Chapter Ten

Things You Do on a Plane

They had been on the jet for hours. Emma had tried to sleep at one point, but it was useless. She had been hoping to have another dream where she could speak with the sentinel spirit of the Ba Musal, but, like the previous weeks, there was nothing. There was only the vast, black void of slumber. She had scolded herself that that should have been a sign right there; that the conduit was cut somehow. These things were always so unpredictable already, how was she to know when it was truly a crisis? "Because it's always a crisis!" She thought to herself.

The plane jumped and jerked abruptly and Emma quickly grabbed the armrests of her seat. Looking out of her small oval window, she could see mounds of rolling clouds looking like soft, new fallen snow. The sun was setting just off in the distance and the light danced beautifully in a prism of orange, peach, pink and red all along the clouds. A smile gently washed over Emma's face and she thought for just a moment that this flying thing wasn't so bad after all. Then the plane jerked again and her paranoia returned.

"Don't tell me this is your first flight?" The lyrical voice of Aiden rolled into Emma's ear and warmed her blood like sunshine. She turned away from the sunset and slowly looked up to his brilliant green eyes and smiled awkwardly. "You have heard that you are actually safer up here than on the ground?"

"Tell that to all the people who were in plane crashes." She cleared her throat and listened as the pilot informed the four passengers that they would be experiencing some turbulence from a storm they were attempting to fly through.

"So really you've never flown before?" He asked as he took the seat next to her.

"We never really went anywhere where we would need to fly." Emma shifted in her seat trying to make the bulge her stomach made when she sat down less apparent.

"Bollocks! You never went anywhere outside of that tiny shite town?" Aiden prodded in disbelief.

"Well, we would go to St. Louis a lot. And then there was the time we went to Jeff City." Emma defended.

"You poor little culchie!" Aiden teased. He chuckled slightly and removed his jacket throwing it on the seat infront of them.

"Hey! I get enough of that 'I don't Understand what name you are calling me but I'm sure it's not any good' crap from Layla. I don't need another smartass picking on me in some crazy British slang I don't understand. I don't care how cute you are!" Emma poked him in the shoulder and turned to look back out the window. She could feel her face heat up when she realized what she had just admitted too! She hoped that he hadn't caught it.

Aiden laughed and rubbed his shoulder when her finger had jabbed him. "Hey! First of all, I'm Irish. And many an Irishman would take great offense to the 'British slang' remark. And I wasn't picking on you! It's just a term for someone who lives in the country. And lastly, did you just say I was cute?" He asked her teasingly.

Emma's face felt as if it were on fire! How would she recover from that? She turned quickly to face him and relaxed her tightened face. "How much longer before we land?" She asked shifting off of the subject.

"It shouldn't be but and hour or so now. These jets are pretty fast." He cleared his throat obliging Emma's obvious desire to not pursue that particular topic at the time. "So speaking of being Irish, you and your brother are equally blessed yeah" He smiled charmingly at her in an attempt to put her at ease.

"Well yeah… Hogan. Isn't exactly Chinese! But you knew that. You knew that my parents were members of the Brotherhood."

"Just trying to make conversation love. I wanted to take your mind off of the flight. You have plenty enough to think about as it is." He smiled halfway showing his own distress.

"How much do you know?" Emma squared her eyes and searched for a glimmer of an indicator that there was more behind those fabulous eyes of his.

Without blinking or taking a breath he began. "I know that you're angry. I know that you don't trust the Brotherhood, and for good reason. I know that your parents found a way to hide you from us, and I am sure they had good reasons too. You have been through a lot for a reincarnated warrior goddess let alone any normal person. I know that all of what you have dealt with has given you a great deal of pain. But, I also know that it has given you an even greater amount of strength, courage and resolve."

Emma smiled at his insightful and evocative words. He made her sound so inspiring; so heroic. But her soft smile slowly faded as the twinge in her heart heralded the coming of her inner voice. "Yes, indulge in the kind words of people who don't know any better! How conceited you are! How dare you agree with the things he says about you! You're no hero! Not even close! What strength do you have? You still feel like crying when you put on a skirt! Such weakness! You can't hide that from anyone! What makes you think he could really want you for anything other than a quick lay?"

"You wouldn't be so nice if you knew what I was really like." She said meekly looking away from his intense gaze.

"I'd like to find out." He cooed.

She could feel the blush rise in her cheeks. His words stirred her inside and she wished she could just jump into his lap and cover every inch of his skin with her willing lips. But, realizing that it wasn't an exactly rational reaction, she bit her bottom lip and smiled shyly. "You got anything to drink on this thing?" Emma asked coyly.

"I thought you would never ask!" Aiden jumped from his seat and opened the small refrigerator on the opposite side of the plane. "I have two pints of the black stuff waiting right here with our names on them!"

Unlike his twin sister, Jimmy Hogan had been sleeping through the entire flight! He had commented over and over again on the comfort of the jet; about how most planes offered little more than movie theater seats to their passengers, but these large, posh recliners folded out completely flat! After finding a large pillow and blue blanket under the seat, Jimmy, ignoring Layla's protests for him to stay awake and talk to her, curled up like a baby, the world fell away and he drifted off into the dizzying emptiness of deep slumber.

It wasn't long before his dreams began to take over. The world around him began to emerge like the rising lights of the theater. He suddenly found himself standing stage left, applauding for an emotional Emma who stood waving wearing a crown, holding roses and wearing a sash that said "Our Hero". He smiled and clapped along with enormous crowd shouting, "Bravo!", "Way to go!" and "Thanks for not letting me die!"

As the crowd cheered on, a low crunching began to rise to Jimmy's ear and cause him to turn to look. He squinted passed the rest of the stage crew and saw, just behind a clothes rack, two morbidly fat, bald men in suits standing at an open refrigerator. Like rapid wolves they pulled out the food and stuffed it into their greedy mouths. Over and over again without ceasing, the munched and chewed and ripped at anything they could get from the refrigerator. Jimmy tapped Layla, who had been standing next to him, on the shoulder.

"Who are those guys? Don't they know they are eating everything?" Jimmy asked her with deep concern in his voice. The men had moved onto the freezer and were eating handfuls of strawberry ice cream now.

"Oh them, they own the place. They're just making sure that we don't eat their ice cream." And then Layla turned back to the stage and continued to cheer.

As Jimmy turned to resume in the same manner, the people behind him began pushing and shoving Jimmy chanting for him to go out there. He dug his heels into the ground and voiced his protest. "NO! I can't! I'm not allowed! It's a pageant for girls, I'm a boy! I'm not supposed to!"

He continued to object, as he reached out for a handful of the stage curtain. It seemed that nothing would keep them from pushing him out on to the stage. Within a minute there he was standing next to Emma with his own crown, roses and sash.

Suddenly everything around him began to flash red and loud blaring alarm blasted repeatedly over the cheering crowd. Jimmy looked around confused. "What kind of beauty pageant is this?" He asked out loud. "I didn't even get to sing 'Wind Beneath My Wings!'" As the words "Game Over" flashed in front of his vision in bold, bright red letters, the floor fell out from under him and he fell for what felt like an eternity into a total black void.

As quickly as he had begun to fall, his sandaled feet found the ground with a thud. The scene around him exploded into a world of light and noise. Dust had kicked up around him and he squinted to shield his eyes form the light of the sun shining brightly down. He felt a whooshing and quickly raised his large sword in front of his face in time to deflect another. He pushed the sword back and continued to defend himself by swinging the large weapon from side to side. His sandaled feet shifted forward and back as he fell into the dance-like rhythms of the battle.

Other leather clad men surrounded him. Some were fighting each other, others were coming for him. He ducked and jumped and swung his sword doing all that he could by second nature to keep himself alive. Jimmy gripped his sword tight as he jabbed and thrusted dropping bloody men to the dust at his feet.

The sound of the clanging swords and battle cries were deafening. But, Jimmy found no difficultly in concentrating on defeating his enemies. With a leap and a smooth slash, his opponent's head flew from its shoulders and then rolled in the dirt clotting the blood from his neck and face.

This world was a whirlwind of battle and blood and Jimmy seemed to be its master. He fought through every enemy as easily as navigating a populated dance floor. As he laid waste to yet another unlucky opponent a women emerge seemingly untouched by the filth and blood. Nothing seemed to touch her flowing white gown, and nothing seemed to stir her long white tresses and she made her way through the warring mob towards Jimmy. Her smooth white skin emanated its own light as she walked around him; studying him.

"Tell me James," Her voice was no more than a whisper, but rose above the din of the mob, "What are you doing?" Her voice was sweet and heartfelt. She stood in front of him and looked with concern awaiting the answer.

"I'm defending the city!" He proclaimed as he continued his battle.

"Why? Isn't there someone else who's supposed to be doing this?" She walked around him once more and stood to his left.

"No, there is only me." He fought on laying waste to those in his path. He could see know that he was making his way to a large gate that was barely visible through the dust and men.

"And what do you think lies beyond that gate? Power, glory?" She asked as she pointed towards the large intimidating gate inset the great stone walls.

"Knowledge." He stated flatly. "The truth." He ran up and ran his sword through more men and they dropped to the ground. Jimmy wiped the sweat and blood form his face as the woman began to gag. Jimmy stopped and turned abruptly to face her and offer her aide as she was dropping to her knees. The sky darkened and a storm thundered in.

"Jimmy, you are far more than what they say. You are more than what you think. I need your help! I cannot hold on much longer! It's up to you! If you don't help me then they will die!" The wind picked up and blew away the dust to reveal hundreds of dead women lying on the ground. "And then he will go on to the rest of humanity. But it will start with her." She pointed her finger to a dark head woman lying bleeding on the ground.

"No no no no NO!" Jimmy cried out as he reached her side. It was his sister, her skin pale as the life had drained from her. He ran back to the woman and knelt with her. "You are the Sentinel Spirit right? Why can't you do something…? Warn them!"

"Because they can't hear me anymore! Too many have been taken already! My connection is weak! But they don't know about you Jimmy! They don't know that it all lies within you!" She wrapped her arms around her chest and held tight as if it would actually hold her to this place and keep her from fading.

Jimmy held her too, he needed to know. "What can I do? What do you want me to do?"

She began to lie down and fade. Her voice became distant and her light dimmed. "You must be the balance." And then she was gone.

"Be the balance? What does that mean? Why can't you just tell me specifically what I am supposed to do?" He stood and yelled towards the thundering sky.

"I want you to take me into the loo and take my clothes off!"

Jimmy awoke with a start and stared into the face of Layla. "Huh!"

"Haven't you heard of the mile high club? I want to 'join' it!" She snapped making her fingers as air quotes aside her head.

Jimmy rubbed his face as he finished waking from his dream. "No, I know what that is. I was just having this dream, and … Never mind."

"What was it about?" Layla rubbed his head and genuinely looked concern for a moment.

"I don't know, I think I've been watching Star Wars too much lately." Jimmy jumped when he felt Layla's hand reached down into the front of his pants and grab hold of his manhood.

"We can talk about that later… For now, I am going to hold onto this and walk into the loo. If you want to see what I am going to do to it, then I suggest you follow." She whispered into his ear licking and nibbling on its lobe when she was finished.

They looked down as Jimmy's lust stirred. "Well, he obviously agrees with you. And there's no arguing with him! So … Let's go!" And with that the couple leapt from their seats and headed for the tiny bathroom in the back.

Emma jumped and turned towards the bathroom in the back of the jet. For several minutes a series of loud bangs and knocks had been coming from back there. "What in the hell is going on back there?" She looked around the cabin and noticed that Jimmy and Layla were missing. "Oh that's just gross." She muttered to herself with a grimace on her face.

"What was that?" Aiden asked her as he returned with another set of Guinness.

"Oh nothing. So you were saying about your parents?" Emma skirted from the subject and took the bottle from Aiden's large and masculine hands.

"Well, they were simple, God-fearing people. They really didn't understand what was going on with me. I can't say that I really blame them for what they did. They did what they could and I believe my life was better for it! I would have never learned about my abilities or even how to use them if they hadn't sent me to the orphanage allowing a Brother to find me."

"Yeah, but, don't you miss your family?" Emma asked with care in her voice.

"Of course I do from time to time, but really, my family now is the Brotherhood. Going to the Dublin house is like going to visit my parents."

Another loud thud came from the bathroom and the two jerked around to look. They looked back at each other uncomfortably both know full well what was taking place in that tiny closet-like room. Suddenly the plane to jerked, catching Emma off guard holding her ale loosely. The bottle tipped pouring the black liquid out of its mouths. Emma groaned in aggravation with her clumsiness. But, just as the bitter beverage was about to splash all over her jeans, it stopped in mid air! She gasped and looked up at Aiden. He was holding his hand out and licking his top lip with his tongue. As he pulled his hand back the liquid followed and found its way back into the bottle in Emma's hand.

"That, was, amazing!" She stammered. "I mean thank you! I have never seen anything like that before!"

"Liquids are a bit harder to control; they tend to want to go everywhere at once! And besides, I couldn't stand to see good Guinness go to waste!" He smiled charmingly and locked eyes with her. She of course blushed and looked away out of the window to her left.

The once field of sparkling blue was now replaced with fields of green, brown and orange. "Hey look! Land! Is that London down there?"

"Gor Blimey no! If it was London you wouldn't be able to see through the fog and smog!"

The door to the bathroom opened and Layla and Jimmy practically fell out. Layla fussed with straightening her hair and Jimmy sat behind Emma. "So are we close?"

"We'll be landing shortly. If you'll excuse me I need to make a call." Aiden rose form his seat and walked towards the front of the cabin while opening his small silver cell phone.

Emma smiled back at him as he walked away.

"I don't trust him." Jimmy stated while looking out the window.

"Of course you don't. I happen to think he's mildly attractive, so obviously you wouldn't approve." Emma rolled her eyes and pushed her brother's shoulder.

"That has nothing to do with it. He's always on that phone and he has to walk away to use it. What's he talking about that's so secret."

"Oh please! You're just nosy! He's probably just trying to be polite by taking his phone conversation to where it won't intrude!" Emma looked back at Aiden and smile to which he returned the gesture. "He's very thoughtful really."

"I'm getting the car now. I'll see you in twenty minutes!" Mary Agnes hung up the phone and waved for the chauffeur to bring the long black car around the circle drive to her. She brushed the skirt of her maroon suit and primped her well coiffed white hair. As the chauffeur opened the door for her to enter she pulled the small green compact from her purse and looked into its mirror. Her 1940's style curls were flawless and her burgundy lipstick was perfect and without a smudge.

"Heathrow Airport Geoffrey." She instructed.

"You look lovely as always." Martin Kessler had already been seated in the car when Mary had entered.

"Why thank you Martin." She said as she replaced the compact into her purse and then retrieved a small wallet size photo from its zipper pouch. She ran her fingers over its frayed edges gently and kissed is softly so that no lipstick tainted its image. She pulled it back and looked lovingly at the photo of a young Jonathan Hogan; Emma and Jimmy's father.

"You will allow me to speak with them about this situation at hand before you tell them, won't you?" Martin asked gently as he leaned forward in the black leather seat to better catch Mary's eyes.

"Of course Martin. This isn't a social visit. Down to business first and foremost." She spoke softly without looking up form the photo.

"Thank you Mrs. Hogan. And I am sure they will be most happy to hear that they have family around after all."