Chapter 64: Answers

A/N: Here's the new Chapter! Which also means the next four chapters are up on my for early access as well as the chance to vote on the direction of the story!

Rogue demands answers. And surprisingly enough, gets them.

-x-X-x-

Was this a trap? What was their plan here? Rogue finds herself caught between fight or flight, fingers twitching miniscule amounts as she considers her options. But… she wasn't born yesterday. She can tell that both V and this… whoever this fucking is, are watching for her to try something. And given just how many Netrunners V had on his crew…

She needed to get them relaxed if she have a chance of pulling anything off. Though what that would be, Rogue didn't honestly know. She wanted to help V, but it might be too late. Or maybe she just wanted it to be too late so she could have some semblance of Johnny back. There was a reason she'd let things get as far as they did, after all. God, she was just as sick in the head as V was and she didn't even have an excuse for it…

Slowly straightening up, Rogue crosses her arms over her chest, trying her best not to let any of her inner turmoil show as she gives them both a steely glare.

"Fine. Start talking."

The woman wearing Alt's face gestures to a chair.

"Sit? Please?"

Scoffing, Rogue shakes her head.

"No, I'll stay standing."

They exchange an extended look at that, one that has Rogue narrowing her eyes as she starts to get impatient. If she didn't know any better… no, don't be stupid. Of course they're communicating with one another. Trying to figure out their game plan and how they're going to approach this, no less.

With a grunt, she forces their attention back to her.

"Since you both seem to be struggling so much with where to start, here's what I've managed to piece together. Somehow, you managed to get a copy of Johnny Silverhand uploaded into your head. I don't know how. Original theory was that it was something Yorinobu Arasaka did to you and that you worked with him to off his father."

V is silent, so Rogue continues on with a shrug.

"Maybe it was supposed to be a reward, maybe you didn't know, but either way, it's been changing you. I knew Johnny better than any-fucking-one else in this goddamn world. And you, V, have been acting more and more like Johnny Silverhand every time I've laid eyes on you. And now there's this shit."

Rogue gestures to 'Alt', a wave of disgust filling her. Snarling, she glares at the copy of her late rival for Johnny's affections. Altiera Cunningham's face brings up emotions that the Fixer hadn't felt in over half a fucking century.

"Tell me, if it's not as bad as I think, who the fuck are you supposed to be, huh? Maybe V didn't coerce you into doing this to yourself. Maybe you're just a poser or looking to play a prank on me. What's the scheme here, exactly?"

There's a long, pregnant pause at that. And then the corner of the blonde's mouth quirks up.

"Do you remember when you tried to warn me off of Johnny, Rogue?"

… What?

"It was just you and me and while I didn't exactly listen to you or really think you were being genuine at the time, I was flattered that you would even try. You tried to warn me that Johnny was toxic. You tried to tell me that hanging around him would only end badly for me."

'Alt' looks wistfully off to the side.

"Looking back now, I think you actually were genuinely trying to help me at that point. Later on, we were at each other's throats constantly, rivals for any scrap of affection or attention that Johnny would throw our way before I finally 'won' him. But then and there, at the start of everything… you cared about me. Some stranger, some bitch nosing in on your 'territory'. You cared. Maybe that's why I never told him about that conversation. Never told anyone."

Rogue's mouth opens and closes in disbelief. That wasn't… she couldn't possibly be… and yet, Rogue had never told anyone about that interaction either. Later on, once Alt firmly had her claws sunk into Johnny, she'd been too embarrassed that she'd even tried to help the blonde skank back at the start. Now, to hear gratitude from the other party… for fuck's sake.

She was supposed to be the one getting them off of their fucking footing and no longer combat ready so that she could make a move! Instead, Rogue hasn't felt this… this off her game in years!

"What the fuck is going on here?"

V clears his throat, drawing her eyes back over to the younger man. He stares at her with a serious look in his eyes that's all him. Oh, she still sees traces of Johnny, but it's different enough that she can tell this is V. Not Silverhand. Just… V.

"What do you want first, Rogue? The truth you won't believe, or the lie that you will?"

… What? Rogue blinks, even as Alt shoots him a look.

"V…"

Dissention in the ranks. V just holds up a hand, cutting Alt off from anything else she might have said. But it's clear that whatever V is talking about, Alt doesn't agree with bringing Rogue in on it. Then again, if this is seriously the REAL Alt Cunningham… of course she fucking wouldn't.

Before Alt can try anything else, Rogue pounces.

"Enough games. Tell me the fucking truth."

Alt twitches while V just smiles.

"The first time around, the experimental biochip that DeShawn hired Jackie, T-Bug, and I to steal from Konpeki Plaza had Johnny Silverhand's engram on it. To keep the tech from degrading, Jackie slotted it into his port and then when he died, I slotted it into mine. When DeShawn then killed me to tie up loose ends, the relic revived me… and started rewriting my mind with Silverhand's."

That explained a lot. Except…

"What the fuck do you mean, 'the first time around'?"

But V just continues on as though he didn't hear her, still staring at her like he's gazing into the depths of her very soul.

"Diagnosed with two months to live before Silverhand completely took over and started walking around in my body like it was a new suit, I put my nose to the grindstone and did everything possible to get him out of my head before the end. Somewhere along the way, Johnny and I reached an understanding… he didn't want my body anymore than I wanted to give it to him. So we worked hard. We fought hard. We found out what was going on, located the digitized engram of Altiera Cunningham beyond the Black Wall, and worked with her to separate us."

Digitized engram… fuck, he was talking about an AI. He was saying that Alt had become an AI. Funnily enough, Rogue thinks Spider Murphy might have alluded to something like that, once upon a time. But obviously the infamous Netrunner hadn't been too forthcoming with the details. Just that Alt might not be as 'gone' as everyone thought… or hoped.

"Only, the damage was already done. Alt could only give me six months more to live and while I spent every last second of those months trying to find another way to extend my life, ultimately I failed. My time ran out. I died. And then I woke up back in the No Tell Motel, too late to save Jackie or T-Bug but not too late to save and avenge myself on Dexter fucking DeShawn. Been doing everything over again ever since."

Rogue's mouth opens… and then closes. And then opens again as she says what she was going to say anyways.

"That's not possible. You're talking about time travel… there's no such thing."

Alt speaks up at that point.

"And yet, here we are."

When Rogue whips her head in the other woman's direction, Alt just shrugs her shoulders and gestures down at her body.

"This Gemini is a recent development. At first, I just came back with V as an extra passenger sent by the great AI that the original Altiera Cunningham became. My arrival replaced Silverhand's engram in the Relic. He endeavored to get me my own body of his own accord."

Rogue twitches at that, but Alt isn't done.

"The time travel is very real though Rogue, I assure you. I may not fully understand how my greater self made it work exactly, but the capabilities of the AI beyond the Black Wall should not be underestimated. The things being down out there on the other side would horrify and amaze you in equal measure."

Bullshit. She wants to call bullshit so bad. She already knew that V could lie to her as easily as breathing. Everything that came out of his mouth could be a deception, at the end of the day, because he had no tells.

… He had no fucking tells. Rogue swallows hard and grits her teeth, hesitating for an embarrassing amount of time before finally biting the bullet.

"Tell me the lie I would have believed now."

V smiles crookedly and gestures over to Alt.

"It was always Alt's engram in the biochip, not Johnny's. When I slotted the relic into my head, Alt started overwriting me. I'm currently dying, being replaced by Alt. But she's an exceptional Netrunner and created the Soulkiller programs in the first place, so she knows how to fight it."

Rogue blinks, even as V shrugs.

"She's been using her memories of Johnny as a stopgap measure to try to slow down the process while I worked to get her a proper body and that's why you keep seeing Silverhand whenever you look at me. Only, putting her in a Gemini didn't actually solve the problem like we hoped. I'm still dying, so we were aiming to seduce you in order to be able to use your resources to try and save me."

… Fuck. That sounded way more believable than the fucking time travel. It all made perfect sense, in fact. V's strange behavior, his insane leap in competence. With Alt on his side and helping him along and a race against the clock to keep him on task, even a green mercenary might be able to pull off what he'd done. 'Might' being the key word here.

Except V had already told Rogue that all of that second one was a lie. Even more, this was where the dissention between Alt and V came in. Rogue could easily believe that Alt would have come up with the lie to sell her. The bitch wouldn't want her to know the truth.

Oh god, she was already calling it 'the truth' wasn't she? Finally, Rogue reaches the end of her rope. She stumbles back and drops into the chair that Alt had initially suggested she take what feels like a lifetime ago. A hand goes to her brow as she struggles to wrap her head around this shit.

Time travel was real? Apparently only if you went beyond the Black Wall which… might as well be science fucking fiction, to be fair. Rogue didn't know what went on past the Black Wall, nor did she ever particularly want to. She'd heard enough horror stories, and she wasn't a Netrunner anyways.

This did all leave her with one final question though.

"If the second one was the lie and the first one is the truth, you're not dying anymore. You're in no danger of being replaced with Johnny Silverhand."

V nods slowly.

"That's right. I'm not on a clock this time around, though that doesn't mean I don't still have things I'm going to do. Like kill Yorinobu Arasaka. And also probably reorganize Arasaka from the inside so that Hanako can take over."

Alt chimes in at that.

"She would be his puppet, to be clear."

V shoots Alt a frown, but the blonde just smirks back at him as Rogue stares blankly at the two of them, caught off guard by both the information so casually revealed and their byplay. But…

"Assume I believe this time travel bullshit. You aren't dying at this point. You don't have Silverhand in your head. Alt's not pushing her memories of him onto you either."

She pauses… before glaring daggers at him.

"So then why the FUCK are you wearing his clothes, wielding his weapon, and driving his fucking CAR?!"

Out of the two of them, only Alt has the good grace to wince. V on the other hand, the smug fucking bastard that he is, just stands his ground and stares Rogue in the eye.

"Because you needed the wake up call, Rogue."

… What?

"You've been drifting for years now. Going Fixer after your accident in 2045 helped for a while, but its been over thirty years. You've been getting bored. And bored means sloppy. Tell me, would the Rogue of thirty years ago have let Panam go off with a bastard like Nash without warning her of his Wraith Affiliations?"

Rogue twitches, but V isn't done.

"Would you have let me toy with you by pretending to be Johnny for this long? Or would you have dragged me into the back the moment I showed up wearing his shoes and demanded some fucking answers?"

That…

"You want to know why we did this Rogue? Because a few months from now, another version of you retired and gave me ownership of the Afterlife. Even knowing I was dying soon, even knowing I had less than six months left, you decided I should be King of the Afterlife with you as my chief advisor. Maybe you thought you'd take over again when I croaked or something, but I knew better. I knew you were giving up… and I couldn't stand it."

Stalking forward, V looms over her, causing Rogue to stare up at him with wide eyes.

"You're not DONE yet, Rogue. You're not finished. This isn't all you have to fucking offer. So yeah, I fucked with you. WE fucked with you. Are you mad? Are you angry? What the FUCK are you going to do about it?"

Her heart is pounding in her chest, Rogue distantly realizes. Suddenly, she's on her feet, staring V in the eye. He's shorter than Johnny was by a couple inches, she realizes. She always had to look up at Johnny. But with V, they see eye to eye.

He's right too. She is mad. She is angry. She…

-x-X-x-

The Vote:

[X] Sex still happens, but on Rogue's terms, and then they're good - 82%[ ] Physical violence happens and then they're good - 16%[ ] Rogue kicks them both out, they will never be good - 2%

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