Waking You Up

For someone who wanted to put the Earth into an, to use the Encantada's own words, eternal slumber, she was really noisy. Her shrill voice shrieked and shrieked as she looked for Artemis.

Her human quarry was hiding under the roots of one of the Amazon's enormous trees, waiting for the fairy to step into the trap zone he set up. The woman certainly took her time. Artemis found himself drifting to the dry socks and the hot meal he, Holly and their friends would share on the shuttle ride back to Ireland.

His controller flashed red. A wail so loud the trail of ants to Artemis' left scrambled. Sudden silence fell as the net sealed.

Artemis stepped out of his hole and uselessly smoothened his mud soaked shirt. He stepped through the ferns and into the clearing.

The net was empty.

Vine-like arms wrapped around his neck and lifted him off the ground. Artemis tried to calm his breath down but it was hard not to gasp for air. He knew he was going to asphyxiate to death in five, four, three –

"Need back-up, mud man?"

Holly. Dread flooded through him. He had predicted all possible outcomes if Holly is present at this stage of the plan. Artemis looked at his palm and confirmed his suspicions; the controller was no longer with him. Whatever hitch stopped the magic net could smoothen out anytime, and it would bring Holly down. What the hell was she doing here? He rose, and saw that the Encantada was furiously uprooting trees to find the now out of sight Holly.

"Give it up, Encantada. Make peace with your fairy family."

"Like they have made peace with your filthy race?" The fairy hissed. She aimed a deadly arm towards Artemis to punctuate her statement.

Her arm was fast. Barely a millisecond has passed and her sharp vines breached the distance between her and the human. In that short span of time, he knew there was no way he could evade that. He would end up like the tribesmen found speared by plant life up ancient trees along the great river.

Holly unshielded and threw her body against the whipping appendage. Their enemy's arm was thrown off-course a few feet before it whipped back and speared through the elf's body.

Artemis activated the magic net. The force of it tracked seeped into the miniscule amount of magic in his clone body. It wasn't enough to kill him, but as the world faded into black, he knew there was a very large chance he would never wake up again.

Artemis came to in a blur of blue sparks that faded into the typical post-adventure bustle. Outside the glass wall, medical personnel and LEP officers weaved hurriedly through the maze of ambulances and LEP shuttles.

"How are you feeling?" Foaly was tapping on a device. Presumably the one connected to the node on Artemis' wrist.

"Like the magic threading my soul to my clone transport was contaminated and turned into life force-feeding energy. Where's Holly?"

"Expected. There isn't enough magic to contaminate in you to actually kill you, though."

"I'm fine. How's Holly?"

"I'm supposed to keep you here until the purifier does its job."

Hesitation. Shifting eye-contact. Slight oblique motion of eyebrows. Hands lifting up, presumably to comfort. Downturned-

No. No. The human stomped on the brakes, halting his brain mid-whirring. The mere milliseconds of data accumulation was more than enough for him to reach a conclusion, but he resolutely forced himself not to think it.

Instead, he shoved the fussing medics and the centaur out of his way and stood up.

"Which ambulance?"

The centaur clicked his jaws and led the way. Artemis ran his hand through his hair. The centaur was too slow and too fast at the same time.

The shuttle was the only one without bustling personnel. Foaly opened the doors and let Artemis in.

The sheet fell off the gurney with one sweep of Artemis' long, human arms.

It was one of those moments. The ones that only Holly induced in him. No psychoanalysis, no probability calculation, no music composition. His brain went quiet, making it seem that the whole world is in a muted standstill, and he was floating in it, indifferent. A mere observer, an absorber of stimuli, incapable of any appraisal or reaction.

These moments always struck Artemis in unexpected times, lasting milliseconds but feeling like a lifetime. Holly looking back at him from the pilot's seat while she was piloting a pod through magma. Holly bustling around her apartment doing chores while they were video calling. Holly unconscious, having just been hit by Butler's dart, looking black widow pretty.

Holly, lifeless, on a slab. Artemis adds it to the list.

Grime and blood caked her skin and hair. It was such a familiar sight that if Artemis allowed himself sentiment, the elf could just be sneaking in the usual nap mid-adventure. Soon he'll have to wake her up because it's time for the plan. Because Opal has found their shielded ship. Because Police Plaza was calling and demanded to speak to an officer.

"Wake up, Holly."

The sound of his own voice breaks the moment, and the beep of the useless, unnecessary machines around him unmuted. A quick flood of feelings pulsed through him once, raging. It lasted for a millisecond, and he knew outside he still kept his cool save perhaps for a quickening of breath.

"Why didn't you follow the plan, Holly? You weren't supposed to be there. You weren't supposed to die before me."

"Artemis," Artemis looked up; he did not notice his manservant enter the already cramp tent. Foaly and Trouble Kelp was with him. Stupid.

Butler put an arm on his charge's shoulder. It was a familiar gesture. They've been through this before.

"Elfin warriors' recycling ceremonies are traditionally done in a meadow under the shadow of night clouds and a yew."

"In the old days. We no longer practice it since we moved underground." Kelp looked down at Holly. "Commander Root should have gotten one."

"There is an old yew at the Fowl Estate. I will provide everything you need."

Artemis leveled a gaze at the commander, preempting the inevitable refusal. "We've cooperated for more than 10 years now. I hope threats are unnecessary."

It wasn't just Trouble who looked taken aback. Extreme worry lined Foaly and Butler's faces as well. Artemis does not blame them. He has never been friends with the Kelp, but he was always civil with him at the very least. Never has Artemis treated Trouble Kelp with ice, as he did now.

To everyone's surprise, Trouble did not lash back. "You're upset, Artemis. Let's step out of this cramped tent and-"

"Holly has no living relatives now. You and Foaly are the only ones left. It's in her will." Artemis would be on her will too, the man was sure, if it wasn't for the conflict his humanity would raise in court. "You will hear from me soon."

Artemis turned to Butler, eyes resolutely not landing on her. "Let's go."

He walked past Butler and the fairies knowing the manservant would follow. He didn't look back.

It was raining on Holly's final rites. The fairies milled around the meadow, clad in long mourning clothes and hushed whispers. Despite its attendees' species and the magic dome dissipating the rain before it hit the assembly, the funeral was just as sad as its umbrella-dotted, human counterpart. Artemis could have sworn there were depressants in the magic the warlocks were throwing about during the rite proper.

Artemis hated it.

Still, he did what he could. Fowl Manor was deemed too logistically irrational as it was too far from any shuttle port and most of the attendees would come from underground so the man bought an acre of land near E7, where a 2,000 year old yew stood. It wasn't the holy Arhu Yew in Scotland, and it wasn't a yew especially significant to Holly or he ancestors. Nevertheless, Holly Short was still the first fairy in a millennium to have her ceremonies under the stars.

The fairies were now approaching Holly one by one. He wasn't really paying attention to the Gnommish proceedings, and the fairies weren't exactly eager to let him witness one of their sacred rites so he was surprised when a warlock passed him a fistful of soil.

Social conventions, what meaning do they have if you do not subscribe to them? He rose from his seat in the edges of the meadow and made his way towards where Holly lay.

Artemis looked down. Lain on an exquisitely carved surface and dressed in traditional elfin warrior garb, Holly looked worlds away from the last time Artemis looked down at her lifeless form. Cleaner. Peaceful.

He reached out to a strand of misplaced hair across her cheek. When his fingers touched cold skin, he realized the line was a remnant of a wound. The magic must have ran out before getting to it completely. He vaguely remembers a branch backlashing straight to Holly's face after Artemis had passed through it. Holly had maturely hit threw a stick at him in retaliation. That was during their last adventure. Was it really only a week ago?

The line turned crimson under his finger.

He quickly withdrew his hand. His fingers were stained with – is that blood? Artemis peered closer at Holly's face and pressed on the wound. Blood oozed out slowly. Hot, crimson blood.

Frantically, Artemis' fingers searched her neck. His pulse almost stopped as he felt the faint thump of Holly's.

"Holly?"

At his raised, worried voice, the fairies around him unsettled from their magic-flushed state.

Artemis bent down and placed his lips on Holly. He breathed air into her as he pinched her nose. Around him the fairies were breaking into an uproar. As he performed CPR, he vaguely heard Trouble demand what he was doing. Finally, fairy hands succeeded prying him away. He stumbled back, and found a neutrino and a hundred fairy glares pointed at him.

"Pig," Trouble spat.

"You don't understand. Holly, she's-"

A loud, strangled gasp of air came from where Holly lay.

Events unfolded in an efficient flurry after that. The meadow was packed up. Politicians proceeded politicking. The alive, breathing Holly was ushered into and ambulance pod and shipped straight to San D' Klass Med.

Artemis and Foaly found themselves outside her hospital room, waiting.

"Any theories?"

"Science cannot explain this away. This is purely magical. Fairies don't embalm their dead, correct? You hold the corpse in stasis by magic. I'm guessing something went wrong – or right – during the process. Let's not discount the Encantada's magic. Their species was extinct for centuries before her appearance. We have no knowledge of her powers at all."

Foaly nodded. "There are also stories about Yew trees. It's not only the tree of death. It's the tree of rebirth too. Necromancers do their stuff there back when it was legal."

Their conversation halted when finally, after what seemed like years to Artemis, No1, Qwan and a few other doctors exited Holly's room. The demon was smiling, stirring the reluctant hope in Artemis.

"You can see her now."

Artemis half ran, bursting into the room. Holly was lying down again, looking as if this is one of their usual post-adventure hospital confinement. As if she didn't rob the world of life for seven days. So calm. The boy got a hold of himself. It made Artemis feel silly for his fluster.

He cleared his throat. "Holly,"

"Heya Arty."

He walked forward, settling on her bedside. "Do you remember-" Mentioning dying seemed inappropriate. "Do you know what happened?"

"Nope. I was hoping you'd tell me. Wait, did we do it? Did we save the world?"

"Yes. We saved the world."

"Then why do you look like a corpse, mud boy? I mean, more than usual."

"Holly. Promise me to stick to my plan next time. Promise me you won't go around killing yourself."

Holly's eyes told him her thoughts. A mischievous glint showed her initial impulse to make fun at the unusually blatant show of sentiment. Milliseconds after, a softened understanding showed as it dawned on the elf. Depth of their relationship withstanding, these vulnerable and honest slips were a rarity. Holly was not cruel to mock that.

Ish.

"Don't boss me around." She punched him on the arm. Artemis' regret of the slip up was so evident Holly instantly felt guilty. "Alright. We both know I'm never one for the rules. The best I can do is promise to do my best."

Artemis nodded.

"One condition, though."

"Holly," Exasperation.

"I promise to do my best to outlive you." He broke eye contact, her use of words too close to truth. Holly, ever brave, reached out and turned Artemis' face towards her, forcing him to look at the elf. "But only if you promise to wake up."

"What?"

"Wake up, Artemis. Promise me you'll wake up."

Artemis woke up. He was on his bed in Fowl Manor. His hands grasped for the phone on his bedside table. The screen said it was the 7:58, November 25. It was the morning of Holly's funeral.

It wasn't raining during Holly's final rites. Fairy funerals weren't the sad, umbrella-dotted affairs human funerals were. With its flowers and fairy lights, the funeral was somber and solemn, almost ethereal. The meadow was an enchanted garden lifted from a book. The covert clearing caressed by a massive yew was devoid of murderous creatures and salacious media. Even the present councilmen and LEP higher-ups were giving Holly quiet, for once. Serene and beautiful. Artemis made sure of that.

Curious. It was easy to think the world consisted of only two people when you spend hours of conversation a day either in a video call or while in hot pursuit of a megalomaniac. It was hard to digest that all the fairies milling about now were people in Holly's life too. And most of them who weren't personally acquainted with him seemed convinced to treat him as some sort of widower, no matter how hard he tries to blend at the fringes of the gathering.

Artemis is an excellent actor. He can be polite when he tries, just as successfully as he is cunning when manipulating stupid people. He nods at the right moments and tries to escape comforting physical touches as politely as possible.

He didn't need these stories of Holly's kindness and bravery and stupidity. Didn't did these people know that he knows? That he has witnessed them firsthand? More than any of them ever did?

The stories made him feel better. He felt like collecting more pieces of Holly. He'll take what he can get.

He declined to speak when the Warlock offered him.

When it was his turn to step up to her lain body, offer a sprinkle of earth and whisper his goodbyes and a Fae blessing, he did not spot a hair out of place. Her face was clear, as open and peaceful as it always has been. Her face has always had the capability to be like this, to soften with heart and amity even in the toughest of times. He's seen it when trolls were at their trails, when war-thirsty demon tribes met them in droves, when gorillas prowl in the near vicinity.

As her rites concluded, he watched Trouble Kelp cry.

He just concluded a lecture when he saw her. He resigned as guest lecturer at Trinity College after Holly's death. He was aware even the most incompetent psychologist would advise against it, so he made an absolutely useless compromise of finishing until midterms.

So here he was. And there she was. The last dredges of students have gathered there things and left the room minutes ago; the large auditorium, Artemis and Holly remained. She was seated on the far left edge of the table, looking out the window at the sprawling green campus.

"Here you are. Why did you leave, Artemis?" Holly said, as if Artemis was the one who left.

He told her so. "You were the one who left, Holly. What are you doing here?"

"I was looking for you."

Artemis sighed. He indulged in this delusion long enough. "You're dead."

Holly looked back at him as if he had uttered the most amusingly absurd thing in the world. "Excuse me?"

"This nature fairy skewered you with her tree arms. You died, Holly. I think it might kill me, too."

"I've waited years for you to voice any kind of sentiment for me not coerced by an impending apocalypse. This is the part where you confess your love, Artemis."

Holly's voice was a whisper, slow and heavy with sincerity. Artemis smirked. "Now, I'm certain I'm hallucinating this."

"You're saying I can't flirt?" Holly raised an eyebrow.

"You can't flirt with me. You're dead."

"Stop saying that. Do you actually want me dead?"

Artemis closed his eyes and tried to push down the surge of emotion threatening to combust his chest. "The last thing I ever wanted was for you to be dead, Holly."

Holly hopped down from her perch and crossed the distance to the teacher's desk, where Artemis stood across. She easily lifted herself up on the cheap furniture. She stood up, making herself an inch taller than Artemis for once. Her palm touched his cheek, and he opened his eyes.

"I've got something for you." Holly said. "I left it with Trouble, in his Holly Stuff drawer. It was a lapse of judgement when I bought it. I just thought you might like it. Stupid really. You'll make fun of it. Of me. But I'll let you have it, but you have to promise me something."

Artemis raised an eyebrow in question. Holly's right hand pushed an errant strand of raven hair away from his face.

"You have to wake up."

It was a weird phrase, one that didn't really sit well with Artemis. He's heard it before.

"Wake up, Arty."

He wakes up in his office at the faculty center. It was just a dream. A stupid trick of his subconscious. He could feel a thin layer of sweat stick his shirt to his back. He was slipping, and he knew it.

Trouble Kelp picked up on the third ring.

"Artemis." The elf's face relaxed when he saw the familiar human. The aboveground location of the unknown number calling the LEP Commander's personal line must have worried the elf. "I'm hoping this is a social call, and not about an impending doom of fairy society."

Trouble's flip to friendliness following Holly's death is unsettling for Artemis. It was a mixture of the elf thinking they now shared a bond just because they both lost Holly Short and the careful tact outsiders treated people who recently lost a loved one. Irksome.

Now what was he going to say? That he dreamed of Holly? Horrible, cliché, weak. It sounded like a desperate and ineffective coping mechanism of a grieving lover. Clinging to the impossible and refusing to let go of the dead.

A rephrasing, then. "Holly told me she left something for me in your drawer." He kept his voice as level as possible.

A beat of cluelessness from the elf. Then, "Ah, the box. Yeah. It's here now." Trouble bent to the left, going through a drawer unseen in the video. When he resurfaced, the elf was holding a chrome box. "Don't really know what it is. Do you want me to send it to you? I assume you have a Port."

Artemis felt like his heart accelerated and froze at the same time. He could feel every vein in his body, could feel the rush of blood scraping against its walls. Impossible. Impossible. Impossible. There was no way he would know about the box without dream Holly.

Hypothesis 1: Holly's soul still on this plane and communicating with him.

Hypothesis 2: Recent dream and funeral dream alluded to one thing. Holly's not dead.

"Yes, I do. Use the coordinates of this call."

"I'll send it now." Trouble hung up.

Artemis retrieved the Port Foaly gave him to, according to the LEP report, teleport Artemis' necessary dose of clone meds, but really was to secretly send him pieces of hardware and experiments. A few minutes later, the chrome box Trouble had shown him was inside the device's cradle.

He waits until he was in his apartment. He placed the chrome box on the black marble of the kitchen counter he never uses. A press of his thumb on the pad released the seal.

It was a stuffed animal.

The Fowl let out an amused breath. He had expected an obscure riddle, a token from a different dimension, a written message from Holly. All he had now was this stuffed lemur, with an annoying stuffed lollipop in its hand.

Laughter. Female and not his. Holly was sitting on top of the tall counter stools the interior designer his mother hired insisted on. Her feet was far from the ground and her legs swung in a rhythm.

"Swanky place you got here, Artemis." Holly wrinkles her nose. "Reminds me of Spiro though. All the impersonal black and white."

"I've barely been here. I just moved in three days ago." He left Fowl Manor the day after she was recycled.

"You got it then. Stupid, right?"

"Idiotic." The twitch of his lips betrayed his mirth. "Where did you get it?"

"I picked up Mrs. Calyx' daughter for her one afternoon. We passed by the shops. Little Myrrhna insisted on this shop her mother never brings her to and all her friends are talking about. You can choose stuffed accessories for the stuffed toy and everything."

He smiled at the thought of tough, fiery, independent Holly at the whims of a child in a toy store, of Holly laughing at her own trivial whim of buying a lemur holding a lollipop. She probably indulged the child and treated her with affection, as she did for Myles and Beckett. Sometimes, for him.

"I thought it would be funny. Do you like it?"

"I do. Thank you." He looked at the toy. It had a dour expression on it. "The lemur doesn't seem to be happy about it."

"That's the best part. It looks like you when you're bossing people around. You're really good at it, you know, at telling me what to do."

"Do you mind?"

"That you tell me what to do? Strangely, no. You're probably the only person that I don't mind bossing me around. I've really thought about it a lot. I can't explain why. No matter how many times you lie to me and manipulate me, I trust you. I'd still follow your every word."

"Except for that one time you didn't. Then you died."

"Don't be depressing, Artemis. You're upsetting the lemur. Look at it."

The lemur stared back at Artemis with its scowl.

"Actually, there's one more reason I bought it." Holly beamed mischievously at him. "But I'll only tell you if you wake up."

No. "Wait, Holly –"

"Please wake up, Artemis."

He grabbed for her, knowing that she would disappear without explaining to him what's happening. His hands closed in on air.

He was reaching towards the ceiling. Artemis was lying down on the couch of his apartment. His body felt the weight that comes with a deep but short nap. His face was marked from sleeping over a lemur toy.

The lemur.

He twirled it in his hands. Its fur felt soft, felt real. The mark its nose left on his cheek felt real. He looked at its beady eyes. The lemur looked back at him, overly unaffected by the lollipop in its hand.

"We're going to get to the bottom of this." He told it.

After splashing his face with water, Artemis retrieved his laptop. A few taps proved that Huv Furry Factory did exist in Haven's shopping complex and that a Nuestra Calyx did live with her daughter across the hall from Holly's place. He clicked the number.

The motherly elf that answered was a little flustered at the sight of the human, and appeared to be further flustered when the human spoke.

"Mrs. Calyx, good morning. I'm Artemis Fowl, a friend of Holly Short."

At the mention of Holly, the elf relaxed marginally and smiled. "Oh yes, yes. Forgive me, I don't often see that many humans, certainly not any who speak Gnommish and certainly not Artemis Fowl. I know you, of course. We met at her rites. Beautiful ceremony, Mister Fowl. It was nice of you to arrange it. I'm sure Holly would have loved it."

"Thank you." Artemis vaguely remembers Nuestra Calyx prattling the exact same compliment to him during the recycling. "I'm sorry for the unexpected call. If you're not busy, I have a few questions about Holly."

"Just popped breakfast in the oven, dear. I just hope you don't mind that I'm stirring this bowl of harruk while we talk. Ask away."

"Do you recognize this?"

"Mmmm. Holly brought Mhyrrna to that toy store once. They bought matching stuffies. Mhyrrna has a dolphin with a slice of pizza. I'm not fond of crowds you see, so I can't really bring my little girl to the mall. Helpful girl, that Holly. She picks up Mhyrrna from school when something comes up on my schedule. Mhyrr loves it when Holly picks her up, wearing that dashing LEPrecon uniform."

Artemis glanced at the lemur. The lemur looked back, I-told-you-so playing in its eyes. Dreams are not real. And yet, here the stuffed toy was, taunting him. Told you I existed. There's no other explanation. Or perhaps, this is him creating a version of reality he wants?

The uncertainty terrifies him. There are two things Artemis holds important in his life: Holly Short and his mind. He just lost Holly, and now he's losing his mind too.

"Thank you, Mrs. Calyx."

"I'm okay with it, you know." The elf had stopped stirring and placed the bowl aside. "When I was 20, nearly 600 years ago, it was gay rights they were advocating. They ripped off the homophobic passages in the Book after this big Council amendment. Fairies were crying tears of joy in the streets. Then a few hundred years before that, it was this cross-fairy family unions. Hybrids everywhere were legalized. It's the same narrative if you think about it. Love is love. Who is anyone to deny it?"

Artemis didn't know what to say. They had never really cared what society thought of them, even if there was a them in the sense Mrs. Calyx was talking about.

"You're mistaken, Mrs. Calyx. Holly and I are just best friends."

"Darling, I bring Holly dinner every night. After 587 years of life and magic, you just know, alright?"

Artemis was saved from a reply by hustling footsteps and a call of Moommm. They said their thanks and goodbyes, and finally hung up.

He wasn't a stranger to grief. Admittedly, kidnapping was not a healthy reaction to losing his father, but he never lost grips with himself. This is Holly's fault. She made him vulnerable to emotions and humanity, then left him.

His thoughts wondered again to that night. The uneven jungle floor, the looming trees, the shriek of a creature desperate, delusional and alone. The sound of wood slicing through air and skin and bone and Holly.

Artemis got up, trailing Lemur with him. His drug cabinet was in a sorry state, having more chemicals for scientific purposes than for actual medical emergencies. His eyes roved across the vials. He didn't have sleeping pills, but there were bottles of morphine. It's going to take a dangerously large dosage, but it would do the trick.

He was about to plunge the syringe into his skin when Holly appeared.

"That is a very, very stupid move, Artemis. And to think you said you're a genius."

"I needed to sleep. I need to see you." Artemis placed the syringe on the table. "I need to find you."

"Finally figure out I'm not dead, then?"

"It seems to be the only explanation. I'm going to find you, Holly. Don't worry."

Holly huffed a sigh of relief. "Come back to me, Artemis. Just follow my voice."

"I'll need something more tangible than that."

"Well, for starters, stop cooping yourself up in this apartment. The world needs you, Artemis. I need you. That's why you have to wake up."

Cold frustration flooded through Artemis. Before he could even protest, he found himself coming to on his black sofa filled with venomous hate for the words wake up. He never wants to hear them again in his life.

He pulled up near behind a tree, making sure the conspicuous Maserati was out of sight. He made his way to E7, which by now he knew by heart.

He was immediately stopped by the officer at the entrance. Much to the spectacle of the fairy vacationers in the port, he steamrolled over the poor gnome, and three more other staff until he reached the LEP Captain in charge of E7. A lie about a meeting with Foaly being imperative to the fate of the fairy world got him in a shuttle to Police Plaza after 20 minutes of haranguing. He would suffer for that lie later, and would probably never be able to set foot on fairy territory again, but he'll deal with that later.

A techie met him at the entrance and informed him Foaly was in a council meeting and would meet him shortly. Foaly was expecting him. The uproar Artemis created at Tara was far from covert.

Artemis sat on the fairy futon the sprite offered.

"Foaly won't take long." Holly assured him.

"I must've fallen asleep." He must be more tired than he thought. Now that he thought about it, the past week's nights were far from restful.

"I thought we already established I'm not a dream."

"You can only communicate with me when I'm asleep dreaming. Technically, you're a dream."

Holly gives him a fond eye-roll. She takes his hand and drags him off the sofa. "Where are we going?"

"Foaly won't take long, but there's still time for us to skip out for a while."

"Where are we going?" He asked.

Holly shrugged. "Places. I'll take you to a Valhalis concert. You'll love it. He invented what you humans call the piano."

"Isn't that Bartolomeo Cristofori?"

"Mud man got it from the pixie, one way or another. They say Valhalis' composes with magic, and his music would take you places."

The Ops booth hall faded into a dim auditorium. He found himself and Holly sitting on plush theater seats. The music was truly divine, almost ethereal. The crescendos were woven beautifully with staccatos, making him feel, feel, feel. Holly smiled at Artemis, pleased he was enjoying himself.

"Or I could take you to that restaurant my father used to take me and mum to."

The music faded into a pop song playing through a radio speaker. They were seated across each other, a table, a sim-candle and two plates of what looked like pasta between them. Their table was by the window so Artemis could see the suburban village outside. The restaurant they were in was a across a park where fairy children where idling away their afternoon.

"Well, this is where my mom grew up. She met my dad here. Eventually they both went to Haven to study and settle, but we often go back and have lunch here. I was a little girl back then. 10 years old, in human age. When you would sell lemurs, I would run around the tables here and chase the flitterbugs, coming back to the table for a bite before resuming my chase."

He always wanted to know more about Holly's life, and it was exquisite hearing it narrated in her own voice. Little Holly clearly lost against the flitterbugs, as now even over 70 years after the homey establishment was still dotted with the underground luminescent insects.

"My turn to indulge." Holly grabbed Artemis' hand and the light of the little bugs morphed into windows in the horizon. They were flying over a countryside and about to land on a meadow where a gathering was taking place. They landed, surrounded by other people Artemis couldn't focus on. A band was playing a dancing tune.

"Dance with me, Arty!" Holly said, taking his other hand.

"You did this on purpose. You know I'm not the most coordinated person in the world."

Holly smirked. "Not the most? Try least coordinated person in the universe!" She was tempted to let Left Foot Fowl slip her lips, but decided against ruining the moment. She persisted, leading the dance between the two of them. "You know, all you have to do is channel that Fowl grace you have when you're destroying people's dignity into your movements and make it go along with the music."

A few incidents of stepping on Holly's foot later, and Artemis, always the quick learner, managed a passable, in-rhythm sway. Holly's easy smile lulled him into a sense of comfort.

"Why are we doing this? We never do this."

"Do what? Dancing? Dancing in the rain?" A light summer drizzle broke out, the band added sweetness to their music and Artemis can't help but smile. "Why not?"

They never did this. These trivial, nice things. Artemis let himself think it: romantic things.

"It's amazing." Artemis spun Holly into a single twirl. "Though all of this adds evidence to you being a figment of my imagination."

Holly just tilted her head. "You look cold."

The moment Holly said it, he realized he was cold. His hands were warm from holding Holly's, but he could no longer feel his jaw.

"Here," Holly unwound the scarf around her neck. She hovered a few feet to hang the wool across Artemis' neck.

"You need this more than I do." Artemis protested, though he was already enjoying the warmth.

"Don't worry about me. LEP body suit. I survived Russian seas in this."

Artemis secure the blue scarf properly. It was a little short, but it sufficed. It smelt of grass and citrus.

The two danced in silence as the night deepened, content like they've never been before.

"There's something I've always wanted to tell you. And after all that's happened, I realized that I have to tell you now before it's too late, before either of us disappears. It's really important."

"What is it?"

Holly shook her head, her expression regretful. "I can't tell you. Not like this. Not when I'm not even sure if you could hear me."

Artemis tightened his grip. "I'm here, Holly. I could hear you."

"That's why you have to wake up."

He found himself sitting on a waiting chair, outside Ops booth with the lemur on his lap. It must've fell out of his coat as he slept.

"Foaly!" Artemis stood abruptly and met the centaur halfway. "We have to find her!"

"Find who?"

"Holly!" Artemis snapped. Of course, Holly. Who else would they be looking for? The centaur was being stupid.

Foaly clasped Artemis on the shoulder. "Holly's dead, Artemis." He said gently.

"That's what the Encantada wants us to think. I'm sure it's her. She's the last of her kind; who knows what her magic is capable of? Holly and her other victims must be stuck on some Limbo. If she found a way to communicate to us, we could communicate with her. Get No1."

"Communicate?" The centaur said, wistfully giving the human the benefit of a doubt.

"I've been dreaming about her, Foaly. Somehow, she's talking to me in my dreams."

"Artemis, it's perfectly normal to dream about a recently departed – "

"No." A techie peered out of the other room at Artemis' sudden outburst. The man inhaled and lowered his voice. "You don't understand. She tells me things. Things I could never know if she didn't tell me in her dream. She told me she got something for me and kept it with Trouble. I called Trouble, and Holly did leave a package for me. How else could I have known to ask Trouble?"

"I'm not a Dream Warlock. You on the other hand have a degree in psychology. Dreams are subconscious. She must have told you before and you forgot. Now your grief cause it to resurface."

Artemis pinched the bridge of his nose, desperately thinking of a way to prove it to Foaly. A flash of blue caught his peripheral vision. On the seat that he vacated was –

"The scarf!" Artemis grabbed it and presented it to the centaur triumphantly. "Proof. Holly gave this scarf to me in a dream just now. It's still warm. Review your tapes. I wasn't wearing a scarf going in."

Foaly was silent for a very long time. "Artemis, that's not a scarf. That's your coat. You were wearing it when you barged into Tara and scared half the population."

"Foaly, a scarf looks pretty different from a c – " Artemis looked at his hand. He was clutching his black coat.

He was so sure it was the scarf. It even smelled like Holly. He could still remember its cloth wrapped snuggly around his neck. "Someone must've gotten it. The Encantada. Astral projection? Perhaps she has a goon here in Police Plaza. Took the scarf just when –"

Foaly slapped him. Actually slapped him. The centaur neighed in embarrassment. "Stop it, Artemis. Do you have any idea how you sound? I know you miss her. I miss her too. Ruining yourself and your brilliant mind in grief is a waste. It won't do anything. It definitely won't bring her back."

"Holly is out there somewhere, counting on us to save her and you refuse to –"

"You couldn't just wait for retrieval, couldn't you? You always had to tempt Holly into unnecessary danger just so the both of you could get your kicks from your little adventures" Foaly was choking back tears. "You stood there, in that clearing, and let her take the hit for you!"

Artemis stepped back. It was a road he refused to go down to for the past week. Was he somehow at fault? It was his plan…

"We miss Holly. Everyone does." Foaly said. Or rather, a horse with a human body said. It was wearing absurd tinfoil pants.

Artemis blinked. He's not insane. "I'm not insane." He says aloud. "Holly is out there, somewhere."

Foaly nodded, back in his centaur form. "I'll take you home, Artemis. Have some rest."

"You need some rest." A techie echoes, in Andrew Lloyd Webber tunes. He frowns. He loathes modern theater.

Another sprite appeared and nodded. The sprite opened his mouth, and a smooth soprano sang: "In your eyes, all the sadness of the world."

Artemis began to consider his sanity. By the time he was strapped to a shuttle for the surface, Foaly had fully transformed into a human. Acceptance crept in his brain. He was failing at coping. He had ran away. That was how he always mourned – by not mourning. Now he can't even trust his own mind.

Holly is dead. She's dead.

Tears fell down from his eyes. It was the first time he cried since her death.

When they reached E7, Artemis left without a word. He left the fairy port and drove straight to Holly's recycling site. He's going to exhume the body and give his mind peace once and for all.

It wasn't easy. At some point, the skin on his hands cracked from the cold and the sudden abuse. The soil stung where it nestled into the broken skin. He reaches the recycling pod with a thunk. Artemis threw the shovel aside.

"I'm not crazy. Holly is dead." Artemis told himself.

He opens the pod.

It's empty.

He checks the pad on the side. The reports say the recycling pod has never been occupied.

Artemis tried to calm himself. He futilely patted the earth off his pants and realizes he still had the syringe of morphine in his pocket.

He takes it out. There was enough morphine loaded.

"What the hell, Artemis? Are you really going to give up?" Her shrieks are not unfamiliar. Holly loved arguing with him.

"I told you your death's going to kill me too." Artemis screamed back.

"Look at it. That's not enough to kill you. Are you really going to spend the rest of your life in a vegetative state? Your precious brain is going to atrophy in disuse!"

"I'm already insane, Holly! Look at me, talking to the apparition of a dead mythical creature! My brain is useless. I wasn't even able to save you. I can't do anything."

"You're Artemis Fowl the Second." Holly told him. "You can do anything."

"I can't even tell you how much you mean to me." Artemis muttered bitterly.

"You have to beat this, Arty. Rise above it. If you don't- " Holly looks away. Her voice is a whisper and Artemis barely heard it against the winds of his thoughts. "I might not be able to survive it. I think, I might follow you."

That doesn't make sense. It was Artemis trying to follow Holly. And yet dread filled his bones and he knows that he must stop Holly from killing herself at all costs.

"Don't worry. It won't come to that because you'll win this, right? You'll fight this, Artemis, just like every other megalomaniac we send to the Deeps."

"How? Tell me what to do, Holly! I don't know what you want me to do!"

"I've been telling you all this time! Wake up, Artemis. Please, gods, wake up." Holly breaks into tears, a full on proper cry. Artemis has never seen Holly this devastated. He could feel her devastation breaking his chest rib by rib.

"Holly, don't cry. Please, I don't understand. Wake up? What does that mean?" He choked out. Artemis realized he was crying now too.

"Just come back to me, Artemis. Please. Wake up."

He reached for Holly, aching to wipe off her tears. He stumbles down the hole he had dug.

He blinks and tried to regain his bearings.

He wasn't in a meadow. Instead of sunlight filtering through the yew's branches, bright hospital lights shone back at him. He was on a hospital bed, the stuffed lemur to his left and a blue, fairy-sized scarf uselessly lain over the hospital blanket.

"Holly," His voice was a croak, as if he hadn't used it in days.

"Artemis," Holly jolted awake, instantly alert. Bright, worried eyes met his. "You're awake, thank gods."

"What happened?" He asked. He absorbed the image of her. Holly was in hospital clothes as well, looking very much like she should be in her own hospital bed instead of fussing over someone else's. He wondered how many nurses she agitated to be here.

"What do you remember?"

"The fairy net didn't activate. The Encantada ambushed me when I went to check it. You came back, even if I repeatedly told you how imperative it was that you don't. She got you." Artemis swallowed, his throat dry. "You didn't make it. I kept dreaming of you telling me to wake up. Everyone thought I was crazy. I thought I was crazy, even when Trouble gave me a toy lemur you told me you bought for me with your neighbor's daughter" He smiled. "Then you brought me to see a pianist, and your mother's childhood village, to a party. It sounds insane, but you're here now."

Holly was looking at him as if he really was insane. It scared him. If even Holly, the object of his supposed hallucinations, thought he was out of his mind, he wouldn't know what to do.

"Artemis, I was never dead." It was too familiar with what dream-Holly said, and for a moment Artemis dreadfully expected Holly to ask him to wake up.

She blinked, and her shock turned to sadness. "You were the one the Encantada got to. She didn't go far enough to kill you, but some of the toxin got in your system. You were in a coma."

A cog clicked in place inside Artemis' brain and the clockwork started ticking. "…and you kept talking to me, asking me to wake up."

Holly nodded. "I bought you Lemur here a few months back, after that spelltropy outbreak, but I was confined in the hospital myself and couldn't get it. Trouble was the one who dropped it off in your room. Mrs. Calyx, my neighbor, visited too. By that time I was already staying here at your room. She brings me dinner. Gave us a long lecture about love; you'll be happy you were unconscious. I thought I'd die of cringing.

"Minds are still a progressing science, even for fairy folk. There's some research on talking to the comatose. I was this near reading bedtime stories to you. I started promising to take you places."

"The recital and the restaurant." Artemis smiled, remembering the pleasant dream.

"I gave you my scarf when you started shivering. Though it's not much use."

Artemis smiled. "We were dancing in the rain."

Everything sorted out into neat real and not-real columns. The fog began to lift from Artemis' brain.

"You said there was another reason you bought Lemur. Something important you had to tell me. You held it over my head and used it to blackmail me into waking up."

Holly picked the stuff toy and contemplated it for a full minute. She looked up, meeting Artemis' gaze again. A sigh.

Ah. "You don't need to tell me. I'm 84 percent sure I know what it is."

Holly hit the plush toy against Artemis chest. He winced. So that's where the Encantada got him.

She looked at him defiantly. "Pompous git, that's 16 percent chance of error."

"Bravo, you know how to subtract." He got a hit for the jibe, but Holly avoided his still tender torso this time. "I'll take those chances. We've lived through narrower odds."

"Have a guess then."

"Did you really mean it? That you'll follow me?"

"I think so." Holly frowned, her voice a whisper. She was afraid that it was true. More confidently, she added: "Like I told you before, I couldn't really do without you, Artemis. I'll follow you anywhere, even if you tell me to jump into magma."

Artemis placed a hand against Holly's jaw. He could fee her pulse, her warm skin, her breath skim his skin. Holly was here, alive and thriving. Was this how heavenly bodies felt when they finally found their sun to orbit around to?

She leaned into his touch.

"I'll follow you too, Holly, to the ends of the world."

A/N: That was long. If you've stayed around this long, please do take the extra mile and read this a/n. Then go ahead and leave me a review too, since you already procrastinated whatever important real-life thing you're supposed to be doing anyway.

For those still confused: what really happened was Artemis got hit by the nature fairy, didn't die and fell into a coma. During the coma, Holly stayed by his sickbed and talked to him, like how you normally do to coma patients, telling him to wake up, giving him a stuffed toy, wrapping a scarf around him when he shivered. Meanwhile in Artemis' head, life continued to play out but in it Holly's dead and he keeps dreaming about the things the real Holly is actually telling his comatose self irl. He finally wakes up and love love fluff marshmallow. If you're still confused, pm me.

I've had this floating in bits for a while now, but I had second thoughts posting it because I got the idea from a BBC Sherlock fic prompt site. All credits to the original poster and brbsoulnomming over at Ao3, who has written the original, BBC Sherlock version of this fic. It's just that the concept fits so much with Artemis and Holly I just had to make an AF AU of her fanfic. Then when I had some precedence, in the form of another AF author posting an AF-ized version of the BBC Sherlock fic Alone in the Water, I finally decided it's okay to post this as long as there are proper credits.

Basically, we're all going on and on and on about how cruel it is that Holly will be left behind. The thing is, I think Artemis thought he'll be the one doing the leaving, too. Which is selfish and typically Artemis. Imagine his devastation when Holly leaves. This is like a reverse version of my fic Mourning, if any of you have read that.

I hate how TAC this feels, because of the mental lapses on Artemis' part. I hate that Eoin even made a mental breakdown in character for Artemis Fowl in the first place. With TAC intact (lol that rhymes), I think the most obvious way Artemis would react is continuing to talk to Holly, regain back some of his evil self and put up some very very thick walls, against the outside world and against himself.

And yes, typical of me, I cheated and pulled that ending which makes all of us wonder, is this really a Holly dies Artemis angst fic or another mindtwist fic from Indigo. Idk.