Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ugh. I roll my eyes as I read yet another clunky, shittily-written sentence. I swear if I get my hands on whoever wrote this section for the morning broadcast, I'm going to fill them full of cyberware and leave them in my microwave for a few hours until they melt. They deserve that much, simply for mutilating the English language this fucking badly.

I delete the drek trying to pass for a decent news story and send a strongly worded message to the newsroom producer informing him that I would happily add him to the microwave punishment if I wasn't sent something better before morning. That done, I closed down my computer with a sigh, leaning back in my chair and running my hand through my hair.

Ugh. Why can't I get competent underlings?

I stand up and pace around my desk and up to the large arched window that dominated one wall of my home office. I had to blink hard a few times to get the shadow-images of my screen out of my eyes so I could actually see out of it properly. I'd paid for the best view in the bay, so I was going to damned well use it. When I finally managed to clear the ghosts, I walked up, leaned on the window frame and just watched.

I could see a boat coming into the shitty old dock that the bay still relied on. I'd tried to get them to replace it, but they responded with some 'heritage site' bullshit and refused any offer I made. And I made some seriously generous offers.

I sigh. Fuck, I've been working too damn long. Running this company is getting to be like a second fucking marriage. And it took me long enough to get out of the first one.

I snort. At least my company took my name. The paperwork needed to change mine after the divorce was seriously ridiculous. So glad I didn't have to go through that again.

A loud beeping from my computer draws me out of contemplating that fucking rabbit hole. I blink in surprise and walk over to check it. That was quick. Maybe I won't have to fire up the microwave after all.

I frown as I catch the sender name. "Huh." Juliet? What the hell does she want?

Juliet was my best reporter, not that I'd ever tell her that. Back at School, she'd always been obsessed with Journalism. She'd even gotten a stupid fucking nickname. The 'X-Treme Reporter'. But, after she'd left school, she'd lost everything. Nobody outside Tir Tairngire would hire an Elf.

Fucking idiots.

You wanna be the best, you hire the best, no matter who they are. Or, well, what they are, I guess.

Either way, I hired her, made her one of my lead reporters, and she was fan-fucking-tastic. One of the best business decisions I'd ever made. She had kind of mixed feelings about it. On one hand, she was grateful for a job, and on the other, she hated me. I'd made ChaseSpace Media the biggest name in Journalism and Entertainment on the entire planet, even getting a Prince's Seal from Tir Tairngire, and she'd couldn't get employed anywhere without my help.

I opened the flashing icon that indicated I had a new message.

'Took a look at those old Foundation files you sent me. Most of it's pure drek, but there's some potential for a story here. Found a couple files I couldn't access. Thought you'd like to give it a go with that bitty box of yours, being an amateur Decker and all. Try not to get geeked, omae.

Juliet.'

I ignored the insult. Amateur, hah. That's...

Huh.

I brought up the file.

Huh again. The big red message flashing on my desktop saying "Matrix-Access Acquired" had definitely caught my interest. I stared at it for a few seconds before... fuck it. I opened my bottom desk drawer and fished out my old deck.

I'd been modding and upgrading this thing for years, replacing components every time something newer and faster came out. Advantages of money, right? It was probably one of the most expensive things I owned. I pulled out the cable and slotted it into the datajack in my temple, feeling that familiar sense of comforting relief wash over me as the blue of the Matrix appeared.

I opened up a virtual demi-world and dropped the files in there. There we go, securely quarantined. No way in hell was I letting this thing infect the rest of my systems. Once it was safely contained, I dropped myself into the demi-world too. It was nothing complex, just a simple single-room sim. The file was sitting on a table, the one piece of furniture in the room.

I walked over, and opened the file.

Lines of code immediately burst out of it like paper out of a fucking party popper, streaking across the room.

They ricocheted off the walls and collided with my avatar. I screamed as they bit into me like fucking maggots, burrowing their way into my base-code. I tried to fight back, pull up an armour program, but the maggot ICE was too quick.

In the few seconds before I blacked out, I could've sworn I heard a discordant, electronic laugh.

--

The first thing I felt when I woke up was pain. My fucking head was killing me. There was a... cold, metallic sensation on my face. Oh. I landed on my deck. I rolled over and stared up at the ceiling, running a hand through my hair. "Ugh. Stupid fucking Ice, shit-eating bastards..."

I went on like that for a while. I knew a lot of swearwords.

When I finally calmed down and paid attention to my situation, I realised my hands had been shaking uncontrollably the entire time. Not a lot, but every Decker knows the signs of biofeedback. Whatever was in that fucking file had damaged the myelin sheaths around the neurons in my brain, leading to signal leakage. My brain signals were spreading in transit, becoming weak.

I tried to stand up, but wobbled and fell back down to the ground. Argh. Fucking Biofeedback. I needed to get to my desk before the nervous system damage became permanent.

After another couple of attempts, I finally managed to pull myself to my feet. I made it two steps towards my desk before I fell down again.

Fuck it.

I stayed on the floor and just crawled, feeling my arms shake the whole way, until I reached my desk. I yanked open the drawer my deck had been in and jerkily pawed through it until... ahah! I pulled out the syringe and immediately jammed it into my datajack. I sighed as the Biofeedback Medication filled my system.

I let myself sag and slip down onto my carpet, relaxing as the shakes stopped. Thank fuck for that.

That's when I noticed the small alarm blaring from my computer. I pulled myself up and clicked it. An internal camera alert? I opened the feed and threw it over to the main monitor. The picture expanded and... what the fuck? There were people in the building. In my building?!

They were wearing black armour, with helmets covering their faces, and they were currently in a shooting match with my security forces. They fucking dare? They broke into my fucking home? I watched in shock as they blasted their way through my hirelings and moved on to the next group, quickly and quietly.

These assholes were professionals. Shadowrunners. Drek, I hated Shadowrunners. They were the bane of any CEO's existence. These were my first, though. I took a minute to wonder what I'd done recently to merit this visit. Before I could work it out, Rachel burst into my office. "We've gotta go, Vic!"

Rachel was in her usual armour with her little machine-gun dangling from a strap on it. As my head of security, she was eternally concerned with my safety. "Do you know who these people are?"

"Not a fragging idea, omae. But they're pushing their way through my people. They're holding them at the second floor, but they won't last long. We need to get you out of here. The way these guys are wired, they're definitely here for wetwork."

My eyes bulge. "Wetwork?! They're here to kill me?" I glance back at the screen, watching yet another security guy get gunned down. Oh fuck, oh shit, I...

Rachel grabs onto my shoulders and holds me still so I'm looking straight at her. "Victoria, we can get you out of here and call in the bronze. These guys'll run the minute the heatwave drops. It'll be okay, so ka?"

"O-okay." I took a breath. "I'm okay. Where do we go?"

She grinned at me. "Wiz. And downstairs."

I gape at her. "Downstairs! But that's where the runners are!"

"It's also where our way out is." She grins at me, "Don't worry so much. Just stick with me and you'll be fine."

We made our way out of my office and headed for one of the side stairs. There were three in the mansion, one in the middle and one at each end. The Shadowrunners were heading to the centre stairs and fanning out along both wings, so we took the side.

Rachel lead us along the corridors of the top floor, stopping every now and again to check the corners. We made it to the stairs and down to the first floor without any trouble. It was only when we got close to the door that we had a problem.

"There's three of them." I peeked over the dresser we were hiding behind in the direction Rachel pointed and there they were. Two were human, flanking a seven or eight foot tall troll. The gun he was holding was huge. If he put it down, it'd be taller than I was.

"What are we going do?"

Rachel's only answer was another grin. She pulled up her satchel and started rooting through it. Jesus, what the hell is she doing? "What are you looking for?"

She pulls out a little sphere with a triumphant little 'aha!'. "This little thing. It's something the tech guys cooked up. Modified EMP." She waved over at the three mercenaries. "You see their legs? Cyberware. This will disable them."

Without waiting for me to respond, she threw the grenade over at them. It flew in a graceful arc and landed right between the troll's feet. He looked down and it exploded. All three mercs immediately collapsed and Rachel grabbed me. "Run, now!"

We ran as fast as we could past the wriggling bastards and out the door, heading straight for the garage. Rachel didn't stop once, barrelling through the door and dragging me over to the SK-Bentley. She basically threw me through the passenger side window, the bitch, then hopped into the drivers seat.

She threw me an amused grin, I threw her a pissed-off glare, then she revved the engine and sped off down the road. The car ate up the miles with ease; I only bought the best, after all. As we closed on the town, Rachel turned to look at me and smiled smugly. "Told you we'd get away."

I roll my eyes. "Smugness is not an attractive quality, Rachel."

She laughs, even more smugly. "Yes it is."

I turn to retort, and spot headlights speeding toward us. "Rachel, watch ou-!"

The truck smashes into us and flips the car. Everything seems to go through slow motion as we flip through the air. I end up hitting my head on the dashboard and black out.

The next few minutes were... kind of hazy. I remember being on the ground, everything hurting like a bitch, trying to stand up. Then, I catch sight of Rachel, lying a few metres away from me.

She wasn't moving.

"Ra-" I cough and my body is racked with pain. "Rachel!"

A figure melts out of the shadows, striding towards her. I turn my head, gritting my teeth as more pain jolts through my neck and upper back, to look at them.

The person is huge, big enough to make me think drone for a few seconds, until I catch sight of his face and the two tusks in his jaw, both the size and thickness of my forearm. It's... Oh, frakk. It's the troll from my foyer. How the hell did he catch up to us?

He stops just short of Rachel and looks down, laughing as she suddenly moves and fires twice at him. Both shots ricochet harmlessly off his armour. "You really are a persistent one, aren't you?"

Rachel says something up to him that I don't hear, and he laughs again. "Well, we'll have to remedy that, won't we?" He waves a hand and two more figures melt out of the shadows, both black-suited shadowrunners, and grab Rachel.

I try to sit up, but everything hurt too fucking much, so I settled for talking lying down. "Y-you..."

He looks over in my direction and grins. "Yes. Me." He stands up and walks past Rachel and towards me.

"Wh-who..."

"Who sent me? Now, Ms Chase. I am a professional. I can't just tell you, can I?" He leans in. "Where's the fun in that?" He straightens up with a sigh. "But, my orders are clear. Termination is a mission priority." He pulls a revolver from his belt and aims it in my direction. "So, I suppose there's no issue with telling you." He raises the gun. "The person who hired us is..."

There's several sharp cracks as shots ring out and collide with the troll's armour, forcing him back. He whirls and looses a few rounds from his revolver, but more shots thunk into him and his armour makes a loud cracking sound. The fucker's eyes bulge in alarm and he runs off.

Fucking coward. I try shout as he leaves, but everything was starting to go dark again, so I just end up muttering "Rachel. Rachel." over and over again like a fucking lunatic.

Hands wrap around me from behind and I wriggle, trying to get away from them, but they're seriously strong. "Don't worry, it's okay, you're safe now. We've got you."

The voice sounded... reassuring. After the shitshow of the last half hour, a reassuring voice was really fucking comforting, so I trusted whoever it was and let myself black out again.

I've been doing that a lot today.

I am so gonna have brain damage if I wake up.

--

Someone is trying to shake me awake. I angrily slap their hand away and roll over with a muttered "Stoppit. Lemme go back t'sleep."

The fucker laughs and shakes me again. "Come on, Victoria. You've been in bed for long enough."

I scoff. Thanks, Mom.

Wait.

That's not Mom. She's been dead for six fucking years and... Oh, frakk. Rachel... an-and that Troll. Did that really happen?

I think it did.

I open my eyes.

Then, my mouth drops open. "Kate..?"

The face hovering over me beams in satisfaction. "You do remember! That's good. I was worried there'd be brain damage. Your fMRI scans were... bizarre, to say the least." She gives me a look that clearly asks if I know how bad that is.

I didn't.

When I don't respond, she retreats over to a small desk in the corner. There's an old computer sat open on it and, surprisingly, a stack of books. Kate always did love her old books.

I get distracted from my musings when a fly buzzes annoyingly around my head. I swipe at it, and it retreats off to somewhere else in the room.

I blink as I take in more of the room around me; the unfamiliar room around me. "Uh, Kate?"

She smiles. "Yes, Victoria?"

"What happened? Where am I?"

She blinks, then frowns. It's still as cute as it was back in school. She scrunches up her nose and gets this little furrow between her eyebrows that- "Oh, you don't remember?"

"I... I remember the troll, but nothing after that." An image of the troll pointing that revolver down at me flashes into my head. I close my eyes and force it away. Not now. Not. NOW. I look slowly around the room, noting the worn, but expensive-looking medical equipment surrounding my bed. I've interviewed a lot of people, in a lot of facilities, and I can tell the bad from the good. This place definitely falls in the latter category. "Where am I? Is this a Docwagon facility?"

It had better be. I pay those assholes millions of nuyen a year for corporate coverage.

"Not... exactly. You're in my chopshop."

Her chopshop? Kate Marsh is a fucking sawbones? I gape at her. "You run a fucking Black Clinic? You? What happened to the whole..." I wave a hand. "artist, thing?"

She shrugged. "People change, Victoria. After I Awakened, I... I found my calling." She focuses for a second, and a tiny... thing appears on her shoulder. "This is Alice."

"Alice..?"

Kate extends a hand and 'Alice' runs down it, settling at the end of her hand and tilted her little head curiously at me. She chitters for a second and Kate nods. "It's okay, Alice. She's a friend."

Alice extends her head and, numbly, I reach out and stroke her. She visibly vibrates when I do, then skitters back up Kate's arm to hide near her shoulder. Kate smiles. "It seems she likes you."

"She's a nature spirit, right?"

Kate hmms. "She is. Modern medical tech makes surgery less... disruptive to the patient than it used to be, but it's still an ordeal for both the body and the spirit. I do my best to heal the whole patient." She reaches up and pets Alice, who chitters again. "This little one helps with the post-surgery healing rituals."

"Huh." Kate smiles as I stare at the little creature, feeling weirdly mellow. "So, um... what's it like? Being a Shaman?"

She shrugs. "Like being a Decker, I imagine. We both see things most people don't."

"Huh." I really need to stop saying that. "How long have you lived in Portland? I kind of... lost track of you, after school." I lost track of a lot of people then. My 'loving husband' made fucking sure of that.

She frowns, tilting her head. "Oh, of course, I didn't realise... We're not in Portland. We're in Seattle."

"Seattle?" That was hours north of both Portland and the Bay. Even longer if you tried to cross The Wall legally... "How did I get here?"

Kate opens her mouth to speak, but someone interrupts her. "That would be us, ace."

Kate sighs. "I was so hoping to keep this revelation until later..."

I look over to the figure standing in the door and my mouth drops open again. "Juliet..?"

She grins, and it's more relaxed than I've ever seen her. "Hey boss. You look like drek."

I gape at her and her grin turns into a laugh. "The Great Victoria Chase, lost for words. I never thought I'd see the day." She slinks into the room, stopping just short of the bed. When I glare at the smug bitch, she sighs. "Okay, okay. So, I... kind of don't just work for you..." She gives me a look like she's expecting me to explode.

She WHAT?! Inside, I'm furious. This bitch was two timing me? Me?! But outside, I stay cool and calm. I enjoy surprising people. "Who else do you work for?"

After a few seconds, she shrugs. "A local Fixer. She hired me to use your resources to find information for her."

"You fucking traitorous bitch."

She snorts. "Oh, that's wiz, coming from you, tridmonger. How many times have you turned on some poor schmuck you'd got a shitty deal with and fragged them with that media empire of yours just 'cause they dared to do something that pissed you off?" She leans in. "But what are you gonna do, now you've lost it all?"

"Juliet!" Kate snaps and Juliet fucking flinches. "You will not antagonise my patient in front of me, understood?"

"Understood. Sorry, Doc."

Kate glares. "And her."

Juliet sighs, then turns to me. "Sorry Victoria."

Kate's glare turns to me. I flinch when I spot the little flames flickering in her eyes. "Sorry, Juliet."

Then, the flames in Kate's eyes spark out and she's smiling again. "Good. No arguing in my clinic."

I look back at Juliet and motion for her to continue. She does. "When you and Rachel were chased out of the estate, I called the fixer to let her know. Her team picked you up, after you crashed, and brought you here."

"Here? To a Chopshop?" I glance at Kate. "No offence."

She waves a hand dismissively. "Null sheen, Victoria."

"You know if you brought me to any of their facilities, Docwagon would've taken care of my treatment?" I raise an eyebrow and stare at Juliet, expecting her to offer immediately to transfer me. "No need to bother taking me all the way to Seattle."

But she doesn't. She and Kate share a look. Kate shakes her head, almost imperceptibly, but I'm used to observing micro-expressions in interviews. "Kate..? What's..."

"Nothing, Victoria." Hmph. She hasn't gotten any better at lying since school. "You concentrate on getting better. There'll be plenty of time for that later."

"May-" I angrily swipe at the fly as it buzzed around my head again. "Damn fly! Kate, don't you have a fucking bug zapper or something?"

Kate frowned. "I do, actually. There's a fly..?" Her eyes flashed for a second. She stared intently at the fly then... she growled. "What have I told you about drones in my ward?"

A figure steps out of a dark spot in the corner, laughing. "You're no fun, Kate."

I catch sight of her face. Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me...

"Max fucking Caulfield?!" My mouth opened and closed uselessly as I tried to process this... unplanned school reunion. "Y-you're..."

The dwarf girl grins up at me. "Still hella short?"

Another voice echoes through the door. "Max? Max? Where the fuck are you?"

"In here, Chloe!" Max calls back.

Chloe..?

Oh frakk...

A tall, built figure bursts through the door. "Vicky! You're awake!" Her hair is long, and electric blue, and she's in need of some serious dental work.

"Chloe. Price."

I groan and the Ork girl grins at me, exposing yet more of her awful teeth. "In the flesh, omae." She turns to Juliet. "Didya tell her yet?"

"Not yet, Chloe." Juliet rolls her eyes.

Chloe whirls and looks over at me, still grinning. "Our boss wants to talk to you."

I raise an eyebrow. "You mean the fixer who hired Juliet?"

Chloe nods. "Yep. That's the one. She runs this whole neighbourhood. You wanna stay, you gotta get her say-so. And her help to lose your SIN."

Lose my SIN? I frown. "Why would I-"

Kate suddenly stands up. "Alright, alright. Everyone out."

When everyone immediately protests, she holds up a hand.

They all immediately shut up.

Woah.

"My ward. My rules. And my rules say you're all crowding my patient. So, out."

Everyone grumbles, but the three of them wander out. Chloe calls back to me as she leaves. "We'll come back to take you to the Boss hella soon!"

I sigh, relief flooding through me. I'd gone back to my school self the second I saw Max. Old grudges die hard, I suppose. "Thanks, Kate."

She smiles. "Null sheen. That was a little too much, too soon. I'll try keep things peaceful as long as I can, but..." Her smile drops. "you'll have to see the old lady sooner or later though."

I give her an indolent shrug. "I'm sure. Will she be able to arrange my transport back to Tir Tairngire? I really need to get back to the office." And find someone to hunt down that ork bastard, and find Rachel.

Kate sighs. "Another revelation I was hoping to keep for later. Unless you've changed far more than I realised since Blackwell, you're not going to let up about it until I tell you, so..."

She pulls a seat up to the side of my bed. "You can't go home."

I blink. "What? Are you holding me prisoner?"

She shakes her head. "No, not that, it's just..." Her mouth crinkles as she tries to find the words for whatever she's about to say. "Your house was attacked, by runners. They destroyed the entire place after you left."

"So ka. And the sooner I get back, the sooner I can start hunting them down." I snarl. "They're gonna regret ever attacking me."

She shakes her head again. "It's not just that. There was damage to your DocWagon Implant, so the world thinks you died, and..."

She trails off and the bottom drops out of my stomach. "And what, Kate?"

"And somebody bought your company."

I immediately sit straighter. "Someone WHAT?!"

She nods mutely.

"Who?" I growl.

"Saeder-Krupp."

"Saeder? Fragging? Krupp? That asshole wyrm Lofwyr stole my company?" A Great Dragon had hired runners to take me down. How had I fucked up badly enough to attract a Dragon's attention?

"We think so. He bought your company about two hours after you were reported dead." She hesitated. "I'm sorry."

I slumped back against the bedframe. "Damnit. Damnit damnit damnit." I ran my hand through my hair, muttering angrily under my breath. "How could I let this happen? Everything I fucking worked for, gone. Everything." I wipe at my eyes. "Damnit. Damnit damnit damnit."

After a few minutes, Kate stood up and silently left the room.

My muttering turned into sobbing as I came to terms with it. Everything I'd built over the last ten years was gone. Wyrms never gave up their prizes once they had them. I was completely alone for the first time since school... No employees, no resources, no home... I'd have to kill him to get my company back.

Kill Lofwyr... I thought muzzily, as I drifted down into sleep.

--

"-and our new company CEO, SK's own ex-CTO Carter Ozman, will be speaking later this afternoon on what this new chapter in Chase Space Entertainments' life will contain." It's only by sheer restraint that I don't throw the fucking tablet across the room. Instead, I squeeze it hard enough that the casing cracks.

"Y'know you haven't got the scratch to replace that if ya frag it, omae?"

I look up and glare at the smirking orkish face staring down at me. "What do you want, chummer?" I practically spit out the runner vernacular.

She laughs. "You suits really can't talk normal, can ya?"

I sigh. "What do you want, Grunger?"

She bristles at the race jab. "Nana wants to see you ASAP."

Nana? "Who the hell is Nana?"

Chloe just shrugs. "She's the boss."

Oh. I'm finally going to get to meet the woman responsible for Juliet's betrayal. "I assume we're going to her?"

Chloe snorts. "Yeah. Nana wants to talk to you, you go to her."

I shrug. "Alright." Truth be told, I was kind of curious. I sigh, as I realise "You'll have to help me up though."

She nods and, without a word, helps me to my feet. Kate watches me from her desk with a smile as we walk towards the exit. "Good luck!" She waves.

I wave vaguely back and step out, and am immediately assaulted by the local stench. Delightful. My sinuses will thank me for getting out of this when I'm home. The Tir might be a racist dictatorship, but at least the air is clean.

As we walk across the neighbourhood, people skitter out of our way. Chloe doesn't even spare them a glance. She just strides ahead, a few paces in front of me, leading us to wherever this Nana wants us to be.

I wonder if she's Mafia. They're into the familial titles. Last I heard, they weren't doing so well here though. The Yaks were moving in from Japan, taking out the local Korean branches, and aggressively moving in on Mafia territory. The Mafia had responded by bringing the Hammer out from retirement.

The war had been going on for the last ten years with no change.

The last thing I wanted was to get involved like that. One of the rules of my profession was strict neutrality. We made no judgements, never criticised or praised. We simply reported.

Chloe leads us up to a small house tucked between two towering apartment blocks. It's... quaint, white picket fence wrapped around a small garden, with a stairway leading up to the one incongruity in the outer structure - a solid steel security door. The same one the ChaseSpace Headquarters building had, actually. That's the only hint this building is the home to a Made Woman.

Chloe strides up to it, and raps on it five times. After a few seconds, the door slides open and a heavyset, dark-skinned troll with a psychedelically coloured Mohawk steps out. He nods on seeing Chloe. "Hey Blue."

Chloe nods back. "Bolan. The old lady's expecting us."

Bolan's eyes flick over to me. One of his irises rotates as his bioware eye focuses on me. He scans my body, eye moving from my side to my hip to my shoes. "Turn around, please."

I raise an eyebrow at Chloe, who nods at me to get on with it already. I turn, and his eye scans the rest of me. "You can turn back around now."

I glare at him.

He doesn't seem bothered.

"She's in the front." He meets my eyes. "Behave, wageslave. We have our eyes on you."

Before I can retort, Chloe plants her palm in the small of my back and shoves me through the door. The inside is even quainter than the outside. Faded floral wallpaper lines the walls, the carpet is worn, and there's that faint musty smell that always seems to layer every old person's home.

I shrug Chloe off, readjust my coat. "Where to now?"

"Through here. And fucking remember what Bolan said. You be a bitch here, and Nana won't think twice about dusting you."

I smirk. "Noted."

She knocks at a door, then pushes it open. I follow her through into the tackiest sitting room I'd ever seen. Everything clashed, from the upholstery to the woodwork, and there was a truly uncomfortable overabundance of tassels. The tackiest thing in the room, a painfully bright red velvet chair, was occupied.

This must be Nana.

She was stocky. Not Dwarvish stocky, but still a very sturdy-looking woman. Her skin was dark, her hair was grey (and pulled into a tight, almost grandmotherly bun), and a little pair of shaded pince-nez perched on the end of her nose. She looks up when we enter. "What'm I gon' do with you, Blue?"

Chloe bows her head. "I'm sorry, Nana. What were we supposed to do, just leave her?"

Nana nods emphatically. "Yeah, you were. But, ain't nothin' gonna be change now, I guess." She takes off her glasses and leans forward, looks me over. "An' I s'pose you must be Ms Chase."

I nod politely. "Yes, Nana." She wanted manners, I could do manners.

She grins. "Good. They's told you how things work 'round here." She leans back in her chair again. "So, I hears Lofwyr took your company?"

"Yeah." I take a deep breath, force myself not to say more. These people were definitely criminals, even if Nana wasn't Mafia. They still required Blood for membership, so Nana, with her dark skin and Cajun accent, wasn't really Made material.

"An' I hears you still a SINner?" Her voice is hard as steel, and suspicious as a CI. But there's a hint of curiosity there too.

"I am." I get the idea that there's not much point to lying to this woman. I've got nothing left. I need all the allies I can get.

She snorts, glances at Chloe. "An' you still think bringin' her here was a good idea?"

Chloe nods, but doesn't meet Nana's eye. It's seriously weird. She was the most belligerent, fuck-authority person I'd ever met, and she's bowing to this woman?

"Well then. I guess we's gon' hafta work out some sort of deal, ain't we?"

I frown. I really don't like her tone. "A deal?"

She hmms. "See, this is my neighbourhood, an' these is my people. You puttin' 'em all in danger. First time you walk outside, get caught on a camera, you're gonna bring the heat down on alla us." She taps a stubby finger on her knee. "So, we're gonna have to get that biz seen to. Confess that SIN of yours, an' we'll get it burned." She grins, and it splits her face like a gaping knife wound. "An' in return, you gonna do somethin' for me."

"And what would that be?"

She shrugs. "I dunno. What you good at? Theys brought you in with a pretty high-price deck. You know how to use it, sha?"

I smirk. "You hired Juliet to gain internal access to my systems. I assume you tried to hack me first?"

She nods. "Some powerful software there. Fried a brain or two in the commune before we got 'ole Jules in."

"I wrote that software."

The bitch laughs, actually laughs! "Naw way, sha. Suits like you don't get their hands dirty like that."

Heh. Now I know my way in. "Give me something to hack. I'll prove it."

She raises an eyebrow of her own, and gives me a long, lingering look of appraisal. "Hmm. I think I might have somethin' for you to do then. We need a new decker."

"What's the job?" I'd interviewed enough runners to know what questions to ask.

"A simple brush-up run on a... disrespectful subordinate of mine. I need him gone, but I need his data intact. I can provide a short-term cover for the job. You get it done, I help you disappear. Deal?"

I don't hesitate. "Deal."

"Then you gonna need a handle. You go 'round introducin' yo'self as Victoria Chase, CEO of ChaseSpace Media, then burnin' your sin ain't gonna be worth drek. Get used to usin' it now, you might not screw up when you join the shadows."

I think for a second. I'm a bitchy decker, so... "Ice."

Chloe snorts. "Wiz."

Nana just shrugs. "Now our biz be done." She waves a hand. "Buzz off, get on with it. Come see me when you done, Ice. Laissez les bon temps rouler!"

Chloe leads me out, and back to Kate's chopshop. Neither of us say a word.

--

I almost relax as I walk down the corridor to my room. I stop when I see the open door. They've found me, they've... I blink. "Kate?"

She's standing over my bed, up to the elbows in a gaping stomach wound. Her teeth are clenched, and she's got the same look of concentration she used to have while doodling in Jefferson's class. "Victoria." Her tone, unlike her expression, is utterly casual. We might as well be chatting over soykaf lattes.

"You're in my room."

She snorts, corrects me neatly. "My room. You're here on my sufferance. And this patient needed it more."

"But... where am I supposed to go?" I mutter, plaintively.

"Anywhere but here. I'm busy." Whoever owns the body with the gaping stomach wound groans as a robotic surgery arm smoothly jabs a needle into them.

"But, I..." That same adrift feeling starts to surface again. I know people here but, at the same time, I really really don't. "Where..?"

Kate doesn't look up. "Fine, Victoria. You can go stay in my office for now. I'm busy."

I watch her quietly for a few seconds then, when she doesn't say anything more, I turn and head for her office. I slip into the room and activate my deck, sitting in the room's one chair and opening up a small screen. I pull up the Shadowlands portal and start skimming threads. That'll kill some time.

A few hours and several hastily copied notepad pages worth of data later, there's a knock at the door. After a second, it opens and Max steps inside. "Hoi, Vic."

"Victoria. Never Vic." I immediately retort.

Never Vic. Never again...

She carries on like I never said a word. "Victoria. I heard you're working for Nana now."

I shrug. "On a provisional basis. If I help her, she'll burn my SIN."

Her eyebrows raise. "Burn your SIN? You're really staying?"

I scowl. "Well, it's not like I have a fucking option, do I? Lofwyr took everything."

She tilts her head. "Well, you're welcome to come stay with us, if Kate's kicking you out."

"...us?"

She nods. "Me and Chlo. We've got a place near here. You'd have your own room, too. Well, you would tomorrow." She amends. "You'd have to share it with my drones and Chloe's lab stuff tonight, but we could get them moved in the morning?"

It's weird... She sounds like she's trying to persuade me that this is a good idea. Am I that fucking pathetic that Max Caulfield is taking pity on me? Drek...

But I really don't have any other options... "Okay."

She grins. "Shiny. I've got a few things to do, but you can tag along if you wanna come check out the place today?"

No other options... I pack away my deck and stand. "Okay."

Her grin grows. "Okay then. Come on, let's buzz. We're heading to see Buster first." She hesitates. "Just... try not to talk a lot. You'll be made as a suit in a second flat."

"Hey!" I protest. "I can talk streetslang."

She eyes me dubiously. Bitch.

Buster turned out to be a neat-looking ork in the middle of a yard full of weaponry. He's dressed incredibly well for this neighbourhood, all straight lines and military precision. The only things compromising his neatness are the uneven tusks protruding from his mouth and the cybernetic right arm; one obvious enough to be noticeable, but not so obvious as to ruin the line of his suit.

Max walks over and stands patiently, waiting as he deals with two tall, lithe elves in ugly green leather jackets with a circled A emblazoned on the back. He speaks softly, thoughtfully, and talks to them almost exclusively in numbers: calibres, ranges, rounds per second, arc of fire, razoring factor, tensile strength and, of course, price.

My Sperethiel is a little weak, but I manage to understand most of their conversation. The two elves were part of the Ancients, a nation-wide Elf-Centric go-gang. They were organising the payment for a weapon shipment. Or organising the shipment of a weapon payment.

Sperethiel was weird. Endless subtleties upon subtleties made the language a nightmare. Either way, Ancient Biz wasn't mine. We stayed quiet and out of the way until the two elves laugh, shake Buster's hand, then leave.

Max walks over. "Hoi, Buster!"

"Mad Max!"

The ork grins, and the two do some complicated handshake that lasts for almost a minute before laughing. "I've got someone I want you to meet." Max turns to me, gestures. "This is Ice."

I give the ork a curt nod. "Hoi, chummer."

Max rolls her eyes, and one of Buster's eyebrows shoots up. "Nana's letting a suit stay here?"

I eye him, then Max, who just shrugs. "Sorry, Buster. You know I can't talk about Nana's biz. But she's with me." Her expression practically screams "I told you so."

He tilts his head, then looks me over. He nods. "Any friend of Max's is a friend of mine. Bunker Buster Gruberman, at your service. I also answer to Sergeant, Sir, and even Theodor on occasion. Anytime you’re in the market for firearms, ammunition, or ordinance, I’m your man."

I nod back. "You're the gun guy."

He grins. "I'm the gun guy."

Max coughs. "Sorry to rush you, Buster, but I've got a lot to do today. You got Nana's shipment?"

Buster nods. "Came in last night. Usual drop off?"

"Yep. I've got your payment here." She reaches out and they shake hands again. The movement disguises Max's credstick slotting into a reader at Buster's wrist.

There's a pause, then a quiet bing sound that marks a succesful transfer of nuyen. "A pleasure doing business with you."

Max grins. "Isn't it always, Buster?"

He rolls his eyes. "You have any other biz to discuss?" He turns his head to meet my gaze. "Maybe Ms Ice needs a gun?"

If I'm getting into running, maybe I do. I've never fired one before in my life though. Where do I even start? "What..?"

Max interrupts. "Do you have any of the Ares pistol stock left?"

The ork pulls up a viewscreen. "Just a couple of the 70s. Sold my last batch of 75s this morning."

Max nods, and mutters a stream of rapidfire gun jargon I barely catch then asks "How much?"

Buster does some quick calculations, then "1100 nuyen."

"Done." They don't bother with the handshake this time, Max just slots her credstick. After a second, the reader beeps.

Buster taps a few things on his screen and, after it emits a loud beep, a small arachnoid drone skitters out of one of the smaller buildings built into the outer wall of Buster's yard. It stops a little short of us, mimics the beep from Buster's screen, then deposits a small box on the ground in front of me.

When I look up, Buster motions to the box. "Enjoy your purchase, Ms Ice."

I pick it up, open it, and take out the gun. Max immediately snatches it from my hand. "I'll be taking that."

When I protest, she glares up at me. "You have no idea how to use that. Trust me, omae. You'll blow your head off."

I sigh, mentally promising to punish her for that later, then nod. "Fine." I turn back to the ork. "It was nice meeting you, Buster."

He nods. "Likewise, ma'am."

Back to Max. "Where to next?"

"The University."

I blink. "You have a university here?"

She snorts. "Frag, no. SU's only open to the corp kids. It's a local nickname for the talismonger's place. He's ex-corp, with a crapload of degrees, and won't let anyone forget it."

I match her snort with one of my own. I'd known a few people like that. Drek, I used to be one of them.

The Talismonger lived in a largish wooden building set-up against a factory wall. It shook slightly with every loud noise from the machinery inside the factory. I, uh... wasn't happy to be going inside. "Uh..."

Max laughs. "I know, I know. But it's sturdier than it looks."

I eye the structure, dubious, but I stay quiet.

She leads me up to the door, knocking on it in a repeated pattern. 1-3, 1-3, 2-2, 1. After three cycles through, the door creaked open and a vaguely-nasal voice asked "What can the master of mysteries do for you this evening, Bastard's servant?"

I lean in. "Bastard servant?"

"Nana's full handle is Nana Bastard."

I blink. Oh.

Max walks in to the room and, after a second's hesitation, I follow. The first thing I notice is that the room inside didn't shake at all. The second thing was that it wasn't made of the same wood as the outside.

One wall is dominated by a lit fireplace, crackling lightly and filling the room with a pleasant wooden scent. The other three are filled with bulging bookshelves, none of which had any evident order to them. Ancient leather-bound tomes mixed freely with late 20th century paperbacks, scattered with occasional plastic-encased electronic readers.

It was a mess, but a very, very expensive one.

In the middle of the room, sat on top of a slightly raised dais, was a large mahogany desk, covered with papers and tomes. A tall, lithe, and very bald human sat at it, watching as Max crossed the room to stand in front of him.

He didn't even look at me.

"Ms Caulfield. I ask again, what is your business here?"

Max bowed. "Nana was wondering if her request had been fulfilled."

The man shook his head. "These things cannot be rushed. Manipulating the metaplanes in this way is dangerous, rushing could be fatal, even for me."

As Max opens her mouth to say something, he holds up a hand. "Fear not, servant of the Bastard, your employer will have her purchase within the week."

As I'm wondering faintly what Nana purchased, he turns to me. "You must be our newest arrival, Ms Ice. It's a pleasure to meet a fellow educated individual in this backwood."

I blink. I was honestly surprised a Thaumaturgist would recognise a journalism (work) and photography (What? A workaholic media heiress can't have a hobby?) graduate as a peer, but I guess he didn't have much to work with out here.

Max quickly motioned for me to bow, so I did. I didn't know when I started to trust the little hipster, but here we were. The old mannerisms of high society quickly reasserted themselves. "The pleasure is mine, sir."

He smiled. "Call me Archibald. I see you aren't one of the gifted?"

I shake my head. "I know enough to keep myself protected, but I'm not a magic user myself, no."

His smile turns almost pitying. Asshole. "Ah. Wisdom and beauty, a rare combination indeed."

I resist the urge to grimace, instead smiling back, pleasant and business-like. "Thank you, Archibald. Rarer still to meet someone with good manners."

He laughs at that. "So true." I feel mildly nauseated, talking with this guy. Such a fucking asshole. I turn back to Max. "Shouldn't we be leaving Archibald to his very pressing business? I'm sure he doesn't want us taking up too much of his time."

Archibald tries to interject a protest, but Max speaks before he can. "Oh drek, you're right." She bows to Archibald, "My apologies for tarrying too long, thank you for your time." and we scurry out the door.

As it swings shut behind us, she turns to me and grins. "Smooth, Chase."

I glare, but can't stop myself from grinning back. "Bite me, hipster."

"Aww, is the media heiress getting cranky? Don't worry, just one more stop and then we'll get you to bed."

She strides off down an alley, ignoring me as I skitter after her (How the hell am I being outpaced by a freaking dwarf?) yelling "-What? Where are we going?"

After the mage's home, the next place she shows me is kind of a disappointment. We stand on the sidewalk, looking up at a dilapidated cylindrical tower-structure that, at around nine floors tall, looms over both of us. I turn my head. "What's this place?"

Max doesn't answer, instead walking forward to the door. A tall, suited troll stops her from entering. "You ain't on the list." He drawls.

Max smirks. "Check again. Under Bastard."

He doesn't even blink. "You ain't Nana."

"No, but I am on her biz. You wanna stop me, you're going to have to take it up with her."

They both glare at each other, like David and Goliath. A minute passes, then another, and they both crack up in smiles. "You go right in, Max. Give the old lady my regards."

Max clasps his hand in hers. "Thanks, Cerb. Will do."

As we walk past, I hiss "What the frakk was that?" I seem to be asking that a lot today. Can you really blame me? It's been kind of fucking weird.

She shrugs. "Just a bit of fun. Cerb likes to play guard dog, and it's null sweat to let him."

"Cerb? What kind of a name is Cerb?"

Max smiles. "An appropriate one." She pushes open the large set of ornate double doors, sitting under a large, switched-off neon sign reading 'Abandon all hope, ye who enter here'. "Welcome to Inferno."

The club was lit with red lights, with walls covered in gaudy satanic iconography. Dancing devils were framed by burning sconces, pentagram rugs were scattered around red velvet couches along all the walls.

It was... pardon the pun, tacky as hell.

The ceiling above and the floor below me were both made out of transparex, allowing me to see at least seven levels above, and two below. Ramps wound along the outer walls, and a massive spiral staircase speared up through the open shaft in the centre of the building.

The club was almost empty, but I knew it would be full of people later. Most Seattle clubs ended up packed, even this early in the night. The only people in here now were a trio hanging by the bar: a male ork, a female human, and a female dwarf.

Max walked over. "Hoi, Chummers!"

The three nodded, shook Max's hand, all the while staring at me. When the pleasantries had been seen to, the dwarf growled "Who's the suit?"

"Ice."

They blinked at my short, curt tone. I figured, if talking gave me away as a corporate suit, I simply wouldn't.

Max chips in "She's Nana's new hire. I'm just showing her the sights."

The Ork nods, grinning at me. "Right on, sister. I'm Trev."

The human and the dwarf introduce themselves as Cherry and Morgause respectively. "Is Dante around? Nana needs a favour."

Cherry nods towards another set of double doors. "In the back."

Max nods, and starts walking to the doors. I make to follow her, but Morgause stops me. "Ah-ah." She admonishes. "Max might vouch for you, but we don't know you. You stay out here."

"Uh, Max?"

Max shrugs. "Their house, their rules, Ice. Don't worry, I won't be too long."

I nod and, after a pause to pull myself together, take a seat on one of the barstools. Cherry almost immediately takes the next stool. Of course. Time to chat. "So, Ice..."

I give her a placid look. "Yes?"

She bats her eyelids, smiles. "You're new in town, right cutie?"

I nod. "Yes." There's no problem admitting that, right? Plenty of people move to Seattle.

"Wiz. Well, if you ever want the nickel tour, just let me know. I'm an ace guide."

I nod again. "Thanks."

She frowns, a little sullen that I'm being so monosyllabic. I feel a little pang of guilt, but not enough to drop the charade. These people were criminals. Any one of them would sell me out to Lofwyr without a second thought.

"So," Morgause starts. "What's your speciality?"

I tilt my head, stare silently, and wait for clarification. She quickly fills the silence. "You've got a 'jack, so y'know, you've gotta be a decker or a rigger.., right? You're not built enough for a blade, and you ain't got enough 'ware for a so..."

"Decker." I cut her babble off, before it can get any worse.

She nods, smiles. "Wiz. Hope you're good. Our last deckjockey got flatlined a few years back going up against some rich bitch's ICE wall. The new crew could frag up a drek run."

I shrug. "I guess we'll see."

She grins. "Guess we will."

The girl goes mercifully quiet, and we sit in silence until Max walks back in. She doesn't stop to chat, muttering goodbyes as she walks past the group. I immediately hop up and follow her out. She nods to the guard dog on the door, and we head out into the streets.

"That's everything done, Ice. You still want that room?"

I shrug. "It's not like I have any better options."

She laughs. "I guess that's true. Come on then. You'd better hope we beat Chloe back, or she'll have eaten all the food before we're even halfway there."

--

Shadowrun Glossary:
Drek - Shit
Tir Tairngire - At this point, it's an Elf-Supremacist Dictatorship set-up in Oregon and Washington state. Pretty unpleasant place to live, if you're not an elf.
Elf - Pointy ears, long-lived, you know the type.
Prince's Seal - Tir Tairngire gives these out to corporations they like so that they can operate in their territory without being piled under crippling restrictions and tariffs.
Bitty Box - A shitty computer.
Decker - The Shadowrun term for a Hacker. Uses a special new type of computer called a deck to hack computers through the Matrix.
Geeked - Killed
Omae - Japanese term for friend. Kind of a weird one, because in reality it's more of a passive-aggressive formal version in the vein of "Hey buddy, back off, would ya?" but Shadowrun characters use it in a more friendly tone.
Datajack - An implanted piece of tech that works with a Deck to allow Deckers to enter the Matrix.
Matrix - The Matrix is a VR simulation of the world-wide computer network.
Sim - Simulation
ICE - Intrusion Countermeasures, security software designed to keep Deckers out of your computers.
Biofeedback - Affects Deckers who go up against certain ICE. Strips away parts of the brain, causing severe physical and mental issues and usually death.
Shadowrunners - Specialists who work for basically whoever wishes to hire them to do very illegal things, often corporate sabotage/espionage. They're the main focus of the game.
Fragging - Killing, Fucking.
Wetwork - Assassination
Bronze - The Cops, from the Bronze Badges
Heatwave - A police crackdown
So Ka - Japanese-ish for Understand/Understood?
Wiz - Short for Wizard. Means Good.
Troll - The largest metatype, they average about 9ft tall, and are hella bulky. They also have horns (a la Qunari) and some odd natural armour spine-wart things (calcified dermal deposits). This metatype tends to be the biggest focus of racial targeting.
Cyberware - Implanted augmentation hardware, like gun-arms, or brain-implanted computers.
Frak - Fuck
Docwagon - A corporation that specialises in entering high risk environments to provide on-scene medical care. Think Doctors without Borders, but with Tanks and Machineguns.
Nuyen - New-Yen, the new world standard currency.
Chopshop - An illegal medical establishment
Sawbones - An unlicensed doctor who works in a chopshop
Black Clinic - An illegal medical establishment

Awakened - Gaining magical powers or becoming a meta-human (Elf, Dwarf, Troll, or Ork)
Spirit - Shadowrun has a lot of these things. They're sentient organisms that live on alternate planes/dimensions (called the metaplanes) and tend to cause a lot of havoc when they come over into ours. They're also what magic users use to make magical things happen.
Rituals - Things Shamans use to summon/utilise spirits
Shaman - A magic user who works with nature spirits
The Wall - Think the Berlin Wall, but hole-ier. Built around Portland by the Tir Tairngire government.
Ace - Expert
Fixer - A go-between, deal-maker, and information broker who sells their services. Usually to Shadowrunners.
Tridmonger - A news/media-person. 'Trid' is the three-dimensional successor to video, either in hologram or VR simulation.
Null Sheen - No sweat. Either something easier, or don't bother yourself about it.
Drones - High-tech robot things with guns, controlled by a class called a Rigger.
Dwarf - Short, tough, bearded. Generally the most well-treated of the metatypes, due to their physical similarity to humans and general usefulness.
Ork - Bulkier, slightly larger humans with tusks. Tend to only live 40 years and, due to the presence of more than a dash of racism in the Shadowrun world, are regarded as kinda dumb. Enough of 'em actually are to keep the stereotype alive and well to this day (2070-something, IIRC)
SIN - System Identification Number, all regular citizens have them.
Wyrm - Dragon
Scratch - Money
Chummer - Friend
Suit - Someone who works for a corporation
Grunger - Racist term for an Ork
Yaks - Short form of Yakuza, like the Japanese gang.
Made - An official member of the Mafia
Bioware - Implanted augmentation based on biological methods instead of hardware, eg. Genetic modification or biografts
Wageslave - Someone who works for a corporation, generally on the lower rungs of the hierarchy
Dusting - Killing.
SINner - Someone with a SIN, an honest citizen.
Biz - Business
Burned - Destroyed and Abandoned
Sha - New Orleans Slang for friends (Chere)
Handle - A chosen identifier.
Laissez les bon temps rouler! - New Orleans Slang for 'Let the Good Times Roll!". Also the name of a hella good jazz swing song.
Soykaf - Hella shitty coffee that the world of Shadowrun is stuck with
Shadowlands - An online forum for shadowrunners to hang around in and get information from.
Hoi - Hi
Buzz - To go, as in 'lets buzz'
Streetslang - Bullshit language spoken on the streets
Sperethiel - Elven Language, very odd.
Ancients - An Elf Gang, one of the largest gangs in North America.
Corp - Corporation/Corporate etc.
Talismonger - Someone who sells magic gewgaws.
Aces - Awesome
Deckjockey - A real good decker.
Flatlined - Killed by Intrusion Countermeasure Programs in the Matrix.

--

Chapter Text

I wake up in unfamiliar darkness.

For a moment, my heart jumps in my chest as I try to figure out where I am, and then I remember.

Mostly because of the machine-gun rotary-barrel around 2 inches above my head. Max's damned drones had been poking me in the side all night. Where the hell did she even come across this shit? The finer points of mechanical engineering aren't exactly the sort of thing an avowed loner hipster nerd picks up overnight.

I roll over on the sleeping pallet (clearly taken from a coffin hotel, by the way, not that beggars could be choosers), and tap on my deck to bring up the time. Six thirty. Good to know. At least my sleeping schedule has lasted through the hell of the last couple of days.

It's a small thing, but at least it's something. I've spent the last two days mostly feeling adrift, alone. I want to feel like I belong again. I want to feel I have some damn control over my life. So, the small things will have to do until I can make the big things happen. And you can be damn sure, I'll make it all happen eventually. I got it all through hard work and hard decisions once, so I can do it again.

I open the door to my room and walk into the main living space. It's technically open plan, though only because the divider walls are so old and worn that they've mostly fallen down. It looks different in the morning light; the large bay windows lining every wall of the warehouse-turned-penthouse apartment let in light from every angle, except for over in one corner opposite the doors that has cardboard taped over the windows to create a dark spot with absolutely no light.

Max is sitting there, in the dark, staring at me.

She's not actually staring at me. Her eyes are that odd shiny texture one gets when one 'jacks in', meaning her mind is off floating about in a drone somewhere. Or maybe gliding through the Matrix. Either way, she was checked out and Chloe was nowhere to be seen.

I tried to wait, but I was hungry and everything in here was hidden away in side-lockers and drop-boxes and thus totally frakking inaccessible without keycodes. So, I stalked up to Max's prone form and, with a scowl at her blank face, pulled out my deck and started hunting.

I found the drone a short distance away. The ICE was child's play (for Ice... Ew. No. I need to keep working on that catchphrase, fucking hell.) and I was in after barely a minute of work. Huh. Apparently the thing had a camera. Max must've been using the drone to look at something... I piggybacked a carrier on the signal and brought the feed up on my screen.

I was immediately inflicted by the sight of a naked troll girl with neon-blue hair writhing beneath me and I shut my damn eyes just as immediately.

Fucking gah!

I slam my hand down on the key to close that Pandora's Box of horrors. My disgusted shuddering was interrupted by a light, rippling, familiar laugh that made me snap my eyes open.

Max's eyes were back to their usual dull hipster sheen and she was fucking laughing at me. That... that bitch! After a few irritating seconds, her laughs die down into muted chuckles and she just shakes her head at me. "You really shouldn't go prying into other people's heads, you know."

I jab a finger at her. "And you shouldn't be doing... that in a public space! That's just-"

"Hot?" A voice comes from behind me, accompanied by the low swipe of an opening security door as Chloe joins us. She's clothed, thank fuck, but I get an awkward flash of... what I just saw that causes me to flinch and my stomach to turn.

"No, I just-"

Chloe stalks over. "What were you even doing, dude? Why the frakk would you try that drek?"

I shake my head another few times to clear that... image, and just shrug. "I needed food. She was busy. Figured I'd find the passcode in her head and get it myself."

"Yeah, well. Don't do that again." She glares at me expectantly. "Stay outta our heads, so ka?"

I nod. "So ka."

"Wiz." All animosity suddenly disappears as she grins, flashing me her tusks. "What's for breakfast? I need a soykaf."

"Make it quick." Max waves a chrono and taps it. "It's nearly seven and Nana wants to see us at eight."

I stay quiet as the two cheerfully banter and flirt their way through making breakfast, only speaking up when they asked a direct question. I honestly wasn't sure what I was feeling listening to them. Most of my meals were taken alone or over business with colleagues, so they always had an air of... formality to them. Chloe and Max, on the other hand, couldn't be less informal. They joked, they laughed, they... flirted. It was all so... unfamiliar.

I think it might've been nice. I certainly never had anything like that with my... partner, before he...

I sigh, and stand suddenly from the table. "Shouldn't we be going?"

Chloe froze, spoon halfway to her mouth. "Huh?"

"It's a fifteen minute walk to Nana's house and it's just turning twenty to the hour. Don't you think she'd appreciate us being early?" I tilt my head imploringly. "Nana's already not a fan of mine, I need every edge I'm going to get to convince her to let me stay."

Max chuckled at Chloe's... lack of enthusiasm, but stood anyway. "She's right, Chlo'. Let's buzz."

Chloe groaned and dropped the spoon. A few moments had all the dishes cleared away and a few more had all of us packed to leave. Max still wouldn't give me the damn gun, even when I asked nicely. I was tempted for a moment to try intimidating her, but I quickly dismissed that idea. It probably wouldn't work anymore, plus Chloe would probably kill me without a second thought if she thought I was going to hurt her girlfriend. So once again, I stayed quiet. I suppose it might be a good habit to get into. I don't have to talk and reveal myself as a suit and it also made a decent personality quirk for someone named 'Ice'. I'd met enough Shadowrunners to know streetnames often linked to personality traits, so giving into their expectations might help me blend.

It was worth a try.

--

As planned, we arrive at the quaint little house with time to spare. Chloe, unwilling to wait, strode up to the door and knocked. The same psychedelically-haired troll answered the door. "You're early."

Chloe flashed him a bright, toothy grin. "Figured Nana would appreciate the punctuality for once. We can wait, just wanted to check and make sure Nana knew we were here."

He flashed her an equally bright, patronising look. "Of course she knows you're here, chummer."

"So..." Chloe offers an olive branch of expectancy. My shock at her mature response was sorely tempered by the immature tone. "Can we come in?"

"What do you think?"

"No?" She tries.

He snorts. "Smart one, ace."

So, we wait. And wait. And wait.

Eventually, the door opens, and Bolan steps out. He grins, wide and toothy. "Now you can come in."

--

"Hoi, Ice."

I tilt my head at a very respectful incline. Everyone in this room would happily kill me if this woman ordered it. Again, respect was in my best interest. "Hello, Nana." I drew the rules of behaviour and etiquette, all the distant refinement and polite poise my parents had spent my childhood instilling within me together and cloaked myself in it. I had to be Ice, if I was going to survive. And I was going to survive.

The woman eyed me for a few seconds, then nodded. "Your job is there, and we's ready to get that SIN of yours gone whenever you finish." She tossed a small datastick to me. "The associate in question is out in Puyallup. He's been skimmin' scratch that he owe to me. When I found out, I sen' a man to remind him who he fucking works for. My man didn't return, sha. So, I need you to go in, geek him, an' take any data you can find. If you can recover any o' the moneys he took, then you'll get a cut of it. Call it fifteen percent." She grins another knife-wound smiles. "I'm feelin' gen'rous today."

I keep my face implacable, but inside I'm panicking. "...just me, Nana?"

She chuckles. "Nah, sha. You may be an 'ace decker', but you sure as hell don't know how to kill folks. Take Max and Chloe wit' you. They be the muscle, you be the brains." She tilts her head to focus on them instead of me. "She's in charge until she does somethin' stupid that's gon' get you killed. So ka?"

They both nod. "So ka, Nana."

They're agreeing to this? To following me? Are they insane?

I start paying attention to the conversation again just in time to see Nana throw Max a datastick. "-an' by the time you come back, your SIN'll be gone. Now, get out. You has a job to do."

--

The tramcar was obnoxiously quiet. Well, more accurately, the people inside it were quiet. The actual car was screeching like my mother after she found out my 'beloved husband' had gone missing. And believe me, that screech was loud.

There were very few people on the tram this early. The few that were gave us a wide berth. One woman, out with her daughter, was giving Chloe (who towered head and shoulders and upper chest above everyone else in the cab) the most obnoxiously nervous side-eye I'd seen in a while. It was fucking infuriating. Racist bitch. Though admittedly it could've also been the obnoxiously large shotgun Chloe had hefted over one shoulder. Wait no, not Chloe. Blue. I'm supposed to call her Blue on missions. Damnit.

None of us spoke. If we had, I wasn't sure what I'd even say. How do you give orders to two childhood nemeses to do something you've never done before that could get any of you killed or arrested at a moments notice? It's one hell of a dilemma and, as the tramcar slowed to a stop and Max and Chloe step up to the doors, I realised that I had very little time to solve it.

I trailed them out, narrowly skirting being locked back on the tram by the closing doors. I barely registered my near-escape, honestly too distracted to notice. My mind was busy running through possible outcomes of my leading today's venture, most of which involved inevitable and painful death. Perhaps understandably, my confidence was very low when Chloe's hand stopped me walking past the door to the slum building our target was supposedly inhabiting.

"So, Boss. What's the biz for this run?" Her irritating, fang-bearingly wide grin earns her my sharpest glare.

The fragging bitch shrugged it off with a chuckle and an expectant raise of an eyebrow. At that point, I was half tempted to punch her. One look at the thick muscle in her arms made me reconsider that course of action very quickly. I liked my facial features how they were. So, I took a look at the building. It looked old, but most slum buildings did. I peered across the brickwork, the layers of gang tags and almost pornographic grafitti covering its surface, trying to come up with some semblance of an idea that might... wait. I frown, eyeing one of the windows. Buried under the 'artwork' was the edge of a poster. Well, a label, technically. Maybe even an advertisement. All I could see was the top left corner of a very, very familiar logo. "The building is secured."

Max frowned. "What? Of course it is, Ice. Our Boss doesn't just-"

I waft a hand at her to shut up. Surprisingly, she does. "No, that's not what I mean. Look," I point to the poster. "That's an Intellicorp logo. We did a piece on them before they shut down. Their security was severely lacking." I pause for a moment, then issue my orders. "Check the outer walls of the building for any small circular panels." I hold out my hand, putting the tip of my thumb and ring finger together. "They should be about this big and somewhere near the ground."

Max and Chloe share a... sceptical look and another hurried conversation-without-words before doing as I say. I find a spot as out of the way as I can manage and open up my deck. It takes barely a moment before I have everything ChaseSpace Media wrote about Intellicorp and I spend the next few moments re-familiarising myself with the details. Mostly the truly incredible number of weaknesses in their systems. They even left a hard-line Matrix plug in the outer walls - the small circular panel I had Chloe and Max looking for - under a flimsy-as-fuck maintenance seal. Some idiot in management probably thought it was a great cost saving measure. Nearly every customer they ever had fell victim to some crime or another. Mostly theft, obviously. I could break through that protection by sneezing. And lucky for me, the system hardware was so difficult to remove once installed that most of the companies simply co-opted them and filled in the vulnerabilities or disconnected it as best it they could. They were idiots too.

Heh. This might actually be fun.

I stow my deck away and wait for Chloe and Max return. The dwarf got back first, shaking her head. "Nothing, Ice. There was a firedoor round the back though, but it was locked."

I nod. "Lets hope your girlfriend found something then."

I let out a relieved sigh when Chloe finally returned. My foot had been tapping impatiently the entire time and it was starting to hurt. "Well?" I demand, unintentionally.

Chloe flashed me a mildly irritable look and held it until I realised what I'd done and politely repeated the question in a slightly less bitchy tone. Only slightly, though. It was still Chloe. "Well?"

She chuckled and grinned. "Found your hole. It's in the alley over there."

I rolled my eyes at the fucking childish eyebrow waggle she tacked onto the end and strode past her. The alley is yet another typical example of slum artistry. Both the wall of Nana's associate's building and the one opposite were covered in just as much graffiti as the front, perhaps even more. I find myself studying some of it with what approaches actual interest, surprisingly. The large blue bird hologram fluttering over the wall, drawn around the windows as its eyes, was... striking.

My interest died a swift death as the animation defecated on the ground. I scowled at it and headed to where Chloe pointed out the access port. A few seconds of work later and I'm in. One full floor map, camera and door access, and a brief and utterly useless maintenance doc file... downloaded. I also froze the internal camera displays to run a short loop, redirecting the actual feed to my deck. What the hell, I'll get the door locks as well. I unplug from the port less than three minutes after I plugged in.

Max appeared at my left, Chloe at my right. "So, what now, Boss?"

"Now?" I grin. "Now we kick in the doors."

--

"I didn't mean it literally, damnit!"

Chloe gave me a sheepish look as the left firedoor, now barely hanging onto the wall by only the upper wall mount, swung once, then twice, then fell to the ground with an annoyingly loud, annoyingly long-lasting crash. "Woops."

I stalked past her into the building, raising my handgun that Max had finally seen fit to let me use and muttering under my breath as I go. "Well, there goes our frakking stealth! Why am I always saddled with klutzy, idiotic-"

Chloe just chuckled and followed me in. Max, though, paused for a second and swung the backpack off her shoulder onto the ground. After a few seconds the pack was back on her shoulders and we're accompanied by three moderately sized drones with moderately sized guns. We trail along through the uncomfortably empty first floor and stop at the bottom of the stairs.

A thought occurred. "How heavy are those drones?"

Max gave me a puzzled look and shrugged. "Few kilograms. Why?"

I look at her. Then the stairs. Then the drones. Then back to her. She smirks, and taps a button on her own deck. Suddenly, the damn things sprout wings. Well, not quite wings. They look like the giant fans on the side of some of what used to be my staff airbuses. I really miss those things. The only way to get two dozen staff across multiple subsidiaries back to headquarters for meetings. Disorganised pricks.

I let the drones go first. There's a brief crack of gunfire as they clear the second floor stairwell of guards and we follow them up. I have to swallow a rising tide of nausea at the sight. Those moderately sized guns caused far more than moderate damage. A little shiver passes down my back as I hastily look away from the limb reaching out to clutch at my ankle. Normally, that would be fine, but the body said limb belonged to was pasted against one wall.

The stairs up to the third floor were blocked by piles of random household things. "Damnit." A quick search on the map reveals there's a secondary stair on the other side of this floor. Unfortunately, a quick search on the cameras shows it's guarded. I smile when I see exactly what it's guarded by.

We hurry past the broken bodies and discarded detritus and head into the main lobby of the second floor. Unlike the first, this one is populated. The people around all have the characteristic twitching of BTL Junkies and the worn complexions of a brutal life; The aptly named 'Better than Life' chips let poor nobodies disappear into dreams that, for them, are better than their sad, inescapable reality. Some of these people are uncomfortably young.

We keep our eyes low and head through. Max nods to the one cognisant individual here, a tall elf wearing headphones that I presume is the operator of this place. He absently nods back and we disappear out the next door.

The next few rooms were unfit to house pigs, never mind human beings. The walls were as covered with graffiti and random dirt spots as the ones outside, and the floors were littered with... effluent. My internal interior-designer almost screamed in agony seeing the state of it. The people there were just as heartrending to look at. Downtrodden expressions on the faces of those who'd escaped into apathy and vacant glassy stares on the faces of those who'd escaped into their heads. Chloe had to almost pick me up to get me to move onward. When we were through and alone again, I turn to them. "That was horrible."

Chloe shrugs, but the look Max gives me is almost compassionate. "You've never seen anything like that before, have you?"

"No," I almost spit the word out. "No, I haven't. I mean... we covered BTL dens, but we never saw anything like this."

Chloe chuckles. "You never do, suit. Might as well be on frakking fairyland for all the reality you corp dogs see. You're always jandering around, nose in the air, up in your ivory frakking towers, never seeing any of the drek us commoners go through." Her chuckle turns dark. "Always missin' the know on anyone not 'important'." Her last remark was surprisingly bitter.

Max hushes her and steps forward, putting a hand on my shoulder. "You're landing hot in a situation you've never been in before. It's only natural to be uncomfortable with it. Do you need a minute?"

I shake my head. "No. I'm going to see worse doing this, so I'll get used to it."

Max almost beams. It's a little freaky in its intensity. "Wicked. Let's buzz. Not far to go now."

We head out of the BTL den and into more regular accomodation. It's a relief to be in somewhere passably civilized. I watched mutely as a human man gets launched through a plaster divider wall in front of us, then dragged through into another room by a large troll. The other two don't even blink. Okay, scratch the 'passably civilised' comment.

Max stopped at the stairs up to the final floor. "We're here. Last chance to back out, Ice."

I shake my head. I've gone too far to start questioning things now. "I'll do whatever I have to to get my company back."

Chloe grins. "Good choice, omae. Let's go frag these fuckers already. Drinks on Maxie when we get back."

I let them lead the way as we head upstairs. I'm confident and without other options, not insane.

--

The security door fizzed as we walked up to it. I just tapped a key and it slid open instantly. Man, I don't think anyone has ever been more grateful to encounter the shitty Intellicom system than I was right then.

A corridor stretched ahead of us, two doors set in even intervals along both walls, then another larger door sat at the opposite end. It was quiet. Max sent the four drones down the hall, positioning two at each of the first two doors. Max and I went to the left, Chloe took the right. At Max's count, I opened the doors and she sent the drones in. Our side stayed quiet, but two loud cracks of bulletfire from Chloe's side let us know contact had been made. We paused and waited, keeping our guns lined on the other two doors. A couple of minutes and no action meant nobody would be coming out, according to Max. When I pointed out that just meant they were probably waiting in there for us, Max just grinned.

Crazy little bitch.

We both went into the rooms and took a quick look around for anything interesting. Nana wanted data, after all. The room Max and I took was small storage. Lots of basic shelving filled with all manner of miscellaneous goods and supplies. I imagined... yep. Drug paraphernalia, too. I poke into a few more boxes. Nothing interesting or worth anything.

"Ice!" Chloe called from the other room. "Get in here and hack this shit!"

I rolled my eyes. Demanding bitch and her- I pause and take a moment to yell back. "What shit?"

"Fucked if I know! It's got sockets and a screen, so it's either a computer or the weirdest fragging sex toy!"

I grimace as another flash of that mornings events pops into my head before I can lock it back in the deepest darkest recesses of my brain. I do wish there was some kind of mental napalm I could use to burn that particular memory from my mind. It's the only way to be sure.

Still. If she's found something interesting, I suppose I had better go check it out. I leave Max poking through the storage and head into Chloe's side. I find her playing with some kind of fleshy looking thing and laughing to herself.

I shake my head and ignore it. "Where's the computer?"

Chloe waves vaguely to a set-up in the corner. I sigh. "That's a cd player, Blue."

She looks at me. "It is? Ah shit." She shrugs. "Nevermind then." She tosses the fleshy thing over her shoulder. "And fragg this. Let's buzz to the next rooms already."

I follow her out and we burst in, finding both rooms clear of people. There was, however, a very interesting set-up that I actually had to work to break through. I filtered through a few bits of information and determined it was definitely something Nana would want. Honestly, I wasn't sure what it was, but Max patted my shoulder and said "Nice work, Nana will be happy with that find." so I'm making an educated assumption. A natural born Shadowrunner, I am not.

We met up back in the corridor, and eyed the last door. "Just one more left, huh? Think he's in there?"

I shrug. "There are no cameras in there, so I couldn't tell you."

Chloe resists the urge to comment and takes her post at the left of the door. Max takes the right and I go behind her. I bring up the program on my deck that had control of the building's subsystems and tap to open the door.

It... doesn't.

"Problem?"

"The door isn't opening."

"I can see that, Ice. Why isn't it opening?"

I tap a few keys. "...because it's not tied into the other systems. It looks like it's operating on its own grid here on the upper level. I'll have it open in a moment." My fingers fly across the keys as I practically soar through encryption. They didn't even bother with a Matrix security net? It's like they wanted me to break in!

Unfortunately, I was a little too impressed with my own brilliance and forgot to warn them before I opened the door. It slid open as Max was leaning forward in full view of the people inside. They promptly decided she was a threat and, since they were criminals and their response was to shoot threats, they, uh... shot at her. It was only Chloe's quick reflexes that saved the girl from being torn to shreds by the sheer amount of lead and steel they were throwing at her.

Max... honestly didn't seem all that upset about being shot at. I think it was a Shadowrunner thing, because I was terrified and I wasn't even the one under fire!

She took a second to breathe, then laughed, pulling herself up to lean against the wall. "That was bracing." She quickly poked her head out, dodging back again after another blast of what I was mostly certain was machine gun fire nearly hit her. She grinned at me. Lunatic. "Seven of them, two to each side, two behind metal pillars in the middle of the room, and one behind an automated turret emplacement at the back."

I perk up. "Automated?"

--

"We surrender! Nana wants to talk to you, Manny!" We'd improvised a small white flag - still a recognised symbol to everyone, even now near every nation that'd ever held it as a rule had fallen to corporations - and waved it around in the doorway.

'Manny' called back "Fine. Come on out, throw your guns down." It was odd, he sounded... British, maybe? But there was something off about the accent. Maybe he was from Somerset?

I shrug at Max and mouth "Remember the plan," before walking in.

I toss down my still-unused pistol and, after a moment of hesitation, Chloe and Max follow suit. That's when I get my first good look at the room. It's bigger than I thought it'd be. Bigger than was really possible, given the size of the building. They'd knocked through the back walls somehow, doubling the size of the room. There was a corridor in the middle of the wall off to the right and a recess in the wall to the left. The set-up was half living area, half hacktivist collective. The far wall was dominated by a large screen and smaller workstations were peppered across the room. The guards were still loitering around, guns pointed at us.

Hmm. The angles should be right...

This will work.

"So?" Mandy, a tall elf man in dark leather, crosses his arms and glares impatiently. The turret looms impressively behind him. "What's the old bitch want now?"

I take two steps forward, stopping as one of the guards raises their gun and the small relay in my pocket vibrates. "To tame you, mostly. She's rather unimpressed with your recent changes in loyalty, Manny."

Manny scoffs, and the anger in it sends little shivers down my spine. Maybe this plan wasn't such a good idea... "Then the bitch can go fuck herself. I found new friends now," With that, he waves his arms vaguely at his hirelings. I peer curiously at them. I mean, they were all elves, but surely he couldn't expect these few to help her- Oh. Each one of them had a familiar green A stitched or painted somewhere on their jackets. Shit. "They're Ancients."

Manny grins. "Sure are, chummer. And they're right happy to help protect an angel with arctic info like me. And man, the cred is good. Like, we're talkin' triple what Nana condescended to pay me." He pauses, and his grin turns disturbing. It's too wide, and too pleased with himself. I took it in stride. Honestly, it was far scarier seeing that smile in body language than blatant expression. This was just... small time. "So, now you hosed this drek run up, what was your plan? Were you just going to break in here and shoot us?"

I shrug, trying to sound as casual as I could. "Something like that." Damn it, I should've gotten a signal by now. There has to be something in here interfering with the connection. I... crap. I think I need to get closer. "Actually, we were supposed to introduce this," I pull out the relay after carefully finagling it inside my pocket until it slotted into a standard connector socket and toss it in his direction. He catches it, frowning in confusion at the flashing lights and odd configuration. Come on, come on... "-after we killed you. You might no longer be useful, but this is apparently decent real estate and she needed to give whoever came after the right info to get biz going again." He looks between me and the relay speculatively. I keep my eyes on him, but keep careful attention on the littlest green light right near the socket. Please connect, please. If my plan gets us all killed, Chloe will never let me hear the fucking end of it.

After a tense moment, he tosses it onto a workstation with a shrug. "Well, we'll look through that when you're all dead, I guess. Thanks."

I shrug again. It should be ready any time...

The automated turret suddenly starts firing.

Now, I suppose.

I dive into cover - not from the turret, that was entirely under my control, but from the Ancients. - just as Chloe grabs Max and dashes out of the way. She takes a couple of hits with pained grunts, but makes it out of the room.

I just stayed down and waited for the gunfire to stop.

"Everyone dead in there?"

Chloe somehow manages to sound genuinely interested in the answer to a rhetorical question. I call back anyway. "I'm fine. The Ancients are less fine." The bullets had torn them into tiny pieces. It wasn't pleasant to look at, but after the BTL Den I found I could hold my gaze without the nausea. Still. Work to do, now. "Can you bring my deck in?"

I head over to the workstation that Manny put the relay down on and pick it up, pushing a button to switch off the auto-turret and another to sever the connection between it and my deck back in the corridor. No sense leaving it open for someone else to exploit.

Max appears at my shoulder. "Here." She hands me my deck.

"Thanks." I plug into the system and access it manually, there really wasn't much point going through the Matrix here. The file manager access screen pops up and I start trawling for anything useful. Nana had said Manny was selling data, right? So, she'd have to have some record of what data she sold and the ancient whom she sold it to.

Ah. Here.

"Got it. Let's buzz."

Chloe groans. "Seriously, Ice, you gotta stop talkin' like that. Just sounds hella frakkin' wrong."

--

"Well, shah." Nana smiled as the goon behind me nodded affirmatively at the receipt of the information she'd asked for. "Looks like you gon' be wit' us after all. An' Manny will not be betrayin' anyone else anytime soon, I hope?"
I nod. "Never again, Nana."

"Good. Tho' the Ancients bein' involved is somethin' of a problem. We gon' have to deal wit' that sometime soon. Regardless. Your SIN be burned and your new life wit' us be good for our biz, so you be welcome to stay." She wafts a hand aristocratically in our direction. "Now, get out. I be sure Chloe an' Max wan' ta celebrate the win wit' you."

We get the hell out of there.

--

Chloe slings a companionable arm over my shoulders and grins toothily at me. "So, Ice. Whatcha gonna do now you've survived your first run as a proper Shadowrunner?"

I think for a moment, then... "I'm going to get a drink."

Chloe laughs. "My kinda girl. Let's buzz over to Dante's. Drinks're on Maxie!"

--

Jander - Swagger
The Know - information
Landing Hot - Crashing in a broken vehicle
Arctic - Great
Angel - Benefactor
Hosed - Fucked up
Drek Run - Simple Job

Chapter Text

"It's the Bronze! Take them down!"

Max's drones swooped down to the road and blasted the Lonestar roadblock with everything they had. Bullets riddled the armor plating and tore through it, ripping into whomever was unlucky enough to have been inside the vehicles. Two more appeared from the side alleys, firing at the officers they could spot.

She took the entire thing out in less than fifteen seconds.

Six missions, and the little hipster had only gotten more terrifying with each one. Six successful missions, though. Very, very, successful. Honestly, I don't know why I didn't become a Shadowrunner sooner, it's so amazingly profitable. Actually, I know exactly why I didn't. I ducked under a hail of gunfire and spun around a fucking fireball, moving to crouch behind a nearby wreck. The dead man lying halfway out of the window might not be producing any more blood, but what his enterprising little bones had made before his death was currently leaking everywhere out of the dozen or so fragmentation shrapnel wounds across his body. Unfortunately for me, I only realised this after a half pint had dripped onto my fucking back. "Ew ew ew ew ew!"

That's why: the dry-cleaning bill was a fucking nightmare.

I leapt to my feet with a shudder, putting bullets in the heads of two Lonestar officers before ducking down again, away from the disgusting bleeder. One of the more errant streaks of blood ran down the middle of the Lonestar logo, reminding me oddly of one of the few pre-crash films I'd seen. What was it called? Guardsmen? Sight-men? Watchdogs? Damned if I remember. It's not terribly important, I suppose. I certainly have more pressing issues to attend to.

I fished out my deck and set it to scan for nearby Lonestar installations. There didn't seem to be any, implying this roadblock was intentional for us, rather than something we ran into accidentally. Interesting. They shouldn't've caught onto our robbery. I'd taken down all the alarms Renraku had set-up in their Matrix connection easily. Ironic, really, considering their core business was computer technology. Maybe we'd missed someone who'd called it in?

Either way. This was the situation now. No sense crying over spilled secrets. You just shoot the spy and get on with your life. Or let them rescue you from Shadowrunners, then drag you into the Shadows in turn to get revenge. That works too.

The road suddenly goes silent. It's a stark change from the rails of bullets that'd been roaring over the area moments before. I carefully get to my feet and look around me. Six destroyed vehicles and around two dozen dead cops. I think I might be getting used to this. I still hated the sight of them, and felt horrible that I'd killed, but those feelings were more... distant. Plus, I felt entirely satisfied that I was the one still breathing. Yes. Glad to be alive.

I realised I'd been fingering the wedding ring I had on a string around my neck and quickly forced my hand down to my side. I forced the memories that were starting to appear down even more forcefully.

A large, toothy troll grin appears from somewhere in the midst of all the chaos, quickly joined by a dozen drones and a tiny freckled dwarf. "Nice work, Ice. Told you you'd be a fragging great distraction."

"Fuck off, Blue."

She leered. "That's more like it, Ice. Now you're a real runner."

"Fuck off, Blue." I repeated, in the same irritable tone.

She chuckled. "Come on, let's buzz. Gotta drop this drek off and get paid already. Plus, Maxie needs to go see Kate."

Max shook her head. "No way, Blue. I'm fine."

I raised an eyebrow in puzzlement. "You need a medic?"

Max glared at me and Chloe. Mostly Chloe. "No. I'm fine." It would've been more convincing if she hadn't coughed blood on the N.

"Looks like that Talismonger got you good." I offered dryly.

"No, I'm fucking-" She coughed again, then paused. Her shoulders sagged. "I think I need a doctor."

Chloe snorted. "Yeah, you do. Now let’s go already. The Johnson is probably bored as drek by now."

--

Kate was less than impressed with Max's state. "I swear, whenever I come in, it seems like it's always you three in here." She ran a hand down Max's ribs and the cuts there began to recede into themselves. Max winced the entire time. It was strangely satisfying. "I know better than to ask how you got these, but could you at least try not to get hit with internally damaging spells next time? Fixing these is expensive." Another hand waved and Max's eyes bulged as her hand shot to her chest.

"What the fragging hell was that?"

Alice chittered on Kate's shoulder. I'm fairly certain the little spirit was laughing. Kate just shrugged. "Something tore your heart lining. It's currently knitting itself back together."

"Well, it fragging hurts! How long is it going to take?"

I smirked from my perch by the door as I listened to her whine. Big bad Shadowrunner taken down by a nasty little booboo. Poor thing. Hah.

Kate turned to me. "You're up next, Victoria."

I frown. "But I'm not injured."

"You faced a lunatic shaman throwing internally damaging spells around like candy. I'm checking you over." Huh. That's quite the formidable face. I, um...

I averted eye contact, shook my head, and stood up. "I'm fine, Kate. No need to worry. I'll just be going and-"

"Sit down, Victoria."

I sat down.

--

I flicked another finger and watched yet another sub-fucking-par news story flicker out of view, replaced by yet more shit. What the hell were they doing to my company? I thought Dragons were supposed to have fucking standards.

I ditched the ChaseSpace newsfeed and opened up an intranet access page. The blinking 'Username' and 'Password' boxes felt almost... teasing. Taunting, even. Like they were laughing at me. Ms Victoria Maribeth Chase, CEO of Nothing and Global Leader in Fuck All. The Bastards.

Still. I tap a few keys and enter an ID I hadn't had to use since... well. Since before my parents died.

Username: VictoriaMaribeth
Password: chasingdreams

The screen flickered and a red message flashed. MATRIX ACCESS ONLY. I pulled out the connector cable, slotted one end into the deck and held the other to my temple. I took a breath, and jacked in to the Matrix.

--

The room that appeared in my mind then was one I hadn't seen for an even longer time than I'd not used the log-in. A large sandstone fireplace was set into one wall, a proper old-fashioned woodburning one and not the modern electrical monstrosities, sat under a large portrait of a familiar, unsmiling family. The opposite and the far walls were both lined with old mahogany bookcases. A genuine Persian rug lay in the middle of the room, covering the flagstones that made up the floor. At Feng-Shui-proper angles to the rug and facing the fireplace were two red-upholstered sofas, each with a small table at either end.

I walked over to the far sofa and sat down, smiling when a menu flickered into life beside me. I tapped the third option, then stood as another screen appeared above the fireplace. I walked over and picked the options over each of my parents’ hearts.

The hunt began. If I were some kind of pirate, or perhaps one of those creepy old archaeologist men from the tri-vids, I'd rub my hands together and cackle in anticipation. But I was rather more refined than that, so I simply turned to the shelves. Let’s see if I remembered the old codes.

Fourteen along, eight up... Aha. From Impressionism to Post-Impressionism. My Au-Pair used to read to me from this to get me to sleep. I pull the top of the book out, leaving it jutting out of the shelf at a 45* angle. I step away just as it starts to glow, and another menu pops up. I select the third option and move on again.

I found the second book, The Fall: New York’s Nit and Grit, at six along, two up. I pull it out to 45* again, snorting as I do. I cannot believe I was so foolish in school, crushing on that psychopathic fucker. A flash of a dark room makes me shudder in detached horror. Until this lunacy, that was the closest to death I'd ever been. There's nothing to break hero worship like said hero trying to kill you.

I shook my head to clear the thoughts and move on. Just like the shrink taught me.

The final book was my own, 'The Rise of the Nouveau Art-Riche', written just after I took over the ChaseSpace. I was so proud. And for once, so were my parents. After that, I showed them just how wrong they'd been about me. Damn them.

I went back and sat down on the sofa again. The menu this time was far shorter, showing only one option. 'Are you sure?'

"Yes."

The menu vanished and the room slowly faded away. I blinked in the darkness, and suddenly the vibrant blue of the Matrix appeared around me as I dropped into the entry crossroads. I was in.

I took an immediate left, dodging around the alarm ICE that made up the outer perimeter of my company's security. No sense letting anyone know I'm here this early.

The pathway lead forward for about thirty yards - not that there was any real distance in the Matrix - and took a sharp right. I followed it along, grinning when I spotted the first hub. Looked like... personnel. Excellent. I tapped into the data and downloaded the lot to my deck. If Lofwyr or that prick he'd assigned to run my company in my... absence had hired anyone, I'd know who to take kneecaps from. Plus, regular status reports from my employees would help me find out what they'd wrecked and how I'd need to fix it. Incompetent wretches.

That done, I headed back to the initial crossroads, then carried on straight across to the next hub: external financials. Here would be anything Lofwyr paid to anyone outside the company. I'd have to be clever and the payments would definitely be well hidden, but if he'd paid anyone to hunt for me after he'd taken over, it'd be somewhere in here.

I dodge another few ICE defences and download what I can from three more hubs: draft articles, prospective leads, and the informal employee chatlog. The latter was supposedly hidden from managerial view, but I'd found it years ago and kept an eye on it. If I erased it, another would simply pop up elsewhere, so what would be the point? At least this way I could keep tabs on what my employees were saying.

I was almost perversely pleased to see that they were all miserable. Apparently the new boss was something of an intolerable hardass. I hummed with intrigue as I scanned the latest entries. He was driving the investigative reporters to look for something, but none of them were talking. Or writing draft articles, damnit. Juliet disappearing had been bandied about as an example of what happens to those who question the new management, so they were all worried.

Cowards.

Hmm. Wait. I headed back to the Matrix exit and dropped out, then brought up the downloaded external financials file. Most of it really was useless, just various consultants that the new management had brought in to see how my company worked, but a couple of hours of work revealed something... interesting. The earliest mentions of the reporters being bossed around correlated with a serious of payments to someone in the Allied German States. I didn't have a name, and another hour of searching revealed that I couldn't narrow down the location, but it was a start. Lofwyr took my company because he was looking for something. Did he think I had it?

Okay, Victoria. Think. What the hell could I possibly have that would catch the interest of a Dragon? Certainly not money, Lofwyr could buy my company three times over with his daily income and he practically owned Europe. So, what else? It could've been information. My reporters knew about a lot of skeletons and ChaseSpace was essentially an information conglomerate with fingers in every stage of the knowledge gathering process. But if that was it, why would he be getting my reporters hunting? So, maybe, but probably not.

This is going to need a lot of thought. Hopefully there was something in the files that would give me some ideas.

I pulled the downloads back up and started searching. This was going to be a long night.

--
AN1 -

Translations-
Bronze - Cops (Shadowrunner version of 'the fuzz')
Lonestar - Private Security Firm with more real estate than a small African nation and more guns and tech than the entire American PMC network
Renraku - Bunch of racist Japanese computer makers
Fragging - Fucking
Buzz - Move
Drek - Shit
Talismonger - Shaman, comes from their usage of 'talismans' for summoning spirits
Ms/Mr Johnson - Nickname for anyone paying a Shadowrunner, allows anonymity necessary for work in corporate espionage/sabotage

Chapter Text

I kept returning to the downloaded information for weeks afterward, scouring it for anything that might give me a hint as to what Lofwyr was looking for. Even the vaguest implication would be useful, if only to put me on the right path. I'd finally decided on a plan, see, and fulfilling it meant I'd need to strip Lofwyr of everything the bastard old worm owned. Everything he'd built I'd see destroyed, every design perverted, every employee turned. I'd burn it all away until nothing remained but the Great Dragon himself and then, and only then, would I put him down.

Robbing a dragon was an urban myth, something said to be pursued only by the idiotic or the suicidal. But none of them ad ever gone up against me. Never fuck with a Dragon? Hah. By the time I was done, they'd be warning dragons away from me!
It was late evening, just after a weekday run, when my confidence took something of a... hit. I'd gone back through my built in backdoor and was taking the latest uploaded reports from the search - apparently one of the operatives had found a possible lead in a Knight Errant server farm. An indirect lead, though. A codename in an almost entirely redacted file linked to surveillance pictures linked to a codename of a different, differently (But still almost entirely) redacted file. The phrase they used in the report was 'might be a lead'.

As my ex husband would say, 'Fuckin' A!'. I immediately turned to leave and cried out in pain as an attack ICE suddenly rammed into me. It felt like frost surging through my entire body as my firewalls locked the progression of the invasive halt-code. I tossed out a flashback program and backed the hell up. The program shook as my code wormed its way into the program and froze the thing's pursuit protocols in decoding mismatched target signals. Every ICE had a... priority list of sorts, it told it what to go after and in what order, and the flashback program just made it detect signal ghosts of everything it had ever seen. The ICE was left thoroughly confused. It wouldn't hold for long though - the code was obvious and easily purged by the automated framework adherence subroutines. So, I ran.

My brain was working overtime as I dashed off. Not due to the frost, though it was a good habit to break that kind of cognitive affect in all honesty, but due to the fact that I didn't recognise that ICE. Since I programmed this entire firewall from the BIOS up and knew every part of it better then my morning skincare routine, that meant someone was screwing with my software.

That meant there was a single, fatally important question: if they'd added one new countermeasure, what the frakk else did they add?

I neared the last corner, veering onto the final approach to the exit portal crossroads, and that's when I saw it. A sickly green, almost pulsating spider-form with spines running over its back like porcupine quills and wicked sharp bone blades for legs. I... I had no idea what this did. My code analyser was sending out alert after alert telling me to get the hell out and away from this thing, but not once did it give even a single feature of the code. All it said was 'Danger: Unidentifiable Black ICE'.

For those of you who don't know, Black ICE was the charmingly nondescript slang for Internal Countermeasures with very fatal effects. This thing could put me into a coma, melt my brain, destroy my kidney function, or even just kill me outright. The first three might not be immediately fatal, but you'd sure as hell wish you were dead, and it left you just enough dexterity and determination to get yourself that way.

And unfortunately for my panicking alert program, it was standing between me and the exit. There was no alternate route, no hidden secret path. Mainly because this was the alternate, hidden, secret path. I couldn't go over, or around, or below. My only option was to go through.

I pulled up my program list, scanning through to see what offensive or distracting programs I'd slotted into my quickbar loadouts. Not much, really. Problem with equipping for a stealth mission, when it all goes horribly wrong and you need to be loud and highly deadly, you're out of luck.

Simply put, I was in deep shit.

So, I'd need a plan, because there was no way in hell I was dying here. Not before I'd slain a Dragon. George, eat your heart out.

Ooh. Now there's an idea.

I pull up an infiltrator program and send it out to the right, along with a second smaller program to the left. Once they were in position, I activate the left program. I'd called it the Krakker, back when I first coded it, in a reference to some old volcano that'd apparently been the loudest natural sound in existence. It used to be the loudest sound point blank until that lunatic Coyote pulled off the bloody Great Ghost Dance and detonated half the volcanoes in North America. Anyway, I felt the name described its function very nicely.

It exploded into light and sound and fire, spinning wildly on the spot as it did everything possible to attract the attention of the detection systems on every program in this network. The moment it did, the Black ICE spun and started toward it. That's when I activated the infiltrator and sent it in. Likely as not, I wouldn't be able to control or change the program, but I'd at least be able to find out what horrible fate I'd be avoiding when I kicked this thing's ass.

I also sent out another Krakker, this time to the right and along the pathway there. One never knew when another distraction would come in handy. Especially when - the skybox of the worldspace suddenly started to glow red as a loud klaxon sound blared - that happened.

My alert system had barely bleeped when I suddenly leapt left and out of the path of a flamer attack program launched by the two Ballistae ICE that'd now taken up positions along the route behind me. I responded with a packet-blaster to soften the program's firewall and followed it up with a degrader worm that rapidly broke the code of both programs down into code scraps.

A belated scream-alert from off behind me let me know that my first Krakker had gone down, so I quickly activated the next one and watched as the Black ICE turned and charged for the new target. The moment it passed the threshold of the crossroads path, I threw up a firewall program to block it off. It wouldn't hold a Black ICE for long, but it was enough time for me to dash along the new gap and exit out the portal to my home worldspace.

I sat down on the hard wooden (and illusory) floor, blinking and trying to catch my breath. Frag. What the hell was that? I needed more information, immediately. So, I stood up and started moving for the bookcases to activate the backdoor again, only to stop in horror and fury. Every last shelf in the worldspace was now empty. They'd closed off my fucking backdoor! The (long list of swear words) bastards!

I yanked off my deck and tossed it angrily to the table with a growl. What the hell was I supposed to do now? I slammed my hand down hard onto the metal of the desk, wincing in bitter satisfaction at the pain that blared up my arm and sent little twinges into my shoulder.

"Careful Ice, let that anger burn too hot and you might melt." A voice called out from the doorway. I turned to look, seeing my dwarfish roommate leaning against one side of the door-frame. Upon noticing my glare, Max flashed an irritatingly cheeky grin that I answered instinctively with a bitter scowl.

"Hardy har. You can frakk off, Max, if you're going to be like that." I flapped a hand in her vague direction, keeping what little veneer of good manners I could while burning with rage.

She rolled her eyes and strolled in, taking a seat on one of the drones that I'd 'condescended' to allow her to keep in here. I was determined this place was going to be temporary, so I couldn't make too many personal... alterations.

"So," She started, "What's bothering you?"

I glared at her. The girl smirked back. Damn her.

Fuck it. I sighed, then began to speak. I told her about some of my plans, holding back most of the specifics and sticking to general objectives and methodology: Attack Dragon, Steal from Dragon, Break Dragon, Kill Dragon. Simple enough, right?

When I finished, she leant back and whistled. "Ambitious. I like it. So, what do you need to do first?"

"Get information. There's a Knight Errant server farm that apparently has some useful information on."

"Knight Errant..." She murmured thoughtfully. "I think Chlo' mentioned we might have some biz with Knight Errant soon."

I eyed her sceptically. "Well. That's certainly convenient."

"Isn't it though?" She smiled. "It's always nice when life arranges itself to our convenience. Do you know where this server farm is?"

I shake my head. "Not yet. I need to review some information and do a little legwork to run it down."

She hmms in response. "Well, I'm pretty sure the Knight Errant run won't be for awhile, so you should have time to get all that biz done with. Do you want any help?"

I sigh. Until that patronising little question, this had been surprisingly amicable. I might actually have been getting along with the little hipster. "No." I state curtly. "I can do this myself."

She just smiles. "I'm sure you can, Ice. Well," She stands up. "I guess I'll come find you when you're done. Good luck."

I scoff. "I don't need luck."

She smiles again, shakes her head, and leaves without another word. Thankfully. I twirl with a huff and grab my deck. My source of information was gone, but that wasn't the end of it. What I had could get me answers, I just needed to find them.

--

It took three hours, but I did it. I found the farm. Like there was ever any doubt I would. The convenient coincidences really were stacking up in my favour - the farm was right here in Seattle. Honestly, I was getting slightly suspicious. Next they'd tell me Lofwyr's super secret stash of company documents was in an unguarded briefcase in a bus station locker.

Now I knew the location, there was so much more I could do. I spent the next hour hunting down floor plans, security documents, guard rotations, anything I could get that would allow us to break in unnoticed.

I'd been finished for around ten minutes - which I'd used to stare blankly at a wall while I planned and pondered - when Chloe poked her head into my room. "Hey Vicky-"

"Don't call me that." I quickly interject, hoping to cut that nickname off at the knees before it can learn to walk.

From Chloe's grin, I only made things worse "Maxie says she told you 'bout the Knight Errant run. Didya find out where this server thing was?"

I gave the brief overview, and she pursed her lips regretfully. "Not our place, dude. Sorry. But we can go there next, I guess? Do a little overtime?" Her guileless attempt at comfort was... irritating.

"Acceptable." I said, wanting nothing more than to get on with things.
"Wiz." Chloe continued. "Well, we got a run on today, so get that ornery butt out here already. Or should I get Maxie to come in here and Chase you out?"
I swallowed a groan of disgust and pointedly ignored her subsequent comment about spoilsports. "It's fine. Let's go, then." I pushed past her and stalked out into the main room, my heels clacking on my metal floor before the sound got muffled by the tacky, effusive, and rapidly multiplying carpets Max had scattered all over the floors of the main room. Her simple and vastly unfashionable solution to the problem of my loud shoes.

She should probably just be grateful I wasn't wearing my normal stilettos. Not only were they far louder on metal, they also had a hypodermic needle with a fast acting poison in the heel and a shock-pad in the toecap. I'd kick her in the snatch in a heartbeat.

Max was sitting on the couch, a long box in her hands. As I stormed calmly in, she glanced past me and grinned. I generously ignored their knucklewalker mockery and barked out "Well? Are we going or what?"

Max rose with a nod. "Yep. We're heading into an Aztechnology branch to grab a thing."

"What thing?"

"A thing. It's big and round and blue and I have no frakking idea what it is. But we gotta find it."

I nodded in acknowledgement. A thought occurred. "Wait. Aztechnology? As in the Corporate Court position-holding, second largest company in the world, owner of an entire continent Aztechnology? I thought we were running against Knight Errant?"

Chloe nodded. "Uh, yeah. That Aztechnology. Why? What's the problem?"

I gulped and shook my head, feeling the dread tingle up and down my spine. "Oh no, this is a bad idea."

Max wafted a hand at me, utterly unfazed by my panic and still as amiable and hipster-ey as ever. "Oh, it'll be fine. Don't sweat that drek, Ice. We'll go in, stay quiet, find the thingy, and be out before you know it. Nice and easy."

--

"Eat fire, you undead fucks!"

Chloe's voice really did carry. Even from the other side of the complex, I could hear her yell as she slammed down the button on the detonator.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck, fuck fuck!" I muttered as I fled from the explosions now racking the Aztech complex. People were screaming, alarms were screaming, rapidly firing turret emplacements were screaming. Good fucking times all round at the Aztech Place.

Chloe and Max had both disappeared a while back, split off by the initial response to our 'sneaking' through restricted areas. I was alone. Aside from the red and white armoured Aztechnology Vampire Commandos chasing me down, anyway. Ugh. Poor, disgusting bastards. Getting the HMHV Virus was probably the worst thing to happen to these people, and the idiots embraced it to become bloodsucking monsters.

I emptied my clip off to my left, the bullets tearing through the armour and ripping the desiccated flesh of the Vampire Commando that was about to put a bullet in my head. Eerily accurate, these creatures. One myth of Vampirism the old world got right.

A quick reload later and I started firing again, then ducked into a side hall as soon as I saw the thing ash. I quickly dash off and somehow miraculously manage to lose them while heading up to the next floor. Lucky for me, someone had left a remarkably unsecured server room right there and I found a terminal to plug into. Trying to locate my erstwhile colleagues within the system itself would be a death sentence for them - so I was more than tempted to try it - but instead I started dismantling security.

First down were the cameras. Bloody things were everywhere, and then they weren't. Second, the 'lasers' over every door, window, corridor, and otherwise. One of the things that triggered the alarms in the first place, when we without intranet ID walked through them, and now they were gone. Finally went the drones, not that there were many of them. Maybe a dozen in the whole complex. Anyway, they were down too now.
I left the alarms, though. Maybe the noise would cover any I made to the vampires. Worth a shot, as Chloe would say
After that frantic five minutes of work, I got the hell out. I didn't know if they could track intranet usage, but better safe than shot. Or bitten. Or slashed, or broken, or punched, or-
Right, leaving.

I eased open the door and checked both ways, seeing nothing. So, I crept out and started along to the stairs again. Our target was on the 85th floor and I was still down on the 83rd. I got up to floor 84 and stepped through, smirking as it let me through without a problem. I love computers.

This floor was what they called 'low priority R&D'. In corporate jargon terms, it's for the 'storage of long-term payoff, low resource intensity research operations'. In English, it's the crap they don't really care much about but need to keep around anyway for one reason or another. Usually publicity. I had a similar area for useless employees I couldn't get rid of. Rather than firing them directly like they deserved and getting bad publicity from it, I had them all put on sinking projects and then downsized when the project was cut. Clever, right? My ex certainly thought so. The Prescott Foundation initiated a similar practice a few months after I took the helm of ChaseSpace.

For the Aztechnology branch, this was mostly arcane tech. Not being magical in any way, shape, or form, I hadn't the faintest idea what any of it did. The small tree of what looked like floating plums certainly was... striking, though.

I kept forward, striding through the silent, shadowed rooms. The main overlights hadn't engaged. They were trigger-attached to the door lasers, but my hack had negated that connection. The low red emergency lighting was pleasant, though, dark as it was.

...can Vampires see in the dark?

I cleared the floor as fast as I could after that little gem of a thought occurred.

The 85th floor was just as dark as the 84th, though I could only see a corridor of it rather than an open-floor plan room of the entire thing. I still hadn't heard anything from Chloe and Max, but I supposed they must be still alive. I think the Vampires would've found me by now, if they weren't.

I followed the corridor along, taking a left at the first t-junction, then going through a door to my right into a foyer-room with a large statue in the centre of it. Icarus, the fool of ambition. Interesting decor for one of the biggest megacorporations in the world. Some idiot middle manager probably had it put up without bothering to read up on their idea first. Pity, really, that Aztechnology doesn't like firing its employees. This one would merit it.

I bypassed the interesting statue and went through the sliding door on the other side of the room. This should be the main corridor, so my goal is over... there! I hurried over and slid the door open, stepping into the next room with a smile. The vault door was embedded in the far wall, at the top of a small ramp. It was an impressive thing of ugly metal with gears and pistons to allow them to move its massive bulk. Even a Troll would struggle to manually lift this thing. I chuckled, heading up the ramp and over to the infinitely recognisable security terminal plugged into the side of it. "A Tolman? How meagre. It's like Aztechnology wants us to steal this thing."

I plugged into the console and had the codes cracked in three seconds.

As I detached my deck and the blue skybox of the Matrix had gone, a small, sudden noise alerted me. Company. I turned slowly, knowing I was cornered by the Vampires. They were quiet. Max and Chloe would've yelled my name the moment they walked in. Sure enough, a full squad of vampires stood at the bottom of the ramp, aiming their guns up at me. I could see them salivating, practically oozing their desire to eat me. Fucking cannibals. Well, anthropophagus individuals, anyway. It's only cannibalism if you're eating your own species, no? Either way, they were terrifying predators coiled to strike at any moment and I was doing everything I could not to trigger them.

I very slowly raised my hands.

Two of them split off from the group and started forward, ready to take me to whatever interrogation chamber and body-disposal unit they'd been told to, when the wall began to quake.

We all looked over, seeing the masonry and metal quiver with repeated impacts like it was a sack of hornets. "What's..." I breathed out, and then the wall exploded.

Most of the vampires closest to the wall were knocked down, but some of the more distant ones were prepared enough and fast enough to dodge the cloud of razor sharp shards and dust. Two of the vampires, the ones right by the wall, were ashed instantly as their heads were severed from their bodies and the rest of their follows were scattered like blood-craving bowling pins.

Through the gap in the wall strolled a large, blue haired troll, dwarf-sized girlfriend on one side, and dwarf-sized minigun on the other. She grinned at the destruction. "Hey Ice. These kids bothering you?"

I stared, mildly slackjawed. That fucking girl has finally lost what could charitably be called her 'mind'. Where did she even get a minigun? We did not bring that thing with us.

One of the vampires makes a move, barely twitches, really, but Chloe shifts the barrel of the minigun an inch and lets loose a roar of bullets that shreds the little wretch into pieces. Max plugged her fingers into her ears with a grimace. The others immediately raise their weapons and move to shoot. They manage to get off a round or two each, maybe even a clip, before Chloe's minigun roars again and another vampire disintegrates into dust. The rest of them raised their guns and started firing. Max immediately dodged to the left, tossing out a couple of grenades as she vanished behind a wall. Chloe just stood and took it, firing back with her minigun.

I take the opportunity to spin and check on the door. It was just open enough for me to squeeze through, so I dashed into the gap and shimmied through. From the yell of "Get away from her!" outside, apparently one of the two that'd come to get me made a grab for me and missed, luckily. I lazily loosed off a couple of rounds into the gap, smirking at the small squeals of pain from whatever vampire tried to get fresh with me.

Now, to the room. Chloe and Max had the vampire situation in hand. The room was small, maybe eight feet tall, fifteen wide by twenty long from the door. Each side wall was lined with workbenches that had various devices on. The middle of the far wall had a detached display case, topped by a glass box with a thing in it. It was as described. Big. Round. Blue-ish. A pale lettered inscription on the glass said 'Oudun MSK Mk.III', whatever that meant.

"Found it!" I called back outside.

"Great!" Chloe grunted. "Now grab the thing so we can - back the frag off, bitey! - buzz outta here already!"

I take the butt of my pistol and thwack the side of the glass. It doesn't crack. How annoying. I let my eyes drift over the thing, studying the outer layers of protections around it. Ah! There's an access port in the side. I plugged in and tried to access- something fizzed and immediately launched me across the room. I hit the wall, and partly the ceiling, with a muted crack that I knew was probably my skull. Why is it always me that gets the concussions? Sliding down to the ground felt like it happened in slow motion, all my limbs just too heavy to keep aloft from the nice, solid ground where they belonged.

Everything was a little... glowy? I blinked and shook my head - bad idea, bad idea! - trying to clear the driftiness. I could hear ringing in my ears, alongside the constant cracks of gunfire outside, and everything was numb and foggy, like a visual version of when you sit on your hand and get strong enough pins and needles in it that it doesn't even feel like your limb anymore.

I could feel myself drifting more and more when suddenly, a burst of energy exploded through my body and I pulled my head upright - almost on autopilot, really - to look around me. The door was still going, nearly open now though, and that damnable glass casing was still sealed up.

I thought it was just my head spinning, but the glass casing was... moving? It seemed like it was... shaking? That's... discomfiting, and is the floor shaking too? Oh, no. That's the whole room. Is this an earthquake? That's an obnoxious security safeguard, Aztechnology!

There was an electronic, discordant laugh, and as I heard the door finally grind to a halt, a voice just on the edge of my awareness drawled a quiet, laconic "Showtime."

Then, everything went black.

--

"Hey, Ice! Come on, get up, we gotta go! Those Knight Errant fucks know we took their system and they are pissed!" Two burly arms hoisted me to my feet and planted me standing, then quickly dusted me off as a blue-topped face appeared in my eyeline. Well, dominated my eyeline, really. "You okay to move?"

I shoved the troll off me - she moved entirely of her own accord - muttered "I'm fine, let's go before the damn vampires catch-". I started to stride past her when her words registered. "Knight Errant?" And also the location. No glass casing, no vault door, no workbenches. We were in the corridor outside a glass-windowed server farm covered in the KE diamond logo. "What..? Where's the..?"

Chloe appeared in my eyeline again. "Dude, what the frakk are you talking about? We geeked those bloodsuckers a week ago, chummer. We're in that KE server farm you found, remember?"

"No, you-" I rubbed a hand across my face in confusion. That can't be right. We were in the Aztech complex... "Tell me the truth!"

"I am!" She looked almost insulted at the thought. "It's the chip truth, Ice, I swear. You got some dumpshock from the server or something? That knockback you just took was pretty bad."

"No, I..." What knockback, I don't remember any- Images filter into my head, scattered images, of breaking into a building and interfacing with the server, then getting shocked and flung out of the room. "I don't know... later. Let's get out of here."

"Wiz. Slot and run, Maxie, Ice's got static and we're getting the frakk outta dodge!"

The little dwarf appeared at Chloe's shoulder, then tapped something on her rig. Several drones flew past us from all directions, firing at unseen targets. I pulled myself upright and took a step forward, then flopped down. I would've had another head injury if it weren't for Chloe's surprisingly fast reflexes. She held me for a moment, then shrugged and slung me over her shoulder. I didn't resist, too caught up panicking inside my own head. It'd been a week? Why couldn't I remember what I'd done? She stormed off alongside Max, taking potshots at more KE operatives. We made it back to the exit point in minutes, then out onto the street. It was close, but we managed to get back to Nana's neighbourhood without a problem.

Of course, then we made a problem. See, I'd resolved my internal dispute by crushing it into a box in the corner of my mind to deal with later and had heard Max's proposal of a new destination. While Chloe agreed, I wasn't pleased by her suggestion. "I don't need to see Kate."

Chloe crossed her arms and glared. "You're dizzy, concussed, and you can't recall drek since the Azzie run a week ago. Yeah, you need to see Kate."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Ye-"

"Quiet." Max waved a hand. Chloe immediately shut up.

I smirked. "No."

The little dwarf glared at me. "She's right, Ice. You're injured. You need to see the doc."

"No, I just need you to tell me what happened." I crossed my arms and glared right back, belligerent to the end. I had my hill, and if I was to die on it, so be it. "Now. I need to know."

"And if we do, you'll go see the doc?" Max raised an eyebrow.

I rolled my eyes. She's really not shifting on that position? Fine, whatever. I could retreat to another hill, if it got me what I wanted. "Fine, agreed. Now, what happened?"

The two of them exchanged looks, doing that weird couple-telepathy thing they'd been doing for as long as I'd known them. Always wandering around at school, talking without talking. Little weirdos. "Well, the Azzie run practically resolved itself. We'd taken out most of the vamps when you got outta the room with the sphere thing and took out the last few before demanding we leave already. You spent most of the week holed up in your room goin' through your KE drek-drop of data 'til you came out at, like, six this morning and demanded we do this run today. We got here, geeked some guards, and you went in the server room while we kept lookout. Something exploded, alarms went off as you flew out into the corridor and hit your head, and you know what happened from there."

Hmph. Well that was singularly useless. I should not have made that concession. Well, now I know that whatever happened was due to something in the server room, I suppose. Maybe I tripped some faulty Black ICE and this is just some small-time biofeedback playing merry hell with my head? If so, it's not something Kate could help with. Either way, I made a deal. Damnit. "Thanks. Let's go."
They exchanged looks again, before taking positions at each side of me and escorting me to the chopshop. At least they didn't gloat.

Kate smiled up at us when we walked in. Her doctor-demeanour was in full force today. She always was the nice one. "Good afternoon. What seems to be the problem today?"

Chloe picked me up and basically dropped me into one of the beds. I landed with a thump and all the breath rushed out of me. If I wasn't trying to get it back, I would've glared at her as she grinned at me. "Ice's head is fragged."

"Chloe!" Max reprimanded her with a shrill voice and a sharp elbow. I wasn't sure what she was reprimanding Chloe for, her words, her tone, her dropping me, or maybe Chloe just hogged the covers last night, but it was definitely a reprimand for something. Chloe didn't even flinch, just chuckled and ambled over to lean against one of the walls, crossing her arms.

"Well, she is! She can't remember any of the drek that happened over the last week and she can barely stand up. That sounds pretty fragging fragged to me."

Kate snorted. "I'll thank you to kindly leave the medical decisions to me, Chloe." She took a machine over to me and began to scan me. "Hmm. There is some evidence of neural trauma, though the cause is... hmm. Could you remove the ring around your neck? The Data Storage format is apparently interfering with the scan."

I sat up immediately, ignoring the twinges of pain and the head-spinning dervish that threatened to push me back into the black of unconsciousness. "My ring?"

Kate frowned at me. "Yes, the ring. I assume you were on a datasteal job of some sort and you're using it as hidden storage. Very clever, incidentally. I wouldn't have noticed without doing this specific neural-information scan-type."

The other two are staring between me and the ring, looking bewildered. "You didn't tell us that thing was hidden storage, Ice."

"That's because she didn't know."

The datajack in my temple suddenly flared brightly and we all whirled to stare at the glowing figure suddenly standing in the doorway. W-wait. I know that voice. Oh Jesus I know that voice. Recalled images suddenly fly through my head like a flickering slideshow of way-too-late realisations. I heard it back when this all started and I heard it when I hit my head the first time and... I'd woken up next to its owner for almost four years.

The figure stalked forward with an almost animalistic, predatory gait, like a lion on the great plains. Familiar, gelled blond hair, familiar, sharp blue eyes - and weren't they just as amused and mocking as ever - and a smirk so familiar I practically ached on seeing it.

"Honey," drawled my long-dead husband, "I'm home!"

--

I blinked at the image of Nathan frakking Prescott and my head cleared entirely, though the spinning became reeling and the bewilderment became sheer, heart-racing anxiety. Everyone turned to look at me. "You're married?!"

"Not for seven fucking years. Not since this asshole disappeared and was declared legally dead!"

Nate shrugged, gave a wry little grin. "Well, reports of my death, etcetera, etcetera." He paused. "Actually, scratch that. Not so exaggerated." He flashed me a boyish grin that made my teeth ache with the automatic need to return it. I clenched down on them though, feeling the ache spread throughout my whole jaw with furious satisfaction. There was no way I was going to smile at him. Never again. Not for him.

The silence stretched out awkwardly as I glared and everyone else just looked shocked and/or confused. Nate rubbed the back of his neck nervously, another mannerism that sent pangs of familiarity spreading through me to join the aches that I was carefully ignoring along with everything else as I forced myself not to cringe in anticipation when his hand rose. "Long time no see, huh?"

"Long time no..?" The bastard. The absolute frakking bastard. The fear vanished, replaced by anger. I thoroughly embraced it. I'd spent too long afraid. "You piece of drek! Where they hell have you been? It's been seven years!" I made to stand up, to storm over and slap him like he justly deserved, but Kate's comforting hand on my shoulder was enough for me to keep control.

He chuckled. "Nowhere you wanna hear about, babe. Trust me. There are far more important questions to ask."

I opened my mouth to retort something bitter and angry, feeling my mind drop into that old pattern of defensiveness and attack and feeling oh so small and stupid that so characterised the later years of our marriage, when the fact that there were other people in the room was suddenly brought to my attention. Chloe was hard to ignore. "Ain't drek we wanna ask you, Presc-dick."

Nathan turned to her with a mocking grin. "Oh, how very clever. Then again, I wouldn't expect better from you, drop-out. Told back then if you kept up the company you did, then you'd stay just as fragging stupid as ever and look! I was right!" He turned further, taking in the still-shocked expressions of the rest of the room with visible pleasure. He was almost quivering with it. "Oh, hey! The gangs all here! The Dropout, The Dwarf, and Killer Katie!" He gave a dark little chuckle. "Man, if any of you had any talent, you could start a band!"

Chloe bristled and made to retort, but I decided to cut in. This could go on for awhile and I was far too fucking angry to let it. I steadied my hands and took a breath. "Look, Nate. We're not married anymore, and I lost interest in you long before that changed. Why the fuck are you here? What will it take for you to drop your shitty hologram and back the frakk out of my life again?"

"Well, is that any way to talk to someone who's about to-" Nathan suddenly stopped, stared at me, his smile broadening. "Wait, you think I'm a hologram? What, I'm just sat off in some shithole backroom somewhere laughing at you while I hack into that little bitty box in your head, just to say hi after all this time?" He laughed disbelievingly and shook his head almost fondly. "Man, Vic. You're smarter than that. If you were that stupid, you wouldn't've done drek with ChaseSpace. Youngest CEO in a Century and all that." He leaned in, grinning again. "Try again. Work it out. You got this, babe." He paused, pursed his lips. "Though you kinda have been gettin' hit in the head a lot recently..."

I sigh. When Nate got some little game in his head like this, he'd never let it go. Frankly, I just wanted him to get the frakk away from me, but that wasn't gonna happen while he was still in my systems and I didn't have my deck in reach. "Fine." I began to look him over. First, a brief scan. He was transluscent, another mark for my hologram theory, but... hmm. Wait. There was no signal flicker. Matrix latency should make the image flicker, ever so slightly, but nothing. Either he's in the damn ward - which I doubt, but could be possible - or he's not sending over the Matrix. The latter was even more doubtful, the Matrix was linked into everything on the planet and Nate had neither the interest nor the intellect to find any pre-crash Lostech that might actually work.

A mote of something coalesced in my mind, brief inklings of a possibility that this might be something... big. Unless he's lying, of course. Which is more than likely, knowing this prick, but if he's not lying and he's really not a hologram, then maybe he's...

Just one time, while I was visiting Nathan at his dad's company headquarters, I'd met one of the sentient programs that inhabited certain portions of the Matrix. What name he went by, I can't recall, but I do remember how... solid, his manifestation was. I mentioned my recollection and Nate grinned. "Getting warmer, Vic." He drawled, his best car salesman tone on full blast.

Okay, so he's definitely getting at what I think he's getting at, but that's impossible. "You're not an AI, Nate. You were a person, you can't become an AI, that's not how it works."

"Bwaaap! Wrong! Sorry pretty lady, but you're out!" He shook his head again. "I really thought you'd be a little more open minded than that. Too bad, Vic. It's true."

I scoffed, rolled my eyes. "No, it's not. Frakk off, Nate. I'm not that person who'll just agree with you for whatever anymore. I have a gun and I will use it if you don't go. Now."

Nate groaned in irritation. "You have a gun? Hello? Artificial Intelligence here! Unless you put that thing to your own fucking temple, that's not gonna do drek."

"M-my temple..? You hacked my datajack?" My voice was quiet, timid, all the roaring fire and fury gone in an instant as I realised just what he was getting at by 'bitty box in your head'. My head. I reached up in horror and let my fingers graze over the metal embedded in my temple. This was wrong. This was a... a violation. Hit me, yell at me, degrade me, whatever, I'll fucking live. But now he's in my head. In my mind. I can almost feel his fingers ghosting down my spine, sending little tingles of fear through my entire datajack-wired nervous system. He can't take this away from me, he can't. He can't! I start to curl inward, burying my thoughts in rabid denials even as my voice bursts out of me like a whirlwind. "You bastard, how the fuck could-"

He sighed, and I could see his jaw clench. He was frustrated. Good, I thought, bitter and spiteful. I was trying to get angry again, but all I felt was small and alone. The hipster, the prude, and the fucking Trog being in the room didn't even register anymore. "No, Vic. I didn't... Ugh. Okay. Look, you remember what you were doing before that whole thing with Rach and the Shadowrunner whatevers? Back at your place?"

I could still feel myself shaking, and that little voice in my head dominated my thoughts, repeating those rabid denials of the situation over and over and over again. His voice just didn't register through the swirling haze. This was too much. I couldn't do this! He's in my head, fingers tightening around my mind. Everything I am, everything I was, everything I could be, he can see it all. It's wrong. It's wrong. This is all I have left. The only thing! I need to get him out. I need to get him out! Please, please, please, please, plea-

"Vic!"

All of a sudden, everything stops. The voice, my pounding heartrate, everything. All my awareness is taken up with the piercing blue eyes barely an inch away from mine. Nate reached up to gently run his thumb along my check. My breath hitched just as he was about to touch, but it went straight through my skin. My abusive, mercurial, son-of-a-bitch ex-husband gave me a small, sad smile full of terrifying levels of empathy. "You alright?"

I give him a rapid nod, and he backs off. "So, yeah. You downloaded something that night. Probably got it from my dad's company, right?"

I take a breath and give a clipped answer. "Juliet. She found files from a whistleblower. They worked for the Foundation."

He nodded. "Right. Thought so. Anyway. Yeah. Whatever you did woke me up. I just blinked and bam. I was in your head."

"But, how did..." Max asked, voice tentative. "How did you go from being alive to being an AI in your ex-wife's head?" Does she actually believe this... this bullshit! It can't be true.

Can it?

Nate shrugged. "No idea. Last thing I remember was looking up at this big, ugly frakking trog-" Chloe growled at the slight. "while he shot me in the head, then everything hurt and I was suddenly in your head being chased by the same damn troll. Everything went black again when you crashed the car, until last week in the Aztech complex." He grinned. "And let me tell you, I was frakking amazed to find you on a run there, babe. You were great. That thing with the gun and the vamp?" He leaned back slightly, almost talking to the ceiling instead of us. "So. Frakking. Hot."

I flushed at the comment, then shook my head to clear the embarassment. "Wait. What about the ring? You uploaded something to it?"

The face he made at my question... for the first time since I'd know him, Nate seemed almost... ashamed. "Uh, yeah. You remember when I proposed, and I put the film of-"

I rubbed a thumb absently over the ring as I gently breathe out the realisation. "You put the film of the proposal on it..." I looked up at him. "I'd forgotten about that."

"Yeah..." He rubbed the back of his neck again. "Well, I kind of deleted that before I died. Sorry." He rapidly moves on at my furious glare. "That thing there, it's a key now."

"A key to what..?"

Ah, Chloe. Asking the obvious questions, every time.

His smile broadened into a horrifically smug rictus of mocking pride. "Why, to the greatest treasure the world has ever seen, of course." He leaned in conspiratorially, his hands moving like a stage magician unveiling his grand finale. "The Hoard of a Great Dragon."

We stared for a long, quiet moment; the shocked silence was so palpable you could almost taste it on the air like a bad fart.

"Uh, sorry." Chloe waggled a long claw into her ear canal, pulling out an uncomfortably large gob of earwax that she flicked into the corner with a grimace. Kate made a face. "I thought you just said a frakking Dragon's Hoard."

"Yep." Nate grinned at all of us again. I could almost see the conniving twinkling twing of marketing trustworthiness from his teeth. "This, ladies and, uh, ladies, is the big score. This one is retirement money."

"Nate." The anger rose yet again, though this was tinged with exasperation. "What did you do?"

"Well, it was just there, and I felt like I was gonna-"

"Nate! What. Did. You. Do?!" I growled out each word, enunciating them into reality like the staccato cracks of gunshot. My inner voice crowed in satisfaction as he buckled, just a little, with each one.

He opened his mouth to respond, and I just knew he was going to try and pull some shit, so I jabbed a finger in his direction and yelled. Loudly. By the time my admonishing rant was over, Chloe and Max looked like they'd learnt several new insults and Nate had finally started to look cooperative. It was how his father had kept him on the leash.

He sighed. "I... I don't know."

"What are you talking about?"

"I don't know, okay! Like I said, last thing I remember was getting shot in the head. That's also pretty much all I frakking remember. I left work with a bunch of files - and that bitch Stacie on the desk said no to dinner again, by the way - went back to the apartment... and then the troll happened."

"So, uh... how do you know you have a frakking Dragon's Hoard out there to find?" Chloe asked, curiously.

He rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, not meeting anyone's eye. "I maybe kind of stole it?"

If we weren't so shocked, the mouths of everyone in the room dropping open in near-instantaneous unison would've been comical. As it was, we were all far too distracted by what that idiot claimed to have done.

"You did what?"

"I, uh... yeah. Stole a Dragon's Hoard."

He's not lying. He really did that. He really broke the first frakking rule of this planet. Don't fuck with the wyrms.

Chloe's damn of tolerance burst and she began to laugh uncontrollably. I glared at her for a straight minute - she kept laughing anyway - before looking back to Nate with a growl. "Was it Lofwyr?"

He nodded, jerkily. "Yeah."

"Drek."

He nodded again. "Yeah."

I took a deep breath and started to talk through the summaries my mind was frantically making and analysing and readjusting. "Okay, so you stole Lofwyr's hoard somehow, then he sent a troll to kill you - and that means he came after me too, frakk - and he killed you and then you became an AI, but you have no idea how?"

"Yep. There're these gaps in my memory, like... like someone stole a bunch of the books of my life and I can actually feel them missing from the shelves in my head." He ran a hand through his hair and I didn't even smirk at his utter frustration.

Chloe chuckled. "A low-tech example from a suit like you? Frakk, Presc-dick, I'm impressed."

He snarled and made a rude hand gesture at her. She just chuckled harder.

My face began to spread into a slow, smug smile. This... this was what I was searching for. Exactly what I needed. That Dragon killed my husband - though he brought it on himself, idiot - and it took my home and my company and my people and now I can take the most valuable thing it owns. A Dragon's Hoard is rumoured to be millennia old, made up of collected artefacts, piled currency, and collated information. In the decades since the Awakening, nobody has ever found or stolen one. To be the first to do it and live?

That is a revenge worth burning the world for.

"Nate. What does this key open?" I held up the ring, still on the same chain around my neck it'd hung from since he died. "Specifically, I mean. Where and what is the lock?"

He shrugged. "Dunno. Memory gaps, remember?"

And there goes that plan. I knew this was too good to be true. "So, what you're saying is that you're entirely useless, then?"

He flashed me an affronted look. "No! No, no, not at all. What I'm saying is that I think I can find out. We need to check my apartment."

I opened my mouth to follow that lead up, but was interrupted by Max finally contributing to the conversation with the obvious question. "Your apartment? Why?"

"Because of-"

"Because of your stupid little diary, right?" Irritating thing. He was always writing in it. Therapist's orders, he claimed, the posturing prick.

He slunk forward from the doorway, muttering an annoyed "Journal. But, yeah. Unless you put it somewhere back at your place?"

I sighed. Again. Confirmation that this plan is going to be... difficult. More than I thought, despite going up against Lofwyr. "No. Your dad sold your apartment and everything in it except the Foundation's secrets."

Nathan whirled around, stared at me in utter horror. "He... sold my apartment?! Of frakking course he did, the bastard piece of drek, he'll rue the day he frakking-" I could see him building up along a crescendo of crazy, ranting and raving about his old man. I imagine that if he wasn't holographic, we'd all probably be covered in rabid spittle right about now.

I reached up to slap him, then had a thought.

I slapped myself.

Everyone in the room turned to look at me. Since that included Nate, I was fine with that. The pleasure of proving a theory also helped insulate some of the pain - I had a decent right slap-hook. Nate was downloaded directly into my head, right? That meant his AI program had to be somewhere inside my datajack, which was wired directly into my nervous system. All hundred billion neurons provided a pathway to his attention protocols, and as the slap connected and the pain began to spread, his programming would pick up on that signal and be unable to process anything else. The one pain at a time prioritisation rule was another vital neurological quirk for deckers to know. Came in very handy when dealing with the more... aggressive ICE programs.

"Yes, Nate, he sold your apartment. Get over it. We have more important things to worry about. What did you do with the diary?"

"It's a Journal! Chicks have diaries, men have journals. Stop that drek, Vic." He smirked. "Be nice." He shook his head and his eyes went distant. "Uh... well, I don't think I had it when the trog shot me, so it's probably still in the floor safe?"

My hand went straight to my temple and I began to rub in hopes of averting my incipient headache. I clamped down my jaw to contain the disbelieving cursing. Chloe had no such restraint. "You kept your diary in a frakking floor safe?"

"Journal!" Nate stamped his foot. "It's a frakking journal, how frakking hard is that to remember?"

"Not hard at all, Presc-dick." Chloe stopped, grinned. "Heh. Just like y-"

"Alright!" I held up a hand. "Later, Chloe. Where is this safe, Nate?"

"Under the-"

"Where under the damn floor?" I snapped. "Is it easy to find? Is it shielded? Could it still be there?"

He shrugged. "No idea. It was shielded, but the floor did blip" He demonstrated how much of a rise the safe made with an almost bollywood-style arm wave. "pretty frakking noticeably where it was, so whoever dad sold it to probably found it."

"He sold it to a small local subsidiary." They were so small as to be a veritable no-name, plus he'd used the sale to leverage a take-over barely a year later so they were just another part of the Prescott Foundation now. "It's an office space still, I think."

"They turned my home into a fucking office space? The frakking pricks..." Nate slumped, the most defeated I'd seen him in this entire conversation.

"Exactly. So, we need to know where the safe is. Can you tell us?"

He looked at us, almost askance. "Tell you?" His voice was indignant. Irritatingly so. "I'm coming with you, babe." His indignance vanished and he leered at me with a smirk, letting his eyes run up and down my body. Frakk, do I ever feel unclean. "You'd probably trigger some of the drek I installed in there without me. Wouldn't wanna get that pretty little ass of yours exploded now, would we?"

I took another deep breath. Calm, Victoria. Calm. You can't throttle him, anyway, and you've had too many knocks to the head already for that self-slapping method to be a practical consistent solution. "You can't come with us, Nate."

"Why not?"

"Because you're an AI created with some method previously unknown to anyone ever!" I may have been a little loud. "Because if anyone can see you, as they apparently can, letting you wander round is a recipe for getting every decker, sarariman, and gangster with any idea about anything on our case with everything they have! You're a thanatophobic researcher's literal wet dream, idiot!"

He blinked. "Oh. Well, if that's your problem..."

He vanished.

A few slow, shocked seconds passed, then he reappeared again. I barely noticed his smug grin as my mind raced through the newfound possibilities of this plan. "Problem solved?"

My mouth spread into a wide grin again, and this time it stayed there.

Chloe answered his presumably rhetorical question for me with a satisfied chuckle. "Oh yeah. Problem solved."

--

"So, you wan' my permission t'go on this... fools erran' to fin' some mysterious paydata that's s'pose t'be valuable to me?"

The lie was necessary. Nana was a smart woman and a canny operator, there's no way she'd let us go wandering off looking to go up against a dragon.

I bowed my head respectfully. "Yes, Nana. Our informant has a lot of information to provide, so we should be able to find it soon."

She stared up at me from her still obscenely ugly armchair, eyes crinkling as her gaze carefully assessed my sincerity, worth, chances of success, and a dozen other things I couldn't begin to guess at. There was a reason this woman scare- intimidated me. One doesn't pull a tiger by the tail, rather from a mile away with large calibre firearms.

After a painfully long moment, she nodded. "You will do this thing, an' you will bring this information back to me."

The 'or else' was left implied.

The three of us exchanged looks, wondering what to do now. We looked to Nana. She rolled her eyes and, with a haughty sniff and an irritated look, waved us out of the room.

We stood, out in the street, still looking blankly at each other. When it started to get uncomfortable, I took a long, deep breath and started walking. "Come on. It's a long trip to the apartment."

Chloe groaned. "Walking? Oh drek..."

[END OF ACT I]

--
AN1 - This was something I was both incredibly sure and immensely unsure about. To my mind, any relationship with Nathan in his canon game state would've ended abusively, no doubt about it - but with Victoria's... attitudes, she might've ended up just as much of a contributor to that dynamic. They're bad for each other, but they're also the person who knows the other best in the world.

We as a society tend to view abuse - and bullying, on a less severe but still relevant level - as something quite one-sided and simple. One person with the power imposing their will on another without. It often is that simple, but not always, and that's part of what I'm trying to work through and examine in this story. To me the underlying reasons for why the abusers abuse and the bullies bully and the origins for those reasons are as interesting as helping the victims past the trauma and to build themselves up to be stronger. Making Victoria and Nathan both hella toxic for one another, but still the main (and possibly only) source of stability they each have, lets me look at both of those things at the same time. Cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate and all that.

Chapter Text

"So, this is your digs, huh?" Chloe rolled her eyes in derision, glaring in her usual anti-establishment anger up at the tall silvery tower block looming over us. "Seems like it's right up your corp-kissing alley, Presc-dick."

Nate smirked. "Yep. Two floors, bulletproof-glass windows, and the sweetest fuckin' real wood floors I ever saw outside my old man's office."

Chloe, despite herself, actually looked mildly impressed for a moment. "Real wood? Damn. Thought the Corporate Court put hella restrictions on using that in private residences."

Nate and I both snorted, then respectively smirked and glared at each other as we realised the synchronicity. "Speaking as someone who actually had a seat, we put so many amendments and loopholes into those restrictions that it was quite frankly ridiculous. Frak, he got a discount because he was blond."

Nate gave a self-satisfied shrug, sending an odd flicker through his form. "When you got it, flaunt it baby. Am I right or am I right? Up top." He held up a hand in front of Chloe with another smirk.

She slowly raised her hand and wafted it through his face. Nate crumpled his face in irritation. "You're still no fragging fun."

"Not for you, Presc-dick." She waggled her eyebrows, side-eyeing Max with a lecherous smirk the little dwarf pointedly didn't notice.

Nate’s expression turned faintly nauseous. Honestly, fair enough.

Max looked up from her apparently utterly absorbing thinking and focused on Nate. "So, what's security like in here?"

He shrugged. "No idea. I've been dead for seven years and they turned my condo into an office block. Could be full of vamps, turrets, and a frakking banana bomb for all I know."

She blinked, raised a bemused eyebrow. "Banana bomb?"

Nate sniggered. "Some idiot scientist my dad had working for him. Went crazy one day and started making ballistic fruit. Exploding bananas, tear-gas apples, and he actually managed to turn a lemon into an EMP grenade somehow. Killed himself with one of his prototypes and nobody's been able to work out how the fragging hell he managed any of it."

Max blinked again. "Huh. Okay." She seemed almost at a loss for how to respond. Then, she shook her head and cleared the confusion before clapping her hands. "So, unknown security, unknown layout, unknown guards. Is that about right?"

Nate shrugged. "Yep."

Chloe, bafflingly, grinned in utter delight. "Fraggin' A. This biz is gonna be fun."

I eyed her scornfully. "You really are mad, aren't you?"

Her grin only broadened in response.

Max suddenly coughed, raising her arm in perfect time to catch one of her tiny spy drones. I noticed her rig - the drone-controlling version of my deck - just as it disappeared back into her coat. "Three guards, cameras on the main doors and one on the head office, plus a couple of patrolling drones."

We all stared at her, until she raised an eyebrow back. "What? You were bickering, it was starting to get dull. So, we know the layout now, what are we waiting for?"

Chloe burst out into peals of delighted laughter. "That's my girl. Fraggin' awesome, Maxie." She leaned over and wrapped a quick arm around Max's shoulders, giving her a tight squeeze and a kiss on her temple.

Nate and I both looked at each other and, after a surprisingly amicable eye-roll over their perpetual grossness, followed the two veteran shadowrunners into the building. Well, I do. Nate vanishes off into some dark corner of my head. I still faintly think I can feel him rooting around in there and shudder. Not the time, Chase. Not the time.

Max walked up to the main desk, smiling appreciatively at the slightly smaller section designed for dwarfs. After barely a moment of waiting, a large, friendly-looking redheaded human of ambiguous sex bumbled over with a wide and welcoming smile. "Hello there! Welcome to the Heafstead Building. What brings you here today?"

"Hi, uh. I think we have an appointment with the company here? They should be on the top floor." She turned back to us. "They are on the top floor, right?"

I nodded. I hadn't the faintest idea what she was talking about, but I think I pulled it off.

The worker's smile went fixed and their eyes went distant for a few seconds as they accessed whatever internal building mainframe held the rooming data. "I'm sorry miss, but they've marked themselves closed for the evening. Are you certain your appointment is with them?"

Max frowned. "Yes, I'm afraid I am. Could you maybe call one of the late-shift or any of the emergency numbers and ask them to come down here? Perhaps we simply got the time wrong, but I think we'd all like to get this sorted out."

They smiled. "Of course, miss. Please take a seat over in the waiting area; bathrooms are over to your right and there's a small refreshment booth in the corner there."

Max beamed. "Thank you. You're a lifesaver..." She trailed off, clearly angling for a name.

The worker picked up the insinuation and beamed at her. "I'm Judy. And I already know your name from the sheet, Miss Marple."

Chloe and I very carefully don't look at Max because we both know we'll burst out laughing. Miss Marple? Really? That's exactly what Chloe blurts out as soon as Judy disappears back into a staff-only area behind the counter.

Max just shrugged. "We're investigating, aren't we? Seemed right. Anyway, we'd better buzz. Judy'll get whoever the duty door guy is out of the office for a few minutes." She strode past us and gently pushed open the door to the stairwell, smirking as the security clicks off. "You coming?"

—

A small drone playing music pulled the outer security guard out of position, the doorman who'd check entry-permissions was heading downstairs to meet an empty room, and the inner security guard was dozing gently in the corner.

Frankly, if I was CEO of whatever company this is, I'd've fired this entire branch for incompetence and had them buried in a landfill for good measure.

Nate popped back into being outside a door on the opposite side of the main room and pointed exaggeratedly to it. I and Chloe both rolled our eyes, causing him to scowl at us. Still, didn't have long. We hurried over and pushed open the door.

The office was relatively large, due to once being an executive bedroom, rounding out at about 300 square feet. Where the bed once was was now a large oval desk of dark bluish metal. The wall that had once held Nathan's prized records and photographs was now filled with business files and darkened screens.

He wasn't pleased, staring around at it all in shocked horror. "What the hell did they do to my fragging room?"

Chloe chuckled. "Dunno. But it probably sees way more action that it did before when you had a bed in it."

Nathan gave her a dark look before stalking over to one corner of the room. He stamped his foot, which went through the floor. "Here. Grab it and let's get the frag out of this shithole."

Chloe and Max looked at each other with a chuckle. They followed him over and knelt by the lump. A quick little snik and a swipe of a mysteriously appearing and vanishing blade later and the carpet was sans a square foot of fabric.

The safe gleamed in the low light. I made a valiant attempt to shove the massive slab of flesh that was Chloe out of the way. "Go watch the door or something. I'll get the bloody lock open without all the fragging hassle, alright?"

Chloe watched me for a second, then grinned easily and ambled off to lean by the door. My eyes flicked down to scan over the safe, then back up. My mouth dropped as all I saw by the door was shadow. For a moment, something shifted and then I saw her. Chloe had angled herself at the perfect position that her armour curled the light, rather than reflected it. She wasn't invisible, not by any means, but she was the kind of obscured that you usually had to go cross-eyed to unsee.

Not bad.

I looked down at the safe. Japanese designed, which would mean the access ports were- there. I pried off the security panelling and opened the port, jacking into the security. It took barely twenty seconds to get in.

There was a small palmtop in there, and a stack of datacards. I pulled it out. "Nate. A palmtop? Seriously?"

"You know I never liked AR." He looked down at himself and his glowing form. "Guess that makes this even more ironic."

I snorted. "Actually, I’d forgotten how much of a damn luddite you were. Fine. Lucky this thing has a proper datajack." I jacked in and began sifting through the files, downloading things to my deck as I went. I suddenly hit something that sparked in my deck and sent my vision blurry. The fact I could blink it away meant it wasn't anything serious, but- Nathan had frozen. He suddenly flickered. Once, twice. Then he vanished. A moment later, he reappeared, stretching like he'd come from a long nap.

"Fuck that hurt." He groaned again. "Okay, I got it, but it's gonna take a while to go through. Lets get out of here."

"Fine by me. Lets buzz!" Before I could speak, Chloe grabbed me and dragged me up to my feet. I shuddered, leaning heavily on her. My head was still dizzy.

Fuck it. I can complain when we're back at base.

—

Nathan stood in the middle of the room as I tinkered further with the palmtop, poking him with questions. "Have you processed the damn file yet?"

"No.” I growled, not looking up. “And every time you ask me, you take up just a little bit more processing power away from the decryption."

I scowled, ignoring the prick again. Some of the datacards had covered confidential Prescott material, and I'd recorded all of them for later use. One though, was... weird. It had taken some decrypting, but I'd managed to pull off a few piecemeal files, none of which made any sense.

One appeared to be a filled-out wage slip, with all the information redacted. I only knew what it was because I recognised the template layout from my few encounters with Prescott Payroll.

Another appeared to be a couple of Nate's medical records. Scans of his brain, but they were blank. I wasn't a neurologist, so I may have been missing something, but as a decker I knew a fair bit and there wasn't a damn thing on there. So why had they scanned him? Not to mention, they were poorly copied files. Why would he need to make or take poor-quality copies of his medical records when he could just ask for them? Or buy them, if he needed to.

Then there were the email chains. The corporate jargon hid an extra layer of obfuscation, where nothing was ever stated or named directly. Just one anonymised addressee telling another to fulfil the instructions previously given.

"Do you have any idea why you have all this?" I looked over at Nathan.

"Not a clue. It seems like the month before I died is either completely fucking gone or so full of holes I have no idea what's going on." He bit back another curseword and growled in anger at... me, himself, the situation, I didn't know. Something.

"Do you ever?" Chloe snarked.

His anger flared again, immediately reorienting itself in her direction. "Uh, yeah. I'm a Prescott, bitch. We always know-"

"Keep it together, Nate." I snapped. "We need to get this file decrypted."

He scowled at Chloe again, who just grinned. He closed his eyes and got that focused look. The one that had made me fall in love with him to start with.

A few more minutes passed - I got nowhere with the files, there was nowhere near enough to make any guesses about any of it, but then Nate opened his eyes. "I cracked the first layer."

Shit. "The *first* layer? What the hell is this, Nate?"

"It's my memory." He said, voice going quiet. Distant. "But it got downloaded from somewhere else onto the palmtop, and it didn't fucking copy properly, so my software stuck it in quarantine and added more encryption on top. I've cracked my own stuff, but I have no idea how to get through this other-" He suddenly stopped, stared. His eyes flickered like he was in deep REM sleep.

"Nate?" I asked again. Had he crashed? Did the file infect him with something? Or me?

"What the fuck?” He bolted back into motion, everything panicked and jerky. His voice quivered with wariness, almost fear. “Shit. This file came from Renraku."

What? Before I could speak, Max asked, "Renraku? Not the Foundation? Were you working with them or something?"

"Apparently. Their fingerprints are all over the software, and the file traces to the... to the Arcology."

The..? Shit. Deus' old hangout. Even though he's gone, the place was still a nightmare. The Arcology was one of those dark places in Seattle that nobody really talked about and even fewer ever wanted to go.

Wait. I flipped the deck and accessed the file myself, taking a look at the encryption. My suspicion was correct. "And your second layer is Renraku encryption too. Looking at the metadata, it seems like you went into the Arcology to use some of their terminals for encrypting the file." I paused. "Though why on earth you'd do that when literally anything else was an option, I have no idea."

"Maybe I didn't have any other options." He said simply.

"What?"

"If my Dad cut me off after whatever I did, then maybe I didn't have any other option. Deus was a scary-powerful motherfucker, so maybe I wanted to hide whatever this is with something my Dad couldn't get to." He shrugged. “That’s my best guess, anyway. I still don’t remember any of it.”

Damnit. Damnit. Damnit. Damnit.

"You can't get through it?" I asked, already knowing the answer.

He shrugged. "I can keep trying, but I don't know. I don’t think so. You?"

"No." I didn't even need to think about that one. "I'd need the Chasespace mainframe behind me to even take a swing at it."

At his apparent protest, I continued- "If you did get this from that slagspawn AI during your blackout month, there could be any of a dozen kinds of deadly countermeasures in there, and that's just what I know about. I am not putting it in my head."

"Fine." Nate grumped.

After a few moments of silence, Chloe threw her arm over my shoulder. "Well chummer, if we're all going into a hell like that, we're going to have a night of drinking and fun first."

Honestly... "Sure. I could use it."

She grinned, showing off her tusks. "So ka! We'll start in the Inferno and move on from there."

—

AN1 - The Renraku Arcology is one of the big bad missions in Shadowrun. Not a nice place to be.

Chapter Text

The pounding music of the Inferno pulsed around me, a throbbing vibration in every surface of the place. Some dark industrial beats entwined with pumping bass and tilting electronic riffs. It mixed heavily with the alcohol in my stomach and the dread in my heart to make a powerfully depressing concoction. And frankly, the thoughts of what we were about to do hit me harder than the rest of it combined.

Deus. We were heading for Deus. Luckily the thing itself was long-dead. Everybody knew that. I knew that. I’d covered that. But the echoes of its' presence lived on in the Arcology. Synthetic ghosts. There was a reason Renraku had run from the project and the upper floors were still sealed off. I could never believe people were actually willing to live there, under all those sick experiments. I’d seen the few trid clips that had made it out of there. I hadn’t slept well for months afterward.

I took another long, long drink of whatever this chemical crap that Chloe had put in front of me was. It burned.

I hadn't seen either of them in a while. They'd gotten carried away by the crowd, and I assume were grinding on each other on a dance floor somewhere in here - or whatever it is happily together couples do.

I sighed. I almost envied them that. That… easy relationship. They’d separated early, gotten bitter and angry, and then fallen back together in no time at all. I snorted. Rachel had hated it. My old bodyguard had fallen back in with us in the Vortex in response - never talking about it, no matter how much we asked - and the two weirdos had boxed themselves off even more. I hadn’t seen them much after that, even after everything at school went down.

“Good times, eh?” Nathan’s voice flickered into my mind. I blinked, and my pocket had bleeped. Oh. Actually kind of clever. I tapped the answer on my deck and took the call. “Those were the days, right Vic?”

“Those days,” I snipped, “-were a drug-fuelled haze. It was a spiral. We were going down, regardless.”

He laughed, voice turning wicked and almost salaciously flirty. “Oh, but what a way to fuckin’ go, eh? We were the king and queen of our empire there, Vic. Split that entire town between us, before you knocked it all down.”

“Not all of it. Damn heritage committees.” I grumbled.

He laughed. “It’s good for you to not get your own way sometimes. If there was one way we were good for each other, it was reminding ourselves of that.”

“Asshole.”

“Bitch.”

I took another swig of my drink. “You ever wonder what would’ve happened if we went down earlier? Before all the… stuff.”

He thought for a long moment. “Nope. Not that I remember, anyway. But I’m pretty sure no. That’s just how it is. We make our choices. Shit happens. Makin’ yourself miserable over its just pointless.”

“No, Nate.” I shook my head, shaking slightly with the exertion. The room wobbled in an odd way - probably something in this awful hooch. I’d never drunk anything that could be called ‘hooch’ before. I wasn’t sure I wanted to again, even buried under its effects. “Shit doesn’t just happen. We make it happen. We nearly killed-” I scowled, finished off the glass and ordered another. Then another. His voice drifted into nothing on the sea of my rage and intoxication. Then I hung up on him, just to be sure.

Before long, I found myself ready to leave, and stumbled my way out. The world swum around me, a dizzying detachment from reality that was quite what I needed.

As I trotted along outside, heading back to the apartment, I admit I wasn’t paying the best attention. Whatever those drinks were, they’d made it hard to thi- …think clearly.

"Gi's ya frakkin' cash, Chummer!" Two drunk humans wobbled vaguely up to me, both holding what my tipsy brain was pretty sure were rusty kitchen knives. Knives! I’d been threatened by superbeings, Dragons, Vampires, machine guns, experimental shit I couldn’t even think to name, and they come at me with knives! Not even good ones.

The absolute fucking cheek of it.

I scowled at them. "Seriously?"

The idiots blinked owlishly at me, clearly unprepared for anything other than acquiescence. I looked them over while they thought things through, and noted both were modded - cyberware arms and legs, a few other little tricks here and there too. Clearly’d been done on the cheap. I reached down slowly and tapped a few keys on the deck hanging by my side. Even drunk out of my mind, I was great. It took barely three seconds for my systems to break theirs. They weren’t even running wireless. Morons. Utter fucking morons.

Chloe appeared at my shoulder ten minutes later, watching with me as the two muggers now beat the shit out of each other. Or, I guess, watching their cyberware beat the shit out of each other through them? They shrieked the entire time - though they couldn’t control their tech, they could feel the impacts of it ramming at high speed.

Chloe put a hand on my shoulder. "We should get outta here, Vicky. Leave these two to the bronze, if they get here, or any of these other fuckers if they don't."

"But we have ringside seats!" I gestured vaguely at the show. A couple of other idiots who’d stopped to watch agreed with me, similarly drunkenly.

"Come on," The Troll grabbed me and moved me along with barely any effort. I didn't bother fighting back - fucking pointless, right? I don’t remember anything after that. It’s just all shadows.

—

I groaned as life hit me with the force of a nuclear baseball.

"Morning sunshine." Max's voice came from... somewhere. The pounding in my head made direction a frakking impossibility. Somewhere would do for now.

I rolled over and flailed a hand vaguely and regally to my head. "Ow."

"Yep. You drank a whole load of the good stuff yesterday. And Chloe's weird troll liquor. I'll leave you to decide which one is causing the hangover from hell you've got at the moment." She gave a breathy little chuckle.

"Troll- You let her feed me troll liquor?!"

"I did try to warn you, but you insisted you were 'a real Shadowrunner now and wouldn't pussy out' of it." She snorted. "Your choice, chummer. I buzzed off when you told me and let you make your own decisions. You're a big girl now. Make the choice, live with the consequences."

I finally blinked my eyes open, very appreciative of the dark twilight the two normally kept their safehouse apartment in. Max's voice, still cheerfully, suddenly exclaimed, "Sleeping Beauty! She awakens."

I pulled myself up slowly - it still ached, but there was less of the stabbing pain of a good hangover - and blinked blearily into the room to try spot the dwarf bitch. It took me a while, until the bleariness resolved into a smiley little freckled face a lot closer than her voice had sounded. I jumped back, and Max chuckled. “Soykaf?”

I stared for a long few seconds before reaching out and shakily taking the cup from her. Another moment, then I remembered. “Thanks.”

“Null sheen.” She took a swig of her own coffee, a teasing grin on her face that reminded me of some waitress back from school. Jane, maybe? J-something, at any rate. “Take your time. We’ve got a few hours ‘til we need to bounce, and me and Chloe can take care of most of the details.”

Then loud, clacking footsteps sent earthquakes through my skull. Chloe. As she stumbled about in the background, Max shook her head, "I still can't believe we're going to fuck with Deus'... I don't even know. His old pad? Whatever nightmares he left there?" She looked worriedly over at me. "He's definitely dead, right?"

"Capital D-E-D, dead." Chloe quipped, suddenly appearing from over Max’s shoulder.

"D-E-A-D". I remarked, through my wince at her booming voice. "I know they taught you to spell at Blackwell, Chloe."

"Dropout." She shrugged, taking a swig of something that did not smell like coffee.

"Isn't that supposed to be my line?" I teased.

"I'll always beat you, Vicky." Max rolled her eyes.

I snorted, winced again. Christ, my head. "Are we ready for this?"

"Almost certainty not." Chloe answered, her face showing every inch of skepticism she was clearly feeling.

Max gave her an indulgent look. "Well, hopefully we can change that. You got the appointment with Nana?” Chloe nodded, took another drink of her awful brew. “Great. We’ll collect the equipment on our way back. Try get some sleep, Victoria. You’ll need it.”

I closed my eyes and before I knew it, they were gone and the safehouse was quiet. After a few glorious hours of silence and recovery, Max and Chloe returned and we headed out to grab a cab.

Chapter Text

The Renraku Arcology, or I suppose the 'Arcology Commercial and Housing Enclave' now, was as large and sprawling as you'd expect an Arcology to be. When you had everything a person needed to live in one mega-complex, it added up. Just being outside it was an exercise in understanding the impossibility of large scale comprehension. It was also a perfect example of why I chose to live in a small, low-populated town - back when I’d had the means to make choices like that, anyway.

Though somewhat counterintuitively, that size made it very, very easy to find the front door. The letters over it were equally sprawling in size, probably 50ft or more tall. If it weren’t for the giant covering over it, I imagine the investment would be shattered almost daily. Neon glass hadn’t advanced in decades. It was all… oddly *tidy* for such a nightmarish place. Though I supposed that the worst places often hid in plain sight. As a reporter, I’d learned that well.

“Anythin’ we need to know about this place?” Chloe chimed in.

Nathan flickered in, hiding in the shadows and out of sight of the street, and sighed. “I told you, I don’t remember. That’s the whole point of being here.” He flickered out again.

Chloe scowled. “Not you.” For once, the ‘asshole’ was left implied. Progress. “Her.” She nodded at me. “You ran newsvids about the crash, right?”

I shrugged. “Yes, but if you saw them, you know everything I know. There wasn’t any reason to hold anything back, so it was all there.” I took a deep breath, shook some of the tension out of my shoulders. “We’re in for a real drekstorm.”

Chloe snorted. “Last chance to bounce.” She drawled teasingly. At my scowl, she waggled her eyebrows and grinned, wide and toothy.

I rolled my eyes and pushed past her, leading our little group into the entry mall.

—

The Mall was equally as oversized. Even the restaurants, commissaries, stores, and offices were oversized. In the entryway, a giant crystalline lattice hung from the roof, glittering in the light. It too was oversized.

Five upper balconies twisted above us and went off in five directions like the fingers of a hand, with more corridors above and below - a three floor open atrium mall. Chloe also noticed this similarity immediately, and insisted we walk along the middle finger. As it didn't actually matter for how we got up to where we needed to be, we went with it. She was delighted.

As we headed along, literally everyone we passed eyeballed us warily. We were a motley crew, and I imagine they didn't get many shadowrunners around here these days.

Out the corner of my eye, I watched a family walk by. A dwarf and elf parent, with a couple of tiny children. They looked normal. For all the nightmares above in the locked down levels, the people down here just… lived.

God. Something about that just hit me on a primal level. Imagine it. Living without all that pressure, all those dependencies. Don’t misunderstand me, I know they still have responsibilities. I’m not that much of a rich, oblivious moron. All detached from ‘the little people’.

But something small. One or two people. A proper partner, a child. That might be nice. Being a CEO, it was always so much. So many people depending on me, all the time. I had 25000 employees at my height. That’s a lot of stress. A lot of responsibility.

I’d’ve liked one or two. Maybe three.

But then again, I tried one and look how that turned out. I sighed, muttered many, many curse words about that whole mess.

“Ice!” Chloe called back, “Hurry up.”

I hurried up.

We strolled over to the final elevator on the line, ducking under the locked holo-tape and stepping in. Nobody stopped us. I nodded to Chloe and she pulled off the elevator button panel. I stepped forward and plugged in my deck - no Matrix needed here, this was old tech. In a second, the doors were closing and we were going up. Up into Hell.

Fuck.

—

The elevator doors screeched open with a discordant chime and the scent of deep rust, and we stepped out into a dark corridor. We were at the end, and it stretched off to the left, then turned right sharply. I could barely see it. The only light came from the elevator, and it spread oddly. Like carlight into a murk.

Nathan flickered into being and peered around. “Frakk, that ain’t creepy at all.” He shuddered.

Max sighed. “One minute.” She pulled a ball out of somewhere and tossed it into the air, something activating and transforming it into a small, fist-sized dragonfly. The buzz of its wings was almost irritating, something about it making my nose itch. Max tapped a key on her rig and the fly lit up with a bright blue glow. “That should help.”

We shared a look. “Well, there’s only one way to go.”

Off we went. Along the corridor and to the right, finding ourselves in another long corridor - several doors stood at intermittent points, all locked and sealed. I could probably have hacked them, but something told me it wasn’t worth it. That the real prize was ahead.

Walking through, the only sounds were our footsteps and breathing. It was… terrifyingly quiet.

Have you ever walked through a graveyard? Or a place that once held people, but hasn’t been lived in for a very, very long time? This place had the feel of that. Death, and loneliness, and stillness.

We exited out into a small marketplace atrium, all the doors and storefronts still locked up tight. Except for one. We found a crack in the shutter over the front of one of the free-standing shacks in the middle of the space - and before we could stop her, Chloe reached down and pulled it open. It screeched and resisted, flecks of rust scattering everywhere, but the girl was strong. We waited a moment, listening, but still silent.

We looked inside.

“Fuck.”

The small space was filled with this black, brackish goo, like old ink, which was dotted with these blue glowing bubbles contained with cybernetics. We should’ve closed the door and left it be. I shouldn’t have looked closer. But I did. Floating in the bubble was a small thing, kind of like Max’s dragonfly.

And then it lit up and the silence was broken by a deep, bassy thrum.

The egg, for that’s what I now knew it was, popped. Some sort of skin covering flew off, revealing a flower-like thing beneath, a mix of colours and lights. The thing unfurled, and it was oddly beautiful to see, like that flower had bloomed. And then I looked closer, and I saw. Someone had sewn a locust and a spider together, then added cybernetics on top. One of Deus’ foul experiments. It had to be.

A light switched on in the thing’s back and it launched itself at me, legs grasping at my face and the long tail wrapping around my neck. I swore, just before it sealed itself to my face. I could feel metal things scraping against my skin, and the tail slowly working its way up my side to- my datajack! I quickly covered it with my hand, and the things scraping my skin started to dig-in.

If my mouth wasn’t sealed shut, I’d’ve screamed.

I could hear dull shouts, like they were in the long distance, and more pops as more of these things came out around me. The tail was still striking at my hand, trying to find a way through.

I stumbled backwards, somehow, luck of luck, managing to find my way out of the stall and out into the open space. A hand grabbed mine - familiar, clawed. Chloe.

As it did, the creature finally broke through and plugged into my datajack. There was a loud, alien sound I couldn’t find the words to describe, and then an even louder laugh. A voice, familiar, taunting, shouted “GET OUT” and the creature just withered. Dead fruit on the vine. The tail went limp and I pulled it out, peeling the creature from my itching, pained face. I threw it hard against the wall, and it hit with a thud too loud for its size.

Nathan flickered into my eyeline, looking smug. Bastard. “You’re welcome.”

I nodded at him, still too frazzled to speak.

And then the door back slammed shut, leaving us illuminated only by Max’s dragonfly and whatever lights existed on our consoles.

“Well, fuck.”

Something in the darkness screamed.

Chapter Text

“Bug out, now!” I yelled,

Chloe laughed from beside me - “Was that a pun, Ice?”

“Shut up and run!”

Our little trio dashed off, not really thinking about where to go. The mecha-scarabs were hot on our heels, whirring and whining. Suddenly, something else tiny and mechanical whirred past me and for a moment I flinched, stumbling slightly and recovering in time to see a door ahead of us slide open.

Chloe swore and scooped up Max in her arms, putting on another burst of speed.

Nathan flickered into being and soared past me, arms extended like a ballet dancer. He winked at me. I told him to fuck off and kept running. Asshole. Max was typing furiously in Chloe’s arms, and drones swooped around us, firing behind us and hacking the doors ahead of us, opening and sealing them in sequence until we finally ended up alone.

I flumpfed against a wall, gasping for air. I hadn’t done that much running since- well, ever. “Everyone alright?”

“All chill here, Ice.” Chloe drawled.

“Stop.” I glared back at the grinning ork, who just grinned wider, still holding Max.

There was an explosion beyond the door, and our little safe space shook. “Max?”

“I’m fine.” She looked down at something on her rig. “But we should keep moving.”

Nathan flickered into being. “Those things were creepy. Gotta give the freakshow that, he was certaintly a creatively sadistic bastard.”

“Of course you admire that,” I scoffed.

He bristled, “What are you-”

“Shush.” Max cut us both off in an instant. And she had a point, pointing behind me. I turned to see that we were surrounded by shadowy, unmoving figures. Some were staring right at us, others standing around staring at different points of the walls.

We all went silent, even Nathan. After a few long moments, nothing had moved. Something was tickling at the back of my mind, that there was something I wasn’t realising. Suddenly, Max’s drones lit up the area and- I burst out laughing. “They’re mannequins. Oh fuck, they’re just mannequins. Hah.”

We were in some sort of veneer showroom, the kind of place they put together little displays for their products. I was kind of surprised - the Arcology didn’t seem like that kind of place. But hey, it was still here. It was almost impressive.

After we’d all regained our composure, we started exploring. Of course, it took barely a corner before we were back in hell. Chloe had poked one of the mannequins and it suddenly lurched into life.

It made no move to attack though. Merely an animatronic. We watched as it suddenly cowered, flinching back from another mannequin moving along a floor rail up to its side. The second mannequin reached out and grasped the first one’s arm, pulling it from its socket and quickly replacing it with an claw-like prosthetic. The mannequin mimicked screaming as the other arm was ripped and replaced too.

We continued through this macabre museum of memories in silence. Every mannequin was re-enacting a new scene of horror and experimentation. Bodies bulging with odd tech, normality replaced with cold steel, people made machine. I knew that I wouldn’t be sleeping soundly for a long, long time afterward.

DEUS had kept this place for a reason. Could an AI be… sentimental? Nathan had certainly tried to make us think so. I watched him briefly, walking alongside us through the nightmare. I’d meant what I said - the man admired strength, but his view of it was warped. Spend too much time with Sean Prescott and that’s just what happened.

That family was Darwinist in the extreme, and Sean was one of the worst. One of the first times I’d met him, back when his son and I were just dating and not married, Sean had spent an hour talking about how only the powerful, the beautiful, and the strong would survive. Those who were better than others, stood above them - and if necessary, trampled them beneath their feet.

I shook my head, pushing back memories of that man. There were horrors enough right here.

The room ahead stank of something bitter and acrid. It bit at my eyes even this far down the corridor, and the smell was only getting stronger. We crept closer, now ignoring the mannequins actions around us.

The room ahead felt important, and it was drawing all of us in. Even Nathan looked odd, enthralled. That was what keyed me in, his expression. I opened my mouth to try say something about it, maybe going back, maybe being careful, I wasn’t sure, and that seemed to be a signal of weakness.

One of the mannequins, idle and ignored, suddenly burst into motion and lurched forward out of position. It raised a hand containing an odd black box and shoved it into my face. The box burst into light as I shoved the mannequin back, brought up my gun and blasted the thing in the chest.

I know it was a mannequin, but it just felt right.

The draw of the room vanished, but left behind several black spots in my eyes and a groaning horror - and, to my dismay, one hell of a migraine.

I groaned in pain, distracted enough not to notice, well, some things I didn’t notice. Chloe recovered first, damn Troll physiology, and swore. “The corridor moved!”

“W-what?” I was still foggy, and it was hard to focus through the light ringing in my ears. “What did you say?”

Chloe grabbed me, claws digging into me, and shoved my face in the right direction. “The damn corridor moved!”

And it had. That room ahead, that had been so alluring, was gone. In its place, a labyrinth. Over the open-archway door, a simple warning - Here Be Dragons. I snorted. At least DEUS was a fan of the classics.

“Fuck it.” I lead the way into the labyrinth - maybe I should’ve brought a piece of string.

The inside was the same non-descript metal bulkhead much of the Arcology was built out of - some sort of prefab, I believed - and lead straight left and right, with a left on the left and a left and a right on the right. What was the rule for mazes? Pick a wall and follow it. I picked my wall and went along to the right right, which turned out to be the wrong direction, leading right into a dead end.

I swore, again, and something in my expression must’ve said don’t frakk with me enough that Chloe and Max - even Nathan - stayed quiet. I followed the wall again, finding the right left leading through a zigging and zagging, meandering pathway with no breaks until it eventually opened up into a sprawl of seven different offshoots, all going in different directions. “I hate these things.” I said with a scowl, glaring at all the paths as if they offended me personally. As I took a step into the sprawl, to take a look down each path, I saw a mannequin step into view.

I froze, and it stopped, looked at me. I took a step back, and it vanished into the corridor it had came from. “Did you see..?” I muttered to the others - they both nodded, silently. Max was breathing deeply and twitching, while Chloe seemed to be grumbling to herself, whipping up her bluster.

“Predator mannequins - so cliche.”

We hunted through the next maze of corridors for them, catching only the faintest glance here and there. They never stopped us, but just… watched. That was almost worse. Always at the edge of view, darting through the corner of your eye. Everything in me was on edge, all those deep, terrified instincts buried down in the ancient remnants of humanity screaming to run, to fight, to flee, to appease. Anything to survive.

I pushed through, and we went on.

—

The next space was an odd hall, like DEUS had been trying to make a grand theatre without ever having seen one. The boxes looked more like animal feeders, and the curtains were made of dangling wires and ribbon cables. And sitting in the middle of it all - in front of but not on the stage - plaiting three cables together, was a small child. Or what was once a small child. As we approached, we saw more of her, metal and circuitry poking out from beneath her clothing - a pleasant, plain gingham dress.

We were a few feet from her when she suddenly registered us, LEDs all over her suddenly turning a burning red. She paused a moment, something whirring and calculating inside her, then looked up. As she blinked owlishly up at us, her eyes clicked like the aperture of a camera.

She opened her mouth to speak, and a blaring screech of warbled binary sent us all reeling back.

Chloe went on the attack first, swinging wildly at the little girl in a vain attempt to get her to stop. But something caught her hand. It was somehow bigger than she was, this sort of bastardised military drone. Swooped in without any of us noticing. It was like one of the old model Sentry bots. But it was covered in patches of rough, ragged hair and someone had affixed a taxidermied animal - genuine, from the look of it - to the top of it in some macabre approximation of a bear.

It squeezed Chloe’s hand, and the troll screamed.

She lashed out, broad, sledgehammer hands slamming into the drone’s ribcage. The bot’s hands, multi-pronged industrial clamps, burst open and it let out an undulating, modulated screech of alarm.

She darted back, faster than I’d ever seen her move, and I could see her hands starting to purple in a ghastly manner. Chloe did something that might’ve supposedly been opening and clenching her fists, but looked more like a fish flopping, then shrugged and readied to fight again.

The little girl raised her hand and pointed at us, letting out another streak of that pain-causing binary. The bear-drone-thing roared and made to charge.

I swore.

We ran.

—

I was expecting an auto-door, so when I slammed into the double-doors and sent them clattering against the wall, it was enough to knock me on my ass - if it wasn’t for Chloe bouncing me back to my feet, I’d’ve been left behind with the bear.

Instead, we continued on, along a long corridor, the drone in hot pursuit. We turned left into another open hall and suddenly we weren’t in an arcology, we were deep underwater. I could feel it pressing in on me from all sides, endless pressure of an entire fucking ocean bearing down on me. It stretched out endlessly in all directions, and I slowed to take in the shoal of some shimmering fish swooping over our heads only to be swallowed by a colossal whale.

Max, visor over one eye, smacked at me. “Keep moving! Push forward!”

We kept pushing, but trying to walk under the weight of an ocean was a tough fucking endeavour. Suddenly, there was the sound of gunshots rattling around us - I saw nothing. Max swore again. “I’m trying to keep the bear-thing back, but we need to keep moving. I only have so much ammo in these things.”

Oh. Her drones. They were all around us. But why couldn’t I see them?

Holography? No, I’d be able to detect that with my cyberware. It had to be something new, one of the fucked up marvels dreamed up by the mad overlord of this place. Then again, the labyrinth had just appeared too.

I pushed my legs with all I had, keeping them moving slowly but goddamn fucking surely. Frak, the pressure was immense. My feet scraped against the floor with each step, forced and completely fucked.

Around me, the endless blue stretched out, teeming with flowing, glowing life. For a moment, I thought it was just an ocean, but I recognised motion in the darkness. It was like the shadow itself was moving. Whatever it was, it was just that massive. And then an eye opened and pinned me beneath its stare. The pupil alone was enough to envelop me.

Just staring at it - I could fall forever.

Something suddenly shoved me from behind and the shock jolted what little concentration I had. For a moment, just for a moment, my unconscious took charge. I lost focus on remembering that none of this real. And suddenly, for a moment, just for a moment, it was. My lungs and throat spasmed, like they were filling with water even though my rational mind knew they weren’t. I was drowning on dry land. I was drowning some eight hundred meters *above* dry land.

My entire body rebelled, trying to expel what wasn’t there. I couldn’t think- just an endless litany of *ohgodhelpmenopleasenoohgodhelp* over and over and over. Helpless. I was helpless.

I clawed at my throat, the panic of it snapping my attempts to remind myself back to reality and drowning me in terror.

I don’t know how long I was like that, stuck in the feeling. But eventually, a voice penetrated the surface and dived down to me. “Oh, dog, I hope this works.”

I barely registered the voice before a psychic slap rocketed my skin. Like someone had hit me completely over my entire body at once. And then the pressure was gone. The images began to fade, though they stuck around like shadows on my vision, dancing between the cramped steel of the corridors and the endless blue of ocean.

I scrabbled at my throat, body and mind not quite catching up to the fact that I was suddenly no longer fucking *drowning*. I took a deep, gulping breath, my mind telling me I needed to fill up my lungs with air to replace the water, while my body protested that my lungs were breathing just fine. And I blinked hard, trying to clear the images still swimming in my retinas. They rippled, but stayed, a semi-transparent overlay over everything.

That drek was awful. I- that’ll-

The bear-drone shrieked again.

“Run!”

Max’s drones swooped after us as we did just that. I’ve been running so much since all this happened. My calves must be delightful. They certainly burned right now. I turned a corner and suddenly everything was dark and silent. Not again. I couldn’t hear Max and Chloe, though I knew they must’ve been right beside me. Teleportation was impossible, after all.

Right?

I edged my way forward, feeling out with my hands - I could feel the metal of the wall, even if I couldn’t see it. My heart was pounding in my ears, some primal ‘fear-of-the-dark’ nonsense that was all I could do to push through.

But push I did, through and forward. All the weight of the world on my shoulders. As it always was.

I felt along, along and out, some subtle twist in the temperature of the room telling me I’d stumbled into a larger space. Another hall.

Goddamnit.

The shadows quickly cleared, leaving me staring at Max and Chloe desperately trying to barricade the door behind us. For a moment, I thought of moving forward to help. And then I got dizzy and stumbled to the ground again. I needed a moment. To breath? To be? To get the bloody ocean out of my eyes?

Fuuuuck. I rolled over and tried to stare at the ceiling, convincing my brain of the reality of what it saw.

Eventually, Chloe and Max came to check on me, and the thudding on the door stopped. It all went quiet. “Oh thank fuck for that. I was hoping that drekhead would fuck off already.” Chloe scowled. “Creepy motherfucker.”

Max leaned in. “Are you alright, Ice?”

“No. My vision is still fucked up and my head is killing me.” I grumbled, rubbing absently at a temple.

Max brightened. She passed me something from a medkit at her side. “That should help your head. And if you give me a minute, I should be able to clear the images again. It’s a- well, I’ll run you through it later. We don’t have time right now. We need to get you up.”

I nodded, and took the pill. She connected to one of my implants and began muttering. A few moments passed, and she disconnected. “Should be clearing in a moment.”

She was right. The vastness of the ocean compacted down to this weird empty space.

“Thanks.”

The three of us looked gratefully at each other before the quiet comfort was undercut by the resounding boom of the bear-thing smashing through those grand doors. The girl-thing was right on its heels, and let out another horrifying binary-shriek that sent us all to our knees.

One of Max’s drones, hovering high in the air, suddenly spasmed.

Max looked up at it in concern. “Wha-”

It spasmed again. Max looked back down at her rig and swore, started rapidly typing. “It’s trying to take my-”

The drone stopped spasming and turned to us. “It’s taken it.”

“Wha-”

The drone’s gun starting whirring up into motion. “Oh that’s just fan-frakking-tastic.” Chloe picked me up and hurled me into cover, grabbing Max in a rugby-run before diving us all behind thick metal just before the bullets started flying.

Max’s fingers flew over the rig again, and her face scrunched up in panic. “I- Wait.” Something in her expression firmed, and her rig flashed through the colour spectrum. She looked up at us and grinned. “I think I can do something about this. I need five minutes. Can you keep it distracted?” She looked at me. “Don’t- don’t try to hack it. This thing is worse than Black Ice - the only reason I’m trying this is the RIG isn’t in my head.”

I shrugged. Without the ocean in my head, I was a lot more useful. “I’ve still got my pistol. That’ll have to do.”

Chloe grinned again. “That’ll do nicely-”

The drone was still firing against our cover, and the metal was shaking under the force of it all.

Max tilted her head. “-three, two, one-”

The gun clicked empty. “Go.”

I ran left, Chloe ran right. The bear ran after her. And the girl ran after me. For a moment, I was offended - didn’t I seem like a threat? Then I saw the bear take a thick-clawed swing at Chloe and I was over it.

The girl tilted her head curiously at me, her eyes clicking again. She took a breath, ready to scream, so I punched her.

My hand clanked off her body and I swore. Fucking robots.

The girl screeched at me and I flinched back, hands immediately going to my ears. Bitch. Probably shouldn’t call a little girl a bitch - even if she’s trying to kill me. Oh god, my head. The girl screeched again, and - fuck it. In lieu of earplugs, I needed distance. I dashed away, keeping my hands over my ears. It just muffled the noise, but it kept me from bleeding out my ears, so good enough.

Unfortunately, I remembered that I needed said hands to shoot my gun. What a complex life I lead.

I darted away again, running around like a headless freaking chicken, hands on my ears like this. Absolutely fucking ridiculous. My self-scorn was even powering through the pain of the migraine this thing was inducing.

The techno-bird-thing-girl proceeded to chase me, chirping and shrieking enough to make my head pound. It was dizzying.

She put on a sudden burst of speed and knocked me back, my hands dropping from my ears as she screeched again, sending me to the ground. As I shook on the floor, she reached down and picked me up by the skull, hands on either side of my head as she picked me up with ease and held me so I was staring right into her eyes.

They were bright, a pleasant blue backlit by some LED glow inside her head.

As the girl’s hands squeezed my head even harder, I could see her drawing up for a new shriek, this one directly into my face. And then a clawed hand reached in and pulled something in the back of the girl’s skull.

The light in her eyes vanished immediately and she slumped. I stared at her for a long moment before Chloe pulled her off me. The motion pulled me out of my shock and I stared around - the bear was fizzing lightly on the ground, still twitching slightly as Chloe laid the girl to rest beside her guardian.

“I really, really hate this place.” I said, letting out a deep, sighing breath.

Both of them agreed.

Chapter Text

We were running again. And I wasn’t even sure why. I had a moment of dim awareness - my sides were burning. “St-stop!” I called out, legs stuttering to a halt as I collapsed against the wall, gulping for air.

The others paused, turned. And then it hit me. A bulbous blue-white mass of sickly flesh and cables, like a human soaked too long in deep ocean water. I got one very clear look at it, right before one of those cables snaked up and plugged into my jack.

I blinked and the world vanished, replaced with some Matrix construct of my mind. I recognised the decor. What I didn’t recognise were the crystalline branches creeping up my yucca plant, standing neatly in the corner. I took a few steps forward, to check it out, when something thunked behind me. I spun - a book. It was just a book. I moved over to pick it up, return it to its shelf. The title: Don’t Be a Fool, by Naya Than. Naya-

I turned back around. The crystalline branches had engulfed my yucca, and were slowly creeping along the furniture to either side of it, long vines of sparkling gems. Looking at them for too long, it hurt. Felt like electricity lancing through my eyes. Made the space behind them feel squeezed and trapped. Too small.

I flung the book at it. One of the branches shattered, but so did the book. Shards of it, like a broken mirror, floated in the air. I just stared at it. My Jack allowed me to process the inputs of the Matrix into something that would make sense to me. Something ‘real’. This just… my brain twitched.

I whirled again, batting away another tendril of crystal that had grown out of the wall and slowly, secretly snuck up behind me. Apparently that was all it needed, suddenly putting on a burst of speed and snaking up my arm and throat and slotting firmly into my datajack.

*Shit. Help*!

My brain burned.

I could feel my mind crystallising, piece by piece. The oddest sensation of black ICE I’d ever experienced, but somehow I was entirely calm. I was distantly aware that was a bad, bad sign, but I couldn’t get my mind together enough to care. I was just floating in the refracting light.

A dull voice rambled madly, words like power and hatred and order popping out of the thrashing sea of mutters.

And then something in my head clacked with the echoing slide of industrial lighting, the gentle refraction broken immediately by a blaring spotlight.

“GET OUT OF MY WIFE”, a familiar voice roared, shaking my mental worldspace like thunder.

The crystal shattered, releasing me back into the real world.

I fell to my knees and the blue/white… popped. I was covered immediately in some of the foulest rotgut I’d ever had the misfortune to encounter.

Both Chloe and Max were at my sides, trying to help me up. Neither of them gave a shit about the gunk. I couldn’t hear their voices though, everything outside me was muffled. Which gave me the space to hear Nathan’s chuckle and “You’re welcome.”

“Ex-wife.” I snapped. I paused. “And thanks.”

Then the world faded back in, just as Chloe and Max stopped talking to stare at me oddly. I shrugged, tapped my temple. “Nathan.”

They nodded. Enough said. “Speaking of, where’s the place?”

“It should be ahead.” Nathan flickered into being, pointed. “I didn’t have half as much trouble getting in here. Whatever DEUS remnant is fucking with this place might’ve moved it around. The original AI had almost complete control of the building - this chiphead is following in its footsteps.”

We dashed for the spot he pointed out, shoving open another non-automatic door (and what was it with that crap here? I hated that DEUS and I had some similar interior design tastes) and barging in to a small, cramped room.

“We’re here.”

“If you’re trying to do the quote, Nate, it’s “They’re here.” and we already fucked with the spirits.” Chloe shrugged. “Think you missed your shot.”

—

In the far wall - a safe! “Is that it?”

“I think so-” Nathan walked up and poked at it. His hand went right through. “Get it open and we’ll see.”

I grumbled, but did so. We needed it out. The safe was a cakewalk, barely three seconds to get open. Inside was an odd apparatus holding a prominent chip. I plucked it out. “Is this the thing?”

“That’s the one. Now, upload it into me so I can decode the memory.”

“Alright, I-” I paused. “How do I do that?”

He sighed. “I’m in your head, Vic. What do you think?”

“I’m not uploading that into me-” I started,

“You want the Dragon Hoard, right? You want revenge, right?” He leaned in. “You aren’t going to back down now, right when we’re really getting started?”

I growled. “Ugh. Fine. But I’m checking it through my deck first.”

“If you think your itty bitty board can handle it, go ahead.” He wafted a hand. I scowled again, slotted the chip.

There was an odd pressure in my temples as whatever-it-was downloaded into my head. And I could feel Nathan’s attention on it, something almost whirring in my brain as he- “Frak!”

“What?” I blurted. “Did something go-”

“It’s not complete.” He appeared back out in the room, looking furious. “I decoded the whole thing, but there are parts missing.”

“You’re lying.” I blurted, without thinking.

He scowled at me. “I’m not, I swear. You think I’m enjoying this drek?”

“Fine, fine. What did you get?”

“…are you sure you wanna do this here?”

“Nate…”

“Fine, fine. We need to go to Tenochtitlan.”

“Aztlan?”

“Yeah, you know, the capital of Aztlan, heart of the Aztechnology Blood Magic empire? It, what, used to be Mexico before all the political shit went down?”

“Central America wasn’t just Mexico. Didn’t you study history?”

“I got drunk before those lectures. Do tell, Vicky.”

I sighed. “There were a dozen or so countries there that Aztechnology annexed, annoyed, or otherwise integrated. Not just Mexico. Read a fucking book once in a while. Why are we going to Aztlan?”

“The memory. There’s a doc in Aztlan who helped me with the process. Maybe they’ll have the rest? Or know what the frak I did with it.”

“That’s… damnit, I-”

The walls began to whirr, something clicky and clacky growing in the storm of sound. DEUS had found us again. “Lets buzz - We should probably have this chat someplace else.”

“Agreed.”

We ran. Dear God, we ran.

—

Somehow, we made it back to the elevator unbothered. It rocketed downwards, away from the nightmare and back towards reality. Something of the horror shuffled off me during the descent, like sweeping the dust off before coming indoors.

We stepped out of the elevator and back onto that promenade, Nathan flickering back out of view. The three of us paused for a moment, just mulling through everything that had happened. “We have to let someone know about… all of that.”

“What?”

“There are thousands of people living here, Ice. If anything upstairs got-” She shuddered. We paused for a minute. “We have to tell someone.”

“Yeah. I mean… who would we tell?”

“Nana would just try to sell it to the highest bidder. Anonymous message to the government?”

Our silence said enough about that idea.

“Do you think that was really DEUS?” Max asked quietly.

I shook my head. “Fuck no. DEUS is dead. The crash killed it. Whatever it was up there, it wasn’t an AI.” I took a deep breath. “It must’ve been one of DEUS’ experiments, trying to get out of containment. Find a jack to pass on the problem to, then it can just… walk right out of here.” Both of them looked at me, expressions sceptical. Rude. “Look around us. Everything down here is fine. You really think this place would look like this if any of those experiments had gotten free?”

I spread my arms wide to gesture to the crowds, which made me notice the looks of shock and disgust. The bruises and bloodstains across all of us drew a lot of attention, horrified civilians taking long roundabout routes around us. Except for one.

A tall, thin elf, greying at the temples was walking along, whistling. I dimly recognised it as an old rock song. One of the few that had survived both crashes.

He stopped a few steps away from us and chuckled. “You’re quite the optimist, Ms Chase. This place is a carefully cultivated illusion: be it the corps, the governments, or the monsters upstairs. There are plenty of people who profit from the appearance of normality.”

I looked at him for a long moment. “The corps left this place before DEUS did. And the government doesn’t have the money for anything like this. So, you’re saying-”

“I’m saying nothing. Merely remarking on the paradox of your assumptions.” He chuckled again, some echo of the song in his words. “I’ll see you around, Ms Chase.”

Before I could respond again, he turned back around and started ambling off into the crowd, this time singing the lyrics. “Time is on my side, yes it is, Tiiiiime-”

He bumped into another person, a dark-skinned young human, and they took up the tune. “-is on my side, yes it is.” The person kept walking, grinning back at me. Behind them, the elf stumbled, looked confused, before drawing his coat tight and hurrying away.

The person extended an arm, gently tangling their fingers along a woman’s hair before tapping her on the hand. She didn’t even flinch, just took up the song without breaking breath. “Now you always say, that you want to be free. But you come running back - just like I said you would, baby - you coming running back, to me-e-eeee!”

The woman warbled a flair on the end of her tune, singing out into the vast mezzanine. Nobody else reacted to her, so she leaned in toward us, and I saw blue-white crystal behind her eyes. She grinned, a clever, vicious little grin. “This place is mine. Leave me alone, I leave you alone. Capische?”

We ran. Dear God, we ran. Leaving the monster behind us, laughing all the while.

Chapter Text

I leant back in the plane seat, feeling my spine suddenly restrict. This seat was awful. I missed my jet. My fine leather seats - actual leather, mind - were a thing of beauty. I could sleep in those. I could barely sit in these.

And I still couldn’t quite get that damn song out of my head, even now, three days later. Was that thing actually a piece of DEUS? Was it a remnant of some experiment? Hell, either answer was terrifying. It was basically free of the quarantine and had an entire arcology of people to play around with. Did it really control the entire ACHE? All those people? Or was it just taking a peek, here and there? Was it slowly growing through, burrowing like a cancer?

What would happen when it filled the entire ACHE and had nowhere else to go but out?

It wasn’t fair. The Housing Enclave was supposed to help people. But that was the way of things. Life wasn’t fair. It couldn’t be. Something would always be wrong, something would always go wrong. The trick was making sure it happened in the first few minutes, and not your last.

One of the many areas where business and shadowrunning apparently overlapped.

I took a drink of whatever it was that Max had handed me. It had a funny taste. I looked over at her. “This tastes weird. What is it?”

“Mouthwash. Your breath stinks.” She replied, and Chloe snorted a laugh.

Ah. Gross. I raised an eyebrow at the dwarf, and she shrugged. “Sorry. Whatever you were drowning in back there really did not help.”

I took another swig and swirled the stuff again. “Fine.” I shook my head. “We should not have made it out of there.”

“What are you talking about?” Chloe asked, from Max’s other side. She didn’t even need to lean around the dwarf. “We were awesome.”

I scowled at her, voice going bitter. That entire experience was a nightmare. “We were going up against something that controlled the entire building and possibly everything in it. With no planning, no preparation, no real awareness of what we were walking into.” I repeated the sentence again, slowly, word by word. “We should not have made it out of there.”

Chloe wafted a hand at me - dismissive bitch. “You worry too much, chummer. Look, we’re good at what we do, and DEUS-lite really didn’t wanna kill us. Make us suffer, maybe. But kill us? No. And if something doesn’t wanna kill you, then all you gotta do is keep going.” She snorted, gave a shrug. “That’s all we’ve ever done.”

Max eyed me and shook her head in a clear ‘that is total bullshit’ look. The fond amusement she looked at Chloe with reduced the effect somewhat.

Chloe continued, “There are a lot of bullets out there with our names on them - And even more just addressed to ‘the occupant’ - but if you spend all fuckin’ day worrying about them, they’ll just find you faster.”

“That’s… an interesting philosophy, Chloe.” I raised my eyebrow at her.

She shrugged and said one word that meant far more than it said. “Rachel.”

I got it instantly. I’d half forgotten Rachel and they had been… connected. My old bodyguard didn’t talk about it much. Or rather, she talked at length, but said very little. Rachel had always been like that.

“Do you think she’s still alive?” I asked. The last time I’d seen her was the night it all went down. I don’t think I saw her die.

Chloe hesitated a little before visibly mentally fortifying herself. “I’m sure she is. Rach ain’t the type to go out easy - or quietly.” She elbowed Max with a grin and the dwarf rolls her eyes. Chloe continued talking about Rachel, and I swiftly regretted my question.

I quickly changed the subject. “How far away are we, anyway?”

The moment the question left my mouth, the intercom sparked into life. “Hello everyone, this is your captain speaking. We’re about to land in Aztlan. Please have your passports and visas ready for inspection upon alighting the plane. Thank you in advance.”

Max shrugged. “That far, I guess.”

—

I swiped my credstick and the worker passed over my poncho and breather from behind the counter. I quickly donned both, the mask settling nicely over my face and the seal tight against my skin - the poncho, less so. Awfully tacky thing, and rather too tight in the shoulders. I trailed slightly after Chloe and Max, the two were chatting gaily away as they strode out into the main square outside the airport.

The Aztec and MesoAmerican style architectural influences were obvious - Aztlan had really branded this city well, and the stonework and faces mixed with modern glass and steel gave their presence a visible footprint. The square was open, and mainly a thoroughfare for pedestrians, though the side to our left did have a rail access point and there was a taxi rank next to the road access ahead.

Even for an airport, there were an eerily large amount of guards here. And more heavily armed than usual airport security too. I counted three, four, *five* armoured tanks. Tanks! Frak…

I kept my eyes away and hurried on to catch up. We went past the road and out into the city.

The City of Tenochtitlan was a grand sprawl of power and pollution. The stonework glowed with arcane power, standing squat and dense against the towering megacity skyscrapers. The city streets were dark and dirty, staining mould growing up from the floor and grasping up the walls.

For a moment, I was glad I wasn’t a mage. The arcane in this place would be… unpleasant. But apparently very appealling to the spirits. One of the few places on Earth where metaplane denizens could be regarded as citizens. Aztlan was odd like that.

We headed through those dirty streets, quickly navigating the ‘burbs and through another set of corpo sector castillos - significantly cleaner streets, with the telltale cracking of a heavy acid wash. This was why I paid people to clean my home properly. Preservation was key, and acid burns was not the tool for that job.

Chloe and Max stopped us outside one of those larger stone buildings. Chloe spoke up first, “You two stay out here. I’ll meet the informant.”

“…you..? Is that… wise?” I asked.

Chloe snorted. “Unless you two can pull off the accent, I’m best here. They don’t give a shit about trolls here, just local and not local.”

I frowned, looked over at Max, who shrugged in a “She’s right.” sort of gesture. “I was more worried about your personality, but fine. Try not to piss anyone off, chummer.”

Chloe grinned, and finger-gunned me, then headed into the temple.

We watched her go, and then I turned to Max. “Are we really sure about this?”

Max shrugged. “She’s right. She can sound more local than either of us. Even if they know she isn’t one of them, it’ll get her off on a better foot than either of us could be.”

“So, um. How are you doing with all of this?”

Max raised an eyebrow. “Is that Victoria Chase, showing empathy and interest?”

I scowled, and she smirked. “Sorry. I couldn’t resist. Honestly, I’m doing okay. I didn’t see it going quite this far when we started all of this, but it’s been interesting. If we make it out alive, I’ll be grateful, and Nathan seems legit with this paydata, trove thing.”

“Indeed he does. What do you think it is?” Max asked as she leaned back, hands in her pockets. Even trying to look unconcerned, she still looked watchful. An odd balance.

“Huh?”

“The Dragon Treasure.”

“I have no idea.” I was completely honest there. Nobody had ever found one, after all. At least, nobody who’d made the news. There were more reasons than just revenge that I wanted this. “It could be ancient technology, money, artifacts, magic shit. I don’t know of anyone who could tell us specifically what.”

“Excuse me.” A voice interrupted us, high and airy. I turned to see what looked like a small, grey child with pits of shadow for features. A spirit.

What did- oh. I stepped aside to let them pass and they gave me a nod, drifting past and into the building. Huh.

Honestly, I half forgot what we were talking about, and turned to Max to ask when Chloe ambled out and slipped me a data-stick with a surprisingly subtle motion - though her grin was anything but. I quickly scanned, downloaded, and verified the info. “Okay. We’re looking for a Burakumin complex about an hour south. Are we going to keep walking?”

“Unless there’s anything dangerous, might as well.” Chloe said.

Max’s eyes went blank for a moment, then: “It… seems fine. No police reports, anything like that.”

“Ace.” Chloe grinned, “Lets buzz. Sooner we get there, sooner we can get the next piece of this fucking puzzle.”

She threw her hands over our shoulders and guided us off, back on another jaunt through the city.

Chapter Text

“I… think this is it?” I said, checking back against the map-data. Yes, it seemed right.

The Burakumin complex was a lumpy-looking stone building, patched with modern materials and cobbled-on extensions all over, giving it a chaotic and anachronistic look I enjoyed intensely. For all it was an underclass favela, it was well-cared for and mostly clean - with no sign of acid burns anywhere. Manually done, most likely. Another tick in the approving box for this little community.

As we walked in - unmet by any security, unfortunately - I was struck by the sheer *life* of this place. People moved, laughed, lived all around us. You could feel it in the air. A few of them nodded pleasantly to us - so much unlike the reactions from the ACHE. There was less fear here. Less wariness. More connection.

Even spirits flew about freely, cavorting and spinning together and apart in some mysterious dance known only to them.

I liked it. I really, really liked it.

I turned back from watching it all to see Chloe exchanging nuyen with someone - that smooth, subtle handshake - then ambling back to us. “Second floor. Follow me.”

We trailed after her, up concrete stairs and along stone-carved corridors. She lead us up to a modern-looking door, one of the few on this floor, and tapped the alert button next to it. A few moments passed before an older man, hair long since gone and skin worn like old workboots, appeared. “Yes?” He said. He had a pleasant, smoky voice.

Chloe stepped forward. “We’re looking for a memory doc who helped-”

“You!” The man openly gazed at me in gratified surprise.

Chloe frowned, “Uh, no. Not her, it was-”

“He told me to expect you, Ms Chase!” The man continued, seemingly unaware Chloe had even spoken. And- wait, what?

“He did what?” I blurted. Nathan, what the hell did you-

“Oh yes.” The Doc nodded sagely, “Your husband was very certain you’d be coming for this data-store of his. Some sort of romantic game for the two of you, I take it?”

Frakk… “…something like that. Can you show us what my… husband left, please?”

“Of course, of course! Please do come in.” He stepped aside to guide us into his small, but perfectly neat and nice residence. As we settled in, he puttered about, hands waving nervously as he went to find whatever it was my idiot ex had left with him. Hopefully it was another part to the memory - or some tool we could use to restore the previous.

Then he brought out a box. An honest to goodness cardboard shoebox. It even looked antique.

He held it out to me. I picked it up and peered inside. A small sheaf of paper and a datachip. “What’s on the chip?”

“Ah, that would be the the instructions for the process. I am a trained memory extractor, but Nathan had some interesting spins on the matter that gave them a bit more life. Unfortunately, the matter was heavily patented, but I have to say it was an honor to get to work with it. As his wife, you are of course entitled to read the documentation.” He wafted a hand. “I’m not certain of your background though, so I will warn you it can be quite technical.”

“Oh? It was new?” I asked, staring down at the contents of the box.

“Oh yes, most cutting edge. In the traditional process,” His voice took on the cadence of an expert who was used to explaining, but still delighted in doing so, “-a person must be wearing simsense recording equipment to create a proper chip experience and memory. Though technically the simsense equipment is simply tapping into the human sensory net in order to record incoming sensation so there is some debate as to the validity there. However, our technique directly extracted memories from the mind. He claimed it was based on snail lostech, but I… am not certain if that was truth or a joke.”

I blinked. “You took the memory out of his head?”

“Indeed.” The man chuckled. “He was most confused for hours after the process - it took a long while to calm him down and explain once the memory was gone. And we developed a new process to edit and modify the memory - he split it into several pieces.”

“Do you know where he hid the rest?” If anyone would, surely it would be-

“I’m afraid not.” Damnit. “He was very tightlipped.” The man sighed, then suddenly jolted, struck by an idea. “Though there may be something left in the papers! He must have left them for you for a reason.”

“You didn’t read them?” Chloe asked. And, honestly, fair. I would have.

His face crinkled in horror. “Ms Chase, I am a professional. That would be unethical.”

As a journalist, I did not share his sensibility. The truth will out, as the old saying goes.

Chloe leaned in, studying him with surprising intensity. “You really mean that, don’tcha?”

The doctor nodded enthusiastically, “Yes. Without ethics, people are nothing more than animals. Our ability to believe is what differentiates us. We all do things that have good and bad impacts on the world around us. Applying a moral framework to those actions is part of what makes us people.”

“Huh.” Chloe sat back, clearly mulling.

I sat back and looked at the man for a while, then made a decision. “We may need your help. We have one copy of my husband’s previous memory, but it was corrupted, or possibly just fragmented. Can you do anything about that?”

“Possibly!” His horror vanished, replaced by good cheer again. “I’d have to see it to give you a more definitive answer, but I am likely one of the few people who would be able to.”

“…fine. Here.” I tossed the chip over to him. “See what you can do with that.”

“You’re very kind, Ms Chase. I’ll need a few hours - you’re welcome to stay, or wander the complex if you like. If I might offer a suggestion, there are some good restaurants on the main floor.”

Chloe’s stomach groaned. “It has been a while since I ate anythin’.”

Max shrugged. “I guess that decides it.”

The two of them herded me out and we left the doc to it. Chloe quickly found a chow spot - we took what we needed from the buffet and began to dig in. Okay, he was right. This was a good restaurant.

But eventually we were fed and needed more to do. So, we went looking for work. There had to be somebody in this place who needed our help, right?

—

Max took payment from the old lady with a smile. “Null sheen, Miss. We were happy to help. Your husband was certainly a smart man, hiding that safe in your library like that.”

We strode away from her, putting off her offers to stay for dinner and meet her grandchildren. One person in this town didn’t mind that we weren’t around here. And then I offered a hesistant question: “Did you see the cat with the-…”

“Yeah. The drone talked to me.” Max shook her head. “I… think it was interpreting for the cat.”

What in the actual fuck.

Chloe walked up to us. “Hey.” She passed Max a credstick. “Got a decent payday. But there’s a problem - we need to go and get the doc. It’s been hours and nothing.”

“Frakking hell.” I swore, low and annoyed. “Come on, the stairs should be right up here.” We ran along the corridor to the next staircase, then up to the next floor and we continued along the corridors of the complex until we came to the doctor’s door. I pushed the alert as Chloe knocked loudly. Nothing. The door slid open. Nothing again.

We walked in. The place was a wreck.

The Doc was gone.

Damnit.

—

Nathan flickered into view. “You found him!” He looked around the wrecked space. “He’s really let himself go.”

“You’ve missed some things.” Chloe said in a drawl.

“Apparently.” He smirked. “So, what happened?”

“No idea. We came back to this.” Chloe gestured to the wreckage, a wide sweep of her claw. “Shouldn’t you know, anyway? Aren’t you, like, tapped into Ice’s nervous system or something?”

“Not quite.” The hologram took a deep breath in. “And I was… distracted. Did you check his security system?”

“His security system?” Max chimed in, interested now.

Nathan snorted. “So, that’s a no. He was a memory doc in a burakamin complex, of course he had extra security. There’s a reason I went to this guy. He’s more than he seems.” He poked around the room for a bit, humming and muttering reminders to himself until inspiration struck. He strode over to a wall and tapped it. “It was here, I think? Maybe check around for a button or something.”

We checked around for a button. Nothing.

Then I realised something, reached out, and pushed at the wall. “Holograms.” Nathan stared for a second, then laughed. I reached in and felt around, managing to switch off the illusion. A big stack of computers and screens. I plugged in and got to work. It was the work of moments to hack it. And I found the recording. The troll had burst in, accompanied by a team of shadowrunners, and grabbed the man by the skull and dragged him out. It was sharp and quick and violent and even after all this time, I still found it uncomfortable. “Lofwyr’s people found him.”

“Frakk.”

Chapter Text

"I'm assuming they have the files?" Nathan asked, voice tight.

I nodded. "The doctor was working in them when he got taken. Even if they didn't take the datastick after they wrenched him out of the walljacks, they have everything they need in his head."

"Fuck." He ran a hand across his face, the light-generated flecks of his hair buzzing with the motion.

"Yeah..." I shook my head, took a look around. It was gone. "And they did take the data-stick. It's just a copy, but still."

"We have to find them. Fast. They can't have gone far." Nathan stared at me, flints of something almost barely his old forcefulness in his eyes.

I thought for a moment. "The troll won't stay out in the open for any more time than he has to. He'll have a safehouse sorted already. Maybe more than one." Max nodded approvingly - I really was starting to think like a Shadowrunner. Of course. I am a Chase, and I've worked hard to become as talented as I am.

"So what? What else can we do, Vic? Seriously, if you have any other options, I'd love to hear 'em!" He threw up his arms. "Lofwyr has royally fucked us and if we don't hurry, we'll lose any hope of any of this working."

I looked over at Chloe and Max, who just shrugged back at me. I knew what that motion meant - they thought he had a point. "Fine. Give me a minute." It took me forty seconds to get into the local surveillance grid. No idea when the guy got grabbed, but it had to have been recent. I found a camera covering the main doors and scrolled back in the timeline. Lucky for me, these Aztech assholes kept good records - the cameras held in-drive backups up to 24 hours previous, even out here in a Burukamin district. Or perhaps because they were in a Burukamin district. Classism always held. And that was lucky for us - everything we needed would still be here. We hadn't even been in the country for 24 hours yet.

It took me longer to scrub through all the footage. The UI on this software was awful, one of the idiots in my company could have done a better job of it. Hell, once I got my company back, I'd buy whoever made these products and make it happen.

But eventually, I found it. Not at the main door, but a side exit. The troll and his companions hurried out into the street, silenced weapons gunning down a few people who turned to look at them - the troll looked up into my camera and grinned, broad and toothy.

"Asshole." I couldn't help but breathe out the insult.

He raised his gun and blew the camera apart. The image fizzed.

I sat back. "He knew about the camera. He had to know shooting the thing wouldn't destroy any records. He's been intelligent and aware of things so far, it wouldn't make sense for him to miss something so obvious." I sighed. "It's a trap."

"Well, yeah." Nathan drawled - the implied 'duh' dripping from his tone, "Of course it's a trap. But that just means we know how to play 'em now. They want us to run in and trip it, so we do, but we trip it our way, not theirs. Then we fuck 'em up. Just like we used to do in the boardroom."

"Just like I used to in the boardroom." I retorted, sharp and cutting. "You were as much obstruction as help."

He shrugged, surprisingly unoffended. "Yeah, well. We got paid, didn't we?"

I couldn't deny that. We certainly did.

—

The trail lead all the way across the city, two different transport companies, and a bunch of increasingly impressive obfuscating tricks and traps, all the way to a dumpy factory of godawful concrete. Even it had the faux-Aztec fetishes and memorabilia that adorned this entire city, it was truly hideous. The door was this big, squatting steel security thing, with three guys milling around outside. They were very conspiciously inconspicuous.

"What's the plan?" Chloe asked.

Max chimed in, "We should do some scouting, get some numbers. Find out what kind of trap they're playing with here."

"Alright." I thought a moment. "Blue, you get eyes on any other entrances, Max, you get your drones out, see if any of them can make it in through a vent or something. Get some eyes inside."

Max and Chloe both nodded and split off, disappearing out of view in a moment. I turned back to the building. Right. I took a brief scan, no visible ports or security issues. It wasn't Fort Knoxx or anything, but still. Not a milk run.

Then again, I was very, very good.

I pulled up my deck and jumped in, entering the Matrix at a stride as I headed deeper into the little complex. A couple of ICE guarded the entrance - easily dispatched with a single assault program each. Pathetic.

I pushed on through their Matrix connection, taking out a couple dozen ICE of varying levels. Nothing close to the worst I'd dealt with, but irritations nevertheless.

And then I found their node. Frankly, the security on that was most pathetic of all. I broke in, took control of everything on site, changed just a few lines of code, then stepped back out. Try to trap me? Go to hell.

I reached down and pulled out my pistol just as the automated gunfire began to sound from inside. "We should be quick." I said, "Without me actively directing the shots, the doctor may get caught in the crossfire."

I spun out of cover, aimed, fired, taking down the first of the three guards on this entrance. The other two dived for cover as Max and Chloe followed me up, gave little rat-a-tat sprays of automatic fire in their direction. A moment later, one of Max's drones popped up from the side, blasting behind the metal container they were using for cover. The two last guards fell, one's hand flopping out into our view and blood rapidly pooling.

"Damn." Chloe said. "That was ice cold."

I gave her a look. She laughed.

I scowled. "I will shoot you, Blue. Get moving already."

She laughed harder, and we all headed into the building. Bitch.

—

The first room was multi-level, three u-shaped floors connected by a central stair. A body was hanging limp over one of the railings, and a turret was still blasting it. Barely moments after we entered, someone tossed a grenade over to us. Chloe quickly kicked it up and back into the room, which blasted a few bodies back down to us that hit the floor with ugly, meaty sounds.

Chloe grinned back to us. "Well. What a greeting." She quipped.

I just rolled my eyes.

Max sent her drones up ahead, adding to the cacophany of gunfire already coming from ahead. We followed, our own weapons ready. It was a running fight the rest of the way, a heavy push through whatever mercs had been left here. Lucky for us, they were mostly distracted by their own tech turning on them. If we'd've had to do this by ourselves, things would've been far harder.

Eventually, after far less time than it felt, we made it up to the last floor, kicking in the door and dispatching the room with a hail of gunfire.

The last person living there was our man, staring at the blood around him in mounting horror.

Chloe grabbed the man and pulled him to his feet. "Doc? You okay?"

He gently pulled out of Chloe's grasp and dusted himself off. He took a deep breath and quite deliberately steadied his shaking hands. "Quite alright. Aside from the Troll, they were all quite respectful. I believe I was needed intact."

"Yeah." I nodded, "We think they wanted the memory you were decoding for us."

"Decrypting, not decoding." He corrected, "The data was still structured, it was simply requiring my process to be properly usable."

I nodded. "Right, sorry. Did you get it done though?"

"I did." He pulled it out of… somewhere, and waved it gently, then held it out to me. "Here, they never got around to frisking me for it. I was interrogated, but they never asked about any chips, so… are you sure they wanted it?"

Chloe snorted. "Unless you've done something to piss off a bigger fish than Aztechnology themselves, yeah, we're pretty sure."

He blinked. "Bigger than- oh my. Yes. You'd better take this," He practically pushed the chip into my hands, where before he'd merely held it out. "The quicker you take the process and equipment, the quicker they'll leave me alone, right?"

Before I could say anything - particularly a warning about how they may want whatever was in his head, not just his computers - Chloe stepped in and put a hefty hand on his shoulders. "Right on, chummer. Come on, we'll getcha back to your pad and you can pass on anything you think you wanna ditch."

The doc nodded very enthusiastically, and practically ran after Chloe in his haste to be done with all this. I shook my head and followed.

—

While Chloe and Max helped the Doc unpack, I dealt with the data. And while the file was further unpacked, it was still damnably lacking. "This isn't the whole memory - why isn't it the whole memory?"

The doc paused halfway through unplugging a drive from his wall computers. "Oh, I- it's a scavenger hunt, isn't it? You've found my part, which will hold the clue to the next, and so on."

I sighed. Of course. "Any hints?"

"The memory did seem to point to another locale, but I tried not to look too deeply. My decryption technique doesn't require it, and it's polite to respect your privacy where possible. I only needed major markers and- oh, I'll spare you the jargon. Suffice to say, I don't know."

"You coulda just said that." Chloe quipped.

The doctor smiled. "A lifetime in academia does lead one to using a hundred words where ten will do."

"Heh. Alright, shall we?" I reached out and tapped play.

Nathan shimmered into view, clearly staring into some sort of shimmering water - hence the effect. A few moments of that passed before the image faded, followed by an almost desolate plain. I didn't recognise the area, but he was walking slowly through it, pushing against a silent wind. More and more places, scenes I recognised from previous memories and more I didn't. All those parts of the puzzle, slowly building up our picture. But still, pieces were missing. Scenes played in part or flickered over clearly missing sections. Sentences shambled toward meaning they were incapable of reaching.

And then I saw something. Nathan was in a dingy, downlit bar, too dark and too patchy to see any faces. But I could see one thing clearly: The writing on the wall. Literal, not metaphorical. A small placard sign, with a dozen words on it. Though I didn't read it, I recognised the language. "I know where this-" Something beeped on my deck. Urgent. "Oh fuck." I groaned, staring down at the blaring alert on my screen.

"What?"

I tapped the alert and brought up more information. "APB out for our vague descriptions. Apparently one of the cameras caught something on our way back. One of those goons was the son of some local exec. Moonlighting for kicks, I guess. But now he's dead, mother wants the heads of those who did it. Which, I might remind you, is us."

"I guess that's our cue then." Max hopped off the dresser and back onto the floor. "Thanks Doc, it's been a pleasure."

The doc smiled. "I can't say it's been the easiest visit, but I have enjoyed your company."

"So, where are we goin', anyway?" Max continued, "You said you knew where the memory was."

I opened my mouth to respond, but the Doc quickly told me to stop. "The more you say, the more I have to remove. Please," He blinked violently, and suddenly spat up a chip. He looked down at it, then up at us with a smile. "This must be yours. I'm glad we had a nice visit. Goodbye."

I scooped up the chip - alarmingly, it was completely dry - and we left without another word.

Once we hit the street, Chloe picked up Max's inquiry. And this time, I answered: "Asamando. Ghoul Nation."

Chapter Text

Asamando was a unique place. Situated in what used to be Northern Ghana, it was one of the few places where ghouls were accepted. Metahumans who ate flesh tended to be at the very least disliked in most places, but in Asamando, they were royalty.

Literally. Hereditary matriarchal monarchy. For all their anthropophagy, I liked their style. More places needed to be lead by powerful women.

We’d shuttled in by a tiny bi-plane from an adjacent nation, piloted by the shiniest dwarf I’d ever seen. The man practically glowed. And his clothes were even brighter.

The cabin was enclosed, separate from the cockpit - though more like a taxicab than a full private jet. It was a little old and worn, but serviceable.

“We’re coming over the border now. It’ll be twenty minutes to touchdown in Nyamkopon.” The pilot reported. I never did get his name.

Loud sliding sounds came from somewhere around us, and the pilot swore. “They have a target lock!”

“Target lock?”

Missiles rammed into the side of the plane, exploding immediately and blowing a hole in the side. One of the wings was gone almost immediately, torn off by the wind force and lack of fixtures holding it on.

Frankly, I don’t remember much of the next few minutes. Just screaming air and bright flashes. Then the crash. Then nothing.

—

I rolled out of the crash and flat onto my back. Pebbles and scrub dug into my back, but I was alive. It really was astonishing how low my standards had gotten. But you know. Alive was good. It’d do for now.

I lay there for a while, breathing deeply, feeling aches and pains in every bone I had, until Chloe’s face appeared in my vision. “You alright, Ice?”

“I’m fine.” I breathed out deeply, and something in my chest hitched. I scowled as Chloe smirked. I very emphatically reiterated, “I’m fine.”

She snorted, and from this distance I could see up her nose as her nostrils flared with the gesture. How utterly gauche. “Right. Sure you are. Want a hand?” I took her proffered hand and let her pull me up off my feet before depositing me neatly on the ground. That thing in my chest screamed with the motion, and it took everything I had to stay quiet. When I was upright, I swayed with the effort, Chloe effortlessly leaning in to secure me. I glared at her, and she just smirked again.

Max was standing off in the distance, looking at something on her console. “Is the pilot..?” I asked, already regretting it.

“Very dead.” Max responded. “Be happy for him that it was quick.”

We heard sirens in the distance, and I took a look around. A quick hack later and all the security cameras were wiped and the plane exploded even further.

We were a civilian plane, and aside from any flight plan the man had plotted, completely unpublicised. Asamando had hardly started shooting down tourists, so something else must’ve happened. Either a mistake, or… “The Prescotts.”

“What?”

“We need to find a place to watch the wreckage. Maybe that building?” I pointed to a nearby multi-storey tower. “Missiles shot us down. It makes no sense, unless they knew it was us. We don’t have any enemies in Asamando, except-”

“Except Sean Prescott. Or whoever the drekhead paid, anyway.” Chloe finished. Max just nodded quietly beside her. “But why do you wanna-”

“Because, if they’re official Asamando Law Enforcement, we know to avoid them. If they’re Saeder-Krupp, we can follow them.”

“Why? I mean, do we even know if the local SK would have anything to do with it? Shouldn’t we just avoid them? No point pokin’ the dragon, pun intended.” I gave Chloe a look, but the girl just shrugged and continued. “Nathan-” He appeared. “Would you have put it anywhere near an SK facility?”

He thought for a minute. “Maybe. If I was desperate. But I’d bet money it’s somewhere else. I’d’ve dropped it somewhere.”

I sighed. “I guess we really are getting out of here then.”

—

“Do you remember anything new? Anything seem familiar at all?” I asked, as we walked down yet another street.

Nathan shook his head, staying to the shadows. “Nothin’ yet. We could try a bar?”

“What?”

He snorted. “Come on. If I came here, scared to shit and trying to hide a hoard, then I was obviously gonna hit the bar.”

Shit, okay. I sighed. I couldn’t disagree. “That’s a good point. Right.” I turned to Chloe and Max. “Where’s the cheapest, tackiest, most obnoxious place in town?”

Nathan beamed. “The woman knows me.”

Unfortunately.

—

I strode into the bar. The place was indeed cheap, tacky, and obnoxious. The kind of place Nathan would be right at home. The walls were rough hewn metal, holes patched with galvanised iron. The music was pounding and dirty, but intensely low quality.

And we got the eye of every person in there the moment we came into view. Nothing violently obvious - nobody stared, or pulled a weapon - but very very unsubtly aware of our entrance.

Chloe strode over to one of the seedier corners and began chatting with a woman in a low voice. Max and I hit the bar. The first bartender, an older human woman, greying in her temples and lines at her eyes, watched us approach before asking us, “What’s your poison?”

Max ordered a drink, and after a pause, I followed suit. Bartenders always liked you more when you were spending money. Of course, they liked you less when you were too drunk, so it was a somewhat kronenbergian ouroboros of contradiction.

“We’re looking for someone.” I gave a quick description of Nathan.

The bartender shook her head. “Don’t know them. Try asking around.”

So, we did. Most of them pretended to only speak Spanish or Portuguese, sometimes flipping when I then proceeded to ask them questions in either language. When they flipped into Dagbani, I asked again in the same language. They still pretended not to understand. I got the message.

Finally, a short, dumpy man in the corner called us over. He looked almost ratlike, clearly a ghoul but on the weaker, scurrying end of things. “I know something that may be of use to you, lets talk more privately.”

Max and I followed him over to a corner booth, and were quickly joined by Chloe. “Whatcha doin’?”

“Talking to someone who may know something.” I responded, gesturing to the man.

He blinked at me, drained whatever was in the glass in front of him. “Who me?” He asked, looking genuinely and worryingly confused.

“Yes, you.” I snapped, “You called us over saying you know something.”

The man shrugged. “For 500 nuyen, I might know something.”

I scowled at him and whirled, striding back to the bar, ordering and downing another drink.

One of the bartenders, a tall male troll with horns decorated by ribbons and cords, laughed at me. I turned and glared at him, and he just held up his hands - still laughing, the asshole. “What?” I demanded.

“You know nobody’s gonna talk to you, right? You look like trouble.” A smile, just a little too wide, a little too cruel. “Or dinner.”

Ghouls.

I sighed. “Look, I’m just looking for my ex-husband.”

The bartender snorted. “Bad breakup?”

“He died.” And still didn’t have the good grace to have it stick. “Then I found out he left some ridiculous worldwide breadcrumb search for me and it’s been nothing but-”

He looked at me suddenly, eyes wide. “Wait, you’re Vic?”

I blinked in honest surprise. …the hell? “Yes… that’s me?”

“Nate talked about you all the time!” He paused, frowned. “I… honestly always thought you were a guy.”

He looked me up and down as I stared in disbelief back at him. “You what?”

“Right. Anyway. Gimme a sec, I think I got your breadcrumbs.” Moving way quicker than I’d seen any troll move, he vanished into the back. I looked awkwardly between my two companions - Chloe was openly trying to swallow a laugh. Her lack of subtlety was pretty much deliberate, at that point.

“What?” I snipped at her.

She swallowed another laugh. “Sorry, sorry. But I think that guy was flirting with you.”

“Flir- no, he really wasn’t.” I shuddered. I looked to Max who just shrugged and, wisely, stayed out of it. “No. Just. No.”

“Hey baby, I got your breadcrumbs right here.” The troll drawled, a not-half-bad impression of the man’s accent. “It’s like the worlds worst porn trid dialogue.”

“And how would you-” I shook my head. “Actually, on second thought, please don’t answer that.”

“Probably for the best.” Chloe snorted. “Maxie’s search history would probably traumatise you, nevermind mine.”

Mercifully, the guy came back out lugging a surprisingly big box, maybe the size of a hatbox. “Here. Don’t open it here. I don’t want the trouble.”

The room was still half-watching us, so I agreed. And I really needed to not have to go back to that conversation. Jesus Christ. I took the box from him and passed it over to Chloe. After some hurried thanks, we headed out.

“So, if we aren’t getting this shit done there, where are we going?” Chloe asked, and Max nodded in agreement. Before I could respond, Chloe continued, voice meandering the further through her sentence she got, “I think we should head… back… to… fuck.”

I followed her gaze to see a familiar imposing figure standing a short distance away.

The Troll clapped his hands, slow, patronising sounds that echoed through the street like gunshots. “Congratulations, Ms Chase. I’m not sure how you found out about all of this, but you’ve gotten far further than I ever thought you would.”

“You continue to underestimate me.” I remarked, “You should stop.”

The troll snorted, raised his oversized revolver. Chloe immediately blasted him, an actual assault rifle coming from nowhere and thocking heavy rounds into his chest. The troll fell back, and covering fire rained down on us from a dozen angles. His unseen support were good, accurate shots. If it wasn’t for the armor, we’d all be dead in that first volley alone.

We split off, each diving for our own cover. The troll, freed of Chloe’s fire, laughed. “You shouldn’t delay the inevitable, Ms Chase. Like I told you, Termination is a mission priority.”

“You tried it once and failed, asshole!” I yelled back. “What makes you think you’ll do any better this time?”

The wall beside me smashed into powder and a hand clamped over my head. “Preparation.” The troll’s voice was muffled through the hand, but still rocketed through my skull. Or maybe that was the headache.

He blasted something and I heard a form collide with a wall. Then Max’s drones flew overhead and snapped something at him, metal clamping down hard. The troll laughed and squeezed my skull harder. “Madmax, I’m guessing? My people will deal with you.”

She yelled something I didn’t catch and her drones began firing.

Then the pressure on my head was gone and the Troll was just there, right in front of me, and he grinned. He pulled back his fist and in a flash, punched me across the jaw. I think something broke. He swung again and again and there was nothing I could do. Everything began to hurt so much that I couldn’t even tell what was pain anymore. Then he snorted and dropped me to the ground.

I lay there, helpless, twitching, as he walked away.

He reached down and picked up the box from where it had fallen. I could barely see it through the bleariness and swelling. It was tiny in his hand. He smiled down at it. And then he shot me.

Chapter Text

I came to in a daze, bleary-eyed and dizzyingly light-headed. I was… alive? That was unexpected. And pleasant, for a moment, before the haze of ignorance faded and the haze of pain settled in for the duration. Being shot hurt. A lot.

But pain was good. Pain meant healing. I knew nerve damage. Every decker did. This? This was *good*.

I tried to blink my eyes open, but they were still swollen and it took actual force to bend them open even a crack. Then more, then the crusted blood broke apart and I could finally see. I coughed, racking pain in my ribs. “Oh fuck.”

A moment later, a face appeared. Or I assumed it was a face. My eyesight was still too damn blurry to make out anything particularly clearly besides the sky - a pleasant blue-grey. Then a voice slunk into my ears, smooth and airy. It promised everything would be okay. That I was in good hands. That I would be taken care of.

It had rather the opposite effect of what the voice was hoping for, I imagine. I started wriggling as best I could, and realised quickly that I was bound to or wedged against whatever I was lying on. I didn’t have enough feeling in my back to tell what it was. I made whatever sounds I could, screaming out to avoid this being hidden and-

Everything went blank.

—

I woke up briefly a few more times over the next couple of weeks - always slightly bleary, and the memories were all… confused. Through it all, I got aware enough to know that, wherever I was, I was receiving *very* advanced medical treatment. Whoever these people were, they knew how to preserve life and keep vitals stable.

I finally woke up for good when a discordant howl of electronic static and something almost like coil whine blared through my ears like a trideo scream. I bolted upright, sending aches through my entire body. The moment I was conscious, the noise stopped. I blinked around at it, mentally probing through my own brain, trying to work out what the hell was going on.

Then a voice. “Hello? Ms Chase?” It was a pleasant accent, light and breezy. I turned to look at them - more joint aches. A tall ghoul stood in the corner, draped loosely in a white labcoat with long, loose dreadlocks draped down their back. “I’m glad to see you properly awake.”

“Uh…” I shook my head to clear some of the fuzz. “Thank you. It’s nice to be awake.”

The ghoul doctor smiled. I only just held in my instinctive shiver. Their teeth were just a little too… sharp. “You should know, it’s been seventeen days since you were brought in. We had to repair a lot of damage - the bullet tore through parts of your brain. Lucky you had scans on record.”

I watched them warily. “If you know who I am, you should know I can’t pay for any of this.”

They wafted a hand, then picked up a document from one of the side tables, scanning through it. “All costs have been taken care of.”

I stayed wary. “By whom?”

They looked back up again. The document went into a pocket. “The Queen of Asamando. She’ll be coming to visit you later today.”

The… Queen? Oh. That’s… “Oh. Does she want something from me?”

The doctor tilted their head, gave another smile. “I have no idea. I can’t speak for Her Majesty.”

“Okay.” Because that wasn’t unnerving at all. I was going to meet the Ghoul Queen. Huh. “Do you know where my-” Friends? Colleagues? “-was I brought in with anyone?” I asked.

They nodded. “You were. Two metahumans. They’re currently elsewhere in this facility. The Troll is still unconscious, but the Dwarf has been awake and on her feet for several days.”

“The Troll? The Dwarf?” I asked.

“They wouldn’t tell us their names.” A shaken head and a snort of irritation. Someone who wasn’t overly familiar with Shadowrunners then.

“Oh.” I sighed. Right. I’ll ask them when I see them what they want me to say. “Well, if you could let the Dwarf know I’m awake, I’d appreciate it.”

The Doctor tilted their head. “You should be able to walk. You can go let her know yourself, if you like.”

“I can?” Somehow, that surprised me. Especially with all the talk about the Queen before. Royalty does not tend to have that kind of… magnanimity.

“You’re not a prisoner. You just need to stay in the complex until the Queen can talk to you, then you’re free to do as you wish.”

Delightful contradiction.

I let it lie. “Okay. Could you tell me where she is, then?”

They gave me a long series of directions. Then at my slightly dizzied expression, sighed and lead me for nearly 20 minutes through endless labyrinthine corridors and atriums. The entire place seemed modular too, just for an extra added sense of disorientation and confusion. =

Architects. They need to be stopped. I understood then why I was free to walk the facility.

Then I spotted her. Max was sat in neatly pressed clothes - looking cleaner than I’d ever seen her, even at Blackwell - drinking soykaf and staring at a blank vidscreen.

I went over and sat next to her, nodding my thanks to the person who guided me. “Hey.”

“Hey Ice.”

Okay then. Handles only. What the hell was Max’s handle, anyway? I hadn’t called her anything but Max since day one. I’m sure she’d mentioned it, but I could not for the life of me remember. No matter. If there was one thing years of being a socialite taught me, it was how to interact familiarly with people you couldn’t remember the name of.

“Hello there.”

I was a *little* rusty.

Then she looked over at me, glanced me up and down. “Dodged death twice now, Ice. Maybe you really were born to run the shadows.”

“I’m Victoria Chase. I was born to do whatever I damn well please.” Max raised her eyebrow at me. I shrugged. “They know who I am already. No sense being cute about it.” I lean back in the awful chair. “Do we know what’s happening?”

“A few minutes after The Troll shot you, we were picked up by local law enforcement. They, in the time honored tradition of corporate security everywhere, gave us to the first person to pay a good enough price. Apparently that was the Queen.”

“Frakk. That’s not good news. Nathan? Can you-” Nothing. “Nathan?” What the hell? He shouldn’t be- Oh. “Do you know if the bullet grazed any of my brain implants?”

Max shrugged. “Not a clue, sorry. They haven’t really told me much, and I don’t have the space to do anything subtle with my drones.”

“Damnit. Okay. We should-”

“My apologies for interrupting,” A new form appeared, a sort of spectre?, speaking at our shoulder. “The Queen has arrived, and she wishes to speak with you.”

Max and I shared a look. “Alright. Take us to your leader.” Max said, barely suppressing her laugh.

The spectre shook her head. “Not you. Only her.”

Max and I shared another look. “Very well.”

—

The Queen was clearly a corpse.

Flesh sagged and swayed as she moved, and her hair, long and peroxide blonde, stayed attached in only the most tenuous of senses. Her limbs were long and lanky, lean in a way that marked her as Sasabonsam, the local ‘upper class’ ghoul variant. Her skin, pale, stretched, and torn, hung off her like a cheap suit, despite the regal finery she wore. And then there were her eyes. Her sclera - the ‘white of the eye’ in a human - were a violent, bloody red.

And then I realised that, as I’d been studying her, she was studying me. Those eyes weren’t implants, but they were flickering over my form and motions. Most ghouls were blinded by infection, but this woman had done something about that, something that had really left its mark.

“Ms Chase.”

“Please, call me Victoria.” I curtsied.

“You can call me Your Majesty.” She snipped back primly.

Ah. So, she’s one of those.

“Of course, Your Majesty. I wanted to thank you, for the care offered here. It is appreciated.”

Her mouth stretched in a rictus grin, skin flapping bare from too-sharp teeth. “You were caught fighting Saeder-Krupp minions in my territory. It was the only choice.”

“You… don’t like Saeder-Krupp?” I asked, after a beat of hesitation. International geopolitics were a tenuous thread to pull in any conversation, much less this one.

“The wyrm presumes far too much. And his petty attempts at my crown irritate me highly.”

“I thought Asamando did business with Saeder-Krupp..?”

The woman eyed me with amusement, her claw coming up to itch idly at a temple. “You were a CEO, before this. Did you not work with people you despised? People who would and did screw you at a moments notice, as befit their own agenda?”

Fair point. My silence was answer enough, and she gave a reedy laugh.

“My mother never blamed the Germans. Too forgiving, in my opinion.”

“You’re talking about the assassination attempt. The Saeder-Krupp delegation was infiltrated by an assassin-”

She launched herself forward, something sparking in her eyes as her teeth gnashed the air by my ear. I flinched back, but her clawed hand lashed out and held me firm. Those eyes bled with a fury I hadn’t seen coming. “They tried to kill my mother, and almost succeeded.” She hissed, face distorting. “They lie that the assassin was not one of theirs.”

I took some deep breaths and tried to stay still. Her gaze was surprisingly helpful for that. She ground her teeth again, then pulled back. Her teeth grew slightly less sharp, her face less angular, and her body less ready to fight. Then I realised her eyes hadn’t changed. That hunger was still there.

She tilted her head at me. It moved awkwardly, like it had been nailed to her spine and was twisting in a low wind. “So. What is your next move?”

I shrugged, took another deep breath. “Find Saeder-Krupp’s agents, kill them, and find what paydata we can. Without more information, we can’t make a plan.”

The Queen nodded, resolved. “Then Asamando will provide you resources. We have a Saeder-Krupp airship that you can borrow. In return, you will end them.”

“End- You want me to kill Lofwyr?” My voice went into a questioning uptick of panic and surprise.

“That is what you are planning already, isn’t it?”

“No! Of course not!”

Is that what people are assuming? I knew the mission wouldn’t stay secret for long, but killing Lofwyr? No wonder everything that had happened did. Dragon deaths were always big events.

“Hmph. Well, you are now.” No, I- What, this was-

I raised my hands in supplication, “Your Majesty, please, we-”

She swiped a hand, claws cleaving the air with a finality that shut me up.

She leaned in. “You will do this, or Asamando will have another meal.” She smiled, ghoul-sharp teeth making their points ever so clear.

“I- okay.” I sighed. “Very well, Your Majesty.”

“Excellent. I am glad we could meet in the middle here. I will have my people provide the supplies you require. Put in a request and it will be met.”

With that, she turned and she left. I sagged with relief. The aura of fear I hadn’t formally noticed swept out of the room with her.

Jesus. I’d known Ghouls and other Infected before. She was like nothing else.

I had to go and find Max. Now.

—

We crept up to the corner of the alleyway, following Max’s spyfly. Two rough-looking Orks loitered outside a dark blue steel door, bulges in their jackets clearly signalling that they were carrying. Unofficial guards of the last Saeder-Krupp safehouse in Asamando. The others had all been empty. Hopefully this one would have something useful.

We quickly felled the orks and headed up to the door. I did a quick scan - looked like they were going for security through obscurity, not strength. The door latch was pathetically easy, and then we were in.

Three steps in, a turret opened fire on us. A bullet grazed my arm before Chloe put herself between it and us, her backplate armour absorbing most of the impacts. “Shut it down already, Ice!”

Oh. Right. “In progress.” I went in and found the turret control, shutting it down. The bullets ceased instantly. As always, it felt weirdly quiet afterward.

The entry corridor had a door halfway along the right wall - something on the left too, but it was long sealed. I gently pushed the door open, and we stepped out into an almost warehouse-like open space. Most of it was stocked with boxes upon boxes of supplies, several bunks sat pushed against the back wall, and half the flat surfaces in the place were covered with a variety of weapons.

In short, a textbook safehouse.

We quickly scanned the area - no Troll, no hidden compartments, no other ways out. There was, however, a powerful computer set into one wall. I was already walking over to hack it when Max asked me to.

The password was easy, but the file system was a byzantine labyrinth of random letters and numbers. Lucky for me, I’d developed quite the search tool - running an information network makes it a vital necessity.

So, I got to searching. I found a whole range of threads, none ready to pull. After all, semantic coding like any sensible person used was far harder to crack than any cypher, without knowing the person who made that connection. One in particular sparked my interest though - a travel order and log, registered to Loggerheads. A couple more files clarified this as a destination, not a person or vehicle. But where was it?

There was something- right. I pulled my rig and went for the files we’d gotten from Nathan’s safe. While the memory had been the main paydata, other secrets lay in those secondary files. And there was one set of secrets in particular I wanted. It took a while, trawling through. Analysis was a conceptual, abstract jigsaw puzzle. Finding patterns and matches across a dozen documents with a dozen variations.

Finally, I found the right file, one giving an unclarified codename: Loggerheads. A match for this new file, mentioning it as a destination for some Prescott executive. Identifying the executive was harder, took another two steps through three more documents, but eventually I matched the flight number to a pilot’s assignation form to an email chain about wine samples between the executive and the flight staff. I trawled through several pages of his emails, including the reason for his trip being to chew out some poor underling for a failed engineering experiment, finding a half dozen locations that could match the code-name. But which was which?

For a moment, I paused. This was what had gotten me into journalism. The patterns, the puzzles. Finding the truth behind the layers of obfuscation and presenting it - picture perfect. Hah.

Loggerheads was mentioned in another file - an order for parts, for what seemed to be a high-powered swamp pump. Flown in at a distance from Germany, but not too far. And then I hit the jackpot - the pump had been known to be modified into a radiation drainer. Not an offically endorsed modification, but enough people had tried it for it to have leaked out into the Matrix. Experiments had been relatively successful, but the pump never lasted long. Many replacements were needed often - like this one.

And of course, there was only one SK Lab on the list marked in the Saar-Lorraine-Luxembourg Special Administrative Zone. Radiation central.

“How fucking stupid can SK be?” I mumbled to myself. It really was an awful idea. The place wasn’t just a radiation-scarred hell, but also a noted magical hellzone.

—

“And that’s the rundown, Your Majesty. We need to go to this Lab to move forward. Whatever the signal is, this is the next step on the trail. It might be that the Troll is supposed to be there.”

“The Troll,” she growled, eyes going distant to whatever remembered horror he inflicted. “-yes. I will get you transportation. When do you need it?”

“As soon as possible.”

She grinned, wide and dripping. “Good answer.”

Chapter Text

“Running low and quiet,” The pilot reported. “All systems are normal.” At my look, he clarified. “It’s an SK craft we half-hacked at best. We should all just be impressed the technicians got the stealth systems working at all.”

Then everything in the cockpit burst into alarm and light. I snorted, and braced myself against the wall. “Apparently it isn’t.”

A moment later, a call came through. I recognised the uniforms as the local security. One of them had a Proteus AG badge adorning his pocket. “Unidentified vessel…” the voice sounded just a little unsure, just for a moment. “Identify yourself.”

Chloe covered a snicker.

The pilot looked back at us. “What do you want me to do?”

I leaned in and tapped the key to answer. “Emergency Transport code, 1883-271-3984. Transmitting the required paperwork.”

After a moment, the voice responded “Paperwork acceptable. Enjoy your trip.”

After we hung up, the pilot turned to me. “What was that?”

I shrugged. “The quarantine is really more of what you’d call guidelines than strict rules. Many corporations make arrangements with the security staff.”

“And that code was… yours?” He seemed sceptical at the idea I had such a connection. The Queen really hadn’t told him who I was, had she? That spoke well of the anthropophagous old lady.

I shook my head. “No. My ex-husband’s.”

“Ah. Do we have to worry about anyone following that?” He tilted his head in the way anyone trying to look one way and pay attention to another did. I’m not sure what the aerial equivalent of eyes on the road would be, but he managed it with credible aplomb.

I snorted. “Not with the program I mixed in with the bribe. Their sensors should be detecting our vessel making a rapid emergency descent in around three minutes, followed by crashing and exploding soon after. They’ll see no life signs, and do the usual cover-up. Just keep us flying.”

The pilot looked almost impressed, and a little horrified. “Yes ma’am. It’ll be ten minutes.”

—

We landed in the lab and left the pilot with the ship. The landing site was small, fenced in by ruined buildings and the wild plant life common to the SOX. All the years without constant inhabitation had left the place being reclaimed by nature.

And I noticed something else, very, very quickly. “There’s no guards.” No automated security, either. A place like this, I’d be able to pick up their signals from this short a distance. To block it would take more shielding than anything visible could have, too. There really was… nothing? This has the growing feeling of a drekstorm in the making.

Chloe immediately looked worried - an experienced Shadowrunner’s instinct for a trap. “Shit. Do you think they knew we were coming?”

“They’d have to.” I shrugged. “Or something else scared them all off. It’d be one hell of a coincidence.”

I strode over to the one door leading out of the pad and quickly broke external security. Child’s play. Prescotts, what were you thinking? There’s security by obscurity and then just security by only obscurity. This was pathetic. I tapped open the door and the inside was still lit. And also empty. No receptionist, no guards.

We pushed in, a few steps up to the reception. Then a form coalesced. I almost felt glad. “Nath-” It wasn’t him. Chloe made a shocked sound and pulled up her gun, two shots cracking through the quiet. And doing absolutely nothing to the damn *hologram*. I looked back at her and pointedly waved my hand through the hologram’s forming form. She shrugged sheepishly and reholstered her gun.

The hologram formed into a young brunette woman. Human. She gave a slight wave and a cheesy corporate smile. Just an ad.

“Fuck.” I shook my head. “That was…”

Even Chloe looked a little frazzled. The two of us looked at each other and wordlessly agreed never to speak of this again. Neither of us saw the look on Max’s face that promised she absolutely would bring this up again. Damned little hipster.

We poked around the reception area a while - there were no maps, and many doors. Max and I were discussing two different options when Chloe suddenly called out, “Here. Administrator’s office. We should check it out, right?”

“Probably. They should have some sort of infopacket we can use.” I shoved open the door - or rather, I attempted to, then stepped back and let Chloe do it instead. Inside was a simple office with another door in the back marked ‘Control’.

I downloaded any important data from the Administrator’s computers and pulled up a sitemap. “We need to go through the Control Room to get to the lifts down. And honestly, it’d probably be useful for us to go through. There may be more data.”

The ‘Control’ door lead to the Control Room. Funny how that worked. Banks of computers flashing numbers, scanners - I recognised a radar in the corner. It looked like they hadn’t had time to disable any of this.

I strode around investigating the computers, checking codes and managing what I could without passcodes. “Okay. They definitely knew we were coming.” I brought up the screen I’d found. “This is our telemetry data - they’ve marked it as suspicious. Judging by the time, they made us from the start. I bet they have someone in the guards reporting to them, or just a hack in the Proteus systems, and our lack of transmitted current code probably tipped them off.”

I quickly bulk downloaded anything that looked even vaguely useful and left a back-door into the system just for good measure. “Good to know, but we need to keep moving.” I checked the sitemap again. “This way.”

The sitemap lead us through a maze of corridors, empty offices and workstations everywhere. It was oddly ghostly, even as a sight I was used to. The perils of working late in a corporate world.

“Next right.”

We stepped out the next door and into a long corridor. To our right, almost bathed in shadow, sat an elevator. The left was brightly lit, showing a small commissary and rec area. We headed over to the elevator - the doors slid open slowly as we approached. Inside was lit by one thready little light. “Did they try to make this elevator creepy, or is it just broken?” Chloe asked.

I shrugged. “It’s the Prescotts. And the SOX. It really could be either.” I paused, thought. “Or both.”

We stepped in. Down we go. The doors closed and the elevator jolted into action, descending immediately. There were no buttons. We were just along for the ride.

Chapter Text

Ten minutes passed. Twenty. Thirty. I lost count. The elevator just kept going. We were very, very deep down. Chloe had stopped talking a while back, and the only sound left was the whirring of the motors. Then we finally slid to a stop, and the doors slid open.

The lights flickered on and stayed that way. Guess it was just the elevator being broken.

Max made a gesture and lead us forward, weapons ready to fire whenever we needed. A couple of her drones swooped around us, an additional escort that did help keep at least a little of the creepy factor away.

The halls were weirdly cramped, like it was an underwater space. Random magical sigils glowed at different points along the walls, and there wasn’t a damn motivational poster in sight. Things were wrong down here.

The rooms, however, were broad and spacious, dedicated to a variety of scientific and technological endeavours that were far beyond me. And the place had that shady, cutting-edge facility smell. Industrial cleaning agents and the blood they could never quite cover up.

They really did do it here. Made a man into a machine. An asshole into an AI.

Some doors worked, some doors didn’t. We had to break a few security panels to make our way through.

The next door was particularly hard to open and even worse, heavily reinforced - we had to get a prybar for the damn thing. And stay out of Chloe’s way. It opened up into a server room. Ranks upon ranks of the things sat behind plated glass. And they were all ablaze and broken. Frankly, it’s a fucking wonder we didn’t see it earlier. The room was bloody heavy with smoke, and the doors were hardly- oh. Fire containment doors. Shit.

That was my last thought before the room erupted into water as the sprinklers activated due to our breaching of containment.

All we could do was stand there, feeling water drip down us and drain out through grates in the floor until the fire was quenched.

“So much for the servers, eh Ice?” Chloe quipped. I glared at her, shivering lightly and feeling incredibly, thoroughly befouled.

I took in a deep breath, and regretted it immediately. One thing you have to remember is that fire-suppressant water sits, still and stagnant, often for years. The smell alone could peel skull off your brain matter.

I pushed the shrieking of my mind away and quashed my desperate need for a shower to give instructions, “See if you can find the archive cables. Ensures data can be copied even if Matrix access goes down. It’s very old school redundancy, but we haven’t come up with anything better since all the money started getting invested in the Wireless Matrix. This place will almost certainly have it.”

“What are we looking for?” Max asked.

“Big red cable bundles with ‘archive’ written on them in big letters.” I answered, “You really can’t miss them.” Though I wouldn’t put it past Chloe to try. That woman was a contrary bitch when she pleased, which was most of the time.

We poked around and eventually Max found them, calling us over.

I began pulling the wires apart, checking for any damage and identifier labels. I looked back at Chloe. “Can you pull the other end out of the wall? I need to know what direction they go in.” She did so, and trailed them along to another side-room full of technology. The doors were even thicker than the fire-suppressant doors, so she’d simply cut through the walls holding the doors down.

These servers were also damaged, but luckily not on fire. I sighed. Small mercies. “Let me take a look. I might be able to repair these. Check around, see if you can find any tools or part storage or anything like that.”

They skittered off and let me get to work. I found one that looked the most intact and cracked it open. The server was relatively old tech, but I knew enough. Chloe and Max brought me tools and parts when I asked, and I slowly but surely brought it back to functionality. Then I plugged in my deck and switched it on. It barely worked - if I’d tried to run anything more than the most basic interface, the lag alone would’ve killed it immediately. But I got there! A couple of dozen files across a few folders, all laballed with ‘Project Revanchist’.

Convenient, that. If I hadn’t’ve been able to recover anything, I suspect we’d have been royally screwed by all of this.

Anyway, the files.

“It was genius. Mad genius, but still. They crossed ideas from a dozen different sources to create even the conceptual framework to make the idea that inspired the ideas that combined into the design. They made him here. It took them years of work. Prescott’s budget shows he invested into the work himself heavily. He might even be approaching broke due to the expense of solely this project. They wanted to rebuild his memory of wherever he hid Lofwyr’s Horde too - but he’d already removed the memories. They were never part of the design.”

“We kinda knew that already, Ice. How do we fix him?” Max snipped.

I shrugged. “There’s a lab on site. It should have all the tools and information we need. Though we may have to call Kate.”

—

The lab itself was… tortured. Notes and files and tablet screens everywhere, connective tissue from idea to idea without sense or order. I’d seen a couple of conspiracy theorists with places like this. All the tangled lines of their mind played out in string.

I leaned in to read a note:

“What the hell am I paying you people for? I want results on my desk by tomorrow” —Prescott.

“If you don’t get me something by the end of the day, you’re fired!”—Prescott

“If you don’t get me something in an hour, you’re fucking dead!”—Prescott

They only got more deranged from there, but there was only so much of your sanity you could display on a post-it. I leaned back, accidentally brushing against one of the tablet screens. It flicked on and began playing immediately. Two staff were working at the table in the lab when Sean Prescott strode in, already mid-rant. “-and another thing, what the hell is happening with those polymerase strand reports? The experiment was supposed to be done Saturday!”

“Sorry sir. We’re having some issues with a follow-up analysis. The equipment is-”

“The equipment is the best money can by. My money! This is vital! Are you the best money can buy, Doctor, or am I going to have to find new researchers?” The madman’s voice trailed off into a distinct threat. The doctor gulped and stammered something back, but Sean only leaned in further, the worn-out old man gaining a new menace as the madness reached out.

I reached out to pause it and it fell, shattering on the floor and activating another screen. This one was just Prescott striding back and forth in front of the camera muttering to himself, “Have to fix it, have to fix it,” over and over. I skimmed through - he never broke stride or verbal rhythm for 47 minutes straight.

Christ. The man truly had lost it.

I quickly archived the man’s mad notes and went for the actual science. We had the time to study.

—

We did have to call Kate in, in the end. The girl had talent, I couldn’t deny it. She was a significant help in wading through the more technical details. But Chloe and Max were the ones to do the final steps. I couldn’t self-operate, and between Chloe’s mechanics and Max’s engineering, they were competent enough.

So, they cracked open my skull and began tailoring Nathan’s neural structures back together. They managed to drain him out of me and upload him to some of the surviving servers.

It took another few patches, updates, and literal patches (to my skull) to get Nathan back up and ready to run. As Max activated, he flickered briefly - an odd image, him bloody and beaten, with actual swords in his back. But it vanished before I could get a good look, and Max and Chloe didn’t seem phazed. Maybe my head was still damaged?

He flickered back into being - no swords at all, and slowly blinked. “Uh. Hi?”

“Hi. You can talk then.” Max remarked, tapping at some more keys.

Chloe snorted. “Oh. Good.” He glared at her.

Then his attention went to the room around him, and he paled. “You’re…- how in the hell did you get here? -and fuckin’ why?”

Chloe thumbed back to me. “She got her head smashed in, and it fucked you up. So, we came here to get you repaired.”

“Huh. Thanks.” He continued to look around the room, shaking ever so slightly. For a moment, I almost felt guilty. I’d never seem him quite like this. Well, maybe once. After his mom. Yes. I definitely felt guilty. It sat in the pit of my stomach like a sleeping dragon, the thrum of its breathing vibrating my entire being.

“So, they made you here?” Chloe blurted.

“Technically they unmade and remade me here.” He took a few steps and pointed, “They dragged me in here and strapped me down in that chair. Pumped enough shit in my veins to fuck me up worse than I’d ever fucked myself up and ran some scans. Then I heard my dad tell them to do it, and they pulled my brain out of my skull.” He looked back at us. His eyes were alien. “I felt it, y’know?”

“You felt it?” Chloe asked again, mounting horror in her voice.

“Yep. It scraped on the edges of the hole they left in my skull. And it popped when it came out. Then everything went black. They took my whole nervous system out, but left everything else. No eyes, no ears, no nothing.”

We all stared at him in horror.

“And then they plugged me in. I only sorta remember that bit. I spent a while trying to decode what the computers were telling me. Sensors and senses are just not the same.” A sigh. “And then the interrogations started. The moment I could talk, they were torturing me for the location of the Hoard. My Dad even came around a few times. I tried reasoning with the asshole, but he didn’t care. Just kept asking me about the Hoard.”

“Fuck, dude.” Chloe said.

Nathan laughed, nodded. “Yeah.”

I let out a long, slow breath. “So, all that time, and you were just… locked down here?”

He shrugged. “Pretty much. Until Juliet somehow got my files. Why?”

“When it happened, I was so angry. I mean, you just disappeared. Out of nowhere. No fucking note, no news, nothing. And you were going through… that.” I shook my head. “Honestly, I was probably more angry with the inconvenience of it than with you.” I couldn’t help a wry chuckle, just at the memory of it. “Do you know how much paperwork I had to fill in? It was eyewatering.”

Nate snorted, grinned back. “Sorry.” He said, utterly insincerely. He shook his head. “Hell, it never even occurred to me to leave a note or anything. At least, not that I remember. There’s still places empty in my head.” He reached up and tapped his temple. “At least it didn’t fuck you up too much.”

I sighed. Our entire marriage fucked me up. “You know, I didn’t even know you were properly missing for weeks. I was so used to not hearing from you, that until your dad called, I had no idea.”

He laughed, dark and bitter, tilted his head in amused acknowledgement. “We sucked, didn’t we?”

We laughed together. It was… nice. After a beat of silence, I changed the subject.

“Do you know where we go next?”

He shrugged. “Not a clue. But I’m in their system now. There’s still some intranet access. I can track that Troll bastard. Or my dad. Maybe even find the codes to all their secret bases.” The sound of cracking fingers echoed through the computer speakers. “All your base are belong to me.”

I laughed, leaned into Max. “I taught him that.”

She snorted. “Great. Now find us a madman.”

Nathan’s grin was feral. “On it.”

Chapter Text

I sat at the console connected to Nathan’s new server-home, bringing up an interface. “I’ll get the damn thing decoded. You don’t have the grace for-”

“Alright!” Chloe blurted, eyes wide in mounting horror. “You two kids have fun. Me and Maxie are gonna go take a poke around this place, see if we can’t rustle some paydata of our own.”

I wafted a hand at her. “Fine, fine. Just don’t break anything, and let me know if there are any other datastorage units around.”

As they left, I-

The unit in my hand suddenly shocked me, and I dropped it with an irritated hiss. I quickly stuck it in my mouth. “Ow.” I muttered through my hand.

“The container in the corner.” Nathan said idly.

I frowned and went over, used one of those squeegee hand things to put an odd paste onto my hand. I rubbed it into the burn, and it quickly healed. Huh. “Thanks.”

“No problem.” He said. After a moment, he laughed. “I just thought of so many good jokes for that.”

“Yeah, yeah.” I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure they were all solid burns.” I waggled my hand at him.

He snorted. “Not bad, Vic.”

We sat in silence for a moment - well, as close to silence as we could, given that one of us was a server rack, humming away.

I took a breath. “How are you doing with all of this?” I asked him, my attention mostly on the algorithms decrypting the next set of files.

Nathan scoffed. “None of your business. I already got too soft with all that shit before - even if I mostly just did it to spook you fuckers.”

I didn’t even have to think about that one. The old patterns fell into place all too easily. “Liar.”

He struck back, his classic falling from the speaker as adeptly as it ever fell from his mouth, “Fuck off.”

“You always did hate vulnerability.” I acknowledged, “And always bullshitted an excuse afterward, whenever you accidentally were. But you managed.”

“Thats-”

I smirked, “And I wasn’t asking about that anyway. I was wondering how far you were getting with the decryption, or have you just been jerking around?”

“…Look, if you’re gonna be a bitch about it, you can do it.” And he vanished. I sighed. Ah. Old memories. I tried to call out and bring him back, but he stayed absent. I pulled up the file and began searching for decryption methods.

“Wow.” I said, slowly. “I can’t believe how difficult this encryption is…” Come on, Nate. “What can I, a mere human, hope to do with this? It’s so complex and hard,”

“That’s what she said.” Nathan flickered back into existence. “It’s different to the previous lot - still using the Renraku equipment, but I found a weird encoding algorithm that’s resisting analysis.”

“Any ideas?” I asked, and with him distracted, we managed a decent conversation about the different possibilities.

“I think I found something. Give me a second.” I pulled open the file - Matrix Access Only. Of course. “It’s a Matrix file. Might be like the first set. Let me check.” Before he could stop me, I pulled open the file and dived into the Matrix. The familiar structures and lights appeared around me, but… tinted? Everything had an odd, orange hue. I walked forward, but where the Matrix normally moved smooth, everything felt sluggish. Like walking through molasses.

I pushed through and made it to the data. I tried to clear it, but whatever was there was too damaged. Corruption, missing files. I couldn’t find much. There wasn’t much left. But honestly, given the state of the servers here, it’s a miracle there was anything at all.

I sighed, and made to save the data and exit. But when I tapped the control- nothing. I was trapped. Whatever was happening, I couldn’t move.

“The Data-Knowledge-Unfact is incomplete.” A voice thundered through the Matrix around me, a dozen or more tones that resounded with depth.

I still couldn’t move. “Um. Yes. It’s-”

“I can follow-find-create the traces. Make the details-unfacts-links ring with reality-depth-believability.” There was a pause, and the Matrix changed colours around me, running through a dozen hues of orange and red. Like streaks across a morning sky.

“I-…” What the hell do I say to that? “Thanks?”

The streaks flew into the storage unit, sending little lightning cracks of energy throughout. The presence felt as though it was no longer all around me, but the force of it was still there, just concentrated from out of the unit. Like an eye, watching me.

“The Data-Knowledge-Unfact is… problematic. It is-is not-is also what it is.”

“I- I’m sorry. I don’t understand.”

“That much is evident-clear-true.”

“Well, if you’d be a bit damn clearer about things-” I shook my head. Deep breaths, Victoria. No pissing off the Matrix Spirit or whatever this thing is. “Sorry. I’m frustrated.”

“Your frustration-confusion-misinterpretation will be your salvation. Opportunities-interests-disappointments will arise. Trusted-regretful-horrified will be the cause of your vexation-resolution-perfection, and you will learn to live-cooperate-forgive your disappointments.”

“What? Can you please be clearer?”

“No. Though your data-knowledge-unfact has been brought into realignment.” It transferred data over to me, a little pop-up revealing that the memory had been almost fully restored.

“You- I- thank you. This will be a great help. But, what do you mean-”

“You will learn my meaning. I will give you back your Dream now.” And the light soared off into the distance, letting the natural glow of the Matrix fade back in. I dropped out immediately.

“What in the fuck was that?” I spat out, before I could even think clearer, much less think better of it.

Nathan whirred. “What?”

“Something found me. In the Matrix.”

“There was ICE in the file?” He blurted, voice filled with an alarm that almost pleased me.

But I shook my head, that feeling carried away by the whirling thoughts about what the hell that just was. “No, I- something else. A presence. It didn’t feel like a person, just-” I froze. Something in me telling me to shut up. “It’s fine. Must’ve just been background noise. Anyway, the files were pretty useless, but I managed to restore some things. Want me to upload them to you?”

The server didn’t have eyes, but I could feel Nathan eying me with a burning scepticism. “Sure. Hit me up.”

I booted the files and tranferred them over. Nathan’s voice warbled oddly a moment - he had been in my head, not a server, last time. I guess the substrate really did matter.

“Wow. Shit. More memories of this place. Did not fuckin’ need those. And- damn.” He sighed, “It still doesn’t make sense. I need the other memory. I can see places, and things, but I don’t have the context to do anything useful with them.”

“Well, the Troll has it.” I pointed out. “So, where is he?”

“No Id-.Wait.”

The server glowed an odd colour, a few moments passed, and then-

“I found them!” Nathan crowed.

“Them?”

“The Troll and my Asshole Dad. They’re both in the same place - Saeder-Krupp’s main headquarters in Essen. And-” His voice took on that distinct ooze of prideful gloating. “I got damn near every passcode in the place.”

“So… Germany?” Max asked, the two of them having returned at some point in the last few minutes without either of us noticing.

I could hear the wolfish grin in Nathan’s voice as he drawled, “Oh yeah. Germany.”

I stood. “I’ll let the pilot know. You two help him get ready for transport or transfer or whatever he wants to do.”

“Wait, no! We can’t leave until I can utterly fuck this place up. We need to make sure they can’t ever rebuild here.”

I sighed, rubbing at the bridge of my nose. “Unless you can pull that off in the next 30 minutes, it’s not happening. We need to leave.”

“No. Fuck that. This place needs to burn.” Nathan growled, his voice taking on that tone of furious irritation he’d learned from his father.

“Look, I get it, Nathan, I really do, but we need to keep the pressure up. Find the Troll before he goes to ground, or worse, secures the memory somewhere we’ll never get it.” I knew this was personal for him, but it was personal for me too. We needed to keep focus. “You need to keep a lid on it. Keep your eye on the prize. Hell, if you want to come back here after all this is over and drop bombs on it for a few hours, I’ll help, but we need to go now.”

The server was definitely glaring at me. Then Nathan’s voice came out again, almost contrite, “Right. Right. Okay, fine. I can at least secure the place so nobody but us can get back in here without making a shitload of noise. Gimme a sec. I’ll…” He went quiet for a few long moments. “Right. Encoded. And oh, on that note-” Another pause, “AG’s current codes for passing the barrier. We’ll probably need to take a minute to recode the identifiers on the shuttle, since we faked exploding and all, but you and the dwarf can take care of that.”

Max snorted, rolled her eyes at him.

“Oh, and I’d like to Transfer.” He said, “I miss being in that head of yours, Vic. I’ll pass you the cypher on the plane. So much easier for us to communicate.”

Oh fuck him.

I scowled at him, and strode off. We’d never change. Even after being more honest than we ever had been. We still were who we were.

Chapter Text

We’d gotten Nathan back in my head quickly and, reading my mood, Max and Chloe took on a lot of the work of getting us ready to leave. We helped the pilot send a message back to the Queen of Asamando, made sure the lab was locked down. Scavenged what equipment we could.

And when we were ready and all aboard, we headed off to Germany and into the mouth of the Dragon.

—

The pilot set down in a random patch of greenery amidst the silver-glass towers of Central Corptown, Neu-Essen. I had no idea what they actually called the place, but it was utterly indistinguishable from any of the megacity corp neighbourhoods back home, so Central Corptown just felt rather apropos. Corpstadt, at a push.

“You want me to circle the block?” The pilot asked us. He laughed. We didn’t. “I’ll stay out of the way. Let me know when you want exfil.”

We hopped out and walked in silence. The sprawling parks were your typical corp fare at first, but the moment we saw the giant topiary dragon, we knew we’d reached the place. The Saeder-Krupp Headquarters Complex was massive, looming like its draconic master over everything around it. Damn parasites.

We headed over.

The place was a fortress in concrete, chrome, and shining glass. And the floors - ye gods they were spectacular. The flecks in the black stone glittered like gold.

Nathan suddenly flickered into sight. I almost tried to grab him and pull him out of sight. Then I remembered - Corp hub. Cameras. Everywhere. There was no out of sight here, not to them. But to us… “Can you scan anything?”

“Oh yeah. Codes let me through everything.” He laughed again. “Like takin’ candy from a baby. Goddamn, Dad. You really let shit go. There’s-” The image suddenly flickered. “No, I- it can’t- you-” He just began babbling nonsense, pointing at things only he could see behind the walls.

“Hey, hey!” I tried to grab his attention, in lieu of grabbing him. “Stay on task!”

“No, no- We can’t do this, we-” His hands swung and shook, swapping between horrified pointing and gestures I couldn’t recognise.

“Hey!” I got up in his face, “What’s gotten into you? What did you see?”

He avoided my eye, shook his head emphatically - “No, no. Can’t-”

Oh for the love of… the damnable Matrix Spirit *thing* was more understandable than he was being right now. “Hey! Look, it doesn’t matter. Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter. You know why? We have the codes. We have the talent. We have Max’s weird drones out seeing every inch of this place. Whatever it is, we can take it. And it’s worth it. We’re here for a reason, remember? Revenge, all that.”

“Ri-right.” The image flickered again, and he finally met my eye. There was less than a hint of reaction there. He stared at me like he was seeing right through me. The thousand-yard stare. “I….. need a minute.” He vanished.

My shoulders slumped. Damnit. “Max? Anything on your end?”

Her voice was… I couldn’t really identify what that feeling was. “Actually… yes. I can’t even… I have it on a screen. You… should come see.”

—

The woman was on the roof. The roof! Long, lithe, lanky. She lacked her usual armour, but she’d found some herself - judging by the Saeder-Krupp Logo, found was really more stolen. She had a tiny machine pistol, and was blasting away at drones slowing pushing their way up the stairs after her. They moved like a slow flood, ascending even as they were blown apart.

Max snorted, even as she and Chloe both were eyeing the figure on the screen with an emotion I couldn’t recognise. “Cool tech. I’ll enjoy fragging that drek.” She tapped a key, and her drone spat out what looked like a ball of lightning. The flood flew apart, leaving parts slowly draining back down the stairs.

Rachel turned to look at us - the drone, I mean. “Thanks.”

Max’s voice came through. “No worries, Rachel.”

She blinked in surprise. I *really* enjoyed that expression. “Max?” She shook her head. “Is- is Chloe with you?”

“Yes. Give me a moment.” The Drone spat out a length of cord. “Clip on to the rail and come down. We’ll meet you by the base. Though we are here to break in. You okay with helping us do that?”

After a moment, the surprise vanished behind another flirty little smile and teasing look in her eye. Now that was her familiar armour. “Thrilled. It’ll be just like old times.” She clipped the rope to something on her armour, then another couple of hardpoints on the roof. And then she took a deep breath, raised her hands, and fell back from the roof, twisting into an aerial pirrouette that lead her into a roll down the glass.

And then she took a fucking stroll down the building.

And she made it look like a fucking catwalk.

Bitch.

We waited the few long minutes for her to reach us, and she hopped off the building with a graceful little twirl then flew over to us. She paused briefly on seeing me, then smiled, “Hi Boss. Was I really such a good employee that you came to rescue little old me?”

I growled at her. “You were just a happy little accident. We’re here for a bigger fish.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Yes, Maxie did say you were breaking in here. Looking for anything specifically, or were you just in the mood for something shiny?”

“Listen. That bastard drekhead wyrm upstairs took my company, so I’m working on a plan to kick that fucker in whatever passes for balls on a dragon. You can either help, or get the hell out of my way. Understood?” I jabbed a finger into her chest, and she smiled.

She looked between us, “You’re playing the Shadows, then?”

I nodded. She smiled again. “I always knew you had it in you, Vic.” She reloaded her gun. “Well? What are we waiting for? Lets go fuck with a dragon.”

Chapter Text

I popped out of cover and blasted another guard - this one in the leg, dropping it out from under him and slamming his head into the floor. “Seriously? Years now, fucking years, I’ve been asking you what happened with those two - and it’s just a breakup?!”

“I wouldn’t call it a break-up, per se.” Max answered, calmly sending a line of her new drones blasting away. Saeder-Krupp made good, albeit easily stealable models, apparently.

Even Chloe seemed chill about it. “Nah, I mean… there were no hard feelings or anything. It just seemed… easier, after everything that went down.”

“Everything that went down?” Rachel snorted, sent a blast of bullets down the hall that burst the skull of a dwarf agent. “I cheated on you guys, you can say it. I screwed up.”

“Rach’…” Chloe said, smiling almost comfortingly over at Rachel, who blasted another Prescott agent and smiled back, “It’s been ten years, chummer. And you spent half of it workin’ under Ice over there…” Head-nod back to me, “I think you paid your fuckin’ penance.”

“Hey! I was a good boss, thank you very much.” Bitch.

“Sure you were, Ice. Sure you were.” Chloe snorted and gave an irritating eyebrow waggle that destroyed any warm fuzzy feelings of sympathy and empathy I had maybe developed after hearing the story. “I remember the school plays, even if you don’t.”

“Yes, when I was seventeen, I was an utter bitch.” I sighed, shooting another Prescott goon. “Is it so unbelievable that I might’ve thawed in the many years since?”

Chloe stayed very deliberately silent, then gave me a shit eating grin. I scowled at her, and she just laughed.

“You’re too easy, Ice. But yeah, Rach. Max and I forgave you ages ago.” Max nodded at that. “You just gotta forgive yourself.” She added, voice turning all sagely. She’d definitely learnt from that talismonger back near her base. What even was his name again?

Rachel snorted - oddly alike Chloe’s, now I saw them so closely together. “Chloe the Guru, sage advice. I slept with Frank, Chloe. Frank. If anything came from a place of self-hatred and insecurity, it was that. I mean, do you remember the beans?”

“The beans!” Chloe wheezed in laughter, and I looked at her almost in shock. That was genuinely the most amused I’d ever seen her, and I thought I’d seen her belly laugh at me a few times already. “I’d fuckin’ forgotten about that! Oh shit, my mom was so pissed off-” Their collective speech-making abilities collapsed into half-finished references and in-jokes I hadn’t the history with them or advanced linguistics degree to understand. Even Max was drawn in, bantering half-utterances like prayers to deities “The beans! The beans!”

Even the Saeder-Krupp operatives were starting to look at us like we were insane at this point. And honestly, I wasn’t so sure we weren’t. At least that they weren’t. Biggest job we’d ever had, biggest stupidity many Shadowrunners could even hope to attempt, and they were busy blogging!

Luckily, whichever idiot was controlling the electronic security on this level had also been distracted. All his turrets were belong to me. I let the guns go and blasted away a majority of the slack-jawed observers.

“Would you shut up? We’re a bit busy here, you know!”

“Yes Ice”, “Sorry Ice.”

They raised their guns.

—

I popped back out of the high-security Matrix point and logged the newly hacked commands to Max. Her drones, distributed throughout the building, picked up the new update with the high-intensity speed of top-quality Matrix connections. The best Saeder-Krupp could buy.

“Max-” I started, “Hit it.”

A dozen explosions rocked the building - hit hard, hit fast. Keep them off balance. SK would expect subtlty. Not… this. Simultaneously, I executed some code to turn on the sprinklers and fire-alarms on different floors. Then another set, to start the speakers playing loud bassy music and, just for good measure, flickering the lights.

They’d never have seen this coming. I hadn’t either. We were improvising, and it was insane. But fuck, it was a thrill like no other. Anything could end this, literally anything, but we were staying ahead. Every problem, a new solution, no time to worry or scheme, just assess and respond.

We continued to push forward even as I continued to hack, moving the tide of guards back like a rock crawling up the river. We can do this. We were doing this. We just had to get to the right server. We tried the elevator bank first, it was destroyed. Quickly, Max found us another route, her drones guiding us through rooms and corridors and atria, battling all the way.

The final door wasn’t locked or sealed, bur blocked. Something behind it held it closed. I couldn’t do anything, Max couldn’t do anything. Rachel neither. We were planning on going back, finding another route, when Chloe stopped us. She just kicked open the door.

Huh.

We all looked at each other. Shrugged. Continued on. We’d hit the right staircase, after all. Bodies littered the halls behind us, burned and bleeding. Bastards. We had to keep pushing. We had to get to the servers.

We headed up - the servers we were looking for should’ve been about ten floors above us. This staircase would get us halfway, and then we’d have to cross another floor to get to an executive staircase that would allow us access to the secure sections of those floors. So, up we went. Two floors, three - then something fizzed. Security doors slammed shut on the next two floors. I tried a hack, but there wasn’t anything to work with. Whatever that fizzing had been, it had broken the systems. And Chloe couldn’t kick her way through this one.

So, we headed back and took the first door out.

The first room had two turrets, fizzing and motionless. The SK security had clearly won this encounter. We headed through, the sitemap giving us clear shortcuts and easy routes through the maze of offices and facilities and god knows what else. Max’s drones flittered around us, occasionally spinning off into the rooms around us to take out anything that got near us. But there wasn’t much. The security on this floor were probably littered around the floors below us.

It was just too quiet.

But we made it through. The staircase was an easy hack, and then we were on the right floor. Max pointed, “The server room is there.” The first words any of us had said in a while.

We were doing this.

—

The server room was cold. The banks of machines provided a low, dull whirr that I could feel in the back of my teeth. Looking around, it seemed like nobody had cared to secure it. So, I strode over to a terminal port and logged in.

Quickly, it became clear: This place was useless. “Your dad’s office is on a local subnetwork. I can’t get access from here. We’ll have to go directly.”

Max scowled. “That’s too risky.”

I shook my head. “Well, if we don’t, then this entire thing was nothing. Other than putting us on the radar of every law enforcement agency ever, anyway.” I turned back to Rachel. “I thought you said we’d get access from here?”

“We haven’t?” Chloe chimed up, walking in halfway through a conversation once again. It seemed the perimeter was clear of SK agents.

I shook my head, filled her in. “No. None of the terminals have clearance. They don’t even have clearance to access the things I’d need to hack to get the clearance. It’d take me hours to get through all of this.”

Max mumbled a bunch of swearwords, as Rachel smirked at her. “Well, what other options are there? This is one of the main hubs.”

“One of?” I asked.

“Well, yeah.” Rachel said, before Max could answer, “There’s at least three other banks of servers, but this was the one most likely to have anything about the Troll, or your dad. The others are lower clearance.” My ex-head of security seemed to have picked up a lot in her time here.

“So, we need somewhere higher clearance, right?” I lead, pointedly. We had to go, they had to see that.

“But where-”

Nathan reappeared in the corner, and Rachel jumped out of her skin. Wide-eyed, her hands shook as she gently raised one to point at him. “Y-you see that too, right? Right?!”

I blinked at her. That was… quite the reaction. Like she’d seen a- oh. Right. I took a breath and tried to think about where to even begin. We’d told her about the troll, but not the payload. Or the reason.

“Nate’s alive, sad to say.” Chloe beat me to it. “He stole something from Lofwyr, hid it so well nobody could find it, his Dad hunted him down and killed him then stuffed him into a computer to try hack his memory of where the loot was, but Nathan had already removed those memories before he got caught. Someone sent the files to Juliet in Ice’s office, then she hacked the files and got him downloaded into her head.” She looked back at Nathan. “That about cover it?”

He thought for a moment, then shrugged. “Yeah, pretty much. Hi Rach.” He stuck up a hand, and gave an awkward, jerky wave.

Breathing more normally, but looking no less manic, Rachel waved back and forced her voice to sound as casual as she could. “Hey Nate. Did you lose weight?”

He laughed. “Never change, Rach. Anyway, Vic’s right. We need to go to my Dad’s office directly. He’ll have the highest clearance in this place, and access to any system we need, and I’d be real fuckin’ surprised if any of the servers had access.” He shrugged. “The man was paranoid as hell before I robbed his boss blind, I don’t think he’d have less security measures now his head’s on the line.”

“Awesome.” Chloe said.

I paused, waiting for more. “So, where is it?”

“Not sure. It’s a few floors down from the top.” He shrugged. “My memory’s a little patchy, and it’s not like I spent much time here before I started ripping my brain to pieces.”

“That’s…” I checked the map. “Twenty floors up from here. Minimum.” I took a brief scan, but nothing jumped out. No office marked ‘Sean Prescott, Evil Mastermind’ or anything like that. Not that I was expecting it. I knew how places like this worked.

“Twenty?” Max asked, “Wouldn’t Sean’s office be near the top?”

Nathan shook his head. “Top few floors are security and control units. And he’s not exactly a VP or anything… visible in Saeder-Krupp. Lofwyr keeps him out of the way.”

“Fuck, okay. Right. We’ll head up and try find a location when we’re up there.” Chloe clicked her fingers. “Are you sure it’s-”

I shook my head. “I already checked the map, Chloe. Nothing useful.”

“Damn.” She turned to leave. “Lets get moving then. Last one to the stairs is a damp corpslave!”

—

We strode down yet another faceless corridor, all on edge. Like with the map, no rooms were marked. This was the management floors, after all. Couldn’t make it too easy to find the Power. It was opulent as hell though, telling you exactly where we were. And it was far too quiet. The turrets were still engaging elsewhere, I could see them on my feeds, but we couldn’t hear any of it.

Chloe laughed, breaking the silence with her usual hammer-to-the-face grace. At our looks, she shook her head. “I was just thinkin’ about Nana. Imagine how confused she’d be, seeing us at war with fuckin’ Saeder-Krupp.”

Okay. That was pretty good. I held back a chuckle. “She’d be proud, pissed, and confused all at once.”

Chloe smirked, jaw curling around her tusks. “No doubt. And very curious to find out what the hell possessed us to do somethin’ so stupid. And how she could profit from it.”

“What are you gonna tell her, once we’re done? I mean, you promised her a cut of the loot, right?” I couldn’t imagine that conning a woman like Nana would turn out well. She gave off very cut-throat vibes.

She shrugged. “No idea. Figured we’d cross that bridge when we come to it. Have you decided what you’re doing, when all this is over? When you’ve pwned that draconic bastard?” Chloe mimed a little one-two punch. It was oddly adorable, and I shook the thought away and really considered her question.

“I-” Had I decided? What did I see myself doing? I don’t know if I’d really thought beyond just doing it. Just taking down Lofwyr. A dragon. The only one I’d ever seen hurt was that feral bitch that burned Germany until the entire army shot her down. And that was at the Awakening, long before any of the Dragons had wormed their way (wyrmed, heh - oh fuck, my sense of humour had descended so much since meeting them) into Power. “I don’t know.”

“Well, might wanna decide. We’re getting close to the close now, Ice.”

I’m not sure I could think of anything else, anymore. The vague images of the future I did have were… still Shadowrunning, with them? Was that what I wanted to do now? Then what was I doing this for? I thought I wanted my company back. I do. I… do?

I didn’t know.

I looked up. The others had made it to the end of the corridor, and called back to me to hurry the frak up already. I took a few hurried steps forward, then I felt something trip beneath my feet.

The giant security doors slid closed in front of me in an instant, so hard it practically shook the floor around us. “Shit!” I cried out. I could hear pounding from the other side, and muffled voices. “Don’t bother! It’ll be controlled from a separate nexus. Keep moving, I’ll make my way around to you!”

I left, hoping they’d heard me. No other options.

Okay, according to the floorplan, the offices here should lead through to a staircase- I pushed open the door, an actual old office door, not a steel security door. The lights were off - whoever worked in this office was lucky enough to have gone home already. And then a light flickered on in one of the side-rooms. But through the glass, there was nothing in there.

I really shouldn’t… but damn. I headed over and pushed open the door, closing it gently behind me.

A figure flickered into being, sat in an also-holographic seat, and my head spun with agony for a moment before my thoughts abruptly cleared. “Nathan, I-”

A golden smile and long blonde hair. Golden? It wasn’t Nathan. “Shit.”

The smile only got broader. “Ms Chase. Please take a seat. We have much to discuss.”

I sat down. Even the weight of his telepresence was overwhelming. But it wasn’t much of a discussion. I mostly just listened, and nodded.

—

We finally found his office. Jesus. This place was awful. I shoved open the door - actual wood. Nice. Inside was yet more chrome, concrete, and floor-to-ceiling glass along both corners, and a massive stone desk. Frankly, it looked my parent’s kitchen.

“Right, I’ll take the computer, the rest of you-”

I stepped on something under the carpet, and an alarm blared. Which would’ve been fine - every other alarm in the building was blaring already - but then a form flickered into being as a holocall connected and a figure charged up to me. Sean Prescott was already ranting and raving as he connected, flecks of spittle flying wildly as he screamed obscenities, threats, and utter nonsense at us.

“Sorry to interrupt, Sean. We’ll be quick.” I smirked.

He continued to rant, like he wasn’t even aware I was here.

I just watched him, not even taking in the words anymore. He’d gotten so much worse in the years since the lab journals. His hunt for Nathan had truly destroyed him. Good. Sean had always been an ass to his son. I supposed this was karma.

I stepped through his form - deliberately - and moved over to his desk. His computer was set up there, one of the fancy, prestige models I couldn’t remember the stupid marketing name of. Nobody really used these for personal units these days, but Sean was exactly that kind of asshole.

He whirled at me. “Don’t touch that, you bitch! I’ll-”

“You’ll what, dim the lights at me?” I snorted, already booting up the unit and prepping for a hack. “You’re a hologram, you chipbrain.”

“The advantage of wealth, sweetheart,” Ew. “is that you don’t have to be places to get shit done. I have people for that.” And then the door slid open, and the Troll stepped in. “See? Power. My associate here will rip out your thieving spine and send me your brain. I know you saw our lab. What violent delights I’ll inflict on you there.”

I pulled up my new gun and blasted the Troll, his shoulder rocked back with the bullet. He grinned, big and toothy, and pulled out a fucking axe and hurled it at me. I dodged, barely, and it buried itself inches into the wall behind me. I swore, just as Chloe came in with a swing, trying to distract him. He caught her fist and squeezed, drawing a scream out of her as he dragged her entire form like a misbehaving child and threw her across the room.

Rachel and Max attacked at the same time, a drone’s fire and Rachel’s little machine pistol barking out as one and rocking into him from each side. Something on his chest flashed blue and the bullet’s trajectories bent in the air. Some hit him, clattering off body armour and biting into exposed flesh, others literally moved around him and at both Rachel and Max, who fell back into the wings of the office.

All the while, Prescott was still ranting and raving, joyfully telling us of all the terrible things the Troll would do and encouraging the Troll to kill us all.

The Troll seemed to be fueled by the vitriol, and he charged at me, swinging a new blade which I didn’t even see him pull out. One of those little foreign bendy-knife things I could never remember the name of. I dodged back, and away from the computer.

He caught me on a back-dodge, cutting a shallow scar across my chest. I hissed - asshole.

More bullets hit the Troll in the back, and I ducked into his chest as that blue flashed again and bullets curled into the walls around us. He reached down and back-handed me away from him, sending me hurtling into one of Sean’s very expensive bookshelves.

I grit my teeth against the pain and shot at him again. I- wait. Why was I doing this? Cyberware means tech. Tech means I can get into it. And Rachel had done it before… A little gauche to copy, but I was sure I could put my own spin on it.

I quickly hid behind the desk, leaving Chloe, Rachel, and Max to distract him, and got to work. Like most shadowrunners, he was running quiet and off-wireless. It took a while to even find an access port, much less get into it. But once I’d found it, my programs stretched out, mapping the outer layer of his systems. I began with a gentle poke to all available ports, trying to find any weaknesses.

Surprisingly, that bit was easy.

Because then I detected - Matrix Access Only.

His internals were on a contained virtual demi-world. Who the hell installed a matrix space on their internal cyberware spaces as a passcode? I was distracted for a moment by a loud curse from Chloe - I peeked out and saw her stumbling back, a hunting knife buried up to the hilt in her side.

Fuck. I needed to be quicker.

I pulled out another dozen or so programs, launching them all in. And then I followed after them.

The Troll’s demi-world was a vast, shadowed space. Brief spots were illuminated by hanging industrial lights that swung lightly with an invisible breeze.

I walked forward, following the lights along. Eventually, it lead me to an island of light. In it, sat a couple of white couches and an actual filing cabinet.

Obviously, I checked the cabinet. I was a reporter. Nosiness was part of the deal. The papers inside were written in code, but I quickly broke the encryption and the papers resolved into pictures. Images of scenes I recognised - his attacks on us, orders from Prescott, even a meeting with the golden dragon himself.

And then I finally got in, his passwords and keys displayed in a nice neat list for me - all his tech are belong to me. I stepped back out of the Matrix and hunkered down behind the desk just a little further, focusing on the symbols in front of me as my deck decoded his OS into a suitable interface for me. I could deactivate his shield, let Chloe and Max shoot the hell out of him, or- He’d have to have one hell of an internal generator to run that thing, or he’d be shooting so many wireless signals out I’d’ve seen him light up like a Christmas Tree.

I ignored the UI and went straight for the code, tailing the power generation subroutines back to their controls and- there. Wow. That thing was more powerful than most people’s entire homes. Okay, well, if I reprogram that, realign that variable, up the capacity to overflow, and- the interface resolved into a single button marked with three letters: ‘E.M.P.’

Boom.

His generator resonated with the shield’s energy. The pulses would weaken, being reflected and interfered with, but I had to keep it contained. Otherwise I’d fry all of us. And the Computer containing all the information we were looking for.

We all stared - even Sean, finally falling silent - as the Troll’s body was wracked by what I’d done to him.

The Troll finally fell, keeling like a great oak. I quickly strode over and searched him, finding the memory-storage in a pocket. With all the hacking I’d been doing, my systems were set up and ready. I scanned, assessed, and readied the memory in moments. Lucky it was an insulated drive, and small enough not to be overwhelmed by my feedback loop.

Then we uploaded the memory.

Nathan whirred, then his eyes lit up. “I remember! I remember where it is! I have it!” Nathan began to laugh madly - a little too much like his father.

I forcefully pulled his attention. “Can you direct us to the Trove?”

“Oh yeah. We’re heading South, into the Mountains.”

We left the room, and Sean, in silence. The fight upward was easy, and the pilot picked us up from the roof. We settled in, giving him the coordinates. As the stealthjet glided through the local scan-nets with ease, I let my mind wander, and wonder, what the hell we were going to find.

A Dragon’s Hoard. Nobody had any clue what would be in one. A trove of technology? An archive of knowledge? A vault of money or resources? Who knows. But whatever happened next, we were about to find out.