A/N: Thanks to refya and JunoMagic for betaing this for me!

Disclaimer: Characters, settings, or basically anything you recognise are not mine. They belong to the amazing Derek Landy. I make no money from this. I didn't even come up with the title - that has been nicked from the Rolling Stones song by the same name.

Chapter 3

Skulduggery parked the Bentley in a small clearing off the main road, out of sight. They got out of the car, and Valkyrie removed Tanith's gag.

"Do you need something to drink?" asked Skulduggery, watching them intently.

Tanith tried to reply, but ended up nodding. Valkyrie guessed her mouth and throat must be dry and sore after wearing the gag for hours.

Skulduggery went back to the Bentley and fetched a thermos. He unscrewed the top that served as a cup and poured something into it. "Tea. Should still be hot but not hot enough to burn," he explained, when Valkyrie sent him a questioning look.

He took the cup to Tanith, holding it while tipping the contents carefully into her mouth.

"So… What are your plans for me?" Tanith asked after a few sips, her voice hoarse. "I doubt you went into all that trouble just to bring me here for a picnic."

"Not quite, no," said Valkyrie. Skulduggery took the cup and the thermos back to the car. "We're waiting for our ride here."

"I'm afraid you will have to die," Skulduggery added. "But don't worry. It will be painless. Probably." He looked towards Valkyrie. "I'm right, yes? No agonising pain?"

"It's just like going to sleep," Valkyrie said. "Nothing to worry about."

Tanith looked from one to the other.

"You're mad. Both of you. I mean, I know Skulduggery's always had this in him, but Val… Or is this Darquesse taking over at last?" She grinned suddenly. "It is, isn't it? Oh, but you don't need to kill me. I'll be worshipping at your feet!"

Valkyrie shook her head. "You just don't get it, do you. Darquesse is never going to take over; not if I have anything to say about it. Anyway, you'll find out soon enough."

Skulduggery checked his watch. "We should probably move closer to the road. It's almost time."

They walked slowly towards the road, Valkyrie pulling Tanith after her. Skulduggery was a step behind them. Tanith's shackles made the progress slow, but they didn't have far to go.

xXx

The Coach-a-Bowers was on time. When they saw the headless horses materialise in front of them, Skulduggery turned towards Valkyrie. "Are you ready?" he asked quietly. She could hear the unspoken concern in his voice.

"Ready to go," she answered, keeping her voice steady. She didn't want to step inside the carriage again. What if this time she really did die? But she'd made her choice weeks ago.

"You are joking, yes?" Tanith was eyeing the horses and the carriage with something a lot like fear in her eyes. "This is… I know what this thing is. You can't make me go in there! I'm going to die!"

"Well, yes." Skulduggery gave her a small push. "We did say that you would, didn't we?"

The carriage door was open. Valkyrie took a deep breath, knowing that it would be her last for a while, and stepped in. Tanith, helped along by Skulduggery, came next, and Skulduggery entered last. The other passengers didn't look at them; they didn't even seem to notice they were there.

Skulduggery, whose disguise had disappeared the moment he got on board, sat down next to Valkyrie, with Tanith seated across from them. He looked around. "Good evening!" he said. No one answered.

Valkyrie was already feeling the now familiar effects. Her brain was wrapped in grey fog and she struggled to keep her wits about her. She forced her neck to turn and looked at Skulduggery. A tiny part of her brain registered that Skulduggery was completely alert, his frame tense and his eye sockets focused on Tanith. "Good," she thought to herself.

She tore her eyes off Skulduggery and looked at Tanith. They had expected… what was it that they had expected? It was an effort to remember anything, but it finally came to her. They had expected the Remnant to leave Tanith once she was dead.

Tanith certainly looked dead. Just as dead as everyone else in the carriage, apart from Skulduggery. She was completely immobile and her skin had taken on the same grey tinge that everything and everyone else here had. But there was no sign of the Remnant.

Valkyrie let her body sink back into the seat. She felt nothing, but somehow she knew that this wasn't good. Not what they had planned. But it was so hard to let it matter…

xXx

Skulduggery had reached the same conclusion. He was leaning forward, his long fingers poking and prodding Tanith's face. He took a small torch from his pocket and lit it, using it to examine Tanith's eyes. "Hmm," he muttered. "Not good."

He turned back to Valkyrie. "We may have a problem," he said, keeping his voice low.

Valkyrie didn't answer.

He touched her shoulder and shook her gently. "Valkyrie. Valkyrie Cain! Just listen to me – focus on me. You've been through this and worse before. I know how strong your mind is."

Valkyrie turned her head slightly, looking towards him – past him – with lifeless eyes. "I… Skul? What… Oh. I'm okay. I think. It's hard."

Skulduggery sagged with relief. "I know it's hard. You're doing amazingly well. Keep focusing on me. And on Tanith."

Valkyrie head lolled forward a bit. Skulduggery decided to consider it a nod of agreement.

"We have a problem," he said again. "I think Tanith's dead."

"We all are."

"I think the Remnant – remember, the reason why we're here, all dead, remember? – died with her. And that it's still inside her. It never left."

"Ah."

Skulduggery resisted the temptation to slap Valkyrie. He'd do that later if he had to.

He tried again. "If the Remnant is still inside her, even if dead, then we are in trouble. Valkyrie? Are you following me?"

"Uh… Yeah. I think so." She blinked. "Remnant. Inside Tanith. Bad."

"Succinctly put. Yes."

She turned slightly, this time clearly making an effort to pay attention to him. "Why aren't you dead?"

Skulduggery felt like smiling. He had her back now. "I am dead. But to answer your question, I don't know. I assume that death, here, only affects the people who were alive before."

"Mhm."

"We need a change of plan. Valkyrie, I need you to try and follow what I'm saying. Can you do that?"

"Yeah. Still hard… But getting easier."

"Good. When you told me what happened, you said that Nye was obsessed with finding the soul. I don't like to say this, but I think we may need Nye's help."

Valkyrie closed her eyes. "No."

"Yes. I'm afraid so. We cannot risk taking Tanith back out of here with the Remnant still in her. I'm not even sure she would come back to life, to be honest. She seems, well, very dead. More dead than you. I don't think there is any brain activity left. She's not responding to anything."

"This is bad."

"Yes, it is." Skulduggery reached forward and removed the chain attaching Tanith to Valkyrie. He unlocked her handcuffs but left the shackles around her ankles in place. "I will need to carry her," he explained to Valkyrie. "It's easier this way, but just in case she does miraculously recover, we need to make sure she doesn't escape."

"Why do we need Nye?"

"We need to get the Remnant out. If we don't, I think one of two things will happen: either Tanith remains dead, because there is a dead Remnant inside her, and that cannot possibly be a good thing, or she comes back to life, as does the Remnant. In which case we're back to where we started, just with a more pissed off Tanith."

"Nye will cut her up."

"Yes."

"Nye hates me."

"After what you did to it last time, I'm quite sure it does, yes."

"Nye will kill Tanith."

"Not if I'm holding a gun to its head. Also, I'm relying on its scientific curiosity. We're dealing with a sick, twisted freak, who is undeniably a master of its craft, and a Remnant is the closest thing to a disembodied soul that I can think of. With any luck, the opportunity to study a Remnant and cut it apart will get it curious enough that it won't need too much additional persuasion."

Skulduggery looked at his partner. It was hard to see Valkyrie like this. She was always so full of life. So vibrant. So full of energy. She made him feel more alive. And yet here she was: her skin grey and dull, her eyes devoid of life... It was wrong. At least the real Valkyrie was still somewhere inside there. And she'd survived this, and worse, before.

xXx

The carriage stopped. Valkyrie didn't know how long they'd travelled; like on her previous visit here, she had no sense of the passing of time. She briefly considered asking Skulduggery. If his watch still worked here. But the thought fluttered away as soon as it had come, and it was easier to let it go.

Skulduggery was walking beside her, Tanith's limp body slung over his shoulder. Occasionally, he stopped and adjusted his hold on her. Valkyrie didn't know if it was because the burden was too heavy, or because he had to wait for her to catch up. It didn't matter. She found it difficult to walk faster, both because it took effort and because she had a vague feeling she didn't want to go wherever it was they were going.

They reached a door. Skulduggery turned his head and looked at her. "Here?"

Valkyrie looked at the door. She couldn't remember. "I don't know."

Skulduggery raised his hand and prepared to knock, when the door opened.

Doctor Nye stood at the door, looking just as revolting as the last time she'd met it. It took a step back at the sight of them.

"What are you doing back here?" Nye asked. "I did what you wanted, didn't I? Go away. I don't want to see you ever again." It looked up at Skulduggery. "And you've brought your dead friend. I know who you are, Detective. You have no right to be here."

"Doctor Nye. We meet at last." Skulduggery put Tanith down. "To be frank, we are in need of a favour. Our friend here has had an interesting companion for a while. We thought you might appreciate getting a look at it."

Nye eyed Tanith. "It's a… ooh, don't tell me. You've brought me a Remnant!" It hopped up and down for a moment, clapping its hands, but stilled again in a moment. "And you want me to cut up your friend and take it out, yes?"

"Got it in one." Skulduggery's tone was friendly. "I don't know how many Remnants you've had a chance to dissect before, but we were thinking that if anyone could do this, it would be you."

"Oh yes, I can do it." Nye's voice went from excited to cold in a flash. "But I'm not going to. She threatened me." It pointed at Valkyrie. "She hurt me. Why should I help you? What would be in it for me?"

"We could let you keep the Remnant?" Skulduggery offered. "My friend here told me you were interested in where the soul may be. Perhaps studying the Remnant will help?"

Valkyrie shuffled her feet. The fog in her brain was starting to dissipate, little by little. She still had to make a conscious effort to remain focused, but it was easier than before.

"Ha! I've studied Remnants before and found nothing. No, I'm not going to help." Nye turned around and started to close the door behind him, when Skulduggery's arm shot out and took hold of it. His other hand held a gun.

"Is this a more convincing argument?" he asked.

Nye laughed. It was not a pretty sound. "You cannot kill me, Detective. Not here. Your laws don't matter here. I live, everything else is dead; this is how it works."

"Perhaps," Skulduggery conceded. "But I can shoot your kneecaps. You still feel pain, don't you?"

Valkyrie remembered something. Her ring. She brought her hands together in front of her and twisted it around her finger. The coldness of it, drawing its power from the wealth of death around them, gave her strength.

Nye looked down at her hand, then at Skulduggery's gun.

"On second thoughts, I've never yet dissected a Remnant attached to someone who is still in this delicious state of in-between. I've reconsidered. I will help you, of course. Come in!" It made a sweeping gesture, pointing at the door.

xXx

Skulduggery picked Tanith up again and they went in. Nye led them through another door and then another, until they reached a room he recognised from Valkyrie's recount of her previous visit. It was drab and dirty, nothing like any operating room he'd seen before. Even during the war, with battle raging all around them, hundreds of years ago, their makeshift hospital tents had been less cluttered and cleaner.

Nye pointed at the operating table in the middle of the room and Skulduggery laid Tanith down on it.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Nye asked. "I can't operate through her clothes. Take them off."

Skulduggery hesitated. With Valkyrie there, undressing her friend in front of her, even in these circumstances and in spite of him being a skeleton… It was a somewhat awkward situation. He looked at his partner, whose face betrayed no emotion. "Would you prefer to…?"

"What? No, go ahead."

He did as Nye had asked, keeping his movements brisk and businesslike and his attention firmly on Nye. It wasn't as if he had any interest in Tanith anyway. Not because he was a skeleton – he could, and did, still appreciate a shapely female form – but Tanith was not his type. Besides, Ghastly would kill him if he ever found out he'd done even this much.

When he was done, he took a step back, pointing his gun at Nye's knees. Nye didn't seem to be bothered by it. It hummed to itself while picking up a particularly large and vicious looking knife from the instrument tray.

Less than seven months ago, it had been Valkyrie on this table, being cut up. Skulduggery felt sick at the thought. His partner, his best friend… all alone at the mercy of this twisted freak. He risked a quick glance at Valkyrie, whose eyes were glued to the gruesome scene before her. At least there wasn't a lot of blood. Had there been blood when she'd been here?

She had been dead. Her brain and body barely working, fuelled by nothing but her own determination. In mortal danger. Valkyrie hadn't wanted to tell him much about it, and for a long time, he hadn't insisted. Until they started planning for this – he had to know everything that had happened, everything. But it wasn't until now that he realised just how determined and strong she'd had to be, and how terrified of her own destiny to go through with it.

He felt a pang of guilt. If she'd trusted him more… She would probably still have done it, but she wouldn't have been alone.

"Hmm," Nye said. "It doesn't seem to be inside the ribcage. Nowhere near the heart." It sounded disappointed. "Oh! The brain. Of course!"

It picked up a saw.

xXx

The Remnant, small and dark and withered, lay on the tray before them. It was very dead. Nye poked at it, but got no reaction.

"You were just in time," it remarked. "Just a little more and it would have infected the brain. Dead Remnants – not good for human brains."

"Neither are living Remnants," Skulduggery muttered.

He had to admit that Nye was very good. Tanith had been sewn up again, and already the stitches were vanishing. She still didn't show any signs of life, but Skulduggery was tentatively hoping that getting back to the world of the living would help with that. People were left unconscious after a Remnant possession even when it had only lasted a few hours. Tanith had lived with the creature inside her for months, and then it had died inside her, too. She was probably in a deep coma… well, here she was dead, of course.

Nye poked some more at the Remnant, sucking at its teeth.

"Unfortunately for you," it said, "your gift is worthless to me. I still found no soul, nor any trace of it. If it's not in the heart, and if it's not in the brain, and if it cannot be found at all in this Remnant here…"

Skulduggery's finger was on the trigger. He saw Valkyrie straighten up across the operating table from him. It was obvious that her every movement, every thought, still took effort, but she had managed to pull Tanith's trousers and tunic back on again.

Nye clicked its long fingers, and the door in the back of the room opened.

"Last time, you caught me unawares," it snarled, eyes, glued at Valkyrie, glaring with hatred. "You used that ring of yours to hurt me. Did you think I'd have forgotten? Did you think I would have let that happen again?"

Skulduggery hesitated, his finger still on the trigger. What was Nye on about? Bluffing? Posturing? Should he shoot now? What were they up against?

"You see, while I was busy helping your friend here," Nye continued, his tone triumphant, "I realised that the answer was staring me right in the face. A dead man. No flesh. No tendons. No internal organs. No brain. No tissue of any kind. Not even an appendix! And yet here he is. Talking. Thinking. Living. Nothing but bones – bones, and a soul."

The door was pushed wide open. So was the one through which they had entered. And through both doors, at least half a dozen… things… marched in, all of them armed.

Nye grinned. "Detective Pleasant. I do believe you will be my next patient."