helloooo :)

Again, I'm sorry! Long time no update I know, but summer is here! yay! And I hope that I'll be able to spend a lot more time writing :) I promise that I'll try to upload this (and my other fics) quicker!

Thank you to everybody who has stuck with it. I owe you all my undying love :)

Quick Disclaimer: Eoin Colfer owns all this, not me. In fact, I await the new book... out later this year! woop!

"Artemis, I'm out of magic."

Artemis looked into the elf's hazel eyes and nodded. "It's fine, just get me to the next camp. I'll work on a plan on the way. Don't worry Holly, I can work this out."

The boy's brain was already buzzing as Holly strapped him onto her moon belt. Truth be told, things had gone almost as badly as they possibly could. Once awoken, the previous camp would probably alert the other two sites to be open for intruders. What if they tried to start up the drills? What would happen then? Once Falkner realised his machine wasn't working he would know something was up. Then it was only a matter of who reached the other camps first, Holly and Artemis, or a phone call from Falkner.

"Got a plan Fowl?" Muttered Holly to the boy as they sped above the desert.

"Of sorts." Replied Artemis. "Is there any chance we could go any faster? Time is of the essence!"

"Easier said than done Fowl." Grumbled Holly "Our weight combined is too heavy for the wings to fly faster than 80. We've already hit top speed. I can't go any faster."

Artemis grunted in frustration. "We're not going to make it at this rate. If Falkner tries to start up his drill and finds it not working, he'll waste no time phoning the other camps."

"Don't worry. Commander Root and Mulch should have Falkner mesmerised by now."

"But they're going to have to disappear if someone goes into his office to alert him."

"But why would he start the drill at this time in the morning anyway?" Holly was puzzled.

"He wouldn't normally. But all this talk of magical healing angels might trigger something. Healing angels might not exist but fairies do, and fairies are exactly what he is drilling for."

Holly was silent for a moment, brow furrowed in worry. "This is all my fault." she said finally, "If I had managed to keep my shield…"

"It's not your fault Holly. You did what you had to do. You couldn't leave that man to die. No one could have predicted this." Artemis interrupted, "You can't blame yourself. But we can't waste any more time, and at this speed, we'll never reach both other camps in…" he checked his watch, "Two and a half hours."

"Well what do you suggest then, because I don't see a way we can do this."

"Holly." Artemis spoke slowly and deliberately. "You're going to have to drop me…"

"No way." Holly was quick to answer, "No can do Fowl, I'm not leaving you stranded in the middle of a desert."

"It's the only way to make it in time! All you have to do is crawl underneath the machine, locate the fuse box and fix three little yellow wires into the holes in the little black box I'll give you."

"What will you do? Stuck out in the middle of the desert, how am I going to find you again afterwards? This place is pretty big, in case you hadn't noticed."

"If you can think of a better plan, I'd like to hear it." Snapped Artemis. "Now take these boxes, drop me and leave. Send my co-ordinates to Foaly and he can store them so you know where to pick me up. I won't move from this spot Holly. I promise."

"I don't like leaving you behind Artemis."

"And I don't like being left behind, but we don't have a choice any more."

Holly nodded once, her facial expression unreadable.

"Alright Fowl. Hold on tight." She dived suddenly, descending towards the sandy dunes of the Desert. Landing with a soft thud, she unclipped Artemis from her moon belt.

"Right." Artemis held out two small black boxes, no bigger than matchboxes. "Take these. You know what to do with them, yes?"

"Put the three yellow wires into the three holes." Holly squinted at the tiny holes in the side of one of the boxes. "Frond, you couldn't make them any bigger?"

"They're pocket sized Holly! Portable!"

"Right, of course." Holly rolled her eyes. "Bloody genius." She looked at Artemis suddenly, her eyes shielded by the visor of her helmet. "Are you sure you're going to be okay here Artemis?"

The boy blinked. There was genuine concern in that voice, even if he couldn't see her eyes, he didn't need to be a genius to figure out she was worried.

"Because you don't have to do this. Be left alone in a desert I mean. We can fly back to the ship now, think up another plan." Holly tried her hardest to sound sincere, but she knew full well what Artemis was about to say.

"Don't be preposterous Holly. You know that this is the only chance we have to shut down the machines. If this isn't done tonight, the rest of the plan won't work. And even then… any information Julius and Mulch have uncovered may change things completely. We need the time that this sabotage can buy us."

Holly said nothing, but nodded slowly. Suddenly she punched the mudboy on the shoulder. "Don't you go anywhere Fowl." She tried to make her tone sound playful. "You better be here when I get back."

Artemis smiled. "Don't worry Holly. I'll stay put, wait for Foaly to pick me up."

"Stay safe Artemis." Holly spoke softly this time. Extending a hand she gripped his own tightly, for only a second, before dropping it and powering up her wings. Without the weight of the human boy, the wings flew a lot smoother and Holly felt strangely liberated as she slipped through the air at twice their previous speed. As Artemis watched her form turn into a dot on the horizon he smiled to himself.

"I will Holly. For you, I will."

"Seriously Dwarf, you expect me to follow you through your freshly dug tunnel?" Root glared at the reprobate in disbelief. "You've got to be kidding me."

"It's Artemis' plan, not mine." Chuckled Mulch. "So unless you've got a plan better than the one the genius boy thought of…"

Root growled begrudgingly. "Fine. Just be quick. I don't want to be underground any longer than I have to."

Mulch gave the commander a mock salute before pressing some buttons on his wristwatch. "Wrist-sat-nav." He explained. "Foaly's latest. Pretty 'handy' eh?" Root groaned as he followed the chuckling dwarf "Get it? 'handy'… a wristwatch… handy… like digging with your hands… ha… OWCH"

Root finally hit him hard over the head. "You've no idea how long I've wanted to do that Diggums." Mulch looked at the commander reproachfully before unhinging his jaw, and set about biting earth.

Five minutes later both Root and Mulch were situated right underneath Falkner's quarters; Root grumbling and scraping dirt off his face, Mulch re-hinging his jaw and checking the ceiling of the tunnel for the best way to get into the room. Falkner's office was adjoined to his sleeping quarters through a small doorway. Mulch didn't want to go into the wrong room by accident.

"Can't you do that any faster?" barked Root angrily. "We have a tiny window of time here Diggums, I don't want this mission failing because of some criminal!"

"When have I ever let you down, Julius?" Grinned the Dwarf.

"DON'T CALL ME JU…" Commander Root's screaming was silenced quickly by a sudden creak. Mulch had managed to loosen the floorboards into Falkner's Room.

"We're in." The dwarf whispered into his mike. Foaly's voice crackled on the other end.

"Nice work you two. Now, I'm turning on your helmet cam now; anything from now on will be recorded so Julius, you might want to keep your tantrums to yourself."

Root turned a violent shade of magenta as Mulch chuckled to himself, crawling up through the floorboards. The room was dark but both the fairies' helmets thankfully had night-vision lenses. -Handy. I might have to get myself one of these for my 'little jobs'- thought Mulch to himself. Julius seemed to read his mind. "Don't even think of stealing the helmet Diggums. We could incinerate your head before you'd got 100 metres away from Haven." Mulch laughed nervously, knowing full well the commander wasn't kidding.

Over in the far corner of the room, Falkner was snoring heavily. Mulch took a chair from the desk in the opposite corner, placing it strategically in the middle of the room. Root, meanwhile, set about waking the snoring man. Roughly shaking Falkner's shoulders, the commander made sure he was staring into the mudman's eyes, so that when he awoke, he could mesmerise him without a problem.

Falkner's eyes flickered open blearily, accompanied by a loud groan.

"Morning Mudman." Julius's smile was satanic. Staring right into Falkners' pupils he began to speak very low and quietly under his breath. "Human, your will is mine." Falkner's eyes suddenly lost focus altogether, staring into nothing. Root stood up. "Right, Mulch. Job's done over here. Is the chair ready?"

"if it doesn't collapse under his weight." Mulch raised an eyebrow at the, admittedly round, human. Julius rolled his eyes as he pulled back the covers of the bed. Mulch groaned in disgust. "Eurghhhh. He's not even wearing trousers. No one wants to see THAT. He's so hairy!"

Even Root managed to laugh at this. "You're not painting yourself, convict!" He turned to the 'scantily dressed' man, his voice layered with the mesmer, "Go sit on that chair,"

The mudman obliged, dragging his enormous weight into the chair, where Mulch promptly tied him up with the ropes Foaly had provided them with earlier.

The centaur himself suddenly piped up over the fairies' headsets. "Right, Mulch, go into his office and turn on his computer, I want to have a look at these emails. Julius, I think it's time to ask a few questions."

Root, on the verge of barking at Foaly for the inappropriate use of his first name (yet again), obliged, pulling another chair to sit facing the mudman. Mulch, meanwhile, opened the door to the office and cautiously switched on the computer.

"Right, Falkner, tell me a bit about yourself." Mulch could hear Root from the next room.

"My name is Philonius Falkner. I am forty three years old. I have a villa…"

"Yeah, ok mudman. Not quite what I meant." Mulch laughed at Roots exasperated tone. "Why are you here?"

"I'm excavating."

"Excavating what?"

"A new power source."

"Which is…?"

"Top secret."

"Tell me."

"I can't."

"D'arvit." Root swore, turning his familiar shade of scarlet. He pushed harder with the mesmer, adding an extra layer to his voice. "Tell me mudman."

"I have been sworn to secrecy."

"By who?"

"A Co-worker."

"Who is he?"

"She."

"What?" Root barked a little too loudly, losing the mesmering sound to his voice.

Falkner blinked as Root hastily pushed with the mesmor even more, sparks flying from under his eyelids. "Who is she?"

"A co-worker."

"What's her NAME for frond's sake?"

"She told me not to tell anyone."

"Foaly this isn't going anywhere." Root grumbled into his mike.

"Just wait a minute Julius. I'm checking the emails… Mulch scroll down."

Mulch obliged, acting as Foaly's eyes. He scrolled and clicked as directed, opening email after email. All much the same as each other, Foaly clicked his tongue in frustration. "Dr Pringle, Dr Jaspard… Ms Cheung, Ms Cheung… Who is this Ms Cheung?"

"Maybe…" Mulch piped in holding up a photo of Falkner and a small Chinese woman, before he was interrupted by Root's barking from the other room.

"Listen you two, we don't have much time, and I'm not getting anything out of this man!"

Foaly sighed, switching his attention onto the commander's helmet-cam. "Zoom me in on his eyes Julius."

Julius obliged, eyes widening as he saw the pupils of Mr Falkner. "Holy Frond." He breathed in unison with the centaur.

Alarm bells, went off in Julius' head. Falkner's pupils were more jagged than any other creature he'd ever seen, mudman or fairy. He was surprised the man wasn't blind.

He'd been mesmerised before.

His co-worker was a woman.

The two facts zoomed round and round the commander's head. He'd been mesmerised before, his co-worker was a woman. He'd been mesmerised, his co-worker… mesmerised… woman…

"Errrr Julius." Mulch shuffled into the room uncertainly, holding the photo in his hand. "You might want to have a look at this."

Julius took the photo with barely steady hands, staring at the two figures, his eyes widened. The man on the left, a fat mudman holding a certificate proudly; on the right, a small… unnaturally small… Chinese woman. Julius peered closer, zooming in his camera on the female's face. He could almost hear the cogs whirring in Foaly's brain. That woman… she was so familiar. Those eyes. He zoomed in further, the penny dropping with an ear-deafening clang.

He'd been mesmerised before.

His co-worker was a woman.

He recognised those cold, smirking eyes.

"Foaly…" He breathed quietly, looking up at Mulch's knowing gaze.

Suddenly a gunshot went off followed by loud screams. "D'arvit Foaly what was that?" Root shouted, above the growing noise from outside.

"I have no idea, but you need to get out of there, FAST!"

Root didn't need telling twice. Untying the mudman and shoving him back into his bed he shouted at Mulch to put everything back the way it was. Chaos was unfolding outside as the shouts grew louder. Root prayed Holly and Artemis were alright and this didn't have anything to do with them.

Suddenly there was a banging on the door.

"D'arvit. MULCH GET DOWN THAT HOLE NOW!" Root charged up his shield, running in the direction of the opened floorboards.

Mulch quickly pulled the floorboards back into place as three workmen came charging into the bedroom.

"Faulkner, sir, sorry to wake you sir, but… Tony's been shot. And he's claiming that he's seen an angel sir."

Mulch and Root didn't stay to hear any more, too busy sprinting back down the tunnel towards the desert with three words running through their minds.

Three words spinning round and round and round.

Three words that meant a really, REALLY big problem.

She. Was. Back.

Dun, dun, DUN!! cliffhanger! Although I think it's pretty obvious who 'she' is. A special mention, next chapter will go to whoever can guess 'Ms Cheung's' real name in their review. And please do review! It really makes my day!!

hugs - Rose xxx