A/N: Ahhhhh sorry for the wait. Here's an extra long chapter for ya'll as a consolation. That's good right? *smiles sweetly*
Chapter 7/A Plan Gone Fowl
Artemis Fowl sat on the deck, staring off at the horizon as the sun sank behind buildings in the distance, casting a pink and gold hue over the city. As metallically beautiful as it was, he felt homesick for Ireland and the Fowl Manor. It was strange to feel homesick, since he usually did not bother much with thinking about home, but he had to admit to himself that he missed his family and Butler. Juliet was good to have around in a fight, but Butler had been like the older brother Artemis had never had, although he never would have admitted that to anyone. He was slowly becoming used to having Juliet at his side instead of the large man, but it still felt awkward sometimes.
A large sheet covered the place where the glass doors used to be. The hotel had yet to fix it, but apparently repair men were coming in the next afternoon. Juliet pulled back the sheet and stepped out onto the deck, frowning slightly when she saw Artemis sitting there.
"Arty, are you sure it's safe to be out here?"
Artemis glanced over and gave Juliet a wry smile. "I hardly think the wind is strong enough to lift me bodily over the railing. I'm just sitting, Juliet. I'm perfectly safe."
She blushed slightly but shook her head. "That's not exactly what I meant."
There was a short pause.
"You mean I could be struck out of the sky by angry gods for what we're planning to do." He spoke her thoughts so candidly, she could only nod mutely. Settling back in the lawn chair, he closed his eyes. "The plan is foolproof. The gods will know that."
"Artemis, this is very different from what we're used to," Juliet said, concern coloring her tone. "I mean, fairies we could handle. But gods? They're . . . so much more than we've encountered before. More powerful. What if the plan doesn't work? They could kill you, Artemis. They could strike you down the minute something goes wrong."
"Nothing's going to go wrong," Artemis said confidently. "Really Juliet, your concern is touching, but you know me. My plans have never gone wrong." Strictly speaking that was not entirely true. There had been kinks in his plans before, things he had not been expecting. But everything had gone his way in the end.
"Still, I'll be glad when Butler and Holly get here."
Artemis gave Juliet a sharp look. "We can't speak about it, remember? We have no idea who's listening."
Juliet grimaced. "Right, sorry." There was another pause during which Juliet crouched beside the chair and put her hand lightly on Artemis's shoulder.
"Tell me you know what you're doing, Arty," she pleaded softly in a voice she never, ever used. "Tell me everything's going to turn out just fine, and we won't burn in Hades for all eternity for doing . . . what we're going to do."
Artemis opened his eyes and looked down into Juliet's, blue and hazel meeting green in a serious gaze. Suddenly to Juliet it seemed as though the years Artemis had lost had come back on him all at once. The premature lines around his eyes and forehead deepened, and she could tell, just for a moment, that he was tired. Tired of all these dangerous schemes and plots. But then just as suddenly the lines smoothed out and a fierce determination lit his gaze and burned through her with an energetic fire. And she knew that just because this plan might be more dangerous than any he had ever done, did not mean it would not work, it only meant that he would work at it ten times harder. And he would win. He always won. This would be no exception.
"Everything's going to turn out just fine," he repeated finally. His pale, slender hand moved hesitantly upward as if to touch her cheek.
Eyes widening slightly, she pulled back and stood, nodding her head respectfully.
"Thank you, sir," she said, all formality snapping back into place. Turning, she left the deck hurriedly.
Artemis blinked, staring at his hand as if it belonged to another. Slowly he let it fall back into his lap, wondering if he was so far gone thinking and rethinking through his plan that he had lost control of his extremities. It was just . . . seeing her looking up at him like that . . . the trust in her eyes had been overwhelming. He had known if he had expressed one word of doubt about his plan she would have called everything off and whisked him back to Ireland for his own safety. The moment he had engineered his plan he had known that he would be responsible for her life as well as the lives of the demigods. Everything depended on him and the thought of letting any of them down . . .
Well, that simply would not happen. It never did. His plans were always perfect. Glancing down at his hand, he clenched his fingers into a fist and put aside the memory of Juliet's face looking up at him. He had a plan to execute.
Juliet shivered slightly as she crossed to the kitchen to pour herself some water. She knew she had no reason to be afraid, but somehow she still was. She was afraid of what was going to happen to them during this insane plan of her employer's. But it was more than that, she had seen, just for a second, a look of slight vulnerability on Artemis's face in that one moment their gazes locked. And that look scared her more than anything.
-----
"So apparently my dad thinks it'll be relaxing for everyone if we take a trip to the beach." Rachel rolled her eyes.
Artemis did not look up from his phone, which he was using to access the internet. Juliet sat beside him, a thoughtful frown on her face. Nico was staring sullenly out the window, and Annabeth was watching him worriedly, her hand tightly grasping that of Percy, who was staring out of his own window. The silence was tense and uncomfortable. Thalia and her Hunters had left the hotel earlier that morning. The daughter of Zeus promised to keep in touch via Iris-messages when she could.
"Of course," Rachel went on when no one responded. "He doesn't really know what we're up to so . . ." she trailed off when she still received no response. With a sigh she fiddled listlessly with the edge of the poncho that she wore over her bathing suit. Everyone was dressed for the beach, except for Artemis who was wearing his usual suit.
Rachel had rolled her eyes when she saw him step out of his room. "Artemis," she had said in exasperation. "We're going to the beach. Look at the rest of us." She waved a hand to Juliet who was wearing a simple, black one-piece with long shorts and flip-flops. Of course the many pockets of her shorts housed a knife, a small handgun, a pair of handcuffs, some mace, and a cellphone. Just in case. Annabeth wore a modest blue and gray two-piece with long khaki shorts and sandals. Her curly hair was pulled back into a ponytail and she carried a beach bag full of towels, sunscreen, water bottles, and her laptop (in case there was wi-fi at a shack, she said).
Percy was shirtless with swimming trunks that were covered with tropical fish of various colors. He wore flip-flops as well and a long towel around his neck. In the pocket of his trunks was Riptide. Only Nico wore more clothes than the rest, with black swimming trucks covered with grinning, white skulls and a black t-shirt. Annabeth suspected that under his shirt he was almost frightfully skinny and was avoiding comments on it. Strapped to his side was his Stygian sword which would be concealed by the mist. Rachel herself was wearing short shorts and a red poncho over her string bikini.
Artemis looked over the rest of the group and then down at his suit. "I have nothing else," he had admitted finally with a shrug. "This is as casual as I go." And it was casual. He was not wearing his Italian shoes.
After what felt like an eternity, the limo pulled up at the beach and everyone piled out of the car. Annabeth led the way to a spot on the sand far away from the vacationers and tourists. Rachel's chauffer helped her and Annabeth set up beach chairs and umbrellas. Immediately Annabeth sat down and opened her laptop, checking for internet. Impossibly she was able to access a wireless network and she began studying some building plans she was working on. Artemis sat in a chair next to her and continued to work on his phone. Juliet stood behind him, dark sunglasses covering her sharp green eyes as she kept an eye out for any danger.
Percy went straight for the water. Tossing his towel aside, he flipped into the waves, shouting triumphantly. Rachel peeled off her shorts, kicked off her shoes, and tossed her poncho on top of them. With a grin she ran after Percy into the water. Nico did not join the others. He stood in the sand, squinting in the sun. He did not look comfortable out in the heat and bright light. Shifting slightly, he glanced from Percy and Rachel to Annabeth and Artemis, as if wondering which group he would not mind sitting with the least. With a small sigh he trudged back to Artemis and Annabeth, plopping down in the sand beside Annabeth's chair, in the shade of her umbrella. Drawing his knees up to his chest, he watched her work silently. If Annabeth was unnerved by his presence, she did not let on, only kept working.
An hour or so passed and Rachel came up, dripping. She grinned at Annabeth. "Come on," she beckoned, "the water's great! Besides, I think Percy is getting a little lonely." She winked cheekily and Annabeth rolled her eyes.
"Fine, I'll go in for a bit." She tossed a towel to Rachel and stood, glancing over at Artemis. She was about to ask if he wanted to come, but his eyes were closed and it looked like he was dozing. Not wanting to disturb him, she turned to Nico.
"Come swim with us?" she asked gently, holding her hand out to him.
He stared at the hand for a moment before taking it and hauling himself to his feet. It did not take much effort. Annabeth shivered slightly and was half-relieved, half-worried when Nico slipped his fingers out of hers. Despite the heat of the day, his hand was as cold as ice.
Stepping out of her sandals and khakis, Annabeth ran toward the surf, diving in once she hit the water. Percy caught her underneath a wave and together they broke the surface, grinning.
"Maybe Mr. Dare was right about coming here to relax," he said, pushing wet hair out of her eyes tenderly.
"It certainly helped you," Annabeth observed. Then, remembering Nico, she turned and glanced over at the slight boy standing at the water's edge, his dark head bent as if he were staring at the sand beneath his feet.
"Is he still angry?" Percy asked hesitantly, his grin fading.
Annabeth sighed. "I think so." Nico's head came up and Annabeth waved, but he did not see her, instead looking out toward one of the docks in the distance. She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment, thinking of how to get him to relax. However in that moment a huge wave tumbled over her and Percy. The son of Poseidon let the wave drag them to the sand, and they tumbled over each other, laughing.
When they stopped, Percy was on top of Annabeth. He grinned down at her and she smiled back. Slowly, he lowered himself and covered her lips with his own.
While the demigods were frolicking in the serf, Rachel laid out in the sand on a beach towel, soaking up some sun. She had lathered herself with sunscreen and hoped that she would actually tan and not burn like she usually did. Feeling someone's eyes on her, she turned slightly and looked up at Artemis who was leaning back in his chair, his eyes now shaded by sunglasses. Still she smirked.
"Are you checking me out, Master Fowl?" she asked playfully.
She was rewarded with a surprised cough that sounded slightly guilty if she heard correctly. She grinned as he lowered the glasses and frowned at her.
"As I'm sure you know, Miss Dare," he said as condescendingly as possible, "I have never 'checked out' a girl in my life and have no intention of ever doing so." He paused for a moment before adding, "It is very much below my maturity level." Even so, he blushed faintly. At least she thought it was a blush. It was hard to tell since his face had been already flushed with sun he was unused to. Juliet moved the umbrella as close as possible to insure her employer had as much shade as possible.
"Come off your high horse, Fowl," Rachel said, rolling her eyes. "You're fifteen. It's perfectly in your right to check out a girl. In fact, I think you should start soon, otherwise you might be called homo." She smirked deviously as Artemis coughed again.
Before he could answer however, a loud, angry yell came from the water. Whipping her head around, Rachel scanned the shoreline. Her eyes landed on Percy and Annabeth, making out on the sand. She raised an eyebrow at this uncharacteristic public display of affection then trailed her gaze over to where the shout had come from. She sat up suddenly as Nico ran at the couple and tackled Percy, rolling the bigger boy off of Annabeth.
"Hey!" she shouted, standing quickly, wondering what had happened.
In truth Nico did not really know himself. He had been standing there, enduring the painful sunlight as best he could, debating with himself whether to go into the water or not. Annabeth wanted him to join them, but then he would have to be with her and Percy. The odd one out. The third wheel. He gritted his teeth slightly at the thought, though he was used to being an outsider. It was Percy that made all the difference. The boy he had trusted, seen as a friend. The boy who had lied to him; who had let Bianca die.
Suddenly Nico noticed that the two were no longer in the water. He turned around and saw them a couple feet down from him. They were kissing. Passionately. Percy was on top . . . holding Annabeth down, pressing her into the hot sand. . . . Something inside Nico snapped. His hands began trembling, his vision grew red. With a wild cry of rage, he ran at the boy, tackling him, dragging him off of Annabeth. In a distant part of his mind he heard Rachel call to him indignantly, he heard Annabeth's gasp of horror, but he was too focused on defeating the murderer once and for all.
Pummeling with his fists did no good, Nico soon found out. Percy's indestructible skin just caused Nico's knuckles to crack and bleed. Rolling off him, Nico drew his sword and slashed down. In an instant, Riptide was in Percy's hand and he was fending the smaller boy off.
"Nico!" he panted. "What are you doing?"
"I told you this wasn't over!" Nico screamed, not really sure why he was doing it other than he felt the incredible need to fight Percy. It was almost as if Bianca were inside his head, urging him on. Reminding Nico of how Percy had let her run into the bronze giant, watched without emotion as it fell, thinking only of getting himself to safety.
A wave of sea water knocked his feet out from under him, and his head smacked against the wet sand, dazing him for a moment. For a split second he wondered what in the world he was doing, and then it came back to him, and he leaped up without using his hands, twirling his sword, the black iron glittering in the sun. With a cry he slammed the point into the sand.
"Serve me!" he called and instantly the ground rumbled and skeletons began emerging, heading straight for Percy.
"Artemis!" Rachel cried. "What do we do?"
At the sight of the skeletons, Artemis paled for a moment. But only for a moment. Then he raised himself from the chair and frowned in the direction of the fight. "Percy has the water at his command. And he is invulnerable. Everything will be fine."
Juliet glanced sidelong at Artemis, looking slightly skeptical, but the pale boy looked impassive, sliding the sunglasses back over his strange eyes. Rachel gripped her hands together and watched anxiously, wishing she could do something, anything to help.
Annabeth rushed to her side, digging into the beach bag, tossing towels aside in search for something. Finally she shouted in triumph and drew out her bronze dagger. Instantly Rachel knew what she was about to do and grabbed her arm.
"No! It's too dangerous," she said.
Annabeth gave her an anguished look. "I have to do something," she said and tore away, running for the two boys battling near the water. Rachel started after her, but Artemis touched her arm and, when she looked back at him, shook his head almost imperceptibly. Biting her lip, Rachel took a step back and watched the scene anxiously.
Percy had washed a couple dozen skeletons into the sea, but they kept coming back. It was becoming difficult to gather the water though, with Nico attacking him viciously every time a skeleton fell away.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of blonde hair and suddenly Annabeth was there, knocking skeleton after skeleton into the sand with her bronze dagger. Those took longer to get up, but Nico had not noticed her yet, so focused was he on taking Percy down. Finally, with one hard twirl, Anaklusmos flew out of Percy's hand, landing behind him. For a split second Percy was afraid. He could not turn his back on Nico on the chance that he found the vulnerable spot. He had definitely ruled out a lot of other places.
But he could not let Nico keep fighting him either. With a desperate twist, he turned and lunged for his weapon. Nico's eyes lighted on Percy's unprotected back and without thinking, without pausing, swung his Stygian sword down toward it.
"NO!"
Several people screamed at once, but only one kept screaming. Nico froze, his eyes wide with horror as he stared down at Annabeth, collapsed in the serf, clutching a deep gash in her arm.
"It burns!" she cried, tears streaming down her sweaty cheeks. "It burns like ice!"
Nico stumbled backward, his sword falling to the ground. Rachel, Artemis, and Juliet raced forward. The skeleton's crumpled into the sand and the waves carried them out to sea. Percy capped Riptide and grabbed Annabeth, cradling her to his chest even though blood gushed out of her wound. Her skin was pale and her eyelids fluttered weakly. The gash had gone to the bone, Nico could see it through all the red. He could feel her life force drifting, dying.
"Annabeth!" he cried in agony and started to rush forward.
But Percy looked up at him with eyes full of anger and pain and snarled, "Get away from her!"
Nico stopped dead in his tracks, his dark eyes filling with tears. "But—but I thought . . . she just jumped . . ."
Juliet scooped Annabeth up and laid her out carefully on the loose sand. "Artemis, call an ambulance! Now!"
Artemis dialed with shaking fingers. His sunglasses were down his nose and crooked and his two-toned eyes were wide, his face paler than ever. This isn't right, he thought as he lifted the phone to his ear and stared down at Rachel who was helping Percy to stand. This wasn't supposed to happen.
Nico knelt beside Juliet, almost collapsing. Rachel and Percy hurried over as well, while Artemis trailed behind, explaining the situation as best he could to the operator.
When Nico tried to help Juliet wrap up Annabeth's arm with a towel, Rachel reached down and slapped his hands away.
"You idiot!" she cried, glaring down at the younger boy while half-holding, half-supporting a dazed Percy. "Why couldn't you have listened to us? What's your problem? Annabeth is dying! Are you happy now? Is that what you wanted?"
Nico shook his head so quickly his dark hair swung back and forth across his forehead. He leaped to his feet. "No!" he choked out through the lump in his throat. "I would never hurt Annabeth! She shouldn't have jumped in front of me!"
"You shouldn't have been fighting Percy in the first place!"
"Percy, I—" Nico cut off when he saw the look in Percy's eyes. It was like looking into a sea during a vicious storm. It was cold, angry, and full of pain and grief.
"I think you've made it clear that you don't want to be with us," he forced out after a moment. "So why don't you just go?"
Nico blinked. For some strange reason he felt a swell of satisfaction, but he quickly shoved it down, horrified at the feeling. It was replaced by a deep hurt.
"But—"
"You've done enough damage," Rachel snapped. "Go away." With that she lowered Percy next to Annabeth. His face was pale as he stroked the limp hair away from his girlfriend's still face.
"She's loosing a lot of blood," Juliet muttered. "Where's that ambulance?"
Artemis glanced over at the shocked Nico with a cold gaze. "You should leave," he said, shifting his gaze to somewhere over the boy's shoulder. "Athena won't be very happy with this. I would leave this place as quickly as possible if I were you."
He turned away and as sirens sounded in the distance, getting closer by the second, Nico stumbled away from the group. Scooping up his sword, he shoved it into its scabbard. He felt as though a weight had settled over his entire body, pushing him into the ground.
He did not get very far before he collapsed into the sand. With his face buried, he wished he could die right then and there. He wanted Athena to come and smite him dead. It would be better than leaving Annabeth to die when it was his fault. He deserved death. He deserved to be put into the Fields of Punishment for what he had done.
But Athena did not come. Instead a gentle hand touched his shoulder and when he looked up, Bianca smiled sadly down at him. "Come, little brother," she said, tenderly wiping the sand from his tear-stained face. "Let's leave this place."
While the ambulance crew lifted Annabeth into the bed of the truck, Rachel looked over her shoulder, looking for Nico, wondering if he had trailed behind anyway. But she could see nobody. It was as if he had disappeared.
"We would forget to bring ambrosia," Percy muttered, getting into the ambulance. "We need to get to Camp Half-Blood." He glanced over at Artemis who nodded to Juliet. Grimacing, the girl rendered the crew unconscious with a few quick nerve pinches. Then she hopped into the driver's seat, Artemis getting into the passenger's side. When Rachel and Percy had closed the doors behind them, Juliet peeled out into the traffic, letting the siren wail as she tore down the streets, listening to shouted directions from Rachel as Percy grimly inserted an IV into Annabeth's good arm.
She had to live. If she died . . . He did not want to think about it. Because if she died, Percy was not sure he would be able to keep himself from handing out the same fate to a certain son of Hades.
. . . I really have no words at this point. Review and tell me what you think of the chapter!
