Chapter 2- Chroming up for the first time (again)

There's no real way to explain the sheer unadulterated agony of having your spine removed and replaced without anesthesia. It literally is beyond the capacity of language is o explain the white hot sharp burn of steel cutting into where it should never go. And then the sheer WRONGNESS of removing the spine and replacing it with something else.

Unluckily for David, he awakens to this pain once more. If you were to be poetic, you could call it the price of hope. Agony once more lived to bring in the advent of a new hope.

When David was able to think of anything other than pure white hot agony, his breathing was heavy, his eyes unfocused, and his eyes filled with tears.

Lucy. He'd not thought he would go to hell, for all that he grew up Catholic with his Mamá. But then, maybe that was his punishment for being a fucking gonk. Never going to heaven to see his Lucy. His friends.

"Well, the deed be done Davey. Now get da hell out of my shop, until you ready to give me back the Sandy."

That was a voice he would have expected to see him in hell for sure. But….

….no. no fucking WAY.

"W… what?"

"Did I fucking stutta ya gonk? Git offa my table and go wherever da fuck you go. See you in a few days."

The sleezy old ripper doc snorted as he waved him off, already getting ready to go back to his brain dances and the masturbation machine.

David staggered to his feet, the weight of the Sandevistan familiar, but… sickening at the same time. How had he not noticed it the first time?

First time? This… this couldn't be real.

Arasaka had to have fucking trapped him in a BD or something. But...as he took stock of everything, the memories flooded back in as he grabbed his mom's coat, stumbling into the streets.

Maine. Arasaka Academy. Katsuo.

Kiwi. Dorio. Falco. Pilar.

Rebecca…..Lucy….

"Heh… hehehehe…"

This had to be a hallucination. The last vestiges of neurons firing to give him a happy before the projectile Flatlined him.

He looked at the stinking city, the cars going by, people watching BDs as they waited for trains, buses, and more.

… if he was going to fixate on one good thing before he died it would have been in that custom BD with Lucy. Where he had been so happy, and his heart had been racing.

He'd been caught up in his own thoughts that he hadn't noticed a message had been sent to him. That… was different. He didn't remember that.

Pulling it up, his face froze in confusion and disbelief.

[You asked for another chance. To do things all over again. This is it.]

[Do better.]

[You won't get a third.]

[SA]

He immediately tried to message back.

The fuck do you mean? This can't be real?! Who are you!

Unfortunately that only returned this.

Message unable to be sent

….. could… it… could he really be back?

Could it really have gotten….

Oh god. He could save them.

He could save them all.

Should… should he follow the way he did things last time?

No. Not… entirely.

His pace picked up a little as he made his way back to his mom….his mom's apartment. Not using the Sandy. No… no until he could get the damn thing looked at by a real ripper, he wasn't going to use it anymore than he had to.

He grinned a little. He had to save it for his first date with Lucy afterall. And really, even with Lucy having deceived him, he remembered talking with her later when they were together that even then pulling that picksocket gig had been some of the most fun she'd ever had.

The smile he'd had on his face vanished almost immediately once he'd walked inside the apartment with his mom's Ashes on the table.

He swallowed as he sat down on the couch, his eyes watering and his throat tightened.

"....Mamá…. I'm sorry."

He said quietly as he reached out to touch the urn.

"...I'm gonna let you down a second time. But the corpo life… it was never me. It was what you wanted for me. But I'll do better than going to the top of Arasaka tower. I'll live happy. Ok? I won't go psycho. I won't let my friends die. And I won't break my promises again. I just… I hope you understand."

He murmured as he pulled back, and placed the urn up on a counter carefully.

"... And when I get the eddies I'll make sure you get a nicer urn. You always liked looking pretty, I remember."

He looked around at the small apartment with a mix of melancholy and nostalgia before grinning and heading towards the shower, and the washer and dryer.

"But now… I've got a date to get to. Means Ive gotta look at least as nice as I did when I met her first."

Wondering what his mom would have thought of Lucy while he got into the shower, he quickly began to scrub down, grimacing as the Sandy sluggishly began adapting to his biometrics.

He'd been so deep in grief before, he'd never noticed that it felt so off. Now… now he just had to hope that going to a new doc would make things better. After the date. Otherwise he'd miss his chance to meet his Chooms again.

A little nervous, he pulled on his usual outfit, along with his mom's jacket, and left, after saying goodbye to his mom's ashes.

He'd had to wrack his brain remembering exactly when he'd gotten on a train car and which car he'd been on so as to make sure to relive that first moment.

When everything changed for him.

And then …. That shock of white hair. The leotard that had been part of so many of his fantasies….

She seemed so cold at first glance. But he knew her by now. Knew her better than she knew herself. Just like she'd known him.

She was burning with hate as she looked at the 'Saka suits, just waiting for the train to get into motion.

He'd boarded as well, calming himself, and doing just as he had this first time. Just looking out the window … as she made her moves. Carefully but quickly removing chips here and there.

And then….

He felt his own slip free, and activated the Sandy for the first time. He was even more aware of everything than before. Everything was even slower. He felt like he could move like lightning. Like he could just….

Last time, even using the Sandy, he'd been unable to stop her from palming it and had instead had to grip her wrist.

Now, it felt like it was moving even slower.

He could grab the chip at any point. It wasn't even like time had slowed.

It felt like time had fucking STOPPED.

But still he waited, and finally she palmed the chip, and he moved to grip her wrist and dropped the Sandy.

Lucy looked at him with shock, her guard having broken as she hadn't expected a casual target to catch her and move that quick.

She grimaced lightly and pulled her arm away roughly before grabbing his shirt and pulling him to a dark corner.

"Come on."

She said coldly before pushing him up against a wall.

"Alright what's your angle?"

David couldn't help but repeat his first response, but this time with a note of amusement.

"My angle?"

"What do you want? You're messing up my work."

She said with annoyance. And it was still the most beautiful thing he'd heard all day.

"Work huh… seems like you're more like a picksocket to me. Nice work on those other chips. Suits won't notice till they're gone."

She frowned for a moment, before her eyes got a bit… calculating before her entire demeanor portrayed seduction.

"Hey… do I know you?"

And fuck him but even though he knew it was an act, he remembered many… many times when she'd used the same tone to coax him into relaxing… how she would look up at him as she struggled to swallow his length.

"I… um… no. But I'd like t-"

And just like that things had gotten rough, with her turning him around, with mono wire across his throat, as she did a scan. Fuck. He really needed to get some decent ICE otherwise he'd be an open book.

"Ooh… you are in trouble aren't you? A Sandevistan? Do tell me where you got it?"

Before she could continue and play it off, he answered her honestly.

"My… my mom had it. She…. She died today. So I got it implanted. I was going to do something stupid…. But.. decided not to."

Maybe that would keep Maine from punching him this time around. But if not… well. He wasn't going to let him.

"..... Oh. I'm sorry to hear that."

She didn't loosen her grip. She didn't really change her tone.

But he knew her. She was ashamed. Just a little bit.

"... That's Night City I guess."

He said quietly.

".... So, what do you think of us working together on this?"

"Robbing folks?"

He said amused.

"Is it really robbing people if we only go after Arasaka?"

He laughed quietly.

"Fuck the corpos. Take em for everything they got."

She hummed even as she loosened her grip and the Mono wire began to retract.

"That's odd… seeing as how there's an Arasaka Academy student ID in your pocket."

Ah… looks like he'd forgotten it again.

"Got expelled. Did something stupid trying to save my mom money. Doesn't matter. "

She didn't say anything…. But finally pulled away.

"Alright then… let's go in on this."

"60-40"

He said firmly, as she led them farther down the train, finding a nice starter area for them to begin to work.

"Oh? Someone's confident. Why should I accept It?"

"Because I'm doing half the work, but you know better how to get eddies for this. So I'll take 40, you take 60."

Confidence was a hell of a thing, and he supposed that Lucy seemed to get that she couldn't tug him around like she'd expected.

".... Alright…. You've got a deal."

She offered him her hand, and he took it. He couldn't help the wave of emotion that flowed through him. He wanted to hold her. Kiss her. Tell her he was never going to leave her again. But… he couldn't . Not now. Maybe when they'd gotten close enough that she'd believe him.

"Lucy."

"David Martinez."

Her eyes flashed with confirmation. Yep… be interesting to see what happened next. For now though….

"Alright let's see what you got."

David grinned as they linked up with the calls, speaking to each other in their heads.

David: "Bring it on."

Yeah. Bring it on.