Chapter 6 – Issues to Solve
Lower Elements, Haven City, LEP "Julius Root Memorial Laboratory"
Holly was a Pixie's finger away from decking Foaly, who was utterly bellowing with laughter.
In front of them, a screen that depicted Artemis and Holly sharing a tender kiss. Not too long after the duo returning to the past in nothing more than their underwear either. Holly was utterly mortified by the revelation, especially given that No. 1's time-traveling magic resulted in her having returned closer to her adolescence, similar to Fowl. A large amount of anger also followed, given that she knew Fowl was lying to her about his mother's condition. Still, she could take all that out on Foaly.
"D'arvit," Holly cursed, "it isn't funny."
Foaly caught his breath a moment between howling chuckles, "You're right, it's absolutely downright hilarious. I told you there was something between you two."
"He lied to me!" Holly shouted, "Convinced me to go to the past to rescue some lemur he was selling to an animal extinction organization. All so he could save his mother."
"Wow, how evil," Foaly slowly stopped laughing, "saving his mother."
Holly raised a finger to make a counterpoint, "I mean, he did sell that lemur to a group that's entire goal is killing them all."
"He was also a ten-year-old with a massive fortune and no parental supervision."
"He was mature enough to try to salvage that fortune and later kidnap a fairy."
"Intelligence and maturity, even at a young age, still require good parentage to ensure they're put to good use." Foaly replied with a tone that almost made him sound like a wise man, if only it was somebody other than Foaly saying it.
'D'arvit,' Holly hated when Foaly had a point.
Holly was a bundle of emotions and nerves since the very beginning of this adventure, and revelations like this were not helping. She was almost entirely unsure of what to do to resolve these emotions and certainly having Artemis constantly straddle the line of total reprehensibility did not help matters. She finally resolved to finish the scene and get it over with.
To her surprise, shortly afterwards Artemis confessed to what he had done. In the moment Holly was angry, but to a future Holly she instead felt a small relief that the Mud-Boy might have grown a conscience. He even gave her an opportunity to speak with Julius, redeeming him somewhat further in both of past and future's eyes.
The rest of their journey barely belied any further tension between them, something that Foaly was much more keen to spot with Artemis' adventures barely arousing surprise anymore. Holly resolved to focus on the adventures at hand, ignoring any feelings she may have for the Mud-Boy until they speak again. They finished the time travel plot relatively shortly afterwards, revealing yet another Koboi scheme underpinning Artemis' adventures.
Holly plodded her way to Artemis' pod and pressed the release. Upon Foaly's signal she began to remove the electrodes on his head, where his exposed skin was left beet red from having them placed on and stimulating him for so long. It had been nearly 16 hours since he initially lost consciousness and 6 since the encounter with Orion. He showed no signs of waking during their work and it was her hope that he might finally awaken with his original personality.
Holly recognized the insanity of that request, 'I can't believe I'd wish for that.'
She barely had time to remove the last pad from his head when the Mud-Boy's eyes lifted up and revealed the bright blue eyes from earlier, he groggily and instinctively rubbed his head on the irritated portions of skin.
"Everything good Artemis?" Holly carefully inquired, he didn't appear to be any worse for wear.
"Better with Orion gone," Artemis mumbled, still awakening. He stretched and exited the pod gingerly, glancing around, "How long was I gone for?"
"Unconscious for about ten hours, we spent probably five to ten minutes with Orion, and then unconscious for another six." Foaly reported, not bothering to look away from the machine.
"We?" Artemis grew slightly flustered, fearing what Orion might have said to Foaly.
"It was mostly me," Holly interjected, "Foaly just came in and immediately shocked him into unconsciousness."
Artemis was unsure whether to be offended by the centaur's disregard for his well-being or happy that Orion was shut up.
"What did he have to say?" Artemis inquired further, Orion wasn't exactly divulging much of what happened in the past.
"He talked about an adventure in Atlantis with Turnball Root, I guess he shot me with something?" Holly answered, rubbing the back of her head, "Otherwise he spent most of his time declaring his ardent love for me.
Artemis blushed, 'Great, of course he did.'
Foaly cantered into their conversation, finally having stepped away from his computer, "He's a manifestation of your Atlantis Complex. In short, your life of crime gave you an alternate personality."
Artemis furrowed his brow and was about to question this turn of events, however, everything related to Orion seemed to have some gigantic questions looming over them so he decided to let them be.
"Is there anything that can be done?" Fowl asked Foaly.
"There is treatment," Foaly stated, "but I would wait until we finish this memory experiment. We've climbed to 70% in just a few days. If we push and see, I predict that you'll have gotten the treatment in the past. I hypothesize that it was reliving the traumatic experiences of your past that brought it back. If it was the existence and feelings from your past that returned the Atlantis Complex to you, perhaps remembering the treatment will resolve it.
"Until then," Holly interrupted, "you need some time away from the machine."
The elf was right, 16 hours strapped to such a machine was probably not good, but what else was he to do.
'The gift.'
"You have a point… I think I shall return to my quarters for now." Artemis declared in an almost awkward tone that would give off the air of him planning something, had the duo of Holly and Foaly not known the expert planner that was Fowl. The awkward delivery raised the duo's eyebrows but they ultimately considered nothing of it, packing up for the night and leaving.
Soon after, Artemis arrived at his room. It was growing late, yet the young genius was restless. He didn't want to be attracted to this elf woman, at least that's what he told himself. Despite this, there was irrefutable tension: Orion's verbal strike regarding his attraction, as well as the actions of his younger self in kissing her proved that. 'Then again, a kiss isn't entirely a sign of attraction.'
He thought he could hide behind that until he remembered both the literal and figurative sparks from that moment. He sat at the miniature desk that had become his workspace and cradled his head in his hands. The gift was still floating around in his mind, even if he never had a chance then at the very least it could represent a thank-you for the effort put in by her. 'Well, what would I do for Foaly.'
Normally the mastermind always had a plan, the recollections of his past actions proved that to be true. Here, though, and in this situation, he was constantly at a loss and the mercy of an elf who he has kidnapped, manipulated, and all around been an insufferable monster to, and a know-it-all centaur that was Artemis' match in intelligence with approximately triple the ego. The more he thought, the more he reviewed what he now knew about himself, the more what Orion said rung true, she would never love a monster like him.
'She would want another elf anyways,' Artemis was musing. 'I live a third of her lifespan. We're presumably sexually incompatible for production of offspring. To be honest, she seems too far oriented with her job to even seek partnership.'
Artemis sighed, he needed to pull himself out of it. What better way than to plan. He knew it couldn't be something practical, since it wouldn't exactly be too unique a gift for long. Depending on how long his other option took, he could do both. As much as it pained him to say, he wished to do something sentimental.
He retrieved a piece of paper and pencil from a bag that took up half the floor space near his bed. He immediately placed lead to paper and scribbled a number of concepts rated by viability for what he could do. 'Only I could find a way to quantify the value of a sentimental object.'
Artemis unfortunately was not necessarily artistic in a creative manner, not disposed to carpentry, not gifted in wordplay that was not sarcastic remarks, and he lacked knowledge on what an elven woman in particular would want anyways. Much less a Holly Short, that was a much different creature than any other he could face, man or elf. He scribbled one idea he did like, something related to their very first encounter. Retrieving his phone from his belongings he messaged Butler, requesting a delivery of a particular item, and leaving instructions for a design to be created from their store of fairy gold at Fowl manor.
With his 'sentimental' category gift eventually coming to Haven, Artemis just had to do the easy part, designing and constructing a highly efficient set of fairy wings for Holly to probably get to use once before the LEP reverse engineers it and distributes it to all fairykind. That being said, she probably loved practical.
At least making the gift helped him stop questioning why he was making it.
Because it was definitely a thank-you.