Hi! Sorry for such a long wait! I had a block, and the laptop needed to be fixed! Grrr!
Anyway, hope you like it! Enjoy! ;)

Part 1- Ghastly Part 2- Valkyrie Part 3- Valkyrie

Chapter 13

Ghastly ordered the cars to stop. He had put the radio transmitter on, which connected to all the other cars and vans, meaning they all got the orders at the same time, and no one had to wait for relays. He knew from experience how that could ruin who operations.

He could just see what was happening in the distance with his binoculars, magically enhanced with symbols to see further and with more detail. Only Valkyrie and Fiend were there, about seven hundred and fifty yards away. Fiend had his back to the cars, and Valkyrie was on the floor, on her knees. Even with the magical enhancements, he couldn't quite make out the detail as to why she was on the floor. But he could guess it was completely against her will. Ghastly had never known Valkyrie to put fear or possible injury before her work in all the time he had known her.

He could, however, see Fiend. Fiend was chanting, with a big book in his hands. Ghastly couldn't see the Jug, but he didn't know if it was needed or not, or if it was on the floor, or that much detail in general from this distance. Someone needed to update these damn signals.

Figuring that with Fiend occupied and with his back to the cars and vans, Ghastly started issuing orders.

"Right, I want the back three vans to go up to the road, and carry on, then pick up Detective Pleasant. Do not engage Fiend. Wait for further orders. Go now," Ghastly said in his Elder voice.

"Yes, sir," echoed out of the transmitter thrice. He saw them carefully zoom up the bank and onto the road through the rear view mirror.

"OK, now I want the medic van to go onto the road," he said. "Wait until I give the order to move in, and then take up spot at the road, about fifty yards behind being directly aligned with Fiend and Detective Cain at the river. Go now."

He listened to there "Yes, sir," and went back to watching. His van, being at the front of the three behind him and formally in front of the medic van and other three vehicles that had probably collected Skulduggery by now, had the best view of the scene in front of them.

Strong had driven the van to about three hundred and fifty yards from the small but potentially devastating scene. Putting the binoculars to his eyes, Ghastly's blood drained from his face, turning his almost comically white.

Valkyrie was on her knees, tilting to the left but not yet fallen on her side. She had her arms around her hips. Ghastly couldn't for the life of him figures out how the bullet got it, but he could see the blood on her lap and hands. He knew it was a bullet wound because there, at Wane Fiend's feet, was Skulduggery's prized revolver.

"Skulduggery is not gonna like that," Ghastly muttered to himself. He needed to act fast if he wanted to save Valkyrie and stop Fiend, and be back in time for dinner. The sudden thought that Valkyrie may not be able to make it filled Ghastly's mind and he had to fight back white-hot rage with a jagged rock.

"OK, MOVE!" he shouted, and all the black cars and vans moved as one.

The next events happened in a blur to Ghastly. They quickly drove to where the young, spitfire of a Detective had fallen on her side into the fatal position and Fiend, who had stopped chanting due to being hit by a car. Fiend was shouting and cursing, but was unhurt, and fighting pointing Skulduggery's gun into the crowd of agents and Cleavers that had him surrounded. Skulduggery was already there, ready to fight. Or possibly kill. Ghastly really doubted Skulduggery was simply fine with Valkyrie shot, with his gun no less.

"Ghastly!" Skulduggery bellowed, without looking away for Fiend. "Get Valkyrie! She needs help!"

He instantly ran over to Valkyrie and pulled the girl into his arms. She looked pale, really pale. There was a lot of blood on her lap, arms and jacket. The wound was covered by the jacket itself, which was probably good for Ghastly. He didn't want to see. Running over to the medic van on the road, he noticed her eyelids flicker and close completely, only just falling unconscious. She must have been in terrible pain.

Behind Ghastly, he could hear gun shots and most of the six found targets by the screaming. Then he could hear what must have been Fiend screams of agony as the Cleavers, and operatives jumped on him now he didn't have a loaded gun to fire.

Then he was in the medic van and lying Valkyrie on the thin bed, letting the doors close behind him and the van sped away.

When Valkyrie next opened her eyes, all she could she was white. She could have been floating, drifting through the sky, watching nothing but the pure white sky. White was a nice colour, Valkyrie decided. She couldn't feel a thing. She couldn't move any of her limbs or open her mouth to speak. She couldn't hear anything either.

But that was what made her stop for a moment. To stop thinking about the beautiful white sky, and the calm, and the peacefulness her body had been consumed by. It was quiet. It was never quiet. Her head was always filled with jokes and crimes and criminals pleas or gloats. It was filled with Skulduggery's voice usually.

And so, Valkyrie came out of her daze. She couldn't be there forever after all. There were asses to kick, doors to break, faces to punch and sexy men to flirt with.

Wait.

What?

Valkyrie suddenly blushed. She was no longer in the clouds. Looking around, she noticed that she was in the medical bay of the Sanctuary. She was in a loose-fitting hospital gown and had a thin blanket over her. Probably for the best, she thought to herself. She hadn't shaved her legs since the morning before being shot and whatever amount of time she had been here.

However, her mind brought her back to more pressing matters. The sexy man. In the bed across from her. Sitting up, reading, with a small pout on his cute, pink lips. Very nice, Valkyrie thought. He wasn't looking at her, but she made sure her hair looked all right with the compact mirror on her bedside table. It did. Plus, she had no marks on her face. She licked her lips to give them a bit more colour and tapped her cheeks to give them a bit of blush. She looked good.

"Valkyrie!" Skulduggery's voice came from the hall. He walked past the hot man and made his way to her bed. Sitting on a chair he began talking. "How are you? Are you in any pain?" he asked concerned, but trying to sound indifferent. It wasn't really working.

"I'm grand, I'm grand," she said. Valkyrie also made sure to give him her best smile, since she could see the hot man looking at her from over Skulduggery's hat. Which was navy blue, she noticed, to match his navy blue suit and crisp white shirt. "Hey, you changed outfit since I saw you last!" She exclaimed. Valkyrie also made sure to mask her face into a frown which could be called cute, annoyed and pretty all at the same time. She wasn't able practising and reshaping her expressions at twelve and thirteen to make them look more attractive.

"Yeah, I got some blood on it," Skulduggery replied, unaware with what she was trying to achieve. Which was a nice date with the sexy man lying on the bed next to hers.

"How?"

"I had to help the wounded up to the medic van. The second one, that is. You were taken away in the first one straight away since they saw you as a priority," he explained. There was a slight edge to his works, which told her he was angry. Not at her of the medic's that is, but at Fiend, for hurting her enough that she needed to be prioritised.

She sighed, in a delicate, dignified manner. She noticed the sexy man look away, back to his book. She motioned Skulduggery to come closer. Sitting up and wincing at the pain she was in as she moved her stomach muscles, she whispered to him, "Who's that man?"

He didn't say anything for a moment. "The one behind me?" He asked.

"Yeah."

"That's Daniel Strong. He's an adapt. Shot by Fiend in the leg, but to protect his partner. He works in an armed unit. Kind of like the FBI." That, Valkyrie thought, is cool.

"Anything else I should know?" Valkyrie asked. He looked about twenty-two, though that could be much older in the magic world. She hoped not too much though, because that out be weird. She wasn't eighteen yet, and a seventy year old and a seventeen year old could cause problems and the like, so-

"He's married with five kids," Skulduggery said.

"Damn, that's a shame." She sat up, fixed her voice and expression back to normal, and then looked back at him as he straightened up. "So. When am I getting out of here?"

"Three days longer. But this time you need to stay, because the bullet cut through your womb, and if you ever want kids at any point in life, you will need that," he explained. He looked like he might say something else, so Valkyrie butted in.

"How long have I been here?" She said hurriedly.

"Since three o'clock yesterday and its four o'clock today. So just over a day in total."

Then, the doctor came in and started to talk about the wound and how it was healing nicely and how she needed to "take thins tablet to stop your period which will start in two days." At that point, Valkyrie sat up straight, snatched up the pull, swallowed it dry and slapped the doctor. The then brought him close by the collar and threatened to castrate him if he repeated anything. Once he was gone, she threatened to destroy Skulduggery if he ever said anything. He was chuckling, but did agree, so she let him off.

But in her head she was cursing the world, asking why the hell everyone was going on about babies and the natural course of life to her. She felt like sticking her head in the ground and dying. It was rather humiliating.

Three days later, Valkyrie was walking through the halls of the Sanctuary once again. The doctors hadn't actually given her the all clear, but when they checked her over the final time they said everything seems fine they just need to double check there was nothing in her blood. They did that every time. There had never, ever been anything wrong with her blood.

At that moment, she was walking with Skulduggery to Ghastly's office. Ghastly had already seen her on multiple occasions when she was in the hospital bay, sometimes to see her and make sure she was OK, other times because he needed to escape work and all of its boring nuisances.

As they walked about three doors away, Tipstaff came out of his office. Ghastly had been rather annoyed when he found out Tipstaff would be on his corridor and not Erskine's or some other unfortunate souls. At that moment, Tipstaff was scowling, and muttering, until he saw the detectives. Then his face brightened.

Valkyrie groaned in her head. That meant he wanted to talk. Skulduggery moaned for real and Tipstaff glared.

"Detective Cain, how wonderful to see you. Just out of the hospital I presume?" Tipstaff asked her.

"Yep," Valkyrie nodded. "We are just about to see Ghastly."

"Can you tell him to finish the report about finances and to pre-read the speech he will need to present? I'm too busy at the moment."

"Of course. Don't mind at all," Skulduggery said smoothly. Valkyrie knew that he was tapping his foot impatiently on the inside.

Tipstaff sighed. "Well, I wish I could stay to talk, but you have business and I do too. Something about the African Grand Mage wanting to meet our Grand Mage Ravel face to face," he scowled again and started muttering to himself as he walked off. Valkyrie started to feel bad for Erskine.

Then they were at Ghastly's door. Skulduggery didn't bother knocking, he just walked in. Probably not the best idea because he could easily have important guests in his office. But, at that moment, there was only Ghastly, and mountains of paper work.

"You realise that you have half the Amazon forest in here, Ghastly," Valkyrie said teasingly. Without looking up from what he was reading, Ghastly replied:

"Blame Tipstaff."

"He wanted us to tell you that you need to read a speech and write about finances," Skulduggery reported. "Whatever that means."

Ghastly sighed. Valkyrie realised how dark the bags under his eyes looked. She didn't think he had slept for days at least.

"I'll do it when I can," he responded. Then he leaned back on the comfy swivel chair he had insisted on, and clasped his hands on his belly. "Valkyrie. How are you? Doctor gave you a clean bill of health?"

"Meh. They said I did, then that they needed to check my blood. Again. I sometimes wonder if they are storing it for the next time I'm mortally wounded instead of testing it."

Ghastly cracked a smile. "God knows what they do."

Skulduggery took over. "Did they retrieve the jug?" He asked.

"Yes. At this moment tests are being done to neutralise it."

"Neutralise what?" Valkyrie asked. She hated not knowing what was going on. It was like revising for a subject you have never been to before.

"Oh, remember the story that Erskine told you at the start of the case? About the farmer?" Valkyrie nodded at Ghastly. "Well, it was right. Partly. The jug did hold power. And a lot of it as well, considering the size of the Jug. But it doesn't make you all powerful. That implies that you are stronger than everyone, that you are the strongest than every other person at every singular discipline. This isn't what the Jug would do.
"The Jug gives you power that adds on to the power that you already have. So, if it went into Skulduggery, for example, that would enhance his elemental magic. He doesn't have any other magic to add onto, so it would all go towards that. If it had gone into to you, though, it would have split evenly between your elemental magic and Necromancy, because you practice two disciplines. Are you following?"

"Yeah," She replied.

"The reason we need to neutralise it, and not simply give it to someone that has really weak magic, though, is because it would have enhanced someone's magic millions of times. Forget True names and all the power that comes with that! The person that touched the Jug would have been hundreds of times more powerful!" He paused to shake his head. "And in the hands of someone as stupid and short sited as Wane Fiend..."

"Damn," Valkyrie said, a little stunned. If she had heard this before the case, it might not have had such an affect. But to know that they had almost failed at stopping him. She had failed at stopping him. That could have destroyed the entire world.

Then she stopped feeling guilty since he had been stopped. Not need to dwell on the past, like.

"So, what is he being sentenced?" She asked.

"Three hundred years minimum, five hundred maximum. With the revelation of what the Jug can do, the judge will probably choose higher, rather than lower. He will defiantly go to a high security prison, but I-"

And that was when the door burst open and Erskine Ravel fell in, slamming the door shut and locking it. Everyone stared at him, shocked. Panting he said, "Tipstaff. Wants my phone again. Missed a call from Africa, all because of the stupid, damn pigs!"

Valkyrie and Skulduggery looked at each other for a moment. Then they burst out laughing, holding onto each other to try and stay upright.

Yay! I'm not sure if I should leave it there, or add more, but I think this story is finished. It was so much fun! I hope you liked it!

If anyone wants more, or wants me to explain anything else in another chapter, or whatever, just put it in the reviews. Thank you so much for the support I got! I love you all!

;)