A/N: So yes, I am finally updating this. Really sorry it took so long, I've been completely swamped with work (A levels feel bad) and a family member just died, so I've kind of just been trying to stay afloat. I will try and return to weekly updates, but no promises in the coming few weeks. Sorry.

In other news, I will definitely be writing a sequel to this story once I've finished it. Thanks to the people who offered constructive criticism on the last chapter; because of the FanFiction format of periodic updates, I think I tried to fit too much into one chapter. My plan was to explain some of the extra details in this chapter and continue the story, but I've now decided to dedicate this chapter to fleshing out the previous chapter with the events experienced by the other characters. Not a perfect solution, but I hope this clears a few things up.

It does mean, however, that this chapter is pretty directly linked to the previous one, so since it had been more than a month, I would recommend you consider rereading it so this makes more sense. Just a suggestion.

-Kio

Chapter 21;

Tourrettes-sur-Loup, Southern France, two hours ago

Juliet Butler was in pain as she waited for Holly. A lot of pain. Her arm had been cleanly snapped by Natalya and blood from a head wound matted her clothes. But far scarier was her left leg - she couldn't move it. Her back hurt all over after the Russian girl had slammed her into the wall, but apparently there was real damage to her spine as well.

She hoped that Holly had magic to spare. And she really hoped that partial paralysis wasn't beyond the elf's healing capabilities. Because if Holly couldn't fix this, Juliet would never walk again.

It was surreal how much effort she had had to expend just to call Butler – and Holly, as it turned out – and turn on her phone's in built GPS so they could easily find her. That was a while ago, but she still felt weak. With no idea when help would arrive, Juliet had little choice but to stay slumped in the abandoned alleyway that she had been left in, letting the needles of pain slowly drive themselves deeper into her mind.

The girl closed her eyes, willing the pain to subside. It didn't. How did I even get myself into this mess? she wondered bitterly. Of course, it was a rhetorical question. She knew the answer. Artemis.

It seemed to Juliet that the teenage genius had something of a habit of being the cause of her pain, though indirectly. But even in such dire circumstances, she knew that she wouldn't trade Artemis out of her life for the world. At the very least, he kept things… interesting. And she loved the boy like a younger brother, albeit a younger brother who had once ordered her to help him abduct and imprison a being that wasn't even supposed to exist.

She shook her head. Perhaps the Fowl Manor siege hadn't been their proudest moment, but she had plenty of happy memories of Artemis as well. Memories that could well soon become all that she had left of her friend.

Juliet was an optimist by nature, but even she couldn't deny that the chances of seeing Artemis again were slight. Whoever they were dealing with had demonstrated a complete lack of any mercy on numerous occasions, and there was no reason why this time would be any different. If Artemis was even still alive, then it was vital that they get to him as soon as was humanly – or, preferably, fairyly – possible.

Perhaps there is a silver lining to this, though, Juliet wondered. If we do somehow manage to recover Artemis alive, at least Holly will be there for him. And if we are so save him from his mind, Holly will be vital.

It struck Juliet as odd that Holly seemed to have forgiven Artemis so suddenly – indeed, it seemed that she had been intent on completely wiping him from her life. Not to mention that Holly seemed to be someone that did not forgive easily, and was rather renowned for her tendency to hold grudges. Artemis had learnt that for himself, a great many years ago.

All Juliet could do was speculate that something had happened to Holly that had reminded her how much the human really meant to her. Either that, or maybe there was something more to the pair's relationship than met the eye. There was no way she could know, of course, but she made an internal note to interrogate the elf about it later. Preferably when Artemis's life wasn't in grave danger.

Artemis. In danger. Juliet mentally berated herself for a moment. For this trip, she was his bodyguard. Her brother had entrusted her with his charge and she had allowed him to be taken by their enemies.

How? That wasn't even a question she could answer. That girl, Natalya, was… something else. Something impossible. Nothing moved that fast, and not even a man-mountain like Butler was that strong, let alone a slim teenage girl. And yet, she had been quite capable of slamming Juliet into a brick wall so hard that it left a dent not only in her spine but also in the wall itself. With one arm.

And so had come the pain, like a creature. A predator that took hold of her mind with iron jaws and would not let go. Indomitable. She had tried every coping strategy she had learned from Madame Ko. She had tried distracting herself with thoughts. But the pain was inescapable.

"Holly," she gasped out between shaking breaths, not talking to anyone in particular. "You better hurry up."

A figure clad in the distinctive LEPrecon suit materialized in front her, mechanical wings deactivating. The visor slid up with a quiet hiss of escaping air, revealing a lock of auburn hair and sharp, pretty features.

"When did I ever not hurry?" asked Holly with a smile, no doubt thinking of her reputation for breaking rules in the name of speed.

Juliet wasn't amused though. "Bastard! How long. Have you. Been there?!"

"Only a few seconds," the elf replied, slightly taken aback. She nevertheless stepped forward to examine her friend's state. "D'Arvit," she muttered. It was obvious that Juliet's arm was broken – badly so, as well – but the real question was about the rest of her. She opened her mouth to ask, but Juliet was way ahead of her.

"Back hurts," she managed. "Left leg. Can't move."

"D'Arvit," Holly repeated. "OK, hold still. I'll see what I can do."

The elf had almost a full tank of magic thanks to №1 – minus the small investment of shielding with her shimmer suit as she flew from Ireland to France with Butler shrouded in cam foil and clipped onto a moon belt. But even though she had magic, she wasn't as optimistic as she normally would be. She had no experience of healing spinal trauma in humans; in fact, she wasn't even sure it was possible. Perhaps Artemis or Foaly would be able to shed some light on the subject, but Foaly was in no position to assist her as she was pretty much rogue at the moment, and Artemis was… in trouble.

Artemis.

Oddly enough, even as Holly laid her hands on Juliet and whispered heal, she had no thoughts of the human girl. There was space in her head only for Artemis. Memories of another time, dreams of a futile future. A hope that refused to die, no matter how hard she tried to kill it.

Blue sparks flew, immediately realigning Juliet's forearm with the direction it was supposed to go in and reknitting the splintered bone before spreading out to target the other injuries.

Artemis.

She had been so angry with him. Angrier than she had ever even conceived of. Irrationally so. Of course, what Artemis had done to her was wrong. Very wrong. But something about it, something about him specifically, had made the betrayal infinitely worse for Holly. She was ashamed to admit it now, but she had wanted to hurt him. Not to achieve any set goal, just for the sake of it. Not out of sudden, uncontrollable rage. No, a part of her had wanted to hurt him very deliberately. To show him the pain that he had caused her.

Even the memory of those thoughts sickened her. It was hard to believe that they had belonged to her. They were everything that she strived not to be. They were not Holly Short.

And yet they had been.

As they continued their work, the magical sparks congregated into a great mass around Juliet's back, and the human slumped forward to better facilitate the healing. The sound of her spine being put back together was easily audible, a series of strangely therapeutic clicks and scrapes.

Artemis.

He had kidnapped and abused her. In many ways, it was a different person that done that, and either way, she had long since forgiven him for it. But the anger the been born in that concrete cell had still been buried somewhere, deep in her psyche.

Petrenko had kidnapped and tortured her. The fear and the rage that he had given rise to had awoken what Holly had kept hidden away for far longer than was healthy.

In hindsight, it was easy to see that she hadn't been stable that night. All she had needed to unleash that fury was a trigger, and Artemis had been the perfect person to offer such a trigger. The cause of so much of her pain, and so much of her happiness as well. A target of so much of her anger, but also of so many other feelings that she found herself unable to even acknowledge, let alone understand.

She had simply reached the end of patience with the world, and Artemis had been standing before her at the time.

And now, blinded by her own anguish, she had allowed him to slip away, to fall into darkness. Allowed the shadow of Atlantis to consume him. Allowed Petrenko to take him, as well. To take another piece of her world to destroy.

When she had found herself more alone than ever, she had lashed out, and driven away perhaps the only person capable of consoling her.

Juliet opened her eyes and took a sudden gasp of air, shaking Holly from her thoughts.

"Your leg," the elf asked, her face full of concern. "Can you move it?"

The human girl gave her leg a tentative wiggle, pre-emptively wincing. Her expression of surprise when she found that the action brought no pain was strangely comical.

"Apparently I can," she smiled, and looked her elfin friend straight in the eye. "Thank you. Seriously, I'm not sure how long I was going to be able to hold on."

Holly smiled back for a moment, touched by the sincerity in Juliet's tone. But now was no time for such things.

"Come on," she said, reaching out a hand to pull her friend to her feet. "We need to go. Your principle calls. Butler and Mulch are waiting for us."

Holly and Juliet only took a few minutes to reach their comrades. The shuttle that Mulch had stolen was shrouded by darkness nearby, unshielding only for a moment to permit them to clamber aboard. Holly shuddered at the thought of how Root would react to a course of action that had such a great risk of exposure. But Mulch didn't care much for LEP regulations, and Holly didn't have much space left over in her head with all the worrying she was doing about her human friend.

Ever the consummate professional, Butler's reunion with his sister was brief and understated. But it was no less warm than one might expect under the circumstances. The two embraced quickly but tightly for a moment before turning their full attention to the matter at hand.

"Plan?" asked Juliet, concern for Artemis written all over her face.

Her brother nodded, but looked to Holly, motioning for her to elaborate.

"We're tracking Artemis," she told Juliet, interacting with the shuttle's onboard computer as she spoke and bringing up a 3D map of the fairy tunnel networks. "This," she said, indicating a chute. "Is E37. It emerges in Paris. If you follow it towards Haven, it eventually splits into various other chutes, some smaller, some just as large."

Juliet nodded, her eyes drawn to a flashing dot on the digital map, buried in the Earth's crust a little way away from one of E37's branching chutes. Holly sensed her gaze.

"That," she said, "Is Artemis."

It seemed immediately obvious to Juliet that "Artemis" was pretty much in the middle of nowhere, and that there were no chutes leading even remotely to his vicinity.

"How do we get to him?" she asked, frowning.

"Excellent question. There must be a way. The crust is riddled with illegal and uncharted tunnels; we assume there is some kind of hidden network that will lead us to him."

"You assume?" Juliet didn't look impressed.

Holly adopted a slightly guilty expression. "It's the best we can do." Her thoughts naturally turned to Artemis, and what might become of him if her assumptions were inadequate. "I'm sorry…"

Butler stepped forward, placing an enormous hand on the elf's shoulder. "I'll take any chance we have right now. It'll work; trust me."

"Any idea what we might be facing if we can get to him?" said Juliet, apparently not yet satisfied that she had undermined Holly's limited plan enough.

Again, Holly didn't look very happy. "Not really. To be honest, this entire thing is pretty much just hope for the best. I'm more or less rogue, flying with a criminal and two humans in a stolen LEP shuttle. What could possibly go wrong?"

"Nice to see your sarcasm is still intact," commented Mulch from the cockpit. "Even if your optimism has gone missing."

Holly sighed and took a few steps towards the dwarf. "Right," she announced. "I'm flying. Out of my seat."

Mulch's various pre-prepared witty retorts died in his throat once he saw Holly's expression, and, in the interest of self-preservation, he made the executive decision to vacate said seat as quickly as possible.

While Holly vented her frustration in the form of obscenely dangerous flying, the Butler siblings took to investigating the shuttle's onboard armory. Butler had, of course, brought his Sig Sauer handgun, but Juliet was unarmed.

"There isn't much here," Butler called to Holly a moment later, sounding disappointed.

"What do you expect?" the elf shouted back. "This shuttle wasn't intended to be used as an assault vehicle. We're lucky it even has a weapons cache."

"Assault?" interrupted Mulch, sounding a little anxious. "I was distinctly told that this was a rescue. Dwarves aren't very good at assaults."

Butler considered explaining that the former tended to involve the latter, but thought better of it. Judging by their silence, the others seemed to have reached a similar conclusion.

Juliet shrugged and returned to the matter at hand. "I guess beggars can't be choosers," she said nonchalantly, selecting an old neutrino 2000 and registering it to her DNA. "Wait, what's this?" she asked, lifting out what resembled a long sheath.

Holly glanced back from the cockpit. "Energy sword," she answered. "They were originally designed to replace the buzz-baton, but they never really caught on. The blade is augmented with energy from a nuclear cell; you either set them to stun on contact, like a buzz-baton, or to cut through most materials. But it uses so much energy that even those nuclear cells only lasted a few weeks, and officers didn't much like them either. I don't think there are many still around."

Even though Holly seemed dismissive of the weapon, Juliet looked ecstatic. She had taken up sword fighting while Artemis had been recovering from Atlantis in Haven and had found herself to be rather talented. It suited her, really; a spectacularly stylish way of fighting that lacked many real world applications. It was classic Juliet. Like her jade ring.

Naturally, Butler wasn't over enthusiastic about his sister's new hobby.

"It doesn't look very practical," he muttered disapprovingly.

Juliet ignored him. She was busy unsheathing the blade; matt black and slightly curved, it vaguely resembled a highly futuristic katana. Looking for all the world like a gleeful child unwrapping a Christmas present, Juliet turned it on, switched it to "Cut" mode and flicked the power up to maximum. A line of energy crackled along the edge of the blade, and the entire thing gave out an ominous hum.

"This is so cool!" she exclaimed, staring in awe at the glowing sword.

Butler seemed slightly apprehensive. He could feel the heat it was giving off from more than a meter away. It was no wonder the energy sword wasn't efficient.

"Turn it off before you hurt someone or accidentally cut a hole in side of the shuttle and get us all killed. And I hope I don't need to remind you that this is a serious operation. Artemis's life is in our hands. No flashy stuff with that or your jade ring; you will take the most efficient course of action at all times, not try and score arbitrary style points. Understand?"

Juliet looked a little put out, but she nodded all the same. She understood the importance of the mission they were undertaking better than most. She blamed herself for allowing Artemis to be taken, and if he ended up being killed, she wasn't sure she would ever forgive herself.

Stolen LEP Shuttle, E37

"We're almost there," called Holly from the cockpit. Butler was momentarily impressed – he had expected it to take longer. But then again, it was Holly flying. He supposed he really shouldn't be surprised anymore.

"What am I looking at?" he asked, joining the elf up front and staring at a sheer face of rock through the virtual wind shield.

"What does it look like?" she replied, apparently unable to keep her sarcasm in check even when Artemis's life was in danger.

"Rock," admitted Butler, feeling a little bit silly.

"Congratulations," Holly muttered, fiddling with the shuttle's controls. Various text alerts scrolled across the console. Butler's Gnomish was patchy at best, but he distinctly made out the words "target acquired" and "danger close".

"Holly-" he began, but the elf was already squeezing the joy stick's trigger. Twin balls of purple plasma erupted from the shuttle's wing mounted cannons and struck the underground cliff face, the thunderous explosion tearing a huge gash in the rock.

A moment of silence followed as the last echoes of destruction faded. Holly turned to Butler.

"You were saying?" she asked in her sweetest voice, her eyes wide and innocent. All of a sudden, she more resembled a blameless child than a rogue police officer with an unhealthy obsession with explosions.

Butler sighed. "I don't suppose danger close means something else to you people than it does to humans?"

Holly looked away. "Not something different per se…" she muttered.

"So, according to the computer, you could very well have just destroyed the shuttle and all of us with it?"

"Computers aren't always right," the elf shrugged. "I was pretty confident in my own estimations, and it was the only way I could get a clear shot."

Mulch chose that moment to barge into the cock pit. "Don't tell Foaly that his beloved system might be wrong. And perhaps you would care to explain exactly what you needed a clear shot at? Sudden explosions aren't good for my digestion."

Holly very much doubted that this was the case, but decided that now wasn't the time to question her pungent friend.

"As we established, there must be some kind of hidden network of chutes adjacent to us that lead to Artemis. It makes sense that the dividing rock shelf would be thin enough to break through in places; taking into account the geography of these chutes, I figured this was the most likely place."

Only now that he peered more carefully into the fresh crater did Butler realize that Holly hadn't punched a hole into the wall, she had punched a hole through it. Sheets of rock had crumpled inward and fallen away, leaving a narrow and jagged entrance to a new chute.

Juliet, who had silently joined the others a few moments ago, now clapped Holly on the back.

"You," she told her, "Are a bloody genius."

"Cheers," the elf responded, settling back into the pilot's chair and opening up the throttle. "All passengers be warned, these tunnels are illegal, uncharted, and likely built to a highly unsafe standard."

"Does that mean you're going to slow down?" Mulch asked, looking uncomfortably at the rock streaking past the shuttle and the blank navigation tab on the onboard computer.

"Of course," said Holly sweetly, accelerating harder.

Stolen LEP Shuttle, Location Unknown

With Holly's casual disregard for everyone's safety, it didn't take at all long to reach Artemis's supposed location. The sight that greeted the shuttle's occupants when they did was utterly surreal. The tight passage that they had been hurtling through opened up into an underground cavern on a scale that left even Mulch speechless. Easily fifty miles in width, the gigantic cavity stretched out into the darkness so far that the other end could not even be seen.

"What in the world…" Juliet was the first to find her voice.

Butler, on the other hand, wasn't in the mood for sightseeing. His eyes locked immediately onto a structure nestled into the middle of the cavern. Even though it was presumably huge in its own right, the building was completely dwarfed by the size of its surrounding.

"There," he announced, indicating the structure. "If Artemis is anywhere here, he's there."

"I don't see any defenses," Holly observed, bringing the shuttle towards the mysterious structure. Now that it was closer, the occupants could now truly appreciate the scale of their destination. The building was a perfect square with just one story, stretching out over a vast area. It was impressive only in size, built entirely out of a bland concrete type material and, as Holly had pointed out, sporting no visible defenses. There also seemed to be no obvious entrance.

Apparently this didn't bother Holly.

"If it worked before…" she muttered, flicking a few switches before again squeezing the joy stick's trigger.

None of the other occupants had time to object. A moment later there was a large hole in the side of the building.

"Subtlety isn't really your strong suit, is it?" Butler commented, before adding more quietly, "At least it wasn't danger close this time."

"Artemis is somewhere in there?" asked Juliet, her worry evident. "Can you be any more specific?"

Holly shook her head. "The isotope tracker isn't that precise." She tried scanning the building for life forms, but it didn't seem that the shuttle's relatively unsophisticated sensors could penetrate whatever the exterior was made out of.

"Plan?" said Butler.

Holly closed her eyes for a moment, willing herself to concentrate. Artemis was their resident schemer, but he wasn't exactly around to chime in at the moment.

"OK. Mulch, you stay with the shuttle. The three of us will split up and look for Artemis manually." She grabbed a pair of LEP target designators and tossed one to each Butler sibling. "If you run into any kind of trouble, use those to mark a target for Mulch and he can try and clear your way from outside."

The dwarf smiled. He was quite partial to rearranging other people's architecture with the use of large explosions. And staying in the shuttle sounded much safer than joining the others.

The Butlers looked less pleased with Holly's suggestion.

"Look for him manually?" Juliet exclaimed. "That could take days!"

Holly ground her teeth as she touched the shuttle down next to the hole she had made and opened the doors.

"If you've got a better idea, I'm listening," she said, pushing past Juliet and hopping out into the cavern. "Until then, grab a communicator and stay in touch; with me and with Mulch."

She didn't wait for a response. She just drew her neutrino and stepped through the still smoking opening. She didn't want them to see her fear, her guilt. All she wanted was to see Artemis. Alive.

It was immediately obvious that she was in some kind of labyrinth. Severed wires poked out of the wall where she had blown a hole, gently sparking. She was fully aware that there was a very real chance that she heading into some kind of trap, but she took off at a run anyway, unwilling to let something insignificant like concern for her own safety get in her way.

The Butler looked on as Holly disappeared into the maze, and then looked at each other.

"Well?" asked Juliet. "Do we have any better ideas?"

Butler shook his head. "Artemis in there. All we can do is try and get him out."

His sister nodded and once they had both retrieved communicators as per Holly's instructions, they followed the elf's lead. Butler was initially unwilling to split up with his little sister, but even he couldn't deny that the area they were searching was pretty big. As Juliet pointed out, three groups could cover ground a lot faster than two.

Despite her own logic, however, Juliet herself couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive as she watched her brother disappear into the darkness, Sig Sauer up. Her surroundings weren't exactly familiar. Or friendly.

Ignore it, she told herself, Artemis needs you.

Swallowing her fear, she made a start, mimicking her brother but with a neutrino raised instead of a human handgun. Wisps of a fog like vapor swirled around the ceiling but she didn't bother investigating them.

It wasn't long before she was completely lost. Unsure of what else to do, she raised the communicator she had retrieved from the shuttle to her lips.

"You guys there?" she said, immediately feeling silly for asking.

"I read you," came the predictably professional response from both Holly and Butler.

"Any luck?"

"Negative." Again the replies were identical.

Juliet cursed and continued her journey deeper into the labyrinth. This time, however, she was interrupted not by her own uncertainty but by a growl.

Instantly alert, she froze, turning her ear to better listen. Again came the growl.

Feline, she thought. Some kind of big cat.

Juliet Butler was not a girl easily frightened. Clutching her neutrino tightly, she smiled a vicious smile.

"Here, kitty," she called. "I've got a nice, warm saucer of milk for you."

The cat's padded footfalls were easily audible as it approached. Even though the light was dim, Juliet was confident she would have a clear shot. But just as she heard the cat about to turn the corner and show itself, silence resumed.

"What the…" she whispered. There were no more footsteps, no more breaths, no more growls. Just silence. Juliet rummaged through the fairy equipment she had borrowed from the shuttle, eventually finding what she was looking for – an LEP scanner. Holly's sensors hadn't been able to breach the exterior, but perhaps she could detect the animal from so close.

"D'Arvit," she muttered when the readout came up blank for lifeforms. But then her eye was drawn to something else; a large energy source was flashing up only about twenty meters from her. She was torn - she was supposed to be looking for Artemis, but that at the moment that seemed like looking for a needle in a needle stack. On the other hand, this energy source might shed some light on a few things. In the end, her curiosity won out.

Taking extraordinary care to check every corner she passed for predatory cats, she slowly made her way in the indicated direction. The dull wall – just as blank as any of the others – that met her when she arrived wasn't quite as exciting as she had hoped.

I could always take a leaf out of Holly's book, she mused, her hand straying to the hilt of the energy sword. According to the scanner, the mysterious energy source was directly on the other side of the wall.

Juliet shrugged and drew the sword, activating it and turning the power once again up to maximum. As before, orange energy danced along the black blade. After quickly checking behind her, Juliet plunged the blade into the wall. It offered no resistance, melting around the plasma-enhanced blade. Smiling right from ear to ear, she carved a neat circle out and kicked it in the center, sending the shape flying into the newly revealed room.

"This is even more cool than I thought," she muttered as she stepped through her improvised entrance, careful not to touch the still glowing edges. "Hello? Anybody here?"

When she received no response, she took stock of her surroundings. She appeared to be in some kind of control room; massive consoles lined the walls and a mess of wires covered every surface that wasn't a computer. The whole place pulsed with a kind of energy, but it felt like no-one had set foot in the room for months, if not years.

Directly in front of her was a door that looked like it was built to withstand a thermonuclear warhead. Juliet was curious in spite of herself.

What are you hiding? she wondered as she walked up to it. Juliet's gnomish was far worse than her brother's – she had tried to learn before she had been mind wiped, but she could only remember a few bit and pieces. By luck, however, she was able to decipher the sign on the door. She recognized the word from Fowl Manor; Artemis had written it in Gnomish and English on the entrance to his own workshop.

Laboratory.

Whatever it was, it seemed… sinister. But Juliet decided she didn't have time for mysterious secret labs at the moment. She turned back to the rest of the room. Maybe if I can interface with the system, I can help find Artemis… It was a long shot, she knew that, but it was worth a try.

"Holly?" she asked over the airwaves. "I need you to patch me through to Foaly."

She got a sarcastic laugh in response. "Any other miracles you want while I'm at it?"

"I'm serious. I think I've found some kind of mainframe; I need Foaly to help me access it. Maybe it can help find Arty."

Holly said nothing for a moment. "I'll be shocked if I can even reach him from here," she said eventually. "But I'll see what I can do."

Police Plaza, Haven City, The Lower Elements

Foaly was having one of those days where you just sort of try and ignore the fact that your best friends are probably in grave danger. At present, he was doing so by working on a side project of his and humming a little tune. Unfortunately, he was interrupted by Commander K'Azir.

"Foaly," he began seriously. "Are you aware that, a short time ago, an LEP shuttle was stolen using access codes that should have been top secret?"

The centaur gulped. K'Azir didn't look like someone who wanted to be taken lightly.

"I think I saw an alert about it, sir," he replied carefully.

"At the moment, the dwarf Mulch Diggums is the prime suspect. Off the top of your head, can you think of any of Diggums', shall we say, past accomplices?"

"Not off the top of my head, sir," said Foaly, increasingly uncomfortable with the direction this was heading.

"The name Holly Short springs to mind. Are you aware also that Captain Short recently left for the surface, and has subsequently blocked all communications from official sources?"

Foaly said nothing.

"Holly is on that shuttle right now, isn't she?"

Foaly turned away. "I have no idea what you're talking about," he said in a tone that made it very clear that not only did he know exactly what K'Azir was talking about, but also that Holly Short was indeed on that shuttle.

"Foaly-" K'Azir began sternly, but he was cut off by Foaly's communicator buzzing.

"Terribly sorry sir, but I gotta take this. Holly? Hi. I was just telling the commander about how you definitely aren't on board any stolen shuttles with kleptomaniac dwarves." There was a pause while the centaur listened to what Holly was saying. "Wait, you need me to what?"

It wasn't long before Juliet heard Foaly's voice in her ear.

"Right, I need you to plug some LEP tech into the mainframe. It doesn't really matter what, just anything that I have a link to."

"Would this communicator work?" asked Juliet, regretting that Artemis wasn't around to deal with the technical side of things.

"Probably," said Foaly. "Just find any access port and connect the omnisensor. I should be able to do the rest."

"How long will it take?"

Foaly sounded uncomfortable. "If there's no security, only a few seconds. If there's encryption, anywhere between a minute and a few days, depending on the sophistication."

"I don't like the second option," muttered Juliet as she did as she was instructed."

Foaly was easily audible tapping away at keys down in Haven. "Great," he said. "I'm now receiving a link from… wait a minute, where the hell actually are you?"

Juliet shrugged, even though the centaur couldn't see her. "Long story."

"Never mind," said Foaly. "OK, I'm in. Parts of the system are encrypted, I'll try and break that later. For now, I'll see if there's anything here that can help me find Artemis."

Juliet waited patiently for a few minutes as Foaly worked. Eventually he seemed to finish whatever he was doing.

"So there's good news and bad news. As far as I can tell, this system controls some kind of labyrinth, but it's mostly automated. The good news is I can access the automated systems, so I've turned them all off."

"Hold up a minute," interrupted Juliet. "What do you mean controlling? A maze is a maze, right? What do you control from a computer?"

"Honestly, I can't fully tell since, as you might have noticed, I'm not actually there. All I can see is what the system tells me. Although one of the things I switched off was the release of some kind of hallucinogenic gas. That seemed kind of important."

Juliet frowned. Now that she thought about it, she did remember seeing a sort of fog like substance floating around. That might explain her experience with the seemingly non-existent big cat.

"And the bad news?"

"There's a camera system, but it's part of an encrypted bit of the system, so I can't access it. In fact, that goes for all the sensors. So I can't help find Artemis right now."

Before Juliet could curse, Butler's voice came over the airwaves. "Whatever you did Foaly, it shut off the lights. I'm totally blind."

"Alright big man, let the genius see what he can do." Foaly tapped a few keys. "Yep, one of things I switched off was some sort of dynamic lighting, no doubt intended to manipulate the psyche of someone trapped here. I'll turn it to maximum."

All of sudden, a wall of light filled the passageways outside the mainframe room, shining through Juliet's hole. The girl smiled as she imagined her brother blinking furiously in response to the sudden light.

"Frond almighty…" Foaly seemed half horrified, half impressed. "The more I learn about this place, the more messed up it is. I think it's been engineered specifically for Artemis. Whoever did this had holograms rigged up of all his friends dying. They're good, too… much as I hate admit it, better than any of mine." The centaur tailed off again, no doubt uncovering some other feature of the labyrinth. "You guys really need to find Artemis. Fast."

Juliet was immediately alert. "Is he in danger?"

"Not directly, but this place… you said he was already unstable, right? Everything here is designed to attack the sanity of someone trapped here. Even just from what I've seen already, with the drugs and holograms and the speakers and illusions, I'd be impressed if anyone could last a day without losing their mind. Let alone someone as ill as Artemis. If you want to save anything of his mind, you need to find him. Now."

Before anyone could say anything, however, another voice cut in. Holly's.

"I see him."

A/N: As you can imagine, Holly and Artemis's exchange in the previous chapter directly follows from here. As I said, I hope this clears a few things up (in particular Holly's thoughts). The main plot line will resume in the next chapter.

Feedback is of course appreciated. Thanks in advance :)

-Kio