Chapter 117
Locke was inspecting the ground, trying to unravel the story it was telling; there was Sara, her footprints were small and dainty, and there were hoofprints, all over, and the ground was torn up in some spots, but the most important thing was Sara's prints leading to a rock, where they disappeared and the horse's hoofmarks led away, deeper and heavier. The horse was carrying them. "Alvar," Locke said, pointing to the hoofprints leading into the jungle, "They went this way, on horseback."
Jack wasn't too concerned, Kate and Sawyer were dead and the war was over, they just had to recover the bodies to make it official and he had no worries that they would be found; Hanso's network of spies and jungle allies was extensive and they couldn't hide forever. It was Sara, after all, she couldn't do anything on her own, not really, he'd always been the one to take care of her. When she left him she went to her mother's and was taken care of there, and now, apparently, she'd found some other sucker to support and carry her. What was she going to do in the jungle with two dead bodies and a horse?
"Is he dead?" Hanso was desperate to know the answer; he dreaded the wars simply because they disrupted their work so much and wasted their precious resources; and there was always the chance, always the one chance that they would lose and everything would be destroyed anyway. "Is Sawyer dead?"
John said, sarcastically, "Well, I can't really tell that from hoofprints, Alvar. Maybe we should follow them."
Impatience was beginning to eat at Jack; he told them that Sawyer was dead, he saw it with his own damn eyes, there was a trail in front of them, why weren't they going, already? He wanted to get back to Ana, he still hadn't gotten his fill of her; he never would. His fingers itched to be on her skin and to feel her life, the life he had restored to her; it was intoxiating, the power of it. "Let's follow them, and be done with this."
John was already into the jungle, following the prints in the soil and the broken twigs and snapped branches; horses were easy to follow, usually, they were too big to be very stealthy, but this one was different; for a large animal he left a very faint trail and as they got further into the jungle it grew fainter and fainter until it totally vanished about a mile in. John scratched his head, smiling at Hanso as they stared at the spot where the tracks vanished, "Must be one of ours, eh Alvar? How else can a horse vanish and leave no tracks? You did have horses, didn't you?"
Feeling a little sick, Hanso nodded. If the horse really was one of his, one from the Zoo, then it was a bad sign; the animals were turning, going over to the light side, and the last time that had happened they had lost the war, almost lost the Island. He frowned at the blank ground, wondering if it was true, if the horse was his; he knew it was, of course, it was the only horse on the damn Island. "Dammit!" He swore, kicking at a stone on the ground. "Something is going on. The animals are turning; the war isn't over." he glared at Jack. "I thought you said he was dead? You said he was DEAD!"
Jack backed up, a little scared by Hanso's intensity as he advanced; he shook his head and said, "He was, Hanso, I swear! Half of his head was gone, there is no way he could have survived." He had a sudden vision of Vincent bursting from his body into an angel and shook his head to clear it; that was stupid, he had imagined it. "No. He's dead, and so is Kate. I saw them. Even the dog is dead."
Hanso's eyes shot up to him at that. "What? Walt's dog? How did that happen?"
Jack shrugged, a little disturbed by the frightened, worried look in Hanso's eye. "I don't know. Sawyer brought him out of the jungle and he died." He gave him a slightly suspicious look. "Why so worried about the dog, Al?"
"Remember whose dog that is, Jack. Walt loves him. He will be very displeased about this." He seemed frightened and Jack's stomach clenched a little. He'd forgotten that Vincent was Walt's dog. "And still more displeased that we didn't find those bodies." He shook his head, sighing, "Something is not right, the war isn't over. Maybe Sawyer was not the one, maybe we are off." He knew it wasn't true even as he said it.
Locke glanced up at the sky, glimpsing the sun through the green canopy. "Only one way to find out, Alvar. We find them. Don't you have some birds around? Get up a search party. I don't know why we didn't do it before."
Hanso sneered, "Because you said you wanted to do it the 'real way', since that was what made it worth doing. I could have had spies in the air this whole time; now we're going to lose even more time."
Jack snapped, "Well, get 'em in the air, Al, I got matters to attend to, and I am not in the mood to have my patience tried."
Hanso glared at him, then shoved into his space as he snapped back, "And just who do you think you are, Jack? Who cares what you thnk? You're not even one of us, so don't presume to tell me what to do." He whistled softly, still staring menacingly at Jack, and two little red and blue birds flickered down landing on his fingers; he whispered to them softly, then they flew off in two different directions. "You think we're done, Jack? We own you. We gave you what you wanted, didn't we?"
He was a little unsettled at that thought; he hadn't looked at it that way. "So what if you did?"
"Don't play stupid," he said, with disgust, then he sneered at him, "You know, sometimes I have my doubts about your intelligence, Jack."
Jack snapped back, "Well, I have serious doubts about your sanity."
Chuckling a little, Hanso quoted, " 'Truly great madness cannot be achieved without significant intelligence.' Henrik Tikkanen." he paused, then said with contempt, "Do you know what that means, Jack? It means I may be crazy as a fucking loon, but I am still smarter and better than you'll ever be."
Locke piped up, "It's not his intelligence, Alvar, it's his patience. 'A handful of patience is worth a bushel of brains.'," he quoted back, chuckling at Jack's furious stare. " Dutch proverb. The Dutch are a very patient people."
Hanso chuckled back, "Indeed, John."
Jack exploded; he had ended the war, hadn't they just been praising him for it? Why were they on his back all of a sudden? "You can both go fuck yourselves, " he snapped, and they grinned at him, taunting him until he stomped away to the edge of the trees. "I'm going back to the Foundation, you two are on your own."
One of the birds red and blue birds swooped by Jack's face and he stopped, turning to watch it land on Hanso's hand and chirp excitedly; Hanso nodded and the bird flew off into the trees. "They're about a mile ahead of us, heading back towards the Foundation. If we go northeast, and go fast, we should intercept them." He glanced at Jack, who was still poised at the edge of the path. "Looks like we're headed in the same direction, Doc, mind if we tag along?"
Jack scoffed back. "Suit yourself."
Hanso was beside him before he could blink, his hand clamped around Jack's wrist like a steel vise. "Don't think I was askin' your permission, Jack. She ain't yours yet, not until we're sure. So if I were you I'd get it into my head that I wasn't gonna see her for a while." He let go of Jack's wrist and it began to tingle as the blood started flowing again. "Now, you were so impatient, let's go. The sooner we get them, the sooner you can get to bangin' your little puta."
Jack's fist slammed into the side of his head, snapping it to the side but he didn't stagger or even bend; rubbing his jaw, he turned his head back to Jack, giving him a scornful look. "That the best you got?" His fist lashed out and caught Jack square in the chest, knocking him off of his feet and sending him skidding across the ground, gasping for air as he clutched his chest where Hanso had punched him. "That was just a love tap, Jack. I could have caved your chest in if I wanted."
It felt like he had, but Jack didn't say a word as he climbed to his feet, still trying to draw a full breath; he turned his back on them and ran into the jungle leaving them grinning in his wake. They started running after him.
His chest was tearing apart; he was sure he had some kind of internal bleeding, or at least a cracked rib, but he wanted Ana so badly he pushed it away; he was going to help them find Kate and Sawyer's damn bodies so he could have her, finally have her. He hated Kate even more, if that was possible, even dead she and Sawyer were keeping him and Ana apart.
He could hear Locke and Hanso a few dozen yards behind him and he turned to glance at them; they were running lightly, not even panting and he realized that even if his chest wasn't hurting he'd still be at least sweating from the exertion, while they could have been walking through the arctic from all of the perspiration they were showing. He was going top speed but they were keeping up without even trying; it was a little scary.
He came to a sudden stop as he parted some scrubby bushes and came face to face with a huge, black beast with flaming red eyes; he fell backwards as it reared, kicking out at him with sharp, deadly hooves and he heard screaming as he covered his eyes, cowering on the ground, waiting for the horse to come down on him.
The hooves landed on either side of his head and he crabbed backwards, frantically, before the horse could rear again; Sara stepped forward and put her hand on the horse's neck and it calmed, snorting at Jack with flaming red eyes as it gave him an obvious warning. He glanced around the clearing and his eyes fell on Kate and Vincent, laid out on the ground, and he turned his eyes back to Sara, sudenly very, very worried. "Where's Sawyer?" She didn't answer, just smiled slyly, and he panicked. "WHERE'S SAWYER?"
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His eyes were cold and hateful as he came bursting through the bushes and Ana stepped back a few feet; she was still disoriented from her dream, if that was what it was, it was so real she couldn't be sure. He saw her and stepped up before she could react, grabbing her arm and jerking her to him. "Where's Jack?"
She shook her head, her mouth open in shock. "You're dead, Sawyer, I saw you pull the trigger. Jack is looking for your..." she swallowed hard, "...bodies."
"Obviously, I ain't dead, now am I sweetheart?" He shook her, hard. "Kate's dead, and Jack killed her. Do you love Jack, Ana?"
His eyes were blazing blue and she couldn't look away from them; she couldn't lie to them. "Yes."
He shook her again. "I'm going to kill him. I'm going to peel him like a fucking grape unless you help me bring her back."
She was terrified, and she rolled her eyes skyward. Expect the unexpected, huh, Eko? she asked silently, and she looked back at Sawyer, then nodded. He released her from his iron grip, relaxing just a little and looked around, taking in the manicured lawns and gleaming while buildings. "What the hell?"
Ana smiled grimly. "The Foundation. I haven't seen much of it myself." She hesitated, then said, "I'm sorry about Kate, about the baby." Her eyes clouded a little and her voice was ragged as she said, "I never...if I had known she was...I wouldn't have let Jack do it, Sawyer."
The anger and coldness faded a little and his stare wasn't as venomous. She had gone to Kate in the clearing; she'd been kneeling by Kate's side while she smiled at her, and he thought with a sad, guilty pang that Ana was the last person Kate saw before she died. It should have been him. "Okay, Ana." He turned and said, "I don't really trust you, Butch, but I am going to ask you a question." He paused; it was hard to even say her name. "What did Kate say before she died?"
Ana's lips curled slightly at the corners as she said, softly, "She looked at me, smiled, and said, 'Hi.'" Sawyer closed his eyes, picturing it; when he opened them Ana had a strange look on her face, fear and determination.
He sighed. "Okay, so what do we do? I don't have a clue where to start. How do I bring her back?"
Ana smiled; for the first time since meeting him she didn't hate his guts. She guessed she was seeing a side of him that wasn't often shown; probably no one but Kate ever saw this. He needed help. He was asking for help from someone he loathed. "The time chamber."
He gave her a look like she was crazy; maybe being around Jackass so long had warped her brain. "Time chamber? What is this, Star Trek?"
She gave him a nasty look. "No, it's not. It's real, I've been in it." She leaned in close. "Kate killed me, Sawyer. Jack went back and changed it; he killed Kate first. But now I've got to set it right; I'm supposed to be dead, not Kate. Not the baby." She smiled hesitantly at Sawyer, putting her hand on his arm. "He made a mistake, Sawyer, and I am going to rectify it. Please don't take it out on him when it's done."
He gave her a look of grudging respect, though he still thought she was a little nutty; sighing, he said, "I can't promise that, Butch. If we bring Kate back I won't give a rat's ass if Jack lives or dies. But I won't go looking for him."
She held his eyes for a moment, then shrugged. "Okay, if that's the best I can get. One more thing, though, it has to end a certain way, Sawyer. Jack has to live in order for it to be right, so no matter what happens, you have to heal Jack if he's hurt." He grimaced and she said, "It has to be that way, understand? If you want it to be right." Sudden confidence flooded through her, and she felt good for the first time since they had split so completely from Kate and Sawyer; the Prodigal Daughter was back on the path and she had been forgiven without even asking for it.
Sawyer noticed the change in her and he smiled; she felt right and he decided to trust her. "Okay, Butch, show me to the time chamber."
"Don't be an ass, Cowboy. You're so much more likeable when you're nice." She started walking towards the front door to the Foundation, Sawyer following a little behind her as he gazed around at the compound; he was stunned, first of all, by finding something so clean and modern after having been in the jungle and seeing nothing but ruins and trees for two months it looked otherwordly like it belonged to another place or time.
"I ain't ever nice, Cupcake. I'm just a little less of an asshole."
She laughed, nodding. "I like that. Funny."
They reached the door and Ana realized that there was an electronic lock on it; why the heck had Eko left them out here if they couldn't get back in? To her surprise, Sawyer pulled out a small badge and whipped it through the slot; it beeped on and the door popped open with a hiss. "Luck, I guess," he smiled, and they went in. They both were a little stunned by the inside; Sawyer recovered quickly when a young girl popped her head over the edge of the huge chrome desk and said, "Who are you?"
Sawyer hesitated, then sent a small zap of electricity at her; she froze and fell back, slumping onto the floor as the blue bolt struck her in the chest. He ran to the door behind her and tried to open it but it wouldn't budge; Ana slipped behind the desk and looked around until she found a small cylindrical button, as she pushed it the door hissed and unlocked. Sawyer grinned and bolted through it, Ana hot on his heels.
She directed him to the Time/space room, and he passed through the universe without glancing; he was the universe, he didn't need to see it. Ana slipped ahead of him and waited for Sawyer to swipe the card again before she opened it, leading him into the stark white room. Leaving him standing in the center, she hurried to the wall and pressed a few tiles before finding the right one; the walls opened with a hiss and she went into the control room. She fiddled around for a few minutes, then said, "I think I can figure this out, it looks like it even has a delay on it."
He was getting antsy; he needed to get to Kate, he needed to feel her again; ever since seeing her in the Jungle he had been renewed, pushing his sad, unhappy thoughts away because he could feel her, inside; but the prospect of her, the real substantial, tangible her was within his grasp and he couldn't wait any longer; he needed her so badly he couldn't breathe without her. "Whatever, Butch, just hurry."
She pressed a few buttons and sharp ticking began as she ran out, closing the wall behind her; the ticking built into a loud shriek and the white light glared and suddenly she was in the clearing, her gun pointed at Sara and Kate's pointed at her; in that instant she made her decision.
