146 One man left behind

"You're not as smart as you think you are, Kitten."

Ori grips Sasha's arm but she shrugs him off, brusquely mouthing "I'm fine."

"Now, before we can do anything, I need you three to open the draw underneath this television." the kidnapper orders. Once he sees the trio not moving however, he reiterates while placing the blunt side of the axe atop Bats head. "Do it."

Rebecca scowls and opens it, pulling out four chips of some sort.

"Just leave one behind, I thought there would be more of you." they remark, "Now, put them in."

"Haaah? Are you retarded? You must be to think we'd actually do that." Rebecca gapes at them, outwardly wondering if the villain had down-syndrome.

"You are free to scan them, but you will put them in if you want to find your friends."

Ori scowls but sends a nod at Sasha, it doesn't take long for her to figure out what they were. Communication blockers, along with tracking software. Not viruses, but certainly not something you'd want to plug in.

"We wouldn't want you contacting any nuisances, would we? Did I mention I've been keeping track of your communications as soon as you entered?" they conversationally add.

"What guarantee do we have that you'll do as you say?" Ori questions, wondering how they were going to get out of this shit alive... Not to mention, how the fuck this bastard managed to locate his... Oh... When he'd rushed home at the news of Cat's pregnancy, he'd forgotten his usual precautions. Fucking shit!

"You don't. But I can promise you a boss fight at the very least, no game is complete without one. Or you could refuse, and lose much." they state meaningfully, laying the axe atop Cat's head this time.

"Fine! We'll play your fucking game..." Ori growls, plugging the chip in, "Just don't get mad when you lose."

Rebecca and Sasha reluctantly follow, plugging in and immediately feeling their communication systems buzz and falter, even their connection to the Net gets stifled.

"What now then, maybe a fetch quest?" Rebecca grouses irritably.

"Hardly, I told you, we're going straight to the boss fight." the kidnapper pulls out a map and highlights a point south of Night City, isolated and in the middle of an empty area of desert within the Jackson Plains. "Now, why don't you get moving? We'd rather not wait all day, us or our guests."

*Bzztch!*

The TV turns off, leaving the trio just standing there with many expressions crossing their faces. Rebecca was switching between anger and irritation, Sasha between helplessness and guilt, and Ori... Ori's lips were pursed, conflict raging clear on his face by his single twitching brow, and the prominent scowl on his face.

"What're we going to do...?" Sasha questions, folding her arms and scratching a line into her tricep. "We'll be walking straight into a trap, they have hostages and we can't even call for help."

"What else can we do!? We go in there, shoot those cunts, then pick up some ice cream on the way back." Rebecca firmly states.

"You're right, there's nothing else we can do..." Ori mutters, anxiously chewing his lip, "Except..." he trails off, shaking his head.

"What?" Rebecca presses.

"I was thinking maybe we could drop someone off on the way to get help, but the chips..." he lets out a forlorn sigh.

"No, maybe we could...?" Sasha perks up, "I could tie the signal to another chip, the proximity would make it look like nothing had happened." she glances at Rebecca, "I'd have to be there to keep it stable though."

"Wait, you two aren't thinking of just dropping me off and going there yourselves are you!?" Rebecca all but shrieks. "No fucking way am I letting you do that!"

Ori shakes his head, "It's that or go in without backup. I don't like it either but it's probably our only option..."

"No!" she angrily exclaims, "You can try convince me all you want, you ain't ditching me to go off and die!"

Sasha just looks unsurely at Ori, shrugging her shoulders lightly.

...

He maintains eye contact with her for a couple seconds before sighing, "Fine, we die we do it together, I guess..."

"That's what I fuckin' thought!" she rests Guts behind her head, "Now let's go, we've got some gonks to gank!"

---------------------

Ori drives back to Night City but doesn't take the immediate highway to their destination. Instead looping around Santo Domingo. He sends subtle glances at Sasha who seemed to understand his intentions, all while Rebecca distractedly double and triple-checked her weapons.

Thankfully, he barely remembered her talking about Maine's crew's hideout, some garage below an underpass. Rebecca seemed to recognise it as they drove past... And wasn't able to react fast enough when he kicked her out of the car, Sasha hijacking the tracker as they left the pale chibi in the dust.

"YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES!!!" Rebecca roars after them, firing Guts into the sky as if that'd change their decision.

"Do you really think this is the best idea...?" Sasha questioned, half of her wanted to just leave Ori to his devices, after all, it wasn't her family held hostage... But then again, he had helped her get her revenge, not to mention the idea of betraying a friend sickened her to her core.

Ori picked up on her hesitation of course, while he wanted to give her the chance to back out she was the one currently holding Rebecca's tracker. If she left the kidnappers would definitely know something was up... "No. But it's the only thing we can really do... Sorry, by the way, for getting you involved with this shit."

She shakes her head, "Their assassins, if they're after you then they're after me and Rebecca too. We're a crew, after all... Listen, if I don't make it... Look after my cat?" she asks semiseriously.

"Only if you promise to look after my 'Cat' too." he smiles lightly, and they both chuckle in response.