A close-up of Zaunya's cut and bloody hands shaking do their best to try and stabilize themselves... she takes slow deep breaths sat up against a wall in the back of the small motel room... her bout of rage subsided... returning to a simmer. The quiet stillness of the room combines with her heavy breathing and the stray sounds of engines speeding by outside. While collecting herself... she hears the door to the room slide open.
She looks up to see Brian calmly walk in and approach her. Without a word, he grabs a cloth out of his pocket and kneels down next to her... he begins gently cleaning her hands.
She feels a wave of embarrassment wash over her as Brian checks her hands for deep cuts. While holding one of her hands, he places a cigarette on her lips and lights it for her... taking a seat next to her sat up against the wall. He lights one of his own as the pair sit in silence taking deep drags... allowing the busy noise outside the room to take over for a bit.
Brian breaks the silence.
"Petrochem-" He mutters... making Zaunya look over.
"-Is one of the biggest megacorps in Night City... plenty of eds to snatch..." She quickly dismisses.
"No... I mean, if this is just a means to an end for you... If this is just a one-way. I need to know. Corpos don't forget. At best... shit just gets filed away, only to be re-opened later-"
"-Then what the fuck is your point Brian-"
"-My point is... if we're gonna do this... I need to know where your head's at. Going in blind ain't gonna cut it."
She rakes her hair back... taking another drag of her smoke... she doesn't respond. Tampered emotions attached to unforgettable memories continuing to fester that she's uninterested in sharing with us.
A long pause sits in the room beside the pair.
Brian again breaks the silence.
"I lost my best friend."
Zaunya looks over at him curious.
His mind defaults to Marilyn... visualizing her beautiful face smiling at him. A series of quick flashes passes by in his mind of some of their time together... one's hes uninterested in sharing with us. He quickly catches himself before mentioning her... shifting the direction of the story last second.
"That same night we met... I had a uh... had a gig..." He shifts his weight... taking another drag of his smoke. "It was simple... just a quick trade... easy scratch he said."
He looks down closing his eyes tight... a series of quick flashes... the sudden life or death struggle in that alley that night. Reminding him full well the fragility of the environment they exist in... the ruthless speed in which things can change forever.
"He took a gut shot... i got a scar to last a lifetime."
She glances at his stitched, soon to be scar running up from his chest to his neck and finishing on his jaw. She finally sees the resemblance in her own scar... how they mirror each other. The coincidence intrigues her... a spoon fed sensation of connection that she hardly understands.
"I got him to an R.E.O operating table but... there was nothing I could do... didn't... d-didn't know what to do."
He takes a deep breath looking down.
"He uhm... he bled out in my arms."
She looks down as he stands up... slowly walking to the center of the room.
"The Butte we've been rolling around in was his... the bloodstains are both of ours... brought it home that night... where you happened to be waiting." He takes another drag of his smoke.. pacing back and forth. "In the end... he told me something that I haven't been able to shake. Told me to remember who we were... before all of this shit; to remember who i was."
"Before what shit...? Brian... Who. were. you?" She exhausts with a heavy desire to know... having now laid to bare who she truly is to him.
Brian looks back at her... directly into her eyes... he says nothing.
He turns to walk out the motel room... as the door slides open, Zaunya quickly gets up and follows after him.
He's next seen walking through the parking lot of the motel and onto the dirt of the badlands. Condensation billows from his nose and mouth into the cold open air... the idle darkness of the area dimly lit by moonlight and flickering motel bulbs. Zaunya a few yards behind, quickly follows after him.. trying to catch up to his pace.
"B-Brian?"
She gets no response. The sound of rocks and dirt being crunched and kicked underneath their boots as they walk takes over the space with chirping insects.
"...BRIAN?... Wha- Where are you going?" She asks flustered.
He makes his way over the lip of an embankment... approaching where he's stashed Graves' Butte. He grabs a length of rubber hose from the trunk before popping open the gas port.. causing Zaunya to stop in her tracks at the top of the embankment. He lightly sucks into the tube causing the Choo in the tank to flow before sticking the hose into the cab. The choo floods inside... soaking the blood stained seats and the dashboard... filling the area around him with a dank chemical smell that'd snatch your nose. The choo splatters across personal trinkets on the dashboard... rips and dents... burn marks and seat stains worth a thousand stories.
He takes a few steps back before flicking his smoke into the cab causing the choo to ignite instantly, lighting up the area around them with an orange glow.
Brian makes his way back to the top of the embankment before turning around to stare at the glowing flame. She says nothing.
Their silhouettes stand side by side as the flames gradually take over the Butte in the darkened badlands.
The emotion of the moment grabs ahold of him... overwhelming.
He shuts it down... turning and walking back toward the motel. Zaunya's sight fixed on the flaming Butte recognizes this and quickly turns to follow him.
As they make their way back to the motel, the flames grow above the embankment before a loud boom... sending flames and chunks of metal scrap into the air causing Zaunya to flinch and stumble over her footsteps. Looking back at the explosion she instinctually puts her forearm out in front of her face. Brian doesn't miss a beat as he continues back to the motel completely unfazed.
Graves' Colby Butte is laid to rest in flames out in the desolate Badlands... fading to black.