AN: Not ours, don't sue, yadda yadda....

It's very hard for me to sit still as the technical gnomes swarm around us, setting up the mindwipe equipment, brushing our foreheads with disinfectant. They are very clinical and efficient, treating this as if it is a simple medical procedure.

I suppose for them, it is.

For us, on the other hand...

My thoughts continue to whirl as Butler and Foaly discuss what will be done to make him look his previous age. The mirrored contact lenses should repel Holly's mesmer, but...

A brief commotion at the door. Mulch is led in. Good. I wanted to give him the medallion in person.

Butler and Juliet kneel to speak to him, and Root appears on the communications screen. Screaming, as usual.

"Maybe you two would like to get married?" he barked. "I don't know what all the emotion is about. In ten minutes you people won't even remember this convict's name!"

Mulch pouts up at the screen and says something that I don't hear.

Holly won't look at me.

My thoughts scatter as Root snarls again. "I couldn't care less about your touchy-feely moment, I'm here to make sure this wipe goes smoothly. If I know our friend, Fowl, he's got a few tricks up his sleeve."

"Really, Commander. Such suspicion is wounding," I protest with a grin. Everyone knows that I will have hidden items to spark recall. It's up them to find them.

One final contest.

I stand and approach the dwarf. "Mulch. Of all the fairy people, I will miss your services the most. We could have had such a future together."

Mulch gets a far-off look on his face and his eyes tear. "True. With your brains and my special talents."

"Not to mention your mutual lack of morals," interjected Holly.

Her tone of voice is very different now. Maybe I was just imagining that she wasn't eagerly looking forward to my imminent mindwiping.

I have to try to look sincere. This part is vital to my plan.

"Mulch, I know you risked your life betraying the Antonelli family, so I'd like to give you something."

Mulch makes the obligatory protests, although I can almost see dollar signs dance in his eyes.

Surprisingly, I find that I'm going to miss him. And in a few minutes, I won't even know what I'm missing.

I untie my medallion from my neck. "I know it isn't much, but it means a lot to me. I was going to keep it, but I realized that in a few minutes it will mean absolutely nothing. I would like you to have it. I think Holly would, too. A little memento of our adventures."

Mulch picks up the medallion. "Gee. Half an ounce of gold. Great. You really broke the bank there, Artemis."

I grip his hand and press the tiny note into it. "It's not always about money, Mulch." I stare deeply into his eyes.

Root complains about not being able to see, and Holly holds up the coin for him to see. I keep eye contact with the dwarf, and comprehension dawns in his eyes. He smiles widely, and Holly leads him out of the room.

Technicians suddenly descend like flies, and electrodes are attached to my temples and wrists in a heartbeat.

I resist the increasingly strong urge to beat them away and look up at Foaly.

"Calibrate them to sixteen months ago. Actually, make that about three years. I don't want Artemis planning his initial kidnap all over again."

"Bravo, Foaly." I say bitterly. "I was hoping you would miss that."

Although, my memories that led up to my kidnapping a fairy for ransom actually started back in my childhood. Will he get all those too in his search for related memories?

But those memories are part of who I am. All of them are.

Root's pixilated face looks insufferably smug, and he smiles at Foaly.

The centaur checks a handheld computer. "We checked your email, and guess what?"

"Do tell."

"We found a fairy file, just waiting to be delivered. And someone with your email address had rented some storage megabytes. More fairy files."

They were only decoys, so the loss of those files is not overly alarming. I shrug. "I had to try. I'm sure you understand."

"Anything else you want to tell us about?"

I open my eyes wide and try to look innocent. "Nothing. You're too clever for me."

None of the fairies look overly convinced. Foaly informs me that he detonated a data charge in my computer that monitor my systems for six months.

"And you're telling me this because I won't remember it anyway." I say flatly.

Foaly dances and claps his hand together. "Exactly."

Holly finally returns, and this time she's dragging a metallic capsule instead of a reluctant captive.

"Look what they found buried in the grounds." She dumps the capsule on the carpet, and disks and books went skittering across the floor.

"Something else you forgot to mention," Foaly comments.

That was my last backup. Mulch is my only hope now.

"It slipped my mind," I say, and I notice with annoyance that my voice is no longer as strong and sure as it was before.

"That's it, I suppose. There's nothing else."

I return to my chair and fold my arms across my chest. "And if I say yes, you'll believe me, I suppose."

Root laughs so hard the screen looked as if it will shake off its stand. "Oh yes, Artemis. We trust you completely. How could we not after all you've put the People through? If you don't mind, we'd like to ask you a few questions under the mesmer, and this time you won't be wearing sunglasses."

If I don't mind? What if I do mind?

"Captain Short," barks Root. "You know what to do."

Holly removes her helmet and turns to me, rubbing the tips of her ears. "I'm going to mesmerize you and ask you a few questions. It's not the first time you've been under, so you know that the procedure is not painful. I advise you to relax. If you try to resist, it could cause memory loss or even brain damage."

More memory loss than I'm already going to have?

Focus. This is my last chance to get through to Root. "Wait a moment," I say, holding up a hand, "Am I right in thinking that when I wake up, this will all be over?"

Holly smiles. "Yes, Artemis. This is goodbye, for the last time."

Fear and doubt, coupled with a sense of impending loss, burn in my chest. It's not so much the fear of the memory loss as it is the fear of losing all my memories of Holly and Foaly, and even Root. Going back to what I was before. "Well, then, I have a few things to say."

Root leaned back in his chair on the screen. "One minute, Fowl. Then nighty-night."

All right. It won't be hard to make this genuine, because it is, but I have to make then understand. "Very well," I say, and take a deep breath. "First, thank you. I have my family and friends around me thanks to the People. I wish I didn't have to forget that."

Holly lays a hand on my shoulder. "It's better this way, Artemis. Believe me."

I look at her in particular as I speak my next piece. "And second, I want you all to think back to the first time you met me. Remember that night?"

I can see Holly shudder, and the other fairies fall into a thoughtful silence.

This is it. Please... "If you take away the memories and influences of the people, I might become that person again. Is that what you really want?"

That throws them all. I can see it. But they have to understand that I have grown so much, changed so much, since I met them. I've learned that gold does not automatically mean happiness. My father has changed, perhaps due to their influence. I like what my father has become, but I realize that before I met Holly, I would have scorned his new ideas as a coward's way; hanging back, afraid to take the real risks for the only things that was really important—gold. I wouldn't have grown so much closer to the Butlers. I had no friends or family before. And now I finally have both close friends and a real family, and the Artemis I was before wouldn't have appreciated that.

The People can't take this away from me.

I don't want to be that Artemis anymore.

Holly turns to her commanding officer. "Is it possible? Artemis has come a long way. Do we have the right to destroy all that progress?"

"She's right," Foaly pipes up. "I never thought I would say this, but I kinda like the new model."

Hope rises in my chest.

Root opens another window in his screen. "The Psych Brotherhood did a probability report for us. They say the chances of a reversion are slim. Fowl will still have the strong positive influences from his family and the Butlers."

The Psych Brotherhood?

Fear overwhelms the hope, threatening to overtake reason. I studied some of their works when I hacked into Foaly's systems.

I was not impressed. If they're the ones deciding whether I will revert or not...

Holly says out loud what I'm thinking. "The Psych Brotherhood? Argon and his cronies? And when exactly did we start trusting those witch doctors?"

Thank you Holly. It won't work. I know that now. Root has his mind made up and nothing you or I can say will change that.

But thank you for sticking up for me one last time.

My...friend.

Root screams and orders Holly to perform the mesmer.

I take a deep breath and square my shoulders. I will not reveal Mulch to her. The lenses will work, and when Mulch gets free of his trial obligations, he will eventually return to me and bring me the disk.

But until then, I will no longer be who I am now.

I...must...focus. I will not fall apart here. I am Artemis Fowl the Second.

I try to smile a little at Holly, who's wearing a carefully blank look. I don't think I succeed.

"Goodbye, Holly," I say softly, "I won't see you again, though I'm sure you will see me."

I will not revert to what I was; I never want to be that cold and selfish again. I am stronger than that. I know I am.

"Just relax, Artemis. Deep breaths."

I can see her open her mouth, take a deep breath, ready her voice for the mesmer.

Panic. Complete, utter, and total pani—