Okay, my first fanfic which I've thrown together to celebrate making an account :) so hopefully I'm not making any glaringly stupid mistakes. If I am please let me know so I can fix 'em/apologize for my newbie ignorance.
Let's see...redundant disclaimer: Obviously I own no characters or other copyrighted materials, although I wish I did. If any original characters emerge later on I'll make a note.
I should mention that from Artemis' point of view this is happening sometime after The Time Paradox (my favorite book!). For the purposes of this narrative I'm ignoring The Atlantis Complex, mostly because it leaves Artemis and pretty much everything all screwed up and with fewer options in terms of plot. So I suppose this is an alternate continuation of the story after the events of Time Paradox. For the Doctor it's 5th season before Rory comes aboard. (Update 1/24/12: Actually, no, that makes no sense. It's 5th season after Rory dies for the first time. My bad.)
Thanks! Allez-y!
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The time stream walls pulsed with blue energy. Holly felt refreshed, as if she and Artemis were surrounded by cold, flowing water. She could feel N*1's magic leading them onwards, a hot red thread cutting through time.
It was hard to judge how sudden or gradual the transition was, but Holly became aware of a change. There was a charge building in the time stream, like the air before a thunderstorm. She glanced at Artemis, and saw his hair rising with static electricity. He returned her look with a worried one of his own and gestured towards the time stream walls. The tunnel was filling with shadow, and the walls were greying and churning, as if they were turning into storm clouds. Something's wrong...
As she looked back towards Artemis light flashed. She blinked, a jagged fork branded across her vision. Lightning? That can't be! Another bolt illuminated the rapidly-darkening tunnel, giving her a glimpse of Artemis' shocked face. He gestured something, but Holly couldn't make it out. Trying to quell the panic rising within her, she tried to reach towards him-
The world went white.
~O~
Artemis could hear a piercing electronic whine. His eyelids fluttered open, only to be blinded by a green glare. He let out a moan.
"Oh, hello there!" The light and noise stopped abruptly and Artemis could focus on the man kneeling over him. With a flick of his wrist, the man withdrew a cylindrical instrument from Artemis' face and brought it to eye level to examine, brow furrowed in surprise beneath a ridiculous hairdo. He seemed to be wearing a rather old suit with a red bow tie and matching suspenders, and behind him was some sort of console surrounding a glowing glass structure.
Where was he? Artemis swiveled his head, which throbbed with the movement, but could only see more lights and wires through a glass floor. Some sort of control room, or laboratory?
"Surprisingly, you're more or less fine. Frazzled by the radiation of course, but frankly you should be a puff of vapor by now." The man, apparently British, had stowed the instrument in a pocket and was offering Artemis his hand. Artemis took it and shakily got to his feet.
"Now, who are you, how in the world did you get into the time vortex, and not least, why are you in your pants? I'm the Doctor, by the way."
"Artemis Fowl the second, and it's a long story..." said Artemis guardedly, brushing himself off and silently cursing N*1's one-article-of-clothing limit. He still wasn't entirely convinced that the little demon hadn't made that one up. He looked back towards this doctor. "Where am I? Did you bring me here?"
"Artemis? Really Artemis?" the Doctor read Artemis' expression. "Nice name, nice name. Classic. Anyways,you're in my TARDIS, and it was her that brought you here, lucky for you." the doctor leaned against the banister. "T-A-R-D-I-S, Time And Relative Dimension In Space. It's a-"
"A time machine? You have a vehicle for the time stream?"
"Yes, clever you. And not only do I have a ship, my ship generates a protective field around itself, and the field is sensitive. Your passing into it initiated an automatic man overboard program. My question is, how did you, apparently a human, Irish, twenty...first century, I believe, find your way into the vortex with no vehicle, no tech and not least, no trousers? 'Time stream' is an inaccurate description, by the way."
Artemis tried to process this information. The man, a doctor apparently, had technology to rival and even outdo fairy magic. He was aware of other races, although he himself seemed human, and was apparently a seasoned time traveler. From Earth's future, perhaps? "Sorry, what time are you from? The future? You're also human, I can assume?"
"No on both counts, as a matter of fact. I'm not from Earth. And when I'm from is hard to say...a long time ago, I suppose. Listen, would you like some trousers?"
"Er...yes, thanks."Alien? As far as Artemis knew, the People had yet to make contact with extraterrestrial life, and even his own monitoring of the skies had so far only yielded vague, meaningless signals. "You look like a human."
"You look like a Time Lord. That's my species, by the way. POND!" The doctor shouted towards a doorway. "Fetch some clothes for our guest!" He turned back to Artemis. " Now, you seem sharp. Explain how you got here, using what technology, and I can help you get wherever you're headed. I suppose you either fell in or were pushed- unheard of, highly improbable, but it could happen, I suppose, and if you were lucky enough to fall directly into the TARDIS' field you could avoid being fried."
Artemis decided to tell the truth, unusually. He had no way of knowing what this doctor already knew, and his trust seemed crucial if Artemis was going anywhere. "I was going home, as a matter of fact. My partner, a demon warlock, was directing us through the stream, when, well, it seemed like a thunderstorm hit. My friend and I were hit by lightning, or so it seemed, and I woke up here-" Holly! Where was she? "My friend! Is she here too?"
"I didn't...the TARDIS only intercepted you," the Doctor said slowly. "If you were with someone... they didn't pass into the field. I'm sorry... without guidance, not even a vortex manipulator...well, there's little to no chance of them finding their way out."
Artemis tried to process this information. Their journey in the time stream had been diverted somehow. He remembered the storm. It was as if the time stream had been contaminated-a turbulent period of history, or perhaps N*1 was having a mood swing. This man, this doctor, seemed to think you needed a vehicle to travel the time stream, that you needed protection. Artemis had had no opportunity to study the stream, but after all, the People had been manipulating time for millenia. She could very well have been carried through the storm, while Artemis had run into this ship. Yes. She must be safe. The alternative just didn't bear thinking about.
The man was giving him a hard-to-read look. Artemis stiffened. "Sir, your intentions are appreciated. However, I believe your knowledge is somewhat lacking. My friend and I have made multiple journeys through the time stream, or vortex, if you prefer, with no adverse effects excepting an accelerated aging problem which seems to have now been alleviated, as I hypothesized. If your ship can carry me to a specific date with any precision, that would be appreciated, and as for my friend, I have every confidence that she simply continued to follow my colleague's trail, as I would have done had not your TARDIS 'rescued' me. And I apologize, but I didn't catch your name the first time. Doctor who, exactly?"
The man blinked, then to Artemis' surprise broke into a wide grin. "We have a prodigy! I love prodigies. Just the Doctor is fine, thank you. Now, I am intrigued. Did you say a demon warlock?"
Artemis opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by a woman's voice. Scottish, by the accent. "Here's your trousers, kid." He turned in time to clumsily catch a bundle of fabric that had been tossed to him from below the glass platform. A red-haired woman, maybe in her twenties and dressed in casual 21st-century clothes ascended a staircase to Artemis' right.
"Well? Quit staring and get some clothes on," she said. Artemis reddened and extracted a pair of tweed trousers from the bundle.
"Artemis Fowl the second, Amelia Pond. My companion." The Doctor turned to Amelia. "Amy, this is Artemis. The TARDIS picked him up."
"What, like a hitchhiker?"
"More like an SOS."
"What, so he was just floating? You can do that?"
"Not exactly-"
"I think I can help here," said Artemis, doing up the buttons on his shirt. To his surprise and amusement, the clothes he had been given were almost exactly the same as the ones worn by the Doctor. He hiked up the sleeves and bent to roll up his pant cuffs. "I'm sure you're aware of the existence of the People?"
The Doctor looked surprised and intrigued. "What? What people?"
"Oh..."Artemis hesitated, not wanting to divulge his friends' secret. Well, it was too late now. "The People. You know, fairies. Living under the earth? A whole civilization?"
"The Silurians? Wait, are they all, you know, scaly?" asked the Doctor, gesturing to his arm as if he was rubbing on sunscreen.
"Um, some of them. Not most of them." Artemis looked to the other one, Amy, to see if he was getting anything, " Elves, dwarves, goblins, pixies? No?" Apparently not, based on the pair's expressions.
"There's more stuff hiding out underground?" Amy looked to the Doctor. "Isn't it getting a bit crowded in there?"
"No, there can't be, those are just human myths. I'd know, I'm sure I'd know." The Doctor looked at Artemis appraisingly. "We're definitely talking about Earth, right? Sol 3, blue and green, great cricket?"
"Are you saying you've been to other planets?" said Artemis.
"Okay, I think we'd better start at the beginning here. I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. This is Amy. She's a human, 21st century, just like you. This is the TARDIS, and it takes us wherever and whenever we want to go. We travel around, see the sights, that sort of thing. And you are?"
"Like I said, Artemis Fowl," Artemis said slowly. "I'm, well, I'm from Earth. Ireland. Maybe you've heard of my father? Artemis Fowl the first? No? Well... several years ago I discovered the People. I know it's hard to believe-" he remembered his surroundings. "well, maybe not for you. But fairies and magic are real. A long time ago they used to live above ground, but humans drove them off so they moved their entire civilization underground. Pixies, trolls, dwarves, the whole bunch."
The Doctor was giving Artemis a hard, calculating look. "You said a demon warlock sent you here?"
"Yes. The demons are the most powerful magicians of the People. Only the demon warlocks are strong enough to send someone through time. Me and my friend, a elfin police officer, were coming home. Everything was as normal as it gets when you're in the time stream, but then, well, it was like a storm came up, and there was lightning, and your box came out of nowhere. I woke up in here." Artemis felt uncomfortable under the Doctor's stare. "It didn't look so big from the outside."
"Yeah, it's complicated." Artemis opened his mouth but the Doctor kept going. "Okay, I can take you back to your own time, but on one condition. I want to meet the People." Amy shot him a quizzical look, and he responded, "I still don't quite believe that there are whole races on Earth I don't know about. They must have amazing technology to hide that well."
"No, I'm all for it," said Amy. "Let's go meet the fairies."
Artemis hesitated, then decided. "Okay, but I'm warning you, they won't be happy. They take secrecy very seriously." Holly's there. She must be.
"No-o problem. We're good at keeping secrets, right, Amy?" Amy smiled.
With that, the Doctor bounded over to the round console and began rapidly manipulating the controls.
"Don't you need to know where to go?" asked Artemis. "Date, coordinates?"
"Good question, but no, the TARDIS can extrapolate from your temporal signature." the Doctor swung around to the the other side of the console "It's quite clever, really...here we go!" He threw his weight onto a lever with an exhilarated grin. Something about the harmonics of the background hum changed to suggest movement.
Artemis stepped back out of the way as the Doctor danced around the controls.
N*1 is in for a surprise...
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At this point it looks like people tend to plead, make threats, or otherwise bargain to get reviews, sometimes with really creepy results. So you probably know already that reviews are much sought-after. I guess I'll join the mob anyways by saying I'd really appreciate any response, especially ideas for improvement. Make me happy! Reduce my newbiness! Review!