Never Fade Away: I Saw In You (ch. 14) (Patreon)

“You fucking fucks!” Subject Zero snarled at me as I collapsed into a heap on the ground, purple energy surging around her hands. It felt like a massive weight was crushing down on me until I was completely flat on the ground, unable to even take in a breath of air because my lungs didn’t have the strength to expand. The metal underneath me groaned ever so slightly, every muscle in my body straining against the weight. “You pieces of fucking shit! I’m gonna kill every single one of you!”

She thought I was with Militech. In hindsight, I should have expected as much. How would I have reacted if someone that I didn’t know broke into the orphanage to rescue me? How would I have reacted if I had a chance to escape? I didn’t think. Dumb move.

I flicked her a message, my systems pinging off of hers, and even if it was a mistake, it would beat getting crushed. The message was sent and if the clock wasn’t already ticking down, then it sure was now. Thankfully, a split second later, the crushing sensation eased off, letting me fill my lungs with air in greedy gasps.

“What the fuck do you mean you’re here to help?” She snarled at me as I forced myself to my feet, holding up a hand to ward David off from interfering. Subject Zero’s posture was defensive and guarded. Her expression was a snarl, but there was fear in her eyes.

“I’m Subject L-16. I managed to escape an orphanage like the one you were in. I’m here to make sure that you don’t get to Militech, because as bad as the orphanage was… they’ll be worse,” I told her, meeting her gaze. “I know you have a shit ton of questions, but the window to get you out is closing and it's closing fast. When we’re safe, you can ask all the questions you want. I promise.”

Her nostrils flared but the snarl lessened, giving way to confusion. “Why are you helping me?” She questioned, sounding like she didn’t believe it.

I told her the truth. “Because I was the only one that managed to get out when I escaped,” I told her, and I saw a glimmer of understanding in Subject Zero’s eyes.

She worked her jaw, her gaze flickering to David, who seemed on the verge of just knocking her out and dealing with this later. When her gaze went back to me, she offered a curt nod. “Fine,” she growled the word out and I felt relief wash over me. Reaching into my pocket, I produced a shard and held it out to her. She took it curiously, silently demanding an explanation before she slotted it in.

“It’s a jammer. It’ll stop them from using your implants from tracking you and using them against you,” I told her, already stepping away. “We have to go. Now,” I told her, heading to the back of the truck before I sparred a glance over my shoulder to see that she was following as she slotted the chip in. “You should cup your eyes. Being outside… is a lot.”

I gave her fair warning, but she didn’t heed it. Subject Zero’s breathing hitched the moment she saw how open the spaces were. Grabbing her hand to break her out of the stupor, I brought her to the camouflaged truck and a door opened for us when Becca kicked it open and the three of us got in.

No sooner than we were in, Falco took off. “We’re cutting it close,” Falco warned us as he began to speed towards the city. When you wanted to disappear? You head to Night City. Or so the saying went. I was really hoping that it was true in this case.

“Militech knows about the decoy,” Kiwi offered and my stomach clenched. “Second convoy is inbound to support. I don’t suppose Maelstorm bothered to stick around?” She added and I checked my access to their systems. The first thing that I noticed was that about half of the Maelstrom members were dead based on their feedback returning errors. The remaining half was making off with the loot that they had managed to snag.

Annoying. Very annoying.

“Arasaka inbound,” Lucy pitched in, looking behind us. I did the same just in time to see a vehicle rise over the crest of Rocky Ridge road that we were blazing down. If my guts weren’t clenched into knots before, they certainly were when I saw the barrel of a tanks cannon pointed right at us as it started chasing us. It looked far worse for wear, and even if it was slower than us, it could shoot a lot further than we could run.

We were getting boxed in. Subject Zero was looking between everyone with wide eyes, completely overwhelmed by the situation, even if she was trying to hold it in. I ignored her for the moment, hoping that she could hold it in for longer, while I focused on the tank. I sent a breach out to it, only to feel the quickhack bounce off uselessly on its ICE. In that same moment, the cannon centered on us.

“SWERVE!” I shouted and Falco did exactly that, and it was only pure dumb luck that the car wasn’t flipped over entirely from the force of the shell hitting nearby. But Falco managed to keep the car under control with a few jerks of the wheel.

“I got it,” David said, a deadly edge in his voice. That was the only warning that we got before the doors opened and he vanished once again. This time, however, when he reappeared,  he was pushing up against the barrel of the cannon to make it miss the next shot that loaded in within three seconds. A second later,  grenades that he must have taken from Becca exploded in the tanks thrusters. A split second later, he was back in the car as the tank ground to a halt on the road.

“It’s not done!” Becca warned, Falco swerving again to avoid another shot.

“The barrel is sealed,” David informed us, and that gave me an idea. Grabbing my sniper rifle, I jacked myself into it and took aim at the barrel of the tank. I didn’t need to say a word to David because, somehow, he knew exactly what was on my mind -- the barrel couldn’t stay sealed. Otherwise, it couldn’t shoot. Meaning that there was a window there. “Hold it steady, Falco.”

“FuuuuuuuccckkkKKKK!” Becca shouted as I devoted every spec of processing power from my deck into making the shot. The margin for error was nonexistent. I could not fuck this up. The barrel fired a second and a half ago. Two seconds was the maximum fire rate. It would take a fourth of a second to fire the gun. Meaning that I had to pull the trigger now.

The gun bucked against my shoulder, and  the space between us and the tank became filled with fire as I shot the tank shell that erupted from the barrel. Heat washed over my face as my ears popped from how loud the explosion was. However, as the fire faded, I saw the tank blow up from within with David reappearing within the truck after tossing a cluster of grenades down the barrel within that small window.

“That’s the Arasaka tail dealt with, but we still need to worry about Militech,” Lucy warned, looking to Kiwi. I looked up front to see that we were almost at the edge of the city and I looked to David to see that his expression was tense.

“We ditch the car,” David decided, looking to me to earn a curt nod. It was a one-and-done. A material intensive sacrifice to make, but I had about as limitless a source of materials as you could get from the dump. “Split up, and we make our way back to L’s to lay low,” he decided, earning nods all around.

“I’m seriously gonna be pissed if I don’t get to shoot something,” Becca warned as the car leaped onto the road as we entered Charter Hill, nearly wrecking an expensive-looking car in the process. Subject Zero alternated between looking at everyone and squinting out the window, and I was forced to wonder if I had looked like that when I had first escaped -- a sense of awe and wonder, but also looking scared shitless.

I placed my hat on her head, making her look at me. “We’re about to get out. Keep your eyes on the ground. It’ll help a lot, I promise,” I told her as we made our way into the city proper. Subject Zero offered a small nod, her face completely bloodless and I, in turn, gave David a small nod.

Then I was standing on the side of the road with Subject Zero, my stomach rebelling, but I swallowed the bile down. Subject Zero had less luck. David and the others continued down the road a bit before one by one, everyone was out of the vehicle while it continued on its destination -- whatever Falco had set it to. Grabbing Subject Zero’s hand, I tugged her into an alley to get as far away from the road as possible.

“What… is all of this?” Subject Zero questioned, ignoring my advice and looking around with wide eyes. The trash, the neon, the graffiti… I wasn’t exactly sure when, but I was getting used to it. To everything.

“Night City. It’s… a lot,” I admitted, slipping into the NCPD cameras. They were already alerted, I learned, and they were incoming. The sirens hadn’t reached us yet, but it wouldn’t be long before the entire district was locked down. We had to get out of it. And the surrounding area. With one eye on the cameras, I sidestepped their view before I glanced back at Subject Zero. She was wearing the same scrubs that I grew up in.

We needed to ditch them, but I did come somewhat prepared for this. Taking off my jacket, I handed it to her as we continued down the streets, power walking while I looked around for a vehicle. I spotted one parked in a ten minute spot on the side of the road. A small car that seemed barely able to fit two people. Reaching out to the systems, I breached them and Skeleton Key shifted into a cyberkey. Getting in, I sped off with Subject Zero, joining the flow of traffic just as the sirens started to echo out.

“How long have you been out?” Subject Zero questioned me, staring at me from the passenger seat. She was backing herself into a corner, one hand on the latch in case she needed to get out.

I actually had to think about it for a moment as we were speeding out of Charter Hill and into Japan Town. We couldn’t pass through Arroyo, I’m guessing. It was a well known Maelstrom district, and I imagine that Militech would be kicking down doors there, even if they had to use the police to do it. “A month and a half,” I answered and I saw that didn’t make any sense to her. “Six work days,” I clarified and understanding flooded her expression.

“How did you get out? I tried for years,” she admitted, and I think she was starting to believe me. Then her eyes narrowed into slits. “You’re the one that killed Dr. D.”

That brought a smile to my face, “And Dr. K.” That earned a bark of laughter from her, a joyous sound that was filled with genuine relief and exuberance. “Did you see much of them?”

“Every once in a while. I dealt with Dr. G and Dr. E more often than not,” she admitted, taking her hand off of the latch as we made the wide trip across Del Ray down into the Glenn so we could make our way to Pacifica. We would need to ditch the car before we made our way there. “I heard about what happened because they started getting really scared around me. More scared than normal. Got a story out of one of them that you were ripping people to pieces and bathing in blood like little savages.”

“I tore out some implants from Dr. K to rig an EMP charge, and we started doing the same when the guards came in to subdue us. Killed a few since they were trying to take us alive. No bathing in blood, though,” I added and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Subject Zero was smiling to herself. “Dr. K is the one that told me about you. Tried to use it as a bargaining chip to live.”

“And you killed her anyway?” She questioned and I nodded. “Good. That’s good. Fuck. I wanted to kill her,” she muttered, it finally clicking that she was dead. That she was out. Subject Zero took a quite bracing breath and I stole a moment to scroll through the cameras around us as we sped our way through the Glen.

A woman on a bike was speeding along a decent distance away from us. I almost dismissed her entirely, simply because there was no reason to suspect anything about her, but my brain was firing on all cylinders. Anyone could be following us from CTV, people's optics, satellites… I reached out with Ping to find that I knew exactly who was following us.

V.

It seemed like she was alone, but that didn’t mean anything. Was she hoping to find where I hung my coat up? It seemed likely, but I couldn’t lead V back to Pacifica. It would drastically narrow down where Arasaka had to look to find us. So, it was a question of how I should deal with her. Misdirection? Confrontation? If she wasn’t alone and this became a big fight, then we would lose. The devastation a small team of soldiers with high end implants were capable of was seared into my brain -- I couldn’t win against that, and the others wouldn’t be here to pull me out of the fire.

“We’re about to get out,” I warned Subject Zero, keeping a very close eye on V. Her and her vehicle had hefty ICE. “We’re being followed. Keep your head low, and follow me, okay?” I told her, earning a curt nod as I triggered the car to park. Getting out, I watched as V quickly parked her bike before she stepped out of range of a camera. In the corner of my eye, as we dove into an alley, I watched her following us.

There was a small basketball court between the buildings and it had a good dozen Valentinos. They were a gang I didn’t have much experience with, but the Glen and Vista Del Ray were generally accepted to be their haunts. Men and women that were covered in tattoos, wearing heavy gold chains, and their chrome was highlighted in gold. They were seated on and around a car parked in the court, laughing. Making a snap decision, I approached with Subject Zero in tow.

“What do we have goin’ on here?” One of the Valentinos remarked, catching sight of me and Jack. In response, I pulled out the three thousand eddies that Dum-Dum had given me earlier.

“Someone is about to follow us through that alley. Delay or kill them. This is the half up front and I’ll flick you the rest when we’re in the clear. Deal?” I questioned, scrolling through nearby cameras, but the Glenn had busted a number of them out. The only cameras that were up were each on their own subnet.

The Valentinos all shared a look for a moment before, almost as one, they all collectively shrugged. “Acuerdo. I got a pair of ‘ganic eyes, so don’t think you can hide from us without paying up.” He warned and I offered a curt nod before handing him the bills.

“She’s dangerous, so I’d recommend that you treat her as such,” I warned before pulling off, making Subject Zero stop gawking at the Valentinos.

“Why did they look like that?” Subject Zero questioned and that was such an open ended question that I didn’t know how to start answering. “The drawings on their bodies. How did they get them?”

“Tattoos,” I answered, breaking off into another back alley with my heart thumping in my chest. It just about leapt into my throat when I heard gunshot erupt behind us, telling me that they had followed through on their end of the deal. If they survived V, then I’d make sure they’d get their eddies. Power walking down the side of the street, my mind raced. How had V found us? She knew that I would be attacking the convoy to get Subject Zero out, but that didn’t explain how she managed to find us so easily.

“I want one,” Subject Zero decided. But we would need to be free to get her a tattoo. My gaze landed on a woman working the corner as we made our way down the street. She was roughly Subject Zero’s size. We needed to get her out of her clothes anyway because I had a sneaking suspicion in the back of my mind. When I used Ping on Subject Zero, I wasn’t picking up on any outgoing signals.

V had managed to slip through Dr. K’s systems. Maybe she did the same with someone else. Maybe, as Subject Zero was sent out, one of the doctors put something on her so that even if Militech did manage to get Subject Zero, V would know where she went. I didn’t see any evidence of a tracker, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t one. V had to have found us somehow.

“Ma’am,” I started, approaching the woman, who turned to me and gave a wide smile.

“Ma’am? Honey, don’t call me Ma’am. Call me Sugar and for a hundred eddies, you and your output can find out how sweet I am,” Sugar purred, catching me momentarily flatfooted while Subject Zero’s face scrunched up in confusion.

“That- uh- look, I’ll pay two thousand eddies for your outfit-” I started, deciding that I didn’t have time for anything but being direct.

“Done,” Sugar interrupted, taking off her jacket and I flicked her the two thousand eddies as promised. People didn’t so much as blink as she got undressed in plain view, passing the clothing to Subject Zero, who put them on. In a handful of seconds, Subject Zero was wearing a pair of tight-fitted pants, a tank top, and a half jacket with a bunch of fur around the collar. “Pleasure doin business with you,” Sugar said, offering a small wave before her body became covered in a hologram.

“I like her,” Subject Zero decided, watching her walk away even as I dragged her away. I scrolled through the cameras further, not seeing any sign of V. The gunshots stopped, so hopefully she was dead. Her death could be written off as a random act of gang violence. However, when I looked over my shoulder behind me, almost as if my eyes were drawn to her, I saw someone watching me.

V was strolling down the street at a respectable distance, her eyes narrowing into slits when our eyes met. I reacted instantly, flinging a Breach at her even as my grip on Subject Zero’s wrist became iron tight as I dragged her into a back alley while my other hand went for my gun. I really wish I still had the sniper. That would make things a lot easier to deal with.

Breach worked through her systems, letting me upload a quickhack into her system, but her ICE was fighting it. Not ideal, but the hack was getting through. The back alleys weaved around us, maintaining just enough of a lead on V as she cautiously approached and I felt the walls closing in around me.

That’s when my phone rang. An unknown number.

“V,” I answered, making Subject Zero look at me in confusion as we continued to walk.

“L. You look like someone who could use a favor,” V started, her voice as smooth as silk in my ear. “Nice touch with the Valentinos. I’d give them a big tip to cover for their pain and suffering.” She didn’t kill them? That was mildly surprising. Still, for three thousand eddies, I would have expected them to delay her for more than thirty seconds.

“Are you even in a position to offer one?” I questioned, emerging from a filthy alley, trying to stay on the ball as I scrolled through cameras to catch sight of V, but she was sidestepping them as much as we were. She was good, I thought. I read her file, but it had undersold her. I couldn’t see her, but I could tell that we hadn’t shaken her. “Whose thumb are you under now?”

“I’m in a much better position than you,” V responded, dodging the question. “Did you really think that a few clever tricks was all it would take? Arasaka owns this city, L. I know you’re new to it, but even you have to understand that.” There was an air of certainty in her tone and, deep down, I didn’t think she was exactly wrong. The scope of Arasaka and the power they held was starting to dawn on me after that show in Rocky Ridge.

Turning a corner, I dragged Subject Zero along. “What will this favor of yours cost me?” I questioned, curious and cautious in equal measures. There was a reason that V was calling me. There was a reason that I wasn’t surrounded by Arasaka gangoons. V was playing an angle, but I wasn’t sure what angle it was.

“I want you on call as a merc for me,” V informed, catching me a bit flat-footed. “Don’t look so surprised, L,” she said, and that turned my blood into ice. She could see me. “Bringing you two in would be a nice bump in my career, but that doesn’t earn promotions in this biz. Good, clean, consistent work does. That’s what I’m offering -- the two of you slip the net that’s closing around you, and in exchange, I want you to work for me, L.”

I hesitated. That wasn’t what I expected. I could see the thread of logic -- she would have followed my relatively short career as a merc. She knew I managed to get into counter-intel, even if she didn’t know the bulk of that was because of Kiwi. Now, with this job, if it wasn’t for V knowing about it beforehand, then we would have gotten away clean with Subject Zero. I could see why she would think having me do gigs for her on the downlow would be more beneficial for her career in the long term than catching me and Subject Zero.

“That can’t be it,” I responded, uncertain if this was a trap or not. Despite it all, I was leaning toward that it wasn’t. I wasn’t surrounded. It was just V instead of a lot of gangoons. That told me that she wanted this biz on the downlow.

“I’ll need those implants if you still have them,” V continued without missing a beat. “I’ll tell Arasaka that I found them in a chopshop, so as far as Arasaka will know, you’ll be dead. No reason to come after you.” That was tempting. “And, in exchange for good work, if Arasaka does come for Subject Zero and I know about it, I’ll give you a warning.”

It sounded… fair, almost. Too good to be true. I couldn’t trust V, but my gut was telling me that the offer was genuine. She wasn’t making it out of a place of altruism. She was making it out of self-interest. That, I could trust.

I looked to Subject Zero, to find her looking lost as she looked up at a large piece of graffiti that was covered in spanish, skulls, and the cross. As if she sensed my gaze, Subject Zero looked back at me, eager to move. I made my decision in a snap, knowing what I had to do.

“Deal,” I decided, earning a warm chuckle from V.

“Wise decision. Take a left at the corner, then continue straight ahead and you’ll be outside of the parameter. Good luck, L,” V told me and my expression twisted because of how close we already were to escaping. But, that could have changed if V called in a sighting. She had me by the balls and she knew it.

“What was that about?” Subject Zero questioned as I swallowed a sigh.

“I just made a deal with the devil.”

…

We took a long and elaborate way back to Pacifica to make sure that we weren’t followed. I ran through system checks the entire way to make sure that we weren’t and everything came out clean. It was hours later when we rolled up to my home, another car that I stole coming to a stop. How V managed to track Subject Zero remained a question that I wouldn’t feel comfortable until I had an answer for it. But, for now, V intended to use me for her own benefit.

Because we took the long way around, we were the last to arrive, I saw when the door slid open revealing my home and everyone else.

“L! You were holding out on me!” Becca erupted as soon as we crossed the threshold into my home. She sounded genuinely angry too. “Since when did you have all this cool stuff? Remember that time I shared a beer with you?! How could you hold out on me like this?!” She demanded, holding up a grenade launcher and waving it back and forth.

“Everything go smoothly on your end?” Lucy questioned from near the GN Drive. Both she and Kiwi were drawn to it because I’m pretty sure that they were the only ones that could understand what it is. Falco, however, was far more interested in the fabricators.

I offered Lucy a nod before looking at David, who returned that nod. “The car was totaled in an explosion, but everyone got out clean,” he informed, and that was a relief. Then his gaze slid to Subject Zero. “The names David. David Martinez. That’s Rebecca, Kiwi, Falco, and Lucy.”

“Your names are pretty weird,” Subject Zero remarked, her tone exceedingly blunt. Quietly, I agreed with her. You only needed a single letter. Anything more than that felt so unnecessarily greedy.

“You’re one to talk. You got a name?” Becca questioned, leaning on the grenade launcher like it was a cane. Because of it, I saw that it was very loaded. I made a mental note to build shielding around the outside of the GN Drive. Just in case.

Subject Zero looked at everyone else, her lips pressed into a thin line with her gaze filled with suspicion. She had a very different introduction to Night City than I did. Given that it ended with me passing out with a missing tooth and a broken rib, I don’t think that was necessarily a bad thing. She got to see more of the city as we drove around, pestering me with questions, and there were plenty that I didn’t know the answer to. Still wasn’t sure why everyone loved milfs, for starters.

“I was J-10 before I became Subject Zero,” J answered, crossing her arms over her chest, and that caught my attention.

“You became Subject Zero?” I questioned, gesturing to a table for J to take a seat at and she did so cautiously. Very careful to not show anyone her back and making sure that she could see everyone in the room at once.

J nodded, “One day I woke up in a room with a bunch of other kids. They gave us new names -- I was Subject Zero, but they ran on up to Subject Twenty. We weren’t sorted into normal brackets. Subject Twenty was the youngest of us, and I was Subject Zero at the middle of the pack. Since I wound up in there, the normal workdays stopped and they made us focus on using our biotic abilities.” As J spoke, she waved her hand, lifting a pistol from a rack, much to the surprise of the others, until the gun sat comfortably in her hands.

That was different than me. There was an offhand remark that leaped out at me. Something I nearly forgot about. The guard with the gorilla arms.

He called us trash. Could have just been an insult. Or, it could mean that beneath us in the orphanage were people that were… more special. People like J.

“We fought each other a bunch. And robots. Dr. G and Dr. E were all for it until they started saying that we were getting out of hand. I tried to kill them,” J said with a smile. “After that, the next thing I know, I’m waking up with L over me.” She explained and I was putting pieces together in my head. From the sound of it, J had her biotic abilities for the past five or six years.

That was a little weird, I thought. I understood that I was an outlier when it came to tech development, but five or six years felt like it should be enough time to create an implant that wouldn’t kill half of R group. It felt like I was missing a piece of the puzzle.

“In any case, you’re free now, J,” I told her. “There are some issues, like needing to take immune boosters for a while and getting a face change would probably help stay hidden,” I told her, shifting her attention to me. “If you want to leave the city, then I’ll do what I can to help.”

“And if I don’t want to leave?” J questioned, cocking her head at me. “What if I want to murder those fucks that locked me in a fucking cage? Torturing me and everyone else to get off?” She pressed, a snarl in her voice.

To that, I gave her a reassuring smile.

“I can help you with that too.”