Title: Like He no Longer Believed He Could
Author: NexustehULF0o
Description: "There are 872 songs on this jukebox. I've listened to them all, but I've never danced to any of them." V and Evey share one last dance and a few parting words in spite of V's vendetta towering over him. Oneshot. Movie-verse.
Rating: T because the movie's rated R and I just want to be safe.
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN V FOR VENDETTA, MOVIE OR GRAPHIC NOVEL. I don't even own a copy of either of them. I have the movie on DVR. O_o
Nexus: I saw this movie a little while ago, and fell in love with it. I love V, but I think everyone does, so it's not really a surprise. It's probably my favorite comic-turned-movie. And I've heard that it's quite like the Graphic Novel that precedes it. So, enjoy!
"Now…? On the Eve of your Revolution?" She had asked, looking quizzical as well as a little intimidated. Julie London was beginning to fade off into the recesses of the Gallery by this time, leaving the two of them alone.
He smiled – a smile fitting the curves of the Guy Fawkes mask he wore on top of his face. What a question.
"Ah, a revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having," He chided playfully, leaning forward slightly while folding his hands in front of him.
She fell silent. He stared at her contemplative face, etching it into his memory. He was infatuated, although, being who he was, he thought he no longer had emotions such as the one he was feeling now.
"I'd love to." She accepted, smiling bashfully.
He couldn't help but lower his head a bit, being a bit shy and sheepish himself.
With that, he took her hand in his and led her to the part of the Gallery near the television, where there was a section of open floor.
He'd been still rather stunned that she even returned to him in the first place. After all the things he'd done…
"You look well." He mumbled. He hadn't wanted to say that. He'd wanted to take her hands, lean forward and whisper just how beautiful she was into her ear, no matter how much she did or didn't want to hear it.
She thanked him softly, keeping eye contact.
Oh Lord, he was bad at this.
"May I… inquire as to how you've avoided…detection…?" He stammered, adverting his eyes to his gloved hands rubbing over each other as to keep from staring too long. The lips behind his mask pursed themselves in spite of himself, knowing that he was most likely not going to make it through this conversation alive, let alone his plans for later.
"A fake ID works better than a Guy Fawkes mask." She retorted playfully, yet her tone was blatantly laced with confidence. He uttered a nervous laugh; his hands were tying themselves into tight little knots and he could no longer wind them around each other to keep himself from doing something he would later regret.
"I…I must confess, every time I heard a siren, I…worried about you…" He could feel himself looking for something to distract himself. Before this, he always knew how things were going to happen.
But he hadn't expected her.
She delved headstrong into a story about how she had dropped her money at a market and how her friend from the BTN had picked it up and didn't recognize her…but he barely caught that from simply focusing on her lips moving with utmost fluency. He had listened to her words flow together with such euphony that he hadn't realized when the story actually ended and had to shake himself out of his trance.
"I guess whatever you did to me worked better than I'd have imagined." She admitted, lowering her head ever so slightly to look up at him.
He'd noticed. It had worked very, very well. To a point where V was borderline frightened. He decided it would be good time to lead into…that.
"I…I have a gift for you Evey…" He lifted his hand ever so slightly, meandering toward her, "But…before I give it to you…I'd like to ask you something..."
And here they were, a very long few minutes later.
He tensed as he felt her arm snake around him, and her hand entwined firmly with his. He felt stupid – he had initiated the dance, and yet…he was the one getting nervous.
He slowly cradled her frail body with his empty hand, sitting it at her lower back. The two began to step in and out softly, complimenting each other's moves with another of their own.
"You've been busy; they're very scared right now." She commented, which made him smile a bit. He was infinitely proud that she was the slightest bit impressed. "I heard that Sutler's going to make a public statement tonight."
"It's nearly time." He muttered, sighing slowly beforehand. Maybe if he could regulate his breathing, this wouldn't be so hard…
"The masks were ingenious." She told him, a smile slowly playing across her lips as she ceased "eye contact". "It was strange to suddenly see your face everywhere…"
"'Conceal me what I am, and be my aid, for such disguise as haply shall become the form of my intent.'" The words had rolled off of his tongue before he could think about them as he cocked his head slightly to the right, watching her intently from the small eye slits of his mask.
"Twelfth Night." Her smile grew broader; she glanced at him.
"Viola." He replied.
She was quiet for a moment.
"My mum, she used to read all his plays to me…and ever since, I've always wanted to act…be in plays, movies…When I was nine, I played Viola in Twelfth Night. Mum was very proud…"
It couldn't have been a coincidence.
"I don't get it." Evey muttered to herself, looking up at him. They had been exchanging pleasantries for a few moments now, and to say something so spur-of-the-moment startled him a bit.
"What…?" He asked quietly, almost a whisper, as if to soothe her.
"How you can be one of the most important things that's ever happened to me and yet I know almost nothing about you. I don't know where you were born, who your parents were, if you had any brothers or sisters…" She stopped; he braced himself for anything – how was it that he could never tell what Evey was going to do, yet he could predict the next five moves of his opponent or victim?
"I don't even know what you really look like…" Her hands got closer, aiming to take off his mask. He, for a moment, considered letting her remove it. Would she scream? Would she hide? She'd already said that he was a monster – there was no more proof needed to confirm it.
"Evey, please…" He grabbed her hands before she could take it off, cradling them in his own while trying to keep her calm. "There is a face beneath this mask, but it is not me. I am no more that face than I am the muscles beneath it or the bones beneath that."
Evey was silent; he wondered if he had angered her. He didn't want things to go as bad as they had before. She looked deep in thought; he was unsure.
"…I understand." She nodded, looking away from him for a split second before returning him her full attention.
"Thank you…" He replied calmly, still keeping her hands firmly in his grasp.
He didn't want to let go.
He wished he could make himself want her more than he wanted revenge on those who did such awful things to him, but he supposed he should thank them – had he not been created, he never would have met her in the first place.
He wished he could love Evey more than he loved revenge. But he couldn't. His vendetta was worth too much to him.
"Did you like it?"
"Yeah, but it made me feel sorry for Mercedes."
"Why…?"
"Because he cared more about getting revenge than he did about her."
The reminiscence made V sigh heavily in contempt of himself; a true Edmond Dantes.
"There isn't much time. There is something I must give you." He explained, watching her expression contort into that of slight confusion.
"A gift…?" She murmured, eyes twinkling with curiosity.
He confirmed this by nodding, still holding tight to her hands. He placed them closer to his heart – perhaps she could feel how hard this was for him.
Evey nodded, and V purposefully guided her away.
He placed his hand carefully on the small to her back while striding through the dark tunnels of the underground. He couldn't help but be protective of her – he knew she wasn't scared or she would have said so and he would have noticed before anyway, but he wanted to be sure…and of course, a part of it was for his own personal benefit.
"The underground?" She asked as soon as she saw the train standing idle in the middle of a line of subway tracks. "I thought that they closed this all down."
"They did." V added, nodding faintly. "It took nearly ten years to clear the tracks, and lay a bit of my own…" He motioned toward the train. Evey stepped away from him, toward the train car that was stopped on the tracks. She looked confused, amazed, and curious all in the same instant – he loved it.
"Let me show you." Evey and V's combined footfalls echoed through the tunnel as V guided her toward the double doors opening into the car.
Inside were thousands upon thousands of explosives, looking to detonate the house of Parliament. Evey noticed this – her eyes grew wide.
"These tracks lead to Parliament." She noted, and although she said it as a statement, V couldn't help but know she was confirming it for her own sanity's purposes.
He nodded warily, watching her for a reaction.
"Yes."
"Then it's really going to happen, isn't it…?"
"It will…if you want it to."
She understood; he knew because her face grew confused – it grew scared, as if asking why is it my choice? Why isn't it yours?
"What?" She asked, her voice barely a whisper.
"This is my gift to you, Evey. Everything I have – my home, my books, the gallery, this train…I'm leaving it to you to do with what you will."
He said it.
It was the hardest thing that he'd ever done, but he'd said it. He wanted to congratulate himself, but he figured it was too early for that. Evey watched him in disbelief.
"Is this another trick, V…?" She asked. He'd expected that. After everything he'd done to mold her into what she is, he'd played more than one trick on her. But not tonight.
"No. No more tricks. No more lies. Only truth." He stopped, catching his breath. "And the truth is…" he started, "You made me realize that I was wrong. That the choice to pull this lever is…not mine to make."
"Why…?"
He had a feeling she'd ask that. And he'd be more than willing to answer. She needed to know the truth anyway, because she wouldn't be getting it from anybody else.
"Because this world…the world that I am a part of…and I helped shape…will end tonight." She became more worried as his sentence progressed – he could see it with the heavy intake of breath she took near the end of his first sentence. But he kept going. He couldn't stop now. No more lies, he said. Only truth, he said.
"And tomorrow, a different world will begin…that different people will shape…" He nodded towards her, albeit her mildly confused expression. "…And this choice belongs to them."
He'd wanted her to say something else…to ask him a few more questions as to prolong their final moments together. But when she was silent, he had to step away.
Before he changed his mind.
"Where are you going?" She inquired; he could tell that she was still remotely stunned by the gift she'd just received.
He wished she'd care a bit more about her gift and less about him.
"The time has come for me to meet my maker, and repay him in kind for all that he's done." He turned to walk away, leaving Evey with a confused look on her face.
"V, wait. You don't have to do this!"
Yes.
Call me back.
Make me wait.
Stall me.
Please.
He didn't know if he could do this, despite twenty years of readying himself. So when Evey called his name, he swirled around, welcoming the impediment.
She grabbed his hands, entwining them with hers in a futile attempt to sway him. "You could let it go…we could leave here together." She suggested.
The look of utter apprehension and absolute concern in her eyes made him want to succumb to her. To take her, then and there. To hold her tightly until neither of them could breathe. To kiss her with lips unhindered by masks, vendettas, or pasts.
But he couldn't. He wouldn't. He had taken his time, and now it was too late.
"No, you were right about what I am. I have no tree waiting for me…all I want…all I deserve…is waiting for me at the end of that tunnel." He stated, alluding to the statement he would have added had he had more time to think things through – "I certainly don't deserve you."
"That's not true." She shook her head, breezing right past everything he had just said as if she hadn't even heard it.
At first, he didn't know what she was doing. He thought she might be thanking him again, seeing as he still remembered her coming dangerously close when she'd left him alone in Valerie's room.
"Do you know where you'll go…?" He asked quietly; almost trying not to be heard.
"No." She knew what she was talking about. She didn't know, but she stared him down so hard that as if to make him think at she did. "That would have scared me before, but…" She trailed off, grabbing tighter to the bag she had packed together and had slung over her shoulder. "…I suppose I should thank you."
She leaned in close. For a moment, he thought she was going to…he choked out a stale breath, unsure and quite…frightened? No.
Apprehensive? Yes, that was it.
She watched him carefully, looking for the body language that compensated for his lack of facial expression. He stiffened, trying to tell her that this was something he wasn't ready for.
"Thank you."
Her scent wafted into his lungs, leaving him breathless for a quick moment as he struggled to regain full consciousness. But then she spoke again, counteracting his previous feelings.
"…Goodbye."
But then small, fragile Evey did something that he wasn't even bold enough to do.
The moment it happened, he'd wanted to take off his mask. He'd wanted to rip it off, grab her face and keep it upon his until his vendetta was the furthest from his mind, and his thoughts were only filled with her scent, her taste, how beautiful she was and just how more beautiful she had become.
But as her lips met the coldness of his mask, he wrapped his arms around her lower waist, keeping her close. She must have felt the passion between them, because she pressed hard, leaning her chest against his as she slowly rose and grabbed the corners of his mask. She didn't try to take it off. He could taste her scent on his tongue as she slid her eyes closed, although his had been closed since she'd begun.
He hadn't expected anything like this. He'd never expected it to happen, and now that it was…he had no idea what to feel.
He could feel his pulse rising as she slowly pulled away from him, lowering her hands from the corners of his mask to his chest. He'd held her in his arms, staring curiously, as if to say "Why…?"
But he already knew why, didn't he…?
She watched him almost as intently as he watched her, although her expression was much more hurt than his was.
This meant everything. Simply everything to him.
But he couldn't bring himself to abandon his vendetta. He couldn't abandon Valerie. He couldn't abandon Evey's, let alone England's future.
"I can't."
And he left.
"Die!"
A shot fired.
"DIE!"
Another shot rang out.
"Why won't you die?"
Click. Click click.
"Why won't you die…?"
Because this couldn't end the way he wanted it to. He wanted Evey. He had to see Evey. But if he were ever going to make it to her…he would have to make it through everyone else in his way.
"Beneath this mask there is more than flesh…beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy…" He heaved in staggered breaths of air from his many wounds despite the heavy armor he had worn to defend his chest.
"…and ideas…are bulletproof."
He was upon Creedy in less than an instant.
To secure the future of many, few must be sacrificed. That had always been the price. The ultimatum given in any situation for the benefit of mankind.
And he was the representative of the new England. He was the liaison.
And he wouldn't have it any other way.
Creedy's legs beat wildly against the steel bars V was holding him against. The racket ensuing…clouded his mind…and as his breaths became shorter and weaker, such uproar…frightened him…
The quick snap of Creedy's neck to the left was enough to silence the clamor for good, although it didn't calm V any. His heart still beat faster and faster with every second passed.
That wasn't to say he hadn't been expecting this.
V dropped the body apathetically, staring downward for a quick moment or two before slowly raising his head and perceiving his surroundings. Although there was a dark tinge to his vision, he needn't see to know where he was going next.
Evey.
He removed the armor shielding his chest. Blood sopped his leather gloves as he rubbed them together lightly, turning around and walking forward in a determined manner.
Evey.
He stumbled against a wall, holding himself there momentarily before proceeding onward, his arm held at his stomach and his head held high.
He had first remembered stumbling out onto the platform, staring purposefully at the concrete floor. At most, he was struggling to focus.
"V!"
He heard her voice.
She was still here.
He looked upward at the sound of his name, his hat falling from atop his head.
A blurry form, dressed in blue and white from as far as he could decipher, was running towards him. He attempted to straighten himself and step towards them, but sharp pains coursed throughout his body; he fell earthward, only to be caught and cradled in Evey's arms.
"Oh, God, we have to stop your bleeding…" She observed, pressing against his chest and rocking him slowly back and forth. She was worried. She was worried for him. His eyes slid closed and his lips curved up in one final grin.
"Oh, please don't...I'm finished…and glad of it…" He mused, humor drowning his hushed, breathless tone. Her brow furrowed in confusion and disbelief. She pressed harder against his chest nonetheless.
"Don't say that." She replied, turning to the injuries he'd suffered from Creedy and his men. Her fingers tingled his torso, although he wasn't sure if he was just falling numb…he was feeling very tired all of a sudden…
"I told you…only truth." He whispered. He wished he had the strength to touch her. But he no longer had the will, nor power to lift either arm. His eyes fluttered open, watching her pained expression intently.
"For twenty years I sought only this day…"
"You're going to kill me now…" The woman became frightened, tensing greatly under her comforter. She leaned backward a tiny bit, being stopped only by her bed's headboard.
"I killed you ten minutes ago…"
He held up a hypodermic needle.
"Nothing else existed…"
"While you slept."
"…Until I saw you…then everything changed…"
He could see the tears welling up in her eyes as he continued to speak.
"You faced your death, Evey. You were calm. You were still. Try to feel now what you felt then…" He told her, placing one hand on her shoulder to stabilize her and the other on her cheek to keep from losing her. She leaned slowly into his touch, sliding her eyes closed while taking in deep, staggered breaths. It was the first time he had ever been unsure in his life. Had he done the right thing in choosing her? Had it worked like he planned it would…?
"Oh, God…I felt…"
"…Yes?"
"I'm…dizzy…I need air…" She looked slowly up at him, the full weight of her head placed solely in the palm of his hand as she slid her arm up his shoulder. He caressed her skin slowly with his thumb, looking to comfort her. "Please…I need to be outside."
She needed air.
She needed to be outside –outside, outside! How could he take her outside without revealing the location of where they were?
The lift.
He couldn't keep his eyes off of her…he was overcome with worry…for her…for what he'd done…
"There's a lift – it'll take us to the roof."
"I fell in love with you, Evey, like I no longer believed I could…"
"I thought about keeping this, but it didn't seem right considering you wrote it."
"…I didn't."
She leaned closer, as if she didn't believe what he was saying.
"Evey. E-vey. Of course you are."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means that I, like God, do not play with dice and do not believe in coincidence. Are you hurt…?"
Tears spouted from her eyes, hitting his mask harder than any punch could have landed.
"What they did to me was monstrous."
His ears rung – he could barely hear her sobs over the piercing noise racking his brain.
"And they created a monster."
"V…" She managed out, holding tight to him. "I don't want you to die."
He was very tired. The pain was beginning to soothe him…the rapid pulses of his body settled into a steady rhythm that coincided with the harmony of ringing in his ears.
He watched her faintly, exhaling gently and gradually from his mouth.
"That was the most beautiful thing…"
"But what I hope most of all is that even though I do not know you…and even though I may never meet you…"
His eyes could not hold open any longer. Although his sight was blackening, he had to keep his eyes open…he had to stay up for another second…
"…laugh with you…cry with you…or kiss you…"
"…You could have ever given me."
"…I love you. With all of my heart, I love you."
His muscles relaxed, and he couldn't keep awake any longer. His mind drifted away from the confines of his mask as his eyelids slid over his eyes, his mouth exhaling one last time.
He could almost hear her softly calling his name as he welcomed his eternal dark slumber.
Nexus: This is my first V for Vendetta fic, so tell me how I did! I would sure appreciate it! All you have to do is click that "Review this Chapter" button! :D I'm looking forward to what you have to say!