Disclaimer: I do not own anything owned by Eoin Colfer or anything to do with the Artemis Fowl books or anything like that. I only own what I own/made up/created/ thought of. Got it?

WARNING: OOC very very certain in some parts of this story I think.

A/N: This is a celebratory update. Of course it was going to me celebratory of my house winning the house music cup… but we came last. Oh well, it can be celebratory of the school being 58 hehe and the ritual chocolate cake that occurs every year (free!). So anyway a celebratory mid-week update because of that. Generally they are going to be once a week updates - Friday nights here in NZ. Enough rambling.

Review replies:

Justin - hmmm nothing life threatening is wrong with Holly.

pink flamingo girl - thanks. I try but I don't pride myself on my alertness. Thanks for the tip though.

Ph33r the island ona - thanks. Hmmm I highly doubt that's the pairing. To my eternal shame I had a moment when I wrote this, and wrote it to a different pairing, though the only pairing I truly agree with is TroubleHolly. I wouldn't post this story but it's already written so I suppose I might as well. The next thing I write will be TroubleHolly, my other story is TroubleHolly. I am eternally shamed. But TroubleHolly is the best pairing.

k ­- thanks for being honest. I never expected it to be really good or anything. Action will come; I find that the first couple of chapters I write usually are very rambly.

sergeantstan - Must have hope. Root is one of my favourite characters, although I think he becomes quite OOC in this story. My bad. Not H/T sorry…

---­ - thanks.

Black Aliss - do you mean he's OOC? That's going to probably be the case is parts of this story. This isn't what I would usually write it's what I had a random 'hmm I might just write that even thought it's not my brightest idea ever' moment.

DreamingCrow - thanks so much!

Sqarecool321 - sure.

Trouble couldn't keep the venom out of his voice. This guy sat here every day and turned a beetroot colour as he yelled at Holly, now he had the nerve to say he was worried about her.

'What do you think? You bloody yell at her every day for the stupidest little things and let that prat Verbil get away with anything and everything. You put her under so much stress she now doesn't even sleep in anymore. I have no idea what she eats but I haven't seen her eat properly for six months. You haven't given her a surface assignment for Frond knows how long. She probably has no magic left after you made her take that healing course, like she would ever want to be a nurse…'

It was at that point that Trouble ran out of things to say about horrible Root was to his best friend. He fell silent, glaring at Root. It was then he noticed how old and fragile Root looked.

Root took a deep breath to answer, but was interrupted by a beeping issuing from somewhere on his highly messy desk. A screen crackled into life on his wall. Foaly's face appeared on the screen.

'Hi Julius,' but Foaly was interrupted.

'DON'T CALL ME THAT PONY-BOY,' Commander Root was already turning his trademark beetroot colour.

'Don't call me that Commander, sorry. Anyway we have a rouge Goblin near E1. No sleeper implanted. Nothing major but he's above ground. We should send one member of recon and one of retrieval to sort it out.'

Root looked like he was thinking. After about two minutes he made his decision.

'Right Kelp, get Short and sign yourselves out a couple of pairs of wings. Go topside and get the goblin. Take him back to E1, I'll have someone waiting there for you. They can take the goblin. Then take Short, it's a full moon tonight, the two of you can complete the Ritual. Our meeting can be postponed 'till tomorrow. Enjoy yourselves.'

Trouble couldn't believe it. Julius had actually given Holly an assignment.

'Thank you sir.'

'Don't waste time on thank you's, get going.'

'Yes sir,' said Trouble as he left the room to give Holly the good news.

Commander Root turned to Foaly.

'She'll be pleased,' said Foaly.

'She better be, why does she think I don't like her.'

'Maybe you shouldn't be so hard on her, she just wants you to respect her.'

'But I know she can do so well, I want her to be her best. I can't help but notice her.'

'Be nice to her for a change, she's trying to change for you, it doesn't suit her.'

'She's just an officer and she should be doing her best.' With that Commander Root terminated the link.

……………………………………………………………..

Holly had trudged down the hall to her office. She was determined to finish her paperwork, just to spite Root. She was shaking. She had had enough. She had no magic. She needed to get above ground.

Angrily she grabbed her paperwork and began doing it at top speed. Her one week expectation had been for her usual speed at doing paperwork. When she found motivation it would only take her a few minutes. She finished at a great rate of knots, it only took her half an hour. She was just leaning back in her chair and wondering what to do with the rest of her paperwork-less day when Trouble knocked on her cubicle door.

'Why aren't you doing your work?' he asked curiously. He knew very well Holly didn't want to get kicked out of the LEP for not doing her work.

'Finished,' said Holly proudly.

'Good, well we have an assignment. Got to find a rogue goblin, no sleeper. And Root said we can do the Ritual. It's a full moon tonight. Let's go get some wings.'

Having 'stolen' the best wings on Foaly's rack the two of them proceeded to the chutes. Foaly met them there.

'Hey you two. I've got some good news for you; I've managed to modify a pod to take two. A pilot and a passenger. It might be a tight fit but it is perfectly safe.'

'Great!' said Holly and Trouble together. Neither wanted to take a shuttle but both knew it was too dangerous for two pods to go on one flare.

'Holly can pilot,' said Trouble. He was pleased to see Holly's resident grin back in place.

Holly and Trouble climbed into the pod and were strapped in. There was nothing spectacular about the pod ride but both found it was much more enjoyable when you knew you were not alone. They were both soon emerging from the pod at E1.

'Foaly,' said Holly into her helmet mike, 'can you track our runner for us?'

'Sure thing sweetie,' maps appeared on the visors of Holly's and Trouble's helmets. There was a moving red dot on each of them. Thankfully it was moving away from any mud civilisations. 'Just follow the red dot and it will lead you straight to it.'

'Holly,' said Trouble, 'you do realise that as the senior officer I should be getting this information, not you?'

'Sorry,' Holly grinned sheepishly, 'it's just so good to be back in the field.'

'Don't you two waste time talking, get going,' said Commander Roots gravely tones through their speakers.

'Whoops,' they muttered in unison as they fired up their Hummingbird Z1's and programmed the co-ordinates into their computers. They zoomed in on each other channels and bean a private conversation as they waited for the wings to take them to their quarry.

'Root was genuinely concerned about you, you know.'

'Yea right, you and I both know he hates me.'

'He gave you this assignment.'

'Notice how easy it is?'

'It's still an assignment, and you get to complete the ritual.'

A/N: That's the end of that chapter. Please review. Remember I will be updating of Friday nights here in NZ.