Chapter 17
"Everything has a reason."
A/N: So this is the third to last chapter, and I'll be wrapping up the technical stuff. All the character explanations will be in chapter 18, and maybe some Bauliet. But till then, you'll have to settle for knowing how some of the stuff works. But don't skip this chapter. Jules and Verne are explained. You can know who they are.
And go to my profile to vote on your favorite OC. Jules, Verne, Dylan. Hurry!
"Deryn, turn your wing rig back on, please. The three of you are pretty heavy."
Deryn snapped out of her 'I'm dead' revelry. Jules was speaking to her, telling her to… wing rig, right. Don't think about it, just do it. Deryn snapped her arms out, dropping off of the clinging grasp that Jules had held her in and descending gracefully towards the foggy ground of the wilderness. From her vantage point, she could just make out the rings of fairy shuttles spattered across the ground, along with the hulks of the Herkules, Gesamt, and Leviathan.
Deryn rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things. Nope, the ground was very foggy. She could barely make out any good landing zones, even from her height. But there looked to be a clearing almost directly beneath her and her party, so she aimed for it.
The air crawled past her, the wings beat behind her, and for the first time, Deryn realized that she, right now, was truly flying. No gravity to pull her down, no airship to tow her along. She was in heaven. Deryn tilted into a dive, then pulled up above the tree tops. She curved over the ground and circled the landing zone she had selected. She straightened and touched down gracefully, landing on her toes. The air… She just didn't want to leave it.
Jules, with both Artemis and Jaspert clinging to him, landed far less smoothly, kicking up a large amount of mud. Jaspert detached himself from the pair, and ran to assure himself his little sister was alright. Artemis sent a weird look at Jules, before sticking out his hand. Jules took it and gave it a firm shake. This, more than anything, confirmed that they were very close acquaintances. Deryn had never heard of Artemis having offered to shake someone's hand.
Jaspert was quick to enter brotherly protection mode. "You alright, do you have all extremities Dylan? Are you dizzy, feeling nauseous? Don't have anything out of place?" Deryn tried not to laugh at Jaspert. This was the sort of thing that he hadn't fretted over when she was going to enter the air-force. Now he sounded down right terrified.
"All digits accounted for, everything in the right places, stomachs are stable." Deryn counted off on her finger's then paused and put her hand to her side. "No, wait… yep, that's my spine in order. How about you?" She looked at her brother, who nodded once, then doubled over and promptly ejected the contents of the last meal of the Minotaur onto her boots.
"Well, now that that's out of the way," she continued, trying to simultaneously kick the vomit off her shoes and ignore it entirely, "let's get back to civilization."
Getting back to civilization was easier done then said, to butcher an old proverb. Deryn, Jules, Jaspert and Artemis only had to move in any direction and they would inevitably meet the fairies. They were all lost in their thoughts for the moment though, so no one really talked.
Deryn took in the wreckage around her. She would do a drawing of this later, and maybe of the fairies to. The Leviathan floated in the air, tethered loosely. Even obscured by the fog, Deryn could still tell that the first and third gondolas were hanging loosely. The fourth had fared worse than those, and was supported lopsidedly by numerous improvised ropes and pulleys.
The Herkules and Gesamt were mostly intact, with any damage having been suffered by the tunnel and landing. That said, it wasn't too long before Deryn and the rest encountered something not even Jules had expect; the burned out husk of the Kahn. The gasbag was terribly limp and weak, the perfect example of why Hydrogen was such a darn big tradeoff when it came to war. A few burned out trees hung off the ribs that had once supported the skin, or at least that was what Deryn though until she saw a strangely knobby end to one, and realized that they were scorched skeletons. Deryn took a deep breath to steady herself, and felt a gloved hand press into her shoulder.
"You can do this Deryn, just trust yourself." The hand was then gone. Deryn started the slow tramp around the wreck, pushing the occasional charred corpse out of the way, Jaspert making good time behind her, Artemis trying to analyze the bodies while walking, and Jules bringing up the rear, contemplative.
As they finally cleared the Kahn, Jaspert perked up, then pointed skyward with an exclamation. Deryn looked up, and was nearly flattened by the Holly shaped UFO landing two feet in front of her. The Elf captain straightened, her visor breaking up and folding into her helmet in a way that Deryn always found amazing.
"Dylan, it's good to see some of the men on that ship have brains." Holly glared at, respectively, the man who stabbed her, the man that nearly killed himself to kill the aforementioned stabber, and someone that obviously had suicidal tendencies after trying to attack. Bet you can guess who these people are.
"Well-," Deryn began, but Jules cut her off.
"Can I just have my ship back, please? I just completed something I've devoted three years of my life to, so I just want to settle down on a nice piece of beach property and live with my future wife. " Jules smiled at Holly, who smirked back at him. The smile died first.
"No, you cannot have your ship back Jules, if that is really your name, because we have some questions for you back in Haven." Jules hung his head, for a moment anyway.
"Is Foaly feeding you those lines, Holly? Because I have some very juicy gossip about you and Artemis. I have Orion as my witness to." A hologram popped out of Holly's helmet, a vaguely horse like face projected out of it. Jaspert jumped in shock, but Deryn took it in stride, as well as she could.
"Okay kid, what's my tell? We have everything reassembled from the survivors and the only X-factor is you. So you got a lot of explaining to do. And what this about Gossip?" Foaly looked half way between anger and interest, and looked ready to get justifications for both.
Jules raised his hand in defiance, but Orion had taken issue to something. "I'm not Orion. If I was that emotional nincompoop, then I would have made numerous attempts at romanticizing Holly after she, ka blur blurb." Artemis/Orion stopped talking when Holly slapped her hand over his mouth, adding a glare that seemed to say 'if you even dare tell Foaly I will rip your manhood off with my bare hands.'
"Anyway," Artemis pushed Holly's hand down. "How are you so sure that I'm Orion. Orion and I were separated in the tunnel, and you took his egregiously long knife, which I refuse to call a sword, and gave it to me." Artemis held up the bladed hand, and Deryn noticed, for the first time, that an ornate serpent was engraved on the knife. Weird.
"I was assuming that, well, I thought I… I was so sure-", Jules looked Artemis over and sighed, apparently exhausted. Deryn was starting to wonder about that. When she had come through the portal the first time, she had been beat. Now she only felt as if she had run a few dozen yards. This, she determined, was her body getting used to the constant transitions.
The group, now led by Holly, moved towards a particularly wide clearing that looked to be filled with some sort of amorphous blob. Deryn and Jaspert had barely just emerged when roars erupted from said blob, and Deryn feared for her life, wondering what had come out of the tunnel. It took her a moment to realize that said blob was actually a crowd of men, cheering. "Hey everyone, its Dylan." "Middy Sharps back." "Jasperts there too." "Where've you two been?" "Yeah, I get my money." The crowd advanced, and Deryn found herself and her brother being pounded on the back, having their hands grasped, and being hugged by the numerous men of the Minotaur and Leviathan.
Deryn eventually forced her way out of the mob, and cam e face to face with Alek. Alek gave her a look, then smiled and hugged her around the middle. "It's good to see you again, Dylan." That, right there, annoyed Deryn more than any crowd of men could have. She was still pretending to be a boy, still pretending to be her brother's cousin, still having not told Alek that she was a girl. It was barking annoying.
But Alek would go hysterical if she told him now, so silence would… oh who was she kidding, she'd just tell him. Deryn opened her mouth, intent on beginning, when Jules swept over them and grabbed Alek by the arm, dragging him away. 'Well, you can't fault his timing' Deryn fumed. Jules whispered some well-chosen word into Alek's ear, and was almost to his point, when the door to the shuttle behind him opened.
Verne stepped out, her shawl askew, and two well-armed guard elves standing to her side. Two very well-armed guard elves standing to her side. Jules ran forward and threw his arms around her, but menacingly looks from the elves convinced him to loosen up. Finally, he turned to the crowd and said; "Perhaps we should continue this indoors."
…
Jules collapsed into the chair in the shuttle, not for the first time thankful for the fact he had come accustomed to a Spartan lifestyle. Butler, Juliet, Angeline, Artemis, Holly, Verne, Deryn, Alek, and Jaspert also stood in, with Trouble Kelp, Foaly and N`1 on holoscreens. Jules would be trending a fine line, keeping something's to himself and revealing others. It would be difficult, but he could manage it.
"Introductions are in order then. The boy, excuse me, young man, is Jaspert Domique Sharp. He served as a coxswain upon the Minotaur, until its untimely demise. His more recent history involves being as close to possessed as one can get. And yes, you were possessed," Jules pointed out to the slightly confused Jaspert. "Dylan, a facsimile of Jasperts brother, took control of your mind. Can you recall any urges to attack Captain Short here, Jaspert?" Jules waited for Jaspert to nod his head cautiously, then continued. "Jaspert was under the allusion that his brother was in harm's way from Holly, a very direct form of the Mesmer, its effects compounded by the Presence of Dylan in his own mind."
Foaly raised a hand. "How could the Mesmer be used on a human? They don't have a drop of magic in their veins."
Jules looked apprehensive for a moment, and Verne took the chance to rib him. He should a mock glare at the diminutive women and faced back to Foaly. "It's a long story, but I'll get to it. Now, Dylan here-"
"If I may interject," Butler said. Jules smiled at the giant of a man, and nodded. "But are you really going to keep up the show of Dylan's masculinity? Him sharing a name with someone will obviously get confusing."
Jules looked at Deryn, silently enjoying her gob-smackedness. "How the bark did you know?" She looked at everyone present, and finally Alek cleared his throat apprehensively. She glared hard at the boy she loved (though wouldn't admit it at the moment) and opened her mouth to scream. Before she could, he said;
"Volger told me."
Deryn was visibly fighting the urge to attack the absent count, and Jules used this to continue. "Deryn here has dropped however unceremoniously into the tunnel, and the shock of entry, coupled with residual magic present in her mind, which I will get to later," Jules said at Foaly's opened his mouth, "And the lingering emotional trauma of witnessing her father die, resulted in a separate, dissociative personality that took it upon itself to become the literal manifestation of everything she ever wanted, e.g. male, strong, had Alek as a lover, that sort of thing."
"After he took control, her body fell into a pseudo-limbo, where I, Artemis and Verne found it. It seemed to be, in bib hib." Jules turned his faux glare at Verne again, as she had slapped her hand over his mouth. "It seemed to be intact. We repaired our ship, the Endeavor, and returned to our reality. We arrived just in time to, ere, stop some rather crude events from transpiring." That was just an easy way of saying that they had interrupted Dylan's attempt to rape Alek, which might not have even classified as rape, as Alek did, to an extent love Deryn, and thought that Dylan had been Deryn.
"We were then attacked by the Herkules for the first time, as it had then exited the tunnel. The rest is mostly history, but in the aftermath Jaspert was attacked by Dylan, who had been separated from his body by Deryn's consciousness exiting his and entering hers." Jules frowned at the innuendo, and resumed. "His consciousness was apparently connected to the tunnel. He was able to take control of Jaspert's body, then after being found by crewmen from the Leviathan, was taken aboard. Am I correct to assume that Holly here has filled you in on the details of the events immediately following?" The group nodded.
"Deryn followed Jaspert and Artemis into the tunnel, eventually tracking him down and stabbing him with this sword." Jules pointed to Artemis's sword, which immediately drew the eyes of everyone present. Jules smiled quietly, content in the knowledge that he only had to answer questions now.
"What exactly was Dylan anyway? He sounds like a quantum zombie." This question was leveled from N`1, and it wasn't an unreasonable question either. And it would act as a nice way for him to get the pair of guards away from Verne.
"Dylan was a separate personality, who formed in the tunnel and used it's warped laws of physics to create a body for himself. So, yes, he is a quantum zombie. It you shouldn't call them that."
"We take offense," Chimed in Verne. The guards growled at her, and everyone turned to look at her, safe Artemis, who was presently enamored with some writing on the blade of the sword. "Yes, I'm a quantum zombie. Bet you can't guess of who I am?" At this, the incredulous looks turned to glares, as everyone knew who she was now. But Artemis still asked, and Verne answered.
"Opal Koboi." Verne smirked at the shocked looks from Artemis and Deryn, and the confused one from Jaspert. The poor soldier looked like he had entered the mad house, at least from Jules perspective. "Though I prefer Topaz as a name, at any rate." Verne smiled at the confused group, while Foaly and Artemis tried to factor in how this was possible, and Commander Kelp tried to figure out how this would be seen by the counsel. As Verne started to unwrapped the perpetually present scarf, Jules adjusted his hat.
Artemis had set the bladed hand aside and was now staring intently at Jules, who was studiously ignoring him. But such things cannot be ignored indefinitely, or the act would stall up. Jules finally meet Artemis's eyes with his lone uncovered one. "What?"
"Who are you, really? You've given us the background of everyone present, yet you yourself remain innocuous." Artemis continued to stare intently at the inter-dimensional man of mystery, who finally rolled his eyes.
"Guess, I know you can." Everyone, save Butler who had guessed the identity of Jules, waited with baited breath for Artemis's grand declaration. The genius in question smiled.
"You are me. Or rather, Orion, who fell separate of me in the tunnel, and collected that stone, while I received a mildly useless sword." To illustrate his point, Artemis hefted the steel arm.
"True, but a stone such as this is rather useful." Jules pulled out said stone, cheekily dodging the question of whether or not he was Orion, even though he was. "A philosophers stone is very useful, especially compared to a sword." N`1 and Foaly's eyebrows had seen better days, but now they seemed to have developed a love of heights.
"You can't be serious. Philosopher's stones disappeared with the ancient magicks. Only Demon warlocks could craft them , and even then it took thousands of man-hours just to get the equations right. The last stone disappeared nearly four hundred years ago." N`1 looked rather offended at the thought.
"Curious thing, that," Jules said, as Artemis leaned in closer to learn more of the strange gold making stone. "This stone happens to be the one that was stolen. I purchased it from a girl who claimed to be the daughter of the thief. She was completely delusional; of course, seemed convinced she was only half fairy. She did stand out in a crowd though." All assembled briefly pondered how they could pick such girl from a crowd, but some were determined to get their answers.
"So, are you Orion? Artemis leaned in closer, and studied Jules. The man, for the second time since Artemis had met him, really did look thirty three. Wordlessly, he nodded. Artemis clapped his hands together, and Angeline screamed in delight and hugged the slightly older version of her son. "I've always wanted to hold a conversation with someone of near equal intelligence. It really is a pleasure to meet you, which it is, as you obviously think that you are not that-"
"Romantic buffoon," Jules supplied, trying reluctantly to dislodge his biological mother. "It would love to, but I have important issues to address, such as my girlfriend being incarcerated." Jules finally succeeded on prying Angeline loose and glanced at Foaly, who looked more exasperated then anything.
"Well, we would like to haul Miss Koboi here in front of the tribunal, but there's the legal problem of she not being the only Opal Koboi we've found." Foaly hit several keys on the old fashioned key boards he enjoyed so much, and brought up to screens showing both Opal the elder and Koboi the younger in separate padded cells. Neither seemed particularly happy with their current situations, with Opal beating against the camera, and Koboi trying to summon lightning and blast her way out. "Three Opals are our problem; with one we need to send back, one we need to convict and one we need to do something with."
"And we can't just let anyone go," Trouble stated morosely. "While she may be technically innocent, I can not allow her to leave on my watch." Trouble then leaned back, threw his hands over his head and kicked up his feet on his desk, just in time for the screen to go black. Both guards looked at each other and collapsed theatrically. Jules looked at Foaly and N`1, who had not been facing the screens and were now arguing vehemently about dimensional equations.
"Well, if you don't need us anymore, we shall be on our way." Jules stood up, and as no one objected, started for the door. But no one can run from their own consciousness, and Jules certainly couldn't run from the arm on his shoulder. It seemed Verne wasn't ready to let him leave without explaining everything. "Please no," was all he could say as she dragged him back to the chair and pushed him into it. The assembled crowd leaned in intently, curiosity ignited by the actions of the Opal Koboi look-alike.
Jules started to remove the hat and eye patch that he wore. Underneath them were - surprisingly – a full head of raven hair and two very functional navy eyes. Jules looked at the collection of people, mostly human, and tried to get the words out. After a few false starts, he began.
"When I first fell through the tunnel, I traded my memories for magic. I could steer through the tunnel and exit at will, but forgot almost every part of my life. My family, the Butler's, the Fairies, everything vanished into the ether. I ended up landing, in of all places, Darwinist Scotland. There a family of farmers took me in. They raised me kindly, and I eventually married their youngest daughter. We had a small family, and were supposed to live happily ever after. We didn't."
"In the tunnel, I came into contact with a philosopher's stone, but while I could not use it at the moment, it came with me. In Scotland, I had been ballooning with my daughter when one of the kerosene tanks ruptured, spilling burning fuel on my arms." Jules raised one scarred arm, and then lowered it. "I saved my daughter, and resigned myself to death. But at the last minute, I remembered the stone. Using it and my magic, which I hadn't used since the tunnel, I opened a portal and sent myself back into the tunnel. Here I regained my memories, and with fifteen years of maturity under my belt, I kept both them and my magic. Close thing though."
"I exited in a different universe, where man has apparently been absent for centuries. I honed my magic there for two months, and then reentered the tunnel. While, no matter how hard I tried, I could not reenter either of my universes, I could travel across the multiverse, working my way closer. I had eventually realized that I was an assistant to the traveler, the being that restored my memories, or rather, I. Though I did not realize that the person was, in fact, my future self at the time, I did know that I had somehow managed to retrieve a philosopher's stone and get it to myself."
"As chance should have it, I encountered a young girl that held such stone. After some, ere, lengthy conversations, I persuaded her to give me the stone, in exchange for transport out of the universe we were currently in."
"Artemis Fowl the second, you did not abandon a little girl in an alternate universe." Angeline growled. Jules had the state of mind to look indignant.
"She was perfectly happy with this universe, mother. Anyway, by this time, Topaz-" Verne waved, "- had joined me, and we were making our way across the multiverse. We eventually worked out a way to directly enter a tunnel rift, such as the one which we have been using to such an extent recently. We had only just passed out of the one which is currently hanging over the Leviathan when we got the news of Deryn's unfortunate disappearance. And you know the rest."
Jules glared defiantly at Verne, who twiddled her thumbs. Artemis looked at the man that was, quite literally, himself. Butler had moved to protect both boys, intent on the protection of his principles. Juliet was looking from Artemis to Jules, trying to see the resemblance. Holly was trying to think of a way to wrap her arms around Artemis and kiss him for simply being intact without being caught by N`1 or Foaly. Alek was silently praying that Deryn did not exit the shuttle soon, as she would kill him when she realized that he wasn't the only person to have figured out her little secret. Jaspert was thinking about the odd time traveler, and Deryn was lost in thought about his story.
Angeline, the ever vigilant mother, was spending the prolonged silence in another way. She was quietly comparing Jaspert Sharp to both her Timmy – Artemis the first – and to Artemis himself. The bearing, the hair, the eyes – Angeline barely contained her gasp when it all clicked. Jules looked at his mother semi-appraisingly, knowing that his greatest secret was about to be revealed, and fearing the reaction.
The reaction to the heritage of Jaspert and Deryn Sharp.
Angeline was staring at her son, and the people in the room were staring at her. She tried to gesture to Jules then back at Jaspert. Jules waited for them to figure it out.
Deryn quietly mulled over the story, and wondered why Misses Fowl was acting so strange. She looked at Jules, and was hit with the near constant effect of déjà vu. He wasn't much. Tall, but on the skinny side, with black hair, blue eyes that seemed prominent from his pale face. Deryn had started mentally drawing him, But when she looked away, all she could think of was her brother. Why did he remind her of her brother… oh.
Deryn's head snapped back to Jules. The man fidgeted, trying to not look her in the face. Slowly, so as not to break the illusion, Deryn started to him, and put her hands on his face, bringing him to face her. Their sapphire eyes met in silent understanding. Jules looked up at the face of his daughter, and a lone tear descended from his blue eyes.
Artemis Orion Julius Sharp, nee Fowl, wrapped his arms around Deryn, hoping for the resolution that he needed the knowledge that she and her brother did not hate them for abandoning them. Jaspert looked at him, stock still. Then he too came forward and embraced his father.
Deryn and Jaspert Sharp had their father back. Jules had his children. For now, that was enough.
A/N: So yeah, a lot of you figured this out last chapter, but Deryn and Jaspert didn't. Still, pretty darn cool about what I did, right? And again; go to my profile and vote on your favorite OC.
Please Vote.
And the next chapter will be going up on Tuesday at the latest. Plus a credits scene.
B/N: Yeaaah, I'm having just as strong a reaction as you are. And aww, they're together again. Yay! :3
Well, until next the chappie, my darlings!