A/N: Okay, so here is the next chapter. Sorry it took me so long to update, spring break was absolutely disastrous to my writing schedule. But hopefully, the chapter will be worth the wait. Enjoy!
Why, Why Love
Chapter 20
Artemis, Trouble, and Chairman Lai all stood in the parlor, not knowing quite what to do.
"It is past the time limit," Trouble said after a few tense seconds.
"Why didn't Ross try to contact us again?" Chairman Lai wondered out loud.
"Trouble, try turning on the television again," Artemis said, pointing to the blank screen.
"I already told you that it wouldn't turn on," Trouble answered, trying to turn the TV back on nonetheless. Still nothing appeared on the screen.
"Maybe this means that the two girls found a way to escape," Chairman Lai said, trying to keep a positive attitude.
"Yes," Trouble said, agreeing quickly, "or maybe Ross had a change of heart. Why else would she decide not to contact us again?"
Artemis just stared blankly at the door. He knew that the other two were trying to be cheerful, but he couldn't bring himself to follow suit. How could he just pretend everything was alright if there was still a possibility that Sam could be in danger?
"But what do we do now?" Trouble asked, "is it okay for us to leave the room and find them?"
Just then, as though to answer his question, the parlor door burst open. All three men in the room swung their heads around quickly to see Holly hobbling into the room. Trouble gave off a loud cry and Artemis sunk to the ground in relief. It seemed as though they had manage to get out safely.
Holly ran into the room, followed by a very crazed looking Jin. Chairman Lai automatically ran up to his son. Holly, who had dragged Jin all the way to the parlor, collapsed in exhaustion near the door. Trouble started to run towards her, but was beaten by Artemis—who, despite his injured side and lack of athletic skill, ran rather quickly towards Holly.
"Holly," Artemis said, grabbing the small elf by her shoulders and shaking her, "where is she?"
Holly looked up at Artemis and the boy could see everything in her expression. He slumped down a little, his grip on Holly's shoulders tightening.
"Artemis…" the elf began, not quite knowing what to say. She could tell that he already figured what happened, and she didn't want to say it out loud.
Artemis just stared at the ground, not knowing what to think. All the signs—Holly's face, the fact that Jin was sobbing, Sam's absence, all of it showed without a doubt that the tiny girl was gone. But, for the first time in his life Artemis didn't want to believe logic and calculated reasoning. For the first time he just wanted a miracle.
"You saved her, right?" Artemis asked, looking up at the elf, "you managed to save my father who everybody thought to be dead. You saved Sam too, right?"
Holly bit her lip. She knew that Artemis would be devastated by the news, but she had never expected him to go into denial. She always thought the boy was much to logical for that.
"She probably went to go check on Jin's mother and brother, right?" Artemis asked, looking around, laughing bitterly, "she would do something stupid like that and scare me."
"Sam didn't go to check on Jin's family," Holly whispered softly. Trouble stood a few feet back from the pair, observing the scene. He wrung his hands behind his back, not knowing quite what to do. He could see that Holly was physically and mentally exhausted, but he also could see that Artemis needed comfort and understanding right now, and Holly was the only person in the room close enough to him to provide them.
"Then did she go to find Killian?" Artemis asked, "Probably went to forgive him, even though he was a traitor. That girl could never stay angry at anybody for long."
Holly pinched the bridge of her nose knowing that she had to say something in order to stop Artemis' denial. After all, what happened had happened, and it had to be said eventually.
"Artemis, I am sorry," Holy said shortly. Artemis' grip on her shoulders tightened even more and Holly winced in pain.
"How?" the boy finally asked after a minute of tense silence. His voice sounded strained.
"Sam pushed me into the safe box and tripped the bomb on purpose," Holly said. Artemis let out a groan.
"That was our decision to make!" he growled, "Why did she have to make it herself?"
"She didn't want you to pick her to live," Holy said softly, "she seemed to think that it would be dangerous if I died".
Artemis stood still for a moment before turning towards Trouble and fixing him with a murderous stare. The elf, who had heard of Artemis' cold side backed away slightly, taken aback by the absolute fire in the boys' eyes.
"It is your fault, isn't it?' Artemis asked Trouble. The shocked elf pointed to himself in confusion.
"My fault?" he asked.
"You were the one that spurted out the nonsense about all of Haven being in danger if Holy was the one who died," he said, getting up.
"Artemis," Holy said, quickly holding on to the boy, who looked as though he was about to murder Trouble, "the only one at fault here was Ross".
"Where is she?" Artemis growled, turning around, "where is that vamp? I swear that she won't get away".
"She's dead," Jin said, his sobs reduced to a point where he could actually speak.
"Dead?" Artemis asked. Jin nodded.
"Sam blew up Ross along with herself," Jin said.
"That was another reason why se decided to sacrifice herself," Holy added in.
"Stop saying that," Artemis said, he didn't want to hear that Sam was dead. If he didn't hear it, he could still pretend that it wasn't true.
"Killian was in there as well when Sam triggered the explosive," Jin said, "he jumped in to try to save her but…" The boy erupted into fresh sobs before he was able to finish his sentence, but the meaning was obvious. Killian had tried to save Sam, but he had been too late.
Artemis just stood where he was, unmoving, his face completely impassive and unreadable. Holly and Trouble looked up at him with bated breaths, not knowing what the boy was going to do.
"Artemis…" Holly said, hoping to elicit some response from the boy; but he just continued to stand where he was.
What had gone wrong? He wondered to himself, when had Sam and I started lying to each other? Sam promised me that she would never leave my side, and now she is gone. And I promised Sam that I would find her wherever she went, and now she is in a place where I can't find her.
Artemis finally moved, turning his head towards Trouble. He lamely lifted up one arm and pointed it to the gun that the elf had strapped to his side. Trouble backed up a little in case Artemis decided to steal the gun and go on some murderous spree.
"Trouble," Artemis whispered, "do something for me".
"What do you want me to do?" Trouble asked, still wary.
"Shoot me once with that," Artemis said, waving towards the gun again. Holly gasped up at the boy.
"Artemis, one shot with that would kill you. You should know that," she said.
"I know," Artemis said simply, "shoot me".
"I know that you aren't in a right frame of mind right now, so we are just going to pretend that you never said such a ridiculous thing," Trouble said.
"I was stupid and careless, so Sam wasn't able to keep her promise to me," Artemis said, "but I need to keep mine to her".
"Your promise?" Holly asked, confused. Artemis closed his eyes.
"What if something happens before you arrive in Taiwan? Killian said that Chairman Lai is a ruthless man," Sam asked, looking up at him with her huge emerald eyes. He felt his mouth tug unto a smile, something he only happened around her. She had that effect on him.
"Luckily for you, you have a smart boyfriend," he whispered to her, "no matter what happens, I will always be able to find you"
Sam smiled up at him, her whole face lighting up, and then rested her small head against his chest. He had almost sighed; the whole situation just felt that right. He knew then that Sam's place was exactly where she said it was, by his side—and he had to make sure that she always stayed there.
"I told Sam something before we came here," Artemis said, looking at Holy with absolutely hollow eyes, "and I need to follow through with it. Shoot me."
"Artemis, we are not going to shoot you," Holly said, "that is not the proper way to deal with this". Artemis looked down and Holly noted with surprise that the boy was shaking slightly. Suddenly, Artemis fell to his knees in front of the two elves.
"Please," he said, voice sounding more choked, "I am begging you. Shoot me"
Holly looked at Artemis, mouth open in a wide gape. Never in her life would she have ever imagined the prideful, distant Artemis begging to anybody—and on his knees at that. The Artemis that existed before Sam came into the picture would never have been caught dead on his knees in front of anything.
"Shoot me so that I can find her," Artemis continued, his voice becoming barely audible, "I told her that I would find her".
Even Trouble, who had not only seen just about every tragedy possible in his years in the force but also didn't like Artemis Fowl much, felt himself brought close to tears at the hopeless sound of the boy's voice.
"Artemis, Sam wouldn't have wanted this," Trouble said. Artemis looked up at the elf with a wild expression.
"How do you know that?" the boy asked, almost violently, "do you know anything about her? Do you know how naive, stupid, brash, and annoying she is? And how adorable she is because of all of that? Do you know that she taps her fingers when she gets nervous or that she has a pigheaded sense of bravery? Or do you know that she is the only person in the world that can make me say cheesy things like this?"
"I…." Trouble stuttered, taken aback by the sudden outburst.
"Do you know that she promised to never leave my side?" Artemis continued, "and I told her that I would find her no matter where she went."
"Artemis, Sam sacrificed herself so that all of us would be safe," Holy said, "that is what she wanted when she died".
"I…" Artemis said, the tears that had never rolled down his face since he was an infant falling, "I never did anything for her. She always did things for me, but never once did I do something for her. Let me do this. Let me keep my promise. It is all that I can do for her now".
Holly looked at the boy, startled by his tears and by his show of emotion, both things unheard of when it came to Artemis Fowl. It was so out of character for him that Holly was uncertain that she was looking at the same person who she had known before.
"I'm not," Holy whispered, "I am not looking at the same Artemis Fowl that I met months ago in the LEP cottage, am I?" Artemis just looked up at her and shook his head. That cold and unfeeling Artemis had been changed by Sam, and now that she was gone, he was worried that he would slip back into that person and forget the girl completely. In the past whenever he had faced something negative that he couldn't fix he just chose to ignore it. He didn't want to do that again.
Holly nodded and unholstered a gun from her belt, raising it and aiming it towards Artemis.
"What are you doing?" Jin cried out. He had been watching the whole scene in shock and wonder, amazed by how much Artemis cared for Sam and how different he was from the distant boy that everybody at SB knew. Jin hadn't commented the whole time, but now seeing Holly with a gun, he couldn't suppress his outbursts any longer.
"He needs this," Holly said, pulling the trigger of the gun. Jin gave out a cry and Artemis slumped to the ground.
"How could you do that?" Jin cried, "even though Artemis begged you, you know that Sam wouldn't have wanted him to die because of her! Do you know how guilty she would feel because of this? How could you be so easily influenced by his words?"
"Relax," Holly said, walking up over to Artemis, "it is just a stunning dart. What the boy needs right now is a lot of rest and some time to get over the immediate shock".
Jin just nodded and collapsed on the floor, completely exhausted. He felt like he needed one of those stunning darts as well. Holly looked over at the boy, mind racing. They needed to get him a mind wipe quickly. Jin was a sweet boy, but there was little chance that he would ever keep the existence of faeries a secret.
"Trouble," she said, turning to the elf next to her, "call Foaly. Tell him we need a mind wipe and a plane to take both boys back to their school".
Holy looked back down at Artemis. She was tempted to mindwipe the genius boy as well, but she knew that it would be useless. Some emotions and occurrences were too strong to ever be wiped from the mind, no matter how advanced the machines were.
"I am sorry, Artemis," she said. The boy's life had never been an easy one, and now that he was going through another hardship Holly didn't have any idea how to help him.
The fire blazed on in the racquetball court, and it was absolutely stifling under the fireproof blanket that Killian had gotten from fire shed.
"We're not much better off under this thing, are we?" Killian asked, looking down at the small girl underneath him. He had thrown himself at Sam and covered them both with the blanket just before the explosive went off.
Killian was met by silence and he looked down, to see Sam completely unconscious.
"She must be inhaling too much smoke," Killian said in a sudden worried voice. Slowly, the vamp started to scoot out of the court, making sure that the blanket stayed firmly secured over them. He placed a hand near Sam's face, fanning away all the smoke that was entering through the blanket. It would be his fault if the girl died, and he could never life with that type of guilt.
Slowly and labouredly, Killian managed to ease the two of them out of the court room and into relative safety. He threw the blanket off of them, drinking in the cool, fresh air of the hallway outside of the room. Never before had room temperature air seemed to wonderful.
He then quickly turned towards Sam, who was still unconscious. He could see her skin begin to turn ashy.
"How much smoke did you breathe in?" Killian asked, worriedly. The small girl did not look like she was in good shape at all. If the vamp didn't do something quickly, then the girl would surely die.
Sighing deeply, Killian closed his eyes, knowing what he had to do. Over the years him and Ross had grown a steady hatred towards faeries, up until the point where they tried everything possible to become humans. To use magic was something that became repulsive to them, but Killian knew that he had to use some in order to heal Sam. The thought of using magic almost made the vamp physically ill, but when he looked at Sam's face, which was progressively getting paler, he knew that if he didn't act soon then she would pass away.
Breathing in deeply, Killian summoned up the magic that he hadn't used in countless years. He felt a slight surge through his veins and placed his hands on Sam. A few blue sparks played out of his fingers and went into Sam's limp body, but not nearly enough to heal her completely. Killian groaned, all the years of nonuse had drained his magic.
"I need to do the ritual," Killian said, disbelievingly. His magic had been enough to put Sam in a stable state, but in order for the girl to regain her consciousness, he would have to perform the ritual. He sighed and grabbed the girl's listless body.
"The things I am doing for you," Killian said, shaking her head. But this was his choice. He had chosen Sam over his sister, and now he would have to take care of her no matter what.
With his sister, and therefore all of his connections, gone, it took Killian quite a while to find a mode of transportation to a sight where he could get an acorn and perform the ritual. It was especially hard, since he was carrying around a girl's unconscious body around with him everywhere, and people were usually very wary of that fact.
Finally, Killian made his way to Tara, where he got an acorn and did the ritual. He actually threw up when he felt the magic coursing through him, but he decided to deal with his repulsion for long enough to deal with Sam. He slowly brought the girl up to him and placed his hands on her. Almost immediately, he felt his magic starting to transfer to the girl's body—and it was such a great feeling that the vamp actually started to cry.
The vamp closed his eyes, letting the tears of joy flow out, enjoying the feeling of the revolting magic leaving his body slowly.
"Killian, are you that happy to see me?"
Killian opened his eyes and looked at down, finding two emerald eyes staring back at him. The vamp let out a groan of relief and pulled the small girl up to him, embracing her tightly.
The move surprised Sam, but she was too tired and too sore to really fight back.
"You're alive," the vamp said, his voice faint with relief, "I was afraid that you wouldn't make it"
"What do you mean?" Sam asked, looking around at the he oak tree, the beautiful rolling fields of grass, the crystal clear pond near them, "aren't we in heaven right now?"
"Heaven?" Killian asked in surprise.
"I am not surprised that heaven looks so much like Ireland," Sam said, leaning back. After all, it was the place where the girl had been the most happiest. She looked up at Killian.
"In all the books, people in heaven can look down on people who are still on Earth," Sam said, crawling over to the pond, "do you think that is true? Do you think that I can see Artemis?"
Killian just shook his head, the girl thought that she had died and gone to heaven and the first thing she was worried about was Artemis.
"You can see Artemis anytime you want," Killian answered. Sam turned to him, a smile spreading across her face.
"Really? How could I do that? Can I talk to him? They always say things like the dead can appear in dreams," she said, speaking rapid fire. Killian sighed.
"We are actually not that far away from Artemis right now," Killian said, looking at the girl with raised eyebrows, "if you want, we can take a plane and reach him in half an hour".
"A plane?" Sam asked, confused, "what are you talking about?"
"We are not dead, Sam," Killian said, "and we are not in Heaven. We are in Tara… Ireland"
"Ireland?" Sam asked, looking around, "stop joking around with me, Killian".
"I am not," the vamp sighed.
"But how could we be alive? I saw you jump into the room as soon as I triggered the bomb. There is no way that we could have survived that explosion. Plus, even if we had, we would still be in Taiwan, not in Ireland," Sam said.
"Has anybody ever told you that you speak entirely too much?" Killian asked the girl.
"I wouldn't speak so much if you weren't so confusing," Sam answered. Killian leaned back against the large oak tree.
"Right before Jin and I had gone to the court, we made a stop at his fire shed so that I could pick up a fireproof blanket. Our plan was give it to you and Holly so that you could use it to shield yourself incase Ross deiced to set of the explosive," Killian said, "but you had to go and act like a hero and mess up our plans. So I was forced to jump in the court and shield the both of us before the bomb went off".
"So you covered us with the fireproof blanket?" Sam asked Killian. The vamp just nodded.
"And then what?" Sam asked, "why are we in Ireland?"
"You inhaled too much smoke while I was trying to get us out of the fire and almost died… again. So I had to save you… again. I didn't have enough magic to heal you, so I had to come here to get more".
"So we really aren't dead?" Sam asked. Killian nodded his head.
"And right now we are in Ireland, not heaven," she continued. Killian nodded his head again. A wide smile crossed the girl's face, lighting it up.
"And right now we are only thirty minutes away from Artemis?" she asked. Killian smiled despite himself and nodded. Sam gave out a cry and launched herself at Killian, hugging him tightly.
"We're alive!" she cried, happily, looking at the vamp, "let's go back to SB, okay?"
"You could at least say thank you for all the trouble I went through for you," Killian said. Sam made a face at him.
"After all the lying you did, I don't think I owe you anything" she said.
"That might be the first logical thing that you have ever said," Killian said, shaking his head, "Let's get going".
Sam detached herself from Killian and looked out, the smile unable to leave her face.
"Artemis I am coming back where I belong" she whispered, happily.
A/N: Alright, so I was planning on ending the story like this, but rereading it, I decided that it might not be the most satisfying of endings. So I decided to write one more chapter. The next chapter will be the last one in the story, and I promise that I will post it up much quicker that I posted this one.
I hope that you enjoyed this chapter, though. As always, I would love to hear any thoughts you might have! Gracias y besos!!