Chapter 3 Explanations and Release

"Well, maybe not my claim that I'm from Gallifrey. But I should be able to prove that I'm not human, at least. You could scan me, tell that my biology is vastly different from humans." He shrugged. "Or you could keep asking me pointless questions that I don't have any answers fro, because I don't know what I'm doing here." He looked around for a bit, then continued, "Or even where 'here' is."

"Then you deny that you work for Artemis Fowl?" asked Root, leaning over and, despite the fact that he had to look up to look the doctor in the eye, managed to appear to be looking down on him.

"Yes, absolutely, I do deny, wholeheartedly!" exclaimed the Doctor, seemingly exasperated. "I don't know who this Artemis Fowl is, though, frankly based on the way you're reacting to the fact that I might be working for him makes me want to meet him very much. What is he then, some sort of genius?"

"A genius, yes." Said Holly, in a tone of voice that suggested to the Doctor that there was some bad blood between them. "But a criminal genius. He kidnapped me earlier this year and held me for ransom- he ended up getting half a metric ton of gold."

Ah, thought the Doctor, there's the bad blood.

"He lives in Ireland, near Dublin-" started Holly, when the Doctor cut her off.

"Ireland, of course! That's why I've never heard of him. I haven't been to Ireland in years. Or won't be there for years…" he sighed, then when he caught Root and Holly's confused stares, he shrugged. "Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey, don't worry about it."

"As I was saying," continued Holly, "he's Irish. And all three of you have accents corresponding to basically the same part of Europe as Ireland."

"Oi! Lots of planets have areas with similar accents! We could be from a human colony in the future, you've got no PROOF that we're working for this Fowl! So why don't you start asking questions that matter, instead of throwing accusations." The Doctor was annoyed now, and he was showing it. He hated when people assumed he was the enemy (unless they were Cybermen or Daleks or Silurians or Nestine or… well, really any of the baddies).

"We have no proof at this moment." came a voice from the door. The Doctor looked up to see a centaur standing there.

"Oh, brilliant! I've dealt with aliens, even werewolves. But you… you're much more fun. A real centaur! Oh, this is CHRISTMAS!" the Doctor would have gotten up and started pumping Foaly's hand, but he was cuffed to a chair.

Foaly looked with surprise at the Doctor, then said in a dry tone to Root, "Are you sure you want to see what goes on in this one's mind? He seems a bit crazy, might burn out the machine."

Root nearly growled, then said gruffly, "Hook him up, we need proof before bringing Fowl in."

Foaly approached the Doctor with what looked like a pair of kitchen plungers. "Hold still, and this won't hurt a bit."

"Oh, what's that?" said the Doctor, looking at the plungers. "I bet that those are retinal imaging scanners! Oh, you're going to see what I saw and see if I've seen Mr. Fowl. Fascinating! And damn near impossible to beat, too. You'd have to scrub the retina itsel-" his voice broke off as the sedative in the imagers knocked him out. Root rubbed his temples as if he had a headache, and Foaly grinned.

"Oh, I like him! He both bothers you and knows what I'm talking about!" Foaly laughed, and Root glared at him. His face immediately became serious, then he began looking though the images from the Doctor's mind. "Let's see…" he put in the image of Fowl, and set the computer to search for hits on his face.

The computer pinged, and Foaly looked at the results. "He's never seen him before." He said, pointing to the hit counter. "This is normal- general shape of the face, expression, etcetera. If it was higher than that, I'd say that he might have seen a photo other than the one that you just showed him. But he has never met Mr. Fowl, or communicated over a video chat, or anything like that."

"But he might have gotten his orders from Fowl's friend, that Butler." Growled Root, determined now to get the Doctor in for something- anything!

But Foaly shook his head. "No." he said. "I thought of that too, ran through the entire contents of Fowl's household. He's never met or even seen a picture of any of them. Let it go, Commander. He's no threat."

Holly slammed her palm down on the table. "But he KNOWS! He knows we exist, we can't just let him go out there and maybe even contact Fowl!"

"The Doctor knows about far more than just us." Foaly said. "He's an alien. If he tried to blow the whistle on us, it's likely that he'd be the first to be dissected. So I doubt that we need to worry about that."

"And his associates?" growled Root, stubbing out his cigar.

"They're human. But they travel with him. If they tried to tell anyone about us, then they'd have to tell people about him. And…" Foaly trailed off.

"And WHAT, you…" Root broke off into some rather colorful insults in gnomish, while Foaly waited patiently for him to finish.

"Are you done?" said Foaly, folding his hands across his chest. When Root mutely nodded, Foaly continued. "You should wash out your mouth with soap, Commander."

"What?"

"Nothing." Said Foaly, done pressing his luck for the day. "As low as your opinion of humans is, there is something to be said for their sense of loyalty. I doubt that these two would betray a man that they obviously consider their friend in order to get a scoop, or whatnot."

"So we just let them go?" spoke up Holly.

"No. We let them go, but we slip some trackers on their clothing and on the big blue box of theirs." said Foaly, looking to Root for confirmation. When Root nodded, Foaly produced a small chip from one of the pockets in his lab jacket and slipped it into the Doctor's shoe. "I already chipped his companions while they were unconscious, and the box was tagged as soon as it arrived."

Holly looked dispassionately at the Doctor. "So why are we chipping him?"

"So that if he goes anywhere near young Master Fowl, we pick both of them up and see what they're up to." growled Root. "Wake him up, and tell him that we're letting him go."

Foaly nodded, and pressed an adrenalin patch to the Doctor's neck. The imagers had already been removed, and he sat bolt upright. He stretched as best he could cuffed to a chair, then said, "Well? Are you going to let me go then?"

"You have been found to have nothing to do with Artemis Fowl, as have your associates." said Root, staring down the Doctor.

"Are you letting us go, then?" asked the Doctor again.

Root sighed, abut clicked a button on the table and the cuffs on the Doctor opened. He slowly stood up and stretched. "We're letting you go, for now. If any proof arises that you've been telling anyone about us, or have gone to see Fowl, you'll be right here, right away."

The Doctor gave a quick mock salute, tapping his index and middle fingers against his temple. "Aye, aye, sir. No Fowl-hunting for us. I'll be off, then." He turned and walked to the door, expecting it to be open. When it wasn't he reached into his jacket- but found that he didn't have his jacket.

"My jacket! Where's my jacket- that's alien tech, not for you!" he cried.

Foaly looked at him, then looked at Root. Once Root had nodded, Foaly threw the Doctor his jacket. He put it on quickly, glancing back at the fairies as he riffled though his pockets to make sure that nothing was missing. Nothing was, but everything seemed a tad bit out of its normal place. But he didn't say anything, just sonicked the door and strode out, glancing back at them slightly nervously. He had to duck his head though the office, and ignore the stares of all the fairies in the LEP building.

He met up with Amy and Rory back at the TARDIS. As soon as they had all stepped in, he turned to Amy and Rory.

"How long were you out?" he said, whipping out his sonic screwdriver and waving it about.

"I dunno." Shrugged Rory. "An hour or two?"

"Long enough to put a tracker on you then." The Doctor said, staring at his screwdriver for a moment, then slipping it back into his pocket. "I already knew that they put one on me, it's in my boot, and I can feel it." He slumped down in the chair at the side of the console and pulled off his shoe. He shook it a couple of times, then tipped it over. A small circuit board-type thing fell out, which he promptly held up to the light.

"Just as I thought. It's a fairly simple tracker, it just attaches itself to something, and sends out an alarm if it ends up somewhere that the placers don't want it to be." He shrugged, and popped it into his pocket. "Not really a problem if you know how to dispose of it. There are three right now on the outside of the TARDIS, those'll burn up as soon as we dematerialize, 'cause the time vortex'll rip them apart. I took off mine, and…"

He pulled out his sonic again and waved it up and down Rory, then Amy. "Amy, you have one on the back of your left shoe. Rory, there's one in your jacket pocket. Take them out, and give them to me. We'll throw them out somewhere over… Leadworth?" he was rewarded by a small smile from Amy at the mention of her small hometown.

"Then what, Doctor? What do we do then?" asked Rory, fishing out the same tracker from his pocket and giving it to the Doctor. Amy did the same.

"Then, Amy, Rory…" the Doctor threw a switch on the console, and the TARDIS shuddered in dematerialization. "We're going to pay a visit to young Master Fowl."

Sorry this took so long to update, I've been busy with my HP/DW crossover, which much more people seem to be reviewing! So if you want me to spend the same amount of time on this story, REVIEW! I would say to read and REVIEW, but since this is at the bottom of the last page, I don't think that's necessary.