"So..." Holly's voice broke through the silence uneasily.

"Yes?"

"Uh. Who do you think took her?"

Back to business then. "I have my suspicions. It must fall into one of two categories: either someone believes I won't be able to rescue her and wants to take her out of harm's way, or someone thinks I will rescue her and wants to take her somewhere more secure."

"So it could be a friend?"

"Hardly. Someone more friendly, perhaps. Someone wants something from me, fairly obviously, but who that someone is... I'm not sure."

"Is that it?"

"Well, that's all I know for certain. If they're trying to keep her from the mafiya it means that there's a good chance the hostage exchange becomes a viable option. The mafiya want revenge, but this person wants to do a trade." He sighed. "Of course it's still highly uncertain. There's also a risk that the trade isn't for something I can give. Not that I wouldn't give anything, but it is probably something of Opal's that they believe is mine."

Holly frowned. "Don't you work together?"

"Well... She keeps secrets from me."

"What a surprise," Holly said sarcastically, then felt immature. "Sorry, Artemis."

"It's alright. She's not entirely... changed from how she... was." Artemis felt hugely uncomfortable discussing the matter. "Well, she's competitive."

"Yeah, I can imagine." She tries to be friendly, otherwise he'll go on the defensive. It's hard for her to be friendly about Opal, but at least she can keep from picking a fight. "So, any idea what they want?"

"It could be almost anything. Depends, of course, on who has taken her. If it's military-" he froze. "Yes, that must be it! A spy from an intelligent agency."

"But then can't you guess what they want? If it's military then surely there can't be that many..."

He raised an eyebrow. "What do you think? Oh, Opal might not be developing any weapons, but almost everything we've made could have huge potential for military application. It doesn't help that she tends to flit between projects more than da Vinci. But yes, it does narrow it down a bit."

"So? What's it most likely to be."

He tapped his nose. "Can't tell you. Or I can't tell Foaly anyway. You think I'd ever hear the last of it if I let loose any secrets?"

She smiled in mock innocence. "How do you know he's listening?" They grinned at each other, imagining the centaur in his tech-booth, bleary-eyed with sleep deprivation, listening to every word Artemis Fowl said in the vain hope that he would let something slip. It had never happened before, but there was always a first time.

"Here." Holly took her minuscule headphones out, stowing them inside her helmet, and switched the helmet off manually. Now Foaly couldn't hear or record any audio or visual and would presumably be stamping in frustration.

"Sorry, Holly, I'm genuinely not sure. It doesn't really matter though, does it?"

"Not really. Not to me anyway."

"Good."

"But," she said, pausing as she wondered how to phrase her next sentence, "there are some things I do want to ask you."

"Ah."

"Yeah."

"Look, Holly-"

"Why did you do it?" She felt him shift underneath her, intensely uneasy about this line of questioning. "Look, Artemis, I'm not accusing you or attacking you. I've accepted what you did a long time ago. But I've never understood it." Was that true? "So, please. Why did you do it? Why did you protect her?"

"Because she needed me." He answered, without a moment's thought.

"Really? Do you really mean that? Because the Opal I knew, that we all knew, didn't want anyone apart from herself. Didn't think about anyone but herself."

"Holly-"

"Be quiet! She showed again and again that she didn't care about anything but her own gain. Even if that meant throwing lives away. Hundreds and thousands and millions of lives. Without a moment's hesitation. And she needed you?"

"She... changed."

Holly shook her head. "You changed her. If she's anything in her now that's decent or good, that's your fault."

Artemis frowned. Holly had earned the right to a lot, but this was his wife. "What do you think you'll achieve by insults? Am I supposed to respond to that?"

Holly flung herself off his body. "Well, where did it come from then, Artemis? If you didn't change her, then why did she change? Or has she changed at all?"

"Look, Holly!" Artemis drew a deep breath. He put a hand on her shoulder. "You can't force people to change Holly. It's arrogant and stupid to think you can change people, no matter how clever you are. I never planned to make Opal do anything. And I couldn't have."

Holly was upset, but she understood what he was doing for her and was grateful for the respect he showed her. "So?"

"She was sick, Holly. Mad. Insane. I'm sure you won't disagree with that. She didn't need punishing, she needed help. Medicine, healing, counselling, whatever. Even we humans don't punish the mentally ill any more." He took a deep breath, collecting his thoughts, considering his words carefully. "Opal changed because she wanted to, not because I made her. If she had wanted to stay ill she would have done. She was crying out for help. And I... felt like I had to help her. It was too much to ask me not to." He looked into Holly's eyes steadily, willing her to believe him, to understand. "You weren't there, and neither was anyone else. I couldn't let her go." His mind flashed back to that time, remembering the terrible feeling that he had felt when she had started to break apart.

Holly looked at the young man in front of her, his intelligent eyes burning with absolute honesty, and felt herself softening. How could she blame him for this? He had done something entirely out of charity almost; shouldn't she, of all people, be proud of him. Except she wasn't. She did blame him. How could she not: he had betrayed them all, especially her.

She shrugged his arm from her shoulder. "No. You had a choice, Artemis. You chose her side."

"Holly, I – I couldn't let her down. I just couldn't."

Holly took a deep breath, steeling herself. It was time to face up to it, to say what she really meant. If not now, then when? Human lives were so very short and fragile, after all. "Artemis, you chose her," she said, then swallowed, hastily blinking back a sneaky tear, "you chose her over me. Forget the people, forget your fairy friends or anyone else; you chose her over me."

Her voice was steady, and Artemis felt the truth in her accusation. He looked at her, unable to speak. There was nothing he could say, no excuse that he could make, and even if he could he wouldn't have. She deserved better from him. Her face was shining and her hair was slicked back, covered with sweat and dirt, and her eyes were haggard from tiredness. And she looked absolutely beautiful.

"Holly... I can't say anything because there's nothing to say. I did choose her. I took pity on her. She was pitiful."

She was mildly surprised at the simplicity of his statement. "So it was just pity then?"

"I suppose, mostly anyway."

Holly bit her lip. Artemis wasn't saying anything more, but she still had questions. Should she ask them? It was probably now or never. "I'm sorry to phrase it this way, Artemis, but it seems to me that pity is hardly the emotion to build a relationship on."

"Yeah..."

"So?"

"Well... that came later."

*****

"Okay, mister, where the hell do you think you're taking me?"

"Be quiet."

"No! There aren't any guards around; you've done a pretty good job of escaping by the way. So now you can start talking."

"Be quiet, or I'll knock you out."

Opal froze, suddenly realising how stupid she had been in trusting this man. Without any reasoning or information she had accepted his offer of rescue, when it was entirely possible she could already have been rescued by Artemis already. Now she was in a situation that could potentially be worse. Fortunately she was clever enough to shut up when warned.

They seemed to have stopped in the middle of nowhere, a wide open space. Biting back the warning that they could be seen easily if they stayed in the open, Opal tried to work out what was going on. It didn't take long: suddenly she heard the roaring cacophony of a helicopter's blades beating the air, and the snow around them was thrown into a storm of ice shards. For the second time in the past few days, Opal was hurled unceremoniously into a 'copter and grasped by several burly Russians. Hardly something she wanted to make a habit of.

*****

"So, I guess that's it then. You love her now?"

"Yes."

"And... not me."

Artemis paused, thinking carefully. He realised how difficult it was for her, how much she must feel she needed to say this if she was being this straight about it. "Holly I - don't know what to say."

"Artemis... I know how clever you are, and I know you must have seen it. I..." but she couldn't finish.

"I know, Holly. I really am sorry, believe me."

She ignored his apology and pressed on. "And I thought that you felt the same."

"Yes. Yes I did. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do, Holly. I hated myself for treating you like that, and every time I looked at her, for years afterwards, I remembered you, what I had thrown away. And every time I felt it wasn't worth it, that she wasn't worth it. But it was done, and there was nothing I could do."

She smiled, her eyes wet. "That means a lot to me, Artemis. Sometimes I thought you would forget about me, sometimes I even thought you didn't care at all."

"No, never. I thought about almost nothing else for years."

"Neither did I."

They sat in silence for a while, awkward and tense, though both felt strangely elated at the talk. Holly broke the silence hesitantly. "You know I... I still haven't."

"What?"

"Thought about anyone else. And don't think I haven't had offers."

"Eh..." Artemis found himself actually blushing slightly at this unabashed statement. "I'm - that is," he stammered, then frowned, "Holly, I don't want to think of you living like that."

"Well I am!" She suddenly exploded. "I know you've moved on, and I can't help that. We live longer than you and we tend to get attached for longer too! And I still love you!"

Finally she had said it. He looked at her face glaring at him in a mixture of affection and anger, her defiant eyes, his defiant eyes. She gazed back at him, unable to help the huge swell of emotion flooding her chest. She felt herself moving forward, and he found himself doing the same.

"Artemis, I'm sorry," she said. And then she leaned forward and kissed him.

Yeah sorry for the delay here, I was on holiday (again). I guess this chapter needs a little explaining. I'm currently reworking the prequel to this, and the ending changes quite a lot. I've chosen to write this to fit in with the rewrite rather than the fic as it is, so if some of the character's statements seem a little incongruous just bear with me for the moment. All I'll say is that Opal and Artemis don't get together for at least a few years after he takes her in, and at first they're technically not an item. If you don't want to reread it when I've finished that's all you really need to know.

Anyway, mega-drama is happening in this chapter! I know a lot of people wanted this and were expecting it in the last chapter, so hopefully you'll be happy with this. I've deduced that most people don't like Opal, and though I said I might change it I've decided not to, so don't think that I have: this was always planned. As always, R&R, whether you liked or disliked it, I live for attention after all...