Chapter 7 - Revenge

DISCLAIMER~~ We do not own anything from the Skulduggery Pleasant series! Derek Landy is the rightful and amazing owner of the awesomeness that is Skulduggery and Valkyrie, and all the other characters!

Haaiii nugz. Seeing as Shan wrote the amazing previous chapter, I shall write dis vun :3 Agaaaain.. Ideas are welcome (and needed. D:) Enjoooyy!

ooOoo

Skulduggery, Valkyrie, Ghastly and Tanith faced Meritorious from across the other side of a large table. There were seats for them to sit on, but they ignored them.

"Grand Mage, we haven't got all day." Tanith said, a hand on her hip.

Meritorious glared at her, "I demand more respect, Miss Low."

Ghastly placed a hand on Tanith's shoulder, silencing her before she could answer back. "Excuse her, Grand Mage, but she's right. We don't have a lot of time."

Meritorious turned his back to them and sighed deeply. "What you suspect is certainly a big thing. Serpine after the Scepter of the Ancients? The scepter is a myth, and Serpine is an ally of ours. What he did to you, Skulduggery, is certainly unacceptable-"

"Unacceptable?" Valkyrie interrupted angrily. "It's more that god damned unacceptable! You still think of him as an ally when he tortured your Prime Detective?"

Tanith put her hands on the table, "Plus, he's broken the peace, and we're not going to sit here and wait for him to do so again." She added to the argument.

Meritorious raised a hand to his face. "Detective.. Leave me, and take your friends with you. I will contact you soon.."

Skulduggery, who had been silent throughout most of the meeting, ushered the others out.

Back at Skulduggery's place, Tanith and Valkyrie threw themselves on to the couch. A few minutes later, Fletcher appeared, seemingly upset that he didn't get invited to the meeting.

"You never include me in stuff.." He grumbled, rewarding himself with a pillow to the face from Valkyrie.

Skulduggery paced the hallway, his head down in concentration. Valkyrie watched him, wondering what he was thinking.

Suddenly, he stopped pacing and looked up. "I've got it." he said.

Tanith sat up and faced him. "Got what?"

"What the key is." He said, walking up to Valkyrie. "Val, you know that brooch that was given to your Aunt?"

Valkyrie groaned, not liking where this was going. "You're not telling me that the brooch.."

"..Is the key everyone's looking for." Skulduggery nodded. "You're going to have to get it."

Valkyrie glared up at him, "Not.. Over my dead body."

Skulduggery tilted his head to the side, slightly, "If you don't do this, there will be dead bodies."

She sighed, her hand running along her head. "Alright, fine. I'll do it."

Skulduggery nodded, patting her head.

A few hours later..

Valkyrie did not like this plan. She didn't like it one bit.

She never approaches her Uncle's family, unless she absolutely had to.

Taking a deep breath, she walked quickly up to the dreaded door of her Uncle's, and knocked quietly three times.

The door immediately opened, giving Valkyrie a fright.

"Stephanie? What a pleasant surprise." Her Aunt, Beryl greeted her with a forced smile.

"Uh, hey, Beryl. I just thought.." Valkyrie began, also forcing a smile on her face. She was not enjoying this. "I just thought that I'd come by and see how you all were."

Beryl looked at her in slight confusion, "Ah, well, how considerate of you.."

"Well, since Gordon's.. passing, I've been taking family very seriously. We should all talk more." Valkyrie said. Her words were partly true, though. She saw her mother and father as something even more dear to her now.

Beryl's expression softened slightly, and she smiled a little genuinely. "Yes, well.. I think that's how everyone sees it nowadays, it was very emotio-"

"So, I see you're not wearing the brooch." Valkyrie butted in, not wanting to go in to an in-depth conversation with her about emotions.

Beryl, a little taken aback, shook her head. "That hideous thing? No, no. That's staying in the jewellery box in my room, out of sight and out of mind."

Valkyrie fought back a frown. If it was in her room, how was she meant to get it? Suddenly, an idea popped in to her head.

"Uhm, Beryl? Can I use your bathroom?" she asked, crossing her legs, trying her best to look desperate.

Looking at her, Beryl was hesitant to let her in to her house, so Valkyrie barged past, running up the stairs, taking two at a time.

She slid sneakily in to her Aunt's bedroom and walked straight for the massive jewellery box sitting on a desk, smack bang in the middle of the room. A little too obvious, right?

It took her a few minutes to go through all the slots until she finally found the brooch, which was sitting on a white cushion by itself.

Sliding the brooch in to her pocket, she ran to the bathroom, flushed the toilet to complete her act, then skipped down the stairs again. Not stopping for Beryl to say anything, she waved goodbye. "Sorry, just realized I had something to do today! See you later!"

Valkyrie hurried away, thinking of many ways to make Skulduggery regret sending her to her Aunts. This brought a smile to her face.

The next day, at Gordon's house/mansion..

Valkyrie and Skulduggery made their way down to the basement. They'd just got a call saying that the Elders had all been murdered by Serpine. Skulduggery didn't say anything, but she knew that he was silently raging inside his head. What else would be going on in there, anyway?

Fiddling with the brooch in her hand, Valkyrie couldn't help but feel anxious. What was waiting for them in the caves? She didn't really want to find out.

Skulduggery opened the door, and they were faced with a wall of rock. Using the brooch, he found the lock and a section of the wall opened up in an arch.

Skulduggery and Valkyrie went through cautiously. They began to make their way through the caves slowly, being careful not to make too much noise. Most of the pathways were narrow, and hard to walk through. In attempt to make more room, she took off the coat that Ghastly had made for her and slung it over her arm.

It seemed like they'd been in the cave for ages, facing dead end after dead end. Whatever they were meant to be looking for, Valkyrie wasn't so sure. A chest, they had told her. But where?

"Skulduggery?" she whispered. He stopped and looked back at her. "Do you have any kind of idea where we are going?"

"Yes, of course." He said.

Relief washed over her and she smiled. "Really?"

"No. This is a cave that no one has been able to go through and ever make it back out again. But, I am thinking positively."

Valkyrie's smile vanished, and turned in to a frown. She punched Skulduggery's arm and muttered something about him being a complete idiot.

A sudden shuddering in the walls made them tense, glancing about in the near blackness for any signs of the cause.

A low, menacing laugh came from behind them. "Hello, Detectives.."

They spun around to see Serpine grinning at them. In the gloom, his grin made him look demented, and, possibly, insane.

"Thank you so much for opening the caves to me.." he said, laughing again. Valkyrie wanted to punch him in the face. Hard.

"Ah, a clever move, Serpine." Skulduggery said, his head tilted to the side. Valkyrie was between him and Serpine- a situation Skulduggery did not favour. But there was no room for him to move around her.

"Thank you, Detective. As much as I'd like to stay and chat, I have a weapon to look for. And I can't have you slowing me down." With that last comment, he raised a hand, and a tall, burly man stepped from behind him. "Kill the Detective."

Skulduggery pushed Valkyrie down in time to dodge a wave of grey energy shooting towards them. Skulduggery himself then clambered over Valkyrie and shot towards the burly man. He threw punches at him, and the man blocked and countered. Valkyrie had to stop herself from gazing in awe as Skulduggery broke past his defences and sent a palm-shot to his chin, rocking his head backwards and making him stumble backwards.

With a final kick to his face, the man went down. Skulduggery turned around to see if Valkyrie was okay, and froze. Right behind her stood Serpine, with that menacing grin on his face. Valkyrie, being unaware of this, raised an eyebrow at him. "What? Do I have something on my fa-"

She last words were choked as she felt a sudden, searing pain shoot through her shoulder. Speechless, she looked down and saw the silver tip of a dagger protruding from her skin.

Why did I take off my coat..? she thought as she stumbled forwards. Skulduggery rushed forwards to steady her, but Serpine wrapped his arm around her throat and pulled her back to him, glaring at Skulduggery.

"You stay out of my way, or I'll kill your partner." he hissed. Valkyrie's eyes widened. She tried struggling, but yelled out in pain as Serpine twisted the dagger in her shoulder slightly.

Skulduggery was standing stock-still, staring at them. This was a situation he didn't like. But he had no way to change it. He watched Serpine back off, arm around Valkyrie's neck still, and slowly disappear in to the darkness.

ooOoo

YAY! CLIFF HANGER! Probably not a very good one, but still :D

This will be continued in the next chapter, which we'll get up asap.

BTW- check out The Four Horsemen, and give your views on it for my friend :D

Ciao, nuggets.