A/N: Again, I'd like to remind I don't own anything, sadly, and that this is AU, especially after that last two doozies of an episode. Many thanks to Evermore, Rockin' FluteTrumpet, scrawn, Emily, Freckles-101, ljae, spacegirl, mfkngst, Flame 31, bwcheer, Taylor, sweet-as-honey, and Setszuki, it's pretty awesome to see how much ya'll are liking this. Oh, and there are certain things from a couple of the previous episodes that aren't a big deal, but I threw them in there for… well, cause I felt like it.

Boone's chest was pounding and his lungs were screaming for oxygen. He scrambled over one rock and then another, running as fast as he could. Locke would never catch him at that speed, Boone was at his age's physical peak Locke had passed years ago.

But his mind had forgotten about him as soon as he'd started running. With every second that passed without another scream the only thing he could think about was her.

As his feet touched solid earth again, an eerie realization hit him as he ran. It all seemed vaguely familiar, the forests, the rocks, everything…

Others, though, I think they're warnings. Even small glimpses at something else, like the future…

A déjà vu of sorts.

It was from his dream. The moment he'd escaped Locke it'd been that way, like his feet were just retracing known steps.

But if that was true…

Boone ran harder. No, it couldn't be true, he wouldn't let it! Pure energy was coursing through him now, feeding off the anger, hate, fear, and every other emotion he could ever remember feeling. It pulsed and shook every nerve in his body, the pain in his chest close to exploding and his muscles burning.

He had to help her, he'd always saved her before and then she hadn't even needed it. He wasn't going to fail her the one time she did.

The trees began to thin out; the clearing was close now. In the dream he remembered stopping, but he wouldn't stop now.

Roaring, he threw himself through the last of the trees.

----------

"That's the last one." Sayid said as the last of the logs rolled back into the edge of the holder tilting it towards the stars that were beginning to twinkle above, "Is everyone else in position, Michael?"

Looking at the lined paper, Michael nodded, "They should be by now. This'll be yours." He folded the piece of paper and stuck it in his back pocket, "Now remember: wait for the light, yell, run at danger."

Sayid nodded and Michael patted his shoulder, "Good luck." He turned and walked back down the path they'd dragged the log up only minutes ago.

Sayid turned his gaze up to the sky. He guessed he was a little less than a mile north west of the cave camp. It was almost fully dark now and Sayid's hand moved, trying to find the flashlight he'd brought up with the log. He could feel the forest floor under his hand, then some leaves and a few small pebbles; he could've sworn it'd been in that area only a few moments ago.

More leaves, a stick, and then the flashlight.

Good. He moved it closer to him.

All of a sudden a hand was pressed on top of his. Jumping back, he swung the flashlight, flipping the switch with his thumb.

"Hey, shut that damn thing off! Do you want everything within' a half mile seeing where we are?" Sawyer blinked into the flashlight, his hand trying to block the light.

Sayid turned it downwards but watched Sawyer skeptically, "Why didn't you just say something?"

"Well I didn't know if it was you or not until after you'd blinded me with your flashlight!" Sawyer shook his head once, trying to clear the purple and white spots form his eyes, "Look, I came up here because I thought of an idea."

"Oh?" Sayid asked, the skepticism in his eyes now in his voice as he crossed his arms.

"Yeah. This plan of Jack's, it's just a diversion, I'd reckon. Placing people all around, I think he wants to get rid of whatever's out there long enough to grab Claire and run."

"It would make more sense than an attack, certainly." Sayid agreed, nodding, "But, if this was their idea, how do they know where to find Claire?"

"With Jack leading?" Sawyer snorted, "There isn't a chance in hell they do, which is the problem. So-"

"Yes?"

"So someone else is going to have to find her," Sawyer paused, a thoughtful expression on his face, "and if I remember correctly, a certain someone with the knowledge to do it has recently decided to help us."

"Help me," Sayid corrected automatically, "Not even me. I think she's in it for her own reasons." His eyes wandered to the darkness around them.

"Her reasons, our reasons, does it really matter?" Sawyer shrugged, "As long as she'll help us, who cares what her motives are." He paused, "She will help us, right?"

Sayid shifted uncomfortably, "I'm… I'm not sure-"

"She will." A third voice answered quietly from the trees behind them. Sawyer's head jerked to the direction of the voice. There was the slightest shuffling headed east and then silence again.

Turning back to Sayid, Sawyer raised both his eyebrows questioningly. He nodded and Sawyer's eyes widened slightly.

There was silence as Sayid and Sawyer sat down and the flashlight was turned off again. Danielle would be far by now, Sayid knew. Now all that he had to do was to sit and wait for the 'light', whatever Jack meant by that, and he could easily have done that by himself. Yet, Sawyer seemed quite intent on staying right where he was. That confused Sayid; from everything he'd seen of Sawyer, he had no respect for him whatsoever, but all of a sudden he seemed bent changing his ways.

"Why, Sawyer?" Sayid asked, rolling the flashlight in his hand.

"Why what?"

"Why have you suddenly grown so involved?"

Sawyer didn't answer immediately, so both sat in the darkness and quiet once again.

"I have my reasons." Sawyer replied coolly, "None of which are really any of your business, so don't bother asking again."

Sayid shrugged his shoulders lightly, even though he knew Sawyer couldn't see him in the dark, and dropped the subject, letting the night sounds close in once more. The last thing anyone needed right then was an enemy.

----------

"So what'll it be, Kate?" Ethan asked patiently. The sun had set and clouds had begun to roll in, clouding over the stars and moon, leaving the clearing in almost complete darkness except for the flashlight Ethan held now pointed at Kate.

Kate was expressionless, her face down and her shoulders slumped in defeat. She knew what her options were and they were both equally horrible. Her mind was still having trouble sorting everything that had happened in the last minute, but there was still one thing she distinctly remembered…

"There's nothing you can do for them now, any of them."

Something had happened to Jack. Ethan… that thing had done something to him, to Charlie, to Claire.

"But you can still save yourself."

It was then Kate realized that she couldn't say yes. In her life before the crash she would have without a second thought, but now…

Ethan held out his hand for her to shake. Sliding forward on her knees, Kate reached out and grabbed the hand… and then bit down on it as hard as she could, tasting the irony flavor of blood on her tongue.

Ethan shouted and recoiled his hand as he jumped to his feet. Kate smirked in victory.

It was a short lived feeling, as the next second Ethan's shoe had slammed into her side and her cheek once again connected with dirt. Pain shot through her side as she choked and spat up blood and then looked up at him. He'd dropped the flashlight and now his hand was moving towards something in his belt, and before she could get away, a gun was pointed at her chest.

"I offered you an easy way out, and you didn't take it. Pity you had to choose the hard road." The gun shifted to a point at her knees instead, "We'll start down here and work our way up, sound good?"

Kate flinched as Ethan cocked the gun but managed to rasp as she spit out more blood, "It sounds sup-"

Suddenly there was a crash and a shot as a blur smashed into Ethan and the bullet discharged into the tree inches away from Kate's knee. Kicking against the ground, she pushed herself out of the way of Ethan and the blur and tried to see what was happening. She was still on her side and as Ethan and his assailant separated and she heard the attacker come to a stop a few feet in front of her. Kate didn't know whether or not whoever it was could be a friend, but if nothing else it would be enough of a distraction for her to slip away into the bushes she was just a yard or two away.

Staying low to the ground, she began to crawl army-style towards where she remembered there being bushes, ignoring the blistering pain running from her side to her head. Only five feet left, then four, she could make out their vague outlines against the blackness.

Then the flashlight clicked on. Kate froze.

"I can't say I'm surprised to see you here." Ethan's voice commented in his eerily calm tone, as if he'd almost been expecting the attack, "Sooner than I thought, though, congratulations."

"Wow, thanks." Came the out of breath but composed reply from the invader. Kate vaguely recognized the voice, but was having trouble hearing either of them over the hammering of her head. She was so close to freedom…

"I assume I can guess why you came." Ethan said, flicking the flashlight in Kate's direction and then back to the man he was talking to. Now her eyes had almost adjusted to the light and she could make out a blurry outline from the glow cast around his figure.

"Among other reasons." Replied the man, just as calmly and collectedly as Ethan himself had been talking, only something was different about it. Beneath the relaxed tone she could almost feel the tension and anger coiling inside him, the same feeling she'd been privy to less than a minute ago. Just as she had begun to calm her mind just enough to think about inching away again, something made it speed again…

The man shifted his left foot forward slightly, causing something around his neck to catch the light for just a second before he slid his foot back again.

It was a key. Her key.

"I'm guessing you aren't just going to let us walk away from here."

"I think that is stating the obvious."

"But you are going to let her go." The man stated with complete confidence.

"Really, I am?" Kate guessed if she could see Ethan's expression then it would have been on the verge of amusement, "Wait, I know. You're going to trade yourself for her or something as equally cliché as that."

"Nope."

"Hmm, well then I'm stumped, Mr. Shepherd. Please enlighten me."

"You're going to let her go so you can have it out fair and square with me." Jack explained coolly and Ethan's flashlight shifted slightly, "Kill me, you can still hunt her down afterwards, otherwise, well," He shrugged and his foot shifted again slightly back and then out and forward again until he stood, balanced on both feet, "you really won't have to worry about it anymore."

Kate eyed Jack skeptically. What was he up to? At least he could stop sliding his feet around and show some confidence; it was all he'd have up against Ethan. She remembered the dark purple bruise on his cheek, and that had been only a warning.

Great, super. You run all that way and get the crap kicked out of you just to stop him from killing himself and now you're just going to sit back and watch it happen. Way to go, Kate, way to go…

"So, is it a yes?" Jack asked, crossing his arms and tapping his foot in mock impatience.

She looked down at his feet and the scrapes in the earth from all the moving he'd done. Some of the beams form the flashlight broke past his legs and cast deeper shadows on the holes from the heel of his shoe. Kate blinked and tilted her head to the side.

"Patience is a virtue." Ethan commented lightly.

She could have sworn that first mark looked like a 'G'…

Jack shrugged, "You're stalling."

That second one kind of looked like a crooked 'E' shape…

"Believe what you want."

Then 'T', then 'C'. They were letters, four of them. But what was Getc supposed to mean? That didn't even make sense…

Ethan held out his bitten hand, it had stopped bleeding now, but Kate could tell, with satisfaction, that she'd most definitely left a mark, "Alright, I agree."

Jack nodded, "Hands only?" Ethan nodded in accord.

G etc? Ge tc? Get c? That was the most logical one. Get C, get C, get something that started with a c. Or someone?

Claire starts with a C, but I can't get her. How would that help, anyway? C, c, c… Charlie! Kate's mind suddenly clicked and she slid back into the bushes and rolled onto her side. Painfully, she crawled away, stood up and began to move as fast as her body would allow, which was a slow trot compared to her before.

It was only ten minutes before she had to stop. Wincing, she leaned against one of the tall trees, taking in deep breaths as she tried to collect herself. It was so dark she couldn't even see where she was going now.

It was hopeless, she'd never find Charlie at that rate, assuming he'd stayed in the area she'd left him, which she doubted he had.

Taking another breath, she heard a rattling sound and a thump, followed by a small rumbling and more rattling. Holding her breath, Kate sank down until she squatted between two of the tree roots.

Please let it pass me, please… Kate wished fervently. She felt so stupid for how slow she'd gone and how she'd managed to completely lose all her normal reasoning in the course of a couple of hours. For a minute she almost wished she could go back to the way it had used to be, before the crash.

Then there was another bump and this time a voice.

"Bullocks! Bloody forest doesn't even have a decent path…"

"Charlie?" Kate asked in surprise, "Is that you?"

"Kate?" Came the voice again, "Is that you? You sound awful."

"Nice to see you too, Charlie." Kate said sarcastically as she pulled herself up from the roots and moved closer to the barely visible outline of him, "Do you have a flashlight?"

"Of course I do, I just like wandering around in the middle of this bloody forest in the dark. Call it a hobby-"

"I found Jack." Kate began, cutting him off quickly, "Well, I found Ethan, I mean, and Jack found Ethan, but we have to go, Ethan has probably started and if we don't hurry-"

"What are you talking about?" Charlie said, gripping her shoulder firmly.

Kate took a deep breath, "Look, I found Ethan, then Jack found us and-"

A sound like a firecracker hissed in the air and popped, echoing in the sky above them.

"What the-?" Charlie began, his head moving from side to side, "Was that a gunshot?"

"Oh my god…" Kate whispered quietly and then grabbed Charlie's shoulder, dragging him off into the jungle the way she'd just come, "Quick, we've got to go!"