Fatum Universus

By: Sango Ai

A/N: I apologize sincerely for the mistakes I made in the last chapter. I realize the title made little if any sense. My explanation for it was that it was supposed to begin the process of "clearing things up" between Holly, her human friends, and the other fairies. As soon as I come up with a better title and have the time I will go back and fix the punctuation problems in the first two chapters and the generally stupid things I have mistakenly done. There seem to be some things that are unclear that are important to my story that tend to confuse people so here are some notes on that issue:

Ariana and Anthony are both from fifty-four years in the future.

Artemis is still 13/14 in this fic… I cannot remember when Jon Spiro said he was going to turn fourteen in the EC. This story takes place only four months after the conclusion of the EC, hence Artemis' comment about the fairies not being able to live without him for a half year.

Ariana is about 14 (at youngest… make her a little older if you wish) in human years and fairy, which will be explained later.

It doesn't really matter how old Anthony is, this is left up to your judgment but he is still rather young and is a full human.

Now to reply to those of you who are kind enough to review:

BluAyu: You're going by just Blu now? Anyway, thanks so much for the compliments and my improvement is much due to friendly competition with you ;-). Thank you so much for what you've done for me since I started this fic. I really do think I'd feel entirely lost without you.

AgiVega: Thanks for reviewing and being honest with me. I explained the reason for the lack of good chapter title… I am really trying to work out how and when to go about explaining how Ariana was created… I already know but it's a difficult subject to address without the rest of my story…

Me You, obviously: Thank you for being loyal, I appreciate it. You think Artemis is hard to keep in character? I always found Holly more difficult… simply because it's difficult to balance her emotional/caring side and her tough tomboy side. (I can do this for myself but other people it's an entirely different story.) I am not looking at the reviews right now but I think it was you that mentioned thinking that Artemis would be unlikely to reveal any of the details about his mind wipe evasion plan but what I was trying to do was portray a moment of weakness and, despite everything that had happened, his extreme confidence in Holly. She has saved his arse on more than one occasion now.

Sqarecool321: All right, I'll try.

Chapter Three: Apology

Foaly trotted over to the radar screen once more. Holly had been gone for almost eight hours, and there had been no correspondence from her, verbal or otherwise, in at least seven and a half and considering this was a touchy situation, the centaur, as well as anyone else that did not despise Holly or was concerned with the longevity of the fairy people, had cause for concern. He decided it was not a good idea to mention any of these happenings to Commander Root at this time, though; it would not be a good idea to bother him at this point. Holly often did do stupid things intentionally and his superior was busy at that moment interrogating the newcomer.

Ariana shifted uncomfortably in her seat, trying to politely continue to listen to and answer Commander Root's, now seemingly pointless, questions.

He had asked her about everything; how long she had been a part of the LEP; where she was from; what she knew about the Spiro family past, present, and future; even if she had any pets. Ariana, try as she might, could not figure out what the last inquiry had to do with national security. Despite all of these queries there was only one she could not answer:

"All right, Miss Fiore, who are your parents?"

"I," she began, she took a deep breath, "I really can't talk about them, and it would endanger everything I've worked for. Surely you can understand?"

Commander Root looked at her suspiciously despite the fact that she had answered every other question to his satisfaction. The more he studied her the more she looked like Holly to him, though; he still seemed to ignore the obvious.

Her resemblance to the fairy who had become so much like a part of his family caused him to soften towards her, but only slightly, "Embarrassing folks, huh?" he asked, "Well, everything else you have been forth-coming about, so I suppose I can let that one thing slide. But let me make it very clear that if you make one mistake that puts the fairy people of my time in jeopardy you'll find yourself back on your shuttle, if you're lucky, faster than you can blink."

Ariana nodded, smiling appreciatively, "Yes, sir." She had not entirely ruined this after all, and it also seemed that she might be able to stand soon.

Shuttle-port E1 Tara

After the Butler siblings had had adequate time to adjust to their newly returned memories and had been informed of the situation at hand it had been decided that Artemis and Juliet would accompany Holly back to the Lower Elements and Butler would stay behind. He had regained some strength, much more than had ever been expected by the fairies, but he was still not back to his old… or rather young self. This had been decided not only for the sake of Butler's safety but also for the sake of having an ally above ground.

When they reached the shuttle-port there was a bit of a commotion, humans being seen there was a most unusual occurrence. After Holly had threatened anyone who had tried to intervene with her buzz baton and had shown her LEP badge to the more timid that were threatening to do something but just continued standing there, things went rather smoothly.

In the shuttle things were quiet. It was small and cramped for three persons, human or fairy to ride in. This only proved to make silence more awkward yet no one, not even Artemis, could come up with an appropriate or even inappropriate remark.

Nothing was heard except the almost inaudible hum of the regulatory instruments that kept the small egg-like pod from plummeting into the bowels of the Earth unchecked and the breathing of its occupants.

After what seemed like several eternities Holly finally spoke into her microphone again, confirming her clearance to land in the docking bay below. After the pandemonium that had occurred aboveground the crew at Tara's shuttle port had been promptly informed of the humans near arrival and the area had been, with quite some effort, been cleared.

Holly, with a more languid than usual, but certainly not slow slap to her chest released herself from the seat harness and placed her finger just barely a centimeter away from the button that allowed the doors to open and then, she stopped.

"Artemis? Juliet?" she said softly as she turned back from the single driver's seat to the passenger area and looked from one human's eyes to the other then quickly averted them.

"Yes?" Artemis asked.

Juliet responded almost simultaneously, "What, Holly?"

Holly took a deep breath, this moment was entirely too awkward, she swallowed and said quickly, before she lost the words, "I'm sorry… I really don't know what's going to happen after we leave this shuttle but, I just… wanted to tell you that I am sorry. I know this is hardly the time but, knowing these types of situations I might not get the chance otherwise."

The fairy needed to elaborate no further and embarrass herself with fumbling words no more. The humans understood her perfectly and there was still silence, but it was a calm silence.

A/n: Can anyone say awkward ending and entirely too long beginning sentence. Please be merciful though, a lot of this was written and the rest proofread now which is 3 in the morning and I haven't slept in 19 hours. Please review… I promise to you this mindless tedium will become remotely interesting soon.