A/N: Thanks to csiaddict2 who reviewed quite promptly after my last post, and who reminded me that this story was indeed in need of an update. Thanks to everyone else who is still reading. I'd love to hear from you all! Even so, I hope you enjoy the chapter!

Nick was an excellent leader. He was calm and collected, cool headed and able to control their group with confidence, though it was his first time in such a position. Under his careful instruction, they had almost doubled their distance and had just stopped for the night. They were under a group of high canopied trees, the trunks too close together for the space to be comfortable. Sara had only recently left them for the night. She had slipped through trunks almost unnoticed, and she would have been had they not all been expecting her departure. She had always returned by morning, but they all wondered when they day would come where she would leave them for good.

Lounging around the fire, they were all roasting vegetables and pieces of meat on sticks, save for Jordan who just took the vegetables. Though they had been reminded over and over that they were being followed and needed to be on alert, they were all completely relaxed. Now that they were once again the team they were used to being, they weren't as on edge as they had been previously. Whether that helped their cause or hindered it had yet to be determined, but, unknown to them, that was about to change. The first sign was Sara, who came hurtling into the makeshift camp with a wild look on her face. She had never come back before the night was over, and this in itself was confusing.

"They're coming." she said frantically. The urgency of her words covered up the change in her voice. It was accented with something that sounded vaguely Scandinavian, but soft.

"Who's coming." Warrick asked, watching her pace. "What's going on."

"We've been followed. They've been trailing us the entire time. I'm not sure who they are, but Rhea would have shown us somehow if it was her...I'm sure of it. We need to get out of here now."

"We can be packed and ready in five minutes."

"We don't have five minutes. We need to move now or we're toast. As it is we can't move fast enough."

"What?"

"I dropped the ball." she admitted, moving inhumanly fast and packing the things they would immediately need. "I should have seen them sooner, but I went north and they came south. They're practically on top of us and they're flying. I don't know how they're moving as quickly as they are, but we're going to have a hard time outrunning them."

"We'll fight." Grissom said, silently including everyone. "We've come too far to do nothing."

"I know, but we can't." She smiled at all of them. "And I know you'd all fight for this, but they have a huge amount of people, all professional, all experienced. As much as you know I believe in us as a group, we're just not good enough to fight them and win. We have to run."

"Let's go, then. We can leave the stuff here."

"Weapons come with us. We're not building their arsenal if we can help it."

"Everyone grab what you can." Nick said to them. Sara nodded her agreement, and they were off in no time at all.

They all ran through the forest at a breakneck pace, narrowly missing trees.

"This isn't working." Nick called. "We're disorganized...not sure where we're going...we need order."

"Then start making some." Sara snapped, weaving around them, holding her speed to a manageable pace to keep up with everyone.

"I don't know how to deal with this." he admitted. "You have to."

"I can't. Don't you see that."

"Well I certainly can't, and we need Warrick for defence."

"You really are useless, aren't you." she growled. "Jordan."

"What?" Jordan's hair was flying behind her as she ran stride for stride with Sara.

"You're leading."

"I'm no leader."

"Well you're going to have to be. I can't, and everyone else is incompetent. You're the only one left."

"That's not nearly fair!" Catherine yelled, out of breath. "We've been trying."

"Well next time try harder if your idiocy doesn't get us all slaughtered tonight."

"Enough!" Jordan yelled and skidded to a stop. She grabbed Sara's arm and jerked her to a stop, everyone else falling in place. "Sar, if you're not ready to work with us, work without us and leave until you're ready to help. Everyone else, just ignore her and listen to me."

"You'll come across a farm in two miles." Sara said angrily. "Meet me there, and there will be transportation waiting." Then, impulsively, she wrapped her arms around Jordan tightly and hid her face in her friend's hair. "You were made for this, Jord. I'll see you when I see you."

"Sara, you're not seriously..."

"Don't worry about me." Sara smiled. "I'll get us out of this if it's the last thing I do. I'm not letting you all die because of me."

"You can't take them all alone!" Jordan screamed after her rapidly retreating figure. "Damn." She murmured when Sara was gone. Then she turned to the group. "Alright, we have a target destination, let's work fast and get there alive."

-------

Sara tore through the forest back the way they had come. Jordan, of course, had guessed her plan instantly, but everyone else was in the dark, and that was the way it had to stay. Darkness was closing in on the forest - the advantage their adversaries were counting on having. That and surprise. Sara had, unbeknownst to them, taken both from their grasp and shifted the odds in her favour, even though she was one person against dozens of experienced warriors. She hadn't been lying about their odds of victory to her group - they truly were slim to the point of nonexistence. She didn't plan on fighting them head on, and if she did end up in a battle, she certainly didn't plan on winning. Even with the power of the night and all her skill on her side, she wasn't talented enough to take an entire band of warriors on her own, and she understood that. Her plan, if it worked, would confuse them just long enough to give her group a chance to get away.

She saw their foes in the remnants of the camp, all looking around in the tents and poking the fire with sticks. They all looked confused, convinced that they would be coming unannounced. Sara silently climbed up a tree and crouched on a branch overhanging the camp. She watched the top of their heads bob as they moved carefully around the camp. When the sun sunk low behind the horizon, almost completely disappearing from their view, she took a deep breath and pressed a hand against the rough bark. She wished she weren't alone. She wished she didn't need to be. She wished she had a weapon with her.

She wished she wasn't a part of this at all.

Then she eyed the group, looking for the thickest group of warriors. Then she aimed her body.

Then she jumped.