Foaly and Holly had came to Fowl manor with nobody else but the clone, so needless to say it was Holly who drove the shuttle back to Haven City. Whilst Holly was a very dood driver, she still felt a need for speed. A speed at which Foaly now knew well, as he had rode down here with Holly and had a bumped his head on the ceiling an exact number of fifteen times. He should know- he did count.
They sped past rocks, dirt, and anything else you could find in an underground magma vent. Holly, of course, sat in the front compartment, while Foaly, Butler, and the newly ressurected Artemis in the back. Butler stared intently at his young charge. He wanted to make sure that he didn't die on him again. Because if he did then well...he would just make Foaly perform his little put-spirit-in-clone-body thing again. Foaly was taking the time to tell Artemis how it was he who brought him back to life, and that he should be thanking him and congratulating him on how clever he was. Artemis, even though he had lost his memories, he hadn't lost his personality or his brains, so he knew from what Foaly had told him of his coming back to life, and he knew that Foaly hadn't thought of the clone.
" On the contarary of what you say, Mr. Foaly, I believe that it was I who thought up the clone theory- not you." Artemis said, sitting straight-backed in a seat that was meant for people up to four feet tall.
Foaly stumbled mid-sentence, and immediately made a futile attempt to convince Artemis that even though Artemis had thought up the clone, he was still smarter than him. Ever since Artemis had told him in his will that if he said that Artemis was smarter than him, he would get information on a space program that Artemis himself had created, he had been humiliated. So, Foaly hoped to use Artemis's new founded memory loss to his advantage. "Well, I did speed up the cloning process from two years to six months." Foaly told Artemis smugly, trying to find a way that Artemis could conquer that statement. He couldn't find any.
Then Artemis gave Foaly a facial expression he dreaded- his characteristic vampire smile. " Yes, Foaly, you did. But from what I know from clones it is usually fairy clones, not human clones. And as a fairy has a much longer life span than a human, I believe that is why the cloning of myself turned out to be much faster than the norm. Which is, I believe, roughly two years."
Foaly sat there uncomfortably in his chair, trying to think of a come-back to that statement. Just as he had thought of one, the shuttle suddenly swerved sharply to the right. The result of which included having all three passengers bumping their heads against the walls. From the shuttle pilots area Holly called to them, " Sorry, guys, I had to break up that little nerd fight of yours."
For the rest of the ride, Foaly and Artemis didn't have another- as Holly called it- nerd fight. But Foaly did question Artemis about how he felt. Artemis kept telling Foaly that he felt fine, and to stop bugging him with questions. Foaly, of course, could see that the questions were annoying Artemis, so he kept asking them.
After perhaps the one-hundred and seventy-fifth question, the shuttle reached Haven City. Before they went outside the shuttle, Holly threw the cam-foil of which they had hid the clone over Artemis's form. They walked out of the shuttle and into the city limits. The city was still rebuiding itself, but it did look a great deal better than when it had been six months ago. Six months ago, n, from whichirds of Haven City had been destroyed, but now they were placing the finishing touches on rebuilding the city. Holly, Foaly, Butler, and the hidden Artemis walked together to Police Plaza, which had been one of the first buildings to have been rebuilt.
When they reached the building, Foaly led them to his ops-booth, where he proceeded to ask Artemis, who had removed the cam-foil, even more an entire hour of questioning, Foaly returned to his computer and began doing even more research. Foaly then found what he was looking for, and explained to Artemis why he'd asked all those questions. Unfortunately for the group, they failed to notice the opening of the ops-booth door, from which stepped in Commander Kelp and council member Cahartez.
For a moment the two stood there in utter shock as they stared at Artemis, who should be lying down in the ground dead, but instead he was standing there as if he had never perished. Not long after though, Trouble shouted, " What in Fronds name is he doing here?" By which time the other people in the room had begun to notice that they were not alone. They turned and saw that Trouble's face was a shade of red that would have made Commander Root proud.
Foaly looked over at Artemis and quickly attempted to explain. " You see here, Trouble, Artemis did die, but his spirit never left the Earth. And so, with the help of Holly, I managed to make a clone of Artemis and insert the spirit into the clones body." In a brief moment of greed, Foaly hoped that his income wouldn't be shortened by what he had done.
Commander Trouble and council member Cahartez stood there listening to Foaly, betraying no emotion whatsoever. When Foaly had finished explaining, Cahartez said, " I need to consult with the other members of the council." And with that he left the room with Commander Kelp.
The people that had been left behind dealt with it in their own way. Foaly worried that he would lose his salary. Butler concentrated on escape routes if need be. Artemis smugly thought that whatever those fairies threw at him, he would be able to beat. Holly concentrated on not losing Artemis again.
Artemis, who could see that Holly was worried about him, walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. " Don't worry about me. I'm sure that whatever they throw at me, I will beat. After all, I have faced death and won." Artemis said proudly.
Holly looked over at his hand on her shoulder. " I know you will." They stood there for heaven knows how long, until Trouble and Cahartez returned with a decision. Cahartez walked over to Artemis and pointed a finger at him. " Luckily for you, mud man, we have decided not to mindwipe you. But if you show any inkling of betraying the faries, we will do a full mind-wipe on you, and send you to another country."
" I agree to those terms." Artemis said, and for a moment Holly thought she saw a trace of relief in his face.
Frowning, Cahartez and Trouble left the room, leaving the group of friends behind them. Artemis turned back to Holly. " Now, if you don't mind, will you please continue with the story of my life?" Smiling, Holly continued with the story of her friend's life, happy that he had finally returned.
author's notes- so how'd it go? Was anybody out of character? Because I hate that. ex. Artemis wearing jeans without being in a life-threatening situation or Angeline making him.
Oh, and when you review, please give your honest opinion, but no flames, please!