Murder Mansion: SP OC Arena of Righteousness

Chapter 13 Centre of the maze

She awoke slung over Skulduggerys shoulder. He was flying vertically through the maze, probably to speed this up. Instead of instantly fighting back, she just enjoyed the ride. She couldn't remember the last time she and Skulduggery just went somewhere. No fighting or defending the world. Just driving together. The good old days. She grimaced at that, that made her sound old. She wasn't old, she was still in the prime of her life. No longer wasting away in a house pretending she didn't exist. 

"Ah, first ones here"
He laid her gently down before briefly searching around them. She cracked open an eye and saw him checking the the only way in or out of this circle. Tilting her head slightly, she could see the pinnacle in the middle. A silver trophy stood on a pedestal, shining in the light. She could feel a twig jabbing into her back, but couldn't move as Skulduggery returned. Slamming her eyes shut, she relied on her ears and nose. She heard him click his fingers and felt the twig against her back move. Soon, she could smell a fire going. Probably to help people get to the middle. How considerate of him, helping everyone else. She wondered how he felt about her killing Dexter. How close was he with him? Would it drive a wedge between them? She knew she felt bad about killing him, she even liked him at one point in time. After Smokes corruption wore off she just knew she would go back to snivelling in guilt again. 
"Are you planning on staying knocked out all day Valkyrie?"
Busted. She opened up one of her eyes, sure enough he was looking right at her. She groggily sat up, rubbing her eyes.
"I am so glad you knocked whatever happened to me out"
"I know what this is, something like that isn't going to trick me"
She crossed her legs and pouted. "Couldn't even play along?"
"This is serious Valkyrie."
She lifted up her arms, showing off the bindings. "I realised. But I do have a question. How did Smoke corrupt me?"
"I've been wondering the same. He still wore the magic binding cuffs. By all means, he shouldn't have been able to corrupt you."
"We've done this before. What theories do you have?"
"This isn't going to be normal. But I do have one theory that could apply, but it has it's flaws."
"Lay it on me Skulduggery"
He cocked his head but spoke anyway. "If he were to switch the cuffs, he could have used his magic, but then why wait? Why not take the opportunity to break out? He wouldn't. Because that would spoil the plan, he wanted to get locked up. To be the man on the inside. Then he can let whoever he wants in. Or out. He wants Delilah free. We'll warn China when we return."
"I know I've always said you're a show off, but it is impressive when you do that."
"I know. Now then, the problem at hand"
She gave a cute impish grin. "I assume you mean me?"
"Drop it. Whilst you're corrupted you're not leaving my side. I won't give you the opportunity to bury yourself with more guilt"
"But that's the thing. I don't feel guilty Skulduggery. I feel free"

He removed his hat, brushing it down before setting it beside him.
"You do feel guilty. You feel guilty for everything Darquesse did, you feel guilty for what you did on Devastation day. And you will feel guilty for what you did today."
"You're not listening. I don't feel guilty anymore. Everyone has been whispering about how I should have walked away the moment I found out I was Darquesse. But I didn't, and you know what? Everyone else would've done the same! I naively thought if I grew stronger then we could have stopped her. And we did. The amount of people who died could have been a lot bigger. We didn't just stop her, we didn't just arrest her or render her powerless. We sent her to another dimension!"
"Actually, she sent herself to the Faceless ones dimension. We only showed her herself doing it."
"Always have to ruin it." She stood up, attempting to brush the dirt off of her jeans. When she failed she groaned. "Point being, we did stop her. So I think a few casualties is a good ending compared to what could have happened. And I didn't kill them, she did!"
Skulduggery shook his head. "We have to mourn the people we lost, it makes us different from the murderers we stop. We stopped Darquesse from killing everyone, but she still killed people."
"Urgh. Lesser of two evils Skulduggery."