They all reconvened at Diamond's Roarhaven townhouse the next day, sometime in the afternoon. Nuke and Dexter had accompanied her here from England, and Tanith was sticking around too.

There'd been several other monster-attacks yesterday, not every neighborhood had been so lucky to have a Dead Man protecting its residents. Thus, their little crew was overdue for a crisis meeting, and they all waited in anticipation for the results of the monster autopsies.

As she waited, Valkyrie checked her phone. She found a couple of messages and missed calls, as she wandered out of the kitchen and to the privacy of Diamond's cozy living room.

As though Valkyrie had sent out a signal to the universe that she was currently available, her phone began to buzz inside her hand. The screen switched over to indicate an incoming call.

She surprisedly blinked at the name on her screen. Alex.

Valkyrie hesitated for a moment, then she picked up with a tense movement. "Hey, what's up?"

"Hey, just checking in," Alex's voice asked, somewhere between casualness and concern, "I heard about the monster attacks. Is everybody okay?"

Valkyrie blinked as she realized, this call wasn't surprising. In fact, if anything, she was the one acting weird. "Yeah," she quickly informed them, "yes! Everyone's fine. We even managed to collect some monster bodies; the autopsy results should come in any moment now."

"Wonderful..." Alex relievedly sighed.

"Nuke held off an entire horde on his own until Dexter got there," she meaningfully mentioned as her anxiety somewhat settled.

"Ooh," they approved, "good on him!"

Valkyrie sighed as a nagging guilty feeling was awoken in her gut. "I'm sorry that I didn't call..." she sincerely apologized with growing frustration at herself. "I always do this. I get caught up in work, and then I forget to contact the most important people about the most basic things..."

Alex softly snorted. "Are you kidding? Of course you do! Do I ever call you while I'm away for work?"

She faltered in her self-deprecation. "I guess not. You send me the occasional text message, maybe... Usually to announce your visits."

"Right, so don't worry about it, okay? Just let me know if you want any help. I can't join you out there, but I still have my phone. I can get you intel, contacts... whatever you need."

Valkyrie breathed off the tension that had suddenly built up in her, as it faded away just as suddenly. "Sure, yeah. Thanks."

A moment of quiet developed in the phone line, and she found herself worrying again, about the state of things between them. Yet, she had a feeling that Alex was preparing an important statement for her, and she curiously waited to hear it.

"Look, uhh..." Alex uncomfortably addressed, and some of the tension instantly returned to their exchange. "You don't have time for a big relationship talk right now, so I'll make this quick. I want to make sure that you didn't take what happened last time... personally."

"I mean... I guess that depends on which part you're referring to, exactly..." Valkyrie hesitantly deflected.

"Right," Alex sharply exhaled with an air of frustration.

"Why don't you... fill in some gaps?" she suggested while echoeing the vaguely annoyed notion. "Because I'm still not entirely clear on what happened there."

"Sure... Here's the thing," he complied, growing more steadfast as he went on. "For situationships, for casual flings, I can run the usual gauntlet. I take a full week to recover, I tiptoe around the meds, and I pretend like my leg doesn't randomly hurt at the most inconvenient of times. It works out fine for a while, and if I want to whine about it, I'll go talk to one of my friends."

Valkyrie sniffed both awkwardly and sympathetically. "Right."

"But at this point..." Alex sharply sighed, and she could invision the helpless shrug that followed. "I'm not just running the gauntlet anymore... I feel like I should avoid you, whenever things aren't all sunshine and rainbows. That's not a direction I want this to go in."

She pulled up her shoulders, feeling growingly nervous about where this conversation was going. "Yeah, neither do I..." she said, partly in agreement, partly to keep him talking.

"I want us to be able to be... not okay, sometimes," Alex openly admitted. "You need to be aware that this - the meds, the withdrawal symptoms... It's what I deal with, every single day. It's not going anywhere anytime soon; my leg won't regrow itself, and the Callus won't un-grow itself. It sucks, but I handle it," they confidently concluded. "So, if you really want us to get more serious, then... I need to know that you can handle it, too."

Valkyrie blinked in surprise at the blunt little speech, as well as the simplicity of its determining question. For days now, she'd been wracking her brain over this, and suddenly it was so very clear and straightforward.

Alex probably thought of her silence as a bad sign. "For the record, I wouldn't blame you if you don't want to deal with it. But last week was a joke, compared to what Nuke deals with on a regular basis. So if that freaked you out, then... This would probably be a good place for us to stop."

Valkyrie felt a pang of dread and hurt at the final statement, she found her mind racing for something to negate it. Yet, she wanted to be honest - with both him and herself - and seriously consider his question.

"Just answer me this;" she then asked, "do you ever become... Dangerous?"

Unfortunately, she heard Alex hesitate. "Well, umm... That depends..."

Valkyrie waved the unspoken notion away. "I've seen you as Nobody; I can imagine how your magic might get out of hand. I don't mean that, I mean you - Alex. Next time you get one of these... symptoms; should I be concerned for my safety?"

"No," they replied with certainty and without any hesitation this time. "I don't become violent, if that's what you mean."

Valkyrie sagged with relief. "Okay, good," she sighed, "because I don't think I could handle having another one of those around..."

Alex sounded like he was unsure whether he was allowed to laugh about that. "Is that a yes?"

"In that case... Yeah," Valkyrie replied. She ensured to do this with some nonchalance, as well as some flirtation. "Pretty sure I can handle it. How about you, Alex...? Can you handle me?"

This time, he barked a sincere laugh. Then he adapted her vaguely flirting tone with a wondrous, almost breathless voice. "Oh, Val... I'd never even dare to try. You blowing me away makes up the highlights of my life."

To her own surprise, Valkyrie found herself severely blushing at that. She giggled a bit too coyly for her own liking.

Alex hummed thoughtfully and with an air of sadness before speaking again. "You know, I really miss you in times like these."

"Yeah," she agreed, a softly bitter laugh getting caught in her throat, "I can relate."

The way he sniffed in response painted her a picture of his remorseful smile. "Yeah... It's weird though, isn't it?" His voice lightened like he was shaking off the weight of his thoughts. "I can't believe how quickly we settled into this... whatever this is."

"Yeah," she agreed with a snicker, "it happened almost too naturally. Like it shouldn't work, but somehow it does."

"Doesn't it?" Alex chuckled. "According to Nuke, it's because we both have a major screw loose."

She paused, lips twitching upward. "Sounds about right."

"Anyway, I've kept you for long enough." Their tone grew more cautious as they reached farewell. "Just... Don't be a stranger, okay? I know you're busy with what's going on out there, but in the meantime, I'm going a little stir-crazy just sitting on my hands all day, so... The occasional text message would be appreciated?"

She smiled, "I'm sure that can be arranged."

"Perfect," Alex said and, as they sighed this time, she could hear the remaining tension fade away completely. "Be careful out there, and, umm... Keep an eye on Nuke for me, will you?"

Valkyrie responsibly nodded. "Always."

"See you soon-ish?"

Her smile grew warmer and more relaxed by the second. "Sooner rather than later."

She lingered for a moment after the call had ended, staring at the blank screen. The world outside was spinning faster and faster. For a brief moment, though, she felt... steady. Whatever "this" was with Alex, it wasn't easy, but it mattered.

Then, with a deep breath, Valkyrie put her phone away. The sense of vindication put a little bounce in her step, as she walked to the kitchen to join the others.

Tanith, Nuke, and Dexter were casually standing around and chatting about one thing or another. Skulduggery was standing close to the door where he had a good view over everyone, and listened to what they were saying. Yet, his gaze was mostly fixed on Diamond, as she played around with a gas burner.

Diamond had sat down on one of the tall chairs by her kitchen island, at a safe distance from everyone else. In one hand she held a Bunsen burner, her other hand was hovering above the nozzle.

The room was filled with the click of the burner's trigger, followed by the hissing sound of sharp flames harshly escaping the nozzle; click-whoosh.

And with each click-whoosh, a sparkle of crystal magic trickled down from the palm of her hand. It didn't exactly affect the makeup of the flame; it rather seemed like Diamond was creating little shields. Each time she pulled the trigger, a slim layer of diamond seemed to be spreading over the heat pocket that preceded the flames. When the shield eventually popped and disappeared, she let the trigger go and pulled it again.

Vex was just in the middle of telling a story, or maybe he was just about to finish it. The sound of the Bunsen burner was obviously distracting him, and Diamond managed to pull the trigger right in time to ruin his punchline.

"And then, he said..." Click-whoosh.

Everyone laughed, but not at his joke, but at Diamond's well-timed interruption. Dexter glowered and paused, clearly waiting for the laughter to die down. His scowl deepened as Diamond clicked the burner again for emphasis. Click-whoosh.

"Dye?" he finally said. "Do you need to be doing that, right this second?"

Diamond surprisedly looked up, and she clearly had been lost in focus on her curious practice session. Her eyes locked onto Dexter's annoyed face, then her gaze briefly flickered in Nuke's direction. When she was looking at Dexter again, she shrugged.

"Yes." Diamond simply replied and went back to playing with her gas burner. Click-whoosh.

Dexter sighed and glanced around in the room for some sort of affirmation. No one seemed inclined to give it to him, as they were busy holding back their chuckles.

His sights landed on Valkyrie, quietly standing in the doorway. "Ah, there you are," he realized. "Does that mean we're complete?"

"Looks like it," she confirmed and remained standing there.

Diamond clicked the burner again, and the click-whoosh punctuated the room's fading laughter.

Dexter sighed, clearly exasperated as he gestured at Skulduggery. "Alright, enough games. Skulduggery, I believe now would be a good time to give us all that you've figured out so far, about what's going on here."

Skulduggery, unbothered by the interruption, nodded curtly. "There seem to be two main puzzle pieces that frame these attacks. There is the sensitive aspect; the magic used on our witnesses to confuse them and make them forget vital information. It seems, there is some type of lock on their memories, which can only barely be bypassed by confusing them even more."

Tanith agreeably nodded. "Which is what we did yesterday."

"Precisely," he acknowledged and then continued unwaveringly. "We believe this is designed to make sure the witness can't recall information whenever they actively try to."

"The point is probably to make sure we can't ask them questions about it," Valkyrie glumly elaborated. "It's quite literally an investigators-block."

Click-whoosh, Diamond commented.

"There are also curious sensitive channels of communication, which our enemy seems to have established in our territory," Skulduggery continued and his discomfort at this point was evident. "Our sensitives can't access them, but we can almost be certain that the perpetrators are using them to coordinate these attacks from afar."

"And they're probably also the ones telling the monsters what to do, possibly via the same channels," Valkyrie concluded.

"Diamond spotted a shady figure watching us yesterday," he mentioned, and she confirmed this with another well-timed click-whoosh. "It seems that one of the sensitives is out in the field during the attacks, but they have a way to escape quickly - teleporters, portals, necromancers...? Your guess is as good as mine. In any case, the monsters most certainly aren't erasing any memories themselves."

"And the monsters hide in the manholes?" Tanith guessed, based on the disembodied hand they had found yesterday.

"Yes, it seems the monsters are distributed inside the sewerage system beneath the affected zones," Skulduggery elaborated. "They're attracted by the smell of cooked meat, to which they will then flock, crawl from the manholes and - whilst everyone is distracted - pull their victims into the sewers."

"They only like cooked meat, though," Valkyrie importantly added, "like, all the way well-done." She received a couple curious and bemused glances in response.

"So, umm... What are they?" Nuke asked, "what type of monster are we even dealing with?"

Skulduggery sharply sighed in a way that told Valkyrie, he was already frustrated with his own response. "I don't know, because... They don't exist."

Everyone frowned at him, bewildered.

"Sorry, what?" Tanith pressed in the name of everyone, "what do you mean, 'they don't exist'?"

"Well, they certainly do exist, as we can clearly see," Skulduggery meaningfully clarified. "However, I've looked at every database and ancient tome I could think of, I've scoured my every memory, I've talked to any and all experts that I could reach..." He helplessly shrugged. "No one has ever heard of this monster. Which can only mean one thing..."

"...It's brand new." Dexter murmured in conclusion.

Everyone looked at each other with growing weariness, dread, and intrigue. A moment of silence passed, only filled by the click-whoosh of Diamond's magical exercise.

"Yes, someone has created a brand new race of monster, likely made from humans," Skulduggery coolly confirmed. "Which also means that we still have no idea which type of magic is responsible, at least not until we have the autopsy results."

Diamond paused and set her Bunsen burner aside on the counter of the kitchen island. She reached into a pants' pocket, contorting a bit to reach it, and pulled out her cellphone. It was lighting up to indicate an incoming call.

"Speak of the devil," Diamond cheerfully said and picked up. "Hey, Ninja. Got the autopsy results for me?"

Everyone else went silent, in order to let her focus on the phonecall. Whatever Ninja said on the other side seemed to be some kind of confirmation, because Diamond visibly grew curious in response.

"So?" she pressed, conveying everybody's growing anticipation, "which type of magic are we dealing with?"

This time around, what Ninja said didn't seem to cheer Diamond up, even in the slightest. Her face dropped and then contorted to a look of concern. Her eyes attached themselves to Skulduggery as she listened.

"How ancient?" Diamond tensely asked.

Ninja replied something, to which she sharply exhaled and sagged.

"One moment," she said and briefly took her phone down to pass on the word. "She says this magic is at least as ancient as planet Earth. There is no way that human magic could cause such a transformation. Not without... help."

Skulduggery's chin virtually lulled to his chest, as he groaned in dismay. He pushed one of his hands down on his fedora and stopped moving for a moment.

"What does that mean?" Nuke worriedly asked.

"That means..." Valkyrie sighed heavily, as the dread was already crashing up and down her in waves. "There are probably Gods involved."

"Gods?!" Nuke echoed in shock. "You're kidding!"

Diamond exhaled and returned her phone to her ear. "Go on, love."

Ninja's muffled voice quietly explained something else. By the way that she paused as she spoke, Valkyrie could tell that the next piece of news would be just as harrowing as the last.

In confirmation to this, Diamond let out a whimpering sound of despair. Now she was the one to bring her hand up and cover up her face. Everyone worriedly waited to hear what she had heard.

"Thanks, love... Send me the files if you would..." she mumbled into her hand. Then, she hung up and put her phone away, all before removing her hand from her face.

Diamond sharply sighed again as she met everyone's expectant gazes, and momentarily prepared to tell them what Ninja had just revealed to her.

"It's as we've feared," Diamond somberly said, and her eyes eventually locked with Valkyrie's. "They've identified some of the bodies. One of them was... Lirienne Shoal."

Valkyrie made a squeaky sound, quite alike the one Diamond had made. "Oh, no..." she whimpered and looked at Skulduggery.

He was still standing there, skull hanging low, hand pushing down his hat, unresponsive and unmoving. The other three looked keen to find out more, but everyone apprehensively waited for his verdict.

Meanwhile, Valkyrie imagined, she felt quite similar to him. Her mind was racing for panic, her gut was churning for anguish... And yet, she felt so very empty and numb.

Diamond was the one to eventually speak up, if carefully so. "Skulduggery?"

Skulduggery pulled his hand down, along to what sounded like a sharp nasal inhale. When he finally straightened, he seemed calm, but Valkyrie noticed a faint tremor in his movements. He looked at everyone, slowly, the seriousness edged into each glance.

"Are we all clear on what that means?" he asked, his voice a low rumble.

Nuke, Tanith, and Dexter wearily glanced at each other.

"Not entirely...?" Tanith meekly admitted.

"Lirienne Shoal was one of the victims that were abducted by the monsters," he slowly explained.

"Wait..." Tanith said, her voice now barely a squeak. She kept glancing at Nuke and Dexter, as if in hoping that they were coming to a different conclusion. Yet, the two men only mirrored her looks of horror. "Are you saying... They're making those monsters... from the bodies of the abduction victims...?"

"Yeah," Valkyrie said, and her voice cracked as her throat shut. She forced herself to keep going. "One monster makes two monsters... Two monsters make four monsters... Four monsters make eight... By now, there must be hundreds of them."

"Exponential growth," Skulduggery summarized, and his voice continued to have that low, deliberate and borderline absent-minded tone. "Our enemy is building an army, made up of our own people."

Silence dropped. This one was perfect and horrifying. No one knew what to say, or dared to say it.

Valkyrie couldn't believe it. They were being overrun by horrible monster armies, once again. They were going to war, once again. They were battling Gods, once again.

And yet, she felt numb. So very, very numb. The world was ending and, deep down, Valkyrie wasn't sure... She wasn't sure if she would have the strength to save it, this time around.

A terrible feeling in her gut and a side-glance in his direction told her; as much as neither of them would ever say this out loud... Valkyrie wasn't sure if Skulduggery had the strength, either.

She didn't know for how long they sat there in stunned silence, as the weight of the revelation hung thick in the air. Only Diamond seemed unable to sit still, her foot tapping impatiently against the floor, her jaw clenched.

"Alright, that's it!" Diamond cuttingly said and stood up at once. "I've had it."

Everyone's heads snapped around to look at her; surprised at the sudden shift in her demeanor, as well as a little stunned by how sharply her voice had cut through the silence. They all watched her walk around the kitchen island and waited to hear the rest of her announcement.

"This is getting utterly ridiculous!" Diamond frustratedly declared and grabbed her handbag from the kitchen counter. "There must be someone out there, who knows something!"

She whooshed past everyone with an unusually stoic look on her face. Along the way, she curtly signaled for Nuke to follow her.

Nuke looked just as confused as the rest of them, and he gave a clueless and apologetic shrug in response to everyone's questioning glances.

"Excuse me, Valkyrie," Diamond mumbled as she pushed past her and walked into the entrance area.

"Where are you going?" Valkyrie asked.

"As I said, someone must know something. So, I'm going to find out something. Anything..." Diamond vaguely answered as she slipped into her shoes. She impatiently glanced around for her partner. "Nuke?"

"Coming!" Nuke's voice responded and, a moment later, he squeezed past Valkyrie and joined her in the hallway.

"Don't forget to lock up when you leave!" Diamond called in Skulduggery's direction.

Then, she wasted no more time to rush outside, and Nuke followed suit. The door fell shut behind them, and Valkyrie dazedly stared at it for a moment. When she turned she found the others looking similarly baffled.

"What was that?" Tanith asked, glancing at Skulduggery and Dexter for an explanation.

Both men shrugged in response. Skulduggery looked like he truly didn't know why Diamond had left so abruptly; let alone without properly saying goodbye to him.

But then, Dexter said, "no idea."

And something about the way he said it told Valkyrie; he was lying.

They sat in silence for another moment. Eventually, Skulduggery struck a more casual topic, and the conversation slowly became more positive. They hypothesized a bit more about the autopsies, and tried to think of ways to track down the monsters.

After a couple minutes of this, Tanith eventually turned to Valkyrie with a bright smile.

"Hey Val, wanna go next door and catch up?" she asked and energetically offered up an arm.

Valkyrie's first instinct was to be surprised. They had just recently sat down to catch up; in fact, they had talked for several hours straight that day. Then, she considered the possibility that Tanith wasn't just asking for a casual chat.

"Sure!" Valkyrie smiled and walked closer, and they hooked in their elbows.

They left the two men behind and wandered over to the living room, pretending to make casual smalltalk about things they had already discussed. Only once they had arrived in the living room two doors over, and the door was shut behind them, did they allow themselves to grow serious.

"Okay," Valkyrie expectantly asked, "what's going on?"

Tanith looked torn about saying what she was about to say. "So, umm... Wasn't that weird? How Diamond just rushed out?"

"Yeah," Valkyrie agreed with a series of ironic nods, "pretty weird."

"Any idea where she's going?" she carefully pressed.

Her ironic nodding turned into bitter head shakes. "Nope. No clue."

Tanith shrunk a little as her shoulders pulled up with severe discomfort. "You know that I think this whole Skulduggery-and-Diamond thing is absolutely adorable, yeah?" she preluded, "and that I'd never try to get in the way of that, unless I was really worried that something's up?"

Valkyrie mustered her wearily, as her own worry about the topic steadily rose with each of her meaningful statements. "Yes? But...?"

"But..." Tanith sagged a little before uncomfortably confessing; "I just remembered where I've seen Diamond before. And we didn't just cross paths in the sanctuary hallways."

She paused before asking the question she ultimately didn't want to know the answers to. "What do you mean?"

"Yesterday, I didn't clue in, because she's been friendly this whole time...?" Tanith hesitantly elaborated. "But when she just walked out, all business, with that serious look on her face... It suddenly came back to me."

Valkyrie felt herself overcome with the seriousness and determination of a seasoned investigator. "So, where do you recognize her from?"

"About thirty-five years ago, I attended a very important, very secret boardroom meeting at the British Sanctuary," Tanith began to explain.

"What was this meeting about?"

She shot her an apologetic look. "Well, obviously I can't tell you details, but... It was after a change of leadership; they were revamping a lot of the partnerships with their various agencies and contractors."

Valkyrie's lips thinned as she nodded along to the story. "And Diamond was there, too?" she deduced.

Her face grew more contrite by the second. "Yeah but, Val...? Not just anyone was allowed to attend that meeting. These were people of the highest caliber. We're talking; heads of government agencies, high-level mercenaries, legendary spies... I was lucky to be invited."

Valkyrie paused for a moment to process the information, before bracing herself for the next response. "And which group did Diamond represent?"

She shrugged cluelessly. "Unfortunately, I don't know, sorry. There weren't exactly a lot of official introductions going around that day."

"Right," she sharply sighed, "but some of these groups were... a bit shady?"

Tanith exhaled, her shoulders heavily sagging along downwards. When she replied this time she seemed certain. "Yeah, Val... Some of those groups were very shady."

She exhaled similarly and brought her hands up to rub her face in dismay.

"I feel terrible about asking this, but..." Tanith carefully addressed with obvious apprehension. "Do we really know why Diamond is with Skulduggery? Are you one hundred percent sure that you can trust her?"

"I, umm... no," Valkyrie replied, hesitant at first, but then with determination. "No, I'm not sure about it."

Tanith sighed and - as she had said more than enough - waited for Valkyrie to make up her mind about how to react.

She already knew how; she was just stalling out the moment of quiet, before she would inevitably spring into action. And Valkyrie already felt dreadful for what she was about to do, but her sense of purpose rose by the second.

There was very little she understood about what was going on in the world at the moment. But now, she finally had a clear lead to follow. And this time she certainly wasn't about to let it slip away from her.

"Alright, well..." Valkyrie straightened, ready to strike. "I would love to take you with me, but I need you to distract Dexter."

"What are you going to do?" Tanith wearily asked.

Instead of answering directly, Valkyrie moved towards the kitchen. "I'll tell you about it later, okay? Just hold the fort for me, I'll be back in an hour or so."

Tanith didn't look thrilled about any of this, but she dutifully nodded. "Okay, sure. I'll keep them busy."

"Thanks."

They walked back to the men. Both curiously looked up as the women rejoined them in the kitchen.

"Hey, Skul, I'm going to fill up the tank of the Oompa Loompa. I have a feeling we might need it," Valkyrie told him.

Skulduggery nodded it off. "Good call. See you back here soon."

Dexter looked disinterested in this mundane exchange. Tanith looked mildly surprised, either about her choice of excuse, or the fact that it seemed to be working.

However, Valkyrie and Skulduggery had just made an unspoken agreement. 'Filling up the tank of the Oompa Loompa' was code. It meant that she needed to do something on her own, and that she promised to tell him about it right afterwards.

"See ya," Valkyrie casually said and waved at the other three, before walking to the front door.

She went outside and stepped away from the house, far enough that even Skulduggery's pristine hearing couldn't pick up on what she was about to do.

Valkyrie pulled out her phone and selected a familiar contact. "Hey, Fletch," she said after he'd picked up. "Have you seen Diamond and Nuke around?"

"Umm, yeah!" Fletcher surprisedly confirmed, "I just dropped them off in London. Why do you ask?"

Valkyrie sighed with relief, but she leaned into her anxiety in order to sound convincing. "Damn, okay. Well, they forgot something important at their place. I need to get it to them somehow."

"Uh… okay," Fletcher said, "I mean, they didn't look like they forgot anything, but… whatever."

She pretended to be annoyed and didn't have a hard time doing so. "If they knew they were forgetting it, they wouldn't be forgetting it, would they?"

"Alright alright, fine," Fletcher retorted, his tone easily mirroring her annoyance. "Well, I could just drop you off where I took them?" he offered, and she could virtually hear him shrug along to the suggestion. "They can't have gone far, maybe you can catch up to them."

She hid the smile that was about to enter her voice. A part of her felt bad for deceiving Fletcher, and another part was astonished by how easy it still came to her.

Alex suddenly popped up in her mind, as he so frequently liked to do, and Valkyrie wondered how she'd feel about doing this to him. She'd feel much worse, she gathered. But then, Alex could probably and easily top her when it came to the art of deception, and she doubted that she could fool him like this.

"Yeah, that'd be great," Valkyrie replied and made sure to sound more relieved about the offer than she was. "I'm just outside Diamond's Roarhaven address."

Fletcher hung up and, a moment later, he appeared in front of her.

She shot him a grateful and apologetic smile and, this time around, it was a sincere one. "Thanks, Fletch."

"Sure thing," he shrugged, took her by the shoulder, and teleported her to London.

They appeared at a cross roads inside a labyrinth of back alleys. They seemed to be somewhere in a part of town that couldn't decide whether it was an urban neighborhood or an industrial district. A different backroad was shooting off into each of four directions.

Before Valkyrie had truly recovered from the spinning feeling of being teleported, Fletcher pointed in one direction. "Saw them walking that way."

"Cool, thanks. See you."

He waved goodbye and disappeared.

Valkyrie sighed and sagged, as the guilt now managed to surge in her. But she pushed it aside and stood straighter with a deep breath. There was no time to waste.

She started rushing in the direction Fletcher had pointed. She moved quick enough to catch up with someone who was walking ahead, but slowly enough to clearly analyze the city noise around her. Meanwhile, she glanced down each street and alley that she passed.

Valkyrie was suddenly stalled in the speed of her strut, as she picked up the slither of a familiar voice. She slowly stopped by the next crossing alley and peeked around the corner. Immediately, she spotted three people, standing on a tiny loading dock at the back of a pub.

It was Diamond, having a secret meeting with two strange men.

One of the men was clearly the oldest in the group; a tall burly man with impressive muscles, who could easily compete with a wardrobe for build. His expression was unreadable from this distance. The other one was clearly the youngest, and he was much more slender but similarly fit as his counterpart. His face carried an equally cheerful and cheeky grin.

The older guy had dark brown hair, the younger guy had light brown hair, but they both wore them in a buzz cut. All three people present wore civilian attire of varying casualness.

It seemed, the meeting had just begun, as the men were in the process of greeting Diamond. They all obviously were - or had once been - quite close. The way they hugged each other, tightly and without constraint, suggested they were extremely happy to be reunited.

Diamond's warm familiar smile was the same that she sometimes gave Valkyrie, regularly gave Skulduggery, and oftentimes gave Nuke. And by the way her voice flicked upwards at the end of the sentence, Valkyrie could tell that she was addressing the two men with her usual, "love".

After the hugs had commenced, they seemed to sink into a casual conversation. The burly man's thick arms were crossed over his chest, a scar now visible along his jawline. The slender man leaned casually against the wall, his cheeky grin never fading, like he was amused by something no one else knew about.

Unfortunately, they were standing too far away for Valkyrie to listen in on the conversation. Only the vague echoes of their voices occasionally carried over; Diamond's familiar voice, exchanging with the light excited voice of the slender man, and only rarely interspersed by the low rumbling voice of the burly man.

Valkyrie realized in dismay, she would need to get closer. Hunched low, she snuck around the corner and looped around the other side. She briefly stopped by the next corner, braced herself for a potential surprise, and stepped into the next street.

Bracing for a surprise had been a wise decision. Valkyrie immediately darted back, hugging against the wall and sucking in a tiny breath.

A couple of steps away from her, just around the corner, stood Nuke.

Nuke was clearly guarding the access point to the secret meeting. His gaze had been directed elsewhere, but maybe she had seen his head move in her direction. She waited and listened to see if she would be confronted.

After a long moment of tense silence, Valkyrie quietly sighed in relief. It seemed like Nuke hadn't noticed her.

She paused to decide on a strategy. As far as she could tell; she had three options. She could try to sneak around Nuke, but this was the riskiest option. She could try to find a different way around, but - by the time she had potentially found a better spot - the meeting had probably finished. Or she could go back to the last spot and observe without listening.

Valkyrie sighed and walked back to where she had just come from. She pulled out her cellphone and opened the camera. Positioning the phone against the wall, she carefully inched its lens past the corner. Once she could see the three talking people depicted on her screen, she zoomed in and snapped a photo.

She quickly pulled the phone back behind the wall and turned to walk away from her hideout. Swiftly removing herself from the scene, Valkyrie switched her phone over to her messages, and sent the photo to Skulduggery. Immediately afterwards, she called him up.

"Good evening, Valkyrie," Skulduggery replied, vacantly so, like he was focused on something else.

"Is Dexter still with you?" she curtly asked.

The sharpness in her voice made Skulduggery go quiet for a moment. When he spoke again, he sounded a bit uncertain. "No, he left a moment ago... Tanith suggested they swing by his apartment to freshen up..."

Valkyrie nodded and silently thanked Tanith for the elegant distraction maneuver.

"I'm in London City," she told him.

The last remaining sense of distraction immediately faded from Skulduggery's voice. "And what would you be doing in London City?"

"Well, you know how Diamond seemed like she had an idea earlier, but when I asked her about it, she obviously lied...?"

After a moment of quiet, Skulduggery sounded grim. "...Yes? I noticed?"

"And then, she suddenly left with Nuke, acting all cold? And then, Dexter pretended like he didn't know where she's going?"

"Yes...? Why are you going through the trouble of reminding me?"

"Well, I knew that you wouldn't..." Valkyrie replied, and her decisiveness wavered a bit when she suddenly felt a little awkward. "So, I followed her."

"You did what?!" Skulduggery barked.

"I sent you a photo."

There was a moment of quiet and some rustling sounds, as Skulduggery retrieved her message and looked at the picture. Valkyrie waited as she walked on.

When Skulduggery spoke again, his voice had lost its usual steadiness. It was sharper now, hinting at genuine unease. She had rarely heard him sound unnerved, and there was something dangerous about it. "Who is that?"

Valkyrie assumed, he was referring to the two strangers on the photo who were talking to Diamond. She pulled a contrite grimace. "I was actually hoping you could tell me that..."

The tense silence on the other side of the line returned. This one carried something heavy. Valkyrie sighed uncomfortably.

"Skulduggery...?" she carefully adressed a topic she had diligently been keeping to herself, until now. "I really hate to ask, but... How much do you actually know about Diamond? I mean... Dexter trained her, sure, and she works for the British Sanctuary, but... For how long? And what does she do there, anyway...?" She trailed off with ever-growing uncertainty.

Skulduggery continued sounding grim, but not confrontational, as he asked; "what are you suggesting?"

"Nothing, just..." Valkyrie stopped walking and swayed side-to-side, in an unsuccessful attempt of shaking the awkwardness and unease. "Don't you think it's odd, Skul? How she came out of nowhere, how Dexter's never mentioned her, and how she seems to know everything about us but we know nothing about her? Then, she finds out about - you know who - and the very next thing she does is to start going out with..."

"I've got your point," Skulduggery interrupted.

Valkyrie made a face again. "Sorry."

"Don't apologize for being right. The answer is, yes. Unfortunately, I wonder about that on a frequent basis."

She wasn't surprised. "And have you ever asked her about it?"

There was a moment of silence, then a sigh. "Carefully so, yes... However, she is quite versed at steering around that particular topic. All I've got is... breadcrumbs."

Valkyrie compunctiously bit her lip. "Right... In that case, Diamond is probably on her way home soon. So, why don't you ask her again? This time around, maybe with a bit more... enthusiasm?"

More silence. Then, a rustling that might have been a nod. "I suppose I don't have a choice now, do I."

She heavily sighed and made sure to signal her sincere sympathy. "Good luck...?"

"You might not want to talk to me for the next twenty-four hours," Skulduggery irritably warned her.

"But you'll let me know if you're in mortal danger?" she quickly demanded, "or if you'll become a mortal danger, yourself?"

"I'll do my best."

"Okay," she said and attempted an encouraging smile. "See you at work!"

Skulduggery hung up on her.