#anyway here you go! this basically sums up the first half of the entire broker chapter :) hope it's coherent | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ruvviks · 2 years

Text

summary >> following vincent and vitali's full recovery after the arasaka chapter, a new threat takes the stage in night city; the broker, a powerful fixer who targets other fixers and seems to have vitali lined up in their sights warnings >> brainwashing mention, death mention, family, injury mention, torture mention, violence

It’s April 2078. Vincent has made a full recovery from Soulkiller and Vitali is no longer under the influence of Arasaka’s brainwashing technology. Following the very stressful events of all of 2077, he had to get surgery on his leg, and as a result has to walk with a cane for the time being while he recovers. Business has gone back to normal and he’s picked up his duties as a fixer full time now, and Vincent works for him as a mercenary.

However, this all changes when one of Vitali’s cargo transports is under attack, leaving his mercenaries injured and his cargo taken. They manage to trace the attack back to the Broker, a fixer who has been around for a while already and has been busy targeting other fixers; however, they now seem to have targeted Vitali specifically, as this is not the first violent encounter with their mercenaries.

To top it all off, the Broker’s mercenaries seem to have connections with Vitali. Many of them used to be part of Vitali’s network, but left when he skipped town with Vincent to find a cure for his condition after getting rid of Johnny Silverhand. It worries Vitali, to now see them with the Broker instead; but there is not much he can do about it, and instead he decides to focus on revealing the fixer’s identity.

Soon enough, yet another attack happens- on Vitali’s office no less, in his absence. Mikhail is taken by Edward Keizer, better known as Ravager, an ex-Maelstrom mercenary of the Broker. Mikhail is tortured by Ravager’s people and rescued by Vitali and Vincent after a couple of days, but the whole situation leaves everyone shaken. Vincent voices his concern to Vitali and urges him to make a move, but Vitali rather wants to focus on keeping his friends safe and uses an example from his past to explain to Vincent why acting too rash won’t get them anywhere.

But Vincent can’t sit still. Two weeks pass in which he, behind Vitali’s back, looks into Ravager and ends up launching a solo attack on his factory. It backfires and Vincent is captured, after which Vitali attempts to free him; but it ends up being a trap and many of Vincent’s friends end up captured as well. They see each other again when the Broker’s right hand man, Ivan Dupoint, enters the scene; he challenges Vincent to a rigged game of chess, with his friends at stake.

Vincent wins and his friends walk free, but he himself is forced to stay. After a few days he’s rescued and Vitali manages to capture both Ravager and Dupoint as well, and he brings them to his office for further interrogation.

However, Vitali’s interrogation attempts soon turn sour when the remnants of Arasaka’s brainwashing technology begin to act up again. It puts him in a passenger seat in his own body, leaves him running on autopilot until he snaps out of it; and most of the time he is unaware of what happened while in that mode. He is desperate to figure out the Broker’s identity, still convinced it will make the situation easier to deal with; but his fear of losing control again and once again fully being under Arasaka’s control instead leaves him terrified and exhausted, to the point he starts having nightmares.

Another problem he is dealing with at this point is the Council. The collaboration of fixers was created to keep the innocent people of Night City safe and he has been part of it for a long time now; though they continue to see this as a city-wide issue rather than acknowledge Vitali is being singled out, and only a few of them take the Broker seriously. Vitali is starting to run low on resources following all the raids on his office and his cargo transports, and especially now that most of his other business with clients has been halted; but despite it all he keeps going, refusing to let any of it get to him.

Dupoint ends up giving Vitali a location and Vitali pays it a visit with Huxley and Lauren. They find what seems to be an empty mansion, but while investigating the Broker’s office, a woman enters the room; Nadya Dobrynina, Vitali’s mother, effectively confirming to Vitali that his father, Matvey Dobrynin, is the Broker.

Vitali knows exactly why Matvey is angry. After Vitali was fired from Arasaka some years ago, apparently Matvey and Nadya were fired as well; Arasaka no longer wanted the name Dobrynin to stain their ranks, and Matvey ended up blaming Vitali for losing his job. He became obsessed with his son, to the point he became a fixer himself and picked up Vitali’s mercenaries the moment Vitali left for Arizona; only to then turn them against him, and attack him like he’s been doing with other fixers (to bring order back to Night City, as he claims so himself) but now singling him out.

After coming face to face with his mother, Vitali runs away and gets drunk in a club somewhere, then somehow finds his way to Viktor’s shop and he breaks down here. Viktor briefly speaks to him and then brings him home to Vincent and Mikhail.

The next day, Mikhail returns to the mansion to investigate further; it is empty now, but they find evidence of Vitali’s sister Roksana having lived there as well- and for some reason, they find a picture of Mikhail in her bedroom, much to everyone’s surprise. She has always been weirdly obsessed with Mikhail ever since they were all younger and Mikhail would often be around to hang out with Vitali; but neither of them had expected her to still be like that.

Vitali once again interrogates Dupoint and the man tells him he will bring Vitali to his father. They thoroughly plan their attack on the Broker’s hideout, but once they execute it everything goes wrong; and Vitali comes face to face with his father, who mocks and belittles his failed attack and then promptly fires a gun in Mikhail’s direction. The bullet misses him, but it could have easily killed him; and after that, Matvey allows them to leave.

Vitali returns to the hideout the next day, though unsure why. He feels horrible for what has happened and begins to spiral very quickly now, no longer knowing how to deal with the situation and not understanding why his father didn’t just kill him when he had the chance. He interrogates Ravager again, looking for answers, but all he ends up with is more questions when the man suddenly drops Nadya’s name in the conversation; Vitali has never mentioned her around Ravager at all, and he wonders how he knows about her.

Vitali believes he can still talk some sense into his father and decides to reach out to his brother, Daniil, who seems to have nothing to do with the situation. Daniil visits Vitali’s office and they have a conversation about the Broker and Daniil’s history with Kang Tao; but none of it matters, since Daniil refuses to help Vitali like he has always done and ends up leaving. It at least confirms to Vitali that Daniil has nothing to do with any of it, and in a way it gives him closure with his sibling; something he hadn’t been able to get before, since he had left home aged 18 and had not been able to reestablish contact with his family members.

Not long after his brother’s visit, tragedy strikes once again. Matvey has unleashed his mercenaries on Night City and they’re wreaking havoc in the streets, attacking fixers and mercenaries alike- and some of them have already ended up dead. Vitali is still desperately trying to convince the Council it’s the Broker’s doing, but they once again refuse to listen to him or help him.

Vitali suits up and joins forces with Viktor and Vincent to confront Matvey, in an abandoned warehouse that seems to be used as a temporary safehouse. However, upon confronting him it is surprisingly easy to get him to stop the attacks, and the three meet up with some of Vitali’s mercenaries at a rendezvous.

Here, it finally becomes clear what Matvey is after. Now that his mercenaries have hit the news, the Council is finally looking into the source; but they’re tracing the attacks back to Vitali considering many of the mercenaries used to be part of his network, and especially considering his history with Arasaka this is not looking good for him.

Matvey claims Vitali took everything from him; and in return, rather than killing him, he is trying to take everything from Vitali too.

Following the city-wide attack, some time passes. Vitali reaches out to the Council and attempts to convince them once again he is not behind all of this, and for now they seem to believe him; though it will take more to fully get them back on his side.

Weeks go by and Matvey seems to have vanished off the face of the earth for the time being. Vitali is not complaining and uses the time wisely to pick up some business and get his office running again. He allows his mercenaries to take some rest and tries to do damage control where he can, while also taking it easy himself for a bit.

With this new knowledge about what his father is trying to do, Vitali has a much clearer view of the situation he’s found himself in. He is still unsure how to handle it; at the end of the day Matvey is still his father, and especially considering how he had acted in their last encounter Vitali finds himself having hope, still, despite it all.

He starts to feel better, no longer plagued by nightmares or constantly on the brink of either passing out from exhaustion or being put in the passenger seat in his body again. He has realized that trying to control himself by letting out his anger in the way he’s been doing thus far isn’t helping him anymore and in fact only makes things worse; instead, he is now trying to focus more on the people around him and talking to them, or asking for help when he needs it. He has always acted out of love and out of care for his loved ones; by focusing on this rather than his anger towards those who have wronged him, he can control himself a lot better without the risk of going on autopilot.

Vitali knows he finds himself in the eye of the storm. Matvey is still out there, as well as his mother and sister; and he still hasn’t figured out their role in all of this, and he still hasn’t figured out a way to stop it all from happening. He knows it’s only a matter of time before Matvey strikes again and he is staying as alert as he can, waiting for the Broker to make his next move.

And about halfway through July 2078, an unexpected visitor shows up at Vitali's office.

#nuclearwriting #timeline tag #you're allowed to rb this if you want!! :) <3 #please do interact one way or another to let me know you've seen this because the added interlude is important!!#if you remember the mikhail climbs in the freezer fic. that one happens during that interlude as well LMFAO #anyway here you go! this basically sums up the first half of the entire broker chapter :) hope it's coherent #linked all the chapters in there as well just to make it Complete #dunno when i'll start working on part 3 but it shouldn't be too long!! i hope. at least SHGFJDHGDF

20 notes · View notes