Editing V for Vendetta (section)

===Book 3: The Land of Do-As-You-Please===
The following 5 November (1998), V blows up the [[BT Tower|Post Office Tower]] and Jordan Tower, killing "the Ear" leader Brian Etheridge, in addition to effectively shutting down three government agencies: the Eye, the Ear, and the Mouth. Creedy's men and Harper's associated street gangs violently suppress the subsequent wave of revolutionary fervor from the public. V notes to Evey that he has not yet achieved what he calls the "[[The Magic Faraway Tree (novel)#Lands in the Book|Land of Do-as-You-Please]]," meaning a functional [[anarchy|anarchistic]] society, and considers the current [[chaos theory|chaotic]] situation an interim period of "[[The Enchanted Wood (novel)#Lands in the book|Land of Take-What-You-Want]]." Finch has been mysteriously absent, and his young assistant, Dominic Stone, one day realises that V has been influencing the ''Fate'' computer all along, which explained V's consistent foresight. All the while, Finch has been travelling to the abandoned site of Larkhill, where he takes [[Lysergic acid diethylamide|LSD]] to conjure up memories of his own devastating past and to put his mind in the role of a prisoner of Larkhill, like V, to help give him an intuitive understanding of V's experiences. Returning to London, Finch suddenly deduces that V's lair is inside the abandoned [[London Victoria station|Victoria Station]], which he enters.

V takes Finch by surprise, resulting in a scuffle that sees Finch shoot V, and V wounds Finch with a knife. V claims that he cannot be killed since he is only an idea and that "ideas are bulletproof"; regardless, V is indeed mortally wounded and returns to the Shadow Gallery deeper within, dying in Evey's arms. Evey considers unmasking V but decides not to, realising that V is not an identity but a symbol. She then assumes V's identity, donning one of his spare costumes. Finch sees the large amount of blood that V has left in his wake and deduces that he has mortally wounded V. Occurring concurrently to this, Creedy has been pressuring Susan to appear in public, hoping to leave him exposed. Sure enough, as Susan stops to shake hands with Rose during a parade, she shoots him in the head in vengeance for the death of her husband and the life she has had to lead since then. Following Rose's arrest, Creedy assumes emergency leadership of the country, and Finch emerges from the subway proclaiming V's death.

Due to his LSD-induced epiphany, Finch leaves his position within "the Nose." The power struggle between the remaining leaders results in all of their deaths: Harper betrays and kills Creedy at the behest of Helen Heyer (wife of "the Eye" leader Conrad Heyer, who had outbid Creedy for Harper's loyalty), and Harper and Conrad Heyer kill each other during a fight precipitated by Heyer's discovery that his wife Helen had had an affair with Harper.

With the fate of the top government officials unknown to the public, Stone acts as leader of the police forces deployed to ensure that the riots are contained should V remain alive and make his promised public announcement. Evey appears to a crowd, dressed as V, announcing the destruction of [[10 Downing Street]] the following day and telling the crowd they must ''"...choose what comes next. Lives of your own, or a return to chains"'', whereupon a general [[Insurgency|insurrection]] begins. Evey destroys 10 Downing Street<ref>{{Cite comic|writer=[[Alan Moore|Moore, Alan]]|penciller=[[David Lloyd (comics)|Lloyd, David]]|story=V for Vendetta|title=V for Vendetta|volume=10|date=May 1989|publisher=[[DC Comics]]|page=28|panel=6}}</ref> by blowing up an [[London Underground|Underground]] train containing V's body in the style of an explosive [[Viking funeral]]. She abducts Stone, apparently to train him as her successor to make sure people like Susan will never hold power ever again. The comic ends with Finch quietly observing the chaos raging in the city and walking down an abandoned motorway whose lights have all gone out.