A close-up of Zaunya's cut and bloody hands shaking do their best to try and stabilize themselves... she takes slow deep breaths as she sits up against a wall in the back of the small motel room... her bout of rage subsiding and returning to a simmer. The quiet stillness of the room combines with her heavy breathing and the stray sounds of engines speeding by outside. While collecting herself... she hears the door to the room slide open.
She looks up to see Brian calmly walk into the room and approach her. Without a word, he grabs a cloth out of his pocket and kneels down next to her... he begins gently cleaning her hands. Zaunya feels a wave of embarrassment wash over her as Brian checks her hands for deep cuts. While holding one of her hands, he places a cigarette on her lips and lights it for her... taking a seat next to her sitting up against the wall. He lights one of his own as the pair sit in silence taking deep drags allowing the busy noise outside the room to take back over for a bit.
Brian breaks the silence.
"Petrochem-" He says... making Zaunya look over at him.
"-Is one of the biggest megacorps in Night City... plenty of eds to snatch..." She quickly responds dismissively
"No... I mean, if this is just a means to an end for you... If this is just a one-way. I need to know. Corpos don't forget. At best... shit just gets filed away only to be re-opened later."
"Then what the fuck is your point Brian." She asks impatiently.
"My point is... if we're gonna do this... I need to know where your head's at. Going in blind ain't gonna cut it."
She takes another drag of her smoke and runs her fingers through her hair without responding. Tampered emotions attached to unforgettable memories continuing to fester that shes uninterested in delving into.
A long pause happens as the pair sit next to each other. Brian again breaks the silence.
"I lost my best friend."
Zaunya looks over at him curious. His mind defaults to Marilyn... visualizing her beautiful face smiling at him. A series of quick flashes passes by in his mind of some of their time together... one's hes uninterested in sharing with us. He quickly catches himself before mentioning her... shifting the direction of the story last second.
"That same night we met... I had a uh... had a gig..." Brian shifts his weight and takes another drag of his smoke before continuing.
"It was simple... just a quick trade... easy scratch he said." He looks down and closes his eyes tight... a series of quick flashes enter his mind of the sudden life or death struggle that occurred in that alley that night. Reminding him full well the fragility of the environment they exist in... the ruthless speed in which things can change forever.
"He took a gut shot... i got a scar to last a lifetime."
Zaunya glances at Brian's stitched, soon to be scar running up from his chest to his neck and finishing on his jaw. She finally sees the resemblance in her own scar... how they mirror each other. The coincidence intrigues her... a spoon fed sensation of connection that she hardly understands.
"I got him to an R.E.O operating table but... there was nothing I could do... didn't... d-didn't know what to do." He takes a deep breath while looking down. "He uhm... he bled out in my arms."
Zaunya looks down as Brian stands up and slowly walks to the center of the room.
"The Butte we've been rolling around in was his... the bloodstains are both of ours... brought it home that night... where you happened to be waiting." He takes another drag of his smoke.. pacing back and forth briefly.
"In the end... he told me something that I haven't been able to shake out of my mind. Told me to remember who we were... before all of this shit; to remember who i was..."
"Before what shit...? Brian... Who. were. you?" She asks in an exhausted tone with a heavy desire to know... having now laid to bare who she truly is to him.
Brian looks back at her... looking directly into her eyes... he says nothing.
He turns to walk out of the motel room... as the door slides open, Zaunya quickly gets up and follows after him out the door.
He's next seen walking through the parking lot of the motel and onto the dirt of the badlands. Condensation billows out of his nose and mouth into the cold open air. The idle darkness of the area dimly lit by moonlight and flickering motel bulbs. Zaunya a few yards behind, quickly follows after him.. trying to catch up to his pace.
"B-Brian?" She says and gets no response. The sound of rocks and dirt being crunched and kicked underneath their boots as they walk takes over the space along with the chirps of insects.
"...BRIAN?... Wha- Where are you going?" She asks flustered. He makes his way over the lip of an embankment and approaches where he's stashed Graves' Butte. He grabs a length of rubber hose from the trunk before pulling open the gas port causing Zaunya to stop in her tracks at the top of the embankment. He lightly sucks into the tube causing the Choo in the tank to begin to flow before sticking the hose into the cab of the Butte. The choo begins to flood inside soaking the blood stained seats and the dashboard... filling the area around him with a dank chemical smell that'd grab your nose. The choo splatters across personal trinkets on the dashboard as well as burn marks and seat stains worth a thousand stories.
He takes a few step back before flicking his smoke into the cab causing the choo to instantly ignite, lighting up the area around them with an orange glow. Brian makes his way back to the top of the embankment before turning around to stare at the glowing flame. She says nothing.
Zaunya and Brian's silhouettes stand side by side as the flames gradually take over the Butte in the darkened badlands... the emotion of the moment grabs ahold of him... overwhelming.
He shuts it down before turning and walking back toward the motel. Zaunya's sight fixed on the flaming Butte recognizes this and quickly turns to follow him.
As they make their way back to the motel, the flames begin to grow above the embankment before a loud boom... sending flames and chunks of metal scrap into the air causing Zaunya to flinch and stumble over her footsteps. Looking back at the explosion she instinctually puts her forearm out in front of her face. Brian doesn't miss a beat as he continues to walk back to the motel completely unfazed.
Graves' Colby Butte is laid to rest in flames out in the desolate Badlands... Fading to black.