V considers it for a moment before nodding decisively.
"We let Arasaka simmer. If we're really going to help Hanako take over after killing Yorinobu… then it stands to reason that we should let Yorinobu do as much damage as he can to the rest of them until we finally step in."
Alt tilts her head to the side, a slow smile spreading across her face as she considers that idea.
"Oho… you're not wrong there. He'll clean out more of the chaff for us and make it all the easier to install Hanako as our puppet ruler at the end of the day~"
Puppet Ruler. V snorts and rolls his eyes, but he doesn't try to argue the title. In the end, even Hanako herself seemed to think it was the absolute best she could hope to aspire to. The Princess of Arasaka couldn't imagine anything better than that for herself. Honestly, it was pretty tragic.
"Still, if we're postponing our takedown of Arasaka until after So Mi and Dogtown, what exactly shall we do to fill the time?"
V grunts.
"We'll need to prepare, massively. Dogtown was a mess my first time through. I let myself get played left, right, up, down, and fucking center. That's not happening again, so we're going to be ready when So Mi finally arrives."
Alt hums and nods.
"Ready to help her… or ready to kill her?"
That gives V pause, making him grimace for a moment before he makes a snap call. It's what he's best at, after all.
"Help."
"She did betray you, V…"
"Yeah, she did. And that was fucked up. But I get it. I understood then and I understand now. She was desperate and afraid. So we're going to help her just like I did last time, except this time around we're actually far better equipped to clean up her mess and put her to rights. This time around, Reed doesn't have to die. He doesn't even have to be involved."
That gets another hum from Alt.
"I'm with you V, every step of the way."
He shoots her a grateful glance at that, smiling slightly.
"I know you are. Now let's turn our attention to something far more enjoyable. Rogue Amendiares. It's time."
Alt lights up at that, a wicked grin spreading wide across her face.
"Oh… this is going to be fun~"
-x-X-x-
"Rogue. You're going to want to see this."
Rogue's head twitches in Nix's direction as she accepts the ping he's sending her. She recognizes it as a connection to the Afterlife's outward-facing security cameras. For a moment, she doesn't realize what Nix is talking about. And then she sees it and her heart stops beating for a long second.
There, parked rather haphazardly across two parking spaces, is a familiar car that Rogue never thought she'd be seeing again. A Porsche 911Turbo (930). They were already incredibly rare cars to begin with. By this point, there were only a handful of them left in the entire world, each one worth its weight in gold.
But this one in particular, Rogue would recognize anywhere. After all, it was the car Johnny had drove while he was dating Rogue what feels like a lifetime ago. The car he'd loved with all his heart, taking it and customizing it in a hundred different ways.
Rogue had lost track of this particular vehicle a long time ago, shortly after Johnny's death in fact. And yet, it looks exactly the same even after all these years. It looks like it hasn't even been a day since she last saw the damn thing.
The doors to the Porsche open up and out steps the man she most feared WOULD be driving the vehicle. V stands there peering around with an easy confidence and a cocky grin that just smacks of Johnny in all of the best (and worst) ways. But the grin is just the beginning.
V isn't just wearing Johnny's shoes and pants anymore. He's got the whole set now, from the shirt to the jacket… to even the goddamn aviators. He's wearing Johnny's entire wardrobe and… no. There's no way. Is that Johnny's Malorian at V's waist?! She would recognize that gun anywhere, even with half of the over-sized barrel stuffed into a holster.
As she stares in shock, Rogue barely registers the other occupant of Johnny's car step out. Dressed in a Netrunner's Suit and wearing a helmet, their identity is completely concealed, though there's no denying that they're an absolutely gorgeous woman considering how skintight the suit is. There's also an easy confidence to the mystery woman as well. She looks completely at home as she saunters around the car and over to V's side… and he seems perfectly happy with her too.
"Rogue, that woman… she doesn't match any of the women in V's crew. I can't make an ID match here."
A shiver runs down Rogue's spine at that latest information from Nix. As V and his mystery partner begin making their way into the Afterlife, Rogue only has a few seconds to figure out what she's going to do. She hasn't been this indecisive in decades… not since the last time Johnny wormed his way into her good graces, in fact.
In an instant, clarity hits her. This can't go on. Perhaps it's already too late, perhaps she held it off for too long, but this has to stop. V needs to know what's been done to him, what's happening to him. She needs to come clean.
But she can't do that down here, not even in her private booth. Before V and his friend can reach the Afterlife's doors, Rogue rises to her feet.
"Send them up to my penthouse when they arrive."
Weyland goes to stand up too, but Rogue cuts him off with a shake of her head.
"No, stay. I'll deal with this myself."
Her bodyguard and top solo frowns deeply, clearly not liking that very much. But Rogue cuts him off before he can complain.
"It'll be fine. But this has to be handled alone, Weyland."
In the end, she's the boss around here, so he settles back onto the couch and lets her go. Rogue is grateful he doesn't try to argue, because it means she manages to slip into the elevator that will take her up to her penthouse above the Afterlife just before V and whoever he's brought with him can turn the corner and see her fleeing from them.
Letting out a shuddering breath as the elevator doors close behind before that can happen, Rogue tries not to shake too badly. This… this was going to be hard. But it needed to be done. She needed to come clean at long last…
-x-X-x-
"Ohhh fuck…"
Alt grins from beneath her helmet as Rogue shudders in her arms. The Queen of the Afterlife has been stripped bare, her clothes discarded all over the room while she lays back on her bed. Down below her legs, V slides his tongue along her sex, playing with her for a moment before pushing in and eating her out.
Watching Rogue panic when they showed up in Johnny's car with V wearing Johnny's clothes and wielding Johnny's Malorian had been hilarious, of course. Alt and V had both been surreptitiously tapped into the Afterlife's systems without Nix knowing, so they got to watch Rogue retreat up to her penthouse in an effort to try and prepare herself for the coming confrontation.
It even seemed like Rogue was planning to give some sort of confession when they both finally stepped out of the elevator themselves, but Alt's mysterious presence had stopped her in her tracks and kept the Queen-Fixer from just blurting out what she thought she knew about V.
And that, in turn, had allowed V to put the moves on the older woman, until here they all were. To be fair to Rogue, it was just like Alt had told V back with Sasha. The Queen of the Afterlife was entirely unused to honest affection and tender loving. She didn't know what to do when V called her beautiful without reservation or ulterior motive. She didn't know what to do when he caressed her cheek or kissed her lips tenderly.
If the rest of Night City could see her now, Rogue Amendiares would probably be done in this town. She would certainly never recover, because honestly even Alt was surprised by just how… quickly the Queen-Fixer had melted. Rogue was supposed to be tough as nails, but in the end, they'd apparently found her weakness and capitalized on it.
Everything they'd done to mess with Rogue up to this point had led to this… led to Alt holding Rogue in her arms while V eats her out and the naked woman moans and shudders, showing a softer, more vulnerable, and altogether submissive side to her than anyone had ever seen before.
Alt loved it when she was right, and even if she wasn't sure she'd been entirely right about Hanako Arasaka, she'd definitely been on the money for how to handle Rogue.
Reaching around to her front, Alt grasps Rogue's breasts with both hands, fondling and squeezing them softly and gently, making her moan even louder. Still wearing her helmet, she leans down and whispers in the other woman's ear.
"You love that tongue, don't you? You love how it's making you feel~"
Her voice modulated by the helmet, Rogue has no idea it's her… and perhaps that's for the best at least for now. She needs to feel everything she's feeling without distractions like Alt's true identity in this moment. And boy is she feeling a lot.
Letting out a sudden cry, Rogue's hips buck up into V's mouth as she reaches an unexpected climax. Alt grins wickedly beneath her helmet, pleased to see V isn't taking it easy on the Queen-Fixer. Oh, he might be going slow and sensual instead of rough and brutal, but that doesn't mean he's giving her a break for even a second.
Case in point, the moment Rogue finishes cumming on his tongue, he pulls back and proceeds to shuck off his shirt and pants, freeing his cock from its confines at long last and climbing up onto the bed.
The aviators, jacket, and shoes had all gone off already previously. V is as naked as the day he was born now. Save for one thing and in hindsight, Alt will come to realize they probably should have thought better about it if they wanted this to truly go smoothly.
Johnny's dog tags.
Of course they'd retrieved them. And of course V was wearing them right now. They were part of the ensemble, after all. But if they'd both stopped and thought about it a bit longer, maybe they might have realized he shouldn't have worn the dog tags. After all, as V moves to cover Rogue with his body, they wind up dangling right in front of the flushed woman's face. And when she sees them… her reaction is as understandable as it is visceral.
"… no… no, NO!"
She pushes them away and of course, V lets her. Alt considers holding Rogue in place for all of a moment before letting her go as well. As they rise from the bed, leaving a naked Rogue panting heavily before them, they share more than just a glance.
Alt sends an apology, but V doesn't accept it, instead sending back an equal share of the blame. In the end, this was both their fuck up really… they'd gone into this walking a very fine line between fucking with Rogue and seducing her… and while they probably could have gotten away with the dog tags if they'd been rougher or more domineering about things, the soft approach allowed Rogue far too much time to think and see what was literally right in front of her face.
"You… I can't… I'm sorry, I'm so sorry V. I've been keeping things from you. I've been watching you change and I've done nothing to help you out. You deserve to know what's been done to you. You deserve to know how they've FUCKED you."
Rogue climbs off the bed, snarling as she grabs a nearby robe and puts it on. She looks at him… and then she looks to Alt, biting her lower lip and hesitating again. The same hesitation that allowed them to start their seduction before… but Alt knows better than to think that it will work a second time.
Instead, Alt reaches up… and takes ahold of her helmet, twisting to unseal it and slowly pulling it off her head. She watches as Rogue's eyes widen in disbelief at the sight of her face… of Altiera Cunningham's face. Of course, the Queen of the Afterlife can barely stand to look at her for more than a few seconds before she turns back to V.
"Oh god… did you… which of your crew did you have do this to themselves? V, you aren't… you're sick. You need help. Johnny Silverhand is in your head and has been trying to take over your body since Konpeki Plaza! I'm sorry, I should have… I should have told you earlier. I shouldn't have let it get this bad!"
Well now. This wasn't exactly fun anymore, was it? Rogue thought that V had made one of the women on his crew transform themselves to look like her through cosmetic surgery. A rather awful theory that made the look of horror on her face make plenty of sense.
Sighing, Alt shakes her head.
"It's not as bad as you think, Rogue. Just sit down and listen to us for a second. Please."
Rogue's eyes narrow at Alt, clearly caught off guard by her taking charge here. At the same time though, the woman was once a very skilled, very capable mercenary. Her whole body twitches as her eyes flicker to the side, clearly considering her options…
**-x-X-x-**