A/N: So this little story of mine is going to be full of humor, maybe a little 'please don't die' drama on the battlefield and some action too! There will be appearances of the other Dead Men, Ghastly and Ravel and some other undecided ones too!

The building was old, to say the least. It appeared to be abandoned and was in desperate need of a new coat of paint. A crooked sign tilted dangerously above the entrance, spelling out HIBERNIAN CINEMA in bold letters. The slim girl with a black mane of hair raised one eyebrow but didn't comment on the skeleton detective's choice of venue.

She followed him, the girl named Valkyrie and the young man with the insanely spiky hair cut, inside. She observed the blonde spikes closely from behind him and imagined how he would react if she dumped a bucket of water over his head, destroying those perfectly styled spikes, the idea made her smile but she stayed quiet, walking just a few steps behind them.

"Where are we?" Raven wondered loudly in a musical voice. There was no answer; the three in front of her ignored her comment.

"How rude." She said sulkily and stuck out her bottom lip in a pouting fashion. Valkyrie and spiky-haired boy kept walking but the detective stopped, turning back to Raven.

"Please be a dear and stop talking, it's distracting." Then he swiveled back around and continued his stroll. Raven scowled and shuffled after him, muttering curses as she went. They went through another door and into a room painted pearly white. Raven looked around, it seemed to be some sort of surgery from what she could tell. A short man with a head of poufy white hair came in and glared when he saw the skeleton.

"Skulduggery." His voice was full of distaste but he smiled genuinely at Valkyrie and nodded with a frown at the boy. Skulduggery started to explain that they had picked up some dead weight when Raven sauntered forward, a hand head to her forehead and a wounded expression on her face.

"Raven?" He said in surprise as he recognized the girl.

"Oh it's been terrible Mr. Grouse! Mr. Pleasant here has been absolutely uncouth! His hard words still leave tears in my eyes!" She sniveled and the scientist by the name of Kenspeckle Grouse rushed forward and hugged the whimpering girl.

"Oh no! And what a vulgar man Mr. Pleasant is! Skulduggery, how could you hurt such a lovely young lady?" He basically roared at the shocked detective, who was at loss of words.

"I didn't do a thing, that little devil there is whipping up lies." He remained calm as he spoke and pointed a gloved finger at Raven who had ended the hug and was standing behind Kenspeckle with a devious grin on her lips, shiny white teeth showing. Kenspeckle turned but Raven had already swapped her grin for a hurting, somber one, sniffling again and wiping her eyes. Kenspeckle turned back to the detective with a glower and tutted him.

"Ridiculous…" Skulduggery muttered and folded his arms across his chest.

Raven raised an eyebrow and caught the eye of Valkyrie, who has unconsciously moved closer to Raven. "He needs someone to remind him that he's not all that", she whispered with a small smile and Raven grinned.

"Big ego then?"

"Oh, huge!"

Raven laughed, "Ah that kind of man, well it does hurt their pride when a fifteen year old girl comes along and knocks them off their throne."

Valkyrie looked surprised, "You're only fifteen?" Raven gave her a small nod and daintily lifted herself up onto one of the cold metal operating tables, swinging her legs back and forth. "Oh, I guess it just seemed like you were a lot older." Valkyrie looked a little disappointed.

Raven gave her a charming smile, "Age doesn't mean much in our world, and surely you knew that?"

Valkyrie nodded, "I did. But sometimes I wish I had a friend who at least was my age, but fifteen is close enough". Across the room, the once preoccupied Skulduggery looked around, if he had skin, Raven knew his eyebrow would be raised. Raven didn't want to hurt the girl's feelings, but she could lie about this sort of thing.

"Um, Val? I can call you that right?" Raven wondered in a strained voice, Valkyrie nodded.

"Well Val, you don't have anyone close to your age…." Valkyrie frowned in bemusement, trying to understand what Raven had just said. Then the confusion was gone; she now looked mortified and cringed.

"When you said fifteen…" She started in a small voice.

"I meant I looked fifteen…" Raven explained softly with a rueful smile.

"Oh." That was all she said. They sat there in silence, Raven and Skulduggery exchanging a look before Valkyrie spoke again. "This is just curiously, I hope I'm not being to bold, but how old are you, I mean really?" The question startled Raven; she looked at her with doubtful eyes.

"Are you sure you want to know that?" She asked with clouded eyes. Valkyrie gave her a strong nod, she was sure she could handle it.

"Well we can say she's like a grandmother compared to me." Skulduggery chimed in with an amused voice and Raven shot a glare his way.

"And how old are you Skulduggery?" Valkyrie turned her attention to her partner and he looked at her for a few long seconds.

"About four hundred." He said it in a matter-of-fact tone and I watched Valkyrie's eyes widen once more.

"Wow. You're old, positively ancient." Raven burst into laughter, her newly acquired friend obviously hadn't heard of a subtlety.

"Then what does that make you?" His voice was annoyed now and his skull snapped to Raven. She gave him an angelic smile, "Me? As young as can be, maybe you didn't notice but I'm looking a lot better than you these days." He started to grumble and the girl's caught the words "ganging up on me" in it and started giggling together.

"It seems like you two are getting on well." They all turned and was a smiling lady with wavy hair and a sword in its sheath around her waist standing in the doorway beside the boy with odd hair. Raven tipped her head to an angel, blinking at the boy.

"You", she said, "I like your hair. It's weird." He looked happy and offended at the same time.

"It's weird?" He sounded a little defensive and reached up to touch the spikes.

"Oh yes, extremely! Weirdest thing I've seen in a long time!" Raven gave him an enchanting smile and his hand fell limply to his side.

"She's telling you it looks good." Valkyrie mouthed to him and his confidence shot up once more, he started grinning again.

"Fletcher, Fletcher Renn." He introduced himself with a smirk. "You may have heard of me, I'm the last teleporter after all." Raven shook her head innocently and the smile dropped right off his face.

"Fletcher, Raven here doesn't spend her time in cities, there was no chance she'd have heard of you or our adventures." Hearing this brought his smile back and I leaned over to Valkyrie with a raised eyebrow.

"Not the brightest one is he?" She sighed with an amused smile, "No, but he's mine to deal with and he means well." Raven gave her a wink and sat up straight once more.

"Tanith Low." Raven said with a nod, taking Tanith by surprise.

"Yes, I'd recognize that lovely piece of metal work anywhere." She nodded to the sword and Tanith looked between her and her weapon.

"Saw it being built many years ago, who knows how many exactly, it has a very smooth cut, no?" Tanith nodded and Raven smiled to herself, remembering how she met the eccentric blacksmith who had forged it over one hundred years ago. Tanith pulled up a chair and leaned over the back.

"I know you, you're Raven Withers right? I've heard stories about you." Valkyrie's eyes flicked to Raven's and I could see a silent Skulduggery watching.

"Ah, my reputation has always succeeded me…" Raven's voice was quiet and grim all her previous humor gone.

"Reputation?" Fletcher sounded clueless and he and Valkyrie exchanged a confused look.

"I have my own pit of shame, full of terrible things I've gone in my past." Raven began to explain, her eyes trained on the tiled floor.

"She fought along side Mevolent during the war." Skulduggery said in a solemn voice and walked over to us, leaning against the wall near Tanith.

"What…?" Valkyrie looked to her partner to see if he was joking but he gave a small shake of his head.

Raven pulled a repentant smile, "It began known as a curse on the battlefield if you saw the demonic Raven's wings swooping over you, mages who saw that were dead a few seconds later."

"Did you kill them?" Valkyrie sounded remarkably calm.

"I did."

Raven's green eyes locked onto Valkyrie's dark ones. "The truth horror of war, it's our duty to kill the enemy, people like Skulduggery were my enemies."

"And yet now we sit in the same room not at each others throats."

Raven chuckled, her smile back, "Funny how thing work out."

Valkyrie was silent but she gave a little sigh and looked up. "I don't care about that, it's your past, it's gone, and we live in the present."

Raven raised her eyebrows, "That's a very positive attitude you have there."

"There's nothing wrong with seeing the optimistic side of things."

"I suppose you're right." Raven compromised with another chuckle.

"Oh yes, Raven dear, I never thought to ask what you were doing here in Ireland?" Kenspeckle asked his old friend who got the attention of everyone else in the room.

"Oh, vacationing." There was silence and Kenspeckle gave her a sceptical look.

"Ok fine, I heard some rumors here and there involving your little Sanctuary and thought I'd do you all a world of good and warn you."

This was of interest to Skulduggery, his skull snapped around and he walked up. "Warn us? About what?"

Raven folded her hands under her chin, "Do you remember that funny little man, well he wasn't funny at all but I found him funny, who created those wicked explosives just after Mevolent's fall?"

"Vaguely, yes. He was a little funny, not completely there mentally."

"Not many were after the war…"

"But we managed to stay completely intact." He said in good spirits.

Raven shook her head in disbelief, "I maybe, but sometimes I'm not sure about you."

"What a ridiculous notion, I'm perfectly sane."

She gave him a doubtful look and rolled her eyes, "You keep telling yourself that."

Skulduggery cocked his head, "But what does… what was his name again?"

"Victor Calamitous."

"Oh yes, that was it wasn't it? One of the most peculiar taken names I had ever heard, he mustn't of thought too much before taking it."

"Well, he's back on the scene. I didn't think too much of it at first, he had technically supported our side during the war so I ignored his actions, but it seems he's got his madman eyes set on Ireland now."

"And you came here to warn me?" Skulduggery inquired.

"I did."

"Interesting, normally you wouldn't bother involving yourself in something that has nothing to do with you… unless it does have relevance to you?"

Raven scowled and looked away, "That stupid fool Calamitous has directed his threats towards me too. He set fire and destroyed my home in France! I'm not going to let him stand around and make a fool of me!"

Skulduggery laughed, "Oh is the dreaded Cursed Raven returning to bring strife upon the unsuspecting world?"

Raven smirked, "Oh you bet she is. And she's not going down without one hell of a fight."

He took his hat off, "We'll be joining in this battle, we Irish fight for our home."

"Sounds like a plan. To war we go."