How Vic and Hiro Ended Up Sharing a Brain Tapeworm
(cowritten with @smilepal)
Part 6 of 6: In Which We Piss Off Our Pseudo-Father Figures
"Please proceed to insert the jack below the ear, although not too deep"
"... auxiliary neurosockets..."
"If I hit a vein by mistake..."
"...end up like Deshawn...fucking try me..."
"I think I have it."
"V! We're at viks, just..."
"... cannot...need...rest"
"Misty!"
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(I got stuck writing this for two weeks and I want to get to the rest of the story SO HERE HAVE SOME BULLET POINTS ✌️)
Vik taking V from Hiro's arms. He moves right into surgery and leaves a blood soaked Hiro to pace and listen to Delamain tell Vik that she’s going to die. Misty tries to convince him to go wash off the blood he’s covered in. Like hell is he leaving till Vs stable. She instead sits him down within eyesight of V and wraps up his torn palm. It’s cyberware, the best she can do is stop the leaking.
Hiro uses his anti-anxiety medication for the first time since he was a teenager. He doesn’t have time for panic attacks, he needs to be sharp, he’s got multiple people to protect.
Vik finally manages to stabilize V. He forces Hiro out of the clinic, V will be fine tonight, he needs to go home.
Hiro goes home to an empty, silent apartment. Watches V’s blood wash down the shower drain.
He doesn't sleep that night.
Hiro returns the next morning with three coffees. He’s not optimistic enough to bring one for Takemura or V.
Not that he’d bring one for the corpo anyway.
Vik is tired. There are dark circles under his eyes and he's slumped over on his stool staring into the distance. Hiro’s gut sinks, and he reflexively checks that V’s still breathing.
That’s Vik’s bad news face.
Hiro hands Vik the coffee and they sit in silence for a while. Watching V breathe.
Vik puts down his coffee and sighs.
“Do you want the good or the bad first?”
“Just tell me Vik”
“She’s stable. I removed the bullet from her head and she’ll recover fully from the wound. She’ll have a nasty scar and nothing else.”
“...but?”
“It’s hard to explain kid.”
“Vik.”
“The item V and Jackie were sent to filch? It’s a biochip, a Relic. Arasakas “upload a dead person” magic trick. But this one’s different, a prototype. Somehow it got slotted into Vs head.”
“What? Why would she do that? That...that makes no sense. Vic’s an idiot sometimes but...she wouldn’t do that.”
“Might not have been a willing choice kid. Might have been a desperate action. Maybe she was just reckless. I don’t know. Doesn’t change the end result. There’s a biochip in her head and I can’t get it out without killing her.”
“What? You can’t just unslot it?”
“When Deshawn shot her, she was dead. Just for a minute, maybe less. Then the nanites in the chip booted up and brought her back. That Relic is the only reason she’s breathing on that bed right now.”
“Fuck. Fuck, she...never mind, keep going Vik. Tell me all of it.”
“There’s only bad news left Hiro.”
“Keep going. Please.”
“...alright. That reboot, the bullet to the head? It activated the construct on the biochip. The virtual psyche of the person written on that chip. Johnny Silverhand.”
“...the rocker?”
“The terrorist more like. He’s...he’s overwriting V. He’s-It’s going to scoop out everything that makes her V and replace it with Silverhand. She has a couple weeks before there's nothing of her left, maybe a month at best.”
“How do we fix it?”
“There’s...-kid there’s nothing I can fix. I can slow it down a little with some medication, keep her a little more comfortable. But I-I can't fix this.”
The floor drops out from under him. No. Not now. She lived, she survived a bullet to the fucking head. A little piece of tech isn’t going to-
Fuck. FUck. Not another one, please not both of them, he cant-
And V. V who hates any loss of control, who’s so sure of who she is. Getting erased...he can’t think of a worst fear for her. A worse torture.
He leans against the counter heavily, the only thing supporting his weight. He can’t even look at her. He failed her. HE failed them both.
Vik's hand falls on his back. He can barely feel it. Barely hear him talk.
“I tried kid. I worked through every possible solution. Nothing works. The closest I got was splitting the engram but its not going to-”
Hiro will take anything. Any deal, any bargain to keep her here.
“Split it. How would you split it.”
Vik just looks at him. Keeps his mouth shut for a beat.
“Hiro-”
“NO! Vik, I refuse to- we won't lose her. We can’t, I can’t-. You aren't going to hold anything back from me, I swear-”
“Fine! Fine. If you split the engram, you might, MIGHT alleviate the load on Vic’s brain enough that she can fight off the engram, partially. Enough so she keeps control. It's a slim chance. More likely it will just buy her time, a couple months, and doom the second host to the same fate. And it might just outright kill her and the second host. I'm not going to take someone off the street and subject them to that. And I don't know anyone who'd do it willingly.”
“...I will. Use me. I’ll be the second host.”
“No.”
Viktor’s no is immediate. He's both horrified and shocked that Hiro would even offer. He watched him fight to survive as a teenager. To see him gamble his life on the slight chance to save Vic...
He won’t. He practically raised the kid, he’s not going to kill him on his own operating table.
Hiro gets right in his face, desperate and angry.
“We have a chance Vik! You're just too scared to take it!”
“It’s a fool’s chance! At best you buy her a couple months-”
“You said there's a chance it’d cure her completely.”
“A tiny one! It'd be like betting on a five year old in a one-on-one with Razor Hughes. Its suicide.”
“If V’s that five year old I’m taking that god damned bet.”
Vik just stares at him. He’s completely serious. He knew Jackie's death was affecting him, but he hadn't realized he'd lost his mind.
“Hiro-”
“I am BEGGING you Vik. I will get on my knees if that makes a difference, PLEASE. If you have an ounce of respect for me you'll do this, its my body, my fucking choice”
Hiro ups the ante at the sliver of weakness of resignation in Vik's face. He’s terrified and it’s making him desperate, making him mad.
“If you don't I will never forgive you, I fucking swear. You will never see my face again. You can’t not give me this chance to save her,-”
Vik's face goes hard. Stony. If the kid is going to guilt him with that, fine. He's an adult and obviously he doesn't care anymore. Let him risk his own damn life.
And. Hiro’s desperate enough, Vik KNOWS, he just knows that Hiro won't give up. He’ll find a different ripperdoc, one willing to do it. And they’ll fuck it up. No one willing to do that would be good at their job. He has to do it. Or put Hiro at even greater risk.
A little part of Vik hates Hiro for it. For backing him into this awful corner. For forcing him to be complicit in Hiro's death. In V’s.
“Alright. Alright. Go change into one of the scrubs, the sooner we do this, the better. For you and for V”
“Thank you-”
“DO NOT thank me for this Hiro. Do not. I don’t want to do this. It’s wrong and I’m pretty sure V would-”
“V lost the right to an opinion when she slotted this thing in her fucking skull in the first place.”
Vik performs the surgery. They both live. He makes sure Hiro is comfortable and asleep before opening up the scans of their brains. Of the Relic, still nestled in Vs head untouched. His stomach drops.
His prediction was mostly right. V isn't cured. Hiro bought her a couple more months, maybe 2 or 3. He's only delayed her death. Stretched out how long it will take Silverhand to devour her. Hiro has connected himself to her and the Relic but in a stroke of luck not her death. The relic isn't trying to scoop him out, but it will put stress on his synapses. He’ll have migraines, nausea, even possible seizures at the end of V’s life but when her final thread of self snaps, the bridge between their brains will collapse. He may be left with some permanent effects but he’ll live. Thank god he’ll live. He mourns for V but selfishly, awfully he's so grateful Hiro lived and will live. He will never say it out loud but he'd sacrifice V, a good friend, if it meant Hiro could live.
Hiro wakes up the next day. He refuses to believe Vik's final diagnosis. He’s bought V time, they’ll find some way to fix this.
He spends the week at Vik's, recovering and waiting for her to wake up. He tries to help around the clinic, but his relationship with Vik has been severely strained. Any conversation is awkward and stilted.
V wakes occasionally, short periods of not full awareness. Murmuring words, clenching her fists, eyes barely opening.
The first time she does it, Hiro's sitting right next to her bed, fiddling with the dismantled pieces of a shotgun to keep busy. He happens to look to his left. He’s shocked by the sight of V’s yellow brown eyes, staring at him lazy and warm.
“Hiro...”
“Hey V. Go back to sleep. It's too soon for you to be waking up.”
“K. G’night.”
A surge of deep want goes through Hiro as he pushes Vs hair back. He wants her.
Ohhhhh fuuuuuck he wants her. Not just as a friend. Or a roommate. Or a want for her to be safe. Oh no. oh nooooooo.
Apparently he’s not gay??? At least not completely. MAybe it's just men AND V. like an exception? Fuck this is bad. This is bad AND weird.
But he definitely wants V in his bed. He wants to know what her nails feel like on his back, her teeth on his lip. The playful look in her warm eyes as she drags her hand down his chest-
NOPE. NO. He’s not doing this right now. V is sick, V is DYING, he’s not- nope we aren't thinking about that.
It takes a couple hours for his ears to stop being bright red.
V wakes up late on the 6th day, Vik is sitting right there. Waiting for her to wake up.
V takes the news quietly. She's tired and obviously weak but her voice only wavers a little. She only begs Vik for a solution once, when she learns she’ll lose everything she is. She doesn't tear up or panic but examines every option she has. Looking for a way out. She can break down when she’s alone. Vik looks like he’s struggling with this enough. He doesn’t need to see her pain and fear too.
Hiro watches the whole thing from across the clinic. In a dark enough corner that V wouldn't immediately notice him. He watches her push down her feelings. Comforting Vik about her own fate for fucks sake.
He shouldn’t be here. Now that she’s lucid she probably hates him for not coming with them. He shouldn't creepily watch her be vulnerable without her consent. But he can't manage to drag himself away either.
Vik shakily wipes his face and delivers the final blow
"Hiro bought you sometime so you have a couple months instead of weeks. But you’re still dying V-"
"Wait Hiro? What did he do? Where is he?"
Fuck. Well now he really can't just sulk in the corner anymore. He comes out, walking up to her bed silently. He has no clue what to say to her.
V doesn't leave him drowning for long. She gives him a small smile, tired and pained but happy to see him anyway.
"It only took me dying to get you to learn to be sneaky, huh?"
A small choked laugh, suspiciously wet, escapes him. Only she would pull a laugh out of him right now, the brat.
Misty helps Hiro move her to a wheel chair so he can bring her home. Vik explains the meds to him too. He can tell her later. When she's not fast asleep in a wheelchair.
She's snoring and her hair is stuck around the handle. She's an idiot. She’s adorable.
Fuck.