Lower Elements, LEP "Julius Root Memorial Research Laboratory"

Clang

Holly awoke with a start, the noise causing her to quickly roll out of the cot and draw her pistol, checking her surroundings.

Surveying, she found nothing out of the ordinary at first glance… except for the fact that her pistol didn't exist. Probably due to the fact that she was in the safe environment of an LEP Laboratory. Her initial state of primal defensiveness slowly wore off as she lowered her empty hands and remembered that she was in the lab watching over a comatose Artemis. An Artemis that, judging by her looks at his pod was no longer in it. Weirdly, the wires were stretched and lead to a young man struggling to get off the floor.

Holly stared for a second before snapping to full alertness. She immediately rushed to the boy and began to lift him.

"Artemis, are you ok?" Holly urgently asked, slowly bringing him to his feet.

Rather than reply, he stared at her confusedly, bringing back her fears that Foaly's machine somehow lobotomized him. His eyes were open and she immediately noticed his two bright blue eyes. He didn't have one of hers. Holly snapped back to her concern about Fowl's mental state, whether he may have been left dazed from awakening still stuck to the machine.

"Mud-Boy," Holly switched to a more authoritative tone, "can you speak."

For a moment his expression remained slack jawed, still confused by the situation. After a moment, though, he snapped back with an expression that seemed as if he was reunited with a long lost lover.

"Fair princess," Artemis cried out with a somewhat Shakespearean tone that sounded very unnatural coming from him, "I never thought I'd see you again!"

Holly didn't even know how to react, giving a flat "What?"

"You don't recall me?" Artemis dramatically switched from a tone of joy to sadness, "It's me, Orion!"

Holly shook her head, 'what did Foaly do?'

She thought quickly, knowing she needed information. She steadied him, and when he seemed capable of standing, released him to facilitate easier conversation.

"I'm afraid not… Orion," Holly said slowly, searching for the right words, "do you remember me?"

"Of course I do, I could never forget a maiden as fair as thee." Orion stated, his comments dropping a mixed bag of emotions directly on the doorstep of Holly's brain, "I stepped in for that fool, Artemis, whenever you, my fair lady and our noble steed required assistance."

"What kind of assistance?" Holly questioned, still almost entirely fazed by the goings-on of this.

"The scoundrel!" Orion continued, "Turnall Root of course!"

The name was familiar to Holly, but she couldn't put her finger on it. It occurred to her, he was Julius' older brother, the famous criminal!

"He escaped?" Holly was shocked, that elf was locked up tighter than a pixie's navel after what he did to Julius during her initiation.

"Fair maiden, I thought you more intelligent," Orion mused before beginning his explanation, "do you not remember when we came to Atlantis, when Artemis, who I must say could never show you appreciation in the bounties that I carry, fell slave to Turnball like the rest of you? My hand was forced to fire at you while I dealt with our piratical foe."

Every sentence this… version of Artemis stated left Holly somehow more confused. They went to Atlantis and he shot her? Also why did he sound like he was competing with Artemis for her affection. How did she react to this when it was in the moment, if any of this even happened? Most importantly, how was she supposed to get Artemis back properly instead of his knockoff Irish-Romeo counterpart.

Holly sighed and asked, "So, what are you to Artemis exactly?"

"I'm simply a superior alter-ego of that boy," Orion boasted, "rather than committing crimes I focused on what truly mattered, and that was wooing princesses such as yourself."

This was getting on Holly's nerves, the entire "princess" and "fair maiden" business were not her style by any stretch. They implied that she could not handle herself, and she could place good money that she could floor this Orion personality faster than a neutrino pistol. That being said, Artemis showing affection of any kind in his past was a stretch, did this personality teach him? The unanswered question remained, where was he on any of Artemis' other adventures. Holly decided to try a longshot approach.

"Alright Orion, you might be able to help me." Holly prepared to attempt an explanation at their situation. "Artemis died, but we brought him back. He has no memories of his past and ours is gone as well. Do you remember anything that might help us, you seem to recall a lot of an adventure nobody has a clue about."

"Well you see," Orion started, but then he trailed off, his eyes growing wide. "No, in fact I remember nothing more than a few moments during our journey in Atlantis. Last I remember was stopping the scoundrel Turnball and then…"

A voice that was neither of theirs pierced the conversation, "Atlantis Complex."

Holly and Orion both pivoted in a second to the source of the sound, the laboratory's doorway. Foaly stood tall, holding a mug with an unknown substance, before making his way over to the duo.

"Steed!" Orion cried out joyously, walking towards the centaur but restrained by the wires connected to his head, ones that he never even noticed before now. Holly grabbed his shoulder before he could take them out. Orion continued, "I never thought I'd see you again!"

Wordlessly Foaly clopped his way to the Memory-Line's computer, ignoring the stares of the rest of the room's occupants. Without releasing his mug he delivered a keystroke with one hand, which left Orion to return to a slack-jawed state.

"Catch him." Foaly flatly ordered, delivering another keystroke.

Holly was quick to react and reached Orion just in time to catch him as he slumped. The boy was entirely unconscious.

She was angry again, Foaly was developing a very bad habit of messing with Artemis' brain, and she made it known, "What did you do to him?"

"He's fine, who you were talking to was just a manifestation of his Atlantis Complex," Foaly yawned, as if he suddenly had the skillset to diagnose mental illnesses.

"His what?"

"People who perform high-stress activities like fairy kidnapping and international crime tend to develop unorthodox coping methods for the stress and guilt they face. The Atlantis Complex is part of that, it appears whoever you were talking to was his coping method." Foaly explained, taking a sip from his mug, "I'm just confused by why he came up in a clone of Fowl."

Holly was lead to consider the same thing, quickly reasoning, "Well, maybe taking him through his past crimes has made him relive the guilt and stress that gave him the Atlantis Complex in the first place."

"That's…" Foaly was surprised, "actually a fairly reasonable hypothesis. What have they been feeding you at the LEP to grow your brain so large?"

Holly scoffed, "I just want to get this entire thing over with."

Foaly raised an eyebrow, "I'm sure of it, no interest harbored in the Mud-Boy at all. You just want to touch up everyone's memories and dump him back on the surface, huh?"

"Why yes, of cou-" Holly cut herself off, "What are you trying to imply?"

"I'm implying that as a married centaur, I see a lot of things that I used to be oblivious to," Foaly explained in a tone that sounded very much like explaining something to a small child, "a bit like how you have made absolutely no attempt to put him back on the pod."

Holly looked down to realize that, sure enough, she was still holding Artemis, or was it Orion still? She laid him back on the pod, and looked at Foaly, "I've no idea what you're talking about, what are you doing here anyways, is it morning?"

Foaly imitated checking a watch, "Well, if you consider 3 the morning, then yes. I ended up unable to sleep and figured I'd check in, also you both kept setting off the motion alarm, I figured I'd make sure nothing suspicious was occurring between you."

Holly looked down to disguise her somewhat shocked expression, Foaly was laying it on thick, "You must be on some Dwarven rock to think anything would happen between me and this Mud-Boy."

"Right." Foaly gave a flat reply, "Anyways, since I know your next question is an overly concerned 'is he okay,' I will tell you he's fine. I delivered an electric shock to sedate him until I could get an expert to work on his case of Atlantis Complex.

Also, 'Dwarven Rock,' seriously? You couldn't have used an actual illegal narcotic?"

Holly cocked her head, more focused on the Atlantic Complex issue than anything else, "Is dealing with his Atlantis Complex that much of a priority?"

"Not necessarily," Foaly replied, "but he sounded absolutely infuriating to be around."

Without warning, Foaly's face lit up and he began rapidly typing commands into his machine, leaving Holly to stand listlessly for a moment while he worked on the machine.

"What now?" Holly asked, strolling up next to Foaly as he typed.

"Electrical overstimulation brought this Orion personality out," Foaly reasoned, not pausing from his work, "when Artemis overworked his brain and Orion took over his memories disconnected, presumably because he was technically no longer Artemis. If we overstimulate him again, perhaps we can get the real Mud-Boy back."

"Is that ethical?" Holly wondered aloud, "Fixing him with more of what broke him?"

Foaly feigned shock, "You dare question me on what is and isn't allowed ethically? I still refuse to believe you've ever opened an LEP rulebook."

She raised a finger in attempt to bring a counterpoint, but no, he was right.

"Exactly. Do you want the Mud-Boy back or not?" Foaly asked.

"Alright fine. You've got me there." Holly defeatedly answered.

While Foaly worked his magic on the machine, Holly returned the cot to the centaur's lab. Upon her return, he was finished, seemingly pleased with himself. Lit up above him were all of the screens that were previously blank, and their progress returned to a solid halfway.

"Good work," Holly congratulated the centaur, "now try not to break him again."

"Want to get back to work?" Foaly requested, "He's technically had a break."

Holly wasn't sure at first, but eventually nodded back, approaching the machine to assist.

"What about the alter ego?" the elf pondered aloud to her friend.

"Either it resolves itself or we send him to a specialist I guess." Foaly shrugged, "Not much we can do at the moment."

"I guess you're right." Holly was satisfied enough for now, then she recalled something important, "Also, he does not have one of my eyes."

"Well at least something good came of that," Foaly searched for the right words, "incident."

"You could have waited until he exited the machine."

"I thought he was stronger than that.

"I thought you were smarter than that."

"You have a point."

The duo chuckled a moment before returning to their work, setting themselves the stage for a fifth adventure.