A/N at the end.
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Percy flopped back onto his hotel bed, closing his eyes and yawning. "Good gods, that flight took a long time," he sighed.
"Oh, cheer up, Seaweed Brain." Annabeth threw a sock at him. "Meet you guys in the lobby at nine!" she called out to the others, who were getting settled in their various rooms.
"No, I'm serious," Percy said, popping up and kicking his shoes off. "I barely remember most of it, but I swear it took longer than ten hours. What day is it?"
Annabeth checked her watch. "The fourteenth."
"The fourteenth?" Percy repeated, frowning. "Didn't we leave three days ago?"
"No, it's just the time difference messing with your brain." She yawned. "I am really tired, though. I think I'll take a shower in the morning."
"Me too. Can you...?"
Annabeth smiled at him affectionately. "Of course. We're not finished with it quite yet, and I will never be so tired I can't read you Winnie the Pooh."
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Ten Hours Ago, at Fowl Manor
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The plan was simple: Artemis and Trouble Kelp would rush down to Haven via Tara as fast as they possibly could and grab the equipment while Jason (with a hopefully unseen Butler as backup) would attempt to negotiate a truce with Grub.
Most importantly, everyone would try not to die.
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Jason walked confidently through the sunlit gardens. "Mr. Kelp?" he called out. "I come in peace. I just want to talk. A parlay. Please?"
A bird chirped. A lilac branch waved in the wind. An villainous ambush entirely failed to happen.
"Mr. Kelp?" he shouted. "I really don't want to hurt you."
He waited. Just when he was going to call out again, a voice answered him.
"All right." Jason swiveled around, trying to find the source. There. To the corner of the manor, by a rosebush, there was a slight haze in the air. Artemis had told him all about the fairies' methods of shielding themselves, oh yes. And slightly behind the haze, to the left, he thought he saw something that might have been an elbow. The 'mesmerized' (as Artemis had referred to it) son of Apollo, no doubt.
"Do you have any weapons?" the voice asked, rather shakily, it seemed to Jason.
"No," he lied. His trusty coin was in his pocket. But if Grub Kelp was as mentally unstable as Artemis and the Commander seemed to think, then he wouldn't think to distrust him.
"All right," Grub said again. "Come on closer. I'm here by the rosebush."
Jason approached cautiously, his shoes crunching on the thawing grass.
"Put your hands up," Grub ordered, and faded into view.
He was short, which Jason had expected. But what the son of Jupiter hadn't foreseen was the unhinged look in the fairy's eyes. Poor guy, he thought. He must not have been the most stable person to begin with.
The most important thing, however, was the stun gun held in the man's hands. It was pointed at Jason, albeit shakily.
"You're one of the demigods, aren't you," asked Grub.
Jason nodded. "And you're Grub Kelp."
"They talk about me, do they?"
"Yes," Jason answered truthfully. But not in the way you want them to.
"They're scared of me," proclaimed Grub smugly. Then he frowned. "Mama wouldn't be proud," he muttered, so quietly that Jason wondered if he'd misheard.
"Sorry?"
"Nothing. You can come closer, if you want to."
Jason took several slow steps forward.
"Alright. That's close enough. What was it you wanted to talk to me about?"
"Surrendering," Jason stated. "Just give up control of the son of Apollo, stop attacking us, and no harm will come to you. Guaranteed."
Grub glared at him. "Trouble put you up to this, didn't he?" he spat bitterly.
Jason paused for a millisecond too long, and Grub continued without letting him answer.
"Thought so." The gun was no longer pointing at Jason's head; in fact it was poised to decapitate a nearby geranium, but Jason didn't think the deranged fairy had noticed.
"You brother wants the best for you..." he tried.
It was the wrong move.
"Shut up!" shrieked Grub. "Shutupshutupshutupshutup!"
The short man hefted his gun again, but Jason had been ready for this. Before the trigger could be pulled, the son of Jupiter loosed a bolt of electricity at the handgun. According to Artemis, the LEP guns were powered by batteries. With a powerful enough surge, he should be able to fry the thing. The rubber casing would prevent Grub from getting fried along with it- or so he hoped.
There was no dramatic crackle, no blinding white light, but when Grub pulled the trigger a second later, no shock came out.
Good. Now he can't knock out Butler. Jason had been refraining from so much as glancing in the direction where he thought Butler was. The giant manservant was supposed to be there as backup if things went awry, but Jason would prefer if he didn't need the help.
Grub was brought up short for a moment, staring in puzzlement at his handgun, but he recovered quickly.
"Shoot him!" he shouted at the archer, who leaped immediately into the open with an arrow leveled at Jason.
"Woah." Jason took a step backward, his hands up in front of him. "Calm down."
He stared at the son of Apollo. The guy looked like a normal kid from Cabin 7. Jason leaned forward slightly, peering at the young man's eyes. They were strangely focused, but dull, like two shrouded stars.
"Seriously, calm down," Jason said, backing up, his hands raised. "I don't know you, but I know your friends. You were a counselor, weren't you? I can tell. You seem responsible."
The man's approach had faltered, but the tip of the arrow was still fixed firmly on Jason's heart.
"You know Annabeth and Percy, right?" Jason continued. "Annabeth, the daughter of Athena...? And the son of Poseidon? I'm their friend. You're their friend. And friends don't kill friends' friends."
The tip of the arrow quivered.
Jason was about to continue when the archer's mouth opened.
"Daughter... of Athena?" he rasped. His eyes were losing their focus, and his skin was unnaturally shiny in the crisp morning sun. "And... Percy..."
The arrow sagged down further.
"Yes," Jason urged, "Percy. You remember Percy."
The sweaty brow furrowed.
"Really obnoxious..." the archer murmured. Jason had to bite back a snort. "He would drive me crazy if I shot his friend..."
"No!" shrieked Grub. His voice was laced with rampant hysteria, and his face was bright red; the son of Apollo was not the only one who was sweating. "Shoot him, Yew! He wants to hurt me!"
The newly-appointed 'Yew' swayed slightly, but he re-straightened the bow and drew back the string jerkily. Bad form, but it was a ten-foot shot. There was no way he could miss if he let go of the string as it was now.
Jason knew that if he made a move for a weapon, he would be shot on instinct.
"Please..." he whispered, at the same time as Grub screamed "Shoot him!".
The effect was electric. Yew's fingers loosed, but at the same time, his torso pivoted in a last desperate attempt to spare the life of one he presumably knew he shouldn't kill. The arrow flew off at lightning speed at a bush some twenty feet from Jason.
Yew collapsed on the ground, unconscious, blood staining his eyes a murky orange.
Grub didn't explode as Jason expected him to. Instead, he sagged, and to Jason it seemed as though he was almost ready to give in. But before either could speak a word, Grub gasped.
"There," he hissed. "Behind that holly bush."
Jason whipped to follow his finger, a horrible suspicion dawning on him.
"Someone moved."
Butler. I was right. He must have dodged the arrow. That's the only way he would have been seen.
"You didn't trust me." Grub staggered back, then reversed direction, grabbing an arrow from the prone Yew's quiver. "You didn't trust me!"
Grub's headlong rush was too fast for Jason to dodge. The elf covered ten feet in less than a second, catching him completely off guard.
In the last millisecond, that moment after error and before consequence when the entire body goes oh, damn, I should have acted when I had the chance, Jason braced himself for the stab.
Error was not followed by consequence. Jason opened his eyes.
Somehow, Butler had put himself in between Jason and his fanatic attacker, shoving him back while lifting Grub bodily off the ground.
Jason rolled neatly on the wet grass, rising with his coin at the ready.
There was no need, though- Butler had, through some means Jason wasn't sure he wanted to know about, knocked out the elf. Grub's head sagged helplessly over the manservant's arm, his mouth slightly opened, moist, his eyes sunken, and his brow expressionless.
Jason gazed at the frozen tableau.
"Thanks," he said eventually.
Butler nodded.
It was, for them, more meaningful than any hours of conversation could ever be.
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"We've got the equipment," Artemis told them grimly as they walked in his office door, carrying an unconscious Grub Kelp and the person he assumed to be the son of Apollo.
Jason Grace looked surprised. "Really?"
"Yes, really. Did you doubt me?"
Jason nodded, shrugging. "It seemed kind of an impossible task."
"I excel at performing the impossible." Artemis smirked.
It had in fact been a lot easier than he had anticipated. Foaly knew of the animosity that existed between him and Trouble Kelp; the centaur had assumed that anything they were willing to work together on had to be truly important. They hadn't even needed to fall back on the failsafe of contacting Holly.
Occasionally Artemis would feel a flash of regret for the loss of his old independence, but it was at times like these, when a friendship proved useful in saving the world, that he fully understood what he had gained in opening himself up to appreciating people for something other than their monetary value.
Far better to save the world with friends than to let it fall through one's own ambition and pride, thought Artemis.
He didn't voice any of his thoughts, however. Reputations were flighty creatures, prone to fleeing at the slightest disturbance.
"Are you certain that you endorse this fully?" he checked. Morals. Idiot things. They already had him feeling badly about his treatment of Nico di Angelo, and now they were forcing him to reaffirm that he had Jason Grace's permission to do what he had to to save the world.
"I'm certain."
"Splendid. In that case, lend me a hand, will you? Butler can't carry everyone, despite all apparent evidence to the contrary."
It didn't take very long to lug the six unconscious halfbloods back into Artemis' study. Butler and Jason, tired though they were, knew the best way to carry deadweight, and Trouble was a lot stronger than might be insinuated from his size. Artemis walked along with the temporary demigod porters, aiding as best he could with encouraging comments along the lines of 'stop grumbling, Grace, you're the one who decided to be strong enough to carry a person'.
Once in the study, Butler propped the first of the halfbloods, Percy, into a stiff-backed chair and took the specialized goggles from Artemis. He settled them gently onto the sleeping son of Poseidon's eyes, then passed the connecting wire to Artemis, who hooked it up to his computer.
"I already did the translational programming," Artemis informed them off-handedly, "so this shouldn't take a minute. Your call, Grace. I won't have it said I forced it on them."
Grace took a deep breath, which Artemis found rather unnecessary. The demigod had already decided, hadn't he?
But that was the end of the dramatics.
"Commence mindwipe," said Jason firmly.
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At precisely ten am that morning, Artemis Fowl II, Domovoi Butler, Commander Trouble Kelp and Jason Grace stood on a private runway surrounded by seven unconscious, unknowing people.
"Grub and I will return to Haven via Tara," said Kelp gruffly. "I intend to check him into psychiatric care. He's been an idiotic brat, but he is my brother, as cliche as that little son-of-Apollo lackey too, although it'll be a mud-man hospital for him. I'll drop him there on the way to Tara." He hesitated. "Thank you."
Jason and Butler nodded.
"You're welcome," replied Artemis. "Please consider the possibility that I am in fact better off as a fully-cognizant and aware individual than as the mind-wiped husk of who I have become in the past few years."
Kelp narrowed his eyes, but didn't refute the claim. "I may give it some thought."
"Wonderful. I'm sure that will be a novel experience for you."
To Butler and Jason's surprise, Kelp didn't rise to this. Instead he shook his head, grabbed his younger brother, and set off to Tara. The two soon faded into the clear blue sky.
The remaining three stood in silence for a few minutes.
"I never got to properly thank you," said Jason. "You could easily have ignored me when I said it was important for me to keep my memories."
"Yes, well," said Artemis airily, "we must have someone who can look after things on the demigod end."
Jason just nodded, a slight smile on his face.
"We should be off," Butler informed them eventually. "The hotel is expecting them by three."
"Of course, of course."
As Butler was loading the prone halfbloods into the passenger seats of one of the Fowl jets, Jason turned to Artemis once more.
"And thank you for everything else as well. The hotel. The supplies. The help saving the world."
Artemis smiled one of the first completely genuine smiles Jason had seen on him. "It's always nice to have friends around to avoid the apocalypse with."
They shook hands.
"Look after them, Grace. I gave you my number. Don't hesitate to call if anything unusual happens."
"You too, Fowl."
They separated, and Jason hopped into the shotgun seat of the jet. As the plane roared off, he looked down through the window at the youth standing forlornly on the runway, his raven hair tossed wildly by the wind from the propellors. Then he sighed and looked back up.
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It took an hour and half to fly to Berlin. Butler deposited them on a sunny bench outside Berlin Schönefeld Airport. Jason sat with his sleeping friends for about a quarter of an hour before they started to wake up.
"Oh gods," yawned Frank, "that was a long flight. I needed that sleep."
"You and me both, man," said Percy, blinking the sleep out of his eyes.
Annabeth snorted. She had been the first to wake. "When you two get around to thinking properly, we can set about finding this hotel that... Chiron... arranged for us to stay in." She blinked, frowning, and the son of Jupiter smiled slightly.
The sun was bright. The day was warm. They were on vacation.
And Jason Grace could keep a secret.
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The End
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...or is it?
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It's over. It's finally over.
Of course, there's going to be a sequel, but this time I'll have learned from my mistakes (hopefully) and will actually plan ahead instead of inventing random villains and digging myself in a hole.
The sequel will feature Holly, Artemis, Jason, Nico and Will as main characters. I think.
This'll be fun.
Okay. Some stuff I need to clear up.
1. This was started before BoO, so I did not have Nico's character development in mind. I didn't really expect him to have a happy ending (not that I wasn't thrilled!), and this kind of reflects that. So here's this AU version of BoO:
Everything happened exactly the same except the following:
-Reyna, Nico and Hedge were a lot more rushed in their quest, and as a result Nico and Reyna didn't have time to grow as close to each other as they did in canon. They stayed wary but respectful acquaintances.
-Will, who had previously been interning at a forensics lab, was hospital bound during the CHB fight due to a nasty broken knee he acquired slipping on a hard concrete floor in the lab. He was consequently incredibly grumpy and certainly didn't have any time to look after Nico- he had other patients. Nico was instead briefly checked on by a daughter of Apollo named Dora, who dispatched him very rapidly, as she got really creeped out by him (don't blame her too much, she was twelve and a bit of an idiot).
-Leo came back with Calypso. He wanted her to come on the trip to Germany with the rest of them, but she was having a girl's only movie marathon with Reyna, Thalia, Rachel and Clarisse, and Leo is well aware that Mean Girls and LotR are more important than hiking along the Berlin Wall.
2. Yes, I am just as annoyed by Artemis and Nico's blatantly OOC moments as you are. There may be a day when I rewrite this thing. It is not this day.
3. I feel really embarrassed, looking back on some of my A/Ns. I sound like a spoiled brat. Sorry about that. I'll try not to whine as much in the sequel.
Some people I'd like to thank:
1. StopMotion, my wonderful friend, who is unbelievably freaking awesome. I know she tends to hang around the Hetalia fandom, so I'm honored that she takes the time to read my story. I should probably get around to reading her original fiction... on that. Yep. Will be doing that. I promise.
2. AudreyyyRoseeee. Super supportive reviewer, who I will definitely give shout outs to when she (I assume, apologies if I'm wrong) gets around to posting her fic with mind-wiped Juliet (*hint hint*).
3. Sam and Cas, my friends who know I write AF/HoO fanfiction and still believe that I am at least 1/4 sane. And as much as it sounded like it, that was not a Supernatural reference.
4. Everyone who has taken the time to review. Everyone who has favorited. Everyone who has followed.
Everyone who has read.
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Keep an eye out for the sequel. I'll post another chapter on this when it's posted, so stay followed.
Thanks.
-Kero