Chapter 9

"Into the Breach"

A/N: I like these author's notes, they let me vent a little. With Christmas well and truly here, I would like to spoiler my tale a little bit. This is exactly midway through the story. Yep, I'm aiming for eighteen chapters. Plus a credits scene. And maybe some outtakes.

And on another note: I'm sorry for the late release on the 19th; my computer had that virus that slipped past Microsoft's anti-virus program. It's fixed now, but word had to be deleted in the reboot. Consider story on unofficial hiatus for now.

Merry Hanukwanzamas.

Deryn listened to the rumble of the engines. She would be home, soon. All she needed to do was forfeit her memories of this alternate universe.

'Yeah, like there's anything worth remembering about this place.' The entire time she had been in the fairy universe she had, in no particular order; A) been blown up, B) been told she was a barking loon, C) had gotten kidnapped by a raving ninny, D) argued with and been interrogated by mythological creatures and, E) had a dream where she had been attacked by a male version of herself. It made no sense at all and was even less of a helpful experience in life. So Deryn was glad to let these particular thoughts go.

Holly's voice came out of the intercom. "Nearing temporal anomaly Alpha Alpha 001, bearing east at one hundred forty knots. We're almost there Dylan."

Deryn flinched at the name, and then silently kicked herself. In her dream the boy who had attacked her had called himself Dylan. But it was only a dream she had had from nearly being turned into dark smear on the ground.

'Or was it?' the small part of Deryn's mind hinted. And was it Deryn imagination or did the voice sound a little deeper, a little more masculine than hers. Deryn shook her head, ignoring the traitorous fear that welled up inside her. She had not been chosen to lead a Spec. Ops mission in Constantinople because she was a good nurse. She had been chosen for her bravery.

N`1 started muttering under his breath, too fast for Deryn to make out what he was saying exactly. He seemed to be weaving some sort of spell to- Deryn cut herself off. That was just stupid.

'Occam's Razor. The simplest explanation is usually the answer.' Deryn flinched again at the voice, then looked at N`1. He was still muttering under his breath. He didn't speak, did he?

'Sort of. It's hard to explain, but I'm letting you read my thoughts. Just wait a minute while I finalize the energy field. I don't want to end up a smear on the walls of reality.' N`1's thoughts disappeared from Deryn's head, who simply wondered if she had read his thoughts. Probably, if everything she had heard was true. Deryn had gotten an ear in for Gnomish, but had only learned a few of the words and none of the swears. She knew she would forget this when she was back on the Leviathan, but didn't really care. Not much use learning a language that no one else knew.

The engines changed tone, before climbing in pitch to a high whine. The air seemed to hum with some weak electricity. Deryn wouldn't have been surprised if she had opened her mouth and breathed lightning. N`1's horns began to glow blue, before he looked up from the mutterings. His eyes were a deep electric blue.

"Testing, testing, one two three, don't call me Shirley. Can you hear me?" N`1 didn't move his mouth, but it sounded like he was speaking regardless. Deryn decided to try.

"I wouldn't have called you Shirley one way or the other." She didn't move her mouth, but she heard her voice all the same.

"Who's Shirley?" It was Holly's voice, clear and high. Deryn still couldn't believe that women could act as soldiers and policemen here, but she figured Holly was an exception to that rule. She had told Deryn that she had joined LEPrecon (what a coincidence) after her mum had died. The specifics were cloudy, but they were good enough for Deryn to tell her that her da was dead too. Small barking worlds.

"Movie character, from Airplane!. I lent you that one didn't I?" N`1 didn't seem to notice Deryn's own recollections, instead focusing on Holly.

Suddenly a jolt rocked the shuttle.

"Holly, what was that?" N`1 went from conversational to panicked on a dime. Deryn could understand why. With dimension hopping, everything had to be carefully calculated.

"Just a cloud. You should see this, it's amazing." Holly didn't seem so awed, but Deryn was curious. She wanted to see what was outside.

No sooner than thought was formed did it become deed. Suddenly Deryn could see as though the walls weren't there. The trio was flying though a hurricane of blue lightning.

Holly pulled at her controls. The shuttle rose over a bank of mean looking clouds. Deryn looked down… and saw Dylan. The boy kept pace with the shuttle, screaming something over the roar of thunder.

"I could change you Deryn. Just one word and everything is there, you're a boy. Come on, this is my last offer."

Deryn waved sarcastically and then looked at a cloud formation that looked like a bird. She liked being a girl, thank you very barking much.

Suddenly the bird-cloud was too close. Holly wrenched the controls and forced the shuttle towards what looked like a clear patch. But the clouds were racing them. They would hit them either way.

"Brace yourselves!" Holly both shouted and thought. The shuttle plowed into the cloud. An all the occupants saw was black.

Deryn blinked. Where did everything go? Where were Holly and N`1? What just happened?

"She bloody crashed, that's what she did." Deryn scowled and turned around. Dylan had caught up with her and looked and sounded like he had run a mile. "So have you made a decision about my proposition yet?" Deryn turned on her heel and walked away.

"You little…" Dylan was making an obvious effort to not swear at Deryn. "Where are you going? We're in the middle of a barking storm!"

"Go away." Deryn kept walking, ignoring his protests. She was leaving in the direction that she was sure the shuttle had been going.

"Blisters, how daft can you be. I could save you and your career and you just keep walking." Dylan sounded exhausted, but the undercurrent of dark rage was filling his voice.

"Go. Away. Now." Deryn bit the words off one by one. For a moment everything was quiet. Then…

"I could lead you home."

Deryn spun, shocked. Dylan looked on at her. "Just say the word and your back in the shuttle. No ones to be the wiser." Dylan put on his best I'm sincere face. To her credit, Deryn didn't believe him for a moment, before turning again and looking at the darkness around her.

"Which way are they?"

Dylan was at her elbow grinning ear to ear. "Just straight ahead, my dear body sister." He tried to take Deryn's arm, but the look Deryn sent him was enough to bring him up short. Deryn looked forward and, surprise, surprise, a tunnel had opened up in front of the pair. "I drive." It was all Dylan had to say then.

Suddenly Deryn was racing down the corridor at a breakneck pace. Visions flinted past her with the air as she felt as though her soul would be ripped from her body should she hit anything. The air dragged at her as she felt herself beginning to pass out. Pain coursed through her. Her heart thudded as though to fight death. The air was rent with ice, and poor Deryn was the icebreaker.

Then, just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped. Deryn was sitting in her seat in the shuttle, but couldn't see though the walls anymore. N`1's spiel of magic was winding down. Holly would be flying, whether or not she could see her. The shudders that had plagued the ship had subsided.

But something was wrong! Deryn couldn't put her finger on it, but it seemed like she wasn't right anymore. The feeling of falling perpetuated. Then she remembered what Dylan had said to her. It was an infinitesimal memory, but it was there. She knew what had happened. And she knew who had caused it.

'You!' She screamed in her mind. 'You've made me… made me… a-a boy!'

Dylan chuckled. 'No, I've made us a boy. Can't you see? Now I shall be free and you will be the lie, the trapped one, the one yearning to be free.'

Deryn tried to scream, but Dylan was creeping into her mind. 'Course, I can't just relegate you to an alternate personality like me. But I know someone who can.'

N`1 had unbuckled and was walking towards them.

"We're going to send you down to your ship now that we're out of the tunnel. But I need to take care of your memories first." Deryn tried to tell him no, tried to tell him that she was really a girl and that they needed to go back through the tunnel, but Dylan had taken control of her mouth.

"Well, get on with it." Deryn silently gasped at the fact that Dylan had high jacked her body, but now N`1 was speaking.

"You are Dylan Sharp." N`1 words were laced the powerful Mesmer. Suddenly Deryn felt herself as though she were in a small room. It only took one second to realize what N`1 had done. She wasn't Deryn Sharp anymore. Now Dylan had her body.

"You have never met a fairy." Deryn felt as though a flaming sword had gone through her. N`1 was trying to remove all of the memories of the fairy folk from Deryn's mind. And her along with them.

"You did not go through a dimensional rift." Another sword. Another memory gone. But Deryn still thought that she remembered the People. Perhaps because she was the one being forced to forget, not Dylan. Memories of memories.

"You have never met a human named Juliet Butler," A third sword.

"You have never met a human named Domovoi Butler," a blade, and more pain now. Deryn knew it would stop soon. There was only one more memory left…

"You have never met a human named Artemis Fowl." The final sword seemed to be pushed into her heart. Deryn hung there, suspended in the small room that had become her prison, suspended, in the small room where she would be forgotten, suspended, by swords that were words.

And suddenly she was looking up at Alek, and Volger, and Newkirk. She was back on the Leviathan!

"Dylan, is that really you?" And there was such genuine concern in his voice that Deryn meant to reply that yes, it was her, and that she was back, and whole, and hearty. What she wanted to do was kiss Alek, to reach up and press her lips to the daft prince's, and to sit there and tell him the truth, even if it meant that she could never fly again, because she would have him.

'Tut tut tut. That just won't do Mister Sharp.' And as Deryn felt herself fading away, Dylan turned back to the body and said;

"What do you think you daft prince?"

Deryn died screaming.

…

Alek was on dorsal. Where else would he have been. The Minotaur rolled sanguinely past the Leviathan, as though to herald hope that Dylan would be found on this day. Alek seriously doubted it. The same country side passed beneath him that had refused to yield Deryn almost seven days ago. The crew would be holding the funeral tomorrow, in honor of the Middy that no one knew was a girl.

Except maybe Jaspert. He would certainly know if his brother was a girl (Alek had come to the conclusion that Dylan and Jaspert were siblings and not actually cousins). But Alek was hesitant to ask Jaspert if Dylan was a girl, because, if he was wrong then he would be written off as raving, and if he was right, then Dylan's secret would be exposed. And that just wouldn't do.

Oddly Jaspert had been rather quiet during the trip to and from Moscow. He had avoided talking to Alek, the crew, and even the boffins; Vlad, Bergheim and Bergheim's assistant Theo, hadn't managed to get him out of his slump. He just wanted to be left alone.

Anyway, Jaspert had left for the Minotaur when it had come into sight, so that left Alek with no one to talk to besides Newkirk. Well, almost no one. Theodore Black, Bergheim's assistant, was a little older then Alek, but enjoyed a long argument over the tactical superiority of walkers verses fabricated animals, and was perfectly aware of courtly proceedings even though he came from a common English background. He was a fine Darwinist in Alek's book, which was more than could be said for the Boffins.

Bergheim wasn't one for conversation, and spent most of his time in his room, tinkering with the various equipment needed to fabricate an animal. Alek could have sworn that Bergheim was playing with electricity, as sometimes small flickers of blue light danced from under his doorframe. What time he did spend outside was usually in the company of Doctor Erasmus, Doctor Barlow, or Vlad.

Vladimir himself seemed to be drinking vodka that wasn't completely filtered, if you catch my drift. Alek lost count of the number of times he would see Vlad murmuring, only to stop when (if) he realized he had company. Otherwise he would quietly go on long tracts about human philosophy and ethics, as though they had little meaning besides an obstacle in a long road littered with them. It was more than a little unnerving.

The rest of the Russian complementary crew were enjoying themselves on the Leviathan. They worked harder than most of the crew and seemed to need to wear less of an outfit to stay warm. It was lost on Alek how they did it, but they managed. Anyway, Alek did know that it would be a long time before he had to return to the political stage.

His refusal of the hand of Maria Romanov had spread fast through Moscow. By the time the Leviathan left berth, Russia had begun to wonder what was going through his mind. Did he want the war to continue? But what Alek feared greater was Volgers disapproval. If the Count had figured out Dylan's secret, then he would probably put two and two together and assume that Dylan and Alek's relation was less then innocent. Alek wouldn't put it past him. He had begun to wonder if Dylan had had any feelings for him.

Alek's thoughts were cut off by the pounding of feet and the panting of breath. Looking farther down the spine, he saw two figures sprinting towards the Endeavor, dodging hydrogen sniffers and crewmen. It only took a moment for Alek to recognize Jules and Verne. The pair had stayed on the Leviathan since Moscow and had been mostly relaxed for the trip back. Now both seemed to throw any pretense of ease in favor of action. Alek was at a loss to know why until he heard the climbing roar of engines.

Alek spun, and watched frozen as a biplane dived from the clouds that perpetually shrouded the sky. An iron cross was painted in front of the forward gunner. The pilots were invisible from the distance Alek was at. But the intention looked clear. They were dive-bombing the Leviathan.

Crew raced to man the guns, a few firing before abruptly stopping. Crewmen stared at the descending German plane, almost unable to comprehend the sight. Alek tried to looked away, but found he couldn't. The sight of his impending doom mystified him. And just as suddenly as he had assured himself that the biplane would destroy the Leviathan, he assured himself that the pilots meant him no harm. That they had something important for him.

The plane began to tilt upward. It slowed well below stall speed, but kept flying. The forward gunner was reaching for something. Pulling what looked like a duffel bag from in front of his seat he waited for the Leviathan to directly beneath him. The moment he threw the bag, Alek new two things; One, the pilot and gunner were NOT going to harm the ship, and Two, the duffel bag was actually Midshipmen Dylan A. Sharp.

Alek was already sprinting his best when Dylan crashed onto the spine. A few crewmen had already reached Dylan, but Alek still tried to wake her up. "Dylan, Dylan, wake up."

Newkirk shoved through the growing crowd. "Blisters, those Germans sure didn't want him did they?" Newkirk looked like he wanted to kiss Dylan. Alek immediately shoved that thought from his head. Newkirk couldn't know.

Dylan suddenly coughed and spluttered "Barking spiders". These were the most beautiful word Alek had ever heard. But something was wrong. It didn't sound like Dylan was talking. It sounded…wrong.

"Dylan, is that really you?"

Dylan look at Alek, and for the fleetest of seconds, Alek felt like he was falling into Dylan's eyes. Then Dylan said;

"What do you think you daft prince?" Then Dylan coughed blood and fainted.

"Doctor!" a crewman shouted. Several crewmen pulled off their coats and made a rudimentary stretcher. Alek scrambled to follow. He barely registered that Count Volger had followed him. Or that most of the crew that had been on Dorsal at the time was also following. And he didn't notice that Jules and Verne had left.

Dylan was laid down in Dr. Busk's infirmary. As a crewmember related the strange arrival (which everyone seemed to take at face value), the good doctor made a preliminary diagnosis. "Broken ribs. We'll have to check for bruising. Get me some scissors." This almost stopped Alek's heart.

"You can't do that doctor." Alek tried not to give too much away, but could tell that Busk wouldn't believe him. Or stop, even if Alek told him about Dylan's secret.

"And why bloody can't I, your highness? One of my shipmates is hurt and I intend to save him." Dr. Busk pulled a pair of gloves from his cabinet. "It would be best if you leave." This Dr. Busk addressed to the crowd that had followed them.

"It's important you don't." That was the best Alek could come up with. It wasn't good enough for Busk.

"And why is it so important, eh boy?"

"Because… because…"

"Because you don't need to, Doctor."

Alek looked around Busk, and saw, to equal parts horror and relief, Dylan. Relief because Dylan was moving and looked okay. Horror because Dylan was taking off her shirt.

"Dylan, what are you doing? Are you mad?" Alek could barely speak. Dylan was going to willingly show a fair part of the crew proof that she wasn't a boy. And she didn't seem to care.

"Doing: proving that I'm fine. Mad: not in the slightest." And with that Dylan pulled off her undershirt and showed the crew her chest.

Her flat, muscular, bruise free chest.

That was obviously male.

Alek's mouth dropped open. 'I was so sure…' It seemed that his muteness was echoed by the crew. It was a full ten seconds until Dr. Busk's medical training kicked in.

"No bruising, no hemorrhages, I don't see any scratches. Um… may I?"

"Sure." Dylan seemed to have no compunctions to being medically inspected in front of a big chunk of the crew, who to their credit were looking rather uncomfortable. Alek figured that that was because they had been expecting massive damage, and were unnerved by the lack of so much of a scratch.

Dr. Busk worked fast, inspecting Dylan's ribs for bruising cracks and breaks. Finding none, he simply said; "Stay the night. You'll need to remain here in case one of your ribs does decide to break." Retiring with that lame joke, Dr. Busk made to leave the room and inform the captain, an action only partially inhibited by the crush of soldiers in the door.

Dylan continued to stare, smirking, at the crew who continued to stare, mouths agape, at him. Until Dylan said;

"Is this some sort of peep show?" And with that the crew dispersed. Except Alek. He stayed behind to talk to the friend he thought he had figured out. 'I guess that she - no, he, now, still- didn't have anything to hide then.' It seemed so weird to look at someone you had thought was a girl, only to find out he really was a boy. This made it even more confusing for you if they were already pretending to be male.

Alek cleared his throat. "So what happened? Did the Germans try to torture you?" 'Like they would'.

Dylan chuckled. "I don't know. I can't remember a single thing about the time I was gone. I was just here, in a Huxley, and the next I was there, on the spine. Did I miss anything?"

Alek sat down on his friend's bed. Dylan still hadn't put his shirt back on, which was still unnerving. But he didn't seem to mind being shirtless. "You've been gone for about six days. We searched for you for two days, than we were attacked by the Herkules-"

"That old thing, eh. You'd think the Germans would wise up and realize that those don't work on an airship."

"-with a tesla cannon mounted on it."

Dylan didn't comment, just nodded."

"We left for Moscow, where we picked up two boffins, then we came back, and you found us. Amazing, right?"

Dylan chuckled. "Wow, I wish I could have been there, it sounded so cool."

"We also picked up two, I think they called themselves hitchhikers, that seemed to travel a lot. They had a plane with flaming wings."

"Wow, where are they?" Dylan didn't seem particularly moved by the fact of there being a plane with flaming wings, but Alek didn't bother with that bit of impassiveness. Something more important had come over his mind from the statement.

'Where are they?'

…

The answer to this question was 'above the Leviathan'. Verne watched the airbeast roll away from her and Jules as the Endeavor shadowed the fairy shuttle towards the portal. They had a small window of opportunity here and could only wait so long. But they also had a plan.

Said plan was was almost immediately abandoned when they entered the time stream and were detected by N`1.

"Of all the rotten luck" Murmured Jules.

"Well… plan B?" suggested Verne.

"Plan B." Confirmed Jules.

"Plan B!" A wise man once said 'You just ruined a perfectly good batch of my shine.' He also said 'When you're flying by the seat of your pants, nothing sounds as official as Plan B'.

Plan B, in this case, turned out to be diving straight into a fairy camp and trying to grab a single human at insanely high speeds. This single human had numerous aliases and pseudonyms, but most commonly went by the name of Artemis Fowl.

Jules opened up the throttle and high-balled out of the tunnel. The air rattled the Endeavor with a passion. Jules forced the joysticks forward and leveled towards a small clearing. A speck on the ground blossomed into a full sized human. Jules opened the cockpit shield and slowed down.

Artemis never knew what hit him.

Jules locked his arm onto the flailing boy, tugging him up over the rim of the cockpit. He would have only minutes before the LEP made their way through the portal after them. But with luck, the universe on the other side was still slowing down, relative to the current universe. Luck had other ideas though.

Artemis struggled against Jules's grip. Just as they reached the portal Artemis seized his chance and made a grab for the crystal. Maybe it was how Jules curled over the gem protectively, or how it glowed brighter as they neared the rift, but Artemis knew it had to be something important. So he concentrated on taking it. Jules barely noticed.

But Verne did. She threw her weight against Jules, smothering the crystal in his stomach and trapping Artemis's hand with it. The struggling trio hurtled into the portal, careening madly. Verne recognized the shift in balance that signaled falling, but still tried to stop Artemis from ruining their plan.

She didn't succeed.

…

The body floated through the ether. It could see. It could hear. But it was not aware beyond itself.

It was empty.

Or very nearly so. It was a shell. It had nothing in it but a strange half soul, not its own. It recognized the intruder, but could not fight it. So it ignored the soul and the soul ignored it, as the body was unable to move, unable to leave.

But it could feel. It felt its true soul, distant and dormant. It could sense its struggle, its urge to be reunited with its body. But it could not come to it.

Until something hit it.

The body felt the impact, as the false soul did too. They twisted, but would not break. They felt the connection, and knew. They knew where it was gone.

And they followed.

A/N: Okay, just to clarify, Deryn did not get a sex change. She was forced into a male body by her sociopathic male alter. Just trying to keep this PG-13 okay. Hope you like the drabbles (if I get to them). See you next week. Bonus point's if you can ID the soul.

L.W.