Holly insisted that only she take part in the attempt to rescue Opal; she refused to let any of her officers endanger their lives for Fowl's benefit, and Artemis seemed perfectly happy with only Holly, providing Foaly would be giving them support from Haven. As she prepared her equipment, and the supplies Artemis had asked for, she felt surprisingly light at heart. It was just like the old days, when they would be teaming up to fight some new menace, and, though the circumstances were different, she couldn't help feeling a little rush as she got ready for this new challenge. Whilst her mind was raging and her heart was icy, her body was dying for the action, pumped up at the prospect of working at Artemis's side again. In truth, Holly knew that she missed those days most of all, and it was only natural to do so. She knew that being a LEP officer was more than just a job to her, and when Artemis was her friend she had lived for the moments when they orchestrated a perfect plan together. She also knew that part of her wanted to put the past behind them, to become friends again, like they had been. But then again, she thought they had become more than friends, right before the end.

"Alright, listen up Commander Short." Foaly's voice came through her helmet earphones. "Acting Commander Kelp has been briefed on your mission and is having a Retrieval team sent to Russia on standby, just in case."

Of course. Because being 'in Russia' would naturally mean they were close to every other part of Russia. Geography had never been Trouble's strong point. "OK Foaly. I'm fairly sure we won't need it though. I wouldn't trust Foal to do anything else but whatever plan he's come up with will probably be as flawless as always."

"I guess," Foaly said distractedly. "OK listen up. Flare ETA is in 5 minutes, so get yourself into that pod. We're popping you out in Tara, you'll make your way to the Fowl mansion from there. I'm assuming Artemis will get you all to Russia. In the meantime I'm gonna start checking all possible routes out of England, which is gonna take me some time. They could have taken the helicopter back or they could have put down and taken a ship, and there's been nothing in any of the mud-man records, meaning it must have been done illegally. I'll get in touch when I find out where exactly she's being taken."

"Roger that."

*****

"OK Fowl, what's the plan?"

Artemis sighed inwardly. "Commander Short. At least wait for my invitation to enter the building before getting down to business." She pushed past him, looking for a human she didn't want to punch in the face.

"Holly!" Juliet was there, a big smile spread across her pretty face. Holly smiled back, a genuine expression of warmth, and she accepted her embrace. Her quarrel was with Artemis, and though she hadn't seen any of her other friends for years, it didn't mean they couldn't still be her friends.

She drew away from Juliet and looked around, frowning slightly. "Where's Butler?" Something flickered across Artemis's face, but was gone in an instant.

"Artemis?"

"He'll be with us shortly. He's not been so well since that time when you healed him. He's just resting up right now."

Holly frowned, sensing a lie. But it was always so difficult to tell with Artemis, he could use apparently exposed emotions just to manipulate you. "Well let's get on with this anyway."

Artemis switched on a plasma monitor and brought up a set of blue prints. "This is the Yamantau Mountain underground military complex. Construction was started on this vast underground structure just before the dissolution of the Soviet Union. As such it has never been fully put into use, and only a small portion of its 400 square mile capacity is used at one time. It's the perfect place to set up a protected hostage exchange."

A protected anything, thought Holly. It was an enormous space, in fact the only thing bigger than it was Haven. Yet this was solely for the military, and it wasn't even used. It struck Holly as oddly symbolic of Human activity. Often huge and impressive but nearly always with dubious moral intentions, and would probably be wasted in the end. But then again, perhaps she was just being particularly vindictive.

Artemis was still talking. "As the complex itself is over a huge area, we will need to know exactly where they have set up their base. Obviously it must be somewhere that is disused, relatively far away from the area that is used and accessible from elsewhere than the official entrance. This still leaves the number of possible areas far too high, so we'll need to either wait for Foaly to do some scans, or for a ransom note to come through. Either way we can't know for certain where exactly they are for a while yet. Until then there's not a lot we can do about making a plan."

Holly scowled. Couldn't the genius come up with something better than the basic LEP training programme already told her? "Well then, let's at least get to Russia, if we know that's where we're going anyway."

"Agreed."

"Agreed."

A deep voice spoke from behind them, and Holly turned around, smiling. "Butler!"

The manservant looked surprisingly healthy, younger too. "Hello Ho- Commander Short." he said, correcting himself.

Holly laughed and punched his arm affectionately. "Don't worry Butler. I'm still on first name terms with you," she said, then immediately felt childish. Firstly for emphasising the you, which was just about the least subtle way she could have made a dig at Artemis, and secondly because she didn't even call Butler by his first name anyway. She blushed a little, slightly glad she had her back to Artemis. "Well you know what I mean."

Butler laughed off the awkwardness. "Well I suppose it's an improvement on Mud-man anyway. When did you get here?"

She was grateful to him for defusing the tension in the air. She couldn't stand Artemis being there, not only was she not his friend but it made it harder for her to get on with her real friends. It felt like his presence hung in the air around her, cloying her senses. "A couple of hours ago," she said absently, "Fowl told me you were resting. How are you feeling?"

"Well... not tired at all actually. I've been feeling a lot better recently -" Butler glanced at Artemis, who shook his head gently without looking up from his laptop "- and I think it's because of this new treatment I've been taking. I haven't felt this young since... well since I was young!"

She smiled, but something concerned her. "I hope you aren't expecting Butler to come with us Fowl. He may be feeling well but that still doesn't mean he's in any shape for combat."

Artemis frowned, irritation obvious in his features, but it was Butler who interrupted. "Just you try and stop me," he laughed, "I'm fitter than you anyway. With your cushy new office job I doubt you've worked out in a while." This wasn't true, but Holly knew he was just trying to push aside her protests with his humour.

Artemis interrupted their conversation. "Don't worry about Butler, Commander. If you think I'd let him into a combat situation if I didn't know he was capable of it then you've misjudged me."

It wouldn't be the first time, she thought, giving him a poisonous look.

Butler saw her and cut in. "And if you don't believe Artemis, then do you really think I'd be stupid enough to endanger the mission with idiot heroics?"

Holly blushed. "Of course not Butler, I'm just saying that if even the fairies couldn't heal your condition with magic, then how can any human medicine have healed you this well?"

To her astonishment, the giant manservant seemed embarrassed, and tripped over his words when he spoke; "It's ah - not exactly official medicine. Mrs Fowl got it for me."

Now Holly was confused. "What? Fowl's mother? She's not into that Herbal medicine voodoo is she?"

Butler actually stuttered in his next sentence. "Oh, what? No! Uh- well, It-uh, wasn't that Mrs Fowl... you see?"

Now Holly really was embarrassed. An awkward silence fell over the room. Artemis carefully avoided Holly's eyes, secretly a little offended. Although he was also a little flattered. After this long she still couldn't think of Opal as his wife?

Luckily at that moment Juliet burst into the room. "I made us all smoothies! Blueberry, passion-fruit and Banana." And at that moment Holly forgot all about the atmosphere. She couldn't deny that there were definite perks to humans and their luxuries. And they probably ate like this every day...

"No wonder Koboi wanted to be human," she muttered under her breath.

*****

Right at that moment Opal would probably have done anything to get back to her house and her luxury. Even a cold shower and a bed with a mattress would have done. Of course, if she had known Holly Short was sitting on her sofa, eating her food and drinking her smoothies, she probably would have exploded with rage. If she hadn't been feeling so sorry for herself that is.

Despite her planning, Opal had seen no chance to orchestrate an escape plan. They had put the big perverted one on guard, and her hope that he would eventually get bored with watching her discomfort had been sorely misguided. The man's eyes hardly ever left her, and his gaze unnerved her so much that she couldn't think straight. To make matters worse, her cell was just about the worst place she had ever been in her life, and that included her brief stint as a farmer's daughter. She had a bed that consisted of a concrete slab jutting out of the wall and a sleeping bag, no toilet, except for a drain in one corner of the room that she mentally blocked out of existence for her own sanity's sake, and nothing else. Apart from a bullet proof glass wall on one side of her cell. Just to ensure she had no privacy whatsoever. She had only been there for a day, and was desperately trying to delay the inevitable trip to the bathroom. She physically shuddered just thinking about it. Her perfect skin already felt filmed with dirt, slightly sticky, and her long, dark hair was knotted and greasy. She was suffering mentally too, utterly intimidated by her surroundings and starting to get some of her old insecurities back, bitterness, which she thought she had lost forever.

What if he doesn't come to rescue me? What if he decides it's not worth it. I could die here. He could just get himself another girlfriend. Holly Short would take him.

Thinking of Holly however, steeled Opal's resolve. She had beaten Holly. Artemis was hers now. And if Short could take a kidnapping and stay standing, then so could she! Opal had changed a lot in her years married to Artemis, but because of the difference in Fairy lifetimes she hadn't really physically matured in the way a human would have in that time. Artemis had become a man, whereas her mind, her body, was basically in the same biological and chemical condition as it had been when she had been a raving loony. Opal had been one pretty insecure individual to begin with, so it wasn't exactly difficult for her to fall back into her insecurities. But for now, she was holding together.

You'd better get here soon Artemis! She thought angrily. Then another voice inside her, a scared, quiet voice, added: Please. I need you.

Her brutal jailer grinned at her.

Update! I'm a little more confident about this chapter, I've had real bad writer's block (I'm a writer. Yeah...) recently. Anyway, this chapter sees a little more mild Opal torment for those who like it (you know who you are) and a little bit of female insecurity. What a sexist I am! I've also decided to do internal italicised monologues for Opal only because I think it suits her character, (mental) even though I haven't done it so far in this fic. I'm trying to cut down on it because one of my fellow students was mocking some Author for doing it, and I felt a bit of a simpleton :(

Also what's the rule on songfics? I heard the lyrics have to be in the public domain before will let you publish one. How would you know if they were? Expect some Fleetwood Mac songfics about Holly if I'm allowed :D ('running in the shadooows, damn your love, damn your lies. I can still hear you saaaying you would never break the chain.')

Edit: OMG CROSSOVER SEARCH FUNCTION IS EPIC.