A/N: Please don't hurt me! I am so sorry this has taken me so long, but I have been really busy with exams and things, and I've had an extremely bad case of writers block. Thankyou to everyone that has reviewed or favourited and stuck with me through my absence. I've had this idea for months but couldn't get it down, especially the ending so I'm very sorry if it's not up to my usual standard... I hope you can all forgive me enough to enjoy the chapter :)

Valkyrie was having a bad day.

She was chained to a wall. She had been chained to this bare stone wall for the last eleven hours, without any food, water... or bathroom breaks. She had nothing to entertain herself with, apart from the occasional visitor, so it was safe to say that she was extremely bored. But all of this wasn't the worst part of her situation. Not by a long way.

The worst part was that the man pacing a few yards in front of her, another visitor, was laughing. At her. Valkyrie could not stand people laughing at her expense. It was so infuriating. Normally, she would just shrug it off, knowing that they were underestimating her, mocking her because she was 'just a young girl' and 'she could do no harm'. But this time was different. There was something about this young-looking, handsome–in–a–plain–kind–of–way man, something about his general aura that truly scared Valkyrie, a feeling that she wasn't used to, and wasn't really enjoying.

"Valkyrie, Valkyrie, Valkyrie..." He tutted, pausing with his face in the shadows that the single flickering bulb in the room could not banish. "Valkyrie Cain... I've heard you've been giving my men a hard time. What am I to do with you?"

"How about letting me go, you sick freak!" Valkyrie replied, less venomously than she usually would have. She had promised herself that she would be twice as cautious as per usual, and she was desperately trying to reign in her temper.

"Now, why would I do that, sweetheart? I could have so much fun with you." The figure sneered as he stepped into the fluctuating light. Valkyrie gasped.

The right side of his face was completely normal- average, even – brown eye, blonde hair, tanned skin. But then he turned face on and Valkyrie realised who she was dealing with. A blue lens- a mockery of a real eye- stared back at her from where it was set into a thick, translucent, moulded material that had been slowly and painfully welded onto the subject's face in a sadistic experiment almost nine years previously. Through the strange material, you could barely see the outline of a brain and numerous cogs that made a faint ticking noise as they turned. But that was enough to raise the hairs on the back of Valkyrie's neck. She struggled to speak around the huge lump that had appeared in her throat. "Thanatos Stayne." It came out weak and quiet but it was all that she could manage at the moment. "Ah, yes, we haven't been properly introduced yet, have we? I am, of course, Thanatos Stayne. But you already knew that, didn't you? I believe you were one of the detectives assigned the task of finding the man responsible for doing this to my face while Detective Pleasant was stuck in the Faceless One's world. You were such a small thing then, only a few years older than I was- 14, 15 was it? But now... well, you have certainly grown up, haven't you?"

He looked at Valkyrie, lust clear in his one human eye as he scanned her from head to toe. She flinched away; turning her back and curling her body up into a ball to protect herself, glad that she had decided to wear her more baggy, loose protective clothes today.

"Although I would have preferred a more violent and painful alternative, I have to thank you for detaining the scientist. I hope you appreciate that, now they are said, my thanks won't stop me from killing you."

"Why are you doing this?" She managed to force out.

"Well, it seems your friend, the skeleton, managed to disrupt one of my plans a few years back. It's nothing personal, just that my sources say that you are the one person in this world that he cares most for. And I believe it's time for a nice helping of revenge!"

"Oh how kind of you, I'm extremely comforted by the fact that none of this is personal!" Valkyrie spat viciously, trying to hide how fragile he made her feel.

"Don't try to be smart with me, Miss Cain. I can see the terror in your eyes. I can hear your pulse racing. I can taste your fear." Stayne crooned the words before continuing in a mockingly polite tone. "Now, don't you want to ask me how we're going to do this? Well, I'll tell you anyway. See, I tend to love the dramatics, I enjoy a good show, so here's what you are going to do- Detective Pleasant and a few of your friends are heading to the mall we are situated underneath at the moment to investigate an anonymous sighting of you. The poor things have been looking frantically for you since you went missing last night. In the main courtyard of this mall, as I am sure you are aware, there is a glass elevator. At 12 o'clock exactly, you will step into this elevator with a little package of mine. This package will be a bomb and your precious friends will be left to watch as you explode into a million pieces! My colleagues and I will be safely miles away, watching Detective Pleasant's face from a hidden camera as he watches his closest friend die. Sounds fun, doesn't it?"

Valkyrie turned and glared with all the strength she could muster. "You sadistic bastard!"

He proceeded as if he hadn't heard a word she said. "And just to complete the scene, you are going to be wearing this." Stayne thrust a bundle of fabric toward her. "Some lady friends of mine will be here in a moment to help you dress and ensure you have no hidden weapons up your metaphorical sleeves. But, don't worry, they are well trained and will be able to kill you in an instant if you try to run. Remember, if you behave, I might just let your friends go free. What they will see today is worse than any physical pain I could cause them... I should know." With his last muttered words, Stayne exited the room and was replaced by two fair haired women.

Valkyrie looked down at the material. It was white... A white, formfitting dress. She felt a thrill of fear. The women were silent but had a menacing air about them as they helped her change. They were quick and efficient, only pausing when they tried to take her ring.

"Please," She begged. "Don't take it, it's my wedding ring. I'd like to be wearing it when I die." The woman on the right's eyes softened and they permitted her to keep it on. Then, just as suddenly as they had entered the room, the women breezed out without a word. Thanatos Stayne strolled casually back into the room, his eyes hungrily devouring the sight of Valkyrie. Then he stopped with wide eyes.

The dress was undeniably beautiful yet simple. In typical Roman style, the dress only had one shoulder which was secured by an embellished strap. The shoulder swept down to a glittery bodice, then melted into a flowing skirt. A gauzy train floated from the back of the dress. But what caught Stayne's attention was the swell of Valkyrie's stomach. The unmistakeable baby bump.

"Who..." He was lost for words. Then he spied the skull shaped ring on her finger and chuckled. "Well, Pleasant has been busy, hasn't he? I had heard that Miss Sorrows had crafted him a facade, but I have to give her credit. I never would have thought it could have been this effective!"

He circled around his prisoner. Valkyrie flinched as every step echoed noisily around the stone room.

"Well, Miss Cain- Sorry, I should say Mrs Pleasant- It seems we have a change of plan. I never realised that you were this close to your skeleton friend. This I need to see! Shall we let your friends come to my room instead? Then it will be just like a flashback for Pleasant as he watches his second wife and child get gutted!"

Valkyrie let loose a torrent of swearing, cursing her captor to the deepest, darkest depths of hell and was rewarded with a blow to the face and a dirty rag fashioned into a makeshift gag.

"Let's go." Stayne growled.

She was dragged roughly through seemingly endless hallways by the two women from earlier until they came to a non-descript door. Valkyrie was pushed through it into Stayne's meeting room. It was classy and comfortable, exactly what you would expect of a wealthy businessman's office. As footsteps resounded outside in the passageway, the gagged woman was shoved into a supply closet.

Valkyrie lost her balance and her head collided with the corner of a shelf. She heard angry voices but couldn't decipher the words through the pounding in her ears. Putting her hand on the wound, she tried to concentrate but was distracted by the steady trickle of blood down her arm.

Suddenly, a crack of light appeared. The women- twins, she thought through the haze- had opened the door and the sound came rushing in, intensifying the throbbing.

"I'd put that gun down, if I were you, Detective."

"And why would you do that?" Skulduggery's velvet voice was twisted into a growl- a low, primal sound that was somehow still attractive.

Stayne's voice was full of pure malice. "Because, I believe I have something that belongs to you."

Valkyrie gave an involuntary cry as Stayne seized the back of her hair and turned her to face the guests. Someone gasped. Tanith maybe? They were all there; Tanith, Ghastly, Fletcher, Skulduggery, even China, who Valkyrie had begun to call a friend.

Skulduggery rushed forward then stopped suddenly as Valkyrie gave a whimper of pain. Stayne had, in one smooth, well practised motion, twisted her closer to him and unsheathed the knife at his side. Pulling her hair backwards, he revealed her neck and held the knife to it.

"Now, now, Pleasant, don't make me do anything you'd regret." His words oozed with poison. Skulduggery stepped back again, his hands slightly raised in a universal calming gesture and his fake face betraying his fear.

Without warning, China dropped to her knees screaming.

"Now, Miss Sorrows, I am no fool! Of course I have symbols imbedded all around my office, to counter any other symbol bearing attackers. You didn't really think it would be that easy, did you?"

Stayne turned towards Skulduggery. "As for you, I thought I had warned you? Obviously you don't care for your wife as much as I thought you did. Well, I suppose it's time for my own punishment."

He pushed Valkyrie into the opposite corner of the room and Tanith edged round, unseen, to check her best friend's injuries.

Stayne advanced on Skulduggery. "Well, what shall it be, a quick painless death, or a slow agonising one?" He looked at the other faces in the room. "That was funny. Oh, whatever, let's just get on with it."

He stretched his arm out in Skulduggery's direction and clenched his fist, raising it slowly higher. Skulduggery was lifted, gasping for air as if an invisible hand was squeezing the breath from his lungs.

Ghastly and Fletcher tried to help but were restrained by the twins, who were extremely strong for women of their size. China was still incapacitated and Tanith was preoccupied with stopping Valkyrie from losing too much blood and passing out.

"The problem, Pleasant, with Miss Sorrow's excellent facade is that it is rather too good. You should be comforted that if you were still a skeleton, then I wouldn't be able to do this. You see, as soon as I found out that you had knocked up your little tart over there, I realised you must have gained organs. And organs are very fragile things, you know. If I were to punch a hole in your lung, like so," He made a jabbing motion with his index finger and Skulduggery coughed. "You would drown in your own blood..." He watched gleefully as Skulduggery started to choke, flecks of blood speckling the cream carpet.

Valkyrie looked up through the haze as she heard her beloved give a gurgled shout. When the images finally registered in her brain, all the hate and fear she had felt in the last twelve hours bubbled up to the surface and she saw red.

Tanith was scared when Valkyrie stood up, scared that Valkyrie would get hurt, scared that she would lose another one of her best friends. So Tanith grabbed her arm, pulling her gently back toward the wall. Valkyrie turned abruptly and glared at Tanith, a warning clear in her scarlet eyes. Tanith released her arm immediately.

Valkyrie's voice rang through the room, slightly deeper than usual and gained everyone's attention. "How dare you. The child is needed for the ultimate plan, it must not be harmed. How dare you upset my plans, Thanatos Stayne. You should worship at my feet."

Thanatos laughed and let Skulduggery crash to the ground behind him. "And who might you be, so almighty that you presume to order me around?"

The sudden smile that came to Valkyrie's dark lips was somehow more haunting than her glare. "I am the Destroyer of Worlds, the Bringer of Silence, the nightmares that haunted your childhood dreams. I am Darquesse. And you will BOW before me!" Darquesse held her arm out, palm up and turned it over, thrusting it downwards. Tendrils of a red, smoke like substance emanated from her hand, forming a spike that drove into Stayne's back, making him scream out and fall to his knees.

With this head hung, Stayne pleaded with Darquesse. "I beg of you, my Queen, spare me! I repent!"

"I despise cowards. You have no place in my scheme. You will be eliminated." With a click of her fingers, Darquesse unleashed her wrath and crushed the remains of the cyborg's skull.

She stepped over the mound of dust that was all that remained of Stayne and stalked over to Skulduggery, hissing at Ghastly when he tried to step in front of her.

As she looked down at his broken body, her eyes flashed brown for a moment. "Skul, are you alright?"

Skulduggery gave a weak attempt at a smile. "Yeah, I'm just fine and dandy. You?"

"I am unharmed." The mechanical tone was back. "Why do you lie to me, her, us?"

"It's called a joke, Val."

"I am not 'Val' anymore, I am Darquesse!"

Skulduggery shifted himself into an almost upright sitting position against the wall with a groan. "But I can tell, I can see in your eyes that she is still there. Am I right?"

"She is a strong one. She will not go without a fight. And now is not the time for that fight, although it will come soon. You are needed. Be healed."

With a wave of Darquesse's hand, the coloured smoke engulfed Skulduggery's body, at the same time the woman collapsed to the floor. When Skulduggery once again became visible, his wounds were fully healed and he felt as good as new, although his shirt lay in bloodied tatters on the floor.

Valkyrie stirred. "Skul?"

Skulduggery walked over and hurriedly pulled Valkyrie into his arms. "I'm here, Val."

"What happened?" Valkyrie asked, looking slightly confused, before frowning. Suddenly, a murky muddle of memories flashed through her head, and Valkyrie was forced to watch as she destroyed the pleading man.

She looked up at her friends- her family- in abject horror. "I killed him. He was defenceless, I could've just arrested him, but I was so, so angry, and she took over and then she just... I just..."

As the tears started falling, and the first sob escaped her throat, Valkyrie tried to pull away from her husband's arms.

"No, let me go! It's not... It's not safe to be around you... I can't control her!"

Skulduggery just pulled her closer, stroking her hair. "Shhh... Don't cry, sweetheart..."

"It's not safe..." Valkyrie whispered in a broken voice.

Skulduggery kissed her forehead. "Don't worry, everything will be fine. I promise you that I will help you get rid of her. She won't hurt any of us again."

"Thank you."

Laying her head on his chest, Valkyrie let her emotions out as he murmured comforting words into her ear.

"Skul?"

"Yes, Val?"

"I love you."

"I love you too."

A/N: Please review and tell me how this was, or give me story suggestions because they might help me get over this horrible block :)

I love you all!

Amara Calla xoxoxoxoxoxoxo