Probably late to the party (what year is it, again? Oh, so 3 years too late), but I had this idea like a year ago after talking with ArtyandTintinFan (so I guess this is dedicated to her; Hi!) and I finally finished this first chapter today after I rediscovered it during one of my free periods at school today, so I'm going to post and see if anyone is interested.

Wow, I'm really in an Artemis Fowl mood. First and AF/Pokémon crossover, now this. I should really reread the books.

Anyway, enjoy.

If Artemis were to be summed up in one word, it would probably be "ice". From his demeanor to his personality to his appearance, everything about him was icy. The coldness with which he treated all that attempted to come close (and even those who already were), his slick process of thought and cool logical nature, and the shade of his large deep blue eyes. He was ice incarnated into flesh; slippery, deceiving, sharp as a razor, and dangerous in every sense of the word.

But there was another reason, a secret Artemis had buried deep within himself and never (always) allowed to overcome him.

Ever since he was born, there had been something strange about Artemis. He never got cold (often kicking away blankets even in the dead of winter), and was often scolded for sneaking away to play in the snow, or, if such weather was unavailable, inside the walk-in fridge. Artemis seemed to feed off of coldness, and when he was 3 years old, his parents finally got some answers why.

He had been fiddling with the parts of various kitchen devices he had disassembled, when his parents had walked in and discovered the small toddler among the dangerous clutter with a screwdriver in his chubby hand. Immediately marching over and pulling him out of the wreckage, his mother went on to berate him for being so reckless and handling such dangerous equipment, while his father knelt down and began trying to puzzle out what exactly it was Artemis had done to the blender.

Naturally, Artemis didn't think he had done anything wrong. He saw himself as perfectly capable of handling such tools without injuring himself, despite his age, and his parents had always encouraged his curiosity and intelligence. Why should they be angry with him now?

Growing ever more and more frustrated with his mother, his short temper finally reached an end.

"Enough!" He shouted (well, squeaked is probably more accurate). He stomped his foot in annoyance, and to his eternal shock, ice began to freeze over the floor, emanating from the point where his sock-clad foot had touched the ground.

To say his parents and Artemis himself were stunned is an understatement. They were completely thunderstruck by the appearance of the ice that now formed a small circle around the raven-haired child. Artemis Sr. stuttered away facts and expressions of disbelief, scrambling for some sort of explanation. Mrs. Fowl immediately scooped her son into her arms, well away from the frozen patch of tile, and turned him away from the site, bouncing the toddler up and down and running her fingers through his hair as if he were a frightened child in need of comfort.

But, Artemis wasn't scared, nor was he convinced by his father's attempt to use logic to explain away the phenomenon. Logically, there was only one explanation, and that was that Artemis himself had caused the ice to appear. And that left Artemis awestruck.

Over the next few years, Artemis would continue to experiment (both intentionally and un-) with his power. He learned that he was capable of creating both ice and snow, and that his powers reacted to his emotions, most specifically anger and fear. Unfortunately, it seemed that the more emotional he was, the stronger his powers became, and the harder it was to control him. In fact, more than once his anger had gotten away from him, and his powers accidently covered everything in the room in a thick layer of ice.

Such incidents terrified Artemis; it was a miracle that no one had gotten hurt during one of his episodes. The next time, he may not be so lucky. He could hurt someone, or even kill them, someone he cared about. He could not - would not allow that to happen. At the tender age of 8, Artemis vowed to never let his emotions get away from him, to never feel so much he would put people in danger. To never use his powers if not absolutely necessary. And so he did, banishing his emotions from his heart and incasing himself in armor made of ice.

Absolutely frigid air swirled around the small group of people - two humans (more or less), and two fairies (elves to be precise). Yet all Artemis felt was a sense of terror and guilt. He hadn't meant to hurt Holly, hadn't meant to steal her magic. No matter what the commander said, it had been an accident. He was clumsy when it came to physical tasks in the best of conditions. Asking him to drag a fully grown active-duty Recon captain into a moving train that was oozing radiation in the dead of a Russian winter? Even with his resistance to the cold, the task had taken every ounce of strength he had. He certainly had nothing left to deal with where he landed as he passed out from shock and trauma, and his body could not resist the magic that was being offered so freely.

But, he had done it. He had taken away the chance for Holly to regain her severed finger, after she had been in the situation only because she was helping him rescue his father. It was his fault. All his fault.

Something familiar stirred in his gut, and he stiffened. No, no, not now. Now was the worst possible time. But his power wasn't listening. The floor of the train was instantly covered in frosted ice, and the walls were well on their way to being the same way.

"What the -" Root began.

"Artemis, calm down." Butler immediately stood in front of the commander and the defenseless form of Captain Short. "You won't help anyone by freezing the wheels of the train."

He was right. If his ice got to the undercarriage and froze the axels and wheels . . . Artemis could only too clearly picture the consequences.

"I'm trying to control it." Artemis snapped, squeezing his hands into fists. "Lately, though, it's been getting stronger."

"What - D'Arvit." Root swore. "You're doing this, Fowl?"

"Not on purpose." Artemis closed his eyes and released a deep breath. "Emotion triggers it. Excuse me." He got up from where he was half-crouched on the floor and moved to the slightly open door. He took another breath and held his hands up, gathering the storm of guilt and ice into a metaphorical ball, then pushed it out.

A compact stream of ice and snow flowed violently from his hands and out into the snow-covered countryside, visibly carving a path of white snow and debris alongside the train. Artemis forced the overflow out, pushing harder and harder until he felt like he wasn't about to explode from the pressure of the power raging inside him. He slowed the pace of the ice stream until it petered out, then bowed his head in slight exhaustion. Crude, but the most effective way of making sure that his pent-up power didn't go absolutely crazy when it chanced upon an opening it could use to escape.

"I - apologize." Artemis said shortly. "Usually I can keep it under control, but -" Artemis cut himself off as an idea hit him. "Commander, how long has it been since Holly was injured?"

"Two minutes." Root said shortly. "Even if we could muster up the magic, by the time we did so, it would be too late. And you are going to explain what the D'Arvit you just did!" He shouted.

"Not now, Commander." Artemis knelt next to Holly's still frame.

"Artemis . . . " Butler rumbled.

"I am fine now, old friend." Artemis waved off the large mans concern. "I have just enough power left -" he picked up Holly's maimed hand and gently ran his own over it, coating it in frost and ice, "-to save Holly's finger. Commander, lend me the digit?"

Root fumed. "What do you think you're doing, Mud Boy?!"

"Saving Holly's trigger finger and career. Now hand me the finger." Artemis said frostily, using his very best death glare. Root glared right back, but held out the finger for Artemis to freeze.

As he did so, he explained. "I am freezing the wound and the digit so that when Holly is exposed to healing magic, her body will see this as a recent wound, and proceed to accept the changes."

"And where are we going to find healing magic out here?" Root asked, thoroughly unimpressed with Artemis' seemingly flawed plan.

"We're going to preform the Ritual." Artemis said simply, reaching around Holly's neck and pulling a chain from beneath her suit, a chain that held a golden copy of the Book, and a small sealed capsule filled with brown earth.

After the intense experience of watching Holly go through the Ritual and heal a minutes-old wound, the four decided it would be best to return to the shuttleport to regroup and plan what to do next. Holly made this trip on Butler's shoulder, a fact she protested until her commander told her, in no uncertain terms, that she had no business moving immediately after major magical surgery that by all accounts should not have worked, and to shut up and do her hand exercises to make sure everything reconnected properly.

"Commander, may I have a private word with you?" Artemis requested. The Commander glared, but nodded, and their pace slowed so that they walked a good 5 yards behind Holly and Butler.

"This had better be about the stunt you pulled on the train."

"It is, and I have a - favor to ask of you."

"A favor?" Root repeated warily. "Not likely, Fowl."

"I wish for you to keep my ability to yourself." Artemis continued, ignoring the commanders words. "I do not wish for it to become common knowledge, and frankly, it won't hurt you or the People to be close-lipped about this subject at this time."

"How did you do it?" Root changed the topic.

"I was born with the power." Artemis answered truthfully. "But that is all I shall tell you unless you agree to leave this out of your report to the Council."

"Give me one good reason why I should."

"I cannot." Artemis shrugged. "Only that there is no risk in keeping this information to yourself until it is needed. I do not plan on being a threat to the People ever again -" Root snorted, "- but if that time ever does come, you can simply reveal my ability then. To a certain extent, I trust you and Captain Short not to abuse this information without just cause, but you have a leak - don't even bother denying it, the goblin hit squad is evidence enough - and any enemy would not be as noble about using the knowledge of my capabilities."

When Root thought about it, it wasn't a totally unreasonable request. If he were in Fowl's boots, he would probably ask the same thing.

"If I agree, what will you give me in return?" Root asked.

"If you agree not to inform any of the People about my power without just cause, including Captain Short and Mr. Foaly, I will tell you everything I know about it as of today."

Root thought about it, then held out his hand in a reluctant gesture. "Deal." He grounded out.

Artemis took the hand, and shook it firmly. "Thank you, Commander."

"Now spill."

Artemis raised a delicate eyebrow at the phrasing, but proceeded to do so.

"I was born with the ability, as I said before. I am capable of creating ice, snow, and frost, despite the weather, and to my knowledge it all melts at a natural rate for the temperature. I am unaffected by the cold, but not comfortable in extreme heat. My powers appear to be triggered by strong emotion. I can of course control them, calling them up if needed, but if I am, say, feeling angry, my powers will increase in strength and therefore be harder to control, sometimes lashing out without my direction, as you saw on the train."

"And do you have any idea why?" The commander questioned.

"Well, I assume that that means my power is at least partially controlled by the amygdala -"

"Why you have powers." Root cut off what promised to be a long and drawn out rant about neuroscience.

"No, I do not." Artemis admitted slightly sullenly, avoiding the commanders gaze. "According to DNA tests, I am completely human, and I haven't found any differences that can not be explained between the general population's genetics and my own. I have simply learned to accept the fact and do my best to control it."

Root nodded. By this time, they had nearly reached the shuttleport, and there was nothing left to say. The two caught up with Butler and Holly, and began to deduce what was happening down in Haven.

It was like a scene from a B-list horror movie; bodies and blood splayed across every wall and corner of the almost mockingly elegant room. Shattered glass and overturned tables littered the floor, and the moans of the barely conscious echoed in the air. Artemis ignored this all though, having eyes only for the man who laid before his kneeling form.

"Butler . . ." He whispered, a lump in his throat and burning in his eyes preventing a louder tone. Breath rattled in Butler's chest, but it was weak, and every intake seemed to take longer to form than the last.

Then the breathing stopped.

"No . . ." Artemis shook his head, desperate tears finally breaking through his desperate emotional barrier.

"NO!" He roared. Jagged icicles rose up from the floor, encircling the boy and the body, bluntly knocking aside any one who was in the way and not caring if they went through instead of around someone. Screams bashed at Artemis' eardrums, but he didn't hear them.

The temperature dropped instantaneously, and the very air froze, specks of pulverized ice getting caught and hanging suspended in the air. Wind swirled around him, a fearsome beast of frigid snow and ice in the form of a frozen tornado, and it tore apart the debris and anything that wasn't bolted down or cemented into place - or anyone.

The power amassed at his hands, and almost on auto pilot, the ice and frost released, and traveled across Butler's body, flash freezing the Eurasian man.

Artemis was still screaming, but no words were coming out. Instead it was a torrent of anguish, of noise and pain. Ice streaked down his cheeks, tears frozen moments after leaving his eye sockets, and razorblades were clawing at the inside of his throat. The ice and wind and snow grew stronger and stronger until the walls could take it no more, and came crashing down, exposing all of London to the anger and grief of Artemis Fowl.

Holly was the last captain to make it to the LEP situation room in Police Plaza. Her non-regulation vehicle had not received the extra minutes of energy required to make it from the field back to base, or the juice to keep the goblins she was transporting locked up, so she had been forced to deal with that before being able to make for headquarters.

Holly sank into her assigned seat after some berating of her lateness (sexist pig, she thought darkly), and Foaly stepped forward, an armful of disks cradled against his body and one of the most worried faces she had ever seen the centaur pull. He gently dumped the load onto a table with a computer terminal, then cleared his throat to speak.

"Today, two things happened that made me advise the Council to place us on lockdown." Foaly expertly loaded one of the discs, and complex algorithms, charts, and intersecting lines flashed on the screen.

The room was silent for perhaps half a minute, before Commander Root said what everyone in the room was thinking.

"I think I'm speaking for the whole room here, Foaly, when I say that all I see is lines and squiggles. Doubtless it makes sense to a smart pony like yourself, but the rest of us are going to need some plain Gnommish."

Foaly sighed. "Simply put, really simply, we got pinged. Is that plain enough?"

It was. The fear was audible even in the stunned silence.

Root was the first to recover his voice. "Pinged. Who pinged us?"

Foaly shrugged. "Don't know. It only lasted a few seconds. There was not recognizable signature, and it was untraceable."

"What did they get?"

"Quite a bit. Everything North European. Scopes, Sentinel, all of our cam-cams. Downloaded information on every single one of them. My security encryptions folded like they weren't even there."

Holly swallowed nervously. Someone somewhere knew everything about the People in Northern Europe. They could expose their civilization to the entire world. Haven would cease to be one, and the People would be shoved under a microscope in some Mud Man's lab.

But even with this major bombshell to wreck havoc in her brain, something else nagged at Holly's mind.

"Foaly, you said you had two reasons to call the lockdown. What's the second?" Holly asked.

For once, Foaly turned wordlessly back to the computer and furiously typed against the holographic keyboard, bringing up two new windows, one showing a live Mud Man news channel broadcast, and the other a real-time satellite feed, both showing the same thing.

"I trust I don't have to dumb this one down."

In the background, Holly could pick out Buckingham Palace and Big Ben, landmarks even fairies could recognize and pin the location as London. That was about all Holly could see of the famous city, though, because the rest of the frames were dominated by a giant white streak that seemed to be moving.

A few seconds of staring later, Holly began to make out more details about just what it was that she was seeing. A tower of white ice was sitting in the smack dab middle of London, sharp offshoots slicing out like blades on all sides and twisting round and round. Wind was breaking off bits and pieces of the horrible structure and blowing the debris around in circles, giving the appearance that the white was moving.

"Foaly?" Captain Trouble Kelp asked in a hushed voice. "What is that?"

"Ice. Past that, I have no idea. It started appearing about half an hour, and has been growing larger and the wind you can see around it stronger ever since. 150 confirmed deaths, and countless others injured or missing. The Mud Men have no clue what's happening, and unfortunately we don't know much more, only the rough area of London where the phenomenon started. The kicker? The ping also originated in London, and only about ten minutes before the ice storm did."

"You think the two events are connected." A councilmember said.

"No such thing as coincidence." Foaly nodded.

"And I have a suspect." Root sighed.

All eyes in the room turned to the elf.

"Commander?" Holly asked.

"Artemis Fowl." The only two words the Commander needed to send the entire room into a flurry of voices. No one sentence could be distinguished from another, and this mish-mash of opinions went on for a good 3 minutes.

"SHUT UP!" Root shouted. The LEP officials fell quiet.

"Commander?" Holly resisted the urge to raise her hands like an elfling in primary school. "With all due respect, Fowl might be a criminal, but he's not a murderer, and we ended contact on decent terms last time. It doesn't seem likely he's behind this."

"I didn't say he was doing it on purpose." Root noted the confused stares and resigned himself to coming clean. "When Fowl, Butler, Captain Short, and myself were on a mission in the Artic Circle, Short's finger was cut clean off in an accident. Her magic had accidently been siphoned away, and I didn't have enough to perform the healing myself."

"But you managed to complete the Ritual in time and reattach my finger." Holly finished what she thought was the story, but Root shook his head.

"By the time we performed the Ritual, it had been almost 8 minutes since the injury."

"But that's not possible!" Another councilmember called out.

"A healing has to take place in under four minutes." Holly nodded, frowning.

"Unless the wound is frozen, apparently." Root snorted. "When I confronted Fowl about the injury, he said he had blacked out, and had no intention of robbing you of his magic. He nearly collapsed again, and suddenly the interior of the train car was covered in ice."

"Ice?!"

"That's not possible!"

"But it happened, so be quiet and let me finish the report!" Root snapped. The two interjectors fell silent.

"As I was saying, the interior of the car froze. Butler and Fowl didn't seemed surprised by this, Butler just told the Mud Boy to calm down. Fowl proceeded to stand up, walk to the door, and shot enough ice and snow out of his hands to turn a desert into a winter wonderland."

Murmuring bubbled among the majors and captains and council.

"Are you saying that Fowl . . . has some kind of ice magic?" Foaly asked skeptically.

Root waved his hand. "If that's what you want to call it. Fowl then used the power he had left to freeze Holly's wound and trick her body into thinking only 2 minutes had passed instead of 8."

"And why were we not informed that the Fowl boy had . . . mutant abilities," the Council Chairman chose his words carefully, "in your report?"

"Fowl and I made a deal. He would tell me what he knew about his abilities if I kept it to myself for the time being." Root shrugged. "We had a leak, and the Mud Boy knew it. Seeing as I could reveal the information at any time if it became pertinent, such as now, I agreed to his terms."

"So what exactly are the extents of the Mud Boy's abilities?" Wing Commander Vinyaya inquired.

"He deals in frost, ice, and snow, and it all melts naturally. He was born with it, and doesn't know why. He can control it when he wants to, but according to him, it's also connected to his emotions, and if they get out of control, then so do his powers."

"You think Artemis has lost control." Holly concluded.

"You were right earlier. Artemis is a criminal, but he's a thief, not a killer. He's also a lurk-in-the-shadows kind of person. Pulling this kind of stunt would get him nothing but high profile scrutiny."

"So what do we do?" Holly asked.

"You, Captain Short, are going to get wings and a weapon and commandeer a supersonic shuttle to the surface. Artemis is most familiar with you, so you stand the best chance at getting to him. Foaly, you prove that we give that budget for a reason and make sure Holly knows where she's going and doesn't get killed along the way. The rest of you - " The commander raised his voice at his subordinate officers, " - will deal with the chaos of the lockdown."

"Should we be taken off lockdown?" Captain Kelp asked.

"No." Vinyaya answered. "We don't know for sure that Fowl was behind the ping, and if he wasn't, going off lockdown will only give our intruder more data."

"Well, what are you all just sitting there for?" The commander barked. "GET MOVING!"

An hour later, Holly was flying over English land, soaring as fast as she possibly could towards London from the Stonehenge terminal. The ride up had been quick, even by fairy standards, but every second had seemed like one too many. Every second that passed meant Artemis was destroying even more of London and hurting more people, and would only have that much more guilt to deal with.

And Holly didn't doubt Artemis would feel guilty. Processing what Root had told her about Artemis' gift, his completely indifferent and cold (pun not intended) exterior now made startling sense. If an emotional response could set off such a devastating power, the only thing to be done would be to make sure that his emotions never got out of his control. Artemis Fowl wasn't heartless; he simply couldn't allow his heart to speak for him.

That child with the blank face that had terrified her for months after meeting (no child should ever be that expressionless; ever), that child was not real. It was a front built to protect the world from the real boy inside. Who that boy was, Holly did not know, but it was someone who could feel guilt and empathy and had some sense of ethics, skewed as they might be. Which was why she needed to get to Artemis as quickly as possible, before he realized what he was doing to London and his emotions spiraled even further out of his control. Assuming, that is, he hadn't already. But Foaly hadn't reported the epicenter of the storm moving or spiking exponentially in intensity in any of the rambling updates the centaur was babbling into her ear, so that probably meant that Artemis hadn't moved either.

She felt the chill long before she saw the ice. It was invasive, working its way beneath her suit and helmet and freezing her skin. She activated the heating coils, but even though they let her very uniform radiate heat that should have made her feel like she had slipped into a slime bath, she only felt like she was frozen.

The wind whipped around her slim frame, and she had to push her wings to the limit to keep in air and flying straight. It was almost like a physical force pushing her, like knives being thrown at her body trying to tear through her, or waves slamming her into the surface. A couple of times she did lose control, and the tumble backwards before she regained balance was exactly like getting knocked down in the ocean.

London finally came into view, and even though she had seen the footage, the sight was devastating to see in person, nearly causing Holly to halt in midair (which she managed to not do, to avoid being knocked out of the sky).

A great pillar of ice and debris stretched from the center of London into the sky, buildings pushed aside like building blocks and great chunks of concrete being tossed around like leaves. The wind's howl was greater than anything Holly had heard before, the sound of a beast far more horrifying than the trolls that lived in the tunnels below or the machines the Mud Men used above.

Artemis was somewhere in that, was the cause of that. Just barely pushing forward and dodging the car-sized hunks of ice being torn away and thrown her direction, it hit Holly just how much power Artemis had at his fingertips, how much power was unintentionally being used and how destructive it was without a leash to restrain it. Yet in his thirteen years of living, he had managed to hold it back instead of using it for his own gain. Another insight into the boy beneath the ice.

It soon became explicitly clear that there would be no way to fly to the center of this mess; there was simply too much debris and wind to hold a course without being knocked out of the sky. Holly used her helmet to pinpoint a spot at least partially shielded from the wind, and gratefully (but carefully) landed on the ground, sheltering as best as she could and updating Foaly on her status.

"There's no way I can fly in this; heading in on the ground." She bit out into her helmet, pulling out her Neutrino and kicking it up to its highest level, certain that it would be needed in the landscape of ice.

"Good call; the amount of concrete and steel and who knows what else my sensors are picking up in that storm is equivalent to more than a few skyscrapers. I doubt there's anyone still in that area that can talk about seeing you, so feel free to stop shielding and save your magic."

Holly did, bitterly aware that Foaly was right; anyone still in the area wouldn't be able to talk, because they were most likely dead.

A flashing map on the screen showed a street view of London, with a blinking red light to show where Artemis was supposed to be, and a green beacon to represent her. In theory, getting from point A to point B was simple. All she had to do was follow the map and duck the occasional hunk of concrete being chucked at her head. In reality, however, things were a bit more complicated. For one thing, the map she was following was of London pre-Artemis.

"D'Arvit, Foaly!" She shouted after the third time she was forced to turn around after being faced with an insurmountable (and un-blast-able) wall of debris. "Why are you giving me a map only useful in pointing out what London used to like?!"

"It's the newest one I have!" Foaly defended. "I've got satellites pointed at the city, but it's next to impossible to get much of anything through this storm. You're lucky I can still keep track of you in all this!"

Holly sighed, but continued on, having no choice in the matter but to improvise her way to the epicenter of the storm.

Holly's boots crunched on the black-streaked iced that coated the ground. The wind shrieked around her ears, pounding at her helmet and often blinding her. More than a few times, the treads on her shoes failed to create traction, and she went stumbling to the ground. The wind immediately covered her in snow, and the ice on the ground did its best to pierce through her suit. Every time this happened, Holly pushed herself back onto her feet, but every time, the cold invading her bones made it harder to do so. It was almost like a living force, doing everything it could to bring Holly to her knees.

Finally, finally, after hours of battling the intense wind, Holly reached a destroyed shell of a building that Foaly's scanners indicated Artemis was inside. The remains of a sign iced into the ground suggested it was some kind of restaurant. Razor sharp icicles the size of oak trees jutted out of the remains of the cinderblock walls colored an odd reddish-brown color that Holly didn't want to think about. The wind was the strongest here, Holly having to turn on the propulsion in her wings on low just to remain standing. Every opening was blocked by a thick layer of ice, making the ruins a veritable fortress.

Holly planted her feet, then aimed her gun at one of the openings in the corner of the building, judging it the least likely spot to have Artemis with range of it. Quickly, Holly shot off two quick bursts into the ice. Pulverized frost and snow broke off from the impact site, but Holly was dismayed to see the ice had not shattered. Again and again, Holly kept firing off shots at the thick wall of ice. Little by little, she chipped away at the potent mixture of snow, frost, and ice, until finally she managed to break through, a small opening barely large enough for a cat. Encouraged, she slid up to the opening, and used a long, consistent beam to melt away the edges until she had an opening large enough for her to squeeze through. Toning down the setting on her neutrino, she slipped inside.

The first thing that happened when she slipped inside was her falling flat on her face. Outside with the wind raging, propulsion from her wings had been required to move forward and stand. In here, though, the air was motionless and almost oppressively silent, like the air itself was frozen. With this sudden lack of resistance, Holly's wings became less than useless, and caused her to crash into the ground. Muttering curses, Holly turned off the wings and picked herself up, only to come face to face with a dead body.

Now this was not Holly's first body. Murder and suicide were rare among fairies, but it did happen, and Holly had had to prove she could handle the possibility of death to make it as far up the ranks as she had. Bodies were nothing new, but this one . . . The first thing an onlooker would notice was the cause of death. Even a goblin could have told you what that was, and it was the jagged icicle that had punched a watermelon sized hole in the Mud Man's stomach, nearly ripping the body in two. Blood stained the otherwise pure white ice, and froze into their own icicles and trails along the body. The man's face was twisted in agony, an empty scream frozen before it could escape his lips. Drool and blood marred the mouth and pale blue skin of the chin, and the man's eyes stared lifelessly at nothing. The whole thing was coated with a thin layer of ice that unfortunately did nothing to distort the details of the body.

To her credit, Holly didn't scream. The breath was drawn but never released. Instead a wave of nausea forced Holly to close her eyes and kneel. Opening the visor to puke was not an option, so Holly resulted to calming breathes while waiting for her stomach to stop churning. Reasonably certain she wouldn't hurl, Holy stood back up, and resolutely ignoring the dead Mud Man, turned her gaze to the rest of the room.

She had been correct in thinking this place a restaurant. At one time, it had been a pricy place with elegance draping from every feature. Wine glasses with mixtures from the French Revolution, fish from the Channel caught only hours before, silk tablecloths on every table, precisely the kind of place Holly would expect Artemis to dine at.

There were more bodies strewn around the large room. Tossed against crumbling walls and flung onto tables, long lumps rose in the ice layer that covered and buried the walls and floor. Holly did not focus on them too intensely. At least, not until one of the lumps moved.

Catching the movement out of the corner of her eye, Holly quickly snapped back her gaze and prepared her magic. If it was a Mud Man who had somehow survived this devastation, she wanted to be ready to heal. She slowly crept to the lump that had caught her eye. It was different than the other bodies. Whereas every other body in the room was spread eagle or lying on its side, this one was hunched, crouched over another lump. As Holly watched and approached, she saw it move again, shuddering and heaving. She became aware of the smallest of noises, a hiccupping sound intermingled with the occasional gasp. Scooting towards the front of the figure, Holly saw that it was not actually a survivor. It was Artemis himself.

She nearly didn't recognize him. His clothes were cover in layers of patterned ice that crack and reformed over and over again as he shifted. Frost clung to his hair, making it appear swirled with white where the frost was thick and gray where it was thin. His skin was tinged blue, and on anyone else she would have said they had frostbite. Thick tears rolled down his cheeks only to freeze in their tracks before the buildup grew too heavy and broke off. His hands were uselessly pawing at an abnormally large lump in ice, and as Holly squinted her eyes, she could make out enough details of the face to realize that it was Butler frozen beneath Artemis's hands.

"Oh, Frond." Holly whispered.

"Holly?" Foaly whinnied over the mic, hearing Holly's voice after the hours of silence he left her to focus on crossing London. "What's going on? Have you found Fowl?"

Holly blinked. "Yeah, I found him. It's like the eye of the hurricane in here, but - oh Frond, Foaly, something happened to Butler."

"Butler? What? What happened?" Foaly's voice was confused, as if he couldn't imagine anything happening to the giant Mud Man. Holly had to admit she felt the same way. She hadn't even thought about how Butler could have let Artemis get so out of control.

"I don't know; I'm too far away to see clearly. He's frozen, but I have no idea if that's the cause of this or an aftereffect of the trigger."

"Can you get close enough to make out what happened?"

Holly took a breath. "That would involve approaching Artemis; I haven't done that yet."

"Smart choice." The commander's voice came over the mic. "There's no telling what might happen if you go over there. He might realize what he's doing, and if he does -"

"Another breakdown and an even larger storm." Holly finished grimly. "One that makes this one look like a flurry."

"Should you shoot him? Stop his emotions, stop the storm." Root pointed out.

"Yeah, and let gravity take care of the tons of debris the storm is throwing around." Foaly said sarcastically. "No, we need Artemis to let the storm dissolve."

"Mesmer?"

"No eye contact yet, and I don't think even mesmer could stop Artemis from feeling all this."

"A tranq, then." Holly suggested. "Slow down his system so the storm gets weaker as he does."

There was a pause over the line.

"Sounds like the best option." Foaly remarked.

"You mean our only option." Root commented grimly.

Holly swallowed. "I'm going in now. Setting my visor to transparent and muting your line." Holly made the necessary adjustments so that Artemis would be able to see her face and hear her, then reached into her belt, pulling out an adhesive patch soaked in enough sedatives to knock out a troll.

She took the final few steps towards Artemis, and took a deep breath. "Artemis?" She called softly.

The effect was instantaneous. Artemis whirled around, nearly toppling over back onto Butler's lifeless form. His wide blue eyes were stark against the deathly pale background of his face, and the tears still welling up inside them glistened in the soft light reflected from Holly's helmet on the ice.

"Holly?" He croaked. "Captain Short?" He corrected. "What - what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to help you, Artemis." Holly said gently.

"Help me? I - I don't understand." Artemis shook his head, as if trying to clear it. The exact opposite of what Holly wanted to happen.

"You're dreaming." She blurted. "Having a nightmare." That may not have been a psychologist-approved response, but Holly would rather deal with a little extra fallout later than deal with any of it now.

"Dreaming?" Artemis frowned. "It doesn't feel like -"

"Of course you're dreaming!" Holly pushed. "I'm here to wake you up."

"Really?" Artemis's voice was small, and Holly could see his eyes darting around the room, growing wider and wider as he took in the details of his surroundings. Outside, the wind started to pick up, and Holly knew that what Artemis had done was beginning to dawn on him. She had to act fast.

"Take my hand." She held out the hand that had the sedative patch concealed in it. "Artemis, please. If you want to wake up, take my hand."

"I-" Artemis hesitated, fear growing in his blue orbs. "Did I do this?" He whispered.

"No." Holly shook her head. "It's just a nightmare. Artemis, take my hand."

Artemis's hand shook heavily, but he reached it out, and clasped her hand tightly. He immediately began to sway, and Holly could hear the roar of the wind start to dim slightly. It was working for now, but how long before Artemis and the storm faded out completely?

"Holly?" Artemis called, voice confused and sluggish.

"It's fine." Holly insisted. "You'll be waking up in a moment, I promise." Well, it should feel like a moment for him. Holly pulled out a Moon Belt and cam foil, and before Artemis could comment, fastened the Belt around Artemis's waist.

"What -" Artemis blinked slowly, and his knees began to buckle. At his now greatly reduced weight, Holly was able to catch him before he hit the ground.

Artemis was falling into drugged sleep fast, but before he fell completely, he muttered one thing. "This isn't a dream." It was not a question.

Holly shook her head. "I'm sorry." She whispered.

Artemis looked like he wanted to say more, but his eyelids and mouth had grown heavy, too heavy to move.

"Sleep, Artemis." Holly layered her voice with the barest layer of mesmer.

And he did.

So if you enjoyed this, leave a fav, follow, and/or review. Tell me what you think and I may continue this. Have a great day/night, and I'll see you next time Fowlnatics!

-Blue Seidr