In the end, there were two ambassador groups that went.

It had taken a good deal of fast talking, promises, and assurances, but both Elisa and Matt managed to get a week off for travel as a kind of ambassadorship so that they could accompany the clan to the other locations.

One plane, being piloted by Xanatos himself, held Brooklyn, Hudson, Garia as a council member, and Matt as a human representative of the Gargoyle task force and clan ally.

The second plane would be flown by Fox and held Goliath, Bolin as the council member, Nayeli, Liam, and Elisa.

Plane one was going to Ireland, and the second plane was going to Australia.

The flight to Australia went smoothly. They had landed at a small airstrip near Alice Springs around 3:00 a.m. and took a rented helicopter south for the final leg of the journey. They were going to cut it close, trying to outrun the rising sun, but Fox had assured them that she'd make it before daylight.

Everyone had on large headphones, the kind that muffled sound and had an attached microphone to make communication easier. Elisa had to smother a giggle, as Fox and she were the only human adults on the trip.

On the Gargoyles, the headphones looked child sized, and on her children they almost appeared to be too large. Nayeli had to keep pushing them back into place as she all but bounced in her seat, pointing out the different things she was able to see from the air.

Elisa looked out, and most of what she found was a lot of sand, the normally golden colored landscape shining almost silver in the moonlight.

"Um," Nayeli said through the microphone from her side of the plane, "Mom? Fox? I think a storm is coming."

Frowning, Elisa leaned over to try to see out of the window.

"I haven't heard any storm warnings," Fox said through their headsets.

"I see it too," Liam said, pointing. "It's coming fast."

"I don't…" Fox began, only to be cut off as a strong wind pushed at the helicopter and rocked it in the air.

Elisa gripped the edge of her seat, and tried to breathe deep. She didn't hate flying, exactly, but she had a healthy fear of turbulence. Especially when it felt like they were a toy and a toddler had just given them all a good shake.

"Fox?" Elisa all but shouted.

"Sandstorm," Fox called back. "Came up quick, and we're far enough from any towers that no one was able to warn us ahead of time. Hold on."

Elisa suddenly found herself gathered into a pair of strong arms that helped her stay seated as the helicopter dipped and rocked again. She looked to her children, only to find that Bolin had done something similar and was holding them steady.

"Brace yourselves," Fox warned. "We're going down, and it's not going to be gentle."

When the impact came, it was just as sudden and rough as Elisa had feared it was going to be. Thankfully, she and the kids had put their seatbelts back on, but the Gargoyles hadn't and were thrown forward, almost crushing Fox in her seat.

There was a coughing whine, and the engine power finally gave out, taking the cabin lights with it as those inside the helicopter were plunged into darkness.

"Is everyone alright?" Elisa called out, trying to get an assessment of bodily injuries if there were any.

"I'm okay," Nayeli said.

"Me too," Liam answered.

There were some thumps and bumps, a few groans, but eventually Elisa saw the two winged figures as they rose in what little light made it through.

"Fox?" Goliath asked, his voice rumbling through the headphones.

There was no answer, and Elisa hurriedly unbuckled her seatbelt.

She had ridden in the NYPD helicopters a handful of times, and remembered where the first aid kits were located. Taking the chance that the layout was similar, Elisa felt her way to the rear of the craft.

She took her phone out, attempting to use the light from the screen to see by. No bars, she noted. They were in the middle of a desert in the Australian outback. They probably weren't even close to a cell tower.

That, or the storm had knocked out phone service. Either way, the phones were going to be of no use.

"What do you need?" Goliath asked from behind her.

"First aid kit," Elisa said, turning to her husband. "Can you see anything that looks like one?"

Goliath gently moved her aside, and she heard a cabinet open. A few moments later, he placed a small, hard case in her hands.

"Thanks," Elisa breathed out, turning to move towards the front of the helicopter.

"Mom," Liam called out, as a tiny beam of light illuminated the area.

"Where did you find a flashlight?" Elisa asked.

"It's a pen light," Liam said with a shrug. "It was a little something I got for me at the NASA store gift shop."

"Good choice," Elisa said. "Can you bring it over here so I can take a look at Fox?"

Liam made his way down the skinny aisle, and close to the two women.

"Fox," Elisa called out, placing a hand on the woman's shoulder. "Fox?"

Fox gave a light groan, and Elisa almost sighed in relief. "Fox, I'm going to take a look at you, alright?"

"Sure," Fox said softly, sounding only half awake.

Elisa began running through her injury checklist from her first responder training. Nothing visibly broken, though there was already a discolored welt appearing on the side of Fox's face.

"Liam," Elisa turned a little and held out her hand. "I need to borrow your light."

He handed her the small, slim light, and Elisa shone it at Fox's face. Fox was a little slow, but she flinched away from the bright light.

Elisa had already seen what she needed to, and lowered the light so that it was no longer aimed directly into the other woman's face. "Fox, your pupils are reacting to light, but they're uneven," Elisa reported.

"Concussion," Fox said, sounding so certain, that Elisa didn't have the heart to remind her that it could be something more serious.

"We're going to try to move you to the ground, okay?" Elisa said.

"Sure," Fox said, sounding sleepy.

"Nope," Elisa said firmly. "No sleeping right now. Not for a little bit, anyway," Elisa said. She turned to Bolin and Goliath. "Can you guys…?"

"Where do you want her?" Bolin asked, gently moving Elisa out of the way.

Elisa looked around the passenger area and grimaced. What had seemed like a decently sized area less than an hour ago, now seemed tiny and crowded.

"We need to get her flat on the ground," Elisa said.

"You take care of Fox," Goliath said firmly. "Children, you move to the rear and cover your faces. Bolin and I will make room."

Elisa stood by Fox's side as the two large males forced the side door of the helicopter open. The wind outside was still howling, and the sand came swirling in as the door opened. Elisa leaned over Fox, covering the woman's body with her own to try to keep the sand off.

Making quick work of it, the males ripped all but two rows of seats clear of their floor bolts and tossed them outside. It took both of them to close it again, blocking the noise, wind, and sand outside.

"I found these," Nayeli said, carefully laying out a small group of travel sized pillows and a pair of dark gray wool-looking blankets.

"Perfect," Elisa said. "Goliath? Bolin? Can you lift Fox and lay her down here?"

The two males worked together, gently lifting Fox from her seat where she was slumped against the controls, and laying her down on the small nest of pillows and blankets. Elisa gently piled the pillows around to support and to immobilize Fox's head and neck as much as possible.

"Is she going to be okay?" Nayeli asked, voice wavering a little as she came to kneel by her mother.

"I think she's got a concussion," Elisa said, and having experienced a few of those of her own, she knew that Fox was going to have one hell of a headache soon, if not already.

"Is there anything we can do?" Liam asked.

Elisa glanced at the windows, listened to the wind howling outside still. "We're not going anywhere right now," Elisa said softly. "Not until the storm passes."

"Sunrise is coming," Nayeli said, glancing at the windows.

Elisa nodded. "Yeah."

"What can we do?" Liam asked, coming to stand on Elisa's other side.

"Why don't you and Nayeli see if you can find more blankets and pillows. You two can get some rest, and I'll sit up with Fox for now." Elisa said. "Hopefully help is on its way, but it'll probably be a while until this storm passes. If you guys sleep now, maybe we can switch off later so I can get some rest."

Liam seemed to hesitate, then nodded. He rose, his pen light once more held in his hand. "Come on, Ellie," he said, motioning for his sister to come with him. "Let's go see what we can find."

Once the children were occupied, Elisa turned back to the gargoyles. She lowered her voice, hoping that her children wouldn't hear. "This was supposed to be a quick trip," Elisa pointed out. "We didn't pack any extra food or water. We have a bottle of water a piece, unless there's more stored somewhere, but if this storm lasts too long…" she trailed off, leaving the rest unsaid.

Both Goliath and Bolin looked grim, nodding their understanding.

"We will not be able to help," Bolin said into the silence, taking in both Goliath and Elisa's faces. "The sun is rising as we speak."

"You guys might as well find somewhere comfortable to sleep," Elisa sighed. "When the storm clears, we'll try to contact help again by phone. If they weren't damaged when we went down, I can see about maybe getting the radios working, too."

In the faint light from Liam's pen light, Elisa saw the flash of anger and fear cross Goliath's face.

"We're going to be fine, Big Guy," Elisa said, raising a hand to grip his briefly. She gave it a squeeze. "If we're able to contact help today, I'll make sure that we're back here by nightfall."

Goliath gave her a nod, then pulled her to her feet. He gathered her close in a fierce embrace. "Please be well, My Elisa," He said.

"We will be," she said, stepping back as the familiar crackling sound of the stone skin forming began, its sound amplified by the close quarters.

As both Goliath and Bolin knelt and took on their stone form, Elisa fervently prayed that she wasn't lying.

They'd be fine, Elisa assured herself.

They had to be.