====== EPILOGUE — Baseline Noise ====== Night City didn’t change. ---- It never did. ---- Not for things like this. ---- ---- Traffic moved. ---- Lights shifted. ---- Voices overlapped without pattern— ---- without pause. ---- ---- The tower behind them— ---- just another line in the skyline. ---- ---- Nothing marked it. ---- Nothing warned of it. ---- ---- It stood— ---- like it always had. ---- ---- Functional. ---- ---- Wrong. ---- ---- Ace walked ahead. ---- ---- Not leading— ---- not following— ---- ---- moving. ---- ---- Mai kept pace beside her. ---- ---- The photograph— ---- hidden— ---- not stored— ---- contained. ---- ---- It didn’t react. ---- ---- That made it worse. ---- ---- Shammy tilted her head slightly. ---- ---- The air— ---- alive again. ---- ---- Unstable in the way that mattered. ---- ---- Free. ---- ---- “It’s still there,” she said. ---- ---- Not the penthouse. ---- ---- Not the system. ---- ---- Something else. ---- ---- Mai nodded. ---- ---- “Yes.” ---- ---- A pause. ---- ---- “It doesn’t belong here.” ---- ---- Ace didn’t respond. ---- ---- She already knew. ---- ---- V walked slightly behind them. ---- ---- Quieter than usual. ---- ---- “…You’re not going to explain that, are you.” ---- ---- Mai didn’t answer. ---- ---- Because explanation— ---- would make it real. ---- ---- And this— ---- wasn’t something this city understood yet. ---- ---- Ace stopped. ---- ---- Not suddenly. ---- ---- Just— ---- enough. ---- ---- The city flowed around them. ---- ---- Unaffected. ---- ---- Indifferent. ---- ---- “Next,” she said. ---- ---- Not a question. ---- ---- Not a suggestion. ---- ---- Direction. ---- ---- Mai adjusted her grip slightly. ---- ---- Not on the photograph— ---- on the idea of it. ---- ---- “Rogue will have something,” she said. ---- ---- Shammy exhaled. ---- ---- The air— ---- shifted. ---- ---- Somewhere far below— ---- in systems that tried to organize— ---- and classify— ---- and control— ---- something failed— ---- quietly— ---- again. ---- ---- V looked at them. ---- ---- “…You’re going to fit in here way too well.” ---- ---- Ace didn’t smile. ---- ---- “Good.” ---- ---- That word again. ---- ---- And the city— ---- unaware— ---- unconcerned— ---- continued. ---- ---- Because in Night City— ---- nothing needed to be fixed. ---- ---- Nothing needed to be understood. ---- ---- Everything— ---- just needed to keep working long enough to matter.