Skulduggery Pleasant:

Disclaimer: I don't own Skulduggery Pleasant the great Derek Landy does, YOU ROCK LANDY! :D

So basically, anyone that has read my work before knows that I wrote this about 4 years ago. But after logging into my account and realising how much errors there was, I just had to correct them all. But for anyone that is new to my writing, please enjoy and feel free to tell me what you think!

Valkyrie's POV

Valkyrie hated the way her mind worked; she didn't like the fact that she liked that one man, if you could call him that. He was mysterious and dangerous and every time she went near him, and they fought side by side she nearly got killed but that's what she liked. The trill of being side by side with the one man she trusted more than anyone. That gorgeous voice that always makes her weak and she can't get enough of it and that giant ego. She feared that showing her feeling to him could ruin everything. It was unbearable to think about and not be able to tell anyone. She felt almost alone and stupid that she couldn't tell him but what would he think of her. Would he feel the same or leave her, or worst of all, would he hate her?

She couldn't believe she was thinking these things; he would never leave her, would he?

Would the one and only Skulduggery Pleasant hate her, leave her… love her?

No, he would never love her… he still loves his wife and child! And why would he? She was stubborn, annoying, self-centred, arrogant little girl. Well she can't call herself a girl anymore now could she. 19 years old and her heart has fallen for a skeleton, nice going Valkyrie.

She stood up and walked to the window, opened it, and let the air blow though her hair and face, it was a beautiful night and she just wanted to be with one person right now. Her mind wandered.

Skulduggery's POV

Skulduggery was standing there just a couple yards away from her window but far enough, so she wouldn't see him. He saw her open the window and the wind blow through her gorgeous hair, and he thought to himself . . .

Why was she so beautiful? It was unbelievable. Her laugh and smile always made his imaginary heart skip a beat. She was gorgeous, funny, and best of all a great fighter. We always said, "Until the End" and that is how is it will be. She was so innocent when he first saw her, and now look at her - stubborn as ever! But he liked that about her, the fact she was always determined and would never give up. He was so protective of her that if someone hurt her, she would just…break. He knew that Valkyrie looked up to him as a father figure; he didn't think she thought of him in any other way, and who would blame her? He was a skeleton, egotistic and just acted that the world revolved around him. No one would love that… and another thing, he was over 400 years old and she was 19. A beautiful 19-year-old. That moment Skulduggery decided; If he can't show his love for her, then he would protect and give his life for her. Again and Again.

He watched her close the window and walk away from it, then a few minutes later his phone rang.

"Hello?" Skulduggery answered.

"Hey Skul, can you come over please. I... I really need to talk to you" sounding as if she was out of breath.

"Umm… Yeah sure, I'll be over in a few minutes" Skulduggery answered confused and worried.

"Okay, see ya soon" and the phone went dead. Skulduggery was starting to get a bit worried. He didn't know what she wanted to talk about, but then again, he could be getting worked up over nothing. But why did she sound so weak, he thought to himself.

He got to her house in the matter of a few seconds – considering he was standing on her street gazing at her. He used the air to lift himself up to her window and tapped on the window.

Third-person POV

Valkyrie heard the tap on her window and her heart started the thump, feeling like she was going to black out. She walked over to the window and opened it, looking quite pale. Skulduggery climbed through the window into her room with a worried expression, well, as much as a skeleton could look.

"Are you ok?" His voice full of concern. The velvet voice than made Valkyrie's knees shake.

"Yeah, I'm … fine" She said in a faint voice, whilst leaning against the wall for support.

Skulduggery looked at Valkyrie through his hollow eye-sockets which were filled with concern. Valkyrie attempted to move forward but stumbled to the side as her head started to feel as if the room was spinning around her. Skulduggery was oblivious to what was going on as he had his back to her. Then Valkyrie's eyes went to the back of her head and her body started to drop to the floor. Skulduggery quickly turned around and caught her just before her head hit the floor and all Valkyrie saw was darkness. Skulduggery scoped Valkyrie's limp body up and gently lay her down on her bed. From what Skulduggery could see, her face looked a lot paler than it was and her body felt as cold as ice.

"Valkyrie, Valkyrie, wake up," Skulduggery said in a pleading voice while shaking her lightly, "Please, Valkyrie."

She didn't respond.

"Valkyrie, Stephanie…" He paused for a moment and in a desperate tone of voice said: "Darquesse".

Suddenly Valkyrie's eyes shot wide open.

This made Skulduggery move back slightly, but he quickly covered and leant towards her to ensure she was okay. He noticed that she didn't have the same chocolate brown eyes. Instead, they were black.

Then it hit him - Darquesse was the one laying down before him.

Skulduggery started to move back quickly, taking little steps at a time. He didn't want to run, encase she lunged herself at him.

"Valkyrie, are you there, can you hear me, come on Valkyrie… you can control this!" Skulduggery said in a worried and scared tone.

A smile grow on Darquesse's face but she didn't reply. Instead, she slowly got off the bed, and walked towards Skulduggery. Skulduggery didn't want to hurt Valkyrie, so he moved backwards until he felt his back against the wall. She had cornered him. Her smile widened.

"Why so scared Skul? Don't you trust me?" Darquesse said in a slightly psychotic voice whilst tilting her head to the side.

"No, I trust Valkyrie. Not you." he said in his defence, in a strong tone.

"Well, to be quite honest; you shouldn't really trust me anyway - you see - I'm going to break you limb by limb. I'm going to listen to your screams… which will be music to my ears" Darquesse spat back.

She put her hand to Skulduggery's neck and squeezed, lifting his body off the ground. He could of done something to defend himself but he could never hurt Valkyrie.

"Valkyrie, Pleas-, Please this isn't y- you.. Fight it. Ple- Please", Skulduggery just about managed to gasp out.

A moment later - Darquesse screamed. She put her hands to her head and Skulduggery dropped to the ground with a thud.

"Skulduggery, Please Help. Someone. Please." Skulduggery realised that the voice had a slightly change in pitch. That's Valkyrie! He said to himself.

"Come on Valkyrie, Fight her. Fight her." He shouted, though his voice sounded slightly harsh from Darquesse's grip.

Valkyrie arched her back and with the energy she just about had left, she took of her ring. Valkyrie's body collapsed on the floor. Skulduggery ran up to her, checked her pulse…her pulse was faint, and she was barely breathing. He picked her up and carried her in a bridal style fashion. No one was in the house at the time, so he decided to use the front door for a change and ran to the car. Once had had Valkyrie's seatbelt fastened he ran to the driver's side, turned the car on and then pushed down on the accelerator. He drove all the way to Kenspeckle as fast as he could whilst looking over at Valkyrie ever few seconds.

No… she can't die. Valkyrie never dies. She's a fighter! Skulduggery thought to himself, as an attempt to calm his nerves.

When Skulduggery eventually arrived at Kenspeckle's, he took Valkyrie out of the car and stormed into the room which Kenspeckle was situated. Kenspeckle looked up at Skulduggery, saw Valkyrie and told him the place her on a bed quickly and went straight to work.

After about 3 hours; Valkyrie woke up and found she was in a bed and she couldn't remember how she got here. The last thing she remembered is her in agony and screaming. What the heck happened? Was the only thought running through Valkyrie's brain at this point.

Valkyrie was confused as the whereabouts of Skulduggery, but this thought was interrupted by Kenspeckle entering the room looking very unhappy. Valkyrie believed it was her job to try and cheer him up.

"Hi, thanks for fixing me up again" Valkyrie said, giving a weak smile.

"Oh that's quite alright Valkyrie" Kenspeckle replied softly.

Something is very wrong…Valkyrie thought to herself. Kenspeckle was never this quiet when she got hurt, he always gave her lectures and abusing Skulduggery for getting Valkyrie into the mess in the first place.

"What's wrong?" Valkyrie asked.

"Oh, nothing important!" He answered, not looking in her direction.

"You are never this quiet and I can tell there is something wrong… what is it?" She asked assertively.

Kenspeckle looked across the room to the double doors and didn't look at her. She raised an eye-brow but decided to change the subject.

"Where's Skulduggery?" Valkyrie asked.

"At Ghastly's shop, he was a bit shaken up about what happened to you." He replied.

Valkyrie started to roll out of the bed, saying: "OK, I'm going to go see –"

Kenspeckle quickly interrupted Valkyrie: "Oh no, you're not going anywhere until I double check you are fine!"

"I'm fine" lifting herself of the bed. "See!" her leg buckled which caused her to fall to the ground. Kenspeckle picked her up from the floor and stared at her with an 'I-told-you-so' expression.

"OK, maybe I'm not in 100% top condition…I'll get fixed up and then I'll go see Skulduggery" She said, smiling slightly at the thought of seeing Skulduggery.

Kenspeckle smiled kindly and helped her up to the bed.

Meanwhile, Skulduggery was telling to Ghastly about what happened to Valkryie.

"And I brought her to Kenspeckle, she was bearly breathing, I don't like seeing her like that Ghastly." Skuduggery explained.

"Well, I can tell you I wasn't expecting that." Ghastly answered, looking slightly bewildered.

"What do I do? She means everything to me!"

"You need to tell her before she gets into something far worse and you can never tell her how you truly feel"

"But…Ok, you're right. I'll tell her. Oh, how's you and Tanith doing?"

"Grand, she's went to England for a bit because she needed to do some stuff at the English Sanctuary up there but she will be coming back tomorrow."

"That's good; I bet Valkyrie will be happy to see her again." He said with a soft smile.

"Yeah, it's a good thing Valkyrie got the Remnant out of her."

"Yeah, definitely."

FLASHBACK

"You will never ruin my hair, I am to brilli-" Fletcher said but was cut off by Valkyrie using air to splash him in the face with water. Fletcher just stood on the sand with water dripping down his face glaring at Valkyrie.

"You were saying?" Valkyrie shouted playfully, as she was in the sea at the beach.

"I'm still brilli-" Fletcher was once again interrupted by Valkyrie as she used the air to throw a wave of water in his direction. He looked at her with a disapproved look. Valkyrie tried everything in her power to keep a straight face, which didn't last long as she ended up coming out of the sea and rolling around in the sand from laughing so much.

"Come on Fletch, I'm getting cold now." Valkyrie said.

Fletcher put his hand on Valkyrie's shoulder and they teleported to where their clothes and towels were. They then both walked up the beach and Valkyrie could see someone in the distance. She squinted her eyes and was able to make out someone with blonde hair who was carrying a sword. There was only one person in the world who that would be.

"Oh God" Valkyrie said in a low, dull voice.

"What?" Fletcher replied. He looked over in the direction Valkyrie was looking in and realised what was happening.

"Hello, sis" said Tanith, sweetly.

"Don't call me sis. Tanith is my sister - not you." Valkyrie said defensively.

"But I am Tanith! I just got a little upgrade, it's me Val"

For a minute Valkyrie was going to walk up to Tanith and tell her how much she missed her. But she didn't, she just stood there with pleading eyes, wanting her sister back.

"Why are you here?" Fletcher asked in a dull and annoyed voice.

"Why; to see you guys of course!" she said sweetly.

"Well you saw us now, so…bye" Fletcher said while glaring at her. I'm so baddass… Fletcher thought to himself.

"Well that's not very nice…Oh well! I have a friend I want you to meet. She is really nice, Val you meet know here." Tanith said grinning. "Avril, you can come out now!"

Out came a girl with beautiful light brown hair which went all the way down to the small of her back. She wore a white top, tight leather jacket, blue washed out skinny jeans and black converses. She walked all the way up to the group and stood beside Tanith putting her hand on her hip whilst popping some gum.

"Jazzie? I didn't know you could do magic?" Valkyrie said, her voice full of uncertainty.

"Yup" she replied, popping the p. "Oh and it's not Jazzie anymore, it's Avril."

"Oh…" Valkyrie said sounding a little bit hurt. "Well, what are you doing with Tanith? I didn't know you knew her."

"OK enough with the love scene! OK? Let us get down to business." Tanith said.

"Alright Tanith, we will start with what you want?" Fletcher said, starting to get pissed off.

"I want little missy here," Tanith said pointing at Valkyrie, "To come with us and nobody will get hurt. But if you don't then I'll just have to deal with burying two dead corpses, won't I?"

"Oh no, I'm not going anyway with you" Valkyrie said angerly, stepping backwards.

"We'll see about that." said Avril taking a step forward. Valkyrie and Fletcher didn't know what magic she had – so basically, they didn't know if she was the best necromancer or the worst adept.

"Come and have a go, if you think your hard enough," Tanith said in her sweet voice.

Then the fight began.

Tanith made the first move by attempting to hit Valkyrie with a high kick, however she ducked and throw a punch into Tanith's stomach. Tanith gasped for air, then Valkyrie grabbed her ring from her coat pocket and slipped it on. While Tanith's mouth was open, Valkyrie sent a bunch of shadows towards her mouth. This caused Tanith to gag and she fell to her knees. Suddenly Valkyrie could see a bright light coming out of Tanith's mouth. Tanith started to scream in agony and after a short moment the remnant was pulled out of Tanith, then her eyes rolled to the back of her head and she collapsed to the ground.

Meanwhile the Remnant was coming towards Valkyrie, she started to walk backwards till she hit a wall. Fletcher saw that Valkyrie was in danger and smashed Avril's jaw. Then he teleported over to Valkyrie and grabbed her arm but wasn't quick enough because the remnant went inside him instead.

"Fletcher!" Valkyrie screamed.

Fletcher fell to his knees. Valkyrie grabbed his shoulders and started to shake him, "Fletcher, look at me, talk to me Fletcher!" she said pleading. He looked up at her with black lips and black veins all over him and he gave his cheeky grin that she used to love so much when they were together. Fletcher gave a little wave and teleported to who knows where. Valkyrie turned around looking for Avril, but she was gone. So, Valkyrie ran over to Tanith and shook her gently. Tanith's eyes flicked open and she gave a weak smile.

"Hey" Tanith choked out.

END FLASHBACK

"A pity, we had to lose the wee man while getting her back…" Ghastly said actually feeling bad for him, "He was a good laugh and the one friend which was around Valkyrie's age."

This is set after Mortal Coil but before Death Bringer and I know that Kenspeckle dies in Mortal Coil but I like him too much. The way he is always grumpy and is like a Grandad to Valkyrie and gives Skulduggery Pleasant lectures. So I kept him in it.

Please tell me if you think it was good or bad please :)

R&R

~Onyx Shadows~