn’t wear just a hoodie; he’d have to wear a shirt too. The idea of that much clothing on him made him feel claustrophobic already.

Still, they wandered till they found a stall with old music merch, and Dum settled on an old Samurai shirt. He had told her he liked the band; it felt human of him.

After their shopping trip, Lars was pleased with their new finds and demanded Dum show him the outfit, for approval, of course.

Back at All Foods, despite protesting the entire drive over, Dum found himself doing exactly that. Changing into his new threads and then even doing a very slow spin for Lars, who was thrilled.

“You look fucking great, man. Like new.” That made Dum laugh. The laugh attracted Ash and Vex, who wanted in on whatever drugs they must have been trying to hear Dum laugh like that.

“Whoa, new fucking threads, what's the occasion?” Ash settled on the couch next to Lars while Vex sat on the pallets that functioned as the coffee table.

“Yeah, you look good.” Vex turned his head quizzically. “Why?”

Lars made a face at Dum; he wasn’t going to answer for him, but god, he wanted to.

“I uh… got a date.” The two guys looked at him, looked at Lars, looked at each other, and then burst into laughter.

“YOU GOT A FUCKING DATE?” Ash repeated like it was the funniest thing in the world. Dum flung the hoodie and shirt off himself in one move, throwing them in the general direction of the mattress he occasionally slept on.

Lars had joined in the laughter, but stood up to grab the clothes Dum threw, instead folding them, not neatly,before then tossing them on the bed. Dum stared at the guys laughing at him.

It was ridiculous. A Maelstrom borg going on a date. That’s not how any of this worked in their world.

When they finally composed themselves enough, Vex asked. “It that merc?”

“Yeah.” Dum and Lars said in unison. Lars had moved to the fridge in the corner, where he grabbed four beers and passed them around. Dum had started sucking on his lace a bit more, still standing in the room with the three, looking at him in his new pants. He shrugged his vest back on.

“Wait. Like a fucking for real date?”

“A real fucking date. Yeah.” He was getting more annoyed by the second; the lace was not helping. He pulled a broken desk chair that had been in the corner for a while, to sit on in front of the pallet and couch, extending his hand for the beer without looking up at Lars.

“Sorry, I’m just shocked. Who would wanna date your ugly fucking mug?” That got a chuckle out of Dum. He had always considered himself one of the more attractive borgs. Less of his face replaced. But then again, who said his face had been good to look at to begin with? It’s not like he had been able to grow into it.

That had made Ash laugh incredibly hard till his whole body was shaking the couch. Eventually, after he and Vex calmed down, he asked. “You for real got a fucking date with that merc? That’s fucking crazy. Why?”

The obvious answer to why go on a date was clear: to dock. Of course, it was. Dum wanted to answer it that way, but he shocked himself with a different answer. If Lars had eyes, they would have blown wide with Dum’s confession.

“I like her, I wanna get to know her.” That stopped whatever laughing had been going on. That was an insane thing to say, and all four of them knew it. Dum had accidentally let more slip, too much, it felt like.
None of the three knew how to respond, and instead sipped their beers in silence.

A few minutes later, they had moved on to an entirely new topic, something about how their patrol went. Dum was not listening; he was thinking. Thinking about how that was his response.

It was nineteen hours till he’d be in front of her again.

Chapter Text

First she was waiting outside, but that felt weird, then she went inside, but that felt weirder. The girls had filed in to one of the back booths with a quiet “You won’t even notice we’re here.” So then she went back outside. The alley where she flatlined four guys less than a month ago.

“Have a fucking cigerette dumbass.” She waved him away, but reached into the purse anyway. Suddenly, bringing a purse felt stupid. She only owned two, both from work. And it didn’t quite fit with her outfit. Or maybe it did, and the problem was that V didn’t fit in her outfit.

At Johnny’s insistence she had worn a skirt with another bra top, a jacket over that, with just a small purse. Still, she had won the shoe and makeup debate, and decided on her boots. Just in case she had to bolt for some reason.

She was on a fucking date with a god damn Maelstrom cultist, who knew what would happen.

“Jesus V. It’ll be fine. He likes you, you like him. Now light the fuck up before I lose my fucking mind with your anxiety.” It was annoying when he responded to her private thoughts. “We share them you idiot.”

“What’s with you and insulting me today. Usually you’re a lot nicer.” She lit the cigarette, she also didn’t bother to say that internally. Verbalizing one side of an argument in a back alley staring at a wall of vending machines.

“You are so fucking anxious, it’s hitting me.” She took a drag of the cigarette, and his shoulders relaxed. “Thanks V.”

She did like it, she never had before. Something about her healthcare costs being so much higher if she was a smoker had deterred her in her past life. But it was nice now. The slight nicotine buzz was helping.

She was early, not by much. But by enough. She could have gone in to talk to the girls and Mitch but even looking at them filled her with so much anxiety.

They hadn’t texted much the past day, just a quick “See you at 7?” to which he replied “See you at seven.”

Half the cigarette was gone, and she had turned around from the machines to stare at the walkways, there were two directions he could come from, so she thought if she stared really hard at the building between them it might make it easier.

Johnny noticed him before she did though. “He’s walking down. Look hot.” She scoffed at that, at nothing. Wondered if Dum would even notice that she was two people now. How could he, but also how could he not. Was he two people? He was part of that weird fucking shit right? Her last thought was wondering if he would be someone she could relate to about this weird fucked up engram bullshit.

“Hey V.” He waved, he was a few feet away, but still. His voice, her knees wobbled just a tiny bit. She had almost forgotten how intoxicating that metallic twinge was. “You look really nice.” Johnny smirked at her and then glitched away.

“Hey Dum. You’re wearing actual clothes.”

“Had to dig through some piles, but yeah. Didn’t think the vest would fit the scene.” He had on a black hoodie, with some grey shirt peeking out from the zipper. The hood was up, probably to make it through the sea of people without problems. She’d only seen him in the vest before, he looked good dressed like a real person.

“You ready to go in?” The bar allowed smoking, or… it would if it was V smoking. So she didn’t bother to put out the cigarette before they walked in. Dum held the door open, kinda. Hand in front of the whirring machine so it didn’t close on them. Which was… a gesture of some kind.

Not sure what that meant, but V didn’t stutter to think about it. She just walked in. “It means he fucking likes you you idiot.” That might have been an autonomous thought, didn’t come out in Johnny’s voice. Maybe he was going to leave them alone for this. They hadn’t discussed it.

She saw Pan and Mitch at the table in the corner to the right. Judy and Misty sitting with them. Both facing the wall, but they dramatically turned to look. They just watched. Misty nodded, Judy was undoubtedly scanning Dum. Mitch made a face but had the decency to lift his beer to hide it. While Panam just allowed her face to show the disgust she felt. Undoubtedly on purpose. To let V know how much she didn’t approve.

V walked forward, did not want to make a scene and explain to Dum quite then what was up with that table. For a second she felt a bit guilty, she was sure he was used to dirty looks.

They made their way up to the bar.

Dum came up to the left of her, he had obviously noticed the looks and interaction “Friends of yours?”

V waved the bartender over, “Yeah, they wanted to come along just in case…” She let her voice trail off.

“In case I’m a cyberpsycho.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m not.” His face was hard to read, but V thought it looked as genuine as it could with it’s distinct lack of humanity. “You remember what I said before… about never hurting you.” She turned to look at him now. She did remember that, so did Johnny cos she felt him pull something in her. “I intend to keep to that.”

God he was beautiful, no eyes, barely skin, all metal and the red optics felt hot on her cheeks, but man, she was in.

“Not unless you want me to.” He smirked at her then turned to the bartender. “A broseph, and whatever the lady wants.”

The bartenders full attention on them now as he took in the scene, the merc who asked about the redesign last week, and a Maelstrommer. “We… uh, we don’t usually serve your kind here.” The “usually” was hesitant and slowly said. His eyes now on V. If either of them were scanning, and they both were, his hand was under the counter, about to press the security button or to grip the gun kept down there.

“We won’t cause any trouble. Promise.” V spoke. Her voice came out much more confident and loud. Her message clear “The Maelstrom will not try anything as long as I am here.”

The bartender looked between both of them, and must have decided it wasn’t worth it to start the shooting himself. “So what’ll it be for you.” He rested both hands on the bar now.

“I’ll have the same.” He turned to grab the beers, saying something into his microphone as he did. Both V and Dum purposely ignored the call for more security. She may have taken the claws out, but some other gang moved in of course. Though, she coudln’t place who it was based of the uniformed bartender or direction of style.

They grabbed their beers and walked over to a table far enough from the girls and Mitch that they couldn’t hear. Still in their line of sight though. V didn’t want to make them worry too much. Not like a single panel between them would hide if a borg was ripping her to pieces.

The girls started chatting again, occasionally looking at the two. Mitch never seemed to take his eyes off of them, but interjecting into the conversation every once in a while.

“So, uh…. How was your day?” V started. Not entirely sure what to say, but the basic conversation starters felt valid enough.

She’d spent so long stressing about this, she hadn’t thought deep into what they would talk about. Just that she wanted to.

“You bring me down here to ask about my day?” he said, he hadn’t taken a sip yet, but was mindlessly tracing the water sliding down the glass bottle. She wasn’t sure if his metal fingers could feel it, but it looked like he could. If they weren’t just metal the movement would have seemed incredibly human.

“Brought you here to get to know you.” V had taken several sips for courage, and when she placed it back down on the table she started picking at the sticker. A nervous habit. She was mimicking his movement almost, but now she was looking down. Nervous, he thought.

“I’ll be honest V. I don’t know what that means. Or what I’m doing here.” He looked at her again now, or at least, his optics were facing her.

“I want to be friends or something. I’m not sure either.” She had a hard time looking at his red, and instead watched his fingers trace the droplets.

“You know a lot of people who are friends with Maelstrom?” His mouth twitched into a smirk, like it was a joke. But they both knew it wasn’t exactly that.

She let her guard down with the comment, and felt her shoulders drop slightly. His small smile made her loosen up immediately.

“Obviously, I do not. No one actually.” Using the momentary relief she decided to be brave and looked back at him now. She figured starting into the human eye placements was good enough for eye contact.

Further relaxing when she realized it was somehow less nerve-wracking than staring into actual eyes. She had never been good at eye contact when it came to previous partners, or dating or anything. She let her mind wander for a second, what colour were his eyes before, what had he looked like before.

“There’s a reason for that.” If it was possible, his optics seemed to darken for a moment. He chuckled though, and finally took his first sip. “We keep to ourselves mostly, and stay Northside.” He set his beer back down and looked at the bottle. Most of the droplets had been traced away already, like he was just as nervous as her.

“So, why’d you say yes to coming here? We could have gone somewhere near your turf.” Looking at him was genuinely so much easier than she expected, though she was immediately reminded that she found him very attractive. A glance over his shoulder, she saw Panam and Judy staring her dead on.

Misty’s back was still to her at this angle, but her shoulders moved like she was saying something. Probably asking them what they say happening. Mitch must have been at the bar, but that was covered from her view.

“Why did you want to see me at all?” He looked at her and cocked his head to the left, as if to obscure her view of the girls. He twitched like he fought the urge to turn around and look at them himself. Undoubtedly, he was asking far more than just the question itself.

“I…” She started, then stopped. Closing her mouth into a tight line. She looked back down at her beer and suddenly hated that her synth skin and false face still tried to give her away with digital color flushing on her cheeks. “I’m not sure. I really do want to get to know you.” She didn’t look up, and he didn’t reply, so she continued. “Why did you send me your number back then?”

Back then, it had been over half a year since they met, and here they were now. Sitting at a bar, across from each other, finally talking. Her stomach turned with butterflies with that realization.

“I told you. I like your style. You interest me.” She felt like a bug under a microscope. His red optics feeling light spotlights on her anxiety. “And I wanted to know if you’d ever own up to zeroing my guys. Or if you know anything about eight cars that happened to go missing around the same time we met.” He smiled. Clearly not meaning it as a threat or serious at all.

Still, in the flutter of a crush she had briefly forgotten how this all started. A wild business deal, and also she did in fact kill many of his guys. He was the boss right? Had she killed his employees.

For the first time, the anxiety did turn serious in the pit of her stomach. Her friends worries suddenly felt real. Like, oh, I forgot. This is a serial killer in front of me who does in fact have reason to want to murder me in a horrific manor and would probably film and sell my murder…

“V. He’s not serious. Calm down. He’s like… flirting or something.” There were benefits to having a brain worm that gave advice, and more importantly could help control emotions. He sat in her body on the chair with her and somehow managed to force her to calm down in just an instant.

Or maybe it was that she was lifting the beer to her lips without consciously deciding to do so.

“I’m sure I have no clue what you are talking about.” She smiled back.

“Right, right. So you’ve said.” He chuckled again, which came out like a whir of wires, then he took another drink, never taking his eyes…optics… off of her. “So the fact you’re just as obscured in that camera behind us as the mystery merc that swiped my cars is just a coincidence.

There was no way he actually gave a shit about those fucking cars. Maybe Johnny was right. What do a maelstrom and merc have to talk about but fucking business.

“Purely coincidental.” She smiled. Matching his drinking, her smile spread wider without conscious thought. This was weird. Very weird. She probably could own up to it, and was starting to feel safe in the fact he wouldn’t hurt her even if she did. Embolden by that thought she asked the first real question of their hangout.

“So, your optics. How.. How do they work? You can hack into the surveillance behind us without looking at it?” She could hack, but had to have some visual contact with something to do so.

He smiled again, also acknowledging this was the first question. He lowered his hood down. “I can do lots of things. They all work differently. Like, each is it’s own camera.” He pointed to he eye level placed optics with two fingers in the “look at me” movement. “These two work the same as yours do.”

He had met her when she had her black flicked on, so he obviously knew hers were just as false.

He pointed to the center one next, and dramatically faded it from it’s red to blue. “This one is for hacking. I can do it anytime,” and without asking the question he answered it “without having to look at something facing forward, as long as it’s in proximity.” She turned her head quizzikly.

“Without a ping yeah.” Answering her unasked question with just a look.

“Does the blue give it away?” Lifting her beer back to her lips but staring him straight on.

He laughed, “Did you see it before?” His fingers gently clinked on the glass bottle. “Nah, the blue is just for demonstration, dramatic effect if you will.” His smile glinted the silver teeth at her. Finally noticing his teeth again she realized something had changed.

“You got fangs?” He smiled wide showing her his new teeth, once again.

“Yeah, I got fangs, thought they’d be fun.” He was clearly proud of this body modification. She wondered if he was proud of all of them.

She moved closer to observe them, sure enough, his canines were sharpened slightly. Not too much to be incredibly dramatic fangs, but enough that with some observation he could be mistaken for one of those corpo vampires the radio was always spouting on. If you didn’t take into account the very clearly Maelstrom rest of him.

“I like them. They look good on you.” She lifted the rest of her beer to her lips, his was already finished. “And the other eyes?” She motioned with one hand to the speckled ones on his forehead. She’d relaxed significantly since this conversation had started.

“The top two scroll BD’s. We do it for work.” He immediately offered up that last part, as if it would be justification enough to forget what Maelstrom was quite well known for. “And the two ones below that do mosty the same, but really they’re just for looks, I could do all his with just one.” He turned his head slightly both directions to just show her his optics. And smiled to show his teeth. He was enjoying showing off to her.

“Are you scrolling now?” She didn’t think about that before, but put it together now, that Maelstrom was always scrolling. It made sense.

“Now?” He shook his head, and then lowered his head to look at her, as if to ask her to trust him yet again. “No. Didn’t want to share this.”

She felt a surge of safety and then boldness with the way his voice quieted to say that last part.
She leaned forward, resting more on her elbows now. The bottles just between them on the small table as props, but both still held in their hands, as if to ground them. “That how you know about the merc? The scrolls of the guys put down?”

She was teasing him, what a sick twisted way to tease. Bragging about kills. She felt bad about those earlier kills, she hadn’t quite believed Maelstrom were human. Or maybe all those years in Arasaka made her jaded. Or maybe the propaganda spread around NC was working. Maelstrom didn’t want to be seen as human, so most of the city didn’t see them that way. She hadn’t seen them that way… not until she met one and believed instantly that he was still human. She wondered if she could ask that.

He smiled with his fangs visible once again. “No, actually. Not a lot of the heads left to get scrolls from them. Actually only one camera left at the each scene.”

“Just the one camera?” She was mentally pinching herself for that choice once again.

“Just the one. Almost like a message.” They both knew the truth, and they both wondered if they would ever admit to it.

“You’ll tell him one day. I fucking know you. Not like there’s a point though.”

Oh, Hi Johnny. He had let her be alone, she wondered if he was going to stick around, maybe she should have taken one of those blockers earlier. Try to be just her.

“Nah, I’m hanging out. I like this guy.”

Oh good, the strommer had the seal of approval from the long dead terrorist parasite.

“Fuck off V I’m being nice.”

“You good?” She’d been staring at his face as Johnny hadn’t materialized only made sure she knew he was there by voice alone. Now this second voice brought her back, realizing she had just been staring directly at his shiny fangs. She flinched at this and pulled her eyes away. First to their beers on the table between them, then back up to her friends sitting behind them.

He pulled his hood back up and turned in the chair slightly. Not like he couldn’t see her friends from the cameras. This was for dramatic effect. If her friends were staring at them.

“Yeah, shit sorry. Zoned out for a second.” He turned back to look at her again. Moving forward slightly as if he could understand her if he just looked a little bit harder. “So, uh, real bold merc huh?”

“Real bold merc. Yeah.” He stood up, maybe he hadn’t been looking at her friends but instead the direction of the bar. It was less obscured from his spot. “Another round?”

“How about a beer… and maybe a shot of something stronger too?” She saw the girls both tense as he stood up.
Mitch was back now. He seemed to be paying attention to whatever Misty was saying, while Judy and Panam had daggers on Dum’s back.
She wondered to herself and Johnny if they’d ever accept her dating him. If that’s what she would end up doing.
“Sure, you got a special poison?” He grabbed both of the empty beers.
“Surprise me.”
“You got it.” He…winked? Did he wink? The left eye level optic flickered black as he turned around. She decided that was a wink. He made his way to the bar, navigating a longer route to not have to pass the girls table.
Before V could even signal or react both Pan and Judy were walking over. Mitch had turned his eyes to Dum at the bar and Misty had turned completely around in her seat to stare at V directly.
“He’s ugly.” Pan immediately started, not even a greeting first. And loud enough that everyone in the bar could hear, including undoubtedly, the borg himself. It was said with an accusatory inflection. V wanted to see if Dum had a reaction, but he was behind the barrier now. For a second she thought about hacking the cameras just to watch him.
“Fuck off.” V said.
“I agree.” Judy spoke up, her arms crossed in her signature stance. “Mitch hates the look of him too. I’d say no one in this bar is a fan of it either.” Great, so her girls came not for moral support but to insult her, and her taste in men.
“Really Judy? I already get shit from Pan, you don’t gotta help her.” V was still sitting, but her entire demenor was tense now. She was defending a Maelstrom borg, something she never thought she’d do before she met him.
“I know. But we think you need to hear it from everyone V.” She let one arm down, still holding on to her elbow, keeping her guard. It was a subtle stance change, but anyone who knew Judy knew it was her physical attempt at letting someone in. “What the fuck are you doing V?” She put her head down, clearly this situation was stressing her out.
“I’m having drinks, with a guy. A guy I like talking to and want to get to know.” Her voice came out with more venom than she intended. She saw the change in Judy’s face, like she was watching another friend slip away. But she was, wasn’t she. V softened her voice, and tried to change her face to something more apologetic. “I’m sorry. That came out really rude. I’m having fun. I really like talking to him, and I know you guys are worried. I don’t want you to be. I didn’t ask you to come.”
Panam had her arms crossed as well, but now leaned both hands on the table. “Just, V. Please. Please be careful. This guy is really fucking dangerous. And we..” She glanced back at Misty and Mitch both just watching the conversation. “We don’t want you to get hurt. Especially not physically, but also” Her voice got much quieter and seemingly more concerned than V had ever seen her be. “also not emotionally. I don’t know what you want from him, but just… I can’t understand how you feel about him. I don’t think I’d even want to. But you need to be really fucking careful.” V was almost touched, she’d never heard Panam without a hint of anger in her voice. This seemed to be horrifically caring of Panam. No anger at all, just worry. She felt Johnny pulling at her heart. He felt it too.
“I am, I’m good you guys. You don’t have to stay. Besides. If you haven’t noticed, the security has tripled since we sat down.
Judy put both her arms down and shook her head. “Can you sit with us after? Just…talk about it. After he leaves?” The look in both their eyes was just overwhelming worry. V didn’t even want to glance back at Mitch and Misty because she knew she would see just the same. She also knew they’d hunt her down and break down her door if she didn’t agree. “Sure. Yeah. But I am having a good time. So I don’t know how long that will be.”
Panam stood back with a vigor, and glanced around the barrier. It seemed Dum was on his way back with the drinks. “Okay, we’ll talk to you in a bit then.” Pan gestured for Judy to walk with her back to the booth.
Seemed they were filling the other two back in on the conversation, just as Dum rounded the corner to sit back down. Two beers in one hand, and two shots in the other.
“So, your friends don’t like me.” He said blatantly as he put the beer and shot in front of her.
“They just don’t know you.” V grabbed the beer and took a swig.
“Neither do you.” He looked at her and brought his beer to his lips. “But you want to?” He said it quietly, he was asking for reassurance. Still unclear what he was doing here.
“Yes.” The answer came out quicker than she thought it. She looked at his optics…eyes. She decided she was going to call those two eyes.
It was quiet for a moment, neither saying anything. They both took their drinks silently and kept looking at each other. “I like you.” She said, his face warped to show a surprise. She hadn’t decided to say it, she just said it.
He didn’t reply, just looked down for a moment. His eyes still on her, but lowered, he took another drink then brought his head back up.
“I like you too V. Haven’t made a friend not in the gang in a long time.”
There was something different about him, a lot different actually. From their first meeting. Maybe it was the completely different situations than she had met him previously, but she couldn’t help herself when she opened her mouth. “Are you different?”
“What?” He paused his drink to look at her, beer still half to his mouth.
“Sorry, that didn’t… you seem different. Than when I first met you. And I know that was you at work, and with the rest of your crew, and this is a completely different situation. But you… you seem different.”
He chuckled, he had honestly expected this question sooner. “I… uh… yeah. It’s been a long time since I talked to someone not in the gang. I’m used to barking orders or taking them, and that’s all of my communication. So I… I downloaded a booster.” He suddenly became aware of how weird that was.
“Like… a personality booster?” She didn’t sound weirded out, but how did that even sound, she had to have been.
“Uh. Yeah. It’s been fucking years. Have to have been over a decade probably. I talk to mercs, sometimes, but that’s business. This is… I didn’t want to… I don’t know.” He dropped his head again, and took another swig. “I didn’t want to fuck up talking to you.”
She was quiet for a minute, it was definitely weird. But, then she thought about the reality of the situation. Could she have sat through an entire hang out with him talking like how he did at All Foods.
He was funny then, sure. But he also barked orders at her and Jack. Would she really have wanted to get a beer with that. Well, she did. She had. She had wanted to text, and meet. And now here they were.
When she thought about seeing him again, she just kept remembering that metal voice. But then focused on their last conversations, and the jokes, the compliment. The biting remarks back at the other strommers. Not really the “Plant it!” and “Whatdya want?” from the beginning.
She remembered them, but that didn’t sound like who she had been texting with. Had he gotten a booster for their hangout, or had he had it the whole time since that first text.
Wondering wasn’t going to do her any good for this query, so she took a swig and asked.

“How long?”

“How long have I had it installed?” He had been looking at her, studying her face, trying to see if there was judgement. He decided there was not.

Chapter Text

“How long have I had it installed?” He had been looking at her, studying her face, trying to read what her furrowed brown and mouth twitches meant. Was she going to tell him that felt fake, and that she was ready to be done. Would she do that? Would she understand that he… he needed it?

“Yeah, did you have it the whole time we’ve been texting? Or did you just get it for this?”

“Uh…” He was so grateful for the beer as he took another swig for a pause, then faced down again. Not that it made much of a change when the top five optics were still facing her, even more directly now. Did she take her cues from his main optics, or did they all count as one to her.

He’d just explained them, but fleshies usually didn’t understand the optics situation, even if they had the same shit going on themselves.

For the first time in almost two decades he felt self conscious about his face. Truly. Sure, most people didn’t even look at them, and when they did it was with fear. He didn’t want her to look at him with fear, and wished his look could give something away of his emotions. “I got it a couple days after we started texting.” If he could have hidden, he would have.

“It’s still you though right? You would have said these things, it’s just like training wheels for how? That’s what the ads I’ve seen make it out like. It’s not like… telling you what to say.”

He looked back up at her, noticing how even with the red lighting of the bar, her face lit up with his optics now facing her. Her own eyes, black with white target circles, got red reflections of light. “Yeah, it’s me. It’s always been all me.”

She let the silence thicken for a bit. Staring at him, her far more human eyes looking over his seven. He followed, without having to move, as her face turned slightly right and left and up and down. The looking at his lack of nose he figured. And his metal on his cheeks and jaw. She stopped moving but kept staring, glacing downward, probably at his lips. If he had been hopeful, he would have thought it was more than just considering the disctinct lack of human features.
He used this observing to look at her features as well of course. He could have made a joke about how she almost had just as much metal in her face as he did. It would have been corny.

Her piercings were all a different color, the kind that reflected rainbow depending on the lighting. They were black the last two times he saw her, no reflection on them. She had beautiful features, and tattoos on her neck, her black hair with the one braid.

He knew he found her attractive before, of course he did, everyone in Night City would. She was beautiful, and she had her eyes focused on him.

He didn’t want to think about how long it had been since someone without a faceplate had actually, really, looked at him. But now, with the lighting of the bar, the red glow of her being so close to him, and never breaking eye contact. She was gorgeous, and he finally let himself take that in. She was here, sitting in front of him. Not afraid.

That sunk in, that he was here, with her. With a pretty woman, in a bar, having a drink and talking. On a date. Like he was normal. Like he had never traded his flesh for chrome. Like this was a totally normal thing for them to do. And not the weirdest thing anyone in this bar had ever seen. It was that thought that made him break the contact.

He turned his head around and glanced around, it wasn’t crowded but there were lots of eyes, including that of her friends, all trained on him. The security had shuffled strategically around them. They could take him down at any moment, none of them were staring, but they all had their weapons out. He was reminded, as if he could ever forget, that this was, for everyone else, not normal. Not normal at all.

That he was not normal. He almost never left Northside, while people were as used to Maelstrom there as they could be. They were not used to it here at all. They were never welcome unless they were in their own company.

At best, no one ever looked at them, instead keeping their eyes down, avoiding them, crossing the street when they were around. Sometimes, people were openly hostile, but almost everyone was always just scared.

There was a lot of power in that, in everyone constantly fearing you. And with the rest of his crew, it was something to be proud of. But here, now, alone. Everyone in the bar was ready to zero him at any moment. They were just waiting on him to pull the wrong move, turn too fast, reach for something hidden.

He was not normal, this was not normal. Being here, with her, was not normal. So then. Did that make her, V, V the merc, not normal. To choose this. If she was willing to be here, with him. The easiest target this bar had ever seen. To vouch for him even.

“How about the question game?” She said, breaking him out of his thoughts. She moved to reach for her shot. Not raising it, just hand settling on the tiny glass.

He laughed, “The question game? What are we? Kids?” He set his beer back down, and reached for his shot as well.

“Hey, kids were right. Best way to get to know someone.” She raised her shot, and motioned for him to cheers. Like none of this bothered her at all.

“I feel like there is a better way to get to know someone. But sure, ask me anything.” He raised his as well, cheering hers silently, they both tapped them down on the table and then took the shot.

Whiskey, V winced as it went down. Both placing their shot glass upside down on the table. V made a mental note that even Maelstrom borgs knew proper shot ettiquete. She took her beer as a chaser, while Dum did not. Maybe replacing your entire throat with chrome took away the burn. It did, of course.

“Your turn.”

“Why’d you start merc work?”

“I used to work Arasaka counterintel, got ousted, lost everything. My best friend Jackie, he was doing merc work, gave me a place to live, a new start. Already had the skills so I started working with him.”

“Where is he now. Figured he’d be here with the rest of your friends.” She had told him not to ask about it, but it felt appropriate right now.

“He…” Her voice got stuck in her totally normal meat throat. “The heist. With the bot.”

“I’m sorry.” If his face could show concern, and it tried to, the corners of his mouth turned down. He wondered when the last time he had actually said those words was.

“Me too.” Neither spoke for a moment. “We didn’t kill Saburo Arasaka in case you were wondering.”

He smirked at that. “Not gonna lie, I was wondering.” Paused before he spoke again. “Would have been cool as fuck if you did though.”

She laughed, loudly, “Yeah, it would have.” They both took some drinks before they spoke again.

“How’d you get into Maelstrom?” She didn’t know if that would be an okay thing to ask, or if it was taboo. Hell, she didn’t know if anyone had ever been gonk enough to ask that of any strommer.

“We’re not supposed to talk about our flesh lives, or how we got into this one. Supposed to forget after the intitiation.” The intitation wasn’t something the regular population was supposed to know about. But this was the merc, there was no way she didn’t watch the scroll, she would know.

“Right. Sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.” She had both her hands on the table, one on the beer, the other laying flat. The movement felt odd. But she turned to pull that one back a little bit, as if to say sorry again.

He reached for it slightly, just one metal finger tip gently over her own. Just a second, to let her know it was okay, before they pulled back. The first physical touch since he handed her the S-Keef all those months ago.

“It’s okay. I remember my past. They didn’t take that from me.” He was looking down at their hands now, but looked back up to finish his thought. “Kept a memory implant. I got it in the same way and reason most of us do. From the area, grew up around it. My mom died, she was the only person who would have stopped me, so I just joined up. I had no chrome, but after a couple jobs they just keep giving you more. A year in, I went through initiation. And rose up the ranks I guess.”

He went quiet for a moment, but V didn’t interject. “There didn’t seem to be any other options for me. My schooling was shit. My home and life before were shit. My mom was shit, but she died when I was young. I found a home, with them. And been there ever since.”

He took another drink, then set it back down. Looking at her to indicate he was done. He purposely fought back the thought process that told him he shouldn’t have said anything, and that he had never told anyone that before. It wasn’t the whole story, just part of it. But still. Hadn’t been said before.

As he fought back those thoughts, he thought more about the pit in his stomach from that touch. He hadn’t touched a person in as long as he hadn’t talked to one really. Not one non-maelstrom at least, and therefore flesh. Not since that tiny brush of fingers their first meeting, and definitely not for years before that. Even though her hands were definitely metal, it was synth skin, and therefore still counted.

“How old were you? When you started?”

“Nineteen when I went through initiation.” V must have let her face show her surprise without realizing it. He made note of it.

“Fuck, you were just a kid.”

“How old were you when you joined ‘saka?”

“My parents were corpos. I started their school when I was fourteen.”

“Also just a kid then.” She nodded.

“Yeah.” They both took another drink, mostly done with their second beers. V was starting to feel that shot. She’d been a lightweight since Arasaka iced her harmone regulators. Starting her journey with alcohol all over again, even if it had been a little over a year. The rewriting of her code probably didn’t help much either.

“How old are you now?” She asked, she couldn’t tell with the chrome. It wasn’t unusual to hide ones age with a new face, a chrome something, rejuvation tech and all that. Nothing on his not-human face would have given him away, except maybe his smile lines. He had almost forgotten what his face used to look like.

“I’m thirty-three. I think. I may have the implant, but I did forget a lot. I don’t remember when I was born, but I think I’m thirty-three.” He said it straight, but it felt whispful. Like he wished he remembered more.

“Wow. That’s weird.” She didn’t mean it like a jab, but it sortof came out like one.

He laughed. “Am I took old to talk to you? You’re like….what? Twenty-something?”

She laughed back, “No. I meant that you can’t remember when you were born. I don’t look that young do I? I’m twenty-seven. Twenty-eight in a few months.”

“Ah. Good age. I think. I don’t know. I’ve been doing the same shit so long that ages just blend together.”

“Yeah. I’m starting to feel that way. Or… I have since I left Arasaka.”

The silence lingered for a moment, it wasn’t awkward, it was calm. They both took some drinks. Until V’s phone pinged, silently, only to her.

“Can we meet him?” From Misty.

“Uh… My friends want to meet you.” She looked back up at him. He took a swig, finishing his beer, then turned to look at them. All four staring their direction.

“Are you sure?” He said, still watching them.

“They promised to not pull anything. And they’ll hopefully play nice.” He looked back at her, and smiled. Like they could. But then again, if they were half as good as V is, he’d be zeroed in minutes if all four turned on him.

Not to mention the security. He didn’t quite feel fear, blockers and all, but definitely nervous. He’d been nervous a lot recently. With her.

The whole day had been somewhat nerve-wrecking. Everything since her first text asking to meet. All that time they weren’t speaking. It was a new feeling for him. If his palms were flesh and could sweat they would be in this moment.

“Sure, I’ll meet them. We need new drinks anyway. If you still want to keep talking. Or if you want to hang out with them now. I’m sure Royce is wondering where the hell I’ve been.” He wasn’t, Dum had told him he was coming here, to meet her. He’d given her an out though. His chooms knew where he was. But still, he hadn’t told them where he was going, just that he was seeing her. It was probably his first time doing his own thing in…fuck… how long had it been since he hadn’t been at the beck and call of his gang. Years, easily.

“NO. No. I want to keep talking.” She answered quickly, perhaps too quickly. “Maybe another shot or two. I’m having a great time. Let’s go meet them, and then we can head to the bar.” She looked at him to reassure him, but still let her anxiety finish the thought. “Unless you need to leave.”

“No! I’m…” He checked the holo real quick. Several messages, including one in all caps “WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU” He closed it again. He had in fact told Royce, and told Lars to remind Royce if he forgot. But it had been hours, and at this rate Royce had to have been a solid bottle and a half in, he may have a synth liver that felt no damage, but his memory for sure fucking was impacted with every god damn drink. “I’m good. I’m having a good time too.” He stood, both beers in his hand as she grabbed both the shot glasses. “Let’s go meet your friends.”

He fought the nerves. The walk was ten feet, but for some reason it felt like the longest walk V had taken in her entire life. The first being from throwing up to Jenkins office all those months ago. She knew her life was fucked then and there, but now. Now she was anxious for entirely different reasons. Her life didn’t feel fucked, even if she was dying.

“Hey guys. This is Dum Dum.” Gesturing to him, as if they didn’t have eyes. She turned again to point them out one by one. “Dum, this is Judy, Panam, Mitch and Misty.” Judy and Pan just silently stared at him. Misty was the only one to say hello, but then Mitch surprised all of them when he stood and extended his hand for a handshake.

A handshake. Dum hadn’t given a handshake since he had real hands. But he instinctively reached out and took it. Mitch was definitely sizing him up based on the grip, he’d extended his human hand, and Dum’s metal could have pinched him. He shook it though. With as gentle of a grip without feeling…too weak. What a foreign concept. But Mitch seemed to have accepted the pressure as correct as he shook it twice before dropping it.

“Nice to meet you Dum Dum.” His second human touch of the day. It was a weirder feeling than before.

Misty took the silence as her cue to say “It’s wonderful to meet a friend of V’s. Any friend of V’s is a friend of mine.” V noted the jump after Misty finished, undoubtedly one of the girls kicked her leg. Probbaly Panam.

“So Dum.” She said with disdain dripping from her voice. “What the fuck are you doing with V?” Dum expected this, and he didn’t expect it, he turned to V. Who was glaring at Panam.

“Uh… Getting to know her, I hope. First time getting a drink together, and chatting in person.” He was standing at the head of the table, but somehow hadn’t felt this small ever, compared to the five people around him. He didn’t know if he should say more, if he had more to say.

He knew he had no bad intentions, he liked her, and wanted to get to know her. And if she was to be believed, she liked him too. He wanted more, but he was being realistic. She may like him, but interest and intrigue wasn’t necessarily direct correlation to romantic or sexual interest. She probably wouldn’t want him, and yet here she was.

Silently fighting a battle with the two women in front of him, defending his honor or some shit. It was weird. Weirdest thing he’d ever been a part of. But as he glanced over at V, then back at Panam and Judy, it seemed like she was winning. Both their faces started letting up the glares.

It felt like the silent battle went on for hours, when in reality, it was less than a minute of silence before Judy relented. “Y’all wanna pull up some chairs or something?”

V turned to Dum, and Dum just looked at her. He was taller, but not by much. Plus he slouched, he’d been slouching this whole time he realized. Chrome spine be damned for posture. He was now aware of it though, but he still didn’t stand up straight and accidentally give an indirect answer. So he kept his eyes on V.

Unhelpful to V as she was trying to read his body language to decide. She didn’t want to subject him to their barrage of questions if he didn’t want that. “We’re gonna get a drink at the bar first.”

She turned to walk to the bar, Dum glanced at the table. Misty had what seemed to be like a genuine smile. Mitch and Judy with unreadable faces. Panam was still making the same face as when they walked in. He followed V to the bar.

As soon as he put his hand on it to lean against, V turned to him. “It’s up to you. You don’t have to. They will be rude the entire time. Well, not Misty, and I think you just passed whatever Mitch counts as a test. But it’s entirely up to you.” She rushed through the sentence, just nervous and having no clue what to say. The bartender was standing in front of them, just waiting to be acknowledged.

He chuckled, and leaned back against the bar. Moving one hand through what would have been hair to scratch the back of his head. A nervous tick. “I was going to say it’s up to you. I’ll do whatever you want.” He said it, and immediately reaslized that could come off differently than intended.

Then, in his own thoughts, he questioned how he had intended it to begin with. It could just mean about the bar thing, or it could have meant more. He wanted it to mean more, and he fucking meant it. He slouched yet again turning to the bartender.

She looked at him, back at her friends, then to just the bar. “I don’t know.” She didn’t realize she had started to pick at her nail polish. It didn’t really matter and never chipped anything off since, like the hands and arms they were on, the polish was just tinted metal. But it was an old habit from before she replaced her limbs. “I…. really. Really, it’s up to you. I don’t know if you want this.”

She meant sitting down with her friends, but also the everything else. Being part of her life meant her friends, but it didn’t have to. She could keep them entirely separate for as long as she lived if that’s what he wanted. She just wanted to keep talking to him. The whole of Night City and this one face plate made her happy. Maybe she was as dumb as her friends said. Maybe this was all stupid and foolish. Maybe she shouldn’t have texted him. Maybe there was no point to doing any of this if she was dying anyway.

“No. Even if we die. We want this. We’re doing this. We’re gonna make your time left good. Go sit with your friends.”

Honestly, for a moment there, she had forgotten she was two. It felt like it had just been her and Dum for an hour now. And Johnny was encouraging.

“Of course I am, I like the guy. Totally get it V.”

Well, thanks Johnny. She thought back.

“Five brosephs, six shots of whiskey, and uh…” He gestured to the table, “One of whatever that blonde was drinking.” V looked back up. He really just ordered a round for her friends. He chose to sit with them. Knowing they’ll give him shit. Well, maybe less since he bought them all booze.

Smart choice. V didn’t even realize her smile was wider than the badlands in that moment, till he looked at her and smiled back. Her heart had been pounding half the night, but in that moment she heard it in her ear drums.

Jesus, his fucking smile. Maybe it was that it was the only thing on his face that registered as human, but his smile was one of the most attractive things she’d seen in her life at that moment.

She once again, found herself wondering what he had looked like before. But also, it didn’t really matter, and would never really be relevant, would it? If he he had been attractive before didn’t matter. He was attractive now. Scary? Maybe. But god, fucking attractive.

The bartender put all the beers on the counter and said something about bringing the rest over to the table. Dum grabbed three, V grabbed the other two, and they made their way over.

Dum set the three beers down, in the center of the table so the others could grab their own rather than set them directly in front of them. It seemed easier that way. Like they could choose this. He then grabbed two stools from another table and pulled those in. He chose to sit on the right, next to Misty. V placed herself to make that the only option.

“Smart, bringing us brewskis as a bribe.” Judy said, her voice teetering between disgusted and impressed. “Think winning us over is gonna be that easy though?”

“Judy! Can you at least try to be nice?” V looked at her friend. Not entirely sure what either of their faces were trying to convey in this moment.

“I am being nice. That was nice, wasn’t it, Pan?” Judy said, with a sly smirk as she turned her whole body towards Panam, as if to say “We are teamed up against him right now.”

V wondered if River would have gotten the same treatment. He wouldn’t have, she decided.

“Nicest thing I’ve ever heard actually.” Panam replied, followed by one long sip of beer.

“God dammit guys, fucking stop it.” V said, her voice coming out more frustrated than she meant.

Misty had been silent this whole time, and now turned to Dum, setting her hand on his arm gently. “They’re just… worried for V. We all are. Don’t take it personally.” His third human touch, today had been…

“Don’t take it personally? Of course he should take it personally. It’s personal! It couldn’t possibly less personal. V! This is insane. We’re supposed to sit at this table like this is normal? Like he’s normal? And we’re just normally meeting him?” Panam was spewing venom with each word, and stood at that last sentence.

V immediately stood to match her. “That’s exactly what you’re fucking supposed to do. Sit your fucking ass down and act normal. Because I’m asking you to. Because I’m telling you to. And if you don’t want to fucking do that, you can fucking leave. I didn’t fucking as you to come.”

Dum should have bene insulted, and part of him was, but he was used to that. What he did make note of though, was how V commanded, just like he did. Maybe they had a lot more in common than he thought previously.

Judy wasn’t as tall as either woman, but stood anyway, to put some distance other than the table in between the two. “Shit V! Panam! Both of you sit the fuck down. This is not helping.”

“Helping what? I was perfectly fucking fine without either of you, I didn’t fucking need help.”

Misty rubbed her eyes with her free hand, the other still on Dum’s arm, as if to hold him in place while the girls shouted at each other. If the whole bar hadn’t been staring before, they were now. She gently applied pressure, it was hard to tell with metal, no synth skin covering the area, receptors sparse. She was trying to reassure him, let him know to not get involved, and that this was relatively normal for the girls.

It was a quiet plea, to let the girls get this out of their system. This conversation was going to happen one way or another. It wouldn’t have helped if he had gotten involved. It probably would have become dangerous if he had tried. The security seemed to move closer to them now, all ready. All ready to fire if the Maelstrom borg even moved slightly.

Mitch meanwhile, sat back and drank his beer like this was a show he paid money to see. He did glance at Dum with what looked like an apologetic glance, but his tiny smile showed how amused he was.

“Fuck V! Don’t get mad at Panam for worrying about you. Panam, don’t get mad at V for this either. Yes, it’s stupid. But he seems like he’s not a fucking cyberpsycho. And if she actually cares for him, then we all need to learn how to deal with that.” With Judy’s words, everyone turned to look at Dum now.

Misty still with hand on his arm, holding him there. Making sure this didn’t turn into something it didn’t need to be. He was a wild dog, and she was the leash in this moment. Not that he would have jumped to do anything, but it was a nice safety blanket.

It was also a trap. He wanted to leave, he wanted to not be here, not be present for this moment. But he was stuck. He couldn’t leave.

Panam finally looked at him, actually looked at him. Without anger or frustration, and suddenly, he was just a fucking guy. More chrome than most people, but certainly no stranger than some ilk of her clan. He wasn’t a verging cyberpsycho, just…some dude. Who looked like he wanted to hide in his turtle shell in this moment.

One hand held down by Misty, and the other clenching his beer like his life depended on it. He felt that it did.

Judy looked to V first, then to Dum. She didn’t have as much hatred I seemed. But significantly more worry. She kept looking between the two. Finally Dum looked back up at V, half to avoid all the other looks, and half to try and figure out what she was thinking.

V’s entire face changed as she made eye contact with him. She had been angry just seconds ago, but now, looking at Dum, she looked worried.

Worried that this outburst would scare him away. That he’d remember why Maelstrom weren’t friends with outsiders. That he’d want to stop talking to her, and she’d have to just miss him.

Wishing she hadn’t had asked him in the first place, hadn’t fucked it up herself. That worry furrowed her brows, and made her frown. Her eyes, black as they were, gave her away. They were glossy, in the almost teary sense.

She suddenly worried far more than before that maybe she’d lose him. She only now realized that that would hurt, how much it would hurt. How much she must have hurt him when she disappeared. If he felt half the way she felt right now, that must have been fucking hell.

Judy, still standing with the others, took note of the change in V’s face. She was the closest to eye level with V, and saw how much the tears wanted to spill out. How her face changed the moment she landed on his red.

Holy fuck, she really liked this guy. Like, actually, really really liked him. She’d never seen… fuck she’d never seen V let her guard down that fast. Let her face show that much worry. V told her she was fucking dying and she showed less emotion than she did now.

And she was dying, trying not to, but actively, for real, dying. She wanted to spend her last bits of life with….with this guy right here. This borg, this Maelstrom borg.

Judy looked back at Dum. As he…gazed up at V. His face gave almost nothing away, but his most human feature. His mouth, slightly open, just looking up at her.

While Judy couldn’t read or rather decipher his features, she could see that he let go of his death grip on that beer, and now had his hand, or just the metal pinky finger brushing V’s hand.

Shit… They looked like they hadn’t figured it out yet…. But whatever it was. It was far stronger than either of them knew.

Judy turned to Panam, and grabbed her arm forefully as possibly and dragged her down to sit. V only looking at them briefly before sitting back down too. Hand moving closer to his, so that two of her fingers were now touching his metal.

“Fuck! Ow!” Pan started, but Judy kicked her as hard as possible in the shin. “I think Panam and I are gonna have a smoke real quick. Sorry about all that Dum Dum.”

Panam willingly got up this time, and walked out with Judy, but Judy still had a hold on her. They made it out the door before Misty took her arm off of Dum’s arm.

What the fuck had just happened he thought. What the fuck was that, and turned to say something to V maybe. If he could figure out what to say. Mitch interjected before he could.

“So Dum Dum. What is it that you do for work exactly?”

Chapter Text

“You don’t even smoke,” Was all Panam said as they got up and away from the table. Judy had some sort of death grip on her elbow, guiding her out. She didn’t respond until they were outside the bar and halfway down the alley. They could hear music blaring from the restaurant next door.

“We’ve got to back off.” Judy finally dropped her elbow and looked Panam in the eye. She was a little bit shorter, but not by much. Panama bun in her hair made her feel a lot taller, though.

“What the fuck. Why? He’s a fucking psycho cultist.” Panam also rarely smoked, but Judy was pulling out a pack and handing her one. Seems all three of the girls picked up a new vice recently. She wanted to continue, but something in Judy’s face made her pause. “Why…” She stopped to light the cigarette and think. She took a puff and spoke. “We can’t just let our friend date him, dude.”

Judy let out a deep sigh and loosened her shoulders. The two were now leaning against the wall, looking not at each other but at their surroundings.

“She really likes him. Like, a lot Pan. There’s nothing we can do.” Judy smoked them, but she hated the taste of cigarettes; however, the nicotine was helping right now.

Panam knew that was true; she saw it too. But still, her fierce protective part of her wanted to walk in and gun down the psycho before he gave her a real reason to. The only reason she wouldn’t is that then V would never forgive her, ever.

“We can try to reason with her. Maybe let her get it out of her system, then she’ll come to her senses and–”

“And what? What? She comes to her senses and realizes that she can’t actually date a maelstrom borg, and then she breaks up with him? So? She’s still dying? We should let her live her life, Panam. We cannot stop her.” They let the moment linger for a while.

It was revolting, actually. That the person they cared about would really pick an option this bad. He was a fucking borg. A cultist. He had no eyes. He was a verging cyberpsycho, and it was a matter of time until he did something, right?

Not that V couldn’t take care of herself, but she was probably getting weaker as time went on. Did he know? Did he know that she was dying? Did she tell him that? Or was that too much for a first date? God, how did their friend end up on a date with this fucking guy?

“What the actual fuck is she doing, Judy?” They looked at each other this time, just direct, shared eye contact, and shared sadness. It wasn’t just about V dating this guy. It was about V. It was about both of them, only just getting her in their lives, and already they were losing her.

That happened all the time in Night City. But usually losing someone was fast, quick, like ripping off a bandaid and living with a gaping wound for months or years. But…this was… this was slow, and gradual. They were watching it happen before their eyes. Every single day, she was changing, she was becoming something else, and soon she would be gone.

Maybe that’s what this was. Maybe she was just changing before their eyes, and this change was why she wanted to do something crazy.

She lost Jackie in an instant; she watched him die. Judy had to lose Evelyn, and she clearly hadn’t processed that the way she should have. Mitch had just lost Scorpion a few months ago, and Panam hadn’t done anything to process except drink about it. She hadn’t even cried about it, and she’d known the man her whole life.

Losing someone was hard; it was easier to bury it and move on. But V wasn’t letting them do that. She wasn’t allowing them to just accept what it was and move on.

No. She was in front of them, changing, but god damn was she trying to live. She was living with her stupid choices, her broken ribs, her stories of what she’s been doing in NC. Hell, she had hands in politics, and gang changes, and territorial disputes, and government control, and cyberpsycho rehab centers… she was living. She was living in front of them. And that made it feel so much worse.

They wanted to cheer for their friend, encourage her to date, make good choices, and have fun while changing the world. But every single change, all of it, every smile, every laugh, it was just a reminder that she was going to be missing one day.

They were mourning her while with her. It was devastating. And now, now she was making probably the dumbest decisions she possibly could.

“He’s so fucking ugly.” It wasn’t a joke, but they both took the break to laugh it out. He was not good-looking. Whatever it was that V saw, they clearly didn’t.

“What the fuck are those wires on his head? Are those like his hair?” The cigarettes at the tail end, the smoke disappearing through their laughter.

It was a silent acknowledgment between the two. Fine, V was going to date an ugly-looking maelstrom chromer, and they were going to accept that. But my god, would they be just as critical as they would if it were anyone she chose to date.

The smokes were done; they were just laughing over Dum Dum’s look. Every time they looked at each other, they went into another fit of giggles.

“It’s a shame, honestly. I liked River.” Judy turned her entire body to look at Panam now.

“What??? Fuck no. He was way too pushy.”

“He wasn’t pushy. He just knows what he wants.”

“Yeah, a wedding, and kids. Who the fuck gets married and has kids these days?” Panam didn’t respond. Just shrugged and leaned her head back.

It was wild, and it clearly wasn’t what V wanted. It wasn’t what either of them wanted. At least not the kids thing. And V… V didn’t have a promised future. She didn’t even have a possible future. No future, the stupid phrase written all over town.

Judy hadn’t even noticed it was everywhere until V pointed it out. Maybe she just saw it everywhere she went. Like those tarot cards she said were everywhere in the city, but Judy had only seen one.

“What is she doing, though. Like, for real. She just… she wants to be with this guy. I just… fine. Okay. But I won’t like it.”

“Me neither.” They nodded to each other and turned to head inside.

The table was laughing when they made it through the door.

Chapter Text

Before he could reply, Misty spoke up.

“He’s a higher up in his organization. Aren’t you Dum?” The shortening of his name was nice. Maybe she would have introduced him under his flesh name if he had thought to tell it to her.

They were all looking at him expectantly. He focused on Mitch. Trying to read his face. It was all flesh… maybe he was just out of practice looking at fleshies. He looked, as the others did, expectantly. It occurred to him he needed to reply.

V’s hand was next to his, her fingers touching his chrome. He felt the pressure from the plates in his hand. He never thought much about the amount of touch he could feel, or maybe just knowing she was there was enough for him to feel it. He did have sensors, but almost no one had touched him in years, and now, all these touches in one day. It felt… well, he thought it would feel suffocating. It didn’t, though. It felt familiar, nice.

“I…” His metal voice surprised him. That was happening a lot recently. “I’m kinda like the HR.” God, that was stupid. “I handle internal conflicts, and I help with the plans n’ shit.” Was that enough of an answer? Was that enough to justify his place, or was that too much that gave away how fucking criminal his “organization” was?

V turned to Mitch and spoke next. “He does deals and stuff with mercs.” That was true, but not entirely true. He did, it was more often now. That was how they met.

Mitch’s face changed, and he still could not tell if it was judgment or what. But he seemed to accept the answer. “Interesting. And you do business all over the city or just the Northside?” Mitch didn’t seem like a local. Not like a NC denizen. He was probably a nomad like Panam was; he carried himself like a veteran.

Mitch made Dum feel self-conscious and nervous; he was so confident and seemed so sure of himself. They couldn’t have been too far apart in age, but still, Dum felt like he was so much younger. This man had clearly been through a lot. And what had Dum been through? Next to nothing but getting his eyes ripped out and dedicating his life to his stupid gang.

“Uh, just Northside. We keep to ourselves mostly.” They did, and here he was anyway. Basically, against every possible better judgment. If he had any judgment at all.

“And you deal with the shipping of narcotics or weapons?” Was Mitch asking for reasons to hate him, was he asking him to admit the crimes of his situation, or just making small talk? He decided it would be best to respond as charmingly as he could. He got the booster for a reason; let’s see if it could boost to anyone other than the already charmed V.

“I deal with almost everything. I spend most of my time playing middleman to the idiots who work for me.” Ah, yes, insult his friends to elevate himself if that was even possible. “Sim– Royce is in charge. I just work for him. I don’t got my chrome in any of that shady shit though. I’m more of a shoot the other gangs guy than anything else.”

That was true. He did take the intel and make it happen. Gang territorial disputes, problems with the guys in, and some drug transfers. What could he possibly say that wouldn’t make him look like the incredible criminal he was. If any of them had scanners, they could see his rap sheet.

All the drug charges, all the murders, they tangentially pinned to his crew. The bounty on his head. He would be fucked if he ever got picked up. And from what he heard, that Arasaka prison that was supposedly hidden under the city… he’d never see the light of day again if he got caught.

One of the reasons they stuck together, safer in a pack. Even if you were more of a lone wolf, to be so publicly in NC was basically a death wish.

“Ah. You must be quite busy if you are so high up?” Mitch’s eyes were steady on his as he sipped his beer. “I like a man with a good work ethic.” Either Mitch fucking hated him and was planning to kill him in an instant, or he was just a genuinely chill dude. Both options felt terrifying.

“What… uh…” When was the last time he asked someone a question about themselves, other than V? He hadn’t bothered in a decade because he never gave a fuck about the answer anyway. This was to be polite; he had to be polite.

He felt like he was on his best behavior, and it wasn’t good enough. It wouldn’t make up for who he actually was. Even if he had just fallen into this life as an idiot kid… it was still his life. These were still his crimes, of which he would always be guilty. “What do you do for work?” he paused for a moment, but then quickly added, “Mitch.” Make it more personal.

“I’m an Aldecaldo, a mechanic. I mostly fix all the broken shit at camp.” Misty and V were just looking from one man to the other. Neither saying anything. This was clearly a conversation for the guys.

“You good at fixing shit?” Dum finally took a sip of his beer. If he blinked at all, this would be a strange conversation. Instead, he chose to scan Mitch. Regular rap sheet, no actual crimes, just affiliations. He was a veteran; he had gotten that right.

Mitch chuckled before he responded, “I hope so. Half the shit in that camp is running cos of me. I hope I’m not bad at it.”

Dum didn’t know how to respond; neither of the girls were talking, just waiting. V’s hand pressed harder on his pinky finger. He wondered if he could just grab it, or if that would be too much.

Hell, could he even grab a human hand? Would it matter that she had synth skin and her limbs were replaced, or would that synth skin still pinch if he pulled his hand wrong? How could he even touch her? He wasn’t… his hands weren’t made for human interaction. They were made for violence.

“You ever see a Panzer?” Mitch set his beer down and was reaching into his pocket to pull out his phone. Pulling up a picture, he turned it to show Dum.

He hadn’t seen a Panzer. They were kinda old, weren’t they? Plus, those would never be in NC, and he had only been out in the badlands a few times in his life. He’d never seen one in person, and barely in films or whatever. Older war machines.

“Holy shit, that’s fucking awesome. You working on that now?” His voice raised in a strange tone, excitement. It was exciting to see this machine that this man wanted to show him. He must have needed something to offer Dum to bond over. It was working.

“Yeah, I’m working on fixing the hover thrusts right now.”

“Hey Mist, Imma go to the restroom, wan–” Misty was already standing before V. Both their drinks left on the table. The guys were chatting excitedly. This was the perfect opportunity to girl talk in the restroom.

The guys both nodded to them as they left. Dum smiled as he pulled Mitch’s phone closer to look at whatever wires he was showing him pictures of now.

The restroom was small, neon lights everywhere. As they were all over NC.

“Mitch likes him.” V smiled to herself. She didn’t actually have to pee; she just wanted to let them talk their boring shop shit. Sure, V could fix some broken shit in cars. Jumped hers a thousand times. The bike was easier. But the Panzer? It was like asking her to explain how the bricks of the Great Wall of China were made. How the fuck was she supposed to know anything about it?

Still, she smiled as she touched up her makeup in the mirror. Misty was still speaking from inside the stall. “Seriously. Mitch likes him. V, I like him. He seems great. He’s smart, he’s pretty good looking for a borg.” The toilet flushed, and V was fidgeting with her top. Pulling her tits out a little higher, the second she dropped her arms down, they went back to their original placement.

“I think he does.” She breathed a sigh of relief as Misty started washing her hands, then also messed with her hair. “I’m glad you like him.” V turned to look at Misty. “I’m really glad you like him.

Unlike what she had been doing with Dum, she purposely put her hand on Misty’s now. V wasn’t really a physically affectionate person. She rarely hugged or touched her friends. But this felt like a safe way to thank her friend. So she squeezed her hand. “Seriously. I’m so glad you don’t hate him. I hope the girls don’t hate him too much.”

Misty squeezed her hand back, “They don’t hate him, they just don’t know him. And let’s be real, V.” She pulled her hand back to reapply her lipstick. “They are seriously judgmental bitches.”

“MISTY!”

“Oh, hush, you know it. I know it. The whole world hears Panam.” They laughed at that. They should probably head back out now. “How’s Johnny doing?”

Like clockwork, he appeared right behind Misty with two thumbs up. “Just fucking Peachy.”

“He’s doing fine.”

“Good, I worry about him.” She closed her purse and was ready to leave. It made sense, of course, Misty would be considerate of Johnny.

“I like how Panam reacted. That shit was fucking hilarious.” She paused before opening the door. “Or, it was after I decided she probably wouldn’t kill him.” The two girls walked out into the bar, the music was turned up more now.

Chapter Text

“That’s how I ended up getting this fucking arm. It was such a hassle.” Mitch was laughing and excitedly motioning with his blacked-out chrome arm.

“That’s so fucking funny, man. I can’t believe you guys raided an entire convoy just to get one arm.”

“Well, I knew which one I wanted, and it was the only convoy coming around any time soon. I guess we could have waited, or I could have grabbed one of the extras we already had. But of course, Scorpion and Teddy were egging me on. You know how it is when the guys want to do some crazy shit.”

“But holding on to the tanker and unlocking it while both driving. That’s fucking crazy.” Dum was laughing, the guys were having fun.

“Scorpion used to do the craziest shit, man. I fucking miss that asshole.” Mitch was wiping some tears of laughter from his eyes. V hadn’t heard him talk about Scorpion much. Nor had she gotten the apparent crazy arm collection story.

The girls sat back down at the table. Both the guys had finished their beers, all their whiskey shots growing warmer by the second on the table. Misty declared they’d take their shots as soon as the other two were back inside.

“You want another beer, man? My treat this round.” Mitch was getting up and grabbing Dum’s empty bottle from the table.

Dum looked at V. Whatever she said would go, and if she didn’t want him drinking all those beers, then he just wouldn’t.

V looked at Dum as she spoke for him. “Sure, grab a round for us too if you can.” Misty was the slowest drinker and took that as her cue to try to down the drink she had. Some fruity something rather. She instead spilled a tiny bit and gave up on chugging it. Too sweet to chug anyway.

“We hanging out much longer?” Dum was feeling bolder, perhaps it was the alcohol. Or maybe it was the conversation with Mitch. He decided he liked the guy and thought the guy liked him back. Dum had made more than one friend that night.

This wasn’t exactly the plan he had in his head for a date, but this was fun. Just chilling with people, in a public bar, chatting and drinking. He wondered if he had ever done anything like this before. Certainly not before he joined Maelstrom. He figured he never had. Pretending to be normal. In a place with people who acted like he was normal. He could have almost forgotten who he was with how much fun he was having.

“So, Dum, what’s Dum Dum stand for?” Misty was now sipping her drink through a straw that had magically appeared. It certainly didn’t come with the drink. V raised her eyebrow at both the question and wherever that straw was from. Misty supplied the answer by patting her bag.

“Oh, well, I was a real fucking dumbass as a kid. Like, did the stupidest shit. I got in so many fucking gang fights, and ran into danger headfirst a lot when I first joined up. I got called dumbass all the time by Brick and the other guys. Kinda just shortened over the years, and then doubled somehow.” Misty thought this was a wonderful answer as she laughed at it. V also started laughing. It was weird to imagine a younger Dum.

That thought of what he looked like before appeared once again in V’s mind. She was curious. But also, didn’t think there would be a way to ask him without sort of insulting him. She surprised herself when she spoke. “What’s your name?”

Misty placed the drink back down and leaned in with anticipation.

“My flesh– my real name is Dennis.” His old name felt weird on his tongue. It’d been so long since he told anyone that. V looked at him; her eyes had changed back to their regular color, no longer the black eyes.

“Dennis.” She said it quietly, like she was trying it on for size. It didn’t seem to fit him, but suddenly nothing else fit quite as well. “Dennis.” She said it more confidently this time, looking at him directly. His name was Dennis. Dennis and V were on a date, and her friends were there. So more like a hangout.

“Dennis. Yeah.” He was looking at her now. She was so close to him, so close to his face. He hadn’t been this close to anyone’s face in so long. Her eyes were beautiful, her braid in her hair, her shimmery eyeshadow. Her face looked like the one he met, but something was just slightly off. Not bad off, just… different.

“Do you have a faceplate?” He didn’t mean to ask that out loud, or at all. But he did. Mitch was walking back over with the drinks now. Misty filled him in on the new information they acquired.

“Full conversion faceplate. Yeah. I can change my looks to match anyone whose look was scanned.” She was motioning to her face, as if showing him the seams on her skin.

“Shit. That’s fucking dope. When did you get that installed?” Misty was just watching them talk, looking from one to the other. She smiled to herself; this was wonderful. V would have someone who makes her happy; that would be enough.

“A few weeks ago, long story short, I had to do some shady political shit and took someone's identity to get that shit done,” Dum smirked at that.

“You overthrowing political leaders ‘n shit.” He took the beer that Mitch was handing him. Then turned back to look at her.

“Something like that.” Faceplate and all, she was blushing under his gaze. God, he was so…

“Cool it, V. We’re in public.” She mentally shoved the parasite.

“V’s always doing something to overthrow our corporate overlords, aren’t you?” Mitch placed all the drinks down as he sat.

“Well, this time it wasn’t corporate overlords, but usually yeah.” She began tracing the droplets on her new beer again.

“Isn’t it always corporate?” Misty actually knew this answer and was clearly opening V up to talking about her work. Misty was the only person V trusted other than Vik to keep updated on the dumb shit she was up to. Just in case she got flatlined, someone knew where she last was.

V looked at Misty, pointedly. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to share this part of her work. Or maybe it would be impressive, and she should brag about it. It was true, she was involved in mostly corporate shit. But this one…

“It was in Dogtown.” Dum had been raising his beer to his lips, but dropped it on the table with a slight thud as she said that.

“Shit, Fucking Dogtown?” She hadn’t told Mitch this either. Misty looked smug, having revealed this information.

“Yeah, I got involved in the politics of Dogtown, helped overthrow their leader and all that.”

“Fucking hell. You were involved with that Kurt Hansen shit?” He was genuinely shocked and impressed at this. He knew she was a high-level merc, but most mercs wouldn’t even go to Dogtown, much less get involved with whatever shit they got going on there.

To Maelstrom, it was best to avoid all of Pacifica, the entirety of it. The Voodoo Boys fucking hated their guts for some reason tied to Lilith. Dum hadn’t really cared to figure out how that beef started. But Dogtown? He’d heard of a few Maelstrom leaving the ranks, long, long ago. And the story was always the same: they wanted to leave, they disappeared to Dogtown, and then they never heard of them again.

Obviously, those people did not want to be found. It was so rare that someone tried to leave, the only way out of Maelstrom was death, really. But the few who made it to Dogtown…

“Shit, V. Look at you, girl. Changing NC one day at a time.” Mitch looked at her with pride, Dum assumed. He wondered to himself that if he hadn’t been part of the picture, maybe there would be something there. He wondered, not for the first time, that maybe he was holding her back from something real. But he laughed along with the group anyway.

“What’s so funny?” Panam and Judy had come back in, taking their places at the table. Panam spun the chair around so she was sitting on it backwards.

“Oh, V’s just fucking shit up for everyone in Dogtown. You know. The usual.” Mitch winked at V, or it looked like a wink. Maybe it was just a gleam in the eye. Mitch would have been crazy if he didn’t at least try with V. And here he was now, playing chaperone on their “date”.

Dum liked the guy; he decided he did. And Mitch liked him, or was just humoring him. Maybe he was there waiting for the day Dum was out of the picture so he could swoop in. But Dum didn’t feel particularly guilty or upset by that thought.

It would probably be smarter of V if she could just get Dum out of her system and then go settle down with someone who fit her better. It was clear, even if she had replaced her entire face, they made an odd couple.

Dum’s thoughts were running wild, not in any particular direction, just running. Thinking about the situation from Mitch’s perspective…

“Shot time?” He refocused his optics to look at V, who had moved her left hand to lightly touch his arm. She had her shot glass in her other hand, and the others had moved to take them all as well. She was asking him.

“Fuck yeah, shot time.” He grabbed his with his right arm, unfortunately moving away from her. He resolved to put it back next to her immediately after his shot.

“To making terrible fucking choices,” Panam was lifting her glass and staring V dead on. V was pointedly looking at the others and not Panam.

“That your best friends support anyway, even if they are dumb as shit.” Judy finished for her. As if that was ever the plan for what to say. As if they were not insulting Dum directly to his face. Mitch moved to clink his glass with Dum’s, approval.

“To making new friends.” Misty still hadn’t finished her original drink, and also she hated whiskey. But she was not going to hold that up to go grab her go-to gin. Who took shots of gin anyway?

“To making new friends.” V and Dum both repeated. He couldn’t hear, but Johnny’s voice was there too.

They all clinked their glasses, three taps on the table, down the shot, and flipped the glass upside down to put on the table. No wonder bar tables were always so sticky. They all just basically poured Whiskey on it.

Misty was subtly cleaning off the table with a napkin from her magical purse.

“So…” Judy was helping Misty pile up their shots. Mitch was covering up a cough; he never did like shots. V was silently thankful for her chrome throat, or that would have burned horribly. It was not good whiskey. “Are we just drinking here all night? Or going somewhere else?” Neither Judy nor Panam had really addressed Dum Dum. They sort of looked like they were going to ignore him forever. Until…

“Can you even leave Northside? How are you here now?” Panam was staring at him directly. For a second there, he thought it might have been better if she had just ignored him forever.

His new friend Mitch jumped in to help. “He’s here now. That’s enough, isn’t it?” Okay, that time Mitch definitely winked at him. If he had accomplished anything today, other than meeting with V, he had made a friend in Mitch. And maybe Misty.

“Okay. Do you guys wanna go somewhere else? We could go to the Afterlife?” If they could physically move, his ears would have perked up. The Afterlife was definitely not somewhere he would be allowed in. And the girls would probably zero in on that, try to shake him off.

As if in response, V moved her hand on top of his, gently grasping his two metal fingers in her hand. He must have reacted with his frame to get her reassurance.

“Or we could go to any of the other thousand fucking bars around here. Or like not a bar?” V was speaking to Judy and Panam, it seemed.

“Why not Afterlife? We could just text Rogue, couldn’t you V?” Panam had some sort of devilish grin on her face. He had known her all of three seconds, but it was clear that she was usually a lot more talkative.

V gripped Dum’s fingers just a tad bit more. This battle between the two was clearly still going on. Judy looked both defeated and amused.

“I can text Claire, let her know we are bringing a Maelstrom.” Everyone turned to Misty in shock. There was confusion over who Claire was and what that meant.

Judy, Panam, and V all looked at each other. How did Misty have Claire's number? And also that felt stupid to do.

“Jesus fucking christ. Just text Rogue. Let’s go to the Afterlife.” V glared at the wall behind Mitch, where Johnny had decided to perch himself today.
“I can’t just fucking text Rogu–”

“Then let me do it. I can explain the situation.”

“Oh yeah, and how would you explain–”

“That you're fucking a borg and you're bringing him to her haunting ground. It’ll be fine.” He was pulling her holo up as she glared at him.

“Done.” Misty cheerfully clapped her phone closed and excitedly finished her last drink. Mitch had not gotten her a refill since he sat down.

“Fine. Let’s go to the afterlife. V, maybe your friend could help us get in?” Panam was teasing V, Dum knew that couldn’t have been about him, so who was it…

“He’s already texted. She hasn’t replied. But sure, let’s go.”

Dum was just along for the ride; if the ride meant he was going to the one place so very clearly anti-maelstrom, then so be it. If he got gunned down by any array of mercs, well, that’s just how he went to the afterlife.

He said nothing, but finished his beer as the others did as well. His optics lit blue as he paid the bartender. His tab and the others. He had the eddies to spend. Not like he spent them on anything ever, actually.

“Shit, Dennis, you didn’t have to pay for my tab, I was gonna get the girls.” Dennis, he was called Dennis. Out loud, by a person. By Mitch. He was called his flesh name for the first time in god knows how long.

“I uh… I prefer Dum, I think?”

“Shit, sorry. I will call you Dum. But seriously, man, you didn’t have to get the tab.” Mitch was trying to send him money now, which Dum rejected as they gathered the glasses and bottles.

“No, it… It’s fine. If you wanna call me that. It is my name after all.” All the girls had walked towards the door. Leaving Mitch and Dum pushing in all the chairs.

He had only given Mitch permission to call him that in this moment. His flesh name, his old name from his old life. And now one person in the world had the permission to call him that. The one man he might view as competition if he were to think about it that way.

He chose not to.

Chapter Text

The other girls headed to their cars. Misty had ridden with Judy. Panam and Mitch together as well. V hung just outside the door to wait for Dum.

“I think it’s going great.” She smiled at Johnny. It was going great. It was surprising how well it was going. Panam hadn’t even tried to kill him. And now they were going to another bar.

Another place to hang out with her friends. This wasn’t exactly what V had been picturing when they made these plans, but it took some pressure off now that they’d all met. She was actually grateful her friends had come along and were playing nice.

Dum was adjusting his hoodie when he walked up to her.

“Did you want to ride over together? Or take your car? I brought my car, but I can just send it home if I need to.” He smirked at that. It probably would have been safer to take her car; his was covered in Maelstrom decals, which probably would get attention if he brought it.

“Can we take your car? Mine not make it.” He wondered if he should get a new car, especially if he was going to try and move out of Northside some.

“Sure, I can drive. I’m parked just around the corner there.” He didn’t know what she drove, but they had coincidentally parked next to each other. He was surprised; it was a gorgeous old car. A Turbo, the Porsche 911, classic vintage, collectors' items now.

“Shit, V, nice fucking wheels.”

“Thanks, I stole it off a cargo ship.” She threw some piles from the passenger seat to the back for him to sit down. “It’s Johnny Silverhand's old car.”

“Like a recreation?” She lit up a cigarette as she rolled down the windows, then smiled at him.

“Like the real deal.” His face displayed as much shock as it possibly could.

“You got fucking Johnny Silverhands fucking car? How is that possible?” He was so impressed with everything she did, but still she found new ways to surprise him.

“I stole it off a collector.” She looked so proud as she started the car and they drove slowly through the busy streets. It had started to drizzle a bit, and people were running for the safety of the building's awnings.

“You fucking stole Johnny Silverhand's actual car off a collector? That’s fucking insane. Why?”

She shrugged as a response, but her smile was clearly that of someone very proud of their choices.

“What other cool shit you got, V?” He had grabbed his own pack of cigarettes from Lars before he left, but he did not have a lighter. “You got a light, actually?”

“Nope. But watch this.” She pulled over to the side and slid her thermal monowire out of her wrist, lighting his cigarette as he tried to focus on keeping his lips holding it.

This was incredibly impressive; he’d never considered other uses for monowire. It was crazy. The car filled with smoke in an instant, the windows were down slightly, but the rain was steadily getting heavier. The sound of droplets hitting her car roof drowned out the sound from the stereo. That super annoying song about staying at someone's house, it felt like it added drums to the music.

When he took a few puffs and lowered his hands, she got back to her driving. He was just staring at this beautiful woman in front of him. She could light cigarettes with her cybernetics, had a faceplate, and stole from Johnny Silverhand collectors; what couldn’t she do?

“I got a lot of Johnny Silverhand shit, actually. I kinda collect it. I got some of his clothes, his old gun, his car, his shades, and look,” She reached into her glove compartment with her free hand, motioning for him to put his hand out. She placed some dog tags in it. “His dog tags from when he was in the military.” She looked so proud.

He was mesmerized and admiring the delicate silver tags in his hand. “Robert John Linder, who is that?”

She laughed in response, “Johnny’s real name. Before he abandoned that stupid war, and became an anti-capitalist rock star.” He’d been dead far before either of them was born; it was crazy that she was just as much a Samurai fan as he was. If not more, actually, it had to be more; they were sitting in his old car. Smoking cigarettes as they passed the neon lights.

“How the fuck did you manage to swing that? That’s fucking crazy. I never even knew his old name.”

“I… uh, got a guy on the inside. And connections. Like I know Rogue, and Kerry Eurodyne.” If his jaw could fall off, it would have. He heard the mention of Rogue earlier. That living Night City legend. And she knew Kerry Eurodyne, Johnny’s old bandmate. How could she possibly be more impressive?

“That’s fucking insane, V. Didn’t think you’d be such a huge Samurai fan.” She’d mentioned it before, that time at Totentanz, or maybe he had mentioned it. He felt warm and fuzzy at that thought. That now he was spending more time with the vicious merc, and maybe one day all their time together would just blur, if it ever became more often. This was only their third time seeing each other.

“I like their old shit. And I’m like…weirdly close to Johnny Silverhand.” That comment didn’t make much sense, but he also felt close to the long-dead rockerboy. Lots of people still had heroes, even now.

“I’m trying to get his guitar, actually. That’s next for my collection.” They pulled into the parking lot at the Afterlife. He’d never been this far in; the nerves came back. He had forgotten for just a moment there that he wasn’t accepted everywhere. That he wasn’t just a normal guy on a normal date with a normal girl. Hell, she definitely wasn’t normal. She was insane and incredible.

“That would be dope. I’d love to see your collection sometime.” She parked the car and turned to him.

“I’d love to show it all to you.” They both knew they had to talk about what they were walking into, but for just a second, they could just look at each other.

“So…” She started, then moved her face forward, hands still on the wheel. “I texted Rogue to let her know I was bringing someone, and that you would be on your best behavior. I didn’t tell her you’re Maelstrom. That won’t be like a problem, I think.” She was following the droplets on her window, nervous to look at him again.

He looked at her hands, gripping the wheel of the turned-off car. “Best behaviour. Got it.” This wasn’t normal, even if they wanted it to be.

He got bad looks everywhere he went, but he didn’t want to get them when he was with her. Didn’t want to make her look bad. Especially if she was such a well-regarded merc, what would it look like if she was publicly seen with a maelstrom borg?

She finally turned to look at him. “It’ll be fine. They know me here; they know not to get into any trouble. Plus, it’s kinda like neutral territory for mercs. So, no one ever fights here unless they wanna get banned by Rogue.” She caught his eyes, the dark of the car, the broken streetlight, and his red optics lighting up her cybernetics. If he squinted, he could vaguely see the seams of her faceplate.

“Okay. I trust you.” His turn to trust. It felt weird to say something so human, but he meant it completely.

“Okay. Let’s go then.” He wanted to stay in the car, just another moment longer. Pretend it was normal, pretend this was normal. They were normal.

She opened the car door; the rain had lessened, as if to give them a brief moment to get inside. She looked at him, then placed her hand over his empty one. Giving him a tiny squeeze. They got out of the car.

Chapter Text

If her car wasn’t enough of a glaring sign to all the other mercs, her confident walk into the building would have been enough. The crowd huddled under the marquee separated as she walked up. A Maelstrom borg in tow. He sped up his steps to keep up with her, while keeping them slow enough that he wouldn’t be a threat or be seen as more of a threat.

She walked so confidently. Down the steps, said hello to the bodyguard who greeted her with a warm smile, then a very confused, angry face seconds after he registered the borg.

“Maelstrom ain’t allowed here.” V stopped, folded her arms, and kept her feet steady.

“I told Rogue. She’s cool with it.” She was challenging the man. Dum wondered how many people actually got turned away. It was a super exclusive bar; he’d only heard the stories. The Afterlife, in an old morgue. He’d even heard they still had the freezer drawers for corpses.

“Rogue said you’d be bringing someone. She didn’t say it was a cyberpsycho borg.” He wasn’t quite hostile yet, but his hand had moved to his piece on his hip. V still didn’t move.

“He’s with me, he won’t do anything. He’s fine. We’re meeting the girls.”

“You sure about this, V?” His eyes lit blue; he was getting a message from someone inside. He nodded at the camera in the corner and moved out of the way of the doors. Which now opened up.

Walking into the Afterlife, a place he never thought he’d be.

He nodded to the bouncer as they passed. He was giving him a once-over, clearly scanning his rap sheet. Not that Dum really had anything to hide. His entire identity was plastered on his face.

“Shit, didn’t think I’d be allowed in, actually.” He rushed to keep up with her long strides. She was shorter than him, her steps were quicker though.

“You’ll get in a lot of places with me.” She winked at him. He was admiring all of the bar, looking all around. It was a crazy place. An old morgue. He’d never been in a morgue before. He was also purposely ignoring the glaring looks from just about everyone in the bar.

V, however, was making eye contact with everyone who dared to look like they were questioning.

“Come on, lemme introduce you to the queen so we don’t got any problems.” She made her way past the bar to a seating area with yet another bouncer. Dum waved to the table with the girls and Mitch.

“Here to see Rogue.” She could see Rogue from where she stood at the bottom of the steps. Still, the bodyguard turned to look at Rogue, got the nod, and moved out of the way.

“You bring a Maelstrom Borg to my house, huh? This Johnny’s idea or yours?”

“Mine.” Whatever that meant.

“Why?”

“Wanted a drink at the coolest bar in the city, obviously.” They weren’t exactly friendly, but it was clear they knew each other well.

“I’ll take the compliment. We won’t have any problems, will we–?” She was looking at him now, waiting for him to fill in the answer to the unasked question.

“Uh. Dum Dum. I’m Dum.” He sure felt like he was in this moment.

“Alright. No problems, then, Dum. Have fun, drink, be merry, and all that.” She waved them off and continued her conversation with whoever was sitting behind the wall.

V turned to face him and smiled. They had made it through the afterlife without any problems so far.

“Okay. Let’s go sit.”

He followed her lead, the crowd parting like the sea for her to pass. Just about every eyeball in the bar was staring at him.

They made it to the booth the girls had picked, Mitch, Panam, and Misty on one side. V and Dum scooted in next to Judy on the other side. They all had their drinks already.

Before anyone could say anything, the bartender walked up with a tray, two drinks on it. “Jackie Welles,” V answered before he asked.

“What else can I get you two?” The bartender was looking him up and down, probably weighing the threat level. Like everyone else was.

“Brosephs, thanks for the Jackies.” V took her drink and took a sip. Dum grabbed onto the drink, Jackie, named after her friend. He’d heard that before; the drinks here were named after the dead. That felt weird. Totentanz had nothing like that. Hard to when the place was filled with constantly dying people and idiots who wanted to party with them.

V took her drink, sipping it slowly. Turning to the girls.

He didn’t want to turn his head to see what Judy was doing, but Panam was inspecting him. He felt like a bug. Her focus looking over every part of his build.

“What’s with the chin spikes?” She hadn’t really said much to him. But he figured that was said as nice as she could manage.

“I just like ‘em. They’re cool, I think.” He hadn’t put much thought into his elective cosmetic choices. He was one of the few in Maelstrom who had added extra metal to their faces. Piercings weren’t as common with borgs as they were with others. But he had at one point wanted to change up his looks. Look different from the other borgs somehow.

“They got any purpose?” He smiled at that and took a sip of his drink. It was a strange drink, savory with a tiny sting to it.

“No, I just wanted to look cooler.” The table felt weirdly quiet. Or maybe the bar felt quiet. There was music playing, but it felt like all conversations had quieted. If he found himself brave enough to look around, it would have been clear that the hush was broken by just about every group in the building whispering about him.

“Well, I like the look. You look very different from the other Maelstrom I’ve seen.” Mitch raised his glass to Dum and smiled. Trying to make him feel at ease.

V’s free hand slunk closer to his. Just the pinky touching him yet again. He wanted to grab her hand, see if her synth skin was as soft as it looked.

“Thanks, Mitch.”

They felt awkward, being stared at by everyone, and suddenly having no idea what to say to each other. It wasn’t just Dum being inspected and scanned by everyone in the bar; now it was all of them. Accidentally, he’d changed the views of everyone in the bar about the women sitting in front of him.

“So, uh. How do you guys know V?” He figured an open question to the group was best in this setting. If everyone was staring at him anyway.

“V and I go way back. We grew up in the same apartment building. I’ve known her just about my whole life.” Misty had some knit craft she was doing, the string leading into her bag. He nodded to her response.

“Just met V a few months ago, actually. She helped me with some work shit. My ex was planning the heist at Konpeki.” He felt that he shouldn’t pry. But that must have meant he’d known V just as long as Judy had.

“Met her when Panam brought her by. Also, a few months ago. Panam met her through Rogue.” Panam was still just staring at him. Like she could solve the puzzle if she looked hard enough.

“Yeah, I haven’t known these three all that long. But we’ve become friends since we worked together. They’re trying to help me out with a problem I got going on.” A problem?

The three nodded to Dum.

“What kind of problem?” Suddenly, all four turned to look at V. Her answer to give.

“Just some problem with some tech I got installed. It’s fine.” She said it quietly, like it wasn’t fine. She also wasn’t looking at her friends.

“How’d you get caught up with Maelstrom?” The others were clearly changing the topic, whatever it was. She didn’t want to tell Dum.

“Oh, uh. Grew up around it, my mom died, and I joined up as a kid. Joined with Royce, actually. Brick wasn’t even in charge yet.” That answer felt stupid, but this wasn’t the place or crowd he wanted if he ever told V the whole story. “Just kinda fell into it.” As if that was justification for the people he’d killed.

“That’s kinda how I ended up with the Aldecaldos. Joined with Scorpion when they came through our city. We’d both left the military and needed something. Didn’t have any family left, but now I've got a whole clan.” Mitch was smiling at that. He’d mentioned Scorpion before, past tense; he must have been gone.

Panam finally stopped inspecting Dum to turn to Mitch. “I was born into it. My old clan got absorbed, my parents died, but I always had my family.”

Judy spoke up next, “I’m part of the Mox, kinda. I’m a BD editor at Lizzies. My parents moved to Chicago a few years back, sometimes I think about moving there with them. But then I’d have to leave all your beautiful faces.” She motioned around the table with the top of her beer bottle before taking a swig.

“And you V?” She had her arm perched on the table, just looking at Dum. A different look than Panam was giving him. Something warm.

“Oh, like I said earlier. My parents were Arasaka; I grew up in the same building as Misty. I got ousted from Arasaka a little over a year ago. Mama, Jack’s mom, took me in. My parents also died a long time ago.” She took a few more sips of her drink. Making a face at the sour of the ginger beer. “Jackie was a merc, so I started working with him. We did small gigs till we got the heist.” She let her voice trail off a bit.

“Jackie was my partner. We’d been together for a few years before he passed.” Misty spoke up, quietly though. Like she was admitting something very sad and deep. She was.

“Oh.” He took a sip of his drink, then realized he should definitely respond to that better. “I’m uh, sorry he’s gone. He seemed like a good dude. Especially if he was friends with V, and you guys.” He immediately realized his mistake in math there, two people there only met V after the heist. Maybe Judy hadn’t met him either.

He felt sad for Misty, though. That would have been hard. He lost an ex-input about a decade back. They weren’t much more than physical, though. But Misty clearly lost someone she loved deeply.

“It’s okay. He’s moved on to the beautiful cyberspace in the sky.” She smiled to herself as she kept looking at her knitting. He wondered if she believed that, actually.

“I lost a brother a long time ago.” He just let that sit between them all for a moment. He hadn’t told V that, or anyone in a long time.

“I’m sorry to hear that, Dum. Scorpion died a few months back, too. Stupid fucking Kang Tao.” Mitch said it with a strange inflection. Sympathy, but also anger. He seemed like a very chill guy, but clearly thinking about Scorpion made him angry. A lot of deaths were like that. You never heard of people kicking the bucket at home surrounded by loved ones anymore. Or, if they ever had in a god-forsaken city like NC.

“Yeah, yeah, we’ve all lost people. That’s what life is. Losing people.” Panam interjected, clearly looking at Judy. As if she didn’t want her to have to answer the unasked question. “You keep living, though. Or like… being deadish. What are you exactly?”

The question caught him off guard. Was she asking if he was dead?

“Like, are you alive? You could just be like a robot made to look somewhat human. Isn’t that what some of your gang are? Basically zombies.” That was a rumour that went around every few years. People claiming the Maelstrom borgs are actually just resurrected corpses. It was easier to let people assume the worst of them rather than try and find out.

He laughed.

“I’m alive, I promise.” People who knew tidbits about Maelstrom always assumed the worst. Probably a safe bet, but they were very much alive. Just borgs. Probably more alive than half the corpo fucks in the skyscrapers.

It was always an assumption that they faced that they were actually not alive. It was confusing to try to explain to even new recruits what Lilith did, how they became tethered. People could assume they were zombies. Rather than try to understand the inner workings of a cult hive mind dedicated to a rogue AI demon from beyond the blackwall.

“Very alive. Just as alive as all of you.” V scoffed at that, then coughed in a terrible attempt to play it off.

He wondered what the scoff meant.

“So, you’re like part of a hive mind, right? Can your guys see what you see and talk to you in your head and all that?” There were always people who knew more about Maelstrom than any Maelstrom wanted to admit. Still, he hadn’t expected a nomad to know that much.

“Uh, yeah. But it’s proximity. I’m too far from Northside right now. And we can turn it off. It’s not always on. We pretty much only use it for combat.” If he was going to know these people, he might as well let them in.

He wondered if this would happen more. If he actually would see more of V. If he would see her friends more. If they could even become his friends. His first friends not in the gang, like ever actually.

“Interesting. So, just background programming in your brain?” It didn’t feel like an interrogation when Mitch asked the questions. He was actually just curious and trying to get to know him.

“Uh… Yeah. We all get slotted with the hive mind when we join up.”

“Do they really rip your eyeballs out with no pain management?” Panam's voice came out loud. If the crowd had finally looked away, they were back to staring at the borg again.

He had an audience other than the table; he didn’t want to share secrets. But also, it was a fair question. And people heard the rumors about Maelstrom all over the city. Sure, Brick had tried to keep it all under wraps, and the guy before him. He spoke quieter when he did, leaning in closer to only tell the people at the table. As if half the people in the bar didn’t have boosted hearing.

“Yeah. No pain management, no drugs, just uh… surgery, I guess.” Judy looked wide-eyed, and Misty nodded as if she was agreeing. Mitch looked shocked; clearly, he hadn’t heard that truthful rumour before.

“Holy fucking shit, really? You got that implanted like… awake?” Tons of surgery was done awake now. With all the drugs to paralyze a person and block out every pain receptor. It was wild to admit to anyone that this was done without any help.

He was slotted with one of the more intricate face plates, too. He already told them that it was a ritual to do it without pain meds; he didn’t feel the need to share that he cheated and did use them.

“Wide awake. It’s a whole thing.” The three across the booth were just staring at him, like he was insane. He probably was.

“That’s fucking crazy. Why the fuck would you do that?” This seemed to be the nicest thing Panam had said to him all evening.

“It’s to like…” God why was he saying any of this? “To strengthen the brotherly bonds or something. Put us all through trauma that we can only relate to with each other.” He should not have been saying any of this. He shouldn’t have been doing any of this. As far as he knew, this was entirely uncharted territory. He might have been the stupidest person in all of Maelstrom.

“Did it work? Are you close with the other guys in Maelstrom?” He turned to face her now; she hadn’t said anything for a while.

“I..” Was he close with the other guys? Sure, yeah. Kinda. As close as he could be. He used to be really close with Simon, but he had changed a lot, even before he took over. “Yeah. I got some good chooms in there.” He was thinking of Lars mostly when he said that. But he would also consider the other guys like his family. The closest thing he had to family.

V had only met him and Royce; she hadn’t really interacted with the other guys. Lars and Vex and Ash and Kurt were all there at the pickup, but she hadn’t talked to any of them.

“This guy's just spilling all the trade secrets, huh?” Johnny was standing at the end of the table, V could feel his arm on the table next to her shoulder. Practically feel his breath on top of her head. There wasn’t really any room at the table for him, and it wasn’t like she could just pull up a chair and let it stay empty. The others knew about her parasite problem, but she was trying to be cool about it around Dum.

“I didn’t think he’d tell us this much, actually.” The others were still asking Dum questions; she should have been paying attention, but instead she was having a silent conversation with Johnny.

“Everyone's still looking at him, think they’ll ever stop? He was fidgeting a lot, moving from his arms on the table to standing with his arms crossed, leaning on the table, and then leaning on the bench. Every once in a while, Misty looked like she was seeing him. Or looking in the general direction of where he could be.

Johnny chose to believe she was looking at him, though. He responded to her as though she was. Nodding to her, smiling at her, pretending he was real.

“Rogue mentioned you. I talked about the collection. Do you think he’s put anything together about you yet?”

“This seven-eyed fuck? No V, I don’t think he’s realized you have a fifty-year-long dead rockerboy in your brain.”

“But Rogue asked if–”

“Rogue asked about a Johnny; there are tons of Johnnys all over the world. V. It’s like…one of the most popular names I’m pretty sure.”

“Yeah, but after the conversation about my collection…”

“You think this guy put together that you collect my shit, and that’s why you are attracted to him? That doesn’t make any sense, V.”

She was unable to hide her reaction, dropping her head down, stopping before she hit the table this time, but to the others, it looked strange. Whatever they were just saying, this was not a normal reaction.

“You good V?” Misty pushed her drink aside, reaching for V’s hand across the table. “Is it a headache or something?” She looked up to where Johnny was. He shrugged at her.

“Yeah, sorry, no, I was just thinking. What are we talking about?”

“Dum was just telling us how his optics work.” Oh, something she already knew, as of two hours ago. Damn, had it been two…no, three hours since they met up. Three hours, a three-hour date that turned into her friends drilling him about stuff.

Panam had smiled at something. Why was Panam smiling?

“Why are you so cheery?”

Panam smiled even wider, like she had solved the puzzle.

“He’s not scary, not even a little bit. He’s pretty dorky, actually.” Dum looked… shocked? Was that praise? Or an insult? Or both.

He did sort of consider himself dorky, even if he hadn’t heard the word in decades.

“You are kinda dorky.” Judy supplied. She was also smiling now. Whatever had happened while V was zoned out, he got their approval.

Or as close to approval as he would get, probably.
“I told you he’d grow on them.”

“You literally said no such thing.”

“Well, I was thinking it.” She turned to look at him, he was also smiling. Her friends liked her new guy; she didn’t think that would happen. Even if part of her had considered it as a possibility.

“Ya’ll want another round?” Claire was walking up now, a tray full of empty bottles. Clearing the table of their empty glasses.

“Sure, that would be great. Can I get a martini, actually?” Misty rarely ordered martinis, something she and V had tried right after Misty turned legal drinking age.

“Yeah, I’ll also get a martini.” Claire placed her tray on the table and leaned in closer.

“You gonna introduce me to your friend V?” Friend, he was her friend now. She smiled at Claire and then turned towards Dum.

“Claire, this is Dum, Dum, this is Claire. I race with her sometimes.” If he had eyebrows, he would have lifted them at that. So she raced?

“You any good?” He was looking at Claire. “Nice to meet you, by the way.” That personality booster was boosting. He felt confident. Or maybe it was the approval from everyone. Maybe the drinks. He hadn’t hit his lace all day.

“V drives, and she’s damn good. I’m just the gunner.” She extended her hand, another handshake for the books.

He took it hesitantly; her hand was soft, real skin. He might get used to being touched by people.

“And I’m a damn good driver. We came in first in the last three races.” V might not know how to fix cars very well, but she could drive them, that was for sure.

“Wow. Impressive.” Her cyberware looked beautiful with a red tint.

“Fuck it. A round of extra dirty martinis for the table.” Mitch slid over a cred chip, which Claire pocketed. “And make 'em skate.”

Everyone turned to him. Claire laughed and then nodded. “You got it, boss. Nice to see you again, Mitch.”

As Claire walked away with the tray, everyone turned to Mitch.

“What the fuck does make it skate mean?” Panam was still holding onto her empty bottle, tracing the lip of it with her fingers absentmindedly.

“It means make ‘em really cold. I think.” He laughed to himself. “I don’t know where I heard it from, but I thought it was funny.”

The table laughed. It was funny and silly. And for a moment, V was normal, on a normal hangout with a normal guy. And they were all laughing.

Chapter Text

They talked and drank and laughed. Panam warmed up to Dum. Judy was kicking Pan under the table any time she wanted her to look at how V and Dum interacted. Whether it was a glance or a hand touch.

Eventually, V had decided to hold his hand, gently under the table. First just closed around his hand, then interlaced their fingers another beer in.

Dum was pretending like he wasn’t losing his mind when her chrome thumb rubbed his chrome thumb. He was holding hands with a pretty girl.

If anything of the night indicated date and moving forward, it was that tiny little gesture. They were holding hands under the table and leaning into each other.

It was fun; they all had fun. Panam even kinda liked the guy after. Maelstrom wasn’t as scary as she always thought, and she walked away pretty confident that, however V died, it wouldn’t be by his hand.

Mitch sent his contact over to Dum, told him he had to show him some pictures of the Panzer. Even offered that he should come out to camp one day and take a look himself.

Judy still didn’t like the guy, but she trusted V’s judgement. Misty, ever the optimist, had liked him from the beginning.

Claire even said goodbye to him personally, thanked him for coming in, offering their patronage or whatever.

The bouncer waved V and the group off. He nodded at V specifically. She had, in fact, kept the Maelstrom in check.

V hugged her friends goodbye before they got to the car. Panam, even with kinda liking the man, demanded V message her when she got home. Mitch was driving. He might have had a synth liver, but he still said yes to a Delamain that V offered to pay for.

Judy was able to get her and Misty back home; she hadn’t been drinking as much and definitely not as fast as the others.

Misty had a wonderful time and had completed half a scarf since they got to the Afterlife. She hugged V and then hugged Dum goodbye as well.

Several handshakes, several touches, hand holding, and even a hug. This was the most human touch Dum had had since he joined Maelstrom. He tried not to dwell on it.

The rain had stopped, but it was dark outside. Or as dark as it could be in a city that almost never sleeps.

They got back to the car. V had promised she had installed autopilot, so she wasn’t driving. Dum chose to believe her when she got behind the wheel.

But then they sat there for a moment. They’d been on a date. What did dates usually do next?

“Do you want me to take you back to your car?”

“Vex and Ash already got it.” Maelstrom could have installed that fancy autopilot shit; they had the eddies to pay for it. But instead, he had his friends come this way for it. His phone had several messages. Including “Oh, right. You went out with the merc. Fill me in later.” Except littered with typos. Royce never did like autocorrect; he thought it was funnier to be actively drunk through his words.

Lars had texted repeatedly asking how it was going. Ash and Vex just answered the boss's call, where the car was, and when to get it home.

He had successfully stranded himself in Little China. Not necessarily on purpose. But she would take him home if she wanted to.

“So…” She lit both cigarettes and passed him one. “Did you…” She was nervous. She had been nervous all night, but now it was different nerves.

“You could just drop me off at All Foods, or I could call a cab, actually.” He was giving her as much an out as he thought possible. The next part of a date didn’t have to happen. They had had a good time, and had fun with each other and her friends…his friends? Mitch was his friend now for sure.

“Do you want me to do that?” She turned to look at him, smoke billowing between the two of them and the small car. Windows were open, but the wind wasn’t taking it out by much since they were stuck in that parking area.

They hadn’t had much one-on-one in hours. It was around one am now, their date having lasted six hours almost.

“I’d like to keep talking to you. But I don’t want you to think I’m pushing anything. I really am trying not to.” His words flowed more eloquently than he had ever spoken in his life. The booster worked.

“Okay. Let’s go back to my place then. We can keep talking.” She winked at him as she buckled her seatbelt. If she was in charge, he was following.

“Okay.” He buckled his as well.

The autopilot started and directed home. Her home.

“Did you have fun tonight? Sorry, my friends are a handful. I think they genuinely liked you, though. Mitch definitely did. But Mitch might just like everyone. Plus, you were able to talk shop with him and he fucking loves that.” She was rambling, with no ability to stop herself. “Panam even kinda likes you. I think. I don’t know. She’s kinda hard to read. But she didn’t dislike you when we said goodbye, I think.”

He was smoking his cigarette, watching the smoke disappear out the window. “I liked Mitch. Misty was great.” Another puff of smoke, V looking at him with anticipation. “Judy seems cool, very reserved, kinda quiet.” Never in his life had he used the word reserved for anything. “Panam kinda hates me. But that’s okay. She loves you, she’s just worried.”

V was anxiously taking hits of her cigarette, wondering what he could possibly say next. Was it her turn to talk? Would he give her a cue?

“Calm the fuck down. He’s saying nice things.” That did not make her calm down. Made her more anxious if that was even possible.

“Thanks for… all of that. I know I make people anxious and worried. I…” He stopped himself, trying to figure out what he was apologizing for. “I shouldn’t have gotten into those bars; I probably shouldn’t have been around those people. Thank you for letting me go with you.”

That was an odd thing to … thank her for. But it was true. They both knew it was true. As the car turned into a parking garage. A megabuilding. V lived in a megabuilding. And she was taking him to her apartment.

“I had a great time with you. I’m glad you got along with my friends. Really thought Panam might try to kill you for a second there, but she seemed fine by the end.” They went up to the second and third stories. “Dennis, right?”

He turned to look at her. The advertisements glaring through the window's reflection. “Yeah. I don’t usually go by my flesh name, though.” She nodded.

“I’m Valerie.” She let that sit in the silence as the car parked itself.

“Valerie,” He repeated, like he was trying it on for size. And it fit. It fit her. Valerie. Vicious Valerie. “It suits you.” He paused again, finishing his cigarette and rolling up the window. “V.”

“And Dennis.” They both sat in the silent car, windows up, just the hum of the engine. Valerie and Dennis. Like they were normal.

“Have you ever seen Crime and Punishment and Zombies?” She turned to look at him now. What a silly question. Those ads were everywhere.

“Not yet.”

“Perfect. Now we have a reason to show you my apartment.” She opened the car door, grabbing her bag from the backseat.

He opened his door as well, following her to the elevator. She pressed the level she was going to.

“Okay, so I have a cat named Nibbles. He’s super sweet but kinda skittish; he might run away from you. I also have an iguana named Egg. He will love you. I think he likes being on chrome more than human skin.” The ads were blaring at them, the second amendment and all that.

He was on his way to a girl's house, her apartment. He was on a date. Every few minutes, that hit him. Like a shock to the spine. He was on a date with a beautiful woman, and now he was going up to her apartment.

“Wait, like a real iguana? The reptiles?” They weren’t banned in NC like furry animals were. But a real ass reptile was crazy expensive. She might have been a great merc, but that was more fucking eddies than he saw every year. Even the permit alone to have one was half a year's salary. He didn’t really take a salary, but the eds he saw were nowhere close.

“Yeah. I got him when he was an egg. From the heist, actually. It’s crazy the egg didn’t crack. But yeah, I got the egg, and a heat lamp, and now I got a dude that just vibes in my apartment.

The elevator doors opened. She grabbed his hand and pulled him forward.

He liked it, being grabbed and pulled by her. All human touch was basically new to him, but this was definitely new. Being dragged through a building by a woman.

They turned a corner, and then a few doors down, she pulled his hand and himself into a door that opened and shut real quick.

Chapter Text

He walked into the apartment, V immediately running to pick things off the floor, throwing them on the chair in the corner by her closet. Her place wasn’t dirty, but she definitely did not clean as much as she probably should have.

To Dum, it seemed like the cleanest room he’d ever seen. Maelstrom weren’t really big on cleaning…anything. They really shouldn’t have been in charge of any form of meat packing. But legally, the percentage of bug in food had increased, since…well… half the food these days was bugs.

There were so many glittery and shiny things all over her apartment. Holographic figures, real figures. Posters of movies and boxing matches. The entire thing was pink with some nondescript animal print that certainly didn’t match any living animals he’d ever heard of.

“Sorry, it’s like… a lot. I do not like minimalism, anything, big on…lots of things actually.” He smirked at that. He had been frozen by the door, but took that as an invitation. He slowly started walking around the room and inspecting things. She had a poster for Crime and Punishment and Zombies on the wall. A couple of other posters, too. He turned to look at her when he read the one with the demon and a nun. She turned a shade of pink that rivaled her walls.

“Lemme show you around.” Taking charge of the situation rather than sitting in embarrassment about that particular poster. It had been a sort of inside joke gift that Jack had given her as a housewarming present. But she would be lying if she said it wasn’t also a guilty pleasure film.

“So this is my closet, I’ve got some trophies and stuff from gigs.” She lifted up the boxing gloves to hand him, as if he hadn’t seen boxing gloves in person before.

He actually had not.

“Oh, did I ever tell you I box? Like, kinda professionally. Or fight, I guess, it’s not all boxing.” He was staring at her like she grew a third head. Could this chick be any cooler? “I’m not like the best, but I am pretty good. You should come see a match sometime.” She took back the gloves, setting them back in their spot, which you could tell was their spot from the dust around them.

She opened up the… what he would have assumed was a closet. Remembering his old search for the merc immediately. Here’s where the guns went, it seemed. “This is my armoury. I’m collecting certain types of weapons all over town, just some cool ones I really wanna get. Hence, the cut outs waiting for them. I’m thinking I’m gonna see if I can get some black market ones from Dogtown next time I head that way.”

From that sentence alone, he learned a lot. She had goals. He had already been mesmerized and shocked in every way possible, but this was far more than he ever expected.

What would she see if she saw his room, barely a bed, some pallets for furniture, a disgusting old couch, and a single pile of clothing.

“I’m really working on getting some more katanas right now. I’ve only got a couple, but I’m trying to organically get a rainbow if I can.”

“Organically?”

“Yeah, like find a rainbow of them, not like make or paint my own. I’ve got like RoyG so far, so now I’m looking for Biv.”

“What?” Was she saying English?

“Roygbiv. Like, the rainbow.” His face must have displayed confusion because she immediately followed up. “It’s to remember the rainbow order. Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.” That was not the rainbow he knew.

Did he know rainbows? When the fuck was the last time he thought about an actual rainbow?
“What’s indigo?”

“It’s like a dark blue, between blue and purple.” She was walking him out of the armoury now. Stopping at the couch.

“And this is Egg.” She pet the reptile. He’d never seen a reptile in his life before. There were a lot of things he’d never seen, it seemed. His entire life felt so much smaller than hers. It was just a shitty childhood, living on the street, kinda, then maelstrom. There was so much he hadn’t done and didn’t know.

“You can pet him if you like; he likes scratches under his chin. And as I said earlier, I think he likes chrome more than flesh.” He extended his hand hesitantly. It wasn’t like a bite from the creature would have hurt; he didn’t have any form of skin or even natural limbs left.

He very slowly lifted his hand towards the creature, and as soon as he was close enough, it nuzzled towards him. Petting itself on his fingers. He looked at V. She was smiling, so he moved his hand to scratch under the neck as she had directed.

The creature, Egg, appreciated this. He had no idea when the last time he touched a living creature was. Did shooing bugs away count? He decided they did not. He might never have touched one.

“If you move your arm closer, he might try to crawl up.” He didn’t know if he wanted that, but found himself listening to her anyway. Egg did, in fact, immediately start crawling up Dum’s arm. He had the hoodie on, so the creature clung to the fabric when he reached up higher. It moved faster than he expected and found its way to his shoulder.

V was gleefully watching. She loved picking up Egg and hoped the borg would also appreciate it. He was smiling, staring at Egg as he crawled up. Resting on his shoulder and arm held out at a strange angle, like a perch.

“Whoa.” Was all he said for a moment. Eventually, moving his right arm to scratch the neck of the creature that had made its home on him.

Only to be immediately startled by a hairless cat jumping on the couch ledge, but the iguana clung on still. “Oh shit. And…” He turned to V. “Nibbles, you said?” She grabbed the cat off the couch and held him cradled in her arms like you would a baby.

“This is my son, Nibbles. My sweet, precious baby boy.” The cat did not seem amused or particularly disturbed by this either way. Must have been a usual occurrence. “Believe it or not, they really like each other. I find them cuddling all the time, all over the place.”

Dum was afraid to move with his new friend. But V motioned for him to sit down anyway. He walked very slowly around the couch, and then, even more slowly, moved to sit down.

“So that’s my apartment and my pets. You’ve seen it all. How is holding Egg?”

He hadn’t looked away from the creature nearly the whole time. “I don’t think I’ve ever held a pet before.”

“Really? You didn’t have any pets growing up?” It felt like a stupid question as soon as she said it. Who in their right mind would join Maelstrom if they had ever had a pet? Not for the first time, V thought about the disparity in their upbringings that led to their life choices, but asking any questions felt… wrong.

“No one around me could afford one. Or even the permits.” She nodded along. It was notoriously expensive to have a legal pet. Luckily, she stole one, and the other she just opened the door, and it wandered in one day. Neither was legal; she had not paid the permits. And her apartment owners definitely did not know about them. Not that they could really do anything about it. She probably could just pay the fines anyway.

“Well, I think Egg likes you a lot. He rarely climbs on me.”

Johnny appeared across the couch, arms and legs splayed out like he owned the place and this was his favorite TV show. Nibbles jumped out of V’s arms and onto the couch next to Johnny, to clean her paws of that disgusting outside V just rubbed on her.

Johnny pet the cat. It gently meowed back.

V and Johnny hadn’t talked about it much, but they were 99% sure that cats could see him. Goro said something once about cats being able to see ghosts, and if Johnny was closest to a ghost, then they believed Nibbles could see him. Or feel him or something. They had wondered the same thing about Misty several times before.

Dum missed the exchanges of V and the wall she was staring at, still completely enamored by the reptile breathing on his arm. Moving the fabric of his hoodie sleeve with each adjustment. It was safely tucked in between the wires and synth skin sections. Perched like it lived there.

Today had been an incredibly strange day, more touches of living things than he’d seen since he joined Maelstrom. And a pretty girl by his side. She reached over to pet the iguana on his shoulder, gently scratching his back with her nails.

“He’s amazing, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, he is.” He turned to look at her now. She was so close to him. They’d been so close all day.

Hell of a date.

She pulled away slightly, still by him, but no longer petting Egg. A few further inches away now. “So… you’ve never seen C&P&Z.”

“You don’t actually call it that, do you?”

“Of course you do. It’s a fucking mouthful to say Crime and Punishment and Zombies every single time.”

“And you like this movie?” He knew nothing of the movie other than it had been a book, and now they had added zombies. He didn’t know enough about the story to know where the zombies would have fit in, though.

“Eh, like is a strong word. I just like zombie movies.” He had been smiling at her the whole time, but that was somehow slightly shocking.

“Zombie movies, huh?”

“Yeah, I think they’re fun. Violence with no moral problems, you know?” That was one way to put it, not how he would have, but still, one way.

“I’m pretty sure there are lots of moral arguments in zombie movies.” He’d seen a few, the basics that everyone had watched. Maelstrom weren’t really ones to sit around and watch movies, but Lars and Vex had held him hostage for a few of the old classics. But he would never consider himself a fan of the genre, really. It was just a pastime. “Didn’t really think you’d be a zombie genre fan.”

She looked at him with a glint in her eye, like he’d unlocked some door he didn’t even know was there.

“Au contraire, my metal friend.” He did not know what that meant. “I think zombie movies are some of the best movies of all time. Especially the old classics, like shit from the 2010s. When the world had a zombie craze. That was some of the best media made ever. Zombies are like the perfect vehicle for discussing all innate human fears. Some of the oldest recorded human stories have zombies as a way to represent fear of time, fear of death, fear of change, fear itself.” She paused, “Do you want more beer? I could run downstairs real quick and get some. Because I could talk about zombies all fucking night.”

He was shocked, but also not really. Nothing about the merc surprised him much anymore. He had accepted that she was going to surprise him in every possible way, for as long as she let him be there. “Sure, beer sounds good.” He wondered how she could keep up. Didn’t seem like she’d have a massive tolerance for alcohol, he had a synth liver, she didn’t seem like she did.
“Are you good though? Like, we don’t have to keep drinking. You could just tell me about zombies.”

“Oh, I’m fine, I got my hormone receptors fixed like a week ago. I could go all night.” He did not previously know about this, but as an ex-Arasaka, it made sense. Most of those corpo rats were filled to the brim with tech that would rival his own gangs. “I’ll be right back. Don’t lose Egg.”

She jumped up and bolted to the door, pausing as it opened to continue, “I’m kidding, of course, he probably won’t move at all.”

He was staring at her holographic ad placement, feeling the iguana on his arm. In a pretty girl's apartment. In the merc's apartment. He had found the merc, but damn, this was wildly different from what he had ever expected. The cat jumped from its side of the couch, sneaking under to rub against its pant leg. Then he climbed up to his side with the iguana, nuzzling the iguana. They really did like each other.

He opened his holo, seventeen new messages.

“HOW THE FUCK IS IT GOING. DID SHE KILL YOU? FUCKING ANSWER ME JESUS.” Lars had sent him repeated messages, growing increasingly more worried or anxious. Actually, probably just higher.

He finally responded, “At her apartment now.” He pulled out his actual holo to take a picture, a selfie of sorts, but just the iguana on his arm next to the cat perched there. He pressed send.

Lars response was immediate: “HOLY FUCK IS THAT A GECKO!” He wondered if all of Maelstrom should invest in children's books to learn the basic shapes, colours, and animals they all seemingly forgot.

“It’s an Iguana, named Egg. And the cat is Nibbles.”

“FUCKING HELL, I DIDN’T EVEN SEE THE CAT. WHAT THE FUCK I LUV IT. I WANNA EAT IT.” Lars was definitely high.

His other texts were Royce yelling at him, then being reminded that Dum was out with the merc, then some anger because Dum never found “the other merc,” and then he must have gotten even drunker because it went back to “Where are you?” All caps, of course, and all practically illegible.

Vex and Ash sent him some “encouragement” about docking asap.

Blaine sent him a work text. Asking him if they had any patrols on a specific route that Kurt had been investigating recently. They did not. But he figured work could wait till he was back home.

He also wondered how he was getting back home. She seemed like she could just send him back in one of her cars, or he could call that cab. Or he could just sneak out right now, which he very much did not want to do.

This was going so well, and confusingly so. It didn’t have to… they didn’t have to. He looked over to where a clearly unmade bed sat in its little cubby. They didn’t have to. He wanted to, obviously, but they were barely even touching.

If anything, they were moving slowly, or as slow as he’d ever moved. Not that he had much experience previously. Other borgs, a chrome chaser or two. Nothing like… whatever this was.

Nibbles jumped up from the couch and ran to the door to start meowing at it. V must be getting back soon. But how could the cat tell? He turned his head slightly to see if any optics could pick up…the cat staring and meowing pointedly upwards, facing the wall.

Chapter Text

Johnny reappeared on the outside of the door.

“Fucking cat is trying to give me away.” She looked at him like he grew a second head.

“What the fuck does that mean?”

“Means, I can’t spy past the door ‘cos Nibbles sees me.” This did not make any sense. But if anyone could see a digital ghost, it would be cats.

“Damn, Goro was right then, huh?” He wanted to disappear behind the door, see if he could catch Dum doing something. He was still just sitting in the spot, but turned around slightly to look at the door. They did not catch him doing anything interesting.

“Well, let’s head back in then.” She waved her hand over the lock. It felt like it opened slowly. Dum was still just sitting there.

“This is going well, go talk his ear off about your zombies, then V.” With that, Johnny disappeared. The unspoken part was his encouragement to move forward. V didn’t know if she wanted to. She did, she really wanted to. But first dates… Well, it was cliché.

“Hey.” She walked in and placed the two bags on the desk kitcheny area. Some food from a stall downstairs, and the six-pack she just bought.

“Welcome back.” He was back to looking at Egg. “I love this little guy. He’s awesome.” She smirked to herself as she opened two bottles, settling back down next to him. “Thanks, V.”

“So your guys back home. They miss you yet?”

“Why? You trying to get rid of me?”

“Ha. No. Not at all. I got us food, by the way. Some shawarma from a shop downstairs.” The food was still on the counter; she’d grab it in a bit.

Dum took a swig from his beer, not brosephs, that other one advertised all over the place.

“Good. I’m having a lot of fun with you, V.” He turned to look at her. She was so close. She shifted in her seat, not moving forward, not moving away. He wondered if he made her feel uncomfortable. Another swig, then a moment of bravery. “So… this has been a date, right?”

She laughed at him. Or at the comment. It didn’t hurt either way.

“Yeah, Dum, this has been a date. And I think a good one?” They both smiled at each other. The beers resting on their laps.

“Nova.” Egg nuzzled into his shoulder wires more.

He wondered if this was the time to go for a kiss. Or if he should let her take the lead. He decided this wasn’t the time. She was facing towards him, but looking past him.

Johnny had reappeared, making crude gestures with his entire form right behind the sofa. V was scolding him with her mind.

“So… about those zombies?”

“Right, yes. So I’ve got this whole like universal belief, and it all kinda revolves around zombies.” She started her tangent. Johnny smacking his face. She was clearly putting off the obvious answer of what to do next.

Chapter Text

It was around 11 in the morning when he got back to All Foods. The night had been great. He’d had a wonderful time, and she had dropped him back off. He’d slept upright on the couch that night. Not moving from his perch for Egg. Who slept calmly on him the entire evening. Even if he had wanted to make a move, Egg was holding him down with the iron grip of “Too cute to move.”

The two had chatted into the early early hours of the morning, only dozing off around 6, somewhere in the first act of the movie. She’d talked his ears off the entire time about her theories, about her favorite zombie movies, favorite zombie shows. Some classics he’d heard of but never bothered to watch. Something about the shuffling undead towards humanity. And her theories about the entire franchise and what it meant as a sign for rampant late-stage capitalism.

“Thanks for the great evening, V. I’ll text you later.” He’d considered the kiss once again while in her car in the All Foods parking lot. But decided his nerves were telling him it wasn’t the right time.

When he did walk back in, weirdly coming through the front door, he was beaming ear to ear. He absolutely had to tell Lars about the entire evening. Meeting her friends, going to the Afterlife, holding the not-gecko. Petting a cat. Her weird obsession with old zombie films.

“Dum, where the fuck have you been. Some shits going down, dude. Get the fuck upstairs right now!” Bjorn came in storming towards him. Blaine was leaning against the wall, sharpening a knife.

“What the fuck is he talking about?” Bjorn was always dramatic; he was sure nothing bad had happened. But of course, he leaves Maelstrom for two seconds, and some shit would go down.

“He’s not kidding, Dum. Royce got in a huge fight with Kurt. You should get upstairs quick. Last I checked, they were still going at it.” Blaine's aloofness with the immediacy of his voice… Shit, maybe something had happened.

“Well, what are they fighting about?” Bjorn joined him in the elevator. But before he could even answer, he heard the yelling. Royce, of course. The man's voice was never below a scream.

“I’M THE ONE IN FUCKING CHARGE HERE, KURT. WHAT I SAY FUCKING GOES. I'M THE FUCKING BOSS. YOU ANSWER TO ME AND ONLY ME YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE.” The second the doors opened, he was putting himself between Royce and Kurt. Kurt was clearly angry, and Royce was clearly fucking drunk.

“FUCK Royce, what the fuck is going on?”

“OH, HERE YOU FUCKING ARE. FUCKING FINALLY. WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN DUM?” Dum grabbed Royce’s hand that had been absentmindedly waving his gun around. Pulling the gun from his grip before Royce could respond.

He unloaded the weapon and set it on the pallets in front of them. Ash was in the corner, not running, just perched in his chair, watching.

Kurt had no weapon out and was sitting on the couch when Dum walked in. But he was gritting his teeth like he’d stopped himself from yelling back since.

“Jesus. What the fuck is happening?” Dum turned to Ash. Then finally, back at Royce.

“A FUCKING HOSTILE TAKEOVER. THAT’S WHAT. KURT THINKS HE’S IN CHARGE.” Dum turned to Kurt. Who just shrugged his shoulders. Whatever it was, it wasn’t bothering him as much as Royce.

“No one’s taking over. Jesus Si-Royce, how fucking drunk are you?” He managed to corral Royce back towards his garage. “Kurt, what’s he talking about?”

Finally, Kurt responded, now that someone rational was around. “Royce thinks I’m taking over because I sent some guys out on some recon.” That wasn’t abnormal; Kurt usually did more of the footwork. Usually, Royce had nothing to say about it.

“So? What’s he fucking pissed off about?” He was noticeably not talking to Royce. Royce, who had started to calm down, or maybe it was just that he had hit the lace five times since Dum had walked in.

He suddenly realized he hadn’t hit his lace the entire time he was on the date. Not that that was the important thing to think about right now.

“Royce, why are you mad at Kurt? He’s doing his fucking job?”

“His fucking JOB. HIS FUCKING JOB IS TO LISTEN TO ME. NOT MAKE HIS OWN FUCKING PLANS BEHIND MY BACK. HE’S TRYING TO KICK ME OUT, TAKE OVER.” If his words weren’t slurred before, they were now.

“He’s not trying to take over. Are you Kurt?” He turned to Kurt, who shrugged once again. Not exactly the response he was hoping for. “See, Kurt's not trying to take over. Why the fuck you think he is?”

“HE’S SENDING OUT HIS OWN PATROLS, MAKING HIS OWN FUCKING DEALS. HE’S TRYING TO GET RID OF ME.”

Dum instinctively put his fingers to hold the bridge of his nose, or what would be the bridge of his nose with what his chrome fingers were. The movement had absolutely no effect on all his chrome, but it was one of those human habits you don’t get rid of.

“Kurt usually sends his own patrols out. That’s his fucking job, Royce.” He hadn’t realized that his other arm had been extended out. Pushing against Royce to keep him away from Kurt. He dropped his hand now. Royce immediately lunged forward on instinct. Not towards Kurt, just forward. Dum replaced his arm back up. “He’s not trying to fucking take over Royce. Are you Kurt?”

“Nope. Don’t want that shitty fucking job anyway.”

“YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE.” Dum stopped him yet again with his hand. Not touching him, just in front of him. A reminder that he will put him in place if needed.

“Jesus fucking christ, Royce. Calm the fuck down. He’s not doing anything. You need to fucking sleep. Come on, let’s get you some sleep. He pushed him backwards towards the garage. Not saying anything as he shoved Royce back towards the chair. Without looking, Dum pulled the chain to close the door.

“Fucking Hell, I’m gone for one fucking night, and you try to murder your fucking team.”

“WHERE THE FUCK WERE YOU. KURT AND ASH ARE TRYING TO KILL ME. TAKE ME OUT SO THEY CAN FUCKING LEAD MAELSTROM AND YOU WEREN’T ANSWERING YOUR FUCKING PHONE.” He had noticed all the missed calls, missed texts. He didn’t think he’d come back to a fucking fight. Mostly just Royce fighting himself, though.

“I told you, I was fucking busy.” He lowered his voice to try and get Simon to do the same. It did work as the next line came out just a little above a yell. Not the screaming it was moments ago. The silent whir of machines helped.

“Yeah, yeah. Fucking busy with what? What was so fucking important you would let them just fucking flatline me right then?”

“Fucking hell, Royce. No one is trying to flatline you.” That wasn’t true; people wanted Royce dead all over the place, and for damn good reason. “Kurt’s just doing his job. He doesn’t have to run everything by you. You’d go fucking mad if he tried.”

“The whole gang wants to fucking kill me, Den. All kill me, or lock me in a cell like Brick and take over.” That might have been true. Or… it probably was true. A lot of people would be happier if Royce weren’t in charge. At least Brick cared about the job.

“They don’t want to fucking kill you, Royce. Jesus, when the fuck the last time you slept?”

Royce scoffed at that. Sleep, sleep was for the week. It wasn’t for Maelstrom.

“I don’t need no fucking sleep, Dum. I need to fucking put a bullet where Kurt’s face is.”

“This isn’t about Kurt. This is about you. You need fucking sleep. Maybe some water or something. And Jesus,” He grabbed Royce’s lace from his hand, “And none of this till you get some fucking sleep. How much did you fucking drink anyway?”

Royce tried to reach at Dum to get the lace back, he held it behind him and up. Like keeping candy away from a child.

“Fuck you, Dum. You want me dead, too, don’t you? You weren’t here, so fucking Kurt could take over. You gonna do my job next? You want my fucking job, huh?”

Where the fuck was this coming from? Also, how unfucking fair was it that this shit goes down the one god damn day he tries to take for himself in god knows how long.

“What the fuck did Kurt do that makes you think he wants your job. No one wants your fucking job. You don’t even want it.” He didn’t exactly mean to say the second part out loud. It was the unspoken rule of Maelstrom. Royce didn’t want the job, but no one was supposed to say that.

“He…” His metallic voice died in his throat. Royce couldn’t remember how or why this started. Or how long it had been going. Why was he so angry?

“Exactly. Nothing happened Royce. Get some fucking sleep, and I’ll give you your lace back. Now I’m gonna sit outside that door, and you better not fucking come out until you’ve gotten some fucking rest. I’ll have someone bring you water. Go the fuck to sleep.” He pushed on Royce, pushing him towards the chair.

It reminded him of when Royce was crowding him towards the chair just a few months ago to find out about the merc. Only, this time it was just him.

Maelstrom didn’t need to sleep, really. But keeping him up at this level, he would only spiral upwards insane if he didn’t get some fucking shut eye to reset. If he would have guessed, Royce drank half the liquor cabinet. His blood was probably more vodka than it was synth.

“FUCK. Fine. I’ll fucking sleep.” Dum had crowded him so close that he had no choice but to climb into the chair. Which Dum then pressed the hanging button to fold the chair back.

This was pretty much the closest to tucking one in as they could get.

“Seriously, man, it’s all in your head. Kurt didn’t do shit. You get some rest. And when you’re up, we’ll get some pizza or something.” He pulled up the chain from the door and walked under it. Pulling it back down behind him. Royce had already started snoring by the time the garage door closed.

He waited for a beat to see if Royce would be back up and throwing open the door. He wasn’t.

Dum walked over to the couch and plopped down next to Kurt.

“Hey Bjorn, go get some water for Royce, will ya?”

“I ain’t no fucking errand boy, get Ash, he ain’t doing shit.”

“I said fucking get him water. Ash is fucking busy.” Ash was not busy, but he did get up from his chair and walk over to sit on the pallets.

Kurt started smoking a cigarette in that time. Handing the lighter over to Dum, who grabbed his own smokes out of his pocket.

“So what the fuck happened?”

Chapter Text

“And where the fuck is Lars?” Kurt and Ash exchanged a look. Both shrugged before Kurt spoke.

“Lars went on a run to go see if Tygers were coming up around the docks. We got some intel they started creeping up again. Sent Lars and a couple of the new guys to go see if that was true.”

“So why the fuck does Royce think you’re trying to take over?” He fully turned his body to look at Kurt now. “And call Blaine up here.”

“Dunno. He just got fucking angry, thinking us doing our jobs was a fucking coup.” Ash and Kurt shrugged at each other.

“That can’t be the only fucking reason.” Both guys kept looking at each other, then back at Dum.

“You weren’t here, man. You are the only one who keeps Royce in fucking check. He didn’t know where you were, so he went off the fucking rails. Kept drinking, smoking, started yelling that we were trying to take over. Which we fucking weren’t.”

“He went fucking psycho just ‘cos I wasn’t here?” It made no fucking sense, but also made perfect sense. He couldn’t think of a time when he wasn’t immediately at Royce’s side if called. His not being there, honestly, could have been reason enough. “Shit.” He sunk back into the couch.

One god damn day to himself for the first time in decades, and it all goes to shit. He really was the only one who could keep Royce in check.

For years, he had imagined himself as the guard dog on Royce’s leash, but maybe this whole time it had been the other way around.

“What do you need me for?” Blaine spoke before the elevator doors were even opened. Walking into the room, he looked at Ash, then Kurt, then settled on Dum.

“Sit down.” He did bark orders all the time, but somehow, it felt different now.

“You…” He rubbed the bridge of his nose again, then took another puff of smoke. “You weren’t fucking trying to take over, were you?” He was looking at Blaine, but the question was to Kurt mostly: “Like, Dum’s not here, let’s overthrow Royce.”

“Fuck no man. I’d never do that shit to you.” Kurt replied. If anything, he had the loyalty of the guys, even if Royce didn’t. “Seriously, we didn’t do fucking shit. Royce just got his god damn panties in a knot ‘cos you weren’t here.”

“Fine. Well, I need to know if I ain’t here this shit ain’t gonna happen again.”

“Where the fuck did you go anyway?” This might have been the first question Blaine had ever actually asked him.

Kurt and Ash made a face at each other. He knew Ash knew where he was, but he still hadn’t told Kurt anything…since…

“I…” If he was going to tell them now. “Is Lars back yet?”

Ash’s eyes lit blue, checking the cameras. His optics didn’t need to turn blue; it was more of an indication to Dum. He was checking.

“He just pulled up.”

“I’ll tell y’all when he–”

“Patricia and her crew are pulling up with him.”

That wasn’t good news. If anyone was actually trying to overtake the gang, it would be fucking Pat. What the fuck was she doing here? She so rarely came to All Foods.

“Fuck” He dropped his head back and shut off his optics, for just a second, before he dealt with whatever was next. “What the fuck does she fucking want?”

“They got two cases, they’re bringing them up.” The elevator whirred to life. He flicked his optics back on. All four of them turned to look at the elevator.

“I brought some fucking water. Also, Patricia just got here. She wants y’all downstairs at the armoury.” He was carrying two jugs in his arms. It’s not that Maelstrom didn’t drink water; they just preferred their liquid intake with some alcohol content. Still, a human is a human.

With that, they all shrugged themselves off the couch. Dum walked over to Bjorn, grabbing the jugs from him. “Y’all head downstairs, see what Patricia wants. I’ll be there in a second.” All the guys crowded into the elevator. Just leaving Dum in the silent room.

He opened the garage door, pulling over one of those standing desk things, and he cleared it off of the ashtray and empty beer cans. Perching water next to Royce, who was sleeping soundly on the chair.

“Drink some water when you can, man. Imma lock you in here tho, so you don’t start fucking shooting up the place.”

When he was back on the other side of the garage, he tied the chain to the hook on the wall, usually used to prop it open when it was broken. Now, to make it a little harder, if Royce was on his fucking trip when he got back up. He wasn’t completely locked in; he was strong enough to snap the chains if he wanted to. But maybe he’d think twice about it before.

Especially best to keep him away if… well, if Patricia was actually doing what he had been accusing Kurt of. Why else would she be here?

Chapter Text

Dum made it down the elevator with everyone crowded around Patricia at the armoury.

“What the fuck are you doing here, Pat?” In all his years at Maelstrom, he could think of maybe five times Patricia was ever at All Foods. They had been speaking before he walked up, but the second she saw him, her eyes zeroed in on Dum.

“We got fucking raided. At Totentanz, at the clinic. They even got the Haven. There are Kang Tao crawling all over Northside. They’ll be here next, no fucking doubt. We got maybe fifteen till they get here. Get everyone ready.”

“Jesus fucking what?” They’d been raided a hundred times over, but those raids only made it to All Foods a few times. And those were firefights and done in fifteen seconds. Maelstrom could take any NCPD. Eventually, they realized how stupid it was to even try. But Kang Tao?

“I’m serious, Dum. Get everyone. Kurt. Now.” Kurt’s eyes immediately went blue. Alerting everyone in All Foods.

“Kang Tao, incoming.” Was all the message said? Sent to everyone Maelstrom. Using the entire alert system through Lilith. That was very fucking rare.

“What the fuck did you fucking do?” The guys around them all shuffled into their formations, everyone else in the building descending onto the armoury. If they were only carrying their regular side arms, they were all grabbing weapons now.

Patricia pulled his hoodie sleeve, dragging him to the side.

“She didn’t do fucking shit.” Lars came up behind him, loading his shotgun with ammo, handing a sling of shells to Dum. “Kang Tao started following us. Don’t know fucking why.”

“What’s with the god damn cases. Did you fucking hit them or something?” He shrugged the sling on and took the shotgun handed to him. Joining the others, loading their weapons.

Just about everyone in All Foods was prepping, all the clinking and clanking of metal on metal in every direction. They’d been in a hundred firefights before. But taking a stand at All Foods, only a handful of times.

And one of those was against themselves when Royce took over.

“They just started following you for no fucking reason? I don’t believe it. What’s in the fucking cases, Patricia?” She had strapped her weapons to her back and her hips, now lowering her mantis blades in place.

She turned to look at Dum, then at her chooms to her side. She was hiding something.

“We hit them last week. They want these cases.”

“What’s in the fucking cases, Patricia!??” If he wasn’t mad before, he was now.

Gone for one fucking day on a date, didn’t even get to tell his chooms about it before they fucking fuck everything up, and now he might just die in a god damn firefight with Kang Tao.

As if on cue, he got an incoming holo call. It did not seem like the correct time to answer V. The fucking countdown in the corner of his optics that Lilith set till Kang Tao was in. Ash had taken a perch and was dialed into all the street cameras. Following each turn, each…. Jesus. There were at least sixteen trucks and vans about to pull up on them.

The gate at the front of All Foods had been shut, but a skilled hack could get in real quick. And if they brought more than just muscle, they would be raided in minutes. It definitely wasn’t the time to–

“Don’t fucking know what’s in the boxes. We just nabbed ‘em. Haven’t been able to get ‘em open.”

“So you fucking brought them here? Was that your fucking brilliant idea? You fucking idiot.”

“Oh fuck off, Dum. Whatever it is, they want it.” So she built this like a trap to bring in the god damn corpo rats on them. “It’s fucking valuable.”

“AND YOU FUCKING BROUGHT IT HERE???” He turned to Bjorn, “Go lock yourself in with Royce. Make sure no one gets him.”

“Why the fuck should I fucking babysit the drunk?”

“Cos you're a lousy fucking shot, and someone has to. Now. GO!” Bjorn was a shit soldier; he’d have to have Lilith help him with everything if he did get in a firefight. One of the few recruits he would have wished Lilith took with initiation. But he had survived and been a thorn in Maelstrom's side since. At least this way, he could pretend to be helpful.

Besides, if everything did go to shit, he didn’t want this to be how Simon fucking bit the bullet. Asleep, alone.

Bjorn took the stairs behind them two at a time. He could lock the garage from the inside.

Dum sent him a text as soon as he rounded the corner, when he could no longer see him. “Lock yourself in, turn everything off. Make it look like no one is in that room. And if Simon snores, fucking cover his mouth.”

“I can’t fucking believe you brought them here. What the hell were you thinking?”

“I’m thinking they just fucking slaughtered forty bodies at Totetanz, dumbass.” Fuck. What she didn’t say was Maelstrom bodies. Which meant they just opened fire on…

Incoming Call: V.

The rest of the guys bunched up behind the pillars, some going to the front, others going to the back. He and Lars took one perch with their weapons in the big garage area; the doors would be up any minute now. The least he could do was a text to his date, just in case this was his last day… At least the last evening was a great one. He wished he had kissed her.

“Being raided. Had a great time with you, V.”

“FUCKING ANSWER ME!” He would have figured the beginning of that text answered why he wasn’t answering.

Incoming Call: V.

The countdown in the corner was closer to a minute…

“Shit, V, we’re getting raided. I can’t talk. It was nice knowing you in–

“Yeah, yeah, Kang Tao, I can tell. I’m three minutes off, stall till I’m there.” Shit shit shit, she can’t fucking join their god damn firefight. What’s she gonna do, swoop in and save the day?

“They’re hacking the gate. Seventeen tanks pulling up…”

Dum turned to Lars, he nodded back to him. If they die, at least they die together. Patricia was a pillar over, looking at Dum…with what would have looked apologetic if her face could scrunch that way.

Blaine was at the top of the stairs, hunched behind a pallet of whatever. If he wasn’t seen, he had a great vantage point to at least zero a few of them before they could get to the rest of the guys.

“V, stay away. This is our fight. I’m serious. I don’t want you near this.”

“Shut the fuck up, Dum. Just don’t start shooting till I’m there. I swear to god.” The sound from her end, she was on a bike. Whooshing between cars.

“This is Kang Tao. Come out with your arms up, and we will take prisoners. If we see any weapons, we will start shooting.” Hm, polite of them at least.

“Seriously, Dum, tell everyone. Do not fucking shoot yet.” A car horn from someone she must have cut off.
“Fuck. Fine. Guys! Don’t shoot. Wait until they do. Just stay in your spots.”

“They’re opening the gate.” They could hear the trucks all pulling in. The announcement repeating on their speakers.

“We got maybe thirty seconds till the big gates open.” Kurt would have been sweating if he could. His left hand, holding his revolver, was shaking. In just a minute, they would be fighting for their lives.

Fuck if he had thought two seconds ahead, someone should have been piloting that stupid fucking mech suit Royce made them klep last year. That would have been good with its machine gun arms.

Blaine was counting quietly to himself.

“I'm serious, let them start the shooting, then we can keep more of us alive if they don’t fucking mow us down.”

-Call Disconnected-

Chapter Text

The garage doors started coming up. He checked the cameras. Fifty bodies crowding out of the trucks. They had positioned them as barricades. They couldn’t get out if they wanted to.

“Fucking say something?” He hated when Patricia told him what to do. Also, why the fuck did it land on him?

Obviously, because Royce was locked up, and would have gotten them all killed in seconds.

He lowered his shotgun to the pillar and walked out with his arms up.

“What the fuck do y’all want?” It wasn’t polite, but neither was their stand against them on their own turf.

“We’re here about cases stolen from us.” The guy speaking was the only one not in full riot gear. He was walking forward, but stopped at the gate.

Dum turned to look at Patricia, who mouthed something that looked like “lie”.

He did not want to; he wanted to hand over whatever the fuck it was so they would leave them the fuck alone. Even if they had killed a few Maelstrom already.

Still, he figured if she was going to save the day, V would be pissed if he did anything else but listen to her.

“What cases?” He mentally pinched himself for that stupid fucking reply, but it was all he could think of.

Right on time, the motorcycle showed up right behind the cars. Half the guys turned to aim their guns at the intruder.

“Abe!” Her voice, that of a savior in that moment. Stopping him from this stupid conversation, that they shouldn’t even be having.

The man, evidently Abe, turned to look at her as she walked through.

She was wearing her gear this time, full motorcycle outfit with armoured everything. She clearly had more information than he was aware of.

“Maelstrom are under my protection. What the fuck are you doing here?” The man shrugged his shoulders, as if to shake off the stupid shit she just said. Dum looked over at Lars, who smirked at him and motioned a thumbs-up. Patricia, behind him, just looked confused.

He did not look around at the other borgs, who shared looks of shock and wonder. Why the fuck would this random mercenary take pity on their specific faction? If anything, she should look like a Valentino sympathizer, particularly not a borg fan. And definitely not a chrome-chaser.

“The borgs took some cases from us. We’re here to get them back.” Dum took this as his cue to walk forward, V walking inside the garage, turning to look at Abe.

“Dum Dum, do you have the case?”

“No.”

“He says he doesn’t have them.”

“The crew at Totentanz took them, and those cars are parked over there.” He motioned with his hand behind the garage wall. Patricia took the fucking same cars. God, he could kill her.

“Did the Totentanz crew take the cases?”

“I don’t know V. What I do know is they just mowed down the crowd at the club. And hit the Haven and clinic.” She looked at him with a hidden shock.

“You killed a bunch of civilians partying?”

“We want our cases back.”

“What’s in the cases? Why are they more important than human lives?”

“They simply are V. We are getting them back.”

She turned to look at Dum, then at the crowd of borgs peaking behind the pillars.

“Give us a second, will you, Abe?” He nodded to her as she started walking back towards the pillars.

“How many did they kill?”

“I don’t fucking know. Patricia just brought them here.”

“Whose Patricia?” He forgot they hadn’t met.

“She's… the other me. Works at Totentanz. Or… did. They just got out of there and came here.”

“And the cases?”

“Here.” It was stupid to say out loud. Undoubtedly, Kang Tao could hear them. Patricia dropped her head to her hands, rubbing her face.

“Your girlfriends not gonna speak for us. What the fuck is she doing here anyway?”

“She’s here to help us get out of the fucked up mess you got us into.”

“Here to help. I know Abe, we worked together a few years back.” She had mentioned her time in Arasaka, must have been that, because it didn’t seem like she’d know him from her merc work. “He doesn’t want a firefight, we don’t want a firefight. Can we just give him the cases back?”

“Absolutely fucking not. No.” V’s turn to shake her head and rub the bridge of her nose.

“Why the fuck not? They already killed civvies.”

“Because it’s none of your fucking business why. This is Maelstrom business.”

“Look bitch, I’m just trying to fucking help here. I don’t want any more of y’all fucking killed than you do.”

“The cases are humming V. I can hear them.” She turned to look at the nothing in front of a pillar.

“What the fuck do you mean they’re humming?”

“I can hear the cases V. They’re in the armory he showed you.” Johnny was leaning against the pillar.

“Okay. So we can’t give them the cases back. What can we give them to go away?”

“Nothing. We have to fight them.” Patricia was growing more and more agitated with every word. Every word V was saying, everything Dum wasn’t saying. And especially at the lack of a leader.

“Jesus, we do not want to fucking fight them. Look at their fucking gear. I know y’all go guns blazing, but this is not the fucking time to do that. We have to make a deal with them.”

“Talk to them about Hellman V. Let them know they cannot hurt you.”

“I’ll talk to Abe. Do not fucking do anything.” She turned to look at Dum specifically. “Seriously. Do not fucking shoot. Kang Tao wants me alive; let me remind them of that.”

V started walking towards the man at the door.

“Why the fuck is she so important?”

“Shut the fuck up, Patricia.”

“Ooh, touchy.” God, he hated her.

Chapter Text

“He might not take the bait.”

“He will. He knows you're involved with Hellman.”

“I have nothing to offer them.”

“Sure, you do, whatever they want in those cases has to do with me, probably. My guess is Kang Taos starting back up the relic project, and those are the prototypes.”

“V.”

“Abe.”

“We need those cases back; they are very important for our research.”

“Yeah, yeah. The same research that I’m the test subject for. You need me alive to prove those things even work.”

“So, you're the idiot slotted with the relic.”

“The only living proof of this entire experiment.”

“I heard you're dying.”

“I ain’t dead yet. And now I need you to leave. We will keep the cases.”

“You leave Arasaka and get in bed with cockroaches?”

“Maybe. And I need them alive.”

“Why?” He dropped his hands from their folded in front position and placed them on his hips, as if inspecting V closer. To see if she had changed. How much she had changed. If there was a noticeable terrorist in there now. She didn’t seem much different from the V he worked with before.

“I got my reasons.” She folded her arms.

“That why you never took me up on any offers? You like the borgs too much?” He had asked her to stay late for those stupid drink meetings. All those years ago. She almost would have considered it. But never did. Wasn’t a good look to get in bed with the deals. She prolly would have gotten sacked long before the Jenkins situation.

Johnny was pacing around the two, smoking his cigarettes, but he turned to smirk at V with that revelation.

“You need me alive as proof of Hellman's experiment, and I need them alive for my experiments. I can’t give you the cases.”

“I can’t leave without those cases. V. Hellman needs them.”

“What are they? More relics? More tortured souls?”

“That’s none of your business, V.”

“Actually, I think it is my business. If you got more terrorists in those cases, who are you slotting them into?”

“They’re prototypes. And still, none of your business.”

“I’m the only one walking around, aren’t I? So your experiments haven’t gotten to the trial phase. Or were they about to?”

“The borgs cannot have those cases. V. Who fucking knows what Maelstrom would do with that kind of technology. You are living proof that the experiment isn’t ready yet. What do you think they would do with that tech if they had it?”

“Shit, that’s a good point. Why does Patricia want them?” Johnny lowered his glasses to look at her for emphasis.

It was the better idea to give the cases back to Kang Tao, let them experiment with Hellmans; it wasn’t a good idea to give the relics to an insane religious cult run by a rogue AI.

“That’s a good point, Abe. But they claim they don’t have them.”

“You and I both know that’s not true. You seriously taking the side of those borgs? They’re fucking psycho cultists V.” He lowered his voice and moved closer to her. “If you think what happened to you was bad, imagine what they could do if they got soulkiller. If they could use this to expand their fucking empire of corruption.”

V scoffed at the word empire. Maelstrom was barely a hundred borgs, less now.

Chapter Text

Patricia nudged Dum’s shoulder as they focused on the two ahead of them. Abe moving closer to V to whisper something to her.

“Looks like your inputs got an ex.” She turned to smile at him wide. He hated when she made fun of him.

“I said shut the fuck up, Patricia.”

“We’re not losing those cases. We need them.”

“You don’t even know what’s in them.”

“No, but Lilith wants them.” He turned to look at her now.

“Lilith wants them?” He took a hit of his lace for the first time in days. The immediate pink glow flowing through his spine. It didn’t help.

“Lilith wants them.”

“What? She fucking talking to you now?”

“Maybe.”

He noticed the gleam of the spider bot in the corner of the garage. He hadn’t played with his toy in weeks, didn’t know who booted it back up now, or why.

“What are you fucking planning, Pat?”

“More than you should know.”

“Jesus, Pat. We work for the same fucking gang. We should be on the same god damn team.”

“We fucking aren’t though, are we?”

The spiderbot crawled a little closer to the garage door. Whatever it was planning, he couldn’t get in. And it was perfectly placed to hit both Maelstrom and Kang Tao with whatever it was doing.

He shot a text to Blaine.

Blaine backed away from his perch and disappeared behind the boxes.

“Where are the cases?”

“Hopefully safe.”

“What’s the bot doing then?”

“Protecting us.” He did not like that answer.

Both turned to look at V and Abe again. Kang Tao had lowered their weapons with the meeting.

Kurt walked up behind them, his weapon strapped to his back.

“We could give them one.”

“We’re not giving them fucking shit, Kurt.”

“Fucking Christ, Pat, why the fuck did you bring this here?”

“Because, unlike you, I know who I fucking serve. You would be working with me if you gave a fuck.”

“Who the fuck says I don’t?”

“Literally everyone. And now you've got your eyes on that fucking merc. Have her handling our business for us. This is our fucking problem. Why the fuck is she here?”

“She’s trying to make sure we don’t all fucking die. Which is my god damn job. You fucking failed at that.”

“They came in guns blazing, Dum. I couldn’t do shit about it but sneak out the back.”

“Yeah. And you just let them mow down our fucking clientele.”

“Those drunk chrome chasers? I don’t give a fuck about their deaths. I care about us.”

“Oh yeah? How many of us fucking died back there?”

“How the fuck should I know. I got the cases and got out.”

“Yeah, you sure do fucking care about us then. Abandoning your own crew to die.”

“I abandoned whoever wasn’t smart enough to get out.”

“Why the fuck didn’t they come here guns blazing then?”

“Don’t wanna damage the cases, I guess.”

“We could hit them with a contagion and move out.” Both Dum and Patricia turned to look at Kurt. It wasn’t a bad idea.

“What if it damages the cases?”

“You think a god damn hack's gonna damage whatever the fuck it is? Why does Lilith want them, Pat?”

“I don’t know. She says they’re important.”

“How’d you find out about them?”

“She did.” He didn’t have the same connection to Lilith Patricia obviously did. He never heard from Lilith. But then again, he wasn’t a fucking fanatic like she was.

“She found out about the cases and told you where to hit them?”

“I take commands from our leader, not fucking Royce. Where the fuck is he anyway? Shouldn’t he be here playing boss?”

“He is the boss, Patricia, you’d be smart to remember that.”

“Is that why he’s got Brick in the back giving him commands?” If anything, she definitely wasn’t supposed to know that.

“Royce is the boss.”

“No, the fuck he’s not. Or your girl wouldn’t be out there doing our god damn job for us.” Patricia moved to grab her weapon from her hip. If no one else was going to make a move, she would.

Dum moved to push her gun down. It was obviously seen by Kang Tao as their guns came back up. V and Abe looking back at them.

Patricia pulled away from Dum and walked back behind the pillar. Kurt and Dum instinctively following her.

“Don’t fucking start shit, Patricia. V’s handling it.”

“Your input ain’t handling shit. And she’s definitely not doing anything for us or for Lilith. Who your supposed to take fucking command from.”

“Lilith doesn’t say fucking shit.”

“Not to you.” She took back to her perch with her gun out, looking at Dum from her pillar. “Brick’s with her, you know.”

“What?”

“Brick. He’s with Lilith. He’s not here.” He was though. He was a few rooms over in his cage.

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

“You think he’s back there meditating or some shit? In a fucking brain dance. No. He’s with Lilith.”

“What the fuck do you mean he’s with Lilith?” Lars interjected; he was on the pillar one over. He said that louder than he intended. All borgs turning to look at him now.

Blaine still hadn’t popped back up.

“I mean what I fucking said, idiot.” Patricia put her head back on the pillar and closed her eyes. “He’s with Lilith.”

Then the lights went out.

Chapter Text

Contagion Optics hack. A high fucking level one too. It affected everyone. All the borgs. A good half of the Kang Tao. Abe dropped to the ground, or lower to it. Shuffling with his arms out to get behind the wall.

V went blind, just like everyone else. She jumped behind the garage door, right as someone hit the button to lower it.

Half of Kang Tao blind, the other half not. The ones with ganic eyes started blasting as the garage door lowered. The bullets tearing through the door as it came down.

Dum got himself behind the pillar in time. Luckily, everyone was still in their spots. Someone screamed, someone grunted.

The bullets became the only thing they could hear, destroying the door, hitting the pillars, and the boxes. The sound of metal clashing everywhere.

Dum tried to breathe through the reboot, it was taking longer than it usually did. He felt a small hit on his elbow. Reaching down with his other hand, he realized he had synth blood spurting out of his elbow. Must have hit one of his wires.

“V. Calm down. You’re behind the wall. But you gotta fucking move. Go forward.”

“What? What the fuck is happening?”

“I can see somehow. Go NOW V.” V bolted forward, vision still completely out. The sound of metal, the sound of concrete. Gunshots everywhere. They were being mowed down.

“Who fucking hit the reboot?”

“Move left.” Breathe. He was thinking it for her, she took a staggered breath before the impact. A bullet got her leg; it wasn’t pain, but it wasn’t a pleasant experience to get shot, even on chrome. “Now, the pillars right in front of you.” She put her hand out, reaching the wall, she followed it to get behind it. “Dum’s right next to you. He got shot.”

“Fuck. Dum! Are you good?”

“I’m good, V. Still blind. You?”

“Yeah.”

“Anyone see yet?”

“V, Patricia, she’s shooting back.”

“No” was the chorus from everyone, except Patricia.

Her vision rebooted, sparks, then blurry. She rubbed her eyes as if that would help. Then, perched behind the concrete. Waiting to get a bit more vision back before…

“Fuck. Shoot.” Dum was leaning against the wall. Narrowly missing the bullets flying towards them. He started shooting back. The garage door taking fire from both directions. They couldn’t see out the door, Kang Tao couldn’t see in. As the door slowly fell apart.

Blaine had climbed into the mech suit, and now he was mowing through the barely there door. It was enough to release what was left of the metal, which now crashed to the ground.

It was only a few minutes of nonstop shouting and screaming, drowned out by gunfire before it was all done. The silence was deafening when it quieted down.

“Is that all of them?” Dum turned to Lars, their weapons practically smoking from the fire.

“I think that’s all of them.”

Vex hesitantly walked to the garage door, hiding behind the wall just in case there were any stragglers left. He nodded to Ash, who crossed over to the other side and walked with him.

They fired a few shots behind the trucks before they came back in.

“We got ‘em all.”

“Shit. What do we do now, boss?”

Dum turned to V, then to Patricia, who wasn’t there.

“Where the fuck is Pat?”

“I’m here.” She walked back out of the armoury area. “Cases are good.”

“Oh great, the fucking cases are good. We almost fucking died, Pat.”

V had walked outside and was looking at the bodies. She kicked Abe’s arm with her foot.

“Sorry, V.”

“Me too.” The cars were all empty, bodies scattered everywhere. The trucks were filled with bullet holes.

“V, I’m uh… sorry about that guy.”

“Me too Dum. He wasn’t the worst, but he did suck.” They looked at each other. They’d survived a shootout together now. That wasn’t usually a step in a romance. “We survived, though.”

“Yeah, we did. Now I gotta go figure out what to do next.” He motioned for her to follow him inside. The sun was still shining bright in the sky. Like nothing had happened.

Chapter Text

“So, we can’t stay here.” Patricia turned to look at all the borgs in front of her. “We’re gonna take the cases and head to a safehouse.”

“You’re not taking those fucking cases anywhere. We almost just died for them, I’m not letting you take them and fuck off to god knows where.”

“Shouldn’t Royce make that decision?” Royce, he had almost forgotten about the man. He shot a text to Bjorn. Let him know it’s safe to come out now.

“Yeah. We gotta get Royce. Then we can figure out what to do next. What safehouse?”

“Does it matter?” They didn’t have that many left. And about sixty Maelstrom that now had to go into hiding. Just in case Kang Tao came for revenge.

“It does. Where do you want to take the cases?” He wasn’t shouting at her, but his tone wasn’t kind in any manner.

“Lilith wants them; I want to get them to her.” What the fuck did that mean?

“And where the fuck is your god? Why isn’t she here, taking the bullets for us?”

“She helped us, asshole. You have to admit that.” Confirmation, it was Lilith's doing, the quickhack.

“You blinded us in fucking battle bitch. You call that helping?” He hadn’t let go of his piece, gripping it even tighter now.

“Yeah. I fucking do dumbass. It did help. They’re all dead, and we’re all fucking alive.” They both looked around. Half their guys had taken fire, but it was true. No deaths on their end.

The pillars looked like cheese with the number of holes scattered on them.

Dum turned to V, noticing her holding herself on her right leg. Her left leg pants had a hole.

“Shit, V. You got hit? Are you okay?” He felt borg optics on him as he lowered himself to her face first, then on his knees to check her leg. It was chrome, thank god.

“It’s fine. Just a flesh wound.” She chuckled at herself. “I’ll be fine when I get to my ripperdoc.” He lifted himself back up to look at her face. She was flushed slightly in the cheeks.

“Someone get Royce, let’s figure out where we go from here.” All eyes turned back to Pat.

“I’M FUCKING RIGHT HERE. WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?” And then all eyes were on Royce, barrelling in right on time. “What happened to you?” His optics landed on Dum standing in front of V.

“Kang Tao, we handled them.” He gestured back towards the blood pool in front of the garage. “Now we gotta get out of here, because Patricia fucked some shit up.”

“I did what we were fucking supposed to do. Royce, we need to clear out of here as fast as possible. Grab everything you want, and let's head out to the safehouses. My teams taking the cargo.”

“WHAT CARGO?” Royce was walking around, inspecting the bullet holes on everything. Only stopping when he was in front of Blaine in the mech suit. “WHO THE FUCK SAID YOU COULD USE MY TOY?”

“It’s a good thing he did, we almost died. It’s Patricia's fault since she lured them here with some fucking cases. I don’t know what’s in them, but she kleped them from Kang Tao, so they came here after them. Then she blinded all of us and let them try to take us out.” Dum had walked across the garage, stepping over bullets littering the ground. “She basically lured them here as some kind of trap, not caring if any of us died because of it.” She glared back at him as he spoke.

“None of us died. It all worked out.” Her chrome teeth gritted at him as she spoke.

“What about the ones at Totentanz?” As soon as he spoke it, he heard it. He was a child telling on the other kid to the teacher. Except this wasn’t school, neither of them were kids, and Royce absolutely wasn’t a teacher. It felt like a moment he’d had before, still Patricia. But Brick. Brick had felt like an adult, like the teacher. This wasn’t Brick. This was Simon. This wasn’t the time to tattle-tell; it was time to do his job.

“A bunch of guys got mowed down at the club.” He turned back to Simon this time. He had been observing the scenario he had been in. “We have to go into hiding. Patricia wants to take the cases. I think we need to split them up, in case she’s planning anything. Like that coup you were thinking Kurt might be running.” Simon’s face turned to a scowl towards her.

“Everyone, start packing your shit. You get one personal box, and then grab what you can carry. Separate by car to where you want to go. We got five spots we could hunker down. So be mindful of that. Clear out the armory. Take any extra cars we got, do not use those trucks there.” He had started moving his arms with directions at some point. Synth blood sprayed on his hoodie as he did.

“Everyone get checked out by medical first, Vex call the Pitt, see if they can send a ripper over.” He turned to Patricia. “You said they got the clinic and Haven, right?” Patricia nodded. “Okay. We might need to kidnap someone, unless y’all are all fine right?” A flurry of borgs agreeing. No one had necessarily lethal shots, a few chest holes, mostly limbs. Some guy from Patricia's crew had a quarter of his headpiece missing, but that only took an optic with minimal cosmetic damage.

“Hey, is he good?” He turned to V, who was looking at Blaine.

He hadn’t moved since the battle and looked very dead. The suit was still functioning, and his jaw was hinged on by one side, dribbling both real and synthetic blood, mixing into a disgusting-looking pink liquid. For a moment, the only sound was the drops hitting the ground in front of the suit.

“Fuck. Royce, power it down. Where’s Troy?” Troy, one of the few trained in anything medical at All Foods, stepped forward. He had a few wires cut open by the bullets, but they were mostly cosmetic wires to begin with. “Lars, help me out with him.”

Royce did immediately, as he should have, opening up the back of the suit. Lars and Dum pulled Blaine out. Placing him on the ground in the garage. Troy immediately knelt down and started to jack in.

“Shit, Dum. He needs a jaw, I can’t do that. You gotta get someone.”

“Fuck. Okay. Uh. He turned to look at the group of borgs gathered around. No one else moving forward. Not like any of them knew anything or anyone who could help. Lucy was gone, the other ripperdocs dead. Patricia didn’t offer anything up.

“Okay. Everyone, go pack your shit, grab everything not nailed down. Lars and I will handle this. Nobody.” He looked directly at Patricia. “Nobody let her leave with both those cases.” He turned back to Bjorn. It wasn’t clear he was alive, but Troy hadn’t said anything about him being dead yet.

“Fine. We’ll help pack the armory up.” If her eyebrows moved, she would have been teasing him. He turned back, ignoring her.

“Fuck. Okay. What’s the closest ripperdoc we could nab?” Blaine looked terrible; he was moving but just barely. His jaw was half-attached, not having fallen clean off. It was chromed, but it was also real organs and blood underneath. The chrome was just surface-level to look armored, but not actually effective at blocking anything. It was a very Tyger Claw install, style over substance. Not that Maelstrom didn’t have their own style. Just that if they replaced a jaw, the whole damn thing would be replaced.

“There’s a clinic about five minutes from here. We could grab a few guys and get there soon.” Lars was pulling up the directions on his optics. Bracing himself to bolt for the first car they could reach.

“Hey, wait. Guys. I got a guy.” He had forgotten she was here. Coming in to save the day, again.

“You got someone who would work on a borg?”

“Yeah, and I can get him there. He’s a doc down in Little China. It’d be less noise if it’s just me. It’s my main doc, so he’ll do it no problem.” V rushed forward, leaning down to Blaine's side. “I can get him a new jaw and be back before the sun sets.”

Dum looked at her, bewildered. She was willing to just pick up a borg and take him, no questions asked. Nothing. Just willing to do that for one of his crew.

“Royce? Is that cool with you?”

Royce had been standing there, still drunk. Like he was barely aware of the situation. He grunted at her as if that was approval.

“Sure, yeah. Just try and get him back here in one piece, ‘kay V?” With that, Dum moved back, picking Blaine up in his arms. “Where’s your car?”

“Yeah, Brought my bike. Gonna have to borrow one of yours.” They left Lars and Royce standing there as they walked out into the sun.

“Can’t, they’re being loaded up to leave.” They looked at each other. Blaine twitching and sputtering blood upwards.

“Got it.” V rushed forward and leaned down at one of the bodies behind the first truck. Tucking down, she started riffling through the clothing of the corpses. On the third, she found the set of keys, opening up the side door for Blaine to be put in the back. “I’ll see you in a few hours. He’ll be okay. I got him. My doc's a good dude, he’ll help.”

He was trusting a woman he barely knew, one he was thinking might try to kill him just the day before. Now, she was taking his choom to her ripperdoc. Yet he didn’t feel like any part of this was a trap or a mistake.

“I’ll uh..” He instinctively followed her to the driver's side, both of them holding on to the open door. “I’ll see you in a few hours, Dum.” She looked up at him now. The sun reflected off her cheekbones. She was still that color of red as before, but with something else now.

Today hadn’t been the day he expected, not when he woke up on the couch, her asleep, facing him a few feet away. The sun had shone on her cheekbones then, too.

“Before I lose my nerve, and since we almost died.” She spoke it in a rushed manner, and then surprised him when she bounced up on her feet and kissed his left cheek. Before she could regret it, she was in the car with the door closed and putting on her seatbelt. She winked at him from inside the truck before she was off.

Chapter Text

“That was a fucking shit first kiss, V.”

“Oh shut up, Johnny. We just survived a firefight, and now we’re saving some dude. I’ve had a successful day. And that wasn’t a first kiss, that was a first kiss on the cheek.” Her ears were turning pink. It was wild she hadn’t turned off that setting yet.

“Yeah, and you have been thinking about kissing him for the past twenty-four hours. And that was a shit excuse for even that.”

She turned the corner a bit too aggressively.

“We gotta get Blaine here to Vik. So shut up.” She sent a call on her holo.

“That Patricia bitch could see by the way. During the reboot. She was moving with full sight.”

“Hey, V. How’s it going?”

“I got a borg. Maelstrom. His jaw was mostly blown off. Needs some medical help, and probably a chrome jaw.”

“A simple hello would have sufficed.” Still, she saw him get up and immediately start prepping his station. “Why do you have a maelstrom in tow?”

“Friend of a friend. Just got shot up by Kang Tao. My left leg took some damage, too.” Vik was hurriedly arranging his tools.

“Okay. I’ll let Misty know. See you soon. Get here safe, V.”

“You got it.”

Call Ended -

-

“You think he’ll make it?” Lars was wiping his hands off the pink liquid. He offered the dirty rag to Dum.

“I’m fine.” Dum shrugged his hand away, “I hope he will.”

“Dude, you got blood all over your neck and face. Even some on your lip piercings. Just fucking wipe it off and let’s get moving.”

Dum felt his lips, pulling away his chrome fingers to see pink liquid covering him. No wonder V didn’t kiss him.

It also probably wasn’t the right time for a first kiss, right after a battle.

But she did kiss his cheek. Dum took the rag from Lars.

“Let’s go pack all our shit up. We going to safehouse three?”

“Yeah, safehouse three.”

Chapter Text

V grabbed Blaine from the backseat, she parked in front of the esoterica. But decided it would be best to walk around the side entrance rather than drip blood on all of Misty’s carpets.

“Hey V, whose the lifeless corpse? It’s not an offering to the great Zeta, is it?” She waved him off as she passed, carrying the body. She had placed a random blanket on his upper half, so it did look like she was just carrying a dead body. No one could tell he was alive, much less a Maelstrom…. Or Tyger Claw… He looked like he could be either, but the jaw might change that.

“Not today. Just a friend who needs help.” She kicked open the half-broken gate blocking off the alley.

“Alright, V. You know the drill.” V walked through the gates and began putting the man in the chair.

“Give me a minute here.” Vik immediately began diagnostics. “How many hypos has he gotten?”

“Uh, two, I think. One there, and then I gave him one in the car about ten minutes ago.”

“Hm, one more couldn’t hurt.” Vik jammed one into the relatively normal neck skin he had. Same place as the other two were put.

V walked over to the desk area, where Misty had perched herself since she wasn’t helping quite yet. She had already grabbed out every jaw they had in storage and prepped everything for him. Right now, it was just up to Vik to cut off any bleeding and install a new chrome jaw.

“When Vik called, I was worried it was Dum.” Misty turned to look at V now. “Oh shit, your leg. Do you need help with that?”

“Nah, it’s just like cosmetic, or maybe just needs a replacement. But it doesn’t hurt.” She leaned against the desk and shook her left leg to demonstrate how fine it was. “Nah. It’s his friend, I think his name is Blaine. There was a shootout at their place. Kang Tao after them.”

“Why?”

“They stole some cases of something from them. Johnny says the cases sing.”

“They sing?”

“I definitely did not say sing V.”

“Or, hum. Like, he can hear them.”

“What are they?”

“Dunno. Prolly has to do with the relic. Like Kang Tao's attempt at it.”

“More lost souls?”

“Maybe.”

Misty hummed, holding onto her chin like she was thinking. Her legs crossed from her perch on the desk. Vik was chiseling away at where the jaw had been hinged. If it was all flesh, it would probably have blown clean off. But it was armored, swinging from where the metal connected right above his jaw.

“Will he be okay, do you think?”

“Oh yeah, Vik replaces shit like this like at least once every two weeks. It happens a lot.” She put her hands back on the desk and looked down.

“What do you think Maelstrom wants with engrams, or… maybe they’re just empty relics.”

“Fuck Mist, I don’t know. But it can’t be good.”

“Do you think you’re doing the right thing, helping Maelstrom with them?”

“No. No, she does not.” V frowned in response to Johnny.

“I don’t think so. I don’t think they should have them.” But… but the silent part. She shouldn’t have been helping them. She knew that. That was easy to figure out. Whatever Maelstrom wanted, it wasn’t good to give them that much technology.

But she liked one borg. And here she was jumping in to save him, and now save his friend.

“I kissed him on the cheek.” Misty practically jumped off the desk, lunging forward to grab V’s arms and wave them in front of her.

“YAY! A first kiss! Gosh, I was wondering how your first date went!” Misty looked at her with those big, organic eyes. “That’s so exciting!”

“Kids! I need you both to quiet down. I’m trying to work here. Cutting nerves is a concentration thing.”

“Sorry, Vik!” They responded in unison.

“Come, let’s go sit on the steps.” Misty grabbed V’s hand to pull her down from the desk. “You don’t need my help, do you, Vik?”

“Come back in five, I might then.”

“You got it.” The two walked out to sit on the steps outside the gate.

“So, you only just kissed his cheek?”

Chapter Text

“Royce, did you grab all your shit? We’re putting it in the Hammer,” Royce grunted in response as he pushed a box into a pile being taken by the initiates.

When he thought about it for just a second, Dum felt proud. These kids survived their first big firefight. It was stupid, but they survived. On that note, how many of them even had optics installed to begin with? Maybe they had some visibility during the fighting. He’d have to ask Blaine how he thought the kids were doing. Blaine.

“V.”

“Hey, V, how is he doing? Did you make it there okay?”

“Yeah, Vik is installing a new jaw now. It doesn’t look very pretty, but it’ll do the job.”

“Nova. Vik?”

“Yeah, Ripper, Viktor Vector? You know him?”

“Never met him, but know he was a legend for a while there. He’s your ripperdoc?”

“Yeah, he’s my friend. So he had no problem handling this for me.” Her lip twitched into a smile. If he had nothing to do right now, he’d probably spend too much time trying to figure out what that smile was for.

“That’s great, V. Well, we're almost ready to head out here. I got some of the guys to pack up all Blaine’s shit. He didn’t have much.”

“Cool, and y’all are going to the safehouses?”

“Some of us, yeah. Patricia won’t tell us which one she’s going to, which is fucking annoying. Guess we’ll see if she’s got another place we don’t know about.”

“You gonna let her take the cases?”

“Made a deal, she can get one with her, we’re keeping the other. So she can’t fuck off to dogtown or some shit.”

“Damn. Those cases must be hella important.”

“Yeah. I guess so.”

“So… should I take Blaine to one of these safehouses?”

“Pretty sure I shouldn’t be telling you where they are, actually.”

“At least not on holo, yeah.” They just looked at each other for a minute. He had smeared blood on his chin spikes; she had blood on her face, probably from carrying Blaine.

“I’ll tell you where I end up. But for now, if you could just bring Blaine back here, that’d be good. Is he awake yet?”

“Nah, Viks got him under.”

“How are you? I mean, how's the leg?”

“Eh, 'tis a flesh wound. I’ll walk it off. Vik's gonna switch it out for a bit. Won’t be able to double jump till I get a new one installed. Or I could just jump around on one leg, that might be fun.”

“Sorry, did you have work to do today?”

“My work today was helping out you guys. Don’t worry about it.” He finished with the boxes and sat down to take a drink. Nearly everything was cleared out of All Foods. Not the junk and boxes, and the place would stink to high heaven with how much shit they were just abandoning. But that’s for future borgs, they got olfactory muters anyway. Had to in NC.

“How’d you uh… how’d you find out about Kang Tao anyway?”

“NCPD scanners had chatter about Kang Tao going to hit y'all after Totentanz. I was actually headed to a gig up near there when I tuned in.”

“You just check police scanners in your free time?”

“I do when the words Totentanz, Kang Tao, and Maelstrom are involved. Got a few of those words under notification.”

“Maelstrom?”

“Yeah.”

“You checkin up on me?”

“Well, it’s a good thing I did. Who knows how that would have gone if I didn’t?” He smiled at her and then went to wipe off the blood from his chin when he saw his reflection. His new hoodie looked just like all the old ones now.

“Thanks, V. Seriously. That was a shit show.”

“No problem. It’s my job. Preventing shit shows from being worse.”

“Yeah…”

“Which, by the way. The scanners are suggesting that Maelstrom all went Cyberpsycho. They’re blaming Totentanz on y’all.”

“What’s fucking new. We get blamed for half the shit in this fucking city anyway.”

“I wouldn’t say half, maybe like a tenth.”

“Ha.”

The sun was finally starting to set. What a fucking shit show of a day.

“Viks just about finishing up. Imma head back in there. He’s prolly gonna say he needs somewhere to hunker down. Take it easy. He got some pretty fucked up trauma there. Don’t know if he’ll be able to speak yet. You got somewhere safe for him?”

Dum turned to look around. All the borgs finishing up their packing, the boxes being moved in the cars like an assembly line. A few guys had staked their car and their safehouse, just standing there waiting to be told when to go.

“Yeah, we got somewhere we can take him. Medical care and shit there.”

“Speaking of which, I uh… texted Lucy. She said she can come check out any guys that need it, or y’all could go to her, but she’s at that fancy cyberpsycho rehab now.”

“The doc we nabbed off the street is willing to come back? She ain’t worried we gonna kidnap her again?”

“Lucy is good people, and I told her you wouldn’t hold her hostage this time.”

“Shit.” The guys were all walking around various degrees of injured. But none of them felt it due to the blockers. “Maybe V. I’ll let you know.”

“Preem. Well, I’ll talk to you when I head back over. But I’d say clear out as many of them as you can now.”

“I will. Thanks, V. I mean it.”

“No problem, Dum.” She winked at him and hung up.
“How's your girlfriend doing? She hate you yet?” Vex sat down next to him, not asking before he took a swig from the water bottle that had been in his hand.

“No, she also offered Lucy to come check us out if we need medical.”

“That’s a good idea. Troy should get some more education on that shit.”

“He’s doing his best.”

“Yeah, but he ain’t trained in this shit at all. All he got was like a first aid class back in school.”

“Shit, really? I thought he had more than that.”

“What? You think a med student dropped out and decided to become a borg? Fuck no.”

“Well, if Troy wants to, I’ll make sure he gets some more classes or something. Maybe he could go apprentice or something.”

“I’m sure he’d appreciate it. So how's the girl? How’s Blaine actually?”

“He’s gonna wake up soon, new chrome jaw. Everything in the cars?”

“Just about. A couple groups are ready to head out. Want me to go give them the go-ahead?”

“Yeah, and where’s Royce?”

“Garage.”

Chapter Text

“Think we could get this in one of them Kang Tao trucks?”

“I think we gotta leave the suit, Royce. We can come get it later, or get you a new one sometime.”

“Fuck. I wanted to take it now. Came in handy, my sweet ride.” Royce was looking longingly at his suit, now covered in bullet holes. It had been all new and shiny just a few hours ago.

“Royce, uh. What are we gonna do about Brick?”

“Fuck 'em.”

“I’m serious man. We gotta put him somewhere. And… Patricia said some weird shit about him. Normally, I wouldn’t bring it up, but all the guys heard.” Dum was leaning against the wall, his elbows scratching on it as he adjusted.

“We can drop him off at the Pitt.” The Pitt was one of those places you weren’t supposed to know about. Ever. Even in Maelstrom. Where they kept their dogs. Didn’t seem like the right place for Brick, especially if he wasn’t just himself. “What’d she say, weird?”

“That he’s not here. He’s with Lilith. Not a BD or meditating.”

“Hm. Yeah. I know.”

“You know?”

“Of course I fucking know, Dum. I’m the god damn boss here.” He had been talking in the rare quiet voice that only Dum ever got, but he got loud enough that the guys moving boxes looked over.

“I’m not saying you're not. I just didn’t know that you thought he’d be with Lilith. Fuck I didn’t even think you believed in Lilith.” He realized he had never had a conversation with Royce about their “religion”, or at least not since they first joined up.

“Just because I don’t grovel at her fucking feet doesn’t mean I don’t know her. She told me she took Brick.”

“Lilith fucking talks to you?” Simon turned to look at him now, and suddenly, Dum felt very small. Like everyone else knew something about his gang that he somehow didn’t. Lilith had never said anything to him, never in his fifteen years. Now he was wondering why.

Royce lowered his voice before he spoke again.

“She made herself known when I took over from Brick. Said some shit about knowing my place. Fuck that shit. But yeah, she talks to me, not often. Don’t like hearing a fucking voice in my head telling me what to do. Already got a conscience, don’t I?”

“Do you?” Royce pushed his shoulder into the wall, a playful nudge, his snapped wire tapping on the concrete.

“Fuck you, Dum. Of course I do. I just don’t give a fuck about what's wrong or right.”

“Hah. Yeah, I guess not.” He stood back up from the wall, following Royce from the mech suit. “So, Brick.”

“We gotta take him with us. Can’t fucking leave him here.” For once, Simon was making sense, even if he had to guide him to it.

“Okay. I’ll find some guys going to the Pitt then. Is Patricia still around?”

“Do I look like I fucking know where she is?” He laughed at that. No, Simon never looked like he knew fucking anything.

Dum walked through the building, the floor littered with garbage in every god damn room, but nothing valuable. The armoury was cleared out. The alcohol and drugs were all packed up. Nothing anywhere, looked like the abandoned factory that it originally was.

He found her in the meat-packing area; she was at the station, turning everything off. This place would be a biohazard in a day or two. If it wasn’t already.

“We gotta take Brick to the Pitt.”

“I know. I already got my guys on it. Or, I would, if y’all didn’t have a fucking gate lock. But we got a spot for him in the car. They’re trying to wake him up now.”

“I’ll send Royce over there then, only a few of us have the code.” He shot a text to Royce. “So… you seriously aren’t telling me where your crew are headed?”

“It’s not really your business.”

“It is if you have a case.”

“You should let me take both.” She was pulling all sorts of levers and shit. He’d been here fifteen years as his base, and yet not a single thing in this room had he ever known did what. She’d barely been here and knew the whole fucking layout.

As she pulled the final lever, the entire factory went quiet; he didn’t even realize how much the moving machines were just the background noise of his life until now. The lights were all off. Not like it mattered since they could all see. Now it was just red glowing everywhere.

“You don’t even know what they fucking are.”

“Your input seemed to.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? V was just trying to help.”

“When Lilith dropped the reboot… she was able to see. I’ve seen her eyes; her whole face is replaced. How was she able to see?” She had stopped moving, just one hand leaning on the counter with the controls; she was looking at him directly now. Not through the windows or at any of the lights that had now stopped blinking.

“She was blind just as we were.”

“You were.”

“What?” She was shooting fast, wasn’t she, faster than him, and the others were rebooting.

“I could see. You couldn’t. She could see too. I don’t know how, but she could see.” It was a high-level reboot. Tier five if he was guessing. That shit took crazy amounts of RAM, and it was indiscrimatory, should have affected both Pat and V.

“How the fuck could you see?”

“How the fuck do you think. Lilith didn’t let it hit me. Everyone but me, sure. But it hit V. She wasn’t protected. So how the fuck could she see?”

“What makes you think she was seeing?” If he was remembering right, she was right beside him on the pillar, she said she couldn’t see. She took a second to reboot, just as the others.

“She didn’t start next to you at the pillar, did she?” When he thought back to it, no. She was at the garage doors.

“She just ran back towards the pillars, good spatial distancing even blind.”

“She was able to fucking see Dum. Ask her about it.” She folded her arms, matching his stance; her hair was more matted down from sweat than he’d ever seen it. Come to think of it, he’d only seen her in action a handful of times, and she always got away without a scratch.

“Fine. I will. Why the fuck would Lilith protect you but not all of us borgs?”

“Ha. You’re just jealous that Lilith doesn’t talk to you.” He made a face. “That’s it, isn’t it. You’re pissed that Lilith talks to me, and Brick and even Royce, but she never said shit to you. You aren’t a leader in this gang, Dum. You’re just a fucking lapdog, you don’t get the directions, you just take them.”

God talking to Patricia was probably the most irritating thing about his whole life.

“I’m not fucking jealous that some fucking AI talks to you. AIs talk to everyone in NC.”

“But not you.” He wasn’t jealous, more confused. She, however, was done with this conversation as she started walking away. “I’m not putting Brick in a cage, by the way, he’s got a room at the Pitt. He wouldn’t join us anyway; he wants to be with Lilith.”

Be with Lilith, what the fuck did that even mean?

“Fine. Just… don’t let Royce know.” Brick wasn’t a threat to Royce; Patricia was. If both of them were together, it was more likely they’d stage another fucking coup. Or maybe Dum could get him to back down. “And Pat!” She paused with the door still open. “We… we gotta be united right now. Don’t go fucking me and the gang over. If she needs the cases, we’ll keep them safe for her. But we just lost a fuck ton of our guys, Maelstrom doesn’t need another power struggle.”

She dropped the door handle and let it slam shut.

“So step down then.”

“What?”

“Step down. Let me take over. Royce doesn’t fucking want the job. If I were you right now, I’d make me the leader, we’ll keep Brick, and you and Royce can fuck off doing whatever you want, just make me boss.”

“Pat, I’m not even in fucking charge. That’s not my call.”

“Oh, cut the fucking bullshit, Dum. You are in charge. You’ve been in charge since the fucking coup. The guys follow you. Fuck, my own crew is more loyal to you than me for god knows what fucking reason. All the recruits look up to you. Just step down, make Royce step down. Put me in charge.” She was serious. It made sense. Of course, it made sense. Royce didn’t want the job, and Dum didn’t want leadership.

“Pat, I can’t just fucking make that call, and it’s all good.”

“Yes, you can. You are the only one who can. Royce can’t fucking be reasoned with. Bjorn told me about the fight earlier today. He thought Kurt of all people was planning a fucking coup.”

“I’m not the fucking boss. I don’t decide that shit. You want him to step down, you ask him yourself.”

“He’ll fucking shoot me.”

“Yeah, we’ll maybe you're asking something so stupid you deserve to be shot.”

“What the fuck is your allegiance to him anyway. Why the fuck do you give a shit about Royce? Royce doesn’t give a fuck about you or anyone else in here.” Of all the emotions the past twenty-four hours had brought him, that one felt like a stab in his heart. It was probably true.

“Fuck you.” He didn’t look back as he rushed past her, throwing the door open so hard the handle slammed into the wall. He did not look back as he left.

Chapter Text

“His new jaw is gonna take a few days to get used to, and he should get it replaced soon. You really should let him stay the night here, V. He could sleep on the couch.”

“You really want a borg to wake up in the middle of the night in pain in your office here?”

“No, I don’t, which is why I’d be perched in my desk with a taser if he did. It’s also why I’m not stopping you from taking him.”

“Thanks, Vik. But I got it. I can get him back to his guys. He’ll be fine there. And I’m sure he’ll replace the jaw soon.”

“V. I’ve been nice by not asking a lot about your personal life. I think I’ve done great at that, actually. But I really gotta question your choices when you bring a strommer to my clinic.”

“I know, but Vik, it’s complicated. I… He’s a friend. And I needed him taken care of.”

“And how did you become friends with Maelstrom to begin with?”

“Well…” She looked at Misty as if she could provide the answer, then immediately continued thinking it might be worse if Misty did answer for her. “I started dating a Maelstrom borg; we’ve been on one date.” She felt like she was overcorrecting by answering too much, but now it was just flowing out. “He’s really nice, I know he’s a maelstrom borg, and that’s not great. But really, he’s not like what Maelstrom is made out to be. He’s really sweet. He likes me. He’s nice. He’s funny. He doesn’t scare me. Mitch even likes him. And his gang got attacked by Kang Tao, which is how Blaine here lost his jaw. But I swear, he’s really… He’s great, Vik. I think you’d like him. And I couldn’t let his friend just die there after he got shot. Thank you so much for helping. I swear I’ll pay you back. I’m really sorry.”

Vik just watched as V went very animated with her arms and dramatically swinging them as if that was enough to wave away the awkward thoughts and feelings. This was confession, and she was apologetic. She knew how bad it looked. She knew how he’d take it. She knew all this, and that's why the girls and Mitch knew long before she ever wanted to tell Vik.

“This is that borg you told Guadalupe about?” She had forgotten that. It felt like a lifetime ago, sitting at the table when Jackie teased her about the borg.

“Uh… Yeah. That’s… that’s the guy. His name is Dum Dum.”

“Dum Dum?” Vik was leaning against the wall partition, arms crossed, in that very attractive way that showed his biceps. Part of this confession felt like admitting stupidity, part of it felt weird for admitting things to the previous crush, and part of it felt like parental disapproval. Her relationship with Vik had been confusing for years now; he would never return her affections, she knew that, so she moved on. Unfortunately, she picked a Maelstrom Borg for her next crush. All of that collapsed on her in this moment.

“His name is Dennis, but he goes by Dum. He’s…” She paused; she would absolutely have to turn off the blush option on her face. This was getting ridiculous; she knew she was bright red.

Johnny was holding his head in his hands, dropping his head down between his knees the more idiotic her words came out.

“He’s nice. I like him a lot. He’s a good guy.”

“Kid.” God, she hated when he called her that. “He’s a maelstrom borg, and he’s getting in firefights at his own place. You really think dating him is what you want to do?”

“So what? I get shot at every fucking day?”

“Yeah, and you give me a headache every damn day.” He dropped his voice even lower, if that was possible. She glanced over at Misty in the corner, just staring at her. “I’m just worried.” There was a reason she didn’t tell him, and that was it. She didn’t want to hear that specifically.

“I know.” She looked at Johnny, who was just covering his face from her antics. “I’m not in any danger. I promise.”

“You just brought a borg with his jaw held on by nerve endings and a screw to my place, V. There is obvious danger to this.”

“I’m being smart. I know what I’m doing. I’m not a fucking kid.” Not only was her face hot, but she felt the tears threatening to escape.

“V.” He reached for her hand, which was resting on the chair, Blaine slowly blinking up at her. He must have been waking up. “I trust you, I don’t trust them. But if this is what you want to do, I can’t stop you.”

“Vik, I don’t know how much longer I have.” She looked at Blaine. His new jaw was all chrome; the hypo might be running out, but he was so doped up on drugs that he would feel no pain, even if he didn’t have hormone adjusters. “I want to spend my time with things I want. And I want to keep seeing this guy.” She reached down for Blaine's hand. It wasn’t Blaine she was speaking about, but this was her only physical way of showing affection to the man a few miles away. “He’s great. And this is his friend. I just want to help how I can.”

“I know you do, V. And as I said, I can’t stop you. But you have to seriously think about this. And we don’t know how long you have, but spending time with them, it can’t be increasing your own time.”

“I know.” She looked at Blaine; his eyes were open now.

“Welcome back to the land of the living, Mr. Blaine. Can you speak?” Vik must have installed a new voice box.

“Kinda. Who’re you?” Blaine looked between V and Vik and tried to focus his eyes on Misty standing in front of the chair. His voice came out gravelly, new voice box and all. But smooth. Smoother than it had been before. His voice box was normal, not the metallic voice he had gotten used to.

“Hi. I’m V. I’m Dum’s friend. This is Vik. This is his clinic. And this is Misty.” She gestured to Misty with her right as she squeezed his hand with her left. “Your jaw got blown off at All Foods. Vik here helped fix you up. You got a new jaw and voice box. I’m gonna take you back to Maelstrom now. They’re evacuating All Foods after the fight. You remember that?”

“I lost a jaw, not my memory.” His new jaw creaked as he moved it. “Sorry, a bit sore.”

“You in any pain there, Blaine? I could give you some more dorphs if you need.”

“Nah, I’m good.” He started to sit up in the chair. “I’m good to go. V is it? Let's head out.”

V turned to Vik and mouthed a thank you before she offered her arm to Blaine.

“I’ll pay you when I’m back. I swear.” Vik waved her off.

“You want me to take a look at that leg?” V shook her head.

“Nah, I’ll replace it tomorrow. It’s fine, I can walk. Plus, this will make sure I don’t get into any peril til at least then. Bye y’all.” Misty offered her arm to Blaine's empty one, but he refused it. Shaking his head, before stopping to look at her. The gate opened as he kept looking.

“I like the hair,” was all he said before they made it up the stairs.

Chapter Text

“V will be here any minute. Did everyone else leave?” Dum had finished loading the final box in the car. He wondered if he should move the Kang Tao cars, but maybe that would be useless. Prolly better to leave them here, Kang Tao already had it out for them. Any moving of the cars would alert their GPS trackers, bring them closer to finding them. At least it was a dead end to leave them here.

“Yeah, everyone else is gone.” Lars was chugging the last water bottle left in the building. All the final cars were moving out. Royce had gone with the Brick car. Not that it made much of a difference. Royce would be heading to the second safehouse as soon as they dropped Brick off at the Pitt.

It was just Dum, Vex, Ash, and Lars left. It felt like leaving home, but in a real fucked up way. Having to abandon the place they all trained. All those years ago.

He didn’t really know how his chooms became that title. But apparently, Blaine was on their level, considering he’d be joining them in safehouse three.

They had about ten safehouses, and the scattering group would make it to what was left. They figured they lost about thirty at Totetanz. He wondered if there was any point in going back to scan the corpses. But that’s just how it went in NC. People died, what could you do?

“So, I know today's been crazy…” Lars trailed off. Looking expectantly at Dum. As if he could read his mind and answer his questions.

“But docking must have been phenomenal, considering your bitch jumped in and saved us today.”

“Yeah, Dum gave such good dick she had to keep you alive.” Vex was laughing as he hit his lace, choking on it for a second.

“Oh fuck off.” He was laughing, though.

“Seriously, man. Your girl fucking saved our asses. If they mowed us down, Maelstrom wouldn’t be here no more.” Ash handed Dum a cigarette and a lighter as he joked along.

“I didn’t…” He was cut off immediately.

“Fuck you mean, she saved our fucking asses without dick? Fuck. How good of a date could you possibly be?”

“Seriously, man. How was the date? Did y’all go dancing?” Lars looked at him with his stupid, proud face. Synth skin stretched stupidly wide on his face.

“We did not dance. We went to a couple bars.” He tried to stop it, but he was smiling too. “Shit, y’all, I went to the fucking Afterlife.”

“Holy fuck. THE AFTERLIFE? DID YOU SEE ROGUE!???” She was a legend, even amongst the monsters of the city.

“Yeah, The Afterlife. I saw Rogue, even talked to her. V introduced me, kinda.”

“Didn’t even know Maelstrom was allowed there. Thought we’d be killed on sight.”

“Pretty sure I would have, but V vouched for me.”

“Maelstroms under my protection.” Lars lifted his hands to make quotation marks as he mimicked, dropping his cigarette in the motion. “Shit, fuck” as he picked it up.

“Is she…” Vex started, stopping only to realize that what he was asking was absolutely ridiculous and the only thing that made sense. “She is, isn’t she?” He was staring at Dum inquisitively.

“She what?”

“She’s the V. The merc.” Like that answered things. “The merc that’s changing NC.” They all looked at Ash expectantly.

“You know, like. The bitch that’s changing shit. She’s fucked with every gang; she was involved with that political change in Dogtown. Clearing the Cyberpsychos all over NC. Killed the emperor. Caused that blackout a few weeks back in the badlands.”

He hadn’t asked her about that, any of that. He didn’t think to ask. They all knew it was the same merc that wiped out their shit northside over half a year ago, but he hadn’t really kept up with what she could have been doing now.

“I uh… I haven’t asked.” His cigarette was almost done, so he motioned over to Lars for another.

Lars kept them at a distance. “You haven’t fucking asked her? Dude, she’s fucking changing NC. Like, I think she had a hand in the new mayor, even. And you ain’t asked shit yet?”

“Sorry, No. I was busy with regular date shit.” He motioned again for smokes.

“I ain’t giving you these till you give us something. You went on a date with the biggest merc in NC. She fucking saved our asses. You tell us how that date went, or you buy your own smokes.”

“Well then, I’ll buy my own.” He was joking; he wanted to tell them everything. But it was always fun to play this little move. Instead, he hit his lace again. Pink, everywhere.

“Did you kiss her at fucking least? I mean, you spent the night, I’d be devastated if you didn’t even do that.”

“Be devastated then.” Lars handed him the smokes.

“Okay, no docking, no kissing, no dancing, what did you do?”

“Talked. I met some of her friends.”

“Shit, she introduced you to her friends?”

“Yeah, met some awesome dude named Mitch. An Aldecaldo. He was cool, we talked about cars, he’s working on a Panzer right now.”

“What the fucks a Panzer?” Vex smacked the shit out of Ash's arm.

“You don’t know what a fucking Panzer is? They’re old ass uh… fuck I forgot what they are. Like the floating tank thingies.”

“Oh shit, that’s fucking cool.” Lars turned back to him.

“So, tell us about her. What’s she like?”

“She’s fucking awesome, man. She loves zombie movies. She has a cat, and an iguana, I GOT TO HOLD THE FUCKING IGUANA!” He excitedly pulled out his phone to show them all the multitude of selfies with Egg. “His names Egg, and I would die for this little guy, I swear to god.”

“Holy fucking shit! I thought those were fake!” Vex and Ash were fawning over his phone, looking at all the pictures.

“Seriously, dude, I did not think they were real animals. I’m fucking stoked to find out they are. That’s so fucking cute.” Ash smacked Vex’s arm.

“When the fuck have you ever said cute? Didn’t know that was in your vocabulary.”

“Didn’t know you knew the word vocabulary.” Vex smacked Ash back.

“Fuck off, I know words ‘n shit.” He was laughing as he handed back the phone.

“She’s fine as fuck. And she’s got a cat and an iguana. Seriously, man, how did you manage to nab her?” Dum looked at the pictures affectionately, wishing he had a picture of V. “No way a thousand in NC aren’t trying to climb that tree, why the fuck would she pick you?”

He had thought that many times before. Why would she pick him out of everyone? His cheek burned where she had kissed him. Why him? Why the fuck would she pick him when she could have anyone?

“I dunno.” He pocketed the phone. “She’s incredible, though.”

“Yeah, aren’t you glad you didn’t zero her when you were supposed to?” Lars was testing the waters with that question. They all knew it; Kurt wasn’t here.

“She saved us, man.” Was all he could respond with.

The car turned in quickly. A pink Caliburn. V stepped out before it turned off.

“Hey y’all.” She walked to the passenger door and opened it.

Blaine had a new jaw, all chrome. It looked gonk as fuck. Not his style at all. Dum walked forward, helping Blaine out, or trying to.

“I can walk, I just lost a jaw, not legs.” His voice was smooth, human smooth. Not Blaine sounding at all.

“You good man? Thought we lost you back there.”

“I’m fine. Just let Lilith know I didn’t fuck up.” He walked over to the guys. If he were all human, he would be dead, but now he was just fine.

“We will, man. Just take it easy.” Dum forcibly grabbed his elbow, pulled him to perch on the trunk rather than stand on his own.

“I said I’m fucking fine, Dum. I don’t need any fucking help.” His new jaw clenched.

“Fuck dude. I’m just…. I’m glad you made it.” The others nodded alongside him. V moved to stand next to him.

“We ready to head out?” Dum started grabbing the keys out of his pocket. Vex and Ash both had their own cars filled with shit to head to the safehouse.

V was standing there, waiting.

“Hi. I’m Ash. It’s nice to meet you officially, V.” Ash stood up and extended his hand forward to shake hers. She took it.

“V, Nice to meet you.” Dum wondered why a handshake came naturally to Ash, but not to him.

“I’m Lars, and this is Vex.” Vex waved as Lars smiled towards her.

“Hey, guys. Again, still V.” She was smiling at them back, then looked at Dum. “Can I talk to you for a second?”

He looked back at the guys, nodded, and then moved along with her.

“What’s up?”

“So, I know you can’t tell me the safehouse locations, obviously. But I wanted to let you know that tonight I’m staying at my place Northside. If you wanted to come by, I would love to talk with you. I’ll send you the address. And if you can’t spare a car, I can send a Del.”

“A Del?”

“Yeah, He’s a friend. I got my own private Delamain.”

“What the fuck?”

“I can explain that later. But yeah, my own. If you need it, I can send it.”

“Sorry, what? You have your own Delamain?”

“Yeah, I did a favor for him.”

“Delamain. The AI run taxi cab? Owes you? For favors?”

“Yes.” She was smiling; this was funny to her.

“The guys are glad to have met you, and again, thank you for helping. We didn’t need it, but thank you.”

“You did. It’s fine.” He dropped his head a bit, looking at her eyes more directly. Her face started turning red, or maybe it was just his optics in the dark.

“Thank you, V. You don’t know how much you did for us.”

“Still got in a shootout, which I tried to prevent. But now y’all got the cases. What do you want them for anyway?”

“We have one, Patricia took the other. I don’t know. I don’t know what they are.”

“I have an idea.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

They stared at each other for a moment, till Ash coughed. They both turned to find the guys all staring at them.

“So Blaine has some meds to stop rejection, they’re in his pocket. He needs to take them every few hours. He should get a new jaw; that one's only temporary. His voice box is one of those AI-recorded ones. But he should replace that too, cos he sounds weird now. Too human.”

“Too human?” If he had eyebrows, they would be raised. Instead, the edge of his optics shifted forward.

“Yeah. But he’ll be fine. The bullet only caught his jaw, luckily. It didn’t hit anything past. He would have died if it was an inch further back. But yeah.”

“Thank you, V. Seriously, I’ll see if I can make it to your place after we get settled. Thank you.”

“You don’t have to keep thanking me, man. This is what I do.”

“Save Maelstrom borgs?”

“Sometimes.”