Disclaimer: still don't own Skulduggery or characters

A/N: yes some of the story is from the first book but its just a recap on what had happened in the past, no copyright :)

Chapter 2

Meanwhile, somewhere in Haggard 8 years ago, a little girl was running through a dark alley, she looked to be about eleven. She had long dark hair and dark eyes to match, she was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, the bobble she had used to tie her hair up earlier that day had fallen out during the chase. She kept running as fast as she could, her pursuer right on her heel. This was the second time this man had come after her, the first time had been when she was at her Uncles house, she had convinced her mother to let her stay the night alone in his house since there was no way her parents could pick her up in this weather. She had regretted that decision the moment the man on the phone had banged on the front door, luckily though Skulduggery Pleasant had saved her and she had found out he was in fact a living skeleton. Now a little over an hour later she was running for her life from the same attacker. Why me? She thought to herself.

She had left Skulduggery trapped in his car and took off away from the man, now she was far away from Skulduggery she wondered if he'd be able to get to her in time before she was caught. She could see the canal up ahead and picked up her pace, she could try and lose him there. Just then she could feel a hand brushing against her shoulder and she panicked, almost there. The hand reached for her shoulder again and found its mark, the man clung onto her shoulder and began to pull her back but too late, she had already dived forward into the water dragging him with her. She watched the man as he slowly and painfully came apart, she winced as his face melted and disappeared into the water then she swam to the riverbank and hauled herself out.

She waited in the shadows by the Bentley for Skulduggery to come back; he'd managed to free himself from the buckled car door and was probably looking for her. A few minutes later he emerged from the alley that she'd been chased into, he looked worried. She stepped out and shot him a smile; he rushed over to her and checked to see if she was okay. After asking her questions about where the man was and if she was hurt he manipulated the air to dry her off, Stephanie was thankful as she'd been freezing and sighed delightfully as the warmth spread over her. Just then a bright yellow light appeared behind them, Skulduggery got his revolver out and motioned for Stephanie to stand behind him. She did as she was told and stayed behind holding tightly onto his arm. Great what now?She thought. A man stepped out of the light and landed gracefully onto the ground, Stephanie studied the man then glanced at Skulduggery, judging from the angle in which his head was tilted he had no idea who this man was, not a good sign. The stranger cleared his throat.

"No need to be alarmed I'm not your enemy but that doesn't necessarily mean I'm your ally" he paused thinking about what to say.

"You need to follow me through this portal; I don't have time to explain but I promise you I will answer as many questions as I can that you have for me once we've gone through" nobody moved and Skulduggery gun didn't waver. The man sighed he really didn't have time for this, he clicked his fingers and another portal opened up behind Stephanie, they didn't even have time to turn around as hands shot out of the portal and grabbed both of them, Stephanie screamed while Skulduggery cursed under his breath as the hands dragged them into the yellow light. They disappeared through it leaving the mysterious man stood there rubbing his temples.

"I told them they wouldn't come willingly, no one ever listens and I always get stuck doing the explaining, this is going to give me a headache" he whined to himself before stepping back into his own portal.

He emerged to find at least six cleavers pinning Skulduggery and Stephanie to the ground and Skulduggery shouting threats at them, he sighed again then walked over to them.

"Well now that I've succeeded in bringing you here I suppose you can ask me as many questions as you like, however like I said before, some of your questions I will not be able to answer, not out of stubbornness but simple because if I give you too much information it could have serious consequences." Skulduggery thought about this piece of information then nodded, and then he remembered that Stephanie had been brought here as well.

"I'll stay and hear you out but on one condition, you let the child go" Stephanie looked at Skulduggery and was about to argue that she wasn't leaving without him even though she was scared when the man spoke up.

"I'm afraid I can't send her back, not yet anyway" she turned to him.

"What do you mean you can't send me back yet, why not?" she was getting confused now.

"Because you're needed here" was the man's response. She looked at the man a little puzzled then frowned, why was she needed here she wasn't important she didn't even have magic, she was just an ordinary eleven year old girl. A thought struck her.

"Is this about a key?" remembering the man earlier who had questioned her about a key. It was the man's turn to look confused.

"Key? I have no idea what you're talking about; the two of you are here because I was ordered to bring you here" Stephanie sighed in relief for a moment before going back to being confused. It was Skulduggery however who spoke up.

"And who ordered you to bring us here?" The man looked at Skulduggery.

"Solomon Wreath" Skulduggery let out a low growl and practically spat out his next words.

"You're a necromancer" he said it more as a statement than a question, the man simply nodded affirmation. Stephanie looked between the two then shrugged, she had no idea what was going on or what Skulduggery meant by necromancer but she had decided to stay out of it and let them talk. She could tell that Skulduggery wasn't the least bit worried which comforted her so she relaxed, which was hard to do because of these men on top of her, she had no idea what they looked like all she had seen of them were their grey uniform sleeves which were holding her down. After an uncomfortable hour of being sat upon the necromancer finally ordered them to release her and Skulduggery, the men clad in grey uniform jumped up almost immediately and within a few moments were stood behind their master. Stephanie awkwardly scrambled to her feet, noticing that her legs had gone numb she glared at the men who caused this problem then decided to give Skulduggery a glare as well since he doesn't have these kind of problems. Skulduggery didn't see her glare though; much to her disappointment, he was too busy dusting himself off. After he'd finished he stood up straighter and looked between the guards and the necromancer.

"Tell me, why does a necromancer have cleavers working for him?" the man simply shrugged.

"Times have changed Mr Pleasant, there's no more quarrel between sorcerers and necromancers, now we solely exist as one"

"Since when?" he asked curiously, he hadn't heard anything of the sort from the Sanctuary and he'd learned from past experiences not to trust necromancers. The man looked seemingly bored at the conversation but knew full well that he had to keep Skulduggery around for as long as possible, the alternative being the end of the world didn't exactly seem rather pleasant he thought to himself