REVIEW REPLIES:
DaughterOfHecate: Hi again! Yeah, that's just who Artemis is. Stone cold-criminal at home, awkward 11 year old at school. Unfortunately, Artemis won't see Nico's powers in action until later, maybe the next chapter or so? But apart from that your guess is more or less accurate. Sadly, no thestrals for the time being. Don't worry, Nico and the thestrals will get along just fine. More than fine, even! But that's not going to happen for a while. But don't worry! They'll show up. Eventually... Thanks for reviewing by the way! It means a lot!
Summer: Thanks goodness! I'm clueless about stuff like that. Yeah, Nico's maturing a LOT faster than he did in canon. I always thought that the main reason Nico took so long to mature in canon was because he spent so much time on his own, or with the dead. So spending months with kids his own age would probably change his character a bit, and speed up character development. And yeah, it's gonna take a while for Artemis, Nico and Ron to apologize to each other. They just... don't get along. I don't hate Ron or anything(although it may seem that way at times) but he and Draco would probably take the longest to overcome their prejudices because of their upbringing. Nico's got the whole grudges thing, and Artemis is just... Artemis. Thanks! I've been focusing on this story a lot more recently, because I want the ending to not seem forced, you know? I won't be able to update as often as i used to, but it's great to know that there are people out there who like reading this! Thanks!
Nico grinned like a maniac, "Cool, huh?" he asked, holding out his sword, "Don't touch the blade though, it's cursed."
Artemis quickly retracted his hand, "I see. Although, I must ask, what material is this made of? It doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before." he asked.
Nico thought for a moment before answering, "Some sort of enchanted iron, I guess? I can't remember."
"As entertaining as this is, why exactly are we out here again?"
Nico rolled his eyes, "We're here so that I can show you why I need this sword. Don't pretend that you weren't wondering why I carry it around all the time Fowl."
"I wouldn't dream of it."
"Whatever. Now, are you ready to see this beauty in action?" Nico asked impatiently.
Artemis raised an eyebrow, "I suppose so but-"
"That's all I needed to hear." Nico interrupted. "Follow me." he beckoned, leading them deeper into the forest.
*****10 minutes later*****
"What are you waiting for?" Artemis asked in exasperation.
Nico, as tactful as ever, replied, "A monster."
Artemis raised a mocking eyebrow, "Of course you are. But joking aside, what are you actually waiting for?"
"I already told you, Fowl! I'm waiting for a monster to attack us, which is obviously bound to happen soon enough."
"What makes you say that?" Artemis asked casually, although his voice betrayed a sliver of fear.
"It's some sort of... gift." Nico tried to explain without giving away the existence of the entire pantheon, "Everyone in my family is born with some sort of gift, but because of that, we also give off some sort of 'scent' per se, that attracts monsters. Which is why I need a sword to drive them off. I'd prefer to show you, but for some reason, there are no mon-" Nico was interrupted by some sort of distant roar, "Spoke too soon, there's one."
With impeccable timing, a hellhound burst into the clearing. It's eyes were blood red, and it was the size of a small house.
Behind him, Nico could hear Artemis muttering something to himself.
"3.141592653" Artemis mumbled, "5897932"
Nico blinked, "What are you doing?"
Artemis stopped mumbling for a moment, "I'm staying calm." he answered before continuing his mumbling, "38462643"
Nico rolled his eyes, "Chillax! I've got this in the bag." he assured before turning to face the hellhound.
Now, it's important to note that it would be very easy for Nico to simply kill the hellhound, but, as Nico reasoned, where's the fun in that?
Nico grinned as he dodged the hellhound's claws. He hadn't felt this alive in months! He should come here more often, he thought, he was getting out of touch.
The hellhound pounced at him once again, but Nico was starting to get bored of this little show they were putting on. So he killed the hellhound in one smooth strike. As the hellhound turned to dust, he turned to face the audience and gave an exaggerated bow.
"And that, my friend, is how a professional does that." Nico declared dramatically.
Artemis appeared to be a lot calmer now, seeing as his usually testiness was back.
"Was all of that pomp and show really necessary?" he asked dubiously.
"No. But it was fun."
"Lovely. My friend finds fighting terrifying monsters fun. That makes perfect sense." Artemis remarked, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"You'll get used to it." Nico dismissed.
"I suppose." Artemis sighed, "But you still haven't answered my question. Why are you showing me this?"
Nico shrugged, "You were going to figure it out eventually. I thought it would be easier to tell you on my own terms."
To be honest, Nico had been hoping that Artemis would buy the whole story about the 'family gift' . It would hopefully throw him off track, so that he wouldn't find out about the Greek pantheon. That way, he wouldn't need to worry too much about being caught using his powers around him, and he wouldn't be revealing the existence of demigods! It was the perfect plan!
If Artemis bought it.
Artemis looked thoughtful, "So this gift of yours, it's passed down from generation to generation? Like Parseltongue?"
"What's Parseltongue again?" Nico asked with a frown.
"It's the ability to understand snakes.", Artemis explained, "It's not a very common gift, but it exists."
Nico nodded, "Yeah, I'd say that it's almost exactly like that."
"So what's your gift?" Artemis asked curiously, "I'm assuming that it has something to do with teleportation?"
"Close enough." Nico conceded, "The teleportation thing is called shadow-travel. It's basically using shadows to travel. All of my powers are related to shadows and death." he explained.
Artemis' eyes widened, "The necromancy?"
Nico nodded, "Necromancy too. My dad can do it as well."
"Is there anyone else in your family with these... gifts?"
Nico thought for a moment before answering. Should he mention Percy? But then he'd have to explain the water thing as well. And a kid with death powers, who also has a cousin with water powers, was basically waving a flag that said 'GREEK DEMIGODS' in Artemis' face.
"None that I know of." Nico lied.
Artemis seemed to know that he was lying, but didn't bother questioning it.
"What do you want me to do?"
Nico raised an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"
"You want me to do something for you, don't you?" Artemis elaborated, "Tit for tat. That's how it works."
Nico rolled his eyes, once again, "You need to get your head out of business deals more often Fowl. It doesn't work that way amongst friends."
"I distinctly remember you saying the exact opposite a few minutes ago, when you were trying to get me to open up."
. . . One point to Fowl.
"That's not important." Nico said dismissively, " The only thing I need you to do, is help me keep my abilities a secret from everyone else."
Artemis appeared to be deep in thought, "Your branch of magic would be considered black magic, correct?", after a nod from Nico, he continued, "I see why you don't want your abilities to be made common knowledge. Very well, I'll help you." he decided.
Nico grinned, "That easily? I was worried that I'd need to say a lot more than that to convince you to keep this under wraps."
Artemis shrugged, "I've kept my fair share of secrets as well. I know how important it is for them to remain, well, secret."
"Do I want to know?"
"No." Artemis assured, "You do not. Although, I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised about the whole 'magical abilities' issue, especially considering your family's history."
Nico didn't exactly like the sound of that, but before he could do anything about it, the sound of a blood-curling scream pierced the tranquil environment.
Nico was on his feet in a flash, and raced towards the sound of the scream, Artemis following close behind, while muttering something about how you should be running away from the screaming, not towards it.
The two boys burst out into the clearing, where they were greeted by a horrifying sight.
A unicorn lay dead on the ground, blood pooling from it's side. A hooded figure crouched next to it, drinking the unicorn's blood, it's mouth dripping with the silvery substance. On the other side of the clearing, Nico vaguely noticed Harry and Draco, gaping at the creature as well. Draco bolted, and the figure began to approach Harry, who seemed too terrified to move.
"What is that thing?" Nico asked, trying to stop his voice from quivering.
"I'm not sure." Artemis replied, his voice shaking slightly, "But it's bad. Those who consume unicorn blood are cursed to live terrible lives, long , but terrible."
Harry fell to his knees, clutching his forehead as the creature made its way towards him.
"Hey!" Nico called out desperately, "What do you think you're doing?" he demanded, his fear seeping into his voice.
The creature turned towards them, treating them both with the full force of its horror. Nico suddenly felt a wave of darkness rolling off the figure in waves. But not the good type of darkness, like the dark aura around his father's castle, the evil type, that chilled any sane person to the bone. Nico felt his knees buckle as he joined Harry on the ground. The darkness was overwhelming, and felt so, so wrong. He felt himself slipping away, before being jolted back to consciousness.
"Not so fast di Angelo." He heard someone mutter while easing him into a more comfortable position, "You are not passing out on me. Where's a first aid kit when you need one?"
"Are you alright?" he heard another deeper voice ask.
"I am, but my friend here seems to have been affected rather badly." came a polite reply.
"And your friend's name?"
"Nico" Nico answered weakly, opening his eyes slightly, "I'm Nico di Angelo."
The sight that greeted him was a strange one. Artemis and Harry were gazing down on him, one in concern, the other in confusion. And Harry appeared to be. . . sitting on a centaur? That made absolutely no sense. But hey, nothing else about this situation made sense, so why not? The centaur had whitish-blond hair, strikingly blue eyes and looked much younger than Chiron.
"Nico di Angelo" the centaur mused, "You're awake."
Nico was tempted to snort, but apparently, his body couldn't manage it, "Gee, ya think?" he said, his voice hoarse.
Artemis looked relieved, although the only indication of this was a slight decrease in the furrowing of his eyebrows.
"Oh good, looks like you're more or less alright." he said with a smile.
The centaur continued to study him, "Does Chi-" he paused noticing the frantic look in Nico's eyes, "your mentor know that you are here?"
Nico shook his head. Thank the gods that centaurs were so perceptive.
"Pity." the centaur sighed, "Tell him I said hello."
"Nico!" Harry yelled, "Are you alright?"
"Fine." he replied curtly, "Just fine."
"What are you two even doing here?" he asked, ignoring Nico's frostiness for the time being, "How did you find us?"
"There will be plenty of time for questions later." the centaur said firmly, "Right now, you must get back to Hagrid." he turned to Nico and Artemis, "I trust you'll make your own way back."
Nico nodded, "We've got it from here."
"One moment." Artemis said, "I didn't catch your name."
"Artemis Fowl." the centaur said gazing at him intensely, "The planets have told us centaurs much about your future, and the role you will play."
Artemis stared at him suspiciously, "Have they now?"
The centaur nodded, "Say hello to my cousin Foaly when you see him."
"You must be mistaken, I don't know anyone named Foaly."
The centaur smiled a mysterious smile, "Yet."
He turned around and started to gallop away with Harry on his back.
They barely heard the last thing he said.
"My name is Firenze, by the way."
"Artemis," Nico asked slowly, still staring at the spot Firenze had been in just a moment ago, "Did you tell him your name?"
Artemis shook his head, dumbfounded.
Centaurs. So melodramatic.
*****Line Break****
The next morning, Harry woke up feeling rotten.
He had spent all night pacing. All the pieces were fitting together now, Snape was stealing the Stone for Voldemort, Voldemort was using the Stone to bring himself back, and Fowl would apparently meet someone called Foaly!
Okay, the last bit made no sense whatsoever, but it could still be important.
He was feeling a teensy bit regretful about yelling at Nico like that. Yelling at Fowl and Malfoy, he could live with. But Nico had already been the victim of his prejudice once, and Harry didn't want to stereotype him again.
But then he did it anyway.
Still, even though the two of them weren't exactly on friendly terms right now, he couldn't just ignore what had happened last night. Nico and Fowl had both been sneaking around in the forest, and had been around the same place as the creature as well. Two Slytherins sneaking around with a unicorn-killer helping Voldemort on the loose? That couldn't be a coincidence.
But Nico was affected even worse than you were, reasoned a voice in his head that sounded oddly like Hermione, why would he work with it if it hurts him so much?
He could be faking, argued another voice that sounded suspiciously like Ron, You can't just brush it off! Fowl tried stealing the Stone before too! What if he's helping Snape? What if Fowl and di Angelo are working with Voldemort?
Imaginary-Ron had a good point, Harry realized. He couldn't just rule them out without any solid proof.
Looks like they had two new suspects.
A.N:
I'm back!
So, what do you think?
The idea for the whole 'gifts' thing came to me when I was watching the trailer for that new Disney movie 'Encanto'. Nico needed to give Artemis answers before he figured out that the 'Greek Gods are alive and kicking', so he told him a kind of half-truth. So Artemis knows about his powers, but doesn't know that he's a demigod. I mean, wizards have a bunch of weird abilities, someone like Artemis probably wouldn't find shadow powers too shocking.
Ooh, foreshadowing for the Artemis Fowl books! Can I just say how much I love foreshadowing? It's such a cool word! I mean, 'foreshadowing' just sounds so mysterious and creepy!
Hopefully, I did this chapter justice.
Next chapter is 'Through the Trapdoor'! Yay! Stuff's happening!
See you guys then!
Until then, please review!
-Keeraヾ(^^*)))