**NOTE FROM SYBERWARE**
What's up my favorite chooms... I hope you're all doing well these days. I promise not to keep holding you hostage with these notes but I must inform you that I have again included a song for you to listen to in this chapter. I highly encourage everyone to play the song included in this chapter when prompted to.
This chapter sits at almost 5000 words making it my second longest chapter i've written so far I think lol. So kick those feet up, settle into the sheets with your latest input/output and get warm... think this one turned out nova.
Thanks again to all my dedicated readers out there for continuing on this journey with me. Look forward to hearing from you. Take Care. -Sy
Zaunya's deep, labored breaths peddle alongside the sound of her boots slapping wet, degraded pavement with every heavy step.
Her emotions are uncontainable… she runs with the speed and vigor of someone desperately in need to get away.
Her weeps combine with the echoes of various memories... voices compounding statements in times past… and now inescapable.
"What did they do to you huh?... what did they take."
She sees quick flashes of her time in the grips of her service to Petrochem… not much different than her mother's time doing much of the exact same. Brutal life or death engagements in counter offensives against rival corporations. Strenuous security details of guarded convoys and high value targets at table meetings across Night City. Countless closed-door negotiations she was required to attend with information exchanges more valued than most lives. She sees the various faces of time's past… locked in the grips of the corporate world. The hopelessness of escape… of freedom... concepts she was born into a life without. A slave in loyal service to those with absolute power preying on the weak in the worst ways imaginable. Having to not only stand idly by… but actively participate in such things... while in protection to such people.
"....Y-You..... you know what your mom said to me?..... the last time i saw her." "S-She..... she told me to make sure you don't lose yourself."
"Remember... whatever they want... whatever they ask... the answer is yes. Ok?"
She feels the fake affection she was forced to show overtime to get close to the executive responsible for killing her mother. It combined with the very real sensation of later being sexually controlled by him… having to surrender herself to his will. A regular occurrence of inflicted trauma she became numb to before finally seizing the opportunity to exact revenge… unleashing her nearly dead emotions with every stab as they vigorously reawaken within her.
"Tch… as capable as you are.... You're lost."
She sees flashes of various memories of her time with Brian… Her slamming him down onto his kitchen counter… him shoving her against the chainlink fence outside of Audrey's clinic… him lifting her up by her waist to dead the camera outside of the PetroChem warehouse… him slowly wiping her bloody, cut up hands with his cloth in the motel… them both unloading their Nues simultaneously killing Rick Forrester.
She feels Brian's embrace as she falls into his arms after being freed from the chains of the scavs… She feels his embrace in the badlands as the Night Cityscape overlooks the two of them… She feels his embrace when he takes her hands into his at Audrey's clinic.
She feels his embrace….. no matter how much she tries not to. A level of feeling she's never imagined she'd have regardless of how much time her mother spent talking about it. The unfamiliarity intimidates her.
"What wasn't clear to me was.... how much I needed you."
She hears his voice echoing a final time intertwined with the memory of shouting orders from her commander while in the grips of her corpo training. Brian's words repeat with every clang of her bare knuckles on slabbed steel while she screams.
*CLANG!!* "HARDER!!"
" -how much I needed you."
*CLANG!!*
" -how much I needed you."
*CLANG!!* "I SAID HARDER!!!"
" -how much I needed you."
*CRASH!!* The slab of metal is punctured by a final punch from her fist along with her scream... concluding her training.
These various memories and emotions run rampant in her mind as they meld together in a chaotic blur... she breathes heavy while crying as she continues to sprint in a panic through the grim and unforgiving streets of Night City. The cityscape gazes down at her emotionlessly in pursuit… there's nothing she can do but… run… with no escape… no way out.
"Blood that's spilled... often filled with sorrow." BugBear mumbles to herself under her breath back at the hideout… stood in front of the holographic image of that cryptic PetroChem message she found during her deep dive.
With her arms crossed, she thinks deeply trying to figure this creepy riddle out as Audrey passes by her pacing back and forth… occasionally glancing out the windows. Understanding full well the danger and stakes of their current endeavor… her adrenaline is reaching its boiling point... her mind races as she frequently glances at BugBear who appears seemingly detached from reality baring down.
"Traumas of a past we can't yet make..? god, what the hell does that even mean.."
"Buggie..." Audrey mutters in exhale trying to get her attention… attempting to tamp down her own building stress.
"The pain of those we do indeed tax… slowly melting away… like candle wax..?"
"Bear..."
"Boundless energy derived from resistance… gradual ascension to an absolute-"
"-BEATRICE!!" Audrey shouts, cracking her voice… her government name finally gets her attention-- she looks over. Audrey continues frantic.
"We need to talk!!… What's been up with you these days!? You've… been… distant and RECKLESS!! Brian told me what happened with that Merc back at the Pistis Sophia… and that deep dive you did on that corpo?? What the fuck was that!? We had a plan! Tch- If I didn't know any better I'd say you had a mind to stay in there! Seriously… what the hell is going on?!" Audrey shouts flustered... demanding answers... as if shes in any position to do so with her current stabbing spree and own decaying self control.
Beatrice breaks eye contact… she looks down and away with guilt.
Finally cornered on the topic, fear grabs hold of her... Its as if her response is given in the uneasy emotions she presents.
Her mind quickly flashes several memories involving Netty… her giving him the DR5 Nova revolver and teaching him how to use it… Netty helping her slot one of Brian's tracking shards… Her reaching for his shoulder in the alley right before he incapacitated her. She feels the innocence within his soul through their time together… and how it completely contrasts her own darkness brought about by the life shes lived… the reality of him dragged into this game he knows little to nothing about. Its as if she sees him absentmindedly standing before the Night Cityscape, looming over him and ready to feast. She again feels herself held in his arms… as they slowly sway to the music in his living room... a sensation of comfort and peace rarely found where they're from. The look they shared with each other as they both reluctantly let go... these thoughts... these emotions break her as shes confronted... the words yank themselves out of her.
"I…. I.… we-" Her voice trembles at the built up emotions… shes afraid.
The sound of the backdoor to the hideout sliding open interrupts the pair and breaks the tension… in steps Zaunya… stonefaced with buried emotion and thoroughly dried tears. She immediately picks up on the energy of the ladies as she enters. She uses the opportunity to divert attention away from her own clearly rattled state of mind.
"Everything alright." She asks the ladies flatly.
Having now separated, they take a final hard look at each other before glancing at Zaunya… neither respond.
The energy in this place is palpable… this is not currently a room housing those planning to see tomorrow… this is not currently a room for the even tempered… or clear minded.
They're headed for the edge.
"What've you got so far." Zaunya asks promptly changing subject.
After a brief pause the tone and energy of the room shifts. Its time to get to work.
"This… creep... Allan Silver, may he rest in piss… was a treasure trove of intel." BugBear says. "Do you remember that first lot of shards you gave me when you hit the warehouse? Well, a lot of the redacted info we found was stored on these new ones… research schematics, staff personnel listings, project tech documentation. Looking like you grabbed most of those missing puzzle pieces you were after."
Audrey's eyes glow blue briefly as she remotely steel curtains the windows blacking them and ridding the hideout of all light. The various blue holograms of data float in the air in the center of the room alongside that smoky, PetroChem yellow hued riddle. The women light smokes as Audrey takes a seat on the couch and the other two pace about. Beatrice continues.
"Apparently they refer to this black project as 'Dawning Perpetualis'. "
"Perpetualis…? That even a word?" Audrey scoffs
"No… that's how far up their own asses these people are." Zaunya responds flatly before taking a drag. Beatrice continues.
"Looks to me if it wasn't so under the table it'd be their flagship program. The level of funding behind this thing stretches amongst several unknown entities. Guessin' even some different companies have their own moneyed interests in it at this point. Most of this data points to the history of Choo2 manufacturing. Organized layouts of detailed processes they've used over the years leading up to and after its creation. Everything from the various wheat harvesting methods to even some of the experimental additives and procurement processes they've used overtime." The dim glow of the various holograms illuminate the ladies in a very movie theatre like fashion. They continue to smoke and discuss while Zaunya quickly changes out of her partywear.
"Petrochem trying to maximize efficiency and cut costs of production is pretty par for the course. What's the rub." Zaunya asks
"Appears this time they actually hit on something significant. So much so that they diverted lead researchers of the department to it with a nearly unlimited budget."
"And what did they hit on exactly..? Its gotta do with that green choo you saw back at the warehouse right Zaunya? Shit caused quite the boom." Audrey says, crossing her legs and taking a drag. Zaunya looks over but doesn't respond before Beatrice can.
"There's no tellin' based on what we've got here… data seems to cascade into branching research tangents leading to a bunch of dead ends. What we do have though is an entire catalogue of people involved in this thing."
A new hologram scrolls through countless no named locals of Night City. Everything from mercs to corpos and everything in between. She continues.
"Hm… this list looks so random… most of these people are lower middle class. Pretty much the faces any of us would pass by on the street on any given day. Weird… the datasets present aren't any different than what you'd get with a standard Kiroshi scan… occupation, criminal jacket or lackthereof and basic identity info. Almost like they've just been fishing in the dark. However…" Beatrice says as she casually swipes a new hologram to the front. "This woman's file is seriously stacked… Marsalla DeNarsee."
Zaunya's attention perks up at the sound of the name as several quick flashes of the woman's picture in the hidden room at the top of the pyramid pass by. She stops pacing in the hideout and focuses in on her picture. BugBear continues.
"While I was doing this dive into Allan Silver I ripped this file from him. This sick fuck has countless stored memories of this woman. Everything from random watercooler conversations with her to 2 second clips of her doing random shit like stretching or yawning… bending over… her sneezing and him saying bless you. He's even got stuff like him watching her enter and exit the bathroom… him staring at her feet… random times they accidentally bumped past each other. I mean…. What the fuck is that y'know?"
"Hm. Looks like someone had a hidden obsession." Audrey mocks in a serious tone.
"His field notes on her aren't much different. Countless shards and logs of him harping on her 'uniqueness' he says. How she was the only one who made it to the second phase of the project as research and development progressed." Zaunya adds.
"Second phase..? What the hell even is the first phase? I mean shit, even with all this intel… still too many holes." Audrey concludes.
"Shes got some pretty crazy back and forth text chains with this guy at pretty much all hours of the night. Apparently they got close... levels of affection you don't find in corporate circles. Then at some point she stopped communicating with him… his replies became an empty void of him desperately begging her to come back into the fold and getting no response. Hm.. maybe she went on the run?" BugBear speculates.
"If anyone's gonna fill in any of these blanks its gonna be her." Zaunya says staring at Marsalla's profile picture with an emotionless gaze.
She looks deep into her eyes… searching for and finding familiarity… she can see the damage that's been done to her behind those eyes. Scars inflicted by a corporation resting behind a gaze into the void that only people like them would possibly be able to understand.
"Wait!- Shit! Their last correspondence with each other was just a day before I met him! They'd finally agreed to meet at the end of week at midnight. Th- That's tonight!" BugBear shouts astonished while glancing at the ladies.
"Send me the coords." Zaunya demands, her tone serious as she promptly starts grabbing all of her gear. She finishes by racking the slide of her Nue.
"W-wait! Zaunya! You can't just!-"
"-Need you to stay here with Beatrice Audrey."
"W- we!... NO!!! We have NO FUCKING IDEA WHAT YOU'RE WALKING INTO!! We don't even know who the fuck this chick is!"
"We know enough." Zaunya asserts continuing to get ready… putting her black leather Kuomori on over her operator gear.
"We don't." BugBear interjects in a serious tone, still scrolling the file. "Turns out she wasn't just some guinea pig they plucked off the streets like most of the chooms in this file. Says this chick is a former PetroChem special agent… a sleeper operative… guess that explains her look. Looks like they poached her from a different corp some years back somehow... good luck getting ahold of that data cache. Also… her deck doesn't even have listed specs."
"Wait… She's… she's a netrunner?" Audrey asks Beatrice nervous.
A brief pause of tense silence fills the room as Audrey and Beatrice close the various holograms and re-open the hideout windows letting the bright sunlight rush back in.
Zaunya takes a final look back over her shoulder at Beatrice. A look on her face unmistakable.
"….Send me the coords." She concludes in monotone before turning toward the hideout back door.
"I- I should come with you!" Beatrice shouts
"ZAUNYA!!" Audrey shouts as she reaches for Zaunya's wrist... Zaunya effortlessly pulls her hand away while exiting… the door slides closed behind her.
A wave of panic washes over Audrey as she covers her face with her hands and squats down. She starts to hyperventilate while shaking… feeling powerless to do the one thing she promised she would do. She hears Zayta's feint giggle in her head as she panics… she feels the embrace of fire they once shared together. Beatrice rushes over to a distraught Audrey… slowly helping her to her feet and consoling her.
"We… we have to get to your clinic babe… come on... it's… it's the only way we can help her now… come on... shh.. Its ok. Lets go." BugBear whispers quickly ushering Audrey back into her room to get ready.
Later that night… the gentle sounds of imposing, high elevation wind blows the loose flaps of Zaunya's black leather kuomori trench coat. With fists tightly clenched, and a foot posted at the edge of a rooftop… she gazes down into the neon glow of Night City… focusing in on a single location some countless stories below.
Her mind is in a dark place… an insatiable desire for vengeance combined with the desperation to flee grips her as she stands… truly on the edge.
She thinks back to the final time she saw her mother Zayta… a young Zaunya currently being indoctrinated into this corporate world of control is seen having a falling out with Zayta in private. A clashing of the minds drives a wedge between the two of them as Zaunya spitefully questions all that they stand for. How could she not… she was forced to witness her mother reduced from an elite soldier to a simple whore… submitted to the will of the corporation that built them. Zayta insists on their duty to serve… enforcing the very principals that made them who they are. Although born into this life… something in her nature can't help but rebel.
Her eyes suddenly begin to flicker orange as incoming comms with BugBear snap her out of her trance.
= I caught her biomon tracking data we pulled from the cache… its pinging right where we expected it to. Coming in spoofed in a way only a netrunner can as well so… shes gotta be there.= Beatrice says, plugged into Audrey's temp setup back at the clinic. Although not her preferred setup, she can see what Zaunya sees. Essentially using her like a surveillance cam.
Audrey continues to pace back and forth with heart racing and shoulders tensed… the knot in her stomach tightening... unable to do anything to help.
Zaunya doesn't respond as she continues to gaze down into the meet location… her kiroshis briefly glow a goldish yellow nullifying much of the pitch black darkness down below. She leaps down from her perch and lands on a metal railing... sliding down it with a smooth sleekness. She uses her momentum to leap again as she gracefully corkscrew twists through the night sky... her black attire illuminated by stray neon lighting. Even with her weight, she lands silently on top of a stack of metal shipping containers overlooking the meeting location. Without hesitation she drops down into the center of the lot… she looks about the area for anyone… anything she can… finding nothing.
She again takes a moment to engage her custom Kiroshis to scan the area… as soon as she does, she feels an immediate shock of pain causing her head to snap back and her eyes to close tight. The work Netty did on her works its magic… taking the brunt of the quickhack's effects while automatically pinging the source of it. She turns around and sees the highlighted silhouette of a woman who appears to be somewhere... underground…? The sewers?
Before Zaunya can even react to the confusing ping, she hears the sound of a cybernetic netgun charging up behind her... she quickly draws her Nue… clicking the safety off while turning around.
=WATCH OUT!!!= Beatrice screams through comms causing Audrey to gasp and quickly look back at her.
The netgun fires as Zaunya triggers her sandevistan… she sprints towards the incoming steel netting floating through the air towards her like its in zero gravity. Her krioshis highlight the attacker shrouded in a high end active camouflage… highlighting them a vibrant gold. The gear looked familiar to her… it was a PetroChem field operator no doubt… decked out in the latest of high end Petrochem combatwear. She slips past the flying net, yanks his helmet off of his head and places the barrel of her nue to his cybernetic temple before pulling the trigger. He drops to the black asphalt with a heavy thud while pooling blood... a blinding floodlight is suddenly turned on.
Zaunya gasps as she turns toward the light... she instinctually adjusts her kiroshis to completely nullify the blinding beams… giving her a clear view of 3 more PetroChem spec ops units charging toward her. Without hesitation… she charges toward the 3 soldiers… unloading several rounds into the lead one staggering his advance as he desperately reaches for her with smoking bulletholes that barely affect him. Zaunya drop slides between his legs causing him to fall forward past her. She sees nothing but the swing of a modified sledgehammer coming down on her face. Her eyes open wide as she again triggers her sandevistan… zipping out from under it right before it caves in the asphalt. She leaps into the air performing a flashkick… smashing the soldier square in the chin and splitting it in half. She uses the jumping momentum of the flash kick to send the soldier and herself into the night sky. While rotating upwards with the momentum of the backflip, she dodges a wave of high caliber gunfire that lights up the charging soldiers… leaving countless holes in them the size of baseballs as they drop to the ground completely shredded. Zaunya's combat flowing adrenaline and ultra instinct render BugBear's frantic screaming and panicked orders completely muffled and inaudible to her over comms. As the momentum of her leap into the air ends, she wraps her long legs around a chain dangling from a tower crane some 25 feet above her. While hanging upside down and swinging from this chain, she switches her modified Nue to full auto. She sprays rounds in a 360 degree upside down spin while screaming in bloodlust... tracking and hitting various targets tactically posted for the ambush. As the various soldiers begin to drop like flies… their focused fire reaches her as she starts to get lit up with suppressed sniper rounds and heavy ammo slugs. Her body twitches and jostles from this swinging chain at the various impacts lighting her up ... sending blood and cybernetic shrapnel chunks flying off of various parts of her body while her various medical implants do their best to keep her conscious and fighting. She engages her sleek black Projectile Launch System in her arm and unloads multiple metal jacket missiles in all directions as she spins. The various fiery explosions light up the dark area with an orange hue alongside thick black smoke as the sounds of screams of pain and panic ring out amongst the soldiers. She lets go of the chain, barely dodging an incoming missile fired at her as she falls and lands back onto the asphalt to the sounds of a huge explosion that blows up a parked Chevil Emperor. She corkscrew twists again... dodging another catch net and using her momentum to reach for a stray PetroChem Kyubi assault rifle flying through the air from an explosion… she catches it with one hand and uses it to strafe several more assaulting soldiers leaving cover charging at her. The loud booming cracks of gunfire and chaos slowly begins to settle alongside burning vehicle fires and dying humans. Zaunya finally gets a firm footing, using her sandy again to out maneuver the remaining Petro spec ops soldiers determined to bring her down... her implants overpowering the various shock and EMP grenades going off.
Her shoulders rise and fall as she breaths deeply... blood trails down her arms and drips off of her fingertips to the waiting charred asphalt below. Thick smoke and electricity purges wildly from her body in various places from the exertion of her implants. She frantically scans her sectors with her pointed iron… desperate for a target. She suddenly hears two steps behind her causing her to gasp and turn around with the rifle pointed. Shes punched with the force of a train impact by another soldier in active camo staggering her backward and sending her iron scraping across the asphalt. His punches continue to tag her in the face as she helplessly tries to dodge them while stumbling back... her long black hair flailing wildly to the momentum and making her look feral. The invisible gorilla armed fist lands a heavy blow right on her face… she grits her teeth while using the momentum of the punch to close distance by stepping forward through it. She pushes her face past the chromed fist in order to maintain contact as his cybernetic knuckles scrape drag the RealSkinn off of her cheek as she snatches his throat. She squeezes with all of her strength breaking his active camo as she pivots her feet and judo tosses him over her shoulder… slamming him to the asphalt with a heavy impact before she mercilessly rains down punches. Her feral screams roar through the darkened streets of Night City as she unleashes a flurry of uncontrollable punches. She caves his head in to a shower of blood and doesn't stop as her humanity screeches out of her vocal cords with every strike.
Her exhaustion is the only thing that stops her as she finds herself breathing heavy... sat atop this corpse barely resembling a human.
Surrounded by carnage and burning destruction… she closes her eyes and tilts her head back all the way... trying to slow her breathing.
BugBear's frantic panicking fades back into focus desperately trying to communicate with her.
Zaunya sits in a trance… surrounded by fire and blood as her injuries take their toll. Blood flows out of her various wounds splattering to the asphalt as she coughs in pain. She slowly staggers to her feet, breathing heavy.
She feels a sharp, electrostatic shock course throughout her entire body causing her to scream in immense pain and drop to the floor with a heavy thud… deading her comms and various implants. BugBear suddenly gasps deeply for air with eyes wide open as Audrey unplugs her from the setup. Beatrice immediately leans over the side of the chair and vomits violently onto the linoleum below as Audrey rushes to tend to her.
As she lays on the bloodied asphalt with pooled blood... she twitches to the sound of a pair of sneakers slowly approaching her as they crack broken glass and crunch rocks. She looks up to see the silhouette of a woman standing over her… barely visible by the feint orange glow of stray fires.
Zaunya… with nothing left... stares up at this shrouded figure as the woman kneels down over her revealing her face through the orange glow.
Marsalla DeNarsee grabs Zaunya by her collar tightly with a firm grip... an intense look of grit on her face. Zaunya helplessly squeals in pain.
"Who the fuck are you." Marsalla mutters intensely... gritting her teeth while looking deep into her eyes. Zaunya overcome by her wounds can't respond... only shrieks in pain.
2 women cut from the same cloth… now fallen from who they once were… who they once served… into a world where none survive.
The sound of another net gun being fired screams past the two women missing its target. Marsalla immediately lets go of Zaunya, thumping her to the ground as she rises to her feet with a gasp.
Another catch net is fired at her and misses as she sprints away at full speed with 2 PetroChem soldiers in pursuit. They sprint past Zaunya layed on the ground coughing up blood as 2 more soldiers slowly approach and stand over her.
They glance around at the scene they've arrived to as a contingency… blown away by Zaunya's work.
"Jesus…" One of the men whisper amongst flaming destruction and Zaunya's injured breathing. Completely taken aback with the sheer carnage present in the area... it all happened so quick.
She stares up at them in submitted pain unable to move.
"Who the hell is this?" The other one mutters confused. He gets no response.
With her vision fading… she sees the barrel of a revolver slowly raise over her.
"Mom." She whimpers to herself... looking up at the black Night City sky.... A quick flash of Zayta holding Zaunya in her arms as a child enters her mind… she smiles down at her baby girl as the rays of warm sunlight flood through a window behind her.
The soldier pulls the trigger causing a loud boom… sending a round through Zaunya… the momentum of the shot slams her body down to the asphalt causing her to squeal.
A second booming gunshot rings out… dropping the soldier with the revolver as his partner quickly turns to face the incoming fire. Before hes able to draw his iron hes hit in the chest, throat, then forehead with multiple rounds sending him flailing to the ground lifeless.
{ Start song now: Danna Paola, Alesso – Rescue Me }
Zaunya coughing up blood hears the sound of heavy boots approaching through the black smoke and orange glow of fire.
Brian emerges from the smoke as he hurries toward her…..
She sees him….. causing her to break down with bloody tears as she turns her head away.
He lets go of his iron… dropping to his knees as he frantically looks over her nearly dead body checking vitals.
Zaunya cries as blood streams out of her mouth... her voice cracks.
"J-Just… l-let me… gooo!!" She pleads as he works to cradle pick her up.
"Cmon." He whispers in a monotone… rising to his feet cradling her in his arms. "We have to go."
He carries her away into the darkness of the night.