Disclaimer: I do not own Skulduggery Pleasant or Death Note.
10—Nu'Undech
Skulduggery watched Anita closely as they got out of the car. Her lips formed a slight smile, and her fingers trailed along everything she touched gently. She glanced at him and her smile deepened.
It was with a soaring heart (metaphorically, of course) that Skulduggery rapped on the door. A pleasant, hollow thunk resounded from the cabin, and footsteps sounded from inside.
A grey-haired woman stepped out, her blouse faded and her jeans casual, wrapped in a light pink cardigan. "Skulduggery," she said, "and Valkyrie. Come in."
They stepped inside, and Anita quickly spoke up, "I'm Anita. Don't worry about introductions—I got to know you by reading books, in which you were a character. I aready know you, to an extent, Cassandra."
Cassandra looked a bit taken aback, but she quickly recovered. "Well, then," she replied, "I assume you were here, again, about the sensitive visions."
Valkyrie nodded. Skulduggery told her, "They seem to be about Anita. We need to know what's going on—I need, no, we need to keep her safe from the man in the visions."
"I've seen something else, too, though. Similar to Darquesse," Cassandra informed them. At Valkyrie's uncomfortable fidgeting, she added, "I am assuming that the dream whisperers worked?"
Valkyrie just nodded. Cassandra led them wordlessly into the steam room, and soon a thick cloud was over them.
"Now, I would prefer if nothing that was not necessary to be revealed that is revealed in this room was only discussed by the four of us," Anita requested.
"Of course. Having already seen what I'm about to show you, I understand your discomfort," Cassandra accepted.
The steam formed to show a girl, her hair flame and her wings glowing with a slight light, everything in grey-scale. Still, they could all tell who it was: Anita. She turned, and a tall, thin man with dark-seeming hair stepped from behind a billow. He had a knife in one hand; the other had formed claws somehow.
He lunged forward, ripping at the steam-Anita's chest, pulling out what looked to be a soulstone. It was the only steam image with color, and it looked almost exactly like what Anita had shown them in Ghastly's office. Anita fell to the ground, screaming, and the sound pierced Valkyrie's eardrums. Skulduggery instinctively reached out for Anita, to be sure she was still there. He knew it was steam, but…still, if he'd had blood, it would have been curdling.
Slowly, the scream stopped, and Anita uncurled slightly. Her eyes were glazed, her gaze vacant, but when Il'Guin snapped, conjuring flame, fear crept into them despite a complete lack of expression otherwise.
As he threw it, Anita screamed again, the scream turning into a mangled yell as her flesh turned to ash in instants.
Flicker.
A man, of average height and build, hair graying and unkempt, fell over, dropping his coffee mug as he did, letting out a strangled yell as he collapsed.
Flicker.
The world around Anita withered and died, leaves dropping from trees, speeding suddenly as she stood, eyes angry, chin uplifted, wings spread. She held a knife in one hand, but screamed as blackness poured out of her mouth, out from around her soulstone. It gripped her, settling onto her skin before going through, leaving a pale, ghostly white tone, and black hair and eyes.
Anita, the real Anita, stepped to Skulduggery, grasping his hand tightly. Her heart was racing. He and Valkyrie…they would understand, she knew they would. But she knew, from years of seeing, what came next. And Skulduggery could not remember the few times she had succumbed, had nearly killed him.
Steam-Anita grinned wickedly, her blade bending and twisting to form an even crueler method of punishment. She threw it, and dark fire surrounded the blade as it embedded itself in the man's chest.
"Goodbye, Il'Guin," Anita watched herself say. The steam form of her looked at her eyes, smiling, and turned. Skulduggery approached quickly.
"Are you ok?" steam-Skulduggery asked.
"I am Nu'Undech. I am perfectly fine," the woman said, her hair burning with dark fire at the tips. Skulduggery could only see it as she turned and the fire left streamers in the air, but he watched as she whipped out a hand. Darkness gripped around his ribcage, splitting open his shirt, and he clutched Anita's hand as she squeezed it.
And Nu'Undech used the shadows to shatter his bones, looking straight into Anita's eyes. A chill went down her back despite the warmth of the room.
And the images faded, dissipating as the steam did the same, condensing on the walls. Anita had stood in the spray, Skulduggery too stunned to move her, and she was drenched. With a wave of her hand, she moved it off of her, a puff of cloud rising from the coals where she dropped it. Still, Anita stared at the spot where Nu'Undech had stood. Her eyes were wide.
She had succumbed to Nu'Undech, after all. She had let the world die. And she had killed Skulduggery. With a "No!" she barely managed to get out, she collapsed to her knees, heedless of the heat from the fire down below the metal grate. Cassandra closed her umbrella slowly.
Skulduggery realized he was staring where he had lain, bones shattered, and had let go of Anita's hand. Slowly, he brought his gaze to her. She sat on the ground in a heap, tears flowing silently down her face.
He walked forward, crouching next to her. Tentatively, as if she would turn into Nu'Undech without a moment's notice—a ridiculous notion, he knew—he put his hand on her shoulder. She didn't respond except for a dipping of her head, and a strangled sob.
Feeling alien to his own body, completely numb, Skulduggery spoke. "It's ok. We'll stop her. She's not you, not a part of you. She's a parasite, isn't she?" he asked. More than his curiosity (though that was substantial), he wanted to quell both Anita's and his own concerns.
Anita remained wordless, but nodded slowly.
"Like a remnant, yes?" Valkyrie asked. Again, Anita nodded. "Then I'm sure we can find a way to get rid of her," Valkyrie concluded.
Anita's head straightened up, and she scrubbed furiously at her eyes with the sleeve of her jacket.
A phone rang, and Anita frowned before dipping her hand into her pocket, pulling it out, and answering. Her voice was choked with tears yet again as she said, "Anita Heathers. Hallo?"
"Anita, it's Ryuzaki. I was just calling to let you know I have finished my case, I'll be taking a break now, so I was wondering if you could pick me up somewhere, or if Watari could drop me off somewhere?" Ryuzaki formed the sentence into a question easily. His voice, similar to Skulduggery's, gave Anita a chill.
"Hold on a sec, Ryuzaki. Let me ask Skulduggery," Anita replied. She turned, then, and repeated what he had said to Skulduggery, one hand covering the mouthpiece on the phone.
"Have this Watari drop him off at my place, I think we'll be going back now. We need to fill him in and devise a plan of action," Skulduggery acquiesced.
"Ryuzaki? Have Watari drop you off at Skulduggery's place. You remember where it is. We should be heading back not too long from now," Anita repeated.
"Alright. Are you ok?" Concern tinged his voice.
"I'll be alright, I think," Anita responded.
L hung up without another word, and Anita stood. "So, now that you know, if you choose to leave or shoot me down, just give me a moment to make the tie between me and Romanius one-sided," she declared. Her head bowed and her eyes closed, and she paused that way for a second before looking up again. Her gaze was defiant, cold and hard as marble, and yet accepting. She would be felled, she felt, without a cry.
"I'm not going to kill you," Valkyrie told her—her voice came out harsher than she meant for it to—and continued, "because if I did, not only would Skulduggery have to kill me, but because then both me and him would have to die. I'm Darquesse. That won't go away."
"And neither will Vile. But you control her a good part of the time, don't you?" Skulduggery reassured her. "It'll be fine. No one is going to kill you. I am going to be sure of that."
Anita nodded, bowed to Cassandra, who was leaving the room, and followed after her. "Do you have any advice?" Anita asked.
"No, but I think Valkyrie has an idea," Cassandra told her.
"I do. Anita, you said that Nafar keep their souls in a stone. Could you put Nu'Undech in one, break it so she's destroyed?" Valkyrie asked.
"I might have been able to, when I had all of my power, but now that I'm limited as I am, it won't work," Anita shook her head. "But even if I could, I'm not sure I would. Nu'Undech may be a sadistic psychopath, but she's still a living being. To destroy her soul…well, just remember that it's how the Second Great War—the war with the Gounar—started."
"Maybe we should focus on Il'Guin first," Skulduggery mused. "After all, it does seem that his attack brought on Nu'Undech."
"True. Often, I can't even feel her presence. She was drawn to the image of herself, so I can feel her now, but she's not making a bid for escape, so I'm fine. It's usually from a soulstone crack that she escapes," Anita confessed. "And even then, she doesn't always come. Thank God for small mercies, I suppose…"
"Well, I think we should get going. Thank you, Cassandra, for your help," Skulduggery broke the silence.
Valkyrie and Anita followed, both thanking Cassandra yet again for her help.
"Are you alright, Valkyrie?" Anita asked. "You've been rather quiet."
"I'm…it's just…oh, there's no way I can tell you!" Valkyrie stammered.
"You're jealous. Of me. You like Skulduggery, am I right?" Anita inquired.
"How do you know anything about that? Did he tell you?" Valkyrie hissed.
Anita shook her head. "No, he didn't, but I could tell. And anyway, I always knew you would end up wanting him. It was only a matter of time before you realized your feelings for the man."
"What?" Valkyrie asked awkwardly. "Was it really that…obvious?"
"Not to him, if that's what you wanted to know. But the people who still think you and Skulduggery are works of fiction…let's say this: they write stories about you. Other than Derek Landy—that's your author—I mean. And some of them are enough to make Skulduggery blush."
"I heard that!" the skeleton called back. "Anyway, are you coming or not?"
"Coming!" Anita replied, before lowering her voice and saying to Valkyrie, "You know, I'm fine with you making a move on him. So long as you don't keep us from each other for too long. And he does have feelings for you…even if he would never admit to it."
With that, she bounced down the walk and got into the car. Valkyrie noticed that she was employing the same tactics Valkyrie had used herself, earlier on. Let Valkyrie sit in the front so she had to confront Skulduggery.
He stood, watching her. She could feel his gaze on him. She walked up, hands in her pockets, and went to take the backseat. At the last minute, though, she turned to Skulduggery, taking her hands out of her pockets and planting a light kiss on his jawbone.
She didn't stay long enough to see his reaction, darting into the car instead, so she missed it when he lifted a hand to his jaw, seemingly in shock. Anita, however, saw it, grinning as she watched.
He stepped into the car, and pulled out silently. Suddenly, though, as they were getting off of the side roads and onto the highway, he noted, "That was sudden."
"Yeah…sorry," Valkyrie responded, but she nearly giggled, ruining the effect.
"I suppose I'm just far more popular than even I expected," he continued happily.
"Well, look, your ego is back. It's been gone for a record amount of time!" Anita laughed. Valkyrie, giggling, agreed—though upon later question she would deny that she ever did such a thing as giggle.
Meanwhile, a pair of eyes watched from the side of the road as they passed. The watcher, a tall, thin man with black, well smoothed hair, grinned evilly. He had found the girl.
A/N: So here we get a bit of climax. Whaddya think? Good? Bad? Do you love it, or do you hate it? Hm?
Tell me, and I give you some virtual lollipops.
Oh, and a quick but important note. Nu'Undech is pronounced with a 'ch' as in the Hebrew words 'chai' and 'challah' (if you need to look them up, please do, because I don't know how to explain the sound).