Lucky-Racer: Yeah, in order to need a coffin you have to be dead. Or a vampire I suppose, but that doesn't matter. Anyway, this story has a lot to do with death.

Chapter 5

Holly's possessed body stood up slowly, wobbling on her new legs. It had been so long since the ghost had stood, had been forced to do anything but float in a disorienting haze inside that tooth.

It had taken her years to pull herself out of the afterlife, but she did it. She was too young for eternal rest. Unfortunately, she didn't realize until after she had escaped death that she could not transfer into life, that time and fate were not so easily undone. She had found herself dropped in total darkness, an in-between place for escapees such as herself. She had to get out of it, but how? Then it hit her. With death their came a knowledge of things unknown to the living, and one of those things was a small fact about dragons.

Long before the first humans or faeries walked the earth, dragons were the rulers of everything. The purple managed time, the white life, the black death, and the gold the in-between places of all the formers. When she realized this, she went looking for a golden dragon skeleton with enough magic left in it to sustain her. The only one that she found was in the frozen waters of the Weddell Sea.

Therefore, she sat there for another year, hoping and waiting for discovery of any kind. Then her prayers were answered with the faerie archeologists finding. It couldn't have been more perfect,

Her transfer still wasn't finished. She needed a body with enough magic to keep her stuck in the world of the living. She chose an elfin host, for they can manipulate the most magic. All she needed was to steal a little more magic so she could make the transfer from the tooth to her chosen body. She received this magic from that foolish scientist and the young intern Rose Mare. She was ready for the transfer; all she had t do was wait until Holly was left alone with her. Then that idiot of a commander sent Short in to guard the tooth! He couldn't have made it any easier for her.

She flexed her fingers, manipulating her hand. It felt so good to be alive again. To feel the wondrous warmth of blood flowing through her veins and the cool breathe in her lungs.

"Short!" She heard a voice yell as a red-faced elf ran into the room. The ghost recognized him as the great Commander Root.

"What in frond is going on?!" He demanded.

"Nothing commander," she said innocently. "I thought I saw something, so I fired at it. Obviously I was wrong."

Root stared at her strangely. "Well next time you 'think' you see something make sure that it's actually there before you start waking everyone with your neutrino blasts."

"Yes sir."

He turned and stormed out of the room.

The ghost smiled. She was in.

"D'Arvit," Commander Root swore and he glared daggers at the tooth.

"We watched it all night and absolutely nothing happened," said Butler. "But somehow between yesterday and today the tooth dimmed. It's light is almost gone now."

"It doesn't make any sense," the possessed Holly put in, forcing herself to hide a smile. It made perfect sense to her.

"No, it doesn't," agreed Artemis with a small sigh. "Foaly and I stayed up half the night researching dragons and all we got were some old stories about the three most powerful breeds of dragon. It still doesn't make any sense with what's happening though, I couldn't think of a single tie."

"So…… what now?" Butler asked. A question that all of them were wondering.

"Now? Now I guess it's a waiting game," Foaly took it upon himself to answer. "Artemis and I have run every test that I can think of, we've done tons of researching, and there's still nothing. All we can do is wait and see what the tooth does next."

Root's face reddened. Waiting was not his game, acting was. This was going to be torture for him. "With all the money that we pour into your department you'd think that you'd be a little less useless."

Foaly tapped his hooves in slight annoyance. "With all those years that you've spent in the force –and that's a lot of years gramps- you'd think that you would have formed a little bit of patience."

The ghost rolled her eyes as the two's banter went on. How did Holly live with this? She was ready to throw something at the two of them ten minutes ago.

Artemis sat in the empty briefing room rubbing his temples. He didn't like failure, and that's exactly what had happened last night. Failure. He and Foaly hadn't solved the mystery of the tooth. They had failed.

He heard the whoosh of a door as Holly strolled in with a smile. Her happiness annoyed him, what was there to be happy about?

"Oh, still moping?" She asked.

"Hardly," replied Artemis with a glare. "We're waiting for a reaction from the tooth, what else am I to do but sit here?"

"Why are you sitting here instead of with the tooth?"

"And what, stare at that thing for hours on end and listen to Foaly and Root argue?" Artemis turned away from her and picked up a book on faerie weaponry that had been laying on the table hoping that it would make her see his lack of interest in their conversation.

She didn't take the hint. "So you shutting yourself up in here all alone has absolutely nothing to do with your lack of information on the tooth? It has nothing to do with the great Artemis Fowl not having all the answers?"

"That was simply a setback and nothing more, scientist experience them everyday. Besides this isn't my battle, it's yours. I don't care what happens to Haven so long as I'm not here when it does."

"Now, you know that's not true. You know you've cared about your friends here since before you even met me," said Holly, coming to sit next to him.

Artemis glanced up in surprise. "Holly, you're the first faerie I ever met if you don't count the pixie in Ho Chi Minh, I don't know what you mean."

"I'm not Holly," she said with a smile.

Artemis stared. "Obviously, you're not feeling well. Let me go get Root."

He started to get up but "Holly" grabbed his wrist. "I'm feeling fine Artemis, I'm just not who you think I am. I'm someone far more important to you."

Artemis pulled his hand away. "Holly…………."

"I'm not Holly! Can't you tell who I am? Don't you remember? The crash, the terrible crash. It was all taken from us, and it wasn't fair. We didn't deserve that…….."

Fear instilled in Artemis' eyes. "Alanis?"