A/N: It's time to finally to answer the question of who Natalya is, and where she comes from. This was a pretty interesting chapter to write, so I hope you enjoy :)

Oh and just FYI, Invictus is Latin for "Unconquered." You can decide for yourself who or what it refers to in this chapter ;)

-Kio

Chapter 18; Invictus

The Fowl Estate, Ireland

The first thing Holly did when she finally came to was grimace. She felt awful. Her entire body ached, and she didn't have a single spark of magic left. Whatever Artemis had done had cost her everything she had. And there was something else, too. A malignant presence deep inside, where her magic should have been.

What Artemis had done…

The memories came flooding back. What Artemis had done. She screamed. There was movement around her. Then someone was by her side.

"Holly. Holly! Are you OK? What's wrong?"

The pain. Oh god, she remembered now. It was unlike anything else she had ever experienced. Every nerve in her body had been on fire. It was like acid burning her away from within.

"Holly, please talk to me. Stop screaming. Please."

There were more voices now.

"What's wrong with her?"

"Arty, what happened?"

It took some effort, but Holly stopped screaming. She sucked in quick breaths, trying to control the rising hysteria. She tasted bile in her throat. She was going to be sick.

She caught a glimpse of Artemis and his parents leaping out of the way as she turned over and threw up all over the ground. She closed her eyes and didn't move for a few moments, trying to get her breathing under control.

Artemis placed a tentative hand on her shoulder. "Holly?"

The elf opened her mouth to tell him that she was alright and promptly threw up again. Once she was done, she took a deep breath and turned to face him. She offered a shaky smile.

"I think," she managed. "That I'm OK now."

Artemis broke into a relieved smile. "Thank Frond."

Holly looked him in the eye. "You could have warned me it was going to be that unpleasant."

Artemis didn't hold her gaze. "It would only have made it worse. You needed to be in a relaxed state to maximise the chance of success."

Holly wasn't convinced, but she let it go. She wasn't interested in arguing with him right now. She looked around, taking in her new surroundings. They weren't familiar. She was sat on a tree stump surrounded by meadow; hills and fields stretched out around them. Myles and Beckett were sleeping soundly in the grass, and Butler lay near them. He looked unconscious.

"Where are we?" she asked. She nodded to Artemis's parents, who were waiting a respectful distance away from the two of them. "And why is your family here?"

Artemis looked sadly into the distance. "We're about a kilometre away from Fowl Manor. We didn't have anywhere else to go, so we just walked out here."

"Why? What happened?"

"Opal came for us. She dropped a time-stop on us and sent in an army of those creatures. Hundreds of them." He paused, as if deciding what to say. "Fowl Manor was destroyed."

"Oh, Artemis," said Holly. She placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, but then she noticed something in his expression. There was something else he wasn't saying. Something bad. "What else?"

For a few seconds, Artemis was silent. "Juliet didn't make it," he said eventually, his voice quiet.

Holly found that she didn't know what to say. A strange hollowness filled her up. There was no denial, no disbelief. None of the shock that came with witnessing the death of a friend first-hand. Just instant grief.

"Does Butler know?" she asked after a few minutes.

Artemis shook his head slowly.

"Gods," she breathed.

"Indeed."

"I don't mean to sound insensitive," said Holly. "But what now? Opal's not going to give up. We need a plan."

Artemis nodded. "You're right, of course." He took a fairy communicator from his pocket and handed it to Holly. "I'll need to speak to Foaly. Can you patch this into an LEP frequency?"

"I should be able to," responded the elf, and began fiddling with the communicator.

Artemis turned away from her, his eyes scanning the area around them. Sure enough, there was a figure striding quickly towards them from the direction of Fowl Manor. Natalya on her way back. He grimaced. This wasn't a conversation he was looking forward to.

Without any of her LEP equipment, it took Holly a couple of minutes to connect to an LEP frequency. By the time she was done, Natalya had almost reached them.

"Got it," she called to Artemis. "You can call Police Plaza whenever you want."

Holly chose that moment to look up from what she was doing, and Artemis smiled his thanks. But Holly's gaze jumped immediately to something behind him. She leapt up, eyes darting around for a weapon.

"Artemis! Get down!"

The boy shook his head. "It's alright, Holly," he said, holding up his hands in what he hoped was a reassuring gesture. "I need to hear what she has to say."

Holly froze. She looked from Artemis to Natalya's approaching figure, then back again. "Artemis," she said quietly. "The explanation that I'm sure you are about to give had better be phenomenal."

Artemis was struck by a sudden urge to take a step back, but he quelled it and stood his ground. "She saved your life," he said evenly. "And the lives of my family."

"Oh, I guess that makes us friends then," said Holly, loading as much sarcasm onto her voice as possible. "Problem solved."

Artemis sighed. "I understand that we don't have a good history with her."

"Oh, you understand that, do you? Because, somehow, I don't think you do. I think if you did, there's no way you would even consider listening to anything she had to say."

Artemis's expression hardened. "You think I've forgotten what she's done?" he asked, a quiet anger to his voice. "You think I like this? I don't. But this is bigger than me, or you, or her. Opal can't control those things indefinitely; if we don't put a stop to this, she's eventually going to succumb herself, and then that sickness is going to consume every living thing on this Earth.

"So, put aside your petty vendetta, because this isn't the Holly I need by my side. I need you at your best. I need you to be ready to do whatever is necessary to stop her. And if that means hearing Natalya out, whatever she may have done in the past, then so be it."

It took Holly a moment to realise that she had just been given an order. By Artemis. She wasn't quite sure how to respond. She eventually decided on outraged.

"Have you lost your mind?" she shouted. "She is evil. You can't be serious. You cannot be serious!"

Artemis tilted his head slightly. "I believe you told Commander Root something similar when he suggested you work with me."

Holly opened her mouth to argue. Then closed it again. "Oh, I get it," she said after a moment, narrowing her eyes. "You want to redeem her like I redeemed you. Cute."

Artemis shook his head. "I do not believe her capable of redemption. You are right; she is evil. But my point was that despite your reservations at the time, you were willing to put your personal feelings to one side and work with me because you knew it was the right thing to do. All I ask is that you do the same thing here."

Holly held his gaze for a long moment. "Fine. But I don't know why you even think she can help us."

A faint smile tugged at the corners of Artemis's mouth. "Think about Russia, Holly. What did she do?"

Holly's eyes were hard. "She murdered Opal in cold blood."

"Indeed she did," Artemis nodded. "But why?"

"Because she's a murderous little bitch."

Artemis sighed. "I'm serious, Holly. What does she gain?"

Holly frowned, trying to figure out what he was getting at. Nothing came to mind. "I don't know. Nothing, as far as I can see."

"Exactly. She went through an extraordinary amount of effort and put her own life at risk to kill someone for seemingly no reason. What does that tell you?"

Holly exhaled, finally understanding. "She has history with Opal. Bad history."

"The enemy of my enemy…"

"I know the damn saying, Artemis," interrupted Holly. "But that doesn't mean I like it."

"Neither would I expect you to. I don't like it myself. But let me at least hear what she has to say."

Natalya approached cautiously. The elf – Holly Short – was clearly agitated, and seemed to be arguing with Artemis about something. Probably about what to do with her. She didn't care enough about the specifics of what they were saying to risk eavesdropping.

Hopefully, Artemis would convince Holly to hear her out. Otherwise, she would probably have to kill the elf, which would complicate things no end. Then she'd have to try and force Artemis to help her by threatening his family, which would be a much more dangerous, much more volatile plan.

"Natalya?"

Artemis's voice. The Russian girl came forward warily, her eyes fixed on Captain Short. The elf seemed to be unarmed, which was a good sign.

"You want to stop Opal," continued Artemis. "We want to stop Opal. Some form of co-operation between us seems logical. The problem is, I don't trust you."

Natalya observed him for a few moments. The tension in the air was palpable. "Understandable."

Artemis sighed. "So, earn some trust. At least a little bit."

"How? I already saved your family's lives, and repaired what was left of your girlfriend's body after you poisoned her."

Holly shot Artemis a look. "You told her about us?" she hissed.

Artemis shook his head. "She worked it out in the Nebula Facility. She used the promise of seeing you again to trick me into trusting her to get us out."

Natalya shrugged. "I got us both out alive, didn't I? And you saw Holly again, just like I promised."

Holly turned her attention back to Natalya. "So you healed me? That explains a lot. I suppose I can thank you for the black magic festering inside me?"

"Yes, that black magic that saved your life. You're welcome."

Holly glared. "If I had my way, I would mindwipe you and dump you in a sewer somewhere. Or kill you. But someone-" she flashed Artemis a dangerous look "-wants to hear what you have to say. So if I were you, I would shut up and answer our questions."

Natalya regarded her coolly. Elves were so fragile, especially without magic. So delicate. It would be so easy to reach out and break her. She wasn't even armed. But that would have been counterproductive, so instead she bit her tongue, swallowing the dozen or so scathing comebacks that sprang to mind and keeping her hands to herself.

"Very well. I will answer as honestly as I can. What do you want to know?"

Holly smiled. "Good choice. Let's start with your identity. Just who the hell are you? Is Natalya even your real name?"

Natalya was careful to keep her expression unreadable. Careful not to let any of her emotions flicker across her features.

"Want to have your horsey friend look me up? No such luck, I'm afraid."

Holly's expression hardened. "Answer the question."

Natalya sighed. She considered lying. It would probably be more believable than the truth. Just make up a random Russian surname, say she was an orphan. Of course, they wouldn't be able to find her, but that wouldn't be a surprise. Russia wasn't exactly famed for its record keeping. But, she had agreed to be honest. That was the only possible way this was going to work.

The truth it is, she thought bitterly.

"No, Natalya is not my real name. And before you ask, I don't know what my real name is. I don't remember."

Artemis and Holly looked at each other, unimpressed.

"Please don't insult my intelligence. I agreed to speak with you out of good faith since you saved my family-"

"No," growled Natalya. "You agreed because you knew it was your only option. I know it's hard to believe, but it's the truth, so take it or leave it."

Artemis looked highly cynical, but decided to leave it. "Why Natalya, then?"

Natalya shrugged. "I chose it," she said. "I met a girl on the streets. I don't know where it was. She was starving. It isn't rare in Russia. She was barely alive. I knew the feeling, so I fed her. She said her name was Natalya. I liked it, and I didn't have a name, so I started using it. I think it suits me."

Artemis looked at her for a long time, as though deciding what to make of the story. She knew what he was doing, of course. He was trying to use her past to disarm her, to give him the upper hand, and he was trying to build up an idea of who she really was, behind the attitude and the violence.

She didn't appreciate it. The story was one of the few she had that mattered to her, and she didn't like parting with it. But she let him take it, because whatever happened, she needed his help.

"Very well," said Artemis finally. "Why did you save my family? And Holly, for that matter. Why were you even inside the time-stop?"

"I needed to find Opal. I knew she would come for you eventually, or your family, so I came to Fowl Manor and waited. I was hoping she would come herself instead of sending an army of those creatures, so I had to improvise. I knew that if anyone could find Opal afterwards, it would be you. I stumbled across Holly and your family and decided that saving them would probably serve me better than letting them die."

Artemis tilted his head slightly. "So you saved my family from the formers. You're right, it was the logical move. But why save Holly?"

"I just told you. I needed you to owe me, that was only way I would get you to listen to me."

Artemis shook his head. "No. You could have achieved that by saving my family alone. I wouldn't have known that you were able to heal Holly if you hadn't tried. I wouldn't have blamed you for her death. You're cynical – why expend your magic to save someone you don't need to, especially when they are a direct threat to you?"

Natalya turned to Holly. As she watched, the elf's expression changed, a little of the hostility giving way to confusion. She was figuring out that Artemis was right – Natalya hadn't needed to save her. And she didn't look like she knew what to do with that information.

She considered her options. She had agreed to be honest, and she wasn't someone who liked to break her word, not when it was explicitly given. She would have to choose her words carefully. She continued watching Holly. Artemis was right about one thing – the elf was a threat to her.

"I don't know how strong your links are to Haven," Natalya said. "I'm not sure I'm confident we can beat Opal without the LEP on side. To that end, I figured it would be better to have their captain in my debt than dead. Plus, I wasn't sure how well Artemis would up if you died."

Artemis nodded, satisfied. It wasn't the whole truth. But it wasn't a lie, either. And sometimes that was enough.

"One more question," continued Artemis. "Why did you kill Opal in Russia?"

Natalya smiled. "Revenge."

"Why? What did she do to you?"

"Her? Nothing. But she wasn't the one I was trying to get revenge on, not really."

Artemis frowned. Natalya sat patiently, waiting for him to figure it out. After a few seconds of silence, understanding flickered across his face. "Past Opal."

"I don't understand," said Holly. "They're the same person. How can you want revenge on one, but not the other?"

Artemis shook his head. "They're not the same person, not really. One way or another, we know the surviving Opal is sent back in time, because we know that she stages the goblin revolution, and the only way to explain her subsequent actions is that she was mindwiped at the same time."

"So our Opal has different memories to the one from the past?"

Artemis nodded. "Which means," he said, turning back to Natalya. "That whatever she did to you was before she came forward in time. That's why you don't care about the Opal you killed – where's the satisfaction in getting revenge on someone who doesn't even remember who you are?"

"Very good," said Natalya, smiling. "You two think you know Opal, but you don't. You don't know her past. You don't understand how these creatures – what do you call them? Former humans? – fit into a wider context. But I do."

Artemis couldn't help himself – he was curious. Natalya was right: outside of what was more or less public knowledge, at least among fairies, he knew very little of Opal's history. He had assumed that the former humans were a new threat, but perhaps they were connected to something in Opal's past. And if they were, he might be able to use whatever it was to work out what Opal was up to.

"Go on, then," he said. "Enlighten us. What does your history have to do with what's going on now?"

Natalya went to sit down on the tree stump that Holly had been sleeping on. She was making herself more vulnerable, she knew that, but this wasn't a story she wanted to tell standing up.

"It has everything to do with what's happening now," she began. "Opal has always desired power above all else. After being mindwiped and sent back in time, this craving seems to have diminished somewhat, albeit temporarily. She merely wanted to take over Haven. But you met her in the past, she didn't care about political power. She cared about personal power. She wanted to be unstoppable.

"I don't know how many ideas she considered, but as far as I know, she actively pursued two ways of achieving that goal. You know about one of them. You were responsible for stopping it."

"Her magic boosting formula," said Artemis.

Natalya nodded. "What you don't know is that that was actually her backup plan. You see, what Opal wanted more than anything else was dominion over the minds of others. She wanted an unstoppable army that would bend the world to her will, obeying without question."

"She wanted an army now, so she went back to her earlier project and created the former humans?" asked Artemis, a little disappointed. He had been hoping for more of an insight than this.

But Natalya shook her head. "Opal spent decades trying to uncover the secret, and eventually she started to make progress. A reliable method of brainwashing was her primary objective. She had a couple of successful test subjects, so she started to expand. She moved to Russia, established an underground facility she called New Dawn – an ironic name – and put together a team of gifted scientists with absolutely no consciences. No morals."

"What happened at New Dawn?" asked Artemis. "What did she do?"

Natalya gave a sharp bitter, laugh. "What didn't she do? If you can think of it, Opal tried it. Psychoactive drugs. Torture. Sleep deprivation. Starvation. Memory modification. Magic. Experiments so twisted that even she baulked at them. Like MKUltra on steroids."

The reference was lost on Holly, but Artemis knew exactly what she was talking about. Project MKUltra was the CIA's mind control program during the cold war, and it was exactly as sinister and unethical as it sounded. If what Natalya was saying was true, then it was mild compared to what Opal had been doing. He shuddered.

"She moved onto stage two," continued Natalya. "Attempting to augment subjects as well as brainwashing them, starting with humans. The first prototypes of her super soldiers were born."

Holly raised an eyebrow. "What was special about them? What do you mean augment?"

"I don't pretend to understand the science behind it," responded Natalya. "But in layman's terms, she upgraded them. Modified them. They were faster, smarter, stronger. Unbeatable in single combat. She gave them magic, too – powerful magic. They healed almost immediately, and they barely felt pain. They were as close to unstoppable as was feasible."

Artemis was a little pale. "You mean she succeeded? She was actually able upgrade people like that?" Natalya nodded. "In that case, how come we're only finding out about them now? Why didn't she use them?"

"New Dawn was destroyed in a fire before she had a chance to unleash them. Her scientists were killed, her research destroyed, and her test subjects burned alive in their cages, unable to escape the flames. By chance, she survived, along with a single subject."

Artemis frowned. "How did the fire start? It seems hard to believe that sheer bad luck on Opal's part saved the world from her."

Natalya shook her head. "No, it wasn't an accident. Opal was making great progress, but her methods weren't a hundred percent reliable. When new subjects arrived, they underwent a process she called conditioning. It was designed to break their mental resilience and make them more receptive to the brainwashing process. They were tortured, drugged and degraded for extended periods of time. Sometimes years. Then they were deemed ready for enhancement and indoctrination."

"But it didn't always work," guessed Artemis. "Sometimes, even after conditioning, people were still able to resist the brainwashing."

"Make no mistake," said Natalya. "Everyone broke eventually. But not everyone broke completely. Everyone became docile – obedient – but not everyone completely lost their free will. They would obey most orders they were given, but they would fail some of the more extreme tests of loyalty. They hesitated when it came to torturing – or executing – other subjects, perhaps, or they refused to torture themselves."

"What did Opal do with them?" asked Holly quietly. She wasn't even bothering to glare at Natalya anymore. "Send them back to be conditioned again?"

Natalya shrugged noncommittedly. "Sometimes they were simply executed, sometimes, yes, they were reconditioned. But most of the time, they were just taken back to their cells, except they weren't fed anymore. The bodies were left to rot. Just another way to help break the cell's next occupant."

Artemis tilted his head, giving her a look that was halfway between sympathy and comprehension. He had a horrible feeling he knew the answer to the question he was about to ask, but he knew he had to ask anyway.

"How do you know all of this?"

Natalya was silent for a moment. "I saw it."

Holly glanced at Artemis, furrowing her brow slightly. "You were there? When?"

"For years," said Natalya quietly. "I was there all nightmare long. They tortured me. Degraded me. Experimented on me. Starved me. Beat me. Raped me. Drugged me so much and for so long that I didn't know what was real anymore. I lost who I was. I forgot who my parents were, what they looked like. I forgot who my friends had been, or if I had even had any. I even forgot my own name. My entire world was pain. I started to lose my mind. All the time, I could hear Opal's voice in my head, whispering to me whenever I had a moment of respite. Sometimes I still do. Not even my magic can heal the scars.

"But I never quite broke. I was close – so close – but it wasn't enough, not for Opal. They said I was…" She closed her eyes for a moment, as if recalling a particularly difficult memory. "Unreliable. Sporadic. I couldn't be trusted. Opal had little need of slaves she couldn't rely on. I was already half dead, so she sent me back to my cell to starve to death."

Both Holly and Artemis kept quiet. What were they supposed to say?

"But she made a mistake," continued Natalya. "The way she upgraded us, it was too much. Too effective."

"You were too strong to be contained," said Artemis. "The destruction of New Dawn, it was you."

Natalya nodded. "God, she was stupid," she breathed. "She was so arrogant, so convinced of her own perfection, that she never even stopped to consider the risks she was taking. She created monsters before she was certain she could control them. And sooner or later, one of those monsters was going to break its chains and rip her apart.

"She sent a single guard to drag me back to my cell. She told me I was going to starve, and she laughed." Despite the pain in her voice, Natalya smiled. "She knew what I was, and she had one guard take me away. She never considered I might try and avoid my fate – after all, why would she? No one else had. Everyone else just accepted their deaths.

"It seems so strange to think now, but I almost did the same. I was actually going to let myself die." Natalya had a faraway look in her eyes, as though lost in a memory.

The girl allowed herself to be led. The grip on her arm wasn't strong, but it didn't matter. All the guard needed to do was give her a direction, and she would follow. Following was what her kind did. They didn't have enough independent thought to do anything else.

So the girl stumbled in his wake, her face blank, her thoughts mute. Even the faint resistance that had been in her eyes during Opal's inspection was gone. Her bare feet, already a mess of cuts and blisters, scraped painfully against the rough stone underfoot, but she didn't notice. Didn't care. She was used to it. The pain and the squalor and the filth.

She didn't pay attention to the route they were taking. Every corridor was the same: a dark and narrow passage, full of grime and fetid smells, lined either with squalid cells and cages, or else evidence of some twisted human experiment. Not that she noticed any of this. It was all just part of the scenery after all of this time.

They took a turn into an even darker, even filthier corridor that took them even deeper into New Dawn, and recognition flickered across the girl's features. She knew this place. This was where her cell was.

A memory flitted through her mind. Opal speaking. Take her back to her cell, she had said. Let her starve. The girl remembered the pixie's smile as she spoke. Remembered the malice in it.

They were going to starve her. That's where they were going. It didn't really surprise her. She'd seen it happen to other people. Now it was her turn.

But then she stopped. An odd thought had just occurred to her. She didn't want to die. And she especially didn't want to starve. She knew what it was like to go weeks without food; it hurt. It was painful. She didn't want to go through that again.

She became aware that the guard was tightening his grip on her forearm, trying to drag her onwards. But she stayed put. She saw no reason to return to her cell.

The guard gave another tug. "Come on," he said. "Come on, this way."

The girl frowned, as if thinking hard. "No," she said after a moment's thought. The word sounded strange in her mouth. Unfamiliar. She couldn't remember using it before.

The guard sighed. Most of the condemned subjects went to their deaths willingly, too far gone to even understand what was happening to them, but it wasn't the first time one of them had managed to achieve enough independent thought to realise that they didn't really want to die. Usually, a little violence brought them back in line.

The guard closed his free hand into a fist and threw a lazy punch, but the girl reacted, catching the fist in mid-air. The guard frowned; he hadn't been expecting that. They never normally reacted, the girls, whatever the guards did to them.

The girl squeezed, instantly crushing every bone in the guard's hand. He howled and tried to pull his hand free, but the girl was far too strong. She tilted her head and looked at him as he screamed and sobbed and begged, pathetic in his suffering, an intrigued expression on her face.

She reached out her other hand slowly – curiously – as though wondering what she was capable of. She wrapped fingers around the guard's throat and squeezed. Skin tore. Warm blood flowed through her fingers. He convulsed for a moment before going limp in her grip, and she let him fall, staring at the body, fascination all over her face.

She didn't know how long she stood there, trying to work it all out. After a while, she became aware that the blood on her hand was starting to congeal. She flexed her fingers, feeling the red crack, like dry paint, and closed them into a fist. She could feel the raw strength in it. Something approaching a smile tugged at lips. It was a new sensation.

Opal Koboi. The pixie was here, somewhere. She could find her. She could hurt her. She could kill her.

The girl's smile grew.

"It just… occurred to me that I didn't want to die," said Natalya quietly. "That I didn't have to die. So I killed him. I didn't really know what I was doing. I just did it. I stood there, I don't know how long for, working out what I wanted to do. And I realised that what I wanted to do was burn that hellhole away to nothing and kill everyone that had anything to do with what had happened to me. So I did.

"The guards tried to stop me. I tore them apart. The scientists that had tortured me and experimented on me and attempted to rob me of my free will had the audacity to ask for mercy. I killed them all, and then I went for Opal. But she wasn't there. By chance, she had gone away. I razed New Dawn and tried to find her, but what was I supposed to do? I had stepped back into the human world, where people didn't even believe in the existence of people like her."

As she finished speaking, she became aware that Holly was staring at her with disgust on her face. She raised a questioning eyebrow at the elf.

"You said that the other subjects were burned alive," Holly whispered. "You did that. All those innocent people that had been through the exact same thing that you had been through, and you left them all to die in agony. How could you?"

Natalya stood up and gave a sharp, cynical laugh. "What would you have had me do? Set them free? Release hundreds of people just as dangerous as me into the world, some utterly loyal to Opal, the rest even more damaged than I am. What do you think would have happened?"

Holly started to say something in response, but Natalya cut her off, anger rising in her voice.

"It wasn't easy. They'd been through the same hell as me. But it was a kindness, Captain Short, believe me. It was better for all involved. Those people were beyond repair. They were broken. They could never have lived, not really. All they would have done was killed a lot of people and, because some them had magic, probably exposed the People in the process."

"That doesn't mean you should murder them all!" shouted Holly, visibly agitated.

"Doesn't it?" snapped Natalya. "What else could I have done? It was let them die or unleash them onto the world. At least I didn't leave them to starve. It's easy for you to sit up there on the moral high ground, with all your lovely principles, but have they ever been tested? Have you ever been forced to make a hard choice, not between good and evil, but two evils?"

Holly's expression was hard. "I had to choose between working with you to stop Opal, and killing you and possibly allowing Opal to win. I'm starting to think I made the wrong choice."

Natalya turned to Artemis. "Fowl," she spat. "Control your pet. If she lays a finger on me, I'll kill her."

Artemis opened his mouth to point out that Holly wasn't his pet, but then he stopped and just smiled. "You can't hurt her. I won't help you if you do."

Natalya returned the smile, but with significantly more malice. "Oh yes you will," she said nastily. "There are plenty of other people-" she gestured around at Butler and Artemis's family "-that I can threaten to get you to help me. I'm trying to do this without any of that unpleasantness, but she is starting to test my patience. So get her under control."

There was a tense silence. Holly glared at Natalya, Natalya glared at Artemis and Artemis looked like he would rather be fighting a troll in single combat than be here any longer.

"Natalya," he said eventually. "As moving as that story was, I'm not sure I see how it helps us defeat Opal now. Perhaps you could elaborate?"

Natalya looked for a moment like she was going to do something violent, and Holly tensed, but then the Russian girl just sat back down, the anger gone from her eyes.

"It is important now for two reasons," she said. "One, it is the best reason I can give for why you should trust me. I want Opal stopped more than either of you can even imagine. For more than a decade, I have hunted her. Now, I finally have a chance to face her. I will not compromise that, not for anything."

Artemis hesitated, but then nodded. Natalya was right, he knew she was. He could trust her, at least to an extent, as long as they were united by Opal as a common enemy. The Russian girl would stop at nothing to achieve her revenge. But that raised another concern.

"What will you do when we reach her? You can't kill her – it would destroy the timeline."

"I understand that. I don't want to kill her. I just want her to know that it was me that killed her future, and I want my face to be the last one she sees before she's sent back in time. I want her to hate me as much I hate her."

Artemis nodded again, satisfied for now that he could rely on her to help in whatever way she was able.

"And what about the second reason?" he prompted. "Why else is it important?"

Natalya smiled. "Ah, yes. This is the key. What you must understand is that Opal categorically failed to achieve her aims. I am living proof of that fact. And if she couldn't do it then, not after decades of research and experimentation, she couldn't do it now in a few months, from scratch, with no allies. It isn't possible."

"What are you saying?" asked Holly. "That Opal isn't really controlling the formers?"

"No. I'm saying she didn't create the formers. She couldn't have. Whatever they are, they already existed. You'll never find Opal if you look for her, but if you find the origin of the formers, you might just find her."

Holly was frowning, but Artemis had that faraway look in his eye as his brain sparked off ideas. He nodded absently a few times, murmuring to himself.

"Yes," he said a minute later. "Yes, that makes sense. Opal didn't create them, she just capitalised on something that was already there. That's what she was talking about when I spoke to her. A parasite like that must have left a trail somewhere in history, all we need to do it find it." He turned to Holly, an excited smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "I need to talk to Foaly."

A/N: So there you have it. The truth at last (speaking of which, if you go back and read the prologue, it probably makes a lot more sense now). Which means we're all set to enter the final passage of action, and this duology can reach its conclusion. After that, I have another Artemis Fowl related project I'm working on, so keep half an eye out for that if you enjoyed this story.

Anyway, you guys are awesome, thanks for the patience with my slow updates. I'll try and do better. Leave a review if you want :)

-Kio