[XIV]_running_down_the_clock_[24]

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Maybe one day you'll taste the sun, feel its endless warmth. Maybe one day you'll feel free from the constraints of mortality. One day, the heavens'll greet you or hell will welcome you with open arms. Just know your legacy will carry on. As long as you make your presence count.

What if I don't wanna be remembered, Dex?

How foolish to live a life in the shadows of death and not feel compelled to bask in the limelight of riches and fame before shaking the cold hands of your demise.

Would....could I really make that much of a mark on N.C?

Tell ya what, you're askin the wrong choomba. Only one who can decide your fate is you. So what will you do? Be a pawn in the corpos sick little games or be a big dog and run this city your own damn self?!

I don't wanna run this city, Dex.
.
..
...
I wanna destroy it.
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Valarie's POV

"I'M GONNA RULE THIS CITY!!!" a younger voice of myself echoed in the darkness as I awoken. "FEAR ME, NIGHT CITTYYYYY!!!" Brushing myself off, I looked around the abyss of my mind. "When will this nightmare end?" I heard my voice boom in the emptiness. "Is this all a lie?" Broken glass scattered the ground as thick crimson splattered and was dragged further into the darkness. "You were supposed to be the one, now we're dying...." Following the trail of glass and fluids, I found a person with short, unevenly cut black hair laying in a pool of, what seemed like, their blood. Gasping and choking for air, the person thrashed about on the ground violently until they stopped suddenly, before taking a deep breath of air.

"Valarie....we....are dying.." the person coughed up more blood before seizing once more, almost like how I'd react to relic malfunctions. That voice was the same one echoing.

"Who are you and how did you get here?"

"My dear Valarie....I've been in your head for YEARS...cyberpyschosis isn't curable because the thing that has to die, is YOU!" I jumped back as I remembered Vaja imprisoning me in my mind. "Fuck....your siblings shot us-me-you, whatever....point is...we...are...dying." She coughed up more blood as she struggled to sit up to face me. "The relic's too far gone....there's no surviving this..."

"Tsk, tsk, tsk," I turned around to face the music as boot thumps echoed around us. "The famous V giving up so easily?" A grizzled Silverhand smiled, even as he glitched in and out. "The parasite's right, though. This body is expiring a helluva lot faster than before."

"I'm actualy glad to see you, Silverdick." I hugged him and actually felt him. His cold metallic hand, his muscular figure, the faint smell of alcohol and cigarette smoke, it truly was him. "How do I get outta this?"

"Arasaka," both Vaja and Silver answered. "Soulkiller."

"I was afraid of that..."

"You know the only way outta this is death. V." Vaja spoke.

"You underestimate the power of a Marksmyth." I knelt down to face Vaja. "I've overcome death before and I'll fucking do it again!" The darkness of the void I've been trapped in slowly disolved into a grey-ish hue.

"Face it V, we flew too close to the sun. It's over."

"It's over when I say it's over." I cracked my knuckles. "This body isn't gone just yet." I walked away and grabbed the only memory orb that wasn't destroyed. A fragile memory of me waking up from being Soulkilled many years ago. As I held the memory in my hand, the world around me grew lighter and lighter. "Remember the name Valarie when Night City comes crashing down."
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