A Possible Start to A Possible Ending to Skulduggery Pleasant

Because I feel that this place hasn't seen any actual story in quite a long time, I think I'll put something I wrote a while ago up while you're waiting for Nix and Mist and for the rest of Zathract Mist.

Anyone remember my possible ending to Skulduggery Pleasant? Well this is the part before the fight breaks out. Not finished, but neither are most things I do.

They were in the middle of a deserted city street in Dublin full of large buildings with lights flickering all around them. What an unglamorous place for the battle of the final wave of defence against the end of the world would take place. Darquesse didn’t mind though. It was their choice. It could have taken place high above the ocean, just her and Skulduggery, but he did not seem to think that even remotely fair. She could not blame him. Darquesse stood at one end and more than a thousand sorcerers accompanied by Fletcher Renn, China Sorrows, Skulduggery Pleasant and Ghastly Bespoke as well as all the Sanctuary’s Cleavers stood at the other. She wasn’t bothered. It wouldn’t be much of a challenge, if any at all. She observed them all from the other side. All the Cleavers were armed, she could see, and most of the Sorcerers either held balls of flame in their hands or else weapons of some sort, guns, daggers and bow and arrows. Some of the arrows had fire on them too.

She looked to the right and saw beside all the Sanctuary agents and accomplices, there was another huge crowd of people. She recognized most of them only because of Valkyrie’s memories and experiences with them. Among the second crowds stood Billy-Ray Sanguine, Thrasher holding Scapegrace’s snarling head, Dusk, Dreylan Scarab, old, aging and released from prison and a dozen other petty criminals Valkyrie and Skulduggery had put away in their days. Behind all of them was a ginormous tide of zombies looking thoroughly confused.

“Darquesse.” The voice of Erskine Ravel, grand mage, shot out through a large megaphone and carried easily to Darquesse’s ears.

“Darquesse,” he said. “This will be your one, only and last chance to turn yourself in. If you resist arrest, we will have to choice but to hurt and prosecute you as you will surely kill countless agents of the Sanctuary.”

Darquesse smiled and did not reply.

“Very well then.” Ravel said sadly and she saw Ravel lower the megaphone as Skulduggery’s head droop ever so slightly before increasing the intensity of his fireball.

The moon stopped its rise into the sky, now at its highest, and cast an eerie light upon the scene as Darquesse’s smile slowly fell from her face and begun pacing towards the Sanctuary Agents first. She saw them ready themselves, prepare for battle and brace themselves for death. Darquesse was the most powerful sorcerer ever to live as well as the Death Bringer. She could kill everyone in the vicinity with a single thought; a Death Bubble Valkyrie had called it. But where would be the fun in that? And then she stopped, a mere ten metres away from her enemies and the tensest silence she had ever experienced pressed in on them.

And then a scream, a flash of silver and a young Sorcerer’s blade came slashing down on her head, aiming for the centre. It stopped just before impact, unable to move any further and suddenly, the man tensed, shock and pain abruptly spreading across his face. Then Darquesse glared and the man shot backwards, flew through the air and landed a few hundred metres away, tumbling a thousand times cross the concrete road sending huge chunks of debris flying in all directions before finally settling, still, unmoving…dead.

He had died before he had hit the ground.

Darquesse’s smile rose back to her face.

“Are there any reinforcements from the other Sanctuary’s coming in?” Daruqesse asked softly, delicately, deadly. No one replied. “New Zeeland? America? Africa? Australia? China?”

Ms Sorrows glared at the mention and Darquesse laughed.

“No? How about Thailand? India? Japan? What about Hawaii? Oh wait, that’s right…they’re all dead, aren’t they?” Darquesse let out a laugh and gave herself a moment to mock the countries she had already wiped all life from.

“Reinforcements will be coming.” Skulduggery assured her and she laughed again.

“By which time you’ll all be dead.” She said airily. “And look how desperate you’ve become. Begging criminals for help, you have sunk so low.” She laughed again and waved a hand to the smaller group of people to her right.

“Shut up!” the snarling head of Scapegrace roared and Thrasher jeered while the other zombies shifted, uninterested, behind them.