Yes she's quite impressed at Max's resourcefulness and musters up a small smile of approval and mostly relief they didn't have to carry through with any of their haphazardly thrown together plan. "Sounds like this Valkyrie friend had far more creative problem-solving methods," Ava sighs. She still likes to think if she was there, she could have done something.

"Maybe the Captain was hoping to... change... your mind," Ava suggests the joke with a hesitant delivery. But research. Into what? Converging multiple instances of self across timelines? What good could that possibly do.

None here, clearly, Skulduggery is one of the strongest minds by her estimation, and this has nearly broken him (and them along with.) But she places a gentle kiss to his cheekbone, and please just ignore that her own cheek is a bit damp.

"So is that's what causing you to... hear and see things? Because of overlapping consciousness?" Ava asks uncertainly.