Holly found herself sliding very fast across the floor, her left leg broken at the knee dragging behind her. She had been convulsively hurled by the troll after an impact with its head had injured her. He had squeezed her hard, and as she turned her headlights on just in time, he had thrown her convulsively across the floor. She hoped for a moment that the pain from this high speed impact with the wall would not come right away, but hurt later. Her pessimistic side kicked in then, and it knew that she would be crushed and maybe killed. Then she hit with a bone smashing crash. Pain blinded her and she fell, her lungs pierced and her back shattered.
Back at the computer base, Root had Foaly bring up the vital signals from her helmet. The audio picked up a bone shattering crash and a thump.
"Whoa!" Foaly exclaimed. "Her pain level just flew off of the charts!" Commander Root gasped. He looked where Foaly pointed. One bar was jammed at the top of the screen. They listened carefully to the audio. Pained gasps were all that could be heard. Root yelled into the radio to her helmet.
"Short! Talk to me!" He yelled.
"She can't, commander. Her lungs were crushed and her back was shattered. See? The pain meter hasn't budged." Foaly said.
"The magic will heal her though!" Root exclaimed, purpling.
"If she doesn't die first." Foaly muttered.
Root listened to the audio. The breathing had stopped, but there was still a faint pulse.
Holly was still alive, but just barely. As she fell, horribly injured, she managed to touch Butler's arm. Her touch instantly started healing him instead of herself, so she lay gasping in agony until even that stopped. Once the large human was healed, her body started healing itself, and it was almost too late. Her heart had stopped for a few moments, but as Foaly and Root held their breath, it started again and the pain went down slightly.
Butler sat up completely healed. He looked at the twisted body of the elf lying against the wall, the fingers of one small hand resting on his forearm. Blue sparks seemed to sink in at the points of his injuries. He healed at the touch of them. He looked again at the elf. She was not being healed, but when he was completely healed, he slid her hand off of his arm, and she started slowly improving. Her body convulsively twitched as her bones fit back into their proper places. Butler could hear vibrations coming from her helmet.
She moaned softly and opened her eyes. The vibrations stopped. She mumbled something unintelligibly. Her eyes shifted back to the suit of armor behind which Juliet was still mesmerized.
"Juliet!" She gasped, loud enough for Butler to hear. He looked over to where his sister was still sitting, the huge form of the troll in front of her. The monster grabbed her around the middle and was squeezing, his claws digging in. She was beating on his face and screaming. Butler grabbed a mace from the ground and whacked the creature on the head hard. It fell backward. Juliet fell limp from its hand.
Butler slid to his knees beside his sister's bleeding body. He was sobbing hopelessly, then he heard a sound behind him. He turned. It was the elf, Holly. She was dragging her broken body forward with one arm. She stretched out and touched Juliet's out flung arm. She mumbled something and went limp, as the healing power again switched from her to another. When Juliet was completely healed and took her arm away from the elf, Butler gently rolled Holly over. She was unconscious, but the blue sparks were working on her again.
As Juliet realized what had happened, she started crying as she bent over the little body. Butler took his sister away and up to Artemis, leaving Holly lying on the floor to recover on her own. Holly's vision reeled from the pain of moving and the lack of consistent healing she'd had. She heard Root shouting again.
"Short! Short what's happening?" He sounded furious.
"The… the troll!" She gasped in a tortured whisper. Then the listeners on the other side heard a thumping noise coming toward Holly's microphone through the floor. It seemed that the troll had reawakened and was walking toward Holly.
Foaly hacked into one of Artemis's cameras that monitored the hallway and saw it all. The troll was lumbering toward Holly's body.
"Your shield, Holly. Shield yourself! NOW!" Root roared. Holly mumbled again, and disappeared on the screen. The troll stopped walking. He started sniffing the air. Searching for her.
"Get up Holly! Hide!" Foaly whispered.
Holly moaned. They heard her move slightly, again dragging herself away with one arm. The troll's scents were confused. He could smell Juliet's blood still pooled in the middle of the floor, and Butler's by the wall, alongside Holly's. She dragged herself into another room. It was a sort of closet. She hauled herself farther in and, feeling safe in the still darkness, she passed out again.
Foaly, who had been monitoring Holly's vital signs gave Root a brief report.
"She's on the floor in a kind of closet. Don't yell at her, Root, she can't hear you. She's out cold. Too much pain."
He pointed at the screen, where the pain indicator had only dropped slightly.
"She's healing, though. She'll wake up slowly in a few minutes as the pain reduces and her bones knit." Root winced at the snap of a rapidly healing bone he heard on the receiver. Even though she would heal fully in a few minutes, he didn't like for her to have to go through that much pain.
What Holly reawoke to was something between a hallucination and a nightmare. It was the brutish troll standing over her, drooling on her boots. She was almost completely healed, although the pain was still intense in some places. She heard Root whispering in her ear.
"Holly? You there? Do you hear me?" He sounded worried.
"Commander?" She asked in a weak whisper.
"Okay. The troll's standing over you right now. Do your tunnel lights work?"
"If I bump them they'll flash." She whispered again.
"Well, sit up and smack 'em. Blind the troll and try to slip past him when he's down." He said.
Holly obeyed instantly. She sat bolt upright, stared at the troll, and whacked her helmet. Pain shot through her head, but the lights flashed bright. The troll reeled backwards and started flailing.
"Okay, now, run past him." Root said.
Holly staggered to her feet and scrambled forward. She made a mad dash to get past the troll. She staggered slightly on her feet and at each step, pain seared up her back. She was almost past the troll when a wayward flying fist struck her on the back of her neck. Her neck was snapped and she was slammed hard into the opposite wall. That caused about the same injuries the last encounter had, only a bit worse.
Foaly and Root saw it from the command point. They both flinched at the same moment, as a side on camera caught Holly's expression as her neck was snapped and she was thrown into the wall. Complete and utter agony, like nothing else they had ever seen in anyone's face. The impact with the wall reopened most of Holly's previous injuries. She was in too much pain to even cry out. She couldn't anyway. Her lungs were both crushed like before. Her neck cracked and shot even more pain through her body as her head lolled sideways, facing the camera Foaly and Root were watching. Blood flowed freely over her face and broken neck from multiple injuries on her face. Her helmet's visor had been shattered in the first impact, and the shards of Plexiglas had since scored deep gouges on her face. The battered, scratched helmet was dented, and cracked down the front.
The worst part of it for her watchers was that she was still conscious and was experiencing all the pain possible. Her face was a tattered mess. Her eyes stared, sightless in her agony, straight ahead. When they focused, the world she saw was fuzzy and tinged red. She heard running footsteps and felt herself slipping away.
Before Holly had time to pass out, she was grabbed by two strong arms, lifted, and carried away at a run. At first she thought it was the troll, but when no claws sank into her tortured body, she realized that it was the human, Butler, who had grabbed her. She felt herself jolted up a few sets of stairs. She thought he was going to lock her back in her cell, and with her last reserves of consciousness and strength, she punched him in the nose with a small fist. It didn't hurt him, but it made him realize what Holly assumed he was going to do. It also loosened his grip with the realization that she still had enough fight in her to resist. He dropped her limp body to the floor in surprise.
He soon regretted it, as his heart went out to the little creature lying motionless on the floor. He thought about where he could put Holly so that she could be safe. He looked around. He heard the thumping footsteps of the troll behind him. He decided to continue as he had planned. He scooped the little body back up into his arms and started running again. He reached Artemis's study soon and let himself in. Juliet was there, still mesmerized. He laid the little elf down on the floor. Artemis stared at her slashed face. Butler confronted him. He told Artemis how Holly had saved his life once, and Juliet's twice.
"Isn't that enough to release her, Artemis? She's dying!" He exclaimed. It was almost true too. Holly was pretty far gone. Her small body was in shock and not healing fast from the doubled injuries. Her pain marker was back at the top of Foaly's screen.
"Not until I get my gold." Artemis said, but it wasn't a whole hearted statement.
"How about this then." Butler proposed. "Half a ton of 24 karat gold, she releases Juliet from the Mesmer, they take the troll away, and promise not to drop a bio bomb. We release Holly, promise not to tell their sacred secrets, and settle with half a ton of pure gold."
Artemis thought for a moment. He looked down at Holly's still body, blood from the slashes running across her face, pooling in her shattered helmet, dripping on his floor, and at Juliet sitting mesmerized in a corner. He listened to the thumping of the troll below. Something shattered. It sounded expensive. Finally, he said,
"Okay. It'll work. I'll tell them." He picked up the radio, set to Root's signal and relayed the information.
"You have permission to come in and retrieve your troll, then send half of the gold. Take the Mesmer off of Juliet, and Butler will bring Holly to you. She has direct permission to leave. I'll promise not to tell your secrets if you promise not to bio bomb us." He said.
"Done." Commander Root ground. "Sent your Juliet down for us to remove the Mesmer. And Fowl, if you're lying, we'll be prepared to shoot."
"I understand why you do not trust me, so I will come in person, unarmed."
The troll was soon contained and the gold was soon there. Artemis came, as he had said. Commander Root himself removed the Mesmer from Juliet, and Butler carried Holly's limp body down from Artemis's study. He laid her on a waiting stretcher. Foaly checked her vital signs again.
"She's still healing slowly. She's in shock right now. Best to get her to the doctors as soon as possible." He said.
The fairies released the time stop and left, carrying Holly Short with them. She stayed unconscious the entire time, and Root constantly had Foaly checking her vital signs. The pain meter stayed near the top, and didn't dip very far down, but it wasn't jammed at the top either.
Root was very afraid for Holly. Usually an unemotional elf, he surprised himself with his concern, but it was Foaly who won the prize. He was crying huge and plentiful tears and using an already blood soaked handkerchief to swab the blood off of Holly's still face. She didn't move, and her pulse slowed gradually on the way back. She almost stopped breathing, but Foaly found a respirator and held the end on Holly's nose and mouth, still crying and trying to stem the blood flow.
Holly was handed over to the hospital staff as soon as the shuttle got back. They stabilized her battered body. As she healed under her own power, she slowly slipped out of shock and into an exhausted sleep. The next time she opened her eyes, she found herself lying on a hospital bed. Foaly and Root were standing beside her, looking down on her with concern in their faces. Root quickly shielded himself and disappeared, muttering something about being very busy. Foaly shook his head and smiled. Holly weakly smiled back. She was too weak and dizzy to see the shimmer of light still hovering behind Foaly.