10: Hey everyone! 7's back! XD
7: Yeah, cuz you know...missed this hell hole-I mean, glorious place so much! Haha!
10: *glares* Okay. . . so let's just do the disclaimer, if this is so painful. . .
7: Hehehe, fine...Umm….how do these go again? *scratches head in confusion*
10: Ugh. . . *looks at readers* I suppose I'll have to reteach all this later. . . *frowns* Grr. . .well, at least it will give me something to get my head out. . . I mean, off, Ibara. . . *face palms* Anyhow. . .We don't own AF! . . . there, that's done. . . . XD
7: Ibara? And THAT'S what a disclaimer is...I was seriously worried that it was where we kill someone for the gods… *looks up at sky and pushes 10 forward*
10: *glares at 7* ugh, whatever. Can't die anyways. *grins evilly, then looks at readers* Also, since I referenced it (though it has nothing to do with this story) I don't own Pendragon either. Though it is awesome. . . Now. . . time to flume away. . .
7: Stop showing off your disclaimer skills….
10: *sticks tongue out* Make me! *flumes away* :P *pokes head back in* oh yeah. . . enjoy the story! *winks and flumes out again, snickering*
"What makes you so sure this has something to do with Fowl?" Root asked, a few hours later. They had Holly discharged from the hospital and at home, resting. That's where she was now, while Mercedes, Root, and Foaly were all in the Ops Booth. Foaly was working furiously at the computer now, hacking Fowl's files and checking all of his projects to see if he could find anything that could match what was wrong with Holly.
"What else could it be? It wasn't anything that I came up with, it's nothing she's allergic to... What other options are there?"
Mercedes frowned. "But wasn't Fowl mind wiped?"
"Yes," they answered in unison. "However," Foaly added, "you have to remember how many times Fowl had Holly in his control. He could have done something behind the scenes before the mind wipe, that we never knew about, to her."
She nodded thoughtfully. "If it turns out to be him though, what do we do? Artemis has no memories, but if it's his drug, then no doubt he'll have the cure. How do we get it from him?"
Foaly's fingers slowly slightly on the keyboard as he thought about it. He and Root exchanged a glance. "I guess she has to go up and get it from him," Foaly said, shrugging. "We'll just have to try to make sure nothing bad happens. I know it isn't exactly safe, but what do we do? We have to try. If we don't, then Holly will die sooner or later. I suppose if his memories come back we'll just have to mind wipe him again."
"How in Frond's name are we going to get him to agree to another mind wipe?" Root demanded. "I know where you're coming from, but if his memories come back, then it's another lost battle. We can't really, legally, force him to get another wipe."
He sighed. "Perhaps not. But think about it this way, Commander: if his memories do come back, maybe we can't force him to get another wipe, but if anybody can convince him to keep the People a secret still, it's Holly."
Root chewed that over for a minute, then nodded slowly. "I suppose so," he agreed. "Fowl always did seem to have a soft spot for my captain."
"When do we go?"
Everybody turned to look at the corporal. "What do you mean, we?"
"I mean we," Mercedes said firmly. "You can't send Holly up there by herself! What if she has another fit like this morning's? She can't be alone for that. Especially if something happens in front of Fowl. How is she going to explain herself if she's writhing in pain?"
There was a moment's collective silence here. "She has a point," Foaly said.
Root scowled, but nodded. "Alright, Corporal. You can go with Holly to talk to Fowl. But I want both of you to have high security, and you have to be very, very careful. Fowl is not a force to be reckoned with or taken lightly, especially if he's back to the way he was when he first made contact. Got it?"
The corporal nodded. "Yessir. I understand." She paused. "When do we go?"
"Go gather up some visas and equipment," Root said. "By the time Holly wakes we'll have the shuttle ready for you."
Holly woke not even an hour later. Mercedes and Root were waiting for her.
"Scott?" Holly murmured, blinking a few times as she propped herself up in the bed. She blinked a few more times on noticing Root, making sure she was seeing correctly. "Commander? What are you doing here?"
"Giving you your mission," he answered, standing up. "I'm sending you and Corporal Scott to the surface, Holly. She has everything you'll need to-"
"The surface?" Holly interrupted, still slightly groggy. "Why? What's on the surface?"
"Fowl Manor," Root said grimly. "And your cure."
Three hours later:
As they flew over the dark Dublin sky, Holly sighed and murmured for the third time, "I still don't understand how you managed to convince the commander to let us do this."
Mercedes sighed. "Holly. I've explained this three times. I'm not doing it again. Even if I was going to try, we don't have time. Look." She pointed ahead and as Holly looked forward, she saw for the first time in several years the dark outline of Fowl Manor looming against the horizon. "Ready?" she asked, looking at her.
"I suppose," Holly murmured. "I just want to get this over with."
The corporal rubbed her shoulder gently. "I know, Holls. And we'll get through it. Somehow.."
Holly smiled weakly at her friend. "You know, Corporal, you're not great with comfort."
Mercedes laughed. "Perhaps not. But still.. I'm serious. We'll find a way to get through it. You'll get your cure, one way or another."
Holly nodded. "I believe you."
They flew the rest of the way in silence.
"How do we get in?" Mercedes asked, as they hovered over the roof of Fowl Manor.
"I still have an invitation," Holly answered. "At least I think I do. He never took it back, but with it being so long and him not even remembering us, I don't know whether it counts or not."
"I don't either, but I guess we'll found out, won't we?" she said, winking at her.
Holly rolled her eyes. "Thanks a lot," she said sarcastically, and then flew down to look for an open window.
After a few minutes inspection, she found one. Internally, she cheered, glad to be able to get out of the cold Irish wind - until she realized where the room led. "Ugh. It's Artemis's bedroom."
"Who cares? We won't be in there for long anyhow." She pushed her friend closer to the window. "Go on."
Holly sighed and nodded, ducking low and flying through the window - and then crying out in pain and collapsing on her knees.
"Holly! Are you alright? Are you getting sick?" Mercedes called, hovering by the window. She still couldn't come in.
"The invitation... It still stands..." Holly gasped, her hands clutching her knee. "My knee hurts now..."
"D'Arvit," she swore. "Holly... I can't do anything out here. I need an invitation."
"I - ahhhhh," Holly cried out. She lifted her hands from her knee, and they were bloody. "My knee... A new hole opened up.."
"I know... I'd heal it if I could, but if I come in I'll get sick." She paused, looking around the room for anything that could be taken as an invitation and sighing in frustration when she couldn't. "And there's nothing in here I can take as an invitation," she narrated irritably.
"How about a direct invite from me?" a cool voice asked, and they both looked up to see Artemis Fowl the second standing in the doorway, arms crossed as he stared at them. His deep blue eyes flicked from the elf on his floor, to the one hovering just outside his window and back again. Then his eyes locked on Holly, and, without removing his eyes from her, he spoke again. "Come in and sit on the floor beside your friend," he ordered, walking over to kneel beside Holly. Taking a pocket knife out of the dark wool jacket he wore, he flicked it open and waved it at Mercedes as he careful pulled Holly up from the floor. "And don't even think about drawing a weapon, or I'll stab her before you could blink."
Mercedes raised her hands as she walked over and slowly got down on her knees on the opposite side of Holly. "No weapons. Promise. I mean... I have them, but I won't use them. Just don't hurt Holly."
"Hm. Perhaps. Butler!" The giant manservant appeared at the door in less than a minute. "Take her to the lab and figure out why she's bleeding. Patch her up and then report back to me." He pushed Holly towards him, and Butler caught her with one hand, lifting her up and hoisting her over his shoulder. Artemis looked at Mercedes. "I'm going to deal with her."
"Yessir."
Then Butler turned and disappeared, and Artemis looked at her and ordered, "my bed. Sit."
The elf complied, and Artemis walked over and perched beside her, leaving a good foot and a half space. "Now," he said, leaning back and rubbing his hands together, "start talking."
Butler carried Holly quickly and quietly into the lab, taking her wigs off and laying her down on one of the metal tables and cuffing her arms and legs down. She protested weakly, but by now she was only half conscious and more than a little scared as she struggled to stay conscious. A loosing battle, she already knew, but she tried anyhow. However, she shut up when Butler gave her a look, and passed out soon after.
After a few minutes, Butler found the hole in her knee. Pulling her pants leg up, he carefully cleaned the wound and bandaged it, then turned his attention to the woman herself and her dangers, not the danger she was in.
He patted her down and came up with a bunch of high tech looking weapons and objects: a gun, a buzz baton, a roll of some kind of foil (which he almost missed because it blended in with her suit), and a helmet. All of these joined her wings in a pile on the floor.
It was around this time that Artemis came in. He dumped Mercedes's equipment in the pile with Holly's and looked at Butler. "Well?"
"Her knee was gushing. There was a hole, about the size a small bullet might make if she were shot, but there was no bullet inside and no other holes that suggest an exit point."
Artemis nodded thoughtfully. "It is possible she removed it, but not likely... When do you think she'll wake?"
"Soon," Butler admitted. "I think it was mostly pain and blood loss that did it, so it shouldn't be too long."
"Good. I'll grill her for information next. Perhaps I'll be a little more successful with her."
"What did the other one say?"
"A bunch of things," Artemis sighed. "A bunch of lies, to be sure. However, I do not believe she is in charge out of the two, and she was rather winging it because she wasn't sure how to answer." He paused. "She babbled so much it was rather painful to try to keep up. Told me a bunch of nonsense about fairies and magic and some kind of adventures..." Dismayed, he shook his head. "Too fantastical to be real, in my opinion."
Holly, who was slowly surfacing into awareness during this conversation and had heard all of it, mumbled a weak protest at that. "She wasn't lying. And it wasn't nonsense."
Both Artemis and Butler's eyes snapped to her at that. "Oh really? And I am just supposed to believe that?" Artemis demanded.
"I can prove it," Holly croaked. "I just... Not in this state."
Head cocked thoughtfully, Artemis walked over and released her hands and feet from the cuffs. As she went to sit up, Butler moved to block Artemis, but the man merely waved him away. Holly rolled her eyes and muttered, "yeah right. Like I would hurt the Mud Boy after I fought so hard to keep him alive."
It wasn't really meant to be heard by him, but Artemis still caught it. "Really? Strange, because I don't even remember you," he drawled, his homeland accent thick in his words. "Or was that another lie?"
"None of it is lies," Holly snapped, trying to ignore how alluring she found it when he spoke like that. "I-I can't prove the magic thing myself, as I don't have a drop in me at the moment. Mercedes can, but I can't. As for the fairy part.." She hesitated, then sighed. "Give me your hand."
"Why?" Artemis asked, but nevertheless extended his arm with his hand palm-up. Holly took it, licking her lips as she carefully slid it up the side of her face and beneath her hair until he felt the ridge of her pointed ear.
"Because," Holly said softly, lowering her eyes as she released his hand, "Root is probably going to kill me for letting this go so awry anyways."
Surprise flitted across his features as he instantly stepped forward and pressed her back down on the metal table again. Leaning down, so close they could feel each other's breaths, he pushed her hair back to get a better look at her ear. "Interesting... Is this a natural thing?"
"It's a fairy thing," Holly answered. "All fairies have pointy ears, unless they're altered surgically to be rounded. So, I suppose, yes, it is natural."
"Hm..." He straightened up, pulling her up as well. "Perhaps, then, this fairy business may be true. How about the magic thing? And the supposed adventures?"
"The term I would use would be suicide missions, not adventures," Holly groaned, rubbing her face. And then, too low for him to hear, "I have no idea how explain this without bringing back the memories..."
Artemis took this differently than Holly did. To him it looked like she was rubbing her eyes because she was tired, and when he realized this he frowned at himself. "I suppose you're probably tired," he muttered. "I suppose this can wait a while. Butler, go put her in one of the basement cells next to her friend for a bit. We'll continue this later," he told Holly, his eyes flicking back to her as he stepped back.
"Oh, wow. Here we go again," Holly muttered to his retreating back. "Back to the basement I go."