Author's Note: This is the first chapter, the real story doesn't really start until chapter two. Review or I'll…um… oh, just forget it!

I do not own the characters featured in this story or the plot

Chapter 1

Things were not going well for Valkyrie. Magic can become just addictive as alcohol, drugs, or table hockey. At the same time it is very easy to lose practice. This was the case for Valkyrie during a dreadful summer of loneliness. Loneliness is the least of it, she had to go to summer school. Well, it's a long story all starting with the reflection's revenge. Valkyrie had missed many days of school during the remnant escape and some other adventures she'd had with Skulduggery. Usually, the reflection solves that problem, but not this time. Now Valkyrie would finally learn what so many people had told her about not trusting the reflection.

Ever since Skulduggery shot the reflection a couple of years ago, Valkyrie had been very suspicious of it. It seemed like there was a blank piece of memory it was leaving out. Still, the reflection seemed to continue to do its job effectively. That changed one morning in the beginning of April.

Skulduggery had been hearing many rumors that Scapegrace was up to something. Having no time to spare with something so pathetic he called Valkyrie to deal with it on her own, something he rarely did for a good reason. Being a Friday morning she would have to go to school. To her dismay, she was unable to summon the reflection. Valkyrie called Skulduggery in desperation.

"Hello?" asked Skulduggery

"Yes, I'm in an emergency here…my reflection is not coming!" Valkyrie yelled

"Oh that is definitely a shame. Anyway, what is the problem?" asked Skulduggery

"I have to go to school! Today is Friday and I have a history test today!" Valkyrie yelled.

"Calm down. Thank my brain for this. I have a plan." said Skulduggery

"Does it include me going to school?" asked Valkyrie

"Of course it does, even though it might take a little longer to get there. All you need is your necromancer ring which I believe you still possess. You might need some elemental magic too." said Skulduggery

"I hope this is not like the time you made me throw that fireball at that teacher." said Valkyrie

"Oh no, this time all you need to do is find Tanith. If you find her with Billy-Ray-Sanguine, kill him" said Skulduggery

"Please I am not asking for one of your diabolical plans, I just want to know what to do." Valkyrie trailed

"I knew you were not going to like that one. That is why I have an alternative. This one all you are going to need is a gun and three cups of tea." said Skulduggery

"Now let me hear it, what do I have to do in this alternative?"

"You remember the pub in Roarhaven which we've been to in some unfortunate occasions. Well, there is a guy there who will do anything if you give him three cups of tea and a gun. You will ask him to go ask China to make him a façade that makes him look just like you."

"How many things can go wrong with that plan? Oh yeah, the pure idea of going to Roarhaven is not too smart."

"How many times have we ever planned something that can't go wrong?"

"You got a point but still, this time I am alone." Valkyrie trailed

"That will be your challenge. Don't worry, I think your reflection is just having a malfunction. Oh by the way, if you want to find a gun, you'll find a surprise under the broken crack in your room's floor."

Once and for all, Skulduggery was wrong about the reflection. The reflection never came back. Worst of all, she started getting used to using the guy Skulduggery had told her about. After about a week, she came looking for him and found his body in a dumpster. After this she had no choice but to stop doing adventures when her parents were home and start going to school again.

Going back to school made Valkyrie moody. She had to do homework, pay attention for an hour at a time, get taunted by the, "big guys," and worst of all not use magic. She started to become more depressed as Skulduggery slipped away from her life causing her elemental to fade due to lack of use.

There were days she felt in such a mood like she wanted to burst into flames. Well, one rainy day towards the end of April was her chance to express her mood. All the conditions were perfect: She was tired, angry, and getting annoyed by a swarm of idiots.

For the last few months the school was having a pretty bad disruption. These new exchange students from Sweden were causing a lot of trouble. Obviously, some principal in Sweden wanted to take a break from them by shipping them off. They would cause every sort of trouble imaginable. Of course, they enjoyed brawling with other students and forcing beer into their mouths while they laugh with amusement. While most teachers seemed to understand them, the students were going mad.

Right after a tormenting science class these exchange students decided it was Valkyrie's turn. The moment Valkyrie excused herself to go to her locker, the exchange students found her alone in the hallway. They wasted no time in starting their usual jokes. First they were just being silly and were asking for a piggy-back ride. Later they started to get serious and forced her on to of the lockers and started throwing rotten eggs at her. Since she was surrounded she was not able to get off.

Valkyrie was not in the mood for these silly games. In a dramatic mood swing she aimed at them with her necromancer ring. If Skulduggery would have not come to the rescue, she would have most likely killed them. He appeared in some strange way Valkyrie could not understand with a façade that made him look like another high school student.

"Hey little girl, give me that ring and I will make sure these kids will go away." disguised Skulduggery said

"This ring is mine and I can take care of them myself." said Valkyrie

Valkyrie attempted to make eye contact with Skulduggery but he kept acting like he did not know her,

"Is this your boyfriend?" the exchange students taunted

Skulduggery spared no time. He jumped to the top of the lockers and easily overpowered Valkyrie. Once he had the ring he started sprinting to the door.

In that unfortunate moment one of Valkyrie's teachers came out to see what was taking so long. Her name was Mrs. Orotogazimul and she was the biggest victim of gossip in the whole school. There were many reasons for that. One of them is pretty obvious, her name. However, there were a lot more things with her. She openly believed in vampires and found no problem in expressing it. It seemed that one must be after her because at the beginning of every class she would look at every row to see if someone was overly pale. If that was the case she would make him/her stay after class and do further, 'testing'. To her dismay she never actually detected any vampire. On this unfortunate day, she came to the conclusion that Skulduggery was a vampire.

First it just seemed strange that a teacher was talking so much gibberish. Only when she lifted this sphere-like item out of her pocket did this situation become serious. She threw it at a sprinting Skulduggery. Thanks to her good aim it hit him square in the forehead. A strong greenish smoke spurted out and soon covered the whole hallway. All Valkyrie could here were muffled shouts and her own moaning in desperation to get clean air. Valkyrie Cain fainted on the spot.

Valkyrie had one of the strangest dreams during those few hours of unconsciousness. All she could recall when she woke up was something about her entering the body of a bear and attacking passerby. It had something to do with that prophecy about her destroying the world Cassandra had made.

Valkyrie had two spend too weeks recovering for what seemed to the doctor like a totally unidentified disease. Valkyrie was unable to recall what went on during that time. However, she can remember the final and fateful day.

"Hi, glad to see you are you feeling better!" Valkyrie's mom said.

"Oh yeah, I can walk now. Why are you here so early?"

"Sorry, it's just that…do you remember what caused you to faint?"

"Of course I do. It all has to do with Mrs. Orotogazimul going after a Skeleton with…you know one of those spheres people who are Adepts use…well it turns out she had wings and was able to fly and…toxic smoke started to come out and I fainted."

"Honey, please this is not a time for jokes. The police are here and they mean business. Even if you believe it you'll get locked up if you tell them that."

"Mom, it is true! Mrs. Orotogazimul is some sort of a magical creature, just like me."

"Honey, I know you feel special but this is serious"

Valkyrie, not remembering her secret identity found no trouble in telling the police investigators what really happened. She even told them about her strange dream. That was how Valkyrie ended up in a rehabilitation center. She was locked up for three weeks with two other guys. One of them felt like he was a Samurai warrior while the other thought he was Michael Jackson's reincarnation.

You can imagine what a great time Valkyrie had with those two guys. Well, at some point the Samurai warrior killed the other one. He claimed all his," practicing for a concert," was disturbing his, "training for a ferocious battle." Luckily they ignored Valkyrie for the most part. Eventually, Valkyrie regained full consciousness and said she didn't really remember what caused her to faint.

Valkyrie hadn't yet gone through the worst part yet. Since she had missed so much school when she had been recovering, she would have to go to summer school. Meanwhile, her parents would be vacationing in Argentina. Just like before the incident, she could not get used to doing homework. Using her necromancer ring against it just turned it to ashes but did not get it done (apparently the ring ended up back in her pocket after the incident). Being addicted to solving everything with magic, she made a fireball using her Elemental skills and threw it at the homework. Woops, she started a fire. After admitted to having started it she was back in a cell though this time on her own with only cushioned walls to accompany her.

Valkyrie stayed there locked up for a long time and remained waiting for her parents to come fish her out. This is where the story really starts.