The cold stillness of the badlands has the pair in quiet, deep thought. Brian leans up against Graves' Butte... heavily impacted by Zaunya's story. He remains silent as he watches her gaze upon the distant neon glow of Night City... her long hair and koumori trench gently fluttering in the breeze. He carries an expression of disbelief before looking down in mourning. She continues.
"I was... trapped- I had... no one. Nowhere to run... n-nowhere to go. Confined to the will of the megacorp that killed my mom." She begins to pace back and forth again... pouring her inner thoughts out in a way Brian didn't know she could considering how guarded she's been.
Her hands shake from clinched fists... tightly cracking her knuckles as her voice cracks while shouting.
"They gave me her position... presented it to me like a FUCKING GIFT! Forced me to be by his side constantly. He... he never brought another woman around us... and... he never looked at me..... he wouldn't look at me. All of our communications were done through proxy... even though i was right by his side. His guilt did nothing but enrage me." She squats down, still looking at the city with her back turned to Brian... the wind gently continuing to blow the loose fabric of her clothes. She gathers herself before continuing.
"I retreated into my training... being shield to one of the 'highest valued' execs on the board came with perks... tch, they treated me like fucking royalty. Tried to give me my own handlers, high-end experimental cyberware upgrades, master level security clearances, the works. I always knew it was him... the way he'd look at me... it was like... he knew i knew." Brian crosses his arms and shifts his weight leaned up against the Butte. She continues
"Years went by like this. As i grew up, I just became... numb to it. Stopped thinking about ways out... started focusing on ways in." She mumbles in a monotone gritting her teeth. With clinched fists, her tone shifts to building anger... a close-up of her green eyes reflect the glowing Night Cityscape within them as she stares deeply off into it.
"What'd you do." Brian speaks for the first time... asking in a serious tone unfamiliar to her.
Zaunya finally breaks focus on the city off in the distance... she turns to look at him over her shoulder... her expression is one shrouded in growing rage.
She says nothing... A flashback begins:
Zaunya is seen barefoot... slowly walking in the hidden room at the back of the executive's office... a place shes now grown far too familiar with. The light slapping of her feet on marbled floor combines with the loud snoring of the executive passed out in the middle of the bed naked. She's gently slipped each of his limbs into steel wire restraints tied to the gold framed bed as he comfortably sleeps, completely worn out. Shes wearing a red slip, accentuating her curves and long legs as it lightly flows behind her from her walking speed. The neon-pink hue of the room warms the space as Zaunya receives a text message from Audrey:
=Jammers up. Delta the fuck out of there... Now.=
Zaunya glances at the text before glancing back at the executive... her instinct compels her to seize the opportunity to finally flee... but a wave of dark memories flood her mind like stabbing knives. The culmination of loss... sacrifice and brutality... brought about by a lifetime of service grabs ahold of her and doesn't let go.
She looks back at the table shes standing in front of and grabs the K-Bar formerly belonging to her mother before looking back and walking towards him. She gently mounts on top of the executive and rests her weight on his stomach, staring down at his unconscious face. She grips the K-Bar tightly with both hands and raises it up as high as she can before bringing it down with full force... driving it deep into his abdomen. The force of the stab jolts him awake, instantly opening his eyes as wide as possible and making him shriek in immense pain. Zaunya jolts in fear at the sudden onset of brutality as he desperately triggers his sandevistan in an instinctual attempt to flee. He attempts to lift his right hand and swings at her with all of his strength while triggering a blade in the palm of his hand that slices Zaunya's neck and up to her jaw, cutting her deep and sending blood flying. The jolt of his wild, incapacitated movements knocks Zaunya off balance as the tension of the steel wire holding his arm re-tightens and yanks it back down. As he continues to repeatedly fire the Sandy, the chrome begins to short circ as electro static smoke begins to plume and shoot out. Zaunya panics... she scrambles back on top of him and begins to repeatedly stab with all of her strength... With each plunge, the pair of them let out feral shrieks and grunts on a rattling bed struggling to carry their weight.
The executive's shrieks eventually stop as the taught tension on the steel wire holding him down begins to loosen and he lay there lifeless. Zaunya continues to stab repeatedly with all of her strength... her eyes wide open and gritting her teeth. The knife plunges deep into the neck, face and chest as an overwhelming amount of blood begins to spray out covering her nearly naked body. The feral sounds of her grunts and screams vibrate the sound-proofed walls as she continues to stab... only stopping due to exhaustion.
As her grip strains, she lets go of the knife while still sat atop the now barely recognizable corpse... just a pool of viscera with hair on top. The new silence in the room gives way to Zaunya's deep labored breathing. She stares deeply at the naked, now faceless executive... a tension release is followed by a brief feeling of closure... a feeling gone as quickly as it arrived.
A long pause takes place with Zaunya in a trance on top of the body as she slows her breathing. She then grabs the knife again and raises it towards him as she begins to slice and hack his body in half using experienced muscle to work her way past various chrome, ganic flesh and bone. She removes his broad shoulders and the top part of his head seeing various blinking lights from the s.o.s and trauma team pings triggering unsuccessfully due to the jammer.
She bags the executives torso before throwing a bunch of various items and trinkets on top of it she had collected overtime... some holding irreplaceable memories. The final thing being a picture of her as a child... smiling in her mother's arms in front of a PetroChem corporate building... Ending the flashback
Zaunya continues to stare out into Night City with the wind blowing. "I could have just... ran."
She takes a long pause... her voice still and genuine.
"But there's nowhere to run to like Night City..... A cesspool of chaos where yesterday's events are tomorrow's forgotten history."
She begins to open her mouth to speak but unable to find the words... overwhelmed with emotion.
She hears the sound of Brian's footsteps behind her crunching rocks as he approaches. She turns to face him as tears start to run down her face.
"She could've killed him.." She says... her voice trembling.
Brian pulls Zaunya in to his chest, wrapping his arms around her and holding her tight as she breaks down.
"SHE COULD'VE KILLED HIM!!!" She yells into his chest as she falls into him... the momentum drives the pair to their knees holding each other tightly as she cries uncontrollably into his chest. Her true self... her true being laid to bare before him... for Night City... an impossible moment.
Their silhouettes hold each other tightly in the darkened Badlands... overlooking the towering... imposing glow of the Night Cityscape... awaiting their return.