Nate looked at the settlement in front of him and released his grip on Elena.

"Okay, we're here. It'd better not be a mirage, right?"

Elena was silent, mainly because she was unconscious. Nate had nearly died of fear when her heart pitched but Elena was stronger than she appeared. She wasn't leaving him as easily as that. And Nate was trying to keep optimistic.

"We'll get you some water, eh?"

He hefted Elena onto his shoulder and started to trudge down the sand.

"Ah shit?"

The agents were staring at him. He stared back. He'd just barrelled through a door, looking for water, food or anything and had run face first into the sand, right next to the agents. Good news, he saw water. They each had their own flasks. That he could steal. Y'know, once they were dead.

He dove into cover, glancing at Elena, still safely on the other side of the door. He waited for the sound of bullets to come. But, nothing.

He glanced over. The agents were standing there, regarding him suspiciously.

"What do you want?" One called in a very Eton accent.

Nate was confused. "Aren't you supposed to kill me?"

Another shrugged. "Well, that's what Mrs. Marlowe told us, but we don't really want to. Sure, we'll get detention, but we're rebels." He smiled proudly.

Yeah, real rebels. Schoolboys, all of them.

"Can you give me a gun… or?"

One threw his Kal at Nate. He picked it up and put it on his back.

"Err, thanks." Nate said lamely.

The Etoners nodded and started talking about waistcoats. Nate frowned and moved closer.

"Any of you want to give me some water?"

They looked around, before their radios started to buzz.

"Don't let Drake survive or you'll all get Fs! Mrs. Drake is worth a B and Cutter a D. If you fail to pick up the appointed marks you fail and will be dismissed from Villian's School for Eton Students."

They looked down blankly. Nate started to back away. If he knew one thing about Eton, it was that it was the place of high grades. And damn be anyone who stood in the way.

The schoolboys let rip with their guns, missing terribly but making Nate sprint across the sand into cover.

Nate got his bearings and peeked over. "Sorry, but do you guys have any water?"

The shooting stopped.

"Or a weapon?..." he asked hopefully.

A M9 went sailing over the wall along with some water. Nate smiled to himself. For educated boys they weren't very smart.

After a very disturbing victory, where he literally slaughtered a dozen Eton schoolboys he ran back to Elena.

"Drink this" he said, shoving the water down her.

Elena started to cough, Nate lowering the flow. She was still desperately weak, but better than she had been. She was coughing and muttering now, which he took as a good sign. Much better than the endless silence. He hoisted her up and kept going.

Elena woke to find her throat burning, sick (make that really sick), and completely weak.

She felt as if her legs would never move again and her brain hurt. Her throat was burning, her head was dizzy and her lips were dripping blood due to the cracks she had opened when she woke. She reached to her head, but her arm was too useless to respond. Fuck, what happened. She remembered Charlie and Nate fighting, or was that a dream? Nate had re-enacted the 'Tears in a Jar' bit she was pretty sure. What was going on? She looked around and saw Nate, bloodied, sweating, hair falling in his face, away from it's usual 'flick', and generally looking extremely handsome. She made a little noise, drawing Nate's attention. His eyes lit up, even if he did keep very low. She just realized that they were in cover, getting bombarded by gunfire! Holy crap!

"Drink this!" Nate shoved water at her, which she drunk down, too fast, and retched all over the sand. She looked up to see Nate smile.

"That's my girl."

"Nate, I just threw up!"

"Good. Body is getting used to functiong and stuff. Very good." He took his gun, which was plastered in… oh god! Blood and rested it on his lap. "I was so scared. You need to stop doing that, you'll kill me."

Elena smiled. "Sure you didn't cry?"

"Nah, not me. Shit." he said, in response to a close miss.

Elena frowned. "Nate" she coughed "damn, what's" cough "going on?"

Nate look concerned at her coughing but dismissed it and shoved more water at her.

"Well" he started "We're in a bit of a pickle. Yep, we're royally fucked."

Elena raised an eyebrow and peeked over the cover. Tons of agents were shooting and doing an Irish clog dance.

"It's not that I don't like the dance" Nate commented. "It's just that they suck at it."

Nate was right. They were pretty awful.

The agents were moving closer.

Nate took her hand. "This is us, I think. We're not going to make it. But first" he dropped his bravado "I want to apologise."

"For what Nate?"

"For ruining your life. If not for me, you'd be up there on the highest rungs of TV, with a whole pick of guys better than me. You'd be married to a nice guy, intelligent, handsome, though" he smiled at her "not quite as good as me."

Elena smiled. "No."

"And he would be caring, you'd have a family that adores you, kids and all, and the closest you'd get to danger would be when you broke a nail. You'd sit in chat shows, upstaging all the others with your beauty and nerve-inducing wit."

"And I'm sorry for stealing that life from you. If I hadn't been so selfish, I would have left you after El Dorado. I wouldn't have dragged you along in Nepal. And boy, I would not have married you. I'm sorry."

Elena smiled. "Nate, I don't accept your apology, because if I had that life… well, I would have been having an affair."

Nate chuckled. "With who? Sully?"

"You. I would have met you and if we had never gotten together after El Dorado, or Lazarevic, I would have been bored. Restless for you. Sure, I might get married, have kids but not with the man I want. No matter what he's like. So I would have found you and we would have done what we did in Yemen. I would have ruined my family and my life and I don't think I would have cared. I mean, I need Sully as my father-in-law. He's cool and I like him."

"Now I know you've had too much sun. No one willingly chooses Sully for a relative."

He pulled her close and planted a kiss on her head. "Good you're with me then."

Elena didn't want to ruin the moment, but where the hell were the agents?

"Err, Nate?"

He was alert. "Yeah, I know." He peeked over the cover carefully.

He saw a lone horseman waiting there, shifting uncomfortably.

"Hello?" Nate called.

The guy looked up. "Hey. Are you… Nathan Drake?"

Nate nodded as Elena appeared next to him, still needing support.

The guy clapped his hands against his legs. "Well, good. Ah, you have the girl too! Brilliant. He will be very impressed."

Elena looked at Nate. "Who?"

"Ay up there you dirty bastards!"

They both turned to see Charlie sitting a horse perfectly, an RPG cradled in one hand, a scarf around his head and a pistol holstered on his leg.

"Come on! You're not in the desert now! Boy, I can't believe I found you two! That's mental!"

"So you managed to get out of the desert, find this tribe and convince them that you're a god?"

Charlie leaned back. Elena was safe in the tent, recovering and Nate was sitting across the campfire from Charlie. He'd just discussed the plan of action to rescue Sully, but now he had business with the Cockney Cutter.

Charlie spoke: "Convincing had nothing to do with it mate. No, they just took me on for some reason. Apparently I'm the chosen one of something." He poked the fire. Nate had heard weirder things in context to Charlie Cutter.

"If you can believe that." Nate said.

Charlie nodded. "Yeah, right. But don't tell 'em that. They really believe it mate and I think" he pointed his stick at Nate "that's the only reason we're alive."

Nate was ready to go check on Elena. He started shifting restlessly in his seat.

"So what does this, y'know, chosen one stuff entitle?"

Charlie took a bite out of his stick. "I don't know mate. I'm suppose to kill the witch and free Iram. I can also talk to the smokeless fire things." He nodded. "What bullshit." He added as an afterthought.

Nate wasn't sure. It was no normal thing that Charlie Cutter had survive the desert alone, had tamed the horse masters and rescued them.

"What was the prophecy again Charlie?" Nate asked curiously.

Charlie leant forward over the flames, which darted aside to avoid him, unsettling Nate.

"Okay, here it is. The Chosen One is supposed to be immune to fire and those spiders, they won't touch him. But the prophecy goes: He will take to the air, escaping his guardian, to accompany a woman and two men. All friends. He will make his way through the trials intill he finds the location of Iram, reuniting Man and Wife and strengthen the relationship between Wife and Father-in-Law. He will face the witch multiple times, but still lack the strength to kill her. He will be captured but he will be saved by the Ocean. He will take to the air again to the golden land. He will face hostility from the Husband and eventually separate from the Husband and Wife. He will tame the Horse Masters and save the two. He will then go on to do other stuff, I forget."

Nate was a little annoyed. He remembers the old stuff but not the new stuff. Typical Charlie. The guardian would be Chloe, the golden land the desert. The spiders hadn't liked Sully, but maybe it had really been Charlie they had been scared off. It all made sense. Nate shook his head. The only thing he was interested in was his family, namely Elena, and any other prophecies could wait

He patted Charlie on the shoulder and made his way to the tent where Elena was. He saw her, nestled in blankets against the cool nights of the desert. He was so happy she was alive. It had been too close, again. He really needed to get out of this business, if not for himself, for her.

He crept up to her silently, wishing it was a bed and he could undress a little, but hell if he was going to do that with a load of (probably gay) men nearby. He got under the sheets and wrapped an arm around Elena who took it and pulled it to her chest with a little more force than he would have liked, and nestled close to him. He adjusted himself to make her more comfortable and prepared to go to sleep.

"Ay up! The horse guys want to play strip poker! You in!"

Yep, definitely gay.

Please keep faith in this and review if you want more, or you have any ideas for this or any other stories you want me to write. Really, any Elena/Nate fic and I'm sure I can try to pull it off. Whether it's a sequel to this (I have a few ideas) or something like 'Fan Fiction' or 'Bath Time'. Keep reviewing. Thanks!