Chapter 10

Deryn Demented

A/N: Not demented in that sense, just very close to it. I'm unsure of when I'm releasing this chapter as of the writing (Buffer and all that) but since I'm releasing this now I do hope you will enjoy the chapter.

Merry (late) Hanukwanzamas.

Red sky like blood lakes.

Black earth, scorched and dead to all.

Lost iron hands, bladed.

Orion smirked with Artemis's face. It was a rare treat that Artemis would let him compose a haiku, even though he was supposed to be bringing them closer. But a thought lingered; what did he mean by iron hands, bladed? True he had pulled the poem out of nowhere, but still!

Orion's unspoken question was answered a moment later when a long-sword fell from the sky. Orion even didn't blink when it buried itself in the ground next to his head (though Artemis screamed). Orion chuckled at the real boy's displeasure. Did he not realize that with blade and foe they would be talked about in legend of this place?

Orion was still somewhat mad.

And speaking of foes, the air pirate that had captured Artemis was pulling himself from the dust not feet from them. Orion grabbed the blade by the hilt, ignored the fact that the hilt was the wrist of what looked like a metallic, prosthetic arm severed from below the elbow and, screaming like a banshee, charged the pirate.

Jules (who else in this story dresses like a pirate?) saw this coming before he had even pulled himself up. He waited for Orion to come within five feet of him, before bringing him arms up to defend himself. An orange, transparent blade blossomed from beneath his sleeve.

Swish.

Jules's blade met Orion's head on, sparks flying vehemently. "Whoa Don, lay off. I am not an adversary." He brought the sword up over his head, blocking Orion's down swing. "And we really don't have time for this."

Orion blocked a possible thrust. "Would you be able to stop me?" Then he lunged again.

…

Angeline Fowl was a kind, loving women. She wouldn't hurt a fly. Unless said fly was hurting her little Arty. Then neither hell nor high water would stop her.

This was an outlook that had led her to be strapped down in a super-sonic shuttle, piloted by a pixie, her head constantly being banged against the roof, and her not minding at all. Her thoughts were on her son, or rather sons. Angeline had long accepted Orion as a part of her Artemis's personality, even acknowledging him as one of her children. He had the care free nature and explosive imagination that she had wanted Artemis to have. But even more importantly, Orion loved her and looked up to her like she was his mother.

Another bang on the head brought her out of the rabbit hole and back to reality. Doodah Day, her pilot, was a semi-reformed criminal that currently worked as a bounty hunter along with Mulch Diggums, a not-nearly-as-reformed criminal that had, once upon a time, robbed Fowl manor. But Doodah's major talent lay behind the wheel. Give him anything with a motor and he could drive it (so claimed his business card). And so far this had proven true. Doodah had yet to crash the shuttle he had borrowed from the LEP. But Angeline wouldn't hold it against him if he did leave a few scratches. She just wanted her son back.

In the intervening time between now and Artemis's discovery of the wormhole, Angeline had worked herself into the protective mother mode that she hoped would convince Artemis to let her take him back to Haven. She hoped she could pull it off. Maybe if she could talk to Holly first, she would be able to convince Artemis to come home. But she would be hard pressed to pull this off. Artemis was so much like his father, so completely focused on his own goals that he would leave everything else in the dust.

But that was why Angeline loved her husband and son so much. Men that wouldn't let anything stand in there way, that wouldn't take the world lying down had always been what she had yearned for. And yet… Orion was content to live in a land of fantasy, unfretted by the world around. And Angeline loved that about him too. Maybe it was sympathy for him, (she had been mad once) but he seemed like the sort of son she had always wanted, but never had. If only Artemis had just a little of Orion's imagination.

Doodah brought the shuttle into a broad turn. "There you are ma'am; you should see what your son stirred up out here."

Angeline pressed her face against the glass window. An enormous encampment spread out beneath them, with five huge towers pumping blue electricity into the air. Most shuttles were grounded, though Angeline could spot one that was descending towards the main area. Doodah angled the ship towards it, preparing a landing maneuver, when Foaly's face popped up on the screen.

"You do not have clearance here, turn around and land somewhere else." Foaly only seemed to recognize Doodah after he ordered their landing. It may have had something to do with the text screen that appeared next to his face when he was finished speaking. "Doodah, how did you find out about this operation? This is supposed to be covert."

Angeline put herself into the screen. "Sorry Foaly, but I needed a pilot. I'm hopeless with these ship's, there too technologically advanced for my feeble muddy mind." Angeline hoped that ego stoking would smooth over the fact that they had taken the ship illegally, or at least help Foaly ignore the fact she knew what was happening at all. She wasn't disappointed in either case.

Foaly chuckled and brushed a screen from his console. "I've cleared a landing zone for you and you ship Doodah. You'll need to take off fast if you want to beat the force though. We're almost done here, just need to get the go ahead and the status of our little demon friend." A blinking red dot appeared on the sky, overlaid by a holographic of the area. "Just put her down there and then scram, okay. Trubs'll probably have a heart attack if he finds out you took his personal shuttle."

Angeline honestly didn't feel guilty for the grand-theft-fairy. This was her son they were talking about. "Just say the word Foals. We're gone." The hologram closed, but not before Foaly had opened his mouth to retort and just ahead of him actually saying anything. As holograms had the slight problem of leaving an after image, the effect was rather comical. Angeline wasn't in the mood to laugh though. If anything happened to her son, then there would be hell to pay.

Doodah brought the shuttle low over the landing zone. Another shuttle was also coming down above them. Angeline hoped that no one on board would try to stop her from getting Artemis. Doodah put her down with a thud. Angeline only stayed long enough to peck him on the cheek and transfer the necessary funds to his account, before disembarking. The other ship's gangway swung open with a hiss of pneumatics. An elf and a demon charged out.

Angeline barely stopped herself from pumping her fist in triumph. The elf leading the demon was Holly.

"Holly! Holly!" Angeline shouted over to the racing captain, Holly cast a glance over at her and nearly tripped over her own feet. N`1 plowed straight into her, but only succeeded in bouncing off Holly's back.

"Angeline?" Holly looked a little stunned to see the Fowl matriarch in the midst of the Belarusian wilderness. But she got over it fast. "Something came out of the portal. N`1 thinks it wants to attack us."

N`1 pulled himself up out of the sod. "Hmm, Sod. Dirt, earth, mud, soil .It wants something, but I'm not sure what. Whatever it was, it got through the fairy defenses we set up so I'm assuming it's familiar with our technology." I'm rather sure that standard procedure would be to let it blow up several ship's before engaging in a mad chase after it, followed by a hostage situation."

Angeline paled while Holly glared at N`1. "That's not standard procedure. Did someone swap a mudman action novel for your field book?"

N`1 chuckled. "No it's just how you do it all the time." Angeline was really worried now.

"Where's Artemis? I should find him." The point of her son still being in the camp snapped Holly out of whatever lull she had fallen into. Grabbing N`1 by the wrist she half-pulled, half-dragged the warlock behind her. Angeline was barely able to keep up. Holly brought her up to speed on the way.

"We found someone who fell through the portal just before we were attacked by Opal Koboi"- Angeline hissed at the name of the pixie that had hijacked her body, however unbecoming it was. - " Who snuck intoit. We haven't heard anything from her yet, but it seems that she broke herself out of prison to help. We returned the mudboy to the other side of the portal, but something followed us back in. N`1 barely detected them. It might be Opal and an accomplice. They're here somewhere."

Holly, Angeline and N`1 cleared a small patch of forest into an open field. Nothing seemed to be happening here, except that an official looking shuttle was purring on the other side, and a youth had just exited it and was making his way across the field. "Artemis!" Angeline shouted gleefully. Her son was safe.

Artemis froze. "Mother, er, mum. What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be-" . What Misses Fowl was supposed to be was lost to the ages, as, in a truly blink of an eye moment, something massive and green appeared and scooped up Artemis. N`1 did in fact miss it, while Holly was lost on how it had just happened. Angeline went from quietly cheering to loudly screaming.

"Artemis! ARTEMIS! NOOOOOOO!" Angeline raced after the retreating plane, but had barely made it halfway across the meadow when something that was either a very tall car or very short freight train hit her and overtook her. It was Butler.

"Artemis, grab onto the nearest handhold and hang on, we're coming." Butler was moving with a vitality and force that seemed inhuman for his aged frame. Blatant professionalism overrode any possible sense of fear or panic. For the time being, of course though. Butler had a plan.

He had one of Artemis's plans, which had been formulated for the possibility of an aerial kidnapping. Of course, said plan had been formulated on the assumption that the kidnapper would be a rather disgruntled pixie, so Butler would need to improvise. Thank god for years of training.

"Holly, retrieve the shuttle you took. Our priority is to figure out where Artemis has been taken to. Once we know that-."

"I'm coming with you." Angeline interjected so quickly that Butler failed to stop her. So he took the simplest course of action, a course he would later claim had been his only option to protect her and, by extension, her son. He put his hand on her shoulder and knocked her out.

…

Holly slapped her forehead as Misses Fowl slumped into the earth. She wouldn't have hurt her like that. She would have stunned her with her neutrino. But that was beside the point. Artemis was in danger and Angeline would have been a hindrance. But why did she have to have been here at all?

Of course Misses Fowl was in no state to actually answer the question, but Holly could imagine the answer. 'Just find my son!' She knew Angeline well enough for the answer to pop into her head. And she knew what Artemis's response would be. 'Get her out of there!' But he wasn't really here so she wouldn't have to listen to him. Though she might need to listen to- nope, just kidding, she certainly wouldn't listen to her commander. Problem was, she would need to get around him first.

"Short, if you even think about going after Fowl, I'm going to put you under arrest. And court martial you." This particular exchange was happening about two minutes later, when Holly had managed to retrieve her shuttle and stuff Butler and N`1 into it. But in an age of plants being able to double as cameras and time travel being forcibly illegal, it hadn't been long for Commander Trouble Kelp to find them in the air.

"I can't believe that you have gotten yourself so entangled with this boy. Do you have some sort of… uh…" Kelp glanced off-screen. A slight whinny might have been heard, along with the words "Stockholm Syndrome". "Well?" Trouble gave Holly his best 'You are dead' look that completely mostly almost didn't hide the 'Please be okay' look. Holly really didn't like jerking her commander around, but only on the weekends and at crunch-ball matches when they were off duty. The rest of the time, she did what she knew was right. And saving Artemis was definitely in the right.

"I can't just let him disappear Commander. He's the only one who's managed to figure out the page. If he vanishes, the knowledge goes with him. Besides, his kidnappers are probably in league with Koboi, who's still in the tunnel. Just imagine how happy the council will be if we apprehend her and her doppelganger. At least one of them is still on our end of the portal." Holly knew that she was grasping for straws here, but she had a chance. Trouble took the bait.

"She'll definitely placate the council members, but you'll still be on the wrong end of a dwarf if you mess this up Captain. And Holly…" Trouble fixed Holly with his 'Please be okay' look, full force. "Don't mess this up." The transmission ended.

"Your boyfriend sounds a little upset." If anyone else had said this Holly was sure she would have dropped kicked them, but coming from N`1 it was a statement of fact. "You really need to try and not rile him up so much. Your give him the heart attack everyone was betting Julius would have." Holly grunted indiscriminately, trying not to think about her one time boyfriend. If he ever found out about the kiss she and Artemis had shared he would have her out of the force faster than you could say D'Arvit. He would put two and two together and get three, thinking she was in love with Artemis.

Holly snorted. Her and the mud boy. When the sun froze, maybe.

Right?

"Holly are you alright? You're breathing funny." N`1 hadn't missed the snort.

"It was just an old joke, N`1. You wouldn't get it." Holly figured that maybe she would try spending sometime down in the gym to get the mud boy out of her head when the air turned turbulent around them. She brought the controls back as smooth as she could, aiming the nose into the tunnel. By now she had the entire process memorized and repeatable. Open mind, check. Wide open eyes, check. Tunnel of light, check. She was good to go.

Butler was a different story. He had never been through the tunnel, and while the absolute concentration needed wasn't a problem, the open mind was. Opening his mind and letting N`1 in would bolster the mental shield N`1 had constructed around the shuttle. But if he didn't manage it, he could easily slip into the time stream, lost forever. Or N`1 could force his way in and anchor him here with them. Holly hoped it wouldn't come down to that. She remembered the last time someone had forced their way into Butlers mind. He had had a heart attack when he had managed to beat the Mesmer.

The tunnel wreathed around the shuttle. Holly had been in the time tunnel and could have sworn on the Book that it was nowhere near as impressive as this version. Vast, blue and silver clouds encircled trillions of small pores, each leading to a different universe. Lightning phased between the vapors, illuminating the strange lands that stood beyond imagination. Reality was a subjective thing here. Holly figured that if she had to come up with a name other than the Rip, it would have to be Fanfiction dot net.

N`1's mind touched on hers, alerting her to the fact that he and Butler were still there. Holly refocused, bringing the shuttle over a bank of clouds. The tunnel was certainly far tamer then when she had ferried Dylan across. It was like something about him made the tunnel angry…

Holes in reality opened and closed around them, showing titans clashing, families meeting, hopes risen and hopes dashed. It was an image that was unmatched in the universe. Holly hoped that when she (and that was when, not if) saved Artemis, he could see this too. Holly quietly registered the irony of the statement. Her exe-kidnapper needed saving from trans-dimensional abductors. Well, they could appreciate the hilarity when they were home, safe and sound.

A particular puncture in the fabric of existence looked to be opening in front of the shuttle. Holly directed the aircraft through, thanking the gods that with N`1 on board that they didn't get some sort of energy discharge that would follow opening the portal. The crews of the airships beneath them would be on them faster than a dwarf on freshly turned clay. Not that they could see them though. Shielded from visible and infrared scanning, Holly doubted that the Darwinist would find them if they knew the fairies were there.

The spine of the flying whale… Gahh, Holly couldn't even think straight looking at the damned thing. The harnessed whale was an aberration of nature herself, a blight on the world that it was birthed from. It contributed nothing to the natural order of things, just parodied them and the earths clean beauty. It was disgusting.

Holly swung the shuttle high over the beast. The heat from the engines wasn't much, but it was enough to ignite the hydrogen in the animal if they came too close. Butler came to Holly's shoulder. "Do you see them? They came from here didn't they? Where are they?" Butler sounded like a concerned parent, rather a body guard with a license and training to kill. But Holly couldn't see anyone in the air.

"They're not here, and neither is Artemis." N`1 had obviously picked up on the tension and was supplying an answer. This did not go well.

"THEN WHERE ARE THEY!" Butler roared loud enough to shake the shuttle. Holly probably would have been terrified, but she was screaming to.

"How can you be so detached? This is Artemis we're talking about. He could be killed for all we know." Had Holly been looking at anyone else, they probably would have died of fright. For that matter, they would already be dead from Butlers glare. But N`1 was quietly oblivious to the extent of their rage.

"Well I would assume that they aren't too far away now, perhaps they haven't even left the time stream. So all we need to do is prepare for the encounter. We have the upper hand in this case, something I would assume that we should be able to capitalize on." Thank the god for the bluntly obvious. Butler collapsed into his seat, his unlived years showing through for once. Holly decided to take some of her anger out on the shuttle. Dragging the controls back into position she had had them in earlier, she brought the fairy-craft into a wide holding pattern and started thinking.

'We could probably try to ambush them when they get back and hand Artemis over to Koboi. It's pretty obvious that this is where Opal is… hid…ing.' Gods she was such an idiot. When she and N`1 had delivered Dylan to the Leviathan, they had left a human with knowledge of the entire fairy encampment right in the clutches of the most dangerous fairy on the planet. How had they not seen this when they were here earlier?

Holly froze mid-thought. If Opal was here, then all they needed to do was get retrieval through the portal and find her. She would never touch her Arty.

And just before the scene transitioned Holly did a mental double take. Had she just thought of Artemis as her's?

…

Orion slashed down, parried and feinted left. Jules watched him with the absolute minimal amount of interest that someone could afford to something that was trying to kill them. "Very good try, that feint was seemed genuine. You would make a great fencer Orion. Now can you stop trying to end me?"

Orion drew back, and lowered his sword. "My errant foe, I shall destroy you in the name of my love. For Holly!" Orion lunged again, only to watch as his blade nicked Jules's crow-black hair.

Jules eyed the blade with disinterest before addressing Orion. "Is the next blow also dedicated to Holly?"

Orion narrowed his eyes menacingly. "I rather doubt such fact pirate."

"Good". Jules swung his own orange blade up, connecting with Orion's sword. Electricity blossomed from the point of impact, dazzling the pair. Orion backpedaled, while Jules's blade wrapped itself around the saber. Sparks continued to flicker from the point of contact, until Jules pulled the sword from the vice. "Now will you listen to me?" Jules sounded as polite as he could manage, which was a fair bit, considering that he had just been attacked by a sword wielding lunatic.

Orion brushed the dust off of his suit before answering. "You have bested me, demon. I surrender to the lashings of your tongue."

"Thank you." Jules smiled, before thinking the sentence over and chuckling. "I'm not your enemy Orion, or the enemy of Artemis. I just need you for the moment. Here, I think that you will trust me a little better if you're armed." Jules held the sword in his gloved hand out to Orion. The mad boy eyed the pommel that looked like a wrist before snatching up his weapon. Jules raised both hands in submission. "There. I beat you, but have returned your weapon. Will you listen now?"

Artemis's alter ego gripped the blade tighter, but nodded once. Jules smiled benignly, as though they had not just been dueling furiously. "My name is Jules. I need your better half for the moment. It is of great significance to me and my friend. We won't harm you, or any of those whom you hold dear. But you are vital for us. Is that satisfactory?"

Orion thought then nodded. It could have been worse. But in his head, Artemis was shaking his head.

"Don't do it Orion. He'll kill you; he has given you nothing and will kill you." Artemis continued to shake vigorously while Orion smirked and nodded to Jules. The dimension hopper turned and began to lead the way.

Several minutes past as the two-and-a-half boys tramped in no particular direction, moving what Orion would guess as being north northeast judging from the sun. The troop was lost in their own thoughts. Jules worried for his love and friend Verne, Orion wondered if the leading man would try at any time to kill him, and Artemis pondered if he knew Jules. The odd sense of déjà vu that he had felt around Dylan was tenfold near him. Perhaps it had something to do with the time tunnel, or maybe something more, but Artemis had a feeling that Butler would have called Gut sense. Eventually he had Orion voice his concern.

"Um, excuse me Jules, but you wouldn't happen to be related to a Dylan Sharp would you?"

"No, is he someone worth meeting?" Jules was only vaguely interested, or seemed to be.

"No, just a thought." Orion kept silent for the rest of the trek. Several minutes passed as the pair trekked on, until Jules stopped dead. Orion gave the boy a bemused look, but Jules ignored, instead rummaging in his pockets for something. Finally he pulled a small container out and tossed it to Orion. Orion opened the package and pulled out what looked like a contact lens.

"Put it in." Jules suggested. "I can't look you straight in the eye if you're like that." It seemed obvious he was referring to Artemis's hazel eye. Orion complied, pressing the colored contact into his eye.

Finally the ragtag band of two young men crested a small ridge and saw their goal; a slightly steaming wreck, vaguely resembling a missile. A figure tended to the wreckage.

"Verne!" Jules called as loud as he could, which actually made Orion wince. The figure jolted to its full height, which wasn't much, and started running to the pair. Verne threw herself around her companion, while Orion looked on quizzically. Noticing the look, Jules gesture to his friend and love. "This is Verne. She is my intended." Orion kept looking at her funny.

"I thought she was a boy. Why is her name Verne?" Verne gaze Orion a death glare, while Jules barely kept himself from collapsing with mirth.

Pulling himself up from the bent over position he had laughed in Jules said, "It's a name she chose. She doesn't speak much though, so she'll ignore you mostly." Jules pointed at the ship. "The Endeavor. She's a little beat up from the landing and will need repairs, but she'll fly us out of here. Let's get to work." And with that Jules sauntered over to his baby and disappeared in a cloud of smoke and sparks. Orion stared blankly from Jules to Verne and finally started over, content to his doom as he knew nothing about mechanics.

Three hours later…

Screw driver. Orion handed Jules a screw driver. After a minute…

Ratchet. Orion handed Jules a ratchet. Barely a minute after that…

Plasma welder. Orion past Jules a hand held plasma welder. A variation of this conversation had been going on for around two and a half hours, ever since Jules remembered that Orion couldn't handle a tool if it had hit him over the head. Before that the conversation had been rather amiable and Orion learned a little. Apparently they were in the limbo of limbo, a place you could end up in if you tried to get to limbo from limbo. But he hadn't learned much else. Like whom his associates really were.

Verne didn't speak, and Jules mentioned something about her being from Honshu prefecture in japan, but Orion really didn't buy that. They were as mysterious now as when he had met them. And they didn't care. But now, after three hours they were going to be gone soon, and Orion couldn't ask for more. Jules sat up, pulled the hatch he had been working from down, and pronounced the ship charmant. They were ready to go. And then Verne screamed.

Jules and Orion looked at the lone female of the group, who was pointing skyward and shouting in what sounded like very fast Gnomish. Orion followed her finger and saw, horrifically, as a body descended from the heavens at a literally breakneck pace.

Jules took action. Flexing his fingers, a series of white, pulsing triangles tessellated from his back. The triangles shaped themselves into wings and hummed. And Jules was suddenly airborne. Orion and Verne watched, breath baited, as Jules snatched the falling body from the sky. Orion heaved a sigh of relief, but stopped when Verne glared at him.

"If anyone made it here, then that's a bad sign mud boy." And Verne sprinted off to Jules and the body.

When Orion arrived there, Jules had set the person down. Orion was just a little shocked that it was the girl in boys clothes, Dylan.

"What!" Artemis shouted in his head. He had not seen that coming. Orion barely stifled a laugh, though Artemis had come to the conclusion that even a broken clock was right twice a day.

Jules glared straight at Orion with such a fiery glare that the boy froze and took on the manner appropriate of the death bed of a dear friend.

Hopefully it wouldn't come down to that.

Jules took the girls pulse and pressed his head to her chest to check her breathing. Finally he flexed his fingers, and a yellow screen appeared in front of him. He explained to the confused Orion quietly. "Hard light projector. Anything I need, blades, wings, screens, everything's there. The ultimate tool."

Shutting the screen Jules shook his head, then peeled an eyelid open as gently as you would handle a kitten. The eyes rolled a little, tracking Jules's frame. But no iris or pupil resided in them. They were a blank, ghostly white.

Wait a minute. Orion leaned in to get a better look. Sure enough, a faint mark resided where the pupil would usually sit, a gray so light that it mascaraed as a part of the blank eye. But it was there. A small circle centered in a ring. The ring had a short line poking from the top, and three smaller ones on the bottom. Orion had never seen it before, and neither had Artemis. And apparently, neither had Jules or Verne.

Jules let the eye shut and hefted the girl over his shoulder before addressing Orion and Verne. "He will be okay. But we leave now."

A/N: Ten down, eight to go. If you figure out the marking or just like the website joke, shoot off a review. Otherwise you can review to tell me how my writings going. Remember, this is my first story and I want to get better. Please tell me how, my faithful readers. By the time this goes up I should be all caught up.

And no, if you do figure it out, they won't be doing anything in the story.

And has anyone figured out Jules and Verne. I'm trying to be subtle here, but I might be a bit too vague. Let me know please.

Till next week, faithful readers.

L.W.

Ha ha, spoiler.