What Truths the Light will Show

Disclaimer: As per usual, I must reluctantly admit that I do not own any part of V for Vendetta in any way, shape or form.

Chapter One

"But I don't want you to die," her voice rasped hoarsely. Shadows crept into the edges of his vision, threatening to darken the world for good. Still, he clung to the sight of her young, beautiful face. It gave him joy; it made his heart ache with bittersweet feeling. Evey's heartfelt words gave him peace as he had never known.

"That is the most beautiful thing you could have given me," he replied, smiling beneath his mask.

This had been the moment his entire existence had been leading up to. His bomb was set, waiting to send a blazing symbol to the people of London. He had achieved his goal and killed all who had had a hand in creating him, in perpetrating horrors and of repressing the freedom of the people. In his soul, V had always known that he would die when this day had finally come, and he had been totally content with that knowledge. How odd that he should now want to stay, not for the sake of living in a new world, but for the sake of sparing the one he loved pain.

There is no happy ending, he mused lethargically. Surely, she could not have expected one. Evey would survive his death, he knew. She had always been strong in a way, and now pain and rain had strengthened her further. She would do great things in the new England.

The pain slowly left his body, all sensation flowing away as his life left him. He had expected darkness, silence, oblivion. Like life, death is seldom as one expects it to be. It's amazing what truths the light will show…