Disclaimer- All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.

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Author's Note:

Hey all. Sorry this chapter's a little short. Promise to have the next one out soon to make up for it.

Luv

Creatress

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Chapter 5

The Comfort in the Ice

Holly groaned as she opened her eyes. Her vision blurred for a second, and the crown of her head pounded briefly before a bit of magic healed it. She quickly realized that she was sitting in a chair, her hands tied behind her back. She glanced behind her, and saw that they were handcuffed together. Someone had removed her jacket and boots. Gulping, she looked around. The room was empty save for her and her chair. There was no window. Only a dark brown carpeted floor, white walls and a door.

Holly blinked for a second, and then suddenly remembered everything. Opal! She straightened in her chair, and looked at the handcuffs again, this time checking carefully for weak spots in them. She had to get out of here. The fairy pulled at the handcuffs, twisting them as much as she could, looking for thin metal, a loose screw, anything… Her attention quickly left the cuffs though, when the doorknob turned.

Holly looked at the door, gulping slightly, wondering what would come. Worst possible scenarios ran through her mind. Opal torturing her, Opal doing mad experiments on her, Opal killing her… When the door swung open, Holly was thrown. She hesitated for a second, wondering if Opal's kick to her head had caused more damage than she'd originally thought it had. "Minerva?" she asked, disbelievingly.

Minerva stepped into the room, gently closing the door behind her. She was wearing shades and a lab coat. She looked into the fairy's eyes. "While you are in my dwelling, you will not use the Mesmer on anyone here." She pulled the glasses off and smiled mirthlessly. "Holly. Just the woman I was hoping never to see again." Her eyes trailed along Holly's auburn coloured hair. It came in neat, straight strands to the bottom of her chin. "You have nice hair, Holly. It's grown since the last time we met."

This casual comment snapped the fairy out of her shock. Holly stared at the blonde for a second, confusion clearly evident in her narrowed mismatched eyes. "What is going on here?" she asked.

"I know you're no genius, Holly, but this isn't rocket science." Minerva slightly gestured around her. "What does it look like?"

Holly scowled. She'd always found Minerva particularly annoying, but certainly never to this extent. "Where's Opal?!" she demanded.

Minerva's eyebrows rose. "What? You would rather speak to her?"

Holly gasped for a second, wondering if she was dreaming. Then she tried taking a closer look at Minerva's irises, wondering if the girl before her had been mesmerized by the pixie. When Minerva appeared normal, she scowled, even though her heart was racing at this development. She could hardly believe it, even though the evidence was standing in front of her. Minerva Paradizo and Opal Koboi were working together. "Don't give me your attitude, Paradizo! Let me go!"

Minerva frowned a little at Holly's outburst. "My dwelling. I give the orders."

Holly gulped a little. "Why did you kidnap me?" she finally asked, slowly.

Minerva quirked a shoulder. "Opal and I have decided that our worlds must mingle. And when they do, we want to be in charge. We want the credit for uniting two races that have been separated for far too long." She smirked a little. "So, you see, Holly – it's a good thing, what we're doing."

Holly scowled. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard!" she exclaimed. She took some satisfaction in the indignant look that flashed across the blonde's face then. "For two people who claim to be so damn smart, how could you be dim-witted?!"

Minerva rolled her eyes before creating a W with the fingers on her left hand. "Whatever," she said, flippantly.

Holly suddenly thought that was incredibly annoying and childish. She tugged at her handcuffs again, slightly growling with the effort. "The People would never agree to this! Opal is a criminal – she's a murderer."

"Quite the contrary. After we reveal the fairies, the human world will come to us for knowledge on you lot," Minerva explained. "If Opal chooses to reveal her ancestry, that's her choice. Either way, we'll have all the information that everybody will need. Mankind will do whatever we say – knowledge is power. And we're the only ones with it."

"What about Haven?!" Holly snapped. "You must not have heard me – they'll never go for this."

"People will do whatever they're told when they're scared!" Minerva snapped back, her voice rising. She paused, and gulped a little before she continued. She gave Holly a little smile that was half-catty and half victorious. "We've looked over the Book and Haven Law. With our plan in place, Opal will be a free pixie."

Holly glared at the blonde, slightly wondering at her first words. 'People will do whatever they're told when they're scared.' She gulped, biting back the questions she wanted to ask. Minerva would never tell her – so it was best to let the other girl believe Holly missed it. "And where does kidnapping me fit into all of this?!" she demanded. "I suppose I'm going to be Exhibit 1 at the Nobels."

Minerva ran her eyes over the tied up elf. "You know what, Holly? That's actually a very good idea," she said, nodding. She paused a little. "However, that's not why Opal and I captured you."

Holly inwardly gulped, suddenly noticing her throat had run dry. "Please," she said, her voice heavy with sarcasm. "Enlighten me."

Minerva smirked, dryly. "For all of our plans to unveil the fairy world to the humans… As you yourself should be able to guess, we thought of a problem that might arise."

Holly didn't have to think about this for long. "Artemis," she breathed.

Minerva nodded. "Exactly. Artemis Fowl would never allow us to do this. Especially with his history with Opal. So we had to figure out a way to effectively silence him."

Holly narrowed her eyes at the blonde. "How would kidnapping me silence Artemis?" she asked. She swallowed again, wondering what these two psychotic women were planning. "Why not just go for Artemis?"

Minerva shrugged a little. "It's all in the strategy," she said, casually. "Artemis is too hard to capture. There are too many people surrounding him. We decided the best thing to do would be to go after someone who's important and useful to him. Butler's a fighter – but he'd be useless in a magical situation. Foaly? Opal just laughed." Minerva narrowed her eyes a little, almost thoughtfully. "You, however. You can do a lot of everything. Technology, magic…" She sighed a little, almost admiringly. "It's stupid to go directly after a strong king, Holly. One must weaken him first, and the best way to do so is to take down his queen." Here, she gave the redhead a pointedly hostile look.

Holly stared at Minerva, suddenly feeling a chill in the room. "What are you going to do to me?" she asked.

Minerva wrinkled her nose a little, looking the fairy over. "That depends on how well Artemis cooperates."

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Artemis' head wouldn't stop pounding. What he was feeling wasn't anger, fear, or nervousness. It was more like he was feeling nothing – like all the organs inside of his chest and stomach had just disintegrated into nothingness. Artemis had felt this feeling before. It was the kind of emptiness that came with his father's disappearance, or his mother's illness. It was the kind of emptiness that allowed him to feel nothing.

Butler had left for Tara, to see if he could find anything. The bodyguard took two extra guns with him. "One for extra protection," he told Artemis. "And the second for Holly, if I should find her. Nothing comforts you after a kidnapping like a gun on your hip."

Foaly had, hesitantly, alerted the LEP. As Artemis had expected, they didn't think much of it. "They don't think we should worry," Foaly had told Artemis when he'd gotten back. "A grown fairy can go wherever she wants. We don't have enough reasoning to assume she's been kidnapped." He paused for a second. "Vinyaya's stuck in a meeting with the Council. We couldn't reach her either way."

"Tell her not to bother," Artemis said, tersely. He didn't look up from the map of Tara that Foaly had sent him. The security cameras showed nothing out of the ordinary before they were knocked out, but Artemis thought it was best to double check. "Even if the Council decided to get involved, who do you think would be their first suspect?"

Foaly frowned. "Opal?"

"Me." Artemis smiled, wryly. "She's stayed at my house last night, we had an argument this morning. And no one can deny that the first time we met…" he trailed off, frowning at the screen. Even though it was only a feed of Foaly to his side, he could feel the centaur's gaze.

"It wasn't exactly rose petals, rainbows and birds singing," Foaly agreed. "I see what you're saying." He gave the side of Artemis head a weak smile. "But who cares what those jerks think anyway, huh?"

Artemis smirked, but said nothing. For what seemed like the millionth time that day, he watched the security tape of Tara before everything went crazy. With that cold emptiness, he watched Holly arrive at the holy site. She landed gracefully amidst a few trees and her features were a bit hidden by their branches. He watched her search the place for anything that might give a hint as to where Opal might be. He watched her walk around, obviously growing frustrated when she found nothing. And then, the screen was overtaken by static and white noise. It was expected that it would do that, but Artemis couldn't help but jump every time it happened. Either way, the cameras were killed almost three and a half hours before he'd realized that Holly had been gone far too long. The icy feeling inside his chest intensified.

Artemis sat back, blinking at the screen and scowling. There must be a better way to go about this. There must be. Nothing would come of him staring blankly at an old security feed, trying to find something that wouldn't be there.

Before he could add to these thoughts, an alarm sounded and a small red light in the corner of his room lit up. Artemis sat up, heart pounding and opened the security monitors on his computer. Someone uninvited had entered the manor grounds.

Foaly let out a neigh, obviously startled by the sudden noise. "What is that?"

Artemis narrowed his eyes at his computer screen. "Keep working on the Tara cameras!" he snapped. The motion detecting system was going crazy. The system showed him that someone had just gotten too close to the gate, and something had appeared on the front step. Artemis furrowed his eyebrows in confusion – that didn't make sense. He switched to the security tapes, and frowned.

The feed showed a red van, zooming to the front gate. Artemis could tell that the vehicle had no license plate. The back window was down, but he couldn't make out who was inside. All of a sudden, a small package shot out of the open window, through the bars on the gate, and all the way across the front grounds to hit the front door before landing on the porch. The van subsequently floored away. Special delivery for Artemis Fowl…

Artemis scowled, but got up from his large swivel chair. He ignored Foaly's questioning stutters behind him as he stopped only to pick up a pair of surgical gloves before racing to the front door. He pulled it open, only to stop short, and stare at the package.

It was in a regular white, sealed box and was about the size of a text book. No name, no address.

For half a second, Artemis wondered if there might be anything dangerous inside of it, but quickly rationed that that can't be it. Or else they wouldn't have risked throwing it like that.

Putting on the gloves, Artemis reached down and gently picked up the package. It wasn't as heavy as he'd expected it to be. He closed the door and quickly made his way back up to his room, turning the box over in his hands as he examined it.

"What in Fronds' name just happened?!" Foaly demanded. Even as he ranted, his hooves flew across his own keyboard as he never slowed down in his task to fix the Tara cameras.

Artemis set the box down on his desk. "Blank box, no name, no address, delivered by what I have a feeling is going to be an unidentifiable vehicle with an unknown ownership."

Foaly hit an upload button and turned to stare quizzically at Artemis. The mastermind sounded strangely calm. It was a voice he'd heard a long while ago. Foaly didn't like it.

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Opal smirked at the monitor that displayed a feed of their captive. The usually feisty, spunky Holly looked almost broken. Or maybe her hunched shoulders only indicated that she was tuckered out from screaming at Minerva.

Speak of the she-devil and she will come.

Opal's smirk widened when Minerva entered security room. "Do you think you might have gone a little overboard?" she asked.

Minerva stepped up to the pixie and watched Holly for a second. "No," she said smoothly. A second later, she whipped around to study Opal's profile. "Do you?"

Opal laughed a little. "It was amusing; I'll grant you that. A lot of fun to watch," she said. "But, why? It was more than we needed."

Minerva responded, readily. "I was always someone who did extra credit, just for the hell of it," she said, flippantly. She turned back to Holly, and looked at her with the kind of satisfaction that a student has over an A+ assignment. "Some things are just good for your work. They also make such a pleasant and memorable impression on whoever gets to see your work." She smiled a little. "Neither Artemis nor Holly will ever forget this."

Opal decided that there was more to it, but decided not to push the girl. Instead, she focused on what they agreed on. "No… They'll never forget this."

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Minerva had gone crazy – the girl was mad. Holly Short had not realized the gravity of the situation before – it was much too surreal. Now she realized what was happening. She was at the mercy of one human insane genius, who was working alongside a fairy genius who was even more demented than her.

Holly could barely find the energy to move. She felt sick. She felt sick, helpless and violated.

As she sat, head slumped, looking defeated, and one random memory kept playing over and over again in her mind. One from a long time ago, before Minerva had entered the picture.

"What did you think of me? When you first saw me?" Holly asked. She inhaled deeply, her eyes fluttering shut for a second. The garden was in full bloom. It was a beautiful summer day, and she was glad Artemis had agreed to take a walk outside. Usually, her visits to the manor were limited to the inside.

Artemis didn't reply for a second. "You weren't green," he said, smiling.

Holly whipped around to face him, her eyebrows rising curiously. "Green?" she asked. She had no idea what she was talking about.

Artemis quirked a shoulder, still smiling slightly. "There was this drunken pixie we'd met before you. She was old, and terribly sick. She was green."

Holly blinked. She had a million questions about this pixie, but only one seemed really important at the moment. "Green? You thought I'd be green?"

Artemis frowned a little, staring at the grass beneath his loafers. "No, not green," he said.

Holly gazed quizzically at him, her hazel eyes narrowing. "So? What were you expecting?" she asked. Then she smirked. "And how did I disappoint you?"

Artemis smirked, and it was half sarcastic and half charming. Only Artemis could smile like that – he made the redhead want to smack him and hug him all at once. "I was expecting a short, chubby fellow with a beard and sideburns. Also, we mustn't forget the marshmallow cereal."

Holly stopped short, surprised. "Lucky Charms? You know about Lucky Charms?"

Artemis looked a tad put off by this comment. "We were children once," he said.

Holly's lips quirked. "And I only offered you a lollipop." When Artemis scowled at her, she laughed a little. "So what did you think of me?"

Artemis didn't answer for a moment. He looked away and they took a few steps in silence. "When I first got a close look at you, I thought you were pretty." But then he rushed ahead, not even glancing at Holly to catch her wide eyes. "But more often than not, I think you look dangerous." Finally, he looked at her and shot her a small smile.

Holly mirrored his expression. "What I just heard what that I'm dangerously pretty," she told him.

Holly felt sick.

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Artemis sat down and opened a drawer, pulling out a mail opener. He shut the drawer and turned to the box, gently cutting through the sealed edges. He suddenly felt cold, as if the iciness inside of him was starting to spread. At one corner of his mind, it was almost comforting. Because it was so familiar. He sped up cutting the box.

Foaly watched Artemis work, his heart racing more and more as Artemis cut. He had a bad feeling about this. He almost felt sick.

Artemis had sliced through three of the box adjoining edges. He flipped the lid open to reveal what was inside, and heard Foaly let out an agonized, sickening neigh. For a second, Artemis wondered why Foaly was so upset. For a second, Artemis didn't recognize what was inside the box. But then he did.

The strands of soft, silky, wine-coloured strands that filled the box became painfully familiar.

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A/n

Opal and Minerva have signed their own death warrants. You never touch the hair. You never EVER touch the hair.

In the next chapter, Opal and Minerva have another talk with Holly. Artemis reacts to his special delivery and he gets another message… This one's from Holly.

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Luv

Creatress