Artemis Fowl: Blue Eyes

Chapter 1- And so it continues...

"Artemis is-is...dead?!"

"Well, not 'dead,' technically," Foaly exclaimed, thinking 'dead' sounded too, well, dead. "My computer says he's still missing."

"Missing? Missing from a plane crash with NO SURVIVORS?!" Captain Holly Short was enraged. They'd been tracking Artemis Fowl's actions for a year now, and he'd been on plenty of planes. The fact that this plane happened to crash was a complete and total fluke.

"Holly...Artemis isn't dead. He'll be fine. He's a genius, so don't worry about it."

"Foaly?"

"Yes, Holly?"

"Why don't you sound very convincing?"

The two turned to face the blinking red light, indicating the location of the crash. They stared in silence. If Artemis had survived, the technology would tell them.

The light never moved.

Just as Foaly began to do system checks, Commander Julius Root burst into the room looking like a juicy plum ready to pop. Something was up.

Before either of the two had the chance to ask, Root said, "It's Mulch; he's gone."

"I thought he was in prison?"

"He was, but he's out now, and free to go."

"WHAT?" Holly and Foaly yelled at the same time. Root continued.

"He came up with this extraordinary case in court and got himself out. Just like that. Captain Short, please close your mouth." Holly snapped her mouth shut, her cheeks flushing with anger and embarrassment. She asked,

"How? Where did he get such a lead?"

"I don't know." Root was shaking his head, completely unconvinced of what was coming out of his mouth. "I really don't know."

Butler's computers say he's missing. The LEP recon thought him dead. But the truth of it was that no one really knew where Artemis Fowl to be.

Except himself, of course. Sort of.

"Well, that didn't go as planned," he grumbled, pulling a twig from his hair. "The plane was supposed to appear to crash, not actually collide with the ground. It's a good thing I decided to use fake passengers as well...Ow..." Artemis looked down at his limbs. His ankle was twisted and his arms had a few gashes. There was a hard throbbing in his head, too. "First thing's first- I need to stop this bleeding..."

The raven-haired boy searched around for a while, examining his surroundings and gathering the necessary items. Thinking like a genius would, he used a stick and a strip from his clothes to hold his ankle straight, and his vest as a bandage for his wounded arms.

The sun was beginning to fall behind one of the large mountains in the distance. If he didn't think of something fast, he'd stay there for the night.

The plane had gone pretty far off course. It was originally supposed to crash a few miles from a small town. Only now, as far as Artemis could tell, he was smack in the middle of a great evergreen forest. Butler would be tracking the plane, but the tracker didn't show the planes exact movements. It would only show that the plane was missing. But it wouldn't come up exactly. Butler would be searching for a long time.

The weirdest thing was the reason he had for crashing the plane in the first place. A mysterious, but powerful, dream said he had lost something very dear to him, and to get it back, he had to conceal himself so great, the air wouldn't know he was there. Why? He didn't know, and probably never would, for he awoke before the dream was finished. All he knew was that something he once had was missing and he wanted it back.

The temperature was dropping quickly. Artemis was starting to shiver. He felt...alone. And a little silly, but alone. He had told Butler that this was one thing he had to do on his own. He'd planned it all out perfectly: his parents would be told he's going on a field trip, and the plane had been rigged to "crash" in the right area (about a half mile away from a tiny village.) There was still the problem of becoming virtually non-existent. Well, it wasn't really a problem for Artemis. He just constructed a nonliving copy of himself and put a live rat inside. He was originally going to kill the rat, but the real crash took care of that. (So all was not lost. Yet.) Since the copy had had his DNA, and was previously breathing but now dead, and "Artemis" was on the plane, "he" is now technically dead (or as close to nonexistent as you can get.)

The whole ordeal was full of holes, but Artemis was anxious. It was true, though- he had been a little empty for the past year. Like there really was something missing, a dear something.

And thus, Artemis is where he is- shivering, grumbling, and all alone in a forest, soon to be dark forest.

The boy genius took in a sharp breath when a wolf howled hungrily in the distance. There was a full, yellow moon overhead, though the sky was still a navy blue and the stars weren't out. A cold wind blew across his pale face. "Damn it all..." he cursed. "Why did I act so foolishly? Why did I actually believe what some dream told me? Why? Why?! WHY?!" He listened to his voice echo across the mountains. This was going to be a long, long night.

"NO. Absolutely not. It's never been done, we're not going to do it, end of story."

"Please, commander."

"I said no, Holly."

"But---"

"Even if we did, it'd be pointless because of the fact that HE DOESN'T KNOW WE EXIST! We don't even know if he's alive! I won't do it, and neither will you."

Holly slumped in her chair. The idea of helping Fowl wasn't going to be convinced to Commander Root very easily. She knew that, but she didn't care. She'd tried her hardest to forget the boy, but even that seemed impossible. She'd wander into Foaly's lab and demand to know where he was and what he was doing at least twice a day.

"Please, Commander. He won't know who we are, and we would only seem like normal humans!"

"Holly, if we do what you're wanting to do, we'd be normal humans. Do you even have the antidote for that procedure?"

Holly thought for a minute. "That was a good question, considering every fairy knows there is no known cure. If you are magically transformed human, then you magically stay human, or so it's said. I did some research and found documented cases of humans who've become fairies. So my answer is yes, I do have a cure."

Root frowned. "Well? What is it?"

"I can't say."

"Why not?"

"Look, I have the cure, and I swear on my badge that I do, I'm willing to try it, and the only thing that's stopping me is you."

"Exactly."

"What?!"

"I told you once already. I don't care how much research you do; it won't change the fact that I said you couldn't do it. I won't change my mind. No exceptions. Now get out of my office and back to work. Oh, and quit worrying about Fowl all together."

Holly stared with wide eyes at her Commander. That was a direct order. Artemis could be dead or dying and she couldn't do a thing about it.

She'd just have to suck it up and move on.

But then, that wasn't like her, was it?

Next time—Artemis finds something he once lost, and Holly's on the goblin express.

a/n—the hardest thing to write is the beginning of a story. It's when everybody's gonna get their first impression. sigh.. but, I hope this was good enough to keep your interest. And I can take critiques if they're not stupid rambles about how much my story sucked. I've almost got all of the second chapter typed, but since my computer's shot, I'll have to wait till Monday or Tuesday to put it up. Oh yeah, and I'm really sorry if I've got anything OOC or different from the books. It's been a while... Chao for now, ya'll!