I'm baaaaaack. Yay!

Right. MEGA APOLOGIES for being so incredibly late with this chapter... I have no excuse. BUT by way of saying sorry... I'm going to respond to some of the main issues that've come up in the reviews I've received so far.

Q. Who the heck's Annie? Is she dead or what?

A. Annie is a big part of the main mystery, so I really can't say too much... She effects so much of Artemis in later chapters (what he does and why etc.) which you'll see when the dreams catch up with what happens in the AF books (lemar snatching onwards, the seige etc.). So keep reading and it'll gradually be revealed.

Q. Why did Holly diappear half way through the dream sequence..?

A. My bad. Holly, in the dreams, becomes a sort of omniscient-spirit-thing who watches but can't speak or touch (apart from when Annie's there). I guess I was so caught up in writing the dream that I kind of forgot to keep writing her in... Sorry Holly...

Q. Where is this story going?

A. Ha! Lol. I had comments that this fic seemed a little disjointed - Logan 1047 said "right now its like flashes of memory that lead to no obvious problem" which is a fair comment. This fic is about Artemis' past catching up with his present so I am doing a lot of back story. At the moment it does seem a tad... random but soon Holly will start seeing things that are pretty close to home... and it will start gaining shape, I promise. Holly and Artemis of the present will be mobilised and hopefully you'll feel that there's more of a direction to this story.

AN/ - Thank for the grammar pointers from Lili & Liris :) I'm pretty sure I've fixed any major humdingers this time!

AN/2 - To Captain Holly Short Of The LEP - Yeah I detest Artemis Senior so bad. I mean, in my opinion he's the reason why Artemis is so messed up socially and emotionally. And he just comes back in the third book all like 'You must be a hero Arty because you've been a bad child and I'm so amazing and loving and just the number one dad in the whole wide world even without both legs and I save the enviroment and I love my wife and I blah blah blah... '

*takes a breath*

YOU'RE AN EVIL PIECE OF SCUM WHO RUINED ARTEMIS' CHILDHOOD AND TURNED HIM INTO A TWISTED, OBNOXIOUS (albeit lovable) NUT!

disclaimer - I am not Eoin Colfer. I do not own the Artemis Fowl series.

Yeah. hopefully you'll enjoy this :)

'Oh, hi Artemis! Listen, I've been having dreams about your Father murdering random people and burying them the decorative verge...

Does that ring any bells?'

Chapter 3 – Confession Time

Evolution had granted centaurs large hands. This was a feature that was generally approved of by most of the equidaeous race especially when you had to play hand tennis or maybe slap a mouthy dwarf round the back of the head, but it was not, however, such a good thing when you needed to wire a locating device that was smaller than the average ladybird.

Foaly sighed, raising his gloved hands in the air and breathing deeply through his nose.

'Calm...' he told himself, 'Stay calm...'

He'd been trying to attach the last micro diode to his new 'sucker bug' for the last 11 hours and his nerves were beginning to wear thin. To tell the truth he was half an inch from dashing his precious gadget against the ops booth's plexi-glass wall.

Wiping a bead of sweat away with a hairy forearm, he bent once more to the workbench.

'Carefully.' He murmured, brandishing needle-like tweezers, 'Carefully now...'

He could see his tool shaking as he inched towards the diode.

'Come on.' He grunted, nudging the last minute wire into place, 'Another nanometre...'

The intercom on the wall blurted to life, 'HELLO? MR FOALY?'

The centaur's fingers slipped, sending his pin thin tweezers punching through his own prized invention. His mouth dropped open in a silent scream.

'MR FOALY? ARE YOU BUSY?'

His scream became suddenly vocal.

Foaly roared to his feet, slamming all four hooves into the floor. Striding to the door he wrenched open the pass panel, pummelling the release button.

'Ah!' beamed the two foot pixie revealed behind the sliding portal, 'There you are, Sir-!'

'Are you on fire, Krunk?' hissed Foaly dangerously.

Krunk looked up into his boss's bloodshot eyes, both pupils magnified to twice their size by the tech-goggles.

He cowered behind his clipboard, 'No, I'm not on-'

'Is Opal Koboi attacking the building?'

'No-'

'Are there mudmen attacking the building?'

'No-'

'Is the Cavern caving in?'

'No-'

'Has Caballine filed a divorce case?'

'No-'

Foaly took a deep, deep breath.

'Then why,' he seethed, 'in the name of all that is Frond are you knocking on my door WHEN I SAID SPECIFICALLY THAT I WASN'T TO BE DISTURBED?'

The pixie gaped, opening and closing his mouth several times without a sound. Foaly bent closer, pushing his face a centimetre from Krunk's own.

'Huh, Krunk? Any explanations? Any at all?'

'Because I needed to talk to you.'

Foaly and Krunk's heads both snapped to the left.

Captain Holly Short was stood a few steps behind the shaken pixie, her mix-matched eyes looking pointedly at the centaur.

'Oh.' Said Foaly, deflating like a punctured balloon, 'Right...'

Krunk sighed with relief as the centaur stood back and silently gestured for his elven friend to follow him inside. The pixie sniffed, composing himself, before scurrying away as quickly as possible.

Inside the booth Foaly folded out a chair from a hidden rack on the wall, kicking aside some broken wing prototypes so Holly could have some space to sit.

'You okay?' he asked, pulling out his own modified chair, 'I heard about you helping Trouble- I mean The Commander with that new recruit training.' The centaur smirked at her, 'I mean, I know he was short of staff and everything but I think the fact that he specifically asked you to help means that he has-'

'Foaly, I've been having dreams.'

Holly was gazing at her friend, both eyes watching him intently.

The centaur shuffled slightly, disgruntled by the interruption 'Um...and..?'

'Dreams...about Artemis Fowl.'

Foaly leant slowly back in his chair, looking strangely uncomfortable. He averted his eyes, rubbing the long loose hairs at the nape of his neck.

'A-about Artemis, eh?' repeated the centaur after a somewhat awkward pause, 'Well that's... that's something...'

Holly narrowed her eyes, 'Foaly. I haven't said what the dreams were about yet...'

Foaly winced, 'Um, do I really want to know?'

The elf looked scandalised, 'Foaly, what-?'

'I mean, I know the two of you have got...closer over the years...' said the centaur uneasily 'But... he is a... a mud boy-man-thing and you're... you're about... 60 years older than him...'

Holly blinked, utterly nonplussed.

'Not that I'm judging you!' he cried, instantly horrified 'No! I wouldn't! I mean... if you really feel that way about him... like that... then I'm sure... 'love will find a way' and all that... stuff...'

It was Holly's turn to be horrified.

'ARH!' she screamed.

Foaly jumped backwards in shock, accidently jabbing his left flank on a protruding screwdriver.

'I haven't been dreaming about him like that!' she hissed, her eyes wide with shock and an all too clear understanding, 'Gods no! And you thought... you thought...?'

'Well.' laughed Foaly unsteadily, warm relief beginning to wash through his bones 'when you said you were dreaming. And you did y'know, kiss him the last time you were in contact.'

Holly's cheeks coloured, 'I thought we'd agreed never to mention that.'

The centaur sat gingerly back on his chair.

'Well. If you weren't dreaming about him like that' (Holly's blush deepened), 'and I'm assuming that it wasn't a "I was playing crunch-ball in a tutu while Artemis cooked a giant curry" type of dream... what do you need to speak to me for?'

The elf's face darkened. She looked away from Foaly and down at her suddenly clammy hands, rubbing them up and down her muscled thighs.

'You... you know I wouldn't be talking to you about this if I wasn't serious?'

'Yes...'

'Because I know this is going to sound insane. It sounds insane to me.'

'Okay, I'm listening...'

Holly took a breath.

'I've been having dreams about Artemis... as a child and... and I think they're real.'

Both Foaly's considerable eyebrows shot into his hairline, 'You think they're real?'

'Yes.'

'As in, you're having "visions of his past" kind of real?

'Yes.'

The two old friends looked at each other for a long moment.

Foaly glanced away first, leaning towards his computer keyboard and tapping a few choice buttons.

'Okay...' he muttered eventually, reading the data now scrolling along his monitor, 'Have you been having a lot of these dreams?'

Holly closed her eyes, 'I've had two; one on the way to the training ground and one inside the training ground.'

'And was that before or after you'd sustained that smack to the head?' asked Foaly casually, still looking at his computer screen.

Holly caught the tone, 'One before and one after...' she growled.

'Just asking.' Said Foaly innocently, 'So what's in the dreams?'

'Artemis but younger. Younger than I've ever seen him. In the first dream he was only a few years old.'

'And what happened to him? In the dream?'

'He caught his Father burying a corpse in the manor grounds.'

Foaly stared at her, 'Whaaat...?'

The elf looked uncomfortable, 'His Father's bodyguard found him digging up the body and threatened to bury him too if he ever told anyone about what he'd found.'

'And the next dream?'

'He was older, but only by a few years. He met one of his Father's associates, a Mr Shinner and was told to look after his daughter, Annie, until they came back. She escaped his bedroom and Artemis chased her to another room on the floor below. They were interrupted by both their Fathers and had to hide in the cupboard. Another man was dragged into the room and was interrogated before Shinner shot him dead.'

The centaur grimaced, 'And... and you think what you saw... has actually happened?'

Holly's frown deepened, 'Yes.' she said firmly, 'they weren't like normal dreams, Foaly. They were too clear. I can still smell the forest. I can still feel his carpet under my feet.'

Foaly turned away looking undeniably worried. The elf reached for his arm.

'You do believe me don't you?' she asked quietly

He avoided her eyes, 'I believe... that you believe...'

'There's got to be an explanation.' she said, ignoring his last comment, 'And I think that it's his eye.'

'His what-?'

She jabbed a finger towards her left eye socket, or specifically to the pale blue iris staring from it.

'Artemis and I swapped an eye during the time stream so maybe I'm just seeing... what this eye has already seen...'

Foaly coughed awkwardly, 'Yeah. That could be it.' he said, his voice straining to keep the scepticism away, 'Or we could take into account that your head had been subjected to quite a large blow today and that maybe you're just not all that tip top yet.'

'My head is fine.' growled the elf 'These dreams have nothing to do with a concussion. I know they're something else!'

Foaly held up his palms, 'Okay, okay! Whatever you say. But you know there's only one way to find out for sure.'

'And what's that?' she asked, though she already knew the answer

'Ask Artemis about it.'

Holly bit her lip, standing from her chair and crossing her arms.

'I... I nearly called him straight from the training ground but...'

'Then you imagined the conversation?'

She winced, 'Yes.'

'"Oh, hi Artemis!"' supplied Foaly, '"Listen, I've been having dreams about your Father murdering random people and burying them the decorative verge... Ring any bells?"' the centaur sighed heavily, 'Yep, that would go down really well...'

Holly sat back down, groaning into her hands. Foaly placed a comforting palm on her shoulder.

'Listen.' He said softly, 'Go home and sleep on it. It's not like you can do anything about it. If what you're seeing is real then it happened over ten years ago... you can't change it... and we always knew that Artemis had a dark past...'

She sat up, staring at a shadowed spot on the floor some feet away.

'I'm just afraid of what I'll see next.' She said quietly

Foaly looked into her eyes and saw real concern there deep within the mix-matched irises. He swallowed.

'Go home.' He repeated, 'If you feel the same way in the morning or have another dream, come back here and I'll help you look into it. Maybe we could bring No1 in, ask him what he thinks.'

He followed Holly to the door and watched her walk away from his booth, waving at her half-heartedly before she turned a corner and disappeared.

Once he'd resealed the door he went back to his computer, wiggling his fingers before lowering them to the keyboard.

He pulled up one of his comprehensive human databases and hesitated once before typing 'Annie Shinner' into the flashing search box.

Three seconds later one gently pulsing name appeared on screen.

The centaur leaned in closely, his heart rate increasing a few beats and clicked it.

Holly lay back on her futon, staring darkly at the stippled ceiling of her bedroom-come-living room.

She felt like it was the morning after a drunken party and every stupid thing she'd done or said the night before was now flooding back to her mind, making her want to shrink and cringe beneath the bed sheets.

Except that she been starkly sober when she'd told Foaly that she was having psychic dreams of Artemis's disturbed childhood and it was still the same bloody day.

The elf tossed roughly, punching her pillow as she rolled.

Get a grip! She thought angrily, You are Holly Short! The first ever female officer in Recon! You don't believe in 'biological psychic links' for Frond's sake! That's for gnomes in their five hundreds watching 'It's a miracle with Doma Rowney' whilst grazing on their hover-couches... I mean, you've experienced a kind of mental link with Artemis before, right?... but that was when you were speeding through the time stream, not when you were thousands of miles away from him without a single crisis in sight...

She bounced her fists angrily off the mattress before rolling over again.

'Get a grip.' She muttered, head butting the pillow and finally closing her eyes, 'Think about it in the morning...'

Once Holly was properly dozing it didn't take long for Annie to come for her.

The young girl was dressed in yellow this time, her bare feet skipping silently across the short space to Holly's side.

'Come on.' said the girl, holding out a white hand, 'You've got more to see yet.'

'More?' questioned Holly, using Annie's outstretched palm to lever herself up from the ground.

'Much more.'

Then she was gone.

Holly found herself in a human study. A wood burning fire was roaring to the left of her, its mantel piece rising about a foot above her head. On the right hand wall, book shelves took up all the available space, each level filled with hundreds of antique tomes. A large armchair stood a short distance from the hearth, tall, imposing and also occupied.

'Are you ready son?' asked a seated Artemis Senior, eyes blazing like the logs in the grate, 'Do you have everything you need? Everything you have been told to acquire?'

Artemis junior was positioned on one of the many flagstones closer to the fire, his right cheek growing red from the heat.

'I have Father.' Replied the eight year old, 'I am fully equipped.'

'Excellent. And you understand completely what is required of you?'

'Yes, Father.'

The Fowl elder smirked wryly, 'But of course you do. You're a smart man.'

Artemis' lips twitched as he fought back a pleased smile.

'Thank you, Father.'

Artemis senior glanced at the Georgian carriage clock perched atop the mantel.

'It is nearly time!' he barked, standing swiftly to his feet.

Artemis looked up at his Father; his wide set eyes almost reverent in their expression.

'Tonight, Arty.' declared the taller human, 'Tonight you will become part of a Fowl legacy that has lasted over five hundred years.'

The boy stood a little straighter as his parent began to slowly pace the room.

'My Father completed his first professional heist at age twelve. I was age ten. You will best us both Artemis, I know it.'

The boy's face was serious, 'I will not let you down.'

Artemis senior turned, gazing intently at his son.

'No. You won't. And remember!' he thrust a hand at the shield hanging high above the fire. 'Aurum potestas est!'

'Gold is power.' murmured Artemis.

The elder man nodded proudly.

'And never forget it...'

Angeline fowl was waiting at the bottom of the staircase and she smiled as both Artemis's descended to meet her. Holly walked beside them, though of course she couldn't be seen.

Angeline kissed her son's cheek, then rubbed his shoulders affectionately, 'Have you got everything?' she asked, bending to meet his eyes, 'Have you packed your pyjamas? And your toothpaste?'

'Yes, mother.' grumbled Artemis, feeling guilty in the deceit.

'Have you remembered your sponge?'

'Yes.'

'And spare underwear for the morning?'

'Angeline...' interrupted her husband, putting an arm round Angeline's waist, 'Stop embarrassing the boy. I'm sure he has everything he needs...'

She smiled sadly at her son, 'I know. A mother just needs to ask these things.'

A car horn sounded from outside.

'That's the signal.' Acknowledged Artemis Senior softly

'Have a good time, dear.' said Angeline, kissing the boy one last time.

Artemis shouldered his back pack, striding towards the main doors. A tall, hulking figure emerged from the shadows on the west side of the hall moving quickly to his charge's shoulder.

'Butler!' called a cold voice from behind.

Both boy and servant turned and looked to the speaker.

'You will not be accompanying Artemis tonight.' ordered the Fowl Patriarch, his voice quiet but crystal clear, 'He is attending a child's slumber party, not a Columbian drug meet. There will be no need for your services.'

Angeline frowned at her husband, 'What he means, Butler. What we mean, is that we think it would be prudent for Artemis to spend some time with his peers unsupervised. He is eight years old after all. It will be a new experience for him, a positive experience I know.'

Artemis looked up at his manservant, his heart pounding.

He hadn't thought about leaving Butler behind. He'd just assumed he'd be coming to help him, to get him through the night ahead. Butler always came with him. Every day since he was born, every night, every place, every journey, every-

'Artemis?'

The boy's head snapped up.

'Yes, Father?'

Artemis Senior gave him a warning look, 'You'd better hurry, boy. You don't want to keep your hosts waiting.'

The eight year old glanced up at his manservant, his face uncharacteristically unsure. Butler, however, nodded once at the child; somehow conveying a silent reassurance before holding open the main doors. Artemis ducked his head, brushed past his lifelong ally and ran out into the night.

A black sedan was pulled up on the gravel drive outside with its back door wide open.

'Come on Art!' called the figure hanging from the back seat, 'We haven't got all decade y'know!'

Artemis' heart lightened slightly when he heard her voice. He slipped swiftly in beside her and slammed the door shut, Holly just managing to whip both legs in after him.

'You excited?' whispered Annie, as the boy clipped his seatbelt in place.

'I am ready.' Replied the boy stiffly.

The girl scowled, elbowing her friend in his skinny ribs.

'Yeah.' She persisted, 'but are you excited?'

He looked down at his pale fingers, letting his fringe fall over his eyes. Annie huffed impatiently, worming sideways in her seat and lying backwards so she could peek into Artemis' down-turned face.

'Come on, Art.' She grinned, 'you can say it. You can say you're excited. '

He stared at her wide eyes and even wider smile and felt the corners of his mouth twitch, quite without his permission.

'Ha!' cried Annie, snapping upright, 'There! I saw it! I saw a smile!'

'You are ridiculous.' Stated the boy, but it was a half hearted rebuke.

Annie beamed at her partner's face, his small nose wrinkling as he tried to control his own mutinous lips.

She always loved it when he smiled. It was like he'd become a different person. You no longer saw the shadows in his cheeks or the premature wrinkles beginning to spread like cracked glass from the corner of his eyes. She saw her boy, the boy Artemis Fowl truly was.

Annie could see it, and so could the invisible elf sat beside her.

'Shurrup back there!' shouted a voice angrily from the driver's seat, 'What d'you think this is? The coach t'fuckin Disneyland?'

Someone hissed in the passenger seat, 'D'you know who that kid is, Peters? He's the boss's only son, so you'd better keep your gob shut.'

'Fowl's kid?'

'Yeah.'

The driver looked in the rear view mirror, narrow, piggy eyes staring at the two children.

'What's your name?' he barked.

'Annie.' answered the girl, taking an instant dislike to the man.

'Not you!' spat the driver, 'The boy.'

'My name is Artemis Fowl.' Said Artemis levelly, his shoulder rubbing Annie's.

'Artemis? Artemis? But- but that's a girl's name isn't it?'

The car was filled with the sounds of harsh, mocking laughter.

Artemis waited patiently for it to subside. He was used to this taunt from the school play ground, and his general policy was just to ignore it. He hadn't found a retort yet that didn't just invite fresh gales of-

Annie had whipped off her seatbelt, ramming herself forward between the front seats.

'Yeah!' she shouted, 'Yeah, okay, maybe in this country 'Artemis' is meant to be a girl's name, after some Greek goddess of hunting or something. But every now and then, Peters, a boy can come along who's so good at hunting that he earns the right to use her name.

She snorted derisively, 'I mean, why the hell do you think we're in this car Peters? To just tag along for the ride? No. We're here because we're damn good at what we do, and you better start respecting that because Art here,' she jerked her head towards the back seat, 'he's Artemis the Hunter for a reason. And if you're really not careful... he'll soon be hunting you.'

She rocked back into her seat as silence filled the close interior.

Peters glanced once into the rear view mirror to see Artemis the Hunter looking straight back; his earlier smile now twisted into a newly discovered vampire alternative.

'Yes, Miss.' Muttered the driver, looking back ahead to the road.

'I'll have to remember that outburst.' whispered Artemis, as Annie re-buckled her lap belt, 'I have a feeling it may come in handy some day.'

She smirked, chewing absently on a hang-nail, 'Maybe.' She said, 'But not today. Because Holly's blasted alarm is going off—'

The elf sat bolt upright in bed.

She was back in her own room.

Without a car or criminal in sight.

'I'm awake!' she yelled at her alarm clock, which whined softly before shutting off, having registered the required decibels to stop the wailing mechanism.

She crashed backwards onto the bed again and let a deep breath into the silence.

So I'm still having the dreams... she thought miserably, But why-?

A sudden buzzing noise broke her out of her reverie.

'I'M AWAKE!' she bellowed, then realised it wasn't her alarm.

Tumbling clumsily out of bed she made for her coffee table, pushing aside magazines and greasy take-out cartons before finally finding what she was looking for.

She flicked the communicator opened.

'Hello?' she said, pressing the receiver to her ear, 'Artemis? Is that you?'

And that's a wrap!

PLEASE REVIEW!

I know I left this terrible gap between last time and this time but seriously it was your reviews that gave me the motivation to start typing again.

And I promise (hand on heart) to respond directly to every question, query, or angry WTF? that is asked of me at the beginning of each chapter. So feel free to bombard if you want to.

Please bombard.

Please.