AN: Woo! Another chapter! Thank you as always to my reviewers, you know who you are and you're awesome. Also, just finished reading the book I am Number Four. Great book, I highly recommend it. :) I am going back to residence tomorrow, so I won't have time to write a chapter until probably Monday night (boo!). But there will be mucho action in the next chapter, so no worries. ;) Enjoy!

Zil still didn't quite understand why the Darkness had asked them to steal a boat, but he didn't care. Lance told him the power they needed was on one of the three islands within the FAYZ, so they had stolen one of Sam's emergency boats and headed off around midnight. Zil, Lance, Jay, and Dave rode in silence, the only sound being the hum of the boat's motor and the sound of usually-still water lapping along the sides of the boat.

Zil looked around at his crew, feeling proud. Lance was wearing a look of hard concentration, staring out into the dark as if calculating what lay beyond their vision. Dave was smiling softly, dipping his baseball bat into the water and letting it bounce along the surface of the waves. Zil couldn't see Jay too clearly, but he could tell that he was shaking, trying to create a tough exterior and failing. He had left Lisa to keep guard again. He knew she was getting sick of him, and she had even thrown Lance a few suggestive looks, but Zil didn't care. He never really liked her anyway.

As they approached the first island, Zil frowned. He looked to Dave and Jay, whose expressions hadn't changed since they left the marina.

"How are we going to know what island this 'power' lies on?" Zil knew he sounded a little sarcastic, but he wanted an answer. He was tired, and was beginning to feel annoyed for wasting this much time for no reward.

"Shh..." Dave said, carefully putting a finger to his lips. Zil was irritated by how placid he seemed. He looked like he was taking a fucking mud bath, and they were supposed to take down Perdido Beach! But, against his instincts, he kept quiet. Dave and Jay had risked themselves going down into the mine shaft, and were the only two who knew what the Darkness wanted.

"Woah, what is that?" Jay said, looking nervously into the distance.

Zil could see it too. It looked like a small torch had been lit on the island, creating a small beacon beckoning towards one of the islands. Zil told Lance to steer the boat in its direction, and the group watched as the light became larger with each moment.

"How do we know that's where the power is?" Jay asked, looking and sounding like a whimp. Zil gave a short, hard laugh.

"Well unless you have a better plan, I would shut your mouth."

They continued on in silence until it was obvious that the beacon they were seeing wasn't a torch. Someone had set fire to part of the island, and it seemed as if an entire chunk of it was going to be reduced to nothing but ash. Lance drove as close to the fire as he could without the boat hitting the cliff that surrounded it.

"I don't see anything, Zil. Maybe the fire wasn't connected at all. Could have been, I don't know, a fluke or something." Zil glared at Jay. The kid was really starting to piss him off. Zil squinted hard, and at first he almost agreed with Jay—there was nothing on the island he could see that was out of the ordinary. But just as Lance was about to turn the boat around, they saw something lowering itself down the cliff and towards the boat.

"There are people on it!" Jay cried, pointing to a small pulley system. The basket contained what looked like two or three people, and Zil furrowed his brow in thought.

"Do we let them in?" he asked, looking from Dave to Jay. Zil saw Dave's lips curl into a sickeningly dark smile, the whites of his eyes shining through the dark towards him.

"Yes," he snarled, "we let them in."

Zil had to admit he was a little creeped out by Dave, but he didn't say anything. Zil needed more people on his team like Dave and Lance, who looked like they might giggle with anticipation. The basket was about ten feet from the bottom when it swayed slightly. One figure toppled out of the basket, cursing before a nauseating crack hit the air. The girl—or who Zil assumed was a girl—who was sitting in the basket screamed, but to everyone's surprise the second figure stood precariously on a rock, leaning against the rocks.

"You moron? Do you not know how to use a fucking pulley? Christ, that hurt!" Zil thought the voice sounded familiar, but he didn't care. The boat floated over to where the basket, and the boy, were sitting. Dave ran over to the girl, and she jumped from the basket into his arms. Lance went to help the boy, but Zil felt the boat rock as Lance fell backward.

"He hit me!" Lance cried, rubbing his cheek. The hit had knocked the boy back onto the rocks.

Zil was about to reach his hand over the edge to pull him up, when he saw something slither around one of the life preservers, wrapping itself around it.

Sam looked at Astrid, then back to Brianna. The three of them were standing in the office, as they had been for almost an hour, going over the same details. Astrid's look was cold, whereas Brianna's was pleading, both of them trying to convince Sam to make very different decisions.

"Sam, Lil's fine. I just got back from her place, I know that. But that doesn't mean the next person is going to be that lucky! You have to do something!" Astrid shook her head, looking as though she pitied Brianna.

"Brianna, we can't just go killing everyone who makes you mad. There are rules now." Sam watched Brianna as she walked within a few inches of Astrid's face, her eyes full of hate.

"You have no right to talk. You aren't on the council."

"But I made the rules!"

"Then you resigned!"

"Sam!" Brianna yelled, throwing her hand in Astrid's direction. "Won't you do something about this?" Sam wasn't sure if she was talking about the Human Crew, or Astrid. He rubbed the back of his neck.

"I'll take Edilio and go see them. That's all I can promise, okay?" To Sam's relief, both Brianna and Astrid seemed satisfied with the result. Brianna even walked over to hug him, and he awkwardly hugged her back. Astrid didn't seem overly pleased.

"You see?" She said, "Diplomacy can work." Brianna rolled her eyes as she raced out of the office to find Edilio. Sam quickly squeezed Astrid's hand before grabbing a light sweater and running in the same direction.

When the pair got to the compound, they were surprised to see nobody outside. They squinted around in the darkness, but knocked on the door when it was obvious nobody was there.

"Come in," a voice drawled, sounding distracted. Sam nodded to Edilio, who clicked the safety off of his gun and nodded back. Sam's opened the door with one hand, keeping the other one poised outward.

Lisa was sitting on the couch, reading a magazine. She didn't look up when the two boys entered.

"Hey, so what power did you guys- AH!" Lisa turned around, and upon seeing Sam's hands, and Edilio's weapons, fell off the couch, quickly scrambling to her feet.

"Oh my God. Shit. Zil's going to kill me! What do you want?" She asked, her eyes full of fear. Sam lowered his hand, and nodded for Edilio to do the same.

"We just want to talk to Lance and Zil. Where are they?" Lisa didn't look any less panicked as she continued rambling.

"Oh shit. No, no, no. I can't tell you. Zil. Oh crap, I'm so dead." Sam motioned for her to sit down, but she shook her head.

"Listen, Lisa. You need to tell us where they are, right now. This is a matter of life and death," Sam said, only half-lying. Lisa shook her head again. Sam groaned.

"Listen," Edilio asked, clicking the safety back on his gun. "This is really important. If you tell us, we'll make sure Zil won't hurt you. But you have to tell us the truth. We need to talk to them." Lisa tilted her head down and mumbled something, but Sam didn't know what.

"What? We can't hear you." Lisa groaned, and Sam saw that her eyes were watering.

"Fine!" She screamed, throwing her hands in the air. "They sent two kids with you to the mine. They thought the Darkness would give them some sort of power to beat you guys. I don't know exactly what they were talking about, but they kept talking about stealing a boat and going to an island. Please," she whined, still flailing her arms around, "Don't tell him I told you anything. He'll kill me!" Sam wasn't sure if she was exaggerating, but he shook his head.

"Of course not. Uhm, thanks for telling us. Are you okay alone?" Sam had merely meant it as a precautionary measure for Zil, but Lisa snapped out of her panic, rolling her eyes at Sam.

"Of course I'm okay. I'm fourteen; I'm not a fucking baby." She sat back on the couch, ripping through the pages of her magazine with vengeance. Sam and Edilio left the house.

"Well that was weird," Edilio said, scratching his head. Sam didn't fully hear him. He was thinking about the Human Crew. Thinking about Drake.

And how much more powerful they would be together.