Prologue

"Goodbye Holly." said Artemis with one last glance over his shoulder as he walked into the shuttle. He looked at the one person he had finally fallen for and would now never see again.

"Artemis I..." started Holly, with tears streaming down her face, but the shuttle door had closed already, hiding the fact that she failed to notice a tear trailing from Artemis' eye.

Tara: Thirty Minutes Later.

Artemis was escorted out of the port by a squad of LEPrecon officers into the middle of a farm. He looked up at the sky and took a deep breath. Then he started walking past some cows and onto a dirt road leading out of the farm. As he reached the tar road it started to rain. As he walked, he pulled up the collar on his suit jacket.

"I wish I'd brought my phone with me." Artemis muttered to himself. Then he heard a car approaching from behind.

"Oi! Arty, where are you going?" shouted a voice coming from the car. It appeared to be an old, slightly beaten BMW 3 series. Artemis turned around to see a guy with long, extremely messy, black and brown hair. It partially fell over a long scar next to his right eye and-from what Artemis could see-an open leather jacket over a grey hoody.

"Alex? You're home?" asked Artemis, a look of surprise on his face.

"On my way there now. Want a lift there? Wait, never mind; you have no choice, get in the car." He ordered.

"Yes, brother." Artemis responded, climbing into the car.

"Mind my guitar and katana."

"Why do you have this stuff in your car?"

"Didn't mum and dad tell you? I've been visiting them to help look after Becket and Myles. Oh yeah! How's your girlfriend, whatsaname...Hally no, Holly that's it, Holly! How is she?"

Artemis just looked at him with a sad look for a moment. Then his brain finally truly processed what his brother had said, "How do you know about Holly?"

"I met her. Well saw her, I met Mulch though. I love that guy; he's almost as weird as Ludaquis. Eats eight times more though. I'll tell you the whole story one day. Not now, you seem to be in shock."

"I need to escape, AC I need to get away from Ireland; please don't ask why. Do you know anywhere I can go?"

"You could come with me to Japan and possibly America. Are you going to bring Butler?"

"No. I need some time to myself. Alone." Artemis looked away.

"Why don't you take a different last name while you're away. You could start over unless you are visiting home."

"That might be a good idea, but I think I'm going to completely disappear."

"That's fine. But you have to at least say goodbye to the rest of the family."

"Thats fine. I have to collect a few things from home anyway. However, I cant tell anyone where exactly I''m going."

"That is ideal." said Alex as they pulled into the Fowl Manor grounds, "Go greet mum and the rest. I need to get my stuff out the car."

Artemis nodded and walked into the main house. As soon as Alex saw his brother close the door, he did something which if observed would appear exceedingly odd. He started talking into his watch-which projected the hologram of a youthful looking white haired man. Observers would have seen him talk to the image for about a minute then touched a button and the image disappeared. He then grabbed his suitcase and walked into the house. "Hello all. I'm home!"

"Alexander!" Shouted Angeline Fowl running towards her son with her arms wide before glomping her son.

"Hi, mum. I missed you too. Where is dad?"

"He's with the twins and Juliet in the kitchen."

"And Arty?"

"He went up to his room. What happened to him? Do you know?"

"I think so." He replied with a sigh.

"Could you please talk to him?" Angeline requested.

"I think he'll talk to you when he's ready. I'm going to go say hi to dad and the twins."

Artemis had just finished packing when he spoke: "Butler I need some advice." addressing the large man who had just walked into the room.

"You can ask me everything."

"I've...Holly...Holly and I..." He started before choking up.

"Artemis, take your time."

"Butler, I've been forbidden from ever seeing Holly again." Artemis actually shocked Butler by crying. "I'm never going to see her again. Butler I... I killed to protect her!"

"What do you mean Artemis?"

"I... I killed someone with my own two hands. Watched the life fade from his eyes. All to protect her."

"ARTEMIS!" shouted a voice outside the room. As Artemis heard this voice he looked up and wiped the tears from his face.

"Butler this is strictly between us. Please do not tell anyone about this. I'm leaving with Alex when he leaves to go to Japan in a week."

"Understood. When do I start packing?"

Artemis looked at Butler with sad resignation in his eyes, "Not this time, old friend. I'm going alone. I'm going to attempt to live a normal civilian life, or perhaps follow Alex's advice on what to do with my life. We are leaving tomorrow morning, before everyone else wakes up. You know how Alex hates goodbyes."

"Yes. Artemis I understand you want to strike out on your own but promise me that if you won't let me come with you at least allow Matt to give you some form of combat training."

"I'll ask for self defense nothing, more." He said quickly, resigned.

The next day, at roughly three in the morning, Artemis and Alex left like thieves in the night. Alex only left a goodbye note, nothing more.