A/N: Mwahaha! Will Trudy be crazy or not? Only I have the power to decide! (Cackles like witch.) Let us see…
Disclaimer: Me: Don't own it.
Holly: Own what?
Me (sighing): I don't own Artemis Fowl, as you well know.
Holly is satisfied, for now.
Fowl Manor
Artemis' jaw dropped. Holly stared. Butler looked ready to smash something. Jason looked ill. Nick screamed. It wasn't a very manly scream either, he sounded just like a little girl.
"What's the prob? Why is Fairy Boy screaming?" Trudy asked innocently.
"The 'prob' is your mother is Nick's mother and she is dead." Artemis said, recovering from his shock quickly.
"Sooooo, Nick is my brother? That's hard to believe." Trudy shrugged, "But with the day I've been having…"
"She isn't alive! I saw her body!" Nick yelled.
"Suit yourself. My mom is alive."
"Let me see proof of that!" Nick snorted.
"Alright, here. This picture I have is of my mom." Trudy handed over the photograph.
Nick looked at it. "This is my mom." He sighed, "But this picture is really old, it's in black and white."
"Well how about this?" Trudy pulled a letter out of her back pocket.
"Let me see that!" Nick glanced over the letter and frowned. "It's in English."
"Yeah, duh!"
"Didn't she teach you Gnommish?" Nick asked.
"Gnome what?"
Nick shook his head and continued to look over the letter. "This is more fake than dwarf scales."
"You are a strange kid, you know that?" Trudy asked, not being familiar with the fairy term. But she guessed what it meant anyway. "It's not fake. I know my mom's signature."
"So do I, and that ain't it."
Artemis rolled his eyes at the poor grammar. "This is getting more confusing by the second. Nick, do you have an example of your mother's signature?"
Nick searched his pockets and smiled sarcastically. "Must have left it in my jail uniform. Of course I don't have an example! The only time I saw her signature was when she was signing stuff! She never had to write permission slips for a five year old!"
"You went to jail?" Trudy asked. Nick rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand as he felt a headache form.
"Trudy, how do you know this letter isn't a fake?" Artemis sighed. Dealing with the unintelligent took forever.
"When my mom went missing she was in Ho Cho Min City. Look at the post mark." Trudy ordered.
Artemis felt a flashback to when he first encountered a fairy. Ho Cho Min City, the year he was twelve, he had met a drunken sprite. Suddenly things were becoming clear.
"Either Trudy was tricked or Nick and the entire LEP were." Artemis announced.
"Huh? What's the LEP?" Trudy asked.
"Lower Elements Police." Nick said quickly.
"Lower Elements? What's that mean?"
"Underground."
Trudy shut up, figuring that whatever she asked was going to be answered with something she did not understand. She'd get the details later.
"When I was in Ho Cho Min I met an old drunken sprite." Artemis started.
"Ha! I told you she wasn't dead!" Trudy said to Nick.
"Humph." Nick grunted.
"We don't know that. When I met her she was in pretty bad condition, doing small healings for whiskey and the likes. Butler and I cleared her system of any alcohol so she could return to Haven. I never heard of her again but perhaps…" Artemis shook his head, "It is very unlikely but she may have been your mother."
"My mom never touched alcohol." Nick snorted.
"Neither did mine!" Trudy said, trying not to be outdone by Nick.
"She or some other sprite in Ho Cho Min could be your mother or…" Artemis paused, looking at Trudy, "You may have been tricked."
Trudy rolled her eyes. "Yeah right. I know it was my mom."
"It will be simple to check. I will scan the letter for fingerprints and check them against your mother's." Artemis pulled out his phone and tapped the screen. It came to life and greeted him in Lily Frond's voice.
"Welcome Artemis, what do you need?" The voice said.
Holly frowned and spat. "You did that just to annoy me, didn't you?"
Artemis smirked. "Perhaps. Phone, fingerprint scanner please." The phone beeped and a scanning device appeared. Artemis held it over the letter. "It will take a moment. Foaly doesn't exactly keep a good record." The phone chirped to let Artemis know that it had found a match. "Ah, here we go. Oh…"
"What Dracula?" Trudy asked, leaning over to get a look.
"Do not call me 'Dracula' and I will tell you." Artemis' brow furrowed.
"Sorry Fowl."
"Good enough. The prints do not match Minnie Johnson's –err—Spiro's." Artemis glanced at the other two teenagers. They were glaring at each other.
"Her last name was Johnson when she died so that is what you will refer to her as." Nick sneered.
"She was a Spiro first. Call her that." Trudy argued.
"Spiros are murders and cut throats, my mom wasn't one of you." Nick spat.
"Boys!" Trudy stomped her foot and turned away from her brother. Nick did the exact same thing to his sister.
"Uh, Minnie…" Artemis started.
"Call her Mary!" Trudy demanded.
"Um, Mary…"
"Her name was Minnie!" Nick shouted.
"Your mother…" Artemis paused in case someone wanted to argue. When no one did he continued. "Did not send the letter. Someone named Rose Potts sent it."
"Let me check it out." Holly sighed, opening a tab on her visor.
"No need, Holly. Have the file right here." Artemis tapped a few things on his phone, "Currently lives in Ho Cho Min City, that is to say, under it."
"There are no cities in that location." Holly said, reading the information from her helmet.
"It would seem she is living in an ancient station. An old magma flare shoot is nearby and she is living in the station."
"Why did she send the letter?" Trudy asked.
"Uh oh!" Nick blurted.
"What?" Holly asked.
"Two things, my library books are way overdue. And two, I just remembered that my mom's maiden name was Potts!" Nick smiled weakly.
"And you did not remember this when I was telling you our suspects name?" Artemis growled.
"I don't know why I didn't recognize it earlier." Nick chuckled.
"Ugh! I really hope you're not actually my brother. You are so dumb!" Trudy said, ruffling Nick's straight, blonde hair.
"Speak for yourself. How am I going to survive a sister as idiotic as you?" Nick groaned, smacking Trudy's hand.
Butler smiled, remembering what it was like to have an annoying sister.
"Can you please argue about this later? I would like to solve this mystery and move on with my life." Artemis grumbled.
"Right away, Your Highness." Nick faked a bow.
"These are the facts: One, Nick and Trudy are siblings." Artemis began.
"They wish they weren't." Trudy muttered.
Artemis shot her a look and she closed her mouth. "As I was saying. Two, Mary Potts was their mother. Three, Rose Potts, who may be a relative, sent Trudy a letter pretending to be Mary. Four, Jason murdered Nick's father and mother, who is also Trudy's mother."
"No he didn't!" Both siblings yelled.
"I suppose that is not yet a fact." Artemis relented.
Jason, who was bound and gagged, moaned. Butler ripped the duck tape off Jason's face.
"Ouch!" Jason rubbed his face were he used to have a goatee. "Trudy, Nick, you are the only family I have and I would never hurt either of you." Jason sighed, "Jon may be my brother but he's no family of mine. He was the one who convinced me to do it."
Holly switched on the recorder on her helmet. A confession might prove useful later.
"Continue, Mr. Spiro." Artemis waved him on.
"When Minnie threatened to take Trudy away I got angry. Back then I had no power, just the name of Spiro. I went to talk to Jon, I didn't know he hated me back then, and he suggested that I prevent Minnie from taking my beloved Trudy. I followed his advice and…" Jason sobbed. He cried out and apologized several times. "I arranged for the confusion on the pod." Jason was shaking now. "Oh, Trudy, Nick, I was foolish. I killed Minnie and Travis!" Jason wailed.
Trudy shuddered and looked away. Nick stared. Jason had lied to him. His only living family had lied to him. His mother and father had been killed by this monster. But he wasn't a monster; he was a kind uncle and father, not a killer.
"Uncle Jason, how could you?" Nick hissed. "You killed my parents and lied about it. You lied to me and Trudy and to the LEP!"
"I know! And I didn't mean to, well I did but Jon made me do it!" Jason sobbed.
Artemis glanced at Trudy. She was not weeping; she was not showing any sign of hate, love or any emotion at all.
"I know what happened." The teenage girl declared.
"I killed your mother." Jason sobbed.
"Not intentionally. You were mesmerized, or whatever. Either Jon did it or someone working for him."
"Trudy, are you sure? This is very serious, if he was mesmerized this puts a whole new twist in the case." Holly chided.
"I know what I'm saying. Dad got hypnotized by one of those fairies and they told him to kill Mom."
A/N: Wow, that was a sad chapter. I didn't know I could write sad. I think the next chapter will be more upbeat. Choi!
P.S. I actually wrote this before November, I don't know why I didn't publish it then.
P.P.S. Sorry I accidently had two of chap13 up! I downloaded the wrong file!
