A/N: Yes, I'm back (somehow I'm never able to stay away more than a few months) with another one-shot, my first ever Artemis Fowl story. You wouldn't believe how many fandoms I'm into. Anyways, enjoy your dose of AF as I go read some other fanfics. WARNING: This is a what-if fic which contains spoilers for The Lost Colony.

Disclaimer: I do not own Artemis Fowl. All the characters and events in the Artemis Fowl universe belong to Eoin Colfer, and I will freely admit that this one-shot contains chunks of original wording from The Lost Colony.

Lost

The island of Hybras was in disarray, Holly Short thought. No, worse than that – it was in chaos. Time surges were occurring every few seconds and there were more dark chasms of emptiness than land on the island. Also, though most of the demons were now gone, Leon Abbot (or N'zall, as Qwan called him) still remained, and he was the one they really had to worry about. It was Holly's job to bring him into the magic circle Qwan and No1 were constructing. They needed him to get home. Several yards away, Artemis Fowl was standing next to the bomb, concentrating on his count.

Abbot advanced on Holly with a maniacal smile. "Hello, elf", he said. Then he raised his sword and plunged it into Holly's chest.

Holly fell backwards off the sword, blood spurting from her gaping wound. The pain was unimaginable. "Magic", she gasped.

Overhead, Abbot gloated, "Magic cannot help you, elf. I've been working on this sword for a long time, in case the warlocks ever showed up. There's enough enchantment in this steel to stop an entire magic circle."

Hearing this, Artemis sank to his knees, fighting the urge to crawl to Holly's side. Magic could not help her, and he couldn't either if he forgot his count. Artemis closed his eyes and tried to block out everything but numbers in his head.

An hour per second for a count of forty, followed by a deceleration to thirty minutes per second for a count of eighteen, then a slight jump backwards in time, one minute per second back for a count of two. Then it repeats.

"Artemis", pleaded Holly weakly, "Artemis, help me."

Holly's desperate plea distracted Artemis, and he glanced at her. Once. Briefly. He shouldn't have. The sight of his friend dying threw off his count. Artemis could feel the numbers slipping from him. The time portal he'd been waiting for appeared and disappeared before he was ready for it.

"No!" he cried, frantically trying to find his place again. While he struggled with the calculations, Abbot ran his accursed blade through Qwan and No1. Now Artemis was alone, with a wrong count, and Abbot was advancing on him.

"Maybe I'll keep you", the demon chuckled, resting the tip of his sword on Artemis' back. "It'd be nice to have a pet human around. I could teach you tricks."

Desperate, Artemis finally managed to remember the correct number. Keeping careful count in his head, he moved slowly away from Abbot, making it look as though he were retreating, when he was actually walking backwards towards Holly.

"Oh, yes", said Abbot, glancing down at the dead elf. "Your friend. Terribly sorry about that. Though I doubt you will grieve much longer. You'll join her soon enough."

Artemis cautiously bent down and retrieved Holly's Neutrino blaster, averting his eyes from the wound in her chest.

"What are you going to do with that?" Abbot asked casually, as if he were merely conversing about the weather. "I can have this sword in you before a blast from that gun could so much as graze me." And to emphasize his point, he touched the blade to Artemis' chin.

Artemis was on shaky ground here, and he knew it. Still, he played on Abbot's arrogance, slowly lifting the gun and aiming it at the spot where Abbot had been one minute ago.

"And now you can't even aim", snorted the demon. "It's no wonder I'm going to win."

Forcing himself to ignore the jibe, Artemis mentally counted the last few seconds. "You haven't won yet", he said, and then he fired the gun.

The blast was whipped one minute into the past by the time portal, just as Artemis had calculated. It faded from the present and emerged just in time to strike the ghostly image of Abbot as he prepared to kill Qwan and No1.

The Abbot of one minute ago was lifted off his feet and slammed against the crater wall. The present Abbot barely had time to say, "What happened?" before he winked out of existence, no longer flesh, merely unrealized possibility.

"And now you never will", Artemis muttered. But he felt no relief. Qwan and No1 were alive and building their magic circle as if nothing had happened, but Holly was still lying prone on the ground, still dead.

Artemis dropped to all fours and felt the tears overflow. He had been too late. He'd lost his count. He'd missed the portal that would have saved Holly. He'd caught the next one, saving Qwan and No1, but it was too late for Holly. The portal he'd fired into had not gone back far enough in the past to save her. To wait for another portal to appear – one that would bring Holly back to life – would create so many time paradoxes that he and Holly may as well be dead. He, Artemis Fowl, had failed. He may have succeeded in saving the eighth family, but he had failed to save his friend.

"Holly!" yelled Qwan. "Any minute now!"

Artemis raised his head. Qwan was focusing on the circle, a look of intense concentration upon his face. For a moment he couldn't imagine what the warlock was talking about, and then he remembered – Holly was supposed to get Abbot into the circle. Obviously, she couldn't do that now, so Artemis would have to do it himself.

The young genius picked up Holly's slim body, grunting with the effort, and placed her inside the magic circle. No1 didn't notice, absorbed as he was in the magic circle - but Qwan's eyes widened and he was momentarily distracted as he asked, "What happened?"

"Abbot", Artemis replied curtly as he made his way to the crater. It took several minutes for him to haul the unconscious demon to the circle, but finally it was done.

Qwan chewed on his lip. "I'd been hoping for five warlocks", he mused. "One warlock, one apprentice, a human, and a snoring egomaniac were not exactly what I had in mind." Then he shuddered, and a blue film passed over his eyes. "D'Arvit", he swore. "Then again, the young one is powerful. We might sill make it, and manage to bring Holly back with us." His eyes were sad as he observed the elf in front of him.

"What can I do?" Artemis asked.

"You have to be in charge of when and where", said Qwan. "I was hoping Holly could focus on where, but she can't, so you'll have to concentrate on both. Let your time and home call to you – let it draw you back where you're supposed to go. No1 and I will handle the power and lift-off. You just focus on the place and time."

Artemis nodded, still feeling the pain of Holly's death. It would only worsen, he knew. But he pushed it aside and forced himself to concentrate on the task at hand. He closed his eyes and pictured Fowl Manor, and the people who were important in his life: Mother, Father, Butler, Foaly, Mulch, Holly…

Holly. With a gulp, Artemis swallowed, struck with the realization that with her death, there was now one less person in his life.

"Artemis!" roared Qwan. "Focus!"

But it was too late. Artemis' concentration wavered, just as the bomb exploded. He grabbed Holly's arm as Hybras disintegrated around him. As empty blackness claimed him, he wondered if he would see Holly soon, and what would become of Qwan and No1.

Artemis awoke in the same crater. For a moment, his heart sank. Hadn't he gotten off the island, then? But then he saw the sky. It was blue, and lit by the sun. Earth! Artemis' delight at being back home faded quickly, turning to grief and sorrow when he saw Holly beside him. So she'd come through as well. But Qwan and No1 were nowhere to be seen.

Artemis took a minute to whisper a silent prayer for his friends. He could only guess that since Abbot had caused Hybras to be suspended in limbo, the island had returned to the parallel dimension it came from when Artemis had lost the focus needed to bring it back to Earth. Qwan and No1, being part of that dimension, had returned to it with Hybras, but Artemis and Holly had come back to their own world.

Small comfort, he thought sadly, gazing at Holly's still form. At that moment, Artemis bitterly wished that he had never started researching fairies. Maybe if he had never abducted Holly – thus beginning the series of their adventures – she wouldn't have died, and he wouldn't have felt the loss. It would have been better than Holly's death, at any rate. Then again, maybe not. If Minerva Paradizo had discovered fairies while Artemis himself remained clueless as to their existence, Holly might still have gone to Hybras, only this time, she would not have had Artemis to help her.

Artemis shook his head, barely noticing the moisture leaking from his eyes. Did it matter? There were so many vague what-ifs, so many different futures and possible outcomes, so many hazy timelines. They didn't matter. The only future that mattered was this one, here and now, and Artemis wished with all his heart that it could be a different one.

"I'm sorry, Holly", he murmured, stroking her auburn hair. "I'm so sorry. I couldn't save you."

The sound of moving equipment and excited voices reached his ears. The fairies were coming to get them. Artemis could hear the clip-clop of Foaly's hooves on the ground amid the voices of the other LEP officers, and some part of his mind registered that if Foaly was expecting them, they couldn't have been gone long. But to Artemis, it didn't really matter. Why should it, when Holly – one of his closest friends, if not the closest – lay dead next to him? Holly Short was dead, gone…

Oh, gods.

How was he going to explain this to Foaly? Or Trouble Kelp?

Time enough to deal with that later, he decided. They would have to know, but he wasn't going to think about how he was going to tell them. Not now. Now he needed to grieve, for Holly, for Qwan, and for No1. If by some lucky chance the two warlocks had survived and were living on Hybras, good for them, but it didn't quite matter to Artemis at that moment.

Because today, Artemis Fowl II had lost a friend. His best friend.

A/N: Sad, I know. But I couldn't resist. Still, I would like to emphasize my point from earlier - this is a what-if fic, and I am glad this didn't actually happen.