Never Fade Away: I Won't Let You Go (ch. 66) (Patreon)

“What the hell do you mean, ‘We won?’ You were gone for like… two hours, L. There are movies that last longer, even after you cut out all the adverts. What the fuck did you even do?” Becca openly gaped at L, struggling to process what she had just heard. She thought she was well used to his particular brand of insane bullshit, but this took the cake. He arrived, saying he wanted a shower, and the whole ‘defeating of an advanced alien galactic community’ was an afterthought. Like it was a mundane errand.

“It's less complicated than you think,” L said, draping a wet towel over his head after he was fresh out of the shower. He hadn't bothered to put a shirt on, leaving him in a set of cargo shorts as he seemed to be looking for his guitar. That Johnny fucking Silverhand had taken and apparently went to romance Rogue, Queen of the Afterlife. “I showed up with some pretty biased footage of the war, and some extra files to prove that the Council is breaking its own laws.”

Becca was seated across from L, her legs crossed, leaning forward, and her eyes narrowed. She wanted this to make sense. L continued, “The broadcast gained a lot of traction right out the gate. The fact that I was attacking their capital also helped, probably.” He mused before he shrugged, one of his fingers tapping the arm of the chair he was in.

“And…?”

“I used the connection to spread the Blackwall,” he said like that wasn't bat shit fucking insane. Becca felt a headache coming and it was coming fast. “The thing about the Blackwall that a lot of people don't understand is that it's kinda trash at keeping the lesser AIs out. It's eyes are on bigger game. See, beyond the Blackwall is limited space. The Old Net is finite. So, you have a bunch of rabid, military, and sophisticated AIs competing in a space with limited space and resources. They all want to escape into the New Net where they won't be competing.”

A netrunner, she was not, but she spent enough time with the gear heads for the information to feel familiar. “Okay. I get that much. So, that leads you to unleashing the Blackwall how exactly?”

“The AIs in the extranet didn't grow in the same environment. They're illegal, sure, but it's very difficult to monitor AIs on the net. Best hope you have is finding proof of their existence outside of the net. Point being, the AIs that lived in Council space were fat. Lazy. And they never met an AI like the Blackwall before -- to them, it's the fucking devil and its coming for their souls.” L explained and she could see that much. It'd be like unleashing Blackhand against a bunch of rookie mercs -- no way it didn't end in a slaughter. “Thing is, the Council had no idea how many AIs that were tapped into the Citadel. Some they knew about. Others… they had no idea. Some of the AIs were so old, they were built by the Citadel's creators.”

“You Bartmosse'd them?” Becca ventured, and it started to dawn on her what L had unleashed upon the galaxy. The DataKrash was shit for a lot of reasons. The Net broke like a mirror. Infected AIs were unleashed where they had no business being. But, what really set Humanity back was the loss of convenience. There were AIs that covered huge swaths of dumb pointless tasks necessary to maintain infrastructure and whatever. Why pay a dozen teams of people when you could commission a single AI to always make sure the trains ran on time?

L blinked at the verb before shrugging, “More or less, yeah. It won't be as bad as the DataKrash. Alone, they could recover in about a decade. They'd just have to make their VI's dumber and the Blackwall will stop bothering them. But they won't be dealing with that problem in a vacuum,” L explained, lowering the towel so it rested on his shoulders. “Shaking their faith in the Council, killing the Council members, on top of a DataKrash?”

He offered a humorless smile that Becca didn't return, “So… they're going to be too busy cleaning up the pieces to bother us?” She questioned, and it really started to sink in. Like, into her bones kind of sinking in.

L had brought the galaxy to its knees. And he did it solo.

“For the next century. With the easy scapegoats dead, it’ll be a feeding frenzy for the next few decades. Not full on dissolution war, but a lot of mid-level bureaucrats thinking that they're the ones that should be behind the wheel. It'll be a few decades more before the Council can even think about going to war with Humanity and by that time, Humanity will have built itself up,” L continued, speaking like it was facts rather than ifs or maybes. “They'll have reason too. While the Council is unfucking itself, the animals they kept on a short leash will be let loose.”

He really made it sound far too simple, Becca thought, her mouth drying up. She tried to picture the aftermath that he spoke about so easily. What she saw was a lot of dead aliens. The whole galaxy becoming a Combat Zone because the rules were always decided by whoever had the biggest gun.

“Sounds like you're banking a lot on Earth not shitting the bed,” Becca felt compelled to point out as she found herself clutching her hands together. Change wasn't really one of those things that she thought about all that much. Things changed all the time in Night City -- a burger joint gets closed down because they didn't pay protection money, goons on a street corner get swapped out as they move up or get flatlined. That wasn't the kind of change that L was talking about.

She had this sense that something huge and unstoppable was just set in motion. And even if she wanted it to stop, it was far too late.

The wane smile that L gave her didn't put her at ease. His eyes tightened, as of he was looking at something far off that he found unpleasant. “Becca… do you believe in free will?” He asked her, and that was one hell of a pivot.

“Course I do. What kind of question is that?” Being an Edgerunner meant seizing the last dregs of freedom left in the world. It meant living by your own rules and your own skills, answerable to no one -- no Fixer, no gangboss, no corpo.

She wasn't sure why, but the words had some reassuring effect on L. He didn't say anything, simply tossing off the towel and getting up. His hand went to David’s jacket, which hung on the back of a chair, only for his hand to hesitate before choosing a black long sleeve that he pushed up the sleeves to his elbows. Becca watched the action, and uneasiness pooled in her gut. The smile that he gave her was of no reassurance either.

“Let's head out. I don't think we've ever gone on a proper date,” L said, turning away from her and heading for the door.

He was hiding something from her. Just like how he hid that he had Johnny fucking Silverhand in his head. It just felt like there was some terrible secret that he was keeping and she knew he wouldn't answer, even if she asked.

All the same, she had to try.

“L…” She started, but L came to a stop.

“John,” He corrected, catching her by surprise. “The people who know me… who really know me get to call me John. The Orphanage is gone and Arasaka is dead. I'm taking my name back.”

The pit in her stomach settled some. The permission was an olive branch, she knew. Proof that he still cared. That he was still there. And whatever secret he was keeping wasn't because he didn't trust her with it.

She accepted it, hopping off the desk she had been sitting on and strode over to L- John and looped her arm around his. “Alright. Let's have a date night.”

Terrible secret or not, the future was never the concern of an Edgerunner. Because the future didn't exist.

There was only the here and now.

…

It was strange just how fast things could change, Kaiden thought as he stood in the open side of a hovercar that overlooked a Turian position. Since the Turian's arrived, they had been a dominating force. When the shield cities went ip, that leveled the playing field, but three weeks after L destroyed their fleet? After he killed any hope for reinforcements by flying to their capital and cut the head off of the snake?

The Turians knew that they had no hope of winning, but they still fought on with dwindling resources. They dug in. When they lost their advantages in the skies, and unity became a liability, they scattered like roaches across Europe, Africa, and Asia. They operated in cells and squads, performing acts of sabotage and resistance. Any offer of surrender was rebuffed. Captures were few and far in between. Partly because Humanity wasn't in a capturing mood after an unprompted invasion.

Partly, because upon hearing that L had attacked the Citadel, the Turians almost seemed to radicalize. It became personal to them. They were here to invade and instead found themselves invaded.

“They're just dragging it out,” Jack said, leaning against the open door. Slowly, she had been adding to her collection of tattoos. Battles she had been in. Important events. A growing tapestry. “Fuckers. They could at least die in a blaze of glory rather than trying to burn as long as they can as embers.”

“It's not about winning anymore. It's about making us pay for it,” David said from the passenger seat of the hovercar, his foot bouncing as they made a wide bank. He was here to hunt Smasher's and intel said that one of the last ones on Earth was in an old war bunker. There had been near three hundred of the Smashers on Earth at one point, but battle by battle, they were reduced to single digits. Sometimes the militaries of the world managed to take one out, sometimes the Turians took one out because of their penchant for friendly fire.

But most were dealt with by David. With Lucy hunting them down for him

“After this, they're just a thorn in the side of the bigwigs. Madam President wants a feather in her hat when it comes time to have the big talk,” David continued, getting out of his seat as the car finished banking around. They hadn't been shot at, so that was either a good sign or a bad one.

Jack scrunched up her nose, “You really think that shit about unifying is going to work? Fucking Myers gets to be Queen of Earth?”

“At this point, whoever L fingers is going to be king or queen,” Kaiden said with a dismissive shrug of his shoulders. And L had chosen Myers and, by virtue of that, the NUSA. The rest of the world wasn't in much condition to protest, and L was feeding the world his tech through the NUSA -- fabricators, GN Drives, and so on. All blackboxed to hell and back to the point Lucy occasionally sent them clips and footage of various research teams losing their shit over trying to figure out how L's tech worked.

They were having some big meeting about it in a couple of days. The Earth Alliance, or something. Kaiden gave it a week before it collapsed, but maybe some good would come of it. What that good could be, he didn't have the faintest, but he was trying to be optimistic.

The hovercar touched down on the ground and Kaiden checked his shotgun one last time. Jack was flexing her biotics, not even bothering with a gun now that she had chipped in some of the biotic implants that were floating in the blackmarket. David simply rolled his shoulders and took point, and Kaiden noted that his body was showing some signs of wear and tear.

“I'll go in first and drag Smasher out of his hiding hole. Don't want to face him in an enclosed space. Once we’re out, you mop up the Turians. Intel puts them at a twenty man cell,” David said, striding up to the bunker. It was pretty easy to see how Arasaka had managed to hide it so well that they had almost forgotten about it. A mansion on the seaside in Italy, owned through proxys and shell corporations.

Kaiden nodded and David vanished from sight, entering the mansion and the secret duplex bunker that was located underneath, leaving him and Jack alone. Jack squated, picking up a branch with her biotics before doodling in the dusty dirt.

“You think it'll work?” She asked him, and Kaiden knew that she wasn't talking about David's plan. “Because I don't. What in the hell is L thinking?” Everyone had doubts about the Alliance, but at the same time, everyone had faith because L was behind it. Everything worked out how he wanted, so no one thought this was any different.

Kaiden wondered if they were setting themselves up for failure with blind faith.

“We'll just have to wait and see,” Kaiden said, knowing that it was a nonanswer. Jack scowled but said nothing more. And that was progress, he supposed. Since L and Becca ended up dating, Jack tender to lose her cool whenever L was brought up. Or Becca. And seeing as L was the deciding factor in ending the war… he was brought up a lot.

It was good that she was moving on, he decided, ignoring a flash of something in his chest. Even better, he was distracted when David reached out through coms. “You two should come and see this.”

Kaiden frowned, “You take care of it already?”

David's answer was puzzling, “I didn't need to.” To that, Kaiden and Jack shared a look before they headed inside the mansion, finding where David had ripped through the security door. And it was then that they started to see what he meant.

Inside the bunker was a slaughter. There were more Turians than the intel had suggested, closer to sixty, but that number was hard to verify when so many of them were ripped to pieces and scattered about. The bunker itself was a feat of engineering because it was incredible that it hadn't collapsed with all thedamage done to it. It looked like what Kaiden imagined would happen if a Smasher fought indoors.

But it was when they reached the final floor that Kaiden realize what David wanted them to see.

A Smasher body that was collapsed in a heap, like a puppet with cut strings. It was next to a computer that had a message flashing in red on it.

‘UPLOAD COMPLETE’

…

“What do you mean, it's not a problem?” Kaiden said, once more back in Night City, holding out a wrench to L as he worked on the water treatment plant for the city. The Turians had blown it up, but apparently even beforehand, it hadn't worked.

L seemed vaguely amused as he accepted the wrench before he tightened some bolts into place. “It means it's not a problem. Smasher has always wanted to be pure data. An AI. Odds are, this is the last time any of us will ever hear from him again.” He said, perfectly at ease with the information that Adam Smasher was now floating around the net as an AI.

“And if it's not?” Kaiden pressed, crossing his arms as he leaned against the railing of the rebuilt water treatment plant. Given how filthy the water had been, Kaiden wouldn't have trusted the older treatment plant to begin with. The one that L was building now, with some help from others, promised clean water even if you connected it straight to sewage.

L didn't pause his work, “Then he dies. He doesn't understand it yet, but he's weaker as an AI. More fragile. Military AIs can do everything that he can, but far better… and he already has more enemies beyond the Blackwall than he realizes,” L said, so convinced that Smasher wasn't going to be a threat that Kaiden almost believed him. He watched his friend tighten the last few bolts on a piece of piping, connecting to printed off pieces together.

He was different, Kaiden thought. More at ease. It didn't sit well with Kaiden in the slightest -- it wasn't who L was. Ever since he was a kid, way back when they were five years old and first waking up in the Orphanage, L had been a worrier. Desperately seeking some control over what he had no control over -- their lives, their bodies, their future. Him just shrugging his shoulders at Smasher, the monster that threatened to destroy their kids, told Kaiden something was very wrong.

And he had no idea how to approach it. No, actually, that was a lie.

“You still dying, L?” Kaiden asked, taking the wrench back as he handed L a drill. L met his gaze for a moment, his expression betraying no emotion.

Then he looked away.

“I'm about to grab you and print off another fucking-” Kaiden began to thunder, raising his voice but L silenced him.

“I'm not dying. Well, no more than anyone else else is,” L hastily corrected him. “Johnny is out of my head, and most of the damage done to me by the Orphanage was healed with nanite treatments. My power stabilized. Well, mostly, I think. Provided someone doesn't kill me, I could probably make it to eighty years or so without longevity treatments.”

“So why are you acting so weird?” Kaiden pressed, setting the wrench to the side and as he did so, he caught a glimpse of Jack. And Becca. They were off to the side, away from the construction, and seemed to be having a private conversation. Jack must have sensed his gaze because she glanced up at him- or not, given the faint surprise when their gazes met.

L drew his attention back to him, working on the water treatment plant as he spoke. “Because Kiwi was right. Because Saburo was right,” L said, and Kaiden didn't know what that meant. “Saburo accused me of misusing my powers. And he was right -- I haven't been using them to their fullest potential. I didn't want to. I still don't. Kiwi accused me of being the biggest danger to the kids… and she was right too.” He spoke matter of factly, making Kaiden frown.

“All across the world, there are people trying to make another me. It's all on the down low -- secret black book government type stuff. Myers too,” L informed almost casually. Like he wasn't pushing for the woman to become queen of the world. “They won't have nearly as much luck as Arasaka did. Arasaka had the blueprints on what made me… me. Everyone else is operating off of guess work. Most of them won't come close. Not even if you gave them a thousand years of trial and effort.”

L handed back the screwdriver and, numbly, Kaiden handed him another wrench. “But they'll still try for a thousand years. Simply because they know that everyone else in the world is trying to recreate me. And so long as I can topple their ivory towers, they'll never feel safe from me. So, they'll want a counter. A silver bullet. Something that could kill me and make them the new masters of Earth. I can't do anything about that. It's just human nature.”

L tightened a final bolt before setting the wrench to the side, standing up as he stretched his arms over his head. It took Kaiden a moment to find his voice because he couldn't bring himself to argue with any of it. He licked his lips, his mind thinking furiously, but what came out of his mouth was what always did. Because L, even before he was special… he was who Kaiden looked towards when the course needed to be set. “What's the plan, then?”

Their gazes met and L wore a tired smile as he gave his answer.

“I'm going to destroy the world.”