Hello everyone! This is Invictus, the sequel to Same Ground.

Title: Invictus

Summary: "I like you, Artemis Fowl II. Unfortunately for you I don't like you enough to let you escape. And if I die, I'm dragging you down with me." This is the sequel to Same Ground.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Chrysanthene smiled in delight. That in turn caused her new toy to smile.

Artemis didn't like desserts. It was strange that he was smiling at strawberry ice cream. Even if it were the best ice cream, made with thick creamy milk, he normally wouldn't like it. Especially not strawberry ice cream. But Chrysanthene couldn't help it. She loved strawberries. They came second only to spring rolls.

He (or she, to be precise) caught Butler staring at her curiously. She licked the rest of the pink cream off her lips and smiled again. She liked to unnerve people. It was one of her many pleasures since that fateful night when she had made a deal with Artemis.

Four years had passed already. Exactly four years, because they were, once again, in the summer house. She found she quite liked the design of her toy's room. Sky blue with a view of a meadow. It was beautiful. And there were more perks to possessing a Fowl than one thought. For one thing, you had enough money to buy a hundred strawberries and a thousand spring rolls. Not that she had done that, but she did something close to it. His parents were getting suspicious. After all, their son never liked strawberries.

"Arty, where do you think would be a nice place to bring Ralph?" Angeline Fowl's voice interrupted her thoughts.

Chrysanthene was confused, and this didn't happen often. "Ralph?"

Angeline laughed. "I expected that. You haven't seen your cousin since you were a baby. He was about 7 then. That should make him 25 right now."

"What is he used to anyway?"

"He went to Italy once, to Barcelona twice, and stayed in Ireland for a while. Last month he took his parents to Phuket, Thailand. They stayed at the Laguna Sheraton Hotel. He didn't have much fun then, because coincidentally the room next to his was occupied by an old rival. So I thought we might treat him out to someplace else. Perhaps one where old rivals don't go."

"I was thinking," said Artemis Senior. "Maybe Germany. Or if not, Paris. I think he's had enough of Spain to last him a decade."

"Oh yes, and I forgot to mention China. He loves it there, but he's been there around six times already."

"Has he ever been to Monaco?" Chrysanthene asked. "It was featured in those travel channels Father likes to watch. I saw the Formula One circuit, and it seems nice."

Angeline and Artemis Senior traded glances. The glances screamed confusion. They had every right to be confused, as their son never watched television, preferring the Internet for news. Since the summer four years ago, he had changed. But then, he was a teenager. Teenagers changed a lot.

"Why does he keep going on trips anyway? We only go every summer, and he seems to go somewhere different everyday."

"He's a very successful scientist. He gets very stressed, because he has to go to different countries for statistics and research. Thailand was his only trip for pleasure, and he didn't enjoy it much. His old rival kept playing tricks on him. Well, I'm not saying Ralph didn't annoy her either, but…" Arty's father left it there, a smile hovering on her lips.

"They kept sabotaging each other's rooms. I remember his rival –I think her name was Athena- broke into his room and added permanent dye to his shampoo bottle. Your aunt told me that she could hear his screaming from the lobby, and that's a long way, if you want to know. Shrieking something about purple. I suppose the dye was purple."

"And then after that he broke into her room and wrote a message on the mirror in her bathroom. Oil, if you don't mind, so she could read it the next time she stepped out of a hot bath. It helped that there was a tidal wave there recently. From what he told me, he had stayed up late waiting for her to scream. He wasn't disappointed."

"To be honest, they make a nice couple, if they could only tolerate each other. He told me that they went horseback riding together on the beach once. It's a pity they kept trying to trample each other. Apparently they kept falling off. He was never a skilled rider, and I suppose she isn't either."

Chrysanthene smirked. So Arty's cousin had a sense of humour… Breaking into rooms… She wondered if she could take him to her old house and play a game. Preferably something along the lines of Hide and Seek. It helped that she had a lot of rooms there.

She thought about that through the next few spoonfuls of strawberry ice cream. She also thought about that through the shower, through writing in his (now hers for four years) diary, and through sleep.

Thinking about other things while your pet is dreaming is not an easy thing to do. Usually you use his brain to think. But then, usually he isn't there. He's spiraling down into a black abyss. It was very possible that Artemis would be no more, and it was impossible that he would ever control himself if he reached the bottom of that pit. Unfortunately Chrysanthene didn't like to stay up late, so every night he had control of his body. Pity he was sleeping then. So he only had control of his dreams.

Of course, though Artemis's eyes were closed, Chrysanthene's eyes were open. Another difficult things to do when you possessed someone long term or short term. That was why she noticed the three-foot tall redhead elf perched on the windowsill.

Author's notes: Yes, that's Holly. It's a very bad first chapter. But then again, it's difficult to write a first chapter because there usually isn't a plot there yet. I hope I get reviews on this too. I think I might e-mail some people and pester them to review. If only I were that impolite. And so my famous brother is smirking again. I think he wants to say that I AM impolite. Unfortunately that's not true. Haha, so there: -P