Chapter Text
As Kiwi stepped into the alley, she spied Faraday and his cohort of lackeys smoking quietly at the end of it. The fluorescent lights of half a dozen forgotten storefronts showered them in a dim, dirty glow. She approached and gave a lazy wave, and Faraday nodded back in return. He stubbed out his cigar, brushed the ash off his cuffs with a soft flourish, and turned his gaze on her.
“Kiwi. You look like you’ve been taking care of yourself.”
Kiwi shrugged in acknowledgement and motioned to his gaggle of followers. They were all dressed in the bright neon colors that Faraday favored, decked out in a not insignificant amount of jewelry. Ornamental cyberware covered their faces and limbs, giving a metallic sheen to their skin.
“I’d also say the same to you,” said Kiwi. “What’s with the additional team? This runner really dangerous enough for you to need to bury them in numbers?”
Faraday held Kiwi’s gaze for half a second more than usual. “Consider them contingencies. It’s not like they had anything better to do, anyway. And considering our target’s body count, it’s better to be prepared.”
Kiwi made a small noise with her nose, ignoring the leering from Faraday’s backup party. “Well, as long as you pay me as you’d promised. The commission is going to get pretty thin if you spread it across so many people.”
“What’s yours is yours. Good to see that you’re confident. Have you thought about what I told you?”
Ah right; Faraday’s hints . Her fist clenched in her coat pocket, but Kiwi’s expression did not change. “I have. I also think you’re wrong and seeing conspiracies where there are none,” said Kiwi mildly. “I have known her longer than you have, by a long shot – above all else, she’s a practical girl. I can see no motive that would warrant her doing this.”
Faraday chuckled. “But you see, if all other possibilities are removed, then the one remaining – no longer how illogical – must be the truth. You think the NCPD looks for a motive before nabbing a potential suspect? They catch the perp first, and then find a motive later if necessary.”
“And I’m telling you it doesn’t make sense.”
The fixer pocketed his cigar and grinned at her sardonically. “Careful Kiwi; you’re sounding awfully close to trusting her. Very unlike you.”
Kiwi inhaled sharply in frustration.
“She can plant a knife in my back anytime, as long as she does it well. I’d deserve it, if I didn’t see it coming.” Kiwi spat her own cigarette onto the ground and ground it into ash beneath her heel. “But this? She was in the building with the team, why the hell would she want to call Trauma Team right onto her own head? I’m telling you, Lucy is one of the most practical, logical people I know. That sort of shit is beneath her.”
Faraday shrugged condescendingly. “Then who knows, you might not know her as well as you think so after all. Come on, one of my men has been stringing the netrunner along for several hours. Once he leaks the final signal to them, they’ll catch wind and take the hook.”
As a group, they walked up the stairs to lie in wait in a dingy hotel in Watson. Faraday’s men busied themselves making precautionary measures, setting any nearby cameras to broadcast loops and false feeds. Leaning against a wall, Kiwi pondered to herself silently. Why was Faraday so adamant in trying to get her to suspect Lucy? Speaking of motives, Kiwi didn't understand Faraday’s either. Was he trying to distance her from the rest of the team, get her to see ghosts and plots where there were none?
She bit her lip. Cutting Faraday loose was seeming more and more like a better idea. The other fixers were dispassionate and professional, for most part. Most of them didn’t look for anything beyond a give and take business relationship. But Faraday? He was trying to build his own powerbase, his own… gang, even. Not unheard of for fixers, but not always healthy for their associated mercs. It meant placing all their eggs in the Faraday basket.
The analogue clock on the wall ticked slowly, and finally, the time came. Faraday gave her a meaningful look and patted her on the shoulder. Kiwi shook off her doubts, readying herself for combat.
And as she opened the door and rounded the corner into the trapped room next to theirs, her heart stopped.
Then it sank.
Lucy’s head of white hair stood out like a flare in the dimly lit apartment room. She was bending over the lure that Faraday had set in place. Then noticing that something was wrong, the young netrunner immediately spun around.
Their eyes met. And Lucy’s eyes widened with the panicked, desperate realization that she had been set up.
Kiwi had only seen that kind of look on Lucy once. When they first met, as she came across and picked up the lean, hungry and spiteful girl off the street – that had all the wretchedness and intensity of a feral, caged animal ready to lash out.
The moment seemed to stretch on, to infinity…
Kiwi didn’t know who struck first. She felt Lucy gear up to strike, and so did she; and before she knew it, they were on the metaphorical ground, going for the opponent’s eyes. Sparks flew as they engaged their cyberdecks to the highest possible run speed.
Despite Lucy’s refined outward appearance, Kiwi knew her as one of the dirtiest fighters that she had ever met, like a gutter brawler constituted in cyberspace. She had a viciousness only borne by those for which everyday was a battle for survival, and was near impossible to pin down. The girl bore down on her with an unmatched intensity. Kiwi grit her teeth and weathered the assault, and flung out disabling hacks of her own; they peppered Lucy’s defenses, but the younger netrunner managed to deflect or redirect most of them.
To the common bystander, the two women looked frozen in time. The intensity of the battle was only betrayed by the subtle twitches of their tensed muscles; the beading on their foreheads; and the frantic movement of their eyes.
“Luce…” Kiwi ground out. She didn’t even know why she was expending valuable brain power trying to talk. She didn’t even know what she wanted to say. A question? A demand? A plea?
Lucy’s assault wavered, her attacks suddenly stumbling messily over each other in a cascade of failures. Kiwi was able to take the breather to shore up her defenses, and press on the offensive for the first time that night.
God, but this girl was good . While training Lucy, she had thought with satisfaction that the young woman would one day be as good as she was. Her obviously corpo related background and training aside, she was truly a smart cookie and a natural. Now? With both admiration and no small amount of fear, Kiwi realized that she had been selling Lucy short. This girl was a one in a thousand type of netrunner, the kind of generational prodigy that could set hacking trends for decades if she set her mind to it.
Lucy surpassing Kiwi was just a matter of time.
And maybe that time was now.
What had originally just been a milk run or a way to dig up answers had just turned into a battle of survival. Why was Lucy so fervently attacking her? Was she trying to silence her for something she knew? The thoughts flit in and out of focus as Kiwi fought to keep the quick hacks churning and her ICE intact.
Kiwi grit her teeth, the muscles in her neck strained and tense. What she couldn’t make up in talent, she would make up in experience.
Lucy’s attacks were fast and brutal, but behind the onslaught hid sloppy codework and overly predictable intrusion vectors. Bit by bit, Kiwi plugged up her defenses and used her knowledge of Lucy’s code to plan her own security. It felt like trying to maintain control in crashing waves – but even waves needed time to wear down the sturdy seaside cliffs.
She found her footing, and lashed out with another counterassault. It was deceptively small, disguised as yet another random attack; but it had traps hidden within traps, and behind the fluff lines of code it hid a juggernaut of threat. Kiwi felt Lucy get caught in the net, and frantically try to work her way out.
Lucy changed tack. Managing to free up some of her mental processes, her hand started to move, creeping towards the pistol in her belt holster. Kiwi could only watch as the pistol slowly cleared the leather and Lucy sought to use a more traditional way to end the fight. Kiwi tried to put more of her weight on the assault, but Lucy remained grimly undaunted. The barrel of the gun started drifting towards Kiwi.
But with a click, the gun’s magazine fell out and clattered on the floor. The mechanisms inside locked up with a hum. Kiwi breathed hard, and two large drops of perspiration dripped off her nose. Lucy looked stricken as she looked at her non-functioning pistol. With trembling fingers and an air of finality, she dropped the gun, and her fingers went to the monowire ports hidden in her wrists.
Kiwi frowned. She stood a good fifteen feet away from Lucy, well outside of range of her wires. What was she–
The glimmering golden wire was drawn, and Lucy brought it up to her neck.
No!!
Finding a well of power inside her, Kiwi redoubled her assault. With Lucy’s resolve failing and attention split, Kiwi burst through the last defenses with her gathered momentum and locked down all of Lucy’s movement.
The wire snapped back into place. With a breathless sigh, Lucy fell onto the ground, her limbs unresponsive, strength spent. Another quick command from Kiwi sent her quickly into the realm of unconsciousness.
Kiwi drew in a shuddering breath.
It was done. She had survived.
Kiwi’s head spun from the effort. Breathing hard, she could only lean weakly against the open doorway, trembling in exertion. Her muscles ached from the tension like she had run miles.
“Good work,” said someone behind her in a pleased tone. “Turns out you were the right woman for the job.”
Faraday. Wearing a smug ‘told you so’ expression, the man patted her on the back and subtly pushed her to the side. His men filed into the room with excited expressions, gathering around Lucy’s prone form. The group’s netrunners quickly started establishing their own connections into Lucy’s storage.
Kiwi limped forwards. “Wait. No. I need answers. Why?”
“You’re going to have to be more specific Kiwi,” replied Faraday. “Why what?”
“You fucker,” Kiwi said brusquely. Faraday raised an elegant eyebrow in surprise. “You knew something I don’t. That’s why you were so confident that it was Lucy. That’s why you knew that you definitely needed me – there’s no other merc in this goddamn city that can take her down now. What gives?”
Faraday tutted. “Sharp as always. Well, these answers will lead to our next conversation anyways, so I… might as well. First off, what do you know about Lucy’s past?”
Kiwi looked over at Lucy. She thought about the Lucy that she met years ago, with street smarts earned through experience rather than tutelage.
“Probably some corpo netrunning trainee that escaped their grasp. Does this have to do with anything?”
“Close guess, but you’re thinking too small a scale.” Faraday smiled. “The girl is the culmination of a multi-billion eurodollar project to outfit a team, all in order to plumb the depths beyond the Blackwall.”
Kiwi flinched. All netrunners did, at the mention of the cryptic AI that protected the subnets, the final bastion protecting against death and madness. And Lucy had gone beyond it? Things started to fit together, bits and pieces all. The reason why Lucy avoided deep diving if she could help it. Her state of the art equipment, and why her skills were a mix of formulaic corpo doctrine and self-learned viciousness. The reason why she despised Arasaka.
“And what – the corpos want her back? Was that this entire exercise? Scratch out a bounty, get their payment?” muttered Kiwi.
Faraday shook his head. “Only… partially. Even that info I shared with you was mainly conjecture; but just confirmed, by the way.” One of Faraday’s netrunners smirked and gave them a thumbs up at that. “She just caught our notice because of the Tanaka files, which prompted this entire fact digging journey in the first place. And luckily enough, nabbing her will also provide some elucidation on that front as well. And look at that; we have some other confirmations now.”
A request to send files pinged on her holo, and Kiwi mentally waved it through. A series of images - headshot photos - raced across the screen, before settling on David Martinez, of all people.
“What am I looking at?” asked Kiwi.
“What we just grabbed out of Lucy: the culmination of yet another one of Arasaka’s billion eurodollar projects,” responded Faraday with a self-satisfied air. “Another one of my suspicions confirmed true. Turns out the only reason that Lucy would do something so incredibly self-destructive during your gig was for a practical reason - she weighed your team and David on scales, and the team came up short. Sorry you had to learn about it this way, Kiwi.”
Kiwi’s mind raced as she read through the files. David’s installation of the mil-grade Sandevistan. His display of skill with no averse results in school. His almost supernatural affinity towards cyberware. The new Arasaka exoskeleton that was slated for invasive trial testing. Kiwi put two and two together. Considering Lucy’s experiences as a child soldier and lab rat for Arasaka…
Lucy… She’d do anything to stop it. She’d shred any piece of evidence that she came across, tie off any loose end that sprouted up. Even if it meant killing Maine, Dorio and Rebecca on the way. She had valued David’s freedom above all else.
Kiwi’s fists clenched in their gloves.
“So consider this a wrong righted, rather than disloyalty on your end Kiwi. Which brings me to my next topic of discussion: our rewards.”
Kiwi raised her head. “What?”
“Come now! Keep up with me. What we have in our hands here are the keys to two decade-spanning Arasaka projects that have cost billions. Both teetering on the edge of objective failure. But what we have here is the ability to change that, unimaginable leverage!” His eyes gleamed in triumph.
“If we turn them in, we’re looking at eddies, corporate positions… potentially a directorship, even. Think of it! You’ll be making in a month what you make in a year, and without the risk to your neck. You’ve just landed two lottery tickets with winning numbers, and I can reach out and grab them for their full value.”
Faraday's smile was manic. His lofty ambitions were being realized. His rise would be meteoric. And if what he said was true, so would hers. But Kiwi could only feel a faint numbness, her head abuzz with conflicting emotions.
Lucy pulled the trigger on Tanaka. She’d had to have known that there would be consequences. The girl had cast her die, and made her decision.
And despite Faraday’s megalomaniacal speech, he was right as well. This was for all means and purposes, a mind shatteringly big stroke of luck. Cyberpunks could go their whole lives without a big break like this. Going from a small, merc leader to basically a queen of a fiefdom? It was hard to even imagine. Or, if she cashed out? She would never want for eddies ever again.
“Wait,” said Kiwi, struggling to find the right words. “How about the rest of my team? Will the corpos, Arasaka… grant them amnesty? Or positions as well?
Faraday scoffed. “Hmm? Them? Kiwi, you could ask Arasaka anything short of the moon and they would consider it. They’re a practical bunch. Young David Martinez would probably not be part of that life though, as you well know; but the rest? I hear that V previously even worked for them! Hard to imagine they wouldn’t be able to take him back in.”
In practical terms, yes. But would V be ok with turning Lucy and David in? Would Jackie and Rebecca be?
…Did they even have to know about this deal?
If she just sacrificed two members, one that was by this point not even part of the team, and had herself and the rest set for life…
She shook her head and refocused herself. And once she did, she realized two things.
The first, was that Faraday’s goons were tying up Lucy. With quick and deft movements that spoke of years of experience, his men tied the unconscious women up and had her hauled up, ready to move.
The other was that the rest were watching her closely. The tenseness was disguised, but clearly there. There were fingers that crept too close to holsters, and mocking leers that hid an edge of threat.
Ah. So the men weren’t here to act as her backup.
They were here in case she disagreed with Faraday. A contingency.
Faraday patted her shoulder, more gently this time.
“I always knew you would become something spectacular, beyond the regular cyberpunk or crew boss,” said Faraday quietly. “Starting from the time we had our… “arrangements” during your employment under Maine, I knew you were a practical one. Someone that could play the game more skillfully than any of the gloryhounds in the Afterlife. And what do you know? We’re here. Just one last hurdle for us, Kiwi. Then we will want for nothing.”
Kiwi’s gaze darted between her clenched hands. Lucy’s motionless form. Faraday’s attempt at a welcoming smile.
“And that next hurdle is?” said Kiwi, trying to keep the emotion from her voice.
Faraday hummed, and lit up another one of his cigars.
“Give me a day. I’ll share it with you face to face next time we meet. After all, this could lead to the deal of a century. Have to be careful with… what is it called? Operational security.”
Kiwi nodded hesitantly, rubbing her aching limbs. Faraday’s men visibly relaxed.
“... Alright. Keep me notified,” she said.
Then she left the room. Head down, and mind still in a daze. She didn’t risk taking another look at Lucy.
That would just fuck up her thoughts even more.