Chapter Text
The Faceless one had been pushed back into the portal. They had won. Running to Skulduggery, her smile faded as a tentacle wrapped around the two of them, dragging them into the portal with the Faceless One before anyone could save them.
“Oh my, that’s not good.” An ethereal voice rang out around them. “You wouldn’t survive there, my child.” In a flash of blinding light, the tentacle surrounding the two of them disappeared. Skulduggery reached out and she grabbed his bony hand, gulping as she stared directly into his eye sockets.
“What’s happening?!”
”I’d say divine intervention under these circumstances!”
“I thought you didn’t believe in Gods?!”
“I find it hard to argue with the here and now, don’t you?” Valkyrie gasped as something slammed into the back of her head, rattling her and pushing her into Skulduggery, who simply wrapped his arms around her, allowing her to cling to his form. In her daze, she didn’t notice the internal lock clicking out of place, awakening a power that would have taken far longer to appear under normal circumstances.
A soft nudge, and the two of them stumbled out of the white plane between worlds. They were in a room void of any other people, however there were tables and booths in rows with chairs stacked along the walls. It reminded Valkyrie of the quaint cafés she would sometimes visit with Tanith.
Warily, the two of them shuffled out the propped open doors, only, instead of being met with a world overrun with vengeful gods, they found themselves staring down a city street with numerous people casually walking to and fro. It almost seemed like a normal city back in their world, and Valkyrie would have believed it was, if not for spotting the person with a cat head, or the woman who had four sets of arms, or that person who seemed to have dragonfly wings sprouting from their back.
“Um, where are we? I don’t think this is the world where the Faceless Ones were banished to? Surely?”
“Well, it appears to be an alternate version of Japan.”
“Guess we’re not in Kansas.” Valkyrie startled as a new voice piped in from somewhere in the back of her head. She would have mistaken it for her own internal thoughts if it wasn’t for the slight pur, for lack of a better word, that indicated the amusement the voice found in their predicament.
”Um, Skulduggery, I seem to have a voice in my head.”
”Yes, yes Valkyrie, we all have voices in our heads.” Skulduggery waved her off and began investigating the room they had appeared in.
“You’re the one who woke me up,” The voice groused.
“Who are you?” She asked internally, watching as Skulduggery rifled through a stack of papers. She was pretty sure if he was using his human skin he would be grinning and his eyes would be sparkling with that madness they got when he was pleased with a situation. Like a cat honing in on the prey it had trapped.
“Oh darling, you know exactly who I am.” Valkyrie gulped. She was afraid of that answer.
“Skulduggery, correction, I have a murderous, apocalypse-starting-voice in my head.” Skulduggery turned back towards her, his head tilted to the side as he took in the curiosity of her predicament.
”Well I suppose that would be an original voice in one’s head. Does this murderous voice have a name by chance?”
”I believe that name would be Darquesse.”
”Well that’s not ideal. Does she want to start an apocalypse right now?” Valkyrie shrugged and directed the question towards Darquesse.
”So do you want to start an apocalypse right now?”
“Normally I’d say yes, but now you’ve made me aware of the existence of different worlds, and frankly I want to find the perfect world to unleash ruin and destruction upon. So, no not right now. ”
”She seems to have standards for apocalypses. So, no, not right now.” Skulduggery perked up.
”Well that’s fantastic! We can work with her not wanting to start apocalypses right now! Anyway, would you like to know what I’ve found while you were making nice with your new headmate?”
”Headmate?”
”A roommate but for your head! A headmate!”
“Wouldn’t the term be soulmate then?”
“You are not my soulmate!”
”I don’t see why not, we’re not sharing a head, we’re sharing a soul. Stephanie is Darquesse. Darquesse is Stephanie. Just how Stephanie is Valkyrie. We come from and share the same soul, thus, under the detective’s logic, we’re soulmates.”
”So what did you find?” Valkyrie was choosing to ignore the voice in her head.
Skulduggery held up two folders filled with papers. “It appears that whatever being brought us here has written us into the universe. I seem to be a lovely café owner who took in you, Stephanie Cain, as my ward when you were brought to me by social workers. As I am a generous samaritan, I eventually adopted you and supported your dreams to become a hero. And you, my dear Stephanie, have applied to the top hero school of Japan, UA. How ambitious of you. Conveniently, we just happened to move our café to the same city as UA around the time you applied. Oh, and you have your entrance exam in a week. Any questions?” Stephanie blinked at the sudden onslaught of information.
”Many. My main one though is, what do you mean hero school ?” Skulduggery waved a packet of papers.
“This universe we’re in. They don’t have magic, but instead Quirks. Clearly there’s some sort of magic though, otherwise I would have toppled into a pile of bones and my soul likely would have been lost forever, small mercies there. But, Quirks are what they call their strange magic, it’s written into their biology. Some are born with the ability to run at speeds unimaginable to others, some have features of animals, I’m sure you saw some of those just now. Apparently those are called Mutant Quirks. With the rise of Quirks came the rise of villains, and shortly after heroes followed. Now they have schools dedicated to training the next generation of heroes to fight villainy and soothe the public.
“And you, my dear Stephanie, are soon to become one of those heroes in training. As long as you pass your entrance exam in a week, and oh look, how kind of the God who pitied the two of us; we have a cram guide right here to teach you everything you need to know to pass the written portion of the exam. Whoever brought us really wants you to become a hero, and who am I to fight those powerful enough to completely rewrite a portal for a Faceless One?” Stephanie gaped as she took in the giant packet held in Skulduggery’s hand. How was she supposed to be expected to learn all of that within a week? And to become a hero? An actual, recognized hero that fought villains? She was destined to destroy worlds, not save them!
”I can’t become a hero!” She protested.
”I hardly see why not. Other than the lack of carefully executed detective work, it hardly seems any different than what you’ve been doing in our world. In fact, I’d say becoming a hero would be easier than becoming a renowned detective.”
”Skulduggery, I have a voice in my head who’s prophesied to bring about destruction and ruin to the world, that doesn’t quite sound like a hero's actions!” Skulduggery waved a hand dismissively in her direction.
“You said she didn’t want to start the apocalypse right now. I don’t see any problems. In fact, I’m sure Darquesse would like the idea of fighting villains. Maybe you could work on rehabilitating her and proving that fighting for justice is more satisfying than destroying a world and leaving nothing left to fight.”
”I resent that. I’m not some experiment to see if my natural instincts can be erased.”
”Darquesse doesn’t like your idea.”
“Well has my idea changed her mind and made her wish to destroy this world and us with it?”
”… No. I still want the perfect world to destroy.”
“She said no.”
”Then I hardly care!” He shoved the stack of papers into Stephanie’s chest. Reflexively, she caught them, gulping as she looked at all the words written on them. It wasn’t even written in a large font. It was like reading one of Gordon’s manuscripts, but worse, because this was studying for an exam and not an interesting novel filled with adventure and magic. “I have to try and make this café into a manageable business, so run along and get studying! You’ll be a hero yet Stephanie!” She grumbled, but sat at one of the booths, flipping through the packet as she gave a cursory glance over everything. It seemed science and math was a constant amongst universes, so she would be good there, but she would certainly have to dedicate more time towards Quirk Laws and history with absolutely zero knowledge of this universe’s concepts of either. She hardly even knew the history of Japan in her own world, let alone the wonky history that emerged from Quirks developing.
Distantly, she heard the clattering of Skulduggery moving the chairs to each table, but simply ignored it in favor of talking with Darquesse.
”Are you going to want to start the apocalypse when we go back?”
”Possibly.”
”What if we promise to find you a better world? Preferably one where I’m trying to live with my family.” She could practically feel the eye roll directed at her.
”You claim to be so different and righteous, but you’re willing to unleash death and destruction upon others with no defense all for the sake of your own selfishness. You see how you’re a hypocrite, don’t you?”
”Well you could just not bring death and destruction upon an entire world! Take up a hobby! Start knitting!”
“My fate is destruction, Stephanie.”
”Then destroy the thing you knit! I don’t know why I bothered trying to talk to you, you’re horrible!”
“Darling, I’m you . We are the same.”
”We’re not! I wouldn’t bring about the apocalypse and kill my family.”
”Except you would. Because you’re Darquesse.”
”Well maybe if you would take up knitting, we wouldn’t have to be the prophesized apocalypse, now would we?” Darquesse had choice words towards Stephanie’s perfectly reasonable suggestion, all of which she ignored and continued reading about the development of different Quirk Laws and the cases they were cited in to put away some villain. She wasn’t sure how Skulduggery thought Darquesse could be rehabilitated. Like she said, she was fated to be only death and destruction. The best she could do was try to find a way to seal her, but that would have to wait until they managed to find a way back to their universe.
“How are we going to get back?” Stephanie turned to look at Skulduggery, who had just put the final chair in place. “I mean, they think we’re in the world with the Faceless Ones. They’ll probably assume we’re dead. Are they even going to look for a way to find us?” Skulduggery sighed and sat across from her, slightly shaking his head.
”Most likely, we will be proclaimed dead, perhaps even awarded medals of honor for our heroic sacrifice to save the world from rampaging Gods. But, if anyone believes us to be alive and wishes to look for us, it is likely they will be barred from making any sort of advancements in their search. Others will claim it’s too dangerous and brings about a risk of allowing the Faceless Ones to enter the world once again. In terms of getting back, we’re likely on our own.”
”What about my family, what will they tell them?”
”You had your reflection out, right?”
”I- I think so.”
”They won’t tell them anything. Your reflection will take over your life and live as you. Your parents won’t have to suffer the thought that they lost their daughter to unknown forces.”
”That’s- that’s good, right. I mean, they’ll be happy, and well when we come back, it won’t be like I’m trying to explain that they’re daughter came back from the dead, right? I’ll just be slotting myself right back into place.” Skulduggery nodded. He seemed to be holding back from saying something, and normally Stephanie would ask what he was thinking, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the thoughts brewing in his mind.
”Yes, but for now, you should continue studying for your entrance exam. There’s a possibility that you becoming a hero may be the key to getting us back home.” Stephanie nodded and continued her reading, meanwhile Skulduggery flipped the lights on and the smell of coffee brewing lingered in the air, soothing her nerves. She could pretend to be a hero hopeful. She had been pretending to be a normal girl with no knowledge of magic to her parents. And she had been pretending she wasn’t the cause of the apocalypse all the seers were starting to see. Pretending to be a normal girl who got adopted by her strange guardian and just simply wanted to become a hero was an easy role to play.
At some point, the café must have opened as customers began to wander in and ordered their preferred drinks. It took an embarrassing amount of customers for Stephanie to realize that no, they weren’t weirdly speaking English, but instead she just seemed to understand Japanese, as if she had grown up speaking it all her life. Maybe Skulduggery had a point with the whole divine intervention theory.
Stephanie watched as two men walked up to the counter where Skulduggery was simultaneously taking and making orders. Neither seemed overwhelmed by his appearance. Maybe living in a world where Quirks were amongst the majority of the populace just made you immune to seeing a living skeleton. Maybe there were other living skeletons in this universe?
The blonde haired man ordered for the both of them as the black haired one sat at the booth in front of Stephanie’s. The man had a raggedy scarf draped around his neck with loose hair that simply flowed around it in tangled waves. She winced in sympathy, wondering if his job made it difficult to find time to deal with hair care. He probably knew that she was staring, but he simply sat with his eyes closed and arms crossed. Her respect for him grew a notch and she went back to studying the packet in front of her.
Seriously, what nonsense was this?! Ethical use of Quirks in everyday environments?! Regulations for Quirk use outside of heroics?! Why were people's natural biology regulated so heavily?! What about those who maybe had a Quirk that couldn't be turned off?!
She flipped the page and found the laws surrounding that one. Apparently it was a gray area but there were still too many convictions for vigilantism when someone couldn't control their quirk being on or off.
“Tch. I was right. This world is boring. All these people with powers and only a single percent of them would be able to fight back and defend themselves.” At least the ridiculous Quirk Usage laws meant that Draquesse had grown even more bored of the idea of reigning down hellfire on the poor world.
A glass clinked as a thing of lemonade was set in front of her. She looked up and saw Skulduggery sliding into her booth. “So, how's the studying going?” His voice was deeply amused. Maybe he had managed to see her frustration mounting.
“Horrible. I wish to be thrown into a ditch and left there to rot. Maybe there I will finally perish if these stupid Quirk Laws won't finish the job themselves. Apparently the first version of the Vigilante Laws here led to a four year old getting tried because his quirk manifested and it tripped a villain the heroes were chasing. They arrested a four year old Skulduggery. And I’m supposed to be able to write an essay on the importance of that case?! Importance of this case: don’t arrest four year olds for crimes!” Skulduggery nodded placidly.
“And what other laws seem to be driving you up the wall?”
”They have different Quirk Usage licenses! There’s the license for heroics, which is completely different from the police license by the way, and then there’s the license to even exist! People with Mutant Quirks and Quirks that generally don’t turn off have to get a specific license for that! Not to mention sentient Quirks were only just recognized as sentient beings a decade ago. What, did they just think all those people were amazing ventriloquists?”
“Do you know why I asked you this?”
”Because you love me dearly and care so much for my pain that you wish to suffer the same hell as the one I’m currently in?”
”Not at all. I asked because you just proved that with all this studying, you’re remembering things. Have fun with your messy laws! I’m going and brewing some more coffee to top off that man’s cup over there.” Stephanie scowled as Skulduggery slid out of the booth and left her to the packet-from-hell sitting in front of her. Taking a sip of her lemonade, her scowl deepened. How did Skulduggery even know how she took her lemonade? This whole situation was so not fair!
Hours after the café had closed and Skulduggery had shown Stephanie the two bedroom apartment on the second floor that would act as their new sleeping space for however long they were to stay there, Darquesse opened her eyes. She sat up, staring at the soft mattress Stephanie had gone to sleep in, taking in the plain black duvet and the matching sheets.
Slowly, she stalked out of the room, retracing Stephanie’s steps from earlier to find herself outside of Skulduggery’s room. The door was slightly ajar, as if he had known that locking it would have little consequence to her. Silently, she pushed it further open, taking in the sight of Skulduggery meditating on his bed, the same suit he had been wearing still draped over his bones, however his hat had been placed on the night stand.
Even with Stephanie’s memories, she couldn’t help but be intrigued by the specimen before her. What made him tick? What magic could possibly be so potent that it would still hold him together even after traversing across universes? She needed to know .
A single step into the room, and his entire countenance had shifted. Even without moving a single bone, it was clear he had awakened from his trance and his gaze was piercing her.
“Evening Darquesse,” he greeted her simply.
”How did you know it wasn’t Stephanie?” She tilted her head, taking in the curious creature before her. He was definitely more than what he exuded in Stephanie’s presence. Their magical signatures were the exact same. She hadn’t changed Stephanie’s appearance in the slightest, allowing the bed head to stay and not bothering to unwrinkle her pajamas.
“Your pace gave you away.” She frowned. What did he mean by that? “Stephanie doesn’t walk like a predator.” Ah, that made sense. She nodded in agreement.
”Yes, she makes simple prey.” Skulduggery sighed but shook his head.
”What are you doing up? Stephanie won’t be too happy if she wakes up with her body exhausted because someone decided to roam late at night.” Ah, so he was going to ignore her comment. Interesting. She thought he would have had more of a reaction to her calling his dear Stephanie simple prey.
“I’m using my own magic reserves. This won’t affect Stephanie. Her body is still resting, I’m running everything.” He hummed but nodded.
“Is there a reason you came to see me?”
“I was curious.”
”Yes, I can imagine that you would be. Tell me, what were you curious about?” She snapped her fingers and a flame appeared in her palms.
”About magic I suppose.”
“That’s quite impressive. It took Stephanie quite a while before she managed to conjure a flame with such ease.” She rolled her eyes but extinguished the flame. “If you’re looking for certain information, I fear you’re going to have to ask for it. I haven’t quite mastered any sort of mind reading spells.”
”You don’t have the answers I want. I wish to find them myself.” It was hard to tell if he was shocked with his lack of changing expression. “Are you going to let me? Or am I going to have to kill you?”
“Ah. I see, well this seems to have escalated.” She growled. The flame appeared in her hand, burning a bright white. “Now, now, I never said I would stop you.” He held up two hands in a surrendering position. “I have no intention of fighting you right now, after all you seem to have changed for the better! I would love to see where this character growth can lead to!”
”I haven’t changed. This world is simply boring. For all you know I could go back to our original world and destroy everything there.”
”Ah, but you won’t.”
”You can’t know that.”
”But I do~!”
“Prove it.”
”Alright, I’ll bet my life on it.” She raised an unimpressed brow.
“That means nothing. I can kill you with or without your silly bet.”
”Oh but you see, if you don’t take me on the bet, I won’t fight you at all when you try to kill me. And that would just be so disappointing wouldn’t it? Because after all, you just want the thrill of the fight, and an opponent who won’t even try is no fun at all.” In a burst of speed that must have looked like teleportation to an outsider, Darquesse appeared in front of Skulduggery, gripping his tie as she pulled him forward.
”Say I take your lousy bet. If I win I get a battle with you, no punches held. But what do you get out of it?”
”Well, I find the lack of a destroyed world quite promising.” She furrowed her brow.
”That’s all? You won’t tell me to kill myself?”
”Why would I? You would have reformed quite beautifully.”
“Your heart is far too soft.”
”Ah ah, that’s where you’re wrong. My heart was buried with the rest of me. I just seem to have an empty rib cage,” he lamented. Darquesse let go of his tie and backed up a few steps.
”Fine. And you swear you won’t try to stop me from coming out at night?”
”Of course not! I would never go back on my word. I just ask you don’t do anything Stephanie would disapprove of too heavily, she would be after both of our heads if she knew I let you commit mass murder or something as dramatic as that.”
”You have a deal.” Swiveling on her heel, she stalked back out of the room, heading for the lounge. She was curious to see just what she could do with all this power at her fingertips.