Anger and Hate

Holly is OC, but she's not in this chapter a whole lot. This first chapter loosely follows the first book.

Fowl Manor, a couple hours before dawn

"The objective is to get our agent back, get the gold back, and blue rinse the place," said Root. "We need to be careful; this Fowl boy has a body guard the size of Everest. These humans are highly dangerous and not to be taken lightly. Understood?"

The group in the shuttle nodded. Holly's grip tightened on her gun. A wretched human had kidnapped a fairy and they were here to save her. Not that Holly cared for this particular fairy in the first place, but who knew what this Fowl boy was doing to her. She hated all humans.

Somewhere in Ireland, a few hours ago

Artemis nudged Butler as a figure flew down near a great oak tree and crouched.

Butler grunted slightly, hefting a huge tranquilizer dart gun in his hands. The proportions weren't that of a child, but it was too small to be a human.

The fairy in question knelt down, ready to plant her acorn, to replenish her magic. Suddenly, something whizzed over her and hit the tree trunk. She jerked in surprise and twisted, seeing shapes, human shapes, come toward her. One was extremely big.

"Stay back human, you don't know what you're dealing with, I mean it!" the fairy narrowed her eyes. "Stand back, and leave me alone." She tried to summon up what little magic she had in her, ready to do the mesmer.

"Don't try none of your tricks," said the smaller figure, stepping forward. He was wearing mirrored sunglasses. "I came prepared, so you have no option but to do as I say."

"I could turn you into a pile of pig droppings," said the fairy.

"Really? I don't think your magic works that way, and I doubt you have enough to do much, anyhow."

The fairy got into a fighting position, nervous. She was screwed.

"Just cooperate, and this won't hurt a bit. You're coming with us."

The fairy trembled. If only Trouble or someone else was here! These humans planned on kidnapping her, they would probably torture her, and she'd be at their mercy for ages, until someone figured out where she was.

She only had one option. She wasn't much of a fighter, but she pulled her Neutrino and activated her wings at the same time, ready to take a shot and try to flee at the same time.

However, her reflexes weren't that great, and before she could do more than fly about ten feet into the air, the dart hit in her the thigh, releasing sedative into her system. She fell to the ground, crunching in the leaves and twigs and lay motionless, her gun a few feet away.

Artemis stepped forward. "Good shot, Butler."

"Be careful," said Butler. He removed the helmet and handed it to Artemis who took it and began examining it. Butler checked the pulse and rolled the fairy over and removed any tech he could find, and her gloves as well. Her blonde hair fanned out around her. She was actually pretty. Artemis noticed she appeared to have had her nails done in with French manicure. Interesting, he thought. Fairies get their nails done.

Fowl Manor, a couple hours later.

The fairy in question was Lili Frond, a ditzy female in the LEP force, who, basically, gave other female officers a bad name. She could feel herself coming too, her eyelids fluttering a bit. Where was she? She remembered a situation had happened above ground. Something about a rogue troll… It had been tearing a swath of destruction through a forest and a field and she had been sent to get surveillance. Luckily, Retrieval had come before it knocked over the side of an Italian Restaurant. It had been neutralized and afterwards, Root told her to go replenish her magic, when she'd told him she was running low. She had thought about going to Tara, but it was a full moon and it would be crowded with smelly hippy fairies dancing, drunk on nettle bear, prancing around in the light of the full moon and she had no desire to fight the crowds and end up with someone spilling there drink on her. She was tired and just wanted to go home, have a bath and go to sleep.

She opened her eyes a bit. She must be at home in bed, but she had no memory of getting there.

The humans, the dart! Her eyelids snapped open the rest of the eye and her surroundings came into view. Definitely not her bedroom... She was in some sort of concrete cell, on a cot.

She jerked upright, her head pounding.

"Oh, you're awake," said a voice.

Lili turned, eyeing the Mud Maid beside her, wearing wraparound reflective glasses. She had blonde hair, similar to her own.

Lili got into a crouch on the bed, ignoring the feeling in her head, like someone was pounding on the inside of her skull with a hammer.

"You've made a mistake, human," she said, trying to snarl, but her voice sounded thin and weak. In reality, she was terrified. She was locked in a room with a human, and had no weapons.

"Oh, you're a silly one," said the human. "But we know all your tricks, you can't harm us. You're out of a magic."

The door opened. Lili, terror rising in her, made to run for the door, but the Mud Mountain was coming through and she merely crashed into him and found herself being lifted up.

"Let me go!" she screamed, losing all ability to try and act tough and intimidating. "Please! I've done nothing to you!"

"Settle down," said Butler, dumping her on the cot. "Juliet, go watch the cameras."

"I won't settle down!" screamed Lili. "You let me go! You just wait until my friends come find me! They'll make you wish you'd never been born!"

"You're in my house, and I believe you have to do as I say," said Artemis. "So sit down."

Lili huddled against the wall, eyeing the two suspiciously.

"When your superiors get here, we exchange you for the ransom of fairy gold that you have," said Artemis, smiling his vampire smile, the glasses reflecting Lili's scared face back.

Lili attempted to scoff. "We have no fairy gold."

"I know all your secrets," said Artemis. "We had you on a drip for seventy two hours. You've spilled all you secrets to us."

Lili felt panic clutch her stomach. Was he lying? Did he really know everything?

Fowl Manor, present

The mission had been successful, in a way. They had given the ransom and Lili had finally been released and ran blubbering and sobbing to Trouble. They had blue rinsed the place, but somehow, Artemis had found a way around that, using sleeping pills to make everyone fall asleep and escape the time stop that had been placed on the manor. It was genius. The fairies retreated, stung that they had been outsmarted by a human, and resolved to keep an eye on the Fowl boy.

Artemis was satisfied with his endeavor. He had enough money to keep searching for his father, and enough to fuel other enterprises he was working on. With some of the fairy tech he had stolen, he used bits here and there and sold his new inventions for millions. He was finally restoring the family's riches and he hoped he would soon find his father.

His mother remained depressed upstairs, never coming down, usually sleeping, or lost in a fantasy world, which varied between her imagining things were coming after her, or her believing her husband was back. Artemis kept away from her during the latter times. It was getting increasingly hard to deal with it. She barely ever realized who Artemis was. He would go to see her, searching in her eyes for some glint recognition, hope that she recognized her own son, but only could see the crazy desperation, as she convinced her own self that the suit and pillow with lipstick marks draped on the couch was her husband and that Artemis himself was her father in law, or somebody else. The more this happened, the more Artemis stayed away from her, and the harder his heart became.

If he had too much downtime, the grief of the situation started to eat at him, so he threw himself into his work, bankrupting companies, robbing people, selling inventions, auctioning off fake masterpieces, wheeling and dealing in stocks. The money was restored to a substantial amount, as Artemis and Butler took care of the bills of the house. Juliet cared for Angeline and Artemis barely saw his mother, unable to bear the sadness.

One day, when Artemis was thirteen, the TV screens in the study brought information to Artemis.

Butler knew something was wrong when he entered the study with a pot of fresh tea and a cup on a tray. Artemis was staring blankly at the TV screen, which was showing a commercial for Cranberry Bran, with a dancing mascot, extolling the virtues of a fibrous diet. His ice blue eyes were glazed over, as he leaned back in his chair, shoulders slumped. His had his fingers steepled in front of his face. Butler realized with surprise that one hand was bloody, with bits of glass sticking out.

An emptied glass of water had been smashed on the desktop. Artemis didn't move or flinch when Butler carefully placed the tray on the desk.

"Artemis?" asked Butler, eying the ruby liquid trickling down Artemis's hand, down to his wrist, spotting on the white shirt sleeve peeking out from under the suit jacket cuff.

Silence.

"Artemis?"

"It's over," said Artemis, suddenly, his voice low and quiet. "Done. En fin."

"What is?" asked Butler. But a small knot in his stomach told him.

Artemis spoke in flat voice, devoid of emotion. "They found my father's body, washed up on the shores in Russia. He's dead. The identified him by the wallet that somehow remained in his pocket."

"Oh, Artemis-"

"And because of this, my mother will remain insane." Artemis quietly picked out the glass bits from his hand.

Butler moved around the desk, intending on bandaging Artemis's hand, and offer some word of comfort. But what could you say to someone that had invested hundreds of thousands of dollars searching for a loved one, only to find out that all was vain and the person was dead?

"Get away," murmured Artemis, jerking his bloodied hand away from his bodyguard. He stood up and left the study and headed to attic, where his mother was residing.

He entered the curtained room, and could make out the dim form of his mother sitting on the couch.

"Timmy is coming home soon," said Angeline. "As soon as he's done with his work, he'll be here. And then we'll have dinner and then-"

"No, mother-"

"I'm not your mother. It's me, Angeline, your daughter in law."

She was mistaking her son for her father in a law again. Artemis took a deep breath and walked across the carpet, not caring that was he stepping on the vines. He stood in front of his mother and gazed at her in the dim light, searching her eyes, hoping for a shimmer of sanity to appear.

"You're husband is dead," said Artemis. "Washed up on the shores of Russia. He's gone. And you're sitting up here and pretending all is well is not going to bring him back or change the reality."

Angeline stared at him. "What-stop such lies. That's not a funny joke."

"It is not a joke."

"Oh, how you could make such stuff about your son up?"

"I AM NOT YOUR FATHER IN LAW!" shouted Artemis. "I'M ARTEMIS! IT'S ME! I'M YOUR SON!"

Angeline recoiled at this outburst.

"How dare you yell at me! I thought you liked me!"

She broke down in sobs. Artemis got down on his knees and grasped the sleeve of her bathroom.

"Mother, please, I beg you, it's me!" said Artemis, his voice hitching.

For the moment, he was a thirteen year old boy again, a boy who needed his mother more than ever. All his work, stocks, inventions and ideas of money making were forgotten. He grasped his mother's hand, forgetting the blood that was being smeared on her fingers and not even noticing the pain from the cuts.

"Mom, please, I'm your son, we only have each other, but you have to stop living in this fantasy world."

He pressed his forehead against Angeline's knee.

"Mom, please…"

"There coming for me," Angeline whimpered.

Artemis raised his head, holding back tears.

"There everywhere." Angeline pushed Artemis away and yanked her bathrobe tighter about her and scrambled for the bed.

"Mom," said Artemis, his voice strangled. "Nobody is coming for you."

Angeline took the sleeping pills laid out on her tray and gulped them down with water.

"I hear them everywhere, even in my sleep, but if I sleep they can't hurt me…I think."

Artemis stood by the bedside as Angeline pulled the covers up. "And stop calling me mother. I have no son."

Artemis could only stare at Angeline as she cocooned herself in the blankets and fell asleep.

"I have no mother and I have no father," murmured Artemis.

He walked from the room and shut the door gently. Butler was waiting in the hallway, eyes downcast.

"I need to be alone," said Artemis, walking past his bodyguard.

Butler retreated downstairs. Juliet was sitting on the bottom step, hugging her knees.

"I heard," she said.

Artemis walked into his room, shut the door, and went to the window and leaned his forehead against the window, gazing out at the grounds without really seeing them.

He was pretty much alone now, except for Butler and Juliet, but that wasn't the same as his parents. His father was dead, and his mother was dead to the world. Artemis wasn't one to cry, but even now he could stop the tears welling up his eyes, blurring his vision.

Butler and Juliet sat together at the bottom of the staircase, not knowing what to do.

Normally, at the noise they heard next, Butler would be off running to check on his principle, but even with all his knowledge of weaponry and martial arts, this was something Butler couldn't protect the boy from.

So Butler sat and did nothing as the shriek of unbridled grief and agony sounded from Artemis's bedroom.

So, what do you think so far?