A/N: Two notes. First, thank you. It's been a long time since I've written any creative piece, so I'm glad to see that I can still put a story together and I'm glad you were here to read along. Second, I realized about halfway through that this fic might have actually worked better as a lengthy one-shot, or at least it works better as something read in one sitting. Therefore, if you have been following my updates on this story, I highly recommend stopping right now, and reading it over from the beginning. Little details will make a lot more sense, and I think it'll be more enjoyable overall. Also, I put in the quote in the prologue that inspired this story to begin with, which will explain the name of this chapter. Anyway, enjoy the last two chapters (updated at the same time!) of The Forgetful Angel.


I should have seen him for what he was earlier. In some of my daydreams, I fancied him one of the Maiar, sent to watch over me. But no, I realized that wasn't quite right. Artemis is quite human, even if he seems to defy that definition sometimes. He is probably closer to what the human legends call an Angel - a guide, a guardian, for me. 'Maiar' describes a kind of creature. Angel, though, is a job description.


Six hundred eighteen years after the death of Artemis Fowl

A flash of ruby-red light erupted in the air next to her, throwing out long, arcing sparks into the dark room that gave the air a distinct smell of ozone.

In bed, Holly Short cracked an eye open, and her hand darted reflexively to grab the small ZeroPoint blaster tucked under her nightstand. The blaster's bio-link pulled up the targeting system in her contact lenses, drawing a firing angle to the sparks directly over her vision.

But as her normal mental faculties took over from her instincts, Holly's blaster arm relaxed, and the targeting system faded away.

The light evolved momentarily into a sphere, taking over much of the space to the left of the bed. But just as quickly as it had appeared, it evaporated, leaving a dazed man in a dark suit standing in its place, blinking furiously, presumably to adjust to the dark after being assaulted by the sparks of the jump.

Holly smiled, and quickly tucked the ZeroPoint away.

She sat up, and waved a hand to slowly bring the room's lights up to twilight levels.

Finally, she spoke to the man who had appeared.

"Hello Artemis, I've been expecting you."

Holly smiled. It had been far too long.

The disoriented Irishman finally focused on the elf, and, after two long seconds, recognized her.

"Holly?" he said, astonished.

The elf in question smirked. It wasn't every day that she got to catch Artemis Fowl unawares.

"Yes, yes, I'm still Holly Short. Good to see you and all," she said, pointing to a door. "Now if you don't mind, sitting room's over there. Go make yourself some tea or something. You know what they say about Mud Men who catch old fairies in their sleepwear."

Not that they actually said anything about any such thing, but Artemis didn't know that.

She could almost hear the gears turning in Artemis' mind. Much faster than most, of course, but still rather amusing given the situation.

"Er, right."

He turned and walked gingerly to the door, ducking slightly under the elf-sized frame as illumination slowly filled the sitting room.

Holly motioned the door shut, and slipped out of bed to find more appropriate attire.

She found Artemis Fowl in the sitting room a minute later, having eschewed the too-small chair in favor of sitting on a large, cream-colored pillow on the floor. It was one of a few pillows she kept around a low faux-mahogany table in her small apartment. The sitting room was decorated in earth tones and covered in a spongey carpet that was reminiscent of moss. A tiny hydroponic garden sat off to one side, flanked on either side by a pair of potted bonsai trees.

Artemis was studying the few plaques that hung on one wall, but turned quickly to her when she entered.

She saw his eyes widen slightly at her appearance. She wondered if it was the dress.

"Hello, Artemis," she said, smiling. "It's been a long time, hasn't it?"

"Holly," he breathed, staring at her, with his mouth slightly open in a very un-Artemis-like expression.

"Congratulations on your first jump," she said, leaning against the door frame. "Welcome to… ah, the future, I suppose. And yes, dresses are back in fashion, even for old elves like me."

Artemis looked very much like the way he always looked as a young man - short, dark hair, slightly off-white complexion, and jet-black Armani suit. Holly wondered how long it had been since any piece of clothing that was not a suit had been on the man's body.

Holly herself, however, probably looked a little different from the way the human remembered her.

The time spent in a coma, fighting off the Pandora virus had aged her prematurely, sapping up her magic, along with that of many of the Earth's elves. If it had not been for a cure invented by a mysterious white-winged sprite, elves might have become extinct.

This elf's auburn hair ran long now, in slightly wavy tresses down to the middle of her back, though strands of grey could be seen if one looked closely enough. The soft facial features she had when she was younger now had a different kind of softness to them, the softness inherent in old age, a kind that hinted at a hardness underneath borne of a long lifetime of experience. She was barefoot, and wore a simple leaf-green dress made of light material - one she often wore around the house these days.

She crossed her arms and studied the human for a moment before breaking out into a grin.

"Haven't figured out how to make tea yet, Arty?"

"Well… well I am in the far future aren't I?" said Artemis, almost - but not quite - flustered. "At least give me a few minutes."

Holly laughed and crossed over to a small alcove in the wall and spoke to it.

"Tea. Earl Grey. Hot."

A mug appeared in the alcove, which she took carefully in one hand.

"Smoothie. Mango-pineapple. Iced."

A glass appeared, which she also took.

Holly walked over to the low table in the middle of the room and set the Earl Grey in front of Artemis, before putting her own drink down and pulling up a pillow to sit at a ninety-degree angle from Artemis.

She saw confusion flit across the man's face.

"How did you know what I wanted?" he asked.

Holly laughed.

"Ha! I love this! Knowing more than Artemis Fowl. Is this how you normally feel with people?"

Artemis blinked at her, and wisely decided not to respond. He took a sip of tea instead.

"You told me yourself, Arty. A number of times, in fact."

The man peered at her through the steam from his cup.

"This wasn't what I expected," he said finally. "I expected -"

"A disaster," finished Holly. She raised an eyebrow. "You were going to wear a designer suit to a disaster area?"

He seemed to think about it for a moment, and Holly thought she saw him blush.

"Well, I'm clearly not at a disaster area, am I?" asked Artemis.

"No, we're safe here. New Aleppo is as safe as any other acropolis these days."

Artemis scratched his head.

"So I failed, but somehow managed to find you in the future somewhere…" He suddenly paused. "Wait - are we aboveground?"

Holly pointed at a wall, and its previously light-brown color disappeared, leaving a clear floor-to-ceiling pane of glass. Beyond the glass, the last rays of a setting sun poured in, bouncing in pink and red between what must have been hundreds or thousands of gleaming spires. Flying things jetted from spire to spire, too fast and far away to tell whether they were natural or mechanical. The ground couldn't usually be seen from this height, as it was usually obscured by clouds and walkways.

"We're quite far aboveground, in fact," said Holly.

Artemis stared out the window, as the realization of where and when he was began to hit him.

"How far did I jump?" he asked, breathless.

Holly pulled a piece of paper from a pocket in her dress. It was a copy of a copy, but even still, it was an ancient piece of paper, long and folded over many times. A rather extensive list of numbers was written on it in tiny, neat handwriting, in a single column that fell down to the floor and then some. All but one of the numbers had a check mark next to them. She looked at the number on the very top, which was left unchecked.

"Six hundred thirty-eight plus-minus fifteen years, it says here," she read. She stood and picked up her glass, walking over to stand next to Artemis, staring out at the encroaching night. "You didn't fail, Artemis."

She passed the paper up to the Mud Man.

"You succeeded spectacularly."

Artemis stared at the list.

"I made this many jumps?" he asked quietly, a slow smile spreading across his face.

"Yup," replied Holly, reaching up and setting a hand on Artemis' arm. "Every single one of those. That's how many times you saved my life."

The smile dropped from Fowl's face as he turned to look at Holly.

"What do you mean?"

"Artemis… your disaster prevention system never worked the way you wanted it to," explained Holly. "You thought you could send people into the future to prevent massive casualties from one thing or another. You couldn't. Nobody could do it. Even our warlocks couldn't figure it out."

Artemis gave her an incredulous look.

"The future's not our specialty," shrugged Holly. "Stop time? No problem. Go back in time? Be careful, sign a thousand forms and swear some magically-binding oaths and you've got it. But the future?" She shook her head. "Only one person has ever managed a future time jump, Artemis."

She glanced at the list.

"Or rather, many such jumps. You always said it was some kind of entanglement thing or other, but we could never reproduce it. Even with fairy help, Paradizo couldn't do it, and neither could anyone else."

Artemis looked at the list thoughtfully.

"So I was right," he said, a hint of triumph in his voice. "And I suppose this means that I had some sort of quantum entanglement with you, hm?"

Holly shrugged.

"Something like that. I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually."

A few long moments passed as the sun continued to set, and shapes continued to fly across the cityscape.

"You said this is how many times I saved your life?" asked Fowl, looking down the length of the paper.

Holly nodded, staring out.

"Your detector was still looking for time coordinates with a high death probability. You found them. You found all of them. But only for me. I probably wouldn't have lived to see the twenty-second century if it weren't for you."

Artemis suddenly dropped into a crouch, letting the piece of paper fall to the floor and bringing himself to eye level with the elf.

"High death probability?" he asked urgently, staring at her. "I thought you said we were safe here?"

Holly turned to look at him, giving him a small smile.

"We are safe, Arty." She put a finger on his lips. "Elves know when it's our time. It's part of our magic. So even you can't do anything this time around."

Artemis opened his mouth to speak, but Holly pressed on his lips a little more.

"It's okay," she said, still smiling. "You've already done far more than you, me, or anyone else could have hoped for. Sit. Stay. Chat with an old friend who misses you."

Holly stared at the worried young man, who still thought that maybe there was something more. She felt her eyes water up.

"You know, Artemis," she said softly. "I think it makes sense that you're here with me now."

"Why is that?" asked the man, pulling her finger away from his mouth, but not letting go of her hand once he did.

"I've been reading your human legends lately," said Holly. "A lot of them are surprisingly similar to the ones we elves have. You know the ones you have about angels sent by God?"

Artemis nodded.

"Of course."

"Well, I learned that angel is an occupation, much like a leprechaun. Except sometimes, you don't know that you're doing the job," she said, a teasing smile on her face. "Thank you for being my guardian angel."

Holly leaned forward, and slipped a piece of paper into his pocket, a note that she had written a while ago.

"For later," she whispered.

"And for now." She kissed Artemis on the forehead.

An old fairy coin that hung at her neck swung out a little and touched the man's face.

Artemis stared, still seemingly slightly dazed.

"That's the coin you gave me," he said in recognition. "A long time ago."

"Mhm," replied Holly. "And you gave it back to me. Along with that list. Though it took me forever to figure out what the list meant. Next time you should leave some instructions on how to read your notes."

"I have a question, Arty," she asked after a moment. "I have a feeling that you know, even now, at your first jump. Why didn't you remind me to visit you more in your lifetime? I know I could have used a few reminders…"

Artemis Fowl moved from a crouch into a sitting position as he thought about the question and what it implied in his future. He sighed, and got a faraway look in his eyes.

"I would guess that's because I knew that our lives moved at very different paces… and that it just wouldn't really have worked." He glanced at the list on the floor next to him. "Though it seems like we did get to spend some time together after all."

"Yeah," smiled the elf, sitting down next to him. "We did."

Artemis looked sideways at his diminutive friend, with a slight frown on his face.

"Holly…" he said quietly. The elf looked up. "If you know that…" Artemis swallowed. "If you know it's your time… aren't you afraid?"

Holly was silent for a while.

"Maybe a little," she admitted. "But I was afraid nearly every time I was in danger. And every time, you showed up. And you're here now. Like I said, my guardian angel."

She took his hand and held it in hers. An old, slightly rough elfin hand, against a young, soft human hand.

"I'm no angel," muttered Fowl.

Holly simply smiled at him.

Artemis stayed there with her for twelve hours, six minutes, and thirty-two seconds, disappearing back to his own time shortly after sunrise.

Holly never saw Artemis Fowl again. But he saw her many times over the course of his adult life. This was, after all just the first jump, and he had a long list left to fill.

And after he finished writing the list, in his own time, after each trip into the future, he carefully placed it into a small envelope, and after a thought, slipped his fairy coin in there as well, with instructions for it to be left to the elf, Holly Short.