Disclaimer:I don't own anyone or anything from the Artemis Fowl series.
I do, however(Yay again!) own Alina and Elsa Blau, the 'Loss Factor' theory, and the...light things. At least, the difference in them. :) All else credited to Eoin Colfer.
Walking upon the sand of the beaches in your life.
You leave marks embedded as you go.
A mark of your passing which may last forever,
Or quickly washed away with the changing tide.
Life is fickle and impressions made quick.
Judgments made in ignorance set our path,
A friendship which may have lasted a lifetime,
Is over looked because of vanity or prejudice.
A shame that we are influenced by petty things
Such as looks, speech, affluence or intelligence.
Never taking the time to truly know someone
Who they are and what they've accomplished.
Tis said to slow down and smell the roses,
But many times we cut them down to take.
Having them for the beauty they possess,
Not thinking of killing them in the process.
If you leave your mark on the beach,
Make sure it's one that stands against time,
A mark that can be viewed with pride,
Not one to be lost in the changing tides.
The Changing Tides
~Randall Beers
"Miss Koboi?" Alina knocked hesitantly on the door to her 'master's' chambers and waited for several seconds. No reply or sign of acknowledgment came, so she knocked again, more heavily this time. Still no answer. Sighing, she pushed the door open, looking around in time to see Opal, wielding a knife and sliding it slowly, almost lovingly down her arm.
Not thinking of consequences, the girl raced to the pixie's side, trying to pull the knife away from her. She sliced her fingers accidentally on the blade a few times before she managed to pry it from Opal's grip, and flung it to the side of the room where it would be less accessible. Breathing heavily but filled with adrenaline, she turned to the pixie, ready to blow up, but when she saw Opal's face, all the angry words inside shriveled up, leaving just one word.
"Why?"
As the pixie shook her head, refusing to answer, she gazed at the cut, already disappearing from her flawless skin. Her magic wiped away the cut and the scar that would have persisted, leaving only the blood that had trickled down her arm to dry.
Since Opal wouldn't speak, Alina got up cautiously, holding her cut fingers carefully and keeping a sharp eye on the pixie, to make sure she wouldn't go after the knife again. She made her way over to the vanity sink and, searching for and finding a cloth, wet it and carried it back to Opal, gently rinsing her bloody arm off. When that was finished, she used a clean corner of the cloth to clean out her own cuts, which were shallow enough not to warrant the use of magic, or so she thought. As she cleaned, she spoke, telling Koboi of the seemingly pursuing ship.
"Where is it?" the pixie asked sharply, all thoughts of before forgotten.
"I'm not sure now, but when I saw it, it was somewhere to the northwest, coming in to intercept us. It'll be here in bare minutes, if I'm any judge of its speed." As she spoke this sentence, they were walking briskly to the cockpit of the shuttle and getting in their usual spots. Though Alina had only been on the shuttle a short time, she already had found a favorite spot to sit and still be able to see everything.
"It's that bloody pair, Artemis Fowl and Captain Short, chasing me one more time. Did I not teach them the last time? Honestly, will they never learn that they cannot defeat me?" she snorted her disgust and upped the speed of the shuttle, obviously thinking that they would not have to accelerate very quickly to outfly the others. Of course, she had probably forgotten how excellent of a pilot that Short was, and they were rammed by the other shuttle within seconds.
As Alina picked herself up off the floor, she heard the unmistakable whining sound of magnetic clamps being fired to the side of the ship, and felt immediately the slowing of their shuttle. Opal was furious, but threw something to Alina that turned out to be a gun. A Neutrino something, the fairy girl Holly had called it before. Some sort of number came after.
The side door of the shuttle was pried open, and sheeting rain obscured the view of the person entering, though it was almost certainly Captain Holly Short. Alina almost hoped it was, but there was something a little more sinister about the figure. Something a little more...evil?
Holly had caught sight of Koboi's shuttle earlier, though the first sign had been on the tracking device, reading that they were nearing the shuttle. For once, Holly was puzzled by the pixie instead of angered; usually Koboi traveled much, much more quickly, not to mention that she rarely ever used a shuttle that was not of her own build.
Just then, Foaly's voice came through the radio in her helmet, which she had slipped on only moments before. "Holly, you there?"
"Of course I'm here, Foaly. Where else would I be when Opal's on the loose?" she raised an eyebrow, only afterward realizing how Artemis-like the movement was.
"Probably following her. But listen; I was just checking the maximum security prisons in Atlantis, especially Opal's, and she's not there. I'm thinking this Opal that you're following created some sort of magical manikin that acted as the present Koboi to stay in the cell, while she 'kidnapped', so to speak, the present Koboi. You only saw one Opal; it was the past Opal, so what happened to the present Opal?"
"Apparently this is going to get more interesting," the centaur continued, grating on Holly's nerves wile he enjoyed presenting one of his long-winded explanations. "Since both Opals are near each other, because we assume that past Opal has present Opal with her, a surmised phenomenon nicknamed the 'Cross-Doppelganger effect' might have taken place, in which the consciousness, if not the bodies, of the two Opals have been combined."
"Which means?" Holly groaned, knowing that there was worse to come.
"Which means that both Opals are in one body; the body of the past Opal. Present Opal's body is probably located somewhere on the shuttle, but its mind is empty. Therefore, if two minds are enclosed in one body, doesn't it stand to reason that the two intellects would be combined? I wonder if you noticed anything different about Opal when you met her in Alina's home? Was there anything that stood out to your vision?
Thinking about this, Holly gasped silently. "Her height! She was taller than a normal fairy, though not as tall as the present Opal. Taller than me."
"Err...that's not exactly what I'm talking about, but that is interesting. Usually, this Cross-Doppelganger effect is only with minds, but...if the two Opals were fused, not only in mind but in body...then that would explain the extra height, as well as any scars that present Opal would have but past Opal wouldn't have."
"How does that work, then?" Artemis entered the conversation at last, after listening intently. "That doesn't work at all with the 'laws' of time travel, or science. In fact, it doesn't follow any laws, except maybe the laws of magic. If Opal plied all her magic, maybe she could have used some extreme form of the mesmer to inhibit the body of present Opal, similar to the 'possession' she used for my mother. If this Cross-Doppelganger effect is real, then it would be no problem for past Opal to completely fuse her body with present Opal's, creating a new, highly intelligent...monster."
"Right on, Artemis. Right now, the best thing you can do is catch up with Opal and...well, kill her now. If they really are fused, then their intelligence grow, because of each other. You have to kill her before she gets too far along; even now it'll be a challenge."
"So we've finally got to kill her..." Artemis mused, not entirely happy with the thought, but knowing it had to be done. "Are you ready for that, Holly?"
"I'm ready whatever it takes, Artemis." she replied honestly, the truth of this statement clear in her eyes. She fired the clamps, and they were alongside the other shuttle, hatch to hatch, and sliding the door of their shuttle open. She fought with the latch on the other door, finally resorting to her Neutrino to blast the lock. From there, the door cracked slightly open, giving her access to Koboi's shuttle.
"Let's go, Artemis." she called to him through her helmet and into his earpiece. "Let's get this over and done with for once. After this, we can take a break from saving the world, eh?"
Her light-hearted banter did little to improve Artemis's mood, but he replied with a "Yes, Holly." anyway, and crept to the door, preparing to follow her.
How little does she know how much it really will take in the end, he pondered, pressing himself against the side of the shuttle, just inside the door frame. The price is too high. It's always too high; why do we even bother, after everything?
Elsa woke up groggily, attempting to sit up immediately. She was unsuccessful for two reasons; a., she was tied down, which made things a bit difficult, and b., she was incredibly dizzy. Even if she had been able to sit up, she would have either been horribly sick or fallen back against the pillow once again. She screwed her eyes shut, her eyes turning everything into a blurred, nauseating kaleidoscope of colors. Wait, colors?
She cautiously opened one eye - her good right eye - to a slit, peering through it with an amount of dread that was equaled only by her dizziness. What she saw was nothing extraordinary in itself, but still it shocked herself. She was in a normal enough room, but the walls, oh the walls! They were covered with colors, all kinds of colors, every shade! It hadn't been her vision blurring and distorting things; it was truly the walls of the room.
Usually, Elsa loved all the colors, no matter what combination they were in; after all, color is a wonderful thing! Would we want to live life without color? No, probably not. But these colors, there was something sickening in the whorls and writhing rainbows. Elsa could stand up to this visual torture no more; her body revolted and she was violently and spasmodically struck ill. The straps holding her down were suddenly loosened and completely released, allowing her to bend over the railings to vomit. A cleaning robot appeared and cleaned up the mess, leaving nothing of her sickness but the empty, horrid feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Even on the floor, though, there was no release of the vibrant, vibrating colors, and Elsa stumbled around the room, moaning and clutching her head. The colors were meant to evoke more than sickness; she could feel herself turning strangely numb, though she could still move perfectly. Her movements became jerky and she hurt herself more than once. There was no feeling anywhere in her body; she couldn't even feel the pain. Her eyes would not obey her, would not blink, would not move. She could only stare at the colors, still moving, still sickening.
A frighteningly insane laugh echoed around the room, and Elsa desperately tried again to move, to find where the sound came from. She could now see two shoes, neat and extravagantly 'barf' green resting in front of her eyes. An odd face, red, chubby, and with shiny, bulging eyes next came into view, as whoever it was knelt to stare into her eyes. The eyes, she realized dully, were not bulging, or shiny; they were goggles of some sort, and they were not being removed.
"Well, little human. Did you enjoy the lights? They're my own patent. Well, mine, and mine, I suppose you could say." Another laugh, more of an evil giggle this time. The voice was high, then low, then high again, as if the person speaking could not make up their mind on what pitch they wanted to speak in. It was somehow familiar, though; Elsa could have sworn she'd heard it before, and at home too. Only one, though, before Aly-
A gloved hand reached out, pulling her eyelids down and taping them shut, since they would not close and stay closed.
"Too bad you are so small. Ah well; with some special tweaks, you will be perfect. Your life is about to begin, little Elsa Blau."
Yayz, another chapter! Sorry it's so late, but...I haven't had a lot of time for writing lately. *evil laughter* Killer mood lights! Something along those lines, in case anyone was wondering. The plot just got a whole new awesome twist; I'm really enjoying writing it. Writing the whole 'Cross-Doppelganger' effect thing was fun. I know it doesn't 'exist', but hey, this is fanfiction world! Anything can happen! ^^ I love the idea, though; it might turn out even more confusing.
By the way, you want something confusing? Try being decided about being undecided while trying to decide on a decision with one two choices, which shouldn't be a big decision, but it is, because it's impossible to be truly undecided. Because when you're undecided, you've decided to be undecided. So therefore...
Yeah. Fun stuff. ^^
Oh, and if anyone's interested, the story Artemis Fowl: The Enigma Complex by Tamdiu is amazing! So if anyone's in search of a good, new fanfic, head over there, because it's got a lot of promise. :)
Anyhoo, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter!