I'm going to start putting A/N's at the bottom now.

Holly's POV

Holly swerved through the hallways and corridors of Police Plaza at a brisk clip, hurriedly responding to Foaly's ping. She had finally accepted the promotion to major, only to find that all of her hesitancies and qualms regarding the position were true. Day after day she was cooped up in a cubicle filling out paperwork, signing forms, and analyzing data set after data set. She was coming down with a case of cabin fever (or rather, cubicle fever) and was seriously regretting taking the position. Internal Affairs had pushed her to do so, saying it was the right choice for her, but now she barely ever saw the bright light of the surface. She supposed that was why Internal Affairs had pushed her to take the position in the first place. Her aboveground actions often resulted in a tribunal. Although, she was sure that she would end up creating the need for one if she stayed belowground.

So to sum it all up, she was bored. Holly was tired of the thin stream of officers popping in her office to hand her an e-drive of data, tired of the countless seconds wasted thinking about the best possible ways to destroy said e-drives and make it look like an accident, tired of her shuffling assistant, Maxwell, who complained so much that he took more time off than she did, and very tired of everything she had to put up with from Trouble. Since she was a higher-ranking officer now, h

This led to the reason why she was so eager to make it to the Ops Booth and to Foaly. The centaur had all but promised her an aboveground mission. One that she would have to assign to herself, of course, but the Foaly would provide a legit excuse. She was probably the only higher ranked officer that the Council kept on constant watch, and probably the only one that wasn't able to assign herself the odd aboveground mission with a fake purpose just to get some fresh air. She knew she'd be docked an acorn or two if she tried. That was why, now, she honestly didn't care what she was heading out to do, but as long as it was it was aboveground, it didn't matter either way to her. She'd take down another troll again if she had to.

After a few moments consideration though, she decided she might not risk it.

Lost in her thoughts, Holly nearly ran into a portly gnome carrying several cups of organic coffee. Probably on his way to Trouble, she thought somewhat irately. Her commander had created and put to use the unofficial law of coffee, which basically meant that the more acorns on your lapel, the higher you were in the order to get coffee in the mornings. Which, as commander, put Trouble first on the list. Of course, Holly was a major, so she was fairly high as well, but everyone at Police Plaza knew that the first ten or so cups of coffee out of the outdated machine were the best.

Pivoting around another sharp corner, she finally managed to reach the Ops Booth. Punching in the fifteen-digit pass code Foaly forced her to memorize each week so he didn't have to open the door for her, she tapped her foot impatiently. After what seemed like forever, a small green light lit up. After waiting for the click of the door unlocking, she sighed and realized that it was Foaly's door, and it would be completely electronic. She wished she would've realized that he would have shuddered at the mere mention of an "old-fashioned" deadbolt, and pulled open the frosted glass door.

Foaly was typing up something unidentifiable on his keyboard, which he had finally resigned to upgrading to at least the latest mud man model that had been specially engineered to have softer keys. "Our boy's up to something," he spoke clearly without looking up from his screen.

"Artemis?" She asked, realizing it was a stupid question as the slid into the seat next to her centaur friend. She wormed into the familiar feeling of the fabric and padding, as the seat had been set out almost exclusively for her and she sat in it nearly every day.

Foaly shot her a pointed look. "No, the leader of the free world," he said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. His gaze returned to the screen, which he was now examining intently. "And don't say that Artemis is," he began. "Because he very may well be from behind the scenes, but most of the Mud Men don't know that."

Holly raised an eyebrow, knowing that Foaly would see it out of his peripheral vision. "So, it is Artemis?" She ventured tentatively.

The centaur sighed. "Yes, it is Artemis. Take a look. But don't get too close, these are expensive." As leaned forward (carefully) to look at Foaly's screen, she could've sworn she heard him mutter something along the lines of, "Officers."

She ignored the jibe and examined the screen. "Look familiar?" Foaly prompted.

After a few moments of staring at the oh-so-precious plasma screen, her mouth fell agape. "That's my cell!" She shook her head. "I would've thought Artemis would've destroyed that." Disappointment in the young Fowl colored the edges of her tone.

Foaly sighed, leaning back in his chair. "Yeah, well, he didn't. And now it's occupied."

"By who?"

"Take a look."

Holly took another look at the screen, her mismatched eyes squinting slightly. "Who- or what- is that?"

Foaly steepled his fingers. "That's what I'd like you to examine. You see the wings, correct?"

Now it was Holly's turn to shoot an irritable glance at her friend. "Yes, I see the wings. They're not real, though, are they?"

Foaly bit his lip. "Ah, well. That's the thing." He pulled up another window on his screen. "I remembered reading something like this a while back." He pointed at the screen, motioning for Holly to come closer and read it. She stayed where she was, knowing that the centaur would read it out loud anyways.

"Reverse amniocentesis procedure success." He read directly off of the page. "Avian DNA inserted into first fetus. Standard amniocentesis procedure reveals that genes successfully merged, creating recombinant DNA. Target DNA sequence viable, few differences observed. Host DNA that avian DNA has grafted to is not known. Result of experiment not predictable at this time."

Foaly leaned back in his chair, finishing off his spiel.

Holly bit her lip. "So, these kids are hybrids? I understood that correctly, didn't I?"
Foaly nodded curtly. "We haven't even proceeded with the experiments that we would have to conduct to create a similar life form. The Council deemed it inhumane. Which, honestly, it is. There's no way to know if the subject will survive."

Holly felt part of her stomach clench. The thought of a sentient creature being experimented on even as a fetus, and the prospect of it likely dying in the process didn't appeal to her all that much. She didn't really like the thought of anything dying, unless the other alterative was herself dying. Either that, or someone she cared about very much.

In her opinion, no one really deserved to die.

"So, you want to study them since you can't create one yourself." She replied several seconds later to Foaly.

He nodded, and then turned back to his computer. "They really are marvelous. Imagine if we could trace the process in which they were made, and if the council approved it, all of us could fly naturally. No more depending on wings."

Holly's heart almost leapt out of her chest. No more depending on wings. "But that would only be for new generations, right? Unborn children. That's what these kids are, aren't they?"

Foaly nodded. "Based on these research notes, I would guess yes. It'd most likely be extremely difficult to graft foreign DNA to the host if the host is past the embryonic or fetal stage. Most likely very painful for the host as well."

Holly took the information in, and surmised her next question based off of the excitement in Foaly's voice and everything she knew about his personality. "So, I'm assuming you want me to bring them back here for you to study?"

"Just one will do," the centaur replied. "I'm sure that they're all very similar in their DNA." He reconsidered his statement. "Well, truthfully, they aren't, but you catch my drift."

She nodded. "You'd like me to leave right away?"

The centaur bit his lip sarcastically. "Well, how about next week; does that work for you?" He shot her a withering glare. "Of course I want you to leave right now. Who knows how long Artemis can contain them."

She bitterly laughed. "With Artemis, there's really no way to tell. His old self would keep them contained for study, but now there's a slim chance he'd let them go freely."

Foaly signaled his agreement with a slight dip of his head. "You're absolutely right. We don't know our Mud Boy as well as we used to."

"Exactly." Holly agreed. She sighed. "I should probably get going. I'll miss all the fun."

Foaly shooed her off with a wave of his hand. "Shoo, be gone. Bring me back a child, nicely of course."

Holly grabbed her helmet and fit it snugly onto her head. "No other way."

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Okay. I didn't die. I apologize for the super-long wait; I should've at the very least said that this was on hiatus… my apologies. I won't make excuses; I was just EXTREMELY busy and have been for a really long time. High school kind of hit me in the face. It's fun though. On the downside, I have no idea when I'll be able to update, sadly.

Anywhoo, I'd like to thank anyone who's still stuck with this story. It means a lot :) I'm not entirely satisfied with this chapter, as it seems pretty OOC and I don't like the way I wrapped it up at the end. I just kind of needed some closing dialogue. Comments/criticism are greatly appreciated as always.

Thanks!