Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Solomon – Raven

Chapter 69

Tesseract's POV

Tesseract got back to The Torment's home in the early morning, exhausted and exasperated. The Spider mage was incapable of using a phone and called Tesseract to repeatedly tell him what to do, greatly increasing Tesseracts chances of being recognised or captured as he was constantly coming back to the same place on The Torment's orders. He eased his mind with the knowledge that he hadn't been to Ireland except to visit when he was still in training meaning no one knew his masks. He had time.

He had dumped the idiot American's body before catching a mere four hours sleep. He was incredibly irritated he'd been ordered to save the woman over getting his kill, and not only that but The Torment had immediately told him that was wrong, and then killed the American anyway. It had been a disturbing pleasure to watch, but exasperating also.

The Torment was standing at the bottom of the stairs waiting, grinning madly.

"The Remnants!" He cackled. "The Remnants! Do you know what the Remnant's mean? The Remnant's!"

Tesseract frowned behind his mask. The Remnants were bad news. Bad for business. What use was an assassin if everyone was dead?

"This is our chance, you Russian dunce," The Torment snarled suddenly, disgusting little fangs pultruding from his mouth. "The Remnants have been caught before and can be again, but in the chaos, you will strike. You must kill Ravel this time. You must crush him."

"When?" Tesseract asked blankly.

"As soon as you see the Dead Men have split. Kill as many as you can get your hands on. Those men – the Dead Men destroyed my empire," he said, his face drifting to a distant, far away place. "My perfect, beautiful empire."

"There are women with them," Tesseract stated.

"Women? Wives?"

"I do not know. There is an Englishwoman and a teenage girl. You wish for them to die also?"

"They have joined with the Dead Men," The Torment snarled through his disgusting grin, spraying spit with each word. "They deserve to die."

.*****.

Valkyrie's POV

Valkyrie slept in that day, a strange dream swirling in her mind. The light was filtering through her curtains right onto her eyes and she scrunched them without meaning to and the dream scattered away before she could work out what it was about.

Sighing, she threw the covers off her body and got up before she could overthink it and annoy herself. She got dressed quickly and went downstairs, knowing she had a full day of man-hunting ahead of her.

"Hey," she grunted tiredly.

Tanith turned from her place at the sink and gave her a smile. "Hey. You look a bit pale."

"I think you look worse," Valkyrie said, getting the orange juice out the fridge.

"I threw up," Tanith said. "If you hadn't said I would, it never would have happened."

Valkyrie smirked. "I just said it was likely. The bugs did the rest."

She got soppy water flicked at her for her troubles and grabbed a few pieces of fruit, not feeling like anything else, and went to the living room where the others were, including Gordon.

"What are you talking about?" Valkyrie asked, sitting and pealing a banana.

"The Bonebreaker," Gordon said, hovering on the sofa as if sitting. "I believe I know who he may be. I once interviewed a man in Kazakhstan who told me about a man with the exact same description. His name was Tesseract. I don't know if that is his full name, but that's all anyone knew about him. He has to wear masks which are infused with magic to stop him from dying. Too long off, and I mean minutes, he'll die. So long as you can pin him down, all you'd need to do is keep him away from getting any other mask and he'd die just like that."

"I don't think it'll be that easy," Crow muttered, tapping a finger on his knee. "He showed great fighting experience. With Ghastly in recovery and Tanith not feeling well, I do worry about our chances. And we still have to worry about a Remnant being free."

"We don't know it's free," Weasel said in a disgruntled voice, rubbing his forehead painfully. Ever since he hadn't detected Tesseract the day before he'd been overworking his magic and trying to work out if he had a blind spot. So far it simply looked as if he'd "just not seen it". It was a pretty rubbish answer but Weasel had admitted before he didn't understand exactly how his magic worked so they could never be certain of anything even if he did get it right more often than not.

"We have to act for worst case," Valkyrie said quickly. "I say we act as if the Remnant is being used the exact same way it was with me and Kenspeckle. We need to find out what it's being used for before even worrying about Tesseract. It's the bigger problem. One assassin is bad, sure, but the Remnant could cause more damage than him."

Crow nodded. "I think Valkyrie's right. We'll focus on the Remnant, and perhaps we'll get lucky and take down Tesseract in the process. So, who feels like going to China's?"

Valkyrie, Crow and Wolf all decided to go, Weasel deciding to go to Kenspeckle's to look over the recovering Panda, and Snake stayed with Tanith just in case anything happened while she was trying to rest up. Bear had to go set up his hotel for the next few days, as it was about to fun out of places to go and he had no choice but to return. The trip to China's library was short, and it looked as if everyone was driving or busy rushing from place to place.

When they parked outside the apartment complex, Valkyrie undid her seatbelt and they all froze as they heard screeching, cars colliding and screaming. It cut off quickly.

Moving fast, they got into the library and sprinted to the third floor and opened the library quickly.

No one there.

"Something's wrong," Valkyrie muttered to Crow and Wolf.

Wolf pulled her into a hug and kissed her forehead – she could see he was nervous and made sure she kissed his cheek – and Crow pulled his gun out and knocked on China's door.

They waited a moment as Crow checked the air. He nodded. She was there.

A moment later she opened her apartment door.

"China," Crow said. "Why are you hiding?"

"Hiding?" China laughed. "I am not hiding. I was merely busy. Would you like to put that gun away and come in? Oh, hello Dexter, Valkyrie."

"Hi," Valkyrie said.

"Actually, we'll be on our way," Crow said suddenly, grabbing Valkyrie by the arm and pushing her along the hall. They got to the staircase and China laughed suddenly.

"Oh Skulduggery?" She said.

"Go," he whispered to Valkyrie. She started running down the stairs but waited right out of sight with Wolf. "Yes?" Crow answered China.

"It's already started. I do so hope your boy toy stays alive," China laughed and leapt back when Crow started shooting at her.

Valkyrie and Wolf raced down the stairs and almost ran outside before they saw the black streaks that were gliding around the building, blocking them in. "What do we do?" Valkyrie asked sharply.

Wolf looked at her. "Keep an eye on each other. We can never be sure if the other gets infected. Here," he said, reaching around and pulled a gun out along with a spare magazine. "Keep this on you. Do not hesitated to shoot. Even if it's me or your other brothers. We'd never forgive ourselves if we hurt you."

He helped her put it on but she didn't agree to what he said. She knew she'd have to shoot, she was already terrified of the Remnant's, so much so her heart was beating dangerously in her chest. The idea of not being in control of herself, of a disgusting little shadow forcing its way into her body and doing things with her she'd never remember was abhorrent to her.

But at least she knew she had a way of protecting herself against other infected people. She'd aim for their legs – they all wore Panda's specially made shoes or else she'd have done that. Once shot, they'd be useless to the Remnant's and hopefully left alone. And they wouldn't be dead.

"I might be sick," she said quietly.

"Don't be," he said seriously and held her. Crow felt to the floor in front of them with his jacket in tatters.

"The Remnant's free!" He shouted, and opened the doors to the outside.

They ran.

But they weren't faster than the Remnants.

At least a dozen Remnant's dove at them from the sky, swirling around them. Valkyrie put a hand over her mouth and ran next to Crow into the car, closing the doors. Outside, Wolf was caught in the frenzy, trying to hold them off as they tried prying his arms apart and his mouth open. He looked at them, Valkyrie staring back in horror.

"Drive!" He screamed at them, and a Remnant forced its way down his throat.

Valkyrie screamed as the Bentley screeched and practically flew around the corner at a neck-breaking speed. She knew there was nothing they could do but inside, she wanted to scream and sob and rage. It hurt to leave him behind. She felt like a traitor.

Without saying a word, Valkyrie pulled out her phone and called Tanith.

She never picked up.

"I think Tanith and Snake's been possessed too," Valkyrie told him.

"Call Kenspeckle."

She did and Civet picked up. "Kenspeckle's Hibernian Cinema Hospital–"

"Put it on lockdown!" She shouted. "The Remnants are free!"

"Stentor! Put us on lockdown!" Civet cried. There was a sound of a crash and a humming as the specially crafted wards went down. "Doctor?"

A moment later Kenspeckle came raving and ranting into the room and picked up the phone. "Who is this?"

"It's Valkyrie," she said quickly. "The Remnants have all been let free. You need to stay hidden and don't, under any circumstances, let anyone in. Even if I go there. I'm staying away, so if I come, I'm possessed. Will those wards keep them out?"

"It'll keep every living and dead thing out so long as they're up," Kenspeckle said quietly. "How has this happened?"

"The Necromancy Temple had the one Remnant that possessed you," she said. "But it got free after Tesseract stole it a day and two nights ago. He's the one that hurt Ghastly. Are him and Saracen still there?"

"Yes, they're here. Mr Bespoke is recovering nicely by the way. I will keep both here as long as I can. But I have to warn you – if the power goes out, my wards have a generator, but that will only last for eight hours at most."

"We'll try and get them contained before that. Remember, just don't take them down, let anyone in, or talk about where you are or the wards with anyone at all. I have to go."

She hung up and called Raven.

He didn't pick up. She didn't tell Crow.

She tried the Sanctuary next and someone, not the Administrator, picked up. "Irish Sanctuary."

"The Remnants are free."

"We know," the person laughed.

Valkyrie hung up.

"Tell Fletcher to hide," Crow said as he tried to avoid people in the street running at them and accidentally ran down a possessed person in the road. There was minimal chance that person was now alive. They were probably innocent when they were themselves.

"I'll try. Do you think they've gotten to Australia by now?"

"I would take a guess, and my guesses are usually right," he said, looking out the window, "that they've been free for at least four to five hours. With how quiet they have been slowly possessing people, staying hidden, I don't think they would have reached Australia by now, but Fletcher is one of the two last Teleporters so I'm certain they're looking for him and Peregrine equally. At any rate, we don't know where he's been in the last five hours, he could already be possessed."

Valkyrie rang him and he picked up.

"Hey, look," he said quickly, talking in quiet tones. "I'm kind of a little busy right now."

"The Remnants are free, you need to hide," Valkyrie told him quickly.

"What?" He said. "How?"

"We don't know, but we think they'll be coming for you, you're one of the last Teleporters after all. Just hide. Don't come to Ireland. Stay out of sight. Tell no one, not me, not a mortal, not a girlfriend, not anyone whatsoever, where you go. Just do it. Stay hidden. Okay?"

"Okay – but what do I do with–"

"I don't care who you're with, you cannot get possessed Fletcher, we'll all be fucked if you do! Just hide. There's nothing you can do, they won't even remember when they wake up!"

He swore. "Fine. Stay safe."

"I'll try."

He hung up.

"Is that everyone?" Valkyrie asked Crow. She wanted to call Nadia. Her hands shook and she pressed them firmly into her lap to stop the urge to call her, although she knew Nadia would never answer. Like the other thousand times she'd called at the start of their break up.

"I imagine so," he said, driving wildly and using another hand to bat away the possessed mortals from the road. "This won't be easy to cover."

"Let's just focus on closer problems," Valkyrie said, eyes widening. "Like the Remnant crawling through your window!"

Valkyrie is not having a good time of it, is she? Dumped, her brother's seriously injured, her sister's sick, and now the Remnants are free! At least it's something fun to read, and you know I like good endings so no panic needed... but I will be having more of a bad time for Valkyrie, it's my entertainment too you understand. Once again, I'd love suggestions and ideas as I have lots to write and I'd love for all of you to have a little something to look forward to! PM or review any ideas to me, or just how you're liking the story or a question. I love it! :D