Sooo...

It has been a while...

If anyone remembers the original version of this story, I have a little personal update at the end of this chapter. Otherwise, please enjoy this rewrite!

Valkyrie Cain had been lying on the four-poster in her bedroom at Grimwood House when she was disturbed by a stranger.

She was two hours into the first day of her week off. Valkyrie never really used her privilege as co-leader of the Arbiter Corps to take time off whenever she wanted (unless, of course, an apocalypse was imminent). The Arbiter Corps had grown since Skulduggery Pleasant had re-established them; it was still small, but it was elite and Valkyrie trusted all of them to be doing their jobs well.

It still hadn't improved her ability to actually take a break though; it was Skulduggery who forced her hand, telling her she wasn't looking her best and she was throwing off his "elegant vibes" as he put it. She told him he wasn't allowed to use the word "vibes" because he was more than four hundred and fifty years old. He retaliated by putting her on mandatory leave and said if so much as saw her attempting to try and fight someone for the next week, he would put her on indefinite leave.

He must have been serious to threaten her like that, and she hadn't been happy about it. But then again, it had been a busy few weeks and she was also relieved to have the break, not that she was going to admit that to Skulduggery. She wasn't planning to do much at all, except for maybe dropping over to visit her parents, have Alice come over. It wasn't like she had an array of hobbies to fall back on when she wasn't working; her hobby was fighting people who annoyed her, but Skulduggery had vetoed that one.

Initially, she had assumed that the footsteps belonged to Skulduggery. He had a habit of dropping by without warning and no one else ever came by the mansion; it was too set back from the main road for people to stumble across. But, after a moment's thought, she realised it couldn't be Skulduggery. She hadn't heard the familiar purr of the Bentley that she would usually hear when he pulled up in the driveway and the footsteps were too light and dissimilar to his familiar gait.

Valkyrie sat up sharply.

The footsteps continued to approach her door. She formed a ball of energy in her hand and moved to crouch defensively on her bed, making no sound as she did so.

The door creaked open.

Valkyrie leapt off the bed with a yell, the springs propelling her towards the figure in the doorway. The figure shrieked as they crashed to the ground together. She recovered quickly, pinning the stranger down, the energy in her hands lighting up their face. Wide eyes met hers, the fear evident.

"Please don't hurt me, I don't mean any harm!" the girl squealed.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Val growled.

"My name is Livena Estrange. I am here to help you."

Valkyrie didn't let her up. "In what world does breaking into someone's house in the middle of the night help anyone?"

"Alright, so that was a bad idea, but this was the only time I could speak to you without the skeleton dude being around as well."

Valkyrie frowned. "Skulduggery is not always with me."

The woman rolled her eyes. "I have spent way too long trying to catch you at a time when he is not hanging around. Don't give me that bullshit. Now, let me up."

"How do I know you aren't out to kill me?"

"How many people are realistically out to kill you?"

"Quite a lot still, unsurprisingly."

"Oh…"

"Yeah, I have reasons to be wary about random intruders. I'm surprised you don't know that seeing as you have apparently been stalking me, which is also a big red flag by the way."

"Fair enough, I can explain from here anyway." She took a deep breath. "I need to take you back in time because your involvement in the fight against Mevolent is crucial."

"What?" Valkyrie's grip on her eased a little. "What the hell do you mean?"

"I have to take you back in time to help the resistance fight Mevolent's forces."

"But why?"

"I can't actually give you any more information. I'm really sorry about all this."

Suddenly, Valkyrie was no longer crouching on wooden floorboards, but falling, Livena directly below her. They hit the softly ploughed ground a few metres below, Valkyrie narrowly missing falling on the girl beneath her.

She staggered up, moving away from the girl, wildly taking in her unfamiliar surroundings. The moon was full and high in the sky, illuminating everything. "Where the fuck am I?" she demanded.

"Same place, just a few years before your uncle's mansion existed." She wheezed, winded from the fall.

"What? But the house is hundreds of years old?"

Livena pulled herself up. "Welcome to 1670. The War is in full swing and Mevolent is becoming ever more powerful. I am to take you to the base camp to help fight against his forces."

But why do they need me?" Valkyrie asked. She was feeling increasingly more confused with the whole situation. She turned to properly look at the girl and was taken aback. The girl, Val realised, was completely purple, from her pretty violet irises to her indigo complexion.

Livena pulled her lilac hair out of the untidy plait it had been in and began to redo it with quick fingers. "Your purpose will become clear and even if you don't understand it yet, that is of no concern in the long run. You just have to be here and help out the resistance and trust me that it will all work out in the end."

A younger Valkyrie would have probably protested more. As it was, she wasn't happy with the situation; who would be? Her life that she had finally grown content with had suddenly been uprooted and there was no way back without cooperating with this purple woman. Valkyrie had never met another time shunter and she doubted it was a very common ability. She knew she needed to stay on this woman's good side if she ever wanted a chance of returning to her own time.

Hello all!

So I have been thinking about this story for a while now. I originally started this project at the age of 16 and I couldn't believe how big it got, particularly here on this site. It remains one of the most commented fics in the SP fandom on here.

Looking back on it at 21, it seems a little childish, and I kept getting sidetracked by the teen romance and high school setting. I never really got to the heart of the story and the angst that was needed to progress it.

So, now that we are onto book 12 of Valkyrie Cain and Skulduggery Pleasant's story, I thought I would give my original tale a revamp, removing the high school veneer because it was dragging the story. That's not to say I'm knocking my old writing, but I wrote just over 40,000 words and I hadn't even escaped the beginning of my story.

I hope you all enjoy and I hope I get to finish this project.

See y'all soon.

~Leo