Game Over

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…

┃🔴 MegaMacho [p a treon . com (slash) MegaMacho (remove all spacing and replace "(slash)" for "/")]

👾 GQeFpEAjn2 [d i scord . gg (slash) GQeFpEAjn2 (remove all spacing and replace "(slash)" for "/")]

║▌│█║▌│ █║▌│█│║▌║

"----" Speech.

'----' Thought.

(----) Thought in the middle of a sentence.

*----* Sound.

[---] Any form of technology.

<& > ---~ Music.

║▌│█║▌│ █║▌│█│║▌║

(For a better reading experience, I recommend watching this with ANY version of "I Really Want to Stay at Your House".)

[Edgerunner Saga]

[Chapter 1: Game Over]

"The Moon reminds us that reality is not always what it seems at first glance. In a world of appearances and illusions, the best course is often charted by one's own intuition. The Moon is also the card of dreams, desires, and of course, sleep – Death's nightly ritual." – The Moon, Tarot Card Journal. Cyberpunk 2077.

…

"Courgk!" 

A young man with tall and spiky quiff hair and equipped with massive metal arms and legs gagged as vomited cups of blood owing to an uppercut by a cyborg -clad in a skin mask that ended just above his upper lips- with such force that he could feel his chrome grinding against his innards while his brain rattled inside his skull.

Even in such a perilous position, all the boy could think was the last words he left for his love, Lucy. His mind wandered to these words he left for her through Falco.

"Sorry. Wish we could go to the moon together." 

<& > And I'm aware that you were lying in the gutter~

A torrent of memories and emotions spurred in his fried brain. Flashes of him shaking Lucy's hand at that metro; Of kissing the rainbownette under the full moon; Of leaping after his lover's lead as she guided him in that moon BD while holding his hands, and them feeling so soft and so warm.

A jab hit him square in the face, making his brain come to a screeching halt momentarily as his whole body was thrown sideways from its sheer force. Yet, his psyche only seemed to recall them even harder in response.

<& > 'Cause I did everything to be there by your side-iiiii-iiide~

He meeting Maine's crew; Seeing Rebecca shooting her brother in his first courier gig; Pilar having an arm around his shoulder and blabbering nonsense about joytoys; Of the all of the crew giving him thumbs up.

Another punch came down on his mangled form, tearing his cyberskeleton's legs off and flipping the rest of him like a trickshot. And still, the flashbacks did not stop flooding his brain.

<& > So when you tell me I'm the reason, I just can't believe the lies~

Lucy leaning on him on top of the roof; His mom splayed on the street; Him seeing that bastard's (the one who tortured him through BDs) wicked last smile before death; The noob dying in a proximity mine; Him zeroing those two innocent workers.

He couldn't even tell which direction the following impact came from this time, but he could still remember.

<& > And why do I still wanna call you- call you- call you- call you…~

Seeing Pilar get his head blown off by a cyberpsycho; Dorio burning in that pyre; Maine's being undone in front of his very eyes in slow motion by the blast; Rebecca's body splattered on the ground, ribcage open.

If his optics didn't take his ability to cry, he knew he would be a mess right now. Not that he wasn't a mess already. If not for his life, then by The Smasher himself, with capital T and S, who was making very sure, and very physically, that he ended up in one.

'I'm so sorry. Everyone. For everything.'

Completely exhausted and too battered to even process his state, he fell motionlessly to the ground, bleeding from all his orifices and motionless as his body was ripped off its cyber limbs.

<& > So, what do you wanna do, what's your point of view?~

"Hehe- Haha- Hah." David laughed in pauses like a broken record with the few breaths he still had in him. It was just all so poetic and funny. What a fucking soap opera.

<& > There's a party, screw it, do you wanna go?~

Here he was, the man himself, David Martinez, completely broken apart by none other than the legendary boogeyman, Adam Smasher, who loomed over him like the grim reaper himself, which honestly, he might just as well be.

<& > A handshake with you, what's your point of view?~

The endgerunner's Sandevistan was utterly broken and releasing sparks like a firework show, and yet somehow, he felt time slow down to a crawl like he had never felt before. He chuckled some more in realization. Was this death? The whole 'life flashing through your eyes' deal? Was that why recalled all those memories?

Despite how cliché and fake it seemed, that's exactly what happened and is still happening.

David Martinez.

17. Now 18.

Not even old enough to for most things, but future waits for no one in Night City.

He was nothing. A random street kid who somehow managed to get entry to Arasaka Academy, an unreachable dream to many. But that was never his dream. It was his mother's one. That damn hardworking woman, sweet and caring to a fault.

He had no dreams of his own, and while living the one forced upon him was grueling, he sucked it up. His mother sacrificed too much for him to waste it all on his drama. It didn't matter how hurtful the bullying got, or how much the stares of the others drilled into him for his origin, he would do it. For his mom. For the only person who cared about him. Who brought him to this world as a single mother in a city as unforgiving as Night City, even when abortion was just 10 eddies away in any pharmacy.

He would do it for the glory of Gloria Martinez, the most loving mother in this shitty world… but he flinched. His relapse in trying to save eddies in a naïve attempt to lighten his mom's shoulders with a pirate program set in motion a series of events that would place him and her in the wrong place, at the wrong time, as the wrong people.

He killed her. Not only that, but he spat on her efforts just moments before disaster struck, saying how he didn't want to realize her dream; how hard it was to deal with it all, even when she had her own problems and suffered more than him a thousandfold. His last words brought her to tears, tears that were stopped by fire, iron, and blood.

He caused the death of the only one who cared about him.

He was nothing. After that? He became less than nothing.

It was unfair. Brutal. Merciless. Maddening. Downright suicidal.

But that would be too easy. Too monotone for such a colorful city that lightens the night, right? It had to give him hope. Hope that burned brighter than a star, just so it could snuff it out just as strong. To crush it so hard that the pressure left a legend, like a diamond beneath the Earth's crust.

This is the true nature Night City, he finally realized… when it was far too late.

This city gave him that hope in the form of a chance encounter with the love of his life, Lucy, and a family in the form of a merc crew.

He still had no dreams of his own, but the people he found himself with by pure happenstance had. Amazing and beautiful dreams… and so, he did the only thing he knew.

He carried them on his back.

He would help them achieve them all in gratitude for simply being around him. For replacing what he had lost. For the undeserved gifts. For everything. He would do it all for them, no matter how heavy the burden of carrying such dreams became, not even if they weighed the entire world, not even if the dreamers themselves died before him. Especially if they did.

He welcomed any pain as punishment for his unforgivable sins. However, one by one, they died. And the only thing they left was their dreams. So, he took them. He would carry that spark of them inside him forever, and ignite it to life like a newborn sun.

He was Atlas reborn.

Was.

Not anymore.

Now he was just dead. Living on borrowed time. He flew too close to the sun and burned like a star. Perhaps he was Icarus instead.

Was it karma for his deeds? Was it bad luck, like a cruel destiny? Delusions of grandeur? Naivety and immaturity from youth? Arrogance for thinking he was more special than the rest when even his love told him otherwise?

It felt like it was all of them, yet none of them at the same time.

He deserved this. All of it.

But… what about them? His friends? His family? His love? They didn't deserve this. No.

They were all dealt a bad hand. He was the one supposed to carry the burdens. To suffer. To die. Not them. Please, anything but them. It didn't matter if he had to spend an eternity in hell.

Alas, that dice rolled a long time ago.

He smiled towards the sky through the (Adam) smashed hole on the glass roof right above him, showering him with single a beam of silver moonlight that couldn't contrast more with the grim atmosphere of the Memorial Park he was in, filled with a tenebrous miasma and a sickly pale green mist that seemed to permeate everything around him, seeping into the very fabric of reality. It was almost as if the world was reflecting his life and its incoming end as an abstract environment art.

'Heh, this would make a damn fine BD.' He thought in twisted amusement at the insanity of it all, a coping and fake grin emerging from his lips, so done with everything.

His musing was cut short though by a drop of water falling on his cheek. Just what he needed, rain- no, it was too thick to be water. His synth skin was better than organic skin, he could tell the difference. Exerting a herculean effort to activate his Kiroshi Optics in his battered state, he focused his sight where it came from, promptly ruining even his fake smile.

It was Rebecca's blood, dripping down like raindrops from the edge of the hole she was 'smashed' through. Words couldn't describe how much he despised this word that kept haunting him over and over and over!

He felt his remaining organic gore trembling inside his cyborg torso, a knot forming in his stomach, and his eyes hurting from tears that couldn't get out, for the organs responsible for it were removed, leaving him with a ghostly burning sensation in his eyes.

'… Why?' He questioned the world. Why did his loved ones have to suffer and die for him? It wasn't fair! It never was in Night City, but this was just too much. Why give him hope? Just to die in regrets?! Die a legend?! He couldn't care less about the latter! They alone were more than enough. They always were.

'I think I get Lucy now.' Lucy was willing to throw away her dream for him, while he was willing to throw away himself for her dream… but that wasn't actually her dream, was it? It was fear.

Fear of Arasaka. She only wanted to run away as far as possible from them, even if it meant fleeing Earth in its entirety. His other half was so terrified that she forgot what a true dream actually was.

What a fool he was, realizing too late that life changed people, and that nothing is ever straightforward, especially someone's heart. He slaved himself in his echo chamber, deaf to everything around him and blind to all the signals, being deceived by a fake dream and taking it for granted.

Her dream was him all along, just like she said as they were falling off from Arasaka Tower.

"You never had to save me. All I ever wanted was for you to live."

The diseased irony and perverse sense of humor this city had boiled his blood in frustration, briefly making his almost corpse warm again before going cold, again.

The sound of wheels rolling in the distance snapped him back to reality and rebooted his mood like a bipolar episode.

'Lucy, she managed to get away! Falco, you goddamn cool, awesome bastard! You actually did it, you got out of this hellhole with her! Drive like hell! Hahaha!' He nearly convulsed with laughter. With the eddies, even counting Falco's split, she would have more than enough to go to the moon. She should have also received his final words to her through Falco. At least something good came out of this nightmare. The blood in his mouth even changed taste from bitter iron rust oxide to a sweeter, but still rusty one.

David's eyes widened at a realization that wormed itself into his head. These two particular flavors evoked another epiphany in him.

Bitter…. Sweet…

David… Martinez…

… They perfectly described him, didn't they? The sweet youth turned bitter. Divine irony must have been at play when naming him after such a bittersweet drink, the drink that perfectly described his life, down to the very end.

Gloria. Maine. Lucy.

They couldn't achieve their dreams or watch it themselves alive, but they were still achieved in the end through him, who inherited them. He realized their dreams, but only in technicality and at the price of everything, filled with what ifs and regrets and a promise half-fulfilled.

Whether it was Gloria's - his dearest and loving mom - dream for him to reach the top of Arasaka, not as an edgerunner over the edge, but as a skillful netrunner made for life.

Whether it was Maine's - the only father figure he had in his life - dream of becoming the top cyberpunk in Night City, but not even getting to enjoy the spoils and glory before tragedy struck.

Whether it was Lucy's - the love and hope of his life - dream of going to the moon, but being all alone, scarred, and lost, with no one to share neither her dream nor her pain that was sure to follow after this night. He couldn't begin to imagine what she would feel after all this. What she will go through.

Bittersweet, bittersweet, and bittersweet again.

What's the point of a dream, of a promise, of anything, if the meaning behind it is twisted? If it cost him everything and everyone for just half of a deal?

… Now that he thought of it, he never really asked Rebecca, Falco, Kiwi (scratch that, fuck that bitch!), Pilar, or Dorio about what were their dreams, their past, or their aspirations. And yet, they were all willing to die for him. His narrowmindedness made him even forget who he was. What he was. His only purpose in life. Good people died for him, and he was not even worthy of an ounce of it.

His blood tasted disgustingly bittersweet in his mouth. What a bittersweet 'victory'. Bittersweet life. Bittersweet love. Bittersweet death. He absolutely hated this nauseating flavor. A drink should be pleasant to the drinker.

He wanted his Martinez overwhelmingly sweet, with not even an atom of bitterness. Or, at the very least, he and only him, be the one to have to taste something so horrible so that the others could drink what they deserved.

But that was all useless in the end. He was already dead.

If only he had a chance to start over, maybe his 'Martinez' wouldn't be this bitter… what he wouldn't give for just another kiss from Lucy? He was sure it would sweeten this aftertaste to oblivion. She was the sweetener to his bitter life after all.

<& > I'm on top of you, I don't wanna go~

"I had fun after all." The looming presence over him made itself known once again. Truly, the dice was cast and now, it was time to face the music. The grim reaper got tired of waiting, his scythe was already sharp and hungry for blood. Death is nigh.

<& > 'Cause I really wanna stay at your house~

"You know, you could prove an interesting construct." The legendary legend killer offered an olive branch, a proposal no one would refuse in his place. But he knew better now. This rabbit hole only got deeper the more chrome he put, the further away he got from his humanity, from his origin.

<& > And I hope it all works out~

Also, it doesn't take a genius to know that Arasaka would grant him a fate worse than death for all he did. Perhaps the embodiment of such an offer was right in front of him, the psycho-borg. Lucy's past is also warning enough. Nah, he would rather die as a human than live as a cyberpsycho and spit on everything and everyone he stood for.

<& > But you know how much you broke me apart~

"Like I… give a shit…" He wanted to follow up with some quippy remark to try and get under Adam Smasher's skin one last time, or rather metal in his case, but his body was too heavy, too cold, too tired, too dead.

<& > I'm done with you, I'm ignoring you~

"Alright. Well then." And with a *Chihk Chihk!* sound, a missile launcher mounted on the legend killer's wrist, pointing straight at his head.

<& > I don't wanna know~

With one final chuckle, time slowed down again. The universe really wanted to imprint his final moments in his soul, eh? Seeing the barrel slowly start to brighten like a volcano about to explode, the boy felt completely serene.

Despite the grueling regrets, unfairness, and suffering, a part of him was still glad it happened, since he got to meet such caring and shining people, and experienced such a rich and intense life, even if it was a short one. Live fast, die young, as they say.

<& > Ohh Oh-oh, oh-oh-oh…~

What he wouldn't give to do it all over again? If it meant he got to spend a bit more time with them, just one more laugh, just one more beer, just one more hug, just one more kiss… he would suffer it all over again.

The edgerunner was never the religious type. The only time he ever remembered praying was when he was left waiting outside of his mom's room in that cheap clinic, only to be left hanging in silence. But even so, he couldn't help but-

'God, if you are out there and can hear me, and is truly benevolent… I beg you. It doesn't matter if my afterlife is spent forever in the worst hell imaginable. Please, give me another chance. Another roll. Anything that allows me to go back and do it all over again, but right this time. I'll be true and good. I'll be better. For them. For everyone.'

Still, as the barrel of doom got incandescent from the round's explosive propulsion, shining as bright as the sun, no answer came…

Bittersweet to the end, huh?

"You don't make a name for yourself as a cyberpunk by how you live… make a name by how you die."

… Rogue's gonna have a field day making a drink about-

*BANG!*

And so, David Martinez left this world, feeling just like he felt throughout his life, a rollercoaster of emotions full of ups and downs, leaving a legacy in the form of another legend in Night City and a drink in the Afterlife bar, which, ironically, was not only made with NiCola, a carbonated drink which he hated, but bittersweet and served in a Martinez glass.

• . ° . • . ° ° ° • ✦ . ° 

. • ✧ ° ★ ☾. ✩ . ° • ° 

° ★ ° • °° ° • ✬ ° ° • 

. • ☆ . ☆ • . ° . • • ° 

⋆˖⁺‧₊☽◯☾₊‧⁺˖⋆

[Experience lunar gravity like nothing you´ve seen on a BD…]

A recorded voice advertised throughout the AV bus, ignored by every passenger like any other marketing propaganda. The flying vehicle resembled more an unpainted ship container than a proper AV bus looking from the outside, although its interior was decent enough if one ignored the walls and roof littered with posters and blinding bright screens and holograms that almost aggressively forced the person to pay attention to it.

<& > I don't know why I'm no one~

One would think that, given they were in space, hovering above the moon on one of the most expensive vacation trips one could buy, they would escape such a sore sight. Alas, 2077's voracious capitalism was anything but all compassing. 

<& > So, get away~

Yet, one particular individual stood out from the rest, not due to her rainbow gradient hair that escaped her astronaut hood, but in the sheer disconnection the woman had to her surroundings. Her mood contrasted with the upbeat crowd of the AV like water and oil, a sore and depressive sight not shared by anyone else. 

She was an outcast, and that was all her fault.

<& > Another way to feel what you didn't want yourself to know~

Her head leaned on the window, looking at the white-grey rocks and craters on the moon's surface with a pair of dead eyes that it seemed like they'd seen it all and were left with nothing. A thousand thoughts, emotions, and memories were flying across her mind, hitting the back of her skull and bouncing back like a room filled with rubber balls. It was akin to a mad circus.

<& > And let yourself go~

She, Lucy Kushinada, after years and years of delusion, was finally here on the moon, the place where she put her hopes and dreams of finally escaping the clutches of Arasaka and all her past, pain, and loss that came from it. A place where she could be truly free and start over anew, and after a lifetime of dreaming, here she was…

<& > You know you didn't lose your self-contro-oool~

And even so, she could feel nothing but apathy. Her whole body felt numb as if her heart stopped beating and her body hadn't caught up with it yet. Any movement she did was lethargic and filled with a phantom feeling of weakness like she was anemic; running on low battery perpetually. Her skin was cold to the touch, her once perfect and alluring plump red lips were now dry and cracked.

<& > Let's start at the rainbow~

Ever since the complete mayhem with the cyberskeleton back at the Corpo Plaza, where she escaped by the skin of her teeth and at the cost of everything, she couldn't muster the energy to eat, drink, sleep, or anything, really. When she looked at herself in the mirror, she looked exactly how she felt.

Utterly and completely devastated.

<& > Turn away~

In a single day, her whole world was gone, went up in smoke. She was left alone, with only a broken promise and an apology from her now-dead other' half to keep her company. Like a ghost haunting her.

"I'm gonna take you there myself, fly you to the moon. That's a promise!"

"Sorry. Wish we could go to the moon together."

<& > Another way to be where you didn't want yourself to go~

H-How could he do this to her?! She would rather have died with him. This thought summoned her past words back to the forefront of her brain. Words that got truer by every second she continued breathing.

"You never had to save me. All I ever wanted was for you to live."

To make it even worse somehow, her teacher, the very one who taught her to never trust anyone, betrayed and kidnapped her to Faraday who planned to sell her to her darkest nightmare, Arasaka.

<& > And let yourself go~

She chuckled mentally at the irony, her body not quite following up the action in its morbid state. What a joke this sick turn was. Kiwi must've laughed her ass off in private when Faraday ordered it. In hindsight, that was coming from a mile away, wasn't it? 

<& > Is that a compromise?~

It was her fault. Her poor job at concealing that she managed to hack Tanaka's neural interface and extract the data set off Faraday, who no doubt got that info through Kiwi, who made herself clear from day one that she trusted nothing. It was a really short step from there to betrayal, one she missed.

She got made. They used her to trick her Deibido into wiring the cyberskeleton and, for all intents and purposes, signing his obituary, and setting him on a warpath towards Arasaka and straight to the legend killer. And like any encounter with that monster, there was only one result.

Death. 

Not only of her love and heart but also of the rest of the crew. Rebecca, who loved him dearly - she made that VERY clear and loud - and held infinite jealously towards her due to it, still helped Deibido save her, sacrificing her only chance to be with him. She stood there 'till the bitter end, right at his side in the middle of all the fire in ways she never had, and had her back when she needed most, receiving a gory and gruesome end by the feet of Adam Smasher in exchange for her courage, who thoroughly stomped her to a mess of flesh and organs. She couldn't unsee that no matter how many BDs she used.

And now, here she was. On the moon, through the blood money given by everyone she ever cared for and loved, desperately avoiding mirrors to ignore her reflection in the AV's glass, for the person on the other side haunted her with all the sins and bad decisions she ever did. Just thinking about it made her feel like she was drowning deeper within herself right there on the spot, giving rise to a surreal out-of-body sensation, like her soul was unsynced with the rest of her.

It was like she was a dead woman walking, parading in a world that was long gone for her. Everything felt distant, useless, and pointless, leaving her mind muddled with only thoughts upon thoughts. Reflections and realizations that served only to create regrets to torment her further. Her feet felt light but her shoulders heavy. An ocean of gothic sensations, contrasts, and dualities that left her grasping at straws, clueless as to what to do.

Purgatory was the closest thing she could describe all this. Punishment for everything she did. The people she abandoned, scammed, lied, and killed. 

… Since the start, she didn't want to love him. She was afraid of getting attached and feeling the loss of someone dear to her being killed again. Her brothers and sisters back at Arasaka were enough. But Deibido… what was she supposed to feel when he so recklessly threw his life away for her, time and time again, putting the only thing that mattered for anyone in Night City, his very soul, at risk? 

He was just so different from everyone else.

His devotion. His care. His love. Love for her (which he did an embarrassing job trying to hide it). His eagerness. His humanity. His purity. His naivety. His heart. It was all laid bare for her who knew how to read people well after a lifetime of psychoanalyzing people, let alone a teen. That clumsy gonk was so embarrassingly obvious and awkward that even she cringed at times, and that was him not even actively pursuing her.

How could someone born and raised in that cursed city, who got constantly bullied and walked over by his peers, lost his mother and everything else, be so gullible? So naïve and clueless?

So innocent and so pure?

She couldn't see it at the time, but he gradually wore down her defenses and wormed himself into her heart. And when he swore to bring her to the moon… her heart was looong gone. But the very thing that made her fall in love with him, his willingness to sacrifice himself, made him fall off the edge.

"You're the guy who jumps into the fire to rescue someone, anyone, even when you know you're gonna get burned. Just that type."

The words she said to him back then rushed back to her. She should have realized that no one in their right mind was that… suicidal. Night City's twisted standards made her sloppy and misjudge what he truly was. A kid who just lost his mom, desperate for any reciprocation of affection and starving for a reason to give up his life, for he had lost all his will to live together with his mom. She remembered his words as they were falling off from Arasaka Tower.

"I ain't worth it. Besides you, I got nothing left. But you still have a dream to stick around for. I need you to see it through. That's my dream. Honestly, nothing else ever really mattered."

His inability to determine his own desires, and instead just grafting others and making their dreams his own like a Frankenstein rather than doing what he wanted led him to his ruin. He started getting more chrome, following Maine's footsteps and achieving the latter's dream of being the top merc, believing that he was special, 'built different', that what happened to Maine couldn't happen to him. 

"I'm built different. I just know it."

He was wrong. 

He suffered cyberpsychosis and died like Maine, a cyberpsycho-

"Lucy."

She gasped at the sudden memory of him falling from Arasaka tower together with her, completely lucid and sane despite having gone to the far end, with eyes so glad to see her safe in his arms. No, he didn't die as a cyberpsycho. He died as a human being, the most human of all despite all the cold steel. The only one who returned from the point of no return with nothing but his love for her.

He was a hero. Her hero, the one who stood tall against the devil himself. The one who crawled back from the abyss of madness and faced the reaper alone- No. Not alone. With friends, with family, until there was no one else but him left.

The darkness of Night City, the ghosts from his past, and sheer lunacy. They all failed to bring him down, and instead only served to make him shine brighter. Brighter than anything Night City had ever seen. Brighter than even the nuke at Arasaka years ago. Brighter than any legend, for the only reason behind his feats was love and dreams, something that not even the likes of Blackhand or Silverhand could claim. 

For they are legends… but not heroes.

Their legend was built on the agenda and interests of bigger and sinister forces, and their prowess alone. His was built on love, kindness, hope, and dreams. His legend was special. He was special… just not in the way he thought. He was special because he cared. Because he saw wonder and value in something beyond eddies and fame. His ability to connect and relate to others was unlike anyone, for no one but him was ready to risk it all for a person that he met on the same day.

And against all odds, he went and did it. Became a legend in Night City with the highest honor a merc could ever have: A drink named after him in The Afterlife Bar. 

Falco, perhaps the most honorable and noble man in NC, made sure to tell Rogue about Deibido's feats and story, giving his sacrifice the glory it deserved: The David Martinez, the newest drink of legend. 

He told her how the entire Afterlife toasted after him and how 'The David Martinez' was fuzzy, which Deibido absolutely hated. He even offered to give her his yellow jacket- the same one once wore by his mother. When she leaves the moon, she'll have a lot to thank Falco for. 

Lucy mentally chuckled at the memory. The rainbownette wondered what Deibido would say if he knew such a travesty was done in his name. He would probably gag and complain to Rogue, and be promptly ignored since he was that easy to lead on by the people he lowers his guard against. A sudden stray thought halted her line of thinking.

… if she had said to him 'I want to go to the moon with you' was her dream, would things have been any different?

Her reminiscent and retrospection was cut short by a sudden stop. The AV had landed near the lunar station, a place she was intimately familiar with. It was exactly where her favorite and most expensive BD was recorded, the same one that originated her dream and the one she shared with Deibido.

She briefly wondered why she had shown him the BD that day. He was a gullible boy, she could have distracted him in other ways, but she chose her dearest BD…

It was not the first time she returned to it, but she still couldn't find an answer. Was it love at first sight? They shared this unspoken affinity since day one, but it wasn't that. Perhaps it was pity at his loss? Perhaps she saw a little of herself in him? 

The netrunner continued going back and forth in that mental tangent as she left the AV after everyone, briefly glancing at the rest of the tourists messing around in the lower gravity, before she turned back and bailed them, following the same track she went with Deibido in virtual reality. As she ran, she couldn't help but make comparisons to the BD. 

It was shameful and bitter to admit it, after all that was sacrificed for this, but the BD was better. From the glaring brightness the sun rained upon her to the reflective white of the lunar surface that sent it all back to her, it was annoying and uncomfortable. The visor almost seemed like it served only for her to not go blind (if she still had organic eyes). The stuffy suit also didn't help.

'I guess I know why they say to not BD to a place if you wish to go there someday.' She idly commented as she hopped the moon's plains in its low gravity. Urgh, even her sweat didn't properly drip and stayed on her face, itching her skin and also in just about any spot the girl could sweat. And it's not like she can take the suit off to dry herself, not without making her blood freeze and boil at the same time from the vacuum of deep space at least.

In the BD, she could adjust to just about any sort of stimuli, and being a virtual world, she didn't have to use this suit nor a helmet. After stopping for a moment to calm herself, Lucy put a hand over her head to block to worst of the sun. As soon as she was about to start another rant about the sun, she lost her words as she saw… him.

"Whoa! Check this! I can feel the sun!" David said excitedly with an arm over his head like her, also trying to cover his eyes from the sun, just as full of child-like wonder as he did the first time they were here.

<& > So what do you wanna do, what's your point of view?~

Lucy continued to stare, her mouth opened wide in shock at what could only be a mirage or a hallucination. Maybe his ghost was actually haunting her. As he joyfully giggled and turned to her with that megawatt smile, exhilarated like the street kid he is- was, that just saw something out of his world and couldn't for the life of him contain in the tough persona he pretended to have the sheer joy he was feeling. She couldn't help the sigh that left her now smiling mouth at the pure sight before her. 

<& > There's a party, screw it, do you wanna go?~

That dork looked like a country bumpkin that just saw a city for the first time in his life. It was still unbelievable seeing someone, even though it was the second time, being so ecstatic and open to a stranger they just met, without a single care in the world. Truly in complete blissful ignorance about the danger-stranger she was at the time could do to him, especially when she showed him that she was a netrunner back at the metro when they were stealing shards together.

<& > A handshake with you, what's your point of view?~

For the briefest of moments, all her worries disappeared and she fully drank the moment… but as the saying goes, a poor's happiness only last so long. 

One blink, and just like that, he was gone. Like he was never there to begin with, leaving her all alone. It was like she just lost him all over again. She slowly lowered her arm and let her head go down. The phantom happiness she felt just a second ago still left a bit of warmth in her heart, and she felt… glad. 

<& > I'm on top of you, I don't wanna go~

Glad that, despite everything bad that happened to them, it still happened to begin with. That, without it happening, she would have never met Deibido and never made such precious memories. And that, maybe, if they hadn't met, he would have just died in a ghetto in nowhere, out of sight, and with no one to remember him.

<& > 'Cause I really wanna stay at your house~

She was happy because it happened. Looking back now, even if she was given the choice of never meeting him and saving herself from all this grief, she wouldn't take it no matter what. Even if it meant relieving it all over again. Each second they spent together was worth a thousand others of them being separated.

<& > And I hope it all works out~

That enlightenment brought solace and a semblance of peace to her soul. The avalanche that was burying her suddenly stopped, allowing her to dig up and see the sun rising again. A small but satisfied smile grew on her face as she looked up with closed eyes towards the sun, followed by her opening her arms, feeling the light and warmth of the sun.

<& > But you know how much you broke me apart~

She would live. Live to keep all those memories alive with her and make his sacrifice not in vain. Live to be proof that David Martinez one day existed, together with everyone else. Live to tell his tale, and to show that there was meaning in his life, and purpose in his death. 

<& > I'm done with you, I'm ignoring you~

She turned back and made her way to the suite she was going to stay. Her steps were content and deliberately slow to prolong the trip. She would appreciate with gusto every second of this experience since it was her lover's parting gift. So, she took the sights, even if admittedly it didn't have much going for it. Still, she tried her best, whether it was doing somersaults in the lower gravity or just casually floating.

Arriving at the lunar station, she headed to her designated room, took a shower, dressed in her pajamas, and went to bed.

For the first time since the death of David Martinez, Lucy Kushinada slept with a smile on her lips. Not a single nightmare in sight.

<& > I don't wanna know~

This was the ending no one needed, wanted, nor deserved. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful and bright one, even if on the short straw. Just like a firework popping in the sky, banishing the darkness for a single and brief moment before being snuffed out. And still, it was more precious than anything else. A bitter-earned-sweet ending that cost everything for a win on technicality, but still beautiful, even if unfulfilling.

Perhaps the best-ending anyone could hope in a cyberpunk world of half-truths and half-happiness, where hope was the scarcest commodity and the prolonging and betterment of your life cost your very soul. But… maybe… 

Maybe…

maybe…

…

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Webnovel only goes to up 20K words, and this is 23K+, so I had to split it >:(