Okay, so I know I've been horrible about keeping up with updates in the past, but this time I actually wrote the whole story before I started posting it, and I've even started on the next in the series. I'm planning to keep up with once a week updates. The exact day may vary depending on schedules, but I'll try to be consistent with that as well.

Chapter One

Home

Tokyo, Japan

He wasn't stopping. That horrible creature had clearly won already, his opponent wasn't even fighting back anymore, but he wouldn't stop literally tearing him apart. She watched helplessly as he—it nothing that would do this could be human—tore off his arm sending blood spraying in all directions, then threw him through the air. Somehow it moved fast enough to grab him before he landed, then slammed him down with such force the ground cracked. A red light flashed, seeming to fill the otherwise dark world until it faded. The creature picked up its lifeless opponent by his one remaining wing and tossed him, as if he was simply rubbish it wanted out of its way. She couldn't stop herself from running toward them. She didn't know what she could do, all she knew was she didn't want him to die. Impossibly he was standing, reaching for her; she stretched out her hand trying to get to him, for a moment she thought she would make it…

Orihime sat up in bed with a gasp. She didn't scream, she had had the nightmare too many times for it to still make her scream. The same images had haunted her for as long as she could remember, about a year and a half now since she had woken up in the hospital with no idea who she was and she was no closer to any answers. She glanced at the clock and sighed; she might as well get up and get ready for school.

After she dressed in her uniform she slipped into the kitchen to make breakfast. They wouldn't complain, this foster "family" seemed to hardly notice her. Of course if they didn't notice her they might not think to ask for her to be moved to a new "home". Maybe it was better to be invisible, at least until she turned eighteen and could leave the system. They had managed to find her birth certificate, so she knew her birthday (September third) and how old she was (seventeen), but that was all she knew. She still saw a psychiatrist, today was one of those days, but they had more or less given up on retrieving her memories, it was mostly for the night terrors. Not that it was actually doing any good.

The people she was currently living with came in to get their own breakfasts while she was eating. The two adults talked cheerfully, but Orihime sat silently and they made no attempt to include her in the conversation. She couldn't blame them, there was no point in getting attached when one way or another she would probably be gone within a few weeks.

Fowl Manor, Ireland

Artemis sat in his office chair looking at the one large screen that had replaced the many computers usually occupying the room. The mind screen, so I am dreaming again. A moment later he heard someone calling him, "Artemis, can you hear me?" he recognized the voice but couldn't put a name or face to it.

"Yes, who are you?" he didn't bother turning around; he knew he wouldn't see anyone.

"My name is…" the voice faded.

"Why do you keep trying? You know you never hear the name," the second, chilling voice asked mockingly.

"Do not listen to that foul demon! You will hear me when you are ready, noble knight." The first voice insisted.

"How many times must I tell you, I am not a knight, noble or otherwise?" Artemis asked with a sigh.

"Finally you got something right! You are more the villain of the piece and you know it."

Artemis turned to face the second voice and was met by the cold eyes and cruel smile of himself at twelve years old.

Artemis opened his eyes to see the familiar ceiling of his own room. He sighed; he had been having the same dream every night since his return to life nearly a year ago. Not exactly the same dream. The younger version of him seemed to remember the previous dreams. That made sense in a way, it was all in his head, and he knew what he had dreamed. There were two things about it he still didn't understand: the voice whose name he could never hear and why he was in the "mind space" version of his office where he had witnessed the humiliating actions of the alter ego whose name he couldn't remember despite the fact that, as Foaly had predicted, he had recovered most of his memories.

Putting thoughts of the dream aside, Artemis dressed and went downstairs to the dining room where Butler was already setting out breakfast. "Good morning, old friend," Artemis greeted the manservant, hiding his amusement at the way the light reflected off his bald head.

Butler smiled, "Good morning Artemis." He frowned slightly as he could tell his young friend had once again not slept well, but before he could ask his younger sister, Juliet, came in with five-year-old twins Myles and Becket.

"Good morning, you two!" she greeted them cheerfully.

"Good morning, can I have an espresso?" Beckett said hopefully.

"Of course not, simple-toon, " Myles sighed. He knew perfectly well how to properly pronounce simpleton, he just thought it was funny to say it his way.

"Beckett, don't call your brother a simpleton," Artemis Fowl Senior took his place at the head of the table. His wife Angeline followed carrying their one-year-old daughter, Morgan. After strapping the youngest Fowl into a high chair she greeted each of her sons as well as Butler and Juliet who sat at the table like family rather than servants. She smiled, "I know it's been a year, but I'm so glad to have the whole family together again." Artemis had to agree.

Tokyo, Japan

Orihime got through the school day the same way she always did, by being as invisible as possible. So far all her foster homes had been in the same area so she was able to stay at the same school. The lack of anyone acting relieved to see her and asking where she had been on her first day told her that either this was not the school she had been to before or she had always been invisible.

She went through the routine of changing classes and taking notes without any trouble. One advantage of not having any friends was that she had plenty of time to study, so she always got good grades and there was no reason for any of the teachers to complain. All too soon the last bell rang and it was time to go see her psychiatrist.

She stepped into the lobby half hoping that he was with someone else and she wouldn't have to talk to him right away, but the secretary waved her in. Well, she might as well get it over with.

"Inoue-san, how are you doing?" he asked once she sat down.

"I'm all right," she answered simply.

"Are you still having the night terrors?"

She held back a sigh. He knew the answer. "Yes, sir."

"But you are not waking up screaming anymore?"

Again he already knew the answer; apparently he was going to be thorough today. "No, sir."

"Why do you think that is?"

"Maybe because I've been having the same dream for over a year," she struggled to keep her voice even. He asked her to describe the dream to him which she did.

"And what do you think would cause you to have such a dream?" he asked, loosening his usually tightly buttoned collar. She had described it more graphically than usual and he was looking a bit pale. There must be something really wrong with her to have a dream that would disturb a professional.

"Trauma from the accident," it was the only answer she could give since she couldn't remember anything from before.

"Is that why most of your reports for school are about the Techno-crash?"

She shrugged, "I guess. I can't remember it so I wanted to learn more about it. Some of it is really strange."

"Such as?"

"Well they never found out what caused it. Then things went back to normal so quickly. At first it seemed like everything was going to change, but now everyone acts like it never happened."

"Well no one really wanted to go back to 'the good old days'. Is there anything else you think is strange about it?"

She hesitated a moment before answering. "Well there were all those sightings of aliens, or fairies, or whatever they were."

"That was put down to mass hysteria."

"But there were pictures."

"Anyone can Photo-shop."

"Not right after the crash, and then all the sites that had pictures on them just disappeared, like someone didn't want them to be seen."

"Probably the people running those sites got tired of the joke."

"All of them? It's the Internet; think about all the sites dedicated to Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, even ghosts. Even if it was a hoax there would still be something, but it's all gone. To me that seems suspicious."

"So who do you think is behind it?"

"They are; the people— or whatever—in the pictures. They don't want to be found."

"Why not?"

"Have you seen ET?"

He smiled and nodded to indicate he understood her point, and then asked, "What makes you so sure that they are real?"

"I don't know. It just feels like there has to be something else out there. Something most people don't know about."

"Is it possible you just want to believe that?"

Orihime sighed, "Probably."

Eventually he was satisfied that they had accomplished all they were going to for the day. Orihime took her time walking back to the house she was staying at. She knew they wouldn't be worried if she was a bit late. As the sun set, she realized she felt as if she was being followed, or at least watched. She glanced around, but saw no one; still she picked up her pace.

As she rounded a corner a woman with green hair wearing white clothing that was obviously a uniform and a helmet that appeared to be made of bone with shapes like a ram's horn stepped in front of her. A strange pink mark stretched across her the bridge of her nose curving up to round off at the outer corner of each of her hazel eyes. "Hello, Hime-chan. It's been a long time".

"Who are you?" Orihime whispered. From the corner of her eye she looked for help, but no one seemed to notice the strange woman.

The woman frowned, "You don't remember?" Orihime shook her head. "Well that makes this more difficult. I need you to come with me."

Orihime took a step back, "Why? What do you want?"

"I'm not the one who wants you, but I'm afraid there are no other options at the moment. You'll just have to trust me."

"I don't know you!"

"You used to; you saved my life once, now it's my turn, but to do that I have to give your enemies what they want; for now at least."

"What enemies? What did I do?"

"Enemies might be a stretch, but they are not your friends."

"If you're so concerned why do want to take me to them?" she noticed that some people were giving her curious looks, but no one seemed alarmed.

"Because if I don't, they will send someone who isn't so concerned, and you don't seem able to handle that at the moment."

Orihime considered for a few seconds. It seemed her options were to either go without trouble now, or be forced to later. If this woman knew her, perhaps this was her best chance to find some answers. "Fine, I'll come."

Fowl Manor, Ireland

Artemis spent most of the day in his study working on various (mostly legal) projects with frequent and not entirely unwelcome interruptions from the twins. The last interruption however came from Holly. When the fairy communicator she had given him beeped he deliberately waited before answering. Holly's image appeared in a small hologram on his desk.

"Honestly, Captain, I was in the middle of something very important. Couldn't this wait?"

"Come on, Mud Boy, we both know you were just staring at the communicator waiting for me to call," she teased. "Mud People" was what fairies called humans. Holly had initially used "Mud Boy" as an insult, but now it was purely affectionate. She had grown her auburn hair down to chin length so that it covered her pointed ears, her mismatched eyes, left blue and right hazel shone with mischief.

"I am nearly twenty-one; can you at least use Mud Man?"

Holly snorted, "You're only that old if you count Hybras which you shouldn't. You weren't really aging." Thanks to the time he and Holly had spent in Limbo on the island of Hybras he was actually closer to seventeen.

"It is what my birth certificate says. Why should I tell everyone that they are wrong?"

"Usually you love doing that. By the way is your father still buying the excuse that you were hiding from the Russian Mafia for this last disappearing act?"

"He has not questioned it as far as I know. No one is looking into the fairy sightings from the crash either. I managed to shut down all the sites with photographic evidence. I think Foaly is being paranoid to want them completely erased, that would make me more suspicious."

"Not everyone thinks the way you do, Arty. And the LEP gave you quite a commission for that, so stop complaining."

"I simply cannot see why Foaly could not do that himself."

"Because he's paranoid that someone could hack into the LEP through the connection, and that C-cube you rebuilt-even though you promised not to-prevents that."

Artemis smiled and decided it was best not to tell her that he had integrated the communicator he was using to talk to her into the C-cube's latest upgrade. "I am not selling it, it is for my personal use only, and it was useful to the People as well so perhaps you should stop complaining." "The People" was what fairies preferred to call themselves, so Artemis tried to remember to use that term rather than fairies when actually talking to them.

They continued talking until Butler entered the study. "Hey, big guy," Holly smiled when he stepped into her field of vision behind Artemis. He had to lean down so she could see his face.

"I hate to interrupt, but I need to take Artemis to the dojo to train. If I leave him by himself he might build a space shuttle instead."

Holly laughed, "Good luck with that! I'll talk to you later then," The hologram fizzled out.

Up until the incident surrounding the Techno-crash Butler had been Artemis' bodyguard. During that disaster he had been too badly injured to continue those duties and Artemis had died. Butler had never really recovered, so when Artemis returned he insisted that his charge learn to defend himself. Artemis went along with the training but he had no coordination. He was slowly improving, but he wouldn't be winning any matches any time soon.

"You're still having those dreams, aren't you?" Butler asked as Artemis stretched in preparation to train, his dark hair brushing his blue eyes as he bent down.

"It is only a dream, Butler. Hardly anything to be concerned about," the young genius responded.

"It does concern me if you're losing sleep over it. What if you're having a relapse of the Atlantis Complex?" Atlantis Complex was a psychological condition that usually only fairies had. When he was fifteen Artemis had developed it as a result of a combination of meddling in magic and feeling guilty for his previous criminal activities. It was this condition that had caused his alter ego. The treatment had involved nearly a year in a fairy institution followed by six months of weekly visits to one of their psychiatrists. He had only just received a clean bill of health when the Techno-crash happened, and so Butler's concern was understandable.

"I have already looked into the possibility of a relapse, but odd dreams are not listed as a symptom. Everyone has strange dreams at times. They will pass."

"Artemis this has been going on since…well since you came back to life. Is it possible that it's more than coincidence?"

"Perhaps, but as long as the trouble is confined to my dreams I see no reason for alarm. Now shall we begin our routine?"

Butler was not happy with the way Artemis dismissed his concerns, but psychology was not his field. The familiar training routine provided a welcome distraction as he focused on the difficult task of teaching Artemis to defend himself.

Hours later when Butler finally declared the day's training over Artemis went to the stables and saddled up his favorite Arabian Stallion, Black Comet. He rode out to the pit surrounding the remains of an ancient tower. This was where he had witnessed the death of his nemesis, the pixie Opal Koboi. One of the berserker soldiers she had summoned from the dead had put a knife through her heart. He dismounted next to the strange burnt orange roses that marked the spot where he had died, caught in the magic that summoned the berserkers back to the afterlife. The same spot where Holly, Foaly and Butler had placed his clone so he could occupy it and return to life. He remembered nothing of the six months in between.

Suddenly Black Comet reared and bolted. The stallion was not usually skittish. Artemis turned to see what could have frightened him and what he saw was impossible.

"Hello, Mud Boy. Did you miss me?"

"Koboi? But you are dead!"

"Yes. And so are you." A moment later the world went dark.

Well, that's it for today. Let me know what you think. Constructive criticism is just as welcome as any other reviews.

Thanks and prayers,

RAHbooks.