I lied. Welcome SHELIA!

The lights flicked on dramatically, everyone stared. The chair still covered in dust and two separate splats of scarlet up the wall and on the floor. Two bodies lay… A long sleeved shirt and a long grey, scarlet stained shirt with a neck-high collar and long sleeves with red lining. It also had black jeans and boots that are folded down at the top. A red ruffle was clipped onto its shirt by bronze buttons going all the way down. It had black leather fingerless gloves and there was a knife sheath on its thigh.

Aislinn…

The second was wearing trousers that were just too short, had long dark locks of hair and a plain T-Shirt. But somehow she still seemed beautiful and peaceful, although there were two bullet wounds in her stomach and one in the chest.

China.

You could only here a slight wheezing from by Ash, as if her lungs were crushed or blocked. S something…

"Sh…Sheila….."

Valkyrie's eyes widened. Only she knew what this meant. If her presumptions were correct, Sheila would come out if Ash's life was in danger. Ash was dying! Sheila was evil! Like…

…Darquesse….

If Valkyrie needed to, she was going get so badly hurt Darquesse would come out and hopefully save the day.

Sheila is Aislinn's sister, enclosed in her. Ash has a yellow seal in her eye, covering most of the pupil and her sister is basically as bad as Darquesse, but not destined to destroy the world. The perfect sparring couple.

Valkyrie knelt by Ash, smiling gently.

"You know, it's funny…" Aislinn choked. "I-I never thought it'd end like this…" Valkyrie smiled, holding her hand as if to hold her back from dying. "I only helped China to… help you. It's the least I owe you." She carried on. "I brought him back from the dead for you and you were understanding… ish." She made a mangled, painful attempt at a laugh, tears now running down her cheeks. "I did run screaming at first. But Ash, you don't owe us anything… I mean, you killed us a few times, yeah. " Valkyrie laughed.

"Val, if you were living, you wouldn't have been able to go and get him, would you? It's a spiritual path, taken in a matter of minutes. With you two, you were so close it only took mere seconds for you to find each other in the spirit world! It was a rare sight…" Ash covered her mouth with her hand as she coughed. Removing it, blood dripped through her fingers, splashing off the stone cold floor. "That's why I made an agreement I was to kill him. It would send him straight to you and bring you back."

"Like maths. A minus and a plus equals a minus. Just swap it round so it's a minus and a minus equals a plus."

"I have no idea what you just said." Aislinn and Valkyrie laughed. "China made herself a façade, knowing it would fool you. She made it while she was 'protecting' your house and sister with symbols. They symbols didn't actually do anything. China would go power mad… and there's also something I think you should know now China's going to die too…"

"Go on." Valkyrie smiled warmly, still gripping her hand.

"You see Alice over there? She isn't Alice Jenkins. She's Alice Sorrows. That's why China mentioned her mother. China was adopted and… well… She killed Alice's whole family... and Alice. It's one of the ways you can become an NA. If you prematurely die yourself and you are the only one left in your family."

Miss Jenkins walked over and knelt by China. China was screaming in agony as she pushed a knife into the wounds, forcing the flesh away from each other and allowing the bullet to drive themselves deeper inside. China was weak and fear had filled her beautiful, dark eyes. "Enough of the bullshit, China. I've had it. Time for you to suffer like you made me suffer." Throwing the knife across the floor, not hard enough to hit the others but hard enough to slide away from them, she raised her hands over China's dying corpse.

The bullets rose slowly back from the tunnels they had made. China's body jerk as she screamed out into the never ending silence. Echo…The grains of sand in her hour glass fell to the floor. Tap… tap… tap.

Gone.

China Sorrows, after a long time of storms and riots, is silenced.

Then the calm before the storm kicked in as Aislinn screamed out, nearly breaking Valkyrie's hand. Their attention immediately snapped back to her. "So he had to be dead to pass through the imagination barrier?" Valkyrie asked quickly, trying to keep Aislinn with them. She was bracing herself for Sheila and looked worriedly at Skulduggery. He didn't know. She turned Ash as she coughed up more blood.

Ash could feel the blood slowly filling her lungs and making it harder and harder for her to breathe. They didn't have long. "Y-Yeah." She stuttered, blood spitting accidently. Valkyrie gripped onto her hand tighter as if to reassure her. "I can feel her… She's coming and she's more powerful than ever! Oh god, Valkyrie, Skulduggery, run!"

Ash's grip slowly got tighter and tighter on Valkyrie's hand. Valkyrie tried to pull away but was trapped, noticing Ash's eyes slowly, ever so slowly, changing colour. They were becoming a very light shade of grey, making the seal more noticeable than before. Pure black lines in her eyes seemed to glow as the pupils retracted. Soon enough, all traces of colour have left her eyes, pupil and all. They were as grey as a storm.

Ash's body had stopped all movement. Her hand was still clutched around Valkyrie's but very weakly. Valkyrie gestured for Skulduggery to get back as she herself un-winded her hand from Ash's and took a leap back. He took one big step, silently.

"Val, what's going on…?"

"You know Darquesse?"

"Yeah."

"Basically Ash's version of Darquesse but not destined to destroy the world."

"Ah." He said. "That isn't good."

"Yeah."

"Better brace ourselves then, eh?"

She glanced at him, looking at his crystal blue eyes. He still had his façade up and it was quite strange. Eyes like twinkling crystals but a square jaw. Small pink lips, pale face, tough looking.

Even so, his face wasn't the thing that had disturbed her so. It was the ever so slightly sorrowful taint to his eyes and the disguised sad smirk playing on his small pink lips.

"Oh no, Skulduggery Pleasant, don't you dare! I am the only person here who can beat Shelia and you know it's true!"

"That may be so, but-"

Their argument was cut off by the sharp gasping of a corpse. Shelia! There was a hiss. Shelia's body was muscular and kind of bulging with power. Her toned body sat up sharply, breathing in scents of the air around her. "I haven't been here before… Heh, curiouser and curiouser..."

Everyone else left had scarpered. It was just the old team, Valduggery and the new enemy, Shelia Night. Skulduggery turned on his heels as quick as The Flash and pushed Valkyrie into the TARDIS with so much force she fell over on the small walkway leading inside. "Skulduggery, no!" She reached out to him, jumping to her feet and darting towards the TARDIS blue doors.

The doors snapped shut.

Skulduggery looked within himself, deep within his heart and soul. The darkness, the unforgiving darkness… Hidden away out of sight.

Shelia looked at the figure looming in the not so far distance. She smirked, recognising its bony figure and pin-striped hat. She sung in the tune of 'Remember, Remember the 5th of November':

"Remember, remember, the famous detective. Necromancer, vile and evil. Searching but all the while, that mean old Mister Vile, is hidden inside of you, the weevil."

Jumping up, she smirked at him as the detective was not a detective anymore. He was in a metal, dark iron maiden two dark glowing eye sockets.

Shelia cackled slightly, her head nodding slowly. Bringing herself to lower her eye contact back to his, she said

"But now, he's come out to play."

I'm sorry about the next chapter. I'm terrible with fight scenes but I do try, honest!