A/N; Don't need to say this, but no skipping passages! You'll miss out on a whole lot of background and scene-setting if you do, and you'll end up with a lot of questions that have actually been answered already. I've sworn to make even the blandest of explanations exciting...please, judge for yourself. The question is if you can feed my ego further, dear reader, or crush it completely ;)
I don't own Artemis Fowl.
*mysteriously vanishes behind a cloak that's behind a desk that's behind a curtain*
The Cross Species Battle: Chapter Five: Trust in the Enemy
His eyes were all that stood out. Deep, alluring blue like the clear sky on a peaceful day, or rather mixed with ice like the bottom of a stunningly clear lake. His eyes, and his skin like white paint.
Behind him the world burned, but the ashes whisked around in the wind that fanned the fire and the pitch dust had touched his hands and his shirt, but not yet his face.
She only looked at his handsome, older, sharp face and features.
This time around, though, she wasn't inclined to caress that face.
/_|_\
The Aboveground LEP battle station had three different disaster sirens. One informed the building of any activated explosives within a set radius of the station. The second was warning of a natural disaster. And the third, much worse accepted, was only operated if and when a human fleet attacked the building.
As preparation, training and constant perfection permitted, the experienced officers were the first to exit the building in a quickly executed military drill along with the weapons they'd broken out of their emergency lodgings around the hall. Within minutes half the area was cleared. Juniors and new recruits were instructed and barked at by operatives of higher ranks, handed guns, grenades, evenMesmer enhancing radioscopes if they were deemed responsible enough, and they stayed back at the lobby while the officers of seniority executed searches and scans for the enemy that could be no more than twenty kilometers away, expertly constructing physical barricades and activating defense mechanisms. The klaxon still blared and the lights still flashed a dangerous, ominous crimson across the hall and the rest of the building.
Holly found herself at the very front of the living barricade, so she set her Neutrino 4000 in position and stared stoically ahead for some signal, all the while allowing apprehension to fill her being.
Strangely enough, no signals came. No officers reported back in a mad dash. Even Foaly, who was checking a handheld device connected to the camera systems placed around the area, looked up and said nothing. Holly hesitantly lowered her gun.
Then came the confused/angry talking.
"Where are the Mud Men? Why haven't we found them?"
"This was a D'Arvitting scare! Bloody centaur can't update his security..."
"Hold on, the alarm can be set manually!"
"Test run, Foaly? During lunch?"
"I dropped my sandwich on the way out! I stood in line for twenty minutes for that sandwich."
Holly wasn't the only one who snapped back their heads and hissed at the Juniors to shut it, particularly after that sandwich-related complaint.
"Do you have an explanation, Foaly?" asked Vein, lifting his visor to meet the centaur straight in the eyes. "Could this be malfunction?"
"No Mud Man weaponry around," muttered Foaly, looking back at his device. "My scans would detect them, if they come in significant numbers, which means...no, no, we would've still picked it up." He looked at Holly. There was no way he would explain this to the face of someone who could have his budget cut. "It's very likely a malfunction. Well. Unless somebody set it off, but that can only be done from within the building and..."
He trailed off, noticing the look both Holly and Vein were giving someone standing behind him.
"Actually," said a familiar, very small voice. "There aren't many of them, but I set off the alarm, cause, you know..."
Several eyes bore into him.
"What?" protested Chix. "They could be spies!"
Holly shook her head, waving aside the oncoming curses with an unmistakable hand of authority. "If they were spies, Chix, setting off the alarm was probably the stupidest thing you could've done. How many humans?"
Holly's gaze was so frightening that the sprite ducked behind Foaly to avoid the imaginary lasers shooting out of her eyes. A tiny voice replied seconds later, "Two."
"TWO?!" yelled the entire LEP as one.
Chix meekly twiddled his thumbs.
Vein looked incredulous. "Unbelievable! Two weeks in suspension for Private Verbil. Now, where are these two precious humans?"
Chix pointed ahead. "I-I told them to wait t-there. They...they had a big...animal with them."
Yasuke had somehow found his way to the front of the crowd, and gave him a weird look. "They listened to you?"
Chix glared, clearly intimidated by this unfamiliar presence. "H-Hey, they were not that big, okay?"
Holly shook her head, exasperated.
"Captain Short, take Foaly with you to investigate," ordered Vein. "This might turn out to be a waste of time, but it isn't worthless checking out."
Holly's first inclination was to refuse on the grounds that Chix had a penchant for seeking attention anyway. On second thought, though, she motioned to Yasuke and Foaly. "Follow me. Let's get to them and see what they want. This could also be false information."
Yasuke actually clapped his hands. "Cool, interrogation!"
Chix gave him a weird look.
Shaadia and Thunder were in the middle of a twentieth round of rock-paper-scissors when Holly, Foaly and Yasuke turned up, making their way through the laboratory-grown hideout trees that camouflaged the LEP's extensive training grounds. It was not a long stretch to walk, but Verbil didn't have the strongest of memories; they'd taken a repetitive stroll in the undergrowth for the second time when the Sprite finally recalled exactly which path they had to take.
Upon seeing the humans, both elves dropped their weapons. And their jaws, too. Both involuntarily.
"Hello," said Thunder, cheerfully. "We come in peace, so there's no need to shoot us on the spot or take us to your prison."
"Hi," added Shaadia, waving. Foaly stared at her. Or rather, the giant cheetah resting languidly at her feet, appearing doped or tranquilized. It lifted a slow paw in greeting, before bringing the same paw down to its mouth and drowsily running a wet tongue around it. The cheetah slumped back into a barely conscious state.
Holly was the first to finish processing the sight. These were not times where the unusual did not occur; this was not a place for ordinary happenings, either. Not especially since Foaly often took to creating imaginative defense mechanisms in and around the camouflaging foliage. It wouldn't be the first time humans had set foot on the premises. The People had its fine share of allies and supporters, and impromptu meetings weren't unheard of. "What are you doing here?" she demanded, though not threateningly. The human girls were unarmed, which explained why Foaly hadn't detected them on his device before; however, they had around them two heavy backpacks, a grappling hook and a three-foot-long spotted cat that would've fairly passed off as a weapon had it been in its right mind.
"We," said Thunder. "Are coming here in order to betray our human commander, who is a jerk, and help you guys instead."
"If you're cool with it," added Shaadia quickly. "Er...this might be hard to believe and all. You know, trusting the enemy? It's crazy. But we've made our choice. You need someone who knows all your enemy's secrets."
Yasuke frowned. "Nice. How do we know you aren't lying?"
"You can search us," offered Thunder bravely. "You can use whatever technology you have to search us. We aren't lying. And we have our reasons. We want to join the allies, but going to them would take a long time and a lot of searching, so we decided to try the LEP directly."
"This is an undisclosed location," said Foaly. "How did you know where to look?"
Shaadia and Thunder shared a worried look.
"We have a contact," replied Thunder finally, promptly. "She's bright with this stuff and known to the allies, but we promised not to reveal any more than that. Besides, even she didn't give us a wholly accurate roadmap. It took us two months to find this place."
"If you aren't willing to reveal any more than that," Holly picked up her LEP handgun. "We aren't willing to trust you."
"We did say you could search us, didn't we?" asked Shaadia, scowling. "This is unfair. We aren't telling you about our contact because we solemnly promised we would not. But we aren't with the Battallion anymore, and we have every intention of betraying Commander Zidan because, the honest truth? He does not treat us well."
Foaly frowned. "Hold on. Did you say..."
"Zidan who?" Holly was already starting a search on her wrist computer. It was something Foaly called stone age technology, and something he often berated her for having in her possession, but the old device was more than precious to Holly as it did not read out search results in Lili Frond's voice. "Not a lot of entries under that name. Unless it's a pseudonym he uses? Can I have a last name?"
The girls shared a look once again. This time they looked more amused than worried.
"I don't see what's so funny," observed Yasuke.
"Pseudonym or not, it's pretty stupid," snickered Thunder. "Your search is Zidan Collision. Try filtering it through Councilmembers."
"Councilmembers," muttered Holly, tapping furiously. "Right. Loading results. Frond dammit, Foaly, this takes ages to pick up a signal!"
"And I'm to blame for keeping it?" Foaly's voice was alight with an air of I told you so.
"Choke on a carrot," scowled the elf distractedly. "Wait...yes. Zidan Collision. Son of...strange. A mother's name isn't provided, but he is recorded as a son of the late Atlantis Councilman Wildre. Adopted, perhaps?" Holly looked directly at the humans.
"Not...well. How shall I put this," Thunder shrugged a little uncomfortably. "Illegitimate, I guess, seeing as he's a..."
"Hold on a second," cut in Foaly. "Before we discuss who his parents are, what in Frond's name? A fairy is responsible for this? In charge of the Battalion? No. It's just not possible. Why would he wage war on his kind? More importantly, why would the Mud Men listen to him?"
"The battalion," stated Shaadia. "Is not the only human garrison."
"Yet it is the most formidable and the biggest threat," rebuked Yasuke. "And a fairy is the one behind it? The founder?"
"That's what we were getting to," snapped Thunder. "Why the humans listen to him. Well, obviously they don't know he's a fairy."
"Perhaps another pixie with a fetish for the remodification of vital glands?" It was a voice that hadn't previously spoken, but everyone present knew it wasn't the one of Chix Verbil. Holly turned around to see Artemis make his way down to them, closely followed by his faithful manservant who, needless to say, spooked both kids and the cheetah thoroughly the moment he was spotted. "Good afternoon, Holly, Foaly. Yasuke?"
The elf in question nodded happily.
Foaly failed to look impressed. "Nice entrance, Mud Boy. Am I right in assuming that you were listening in on this conversation the whole time?"
"I arrived at HQ shortly before lunch break. I was there when the alarm sounded. And, although it might look it, I didn't follow Corporal Verbil to get here, so I am a little late." Artemis's cool gaze drifted over to the children. "You mentioned you had reasons for switching sides."
"Is...he going to kill us?"
"Mr Fowl, please tell him not to glare at us."
Artemis sighed. "Butler, if you would be so kind?"
The manservant pushed his Sig Sauer into its belt and tied his hands behind his back in a gesture of non-intimidation, although it wasn't total assurance either.
"You know him," Holly jabbed a finger in Artemis's direction.
"Who doesn't?" asked Thunder placidly.
Artemis cleared his throat pointedly. "If we could get on with it. You left the human Commander– and let's get back to that in due time– for reasons that he wasn't treating you very well."
Shaadia tiredly rubbed her forehead. "He wasn't. And it's the same thing for everyone who serves under him. Why do you think the Battalion is so powerful, so in charge? Why we're willing to do anything to achieve our own ends, and terrible things like the bio-nuke and surprise shootouts? He...has our families hostage. Well, nearly all of ours."
"The origins of the Battalion are a bigger mystery than how the war started," Foaly caught on. "We'll try trusting you if you can clear that for us. Why did anyone join Zidan in the first place?"
"Money, mostly," shrugged Thunder. "He had in his possession loads of it. And the promise of power, and control. But for some of us it was just by force. He did a noble thing and relocated some of our families, but we soon found out about the real reasons and the conditions. We were not told where they were. We were cut off from them completely. We will only be allowed to join them once our task is over, i.e; annihilating fairykind faster than any of the other Mud Men organizations. I'm not even being dramatic. It's his intention."
Yasuke shook his head. "But why you? You're kids. He has kids in his armies?"
Shaadia smiled hauntedly. "Trust me, you don't want to know."
The elf shuddered. "That's disgusting. Okay, that's absolutely horrible. But why? What can he hope to gain from it?"
"Talent, I suppose," Thunder pursed her lips. "Can we not talk about the other child soldiers, please? We're two lucky ones who have it just a little better. Our work is mostly off the field, and with keeping the tech and the main stations in order. We've only had to do truly inhumane things...in training. As part of our training, but it was never a fairy."
"He has your families hostage, too," this time Holly spoke a little softly, gently. It was still debatable whether the girls were telling the truth about themselves, but she didn't doubt for a minute that an establishment such as the Battalion would employ children and enslave their families.
"Yes," it was little more than a whisper from both children, but it was enough to plunge the undergrowth under a thick cloud of silence.
Holly closed her eyes, trying to gather herself. "This Commander...Zidan, or whoever. If he's a fairy, how could he do something so terrible? And where did he find the support, or the funds? Why is he with the Mud Men?"
"Because he's not a fairy, is he?" said Artemis. "Not entirely."
"Zidan," affirmed Shaadia numbly. "Is a hybrid."
_\•/_
If the silence was anxious before, this time it was maddening. The cogwheels turned at incredible speeds within their brains but the information did not process. Not for a very long time in which everything around the small group descended into infuriating quietness.
"Impossible," blurted Yasuke, suddenly puncturing the still atmosphere. "A hybrid? A human fairy hybrid? How is that even...plausible..."
The question hung, the possibility drifted. Again, no words were spoken and no sounds were made save for the low growling of the drugged cat, oblivious to the gravity of the situation as it stretched, mumbled through its sticky lips and, finally, purred while curling up against the stuffed backpack of one of the children that layed lump-like on the dry soil.
"If Artemis can pass off as one..." began Butler, gravelly tones pushing at the tension in the air. "That's why at the Berserker Gate...he was recognized as a fairy. Right? So a hybrid can exist."
Artemis shook his head. "My magic was acquired, old friend. And even then I didn't possess too many mixed qualities. It wasn't even externally visible except for Holly's eye."
"Wildre was seeing a human," snorted Foaly, getting back in his usual game. "Okay. Okay. That makes a lot of sense seeing as he's even authored books like Stealing Back Our Surface. The guy's a hardcore Mud-hater. The real issue here is that Holly's centuries-old wrist comp cannot be trusted."
"Whoever his father is, he's a hybrid. Which is the part that doesn't make sense," Yasuke pointed out. "I mean, Mud Men and fairies..."
"It's not impossible," blurted Holly. "It has happened before. There were many hybrids before Taillite."
The reaction was immediate. Several heads turned and gaped. Chief among them was Foaly's, whose wide-eyed equestrian features could not go unnoticed.
"I've learnt my history," explained the elf promptly.
"But in all the research I've done," Artemis frowned. "Never have I come across reference to...no, not unless these hybrids were regarded as warlocks? Gifted with otherwise unheard-of abilities, but not without their fair share of problems. They were not bound by the laws of the book, so they could only replenish their magic by way of resorting to darker, usually self-destructive methods. It's possible that the reason for this is that after fairies shifted below the surface, hybrids were not welcome among the People. So they were, in essence, human, except possessors of magic."
"Magic that was way beyond a normal fairy's arsenal," Holly picked up. "Therefore not considered even remotely to be fairies."
Foaly was still gawking, now at them both. "The police officer knows this and I don't? You both have either done some pretty deep digging, or stumbled across the same article lacking the slightest bit of credibility."
Holly rolled her eyes. "There are quite a few things you miss, Foaly. And besides, I come from a descendant of Cupid, for Frond's sake. History lessons were shoved into my diet long before I could eat."
"Cupid was known for historical ballads," acknowledged Yasuke.
"The articles aren't exactly credible, Foaly," allowed Artemis. "But you mustn't forget that this was a community alienated and stigmatized by the People, and by Mud Men as well. They were either forgotten over time or forced to give up their unique identities and blend in with either humans or ordinary fairies. In other words, timely dismissed as fable or folklore. There are fables, correct?"
"A few. But they're usually about forbidden relationships rather than the hybrids themselves, and most of these fables have affirmed authors," Foaly tapped his chin contemplatively, although his miffed expression at being outperformed by a police officer and a Mud Boy still lingered. "This calls for some serious research. There's no telling how dangerous a hybrid is if he retains those unusual abilities from the time before Taillite."
"I don't get it, though," said Butler. "How can a hybrid have those kind of abilities anyway? Humans possess no magic whatsoever, so it isn't even a combination of skills from the parents."
"That's where a targeted research comes in," Foaly activated his handheld device, tapping in a memo for himself. "And I'll get to it about as soon as we're done with the real problem here."
"Problem?" echoed Thunder indignantly.
"Do you trust us yet?" asked Shaadia, crossing her arms. "Because we've given you all the information you asked for, which is actually about all we know."
"No, not really," stated Artemis coolly. "You still haven't disclosed how you got in touch with the Allies, and until your confidential contact is revealed, we reserve the right to refuse your appeal."
Thunder groaned frustratedly. "Do you have to be so difficult?"
"Obviously."
"We already told you, we can't. And we won't."
Holly shot a cursory glance in Artemis's direction. Was he thinking the same thing, perhaps, that whichever insider responsible for sending them here was the same as the anonymous informat? It would pave the way to fresh evidence, and an actually trustworthy insider on the Battalion's affairs. But she seriously doubted that either of the human children would give away their secret without persuasion.
"It's alright for now," said Holly.
"Captain, it's relevant information," argued Foaly. Emotionally decisive, elves.
She waved a dismissive hand in his direction. "They've told us all we asked for. If you really feel the need, go ahead and ask more, Foaly, but don't expect too many good answers. They're kids, and so couldn't have been told much about the Battalion's security details or other branches."
"What about the location of our branch?" offered Shaadia suddenly, a smug smile appearing on her face. "The main branch after Headquarters. Zidan often pays visits to see how his technical support and weapons distributing process is going."
Holly blinked. "The distribution branch?"
"Yes. The one that sends out transportation to all the other branches and isolated camps. Even HQ. We've been there once, haven't we, Thunder?"
"It's a great place, actually," said Thunder seriously. "HQ, I mean. We're never allowed to look at the roads or anything, and we had to fly for about eighteen hours in what was definetely a longer route to reach there, but the place itself is pretty impressive. It's like a whole fortified city built into the map, and it's surrounded by virtually nothing. Not even the weapon crates are allowed in without individual scanning."
"Good luck getting in there without any help from the inside," Shaadia whistled. "Or without a single soul who's seen the place before. You'll be dead meat on the way to Zidan's torture chambers just so your already-deceased body won't be able to rest in peace."
"You'll be screwed," enthused Thunder.
"Screwed," Shaadia shook her head.
Artemis raised an eyebrow in obvious doubt, but instead of questioning their truthfulness he asked, "The weapons come with deactivation codes, I take it?"
"A different one for each model, yes, but not for each weapon individually," Thunder smirked. "So you're deciding to trust us? Because we can give you so much more than simple deactivation codes. Even the bio-nuke, you know, can be dismantled remotely from a distance."
Yasuke looked disbelieving. "And you two are told how?"
"We work in the technical department," reminded Shaadia, as if the question was a stupid one. "And one tends to learn these things spending a lot of time in the labs."
Artemis turned to Foaly. "The camp we raided last month. How many weapons do you still have in one piece?"
"Might have one or two in the cabinet," replied Foaly. "Already remotely deactivated. There's nothing they can prove there."
"Is rebooting possible?"
"We can try," said Thunder, but her tone sounded more like we will definetely get it right. Artemis nodded.
"It isn't all you're required to do to prove yourselves, but it's a start."
_/:\_
The first two years of the interspecies war had called for, before anything, every participant to make their motives perfectly clear. It had not been coordinated, or organized, it had just happened over quick time; there was the LEP and the Council, representing the Fairy People and hoping to keep contact with humans cooperative, but at a minimum, and there had been a number of curiously eager but willing human governments that stood by the motive of peaceful coexistence. There had been others, superpowers, who willed rather than anything else to exploit, except under a pact of subtlety or the sort. Whyever not? Those governments had a history of being good at it.
The click, tinkle-like, of the mug that touched the granite tabletop was an explosion of sound within the quiet confines of the building's tenth floor.
Then there had been the ones that did not give a second thought to subtlety– the organizations. The New World Extinctionists, One Surface Rightful, The Battalion, The Human Amendment, all groups that operated on their own, perceived the people as a definite threat, and intended to win the race for the People's secrets, to be the first to gain from exploiting the new species. The truly disgusting part of it was the exact manner in which these independent organizations operated. These were Mud Men who followed no ethics, no morals, or who simply didn't have faith or honour or reason; they were all the same, and currently posed to the People a far greater threat than the backstabbers of the Allies.
The first carton was empty, and the second emitted a noxious odour that was proved beyond reasonable doubt when his eyes darted unappreciatively towards the dates printed in dark black across the top.
Was it a full-on, all-out, Earth-consuming war? No, not yet. There were plenty of people and states that lived in peace and non-interference; Ally governments, aside from regular talks with the People's representatives held at undisclosed locations, allowed their nations to thrive in the usual manner and the only ventures that were blocked were those involving fairies. But fairies had been invited, by some of these nations, to live on the surface or to build emergency military bases, and that was precisely where the organizations came in.
The elf opened the door of his fridge yet again, but didn't expect something to uplift his mood would magically appear in the lit-up space. Scraps from last night's dinner, a barren sandwich, scraps, cans and more scraps. Well, he snorted to himself. At least they didn't smell. And no noxious stench usually meant edible. It was inevitable, he resigned, that his flat was going to be empty and mostly cleared out by the time he returned Aboveground, but this was truly pathetic. Where was one to find a functional grocery store at twelve in the night?
They had launched their attacks on the basis that their governments simply had no right, that the People were a threat, and that magic in itself was destructive to humans. They'd carried out raids, ambushes, even assasinations where important representatives of the People were concerned, and each time the relevant Ally government had retaliated or beefed up security around the fairy guests, the historic attempt at coexistence. It had been cyclic, and predictable and easy to fight the organizations at this stage, during these offenses; they were independent groups with little outside support.
Something else clanked in the hallway, something that wasn't a mug, on something that was not a tabletop. The elf's ears twitched in warning. A cautious, discreet hand reached for a primitive pistol he kept concealed in his holster. He waited.
Then, one fateful day, Zidan Collision had entered the equation and added to it the Nuclear Bio-Bomb, a deadly parody of the People's own creation. A weapon that eradicated all forms of life, from fairy presence to infesting rodents, leaving the buildings, infrastructure and land completely intact save for the deathly stench of radiation that would linger in haunting reminder of the moment for centuries to come. It was as foolish a counterattack as it was child's play, but if the Mud Men didn't have access to the magic that worked in a fairy bio-bomb, they felt they would use any means possible at achieving their ends. In this case fraught with risk, nuclear energy. It took only one unforeseen attack on the fairy settlers in Sichuan Province, China, for the table of the war to turn completely in favour of the human groups and the governments that immediately switched sides. A few of the independent organizations had yielded to and joined in under the Battalion and its anonymous leader.
A loud sigh of exasperation drifted over to him from the door.
"Put that gun down, Lauruken. I am a creature of the night, yes? Retained that ability better than most fairies. I can see every patch in your leather, and every one of the strange items in that belt of yours."
Loken lowered his eyes though he didn't turn around to look. "What do you want?"
The intruder took a couple of loud steps forward. His footwear made loud clanks on the cheap tiles. "Not even going to say hello, Quayneth? Come on, I'm sure you can recognize this voice. There a few in the world who can sound so...convincing."
Loken raised an eyebrow, but he kept the snort to himself. "Haha. I'm convinced that you need my help, alright. So I ask again what do you want?"
The intruder sounded disappointed. "Is that all the drama you're going to give me?"
Annoyed, Loken finally turned on his feet and met his old ally face-to-face.
"Getting real tired of this cryptic nonsense, Cupid. What are you here for?"
Cupid rolled his light hazel eyes. The elfin warlock was dressed in what normal creatures would find odd and looking like a bad attempt at anime cosplay, complete with a bow and a quiver full of colourful arrows strapped to his back. His sleeves were long, silken and puffy, and the same could be said about the khaki pants he'd chosen to go with it. His boots were pointed and in dire need of polish, as always. The fairy had cherubic lips, dimpled cheeks and an undeniably sparkly set of teeth, but that wasn't to say he was bad-looking; quite the contrary, in fact, and this observation was as strange as his ensemble.
"Alright, sheesh. No need to be so hostile. How long have we been friends now, hm? Two years, three? Five years? Six?"
"Quit rubbing it in my face. I didn't particularly enjoy those four years."
"Ah, four!" Cupid shot him with a childish finger-gun. "That's about it. So? What're you upto these days?"
Loken glared. "A lot of sleep deprived work. You aren't helping in the matter by spying on me and turning up at odd hours of the night asking favors."
"I haven't asked yet," whined the love fairy. "And I'm not spying. I just had to ask someone where you live and when you'd get home."
The other elf just continued his glaring, and didn't say anything. Cupid got the message that it would be best to hurry up with his demands.
"I'm afraid it's really an urgent matter, and there's no way we can proceed without the aid of your skills. Our mission requires a capable ground-representative. A more-than-capable one. I'll tell you all about it, but you aren't going to like it."
And so Cupid told him, taking up less than ten minutes of his time.
He really didn't like it, but Cupid was right. They couldn't proceed without him. They needed the whole old team back, especially Loken, the youngest, quickest, and invariably most talented of them. The situation was dire. The mission, without a shred of doubt, was not going to be a smooth one.
Loken was the kind of fairy who took three days to make his mind up about a special job –almost always out of sheer spite– but by the end of his old friend's explanation he was ready with his answer.
Loken reached for the pistol in his belt and skidded it across the granite tabletop. While it spun, several loose bolts fell out, as did parts of the shell.
"I'm just going to need a gun that works."
A/N; A huge thank you to everyone who read, reviewed and followed so far! Sooo, what do you think of the new Loken? If you've read the original version, that is. If you've read that then you'll also know that, while detestable to an extent, Loken plays a pretty big role in the little bit of A/H that this fic is going to have *winkwink*
And of course if the final version is the first time you're reading this, PLEASE do give me your honest opinion! What do you think of all these OCs, and where do you suppose the plot is headed? (READING THE OLD VERSION'S REVIEWS IS CHEATING!)
I doth love you all. Stick around, guys, for the EXPLOSIVE twists ahead, and keep me connected with what you feel about this fic!
-milktoffees,
Shaadia.
