The next chapter w00t! I'm kinda on a roll at the mo, so I'm probably going to have anothger chapter up by tomorrow night. It's starting to get moving properly now and though this chapter may be a little confusing it's the start of my attempt at explaining the Others. I just hope you all are going to like my version of things! fingers crossed

Thank you for your lovely reviews and for continuing to read and keep the Sana-ness alive! Hugs

Chapter 13.

Following Kate's first, seemingly trivial question they couldn't shut her up.

Her eyes, dark and a somewhat self-satisfied smirk peered up at them as if they had suddenly all captured her attention. As if they warranted her conversation. Blonde hair straggled like straw about her face as she grinned up at them thinly. And they listened in an awestruck, horrified silence to what she had to say, offering no interruptions. Exactly what she wanted and they were playing right into her hands by giving her an audience, by leaving her words uncontested, each one of them knew it and each one of them were unable to break the spell that she suddenly had woven over them.

"So, so fortunate." she purred in delight. If her wrists had been free Sawyer was tempted to believe that she would be rubbing her hands together gleefully. "We never dreamed that you would be so artless as to bring Katherine with you upon your…quest, Gentlemen." she sneered taking obvious pleasure in watching the alarm dawning upon their features. "No, we were quite certain that you were going to bring the…other one." she snorted at that notion as if it amused her and Sawyer found her eyes inexplicably upon him, drawing a frown down his brow. "But, I suppose, even We miscalculate sometimes. Though that is not a habitually occurrence." a hummed chuckle fluted out through the early morning air, hung with pale grey mist. "I mean, We thought that for certain that the other one would be well out of Our way by now after the incident." her hard glare, the colour of cruelty if ever Sawyer had seen it, turned curiously to consider Sayid who had stayed his hands, though his knife was not far from his grasp. She was talking in riddles. In riddles about riddle. Talking in circles of past events that were now suddenly more significant than they had been when they had happened, though their meaning still eluded them and this woman, this Other was having her fun taunting them with answers just barely beyond their cognitive reach.

Sayid turned away then, shaking his head and speaking to her though he turned his eyes to the lightening sky.

"We do not know what you are talking about." he ground out bitterly and Nora laughed fully for the first time, instead of sly giggles that were made to show them that she knew something that they didn't.

"I think you do, Mr. Jarrah." she sang merrily. "I think that you do considering that you were the part of the equation that we had counted on to rid us of the other one."

Quickly, before Sayid could snap out a demand for her to speak clearly for once, Locke shook his head as if to clear it of some mental fog and crouched down before her, hands linked between his knees. His blue eyes, ones that Sawyer had always found unnerving, suddenly unnerved themselves which was a worrying concept in itself.

"Who?" he demanded, slightly breathless with the adrenalin coursing through everyone. "Who is this 'other one' that you speak of?"

And Nora Hewmot blinked languidly, her smile spreading wider across her face in satisfaction and she shifted her legs, crossing the over at the ankles as if she were getting herself comfortable for a long chat with an old friend.

"The one that likes to complicate things. Who has a tendency to get in Our way." bitterness flashed ever so briefly across her face, though she carefully controlled it until she could stamp it down completely and return to her previous, annoying, all-knowing self. "The one who killed Goodwin and Thea. The one who likes to fight the inevitable. The one that you, Sayid Jarrah, would have killed had the incident gone as planned." a mild annoyance had taken it's place in her eyes now as she spat her words up at them. "Oh, we had high hopes for you, Sayid. And you let us down spectacularly. There shall be no clemency for you. But, alas," she snorted lightly shaking matted hair from her eyes with a regal toss of her head before turning her attention back directly onto a nervous Kate. "I digress. We have no use for the other one, so imagine our delight when you gained a position on this little hunting party, Katherine! It seems that not all is lost."

"You need to shut your damn mouth, Bitch!" Michael snarled from across the camp where he stood protectively between Nora's gaze and Cindy and Eko stepped a little closer to him as if he thought that the other man might fly off the handle again, attack their prisoner and bestow upon her another blossoming, purple bruise. But Nora seemed unconcerned by Michael's hostility. On the contrary, she was enraptured by it.

"Ah, Michael Dawson. None of this would have been possible without your help." she replied, narrowing her black eyes, smile thinning. "You made it so easy for us to take Walt. We barely even needed to try. Do you remember me? Do you remember me now, Michael? I supposed it was dark that night, so I can excuse you if you do not."

Fury boiled beneath Mike's skin confirming that he did indeed recognise her as the woman who had been aboard the boat that fateful night. Sawyer could see it in the way his muscles coiled and his jaw clenched so hard that his entire frame shook but Cindy's hands suddenly curling about his left forearm made him turn away, though his shoulders remained rigid with tension.

"Alright, Chatter-Box." Sawyer snarled, squatting down so that his eyes were almost level with hers, swallowing his own anger at her words to Michael. "You gonna start talking straight?"

She swung her glance to him with another blink of red rimmed eyelids and stubby brown lashes and he had the distinct feeling that it was now his turn beneath her scrutiny, as if she were judging him. As if he were being tested.

"James Ford," she clicked her tongue several times in mock-reproach, shaking her head patronizingly as she did so. "What a surprise. What a surprise indeed. We never took into consideration just how much you could help us. Admittedly We were rather disappointed that you did not act upon your instincts when she revealed to you her secret. We know that you had the urges, James, and yet, just like Sayid, you allowed yourself to be swayed into saving her." she tutted again, though just the once that time as he stared at her in wide-eyed horror. He knew, now, who she was talking about. Who the 'other one' was. The one that they had no use for. "But, unlike, Sayid, you came through for Us in the end and I must say, that little display you put on at the beach the evening before you left…Spectacular!" her grin was as wicked as her laugh and she glared up at him unflinchingly, taunting him almost. Trying to goad him into action or response. "Bravo, James. You had Us concerned there for a moment, but We always had faith in y-"

Before she could finish her words and before with Locke, Sayid or Eko could prevent him, his hand lashed out and slapped her hard enough across her left cheek to split open her lower lip and send a trickle of crimson down her chin. He'd been brought up properly in his childhood, underprivileged and traumatised though it was. He'd always been taught that no man should ever hit a lady, no matter the circumstances…but he was beyond caring, deciding that this case was an exception. She deserved it, especially when she dared to even speak of Ana-Lucia, insinuating that she was somehow unworthy and that he had played a part in a downfall that was written out for her by Other hands. More than anything it was his fear that her words were true that had spurred him into motion.

"Bitch!" he hissed, echoing and in accordance with Mike's previous proclamation, for lack of a better description. "You dare even-"

She snorted out more laughter directly into his face, her teeth now stained pinkish from the blood he had drawn forth and he raised his hand again, like a cobra waiting to strike out at it's pray. The fact that she was unable to defend herself did not even cross his furious mind.

"This is getting us no where." Sayid interrupted swiftly, carefully setting a hand onto Sawyer's shoulder to prevent him from slapping her again and Sawyer abandoned his attack, shrugging the Iraqi off irately and standing and moving to where Michael and Cindy stood.

"Yes, listen to Sayid." Nora sneered from behind him, but Sawyer shook his head, intent on ignoring her. Once more they were all playing into her hands. She was running rings around them even though she was the prisoner. She was the one tied and bound at the base of a tree. She was the one out numbered six to one. She was the one unarmed.

Kate cleared her throat then, drawing all eyes to her, including Nora's.

"How did you get here, Nora?" she asked lightly, causing Michael to give an indignant, unintelligible grunt and growl out sarcastically that 'how great it was that they were now on a first name terms!' though it went by ignored by both of the women on the other side of the camp. And, for the second time, Nora answered her straight. No mystery, no cryptic words intent on causing madness in them all. Her face lost it's sneer and smirk. Her voice lost it's disdain.

"I will show you if you'll let me up…" her smile was disarming and Kate turned to look at Locke and Sayid in question, raising her eyebrows slightly in askance. "It's all right, Katherine. I don't bite."

"She's lying!" Michael bellowed, pulling himself from Cindy's ardent grasp and marching back towards the interrogation party. "She just wants us to untie her so that she can kill us all! This is bullsht, Man! She's keeping me from finding my boy!"

Nora's face went blank, devoid of any emotion or feeling whatsoever, before she painted an innocence there that did not belong. She shrugged her shoulders in a slow, deliberate motion and shook her head almost sadly, gazing up at Michael as if she felt sorry for him. As if she empathised with his plight.

"No, Michael Dawson. I am not keeping you from Walt." she sighed, so different to her previous self that Sawyer could have sworn that she was another person altogether. "I will take you to him. I promise…if you let me up."

Warning bells went off in the back of Sawyer's mind and as he exchanged a glance with Sayid who palmed the handle of his knife, he noted, thankfully, that he was not the only one suspicious of her truthfulness.

"How do we know that you are not lying?" Eko demanded with a boom of his deep voice, thick with his African accent. "How do we know that you will not kill us all or lead us to our deaths?"

Nora beamed at him as if she was impressed by his query. As if he pleased her and she might have even applauded him if her wrists had not been bound behind her.

"Because, if I am wrong. If I have mislead you in any way…" she began, eyes shining as she turned them around the small group, stopping on each of them in turn. "…I give you permission to take my life."

Locke, where he knelt, looked over his shoulder at them and Sawyer could tell that the older man was entirely convinced by her case, much to his disgust.

"Alright, Nora…" he began.

"No, John!" Sayid interrupted, earning him a slightly annoyed glance from the hunter. "I do not think that we have discussed this thoroughly. We need to consider-"

"There is no time, Sayid." Locke returned, cutting the ex-soldier off almost in retaliation. "What happens if the Others come looking for her? Hmm? What if they're closing in on us as we speak?" he raised a thin, scarred eyebrow at the Iraqi until he glanced away to consider their captive once more.

"What happens if she leads us to them, into a trap?" he countered, though to Sawyer's ears his voice had lost most of it's conviction. He was actually considering her offer!

"I promise you," Nora interrupted, inserting herself back into their attention. "That where I am going to take you, there are no more of Us."

"What good is the word of an Other?" Mike hissed from above her where he stood tall and she glanced up at him, squinting one eye against the brightness of the rising sun above the trees.

"What did Ethan tell Jack, Michael?" she queried impatiently and when the groups silence lengthened into minutes she answered herself, raising her chin almost indignant of their mistrust. "He said that he would kill one of you every day until he got Claire back…He killed Charlie, though admittedly doctor Shephard revived him. He killed Scott, though you all constantly confuse him with Steve…" and she trailed off as Michael shook his head, still ill at ease with the idea. Kate cupped her hands around the back of her neck, resting her elbows upon her kneecaps. Sayid smoothed a hand over his beard in deep thought. Locke's own creepy smile had returned to his face. Cindy had pressed herself into Sawyer's back, fisting her hands into his shirt and burying her face between his shoulder blades. And Eko. Eko held his silver crucifix, threaded around his neck on a black shoelace, between his finger and thumb so tightly that his knuckles shone out white.

"Alright," Sayid sighed reluctantly, sending his gaze around the group and receiving nods from the majority, excluding Michael, Sawyer and Cindy who continued to hide behind the Southerner. "You will take us to Walt. Show us how you came here…but you will do so with your hands bound and if you run I shall not hesitate to shoot you. Do you understand?"

"Of course." Nora grinned in excitement or perhaps expectation. "Anything. As you wish."

-oOo-
They had gathered their belongings together, dismantled their camp and set Kate and Cindy off on their way back towards the beach and caves before they dared to release Nora from where she was tied to the tree trunk. Sayid bound her hands behind her back once she was on her feet and, true to her word, she allowed him to, smiling her superior smile and glancing in the direction that the two woman had taken back to the other survivors, every so often with a chuckle beneath her breath.

Reluctantly almost, when they had shouldered their packs and held their guns level with her back, watching her warily, they allowed her to take the first few steps ahead of them before they began to follow Sayid, Locke and Eko right behind her, eager to stay near and find out where exactly she was leading them and Michael and Sawyer bringing up the rear, less thrilled with the idea of trusting the female Other.

"Something's wrong with this, Man." Mike hissed as he strode along at Sawyer's right shoulder. "Something doesn't feel right about all of this."

Sawyer sighed and nodded his agreement, blue eyes intent upon watching the woman's every move as she smiled and called back to Sayid to ask if she was going too fast.

"Don't trust this filly far as I could throw her." he concurred with a low growl but Michael shook his head fiercely causing Sawyer's eyes to fix on his grave face.

"It's not just that, Man." he whispered back across the small distance between them, heads bent together. "She's up to something. Why else would she be so willing to help us? Why would she be so willing to take me to Walt? I thought the Others needed him…" he trailed off in his own despair and irritation at their companions for putting them in their current situation and moved away slightly to edge his way around a tree, separating them for a split second before rejoining Sawyer on the other side. "I mean, how did she know all that stuff about us? About you and Ana? That's some crazy sht, brother."

"I ain't sure, Mickey." the blonde man sighed in resignation of his lack of answers, resting the nose of his rifle onto his shoulder while scrubbing at the back of his neck with his free hand. "But the first step outta line she makes and I ain't askin' no questions 'fore I put a cap in her ass." he glared at her back, hands clasped their together almost as if she was out strolling instead of a bound captive, and as if she had sensed his gaze she glanced over her shoulder at him, past the likes of Locke and Eko and Sayid, and offered him a sideways smirk.

"Yeah." Michael agreed forcefully, tightening his fists about his own weapon as if doing so would prompt the Other into making a foul move and give him an excuse to shoot her dead. "You got my back, Man?" he queried suddenly, eyes never moving from their hostage. "If I got yours and the time comes?"

And Sawyer lanced a glance sideways at him, smothering a smirk before fixing his glare dead ahead.

"When the time comes." Sawyer corrected for him and Mike nodded his agreement that something was definitely about to happen. "Sure thing, Daddy Cool. I got your back. As long as you got mine, I'll keep your ass covered."

"Thanks, Man."

-oOo-