New chapter!
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“Who…
are you, really?”
Lucy’s eyes widened.
Her hand trembled, and the beer bottle slipped from her fingers.
Rook caught it before it hit the floor and placed it back in her hand.
Then he took a slow drink from his own bottle.
“Relax, Lucy.
If Arasaka had sent me to take you back, you’d already be in a cage.
Don’t forget how many chances I had to move against you tonight.”
That brought her back to herself.
She leaned into the sofa, took a bitter sip of beer, and gave a small, humorless smile.
“Right.
I’m just another netrunner.
Arasaka trains people like me by the batch.
I’m not worth that much effort.”
“No,” Rook said, looking at her.
His voice softened.
“To me, you’re the exception.”
Then his eyes sharpened with something fierce and hungry.
“People are only unique because they can feel.
That’s what gives them weight.
I spent years inside Arasaka watching people scheme, lie, and rot behind clean glass.
Now all I want is to tear Arasaka down, break Militech’s grip, repair the Net, and drag Night City back toward something resembling order.”
“Legends like Johnny Silverhand became stories, the kind people only talk about after the graves are full.
Everyone says Night City has no living legends.
I’m going to become one.”
He held her gaze.
“And I’m going to make you one too.”
For once, Lucy was genuinely shaken.
Then she laughed softly and shook her head.
“Rook, I have to admit, you know how to talk big.
You even sound like you believe it.
I almost did.” Her smile thinned.
“But I don’t want to be a legend.
I have my own dream.”
“The moon?”
He answered so naturally that she sat up straight.
“You…
how do you know that too?”
“Was it supposed to be subtle?
You brought it up more than once tonight.
And your room is covered in lunar posters.” He brushed a lock of hair back from her face and nodded toward the old posters on the wall.
“Honestly, I’d like to see the moon myself.”
The gentle touch colored her cheeks.
After a brief silence, Lucy stood and pulled him up with her.
“Come on.
I have something to show you.”
He let her lead him into the bedroom.
She took out two braindance rigs and a small bag of lunar BD chips.
After fitting one rig over his head, she linked it to hers and slotted the chip.
The apartment disappeared.
Moon dust stretched beneath his feet, so vivid that for a second Rook forgot to breathe.
He reached for her hand without thinking, and she let him take it as they looked toward the blue Earth hanging in the distance.
“This BD is incredible,” he said.
“I can even feel the heat.”
“Of course.
It uses your personal link to simulate solar exposure.
If this were the real moon, you’d probably be cooked alive right now, so I adjusted it to something a human body can handle.”
Lucy tilted her head, her narrowed eyes full of rare, unguarded pleasure.
Maybe it was because she finally had someone to share the dream with.
Maybe the braindance itself let her relax.
Either way, she looked lighter here.
“Lucy,” Rook said, smiling at her, “a moment like this needs music.
You can’t walk on the moon in silence.”
A song began to play.
“I Really Want to Stay at Your House.”
Rook knew it too well.
He grabbed Lucy’s hand and ran with her across the lunar surface.
They leapt together.
Under the blazing sun, with the blue Earth before them, they rose into the low gravity like travelers in a dream, arms spread wide, laughing into the impossible sky.
“Lucy!
I swear I’ll take you to the real moon.
We’ll recreate this dream for real.”
He pulled her into his arms as they drifted back down, moon dust rising around their feet.
Lucy leaned close and kissed his cheek.
“I believe you.”
In that moment, two strangers stopped feeling like strangers.
They leaned into each other beneath the deep sky and let the universe stretch around them.
For once, even Rook forgot the system, forgot Night City, and forgot the ambition behind the Source Protocol.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter.