Author's Notes: Chapter edited and corrected by Scott Fellman.
Serena Pov.
"So, you're Maine?" I asked lightly, grabbing the case with my bow I'd left on the floor to help Rebecca up. Maine snorted and finally lowered his weapon.
"That's right." Maine said in a deep voice, Rebecca grabbed my wrist and dragged me to one of the two sofas that were placed inside the small den.
"Get up." She snarled at her brother as she kicked him off the couch. Pilar fell to the floor with a shrill scream. Rebecca just shoved me onto the couch and then sat on the armrest next to me. I gave her an amused look before shaking my head and looking at Maine.
"So? You called me." I said simply, Maine just stared at me.
"You broke something of mine, kiddo." Maine said, trying to sound threatening. Rebecca snorted as she crossed her arms and rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything. I snorted in amusement.
I raised my hand, made a small fist, and quickly moved my hand before taking a cigarette out of my inventory, placing it between my lips. I looked directly at Maine, slowly raising my middle finger in front of my cigarette before a small flame emerged from my finger.
I took a long drag on my cigarette. Maine's eyes widened slightly.
"Excuse me, what?" I said mockingly. Rebecca burst out laughing, followed by Pilar. Maine snorted dryly, but a small smile grew on her face as she leaned back in her seat.
"The military Sandevistan that you pulled out of Cyberpsycho last night, you broke it." Maine said simply, and I nodded as I took the cigarette out of my mouth. Rebecca snatched it from me before placing it to her lips. I raised an eyebrow slightly in her direction, but looked back at Maine.
"I did it," I said simply. "I still don't see how it involves you."
"Oh god, this is good." Rebecca sighed as she felt herself relax while taking a huge drag. "What the hell is in this?" Rebecca asked.
"Personal creation, I make it," I said honestly. Rebecca took another drag with a sigh.
"I need a supply of this, Choom. I'll pay you," Rebecca said, sounding completely relaxed. More than she should have, I frowned slightly. The sedative cigarette shouldn't have any effect much stronger than normal on a normal person, so... some kind of interaction with the cyberware?
The cigarette was made with the ingredients of Draught of Peace, which relieved anxiety and agitation, and yes, also calmed any damage or discomfort caused by cyberware. Was it working as an immunosuppressant? It was quite possible… I texted GLaDOS to file the idea away.
"I'll think about it." I hummed lightly as I grabbed the cigar and took a drag. First, I had to ensure that there were no adverse effects from using potions or magic items on someone with cyberware installed.
"Here, let me try a little." Pilar said excitedly as he stretched out his hand, and I grabbed it in the air.
"Don't even think about it. You seem to have a dozen contagious diseases. I don't want your mouth anywhere near anything of mine." I said dryly, without looking at him. Rebecca burst out laughing.
"She got you, Pilar!" Rebecca mocked.
"Come on! And why can she? " Pilar complained, almost indignant. I let go of his hand, and he quickly withdrew it.
"When you look as adorable as Rebecca, you'll be able to do it too, but it'll be difficult when your face looks like a scrotum that has too much hair growing out of it." I scoffed. Pilar gasped indignantly. Rebecca burst out laughing.
"Excuse me, Choom? I'll have you know that my face is lovely! Women love it! " Pilar replied, and I smiled at him sarcastically.
"Come on, what women? Rebecca was just telling me the only reason you have cybernetic arms is because your flesh hands put a restraining order on you for playing solo too much." I mocked him with a shit-eating grin as I waved my hand up and down in the air.
Hey, it may have been funny to make fun of Rebecca, but I thought it was only fair to return the insult in kind.
Rebecca choked on air from laughing so hard, and she collapsed onto my shoulder, clutching me as she shook with laughter. I could hear Dorio burst out laughing. Even Maine laughed, Kiwi and Lucy stifling giggles to no avail.
Pilar stared at me with his mouth open in disbelief for a few seconds before bursting into laughter.
"Well played, choomba!" Pilar laughed happily. I snorted as I took a drag on my cigarette. I let everyone stop laughing—or well, most of them, Rebecca was still recovering—before looking at Maine once more.
"So, you were saying something about a Sandy?" I asked once again, picking up the thread of the conversation.
"James Norris, the cyberpsychopath from last night, had a Sandy. Under normal circumstances, my contact would have retrieved it, and I would have opened it, but now it's impossible since you broke it, according to Becca." Maine said seriously.
"That's what I did." I said simply with a shrug. "I had to stop that Cyberpsychopath, destroying his Sandy was the easiest way." I said simply. Maine snorted.
"You could have just as easily killed him and left the Sandy intact," Maine replied, and I laughed lightly.
"Maybe." I said simply, taking a half drag on my cigarette before Rebecca took it from me once more. "But I still don't see the point. Sandy doesn't exist, and as much as you want to rant, it was never yours. It belonged to NUSA, or well, Militech, since they created it."
"You talk like you know that Sandy." Kiwi pointed out with a raised eyebrow. I hummed.
"Militech 'Apogee', officially doesn't exist, unofficially? Rumor has it that Militech's secret lunar labs produce covert cyberware." I said simply, the crew's eyes widening slightly.
"Does that mean you can get one?" Maine asked seriously as he leaned forward. I snorted.
"I could, but I won't," I said simply. Maine frowned.
"What? Why not? I'll pay for it," Maine said immediately. "We need it for a concert soon." I hummed as I looked at the rest. Dorio had a sour look of disagreement, but said nothing.
"Several things, actually." I said simply. "First, the price. Tell me. I'm sure you'd pay your contact, say, 20,000 Edis." I said, raising an eyebrow at him.
"How-" Maine tried to say, surprised. I just snorted.
"Yeah, no… the average value of the Apogee is 120,000 edis, and that's not even close to the value of the Sandy that Norris had installed; it was so modified that it was barely identifiable as an Apogee. A Sandy in that condition would be worth 250,000 edis." I told him simply, with everyone's eyes almost popping out of their sockets.
"I'll pay you," Maine said with a grimace.
"No! We don't have that kind of money to spend, so we can handle the concert without the Sandy! " Dorio replied incredulously, Maine shook his head.
"I'll pay for it, somehow," Maine said firmly. I snorted as I took the almost-finished cigarette from Rebecca and took a long drag.
"What? A payment plan is the stupidest thing you can do with an Edgerunner. Who knows when they'll die, and you..." I said, looking at Maine's trembling hand. "You look like you're months old." I said dryly. Rebecca grabbed my shoulder and glared at me. I ignored her.
"You don't know anything about me," Maine growled, standing up.
"And I don't need to know anything about you; your body doesn't lie. Have you been staring into space? Have you been 'zoning out'? Have you experienced short-term memory loss? Uncontrollable tremors? The amount of immunosuppressants you take increases more and more? "
"Like I said, you're on the edge. You have months if you don't get treatment, which I can see you won't because you're an idiot. And getting a Sandy? Especially something on the level of an Apogee? I'd get those months down to weeks." I said coldly. Maine stood up.
"Shut up." Maine growled. I could see his cyberware tremble slightly. I just tilted my head somewhat without a hint of fear.
"Sasha Yakovleva." I said simply, everyone flinched, especially Maine, and… there were the guns again. Maine, Dorio, and Pilar all pointed their guns at me. I could feel Rebecca digging her nails into my shoulder, but I ignored it. The only ones who didn't do anything were Lucy and Kiwi, although they were frowning.
"Don't mention her name." Maine growled, and I hummed.
"You're a good person, Maine. You care about your crew, which is a terrible idea in your line of work," I said coldly. I ignored the barrel of the gun pointed at me and looked him straight in the eye. "People die when they're Edgerunners. That's the immutable truth. And that loss devastates people like you."
"Be quiet."
"Survivor's guilt, a psychological phenomenon in which a person feels guilt and shame for having survived when others didn't. You're too stubborn to admit it, too stupid even to consider it."
Bang ! I grabbed the bullet that Maine's gun fired as easily as before.
"You live, Sasha doesn't, so your thoughts are, how do I keep the rest of my crew from dying? The answer is easy: Cyberware, always cyberware. When the option to get stronger is as easy as getting a new implant? Yes, that's the path everyone chooses."
bang !bang !bang !bang !
"And it's a downward spiral, you're not special, Maine, you're so normal it's almost pitiful, you're not the next Adam Smasher, you're not built different, you have a limit and you're about to surpass it, and the worst part? You can't admit it yet, and it's only a matter of time, and that's WHEN, not IF you turn."
"Because you will, you won't get any treatment, nothing, so you'll become a psychopath and when that happens, those who will die would be your companions, those closest to you, by your hand, or trying to stop MaxTac in vain, it's that simple, this story has been told thousands of times, and there's no reason for it not to be repeated."
"Shut up!" Maine growled, abandoning his weapon and throwing a punch with all his strength. I just raised my hand and extended one of my fingers lazily. Maine's fist stopped dead in its tracks. He just growled louder. "You don't know anything about me! About us! Stop talking nonsense! I'm going to kill you! "
"What a show of sanity," I said with a mocking smile.
"Stop," Rebecca growled from beside me, glaring at me. I hummed softly as I ignored her, using my free hand to crush out my nearly finished cigarette and toss it to the side.
"I'll propose a deal," I said, looking at him. "My wife is a Ripperdoc, with a new preventative treatment for cyberpsychosis. Get treatment from her, obviously, completely free of charge. And then, I'll give you the same Sandy that James Norris used, for free, and my wife will install it for you, free of charge."
"What do you say? Are you taking the risk, Maine? " I asked with a wolfish grin.
"You want me to be a damn guinea pig for some unknown Corpo!? You said you can get Sandy easily! Were you able to identify it as a Militech Sandy?! You work for them?! " Maine growled.
"We're completely independent, but you won't believe me, so it's not like it matters, right? The cure is there; you just have to take it. Once you're done with the treatment, I don't want anything else from you. It's completely safe, or as much as you can afford."
"Besides, dead for dead, it's the same, right? Like I said, you're not special, you'll become a psychopath sooner or later if you keep walking on the edge, only this time you got lucky, Rebecca cares about you, and I like her enough to offer you this opportunity, I can get hundreds of patients to test this new tech."
"There's a Fixer in Night City who'd love to work with me. But you'd be the first, if you're willing." I said sweetly with a smile. Maine grunted as he lowered his fist.
"Kiwi, Lucy." Maine said simply, I just stood still while smiling widely.
"Let's see, mega building H8 and... we go in." Lucy said while her eyes shone, I didn't even flinch.
"Let's see what's be-" Kiwi stood still, and Lucy immediately followed her. Both of them seemed to short out at the same time; sparks shot out from all over their bodies as they went completely limp.
" Kiwi!" "Lucy !" everyone exclaimed in concern. I could see that Lucy and Kiwi were still fully conscious, just trapped and completely immobilized, their eyes darting around in panic.
After a few moments, Kiwi's voice modulator began to make noise.
"If you try to trespass on my property again, I will fry your brains in the most painful way possible, whether you have a deal with my wife or not." GLaDOS's voice came from Kiwi's voice modulator. Then, they finally regained control of their bodies, and both took a deep breath while shaking slightly.
"Girls!" Maine exclaimed worriedly. "What did you do to them?!" Maine growled at me. He tried to grab my neck, but I stopped his hand by easily grabbing his wrist.
"Me? Nothing, it was your order that did it. My wife doesn't like strangers messing with her things." I said with a shrug. "They must have crashed into her ICE," I said simply.
"ICE? That wasn't a fucking ICE," Kiwi snarled as she regained control of her voice modulator. "We didn't even get close. It grabbed us both, ripped us apart, and invaded our systems with such ease it was inhuman." Kiwi glared at me.
"Skill issues," I said simply.
"You said you weren't affiliated with any group, but your wife used code derived from what the Voodoo Boys use." Lucy accused, and I hummed.
"My wife likes to study all the methods she finds interesting and implements them in her things; her last target was the Voodoo Boys." I said simply, Lucy snorted.
"Yeah, sure," Lucy said dryly.
"Enough!" Maine exclaimed. "Get out of here, now!" Maine shouted angrily as he glared at me.
"Sure? I just offered you a cure and the Sandy you wanted, all completely free? Are you going to waste it like that? Just because of your pride? " I asked playfully, Maine pariah about to attack again.
"We accept," Dorio said as he approached Maine.
"What!? No!" Maine exclaimed, and Dorio punched Maine in the jaw.
"I said, we accept." Dorio repeated loudly. "The girl's right, damn it! We've been telling you for a while that you're at your limit! But you are stubborn and you don't listen to us! Now that you have a solution, accept it, or I'll force you to take it! " Dorio growled furiously.
"No, that's the end of it. I won't change my mind," Maine said as he stood up to his full height.
"For the love of- do you have to be so stubborn!? I don't want to lose you, stubborn ass! You'll let that Ripperdoc look at you, whether you want to or not!" Dorio snarled, Maine's expression cracking for a few seconds.
"We don't even know if what she said is true; it could all be a trap." Maine grunted, Pilar snorted.
"Yeah, no, I believe her, boss," Pilar said dryly. "Or what? She befriended Rebecca just to get to you? Too much work for your Gonk ass. The girl already told you, even if you don't want to admit it, you're no one special. Even if it's an experimental procedure, it's all real, definitely." Pilar added.
"What? Now they're all against me? " Maine growled indignantly.
"On the contrary, Maine, we agree with the girl because we're on your side. She's right. We've all noticed the symptoms; you just don't want to accept it," Kiwi said, lighting another cigarette. "And you'll have to trust that it's true, even if it sounds too fanciful, because I'm not going anywhere near the net while her wife is lurking."
"I found rogue AIs less frightening than your wife's presence on the network," Lucy added dryly. "If you're so afraid it's a lie, we'll stay for the entire operation." Lucy said just as easily as she looked at me, and I shrugged in agreement.
"Just do it, gonk, look on the bright side, if it works, it works, if it doesn't, you'll still have stupid Sandy." Rebecca said bitterly.
Maine seemed to struggle for a few seconds and finally decided to glare at me.
"You win, bastard, take me to your wife, let her do what she has to do, and put the damn Sandy around my neck or you and I will have a problem. The entire crew will go with me; they will stay throughout the entire procedure, non-negotiable, understood? " said Maine, finally giving up. I smiled widely.
"Of course, you can wait in front of the megabuilding H8 in… about 8 hours, it should be over by then." I said while looking at my pocket watch.
"No. Now." Maine said, squinting at me.
"I still have a date with Rebecca," I said with a smile. "Come on, Rebecca? We have some stops to make," I chirped as I stood up and dusted myself off. Rebecca gave me a sour look.
"Do you really think I want to go out with you after all this, Gonk?" Rebecca asked dryly. I hummed as I mentally sighed. Well, it was nice while it lasted.
If I wanted to complete the secondary objective of keeping Maine's entire crew alive, I'd have to start by helping Maine. A cyberpsychopath would kill Pilar, but that was so easily avoidable if I had killed the psychopath before Pilar stupidly decided to upset him.
But Maine? Maine would die of his own stupidity when his mind broke, something much more challenging to avoid when he finally became a psychopath.
Also… I liked Rebecca; that part was genuine. I had no idea what would happen to her, but in the worst-case scenario, if she found out what I could do, or if she knew Maine's fate and hadn't saved him beforehand… yeah, that would be a horrible idea.
I knew trying to reason with Maine would be stupidly difficult; he was stubborn, like everyone else in Night City, from what I was realizing. The only way to do it was to push him in the right direction, but that definitely put me on Rebecca's bad side.
"Are you sure? I have something to look for at the Municipal Landfill," I said simply. Rebecca gave me an incredulous look.
"You want to take me to the Landfill?!" Rebecca exclaimed, more outraged by this than by the previous confrontation. I laughed lightly and started walking toward the exit.
"Well, I just got some information that a cryogenic freezer that had a 50-year contract just expired and was then dumped in a landfill. I was able to get the location last night, and I want to go look for the body inside." I said while looking over my shoulder.
"A corpse? What gonk died, and what's so important?" Rebecca snorted, crossing her arms. I smiled broadly.
"Rache Bartmoss."
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