A/N: At last I am updating!!! Sorry for the delay. In case you didn't realise, I decided to make 'Two Opals' a short, short chapter rather than a preview, sorry.

Holly, covered in mud, slime and other foul substances, strode into her office. The goblins that had infiltrated the LEP offices had been nothing but a bunch of troublemakers trying to be annoying. They had squirted every officer present with mud guns, slime cannons, and other things Holly really didn't want to think about, plus knocked out quite a few LEP squadrans with gas. She grimaced as she swiped a hand across her face- it came off coated in green and brown.

Foaly came clopping in, miraculously still clean.

"Holly," he greeted her, wrinkling his nose. "Eugh, you smell."

"Thanks, Foaly," Holly rolled her eyes wearily. "What do you want?" Her patience was running thin.

Foaly's mind went back to the reason why he was visiting. "Oh," he frowned. "Someone or something has got through all my computer defences and began copying all our files on our defences and prisons. I backtracked the i-"

"Just get to the point!"

"I was! Anyway, it must be Fowl up to something again. I know he's supposed to be a good guy and everything now, but there's no one else who could be doing this. I want you, along with some backup, to go see what he's up to."

Holly's heart jumped. Seeing Artemis again? She quickly made her facial expression neutral.

"Alright," she eyed her suit with disgust. "I might just go... change."

Foaly nodded. "You need to. I'll get some officers."


Holly hovered outside Fowl Manor, shield off. Below her, Mulch Diggums tapped his foot impatiently and Trouble Kelp waited silently.

"Are we going in or what?" Mulch demanded.

Holly looked at Trouble uncertainly. He was the new commander, so was she waiting for his orders or doing what she wanted?

"Well?" Trouble was waiting expectantly.

"Oh," Holly mumbled. He wanted her to take control.

"Let's go," she began flying towards the front door. "Wait here, Mulch, we'll call you if we need backup." Which I doubt we will.

"What are we doing?" Trouble demanded. "Just walking in the front door?"

Holly resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Yes, Commander, we are, actually."

"But... but..." Trouble spluttered.

"Trouble." Holly spun to face him, exasperated. "This isn't a hostile situation. Artemis is our friend. We have an invitation to be here whenever we want."

"Oh, yeah," Trouble muttered softly.

The front door was ajar; Holly pushed it open lightly, her heart thudding quickly.

"Artemis?" she called softly.

"Holly," Trouble hissed. "Turn on your mike."

Holly nodded and switched on the mike in her helmet.

"Have you found him yet?" Foaly's familiar voice came over the connection.

"No," Holly replied, not at all worried. Fowl Manor was massive, Artemis might not be able to hear her yet.

Holly began flying through the front door. She only got about an inch before she crashed into something solid.

Blinking in confusion, she flew back, thinking she might not have seen something.

There was nothing.

Trouble flew up next to her. "A shield of some sort?" he whispered. Whispering suddenly seemed appropriate.

Holly shrugged and flew towards it again, this time with more speed. As before, she knocked into something very hard, painful and very solid.

"Lucky I have the helmet," Holly muttered softly, hoping Foaly didn't hear. He was already vain enough as it was without more compliments.

"Foaly," Trouble said into the mike. "I'll send you a visual... What do you think?"

Trouble sent the visual and he and Holly waited impatiently.

"Uh, Holly, Trouble," Foaly's voice came across the signal, sounding nervous. "I think you might want to get out of there. That's a serious shield. And whoever has built it might be coming to see what's trying to get through."

Both Holly and Trouble quickly turned on their shields.

"This has to be fairy magic," Foaly continued. "I don't know who, what or how, but it can't be Fowl. Get away from there and hide around. Spy if you can. I'll send more backup. We need to look into this."

Holly's chest constricted. "Foaly, what about Artemis?" She tried to keep the concern out of her voice.

"Fowl can take care of himself," Foaly's tart voice came. "For now, at least. Just go, Holly."

Trouble was looking at Holly curiously, but duty kicked in. "Come on, Holly. We have to go."

Holly stared into the hallway of Fowl Manor. "I can't leave him. He could be hurt," she whispered.

"We're not leaving him!" Trouble was too upset to keep his voice down. "We'll come back Holly. We're going to be no use if we're captured."

"You're right," sense kicked into Holly. "Let's go."

She flew away, back towards Mulch and, without hesitation, Trouble followed.


Mulch scrabbled a foot absently in the dirt, waiting for Holly and Trouble. He scratched his chin boredly and swatted at a buzzing fly.

"Mulch," a voice suddenly hissed from behind him. Mulch jumped, taken off guard.

"Holly?" he turned, but Holly was invisible to his eyes, her shield up.

"Someone, a fairy, Foaly thinks, has placed a shield round the place. We can't get in. We have to wait for backup." The disgust in Holly's tone was evident.

"How about... digging under?" Mulch ventured.

"No go," Trouble spoke this time. "This place is built on solid stone. We have to wait."

Mulch heaved a sigh and plopped onto the grass. "This is as good as place as any, then."


Opal toyed with her communicator before dropping it in boredom. She had expected the Fowl child to make a bit more of a fuss when he found out that she 'had Holly's ring', but much to her disappointment, he hadn't. How very boring.

She chewed on a nail before yanking it out of her mouth, when one of the pixies skipped into the room.

"Miss, someone was testing the shield," it squeaked, dropping into a slight bow.

Opal was instantly alert. It, hopefully, was the LEP, arrived at last. Excellent. Now she could put her plan into full swing...

A/N- tell me what you think in a review, pretty please?! I'm sorry I haven't updated in sooo long, I got caught up in my other fics...