I should have suffered every single time, but he always saved me from the worst of it. The price he paid was in forgetting. The price I paid was in remembering that he forgot.
Two hundred two years after the death of Artemis Fowl
"Playtime's over kids," said Foaly, the projected image showing his tail swishing back and forth in impatience. "Best get back belowground before the sun rises."
Holly glared at the centaur through her visor's visual link, ignoring the changing color of the sky on the horizon in front of them. The ocean waves lapped at the well-worn rocks under her, and the last of the LEP shuttles was quietly faded into invisibility in the distance over a strangely calm sea.
Artemis, who was perched on a rock next to her, was checking a watch. It was almost a cute motion, checking a watch. Retro, actually. The only people who wore watches that were really just watches these days were those artsy-type humans who printed their own mock-ancient devices and pretended it was still the 1800s. Or the early 2000s. It was all the same mish-mosh of history to them. Then again, his suit was also at least a century and a half out of date.
Holly jumped off lightly, her suit automatically amplifying her motion until she landed gracefully on Artemis' rock. She put her fists on her hips.
"So what happens now, Artemis?"
The man looked up.
"Hmm? What happens? Just what Foaly said. You'd better get belowground before the sun rises."
"Don't play with me, Mud Boy."
The decidedly middle-aged Artemis Fowl quirked an eyebrow at her. Holly rolled her eyes. It was a habit she never quite broke. He'd always be a Mud Boy to her.
"The crisis is over," Holly continued, crossing her arms now, "we caught the rouge sprites, and Atlantis is safe. You don't have an excuse for keeping your mouth shut anymore. How are you here, and where are you going?"
Artemis gave her a searching look, and remained silent for a few moments.
"Holly, have I really never shown myself before? Is this really the first time you've seen me since I died?"
The elf opened her mouth to say something, but then thought about it, stopped, and nodded.
"Foaly?" asked Artemis.
The centaur's face appeared in the air between them as Holly's visor automatically responded to Artemis' query.
"Hey, don't look at me," said Foaly, waving his hands in front of him in a placating gesture. "I didn't say anything to her, just like you asked… the last four times."
"What?" asked Holly icily.
Artemis sighed, and seemed to think about it, staring off for a moment towards where the last shuttle had disappeared.
"A little privacy then, Foaly?" he asked, resigned. "And your suit's recording devices too, Holly. I'd prefer to keep this among friends."
Foaly gave a small smile and a half-hearted salute.
"Good to see you again Fowl. I'm sure you'll be popping up again before we know it."
His image disappeared.
Holly muttered a quick command to override her suit's recording systems. Police accountability and evidence-gathering probably didn't extend to these situations. And even if it did, she didn't particularly care.
"Well?" she asked, still staring at the human, "what's this about the last four times?"
Artemis smiled in a way that seemed too old for him.
"Have a seat, Holly," he said, patting the spot next to him. "It must have been a while since we've actually spoken."
Holly grudgingly sat, leaving her knees up, and holding on to them as she faced Fowl.
"I am, as you must know by now, a time traveler," said the man.
The fairy stayed silent, waiting for him to continue.
"What you probably don't know, is what kind of time traveler."
"I didn't realize there were different kinds," said Holly, frowning.
Artemis chuckled.
"Of course there are. You should ask Qwan about it some time. I'm sure he'd be happy to enlighten you. Or you might look up some of the work that I'm sure I have published a long time ago now, if you're feeling technical."
He spread his arms, palms up. A gesture of openness, as Holly recalled. A rare one for Artemis Fowl.
"I'm a forward time traveler," he said. "And not only that, but a very specific kind of forward time traveler. I don't control where and when I travel to. You do."
Holly's brow furrowed.
"And how's that?"
Artemis shrugged.
"The details are a tad complicated. Suffice to say that in my lifetime, I have found a way to know when you are in extreme danger in the future - my future - and go there, wherever and whenever you might be."
It sounded like he was holding something back. And it wasn't just because it was complicated.
"From what Foaly says, I have appeared in the future - after my natural death, that is - before. Perhaps I never took off my disguise."
He reached into a pocket and wiggled something around inside. Instantly, his image was replaced with that of an air sprite, with brown hair and light grey eyes. A large double-pair of vein-crossed white wings burst into existence on his back.
"Look familiar?" he asked, smirking.
Holly frowned. A moment later, she swallowed nervously.
"I could have sworn it was a dream," she said quietly. "There was a time… a long time ago… when I was in a coma… There were times when I was almost aware, and I thought I saw a sprite that looked just like that."
She saw Artemis flick the hologram back off, returning to his usual appearance, but she was still deep in thought, trying to remember an even hazier incident.
"There might have been another time…" the elf said slowly. "I even thought that you didn't use that disguise that time… Not sure about that one though." She laughed without humor. "I, ah… I was pretty drunk that time."
"I've probably paid you a visit those times, then." Artemis gave her a small smile. "But now that you know, you really probably should get back before the sun comes up fully. I'm running out of time before I get pulled back. That's also not something I can control particularly well."
"I'll be fine," Holly gestured to her suit. "The whole nighttime thing is more of a preference than a necessity these days. Besides can't an old friend see you off?"
Artemis' smile disappeared. After a moment, he sighed, and reached into a jacket pocket.
"So from what I can gather from what you and Foaly have said, I can deduce that he knows about the paradox protocol, and that you do not."
He looked around for a moment, back towards land, and got up, beginning to walk in that direction, carefully stepping from rock to rock, avoiding the tide pools as he went.
"Come with me," he said, "As much as I am happy to ruin another suit for the sake of science, I'd generally like to avoid that when possible."
As they passed the high tide line, onto a more pebbly section of the seaside, Artemis sat down, picked up a small stone, and dropped it into his pocket. From the same pocket, he withdrew a thin black case, and opened it to reveal a set of thin white circular bits of soft-looking foam.
"Paradox protocol?" prompted Holly, following him, and staring at the case.
Artemis chuckled.
"A bit melodramatic a name, I suppose, but quite important."
He took a foam piece and removed some plastic backing before sticking it carefully on his face. He repeated the process with all of the pieces, until his face, temples, and even the back of his neck were covered in foam.
The scene looked a little familiar to Holly.
"Are you… are you performing a mind wipe on yourself?" she asked, her voice trembling slightly.
"Very good, Major," said Fowl. "A block wipe. Quite doable, even for my primitive twenty-first century human technology."
He pocketed the bits of plastic backing, and gave Holly a long look.
"The paradox protocol is quite simple," he said. "I have traveled to the future, and have seen things I should not have seen. If I bring too many of these things or even these ideas back with me, I may trigger a paradox. Say, for example, your suit, which I have never seen before this week. If I see it now, and made it in the early twenty-first century, then who actually invented it? Where did it come from? Paradox."
Holly opened her mouth to reply, but nothing came out.
"Thus, a mind wipe, every time," he said matter-of-factly. "I unfortunately do not have the luxury of being able to keep my memories of my time in the future. The next time you see me, I shall be… slightly less well-informed, shall we say?"
Major Short suddenly had a very bad feeling creep across her body.
"Wait," she said quickly, "you've been on this jump for nearly a week, and it sounds like you've made at least four or five more before."
Artemis began to look away, but she grabbed his shoulders, forcing him to face her, electrodes and all. As she looked at him, she felt like she was really examining his face for the first time since he jumped to this time.
Artemis Fowl looked older than she had thought before. There were deep crinkles running off from the edges of his eyes, and permanent lines coming from his nose down to his chin. The skin under his chin was loose, and there was a certain puffiness about his features that showed that he certainly was no young man any longer. He looked well into middle-age.
"How many jumps have you made? How many jumps do we not know about?"
Fowl's lips squeezed together into a silent, determined line.
"How much time did you wipe away?"
The crashing waves sounded behind them, and a seagull called out into the morning air as neither man nor elf spoke. After a moment, Fowl's watch interrupted them with a buzzing noise.
Artemis glanced down at it.
"That's my three-minute warning, Holly. I need to get going."
Holly shook his shoulders.
"Answer the question, Artemis!"
The man stayed silent for a moment.
"You asked three."
Holly glared at him.
"I don't know," he said finally. "I lost track of the jumps where I didn't bring something back. There were a lot of those. Obviously I can't remember how much time I've wiped. Also, the jumps don't happen in order, Holly. I've already been to your future. Not that I remember anything about it."
He looked away, almost as if guilty. It was an extraordinarily rare look for Artemis Fowl.
"How old are you?" asked Holly in a terrified whisper.
"In my time… I celebrated my thirty-second birthday two days before I made this jump," he said wistfully. "Chocolate-raspberry cake and all. The Butlers were there. So was Minerva. You remember her, don't you?"
Holly couldn't speak. She was no expert in Mud Man faces, but she had seen enough of them in her years to know that Artemis Fowl looked well beyond his early thirties.
His watch buzzed again.
"Two minutes, Major," said Artemis, pulling out a light blue cube from another pocket, as well as a small white tablet. "While I'd love to stay and chat, I don't quite think that's worth bringing down a paradox on our universe. According to my models, the effects can be quite devastating to the fabric of space-time."
"Clio, prepare to initiate the paradox protocol."
A blue female human figure appeared on top of the cube. She nodded once.
"As you wish, sir," she said before flashing white. The electrodes on Artemis' face and neck pulsed white once, and he put the cube back in its pocket.
The man turned back to Holly.
"Now it's best if I'm asleep for this part," he said, showing her the tablet. "Stay safe, Holly. I'll be back one day."
And before she could do anything, Artemis popped the tablet into his mouth and rolled it around, allowing it to dissolve.
"Artemis!" cried Holly, as his eyes started to droop. She caught his shoulders as he slumped backwards. She fell into a sitting position as his weight pushed her down. He was heavier than she expected, but she held on to him tightly
The electrodes were all flashing now, in a mad light show that danced around randomly on the Irishman's head. His eyes rolled around and around behind his eyelids, frantically looking for something that was being taken away from him.
Holly held on to his head all the while, cradling it in her arms as she felt moisture begin to gather in her eyes.
"Artemis Fowl… what were you thinking?"
The memory wipe ended within a few seconds, and for a while, Holly could do nothing but hold on to the unconscious human. Her helmet detected moisture on her face and assumed that she was sweating, so the collar of her suit responded by growing a few degrees cooler.
A little over a minute later, a shower of red sparks began arcing over Artemis' body, completely covering him in seconds. At one point, it became too bright for Holly to continue looking at it, and she squeezed her eyes shut involuntarily.
An instant later, the pressure on her legs was gone. She opened her eyes, and Artemis Fowl was no longer there.
And Holly Short was alone by the sea as the sun slowly rose over the horizon.
A/N: And now you know exactly why he's the forgetful angel. What do you think? Last 1/3 of the story coming up, from the perspectives of Artemis, Holly, and finally, Minerva.