This was supposed to be an oneshot, but I guess that was not meant to happen. ~rolls eyes~

Valkyrie paced back and forth in Skulduggery's kitchen. 'She's getting restless.'

Skulduggery tilted his skull at her. 'And you'd prefer to let her loose on Lord Vile again.'

'Yes.' She gave a small shrug. 'It's better than letting her loose on the world.'

'True.'

'I mean… I was worried about it at first, trying to let her out on purpose, but I think it's helped. A lot.'

'And you're still hoping to get her under your control.'

'I think it can be done.' She looked at her best friend. 'But not if I keep her locked up in my head.'

x

Darquesse took a deep breath, inhaling the cold winter night air, and smiled. She was free again. She liked being free; staying locked up in the recesses of a teenager's brain could be beyond boring, even if that teenager was a part of her.

There was so much she could do with that freedom. It had been a long time since she'd had fun. Weeks, she thought. Perhaps she could go and demolish a street or two as a warm-up? Dublin would be next, followed by the rest of the world. The thought made her feel warm and fuzzy inside.

x

She noticed, in the corner of her eye, a shape approaching her, silent as the night and blacker still.

'Lord Vile.' Darquesse made a small mock bow, but she couldn't deny his presence made her heart beat faster. She remembered the last time they had met, brief and bloody and glorious, and licked her lips in anticipation.

Dublin could wait. So could the rest of the world. Oh, she'd drown the world in waves of death, but there were more important things to take care of first.

Shadows surrounded the dark shape of Lord Vile, and he bowed in response.

x

The things he could do with those shadows! Darquesse gasped for breath, her body already mending itself, as her back hit the ground again. There wasn't a place Vile's shadows couldn't reach, and she couldn't have stopped the darkness from slipping into her – inside her – even if she'd wanted to.

Not that she did. She couldn't help but smile, as a fresh wave of pleasure rocked her body. She stayed on the ground for a few more moments, enjoying the sensations, until she gave a lazy wave and pushed Vile away from her. Another moment and her blood was replenished.

x

There was a niggling little thought in the back of her mind, trying to remind her that she'd had something else to do, something big. Destroying something, perhaps? She felt drowsy and she couldn't quite remember, couldn't bring herself to care.

Vile stood next to her, his armour shredded and ripped, white bone shining through the gaps in the moonlight. His head tilted.

'Valkyrie?' he asked.

Darquesse sighed, sated and exhausted, and Valkyrie returned in her place.

Her clothes were gone again, she noticed. And she felt so good… A little cold, and the ground was hard, but so good.

x

Oh. Oh. So that had happened again.

She scrambled around on the ground for her black jacket, not knowing where she'd left it, relieved when Skulduggery offered it to her.

He waited for her to put it on, looking away until she was done, and then joined her on the ground.

'Well.' She wasn't sure whether she wanted to face him or not, but it needed to be said. 'You know… She still wants to destroy the world.'

Skulduggery looked at her.

'But…' She hesitated. 'She seems to think it's not her priority, not when she's with Vile.'

'I see.'

x

They sat in silence for a while.

'Do you still think you could control her?' Skulduggery asked eventually.

Valkyrie shrugged. 'I don't know. Maybe. But… keeping her too busy to destroy the world, that's a good thing. Right?'

'Yes. Yes, it is,' he said after a moment's pause.

'So I think…' Valkyrie paused, too, determined to make sure her voice would not betray the confusion in her mind. 'I think we should, um…'

'Let them loose again, under controlled circumstances, to keep them happy?'

'Yes.' She shifted, curious. 'Erm… Lord Vile. How much control over him do you have now?'

x

Skulduggery's head drooped.

'If you don't want to answer me, that's okay.'

'Good.'

Valkyrie looked at him. 'You're still supposed to tell me. No secrets, remember?'

He shifted slightly on the ground, still not facing her. 'Just a few little secrets.'

Valkyrie rolled her eyes. 'No secrets.'

'Oh, very well.' He got up. 'I'm almost completely in control.'

'So you… Uh.' She paused. 'So you knew what you were doing.'

He kept his back to her. 'I may have.'

'Oh.'

His shoulders sagged. 'If it keeps Darquesse occupied…'

'If you… If you'd rather not, we could find some other way.'

x

He took a few steps, picked up his hat from where it had fallen.

'Skulduggery…' Valkyrie didn't want to plead. Pleading was something other people did. But this time… She didn't want to think that she'd – Darquesse or not – made Skulduggery do something like that, just to— Just to keep her from murdering everyone.

He turned around at last. 'Would it change anything, if I told you, purely theoretically of course, that I wasn't entirely opposed to letting Vile do that?'

She considered for a moment. 'Change anything between you and me, you mean?'

'I do.'

'No. No, it wouldn't.'

x

She sat next to him in the Bentley, stealing glances at him whenever she thought his attention was on the road. This… this thing. This thing that kept happening.

It was wrong. Wasn't it?

And yet if it would keep the world safe…

And yet…

She refused to think about the way Darquesse had enjoyed it. What happened between Darquesse and Lord Vile, well, that happened between Darquesse and Lord Vile. It really had nothing to do with her and Skulduggery, minor awkwardness afterwards, when having to find the scattered clothes, aside.

Awkwardness she could handle. Also in the future.