Night City may appear to be part of a futuristic society at first glance, that is, if you only look at the enormous skyscrapers visible from a distance. In reality, however, it reflects a shattered dystopian world.
The world of Cyberpunk was destroyed again and again until it reached this point, where it seems that most people have completely lost their minds.
On the one hand, the Crash of '94, in which stock market manipulation occurred: the "Gang of Four" (secret U.S. agencies) manipulated global markets to make wealth appear greater than it really was, but Europe discovered the fraud and brought down the international economy.
The dollar lost its value, the U.S. government collapsed, and massive riots erupted, fragmenting the country into Free States.
Then came the mutant plagues; plant viruses destroyed crops across much of the world in the early 2000s, forcing people to depend on biotechnology monopolies.
The collapse of the Middle East cannot be forgotten either: a massive thermonuclear war turned the region into a radioactive wasteland and rendered its oil wells useless, triggering a global energy crisis.
As if that weren't enough to destroy the world, the Corporate Wars arrived.
Four successive wars between corporations raised private violence above that of national armies.
The finishing blow happened precisely in the city where Allen was.
The Fourth Corporate War culminated in 2023 when a mini-nuclear bomb was detonated in the heart of Arasaka Towers, devastating the center of the city.
But the end of the Fourth War did not end the consequences of human stupidity.
One day, the "red sky" appeared; radioactive dust and debris from the bomb tinted the planet's skies blood-red for years.
As killing a large part of the population, the economy, and nature wasn't enough, humanity caused the collapse of the digital world with an ultra-destructive computer virus that destroyed the original Internet, isolating entire continents and killing most of the netrunners connected at that moment.
Understanding this means realizing just how fucked up the world of Cyberpunk is, so it is hardly surprising that people have lost their minds and mutilate parts of their bodies as if it were a competition to see who can install the most cyberware before succumbing to cyberpsychosis.
Allen looked at the sky. Despite it being daytime and clear, it was two shades less blue compared to the sky of his original world or any other world.
"Night City..." Allen murmured.
[Allen... are you really willing to take the risk? Ninety-nine percent of the time someone tries to alter the past, they only end up making things even worse.]
"Worse?" Allen smiled and looked into the distance.
Not far away, on the other side of the road, three men were ripping an implant from a corpse. They were scavengers. Despite being in a district for wealthy people, despite it being broad daylight, and despite several people noticing what was happening, nobody reacted. Scavenging implants was as common as seeing someone digging through the trash.
Night City was one of the worst cities in the world to live in. It was basically Cyberpunk's Gotham.
Crime was through the roof. You were lucky if you didn't die caught in one of the many shootouts between different criminal groups and gangs. The massive corporations controlling the economy made sure people remained poor and miserable, so there was no way for them to escape.
The only two options for ordinary people were to hide, keep their heads down, and try not to bother anyone, perhaps allowing them to reach fifty, or they could pick up a gun and enter the world of Cyberpunk to make a name for themselves, gain reputation and glory, and who knows, when their head eventually got blown apart by a bullet, perhaps someone would name a drink after them at Afterlife, just as the legendary Johnny Silverhand or the reckless David Martinez managed to do.
Was it worth it?
Johnny and David lived short lives and left their mark on this city. Was that something worth dying for?
In the end, Arasaka, Militech, Biotechnica, and countless other corporations continued getting richer while ordinary people became more miserable. There was no change, no heroes, no better life. Everyone seemed to accept this as reality.
"How could this world possibly get worse?" Allen mocked, but his expression immediately changed. "However, my intention isn't to change this world. The result of all this isn't a curse, a natural disaster, or an invasion from outer space. It's the result of humanity's own actions. It's the people's choice. Nobody here is fighting to change that, not even the protagonist V, who will appear in the future. They're only looking for their moment of glory so they can make their deaths mean something."
[...]
"I didn't intend to do anything. It's just that... I have this power..." Allen looked at his hand and smiled. "If I don't use it at least to bring my girl's brother back, then what the hell is the point of having it?"
Rick – Long live selfishness!
Saeko – Something very typical of you, heh.
Emma F – Certainly, something like changing or saving the world is far too heavy a burden, and it always ends badly when humanity itself is the cause.
Annie – That world sounds like a lot of trouble. Personally, regardless of your choice, I'd like it if it didn't affect you.
Angelica (Gil): You have no obligation to save everyone. I didn't want to see you collapse from trying to carry the weight of every problem in every world you visit.
Tony – I can see that this world's problems are already part of its very existence... Very difficult...
Rias – Regardless of your choice, I don't think you should feel bad. You've already done so much for so many people. Be selfish~
Hearing the support from his Chat, Allen was filled with a comforting sensation.
"Of course, but I'm not the one who will make the final choice." Allen looked ahead. Rebecca had already climbed the steps of the Columbarium and was entering the building.
Without saying anything else, he walked toward the place. Nobody seemed bothered that he had left the motorcycle on the sidewalk. Of course, that perhaps had something to do with the fact that it was clearly something belonging to the Tiger Claws, and nobody would go looking for trouble with those lunatics without a reason.
....
Once inside, Allen and his Chat observed the enormous memorials, resembling tall rectangular walls lined up like giant dominoes, one after another.
When someone approached, they could see small personalized holographic messages.
Allen searched for Rebecca. The girl was still near the entrance on the right, standing in front of one of the memorials. When he approached, he heard her mocking it.
"Your friend?" Allen smiled.
"Nah, she was a traitorous bitch, but at least we had some good times. I don't hold much of a grudge against her or anything," Rebecca said. "Although I'd punch her if I ever saw her again."
Allen shook his head and looked at the memorial.
– Kiwi –
"You taught me to never trust anyone in Night City."
"Rebecca, this message..."
"More than this bitch deserves." Rebecca smiled and resumed walking.
As they went farther between the arches, they eventually reached a building. There were more memorials inside. When they reached the center, Rebecca gasped and ran toward one of them.
– Rebecca –
"I regret not finishing our conversation."
"Lucy..." Rebecca said, touching the message. A small smile appeared in her eyes. "Fuck, it really feels weird seeing my 'grave,' haha..."
"Well, since we're here, do you want to destroy it?" Allen asked with a half-smile, trying to improve Rebecca's mood.
Rebecca looked at him with amusement. "Oh, half an hour in this world and you've gone from wanting to be King to being an anarchist punk?"
"I don't know what you're talking about. I don't have those memories." Allen didn't react to the comment and activated his shamelessness armor at full power. "Besides, this isn't anarchy, since everyone does it. I'm just being another Roman!"
"Liar," Rebecca mocked, about to jump on him, but she stopped before doing so.
Allen followed Rebecca's gaze, which was fixed on another message right beside her own. Without saying another word, she approached it.
– Pilar, Dorio and Maine –
"You were the only family I ever had."
"Idiots..." Rebecca said with her head resting against the memorial.
Allen silently watched Rebecca as she clenched her fist. There was no point in trying to improve Rebecca's mood. It was better to simply let her be and support her in silence.
A few minutes later, Rebecca raised her head and slapped both cheeks.
"You okay?"
Rebecca smiled at Allen. "Yeah."
After reincarnating, Rebecca had had plenty of time to process what had happened, the loss of everyone, and the outcome. It was simply that seeing this had brought back many memories. But as such, she was fine, although a little down.
"I know, but even so, it's fucked up," Allen said, extending his hand and pulling Rebecca into a hug.
Rebecca didn't refuse. Instead, she pressed her face against Allen, and they remained like that for a while. Once she had calmed down, she pulled away and smiled before walking deeper into the building with her hands in her pockets.
"I knew it," Rebecca said. "We all knew it. Once you choose to become an Edgerunner, the safest bet is to end up in an alley with your brains scattered all over the ground. There's no point complaining. I did that to plenty of people myself."
Rebecca stopped in front of a memorial, but she didn't look at it. Instead, she turned toward Allen and smiled carefree.
"I am... happy. With you, with everyone. It doesn't matter where we go, and it doesn't matter how ridiculous things become." Rebecca's smile grew brighter. "I'm happy!"
"I see..." Allen said. "But I'm not."
"...?"
"I'm not happy right now." Allen looked toward the memorial. It contained messages for David Martinez and Gloria Martinez.
– David –
"You didn't take me to the moon, but you were there with me."
– Gloria –
"You were right. David reached the top of Arasaka Tower."
"You know, Rebecca, when I promised to take you all to your worlds, I thought it was a good decision, or at least that it was something I owed you. But now I realize that this could only bring you bad experiences or bitter memories."
"No." Rebecca shook her head before sighing. "I really am grateful. I feel like coming here helped me let go of something I didn't even know I was carrying."
"I know." Allen's expression became complicated. "But I'm going to be selfish. This might upset you, but forgive me."
Rebecca's eyes widened. "Don't tell me!"
"Lenalee, remove the temporal anchor."
"Don't! I already told you I'm fine!"
"I know it doesn't hurt as much anymore, that you're not devastated and hiding it behind a smile, but I know you're frustrated."
"...!"
"I can feel it through our connection. You're frustrated with this world. You feel that it's unfair that, after seeing your other worlds, yours turned out to be such a mess. Deep down, you want to use all your power and destroy every corporation, maybe even tear everything down..."
"..." Rebecca looked away.
"Don't worry." Allen smiled with complete confidence and absolute certainty, causing Rebecca's eyes to fill with tears. "You don't have to destroy the world! Not with me here! Just ask, and I'll fulfill that wish and deal with the consequences!"
"Idiot!" Rebecca shouted and punched Allen, knocking him down.
The girl froze. She remembered that Allen was only an Edgerunner in this world.
"You're an idiot!" Allen cursed, but Rebecca straddled him and began kissing him while trying to rip his clothes off. "What are you doing? We're in public!"
Rebecca seemed to have completely lost her head.
At this point, the people around them couldn't ignore what was happening. One thing was seeing dead people on the streets, but public indecency? In this part of the city?! Absolutely not!
"Hey, you degenerates! Stop right there!" a guard shouted, pulling out a gun.
While Rebecca was lasciviously licking and biting his neck, Allen looked at the guard and activated his scanner; he immediately hacked into the guard's optics, temporarily blinding him.
"Ah! I can't see!"
"Stop, Rebecca!" Allen tried to pull her away, but he was at a disadvantage at that moment, since he had obtained implants focused more on hacking than physical capabilities.
[Well, do you still want to stay in hardcore mode?~]
Lenalee teased. Allen felt offended and refused to break the rules.
"Just hurry up and remove the anchor!"
[Hehe, understood.]
When everything seemed to be on the verge of madness, the NCPD arrived and surrounded them, pointing their weapons at them.
"Bastards, you're under arrest!" one of them shouted angrily before making a call. "Central, we have the fugitives!"
Allen pursed his lips. He knew it. This wasn't a video game. The police weren't stupid. The moment they saw the motorcycle at the entrance, they immediately knew they were the same people they had been chasing through the streets before.
"Lenalee..."
[I know. Give me a moment. I reinforced the anchor many times, you know, just to make sure even Lucifer couldn't remove it easily.]
'I don't think we have a minute,' Allen growled, but he immediately opened his eyes when he felt Rebecca's hand slip into his pants.
Allen was speechless...
The Chat was speechless...
The police were speechless...
This was already too much!
[Done!]
"Stop!" Allen raised his hand and clenched it.
Time stopped.
At the same time, Allen turned around, positioning himself on top of Rebecca, and held her by the arms, but she struggled. She didn't even bother to speak—she just stared at him with predatory, burning eyes, while her breathing sounded like that of a beast in heat.
"Lenalee…"
[You!]
Lenalee understood immediately and cut off the live stream. Allen knew that when Rebecca turned on him, she was worse than a lioness in heat, so he created a room right there on the spot and proceeded to give her what she wanted.
He kissed her while slipping his hands under her clothes to caress her body.
"Ah~"
As she was kissed and touched, Rebecca regained a trace of sanity. She realized she was inside a small room with only a bed; she looked around in puzzlement, but soon everything became irrelevant, and she clung to Allen.
Their clothes flew off before their passion was unleashed.
....
A few hours later (relative)
Rebecca rested against Allen's chest while controlling her breathing. Both were naked, but neither cared.
She was utterly exhausted, while Allen was only slightly better. It was natural; in this world, they were merely humans with cyberware rather than beings with limitless power and energy.
Rebecca ran her hand over Allen's chest. "Thank you~."
Allen chuckled. "You don't have to thank me. I did it because I wanted to, not because I had to."
Rebecca laughed. "That too, but more than that, for doing this for me."
"I thought you didn't want to reset the world?" Allen raised an eyebrow.
"Who wouldn't want a second chance?" Rebecca remained silent for a moment before speaking casually. "I lied. I was just afraid of ruining it again. We all said death didn't matter, that it didn't matter if we ended up with bullets in our heads, but seeing one person after another being killed was unbearable."
"Of course. They were your family," Allen said seriously.
"That's right." Rebecca raised her head before smiling. "You are too... so don't do anything stupid that gets you killed, or I'll be sad."
"Of course!"
....
Once they were dressed, Allen snapped his fingers, and the room disappeared, causing them to return to the same place as before, standing in front of David Martinez's memorial, surrounded by numerous police officers pointing their weapons at them.
[I just realized that you ate Rebecca in front of David.... you're such an asshole.]
'Shut up.'
"Are we going to travel through time?" Rebecca asked.
Rebecca had experienced many things, but never time travel. This was because Allen had banned it from existence.
Allen had two rules:
– Nobody messes with time.
– No alternate timelines.
To accomplish this, Allen had two anchors operating at all times.
An anchor tied him to a single point in all of existence. There was no parallel world with an Allen who decided to become a rock star, nor an alternate timeline where Allen became Hitler. None of that. He wasn't Rick Sanchez; there weren't infinite Allens. There was only one. He accomplished this through an existential anchor.
This characteristic wasn't unique to him. Beings such as Eternity, the Phoenix of Life, or the Living Tribunal were similar: unique existences, or at least they should be.
(A/N: There's some confusion regarding this subject, because in some stories beings such as the "Living Tribunal," who is supposed to be unique throughout the multiverse, have died, yet they appear in other stories. I suppose Marvel decided, "Yes, the Living Tribunal is unique throughout the multiverse, but there are more multiverses, etc." )
The second characteristic is what everyone knows as the temporal anchor.
Allen, having learned from the trouble created by manipulating time, decided to anchor time wherever he went, unless it was part of his bet with Lucifer.
But putting that aside, in worlds like Marvel, DC, Harry Potter, Bleach, etc., there was no traveling into the past or future. Nobody affected time, stopped it, accelerated it, or manipulated it. If there were a character with such abilities, they would be rendered completely useless unless their power surpassed Allen's.
And at this moment, Allen had just removed that anchor...
"We're not going to travel through time..." Allen said, raising his hand to chest level. He moved it as though turning an invisible knob, and soon time began moving backward. "I'm going to rewind the entire world..."
Rebecca gasped but said nothing and simply watched with curiosity. She wasn't the only one. The Chat was watching closely, and even the people in the Taj Mahal were watching. Needless to say, the Time Stone became useless once Allen created the temporal anchor.
The Ancient One looked at the Eye of Agamotto and realized that the gem had begun glowing again.
In Cyberpunk, the police officers began walking backward. People who had moved away began returning. The setting sun began rising once again. Before they knew it, it was noon, but it kept moving until it disappeared and became night.
This only accelerated, progressing from hours to days and then weeks.
Around Allen, people moved as if they were flashes of light.
"Wait," Rebecca said.
Allen stopped the rewind.
Right beside them appeared a beautiful white-haired girl with iridescent tones. She silently looked at the memorial.
"Lucy..." Rebecca said, but then shook her head and nodded toward Allen.
Time began moving backward once more.
2077... 2076... 2075.
The world stopped, and Allen looked to the right.
It wasn't there...
The memorial for David and his mother no longer had messages dedicated to either of them.
"Are you ready?" Allen smiled.
Rebecca trembled. She knew it. She could feel it.
They were both at the beginning of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners!
====
A/N: I'm sorry, David... it's nothing personal. 🍷🗿
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