It was the third and final day.
The sun rose, slowly filling the Badlands with gold.
"Beautiful," V murmured.
"What is?" Meredith Stout asked, baffled.
"The sunrise. Don't you think it's beautiful?"
"No? It's just the sun. Happens every day."
V tilted her head.
"Then what do you think is beautiful?"
"What else—obviously…"
Meredith pointed behind her.
A full Militech strike force—soldiers, AVs, Hellhounds, armored units—covered the ridge like a steel tide.
V laughed softly.
"Fair. I admit—that is prettier than the sun."
"Of course. My people are elites."
Meredith folded her arms, smug.
"Anthony's dead meat today."
"And after that?" V asked. "Don't you want to go even higher?"
Meredith froze.
"What exactly are you implying?"
"Whatever Abernathy and Anthony can do—we can do too."
"No. Absolutely not. I said already—this partnership is one-time only."
"But someone who brings Militech into the corporate alliance?"
V lifted a brow.
"That someone gets promoted. Conveniently, I'm the host of the alliance. You sure you want to throw that away?"
Meredith's face twisted with hesitation.
She knew V was baiting her—
knew the candy shell hid a live round—
but also knew she could stomach the candy and fire the round back later.
"Fine. One more job. But only this one."
V shrugged.
"Actually… I suddenly don't feel like working with you anymore."
"Are you FUCKING kidding me?"
Meredith's temper detonated.
She'd metaphorically taken her pants off and this woman said she wasn't in the mood?
V smiled.
"Don't pout. You just haven't offered anything worthwhile."
"I can!" Meredith snapped instantly.
"Really? Example?"
"I—"
She choked.
She wasn't like Anthony—
she couldn't casually betray Militech.
She had almost nothing she could legally offer.
"Damn it…"
Meredith realized V was deliberately raising the price.
But desire, once ignited, was hard to extinguish.
"Fine. What do you want?
As long as it isn't outrageous… I—
I'll agree.
But only this once."
"Shame," V sighed. "I actually wanted long-term cooperation."
Meredith's expression went pitch black.
She wasn't falling for that lie again.
Before she heated up further, V cut in:
"In exchange, I want Militech's exoskeleton tech."
"Fuck no. Impossible. That's our core future—our biggest gamble."
"You can think about it later.
For now… look."
She pointed into the distance.
At the horizon, dust rose.
Arasaka convoys sped across the Badlands.
Meredith raised a tactical binocular, snorted.
"Of course Abernathy shows up. And that bastard Anthony's tailing her like a fly chasing shit."
V switched to the aerial drone feed—
from the opposite side, a Militech convoy approached.
Arasaka from north to south.
Militech from east to west.
Crossing paths.
Making a giant grid out of the Badlands.
And V—
was the one placing pieces on the board.
"When are you entering?" V asked.
"No rush."
Meredith lit a cigarette calmly.
"Let them bite each other first."
The two convoys met.
The battlefield ignited instantly.
Gunfire roared, voices screamed, lives vanished like dust.
Arasaka hadn't prepared for this ambush.
Militech had.
Results were immediate—
Arasaka forces collapsed like a sandcastle under a boot.
"Sometimes I wonder," Meredith said suddenly.
"About what?" V asked.
"Arasaka's terror."
Meredith exhaled smoke.
"Even when facing annihilation… their soldiers don't break.
Why doesn't Militech have soldiers like that?"
Before V could answer—
a booming laugh split the battlefield.
Anthony, dressed in combat gear, swaggered out of his AV.
"Hahaha! I'm a fucking god! Arasaka elites? Not shit in front of me! HA!"
V gestured with an open palm.
"Now you know why."
Meredith ground her cigarette into the dirt.
"Another reason to kill that rat."
"Let's go. Your turn."
But the battlefield suddenly shifted.
An Arasaka mobile lab split open—
and a gigantic mechanical titan burst out.
At its center was a human torso.
But its arms, legs, and frame were massive reinforced mech limbs.
The moment it landed—
it smashed a Militech Hellhound like a soda can.
Militech soldiers opened fire—
but the titan's arm emitters flared red.
A gravitational field rippled out, forming an invisible shield.
Their guns yanked out of their hands—
twisted midair—
and fired back at their former owners.
RATATATATATAT!
Soldiers dropped like wheat in harvest.
Anthony panicked, shrieking over comms:
"Useless trash! ALL OF YOU—GET IN THERE AND KILL IT!"
More Militech troops charged—
and were shredded.
V's eyes widened.
Because the "monster" was David Martinez.
…Wait.
She took the Sandevistan.
So how the hell did he end up piloting a Cyborg Titan (Chrome Goliath)?
"Hey—you alright?" Meredith asked. "You're Arasaka. How does Arasaka hardware scare you?"
"It's… something else," V muttered.
Meredith didn't pry.
"That thing is…?"
"Chrome Goliath."
"And the weapon?"
"Graviton Arm Cannons."
"Next-gen tech?! Arasaka's goddamn insane!"
Meredith bit down hard—half furious, half impressed.
The titan fought savagely—
but after each attack, it halted.
Long needles injected suppressants.
David spat mouthfuls of blood before moving again.
Meredith instantly recognized the issue.
"Jesus. Chrome Goliath puts that much strain on the pilot?
Whoever designed this didn't treat pilots as people.
Kid won't survive the battle.
Well… less paperwork for me."
V's face darkened.
She knew she should follow the plan—
but she was already standing up.
Saving David wouldn't derail things much.
She just didn't want another stomachache later.
V convinced herself—
but before she could act, a lithe figure darted into the battlefield.
A light-blue-haired girl—
Lucy.
She weaved through chaos like a feather on a storm wind, using her Monowire as both weapon and grappling hook—
until she broke through and wrapped her arms tight around the titan's core, calling out desperately to the boy inside.
Meredith stared.
"What the hell? Who is she—Arasaka's top-tier shinobi?"
"She's not Arasaka. Not Militech," V said softly.
"She's just Lucy.
She's doing this because she doesn't want to become a cyber widow."
"Cyber widow?" Meredith blinked. "They're lovers?"
V nodded.
Meredith laughed aloud.
"What is this, some ancient brain-dance melodrama?
Love? That shit's useless.
The pilot's clearly pumped full of psycho-stims, and the Goliath is tearing his nervous system apart.
The kid's basically a cyberpsycho now—no love, no mom, nobody could snap him out of—"
"Is that so?"
"Obviously! There's data on—"
V pointed.
Meredith looked.
And froze.
Because with one kiss—
Lucy brought David back.
His eyes softened.
A moment of impossible beauty—
steel and flesh, boy and girl, violence and tenderness—
suspended in the heart of hell.
"Love is the strongest inhibitor," V said, rising.
"Send your people in."
"Now? Wouldn't it be better to let the Goliath finish off Anthony's idiots?"
"He can't."
"Why?"
"Because beneath the metal…
he's still just a kid."
As V predicted—
the battle turned.
David regained clarity—
and lost the reckless courage.
Fear of hurting Lucy restrained him.
Professional soldiers pressed him hard.
"Lucy, run! I'll hold them!"
"No—David, we leave together!"
Anthony snarled:
"Nobody's leaving.
Fire.
Turn them to paste."
"Yes sir!"
Dozens of AVs and armored cars unfolded rocket pods—
raining missiles like a metal monsoon.
David and Lucy clung to each other, faces white.
But—
An engine roared like thunder.
A Nazare bike drifted into the battlefield—
stopping right before the doomed couple.
The rider—wearing a Reaper Mask—
lifted one hand.
Her eyes flashed neon blue.
Zeroes and ones cascaded.
Dozens of rockets froze—
chirped warning tones—
and exploded midair simultaneously.
Lucy gasped.
As a netrunner, she knew what this meant.
Breaking that many ICE layers in one instant?
Uploading mass self-destruct daemons?
That wasn't human.
That was god-tier netrunning.
David's eyes lit up.
"Masked Lady!"
Masked… Lady?
V blinked.
Then stiffened—
as soldiers crept in from her left.
She flicked her gaze.
Neural Synapse Burnout.
Instant. Multi-target.
They collapsed screaming.
More soldiers rushed from the right.
Another glance.
Forced Suicide.
Instant. Multi-target.
One by one, they turned their guns inward and dropped.
Then Anthony's reorganized troops attacked from the front.
Another glance from V—
and each soldier began vomiting liquefied organs and melted chrome.
Contagion.
Lucy exhaled in relief.
She knew that daemon well.
But V wasn't done.
She triggered System Overheat on every infected target.
Mass detonation.
Lucy's jaw dropped.
A combo-chain of daemons??
In 2076??
Impossible.
Lucy made a decision—
she would never compare herself to the Masked Lady again.
Because a human and a monster…
weren't comparable.
V jammed a pneumatic injector into her chest—
flooding her bloodstream with MaxDoc IV to repair brain tissue.
Her INT had hit 15 during the fight with Lieutenant Norris.
To wipe out an entire Militech platoon in seconds, she'd overclocked her brain-machine interface—
temporarily bypassing RAM limits at the cost of killing brain cells by the millions.
A double-edged blade.
"Enough sightseeing. Move," V said through comms.
The plain rippled with magnetic distortion—
and cloaked Militech units decloaked one by one.
David and Lucy tensed—
but V lifted a hand.
"Relax. They're friendlies."
Friendlies?
The new Militech unit immediately opened fire—
on Anthony's Militech unit.
Military-grade elites.
Far superior.
Within minutes, a total massacre.
"I—I surrender! PLEASE! Please! We're the same corporation! I have a wife—kids—don't kill me—!"
Anthony was dragged from his AV like a wet rag.
The arrogance was gone—
replaced with snot and tears.
Meredith stepped forward, planted a boot on his face, and ordered a lie detector plugged into his neural socket.
While that proceeded, V knelt by David.
"What the hell happened to you?"
David spilled everything—
the Kerenzikov installation, Maine's revenge job, all of it.
"You idiots.
You absolute BRAINDANCE-FRIED IDIOTS.
You think a pack of street mercs can take on ARASAKA?!
Fuck me—should've let you die in that car crash!"
David shrank in shame.
Lucy tried to defend him.
"They were just trying to—"
"A good deed done badly is worse than doing nothing!"
V snapped, and Lucy nearly fainted in fear.
Even her ICE wasn't as thick as Militech armor.
BANG.
Meredith shot Anthony in the head.
"God, that felt good."
She strutted over.
"His confession and neural chip—everything confirms his dealings with Abernathy. You can take this to your girl Michiko and claim your reward."
She offered the chip.
V didn't take it.
"My people were captured by Abernathy."
"And?"
"I need your troops."
Meredith frowned.
"Why?"
V's voice turned cold.
"To make a big move."
"Bullshit. You just want to rescue them!"
"If you help, I'll bring Militech into the alliance—and name you the Militech liaison."
Meredith froze.
"What about the exoskeleton tech you asked for?"
"I don't need it anymore."
"What the—who did she capture, your father or mother?!"
"Just someone I met once."
"You're joking."
"I'm not."
Meredith studied her.
"Calm down."
"I'm calm."
"No you're fucking NOT.
The calm move is delivering this evidence to Michiko, toppling Abernathy, and rising to be second only to the top.
That's what a corpo does."
"That takes too long.
You know how many procedures Arasaka has.
Before the paperwork finishes, Abernathy might kill them out of spite.
I need to strike NOW—
storm Arasaka Tower—
and cut that bitch myself!"
Meredith's eyes nearly popped out.
"Storm—Arasaka Tower?
You're ARASAKA.
You'd burn your career for a few people who aren't even your subordinates?!"
V stayed silent.
Meredith stayed silent.
Seconds passed.
Then Meredith exploded.
"FUCK! Meeting you was the worst karmic debt of my life!
I can only help you distract Arasaka's main forces.
NOTHING MORE."
"Thanks."
V turned to David.
"Take Lucy home.
What comes next is adult business. Kids should sleep."
But David shook his head.
"I'm coming with you. I'm saving Maine."
V glanced at him.
"That's Arasaka Tower.
You already lost your limbs.
What else are you planning to lose?"
David answered without hesitation.
"Regret. Hatred. And the weak version of myself.
I won't run anymore.
I'll take revenge with my own hands."
V stared at him.
He stared back.
And then—
She smiled.
The world was too quiet—
quiet enough to trick people into thinking blood ran cold.
But someone, somewhere—
always chose to live louder.
V realized she had misjudged him.
The boy was gone.
A man stood in his place.
"Fine.
David Martinez is qualified to stand beside me."
V stood tall, eyes burning.
"Let's go.
We're storming Arasaka Tower—
and killing that bitch Abernathy."