Hate to be a sappy romantic on main, but I think that Johnny and V should be able to hold one another while sobbing violently and pressing a kiss to the other’s temple before one of them sacrifices their life for the other. Just sayin’.
V on the ground just screaming and sobbing in his arms and he’s looking up trying to stop his own tears cause Johnny Silverhand doesn’t fuckin’ cry. But more importantly, because he has to be strong for V.
Eventually he can’t hold it in anymore and he buries his face in V’s hair, and just quietly weeps.
Time doesn’t exist in cyberspace so they stay like that for minutes hours, days, neither wishing to truly let the other go. It’s only when Alt reminds them, the AI’s voice surprisingly gentle, that they somehow gather what little strength they have left to finally, finally let go.
“I’ll never forget you,” they say to the other. A promise that will never be broken.
It’s probably a cruel thing, but neither knows who moves first, lips crashing against the others. A plea, a lament. For something that could have been had the circumstances been slightly different. Had they both gotten out of this in one piece.
Together.
Like they had hoped, futile as it was in a place like Night City.
The other can only watch as their other half falls into the well and back to reality, forever lost to the person who had made them better.
Soulkiller set out what it was meant to do after all.