Artemis Fowl: Opal's Revenge Chapter Twelve

"Home sweet home," sighed Opal, back in Artemis body. She was back where she had started, and had used up far too much magic. She would have to wait, again, for it to rebuild. Next time, she would make sure she killed everyone around her.

Artemis fell on his bottom in the grass. "No," he muttered.

Butler blinked. "I think she's gone."

"She's back in me!" said Artemis.

"Are you both okay?" asked Holly. "I'm sorry I shot you."

"I'm sorry I tooted in your face," said Mulch, although toot was an understatement, and he didn't really sound that sorry.

"Yeah, well, good thing you did, huh?" replied Butler, sitting up. "You're Mother is okay, Artemis."

Artemis looked up. "But-I-"

"No1 revived her, and we sent her back to the Dunphee's," said Holly. "She's fine, really. No1 will recover from the shots, in a bit."

Tears came to Artemis's eyes. "Thank the Lord," he whispered.

Artemis sat still in the grass, Opal sighing and muttering to herself in his head. He was so grateful to No1 for saving his mother's life. If she hadn't been brought back, he probably would have went crazy like earlier. He couldn't do that again. Lives depended on him being level and collected. He needed to be hard now. It was time to end things. He carefully kept his mind blank.

"The only one who'll be ending things is me, Mud Brat," hissed Opal. "So just sit tight."

"Holly, I need to go back to my lab," said Artemis. "And we need to carry No1 in, let him rest up while the magic heals the bullet wounds."

Holly nodded. "Okay."

"I'm so sorry about the acid," said Artemis, running a hand through his hair. "I should have known better than to have it around."

"Don't apologize," said Holly. "It wasn't you. Let's just focus on getting rid of Opal."

In his head, Opal made a noise of derision. "As if."

Butler carried No1 in the house and they set him in a guest bedroom to rest. Artemis got a pair of tweezers and carefully extracted the bullets from the wounds, to speed the healing.

"Good bye old friend," said Artemis, quietly so no one could hear him, sticking the last bullet in a glass container on the bedside table.

"He's not going to die," said Opal. "Don't get all sappy on me now."

Artemis carefully thought of other things.

He went back to his lab and tinkered with some chemicals. Mulch went downstairs to raid the refrigerator, as usual.

"What are you hoping to do with all that?" asked Holly, looking at him quizzically.

"Just ideas," muttered Artemis.

He put together some chemicals, carefully thinking of other things than what he was actually doing, to keep Opal distracted. With nothing more than to wait for her magic to rebuild, she would be paying attention to Artemis's thoughts.

The chemicals he mixed together were lethal. He had accidentally created a combination that would cause a human's blood pressure to rise up high, and then cause a heart attack. He had created it some time ago, before the whole he had gotten the Atlantis Complex, and Beckett, who had somehow caught a rat in the barn, let it loose in the lab, when he had been playing in there. Beckett hadn't been watching his new "pet" and had been digging through some of Artemis's notes, looking for pages that looked good to color on. Artemis had been focused on something in his Power book, and hadn't noticed the mouse tip over the small vial of chemicals, and drink a bit. Next thing he knew Beckett was bawling his eyes out, babbling incoherently. Artemis had turned around and seen the rat near the end of the table, twitching, dead. It hadn't gotten far. Artemis did some tests on it and figured out the cause of death had been a heart attack. He had almost scolded his little brother for bringing a stray rodent into the lab, but seeing how upset Becket had been, he refrained.

"It's okay," he'd told Beckett. "It was accident."

"He was my fwend!" Beckett had bawled, a great wad of snot hanging out his nose. Artemis handed him a tissue.

"Blow your nose," he told him. "Rats found in the barn are not meant to be pets. They carry diseases and can bite you."

"Bucky didn't bite me," blubbered Beckett.

"Still, no rats from the barn," Artemis said. "If you want a pet, maybe Mother or Father will take you to the pet shop and get you a real one, sometime, okay?" And he had sent his brother downstairs.

Artemis kept his mind off what he was doing, make it seem like he was just mixing random stuff together.

"Holly, could you get me something to eat?" he asked her. "I'm actually feeling something to a little hungry. Butler, could you check on No1 and then go help Holly. I need some time to think and some food." Butler nodded and left the room.

"Sure," said Holly. "What would you like?"

"Whatever Mulch hasn't decimated," replied Artemis. Holly let out a small laugh and left the room. He wished he could have some caviar.

Artemis opened a drawer and took out the bottle of his mothers sleeping pills. He twisted the lid off and looked inside. He realized there were only a couple inside, not enough to overdose on. Holly had flushed the rest and he had used some earlier times in experiments. If he was going to do this, he needed to be sure it would work. The two sleeping pills alone would not kill him, but hopefully make his death not so painful, when the potion caused the heart attack.

He popped them in mouth.

"What are you doing?" said Opal suddenly. "What are those?"

"Goodbye Opal," he said.

He took the container and swigged down all the liquid inside. The pills went down and so did the slightly sweetish concoction he'd made.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" screeched Opal. "YOU'LL KILL US BOTH! NOT JUST ME!"

"I know," said Artemis. "It's the only way."

"NO! NO!" shrieked Opal, sounding like she was completely losing it. "HOW COULD YOU! I WAITED MONTHES FOR A BODY, AND YOU WAITED MONTHES! YOU CAN'T KILL US BOTH! I WON'T HAVE IT!"

"Doesn't matter what you will or won't have," said Artemis. He felt calm and relaxed. The sleeping pills were already starting to work. Plus, he felt better now that his friends and family were safe.

"Funny," he thought to himself. "I'm the only teenager to die and come back to life in a clone, only to commit suicide later. How ironic…"

He knew his blood pressure was rising. It felt weird for it to be going up, and yet feel relaxed from the pills. Opal, having a total meltdown, took over and made him throw the container on the floor.

He only regretted not getting to say goodbye to Holly and the others. Butler would be devasted. His parents would come back and find their eldest son dead, again. His brothers would come back and never see him again. They would cry, to have lost him yet again in such a short amount of time. There would be no coming back this time…

"It's the only way," he muttered to himself.