Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I feel the cold knife dig into my small eyes as their carved out, the blood running down my face as I scream, but it’s a phantom pain. An old memory of Larkhill that I can’t seem to ever stop from haunting me. The last thing I ever saw was a knife plunging into my eyes after my eyelids were stapled open. I feel Dominic shaking me, trying to wake me from it. Poor sweet Dominic, if only he knew. I told him bits and pieces of course, I also told him I’d kick his ass if he treated me like I was invalid or broken. Over time he figured out what had happened, I was the kid of activists that asked too many questions, then ended up in my own hellhole.

When I feel a hand touch my shoulder I grab the knife under my pillow and switch places, straddling his waist and pinning his hands above his head with one hand and the other holding a knife to his throat, forgetting that I’m safe in his house in his room.

After a moment I feel a hand grab my wrist gently and remember where I am, instantly throwing the knife across the room and getting away from Dominic, only to be pulled into his arms and hearing “it’s OK, you're safe, it’s over” being repeated in his calming voice. I sigh into him but I don’t cry, I don’t make a sound. After a minute or two his alarm clock goes off and he sighs before kissing my head. As we both get ready he helps me braid my hair it falls on the right side of my face because of the burns on the left. Unlike my father my scars don’t worry me, but then again I can’t see judging faces. I can’t see the look of shock or fear or sympathy that comes from having burn scars. 

It’s quiet as we walk through the streets, despite the traffic and people walking around us everyone is too nervous to say anything, in fear of last night or the Chanceller I don’t know, probably both considering the light show dad put on. He is always into theatrics when it comes to destroying and/or rebelling from things. And he says I’m dramatic.

I get a few looks here and there, I can feel it. Someone staring at the scars that cover me. I roll my eyes and raise an eyebrow in the direction I fell it coming from. Satisfied when I hear a yelp and someone walking faster. “Y’know” Dominic starts. “The more you do that the more likely it is they might actually report you to the fingers.” I roll my eyes. “Sweetie, the moment I care what the Chancellors bitches think of me, I’ll be sure to let them know. Until then, they’ll just have to get over it.” I hear him chuckle quietly before he kisses my temple.

As we enter the coffee shop I instantly pick up on everyone's conversations, I guess the experimentation that was done to me was a blessing as well as a curse. A few recognize me as I come here every morning, the rest seem surprised. I feel Dom’s arm wrap around my torso as he guides me through the line. “The usual?” I laugh. “After last night, and all were gonna have to do today, we’ll need the extra shot of caffeine.” I hear him sigh and say “I know right” before he goes about making it.  

As we get our coffee Eric shows up. “Ivy, can I borrow Dominic for a moment?” I smirk. “I dont’ know can you borrow him?” I hear Dom snort next to me as Eric sighs. “ May I borrow Dominic?” I act like I’m thinking about it before shrugging. “I don’t know, ask him.” I go back to drinking my coffee as I can feel Erics glare. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you it’s rude to stare?” “Didn’t your’s tell you not to be sarcastic all the time?” I shrug. “Probably, but she’s been dead for 20 years so I don’t really remember.”

“Anyway, yeah I’ll go to the station with you, give me a second.” Dom kisses me before grabbing his coat. “Drinks later love?” I smile. “Wouldn’t miss it.”

As they leave I grab my coat full of knives and head down to the BTN and meet up with V. He is waiting for me in the ally way next to it. "So how did last night go?" He sighs. "Oh the usual victim of the fingermen. An amazing performance as well." I laugh at his enthusiasm. "How's Dominic?" I know he doesn't really like me having a boyfriend, being socially isolated makes him extra protective of me. "He's sweet as ever, you should meet sometime." I know he's about to start an argument so I roll my eyes and continue. "He's not gonna bite you you know, he's seen me at my worst and has accepted me more than anything. He's super sweet." "I believe you darling, I really do. But he is a part of London's Finest. If you got caught you'd get him killed or worse." I nod my head in understanding. 

"They would have to kill me before I let those spiders anywhere near him." He hands me the electronics diffuser. "I know that, and it worries me. But you must understand I'm not just worried about that, I'm also worried about what might happen if he found out the truth. It he knew how dangerous you really are." I nod my understanding, but nothing more. Dominic has asked me if I could defend myself, and I've kicked his ass every Saturday to prove that I could. But he doesn't, no he can't understand the true reason behind my dangerousness. If he knew the plans that V and I have, he would probably try to arrest me, or worse, help me with them. I shake that horrific idea of him being cut open because of me from my mind and smile at V.

“Ready to raise a little hell?” "Always"

Chapter Text

Getting the outfits in was easy, getting around without getting caught was difficult. It’s hard to focus with a fucking alarm going off and confusing the shit out of me. I see kind of with sonar, sound bounces off of stuff and comes back to me. Gets me around without me running into much and even helps when there isn’t a lot of detail to worry about.

“DOMINIC!” I look around the corner to see them going after some girl as she runs off into the rest of the crowd. “shit” I hide under the guard's booth as they chase down the girl, hopefully not realizing someone in a mask getting under the desk. I mean the masks inverted but still. When I look up and see them gone I get out and make sure it’s clear before making a sweep of the area.

“All clear V….but Dominic's here.” I whisper into the earpiece as I make my way through the building, taking out the guards and police in my way. I listen as Dominic searches a room before rushing into the others and searching them. Then the signal goes out on the telly before V shows up on in.

“Good evening, London. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of everyday routine- the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition.”

Polite as always.

“I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration, thereby those important events of the past usually associated with someone's death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, a celebration of a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat.”

I check the next hallway to find them trying to burn the door down.

“There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why?”

A pause

“Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there?

Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission.”

Dramatic fucker

“How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror.”

As he lets that sink in I watch as morons try to get cameras because they're obviously going to see a masked mans face. Can you feel the intense eye roll?

“I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent.

Last night I sought to end that silence. Last night I destroyed the Old Bailey, to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than four hundred years ago a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives.

So if you've seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you then I would suggest you allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament, and together we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgot.”

I step out and wait for V outside the elevators, but yet again, hide under the surveillance counter as hear someone come around the corner. Pine fills my senses. Dominic, shit. The bomb didn’t go off, which means it was diffused.

“FREEZE” Shiiiit. “Get cha hands on your head….DO IT NOW OR I’LL SHOOT!” Back off love, he’s more dangerous than you. “I must say that I’m rather astonished by the response time of London’s Finest. I hadn’t expected you to be so Johnny on the spot.” “We were here before you even started, bad luck chummy.” I see some girl go behind him. “Oh I don’t know about that.” After she maced him he hit her with a gun, luckily I had thrown knives to pin him to the wall before getting out a vial of paralytic. “Get the girl, get out of here V!” I inject it into Dominic’s leg.

I had realized a little too late that my voice changer wasn’t on and the look of absolute betrayal on Dominic’s face was deep enough for even me to see the details of it. V picked up the girl as I checked Dom’s pulse. “I’m so sorry love….so so sorry.” I hear a sigh. “No your not.” I take the mask off, for there is no point to it anyway before looking in Dom’s direction.

“I told you, there is a side of me that you will see, that you will know and understand….then there's the one you're not supposed to see. The one that kills without a second thought. The one that blows up buildings. The one that knows how to fight, how to poison, how to kill.”

I feel another tear go down my face. “The one you weren’t supposed to see, because I knew if you did you would hate me for it. I warned you love, and you didn’t listen.” I shake my head. “And I was foolish enough to believe that this wouldn’t happen, that you would never find this half of me. That some part of my life could be fucking normal, but I was wrong. I’m sorry love.”

“The paralytic should wear off in an hour or so.” I got up and walking away.

Chapter Text

The clink of metal hitting metal causes a ringing in my ears, but I needed to fight something after the BTN. V was the obvious choice as Evey sat on a couch and watched. Well she kept score as she laughed at V’s antics and games. My phone rings again, it’s Dominic again. I throw a knife at it and it finally stops.

I growl deeply in frustration as V and Evey freeze.

There is a moment of silence before I hear Evey mutter about tea and leave the room. The moment she leaves I really start fighting V. It takes him a whole minute to be able to do more than just dodge my knives and actually fight back.

As we hit, kick, smack, and just beat the shit out of each other it gets worse and worse and it’s no longer practice or training, I start fighting like he really is the enemy and he does the same before I jump on him and pin him to the ground.

He grabs my wrists and gets me under him before completely pinning me down. “IV STOP!” This just frustrates me causing me to fight harder and harder. When I finally decide to give up I let out a scream of frustration and pain and it echos in the otherwise silent room.

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Two weeks. It’s been two weeks and she hasn’t answered her phone. Hasn’t come home. Hasn’t even…. I let out a deep sigh as Eric shows up. “Find her?” I look at him, well more through him but I’m not exactly in a shit giving mood today. I can’t tell him anything even if I did find her. He’d end up accidentally telling someone that would hurt her.

“Nothing yet.” He nods his head. “She’s probably hidden herself underground for now. We just have to wait for her to come topside.” I nod.

“I also did a facial recognition through the system, and got nothing.” I look up in confusion and show him her ID. “It’s fake, IV doesn’t exist. There is something we're missing and until we figure it out we have to assume that IV and V are-” I had tuned him out. There is something odd about their names, but what?

Roman Numerals.

“Their names are Roman Numerals. That’s why they don’t exist, it must be from a detention center or hospital.” He nods and starts thinking. “I’ll look through the records of all patients in rooms four and five over the past decade in all hospitals, detention centers, and schools. Until I find something, keep trying to get ahold of her.”

When he leaves I go through my room to see if there is something, anything pointing to who she really is. She had moved in about 4 months ago, so that wasn’t V’s motive. I go to my laptop and look up important events in the last twenty years that landed on November the fifth.

*RING*

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She’s going to be so pissed that I’m doing this.

“IV!” His tone is worried.

“No, she’s helping Evey with the piano.” He is silent on the other end, probably trying to figure out what is happening.

“So your V?” A pause, then a sigh.

“Is she safe?” It’s a quiet question, not what I expected given the way he looked at her before he passed out.

“The safest place she can be. Your computers can't trace this, and so can’t find us. Fingermen don’t come this far down and in all honesty this is our domain therefore there isn’t much that your government can do to find us.”

“I don’t bloody care about the government! I want to know that she’s safe !”

“What are you doing?!”

I jump at the sound of IV’s voice. She looks at me for a moment before she snatches the phone from my hand. “Hello?” There's a long pause before I’m given possibly the scariest look I’ve ever received from another person.

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“Are you alright?” Dominic’s voice rings in my ear long after I’ve hung up on him. I’ve been pacing in my room for the good part of an hour after the conversation.

“I just want to know if your alright, is that really so surprising?” Pulling at my hair I growl at him.

“You could get yourself killed, or worse! I know what those fucking bastards you work for do to traitors, if they thought for just a moment that you were helping me or in league with me and V they would torture the shit out of you just to get to me! I know better than just about anyone who has ever been black bagged by those bastards what they do to people! Do you have any idea what they are capeable of?! Do you have any idea how much it would kill me if they had you because of me?!”

There is a very long pause with the only sound being my heavy breathing. I hear someone enter the room. “Tea?” It’s Evey. “In a moment.” I hear a quiet ‘ok’ before the door closes and I’m in total silence again.

“I have to go, y’know the world always stops for tea love.” He goes to say something and I hang up on him before leaving my phone on my bed and making my way to the kitchen. I feel a small hand help me find my chair before a hear a cup put in front of me.

“Thank you.”

I collapse on my bed before letting the nightmares take me.