In an instant, Artemis jumped back and pushed Holly over, putting them about three feet apart. Holly felt Artemis's cold demeanor start to return, and she sighed.

Artemis got up and began walking over to the elfin man, taking Holly with him, until he was a few feet away from him. His face was back to that stony, emotionless look, but he never let go off her hand.

"What are you doing here, Julius?" he demanded icily.

"What were you doing with my captain, Fowl?"

"I asked first. And it doesn't matter anyways." He leaned in closer to the commander. "I can do whatever I want with her. I own her."

Holly gasped, staring up the human next to her in shock. "You wouldn't…"

"Quiet," he hissed. Artemis turned back to Julius. "Answer me. Why. Are. You. On. My. Property?"

"I came to see Captain Short."

"First of all, she is not a captain anymore. She is no longer in services to the LEP. And second, I don't ever recall telling you that I would allow that."

"That's because you didn't. I didn't ask your permission, Fowl," he growled. "I need to talk to her."

Artemis glared at him for a minute. He glared back. Frowning, he pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a few deep breaths, and glanced down at Holly. Instead of glaring, she was watching the exchange with wide, hopeful eyes. When Artemis looked at her, she looked up at him too, silently pleading with her eyes. He sighed, giving in this time. "Fine. Ten minutes," he said stiffly. Then he turned on his heel and walked a few feet away, giving them some amount of privacy.

Once again, the first thing Holly did was throw her arms around her commander, practically tackling him. "Commander Root," she breathed.

"Holly," he greeted. "It's good to see you too. Now get off!"

She did, smiling sheepishly. "Sorry. It's just… seeing another fairy… after so long. It feels good."

"I'm sure it does. Now, to business. We need to talk." He took a breath. "I need your help."

"Me?" Holly said. "Why? With what?"

"On a case," Root said. "I need your help. I think you-"

"Why?" she pressed. "Since when does my opinion count for so much? Back when I still worked in the office, in recon, I would have been the person you came to, if at all. Remember, I'm a girl."

"I know. I discounted your intelligence because of your gender before. But-"

"You and all of the other sexist males I worked with," Holly muttered.

"I know, I know! Can you let me finish?" She nodded. "I need you to come back to Haven and help me on the case."

Holly hesitated. "I would… I want to. But I have orders." Her eyes flicked to Artemis.

"I can change that." He turned to the human in question. "Fowl!"

Artemis turned, opening his mouth to say something, but Root cut him off. Layering his voice with the hypnotic mesmer, he intoned, "human. You will release all orders placed on Holly."

There was a brief moment there, when nothing was said, and in that brief moment Holly and Root both thought it worked. Then Artemis smirked. "Nice try. My eyes are protected by reflective contacts. I am not an idiot, contrary to what you might believe."

"D'Arvit!" Root swore. "What is with you? Why can't you just let her go?"

Unknowingly, he had just voiced the question that had kept Holly wondering the whole time she had been there. And, hopeful of finally getting an answer, she turned when Root asked it.

Artemis sighed. "I cannot let her go. Not without the payment. Why can't you all just be happy I let her live?" He went and sat back down on the bench, his head falling into his hands as he started rubbing his temples. "Why can't that just be enough?"

"Because it can't! Holly is young, she has to much potential to sit an waste away here! She needs her freedom!" Root exclaimed, his face already taking on that familiar red hue.

Holly just stood there, shocked into silence. Then she came out of it. "Wait, Commander, Artemis, it-"

She was cut off as Artemis surged to his feet, towering over the male elf. "I know she does! And I've tried! I've given her as much as I can! I have given her as much freedom as I could without putting her in danger. I have given her everything that I could. I let her live, I took her to perform the ritual, I-"

"You never took me to perform the ritual," Holly interrupted. "Otherwise I would have magic left."

He sneered at her. "You do have magic, Holly. Maybe not magic from when you first got here, but you have magic in your body."

"No I don't! I think I would know if I had magic in my system, Artemis."

"Obviously not," he snapped. They glared at each other for a second, then he growled lowly, snatching her by the arm. Then he drew his knife.

Root tried to stop him. "Fowl, don't be rash, she-"

"Quiet." he ordered, throwing him a cold glance. He pulled Holly around with him and pushed her down on the bench, then fought to straighten her arm. "Stop struggling," he whispered, so only she could hear. "Otherwise I could end up seriously hurting you."

Holly's struggles ceased, but she didn't stop protesting. "Then don't!"

He didn't bother with an answer, paying neither of them any mind as they continued to both protest. He yanked up her long sleeve and made a long cut down her forearm.

Holly yelped. She tried to pull away from him. "Let go! You've done it, now stop squeezing my arm!"

He did, though reluctantly. "Watch," he insisted.

Sure enough, blue sparks flitted out of the wound, healing it slowly. "Wow, sure looks like magic to me," Artemis said, his tone sarcastic. Holly gasped in surprise.

"H- how? You never even let me out of the manor before this!"

"Yes I did! You just didn't know it, because you were still unconscious and bleeding out everywhere! You were still half-dead from trying to kill yourself! And I'm not as stupid as you think, Holly, I knew the only way to save you was to take you out." His voice lowered a bit at the end.

"Wait, you did what?" Root demanded, turning and looking at Holly. "Is that true?"

"Yes, it is!" Artemis answered before she could. "And she did it of her own free will! She purposely tried to kill herself! I have a feeling it was because of me, too, though I'm no quite sure what I could have done to-"

"You don't know what you did!" Holly exclaimed. "You are such a bad freaking liar, Artemis Fowl! What do you think it was that you did? Hmm? And it is what you did, not what you could have done, because that would be wrong. You did do things to me. Or did you forget about the fact that you took away my life, that you tortured me, that you yelled at me to go rot in the basement, and everything else?"

"I only did those things because you deserved them!" he shot back at her.

"How would you know that I deserved to have everything taken from me? What would have made you think that? Hmm? You didn't even know me when you were making that part of your cruel little plan up!"

"Okay, so not that part. But everything else you did deserve! You disobeyed direct orders, doing things I told you specifically not to do, and you provoked me with the basement comment. You provoked me when you were slapped, too," Artemis continued. "And you admitted to that, so you can't even try to lie about it."

"I wasn't going to."

"Good." He paused. "You needed those punishments. You deserved them. And if you keep it up, perhaps you will get more." He snarled slightly. "You know, I cannot believe I just was going to kiss you. I cannot believe I also thought I had feelings for you. And I especially can't believe that you would return them."

"Me either," Holly said, agreeing with him for the first time in several minutes.

"Aww, look, we're actually agreeing," he said sarcastically.

"Yeah. Probably one of the only things we still do agree on."

"And I have another. That this conversation is over." As his voice rang out around them, it carried, and Butler could hear it from on the roof. He immediately turned and went to the edge of the roof, drawing out his sniper gun from its large holster as Artemis watched.

Holly followed his eyes, and her own widened as they saw where he was looking, who he was communicating with, and as they took in the gun in his hand.

She watched for a few more second as he lifted it and took careful aim, but not at her.

"Commander, what did you need Holly for again?" Artemis asked, his voice, I possible, even colder and harder than before.

Julius, still a little shell-shocked from the conversation a few minutes before, took a few moments to answer. "A case," he finally said, quietly.

"Fine. In that case-" Artemis began to concede, but was cut short by Holly.

"No! He's distracting you, Commander! Look out!" And then, just as Butler let loose a dart, the commander turned, so it was aimed directly for his chest. His eyes didn't even have time to widen, before Holly, thinking it was a bullet and not realizing that it was just a tranquilizer dart, screamed and ran into her former boss, knocking him down, but taking the dart to the side of the neck in the process.

Artemis's anger evaporated instantly. "Holly!" He dropped down beside the elf, catching her as she swayed and fell, and laying her across his knees. He gently extracted the dart from her neck.

"Holly. It was only tranquilizer, you know."

"Now I do. I thought… it was actual bullets," she breathed. It took her a minute, for as the tranquilizer started kicking into her system, she kept losing her thought process.

"No. I wouldn't do that." He stroked her hair back off her face and sighed. I am going to regret this, he thought, but he said it anyways. "Look at me." She did, meeting his deep, focused blue eyes with her unsteady, cloudy hazel ones. "I free you to go with your commander back to Haven, Holly. But, when you have finished completely with the case he needs your help with, you must return. When the case is closed, you have to come back here. Understand?"

She nodded. Artemis looked at the surprised face of Root. "You got that too?"

"Yes," he agreed. "I'll make sure she comes back."

"Good." As the human spoke, his hand slid into hers, squeezing it gently. She was slowly drifting away. He lifted her, and she murmured something incomprehensible into his chest. He just shook his head sadly as he handed her to Root. "It's settled then," he sighed. "Take her now, but remember to bring her back when it's over. Otherwise, I will have to come back for her myself, and it won't be a pretty scene then."

The commander nodded. "Understood."

"Good. Glad we understand each other." Then Artemis leaned down and kissed her forehead. "Goodbye, Holly," he murmured into her hair. Then he pulled back. "Go," he said to Root.

And so they did. As Artemis watched them fly away, he sighed again. But before he went in the house, he whispered one last thing to the open air.

"What's wrong with me?"

680...