Thanks to everyone for sticking with this. Apologies for the cliffhangers, and yes, there's another one coming up here. It's not as bad as the other ones though, so take some comfort in that. I'm getting better.

Mistaken Identity

Artemis stared at the picture on the screen, brow furrowed in concentration. The figure did look a lot like Holly, but there was something out of place. His eyes devoured the image, looking for the flaw that he knew was there, but that he couldn't quite see. Damn it, why did his infamous observation skills have to fail him now, when Holly was on the line?

He was interrupted by a knock on the study window. Holly was hovering outside, wearing black trousers and some form of shirt that was too big for her. He just stared for a second. How had she gotten there? She knocked again, more frantically this time. He shook the doubts from his mind and let her in. She cut the power to her wings and sank to her knees on the floor. He knelt next to her.

"Holly? What's going on? Foaly said you'd been arrested!"

"I was" she whispered, not meeting his eyes. "I didn't do it, though."

"Of course you didn't" he said, putting his hand on her shoulder and squeezing lightly. "But you broke out? What's happening, why are you here?"

He knew why. He was her only aboveground contact, plus the only person she knew who could – or would – hide her. He just hadn't thought that she'd be the type of person to run if she was innocent; look at her behaviour after Julius Root was murdered.

She looked up from the floor when he touched her, desperation in her hazel eyes.

"Help me, Artemis."

He nodded slowly, pulling her to her feet. The feeling that something was wrong was back, but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was that was causing it. Her hair fell over her eyes. As he'd done before, he brushed it away, and suddenly he knew what was wrong. He opened his mouth to call for Butler, but never got beyond 'But...'

"Human" intoned Holly, voice hypnotic. "Your will is mine."

Her eyes swelled to consume Artemis, her voice rang in his ears. He tried to fight it, tried to keep hold of his free will. Holly stepped closer, gazing deep into his eyes.

"Give in to it, mud man. Don't fight me."

Artemis felt control slipping from his grasp. With the last of his strength, he yelled as loud as he could.

"Butler!"

Butler was halfway up the stairs when he heard the boys shout. He ran for the study, and burst in to see Holly Short holding a dagger and approaching Artemis from behind. He spared the boy a glance as he pulled his Sig Sauer from his belt. Artemis was staring vacantly at thin air, his face blank. She'd mesmerised him.

Even so, Butler was loathe to hurt Holly. She had saved their lives so many times, and this was way out of character for her. But he couldn't let her hurt Artemis. He aimed briefly, and fired a single shot. It clipped her wrist and she dropped the blade, cursing. Butler reached out to grab her, but she fired up her wings and soared out of the window before he could get close. She shimmered into invisibility as he slammed the window shut, then turned back to the immobile boy behind him. He waved a hand in front of Artemis's face. No reaction. His eyes were half closed, his lips parted slightly. He was deep in the trance, and Butler had no way of pulling him out of it. That was when the communicator ring lit up and started to bleep shrilly.

Foaly couldn't quite believe what his cameras were showing him. If he was to believe his own eyes, then the commander had just broken Holly out of her cell and shot down Private Verbil. He wiped at his eyes, then checked again. There was Trouble, pulling a protesting Holly through the building. And on the adjacent camera, there he was again, arguing heatedly with chairman Cahertez. He sank into his swivel chair. Had he finally cracked?

He sat upright as the implications of what he'd seen made themselves known. If there were two Trouble Kelp's then maybe there were two Holly Short's...

The Ops Booth door slammed behind him as he cantered to the commander's office.

"What do you mean, not her? We've got a perfectly clear shot of her right there! Are you refuting the video evidence, Kelp? You're letting your personal feelings get in the way of this investigation..." Cahertez bellowed, pointing at Trouble accusingly. He took a deep breath to shout some more, but was interrupted by a slightly out-of-breath voice from behind him.

"Actually, he's not."

Cahertez whirled. Foaly was there, panting a little. He didn't run that fast very often, though he was in much better shape now than he had been. Jogging every night with your wife will do that to you.

"What?" asked the chairman, in a would-be calm tone. He sounded like he was growling. Foaly hastily explained the footage he'd just seen. There was a stunned silence for several seconds, then Cahertez sank into Trouble's swivel chair, head in hands.

"This is all we need" he muttered. Trouble had a blunter approach. He thumped the intercom button and hollered into the microphone.

"All senior officers get to the Ops Booth, NOW!"

He followed Foaly down the corridor, jubilation warring with worry in his stomach. Holly was innocent (he knew it!), but she was in danger again. She seemed to attract it. He suppressed a groan. Protecting her was a full-time occupation, and he didn't seem to be doing a very good job of it.

Within fifteen minutes, half of Police Plaza was crammed into the Ops Booth. Foaly played the footage again. When Chix was shot, half the crowd winced and half suppressed a snort of laughter. Chix wasn't the most popular sprite on the force; probably something to do with the way he flirted with everyone else's girlfriends. Trouble sent an officer by the door to go and rescue the downed sprite, then turned back to the screen in time to see Holly get dragged out of a fire door. Foaly stopped the tape.

"That's it."

No one moved for a few seconds, but then Trouble began to yell orders, and there was a scramble to get out of the doors. Retrieval went to suit up, and other officers went to scout out the side of the building where Holly had been abducted. In a surprisingly short amount of time, Trouble and Foaly were alone in the Ops Booth. Foaly pulled up another screen and began pushing buttons rapidly. Trouble frowned.

"What are you doing?"

"Calling for help" admitted the centaur, grinding his teeth. It really galled him to admit it, but he was stumped. He knew of only one other person who may even have a chance of working out what was happening. Artemis Fowl.

Butler slid the ring off Artemis's finger and answered it. The boy didn't as much as blink.

"Yes?" he barked into the phone. He wasn't feeling too charitable towards fairies in general just then.

"Butler? Where's Artemis?"

Butler sighed, casting another look over the oblivious boy next to him.

"What do you want Foaly?"

"I want to talk to Artemis. That boy and I need to have a serious conversation."

"Well, you're stuck with me" Butler snapped. He didn't try to prevent his voice from rising. "So get to the point, quickly."

"Okay, okay. No need to get grouchy."

Butler actually growled. Foaly decided to get to the point.

"Holly may not be...ouch...isn't Holly, so be careful."

"What?"

Foaly sighed, rubbing his ribs where Trouble had elbowed him.

"There's an imposter running around, impersonating people. I really need to talk to Artemis, get his opinion on this..."

"Then you're going to have to help me" Butler said, casting a fresh eye over Artemis. Holly hadn't done this to him. For some reason, that made Butler feel a lot better. He summarised the events of the last few minutes into the ring. The silence on the other end of the line was deafening.

"Well, this is bad" Foaly said. Trouble snatched the microphone.

"Butler, bring him to E1. I'll meet you there. I'll wake him up, and then we can all put our heads together and figure this thing out."

Trouble closed his eyes as he spoke. This was the second time in a week the humans had been invited underground. He was really going to have to reassess the emergency procedures.

The ending is bad, and I'm sorry for that. I'm quite willing to take any suggestions for improvement.

No one's quite guessed who Kiernan is yet, but a couple of people are on the right track. Also, there is a deliberate 'mistake' in this, and if anyone reviews pointing it out you will get a smiley in reply that look like this ;) That means you've spotted the big clue! Yay! I also know that Kiernan/Holly gets to the surface scarily fast - all will be explained! Next chapter. Love you all, and I'll update soon.

Btw, I'm running out of ideas for chapter names. Anyone want to get a sneak preview, and suggest names for me? Kind of like a beta, but without the full chapter. Let me know?

Liris
xxxx