Unmasked

Chapter 2

The Last Gift

"The Underground?" Evey mused when she finally recognized her surroundings. "I thought they closed this all down."

"They did," he confirmed, "It took nearly 10 years to clear the tracks and lay a bit of my own. Let me show you."

10 years. It struck Evey once again just how long V had been working towards this day.

He lead her to the tracks and she cautiously made her way inside, examining the tunnel. Her stomach flipped at what she saw. Explosives.  Realization dawned on her as she turned back to V who was watching her intently.

"These tracks lead to Parliament." It was not a question.

"Yes," he nodded.

"Then it's really going to happen, isn't it?"

"It will if you want it to."

"What?" Evey furrowed her brow in confusion.

He could not possibly...

"This is my gift to you, Evey. Everything that I have: My home, my books, the gallery, this train l'm leaving to you to do with what you will."

Her head was spinning. He left her.. everything. He left decades of planning in her hands. She shuddered as her mind frantically tried to work out what it all meant.

"Is this another trick, V?"

He shook his head, "No. No more tricks. No more lies. Only truth. And the truth is, you made me understand that I was wrong that the choice to pull this lever is not mine to make."

"Why?" She begged for answers. Why was he giving her this choice? Where was he going that he wouldn't need any of his things any longer? The possibilities left a horrid feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"Because this world the world that I'm a part of and that I helped shape, will end tonight. And tomorrow, a different world will begin that different people will shape, and this choice belongs to them," he stepped back off the train, flicking his cape behind him as he turned away from her and began walking back out of the tunnels.

"Where are you going?" She called after him, stepping out of the train as well. Had he intended to say nothing else? Simply leave her there with this world-altering decision. Not telling her where he was going, what he was doing? Not even taking a second to bid her farewell?

He turned to face her again and she cursed the mask for hiding any indicators that might be shown on his face.

"The time has come for me to meet my maker and to repay him in kind for all that he's done," he stated, turning away from her once more.

"V, wait!" Her feet took off after him. "Please, you don't have to do this. You could let it go. We could leave here together." Please I want us to stay together.

"No," he said, sadly but firmly, "You were right about what I am. I have no tree waiting for me. All I want, all I deserve, is at the end of that tunnel."

"That's not true," she pleaded for him to understand. Lifting onto her toes she pressed her lips to the cold rigid ones of the mask, and though she had kissed the mask and not him, he received it all the same.

"I can't," he simply stated, turning from her and quickly making his way down the tracks.

Not once did he look back at the woman he had fallen in love with, as one more look at her face as her heart shattered may have convinced him to stay.