Disclaimer: I do not own Death Note or Skulduggery Pleasant.
9—Conversation
Anita walked out slowly, handing Skulduggery his jacket again before they went outside despite his protests, saying that he needed his disguise back, at the very least.
The sky was covered in clouds when they emerged, and Anita smiled at the fine mist that fell across her face.
"It never rains in Ireland but it mists," she said, smiling. "God, I'm home in a country I've never been."
"I expect you'll take some time to adjust," Skulduggery replied.
"Nonsense. I lived in northern New York State, and gorged myself by reading Skulduggery Pleasant books," Anita replied.
"There are…books of us?" Valkyrie asked.
"Why yes, of course. How else would I have known of you?" Anita asked. Valkyrie shivered, the cold suddenly shooting down her back.
"But we're real!" Valkyrie exclaimed.
"There are books of people who exist, aren't there? Lincoln, for example," Anita responded.
"Right…I think we should get into the car before a helpless passer-by hears us. They might be frightened," Skulduggery urged them.
"Yes, I think you're right. Are we going to Cassandra now?" Anita asked.
"I think first we should go to Finbar," Valkyrie responded quickly.
Anita nodded and got into the backseat, Valkyrie taking the front. Skulduggery shook his head and stepped in as well, clicking on his seat belt before checking theirs and pulling out.
Since the Sanctuary was in Roarhaven, and Finbar Wrong was in Dublin, they had a nice long drive before they got there.
"We need something to do. I can't sit still or I'll stop and think, and in my present state that would be dangerous," Anita told them.
"Well, what would you suggest?" Skulduggery asked. Valkyrie was still surprised—he had a different tone when he talked to Anita. Not love, but surprisingly gentle. As if he was telling someone with mortal wounds they would be just fine.
"I need to talk. But about what, I have no clue," Anita told them.
"Tell us about your race. What…happened to them?" Valkyrie asked.
Anita sighed. "Mass extermination. When Il'Guin first came to our world, he used a poison that was outlawed. It made someone completely dependent on magic for survival, while making them slowly run out as they used it. It was torturous, resulting in death, so the Nafar didn't allow it or its makers in their society." Anita shook her head, kicking off her shoes and pulling her feet up to sit cross-legged.
"Il'Guin met the Hunters then. They were much more primitive, then. They were excellent trackers, yes, with neuro-toxins that they used for their blow darts, but other than that, they knew relatively little. They hunted, and ate, and that was their purpose. But they and the Nafar were enemies. The Nafar had magic, the Hunters weapons, and they waged battle if they came into contact. That was all there was to it.
"So Il'Guin forged them. He gave them his poison—a potion, really—and developed a new toxin, one that could capture a Hunter's soul and deliver it to another body, allowing for the Hunter contained in the potion to take over the vessel. A bit like Remnants, you could say.
"In return, they made him their master, and he waged war on the Nafar. My race did well, but we were slowly losing ground. So we turned to the Gounar. It was purely by luck that Ether race ships had crashed nearby; we got them working again and flew off to where we knew the Gounar lived.
"The Gounar were a war-species, loyal through the core. They died honourable deaths, didn't allow for themselves to be taken captives, and friendship lasted for a lifetime. They also lived until a disease or weapons—including magic—killed them.
Anita paused for breath, and Skulduggery cocked his head slightly in a way that Valkyrie recognized as a frown.
"I think you told me before. Something went wrong, didn't it?" Skulduggery asked.
"Of course something went wrong. The ambassadors—all four of them were fire-specified, I believe—were sent back up with their soul-stones destroyed. Their bodies were mangled by fire. This was an act of war, the worst hostility against our race. Torture like that was an outrage," Anita explained. "So we opened fire. The war lasted years, but we won. Even against mages like the Gounar—who are more powerful than I was even at the height of my power—we won.
"But our forces were decimated. The Hunters had been picking us off at home, and when the Nafar that survived the war with the Gounar returned, the war with the Hunters rose to a peak. Soon the Nafar were nearly eliminated, and they fled into the forest."
Skulduggery grunted before saying, "And that's how the Hunters proved their name, am I right?"
"Yes. By the time I was thirteen hundred, or aged thirteen by mortal human standards, I got the notice that my people were eradicated. My mother had been tortured to death before my eyes, Valkyrie, by Il'Guin, and he knew I was there. Skulduggery held me back, kept me from meeting the same fate, but Il'Guin knew I was there, thought I wasn't a threat, and let me go. He's sadistic enough that leaving me alive to watch my mother's final moments seemed better to him than to kill me as well."
"You can't be sure of that!" Valkyrie exclaimed.
"No, she's right. I remember that time. He knew. He is quite a bit like Serpine," Skulduggery noted.
"Anyway, my mother gave me her memories. They're locked away, but sometimes something will float out. It's extremely confusing, but it can be helpful at times," Anita told them.
"And what she's leaving out," Skulduggery said, "is that she heard of a Nafar camp. She freed them."
Valkyrie turned around to crane her neck at Anita, who sat there, blushing.
"I did what I had to…I'm their queen, I have to help them!" Anita shouted.
"What?" Valkyrie nearly shouted. Skulduggery had to resist the urge to look around, instead keeping his gaze on the road.
"My mother was the queen of the Nafar, which is why it was so important to Il'Guin that she died. The Nafaric resistance crumbled much more quickly than before once she was dead," Anita said calmly.
It struck Valkyrie as surprising that Anita said everything with almost no emotion, apathy predominant.
"How can you say this all so…so…" she started, but she had no idea how to continue, and just let the sentence trail off helplessly.
"So calmly? Valkyrie, I've been asked the story by each person that meets me. It gets longer and shorter based on the telling, but having told the story so many times…I've grown used to it," Anita said. At the look on Anita's face and the slight drooping of Skulduggery's head, she added, "No, don't pity me. I don't want pity. You asked, and I told, and it's fine."
"No, it's not!" Skulduggery rebuked her. "Anita Heathers, stop thinking that your suffering doesn't affect other people. Stop it now¸ because I swear, I'm not losing you again because you think you don't matter."
Anita started back as if slapped, but nodded, too. Skulduggery looked at her in the mirror, and then back at the road.
"The truth is," he continued more softly, "you do matter. Anita, you are wonderful. Splendid, I assure you. Why do you think that you are so insignificant? So unimportant that your suffering just melts away to everyone else?" he asked gently.
Valkyrie knew what he was going to say next, she just knew it, and as he did a stab of jealousy went through it.
"Anita, I love you," he told her.
Valkyrie was ready for some bit of reunion, husband and wife separated by unfortunate events, so the words that came next surprised her.
"Don't," Anita replied. Her voice was tinged with sadness, and as she spoke, her throat started to close. "Don't say something you can't mean, Skulduggery. You don't know me. You don't remember me. Therefore, you can't love me. Don't lie to me just to make things better."
Skulduggery stiffened, and Anita looked out of the car window, reflection pale against the foliage outside. She refused to let them see her tears, show them how weak she was. Skulduggery was right, she did think of herself as insignificant. But he was wrong to think she was any more than that.
After all, she was only alive so she could protect someone else, and that only because no one else would accept the reality of the job. And even at that, she failed, for where was Romanius? No one knew where he was, or who he was, not in this world.
"Useless," Anita yelled inwardly. "Baka! You've gone and ruined everything, and for what? You've rejected Skulduggery, L's run off—oh, yes, and you let him do that too, who's to say he's coming back?—and you can't even keep them alive. Now it's too late for them, and Romanius may not live long. He never could understand magic. You should have taught him. Idiot…"
The abuse continued in Anita's mind, the part of her that she called the Vulture continuing on its tirade, berating her and abusing her. Tears started to fall onto her arm, where fingernails dug into the crook of her elbow, leaving indented marks in the skin when she let go for another tighter, more painful grip.
Valkyrie stared straight ahead, disgusted with herself. Anita had rejected Skulduggery, in a way, and hurt him, and some part of Valkyrie had rejoiced because he was hers.
Skulduggery gripped the steering wheel tightly, concentrating on the road. Anything but think about what she had said—though his thoughts invariably returned to her despite his best efforts. She had rejected him. She had refused to accept that he cared.
Why did she hate herself so?
It was a down spirited threesome that arrived at Temple Bar. The rest of the ride had passed without a single word, Anita's tears slowly coming to a stop as the Vulture stopped its rage against her.
Skulduggery knocked on the door, and even the hollow thunk seemed a bit wilted.
Finbar opened the door, and his face split into a wide grin. "Skul-man!" he cried, "Great to see you! Wow, it's been ages…hey, you wanna come see Sharon and the kid?"
"Not today, Finbar. We're here strictly on business," Skulduggery responded in a flat, dull voice.
"Yeah, ok man…but the kid really misses you, you know," Finbar frowned.
"I don't know Sharon or your child, Finbar. We've never met," Skulduggery stated. "But that's beside the point, which I would really like to get down to and then leave. Today is not a good day for me." Anita winced at the last addition, and compulsively started twisting the skin on the inside of her elbow.
"We're here about the sensitive visions," Valkyrie explained. "The ones of the girl."
"Yeah, man…hey, the girl you got with you, that's the one I keep seeing. She's going to die, Skul-man," Finbar told them.
"I know that," Anita spoke up. Her voice sounded harried. Abused. Skulduggery couldn't make himself care. "I'm…"
Again with the hesitation. "I'm Anita," she finished. Skulduggery started back. She'd told Finbar Wrong her given name? Was she stupid?
"Finbar. Good to meet you. Hey, want a tattoo?" he asked.
"No, thanks. I'd really just like to know about what you see," Anita answered.
"Ok. Well, there's you, and a man takes a glowing stone, and…you know what, Cassandra—another sensitive—she'd be better to talk about this with," Finbar explained.
"I know who she is, thanks," Antia snapped back. She paled, then tore a bit of skin off of her lips with her teeth, fingers swirling the flesh on her arm around themselves even tighter. The spot was starting to get red.
"Then we should go. Goodbye, Finbar," Skulduggery said. He turned on his heel and walked away, not even glancing back as he climbed into the Bentley.
Valkyrie pushed her feelings aside, taking Anita aside, saying, "You know, you really hurt him. He loves you, you should see that. Don't push him away. He lost you once, and he's lost another wife, too. Don't put him through it again."
"Look, Valkyrie, I'm just trying to help him. He thinks he loves me. That's impossible. If he doesn't hate me, he doesn't know me, and if he doesn't know me, he can't hate me," Anita replied, turning her face away to look at a tree down the road. "And even if he did, it would result in his death. He wouldn't be coming back, and I can't save him," she explained.
"He doesn't want to be protected. He wants to be able to love you. Let him. It's better than one or both of you dying without being able to be with the other," Valkyrie finished. Before Anita could reply, she strode over to the car and jumped in the backseat.
Anita hestitated, looking at the tree, wanting to just curl up in a ball and cry, before she, too, turned and walked to the car. She thought it would be odd if there were two people in the back but no one in the front, and so her compulsive mind forced her to the front.
The moment she got in, Skulduggery started the car and drove, not saying a word. Anita cleared her throat, hands in her lap and posture cowering, ducking her head in protection from the rebuttal she was sure would spring up.
She started talking, her voice an almost inaudible croak. "Skulduggery, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you. You weren't doing a thing wrong. I just…in my head, if someone doesn't hate me, the automatic conclusion for me, at times, is that they don't know me. So it's hard for me to accept that you love me…but if it's true, it's true, and I'm more than happy to accept that. I'm so, so sorry. Please forgive me?"
Skulduggery shook his head, pulled over to the side of the road, and turned to Anita. "I will forgive you," he told her, "on one condition. Don't hate me for what I'm about to do."
Anita started to respond, but Skulduggery leaned forward (heedless, it seemed, of the seat belt) and pressed his teeth to her lips. Even as a skeleton, he could present himself with the illusion of closing his eyes, where everything faded out, and he did, focusing only on her, Anita.
Anita felt him press his teeth against her lips, ever so gently and yet with an undercurrent of passion that was unmistakable. Her eyes slid gently closed ad she moaned as long, thin fingers went through her hair, another hand supporting the small of her back. She pressed her palms against his shoulder blades, stunned by the reality of the sensation. They had been married, for two years, and there had been many kisses, but she hadn't felt a single one. And now she could.
It broke off gently, that kiss, only for their foreheads to lean together. Anita couldn't bring herself to open her eyes—training from the hundreds of times she did, only to see an empty bed beside her, a pillow at her side in a lame replacement for a human body.
"I love you," he told her, a steady and purposeful emphasis on every word.
"I love you, too," she responded, and the joy sent her stomach on flips. She felt as if everything was tilted and any moment she would slip off of her seat, but the moment passed. Her stomach continued to do happy flips, but the world righted itself, and Anita opened her wings slightly, still unused to the sensation of their existence.
Skulduggery leaned back, hand leaving her back to trace her jaw gently with a thumb, and then teeth pressed against her forehead and he was gone. Anita was afraid to open her eyes, afraid she would only see the empty bed, the sad pillow.
But when she did, Skulduggery still sat there, Valkyrie, in the back (once Anita remembered to check), was staring wide-eyed.
"And I thought I might have had a chance to have him to myself…" Valkyrie thought to herself. "But then, if he shares her, she can surely share him…oh, stop thinking of Skulduggery as if he were some precious commodity, you nitwit!"
Anita felt the blush start as Skulduggery pulled back out into traffic and they left along the highway. The drive was, yet again, silent—but this time it was a much more comfortable silence.
A/N: So I think Skulduggery was a little OOC. I don't know, though, as none of the Skulduggery Pleasant books (that I know of) have any romance in them which involve him.
But anyway, this was probably the longest chapter I've written in a long time. And it's good to get back to this one, I didn't like Images very much. It was too rushed, I think. Especially the penultimate chapter.
But I think it's about time that Skulduggery and Anita got something done. After all, something needed to happen. Even if Skulduggery only remembers bits and pieces of what they had before.
So, did that all surprise anyone? I think we're now starting to see a relapse. Whaddya think—should Anita be saved or go off her rocker like she did in Images?
Does anyone know why Images has that title?
If you answer my questions, you can ask me questions and I will answer them. Heeheehee.
Tchus!
