Requiem

By: Batbabe

The wind whistled through the clearing. It was an unusually cold early November day and the young woman pulled her coat tighter around her body. She stood before the site previously occupied by the Parliament, consumed by her own thoughts.

Evey Hammond had never truly considered herself overly sentimental, but there was no other explanation for her presence here today. She felt that she needed to be here. To somehow pay tribute to a man and the dream that he had died giving birth to. Evey was the only person who knew the man beneath the mask, the man that was both her friend and her demon. The rest of England only knew his actions, she knew the man inside.

November the 5th...

The wind whipped her hair around her face making it difficult to see. The rubble of the old Parliament had long since been cleared away, leaving an empty hollow field instead. There were only a few other people at the site paying homage to their independence day. Children held tightly to the hands of their parents whilst they pointed to various spots in the site. Evey paid little attention to them, instead remembering the last November 5th and the part she had played in it.

She remembered holding him as he died. She remembered how she felt when he told her he had fallen in love with her. How she carried his body into the subway car and arranged it so that he could see his dream all the way to its end. The hollow feeling watching the train speed away to its destiny.

"Somehow I thought I'd find you here..."

Evey turned to see former Detective Finch at her side. His face had a smile that seemed burdened with the knowledge of the day and what it meant. He was a good man and Evey was not a bit surprised to find he had been entrusted by the best friend she ever had.

The young woman nodded by way of greeting and turned back to the field. For long moments neither spoke, both reflecting on the events leading up to the liberation of their country. It was Evey who eventually broke the silence.

"I heard that you've been promoted. Congratulations." She hoped that he could tell that she was happy for him.

"Eh, well thank you." Finch tried to shrug off her praise. "I was really the only person left in this part of the government with the experience necessary. They didn't have much choice but to choose me." He laughed uncomfortably.

"But still, I can't think of anyone better for the job than you." She responded softly. Minutes passed before she spoke again. "I miss him more than I ever thought I would."

Finch did not know how to respond, he had never been good at consoling others. In the past year, he and Evey had spoken on several occasions about the events leading up to the emancipation of England. The two of them had bonded through their shared experience but she had never gone into depth about the time she had spent with the supposed terrorist and Finch didn't pry. He respected her too much to delve into matters that didn't concern him. Of course, that did not mean that he did not wonder about the peculiar relationship that Evey and the vigilante seemed to share.

"I miss how we used to talk. He would try to educate me on art and literature banned by the government. We talked about everything. Everything but his mission." She paused, somewhat bitterly Finch suspected, "That, he would never discuss other than to tell me that what he was doing was right. When he'd leave at night I'd wonder if he was out killing someone else. Someone who had hurt him in his past. The past that he would never tell me about." Her voice softened so that she could barely be heard above the wind. "To this day I wonder what his real name was."

Evey bowed her head in an attempt to hide the growing tears in her eyes. She refused to cry again. He wouldn't want her to cry for him anymore. Her hand tightened on the gift she had brought to lay here, a rose. Her emotions were all jumbled inside of her, emotions that she thought she was over long ago. She felt mixed up. She loved him deeply, but not just in the romantic sense. He had been her friend, confidant. He had also been so much more than just a man, he was a symbol. A symbol for freedom and justice. But she had also feared him because of his willingness to kill others. For a time, she had hated him for torturing and lying to her. It didn't matter that he had, in his mind, good reasons to do so. But, in the end, she still loved him. On the eve of his greatest triumph, she had asked him to leave with her. She had hoped that her love would be all that he would need. But she was wrong and she hated herself for it.

She was grateful that the former police officer did not appear to notice her shift of emotion, as he seemed to be engrossed within his own thoughts.

Several more minutes passed in silence, the sun began to set. Evey pulled her coat tighter around her slim frame as the wind whipped around her. Finch glanced briefly before turning his gaze to the ground at his feet. He was not certain what he could say now. He knew that Evey had feelings for V, but he didn't realize just how deep those feelings were until that moment.

He had never felt truly sorry for her until then.

"Evey, if there's one thing I know about V it's that he wouldn't want you to feel sad for him. He did what he set out to do. He changed the world. I highly doubt that he would want you to morn him forever."

For a brief instant, the young woman looked as if she were a million miles away. "You're right. He wouldn't want that kind of life for me." Evey turned to face him fully. "I think I should be going now. Thank you for coming." She gave him a hug. "I'll be in touch. I promise."

As she walked back to her small apartment her mind remained fixed on what Finch had said and the truth in it. The man she knew, the man who had both loved and tortured her, gave her a future. A world worth living in. She dishonored his memory by continuing to live in the past, with him, instead of the present, alone.

Evey stepped into her living room. It was dark and cold but she didn't mind. She turned on a lamp, igniting the room in a soft golden glow. She placed her coat on the back of the old rocking chair she had in the corner before turning towards her bedroom. For the first time in a year, her mind was not consumed with grief for V. Instead, she had resolved to move on and do something constructive with her life. She couldn't rely on V to hold her up any longer...she was completely alone.

It was then that she noticed the box lying on her bed. It was dark red and wrapped with a matching ribbon. Evey tentatively walked over to it, not sure what she might find.

The ribbon was soft underneath her fingers as she untied the box and lifted the lid. Tissue paper covered its contents and she pushed it aside. Gasping, she lifted the present from the box so she could see it more clearly, not trusting that her eyes were telling her the truth.

In her hands was a familiar Guy Fawks mask.