"Nuce?" Diamond asked into the dusty darkness and squeezed his hand. "Nuce!"

"I'm here," he whispered from right beside her.

"Are you alright?" She prodded as she tried to make him out in the dark. A sliver of light was peeking through a piece of rubble above their heads, which was, mainly, being carried by Diamond's shifted neck and scalp. It fell across his face, which looked tired but not all too frightened.

"I'm ok," Nuce replied, his voice slowly sounding clearer. "They're gone… the orders…"

"Beautiful," Diamond contently said. "Let's try to get out of here, then."

"Wait," he said quickly, and his eyes darted uncertainly.

"Don't worry," she said reassuringly, "I'll make sure nothing collapses…"

Nuce shook his head lightly. His curls made specks of stone come lose from the rubble and trickle onto the ground. "No, I think… I think Wells gave me one more, just now. He said… he said to attack Pleasant."

Diamond frowned worriedly. "What did he say, exactly? Attack or kill?"

"Hit," Nuce recalled. "He said, 'at least, hit Pleasant, when I'm done."

"Alright, that's good, then," she nodded. "Do you think I could undo the order?"

He shook his head.

Another nod. Not surprised. "So, here is what we do. We get out of here. Then we go outside and I will walk ahead. Once you see him, attack him as you would. I will make sure he doesn't get hurt."

Another headshake. "I don't know if…"

"It'll be fine," Diamond interrupted calmly. "Trust me, yeah?"

Nuce still seemed skeptical, but he nodded bravely.

She closed her eyes and expanded the transformation in her scalp over into the rest of the marble above them. As she had in the English Sanctuary, she picked out the immovable or instable parts of the rubble, transforming the right ones, leaving the movable parts free.

"On my mark, we push," she announced and carefully lifted her hands up, propping them against the boulder above them. Nuce did the same, getting ready, crouching lightly.

"One… two… three!"

They pushed up, teeth clenched, first gasping, then groaning under the weight. At first, it seemed to make no difference, as none of the pieces budged. But then, slowly, some cracks and bangs of moving rubble, and the clacks of falling debris and dust sounded, as the boulder let itself be stirred.

"Almost got it," Diamond forced out through her teeth. "One more. Push."

An angry growl came from Nuce and he pushed even harder and so did she and, finally, it lifted, daylight flooding into the building through the broken ceiling and then the gap they were in.

Panting breathlessly, they managed to lift it up high enough, to clear the other rubble, move it sideways, and slide it laboriously out of the way. When there was a large enough gap, Diamond braced one of Nuce's heels and helped him stick his torso though the gap, until he could pull himself out. Then, he turned quickly and held his hand to her to help her climb out.

They coughed out some of the dust, wiping off their faces and clothes, trying to catch their breath.

Then, Pleasant ran in.

Diamond heard herself gasp, as he rushed in through one of the doors that weren't destroyed or blocked by rubble.

"No!" She called at him and he halted abruptly.

She looked at Nuce, and Nuce looked at her and then, they both started running.

He ran straight at Pleasant, which meant he had to balance and jump over pieces of rubble, while Diamond took a detour. She sprinted off the pile of rubble and looped around it on steady ground.

Pleasant made a step backwards, looking back and forth between the two, trying to guess what was going to happen, trying to decide whether to run from Nuce, who was stumbling towards him at highspeed from the front, or to turn to Diamond, who was coming straight at him from the side.

"Hold on!" She yelled at him.

Pleasant quickly made a decision and reached out his gloved hand for her. Nuce was now steps away. His hands were up already, his elbows extended to the side to hold his balance.

Diamond held out her own arm now, practically jumping the last meters, trying to somehow out-speed Nuce, but was already running out of air.

Nuce's hands extended apart, building momentum. Only two steps away from Pleasant.

Diamond threw herself forward and their hands met, colliding and grabbing each other. Nuce clapped and before she even came to a standstill, she shapeshifted.

Even though Diamond had shifted different creatures before, including a cat, and even a vampire; none of those had been quite as much of an experience, as transforming a living skeleton. Pleasant's body itself was, of course, the easiest she had ever shifted in her life. The fabrics of his clothes and the bones crystalized in no time, moving her directly on to the magic that kept him moving and thinking.

And that was where the trippy part started. She shifted the magic she had never been in contact before, or maybe a purer version of all the magics before. It was clean and unidentifiable, and sent her flying on straight to his discipline. It led her over to his elemental magic and she carefully attached herself to the connection between his magic and the connection to the source that provided it, shifting all of it.

Of course, Diamond did not need to actually do that, unless she was trying to protect him from an attack by a Sensitive, or maybe a Leech but, unfortunately, this was how her discipline seemed to work. It was an all-inclusive package.

All of this was happening within the second of Nuce clapping his hands onto another. There was a lot of elemental magic, a lot to turn, 450 years worth of energy, and yet, it took her no more than a second. And Diamond believed, she had finally made her way through the complex system, when the elemental magic moved her on to a third magical energy.

Necromancy.

If her face could move, Diamond would have frowned. But, as was standard practice, she shifted that energy too. And while she transformed it, she was pulled on further and further, finding more, and more, and more death magic.

Their crystal bodies vibrated now, under the impact of Nuce's explosion. She couldn't see it, but she could tell the detonation was at its strongest point; directly hitting them, now.

It did not seem to end. Seemed to just drag her on down, down, down. More death, more death, never-ending death.

The explosion seized, the pressure rushed past their frozen bodies, the flames blew out into other directions and dampened.

Diamond was not finished shifting Pleasant's magic yet and, at this point, she did not believe she ever could. So, she quit hunting down the unbelievably endless amounts of Necromancy and retracted. She detached herself from his magic, undid the shift on their on her skin and flesh, on both their sets of bones and their clothes and then they were flesh and… bone, again.

Diamond let go of his arm and gasped for air. Yet she had to take a couple of steps to walk out the leap, which she had paused herself in mid-way.

Nuce's hands dropped, the expression on his face first looked like relief, before it went slack, his eyes rolled back, and he crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

Pleasant was still standing in the same spot, in the same insecure posture, frozen, even though he was no longer shifted. He seemed to be staring at her.

Diamond gulped in deep breaths of air, bending over to prop her hands up on her knees. "Bloody… hell…" was all that she could get out.

No, she realized, that had not been Necromancy. That had just been death. A living skeleton; half dead. Of course, there would be death magic.

"What… did you just do to me?" Pleasant asked, his voice blank with shock.

"I…" Diamond panted, bending over to prop her hands up on her knees. The lack of oxygen was making her thoughts fuzzy. "I… changed you."

He stood there, frozen, for another moment, but then seemed to understand what happened and stood normally, relaxing his posture slightly. "You can shift other people," he said, his voice still blank.

"And things," she panted and then took a slow, calming breath. "Sorry, didn't mean to shock you. There wasn't really the time for a safety briefing."

When her brain was less oxygen deprived, she nodded to herself and straightened up. Diamond had come in contact with Necromancy plenty of times. So, naturally, she would assume that was what it had been. But now that her thoughts went at a regular pace again, Diamond decided that what she had found, had been, in fact, death. Just good'ol regular death.

Odd day.

"Are you alright, love?" She asked Pleasant, who was standing normally now, but still observed her.

That seemed to shake him out of it, because he nodded and turned around to Nuce, who was still passed out on the ground. "I'm fine," Pleasant replied and crouched down to pick him up and put him over his shoulders.
He got up, and Diamond followed, as he carried the young adept out of the destroyed Sanctuary hall, through the door, and into a hallway, which led them towards the exit.

As they walked, Diamond gave a quick summary of what had occurred earlier and Wells' final order to attack Pleasant.

"Did you get a confession out of him?" He asked, when she was done.

"Of course," Diamond said cheerfully, picking a piece of rubble from her hair and then reaching for her blouse. She tugged the fabric around her waist out of the band of her pants and undid the Velcro that was holding the slim mini-recorder against her back.

Pleasant held out a free hand for it, but she pulled it out of his reach until he dropped his arm again. She fished around on the cable that connected to the microphone and stuck the connected earpiece into her ear. Relistening to the conversation she had just had, she scrolled on the recorder, until the name came up for the first time. Luminous.

Diamond paused the tape and went into the simple editing tool on the small screen that allowed her cut away the ending that included the fatal word, twice. Finally, she pulled at the cable, until the earpiece popped out and then handed the recorder to Pleasant.

"Thank you," he said courteously and pocketed it.

"Oh, a pleasure. I do admit, it was fun; playing the interrogation game."

Pleasant adjusted Nuce over his shoulder. "Are you discovering your passion for detective work?" He asked bemusedly.

"Heh," Diamond chuckled. "Not really. I'm not one for attack strategies, to be honest."

"Then, if you would have been in charge, what would you have done?" He challenged, a smirk in his voice.

She smiled back at him. "I would have put Skulduggery Pleasant in charge."

He tilted his skull in her direction and spoke with a smooth voice that had a hint of cockiness in it. "Well, that isn't an entirely fair answer to my question, is it?"

"Well, I didn't say anything about playing fair, did I?" Diamond replied in the same brazen tone.

They exchanged another smirk, or rather; she did, and he looked in her direction, but either way, their gazes were moved forward, when Valkyrie's voice echoed and bounced off the high ceilings of the Sanctuary hallway.

"Please, tell me he's alive," she said to them as she approached.

"That depends on who you are talking about," Pleasant replied.

Valkyrie did not press for any more information but exhaled a breath of relief and met them halfway, turning herself around to feel Nuce's pulse on his wrist, which that was dangling limply off Pleasant's shoulder.

"He's pretty exhausted," Diamond said sympathetically, "but nothing some sleep and a mud bath couldn't fix."

"He also tried to blow me up," Pleasant commented.

"What?" Valkyrie frowned. "Did Wells tell him to?"

"Ah, yes. It was his dying wish, apparently."

Diamond sighed tragically. "It is unfortunate that he had to die. I would have much rather see him sit in prison; that seemed to really lift his spirits."

"Yeah, here is an idea," Valkyrie said ironically. "We just release him every twenty years until we find out all of the names he knows."

"That is a terrible idea," Pleasant assessed.

She ignored him. "Did either of you hear Nuce's name?"

"I did," Diamond said. "And I know that there is no way that I can prove this, but it's safe with me."

"No, the ceiling collapsed, as a result of the pillars collapsing," he clarified.

"Ugh," Valkyrie made and scratched out the last sentence in her notebook with her pencil. There were a lot of scribbles and crosses in it. She blamed Skulduggery. "Alright, ok, so, the pillars caved, a piece of the ceiling collapsed…"

"A large piece."

"A large piece," she repeated through her teeth. "And it… crushed him?" She frowned.

Skulduggery steered the Bentley around a corner. They were driving on a road that lead through a dark wheat field. Only the headlights showed the way, and the darkness made every corner look like the last, and the one before that. "It squished him?" He suggested.

"I can't write 'he was squished by rubble' into an incident report," Valkyrie shot in his direction as she continued scribbling in her notebook.

"Why not? What if that's the case? What if he was squeezed by octopus' arms? Then, which other word could you possibly use other than 'squished'?"

She frowned at the page. "How did we get to octopi?"

"They're squishy."

Valkyrie sighed at him. "Could we focus? I want to get this done before the end of the night. I want to go out."

Skulduggery's jaw opened.

"Alone," she added.

His jaw closed. Then, opened again. "What are you going to do?"

She shrugged. "I don't know… watch a movie. Eat out. Go to a bar and talk to cute guys?"

"Is that a question?"

She blinked at him. "What is?"

"You said; 'watch a movie. Eat out. Go to a bar and talk to cute… guys?' With a question mark?"

She stared at him.

"So, are you telling me or are you asking me?"

"I will punch you."

Skulduggery leaned his skull sideways in her direction, without taking his sights off the road. "Or will you… punch me?"

"I will punch you while you're driving. I will make you crash the Bentley."

He inhaled with afflicted scandal. "You wouldn't dare."

"I would. And I will. No,w tell me what happened after that, so I can finish this before we get to my house."

"You mean Gordon's house."

Her eyes stayed resolute. "Talk."

Skulduggery glanced at her briefly. "When did this become an interrogation?"

"Talk."

He sighed dramatically. "Irie and Evans were hit as well, but survived due to her magical sparkly magic…"

"That's magic, twice."

"No, one is the adjective 'magical', also describing things such as wonderous and the second is the noun 'magic', aka. the ability to use magic."

Valkyrie glared at him. "I hate you."

"There, there," Skulduggery thought of to say.

"And on?" She pressed irritably.

"They survived and, like two fabulous mules, emerged from the collateral rubble…"

"This is a report, not a sonnet, Skulduggery."

"Your notebook is neither."

Valkyrie pouted at him; head tipped far sideways. "Can we please speed this up?"

"Fine." He sighed. "Wells gave Evans the order to attack me, if he died. Irie and Evans raced to me, she shapeshifted me, and Evans triggered a detonation, from which we were both then protected. Simple enough?"

She relaxed her expression and mustered him, lowering the pencil. "What was that like? Being shapeshifted?"

"Odd."

"Odd," she repeated.

"Yes. Odd."

"Anything else you have to say about that?"

"No."

Valkyrie sighed. "Fine. Be that way."

"Nuce passed out."

She frowned again. "Sorry?"

"That's the end of the incident for your incidental report. Evans lost consciousness and we carried him out. Irie erased any mention of his True Name off the tape and left the confession on it."

A raised eyebrow accompanied surprisedly puckered lips. "Oh, yeah?"

"Yes, but what we have on the tape is enough to close the file. It's actually quite good, you should have a listen."

"I'm good, thanks."

"But now they will have to deal with the relatives of all of the English Sanctuary employees that got killed, as a result of the actions of both the English and the Irish Sanctuary that led to the radicalisation of Haugert Wells."

"'They', being China and Sway Penn?"

"Exactly. Grand Mage Penn already confessed his compassion and love for Nuce Evans. That being, he doesn't blame him with his words, but he does so saliently with the hollow spaces in between."

"Aren't you a poet tonight," Valkyrie commented skeptically.

"Oh. I. Apologize." Skulduggery said in a monotone robot voice. "Only facts. From now on."

She nodded impressively. "Is there an off-button?"

"No, but there is a car door and a street."

And it went on like that for a while. Valkyrie did not even realize how good it felt to just ramble on inconsequentially and jab and poke around, until she closed the Bentley door shut with vigor and took a breath of fresh air on her driveway.

Valkyrie watched the Bentley turn and drive away and let the welcome heaviness glue her feet to the ground for a while. She could have stayed like that for an eternity but was interrupted by Xena, who excitedly bounded from somewhere in the garden, presumably one of her dog houses.

The German Shepperd jumped her, as if she hadn't seen her owner for years, and Valkyrie snickered and stumbled sideways to find her balance again.

"Hey, girl," she said and held on to one dog leg, while scratching her behind the ears. "Get it out now, while I'm in work clothes."

Xena panted happily and proceeded to get mud all over her jacket.

"Hey, Nuce."

"Hi, Diamond," he said.

She grinned at him. "Nice to meet you."

Nuce snorted and sat up straighter in the hospital bed. She settled on the edge of it and mustered him. His hands were thickly bandaged, soaking in healing mud and, while the rest of his body was largely unharmed, he looked tired and worn. There was a little bag sitting on the ground next to the bed and he was wearing a clean, black t-shirt, which made her assume that his friend had already come by for a visit.

"Nice to actually talk like a human being," Nuce replied, more upbeat than his appearance would suggest.

"That is usually an advantage, I'd say," Diamond agreed bemusedly.

"Definitely."

She gave him another quick once-over as she settled some of her amusement. "How are you doing?"

Nuce blew into his cheeks and then shrugged. "Pretty exhausted. But otherwise, not bad. This is pretty helpful," he raised up his bandaged hands demonstratively.

"Good. What do you remember from the last couple of days?"

"Oh, everything," he said casually. "I mean, some of it is blurry. It all feels very surreal, already. But generally, I know what went down."

Diamond sighed and gave him an empathetic look. "I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing."

Nuce gave an amused noise. "Me neither."

They mustered each other with smiles, then she let her gaze wander over the empty room around them; just the bed and beside table and the usual sanitary equipment. The room smelled sterile and looked about empty, apart from the cleaning supplies that waited to be used to remove Nuce's bandages.

Eventually, Nuce mustered her. There was scepticism in his eyes, now. "So... just to be clear. You know my True Name, right? So, what are you... going to do with it?"

Diamond sighed uneasily.

Nuce showed his bandaged palms. "Not that I'm suggesting anything but... you're technically, sort of... my master now."

"Oh, dear God," She said disgustedly.

He made an equally uneasy face.

She took a deep breath. "No," Diamond said before exhaling it. "I'm no ones' master. That's the worst thing I've ever heard."

"Well, at least, I win at something..." Nuce muttered.

"Look," she said honestly, "you're right, me knowing your name gives me responsibility. And I intend to take that seriously. But you should know that I was aware of that, the moment I picked you up and snook past the Sanctuary employees to my house."

Nuce sighed. "So, I'm in your debt."

"Stop guessing my intentions, please," she asked gently.

"Oh," he made surprisedly. "Sorry."

"My intention is to keep an eye on you," Diamond summarized. "Currently, I'm the only one that can stop you, should someone else use your name. But I don't know how I want to go about this yet. You're going to have to give me some time to think about it."

Nuce nodded slowly. Suddenly, for a moment, he looked like he was about to cry. But he kept nodding, and then just said, "cool."

Diamond sniffed a smile. "So, what are you going to do, now?"

He shrugged. "Not sure, to be honest."

She laid her head sideways, mustering him acquisitively. "How so?"

"I don't really know where to go from here, you know?" Nuce said unsurely. "I mean, sure. Go home. I'll be glad to sleep in my own bed. Just… what about afterwards?"

She nodded to him. "Don't you have a job to get back to?"

Another shrug. "Kinda'… I'm just a pizza delivery guy. Nothing exciting."

Diamond frowned lightly. "Did you never get training, or go to college, or something?"

He sighed heavily, not looking happy with the breach of topic, but not like he was annoyed at her for asking, either. "Not really… I moved out from home, when I was nineteen. Contact to my parents is… tricky. So, I've just been keeping myself afloat, really."

She mustered him carefully, trying to decide whether to go the polite way, or to follow her curiosity. Since his demeaner didn't seem all too defensive, she decided for the latter. "What's up with you and your parents?"

Nuce groaned at the question, leaning his head back against the wall behind the bed.

She made an uncomfortable face. "You don't have to answer that."

"No, it's fine." He waved. "It's just not my proudest of stories…"

Diamond turned further towards him, leaning one knee on the mattress. "I have a couple of those, myself."

Nuce sniffed, then shrugged once again. "It's not very complicated, really. My parents are both Elementals. My childhood was, pretty much, as standard as you can imagine. But then, I had my Surge and became a literal bomb and… I don't know, I guess, my parents just didn't know what to do with me. They became so… careful, you know? Touching me with silk gloves kind of thing."

She nodded along, listening quietly.

"And then, one day, we were training, and I detonated too early, and my mom's hand got caught in the explosion."

Diamond blinked. "Goodness."

Nuce sniffed again, this time scornfully. "Yeah, you're telling me. Blew off three fingers."

She shook her head and sat cross-legged, unconventionally placing her shoes on the bed. "I'm sorry to hear that."

"Hm," he made, sort of nonchalantly. "She doesn't blame for it. But… the way she looked at me, from then on? Almost like she… felt sorry for me? I just couldn't stick around."

Diamond nodded. "That's understandable. Sounds like they were overwhelmed with the task."

"Yeah, probably." He gave a little sigh. "They haven't exactly tried to keep me around, either."

She frowned lightly. "Haven't they tried to contact you, yet?"

Nuce sniffed and shrugged again, looking down at his legs, looking sad for a moment. "Nah," he said and looked back at her. "But that's fine. I had four pros helicoptering me."

Diamond could not help but snort at that.

"Thank you, by the way," he said honestly.

She gave him a full smile. "Of course." Then she sighed off the heaviness of the topic. "I'm not in contact with my parents either. I know it makes things feel off… out-of-the-ordinary where it shouldn't be. But I guarantee you, a problematic relationship with your parents is probably one of the most normal things you could have."

He smirked lightly and looked at his hands for a moment, before nodding. "Yeah, you're probably right."

Her gaze fell back onto the bag with clothes that was sitting by his bed. She did not feel comfortable leaving him alone here. Even if his name had not become public, there was now a higher chance of someone finding it out. Besides, who wanted to work through trauma like this on their own?

"Is there anyone else that can help you get back on your feet? Any place you can stay, other than your flat?" She asked therefore.

Nuce's eyes followed hers to the bag. "I have a mate, yeah. He's already offered letting me stay at his place for a while."

She mustered him carefully, wondering if it was worth destroying the first stable relationship he mentioned, over this, but she couldn't help but ask. "This mate… Is that the same guy that called us?"

He nodded positively.

"Do you know him well?"

"Oh, yeah."

"Nuce…" Diamond started uncomfortably, unable to decide how to ask the question, as much as whether to ask it in the first place. "Do you know that…" She paused unsurely. "He works for the Irish Sanctuary, right?"

"Do I know that he's a spy?" Nuce suggested amusedly.

Diamond paused and then exhaled at the sudden loss of tension and insecurity. "Yeah…"

He barked a light laugh. "Yeah, I know. I also know that we met, because someone sent him to make sure I'm a friendly bomb."

The choice of words and relief made her grin. "Alright, good. But you became friends afterwards?"

"Yep," Nuce said. "We went for a beer or two. He liked me, so told me the truth and we started hanging out as friends after that… became besties… that was about three years ago."

She nodded contently along. "I think that's one of the best friend stories I've heard."

He grinned. "Right after the one of a girl meeting a skeleton?"

Diamond barked a surprised laugh. "Yeah, that one's still a one-up, I would say."

"Do you think…" He hesitated, looking down at his own legs again.

"Think what?" She probed casually.

"Do you think I blew it? With the other two? I wasn't very nice…"

"Pleasant and Cain?" Diamond probed, sniffing half bemused, half disbelieving. "Oh, no, love, don't worry about that. Those two have heard much worse. You were distressed, and he purposefully poked the bear. I doubt there is any bad blood."

"Yeah…" he muttered, not seeming too convinced, or maybe not too comfortable, still. "Probably true…"

"Hey," Diamond said encouragingly and started rummaging around for her phone. "How about we exchange phone numbers?"

"Uhm, sure..." Nuce fished his phone from the bedside table, and she entered her number into it, A couple of seconds later, she received a text message that simply said hi.

As Diamond finally felt less guilty and concerned about leaving him here, she pocketed her phone and got up. "I'm going to wash the dust out of my hair," she announced and headed for the door, but not without raising her hand to a final greeting. "Good luck, Nuce."

"Thanks, Diamond."

She threw Nuce a last smile before heading out. It was time to go home and enjoy the end of a long work day.