Thanks to: ShadowHuntress, Fowl Star 57, Steinbock, animato22 and HolidayBoredom for letting me know what they think and to: Readergirl99, 2whitie, animato22 and AriLivesnotDylan for the alerts.

And so without further ado, onwards!


CHAPTER TWO

And Then There Were Two

THE PAST

Before the story starts in earnest, it would probably be better to inform those of you who are unfamiliar with the family history of the Butlers, with some of the basic facts. Basic, not because the details are secret (which they of course are), but because 'basic' is all the information anyone but the Butlers themselves have on their history.

The birth of Beckett and Myles took a toll on their mother. They were both large and boisterous babies and twins were a rarity in the family. She was never quite the same again, succumbing to illness often and finally giving up the fight when her sons had turned nineteen. It was perhaps the best thing that could have happened, as it not only allowed the twins to focus solely on their careers, but prevented her from having to suffer the vast amounts of stress that she would otherwise have done, in the years ahead.

The boys, or rather young men, went through all the usual training before gaining their Blue Diamond Tattoos, and later, their charges. This may confuse you, as likely you are under the impression that the Beckett and Myles were born to be protected, not the other way around. But that would be because you have assumed that the twins we are discussing share the last name of Fowl.

You would be mistaken.

The Fowl twins appear much later in this story, barely filling roles at all, other than to serve as true reminders of the supreme and never-ending gratitude their father has for their namesakes. The twins this story focuses on are not the young Fowl pair, but a duo of brothers destined for a very different life. The twins we will see but a small glimpse of the secretive lives of, are named Beckett and Myles Butler.

Perhaps it would first be helpful to explain a little more about the Butler family and their roles as bodyguards for the Fowls. It is well known that a Butler is paired with a Fowl for life, no matter how long or short that may be and that they will be referred to as 'Butler' by their charges, their names remaining a secret until their contract ends. And the ending of a Butler's contract almost always involves at least one death.

However, there is the obvious issue of multiple Butlers working within the boundaries of Fowl Manor with the multiple generations of Fowls, all of whom need round the clock guards. To solve confusion, the first serving member of the family, Virgil Butler, was referred to as 'Butler', this bodyguard's understudy, and guarder of the next generation, was referred to by a different name. At the time, it was a Butler named 'The Captain'. And so the tradition continued, the third, fifth, seventh and so on Butlers were referred to as 'Butler'. And the fourth, sixth, eighth and so on Butlers where given a nickname. A rank, perhaps. A code name they had previously used. With the twins, it was no different. The eldest twin, Beckett, was granted the name of 'Butler', as their father, who was guarding the Fowl patriarch at the time, had always been referred to as 'The Colonel' since his father had been the previous 'Butler' placed at Fowl Manor. What differed with Beckett and Myles was that, by some freak coincidence, twin Fowls were born at the same time as there were twin Butlers waiting to guard them. And so they both received charges on the same day, simultaneously forming identical pairs, for both sets of twins were so. Myles received his own code name. As the younger twin, he guarded the younger Fowl twin and, due to the tradition of naming the second Butler by a rank they had earned in the past, he came to be known to everyone but his closest family as 'The Major'.

In terms of happiness, the story goes rapidly downhill from here. Beckett and Myles were more than arguably the best pair of bodyguards ever seen in the business. They worked together as though linked by some psychic ability. Their father, although Alexandr Butler would almost never admit it aloud, was incredibly proud of his sons. In the short time they worked together for the Fowls, they prevented three assassination attempts on the older Fowl, as well as keeping their own charges and the Mrs. Fowl of the time, safe and well.

And then it happened.

There are some things that even a Blue Diamond bodyguard cannot protect their charge against.

Things so small that even the most observant cannot see, bullets cannot stop and no amount of training can prevent.

Viruses.

It was perhaps ironic that the larger of the twins, the eldest, a young boy named Orion, fell victim to the illness.

He fought as hard as any eleven month old baby can fight. His father searched the world for a cure to his illness, but the child eventually died of the sickness and with him, a piece of his parents. They were never quite as loving as they had been before with little Artemis after his twin's death. The boy grew up clever and appreciated, but never enough to consider himself truly loved. It was the way he would raise his firstborn when the time came. But this story is not as much about Artemis Fowl the First as it is about his bodyguard, Myles 'The Major' Butler.


FOWL MANOR, DUBLIN - THE PAST

"Beck?"

"Don't talk to me."

"Beckett..."

"Just shut it, Myles!" his brother snapped, shoving him so hard that he stepped backwards involuntarily and hit his head on the low doorframe. Myles watched as his brother stormed down the corridor and knew it was best not to follow him. He could do nothing. Before long, a rhythmic thumping told him that his twin was taking his anger out on something else rather than him and a thin wail forced the youngest Butler of the house to climb the stairs wearily to his charge's room. Up until a few hours ago, it had belonged to both their charges. Now, Myles reckoned, his brother would never set foot in the room again.

He pulled one of the rocking chairs up to the edge of the cot and dangled his hand over for baby Artemis to play with. The little boy would have no idea what was going on. No idea that he had suddenly become as brotherless as Myles felt.

The baby gurgled, choking a sob identical to the one that was trapped somewhere inside his bodyguard.

"Shh, Arty. Hush," he muttered absentmindedly, scrubbing his free hand over his face wearily.

He needed a shave. And a shower. And for the last 24 hours to undo themselves and never return.

Alexandr Butler watched his youngest from the doorway, knowing, with a heavy heart, that things were about to change.

A few days after the doctors of Orion Fowl had pronounced the child dead, the Butler twins were in the dojo. They had just finished their morning sparring session when Beckett dropped his bombshell, so to speak.

"I'm leaving," he said, as firmly as if his twin had already objected to the statement.

"You're what?" Myles choked on the water he was gulping down.

His brother thumped him on the back heavily, handed him a towel and continued. "You heard me."

"Yeah, but what?" Myles repeated, wiping the rag over his face and then dropping it to the floor, scrubbing it dry with his foot. Their father would not be pleased if the gym floor developed damp patches.

"What do you mean 'what'?" Beckett growled bitterly. "There's nothing for me here. My charge died, remember? My contract finishes at the end of the month and the Fowls don't need another bodyguard hanging around with you and Dad. Especially not one that just reminds them that there should be another twin in the manor."

"But Beck... surely..."

"Surely what, My? Surely we can bring Orion back from the dead? Surely I could stick around because we always said we'd stick together. Things change, little brother."

"I'm not thick, Beckett," Myles snapped, standing up and beginning to pace - a habit he had inherited from his father and would continue to perform throughout his life. "I'm just saying. It never hurts to have another guard on the team."

"It'll hurt them. And it'll hurt me. Knowing that I should be guarding someone!" Beckett yelled. "It'll hurt watching you guarding him. Watching Artemis grow up like Orion should have. Like looking in the mirror and seeing the perfect world that I can't reach."

Myles had nothing to say to the outburst and his brother threw his own water bottle to the floor angrily, storming over to a punchbag and hitting it furiously. Myles let his brother do so and once he had stopped and sunk against the wall, head in hands, he stepped over tentatively and sat beside his twin.

"I can't stay, Myles," he whispered. "I'm sorry."

"I know," Myles said quietly and draped an arm over his big brother's shoulder.

"You don't," he grunted.

"I guarded Orion as much as you guarded Artemis. We're a team, Beck. And I know why you can't stay. I just wish you could."

"Yeah... me too."

Myles removed his arm from his twin's shoulder and simply leant against him. The brothers sat like that for what seemed like an age until finally, the elder spoke.

"Well, I better go tell Dad and the Fowls."

"You mean you didn't already?" Myles raised an eyebrow.

"Course not," Beckett smiled slightly. "I had to tell my lil bro first, didn't I?"


Beckett Butler left soon after that. He drowned his sorrows for a while in a most un-Butler-ish manner, but it was forgivable given the circumstances. Well, not in Madame Ko's eyes, but she wasn't there in the pub to lash him for it.

He then got a new job guarding a charge he couldn't care less about and, to cut a long story short, was not expected to amount to very much by his new boss, which lead to him becoming more of a drinking partner and chunk of hired muscle to get the lower-end celebrity out of bar-fights and owing money to people he played poker with on an almost nightly basis.

In the end, after a particularly nasty fight that had left one man with a broken jaw and Beckett with a glassed face, he decided enough was enough. That night, the glass was picked out of his face by a young nurse named Theresa Brady. It was to become an unusual answer to the question; 'So, how did you two meet?'

Beckett quit his job and, after a time, moved in with Theresa into a tiny flat above a greengrocers living what could only be described as an ordinary life for a while delivering groceries by day for the landlord and bouncing doors in some of the rougher clubs of Dublin by night.

But it wasn't to last.

At least, experience had taught him that having someone to care about who wasn't trained in the ways of staying alive under almost any circumstance, never ended well. And, to be honest, he was bored. This was not what he was born to do. So, with a heavy heart and a letter to his father and brother still at Fowl Manor with no returning address, he signed up to the army.


IRELAND – THE PAST

"'Resa I have to go now," Beckett murmured into her hair, hugging her so tightly that it hurt. But she didn't say anything. She felt as though her world was splitting in two.

"You don't. You could stay here with me instead and sod this stupid soldier idea!"

"No I can't. People I stay with get hurt, Theresa."

"Well I don't care!"

"Well I do. I care far too much about you for that to happen.'

They stared at each other, green eyes flashing angrily and dark blue ones glaring sternly back. Both of them were far too stubborn for a relationship without arguments.

"Come on, soldier. Enough canoodling," yelled a senior officer from further down the station platform.

Beckett sighed, dropping his gaze first. A rare occurrence. He pressed his forehead against hers gently.

"I love you," he whispered, and kissed her gently one more time before hefting his bag easily onto his shoulder and walking away without looking back.

Theresa could only watch as the love of her life boarded with the rest of the soldiers and the train rattled away into the distance.


Little is known about Beckett Butler's time in the army, but slightly more is documented about the life of Theresa Brady.

Two weeks after she had stood, silently sobbing on an empty railway platform, she found out she was pregnant with what could only be Beckett Butler's child. She tried to contact him, only to find that, whether deliberately or accidentally, he had given her the wrong contact details. Unperturbed, she began research everything she knew about him, including the tattoo on his arm which he had always refused to talk about. Which lead her, after several months of searching, to a woman called 'Madame Ko'.

Actually, it was so many months of searching later, that the baby was born in a hut in Israel, birthed by the sensei herself. The baby was a healthy boy with his father's eyes and his mother's fiery temper, by the sounds of his yelling.

Madame Ko had forced Theresa stay for a few weeks after the baby was born, getting her strength up and learning a fair few skills in case she should ever need them in the future. When the day came for them to return to Ireland, Madame Ko gave her two things. One, was an ultimatum that in just less than 10 years time, the baby of Butler descent would be enrolled in Madame Ko's Bodyguarding Academy and the other was an envelope that she must open once she got home.


LETTER EXCERPT

Dearest Girl of Ireland,

It occurred to me that your young son will grow up without male influence. I myself commend your decision to raise him by yourself and know of the strength that only a woman, a mother, can hold.

However, I thought that you would appreciate my telling you of your son's closest relatives.

His grandfather is the bodyguard of the head of the Fowl family, whom I'm sure you will easily find information about on your return to Ireland.

His uncle, his father's brother, guards the Fowl heir.

I hope that you will find this information useful.

Do not forget your promise. I look forward to training your son.

M. Ko


Theresa read the letter on the flight over and immediately looked up the Fowl family once she got home. To cut to the chase and avoid the weeks of searching for the correct residence and a short and slightly embarrassing case of mistaken identity, she found her son's uncle and grandfather.

Myles immediately told her he didn't want to be like a father to the child, but if she ever needed help, he'd be there. And so he was. Throughout his life, the young boy was raised almost entirely by his mother. But, occasionally, he would visit or be visited by a man he came to know as 'Uncle'. And he would be subject to the same sly training, disguised as games, as every Butler child went through.

At the age of ten, Beckett's son was readily accepted at Madame Ko's Bodyguarding Academy. And of course, after that, the Fowl's only Butler at the time played a much larger part in raising his nephew, particularly in the 6 months the boy was away from training at the Academy. But that is another story, the story of Domovoi Butler. And, as has been said before, this is The Major's.

If you must know, Beckett Butler finally tracked down and returned to his Theresa after being uncontactable for nearly nineteen years - and legally declared dead for at least five of those. And, when finally he re-found down the love of his life and she had finished hitting him for leaving, she told him that the youngest graduate of Madame Ko's Academy, infamous on the Blue-Diamond grapevine, carried his genes and he met his already full-grown son for the first time. He also visited his brother, who was equally unimpressed with his disappearing act. Only his punches hurt a lot more.

Beckett took up a job guarding the heads of several Irish political leaders rather than leave again. Theresa still worried about him, but at least she was there to patch up any injuries when he came home most evenings.

When the inevitable marriage of Artemis Fowl occurred, Domovoi was top of the list to guard the heir to the Fowl Empire, if ever, or more likely whenever, the child was born. Beckett Butler could not have been prouder if he tried. A few years later, once he and the mother of his only child were married, they had another baby, a girl this time, and Beckett retired from bodyguarding to become a full time father in their new life in America.

About four years after that, two things happened. The first, Artemis Fowl the Second was born and Domovoi was employed by the Fowls to protect him, working closely with his uncle, his father's twin, who had been more of a father figure than his biological father his whole life. Secretly, Domovoi put becoming the youngest ever graduate of Madame Ko's on his eighteenth birthday partly down to this vigorous extra training.

But unfortunately, the happiness wasn't to last, once again.

After visiting Domovoi to congratulate him and the new Fowl parents, Beckett and Theresa decided to buy a travel yacht in Ireland. This was not on a whim. Butlers never did anything without at least some careful consideration. Despite wanting them to have a family home, Theresa was of traveller heritage and the need to explore the world still burned strong inside her. As for her husband, without a set charge, he felt no pull to stay anywhere other than by his wife and daughter's side. Besides, he thought that it would be nice to revisit some of the countries he had been to before – only this time without the threat of receiving a bullet between the ears if he lost concentration. Their daughter, Juliet, had been left with a close family friend for a while in America, a fact that her older brother had been more than a little disappointed about. He knew that his parents planned to sail the boat back across the ocean to get used to it, pick up their daughter, and then sail around the world and that he likely wouldn't see Juliet again until she was five or even six years old.

However, one week into their journey home, Beckett Butler and his wife Theresa disappeared.

They are still missing today.

A sailing accident is blamed for them never reaching the coast of America, but the truth is still unknown. No wreck was ever found and the boat's tracking system malfunctioned several times before their communication system failed and the word was sent to look out for the couple.

Three weeks later, Juliet was flown over to live with her brother and uncle as her only other family. And of course, how she grew up is documented as well as any other area of any other Butler's life - i.e. not very. But it is known that she was raised by the two Fowl bodyguards and began her training from the moment she set foot into the manor.

It wasn't the life her parent's might have wished for her, but it was better than being shunted to and from care-homes and orphanages. She also grew up with the best protection anyone could wish for and a much more interesting life than any ordinary child.

But when Artemis Fowl the Second was just ten years old and Juliet Butler was fourteen, another event occurred that rocked the lives of the Butlers and Fowls once again.

The sinking of The Fowl Star.

This is the story left undocumented by the Artemis Fowl Series.

This is the story of the so-called-afterlife of Myles 'The Major' Fowl.


See what I did there? Huh, huh, didja, didja?

This is how it goes on in my head. The whole Butler-family-history rattling about in there and this is kinda the first time it's appeared anywhere else, so it'd be good to see if people like it or would rather go with their own thing.

Well I've posted this, even though I said I'd probably wait a week. I had a pish day. This seemed like a good remedy.

Hope the time jump things weren't too confusing.

Thanks for reading,

Wolfy
ooo
O

17-05-12