Summary: What if Artemis' mind games in the first book had a worse affect on Holly than he thought possible? Rated for suicide and blood.

I don't own the Artemis series, though if I did Root would show up later alive.

A/N - This is my first and probably only attempt at Artemis Fowl fan fiction. I know I'm not as good a writer and Eoin Colfer, so be kind and don't rub it in! POV changes throughout story.

Holly's POV

I couldn't believe it. I had been captured by Mud Men, one of them not even old enough to be shaving. Somehow he had known that I was a fairy, and knew about my magic, and that I needed to complete the Ritual. He had also managed to get around my mesmer.

I shuddered and pushed myself further into the corner of the cell, opposite of the cot. There was nothing I could do to help myself; I only a had a trickle of magic left, and it was worthless. Earlier I had felt something in my boot, and got my hopes up to only find out that it was a stone.

Then that little Mud Boy had come in and taunted me with knowledge he shouldn't know. Not that he should know anything about us fairies, mind you. He knew my name and rank from my I.D. tag, which was written in Gnommish, but he claimed to be able to read it. He knew about the hostage fund. The Mud Boy told me that he'd kept me on a sodium pentathol drip for over sixty hours and now knew everything he had told me and probably much more. I had asked him why he hadn't killed me, but I knew the answer already; he was going to try and get as much money for me as he could.

I risked a glare up at the camera mounted on the wall. No doubt that Mud Boy was watching me in case I tried any sort of escape attempt. Not that I had any magic or any strength to do so. I turned away to stare at the smooth concrete floor in front of my feet.

So he knew about the hostage fund. So what? The council wouldn't approve its use on the first female Recon officer, who was just a trial case.

And even if they did, by allowing myself be captured I had disgraced myself in such a terrible way that I would be fired from the Recon unit and banished to who knows where. But by revealing the secrets of our race to a Mud Man I had done the unthinkable, whether I had done so willingly or not didn't matter. If I got out of this thing alive and was banished I would be lucky. But if they found out about me spilling our races' secrets… I didn't want to think about that.

I also didn't want Commander Root to be ashamed and embarrassed because of me. I didn't want to give the others of the Recon unit a bad name because of what had happened to me. If I was lucky, the order to blue rinse this place would be given, and the shame of what I had done wouldn't matter because the Mud Boy would be dead, just like I would be. I didn't care about that. Getting out of here alive just to either banished or imprisoned didn't hold any appeal to me. My work was my life, and it was all I had. No family and hardly any friends, and all of them part of Recon.

But if they did negotiate with the Mud Boy…

My eyes lifted a little to rest on the metal frame of the cot. The Mud Boy couldn't negotiate if he didn't have a prisoner to use as bargaining material.

Artemis's POV

Once again I felt the guilty twinge on my conscious as I watched the captive huddle in a corner of her cell. I shook my head to dispel of such thoughts. Once the fairies realized that they couldn't beat me even with all of their fancy magic and agreed to my price, the captain would be released unharmed.

I smiled ever so slightly as she glared up at the camera. "Go ahead and hate me, Captain Short. It won't do you a bit of good. I have you and your precious Recon and Commander Root just where I want them. Once they give me the gold, I will release you."

"What if they chose to not agree with your terms, Artemis?"

I couldn't help it; I jumped. Looking over my shoulder, I eyed Butler. I had been concentrating so much on my captive I hadn't noticed or heard Butler enter the room. Turning back to the screens, I asked, "What do you mean by that, Butler?"

"What I meant is what if they decide that they don't want to agree with us and just bomb the manor? Even if we do have one of their own captive, they can just mark her off as a needed casualty to keep their secrets."

I shook my head again, this time in disagreement. "You weren't there when that Recon commander came in to negotiate with me. He doesn't want anything to happen to one of his officers, Butler. Trust me. Even if he's ordered to be some higher-up person, I suspect he'll either fight back long enough to attempt a rescue, or defy the order outright."

Butler remained silent. I could tell he still was completely satisfied with my statement, but I knew I had thought of everything. I knew as much about fairy magic as my enemies did, even if I didn't have any, I could outsmart it. Anything that fairy Recon rubble threw at me, I could handle.

Holly's POV

I got to my knees and crawled over to the cot. Unlike the room, it wasn't brand new, which was lucky for me. I didn't have enough magic left to cut through solid metal. But metal that was rusty inside? That I could handle, no problem.

Holding my hand over one of the small legs, I whispered, "Break."

The metal leg snapped off as blue sparks danced over it and died. I was empty of magic, not that it mattered. Just as I had hoped, the leg had broken off from the main frame with a pointed edge, and it was very, very sharp.

Artemis's POV

I frowned as I watched Captain Short get to her knees and cross the cell to the cot. She was looking at the frame, almost as if she was studying it. "What are you planning, Captain?" I asked softly.

She placed a hand over the leg closest to her; blue sparks appeared under and around her hand on the metal. Then they vanished, and the metal cot leg was in her hands.

"A weapon for when one of us enters the cell?" I said, thinking aloud. "But that wouldn't make any sense since she knows there's a camera watching her."

I continued watching Holly, curious as to what she was planning.

A/N - be a good reader and review! Please and thank you!