LEP Headquarters

Root paced around the room; there were reports about magic loss whenever a fairy tried to heal of shield in Haven. The magic would be sucked out and if the fairy didn't do the Ritual immediately the fairy would shrivel up and die.

"Surely Artemis Fowl is no suspect," he thought still pacing up and down. "Who could be behind it?" he asked himself extinguishing his now short cigar and pulling another out of its packet.

The commander only sat down when there was a knock on the door. One of the overconfident rookies stood behind that door. Root snorted, the rookie's confidence was soon to be broken down despite his supposed toughness. "Enter."

"Commander, we have received reports from two dwarfs. They believe they were the ones who unleashed the menace. A prophecy by Hlig was what they found in the tunnels before they supposedly found a teeny-weeny ice cube," the rookie informed Root.

"Hlig? Our murdered officer?"

"Yes sir. The one who was investigating the illegal making of nanobots. Humans were involved in that illegal activity. I believe Hlig managed to hide the nanobots before he was murdered."

"I never really liked Hlig; just because he went undercover as a fortune teller he actually thought he could predict the future too.

"Hermit."

"Are you calling me a hermit, rookie?" Root shouted, his nerves was already on the edge with this new brand of fungus cigars.

"No sir, he went undercover as a hermit."

Root calmed down, "We have more problems than that I suppose. What was the message the dwarfs found before they found the ice cube?"

The green sprite cleared his throat, "By Hlig. A warning sent to those underground, as soon as this paper is found, technology ahead of times will crush thy magic, the machine will be beyond fairy logic, two mud men shall be arriving, only they can stop the rising,"

"That d'arvited officer" Root murmured. "He doesn't even own that prophecy."

"Then who does?" the innocent sprite inquired further treading on dangerous ground.

"That prophecy was from the wise man which Hlig met up with. That guy was murdered too. We'll get someone to find the complete prophecy," Root explained. The sprite was certainly lucky that time.

"Don't forget we still have the elf problem. Mischief is a very mischievous elf." The sprite nodded sympathetically. "You're given ten more hours by the Council to capture him and our team is down too."

"Don't remind me if you still want your job. The elf problem will have to be handled by Artemis and Athena," Root shouted again, this time spitting out his fungus cigar although Athena had warned him several times about smoking. "AND YOU'RE ON CLEANING DUTY FOR A WEEK! AM I UNDERSTOOD?"

"Ye-yes sir."

"Get Foaly," Root said puffing on the cigar as his overweight body swung side by side in the new hover chair."

The poor sprite nodded, he went out of Root's office and returned with the annoyed centaur, Foaly. The centaur was spending precious time with Vox and Crystal his home made computers. Crystal was made out of some crystals and Vox was just Vox.

"Foaly is it all right to let Artemis and Athena meet again?" Root asked trying to be as calm as possible as the disgusting smelling smoke from his cigarette drifted around the room.

"Root you know how my computers are around toxic fumes. It's bad for your health too," Foaly snapped waving the smoke out of his face. "Back to the air purifier module. Ah, I see you enjoy the new hover chair. Let's talk about a raise, shall we?"

Root closed his eyes, holding back his anger in a form of meditation. "Let me ask you one more time, can Artemis and Athena meet again? And no snide remarks," he added. "Stupid pony boy," he mumbled.

"You're actually asking me a question? I'm just a stupid pony boy remember," Foaly said sarcastically

"Don't annoy me pony boy," Root blasted forgetting about counting to ten or whatever nonsense was invented to hold in your anger. He would not admit that he forgot about the new hearing kit which was a hundred times better than any other.

"Fine, yes it's safe as long as you're only using them for one mission. Any other catching up might return memories," Foaly mumbled grudgingly. "The new and improved kit guarantees no retrigger it has only been months since the mind wipe, not years."

"You're saying there could be a retrigger," Root said his eyes growing wide. "You guaranteed it was better in front of the council."

"There will hardly be any light where they will be standing when they receive their equipment and they will be have different forms in the light," Foaly said rolling eyes as if it was obvious, which it was. "Holly and Grub can be sure of that."

"And your point is?" Root snorted.

"They can meet," Foaly said holding up two fingers and joining them as if Root was a child.

Ignoring the gesture Root continued. "Good, tell Holly to bring Artemis to Britain and tell Grub to bring Athena."

"Already did. I knew you would agree and I know about the team's down time. So who are they going as?"

"Mr. and Mrs. Belov. The husband and wife didn't manage to go and we managed to cop the tickets. There were no single tickets we could snag. Stupid country club has all the singles looking for mates, so everyone with single tickets are going. It's sold out even."

"Why can't you just use one ticket? It wouldn't be strange for one partner to be cheating on the other."

"You haven't done your research eh donkey boy?" Root said looking pleased. "They have been married for two years it's unlikely for a businessman such as Mr. Belov to cheat on Mrs. Belov who has the potential to be richer than he. Plus, Mr. and Mrs. Belov always go out together, they never go out if one was sick, so it would be strange if only one showed up," Root said. "That also meant that they love each other."

"Ah," Foaly nodded. "And people do know them well don't they."

"They're multi-millionaires you donkey. Now scat and get out of here. We need to solve the elf problem as soon as possible. The deaths are top priority if you must know."

"Duh," Foaly said hitting himself on the head. "Who wouldn't guess that?"

"OUT!" Commander Root yelled once more. He rubbed his aching throat. He will have to make a warlock appointment for his sore throat and he's still wondering why his throat hurts so badly. Must be Foaly's fault.

I decided that it'll interrupt with the story if I put it up there so here are my replies to the reviews and my explanation on why I took so long with this short chapter.

Explanation: I have exams and actually I had this chapter ready four days ago not that it really matters.

Replies: froggiesrcool-Yeah I guess it was kind of a sick joke, wasn't it? You bet Juliet and Libra are going to be friends again and as you can see above Artemis and Athena are going to meet again but this time with more quarreling.

Jousting Elf with a Sabre-I guess you can tell that cheerleaders are mean because popularity gets to their heads. Thanks for reviewing almost every chapter.

Now for those who haven't reviewed, REVIEW!