Blaaargh. I really didn't feel like writing this at all, so if it sucks, that's why.

(Course, you guys are all, "Noooo! It didn't suuuuuck!" And then I'm all, "Aww! You guys are sweeeeet!" But then in my head, I'm all, "Noooo, that actually really sucked." Yep.)

Probably a filler chapter. Nothing happens here.

Lyra Navy drifted in between asleep and awake as the night rolled up. The clock on her phone seemed to go at a snail pace. This night wouldn't end. At all. She was stretched across the plastic chairs at the Hibernian Cinema.

Skulduggery grunted beside her. "Are you awake again?" he said.

Lyra nodded from beneath Skulduggery's trench coat. "I just keep waking up randomly; I don't know why." She sat up and rubbed her eyes and moved to sit next to her father. He pulled her closer and wrapped the coat around her tighter.

"What happened to your shirt?" he said, pointing to the ripped clothing sitting on a chair near them.

"I ripped it so I could set it on fire. I lit the giant guy I was fighting on fire…I realize now I could have just thrown a fireball at him."

"This is true," he mused. "Well, now we know that you have good surviving techniques."

"Aw, shush."

"I apologize."

"That was mean," she declared

"I know."

They remained silent for a while, both just staring at the floor. Lyra's mind was reeling, thinking about everything that had recently happened.

She looked up at the skeleton. "So you know how that Portuguese guy who barged in here?"

"What about him?"

"Him and the girl are going to my school, and they know my name," she said.

Skulduggery didn't say anything for a bit. "Why didn't you tell me this?"

"I wanted to handle it myself. I said that to Eshara, and now she's gone along with Mom, so that was a failure on my part."

He shrugged. "That tends to happen to people who are associated, if you will, to Valkyrie Cain. I get where the idea came from."

"And they also wanted me to come and join them and be immortal with them. If I did, I'd figure they'd let go of Mom."

"Did you ever consider saying yes?"

"At a few points, but then I realized that would be really stupid, so I didn't do that. The girl found out where we lived and asked for my answer, so I told her 'no,' and she freaked out. She and the guy attacked us and then took Eshara."

"And right after that they stopped here to steal Valkyrie back," Skulduggery reminded her. "I wonder what they're planning. Any thoughts?"

"They'll screw around with Eshara so she's just like Mom and bent on killing us?" Lyra suggested.

"Theory A. Go on."

"They'll kill them," Lyra stated simply.

Skulduggery nodded slowly. "Theory B."

"But why would they have waited this long to kill them? Just to lead us on? To let us think that we had a chance at saving them or something?"

"Point taken. Theory B isn't as probable."

"But maybe they were just leading us on."

"Then Theory B is just as probable as Theory A," Skulduggery said happily. He cocked his head at Lyra, who was glaring. "What? What did I do?"

"Make things complicated," she muttered.

"People always throw insults at me, but I never hear anything. It's always your mother who'll insult me, yet all I hear is her praising my skills."

"Alright, I'll ask her about that when we find them."

"Good plan," he said and chuckled. They looked up together at the lab doors opening, revealing China, with Tanith, Ghastly, Fletcher, and Kenspeckle trailing behind her. China stopped right in front of the chairs and placed her hands on her hips.

"I have been searching for you all for the past hour," she began.

"You could have called us," Skulduggery replied.

"My cell phone broke when the eviler Valkyrie attacked me," she muttered impatiently.

"I will ignore the fact that you said that she was eviler for now," he said, "and instead ask why you would need to search for us in the first place."

"Well," China replied with an air of smugness around her, "a few of my students were out doing routine checkups and running errands for me, when Fake Valkyrie crashed into one of them. Using a symbol carved into their hand, they managed to track Valkyrie and the girl and boy along with Eshara back to where they are hiding out. So we have their exact location."

"What direction were they going in?" Ghastly asked.

"They were heading west," she replied.

Skulduggery nodded. "Wreath told me he thought they'd be somewhere in the west. The last I heard from him was that he was doing a stake out at any mysterious place he could find."

"Well, I think we should get a move on and find him and then get over to their hide-out or whatever you wanna call it," Fletcher announced.

"Do they know that they're being tracked?" Kenspeckle said.

China shook her head. "It's impossible to tell. Only people who are told know about it."

Lyra sighed angrily and flung off the coat from herself. She adjusted her clothes and stood up. "Let's go then. I'm tired of waiting around."

Three hours later (and much arguing over where to go next), everyone arrived at the line of a crowded forest. Fletcher, Tanith, and Ghastly staggered out of Ghastly's van and entered the forest first, looking around for clues as to where their kidnappers could have gone. Wreath, Lyra, and Skulduggery entered second, climbing trees and searching from a higher point.

"Why is there always a forest?" Lyra groaned after getting a leaf caught in her hair. She watched Wreath effortlessly glide across the space between trees. He held a hand to the bark of the tree and frowned. He pointed northwest and nodded once. His shadows consumed him quickly. He disappeared. She frowned down at the ground where Fletcher was. He was poking at a giant branch that was propped up against a tree.

"I think this might have been moved my someone!" he shouted around. His announcement was met with everyone telling him to stop yelling.

"Do you want someone to find out we're here?" Tanith asked angrily.

Fletcher shrugged. "Well, if anyone is here, it'll be those evil guys. This looks like it was moved by someone's certain necromancy powers…"

"Maybe they had to walk through here, and they made Mom lift it up for them."

"Couldn't they have stepped over it?"

"Yeah, but maybe…" Lyra paused and looked at the ground. "Maybe they're hands were full or something. Like, Rin and Elian were lugging something big around, and they didn't have the strength of ability to step over the branch."

Skulduggery sighed and cocked his head. "I'd bet you anything Eshara wouldn't shut up, so they had to knock her out. Perhaps they were carrying her around?"

Tanith suddenly gave a yelp as something collided with her. Tanith and another figure were sent to the forest floor. Tanith shoved whoever had landed on her off and stood up with her sword ready. Everyone groaned angrily as Valkyrie Cain staggered up, dusted herself off, and then take off in a sprint.

"She had a gun," Wreath suddenly said from the treetops. "It was either let you all get shot or pitch her off the tree."

"I don't know which one I would have preferred," Lyra heard Skulduggery mutter, but she didn't say anything in response. She figured he had to be getting sick of her just appearing and causing a ruckus.

"HEY!" Valkyrie screamed from a few yards away. "If you want to get to Rin Marlow and Elian Ford, you have to follow me. And if you want Valkyrie Cain and Eshara Firefox to yourselves again, you'll really have to follow me. Now come on. I'm hungry and tired."

She glared at them a moment, then turned and ran again. Tanith and Ghastly tore after her, jumping in sync over the branches and mounds of dirt on the ground. Fletcher took off at a slow jog after them. Lyra and Skulduggery jumped from tree to tree, while Wreath followed closely behind them, pausing everyone once and while to check their location in relation to the "hide-out."

Unbeknownst to everyone who was chasing after Valkyrie, Rin and Elian were perched in tress and were watching the little chase scene from just a few yards away.

Uh. Yeah.

Thanks for reading and sorry for mistakes! :D