Fanfiction: Skulduggery Pleasent /(after LSoDM)

He was slowly drifting. Drifting into darkness and peace. Peace from all the memories and thoughts which tried to tear him apart inside, constantly. He shook of all these things, tried to focus on the little ball of shimmering light behind his closed non existing eyes. He got closer to the pulsing point, but as soon as he tried to touch the freedom praising spot his concentration slipped and he was as far away from it as before. Again he tried to relax and let the pain ease. He got closer. He reached out-

-A flash. A black liquid flash, as smooth and elegant as a stream of water. Immediately he straightened, waited for the first attack. Slowly the liquid formed a puddle in front of him, little strings of darkness rose from it. They joined the blackness around him, swirled and curled between his legs, rotated around his neck, turned over his head. He didn't move. He got so close this time. The strands suddenly hesitated, moved back to the liquid getting tighter with every turn as they braided themselves into each other. Tardily as they moved a figure inside got more and more visible. The shadows curled and swivelled around her like a second skin. Like a tired cat she opened her eyes looking straight at him with those dark, dark eyes of hers. His heart sank.

"Skulduggery.", she softly whispered into his skull, suddenly next to him, holding onto his shoulder and laying her head down. With the next move she shadow walked away from him, leaving his shoulder burning from her touch. She watched him, she smiled. "Skulduggery, don't do that.", she said. "Do what?", his voice was calm, cold. "That. Looking at me as if I wouldn't be myself.", her smile turning into a smirk. "You are not yourself, you are Darquesse.", he shot back. She slowly shook her head, her smirk turning sad. "You still don't get it do you? She IS me, Valkyrie does not exist anymore. We are one."

She circled him. He tried to focus. She grabbed him from behind, pressed herself against his back. Her hands covered his chest. "Why can't you just accept the fact that I'm her? Is it so hard for you? I still look like her", she shadow walked away from him, lifting her arms as if she wanted to hug him. "I still have her voice and I still have her feelings.", again she shadow walked right in front of him, wrapping her arms around his neck, slowly moving one hand down until it was above his chest where his heart would have been. She looked down at her hand. She looked tired. "They hunt me, you know? Every sorcerer on this damn planet is after me.", she looked up, know real sadness in her black eyes. "They hunt me because I want to be free, be myself.

I had to kill a few of them. Some were friends…", she suddenly closed her mouth shut, trying to fight the tears. One escaped, running down her soft cheek. He looked down at her trying to figure out if the emotions were real or just very good acting. She returned his look. He felt as if she could see into his soul. "Why can't they leave me alone? China sent you didn't she? I didn't even try to tear the world apart, did I? So why are you still after me?" she tightened her grip around his left shoulder and pressed her hand stronger against his chest. He felt the urge to swallow. What an odd feeling. "The sensitives still have visions about you burning cities, turning continents to dust. You are a constant threat to the world." She didn't answer for a long time, just standing there looking up at him as if he would have more answers. His gaze wandered over her face, the face he used to know so well. He had to stop thinking like that.

A sudden move distracted him, he looked up. They were now standing in front of the pulsing light. She had shadow walked with him. She slightly turned her head so she could watch it. "It's a beautiful thing isn't it? Peace, freedom it promises. I wonder…" Slowly lifting her hand from his shoulder she observed the glowing ball. She stretched one of her long elegant fingers. Shortly before she was going to touch it she hesitated. Her hand sank to her side. Still with one hand on his chest she turned to him. "You won't find me this time, you know that right?" Again his heart sank. "I will find you. I will always find you. You can't hide from me." "No, the last times I was the one to give in and let you find me." She bit her lip in that typical way of hers. "I miss you Skulduggery."

Again this dark eyed look. Damn, it was killing him. "Why do you keep running away from me?" "Because you want Valkyrie back, you don't want this new me. You don't like me." He straightened. He'd forgotten that it was Darquesse standing there in front of him. Big mistake. "I can get you a doctor…" "You know as good as I do that no doctor could help me. You all just want to cage me. I want to be free! And you keep just standing there doing nothing to help me! We were partners once!" She was about to tear her hand of his chest and turn away from him. He wraped one arm around her waist, the other one holding her hand on his chest. He couldn't let her go so easily this time. He just couldn't. "We were more than partners." Her head jerked back.

She stared at him, unbelieving in her eyes. He pulled her closer, so close that they touched when she was breathing in. After a long silence she got her voice back. "Why do you make it so hard for us both? Why can't you just leave me alone out there, be finally free? Why can't I stay away from you?" she was crying. He wanted her to stop, wanted her to stop make him feel bad for trying to get her, Valkyrie, back. He needed her, he'd always needed her. He was helpless without her. "Give her back to me." His soft voice cracked. "Please." The tears flooded her eyes, started to run down in small streams over her cheeks, dripping down to her chest. "I can't. Even if I would want to, I can't. I don't even hear her inside my mind anymore, you know. She's gone."

Her body was shaking, her legs gave in. He tightened his grip, so she couldn't slip away from him. "Skulduggery…" she aspirated. She leaned in to him, her hand following his collarbones until she found the two little sigils carved into his bones. She activated his façade. He looked tired, mad and… fragile, so fragile. He gritted his teeth. Now she was able to see every emotion on his face. "You know, I constantly asked myself what your true face looks like…" a shiver went thru his façade, suddenly everything was moving under his skin, changing. A completely new face appeared. "OH…", she sighed in unbelievable relief. His cheekbones were the same as well as his chin, but the rest… She began to memorize every little detail of his face, so she would never forget it.

His lips where very full for a man's, but still masculine. His upper lip had a strong contour. His nose was very straight; the nostrils were a little bit broader. His hair was a bit longer, curling around his head like a dark crown. And his eyes, oh his eyes. She could feel herself shiver by the look of his so very blue eyes. She felt herself reminded at some glacier she had seen as a little child. But the look on his face, it broke her heart. He looked at her with a knowing look, at the same time it was as if he'd looked into stranger's eyes. She started crying again. Hell, at which point in her life had she ever been crying so much? She couldn't think of one. He pulled her into one of his bony hugs. She'd missed that. "Stop crying" his voice, like velvet stroking over her skin.

He lifted her chin with one gloved hand, so she had to look into his eyes. She parted her lips to give a nasty answer, but he was too fast. His soft lips covered hers and she gave in, resisting the urge to step back and disappear. He deepened the kiss, changing from slow and careful to fast and thirsty. She answered him. She needed him so much. Every time he'd found her it was like she was dying inside.

He'd been a part of her life for more than six years and now she was running away from him for five months. First he was her secret hero, her mentor, changing the world, saving it. But something changed. He was more than a hero to her. China Sorrows had said once, back then when she'd been Valkyrie, that she was a dumb girl to fall in love with him and she'd been denying it. Oh how right China had been. He paused the kiss, looking at her again. "Valkyrie please… let me help you." "My name's not Valkyrie." With those words she vanished. The pulsing light expanded, swallowing everything.

He woke.