Chapter title is from Carroll's book. The man is a genius.

Chapter 22: Queen of Hearts

Haven City

'Back off!' Mulch yelled. 'I said back off!'

'Yeah, who's going to stop us, dwarf?' The goblin leered at him, flames shooting in thin streams out of his nose. 'Your boyfriend?'

'Hey!' Doodah yelled from inside the PI firm. 'I resent that!'

'LEP's not going to do anything,' said another goblin, juggling a fireball in his hands. 'They're letting us do what we like.'

'Yeah,' said a third goblin. 'This is like the rebellion again, innit?'

''Cept there's no Koboi.'

'Or Softnoses.'

'Or LEP.'

'I miss those Softnoses.'

Mulch kicked one of them in the shin, hard. It didn't do anything except make the goblin angrier and lose his grip on the fireball. The ball of flame bounced down the street, scattering curious bystanders.

'See, one of your friends shot one of us,' said one of the goblins. His skin was half-off him – it was shedding time, but he was having too much fun to stop. 'And now we're getting our own back.'

'And no LEP to stop us,' another snorted. He conjured another fireball and lobbed it down the street. Fairies scrambled to get out of the way. 'Want one, stumpy? Ain't no officers to stop us.'

'Wrong.'

Mulch saw the figure in grey behind the goblins and ducked in time.

The goblin keeled over, unconscious before he hit the ground. The rest of the goblins turned around, only to be hit by rapid Neutrino shots.

'Nasty,' said the fairy. 'You okay, Diggums?'

'Who're you?' he called.

'Come see me later!' The fairy waved and disappeared down the next street with another garbed in similar grey. 'I make wicked slug jelly!'

Operations Booth, Police Plaza

Trouble Kelp barged into the Ops Booth without so much as a knock or greeting, but Foaly was ready to buzz him through the minute he saw the commander through the glass.

'Got him?' said the centaur.

Trouble dropped the Pig Blaster onto a worktable and collapsed into the nearest chair.

'Did you?' Foaly demanded, swinging Trouble round to face him. 'I couldn't see what happened in Cahartez's office – he requested all security cameras to be removed months ago. Should have been suspicious about that. So, did you?'

'Yes,' said Trouble, rubbing his tired eyes. 'I did. He's locked up in one of the cells here. I'm the only one with the access card.'

Foaly clutched his chest in exaggerated relief. 'You're my saviour, Kelp. Should I ask them to award you with a medal?'

'No, just get me coffee,' said the commander. He slumped over on the worktable and began to snore.

'I always knew he would come to this,' Foaly remarked to one very interested techie. 'Well, what are you waiting for?' he snapped. 'Get the coffee. We can't have one of our commanders out cold right now.'

The unlucky elf hopped to it, running out of the Ops Booth in search of coffee.

'Never liked Cahartez's stinking vole curry anyway,' said Foaly, suppressing a genteel burp. He picked up the carton of curry that Trouble had left for him earlier and tossed it into the recycling bin.

'You there, Foaly? Foaly?'

It was Holly Short. On an LEP helmet in Malaysia when she was supposed to be out with the patrols in Haven City.

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

'You there, Foaly?' said Holly, trying to establish a connection on her helmet back to Foaly in the Ops Booth. 'Foaly?'

'Holly?' The centaur sounded surprised. 'I thought you were on patrol. What are you doing above ground? I didn't give you clearance.'

'Elevator Plaza's taken over by the other half of the LEP,' Holly said, grimacing. 'Those working for Cahartez. Vinyáya got me through; they didn't suspect anything because she was a Council member.'

'Vinyáya's there with you too? What's going on?'

'She's still in Haven,' said Holly, watching the city flash by beneath her through her helmet visor. 'Are we on a secure connection? I don't want anyone listening in on us.'

'Yep, secure,' said Foaly. 'What in Frond's name are you doing in Malaysia? How come Vinyáya's involved in this? And where did you get the helmet?'

'Remember those vigilantes?' said Holly, climbing higher and emerging in the clear air above the clouds over the city. 'Vinyáya started the group. She got me a helmet – one of Section Eight's old junk. And I'm here to capture the fairy responsible for everything that's happened.'

'Whoa, slow down. There's still a lot of things I don't understand – '

'Sorry, Foaly, but we're out of time,' said Holly, heading to the coordinates marked on the helmet display. Iris had done her magic on the helmet and was currently following Holly's flight over the city, although she had to keep off the broadcast channel to enable the centaur to speak to Holly.

'Who's monitoring your flight?' Foaly said. 'And is said person listening in too?'

'Yeah,' Holly replied, dipping below the clouds for a look at the city. The place was coming up – she could see it, a collection of brightly lit buildings on a slope near the main city. The station she was headed to was a landline, however, so she would have to fly lower to enter it. 'Iris Moonlove. Heard of her? She's from the Academy.'

'Might have,' Foaly said. 'Why Central Station, Holly? I need answers.'

'Cahartez didn't act on his own, Foaly,' she said, dipping below the clouds for a second time. There – she was almost there now. Somewhere in there was their fairy. 'Foaly? Can you get me the exact location of the KTM line? Trains. Runs from Port Klang.'

'Yeah yeah,' he griped. 'You'll have a lot of explaining to do when you get back, miss. Head lower – there you go. I've sent the coordinates to your helmet, and the exact location. Oh, and a map as well. You want the blueprint of the place?'

'No,' she said, manipulating the wings to drop out of sight. There was a highway running parallel to the tracks, and although she was shielded, the bright lights from the street lamps would surely show up the shimmer. The tracks wound beneath her, heading straight to KL Sentral.

'Station's coming up,' said Foaly. 'Switch to infrared when you enter – there's a stretch with no lights before you hit the platform.'

It began to rain just as the dark mouth of the station loomed ahead, the heavy clouds above releasing their weight over the city. Holly could smell the wet earth and hear the patter of raindrops hitting the trees and bushes beside the tracks, but she wasn't paying attention to them. There was a fairy to capture – but at what price?

'Why won't you tell me, Vinyáya? Don't you trust me?'

'On the contrary, Holly,' said Vinyáya, 'I trust you more than any of the others. That's why I asked you to do this.'

'It's Opal, isn't it?'

Vinyáya had remained silent on that.

'I don't want to choose,' Holly said. 'I'm going to capture her, do my duty as a Recon officer, and return to Haven with her. She'll be sent back to the past, where she belongs.'

'It's not so simple,' Vinyáya said, sadly, slowly. 'Just do what you think is right.'

She was in the tunnel now, seeing the world through infrared. Opal Koboi – if it was Koboi – would be on the platform. Waiting for her.

It didn't seem right. Was this Opal, waiting for her to capture her and take her back to Haven? Her instincts were telling her that there was much more to it than a simple arrest.

'I've got a tracker signal,' said Foaly. 'Odd. It's coming from the platform further up.'

She could see lights now, dim ones. A few fluorescent lights had been left switched on to illuminate the silent platform through the night. She turned off the infrared and maneuvered the wings to fly closer to the platform.

A figure sitting on the stairs turned to follow her flight. Holly hovered over the tracks, scanning the platform for any hidden fairies. There was none. There was only the figure on the stairs leading to the main concourse of the station above, watching her. The silhouette of pointed ears gave away the fairy, showed her for what she was. A discarded scrap of material lay on the steps beside the fairy – probably she had disguised her ears underneath the headscarf to prevent any human from noticing. Simple, but clever. There was no need for surgery or drastic changes to hide the fairy's appearance, and she wouldn't look out of place in a headscarf in Malaysia.

'It's one of my nano trackers,' Foaly said. 'Hold on, I'll try to get audio.'

'Foaly,' Holly whispered. 'She's looking right at me.'

'She? Wait – here. She's…speaking.'

'Captain Short? Captain Short, I presume. I'm looking right at you, so if you would kindly turn off your shield and come speak to me?' The voice seemed slightly distorted, probably due to interference and the need for the trackers to be fine-tuned. There was a steady beat under the voice, almost like heartbeats. Holly wondered if they belonged to her or the speaker.

'Those are the heartbeats,' Foaly said, confirming her suspicions. 'Still got some kinks to straighten out, those trackers. And that's…Opal. Opal Koboi. D'Arvit.'

Holly shut off her shield and alighted on the platform, facing Opal.

'Hello, Opal,' she said calmly, walking across the platform to the stairs. 'We've been looking for you.'

'Someone else got to me first,' the pixie answered, her large eyes watching every move from Holly.

'Cahartez, isn't it?' Holly took off the wings and placed them at the foot of the steps. No use being hampered with them if – if something should happen. A firefight, maybe. With Opal, anything was possible. Holly climbed the steps up to Opal, her eyes never leaving the pixie's face.

'Don't you just love the irony?' Opal giggled. 'I know I do.'

Holly sat down on the steps across from Opal and took off her helmet, despite Foaly's protests. 'Not taking over the world then?'

'Oh, you have to start small.' Opal smiled an angelic smile that you would normally expect to see on the faces of children. 'World domination needs to be achieved in stages, I've learned. Besides, it was such fun seeing Haven being overrun by the LEP themselves and everyone else just going crazy.'

'You could have stayed hidden longer,' said Holly, still calm. 'Take over the world at once.'

'Wait?' Opal scoffed. 'I don't need to wait. Cahartez was ready to work with me, once I offered the right amount of money. With the LEP behind me, I can do whatever I like. World domination comes after.'

'This isn't taking over the world, isn't it?' said Holly. 'This was about revenge.'

'No, you're partly wrong there,' said Opal, wagging a finger. 'Your fat little friend said something about setting the world on fire just to watch it burn. I wanted to have the fun of seeing Haven go up in flames, so I planned it. And believe me, it's been really, really satisfying. Not to mention the fact that I'll be in charge of the LEP once this is over, and then world domination would be just so easy.' She leaned towards Holly and grinned, showing her small pearly teeth. 'But you were partly right too. This was about revenge.'

'You framed Artemis. You told them to kidnap me,' said Holly, her expression giving nothing away. 'And you're going to put the blame on Foaly with the nano trackers, isn't it?'

'Oh, that.' Opal waved a hand dismissively. 'Cahartez didn't trust me to let me go where I liked – he made me swallow one of the tracker pills. Why do you think I'm left unguarded right now? He's listening to everything I say back in Police Plaza. But that centaur – I've something planned for him.'

'Cahartez is going to betray you once your plan succeeds.'

'Yes, I do know that. But do you think I haven't thought of a way out? I always do. Oh, by the way, I've got something planned for you too. I knew you would come to get me, despite my best plans to get you out of the way.'

'The phones?'

'Clever,' Opal squealed, clapping her tiny hands. 'Yes. The phones. What you don't realize, Captain, is that every conversation and call you make on your phone is recorded. The records can be accessed by anyone who knows where to look – which, naturally, includes me. And I've got your phone and Artemis's.'

Holly waited as the pixie took out a fairy phone from the pocket of her baju kurung and dangled it before the elf's face.

'Not going to grab it, Holly?' Opal taunted. 'Come on, grab the phone and give it back to your darling Arty. I've been listening to your conversations, and they've been so very interesting.' She placed it on the step between her and Holly. 'And I've found out so much about you both. How you defeated me when I planned a rebellion with the goblins, and when I nearly exposed fairy civilization to the humans. Why is it you can't leave me alone?'

'You killed Julius,' said Holly softly.

'Oh yes, I did.' Opal's eyes gleamed in the light from the main station above. 'That was one thing you couldn't stop me from doing. And the LEP put the blame on you, didn't they? Oh dear me.'

'It's in the past,' Holly said, her hands clenching involuntarily. 'They know the truth.'

'The truth, Holly, can be manipulated. Just like people.' Opal picked up the phone and tossed it from hand to hand. 'I read about Fowl while I was waiting in this boring city. Aurum potestas est – gold is power. A genius and an honest one too. I like him already. It's such a shame that he's on your side now – which is pretty odd, isn't it, when you first met him because he kidnapped you for gold? You do pick your friends, don't you, Captain?'

'Artemis knows what is right, Opal,' Holly said. 'He's not going to work with you any time in the future.'

'Oh, I know.' Opal laughed girlishly and tapped the phone against her cheek. 'He's got you. And the rest of your fine, upstanding friends. Which is why I'm not going to try to get him on my side. I'm going to get everyone else on my side, really, against you both.'

'What do you mean?' Holly could feel her fingernails digging into the palms of her hands, but she kept her fists at her sides.

'Like I said, I have a record of all your conversations. It would be so easy,' said Opal, winking and tapping a finger against the phone, 'to – let me say – rearrange the words and give your conversations whole new meanings.'

'The People aren't against Artemis, Opal,' said Holly, trying to smile. 'Once your plans fall apart, they'd know that he didn't have a hand in them.'

'Aren't you listening, Holly?' Opal said mockingly. 'I'm going to turn them against you and your darling Mud Boy. They know you're close friends, but maybe you've been hiding something from them? Inappropriate relations, perhaps? Closer relations between you and the human than what we would consider necessary?'

Holly could feel the bile rising in her throat. She had to speak up, to insist that they were just friends, nothing more. Foaly was still listening through the helmet – but she couldn't speak. And Opal continued to stare at her with those mocking eyes, waving the phone before her eyes…

He's a child! He's just a child. I would never –

But you kissed him when you went back in time. The voice was back, cold and logical. Did you mean it, or didn't you?

I was in my adolescent body at the time. I saved him and I was happy about it.

And yet you continued to hope.

He's still a child. He's a human. He's still a child. We're different species. He's still a child –

'Holly?' Opal snapped her fingers in front of the elf's wide eyes. 'Are you listening to me? Once I play back the conversations to the People, I'm sure they'd be very interested to know what has been going on between you two…'

Iris pounded the table in fury. She had been listening in to the conversation, despite Foaly's best efforts to get her off the helmet frequency and keep the channel clear for himself. 'I hate that pixie,' she said through clenched teeth. 'That little bi –'

Artemis silently handed her a steaming mug of coffee. Iris took a large gulp and spluttered.

'Sorry about that,' she said. 'And thanks.'

'You're welcome.'

She saw the look on his face and quietly terminated the connection to Holly's helmet. There were some things she was better off not knowing.

'Holly?' Opal snapped her fingers again. 'It's no fun when you're not fighting back.'

Holly seemed to move in a dream after that. Tried as she could to remember the events after she got back to Haven, everything seemed to be a blur after that moment. She knew, vaguely, that she had grabbed Opal's hand, the one holding the phone. Then she was bashing the hand down on the step, again and again, until there was blood on both their hands. Opal screamed in pain and dropped the phone, where it bounced down the steps and came to rest at the bottom of the stairs.

'You will never,' said Holly, her voice steady as she held Opal's hand in a tight grip, 'do that to me. Or Artemis.'

'I will, in my future,' said Opal, her eyes close to Holly's face. 'And to Julius Root too. I'll look forward to it.'

Holly knew, dimly, that she had pulled out the Neutrino. She glanced at it through a red haze, flicking the setting up to three. The highest setting.

'Going to kill me?' Opal jeered. 'Neutrinos don't kill. But you can try aiming at my head – that's the weakest spot. Go on, try it.'

Holly held up the gun, aiming it at the pixie's temple. One pull of the trigger and then –

And then what, Holly? Is this going to answer your questions?

'Go on,' said Opal. 'I'm sure the LEP wouldn't mind their golden girl killing someone who's tried to destroy the People so many times. Just pull the trigger, Captain. And then I'll be unrealized possibility, and oh – how happy – you'll have your commander back with you, alive and well. Wouldn't that be nice?'

Will you save Julius by doing this?

Holly released the shot, just one, but she had lowered her hand before that and aimed it at the phone at the bottom of the stairs. The Neutrino's beam fried the phone's circuits, destroying all information it contained.

'I don't want your blood on my hands,' she said quietly, taking the cuffs from her belt. 'That's why I'm letting you go.' She twisted Opal's arms behind her back and bound the pixie's wrists together tightly. 'I'll let the LEP deal with you.'

'That's the trouble with you,' said Opal, as Holly hauled her to her feet. 'You see everything in black and white, good versus evil. It isn't always like that.'

'I think I'd rather take my chance with that.' Holly pushed the pixie down the steps to the platform. 'You're going back to the past and you're going to do everything you've done, but I can live with that. It's my past now.'

'Captain Short?' Someone laid a hand on her shoulder. 'Captain Burbage of Retrieval One with the squad. Got the call from Foaly.'

Holly stepped back as the Retrieval team unshielded and took over. One officer knocked Opal out with a sedative patch; another clipped her to his belt and checked her cuffs. Then Captain Burbage saluted to her, and the squad fired up their wings and flew out into the storm outside, taking Opal back to Haven City with them.

She went back to retrieve the helmet from the stairs, sparks dancing over her hand as they magically healed her cuts and bruises. She put on the helmet, half-listening to Foaly jabbering away on the speakers.

'We got her,' said Foaly chirpily. 'Finally! Thought we lost her in Ireland. Good job, Holly. Now come back here and let's celebrate eh? How about some sim-wine? Caballine gave me quite a good bottle for my last birthday, I know you don't drink but you'll like it, I think…'

She paused on the last step and kicked apart the remains of Artemis's fairy phone with her foot.

What happens next? she wondered. Where do we go from here?

'Holly?' Foaly was saying. 'Hello? Earth to Holly. Kelp wants to see you, said he's never felt so proud. Well that's me saying it, but he looks it. Come on, we're waiting for you in Police Plaza. Things are looking better in Haven – we've got it sorted out. Almost, really. But you know what I mean.'

She strapped on the wings and rose in a lazy loop, her fingers brushing the grey walls of the station. She could smell the wet earth and hear the rain pounding outside, and her hand was healed completely, back to normal.

It's over, she thought, emerging out of the station into the rain. Things will be back to normal. I'm glad.

A/N: I think the Queen of Hearts screams "Off with their heads!" all the time not because she wants to, but because she can. The same goes for Opal.

Central Station = KL Sentral = main transport hub in Kuala Lumpur. (Locals just call the place KL Sentral.) The KTM (Keretapi Tanah Melayu) Komuter lines are land lines which run from outlying suburban areas to KL, where they converge at KL Sentral. And yep, there's a Komuter line from Port Klang to Sentral. Port Klang happens to be the busiest port in Malaysia.

And I destroyed the phone! *headdesk* The A/H shippers won't be too happy XD *runs away from the impending wrath of the fangirls*