Yeah, I probably shouldn't be writing this. I've got to update my other fics but this idea just jumped into my head and I had to write it.

The plotline follows an AU of if magic hadn't existed, or at least not in the form of magic in the books, and Valkyrie hadn't drifted from her childhood friends. It's a oneshot for now but if you want me to continue with it I will :) Any questions, you know how to review or PM.

Far away, this ship has taken me far away

Far away from my memories

Of the people who care if I live or die

''We did it!''

It's all Valkyrie can think about as she looks into the setting sun, her hair blowing out the window, her hand linked with Gary's as he steers with his other. They've finished high school, finished with all the drama and fights, and they're heading to Dublin Trinity College, to really make something of themselves.

Just one last graduation party to go to - at Gordon's, of course - and they're done with Haggard and Valkyrie almost can't believe it. She twists around in her seat and smiles at the three in the back. Hannah, her best friend, the ice-cold girl with the heart of gold, is snuggled up with Nathan, who's looking at her with pure adoration. Nathan winks at Valkyrie, tucking some hair behind her ear.

''I swear I'll throw myself out this car if you don't stop being so adorable,'' laughs a male voice and Valkyrie can't help but chuckle at Ronan, her other best friend, who is bouncing around in his seat and grinning from ear to ear.

Gary looks at her before turning back to the road with a smile almost as big as Ronan's. ''We did it, babe,'' he grins and she can only nod with happiness because she feels the link that binds them all together, marks them out as something more special than all the people without dreams in Haggard.

It's such a powerful moment, of excitement and love and hope, that she doesn't almost doesn't notice when it changes.

Something darts across the road - a badger or fox - and Gary jerks the car to avoid hitting it. The Mitsubishi leaves the road and Valkyrie sees the tree just as they hit it and her friends are screaming, and there's an awful, sickening lurch as the car flips over and Ronan isn't laughing any more.

The vehicle keeps on going, and there's a shriek of metal and something red sprays across her face. She cries out and there's another slam, her body is thrown, then silence. She's lying out of the car, on the damp earth, and she can see Gordon's estate right ahead.

There's figures running towards her, but it doesn't matter, because she can't see any of her friends. Valkyrie pulls herself up slowly, so slowly, and she sees the petrol dripping in the twisted wreck, the flames licking at the ground, and knows that the car is going to explode soon - and there's nothing she can do - and Gary is lying in the front seat with blood trickling down his neck - and he won't open his eyes -

She starts dragging herself back, because that's it for her, because her whole life is in that car, and she's not letting them go without her.

Time seems to freeze as Ronan turns his head to look at her with something in his eyes that she's never seen before...

And the car blows up right in front of her eyes and she knows she's too late.

She keeps going though, because what else can she do?

But Gordon's there, holding her back with tears streaming down his face and there's a scream coming out of her mouth that pierces the night over and over.

It's a scream that nobody, not one person standing there on the empty road in Ireland, will forget.

In the ambulance when she regains consciousness long enough, Valkyrie turns to the paramedic nearest to her, moaning at the burns rubbing on her back.

''Will you go back for my friends? They're there, they're in the car. They're still alive.''

He looks at her with a distraught expression and that's when she realises that the world is an ugly, ugly place.

The funerals are something she never thinks about, and she blanks them from her memory so completely she couldn't remember them if she tried. Desmond and Melissa stay with her, through the weeks when she just stays in bed and stares at the pictures of her old life, when it was the five of them against the world.

But then she looks at the picture of them all after Nathan's birthday, where they have their arms linked around each other's waists, laughing into the camera.

That's when she knows that she's living for five people, and she's going to try to do right by them every day for her pitifully long life.

That's also the day when she emails Dublin Trinity telling them that she will be attending after all, and she packs her bags that very night. A week after that, Desmond, Melissa and Gordon wave goodbye to her on the bus to Dublin, and she tries to wave back as if she's another normal university-age girl.

(A few tears escape when the bus passes that spot laden with flowers and teddy bears and echoes of terrified screams, though.)

The college is nice, and it looks exactly like it did in the leaflets spread across Hannah's bedroom floor. A woman shows her to dorm room 465 (nine doors down from the rooms you were going to share, whispers a voice inside her head) and hands her the key. ''You're sharing with another young woman,'' she says, adjusting her glasses. ''I expect she'll be arriving soon. Anything you need, dear, just ask for me at the front office.'' Giving her a pat on the shoulder she toddles away.

Valkyrie grits her teeth as she lifts her bags, and dumps them in one of the bedrooms before sitting herself down on the bed. The first thing she unpacks is the picture of them after graduation, locked in the same poses from Nathan's birthday party picture (the one that she's been keeping in her pocket for weeks now). It's in a photo frame Ronan gave her, and she sets it on the cabinet beside her bed.

''I'm trying, honest,'' is all she whispers to them before unpacking the rest.

She hears the front door bang open an hour later, and many voices flood the dorm. She takes a deep breath, smoothes her t-shirt, and steps out of her new bedroom.

There's a few people moving with bags across the room, laughing and talking excitedly in a language all of their own that Valkyrie can't interpret. It was like that with the five of them though, so she understands.

''Oh, hey!'' A good-looking blonde who seems slightly older than herself grins. ''You must be Valkyrie?'' Valkyrie nods her head in confirmation and looks the girl up and down. She attempts to smile - she's out of practice - and outstreches her hand. ''Yes, I'm your roomate. Sorry, I don't know your name.''

''It's Tanith, Tanith Low. These are my friends who are moving in down the hall. Fletcher, who's studying business-'' she nods her head to a boy with carefully groomed hair, ''-that's China, she's doing a literature course -'' a stunning woman with black hair nods coolly, ''-Skulduggery is training to be some law enforcement thing-'' a tall, thin man with dark hair rolls his eyes good-naturedly, ''-and Ghastly is my boyfriend! He's going to be the best tailor in Dublin.'' Tanith grabs the scarred, muscled man behind her and plants a kiss on his cheek.

He smiles at her with soft eyes, and Valkyrie has to look away for a moment because it reminded her of how Nathan used to look at Hannah...how Gary used to look at herself.

Tanith turns back to Valkyrie. ''What is it you're studying?''

Valkyrie doesn't want to tell her that she was going to be studying criminology, that that dream had gone up in smoke along with the bodies of her best friends. So she replies with ''Business studies. You?'' Tanith claps her hands with a gleeful smile. ''Dance. I've been dancing since I was a tiny little toddler, it's all I've ever wanted to do, really.''

Tanith grabs the arms of her four friends and it's painful to look at, it really is, how Tanith and China quickly squeeze hands the way she and Hannah sometimes did, and how they all treat Fletcher as the baby of the group like Ronan, how Ghastly high-fives Skulduggery and wraps his arm around Tanith's waist. Now Tanith's laughing and she pulls Valkyrie into the hug. ''It's going to be so fun here, I can just tell!'' She whoops as Skulduggery messes up her hair.

Leaving them all giggling and talking, Valkyrie moves back to her bedroom. She sees them all roar with laughter over a shared joke, and it scares her how similar this group is to her own. She won't, can't, get close to them. (There's soft, strangled screams and a memory of Ronan's final look to remind her never to care that much again.)