A/N: Sorry for the wait again. College is HARD. But here's chapter 9, I seriously hope you guys are still out there. Hello? Hello?

In the aftermath of Foaly's discovery, one of the largest and most surreal searches in LEP history. Armed with cages and nets, most of the on-duty staff of the LEP were searching the headquarters for a guinea pig.

Foaly didn't believe N'Zall's new body would be found, it was hardly a coincidence that it went missing at the same time as this new threat arose. While the teams searched the building, he scoured the surveillance of the technician room where the cage was.

It wouldn't have been hard to free N'zall, as he was the least heavily guarded prisoner the LEP had ever held, being a pet rodent. The technicians were put in charge of feeding and caring for him, which they did with great enthusiasm. It had taken one of them nearly getting stabbed to stop putting small swords in the cage with him, as he eventually learned that using both his front paws made up for his lack of thumbs.

While this was happening, Holly was once again out in the city. She was still off of the case, not that she would have participated in the absurd search anyway. As she walked away from the plaza, she had an idea of where she could go for some support.

Across Haven, the Frond Memorial stood tall, reminding the citizens of Haven of the king who had saved them all from the mud men. Over the centuries, the area around it had been made into an area for the memorial of all fallen heroes of the people. Many LEP officers' ashes lay inside the stone memorials that made a spiraling pattern out from the statue of the elven king. Holly walked along one arm of this spiral, coming to a stop in front of one in particular.

The memorial she stopped at didn't actually contain someone's ashes, as no body was left to be cremated. This wasn't uncommon, as many of the fairies in the memorial had put their whole being into their sacrifices for The People. Instead the ashes inside consisted of material that represented him, a uniform, his blaster, and a picture of his graduating academy class, and a cigar. Holly knelt down in front of it, her reflection in the mirrored bronze plaque looking back at her as she read the message inscribed there.

Here lies the last mortal remains of

LEP Commander Julius Root,

Who gave his life in defense of

Haven.

The message was essentially a form letter, repeated on so many of the other plaques around it. She had always felt the the commander deserved a more eloquent epitaph, but it was what he would have wanted. Root felt that The People came first, and laying down his life was the least he could do for them. In his last full conversation with Holly before his death, he had been convincing her to take the Major position she had just talked to Trouble about.

While he may not have wanted to, Julius would always have done whatever was necessary to protect as many of Haven's citizens as he could. Even if that meant sacrificing himself, Holly thought, Or sacrificing Artemis.

Holly realized that was the answer he would have given her. One human was not worth risking the lives The People, no matter how smart or important he was. Or how much you love him.

Realizing the truth, Holly let out a sob. She did not start crying, as she felt that would be an offense to the man whose grave she knelt before.

"I can't do it Julius," She said, her voice shaky, "I can't give up Artemis, not even for The People. There has to be another way."

She decided that would be her great philosophy. The good of The People came first, yes, but not before every other option, to save as many as could be saved, was exhausted. She wasn't going to let Artemis die for her race. Not again.

-Demon camp-

Artemis awoke tied to a chair. Looking around, he immediately began assessing his situation. Tied down to a chair, one bright light directly above me to disrupt my vision of the room around me, how original. Artemis ducked his head, shading his view, and allowed his vision to clear. He couldn't see much, but he was able to make out several figures standing around the edge of the room, as well as some boxes or equipment he couldn't make out. I get the feeling this isn't going to be pleasant.

Artemis also realized, with a pang of sorrow, that the presence in his head was now gone, meaning his only company, Orion, was gone with it.

One of the figures stepped forward, his upper body entering the cone of light around Artemis. It was a buck demon with a horn missing, evidently broken off in some sort of fight, judging by the jagged partial horn sticking out of his head. The demon abruptly hit Artemis in the face with the back of his hand. How much more cliched can these demons get? Artemis thought, also, Ow!

"So you thought to call for help, huh little mud man?" The demon said in a mocking tone, "You think we weren't prepared for that? Our base had a self destruct, it was long gone before you precious elf captain could get there."

Good, thought Artemis, He doesn't realize that I left a message. "Please," Artemis said, letting the pain seep into his voice, "Just let me go, they're never going to give up No. 1."

"Then I'm afraid we'll have to kill you." The demon said this casually, and Artemis could tell he would have no qualms about ending his life. The chuckling around the edge of the room strengthened this conclusion. Artemis experimentally tried to see how much he could move, and felt several somethings digging into his ankles and feet. Thank you Holly, he thought, remembering his plan. The demons had evidently not thought to search him entirely after recapturing him. He decided it was time to have some fun. Suddenly, he looked up, directly into the eyes of the demon above him.

"That would be a mistake." He said, all trace of fear or pain gone from his voice, leaving only his normal, smug tone. "Because then, you see, my 'precious elf captain' would pursue you to the ends of the earth and beyond. She was able to pull me back from death itself, do you really think you could hide from her?"

This made the demon step back, suddenly scared of this frail human who, despite having every reason to, did not fear him. Deciding the conversation was over, he signaled to someone behind Artemis' back, who brought a buzz baton down on his neck, knocking him unconscious again. Even so, he thought he could still see a trace of that smug grin on his face. He had once fought a demon with the same grin. Though he had won, he lost a horn and was disgraced during that fight, his opponent turning out to be far more cunning and powerful than his stature suggested. Just a coincidence, He convinced himself, Just a coincidence.

-Police Plaza-

Holly had made her way back to LEP headquarters, rushing to the ops booth. She had an idea, but it was risky.

In the booth, Foaly and Trouble were watching surveillance footage. As Holly walked in, she saw a young demon female, whom she had seen around the building a few times, come into the room on the screen. Checking to make sure she was unseen, she walked up to a cage on a table and reached in, pulling out the guinea pig everyone had been searching for, and replacing it with another. While this was smart, the two didn't match. It was enough, however, that the switch would not be noticed by those who watched the prisoner, who believed that no one would ever want to break a guinea pig out of jail.

"She's not even full time," Foaly said, pulling up the proper personnel file, "She's a part-time assistant brought in to help with the reconstruction. With all the chaos, we must have slipped up on the background checks."

Holly wasn't interested though. She didn't care who had stolen N'Zall, he was already gone. The most important thing now was to get Artemis back, and she had a plan.

"I've got an idea of how we can get Artemis back." She said, changing the topic, "It's fairly simple, we do exactly what they want, give them No. 1."

A/N: Yet another cliffhanger! Who saw that coming? Anyway, sorry again for the long wait, chapter 10 is in production and shouldn't take too long after my current semester ends. Stay tuned!