Chapter 14

Return To The Breach

A/N: Well, this chapter's bound to be the least eventful of all, at least in regards to the rest of the story. But the second battle should be fun. This is an art chapter, so expect a nurse Fowl, a belligerent Holly, an empathetic No1, and a Butler in his element.

Enjoy.

It should be made known that Artemis Fowl, in the course of time during which his father had been missing, had taught himself a fair number of medical and curative techniques in the event that his father had been brought to harm during his time missing. They had been what had landed him a position in the medical ward of the Leviathan.

Artemis sat around rubbing salves on burns, injecting morphine into victims, and strapping bones together with braces. This process was largely repeated in different permutations as each person was to be hastily stabilized in lieu of actual treatment, as the constant medical miracles that No1 performed outweighed conventional methods. No1 would place his hands on the wounded, whisper words of power, and transfigure them into healthy men. It was all very subdued, as each man was either dead on arrival, wounded to the point of near death, or simply well enough to let them return without treatment.

Dr. Busk stood in a corner, muttering about losing his job to some upstart that could do magic. He remained silent otherwise, communicating in pointed glares and ignorance of the constant stream of healed men walking dazed out of his office. But Doctor Barlow was a different story.

Artemis's first reaction to the fact that Charles Darwin's granddaughter was aboard had primarily been quiet disbelief, but the spectacular series of coincidences that had led Deryn to first arrive in his universe (and he knew that they had to be coincidences, as Deryn had wanted her father to save her in the time tunnel, and instead found her way to Artemis) had produced yet another one when it turned out Nora Darwin Barlow was, in fact, on board. Since then he had been trying for an interview, but largely failed at the set task, as Barlow had found herself far more interested in No1's healing magic.

No1 was just explaining that magic was really energy when a young-looking girl stormed in, looking murderous. Artemis paused from tending to a man that was spouting on about a vision of people with iron prosthetics to take in the girl's subdued haughty manner, intellectual bearing, and concealing scarf wrapped around her head, and nodded to Verne in greeting. The women looked at him, her face contorted in such angered frustration that Artemis wondered if she was related to Opal Koboi for a moment. She certainly had the evil eye down, now all she needed was insane amounts of magic and a megalomaniac bend, and she would be set.

"Do you know how hard it is to stop you geniuses from getting your way? It is literally impossible to do so if you yourself are not one of these said geniuses. I have been yelling at Jules for ten minutes, and he refuses to come back onto the Leviathan. And I cannot follow him with the Endeavor, because he has taken it with him." Verne spoke in a slow, low tone, leaving Artemis to wonder if he knew her, as she was obviously trying to cover her real voice. But she could also be so close to snapping that she was keeping her voice like this to control herself. Artemis had seen such techniques employed by Holly before, and knew that they were completely ineffectual. No1 didn't grasp this.

"You could just go down and search for him. Just take the - " No1 was cut off by Verne's scream.

"I WILL NOT GO DOWN AND SEARCH FOR JULES. HE CAN JUST STAY LOST IN THE FOREST, LOOKING FOR HIS PRECIOUS… FRIENDS AND NEVER COME BACK FOR ALL I CARE! HE HAS HAD A FINE TIME MESSING WITH MY FEELINGS AND I REFUSE TO LET HIM DO IT ANY MORE!"

Artemis had decided dignity be damned and stuffed his fingers into his ears, allowing Verne's tirade to roll over him without damaging his eardrums. Her low, false speech discarded for the moment, Artemis took her voice and mentally cross-referenced it all the voices of people he had encountered in his fairy escapades. Verne's height, 4"5', overrode any so she had to be fully human. Artemis checked the numerous contacts he had memorized and drew a blank. He had no idea who this Verne character was, so she was inconsequential to the fairies.

(I know a word that starts with I and ends with gnorance.)

Artemis removed his fingers from his ears and began to say that she was being unreasonable, that her accusations (and the urge to take them out on them) were unfounded, and that her whole person would probably benefit from a long, relaxing session of meditation, when the world shifted to port.

Dr. Barlow and No1 were kneeling over a particularly wounded soldier and thus were able to keep their balance. Dr. Busk was in a corner brooding and grabbed a desk to stay steady. Artemis wasn't crouching or in a corner, so he grabbed for the nearest stable object. That object turned out to be Verne. Verne herself might have maintained her balance if she had ever been privy to using her legs as a usual manner of movement. Or maybe if she had used her legs much before arriving on the Leviathan. Verne and Artemis found themselves in a messy heap on the floor. Orion chose that moment to make himself known.

"Artemis, I'm ashamed to share a body with you. Do you know how inappropriate this position is? If you are to even consider something like this, then it must be attended to behind closed doors. I am –"

"Yes, yes, yes, I understand Orion, but I have slightly more pressing issues to attend to, namely that fact we are in a banking turn."

Artemis glanced up from the mess Verne's scarf had made to Dr. Barlow. The good doctor had cocked an ear, listening to the countless noises of the living ship made at even the slightest movement while Artemis worked to disentangle himself from Verne. Orion stood at the back of Artemis's mind, waiting until Artemis had mostly dusted himself off, before pointing out Verne was still on the ground and that most people would have helped her up.

Of course that wasn't exactly what he said. What he said went something along the lines of: "And now that you have taken to return to your feet, brother, the fair maiden that you have dragged to earth with you in your abhorrent attempt to save yourself has yet to be brought to her feet. And who is to be blamed but you and me? As such you should try to reclaim her from the floor's evil, dirty grip. Shall you?"

Artemis took Verne's hand and pulled her up. Verne gave him an unidentifiable look, somewhere between disgust, recognition and affection. Artemis then received the shock of his life when she leaned forward and gave him a peck on the cheek. Now, that doesn't seem like much, but Artemis had never really been kissed by someone who either wasn't his mother or drunk on magic, so it was a reasonable surprise. Verne smiled and walked out of the room, leaving a vaguely confused Artemis and some very amused doctors.

"Certain circumstances can lead to deep affection and attraction, though I've never known falling on someone to be such a trigger," Dr. Barlow noted. "I should pursue such quires with the, er, fairies, when they come available."

No1 giggled quietly, happily content with the knowledge that Verne wasn't everything on the surface. She had some strange quirks and a few very obvious prejudices, but kept herself in full control most of the time.

Busk clapped the still-shocked Artemis on the back. "That's a good lad; now, all you need is a little meat on your bones and you're set for life!" Dr. Busk had a wife waiting for him at home, and understood relationships. It also helped that Artemis was the only other person in the room that seemed halfway normal.

Artemis flexed his fingers in a slight show of calming his nerves. That had been…unexpected. However, he had figured out two things from Verne's outburst. Number one was the possible identity of Jules. The other was the probable identity of Verne. But the theory had several gaping holes in it, the most prominent being how she and Jules had arrived in the local time. While it wasn't completely impossible, it certainly seemed strange.

Thunder crashed outside, and Artemis was wrenched from his thoughts. It looked like the Herkules was back.

…

Butler looked down on the Herkules, the Gesamt and the Dschinghis Kahn. The walker frigate, the carrier dreadnought, and the light hydrogen airship had appeared on the horizon minutes before, and were now within range of engagement. A few scouting planes had circled some distant point, maybe taken pictures. Butler took note of this with the detached professionalism he had shown throughout the entire, mad venture. It was only working for Artemis that had led him to be standing on an enormous flying whale trying to shoot down German airplanes. Not something that had been in the job description.

Butler took up a defensive position on the spine, pulling one of the guns into alignment, and firing some test rounds. The kick back was surprisingly light, though the heavy supply of ammo probably had something to do with it. Butler tried his luck at range, managing to cause one to twist in air and begin to fall. The gun may have been good, but Butler was better.

Several crews of soldiers scrambled onto the spine from hatches. They seemed to take the enormous man on the forward battery in stride, though one collapsed when he came near Butler. The action might have been perpetrated by the altitude that the Leviathan had achieved, or the altitude that Butler had. He ignored it anyway.

The Herkules was slowly building an electric charge at the base of its Tesla cannon, while the Gesamt launched a flurry of biplanes. The Dschinghis Kahn started climbing, aiming to get level with the Leviathan and shoot from there.

Butler watched as a flock of birds detached itself from the flank of the ship. As one, the hawks descended on the German airship, portions of it tearing free, others beginning the slow wilt of torn gas bags. Needless to say, the Kahn didn't come close to the Leviathan.

Butler turned his gun at a front of six or seven planes, opening fire. Two went down before the line broke, but another vanished in a blast of light. Butler looked up from the sight of his gun, wondering what happened to the other plane. A second ball of light shot over Butler's shoulder, colliding with another biplane and destroying it as well.

A third missed its mark, apparently fired from about midway down the spine. Butler decided it was some sort of RPG and returned to firing the gun. There are a lot of answers that you could explain this with, but an RPG is certainly one of the less correct ones.

The gun jammed suddenly. Butler swore and gave it a hard hit. The gun freed itself for maybe six shots before it jammed again. Butler took the gun in both hands and waited for ten agonizing seconds. A German plane took advantage of the seeming malfunction of the forward gun to prepare a run over the spine. Butler counted down from five, then grabbed the cooled gun and opened up on the biplane. The plane shuddered in air and tore to pieces, the fragments tumbling into the cold night surrounding the Leviathan.

A second wave of planes was approaching from over the Herkules, electricity buzzing in the air around it. Butler took the offer and concentrated his fire on one that was passing almost directly over the bow, sending it spiraling…

…into the Tesla cannon.

The air crackled and exploded, the pent-up magic-infused electricity discharged in a single burst. Butler's marksman eyes couldn't see that far, but he thought he saw a diminutive shape strapped to the bow of the Herkules flinch. The thunder rolled over him and the Leviathan, creating the sense of power that one got when they succeeded in something that no one else had.

Butler smiled grimly, and started searching for his next target.

…

Holly circled the Herkules when the biplane hit the Tesla cannon. Now Holly wasn't a physicist, D'Arvit, she wasn't even an electrician. But she knew that hitting anything that big with a plane was not a good idea.

The released electricity erupted with tectonic force, moving for anything to exhaust itself on. The metal frames of several nearby planes were fair game. So was Holly.

The elf captain got a warning that she was about to be hit with thousands of volts of electricity a few nanoseconds before it hit. Holly convulsed midair, her magic conflicting with the power pumping through her veins. The wing set short circuited on her back, shocking her unconscious. And then Holly fell.

Consciousness came back like a reluctant dog, and Holly stirred on something soft and squishy. It turned out that the soft and squishy thing was Opal Koboi, still rigged up as the Herkules's figurehead. Holly disentangled herself from Opal's body and the copper rigging she was tied to. Opal twitched in the rigging, but otherwise didn't move. Holly was careful anyway; Opal had once faked her own coma for thirteen months.

Loud voices alerted Holly's attention to the bow. Several soldiers were moving across the deck, and shifting down the rigging to grab her. Holly contemplated her options. She could let them capture her and then escape. She could fight her way out now. Or she could jump onto the ground that was steadily getting farther and farther away.

Holly did a double take on that last option. The ground was certainly moving away from the Herkules, or was the Herkules getting farther away from the ground? The second fact proved to be true when the front legs straightened and then detached themselves from the earth. Several soldiers shouted in German, something that Holly's magic translated as "Oh God, not again!" The Herkules, Kahn and Gesamt were all ascending toward the Leviathan.

A few metallic pings started on the bow and didn't stop. When one man's head dissolved into red ruin, Holly's suspicion was confirmed. The Leviathan was firing on the slayer of its sister ship. Men began to climb back to the gun deck, though several reeled in the wires before they could manage it. Holly felt her wings lift her up. Whatever was moving the German landships was magnetic, and reaching for her too.

Holly tried to activate her wings, and was a little shocked to find that they were working. She would have just one chance to get back to the Leviathan, but thanks to Foaly's engineering capabilities, it was a chance. 'I'm really going to need to buy him a carrot when I get back', Holly thought.

Holly primed herself, waited till she was nearly level with the ascending airbeast, and jumped.

A blue blur dissolved into the position Holly had been in a second ago. Opal Koboi the younger looked into the unconscious face of her older self, and started to work on the copper wires.

…

No1 charged down the corridor with soldiers dodging out of his way. He needed to get to the head of the ship as soon as possible.

He had felt the magical pulse when he was in the medical bay. The Leviathan was moving fast to the portal, and he needed to stop it from entering. If it went in without a warlock to shield the people onboard, the whole ship would end up in the middle of cosmic limbo.

No1 pushed several men out of the way of a particularly under-crowded ladder and started on his way up. The spine was almost deserted when he reached the top. Only Butler and a few other men still manned guns. Theo Black shoved past No1 and started down the ladder, trying to escape. The Herkules and the Gesamt rolled past the ascending Leviathan. No1 watched the spectacle for a few seconds before moving towards the bow.

"Butler," he said in greeting. The man servant fired a few more rounds.

"No1," he replied. "Where's Artemis? Is he still in the medical bay?" Butler fired at a lazily drifting plane that only had one person in it and wasn't running.

"Yes, but I need to guide the ship through the tunnel; otherwise, we'll all need doctors." No1 reached into his magical reserves, and spoke to the airship.

"Hello?"

"Hello."

"Nice to meet you."

Nice to meet you too. Are you the same fairy-person that spoke to me last time?"

"What! I'm not the first person that's spoken to you?"

"No, there was this girl-woman that said I needed to go near hole-sky. She said it was because Lightning-fire would destroy me if I did not."

"Er, what was she like?"

"Very nice-kind, though a little rabid. She said she was a fairy-pixie. What is a fairy-pixie?"

"Um, do you mean she was a pixie, or just a fairy?"

"Both. What's the difference?"

"Never mind, you need to stop. We'll be destroyed!"

"She said that lightning-fire would be gone if I did this. If you're implying she was lying then I'll have to ask her."

"Just stop."

"I can't. The temporal stream is dragging me into it."

"Then hang on!"

No1 wondered who the pixie was, and placed his hands on the flank of the Leviathan. It would be a bumpy ride.

…

A/N: I've been rather lucky to get about one review per chapter, but some people have managed a hundred reviews per chapter. I really hope that my later stories will have higher traffic. Course, this story isn't exactly common. It's barely even a niche genre. It's practically a special order.

But till next week, faithful readers.

And a shout out to Jett Wolfe-98. She got name dropped by Scott Westerfeld himself.