Chapter 2 – A Quiet Time

Lower Elements, an LEP rented apartment.

In the small room Artemis stayed in, the genius sat at a miniature desk that he could barely fit his legs under. The entire room, made for elves, was about half the size of a human room. Artemis had to crouch when he stood and the only piece of furniture that was made for a human was the bed, which took up much of the room on its own.

The boy was ashamed. He knew he had to have grown, it's been nearly four years since his first encounter with the fairy world. Despite this he had no idea how he'd redeemed himself. He felt a guilty ache, seeing what he did to the two that he was naturally inclined to believe were his friends. Well, not necessarily Foaly, but the young fairy woman for certain. He felt a somewhat special attachment to her despite being unsure as to why; it was weird to him, knowing his brain couldn't process something. He was pulled away from his mild moment of angst by a knock at the door to his room.

"Are you in there?" the familiar voice of Holly was heard from the other side of the door.

"It's unlocked," Artemis said, "you may come in."

Holly cracked open the door, hitting the bed that almost blocked the doorway in the process. She slid through the doorway and entered, looking at Artemis, "How are you?"

"Not certain," Fowl replied, "I'm still getting used to the old memories."

Holly's gaze went down at her feet for a confused moment. She wasn't even sure why she was here, under normal circumstances she felt like she'd be angry and want to just get this job done and send the Mud Boy back to where he came from. Then again, even having a Mud Boy in Haven meant that these were nothing like normal circumstances. There were so many objectively random occurrences in Haven City alone that could no longer be explained: Fowl being here, demons who have returned from their dimension, the fact that much of the people's technology was utterly melted a year ago, and the fact that they cloned this boy in the first place. He had to hold the key to these mysteries, explanations for how Fairy society's changed in such a short span. However, she acknowledged it was not just an interest in these mysteries that inclined her to assist the boy.

It was the same pull that was guiding all of them; Fowl's shame despite only having memories of the actions he performed against the fairies, Foaly and Holly's inclination to try to piece together the string of memories, and Holly in particular's attachment to this young man. By all accounts, especially for the boy, he should have been acting as himself from the adventures he was having encoded onto his brain, yet he had the shame and guilt of someone who is looking in hindsight. It finally clicked for her in that moment.

"The memories aren't gone, they're just repressed!" Holly exclaimed in realization, shocking Artemis.

"What?" Artemis questioned confusedly, unsure of what was going on.

"By all accounts," Holly started explaining, "Foaly and I should want nothing to do with you. Your memories show us this as fact. Despite this, both of us are inclined to help you and fix your memories. It's not because we're nice people or some supernatural force…"

Holly trailed off for a moment, confused by her own words, before restarting.

"Never mind it's definitely supernatural, but still. When you came back and we lost our memories we didn't actually lose them, something supernatural repressed them. That's why Foaly and I want to help you so much, we aren't being guided by some force, but rather the memories we lost. That's why I came here for no reason, because I don't actually hate you. That's probably also why you're not an absolute jerk anymore, not just because Foaly gave your personality a little snip."

Fowl stared blankly for a moment, surprised. "That's possibly the smartest thesis I've ever heard regarding a phenomenon like this."

Holly felt smart, normally she was just the strong one, like Butler, but her idea made too much sense not to be right. Artemis rubbed his temples, at least mildly relieved that he wasn't totally irredeemable before his eyes widened and looked back at Holly.

"Also, Foaly did what?" Fowl questioned, his voice betraying a mixture of mostly shock and a tinge of anger.

"He's fixing it tomorrow." Holly assured him. "I told him he better fix it, he was just jealous you could go toe-to-toe with him."

Artemis's expression softened, "Thank you."

"Any time." Short replied, all the while beginning to make her exit from the door. "I'll be honest, I really didn't come here with anything but I'm glad that we made sense of all this. Bye!"

Before Artemis could protest that the elf stay, she slid through the tiny doorway and left. He was drawn to wanting her to stay. At least now he knew why, there was some kind of link between Holly and himself in his past. It seemed to him that it was mutual, considering that she came here without purpose and it must have been her questioning herself that gave her the idea for the thesis.

His mind lingering on Holly ended up giving him another thought, a 'gift.'

Artemis surprised himself when his mind fell upon it, but apparently he had to have a reason buried deep within his memory. He racked his brain, what could he do for her. He had the intellect, and probably the innate knowledge of fairy technology that he could do practically anything he wanted; a new suit, perhaps even a more advanced pair of wings. He felt, though, that the gift wouldn't stay exclusive for her long if he were to craft it. No doubt Foaly would get his hands on it, and then it would end up circulated to the rest of the LEP. While it was obviously useful, and she would certainly love something practical, he wanted to do something only for her. As he fixated on her, he felt another presence in the back of his mind, unable to enter the forefront. The name just gnawed in the back of his head, Orion. It was an inaccessible kind of presence, one which felt like it was trained out of him, bringing Artemis to shake his head and stop fixating on the young fairy woman.

A mind like his, even at nearly 16 years of age, couldn't allow himself to be tempted by the hormones that resulted in something like love. Even now, Artemis knew that it was just a breeding instinct and nothing more. There was a tinge of hope that perhaps it was a close fraternal bond, she was like a sister to him, but the constant nagging force that had been guiding his actions really made him feel like there was something else in there.

'I need rest.' Artemis thought to himself, it was late and he didn't want to linger on questions regarding his relationship with the fairy for too long.

He knew they'd all be answered whether he liked it or not through the Memory-Line machine. It was unlike Artemis to worry, he knew he usually had all the answers, but the memories weren't in his control. He knew he didn't like being the villain, but the machine seemed to speak otherwise. He'd used the people multiple times by this point, and even now Artemis was patently unsure if this might not have been another one of his younger self's gambits. It was extremely unlikely, given his soul was literally pulled out of thin air by these people, it seems he had made friends out of Foaly and Holly at least. 'Even the LEP doesn't seem to entirely despise me'

Still, the genius feared that embarrassing memories were probably abound when they got back to work.

Artemis laid on the full-sized bed, aiming to get rest in the artificial night for the morning in which he learned more about his past.