Disclaimer: I do not own Skulduggery Pleasant or Death Note. But I will start lucid dreaming with the characters. So THERE. I do own Anita.
6-The Seeds of Jealousy
Anita fell through the void, feeling the crack deep in her chest. It felt like a chasm, and as she fell, her soul screamed its agony. Her soulstone had cracked…her soul was damaged. She wouldn't last long.
Skulduggery's voice was distant, the words nonsensical. But Anita heard enough to know he blamed himself.
As she fell down, slowly enough to be considered floating, she felt a tranquil calm settle over her. Her life mattered not, for what did the feeble worry of her life have to offer? In the end, she would have done those around her more harm than good. Skulduggery, L, Valkyrie—they would eventually become attached, and then she would die.
"It is better this way," a voice said. It was thin, and raspy, reminding her of a snake, or the trailing of dry leaves on the ground. The voice was…deathly.
But then Anita knew herself for what she was. She was the Imaginer, bringer of light, defeater of darkness, and protector of all life.
With this realization came her power, and she felt her spark, her own fiery soul mend the stone in which it resided. She felt the pure white of strong, pure flame cover her body, and she screamed as wings burst out of her back, bones rending flesh and growing into where the air would be, if there had been any.
Muscled formed, knotting in her back, and blood spurted as the monstrosity of flesh crawled up her bone, solidifying and forming skinless, featherless wings. Quickly, nerves and blood vessels burrowed through and let her feel, let them live, as skin flowed fluidly over the new limbs. Feathers sprouted and Anita arched her back as they flapped.
It was done. The voice hissed at her, cheated out of its prey, for it was Norich, eater of worlds, trapped for eons in the space in between.
"No. It will not end yet. I see you for what you are, blasphemer!" Anita declared, and her voice was deeper than the deepest pit, lower than the chasm between planets, and rich, full and getting fuller as she straightened, spreading her arms and preparing to strike. Flame, whiter than fresh snow and brighter than a thousand suns, formed between her outstretched palms.
"No!" the voice screeched. But it was too late. A bolt of white formed, lighting the void and ridding it of the creature that had stalked there for a hundred years or more.
Anita smiled, turned, and stepped into the body that now lay beside her, the shadowy form of a skeleton kneeling over it.
Anita gasped, her heart beating furiously as if to make up for the time it had been idle, her lungs pulling air in…and out. In…out.
It was the most delicious feeling she had been able to experience in a long, long time. Her soulstone, she felt, was whole again. Serpine's body lay on the floor, still and growing cold.
Skulduggery made a sound like a sob in relief and pulled her to his chest, burying his head in her hair.
"Thank god you're alive!" he cried, his voice, smoother than the finest velvet, calming her racing heart.
Shocked, Anita pressed her hands against his shoulder blades, inhaling deeply. A grin spread across her face, and when Skulduggery pulled back to look at her, she glanced around the room.
Valkyrie was recovering from Serpine's attack, L was shocked, pale and shaking. Anita stood and pulled Skulduggery to his feet, but nearly fell again at the weight on her back. When she was living in America, she'd thought of having wings—even projected them onto the fabric of her reality, though that never really achieved much—but she had never thought they would be so heavy.
She stumbled backwards, and in an instinctual reaction her wings fluttered open. Skulduggery gasped, and L jerked his head around to stare at her.
Anita regained her balance and walked unsteadily over to Valkyrie. Snapping, Anita conjured up a small healing fire, casting it on the girl's body.
Skulduggery yelled and tried to stop her, but when he saw that it was too late, he simply ripped at Anita's shoulder, throwing her out of the way.
Valkyrie gasped and sat up, patting at her torso as a burning sensation went through it. She looked down only to see that no damage was done, and she felt…good. Something was better than it had been. All of the pain from Serpine was gone, and she felt the skin were a scar should have been, would have been…nothing. All of her wounds had been erased.
"What…you healed me! But…how?" Valkyrie asked.
"Simple," Anita shrugged. "I needed to get rid of some of my power or it would consume me, either driving me mad or killing me. And anyway, most people assume that fire does nothing but burn and consume—it does more. It can be light, or dark, healing or wounding, hot or even cold, if the mage is skilled enough. I haven't ever managed a cold flame, but healing is easy. I just embibe it with some power, color it with a bit of my life force—oh, don't look so worried, it grows back all right, see?—and then send it to you and deflate it, leaving the power which by then has combined with the life force due to the heat, so you have more life force. Since you're not a Nafar, or of Nafaric descent, you can't use it for magic, so your body uses it for healing."
"Simple?" Skulduggery mused. "I don't think that sounds simple. But if you think it is…"
"Well, either way, I certainly don't mind," Valkyrie said.
L stepped forward. "I…remember," he breathed. His eyes widened and he collapsed on the ground, screaming, as wings burst out of his back, fully formed, rending through skin and bursting out, the feathers a pearly white obscured by blood, dripping down.
Skulduggery gasped, manipulating air to keep his carpet clean, but then the blood drew back into L's back, the skin closing around the wound without a mark, his shirt torn and tattered at the back. His breathing was ragged, his eyes wide. He was pale, shaking.
Anita ran over, barreling past Skulduggery. She lifted L's head into her lap gently, oh so gently, and smoothed back his hair.
"I…remember now. You gave me my wings and we…oh, God, Anita!" he cried.
"Shhh," Anita calmed. "Hush now. It's ok. It's alright."
He reached to her face, looking into her eyes. With the formation of her wings, they, too had changed. The pupils were slits, vertically dividing the irises, orange with streaks of blue from the center. Flame seemed to reflect from them no matter where she looked. When she blinked, the illusion was gone.
"It's ok," she said. "It's me." A tear trickled down her face—whether from relief or sadness that no longer needed to be suppressed, Skulduggery did not know.
A hand gripped her shirt, twisting, and L brought her in. Skulduggery cleared his throat, speaking before anymore could happen.
"Well!" Skulduggery and Valkyrie cried together. Valkyrie glanced over before nodding, letting Skulduggery continue, saying, "I think we ought to know how it was that Nefarian Serpine just attacked us."
Anita pulled back and L unclenched his hand. Anita smoothed her shirt back out, saying, "Well, I have the unlucky little quirk. See, I'm incredibly powerful and due to my allies, such as you and Valkyrie, most of my enemies end up dead. But since I'm the protector of all life, I'm not allowed to leave any dead bodies behind." She cleared her throat nervously. "But I've…forgotten how not to kill. My knives shear through bone easily." Skulduggery flinched but she went on, unnoticing. "My fire can burn people to nothing but floating ash if I'm in a strong moment. So I had a couple of choices.
"Either I could give up my power—leaving me defenseless and most likely meaning we all die—or I could have a form of people not staying dead when I killed them. The universe doesn't like zombies—though I think it likes to laugh at Scapegrace. So they come fully back to life. Thus, Serpine was not the reanimated corpse he was when you two last met. Er…before you used the Sceptre on him, though…"
L laughed a bit, pushing himself into a sitting position next to her. "Well, then, I hope Kira won't be back anytime soon…"
"Well, I may be able to get rid of that. Though I have to warn you, my power is not as it was. I have new…limitations," Anita informed them.
"What? How?" Skulduggery asked.
"Well, before, I could use fire and ice to weave practically anything. I could turn them into food, weaving a cake out of thin air!" Anita said, holding her hand up and conjuring a flame. She sighed, turning her hand over and closing it, the smoke curling through her fingers. She continued in a calmer, sadder voice. "But…now…I can't. I don't know why, but I would have to weave fire and ice together into something else that's made of fire and ice, or combine them to put out the fire and make water…"
"You're an elemental now," Valkyrie said. "I think the only difference is that you're being put under the constraints of our world."
Anita paled. "That wouldn't be good. That wouldn't be good at all!"
"Why not?" L asked, standing as he did so.
"Because, under any constraints of a world but mine and those closest to it, I can't exist!" Anita cried.
Before Skulduggery could ask anything more, his phone rang, and he went to an adjacent room, his voice bleeding through the wall as a quiet murmur. Valkyrie wandered off to get a glass of water—according to her, since she started coming to his house as often as she did, he kept a few glasses and plastic cups in a cabinet. Anita noticed that she blushed slightly as she said this.
"So…" Anita started. "How much…I mean…um…"
"How much do I remember?" L asked softly. Anita nodded, and L sat down on the sofa she and Skulduggery had occupied before the attack. She noticed a burn along the material and grimaced. She wasn't sure she could fix it—she wasn't as powerful now.
"I don't remember everything, I'm sure. Though I can't remember what it is I'm missing, if anything. Stands to reason. But I remember enough. I remember…well, I remember now, when I died. When Kira killed me, I mean. You finished the episode—you were watching the anime at that time, yes? I thought so. Well, you finished the episode and ran into your room as soon as you could, reviving me instantly."
Anita smiled a bit. She remembered, too. If her parents hadn't been there, she would have cried openly. As it had been, though, her eyes brimmed with tears that never fell over, and she had wanted to go to her room immediately, but she was delayed by something. When she got to him, it was almost too late.
Footsteps approached, but stopped and turned, going back quietly when Valkyrie saw what was going on. "If Anita Heathers is with this man, Ryuuzaki, she can't have Skulduggery, can she? He may say that before they did that, but Skulduggery would never actually stand for it," she thought. "And he's mine."
Realizing what she thought, she stopped and listened, blanching slightly. What was happening to her? She seemed almost…territorial. Not good.
Skulduggery shut the phone and turned to walk out, but Valkyrie stepped through the side door, saying, "Wait!"
Skulduggery turned. "Yes, Valkyrie? What's wrong?"
Valkyrie sighed, closing her eyes for a moment as if bracing herself. "It's just…are you sure about Anita? She could be a fraud, you know. I don't like her. Not one bit!"
Skulduggery started back as if slapped. "What?" he asked, his voice shaking. He was angry. Very angry. Valkyrie suddenly knew this had been a very, very bad idea. "What did you say?" he asked again. "Because Valkyrie, you do not insult my wife. You can insult my home, and me, but you never insult my wife! Do you understand?"
Valkyrie sighed. "You don't get it. She and Ryuuzaki…they want to be together. He remembered everything right away. I just don't want to watch my friends get hurt. I've seen enough of that. Some of it, you'll recall, was because of me."
Skulduggery cocked his head. "But this is different, isn't it? You're not being logical, you haven't followed any steps. You have no evidence. Which means this is more than that—I know, I've been your teacher for six years, you're better at thinking than this. So what is it really, Valkyrie?" His voice was softer now, but Valkyrie was even more scared. The cat was out of the bag now. How would she get out of this one?
She stepped forward. "I'm sorry, Skulduggery. I really am. It's just…lately…oh, never mind!"
Skulduggery would have been frowning, she just knew it. And then she saw him figure it out. "Oh," he said. "Oh…no. Oh…well, then. Do you…are you…"
He scratched the back of his head awkwardly, looking sideways at her. She nodded. "If you're trying to ask what I think you're trying to ask…yes."
Skulduggery nodded. "Well…if it's any comfort…you do know that once things settle down…well, Anita is rather good at sharing."
Anita blushed. "I suppose that is helpful…"
Skulduggery didn't know what else to say—how could he? He'd fancied the girl for a year now, but…well…he'd never even considered the possibility that she could have fancied him. He was a skeleton, for Pete's sake!
So, awkwardly, he opened the door and stepped out of the room. Anita sat on the floor, wilted and tired-looking, and L sat on the sofa, head hanging.
"What happened here?" Skulduggery mused silently. Anita looked up, brightening, when he said "Well, the Grand Mage just called."
Anita frowned. "That's Erskine, right?"
"You should call him Grand Mage, but yes," Valkyrie said. How strange, but now she felt so much better about this girl. Well, she could share, too, couldn't she?
A voice at the back of her head snarled, "Mine!" but she ignored it.
"I thought he hated it?" Anita asked.
"Yes, he does. That is why, under any circumstances, you must call him Grand Mage," Skulduggery replied, "As well as Elder Bespoke. At all times, remember. No slipping up. It drives them mad."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Anita asked as she, too, stood.
"Nonsense. It's hilarious," Skulduggery chuckled.
"You sound a bit like when you told the sanctuary agent to threaten Guild with being shot. Are you sure you're not unhinged?" Anita teased him.
"He's right this time though, it is really funny. And at least the crazy mood swigs are gone. One minute he was angry, the next he was whistling happily along. I swear, he seemed bipolar!" Valkyrie exclaimed.
Anita chuckled and helped L to his feet. Skulduggery cleared his voice.
"Um," he said.
"Yes?" Anita asked sweetly.
"I'm not sure the Grand Mage or Elder Bespoke would like a stranger showing up."
"Nonsense. It's just the same as when you brought Valkyrie, right?" Anita smiled.
"When I said that Elder Bespoke wouldn't like it, I actually meant the Cleavers," Skulduggery corrected her.
Anita nodded and turned to L. "Would you be alright with staying in the car for the purpose of keeping your head attached to your neck?"
L nodded, saying, "I would, but I have to meet Watari. He'll be worried, most likely." At that, his phone rang and L picked up, wandering through the front door and down the walk. Anita watched, shaking her head.
"You're all completely crazy, you know that?" Valkyrie laughed.
As they filed into the Bentley, they missed the eyes watching them from across the road.
A/N: Sorry this took so long to update, but I was sick and couldn't come to school or use a computer. At least this one's long.
And sorry, at the end the L-Anita thingy was a little off. She wouldn't actually watch him walk away like that-she'd be sure to give him a tracker so they didn't lose each other again. Anyways, let me know what you think! And thanks to my most recent reviewer that I know of: IbbleBibbleBibble
And thanks to all of the rest who have reviewed. And my readers.
And thanks for not hating this. It makes me very very happy. :D