As V returned to the Aldecaldo camp, he was greeted by many of his comrades, all of them surprised with the amount of CDs he brought back with him.

"Damn V! You brought in quite the haul!" Carol said as she tossed another one of her broken wrenches aside.

"Had a little help from the voice in my head," V said with a snicker. Johnny took a drag on his cigarette not far from where Carol was standing and gave V a nod.

"You buy any country?" Cassidy asked as he stomped out his own cigar.

"Only a couple. Got a special one just for me and Panam," V replied as he handed him the 'Sunshine and Whiskey' single. Somewhere in his head, he could hear Johnny groan. Cassidy chuckled in response.

"Smooth work, V. She'll love dancing with ya to this one," he said proudly. The merc shivered a little.

"That is, if she doesn't punch me in the face first for trying to get sappy. You guys know how Panam hates that shit," V said. Saul laughed as he exited the ripperdoc trailer, beers in both of his hands.

"Speaking of Panam, she's out for a night on the town. And yes, she's still a little pissed at you," Saul said as he handed V the unopened beer in his left hand. V cracked it open and sighed.

"I hope she knows I was just doin' Johnny a favor, Mitch said he understood at least," he said meekly. Saul patted him on the shoulder.

"You of all people should know Panam can't stay mad at anybody for too long. If anything, you're the exception. Look at what happened with us after all," Saul said, pointing to himself.

"If I may butt in," Mitch said walking over. "V was also the one to help bring the family back after all that time. All we needed was just a little push."

"That and a giant fucking tank," Johnny whispered. V had to hold himself back from laughing.

"Just doin' what I can, you guys know that," V said with a smile as he took a sip of his beer. Saul slapped him on the back.

"That's why you're one of us. Now how about you fire up them CD's? Time I got my dancing shoes on," he said as he started plugging in the stereos for their sound system. V dug into his bag and pulled out 'The Sound of Madness', tossing it up in the air once before catching it.

"Think you'll need to get some metal shoes if we're gonna be rockin' out tonight," he joked. Mitch crossed his arms as he leaned against his car.

"Had a feelin' you would start with Shinedown. Those guys are always the best to get into a fighting mood," he said. Jake set his guitar down at the mention of Shinedown.

"Did they have 'Us and Them' at the store you went to?" He asked. V shook his head.

"Unfortunately no, think some gonk beat me to it. You did say that 'Save Me' and 'I Dare You' were some damn good songs on that album right?" V asked. Jake nodded.

"Best ones on the album…can play 'em both on my own guitar. Maybe you and I can jam out before the raid next week. That is, if you can play," Jake teased a little. V snickered.

"I know a few chords. That might be enough to learn some Shinedown," he said. Jake lightly punched V in the shoulder as he stood up to look at his collection.

"Still though…these are some decent groups. Can't wait to hear 'em again. I just need my own beer now," he said he walked over to the bar. Grinning, V tossed the CD to Saul.

"Let's get evil," he said as Saul placed the CD into the stereo. "Think we should start with the title track?"

"Yeah, second track," V said as he tossed the CD aside. Saul nodded as he skipped 'Devour', and 'Sound of Madness' drum beat kicked in.

With the bass cranked on the speakers, many of the Aldecaldo's were already nodding their heads as the drums set the tone for the song. V smirked as he watched the family get into the groove of Shinedown. As soon as vocalist Brent Smith shouted 'watch your back', many of the Aldecaldo's were headbanging to the pounding rhythm of "Sound of Madness".

"Now this….this is how you do music!" Carol said as she raised her glass in the air. Saul smirked as he tapped his feat to the rhythm.

"Safe to say the voice in your head knows his stuff. Here I was thinking you'd bring us some of that pop shit!" Saul laughed. Johnny gagged.

"Fuck you," Johnny grumbled as he sat atop the bar. V only laughed.

"Trust me…it gets heavier from here!" He warned. And he was right.

For what felt like an eternal night, V and the Aldecaldo's danced, strummed their guitars, and drank to the doomy rhythm of the bands the former had discovered. From the inspiring fight songs like "Diamond Eyes", to the grim and darkness of King 810's "Killem' All" and "Murder Murder Murder", the family let out their anger and their aggression, and simply cut loose for an entire night.

As Saul plugged in the 'Midwest Monsters' EP, V excused himself to stand over by a hill overlooking Night City, its bright lights still shining high even though he was miles away from the place he used to think he could call home.

"I know what you're thinkin' V," Johnny said as he stood next to him.

"Yeah?"

"This is home now…not Night City," Johnny said he took out his lighter. V grimly took a sip of his beer.

"Feels so strange. Before I met Panam, the only thing I knew about family was me and Jackie. Now, not only do I feel like I'm doing my damndest to do right by his memory and do what's right for us…I also gotta do what's right for the family…" he looked over at the Aldecaldo's as Saul and Mitch were doing their best to attempt to scream the lyrics to "Dragging Knives".

"You're lucky….but maybe that sounds a bit harsh," Johnny said. "I'm actually kinda jealous of what you got with them. I never had that with Kerry, the guys, or even Rogue. You got somethin' special with these people….and as much as I hate sappy shit, it's a pretty great thing to see," he said. V gave him a look.

"Hey, you saved my life. And buy'n large through all of this, you've been my friend. I couldn't ask for a better voice inside my head," V said as he extended his fist to Johnny. The rockerboy looked stunned, but then smiled as he gave V a fistbump in return.

"Thanks V. You really know how to hit the right notes with people," Johnny said smiling. V nodded.

"Think I got that from you," he replied. Now, Johnny laughed.

"Fuck off," he said as he started to light up another cigarette. V took another drink before he immediately thought of a question.

"Lemme ask you somethin' Johnny. Why did you never feel better after a show? After hanging with the groupies, the fans…what do you think it was that pissed you off so much?" Johnny took a long look at Night City after V stopped speaking, not even taking a drag on his cig, as if he was lost in thought.

"I honestly don't know how to answer that," he said. "I thought sometimes, if I could put on a good show and let my anger out through my music, I'd be able to pull a Jim Root in the sense that if my problems were still there, I would at least have something to show for it, other than a hangover and bad breath. Sometimes maybe even cuttin' loose with the fangirls, but I still never felt any better, no matter the amount of shitty things I did," Johnny sighed. "I guess for rebels like me…we're never truly happy until we're either six feet under, or unless we bring those corpo fucks down with us." V was taken aback, as he didn't know what to say.

"Damn…but hey….maybe it'll all end okay when we raid the tower….yeah?" V said as he patted Johnny on the shoulder. Silverhand shrugged.

"Maybe….go to your people V. Sounds like they're getting 'Kostolom' ready," Johnny grinned as he disappeared. As if on cue, Jake was shouting after him.

"Yo V! Bonebreaker's goin'! You gotta jam out out to this one!" Jake shouted. V turned around as the guitars were about to kick in, slamming his beer bottle into the dirt as the drums kicked in.

"Alright….let's get evil," he said as he ran over to his friends for one more violent mosh.