Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer does. Any new characters that were not in the originial series are mine.

Authors Note: This story, with an exception of the last chapter, was written before the release of the Opal Deception. So please keep in mind that it is completely different and has nothing to do with the latest book. There will be some minor Arty/Holly involved, but for those of you who don't like that pairing, the story is not based on those two inparticular. I just sort of worked it in along side the actual plot. I am not the best gramatical person, so please forgive any errors you might find. I edited it and had my friend edit it, so hopefully there are very few mistakes. Please review and let me know what you think. Try not to be too hard on me if you don't like it. Thanks.

Artemis Fowl and the Missing Fairies

Chapter 1: Free To Go

Fowl Manor, Dublin, Ireland

Artemis Fowl wearily made his way to his bedroom. He had just spent fourteen hours straight in front of his computer with little success. Ever since waking up to find those lenses in his eyes, he had spent much of his time trying to solve this mystery. Butler had returned after seeing his contact in Limerick about the lenses and had given Artemis a few things to think about.

Apparently, Butler himself was the one who had requested those lenses no more than a week before his arriving there. Butler had also told Artemis about a comment the man had made to him while there. He had said something about how Butler looked a lot younger this time then he had before. That in itself was strange because Butler admitted to feeling old and worn on the inside. Artemis knew that Butler did not admit his weaknesses easily and so his manservant must have been very worried about it to admit it so easily. What was also very strange was that Butler had absolutely no recollection of ever visiting Limerick since years ago.

So Artemis had spent the whole day researching the lenses. They were quite ingenious and he couldn't help but think they could have been one of his own inventions. He tried to figure out what the lenses could possibly be used for. They were clear, but yet they were made of the same kind of substance as sunglass lenses. Something nagged at him from the back of his mind, but he couldn't form the thought. It was something about sunglasses used for something...Artemis shook his head. It was giving him a headache and he needed sleep after staring at the computer screen for so long. Artemis had been having that feeling a lot in the last few days. It was almost as if he was forgetting something, something that would have to do with those lenses and the fact that Butler was older so quickly. Artemis decided he would meditate tomorrow after he let his mind rest for the night.

Police Plaza, Underground Haven

Captain Holly Short walked happily to her cubicle. For some reason she was in a really great mood that day and she wasn't going to let anything destroy it.

"Short! Get in here now!" Holly sighed. Well, almost anything. She turned around and ventured into Commander Root's office, wondering what it was that she had done this time. Root sat behind his desk, his face a darker red than usual.

"Yes, Commander?" Holly took a seat across from Root. The Commander rubbed his temples.

"Holly, why do you do this to me?"

"Commander?"

"You took off without an approval, leaving Fowl Manor. I should have your badge for this. You know how the council is. I have to be strict with you so you can keep your job. But when you go and pull stunts like that..."

Holly shifted uncomfortably. She figured it would be best to just keep her mouth closed this time. After all, she didn't have an excuse this time and she couldn't think of any. But she really hoped the Commander wouldn't take her badge. Being an officer was very important to her and she didn't know what she would do if she was fired. She waited for the Commander to say something else and just as he opened his mouth, a different voice spoke.

"Commander? We got trouble."

"Not now, Foaly! Can't it wait? I'm in the middle of something." Root growled. Foaly's face appeared on the screen behind Root.

"Sorry, Julius, but no can do." Root turned an even darker shade of red.

"One, don't call me Julius. Two, what is it?" He swirled his chair around to look up at the screen.

"We got a couple of goblins that escaped onto the surface. They just took E1, so they'll be arriving in Tara shortly. They didn't have clearance or anything. They were some of the ones that managed to escape getting arrested after the rebellion."

The commander shook his head. Goblins were the stupidest creatures above and below the planet and somehow managed to cause the most trouble. He grabbed his chart that showed where his officers were at. Muttering to himself, he said. "Trouble and his boys are taking their patrols around east Haven. They're to far out of the way. D'Arvit." He swore. Foaly looked over and saw that Holly was most likely in some sort of trouble and could use this chance to redeem herself. Although knowing that elf, she would only make things worse for herself. He chuckled inwardly before speaking.

"Commander? Why don't you send Captain Short? She's right there and she's more than capable of stunning them until Retrieval can get there." Holly looked up and smiled slightly at the centaur, as if to say thanks. The commander, however, glared at him.

"Shorts in a lot of hot water right now. She can't." Holly was going to protest but for once in her life, decided that it would be best to keep her mouth shut. It was a great struggle for her but she barely managed it. Root looked down at his chart again and sighed in defeat. "Alright, Short. One last shot. Don't screw it up. I can't keep covering for you."

"Thanks Commander. And don't worry, you won't regret it." She left the office quickly and Root shook his head. He was almost positive he would regret it. He knew that if any other officer had messed up as much as Holly, then they would have already been off the force. But Root could not bring himself to fire that Captain. She had a good heart and did what she thought to be best, even if it always ended up badly. Besides, she was the best pilot on the force, which had to count for something.

Foaly terminated the link and less than two minutes later, Holly appeared at the door to Ops. He let her in.

"So...what did you do this time?"

"All I did was leave the Manor! It wasn't as if I did something serious. Thanks Foaly, by the way, for getting me out of trouble. The commander looked as if he was going to fire me this time."

Foaly chuckled. "Holly, first of all, you know how Julius is about following every rule in the Book. Besides, you know he would never really fire you."

Holly snorted and Foaly knew that she didn't believe him.

Shrugging, he pulled out a pair of wings and handed them to the captain. As he was turning, he couldn't help but see the grimace on the elf's face when she saw the wings. She asked the question he already knew was coming.

"Can't I try out one of those Doubledex? They're a lot faster."

"No, I still have to check all those. You do remember who made those don't you?" Foaly's tail swished out of annoyance. His wings were a much better version.

Holly sighed. "Yes, Opal Koboi. But she's at Howler's Peak right now and isn't going anywhere for quite some time. I hardly think she booby-trapped the wings."

"Well, you never can be too careful. I'm taking no chances after what happened last time. I'm going through everyone of those myself. Besides, if I was paid a decent budget around here I'm sure I could produce much better models."

Holly snorted again. "You get more than a decent budget and enough funds rolling in here that you should have more than just a decent pair of wings. I wouldn't mention that to Root by the way. He almost had a heart attack last week when he saw the bill for your latest project. As it was he choked on his cigar."

Foaly chuckled. He could imagine it. Holly knew he would probably mention it to Root later on anyway. Foaly was the only one who messed with the LEP commander and was able to get away with it. He was indispensable and they couldn't afford to loose him. He was the only reason the fairies had been successful so far in keeping hidden from the humans. Without him, human technology would pass the fairies and that could be disastrous. There were only three humans who had ever been able to learn about the fairies and keep the memories long enough to benefit themselves. Holly cringed slightly as she remembered that they had just recently lost the memories that had become apart of them. She had seen a lot of mind wipes before and that one was probably the only one that she had ever felt was cruel. She hadn't really thought about it before, but stealing memories from people were wrong. Their memories were apart of them. She didn't know why she hadn't thought of it before having to mind wipe Artemis. She quickly pushed the thoughts from her mind so she could focus on the task ahead of her.

Foaly had been watching her as she was lost in thought, and then watched as she snapped back out of it. "What were you just thinking? You were out of it and staring off into space." He smirked as she quickly tried to cover up.

"Nothing, I was just thinking about...the goblins. Just wondering what the best way to take them down." Her lie was very unconvincing though and she knew it. Of course she knew how to take them out. Just stun them from the air with her Neutrino. Foaly shook his head.

"Well, you better get going before they cause anymore trouble." As Holly was heading towards the door, he added, "Hurry back, because there's something I wanted to show you." Holly gave him a questioning look but hurried out of the Ops room. Foaly rolled his new specially modified chair back over to his computers and brought up the file he had been looking over before the goblin news came in. It was Mulch Diggums arrest record.

Ireland

Holly finally made it above ground. It had taken her about twenty precious minutes, all because of some civilian thinking he was better than her. Holly had finally pulled out her buzz baton and threatened to use it. Only then did the annoying little sprite move. Holly shook her head. There was just no more respect for LEP officers these days. There had been a time when they were looked up to and highly respected. Now, they were given as much respect as a stink worm.

She made sure her wings were secured tightly before taking off into the night air. She pulled her visor down over her face and hovered in the air for a minute. A mud men vehicle drove by beneath her but she was invisible to them.

"Foaly? You there?"

"Always. What can I do for you Captain?" From the sound of his voice, Holly could tell that Foaly was munching on carrots.

"Can you tell me what direction those Goblins went in?"

"I can do more than that. Hang on a second." Holly could hear him typing quickly on his computers and suddenly she had a map on her screen. There was a green dot, which was apparently herself and about two miles east of her were two red dots, the Goblins. Holly groaned out loud. They were just outside of some small town. They would be entering in no more than fifteen minutes, tops.

"D'Arvit!" She swore.

"I suggest you reach them before they reach that town." Foaly said, matter-of-factly. Holly rolled her eyes and felt like muttering Duh but contained herself. "That's going to take some fancy flying." Foaly said and Holly had to grin at that. She loved flying, whether it is with wings or in a shuttle. It was the one thing she was good at. Without bothering to reply, Holly set the controls on her wings to turbo speed, the fastest option and took off in the direction of the Goblins.

She took the quickest route, which was flying straight over two towns on the way. She knew it was against regulations and it could probably cause her to become at the very least suspended. But she had very little choice if she wanted to reach those goblins before they reached that town. Goblins were incredibly stupid and could care less who saw them, including ignorant mud men. If a mud man had somehow caught a glimpse of them yet, there was going to be an uproar, especially if they got a picture. No doubt there would be pictures all over the internet within the hour if they had. Holly couldn't risk that and just had to hope that the centaur would keep his mouth closed about the route she had taken.

Holly allowed herself a glimpse at the beautiful country side as she flew by. Ireland was her favorite above ground place. It was the one place that mud men had not yet managed to destroy. The whole country it seemed was nothing but green. The air was purest here too. She could still taste the pollution and other filth the mud men had destroyed the atmosphere with, but here it was at least not as bad. She recalled the time when she had gone to Chicago to recover the C Cube from Jon Spiro with Artemis. The air there was hardly breathable. She had been lucky she had her helmet to filter it otherwise she might not have been able to survive. She wondered how mud men could stand it.

It took her only ten minutes to reach the Goblins. She spotted them below, just outside of the town. Foaly's voice came through the speaker in the helmet.

"Just stun them Holly. Retrieval can take care of the rest when they get there." Holly nodded, but then remembering that Foaly couldn't see her said, "Affirmative."

Holly pulled out her Neutrino and switched it to low so it would only stun them. She was just about to swoop in for a closer shot when she spotted something. "Foaly, is that what I think it is?" She said in a low voice. There was more tapping on a keyboard and Holly heard Foaly mutter "Holy Frond." Then, in a louder voice, he said, "Holly, get down there immediately." Holly swooped down and sure enough, when she was close enough to see clearly, there were the two goblins and between them was a Mud Girl. A teenager by human standards. It looked as though she was crying and frightened. The goblins were having fun conjuring fireballs in their palms and throwing them so that they landed in the dirt near her. Each time, the fireball would miss her by only a few inches and she would let out a squeak. This caused the goblins to laugh and persist in their "game."

Holly was just about to take a shot at one of them, when they both moved towards the girl and grabbed her. Each one took one of her arms and proceeded to try to drag her with them. Holly swore again. She couldn't risk taking a shot at the goblins now. She might miss and it the girl. It was highly unlikely that she would miss, in fact, it was next to impossible, but she couldn't take that chance. Growling, Holly did something that was against all regulations and would more than likely cost Holly her job. She unshielded and began shouting at the goblins.

"Hey Stupid! Over here! Yeah, I'm talking to you!" Holly watched as the goblins began looking around trying to find where the voice came from. Rolling her eyes, she wondered what she would have to do to get them to see her. Still they kept looking and finally she began waving her arms and shouting some more. The girl had spotted her right away and her eyes had gotten even larger. She looked as though she was going to faint. Holly almost groaned. This situation was turning out to be a whole lot worse than she had originally taken it for. Retrieval was going to have their hands full if this kept up. One of the goblins saw the girl looking and followed her gaze. He nudged the other goblin.

"Hey look. It's one of those LEP guys." One of the goblins said, as he took his tongue and licked his eyeball.

"Yeah, those guys are so annoying." The second goblin agreed.

"What should we do with him?" The first goblin asked.

Disgusted, Holly said, "First of all I'm a LEP girl, not a guy. Second of all, why don't you try and get me?"

"Oh, I have an idea. We can get the LEP chick." The second goblin looked very proud of himself, obviously thinking he had come up with that idea himself. The other goblin nodded and they released the girl to come forward. The girl backed up slowly, trying not to draw the goblin's attention back on herself. Holly took advantage of the girl being separated and aimed her Neutrino at the nearest goblin. One quick shot and the goblin was down. It took a minute for the other goblin to realize what had happened. The word Hey! had barely managed to leave his mouth before he joined his friend on the ground.

"Good job Holly. Retrieval is already on its way and should be there in a minute. Keep an eye on the girl so we can mind wipe her." Foaly said and Holly nodded. She flew over to where the teenager stood, still in shock. Holly landed on the ground and lifted her visor on her helmet so she could make eye contact. The Mud Girl squeaked again.

"You're a...a f-fairy." She said, noticing Holly's pointy ears. Holly nodded and she could see that the girl was becoming overwhelmed. Holly felt a little sorry for her. After all, she had just been threatened by two goblins, creatures she had never seen before and had never thought existed, and now she was talking to a fairy, another so-called mythical creature. The mud girl looked close to feinting and as it was, she was already hyperventilating. Holly layered her voice with the mesmer and watched as the girl's face became relaxed and no longer frightened.

"You don't have to worry about the goblins anymore. Now, what is your name?" Holly knew that the mud girl would believe her voice to sound like a choir and wouldn't be able to help but answer or obey her.

"Mary."

"Okay Mary. My name is Holly. Now I need you too calm down and have a seat while I wait for some friends of mine." Mary nodded and Holly watched as she took a seat on a rock. Holly turned to the goblins and was relieved to find they were still unconscious.

Retrieval arrived shortly after. Holly explained the situation to the captain. "The girl's going to need a mind wipe and I suggest that you set up a perimeter to check to make sure there were no other mud men around."

"Sure thing, Captain."

When Holly was done, she took off back towards E1. As soon as Holly was back underground, she headed towards the Ops booth. Foaly buzzed her in and she was mildly surprised to see Commander Root in there as well. Holly took a seat on the couch next to the commander.

"Okay Foaly, we're both here, now what is this about? By the way, good job Short." Root grunted, while chewing on his unlit cigar. Foaly had forbidden him to smoke anywhere near his computers, so now the best the commander could do was chew on the cigars. Holly said a quick thank you, hoping that she was off the hook now for that incident after Fowl Manor. Just then, Foaly turned around to face them.

"I have something to show you Commander. I figured Holly would be interested as well."

"So you said, now get on with it." Root's face was still his normal red color. He looked as though what very little patience he usually had was quickly leaving. Holly silently willed Foaly to get straight to the point and not purposely aggravate the LEP commander. Normally Holly is amused to watch the two bicker, but she was not in the best of moods anymore and she was curious to see why Foaly had called them in. Luckily, Foaly seemed too excited or worked up about something to torment Root at the moment. She watched as Foaly brought up a file and turned around grinning.

"And just what are we looking at?" Root asked.

"Mulch Diggums' arrest record."

"Okay, what about it?"

"Look here." Foaly pointed to a date on the screen. Root and Holly both leaned in closer to look. Holly's eyes widened but Root still didn't get it.

"Foaly, explain."

Foaly sighed and this succeeded in only making Root's temper worse. Foaly could tell Holly already got it by her expression.

"How is that possible?" Holly breathed. Foaly grinned again.

"Well, I don't know for sure, but I have a theory."

"And the theory is...?" Holly knew that whenever Foaly had a theory, it was almost always right. He was a genius after all. Root was now about to blow his top. He did not like being left out and did not tolerate it at all. Holly wouldn't have been surprised to see steam rise from his head. Foaly must have noticed it too, because before he went on to explain his theory, he explained what Holly already had figured out.

"Okay, you see that date?" Foaly waited for Root to nod before continuing. "Well, it seems that this date was set the day after Mulch's arrest." The light finally began to dawn in Root's eyes. "This means that all of his arrests were void. Mr. Diggums is free to go."

"Are you sure? Isn't there something we still have against him? I mean, not all of it can be useless, right?" Root seemed desperate. There was no way he was going to let Mulch just walk away. Foaly shook his head.

"I'm sorry Commander, but we don't have anything against him. He's clean now. He could get a lawyer, but we have no case against him. We might as well save us the trouble and let him go now."

Root was chewing on his cigar furiously now. "But how? How is that possible? And I don't want some theory Foaly. I want hard core evidence."

"Well, I'm afraid I don't have evidence, just a sneaky suspicion." Foaly admitted. Holly spoke up.

"With all do respect sir; Foaly's theories are usually true. Remember his last one about Diggums?" Holly pointed out and Root was silent for a minute.

"Alright, but it better be good." Root sat back down on the couch. Foaly's grin appeared again.

"I think we were outsmarted again." Holly's eyes widened again and Root stared at Foaly in shock. It wasn't so much the fact that they had been outsmarted again, but the fact that Foaly was willingly admitting it and grinning about it!

"Fowl?" Root asked and Foaly nodded. "But how? You don't mean he has his memories back?"

"No, I don't think he does. There was no way he could have recovered them. But I think he did this before he was mind wiped. The mud boy must have hacked into my system when I wasn't paying attention and changed the date."

"And you think it was Fowl why?" Root also knew it must have been him, but figured there was always a chance the mud boy was innocent. Root almost snorted. That mud boy wasn't capable of innocence.

"Didn't you notice how well Mulch and Artemis got along?" Foaly asked and Holly nodded. She remembered all right. Mulch had actually come to warn the mud boy when Carla Frazetti had sent a metal man and a monkey after him. True Mulch had been the monkey, but he had had a chance to turn the job down or run but he had gone along with it anyway. The two had become quite chummy earlier when they had been on their way to Koboi Labs as well. Foaly continued. "Not only did they get along, but can you imagine the two of them together? Artemis with his brains and Mulch with his skills? There would be no safe place above ground or below ground." Root had to agree with him there. Mulch was the best burglar in the business and Artemis was extremely good at coming up with plans, thanks to his high intelligence.

"So now what? If we let Diggums go, won't he run straight to Fowl?"

"It's likely, but we don't have much of a choice. We can't keep him in prison because we have no case. The only thing we can do is release him and keep an eye on him. If he tries to go anywhere near Fowl, we grab him and bring him back here. We don't want to risk Mulch bringing back his memories."

Commander Root grudgingly agreed. It seemed as though that was their only option. "Foaly, get a line to the jail and have a guard escort Diggums here."

"Yes sir." Foaly turned away to call the jail downtown. After he was done, Holly decided to ask something.

"Foaly? You just admitted to being outsmarted again, but you don't seem all that...mad about it. I've know you for how long now? And you have never been able to stand anyone getting the best of you. Now you're grinning." Root looked up too, wanting to hear this.

"Well, for some reason, I find it all quite amusing. The mud boy does not know we even exist, and yet he has managed to outsmart us again."

Root grunted. "I don't find it in the least bit amusing. I don't like being bested by a thirteen year old mud boy. And him being ignorant of it doesn't help much."

Holly chuckled. "It is ironic."

It was awhile before they finally watched Mulch being pushed along by a guard. Foaly buzzed him in and Root excused the guard. Once the guard was gone, Mulch looked around.

"Well, if it isn't the whole gang! I don't suppose you called me up here for just a cup of tea though, huh Julius?"

"Convict, don't start. If I were you I'd keep my mouth shut before you blow it."

"Blow what?"

"As much as I hate to say it...you're free to go." Root had Holly take cuffs off of Mulch's wrists. Mulch looked around surprised and then he gave a toothy grin.

"Really? Just like that?"

"On one condition. I plan on keeping a very close eye on you convict. I'm keeping a cell ready for you and one wrong move and I'll personally escort you there."

"Oh don't worry about me Julius. I plan on going straight." Mulch tried to grin convincingly but Holly snorted.

"Yeah, that'll be the day. What's that mud men phrase? Oh yeah, the day you go straight is the day I see pigs fly."

"Hey it's possible. I have a cousin that swears he's seen a pig fly before. A cow too. And my cousin's a trustworthy guy. Almost as much as myself." This time it was Root's turn to snort, causing him to choke on his cigar. Holly had to run and hit him on the back to stop him from choking, meanwhile, both Mulch and Foaly were laughing hysterically. When Mulch recovered his breath, he muttered to Foaly, "I think I'd better go before he recovers." Mulch headed towards the door but was stopped by Holly.

"Mulch, I agree with the commander. One wrong move and I'll be waiting there as well." Holly grinned and twirled her buzz baton. Mulch gulped. That buzz baton had given him quite a few marks on many occasions. Funny how just seeing Holly grin while holding a buzz baton was enough to send shivers down a dwarf's back. Nodding he left the booth.

Holly watched him go. This would not be the last time she would see that dwarf. Only little did she know that the next time she did see him, she would be in need of his help.