Requiem: Chapter Twenty Two...
On special request for Kaz because cliffhangers are a killer, here is the next chapter sooner than expected!
oO0Oo
"It's good to be free." Darquesse stretched and grinned broadly, eyeing up her opponent with an arched brow. "Well hey there, tall, dark and scary. What made you decide you want to die today?"
"Darquesse. Welcome."
"Wait a minute, I know what happens next. You and I destroy everything don't we?" She remembered Valkyrie's dream and the visions. "Which means you're here to beg me to kill Requiem."
"I do not beg."
"Hmm. So what's this then?"
"I'm intrigued by you."
"Why?"
"Can't you feel it?"
"Yeah yeah, we're fated to destroy each other and all that crap." She crossed her legs in the air, suspending herself in front of him with her magic. "Premonitions and visions are boring. The very act of knowing about the future changes the future." She shot him a wicked smile. "What's to stop me killing you right here and now?"
"You won't."
"Why won't I?"
"Because there's no fun in it. If I know anything at all about you, it's that you can't resist a chance to test your limits." Vile's head tilted as he watched her. "I am restricted while I am being controlled. Release me and we can fulfill our destiny properly."
"How do you know what I find fun?"
"Because you are like me. You like a challenge."
"Now that I agree with." She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Although I still don't understand what makes you think you could kill me." A wave of shadow hit her full force, sizzling her skin from her bones. She took a moment to feel mildly surprised before she laughed and her skin healed itself. Dark hair sprouted from her head as her eyelids grew back and nerve endings reformed. "Alright, fair enough. So I kill Requiem and then we have a good old fashioned throw down?"
"Once he is killed I will have full control of myself." She felt Vile smile beneath his mask. "And then we will see which of us is the strongest."
"I'll be right back." Darquesse stepped into the shadows and stepped out of them behind Requiem. He didn't notice her arrival. He was engrossed in messing with a symbol on his arm. She watched him with contempt, this arrogant, vaguely irritating man that assumed he had the right to control a creature of immense power and intelligence. Her lip curled in disgust. "Fancy thinking you're capable of controlling somebody as powerful as Lord Vile, and still being stupid enough not to watch your own back," she mused. Requiem stiffened and rose to his feet, whirling to face her.
"Cain, why aren't you dead?"
"I'm not Valkyrie."
"Don't play games with me, girl." She narrowed her eyes and flicked her wrist and his arm bent the wrong way with a loud snap. He screamed and clutched the twisted limb.
"I'm not playing games. My name is Darquesse, and Lord Vile called me here to kill you."
"Lord Vile is under my control," Requiem panted. "He cannot defy me."
"How simple-minded you are to think somebody like you could ever command a being capable of reversing death itself." She waved her hand again and his left leg buckled, the bone twisting in several places. She smiled as blood began to stain his clothes. He screamed and hit the ground, glaring at her with his yellow eyes. She felt the tug of his ability and she smiled. "Your little trick doesn't work on me, Requiem. You're too weak to influence me while trying to control Vile."
"That may be true, but I'm not too weak to make him destroy you." He clenched his fist and a moment later Vile appeared beside him, stepping out of the darkness. "Kill her!" Vile watched him, his head tilting for a moment, but he made no move to destroy her. "I said kill her! You will obey me!"
"I will do no such thing. I cannot harm you, but I will not obey you. Your control was established over Skulduggery Pleasant. You established no such control over me."
"The symbol is on your skull, so you must obey!" Requiem's snarl grew desperate, his eyes darting between the two of them. Darquesse watched with an amused smile as Lord Vile surveyed the twisted man with cool detachment.
"The symbol stops me from harming you and limits my control over my own magic, but it does not allow you to use me. You designed it for Skulduggery, not for me."
"You're the same person. It makes no difference!" Requiem's teeth were gritted against the pain, the words hissing out between them like a snake. He tried dragging himself away but his shattered arm twisted and his eyes bulged against the pain.
"Curious. I have met many men who believe they know more than others. I have never met any as self-obsessed or as spectacularly incorrect as you. I am not Skulduggery Pleasant, and he is not me."
"I'm getting bored over here," Darquesse called. "I'm going to kill you now."
"You don't have to do this. Together we can rule the mortals and the sorcerers," Requiem said quickly, changing tactic as beads of sweat began to roll down his face.
"We could do that without you," Darquesse shrugged. "But the fact is we don't want to. I have no interest in ruling anyone. I want to destroy, not to rule."
"But...but why would you want to destroy the world? What does that give you?"
"A challenge," she grinned, and then she waved her hand and snapped his neck. "There, I've killed him."
"Thank you." Vile reached up and removed his mask and Darquesse watched as the Sigil on his skull faded to nothing. When it was gone the shadows around him seemed to thicken and coil as the full force of his power returned. She breathed it in, letting it wash over her. The pure dark energy rolling off of him in great waves filled her lungs and sent a tingle through her.
"I don't think thanks are necessary since I'm going to kill you." She stepped up to him and cocked her head curiously, gazing into his hollow eye sockets. "You really are interesting, Vile." He stayed silent, watching her. "It would be a shame to kill such a unique creature."
"You talk of me as though I am an exhibit in a museum."
"Oh no, you're far more exciting that that." She drifted closer, her feet leaving the ground to bring herself level with him. "The power you wield is...electric." She kissed him, and he tilted his head to let her. The power that hung around him hit her full force and ignited the magic inside her. It crashed over them both like a tidal wave, and she smiled against his mouth before pulling away and spreading her arms wide. Her hair billowed around her as shadows snapped and writhed, rising from her skin like smoke.
"Beautiful," Lord Vile breathed, and then he put his mask back on and launched himself at her. The impact was like a freight train crashing into her torso, and she laughed as her ribs crunched and healed again immediately. She sent a fist of shadows down to pummel him and he responded by trying to crush her. Chunks of mortar and rubble shook themselves loose as the room around them began to curmble under the force of their fighting. She laughed again and slipped out of the constricting shadows, smashing through the ceiling and bursting into the air, skimming the tops of buildings with glee. It felt good to be free and unrestricted by the other girl, the one with morals and feelings and family. Darquesse frowned as an image of Alice flashed up in front of her, shaking it off quickly. Valkyrie was gone and she would stay that way.
Vile slammed into her again and her spine cracked. She felt it heal and turned and punched him in the face with a fist of shadows that sent him sailing backwards. He tossed a lasso of blackness out and it caught her ankle and swung her out of the sky, hurling her towards the ground. She let herself fall and at the last second she flipped and landed on her feet, the impact creating a crater in the tarmac as a shockwave of shadow spread out around her, shattering windows on homes and cars on both sides of the street. Someone screamed and people ran away. Darquesse laughed, drinking in the fear and the adrenaline that floated off them as they fled. Vile touched down gracefully in front of her and a wall of darkness rose behind him as tall as a house, and then it crested like an angry wave on the ocean and it surrounded her and she could feel it burning her skin again. She walked through it even as the civilians in the vicinity screamed and died, and she soaked up the death and the destruction and she slammed her burning fist into Vile's chest plate. Her extraordinary strength lent force to the blow and he shot backwards. She watched, fascinated as he flipped in the air and landed on his feet, skidding back slightly before he straightened up. She ran and snapped a boot across his face hard enough to snap the neck of an ordinary man.
Another flash of the skeleton cooking eggs in the kitchen distracted Darquesse and she blinked and shook it off as Vile's armoured boots hit her face. She spat teeth as she hit the ground, swallowing blood. Before she was even on her feet new teeth were sprouting from her gums and she jumped and kicked him across the jaw again before attacking him with spikes of shadow. They solidified and shimmered under the streetlights before streaking across the space towards the armoured man, intent on running him through. Darkness of his own rose up to deflect the black spears and the pair leapt into the air as they traded vicious blows, striking each other hard enough for the sounds to echo through the skies like thunder. He blocked each of her strikes with ease, matching her movements and mocking her. She should've known hand to hand combat would put him at an advantage; he taught her most of what she knew. She growled and propelled herself away from him, expecting him to give chase. When he did she grinned and turned abruptly, catching a tight hold of his wrist. Darquesse threw Vile through the wall of an office building and out the other side and followed him through the hole, unmindful of the people she scattered as she shot through the ruined building. He stuck to the wall of the next building and tore a chunk of bricks free, launching it back at her. She dodged and chuckled as the bricks shattered inside the building they'd just come through, causing yet more screams of pain and terror. The carnage was beautiful.
She made a move to attack him and saw the smiling faces of Melissa and Desmond Edgley and she faltered. Vile saw his chance. He grabbed her jaw and crushed it in his hand before slamming a knee into her chest and grinding her into the ground. She let the darkness explode outwards around her and flung him away as her injuries healed themselves. She could feel the other girl now, clawing her way back. Valkyrie went from nothing to a nagging sensation in the back of her brain. If the distractions kept happening Lord Vile would kill her all because of the stupid girl trying to regain control. She fought to squash the bug in her brain even as she got back to her feet.
"I had expected more from you," Vile rasped as she flew towards him. She ignored him and kicked his chest plate hard enough to dent it. The dent popped back out immediately but she was already hurling solid spears of shadow at him. They collided with him hard enough to knock him several metres back, though none of them pierced him. Another image of Valkyrie's family flashed up and Darquesse screwed her eyes shut, howling in anger.
"If you keep doing this he'll kill us both," she snarled, drawing on the energy inside her and unleashing a stream of blackness at Vile. He sidestepped and it missed him, and his head cocked as he realised she wasn't talking to him. She squashed Valkyrie down as far as she could and focussed on the fight, dodging the stream of blackness Lord Vile directed at her. His tactics changed and his shots became careful and measured, striking her at critical points, and still Valkyrie tried to force herself to the forefront, sending image after image of family and of the detective and her friends to blur Darquesse's vision. She was getting a headache. It was gnawing at her temples and distracting her.
A column of blackness slammed into her chest and her air choked off suddenly as it looped through her and back, sucking the life from her. When it let go she dropped to the ground like a lead weight, crashing into the tarmac hard enough to crack it. She blinked up at the sky dumbfounded. Her lungs were punctured. Her spine was shattered. The back of her skull was crushed and and at least three of her limbs were splintered. She tried to heal but it was slow. She tried to stand and she couldn't. She could dimly make out the figure of Lord Vile floating down beside her. He knelt and shadows created a curtain around them, shielding them from view of the public that still scurried through the scarred streets. He took off his mask and bent over her as she stared at him, wide-eyed and panting.
"Come back to me," he said softly, in a voice as smooth as honey.
oO0Oo
Her eyes cracked open and the light made her close them again. Her body burned, the air scraping her lungs as it whistled through them. She tried to look around again, gritting her teeth against the harsh fluorescent glow. Slowly, her vision focussed in on the hospital room around her.
"You're awake," said a soft voice. Valkyrie felt gloved fingers clutching her hand and she turned to see her partner sitting beside her.
"Skulduggery?" Her voice sounded as though it hadn't been used for a very long time. "What happened?"
"Oh, thank God," he said quietly, his shoulders sagging. "I thought I'd lost you to...her."
"You took off your mask. You beat Vile." She remembered him kneeling over her, taking off his mask and speaking softly.
"Hush," he said gently. "Don't get over excited. You're still delicate."
"Where am I?"
"The Sanctuary Infirmary."
"And Requiem?"
"Dead."
"I killed him." She heard the phantom snap of his bones in her ears.
"Not you. Darquesse," the skeleton replied, keeping his voice low.
"I belong in the Gaol," she said softly, closing her eyes as tears slid down her cheeks. He reached out and wiped them away gently.
"I know what you're feeling," he told her. "I've lived with it for a long time. But you have to understand that it wasn't you that did any of it. Darquesse is an unknown entity, something entirely new." He sighed. "As far as I can tell, nobody on the streets at the time got a clear look at her. All they saw was a woman who could manipulate shadows fighting a man in armour."
"You mean nobody recognised us?"
"Only you and I know the truth." He squeezed her fingers gently. "I know you feel like you need to run to the authorities and tell them the truth, but you didn't do this. It was you that stopped it going further."
"How did you beat Vile?" She kept her question soft, matching his quiet tone to avoid being overheard by anybody outside the curtain surrounding them.
"I saw you trying to fight her and I knew I could bring you back if I could beat him. I'd beaten Vile before. I knew I could do it again and once I was back in control I threw everything I had at her. Hurting Darquesse weakened her enough to let you back through." He looked away. "It was horrible, but I did it. She healed you enough to survive and then she blacked out. I had no idea when you finally woke up if it would be you or if it would still be her."
"It's me." She took a deep, shuddering breath. "If you're sure nobody knows it was me then I won't say anything. But we have to find a way to stop this from happening again."
"We will, I promise."
"How can you promise that?"
"Because I know we can fix this." She wished she could feel the same sense of conviction he did.
"I hope you're right."
oO0Oo
Author's note: This chapter has been slightly re-written in the hope of making it seem less rushed. Previously I had problems finding a suitable ending, but after reading through it I've decided this is the right place. There is one more chapter to be released of Requiem to give it a smoother finish. The sequel will be called 'Aftermath' and it's in the works to be published very soon! Thank you to xSiarahx for helping me rediscover why I returned to FanFiction in the first place :)