We followed Short's instructions on getting to where Fowl was. It was a room that was one level above us. But as we arrived, we heard he was talking to Butler. Saya stopped us both from going on any further. Merlin was about to say something, but Saya pressed her hand on his mouth before he could. With that, we listened in on what they were saying.
"Your family is safe." Butler said, "You know that."
"I know." was the reply, "I put them to sleep myself, while the People froze time."
"And I can't thank you enough for doing the same to my sister." Butler said.
"But that's not what I'm worried about." Fowl continued, uninterrupted.
"You fear for the bride." Butler realized.
"Normally I'd ask if it's that obvious." Fowl replied.
What sounded like a chuckle came from Butler: "Normal is a word you stopped using ever since you decided to kidnap an elf."
I could tell that Merlin was shocked to hear that. He must have realized just as I did why Fowl was so surprised that we didn't know who he was, and why we should know it.
"And the world only became stranger and stranger ever since." Fowl added, "It makes a wedding seem like the most normal thing I've done in ages. Of course I'm worried it would end tragically."
"She is doing exactly what is expected of her." Butler told him, "Knowing her, she would be in a worse mood if she didn't. It would ruin the wedding before it officially started.
"Uh-hum!" someone coughed, "Will you two be done brooding by the time your guests arrive?"
"Someone needs to teach you the concept of privacy, Foaly." Fowl replied.
Saya looked at Merlin. She raised her hand, as if to say "Shall we?" and Merlin nodded. With that, the three of us walked into the room.
I wasn't sure of what I was looking at. The room had no lights, at least none that were switched on. The only light that was visible came from the screens, of which there were a lot. When I looked at them, all I saw was static. Why would Fowl be watching static? Only two screens were functioning. One was a computer screen, which had a picture of some mansion on it, while the other showed a man, wearing a tuxedo suit as well.
"Oh, there they are." the man on the screen said.
Both Fowl and Butler (who stood towering over Fowl) turned to look at us.
"So that's Foaly?" Merlin asked, "Nice to finally see you."
"Is Murphy with you?" Saya asked him.
"Certainly!" he replied, "He's right here."
Foaly walked away from the screen and... I couldn't believe what I saw. His uper body was that of a man, but his legs were replaced with the entire body of a horse (minus its head).
"Nice! A centaur!" Merlin was more enthused by this than I was.
"Flattery won't get you anywhere." Foaly replied.
Saya, however looked beyond that: "Murphy?"
I saw him then, too. He was somewhere in the background, hooked onto some wires, which almost him seem like he was part of the machines that were in the room. Which was probably why I didn't notice him at first.
"Good evening, Saya." Murphy replied, "I see they've let you out after all."
"When will you be done exchanging hellos and goodbyes?" Fowl asked.
This made all three of us turn to Fowl. Merlin spoke: "Major Short told us you had something for us?"
Fowl motioned to Butler, who then picked something up from Fowl's desk, then held it in front of us. He held three little machines, which reminded me of earpieces, but it was unlike anything I had ever seen before.
"What are those?" Saya asked.
"They will be your radios." Fowl explained, "Put those in your ears, and you'll be able to talk to us wherever you are."
"It will save us some time, and avoid mistakes like the one you made earlier." Foaly further explained.
"Yeah, about that, why was that a mistake?" Merlin wondered.
"You have never faced with the Borg before, have you?" Murphy asked.
"Borg?" Saya asked.
"Those men you saw before." Murphy explained, "They are a race of people that assimilate entire civilizations and adapt quickly to any situation. Major Short fired her guns, it killed two of them, so they quickly developed a shield that would deflect it. You, Merlin, used magic on them, they will have developed a way to be immune to that as well."
"Couldn't you have told us that sooner?" Merlin asked.
"We did." Murphy explained, "But only Short had a radio on her, so only she could hear my warning."
"And of course she had to relay what you told her to us, but by then it was too late." Saya realized.
"So they can adapt to anything we do to them?" Merlin asked, "So there's no way to stop them?"
"Not necessarily." Murphy answered, "The Borg are hive-minded. They all follow the orders of one central mind. Find that mind, destroy it, and the others should become less dangerous."
"And how do we find this central mind?" Saya asked.
"Besides you, something else crashed here." Fowl explained, "Our satellites picked it up, but it didn't detect any life-signs, so it was deemed unimportant."
"Never thought I'd see the day that Artemis Fowl thinks of life as more important." Foaly joked.
"We took care of you first, and we sent a team to investigate the other object." Fowl continued, ignoring the centaur, "That was when we first lost contact."
"Which happened shortly before your... incident." Murphy added.
Though I was afraid to do so, I looked at Saya anyway. Her eyes squinted, after which she hastily took one earpiece.
"I don't care what you people think of me." Saya said, "But if we're going to work together, you have no choice but to trust me."
Merlin saw what Saya did with the earpiece, then picked one up for himself, and like her, he put it in his ear.
"Which I do." Merlin said, in reply to her statement.
"If Merlin's word doesn't count for anything, then what does?" Fowl spoke.
Merlin chuckled: "Why would my word count for anything?"
From behind his sunglasses, I could tell Fowl raised his eyebrows: "You're really that oblivious?"
"Now you put one in." Saya nudged me.
As soon as her elbow touched my arm, I jumped, and took two quick steps away from her. For a brief moment, I thought she would what she did to me before again. I may have decided that I owed her something before, but the fear that she might do it again still persisted. Saya sighed at this. She took her earpiece out and gave it back to Butler.
"What are you doing?" he asked.
"I need to talk to him." she said, "By ourselves."
She grabbed my wrist and dragged me out of the room.

Outside, we walked a little distance away from the room, so she could talk to me.
"You're still afraid of me, aren't you?" she asked, and I nodded.
"Normally I'd tell you to forget about it." she went on, "I already explained why I did what I did, and I also told you I wouldn't have done worse unless I wanted to."
I already knew all of that, but it didn't make me feel any better.
"I would raise my voice, grab your face, threatening to tear it off, just so you'd stop acting like a coward." she continued, doing nothing to make it better.
"But..." she lowered her voice this time, "As I drank your blood, I saw some of your memories. I saw what you had gone through before you met us."
I shivered at the thought. She suddenly knew all the things I didn't want to tell them, even if I could.
"I would tell you that those people died because of your childish fears." her words seem to cut much deeper now than before, "But, with your memories, also came emotions. I felt exactly what you felt when all of that happened."
This was the first time I could look her straight in the eyes that night.
"It reminded me of when I was your age." she explained, "I had to adapt to my new situation, I have seen people being born, grow up and die. Some grew old, but not many were that lucky. Over the years I forgot what it was like to be afraid. I forgot what it was like to care. But you helped me remind me about it all."
I couldn't be sure, but she almost sounded like she was complimenting me this time.
"I just want you to know that I understand now." she continued, "I don't know everything about you, but I understand your shock, and I understand how feel. Part of me doesn't want you to go through that again, but another part of me wants to know what those emotions feel like. I promise to you that I'll never do that again. However, if an emergency, like the one before, should arise, can I still count on you?"
So she promises me she won't do this again, but at the same time asks me to let her do it again should she need to? This didn't make any sense to me. I needed time to let her words sink in, but then I remembered we didn't have any time. These Borg people were out there, turning everyone into machines. That's when something else hit me. Wasn't that exactly what the Cybermen did? The people we stopped before we crashed into this world? Were these Borg connected to them in some way? Fowl did say they crashed here at the same time as we did. It was possible they came through the portal at the same time as we did. This made us partly responsible for their being near. More people who died because of me. This started to become just an endless cycle of death for me.
"Don't pretend like you didn't understand me." Saya interrupted my thoughts, "I know you know Japanese, so I know you understood me."
Did she speak Japanese to me? Saya must have picked that up from my memories as well.
"Yes." she said, "I know you understand many languages, although you're not aware of it."
Even I had no idea what expression to show on my face.
"Do not worry, your secret is safe with me." she said, "But I share your curiosity now. And just for the sake of finding this out, I will do what I can to keep you alive."
So that's what she meant. She didn't want to have to hurt me, but I have to be ready for it when I have no other options. Without hesitation, I nodded, and for the first time ever, I saw Saya smile. I shivered at the sight of that.