A/N: I don't own Valkyrie, Skulduggery, Tanith, Darquesse, Lord Vile, Billy-Ray, Ghastly, Jack, Tesseract, the Dead Men or Professor Xavier. Val, Mrs. G, Melody, Father Winter, Calamity, Mimic and Cain are still mine, though. The genetic engineering Valkyrie and Melody talk about does not take place in the novels. Last chapter alert!
Later that evening I went to Melody's room to meet with her, bearing a tray laden with coffee and pastries for both of us as a peace offering. I was sure it had to be overwhelming and a bit lonely to suddenly be in the middle of a group of people who knew each other so well. And it was no excuse, but it was like she had a talent for fading into the background. I had literally not remembered her for hours at a time and we hadn't even included her in the plans to raid Father Winter's fortress.
Melody welcomed me graciously, and I was struck again by how truly beautiful she was, and what a kind and sweet woman my son was marrying. "How are you holding up?" I asked as we sat down to our snack and she shrugged and smiled. "I wanted to talk to you a few minutes, so you know everything that's going on." I said and she nodded. So I told her, that firstly, she hadn't been left out of the children's training on purpose. "I'm sorry, Mel, you have no idea how sorry. I love you like a sister, but all of us seem to have complete amnesia when it comes to including you. There's no excuse for that."
She seemed stunned at first, but then she surprised me. "I was trying to be forgotten. I was watching you train with them and my hearing and abilities are good enough that I know they'd taunt me and how. Just one blow in anger and I could kill one of them without meaning to."
"I know you'd never intentionally hurt either one of them, Mel, but you're right, even a mild swat from you could fracture bones and those two brats would taunt you until they got a reaction. They wouldn't do it to be mean, but you were watching them train, so you know all about it." I said and she smiled and nodded.
"I thought at first I'd been left out because I wasn't good enough, because my powers aren't always a sure thing, so I kinda liked the part where you threw Val as far as you did." She said and giggled. "Sorry."
"Don't be. I know she's an utter brat, Mel, and I know you may feel like you have to fight her at time for Cain's attention. But in his defense I remember being an older sibling and little sisters become your universe, more important than your parents, even." I said and she nodded, understanding.
I told her two about how Val had come along at a time when my family was in danger of falling apart. "I felt so responsible, Mel, that I lived for my job and I could have lost my husband and son over it. "So I know I indulge them. And yes, having Val was part of that indulgence, giving up a job that was destroying my family was too and I never looked back. They really are sweet kids, but I know they are both spoiled, it's just that well-"
I shrugged, but she read my mind, literally. "Being skeletons they know how ugly they are to the world. So it makes sense the family all gathered together for Val. She has to feel so lonely, and afraid since that blond bimbo has Tess." She said, then touched her own blond hair with a laugh.
There was a faint squeak of agreement from the doorway and I turned to see Val in the doorway. "I came to apologize. I know I glom on to my bro, but, it is hard, Mel, I'm not pretty like you." Mel got up and ushered her in with a tight hug.
"You're my sister now, Val." She said fiercely. "And nobody says my sister isn't beautiful, especially not her, OK? You are so beautiful, and sweet and kind. So what if you're spoiled? I am too now, being here. Nobody ever brought me a snack before or stopped by to apologize for anything. Come on, let's have a girl's night in, hmm? A craic, you call it, right?"
Val nodded eagerly and I would have left the girls to it, but they stopped me imploringly. "Mom, come on, you gotta stay." Val said, settling into the sofa with a snagged pastry. "Besides, aunty Tanny is on her way with pastries and coffee too. And you know she hates coffee." She said with a giggle.
And Tanith did arrive, and soon it was we women sitting where we could having coffee and sweets and being happy not to have the men around. I exchanged glances with Tanith when the girls were busy and knew she understood. We were getting to see our lovely brides-to-be bonding as sisters, like we had. And even though I sometimes wondered if Tanith would ever forgive me for whom I'd hired when I was an Elder her warm smile showed me she had. "I understand now, what it's like being a leader." She said with a sigh. "I've been handling detectives as they come in that hate each other and want each other fired, how did you stand it?" She asked.
I smiled. "You remind yourself that since you are the leader it's your job to care about everyone, not play favourites. Then you force them to bond." I said with a grin and she laughed. Which led to having to tell Mel and Val about the time the criminals had first become good guys.
"And you just trusted them all like that? Mel asked, wide-eyed.
"I took a gamble." I said, honestly. "And truth be told, Mel, I'd done enough terrible things in my life to realize I couldn't judge them. Besides, they all proved loyal. Without Jack I don't think the kids would have turned out half as well." I admitted.
"Billy-Ray and Calamity too, don't forget." Tanith added then smiled at me with a shrug. "I'm at peace now, Val. I see exactly why you did what you did. Had they been turned away, had a single former bad guy left we'd have lost them all, and I'd still like to know who made them all leave."
We all nodded. I'd wondered that myself and even as Darquesse I didn't know who it was or why. It would be easy to blame anyone, foreign Sanctuaries, holier-than-thou members of the Sanctuary with an axe to grind, anybody. I'd asked Jack and although he couldn't remember who it was, he did remember being threatened with Cain finding out the truth. Mel however, snorted. "I can tell you exactly who it was, and I'm sure of it." She said.
We all looked at her. "I wasn't the only super weapon the US was engineering. I only know the codename of the project, Mimic, but he, she or it was capable if infiltrating anywhere and fitting right in. Mimic was to be used to break down Ireland, but went rouge like I did. Unfortunately it has been popping up in random Sanctuaries and causing chaos because it somehow knows that is what it was engineered to do."
"How do you know all this?" I asked.
"It comes with my genetic upgrade from the super vampire. I can access information about the other mutants at random, no idea how. But as soon as you mentioned the problem I knew who it was. I might have even tapped into your abilities as Darquesse and bypassed the mental block you've been getting. Sorry, but look at it this way, I'd be ten times worse without my necklace. Think Professor Xavier in drag." She said, then howled with laughter.
"I'm glad you felt sorry for Ireland." I said faintly and she smiled.
"I did, I had mixed abilities like this before my upgrade. I was supposed to be the perfect soldier, the answer to Darquesse and Lord Vile with the ability to destroy them both. The US is rather paranoid and it didn't take much convincing for our "leaders" to make a lot of people believe Ireland was about to unleash them on us. I already knew it wasn't true because I knew where you both were as soon as you were mentioned. I guess they should have picked a person less gullible, though I did fall for the promise of a cure, even when I knew they were lying. I hoped I'd get lucky."
She shrugged and before I could say anything she continued. "Before you ask, not even Darquesse could help me. I literally don't have to eat or do a whole bunch of other things, but I choose to eat and sleep so I can feel more human and less like a machine. My powers are tied to my size. They were before the engineering and that only made it worse. You'd think they'd want an athletic, trim, super weapon, right? No, they wanted one you'd never suspect. Someone who could melt into the background, who when you saw her, wouldn't look like a threat." Melody shrugged again and I knew it had to hurt despite her brave act but she surprised me.
"I've grown to accept I am who I am. I can never be thin, but I can never gain weight, either. Do you know how many people would kill for that ability? And I'm not the worst of the test subjects. Some of them were killed outright by the testing or wish they had died. At least I look human." I nodded, this was a lot to take in. If even one of the people who had been tested on remained loyal we could have a serious problem on our hands.
I was taking the empty pots and cups back to the kitchen with Val's help when the front door swung open and Tesseract stepped in. Val screamed happily, immediately dropping her cups and running to him and Tess took her tightly into his arms, initiating a reunion kiss that made me continue on into the kitchen. Jack, who had let him in, doffed his hat to me and walked around to couple toward his and Charles' room.
I had thought this might happen, that our Tess would use the upgrades and come home, but now the giant of a man would need bedrest for a few weeks. I knew without asking that he'd eliminated all of Father Winter and that all we would find was an empty fortress. I just hoped that no one figured out just how much power Darquesse has temporarily sent him. Shadow-walking, for example and the know-how to use it. He had been Darquesse for one shining moment. It had been a near thing, but I'd known if anyone could use the powers to escape he could.
Val's scream and the sound of the mugs she'd dropped breaking had brought Skulduggery and Cain down, though they too had bypassed the happy couple. Skulduggery stared hard at me and I looked away. "Darquesse couldn't go so she loaned her powers out, didn't she?" He asked, anger in his voice.
"She's my daughter." I said helplessly and his face softened. "I knew I couldn't be at one hundred percent and fight for long, neither could you. But I could amp up my power and loan it out to someone already there. Yes, it was risky, but as strange as it sounds the connection from healing him somehow healed me during the transfer of power. It was like getting back the power I'd used when I healed him. I'm fine now, I really am." I carefully left out the part where as Darquesse I'd planned a lot of this out and neglected to tell anyone.
Skulduggery nodded at my explanation, then came forward to sweep me into his arms. "That's why I love you. You put our children first, and their happiness first. Why don't you come to bed and we'll let those two get caught up, hmm?" He asked, nuzzling into me and I nodded. We walked past them and Val threw me a hopeful look.
"Go on." I said and they took off to his trailer. I wanted the big man to have a healing so I sent Skulduggery ahead and got Mel up. She seemed delighted Tesseract was back and promised to go out as soon as she could dress. I wanted to just reach my bed, but we must have awakened the household because soon the entire house was awake and moving. I sighed as Skulduggery rejoined me.
"Coffee?" He offered and I nodded wearily as I followed him to the kitchen. I giggled as he wrapped his arms around me after the kettle was on. He leaned down, his teeth brushing my ear. "Oh, and I know you lied before, my sweet Darquesse. You knew what Lord Vile was planning and moved faster." He gave a soft growl. "But on the other hand, whoever taught you to be that clever? That's right, me."
He spun me around to face him, grinning broadly. "It's all right, it was fun to try and race Darquesse. Though as a general it is annoying to get defeated. Still, my little destroyer of worlds did well." He said fondly. I heard a gagging sound and turned to see Cain in the doorway.
"Dad! It's totally gross when you two coo at each other." He complained. Mel, on her way out to heal Tess, howled with laughter.
"She's going to need that sense of humour to deal with you." I said, a smile twitching up the corners of my lips. "Such a gwouchy baby skeleton. Isn't he the one who bit me, sweetie?" I asked Skulduggery and Cain looked mortified. "Come here, sweetheart, mom's just teasing." I said and he came and cuddled into me.
His assorted uncles wandered in, all needing assured that the trip to support Val had done them good. Ghastly, of course, was not amused. "If you two were racing one another, why didn't you send us all home?" He growled. Then his face cleared of all expression. "You- You didn't expect to live thorough rescuing him, did you?" He asked, then shook his head.
"Nope, dad. Figured I'd go out in a blaze of glory. I swear Lord Vile and I were trying to slow one another down. I might love the man but this was, well, a competition. That, and I wanted him out of harm's way." I said, and sure enough Lord Vile chose that time to grace us with his presence.
He shot me a glare, then his gaze softened. He was back to not speaking, but I could hear his thoughts well enough. "Well, sweetie, as the destroyer of worlds it is my job to destroy worlds. And Father Winter's world was really destroyed. Besides allowing a homicidal maniac slash professional assassin to become me for a while, well that was a first, even for me. " I said proudly, then realized I'd went Darquesse, because Valkyrie would never have been stupid enough to admit to such sneakiness.
Vile snorted, but didn't attack. I read his thoughts again. "Well, the other night when I was asleep, I sort of connected with him in my dreams. I didn't take over his body exactly, more like I made him me for a little while and watched me go on a bloody rampage. I like me." I said proudly.
Cain nuzzled in deeper. "Mom, are you all right?" He asked worriedly. I nodded, then realized I'd levitated off the floor in my excitement, dragging my son with me. My shadows has massed around me, pulsing with my excitement. I sighed and forced Darquesse back down. I landed and tilted his skull up so he would look at me.
"I'm OK, baby. But when anyone touches my family, I don't take it too well. I love Tess like he's family now, and I know what it's like, thinking you'll never have the person you love back. I'm in control, but you know how I get as Darquesse." I said gently.
He nodded as he stepped away and I decided to use my magic to apologize to him. I could apologize to Mrs. G later, and I wouldn't really need to, she kept a box for me, specially for his favourite parlor trick. I made passes with my hands through the air, clapped my hands together, then opened them, and a box of her best doughnuts appeared. He laughed happily like he always did as I handed it to him, then thoughtfully shared it with everyone. "Thanks, mom." He said around a doughnut.
"Yeah, thanks, Val." Ghastly said around another doughnut and I nodded as the men dug in. Being Dead Men I knew they accepted our strategy as insane as it had sounded. Lord Vile and I had been trying to keep one another safe while trying to mass enough energy to go face Father Winter alone. The Dead Men had been allowed to stay because we both knew one or both of us would fail. Stupid, you say? Try having kids then you'll understand completely.
"Anything you can do, I can do better." I sang to Skulduggery as we at last got into bed and he laughed.
"That you can, for today. But remember I have unknown depths of trickery in me, madam. And you have no idea what Lord Vile is going to do with the information on the other prototypes the US built. Frankly they disappoint me. After you making me sit through five billion military zombie movies I expected at least one."
"Shut up, Skulduggery!" I yelled, because when we mentioned zombies they tended to appear. There was a moment of silence as we strained to listen for an advancing horde, then we both heard the whoosh of an incoming rocket and rolled out of bed, just before it burst through the window, detonating and only our combined air shields held off the effect of the blast. We ran to the window my armour flowing over me and looked down, fully expecting to see zombie commandos from hell. What we did see was a chagrined Billy-Ray and Calamity and a rather guilty-looking Cain holding a now-empty bazooka.
"Sorry?" He tried.
I shook my head and leapt to the ground, leaving Lord Vile to do the repair work. "At least it isn't a suitcase nuke." I said evenly. Then looked at Billy-Ray with narrowed eyes. ""Explain."
"We was, uh- We were, um-" He faltered and Calamity stepped in front of him, and glommed onto me, laughing with glee at our reunion. What in God's name was it with Americans? They thought laughter and hugging people solved everything. Of course, to be fair it worked, and I laughed myself. I knew no harm had been meant.
"It's alright. nobody's hurt. Luckily we were all up so no harm done." I said looking at my son fondly. "Shouldn't you be in Mel's room?" I asked cocking an eyebrow at him.
"Mom!" He wailed in embarrassment and I grinned. Some days being a parent was a lot of fun.
Over the next few days things settled down and the Dead Men lingered. Partly to make sure everything was truly over (the bazooka incident had spooked everyone good) and there were two weddings to plan. After which I planned to hide from my lunatic children before one of them found another weapon to play with. And I think Skulduggery planned on joining me.
I know shorter chapter, but I wanted to leave it with the hint of upcoming wedding. I honestly think I'll leave it there, with a bright future and all that. Thanks for reading! EDIT: Apparently one person out there thinks this should go on. I'll see what I can do but have a little patience.