A/N: This is the sequel to my first ever fic, Artemis Fowl and the Winter of Decay, and picks up the action a little under a month after the events of Winter of Decay. If you haven't already, I would highly recommend reading it before this, as you might be a bit confused otherwise. This continues in the same vein as Winter of Decay, taking inspiration from TLG and acting as an alternative conclusion to the Artemis Fowl storyline. As with Winter of Decay, it will be a full length adventure and a significantly darker one than in canon. Oh, and there'll also be proper A/H this time.

As is stands, this story barely resembles what I originally had in mind at the end of Winter of Decay. This was initially going to called "Artemis Fowl and the Two Swords" and have a completely different plot, but I wasn't happy with the story I ended up planning and decided to completely change it, bringing in ideas I had for a future fic and merging them with this one. Not that this really matters to you as a reader, I just felt like letting people know. Either way, I hope you enjoy it :P

-Kio

Disclaimer: Shockingly, I haven't acquired the rights to Artemis Fowl since writing Winter of Decay. Hence this being on a fanfiction website.

Prologue;

New Dawn Correctional Facility, Russia, Eleven Years Ago

"Explain."

Opal's voice was cold. She did not like being told about problems. She shot a sideways glance at the elf who had summoned her, noting with satisfaction the fear on his face. He was right to be afraid, of course. Opal Koboi had a reputation for punishing the bearers of bad news. Violently.

He wiped sweaty palms on his white coat before responding, doing his best to keep his voice steady.

"Miss Koboi," he began. "The test subject has been successfully enhanced and conditioned."

Opal looked down at the unconscious human girl strapped to the operating table before her, her eyes lingering on the mess of needle marks on her arm. She was a child, barely fifteen. Opal brushed a lock of lank hair out of the girl's eyes, revealing more of the scars that decorated her face. She might have been pretty, she supposed, if the sallow skin and hollow cheeks of starvation hadn't already started setting in.

"If the modifications are complete, what is the problem?"

The scientist hesitated. "Her responses to our instructions have been… inconsistent. Sporadic. She won't always obey."

Opal narrowed her eyes. "I thought you said she had been conditioned?" she asked accusingly, gesturing at the girl's scars.

The elf flinched. "Yes, Miss Koboi."

"Then why won't she obey me?"

"We're not entirely sure," the scientist admitted, wilting under Opal's hostile gaze. "The subject has unusually strong willpower. She is… resilient. Our other test subjects have been far more co-operative."

Opal was already losing interest. "Disloyal servants are of no use to me."

She made to leave, but the girl was stirring, her eyes flicking open. Opal saw the fear in them immediately. She saw how the pain haunted the girl's mind. But there was something else, hiding deep in those hazel eyes. An iron determination that Opal found a little unsettling.

"Take her back to her cell," she instructed, a sadistic smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "Let her starve."

Chapter 1; Dehumanized

Haven City, The Lower Elements, Present Day

Captain Holly Short of the Lower Elements Police was already exhausted by the time she arrived at Police Plaza. Come to think of it, she was always exhausted these days. Ever since Artemis's death, almost a month ago, sleep had proved elusive. What little rest she could get was always fraught with nightmares. But she endured, because enduring was what she did. Giving up wasn't in her nature.

There was already an angry crowd of civilians amassed outside the LEP headquarters. Holly switched her visor to reflect and began roughly shouldering past them, ignoring the various shouts and demands. She shook her head. Police Plaza was in an almost perpetual state of siege by the general public. It felt like every single fairy in Haven had a problem with the LEP these days.

No sooner had Holly crossed the threshold and raised her visor than she was flagged down a keen-looking junior officer. Holly took an immediate dislike to him. It was far too early in the morning to be so chipper.

"What?" she demanded, not bothering to hide her ill-temper. Not that he seemed to notice.

"Captain Short," he said, his head bobbing excitedly as he spoke. "You're needed in the Situations booth at once. Apparently there is an urgent situation."

Holly groaned. It seemed like there was an urgent situation every other day. She wondered what it was this time.

Technically, Holly was attached to the Recon division of the LEP, which meant that she worked on the surface to track down rogue fairies and gather information before Retrieval or Assault operations. But with the precarious situation in Haven, every officer was expected to do their share of domestic missions. When it came down to it, it didn't matter if you Recon or Traffic, you were still LEP. And it was the LEP's responsibility to keep the fairy capital from descending into chaos.

The unrest in Haven had been steadily building up since Amber, a maniacal centaur, had attempted to orchestrate a devastating war between humanity and the fairy People by making both sides believe that they were under attack. Artemis had sacrificed his own life to stop her from completing her plan, but she had still succeeded in leaving hundreds of dead fairies at the feet of humans. A tragedy, certainly, but preferable to an interspecies war that would likely have claimed billions of lives, human and fairy.

The problem was that Amber herself had been killed in the process, and the LEP's credibility had died with her. Every fairy knew that the massacre at Tara had been perpetrated by humans, and though the LEP insisted that it had been orchestrated by a fairy, they had no evidence to support their claims. Just a phantom villain to blame for the worst atrocity against the People in living memory.

It reeked of an LEP cover-up, and understandably, there weren't many who believed it. Instead, the fairies in Haven were convinced that they were being betrayed by cowardly politicians while humanity mobilised for war. The LEP tried to reassure them that humanity still had no idea the People even existed, but nobody trusted a word the LEP said anymore.

Conspiracy theories were everywhere. Some fairies insisted that the LEP had tricked the Council into going along with their lie, while others simply thought that the Council was too weak or afraid to fight back against the hated humans.

Every theory had a common theme, however: the LEP was the enemy. There were daily protests demanding retaliation against the Mud People and that the LEP be drastically reformed, and it wasn't uncommon for them to turn violent. After the large number of fatalities it had sustained trying to hold off Amber's forces at Tara, the LEP was stretched impossibly thin. Haven was on the brink of collapse.

It all made Holly irrationally angry. The only thing that had been covered up was Artemis's involvement. The LEP couldn't bear to admit that a human was responsible for saving them from a war that they had no chance to win, and so they had buried Artemis's heroism, instead naming Holly and Captain Galadhon as the saviours of the People. They had even nominated her for a medal, which she had immediately declined. Holly had never been a career elf, and the injustice of Artemis's sacrifice being concealed was a lot more important to her than anything as superficial as her own reputation. If Artemis doesn't get one, she had said, I don't want one either. He deserves it far more than I do.

Holly did her best to ignore the sudden emptiness she felt as her thoughts inevitably turned to her human friend. Everyone told her that time wold alleviate the grief, but Holly knew they were wrong. Every time it hit her it was as raw as the first time. She had no doubt that that pain would haunt her until the end of her days.

The elf was still so lost in her thoughts as she pushed open the door to the Situations booth that she almost missed her name being called.

"Holly. Holly? Hello?"

She turned to see the LEP's technical consultant, Foaly, trotting towards her.

"Hey, Foaly," she said. She tried offering a smile, but her heart wasn't in it.

"Holly, what are you doing here?"

Holly gave her friend a withering look. "I work here?"

Foaly narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "I'm aware of that. Not least because you've been working double shifts every day for the past three weeks. When was the last time you had a day off?" The centaur looked at her a little more closely. "Or a proper night's sleep for that matter."

Holly shrugged. "Just trying to do my bit to keep this city together."

Foaly didn't look convinced, but he didn't push it. "Never mind that now," he said. "There's an urgent situation."

Holly raised an eyebrow and followed the centaur into the Situations booth. "So I've heard. Care to fill me in?"

Foaly ignored her, heading over to the one of the booth's computers. A moment later, the relevant files started flashing up on the wall mounted screens.

Holly nodded a greeting to the only other people in the room, two elves. K'Azir, who had taken on the mantle of LEP commander after Amber had murdered Holly's long-time friend Trouble Kelp, and Galadhon, who was a Captain just like Holly.

"About time you showed up, Short," barked K'Azir, who seemed to resemble Commander Root more every day. "Foaly, bring her up to speed."

"Very well, Commander," Foaly began. "As you are aware, Holly, some fairies have decided to take the law into their own hands following the Battle of Tara."

Holly nodded. As a recon officer, she knew better than most. It was often her job to contain the rogue fairies that headed up to the surface to issue a little Mud Man justice. By and large, the People were a peaceful bunch, but there still a few renegades who took it upon themselves to avenge the innocent civilians murdered at Tara. Blood for blood, they said. A life for a life. After all, the humans were just animals. It made Holly sick. It seemed as if all you had to do to justify an atrocity was to demonize the victim.

She couldn't help herself recalling an incident just last week when she had been sent to apprehend a pair of sprites that had skipped bail and headed to the surface. The pair had locked a bunch of humans in their town hall during a meeting and burned it to the ground. She had got there in time to arrest them, but not fast enough to save lives. She could still hear the screams when she closed her eyes.

All surface travel had been suspended, but the Earth's crust was riddled with illegal tunnels that could still be used to get from Haven to the surface. So far the LEP, mainly thanks to Foaly's computer skills, had managed to pass the incidents off as accidental to the humans, but it was only a matter of time before a fairy was caught in the act. And when that happened, ten thousand years of peace between humanity and the People would unravel.

Foaly brought up a picture of three pixies on the screen, all smiling and laughing together.

"Two days ago," he continued, "these three illegally made their way to the surface. We suspect they were planning an attack."

Holly shook her head in disgust. In the picture, they all looked so happy and carefree. So innocent. It was hard to imagine that they could be murderers.

"Did they succeed?" she asked, not really wanting to know the answer.

"No," said Foaly. "Apparently, someone was waiting for them."

"Someone?" Holly frowned. "Who?"

Foaly looked uncomfortable, so K'Azir answered for him.

"We don't know, Holly. All we know is that all three showed up dead today."

Holly felt dread worm its way into her stomach. This was it. The Mud People were onto them. War was inevitable.

"So that's it?" she asked, her mouth dry. "The humans are fighting back?"

To her surprise, Foaly shook his head. "No. At least, we don't think so. I've hacked everything – and you know how thorough I am, I mean everything – that any human government has. There's nothing. If humanity was mobilising against the People, there would be at least a trace, but there's nothing. Not even a reference, not from the CIA, not from MI6, not from Mossad. Not from anyone.

"Don't get me wrong, whoever did this has a terrifying knowledge of the People. Not only do they know we exist, but they were able to track and kill shielded fairies without leaving a trace. And make no mistake, they wanted usto know what they did." Foaly sighed. "I'm not sure if it's a blessing or a curse. At least now we know they're a threat, but when the public hear about this…"

He tailed off. They all know how the public would respond to this.

"They won't," said K'Azir. "This is all completely classified. Officially, those three are missing."

"You're going to lie to everyone about this?" said Holly. "That'll do wonders for our credibility."

K'Azir rounded on her. "Listen here, Short," he snapped, his face reddening to a shade that would have made Root proud. "I'm in command, not you. That means I make the decisions, and you shut up and deal with it. Besides, we don't have any credibility to undermine. If people find out about this, it could tip things over the edge. We simply cannot afford to take that risk."

"So why are you telling me about this? Why now?"

K'Azir sighed. Like Holly, it didn't look as though he had slept properly in weeks.

"Until today, apprehending the vigilantes on the surface was relatively straightforward once we had located them. But now, any fairy going to the surface could be walking into a trap. Any fairy we send to intervene is running the same risk. So, until this threat is contained…"

He didn't need to finish. Holly knew exactly where he was headed.

"Until then, all surface operations are restricted to experienced field agents," she supplied.

K'Azir nodded. Holly glanced at Galadhon, and suddenly everything fell into place.

"Where are we headed?" she asked, trying to keep the note of disappointment from her voice. Once upon a time, Holly had lived for the opportunity to visit the surface. That was why she had joined recon in the first place. But lately, her surface missions had only depressed her. Seeing otherwise ordinary fairies determined to perpetrate violence broke her heart. And she had seen more dead bodies over the last month than in the entire rest of her life. Anyone would struggle to keep a positive mindset, but Holly was still overwhelmed by grief for Artemis. She was about as far from a positive mindset as it was possible to be.

"Africa," answered Foaly, bringing up a map of the relevant region. "Specifically central Africa – what the humans call the Democratic Republic of Congo. It's a poor and unstable country, even by human standards. We're tracking a shuttle there. No way for us to know their intentions, but the containment of any illegal surface ventures is classed as high priority."

Holly nodded. Whether the shuttle's occupants had malicious intentions or not, they were still breaking the law, and especially in the current climate, the LEP wasn't prepared to risk that they would get themselves captured by the Mud People.

"You and Galadhon are being dispatched to intercept it. Your primary objective is containment. You are clear to engage any and all human forces that threaten the People's secrecy."

Holly nodded again and made to leave with Galadhon, but Foaly grabbed her arm and held her back.

"Holly," he started awkwardly, as though he didn't quite know how to say what was on his mind. "Listen… I know you're upset about Artemis." Holly tensed almost imperceptibly. "I know those scars will never properly heal. But I also know that working yourself to death won't help anyone."

Holly clenched her jaw. "I don't know what you mean."

"You're throwing yourself into your work because you don't know how to deal with your grief. Don't even try and pretend otherwise. And it might make it easier to ignore the pain now, but trust me, it's not healthy."

"Be careful, Foaly."

The hostility in Holly's eyes was difficult to ignore, but Foaly ploughed on, pushing aside his instinct of self-preservation. It was generally not a good idea to risk antagonizing Holly – the elf had a fiery temper at the best of times – but she was his friend and he hated to see her like this.

"Holly, please, listen to me. You look awful. Promise me you'll take a day off and get at least some rest."

"Foaly…"

"I'm serious, Holly. Promise me."

Holly looked into her friend's pleading eyes and couldn't find it in her to say no. "Fine," she muttered. "One day."

Before Foaly could get her to promise anything else, Holly set off after Galadhon to get kitted out for her mission. She never heard the soft thank you that followed her.

Chute E162 Terminal, Democratic Republic of Congo

Holly and Galadhon made good time to Africa. When LEP officers needed to make quick journeys, they rode magma flares to the surface in titanium eggs designed by Foaly. It wasn't a comfortable ride, and accidents weren't exactly unheard of, but it was a lot faster than a shuttle.

Once they had arrived in the nearest terminal to their destination, Holly and Galadhon wasted no time strapping on their wings and heading out onto the surface.

Holly took a moment to appreciate the night sky above her before setting off for possible combat. There wasn't much light pollution in central Africa, so the stars stood out clearly against the black canvas. Holly gave a sad little smile. Before Artemis had been admitted to the J. Argon clinic to have his Atlantis Complex treated, she had visited him whenever she was on her way to complete the ritual. They had always watched the stars together.

"Weapons check?" said a voice behind her, pulling her out of her thoughts.

"Affirmative," she replied, drawing her neutrino and confirming that it was still operational. She entered a few commands into her wrist computer. "Establishing com link."

Galadhon did the same. A moment later, Foaly's voice filled both their helmets.

"Frost, you're online with Ops. Locating target. Standby."

"Copy that, Ops," responded Holly. Frost was their designated call sign for the operation.

"The target shuttle was abandoned twenty clicks east of your current location. We have the occupants on Scopes, heading towards you. Sending co-ordinates to your helmets. Move to intercept."

Scopes was the shop name for the human satellites that Foaly had hijacked and now used to assist LEP surface operations. Holly smiled grimly as a red dot appeared on her visor's heads-up display.

"Acknowledged," she said, flicking the ignition on her mechanical wings and soaring into the sky, shield already active. Galadhon followed suit. "Frost is en route. What are we looking for?"

"We have a visual on four elves," relayed Foaly. "Looks like they've tried to disguise themselves as humans." He paused uncertainly. "The resolution isn't good enough to be sure, but I think I see at least one firearm."

Holly frowned. "Human or fairy?"

"Not sure," answered Foaly from back at Police Plaza. "Just be careful, Holly."

Holly and Galadhon flew fast and low. Thanks to their magical shields and Foaly's advanced Shimmer Suits, they were completely invisible to the naked and mechanical eye, so they didn't need to worry about being spotted by a stray Mud Person. And considering the situation, speed was crucial.

They almost made it in time to apprehend the fairies before they reached their destination. Almost. If I had an ounce of gold for every time I was almost there in time, reflected Holly, I'd be as rich as Artemis was. Well, maybe not that rich, but you get the idea.

Holly scanned her surroundings for the fairies they were tracking as she and Galadhon reached the human town. They weren't hard to spot. The four elves sauntered into the town, hats and scarves clumsily wrapped around the heads to hide their pointed ears. Thankfully, most residents were asleep, so no-one was around to see the curious figures as they started making their way through the narrows streets.

"Ops," said Holly quickly into her helmet mic. "Frost-One has eyes on all four targets. Requesting permission to engage."

From down in Police Plaza, Foaly peeked at the feed from her helmet cam.

"Negative, Frost-One. If you go in now and they resist, you'll wake the whole town up. Hold your position and wait for further orders."

Holly bit her tongue. She knew Foaly was right, but every instinct she had was telling her to stop the fairies before they could hurt someone. She looked on as they explored. They're searching for a target, she realized. There was no longer any doubt in her mind as to what their intentions were.

As she watched, the four came to a sudden stop outside a crude hospital building. It wasn't impressive – dilapidated, and small – but it likely played host to the highest concentration of humans of any building in the small town. The fairies seemed to discuss something amongst themselves for a moment, then one of them shrugged, as if to say "sure, why not?"

They've found their target, Holly realized with horror. Galadhon was already relaying the information to Police Plaza.

"Ops, this is Frost-Two. Targets are preparing to attack. Contact imminent."

"Copy that. We'll apprehend them inside the building. Do not engage until they make contact. Frost-One, move closer and prepare to follow them inside. Frost-Two, cover her approach."

Holly didn't need telling twice. She dropped into a steep dive, still invisible, soaring towards the renegade fairies and touching down silently a few meters away. She drew her weapon.

Galadhon, too, descended, landing on a nearby roof. His weapon was already in his hand, ready to stun anything that threatened Holly.

"Frost-One, in position."

Holly watched through the sights of her neutrino as one of the fairies opened the simple padlock on the door with an omnitool. While he worked, another was spray-painting the words For Tara on the road outside in English. The Latin characters were crude, but still just about legible. Once he'd finished, all four fairies raised neutrinos and went inside.

"D'Arvit," swore Holly. "I see four weapons, and they are entering the building. Frost-One is pursuing."

Even as she spoke, her mind was reeling. How on in Frond's name did they get neutrinos? Any laser weapon was completely illegal outside of the LEP. It was nigh impossible for a criminal to get their hands on something like a neutrino. Besides, it wasn't even fatal. How were these fairies going to avenge the massacre at Tara – by stunning people for a few hours? Or were they planning something twisted after they had knocked the humans out?

"Frost-Two, moving to assist," said Galadhon, preparing to join Holly. But something in the corner of his eye made him pause. "Standby, standby! I have movement behind the target building!"

Holly hesitated. She knew she should wait and reassess the situation, but there were almost certainly innocent humans inside the hospital that were in serious danger. And even though they were only Mud People, that didn't mean they deserved to die.

A child's scream for help made the decision for her. Weapon up, she charged into the shabby lobby area. It was abandoned. Holly eyes darted around the room, searching for an open door to indicate where the attackers were. There!

Even as she ran towards it, shouts and screams were audible from the rooms on the other side. A child sprinted through the open door towards her, but crumpled when caught from behind with a neutrino beam. One of the fairies came out afterwards, a sharp laugh escaping his lips

Holly raised her weapon and unshielded. There was no way she could shoot accurately while vibrating faster than the eye could see.

The fairy's laugh turned into a yelp, and the colour drained from his face.

"LEP! LEP!"

"That's right," said Holly, preparing to squeeze the trigger. "Goodnight."

But before she could fire, the fairy slumped forwards, a half-formed look of surprise frozen on his face. A red stain spread quickly across his back. Behind him, a tall figure was already melting away into next room. There were more shouts, but this time in Gnomish. Holly could hear the panic in the voices.

She sprinted forward, leaping over the elf's dead body, and diving into the next room. In a heartbeat, her eyes scanned her new surroundings. There were a few unconscious humans collapsed against the walls, but no sign of the fairies or their attacker.

"Ops, this is Frost-One," she shouted into her helmet mic as she carried on following the sound of combat. "There's a human here, an armed one. I think he was waiting for them. I have one confirmed fairy fatality. Requesting immediate assistance."

"Copy that, Frost-One," came Galadhon's voice in her ear. "Frost-Two is moving to assist. Sit tight."

"Negative. I'm pursuing the targets."

Holly was sure she heard Foaly curse from back in Police Plaza, but she didn't have time to worry about that now. From the next room there came a dull thud, followed by the characteristic hiss of a silenced pistol.

"No!" she shouted, determined to intervene before anyone else was killed. She charged into the room, fully expecting to be met with a hail of bullets. But when she crossed the threshold, everything was still.

In the space of a second, her well-trained eyes absorbed every detail of the room. There was no sign of the mysterious human assassin. One of the rogue elves lay obviously dead, slumped against a cracked wall with a bullet hole in his forehead. The other two cowered behind hospital beds, clearly terrified. Holly raised her neutrino to stun them for arrest.

That was when she registered the grenade.

There was no time for rational thought. Holly did the only thing that came to mind. She dived for cover as the world erupted in fire.

Her suit immediately flexed, the tiny scales all closing ranks to provide a rigid barrier, absorbing the worst of the impact. Even so, she was still launched into the air and slammed into the nearest wall, a metal hospital bed landing on top of her.

Holly groaned and tried to get up, but her body didn't want to obey. Everything hurt, but already magic was dulling the pain. She was vaguely aware of various different voices vying for her attention.

"Frost-One, come in. Repeat, Frost-One, what the hell is going on up there?" K'Azir's voice.

"Holly! Holly! Are you OK?" Foaly's voice, just as full of concern as she would have expected.

"Captain Short. Holly. We have to go. Now."

A hazy figure before her was sharpening. Galadhon. He reached down and started pulling debris off her.

"Mmpph?" It was about all she could manage.

The other elf grabbed her and dragged her to her feet. "Not now," he said. "That explosion woke up the whole village. In a few minutes, we're going to have some serious company."

Holly closed her eyes for a moment, trying to organise her thoughts.

"Can't we just shield?" she asked, still groggy.

"We can," Galadhon said. "But they can't." He gestured at the lifeless fairies they had originally been tracking.

"D'Arvit. You carrying any cam foil? I don't think mine will work very well anymore."

Galadhon nodded, understanding Holly's thinking immediately. He leant down, grabbing one of the dead elves. The explosion had blown a large hole in the outside wall, giving them an easy route into the alley beside the hospital. He started dragging to elf towards it.

"There's another body in the lobby," said he said, gesturing Holly to go and fetch it.

She nodded and staggered off in the indicated direction, still not really thinking straight. By the time she returned, Galadhon had already cleaned up the other evidence of fairy presence. He helped her carry the body outside and carefully laid it down with the others, and then placed a sheet of cam foil over them. Both of them shielded, gently vibrating out of the visible spectrum.

It felt horribly undignified just dragging the bodies away and dumping them an alley, but they didn't really have a choice. It was that or leaving them to be discovered by the Mud People that were already pouring into the hospital.

"Holly! For Frond's sake are you OK?"

The elf smiled under her helmet. "Yes, Foaly. A little worse for wear, but I'm alright."

"Thank the gods. What happened?"

"Later," interrupted Galadhon, ever the pragmatist. "Right now, we need urgent evacuation for the two of us and four bodies."

"There's already a shuttle en route, ETA two hours. But you need to get somewhere safe for pick up. Marking viable evac locations now."

A plethora of green dots appeared on Holly's heads-up display, each with a little number next to it.

"Number seven," said Galadhon after a moment's consideration. "To the North. I can fly the bodies over in cam foil."

Holly nodded. They waited for some of the attention around the hospital to die down before making their way away from the hub of activity. Since Galadhon hadn't been caught in the grenade's blast, his wings and moonbelt were still functional. One by one, he carried the bodies to safety, wrapped in the cam foil. Then he and Holly made their way to the evac site under cover of their shields. It was far from an ideal solution, but their luck held and they weren't spotted.

The two elves sat under a ridge without speaking a few hundred meters away from the outskirts of the town, waiting for the evac shuttle. It was Holly who eventually broke the silence.

"What do you think will happen in Haven?"

Galadhon cocked his head to one side, considering it.

"The People are generally peaceful," he replied carefully. "We were at war with humanity once. We gave up the fight then, I don't see why we can't now. In time, the anger will pass."

Holly wasn't convinced. "And if it doesn't?"

"We can't fight a war against the humans. There are too many of them. People might be angry right now, but they aren't stupid. If they want to carry on living, they'll only poke the bear so many times before they decide to quit while they're ahead. Trust me, Holly, it will pass."

Holly let it go. She hoped he was right.

A noise from behind them disturbed the fragile calm. Holly spun, already drawing her weapon. The cam foil they had draped over the dead fairies was rustling, as though something underneath it was moving.

Galadhon pulled the sheet away, revealing the four dead elves. Except one of them wasn't dead. They hadn't noticed before because no magic was healing his injuries after the explosion. Holly guessed that he had neglected the magic restoring Ritual a little too long. He sat up, looking very disoriented. Holly could see the fear slowly register on his face as his memories returned.

"LEP?" he asked cautiously, grimacing in pain from the various injuries he had sustained from the explosion. It seemed like he'd been lucky – they weren't too serious. But that didn't mean they didn't hurt like hell. "My friends… are they OK?"

Galadhon didn't waste any time on small talk. "Never mind them. The person that attacked you, can you describe him?"

Despite how dire his situation was looking, the elf decided that this was his chance to be a tough guy.

"I don't take orders from you, LEP," he sneered. "And I asked you a question. Where are my friends?"

Holly wasn't really in the mood to be sympathetic. She grabbed the elf and roughly shoved him into the dirt next to the bodies of his friends.

"Your friends are dead. You're lucky not to be. In fact, you owe us your life. Not that you deserved me risking mine to try and save it. So, if I were you, I would co-operate. Understand?"

The elf's resistance crumbled. He recognised the angry one. He'd heard stories about her. She was a loose cannon recon Captain.

Holly saw the fight leave his eyes. "Good. Now, the attacker. Describe him."

"Her," he corrected. Holly frowned. "At least, I think it was a her. She had long hair. That means a girl, right?"

Galadhon raised an eyebrow. "Usually."

"Hey, I don't know human fashion. How am I supposed to know?"

"What about her face?" said Holly, not wanting the conversation to get derailed.

"No idea. It was covered up, with like, you know, a mask, or something. It was dark, alright? I didn't see so well. I don't think I can really remember much."

Holly tried not to groan. Long hair and probably a girl didn't exactly narrow it down very much.

"Think harder," she growled. "Was there anything distinctive or unusual about her?"

The elf shrugged. "She was quick. Like nothing I've ever seen. And strong. One of my buddies, she picked him up and threw him into a wall so hard it cracked." He paused to think for a moment. "She was using a gun, but she had two swords as well. You know, strapped to her back. That's weird, right? Even for humans?"

The blood drained out of Holly's face. A girl who knew about the People, with insane speed and strength, and twin swords? No. It wasn't possible. She was dead.

"You're lying," she whispered.

The elf shook his head. "That's all I saw."

Holly actually punched him. "You're lying," she repeated, her voice like iron. "Tell me the truth. Tell me now. What did she really look like?"

He stumbled back, clutching his face where Holly had hit him, now completely convinced that she was unhinged.

"Please, miss, I promise, it's the truth… please, don't hurt me…"

Holly drew back her arm to hit him again, but Galadhon grabbed her and held her back.

"Holly, calm down," he snapped. "What in Frond's name has gotten into you?"

Holly took a few deep breaths. "I… I don't know," she said shakily. "It's just… he's lying. He has to be."

"How could he be? How would he even know about her?"

Holly shrugged. "I don't know. All I know is, she's dead. And dead people don't come back."

Galadhon didn't have anything to say to that.

A/N: Oh, exciting. Is it Natalya? Did she survive? Or is it someone else?

Just to let people know, the problems in Haven and the renegade fairies are by no means the main focus of this story. The main plotline is entirely independent of most of what took place in this chapter, but I wanted to start with some action, in the same way as most of the canon books start with Holly on a mission largely unconnected to overall story. The thing about needing Amber to lend credibility to the idea that humanity wasn't responsible for Tara was actually mentioned in Winter of Decay when Artemis and Holly are ordered to bring her in alive, but obviously things didn't go according to plan.

And before anyone asks, yes, Opal is in the prologue because she is the main antagonist in this story. I know everyone's bored of her, but this is supposed to conclude the series without leaving a bunch of loose ends. There's still past Opal running around somewhere, so our heroes need to deal with that before things can really be over.

I curious if anyone can guess the significance of the rest of the prologue…

Anyway, if you were wondering about Artemis, he'll make an appearance next chapter. Speaking of which, I've written about 50k words of this as of writing this author's note, so updates should be frequent. In the meantime, a great use of your time would be to review :P I would love to know what people think so far.

-Kio