Two updates this time! It's Christmas, after all ;)

To the beta - you know, I admire your patience in not hitting me over the head whenever I get stressed out over this fic. (I'm very mengedikkan, kan?)

Disclaimer: I don't own anything! Colfer does.

Chapter 14: To the Lighthouse

Boulevard of Kings, Haven City

Haven was, to put it mildly, bedlam.

Holly had come straight on patrol after passing the laptop and BlackBerry to Foaly. The centaur had given her a rather weary look and had shaken his head.

'This isn't enough, Holly,' he had said. 'The Council had every right to decide to mind-wipe him. Artemis would get home unharmed, in exchange for having his memories of us erased, and neither side would have any reason to take revenge for everything that has happened.'

'I don't want him to forget us,' she had replied quietly. 'He's done so much for us.'

'You have to think about the People before you worry too much about Artemis, Holly.'

And she had shrugged and left the Ops Booth without saying what she wanted. There were some things that she could never put into words to tell her friends, Foaly included. This was one of them.

The barricades were all up along the Boulevard of Kings, while the crunchball stadium across the road was filled with families who had fled their burning homes elsewhere in the city. LEP officers patrolled the area in twos and threes, but their various Neutrinos and weapons were nowhere to be seen. Orders from higher up had specifically stated that all guns were to be left in the LEP HQ for checks, and officers on patrol had to content themselves with their standard-issue buzz batons.

It's quite reasonable really, Holly thought, passing the stadium for the fourth time that day, guns would just make people all the more edgy.

And edgy they were. She could hear the low hum of activity within the stadium, where officers stood guard over the fairies who had sought refuge in there. But underneath the muffled bustle and talk from within, she could detect the undercurrent of nervous tension among the fairies. One more incident, one more riot, and then they might just snap – and who knew what might happen after that?

Civilians eyed her from behind their barricades, muttering among themselves as they watched the officers patrol the street in front of them. Holly caught glimpses of miscellaneous household items in the gaps between the barricades; there was a mop there, even a meat cleaver, and – Frond help her – an antique gun powered by solar cells that she recognized as a 19th-century Sunshooter. They had taken to using everyday items as weapons in self-defense – she wondered uneasily if magic could heal a blow from a pair of gardening shears. She hoped so.

Hold it. She stopped in her tracks, feeling the hair rising on her neck. Turn around slowly. Her hand went to her holster for the Neutrino, casually, but the gun was missing. D'Arvit.

The dart punctured the skin under her ear before she could so much as turn on her heel. She heard, through the haze that crept over her consciousness, the catcalls and jeers from the fairies behind the barricade. Nobody was going to help her – maybe they had even done this to her – what would happen next –

Voices. Someone was standing over her.

'Officer!'

Holly looked up blearily at the female gnome beside her. There was a bright flowered apron tied around the gnome's waist – this wasn't LEP then. Oh. Good. If only someone could –

Holly felt hands lifting her up from the hard asphalt of the pavement, hands bearing her on to a stretcher. And then she caught voices – male ones, this time – of officers speaking to the gnome. She hoped the LEP medics would get to her in time; the sedative in the dart might be harmless, but she really didn't want to be unconscious for the rest of the day. Or it might not be. She fervently hoped it was the former.

Then her sight turned dark, and all sounds were extinguished as she slipped into unconsciousness.

The Old Quarter, Haven City

'Interesting,' Artemis remarked, as he and Vinyáya headed down one of the streets in the Old Quarter.

'Yes, Fowl?' said Vinyáya impatiently, half-jogging some way in front of him. She was in a hurry to get to where they needed to be, but this infuriating boy was taking his time to see the sights. If she didn't need to get him to a safe place now, she would have given him a good kick right in the – well, somewhere painful, to get her point across clearly. But then if she did kick him, then she would have to drag him to where she was heading, so maybe that wouldn't be a good idea. For now, at least.

'Were these buildings part of old fairy cities?' he asked, waving a hand at a particularly imposing one they were passing.

'Copied from them, actually.' Vinyáya turned to look over her shoulder, sighing loudly. 'Could you please try to keep up?'

He nodded and made an effort to keep up with her.

The Old Quarter of Haven was – like its name – one of its older regions, built in the days when the fairies first headed underground to escape the Mud Men. Someone then had a bright idea to copy the architecture and designs of fairy cities around the world and give them new life in the buildings in Haven. Many fairy cities had long since fallen and had been destroyed over the centuries, and the only record of their vague history and culture could be seen in the buildings within the Old Quarter. Unfortunately though, within the past three centuries or so, many fairies had moved out of the Old Quarter into the heart of Haven City itself, as this particular region was close to the surface and had come under threat of detection several times due to human mining and drilling. A few still remained, especially fairies whose families had lived here for time out of mind, but for the most part, this place was falling into disrepair and oblivion.

'These are from Ys, aren't they?' Artemis ventured to ask as they turned into a new street.

'What?' Vinyáya slowed a little and followed his gaze. The buildings along this street had carvings of sea creatures and mermaids on their facades and columns, and some had faded murals on their walls. 'Oh yes, you guessed right. Atlantis wasn't the only fairy city at sea.'

She came to a stop midway along the street. They were in front of the tallest building in the street – it was a somewhat narrow affair, with sheer walls and very few windows. Artemis could barely make out the top of the building in the gloom; the sun strips in the Old Quarter had not been replaced for decades. There appeared to be a glass observatory at the top of the building.

'A lighthouse?' he said, amused.

'We fairies came up with the idea before you humans were sailing in ships,' Vinyáya explained. 'You lot borrowed quite a few ideas from us, really. Ys was an important fairy port in its heyday, and this is a smaller replica of the one the city had.' She paused before the door of the lighthouse and surveyed the street behind her.

'I see – '

Vinyáya held up a finger to her lips and shook her head in warning.

'Visitor with me,' she enunciated clearly to the peephole in the door. 'Code Alpha Three V.' She brought her eye to the peephole and peered through the lens for several moments.

There was a click, and the door swung open soundlessly. Vinyáya gestured at the boy to step through first, before she followed him into the room within the lighthouse and shut the door.

'Lights!' she called to no one. Or, as Artemis guessed, no one he could see.

A single fluorescent bulb in the room flickered alight.

'Follow me, Fowl,' Vinyáya said, heading through a door opposite the one they had come through. 'And please keep quiet – I don't know if she's disabled the security measures yet.'

He raised his eyebrows at her but wisely kept silent as he followed her further into the lighthouse. Vinyáya was on her knee beside a patch of the floor that didn't look any different from the rest.

'One wrong move, Fowl,' she said, 'and you'll walk out of here in pieces.' She bent down and touched a knot in the bare floorboards with her right index finger. There was a pause, and then she stood up as a square of the floor dropped down without a sound.

'Go on.' She jerked her head at the gap in the floor, through which Artemis could see steps leading downwards. 'You first.'

He stepped onto the first stair, wondering if he was being tricked by this elf. Holly had spoken about her at times and appeared to be on good terms with her Wing Commander, but the security measures seemed out of place in this forgotten part of Haven.

'Look, I don't have all day, you know,' Vinyáya said wryly, tapping his shoulder. 'Go on. If I had meant any harm to you, I would have killed you when I got you out of Atlantis.'

Vinyáya had a point. Artemis descended the rest of the steps, eyes straining to make out the room below. It was just one underground passage leading to a dead end, with naked bulbs strung above to light the way.

The hatch closed as Vinyáya left the last step. She went to the first door on their right and placed a hand on the scan pad on the wall.

'Confirmation please,' said a voice when the scan was completed.

'Pink porcupines,' Vinyáya replied without a trace of humour.

The door clicked and swung open, just like the first one they had come through. The large room within was lit with the bright glow of several compact light bulbs and humming computers.

'Iris?' Vinyáya shut the door behind Artemis and pointed at a chair nearby. 'Have a seat,' she told him, heading past the computers in search of someone.

Artemis sat down, scrutinizing some of the computers near him. In terms of fairy technology, these would be considered ancient. All that security for some old computers? It seemed hardly necessary.

'Hey!' someone yelled from behind a jumble of wires across the room, 'I was eating that!'

'I brought the Fowl boy,' said Vinyáya. 'Want to meet him?'

There was a loud happy gurgle and the sound of a chair falling over. 'Oh D'Arvit it – did you really? I can't believe it!'

'Iris…'

A fairy came skipping out from behind the computers, grinning madly as she bounded over to the surprised boy near the door. The next thing Artemis knew, his hand was being shaken vigorously by the elf/pixie hybrid as she chattered away non-stop. He stared in bemusement at the shock of pink- and purple-striped hair before his eyes.

Artemis Fowl, as has been said before, rarely went out of his way to meet people. His social life wasn't what you would call a terribly exciting one, and as such, it could be said that he did not meet persons like this fairy on many occasions. The only person he had ever seen with such a bad dye job was Billy Kong.

This one might just have topped Kong's, possibly. The clashing colours assaulted his sight and artistic sensibilities, but Artemis – oddly enough – chose not to comment. Perhaps he was too stunned to make a smarmy comment. That didn't happen very often.

'It's a girl's name, isn't it?'

He caught the question among the other things she had yakked about. 'It is,' he said coldly.

'I'm Iris,' said the fairy, still shaking his hand enthusiastically. 'Iris Moonlove. Glad to meet you. Ohmigosh, I can't believe you're here!'

'She's been looking forward to meeting you,' said Vinyáya, a trifle unnecessarily. 'Said there's only so many geniuses she can meet.'

'And you beat Foaly years ago, during that time you kidnapped Holly Short!' Iris was saying as she released his hand and skipped dizzily on the spot. 'Pure genius!'

'It's all in the past now,' said Artemis, a little stiffly.

'Yeah, and now you're good friends with us.' Iris beamed at him, before she skipped away behind the computers, humming to herself.

'Bit of a handful, that one,' said Vinyáya, shrugging. 'But she's good with the computers.'

'They're way behind time though,' Artemis remarked, scrutinizing the computers critically for the second time. 'Foaly would have them recycled immediately.'

Vinyáya laughed and shook her head. 'Fowl, you still don't see it, don't you?'

'If you would care to explain then, Commander?'

Vinyáya swung herself on to the table beside him and smiled knowingly. 'Has Holly told you about the vigilantes the LEP is looking for?'

'Yes. Apparently one of them was at the location of the first murder.'

'Ah, good, it makes things easier. Did you have any guesses as to who they were?'

Artemis crossed his arms and surveyed the elf. 'I guessed that they either had connections with LEP officers, or they were the officers themselves. Elementary, really.'

'Good. So you know why you're here?'

'You're one of the vigilantes themselves.' Artemis chuckled and went on, 'And you're the one responsible for this little group, am I right?'

'You're right.' Vinyáya swept her long silver hair into a tight bun and secured it with a pencil she picked up from the table. 'Now tell me why I'm doing this.'

'Section Eight was merged into the LEP after the return of Hybras,' Artemis replied, watching Vinyáya's face closely. 'You knew something that we – or Foaly and the rest – didn't. You knew about the current crisis in Haven before events happened.'

'Bingo.' Vinyáya slid off the table and headed to the door. 'And now Iris will fill you in with the rest. I need to get back to Haven – the rest of the group's trying to sort things out, while I need to head back to Police Plaza to find out more.' She turned to look at him, her hand on the door. 'You're probably wondering why Holly isn't part of this.'

'Yes.'

'You'll know,' she said, pulling open the door. 'In time.'

Iris popped out from behind a row of computers when she heard the door click shut. 'She's gone eh, Arty boy?'

'Yes.' He got up from his seat and went over to the computers, itching to find out more about them. This crazed fairy was good with computers, so Vinyáya said. He wondered how good Iris was. 'And call me Artemis, everyone does.'

'It's a girl's name,' she said, winking. 'Arty's more, you know, manlier.'

'I earned that name – Artemis the hunter,' he said absently, running his hand over the keyboards. The Gnommish letters on the keys were almost faded away with heavy use. He tapped a few keys experimentally, watching as symbols and graphs popped up on the screens.

'Hey hey, watch it.' Iris slapped his hands away and shooed him back to the front of the room. 'These babies may be old, my boy, but the programs I have on them are not. So get your Mud Man hands off them, d'you hear me?'

'I happen to be one of the few humans who understand fairy technology,' he retorted testily. 'As you wish, Miss Moonlove. Doubtless your noble work would progress wonderfully without the interference of one of the few people who fully understand your systems.'

Iris rolled her eyes and leaned down to jam a twist of fibre optics into a port. 'Look, Arty boy, I'm not insulting you. I really wanted to meet you. What is it with you geniuses and your big heads?' She snorted and tapped various keys on one of the keyboards. 'Foaly, and you, and that Koboi psycho – I'm not trying to be mean, but does genius always have to come with a big baggage of unwanted arrogance?' She flashed him an apologetic smile and banged one of the monitors impatiently. 'No offense meant though.'

'You've met the others then?' he said, still a little cool.

'Oh yeah, at different times. Koboi was pretty sweet when I interviewed her for my college paper, but, you know, she was a bit freaky.' Iris rotated a finger beside her head and gave a theatrical shudder. 'Those damn boots – they're hideous. Oh and Foaly – he's my idol – but he was a wee bit too much when I tried to ask him about his latest inventions.' She glanced darkly at the screens and tapped a few more keys. 'I mean, he's paranoid and all, but there was no need to insult a kid just because she was training to be a Retrieval jock.'

'You're LEP?' asked Artemis, privately wondering why no one had caught her and given her head a good shave. Holly's hair didn't seem out of place among her colleagues, due to the fact that she had always had a buzz cut, but Iris's would probably cause a few headaches. Not to mention the fact that she would fail at stealth if she ever went above ground on a mission.

'Dropped out.' Iris banged another monitor, scowling at it. 'I joined to please my old dad – he was Retrieval, before his accident – but I hated it. The guys in the LEP Academy made my life hell, but that was before I found out how good I was.' She grinned and waggled a finger at Artemis. 'They used to call me the next Holly Short, in fact.'

'Have you met her?' Artemis was intrigued. Holly didn't talk much about her days before she became an LEP officer, and he didn't exactly ask. There were too many things to talk about, besides. And Holly was unusually reserved when it came to her past – it held too many painful memories for her.

'Nope,' Iris replied, shaking her head. 'I want to, though. Vinyáya talks quite a bit about her.' She gave Artemis a shrewd look. 'You're probably wondering if I was supposed to follow in Short's footsteps, didn't you? First Recon captain and everything.'

'Well go on then.' He took a length of fibre optics from the table beside him and jimmied it into the nearest hard drive. Iris appeared not to notice what he had done.

'I had an awesome left hook.' Iris held up a fist and punched the air playfully. 'It served me well in crunchball. Ah, those were the days. The boys got scared after I knocked out about five of them. Your girlfriend was pretty good too, according to –'

'Holly Short,' said Artemis quietly, 'is not my girlfriend.'

A short beep from the computers interrupted their conversation. Iris turned back to the screens, the smile vanishing from her face. She clicked on the message icon that had popped up, opening the window for the video call.

'Iris,' said Vinyáya, 'just got the call from Bloom. Holly Short's been kidnapped. I need her location ASAP.'

'Yessir.' Iris's fingers clicked and clacked over the next two keyboards, calling up new files and images on the other screens. 'I'll send the files over to you and the rest.'

'Good. Make sure the Fowl boy's safe, Iris.'

'Yep, got that.'

Vinyáya's window went black as she ended the call.

'Holly's been kidnapped.' Artemis stared at the images that were popping up at a dizzying rate on the screens. 'Can you track her?'

'Worried about your girlfriend, Arty boy?' said Iris, smiling grimly as she went through window after window. 'Damn these comps – my kingdom for holograms!'

'She's just a friend,' he said, coming to stand beside her. 'I can help.'

'Yeah, she's not your girlfriend and I didn't see you trying to sabotage my computers.' Iris pushed a keyboard to him and nudged him into a chair. 'There you go. Her signal'll be flagged red. If you see pink or orange, it's probably similar signals. Check on them too, see if there's any possible interference.' She left him by the computers and bounded over to another row. 'Now let's see if Foaly would let me take a peep into his systems.'

Artemis smirked as his fingers flew over the Gnommish keyboard. The first window his eye fell on had about thirty different signals in varying shades of red.

I hope Holly's all right, he thought, starting to work his way through the signals.

A/N: Iris Moonlove. Not sure where she came from - she walked into the story, took over the dialogue and was determined to annoy Artemis in any way possible. I can only hope she doesn't turn into a Mary Sue. =S

The name 'Moonlove' is from Hope Mirrlees' novel, Lud-in-the-Mist.

The legend of Ys can be read in more detail on Wikipedia; Atlantis wasn't the only city that was destroyed by the sea!

Would love to hear your thoughts on this new OC and the recent developments!