A/N : This is the last chapter, exceeding the Epilogue :D… Hey I forgot to mention this… but anyone expect the solution that i found to Arty & Holly's age thing? That's right! Our favorite demon warlock! He can make Artemis younger when he grows too old and stuff! Yeah I'm so glad that inspiration hit me, I hate it when Artemis dies in fanfics, but if he dies really dramatically than i add it on my favorites. lol. But I've only found one so far, it had me crying, I love crying when it's fiction! Well, tell me if you liked this story, cause this chapter is the denouement of this fic!
Disclaimer : I am not Eoin Colfer. I will never be Eoin Colfer. I actually do not want to be Eoin Colfer. I am quite happy at being myself thank you very much. Although I would love to sign my name on an AF book and say proudly, "I wrote that". Also a fan club would be pretty cool, oh yeah and I really wish I could go to Ireland someday, but other than that, jealous? Pfft, no way!
Extra stuff that will annoy the propel who want to just get on with it : The characters are a little OOC, again, this is because of Artemis and Holly's personalities. Plus, there is the fact that there is no kiss in this chapter cause I only want one per fiction :D sorry one of my weird rules… I spent the one kiss on the former chapter, so this one is minimal! Don't yell at me!
Now finally on to the thing we've all being waiting for… which is the chapter below, sorry I'm obvious.
Chapter 10 : The End
The Lower Elements; Council Room
The trial was taking place. A trial that had been anticipated for so long. Opal Koboi's sentencing would be something that no one could expect, Artemis sorely regretted bartering with amnesty.
"Here we have Opal Koboi, former pixie now of the human race due to surgery, Public Enemy Number one. She has been caught by Artemis Fowl (human) and Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon (elf). The list of accusations against her shall be read…" The persecutor of the trial, a gnome by the name of Gallberry Scott, read out Opal's ridiculously long list of crimes and villainy. Holly sneaked a look at Opal herself, she looked quite bored.
The Council didn't know about Opal's help in Artemis's plan, or her promised amnesty, yet. This little piece of information, along with the fact that Artemis Fowl and the giant bodyguard Butler were expecting to move down into the Lower Elements, would not make Holly, Foaly, Trouble, or Mulch the Council's most lovable fairies. Mulch, Holly and Foaly couldn't care less about this, as this was nothing new to them. Foaly had the comfort of knowing that he could not be replaced, and Mulch had the happiness of having his own business. Holly was in the most dangerous place, but she figured that she could always get a job with Mulch and Doodah's Private Investigator business.
However, Trouble had taken Holly's place as the Lower Element's golden fairy during the last few years, and he really did not have a place to go if he got fired, this was making him very nervous. He was on the Council himself, (being a hasty replacement for Commander Vinyaya) but the recent circumstances gave him a reasonably good chance at being kicked off by the end of the day. If he timed it right, he could probably make the record for 'the shortest amount of time it took to be demoted'. This did not comfort him.
Twenty minutes later, Gallberry Scott finally read the last misdeed of Opals and sat down in relief. He soon asked for a water break. Opal looked smug about the number of shocked glares she was receiving, and she was popping chocolate truffles into her mouth as she waited for the explosion that would surely happen soon.
If one is to be a criminal, she mused, then one must do it properly. Unlike Fowl, who keeps changing his morals weakly according to influence from his relations and friends. A true villainess would not care about others' thoughts.
Past Opal had been mind-wiped and sent back into her time. Opal seethed with anger.
Mindwipe the greatest and most beautiful of the fairies, the Council is going to go on my "revenge" list, along with that foolish demon warlock.
Chairman Cahartez stood and spoke his views, "Due to all the troubles and murders that Opal has committed, the Council has decided that a life of confinement might be too forgiving for a demoness such as yourself." (Here, Nº1 looked very offended.) The Chairman continued, "and we have decided that the only possible fair sentence would be execution."
Opal looked bemused as she said in a lofty voice, "I highly doubt that."
The Council was in stunned silence, "What?" Whiteroot spluttered.
"Ask Fowl, what my sentence should be," Opal said in a soft by jovial tone. Her eyes glittered as she looked at Artemis with unhidden glee. She had helped him, because of the amnesty promise. She still wanted revenge more than anything, and perhaps, soon she would find a loophole in the oath and find her chance. The least she could do was put Artemis in hot water. For a moment she pouted, wishing she had the moment recorded for future uses.
Every eye turned to Artemis, he cleared his throat and stood, "Ms. Koboi has given her services to the People during the war when asked, and in return I have offered her…" he trailed off, "amnesty."
There was a moment of silence, in which Mulch, Trouble, Foaly and Holly cringed at the anticipated reaction of the Council which would come very soon. Then the explosion went off.
"WHAT?" Everyone yelled. ("Everyone" here really does mean everyone. As in everyone who was watching this in Police Plaza, and on the live broadcast. This was Opal Koboi's sentencing, quite a monumental moment. In fact, humans thought the ear-shattering sound coming from below the Earth was an aftereffect earthquake from the natural disaster that just hit the world.)
The murmurs and comments were running thick and fast. Holly shook her head ruefully.
The Council is known for being calm and formal, one trial with Artemis Fowl and it becomes a zoo. Typical.
Her thoughts turned to a moment in her history where animals, zoos, and chaos were the ruling factors. Their jaunt back in time was very animal-related, now that she thought about it.
"That's it, the mud boy's totally lost it," a Council member named Kudzu McGill whispered to her friend.
"Please tell me this is a dream!" moaned a fairy from the audience who's father had been a casualty of one of Opal's crazy plans to take over as Empress of the world.
"Opal? Amnesty? Those words don't belong in a paragraph together, much less a sentence!" yelled a very dedicated Opal hater. (Yes, she has her own group now… flattering? Not so much.)
The babble grew louder and louder as every fairy tried to place a comment of their opinions, most of which called for blood and the murder of Opal. Throughout the havoc, Opal, Artemis, Holly, and Butler were the only ones sitting calmly and coldly, waiting for the uproar to conclude. They were not kept waiting for long.
"SILENCE!" came a very loud voice. Everyone stopped talking at once. The Chairman had gotten up, and was glaring furiously at Artemis. In a very dangerous tone that earned him a glare from Butler, the Chairman spoke, "What gave you the impression that you could promise something like this?"
Artemis smirked at the Chairman, one of the 2% in existence who would dare leer at the Chairman. He looked like Edward Cullen's rival in a Twilight movie, except much more realistically vampirish, "I did not do this without a plan in mind."
Cahartez rolled his eyes, "The fact that this was for one of your insanely mad plans helps her case for amnesty in what way, mud boy?"
Artemis glared at him coldly, all traces of ill humor gone, "My plan worked, Commander Cahartez, in case you haven't noticed. It saved many lives, which was much more than what your so-called plan did." The Commander squirmed inside, Fowl was no doubt talking about the incident when Holly Short was thought to be dead for a while. Artemis interrupted his thoughts, "In any case, I was given permission by a Council member to do this."
Chairman Cahartez stood up so quickly he knocked over his chair, "Who under Earth would give permission to you to do something this idiotic?"
Artemis scoffed, "It was not idiotic, I thought of it. Of course, I don't think you're a very good judge on idiotic things."
It took a moment for the most important fairy under Earth to realize that he was being insulted, "Who was it?" he roared, losing all patience.
Trouble sighed. Here goes nothing, he thought in resignation, he stood, "Me. I gave him permission."
Silence.
It was easy to blame a mud boy, but their most prized Commander?
"Why?" this time it was Lope that asked.
"The mud people would have won without Opal's part in the plan," he said simply.
Holly sighed, "Can't we just put this on hold and go on to the actual point of the meeting? The Opal thing was only supposed to take fourty minutes, and it's been an hour."
No one was surprised by her rude comments. It was only to be expected by the "crazy girly Captain", after all.
"The actual trial was only forty minutes, the reading of her crimes took twenty," a new member of the Council said defensively. His name was Jonathan Thorn.
"Irrelevant!" Holly yelled.
"Very well, moving on, Opal Koboi is as of this moment, cleared of all charges. The other factors of this will be disposed of later." The Chairman banged his gavel, "We will address the new issue." He nodded at Thorn to read.
"Fowl, it has come to our attention that you do not exist in the aboveground world anymore," Commander Thorn said.
"Correct," Artemis said. He was so casual about this, it was like he was confirming the weather.
"That you wish to stay in the Lower Elements."
"Correct, essentially. Ignoring the fact that I have not much choice in the matter."
"The Commander Trouble Kelp," he shot a nasty glare at the aforementioned Commander before continuing, "has requested that you stay with an acquaintance while the paperwork and the other bumps are cleared for your full time citizenship in the Lower Elements. This, is of course ridiculous."
Artemis fixed his eyes on the Commander before replying, "I would rethink that decision, Commander."
Thorn met his glare head on, "Why would that be, mud boy?"
Artemis smiled, his resemblance to a vampire was frightening, "Did you honestly think that I did not leave options for myself? I can trigger a full memory for everyone in the world. I had a back-up plan."
Chairman Cahartez's mouth dropped open, "You jest, Fowl."
Artemis's eyes turned, blue turning into ice, hazel turning murderous, "Try me, Chairman."
The Council members turned to themselves and had a quick, private, talk. Then Thorn turned around and exclaimed, "We have a verdict!"
Cahartez continued, "The People are grateful to everything you have done, and you have proved yourself to be a friend of the People." He said these lines very quickly and had an expression looking very similar to an ape having digestive problems.
"About time," Mulch muttered darkly, "how many times do you have to save the world to be a friend of the People?"
Thorn shot him a glare. Mulch childishly turned away from him, revealing his uncovered posterior. Thorn swallowed his pride and ignored the insult.
"Thank you. We will take our leave now," Artemis said cooly, also ignoring Mulch.
Artemis, Butler, Holly, Foaly, and Mulch walked out. Trouble and Nº1 looked longingly at them, wishing that they did not have to stay and endure the entire trial, which would be comparatively boring.
The Lower Elements; In a Park
"Well, that went way better than anyone expected," Foaly said conversationally.
"True, no one had a heart attack or fired anyone from their job," Butler agreed pleasantly.
The group walked down a road in Haven, attracting many looks from the civilians. It was not everyday that the famous Holly Short walked the streets looking so relaxed. This by itself was remarkable, but the Captain with Foaly, was quite a plus, as he was renowned in the worlds of hacking, surveillance, and gossip blogs. Now when Artemis and Butler came into the picture, it prompted many flashes of photos being taken. No doubt they would appear on every website and blog on the fairy internet. (If they didn't, Foaly would make sure of it.)
The weather was sunny and warm, despite the season. Since October was drawing to an end quickly, and September was approaching, it should have been chilly, but Foaly's weather system worked many miracles. This was one of the causes for his enormous ego.
"Well, they couldn't fire Trubbs, since Artemis here threatened/bribed them not to, and Holly will probably be given the Golden Acorn award for saving the world, and of course I'm irreplaceable due to my genius." Foaly bragged.
Artemis frowned, "What is this Golden Acorn?"
"I suppose it's a fairy version for a Nobel Prize."
"You have one?" Artemis asked, he suspected that he already knew the answer.
Foaly smirked, "Are you kidding? I have thousands of inventions patented in my name and you don't think that I wouldn't have the Acorn under technology and Science? I am a legend down here you know."
"Then we're in the same page, as I recall that all of us here are legendary in at least one circle. Butler, he fought a troll, Holly, for obvious reasons, myself, again, quite obvious. Mulch, as the underworld and the legitimate world both look to his name, Nº1, the most powerful demon warlock in existence… Need I go on?"
Foaly nodded glumly, this was the main drawback of having Holly, Butler, Mulch, Nº1, and Artemis as his closest friends. He decided to make Artemis uncomfortable to cheer himself up.
"How are things between you two?" he asked evilly.
Artemis's almost tripped on his face. Composing himself, he nervously asked, "What do you mean?"
Foaly wagged his tail annoyingly, "You were quite friendly before the war."
Mulch grinned.
Holly looked ferocious. The centaur knew, "D'Arvit! How in the name of Frond -"
"He must have seen the security cameras," Artemis said calmly. He tried to look nonchalant, due to his face being completely red, it failed.
They both looked completely violent.
Foaly suddenly found himself worried about his health, "I think I'm going to get a carrot from the gardening section of the park, I need a carrot," he said as he hurriedly trotted off to the gardener gnomes. Mulch sneaked after him, he would never admit this, but he liked being friends with Foaly. Their banter really reminded him of the changes that happened with his life since he met Artemis Fowl. In any case, Holly would figure out that he had been spying too. Also, there might be some sweet fruits in that barrel.
Butler, like the loyal bodyguard he was, stayed with his charge. He would never tell Artemis this, but everyone had been waiting for them to get together for quite some time, Mulch and Doodah had taken bets.
"What happened?" he asked. Profession he might be, but he couldn't help himself.
"Nothing," Artemis said shortly.
Butler raised an eyebrow, "Really?"
"Yes," Artemis snapped.
Butler turned to Holly, "What happened?"
Holly hesitated, then much to Artemis's surprise, she answered, "I kissed him."
Butler looked amused, "All right." He glanced at Artemis, who determinedly avoided his gaze. Artemis was still completely red, and so was Holly.
However, being the good friend, Butler stayed far enough apart from Holly and Artemis for them to have a private conversation. He could hear everything they were saying, but he could pretend that he couldn't. Artemis appreciated that gesture very much.
There was a long, and awkward silence. Then Artemis said, "Why did you tell him?"
Butler smirked in the background.
Holly shook her head, "I don't know, I just didn't want to lie anymore."
Another long silence as the atmosphere tried to become more normal, Holly tried breaking the ice. "We survived the Council, and they survived you," she teased.
"True, it was much more easier to restrain myself than I thought it would be," Artemis admitted.
"You blackmailed them, that was restraint?"
Artemis scoffed, "I was holding back, you should be proud of me."
Holly rolled her eyes and changed the subject, "What do you want to talk about now? Since we don't have a crises on our hands, for once?"
"What were we talking about before the meeting?"
As if he can't remember, like he can't memorize every word that was said…
"Butler," Holly answered. "So Butler is back to normal? Like, as he was before he almost got killed?"
Artemis scoffed, "Better than normal, I should think." There was a pause before he said, "It could work on other people that are having… aging difficulties."
Holly slowly turned to face him, "Like you?"
"Yes."
Holly smiled, "Did our earlier conversation really happen? It's official?"
"I assure you that it did. Apparently I have an admirer," he said smugly, a hint of pink appearing on his features.
Holly punched him, "So that puts us where in our bond-o-meter?"
"I would say above a little from where we were, and a little below… an official 'relationship'."
"Well, there's only one Opal now, and she's busy. We just saved the world again, so I think we have maybe about six months until the next disaster. We have plenty of time."
Artemis smiled, a real smile. Something only about five people had seen so far in his life, (and only about one of them remembers it now, due to the mind wipe) "Perhaps even a year, if we're lucky." He agreed.
Their hands brushed against each other in a silent plea, and the two complied. Lacing his fingers through hers, Artemis bravely turned to face the humorous ridicule that would no doubt be delivered by a certain centaur and dwarf. After all, he should get used to it if Holly was right and they did have plenty of time to deepen the link between them.
Behind them, Butler smiled. If he had any doubts about Artemis's plan before, they evaporated as he saw how happy Artemis was. Practically skipping childhood, forced to grow up quickly and start learning at an early age of the family business, Artemis had rarely ever looked truly happy. He deserved it as much as anyone else, in Butler's opinion. Butler felt like a proud father, looking at the young man who had become more than a principal for a long time. Artemis and Holly were polar opposites, but that was good. They would even each other out, each filling in for the other's weakness. It was why they were such a good team.
Holly's Apartment; Now
Butler had agreed to separate with Artemis for the night, although it had taken some very forceful persuading. Butler had insisted that if he wasn't going to be there to protect Artemis, Holly had to be. As in all of the situations where Artemis had actually been without him, Holly had saved Artemis's life. Which was quite a lot of times if someone actually added it all up.
Butler did not trust Artemis to not place himself in danger. When the times unwaveringly came, he only trusted Artemis to get himself out of danger. Even then, either himself or Holly had to be present. Butler had long since relaxed his barriers around Holly. Madam Ko would have had a severe case of a headache if she saw exactly how many rules he had broken so far in his career.
Do not tell the principal your first name. This rule was in smithereens.
Do not show or have more than the employer to employee relationship. Failure, total, complete failure.
Do not trust anyone else with the principal. Broken in clean two.
Sacrifice the world for your principal's safety. That was almost laughable.
This requirement from Butler was met with loud guffaws from Foaly, sniggers from Mulch, some renewed remarks of jesting at the two's expense, (along with some comments that earned Mulch a punch from Holly), and two bright red faces of Holly and Artemis.
This was the reason for Butler staying with Foaly at the Police Plaza (Foaly often spent the night, perfecting his work. Callibane did not approve of this, but she did not keep him from doing it.) Mulch went back to his place, leaving Holly and Artemis awkwardly inside the former's apartment.
On the walk there, they had a pleasant walk, filled with Holly's buzz baton doing what it did best to a few interfering, nosy press fairies trying to make a story.
Holly's apartment was a simple, practical place. No unnecessary paintings or portraits littered the walls, and the walls themselves were covered in light beige wallpaper with pale green vines scrolling gracefully up the walls. There was a small kitchen with a dining table in it, a living room with only a lamp, a sofa, a coffee table and a couch, and the hallway led them into two rooms, and a bathroom across from them. One of the doors opened into Holly's room. Which was also quite simple, the only difference from the rest of the house was that there was a bed, a desk, a closet and a bookshelf.
The other room was obviously a training room. There were mirrors surrounding all four walls, and a slick floor with various weights and training balls. In short, it was a torture pit for Artemis. They didn't linger inside the place for long, to Holly's extreme entertainment.
As they sat together on the sofa around the coffee table, each knew that the other was quite apprehensive of their earlier conversation. After an adventure, they usually had some time to themselves, before going into a normal routine, but normal was something that had to change, now that Artemis Fowl had to adjust to living in Haven. He wasn't going to disappear, than magically pop up for a new adventure.
"What do you think? I know it's no Fowl Manor, but it's my home," Holly said, awkwardly breaking the silence.
"It suits you," Artemis replied.
They had just finished dinner a nice salad that was ordered from a restraint in Haven. Holly apparently grabbed breakfast at the Police Plaza for free, and ate lunch there also. This arrangement caused her to stop cooking and eat out or order in most of the time for dinner.
"Isn't it odd, being in a peaceful moment?" Holly asked.
"Odd, but not unpleasant. It's a quite liberating experience, actually."
"Artemis?" she asked hesitantly.
"Holly," he answered.
"I know it's going to be strange and most likely awkward, but you have friends, and we'll stand by you. You know that, right?"
Artemis chuckled as he met her eyes, "Of course, Holly. After all, I am a genius."
They sat in silence, albeit a comfortable one.
"I love you," Holly whispered. The words felt strange to her. She realized that she hadn't said them in a long time. Possibly since her mother's death.
Artemis smiled, the world was full of new possibilities. Ones that came with a huge price, but was rewarding in the extreme. For once he did not know where the future would go, and this time he didn't mind the uncertainty. When had he ever really been in control of the situation? He had planned flawlessly, but wasn't the future always surprising him? And wasn't that for the best? If he knew everything that would happen to him, life would have no meaning, and no curiosity.
"As I love you," he promised.
Things were unclear now, but they would have years and years to straighten things out. Perhaps even decades or centuries. For the first time in his life, Artemis Fowl was free from worrying.
So, how is it? Review! Oh and thank you reviewers for your ideas for the Council! This is the last chapter, but there is an epilogue… and maybe a sequel? IDK… tell me your opinion. Should I just leave it sweetly like this, or write another adventure? (I never write chaptered fluffs, only one-shots… maybe I should give it a try?) Tell me your thoughts!