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Once she had wheeled the bike out of the garage, she closed it and locked it behind her. The ofrenda had been a somber affair, running into people she knew because of Jackie – everywhere around her had been a memory of their friendship. He had saved her life more than once, though most of the people who were there only knew of the one time.
The only time most people knew of: losing her job at Arasaka, having what she had thought was everything stripped away from her. Jackie had been there to pick her up. Bring her home with him, where Mama welcomed her in as if she were her daughter. A blessing in disguise, throwing herself into the fray with Jackie had been the most alive she had felt in years.
The only time before that had been in Mexico.
She shifted the backpack on her shoulders, securing it and the cargo inside it – the bottle of tequila from Mexico that Jackie had held onto. V didn’t have the heart to tell Misty that the story of the tequila and how Jackie got it wasn’t quite right. She didn’t want to ruin the illusion.
V had expected Johnny to come to her view at some point during the proceedings of the day, but he had been respectfully quiet. Not something she had come to quite expect from him, but they had been on easier footing lately. Not quite at an understanding, he still screamed at her whenever he could for her past life working for Arasaka, despite all the times that she told him she was desperate for money, and she was blind to a lot of the way the NUSA worked.
Which, Johnny of course had known was a lie, but they let the sleeping dogs lie between them, untouched and unbothered. They had to live with each other, after all. Even if live wasn’t quite the right word.
For most of the day, she had almost forgotten that Johnny was a passenger until she could feel him trying to sort through her memories as she spoke at the ofrenda. She had sighed heavily as she turned around to read the quote from the book, and Johnny had gotten the hint. Feeling him back away, he didn’t resurface again until later in the night. Once she had driven Jackie’s bike from Heywood to Watson, parked it in the garage, and headed up to the apartment with the backpack.
Behind closed doors, Johnny manifested then, glitching into view with a cigarette on his lips. These days, she swore she could smell the smoke – not at all a good sign given how quickly her mind was degrading. He wore a smirk on his lips, aviators nowhere in sight as he gestured to the backpack, she set down on the couch table. “Didn’t know Jackie was a fan of ours,” he raised an eyebrow, pointing to the Samurai patch on the bag.
V shrugged as she unzipped the backpack and pulled out the bottle of tequila. “Oh yeah, you didn’t see the poster in his garage?”
“Kinda was lettin’ you deal with that on your own.”
“Realized that,” she set the bottle down on the table, and looked up to Johnny with a soft smile, “Thanks for that, by the way.”
He rolled his eyes and waved her off, but she caught a glimpse at his thoughts – that he had wished he had the chance to say goodbye to those that he cared for. She didn’t bring it up, though he had to have known she saw it.
“Yeah. Sure.”
“Got a question though, when I was speaking, I felt you going through my memories. Looking for something specific?”
Johnny looked oddly sheepish at the moment as he glitched away and glitched into view again, sitting on the couch with his legs spread. “Mexico came up a few times today, might’ve gotten curious.”
V laughed, as she grabbed the glass on the table and brought it over to her sink to wash it out. “Yeah, it’s where I met Jack,” she shrugged, coming back with a slightly cleaner glass and taking a seat on the couch next to Johnny. His outline wobbled and waved, the connection between them still not strong enough for him to physically touch anything – but she assumed that like her smelling the cigarette smoke, it was only a matter of time.
Johnny, for his part, was acting more curious than he had before, “You met your best choom in Mexico?”
“Where else was I going to meet him? Strolling through the lobby of Arasaka Tower?” V scoffed, laughing once she caught the sneer Johnny gave just at the sound of Arasaka. Shifting on the couch, she picked up the unopened bottle of tequila. The top twisted off, the pop of the cork filling the room for a moment before she smelled the alcohol. Humming thoughtfully, she started to pour some into the glass. “And before you bitch about my past Corpo life, and how you don’t like it, blah blah blah, if you’re willing to shut up, I might be willing to tell you the story.”
“You gonna get drunk on that tequila while you tell it?” He asked, his arms crossed over his eyes, eyebrow raised at the glass now in her hand. Knowing he missed the taste of tequila, knowing that he’d taste it if she had it, she smirked.
“Sure. So, wanna hear it?”
He waited for her to take a drink of the tequila to answer. Watching the delay of him experiencing it, he closed his eyes and let out a small sigh that she was certain he didn’t want her to see. “Alright. Tell me the story of how Harry met Sally.”
“ What ?”
“Tell the damn story, V.”
*****
It was just a routine job.
Agent V had been tasked with traveling to Mexico to get back Arasaka tech and meet with a contact who had information on NightCorp. What NightCorp had been doing in Mexico of all places, Agent V wasn’t sure of. But she had her marching orders, and she was never one to turn down a free all-expenses-paid trip out of Night City. She hadn’t grown up in the corporate lifestyle, but rather fell into it when she crossed paths with an Arasaka agent undercover. Saving that man ended up being her steppingstone into the corporation, and lo and behold, when it came to corporate espionage, she was good at what she did.
The aftermath of the Fourth Corporate War was still felt here, despite the declaration of the unincorporated west coast and the freedom (and lawlessness) that came with it. Everywhere she had gone was considered a ghost town, and it was par for the course anywhere she traveled in the NUSA.
But now in another country, in Mexico City, and the outskirts of the city, it was something else completely different.
There hadn’t been time for her to truly stop in Mexico City proper to get a good view of the city. There was a deadline that she was working with, and the sooner her job was done, the better.
Her contact was due to meet her at a bar outside the city. Deep into the desert, driving her rented car out into the dirt and sand roads with nothing to see for miles. Thankful for the pants she wore instead of her usual skirt, the combat boots that were a little worn but stolen from her father before he died. Because if she got sand up her --
(“You sound like you were a bitch. Maybe you still are one if—”
“Johnny, shut the fuck up. You wanna hear this or not?”
“Could just look at your memories instead.”
“Then you wouldn’t get any tequila.”
“…fine. Continue.”)
The car drove along the road until she saw it. A small little ghost town, complete with the tumbleweeds drifting by. The town looked deserted, old Mexican homes lined up with a larger building at the very end of the decrepit street. A red and gold bike was parked in front of one of the homes, a single light on inside. The exact thing she was looking for. Her contact would be inside.
The car parked on the opposite side of the ‘street’, she got out and adjusted her sunglasses. Black was not the attire that she should have been wearing under the hot sun, but most of her outfits were red and black. She refused to wear the company logos while she was out and about, it made her a target. She could, of course, handle what was thrown at her. But it didn’t mean she wanted to welcome the destruction of property and lives.
There was no bothering knocking on the door, as the moment she touched it, the door fell. Combat boots walking heavily on the floor of the house, she followed the light until she came across a man decked out in red and gold. A Valentino, it was obvious. Or, as evident by the scratches through the Valentino’s logo on his jacket, an ex-member.
Larger than she was, muscles where she was lean, he stood up and crossed his arms over his chest. Raised an eyebrow towards her, waiting. Trying to intimidate.
It didn’t work. She took her sunglasses off, tucking them into her pockets. “Looking for a Jackie Welles.”
The man, who was undoubtedly the one she was looking for once her Kiroshis scanned him, huffed. “Who’s asking?”
She sighed, rolled her eyes, and held out her hand expectantly, “Don’t have time to play games here, Jackie.”
“Ah, the Corpo then!” Jackie’s entire demeanor changed, moving from the intimidating ex-ganger to a bright tone with his arms open wide, “ Hola! Good to meet you. Got a name?” He grinned, holding his hand out.
She didn’t shake it. “V.”
Taking his hand back, he nodded a few times. “One letter. Nice. Keeps it clean for all those covert jobs, yeah?”
So, the man was a talker . Great, that was only going to make this job last longer than she expected. “Do you have what we’re looking for?”
Jackie laughed, his hands put firmly on his hips as he said with a proud grin, “I do, chica.”
She didn’t rise to the challenge; she didn’t change her expression. Much. Her eyes narrowed in his direction, “I’m not your chica .”
“Oh, come on! Loosen up a little!” He started, as he walked up to her and then let a heavy hand fall on her shoulder, “Let’s go get a drink.”
Jackie was already walking out of the abandoned house, not waiting for her. V quickly stormed after him, arms flailing out to her sides, “I don’t have time for—”
“Sure, you do!” Jackie’s laugh was loud, boisterous, “ Everyone has time for good tequila. Even you uptight corporate types.”
“I am not uptight.”
“Surprised you said that without the stick coming out of your ass,” Jackie grinned, walking confidently out of the abandoned house and out to the street. V huffed, glaring at his back as she followed him out of the house. He was walking in the direction of the—
(“Ha! He fuckin’ called you out that easily?”
“Yep. That was Jack though, could always tell when something wasn’t quite as it seemed.”
“Think I would’ve liked the guy.”
“Sure, but he would’ve hated you.”)
Jackie pulled the double doors open to the no-name bar, and V followed behind him. Half expecting that the place might explode once she walked in it, she found herself surprised when that wasn’t the case. Instead, it was a lavishly decorated bar, half-naked men and women dancing on tables and balconies. Gang members, bikers, and War Veterans were all loudly fighting and cheering each other on, drinking more and more and paying no mind to the two who just walked in.
The bartender was a different story. As V followed Jackie to the bar, the man behind the counter sneered. “Don’t serve your fuckin’ kind here,” he said and spoke to Jackie in Spanish. Jackie held up his hands, laughing, trying to defuse the situation.
“It’s all good! We have the EDs, just lookin’ to spend them at your fine establishment! Ain’t that right, chica ?”
“Uh-huh,” V replied, eyes on the bartender, though aware of those who started to come up around them.
“ You, we’ll serve,” the guy said to Jackie, “But her? Can smell the corp on her.”
A cock of a gun, the click of the safety, and V felt cold metal pressed to her temple. “Really? You really want to do this?” She asked, scoffing. She hadn’t gotten to where she was without a little blood, sweat, and tears from others who didn’t get their way with her.
The bartender grinned, gave a soft nod, and V knew what would happen next.
So, apparently, did Jackie.
Jackie punched the armed gangoon’s arm into the air, his gun misfiring into the ceiling, as V activated one of her mantis blades and thrust it towards the man’s throat, stopping short of cutting. Her other hand pointed her Overture, cocked and loaded, directly at the bartender.
“Everyone in here worked for a corp at some point,” she sneered, her Kiroshis activating as she scanned the bartender, “Can see that you used to work for Militech before you defected. Guy next to you is former ‘Saka, and I should technically bring him to my employer for a payout but honestly , I’m just not in the mood. Just want a bottle of tequila and be on my way.”
Gesturing with her head to the top shelf, bottles gathering dust, “How about you give us that nice bottle up there. Assume it’s the most expensive, and you get to say you swindled some poor little Corpo bitch out of thousands of Eddies for it. Preem?”
The bartender slammed his hands to the bar counter, leaning forward so he could press his forehead to the cold tip of her gun. His eyebrows narrowed, and he stared at her…until he barked out a laugh. “You get to pay extra.”
“Don’t give a fuck, not paying with my cash. Charge whatever you want, it’s a write-off.”
She lowered her gun, and slowly retracted her mantis blade. Jackie leaned on the bar, laughing as he slapped his chest. “Fuck! You do have some balls on you! Who would have guessed that—
(“Don’t believe you. No fuckin’ way you talked them down like that.”
“Again. Can see the memories if you fucking want to, Johnny. But then you don’t get anything to drink.”
“You’re already talkin’ too much, drink more so I can at least fuckin’ enjoy it.”
“You gonna shut up?”
“… just get on with it.”)
The table they managed to get had been occupied by a dancer, but she moved the moment Jackie and V sat down. V watched as she hopped gracefully from one table to the next, as Jackie poured tequila into their shot glasses. “I told you this would be fine!”
“Thinking you’ve done this sort of thing before. Sweet talk someone you think is susceptible to bribes, get them completely wasted, and then leave them high and dry.”
Jackie nodded his head from side to side, as he slid V her shot glass, “Little column A, little column B. Didn’t think you’d catch on that fast though.”
“What can I say, I didn’t get where I am today because of my looks. Would’ve become a dancer with these girls if I was looking to do that.”
Another laugh from Jackie, as he downed his shot and slammed the glass on the table before he filled it again. She took her own shot, the liquid burning down her throat. Jackie was refilling her glass as quickly as she set it down, and she raised an eyebrow towards him as he poured.
He caught her look, and laughed, “What?”
“You don’t have the data, do you.”
“I have it! Told you I did and mean that. Enjoy the drink!” He raised his shot glass, “Cheers!”
Resigning herself to her fate for the night, held hostage by the large and not so in charge Valentino, she raised her own shot glass and downed it, the--
(“And then you stay there and get wasted and become best friends. Some story, V.”
“Fine, want me to skip to the good part?”
“Fuck. Yes, I want you to skip to the fuckin’ good part!”)
The chair broke against her back, as she turned around to wipe the blood from her face.
Grinning, with fangs sharp, the man lunged at her. Her mantis blade cut sharp against the man’s neck, removing the head from his body as the rest of him turned to dust.
That was, of course, after he spit blood at her. She screamed out in frustration as she sliced into another attacker coming towards her.
The chaos around them erupted quickly, and the last thing that either Jackie or V had expected was this . One minute, they’re enjoying drinks and V was begrudgingly enjoying herself. Next minute, some idiot got his hand cut and the lead dancer (and all other dancers) lunged at him to feed.
It lead to where they were now. Jackie and V, an unlikely duo, fighting for their damn fucking lives in the middle of what apparently had quickly become a vampire den.
“V! Behind you!” Jackie yelled, as he broke off a leg from the chair and tossed it to her. She caught it in mid-air, slamming the sharp edge of the wood straight into the chest of the man who—
(“Whoa! Fuckin’ hold up!”
“What? Said you wanted me to skip to the good part.”
“To the middle of a bar fight? With…”
“Yeah, vampires.”
“Bullshit. And you can’t just jump into the action like that, it’s like a shitty movie that tries to hype you for a preem sex scene and then cuts to the dude bustin’ a nut two seconds later. Where’s the build-up?”
“You wanted me to skip to the good part, Johnny. So, I’m skipping to the good part.”)
The wood slid through the man’s chest, turning him into dust so easily, and V turned around in time to watch Jackie dispatch the bartender that had given them so much trouble before.
She laughed bitterly, “And I’m the fucking asshole? He was a vampire!”
“Rather a vampire than a Corpo?” Jackie shrugged, covered in blood and guts from the fights around them. “You good?”
She flicked her wrists out, getting the blood off her hands before she wiped more of it off her face. “Got some cuts, but yeah, I’m good. No bites. You?”
He shook his head, “Nothin’.”
Chaos had erupted quickly in the bar. And it appeared, that beyond luck, they were the only two left standing. Slaughtering their way through the bar patrons and staff, the dancers ended up being nothing more than creatures of the night. The bullet holes through the building took care of the others who kept awakening, and V using her mantis blades to slice off their heads made it easier.
“Gotta tell me you have what I need because I don’t want to think I came to Mexico to be killed by vampires ,” she sternly spoke to Jackie, as he picked up weapons in the dust piles around them.
“Fuck, chica, fine ! Here, you earned it,” He laughed, flicking her the deets on the information that she needed. All of it was there.
He had it the entire time on his person, and she had to suffer through fighting for her damn life because he wouldn’t give her the information right away.
She was, understandably, in a rage. “I’ve earned it? You could have just sent it! Instead of getting into some bullshit about a drink!”
Jackie paid her no mind, as he picked up two matching pistols and dusted them off, examining them before pocketing them. “We got a story for later, yeah? Come on, let’s get out of here.”
“Why are you so fucking calm about this?”
“Please, you work for Arasaka, right? Bet you’ve seen worse shit than this ,” Jackie huffed, gesturing broadly to the death and destruction around them, the sunlight pouring through the holes and windows. He took a final look around the room, grabbed two bottles of the nicer tequila on the way out, and tossed V a bottle.
She caught it and huffed. Rolled her eyes as she shoved her way past him, stepping over the blood, guts, and dust around them. With the door open, the sun poured in and burned away any remaining vampires still in the bar that might have been struggling for life.
Together, Jackie and V walked out of the bar, as Jackie looked back at it with a devious grin on his face. He grabbed a—
*****
V took another drink from the bottle and set it down, looking to Johnny as she went to pick up a cigarette. Falling silent, taking a deep breath as she closed her eyes. The room felt like it was spinning, and closing her eyes did not help that.
She opened her eyes once more and picked up the lighter.
Johnny, on the other hand, was waiting for her to say something. Vibrating at a different frequency, looking at her with wide eyes. “ V .” His tone was annoyed, frustrated, as he looked at her expectantly.
“What?”
“That the fuckin’ end?”
She had to admit that she enjoyed he was getting interested in her story, told at the tail end of a day that she so desperately wanted to forget. It had been a nice distraction.
Something akin to maybe them becoming friends before the end of this, but she didn’t want to push her luck.
“Honestly, I feel drunk, so yeah that’s the end,” she shrugged, and when Johnny huffed in annoyance, she laughed. “We left the bar, Jackie’s bike got busted and we had to put it in the back of the truck I rented, and we went back to Night City together. The end.” She shrugged, lighting the cigarette and tossing the lighter onto the table.
She had a comfortable buzz, heading towards borderline drunk. Johnny looked to be enjoying the taste just as much as she had. But there was a delay from what she had before he experienced it. Watching him mirror her own drunkenness moments later was more than amusing.
Like it almost added a level of companionship, weirdly enough.
Johnny looked at her, narrowed eyes scanning over her features. Like he was trying to figure her out through all the drunken haze they both felt. “Wait. Hold on , that story isn’t fuckin’ true, is it.”
“What makes you think it’s not true? You think I’d lie to you?” She feigned annoyance, a hand to her chest, as she slowly let the smoke out between her lips.
“Dunno. Whole thing sounds too fuckin’ familiar. Like something I…” Johnny was in the middle of waiting his hand in the air as he talked but stopped suddenly. Cutting himself off mid-sentence, his eyes went wide. He went to punch V, but his fist phased through her arm. “It’s a fuckin’ old movie!”
Her eyes narrowed as she ashed the cigarette lightly into the tray, “What?”
“The story! You fuckin’ just told me the plot of From Dusk ‘Til Dawn !” Johnny scowled at her, and she shifted on the couch to face him, crossing her arms over her chest as she stared at him. Unimpressed with the fact that he was assuming that she would lie to him about her meeting with Jackie and how it all went down.
But he was absolutely right .
Her frown quickly cracked into a smile, and she started to laugh hard . “But I almost had you! You were hanging on every word Johnny, you got so into it.”
“ Fuck you ,” he snapped back, but there wasn’t any heat to it. Almost as if he was impressed that even in her state of grief and mourning, she still found a way to fuck with him. “Any of that even true?”
“Yeah, most of it actually. Met him in Mexico, went to that bar, got into an argument with the bartender, did shots. Would’ve told you the whole truth if you didn’t get a boner about how bored you were. Insulting, really.” She relaxed more into the couch, as she took another drag from the cigarette and turned her head to blow the smoke towards Johnny. It floated through him, and he seemed almost annoyed that he couldn’t smell it.
“How the fuck do you know that flick?”
She shrugged, “One of Vik and Jackie’s favorites. Vik had it from a long time ago, introduced it to Jackie, Jack showed me. I watched it a few times.”
Johnny’s eyes narrowed again, and there was a moment of silence before he relaxed into the couch himself and laughed. “Fuck. Alright, fine, fuck you, I’m drunk because you’re a lightweight, so you fuckin’ had me for a bit. But exactly happened?”
“Got into a huge bar fight, just wasn’t vampires. Had to kill a bunch of people to get out alive, the bar burned down, Jackie and I ran for our lives back to Night City.”
“Wait, the bar burned down?”
V laughed, “Yeah! Jackie got pissed, threw a grenade into it. Went up like…”
“A dead Christmas tree?”
“Dunno what that is, but sure.”
Johnny just sighed in frustration, shaking his head as he manifested his own cigarette to at least mirror the feeling of smoking. “Fine, got one last question.”
“Sure.” Tipsy and not feeling as heavy in her heart as she had when the day began, she felt better. Telling a tall-ish tale to her tapeworm who didn’t seem to mind her too much these days. It was almost as if they were getting along.
She could feel him gently push against that thought as if to say don’t push your luck , but they both knew they were only kidding themselves at this point.
Turning to Johnny, she waited expectantly for his final question, gesturing towards him. “Well?”
“Got a copy of that movie around here?” He raised an eyebrow, smirking slightly.
“Yeah,” she said, cracking into a grin, “I do.”