Wow, y'all are good! CaptainS10 and I have some exciting news!
It took us all night, but we finally got BATB completed. Sadly to say, it stops at 48 chapters. But the ending made me cry...well, that's not really saying much...I cry at everything. But seriously, we finished around 1 in the morning last night.
Oh well, you guys are just getting closer to the big surprises at the end of BATB!
Root cleared his throat. "I hate interrupt your little moment here, but what the hell is going on? What was that about?"
Artemis looked up at the commander icily. "When was the last time you saw Trouble Kelp, Commander?"
Root's face turned beet red, and he didn't even merit that with an answer before shouting, "what did you do to him?!"
He took a threatening step towards the man, but Holly got up shakily and put herself in between them. She was crying again. "No! Don't! H- he didn't-"
Artemis stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder and standing up himself. "Trouble Kelp is dead. I killed him. But don't worry," he added with a grim smile, "I gave him a proper ritual. Not that he deserved it, but I did.." the smile faded quickly.
"You did what?!" the commander yelled. Instantly, he drew his gun and aimed it at the human, turning the settings up and clicking the safety off. "Why?" Root demanded, glaring at the human.
"He tried to kill us," Artemis said evenly, seeming not at all fazed by the weapon aimed at him or the commander's obvious anger. "And I do mean us, not me. He tried to kill Holly as well. If she didn't have the reflexes she did, she would be dead. And if I hadn't been practicing self-defense since Butler died, I would have been to." He paused, looking the commander in the eyes. "There was no other way, Julius, or I would have at least tried it; at the very least for Holly's sake. Trust me, the last thing I wanted was for her to have to watch me murder somebody in cold-blood, but I had no other option."
Julius glared at Artemis, keeping the gun held steady. He didn't move, and neither did Artemis. In fact, Holly was the one who started the action after that. She looked at Melissa, and the woman met her eyes. Holly looked at Root's gun hand, then to Artemis, then back to Melissa. Her eyes were red and pleading.
Melissa walked up and carefully placed a hand on Root's shoulder, shaking her head. At the same time, Holly moved closer to Artemis, put her arms around him, then whimpered and buried her head in his stomach. He sighed and gently hugged her back, bending slowly to kiss the top of her head. Root watched this scene cautiously, then lowered his gun and inhaled deeply.
"You know I have to tell the Council," he said quietly.
"No!" Holly yelped. All eyes turned to her. "You can't! They'll kill him!"
"He murdered somebody!" Root shot at her.
"He murdered a person who was trying to murder us!" she countered, releasing Artemis and turning to face her former boss. "I'd say two murders are worse than one; that's two lost lives. And you may be happy if Artemis died, but I wouldn't be. Not that it would matter, since I'd be dead too... I'm sure you'd be happy about that too!"
"Don't be ridiculous, Holly," Root said sharply. "Of course I don't want you dead. But him on the other hand... I could live with that."
"Who sounds like the cold-blooded killer now, Commander?" Artemis scoffed sarcastically. Holly shot him a warning look that clearly said 'shut up!'
"Artemis didn't do anything wrong," Holly insisted. "Trouble made the first move; it's not like Artemis hunted him down and kidnapped him like he did me! Trouble came to the manor and attacked us both first, and quite honestly; if I had gotten to him first, I probably would have killed him too." She glanced at Artemis and added softly, "though maybe I would have done it differently than him..."
"It doesn't matter!" Root growled. "He killed Kelp, someone has to be punished for it."
"Then punish me." Holly said quietly. "It was because of me that Trouble came in the first place, my fault that he went into the house…"
"No!" Artemis said, "I won't let you!" The human kneeled down, spinning the elf around so that she looked him in the eyes. He saw the pain and fear in them, and knowing that he had caused that...he couldn't bear with it.
"Artemis, they won't put me to death like the council will you. I might have to go to Atlantis, but it's better than being executed." Holly whispered quietly in a sad tone.
"I'll make you a deal, Fowl." Root's voice appeared behind Holly. "You let Holly go, I will make up a reasonable lie to how Kelp died. A solar flare, a faulty wingset, anything. I'll let you go free, but you have to give us Captain Short."
Artemis' brain was racked. He couldn't let Holly go, but if he didn't, then either him or her would be punished. He looked back up at Holly, who was glancing back from Root to Artemis.
"That's not up to me, Commander." Artemis said, looking into Holly's eyes, "That's her choice."
Holly gasped again. "My choice?"
Artemis nodded, "It's your life, Holly...In fact," He sighed, still gazing into Holly's eyes. "I release you from my control, I take back all of the orders I gave you in the past ten years...you're a free elf now."
It was quiet for a moment, before Holly shuddered, falling onto the ground like her legs had given up on her. A soft glow surrounded her, that made even Artemis stand up and step back. The glow grew until moments later, it shrank back, Holly still curled into the fetal position on the ground like before.
"Holly! Are you alright?" Artemis cried, cautiously going over to her. She lifted her head up, blinking rapidly.
"Y-Yeah, I think so." She answered truthfully as he helped her up.
"What happened?" Melissa asked, still next to The Commander.
"That was ten years of magic leaving her system." The unusually quiet centaur in the corner said, getting up and trotting over to where Melissa and Root were. "Magical orders to be exact."
Holly nodded, "I feel...strange. Like, I could do anything if I wanted to. I haven't felt like this in-"
"10 years?" Artemis finished, his tone reflecting his emotions: Guilty. The man sighed, closing his eyes briefly. Once he opened them, he looked up at Holly, reaching to stroke the side of her face gently. "You're free...go." He took his hand off of her face, pushing her towards the other three.
"I didn't say I wanted to go." Holly mumbled.
"You don't have to, I know you want to."
"Oh, really? Cause last time I checked…" The elf strode up to him, and grabbed the back of his head, threading her hand in his hair before crashing her lips to his. A moment later, she leaned away, her breath barely there as she whispered, "that didn't mean I wanted to leave you."
Artemis' eyes widened, "But, I thought-"
"You let me go, Artemis, out of your own free will and the kindness of your heart. I love you, and you just proved that I can trust you as well." The elf smiled sheepishly.
Artemis smiled back, grabbing her and pulling the elf to him in a hug.
"Ok, hate to break up this extremely gruesome moment…" Foaly said.
"Actually, I would love to break up this moment." Root snapped. "Captain, you cannot possibly think to actually go with this human! not after everything he's done to you, not after killing Trouble!"
Holly glanced at Artemis, who nudged her towards The Commander encouragingly. "Commander...Julius...I don't have a life here." She looked at her former boss in the eyes. "If I do stay, then I will have to hide from the council, being that you weren't suppose to interfere with Artemis after the siege. What will be my life then? A-And Trouble..." She took a deep breath to calm herself down. "Artemis was right, he attacked us first. It was all self defense or neither I nor he would be alive right now."
Root looked at his wife, her eyes wide and staring at Holly in shock. He turned back around, looking Holly over before asking, "Are you sure about this?"
"Yes." She stated simply.
The male elf sighed. "Alright. However, I want to hear from you at least once a week, understood?"
Holly nodded, "Understood."
She was about to turn back to Artemis when she remembered something. She looked at Root...and saluted one last time. The commander just shook his head at her, holding out his arms instead. Holly, shocked as she was by the action, stepped into his embrace as though she was a small child, Root's arms encircling her.
"Goodbye, Short." He murmured.
"Aww, Julius! you do have a heart!" Foaly sarcastically snarked.
Root straightened up, removing his arms from Holly as he glared at the centaur and snapped, "Quiet, Civilian." His face getting red with anger already.
Foaly just rolled his eyes, "I'm so scared!" He exclaimed sarcastically. He clopped over to Holly, putting his hairy hands on her shoulders. The centaur sighed, not sure what to say.
"You seem...happy." Holly said.
Foaly shook his head, "I'm not happy that you're leaving. I am, however, happy that you're happy."
Holly smiled sadly, "I'm going to miss you, Foaly." She said, going him a hug.
He scoffed, "What's to miss?"
The elf chuckled in his arms, "A lot. You know, my friend Caballine was asking about you. She's a big fan of your inventions. I think you two would get along great." She murmured.
He laughed as well, "You're trying to hook me up now?"
"Goodbye." the elf said, ignoring his comment. She slipped from her friend's grasp, turning to the only other female elf in the room.
Melissa smiled kindly. "It was nice getting to know you, Holly."
"You too." She returned the smile.
Suddenly, a thought changed Melissa's facial expression. She reached into her pocket saying, "I was originally here to give this to Julius to get to you. However, I suppose I won't need to do that anymore." She pulled out a small pendant, "You left this."
Holly gasped softly, reaching out and taking the item into her hands. "I was wondering what happened to this." She whispered, clutching the gold pin. It was her acorn pendant, symbolizing her LEP rank. In the rush of Artemis kidnapping her from Haven again, Melissa hadn't packed it for her. "Thank you." She graciously said, hugging the elf.
Melissa hugged Holly back. "You're welcome." She paused, taking a deep breath. "I know Julius nor I never said this, but over the ten years, we didn't just consider you as a friend...you were family."
Holly's eyes actually started tearing at her words. "I viewed you as family too. Ten years is a long time. Goodbye."
"Goodbye." Melissa repeated, letting Holly go. The elf went back to Artemis, who was patiently waiting while she said her goodbyes.
"Ready to go?" He asked.
Holly wiped her eyes, still teary after what Melissa had said. "Yeah."
Artemis turned and nodded to the other three before going to the other side of the room, to go pick up the Cam Foil.
However, before he could bend down and grab it, the Ops Booth door slid open, revealing at least 6 robed Councilmen.
970 GO!
You are lucky we're reaching my goal of 1000.