Artemis awoke the next morning to an insistent tapping on his door. The last evening, he had convinced his multiple personalities not to barge into his room and surprise him, telling them that they could easily wake him from their own rooms. Instantly alert, Artemis headed over to the door and opened it to find the three multiple personalities standing in the darkness of most of his own mind.
"We are beginning to awaken," Orion told Artemis, somewhat unnecessarily.
"I surmise that we will be meeting a new personality this morning," Artemis inferred, groaning, "And I just got over the shock of you three appearing in my head."
Noland punched Artemis cheerfully on the shoulder. "Come on, it's not that bad," he told his host personality, "The sooner we know all of the personalities that are going to surface, the sooner we can figure out how to reincorporate them into you."
Artemis turned to his mindscreen. "I hope you are right," he told the teenager, "And I hope we don't watch a part of ourself strangle Juliet when our body wakes up."
Juliet, far from being strangled, was dozing lightly in her chair when Artemis began to wake up. Remembering her promise to her brother, the girl quickly called the other Butler, then settled down to watch the show of a new Artemis entering the real world.
The boy woke up just as Butler arrived, sitting up slowly and stretching luxuriously before seeing the two Butlers looking at him. Butler was tense with worry, while Juliet looked mildly curious, her braid swinging against the back of her chair.
"My first moment of weakness in the real world, and two people are watching," the new Artemis said calmly, "Perhaps I should have remained asleep."
Juliet and Butler exchanged glances. Why is he familiar? Juliet thought. Well, more familiar than the other personalities, she corrected herself, cocking her head as she thought.
"Did I alarm you?" the boy asked calmly, "Because, realistically, you should be used to Artemis acting strangely when he wakes up by now. You have met several others, have you not?"
Butler felt a feeling of irritation growing in his gut. This Artemis needs an attitude transplant, he thought to himself, Just like… !
"As you two are not conversing with me," the child said in the silence, "I will simply proceed to introduce myself. I use the name Leonardo, but you may call me Leon if you wish. Though I would prefer if I was not thought of as another section of Artemis's personality, you could consider me an original copy of Artemis.
"Rather, my personality differs from our true original in that I remain uncorrupted by contact with the fairy peoples," the new personality explained, "Though I retain all of Artemis's knowledge of their race, along with their language," Leon continued, leaving the two Butlers dumbfounded. Artemis without the effects of his friendships among the fairy race? He might not have grown at all as a person since Artemis was age 12, which would leave him drastically underdeveloped. And where did the name Leonardo come from?
The new personality smiled impersonally and confidently at the speechless servants. "You are too amazed to see me again to express your satisfaction at my return," he said quietly, as if he didn't actually intend them to hear him.
Back within the brain currently controlled by Leon, Artemis and the others were discussing the new "Artemis."
"Let's hope that he doesn't try to extort the fairy race and extract money from them to try and get rid of him," Artemis said, his voice muffled by his hands, as he had dropped his face into his palms at the sight of such a personality as Leonardo. Could he be expected to do anything else, with a personality as arrogant and inexperienced as he had been all those years ago?
"He must be… very new," Aris said quietly, gaining a puzzled look from Artemis.
"He was voicing more or less his every important thought," Noland explained, as usual, "It takes time for us to learn the difference between thoughts and speech, because we start off as basically pure thought."
"In this instance, we can see plain as a dwarf's bottom that Master Leonardo was created within the dark bowels of our mind quite recently, as he is unable to distinguish between wonderful spoken words and those words which are expressed only in thought," Orion elaborated.
"Where did his… name come from?" Aris stuttered, "All of ours… have a very direct meaning."
"Leonardo da Vinci," Artemis said, pained, "This Leonardo believes that he is as smart as is possible, and da Vinci was one of the first famous Renaissance Men, so it makes sense that his chosen name reflects his various skills, as he sees it."
"Chosen?" all three personalities asked at the same time, looking at the owner of their body. Artemis backpedaled.
"I believe that the personalities choose their names to match your personalities," he told them, "I guess that you do not?"
Orion looked dreamy, remembering something in his usual, overly dramatic way. "Our names are simply with us from the first moment we can be considered a distinct personality from you, Master Artemis," he said, "They just," he paused for effect, "Seem right for each of us as individuals," he finished.
"For instance," Noland elaborated, "I knew that I was Noland from the first moment I remember as separate from you. It's like how you just always knew that your name was Artemis, from the first moment you can remember."
Artemis himself nodded slowly, agreeing. "I think I understand," he said, "So my subconscious mind creates you with your own names from the beginning. I suppose it makes sense, at least in terms of giving you a sense of self."
"It makes… perfect sense," Aris said indignantly. Momentarily forgetting the predicament raging in the outside world, the three others laughed at Aris's disgruntled espression.
"I'm not going in there," Doctor Argon said, visibly shaken by the news Juliet had just delivered to him.
"I thought you were interviewing each personality to better help Artemis heal?" Juliet asked him, giggling slightly at the gnome's reaction.
"Why don't you interview him for me?" the doctor asked desperately, "I'm not going in there to see a psychopathic pseudo twelve-year old with a shaky hold on reality! Tell me again what you heard him saying, and tell me honestly that you don't agree with me!"
Still giggling, Juliet recited what she had watched Leon talking to himself about. "He said that he couldn't wait to see one of the fairies, especially one of Artemis's friends, that way he could get them to pay him to go away and leave Artemis in peace," she said, growing more serious, "He said that doing something like that might show Artemis how easy it was to earn money off of The People, and get him to go "back to normal." That was all I heard before he realized I could hear him thinking out loud."
Shaking, Argon lunged for Artemis's door, moving to lock it from the outside. Juliet jumped after him, and began to wrestle him up against the opposite wall with her elbow when they were interrupted as Foaly came trotting unexpectedly up the corridor.
"Let him go, Mud Girl," he told Juliet calmly, "He won't risk his job by acting like an idiot while I'm around."
The doctor slid down the wall as Juliet let him go, sinking into a sitting position. From there, he started yelling hoarsely at the centaur, "How can you call my actions idiotic?" he roared, "That human is dangerous and should be kept locked up until a more stable personality surfaces."
"I don't think so," Foaly said, "Locking him up will only make him break out, and by Frond I am not letting someone like Leonardo Fowl loose in Haven. Leaving the door unlocked, we assure him that we trust him, and he is less likely to attempt to escape.
"Being paranoid about a single part of Artemis Fowl won't help us at all," the centaur continued, "But if we need a more rational doctor to treat the Mud Boy, I can call in Doctor Cumulus."
Angeline came marching up the corridor at that very moment, having heard about her son from a fleeing Butler, and caught the tail end of the exchange. "Are we firing Argon?" she asked cheerfully.
"No, Mrs. Fowl," Juliet said, smiling, "We're just giving him a warning."
"Are you sure you want to see Leon, Mrs. Fowl?" Foaly asked kindly, "It might bring back," he paused, thinking about the original Fowl Manor siege, "Bad memories," he finished lamely, wondering if he had made the understatement of the year, decade, century or millennium.
"How would you- oh, the security camera," Juliet said, answering her own question.
"Yes, the security camera, Mud Girl," Foaly said drily, "And no matter how funny you think Leon's muttering was, it could cause the Council a lot of trouble.
"I want to see if he really meant what he was saying before I go to the Council, though," the centaur continued, "If he did, I hope that Artemis manages to deal with the Complex pretty fast, before the Council accidentally decides to do something drastic."
Leon looked up as Juliet came back in to the room, followed by the centaur, Foaly, and the annoying gnome. Leon couldn't remember his name. Butler had left at Juliet's urging, not that he had needed much convincing, having been reminded rather forcefully of the time when he had listened to a younger Artemis's orders unquestioningly. Remembering that Foaly was the one who was watching through the security camera, the boy didn't even try to look friendly. He had spent the time that Juliet had been outside with the Doctor practicing keeping his thoughts in his head, and this would be the first test.
"What are you doing here, Foaly?" he asked coldly, catching the centaur off guard. Foaly cursed himself for having expected Leon to try being nice, as he would obviously remember the conversation Artemis and the centaur had had the day before, meaning that he already knew that Foaly was watching the entire situation using the security camera.
"So you know my name, that's good," Foaly said, striding over to the foot of the bed, "I think that you know very well why I'm here, Mud Boy."
"Indeed," Leon sniffed, "You heard me accidentally talking to myself earlier, and realized that I could become a very major threat to the fairy community. Therefore, you came here to confirm that I have no such intentions. Sorry to disappoint you."
Both fairies instinctively jumped back at the human's admission, and Juliet looked worried.
"I'm going to warn you now, Leonardo," the human girl said, "You try anything that might purposely hurt the People, I will-"
"Yes, yes, knock me out, pin me against a wall, you think I don't know?" Leon interrupted, "You know, you used to be much more subservient."
Angeline chose this moment to finally decide to see her son, having been thinking in the corridor, and marched briskly into the room, shooting the gnome a hard glare. Hearing Leon, she turned a glare on him as well, which he returned.
"Maybe Juliet was more supportive of you back then because she thought Artemis was the last remaining Fowl," the tall woman said coldly, "Or perhaps she was inexperienced enough then to take orders from a selfish twelve-year old."
Leon rolled his eyes, "To all of us other than Artemis, you are not acknowledged as our mother in any way," he told the woman icily, "We do not care for you, and you cannot hope to hurt me with words."
Angeline's lips thinned to a narrow line, almost disappearing as the empathetic fairies felt the tension in the room rise several times above what was usual when Angeline Fowl and Doctor Argon were in the same room. "I don't know what it is," she said, suddenly directing her speech at Foaly, "Perhaps the fact that he doesn't even try to spare my feelings," the woman guessed, "But this is not my son." With this admission, the elegant woman swept swiftly out of the room.
"Humans!" Argon spat, glaring at the personality as he stomped out after the matriarch of the Fowls, the two beings for once in agreement.
All of the personalities stared at the Artemis's mindscreen in shock.
After a moment, Aris broke the silence first. "That… complete… idiot!" he yelled at the mindscreen, anger making his stutter worse.
Artemis's guilty side seemed to open a floodgate by yelling. Artemis found himself yelling pointlessly too, along with Noland and Orion. By the time they had regained control of their anger, they could only watch as Juliet skimmed out of the room after Foaly, giving Leon a hard glare before slamming the door. They heard locks click shut.
"Artemis, are you okay?" Noland said urgently, hurrying over to the boy as he sank slowly to the floor, "What is it?"
"I don't want to let that cruel, psychopathic idiot become part of me," Artemis hissed, surprised by his own vehemence.
"I know," Noland said soothingly, "I wouldn't either." Artemis looked at the teenager in surprise as the other personalities nodded, agreeing with Noland.
"If he truly thinks that he understands the concept of parenthood enough to tell Mrs. Fowl something like that, he is more of a fool than I already thought," Orion said, with equal vehemence, "I am of half a mind to forcefully destroy him, rather than let him live with the likes of us honourable beings."
"Even though Mrs. Fowl… isn't my mother… she's the closest thing… we have, right?" Aris added, "Leon had no… right to say something… like that. We do care... about her, Artemis," he assured the original personality.
"We don't have to like him, we just have to put up with him," Noland told the two imagined personalities, "And I'd prefer that we only have to put up with him as long as absolutely necessary," the teenager added to Artemis.
As soon as she reached their room, Juliet rammed her bare fist into the wall, "That crass idiot!" she yelled, as Mrs. Fowl followed her in, "If he wasn't part of Artemis, he would be eating a good chunk of my fist right now."
Though obviously fuming, Angeline had maintained control all the way down through the facility to the ladies' bedroom. Now, she walked to her bed, picked up the least breakable object she could find, which was a pillow, and flung it across the room into the opposite wall. Breathing heavily, she proceeded to throw most of her belongings at a point on the same wall, which Juliet strongly suspected her employer was imagining was Leon.
Her anger vented, Angeline fell onto her bed with a sigh. "I never want to see that fool again," she said dangerously, "But we need someone to watch him tonight."
"The security camera," Juliet supplied, "Tonight, we'll let the security camera watch Artemis for us, because I don't want to go within 10 metres of Leon. I'll ask for food to be sent up to him, and I might even go down to the kitchen to help with the cooking for any patient other than Artemis."
"What about the rest of today?" Angeline asked, "It isn't even 10 AM on the surface yet."
Juliet smiled wickedly. "He can sit around in his room all day, with no way out."
When Leon finally escaped his boredom by falling asleep nearly 8 hours later, he found a welcoming party waiting in his nearly bare room.
Orion was looking at the gray walls uncomfortably, while Noland looked through the stripped wood bookshelf and Aris splayed himself across the basic blue bed.
Artemis was the first to notice Leon's arrival, and he bore down on him before realizing exactly what he looked like. Leonardo was just over four feet tall, making him much shorter than all of the others, of whom Artemis and Aris were the shortest, at just under five feet six inches. He was somewhat paler than even Aris, and he was wearing a suit in true Artemis style. He was also noticeably less matured than all of the personalities, looking, unsurprisingly, like he had not yet reached puberty. Leon looked like Artemis had looked as the youth remembered looking just before the first time he'd met the fairies.
"How dare you!" Orion yelled, coming over as he noticed the young human. Of the four trapped personalities, he had retained the most of his anger at Leon, and still seemed liable to beat up the other part of his brain. Noland, the personality Artemis was beginning to think of as the most rational, stepped between the "prince" and the child criminal, working hard to calm the idiot.
"To be perfectly honest, I have to agree with Orion," Artemis said stiffly to the cold child personality, "You may have permanently damaged my relationship with my mother. What gives you the right-"
"Getting you back to normal," Leon replied, interrupting his fellow persona, "My job is to get you working the way you should be again. A mother is unnecessary for our business."
"You arrogant little idiot," Artemis said quietly, and dangerously, "I've made my own choices in the last five years, and none of them involve going back to where I was when I acted like you," gesturing for the other three personalities to follow him, Artemis headed out the door, leaving Leon alone in his room once more.