Chapter Text
Thinking about blowing up everything around one could be a comforting thought. It allows for a hard cut, for new beginnings that can be created out of the rubble of the old. To think about blowing up all that there was, is a way of ending things too. You say goodbye to that thing and everything it symbolized for you in your life.
The explosion itself can serve as the personification of catharsis, when one finally decides to let things die and be rebirthed from the ashes. The destructive nature of fire can burn away the pains of the past and allow for progress in both the self and its environment. But, as every child learns in a young age, if you play too close to the fire you will eventually get burned. And so the question is, did the children listen? Or did the growing age eventually make them tired of keeping their distance?
The fires of a nuclear explosion that would soon reshape the structure of Night City, they must be beautiful to look at. The atomic mushroom burning away every ennie that the big corporations of this world had tried to secure, and finally serving as the big equalizer this city was desperately missing. Finally it would be Arasaka's turn to pay the price of their own oppression, and not the working people in the streets. The fires would shake the city awake and amidst the destruction, and pain, and death, a new order would begin to form. Yes, these nuclear fires would be beautiful ones. V was sure of it.
He looked down on the cold ground of Arasaka Tower in front of him. There it was, the answer that he had for Night City. An atomic bomb, a small one albeit no less deadly, ready to be armed and to blow the whole tower into smithereens. V had to admit, nuking Arasaka Tower wasn't the most original idea he could've come up with, but it was an effective one. And he already knew that the other inhabitant of his head would agree. Speaking of which, Johnny Silverhand materialized right next to the nuke. He held a cigarette in his hand and seemed busy with inspecting the familiar object on the ground.
"I'm havin' a Déjà vue", he commented. "Can never have enough nukes at hand as long as people like the Arasakas are still around."
"Probably won't be around for much longer", V said while also looking at the bag on the floor.
"I consider this my present for fucking up my life and leaving me to die. This is just me returning the favor."
"Amen to that." They both looked at it for a while longer. Even though it was more of a backup plan, that should things go sideways at any point during this mission, that they would have a way to end it on their own terms. Or, should they make it out alive, it would serve as a parting gift for Arasaka.
Surprisingly, Johnny was the one who hesitated with this plan originally. It was a risky plan and bringing a nuke to the place that you want to reach to save yourself - yeah, V understood the slight contradiction in that. But now here they were, nuke placed next to the mainframe of Arasaka Tower and V having the trigger already linked to his neural interface. He could press it at any point now. Alt was also already linked to the Arasaka mainframe and so the path to Mikoshi was clear. At least so it would seem.
"Let's delta. Gotta go to Mikoshi before you die on me", Johnny said, trying to sound casual.
"Good that your output already found it for us. But still, navigating there could be a challenge." V readjusted the sniper rifle that he had hanging on his back, together with a few thermal grenades. His trusty pistol was strapped to his waist together with even more grenades, and he had his Monowire always at the ready. He was more than ready to take on the Tower by himself, and with Johnny by his side, it felt like nothing could stop him anymore.
"The first elevator that takes us down then", Johnny said and V started moving.
They took the elevator down and started following the path that Alt had given to V after she was uploaded into the mainframe. The problem was that the whole force of Arasaka's security was looking for them and so they barely made any progress. V was mostly busy with shooting people down, throwing grenades, or quickhacking into the guards' neural systems. With every passing minute, with every guard falling and ten more showing up, V struggled more and more to keep himself together. The relic was draining him more than usual and sometimes he had to find cover because he was coughing up blood and his legs gave out. Every time that happened Johnny was right there by his side, telling him to keep going, keep pushing onward. And V did. During other times V would've been impressed by himself, how he was still going after taking in so many set-backs from the relic, but somehow he did. If it was his own will to push through this, or Johnny telling him to keep going, to stay alive no matter what, V wasn't sure. But it worked. And eventually he found everyone around himself dead and his sniper already blowing out smoke because of all the bullets it shot out.
V was breathing heavily out of exhaustion and leaned against the closest wall to find a moment of peace before he would move on. Johnny was, once again, right there with him.
"Gotta hand it to ya, V, you're one of the toughest nuts I've meet."
"Thanks", V pressed out between two breathes. He could feel the blood streaming down on his left arm where one of Arasaka's snipers had hit him. They didn't have enough time, or fucks left to give really, to care about that wound now.
Instead V searched for the nearest access point and found one close to a door's interface. The door looked promising either way as it seemed to lead further down into the tower. According to Alt the way to Mikoshi would be found somewhere behind it. Without wasting any more time V pulled out his personal link and jacked in. At first it was quite overwhelming to be confronted with so much data from all across Arasaka's net.
It would take a while to find what he was looking for in here, which was more than just a simple way to open the door in front of him. Johnny, on the other hand, wasn't a fan of sitting around and waiting for V to finish his netrunner stuff. He could also feel how their time was slowly running out and, in his opinion, V was way too relaxed about that fact.
"V, we need to delta now. 'Saka's elite groups are only a few steps behind. We need to get to Mikoshi stat."
"I know, Johnny, I know. If you know how to do this any faster, then please enlighten me, as this is my first time in Arasaka Tower. If I recall correctly you've done this before, twice", V complained while still hacking through the security of the door, or at least what appeared to be a simple door hack to Johnny. V figured that he grew increasingly uneasy because all their running around the lower levels thus far has not let them to any results.
And sure, partially that was because Arasaka's guards were in their way, but there was also another reason. V was stalling. He didn't like the plan. And the data he just found in Arasaka's net made him like the plan even less.
"It was a different tower back then", Johnny commented nonchalant and leaned his body against the wall next to the door.
"Won't be of much help for this one."
"Then shut up and let me work." Surprisingly Johnny listened and kept quiet. What a rare occurrence, V thought. But Johnny must've known just as well as he did how easily this whole op could turn to shit. Especially because no back up was coming. They were on their own.
"Got it." V had a grin on his face as he pressed the door interface and the door smoothly opened for them.
"Preem, albeit a bit slow."
"I wanna see you hack into 'Saka's entire security system faster than that", V said with a small shrug and entered the new room. Johnny however almost tripped over his own feet trying to follow V and instead just zipped himself in front of V's face.
"What do you mean with 'entire security system'? You just opened a door, choom. Alt is the one roaming around their net." Johnny crossed his arms before his chest and tried to keep his cool.
"True, but she didn't take care of their security, did she? I figured that interface must be linked to the mainframe as well. So, I followed its traces through the net and breached the mainframe through the backdoor... and with a little bit of that Blackwall magic from Song. The security system is ours now, which should postpone those 'Saka elite groups you've mentioned AND give us a smooth journey to Mikoshi. I should've done this when we were at the mainframe, but who could've guessed that Arasaka could give us so many problems, eh?" Johnny didn't know what he should be more impressed by, that V managed to surpass Arasaka's security system so easily or the fact that he didn't even make a big fuzz around it. If it had been Johnny Silverhand who had hacked their systems, oh watch out world because he would've made sure to tell every single person he could and bathe in their praise and recognition of his talents. But alas it wasn't Johnny Silverhand who hacked their systems.
Johnny smiled and looked at V who was already on his way further down the hallway to probably find Mikoshi as quickly as possible.
"Motherfucker...", he whispered to himself before he decided to follow V again.
"Aaand another server room. Great", V scoffed. "Just how many more can they have? Alt's instructions really aren't helpful." He looked at the room full of these metallic boxes, that always looked like huge skyscrapers to V. This hallway seemed to be only for server rooms as they kept piling up left and right.
"Hey, over here!", Johnny called out and V turned around. The other guy was standing next to a strange looking door. It was strange because it seemed to have a lot of extra security measures, most of them hidden from the untrained eye. The door looked weirdly inconspicuous for that amount of security.
"Could this be something?", Johnny asked.
"Maybe. Let's see, eh?" V raised his hand and one could briefly see those black shards of lightning, that were synonymous with the Blackwall, coming out of his hand. A second later the door was open.
"What in the fuck-?", V exclaimed and Johnny couldn't have said it better himself. The door gave way to a hallway-like room that was completely sealed off and sterilized. The few lights gave off a very unpleasant white glimmer and the dark grey walls certainly didn't help either. What creeped both of them out the most though, was the various containers stacked at the wall. It almost looked like a morgue.
"What is this place?" V seemed intrigued and slowly stepped further into the room.
"Not Mikoshi, that's for sure", Johnny commented. He tried to overplay how much this new discovery freaked him out. "Hey V, let's delta. No point in lingering here."
"Relax, Johnny. Remember, I'm the one with the ticking timer over his head." It was meant as a joke but it really didn't help to make Johnny feel any less spooked.
"Nah, but this place gives me the creeps." That he even admitted that to V was a surprise, mostly for himself. But it didn't seem as though V cared all that much for his feelings right now.
"I'm sure you'll manage", he just said and walked further into the room.
V took a closer look at the containers. From the conditions of the room itself it was already clear that whatever was stored inside was to be handled with the utmost care. And one look at the containers themselves and V knew why.
"Shit, Johnny, this place doesn't only look like a morgue, it is one. See, these containers have names and years on them." V gave the container's inscription a closer look. "But why would Arasaka keep these bodies stashed away somewhere? And old ones too. See, this guy died in 68'."
"Don't know. Don't care. Can we leave, please?" But V still ignored Johnny's wishes. Instead, he opened up the container in front of him. An older man with top-tier Cyberware and a perfectly done face structure popped out. V gave his body a scan which only confirmed the higher class of the man. V scratched his head and gave the man a confused look.
"Looks like some kind of experiment. But what- wait a minute." Johnny turned towards V and gave him a questioning look.
"What is it?"
"His mind - it's blank. It almost looks like... Fuck, I know what this room is." V closed his scanner and turned towards Johnny.
"Think about it. Bodies without brains - don't we know about some Arasaka program that puts the person out of their body and onto-"
"An engram! Shit V, these are the peeps that put their souls on the relic."
"Precisely." Suddenly V seemed rather excited. He turned back and quickly closed the container of the old man. "There's a chance, Johnny. There's a chance we find your body here as well." Now Johnny's mood seemed to have increased as well.
"Would love to find that old face again."
"I'm sure you would." Johnny found it a bit weird how much more energetic V suddenly seemed but decided not to comment on it. Instead he happily followed V around the room as the other one checked the names on all of the containers. It was unlikely, though not impossible, that Johnny's body was among them. Most of these people seemed to be some Corpo-Rats, wealthy enough to prolong their life for eternity with the engrams. And still, towards the end of the room V finally found what he was looking for.
"Bingo!" He slowly let his finger glide over Johnny's name on the container.
"Should we open it?", Johnny asked, but to his surprise V shook his head.
"It could unnecessarily damage the body. Nah, we take the whole container." Johnny was baffled. Was V's plan really to put him back into his own body? Johnny was stunned.
"V, it's nice that you want to put me back in that old flesh, but we're on a time limit and this would only slow us down." Sure, it kinda hurt to leave his own body with Arasaka in their stupid tower, but there were more important things in life, V's survival for example.
"We have time. There's only one door left in that hallway and I've got some pretty strong energy readings from there. So we know the way to Mikoshi", V mentioned and quickly disengaged the container with Johnny's body from the rest. He would need something to transport the whole thing and he didn't remember seeing anything that could help on the way to this room.
"Sure you don't want to open it?", Johnny asked casually.
"And how would that help me now? Are you really so egotistical that you yearn to see your own face that badly?", V shot back without even looking away from the container. If only he had a-
"A body is easier to carry than this whole thing." And- yeah, Johnny had a point there. If all went well than it wouldn't be long until Johnny would inherit his own body again. Maybe it was fine after all to open it.
"Okay, but if this goes wrong it's your fault."
"Just open the damn thing." Johnny was impatient. V had nothing to say against that anymore. He pressed another button which disengaged the container from the whole wall and then pulled it out. The container now laid horizontally before them on the ground, Johnny Silverhand's face clearly visible through a small glass window, confirming that it was indeed his old body.
"I think I'm seeing double", V joked, which only granted him an annoyed look from Johnny. V opened the container and took a quick look at the body. It looked exactly like the engram leaning over the container and inspecting himself. For some reason V expected the body to look just so slightly different. Maybe some face features would be different, or the engram didn't get his tattoos right or something, anything really that would differentiate the original from the copy.
Seeing this body so clearly in front of him he wondered once again if the Johnny Silverhand he knew and the Johnny Silverhand that lived 50 years ago were also the same in personality. Would the actual Johnny Silverhand had been his friend? Was he even more insufferable than his copy? Everyone who knew Johnny that V had met throughout the past few months seemed to recognize Johnny. So were they actually identical, or did Rogue's and Kerry's own memories trick them to recognize Johnny Silverhand because they were told it was him? Could a simple engram even secure the essence of a human being like that?
"Have we jerked off long enough to my exposed body?", Johnny suddenly asked and with that pulled V out of his own head.
"What?", he asked confused.
"You've been staring at my body for a while now and, even though I'm flattered, we're kinda in a rush and still need to get you to Mikoshi before your own body flatlines." V only now realized that Johnny's body was indeed naked. His impulse was to look away to grant Johnny privacy, but then he remembered that he was supposed to carry the whole thing.
So, instead, he just mumbled a quick "sorry", and then grabbed Johnny's body to throw him over his shoulders. It was heavier than he had expected, or V had just become weaker than he used to be through the relic.
"Don't break down just yet. We still have to get to Mikoshi after this is over", Johnny said after noticing how much V struggled.
"It's always Mikoshi this, Mikoshi that. You're like a broken record right now, y'know that?", V joked, still struggling with the weight and wondering if he would be able to carry it.
"Just don't want you to lose focus, that's all", Johnny answered nonchalant.
"I'm trying, okay?", V commented and rearranged Johnny's body slightly to finally be easier to carry.
"Let's delta", he then said even though Johnny really had no choice in whether or not he would follow V. But V still said it every time they left for missions or anything else. It felt weird not to address Johnny like he was a real person and so V just pretended that he was real.
And Johnny pretended that he wasn't at all happy about this little gesture.
"Okay, care to explain to me what the new plan is now?", Johnny asked on the way back.
"No time. I have to make a phone call", V said while already opening his holo with his Kiroshis. Navigating the maze that was Arasaka Tower, carrying Johnny's body and making a phone call surely wasn't easy but V really had no choice. Johnny was right. They were on a slowly closing time limit.
"Pick up, pick up, pick up - fuck!" A group of Arasaka guards appeared in front of them. V quickly placed the body on the ground and pulled out his sniper rifle. He spotted 9 of them in total, plus scans revealed another squad of 5 coming in from the left. He activated his overclock chip and quickly hacked into the synapses of the 5 newcomers. Then he turned towards the other 9. 3 of them were on the floor above him and 6 on his floor, closing in on his position. V decided to focus on the ones on the higher floor first. He got into position and focused in with his sniper on the enemies on the higher floor. The moment one of them popped their head out of cover, V pulled the trigger. The other 2 panicked at the sight of their now headless companion and in their panic they accidentally moved out of cover. V pulled the trigger again. And again. The higher floor was clear.
V went back behind cover to reload his weapon. Then he finally heard a voice answering on the other side of the line. A triumphant grin was now on his face. He pulled out a grenade and threw it right into the faces of the 3 guards closing in from the right. Then, with his freshly reloaded weapon he aimed at the ones on the left. With 3 more precise shots in the head, they also fell to the ground. V got up and finally answered the holo.
"Rogue!"
"Should the noises I just heard concern me in any way? Especially with what I heard from this attack on Arasaka Tower?" She was clearly judging him.
"Seriously V, I thought you were the smart one of you two." That got Johnny's attention again and he appeared next to his own dead body. If V wasn't already aware that he was dying, seeing two Johnnys so close to each other would've definitely been his final sign. It could have been comical, if V had any time left to appreciate the absurdity of the situation.
"Sorry to disappoint. I need your help, Rogue, and I promise it won't be too much of a risk."
"I'm listenin'."
"Can you get to the top of Arasaka Tower in 6?" Rogue was clearly not expecting that question.
"Should I ask why, or-?"
"We can save Johnny... Listen, I know you're done with him, but please one last time. We'll be there and you can save him and in this chaos I don't think Arasaka will care or even notice you in the sky." Rogue was still quiet. She was clearly thinking about it.
"And this chaos you mentioned..."
"An explosive surprise. They already got familiar with it once." That comment made Rogue chuckle.
"Give me 8 and I'll be there." V smiled.
"Thanks." And with that he hung up. Johnny gave him a judging look. He was only half on board with this plan.
"Explosive, hm? Wasn't that supposed to be the backup plan?", he asked. "And, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, I might not know the exact location of Mikoshi, but I damn well know that it ain't at the top. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't we just find a pretty strong lead here beneath the tower? So we're going in the opposite direction now. V, what game are you playing here?" Johnny was clearly suspicious of V's actions.
"My own one", was all V said before he grabbed Johnny's body again and moved with it on his back towards the nearest elevator. He pressed in the highest level and the doors closed. This moment of quiet was Johnny's time to chime in again.
"Speak up", he commanded.
"Trying to save your ass, dickhead."
"That's it? Because I see your face and this V", Johnny pointed directly at V's face: "This is your brooding face. You're coming up with some crazy plan and as far as I know that's never a good sign." V rolled his eyes and gave Johnny an unimpressed look.
"You have such a nice way with words, Johnny."
"Hey, just bein' honest. So what's the secret plan?" He was clearly not buying what V was telling him and V was struggling, because he had no idea what else to tell Johnny. And suddenly he didn't have to anymore.
"Wait a sec", he said and connected to the elevator's interface. Now it was on Johnny to be annoyed.
"Stop trying to talk around it V. I-"
"Quiet. It's Smasher." And yep, that shut Johnny up for good.
"What?"
"My scanners. They picked up something on the top floor. I wasn't sure if it was really him so I connected to the system again to confirm it. It's him. He's here." Johnny sat down on the floor.
"Fucking hell... What're we doing?", Johnny asked. V glanced towards his back.
"It's too risky to openly fight him now with your body there. We need to temporarily put him out of the action."
"Got a plan?"
"Mhm, but it's risky." V took a deep breath. Johnny could feel how nervous V was, even if the other man was trying to overplay it. Johnny couldn't hold it against him. Too much was at stake and too much could go wrong. He didn't want to admit it, but he was quite nervous himself.
"I don't think a non-risky plan is on the table now anyway", Johnny joked to raise both their moods and actually managed to get a small laugh out of V.
"Good to see you haven't lost your sense of humor. You'll need it." Before Johnny could answer the elevator abruptly stopped.
"Are we there?", Johnny asked. V shook his head.
"Nah, it's Smasher. He stopped the elevator. Gotta get up there and put it back on while keeping him at bay." V gently put Johnny's body back down and pulled out his trusty sniper again. He gave it one last inspection, more to give himself one last moment to breathe before he would face Adam Smasher. Then he opened the hatch on the top of the elevator and got ready to climb out.
"Hey V", Johnny called out before V could leave. "Stay alive, okay?" V gave him a small nod. Then he first jumped out of the elevator and then the rest of the elevator shaft up to the last floor.