2
Skulduggery had awoken from his meditation, finding himself on Valkyries couch. His suit was a mess and the entirety of the house was a disaster.
The tables were overturned. Tables, because he now possessed two halves of a once prosperous table.
The kitchen was covered in broken utensils and bits of cabinet door.
The Paintings on the wall were in scattered pieces across the house.
The television was broken and everything was in the opposite location of where it was meant to be
Skulduggery knew that he no longer had a brain to have it ache, but he rubbed his head from the headache. He sighed and stepped over all the overturned objects in his house. He went to a mirror and found that his suit now had giant cuts and bullet holes. Judging by the size he had probably gone up against a few small time ruffians in town and tried to arrest them. Judging by the amount, he went up against a lot.
He was really starting to lose it.
Go on then, let loose.
Why would I?
You know why.
No, I can handle this. I've spent years on my own.
No, I've spent years on my own. You haven't.
We're the same person!
Really?Then why don't you let loose?
Because you know why! Now shut up. I'm done wrestling my inner demons.
Skulduggery knew he was losing it, he was hearing him again. The intent, he could hear it, feel it. It was very unbecoming of a gentleman.
You don't have to care anymore, if you just open the black case.
No.
The detective had heard that it was like this with Valkyrie as well. They shared a bond, a bond from genocidal murderers inhabiting their minds. He didn't want to tell her though. If she thought that he had gone through the same thing without having an alter ego remain, she would try to get rid of hers. It was stupid to assume that though. She hadn't gotten rid of her's, neither had Skulduggery.
With his partner gone, he didn't need to lead anymore. He had been trying to find an excuse to hide his dark side for years, decades before Valkyrie came forward. People like Ghastly, Ravel or Gordon, they were all people Skulduggery had to be the hero for. They had needed him, but now they were all gone he wasn't really needed anymore. It was odd though, one had been killed by the other, the other was then killed by Skulduggery. The only person who needed him now was the murderer of his family.
There was some cruel irony in the world. But that was why he was still here, to suffer the punishment that Lord Vile was never present for. Or at least, what he wanted to believe.
That's what he would've told Valkyrie.
But in reality, Skulduggery didn't feel like dying yet. He had died once and it hadn't really been a pleasant experience. Granted that was most peoples view on the concept, but they had never been through it before. It was similar too getting shot, people very rarely want to do it, but never know if it's good or bad.
When Skulduggery was dead he hadn't felt anything new, it just felt like nothing, like everything was dark and cold and silent. It didn't have anything to do with being chucked into a river in a bag with no lighting.
He hated the fact that he sounded so brooding and insufferable when he thought about all this, Valkyrie had that effect on him though. With no real reason to hide it, heroes tend to brood. That's what made them heroes. That or Batman.
He looked over at the old phone he was given in the 80's by Ghastly (He didn't have the heart to throw it away), the message count was about 50. He looked at the phone for a minute and then all of a sudden it was half way into the adjacent wall. He hadn't even realized that he had used the air on the innocent answering machine. He stared at the wall for a moment. If he had eyelids he would have blinked hard at the glowing hole in the wall.
He walked slowly over to the phone and pulled it out of the wall with some struggle. It fell to the floor with a clack as he walked over to his suit room. He walked in and put on a tie, it wasn't even the right tie for this suit. The color was way off. He knew Ghastly would be rolling over in his grave at the sight, but he was gone.
They were all gone, so why would Skulduggery care?
He threw a shoe at the mirror and saw it shatter into pieces.
"If I was superstitious I..." stopped for a moment, realizing nobody was there to hear this. He threw another shoe and it did nothing but thud against the wall, leaving a heel shaped hole in the plaster. If only he had someone of equal intelligence to talk to, to talk this through with. Somebody like Valkyrie, who would listen to the stupid things he would say and still laugh.
That's when it hit him like a shoe in the wall.
A Reflection.
His own reflection. Somebody who was just like him and had all his memories. Granted it would just be a carbon copy of himself but if he killed it and shoved it back in the mirror then it would start to evolve. Not entirely him, but the closest thing besides Valkyrie.
The second most understanding person he would ever know. He rummaged through his closet and pulled out a full length mirror. He drew the symbol and did the ritual. He touched the mirror hastily and waited.
He looked and it did nothing.
A few minutes ticked by and he did it again.
He tried again and again and realized that it wasn't going to work.
He didn't understand.
He held his hand against it, lent his head, his chest, eventually sliding his body down it.
If he had eyes he would be crying. If he had a heart anymore it would be exploding. Figuratively of course. He had been told by nearly everyone he knew that he had never had one.
Valkyrie had never said that.
He sat there and punched the mirror for a full minute.
He didn't have the strength so he just sort of rattled it, like the soft slapping of sleepy old person. He was getting to old, for it to hurt hits much.
Of course the Reflection wouldn't work, he wasn't alive either.
You cannot replicate a t-shirt, or a gun, or a wardrobe. You can't replicate a flower, because it's alive but not sentient, he had the reversed situation.
Time passed as these thought's trickled from his mind.
He was really losing it. He was likening himself to a wardrobe.
He had no trouble with being likened to a flower, but wardrobes were out of the question.
He tipped the mirror over and watched it shatter as he walked out of the room to the kitchen. He needed to prove he was living, or alive, or something.
He poured a glass of water hastily in a cup and put it into his jaw.
It drenched his ruined suit and moistened the front of his spine but nothing more. He threw the glass through the window and listened to it shatter outside on the pavement.
He just stood there for a moment and looked at all the carnage. The puddle of water at his feet, the broken window and fallen cutlery. The broken refrigerator with mustard and milk split on the floor.
He was used to this kind of carnage but it was usually after he saved the day, it very rarely happened before then.
He looked at all this destruction and realized that all this was not really for Valkyrie or Ghastly.
Even when he was alive, he had never broken as much things as he had just now. He always tried to...
Ok, he had never really avoided breaking things, but that came with his line of work. In fact, he had never wasted a good pair of shoes either, especially if they were Bespoke.
Something was happening within him, something was starting to ooze out and he needed to stop it.
A dark shadow was oozing out from deep within him and he needed to push it back down again.
What's wrong with a bit of oozing?
Oozing was very unprofessional for a man his age. He looked down at the mess again and realized that it looked eerily similar to Valkyrie's room.
That was the last straw.
He started cleaning up and putting everything back in their original places. He came to realize the destructive capabilities of a man on a brooding binge. He remembered Ghastly telling him a story of something similar during the war, but he had suspiciously forgotten that until recently. Something about Skulduggery loosing his favorite hat in the middle of a bar fight, he had taken out the motel they were staying in. Those bandits had started it though, such actions were beneath him.
Within 4 hours everything was back in its original place. The detective scanned his surroundings, and found that it was suspiciously barren. He called upon his usual supplier and had them deliver within the month.
He needed to get his life back under control. He needed to regain his composure.
The fact of the matter was that he could fake composure as well as he could fake sympathy, but this time he actually required it. He had been in the middle of a firefight over a doomsday bomb, he had intimidated all of them into submission. Good days.
If it got out that the Skeleton Detective was losing it over his partner, people would start to get curious. Everyone had assumed that his ego was too big for that to happen. Even Skulduggery had thought that. People would begin thinking it was too ridiculous, to outlandish for him. They would start connecting dots, dots that led back to the war.
It didn't take a genius to connect the dots, things were going to turn sour. This would start to go away if he saved the world at least twice before the end of the month, that's how things usually went. People tend to forget a lot of things if you save the world a few times. Valkyrie needed to learn that.
She was learning that from you.
Of course she was, i'm a hero.
You are now... You're her hero.
I'm a lot of peoples hero, nothing special about that.
Narcissism is barely enough to describe you.
Us. Vile, Us.
Semantics are useless.
I find them quite enjoyable.
Of course you would.
Is there a problem?
Well I think that...
A loud knock came from the front door. Skulduggery realized he had just spent another 10 minutes having a conversation with himself. It hadn't been this bad since he had been with the Faceless One's universe. He had had a full on debate with himself and five other delegates of his subconscious prior to leaving that dimension. Valkyrie had helped him escape from there.
Even then at least he had an excuse for his insanity.
He went into the Suit room and quickly changed out of his tattered clothing. Looking pretty much as heroic as ever, he stepped into the hallway and opened the door. For a split second he thought it was Valkyrie, the musculature was similar and the stance this individual took was almost identical. His non-existent heart did a little explosion, then stopped halfway and retreated into itself. He was surprised to find Tanith Low standing in her usually attire in front of him, tight fitting leather clothing and boots, not dissimilar to Valkyries. Her sword was hidden somewhere in her jacket. Her blonde hair, though still luscious and golden, had lost it's luster in the past few years. In the same way she herself had lost her luster these past few years. Before being inhabited by the Remnant, she had been one of the shining beacon of optimism for the group, second only to Valkyrie herself. She had been Ghastly's beacon especially, Skulduggery didn't feel as though he needed a beacon, he was his own beacon.
That's a lie.
Shut up.
Tanith looked as bad-ass as she had always been, here eyes looked a little bit lost though. She had awakened with no one who trusted her and everyone trying to arrest her. Upon clearing her name, she went to meet her Londoner friend that could shoot lasers and then traveled the world looking for something to do. She had come back every so often to help Skulduggery out on one of the numerous cases over the years. It could be stated that they had gotten closer. Neither would admit to it, but it was obvious. She had taken precedence over the passenger seat now, even changing it's position. Valkyrie would be cross.
In some way Skulduggery needed someone else to be a hero for, and Tanith needed a friend again. They had just miraculously become closer in the span of a few months. Nowadays, the first person she saw when she came into Ireland was Skulduggery. Tanith had plenty of friends in contrast to Skulduggery, however she had alienated them slightly with the reckless slaughter over the years she was under the influence. Skulduggery assumed the same would happen to him if his friends found out as well.
"Hi Skul" Tanith said through a strained smile.
"Hello Tanith" Skulduggery said, faking composure as well as a skeleton with no face could
"I assume by the fact that you have your sword with you and the combat boots you need me for something?"
"Actually I felt as though we should talk." She said sheepishly, as though she was afraid. But that was impossible, Tanith never showed fear. It was definitely something else.
"By all means my dear." He said, bowing slightly while he opened the door further into the wall-stopper. He lead her to the living room as he settled into his chair across from Valkyries Tanith walked slowly, almost warily to the sat down slowly, like a startled cat, ready to spring at any dropping her gaze from the Detective.
She had obviously heard about something from the other agents. She was here to calm him down, to make sure he wasn't going to go on a rampage. Currently, she was one of the very few friends he had left. They had a connection that couldn't be established with others, the love of kicking people in the face very hard for the thrill of it. Skulduggery spread his arms wide in a 'So, go ahead' sort of motion and waited.
"So Skul, ol' pal o' mine! How've ya been?" Tanith said nervously. He was almost taken aback, though he had never been surprised when people realized what he really was. How the legend of the truest 'Dead Man' meant he was truly dead. When people looked at him with a nervous respect, with the respect reserved for the dead. He wasn't surprised about that, he was surprised that a girl like Tanith had that look. It had stopped mattering about 200 years ago. But he had never expected this from...
Tanith had always been there for him and Valkyrie. Well, ignoring the "Lack of Discipline" on her part in the years previous. She was a good ally to have and a good friend to Valkyrie. When Detective Cain didn't need an insane murderous skeleton as her best friend, she would call upon Tanith. That had meant by extension Skulduggery was close with Tanith. He didn't think it was wise to lie to Tanith about what was going on, now that they were close.
But...
"I'm... fine thank you" Skulduggery said warily. He didn't know Tanith's intention's yet. If she was here for some more sparring, then he needed to prepare. If she was here to bring him in for something, he would need to be prepared to use his she was a remnant again she might have some plans involving his bones and Rottweilers. He still wasn't sure if the real Tanith was back, the way she had changed was so unorthodox Skulduggery had a hard time believing it. But he was nothing if not flexible. He accepted her with open arms, with a few spare rounds for his revolver jingling in his pocket and crossed finger bones.
"How are you Tanith?" Skulduggery said as he sat up a little bit straighter in his chair.
"I'm fine thanks. Are you sure you're okay, Skul? If you have any issue you can talk with me about it"
"I'm Grand, Tanith, honestly. What brings about this sudden interest in my well-being? I may be an amazingly unique individual, but I do not require documentation of my well-being. Unless this is for a documentary, in which case, ask the Grand Mage, I'm sure she has plenty to say about her agents while people like us do real work. Which makes this sudden interview rather suspicious." If Skulduggery still had his eyebrows, he would be raising them.
"Skulduggery, I didn't want to be harsh about this but I have a feeling we really need to talk about this. You know what i'm here to talk about but I might as well spell it out for you. I don't think you really remember this bit, but you went on a rampage last night. Some of that night was spent in other countries. On a few mortal news reports, it was seen that something resembling a human hit Mach 4 at midnight and broke the sound barrier. At which point it was also observed that low level criminals fell into contact with a talking skeleton fires coming out of it's eye sockets that beat the shit out of of them." Tanith paused to let that sink in. Skulduggery just kept sitting there, looking into Tanith's eyes, trying to figure out what she was going to do about it.
"Though these claims are largely discredited, being druggies and all." Tanith continued
"Other reports speak of somebody stopping a bank robbery, in a suit and a scarf, and hitting them with lasers coming out of his hands. Similairly, a hostage situation as well as a kidnapping and attempted rape incident were all stopped by a man in a black suit with glowing red eyes, shooting lasers froms his hands. In parts of New York, the Ukraine, Russia, Germany, Africa, The Philippines, Japan, Australia, China, India, almost all of the world. Change "laser" to "streams of fire" and who does that sound like to you Skul?" Tanith said, raising a sarcastic eyebrow. Skulduggery figured out what she was here for.
A lecture.
That was new.
Especially from Tanith.
"In fact these are only the countries that have 24 hour news networks. You might have tried to beat the shit out of some ghetto thugs in the Congo and we wouldn't even know about it."
Tanith was practically foaming at the mouth, despite the civility she was presenting to him.
Skulduggery simply sat there, feigning innocence. He wasn't exactly sure what to say. He didn't remember anything, he just knew he had been through a scuffle. He thought he just tried to stop a few muggings in Ireland. He would've remembered though. Vile was taking control, he was encroaching like the progressive shadow that he had always been, the flickering in the back of his skull. However dramatic that sounded.
"Now I don't know what kind of Superman bullshit that you're trying to pull right now Skul but it has to stop. The last couple of years have died down with the publicity, but this is getting ridiculous. The entire magic community is watching Ireland now, waiting for you to fuck up so they can wander in here with an army to take you down." Tanith said as she dropped the act and sat forward in her seat. Skulduggery simply sat back and peaked his fingers close to what remained of his nose.
"They would need more than that to stop me..." He said softly to himself. Not really realizing that Tanith was there.
She sat there with her eye's wide and her mouth wider. Not really because she was surprised, but more that she knew he wasn't bluffing. She went to get out of her seat, but then hesitated for a moment. Skulduggery tilted his head slightly, wondering what her next move was. She looked back at him for a moment, he did the same.
She settled back into her chair.