Chapter 25:
I knew my history of VFD more than I myself would like to admit at times. I jostled around dates, years, occasions, the likes in my head for days on end while we made preparations. It had been centuries of the opposition attacking the "good people" first over some "miscommunication" and the VFD retaliating at an elevated moral plane. This had been why the department had begun as well as why it had split to begin with. I looked at Violet, a victim of the burden of secrecy and danger that this department imposed upon all involved. Olaf and Omar, brothers separated by the elusive concept of what was "morally right." Lemony, my dear Lemony, a victim to both sides, facing punishment from the good and the bad for simply staying neutral, for surviving, for documenting. The atrocities from both sides were insurmountable. When would any of this ever stop? Or at least make sense?
We had went on the defensive in an attempt to answer these questions. Our trainees were dutifully aware of their positions, while us adults kept to the front line of the Dorms to provide protection for the young members. We had reason to believe that Omar was leading a coalition of a similar size to ours, comprised of Klaus, Candide, Hans, Andrew, Sally, Hagrid, Penny, and a few stragglers from the schism. However, the longest we awaited their attack, the more I became concerned that maybe our good morals shouldn't led to us preparing for a defense, but instead actively seeking out our opponents to ensure their safety.
No one agreed with me. I looked around at the children, with their tattooed ankles and furrowed brows. We had indoctrinated them into the same hellish system we had been brought up in and forced to participate in all our own. Was it our own will that brought us four adults here today? Lemony and Olaf made active decisions to join the good side, for one reason or another. Violet was thrown into this world by being born naturally curious and protective, thrust into an orphaned life filled with questions and secrets. How deep and important could the history of VFD be if even the most educated of us still couldn't connect all the dots? Or even successfully salvage what the department was?
My thoughts were interrupted by Lemony slipping into bed beside me. That meant it was my time to tend to the duties of protecting our realm. As I moaned and groaned upon rising, I gave Lemony a small kiss before pulling my back of weapons over my shoulder, mumbling about the task at hand. While leaving the dorm, I heard what sounded like crying. Fearing one of the children might have succumbed to the pressure as well as wanting to avoid defensive duty, I walked to the bathroom where I found the cuplrit of the noises.
"Violet, what is the matter, dear?" I abandoned my knapsack of pleasantries and rubbed her back. Smeared mascara lined her face and red spots were racing over her skin. "Viv...I don't know what to do anymore. This place feels so empty even though it is filled...filled with people. People I should care about too. I love my husband and I love Sunny and...and all the lot...and all that...But I'm not happy. Are you happy?" I understood her grief but led her away without offering much solace. I placed her back in bed next to an indention where her husband was missing. "Where's...Olaf?" she mumbled half-buried under the covers already. I kissed her hair and reassured her once more.
Unease immediately filled me as I walked further from the Dorms and traipsed into the training halls and laboratories. The moon shown through the ornate, high windows symbolic of one's dedication to the Cause. What was the Cause again? It was at this thought when I heard a low rumble from one of the laboratories. Immediately fearing the worse, I raced back into my designated hallway to wake Lemony. I've prided myself upon my reliable gut instinct for the entirety of my life and knew that, to some degree, I was correct in knowing that we had had an intruder.
Lemony, Violet, the trainees and I all gathered at the mouth of the rest of the reformed department. We are the Volunteer Fighting Department. My head shook as Violet grabbed my hand. "Where is Olaf?" she asked with palpable fear in her words. Realizing that, despite my youth, I was the only one willing to step into this plate, I asserted my leadership stating, "Barrett, I need you to go straight to surveillance. Take Britannica with you, and a walkie-talkie. I need you to get a visual on Olaf as well as one on that laboratory. Merriam, you and Lemony are on foot, surveying the outside perimeter. Each take a walkie-talkie. Elizabeth, you are hereby in charge of Robert, Sunny, Beatrice, and Frosty. Take a walkie-talkie with you. Stay in your Dorm until someone alerts you of a safer plan. Violet, calm yourself down, take a walkie-talkie and prepare the supplies in the safe room established in our new plan that I'll be developing. Now, places everyone."
I marched down the hallways I had not reached in my search beforehand, corresponding with Barrett frequently as to my position, inquiring as to others'. "All I have is audio for the laboratory. Olaf is nowhere to be found," spoke the child's voice, swimming through the static of the mechanism. "Violet, what is your position?" Again, there was no response. "Barrett, position on Violet?" I heard a small giggle before he answered, "The bathroom, ma'am." I rolled my eyes a little, gearing up to shoot the Cause on my own when this whole ordeal was over. Jerking me out of my prophesized vengeance was a scream across the formation. "Elizabeth, stay put, lock the doors. Report immediately of any strange activity. Barrett, I need to know where the scream came from. I also need a headcount on Lemony and Merriam."
"We're here, babe. There's not a person outside, but there's plenty of footprints that have been cleverly destroyed partway. We're safe." I sighed in relief momentarily to know that Lemony would hopefully survive this whole department. Elizabeth then spoke, "We are fine in here. Nothing to report." Then there was a sticky silence before someone pressed the button to speak, but only breathed. "Who is there?" The voice laughed maniacally, but in a familiar manner. It cut out before Barrett began babbling, "We have a visual now! A visual! We have eyes-" "Spit it out Barrett!"
"The laboratory is the one holding the Amylase Ambrose ingredients. Olaf is in there, handcuffed to the wall. There's Candide with...with a gun. And Klaus overseeing them both...wait," the silence as we all waited by the walkie-talkies sucked the breath out of the air. My head pounded with the idea that these kids, these children, were capable of such violent premonitions against other kids. "It's Olaf and Omar, I can barely tell which is which. Hans and Andrew, I have eyes on them, but they are not in the laboratory. Lemony, Merriam, check for tunnels that would led you to Sally, Hagrid, and Penny. There are muddy footprints in the hall."
As I assumed everyone took account of all that information, my thoughts immediately rushed to our extensive defensive supplies, stationed at the opposite end of the hall where the enemies are. "Barrett, I need eyes on Violet, now." There was nothing on the line while I pulled specific weapons out of my bag to wield only if needed. I kissed my poison darts with a tear in my eye. There was no Cause, there were just charades and cruel tricks. I scoffed at the Volunteer Fire Department as I began my trek.
She'd been in the bathroom when she felt their presence. Noticing the difference between the solidity of the floor below her knees and the liquid that seemed to be inside them, she succumbed to their attempt to hoist her up and restrain her. They whispered something into a headpiece as they locked the door behind them, keeping the light on. Violet hadn't felt this week physically in so many years now it was unfamiliar. They roughly handled her until she was rudely placed in another cold floor.
Why should she be so lucky as to have her end fate be any different than the miserable one she had experienced before this all came to be? Yes she'd had a cozy life and a loving husband for several months now, but at what cost? The trauma still remained and nothing she did could ever truly mask it. She would die as her parents did: at the hands of those similar to her in all but one aspect. She would perish leaving behind the memory of this failed department without being allowed to heed the necessary cautions. How was she any less of a villain than those that held her here when she had prematurely put young children in the same position she was currently in?
Her pitiful thinking was interrupted by someone's hand lifting her head upwards. Instead of an ugly villain, she saw her brother, someone she had deemed a good person years ago due to his mutual undying faithfulness to her and Sunny for years. Tears were brought to her eyes as she saw the scratches on the lens of his glasses, the grit marking his face, mixing in with the unkempt facial hair she only recognized from her dad nearly a decade ago, and the loss and hatred buried in her pupils. How had her brother turned from a studious bookworm to a bloodthirsty traitor worthy of murder? The squint of his eyes mimicked that of Count Olaf's from the first day they met him and the snarl of his lips copied the previously evil man's smirk he expressed each time he committed adulteries. Seeing such a soft boy transformed into a villain before her eyes made Violet quiver in fear and sorrow.
"The traitors of all types have now been brought before their Judge, Jury, and Executioner. I will be your Judge, my brothers Hans, Andrew, and Candide your Jury, and this familiar face will be your Executioner." The man Klaus referenced was blocked from Violet's view in the dark room, but she heard Olaf - or Omar - struggle against their restraints as he entered.
"Why are you doing this Klaus? Why are you going to kill?" Olaf pleaded with the boy he had once abused. "That question doesn't deserve an answer. Now, onward with the trial. Omar, the lesser of the crimes, will be sentenced first. For treachery against humanity and a betrayal to the cause you formed, how does the Jury find the defendant?" The chorus of young voices rung out a death sentence. "Final words?" Omar swallowed and turned to his brother, "I love you dearly, from deep within my dark heart. I regret Mother and Father's death deeply. However, I want you to know that the reason I am cuffed beside you now is because I changed my ways. I recruited the youngsters to simply have Ava returned to me, possibly get some funds from you to escape away somewhere, keep the kids to keep me going if nothing else. But Klaus, he spoke to me about his own sibling's betrayal and it struck a cord. Olaf, we are brothers, twins. We survived childhood always bearing each other's sins together. The idea of abandoning that relationship, even to the pleasure of villainy or the appeasement of neutrality, abhorred me when I realized that the Good Side would award me with my brother, a family again, and nothing off my soul. I wish I'd realized it sooner. Thank you, brother." He hugged Olaf awkwardly as Klaus announced:
"Olaf, on countless accounts of murder, attempted murder, endangering the welfare of a child, sleeping with a traumatized victim of yours, and the betrayal of your own values, the Jury finds you,"
"Guilty!"
"Omar, I'm glad you shared that. For as long as we've been separated, loving and hating each other, I'm glad our last moments will be together, as they were in the beginning. Violet, dear, thank you for allowing me to clean my soul and watching you grow into such a bright young woman. I still wish I could repair that wretched man that you'd originally met, as well as the misfortune of your parents, but I'm glad we got to spend such bliss together, even if it was short-lived. And Klaus, I want to apologize from the bottom of my heart to you, and both your sisters. I was a vile creature worthy of a warm seat in hell, nothing less. I want your forgiveness because I've genuinely changed. You've broken your sister's heart by not hearing out her pleas. Sunny is often forlorn due to your absence and the worst part is, she's so young she may even forget you exist. I'm sorry for everything Klaus, but I want you to know I'm glad you're finally ridding the world of evils such as me and Omar."
"And Violet. Charges of adultery and betrayal. Jury?"
"Guilty." Klaus manipulated his glasses momentarily as he awaited her last words. Delicate tears rolled down her face as she softly spoke, "Olaf, I love you. Klaus, I love you as well. If you get the chance after I'm gone, tell the children and Lemony and Viv the same thing. And please spare them. Your issue is with Olaf...and me. No one else innocent need be brought into this hellish world of VFD." She stroked her stomach cautiously as she said, "So if you are to kill us, I hope it would be soon."
"Now, that doesn't sound like the girl I know," I finally spoke up from my place at the threshold. Merriam and Lemony had Penny, Hagrid, Sally, and two other accomplices handcuffed and temporarily unconscious in the hallway outside the party. Elizabeth was safely watching everything unfold with Robert and Barrett which strict instructions to retreat as soon as trouble arose. Merriam would do the same. I had put my weapons away momentarily because I knew that we wouldn't - and shouldn't - win. "
"We just want to let everyone here acknowledge that the VFD has been dissolved. There haven't been fires in years, none of us are volunteers, and how can a bunch of unfortunate souls mismatched together properly form a department. Klaus, you're a good boy. You have been traumatized beyond your wit's end. Don't you think we all have been? Olaf and Omar effectively became the person you have become today. What's to say that if we let you continue that you wouldn't eventually succumb to the same rotten schemes all the villains eventually do? We can't say for sure. What I do now, and Violet can back me up on this, is that you are just a scared boy who misses his parents. And Klaus, they're gone. You need to do as you have always done and cling to your sisters, your real family. No matter what decision Violet made, you know her to be smart and strong enough to be trusted. You're acting selfishly and you know it. I can see that you know it."
I flipped the light switch off, instructed Merriam to head off, and brought our awakening "prisoners" inside. "We are all victims of the system and the department here. There's no good or bad. The Baudelaire parents killed just as much as the Snickets - good and bad - have. Schemes are schemes whether for good or evil. The VFD has created this issues on its own. Hans, Andrew, don't you see that? Your family suffered the most fallout from all this, a most fateful demise orchestrated from both sides of the schism. And you two were deliberately left to fend for yourselves in the hopes that you would avenge your legacy. Your family and your family's killers hoped you'd become a new generation Olaf and Omar."
Violet's cuffs chinked as I released them. Hans and Andrew began processing this information while Klaus stood, mouth ajar and eyes brimming with tears. Penny spoke up, "We actually tried to deter them and after what he did to Gunter we tried to leave, but were threatened to stay."
"Ah, him. He is the only reason that any of this is still standing. Not him specifically, but what he is still desperately clinging to. The schism. He has murdered more than anyone else. Committed other sins as well that I know of personally," I raised my weapon, captivating the room filled with every emotion. Lemony mumbled something but abandoned it almost immediately after. "Now, sir, Man With a Beard But No Hair, or, as I know you, Father, I'm ending the schism here today. We are abandoning the idea that there is a distinct good and bad side when VFD itself was a bad, bad idea. Lemony, Olaf, and Omar will be remnants of the past life, but characteristic of the forgiveness and changed offered in this new order. I will be the last call between the old and the new which is where we find ourselves today. I stand before you, a good guy ready to kill a bad guy. It doesn't matter if it is a necessary evil or not, it is nonetheless born out of hate. Nothing born out of hate can align their moral compass to be entirely good. You have plenty examples around you, sir."
I shot the dart into his neck and he hit the ground. I then picked Violet up carefully before realizing the all-too palpable feeling of being cornered. A gun was to my head. No side of VFD I knew ever used guns. "Your attempt to murder was in vain. We have to antidote right here," Candide's sing-song voice carried to my ears, picking up her distinct French, and I responded in the same, "Candide it doesn't matter. There are no sides anymore. Put the gun down." She cocked it against my skull and demanded I put Violet down. "Olaf, take Violet away." Candide's harsh English replied to mine: "No one is leaving this room until vengeance is served." I uncuffed Olaf and Omar, giving Violet to the former. "Candide, can you not see that she is sick? Why are you still pointing that gun around?"
"It doesn't matter if she's sick. She will die soon, for being a traitor." Klaus touched her shoulder but she shoved his hand away. He recoiled against the wall, eyes downcast and arms crossed. Hans and Andrew blocked the door, but in their typical nonchalant way, opposing their previous guard-dog behavior. "Candide, I will tell you this once: she needs to leave because she's pregnant. She needs immediate care in a hospital. Or somewhere away from this dangerous laboratory." With a flick of her gun and a snarl of her nose, Hans and Andrew appeared just long enough to grab the pale Violet and retreat from the room permanently. "Just shoot me and leave everyone else alone Candide. Just one more death to add to the books I suppose. We will never end the cycle. We will never stop producing the people that commit acts like those that led you to being an orphan."
"Viviette, stop. You're talking stupid. Candide, look at me," Klaus's voice finally rung out, trying to fight itself. "The person you saw during these past few months isn't the real Klaus. The real man is the one who dutifully taught you English and learning French and Dutch, for you. Candide, what Viviette is trying to say is, despite the evils of the world, the more that we can avoid it by just being smart is all the better for the world. All the best people are the ones with a book, you know that." She finally looked him in the eye, the gun shaking slightly in her hand, "Klaus, do you really love me like you said you did?" Hearing the gun clang to the ground indicated to me that he did, but as soon as that thought crossed my mind, I fell to the ground, gripping the leg that had just been shot.
"Great that we've all made up, but can we all get to the hospital now? Reunite like real true humans?" Lemony carried me while I went in and out of consciousness, but I felt Omar moving the hair out of my face and heard him disciplining the young adults.