Chapter 1: Kidnapped in Broad Daylight

Artemis Fowl glared at his reflection in the filthy bathroom mirror.

He knew certain precautions had to be taken so that no potential assassins or any other criminally minded individuals did not recognize him, but still, this was too much.

He should have never agreed to let Juliet give him a makeover.

The wrestling obsessed young woman had truly outdone herself (and that was not meant in a good way).

Artemis could not even recognize the boy who stared back at him in the cracked mirror, provided by the by the cheap hotel they were currently residing in.

Instead of the one blue eye and one hazel eye he was used to seeing, Juliet had forced him to wear contacts. And she just had to choose contacts that made his eyes a stunning emerald green color.

His hair was worse. Instead of being well combed back like it usually was, Juliet had more or less dumped an entire jar of hair gel on his head and spiked it in different directions, expect for one part that covered his forehead.

He now looked as though he had never even heard of a comb.

But in Artemis’s opinion, the clothes were what were compelling him to kill Juliet.

When Juliet had presented him with the clothes, Artemis had stubbornly stated that he would never be caught dead in such an outfit, which was exactly why she had chosen those clothes.

She reasoned no one would ever recognize Artemis in such clothes.

Artemis reasoned she had only chosen them to annoy him, and it was working.

Instead of his usual neat suit, Artemis was now dressed in old looking, ripped jeans and a baggy, too-large black sweater with a black t-shirt on underneath. On his feet was a pair of scuffed filthy trainers.

He scowled.

He looked like a street urchin.

But, he had to admit; no one would be able to recognize him now.

Butler was worried.

That was the first thing Artemis noted as they left the cheap hotel.

The Caucasian bodyguard rarely worried, but now he did have a good cause too.

Ever since Artemis had returned from his latest saving the world adventure, things had changed incredibly.

Artemis was now the brother of two extremely bright and mischievous twins, Myles and Beckett.

They adored him. He managed to tolerate them.

Actually, Artemis had grown fond of the twins, but he wasn’t used to children and if the twins ever found out that he actually liked them, he would never hear the end of it.

His parents had been beside themselves with joy at Artemis’s return, but he had been unable to accurately tell the truth behind his disappearance.

So, he simply settled on saying he had been kidnapped.

Immediately, Butler and his sister had been rehired and put under careful supervision.

Normally, Artemis would not bother with all the new rules and overprotection of his parents, but an event occurred that forced him to change his mind.

Actually, it was several, twenty-two to be exact, events that all had the same goal.

Kidnap Artemis Fowl II.

Fortunately, Butler and pure blind luck had saved him but now extra precautions had to be taken whenever he traveled.

Like, for instance, their trip to Britain. They had come here in order to meet Artemis’s parents and the twins who had left a week earlier than Artemis for a family vacation.

But so far was running smoothly.

Except for the small fact that Juliet had lost the location of the restaurant they were meeting Artemis’s parents at.

As they walked down a busy street, Artemis wondered why they had let Juliet carry the slip of paper with the address of the restaurant written on it.

Perhaps she wished to redeem herself for the pudding fiasco, he thought, smiling slightly at the memory. It had been funny.

Messy, sticky, and entirely out of control, but undeniably funny.

However, he couldn’t help but wish that he had brought his laptop or at least a cell phone with him.

But his mother had made it quite clear that no work and no electronics would be allowed on this vacation. The Fowl family would relax and spend quality time together. Artemis could go back to being a distant teenager after the vacation.

Butler scanned the block nervously. His bodyguard instincts were prickling; something was wrong.

“Don’t worry too much, Butler,” Artemis said in a carefully casual voice.

“On this street only every second building is a restaurant and the restaurant we’re searching for is within a thirty black radius, so that leaves us with only sixty different possibilities…”

His voice trailed off as he realized just how truly lost they were.

“Nice, Artemis,” Juliet snickered, looking as the latest fashions in a nearby shop window.

“I’m sure Dom feels so much better now.”

Artemis sent her a glare that clearly said ‘At least I’m trying so you’d better stop that or else…’.

Taking the hint, Juliet abandoned the fashions and turned towards her brother.

“Lighten up, Dom. We’ll find them. After all, we’ve got a genius to help us.”

Butler frowned at his sister. Yet here was another reason why Juliet would never make a good bodyguard. She rarely took anything seriously. The only reason she had agreed to be Artemis’s bodyguard was because she was truly worried about the boy genius.

“The longer Artemis stays out in the open like this, the better target he is for potential assassins and kidnappers.”

Juliet slapped Butler slightly on his back.

“Don’t worry. Artemis, don’t you dare get yourself kidnapped or I’ll kill you myself, understand?”

Artemis rolled his eyes, but his lips twitched slightly.

“Wonderful choices you’ve given me Juliet, stay with my kidnappers or get killed by you.”

He turned towards Butler who was once again scanning the street.

“Butler, seriously, everything will be fine. I can take care of myself now a little. Some of what you and Juliet have been attempting to teach me must have sunk in a little.”

Butler smiled slightly, feeling immensely fond of the two younger individual’s attempts to cheer him up. It was kind of them, but he would only cease worrying when Artemis was safe with his parents.

Though Artemis hid it carefully, Butler could tell the young boy could not wait to be reunited with his family for a relaxing vacation.

For the first time in years, the entire Fowl family would be spending quality time with each other.

Artemis scanned the street again for the two hundred eighteenth time. None of the names of any of the restaurants appeared to be familiar.

Then he spotted a small shop on the far left on the other side of the street called Fabled Haven.

Something stirred in his memory. The name appeared to be familiar; was it the restaurant they were searching for?

“I’m going to check that shop.” He said.

He was across the street, weaving skillfully through the cars, before Butler and Juliet could stop him. A sudden rush of traffic prevented them from following their charge.

Oblivious to the fact that Butler and Juliet had not followed him, Artemis studied the shop.

It was quite old and badly in need of a new coat of paint, preferably in a different color.

There was a sign in the window proclaiming the day’s special: Monkey Brain Soup.

This cannot be the meeting place, Artemis thought, turning away from the building.

The cardboard boxes next to the door exploded.

Startled, Artemis fell backwards, staring numbly at the burning debris.

A bomb? he thought dazedly.

No, a bomb would have caused more damage, blown off a limb or two at this distance.

Then he was aware of Butler’s and Juliet’s shouts and two men in long black coats, carrying sticks, running towards him.

“Artemis, run!” Juliet shouted desperately as Butler attempted to find a way through the heavy traffic

Blindly, Artemis got up and ran, away from the advancing men and away from Butler and Juliet.

Pushing gaping people aside, he ran, faster than he had ever run before, mentally making a note to thank Juliet later for choosing such sensible shoes.

The streetlamp exploded as he passed, causing many nearby people to scream.

An increasing number of people had realized that something was wrong, but instead of helping him, they were hindering him by standing dumbly in his way.

“Move it!” he snapped, shoving two individuals out of the way with his elbows.

Ignoring their curses and protests, he looked back hoping against hope that he was just being paranoid and no one was chasing him.

No such luck.

The men were still after him with murderous expressions of their faces and their sticks held out in front of them.

There was a flash of light and the glass of a nearby window shattered, showering him with thousands of tiny pieces of glass.

Ignoring the glass, Artemis ran on, hoping the men would give up the chase before he ran out of energy.

He turned right into an alley, hoping that he would be able to lose his pursuers in the darkness.

But the alley led to a dead end.

Trapped, he stared hopelessly at the huge brick wall blocking his way.

The sound of pounding footsteps altered him to the arrival of his pursuers.

Artemis whipped around just in time to see one of the men, the fairer one, point his stick at him and shout a strange word, possibly in Latin.

“Expelliarmus!”

Artemis felt himself fly backwards and hit the wall, hard. He slid to the ground dazed and unable to protest when his shoulders were roughly grabbed by one of the men.

“We got Potter!” a gruff voice said gleefully.

Potter? Artemis thought, disoriented.

Who’s Potter?

“Let’s get out of here before the bloody Order arrives.”

Order? What Order? What is going on?

Artemis’s stomach sank even more with dread.

“Don’t squirm, Potter,” the first voice snickered.

“Or you’ll accidentally get splinched.”

Splinched?

The hand on his shoulder tightened and suddenly Artemis felt a jerk around his navel. Panicking and unable to breathe, Artemis was just about to scream when the feeling suddenly vanished.

Opening his eyes (he hadn’t even realized that he had shut them) he saw that he was in some sort of room, not the dark alley.

Stomach drooping to what felt like the core of the earth, Artemis gulped.

He had been kidnapped in broad daylight and had no idea how it had happened.

I read this before. You never updated for a long time.

I know, I'm sorry I'm working on the next chapter right now. I hope to finish it soon! I hope!

Remember to update on this site and the AF Fangathering Fanfiction site. Don't forget your other stories too.

Yup, I will! I remember. I'll update it on all the other sites I posted on. Plus, I'll update my other stories. I'm working on the next chapter of a lot of them

I hope so.

~~*Chapter 2: Prisoner of an Evil Dark Lord*~~

For the first time in Artemis’s young life, his extra ordinary mind was failing him.

No matter how much strain he put on his brain, he could not think of a way to effectively deal with his situation.Because, no matter how much he was loath to admit it, Artemis could not when understand half of what was going on.He could not understand how a man had pointed a stick at him and caused him to fly backwards into a wall.He could not understand why his kidnappers thought he was someone named ‘Potter’.He could not understand how he had been kidnapped in broad daylight and not have any idea how it happened.

And if there was one thing that Artemis absolutely detested, it was not understanding something.Therefore, it is quite understandable that he was too dazed to protest when one of his kidnappers dragged him through a door with a snake engraved on it.

Nor did he protest when the other kidnapper said a word that Artemis, one again, did not understand, and several statues of cobras moved, revealing a secret passage.

Actually he regained some of his senses when the statutes moved, enough to think, that wasn’t right, statues did not move. At least, not in his world.

But Artemis had a horrible gut feeling that this wasn’t his world, or any that he was aware of.

“Hurry up Potter,” the fairer kidnapper snarled, giving Artemis a painful push between his shoulder blades. “We wouldn’t want to be late for the meeting.”

“Yeah,” the other kidnapper snickered.

“After all, you’re the guest of honor.”

Even in his dazed state, Artemis did not like the sound of that.

Whoever this Potter was, it was obvious these men were not his biggest fans.

Abruptly, the kidnappers stopped in front of another door, this one completely plain except for a sliver snake with green eyes painted right in the center.

Artemis took advantage of the pause to mentally repair himself and gather his scattered wits.The second an opportunity to escape appeared, he had to be prepared to take it.

The fairer kidnapper spoke.

“Toujour Pur.”

This time Artemis understood what was said, which, frankly, was a relief.

Still Pure.

It appeared to be a password of some sort because the doors opened with a sinister creak.

The kidnapper, who was gripping his shoulder in a rather painful manner, pushed him forward as though to check that it was safe to go in.It seemed that they had reached their destination. Artemis was debating over whether this was good or bad.

Ignoring the kidnappers, Artemis studied his surroundings. After all, if there was one thing that Butler had stressed over it was that “ten seconds of observation could save your life.”The room they were in reminded Artemis vividly of a scene in an old horror movie that the tins adored and once made him watch.

With the cold, damp moss growing on the cracked gray stonewalls to the lack of any electronics, Artemis felt as though he had been he had been dumped in one of the dudgeons around during the dark ages.All that was missing was a knight in shinning armor and a dragon, locked in a perilous battle to save a fair maiden who did not have enough sense to run while her captor was distracted.

BAM!

Artemis jumped at the sudden sound and stared as a human shaped figure appeared from a door that Artemis could have sworn was not there before.More figures followed, all dressed in black, long, loose clothes that looked suspiciously like dresses and masks that even Artemis had to admit were defiantly winners of the “Most creepy” category in any contest.

All too soon, the room was filled, but still, no one moved. There was an undeniable feeling of tension in the air.It was like waiting for a comet outside your window to strike you dead.

Heart throbbing almost painfully in his chest, Artemis decided not to do anything yet (like there was anything he could do against these lunatics with strange sticks).It was better for him to play the meek hostage, get them to lower their guard before he made his move, whatever it was.

It was then that he was aware of something slippery and rough touching his ankles.

Looking down, he nearly jumped of out his skin.

It was a snake. A much too huge, cold-blooded snake, which was currently wrapping itself around his ankles.

“Well Nagini, have you greeted our guest?” hissed a soft, cold, merciless voice.

Looking up, Artemis saw what was probably the oddest thing he had seen all day, and that was saying something considering the events that had occurred since he had risen from that cheap bed at precisely 6 a.m.

A tall man dressed in the same black dress like clothing as the others sat at a throne in the center of the room, his face obscured by the hood of his clothing.Though Artemis could not see his face, he felt his skin crawl. If it didn’t sound so corny, he would have said that the man was pure evil.

The snake, Nagini, was now coiling itself around his neck, hissing.

Artemis barely managed to suppress a shudder as felt the snake’s tongue taste the air barely a centimeter from his check, though he could not help but squeeze his eyes shut.The snake was heavy; it took all of Artemis’s strength just to stay standing. Then suddenly the weight was gone.

Surprised, Artemis opened his eyes to see the snake flying towards the figure on the throne.It hadn’t sprouted wings or a propeller, but it was still flying.The part of Artemis’s brain that was not numb with shock wondered about his sanity.

“Now Nagini, that’s enough” the man hissed in the same cold voice as before.

He stoked the snake’s head in the same manner as one pets a dog.

“We don’t want to harm Mr. Potter. Yet.”

He turned back to Artemis who kept his face as emotionless as possible, given the circumstances.

“You’re awfully quiet, Harry. What, no wonderfully heroic speeches? Where’s the courage you Gryffindors are renowned for?”

Artemis didn’t say a word.

The man sighed, as though disappointed.

“And I was so looking forward to your pathetic comebacks.”

The people surrounding them laughed when the man did and stopped immediately when he did. It was pathetic really.

Suddenly the whole atmosphere in the room darkened.Though still unable to see the man’s face, Artemis felt his sudden sharp glare.

“Malfoy,” the man hissed, angry now.

“What is this?”

The fairer man who had kidnapped Artemis gulped.

“My lord, forgive me, but I do not understand.”

The very air around the hooded man seemed to crackle with anger.

“Where is Potter?” he snapped.

“B-but, my lord, he’s standing tight here—”

“Silence!”

The shout rang through the room. No one moved a muscle.

“Check his forehead.”

The two kidnappers nearly fell over themselves in their haste to follow the order.Artemis, needless to day, was now quite unsettled by what was happening.

The other kidnapper grabbed Artemis’s shoulder’s, effectively holding him in place, while Malfoy ruined Artemis’s ridiculous hairstyle. For some reason, the sight of Artemis’s pale, unblemished forehead caused the kidnappers to become pale themselves.They quickly withdrew their hands from him and looked fearfully at their lord.

“So…” the man said, tapping one white finger on the arm of the armrest of his throne.

“My lord, please, forgive us. He looks just like Potter! The same eyes, the same hair, even his clothes are the same muggle rags Potter often wears! We thought—”

“I do not want your excuses, Malfoy.” The man interrupted.

“I want Potter. But you can’t seem to understand that can you?”

The hooded man pulled out a stick, like Artemis’s kidnappers had, seemingly out of nowhere.

“I wonder how your family will feel about this latest failure? Especially your son, who thinks himself too good to join us?”

Malfoy fell to his knees, surprising Artemis into taking a few steps backwards.

“My lord, I beg you, please…do not harm them…”

Their lord laughed. It was a merciless sound, that chilled Artemis to the bone.

“Spare them, Malfoy, punish you instead? No, it will leave more of an impact, I think, if I kill off a few relations.”

“That’s a bit harsh.” Artemis said suddenly. He was getting a little tired of being ignored and having no idea what was going on.“He made a mistake, why should it be his family who pays the price?”

The impact of his words was astounding.

The crowd of people gasped simultaneously and began to shout vulgarities at him. The kidnappers paled even more and moved away from him as though he had suddenly contracted an infectious, deadly disease.

Only the man on the throne showed no emotion.

“I do not recall giving you permission to speak in my presence, muggle” he said in his soft high voice.

Artemis blinked in surprise. He had been called many things before in his short life, but never ‘muggle’. He did not know what it meant, but it was obviously not a compliment.

Hmm… Artemis thought, surveying the scene before him. Perhaps discarding my disguise as a meek hostage wasn’t exactly the best plan.

But what was done was done. He couldn’t change what he had said, just like how he couldn’t change the fact that he had been kidnapped by this queer lot.

Malfoy spoke hesitantly.

“My lord, I—”

“Silence, you imbecile.” The man snapped, not even bothering to look at Malfoy.

“The muggle and I are having a delightful conversation, though he seems to be lacking the necessary skills. You haven’t answered my question, muggle. Did I or did I not give you permission to speak?”

Artemis did not need to be a genius to realize that he was being toyed with.His annoyance of this led him to make what was possibly the biggest mistake he had made all day. Even bigger than getting out of bed that morning, leaving Butler’s and Juliet’s side, or running into that dark alley.

He attempted to answer the man.

“I—”

“Crucio.”

The pain hit suddenly and unexpectedly.

It was nothing like Artemis had ever felt before. It was though his very blood was on fire, as though someone was trying to cut Artemis’s soul from his body with a very dull knife.

And it went on and on and on.

It took Artemis all of him will power to not scream in agony.He clenched his hands so tightly that his knuckles turned white. His eyes were squeezed shut so tightly that it did not seem possible that they would ever open again. He bit through his lower lip, causing blood to drip lightly onto his shirt.

But he did not scream, whimper, or give any indication that he was in pain.

A causal bystander would merely have though that the boy had a bad case of indigestion, judging by his face.

And suddenly, it stopped.The pain was gone.

Artemis could have fallen to his knees in gratitude, but managed to stop himself.He simply unscrewed his eyes.

The room was dead silent. He was the center of center, and for once, Artemis did not enjoy it one bit.

“Interesting,” the man on the throne said.

“I’m told not even the Longbottoms lasted that long, and they screamed most beautifully.”

Artemis blinked, trying to get rid of the blue sparks that were clouding his vision.

Wait a minute…

Artemis looked sown at his hands. Blue sparks were racing from them and traveling all over his body. He could feel the aches left by the pain disappearing and his wounded lip healing.

Unconsciously he had called upon small reserve of stolen fairy magic to protect him from the pain.The result was that it had stopped the pain. For now at least.

“How did you do that, muggle?” the man hissed.“That was not magic.”

Artemis did not answer. It wasn’t because of cowardice; he just did not wish to feel the pain again.And besides, what could he say? He did not want to betray the fairies, now that they were friends, more or less.

The man lifted the hood off of his face, leaving it clearly visible.

“I have never met a muggle with a will as strong as yours before. Intriguing…”

Artemis did not care much about the compliment. He was just trying not to scream.The man was like a bogeyman out of the nightmares of a child. A very demented child.

Artemis’s mental struggle went unnoticed.

“Malfoy.”

The blond kidnapper jumped at the sudden recognition.

“Throw the muggle in one of the cells in the dudgeon. I shall deal with him later, at a more leisure pace.”

The next thing Artemis knew, he was waking up in a dirty, damp cell.

They must have knocked me out, he thought, getting up and brushing as much dirt as he could off of his clothes

Most likely with their ‘magic’.

Artemis was quite sure now that these people possessed magic of a different sort than the fairies.Despite the fact that these people were holding him hostage, Artemis could help but feel excited.

He glanced at the door.

It was obviously locked by magic, so that could be ruled out as a possible escape route.

Artemis sat down on the cleanest part of the floor, which, coincidentally, was also the area farthest from the door.

He settled into his routine thinking procedure and began to mediate.Now that the shock was wearing off, Artemis began plotting his escape.

He had no idea where he was, so it was safe to assume that neither did Butler or Juliet. He had to rely solely upon himself to escape.

Artemis allowed a small smile to grace his features.

These lunatics would rue the day they had crossed Artemis Fowl the Second.

But for now, he was the prisoner of an evil dark lord.

.~~*`*`*~~.

So good! Need more!

Haha, thank you!

~~*Chapter 3 Strange Ideas, Weird Theories, and Useless Plans *~~

There was no other word for it. One could search the entire English dictionary and still reach the same conclusion.

Butler was panicking.

Or, if you do not posses enough imagination to view Butler experiencing this emotion, we shall say that Butler was a little more than just mildly concerned.

Either way, the Etruscan bodyguard was not his usual stoic self.

And what self-respecting bodyguard would be?

He had lost his principle in broad daylight.

Oh, this recent incident would do wonders for his career record.

How could Artemis do this, he thought, pacing back and forth in the room of the cheap hotel in which they had spent the previous night.

How could he vanish after finally coming back? How could I not stop him?

He and Juliet had searched the entire street, so many times that they had lost count, only to reach the conclusion that Artemis Fowl the Second was not there.

Butler mentally admonished himself for not bringing at least his cell phone with him.

Yes, Mrs. Fowl had ordered him to make sure that no electronics were brought on the trip, but still.

He had spent years training to be able to do what few could. Hadn’t he learned some common sense along the way?

“No good, Dom” Juliet said, coming into the room.

“The owner’s too cheap to let us use his phone. Actually, he’s too cheap to even own a phone. He uses some kind of weird typewriter to send messages, can you believe that?”

Butler gritted his teeth. There had to be something they could do.

Come on think, think…

But Artemis was the thinker and Butler had doubts that even he could devise a plan to recover someone who had vanished into thin air.

“Dom” Juliet said hesitantly.

“Maybe you should sit down for a minute.”

Unconsciously, Butler did as she said, too focused on coming up with a plan to notice.

“Why did we come back here on the first place?” he asked, gripping his forehead with his right hand.

Juliet shrugged.

“I thought Artemis might have escaped those two freaky dudes and come back.”

She didn’t tell him the real reason why.

Juliet was seriously worried about her older brother.

Yes, she was also worried about Artemis, but she reasoned that he had come back after being lost in time (or something like that, Juliet still wasn’t exactly sure what had happened), so he could be able to handle a couple of human kidnappers.

Actually, between Artemis’s natural intelligence and the training he had received from bother her and Butler over the past few months, she almost felt sorry for the kidnappers. Almost.

“He’s not here.” Butler muttered.

“He’s not anywhere.”

Juliet glanced at her brother’s tired face.

No one would admit it out loud, but there was no denying it.

Butler was getting old.

All they had done was search the street a few, okay, more than a few, times and Butler had become so pale that Juliet had to immediately think of a way to get her brother to get some rest.

And so, they were now back at the cheap hotel with no idea what to do next.

Butler had fallen silent again, mentally going over everything he had ever been taught, searching for a solution.

It was rare for Butler to show so much emotion, but apparently, the older he got, the more emotional he became.

The fiction novels he was so fond of were excellent proof of that.

The silence in the room was suffocating. To Juliet at least.

In her opinion, Butler was being way too grim.

Sighing dramatically, she flopped onto the second bed in the room, carelessly dropping her overstuffed bag onto the floor.

“Man,” she said.

“We can never get a break with Artemis can we?”

No answer.

Juliet bravely tried again.

“Being a genius, you’d think he’d use that brain of his to stay out of trouble, not dive headfirst into it.”

Butler didn’t even seem to hear.

Juliet frowned. What were they supposed to do, blockade the entire country and drill everyone, down to the smallest child?

Or maybe they could ask the fairies for help.

Yeah, that’s work. Actually, Holly might be willing to help.

Now the question was how to contact her.

We could hire a jet and have it write a message in the sky, declaring ‘Fairies do exist! They live below us with technology centuries more advanced then ours!’ Juliet thought sarcastically.

Yeah, that’d work.

She sat up and scowled.

Darn Artemis! She was a wrestler turned bodyguard, not a mathematician! How was she supposed to know what to do next?

She kicked the poor innocent bag by her feet, causing it to fly several feet through the air, before landing in the middle of the room.

One of the outside pockets burst open.

Spilling out was brushes, lipsticks, other bits of makeup, and something else.

That something else rolled away from the bag and came to a full stop by Butler’s feet.

Butler and Juliet simply stared at it.

Juliet was the first to break the silence.

“Well, that’s convenient.”



Thousands of miles away and underground, Holy Short felt a sudden chill.

She had an abrupt very bad feeling, the kind of feeling she usually got when everything was about to spiral completely out of her control.

This kind of feeling, more often than not, involved a certain too smart for his own good Mud Boy.

Holy sighed and put aside the mystery novel she had been enjoying and waited for the inevitable call.

Oh, she had just known things had been too quiet lately.



Back in his cell, Artemis opened his eyes.

He had just spent the last thirty minutes pondering his predicament and reached several intriguing conclusions.

The first and foremost issue he had contemplated was his imprisonment. Nothing too taxing.

It had taken him merely three of those thirty minutes to form a foolproof plan to escape. All he had to do was test a few details and then he’d be all set.

However, Artemis was not entirely sure if he wanted to escape at the very moment. Leaving now might ensure his removal from this world, not forever, but possibly for an extended period of time.

And Artemis was not ready to leave, not without gaining at least some knowledge about this new ‘magic’.

That was the second, third, and fourth issue Artemis had spent his time pondering.

Just what was this ‘magic’ and how were humans able to use it?

Artemis just could not find a reason without the necessary facts.

Suddenly tired of sitting, Artemis got up and began to pace.

He discovered that it took him exactly twenty steps in any direction to reach a wall, which, he had previously noted, were caked with moss and crumbling with age.

He pressed a finger to the rock, frowning in distaste as it crumbled, leaving his finger coated with a fine layer of gray dust.

Really, hadn’t his kidnappers ever heard of remodeling and safety hazards?

Sighing, he wiped his hand on his jeans.

They were so dirty and ripped that it really didn’t make that much of a difference, expect renew Artemis’s resolve to soak in a hot tub for no less than four hours when this was over.

Escape is no longer an issue, Artemis thought, settling back in ‘his’ corner again.

Not that it ever really was an issue. What is an issue is getting back to Butler and Juliet.

Butler, Artemis was sure, would try his best to rescue Artemis, but would he know where to look?

His kidnappers had distinct English accents, but that did not necessarily mean that he was still in England.

Hopefully, Butler and Juliet would discover the fairy transmitter he had hidden in Juliet’s bag and use it to contact Holly for help.

(Had his mother truly believed that he would leave all devices of communication behind? Besides, Artemis reasoned to subdue his confounded conscious, his mother was not even aware of the existence of the fairy communicator, so it was obviously not included in her list.)

Holly…

Brow wrinkled, Artemis studied his hands. Apparently he had more magic left than he had originally thought.

Perhaps, since he was a human, not a fairy, the magic he had, liberated, had somehow mutated inside of him.

He closed his eyes and visualized a blue spark.

He opened his eyes to see his right hand glowing.

Hmm. Not exactly the result he had been aiming for, but at least something had happened.

But he had done some magic without using one of those sticks his kidnappers seemed to need, so they apparently had not received their magic from fairies, like him.

Artemis massaged his temples, deep in thought.

Perhaps, the demon warlocks then?

Maybe, years ago, a demon warlock had married a human and their child was a mixture of both.

A human with demon magic.

Hey, weirder things have happened.

Besides the leader of the kidnappers was certainly ugly enough to be a demon.

Interesting, Artemis thought.

If that is true, then, maybe—

Creak…

CRASH!

The door of his cell opened, distracting Artemis from his thoughts.

As Artemis turned to see who had entered, he put a hand on the brick wall behind him and concentrated.



“Wait just a minute.” Holly said, sitting on Juliet’s bed, watching the two worried humans.

“Let me get this straight. Artemis was kidnapped by two men in dresses with sticks that fired out blasts of light which were actually harmful?”

“Yup.” Juliet replied as she tried to stuff all of her makeup back into her bag.

“Despite how crazy it sounds, it’s all true.”

“Can you help us, Holly?” Butler asked, getting straight to the whole point behind Holly’s visit.

Holly gave him what she hoped was an encouraging smile.

“Well, I used up a lot of favors just getting here, but if Mulch is able to get through to Foaly, then we’ll have a pretty good chance of finding him.”

Butler nodded, already aware that Foaly kept Artemis under surveillance, even now.

Despite the fact that Butler and Juliet were clearly worried about Artemis, Holly just couldn’t resist.

“Well, at least we know one thing.”

They both turned to look at her.

“Karma will always win.”

So good! Hmm...

Uh Oh, suspicous of me too now?

~~*Chapter 4 Trial and Error, A Lot of Error*~~

If everything in life happened the way we expected it to, then it would be a very boring life. Unexpected surprises tended to add spice to an otherwise quite bland existence.

However, at the moment, Artemis wished that for once his life would just follow his plan, without any unexpected or potentially dangerous twists.

But of course, he was Artemis Fowl II, the boy who had discovered the existence of fairies, stolen their gold, and traveled through time. Life just had to be, and stay, exciting for him.

When Artemis had pressed his hands against the dirty wall as the door opened, his intention had been to collapse the doorway onto the individual who entered.

However, that was not what had happened. Instead of the doorway collapsing, the dirty iron door turned a healthy liquid brown color.

Artemis blinked. That was unexpected.

Quickly drooping his hands, Artemis carefully avoided looking at the now auburn door.

The kidnapper, a man in his late twenties, was fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, too focused on being a bully to notice the color change.

“Here, you filthy muggle,” the dress-wearing madman snarled, throwing a plate of some unidentifiable mush onto the grimy ground.

“Be thankful my Lord still has use for you, or you’d be rotting in a hole somewhere.”

“So instead I have the pleasure of rotting in this cell.” Artemis replied coolly.

“I believe I would prefer the hole.”

The man growled and pulled out a long stick. For a second Artemis was certain the man would use it on him, but instead the man pointed it at the plate lying forlornly on the floor.

“Reducto.”

The plate appeared to explode, spraying the walls, ground, and Artemis with the mush. Only the kidnapper was spared.

“Next time,” he growled, raising the stick in what was obviously meant to be a threatening manner.

“It will be you, not the food.”

Artemis kept his mouth shut, but didn’t back down despite the fact that he was slightly disturbed by what had occurred. He absolutely refused to be intimated by someone in a dress, waving around a stick.

It was true that the stick could cause much harm, as it had just been demonstrated, but still. The man looked much too ridiculous to be all that frightening.

Artemis’s silence seemed to boost the kidnapper’s confidence. He kicked the plate toward the boy genius.

“Too bad,” he gloated.

“That was your only meal for the day.”

Artemis continued to subject the man to his infamous glare.

“No matter, you’ll survive without food or water for a day. Or two.”

Artemis didn’t break his gaze.

The boost in confidence appeared to be have been temporary. The kidnapper was clearly growing uneasy with Artemis’s unwavering stare.

“Yeah, w-well. You’d just better know your place, muggle.” He stammered before turning and rushing out the door.

He was in too much of a hurry to get away from the creepy, cold-eyed kid that he didn’t even notice that something was wrong with the door.

Back in his cell, Artemis’s lip turned upward slightly.

That had been surprisingly easy.

He knew it was childish, goading his kidnappers, but, hey, it was the small things in life that brought the greatest pleasures.

And besides, it was time and past that these people learn exactly whom they were dealing with.



Nothing seemed to be going right for Foaly lately.

His lady friend was mad that he was spending more time working than with her, his last few inventions had been complete failures, and he was having a bad hair day.

Oh, and don’t forget the fact that there were two worried mud people, one who could, and probably would, break each of his inventions as easily as breaking his bones, and an equally worried, but more amused, fairy on the line.

“Foaly, I know you’re there, so just stop pretending that we’re losing connection.”

Darn, there went that excuse.

“Oh, well, they must have fixed it. You know, despite all the importance they put on themselves, Section Nine’s technology is not all that great,” he told his best former LEP friend.

“Foaly. Stop fooling around and tell us where Artemis is so that we can go save him. I can’t wait to find out who was actually smart enough to kidnap him in the first place.”

“Don’t you mean dumb enough?” Folay heard Juliet’s voice faintly in the background.

“Well,” Foaly said, trying to stall for time.

“You see, I…”

“Foaly, just spit it out already.” Butler snapped, quite loudly into Holly’s transmitter.

Foaly winced, resisting the urge to rub his ear. He knew the giant Mud Man was worried, but still, this was no time get mad at the centaur. Actually, there was no good time to be mad at the clever and striking centaur.

But that was enough stalling for him. It was better to face the music now, while Holly and the others still had at least an ounce of patience left.

He took a deep breath and hoped that he’d still be alive to have dinner later with his lady friend.

“There’s a small, tiny, microscopic problem.”

There was a pause. Foaly desperately hoped that they weren’t plotting his death and plunged on.

“You know that Artemis sent out several decoys to confuse me right?”

The others made small noises of agreement.

Everyone knew that. It was a sort of game that Foaly and Artemis played. Artemis would hide and Foaly would try to find him. Sort of like the Mud Man game Hide and Go Seek, but with more advanced technology.

“Well, this time, the decoys were exceptionally well played. I mean it, Artemis really is a genius.”

“Foaly,” Holly interrupted as realization dawned upon her.

“Are you trying to say that Artemis beat you? That you couldn’t figure out which was the real one?”

“No,” Foaly protested immediately.

“He just managed to confuse me a little. Besides, I know which is the real Artemis now.”

He left out the fact that he had only figured it out a couple of hours before Holly had called.

“So tell us,” Holly demanded, losing patience with the centaur’s mind games.

“Where is he?”

“I’m trying,” Foaly snapped back.

“I’m trying to explain that the tracker died so I have no idea where he is.”

Foaly winced at the stunned silence that followed his declaration.

Maybe he should have been a tad more tactful.

“What, did the tracker run out of batteries or something?” Juliet asked in a carefully casual manner.

“No,” Foaly replied, rather offended by the question.

“I don’t use batteries in the tracers anymore. Too inconvenient, always dying at the worst moments possible.”

He tapped one hoof on the ground nervously.

Holly hadn’t said a word. She probably had already realized what his suspicions were.

“There are only two reasons why the tracer would die. One, Artemis messed around with it. But he hasn’t done that before, so that most likely isn’t it.”

“And the second reason?” Butler asked in a stoic voice.

Foaly took a deep breath and continued.

“Or two, the person wearing the trace no longer has a functioning heart. We may be too late. Artemis may already be dead.”



Artemis was stunned. No, he was speechless, and that was quite am accomplishment as every few events had ever rendered him into such a state.

But he had a good reason to lose his usual composure. One of the laws of science had just been broken in front of him, and more shockingly, he had been involved in this astonishing fest.

After he had frightened the kidnapper out of the room, Artemis gone over to inspect the now brown, firmly locked, door, and had made a incredible discovery.

The door was made of wood. He had somehow managed to turn a metal door into wood.

That was just not possible. Metal and wood did not share any share any similar chemical elements.

Even with fairy magic, Artemis was quite certain that it was impossible to turn metal into wood when they had absolutely nothing in common other than the fact that both were used as building materials.

In short, what Artemis had just done was quite impossible.

Artemis shook his head to clear his thoughts. He could gawk in stunned silence at his great deed later. Right now he should devote his time and effort into finding out just how he had done this.

Artemis carefully ran his finger over the surface of the door, frowning in concentration.

Hmm, the wood didn’t feel any different from normal wood, not that he went around touching trees all of the time.

It didn’t look any different either, aside from the fact that it had a healthier glow than most of the trees that Artemis had ever seen before.

Artemis’s brow wrinkled even more.

That didn’t help at all with his current theory.

Artemis first thought that perhaps he hadn’t turned the door into wood at all. Maybe there had been a small piece of wood, like a splinter or a twig, that had been stuck on the door and Artemis had just managed to accidentally cause it to grow rapidly with his magic so that it completely covered the door.

However the apparent healthiness of the door disputed his hypothesis. The theorized twig would most likely have been stuck on the door for ages and, in the darkness of the cell, it could not have maintained such a vibrant coloring.

Artemis stepped back and regarded the door. Then he stepped forward and carefully and safety began to knock on different areas of the door, listening carefully.

Even if his theory was incorrect, Artemis didn’t necessarily have to just sit back and wait for his kidnappers to come get him.

He would make his escape now and come back later to learn more about the kidnappers; ‘magic’.

Right now, his own magic was more important, especially since it seemed to be able to accomplish seemingly impossible feats.

Artemis reached as high as he could, still knocking on the wood, and trying to ignore just how dirty his clothes felt on his skin.

He wasn’t running away, he told himself. No, he was simply making a strategic retreat. This had nothing to do with the fact that he had no wish to feel that pain that was to obviously come with his next meeting with the kidnappers.

Nor did it have anything to do with not wanting to suffer through Holly’s teasing about how she had once again had to save him.

No, of course not.

Tap, tap, tap, tuk.

Artemis raised an eyebrow and tapped the area twice more.

Tuk, tuk.

A small smile appeared on his face. Good he’d found it.

The door’s weak point.

Butler’s training would actually come in handy.

He took a step backwards and breathed deeply, calming his mind.

Normally he preferred to leave violence and anything else that required him to physically dirty his hands to Butler or Holly, but in this case, he would have to make an exception. Not that he had a variety of choices in the first place.

Alright, he thought, continuing to take calming breaths.

The first thing Butler said to do was focus your mind on the point of contact.

He shifted his gaze to a specific part on the door about three feet down from the top and five inches inside.

Artemis paused for a second to complement whether his training had actually accomplished anything in terms of his physical strength. Judging by his plan, it had certainly affected his mental strength.

But doubt wasn’t going to get him anywhere.

Artemis closed his eyes and visualized the training session in his mind. He could just see Butler bark out the next step.

With your destination in mind, strike!

With all the strength that he was able to muster, Artemis kicked the door.

In every training session that Butler and Juliet had managed to convince him to participate in, he had never managed to actually even make a dent in his target, usually a piece of wood or, in one odd case, a piece of cheese painted to look like wood.

Still, Artemis was willing to hope that perhaps the severity of his situation had maybe somehow subconsciously boosted his strength.

Unfortunately, it was not so.

A tiny crack appeared on the door. Nothing else happen aside for the fact that Artemis had probably broken his foot.

Ouch!

Discarding any dignity that he had left, Artemis grabbed his throbbing foot, hoping on his right to maintain balance.

Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch! Stupid plan, stupid door!

The small crack that had appeared grew slowly at first and then rapidly as Artemis hopped up and down on one foot, cursing everything.

Within seconds the crack had spread to each corner of the door, which then crumbled onto the ground.

Pain momentarily forgotten, Artemis stared at the mess.

I guess all those bruises weren’t for nothing then.

He still stood no chance against a moving target, but against a stationary one, like the door, he actually stood a fighting chance.

Artemis hopped forward and picked up a piece of the door to show to Foaly later.

And then, ignoring his paining foot and his brief loss of composure, Artemis hobbled out of the cell and onto only time would tell what.

Maybe it was because Artemis was transported using magic. Who knows.

Wait, what's becuase Artemis was transported becuase of magic?

Who wrote this story? Foaly put a tracker on him, right? Maybe it didn't work because Artemis was transported by magic. It could have messed with the device.

I wrote this story! And yup, you're right, that's exactly why the tracker didn't work, though the faries don't know that yet....