"Rise and shine!"

"It's two in the afternoon."

"Either way, it's time to face the music!"

I growled and stood up in my cell. Apollo Downs unlocked the door and gripped my upper arm and led me down the various turns and hallways that led out of the prison part.

It had been a week, and I hadn't heard anythin' 'bout what was gonna happen with me. Though I was pretty sure the Russians had gotten here. Valkyrie seemed more panicked than I was when they begrudgingly let her use the handy little visitin' hours to visit me. Whenever she'd stop by she looked way too tired for someone her age. I kept tryin' to tell her to relax, but she wouldn't have it.

Every time she had to leave, I stood up and kissed her on the cheek quick and whispered that I missed her. She'd look at me sad and always replied with, "I'll miss you."

Apollo Downs opened the door leadin' from the prison to the main buildin'. He dragged me directly to Bespoke's little office thing. He knocked once and waited patiently until Bespoke shouted, "Come in!" Downs did and nodded in acknowledgement at everyone in the room: Valkyrie, Funny Bones, Bespoke, and a really big guy in the corner who I didn't know.

Downs left me there and quickly retreated.

Ghastly broke the silence first, by sayin', "Sanguine, meet Yemelyan. He's a representative of the Russian Sanctuary."

I cringed and cracked a faint smile at him. He merely stared back, stony-faced.

"I believe that we've reached a good enough decision for what to do with you, Sanguine," Bespoke said a few moments later. "Because of Valkyrie's extreme pleas for you, you will not be executed."

I smiled and looked over at Valkyrie. She wasn't smilin'.

"Instead, we'll have you deported back to America, being accompanied by Yemelyan, here."

"What!"

"Hell nah!"

"There," Bespoke pressed on, "you will be free, as long as you keep a clean record. No murder, thefts, anything. You will blend in and not cause any trouble whatsoever."

"Do I gotta stay there?"

He nodded. "Stay there until you die."

I sighed. I guess that's better than gettin' killed by a bunch of Russians. I stole a glance at Officer Chekov in the corner. He looked a little upset. I peeked over at Valkyrie, who looked even more upset, but also a little smug.

"What about me?" she asked bravely.

Bespoke and Funny Bones sighed together. "You technically," Funny Bones, "have done nothing wrong. You are free and have no charges whatsoever."

"In that case," she said happily, "I'd like to move to America. Texas, to be more specific."

I'm pretty sure everyone's jaws dropped at that.

"W-What!" Ghastly demanded.

Valkyrie shrugged casually. "Sanguine grows on you like a fungus."

"Wow, thanks."

She smiled slightly at my remark. "You can't stop me from going," she added. "I am free and so is Sanguine. We can do whatever we like."

The word "we" sounded nice comin' from her.

"Valkyrie, why?" Funny Bones asked quietly. He sounded a little hurt. "Why this defiance?"

"Because you all acted like the fact that we were sleeping together was an utter and total abomination! If you're going to overact, why can't I?"

Ghastly groaned and placed his head in his hands. "Valkyrie, I will not lose anyone else to Billy-Ray Sanguine," he murmured. "I promised that to myself a while ago. I thought I was doing fine. Tanith still seems to be with the Remnant and barely said two words to me."

Funny Bones spoke up, "Ghastly, you should-"

He looked up sharply and glared at me. "You, get out and get going to an airport. I don't care which one, we'll pay for anything just to get you out of here."

"Ghastly!" Valkyrie growled in protest.

And then suddenly we heard someone coo, "Come on, haven't you ever been in love before, Ghastly?"

We all turned and gawked at the person standin' in the doorway.

"Though we have a distinct background together, I personally feel Billy-Ray Sanguine should be kept here," Tanith Low said, smilin'. She approached the desk slowly and removed her sword and laid it out in front of Bespoke. "Hello again, Ghastly."

He remained speechless.

"Tanith, what are you doing?"

"Making a case, Skulduggery. What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Why?"

"I've always had aspirations to be a lawyer."

"Really now?"

"Yes, certainly." Tanith smiled and faced Ghastly. "You should know that I am Remnant free. Just letting you know, so you don't call the dogs on me or anything."

Funny Bones stepped up next to Tanith. "We can explain, Ghastly."

"Please…please do."

Tanith took a deep breath. "So for probably three years I was with that Remnant. Skulduggery and Valkyrie searched for me for a long time. When they finally found me, I don't know how they did it, but they managed to knock me out and drag me over to that Doctor Nye…thing. It had a strange way of getting rid of this Remnant in me. I don't know how really, but obviously, it worked."

"Why didn't you come back?" Ghastly whispered.

She sighed and shot me a glance. "Well, so when I ran off with Sanguine, um, the Remnant had no qualms about it. But when I was back to normal, Skulduggery explained what all had happened. I could vaguely remember being there with Sanguine for all that time, actually. And when he told me that I had left you for a murderous psycho, I felt a little bad. 'Little' doesn't even cover it. I didn't want to have to see you after all that. Maybe that's a bit strange coming from me, but…that's just what I felt was best."

Ghastly turned to Funny Bones and asked, "You've known about her? You, too, Valkyrie?"

They both nodded.

Tanith continued, "I felt rather…ashamed of all that happened, so I just decided to run off and leave you all alone. I knew Sanguine was still out there, and I had heard about when he was arrested. Though, I never expected that this would happen."

"How did you know where we were? How did you know to come and rescue us?" Valkyrie offered quietly.

Tanith faced her and smiled. "I've been helping out Skulduggery with some investigations about the Necromancer deaths."

"I wasn't lying when I said I was just investigating!" Funny Bones added happily.

"O-Oh," Valkyrie replied awkwardly and looked away. That bothered her, I guess. I looked at Tanith who seemed like she wanted to say more, but Funny Bones had shaken his head to stop.

"So anyway!" Tanith suddenly said, breakin' the silence in the room. "Back to Sanguine.

"Despite all of his murderous tendencies," she continued on, "he's actually just a regular guy. As I asked before, haven't you ever been in love? I have vague memories of what he did for me when we were together. He is actually…quite sweet."

"That doesn't sound like a word to describe Billy-Ray Sanguine," muttered Funny Bones.

Tanith shrugged. "Well, I guess you wouldn't think so, Skulduggery. I bet Valkyrie could agree with me."

We all looked at her suddenly. She cringed and took a step back, tryin' to hide. "I…" She stopped and looked at me straight. Suddenly, she smiled. "He's a jerk but would die for me."

I shrugged. "Yeah, I guess that's pretty accurate."

And then abruptly the doors burst open. This time, Hair Boy stood in the entrance, carryin' a little box.

Oh God, I'm gonna die.

"He wouldn't stop shouting at me!" Hair Boy whined. He set the box on the table and opened it slowly. In an instant, Uncle Ghost appeared. He assessed the situation by starin' real hard at everyone, and then he turned to Bespoke.

"Ghastly," he began, "I certainly vote for the death of this man, Billy-Ray Sanguine."

"Gordon!" Valkyrie yelled, standin' forward, assumin' a fightin' stance. "What are you even-"

I cut her short by reachin' forward and pullin' her backwards. In this rare act of public affection, everyone was silent. I brought Valkyrie close to me and kept her grounded.

She turned to me, stunned too. She almost said somethin', but then Bespoke said, "Keep going, Gordon. Why death?"

"Billy-Ray Sanguine has practically destroyed any and all friendships we all once had. Skulduggery is frustrated and angry with my own niece, Valkyrie. You, Ghastly, are angry with Valkyrie for the same reasons and everything revolving around Tanith. I am disappointed, and Fletcher here is horrified. It is now common knowledge that Valkyrie Cain has been, um, performing sexual intercourse with Billy-Ray Sanguine."

"Yes, we know," Funny Bones grumbled. "I've already heard far too much about Valkyrie's nightly activities, thank you."

"Oh, it wasn't always at night."

I winced and heard Valkyrie slap her forehead in disbelief.

"Though, having said all of that," Uncle Ghost continued, "I feel we need to carefully ponder this circumstance."

"You just gave clear reasons for as to why we should kill Sanguine."

"Well, those are simply personal reasons." He smiled. "Personal reasons are not above the law."

"You said we weren't going to kill him!" Valkyrie objected.

Ghastly nodded slowly. "Yes, and we'll stand by that. No one will be killed."

Uncle Ghost nodded. "All right. Well, Valkyrie has been explaining everything that has happened so far. From what I hear, Sanguine is utterly ridiculous. One minute he's murdering, and then the next he's in love."

"It's not that qu-"

"Have you ever heard that song?" Valkyrie suddenly asked, smirking. "The Power of Love? 'Change your heart to a little white dove'. Those are the lyrics."

"Exactly," Gordon added. "Valkyrie explained that Scarab almost had her killed. Sanguine could have let her die. You see where I'm going with this?"

Ghastly sighed placed his elbows on the desk. He looked at me for a long time.

"Fine," he eventually muttered. "You will not be sent back to America, but you will remain here in Ireland, continuing to help out the detective for the good of society. However, you won't be placed back with Valkyrie or Skulduggery. You will be assigned someone new soon." He paused and sighed. "Because of your help with the detectives, we managed to catch three criminals and one of them being your own father. Because of this, then, your sentence will remain the same length, but you are no longer required to be in a prison." He paused again. "I can't believe I just said that…"

Bespoke smiled slightly and looked at everyone. "Now everyone out," he muttered.

Honestly I wasn't able to tell if the fact that I was gettin' someone new was good or not. I wanted to ask Valkyrie, but she had already gotten hold of Officer Chekov in the corner to get him to head back to Russia. He seemed a little upset over what had happened. Though that could also be confusion. I'm sure the world hadn't heard 'bout my sexual exploits or nothin'.

I was about to leave the room, but Bespoke grabbed my arm and kept me there. He leaned in close and muttered, "Know that if I ever hear about you mistreating Valkyrie or making her unhappy in just the tiniest amount, you will be quickly ended."

I swallowed. "Nah," I managed to sputter, "I'll keep her happy…"

He let go of me and motioned for me to get out. I shut the doors to the room and was immediately attacked by Valkyrie. She threw her arms around my neck and hugged my tight. Y'know, as much as I try to not be stupid and sappy, I gotta say that her huggin' me just felt right.

Don't own The Power of Love or Officer Chekov.

Yaaaay! Everything has been resolved!

...Right?

Thanks for reading and sorry for any mistakes! :D