Chapter 100
They walked up the well-manicured pathway, past polished bronze statues of angels and demons and spouting fountains as Jack said, "Who are these people?"

A cherubic fountain next to Hanso spurted water and he jumped aside as it sprayed a little. "Some of them are what was left of my original Foundation staff. We lost quite a few during the...incident." He nodded to a woman with her ratty hair tied up in a ragged scarf. "She was on a plane that came in. Physicist. Good woman. We brought her in and made her one of us."

"Made her one of you?"

"Yes." He hesitated. "See, the animals were injectd with a bacteria as well as the drugs; the bacteria was supposed to aid in the dispersion of the drug through their system, make it take effect faster. Unfortunately, we were not aware of the fact that once introduced into the bloodstream, the bacteria mutated, changing the drug's properties with it." He paused, and they stopped walking, stopping next to a polished iron statue of a giant black horse. "When the animals attacked, that mutated, drug- carrying bacteria was spread among some of us humans, too."

Jack gave him a hard look, "Us humans?"

He laughed. "I wasn't one of them Jack. They are all dead. After the war they began to change, like I said before, but within weeks the first one died." he frowned. "My assistant. He was bitten by a wolf and suddenly he was stronger, faster, stealthy...anyway, the bacteria multiplied as it mutated and eventually he just...burst." Smiling grimly at Jack's horrified stare he shrugged. "He wasn't the only one."

The image of a man swelling until he burst from teeming millions of microscopic creatures kept popping into Jack's head and he shivered a little in the late afternoon sun. "Is that how it spread?"

Hanso shook his head, grinning. "No, and that will come later. I can show you." He inclined his head at the building and they started walking again.

Jack was running a question over in his mind; ever since he had seen the other people scurrying around it had been nagging at the back of his head. "Why are all of the hatches abandoned?"

Alvar glanced over at him, smiling. "Well, not all of them are, now are they Jack?" He nodded, "The other hatches are automated enough that we only have to check them occasionally. We have somewhat of a manpower shortage at times."

Jack shrugged. "Why don't you just call more people down?"

Hanso stopped and looked at Jack. "Because we are picky. And we have certain needs, people with science backgrounds, physics, magnetics, chemistry, anatomy." He smiled. "Physiology."

Jack shrugged. "So why not take me?"

"In case you hadn't noticed, Jack, you're here." He chuckled and kept walking, up to the gleaming glass doors and he pulled a card out of his ragged pocket and swiped it through an automated lock; the door hissed and slid open and the three of them passed through; the door hissed shut behind them as Jack stared, gaping, at the room they were in.

It was like a glass cathedral; Polished steel and gleaming glass panes rose four stories high and met in the center like a steeple; before them was a waiting room of sorts, with a chrome desk and gleaming chrome-and-white furniture. A young girl sat behind the towering chromedesk; behind her was a steel door and as they watched a scruffy man in a white coat stopped, spoke to her, and she pushed something behind her desk and the door slid open with a soft hiss, the man passed through and the steel door snapped shut with a clang.

Locke walked up to the girl. "Hello, Alex."

She smiled at him. "Hello, Mr. Locke. Glad to see you found us." She glanced at Jack, who was still staring around him in shock. "Hello, Jack."

He glanced at her sharply, his amazement at the room forgotten."How did you know my name?"

She giggled and reached behind her, handing both him and Locke a white coat. He opened his up and shook it out, noticing that his name was sewn onto the breast pocket. "It's on your coat."

Hanso nodded at them both. "Put those on, and we'll go take a look around."

Jack slid his on, a little unnerved at how it felt to be putting on a doctor's coat again; his life in the real world was so distant, so different from his life now, that it was like slipping on something that didn't quite fit, tight and uncomfortable, but vaguely familiar.

Ana slipped up on him, invading his mind, and he felt a pang of regeret at deserting her in the middle of the jungle but he pushed it aside; he didn't need her distracting him, he had enough to deal with. Maybe after everything was over, maybe then he could go back to her, tell her how sorry he was, that he loved her; as he thought it his conviction wavered a little and he entertained for a brief scond ripping off the coat and running back through the jungle to her but he shook his head, clearing his mind of her. He had to concentrate on the task at hand.

Locke had put his coat on too and as he straightened it around his shoulders he said, "How is your Mom, Alex?"

Alex giggled and shrugged. "She's okay. She doesn't come here much, she doesn't like it."

Hanso smiled. "No, she certainly doesn't." He nodded to her and she pushed the something behind the desk and the door slid open. Jack stepped up to the door, looking down the hallway that stretched out before him; it was gleaming and aniseptic and it looked like any hospital corridor in America, and he stepped through the door, followed by Locke and Hanso and it clanged shut behind them.

-----

It was almost dark and Ana still hadn't moved from the same spot; she was sitting cross-legged on the ground, her head bowed as she tried to figure out what to do. She wasn't sure what Jack meant by her being his sacrifice; it scared her a little because she knew he would do whatever he had to, no matter who he hurt. He had already made that pretty clear.

She didn't want to go back to camp; everyone there hated her, and besides, it was boring. She didn't want to go after Jack and she couldn't go to Kate and Sawyer. So what was there to do?

The indecision was killing her, it wasn't a problem she normally had; she would make a decision, stick with it, and deal with the consquences; this was different, she loved Jack, though she couldn't define exactly why. Some of the things that she had fallen in love with, his goodness, his caring, the things that she wanted to have in herself, now they were gone, and it was her fault. She had led him into the Island's grasp because she wanted to change that part of him that she hated; the part that made him push the people he loved and who loved him aside so he could fix other people's problems, that drive. But it had gone wrong, somehow, and the other things, the ones she wanted, had changed too, now he was a stranger to even her.

She ran the events of the past weeks through her mind, over and over, trying to see the point where it had turned on her, where he had gone off track, and the only thing she could come up with was Sara. Since Sara had come he had changed; the link to his old life was a powerful draw and not even the magnetic forces on the Island could keep the old him from coming out, it was inevitable. But New Jack wanted to stay too, and she could see the battle raging inside him as he left her behind.

First Kate, now Sara. Ana wanted to kill them both, and as she remembered squeezing the trigger and putting a bullet in herself to save Jack she hated them more. He loved her, and he had left her, alone, because of Sara, because of the pull she had on him, even if she didn't notice she had it.

Hunger, stress, love, exhaustion and pain collapsed on Ana and she crumbled beneath the weight of it all; her mind snapped and she stood, eyes blazing crazily, pulling out her gun and checking the clip before flicking off the safety.

She had a purpose.

-----

Kate and Sawyer lay entwined on the mattress, their sweat cooling as they panted together softly; he shifted a little and something crackled beneath him and he grinned as he reached between them, being sure to brush his hand across Kate's belly as he did.

His hand emerged holding a crinkled up cellophane wrapper and Kate giggled, blushing a little as she remembered the use he had found for the Apollo Bar; he kissed her, softly, still tasting the chocolate on her lips and tongue. He sighed and leaned against her shoulder, his arm going over her waist as she sighed in almost-contentment.

She was two sided again; but instead of cold emptiness the other half of her was filled with sweet sadness, and she knew, without a doubt, that she would never be rid of that side of her. She would forever be torn in two and not even the beautiful boy growing inside of her would repair that breach; without Sawyer she could not be Kate, the Kate she was now, without his warm body next to hers, and their son between them, their circle would be broken and lost. Incomplete.

He noticed the sad, faraway look in her eyes; he had seen it before. "You okay, Kate?"

She slid her eyes from the night sky to his and she smiled. "Yeah." Her eyes were shining as she said, "I was just thinking about him." Her hand fluttered around her stomach and Sawyer grinned, sliding down to kiss her belly and whisper into it. His eyes flicked up to Kate as he whispered, and she grinned despite herself. "What are you telling him?"

Sawyer didn't answer, he just shook his head as he kept whispering, and she giggled as his warm breath tickled her. He finally raised his head kissed her belly once more, then he slid back up beside her, grinning madly as she waited for him to tell her. "What?"

"What were you saying to him?" She laughed as he rolled over, pressing her down into the thin bedding.

"That's between me and my kid, Freckles. Maybe he'll tell you one day." He kissed her nose, then rolled off of her, standing and stretching in the starlight; Kate watched him, the confident ease with which he moved, the way the stars reflected from his sweat sheened body and she loved him so much she couldn't fathom it, she couldn't see the depths of it. Her breath became short and ragged and he turned to her, twisting his torso in the dim shine as he said, "Hmmm. You gettin' a good enough look, Sweetheart? Want me to flex and pose, too?"

She rolled her eyes and climbed out of the bed, she yawned and stretched too, giving him a taste of his own medicine. His eyes were on her, she could feel their intense blue gaze and she smiled to herself as his breathing became a little uneven itself. "What's the matter, James? Can't stand the h-" she turned and saw his face and her words cut short. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

He was staring at her, trying to imagine how she would look in a few months; her belly pooching out, then growing larger and rounding, then she was as big as a house, and he imagined her, reclined on a couch, eating and laughing. But that wasn't how it would be; she would be thin and ragged; on the run, tired and laden with heavy burdens that she had to carry alone. Alone. He pushed it away and forced a smile. "I was just tryin' to imagine what you'll look like. Fat as a cow."

That wasn't really what he'd been thinking about but she played along. After all, that's what they were best at, wasn't it? Playing games? It used to be with each other, but now it was with themselves, as they tried to forget what was coming, as they lied to each other for their own good. The saddest part was that she knew he was lying and he knew she was, but they just kept plugging along, playing the game as if there would always be a tomorrow, as if they had all the time in the world. She could remember a time, just a day or two ago, when she believed that they did, but those happier times were just a memory and they were fading fast. "A cow? I don't think so. As fat as Vincent maybe."

"Come on, Freckles," he teased, "You'll be borrowin' Jabba's clothes before long."

Her nose wrinkled up in disgust at the idea of her fitting into Hurley's clothes, and she snorted. "Ugh! I love Hurley but I'd have to fifteen months preg-" she stopped short of saying it and her face reddened as she backtracked lamely. "Along. Before I'd fit into his clothes."

Sawyer grinned at her, choosing to ignore her stutter; she would get around to it. "Maybe Claire's got some old clothes left. You two can trade." He eyed her, raking them up and down her naked, starlit body. "But I think Claire's a little smaller than you, so they'd be a tight fit. Not that I mind that."

She rolled her eyes and started dressing. "I could just walk around naked, you know, maybe just cover up with a banana leaf or something."

His eyes lit up and he went to her, pulling her against him and shivering a little as her half-dressed skin rubbed against his. "I'd like to see that, Freckles." He hugged her for a second, then said, "But it's gonna have to be one big-ass banana leaf."