Skulduggery – Crow

Anton – Bear

Ghastly – Panda

Dexter – Wolf

Saracen – Weasel

Erskine – Snake

Solomon – Raven

Chapter 83

By the time they got to the Temple, they all had numerous phone calls from unknown numbers. They knew they were all Temple members that had somehow gotten them, but they were unsure where from.

To be safe, they had told Meritorious directly what they were doing and not mentioned it to any other mage in the hopes of stopping a spy in the Sanctuary if there was one. Elder Crow, a Necromancer herself, was also trying to calm the Temple members and had gathered over twenty as a support cross peace group. It wouldn't stop the other several hundred after them, but it helped to have a significant, popular and well-respected Necromancer on their side. They hoped more would join her.

"This is the hole?" Valkyrie asked in partial disbelief. "How do you get supplies down there?"

"I assure you it is a large enough space for a crate at a time, it merely looks dark," Raven told her comfortingly, even putting a hand on her shoulder. He stood next to Crow and when he did that, it looked almost as if they were her parents and she the child. It filled her with warmth and she had to swallow down some sudden emotion. She faced the hole instead.

"I don't think we'll fit," she said.

"You will. I can fit, so you surely can," he said.

"How do you know you fit?"

"I've used it before."

"Why?"

He cleared his throat and looked around. "I think it is time for you to go. I'll keep an eye out and stop anyone trying to get in. Try to disarm the building if you can and I'll send for Cleavers," Raven said and quickly made his leave.

They watched him go and then Valkyrie smirked at Crow.

"I don't know why he used the hole," Crow said.

"But you want to," she grinned.

"I do not."

"You do too."

"I do not. Get in the hole."

"You do. You want to hear the whole thing," she sang to him. He grabbed her shoulder and spun her to face the foreboding, dark, damp, horrible hole. She leant back to stop herself going in, but resistance was futile. He pushed her in and followed behind.

"I don't like this," she whispered, crouching low. There was height above her but her stomach was tight with anxiety in the tight space anyway. Only Crow's hand on her waist in support was keeping her moving, even if it was at a snail's pace.

"You've been in tighter places, you'll be fine," he said. "Just keep moving."

"I am."

"Well, keep doing it."

She muttered under her breath but did keep going, and though it probably took over ten minutes, they eventually got to the other side, marked by Valkyrie falling out the hole with a bloodcurdling screech. She hugged the floor and breathed in raggedly as she tried to relax and stop shaking.

"I thought I'd die," she said into the stone. She could feel her entire legs shaking.

"But you didn't, so it's alright," Crow said, stepping out gracefully. He turned the light on, easing Valkyrie's discomfort immensely, and went straight to the door to look out. Slowly, she got up and took some deep breaths to get herself feeling strong again. She felt as if she needed a lie-down and a meal before she'd be better, but duty called, unfortunately.

They turned the light out and snuck down the corridor to where they saw lights but no other sign of life. They glanced at each other and went deeper into the Temple, hoping to run into someone so they'd know where the High Priest was, but there was nothing but a spider and her millions of tiny newborns that Valkyrie ran passed so they wouldn't jump on her.

She heard Crow chuckle behind her, but spiders were no laughing matter. Disgusting creatures.

Valkyrie led them, once she knew where they were, to the Dining Hall, but there were only breakfast foods sitting on the serving table waiting to be handed to the tables – the breakfast bowls and plates were still laid out as the Temple hadn't even gotten to the meal by the time they were called on their manhunt. Or girl hunt, such as it was, though that sounded even less acceptable.

"This is really weird," she said, looking over the hall.

"Why's that?" Crow asked her.

"Usually this place is full of people. I know it's dark and gloomy, but it usually has life in it, even if it is pale and miserable. I guess I was spending so much time with Solomon and Militsa I forgot how depressing this place really is," she said quietly. She pointed to her seat. "That's where me and Militsa sit. We had a seat between us before because we're in different classes, but since both our classes hate us, they put a space between us and we sat together instead. That sounds even sadder, but at the time it was fun."

"Things are often very different in hindsight, or even just from a different perspective," Crow agreed. "But that doesn't mean you need to enjoy the experience any more or less than you did at the time. You had a bad relationship with your grandmother, for example, when she was rude at Gordon's funeral and after your mother's death. But your experience with her at those times goes not negate the good times you spent with her as a small child. It is just a new experience to remember."

Valkyrie nodded. "I don't think I want to stay for the rest of the month," she told him quietly. "Other than Militsa and Solomon, and maybe Mentor Emblem, no one spoke to me or was even a little bit nice. It was horrible. Sure, I learnt lots, but mostly I learnt how horrible it must be growing up a Necromancer. There's no love or fun or happiness anywhere. And I'd bet that's why they don't like me. I grew up with all that and it's so foreign to them, they've learnt to hate it."

"It can be easier for people to hate what they can't have, rather than crave it," he said quietly. Valkyrie smiled at him softly and held his hand. He smiled at her in his skeletal way. "I am sorry the other students were not kind to you. We'll collect your things on the way out."

She nodded and they made their way down the hall towards the offices this time, hoping to see the High Priest alone or perhaps in a meeting. They found something like that down the hallway – a gathering outside the High Priest's office of different high-ranking Clerics all arguing in hushed tones and looking at the door every few seconds. They jumped back behind the wall to watch.

Nothing happened. They were Necromancers, not a type of people known for doing things.

"Should we go to them?" Valkyrie questioned quietly.

"They might attack," he muttered back.

"I don't want to wait until they go to bed to see Ol' Tenny," she snarked, looking at the group again. What boring people. "I say we introduce ourselves."

A gun clicked behind them. They went still.

"Well, if it isn't Skulduggery Pleasant and his little bitch," a man said behind them. They both turned slowly around to see a hairy, manic looking Crux holding a sawn-off shotgun barely half a metre from them. He was shaking everywhere but his hands, keeping the gun level even as he laughed and his knees wobbled with excitement.

"I forgot you existed," Valkyrie said in surprise before she could stop herself. Crux laughed uproariously like that was the funniest thing in the universe and she and Crow looked at each other. Was it okay to kill an insane man? Valkyrie expected they might anyway. He was a criminal before he went insane, so it was fair.

"I searched high and low and high and low and high again to find a man that hated you as much as I do!" He screeched, stepping closer. They stepped back into the view of the already watching and weary crowd of Clerics. They didn't look as if they'd intervene despite believing Valkyrie beat up and kidnapped two of their students. "But I did it! It surprised me too, to know someone can hate as much as I do. But they do, oh yes they do!"

"Who hates us as much as you?" Crow asked him.

"A secret, a surprise, you'll never guess who!" He cackled. "Take a guess, skeleton."

Crow tilted his head in thought. "Is it Tenebrae?"

"No!" He laughed crazily.

"Is it that man from Iceland?"

"No, no, not from Icelandy!"

"What about The Torment?" He asked more certainly.

Crux's face went blank with anger. "You guessed."

"I did, you asked me too," Crow pointed out.

"You guess The Torment, but The Torment said not to let you speak about him. He said to keep it quiet and not let you know. But you already knew!" He screamed at the end. Valkyrie took half a step back from shock and he trained the gun right at her head and sneered. "You little bitch. You little, arrogant, nasty little girl. I hate you. I hate you more than him, and more than any other person ever hated him or any other person ever! I hate you more than I hate anything!"

Valkyrie didn't say anything. The Necromancer's were gone.

"You'll pay for what you did to me. If you could have just died, they never would have decided to hunt me. I did nothing wrong. I only did that I needed to!" Crux spat. "You don't deserve to live, and you definitely should never have been given as much power as you have! Second Detective." He spat on the ground in the vicinity on her feet. "You disgust me. The Elders were wrong. Only Elder Guild knew what was wrong, and until we kill you and rebuild the world in a utopia for the strong and intelligent, we can only crumble as a civilisation. We must rebuild! Rebuild stronger and better! We must rebuild and kill the weak!"

He shot and Valkyrie flinched and fell to the floor. Crux screamed in anger and frustration as they both realised Crow had stopped the bullets with a powerful shield of air.

She had to shuffle back as Crow leapt on the man and threw the gun from his hands. Valkyrie kicked it down the hall away from them and jumped back to her feet, looking around for danger as the two men grappled violently on the floor. It looked as if Crux's only tactic was to pull Crow apart, which usually would have been stupid, but Crux was so single-minded he didn't feel any pain as he yanked free of holds and was hit multiple times, he just kept fighting back.

It was beginning to get funny watching Crow nearly restrain the crazy lunatic but then fail and get his arm yanked – it wouldn't come off thanks to the clothes not having enough give to pull it out – until she saw a shadow down the hall. It was of a large man, and as he got closer to the light, Valkyrie knew exactly who it was.

"Crow, gun!" She shouted, running forwards and booting Crux in the head as hard as she could. There was a sickening crunch, and Valkyrie knew there was a good chance he was dead as soon as his head smacked against the ground, but she had no time to worry as Tesseract stalked closer. As soon as Crow was on his feet and had pulled his gun out, the hitman ran at them at surprising speed for how gigantic he was, and they fell to the floor before Valkyrie could even scream.

She was shocked and felt the pain as Tesseract pressed his hand to her stomach and arm, tears filling her eyes. Still, she smiled as Crow pushed her arm off his own ribs that had nearly been turned to dust and there was the click of metal.

"Got you now," Crow growled. He'd snapped a shackle onto one of Tesseract's wrists. He couldn't kill them so easily now.

Still, Valkyrie knew she wasn't ready for a fight like this, and with her now broken arm, she didn't wait before crawling to the wall and catching her breath even as Crow began to fight for real. Her heart jumped for him, the fright of what this hitman could do to her adopted father nearly buckling her knees, but she growled and told herself to get a grip and pulled herself to her full height.

There was nothing she could do to help him win this one, but she could finish the rest of it for them.

How much more exciting! Things at this part in the story are about to get hectic, so please comment and tell me if it gets confusing and I'll try to write parts better or go over them so they're not confusing if that happens. I love your feedback! It gives me the motivation to keep getting through the difficult chapters.

TheBelowAverageAuthor: If you go on youtube and type in RoosterTeeth, a channel will come up with that name. Go on there, then playlist, and to RWBY Season 1. They have five seasons so far and its flipping good! Yang is in the first few chapters and you'll think Ruby is adorable, I hope you like it. It's the first successful American made Anime. Your comments are very sweet, I love waking up and seeing I have a review, I'm getting through the writer's block just a little more each day with your encouragement, it really does help me, so thank you :)