They drove in relative silence for a while after that, Elenora turning on
the car radio to one of the pop stations and singing along with it softly as
the cousins sat close for comfort in the back, downhearted and whispering
quietly together. Jasmine pulled into a restaurant after they'd put some
distance between them and the base and took the photos in with them, began
going over them as they waited for their order.

 She found what she was looking for in the fifth photo. A private 747 took
off from the field at 10:55 a.m. with flight plans listing the Navy Base in
Hawaii for a refueling stop and then on to a commercial field in Maine. She'd
have to double check the registration of the plane, but she had no doubt at
all that it belonged to one of the Big Four and that Tsuzuku and his brothers
had been among it's passengers.

 "Found it." She told her table mates.

 Owaru raised his eyebrows at her, his mouth too full to ask as Matsuri
looked to her with hope in her eyes.

 "They're heading for the States." She glanced at her watch. "In fact,
they're there by now."

 "How are we going to get to the United States?" Owaru asked with a little
hint of panic as he exchanged glances with Matsuri. "We can't afford it!"

 With Hajime having been 'removed' from his teaching position at the school
by Uncle Toba, finances had been tighter than normal in the Ryudo household.
Owaru knew that Matsuri had been adding her own money to what Hajime had
budgeted and left for her in the shopping envelope.

 He watched Jasmine narrow her eyes slightly, could almost hear her thoughts.
This would be the chance for the two sisters to dump them and strike out on
their own.

 "Please, Tanaka-san, don't leave us behind. I'll get the money." Matsuri
pleaded in a soft voice. She was pretty sure she had enough in her personal
account to cover two tickets to the States even though it would wipe her out.
If she didn't, she'd weasel a loan for the rest out of her penny-pinching
father, one way or another.

 Jasmine turned her small tea cup around and around on the table, focused on
the poorly rendered red Chinese dragon that was painted on it with a slight
scowl. It went against her better judgment to take these two with them.
They'd just get in the way, especially since Owaru wasn't comfortable or
schooled in anything but the basic use of his powers. But she understood them
both. If something like this happened to Elenora, or even Tamanji she thought
with a sigh, she'd be hysterical and would move the Earth itself to find
them.

 Elenora reached under the table and gave her knee a squeeze. "They can help,
Jasmine. And we are going to need help." She told her sister in English.

 Jasmine looked up into the two pair of worried and anxious eyes across the
table and made the only decision she could.

 "Don't worry about it. Consider the tickets a gift." She told them with a
reassuring smile, felt herself blush with embarrassment at the amazed looks
of gratitude and relief that appeared on the two cousin's faces.

 "Jasmine-san..." Owaru started, his last little bit of doubt about the two
sisters gone with that generosity. He wanted to thank her, tell her how much
this meant to him.

 Jasmine held up her hand and shook her head, forestalling any outward shows
of gratitude. She'd accept them only when and if they got out of this alive
and with all of the Ryudo Dragons in tact.

 "It's O.K. Now, does everybody have a passport?" She asked as she pulled
enough money out of her wallet to cover the bill, reminded herself to make a
stop at an AMT on the way back to the Ryudo's house.

 The amount of food that Owaru had just eaten amazed her. And she had thought
Elenora had an appetite! But then again, they were both growing young
dragons. She smiled fondly at her sister and grinned as Owaru reached over
and started helping himself to some of the leftovers on Matsuri's plate as
both the cousin's nodded. Hajime had taken all of them all down to get their
photo's and fill out the paperwork weeks ago in the event that they'd have to
flee the country to get away from their pursuers.

 "Here." She handed the money to Elenora as she rose. "Take your time. I need
to make some calls. I'll be in the car and yes, there is enough for a sweet."

 Elenora grinned up at her as both she and Owaru reached for a menu. Their
debate on which was the perfect desert followed her out.

 She called Catherine first to check in and ask her to run the 747's ID
through her own PC, knowing it was linked directly into the Order's
mainframe. Catherine had the results in seconds, confirmed her suspicions. It
was the executive jet registered to the Mulligan Foundation and had been in
Japan on a supposed 'mercy flight'. Her second mother had let out a hard
laugh as she said that. It had arrived in Ellsworth, Maine at 10:20 a.m. EST.

 *Two hours ago.* Jasmine thought with a frown as she looked at the display
on her watch.

 She told Catherine that she was going to make reservations for the first
flight out they could get and she'd e-mail her the flight info as soon as she
got to her computer. She hung up, shuffled through the maps in the glove box,
found the detailed one on the States and studied it as she called the airport
and got them reservations for the 6:00 am flight into New York and then onto
Bangor, was just finishing with the Hertz desk to make sure there would be a
full sized van available when they arrived when Elenora and the cousin's got
into the car.

 She handed Elenora the map to fold as she got them back onto the highway,
then she tried one more time to dissuade Matsuri from her determination to
accompany them.

 "Matsuri, what are you going to tell your parents?" She asked. "Are they
just going to let you take off to the States with two girls they don't know
for a week or two?" She hoped it wouldn't take that long, but it might, or
even longer if they didn't catch up with Owaru's brothers before they were
moved again and possibly separated. That was a very probable scenario and it
fueled the growing knot of worry in her mind that they were already too late.

 Matsuri shifted uncomfortably in the back seat, studied the back of her
hands where they rested on her knees. She hadn't figured that one out
herself. But it didn't matter. She was going. Period. "I'll think of
something, Jasmine-san." She said with a confident smile.

 "Are you sure you want to do this, Matsuri-chan? I cannot guarantee your
safety. But I can guarantee that it's going to be difficult and dangerous to
rescue them." Jasmine responded, her voice hard. She really wanted this young
woman to understand what she was getting into. "The people we are going up
against are ruthless and powerful. They'll pull their punches with Owaru
because they want him. They won't think twice about killing us. Or you."

 She had thought about that this afternoon as she waited to wake them. Why
hadn't the Dragon Ops taken Matsuri Toba for The Four Sisters when they'd had
the chance? The brother's obviously doted on her and would probably do almost
anything to insure her safety. As far as she could figure it was a horrendous
oversight on their part. Either a case of the right hand not knowing what the
left was doing or they were so certain in their methods of control and
containment of the Brothers that they felt Matsuri wasn't necessary. Jasmine
hoped it was the former.

 Owaru chewed on his lower lip and studied his cousin out of the corner of
his eye as he listened to Jasmine. Up till now he had been sure of his
ability to keep his cousin protected, but as he thought about it he became
more and more uncertain. The three Dragon's that Jasmine said had captured
his brother's had done so with out with out a fight. What chance did he stand
of keeping her safe if they could take Hajime and Tsuzuku out so easily?

 "Matsuri-chan. I think she's right. You should stay behind. Hajime will kill
me if anything happens to you. I would kill me if anything happened to you."
He told her with a teasing smile and gave her hand a squeeze.

 Matsuri looked at her younger cousin, startled, then turned her head so she
could rest her forehead against the cool glass of the window and watched the
lights of the city go by as she thought. Jasmine and Elenora stayed quite,
waiting for Matsuri to speak first.

 "I go. I'll wait in the car or wherever you say, but I go. I understand the
risks involved and accept them. Don't even try to talk me out of it, Owaru."
She said firmly to her cousin as he started to open his mouth.

 Jasmine shrugged. "O.K. Matsuri. But that's probably what you'll end up
doing. Waiting in the car. Are you really willing to accept that?"

 "Hai, Jasmine-san! If that's all I can do to help." Matsuri answered, hoping
it wasn't.


 They dropped Matsuri off at her house with the assurances that they'd come
for her at 4:00 am and that she'd better be ready and with passport in hand
then headed back for the Ryudo mansion.

 "Hey! Whose are these?" Owaru called from the porch as Jasmine hefted the
duffel out of the trunk, planning to re-pack it for the flight.

 "Oh, those are ours!" Elenora answered as she came up and grabbed the two
backpacks by their straps. "Jasmine asked them to be sent over while we were
out."

 Jasmine headed for the kitchen table and the computer with the duffel as
Elenora put the packs against the wall by the door.

 "Go pack, Owaru. Take enough for five days and at least one set of dark
pants and a dark long sleeved shirt if you have one." She told the boy who
followed her in. "Elenora, why don't you give him a hand?" She suggested.

 "O.K." They both answered her and headed for the stairs.

 "What's it like to fly? I've never been on an airplane before!" She heard
Owaru ask Elenora.

 "Boring." Was Elenora's jaded reply.

 Jasmine smiled as she sat down in front of the computer and typed a post to
Catherine with the promised flight information, set a pot of coffee brewing
then busied herself securing the gear in the duffel.

 She put it down by the three packs and took her mug of coffee into the
living room where Owaru and Elenora were watching the last twenty minutes of
one of those silly contest shows and sat on one of the side chairs, resigned
to wait for a session of CNN. She was laughing as hard as the other two in
ten minutes, felt a strange relief come over her as she did. She guessed it
was true when they said laughter was good for the soul.

 Her laughter died suddenly in a flutter of alarm as she narrowed her eyes
and cocked her head, listening. She flowed out of the chair and toward the
front door, Elenora and Owaru scrambling to follow and positioned herself
behind it, ready to slam it shut and trap whoever was fumbling with the knob
between it and the frame. She nodded at Owaru who moved to stand ready to
take out whoever she caught.

 The door swung open and she was just ready to throw her shoulder back
against it when Owaru yelled, "Wait!" and she heard Matsuri's startled little
"What?"

 Owaru reached out and grabbed her wrist and pulled her through the doorway.
"What are you doing here, Matsuri-chan?" He growled at her. "You just almost
got yourself nailed!"

 Matsuri scowled back at her cousin with a 'hurmp!" as she propped her pack
next to the others. "I figured it would be easier for me to stay here
tonight. Mom and Dad are out and left a note saying they wouldn't be back
till late, anyway."

 "When are you going to tell them, Matsuri-chan?" Owaru asked suspiciously.

 "I'll call them from New York." She answered in a small guilty voice then
said firmer and with decision. "It's the only way I'll get to go."

 Jasmine raised her eyebrows then shrugged and headed back for the living
room. It wasn't her place to question how Matsuri dealt with her parents. The
show had just finished and she commandeered the TV for thirty minutes of
news. Owaru grumbled to himself then told them he was going to go and bathe,
did anyone else want the tub too?

 Jasmine nodded, said "Yes, please." as she curled up in the chair and
focused on what was going on in the world as Elenora and Matsuri headed for
the kitchen to get drinks.


 Owaru came back down twenty minutes later, a towel around his neck and
dressed in fresh jeans and T-shirt, came and stood over Matsuri and Elenora
who where stretched out on the floor, heads close as they discussed fashions
over a magazine and gave a small smile. They both gave little shrieks as he
shook his head and sprayed them with the little bit of water that was still
on his hair.

 He wasn't ready for their counter attack. Elenora sat up and wrapped both
arms around his knees, making him pinwheel his arms for balance as Matsuri
leaped up with a "Pick on us, huh? Dragon tickle attack!" and began to do so.


 Jasmine smiled over at them as Owaru toppled over, pleading around laughs
for them to stop as Elenora moved up to join Matsuri in the tickle. A hint of
sadness came into her eyes as she watched them play. Matsuri was everything
that Tamanji wasn't. She rubbed at her left shoulder in an unwelcome memory
of physical and mental pain. The last time she and her middle sister had met,
Tamanji had tried her damnest to kill her.

 She pushed that away as Matsuri and Elenora finally took pity on Owaru and
let up, all of them sitting and huffing at each other with big grins.

 "Come on, Elenora. Let's hit the showers." She summoned as she uncoiled from
the chair and headed for her pack and the stairs.

 "Do you mind if I come with you?" Matsuri asked shyly as Elenora rose to
follow.

 "Of course not, Matsuri!" Elenora answered, then looked to her sister with a
sheepish 'oops' expression. She had been having so much fun with Matsuri she
had forgotten that Jasmine might want to talk to her in private.

 Jasmine just smiled, made a 'come on' motion at both of them with her head
from the first stair.

 Matsuri was shyly quite as she undressed with the two sisters, wondered what
had made the circular pattern of round scars that formed a ring around
Jasmine's left shoulder front and back. It looked for all the world like
something with a very big mouth and lots of teeth had bitten her.

 "I like Owaru-kun!" Elenora grinned as she stood under the spray from the
shower head.

 "Owaru-kun?" Jasmine answered with a cocked eye-brow as she handed her
sister the shampoo bottle as Elenora stepped away from the water and stepped
in to take her place.

 "Does he have a girl friend, Matsuri-chan?" She asked as she lathered the
soap into her hair.

 "Owaru-kun? No." Matsuri answered, somewhat distracted as she stepped into
the warm spray as Jasmine exited, trying to figure out how to ask what she
wanted to know.

 "Elenora! You are entirely too young to be thinking about such things!"
Jasmine scolded as she scrubbed at her sisters back with a washcloth then
pushed her back under the shower to rinse as Elenora gave her high pitched
giggle.

 "Why not? Juliet was thirteen when she fell in love with Romeo!"

 "You are twelve, not thirteen and a Dragon Spawn to boot." Jasmine growled
with a smile, using Catherine's pet name for them as she motioned for Matsuri
to rinse first. "Now in the tub!"

 "It's just a crush, Sis. Perfectly normal for girls my age." Elenora grinned
back at her as she climbed into the tub.

 "Ah, but you aren't a 'normal' girl now, are you?" Jasmine retorted from the
shower as Matsuri slid in to join Elenora.

 Matsuri wondered for a moment if they could read her mind, then told herself
she was just being silly. She gathered her courage as Jasmine joined them and
stretched out in the tub.

 "Um, Jasmine-san? Would you tell me more about male dragon's and the
pheromones?" She asked with a blush, hoped that the others would only think
it color from the heat of the water.

 "What do you want to know?" Jasmine asked as she sank down to her chin,
closed her eyes with a contented sigh and wondered why Matsuri's mother
hadn't shared the facts of the ways of female dragons with her.

 "Can a male dragon always smell his female, even if she's a little girl or
when he's a little boy?"

 "No. Both have to be sexually mature." She opened one eye and looked at her.
"Have you started your courses yet, Matsuri-chan?"

 Matsuri shook her head. "I've developed like I have, but I haven't started
my cycle. I asked Mother about it and she said she was the same way and not
to worry about it, she didn't start until she was nineteen."

 Jasmine nodded, gave her a reassuring grin. "Female dragons are like that. I
was stacked by the time I was fifteen but didn't start my cycle until I was
seventeen." 

 "Thanks. I was beginning to think I was sterile of something." She grinned
back, felt relieved. If Hajime was her dragon, as she hoped, he wouldn't be
able to smell her yet. "Um...does it work the same way for women with dragon
blood?"

 Jasmine was about to say no, then narrowed her eyes and frowned. Mother had
never said anything about that specifically and the memory of her dream about
Lee and Tsuzuku sparked a chain of thought. She remembered smelling a hint of
cinnamon coming from the dream Tsuzuku and as she thought about it, she
remembered that same scent coming off him when she had met him at the
college. But she had never detected a scent from Lee. Huum...she'd have to
research that some more.

 "I don't know, Matsuri-chan. Maybe. But if we do I don't think it's drives
us like our scent does the males." 

 "Does Hajime know how you feel about him?" Elenora asked all sweetness and
innocence, playing the twelve year old to the hilt.

 Matsuri blushed and covered her face with her hands and curled up into an
embarrassed knot. "It's not that obvious, is it?" She pleaded.

 Jasmine answered, "No." Elenora, "Yes."

 Jasmine splashed her sister in reproach and sighed as Elenora giggled. "It's
the only thing that makes your determination to go with us make sense,
Matsuri-san. If it was just concern for your cousin's then you would see
reason and stay behind and not endanger yourself."

 Matsuri felt the tears she'd been fighting all day sting her eyes. "I know
in my head that you're right, but my heart won't let me stay behind. You
understand, don't you?" She looked at Jasmine. "If Tsuzuku wasn't your
dragon, would you really be going to all this trouble for us?" She meet
Jasmine's golden stare unflinching.

 "I don't know, Matsuri." Jasmine answered softly as that accusation struck
home, dropped her gaze. "I really don't."

 Elenora moved to put her arm around Matsuri, handed her a dry washcloth to
wipe her eyes with as she gave her a hug. "Don't cry, Matsuri-chan. Please?"

 Jasmine watched her sister comfort Matsuri, winced inwardly at Matsuri's
choked, "I love him so much. Ever since I was a little girl, I've loved him.
When that man was going to shoot him I didn't even think, I just put myself
between him and the gun. Was that stupid or what? Now the thought that he
might be hurt or worse is driving me crazy." She finished in a shaky voice.

 Jasmine felt her heart and spirit go out to Matsuri in sympathy and
understanding and something else, something that she couldn't explain, just
knew. Matsuri was moving in to fill up the big, lonely, aching hole in her
soul that had opened when Tamanji had betrayed them. From the way Elenora was
acting, she suspected that Matsuri was having the same effect on her little
sister. 

 She scooted herself over so she was on the other side of Matsuri, wrapped
her arm around and over Elenora's. "I'm sorry, Matsuri-chan. I do understand
and I won't say anything more about you staying behind. I just hate the
thought of you getting hurt."

 Matsuri leaned her head against Jasmine's shoulder, felt warm and safe and
comforted and like she had been accepted into the special bond these two
shared. Being an only child, she had always been a little puzzled by the
closeness between her four cousins. She thought maybe she understood it a
little better now.