Author: The title today is "Your heart Is An Empty Room" by Death Cab For Cutie.

Holly was barely conscious as she was transported to the nearest hospital. She didn't notice when they lifted her onto a stretcher nor when they got her on and off the ambulance. Her mind was drifting, fighting to stay focused. The only thing she could really focus on at the moment though was Artemis. She replayed the scene over and over in her head: Finding him, being choked, and getting stabbed. The elf couldn't help but wonder what had happened to her friend, wonder why he wanted her dead. And who's this 'Mistress' Artemis was talking about? She thought. She didn't have much time to think about it though because the doctors put her under so they could start healing.

She woke up to a plain white room with Foaly, Butler, Juliet, and even Mulch watching her with worried looks on their faces. Slowly, she sat up and ran a hand through her hair mumbling, "What happened..?"

Foaly scrunched up his nose and asked, "Don't you remember?"

The Auburn-haired LEP officer stopped and thought about it for a minute. The images came together and her eyes widened, "Artemis!"

"Yeah, he's been kidnapped. We already knew that." Juliet chimed in, stating the obvious.

Holly shook her head and said, "No. He was there at the warehouse, but he was dressed weird. I asked how he got there but he wouldn't answer. Then he…"

"He what?" Foaly asked.

"…he tried to kill me…" Holly finished, her voice trailing off.

Her friends stared at her in disbelief. Butler shook his head now and told her, "Artemis would never do something like that."

"I don't think it was Artemis… He wasn't acting like himself." She replied.

Foaly hmmed then asked, "Did he say anything?"

The elf nodded, "Yeah, he said I'm the only thing standing between the Mistress and world domination. Apparently that's why he tried killing me."

"'The Mistress'… hmm…" Foaly said, rubbing his chin in thought.

"What Are you thinking, Foaly?" Holly asked, one eyebrow raised questioningly.

"Opal." The centaur responded, "She must have done something to him."

"Like what?" Juliet asked.

Foaly thought for a moment before saying, "That's what we need to find out."

A silver candleholder flew across the room and broke against the wall, leaving a dent where it collided. For his part, Artemis remained calm and still while Opal threw it at him. He stood there with an emotionless expression while she proceeded to freak out and break things. The pixie threw several objects at him in the last ten minutes, none of which made contact even though he hadn't moved. She approached him, her fists balled up and a look of pure rage on her face. Opal stopped in front of him and glowered up at him with cold black eyes.

She shouted, "She's still alive!" before raising her hand and smacking him across the face.

He didn't so much as flinch. There was a hand print on his cheek where she'd hit him that was already fading. He looked down at her expressionlessly and said in a toneless voice, "I promise you; she will be dealt with, Mistress."

She stuck a sharp finger at him and seethed, "She best be! I've had enough of that elf messing up my plans!"

"I can assure you that Holly Short will not be an issue. She's merely a minor nuisance at this point. It will be taken care of." He said.

Opal stalked back to her hover chair, still angry. She looked at her monitors and let her eyes settle on one. This time it displayed a centaur typing away on his keyboard. She smiled wickedly.

"The centaur has always gotten on my nerves, always trying to one-up me." She hissed, sweeping her hair behind her rounded ears, "…But he won't be around much longer to annoy me."

"What would you like me to do, Mistress? What is the task?" Artemis asked, though he was certain he already knew what she had in store.

"That stuck up pony's going to be the first to volunteer to test my newest experiment!" Opal laughed manically, "Bring him to me!"

Artemis nodded and responded, "Of course, Mistress." Then he walked out the door.

Foaly packed his equipment, the things he could carry, into a bag and headed out to get the security footage from the evidence room to look over. He figured that it could help him figure out what had happened to his friend, or at least give him some place to start.

Arriving at the evidence room he looked for today's box. It wasn't long before he found it. Carefully, he pulled it off the shelf and opened it up, only to find it was empty.

"What?" He asked, more to himself that actually as a question, but he received an answer.

Grub Kelp had somehow appeared next to him and replied to his question, "It hasn't be organized yet."

Startled, Foaly turned wide eyes at him then huffed, "I need to review the security footage from the warehouse."

Grub nodded thoughtfully for a minute and said, "I could let you take them… but you'd have to bring them back as soon as you were done. I don't want to lose my job."

Grub Kelp was now working in the evidence room, organizing what came in and making sure nothing went out that wasn't suppose to. It wasn't much, but at least he had his own office in the back of the evidence room.

"Follow me. I'll get them for you." He said, leading the centaur to the back office.

When he steeped in the doorway Foal noticed him tense up, as if he'd seen something. The young officer turned around suddenly to face him. He was smiling to try to hide his sudden nervousness, but it was failing. He said, "You… You wait here. I'll get that footage for you."

Before he could reply Grub walked into the office and closed the door behind him. The blinds on the office window were down so he couldn't see in. A moment later the door opened and Grub stepped out, holding out a microchip to the centaur.

"Here you go. I hope you can find your way out. I have a lot of work to do." He said and closed the door again.

Foaly eyed the room suspiciously before deciding he had more important things to do. He quickly put the chip in his pocket and went back to his tech booth.

Pulling the chip out he looked at it for a minute, sensing something out of place. He dismissed it and put it in a port on his computer, loading the information from it.

Grub Kelp quickly closed the door behind him, entering his office. He sighed, leaning on the door. He hurried over to the window and peaked through the blinds. Seeing that Foaly was leaving he relaxed some, sitting down in his desk chair.

"I gave him the chip like you asked." He said out loud.

The shadows shifted; the figure that had been standing in the back corner of the room walked over to the desk and sat on the edge. The only light in the room, the glowing red exit sign above the door, illuminated its face.

"Good. And the real chip?" Artemis asked.

"Its right here." Grub said, holding up the chip.

Artemis took it from him and placed it in his pocket. He stood up and prepared to leave. The teen left with out a word. Plans were underway and he didn't want to be around when it all went down.