Artemis may be dead, but this is far from over...

Holly had meant what she had said, she was not letting him go. As she looked down at the lifeless, unresponsive body next to her, she became determined that Artemis Fowl would not die today. Well, technically he already had, but it would not be permanent. She racked her brain for ideas, anything that could possibly work, but Artemis was the genius in their partnership. He was always the one that made the plans. No, no excuses, she had to come up with a plan by herself. Cursing to herself loudly, Holly thought back to everything that she had seen and done whilst in Dubai. The was nothing in the dark room that would help, nothing in the corridors... That was it. That was what she needed. Without giving it a second thought, she bolted back up the stairs, along the balcony, and into the corridor system. Going as fast as was physically possible, Holly ran right to the end of the main corridor, and down to the janitor's closet. She didn't even stop to open the door, instead opting to barge her way through.
"It has to be here" She muttered to herself, dumping what was left in the box on the floor. There, shining in the artificial light, was her one and only hope. The acorn. At this point, it's probably a good idea to explain the importance of the acorn to a fairy. When a fairy, such as Holly, is running low on magic, they must complete something known as 'The Ritual'. To make what could be a very long explanation a lot shorter, in essence a fairy must find an acorn near to an oak tree, then bury said acorn in the ground. Preferably there'll also be a full moon. Holly had the acorn, now she needed somewhere to bury it. Just as fast as she had ran in, she ran straight back down the corridor. Her memory working overtime, Holly tried to think of somewhere, anywhere she could plant the acorn. Images flashed before her as she ran through every available memory, until she found the only one suitable. It had to work; Artemis was depending on her, whether he liked it or not.
"You are so going to owe me after this, Artemis Fowl" Holly said to herself, though she didn't mean it. If he made it out alive, she might just never let him go. As she made her way back onto the balcony, she made a line straight for the one remaining plant pot. For this to work she had to be close, so she dragged it next to Artemis' body. Holly took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and pushed the acorn into the soil.

Holly could feel it. She could feel the power returning to her. There was a full moon outside, which meant that she could regenerate to her full magical ability. Every nerve ending in her body buzzed with electricity, her senses came alive. She could taste every sound, see every touch and feel every possibility in the world. This was usual for a fairy, of course, especially one as drained as Holly was, but that extra determination sparked something in her brain and boosted the magic even further. Holly could feel the power flowing through her, and in all of it, she had just one thought. Heal Artemis Fowl. That thought was all the trigger her body needed; all the magic she had been building shot out of her body, and straight into Artemis', enveloping him in a cocoon of pure blue energy. The transfer went on for at least 10 minutes- at one point, it even lifted him off the ground. Eventually, Holly was, once again, out of magic, and she stopped. Exhausted, she dropped to the floor, looking at Artemis' body in hope. But he was just laying there, so still. Holly couldn't bear to think that it hadn't been enough.

And then Artemis Fowl bolted upright, very much alive.

Holly almost didn't believe it at first, it was almost surreal. But as soon as she realised that it had worked, and that her favourite mud boy wasn't dead, she couldn't help but throw her arms round him, embracing him as tightly as she dared.
"So" Artemis began, calm and calculated. "I'm not dead." If Holly didn't know Artemis better, he almost sounded like he was disappointed that he'd wrongly predicted he was going to die. Actually knowing Artemis, he probably was.
"I feel good. I shouldn't feel this good after being brought back to life. Unless..." He arched an eyebrow at Holly, who tried to look at him with innocent eyes. "... Unless you used your magic to bring me back to life. Except you had no magic left."
"Trade secret"
"Holly Short" Artemis laughed, "Always has a secret up her sleeve. Using magic to revive me is however somewhat cheating the system, I do believe."
Artemis' laugh did an interesting thing to Holly. It made her cry. Because, deep down, despite her plan and her ideas, there was a small part of her that knew she might never have heard that laugh again. Artemis noticed this, and wrapped his arms around her.
"It's OK Holly, let it out" He said, and so she did, for the next 15 minutes, until finally she was all out of tears and just happy that he wasn't judging her, not that he ever did.
"You know" She said, just about audible in the silent room, "I really thought that I was going to lose you. I don't know what I would have done if I really had lost you."
"You would have found a way. You always manage to find a way."
"I don't know Arty, after both my parents and Root, I'm not sure if I could cope with losing anyone else."
"But you didn't, and that is the main thing. We defeated Eduardo Ortega, saved the world from my device, and we both made it out alive." Artemis' voice wavered as he said the last part, which was about as far from himself as you could get.
"Artemis" Holly said, "What is it?" But he didn't respond. He just looked at her, like he wanted to tell her but didn't think he should. Considering everything he had just been through, she didn't press it, not yet. She released the grip she had on Artemis, and they just laid next to each other, enjoying each other's silence.
"You're not the only person who thought they'd lost someone today" Artemis suddenly blurted out, and Holly darted her eyes towards him. His expression softened when he realised Holly wasn't going to hit him, but internally Holly was trying to figure out what he meant. She was the only person he'd been with today, but she hadn't... had she? Holly looked back at Artemis, and signalled him to continue.
"I wasn't entirely truthful to you earlier. In the room, when you had the allergic reaction to Ortega's knockout drug, it was actually worse than I led you to believe. You died."
Holly struggled to take that last part in, but the look on Artemis' face told her he was deadly serious.
"Naturally, your magic attempted to heal you, but I could tell it wasn't going to be enough. In fact, I could barely watch. And then when it finished, you were so still, I didn't know what to do. So I attempted to cheat the system myself. I used my own magic to heal you."
Artemis, despite being mostly human- owning one of Holly's eyes meant he was at least a little bit elfin- had stolen some magic of his own when he had travelled through time and space to the demon island of Hybras, which, at the time, had been stuck in limbo. Holly was under the impression that Artemis had used all of it up when they had travelled back to the present day. Obviously not.
"But even after I had done that" He continued, "You were still unresponsive. In hindsight, something I would usually claim as useless, it was perhaps not advisable to allow my emotions to override the more critical sensors of my brain. I took all of my unwanted emotions out on the wall. Somehow I managed to hit it so much that it caved slightly; That's how I fractured my shoulder." He looked up to the sky, tears forming in his eyes. "And then you started breathing again, and I realised, in that moment, as irrational as it is, how much I couldn't stand to lose you."
For Holly, following Artemis' explanation had been surreal to say the least, but when she saw Artemis, the king of keeping a neutral emotional balance, was going to cry, she knew she had to stop him. Because if he cried, she was going to cry too, and she didn't want to cry again so soon. So she did the one thing that she could think of, the one thing she'd been meaning to do for a while now.

She leaned in without a word, and she kissed him.

*GASPS*

Also something I should point out (Which was pointed out to me), which I thought I already had (But after looking back through, obviously not) is that this story is set after book 5 in the series (Lost Colony). There were a few reasons I chose that point in the timeline, but there we go. Now you all know. I'll stick this in at the beginning too for anyone new that comes through.