Cyberpunk: Dark Reign

Simply fascinating.

Of course, an introduction. A beginning. Where are my manners? I could introduce myself properly, but it's not really necessary. You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible. Your soul will be in my arms. A colour will be perched on my shoulder. I will carry you gently away.

—

Some Time Ago

A building was on fire, and it wasnt my fault.

In fact, just moments ago…..I-I was somewhere different.

I was with my climbing partner.

We were standing in a vast pan of emptiness, with only sky above and death below. It was a great gash of valley half way up the Himalayas, stretching out for endless miles. On either side, indomitable mountains loomed, enfolding in my mind with their might. Fuck. I just knew they hated us just like the last expedition we were sent to find the remains of.

The winds glacial breath swept through the valley, licking it with its icy caress. It neither moaned nor sighed, nor made any sound at all. It simply haunted the valley, constantly gnawing at us with its ravening fangs. A thundering sound suddenly filled the air, replacing the silence. A huge swathe of snow detached itself from the rumpled sidenof the mountain. It tobagganed past the furrowed brow, swooping towards us.

We had no time.

"I accept the lord, Jesus Christ, as my savior-"

"Oh fuck me in the ass-"

We both said our final words.

Then….a fire.

'But…it was the Himalayas'. I looked around. It was a decrepit street, only illuminated by the fire currently engulfing the building I was in front of.

Wait! I got hit by a damn Avalanche, surely I would've died. Right?

I didn't try to move away from the fire. I simply took it in. Perhaps I was to stunned.

'What the fuck is going on' I asked myself over and over. I dont even think I blinked.

'Heaven? Hell? Nirvana? Gehenna? What the fuck?' I pleaded with the universe to provide an answer…but like the bitch she is, she ignored me. 'Should I have expected different?'

Questions of all sorts plagued me for an unknown amount of time. Hours…..I simply sat, continuously shifting between deathly cold to warmed by the great fire.

'Wait…'

I began to realize that coming in such close contact with my own mortality had changed both nothing and everything. Before my accident, I knew that someday I would die, but I didn't know when. After, I knew that someday I would die, but I didn't know when. But now I knew it acutely. The problem wasn't really a scientific one. The fact of death is unsettling, on the other hand, it was also magnificent.

For just a moment….for just a moment, it was all so beautiful. To just listen to silence. To have no yesterday, and no tomorrow. To forget time, to forgive life, to be at peace. Even though it was only a moment, I remembered it in graffic detail.

Oh….how I cannot wait for its embrace once more. There simply cannot be any other way to live.

—

A Few Hours Later

[PADRE POV]

"AAAAAAAAARGH!"

I still couldn't get used to them- the nightmares, I mean. I can still remember every detail, Alex cried out for the umpteenth time, "Make it stop!" Alex was nineteen years old. The Maelstrom had captured him and decided to hold him on the Moto Cielo so that we could hear everything as they slowly tortured him. They had tied him up in the dark just a few yards from our encirclement so we could listen to his screams.

'What doesn't kill you, makes you stronger.-' No, not in Night City. In 'here it got to the point where... '-What didn't kill you, made you something else.'

Even now, with it being….since 34' that I was still a priest for the Valentinos, they just didn't settle, I guess I just learned how to live with it.

Now that I was older, my body wasn't as efficient as it was, my bones creaked and my joints flared up at me as got up from the bed, slowly.

[2:18 a.m.]

Another early morning I guess. While I was used to this, that didn't mean I liked it, seems like ever since a month ago I couldn't get even a couple hours in. My head fell in my hands as I washed it with some water, I needed to wake up.

*BING*BING*BING*

Āŷ, ďĭŏș ɱĭŏ! Not even an hour and this 'Ĥǔėѷāďāș' comes across the holo?

"Șĭ?" I answered. I hoped this was important.

[PADRE! Ɠřāƈĭāș ā Ɖĭŏș, we thought you were dead! Some fucking rats hit us hard, Padre-]

Shit! I haven't been with the Valentinos for some time but they were family.

"Im sorry, Jose, but you know im a fixer now, I cant mix personal and biz together."

[…Padre….we just need a name. THEY FUCKIN MASSACRED THE ORPHANAGE! There's only one kid left-]

A sharp pain entered my heart. Tears welled up in eyes…"fuck" I said out loud. I started the 'Santa Muerte Orphanage For the Lost Youth' my last act to the Valentinos, trying to keep the innocent children away from the streets and in the hands of the trusted. "FUCK!"

"The child?"

[We found the kid sitting in the rain watching the Orphanage burn. Poor kid.]

I took a couple moments to compose myself, lashing out never did anything but waste energy. "What will you do with them?"

[Ehh….well,….maybe we can-]

"No-" I wouldn't have a distraught child pulled molded by now vengeful gang. I tried to thjnk of someone trust worthy that would steer their path the right way. One person came to mind. "Send the child to Mamá Welles, I hear little Jackie went off to you all, she'll need the company, and the child'll need the guidance."

[Mmm, ok Padre, sounds good.]

———

Romance: Panam(obviously)