She was so nervous she didn't feel her stomach. She was so nervous her mouth was dry. She was so nervous she'd fail. Evey Hammond was standing and staring at V, with a polished knife in each hand. V himself was sitting in a chair in front of her, ready to give instructions. He noticed she was very stressed and nervous. Her forehead was even shiny with a thin layer of sweat. He knew that Evey wasn't that fond of weapons. She held them as if they were made out of glass, afraid to drop them. Evey had never before in her life held knives like this.

"Well go on, feel the weight of them!" he told her, crossing his arms. "Move them a little bit, try to get used to the feeling."

Evey opened her mouth slightly, licking her lips. She didn't know how to use a knife. Heck, she never knew how to. Hopefully V would teach her so that she'd not be so afraid anymore. Carefully Evey moved her arms. They weren't relaxed, more tensed. She wasn't yet ready to play around with them like V usually did. She moved them in circles, trying to get used to them. They were both heavy and light at the same time. They weren't that complicated to use, she just needed a good technique. Slowly Evey was getting along.

"Ready?" V asked her. She nodded.

"Good. As you can see," V pointed at the wall behind her. Evey turned around to take a look. "I've placed bullseyes on the wall, and I want you to hit it by throwing from here. Try."

Evey gulped.

"It' sounds difficult…"

"Yes, I'm quite sure you'll think so in the beginning, but after some time I'm sure you'll get along perfect."

Evey nodded and looked at the first bullseye. It was the size of a pea, in she wondered how in the world she'd get the blade to hit it, or at least in a radius of a meter. She looked at it, lifted the knife, and let go.

"Dammit…"

The blade wasn't even close to the bullseye. V cleaned his throat, as if he had already expected that. He stood up and took her other hand in which she held her other knife.

"Relax your wrists! Of course it doesn't hit anything, your wrists are like steal!" he told her and hit them lightly so that she'd relax them. Evey nodded and took a deep breath, relaxing her hand.

"Now, when you throw your knife, try to get a contact with the point you want to hit."

"Get… contact? What?" Evey raised her eyebrows, wondering.

"Right…" V thought for a second. "Have you ever tried jumping a short distance from one place to another?"

"Yeah…"

"When you're in the air, you know that you're going to hit the ground just where you want to, it's the same idea when you throw a knife. Try again. Think of the jump."

V stepped aside and Evey tried again. She relaxed her wrists, thought about a jump. She was going to hit the bullseye, she was going to. Completely focussed, and completely aware of what she wanted, she threw the knife. This time she did it with force, the blade cut into the wood wall, a few inches away from the bullseye.

"Very good, Evey! Very good!" V jumped up, full with joy. "I'm stunned! Now this needs to be a little poished and you're perfectly skilled with knives!"

Evey smiled a little as he gave her a new knife and she tried the next bullseye. She couldn't believe it herself, but she almost hit it a few times. Eventually all the knives were thrown and she had to go and pinch them out of the wall. V had specially a room in the Shadow Gallery with wooden walls to practise knife-throwing. Now it was Evey's turn to train.

"You're a natural." he told Evey as she gave him the knives when getting them out of the wall.

"I need more practise." Evey answered, looking at V and giving him the final knife.

"Now, come with me. I want to show you something."

Evey nodded and followed V into the next room. It was completely dark, she couldn't see a thing. She didn't hear or smell anything out of the ordinary. It was just, a room.

"V… It's quite dark in here…" Evey noticed.

"My appologies…"

V turned the switch on and instantly the room bathed in light. Evey was correct, it was just a room. Nothing out of the ordinary, except for a cloaked statue in the middle. There were paintings on the walls and a glass of water on a little table on the right. V went to the statue and grabbed it, dragging the cloak off.

"Voilá!"

Evey was staring.

"It's a doll."

"Very good, Evey, yes, it's a doll. This, is your new companion. You're going to train your self-defence skills that don't include weapons on this doll. You can hit, kick, bully, abuse… Anything on this doll. It'll build on your self-esteem and you'll learn some martial arts."

Evey nervously adjusted her sweat pants. She had never seriously hit anyone in her life. Well, that hadn't happened so often. She looked at the doll. If she imagined it being Sutler or Creedy maybe it would work better?

"So, when you fight someone, it has to go flowing." V began, "It has to both be effective to beat your foe and attractive to look at. When you fight, you must do it both violently and gracefully."

"Violent is the opposite of graceful." Evey noted. V hesitated for a moment, interrupted in the middle of his sentence.

"Yes, you'll get me in a minute. When I mean graceful I don't mean some clumsy movements that'll cause you to fall over, and the same goes for violent. Have you ever seen ballet? When you look at a ballerina, it looks like she is flowing in her little shoes. Every step she takes, every jump she makes, it looks like a piece of cake! But that's an illusion, it's difficult. The same goes for fighting, the difficult part is the violent part, and the beautiful is the graceful. Stretch your legs, Evey, I don't want you to get hurt."

Evey nodded and did as V told her to. She had always known how to stretch, so that he didn't have to teach her. She did the upper muscle, lower muscle, back and front, and side muscles. When she was done her legs already felt so much lighter. Quickly she made some excercises on her back and arms. She listened to V's instructions when she stood in front of the doll.

"So, when you approach a foe, you must look like the tougher one. Don't look scared, you'll just loose self-confidence. Since you stretched your legs so nice and neatly, you can start using them. When you kick, always tense your leg and foot and try to make it less vurnable, and kick on the side. Try yourself."

Evey did as V said and gave the doll a smack that caused it to vibrate lightly.

"Again."

She kicked again.

"And again."

Evey did as she was told to.

"More force, Evey."

Evey collected all her body strength and gave all that she had.

V watched her. She was still not doing it completely. She needed more… Power. He crossed his arms, thinking of how he'd better tell her. Evey was focussed, she was everything he wanted her to be, but she still missed that little spark that he wanted to see. V took a few steps to behind the doll. He looked at the brunette.

"You don't want the same thing to happen to you."

"What?" Evey asked, breething heavily.

"You don't want Sutler or Creedy to take you. You want to be strong. They will use your weak sides, they will use your weakness. You don't want that to happen, do you? Show them who you are, Evey. Hurt them, as bad as you can. Hurt them hard."

Evey heard what V told her, and instantly the memory of her parents was fresh again. She still remembered herself as a little, scared girl watching her parents being taken away by government agents. She would never let that happen to her. She would never allow it. Never. This time the words had affect on her, with all energy and power that she had, she kicked at the doll, and the only sound that was heard after that, was the material head of the doll hitting the floor.