I groaned as I woke up, the pounding in my head stabbing into a space directly above my right eye. To be quite honest, I didn't even have it in me to be less-than-thrilled about my second kidnapping of the day; I only felt mild irritation. At least the Fowl kid had some class; that time I didn't end up tied up and thrown into solitary confinement. This time though, I couldn't say so much. My legs were bound at the ankles and knees tightly and expertly, while my wrists were bound uncomfortably behind my back and large coil of rope encircling my chest that, from the heat on my back, was tying me to another person. A person whose shoulder, in fact, I was resting my head on.

I looked up and saw dark hair. Fang, then. I was too groggy to try and wake him up, and didn't have the energy in me to start formulating a plan just yet. I suppose that some part of me should've found my blasé attitude towards kidnapping somewhat disturbing, but I had been kidnapped and imprisoned enough times to lose count. We always managed to get out of it.

I heard a soft groan from behind me. He was waking up then. I moved my head off of his shoulder, gently nudging him with my elbow. "Hey, wake up."

He squirmed for a moment, still not realizing that the ropes wouldn't let him move at all. After a moment, he said, "If I may ask, where are we?"

And then I froze, because that wasn't Fang's voice. Nor would he use so many words for such a simple question. That left…

"…Artemis?"

He sighed. "Who else?" I could feel him testing the bonds, experimentally tugging on each one.

"Anyone else," I muttered under my breath. "Do you know where we are?" I asked slightly louder so he would hear.

He struggled briefly for a moment, and then was still, accepting that he wouldn't get out of the bonds anytime soon. "No. I've never been here before."

I frowned. "Neither have I." Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind. "Wait, where's everyone else?" I looked around for the first time, really looked and took in every detail. It looked like we were in a cliché basement: one flickering light bulb above our heads, boxes along the sides of the room, cold floor, heater unit in the corner, and a set of steps leading up a door from which a crack of light shone through the bottom. No one else was with us. I craned my neck, but it looked like we were the only ones in the room. "Where's the rest of my flock?"

He didn't respond for a moment, then said, "I don't know. I was the last one to be incapacitated, and they didn't seem to be interested in capturing your friends. It seems that you and I were the only targets."

My head fell. I was supposed to do this without my flock and taking care of this guy along the way? It was going to be almost impossible, but if he was as smart as he pretended he was, then we might have a chance. "You couldn't do anything?"

He tensed slightly. "I… attempted, but there was nothing I could do."

I sighed, trying to remind myself that even if I had been the last one standing there wouldn't have been anything that I could've done either. I just couldn't get the image of my flock lying unconscious on the ground while I was held in between two thugs out of my head. After pausing for a moment, I took a deep breath, and said, "Look, pretty boy, we're going to have to be smart about this. Whoever this is… well, they're good at it. We can't afford to take any chances, so just follow my lead, got it?"

"Follow your lead?" He scoffed, mood changing from pensive to mildly irritated. "I'm not quite sure I'd follow someone who can't come up with a better insult than 'pretty boy'. Come to think of it, there's only several people in the world I'm comfortable being subordinate to, and you certainly aren't one of them."

"Oh, I have plenty of insults if you really want them," I growled, my attitude quickly shifting. "We need to work together though. I'm just going to go out on a limb and say that I've probably been in more kidnappings than you. I know how to deal with it."

There was a pause, until Artemis said, "Yes, but I may know who we're dealing with."

I froze, my muscles tensing. "You know? Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"I'm sorry, you were too busy attempting to insult me," he replied testily. "If my suspicions are correct, then this is a more severe situation than I initially thought."

People managed to get into your nuclear bunker of a study without so much as breaking down the door, take down my flock and your friends, and it can get more severe than that? I shook my head, clearing the thoughts. "Who is it?"

"No one you would know," he said. "She's done a good job keeping herself hidden from the human world as have the rest of the People. Her name is Opal Koboi."

I snickered. "Your big villain's name is Opal? That sounds like something you'd name a cat."

He sighed. "Please try and take this situation with a degree of severity. Opal is the People's number one enemy. My main concern is how she managed to break out of-"

He froze, cutting out in the middle of the sentence. I immediately tensed. "What, Artemis? What happened?" I scanned the room but nothing seemed out of place excluding the rich kid and bird girl tied up in the middle of the room.

He let out a low growl of frustration. "How could I have been so idiotic? In the aftermath of the Complex I must have let it slide, unless now I'm…" He paused for a moment, and then said clearly, "Four. Four, four, four. Four, eight, twelve, sixteen." He sighed, this time out of relief.

By this point I was more than just a bit fed up with his antics. I tugged on the ropes that bound us together to get his attention. "What did you miss?"

He took a breath, and then said slowly, "There are two Opals. Unless she's freed herself from prison, which is highly unlikely, then we're dealing with the Opal of the past, and her qualms against me are much more recent."

I barely had time to be confused before the door at the top of the stairs flew open.

Fang woke up with a massive headache, lying on a carpeted floor. He groaned, not yet opening his eyes. His body ached all over, and he didn't have the willpower to get up and start functioning. Max could handle things for a couple more minutes, right? She had proven thousands of times over that she was more than capable enough to do most everything without him, so if he just laid here for a couple more minutes she could handle things for-

Suddenly his eyes flew open and he sat bolt upright, still silent as ever. He was still in Artemis's study, signs of a struggle evident all around the room. There were footprints on the floor, papers scattered everywhere, his family lying haphazardly on the ground as they had been when they were knocked out during the fight. Near the desk, there were small droplets of blood on the ground, and Fang distantly remembered that Max had gotten a nosebleed during the fight.

He sat up a bit straighter and did a quick headcount. Angel was over in the corner, Gazzy and Iggy on the left side of the room, Nudge sprawled near the middle, Captain Short unconscious several meters in front of the desk, and Artemis's manservant Butler knocked out cold at the edge of the room near the door. There was no Artemis, and there was no Max. Fang felt something cold slip into his stomach as he double-checked the room. They were gone, an unplugged lamp and several spots of blood on the floor all to tell that they had even been there at all.

He grimaced and stood up, walking over to Iggy who was beginning to stir. His ginger hair was matted and tangled, and his eyelids were just beginning to flicker with the beginning of consciousness. Fang knelt down, and gently put a hand on his shoulder. Iggy started and immediately sat up, his hand moving quickly to his likely throbbing head.

"Fang?" he asked. The blind teenager had long since learned how each of them moved and sounded like.

"Yeah," Fang replied, helping Iggy up. "There's a problem."

Iggy ran a hand through his hair. "We're still at that kid's house though, right?"

Fang nodded, then said, "Yes, but… Max and the Fowl kid are gone."

The corner of Iggy's mouth twitched. "Anyone else?"

"No," Fang replied. "Let's wake everyone else up." Iggy remembered where The Gasman had fallen and moved towards that area, while Fang assisted a groggy Nudge. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Artemis's bodyguard, Butler, standing up and quickly assessing the situation. He and Fang briefly locked eyes and both nodded,
Fang turning back to Nudge. The unspoken exchange merely showed that they both understood what was happening. They'd regroup once everyone was up and functioning.

After Gazzy helped Angel up, the two parties stood across the room, eying each other. Captain Short was standing groggily, dutifully checking her weapons like any soldier. Finally, Butler spoke, uttering five dreaded words.

"We'll have to work together."

Fang nodded stiffly, sighing internally when he realized that he'd have to be the spokesperson this time instead of Max. "Why would they only take Max and Artemis?"

The Captain and the bodyguard shared a look that spoke volumes before Captain Short cleared her throat and spoke. "There's a very distinct possibility that they've been taken by an old enemy of ours, likely one of the only ones who would have the capability to break in to this study and provide the technology that they used during the raid."

Fang arched an eyebrow as Nudge shifted uncomfortably behind him. "You know?"

"We're not certain," Butler said. "However, that seems to be the direction that the situation points to."

"So who is it?" Iggy asked irately. "You can't just dangle some tidbit of information in front of our faces then keep being secretive about it."

Captain Short pressed several command sequences onto her wrist screen, speaking as she worked. "Her name is Opal Koboi, number one enemy of the people. She's been incarcerated for almost four years now."

"So how is she behind this if she's in jail?" Fang asked, crossing his arms.

"That's the rub," Holly said, looking up from her wrist. "Several months ago, Artemis and I went back in time in order to retrieve a cure for his mother. However, in doing so, we opened up the time stream for the Opal of the past to follow us through and arrive three days earlier, possessing Artemis's mother and causing us to enter into the time stream in the first place. After we pursued her, she escaped and hasn't been heard of since." She brushed a strand of stray hair out of her face. "Long story short, the Opal of the past is running freely in the present."

Fang opened his mouth for a moment, then decided not to question it and deal with the paradox later. "What do you know about her?"

"She's dangerous and ruthless," Butler said immediately. "She's also one of the most intelligent people on or under the planet. Artemis has beat her before, though, and I'm sure he will again."

"Only if you find him!" A singsong voice said from the desk. Immediately Captain Short and Butler both drew their handguns and aimed them towards the source of the noise, the Flock shifting automatically into defensive stances. Cautiously, hand on the trigger, Captain Short advanced towards the source, picking up a wafer thin tablet with a deadly beautiful face plastered on it.

"Captain Short," she began, grinning wildly. "It's been a while, the pleasure is yours."

"Opal," Holly spoke out of gritted teeth, cutting directly to the chase. "You don't belong here. If you turn yourself in to the LEP, we'll assist you in returning to your own time stream."

The pixie laughed, pearly white teeth glinting on the high definition screen. "Turn myself in? What a waste. No, I have plans to carry out."

Fang noticed the Captain's knuckles whitening as she gripped her handgun tightly. "What do those plans entail?"

The pixie beamed onscreen. "Nothing's changed, Captain. I'm sure you can guess."

Holly rubbed her temples, trying to keep her composure. Fang could tell she was nearly at her wit's end. "World domination? Revenge on your enemies?" The elf said, her tone wavering slightly with anger.

The pixie was regarding her nails. "You're so boring, Captain. But yes, that is the general idea."

Fang was about to intervene but held himself back, putting a hand on Iggy's tensed shoulder. Nudge grabbed his hand, squeezing it gently. They all stood silent as Holly gritted her teeth and continued on. "It isn't your time, Opal. You need to return to your own time stream."

"No, I think I like it here. With your new friends, things just became much more…" She paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts. "Well, expedited."

The elf took a deep breath. "What do you want me to do?"

The pixie laughed, and Fang felt chills run up and down his spine. "I want to see you dance. I know what you've done to me in this time stream, and I don't intend to let that happen this time around. So for now, I'm content to see you-" the pixie said, pausing for a moment, before exposing a miniature vampiric grin. "-All of you- squirm."

Fang didn't know who this was, but he was immediately uneasy. After fourteen years of Erasers, scientists, cages, and anything else life decided to throw at them, it took something special to set him off kilter, and this brief exchange set his stomach churning. He knew that everyone else was feeling it as well. Nudge's hand clenched his even tighter, Angel moved under his arm and grabbed a fistful of his shirt, Iggy's shoulder tensed under Fang's hand, and the Gasman moved up to stand next to Iggy. Fang still wasn't sure about trusting the Captain and Artemis's bodyguard, but in comparison to that… He'd take the two of them and even Artemis any day, shot out of the sky or not.

Holly finally took her hand off of her gun, clenching it into a tight fist. "Opal, Artemis will outsmart you. He always has, and he always will. You're out of your depth as well as your time."

The pixie sighed. "Enough with the time stream. I'm not even going to consider going back right now, so you can enjoy my company in your present time for just a bit longer." She looked down at something outside the view of the screen. "I'd best be leaving now. Best of luck searching for your friend!" Suddenly, the screen winked out, turning black.

Immediately, Holly's hands flew to the tablet, searching feverishly for a button or control of some sort but only met smooth surface. "D'Arvit!" she yelled, throwing it down on the desk. It hit the wood with a sharp smack, unscathed despite the force of which it had been thrown down. The elf took a deep breath, trying to calm herself.

After a moment, she made eye contact with Butler, who merely nodded, an unspoken exchange passing between the two that Fang couldn't decipher. Then, she turned to make eye contact with Fang, her expression grim but determined.

He let go of Nudge's hand and took his other off of Iggy's shoulder, moving them to his sides. "What now?"

The Captain picked up her helmet from where it was lying on the floor, surprisingly still intact and fully functioning. "Now, we call some friends and track Opal down."

A/N: I hope that this chapter was satisfactory, it was really difficult for me to write for some reason. I also feel like Opal was extremely OOC, but I'm going to place the blame for that on the fact that I haven't read TTP in at least a year. She was really fun to write though, I'll give her that.

I put up a poll on my profile for what you all would like to see pairings wise. I asked last chapter, but in order to keep track of everything I ask that you vote. If you mark other, please PM me the pairing you'd like to see so I can add it to the list! There's also the option of no pairings (general), which I am perfectly fine with if that's what you like.

As always, thanks for reading and leave a review if you so please!

~haaschiibrownii