THIS STORY CONTAINS
- SPOILERS! -
you have been warned.

...

// so that happened. it's. it's over.

I honestly never expected Derek to give us a happy ending, but there you go. Happy ending aside, though, i have SO. MANY. QUESTIONS.
Therefore, you can probably expect a LOT of SP stuff over the next few weeks.

There's probably going to be a second chapter to this, but I did initially write it as a standalone, so I'm marking it as complete because I have been known to abruptly abandon things.

Ahem.

(also, sTILL NOT OVER HIM KISSING HER OK)

.

The Accelerator whirs and vibrates and roars and rattles, its dais blazing in a column of white light; then, slowly, it begins to subside. Its living-porcelain skin loses its sheen, and there's the sudden sharp un-sound that comes of a constant and barely-perceptible tremor finally ceasing.

The light dies away with the last of the vibrations. Of Ravel, there is no sign. Skulduggery strolls back towards her, his hands in his pockets, and he's doing that thing again where he manages to look extremely proud of himself despite not having a proper face.

Valkyrie scowls at him. It is, she thinks, her most impressive one yet. "I bloody hate you."

"Really? Funny, that's not what you were saying a moment ago."

"My God, I don't think I've ever hated someone so much in my life."

He cocks his head, and she can feel him smirking at her before turning to the Engineer. "You heard her, didn't you?"

"I am a robot," it reminds them patiently. "All of my functions remain in excellent condition, I assure you."

Valkyrie isn't sure whether the noise that escapes her is a laugh or a sob. She considers punching him again, but her knuckles still sting a bit from the first time. She sways dangerously, suddenly feeling as if she might faint.

He'll catch her, of course. He did on their very first adventure together, in Gordon's house that rainy night so many years ago.

Odd, she thinks, that that memory should come so stark and clear to her right now.

Valkyrie pitches forward, and Skulduggery closes the gap between her and catches her as she falls. She doesn't faint, though there's a steady ringing in her ears and everything feels distant and numb. She just leans against him, ignoring the edge of a vertebra that's digging uncomfortably into her temple, and slowly realizes that she's shaking.

"I hate you," she says into his tie, just to drive the point across. Then, just to drive the point across, she hooks her fingers under the edge of his jaw and pulls him down and kisses him, hard. It's long and awkward and her lips are mashed up against his teeth and he tastes sort of like the vitamins her mum used to make her take as a child, and when she pulls back, she's shaking even worse than before and the smugness is radiating off him in waves.

"Well, you really showed me," he says, but his voice is gentle. Almost hesitantly, he reaches up and traces a thumb across the ridge of her cheekbone. "I know it's trite, and that there's nothing you could possibly say, but I still have to ask: how are you holding up?"

Valkyrie giggles. She actually giggles, without really meaning it; certainly she doesn't feel like laughing. "I'm not," she says, her voice two octaves too high. "You are."

"Ah. So I am."

"Why the Hell didn't you tell me what you were planning?"

"Erskine had already indicated his displeasure at the notion of being used as an off switch, in case you hadn't noticed."

"But," Valkyrie says. They're moving now, Skulduggery carrying her through the Sanctuary as if she weighs nothing, but she scarcely notices. "But you should have said something. I thought we discussed this. I thought we discussed having a code for when you're going to cross your fingers and hope that whatever loophole you've discovered actually works."

"He already knew 'the sparrow flies south for winter', and I didn't have time to come up with something suitably eloquent in the moment. I really am sorry."

"We had nine minutes, Skulduggery. You come up with stupid phrases at the drop of a hat!"

"Speaking of which," he says, removing his hat from her head and positioning it upon his own at just the right angle. "You really needn't have worried. A world without me in it is a cruelty I would not inflict on aught but my most hated enemies."

Valkyrie sighs and rests her head against his shoulder, too tired to think of a comeback. There's a moment of silence. Companionable, but exhausted.

Then, "You said you were going to go away."

"I have to," Valkyrie says, suddenly urgent. She has to make him understand. "Three times over the past week, I've nearly been beaten to death for the things I've done, as Darquesse and... and as me." Skulduggery remains silent, and so she ploughs on, desperate now to fill the silence. "I deserved it, too. I really, honestly did, but I can't... I can't just give up and let them kill me. I have to—"

She chokes on her words.

"I know," he says softly.

"How did you get out? Of your armor?" She isn't sure where the question came from, but suddenly it seems very important that she know.

He considers this in silence for a minute before saying, "I thought about what I would miss if I got lost."

She takes a moment, to let him know she does appreciate the weight of this, really; then she lets the grin show.

"See? I knew I was right."

"At the risk of making you utterly insufferable, yes. You were."

"I really meant what I said back there, you know."

He stops walking, but doesn't set her down. "I know. And I would like you to know that, were I to respond in kind, I would really mean it, too."

She puts on a heavy sigh and rolls her eyes. "But you're not, are you?"

"Of course not."

"You're far too cavalier to ever admit that."

"Naturally."

They turn right, into the science wing, and then right again into the hospital ward. Skulduggery lays her gently down on her gurney. Out of the corner of her eye, she catches her mum rolling over, quickly feigning sleep. She doesn't mind.

"Thank you," she says, and puts everything from 'Mr. Pleasant, you're a skeleton' onwards into those two words.

If he had lips, she knows, he'd be smiling.

"Valkyrie Cain," he says, "it has been an absolute pleasure knowing you."