Ugh, sorry this took so long. I keep losing interest in this to write other stuff. I read Orson Scott Card's 'Speaker for the Dead' today and really wanted to do some fanfiction for that, but I managed to push that to one side for now.

Kinda boring chapter perhaps... I'm not sure about some bits of it, so please R&R critically. Hopefully I can finish this soon!


Opal shivered in the cold and tried to make herself as small a target as possible. She jumped as something exploded behind her, whipping snow over the dugout. Then she noticed her wrist was bleeping.

"Butler?"

"Ma'am."

"Where the hell are you? Get me out of here right now!"

"Roger that. Ah... that might be a little difficult."

"What? Where are you? What's going on?"

Artemis's voice came through the speaker. "Opal?"

At the sound of his voice Opal felt weak. The weight of her experience came down on her all at once. "Artemis..." She felt a tear freeze on her cheek.

"Are you ok?" he said, his voice full of worry.

"Yes."

"Good. Good! Look, we have a plan to get you out of there. Do you know who's kidnapped you?"

"No, but look, Artemis, they didn't kidnap me, don't hurt them." Opal heard a laugh in the background when she said this. "Who was that?"

Holly looked sheepish. The irony of Opal asking for someone not to be harmed had been too much.

Artemis hesitated before he answered. "It's Holly, but-"

"What?!"

"There isn't time for this, Opal! Just calm down and listen. Get whoever's in charge there to speak to me."

Grumbling, Opal beckoned Sergei over to her. "It's Artemis!" she shouted over the roaring winds, "he wants to talk to you!"

Immediately the man paid attention to her. "What? He's here?"

She thrust her wrist towards him, which he held gingerly, pressing it closely to his ear. "Hello?"

"Good evening. I believe you have something of mine."

The Russian jumped at the volume of the sound; Artemis had switched the tiny speaker to conference mode and the sound was much louder than anyone would have expected. Opal winced as he twisted her wrist painfully. "Fowl? Where are you?"

"First things first, friend. I know where you are, but why are you here? Who are you working for, and why did you take my wife?"

Sergei groaned inwardly. This was certainly the worst case scenario. "It was a rescue mission. We knew the mafiya would not keep their word and that if you went to St. Petersburg you would not be there in time to rescue her, so we thought we'd help you. We work for the government, it was a gesture of goodwill."

"Touching. Or at least it would be if you had offered the same help when my father had needed rescuing. Well, let us say that I take your word for it, for now at least. You seem to be in quite some trouble."

"How do you know that? Where are you?"

Artemis made a show of sighing wearily. "Look, clearly we are running out of time here, so could we please get to the point?"

"Fine. What do you want?"

"What do you want? That's what I want to know. I can get you out of this hole but I want to know why you took my wife. What does the Russian government want with me?"

He didn't reply immediately, glancing around at the situation. Two of his men had just been wounded and it was only getting worse. Throwing his orders to the wind, he answered. "Fine, but can we do this quickly? We don't have much time. Your wife is in as much danger as we are here."

"Fair point. I shall be with you shortly."

*****

"Well? What's going on?"

"Well, fairly simply, we're going to rescue them. We'll remove the mafiya forces and get Opal to safety."

"That simple huh?"

"Well actually, yes. You and Butler have a significant advantage against our opponents after all."

"I think I should warn you that my gun is almost useless in snow this heavy. The light refracts off the snowflakes, so unless I'm really close..."

"Don't worry about it, Commander. Butler will be more than capable."

Holly shot Artemis an accusing look. A look that said: What have you done?

The young man held her stare, steadily defying her with his gaze. "Holly, look, I will explain. Just not now."

Butler swung his arms uneasily. "Anything else I need to know, Artemis?"

"No, old friend. Just go out there and do your job."

The giant of man smiled at him encouragingly. "Don't worry Artemis. It'll all be fine if you just-"

"I know. Now, go!"

With that the huge manservant strode into the whirling snow. As his shadow faded from view, Holly could just make out his form change shape slightly, and felt slightly sick. "I can't believe what you've done, Artemis."

"Holly, I promise you there is a good reason. But I'll say two things right now. Firstly, this was between Opal and Butler, I didn't make anyone do anything. Secondly, it was the right thing to do. Trust me."

"There's something you're not telling me, Artemis, I know it."

"Holly, I-"

"Don't you dare lie to me!"

He hesitated, only for a fraction of a second, but it was enough. He could see the look of betrayal in her eyes and looked away. "Okay. I won't."

She dropped her visor down and drew her weapon. "Fine. I'm going to go and save your wife. I assume that was the plan?"

He nodded, still not looking at her.

Holly observed him for a few seconds, emotions torn. She wanted to believe in him, she really did. After all this time it was terrible not to be able to trust him, but whatever Artemis Fowl had been to her through her life, entirely honest wasn't it. Experience taught her that whenever she thought he'd changed, or that he trusted her with the truth, he threw it back in her face.

"Artemis, look at me." He obediently turned to her. "I'm going to trust you, Artemis, for now. I just wish you would treat me the same way."

Before he could say anything she activated her wings, shielded, and flew away."

*****

Butler strode through the night, feeling more alive than he had for ages. He knew exactly what had been done to him but in all honesty he didn't care; he wanted to do his job, more than that, he wanted to feel young and strong again. He flexed his fists experimentally, feeling the latent power in his arms. He smiled, he couldn't help himself. He was, for all practical purposes, utterly invincible.

Something that Holly was perhaps unaware of, or at least had underestimated, was the desire a human being had for power, and not only that but the interest in developing that power. It was a mentality present in most males of the species; it was why there was a fascination in military equipment, in fast cars, in huge machines and structures, in computers and robots and super soldiers. It was the constant interest in upgrading that seemed to attract male humans in particular like magpies. They couldn't help it. Of course Butler wouldn't say that he felt quite that strong an urge, there was no denying that it was a nice feeling.

He didn't bother to go invisible; if anything he wanted to draw the fire away from Opal and the soldiers. Instead he tensed what were once his huge chest, stomach and arm muscles, which caused plates of tungsten carbide to slide out from within his body. Had Holly been there she would have doubtless been horrified, but Butler made no reaction. He rotated his arms, testing the joints; utterly flawless. He extended the plating to cover his lower body, and tried a few kicks; no problem there either. Finally a flexible layer of silicon carbide and plastic encased his head in a brutal-looking mask. Now fully armoured, Butler's eyes scanned the horizon, advanced thermal imaging piercing the night. There. He began to run, gathering momentum like a juggernaut.

*****

Holly was having difficulty flying in the wind. She was constantly having to readjust her heading as she was blown off course. Visibility was getting worse by the second as well, though obviously her helmet was absolutely fine for what she needed to do. She liked being able to see with her own eyes.

She landed a few metres away from the group, downwind and the opposite direction to the way they were firing, of course. Opal was closest to her, but Holly couldn't just grab her. Especially as Opal was no longer a fairy and could not shield herself. Just another lumbering great human to look after. Holly frowned. Staying there was potentially dangerous, plus she was getting very cold. She wasn't supposed to snatch Opal until Butler had finished, but...

Holly buzzed quickly over to the little dugout, landing silently next to Opal. Entirely invisible, Holly sat there for a few seconds, watching her mortal enemy. It was a strange sensation. She was not a naturally vengeful person, but considering everything the pixie had done it was very hard to restrain herself. She deserved to be punished.

Control yourself, Holly. In a way, she thought, Artemis did trust her. He knew she wouldn't do anything to Opal because he knew that she was better than that. He trusted her to do the right thing. What grinded was that he didn't trust her not to do something stupid. Then again, maybe he was right not to trust her on that count. Holly grinned to herself. Checking that no Russians were looking their way, Holly materialised in front of Opal.

Credit where it's due, Opal barely reacted, though her jaw clenched slightly. "Ah, Short. Shouldn't you be hiding?"

"Oh I don't think anyone is interested in what's going on behind them right now. Not when what's happening out there is so... impressive." It was true; at the moment the Russians were entirely occupied by the strange sounds of violence coming over the ridge. Holly frowned at some of the noises. Her helmet was picking up some very odd heat signatures.

Opal mistook her expression, and smirked fiendishly. "Don't worry your pretty little head, Short. Butler is more than capable of taking on such a little army."

Holly's head snapped back to look at the pixie, and she flipped her visor up to stare directly at her.

"What are you...?"

Holly's eyes were glowing with the mesmer. "Shh. Be quiet now, there's a dear." She felt greatly satisfied to see the deep brown eyes lose focus as Opal fell under her control. "Oh dear. You mud people are so very weak-minded aren't you?"

At this Opal began to struggle. "How dare y-"

Holly suddenly snapped. She began pushing the magic around Opal's head, as if she was physically striking her with it. The pixie's words were lost as her head began to loll under the excessive amount of power Holly was using.

"How dare I? After everything you've done to me, how dare you even speak to me?" Her hatred for the little creature all came out at once. "You... bitch! How dare you? You have to poison everything you touch, don't you? What, weren't you happy with Artemis? You had to get your little hands on Butler too. Everything you do is selfish and evil."

Struggling against the magic, Opal's eyes burned with anger swamped by magic. "You..." Her body shifted as she tried to twist out of Holly's control. The magic was having less of a controlling effect as Holly's violent manner was going against the gentle, reassuring nature the mesmer was supposed to take. Rather than lulling Opal, it was as if Holly was trying to chain her down.

"What, don't like this? Feel powerless do you? How do you think I felt when you killed Julius? How do you think I felt when you tried to kill Artemis and Butler, when you made me run around after my friends for your sick games? You have taken everything from me. Have a taste of what it feels like for the people whose lives you mess up." The words didn't satisfy Holly. They felt meaningless and stupid even as she said them. She felt like she wanted to hurt Opal, to drive her fists into her fragile body and destroy her.

"I-I'm... sorry"

"What?"

"I'm... sorry."

Holly started back, horrified, as if she were only just aware of what she was doing. Opal was twisting and writhing under her, arching her back in pain. There were tears in her large eyes. She looked pathetic and weak. Holly released her suddenly and the pixie collapsed back into the snow, breathing heavily. Holly stared at her as she sat up slowly.

"I'm sorry, Holly. I really am." Her huge eyes found the elf's, and she held Holly's gaze pleadingly. "Please, stop it."

*****

Butler smashed aside two men as if they were made of cardboard, ignoring the bullets that rattled off his body. A rocket-propelled grenade exploded between his shoulder blades, causing him to stagger forward slightly, but he was otherwise unharmed, and turned in the direction the explosive had come from. Seeing this, the man who had fired and the five men next to him turned and ran. Butler ignored them. Scared was always better than dead.

There were hardly any men left now, and most were running away. He stood up from his slightly crouched position, allowing the armour to retract back inside of him. For the first time he felt slightly unnerved by his transformation. The way the soldiers had reacted to him had been... disturbing.

He pushed his emotions to one side, focusing himself on the job. Butler knew there was no point in dwelling on things you couldn't change. He trudged towards the dugout, looking as normal and unintimidating as it was possible for a man of his size to look. No sense in alarming anyone unnecessarily. He hailed the men before he got close, his voice amplified above the volume any human could naturally reach. In response a few bullets bounced off his torso. The shots stopped quickly and he heard a frantic argument break out. He frowned. This was the stage in the plan that could go wrong, depending on the actions of the government soldiers. Still, no reason to doubt Holly would handle everything competently...

*****

Holly drew her neutrino, selecting the distracted targets with her helmet computer, though at this range there was no way she could miss. In less than three seconds the ground was littered with unconscious men.

"Right, which one's the boss?"

Opal rubbed her cheek ruefully where Holly had slapped her just moments ago. "That one," she said, pointing to Sergei. "You didn't have to hit me that hard."

"Oh, shut up."

"Well I suppose I did say you could. Are we even now?"

Holly gave her a Look.

"Okay, okay. I'll shut up."

Holly didn't reply. The anger that had just burst forth was being suppressed, barely, but any provocation could make it explode again. Still it was oddly difficult to stay mad at Opal. There was something inherently comical about observing her reaction to hardship. Holly grinned, hoisting Opal onto her moonbelt by the waist, jigging her up and down in the process.

"Ugh. I feel sick already."

"I thought I said shut up!" She picked the Russian up and hooked him onto the other side of her belt. Her grin widened. "Now... it's time to fly!"