Disclaimer: I don't own the characters and whatnot.

Author's Note: Here I sit at 5:00 in the morning, unable to sleep because I'm obsessed with writing this. I do hope you enjoy it. I forgot how much I absolutely loved Artemus.

Ghost of Love

It was afternoon before Artemus finally reappeared in his Lair. He had retreated to his quarters just after they returned, and Silverstone and Hawk were both awake and pacing the Lair before he finally arrived.

"Good morning Silverstone, Hawkins." He gave a weak smile, but they could both see that his heart wasn't in it.

"Ready to tell us about Sabyne DeWynter?" Silverstone asked.

Artemus sighed. "I though I'd get something to eat beforehand."

"Now you're just stalling," the younger boy said with a grin.

Artemus chuckled. "Yes, I am. You're right. I owe you the story, don't I?"

Silverstone blinked in surprise. "I had been joking, but…we're ready to know."

Artemus sat down slowly, deep in thought. "She was once one of the top minds at Mission Omega Matrix."

"Was," Hawk echoed. "What happened?"

"It's a long story, but essentially she suffered the loss of a very close friend." He smiled at Silverstone. "This was barely weeks before I found you. After the loss, she…she announced she had to leave. She said she couldn't stay, because she had failed her mission and failed Mission Omega Matrix. We pleaded with her to stay, but she left anyway. And then she vanished."

"Vanished? Completely disappeared?" Hawk asked.

"Completely. Those of us at Mission Omega Matrix who knew her searched. We wanted to bring her back. She may have blamed herself, but we didn't blame her in the least. Sometimes, you cannot save all the agents. We never found a trace of her, so we stopped searching. We told ourselves that one day she would return to us, but we never heard from her again. For all intents and purposes, she ceased to exist."

"Until the party," Silverstone said. "No wonder you were so shocked to see her name on the list."

"For the first time in seventeen years, she has been spotted," Artemus said quietly.

"And has turned against Mission Omega Matrix."

"Or so it appears," Artemus corrected.

"You think there's still good in her? That maybe she's loyal, somehow?"

Artemus shrugged. "There's good in almost everyone, Silverstone, whether they show it or not. The Rat, as vile as he may be, loves his daughter very deeply. But Sabyne…I know that there is good in her."

"She didn't seem to pay any attention to you," Silverstone said.

"She was trying to ignore me," Artemus said. "I daresay she did a decent job of it."

"Were you two close?" Hawk asked tentatively.

"We were a team for a very long time," the elder murmured. "We were very good friends."

"And now she's betrayed you and is working against you," Silverstone said flatly.

Hawk fixed him with a fiery glare. "What was she like back then?"

Artemus closed his eyes and leaned back against the chair. "Very smart, but not always in a bookish way. She did study a lot, yes, but she had a sharp mind. She never was much of a fighter. She used to threaten her enemies in a colorful fashion, and it would normally scare them enough that she'd never have to fight. She was a loyal friend, and heaven help you if you hurt somebody she cared about." He fingered his beret. "She was the one who gave me this."

Silverstone raised an eyebrow. "You always wear that."

Hawk grinned. "That's sweet."

"Yeah, sweet," Silverstone growled. "He's wearing a hat that was given to him by a thief."

"She wasn't always a thief," Artemus said. "She always believed in honest work to earn anything she wanted." Artemus smiled faintly. "She was still wearing the cloak I bought her."

"You gave her that?" Hawk asked.

"Should have known, it's a fashion crime if ever I've seen one," Silverstone muttered.

"It was a joke, originally. She said she didn't have a single piece of clothing that made a statement of who she was, so I bought her the cloak and told her it would add character to her look. She decided she liked it."

"Yeah, that or the man who gave it to her," Hawk said. She grinned. "Hard to imagine Artemus in a romance-"

"Infer what you will," Artemus said mildly. "For my part, the beret has become my trademark. I rather need it." His wrist-communicator suddenly beeped. "Yes?" There was a moment of silence as he listened, then he gave a heavy sigh. "Silverstone, the Rat has escaped from prison yet again."

"Put him back behind bars? You know, we should think about investing in a high security cell."

Artemus rolled his eyes. "With our luck, he'd escape from that too. Have fun, Silverstone, Hawkins."