Paradox

Holly was still alive, barely. They were in the shuttle heading for Fowl Manor, and for Artemis and Holly, their own time. Mulch was at the wheel, driving like a reckless maniac, causing Artemis and Almena to hit the shuttles sides. Almena sat shell-shocked, questioning Artemis,"How did this happen? What is going on?"

Artemis looked the orphan in the eyes, teardrops obscuring his mismatched eyes, "We are time-travellers. Beyond that, I cannot tell you."Holly shook under the strong grasp of Almena, moaning in pain, "She's going into shock." Artemis shouted into the cockpit, "Hurry! She's slipping!"

Several frantic minutes later, over the Irish coastline

"I think we will make it," voiced Artemis, quite perplexed by the situation. They were 20miles above sea level, flying in what the LEP call a snogood craft, with Holly severely injured and a kleptomaniac dwarf at the steering wheel. Their situation was grim, until Artemis was forced to announce that Opal Koboi was chasing them. Almena cried out involuntarily at Artemis' announcement.

30miles behind the rusted mining craft, Opal pondered over her first action as Queen of the World. In the front cockpit, Mervall checked the scanners with a drawn face, "Miss Koboi, there appears to be an old mining craft heading towards Ireland."

Opal's mouth dropped open, a highly undignified action, dropping a box of truffles, "Fairy craft? Mervall, are you positive?"

"That's what the sensors say, scarcely any power under the hood and no weapons, not even a shield. Should I shoot it down?"

"No, leave it. I wonder what they are up to."

"Well, they did fly most of the way supersonic."

Opal's face reconfigured, a scowl marking her usually superior expression, "Why didn't you tell me, incompetent no good for nothing!"

Mervall ducked her angry glare, feeling as if it was highly harmful. Descant pocked his head around the corner, feeling as if his brother was in a worse situation than he was. Opal noticed Descant. "Neither of you even dare to leave out any information that may be helpful. Now, head towards the northern highlands. I have a sneaking suspicion they are up to something."

Fowl Manor

Despite the situation they were in, Almena still managed to gasp in surprise at the vast extent of the manor. Artemis had already given her a quick fill-in of the situation, jumping straight to covering the information relevant to the quandary. Artemis handed Mulch the starter chip, "Promise me that you will dump it as soon as you can. By the way, don't go selling anything to the LEP."

Almena stood waiting by the front door, holding Jayjay in her arms. The lemur happily combed through the orphan's hair, dismayed to find no nits. Artemis had already remembered to disable the alarms, to the interest of Almena.

Artemis brought Holly inside on a stretcher with the assistance of Almena, successfully triumphing over the staircase leading upstairs. Artemis entered his room first, checking with his mobile to confirm there were no heat signatures other than his mothers in the house. Holly shuttered, red sparks spiralling skyward to create an entrance to the time stream.

From behind a curtain the younger Artemis and Butler stepped, revealing themselves in a flurry of curtain, "Curious. What exactly are you up to?" questioned the younger Artemis, taking off the hood of the fireproof jacket. He had cleverly hidden Butler's and his own heat signatures using the foil. Butler drew his gun from under his vest, flicking off the safety and pointing it to the ground.

Almena was crouched over Holly, trying to hold her down as she convulsed. Her head came up, meeting the eyes of the younger Artemis," There is no time; she's drawn to the time stream. I feel it." The elder Artemis also looked, an expression of fury and concern fighting to dominate, "There is absolutely no time, we have to go."

The younger Artemis knew a challenge when he saw one, "You have broken into my house twice, and stolen my lemur, so I at least deserve an explanation to the time stream comment."

Artemis tried to flick his hair out of the way, intending for his younger self to notice the similarity between their appearances. His younger self groaned, "Why do you keep doing that?"

"Surely you recognise me?"said an impatient Artemis. Almena muttered something under her breath, seemingly struggling to anchor Holly. She repeated her statement out loud, "Hurry! I don't know how I know, but the time stream won't stay open long! You need to leave!"

Artemis looked into the twin blue eyes of his younger self, "Please, we need to go. It is a matter of life or death. His younger self drew comfort from the fact he held the upper hand, "I knew you would be back. It was quite interesting to see you appear from nowhere, I reviewed the security footage. Then you followed us to Africa, so I thought if I saved the creature's life you might end up back here with my lemur. We simply blocked our heat signatures and waited. And here you are. "

"That's pretty lax reasoning," mused the elder Artemis."We were obviously after the lemur. Why would we return once we had it?"

Almena looked at the pair, quite annoyed about neither of them getting anywhere," Artemis, you obviously had a heart. I saw you throw the diamonds out of the plane to save Holly. It will be in vain if you don't let them go. What will it take to let them go?"

Artemis reasoned for a painstaking minute, "I want to know the truth," he said eventually. "I need to know the truth about all of this. What type of creature is she? Who is he, and why does he look so familiar? Why do you look like her? Why did you want the lemur? Everything."

Almena let go of Jayjay, the lemur climbing into the elder Artemis' arms, "Get me some scissors."