I've come to realize that a whole ton of the SP fans are a bunch of whiny brats…

Valkyrie burst through the Sanctuary doors and quickly directed a huge group of…guys (?) dressed in gray with huge scythes to head to the buildin' with Scapegrace's zombies. They all marched around to the back of the buildin' so to not be seen by them regular citizens. Funny Bones and Bespoke entered through a grand door. Valkyrie rushed over to them and explained the whole situation. She apologized for bein' such a huge failure at her job (well, she didn't say that…) and lettin' Scapegrace get away. Bespoke just replied that they'd get him later.

I casually leaned up against the wall and watched the three of them. The doors to the other side opened and a tall and lean woman whipped by.

"Good afternoon, Grand Mage, Detectives," she greeted.

"Hello, Mrs. Faust!" greeted Valkyrie. "Did you get assigned a criminal too?"

The lady, Mrs. Faust, stopped and sighed, "Mr. Bespoke, couldn't you have asked if we the detectives wanted to volunteer for it?"

Bespoke shrugged. "Skulduggery and Valkyrie seem to enjoy dragging Sanguine around like a dog, though." He pointed at me. Mrs. Faust turned and laughed quietly.

Oh, yep, I'm gonna kill her, too.

Mrs. Faust laughed at a whispered comment but then bowed away to go collect her own criminal.

Just then, the lady in question came back, totin' her own prisoner with her. Her charge took one look at me and laughed.

"Son!" Daddy dearest, Dreylan Scarab, exclaimed. He nodded over to me, silently askin' if he could come over to me. She followed him along as he meandered over to stand nearer to me. Daddy dearest continued, "I never expected seeing you here and definitely not working with these awful creatures!" He took a look at Valkyrie and muttered, "You're the bitch who put me away here, aren't you?"

Funny Bones suddenly got defensive. He stepped in front of Valkyrie and muttered darkly, "Keeping this attitude up and your sentence will surely be lengthened."

Daddy dearest shrugged. "Oh, what do I care? I'll be dead in a little bit, won't I?"

He winked at me like that was some great inside joke we shared. Mrs. Faust gripped his cuffs and led him away after that, grumbling about having to deal with this. Funny Bones fumed silently but regained his composure after a little bit.

"Hey, Sanguine!" Valkyrie shouted, callin' me over after they talked a bit more. I huffed and pushed myself off the wall and walked over to 'em. Her face was sour.

"We have one more case assigned," Funny Bones said shortly.

"Do I get to punch anyone else?" I asked excitedly.

"No," Valkyrie said, "there's apparently a disturbance at the Necromancer Temple. We just need to go out and investigate it for a little bit."

"Aww, why can't we send that old Faust lady?"

"Valkyrie knows the Necromancers the best. They'll let us in with her easier that way. They have to be nice to her."

Valkyrie almost began to deny this, but she finally shrugged and smirked. "They just love me over there," she muttered. "Must be my great personality."

Funny Bones laughed. Apparently, this was hilarious. I don't even know why they were jokin' about this all, but whatever. Valkyrie, once again, grabbed her handcuffs and stuck 'em on my wrist. I gave up fightin' against it after the first two dang times. Funny Bones took the lead again and led us to his weird car. He took to drivin' again, and Valkyrie took her normal seat, and I squeezed in the back. Naturally. Funny Bones revved the engine and drove quite a ways away until we got to GET THIS: a graveyard. I knew all those Necromancers were dark and gloomy and broodin' and whatnot, but seriously. A graveyard. You don't get much more stupidly depressin' than that.

I called Valkyrie out on the graveyard thing: "The Necromancer Temple is in a graveyard?"

"Yeah? And?"

"It's just funny, that's all," I muttered, snickerin'.

She rolled her eyes. "Well, the good news," she said happily, flexin' her hand with the black ring, "is that being around all these dead people really gives an extra power boost, you know?"

Shadows spiked up from the ground and lunged themselves at me. I flailed and snarled at her. She only laughed and silently accepted the high five Funny Bones proposed. She turned and walked deliberately to a crypt with rusty iron gates, with moss and weeds overcrowdin' everywhere. She unlatched the crypt gates and stepped down first. Funny Bones went next, and I followed down. Everything was dark as heck, and it smelled like…despair. No, really, it smelled like depression and despair. Ain't kiddin'. Valkyrie's footsteps stopped suddenly as she waved her hand in front of another freakin' gate. It swung open and allowed us all to pass. We walked in a straight line for a while, just goin' down a long hallway in dim lightin'. We passed a few creepers, and they all…bowed to Valkyrie. She nodded back at them grimly. She finally stopped walkin' when she reached a grand silvery door. I expected her to be all polite and knock like a normal human bein', but she just opened it and marched in.

A man sat hunched at a grand desk. His head was in his hands. When Solomon Wreath looked up, I could tell he pretty much had never left the Temple except to get bread and eggs probably. His hair was vaguely matted, his eyes sunken in deeply, and his skin blotchy and pale.

"Good afternoon, Valkyrie," he said. "And you, Mr. Pleasant. And–" He studied me. "And Mr. Sanguine, I suppose."

Funny Bones greeted back, while I gave out a loud, "Howdy!"

Valkyrie sighed and addressed the man, "'Afternoon, Wreath. When was the last time you slept?"

"Three days ago," he answered shortly and stood up. "I suppose you are here to investigate our disturbance?"

Valkyrie nodded. Wreath passed us all, exitin' the room; Valkyrie followed him quickly. Funny Bones and I jogged to keep up with 'em. The two stopped at a different silvery door down a ways. Wreath opened the door and bowed for Valkyrie to enter first. She seemed uncomfortable with this. (Is she Queen of the Necromancers or somethin'?)

"Oh my," she uttered simply upon seein' a dead body sprawled over the desk. Blood spattered the wall and the floor. A rough hole had been stabbed through a guy's chest, and his blood had poured out everywhere. A paper was laid next to his body. The paper read:

"You will not take our Savior from us."

"Savior as in…Jesus Christ?" Funny Bones asked, takin' the paper. He studied the fancy letterin'.

"We're unsure," Wreath responded. "I don't understand why they'd attack us Necromancers when we don't…particularly associate ourselves with the religious."

"Perhaps because of all the death? Death can't conquer Jesus Christ?" Funny Bones suggested.

"But that was quite a while ago when that happened," Valkyrie said.

"True. It may not actually be Jesus Christ after all." Funny Bones cast a glance over to Valkyrie, who stood studyin' the note.

A small silence passed before Wreath finally muttered, "We also have one more theory to this, but it's highly unlikely."

Funny Bones nodded and said, "I have my own unlikely theories as well, Solomon. If you could, rope this off, and we'll return soon to do a thorough investigation."

Wreath stared at Funny Bones a minute and then complied. He called on some random Necromancers to close the room off.

As we left the Temple shortly after that, Valkyrie asked Funny Bones quietly, "Should we have the body examined?"

"I think that'd be the best. Could you tell-"

"Sure, I can."

We got to the car silently, and Funny Bones put it in drive and raced on back to the Sanctuary.

"You have a choice," Funny Bones said when we arrived back and processed all that fun Necromancer Temple stuff on through, "where you can stay here tonight in the jail cells or be locked up in a room over at Valkyrie's house for the night."

Hmm, stayin' here with these morons in jail or sufferin' verbal and physical abuse under these two…

I pondered for a few minutes before finally sayin', "I think I'll stay here for the rest of the night, thanks dearly for offerin'."

"Oh, come son, be a man."

I tensed and turned around slowly.

By the doors stood that Mrs. Faust lady with who else: dear old daddy Dreylan Scarab.

"You don't look a day over six-hundred, old man," I commented.

"Thank you, son." He paused and stared at Valkyrie for a few seconds. "My God, I hate you."

Funny Bones stepped forward again, preparin' to defend Valkyrie's honor or somethin'.

"Skulduggery," Valkyrie said, placing a firm hand on his shoulder, "I can handle him."

Funny Bones stepped back and folded his arms. Valkyrie stepped forward and rested her elbow on her my shoulder.

"What might you be doin', pretty Valkyrie?"

She looked at me a moment but then suddenly looked at Scarab. "I see the family resemblance between you two men," she began. "Same nose, eyes – well, minus the fact that Sanguine has no real eyes – and the same cheekbones, it looks like. Both assassins. Both doing jail time for being failures at their jobs. Scarab was supposed to destroy the world here, and you, Sanguine, were simply supposed to kill me, at the time a simple teenager."

"Perhaps if ya weren't such a brat then, I'da killed ya," I snapped.

"Perhaps if you were good at actually killing people, you'd have killed me," she shot back.

I cracked a smile and swung my hand around and abruptly backhanded her. I happily admit it was the best feelin' in the entire world. Funny Bones suddenly roared uncharacteristically and grabbed me. Valkyrie had gotten daddy dearest into…a heap on the ground, with a foot on his back hard and pullin' on his one arm with one hand, while the other hand rubbed where I slapped her.

"I coulda done worse to you, lil' darlin'," I laughed as Funny Bones dragged me off. Mrs. Faust grabbed daddy dearest and led him to his own high-security cell.

"Rot in Hell, Sanguine!" I heard Valkyrie shout.

"I said already, pretty Valkyrie, I'll see ya there!"

Funny Bones sighed as he kept draggin' me along. "You know, Sanguine," he said casually, "I did give the Russian mob a call. I asked them about you, and they certainly remember you."

"Oh, how nice of them."

"Yes, and they said that they'd head on out over here whenever we need them to and begin by torturing you by pouring acid down your throat and performing a lovely castration, then followed by asphyxiation. This is strike one. By strike three: you're dead."

He stopped at my cell and threw me in it harshly. He shut the rusted door and gave a wave, sayin, "Sweet dreams."

The sad part is that I don't think he was lyin' about that all…

(WHO SAW BOOK 6'S COVER. WHO. I LOVE IT.

See, everyone's whining about the fact that the title is stupid. I want to KICK everyone who says that in the FACE VERY HARD.)

Thanks for reading and reviewing! :DDD