A/N – I'm back from Italy and I returned to a ton of emails about follows and favourites so thank you! The last chapter was a little short as I didn't have much time, so I tried to make this longer. Thanks for all the really sweet reviews, please keep them coming, don't be a silent reader. ;)

Chapter Six

Plane toilets sucked. Actually being in that tiny box of a room to relieve yourself was difficult enough, so it was safe to say that getting changed in there was even harder. Eden kept banging her elbows and shoulders and knees against the walls and doors and sink, and she had an irrational fear that she was going to fall into the toilet and it would suck her down of its own accord.

She couldn't quite believe she was here. They'd screeched to a stop outside Terminal 5, abandoning the stolen FBI car to be clamped. Outside the building, Dylan Rhodes had been waiting for them with a little army of suitcases. There had been time for the briefest of introductions before Eden had been whisked through baggage drop-off and passport control not really knowing what was going on. She'd barely had time to ask this Dylan Rhodes how and when he'd managed to make her a fake passport, and even then she'd been met with a knowing smile and a cryptic answer.

Eden looked at herself in the tiny bathroom mirror. She was in a private jet wearing clothes she didn't own as she hurtled towards a new country with a group of strangers. Everything about her life now felt foreign, alien. Home was a distant memory.

A knock on the door. Jack's voice calling her name sounded faraway, but then again all sounds on planes seemed muffled. She fluffed her hair up a bit. The curls had dropped into waves now. Her make-up was a bit smudged but she didn't have anything to touch it up with. She was at least glad to be out of that dress and heels. Even if this jumper and skinny jeans and Converse weren't hers, they felt like they could be. A tiny bit of something like home had come with her after all.

Eden opened the door to find Jack leaning casually against the wall opposite. He stood up straight when she emerged, uncrossing his arms. "You okay?"

She nodded. "Yeah."

In truth, she felt a little weak, the adrenaline draining from her system. She'd stopped shaking at least, but she couldn't shake the image of her stiletto heel gouging out a gash in that agent's cheek.

"You sure?" Jack asked with a smile. The two of them swapped places, but still Jack didn't shut the toilet door.

"Yeah, just tired is all," she answered.

Eden didn't know if Jack believed her or not. Probably not, because the toilet door was still open. "Thanks for helping out earlier, you know. That's the second time in one day you've saved me from getting my ass kicked."

Eden laughed lightly. She felt a little better for it, but trying to find humour was proving difficult. "No problem."

"You did pretty well for your first fight," Jack teased.

"How are you so sure it was my first?" Eden retorted. This time her laugh came out a little easier. She just needed to relax, let go. The sooner she accepted this was the direction her life was heading in, the better.

"Sloppy footwork," Jack said with a grin, "that's how."

Back in her seat, Eden tried to discern the dark clouds outside the window, but all she could see was her bright reflection peering back. Merritt was sat in the aisle across from her. He flashed her a smile when she glanced at him. The real conversation was going on the next row over. Henley and Daniel were talking quietly with this Dylan Rhodes man. He had one of those friendly faces, one that you immediately trusted, but under these circumstances Eden wasn't so quick to place her confidence in him.

After a few moments, the three of them noticed her watching. They exchanged glances. Eden was two seconds away from screaming at the top of her lungs for them to just tell her. Whatever it was, she wanted to know, and she wanted to know now. No more secrets.

Jack returned from the toilet and took his seat beside Eden. As if on queue, Dylan Rhodes slipped into the seat opposite. He placed his hands on the table, his fingers intertwined.

"This must all seem a little crazy to you, right?" he said.

"Just a bit." It came out sharper than Eden had intended, and she fidgeted in her seat awkwardly. Merritt was watching from across the aisle, as was Henley. Daniel was still stood up, watching over proceedings like a puppet master. But Eden got the feeling he wasn't the one calling the shots here.

"I guess I'll just get straight to the point then," Dylan Rhodes replied. "My name is Dylan and I'm in the Eye. It's a secret organisation centred around magic and illusion. Now I can't really tell you all about it, after all it is secret, but the others here told you your father, a magician, was a part of it, and he stole something important. In fact, he stole something very old and very valuable."

"What exactly?" Eden asked. Waves of nervous heat were surging through her skin.

"Documents," Dylan answered. "Now that might sound like a bit of an anticlimax but really it isn't. These documents were old, very old. The Eye goes back thousands of years, back as far as the Ancient Egyptians. These documents came in a variety of forms. Scrolls, tablets, paintings, books, but they detail the source of all magic, all illusion."

Eden raised an eyebrow. "What, like Merlin and witchcraft and flying carpets?"

Dylan smiled. "No, not like that; it's a lot more complicated. You haven't been initiated into the Eye so I can't really go into detail, but by the end of this you'll probably be the only non-initiate to know as much about it as any member."

"But magic?" Eden said. Her mind was still trying to reject those photos and articles she'd seen on her father. How could any of this exist?

"I know it's hard to believe," Dylan replied, "but things will become a lot clearer. Right now, though, I'm guessing you're here more to find your dad than learn about magic."

Eden nodded.

"Then leave the magic to us," Dylan said. "You can focus on finding your father."

He was right. Eden was here to get answers, to locate the man that had walked out on his only daughter all those years ago. The magic came second, yet she couldn't deny it made her feel less in control. She was reliant on these five 'magicians'. She was here because of them. She had tried, and failed, to search for her father numerous times, but had always come up short. Now she might finally be getting somewhere, but at a cost to her way of life.

New York City. The Big Apple. A city that looked absolutely nothing like its older counterpart, its namesake. Eden had never been to NYC before. She tried to imagine she was on holiday with friends, but then Henley was ushering her into one of two waiting cabs, and she was squeezing in beside Jack, and they were joining the New York traffic.

Along the way she pointed things out to Jack and asked him about them. He was happy to explain things to her, and for a while his bright smile was just enough to keep her occupied. She was in New York, she was satisfying her wanderlust to the extreme; better she enjoy it and face the consequences when she got home. If she got home.

The cabs pulled up outside an apartment building, all glass and sharp corners and minimalism. They squeezed into the elevators and rode them up to a penthouse apartment where the wheels of their suitcases rolled satisfyingly on the polished floors. Eden had expected a grubby little flat, maybe a mediocre hotel, just not this, definitely not this.

Yet she didn't have time to look around. Any feeling that this was some kind of holiday quickly died when everyone spread themselves out on the sofas. Merritt gestured for Eden to sit beside him.

"Do we have to do this now?" Henley asked. "Can't we at least let Eden rest first?"

Daniel shook his head. "No. We need to get started now in case we have to leave."

"Daniel's right," Dylan agreed. "I don't think we can stay here for long. The FBI will definitely know you've left London by now; they might even know you're in New York. It's just a matter of time."

"Do what?" Eden finally worked herself up to ask, a little late.

"Hypnosis," Daniel told her. "We can start looking for any clues your father embedded in your mind."

She couldn't deny a small part of her bristled with nervous excitement at the thought. She had always wondered what hypnosis would feel like. But was now the right time? She was tired, homesick, still confused.

Yet she turned to Merritt when he asked her. "While you're under, I'm gonna ask you some questions," he explained. "You won't remember them, but they'll hopefully call to mind some memories, something that might be useful. I'd like to start with the day your dad left, if that's alright with you?"

Eden swallowed and nodded. It would have to be.

She knew from the show not to expect the whole 'you're beginning to feel very sleepy' speech from him. He simply looked into her eyes, and with one subtle hand gesture and the word 'sleep', she was cast into limbo.

She awoke with a terrible feeling of dread, sitting in the pit of her stomach like an anchor. Everyone was staring, waiting expectantly. She had the barest whisper of the words Merritt had spoken brushing against her consciousness. It took her a few seconds longer to remember everything else.

"What did you see?" Merritt asked her.

Eden's throat felt dry. She needed water. "My dad. The day he left. Stood in the doorway."

"What exactly happened that day?" Daniel asked. He was watching her intently, his brow furrowed.

"I was eating breakfast," Eden began. "He was about to leave for work. He said goodbye like always and... that was it."

"That was it?" Daniel answered a little sharply. Eden felt heat rising in her cheeks. "He didn't say anything else?"

Eden sighed. "He made some comment about the programme I was watching, nothing major."

"What were you watching?"

"The Powerpuff Girls," Eden answered a little reluctantly. She couldn't see how children's programmes would be any help.

"What did he say about it?"

Eden could feel her cheeks starting to burn. "It was that episode where that tiny guy sucks information out of people's heads. Dad joked he wished he could do it, that it would be useful."

Jack snorted, but he quickly hid his smile when Daniel shot him a look. "That's it?" Daniel asked.

"That's it."

Merritt sighed. "This might take some more working out than we thought."

"I was seven when he left," Eden told them. She felt irritated, like she'd failed before she'd even started. "Nothing overly important happened back then."

"Let's do this in the morning," Henley said. She moved for the white stairs that wound up through the apartment. The thought of finally getting to sleep washed away a little of Eden's annoyance. "Come on Eden, I'll show you to your room. We'll leave the boys to work it out."