LES DÉSCENDANTS

~Chapter 2: La Voûte des Noms (The Vault of Names)~

Enjolras P.O.V

Darkness. Would my story end as it began, in darkness?

The hallway ahead of me shed no light, and I felt my way through the compound about a foot...until I remembered my half of the artifact in my pocket.

I quickly but carefully pulled it out, saying almost bitterly, "If this...magic could do at least one thing right, can there at least be some light? A glow? Anything to show me the way?"

Nothing happened, and my voice echoed in the darkness. A jolt of anger surged through me as I shouted to no one in particular - "You already made our lives miserable, ignored my last wish, what more do you want from me?"

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Doubt comes in
The wind is changing
Doubt comes in
How cold it's blowing
Doubt comes in
And meets a stranger
Walking on a road alone
Where is she?
Where is she now?
Doubt comes in...
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"Who am I?" I thought, bitterly...
"Where do I think I'm going?

Who am I?
Why am I all alone?

Who do I think I am?
Who am I to think that she would follow me into the cold and dark again?"

Where is she?
Where is she now?

And I swear upon the stars, I heard Avenir's voice echoing, soaring through the darkness, answering my cries as I made endless turns through this labyrinth of a building...

Enjolras...
Are you listening?
I am right here
And I will be to the end
And the coldest night
Of the coldest year
Comes right before the spring...

I shook my head, as her voice faded from my mind...that's all it was. An auditory illusion...she couldn't possibly be here...

"Who am I?
Who am I against them?" I said, knowing that I was most likely walking toward a trap set by the enemy that had separated us.

"Who am I?
Why would they let me win?
Why would they let her go?
Who am I to think that they wouldn't deceive me just to trap me here alone?"

Is this a trap that's being laid for me?
Is this a trick that's being played on me?
I used to see the way the world could be -

But now the way it is is all I see..."


Where is she?
Where is she now?

The voice suddenly echoed through my head again...

Enjolras...
You are not alone
I am right behind you
And I have been all along
The darkest hour
Of the darkest night
Comes right before the-

The voice instantly left my consciousness as I noticed a low light coming from what appeared to be an illuminated doorway.

Every fiber of my being was telling me to open the door, so I touched the doorknob and I heard a lock click.

The door swung open, and I found myself in a room full of what Avenir had taught me were called screens, each one giving an ominous glow.

What was this place?

Upon each screen, I saw lists upon lists of words, letters, scrolling, faster, and faster, and faster...

Blinded by the sudden light, I squinted and slowly approached the center of the room, where I noticed that the words scrolling past were names.

This room appeared to be a vault of...names? Names, perhaps, of everyone in Paris?

I touched a trembling finger against the main screen in the center of the room and it first glowed a golden hue not unlike that of the artifact, then went black. I jumped back.  An object which Avenir taught me was called a keyboard suddenly illuminated and a search bar appeared.

Not knowing how much time I had before I would be caught, I quickly typed in the first name I could think of: Gavroche Thénardier.

I hit enter.

A record quickly appeared:

Gavroche Thénardier

b. 1820  A.D.     d. 1832 A.D.

Classification: Highly Dangerous

I scoffed at highly dangerous but then my heart stopped.  Gavroche...dead?  In 1832?

"No," I muttered.  "That can't be."

I tapped to exit the screen, and the search bar returned.

Thinking of Avenir, but not knowing her real name, I quickly typed Jean Prouvaire and hit enter, desperate to see if it would list sibling names.

A record quickly appeared:

Édouard Soult, alias Jean "Jehan" Prouvaire

b. 2000 P.D.       d. 2020 P.D.

Classification: Highly Dangerous, Rebellious Against Family Name, Manipulator of Time.

Source of Powers: Unknown

Remedy: Unnamed

***

Revision - Last Updated Jul. 17, 2020, P.D.

Note: Relation (brother) to Target X.  Terminated.

Sgt. Alistair Armand, 3rd battalion

***

Finding it hard to stand, I gripped onto the keyboard and sank to my knees in grief.  I had just found out five horrific facts that I wished I could forget:

Number 1 - The Society of Marseille already knew about time travel.  They had taken over Paris, and now that they knew Jehan...Édouard...could time travel, who knows how they would try and meddle with time...

This meant I had to protect the artifact with my life.  If the enemy discovered how time travel was possible, it could mean the end of the world.

Number 2 - Jean Prouvaire was not an "Unnamed" as he and his sister had previously thought.  He had a name, and perhaps he had abandoned it...and for good reason...

...because his last name matched that of Captain Metias Soult of the National Guard.

Number 3 - This meant the "Unnamed" all had real names, which meant Avenir had a real name as well.  The government's "remedy" for those who rebelled against their family's name must have been to erase their names completely and perhaps wiping their memories...otherwise, wouldn't Avenir had known she was related to...him?

Number 4 - Avenir was known to the Society of Marseilles as Target X.  Clearly, they knew her to be a threat even before she traveled to the past, and they wished to weaken her by "terminating" Jehan - Édouard - and hoping she hadn't discovered her powers.

Number 5 - Avenir, like her brother, appeared to be related to Captain Metias Soult.

She and Jehan both were descendants of the captain of the National Guard...my enemy, the ones who almost killed myself and who succeeded in killing my friends.

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(A/N: The name Édouard means "guardian," or "protector!"  Wow! A lot went down in this chapter!  My head hurts from Enjolras's 5 realizations! Any questions/something you'd like clarified?)