---
A few minutes later
"Let me get this straight. You made a deal with the Merc who raided the base, and you want me to take care of them?" asked Bess pointing to the group of women sitting against a wall in the alley half naked, covering themselves with old blankets, next to the few minis who were in the alley as well.
"If you can call that psycho-Boy a Merc," Rossy said with some resentment, the same mini that Sora nearly got killed when one of the Tygers' guests captured her as a hostage. After the events in the private bar, she evacuated with the rest of the minis and the girls from the sixth floor, leaving the rest to Rebecca and Skyler.
"Boy?" Bess asked looking at her, being interrupted by Eddie who replied instead.
"Ignore her. Not all of them only the half naked. Do you think I want this? But look at them, apart from Natasha, we haven't been able to get any of them to react," Eddie apologized.
"Why don't the Mox take care of them? Didn't they also have captured people? And all this for the Tygers' server data?" Bess pointed at Rossy near her.
"Umm...it's because I did what you asked, remember? And no, that's not even the deal I made for the server data. It's to find a guy, a girl who was with...the young Merc said she got information from the Chips dolls inside them and could help-"
"Like any other clinic in the fucking city!. What does that have to do with me, Huh!? Leave them to the NCPD. They should be here any minute..." Bess shouted at the mess Eddie was asking for. Although Bess understood what these women had suffered, she disagreed with getting involved in that mess. Bess suddenly stopped talking when she saw and heard an unmarked black AV take off from the rooftop.
"How long has an Av been on the roof? Are you sure all the Tyger VIPs were taken out by Trauma Team?" Bess asked, changing the subject abruptly, as she watched the black AV take off.
"Eh? I'm not sure. We were on our way out when Trauma Team came in. We could see them taking out the VIPs as they fought something. We couldn't see what it was agains, but we think it was that exoskeleton, the free jumping fan, that fell from the third floor," said Eddie as he pointed to the smashed exoskeleton outside the building. "The Av arrived a few minutes before you," he added, looking at the smoke that was beginning to rise from the third floor.
Feeling that what had happened at the Tyger's base was bigger than she thought, Bess asked, "Who is the guy?"
"Who?" Eddie responded, confused.
"The person who asked you to find him, what's his name?" Bess asked again.
"Jeremiah... Jeremiah Grayson." Eddie hesitated by the subtle change in Bess's mood, which made him nervous.
Bess's eyes widened in surprise as she recognized the name. After Samurai's dissolved, Bess thought that knowing him sooner or later someone would kill him, and when it happened she was not surprised .... However ..... she decided to investigate how it had happened, together with the close circle of the person, or maybe thing at this point, who had killed Johnny
Bess thought that the sudden appearance of him in her head was not a coincidence, when she asked, "Did he tell you why he wanted to find him?"
"Um, he said he was looking for something... something that belongs to him by inheritance, and he wants to retrieve it." Responded Eddie
Bess couldn't help but increase her curiosity about the young Merc with the light masks from Brock's history, thinking that he might be the same one who recorded on the fire truck, due to the similarities in the masks and the use of music in both cases.
And what caught her attention the most was how the two times she had heard of the young man... she ended up thinking... of him... feeling that it was not a coincidence.
Thinking of him and her time with the others in the band, Bess came up with a safe place where she could leave the girls, changing her mind about helping them, thinking that she could use them to satisfy her curiosity.
"Ahmmm okay, I know someone who lives in the district, he have plenty of space and we can leave them there for some time, although I haven't talked to him in years, I don't think he'll refuse," Bess said.
"That will have to wait," Eddie said as he used his IDn interface.
"What are you talking about now?" Bess asked.
"Bess, I've got it! I just received THE FILE!" Eddie exclaimed. Upon briefly reviewing the file that he has suddenly received in his IDn, he added, "Bess, we have to use the van equipment from the chain. There's more here than we thought, it's not just material from the sex trade, there's also..."
---
When Bess finished remembering what had happened, she continued in earnest;
["Thanks to a confidential source that we cannot reveal for legal reasons, the news team at Channel 54 has exclusively obtained a copy of the contents of the server in the building where all these horrible acts take place. In addition, we have discovered a video that completely changes what we thought about a tragedy. Before we show you the video, we want to warn you that the images we are about to show contain explicit violence and may be disturbing to some viewers. Due to the urgency of the situation, we have not been able to edit the footage before airing it."]
Bess and Jordan on screen were replaced, showing the shocking and painful images of a young teenager being brutally beaten in a wasteland. While the young man begs them to stop, the others accuse him for his father's inaction as the fire chief in the H3 mega-building fire.
The young man, in tears, explains that his father and his colleagues desperately tried to enter the H3 to save the trapped people and put out the fire, but they were stopped by the NCPD. In addition, the boy reveals that the real culprits of the fire were the Mealstron gang, as a result of their turf war against the Valentinos in the building.
The perpetrators of the beating stop for a moment in silence before bursting into laughter. The first perpetrator's face is shown in the video, revealing the same face as the Tygers' dead body in the exoskeleton, who laughed and said they already knew everything. He explains how his father's clients include politicians who talk too much when they think no one is recording them.
The confused young man asks why they are beating him, receiving a cruel response; because they can, and that his family is hated throughout the city, and there are people willing to pay a lot of eddies to see the karmic death of the H3 culprit's son. After finishing his speech with laughter, they kick the young man in the face brutally, causing his head to sway, and he loses consciousness, calling for his mother as his last words.
When the video ends, only Bess appears in her shot with the burning building, looking seriously at the screen.
["What you just witnessed were the last moments of Daniel, who died a few days later from the serious injuries caused by the brutal beating. He was the son of the fire chief accused by the mayor, journalists, and society as the main culprit in the H3 tragedy, which claimed more than 300 victims.
Although we could consider Daniel's heartbreaking account as a son defending his parents, the harsh reality suggests the opposite due to the cruel response he received from one of the attackers, whom we have identified as Ishii Shiro, the son of the well-known member of the Tygers Claws, Shigeo Shiro. With Ishii's cruel response, the question arises about the official version shared by the authorities and the possibility that the lie formed to cover up the truth behind the H3 tragedy may be the cause of another tragedy... that of Daniel and his family.
As a journalist at Channel 54, I can only feel disgusted, because if this is true, then all journalists in this city are accomplices for not doing our job well, accepting the official version without getting to the truth... creating another tragedy."]
Bess paused for a moment, her face expressing the indignation, anger, and guilt that accompanied her words. Thats it were easily recognizable by everyone watching the news, many of whom had been influenced by Bess`s words. They began to re-examine their behavior on social media or even in the solitude of their homes when they cursed or rejoiced at the tragic fates of the supposed culprits of the H3 tragedy.
Everything revealed by Bess had a reaction, as a group of NCPD officers in the background who were cordoning off the area seemed to receive orders and started to approach her.
Bess stopped looking at the camera, looking behind her as if someone was warning her, making her turn her head live and see the police officers getting closer to her.
"This has been Bess Isis, and that's all for today, before I'm arrested!, I'll hand you back to Jordan." Bess said, saying goodbye with her usual light and sarcastic tone, remembering the old times when this often happened.
On the screen, Jordan, the news anchor, reappeared, reclaiming the majority of the frame but leaving a section next to her showing Bess arguing with the police officers who were approaching her and ordering her to stop filming.
Bess could be heard calling Brock, telling him to leave and that she would meet them at ``Ker's´´ house as they had agreed, struggling as she was handcuffed, accused of obstructing justice and stealing evidence in an ongoing investigation. Shortly after, the signal was cut.
The live transmission of Bess's arrest by the NCPD, coinciding with the revelation of a major cover-up by the city administration, increased the suspicions of viewers who interpreted Bess's arrest as an attempt by the city administration to silence and prevent the truth from coming out.
Jordan, the news anchor, regained the entire frame, staring at the camera just as surprised as everyone else in the studio, not knowing what to say. Jordan tried to mimic the human and sincere tone of Bess, saying, "As our colleague Bess Isis said, all of Channel 54 and its employees are disgusted by the possible cover-up of the H3 tragedy, and as always, our deepest condolences to the victims"
But unlike Bess, Jordan's words lacked the sincerity and idignation that Bess had demonstrated moments before, creating an obvious contrast, highlighting Jordan's falsehood. This became even clearer when Jordan changed her subdued tone to her usual one and said, "Now... in sports."
At that moment, the person watching the news turned off the screen, having lost interest. As she turned off the screen, she felt a vibration in the white room where she stood, signaling their arrival.
With her hands trembling from nervousness, she didn't know what to do. She decided to control her nerves as best as she could, standing beside a black rectangle that could be described as a black sarcophagus.
She looked solemnly at the only door in the room, gripping her clasped hands to hide her nervousness, adopting a posture as if she were waiting for an important guest... instead of meeting with her son for the first time since he was born.
The door opened after a few seconds, and four people entered without caring or being surprised to see Hanako Arasaka in front of them.
At least two of them did not care, another one was unconscious, and the last one was too tired and preoccupied with the unconscious one to recognize Hanako in the room.
Until, Hanako spoke "There's no time to waste. Put him inside."
This caused the bewildered and tired Judy to react, who after regaining consciousness inside an Av, did not understand what they were doing here, having flown past Medical center without stopping, to end up in a half-constructed building in Watson near the private port of Arasaka in the city.
Judy grew anxious when she saw the "black coffin" they wanted to put Sora in, and she screamed in distress, "What are you doing? Are you crazy? Sora needs medical help... he-he's not dead. Don't put him in there," misunderstanding the strange black sarcophagus the unknown woman wanted to place Sora in.
Stopping her anguish and nervousness in its tracks, as she heard "JUDY ALVAREZ!" with a tone that reminded her for a second of the way her mother used to call her when she was angry with her, with a stern tone but with affection in it.
Causing Judy to freeze like a small animal, staring in surprise at the person who just shouted her name when she was able to recognize her.
Hanako smiled softly at Sora's nervous and tremendously worried girlfriend, who was looking at her in surprise, and said, "Calm down, Miss Alvarez." Staring at the unconscious Sora in Musashi's arms, she added, "As Sora's mother, I would never do anything to harm him."
Judy's brain froze as she recognized Hanako Arasaka and it stopped functioning altogether, leaving it blank, when she heard the words "Sora's mother"
Hanako smiled briefly again, seeing Judy's blank expression, and looked at Musashi in front of the black sarcophagus, nodding her head to him as she opened the top of the sarcophagus from her pad, revealing black liquid inside that moved in a rhythmic pattern across its surface, creating a unique pattern compared to regular liquids.
Musashi carefully placed Sora inside the black liquid, burying his arms in it, leaving Sora peacefully floating in it.
Hanako looked at her son's pale face and body full of wounds one last time with a heart full of anguish, before touching her pad again and closing the black sarcophagus with Sora inside.