Hello there my little kooks, Rancor Demise here,

So, this fanfiction is a Ghanith story. It takes place possibly a week or two before Boredomwhich also means that it takes place after The Dying Of The Light. Only difference here is that Ghastly isn't dead.

I hope you enjoy and I shall see you in your dreams.

Rancor Demise out xx

Bonded

Ghastly was racing down the road to Skulduggery's house. Just several minutes before he had been about to start work on a new suit jacket Skulduggery had called him, saying that it was urgent. So naturally Ghastly sprinted to his car and got in. In his haste to get to Cemetery Road he had narrowly missed lampposts and pillars. And also a small child, but we won't talk about that. Once Ghastly had parked *cough abandoned cough* his car he leaped up the steps two at a time and burst through Skulduggery's door. Two confused faces and one skull stared back at him.

Ghastly was about to say sorry I'm late but before he could open his mouth Skulduggery's elbow smashed into his jaw. "What the bloody hell was that for Skul?" Ghastly howled, nursing his jaw. Skulduggery gave no response, instead Ghastly flew back into the wall via Valkyrie and her control of the air. Tanith crashed into him from above and half heartedly punched him. It still hurt him though. Knowing he couldn't possibly take on all three of them at once Ghastly yanked open the door and launched himself down the stairs. Ghastly thought about running for his car but then remembered who he was up against. For one thing, his car didn't nearly have the same sheer power as the Bentley and with Skulduggery behind the wheel that just made it ten times more formidable. So the car was, essentially, a suicide attempt. Instead Ghastly ran down one of the alleyways between the house and another building. The ground was rocky and slimy but Ghastly had run on worse. He ducked in behind a large rubbish skip and didn't make a sound.

After being perched behind the giant yellow bin for about five or ten minutes he heard voices. They were voices he used to find comforting but right now those were the voices he wanted to hear least. A can rattled behind him and Ghastly turned sharply. A strong woman with tousled blonde hair and a sword under her coat was staring back at him. Ghastly swore under his breath. "Ghastly, I'm so glad I found you!" Tanith said in a strong London accent, "I don't know what's wrong Skulduggery and Valkyrie."

"What happened to them?" Ghastly asked, concerned.

"Well, I was in the room with them waiting for you and suddenly this smoke blows in through the window and under the door. I'm not sure what it did to Valkyrie but when the smoke touched Skulduggery it, sort of, intertwined with his bones. Then the next thing I know he wants world domination. Valkyrie wants the same. I wasn't affected but I pretended to be so they didn't kill me."

"Oh my god! Hang on, did you say there was smoke?" Tanith nodded her head. "What colour was it?"

"It was a kind of purplely colour." Ghastly stood stunned, thought for a minute then something in his mind clicked.

"Tanith can you cause a distraction while I get to my car? Meet me on Starling Street." Tanith smiled, and then ran up the wall.

Ghastly didn't see what Tanith did to distract the other two but whatever she did worked. Two minutes later she leapt into his car and they were off. If Ghastly's hunch was right, everyone could be in danger. Around half an hour later, Ghastly pulled up next to Serpine's old castle. The place was the same as the last time he'd been there, which was over 7 years ago. No birds sang, no flowers grew, not even spiders dared to live close to here. Thankfully, Tanith didn't ask him why they were here because if she had Ghastly wouldn't have known how to explain without sounding crazy. One of the best things about Tanith was that she never asked too many questions, along with her humour, her beauty, her classic line all her enemy's knew, the fact she was always so genuinely happy to see him and ... He shook his head, first help friends then think about how much you're head over heels for Tanith.

Their feet crunched on dry leaves as they made their way towards the old, rusted side door. With a fair amount of kicking from them both they finally managed to burst the door open. Surprisingly, nothing jumped out at them. They crept through the corridors while under their feet old, mouldering slabs groaned under their weight. Tanith spotted a door just off from where they were walking, "We should go this way. If anything bad is happening in this creepy old place it would be down in the dungeons." Ghastly agreed and they slipped down some stone steps and into the cells. The place absolutely stank! It was a mixture of rotting corpses, rat poison and blood. Ghastly could hear a humming sound coming from along the… could you even call it a corridor? He nudged Tanith and she followed behind him. Once outside the humming door, Ghastly put his ear next to it. A loud whooshing noise blew out from underneath the door. Ghastly launched himself away from the door, Tanith right beside him gripping his arm. For a moment, Tanith held her arm there and then moved almost looking embarrassed. Ghastly sighed a little on the inside when she removed her hand. He recovered from his momentary depression and shoved open the door. He stepped in, Tanith right behind him. What they saw gave them both a shock…

Inside the room was a large snow globe type thing. Similar to the giant soul catcher that housed the remnants, however, it had purple stuff swirling around inside it instead of black. Tanith drew her sword and Ghastly read the air, checking for disturbances. There were none. Suddenly, Serpine flew at them from across the room! But instead of attacking them or even touching them, he went straight through. It was some form of ghost or hologram, used to scare off any passers-by. Ghastly ran towards the giant machine and looked for something, anything that he could use to suck the purple out of Skulduggery and Valkyrie. Tanith joined him in looking then said, "How did you know that Serpine was behind this?"

"In truth Tanith, I didn't. I just knew that Serpine has used purple tendrils to attack people before. Stands to reason that even death wouldn't keep him down."

"Cool. I was a little scared when we got here that we were about to be smacked with a screwdriver or something. You never can tell with these sorts of people."

"Honestly Tanith, knowing Serpine it wouldn't just be a screwdriver. It would more likely be a sledgehammer or something big like that." Tanith giggled and then thought for a moment.

"Ghastly, you know that ghost thing that jumped out at us. I was thinking it wasn't very scary so I don't think it would make anyone run away. What if it was a calling thing? Like, anyone affected by this purple stuff would be drawn to it." Ghastly had been about to say he didn't think so when the doors to the dungeon flew open and Skulduggery walked through with Valkyrie right next. She was glaring. Although there was no way of being certain, he could tell Skulduggery was furious. Ghastly went to rush them and in return got smacked in the jaw. Tanith ran to the machine and pulled a handle. Purple smoke burst out of the top and down onto Ghastly. Well, that wasn't helpful. Instead she pressed a big blue button and the bloody machine started a countdown. Ghastly ran at her and she ran up the wall and onto the ceiling. She ended up dodging fire balls and gusts of solid wind all the way to the other side of the room. Tanith drew her sword and lunged at Valkyrie who twisted, grabbed an old pipe on the floor and blocked. She was impressed, Valkyrie had massively improved. Whilst using her sword on Valkyrie, she pressed her way back to the machine looking for anything to help her get rid of the damn purple smoke. Then Tanith realised something, everyone being affected by this stuff was an elemental. Maybe if she used some form of adept magic on them she could fix this. She flipped off the ceiling and ran straight at Skulduggery who she grabbed by the head and used a form of electric shock to knock out. He fell to the ground. Next she did the same to Valkyrie. After that she ran to Ghastly and just as she was about to catch him he pulled her into him and kissed her. They stayed like that for a while, lips intertwined and hands wrapped on each other as tightly as possible. She leaned back and looked at Ghastly.

"Tanith Low, I love you so much and I know this might sound crazy but I was never possessed by that purple stuff. I merely pretended since I had worked out that I needed an adept to reverse everything. I knew you could and would do it. So as a massive thank you, would you do me the honours of joining me on a Caribbean cruise?" Ghastly's eyes had grown to the size of a puppy's and he was down on one knee. How could she possibly say no?

"Yes, I would absolutely love that!" Applause came from behind them where Valkyrie and Skulduggery were. She laughed and Ghastly picked her up and kissed her again. Skulduggery and Valkyrie started fighting because he was blocking her view with his hand and saying she was too young to see this.

It had actually turned out that the reason Skulduggery had called them all around was because he was going to tell them that he was going away for a few days to check on all Mevolent's old supporters and make sure they were all in check. So when they had all left Serpine's castle, it had exploded along with any purple smoke/vapour stuff that was there. Skulduggery was happy about that because it was one less place for him to have to check.

Hope you enjoyed and sorry it's late. Bloody computers, you know. And I'm nearly finished my other fanfiction about Chinduggery (uuuggh).