Author's Note : Hellow people ! :)

Thanks you to the new followers, and everyone who has kept on reading. Here's chapter 4, and I hope you'll like it.

Disclaimer : Eoin Colfer is the author of the Artemis Fowl series, therefore I do not own any of its characters. Many elements of this fanfiction (including its title ^^) are also inspired or directly drawn from the 1998 Japanese anime 'Serial Experiments Lain' (GO WATCH IT) even though it is NOT a crossover.

Author's Recommandation : I personally love writing and reading to music. If you're interested, I highly recommand listening to Neon Demon (main theme) by Cliff Martinez, from the eponymous movie by Nicolas Winding Refn (freakin aesthetical masterpiece if you ask me). This piece of music just really fits the mood of the fanfic !

Enjoy your reading ! :)

Database #04 : Entering the Wired

FOWL MANOR, IRELAND

When Artemis eventually woke up from a deep, dreamless sleep, it took him a few minutes to get back to his senses. He just laid there, curled up in his sheets like a cat, eyes blinking slowly and mind wandering. It had been such a long time since he had slept that well. And suddenly, last night's events stormed back in his mind. Protocol 9. The proxy. Selene. The Wired.

Artemis reached for his cellphone and checked the time. It was six p.m. With a slight cursing, the young Fowl pushed his blankets aside, a wave of pain crashing against his skull at the sudden move. His mother was going to kill him for going straight from his bed to his office, but he was too impatient to finally explore the Wired. He just wished he could have eaten before getting started.

As if telepathically connected, Butler chose this exact moment to knock on Artemis' door, and enter with today's lunch leftovers, an Earl Grey cup and a fresh orange juice glass. With a relieved sigh, Artemis settled back on his pillows and gave the manservant a weak smile.

'' Thank you, Butler. I have no idea what I would do without you. ''

'' Starve to death or poison yourself trying to cook, I guess '', the manservant replied in an amused tone.

Butler wished it was only a joke, but he knew Artemis wouldn't probably survive two days alone without anyone cooking for him. Yet he was too happy to finally get a smile from his charge to care.

'' I assume you were in such a hurry because you wanted to explain me what you've been plotting these last days '', the bodyguard added genuinely while putting the tray on Artemis' knees.

The young Fowl hid his embarrassment by drinking the orange juice in one gulp. Butler helped himself with a chair near Artemis' personal library, took it to his principle's bedside and sat. He locked his grey eyes to the young boy's, and waited patiently for the explanations.

While he was eating with an unusual appetite, Artemis exposed the entire situation to Butler, from the start : the lenses' mystery, his guess that he was under surveillance, the first Glitch in philosophy lesson, the second Glitch two days ago, his researches in darknet forums, the discovery of Protocol 9.

And, of course, the Wired.

When Artemis said the name of the Wired, Butler felt a ball of fear falling in his stomach.

He hadn't ever heard about it before, but he was more concerned by the way Artemis' eyes were feverishly glimmering when saying the word. He couldn't understand why his charge suddenly seemed so… ravenous. To Butler, the Wired only evoked an idea of something huge, but unutterable. Dangerous. Something that wasn't meant to be messed around with.

'' Artemis, if I may '', he interrupted. '' I have a really bad feeling about this Wired thing. ''

Artemis swallowed on his mouthful of parsley and chanterelle omelette, and took a few seconds of gazing into the distance, thinking, before answering Butler.

'' I understand your discomfort '', he eventually said. '' Hearing about the Wired for the first time seems to do that to people. I admit that it is still rather mysterious to me ; I intend to learn more about it, and I'll let you know of every discovery I make. But you can appease yourself : the Wired is merely a new form of digital network. There's absolutely nothing to be afraid of. ''

Butler was as convinced as if Artemis had told him he was going to take bodybuilding lessons. The digital world was the thing Butler was the most afraid of. How was he supposed to protect Artemis from a virtual threat ? Guns and muscles were harmless against binary metadatas.

Artemis didn't notice his bodyguard's preoccupied look, and went on with his explanations. He cut short on the precise theories over Zero-Days and supersecurity hacking – he knew Butler would be lost anyway if he tried –, and told him about his plan of having the proxy encapsuled in an installer, to be launched into Protocol 9's breach as soon as it would appear, and be set up in the Wired afterwards.

'' Like a Trojan horse '', the manservant said.

'' Precisely '', Artemis grinned. '' It took several attempts, but last night I eventually completed my plan. Now, my proxy is ready to be my private secret door into the Wired, and my avatar will be my invisibility cloak. ''

'' Why bother taking so many precautions ? '' asked Butler.

'' Well, as I've explained, I strongly believe that even though I am the first one to break Protocol 9, I won't be alone navigating the Wired. I'm also convinced that the person who currently controls it is the same individual who has surveilled me for the past three months, and that he's also behind the lenses mystery, my recent unexplained migraines and insomnia crises, and the Glitches I have witnessed. ''

'' Simply put, if you catch him, everything weird that has happened to us lately is solved. ''

Artemis smiled nastily.

'' Indeed. And mark my word, I will make this abject stalker deeply regret ever having the mere idea to mess with me and my health. ''

Many adults wouldn't have taken Artemis seriously – after all, he was still a small and rather ill-looking thirteen-years-old with a disturbing smile. But Butler knew his charge well enough to know he was not only dead serious, but determined to put his threats into effect and find no rest until it was done and over with.

Whoever Artemis Fowl's mysterious enemy was, Butler felt very, very sorry for them.

.

A few dozen minutes later, Artemis had managed to sneak into his office without his mother noticing – he had to, otherwise, seeing how he had been sleeping for almost the entire day, she would never have allowed him around his computer for the next twenty-four hours.

Of course, Artemis could access the Wired from his laptop or cellphone if he wanted to – the proxy was connected to all his digital devices. But seeing how his nec plus ultra computer lagged yesterday when simply sending and receiving basic commands to and from the proxy, Artemis worried that trying to use his cellphone to access the Wired would just melt the poor thing down.

So, the young boy sat in his desk chair, and switched on his computer. He had avoided all the security cameras in the hallway, but sooner or later Angeline would want to go check in his room if he was awake, and find his bed empty. Artemis' first glimpse of the Wired would be a quick peak, but it was still better than just waiting – especially since he was going back to St Bartleby next morning for the entire week.

Within a few clicks, Artemis was connected to his IP address jammer Aegis. As now was definitely not the time for his mysterious stalker to stick their nose in his business and find out what he was doing, Artemis would need to update his program a little bit. Right now, no hacker in the world could bypass Aegis. But his enemy was not just a hacker. They was a hacker with the Wired.

Artemis allowed himself fifteen minutes of properly reprograming Aegis : most notably, he added a few more protection layers than the usual five. His actual IP address in Fowl Manor, Ireland, was now hidden under twenty different passwords, firewalls and fake IPs. Artemis had made sure his own address was unreachable, but that was not the sole reason why he was being so cautious. He was actually perfecting the credibility of his avatar, Selene.

In order to be a proper mask, Selene was to be a completely different person from Artemis. Only as intelligent as him, obviously (otherwise it wouldn't be believable that she had managed to break through Protocol 9), and that's why there were so many safety barriers in Aegis' system – there were only two, actually. Artemis' protection, and Selene's. The first six stratums were Selene's, just the right mix between difficult and easy enough to hack, so that anyone who tried would find her totally fictious IP address in Prague, Czech republic. Artemis' protection was the deeper part of the hidden side of the iceberg. No one would ever imagine there was someone behind the already so careful Selene, pulling the strings in the shadow.

But besides the intelligence, Selene had to have absolutely nothing in common with her creator. She had to be a full character of her own, with different motivations, values and even morality. That wasn't complicated for Artemis : he was a specialist in psychology, a master deceiver and an excellent actor.

Thus, when satisfied with the new version of Aegis, he eventually connected to the program that allowed him to reach his proxy and send it commands, Artemis' heart was pounding, but not from worry. If he stumbled across anyone in the Wired, he was perfectly safe behind his alter ego.

Artemis closed his eyes, reopened them. He took a deep breath. Then, he typed his instructions on the keyboard.

– Connect Selene to the Wired.

His computer emitted a painful moan when transmitting the command from Artemis to the proxy. The young boy frowned ; if this kept going on, he would have to give the machine some upgrades and modifications as well.

But then, a few lines of code irrupted, filling the screen, and finally a message appeared.

- Entering the Wired.

Artemis' heart missed a beat.

This is it.

In a matter of seconds now, Artemis Fowl was going to write human History. In this precise moment, he suddenly hesitated. All of Paprika's warnings came back to his mind, echoing and boucing back in his skull, worsening the migraine.

The Wired eats your life up. It becomes an addiction.

Artemis' armour of confidence cracked, and in his usually so cold and composed eyes, there was a hint of worry. He was definitely safe from his enemy, but… was he actually safe at all ?

It all lasted merely a few milliseconds. Then, Artemis was connected to the Wired, and all his anxiety faded away. Like everything else.

.

There is no word in any form of human language that can describe what navigating the Wired feels like. To anyone entering the room and looking at Artemis' screen, the Wired would appear as mere whites code lines on a black background. But that is not what Artemis saw. What he saw was the purest form imaginable of the Lovecraftian unspeakable – equal in underlying horror, but superior in cosmic majesty. But in the same time, it was so much more than that.

Even Artemis, who, at the age of thirteen, already had more vocabulary than an Harvard literature and linguistic Ph.D, is still today at a loss of words to describe accurately what he experienced when entering the Wired for the first time.

He theoricized it as comparable to being in such a deep state of meditation, that you suddenly reach full conscience of how vulnerable, ephemeral and miserable you are in the universe. Heartwreched, you become the infinitely small, gazing at the very eye of the infinitely big.

And it feels wonderful.

For the infinitely big, if utterly terrifying and ungraspable at first, is not malevolent. It is merely an infinite number of possibilities, waiting for you to take it or not. In the Wired, the infinitely big doesn't dominate you anymore. It is here, within hand's reach, in all its beauty, all its complexity. All its power. Now becoming yours.

Artemis experienced this all at once, within the first few moments he was connected to the Wired. His gaze was rambling, heart racing at a frantic pace, mouth open gasping for air. It was like a trance, like dying and being reborn at the same time. He already was asexual back then, but Artemis was in a state of such absolute bliss, engulfing his entire spirit and body, that he knew he wouldn't ever have the need for sex in his entire life anymore. No mere physical pleasure or whatever thousands of endorphines his brain could produce out of it could ever come close to this.

This is power, Artemis thought. Pure, raw power.

And he began laughing, but not joyfully like yesterday. He laughed a hysterical, horrifying laugh.

Pure, raw power. In my hands.

So that was Artemis' first entrance in the Wired, and, well… that was also the beginning of the end.

But right now, Artemis was very far from such concerns. After a few seconds – for, yes, all of this only took a few seconds – of being quite literally mindblowned, he slowly started to regain a form of proper conciousness of himself and his surroundings, and he untensed his muscles, breathing heavily.

That had already been quite something. And it was just the start.

Now that he had somehow gotten back to his senses, Artemis reached for his keyboard, determined to try and see how the Wired was actually coded. It was the only way he could think of to understand what the Wired was exactly about.

For a moment Artemis was completely disoriented, and when he figured out why he couldn't believe his own eyes.

The Wired wasn't binary code. It was quantic code.

Once he got over his initial disbelief, Artemis realized this made a lot of sense.

This is why Protocol 9 can reprogram itself so instantly ; and that also explains why my computer is getting so confused. The Wired's code is an assemblage of 0s and 1s ; it's just that it is constantly evolving.

Artemis was now convinced his computer would need a serious upgrade if he wanted to be able to visit the Wired on a daily basis. And that was certainly his intention.

For now, he decided it was time to properly explore what was stored in the Wired. That is actually a lot easier to summarize than the Wired itself. In fact, it can be summed up in one word.

Information.

But the Wired isn't just a mean to obtain information. It is a mean to obtain every information. To know not only anything, but everything about what you are looking for.

Exploring the Wired, Artemis felt like he was eight years old again, and discovering Internet for the first time.

He lost himself going from page to page, from one hyperlink to another, like he once did on Google and Wikipedia. Except here, there was much, much more to access.

In the Wired, typing " Pentagon access " gave him, within a few clicks, the updated list of passwords of all the American Defense department' archives. He immediately stored it on his hard drive ; Th3lma would never believe it.

Artemis tried on a few more requests of such type ; and then, like anyone online who doesn't know what to Google next, he searched for his own name.

He stumbled upon his MI6, CIA and Interpol files, but he already knew about these for a long time and there was not much more to learn than he already knew. It was more interesting to find out he also had a personal record in the KGB, Mossad and Beijing archives, even though it wasn't very surprising. After all, he had been quite busy these past years.

But then there was an agency he hadn't ever heard about. Artemis frowned, intrigued. What country could it stand for ? Well, there was only one way to find out.

So, Artemis opened the Artemis Fowl-labelled LEPrecon files.

He read it entirely a first time.

Then a second time.

After the third time, he was still completely astonished.

Fairies existed. He had discovered it almost two years ago. And they had mindwiped him.

One might think that reading his LEP files would have triggered and restored Artemis' memories. It very well could have. But the thing is, the reports about the Artemis Fowl case, the B'wa Kell rebellion and the C Cube incident were very incomplete.

Of course, they had been written by Captain Holly Short for the most part, and also by Commander Root and then proof-read and completed by the centaur Foaly. There were also psychological analysis side notes from a certain Jerbal Argon. All these fairies were competent people, who gathered the many elements composing the complex case of Artemis Fowl as professionally as they could. But thus, the files lacked some very important things.

The emotions.

Artemis was reading clinical notes and "objective" informations about a mischievious Mud Boy who had orchestrated the most desastrous ransom demand the fairies had ever faced, and nearly provoked their downfall "on more occasions that we could count", stated Root's report. Holly, on the other hand, described Artemis as a "twisted, machiavelic human being with zero to none morality" and a "floured weasel head" (but that statement had been crossed out, and qualified unprofessional).

Of course, Holly had wondered if she should mention Artemis' wish of curing his mother from her illness. But she had thought that this was a private matter between the two of them, and just stated that the young Fowl had eventually let her go with half the ransom. Artemis Senior's rescue was also mentioned by Holly, Root and Foaly, but within a sentence only, as an "exchange of good processes" in order to get Artemis' collaboration on the B'wa Kell's revolution.

None of the reports mentioned how greatly Artemis had improved morally, how he had voluntarily submitted himself to the mindwipe, how involved he had been in Opal Koboi and Briar Cudgeon's deceival. How he and Holly had eventually befriended, even if in a very… electric way.

Artemis only saw that he had first found a way to harness the fairies' gold, but that he had also helped them stop a rising civil war, and then prevented a despicable American businessman from discovering them. And that after all of this, they had mindwiped him – to get rid of him. To subdue him.

A cold, dark anger started to arise in Artemis' guts, burning its way into his heart and his eyes. His fists were clenched beside his keyboard, shaking. He was utterly furious. But surprisingly, Artemis was not furious at the fairies. He was at himself.

At age twelve, he had managed to discover that fairies were real, and then to steal their gold, which apparently no human had ever done before. He had made the discovery of the millennium, which could have had made his family wealthy for years long after he was dead, and somehow, he had let it slip away.

He, Artemis Fowl, had renounced to fairy gold. And for what ? Why ?

If he hadn't been so composed, Artemis would have shouted, or cried even, from shame. He had trusted the fairies – he had been weak, and he couldn't even remember why. Against everything his father had ever told him, he had trusted his enemies, reached a hand to them and, in return, had been mutilated from his own memories.

Slowly, Artemis' fury faded, and became a quiet, determined hatred.

For a reason he couldn't recall, he had subdued to the fairies, and they had fooled him. They had thought he was done with, and for a moment, he had been.

But that was before he had the Wired.

Artemis was completely calm now. Apparently, he had underestimated the fairies, but he wouldn't make the same mistake twice. He was going to come back to them – but this time, for revenge. And he would be as cold, ruthless and without mercy as they had once been with him. He would find every fairy that had wrote even a single line of these reports, and make them suffer.

Especially one of them. Foaly.

The centaur was the one who mindwiped him ; and according to his quirky, mocking and paranoid writing style, Artemis had no difficulty stating that he was the one using the Wired to surveil him – and thus, the person behind Protocol 9's infuriating sense of humor.

The lenses' mystery was still unsolved though, as the apparatus wasn't mentioned in the centaur's depiction of the procedure. Artemis guessed that he had used it as a way to protect himself from the fairy mesmer – but if it had worked, then why hadn't he found a way to get his memories back ?

Artemis shook his head. He had plenty of time figuring this out. He would spend the next days familiarizing with the Wired and being able to use it at the maximum of its potential – Artemis could feel he had merely scratched the surface of what the Wired was actually capable of.

Afterwards, he was going to use the Wired's incredible abilities to gather as much information about the fairies as he could muster, and then forge a plan. He would break one by one the fairies that sealed his shameful fate, and then he would destroy their entire civilization under their powerlesseyes, after he had sucked to the bone every wealth it had left.

And the first fairy on his list would be Foaly.

Artemis exhaled deeply. He had completely lost track of time, but he should probably go spend the evening with his family. But first, he searched the Wired for Foaly. Under the centaur's name, a glowing " WIRED ADMINISTRATOR" logo appeared. Artemis sneered despisely. So unclassy, but predictable.

Artemis reached for his keyboard, and typed a few coded lines and specific instructions about his proxy, with a sardonic grin on his face.

" You thought you could arrogate the Wired only to yourself ? " Artemis muttered. " Well, the throne has a new challenger. But be careful : I certainly won't play fair. "

Artemis spent a few more minutes preparing the battlefield. He had to be careful – Foaly had a lot more power than him for now, and it was unwise to attack him or try to hack his administrator account straightforward. But Foaly had a weakness Artemis hadn't : he was not protected. Why would he be ? He thought he was the only one capable of accessing and controlling the Wired. Whereas Artemis had Selene to hide his true identity, and the advantage of surprise to weaken the centaur, get through his barriers and steal all his secrets and codes.

Then, Artemis would become the sole administrator of the Wired, and no one would be able to get in his way to revenge.

Artemis pressed the Enter key, and watched as his malicious dormant virus infected Foaly's administrative rights. When the centaur would find his proxy and try to edit it – and Artemis had no doubt he would –, he would come to a nasty surprise. And Artemis would be there to ridicule him.

The young Fowl hesitated, but for now there was nothing more he could do in the Wired that wouldn't take several hours – and he didn't want his mother to call the police into his office. So, with a twinge in the heart, Artemis logged out.

.

The return to plain reality was strangely both hard and easy ; as if he hadn't really left, but it was somehow still painful. Artemis stayed in his chair, staring at the ceiling for a moment. His eyes were burning from having stared intently at the screen for so long, but even though it hurt more than usual, Artemis didn't pay attention.

He eventually got up to his feet, and nearly collapsed on the floor like a ragdoll. His migraine had worsen suddenly at the move, and the pain whiplashed so hard he almost fainted. Gripping to his desk, Artemis managed to wait until the pain quieted down, and then left his office.

He should have been a lot more worried about this, for this dizziness wasn't just his migraine. It was the first side effect of overusing the Wired manifesting itself.

When Artemis entered the living room, his mother, reading a book on the couch, didn't notice his presence immediately.

" Good evening, mother. " Artemis said.

Angeline raised her head, but her smile fainted almost instantly, and blood withdrew from her face.

" Oh my god, Artemis, what happened ?! ", she yelled in sheer horror.

Artemis frowned, worried by the look in his mother's eyes. He raised a hand to his face, and realized there was something cold and sticky all over his mouth and chin. He stared at his red, wet fingers, surprised.

Blood.

Afterwards, Artemis struggled the hell out to keep his mother from forcing him in the Fowl's Bentley and straight to the hospital. But when she dragged him by the arm to a mirror, he had to admit he wasn't a pleasant sight.

His eyes blood vessels were exploded, and his iris' color was variating from pale pink to primary red. He also apparently had been nosebleeding for a good thirty minutes, and there was actually blood all over his shirt. Now he really looked like the main character from Let the Right One In.

Artemis assumed he had just been putting himself too hard this weekend, and that his body was just tired. He could have known better, after all he was a genius. He probably knew the truth, but wasn't ready to admit it.

Nosebleeding and sore eyes were the second part of the Wired's side effects.

Somehow, he managed to convince his mother he wasn't in mortal danger, but she insisted for him to go back to bed, and skip school until he was better. It was actually perfect.

Later in the evening, when Butler brought him dinner, Artemis had crafted a list of supplies.

" Artemis, you can't be serious ", Butler said without even looking at the list. " Your parents are worried sick about you, as I am. You said the Wired wasn't dangerous. "

" It isn't, Butler ", Artemis insisted. " I overextended myself and overestimated my physical strength. The Wired has nothing to do with my current condition, and… "

" Jesus Christ, Artemis ! " interrupted the manservant.

Artemis was genuinely stupefied. He had never seen Butler this angry before. At least, not to him.

" Do you really think I'm that stupid ? " the bodyguard continued in a bitter tone.

Artemis actually felt offended.

" I would never dare think such a thing about you ", he replied in a quiet, shaking voice, without trying to hide his feelings.

Butler stood by his charge's bed, seemingly unsure what to say or do. He looked like a German shepherd who wants to approach his master, but fears to be beaten up in the process.

" So you certify me that the Wired didn't cause… all this ? "

" I do ", said Artemis, and he was being completely honest.

Butler sighed, and raised a hand at his principal.

" Let me see that list then. "

Artemis handed it over to him, and the manservant raised both his eyebrows after the first five items listed.

" Are you planning on turning your office into a computing bunker or what ? "

Artemis smiled innocently while drinking his soup.

" Not only my office. I also need to upgrade my cellphone. Oh, and my laptop, too. "

Butler tried to frown severely at the young Fowl, but he knew it was to no avail. Whatever he might try to do, he had no real power over his principle. Even if he disapproved Artemis' commitment to the Wired, it was his duty to do what he was told.

So, Butler folded the piece of paper and put it in his pocket. Then, he waited until Artemis had finished eating, and left with the tray and empty dishes.

Alone in his room, Artemis had to gather all of his strength to resist the urge to connect to the Wired again. It would be pointless ; he only had his cellphone, and it certainly wouldn't resist decoding quantic code. But it itched, somewhere in the back of his brain, and it just wouldn't pass.

Eventually, after a few hours of turning and turning in his bed, unable to get to sleep despite his weariness, Artemis got up and grabbed a book. He read it. Waited. Got up again, grabbed another book. Read it.

After five books, Artemis stretched his arm to his bedtable, and grabbed his phone. Just a quick peak. It wouldn't hurt. Intimately, Artemis was started to feel how wrong it was, but he couldn't stop himself.

When he logged on to the Wired as Selene, he could feel his phone burning in his hand from processing the information. And yet, he couldn't help but let out a relieved sigh.

And that is how Artemis Fowl got addicted to the Wired.

Here we are now ! The Wired still has some secrets up its sleeve, but Artemis has discovered a lot. Next chapter will be from Foaly and Holly's point of view :)
See you all next week, and feel free to review :)