Disclaimer: If I owned Artemis Fowl do you think I would make fan fiction stories for it? That's right, I don't own Artemis Fowl.
Fowl Manor, Artemis' Study
When Nick awoke he was handcuffed to a chair. Well nothing unusual there. The elf in the room did seem a bit odd at the moment.
"Is he still asleep Holly? I heard him groan." Artemis said, typing rapidly on a computer.
Nick closed his eyes a grumbled a little. He realized he normally snored and quietly faked it.
"Um, it's hard to tell if he's faking or not." The female elf said.
"It can't be that hard." Artemis sighed.
"We could always poke his feet with those sharp needles you have." Holly lied.
"Good morning Mr. Fowl! Anything I can do for you?" Nick said, fully awake now.
"I thought as much." Artemis muttered, "No, I don't require anything at the moment. However, once I get this projector hooked up to my computer I will need you."
"Whatever you say! I mean you're the boss, man!" Nick smiled falsely.
"Is he always so easy to intimidate?" The elf asked.
"Hmm? Oh, yes mostly. You should have seen Juliet take him down the one time he was brave." Artemis smirked.
"I didn't want to hurt a girl, that's why she tackled me." Nick snorted.
"Better men than you have tried and failed to get around Juliet Butler." Holly snickered.
"Might I ask who you are?" Nick asked Holly.
"I'm Captain Holly Short of the LEP. In case you don't know that stands for…"
"Lower Elements Police. I wanted to be on the LEP when I was four. Then Clyde and Bonnie got me involved in crime." Nick looked Holly up and down, "Say, you're not here to arrest me are you?"
"Negative. I'm here to find out more about you." Holly said airily.
"Oh. Okay, whatever. I'm Nick; it was nice to meet you."
Holly turned back to Artemis. "What's taking you so long?" She hissed.
"I haven't reequipped this computer with the correct fairy technology since the mind wipe. I need to do that before I can connect the projector." Artemis explained.
Holly ground her teeth. She had been waiting for two hours.
A few minutes later Artemis had finally hooked the hologram projector up to his computer and was able to amplify the volume and restore the older holographic quality.
"I believe we're all set to watch this." The boy genius declared.
"What are we watching anyway? If this is one of those boring nature documents we have to watch in school then I'll be asleep in about five minutes." Nick warned.
"I think you'll find this film a little more interesting, based on the fact that your mother was the lead actress." Artemis muttered.
"What? How can that be? Mom's been dead for like…" Nick tried figuring how long it had been, "A long time now."
Artemis crossed his arms and looked grumpily at Nick.
"Oh, it's prerecorded, I get it. So is like her will or what?" Nick shrugged, immediately wishing he hadn't; the cuffs cut into his wrists.
"I assure you I don't know. We decided to wait for you to wake up to watch it." Artemis muttered.
Before Nick could ask any more questions Holly reached across the desk and hit play.
"This is a message for my son, Nicholas Johnson. If you aren't him then I suggest you leave this alone." The sprite on the screen said.
"It's password encrypted from there. I have to admit that the code is too complex for even me to crack." Artemis said as a box requesting a password popped up, "Do you have any idea as to what the password may be? I could probably crack the code in a matter of days, but it seems quicker this way."
"What happens when you put in the wrong password?" Nick asked.
"It says something about flavor." Holly explained and then said "Unicorn" into the speaker.
"You know that flavor is wrong Nick! You've got to give me the right one!" The sprite on the screen called.
"Do you have any idea what that means?" Artemis asked Nick skeptically.
"Maybe. It might have something to do with a game we used to play when I was a lot younger." Nick said, furrowing his brow, "If I remember correctly she asked for a flavor of ice cream, but she didn't tell me which one. I had to guess until I gave her the right flavor." He grunted sadly.
Holly winced. She remembered how it felt to lose her mother. This boy obviously missed his.
"Chocolate!" Nick said into the speaker, as he pulled his chair forwards with his feet.
The computer informed him it was the wrong flavor.
"Vanilla!"
Wrong flavor.
"Strawberry!"
Wrong again.
Nick thought for a moment.
"Garlic with peanut butter!" Nick exclaimed.
"Ew! There's no way that's…" Holly started.
"Good job Nick! I can't believe you figured it out! I'll get you next time!" The sprite on the screen sang.
Nick looked forlorn, remembering that there would be no next time.
"Excellent Mr. Johnson. Now let's see what mysteries this video contains." Artemis said, trying to cheer Nick up.
"Well Nick," The video started, "If you're watching this then I'm probably dead. That or you got into my stuff. If I'm not dead, please put this back in Mommy's sock drawer."
Nick half snickered half sniffled.
"If I am dead then I would like to let you know why. The LEP will probably tell you that your father and I were killed in a tragic accident or something. They're plenty good at that." The sprite said with a roll of her eyes.
Holly glanced at Nick guiltily.
"It might have been an accident. It probably wasn't. I have always tried to be friendly to everyone I've ever met. I hope you'll grow up to be the same way. There was one person I wasn't the friendliest to. I was so unpleasant that he may come back for revenge. He is very good at staging accidents and he'll probably get away with killing me. I don't mean to frighten you but after he's done with me he may come after you." The sprite paused, "His name is JaJaJaJa SpiSpiSpiSpi…" The computer kept replaying the two syllables until Artemis turned it off.
"I'm sorry. The hologram it came on was several years old and it seemed very beat up." Artemis apologized.
Nick's head drooped. "Yeah, whatever."
"We'll find out who this Ja Spi guy is, I promise. Do you know anyone whose name sounds anything like that?" Holly said sympathetically.
"I'll think about it, but I doubt it. It's kind of hard to contemplate the fact my parents were murdered." Nick sighed.
Holly, feeling very guilty after the remark Nick's mother made about the LEP, undid the cuffs on Nick's arms.
Artemis knew he probably should feel guilty, that being the correct mood for the time being, but didn't. He was proud he had brought Nick to Ireland, if he hadn't then Nick would have never found out about his parents murder.
After Butler had escorted Nick to a guest room (not the cell in the basement) Artemis pulled Holly aside.
"Do you think you could get Foaly to run a search on Nick's mother? I'd do it myself but I need time to think." Artemis said.
"Probably, Foaly is very compliant to people who don't hack into his computer. But I think you should spend some more time with Nick and try to make him feel better." Holly chided gently.
"Making him feel better will not help find his parent's killer." Artemis said calmly.
"Can't you spend one hour with him? Just one hour. Play a game, shoot hoops, or do whatever teenage humans do." Holly scolded.
"Fine. One hour." Artemis muttered.
The teenage mastermind headed for Nick's room. He had to turn himself around at one point, remembering Nick was no longer in the basement. When he finally got to the right door he knocked once.
Nick opened the door. "What do you want, Dracula?" He sniffed rudely.
"I was wondering if you would like to come down to the kitchen to have a carbonated drink with me." Artemis asked, trying to remind himself of what this boy had been through.
"A carbon-what now?" Nick inquired curiously.
"A carbonated… oh forget it. Would you like a soda?" Artemis said irritably.
"Sure dude. Listen, I'm sorry about before," Nick said, closing his door as he exited the room.
"No need to be it was, after all, I who kidnapped you." Artemis said with a wave of his hand.
"I know, but being tackled, kidnapped, interrogated, cuffed to a chair, and finding out my parents were murdered aside, this has been a pretty awesome vacation." Nick smiled.
The boys went downstairs to be greeted by Juliet.
"Get down fairy boy!" The young woman cried, knocking Nick to the ground, "Are you okay Artemis? Did this scum-bag do anything to you?"
"Of course not Juliet. He is simply coming with me to get a soda." Artemis explained.
"I thought you hated soda! You told me that soda could rot your teeth and such. You made it sound like soda was the route to all evil!" Juliet said, rather exasperated.
"Yes well, it is always good to try something new." Artemis said nervously.
"Okay… what kind do you want? I've got strawberry, orange, and lemon-lime." Juliet said slowly. She wondered if Opal had sent a clone of Artemis.
"I'll have orange." Nick said.
"Make it a double orange." Artemis decided he better just stick to Nick's opinions about soda, it was probably the safest path.
As the boys sipped their sodas Holly came rushing down the stairs.
"Foaly did the search you asked for and found out that Nick's dad, Travis, wasn't the first human Minnie dated." Holly gasped; human stairs really took a lot out of her.
"Who else did she date?" Nick asked, very intrigued to find his mother had once loved someone besides Travis.
"Apparently this guy was her boyfriend for a few years until she dumped him." Holly said, slowly regaining her breath.
"How did you find this out?" Artemis inquired.
"We hacked into her old Fairybook account." Holly said.
"That is kind of creepy you know." Nick said skeptically.
"Kind of." Holly admitted, "But guess who this guy was! Artemis, you're going to love this." she said sarcastically.
"Please don't say it's anyone related to me." Artemis groaned.
"Nope. The guy's name is Jason," she paused, "Jason Spiro."
"I recognize the last name but not the first." Artemis said grimly.
"He's Jon's brother. And before you ask, yes the same Jon Spiro from our Chicago adventure and yes he took over the Spiro Needle." Holly grimaced.
"You're saying that Nick's mother might have been killed by a Spiro and the LEP never looked into this Jason fellow?" Artemis groaned.
"Yeah well Jon Spiro has probably killed his brother off by now so we don't have much to worry about." Holly argued.
"You wouldn't happen to be talking about Jason Spiro the millionaire uncle I have, would you?" Nick asked.
"You have an uncle named Jason Spiro? You can't be serious." Holly said.
"He's not my real uncle. My mom told me he was an old family friend, and since both of my parents were only children they made Jason my unofficial uncle." Nick explained, "I've always liked my Uncle Jason, I don't think he would have killed my parents."
"If he's such a great relative then how come you aren't staying with him?" Artemis asked.
"My mom put something in her will about how under no circumstances I was to live with my uncle. That actually makes sense now." Nick told them.
"Okay, we've got the name of the crook, now we just need to get him," Holly said, flapping her fake wings experimentally, "And take him down."
A/N: Now I finally have a plot! Mwa ha ha!
