I Could Smell The Roses

Saving Artemis (Again)

I arrived at Police Plaza quicker than usual, thanks to the Stick. I never took Artemis on it. He didn't like it before and he certainly wouldn't like it now. As soon as I arrive, I hampered by tons of LEP members, asking me stuff that I can't answer or stuff I don't want to answer, like "How do you feel now that Artemis has been kidnapped?" Once I fight my way through, I'm joined by Mulch Diggums, who grins and me and says,
"Well there goes the quiet life. Let's save the world again!" I scowl at him and he laughs,
"Not feeling in the mood today, Captain? Which side of bed did you get out today?" I ignore him and instead turn to a passing officer to ask which lines lead to conference room 3. Once I've got the information, Mulch and I hurry to the room. I take a deep breath and enter.
"Decided to show up, have you Short?" Says Commander Kelp's icy voice. I choose to get straight to the point.
"Where's the ransom video?" Foaly pushes a laptop over to me. Artemis' laptop. Foaly nods.
"They sent it on this only. I don't think they could resist a jibe."
"Who is "they" exactly?"
"Watch and you'll find out." The video gets switched on. As soon as it comes to life on screen, I know it's been done on an old human camera. The image is charred and grainy, and it occasionally flickers uncertainty. But I can just make out Artemis. He sits on a chair, with his head down, not maintaining eye contact.
"I'm terribly sorry." He says in a dull, bored voice.
"But I've come to the realisation that letting fairies roam the earth where humans live on is breaching the ancient taboo. You know the one. The one you never mentioned because you thought I would reverse the tentative relationship between humans and faries." I can't help it. I let out a short gasp. There is a taboo, the one we never mentioned, but it never occurred to us that it would change Artemis' view of us in a different way. Of course there is the extremely likely possibility that Artemis is being forced to say all this. But there is a hint of accusation in there that makes me want to believe every word he says. Finally he looks up.
"I'm sorry Holly, but I have no choice but to destroy you." His voice is no longer emotionsless, instead it's full of pain.
"I'm coming, my prin-" the camera cuts off quickly. The room is silent. Then Foaly clears his throat.
"Holly?" Much to his surprise, I smile at him.
"You think this is genuine?" Foaly hesitates.
"Listen Holly, Artemis is going through a very emotional period right now...anymore stress like the taboo will wreak havoc on his brain. It's more than sixty seven percent likely that this is the case. I raise my eyebrows.
"For all your genius Foaly, you missed the most important clue." Foaly is clearly ruffled,
"In what way?" I rewind the video until the part when he looks up.
"Look at his eyes."
"Holly-" Foaly begins snappily,
"Just look at his eyes." I insist. Foaly stares at them.
"What?" He says irritably,
"They're his normal hues. Blue and hazel." I laugh.
"Exactly, blue and hazel."
"Maybe you need counsellor sessions, Holly, Artemis is driving you round the bend." Suggests Trouble.
"Shut up Commander Kelp. Foaly. Seriously, must I have to tell you?" Foaly looks at me dumbly.
"Very well. Artemis' eyes were blue and hazel before he died. When you cloned him-"
"They were changed back to both blue." Finishes Foaly with a whisper. I nod,
"Exactly. So whoever we're up against has taken some sort of element of his past, the one he is recently remembered and cloned him. Only they did their cloning job too well. They've included all of Artemis' attributes from that time period, including his mismatched eyes. Another thing. What did Artemis say before the video was cut off?" Foaly taps his chin,
"Something like I'm coming, my something or other."
"Prin- was the half word he said before the feed stopped. And what words start with Prin-?"
"Princess, prince." Says Foaly automatically.
"And in what time in Artemis' life does he call me or anyone else princess?"
"When he had the Atlantis Complex." Foaly breathes in realisation.
"So Artemis must have regained seven stages of memory by the time they cloned him. He is quite possibly now stuck in the subconscious of his brain working out a plan, just like he did before."
"So this is a fake." Concludes Foaly.
"Genius." I reply sarcastically.
"Okay," butts in Trouble, taking control.
"No time to be smarty. What do we do?"
"We need information on who we're up against." Says Foaly immediately. He glances at me.
"And I think Holly knows something." I take centre stage.
"Before Artemis was kidnapped, he mentioned several times about a theory he had that there was a 9th type of fairy. A werewolf. He said this was a species that was either extremely endangered or was simply being hidden from the vast majority of the other fairy population." I give Foaly a look, his head is downcast.
"I'm going to judge that his second option is correct. Therefore there are a potentially unknown species out there with about as much information about them as about how many humans know that fairies exist. Knowing Foaly, he has probably destroyed all records of werewolves existence as not to cause widespread panic."
"That's not true actually." Say Foaly with a hint of smugness.
"I kept all crucial information of our attackers in a file on one of my bookshelves." I think for a moment.
"Okay, so we split up. Foaly and I will study the information, Trouble with gather a squad. To defeat your enemies you must first know their strengths- and weaknesses." As Foaly leads me out the room, he mutters in my ear.
"Operation: Save Artemis 2.0"
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I'm so sorry for not updating FOR AGES! I've been really focused on making my other story hit 1K views and I've completely forgot about this one...I'll try to finish before Christmas though, and then maybe a sequel!"