V starts walking around and sees a small pond. He looks at his reflection in the water, for a while, then at his arms, full of blood. He kneels and starts washing his hands, when he suddenly starts seeing some weird artifacts in the water, as if it was made of pixels. V's interface starts to glitch out, he waves around, almost losing his balance.
Panam: Vincenttt! Come here!
V slowly walks away, seeing Panam near a tree, with an apple in her hand.
V: Have you found a way out?!
Panam: No… I… Nevermind, let's continue searching.
Panam walks away. V sits under the apple tree.
V: Pan!
She turns back to him.
V: Maybe we do deserve a little rest.
Panam sits on the grass near him, holding the apple in his right hand.
Panam: You know how many people I've seen starving in the desert, V?! They could have saved them all, but they didn't.
V: There are no eddies to make savin' the world, Pan. It's much more profitable to destroy it and then sell a solution.
Panam takes a bite from the apple and smiles, she starts munching it, holding the apple with four fingers, covering her mouth with the index.
Panam: Mmmm… I don't even remember the last time I ate genuine fruit. I'm not talking about that industrial synthetic shit in plastic bags, I mean real fruit. I must have been a kid.
Panam: And when was it?
Panam turns back to V, looking at him surprised, smiling. Then she starts laughing. V does the same.
Panam: You're fucking rude, Vincent!
Panam hits the tree with a punch. An apple falls on V's head, he smiles.
V: You know what I was thinking, Pan?! I wasted so much time going around in Night City like an asshole, that I've never found time to take you out… I just sent you stupid messages, while I could actually spend time with you.
V looks down, in shame.
V: I was so busy trying to survive I actually forgot to live.
Panam looks at him, still munching the apple.
Panam: Well Vincent, I'm here. You have twenty five minutes, more or less.
V raises his head and looks at her.
V: I'm tired of countdowns, Panam.
Panam looks him in the eyes. She then throws the apple away and cleans her mouth with the sweater.
Panam: Let's say we were back in Night City, ok? Where would you have taken me?
V stops a moment to think, then he smiles.
V: At Ember's.
Panam bursts out laughing.
Panam: At Ember's?! Vincent, can you imagine me with a long dress and heels?
V: You'd be a stunner, Pan.
Panam becomes serious again, and looks away from him.
Johnny: V… There is something wrong… I can feel it.
V: Johnny, Please… not now. I just need some more time.
Panam: Vincent… I…want to talk about what happened in the Basilisk.
V looks at her, concerned and starts caressing her cheek with his left hand. She closes her eyes.
V: Panam look… It doesn't change anything to me. When you'll be ready, we'll talk about it. For now the only important thing to say is that he is dead, and that's it.
Panam opens her eyes back and looks down.
Panam: I was talking about the Badlands, Vincent. I couldn't care less about what he saw in that tank. He can have as much as he wants.
Panam looks back at him.
Panam: He said It was there since the beginning… Is it true?
V looks down, sad. Panam looks away hurt, and disappointed.
V: Yeah… This is something I've never been able to control, Pan. I'm sorry.
Panam: I know… I was hoping it was just our thing, that's all.
V: I was hoping that too. For what is worth it I think he likes you Pan… You remind him of Rogue.
Panam looks back at him, smiling.
Panam: I remind him of Rogue?! There was something between them?!
V: Yep, fifty or so years ago. I even took them out on a date.
Panam looks at him, puzzled.
Panam: What does it mean?!
V: You remember Misty from the Esoterica shop where you picked me up that night?
Panam: Yeah…
V: She gave me these…pills. With the blue ones, Johnny was in control while the red pills put him out to sleep.
Panam: Uhm… oookk…so?!
V covers his face with his right hand, in shame.
V: I swallowed a couple of blue ones and I… lent him my body.
Panam looks at him, in disbelief.
Panam: You lent him your body…
V looks away from her.
V: Panam, look. I was… desperate, you know?! I couldn't care less about Rogue. All I wanted was to live. I was hoping that helping Johnny would have…eased the process, I guess.
V looks back at her, but he sees Rogue instead, blurred in a mesh of blue pixels, looking at him angry. V starts looking at her eyes, which are emitting a deep blue light, giving her a devilish look. His interface starts glitching out again.
Rogue: Bullshit, Johnny! Do you think that I'm that stupid?! I've seen how you look at her, FUCK!
Rogue becomes Panam again, V looks at her baffled.
V: What…Did you say?!
Panam: I said bullshit, V. What was your plan?! Going around, fucking every last person in Night City, begging for a solution?
V: Look Pan, I told you…
Panam: Fuck you, V. YOU HAD A SOLUTION, MINE! All you had to do was to fucking call me. Instead you went blurting the story of the Relic all over Night City.
Panam looks down, angry.
Panam: Including that hooker.
V looks at her, becoming serious.
V: Are you talking about Judy?! By the way, how do you know…
Panam still sat, gets closer to him with an angry expression.
Panam: The whole world is after us, you call a stranger from my camp and you do not even think that I would ask Carol to do a check on her?!
V gets even closer to her, starting to get angry.
V: You should ask Carol to check on her again. By the way, she's not a hooker and I can assure I'm not even her type. She seems to like you too, though.
Panam: Happy to hear it. How did she help you?! Giving a bit of digital pleasure? Or maybe you recorded something with her?
V: FUCK! ENOUGH PANAM! WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM?!
Panam gets up, crosses her arms and walks away.
Panam: Apparently I'm just another contact on your holo list.
V: You shouldn't listen to him!
Panam stops.
V: Why don't you ask me?! Instead of putting your armor back on?
Panam turns her head and looks at him.
Panam: You know what, V?! Don't feel like talking to you anymore.
V stands up and walks toward her.
V: Took the red pills and called you. Didn't do it because I needed somebody to exploit…I did it because I knew I was about to die. I remembered that night in the desert when we slept together… All I wanted was to hear your voice again, that's all.
V puts his arm on Panam's left shoulder.
V: C'mon Pan…
Panam turns and looks at him, almost smiling, then she starts walking toward a bunch of roses sprouting from the ground, kneeling in front of them.
V: You know what?! Since you dug into my past life… May I ask if you ever had… You know… somebody?
Panam keeps caressing the roses without looking at V, he turns.
V: Got it, It's another nono.
Panam gets back up and starts walking around.
Panam: Yes V, I had somebody.
V: May I ask who he was?
Panam sits back on the grass, looking at the ceiling.
Panam: It's really beautiful here, but it's missing the most important thing. You know what it is?
V: No.
Panam looks back at him.
Panam: A sky, V. At the end of the day this is just another synthetic lie, like all the other things they produce.
V sits again near Panam.
V: Who was he? If I had to bet, I would say Saul.
Panam burst into a thunderous laughter, covering his mouth with both of her hands.
Panam: Saul… That's really… My God. No V, he wasn't Saul. He was closer to the father that I never got, never saw him as a love interest I can assure you.
V: Mmm.
Panam: He was called Ethan. Met him seven years ago when I started moving goods around California and Arizona.
V: Yeah?! And how was him?
Panam looks at V.
Panam: He was good…With the gun.
V looks away from her, hurt.
Panam: Well, you asked.
V: What happened then?
Panam: We did several…things together. At some point he gifted me the Torton. He said he won it from a guy belonging to the Snakes.
V: And now we know why it's always jammed.
Panam laughs.
Panam: Turns out that won really meant stolen. The guy came back with a group of friends and tried to claim back the car. I managed to run away, he didn't make it.
V puts a hand on Panam's shoulder.
V: I'm… sorry. I really am.
Panam bows her head, almost putting it between her legs. V keeps seeing strange artifacts on his interface but keeps looking at her.
Panam: You shouldn't, V. Last year I went with Mitch to negotiate a deal for a load of weapons and then… I saw it.
V looks at her, puzzled.
V: What?
Panam: Ethan's gun, V. I could recognize it between millions. Like your Malorian. I followed them back to their camp and then I saw him.
V puts his hands away from Panam, she looks back at him.
V: Wait… Who?!
Panam: Ethan. Apparently he had a clan of his own, and with a clan I mean a woman and children.
V looks at her, shocked.
V: I don't know what… I…
Panam: There nothing to say, really, V. Waited for the right moment, then got inside his tent. Both Ethan and his woman or whoever she was, looked straight at me for a good minute…like they saw a ghost. Then she simply walked out with her kids. I could never forget the look on her face.
V: … Did you?
Panam: No V. I just asked him why. And you know what he said?! It couldn't work Panam, you are just too much to handle, like if I'm a crate of toxic wastes. The motherfucker even had the audacity to say that he did it to protect me…Killin' him wouldn't solve a thing, when I saw the look on that woman I knew that I've already took everything. I walked outside his tent, his clan gathered around me, but they simply let me walk away.
V: Then?! What happened?
Panam: Got back to the camp and went straight to Saul… He knew it V, he knew it all along. He said the exact same thing as Ethan, that he wanted to protect me.
V: Damn. Maybe that's…
Panam turns to V, looking at him in the eyes, angry.
Panam: True, V?! That's what everybody says when they want to find an excuse to hurt you. Nobody in his right mind would prefer a sugar coated lie from the truth. Even if it's horrible, the truth is still there, it always will be.
Panam smiles, melanchonically.
Panam: You know what was the truth, V?! Saul didn't tell me because we needed those supplies…He was just afraid I could somehow fucked it up, that's all.
Suddenly it starts raining upon them, they both look up at the tall ceiling, seeing big nozzles pouring water on them. Panam smiles with pure joy.
V: So that's the real reason why you left.
Panam becomes serious again and nods.
Panam: Yeah. Scorpion said that somebody that knew Santiago Aldecaldo was offering jobs in Night City. The rest, as they say, it's history.
V: You know what Pan?! His loss. Fuck him.
Panam closes her eye, in pain.
Panam: V, you don't understand, do you?! I would have accepted anything…I don't love you anymore or whatever. I spent four years…FOUR FUCKING YEARS, battling with the guilt and my thoughts… Dreaming about him every fucking nights. Once I… I was just tired of all of it and I started running into the desert. I just couldn't stop. Mitch found me two days later, I was stuck in a bed for a week. Just drinking water.
V looks at her sad, then he tries to hug her.
Panam: V, I swear, If you try to hug me just one more time, I'll break your good arm. For good.
V: Go ahead then, It's not even mine.
Panam looks back at him.
Panam: That's right. By the way, do you know who…
V: Who is him? Nah, Pan. All I know is that he was a Netwatch detective.
Panam laughs.
Panam: Of all the people you could have become, you became a detective…
V looks at her puzzled.
V: Pan… this… Doesn't bother you at all?!
Panam: Look, V, I don't understand anything about this whole thing. All I know is how to shoot, how to move goods around and how to repair a car and that's it. You could be a damn voice in a vending machine for all I care.
V looks down, while Panam starts caressing his hair. V smiles and looks back at her.
Panam: Are you offended if I tell you it's an improvement? These white tufts give you… an interesting look.
V struggles to look at her, he tries to blink a few times. Panam's face starts to get distorted, melting in a mesh of pixels like a distant memory.
Panam: V?! Are you ok?!
V: Yeah it's just… I can't get over the fact that now matter how I try, I end up always hurting you… I'm no better than Ethan. All your friends died because of me, Pan… I betrayed you and the family.
Panam stops caressing him and looks away, again.
Panam: V, it was just…politics. In our world there is no such thing as retirement, you know?! Either you get credibility or you are dead. Saul really died when he got captured by the Wraiths. When I asked him to help you…He wanted something back in exchange.
V: What was it?
Panam: Me, V. He knew that he would have died in the tower. He also knew that after we stole the Basilisk, an assault on the Arasaka tower would have nuked the chances to get any help from any other corporation. So he made me promise that when the time would come, I would choose the family over you.
V closes his eyes in shame, looking away from her.
Panam: You know what, Vincent? Remember what I said about the truth? I will never be the leader that the Aldecaldos deserve. I'm good at making plans, sure, but I will never be able to leave somebody behind… I… I tried but…
Panam closes his eye and clutches his head with both hands.
Panam: That…That fucking gunshot keeps echoing in my fucking head and I will not stop…
V opens his eyes again and looks at her.
V: That's exactly what makes you different from the others, Panam.
Panam: No. That's what makes me weak, Vincent. I always thought that being a nomad meant living free with no consequences, running away forever, until the end of days. Being a leader is different though. You have to make choices. Now I get it, and I forgave Saul.
V: You did choose, Pan.
Panam: Yeah and this is exactly why Garry went with the others… As I said there is no such thing as retirement.
V looks at her with pure pain, shaking his teeth, almost crying. Then he grabs her arm.
V: Panam I want you to promise me something. Whatever happens… I don't want to go, knowing that I've changed you.
Panam looks at him, then she puts her right hand on his check.
Panam: But that's exactly what you did, V. You changed everything.
Panam kisses him with pure love, caressing his face. He does the same, putting his left hand through her wet hair. V gets even closer and keeps kissing her. She suddenly stops and starts caressing his face again, then she goes down, touching his soaked shirt under the jacket, ripping it, revealing his chest.
Panam loses her long tail, revealing thick hair, almost down to her legs. She pushes V on the grass and climbs on top of him, removing her soaked black shirt and throwing it away. Then she exposes her chest, covered by bandages up to the waist, hidden behind a green bra. She keeps kissing him then she slowly whispers in his ear.
Panam: I love you, Vincent.
V gently grabs Panam's hand with his left one and stops her.
V: I love you too Panam, you can't even imagine how much. But I can't do this to you.
Panam suddenly stops and looks at him, puzzled, with her mouth open. V's teeth start shaking again, he looks at her afraid, but happy.
V: This is much more than I could have hoped for. Thanks.
Panam starts holding tight his face with both of her hands and starts panicking.
Panam: NO! NO! Vincent! PLEASE!
V's eyes start flashing between blue and yellow, several times. He sees Jackie, dead in the Delamain Taxi. Johnny in his apartment, Viktor hugging him in his clinic. All of his memories started collapsing together and disappearing into the void of his mind, while Panam's screams echo in his thoughts. He finally sees her on the dam outside Night City with her face lighted by the sun. He tightens her hand one last time while a tear comes down from his left eye.
V: Keep talking to me Pan. I don't want to forget you… I… Don't want… I… Don't.
Panam: VINCENT! NOOOO!
With his last remaining forces, V grabs his gun from the pocket and hands it over to her.
Johnny: I've… I've…brought him…this far. Now it's your turn.
V closes his eyes. Suddenly the water stops coming from the ceiling.
Panam: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! NOOooooo….
Panam lays his head on V's chest, crying uncontrollably, clutching to his jacket. She quickly grabs him along with the Malorian, bringing him near the door, shooting several times at it. She starts punching it, screaming, until her knuckles start to bleed. Finally she tries breaking it open with her shoulders, with no luck.
Panam finally stops, sliding down to the ground, with her back pressed on the door. She grabs V's body, who is still shaking and moving, holding him tight between the arms, then she looks at his gun. She slowly grabs it with her right hand, looking at it for some time, then she looks back at V with a grimace of pain.
She leans her face on V's head, looking in front of her into the void, emotionlessly, then closes her eyes. A loud gunshot breaks the room's silence.