A/N: Hello there. It's, err, been a while. A long while. Sorry. My motivation to write completely abandoned me for a few months. I hope I'm through the worst of it, but you never really know with these things. Anyway, I'm managing to at least get this chapter up, so I suppose there's that.
It's kind of unfortunate really that this is the chapter I delayed so much, because it really doesn't work very well on its own. It's complicated and abstract and very much the spiritual successor to the chapter before. I strongly recommend refreshing your memory of what has just happened before reading this.
If you can't be bothered with that, basically: Artemis and co. are trying to reach the temple on the other side of Shangri-La. Natalya gets separated from the others while fighting the Fallen and ends up killing an infected troll before being overwhelmed. Artemis decides to "rescue" her, ostensibly by blowing her up from below. We pick up immediately after the detonation.
As I mentioned above, the first part of this chapter is a little strange and open to interpretation. Stick with it, see what you make of it. See what you think it's trying to say. And if you don't like it, don't worry, the second half is normal.
Oh, and for anyone wondering, the cover image for this story is meant to be the temple entrance in Shangri-La, which we're finally going to make it to this chapter :)
-Kio
Chapter 23; Clairvoyant
Shangri-La
The thunder of explosions filled the dead city. Through closed eyes Natalya saw the glow of flames, too tired to cry out as they attacked her skin. And then she felt herself falling, away from the inferno, into cool air. The shrieks of falling formers surrounded her, and then she hit something hard and rolled until she came to a stop. Her body shook as debris slammed into the ground around her.
Eyes still closed, Natalya lay there. She was dimly aware of the familiar sound of a struggle, but already it was fading. Her battered body was giving in. Even the pain was beginning to dull.
She thought briefly about Opal. The pixie was still out there somewhere, but her army wouldn't last long. That was some solace. Artemis and Holly would destroy the parasite's hive mind, even if it cost them their lives.
She hoped it didn't, though. She needed at least one of them to survive. They were the only ones who knew the truth. The only ones who could tell Opal who it was that had really murdered her future self. The only ones who could complete her revenge.
And then she let go, and the darkness claimed her.
Natalya sat up. A velvet blackness surrounded her, so thick it was as if the air itself was absorbing the light. She stood and was surprised to find that she was no longer in pain.
Hand out in front, she took a few steps forward. She squinted, seeing what she could make out, and the darkness seemed to recede. A shape was just visible ahead of her. Curious, she walked towards it, realising it was an archway.
Natalya stepped through the arch and into the living room of a house she didn't recognise. She glanced back the way she had come but saw only another room of the house. Shaking her head, she turned back and took in her surroundings. Night had settled outside, and snow fluttered past the window. A tattered sofa dominated the space inside, and a fire crackled merrily in the grate.
Natalya frowned, looked closer at the fire. Something wasn't right. The fire was growing, the flames dancing higher and higher until it wasn't a fire anymore but an inferno, barely constrained in the little grate. Flames coiled angrily around each other, forming unnatural shapes.
Then the fireplace couldn't contain them anymore and they broke free, leaping out into the room. Natalya backed away, unsure what to do. The entire mantlepiece was ablaze, and the flames still weren't slowing down.
Someone called a name. Natalya turned and saw a man she didn't recognise coming towards her. He looked right at her and repeated the name. Anger was flaring up in his face. Natalya frowned and he hit her – hard – and she staggered, tasting blood.
Rage flashed. Natalya growled and reached out a hand to crush the man's throat, but the growl came out as a cry for help, and the hand she raised was small, like a child's. The man grabbed her and she struggled, but he was a lot stronger than she was and try as she might, she couldn't break free.
"Was this you?" he demanded in Russian, nodding towards the fire consuming his living room.
Natalya narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth to threaten him, to tell him all the brutal ways she would hurt him if he didn't let go of her immediately, but the only thing that came out was a sob. She called her magic but nothing came. No fire, no lightning, no superhuman strength. The power she was so used to wielding – her inner fire, her shadow – was gone, replaced by submission.
The man loosened his grip on Natalya, drawing one hand back to hit her again, but she used the reprieve to twist free of his grip and run. She heard him shout after her, shout that same name, the name she didn't know, and then heard his footsteps as he came after her.
Natalya ran hard, not bothering to look back. She didn't know where she was going but knew she had to keep moving, bouncing off doorways and crashing past furniture. She felt the man getting nearer and ducked into a room on her left, heard him curse and struggle to match her sudden change of direction. She didn't slow down, desperate to put some distance between the two of them. She went left, then right, then left again. The house just kept going, as though growing to accommodate her need to escape.
She came to a long corridor lined with doors and risked a glance behind. The man chasing her was nowhere to be seen. Slowing her pace, she chose a door at random and stepped through into a bedroom. A woman's body lay on the bed, bloody and broken. Natalya took a wary step closer. The blood was still fresh. She had been beaten to death, and recently. It looked like the product of rage. Natalya stepped forward again, looking at the woman's face. It seemed familiar, almost like her own but older, and too battered to be recognisable.
Footsteps behind her. Natalya spun and found herself facing the man that had been chasing her before, and he didn't look any happier than he had then. His eyes flicked to the body Natalya had discovered. For a moment, there was a hint of shame behind his eyes, but then it was gone, replaced by a blazing fury.
"I'll kill you," he breathed, his face ugly with hatred.
Natalya bolted, again crashing wildly through the house, searching frantically for a way out of this strange maze. After another minute of running, she found herself in a hallway. She looked left and right, hoping for a front door. There! She ran for it, the man right behind her, and flung it open, leaping out into the night.
Except the doorway didn't lead outside. Instead, she found herself tumbling down a rough stone staircase, landing in a painful heap. She scrambled up, ignoring the pain, and started running again. She was in a stone passage, rough and narrow and dimly lit, with jagged rocks jutting from the walls and ceiling. The passage widened as she ran, and then the walls weren't stone anymore but lined with blackened cages full of charred bodies.
Natalya ran on. The passage split off in various directions, a labyrinth of tunnels. She took a random left. Double doors blocked her way and she crashed through them, stumbling into an operating theatre. Bright light attacked her retinas and she blinked, raising a hand to shield her eyes. Slowing down, she walked to the table at the centre of the operating theatre. Her own face, gaunt and scared, looked up at her from the operating table.
Sudden pain coursed through her, lightning in her veins, and she screamed and fell. The pain intensified and she screamed and screamed until she had no air left in her lungs, left to writhe in silent agony. Voices shouted at her from deep inside her own mind and she responded in kind, shouting and crying and begging within the confines of her own head.
Natalya didn't know how long she lay there, her body contorted in unimaginable agony. She had no way to track the passing of time. It could have been days. It could have been months, or even years. But eventually, the pain began to fade, along with the voices in her head.
At last, Natalya lifted her head from the ground. She felt different. Something had changed, something within her. She realised that she wasn't the same person anymore. Weakness had been replaced with strength. Resolve.
The operating theatre was dark and silent. Natalya pulled herself to her feet and checked the operating table. It was empty. She turned away and walked back in the direction she had come from, all those years ago, before the pain.
Out in the stone passage, there was blood on the walls. Bodies littered the floor – men in body armour – broken and in pieces. Weapons lay here and there among dead.
"I know where I am," Natalya said aloud. "I know who did this."
And she did. She looked down at her own hands, clean and unmarked, and remembered what they had looked like drenched in red. She carried on walking, stepping past the bodies, feeling no more sympathy for the dead now than when she had killed them originally.
Natalya passed a laboratory and glanced in. The reinforced door had been torn from its hinges. Smashed equipment and bits of elves in white coats floated between puddles of red. She didn't bother investigating further. She knew what she would find.
She turned her attention back to the path ahead of her and saw Opal Koboi watching her.
"You are mine," Opal said, but the pixie's lips didn't move. Instead, the words came from inside Natalya's own mind. "I own you."
"No. Not anymore. One day, I'm going to kill you." Natalya smiled, knowing it was true. After all, it had already happened.
Opal smiled back, showing jagged teeth, and then her face was changing, contorting, becoming the head of a dragon, and her body followed. The dragon roared, spewing flames at Natalya and the Russian girl ran, ran hard, the inferno chasing her, devouring everything in its path.
The heat intensified and Natalya spat a curse. The fire was gaining on her. She ran even harder, putting everything she had into the sprint. And then, out of nowhere, Opal was running beside her, a pixie again, desperately fleeing the fire that was consuming everything she had built.
Fleeing the fire that she herself had started.
Natalya felt that same fire deep inside her, right where Opal had lit it all those years ago, still burning bright. She let it fuel her, give her strength, and accelerated even harder, just barely managing to stay ahead of the raging firestorm.
The passage widened, and in the distance, shafts of daylight began to cut through the gloom. Natalya and Opal kept running, their bodies screaming out at them for a reprieve. Just when it seemed like they couldn't stay ahead of the flames any more, they burst out into the daylight, leaping out of the opening-
-and into open air. Opal grabbed hold of Natalya as they fell, clutching the Russian girl as tightly as she could, as if it would save her from the fall. Natalya twisted her head and looked at Opal. The pixie's eyes were wide, and fear was etched deep. Behind Opal, rock faces rushed by them at impossible speeds. It seemed that they had leapt from the side of a mountain.
Natalya looked down. She tensed as the ground rushed up to meet them. But the closer it got, the less they were falling vertically, and the more they were moving horizontally, their speed unchanged. And then they weren't falling at all but flying, soaring through the mountains. Natalya looked at Opal and realised it was the pixie that was responsible. Opal steered her way purposefully between the snowy peaks as Natalya held on for dear life.
And then Natalya realised that she recognised where they were. They were flying through the Himalayas. She looked down. An army of formers crawled over the mountains beneath them. And somehow, impossibly, she knew that what she was looking at was real.
Opal spun her around so they were looking each other in the eye. The pixie smiled viciously.
"I'm coming, Artemis Fowl," she said.
Natalya opened her eyes. She groaned. Everything hurt. Muffled voices wormed their way into her head, and she focused, trying to pick out individual words. Something about someone being alive. Her, presumably.
Summoning her strength, she lifted her head. The first thing she saw was Holly Short, sat opposite where she was lying. The elf looked disappointed. No surprises there. But then again, she hadn't killed Natalya while she was unconscious, and that was something.
Artemis still has his pet on a leash. He wants me alive.
Natalya tried pushing herself up into a seating position but quickly gave up, wincing in pain. She locked eyes with Holly.
"Magic," she croaked. It was all she could manage.
Holly smiled, and Natalya knew what she was going to say before she even had a chance to open her mouth.
"I don't have any. Sorry." The elf didn't sound it. "I haven't had a chance to complete the ritual since I was infected."
Natalya didn't reply. She just forced herself up, still only able to use one hand, grimacing in pain. It took most of thirty seconds, and it exhausted her, but she made it into a seating position. She sucked in heavy breaths, using a chunk of debris to support her back.
"Wow," said Holly. "You really are a mess."
Natalya looked down at herself. Holly was right – she was a mess. The figure-hugging black combat gear she always wore was shredded, and her exposed skin was a mess of cuts and burns. She pulled off and discarded what was left of her gear so her skin could breathe, gritting her teeth as the material dragged across her injuries. She was so used to being protected by her armoured clothes that she felt oddly naked without them, but they were no use to her in pieces. At least the tank top and leggings she had on underneath had managed to stay more or less intact.
Natalya shrugged like none of this was a big deal. "It's fine. My magic will kick in soon enough. Besides, we have bigger problems." She looked around for Artemis. He was sat behind her, watching her curiously. "Whatever plans you've made, Mud Boy, unmake them."
Artemis frowned. "Why?"
"Opal is on her way with what remains of her army."
Holly looked up sharply. "What? How can you know that?"
Natalya shrugged again, pulling herself painfully to her feet. "I don't know. Maybe it's because she spent so long in my head. Maybe it's because our magic is the same frequency. I don't know, I can just… I can feel her coming. She's not far away."
Artemis got up and started pacing. "Why? Why is she coming?"
"She knows that you're here. I don't know how, but she knows. She's coming for you, and she isn't happy."
"This… this complicates things. Significantly." Artemis paused to think. "You can sense her coming. Does that mean she can sense you here as well?"
"I don't think so. I mean, I don't really understand whatever connection exists between me and Opal, but I don't think she can sense me. I don't think she even knows I exist."
"Good. If she doesn't know you exist, she won't expect you to be with us. You will be our ace in the hole." Artemis glanced at Holly. "I suppose it's a good thing we saved you after all."
Natalya's eyebrows shot up, a rare sign of emotion. "Excuse me? You abandoned me, then blew me up – assuming the explosion was you?"
Artemis's expression was cold. "You mean the explosion that saved your life? The one that we used to extract you from a situation that would inevitably have ended in your death?"
Natalya looked up at the destruction above them. Artemis and Holly had managed to collapse an entire street. All around them were vast heaps of rubble and bits of formers.
"Oh, of course! That's what you were doing. Extracting me. Rescuing me. How silly of me for not realising sooner. I must have been thrown off by your unconventional rescue strategy. You know, trying to blow me up. Explosions don't immediately scream "don't worry, we're trying to help!" do they?"
Holly rounded on her. "You are so unbelievably ungrateful! We came back for you! You would probably be dead if not for us!"
"Honestly? I think your rescue attempt might have actually been more dangerous than what you were supposedly rescuing me from. Although I doubt that was by accident."
Holly opened her mouth to respond, but Butler got there first.
"Enough," he said in his gravelly tones. "We had ample chance to finish you off. We didn't. Nothing forced us to come back for you at all. Nothing forced us to protect you from the surviving formers after collapsing the street above. Nothing forced me personally to stop you from rolling into the abyss when you first fell, or to then carry you back to safety. And yet we did all of those things. And you are alive."
Natalya turned to him, digesting his words. He was certainly right about one thing: she was alive. And that in and of itself pretty much amounted to a miracle. Artemis and the others probably didn't realise the full extent of the danger she had been in: the formers had beaten her, and she couldn't imagine how she would have survived without Artemis's intervention.
And if Butler was telling the truth – and there was no lie in his face – then he personally had saved her. She didn't know why. He didn't owe her anything, that much was for sure. She had left him and his sister to die. It was in part because of her that he had believed his charge to be dead. She wondered briefly how Butler would react when Holly Short finally played her hand.
Not that it mattered at the moment. The facts of the matter were that she was alive, in no state to make a fight out of it, and Opal was on her way. For now, at least, she supposed she could forgive Artemis. They had bigger concerns.
"Very well, Fowl," Natalya said at last. "I will be your ace. What do you need me to do?"
"That depends. Can you give me a more exact time for Opal's arrival?"
Natalya closed her eyes, recalling the vision and testing it against what she remembered of the shuttle trip to Shangri-La.
"When I saw her, she was flying through the Himalayas. Fast. And she wasn't far from the entrance to the cave. She's probably already inside. So I would say she'll be here in as long it takes her to walk from there to here."
Artemis cocked his head slightly, thinking over what Natalya had said. "The cave is our only way out – if Opal is already inside then we are trapped down here. One way or another, we will have to defeat both her and the parasite itself down here."
"I don't like the sound of fighting two enemies at once," said Butler. He glanced at Natalya. "How many creatures did she have with her?"
"I don't know. Enough. We won't be able to fight them and her. Especially with me in this state. No offense."
Artemis nodded. He wouldn't admit it, particularly while Holly was in earshot, but of the four of them, Natalya had shown herself to be easily the most capable of dealing with the Fallen. And she barely looked like she could walk at the moment, let alone fight. Artemis didn't fancy their chances against another army of formers.
"Very well," he said. "At least we have some time on our side – it took us more than an hour to make it down here, I doubt Opal will be much faster. We will be able to prepare."
Holly grinned. The bag of powerful fairy explosives she had clipped onto her moonbelt was still almost full. She patted it fondly. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
Artemis returned the smile, but shook his head. "Not precisely. We cannot risk harming Opal without risking the entire timeline."
Holly looked disappointed. "But you do have a plan, right?"
Artemis nodded. "The beginnings of one, at least. But I need to see the hive mind first. We need to get to the temple."
Artemis was the first to set off, Butler and Holly immediately by his side. Holly spared a moment to glance back at Natalya. The Russian girl hadn't moved.
"Can you walk?"
Natalya looked up. She shrugged. "I guess I'll have to."
"Yes. You will."
It seemed that between the four of them, Artemis, Holly, Butler and Natalya had largely managed to clear Shangri-La of hostiles, and they experienced only minor resistance as they made their way to the temple. A few former fairies were still milling around the temple entrance when they arrived, but Butler and Holly easily dispatched them, staining the ancient cobbles with black blood and depositing the bodies on the ground outside the temple.
It only took Artemis and Natalya, who was already starting to recover from her injuries thanks to her magic, a moment to join them. In front of them, a relatively short stone staircase, broken in places, led up into the mouth of the temple. A stone dragon stood on each side of the staircase, guarding the way, a flickering orange torch in each of their mouths. No one bothered asking how they were still burning after all these years.
The four of them looked up. The temple entrance was ornate, painstakingly carved out of the edge of the gigantic cavern, and it towered over the nearby dwellings. While the rest of Shangri-La was dead and barren, unnatural looking plants twisted and stretched all over the temple, apparently unaffected by the lack of light and water.
Artemis made to step forward, but found Butler blocking his way.
"No, Artemis. I think it would be best if I led the way."
Artemis didn't bother arguing. He followed Butler up the steps, Holly by his side, Natalya bringing up the rear. When they reached the top, the temple entrance loomed ahead of them, pitch black and impossibly sinister. Flames flared up in Natalya's hand, casting a flickering glow into the darkness. Artemis could just make out a ruined entrance hall, with passages leading off in what looked like every direction.
Holly, seriously regretting the loss of her helmet with its powerful torch beams, was the first across the threshold. Expecting something to jump out at her at any moment, she looked around. Above her, ancient carvings snaked their way across the high ceiling. Cracked pillars, most of them being clung to by strange climbing plants, lined the hall. She took another step forward and stepped in something. Crouching down, she gave the floor an experimental touch. It was wet.
"Well," she reported. "Nothing has tried to kill me yet. I guess that's something."
The others joined her. Every one of Natalya's movements cast light into some new crack or corner, exposing more unnatural plants and what looked uncomfortably like once hidden passages.
"Artemis," said Butler quietly. "I don't trust the plants. Thoughts?"
Artemis took a slightly closer look. Butler's statement sounded ridiculous out of context, but everyone there understood exactly what he meant.
"I'm inclined to agree," murmured Artemis. "Nothing should be able to live down here. And if I'm right, which I usually am, this place is saturated with dark magic. I wouldn't recommend getting too close."
"So," asked Holly, gesturing around at the multitude of possible corridors. "Which way?"
"Down." Artemis knew instinctively that it was the right answer. "We need to go as far down as we can."
They chose the first staircase leading down they could find, and set off. Once they reached the bottom, the picked another downward path and followed that. After that it was a wide, sloped passageway that stretched on and on. They passed what looked like a minecart, an underground waterfall, and all sorts of partially blocked off cave systems.
Butler was the first to reach the end of the passage. He stepped out into what was half natural cave, half fairy-built chamber. Two great wooden turbines dominated the space, casting massive flickering shadows as they stood in the way of Natalya's flame. Tools and rubble were strewn everywhere. It looked like construction had never finished.
"Artemis?" he asked. "Where now?"
The boy joined his bodyguard and glanced around. Water dripped through cracks in the ceiling, but he couldn't see anything alive, not down here. He took another step forward, took a closer look at their surroundings. Pools of darkness that might have been more caves peered back at him from the shadows. He didn't fancy those options.
"Maybe we should go back up?" offered Holly.
Artemis shook his head. "We're burning time that we don't have. Opal won't wait around forever."
Natalya passed Artemis, her flames casting their eerie glow deeper into chamber. She pointed. A narrow shaft directly opposite the two turbines was just about visible cut into the rock.
Artemis nodded, and the four of them made their way over. As he walked between the turbines, he realised he had stepped onto metal instead of stone, and looked down. He was walking on a massive metal grate. Water rushed below. Maybe it had once been supposed to power the turbines. He shook his head. This entire place made less sense every minute.
The passage Natalya had spotted turned out to be so narrow that they had to walk in single file. Butler tried to insist on going first, but when Holly pointed out that if it further narrowed they would all be stuck behind him, he agreed to let the elf take point and bring up the rear instead. Which left Artemis stuck in the middle with Natalya.
Artemis kept a hand on the wall beside him at all times, helping him keep his balance. After a minute or so, the rough stone under his hand gave way to wooden boards. They felt rotten.
Natalya poked him from behind. "This is ridiculous. I'm the only one with light. I should be in the lead. Can Short even see anything?"
"Be quiet," hissed the elf from the shadows ahead.
"Well, can you?"
"Not really," Holly admitted. "But I wouldn't worry ab-"
"Wait." Something in Natalya's tone made Holly pause. An urgency. "I hear something. Movement."
Mottled hands punched through the wood lining the passage and grabbed Holly. The elf shouted something incomprehensible and disappeared into the shadows.
Artemis screamed her name and was moving after her before conscious thought had time to set in, ducking into the opening she had disappeared into. Behind him Natalya was already shouting for him to come back, but then came the sounds of a commotion and her flickering flame, the only light they had, went out.
Darkness was immediate and absolute.
The way forward was black. He spun. The darkness behind him was equally impenetrable. He tried to turn back in the direction he had last seen Holly and realised that he had completely lost his sense of direction. A way away he could vaguely make out the sound of people fighting.
"Holly?"
Nothing.
Artemis took a few tentative steps in an unknown direction, hands out in front like a zombie to stop himself bumping into anything. Serious fear was already starting to set in.
"Holly?"
A sound behind him. He turned, hoping to hear Holly's voice. Instead, a pair of glowing yellow eyes blazed in the darkness.
Artemis did the only thing he could think of. He ran. He managed about five paces before slamming into something cold and very hard. Pain registered immediately. Dazed, he staggered back, still completely unable to see.
Steps in his direction.
Artemis lashed out blindly and caught the former with his fist, but the blow was weak and had little effect. Invisible hands grabbed him and hurled him to the ground. All his pre-existing pains intensified, and were joined by a few extras. Not pleasant.
Groaning, Artemis tried to pull himself to his feet, but his muscles didn't seem to be in a listening mood. Footsteps approached, but it was impossible to tell how close the former was without raising his head to see its eyes.
Out of nowhere, something struck him in the chest. Crying out, he tried to curl up into a ball, but the former was rolling him over and straddling him, pinning him down. The stench of rotten flesh was overwhelming. Claws raked his skin, drawing blood. Artemis struggled helplessly, too weak to throw the creature off him, those two yellow eyes staring down at him, boring deep into his soul, unblinking, ever sinister.
Those two eyes.
Artemis reached up with both hands, easily finding the creature's head in the darkness. He placed a thumb over each glowing eye and squeezed, snuffing them out once and for all. It was like crushing jelly. An unknown liquid dribbled down his fingers.
The former let out a cry of such and pain rage that Artemis could almost feel the ground beneath him shake. It thrashed about, still shrieking, easily dislodging Artemis's grip. The boy made to put some distance between the two of them, but the creature managed to grab hold of him before he could find his feet.
Artemis kicked and twisted but the former didn't let go. Then he felt something pierce the skin on his shoulder. Lots of somethings. Very painful, jagged somethings.
Teeth, he realised in horror. The former had sunk its teeth into his flesh. He tried breaking free again but only succeeded in sending the creature's teeth deeper into his skin. He screamed. The former bit down harder and he screamed again.
A thought wormed its way into his head, past the pain and the fear.
Two can play that game.
Artemis leaned forward, found what was probably the former's neck and bit down with all the strength his jaw could muster. Rotten skin gave way and black blood filled his mouth. The taste was impossibly foul but survival instincts somehow fought past the urge to gag. The former relinquished its own bite and struggled madly but Artemis held on, knowing that if we let go he was dead.
Ignoring the former's screams, Artemis bit down even harder and moved his head side to side and eventually the chunk of flesh came away. Fresh blood splattered over both of them. But Artemis wasn't done. Before the creature could twist away into the darkness, he reached out and grabbed the fresh would in its neck. He reached in and tore. Dead flesh, barely held together by magic and spite, came apart. An even more putrid smell filled his nostrils, and the creature stopped struggling.
The first thing Artemis did once the creature was dead with was spit out the chunk of rotten flesh that was still in his mouth. The second thing he did was throw up. It was also the third.
Exhausted, he slumped back, his mind struggling to cling onto consciousness. Then he threw up again.
A/N: Ugh. You can kind of taste it, can't you? Not exactly pleasant to think about.
Anyway, so Natalya did end up surviving. Sorry to those of you who wanted her dead, but she still has a role to play in this story. And let's be honest, she's just too much fun to kill off yet ;)
The next two chapters are pretty much the climax of the story, and with the exception of one detail I'm not sure how I feel about, I'm really pleased with how they've turned out. In Chapter 26 I'm particularly proud of the pacing and suspense. I'm really looking forward to getting those edited to I can share them with you guys, so hopefully the next update won't take so long.
I'm going to mention reviews now (surprising, I know), but for once, there's actually something I really want feedback on. How do you guys feel about Holly's vendetta against Natalya? I'm mainly referring to Holly saying she wants to/plans to kill her. I know Holly holds grudges, but in canon, she isn't vengeful, making this out of character. Do you find it convincing in spite of that, or does it feel like an inappropriate departure from her canon characterisation? I really want to know what you think for future fics.
I'd also love some feedback on the somewhat surreal first half of the chapter (Natalya's stream of consciousness while she's out cold). Was it interesting and mysterious or just confusing? And what do you think those scenes were trying to say about Natalya? Please let me know!
-Kio