~ Drowning ~
A/N: Yep, you guessed it . . . Holly/Artemis. Duh, what other pairing do you possibly think I would write about?? Erm . . . please review, even if you don't support this pairing. Heh heh . . . thanks.
This takes place after Eternity Code. I was appalled by the ending of the book. I'm SO glad to know that there IS in fact going to be a fourth book. I am mad at Eoin Colfer . . . for being such a dang good author! He's better than me! No fair. *pouts*
Disclaimer: Evidently, Eoin Colfer owns everything. Except for this computer. I'm proud to say I own that. Oh wait-never mind, it's my dad's. Ah well. On with the story.
CHAPTER ONE +++ Out Comes the Truth
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"You let them take it all away from me," the pale-faced boy said, voice devoid of emotion. "They took it all away, and you let them."
Holly shivered. "I'm sorry. I didn't want it to be this way."
"Too bad. You let them. It is this way," the boy replied coldly.
"Artemis, it's not my fault!" Holly defended herself. "If I could have changed things, I would've!"
The boy's face suddenly changed. Before he had looked cold and unmoving. Now he looked blank and innocent.
"Who are you?" he asked, a clueless expression on his face. "How do you know my name?"
"What do you mean?" Holly asked frantically. "I'm Holly! Holly Short!"
The boy furrowed his dark brow. "I don't know you . . ."
"Yes you do!" Holly screamed. "When you were twelve, you kidnapped me and held me for ransom! When you were thirteen, I helped save your father and your bodyguard! Butler! Remember?"
"Butler never needed to be saved . . ." the boy said slowly.
"Yes! He was shot by Arno Blunt! Come on, Artemis, you gotta remember!" Holly pleaded.
"What . . . are you talking about . . ."
"I'm a fairy! An elf! A sprite! Remember? Remember the Book? Remember the C Cube? Remember the coin?" Holly's hazel eyes roved over the boy's neck, but the coin wasn't there.
"You aren't real," Artemis said, backing away. "I don't know who you are. You're just a hallucination. A figment of my imagination."
"ARTEMIS FOWL! I'M REAL! I'M HERE, STANDING RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES! WHY DON'T YOU REMEMBER ME?"
"Because," Artemis Fowl replied, a malicious grin on his pale face, "you let them mind-wipe me."
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Holly woke up crying.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, "I'm sorry, Artemis!"
The elf just lay in bed for a few moments, quietly sobbing, trying to register in her mind that it was a dream. Yes, Artemis had been mind-wiped. No, he was not angry at her. How could he be? He didn't even remember a thing about her.
But as Holly thought about it, maybe that was what was making her so dang depressed.
Because it was true. Artemis didn't remember her. He never would.
Sighing, she pulled herself out of bed. Usually, at this time, she was all revved up and ready for work. Lately, however, her job as a captain at the LEP had been oddly dissatisfying. First off, it was plain boring. Nothing was going on; there were no criminals to be arrested, or rogue trolls to be controlled. As a matter of fact, the LEP was getting it easy.
Another reason that Holly had lost the joy in work was because to her it felt like something was missing; something very important indeed. What it was, she didn't know. What she did know was that the chances of her ever reclaiming this missing something were slim.
Commander Root hadn't made it any easier. Apparently, life for him was going swell. After the successful mind-wipe of Artemis Fowl, he and Foaly had both been given medals of honor for finally removing the People's worst threat. Oddly enough, Holly wasn't happy for them.
Foaly was coming up with new and better technology every day, and he was getting a much higher salary. This was indeed strange, since for the last year and a half, nothing much had been going on, and advanced technology wasn't even needed.
For Holly, everything seemed wrong, dreadfully wrong. No one ELSE appeared to be missing an important part of themselves. Everyone else seemed just fine. But NO, Holly Short couldn't get a break even after her worst enemy was gone.
Or was he her worst enemy . . .?
They had been friends. Despite what she had told herself repeatedly, Artemis Fowl and Holly Short had been friends. They had worked together, they had managed to have civil conversations with each other, they had helped each other. That's why the mind-wipe was taking its toll on Holly; she had actually had something to lose. As for Root, Foaly, and the Council, only good could come out of completely brainwashing the criminal mastermind.
So they weren't suffering.
But Holly was.
She couldn't help but think this was terribly unfair. After all she had gone through, from being the center of sexist and prejudiced fairy's jokes, to almost being removed from her job, what had she gotten out of it? Nothing. Because Artemis Fowl was gone. Not dead. But gone from her life.
Forever.
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Holly slowly walked into Root's office, dragging her feet the whole way.
"You wanted to see me, Commander?" she asked wearily.
Root eyed her warily, puzzled. "Erm, yes. Are you all right, Captain? You look a bit under the weather."
"Um, yeah. I'm fine," Holly replied lamely.
Root looked skeptical. "Hmph. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about . . . some things."
Holly was confused. "Uh, okay. Sure, Commander."
"First of all: what in the name of Frond is WRONG with you, Holly?!" he yelled.
Holly lifted her head, hazel eyes half-lidded. She sighed. "Nothing, sir."
Root snorted. "Yeah. Sure. Nothing. Right. OUT WITH IT, CAPTAIN!"
The LEP captain just shrugged nonchalantly. "Nothing is wrong with me."
The red-faced commander clicked a button next to the speakers. "FOALY!" he barked into the speakers, "GET OVER HERE NOW, YOU LAZY PONY!"
Holly raised one eyebrow. "What do you want with Foaly?"
Root just glared at her. He didn't respond.
After waiting a few minutes in uncomfortable silence, Foaly trudged into the office. "What do want, Julius?" he asked, angry at being interrupted.
"Tell me what the D'Arvit is wrong with Captain Short!" he shouted.
"Who am I, your PSYCHOLOGIST?" Foaly asked, surprised. "How should I know what the D'Arvit is wrong with Holly?!"
"NOTHING IS WRONG WITH ME!"
"Shut up, Captain! And that's a direct order!" Root spat. "Foaly, you have all sorts of silly little machines. Are you telling me you have none that could possibly HELP US IN THIS DILEMMA?"
"THIS ISN'T A DILEMMA!" Holly yelled. "I-AM-PERFECTLY-FINE!"
Foaly stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Erm . . . Root? If you don't mind me saying, the answer is right in front of your nose."
"No smart comments, Foaly," Root growled threateningly. "Just tell me what the D'Arvit is wrong with her!"
Foaly groaned in exasperation. He leaned down and whispered in Root's very red ear, "My ingenious truth potion!"
Root stared at Foaly. "Your-excuse me-truth POTION? HAHAHA!" Root burst into laughter. Holly still hadn't heard about the truth potion.
Foaly scowled. "It's very effective. I'll prove it to you."
"Fine," Root muttered. "Prove it to me, Pony-boy."
Holly eyed the two warily. Nothing was wrong with her, D'Arvit!
Root cleared his throat. "Ahem. Holly, Foaly needs to go and-uh-fetch something from the operations booth."
Sever minutes later, Foaly reappeared with a clear glass bottle in his hands.
Holly didn't like the looks of the bottle. "What the heck is that?" she asked suspiciously.
"Oh, nothing," Foaly said innocently. "Just one of my new inventions."
"Which is . . ."
"It's a kind of beverage that will make the drinker relax," Foaly lied through his teeth. "I want you to drink some."
"Drink it, Holly," Root said sternly.
Now, Holly knew that not a word of it was true. But it's not like she could disobey the commander. So she reached for the bottle, pulled out the cork, and took a swig. Immediately she fell unconscious.
"What now?" Root asked.
"We just ask her a few questions," Foaly explained. He snapped in front of Holly's face, and she woke up. However, the truth potion's effects were still over her. She had a very blank expression on her face.
"Now, Holly," Foaly said soothingly, "do you mind telling us why you've been so depressed lately?"
Holly stared straight ahead at the wall behind her two associated. "There's something missing," she said quietly, "something missing from my heart. I miss Artemis. I think I'm falling in love with him. I haven't even admitted it to myself yet. But he doesn't remember me. He never will. The others are glad he's gone. Root, Foaly, Trouble, Grub, Chix, the Council-they don't care a wit about him. I miss him. I think I love him."
Both Root's and Foaly's mouths dropped open in shock. But Holly wasn't finished yet.
"There's no hope. He's gone forever. We destroyed every last bit of stimuli that could bring his memory back. The dreams. I keep having the dreams. Artemis is there. He's mad at me. Mad at me because I let them take his memory away. Then, he doesn't even know who I am. It's all my fault. I hate the dreams. How can I go to work and do an efficient job when I think I'm in love with a Mud Boy who doesn't even remember one thing about me? A Mud Boy all of my friends hate? A Mud Boy everyone but me is glad to be rid of?"
Root and Foaly were by now extraordinarily surprised. They had never expected something like this from Holly.
"Sometimes I want to break all the rules. I want to go up aboveground, fly to Fowl Manor, barge into his room, and wrap my arms around him. Then he'd remember. I want to run my hands through his dark hair; stare into those blue eyes; but I can't. A human and a fairy could never be like that. It would never work out. And all of my friends, all of my fairy friends I have worked so hard to earn, would shun me."
The commander and technical wizard were both starting to feel very sick. Not because of the mushiness of it-but because Holly had to suffer. She was right. A Mud Man and elf could never be together. And suddenly, they felt more sorry for her than they ever had before.
"I love him so much. Even though he kidnapped me. He has a heart. He's proved that to me so many times . . ."
"No," Root croaked, "I don't want to hear anymore. I've heard enough."
Foaly nodded, speechless. This time he clapped in front of Holly's face, and she came back to reality.
"Why are you two staring at me like that?" she asked uneasily.
"Uh . . ."
"Erm . . ."
Holly was extremely annoyed. "What the heck is WRONG with you two?" she asked, disgusted, and started to get up and head for the door. Suddenly, she felt an arm on her shoulder.
"Holly," Root said seriously, "um . . . I wish we could do something about it."
Now Holly was thoroughly mystified. What on EARTH was he talking about. "Erm, come again?"
"We're sorry, Holly," Foaly said quietly.
Holly furrowed her brow. She looked down at the bottle, and noticed something she hadn't noticed before. A very tiny label, with the words FOALY'S TRUTH POTION written on it in ink.
Holly stared in disbelief. She looked from Foaly, to the potion, to Root, and back to Foaly again.
"No," she whispered. "NO! NO WAY IN HELL! I DID NOT TELL YOU-OH D'ARVIT D'ARVIT D'ARVIT!!"
Root and Foaly backed away slowly.
"NO!" she yelled hysterically. "THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH ME! I AM NOT IN LOVE WITH ANYONE! LEAST OF ALL ARTEMIS FOWL! NOOO!"
Root and Foaly exchanged a look, then left her to scream her heart out in the office.
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A/N: I'm sorry if Holly seems OOC; she's supposed to be, because she's kind of depressed and unsure of herself at the moment. Sorry about the stupid potion thing. My creativity is NOT kicking in right now. Please read and review! Next chappie: ARTEMIS! Muwahaha . . .
A/N: Yep, you guessed it . . . Holly/Artemis. Duh, what other pairing do you possibly think I would write about?? Erm . . . please review, even if you don't support this pairing. Heh heh . . . thanks.
This takes place after Eternity Code. I was appalled by the ending of the book. I'm SO glad to know that there IS in fact going to be a fourth book. I am mad at Eoin Colfer . . . for being such a dang good author! He's better than me! No fair. *pouts*
Disclaimer: Evidently, Eoin Colfer owns everything. Except for this computer. I'm proud to say I own that. Oh wait-never mind, it's my dad's. Ah well. On with the story.
CHAPTER ONE +++ Out Comes the Truth
+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
"You let them take it all away from me," the pale-faced boy said, voice devoid of emotion. "They took it all away, and you let them."
Holly shivered. "I'm sorry. I didn't want it to be this way."
"Too bad. You let them. It is this way," the boy replied coldly.
"Artemis, it's not my fault!" Holly defended herself. "If I could have changed things, I would've!"
The boy's face suddenly changed. Before he had looked cold and unmoving. Now he looked blank and innocent.
"Who are you?" he asked, a clueless expression on his face. "How do you know my name?"
"What do you mean?" Holly asked frantically. "I'm Holly! Holly Short!"
The boy furrowed his dark brow. "I don't know you . . ."
"Yes you do!" Holly screamed. "When you were twelve, you kidnapped me and held me for ransom! When you were thirteen, I helped save your father and your bodyguard! Butler! Remember?"
"Butler never needed to be saved . . ." the boy said slowly.
"Yes! He was shot by Arno Blunt! Come on, Artemis, you gotta remember!" Holly pleaded.
"What . . . are you talking about . . ."
"I'm a fairy! An elf! A sprite! Remember? Remember the Book? Remember the C Cube? Remember the coin?" Holly's hazel eyes roved over the boy's neck, but the coin wasn't there.
"You aren't real," Artemis said, backing away. "I don't know who you are. You're just a hallucination. A figment of my imagination."
"ARTEMIS FOWL! I'M REAL! I'M HERE, STANDING RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES! WHY DON'T YOU REMEMBER ME?"
"Because," Artemis Fowl replied, a malicious grin on his pale face, "you let them mind-wipe me."
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Holly woke up crying.
"I'm sorry," she whispered, "I'm sorry, Artemis!"
The elf just lay in bed for a few moments, quietly sobbing, trying to register in her mind that it was a dream. Yes, Artemis had been mind-wiped. No, he was not angry at her. How could he be? He didn't even remember a thing about her.
But as Holly thought about it, maybe that was what was making her so dang depressed.
Because it was true. Artemis didn't remember her. He never would.
Sighing, she pulled herself out of bed. Usually, at this time, she was all revved up and ready for work. Lately, however, her job as a captain at the LEP had been oddly dissatisfying. First off, it was plain boring. Nothing was going on; there were no criminals to be arrested, or rogue trolls to be controlled. As a matter of fact, the LEP was getting it easy.
Another reason that Holly had lost the joy in work was because to her it felt like something was missing; something very important indeed. What it was, she didn't know. What she did know was that the chances of her ever reclaiming this missing something were slim.
Commander Root hadn't made it any easier. Apparently, life for him was going swell. After the successful mind-wipe of Artemis Fowl, he and Foaly had both been given medals of honor for finally removing the People's worst threat. Oddly enough, Holly wasn't happy for them.
Foaly was coming up with new and better technology every day, and he was getting a much higher salary. This was indeed strange, since for the last year and a half, nothing much had been going on, and advanced technology wasn't even needed.
For Holly, everything seemed wrong, dreadfully wrong. No one ELSE appeared to be missing an important part of themselves. Everyone else seemed just fine. But NO, Holly Short couldn't get a break even after her worst enemy was gone.
Or was he her worst enemy . . .?
They had been friends. Despite what she had told herself repeatedly, Artemis Fowl and Holly Short had been friends. They had worked together, they had managed to have civil conversations with each other, they had helped each other. That's why the mind-wipe was taking its toll on Holly; she had actually had something to lose. As for Root, Foaly, and the Council, only good could come out of completely brainwashing the criminal mastermind.
So they weren't suffering.
But Holly was.
She couldn't help but think this was terribly unfair. After all she had gone through, from being the center of sexist and prejudiced fairy's jokes, to almost being removed from her job, what had she gotten out of it? Nothing. Because Artemis Fowl was gone. Not dead. But gone from her life.
Forever.
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Holly slowly walked into Root's office, dragging her feet the whole way.
"You wanted to see me, Commander?" she asked wearily.
Root eyed her warily, puzzled. "Erm, yes. Are you all right, Captain? You look a bit under the weather."
"Um, yeah. I'm fine," Holly replied lamely.
Root looked skeptical. "Hmph. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about . . . some things."
Holly was confused. "Uh, okay. Sure, Commander."
"First of all: what in the name of Frond is WRONG with you, Holly?!" he yelled.
Holly lifted her head, hazel eyes half-lidded. She sighed. "Nothing, sir."
Root snorted. "Yeah. Sure. Nothing. Right. OUT WITH IT, CAPTAIN!"
The LEP captain just shrugged nonchalantly. "Nothing is wrong with me."
The red-faced commander clicked a button next to the speakers. "FOALY!" he barked into the speakers, "GET OVER HERE NOW, YOU LAZY PONY!"
Holly raised one eyebrow. "What do you want with Foaly?"
Root just glared at her. He didn't respond.
After waiting a few minutes in uncomfortable silence, Foaly trudged into the office. "What do want, Julius?" he asked, angry at being interrupted.
"Tell me what the D'Arvit is wrong with Captain Short!" he shouted.
"Who am I, your PSYCHOLOGIST?" Foaly asked, surprised. "How should I know what the D'Arvit is wrong with Holly?!"
"NOTHING IS WRONG WITH ME!"
"Shut up, Captain! And that's a direct order!" Root spat. "Foaly, you have all sorts of silly little machines. Are you telling me you have none that could possibly HELP US IN THIS DILEMMA?"
"THIS ISN'T A DILEMMA!" Holly yelled. "I-AM-PERFECTLY-FINE!"
Foaly stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Erm . . . Root? If you don't mind me saying, the answer is right in front of your nose."
"No smart comments, Foaly," Root growled threateningly. "Just tell me what the D'Arvit is wrong with her!"
Foaly groaned in exasperation. He leaned down and whispered in Root's very red ear, "My ingenious truth potion!"
Root stared at Foaly. "Your-excuse me-truth POTION? HAHAHA!" Root burst into laughter. Holly still hadn't heard about the truth potion.
Foaly scowled. "It's very effective. I'll prove it to you."
"Fine," Root muttered. "Prove it to me, Pony-boy."
Holly eyed the two warily. Nothing was wrong with her, D'Arvit!
Root cleared his throat. "Ahem. Holly, Foaly needs to go and-uh-fetch something from the operations booth."
Sever minutes later, Foaly reappeared with a clear glass bottle in his hands.
Holly didn't like the looks of the bottle. "What the heck is that?" she asked suspiciously.
"Oh, nothing," Foaly said innocently. "Just one of my new inventions."
"Which is . . ."
"It's a kind of beverage that will make the drinker relax," Foaly lied through his teeth. "I want you to drink some."
"Drink it, Holly," Root said sternly.
Now, Holly knew that not a word of it was true. But it's not like she could disobey the commander. So she reached for the bottle, pulled out the cork, and took a swig. Immediately she fell unconscious.
"What now?" Root asked.
"We just ask her a few questions," Foaly explained. He snapped in front of Holly's face, and she woke up. However, the truth potion's effects were still over her. She had a very blank expression on her face.
"Now, Holly," Foaly said soothingly, "do you mind telling us why you've been so depressed lately?"
Holly stared straight ahead at the wall behind her two associated. "There's something missing," she said quietly, "something missing from my heart. I miss Artemis. I think I'm falling in love with him. I haven't even admitted it to myself yet. But he doesn't remember me. He never will. The others are glad he's gone. Root, Foaly, Trouble, Grub, Chix, the Council-they don't care a wit about him. I miss him. I think I love him."
Both Root's and Foaly's mouths dropped open in shock. But Holly wasn't finished yet.
"There's no hope. He's gone forever. We destroyed every last bit of stimuli that could bring his memory back. The dreams. I keep having the dreams. Artemis is there. He's mad at me. Mad at me because I let them take his memory away. Then, he doesn't even know who I am. It's all my fault. I hate the dreams. How can I go to work and do an efficient job when I think I'm in love with a Mud Boy who doesn't even remember one thing about me? A Mud Boy all of my friends hate? A Mud Boy everyone but me is glad to be rid of?"
Root and Foaly were by now extraordinarily surprised. They had never expected something like this from Holly.
"Sometimes I want to break all the rules. I want to go up aboveground, fly to Fowl Manor, barge into his room, and wrap my arms around him. Then he'd remember. I want to run my hands through his dark hair; stare into those blue eyes; but I can't. A human and a fairy could never be like that. It would never work out. And all of my friends, all of my fairy friends I have worked so hard to earn, would shun me."
The commander and technical wizard were both starting to feel very sick. Not because of the mushiness of it-but because Holly had to suffer. She was right. A Mud Man and elf could never be together. And suddenly, they felt more sorry for her than they ever had before.
"I love him so much. Even though he kidnapped me. He has a heart. He's proved that to me so many times . . ."
"No," Root croaked, "I don't want to hear anymore. I've heard enough."
Foaly nodded, speechless. This time he clapped in front of Holly's face, and she came back to reality.
"Why are you two staring at me like that?" she asked uneasily.
"Uh . . ."
"Erm . . ."
Holly was extremely annoyed. "What the heck is WRONG with you two?" she asked, disgusted, and started to get up and head for the door. Suddenly, she felt an arm on her shoulder.
"Holly," Root said seriously, "um . . . I wish we could do something about it."
Now Holly was thoroughly mystified. What on EARTH was he talking about. "Erm, come again?"
"We're sorry, Holly," Foaly said quietly.
Holly furrowed her brow. She looked down at the bottle, and noticed something she hadn't noticed before. A very tiny label, with the words FOALY'S TRUTH POTION written on it in ink.
Holly stared in disbelief. She looked from Foaly, to the potion, to Root, and back to Foaly again.
"No," she whispered. "NO! NO WAY IN HELL! I DID NOT TELL YOU-OH D'ARVIT D'ARVIT D'ARVIT!!"
Root and Foaly backed away slowly.
"NO!" she yelled hysterically. "THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH ME! I AM NOT IN LOVE WITH ANYONE! LEAST OF ALL ARTEMIS FOWL! NOOO!"
Root and Foaly exchanged a look, then left her to scream her heart out in the office.
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A/N: I'm sorry if Holly seems OOC; she's supposed to be, because she's kind of depressed and unsure of herself at the moment. Sorry about the stupid potion thing. My creativity is NOT kicking in right now. Please read and review! Next chappie: ARTEMIS! Muwahaha . . .