Elli was almost too afraid to move. She heard a bang, and felt the man in front of her jerk forward convulsively. He'd forgotten about her at that point. Yet he continued to run, and as he passed her by she could see the bloody hole near his spine. Her stomach turned inside out. 'He kept going…' she thought. 'Why did he keep going?' Sayid roared as the second bullet caught him six inches away from the original. It was too much for his body to handle, and he felt his senses fail as he extended his arms and soared through the air. The dirt path tore pieces of skin off, leaving scrapes the man would never notice. He lay there for a moment, shuddering only a little. And then he rolled over, eliciting a yelp from the nurse. She did not know why, but something inside her ached at the sight of this pitiful man. He, with much difficulty, raised his head and gazed into her eyes. She simply returned the look. Neither spoke for some time, the only sound being Sayid's pained breathing. Then, as if he'd gained the courage to talk one last time, the man addressed her.

"Do not… think of me as… evil."

He coughed up blood.

"I do as I do because I have no other choice. Not out of… out of enmity."

She had been crying this whole time, out of fear and helplessness, but now her tears came from sorrow.

"It is because of my weakness. Because I am unable to gain what I need myself, I must… must take it."

She had leaned over now, sobbing into the ground. Dust and tears mixed to form singular pools of muddy water.

"These men, the ones who have killed me, they are good people, yes?"

He waited for a moment, and then continued over the weeping of his former hostage.

"Help them. People like them; people that have the power to change things, to fight… are rare. And those that…use their gift for good… well, they seem to not exist sometimes."

Sayid was fading fast.

"How strange the world seems…" he said, taking his last breath.

"In retrospect…"

Karen cradled Elli in her arms. It was too much for the girl, seeing all this death. She'd been crying immensely, but all that remained in her eyes was a moist glaze. The two men stood over Sayid's body, deep in thought. Though they attempted to remain impartial to what had happened, pieces of their sadness crept through. A man had died here.

"No use in feeling bad over it." Said Cliff. "He was evil, we know that much. Guy like him would've killed his own mother for the right price."

Elli's lips seemed to form the word 'no', but she could not speak.

Jack shook his head. "Whatever the case, we need to get back to town and explain to Mayor Thomas what happened. And try to figure out why these guys were after you and Karen."

"The other two?"

"If they aren't awake by now, it's because we killed them," stated Jack, a wavering uncertainty in his voice. "And if they have woken up they're long gone. I doubt we'll see them again soon."

"Yeah."

Jack motioned to Karen, and the two carried Elli back towards the town.

Cliff did not follow. He simply gazed at the night sky, focusing on some object he could not see.

"Tonight, I killed a man. And what worries me…

…is that it isn't the first time."

Many miles away, two men sped to two different buildings. They possessed stark differences. One man was dressed in camo pants and a tank top, the other in a fine suit. One building was a motel, the other a skyscraper. But both had the same sense of anxiety and urgency.

The former barreled through the motel door, and passed the reception desk into the room clearly marked 'Private'. Inside a thinly bearded man sat focusing on papers on his desk. Creases across his forehead and face denoted age, and yet inside him shown an inner strength and youthfulness the belied his true years. He casually glanced up to the man who'd entered. "Baine! Good news!" The man smiled as his messenger went into a detailed account of all that had happened. He looked out the window, across the city, to a large building towering in the air.

In the top floor of that building, another man surveyed the city. This entity did not generate the inner strength that his opposite did. No, his was apparent. It was apparent in his expensive suit, apparent in his matte-black hair and coiled stance that swore he was prepared for his executioner at any given moment. He looked upon the city in quiet disgust, as if he were a deity staring down from the heavens. The suited messenger almost collided with the double doors that separated the office from the rest of the complex.

"Mr… Mr. Darkholme…" panted the messenger. "You won't believe what happened."

The man named Darkholme's gaze turned from a vague distaste to a thin, cynical smile. "Close the door behind you."

The doors slammed shut, blocking out the conversation that followed.

The same sun that illuminated the city so far away also warmed the peninsula on which Flowerbud Village was located. It broke through the clouds and mingled in the trees, bathing the world in golden light. Wind from the skies followed, blowing through the canopy and breaching the city. The wind climbed Luna Mountain, and swept through the water of the lake below. The hot summer had faded into a warm autumn, which now died down into the throes of winter. Ice had not yet come, but the days grew short and the weather cold. The farm just outside Flowerbud had prospered, and now housed a small glass structure for crops grown during the winter season.

Inside that diminutive building, four young adults worked carefully, packing seeds into small containers, sprinkling water over tiny sprouts and cultivating even the smallest sign of life. One of them, a pretty girl with a delicate, freckled face and red hair tied back into a long braid, watched the man across from her closely. He was handsome, the lean, rough, dangerous type of handsome she'd been warned about time and again. And yet she did not remember the fear that was instilled in her. This man was a friend, she knew for a fact. His stony, calculating eyes were used for watching sunsets, and winking at girls. His hands- calloused and tough, the hands of a fighter, were put to work growing and refining life.

She then turned her gaze to the two others in the greenhouse. They were like yin and yang, or perhaps more yang and yang. They looked similar, both with young, striking faces, and the same dusty brown hair that ended in blonde bangs. The resemblance didn't end there. The two twins, as she liked to call them, were headstrong, overly curious and at times, juvenile to the extreme. And yet their good qualities, the ones that truly made them were shared just as much. Both were clever, and witty. Both shared the same sense of wry compassion that came off as indifference, but upon close inspection was deliberate kindness. They were squabbling over something unimportant, now.

"Cliff, no, no, no! You have to put the seed like… damn it, are you listening!"

The redhead grinned. 'Another peaceful day in Flowerbud Village.'

Later in the day, they took a while to rest and eat. Ann and Cliff had run off somewhere like they did every day. It didn't bother Jack.

The man had grown since coming to Flowerbud. He no longer compulsively looked over his shoulder, wore a smile instead of a dark glower. And what's more, he felt more in tune with nature than ever. Maybe it really did run in his family.

He turned to his side, examining the girl who sat, yawning, beside him. She still mesmerized him when he stopped to look. Maybe it was her face, maybe it was the air surrounding her, but she seemed like an angel. She was not a 'good girl', far from it. Jack knew her to be wild. It might have been her eyes, those beautiful ovals, like emerald inlaid in ivory. But whatever it was, it drew him in.

"Eyes are up here, Jack." She had assumed wrong, guessing his stare was directed at her chest. But the suggestion made him do it, taking a quick glance below her neck, and then quickly back to her eyes as she gave him a skeptical look. "One track mind, huh?"

He huffed. "Not… not fair, Karen!" She stood, stifling laughter. "Boys. Ha."

Jack watched her go, trying not to think of dirty thoughts. And then she was gone, disappeared into the greenhouse. Jack was left smiling on the inside.

"Women," was all he could think of to say.

Dark here. Been a while, huh? Well, only about 5 days. But that's a while. Extra good chapter for you today. Top quality. Fried rice and all that stuff. Thanks to all the reviewers. Next chapter, who's Baine, and this Darkholme guy? And whatever happened to the bandits?