LES DÉSCENDANTS

~Chapter 16: Un Voyage Pour Trouver la Vérité (A Journey to Find the Truth)~

A/N: Avenir's first name has been changed from Elania to Elena.  Also feel free to go back and re-read what just happened so it makes a bit more sense as I haven't updated in a few months! A lot goes down so let me know if anything is unclear; I'm still editing.  Chapter is dedicated to Aire_1832 for the inspiration from the song "Inkpot Gods" even tho he'll probably never forgive me for what's about to happen I'M  S O  SORRY.

I blinked, and the crowd had disappeared, including the great author, and Grantaire.

The only person remaining was Courfeyrac.

The duplicate versions of ourselves, standing together on the empty Parisian street, looked around us, puzzled.

"Now what?" I said weakly.

"You have told past Enjolras about the speech, have you not?" asked Courfeyrac.

"I have."

"And we have tried to persuade Victor to do the right thing, have we not?"

"We have."

"Now," Courf grimaced, "we fight.  But I must tell you, if the futuristic version of yourself who saved me from manipulation by...by that Soult man is any indication of what's going to happen to you, you might want to bring some extra bandages."

"You...saw another version of me?"

"I saw a glimpse of the future.  And..." he hesitated.

"Tell me."

"I don't know if I should; the butterfly effect..."

"Courf.  Tell me."

He took a deep breath.  "You got shot, Avenir, you told me you got shot but survived it."

I stared.

"There's more," he said in a shaky voice.  "You were shot, it sounds like Enjolras was unconscious...but we have to tell this future version of Enjolras to pass the artifact to the unconscious version of himself.  That's what future you told me at least."

"Courfeyrac, if anyone sees double Enjolrai, they're going to go mental.  Once Enjolras gives the speech and Victor re-writes the ending, we're fine."

"I don't trust that Victor won't get carried away in his writing and...accidentally mess up," explained Courf.  "We can't risk it; if we can't have double...what was it?"

"Enjolrai.  Plural of Enjolras.  Better than Enjolrasses.  You know."

Courfeyrac gave a weak smile.  "So someone else, then."

"What about Grantaire?"

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Enjolras was rounding the corner while we continued discussing plans.  His eyes were bloodshot, his hair rumpled.

"Careful," I whispered to Courf, "we don't which version this is."

"Elena," blurted Enjolras.

"Ok, now we know. It's the future one," I whispered, as Enjolras crushed me with a hug.

"What's wrong, Enjolr-"

"Jehan is gone," Enjolras interrupted.  "He's missing; we went back to check on him and...he's just gone."

I paled, as Courfeyrac was saying, "I knew we couldn't trust Victor to kill someone off..."

"Don't be silly," I said gravely.  "If Victor is killing anyone off, he's going to do it in the most dramatic way possible.  Either that, or in a sentence.  But never mind that; we all remember my brother's fate. I wish to speak with him."  My half of the artifact immediately started glowing.