Disclaimer: The characters, much of the dialogue, and sadly, even the plot are not mine; they all belong to Eoin Colfer.

Pages: 312, 313 – 315

Chapter 30: The Truth

Dressed in shining, silver foil suits that would effectively prevent their heat signatures showing up on a thermal scan, none other than ten-year-old Artemis and Butler stood by the study window, their mismatched figures casting long shadows across the carpet from the evening light outside.

"What was that about a time stream?" said the boy as he surveyed the pair where they stood exposed in the middle of the study, smugness in every line of his small, pointed face.

Butler stood silently next to him. As he deftly stripped out of the silver foil suit in several swift, efficient movements, one of the man's usual big guns became visible, held fast to his chest by a military-grade shoulder holster. His gaze trained on their young adversaries, his guard never dropped once.

Holly couldn't think. She didn't even bother trying to move from where she was. She had no magic, not even enough to try the mesmer again. But even if Butler hadn't been armed and as fast as any panther, and she and Artemis were allowed the chance to contrive some way to escape from here, they were out of time. Holly could feel Nº1's magic dissipating with every second and, if they did leave, by the time they were able to get back it would be too late.

However, instead of the paralyzing fear and despair Holly probably ought to have been feeling at a moment like this, a flicker of irritation stirred at the back of her mind. They had literally been a step away from being in the clear. Now it was going to end like this? Thwarted, not by this time's incarnation of sinister, clinically psychopathic Opal Koboi, or greedy, depraved Damon Kronski, or a hoard of spoiled, insatiable Extinctionists, but by a ten-year-old version of the person who'd dragged her here in the first place?

An unusual note of urgency crept into Artemis's tone as he said, echoing Holly's thoughts, "There isn't time for this."

"I think there is," said boy obnoxiously as he unzipped his own foil suit. Almost leisurely he pulled it back off his arms and stepped out of it, discarding the mass of glimmering silver by the window. "You have broken into my house again; the least you can do is explain that time stream comment." His sharp blue eyes lingered on his older self. "Not to mention the fact that you are alive."

They had come too far to hope for secrecy now. As dangerous as it was, they had no options left, and so without hesitation Artemis jerked his head to fling the long locks of hair half concealing his face away from his eyes. "You must recognize me now," he said with a tad of impatience. "Surely."

However, little Artemis was apparently determined to be obtuse – highly unusual – and said with his usual irksome snide condescension, "This is not a shampoo commercial. Please stop flicking your hair."

This was getting nowhere. Holly's chest felt constricted with the effort of keeping hold of the spark, maintaining the presence of that pinprick of light inside her. Her lungs had trouble taking in enough oxygen, and for a moment she felt lightheaded.

"Hurry, or I'll have to go without you," she urged, her face twisted in a grimace. The threat was basically an empty one, given that if she could have opened the time tunnel and escaped Butler and little Artemis before they had time to jump forward and get a hold of her, or injure her in some way, then she could have just as easily taken Artemis and Jayjay with her, and she couldn't have brought herself to leave him behind to save herself anyway. However, she thought he might try a little harder with some incentive, and they might just make it out of here after all.

Twenty-four hours ago, when she was sitting gagged and tied to a baby chair, waiting for her execution, Holly would have believed any attempt to reason with the little mud-monster a waste of breath, and that they now might as well start getting used to the idea of living a life in hiding in the wrong time for the next eight years. But despite the nightmarish three days she'd just had, strangely she was now inclined to be more optimistic.

"Please," said the elder Artemis desperately. "We need to go. It's a matter of life and death."

However, just as when he was twelve, thirteen, and fourteen, ten-year-old Artemis always had to have his way.

"I had a feeling you would be back," he said, paying no heed whatsoever to his elder self's desperate tone, his own voice self-satisfied as usual. "This is where it all began, right on this spot. I reviewed the security tapes, and you simply appeared in this room."

Too tired for much in the way of depth of thought on this, Holly could only vaguely wonder when it was this kid found the time to keep track of absolutely everything from every angle all the time as he continued, wide smirk plastered across his face, "Then you followed me to Africa, so I thought if I saved the creature's life you might end up back here with my lemur. We simply blocked our heat signatures and waited. And here you are."

Hearing this, the Artemis from her time stopped, temporarily distracted. "That's pretty flimsy reasoning," he pointed out, eyebrows slightly raised. "We were obviously after the lemur. Once we had the lemur, why would we return here?"

"I realize the logic was flawed," replied the younger Artemis unconcernedly, "but I had nothing to lose. And, as we can see, a lot to gain."

Holly looked up to really look a the boy standing next to his bodyguard for the first time, to study the expression on his face. I am in complete control, it seemed to say. I have been in control from the beginning, and now is no different. I have turned everything to my advantage.

There was nothing in his face to contradict his words. And yet, there could be no denying his statement was blatantly untrue. Nothing to lose? And since when, Holly wondered, did Artemis Fowl and his gold-obsessed genius brain consider five million euros in diamonds nothing? The logic was more than flawed. If what he said was to be believed, he had gambled away one bird he had in his hand for two in the bush without a thought.

But Holly knew her friend too well to believe him capable of throwing away one prize on the promise of such an unlikely speculative venture. There was only one explanation then to account for what he had done.

Back as Holly had sat in that barren cement prison cell, and the cold, twelve-year-old Artemis Fowl had stood before her with his mirrored lenses, calmly informing her how he had injected her with sodium pentothal to force her to reveal her own people's secrets, Artemis Fowl had merely been her enemy, a pitiless, grasping human like any other with no conscience. But even after they had become tentative allies, then friends, and at last quite good friends, the cold human boy who had taken her captive that night, weaving his lies to work the situation to his advantage for the sake of gold, her personal arch nemesis who had so humiliated and tormented her that day so many years ago, had never in her mind ceased to exist. That he was who he appeared to be back then was something she had never questioned, the evil she had seen with her own eyes.

Holly had all along really assumed without even consciously thinking about it that somehow his interaction with the fairies, perhaps starting with the recovery of his mother's sanity and of his father's life, was entirely responsible for changing him from the sinister, greedy individual with no morals she had met into the boy struggling with a conscience, who would say with such a look of bewilderment, "I honestly don't know. Half of me wants to be a criminal, and the other half wants to be a normal teenager." His progress had seemed so smooth and natural, perhaps even an inevitable result of the positive influence of spending so much time among fairies, that they had both seeded and nurtured this good that had been absent from him before.

But here, she had for the first time had a chance to compare the Artemis at age fourteen directly to the ten-year-old version of this time. What had seemed natural before she could now see was odd and jarring, the thought that someone could change so drastically in just four years suddenly seeming beyond all rational possibility. More than anything it was that that had so unsettled her at the Extinctionists' compound, when for the first time she consciously thought about what she had always unconsciously assumed – that Artemis in his younger days had indeed been as depraved and as much a villain as Kronski and the others. But she knew, deep down, if she accepted that she would have to ask herself a question. That question was, if she really looked at the facts before her, how in all logic could she really believe he was exactly what she saw him to be now, that there wasn't still an impenetrable darkness that he was forced to hide to be what they all wanted him to be? True major changes like that had to take years, and the quicker the change the more unstable it tended to be, with a higher probability of a relapse back into the person he was before. How could someone who had known only heartlessness and selfish ambition before grow empathy for others so rapidly?

It was the image they had all had of their human friend, of his coldness. "I want you all to think back to the first time you met me," he had said just before the mind-wipe, after the operation at the Spiro Needle. "Remember that night? If you take away my memories of the People, I might become that person again." And so, it was an image Artemis himself had only seemed to confirm, as though that self from just a year before could have been so different as that.

Holly's eyes briefly shifted up to the human standing beside her, his face for the most part composed, but his brow furrowed in thought and concern as he stared back at his past self.

Lies. That was the answer, the real truth she had never before been able to see. Over and over again, he had always been lying. To her, to everyone. And she had swallowed all those lies as always.

"My father for a lemur. How could I not go through with it?"

"You healed my mother. Healed her and damned her."

He had gone from a boy who would sell another living thing to save his parent to a boy who would blackmail a friend to do the same. Now the ten-year-old was standing there, honestly trying to make them think he had intervened on her behalf out of some personal self-interest, with that same cold, disconcerting presence he had had on the day she had first met him. Yes, the Artemis she knew now had changed a great deal in the last few years, and knowing the fairies had certainly changed his opinion on the kind of person he wanted to be, the depths he believed he ought to be willing to sink to. But there had been no drastic change the way she had seen it.

She had been deceived as all the rest were; she had failed to see the reality that, to make his opponents and everyone else believe he had no sliver of decency or kindness, no weakness, was as integral a part to his lies that let him win battle after battle as his other strategies and manipulations. That image of ruthlessness, of invincibility, was simply another necessary step to victory.

As his friend, Holly had begun to think she knew him so well, that she had played such a vital role in changing him from a monster into a sentient being capable of empathy and feeling. Yet here she was, only just now beginning to realize that she hadn't understood anything.

Holly's gaze went back to the younger version of her friend for a moment before she let her head drop to stare at the floor. Perhaps she had not done as much as she had thought. But she had still done something, still had things she could do. Right now she was not particularly impressed with his excuses, and she decided she wasn't going to let him get away with it this time. For one thing, she wasn't much in the mood to sit around listening to little Arty indulge in his favorite pastime of thoroughly unnecessary ego-tripping, even if they'd had the time.

"Artemis," she said, having to strain a little even to speak as she felt another wave of discomfort as the bit of magic connecting her to the future shrank a little more. Again she craned her neck to stare up at him from where she remained bent, a hand pressed to her chest, where her heartbeat fluttered unsteadily. "I know you have a heart," she insisted, managing to sound at once characteristically aggressive and confrontational despite her state. "You're a good person even if you don't know it yet. You sacrificed your diamonds to save my life. What will it take for you to let us go?"

Holly thought she could feel the eyes of the elder Artemis on her as she spoke, but she didn't turn to look.

Young Artemis was silent. To Holly's surprise, he did not instantly wave away or try to counter her assertion with some new, more convincing excuse. Strangely, even though he had flatly ignored the plea of his older self, his brow furrowed and he put the crook of his index finger to his lips, apparently taking her question seriously.

Holly closed her eyes and concentrated on the spark inside her as the ten-year-old thought about what he wanted, all the while she and Artemis stood there in their underwear, the clock ticking away, Opal drawing ever closer, Angeline's life continuing to fade.

Little Artemis finally answered. "The truth," he said.

An ironic request.

"I need to know the absolute truth about all this," he continued. "What kind of creature are you? Why does he look so familiar? What makes the lemur special? Everything."

Holly realized vaguely that this was the first time little Artemis had spoken to her directly, rather than refer to her in the third person as 'the creature' or 'it.' However, Holly did not have the strength for any long-winded explanations, so she shot the elder Artemis a You-take-it-from-here glance.

Artemis turned obligingly to his younger self. "Get me a pair of scissors," he commanded.

Little Artemis raised an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"It will be more efficient to show you first. We are pressed for time, in case you had not noticed." He spoke in clipped, cool tones, and Holly felt Artemis's hand squeeze her shoulder a bit tighter reassuringly.

Little Artemis, curiosity evidently winning out over his desire to continue to pass supercilious comments and be in control of absolutely everything all the time, did not argue.

Strangely, as the younger Artemis turned away from them and went for his desk where he kept his collection of office supplies, Holly thought she saw a flicker of a smile on the tall, lanky teen's lips as his eyes followed his younger self. Perplexed, she pursed her lips slightly. It was unmistakable. That was a smile she had come to know well – that smile that meant everything was going according to plan.

As young Artemis went to his desk to retrieve the scissors, the Artemis standing next to Holly turned to look down at her, and the grip on her shoulder tightened again for a moment.

"Do you think you can hold out a little longer?" he asked.

"Up to a point," Holly grunted. "But better make it fast."

Artemis nodded once, then lifted his eyes to the small figure standing in front of them.

"Will these do?" said the boy, dangling the scissors carelessly by the handle in his long fingers before offering them to Artemis.

Wordlessly, Artemis removed the arm around Holly's shoulder and took the offered handle, the object's twin sharp blades glinting silver in the evening light of the setting sun.

"Forgive me for not having the luxury to do a more presentable job," said Artemis, while he hacked away at the dark locks of his long, black hair until it was about as short as the younger Artemis's, although all of slightly uneven lengths, some sections cut crookedly or so they split in some places. He combed the rest of it back from his broad forehead the way he always did, though at the moment he only had his long fingers as tools to work with, then stared at the younger Artemis with his piercing mismatched eyes.

Young Artemis's own blue ones narrowed slightly. "...Hm. I had noticed you bear a striking resemblance to those of the Fowl bloodline," he said. "Particularly to my..." he hesitated, expression closed and calculating as ever. "Who are you?"

Artemis's thin lips curled as he eyed his younger self's expression.

"'Particularly to your father,' am I right?" he guessed. "That is a fair observation. I am a Fowl after all."

Little Artemis stared at his older self, an intensity in his eyes that wasn't there before. Perhaps he could somehow sense just how remarkable and astonishing the approaching revelation was.

"You heard what I said about the 'time stream,' didn't you?" Artemis continued, and Holly thought he was being unnecessarily melodramatic for someone who had emphasized being on a tight schedule a moment before. Next time, he should be the one to carry Nº1's magic and be the beacon himself.

Artemis was now smirking broadly, and she could see that old excitement flickering in his eyes, the anticipation of the big reveal. The last time she had seen it was the Extinctionists' banquet during her trial, she realized. It seemed like such a long time ago now.

"My partner and I are what you might call travelers from a time that occurs after this one," he said. "In more generic terms, we are from the future. Eight years into the future."

"I understood what you meant; there is no need to clarify," replied the boy. However, he did not sneer. The ten-year-old stared at his older self for a moment, his gaze almost fascinated now, then nodded once, as though this made total sense to him.

"I see," he said. "So then, if I am not mistaken, that would make you..."

"Correct," said Artemis, still smiling and, though his expression was unchanged from what it had been a moment before, Holly thought she detected a distinct aura of 'finally I can talk to someone of intelligence' radiating from his vaguely smug face. Before, when his petitions to his younger self to let them go had gone unacknowledged, Holly had felt for him, but now her sympathy was rapidly dissipating.

Artemis went on with that tone of authority that always forced others to believe whatever he said, his pale face illuminated by the orange glow of the setting sun outside, "I am your future, Artemis Fowl the Second, heir to the Fowl empire."

He dipped his head in a slight bow.

Holly resisted the urge to let out an irritated sigh and roll her eyes.

Young Artemis did not look shocked or astounded at this news, or even openly suspicious, but his attention to his older self now was so rapt thoughts must have been whirring through his head like bullet trains. He merely nodded once again.

Butler it seemed, however, was not so easy to convince. Standing protectively of his charge a little off to the side watching the exchange, the manservant broke from stony silence to say, "From the future, right. Next they'll be telling us the girl's really a little green alien in disguise."

"No," said little Artemis softly, eyes still locked with those of his other self. "It does make sense. After all, we know this creature is capable of hypnotism and invisibility. We have seen it. Why not time travel as well? But that is not all."

The boy closed his eyes a moment, perhaps taking a second to organize his thoughts, or maybe just trying to annoy Holly further. When he opened them again, his gaze remained trained on the older Artemis. "We discovered that the pair of you and your other accomplice had broken into the Bentley and stolen some of the materials there. At the time, I dismissed it as more of your magic, but even so, the inside of our vehicle is protected by a fingerprint scanner and code that only I, Butler, and my immediate family know. When I went back to view the log, it was recorded that it was I who had access the compartment, at the time when Butler and I were still in Rathdown Park." He paused. "So," he said softly, "if you intended to keep the truth hidden from me, that was a careless mistake on your part."

"Hardly a mistake," Artemis replied. "It was a risk that we were forced to take. I was, after all, aware that it would be unlikely for you to be able to guess at information we did not want you to have merely from that. I knew you would find an alternative explanation – and so you did."

Little Artemis, shrugged, though Holly thought there was just a touch of irritation about his cool features, and hardly ready to concede the point, but instead of arguing, he continued, "Also, I was able to hear some of what you said while I had you inside the Bentley titanium-locked trunk, and even some after you escaped. Although you were speaking in a language unfamiliar to me, the term 'lemur' was still the same – And so I realized soon after that the lemur must be your goal." His lips curled slightly, ever so pleased with his own intelligence as ever.

"But in addition to that, I also was quite sure I heard my own name. Again, I believed automatically you must be speaking about me, your chief opponent in the game, but I was also struck at the time how, based on the context, the female sounded more as though as though she was speaking to someone, rather than speaking of me. Not to mention, one doesn't ordinarily call an opponent they know so little by his first name only, though it occurred to me that perhaps you were merely underestimating me because of my age. It would certainly not be the first time. Unfortunately, these clues were not enough from which to discern the truth, but I will admit they are consistent with your story."

"Clever," admitted the older Artemis. "So, you are convinced then?"

Young Artemis considered for a moment, resting his chin on his delicate hand as he thought. "Not entirely," he said. "But I am curious to hear the rest of what you have to say."

Holly's knees felt weak and she slipped down a few inches, head bowing a little further. One would think two geniuses could figure out how to move things along a little more quickly.

"Hurry it up, Artemis," she hissed out of the corner of her mouth. "There's not much time left."

Holly felt Artemis's hand around her shoulder again, and he gently pulled her against his leg, giving her something to lean on.

Seriously, cut it out already, Arty.

Holly's face was flaming as she inconspicuously turned her head so her gaze was as far away from his red boxer shorts as she could get. Though his support was making it easier to stand, she wasn't sure it was worth it, as she could feel her heart burning probably double the energy now.

"We need to go," said Artemis, "so I will have to try make this as abbreviated as possible. I trust you will be able to keep up."

Little Artemis smirked. "I can try."

So Artemis began, and Holly was relieved when, this time, he cut right to the point.

"My friend here is what is called a 'fairy.'" He squeezed Holly's shoulder slightly again. "She is a captain within the Lower Elements Police Force, also known as the LEP, an organization of fairies in charge of maintaining peace. She is a friend of mine who agreed to accompany me on this mission."

Little Artemis was still smirking as his gaze flickered to Holly – probably thinking about how impressive a sight this made: a police captain standing here shivering in a one-piece next to a tall, skinny boy in boxer shorts. Holly had to suppress her sudden desire to maim.

The elder Artemis went on, speaking more quickly now. "Fairies, such as Captain Short here, possess magic which gives them a variety of abilities."

"So she was the one who brought you to this time," observed little Artemis.

"No," said the older Artemis, in full-lecture mode now. "Few fairies have enough magic for time travel. The fairy who sent us here is waiting back in the present – I suppose the future, from your perspective. A warlock named Nº1."

"Hmm," said young Artemis. He didn't comment on the odd name, though he looked thoroughly intrigued. "And so, your mission was to come back and retrieve the lemur. Why?"

"Fairies have found that the brain fluid of different kinds of animals have a variety of uses," Artemis answered. "The lemur – " He shot a glance at Jayjay, who was sitting patiently on his arm, and had just reached up to calmly begin grooming the teen's long black hair. "Or specifically, the silky sifaka, a creature I remembered that I myself had made extinct, possesses brain fluid that acts as the sole cure for a deadly disease that sprung up among the fairy people. The disease was thought to have been eliminated. But then..." His voice was suddenly quieter. "Mother contracted the disease."

Young Artemis's eyes widened by a fraction, and what little color there was seemed to drain from his face. "Mother?" he whispered, and for the first time, he really looked like a ten-year-old boy, the conniving, calculating look for once completely slipping from his features.

"That's right," replied Artemis. "That is why we are here. To rescue the lemur – "

"Jayjay," Holly inserted.

"Yes, 'Jayjay,' as we call him," Artemis amended, then continued. "The fairies were also concerned that my mother may not be the only case. Hence, why they agreed to such a drastic measure as time travel to allow us a chance to gain the cure for the disease."

"I see," said little Artemis. His voice was quiet, more subdued now. He was silent awhile, thinking. His face was perfectly smooth, but Holly imagined there was probably a battle going on behind those blue eyes. A battle of whether to refuse to be so naïve as to believe such a fantastical tale and actually give these strangers what they wanted before they had proven absolutely the truth of what they said, or to allow himself to simply take the bizarre story at face value, to let them go in order to do his part to help them to save his mother.

"I see," he said again at last. Then, hesitantly, as though still struggling with himself, he said, "I... genuinely appreciate the fact that you have told me all this. And I..." He trailed off, still hesitant, but then his pale face smoothed and he had composed himself once more. "And I certainly won't risk Mother's life in the future. So you should go."

He gestured for Butler to stand down, then shook his head slightly. "Though I must admit, this all seems too extraordinary to be real. It is hardly scientific – I am still at the moment open to the possibility that this is a strange dream concocted by my subconscious as the result of a bit of some poorly digested meal."

"There is one more thing," said Artemis.

Holly looked up, and so did little Artemis. Holly wanted to yell, 'No, no more things, please.' She couldn't keep Nº1's spark from going out much longer, plus she didn't know how many more speeches she could take. If there was one thing she found more tiresome than one of Artemis Fowl's lectures, it was two Artemis Fowls lecturing each other back and forth. In her opinion, she and Artemis ought to get out while they still could before little Artemis's brief spell of generosity passed and he changed his mind.

She looked up at the older Artemis, intent on communicating this, and saw him staring into the eyes of his younger self, the boy he used to be. "Artemis Fowl," he said, actually speaking the boy's name for the first time. Holly suspected he must feel as weird about it as it was for them hearing it.

And, before she could get out her complaint, he said matter-of-factly, "When our party returns to the future in just a moment, if you are willing, I would like to request that you accompany us."

A/N: Hmm, couldn't decide quite how I should combine the chapters this time around. I originally meant to leave this one on it's own, then combine the next two, but then I thought I would put the next one with this one instead so that more would happen here, but as I looked further ahead I realized that arrangement probably wouldn't work as well later on, so in the end I left it on it's own after all. XD! But this one turned out pretty long on it's own anyway.

But anyway, yeah, you probably know now why Eoin Colfer decided to skip this scene in the book. X3 This was so hard to write to include all the information that little Artemis later seems to have without becoming a little tedious... But I did my best, because I really wanted the whole scene in there to try to imagine how it could have gone. And I thought for this version of the story, since you already know what's going to happen, a chronological approach would work better than the clever way it was done in the original TTP.

On a random note, the Little-Artemis/Elder-Artemis thing officially has just about killed me. I really wished I could just make Holly refer to the older Artemis as 'her Artemis' because that would have been easier, but that would have been stealing from Book of the Ages, lol. (If you haven't read that fanfiction, go read it now, it's ridiculously awesome)

Gasp! Wow, thank you so, so much for all your wonderful reviews last chapter, I loved them. Thank you all for reading this story so far, and please leave a review to tell me what you thought or, again, just to tell me you read it. (: The end is in sight now – only about five chapters left to go, depending on how the content gets arranged. Now that you've come this far, I hope you'll stick it out with me until then!

Well, until next time. (;

Posted 4/28/12