The Family Name: The Arctic Incident

By Elbereth in April

Chapter 6: Cudgeon's Last Stand

Everything was orange. You couldn't tell where you were. The tunnel looked all the same. The sparks were getting worse. Each shock disrupted Artemis's focus. He didn't know if he was on 54 now or 56. The difference was life or death.

Finally Artemis stopped. The air purifiers in their helmets were nearly spent by now. His concentration was failing, his brain spiraling off into a black tunnel. "Malfoy. . . have you counted 61 or 63?"

"63. This is it." Draco crawled closer and held out his lit wand. "Search for a keyhole."

Artemis felt around with his fingers and squinted. "Here. Alohamora."

The panel flap dropped open. Artemis stuck his head up and undid the helmet visor. He drew in deep, grateful breaths. He pulled Malfoy closer until he could put his head out and breathe, too.

Then they turned their attention to the room they were in. Those must be the three goblin generals, Artemis deduced. Which would make that one Cudgeon, and the one in the hoverchair must be Opal Koboi. The adults were all watching via the control room's screen as Butler knocked out goblin after goblin. There were enough other goblins in the building that the generals just found it amusing.

Draco looked at Fowl to see what the next step would be. "Plan?" he mouthed.

"Take out Cudgeon first, then the goblins, then Opal. Nothing fancy, just Stupefy," Artemis whispered, more breath than voice, so no one would hear. "Ready?"

At Draco's nod, Artemis slithered out of the tube and plopped onto the floor, dripping goo. Draco slid out and landed next to him, flicking globs of gel off his wand. One goblin turned his head and saw them. He opened his mouth.

"Stupefy," Artemis cried, aiming at Cudgeon.

"Stupefy," Malfoy said at the same time, hitting the goblin about to speak.

The goblin fell, but Opal Koboi happened to move forward two inches closer to the screen and Artemis's shot hit her chair instead of Cudgeon. It bounced away and fizzled out.

The rest of the group turned to face the boys. "Kill them, quickly," Cudgeon ordered the other two generals, and threw himself behind a computer monitor. Opal squeaked.

"Stupefy," Artemis cast quickly and another of the goblins fell. The remaining one conjured a fireball in his fist and approached the boys menacingly.

Draco jumped. His fingers grabbed onto the arm of Opal's hoverchair. He pulled himself up, put a knee on the armrest, and clung to the back of the chair. This meant two things: 1) the goblin couldn't fire at him, and 2) he could now see and aim for Cudgeon. The problem with this plan was that Opan wrenched around in her seat and started pounding on his fingers, distracting him from getting a spell off. He pulled himself up, making the chair wobble dangerously, got a knee on both armrests, and leaned over the chair-back, prepared to hex the pixie. She stopped hitting him and spun the chair in a tight circle. Draco had to hold on tightly. Then she rocketed them to the other side of the room, backwards. She was going to smash him in between the chair and the wall. Before they hit the wall, Draco let go and tumbled to the floor. Opal shot upwards, out of his reach. Draco looked about him. He had a clear shot at Cudgeon now. Unfortunately, Cudgeon also had a clean shot at him and was bringing his gun around.

Draco raised his wand, knowing it was going to be close, when he noticed something. At an angle just past Cudgeon, the goblin was bearing down on Fowl. Fowl had just shouted Stupefy and the goblin was crumpling to the floor. However, the general had already released his fireball, and it was too big and too near for Fowl to dodge. His fellow Slytherin was just staring at it, eyes wide, waiting for it to hit him.

Draco changed where he was pointing his wand. "Aqua Valde!"

Cudgeon fired his laser.

Draco tried to dodge.

The water spell engulfed the fireball and extinguished it with a hiss and a great cloud of steam. Artemis couldn't see past it, so he walked through the curtain of mist. Water droplets clung to his body and shimmered like stars in the sky. His heart was beating like a heavy metal drummer, loud and fast. He saw Malfoy's knees hit the ground and his wand fall out of his hand. Shock delayed any reaction as Cudgeon walked over and picked up Malfoy's wand. Then he pointed the laser at Artemis.

Cudgeon was smiling. "You see, Artemis Fowl, you haven't accomplished anything. Your friends are out there, or. . ." he glanced at Malfoy, "disarmed and bleeding to death." Malfoy had his hand pressed to his side; blood streamed down between his fingers. "You're here, alone, and helpless. My goblin squad in this facility will kill your friends, then I'll kill the goblins. Then I'll take over the world." The fairy laughed. Malfoy was a sickly white, like chocolate that was too old, and he was breathing in shaky gulps. "Nobody can stop me."

"He can," Malfoy said, voice thin but confident. "He's Artemis Fowl."

Cudgeon spared them both a condescending glance. "I'm the one with the gun. I can pull the trigger before you can cast a spell. And Blondie here, in his weakened condition, can't jump me before I shoot him."

"You'll rule the world," Artemis said slowly. "You. What about Opal?"

Cudgeon smiled a politician's smile. "She'll be by my side, of course."

"That wasn't what it sounded like to me. It sounded like you were planning on ruling without her. What do you think, Malfoy?"

"He doesn't strike me as the kind to share power. In fact, I'd say he's the kind to quietly eliminate her. Poison her in her sleep, most likely. I've heard she's feisty, and very smart, so he'd probably prefer to avoid direct confrontation. Maybe he'll hire someone to kill her for him."

"Ah. Here's a thought then. If I can't hex you, Cudgeon, what'll you grant me if I hex Opal instead?"

Cudgeon's smile had slipped just a bit too much, or he'd hesitated just a fraction of a second too long before answering. Opal swooped down in her chair to be eye level with him. She glared. "Are you thinking about double-crossing me?"

'D'Arvit,' Artemis thought. Her hoverchair now blocked both Cudgeon and herself from his aim. He raced forward to try and get around her.

Cudgeon's attention swiveled back from Opal to Fowl.

Draco sat back and kicked out with his legs, sweeping Cudgeon to the floor. The fairy retained his gun but lost his grip on Draco's wand. It clattered to the ground a few feet away. Draco made a desperate grab for it as Cudgeon raised his laser to point it at the boy's temple.

Opal maneuvered backwards, away from the gun, once again blocking Artemis's path. He couldn't get around, but there was a bit of space. . . he threw himself underneath the floating chair, head first, and slid forward on his belly from the momentum. His wand was raised. "Stupefy!" he cried, as Cudgeon's finger pulled the trigger.

Cudgeon crumpled. His shot went wild and hit a computer screen.

Draco's hand curled over his wand. "Stupefy!"

Opal's eyes closed and her head lolled to the side.

The two Slytherins looked at each other, panting.

"Malfoy. . ."

"They're still fighting the goblins in the hall," Draco interrupted, reminding him. "What do we do?"

"There must be a way to switch the DNA cannons so they'll stun the goblins." Artemis pulled himself up and examined the computer banks.

"We could wake up Opal and make her tell us." Draco's voice was getting weaker.

"No, look. . . it's Foaly." Artemis pointed to a monitor that showed the centaur trapped in his communications booth. A microphone was hooked up in front of the screen. Artemis spoke into it. "Foaly! Do you know the code to change over the Koboi cannons?"

"Fowl!" Foaly acknowledged him with surprise. "What's going on?"

"Commander Root and Company is in trouble. I could figure this out given time, but I was hoping you'd know the code to switch the cannons to pick up goblin DNA."

"OK." Foaly nodded and began giving Fowl instructions on what buttons to push. Draco let Fowl work it out. He stayed sitting on the floor wondering why he hadn't bothered to learn any healing spells. Things were beginning to get a little fuzzy.

Artemis activated the cannons and all the goblins in the building fell, unconscious. "How do we return power to the LEP weaponry?"

"Cudgeon had a remote control. Turn it off."

Artemis found it and did so. Foaly let out a whoop of triumph as power came rushing back to his Operations Booth. He reprogrammed Police Plaza's own DNA cannons and put the rest of the goblins out of action.

Now that the rest of the group was out of danger of dying by goblin, Artemis quickly knelt down by Draco. "Hey, Malfoy. . . good work."

The blonde's eyes were glazed with pain, but he smiled a little. "Thanks, you too."

Artemis ripped a long strip off Cudgeon's shirt and pressed it against Malfoy's wound. He hissed a little.

"Sorry," Artemis apologized, feeling wretched. He didn't want Malfoy to hurt like this. Malfoy's eyes fluttered closed. His face was covered with sweat. He wouldn't. . . surely he wouldn't die, would he? Artemis abruptly felt rather dizzy and his stomach churned sickeningly.

A loud pounding sounded on the door. Artemis looked up, startled. Through the glass window, he saw his bodyguard and the fairies standing on the other side of the door. He jumped up and ran to open it. Before they could even enter the room, he had taken Holly's arm. "Come quick, heal Malfoy."

Holly's eyes went wide in alarm and she hurried in. She rushed over to Draco and examined him. "He's been shot!"

"I know. I saw Cudgeon shoot him."

Holly put her hand over Draco's wound. His eyes didn't open. She gathered her magic and let it flow into the boy. Blue sparks danced from her hand to his side.

Butler took Artemis by the shoulders and looked him over. "You're not injured?"

"No. Just--" Artemis looked at Malfoy and bit his lip. Butler patted his arm.

Root was checking over the unconscious goblins and fairies. "What happened?"

"We climbed through the plasma supply pipe and hexed them." His eyes were still on the other boy. He wanted to tell Butler, "Malfoy saved my life. He knew Cudgeon was about to shoot him, but he saved me instead." Only no words would come out. Why had Malfoy done that? Artemis didn't know, but he wouldn't forget.

"If you did that, you'd better get sprayed down with the antirad foam," Root said. He got a canister from its place on the wall. "I'll do it."

Butler looked Artemis over again, then turned to look at Malfoy. He considered himself responsible for the welfare of both boys, as Malfoy was with them solely to help rescue Artemis Sr. However, Holly was removing her hand from him now, and the boy was opening his eyes.

"Hello, Draco." Holly leaned back on her haunches and grinned at him. "Feeling better?"

Draco looked down at his side, blinked, then looked back at her. "Yes. You healed me?" She nodded. "Um, great. Thanks." How did you thank someone properly for that?

"No problem." She saw the sincerity in his eyes. "Stand up, you need to get sprayed down now."

Bemusedly, Draco did so, and had nasty-smelling foam sprayed all over him. He wrinkled his nose and decided he was entitled to whine a bit. "Ugh, can't they do anything about the smell? And look at my clothes, just look. I'm covered in mud and blood and goo! These were hand-tailored by Grace Thenetello! Do you know my socks alone are worth 30 Galleons?"

Artemis smiled at him, unable to help it. "You should see the state your hair is in."

Draco's hand immediately went to his hair.

Artemis smiled wider and half-turned away, trying to hide it. He noticed movement by the door. Mulch was grinning and waving goodbye. Artemis nudged Draco and motioned with his chin. Draco looked over and winked. Mulch nodded and was gone--he only had a two day head start, after all.

A/N: Personally, I don't like this story very well, although I'm glad most of you do. But I just felt it had to be written, because it happened. Otherwise, when Hogwarts starts up again, you wouldn't understand what happened when they referred to the summer, and Artemis's father, or the progression of the boy's relationship. At any rate, I'm enjoying my start of writing Third Year better than I am this. I know the events didn't change that much from the book in this story, but Malfoy is feeling very out of his element, with computers and shuttlecraft and guns, and therefore not initiating much.