Artemis Fowl: Sool's Revenge
Chapter 1: Long Way to Home
Artemis looked around the mostly empty room. His parents were on their way, and for the first time in three years, at least on their scale, would see him again, not as a man, but still as a mere teenager. He could feel his hands becoming clammy and rubbed them vigorously together. Why was he so nervous? It was just his parents. Again, the thought popped back into his mind. Not just your parents, your brothers. You're an older brother. And now he was beginning to realize the outcomes of recent events. Now he would be the one looked up upon by the two younger children. Artemis would be a role model to the younger ones. How odd it would be. He was now no longer the only child, but the oldest, the responsible one. Butler walked back in and saw Artemis, for the first time in his life, a nervous wreck.
"Artemis, are you up for this?" Butler questioned, sympathy evident in his voice.
" I… I don't really know. I'm going to have to lie, Butler. Not that I haven't before, but this is so big, and I don't know if such a lie is going to be able to be covered up," Artemis replied, standing up and beginning to pace. Somehow, incomprehensible to him, his vague memories of Minerva floated into his mind. After he had called his parents, Artemis had voted against calling her, but a surprise visit to be more efficient. Of course, he had told Butler that he had called her, and that Minerva had invited him to her house. The ultimate surprise, in his opinion. Funny how puberty didn't go away with the wasted years in the time tunnel.
The time tunnel. How horrific that had been. One part still scarred his mind, though he had wanted to stay that way. One of his best friends had died, but she hadn't. Artemis shook his head. She had died, but he had stopped that. She was alive because of him.
Then he heard it. The sound of a car coming up the driveway, and his heart froze. He immediately sat back down and rubbed his hands again. This was it. How could something so small as seeing his parents make him so nervous? A car door shut. This was it.
The door swung open and there were his parents, with his mom holding two baby carriers in each hand. His father was walking now. The tears were both evident in their eyes. Angeline set down the carriers and ran over to Artemis, embracing him in a hug tighter than Artemis himself could have imagined. "Son," she whispered quietly.
Artemis felt something begin to trail down his face, and realized it was tears. He was crying. For the first time in his life he didn't care that the tears were coming. He was seeing his parents again, and they were happy to see him.
"My Arty!" yelled his father, walking over to him and embracing him even harder than his mother had.
" You have been working out, haven't you, Father?" cried, but at the same time, laughed Artemis. Another strange thing. He was laughing. He pulled away from them both and surveyed the couple. They had aged, the first year of the twins evident in their appearance. Angeline looked as though she had not slept in weeks, but he could recall his mother looking like that on some occasion when-when he had seen her those months in her bedroom.
His father was a different story. He looked healthy and fit, better than he had before he had kidnapped by the Russian Mafia. He still limped, but not enough to where any normal human eye would notice. Of course, Artemis did not have a human eye.
" Arty, honey," said Angeline, walking over to the one chair and setting the two baby carriers in it, "we have a surprise for you." His mother already knew he knew that Artemis knew he had twin brothers. Uncovering them, Artemis realized just how much they looked like him when he was a mere child. Their hair was already beginning to grow in, both a shining black, just as Artemis's. Their eyes, though, were much different. They had his mother's eyes, a light Jade color that appeared to illuminate just as his own did blue. "This one is Aphrodite," gestured his mother to the one on the left. That one was asleep, worn from the long drive from the Fowl Mansion. In his hands, he held one of Artemis's old toys, his game-cube, as he called it. The baby had a long was to go before he could get all the correct colors on the right sides. " And this," said Angeline, gesturing to the child on the right, " is Apollo." Apollo was a different story from his other brother. This one was wide awake, surveying the room with keen interest and partial suspicion. His eyes hit Artemis, and instantly became stern and distrustful. Artemis grinned. Now this one was him exactly at that age. In his hands he held nothing. This child was already smart.
" These babies carry to much luggage!" yelped a voice from the outside. Artemis turned his head, and identified the voice of one person that he had forgotten about. "Artemis!" yelled Juliet, dropping the bags on the floor and running over to embrace him. Now there was a hug. Three years of wrestling had turned her into one tough lady.
"My, Juliet, you have grown!" He exclaimed, hugging her, but with an awkward expression evident on his face. Juliet retreated and surveyed Artemis carefully.
"Well, that makes one of us," she replied, a confused look on her face. Then Artemis remembered, he was supposed to looked seventeen, and yet, looked just as he did when he had left the Fowl Mansion.
"Why, yes, Arty, you haven't grown a bit!" said Angeline. Then it hit his parents. He could tell. All the horrid memories that had overtaken them these past years were returning, and now he needed to think. Quick. "Artemis," said his mother softly, " Butler has told us things, extraordinary things, about fairies and centaurs and time travel. And we can't help but wonder, what is he talking about?" His mother's tone overtook him with concern and doubt. What should he say? What could he say?
"I-" he began, but rethought his words, for the third time in his lifetime, he was speechless, but only for a moment.
" I told Butler to tell you those things," he said finally. A look of surprise and horror over swept both of his parents. "I was kidnapped by the Russian Mafia. They were extremely unhappy with me, after all I had done to rescue Father here. I didn't want you to know, because they said something about death if you got involved, so I told Butler to make something up totally unique and random. I wouldn't tell him where I was, though, so he had no way of coming to rescue me."
Artemis felt horrible. He always did when he lied to parents. They were so generous to him, and now he had to lie to them. He turned his head towards the floor, pretending to observe his shoes, which were dirt covered and torn from the past few days/years. His eyes wandered back over to the twins. Apollo had now dozed off, fulfilling his investigation of the small cottage. Artemis grinned.
Butler had left the room, and was just now walking back in. "Ok, Artemis, I've got the tickets."
His mother gave him an incredulous look. "Artemis, you are not seriously thinking about leaving just when we see you again after three years?" His mother looked on the verge of tears.
Artemis gave his mother a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry, Mother, but there is just one more person I have to see before I return to the Fowl Mansion." Artemis looked over to Butler, who face was twisted into some sort of grin.
"Arty, I hope it isn't another one of these dangerous missions. Remember when I made you promise? Well, now that promise is even more important. You are now the example to these two young boys here."
Artemis looked down, trying to suppress a smile. "No, this is somewhat different."