End of The Line // 0x43 // Resonance

Sandy's car smoothly rolled down the quiet industrial street. The neighborhood looked abandoned to anyone who didn't know better - he liked it that way.

Aura had her face pressed against the windshield like an excited tourist glued to an aquarium.

"Wow," she whispered. "Your friend lives in a fucking villain lair."

Void kept her eyes forward. "It's a workshop."

"Same thing," Aura replied instantly inside her head.

The car slowed as they approached a heavy steel gate spanning the entrance to Sandy's place. Cameras pivoted silently from the corners of the wall, tracking the vehicle with insect-like precision.

From somewhere unseen above them, a turret unfolded from a concealed housing with a series of smooth hydraulic clicks. Its optics glowed briefly as it scanned the vehicle. The system chirped once, as the gate rolled open.

"OH SHIT. TURRETS?" Aura clapped enthusiastically. "This is like the BEST house ever."

Void grew rather frustrated again. "Please. Just. Fucking. STOP."

"It's my brain too now, let me have fun, granny!" Aura said, sticking her tongue out.

The car rolled through the yard and parked beside a wide metal building that looked like a hybrid between a house and a machine shop. Warm light spilled from the windows. The place hummed faintly with the quiet life of tools and electronics.

Aura leaned sideways to inspect everything. "Turrets... Reinforced doors... IT'S A FUCKING INDUSTRIAL GARAGE BUNKER THING!," she yelled in excitement. "Either your friends are paranoid or incredibly cool."

"Both."

"They suit you then, my little protector," Aura said, kissing Void's cheek.

Sandy killed the engine and stretched his shoulders. "We're home. Finally."

Void stepped out of the car, the evening air cool against her skin. The neural interface flickered quietly across the edge of her vision as it adjusted to the lighting outside.

Aura phased through the door instead of opening it, walking straight through the metal like it was fog. She spun slowly in the yard. "Okay yeah," she said. "I absolutely love this place. Think we could move here with your little harem?"

Void headed towards the front door. "It's my fucking family. At least try some civility."

Aura placed a hand dramatically over her chest. "I'm always civil!"

The door opened before they could knock. Emmie stood there in loose work clothes, hair tied back, eyes immediately scanning Void from head to toe like a medic evaluating a patient who just walked out of surgery. She didn't say anything for a second. Then she stepped forward and pulled Void into a firm hug.

"Thank fuck you're alright," she said quietly.

Aura gagged theatrically behind her. "OH GOD we're doing emotional intimacy."

Void hugged Emmie back, surprised by the warmth. "I'm okay," she said.

Emmie leaned back and examined her face, her eyes moving carefully like she was reading subtle changes in posture and expression. "How do you feel?" she asked.

"Like someone rebuilt my nervous system and forgot to include the user manual."

Aura wandered around the living room. "She's intense," she muttered to Void. "Does she interrogate everyone like this or just you?"

Void just huffed quietly, ignoring her.

Emmie crossed her arms thoughtfully. "Any complications?"

Aura sat upside down on the couch. "Complications, hah!" she said loudly. "We've been fixed."

Void cleared her throat. "Minor hallucinations."

Aura scoffed. "Why are you so rude all the time?"

Emmie studied Void's eyes carefully, as Aura leaned forward from the couch and waved directly in front of Emmie's face. "Hellooooo. Test, test. One, two, threee! Can the psychic girlfriend hear me?"

Void shot her a warning look. "Stop it."

Aura grinned wickedly. "Fine," she glitched near Void's ear to whisper. "But she looks like someone who alphabetizes her trauma."

Void frowned. "That's not even an insult."

"Just you wait."

"So I see," Emmie continued speaking calmly. "Reyes didn't fry your brain?"

Aura perked up. "Oh I'm definitely fried."

Void answered. "No permanent damage."

Aura raised a finger. "Debatable."

Emmie walked past them into the kitchen, and Aura followed her immediately. "Oh I like her house layout," she said. "Very murder-friendly." Aura leaned to Emmie's ear. "You know she lies when she's nervous," she told her.

Void snapped internally. "Cut it out."

Aura ignored her completely, instead she leaned against the counter next to Emmie. "So tell me," she continued loudly to Void, "is she always as calm as a psycho?"

"Aura... You remember what I do," Void fired back. "So, please, why don't you just fuck off and get the answers from inside of my brain sponge instead?"

Emmie poured a glass of water and handed it to Void. "Drink," she said.

Aura rolled her eyes. "What if she's trying to poison you?"

"Yeah, sure. One of my only two friends in NC is trying to get rid of me." Void thought, as she downed the glass in one go.

Aura leaned closer to Emmie's face and studied her. "You know what," she said thoughtfully to Void, "I bet she thinks she's the smartest person in the room."

"She probably is."

Aura snorted. "Please."

Void exhaled slowly. "Stop antagonizing her.

Aura folded her arms. "Oh come on, what's she gonna do? Ground your creator?" She leaned forward and whispered something particularly nasty into Void's thoughts. "Also... The tank top combined with her haircut just screams 'I beat my husband every evening.'"

Void groaned. "Aura, seriously-"

Emmie's glass hit the counter way harder than necessary. The sharp sound cut the room in half, as se turned slowly and locked her eyes onto the exact spot Aura was standing. Her voice snapped like a blade leaving its sheath. "That's enough."

Void froze.

Aura blinked.

"Wait." Void looked between them. "You... Can see her?"

Aura turned towards Void with wide eyes. "SHE CAN SEE ME?!"

Emmie crossed her arms, looking directly at Aura now. "No," she said flatly. "But I can hear you very clearly." She sighed. "How did you think I managed to talk so little around Sandy all this time?"

Aura slowly turned towards Void with a smug grin spreading across her face. "See?" she said triumphantly. "I was right," she jabbed Void in the shoulder. "You are a dimwit sometimes."

Emmie didn't rise to the jab. If anything, the corner of her mouth twitched like she'd heard worse from herself.

"Thought-sync," she said simply, tapping two fingers against her temple. "Low-latency neural bridge. Short range, encrypted. Lets us hear each other. Much like you and your... Guest"

Aura's grin sharpened. "Oh wow, you two are literally in each other's heads. That's either romantic or a privacy nightmare."

"Both," Void looked at Aura, "Ironic, isn't it."

Emmie's gaze flicked briefly to Sandy, then back to that exact empty space where Aura stood.

"It was his idea," she said.

Sandy scratched the back of his neck, suddenly very interested in a nonexistent stain on the floor. "Figured if you're gonna promise 'forever,' you should at least mean it on a systems level."

"Jesus," Aura snorted. "Gonk looked at marriage and went 'needs more firmware.'"

Emmie ignored her.

"Rings are symbolic," she continued. "This isn't. You don't get to hide. No lies by omission. No pretending you're fine when you're not. No clumsy attempts to explain what you feel." A small pause. "If you really want a life with someone, you share the whole thing."

"Hah, this kind of love in Night City? Thought that was reserved for cinemas."

Aura opened her mouth to fire off another joke... And didn't. For once, nothing came out.

Sandy exhaled slowly, like he'd been holding that breath for years. "Reyes did the install," he added. "Both of us."

Emmie's fingers tightened slightly against her arm. "Mine didn't go clean."

Aura's posture changed, just a little. Less bounce, more stillness.

"Oh, so that's why..."

"...they tried to stop you?"

"Interface feedback loop during calibration," she said. "Cascaded through the motor cortex before he could shut it down." She lifted one hand slightly, the movement precise but just a fraction too deliberate. "Partial loss of fine control. Left side worse."

Sandy's jaw flexed.

"Respiratory failure followed," she continued, clinical like she was reading someone else's chart. "Had to sacrifice a lung."

Silence.

Even Aura didn't crack it this time.

"Fuck, that's grizzly," she said quietly.

"Safe, synthetic replacements for everything are... Rather expensive," Emmie finished, like it was just another line item on a list.

Sandy let out a short, humorless laugh. "That's where the 'museum' comes in."

Void looked at him.

"Every piece in there?" he went on, nodding vaguely towards the workshop. "Cleaned, restored, catalogued. Worth a lot to the right buyer." He shrugged. "Plan's to sell it all off. Get her to a better ripper. Someone who can actually fix what got fried."

"So he's sitting on a dragon's hoard of guns just to cash it in for her?"

"Seems so. The kind of thing we'd do for a loved one."

Aura looked between them, something in her expression slightly... Recalibrating. "That's..." she started, then stopped. She tried really hard not to dress it up in something sharp. "...that's not stupid."

Emmie studied that empty space again in silence. "You're loud," she said, looking in Aura's general direction. "But not hard to read."

Aura huffed, folding her arms again. "Yeah, well," she muttered, "beats being a brick wall with a medical degree."

A beat.

Then, with a slight surprise underlining her words: "...he didn't back out."

Emmie looked at Sandy, who was now frowning slightly.

"Back out of what?"

Aura didn't look at him. Her eyes were still fixed on Emmie. "Most people would've," she said. "Brain fries, body breaks, whole 'forever' thing suddenly gets real inconvenient." She shrugged, smaller this time. "He stayed."

Sandy didn't answer immediately, but when he did, it was simple: "Of course I did. Commitment runs in my family."

Aura clicked her tongue softly. "Okay..." she said. "that's disgustingly wholesome." A little glitch, and she was now behind Void, hands settling lightly on her shoulders. "Still think the haircut's too aggressive though," Aura whispered into her ear, just to save face.

Void turned her head slightly towards her, eyes half-lidded. "Just when I thought the crazy bitch was gone..." she muttered internally.

Aura's grip tightened a little. "Yeah?" she said, her tone shifting into flirtatious, "Planning to get rid of me already?"

Emmie broke the silence cleanly.

"Speaking of gone," she said, tone shifting back to something practical, grounded. "I get the feeling you're not planning to stay long."

Void exhaled through her nose. "Yeah."

Another glitch. Aura now leaned over Emmie's shoulder, inspecting her like a piece of rare hardware. "She's scary hot, though," she murmured. "Like she'd dissect you and make you apologize for it afterwards."

"I will uninstall you."

"You won't last here long-term with that setup, true," Emmie continued, ignoring the invisible chaos with practiced ease. "Too many variables. Too many people who'd want what's in your head."

"I feel soooo wanted now."

"You're calling Corpos 'people'?"

"They're like us. It's the money that turns them into monsters."

"Makes sense," Void dragged a hand through her hair. "And yeah, figured I'd fly out tonight."

Sandy gave a low whistle from the doorway. "Straight from surgery to airport. Rest is an abstract concept to you, huh?"

"Rest is for people without voices in their skull calling them grandma."

"You do feel like a grandma. You're 30, not 50. Act like it."

Emmie stepped closer, lowering her voice just a notch. "You trust that chrome?"

Void hesitated, and Aura - of course - took that as a permission to speak. "Nope! She absolutely doesn't!" she distorted a little, then added "Also, she probably hates me too! Oh how the mighty have fallen."

"It works," she said instead.

Emmie held her gaze, then nodded once, decision made. "Then we help you move. Quickly."

---

The ride to the airport cut through the city like a blade through neon fog. Everything outside the windows shimmered just a little too sharp now, like reality had been overclocked. Ads tried to talk to her. Systems pinged politely at the edge of her awareness. The world wasn't just visible anymore, it was readable. Aura treated it like a toybox.

"We could hack that billboard," she whispered, eyes sparkling. "Make it show something fun. Like boobs. Or a manifesto."

"Sit. Down," Void thought harshly, curling her eyebrows in anger.

"I'm literally inside you," Aura giggled.

"Seriously? Out of all phrases you-" she closed her eyes, then took a deep breath "-you know what? Never mind."

Sandy snorted. "She still talking?"

"Non-fucking-stop," Void growled, dragging a hand down her face like she was trying to physically wipe the noise out of her. Her eyes flicked sideways, tracking something only she could see. "What, can't hear her anymore?"

Sandy leaned back slightly. "Not without Emmie close by, no," he said, brow furrowing. "For some reason."

Void's gaze sharpened, irritation giving way to something more analytical. "Interesting..." she muttered, tapping her temple once like she was knocking on faulty hardware. "Wonder what else Reyes fucked up inside her."

Aura immediately perked up, practically vibrating with smug energy as she leaned into Void's space. "He loves me."

Void's response came automatically, like she'd run this one a hundred times already. "He tolerates you."

Aura grinned wider, completely unbothered, and spun lazily in place. "Same difference."

The airport loomed ahead, all glass and chrome, wrapped with a healthy dose of loud ads and quiet paranoia. Sandy pulled up to the drop-off lane. His hand rested on the wheel a second longer than necessary, engine idling low beneath them like it was waiting for a better decision.

"You sure about this?" he asked, glancing sideways at her. His voice wasn't pushy, just... Grounded. "We still have a few days to spare for you."

Void didn't answer right away. Her fingers hovered near the door handle, then tightened around it.

The latch clicked.

"No."

Aura snorted immediately, folding herself across the dashboard like she owned the place. "But we're doing it anyway," she said brightly. "I'd call it ‘character development,' but you're clearly regressing."

Sandy blinked, trying to track a conversation he could only hear half of. "You're not sure," he said slowly, "or rejecting my offer?"

Void paused halfway out of the car, one boot already on the pavement. She didn't even look back.

"Yes."

Deadpan. Final.

She stepped out fully, slinging the bag over her shoulder in one smooth motion. The weight hit wrong, her balance slipping for a split second. The world tilted-

-and snapped back into place as the reflex booster kicked in, correcting her stance before gravity could make a point.

Aura leaned in, delighted. "Oooh, look at that. Fancy."

Sandy was already out of the car, closing the distance in two strides. He pulled her into a quick, rough hug, the kind that didn't ask permission but didn't overstay either. "Just promise you don't get yourself killed. Still want to visit a few bars with you."

Void stepped back, adjusting the strap on her shoulder, a crooked hint of a smile tugging at her lips. "I'll make sure to explode dramatically screaming your name if I do."

Aura threw her hands up in outrage. "Hey! I wanted to say that!"

Sandy huffed a quiet laugh, shaking his head as he walked back to his Thorton. "See you around, choom." He got in, shifted gears, and drove away.

Void rolled her eyes, already turning towards the terminal. "I can hear your thoughts too, dumbass."

"B-but my privacy..." Aura muttered, trailing after her with a hung head.

"Not a fan of two-way streets, hmm?"

---

Inside, the - now familiar - brightness and bling hit them with all the grace of a brick to the face. Light bounced off polished floors, ads screamed, and the system in Void's head immediately started chewing through it all, tagging faces, mapping exits, predicting movement vectors like a starving predator.

"We could totally run a scan on that security guy," she said, leaning halfway into Void's vision and poking at the overlay like it was a touch screen meant only for her to play with.

Void exhaled slowly through her nose and angled towards a quieter corner near the gates, forcing the noise of the crowd into the background as she walked. She pulled up the contact list with a command-thought.

"Aura..." she sighed internally.

"...yes?" Aura sang, already knowing that tone meant trouble.

Void's jaw tightened. "I am really, really glad you're back," she started with a controlled tone. Her fingers curled into her palm. "But I'm getting real fucking tired of your shit."

Aura blinked, then leaned in closer, grin creeping back. "And..?" she prompted, making that stupid little nose-trumpet gesture.

Void's patience snapped a notch.

"So instead of acting like a tumor," she said, sharper now, "how about you work with me. Like we used to. As a team."

Silence.

Aura's head tilted slowly, like something inside her had just cracked the wrong way.

"A... Tumor?"

The word hung there.

Then it detonated.

"A FUCKING TUMOR?!"

Her projection flickered, glitched, then split in two for a moment before snapping back into place. When she spoke again, the humor was gone. Stripped clean.

"Do you have ANY idea how it feels," her voice dropped, shaking under the surface, "to wake up in your own corpse?"

Void's stomach tightened. "Aura, calm down, the system's getting unst-"

"I LOST EVERYTHING," Aura snapped, stepping forward, gripping Void's face with both palms. "EVERYTHING I FUCKING CARED ABOUT."

The HUD stuttered, icons smeared. Text doubled and tripled.

"I DIED," she went on, voice climbing, splintering, "and now I get to sit in the backseat while you parade around in my body like it's some secondhand jacket?"

Void staggered. "Aura-"

"YOU THINK THIS IS SHARING?!"

The pain hit.

Not a headache. Not even close. It felt like someone had jammed a live wire straight through her skull and was dragging it back and forth behind her eyes.

Her breath caught.

"Fuck! Stop! You're going to-"

Her bag slipped from her hand and hit the floor with a dull thud she barely heard. Both hands flew to her head, fingers digging into her temples, pressing hard, hoping she could physically hold her mind together. The world tilted sideways. Noise stretched into a high, metallic whine.

Her knees hit the ground.

Still, Aura didn't stop.

"WHAT'S NEXT, HUH?!" she screamed, voice fracturing into overlapping echoes. "I GET A FRONT ROW SEAT WHILE YOU FUCK THAT MUSCLE-BRAINED GEARHEAD?!"

The words tore through her like shrapnel.

"THIS IS WORSE THAN DYING!"

The interface began to unravel. Color drained. Then surged back too bright. Faces blurred into wireframes. Movement predictions spiraled out of control, branching into dozens of impossible futures.

"I HATE YOU SO MU-"