Oh, hell. I forgot to delete one of my notes from the last chapter :/ I'm... not smart at all. Edited out now. Guh.

Thank you for reviewing!

September 13, 2006, Fowl Manor

"Aha. Keep talking, keep talking."

And No1 continued explaining the mathematical elements of time travel while the centaur moved around Artemis's machine, this time with the knowledge that a fairy had controlled him while he was building it.

When No1 started waxing eloquent about the beauties of the romantic time tunnel, Foaly cut him off. "Okay, I see I've reached the limit of your knowledge. That, and inter dimensional travel while examining state of the art technology for energy usage patterns is hard, even for me."

No1 pouted. "It's nice to feel useful, Foaly… are you sure you don't have any more questions for me?"

Foaly sighed. "No offense, No1, but Qwan knows more of this than you do. He's a full on warlock; you're a warlock in training. I need someone who can explain the mechanics of the time tunnel to me. Besides, I still need to find out what in Frond's name is powering this machine. Now I understand why it's predominantly fairy in design, but that's still not explaining everything… oh, if only I could get this thing back to my lab. Then all its secrets would be revealed…" he sighed in dejection, then, after a moment of thought, turned back to No1 and grinned. "Okay, you want to feel useful? I have a job for you; be my soundboard. I'll bounce ideas off you."

"But… I don't know the slightest thing about any of this stuff."

"That's fine. Neither do most of the people I talk to. Now… if I were a power generator, where would I be? Or perhaps, where would Artemis put me, because he never goes with obvious solution…"

"I hope you were not expecting a response to that, Mr. Power Generator."

"Not out in the open… I would have seen it by now. But then, Artemis was hardly in his right mind when he built this thing… perhaps he wasn't thinking ahead to when I would be examining it and only cared for what would be most convenient for him. In which case…" Foaly turned around in a slow circle, examining his surroundings carefully before he focused on a small aspect of the machine that he had overlooked until now, mostly because it had seemed too obvious. "Oh, no… Mud Boy, that's devious. Even for you, that's…" Foaly trailed off as he walked forward to examine the abnormality. It was where fairies usually located the sources of power for machines, in the heart of the device, where magic naturally migrated.

Could he have been so occupied searching for hidden sources of energy... that the one in plain sight had gone unnoticed?

Foaly moved forward, feeling (a bit like an idiot) the smooth metal with an experienced hand, tracing it for anything unnatural. He hesitated when he felt a slight heat beneath his palm and knocked lightly against the surface. "Here," he murmured. "It's hollow here. D'Arvit, you're a clever Mud Boy, Artemis." He paused, then called, "Holly, I could use your help in here. Now, please."

The elf came to his side a few moments later, peering over his shoulder. "Yeah?"

"I need to borrow your weapon. My tools are all underground and I think I've finally figured what makes this thing tick- literally."

"I don't know… shooting a gun at this thing? After what it did? Won't that make it blowup?"

Foaly groaned. "Holly, not everything is a sic-fi movie. If you would lend me your Neutrino, I could demonstrate."

She shrugged and handed it to him, and he promptly turned down the settings, took a few large steps back, aimed, and fired. He let the weak laser blast continue for a few short seconds before he stopped and handed it back to her, then slapped the now weakened metal several times until it crumpled in. "And there is is. My elusive little generator. Why were you hiding in there, hm? Were you afraid of Uncle Foaly?"

"Good lord, Foaly, you need to get a life. Or perhaps see a therapist. 'Uncle Foaly'? Are you serious?"

"Meanwhile, I get paid twice as much as you and have a wife. Excuse me." Foaly reached into the dark confines of the machine and pulled out what looked like a lead box. "Here was the problem!" he exclaimed, lugging it over to a table and slamming it down. "No wonder my sensors couldn't pick up an exact source for the radiating energy. The lead here was distorting it. Artemis is cleverer insane than I gave him credit for… well, perhaps whoever was controlling him thought up this. Who knows."

"Well you shut up and just open it already?"

"Under-appreciated, underpaid, under-"

"Foaly!"

"Okay, okay." Foaly hesitantly tried to open the box, then blinked when he was able to crack it open without resistance. "No locks or traps. Our paranoid human friend isn't quite as paranoid as we thought, huh?"

"Will you just… what in Frond's name is that?!"

In opening the box, Foaly had revealed a shimmering blue orb, one that was about as large as a head and glowed so brightly it hurt to look directly at it. It looked almost like magic- but such a pure concentration of which neither of them had ever seen before. Ancient demon runes hovered in electric blue over the wavering surface and orbited around the sphere slowly, glowing in an ethereal light.

For one of the first times in his life, Foaly had no idea what to say.

December 05, 1998, ?

"Bloody coward," Hecate murmured, for what had to be the tenth time this hour, when Orion went about searching for materials with which to build a bivouac with. "This is your fault, Artemis." He hissed loudly in distaste, and Artemis sent a sullen glare back in his direction.

"You are a human being, not a snake. It's not becoming for you to- god, what am I saying, you're not a human. You don't even exist."

"Well, I think that poor girl I scared back in Liverpool might have a different opinion." He grinned- well, he showed his teeth, Artemis wasn't quite sure if he could call the expression on his face a smile- and shrugged. "But think what you like."

Artemis shuddered in revulsion. And I thought I had the apathetic game down pat... "I can not believe how callous and unfeeling you are. If you are truly an alternate personality of mine, then you get all of your attributes from me. But you… you didn't even seem to care."

Hecate shrugged easily. "I didn't care. But I did get everything from you; I took your few good qualities and refined them. And, really, Artemis? I seem to recall the time you kidnapped a fairy for the money. Locked her in your basement and used her to extort money from her people."

Artemis gritted his teeth and remained silent. Hecate had managed to hit him right in the only spot where it hurt, and he was left at loss for words if he still wanted to come out on top of this argument. "That..." he finally managed, his insides twisted into a knot, "that was different. I… I didn't see fairies as people then." And what now? You're going to such great lengths just to get rid of them...

He shook his head at himself. They were the ones who had started this off by treating him as nothing more than a lab rat. If that was how they wanted to play, then that was how it would go. There was no reason to feel guilty about it.

And he wasn't about to let Hecate, of all people, try and force that emotion on him anyway.

He turned back to his alter, swinging the topic of discussion from his own past misdeeds to Hecate himself. "And how did you know about that?" he pressed, insistent. "That was years ago."

"Unlike Orion, who preferred to dream of ways to woo his fair maiden, I listened," Hecate said flatly, with a gesture to punctuate his words. "You mentioned it more than once when you were talking to yourself. Which, I might add, is not a wise course of action, considering that the fairies are plotting your demise."

He grimaced sourly. He'd been worried about the fairies listening on what he said; now turns out, the voices in his head had been, too. "Hecate, first of all, I was not simply talking to myself; those were recorded as video-diaries. Second of all, you are a sociopath. The fairies have saved my life countless times- yet I'm sure you would murder them all if you had the chance, wouldn't you?"

"No, of course not. Magic could grant me limitless power, and they do have ingenious technology." Hecate smiled wistfully and nodded. "I would spare a few. Such as that Foaly and Opal you seemed to constantly worry about. I'm sure they would be of great use to me."

Artemis glowered at him, his anger rising, then let out a calming breath and shook his head. Hecate was probably just playing mind games, if he even existed at all. There was no point in continuing this discussion. "I don't know why I'm speaking with you," he told the other coldly, keeping his eyes focused on the monitor. "This is all a hallucination. Speaking with you means I believe you are real, and that simply fosters the insanity."

"On the contrary, Artemis," Hecate said lightly, and Artemis just knew he was grinning, "speaking with me means that you acknowledge that you have, in fact, lost your mind, and you just don't see the point in pretending you haven't. That is psychologically healthy. Of course, none of this matters, anyway. I'll soon find a way to take charge permanently, and rid myself of your irksome company and Orion's even more tiring romantic thoughts."

Artemis narrowed his eyes. Such a shocking plot twist. Too bad Hecate was only jumping on the train he had already started. "You believe what you like, Hecate; you are wrong. My soul and body are a perfect fit. You- I seriously doubt that you even have a soul. You can't take up permanent residence here."

"It is you who is wrong, Artemis. We are all a part of each other- regrettably, you and Orion are a part of me. And one of us must be dominant while the other two must be recessive. Such is the way of life."

"No. I must exist, and you two must be eradicated."

"Oh, Artemis, so foolish, as always. You can not eradicate parts of your personality!" Hecate laughed slightly, his voice taking on a mocking tone, as if he were the teacher and Artemis were the young, mentally challenged student, and he continued on- clearly deriving great glee from the argument. "And, surely, you must realize that if you hate me, you must also hate yourself? Now, that's not very healthy."

And I'm being told this by a sociopath? I think I should be insulted. "I'm sure you care a good deal about what's healthy and what's not," Artemis snapped back, still not once looking away from Orion to deign to give Hecate even a glare.

Not that this deterred him, of course. Hecate continued on without heed for his lackluster responses, voice still an odd mix of deliberately cheerful and mocking. "I don't. According to you, I have no conscience- which, I suppose, could be true. It would certainly be interesting. But I'm just making conversation, Artemis. Given a choice between conversing with you and watching Orion traipse throughout London searching for his princess, I choose you. But, I'm caught between a rock and a hard place."

"You're not as superior as you seem to believe, Hecate. And once I finish my mission in the past, I'll find some way to get rid of you- permanently."

Hecate laughed lightly again. "So naive, Artemis. It's always a pleasure talking with a child such as yourself. Do tell me, what do you want for your birthday this year? A pony? Are you going to invite all your classmates to come so you can play pin the tail on the noble steed, as Orion would say? How old are you turning this year again, six?"

Artemis clenched his hands into fists, let out a tense breath, and kept himself focused on Orion rather than snide and confident Hecate.

It started with a low ache.

Then a more defined stinging, and then that matured into a burning pain that encompassed his entire calf. Orion finally just gave up and limped along the street to sit at a bench, unable to take it anymore. It felt like someone had stabbed him with a poisoned blade and left it buried in his flesh- and if he took one more step, he felt that the strangled cry building in his throat wouldn't be held back anymore.

When at least he was sitting down, the tightness of his throat relaxed and he was able to breathe, but the terrible burn kept on raging up his calf, and he gasped. It took a few long moments of hard, panting breaths for him to regain any semblance of control, and then, another second before his hand had stopped shaking enough for him to roll up his pants leg. With another deep breath, Orion braced himself mentally and looked down- already prepared for the worst.

What he saw was the injury he had seen Artemis himself cause after he had arrived in the past to find that cloth and skin had been forged into one. At the time, Orion and Hecate had watched it go from being a bloody, grotesque mess to the injury being wrapped in pristine white bandages that didn't appear to be all that serious.

Now, however, blood had soaked through and was dripping slowly but steadily onto his foot. When he hesitantly touched the gauze, hot pain radiated from the point he touched and he groaned in pain, yanking his hand back. It had felt damp with blood and it was agonizing.

Orion hesitated, trying to contemplate his options while at the same time not screaming from pain. He had to find Holly, but he was in a friendly city. He needed to see a doctor, certainly, but had no money except for the paper that he had left back in Artemis's room, as he had had no use for it.

"N-no matter!" he managed weakly, carefully withdrawing his shaking hands and allowing his pants leg to fall, obscuring the injury from view. "I am a knight! Surely, someone, with their merciful heart, will have the grace to heal me."

"Oh my god, I can't believe he's doing this," Artemis moaned, while Hecate stared at the screen in disgust.

"You and I both."

Artemis groaned and slammed his fist down on the table in frustration when Orion continued on his hopeless search. "You bloody moron! There is anesthesia in your pocket! You need to get back to my hotel room and stop moving! You're not supposed to be walking on that thing anyway!"

"Oh, yes, and you provided him with a good example. I didn't see you getting bed rest or, at the very least, using a pair of crutches."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was setting an example for my alternate personality! Who, by the way, might as well be three years old for all the brilliance he's shown so far."

Hecate laughed while Orion limped down the street, asking everyone he ran into if they were a doctor, while Artemis groaned again and buried his head in his hands. "Oh, god, please don't start showing people your leg… the last thing I need is to find videos of a crazy man in London showing his hacked up leg to everybody on the internet in the present."

Hecate chuckled. "Don't look now, but I don't think that's all you have to worry about."

"What?" Artemis looked up at the screen, stared at it for several seconds, dumbfounded, then just threw his hands up in the air in exasperation. "I really don't think this situation could get any worse. Is it any wonder I'm paranoid, when things like this always seem to happen?!"

Orion had just limped his way around the corner when he ran smack dab into somebody else.

The impact came out of nowhere and sent a jarring pain down his leg, and he let out a shocked gasp, the hot agony flooding his chest and expelling his breath. He almost collapsed, barely managing to catch himself on the side of the building before he hit the ground, and gasped again as his vision flashed red. Oh, ow, damn it, ow, ow, owwww...

He hissed out a pained apology once he could breathe again, his vision still a crimson haze, all he could see of the man still standing in front of him his aura of importance and impatience. Orion carefully raised his head, breathing through clenched teeth, to look up at the man he'd run into.

He was tall, pale, dressed in a black suit, and had dark, neatly parted hair.

His eyes were a piercing blue that were as cold as ice.

Oh, right- and he looked almost exactly like him.

Orion slowly withdrew, still keeping a cautious hand against the side of the building to hold himself up, the pain in his leg suddenly not such a crisis as he prepared to run. There were some differences, of course; the eyes were the wrong color, and he looked a little older; his stern features were more developed than Orion thought they should be and even so, weren't absolutely identical- but a contorted mirror image was still a mirror image. Whatever sorcery this was, he wanted no part of it- he'd had enough of such things with Hecate.

His twin was staring at him, utter confusion written across his features, but Orion wasn't about to let himself be fooled by any supposed lack of malice- he had to get out of here, before whatever had created another almost identical mirror image came and made this even worse. When he stood once again, his rising suspicions were given a sharp jolt of credibility- one he really could've done without. Behind his near twin stood a hulking mountain of a man- for heaven's sake, he looked as if he could hold his own against an entire cavalry! Was there no limit to his mysterious adversary's capabilities?

The sight of his new enemy had Orion absolutely certain he wanted out of here. With another swift, ragged breath, he tried to move back, get as much distance between him and those people as possible- and then, the hulking monster of a man was by his friend's side. In less than a second the man had moved that quick almost silently; Orion flinched again and took another trembling step back- and the man pursued him with an evenly matched pace.

"Who are you?"

Orion took another shaky step back at the dark, rumbling tones and slowly shook his head. "I- I'm Orion. Sir, I'm just looking for-"

"Orion who?"

He fell silent when the big one abruptly cut him off- and the hand the gripped something tight at his waist was no more encouraging than the powerful fist that looked about ready to swing. Coughing, he cleared his dry throat and managed, "Orion- well, Artemis-son, I suppose. I'm not really his son, but he is the closet thing I have to a bloodline." It was the truth, after all- all he could think to say now, since lies would probably only make this worse.

It was also apparently the wrong thing to say.

The menacing one's eyes narrowed, and the well-dressed one by his side turned from surprised to distrustful. Orion took in an uncertain breath and tried to move another step back- before the leader had sent his muscles man forward with nothing but a wave of his hand, and Orion had found himself lifted up into the air by his collar and slammed back against the wall with a hand around his throat.

"Listen here, 'Orion'. I don't know what game you're playing, but I am a Butler, and I work for Mr. Fowl. Do you know what that means?"

Orion tried to kick at him, but the man's arms were long enough that he was out of range, and his grip was just tight enough to make it hard to breathe. He gasped in a wheeze, sending a desperate look around the street, but no one else seemed very interested at all at intervening on his behalf. One nervous glance at the huge threat was all it took to send them scurrying away.

Another butler- and he works for Mr. Fowl- AND that one looks like Artemis-!

It's ARTEMIS!

Why in God's name are there two of us?!

"You- you're- butler, I know you-"

"No, you absolute fool," the butler snarled in Orion's face. "I am from the Butler family. I am a blue diamond. But enough about me. Let's talk about you- like the fact that you have three seconds to tell me who you really are and who you're working for. Did the Russians send you?"

He tried to shake his head, but the man's fingers were too tight. "No! I don't know what a Russian is- but I'm not an enemy- I-"

The man's black eyes narrowed in such an intimidating glare that Orion's words died in his throat. When his mouth had gone dry and his voice had drained away into nothing, the butler continued on. "Stop playing. My boss has the resources and the money to make you disappear without a trace as pieces dropped in the Atlantic Ocean. So, if you like your head where it is, I think you should start talking."

"But… I don't have anything to say. I was just looking for a doctor-!"

"A wise choice. I think you'll need one when I'm finished with you."

Orion let out another gasp as the fingers squeezed again, struggling hard to get away from the butler. Never mind why were there two of him- why in God's name were they trying to kill him?! "Sir, what have I done to harm you? And have you no honor?! Give me a fighting chance! A sword and a shield would do-"

"I'm not going to ask again-"

"Wait, Butler," the slim man who had lingered back until now said. And, on command, the hulking intimidation machine fell silent- but the fingers kept on squeezing, even when the man who had to be Mr. Fowl walked forward to stand beside him again and peered at him curiously like he was some kind of experiment. "If this is a scheme by the Russians, it is a convoluted one. I think this youth may simply be mentally disturbed."

"I am not mentally disturbed!" Orion coughed out, unable to help himself. "Arte- ack!"

"Mr. Fowl is speaking. You'd do best to curb your tongue."

He fell silent again- not that he had much of a choice- and Mr. Fowl continued, heedless to the interruption. "Butler, no one in their right mind would challenge you like this- I doubt even a Russian with a twisted sense of humor would. Yes, we look similar- but his eyes are different, and he's much younger. It must be just a coincidence."

"He knew your name, sir."

Mr. Fowl shrugged. "And the event tonight has been publicized. Butler, come on. Just because a crazy child that caught a few seconds of public radio decided to run into us doesn't mean we should put our whole plans on hold- whatever he looks like."

The butler hesitated a moment longer, and then, with a swift nod, let Orion fall to the ground and turned away. "You're right, sir. We don't need this as a distraction. Come on, we need to get you inside."

Orion stared after them while they headed inside the building, leaving him outside in the snow. He had half a mind to follow after them and challenge the butler to a duel, but with the black spots still obscuring his vision and the burning pain in his leg that had returned with a vengeance- he thought better of it.

"This is wonderful. My father surely will recognize me as the foolish boy who challenged his bodyguard to a duel."

"No, he won't. He hasn't yet."

Artemis glared sullenly at Hecate. "Unless I create a time split by changing matters now, my father remembers this encounter. Perhaps he has recognized the physical similarities between me and the boy he met on the streets of London ten years ago and just discounted it as a coincidence. Really, he as no other choices to choose from. Time travel is not something the normal person considers."

"Oh, that's right. You keep the fairies a secret from your family; my apologies, I simply forgot. And you accuse me of being a sociopath. Tell me, Artemis, is it easy, lying to them? Do you feel no guilt?"

Artemis continued to glare at him. He wasn't sure whether to be disturbed or not that Hecate didn't just know exactly what buttons to push- he seemed to draw a perverse joy out of doing it as many times in a conversation as possible. "My father and my brothers are the only ones who have no idea."

"Not through your own volition. Your mother discovered fairies through no action on your part. And I'm sure you will say that your brothers are simply too young to know about such a deep, dark, secret- well, what about when they're older? What are you going to do, call a family meeting and say, "Now, I know you'll think I've lost my mind, but I'm friends with fairies?'" At Artemis's dark look, Hecate smiled and shook his head. "Of course, how silly of me. Why would make plans that far into the future? We both know that we won't be alternating in who controls this body for long."

"Yes, exactly," Artemis said firmly. "I'll soon find a way to control you and stop this rapid personality shifts. You and Orion will be eradicated. Really, that speech was old the first time you made it."

Hecate sighed. "You've already made that threat, Artemis. I have yet to see you put it into action."

"Well, that's because Orion is wondering about London challenging people to duels!"

"And what's your excuse next time? Because I'm taking over the second Orion's done."

Artemis's frustration rose, and he forced himself to just shake his head and not react more than that- that would only be handing another victory over to his nearly demonic alter. "Threaten all you like, Hecate. I have a something to do in the past, and you won't stop me."

Hecate just laughed. "Come on, Artemis. Even if you do somehow thwart me and seize the reins once Orion inevitably fails and opens the door to one of us, do you really think you have it in you to do what you're proposing? Apparently, I don't have a conscience, but I've heard it can be quite a pesky thing, especially in situations like these. Won't you feel guilty about what you're doing?"

Artemis shook his head firmly, refusing to give Hecate even an inch. "No. I have no reason to feel guilty. I'm saving my father from being kidnapped. As for the fairies… they made me grow as sick as I am now. They are conspiring against me. Which is beside the point because I'm not hurting them in any way. I'm removing them from my life but in no way that will cause harm- to anyone."

"So says the voices in your head."

"The voice. It is one voice, singular. And I have reason to believe it."

Hecate laughed again. "You know, Artemis, people like you often find themselves heavily sedated or locked in a padded cell. I think it would be amusing to see your reaction to that. Or being in a straitjacket. Heh. The poor, insane genius, brought down so low. That would be a sight, don't you think?"

With an angry, grumbled version of a sigh, Artemis crossed his arms and returned his attention to Orion with one last look at Hecate.