Disclaimer: I do not own LOST. Never will…

Thank you so much to everyone that has reviewed. I love you guys.

A/N: The story includes everything in the first season up until the point in Deux Ex Machina when Boone gets into the plane.

Chapter Eight: The Truth Hurts

He had aged considerably since they had last seen him. His skin was yellowed and wrinkled and there were dark liver spots showing on his hands and neck. He walked with a cane held tightly in his grip, his back hunched. But he smiled at them. That same smile that seemed to say, "I know something you don't."

They all stared at him in shock until Hurley let out a breath and one simple word, "Dude."

Suddenly, as if yanked to her senses Shannon lunged for Locke screaming, "You killed my brother!" Sayid had to grab her waist and hold her back to keep her from knocking the older man to the ground. She struggled and glared at Locke in rage."

Locke just smiled and made his way over to sit by the fire, " You still haven't figured anything out have you?"

Everyone stared at him incredulously

"What the hell are you talking about? Where did you come from?" Jack fought to make sense of Locke's sudden reappearance. But Kate interrupted him before Locke could answer the questions.

"You said it wasn't going to help to look for the kids. What did you mean by that?"

Locke reached in his bag for a piece of fruit and bit into it before answering,

"You won't find them. The kids. It wouldn't be worth it to waste your time wandering through the woods."

Jack strode toward him, grabbed the fruit out of hands and threw it into the sand. Locke looked up at him with a smile. "Do you know where they are?"

Locke shook his head, "No, I don't."

Shannon struggled away from Sayid and joined Jack, "But you know something. You know why they're haven't come back. That's why you're here."

Locke shrugged and held out his hands, "I think it's clear that you're not ready to hear the truth.

Jack grabbed a fistful of Locke's shirt, "The truth about what?"

"This island. Why we're here. What it all means." Locke stared at Shannon as he spoke and she felt a chill go down her spine.

" There are some people who can't handle the truth. Your brother for instance."

Shannon's eyes sparked and she lunged for him again, this time grabbing him by the throat, "I knew it! You killed my brother! Just to keep your secret safe!"

Jack and Sayid had to work together to pry Shannon off Locke but she continued to scream as Sayid led her further down the beach, "You lunatic! You killed my brother!"

Kate pushed Jack aside and looked Locke in the eyes, "I don't care if you think we can't handle this little secret that you have. But my children are out there and you know something about it. I want answers. Now."

Locke looked at them in silence for a moment, " Maybe it was wrong that I came back here tonight."

Jack shrugged and pointed down the beach where Shannon stood with Sayid, "If you don't want to talk I could always have Shannon come back here and finish you off."

Locke laughed and nodded, "Fine then. But I can't tell you everything. I can't tell you where the children are. I can't answer all your questions. But I can tell you about Boone. And that might explain a few things.

"Fine then. Talk."

Locke stared down at the smashed statue of Mary. Reaching down he fumbled through the shards, only to find a bag full of heroine. He shook his head in confusion, "I don't understand. I don't understand."

Suddenly the plane lurched forward slightly out of the tree. He dropped the bag and stared up in horror, " Boone, Boone. Get out!"

Boone didn't answer him. And he looked around wondering if there was anyway he could get up there.

" Boone, there's no time get out now!"

There was still no answer and the plane moved forward again.

"Boone get out now!"

Suddenly Boone's head appeared out through one of the windows. He pushed himself through the small hole and had just managed to grab a branch to hold on to when the plane gave an eerie groaning noise and plummeted to the ground.

Both Boone and Locke stared at the smashed plane in horror. Boone slowly made his way down and walked over to Locke. His legs shook a little and he sat down with his head in his hands, " Good thing I wasn't still in there."

Locke nodded wordlessly and then looked down at the younger man, "What were you doing in there?"

Boone shook his head, "The radio. It worked."

Locked stared at him a simultaneous feeling of dread and hope washing over him.

"Were you able to get any one?"

Boone nodded and looked perplexed, "That's the weird thing. I did. Someone came over the line asking if anyone was there. I told him that we were the survivors of Flight 815. And then he said… he said 'no, we're the survivors of Flight 815."

Locked stared down at Boone, "How is that possible?"

"I don't know. Do you think there could be other survivors out there on the island?"

"Even if there are, what radio are they using?"

And hour later

"Well, that was a waste of time."

Locked looked back, "Why is that?"

Boone looked exasperated, "We didn't find anything except a bunch of heroine and now a busted radio." He shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe Sayid can do something with it."

Locked turned around, "And how would Sayid know about it?"

Boone stared at him like he was crazy, "Because I'm going to tell everyone else about what happened today. They need to know Locke. They need to know that there's a radio and what the voice on the other side said.

Locke continued walking, "They don't need to know anything Boone. Remember, we're keeping this to ourselves."

Boone stopped and shook his head, "No. This is ridiculous. I'm not doing this anymore. Everyone else needs to know what's going on out here." He began to turn back in the direction of the caves, "I'm telling Jack and Sayid. Oh, and don't think about knocking me out and putting anymore of that hallucinogenic crap on my head."

Locke watched him walk away, "Boone, you don't know what you're doing."

Suddenly a groaning, crashing noise filled the air and the trees began to shake. Boone stopped dead in his tracks and looked around. "What is that?"

Locke ran forward and grabbed him. "Run!"

Boone followed him as they ran through the trees as fast as they could. What ever it was was right behind them. He could hear it getting closer. Gasping for breath he dodged branches and rocks, feeling a burning in his chest and legs. How much further could he run?

They broke into a clearing and Boone fought to keep up with Locke. There had to be some place to hide. He could hear it break through the trees. It was right on top of him. He had to keeping telling himself not to look back.

Suddenly his foot hit a rut in the ground and he flew forward, landing on his hands. He scrambled to his feet and looked up. It was right there towering above him. Locke was yelling someone but he couldn't hear it. All he could hear were voices swimming through his head, trying to tell him something. And then everything went dark.

Locke stopped talking and watched everyone expectantly. No one said anything as they processed his story. Finally Charlie cleared his throat.

"Well, I guess it's a good thing that I never found out about the heroin." He laughed weakly.

Sayid shook his head, "There was a radio? After all these years on the island thinking there was no hope and you found a radio two months after we got here?"

Jack looked at Locke with his hands folded over his chest. "Why did you disappear? Why not bring Boone back here and explain what happened?"

Locke held up his hands and laughed, "One question at a time." He looked at Sayid, "The radio was busted. It wouldn't have helped anyone. And Jack, I had to leave. It was time for me to leave. You had to start figuring things out on your own. And I see that in twenty years you've still gotten no where."

" But the radio, it could have led us to someone else on this island. If there are others out there then we need to know about it."

Locke shook his head, "There is no one else."

"Then who answered Boone?"

"That I don't know. I don't have all the answers."

"I still don't believe you." Everyone looked up at Shannon who had come back to listen to Locke tell his story, "Something doesn't add up. You said that the monster killed Boone. From what Kate, Jack and Charlie have told us about what happened to the pilot, it doesn't really add up that Boone came back here without a scratch on his body."

Everyone looked back at Locke and he smiled, "Simple answer. There was no pilot."

Kate threw her hands up in the air, "We saw what that thing did to the pilot. We saw him get ripped out of the plane. We saw his body, broken and bloody up in the tree. Are you saying that it was just some figment of our imagination?"

Locke shrugged, "Yes actually I am. When you guys came back with that story I knew that something was wrong. I went back to check it out. The pilot was in the plane. He had been dead for days. And not because a monster ripped him apart."

"So, how did all three of us imagine seeing the same exact thing?"

"Fear. You were afraid to face the truth. You ran from it. Together, your fear created the worse possible image it could. Boone looked up at it and wasn't able to handle the truth. When the monster came after me I faced it. There was nothing left to fear. I was able to see the truth for what it really was. And I still don't have all the answers. But I'm able to make sense of the clues when presented to me. Which is more than any of you have done."

Everyone stared at him as if he were crazy. Charlie balled his hands into fists and tried to calm his frustrations, "You're a bloody loon. How the hell do you expect us to believe anything you say?"

"I don't expect you to." I don't expect you to believe any of this. Not right now. What you need to know is that the truth is out there. And eventually, you're going to have to face it."

Charlie could barely keep the seething rage out of his voice as he spoke, " And what about the children? Where are there?"

"See, that's your real problem. You keep asking all the wrong questions. Where there are doesn't really matter."

Kate brought her hands to her temples and turned to Jack. "I can't listen to this anymore. He's insane. He's spent way too much time in the woods by himself. And he knows where the children are. We have to get him to tell us what he knows."

Jack nodded and reached into his back pocket for something. Everyone gasped as he pulled a gun out and swung it around to point it at Locke.

"We're done playing games here. Now tell us where the children are. Tell us everything you know."

Kate stared at Jack in shock, "You always carry that thing around?"

"I went and got it as soon as we realized the kids were missing."

Locke put his hands up and laughed, "Okay, okay. I'll tell you." He stood up and pulled his bag up off the ground. "But not now. You can't shoot me Jack. You need me. Oh, and don't go out there. Your kids are fine. I can tell you that. But don't go out there." Leaning on his cane he walked away back into the trees. Everyone stared in silence at his retreating figure.

"You should have just shot him Jack."

He let out a sigh and shoved the gun back into this pocket. "He was right though. We need him." He turned back to the group, "And the odd thing is, he makes some sense. I think he's right when he says that the kids are okay."

"So what do we do now?" Charlie questioned him wearily.

" We wait." Jack looked up at the sky, " It will be light in a few hours. The second the sun comes up, we'll go out there."

People nodded and began to drift away. Jack watched as Shannon and Sayid walked slowly down to the shore and Charlie walked with Hurley back to his hut. He turned to Kate who still stood beside him.

"What do you think?"

She shrugged, "I don't know Jack. I think he's insane."

"And?"

"And… there's something about it that seems to make sense. I don't know. I think we realized a long time ago that any thing can happen on this island."

"What about the other things he said, the pilot, Boone, the radio. Do you believe it all?"

"I don't know what to believe anymore. But I have to believe that my kids are okay. Wherever they are."

Wherever they are…

He couldn't feel his tongue. His entire mouth felt dry and swollen. It felt as if his eyes were permanently sewed shut and he brought his hand up to his face to make sure they were still intact. His arm was heavy. With two fingers he pried open his left eye and tried to look around. Where was he?

Darkness greeted him and he looked up at the night sky, blinking rapidly to clear his vision. He turned his head and saw the faith outline of someone laying a few feet away.

"Hello?" His voice was raspy and his throat ached at the movement. With all his strength he dragged himself over to the form and shook it. "Hello?"

"Oh God, stop doing that." James rolled over onto his back and stared through half open lids at Adam.

"What the hell did you do to me?"

Adam let himself fall back to the ground, "I didn't do anything. Something happened out there… Oh God!" He shot up and winced as a pain shot through his body. Holding one hand to his head he looked around for someone else. Nadia, Jake, Josh… there were nowhere in sight.

" What happened to everyone else?"

Somewhere out there…

"Where is everyone?"

"How the hell would I know?… Ah geez, are you actually going to cry?"

"I'm not crying."

"I can't believe I got stuck with the baby."

"I'm not a baby! Quit calling me that!"

Hunter rolled his eyes and slowly tried to stand up, squeezing his eyes shut and groaning, "I feel like someone punched me in the head."

"Now who's the baby?" Jake made a face at him from the ground and Hunter sighed.

"Come on. Get up. Let's go find everyone else."

In the meantime…

"Do you even know where you're going?"

"Yes."

"I don't think you know where you're going."

Nadia gritted her teeth and turned around, "Fine then, do you know where we are?"

Josh clamped his mouth shut and Nadia turned back around, "Those two trees over there look familiar."

"That's because we passed them twenty minutes ago."

Nadia ignored the younger boy and kept walking.

"Where do you think everyone else is?"

"I have no idea."

"You don't even know where we are do you?"

"Seriously Josh, my head still hurts. You think you could be quiet for two minutes?"

Josh went silent behind her and she breathed a sigh of relief. The quiet was short lived though as he began whistling through his teeth.

"What are you doing?"

"Just trying to pass the time. I have a feeling we'll be out here for a while."

Nadia bit her tongue and continued walking. She had to find her way back home, back to her family… She had to find out if Adam and James were okay.

"Whoa, careful there."

Nadia let out a little shriek as Josh grabbed her waist and pulled her back. She looked down and her eyes went wide as she realized how close she was from stepping right over the side of a cliff. They both peered down the sheer rock edge, which dropped about thirty feet down to the floor of the woods.

"Thanks." Nadia gulped and took one giant step away.

"Whatever. I knew you were lost and everything but I didn't think you were going to walk us off a cliff."

"Would it kill you to lose the sarcasm?" Nadia turned to walk away but Josh's scream stopped her. She turned around in time to see that the ground under his feet had given way. She lunged for him but it was too late. All she could do was watch helplessly as he disappeared over the edge.

Author's Note: Okay, so this story had taken on a life of it's own and will probably be a little longer than I anticipated. But I'm having fun so it's all good. I have the next five chapters or so all planned out in my head so now all I have to do is put it all in writing. I'll update as soon as possible. Thanks for reading. Please review!