Holly Short has been kidnapped, been saved by, and traded eyes with the boy sitting to her right. But none of these acts could have prepared her for their worst enemy- Artemis' own mind.

He went through treatment remarkably well in the first few months. She distinctly recalled one day about midway through that point, an irregularity in its normalcy. They had sat on a transport shuttle, discussing various works of literature. She astutely believed that characterization was key, and he lectured her as one might a small child on the importance of plot. It had culminated in a very rare compromise- one to tie up Mulch Diggums the instant he made a crude comment on four fairies in a tube. She had threatened, not for the first time, to leave him alone in a room with Foaly and a new invention. He blanched and curled up into a whimpering ball upon remembering the last time she had done it, and said not a word following. Artemis put on something like an evil smirk, and Foaly had attempted to sound insulted over the earpieces.

The week following she knew something was amiss, but was loathe to admit anything. They had a perfectly normal conversation on Doctor Argon's archaic treatment techniques, and she had noticed his foot twitching ever so slightly. It was just a twitch, probably to shake off the last of the sedatives from that week's meeting. She couldn't help but notice, however, the pattern in which they went: five, thirty five, ten, fifteen, five. It was coincidence, she was mishearing, everybody twitches; all of these pathetic excuses were used against her own mind.

And then he had started regressing. Halfway through the meeting he had exploded into an outburst on the arrangement on the floor tiles and how they were arranged in groups of eight. Two fours, two by two is four, death death, all of these were recorded on his patient files. On the ride he had attempted pathetically to make conversation, but Holly couldn't help but notice how he tapped and twitched and occasionally paused and took deep, steadying breaths. She was watching him fight an enemy, but she couldn't shoot Artemis Fowl's own mind with a blaster. This was his battle.

It had gotten even worse after that. Artemis had reportedly fallen unconscious during the conversation, and woken up as Orion. Argon told her that he was fleeing into his own mind in an attempt to regain some pithy amount of self-control, and his alter ego had taken the chance to escape. It didn't make her feel any better as the jovial young man rode up the shuttle, holding her hand and spitting out cheesy movie quotes at every opportunity. This wasn't Artemis, she had told herself. Gods how she wished it was.

Three weeks had passed after that, and Artemis wasn't getting any better. He actually appeared to be regressing more so than he had before, and licks of his old paranoia were beginning to shine through. Nobody would ever know this, but Holly had cried herself to sleep when he had accused her of pretending to be his friend in order to steal his ideas. He was certainly wrong and definitely not in a normal state of mind, but it still hurt. Butler and Juliet were more concerned than usual, and Orion was popping up more and more.

That was about when she had taken things into her own hands. Doctor Argon has dismissed Artemis nearly an hour early, and she had hurried over to meet the boy. He looked so beaten, she had remarked to the Doctor. And he had- bags under his eyes, gauntness where there shouldn't have been. She remained silent up the majority of the ride, listening to the heartbreaking mutters of a mentally-broken boy. When he had finally murmured, in a rare state of despair, how Orion would have been a much better 'normal' personality for him, she had snapped. For months she had put up with this, and enough was enough. She had yanked him down by his fancy tie and glared at him, receiving naught but a bewildered frown. And then she had kissed him. Foaly has made the incredibly wise decision to stay silent, and she was not about to let the quiet seconds go ignored. The boy in question had frozen up, and she could have sworn she saw that enormous brain of his sparking out. It had to have been, for he had made a 'hrrrrk'-ing noise and had promptly fallen over. The best part was definitely when he had woken up, not Orion.

Holly Short couldn't necessarily fight Artemis' battles, but she could certainly provide a few weapons for the cause.

Yaay! Let's post random oneshots late at night! Why can't I pick a specific fandom and fucking stick to it?