Disclaimer - This crazy bunch belongs to Deep Silver and Volition! I don't think they would be happy with anyone else at the reins.

Slow start, but hopefully not too slow. Still getting used to writing this crew instead of watching them!

Part 2

"You're such a prick."

"You say the nicest things, boss." Gat replied, focusing more on his food than her sour expression.

V squeezed her hair, hating how it still wasn't dry yet, and retied both of her loose pigtails into a simple ponytail. "Time travel. Actual time travel. I don't even want to believe it. God, I wish I had a cigarette right now."

"Freaky shit, eh? And that was after the alien invasion and your bid for president."

"Who was my VP?"

"Keith David."

"Damn, I've got good taste." She took a swig of her soda and poked around in her fries for a crispy one. "But that's gotta be a long time from now."

Gat leaned back in his chair and folded his arms behind his head. "'Bout ten years. Or twelve years? I don't remember. I don't remember you looking this scrawny either."

"Hey, I've got youthful vigor on my side. You know you're jealous, being my elder and all. Every time you move I wonder if the creaking is coming from the diner or your rusty joints."

"Bite me," he said with a smile.

This odd future-Gat would really take some getting used to. Regular Johnny would've already lost his patience with her, but this one had no trouble shooting the shit. He almost seemed happy to do so, which was another thing she had yet to get.

"But I'm still not clear on something." She crammed another fry into her mouth and felt her expression grow serious. "You mentioned Julius."

"Guess I did." She waited for him to continue and all he did was grab another piece of chicken. He tossed it into the air and caught it a few times before catching it in his mouth. "The motherfucker turned on everyone, you, me, the entire gang."

"This is the same Julius we're talking about, right?"

"Yeah." He chewed a bit more and stole a few of her fries. "I don't know how long he'd been planning it, but he wanted to take you out. It wouldn't have killed you, but being in a coma for five years is almost as bad."

She slapped his hand away and sat back in the cheap metal chair. "Five years. Why would he... Just why?"

It just didn't make sense to her, not after everything Julius had built, and everything she had learned from him. She trusted him. She would do anything for him. ...But apparently that meant nothing to him, and she was just as disposable as anyone else.

She didn't bother to hide how much it hurt, and the Johnny across from her gave her about as close to a sympathetic look as she was going to get. "We have an idea, but if you want your own answers I'd go to Troy first."

That got her attention. "Troy? What the hell has he got to do with this?"

"Was he there when you got the call?"

She remembered the rush of panic that almost swarmed the group, and how her yelling match with Dex echoed through the halls. It hadn't been resolved when they both had left, but she was too caught up in the rush to think much of Troy's absence.

But one question did pop up in her head more than once through that firefight. Where the fuck is Troy?

V slowly got up out of her seat, and left the restaurant, heading towards the payphone on the street. Other Johnny had tossed her the change for the meal earlier, and a part of her wondered if this was the reason why as she stabbed in Troy's number.

He picked up before the first ring was done. "V? Christ, I almost thought..."

"Thought what?" she asked through clenched teeth.

"Thought you were dead! What else? I just got a call from some Saints in the area and couldn't get a hold of your phone. The entire place's burning and fuck... You end up jumping to some conclusions."

You should've been there. Where were you? "We need to talk. Where can I find you?"

"I was trying to hunt your ass down, but I'm on my way back to my place. Probably about ten minutes out. Meet you there?"

Her voice remained even, and she swallowed the lump in her throat. "Yeah, I'll be there."

She put the phone back and ran her hand over her face, her heart pounding. Don't let it be true. Please, don't.

"Yo, ready to go?"

Johnny had pulled the car up beside her, and she gave him a nod before hopping back into the passenger seat. She took off her wet hat, wiping some of her hair out of her face, and resisted the urge to shake it out like a dog. "Aren't you going to ask me where to?"

"Where to?"

She rolled her eyes at him, ready to rattle off the address when she noticed his clothes. His now perfectly dry clothes. "Hey, what the hell! You fix your clothes but don't even bother to set me up?"

"You ever take a crash course in time travel? I got bitched at for hours about time contraband, polluting the past, etc, etc-"

"Time contraband? You're time contraband! Anything you say is completely invalidated by that fact alone." She folded her arms and considered stripping off the hoodie so her tank top could at least dry off. Her bermudas were a lost cause. "Fuck me. Just go to Troy's."

She tossed her hoodie onto the floor of their car and got out to search for Troy's apartment. Gat had purposely dropped her off at a spot that wouldn't be directly connected to their destination, claiming that it would give her the cover she needed to get there. She agreed, but when she asked him if he would be joining her, he quickly shut that idea down.

"You want him breathing? Don't put me in the same room as him."

He then sped off into the night. This was on her and her alone.

She made her way down the sidewalk as random cars sped by, and felt the tension in her body wind tighter with every step. When the building finally came into view she practically ran the rest of the way there, pausing for nothing. She crept in behind the person unlocking the door at the bottom and dragged herself up the stairs to burn off the excess energy that had been building the entire trip.

Every part of her felt like it was on fire. She needed to be calm for this, but she couldn't. Her last attempt to shove it all aside failed the minute Troy's door came into view, and she pounded her fist against it hard.

It swung open and Troy answered it much like she expected him to, smoking a cigarette while looking worried as hell. The first was normal. The second wasn't, but that didn't matter right now.

She pushed him back inside and slammed the door shut. "What the fuck was that?"

"What?" He had been looking her over for injuries, but stopped. "The fuck are you talking about?"

"I was supposed to meet Hughes and Julius. Tell me why one's missing and the other's dead! Also, explain to me why I was supposed to die as well!"

He held up his hands in a placating gesture. "Whoa, slow down! I don't know what you're talking about-"

"Julius wanted me dead, Troy!" V yelled, the sound almost ringing in the small room. "Why? Why would he?"

Her voice trailed off as she saw the change in his expression and she desperately wanted to break something.

"That...wasn't supposed to happen."

"No shit, Sherlock." she said, aiming her tired glare at the wall just to the right of his head.

He took in a deep breath and held it for a few seconds, exhaling it slowly afterward. "The plan was to take Julius in and disband the Saints peacefully. Take out the main players one at a time, send them on their way, and let the others go wherever the hell they wanted. Clear the city, clear the crime. Done deal."

"Was that the line that Monroe fed you?"

"In hindsight, yeah. It was easy enough to swallow until the point that Winslow took an express trip to the morgue."

She clenched and unclenched her fists, her stomach twisting. "And we'll both have that to deal with for the rest of our lives. I know that. But Julius had to know that we wouldn't stand down. This is our city. We took it back and we aren't just going to throw it away!"

"V, think about it," Troy sighed. "Julius wanted to clean up the streets. Real noble intentions, right? Now half the time you'll find Saints committing the same crimes that the Vice Kings or Rollers were. No gang is the solution to another gang!"

"And blowing up anyone who stands in the way of that is just as noble? Fuck that!" she shot back. "I joined the Saints to make a difference. Maybe this is the opportunity I need to do just that. We've made a lot of mistakes. I've made a lot of mistakes. But I'm not dead, and I won't let anything get in the way of the Saints again." V pointed at him. "Including you. I'm only going to say this once. Pick a side. Pick us, and I'll try to sweep your involvement under the rug as neatly as possible. Maybe we'll find a way to use your connections as a benefit, but we have to trust you. I can't have you doing deals one minute and leaking the info to the cops the next. That won't fly any more."

"Or I pick door number two?"

V nodded, giving him a wan smile. "Yeah, magic door number two. You stay where you are and I give you King's choice. A one-way ticket out of here where we'll never have to see you or worry about you ever again."

Troy's calm cracked a little more, but she couldn't look elsewhere. "No easy choice there."

"Well, life's a bitch like that." She turned and made her way to the door, not giving him a chance to respond. "You've got a day to decide. Either show up to the church, or don't. Your call, your life."

The door slammed shut behind her and she didn't look back.