Thank you all for reviewing! Yes... this chapter is less than stellar. Don't worry. Next one will be very good- well, I hope you think so. I do apologize for this one, though. Once I'm passing AP Physics (worst decision I ever made was taking that course), I'll have more time to write.

Holly walked down into the basement to see the now familiar scene of the team moving slowly around the lab, taking notes and occasionally adjusting one of the machines. She walked softly forward to Foaly, who seemed to be deliberately avoiding her gaze. "Hey, Foaly," she said when he nervously glanced away, his eyes trained on one of the monitors. "Foaly, how's the clone?"

"Oh, doing lovely. Not a single life-threatening thing wrong with it."

Holly frowned. "Foaly…"

"What?" The centaur shrugged innocently and turned his back on her, continuing to work. "As I said, not a single life-threatening problem."

"Foaly, what's going on?" Holly turned away from him to look at the clone- as Foaly had said it would, it looked like a catatonic baby Artemis. "The clone looks fine."

Foaly hesitated, then sighed, following her towards the clone. "I'm sure you'll figure it out sooner or later… it only looks fine because you're not looking at its feet."

"What?" Frowning, Holly followed his words and transferred her gaze to its feet. They looked fine… until she noticed an anomaly on the left one. "Foaly… what's that?"

"As I said, nothing serious. Just a sixth toe."

Holly's eyes widened. Sure enough, there were six toes on his left foot. "A sixth… a sixth what?"

Foaly nodded. "Don't worry. It's nothing to be concerned with. Humans are sometimes born naturally with extra fingers or toes. They're usually removed at birth but, even when they're not, it doesn't matter; the human still grows up perfectly healthy."

"But why does he have one? Was he born with a sixth toe and it was just removed?"

Foaly shook his head, avoiding her gaze. "No. I checked the hospital records; when he was born, he had ten fingers and ten toes."

Holly frowned when he didn't continue- clearly, she was missing something here. "So why does he have one now? I thought clones were supposed to be identical."

"Well… Alex? You care to explain what went wrong here?"

The elf glanced up at them then hurriedly hid his face behind a notebook. "Sorry, I'm busy. You know, I'm involved in-"

"Alex."

He groaned, then hesitantly lowered his notebook and walked closer to them. He was pale and shaking and seemed almost afraid of Holly. "Well, it was just a little mistake. A small one. Anyone could make it-"

"Alex!"

"Okay, okay! I'll tell her!"

Holly had no idea what was going on and didn't like the anxiety in Alex's voice. The clone seemed perfectly fine; what could be this awful?

Alex sighed and began to explain. "Well, a few days ago, when Foaly was out, I had to give the clone another dose of medication. I was tired, and accidentally misread hydroxylamine as squalamine."

The way he spoke indicated that it was supposed to mean something to her. Holly remained silent for a moment, then groaned turned to Foaly. "You do know I have no idea what either of those drugs are? I don't think I've ever even heard of them before. What, is hy… droxy… what he said... a poison or something?"

"For a newborn clone? Yes."

"Foaly, I don't understand… Artemis looks fine."

The centaur grimaced. "Yeah, I know. You have no idea how lucky we are that the sixth toe is the only abnormality so far. The drug we accidentally gave the clone is a mutagen."

Holly rolled her eyes. "Look, unlike the rest of you, I went to the police academy. I learned how to shoot, fly, and contain suspects. The curriculum didn't include a science course in growing an illegal clone. I have no idea what a mutagen is, what hydroxy… what that drug is, and I don't really have the patience for all these avoidance attics. Just explain what happened!"

Alex backed away from her while Foaly grimaced and glared at his assistant. "A mutagen is something that mutates, Holly. The drug Alex here gave Artemis is a drug that human scientists use to mutate DNA in fruit flies for experiments. It's grotesque, really; they make flies grow wings out of their heads. Artemis was only exposed for ten minutes and, so far, the sixth toe is the only new problem. And if nothing else goes wrong, then he'll be fine. There's still a distinct possibility, though, that a mutation it caused hasn't developed yet."

Holly rubbed her head, feeling a headache coming on. "Slow down for a second. What exactly happened? If you accidentally," here, she glared at Alex, "gave him a drug that mutates him, shouldn't he… I don't know… look more mutated?"

"Not necessarily. Alex caused a condition called isolated post-axial polydactlyism. In most cases, extra fingers or toes are the only physical or mental defects. But that's just one genetic condition he caused. I don't know what else the hydroxylamine did and finding out is going to be quite difficult. I have to isolate the clone's DNA, sequence the genome of the original and the clone's, compare the two, then use mediocre Mud People textbooks and websites to understand what the differences will cause. My machines could do it all for me if he were a fairy, but he's not, and they aren't made to read the human genetic code."

Holly had understood less than half of what he said and, truly, couldn't care less about the technical explanation. She finally shook her head, trying to clear it, and asked, "So, how long will all that mumbo jumbo take?"

He shrugged. "Been a while since anyone's done it by hand. Kensi's over there getting the DNA for me, then we'll run it through the machine, and-"

"Foaly!"

"Five hours, at best. Don't give me that look, Holly. Sequencing the human genome isn't exactly something anyone likes to do in their spare time, not even Artemis- because it's time consuming work that offers little to no reward, in most regards. Of course, if someone," he shot a glare at Alex, "hadn't made a mistake in the first place, we wouldn't have to do this."

Holly was getting rather aggravated with Foaly. He wasn't directly answering her questions and was probably aware of it; it was something he rather enjoyed doing, as it gave him more of an opportunity to talk the ears off his victims until they got what they needed. Unfortunately for him, she had no patience for this today. "Foaly, just tell me. Is the clone going to be okay?"

Seeming to finally get the message, he met her eyes and shrugged. "I don't know. There's not a simple answer, Holly. That sixth toe could be the only defect. There could be other mutations that won't cause any problems. There could be mutations that I can do my best to reverse. There could be fatal mutations. I don't know, and I don't have any percentages for you on whether or not the clone will be okay." At the despair in her eyes, he squeezed her shoulder and smiled at her. "I promise, I'll call you as soon as I know anything more. But you need to leave and get back to work. Trouble's going to get suspicious eventually."

When Foaly had went back to work, Holly paled and leaned over the chrysalis, gazing uncertainly down at the clone. It didn't look sick. It looked fine, albeit with an extra toe. But Foaly's words had worried her, whether she would admit it or not. If the clone died before they even got it to the surface, then Artemis was dead. This clone was his last chance… even the idea of it dying was intolerable.

She didn't know how, but she wasn't going to let that happen.


Three hours after Foaly had begun to run his tests on Artemis, Holly found herself wandering through the ruins of the city, searching for Doodah Day or Ana. They weren't at the refugee camp, at least, not that she had been able to find, and without anything else to do, she had decided to go searching for them. She had originally planned to watch Foaly work, but after ten minutes of staring at him meticulously watch a screen full of computer code, occasionally entering in a command or two, not even her concern for Artemis had been able to keep her by his side. As her shift at LEP didn't start for another four hours, she had found herself worrying about Ana. She hadn't heard anything more about her since seeing with her Doodah Day and wanted to know how things were going.

Unfortunately, accomplishing that was turning out to be rather difficult, as she had on idea where to even start looking. Holly was essentially wandering aimlessly throughout the streets, the depressing sight of her home in ruins doing nothing to raise her spirits.

"Oh, gods, it's her! It's Holly Short!"

Holly blinked. Had she heard right? She turned around to see an elf and a sprite behind her, both staring at her in shock and amazement. "Wow! It's really her!" The sprite gasped, only adding to her confusion.

"I'm sorry, what?" she asked when the two didn't continue, simply standing there and staring at her like she was some kind of a celebrity. It was unsettling at best.

"Is it really true? What you and Artemis Fowl did on the surface with the Mud Girl?"

"I... I... what?"

"You know, with the crazy Mud Girl who kidnapped you and No1? Is it true, how you tricked her with Artemis?"

Holly stared at them, aghast. Were they really asking her about the Minerva Paradizo incident- which occurred well over three years ago? She didn't even recognize them. How on earth did they know about that? The operation had been classified, and LEP wasn't exactly keen on advertising its run ins with humans, anyway. How had word gotten out about that?

Shaking her head, Holly shrugged, carefully neither confirming nor denying their eager questions. "Who told you that?"

The elf gestured wildly, still with a broad smile plastered all over his bright face, and exclaimed, "I heard it on the street! Everyone's talking about it! Is it true you and Doodah Day broke into her house and stole the demon back right under her nose?"

Oh. Now it all makes sense. Holly grimaced, shaking her angrily and looking around the street for signs of the traitorous pixie. With LEP in shambles and with much better things to do than go after him, it seemed he was trying to get fame and street cred by spreading rumors about his short stint on the surface- and probably his most exciting tale, to date. "No," she replied to the two eager fairies, "no, it's not true. Let me guess, Doodah Day told you the story?"

"Aw, come on!" the sprite complained, pouting and not bothering to answer her question. "It has to be true! It's so exciting! And what about you and Artemis escaping from trolls in the old amusement park? Is that true, too?"

Holly gasped. How in Frond's name did they know about that? Doodah Day certainly hadn't been a part of that little nightmare. "What are you talking about?!"

"You know, back when Opal Koboi escaped from that clinic! Gods, you and him- you're practically legends now!"

Scowling, Holly pushed her way through the excited fairies. Doodah Day and whoever he was talking with and spreading rumors with behind her back were about to get what was coming to them.


"All right, Ana, here's what you're going to do. Go ask that cop over there about whether or not the-"

"Hey! Doodah!"

Doodah Day turned around to face the speaker be met with a punch to the face.

Holly glowered down at the pixie now on the ground, holding a hand to his nose and grimacing in pain. "Hey!" he cried, scrambling back from her as she made to hit him again. "Hey! What are you doing?!"

"Why is the entire city of Haven asking me about the Paradizo incident?!" she shouted, reaching down to grab him by his collar and yanking him to his feet. "I've been accosted by seven different fairies in just the past hour wanting to know if it's true or not! And unless Minerva spontaneously appeared down here and starting spreading rumors, the only person who could be responsible is you!"

Doodah Day escaped from her grasp and hurried back a few paces, making sure to keep well out of her reach. "Relax! I didn't do nothing! I just needed to drum up some business, that's all! I didn't spread any rumors!"

"Well they sure as hell got spread with or without your help- and I know you're behind it! What is that even supposed to mean- 'drum up some business'?! What does that have to do with what happened on the surface?!"

Ducking out from under her grip, Doodah continued to explain, actually hiding behind a completely confused and slightly frightened Ana at one point. "I needed to convince everybody I had connections! So I told them about you and Artemis and the whole mission on the surface- made me look good and people think LEP owes me a favor now!"

Holly lunged at him, pinning him up against the wall and holding him fast. "Oh, really, then? Just about Paradizo? Then why have I been asked three separate times about Artemis and I being hunted by trolls in the old amusement park?! What purpose did that story serve, huh?! And how did you even know about it?!"

"Relax, relax! Calm down! Just let me explain!"

Holly glared at him, murder in her eyes, then shoved him violently away and crossed her arms, standing above him. "Fine. Start talking."

Sighing in relief- and not seeming to take the hint from her murderous glare- Doodah eagerly began to explain, although he did have the good sense to make sure he was several large steps back from her before he did so. "Mulch told me about it. You know, when we used to work together? And the people, they got interested and asked to hear more- and you know me, I'm work to please! So I told them! Gods, why are you so mad?!"

"Why am I so mad?! Doodah, all those people are asking me about Artemis! I'm not going to tolerate those ridiculous idiots treating me like I'm a D'Arviting celebrity for the next six months!"

"Six months? Why six months?"

Holly froze at the confusion- albeit, still mingled with fear- in Doodah's expression. She forced herself to hide her anger and shook her head, carefully wiping her expression blank. "Nothing... nothing. That's not even the point."

The point was that she was angry- no, furious- that those people had asked about her and Artemis like they were some kind of celebrity couple. The questions she had been getting throughout her search for Doodah- gods, if anything tarnished his memory, it was people running around Haven with their heads filled with the lies Doodah had been telling them. Among the falsehoods had been a twisted version of events of what had happened that last night at Fowl Manor, that she had wrestled all the trolls at the Temple of Artemis to death singehandedly, and that Artemis had first kidnapped her because he had been in love with her. They were, in short, some of the most ridiculous things she had ever heard.

And she wasn't about to spend six months struggling to deal with the fact that Artemis could be die and, at the same time, fielding off questions of whether or not they had a been a couple- something she'd already been asked twice. It was simply too much to deal with all at once.

Holly was about to rip into Doodah again when her communicator ring buzzed. Actually growling in frustration, she furiously raised her hand to read the message.

Just finished sequencing the genome. Sixth toe is the only mutation. The clone's fine. -Foaly

With one last scathing glare at Doodah, she warned, "You just keep your mouth shut," before turning and storming away. She had more important things to deal with than him.