This is some pretty intense stuff, I gotta admit. I mean, what with the delightful ending of The Time Paradox. Those of you who haven't read the latest Fowl adventure yet, steer clear of this story unless you like being spoiled, or if you are just nosy!
Anywho, I haven't written an Artemis fic in a while, so I hope this lives up to expectations!
Enjoy!
Black Sheep Lullaby
Chapter One - Manicured
Opal Koboi from the past couldn't find a way into Atlantis quite yet to get herself out of her present predicament. She blatantly wondered how her present self survived down there in that watery grave—without manicures too! She hated to be the one to remember that ordeal, and was quite grateful to hole herself in the slums of Haven City until further notice. Of course, it was a bit more cramped than she would have liked, but with just the right modifications, it could do quite nicely for as at least a slave's quarters in the near future.
"Conrad!" she quipped from her cushy seat—the only form of furniture in the small abandoned house—in front of a bright flickering plasma screen, and the holographic keyboard at her glossy manicured fingertips. A small pixie scuttled into the small room, and bowed politely. The pixie couldn't have been any older than a young secondary student, and she had promised him funding for the LEP Academy when his contract with her expired.
Too bad she knew she'd never let him leave—alive, anyway.
"Yes ma'am?" the small pixie asked. He was somewhat tall for his age—about six inches too tall—but she brushed that off as side effects of human radiation and global warming, along with his ashen skin and long black eyelashes. Conrad, after all, wasn't from the best part of town. "Need something, ma'am?"
"Your ears," replied Opal.
The young pixie made himself comfortable on the hard concrete in front of her lush couch, and listened.
So obedient, she mused. Much better than those Brill idiots.
"So of course you realize that my plan is to take over the world, right?" She waited until he nodded, and then continued, "There were a few…hiccups along the way. A lemur here, a flare gun to the face there—just the little assortments of odds and ends. Every beautiful villain needs some sort of resistant, right?"
"Erm, of course."
She pointedly glared. "That wasn't the part where you answer!"
He grimaced. "Sorry, ma'am. Just trying to keep myself interested in the conversation—"
"One more word and you will be tossed into the earth's core, got it?"
Conrad, although he babbled, wasn't stupid by far, and knew when to shut up. Swimming around in the earth's core would be an unpleasant experience, at least until the miasma ate his flesh and liquidated his bones. He clamped his lips together, and listened as best he could.
"Beautiful! Now, where was I? Oh yes, the part where I escaped…" she tapped a freshly manicured nail to her lips, and debated that part, "let's skip to my plan, shall we? I'd rather not remember horrible memories. It'll make my skin age prematurely!"
Mutely, Conrad nodded in agreement, but wondered what she thought skin grafting was for.
Opal smiled wistfully and patted him on the head like a good doggie. "Now, forget the lemur. I won't be able to retrieve that monkey from the LEP without waging a war against Haven itself. And that idiot Mulch stole the llama that might have had the perfect DNA-helix match. And Artemis Fowl—" she said his name like it was acid, or the worst of dwarf fart in the history of Dirt Eating Contests "—is probably on the lookout for me. So, I have no choice!"
She gave a dramatic wail, and put her head in her hands. Conrad made a move to comfort her, and then thought better of it. Instead, he pulled a hankie out from his back pocket, and presented it to her. She took it without a thank you, and blew her nose into it.
"Oh, my plans…my beautiful plans! No—No crying. It'll make my skin crinkly." She dabbed away dry tears and tossed the used hankie back in his face. He batted it away like an human-infected skin pore, and scooted away from where it fell on the floor. Opal paid no attention. "Now, I cannot yet release my dear present half from Atlantis, so I will have to carry on without her for the moment! She'll endure, I'm quite sure."
Conrad was kicking the used hankie as far away from him as possible when he stopped and inclined his head, intruiged. "So, what's the plan boss?"
"The plan? Why, it's simple you fool!" She waved an elegant hand to the large plasma display, and to the six children—human, troll, fairy, dwarf, and pixie—who moved and chatted and retained their daily lives on screen. Conrad felt like he was intruding—just a little. But he was more intrigued than put-off, and stared at the odd assortment of kids with his mouth agape.
"Aren't they beautiful! And, as it is, so easy to Mesmer!"
But the young pixie still didn't get it, and he raised his hand to voice that question. "I don't get it, boss."
"They're my alternative power source, you fool!" she raged, and stood on her comfy couch. She pointed to each one of them with a claw-like manicured finger. "When I suck out the spinal fluid of these children, I can piece them together! It's like a puzzle, my dear Conny! A double helix puzzle that will make me invincible!"
Conrad didn't like his new nickname, but he also didn't like where his boss was taking this. "You mean murder?"
She squealed in anguish and pointed to them harder, as if her clawed fingers could jab her plans into his skull. (Pixies normally had very thin skulls, so it wouldn't be too terribly hard.) "I mean collecting! A hobby! Like baseball cards and those stupid pop tabs!"
"Bottle caps?" he offered.
"Shut up!"
He clamped his mouth closed again.
Opal turned her icy eyes on him, and returned to sitting cross-legged on the couch. "I will take them, and harvest them, and combine their DNA to create the fluid that lemur of mine had."
"But…" Conrad studied each kid individually. From the young dwarf carving his first tunnel, to the troll child tearing out the innards of a raccoon, to the human with dark fire hair buying a very ugly floral dress at a boutique. "…why these kids?"
This time, Opal didn't rage or scream. She simply stared at her only henchman, that devil smile creeping onto her face like poisonous molasses. "Why, my dear child, they're not merely children."
They look pretty normal to me, he thought skeptically.
"These…these creatures, as I will address them as, are abominations."
Still, Conrad was left blank.
So Opal illuminated in an icy winter voice, "They're crossbreeds."
And that, all of a sudden, made perfect, translucent sense. Taboo children, he realized. Kids who were more mud then Mud Men, and lower on the totem pole than silk worms. Kids who couldn't hold jobs, or participate in society, or ever learn that they were inbreeds. If they did, society would have a field day with them. Haven City despised those types of creatures. Haven City turned a cold shoulder to an orphan kid on the streets, begging for a bit of change and not getting it because of abnormal skin, or too tall a height. A cold feeling curled into his stomach, a horrid look coming across his face, and Opal watched with that devilish smile.
"Someone has to eradicate the vermin!" She threw her head back and cackled with a high shrill trill, and Conrad wondered if the LEP Academy was worth this sort of fanatical genocide.
Yes, he finally reasoned. It was.
Crossbreeds, eh? Hmm, poor Conrad! Next stop? The Fowl Manor (muha) and the adorable twins!
Review, please?