The glow from dozens of computer monitors gave an iridescent glow to the centaur's tears as his trembling voice read out the report for the computer to record. Centaurs didn't make many friends, and Foaly had just lost one of the few he had.
"Captain Holly Short." The computer brought up the profile. A picture of Holly accompanied a detailed description of her. "Final report." This brought up another window. "Died May first. Equipment malfunction. Chute B26." Holly's pod had spiralled down into a super hot jet of magnum when one of its wings had jammed. Foaly didn't believe it to be an accident: his equipment didn't malfunction. Except that he didn't have any proof.
He couldn't finish the report. The computer, or one of the techies, would fill in the blanks. "Close report. Deactivate profile." The computer beeped, and complied. But instead of leaving the quiet garden image that it showed when not in use, a video clip appeared on the screen. Foaly moaned, fresh tears pouring down his cheeks.
"If... if you're seeing this, Foaly.... then it means... it means I'm.... I'm dead," the image of Captain Short said quietly. She looked down, composing herself, the strait at the camera again. "After Trouble's death, I started to suspect Koboi was up to something. I'm trying to find out what."Opal Koboi, a crazed genius of a pixie, had been released from prison less than a year after her imprisonment. Trouble had died on assignment a few months later. Holly had been the one to put Koboi away, and Opal held grudges. "I don't have any proof, though. Foaly, if you're watching this, and what I think must have happened had, I need you to do something."
"Anything," the tearful centaur promised the screen.
"I want you to send my daughter away." Her daughter was no more than three months old. "Somewhere Koboi won't find here. Somewhere safe, Please Foaly," the image begged. "Keep her away from Koboi. Send her away, anywhere, so long as it's safe. Please."
"I promise," he croaked.
The image smiled sadly. "Goodbye Foaly." She was gone.
It was the middle of the night when Artemis awoke to a tapping on his window. He considered calling for Bulter, something he would have done without even pausing two years ago, but decided against it. Something told him he had to handle this alone.
The fairy blaster he kept on his bedside table was in his hand in a second. Lately the grip had been feeling a bit small, but it was still the best weapon on, or under, the earth. He pulled open his patio door, staying out of the way in case his visitor was hostile. He waited, counting slowly as Butler had taught him, but nothing happened. Either the visitor meant no harm, or knew his tactics. A cautious glance out the showed an odd sort of craft, obviously meant for flying, and a malformed shape silhouetted against the quarter moon.
"You have to invite me in, mudboy, we need to talk." Mudboy? As far as Artemsi knew, he hadn't done anything to overly aggravate the People in years. What could this possibly be about?
"Enter." The shape obliged. Artemis backed up and turned on the light, keeping his blaster trained on the shape, which closed the door. To his immense, though well hidden, surprise, it was Foaly, not one of the LEP as he had half expected. The centaur was holding a closely wrapped bundle and looking extremely worried.
"I have to make this quick. They don't know I'm here, and they can't find out." Artemis didn't ask who 'they' were, but sat on his bed and nodded for the fairy to continue, without loosening his grip on the blaster.
"Holly's dead." Artemis froze. The centaur now had his full attention. "Koboi was paroled. Holly suspected she would come for revenge. She... left me a video clip, telling me as much."
"There's no proof, is there?" Artemis asked heavily.
"None," the centaur said with a shake of his head. "In the same clip she asked me to send her daughter to a safe place. I couldn't think of anywhere else."
"Wait a minute," Artemis interjected. "Her daughter?"
"She married Trouble Kelp shortly after the Russia incident." The incident that had put Koboi behind bars in the first place and during which they had rescued Artemis's father from the Russian mafia. It was at that time he and Holly had become friends, of a sort. "This," the centaur indictated the bundle he kept clasped to his chest, " is her daughter."
"You want me to raise a baby fairy?" Artemis wasn't totally sure he believed what he was hearing, and for all his cynicism, he could believe a lot of really weird things. Like in fairies. "I'm a sixteen year old human boy, Foaly. I live with both my parents, neither of whom can or will believe in fairies. I also spend the better part of my life at boarding school. And, in case you didn't notice, the People don't exactly look like humans. There's no way I could pull it off."
"Listen to me mudboy, you're her only chance." Foaly pulled the cloth away from the infant's face. Artemis saw, to his utter amazement, what looked like a perfectly normal human baby. No forest green or nut brown skin, no pointed ears. Just a pale pink little face with a bit of black hair. The girl didn't look anything like one of the People.
"It's babies like her that support the theory that humans and fairies had common origins. How she came out of that family, I'll never know. Will you take her? Please? She'll be much to easy to find in the Lower Elements."
"I'll take her," Artemis said at length. The centaur nodded and, in a matter of moments, was gone, leaving Artemis with the infant and a small closed frequency communicator.
"Butler," Artemis summoned his bodyguard over Fowl Manor's intercom. "Come here a minute." The manservant arrived in a matter of seconds to find his employer seated on his antique four-poster, cradling a baby and a fairy gun. The boy explained the situation as briefly as he could, then the two sat in silence for a time, remembering their friend the Captain. Artemis wasn't totally sure how he'd ended up with Holly's infant daughter, but by some twist of fate he had, and for Holly he planned to do his best. She'd saved his life several times: it was a way to finally repay her.
"Artemis," Butler said after a long time, "what's her name?" The boy looked down at the sleeping child he held awkwardly in his lap.
"I don't know."
Butler grabbed the little transceiver that lay glittering on the bed. "Foaly."
"Yes?"
"What's her name?"
There was a long pause. "Artemis Julia Kelp."
I'm sorry to all of you who liked Holly, but I decided for this story to work out, she had to be killed off. It should get happier (a little, at least) in later chapters, but if you're looking for the happy, everything's-right-with-the-world fanfic, this isn't it.
Since I can't put it in the story, I decided to include it here: Artemis Julia Kelp is named after, you guessed it, Artemis Fowl the second. Holly named her that in a burst of sentimentality, because her husband had just been killed. Artemis had defeated the killer (duh it was Koboi) orignially, so it was kinda one of those things. Julia is half after Commander Julius Root, and partly after Juliet Butler.