A/N: Third chapter. Yay! I'm so happy. So ecstatic. Thanks for the reviews; feel free to comment at any time. Flames, please; all criticism is welcomed, as I dearly need it. I also fixed mistakes in Chapter 1.

Artemis shifted through his papers, reading and re-reading them over again, even though he had already memorized them. He kept on coming back to the same page. He didn't notice anything new, but he kept his eyes on the same spot, letting it all sink in. This was from that very same night, in the very same country he was in. He smiled to himself, a luxury he hardly ever allowed. Tomorrow. All of his questions would be answered tomorrow. Not that he had many.

Artemis closed his eyes and savored the feeling of the leather seat beneath him and the slight hum of the Lear jet. He heard Holly walk up to his row-for who else could it be?-and sit down beside him.

"Artemis, we need to talk." He kept his eyes closed. He could sense the fairy scowling at him when he didn't move."You never fully explained this to me. How are gods real? How are there still warriors around the world who continue to fight as if from the olden ages? And why are you suddenly interested in uncovering something new? Something...different. You're a different boy, Artemis, but this-"

"Holly," Artemis interrupted, "could you explain to me why fairies are real? Or why you exist? No, I believe you couldn't." Holly opened her mouth, but then quickly shut it, untangling Artemis' words like a puzzle. "Yes, like every other race, you come from who-knows-where, created from who-knows-what; a very old race, if not the oldest. But have you ever stopped to consider if you were the only old ones to survive?"

Holly looked confusedly at him. "Greeks aren't that old. Maybe only about four or five generations of fairies, but the ancients died not too long ago." She glanced at him to confirm her answer.

"They are not dead, Captain. They are still fully thriving."

Exasperated, Holly let out a breath she had been holding in. "You still haven't answered my questions. How are the Greek gods real?"

"Captain, think about it. Do you think that the Greeks would be so ignorant as to believe something they made up? And worship them? And sacrifice to them?"

"No." Holly said in a quiet voice.

"Yes, actually. They were ignorant. Not of the fact that there were beings higher than them that had powers over nature, but the fact that they worshiped them. And sacrificed to them. And the beings were angry for this. And Greece fell to Rome. Much the same with Egypt." A grim smile lifted the corners of his lips, and he looked back down at his papers. "Rome flourished, though, but was destroyed throughout time from barbarians and attackers."

Holly was silent for a while. She picked at the finger of her glove; the finger that had been cut off and restored by magic, with help from Artemis so many years ago. Finally, she looked up at Artemis' face, trying to see if he was telling the truth, or if this was one of his elaborate lies that he made to manipulate others. She couldn't find anything that would be against what he was saying, though. "So you're saying, Artemis, that not only Greek gods are real, but also Roman?"

Artemis raised an eyebrow. He had expected her to catch on, but sometimes fairies overlooked important details of a conversation. He decided that she was partly scared-as she should be-of all of this new information he was giving her. It was a lot to take in.

"Yes. But let's stick to the Greeks for right now. We'll get to the Romans later." He shuffled through his papers once more until he had found what he was looking for. "They're called half-bloods; also demigods."

"The warriors?"

"Yes, the warriors. They train at what they call a 'camp'. They go there every summer to learn fighting and weapon making and crafts. Some of them even stay there the full year. They study Greek and fight monsters. They train. They fight. They train some more. They learn to protect themselves. They go on quests." At this point he looked up from his papers to see if Holly was paying attention.

She crossed her arms, her feet dangling above the floor of the Lear jet. "Quests? What do you mean by that?" She stared down at the faraway floor, and then pulled her legs up underneath her.

"They've done more than anyone will ever notice. They don't even recognize how much they've done." He cleared his throat. "If something goes awry in the world, they fix it. Most of the time the cause of a problem is a monster or a Titan or a minor god."

"Titan? Minor god? How you haven't told me much, Artemis. Not as much as I would like to know." She punched him in the shoulder the second time that day, and he winced, rubbing his sore arm.

"Would you please refrain from hitting me while I try to explain the logics of Greek- Holly, no!" She yanked the papers out of his hand and raced down the aisle, running to the bathroom at the back of the plane. She slammed the door shut and locked it, sitting on the edge of the counter with her feet against the door.

Holly flipped through the papers with vigor. What was the Mud Boy hiding from her? He always was, even though he had promised her he wouldn't. She stopped at a picture of Manhattan. Cars were parked on the side of the road, and people were snoring on the sidewalks. A giant flying pig soared through the air with a statue clinging to its back, crawling up the side of the giant animal. A black winged horse flew beside it with a boy on its back, holding a sword out to his side and preparing to jump.

The image was so weird that Holly had to look over it again. And then again. She tried to let it sink in. This was real. This was really happening.

"Holly, open up!" Artemis banged on the door, causing it to shake underneath her feet. He tried to twist the handle, but to no avail. "Give me back those papers, Holly!" His muffled voice sounded strained, like he was trying to preserve his pride.

Holly rolled her eyes and jumped off the counter, repositioning herself on the toilet seat. She continued to look at the pictures, not stopping to read the Mud Boy's handwriting or the articles it was attached to. She saw a hurricane with the same boy in the middle, holding off a giant burning man clad in armor. She saw one picture of grass in Central Park, and then the next with a giant tree standing in the same patch. She saw another boy playing reed pipes, but when she looked closer she saw that he was no ordinary man, but half sheep from the waist down. Holly tried to look at as many of the pictures as she could, studying each one carefully.

"Holly, I'm coming in!" Artemis yelled through the door.

"I'm using the restroom."

"Five."

"There's no way a puny boy like you could break down a thick plastic door like this!" She rapped on the same plastic.

"Four."

"It's been a really long flight! I have to go!"

"Three."

"Artemis-"

"Two."

There's no way, Holly thought. She quickly folded the papers and shoved them into her jumpsuit

"One."

Instead of the door flying off its hinges as it would have if he had kicked it in, the lock clicked and the door slowly creaked open.

Artemis entered backward and asked, "Are you presentable?"

Holly gave the biggest laugh of amazement she had in decades. She hopped on the counter and crouched like a bird while waiting for him to turn around. "I should have known! You wouldn't ever have been able to bust down a door. Ha!"

Artemis cocked his head at her. "May I have my papers back, please, Captain Short?"

"No." she said, and leaped over Artemis' head and out of the bathroom.

"Holly!" he yelled, and sprinted as modestly as he could from the bathroom. Holly ran up the aisle, cackling gleefully.

The fairy glanced back over her shoulder. Artemis was struggling to keep up, nearly tripping over every chair to get his papers back. Holly gave one more evil chuckle and slipped into the pilot's part of the plane, locking the door behind her. She slipped to the floor, doubled over laughing, with her back to the door.

"Ahem."

Holly turned to Butler, still chortling, her face red from the exertion. "Hello Butler! Care to let me use the intercom?"

Butler looked her up and down and his eyes registered on the papers she was still clutching. The corner of his mouth lifted up as he formed a small half-smile. "Sure thing, Holly." He helped her up into the copilot's seat and pointed at the microphone. "Scream your heart out at him." He winked at her and turned to face the front of the jet, the smile that he never wore still apparent on his face.

Holly switched on the microphone and held down the button. "Artemis, if you want these papers this badly, there must be something important in them." She paused, waiting for him to catch her words. "I'll tear these papers to shreds unless you do one thing for me. One simple thing that you have probably never done before in your whole life." She paused again. "I want you to tell me the truth, Artemis. The whole truth. And don't leave a single detail out. Come to the door when you're ready to oblige." She let go of the button and switched the system off.

Artemis gave himself a small, grim smile. The only reason he had chased after Holly was because he didn't want her to read the information contained within the papers; he had not intended her to use it as leverage against him. He also knew that Holly must know that he wouldn't put all of the answers about this subject on something as fragile as paper; no, she would know that he had memorized everything, word for word. She could throw it away if she wanted to. He didn't care. But after all these years, Holly had gained his trust, and he hers. He had told Butler everything he had wanted him to know, but Holly always wanted to know more. He decided then that she deserved to know as much as he did, and that he would tell her everything; if not for the reason to amuse her.

Artemis sighed and knocked lightly on the door. "Holly, be reasonable-"

"I am. You either agree to my terms, or you don't. Your choice."

After a small pause from Artemis' side of the door, she heard him say, "Ok. I'll do it. I'll tell you everything I know about the Greeks."

"And the Romans?"

"And the Romans."

"You also said something about the Egyptians...Hmm?"

Artemis feigned surprise. "What Egyptians? I said nothing about Egyptians, only that they fell to Rome."

Holly waited a few moments, then said, "Ok. But you have to promise to tell me every single detail that you might have managed to scrap up into that enormous brain of yours. Promise me."

"I promise."

Holly walked over to the door, then turned around. "Thanks, Butler, for the intercom. I've never operated one before."

"My pleasure."

She creaked open the door. Artemis stood there, waiting impatiently. "May I have my papers back, Captain?"

Holly eyed him suspiciously, then handed over the papers. He gladly took it, and started to walk back toward his seat. "Ah, Artemis." He swiveled around to face her, his neck craning down so he could see her face; her eyes were level with his waist. "My seat. Your seats are always cold."

He squinted at her, then turned around and continued walking, stopping at his seat to pick up his briefcase from the trunk above his head. He then went to where she was sitting earlier and plopped himself next to the window, opening his case up. Holly sat on the seat directly beside him and waited for him to get his things in order.

"So, Mud Boy, where shall we start?"

He started typing away on his open laptop, his fingers a blur of motion. Fast as she was, she never could understand how Artemis could reach such speeds on a keyboard, especially the old ones that the Mud Men used. Finally, after what seemed like hours of waiting, he pulled up a screen of seven teenagers, all holding weapons and fighting monsters twice their size and a hundred times their quantity.

"Hey," Holly said, recognizing one of them, "that's the kid who was trying to catch that pig!"

Artemis looked at her over the rim of his computer. "His name is Percy. Percy Jackson. And that is his companions, fighting with him."

"And what are they fighting?"

"Monsters, I would believe."

Over the next few hours, Artemis taught her everything he knew about half-bloods, monsters, and gods, not stopping until Holly's eyes rolled into the back of her head and her eyes shut, soft little snores echoing off the jet's interior.

Artemis continued to research for the next hour, then he put his laptop away, careful to not wake Holly. He stood partly up to leave, but then thought better of it, because Holly was a cranky waker when woken from her slumber.

Artemis sighed and stayed where he was in the window seat, the dark sky the only thing visible out of the windows. He quickly fell asleep, too, and his head lolled against the window.

Artemis woke with a start as he heard Butler's voice crackle out of the speakers. "Artemis, we're landing in ten. Get ready to meet New York."

Artemis quietly smiled to himself, suddenly feeling a bit happy. He checked that his briefcase he had brought over was secure, then shook Holly's shoulder.

"Holly, wake up. We're nearly there."

"Wha...Oh." She stretched and punched him on the arm. She grinned and hopped up. "Ah, what time is it?"

"5:04."

"Well, in that case..." she said, and punched him a second time.

Artemis rubbed his shoulder, wincing in pain. "For what reason do you punch me, Holly?" He cracked his neck from side to side, an annoying crick in it.

"I do it to relieve myself, Artemis, as you well know."

"The bathroom is in the back."

Holly chuckled and got up, veering to the back of the jet. "You're still cold."