Chapter 19: The Nomad

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!

The final plot thread gets plucked.

-x-X-x-

Hm, as much as the thought of the world and its events changing from what he remembered worries him… it also kind of excites him. Would he really be happy if everyone somehow stayed on the exact same rails they were on the last time around? Would he be content with conquering the city and retaking his place as King of the Afterlife if everyone else was just an automaton who couldn’t react or change their minds?

No… no, that would be lame. And in the end, Michiko and Danger Gal promised to be a breath of fresh air in a lot of ways.

“Let them come, Alt. Like you said, they’re not a threat to us. Let them flail around for a while, let them make their moves, and we’ll see how far Michiko Arasaka’s patience holds. You’ll keep tabs on them for me in the meantime, won’t you?”

His resident AI smirks up at him at that, her naked and sweaty body still feeling objectively real to his senses as he holds her against his side.

“Of course, V. You can count on me.”

He smirks back and pulls her closer. They were in this together, in the end. No sooner has that thought crossed his mind then a message comes in from Goro Takemura. V snorts upon reading it. It was the same old, same old, boiling down to the main caveat… V had to stay in Night City upon pain of death or worse.

It wasn’t like he was going anywhere though. Even if he had half a dozen pans in the fire at this point, even if the thought of experiencing new things was exciting… Night City was still the only place he could possibly imagine himself being. While it had only been less than a year between him slotting Johnny into his head and ultimately dying as King of the Afterlife and a Night City Living Legend, V had lived a lifetime in those months. More than that thought, Night City was his birthplace. It was in his blood, in his very bones.

“Mm… speaking of juggling opportunities V… it’s happened.”

V’s eyes snap to Alt at that, before lighting up in mild excitement.

“Oh?”

Grinning like the cat who caught the canary, Alt runs a hand through her voluminous blonde locks and nods.

“Yep.”

She pops the ‘P’ as she does so, chuckling as V moves to climb out of bed and get dressed.

“Your damsel in distress is primed for you to swoop in and save her, V. You finally get to be the Big Damn Hero.”

Taking her needling with a good-natured huff, V shakes his head.

“It’s not about that. You and I both know that she would never have accepted my help if it came too easily. Nor is she the kind of woman who trusts anyone who tries to warn her either. She’s stubborn like that. She had to get bitten first, to find herself down on her luck in order to really be desperate enough to accept my assistance.”

Alt hums, nodding in agreement with him. He was right, after all.

“Sure. And none of it has to do with that ass of hers, now does it?”

That causes V to pause for a moment… before giving Alt a wicked grin of his own.

“Well. I’m only human.”

-x-X-x-

Fuck, fuck, fuckity FUCK!

Panam Palmer groans as she laces her fingers behind her head, staring up at the garage ceiling while pacing back and forth across the FAR too empty floor. She was fucked. She was so fucking fucked. She was up shit’s creek without a fucking paddle.

It had all been going so well for the Nomad too. Sure, she’d left the Aldecaldos. And yeah, that still fucking hurt because frankly, leaving hadn’t been entirely her choice. It was the best of a list of bad choices, really, but what was done was done, and as much as she’d missed her family every day, she could at least still call Mitch and Scorpion from time to time and shoot the shit with them.

For a while there, the life of a mercenary had seemed pretty damn good. She still got to ride the roads out of Night City pretty frequently after all, she was just doing it on the behalf of this or that Fixer, instead of on behalf of the clan. She had been developing a pretty nice nest egg as well, and there had even been stray thoughts of going back to the clan and convincing Saul that they didn’t need motherfucking Biotechnica to survive.

If she could do it, maybe the whole clan could make it work. Better to be beholden to Fixers then slaves to Corpos, right?

Only… now she couldn’t even call Scorpion or Mitch, let alone Saul. Not after what had happened. Because right now, Panam wasn’t the success story she needed to be. Right now, she was the failure that Saul could point to as proof that they had to make that deal with Biotechnica, lest they end up like HER.

Fuck that traitorous weasel Nash! God fucking damn it! He’d been waiting for the opportunity. In hindsight, it was so fucking obvious. He’d been looking for the chance to ruin her, to steal not just the goods but also her ride and fuck off into the sunset. Her blood still boiled when she thought of his last message to her, gleefully admitting he was a Wraith, a fucking Raffen Shiv, even as he left her high and dry.

Now here she was in the last asset she had left to her name, a small garage on the outskirts of Night City that she had to find a way to pay rent on for the month or else she’d lose that too. But… she couldn’t do anything without getting back at Nash. Not just because Panam wanted revenge, not even just because she wanted her damn ride back… but because until she got Rogue Amendiares the goods she’d lost, or their equivalent monetary value, Panam was effectively frozen out of taking any gigs in Night City.

In a lot of ways, that was getting off easy. A small, distant part of Panam knew that Rogue was throwing her a bone by not holding her more responsible for the lost packages. But the far larger part of her couldn’t help but curse the Queen of the Afterlife for being so damn unhelpful! Panam had been over to the Afterlife twice now already, but Rogue had stonewalled her each and every time.

It wasn’t her problem, the Fixer Queen would say. It wasn’t her fuck up. She’d already invested enough in Panam as it was. Infuriating, to say the least.

But… Panam wasn’t done yet. She wanted to take Nash down anyways, in the end. She just needed to figure out where he was. But first and foremost, she needed to get a new set of wheels. And… maybe also go back to Rogue again. Surely the Fixer couldn’t be an ice bitch forever. Maybe once she had a plan and a vehicle, the Queen of the Afterlife would hear her out and give her the support she needed. Maybe-

Panam’s thoughts freeze as she belatedly realizes she’s not alone, whipping around and drawing her sidearm in an instant. Admittedly, at least part of this is her fault for leaving the door to the garage open while she paced. But that doesn’t give anyone the right to just sneak up on her, for fuck’s sake!

Training the gun on the man’s face, she scowls angrily.

“Get the fuck out.”

Far from being concerned, or even raising his hands in surrender, the stranger raises an eyebrow at her, making Panam feel a heat rise on the back of her neck. Frankly, she almost pulls the trigger than and there. Fucker has no right making her feel embarrassed for defending herself in her own garage.

“Panam Palmer?”

… Except he knows her name. Shit. Still keeping the gun trained on him, Panam purses her lips for a moment before jerking her head up and down in a nod.

“Who’s asking?”

“The name’s V. Heard you were in a spot of trouble and could use some help.”

He’d heard… Panam’s eyes widen. Rogue. The Fixer Queen had actually come through for her!

“Rogue sent you. Why didn’t you just say so? Or better yet, send a fucking message ahead instead of creeping up on me.”

Making a ‘tch’ sound, she finally lowers her gun. She doesn’t stow it yet though, but she does keep it pointed down at the ground as she eyes the man up and down. Now that she’s paying attention… yeah, his posture, his getup… it all screams mercenary to her. He’s definitely not with any of the gangs from what she can tell, and he’s no Scav either.

Something else she notices… is how he’s looking at her. It’s weird. Panam is a big girl in more ways than one. She’s used to the way men look at her. In fact, there are two ways most common at this point. Either they stare in reverence like she’s a work of art, or they stare in hunger like she’s a damn piece of meat.

Panam is well aware of how good her body is. She’s sort of proud, sort of ambivalent about her looks, really. But V… V hasn’t looked away from her face a single time since she noticed his presence. Sure, one might assume he got all of his ogling out of the way while she was distractedly pacing back and forth across the garage, but Panam didn’t get that impression.

No, because there is a certain way he’s studying her… a sort of weird affectionate nostalgia, like he’s seeing her again after a long time instead of for the very first time. But no matter what, those eyes of his never trail down. Not to her chest, not to anywhere else on her body. Odd.

Instead of responding to her assertion that Rogue sent him, or her accusation of creepiness, V just smiles after a moment.

“I don’t come free, I’m afraid.”

What? Rogue hadn’t paid the bastard?! Panam feels her hackles raising, her first instinct being to toss V to the curb and continue on without him. But something stops her. Well, two things stop her. First is the fact that she doesn’t even have a set of wheels at this point. Without a ride, tracking down Nash in the Badlands and getting her actual vehicle back is basically impossible.

But the second thing is… something about V. He’s so relaxed and calm. Either he’s incredibly overconfident, or… he’s exactly as confident as he should be. She hopes it’s the second one, while fearing it’s the first. Huffing, Panam crosses her arms over her chest and narrows her eyes at the mercenary.

“I’m not exactly liquid right now. If I was, I might just pay Rogue back for the lost shipment and cut my damn losses.”

“No you wouldn’t.”

V calls her out on the lie immediately, causing Panam’s eyes to widen and his grin to widen right along with them.

“You won’t let someone like Nash get away with crossing you. And you certainly aren’t going to leave your wheels in fucking Raffen Shiv hands, now are you?”

He’s right. Of course he’s fucking right. She’s going to get back at Nash and she’s going to get her ride back… or she’ll die trying. Still, Panam wasn’t expecting understanding from a mercenary.

“… Who the hell even are you? You Nomad born like me?”

But V shakes his head.

“Night City born and raised. Street Kid, through and through. Still, I’ve had my encounters with Nomads in the past. Even had my encounters with Aldecaldos too. I know how you lot think.”

Panam flushes at that, and if she wasn’t already crossing her arms defensively, that definitely would have had her doing it.

“I… I’m not with the Aldecaldos anymore anyways.”

The knowing look V gives her makes Panam’s hackles raise, like he’s well aware of how much she misses her family, of how lonely she feels. Damn it. Damn him. She almost wants to kick him to the curb for that look alone. But before she can.

“Well, seeing as you’re not exactly… liquid right now, I’m willing to work for scavenger’s rights.”

Huh? At her look of confusion, V elaborates.

“Nash isn’t working alone, now is he?”

No, he probably wasn’t.

“Wherever we track him down to is likely to be a Wraith Base with a good amount of men, vehicles, and guns. Your ride and Rogue’s shipment, if both are still there, are yours at the end of the gig. But everything else, I get first dibs on. Sound good?”

That sounded more than good. That sounded great. Panam wasn’t much of a scavenger anyways. Sure, she’d sold the odd gun or gear she’d found here and there that she didn’t need, but it sounded like V was expecting to somehow strip Nash’s base down to bedrock… and frankly, Panam simply didn’t have the patience for that kind of thing.

It sounded perfect. A match made in heaven. But… frankly, it sounded too perfect. Panam couldn’t find the catch. There was always a catch, she’d learned that lesson from Nash. So part of her really, really wanted to reject V’s offer and go it on her own.

…

But at the same time… she couldn’t afford to pass up on V’s assistance. All she could really do was keep both eyes open and wait to see what the catch was, really. Letting out an explosive sigh, Panam nods sharply.

“Sounds good. You’ve got a ride, I assume? Otherwise this ain’t happening.”

“Yeah, I’ve got wheels. Right outside.”

He leads her out of the garage, and while the Archer Hella EC-D i360 that V has waiting on the street isn’t exactly special, it’ll at least do them good enough for this. Letting out a low breath, Panam slowly nods.

“Okay… alright. We’re in business then. But first, we need to figure out where Nash is holed up.”

Panam hesitates, and then grimaces.

“… We might have to wait a while. Until he gets comfortable enough to try to sell off the merchandise.”

But V shakes his head at that.

“Or you call him right now, let him gloat at you for a moment like the scum of the earth we both know he is, and I’ll trace his location back from there.”

What? Panam’s incredulous look just gets a grin from V. There’s no way that would work. But if it does…

One phone call later, and Panam feels like she needs to take a shower after having to endure Nash’s sleazy, smarmy gloating. The bastard even had the gall to offer to let her buy back her ride with her body, or ‘join him with the Nomads who actually made eddies’… so long as she put out of course.

Fortunately, V had finally given her a nod, allowing Panam to end the call right then and there. When she looks at him expectantly, he just grins and shoots her over the detes.

“Well… I’ll be damned. You’re sure this is where he’s at? It’s not some relay station he’s bouncing his connection off of or anything?”

But the mercenary just shakes his head.

“He was bouncing his connection off of quite a few proxies… but that’s the end of the road. That’s where him and his Wraith buddies are holed up, and I’m willing to bet that’s where your ride and Rogue’s merchandise will be as well. Just have to go out there and get it back.”

Panam frowns. It still feels too easy…

“Just like that, huh?”

“Just like that.”

… But she’s got no other options. Fine. Fuck it.

“Alright. Let’s go then.”

[ ] Switch to Alt's POV - 9%

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