Chapter Three: A Dream, but Not a Dream

Valkyrie knew she was asleep, but this felt like more than a dream somehow, and she knew without a doubt that it was real.

She watched as Skulduggery walked away from her room, towards a small living room. He entered, and sat down across from the red headed mage Alanna Memoria.

"Did Kenspeckle finally kick you out?" She asked him with a amused smile.

"Yes actually. He still thinks it's my fault Valkyrie got hurt. And truthfully for once I don't blame him." Skulduggery said unwrapping his scarf from around his neck and folding it with care. "She tried to warn me about Tina and I didn't listen. I just thought she was becoming paranoid."

Alanna chuckled, before she grew serious and studied the Skeleton. "You truly care about Miss Cain." Alanna stated it. It wasn't a question.

Skulduggery nodded once, and laid his folded scarf next to him on the couch. To Valkyrie's dismay he seemed adamant to change the subject. And he found the perfect topic to discuss.

"So do you have something you want to say Alanna? I mean by way of an explanation for all these years?"

Alanna's smile faded, "You never waste any time. Why would that change now, even in death?"

Skulduggery remained silent, his skeletal face passive and waited patiently for her to clarify.

After a moment of uncomfortable silence she began, "I was imprisoned, Skulduggery."

"Where," he asked.

"A facility underwater," she said quietly. "The war may have been over above ground years ago, but those of us who were taken prisoners of war in the beginning were still paying the price up until a couple of years ago."

"But you died." Skulduggery said quietly, his head shaking slightly.

Alanna stood from her own chair and knelt in front of him, gently placing her hands on either side of his skull.

"That's what they wanted you to believe my sweet."

"I saw you and Celina, in agony. I watched as you were tortured and then killed." Skulduggery's voice cracked, at the memory. He stared at her, his empty sockets boring into the woman who had long ago been his wife, and best friend. Wishing he could take back time, and fix everything that had happened.

Alanna leaned in and hugged him, tenderly wrapping her thin arms around his body made of bones.

"I heard you cry for us; Celina and me, and I saw your anguish." She let go of him so she could see his face. "They did torture us, but our murder was an illusion. Merely a vision they wanted you to see to make you lose hope, and give up information that could be detrimental to the resistance."

Skulduggery scoffed, "I guess I did loose something when they took you away from me; my humanity. When I broke out of that prison, I killed everyone in my path. I had lost everything I ever cared about. All I wanted was revenge." He held her hand, in his own, sighing at the contact and calming down slightly.

"I've missed that," He whispered quietly tracing the patterns on her palm.

Alanna smiled at him, "I have too."

Skulduggery was still for a moment before he asked another pressing question, "What about Celina?"

Alanna shook her head, "She's. . . Gone Skulduggery. The years of torture, were too much for her. I tried to protect her from most of it, but she was already sick."

Skulduggery bowed his head, a dry sob escaping him. He stopped tracing her hand, and just held it.

"I held her in my arms, trying to comfort her in her last hours." Alanna explained, tears falling from her eyes. "I tried to heal her but I was too weak, and she wouldn't let me transfer my power. She was so stubborn; like you. Saying that I needed to live, to continue to fight." Alanna cried steadily now, her beautiful green eyes misty with the ghost of her past. "They had . . . they had, stabbed her multiple times with a Tramiquian blade, trying to get me to tell them about the raiding areas."

Skulduggery flinched, at the word Tramiquian. Valkyrie had no idea what a Tramiquian blade, but it must've been really bad.

"Our sweet little flame." Skulduggery brought Alanna back into another hug. "She wouldn't have wanted it any other way Alanna." Alanna cried into Skulduggery jacket shoulder, clinging to him for consolation.

Valkyrie watched them wishing she could comfort them; but she knew nothing she could say could right this wrong. Celina Pleasant had once been a teenager like her. She had had a life, and a family. But now she was dead. The thought made her heart ache.

Valkyrie didn't know when she had started to cry, but she could feel that her cheeks were wet now. Her thoughts were depressed. All she could think was, that Skulduggery Pleasant the great Skeleton Detective, was a father.

Still making corrections as I go. Wow, I really am careless, aren't I? You guys are saints to put up with me. Thank you. ^_^ -Lyn