Chapter Two: Venom

Disclaimer: I do not own Artemis Fowl.

Artemis awoke to the sound of footsteps approaching him. Jerking awake, he realized he wasn't any longer in the warm embrace of Fowl Manor, but in a sterile environment, if you could even call it that. It was an abandoned warehouse, complete with a dirt floor and boarded windows. Needles and bandages littered the table across from him. Repulsed, Artemis looked away. It was all soaked in blood.

"Hello Artemis, I suppose it's been a while."

Artemis stare met an intricate set of tiny pointed teeth, inches away from his face. Shocked, he stumbled backwards, only to find he had been tied to a wooden chair, hands classically tied behind him. His mind formed a sharp protest, yet he could taste rough cloth in his gagged mouth. Artemis felt helpless, and he knew all to well how much he hated the feeling. The pointed teeth formed a smirk.

"Well, well, let's see what our child prodigy has to say after losing his memory for such a short term." Its slender fingers loosened the gag.

"Opal." Artemis spat.

Opal Koboi's smile widened at the snarl. "Breaks over kid, the fairies missed you."

And with that, Opal injected a black liquid into Artemis's arm.


Pain spread through his arm and throughout his body, affecting the rest of his system as well. His lungs constricted as he gasped, unable to breathe, eyes burning as Artemis's vision swam. His head pounded violently as blood rushed into it. What did she do? He thought.

Artemis had always wanted his memories, the ones the fairies erased. He vowed to have them before he died. But no, never this way. Not facing an adversary who relished his pain. Not sharing these moments of revelation without Butler and Juliet. Where were they? What did Opal want of him? "Why?" was all Artemis could say, considering how winded he was.

Hands behind her back, shifting weight from one foot to the other, though beaming happily, she whispered sweetly, "Revenge."

"To whom?" mocked Artemis, sarcasm returning to his voice.

"Only one." Opal said, her gaze becoming more distant.

"Quit if you will the two syllable replies and explain." Artemis growled coldly.

Opal shot him a sour look. "Cudgeon of course. Who else?"

"What more can you do? He's dead." Artemis replied bluntly. He was tired of the games and was not in the mood for twenty questions.

"Plenty. My objectives are much worse though."

Artemis was unusually silent.

Opal sighed, weary from excitement, but found disappointed that Artemis hadn't ask for the effects of the liquid first.

"It's pretty simple actually. Once Cudgeon died, my memories flooded back. Every single night that passed."

Her head tilted, as if recalling a distant thought. "That poison I just injected into your bloodstream is all that Cudgeon left behind from his experimentations on me. Each night, he would mind wipe me, telling me I hadn't just seen him inject it in my arm and food. He'd take notes and watch how my body responded. One night, I asked him what he was doing. He called it 'Tears of Blood', and then mesmerized me.

She shook her head, curls framing her face. "I found out what it meant one night, remembered, and attempted to murder him. He then mind-wiped me too deeply. I asked what I was doing with a battery and a softnose." Opal chuckled, and Artemis stared off in thought. "He told me I had formed the plan B'wa Kell. I became obsessed with the idea."

She added softly, "I never meant to do B'wa Kell."

Now staring coldly at Artemis, she seemed almost drained, if as though the endless hatred was the only essence left of her. But not all of it; her spark of ingenuity and anger still held. "The project was postponed."

Artemis finished up for her. "Your trying to say that by full-filling his project, you'd have your utmost revenge, because you did what he couldn't, kill those he couldn't, and become what he couldn't. How cliché."

"Dear Artemis, that's the point."

" So will you tell me what the project is?"

Koboi smiled. "For the entire populace to suffer. To have every fairy wish to have their selves mesmerized and mind-wiped, just to forget the pain, only to feel it the very next moment." And something else, though it was not the time to mention it yet.

"What do you want with me then? Artemis said flatly, rephrasing his previous question.

She broke into an insane cackle. "Artemis, Artemis, you are my detonator. You are the chain reaction."

Annoyed, Artemis scowled. "How?"

"Think, little one."

A chain reaction involving the haven; involving him. As an afterthought, he said, "The LEP."

Opal exposed quite a nasty grin.