He made his way through familiar alleyways, darkness aiding his need for ultimate invisibility tonight. He couldn't chance being seen, especially not by her, but he needed to do this, he had a date to keep, unfinished business waiting for him back in the old unused train station, where he'd made his last stand nearly a year earlier. Men were waiting to die and who was he to disappoint them? If they wanted him dead so badly they could risk the consequences. They were looking for Evey, not that she couldn't be found in the Brixton Manor above ground, but there she was constantly surrounded by people, people determined to help her reshape the country into something better. The Shadow Gallery, or the X-lair of Codename: V as it had been rumored, was where she disappeared to when some pressing political event wasn't stealing her time, and hence his avoidance of the premises. He was no longer welcome in his home, it was hers as he had promised, to do with what she will. He no longer belonged there, no more than he belonged with her.
The entrance to the tunnels took him past the Shadow Gallery, and he really didn't need that temptation tonight, but he had things that had to be taken care of, things that would ensure Evey's safety without him. Without him, he reminded himself, she was safe. As much as he hated himself, he'd had to press forth as he had done all those nights when he'd lain awake in an empty cell beside her, listening to her cries, hearing her relentless sobs throughout the night. This wasn't a game or a lie this time, one that could not be taken back, his death was final, the end, no matter how much he wished it wasn't. His only purpose in life was to ensure her happiness, her safety, her survival.
Noises in the dark made his hands instinctively slide to the hilt of a knife, as a stray cat darted from a pile of garbage left littered among the ruins of the alley. He sighed, easing his grip, before straightening his stance. Nothing seemed to hold the effort it once did. Sometimes he wondered if he should have stayed on that train, letting Evey send him off into history. He stopped at the mouth of the tunnel, bowing his head solemnly, this was his decision he reminded himself, the path he had chosen for them both, but the longing to see her, if only once more compelled him forward. He stopped again as soon as he had begun moving, shaking his head violently. Once more, and then what? Once more after that, and another after that. He'd tried his best to stay away, evade her unavoidable presence but he'd been there. In the midst of the crowds at every public appearance she'd made, clinging to every word she spoke, every tear and smile and laugh. Her voice resonating throughout him. He'd watched her tell their story, through her eyes in her own words, one night on a talk show, interviewed by an overly attentive host who couldn't keep from pawing her at every chance he was allowed.
V frowned, dwelling on her was very bad for his sanity he reminded himself, continuing forward past the columns until a small figure stepped out in front of him from the shadows it seemed, and before he could move there was a scream of rage as something small hit him hard square in his chest. The force knocked him backwards for the first time in years, not leaving him enough time to prepare for the solid mass suddenly behind his legs that swept them out from beneath him as he began to fall. He landed with a loud crack onto his back, legs still held in the air by what he noticed to be a concrete block, blinking upward at the sky and onslaught of showers where the roof had caved, too startled to move. What the hell just happened?
"Bastard!" He closed his eyes, squeezed them tightly shut when he heard her voice full of angry tears lashing out at him before there was a harsh kick into his abdomen causing him to roll away from her and onto his feet and that's when he saw her.
She was soaked in rain, and her hair had grown, leaving wet curls dangling just above her narrow shoulders. He frowned suddenly behind the mask, she was smaller than he remembered, skinnier or rather seemingly more fragile. Her lips were pursed into thin angry lines, her eyes wide and tear-filled, slow drops falling to the collar of the tan trench coat she had always been so fond of wearing. He noticed the hem of black that hinted to the dress she was wearing. Her legs were long and graceful in the heels, but she was so pale, almost sickly looking compared to the effervescence she had once showed.
"Evey." He sighed suddenly with both relief and reluctance in his voice but she regarded him with more hate and venom than when he'd revealed the truth of her imprisonment to her in the Shadow Gallery.
"Shut up!" She screamed coming forward to push him again, and he let her, this time into one of the columns. "You God damn bastard!" She railed swinging blind punches at his shoulders and sides, knowing full well where the plate of armor beneath his clothes ended and he began. He reached out with lightning quick movements to take her wrists in his grasp, forcing them behind her back with one hand.
"Calm down." He hushed softly as she struggled.
"Let me go!" She screamed trying to shake him off, but she knew she couldn't.
"Not until you calm down." He murmured releasing a finger so that it could glide across her knuckles slowly as his free hand raised to caress a cheek tenderly and after a long moment her incessant squirming ceased and she collapsed her forehead against his chest.
"I hate you." She spat harshly, her words however too soft to have been heartfelt. "I hate you so much." She repeated and he sighed painfully.
"Evey…" He breathed pleadingly as he let her slide finally from him, her eyes raw and red when they raised to meet his, her hands raising to the mask. He watched cautiously waiting for the moment when in her rage she would rip away the mask and reveal the horrors that lay beneath it, but it never came. Instead her eyes searched the depths tilting the mask until the filter of moonlight from the opening of the tunnel could reveal his eyes, watching her closely. The hand that had been holding her wrist rose to cover hers, while the other continued it's attention of her cheek as she stared in avid fascination. "Evey." He breathed feeling the press of her against him, until suddenly she went limp against him. For a moment he thought she had fainted but she was trembling, allowing him to wrap his arms around her tightly.
"V?" She mumbled against his chest before her head raised slowly, her eyes full of tears, he watched her carefully, then a sharp pain was in his side, her nails had dug in suddenly once her fingers had found their way beneath the armor, before she jerked fully away from him. "Why?" Tears blinded her as the rain drenched her sobs, her skin dampened by the onslaught of showers, fists full of rain at her sides. "Why did you do this to me?" She held out her palms helplessly, shaking with anger and cold, her curls now damp tendrils framing her pained features. He took a breath, he'd known that this day would come, dreaded it since the moment he turned away from her offer with the simplistic words 'I can't'. This would be harder than any fight before, to stay strong in her presence as she crumbled before him. He'd fought against the urge to find her, see her, touch her, since the second he'd leapt off of that train. He'd known better than to return to the Shadow Gallery, he knew she'd be there, clinging to a memory he needed to make her forget.
"Evey," V began forcing exasperation in his voice, a carefulness as he spoke slowly, one gloved hand held up to halt her when she stepped towards him. "I hadn't planned on doing anything to you." He spoke so nonchalantly he even surprised himself, perhaps this would be simpler than he thought. "You weren't supposed to see me." Her eyes widened in disbelief and he cringed, then again maybe this wasn't so easy.
"You were really going to go through with this," She threw her hands out. "This…lie?" She railed wildly. "Letting me think you were dead?" She asked infuriated.
"I did pass out." He corrected her. "You assumed I was dead." He nodded slightly in her direction.
"I put you on that train." She screamed pointing behind her at the tunnel entrance.
"That was a joy to wake up with, covered in Scarlet Carson's and surrounded by explosives." He couldn't resist the amusement in his voice as he remembered that night. It actually made him tremble slightly, remembering his speeding coffin.
"I watched it blow everything in it sky high along with the houses of Parliament." She railed. "There wasn't enough time for you to get off." She shook her head.
"Sure there was." He scoffed as if he were simply telling a story instead of admitting to a million things that would break her heart. "I merely pried open the doors and jumped onto the next empty platform." He said it so offhandedly that she had the wildest urge to hit him…again.
"You don't even care do you?" She cried suddenly her heart falling into the pit of her stomach and that suddenly make his chest tighten.
"Of course I do." He whispered softly but she shook her head.
"Then why didn't you come to me?" She screamed as more tears suddenly fell. "Why didn't you let me know you were alive?" She begged and he had to avert his eyes behind the mask when he felt the first pangs of guilt hit him.
"Evey," He spoke softly. "My main concern through all of this was your well-being, please understand me. This life you now lead, a life I could only have given you, if I were no part of it." He let out a sigh as she turned away from him, folding her arms across her chest.
"How do you know?" She choked it out. "Tell me how you figured that fucked up ending in your head?" She let out a shaking sob and V recoiled, she'd never used language like that before, at least not in front of him. "Do you really believe that bullshit reasoning?" She turned to watch him over her shoulder. "I don't think you do. I think you only wanted to be free of me, no burden left at your feet to bear." His chest tightened, that was well beyond the truth, and if she only knew.
"And how is loving you a burden?" He whispered stepping close to her, his fingers warm through the gloves as he gripped her shoulders gently, wishing he could feel her skin against his own and not through those damn gloves.
"You mean the pretense of loving me." She stepped away from him coldly leaving him to savor the linger of warmth that slowly faded from the tips of his finger. "You have to actually love me for it to be a burden and of course it isn't when you abandon it." She spat and V lowered his head painfully, hating the black leather that kept her from him, he held his palms before him as she continued to rail about something, he wasn't listening. Making fists in the air, the way she'd done the night he'd taken her out into the rain. He came back to her ending comment, lowering his fists slowly. "How come everyone I care about, leaves me?" She stiffened before her shoulders sagged visibly, and V resisted the urge to step forward this time.
"Evey why are you so upset?" He paused raising his head to watch her. "I left you with my confession, not with yours." He reminded her as if it were the key point to the argument. He knew better and so did she. She turned slowly, lips parted so sensuously, causing him to dart his eyes away behind the mask.
"Why are you so upset?" She countered, cornering him considerably. "Because I let you leave me with your confession alone, without one of my own in return?" She tilted her head to watch him, his heart speeding under her scrutiny. Was it true? Was that why he'd run? Had he been fooling himself into thinking that this had all been for her own good instead of because of his own self-loathing and sense of rejection?
His head made a slow decisive nod, and her arms suddenly dropped to her side her eyes and mouth wide, but before he could see the smile that bloomed across her face he turned away, afraid that even through the mask, she'd see his frustration.
"I knew that you could never love me. That I had no life to offer you. So I made a choice to let you search for someone who could offer you everything you deserve, not leave you to cling to a mask in hopes of something that could never be." He let the words bleed out of him as he admitted the truth he hated. "I loved you so much I had to let you go. I love you still." He sighed stoically. "You made me feel alive, you robbed me of my hate and filled me with feelings and hopes. Dreams I never had before you entered my world." He shook his head and the wig swayed against his face elegantly as she came around him her fingers sliding up his forearms, and she could have sworn she felt him flinch. "But how could I show my appreciation of you by dragging you through the danger and pain that consumes my life. How could I possibly ask that of you-"
"That wasn't your choice to make." She shook her head slowly her eyes finding his behind the mask, holding his gaze.
"Considering what you are to me, yes it was." He breathed stiffly.
"No, no." She shook her head backing away, and he almost felt weak when she was no longer touching him. "You hid from me, lied to me, like you were trying to escape me." He rushed towards her.
"Never!" His voice boomed as a palm slid to her cheek where tears were once again falling freely. "The only way I saw for you to be safe and free, your ties to me broken, were if I were dead." He reasoned but she was too angry as she slapped his arm away, turning away before she whirled to face him face him again, seemingly confused, her eyes blazing.
"Then why didn't you just die then?" She spat angrily, hatefully, and he flinched, his chest tight. She sobbed and the heart he hadn't known existed before she'd shown it to him, broke.
"I thought about it." He muttered more to himself than to her and her brows furrowed in disgust. He took a breath to speak but she waved away his words.
"Never mind that, why didn't you just leave me alone, that day in the alley, when I was accosted by those fingermen?" Her eyes innocent and hurt stared up at him. "You should have let them do their worst, rape me, beat me," He closed his eyes against the images she was eliciting, of those things being done to her, it terrified him. "Kill me." He shook his head wildly.
"Evey stop." He pleaded.
"Anything they could have done would have been better than this!" She cried. "Knowing you, being close to you, and you left me with a confession of love that you were too much of a coward to commit to!" She railed and he nodded, agreeing, as long as she stopped. "Commit to the moment you told me. Easier to commit to a momentary confession of affection than a life of love was it?" She screamed.
"Evey please…" His voice was leaving him, with every breath he couldn't take.
"No!" She shook her head defiantly. "No! You deserve this, you deserve it all." He knew that fact very well, but her eyes, filled with the hate in her words, destroyed him inside. "You left me alone, and if I'd died because you weren't here when I needed you, your whole stupid plan would have been for nothing." She pointed out. "Every pain that I felt in my chest whenever I thought of you, you deserve to feel it too. Every moment of not having a reason to live, every instant of realizing my love was dead, and that it died with you. You deserve that." She sneered harshly and as she watched him, noticing that his left palm was unconsciously pressing against his chest where his heart should have been. "You tortured me. You, V." She emphasized that statement. "You are torturing me still." His head jerked slightly towards her at those words. "This," She gestured between them. "This is killing me. The lying. Professing a lie and letting me believe it to be true." She backed away farther. "You never loved me, and I hate you for that lie most of all." She screamed suddenly before turning to run in the direction that he had originally intended to go, and it was a moment of hesitation filled with shock that held him in place watching the distance between them grow before he darted suddenly after her calling her name. She darted around the corner, her heels propelling her as fast as they could go, but it was inevitable that V would catch up to her, his stride was longer and truth be told, he wanted to catch her much more than she wanted to run.
"Evey!" He hissed her name as he glided behind her around a turn, one arm sliding around her waist effortlessly, lifting her off the ground as her feet kicked wildly in the air. "Stop!" He demanded twisting her in his arms as he turned to slam her much harder than he had intended against the wall of the tunnel. She still fought him, her hands a flurry of excitement as she tried to free herself, but his hands pressed against her shoulders, holding her still, then his tall lean form pressed suddenly forward halting her cries as it constricted the amount of air she could take in. It took greater effort to sob as she shook her head painfully.
"Get off of me, I hate you ." She spat breathily. "I hate you, god I hate you!" She gasped the words trying to swallow air in some instances instead. "You left me." She turned her face away and sobbed. "You just left me alone." Her body collapsed but the pressure of his body held her in place. "You didn't even care what happened to me." She cried her palms suddenly covering her eyes.
"Evey stop," He hushed gently taking her hands away before cupping her face with his own. "It's all right." He whispered, his thumb slowly caressing her wetted cheeks. "I won't ever let anything happen to you." He vowed passionately. "Ever." He shook his head curtly to emphasize his point. "All I have done since last November, is watch over you, guard you from the shadows." He whispered softly. "I gave my life for yours, my freedom, my home, my heart and my soul." He dipped the mask until his forehead was below her eyes, making her unable to see the masks ever smiling expression as if it would give her some hint to his meaning. Her eyes widened in sudden realization.
"Oh god!" She gasped and out of worry his head pulled up so that his eyes could watch her. "The Shadow Gallery was your home." Her eyes darted from side to side. "You've had no place to live." He brows furrowed in worry as her hands mirrored his against the mask. "Where have you stayed?" She fretted her eyes suddenly falling within the holes of the eyes.
"Oh here and there." He nodded from side to side. "Anywhere close to you." He acknowledged and she let his words sink in.
"Near the Brixton Manor?" She questioned in confusion, waiting until he gave her a silent nod before the thoughts began to swim in her head. "Then you've seen me, you've been everywhere that I've been." She accused, and he nodded again.
"I've watched you closer than you know." He murmured and her face suddenly flushed when she remembered moments when she'd felt eyes upon her, watching her in some of her more intimate moments.
"And you never once thought of coming to me?" She asked ridiculously.
"I thought about it." He whispered regrettably. "I wrestled with myself a few times, between what I wanted and what I thought was best." He murmured, his thoughts conflicted.
"And what did you want?" She whispered huskily making things low in his body tighten suddenly.
"I wanted…" He whispered, blinking slowly as his eyes caressed her face. "To merely have you near me, if only once more." He dipped the mask slightly stepping away, letting their touch break finally.
"You're a terrible liar." She smirked crossing her arms rigidly as his head jerked up to watcher her. "Did you know that?"
"I'm not quite sure what you mean." He questioned his voice filled with charming confusion.
"Quit it!" She railed. "Just quit it! You already said that you loved me, I already know!" She threw her arms out wide. "There's no reason to pretend anymore." She shook her head. "Don't you see? I'm here, flesh and blood, before you." She indicated herself. "There is no more evading questions or answers V. You owe me an explanation." She sighed her hands falling at her sides.
"Evey…" He sighed, fatigue in his voice or some strange relief.
"Not for why you did this." She shook her head softly. "For why I found you tonight." He blinked suddenly, not exactly what he had expected. "I know better than most, that you don't just let people find you, or catch you." She smiled knowingly. "I know better than to think I finally got the best of you. No coincidences remember?" She grinned at him. "You let me to find you." She whispered. "You may not even realize it, but you did." She pointed out and after a long pause he straightened further.
"There are many things that need to be discussed, I understand that." He nodded before the mask tilted slightly over a shoulder for a moment, listening. "But now is not the time." He stated firmly as he came around to face her, the wig swaying slightly.
"You're killing again aren't you?" She asked with sudden wide eyes and when there was no reply, she had her answer. "Why?" She gasped.
"For you." He spoke with a curt nod.
"Me?" Her mind flew. "But V," She began to protest.
"There are people, who still think they can take hold of this country, and place it under control with fear Evey." V explained carefully. "People who don't like the change you and Detective Finch are bringing." His voice grew colder suddenly. "People who would do you harm." There was nothing but cold hard anger in his words.
"Why?" She breathed wildly.
"Because you threaten that control Evey. With the power you have." He motioned elegantly with a gloved hand.
"But I don't have anything." She defended.
"Wrong." He corrected her. "You are free, as they are not, you believe in the people, you believe in what this country could be." He affirmed passionately.
"That's only because of you." She insisted.
"I understand how you may see it that way, but it has always been inside of you Evey." He explained. "Even before we met. You've always had it, I merely showed it to you." His voice held that smooth lulling quality that she loved and suddenly everything was too much, inciting her to press a palm to her forehead suddenly.
"I can't think." She whispered painfully.
"I promise I will explain everything to you." He assured her stepping close.
"Promise?" She raised her face to his suddenly, doubt and suspicion, slightly mocking him.
"Please Evey…trust me." He begged as a gloved hand came to cup her jaw.
"All right." She nodded slowly and his hand fell away.
"Wait for me here, if I'm gone longer than an hour then I'll return to the Shadow Gallery instead when it has been taken care of." He requested, turning to leave but her voice rang out.
"You're coming back this time right?" She asked, and peering over his shoulder he noticed her raised brow of skepticism.
"Yes, I'm coming back this time." He nodded softly and she stepped forward.
"Then I'll wait here. Please come back." She begged, her voice causing his chest to feel suddenly too tight.
"I will." He promised, taking slow confident steps back in his earlier intended direction. Evey watched, her heart pounding, mouth wide in awe as his shape grew farther and farther away, until he turned to disappear down the tunnels. Evey pursed her lips in defiance as suddenly the steps he'd taken only moments before became her own. She wasn't letting him get away this time.
The way was all too familiar, he noted, half way and already it washed over him as if it had all occurred yesterday. The commotion as ten men scrambled for ammo while he'd easily sliced his way through each of them, the moment when his breast plate had fallen to the concrete with a thunderous clang, the prelude to what he had thought to be his last moments on this earth. Then there had been her arms, taking him to her when he'd collapsed before her, her eyes filled his world and everything he knew. The moment she'd touched him, he no longer wished to move, if this was how it was going to end then he would wholly accept it, for the peace that he found at her hands. Every time he thought of that night, and that moment, he couldn't imagine a moment where she could have ever been less than perfect. Except only moments before when he'd heard a noise behind him, alerting him to her presence. He ducked into a indention in the tunnel wall nearby another platform waiting silently, watching as slowly she emerged from the shadows, her heels held on the tips of two fingers while she crept softly across the expanse of the platform. She had no time to react when his arm came out to grasp her waist as he had done before, a palm over her mouth squelching her cry of surprise as he pulled her to him, before turning her in his arms.
"Woman, do you not listen?" He growled angrily lowing his hand, an arm still around her waist. "I told you to wait-" He spat sternly.
"I heard you." She whispered tenderly.
"Then leave!" He demanded harshly an arm holding her back against the wall.
"No, I'm not letting you disappear again." She pleaded gripping his forearms tightly, shaking her head wildly so that her curls flew in a million different directions.
"I'm not, now will you please go?" He pleaded with desperation and worry.
"No!" She refused.
"Yes!" He hissed firmly, holding her hard against his chest suddenly.
"No!" She cried into his chest, but he firmly took her head between his palms, making her look at him and whispered.
"E-" He began but she cut him off.
"V!" She exclaimed finishing her name as she whispered his harshly, pleading, begging.
"I can't place you in danger. If you get hurt, I'll never forgive myself." He whispered desperately, the lips of the mask a mere inch from hers. "Don't you understand that?" He begged as pain raw and real finally showed in his voice tearing her apart inside.
"The last time I begged you not to leave me, I lost you." She cried. "I can't watch you die again." Her heart constricted painfully before she began to sob silently breaking him and the tears dripping down her cheeks were too much to withstand. He kissed her, pressed his lips hard against the inside of the mask, until he was bruising her mouth with the metal, and her hands inched their way up to slide beneath the wig, pressing him even closer. She was pinned between the solid mass of sinewy muscle flexing within the interior of the hot-blooded man before her and the cold unforgiving wall at her back, her small frame compressed until she almost melted to him, feeling every inch of his body, strength and fierce need consuming her. She could feel the heat of his thighs through his breeches against her bare legs where her skirt clung to her curves, the gloved fingers traced the edge rubbing the fabric between his fingers before bringing the palm back to cup her cheek, resisting the urge with great effort to let himself indulge in a constant fantasy. He pulled away, knowing that if he didn't stop now then he never would, leaving every inch of her branded and unsatisfied, his eyes falling upon her with desirous longing. He inhaled, slowing his breathing, his heart, god he wanted her, but not now, not like this. Gathering his control he stepped farther away and sent her a brief nod before he slipped into the shadows and was gone, his footsteps the only clue as to his direction, the knowledge that she'd stay behind this time, his only solace. He needed her safe, needed her well-being assured, to even breath without worrying over her, none the less fight.
She waited, moments later, exhaling the breath she hadn't realized that she'd been holding, as she listened, wishing she could still hear him breathing before her as if he'd never left, only hidden himself against a wall. It reminded her all too well of the time he'd left her staring after him, as his figure retreated from her, his cloak billowing wildly in his wake. She blinked back tears and gulped her composure back in place, retracing her steps back down the darkened tunnel, barely making out the turns. She'd wait for him back at the shadow gallery as she had promised, where she could be surrounded by his things, she decided. But it was only what seemed like hours later that she realized that she'd gotten herself lost when she met a dead end. She must have missed a turn, or taken one too early, had she gone too far? Was it the third turn and then the next left? Or was it right? She gripped her head in frustration. "Damn!" She screamed slapping the wall loudly. "Bullocks!" She breathed heavily, the reverberating echo of her heels against the concrete as she paced in circles trying to frantically remember, then she smelled it, smoke, cigar smoke. She whirled and the silhouette of two men stood between her and the only way in or out.
"'Ello darlin'…" The one who spoke stepped forward slowly. "Miss us?" She saw the bright glow of a smoking cherry and she screamed for V before a hand flew out to knock her hard against the wall. "Fancy a tumble?" The echo of their laughter faded with the rest of the world, and her last thought was of the face of Guy Fawkes.