Disclaimer: *glares at cops* Artemis ain't mine...*looks down at her crayon
map of Eoin Colfer's house* Let's see...if I go in through the back door
and hide in the laundry basket for an hour...
Summary: Artemis, Holly, Butler, and Ember learn about Chimaera's past and Ember's true heritage. Betrayal, bad dreams, and burning cold memories (hence the name of the chapter!). Many plot twists in record time, since I'm trying not to post too many chapters...looks like I might have to, though.
Warning: This is not a romance fic, and, in a moment, I'll tell you why...
Chaos: Ah, now, my lovely viewers! How I missed you! I read all of your reviews and loved each and every one of them! ^_^
Havoc: Yeah, okay, chit, that's enough. Get on with the gore!
Chaos: One moment, Havoc. You're so impatient. *sees confused viewers* Oh, I'm sorry! While I was in jail, I learned that there are a few readers that are a little upset because of my opinion of romance and its fans.
Havoc: Well HELL, they shouldn't be reading this! There's a reason the genre is ACTION/ADVENTURE!
Chaos: Anyway, lovely readers, I decided that this must stop, so, while in prison, I had my ruder, violent...*glances at Havoc*...stupid side removed. The result is him. *points at Havoc* Don't fret, lovely readers, we still write the same. Now, on to the fic!
Havoc: Finally! Jesus, woman!
Chaos: STOP CALLING ME WOMAN! Oh, by the way: For this chapter '~' means dream sequence or memories or, time stuff. Enjoy!
***
Fowl Manor
~
Butler glared at her. "You're not here. Not here."
But she didn't disappear. Not this time.
"Go away."
"Help me, please..."
She reached out to him. Her eyes were filled with such pain. How could he refuse...?
"Don't let her find me..."
~
"Butler? Are you all right?" Artemis asked, looking over his shoulder at his manservant. "Do you need to lie down?" He rubbed the tiredness from his own eyes and turned around to face Butler. It'd been five hours since Ember had left the room angrily, and he was beginning to wonder where she'd gone off to.
"No, Artemis." Butler reassured him. At that moment, Holly burst through the door, panting.
Her face was flushed as she spoke. "We've got problems." She tossed her communicator to Butler. "Operations Booth is down. No word from Commander Root. Something big is happening underground." She motioned to Butler. "The only clue is that transmission. It's from Corporal Lili Frond." Butler picked up the communicator. A sweet, feminine voice crackled over the sound waves. It was almost impossible to determine her pleas for help from the static.
"...Short...Plaza...down...no...shuttles gone...goblins escaped...Howler's Peak...Foaly trapped...blackout...Root says...ground...repeat...hold ground...Frond...out..."
Holly crossed her arms. "Keep listening." They did.
"Give...that...Captain Short? Listen...careful...not shut...transmission off..."
Artemis and Butler listened intently as the static began to fall away like a heavy blanket and the new speaker's voice became clearer. Her face appeared on the communicator screen. Chimaera Blaze.
"Hello, darlings, now, isn't that better?" Her smug expression was almost too much for Artemis. "It's all right, darlings, you may answer. I can see each and every one of you perfectly. I can hear you as well." Her gaze floated over each person in the room. "Captain Short, you didn't really think you could out-think me, did you now? I know you have my granddaughter in there somewhere. Why don't you bring her out and we can have a nice little chat?"
"I don't think she wants to see you right now," Artemis told her before Holly could.
Chimaera's wandering eyes finally fell upon the fifteen year old genius. "What you think, darling, has little to do with reality. Your mind runs on numbers and large words, Mud Boy, but you fail to learn one important thing. I hold all of the cards in this game. There is no stalemate--only death. And I am the judge, jury, and executioner." She glared at Butler. "Ah, yes, the ape. How's your shoulder, caveman?"
"I'd watch who I was talking to, if I were you," Butler growled, cracking his knuckles.
"Watching doesn't seem to be your forte, though, does it, darling?" Chimaera chuckled, her eyes wandering back over Artemis meaningfully. "At least, not when it comes to the things that matter."
"Enough, Chimaera," Holly commanded. "What do you want?" She balled her hands into fists.
Chimaera frowned. "Don't spoil my fun like that, Captain." There was a loud bang, a flash of light, and then Chimaera was looking at the three through the eyes of a Plaza receptionist. Holly couldn't recognize her. "It makes me angry. And when I get angry, I kill people."
"We understand," Holly answered. This wasn't a simple hostage situation. This was an execution. Chimaera hadn't lied.
"No, I don't think you do," Chimaera growled as she transformed back. "I want only Artemis Fowl and my granddaughter. The trade is cliche, I suppose, but simple: give me what I want, and I'll go away." She glanced off into the distance. "You have six hours, no shuttle, and no connection to your headquarters. I suggest you hurry. Don't be late." The screen blacked out.
Holly looked over at Artemis and Butler. Butler was as stunned as she was. Artemis, however, was looking as if he had just disproved infinity. Maybe he had.
"Genius," Artemis smiled. "Pure genius. Unfortunately, she made several mistakes."
"Which are?" Holly asked, sitting on the floor, not exactly sure how she was going to take this new idea of Artemis's.
Artemis smiled a vampire smile and leaned back in his chair. "She requested that both Ember and I come down there. First of all, she didn't say you couldn't come with us. And also, she didn't say we couldn't bring weapons. Second, she obviously doesn't know that Ember hates her."
Butler shook his head. "Or, she could know all of this and it's all part of some bigger plan to kill us all. Maybe she wants a war."
Holly crossed her arms. "Besides, we don't have a mode of transportation. We don't have a shuttle or specialized suits, since the pressure on the way down would kill us without protection. We'd have to be dwarves to even consider getting through the earth's crust and then we'd actually have to find the Lower Elements and get to the Police Plaza. There's no way we can make this time limit." She sighed. "I think it's hopeless this time."
At that moment, Ember chose to walk into the room, smiling. "We may not be dwarves, Captain Short," she coaxed, helping Holly up from the floor, "but we have the next best thing."
"Been a while, huh, Captain?"
~1 Hour Earlier~
"So, do you think you can do it?" Ember asked impatiently. "I'm sure the route to your old cell shouldn't be hard to find. If we're lucky, it hasn't been closed off. Probably hasn't even been located yet."
"I don't know," Mulch Diggums answered. "What's in it for me?"
Ember swallowed for a moment and glared at him. This was harder than she had thought. "I will stop hunting you. You'll be free and I will never attempt to kill you again."
Mulch was taken aback. "Really?" He didn't need to ask twice; when Ember Blaze, the Doragon, made a promise, she kept it. "What else?" he asked hesitantly.
"You got your life," Ember growled. "Don't push it." Mulch's face was enough to tell her that he needed something else. "Any gold you pick up along the way, you can keep."
"That's not what I'm worried about and you know it," Mulch grinned, following her into the foyer of Fowl Manor. "You said goblins were running amok."
Ember groaned. "Fine. I'll protect you from any." Mulch's face seemed to brighten immediately.
"Just like old times, huh?" the dwarf sighed wistfully, walking beside her as they neared the stairs.
Ember looked at him. It seemed that, for a moment, her eyes were blinking away imaginary tears. "Yeah, just like old times." She shoved her hands in the pockets of the jeans she had borrowed from Juliet.
Tara, Mulch's Old Escape Route
"Yeah, but this still doesn't help the fact that the pressure would kill us the deeper down we go," Holly told them as she stared at the hill. It was amazing, the things Mulch was capable of doing once he put his mind to it. All these years, the LEP had never once found this hole in the ground the size of a Mercedes.
Mulch pulled out several pressurized suits. "Every trip has its memories," he explained with a grin. "I remember back in the day when Ember and I used to travel to the surface all the time. Good times. Now, let's go; we've only got four hours to ride our asses off." Artemis glanced from Ember to Mulch until Ember grabbed his shoulder. "Do you have a problem with your head or something, purebred?" she demanded. She let go when Butler's angry glare fell down on her and strode to the entrance where Mulch had prepared the motorcycles. She climbed on as soon as the others had gotten into their suits and helmets, so that they wouldn't be crushed by the pressure underground. She was to bring up the rear, Mulch and Butler on their motorcycles, Artemis riding with Holly, since there wasn't any room on Butler's bike.
"Ember," Holly started. "How do you and Mulch Diggums know each other, exactly?" She glanced at Artemis, who had wedged himself behind her, since he was bigger and didn't know how to ride a motorcycle.
Ember looked up silently at Holly and then glanced at Mulch. "We go way back," she answered, her expression almost one of bemusement. "Farther than you and Artemis." She appeared as in deep thought. "I met him when I was a kid, just learning the tricks of the trade."
~
"Hey, you, get the hell outta my pocket!"
Her had grabbed her hand, twisting it in all sorts of odd angles.
"Shit!"
~
Holly tilted her head to the side as Ember continued, and they began to ride after Mulch and Butler, speaking through the communicators in their helmets.
"He was pretty understanding, and we seemed to work well together," Ember said. "Until one day, I received a vision. Needless to say, Mulch didn't like the idea as much as I thought."
~
"Do you KNOW what lava does to dwarves? It'll kill me! Do you WANT me dead?"
He was hurt.
"That's not my problem, Mulch. Besides, I'm sure you'll find a way to adjust to the surface world. You always do."
She was angry. She had calmly put him down.
"What's that supposed to mean? I thought we were partners!"
It was true, but things change. Everything changes.
"We were. Things have changed. The Lower Elements have grown cold to the touch. It's time to turn up the heat."
She had to be calm. Couldn't lose her cool. Couldn't show any signs of regret, lest he think her weak.
"You're crazier than I thought! You'll kill everybody!"
They were already dead anyway, living beneath the Mud People in this prison of earth and heat.
"Again, that's not my problem..."
He had yelled at her. He never yelled at her. And he never would again.
"You have to be stopped, Ember...I knew this day would come..." She took a step back, away from him, realization dawning.
"What--?"
Nothing else came to mind. How could he? How dare he?
"LEP! Stay wear you are, Doragon! That's right, nice and easy..."
He had betrayed her.
"Mulch! Mulch, what have you done?!"
It had been so obvious.
"Sorry, Ember...but you're not my problem anymore...take her away Julius..."
She'd been so stupid.
"Mulch, I'll KILL you! Mark my words, dwarf, for they will haunt you forever! You will live for eternity until I carve your heart out with your own blade and burn it between my fingertips!"
She was only thirteen.
~
Holly and Ember rode on in silence, but Artemis was busy at work, of course. Ember had been betrayed to the LEP by her mentor. It made him ask how Chimaera herself had been captured. He wondered what Ember's face looked like under her helmet. Twisted in pain? Angry? Depressed? Happy that she had gotten the memory of her betrayal off of her chest after so long.
No. She was alone. The only expression she wore was regret.
Regret that she had not rushed to kill Chimaera when she'd had the chance.
~ Three Hours Earlier ~
"Chimaera," Ember said, squeezing the receiver of the phone as Juliet sat across the room, enchanted under her mesmer. "I know you're there." She knew she wouldn't have to explain how she got her mother's number. That wench always carried a cell phone around. Thank gods for dragon radar.
"Yes, darling," she heard Chimaera giggle. "It's grandma. Are you ready to come home now, darling?"
"Don't call me darling," Ember growled. "Yes, I'm coming for you. I've got you figured out, grandmother."
Chimaera fell silent for a moment. "Stay out of it, Ember. It's bad enough that you signed your freedom over for mine. I will not be able to forgive you if you try to help them hunt me down." "Grandmother, you know you're crazy, don't you?" Ember closed her eyes as her grandmother burst out laughing over the phone. "They aren't the same boy."
"They are so, darling," Chimaera answered angrily. "They are exactly alike! He is simply tricking us. You know how those disgusting purebred bastards are always using their magic against us! Their disgusting technology."
Ember sighed. Her grandmother really believed what she was saying. That Artemis and Butler were the same boy. Simply altered by technology. "The ape is the boy you hate," she told her grandmother. Her plea was again interrupted by her grandmother's laughter. "Goddamn men," snorted Chimaera. "All men are demons. My father was a demon. Your grandfather was a demon. But it's Mud Men who are the biggest, most demonic bastards ever to walk the face of the earth. Your father was a sick bastard."
Ember gritted her teeth. She'd heard this rant before. It was pounded into her brain. How her asshole of a human father had killed her mother by poisoning her with his Mud Man blood. "Why didn't you just kill him, then?"
"I did, darling," Chimaera laughed. "Him and his two children. Now, darling, I want you to go back to the house and forget this entire mess. Tell them I've taken up house in Australia, or something like that. This will all blow over."
"You don't want that," Ember growled. "You sick bitch, why did you kill that LEP officer?"
"Captain Stone?" Chimaera asked. "She had a rare gift I needed. Invisibility is a sweet asset to have on your side. In fact, I've got another young beauty here with me. She has royalty in her blood, I can smell it. I think I'll be giving your purebred friends a call in a minute to chat."
Ember could feel her window of opportunity slamming shut in her face. "One last thing, grandmother." She glanced over at the tiny pile of ashes. "Have you ever heard of the family that lives on the manor grounds?"
"Why, no, I haven't," Chimaera answered innocently. "Should I?" She paused for a moment. "All right, darling, if it worries you so much, I'll be sure to look the Butlers up." There was an audible gasp. She had been caught.
"You're getting clumsy, Grandmother. You're thinking like an amateur, now." Ember smiled to herself. "But, while you're working on the Butlers, find out some stuff about the women who lived with them, would you? Find out more about C. Maria."
Chimaera got very quiet on the other end. "What's in a name, darling? You had better get back to the manor. I've got unfinished business to attend to, soon. You'll want to be there." She ended the conversation with an angry click.
~
Operations Booth
Foaly stumbled about aimlessly, which is fairly easy for a centaur wandering around in the dark. "Damn that woman..." he growled, searching for a light. All of this spare time had given him a while to think. Thinking had brought him to more conclusions than checking and rewiring his computer would have.
"Foaly, darling, are you there?" Chimaera's voice crackled over the air waves. "Oh, what a silly question, of course you're there."
"Chimaera," he snarled, looking around instinctively, though he knew she wasn't in there, and, even if she was, he couldn't see her. "You're not going to get away with this." Now wasn't the time to be worrying about melodrama.
"No, Foaly, you see, that's where you're wrong," Chimaera answered, no longer sounding as amused as she had so many hours ago when she'd locked him in his own Operations booth. "Have you figured it out yet, centaur?"
"Yeah," he replied. "You loved your daughter, Kindle, but knew that her elf and dragon blood was very unstable. That she wouldn't live long enough to fulfill your dreams of bringing death and destruction to the Lower Elements. You knew she was sick. So you never let her out of your sight." He paused momentarily. "So when she stole away to the surface world, you knew you had to go with her. You had to protect her. And, also, to breed her." "Yes," Chimaera told him smugly. "And do you want to know why?"
Foaly could feel a feminist rant coming on. He braced himself. What he got was anything but.
"Because I wanted to do what was expected of me," Chimaera answered. "It is true that my parents wanted a boy to carry on their legacy, and that they were disappointed that I had no physical strength. But I refused to let them down. My husband requested of me that I bear him a son to be the heir to his pathetic crime realm. Kindle disappointed me. She was nothing like us. I knew she was weak, and I could kill myself for loving her. But that's life, yes?"
Foaly had to keep her talking. He could hear the groans of dying LEP officers in the background. He had to find a way to distract her long enough for someone to think up a plan. "So you bred Ember. The perfect killing machine. Your daughter's powers, her father's size and strength, and your ambition. But she didn't turn out the way you planned, either, did she?"
"Alas, they never do," Chimaera admitted, smiling as another scream of pain rang out in the distance. "But, again, that's life. She'll come around. Or I will simply kill her. Goodbye, Foaly."
"Wait!" Foaly urged. "I know now why you bred Ember. But who was her father?"
Chimaera's chuckle rang sweetly through the air. "I thought you would have figured it out already, centaur. I needed the best. Unfortunately, I am the most brilliant criminal mastermind ever born. I could not have her be all brains and beauty and no brawn. I needed a strong one for this. A man who had always been strong. Whose strength had run in the family. The choice was obvious. Ciao, darling." She ended the conversation.
Foaly again sank to the floor. She was right. It had been obvious. Ember Blaze had been a third dragon, a third elf, and a third human.
Now, she was a third dragon, a third elf, and a third Butler.
He didn't know which was more dangerous.
En Route to Police Plaza
"Do you love her?" Ember demanded, tapping a private line into Butler's communicator. "Your sister, I mean."
Butler was so surprised, he nearly fell off of his bike. "Of course. Mud People, even purebreds, tend to love family members."
Ember considered this, wondering whether or not she should be insulted. She decided to let it slide. After all, it would take more than love to win this battle against Chimaera. It would take good, old-fashioned hate. And she had plenty of that to spare.
***
Chaos: Love? Hate? Kill us? Review, please, kind readers. ^_^
Havoc: Feh, I don't need their reviews...........*looks at reviewers and whispers* Please review!
Chaos: I HEARD THAT!!!!!
Havoc: WHAT?!
Chaos: *remembers* Oh YEAH! *Looks out into the audience for the person* THERE you are!!! ^_^ I remember your request for Kung Fu from the 3rd Chapter! HI!!! *waves*
Havoc: *growls* Be patient, dammit!! *curls claws into a fist* The good stuff's coming, stop whining!!
Chaos: *decks him upside his head* Shaddup! *turns back to inquisitive reviewer* Tune in to the next few chapters; there will be a lot of Kung Fu in the showdown! ^___^ Later days, lovely readers!!! *skips out*
Havoc: *rubs skull, following Chaos* Stupid woman....*grumbles*
Summary: Artemis, Holly, Butler, and Ember learn about Chimaera's past and Ember's true heritage. Betrayal, bad dreams, and burning cold memories (hence the name of the chapter!). Many plot twists in record time, since I'm trying not to post too many chapters...looks like I might have to, though.
Warning: This is not a romance fic, and, in a moment, I'll tell you why...
Chaos: Ah, now, my lovely viewers! How I missed you! I read all of your reviews and loved each and every one of them! ^_^
Havoc: Yeah, okay, chit, that's enough. Get on with the gore!
Chaos: One moment, Havoc. You're so impatient. *sees confused viewers* Oh, I'm sorry! While I was in jail, I learned that there are a few readers that are a little upset because of my opinion of romance and its fans.
Havoc: Well HELL, they shouldn't be reading this! There's a reason the genre is ACTION/ADVENTURE!
Chaos: Anyway, lovely readers, I decided that this must stop, so, while in prison, I had my ruder, violent...*glances at Havoc*...stupid side removed. The result is him. *points at Havoc* Don't fret, lovely readers, we still write the same. Now, on to the fic!
Havoc: Finally! Jesus, woman!
Chaos: STOP CALLING ME WOMAN! Oh, by the way: For this chapter '~' means dream sequence or memories or, time stuff. Enjoy!
***
Fowl Manor
~
Butler glared at her. "You're not here. Not here."
But she didn't disappear. Not this time.
"Go away."
"Help me, please..."
She reached out to him. Her eyes were filled with such pain. How could he refuse...?
"Don't let her find me..."
~
"Butler? Are you all right?" Artemis asked, looking over his shoulder at his manservant. "Do you need to lie down?" He rubbed the tiredness from his own eyes and turned around to face Butler. It'd been five hours since Ember had left the room angrily, and he was beginning to wonder where she'd gone off to.
"No, Artemis." Butler reassured him. At that moment, Holly burst through the door, panting.
Her face was flushed as she spoke. "We've got problems." She tossed her communicator to Butler. "Operations Booth is down. No word from Commander Root. Something big is happening underground." She motioned to Butler. "The only clue is that transmission. It's from Corporal Lili Frond." Butler picked up the communicator. A sweet, feminine voice crackled over the sound waves. It was almost impossible to determine her pleas for help from the static.
"...Short...Plaza...down...no...shuttles gone...goblins escaped...Howler's Peak...Foaly trapped...blackout...Root says...ground...repeat...hold ground...Frond...out..."
Holly crossed her arms. "Keep listening." They did.
"Give...that...Captain Short? Listen...careful...not shut...transmission off..."
Artemis and Butler listened intently as the static began to fall away like a heavy blanket and the new speaker's voice became clearer. Her face appeared on the communicator screen. Chimaera Blaze.
"Hello, darlings, now, isn't that better?" Her smug expression was almost too much for Artemis. "It's all right, darlings, you may answer. I can see each and every one of you perfectly. I can hear you as well." Her gaze floated over each person in the room. "Captain Short, you didn't really think you could out-think me, did you now? I know you have my granddaughter in there somewhere. Why don't you bring her out and we can have a nice little chat?"
"I don't think she wants to see you right now," Artemis told her before Holly could.
Chimaera's wandering eyes finally fell upon the fifteen year old genius. "What you think, darling, has little to do with reality. Your mind runs on numbers and large words, Mud Boy, but you fail to learn one important thing. I hold all of the cards in this game. There is no stalemate--only death. And I am the judge, jury, and executioner." She glared at Butler. "Ah, yes, the ape. How's your shoulder, caveman?"
"I'd watch who I was talking to, if I were you," Butler growled, cracking his knuckles.
"Watching doesn't seem to be your forte, though, does it, darling?" Chimaera chuckled, her eyes wandering back over Artemis meaningfully. "At least, not when it comes to the things that matter."
"Enough, Chimaera," Holly commanded. "What do you want?" She balled her hands into fists.
Chimaera frowned. "Don't spoil my fun like that, Captain." There was a loud bang, a flash of light, and then Chimaera was looking at the three through the eyes of a Plaza receptionist. Holly couldn't recognize her. "It makes me angry. And when I get angry, I kill people."
"We understand," Holly answered. This wasn't a simple hostage situation. This was an execution. Chimaera hadn't lied.
"No, I don't think you do," Chimaera growled as she transformed back. "I want only Artemis Fowl and my granddaughter. The trade is cliche, I suppose, but simple: give me what I want, and I'll go away." She glanced off into the distance. "You have six hours, no shuttle, and no connection to your headquarters. I suggest you hurry. Don't be late." The screen blacked out.
Holly looked over at Artemis and Butler. Butler was as stunned as she was. Artemis, however, was looking as if he had just disproved infinity. Maybe he had.
"Genius," Artemis smiled. "Pure genius. Unfortunately, she made several mistakes."
"Which are?" Holly asked, sitting on the floor, not exactly sure how she was going to take this new idea of Artemis's.
Artemis smiled a vampire smile and leaned back in his chair. "She requested that both Ember and I come down there. First of all, she didn't say you couldn't come with us. And also, she didn't say we couldn't bring weapons. Second, she obviously doesn't know that Ember hates her."
Butler shook his head. "Or, she could know all of this and it's all part of some bigger plan to kill us all. Maybe she wants a war."
Holly crossed her arms. "Besides, we don't have a mode of transportation. We don't have a shuttle or specialized suits, since the pressure on the way down would kill us without protection. We'd have to be dwarves to even consider getting through the earth's crust and then we'd actually have to find the Lower Elements and get to the Police Plaza. There's no way we can make this time limit." She sighed. "I think it's hopeless this time."
At that moment, Ember chose to walk into the room, smiling. "We may not be dwarves, Captain Short," she coaxed, helping Holly up from the floor, "but we have the next best thing."
"Been a while, huh, Captain?"
~1 Hour Earlier~
"So, do you think you can do it?" Ember asked impatiently. "I'm sure the route to your old cell shouldn't be hard to find. If we're lucky, it hasn't been closed off. Probably hasn't even been located yet."
"I don't know," Mulch Diggums answered. "What's in it for me?"
Ember swallowed for a moment and glared at him. This was harder than she had thought. "I will stop hunting you. You'll be free and I will never attempt to kill you again."
Mulch was taken aback. "Really?" He didn't need to ask twice; when Ember Blaze, the Doragon, made a promise, she kept it. "What else?" he asked hesitantly.
"You got your life," Ember growled. "Don't push it." Mulch's face was enough to tell her that he needed something else. "Any gold you pick up along the way, you can keep."
"That's not what I'm worried about and you know it," Mulch grinned, following her into the foyer of Fowl Manor. "You said goblins were running amok."
Ember groaned. "Fine. I'll protect you from any." Mulch's face seemed to brighten immediately.
"Just like old times, huh?" the dwarf sighed wistfully, walking beside her as they neared the stairs.
Ember looked at him. It seemed that, for a moment, her eyes were blinking away imaginary tears. "Yeah, just like old times." She shoved her hands in the pockets of the jeans she had borrowed from Juliet.
Tara, Mulch's Old Escape Route
"Yeah, but this still doesn't help the fact that the pressure would kill us the deeper down we go," Holly told them as she stared at the hill. It was amazing, the things Mulch was capable of doing once he put his mind to it. All these years, the LEP had never once found this hole in the ground the size of a Mercedes.
Mulch pulled out several pressurized suits. "Every trip has its memories," he explained with a grin. "I remember back in the day when Ember and I used to travel to the surface all the time. Good times. Now, let's go; we've only got four hours to ride our asses off." Artemis glanced from Ember to Mulch until Ember grabbed his shoulder. "Do you have a problem with your head or something, purebred?" she demanded. She let go when Butler's angry glare fell down on her and strode to the entrance where Mulch had prepared the motorcycles. She climbed on as soon as the others had gotten into their suits and helmets, so that they wouldn't be crushed by the pressure underground. She was to bring up the rear, Mulch and Butler on their motorcycles, Artemis riding with Holly, since there wasn't any room on Butler's bike.
"Ember," Holly started. "How do you and Mulch Diggums know each other, exactly?" She glanced at Artemis, who had wedged himself behind her, since he was bigger and didn't know how to ride a motorcycle.
Ember looked up silently at Holly and then glanced at Mulch. "We go way back," she answered, her expression almost one of bemusement. "Farther than you and Artemis." She appeared as in deep thought. "I met him when I was a kid, just learning the tricks of the trade."
~
"Hey, you, get the hell outta my pocket!"
Her had grabbed her hand, twisting it in all sorts of odd angles.
"Shit!"
~
Holly tilted her head to the side as Ember continued, and they began to ride after Mulch and Butler, speaking through the communicators in their helmets.
"He was pretty understanding, and we seemed to work well together," Ember said. "Until one day, I received a vision. Needless to say, Mulch didn't like the idea as much as I thought."
~
"Do you KNOW what lava does to dwarves? It'll kill me! Do you WANT me dead?"
He was hurt.
"That's not my problem, Mulch. Besides, I'm sure you'll find a way to adjust to the surface world. You always do."
She was angry. She had calmly put him down.
"What's that supposed to mean? I thought we were partners!"
It was true, but things change. Everything changes.
"We were. Things have changed. The Lower Elements have grown cold to the touch. It's time to turn up the heat."
She had to be calm. Couldn't lose her cool. Couldn't show any signs of regret, lest he think her weak.
"You're crazier than I thought! You'll kill everybody!"
They were already dead anyway, living beneath the Mud People in this prison of earth and heat.
"Again, that's not my problem..."
He had yelled at her. He never yelled at her. And he never would again.
"You have to be stopped, Ember...I knew this day would come..." She took a step back, away from him, realization dawning.
"What--?"
Nothing else came to mind. How could he? How dare he?
"LEP! Stay wear you are, Doragon! That's right, nice and easy..."
He had betrayed her.
"Mulch! Mulch, what have you done?!"
It had been so obvious.
"Sorry, Ember...but you're not my problem anymore...take her away Julius..."
She'd been so stupid.
"Mulch, I'll KILL you! Mark my words, dwarf, for they will haunt you forever! You will live for eternity until I carve your heart out with your own blade and burn it between my fingertips!"
She was only thirteen.
~
Holly and Ember rode on in silence, but Artemis was busy at work, of course. Ember had been betrayed to the LEP by her mentor. It made him ask how Chimaera herself had been captured. He wondered what Ember's face looked like under her helmet. Twisted in pain? Angry? Depressed? Happy that she had gotten the memory of her betrayal off of her chest after so long.
No. She was alone. The only expression she wore was regret.
Regret that she had not rushed to kill Chimaera when she'd had the chance.
~ Three Hours Earlier ~
"Chimaera," Ember said, squeezing the receiver of the phone as Juliet sat across the room, enchanted under her mesmer. "I know you're there." She knew she wouldn't have to explain how she got her mother's number. That wench always carried a cell phone around. Thank gods for dragon radar.
"Yes, darling," she heard Chimaera giggle. "It's grandma. Are you ready to come home now, darling?"
"Don't call me darling," Ember growled. "Yes, I'm coming for you. I've got you figured out, grandmother."
Chimaera fell silent for a moment. "Stay out of it, Ember. It's bad enough that you signed your freedom over for mine. I will not be able to forgive you if you try to help them hunt me down." "Grandmother, you know you're crazy, don't you?" Ember closed her eyes as her grandmother burst out laughing over the phone. "They aren't the same boy."
"They are so, darling," Chimaera answered angrily. "They are exactly alike! He is simply tricking us. You know how those disgusting purebred bastards are always using their magic against us! Their disgusting technology."
Ember sighed. Her grandmother really believed what she was saying. That Artemis and Butler were the same boy. Simply altered by technology. "The ape is the boy you hate," she told her grandmother. Her plea was again interrupted by her grandmother's laughter. "Goddamn men," snorted Chimaera. "All men are demons. My father was a demon. Your grandfather was a demon. But it's Mud Men who are the biggest, most demonic bastards ever to walk the face of the earth. Your father was a sick bastard."
Ember gritted her teeth. She'd heard this rant before. It was pounded into her brain. How her asshole of a human father had killed her mother by poisoning her with his Mud Man blood. "Why didn't you just kill him, then?"
"I did, darling," Chimaera laughed. "Him and his two children. Now, darling, I want you to go back to the house and forget this entire mess. Tell them I've taken up house in Australia, or something like that. This will all blow over."
"You don't want that," Ember growled. "You sick bitch, why did you kill that LEP officer?"
"Captain Stone?" Chimaera asked. "She had a rare gift I needed. Invisibility is a sweet asset to have on your side. In fact, I've got another young beauty here with me. She has royalty in her blood, I can smell it. I think I'll be giving your purebred friends a call in a minute to chat."
Ember could feel her window of opportunity slamming shut in her face. "One last thing, grandmother." She glanced over at the tiny pile of ashes. "Have you ever heard of the family that lives on the manor grounds?"
"Why, no, I haven't," Chimaera answered innocently. "Should I?" She paused for a moment. "All right, darling, if it worries you so much, I'll be sure to look the Butlers up." There was an audible gasp. She had been caught.
"You're getting clumsy, Grandmother. You're thinking like an amateur, now." Ember smiled to herself. "But, while you're working on the Butlers, find out some stuff about the women who lived with them, would you? Find out more about C. Maria."
Chimaera got very quiet on the other end. "What's in a name, darling? You had better get back to the manor. I've got unfinished business to attend to, soon. You'll want to be there." She ended the conversation with an angry click.
~
Operations Booth
Foaly stumbled about aimlessly, which is fairly easy for a centaur wandering around in the dark. "Damn that woman..." he growled, searching for a light. All of this spare time had given him a while to think. Thinking had brought him to more conclusions than checking and rewiring his computer would have.
"Foaly, darling, are you there?" Chimaera's voice crackled over the air waves. "Oh, what a silly question, of course you're there."
"Chimaera," he snarled, looking around instinctively, though he knew she wasn't in there, and, even if she was, he couldn't see her. "You're not going to get away with this." Now wasn't the time to be worrying about melodrama.
"No, Foaly, you see, that's where you're wrong," Chimaera answered, no longer sounding as amused as she had so many hours ago when she'd locked him in his own Operations booth. "Have you figured it out yet, centaur?"
"Yeah," he replied. "You loved your daughter, Kindle, but knew that her elf and dragon blood was very unstable. That she wouldn't live long enough to fulfill your dreams of bringing death and destruction to the Lower Elements. You knew she was sick. So you never let her out of your sight." He paused momentarily. "So when she stole away to the surface world, you knew you had to go with her. You had to protect her. And, also, to breed her." "Yes," Chimaera told him smugly. "And do you want to know why?"
Foaly could feel a feminist rant coming on. He braced himself. What he got was anything but.
"Because I wanted to do what was expected of me," Chimaera answered. "It is true that my parents wanted a boy to carry on their legacy, and that they were disappointed that I had no physical strength. But I refused to let them down. My husband requested of me that I bear him a son to be the heir to his pathetic crime realm. Kindle disappointed me. She was nothing like us. I knew she was weak, and I could kill myself for loving her. But that's life, yes?"
Foaly had to keep her talking. He could hear the groans of dying LEP officers in the background. He had to find a way to distract her long enough for someone to think up a plan. "So you bred Ember. The perfect killing machine. Your daughter's powers, her father's size and strength, and your ambition. But she didn't turn out the way you planned, either, did she?"
"Alas, they never do," Chimaera admitted, smiling as another scream of pain rang out in the distance. "But, again, that's life. She'll come around. Or I will simply kill her. Goodbye, Foaly."
"Wait!" Foaly urged. "I know now why you bred Ember. But who was her father?"
Chimaera's chuckle rang sweetly through the air. "I thought you would have figured it out already, centaur. I needed the best. Unfortunately, I am the most brilliant criminal mastermind ever born. I could not have her be all brains and beauty and no brawn. I needed a strong one for this. A man who had always been strong. Whose strength had run in the family. The choice was obvious. Ciao, darling." She ended the conversation.
Foaly again sank to the floor. She was right. It had been obvious. Ember Blaze had been a third dragon, a third elf, and a third human.
Now, she was a third dragon, a third elf, and a third Butler.
He didn't know which was more dangerous.
En Route to Police Plaza
"Do you love her?" Ember demanded, tapping a private line into Butler's communicator. "Your sister, I mean."
Butler was so surprised, he nearly fell off of his bike. "Of course. Mud People, even purebreds, tend to love family members."
Ember considered this, wondering whether or not she should be insulted. She decided to let it slide. After all, it would take more than love to win this battle against Chimaera. It would take good, old-fashioned hate. And she had plenty of that to spare.
***
Chaos: Love? Hate? Kill us? Review, please, kind readers. ^_^
Havoc: Feh, I don't need their reviews...........*looks at reviewers and whispers* Please review!
Chaos: I HEARD THAT!!!!!
Havoc: WHAT?!
Chaos: *remembers* Oh YEAH! *Looks out into the audience for the person* THERE you are!!! ^_^ I remember your request for Kung Fu from the 3rd Chapter! HI!!! *waves*
Havoc: *growls* Be patient, dammit!! *curls claws into a fist* The good stuff's coming, stop whining!!
Chaos: *decks him upside his head* Shaddup! *turns back to inquisitive reviewer* Tune in to the next few chapters; there will be a lot of Kung Fu in the showdown! ^___^ Later days, lovely readers!!! *skips out*
Havoc: *rubs skull, following Chaos* Stupid woman....*grumbles*
