Ok Everyone! This is my first Fan Fiction. Ever. It is a combination of my two favorite book series. Maximum Ride and Skulduggery Pleasant. Please let it be known that I own non of the characters. Zip, Nada, Nothing. Alright? good. So Please, Read, Enjoy and Review. :D

Valkyrie Cain sank back against the front passenger side seat of The Bentley and let out a deep sigh. Beside her at the wheel, the once lost skeleton detective Skulduggery Pleasant chuckled lightly.

"What?" she asked.

"Nothing, nothing at all. It just feels good to be back in the drivers seat again."

Valkyrie threw him a look and Tanith, Fletcher and Ghastly scoffed.

"So you didn't miss us at all while you were stuck in another dimension?"

"Oh of course I did! I just missed my car as well! The Bentley's just my most prized possession, have I not told you that?"

"Only for the 684th time in 3 years." Valkyrie smirked and the phrase caused everyone in the gleaming black shark of a car to chortle softly so as to not jostle their healing injuries from the nights events. Valkyrie settled in further into her seat and let her eyelids droop a little. Jarron Gallow was dead, Skulduggery was back, the threat of the Faceless Ones was no more and they were finally a family again. The only feat they had not managed to do was kill the slippery Texan snake, Sanguine. Though he was the least of their concerns at the moment.

The Bentley's head lights flashed over the pier and came to a halt. Skulduggery turned to her.

"I will see you tomorrow night, get some rest and all five of us," he cast a glance to the back seat at the others. "Will meet at China's so we can catch up on what's happened while I was…away. I will pick you up here at 7:00pm."

Valkyrie looked at him. "Why so long? Why cant it be a.m.? We just got you back!"

"I understand that Valkyrie, but you're a mess and you need rest and you'll thank me later."

Valkyrie cast a backward glance at her 'family' then back at Skulduggery."All right I will. See you tomorrow." She said and climbed out of the car.

"Hey!" Tanith yelped looking scorned.

"Oh hold your horses will ya, I didn't forget." And with that Valkyrie stretched out her hand and Tanith gave her a sideways high five, they slid their hands back so that their fingers hooked then they let go and punched their fists together.

"Sisterhood" they said in unison and laughed.

Valkyrie leaned over farther to knock knuckles with Ghastly and Fletcher. Valkyrie looked at the blond teenage boy and her lips gave an involuntary twitch. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Skulduggery tilt his head reprovingly and Valkyrie laughed again and shrugged. Nothing ever escaped the skeleton detectives notice. He shook his head and chortled again.

"Good Night!" she said to everyone and shut the door of the Bentley, turned her back on them and walked to her house. Her feeling of ease increased as she thought of her nice warm bed waiting for her. She thought of her parents and how she'd see them when she woke up, she imagined how grateful she'd feel when she'd hug them and feel ever more grateful that she had survived because she hadn't let her reflection out of the mirror.

Yes, those were the happy thoughts that swam around in Valkyrie's head while she looked out over the ocean as the sun peaked over the horizon. She walked to the side of her house, kicking a pebble out her way and staring upward, focusing on the fault lines in the air around her. But, while focused on the air, she was not aware of the affair in the earth beneath her feet. Far down her attacker stalked. He had practiced for hours on end dragging his practice prey underground, getting faster and faster each time he practiced, he was inches away now, he could feel as ground parted at the touch of his fingertips, he could feel each particle of earth move against every line of his finger, of his hand, of every inch of his skin as he crawled upward toward his unsuspecting victim until there was only a thin layer of dirt between them. There! He could feel her shift, feel her about to part with the thin layer of grass that separated them. As her feet left the ground half a centimeter, Billy-Ray Sanguine struck.

The morning of November 7th was the last day Valkyrie Cain saw the sun, the last day of Stephanie Edgley's existence