Hey there! Happy Victoria Day long weekend to everyone celebrating in Canada! Can't wait for my day off tomorrow!

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Disclaimer: I do not own The Host or any of its characters; they belong to the lovely Stephenie Meyer. I do however, own the plot. Lyrics used are property of Rodger and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music.

Wanda POV

I managed to follow them all the way up to the entranceway, where I peered around the corner and saw a whole group of people just standing around there. I heard more footsteps coming from somewhere behind me and I managed to press myself into a small crevice in the rocky wall so that they would not see me on their way past. Two men walked by me and I could see in the dim light that their arms were loaded with something, but they rushed by me too quickly for me to make out what they were.

As soon as they had gone by, I stepped back out into the passageway so that I could watch the group and see what was going to happen with them.

"Did you get them all?" Jeb asked, his voice clearly ringing out through the narrow space.

"Course we did," Brandt responded and I could see the bodies moving around, passing something to each other.

"I get dibs on the machete!" Kyle called out and watched as the big blade was given to a person; I could see it shine in the fading light streaming from the entrance.

"Hurry up, I want to get this over with; the anticipation is killing me!" Jared said and I frowned. He sounded really excited about whatever was about to happen and I was still no closer to knowing what exactly the little gathering was all about. I had my guesses, but I could never really be sure with no information given to me; I was still no closer to knowing anything.

"I really don't like this, Jared," Mel told I was assuming Jared, but I could never be really sure given my hiding place and all. "I'm not really comfortable with holding a knife like this."

"Take a club then," Brandt suggested and I saw two items being exchanged.

"It doesn't really matter what you carry, as long as you look threatening enough to them," Maggie piped up and I began to put the pieces together. "Ian always carries a stupid club, but all he has to do is stand up with it in his hands and he looks menacing. Here, Ian."

I staggered back a few feet at the knowledge that Ian was fully participating in whatever they seemed to be planning, and that he was not only in on what was happening, but he hadn't bothered to tell me at all. It stung to know that he was clearly keeping something big from me, and I only knew that it was significant because they had weapons at their disposal as well. I really hoped with all of my heart that they weren't going to go out into the desert because I didn't ever want Ian going out there, especially without Sunny or I to be there to at least attempt to protect them, should something happen.

"Okay, so the plan is that we are going to get out there and talk to these people to see what's up. Ian, Jared, Kyle and Brandt, you guys can lead us and create a front for when we first approach them; threaten them a little bit and see if they are souls or not," Jeb instructed everyone and I began shaking my head adamantly, though no one could see me from where I was hiding away from them.

"Why do they have to go first?" Mel asked and I strained my ears as best as I could to hear the answer.

"I thought that I made that clear; they are to make like a wall to intimidate the people out there. They can be the ones who frighten, or use force against them if they have weapons too," Jeb said matter-of-factly, but I still didn't agree with any of it.

"Don't worry, I've got my knife so they won't be getting too far with us around," Kyle told everyone, and I could tell by the sound of his voice that he was smirking.

"And what if they've got more powerful weapons?" she countered and I saw her moving figure put her hands on her hips to try and stand up to Kyle. The club remained clenched in her fist the whole time.

"Well, we're tough, we can handle it ourselves if they've got guns. We know how to talk them down or weasel our way out of situations, you know," Jared replied, but my heart leapt up into my throat at the mention of other people having guns.

No!

"Nooooo! No, no, no, no!" I was up and running towards them the instant that I figured out they were indeed going out and risking their lives for something. I didn't know what exactly they were investigating, but I could only imagine that it was humans or something; who else would have guns at their disposal. I couldn't have them probing around if there was a chance that someone could be seriously hurt.

They all turned around at the commotion that I made, but I only had eyes for Ian's blue ones as I ran straight towards him, not stopping until I collided with his solid form; angry, frustrated and overall confused about everything that I had discovered.

Ian POV

A voice rang out through the rocky space and I turned to see what was going on. To my utter shock and surprise, Wanda came barrelling from the tube directly towards me. I managed to drop the piece of wood that I had been holding, casting it away to the side as she nearly ploughed right into me, but I held out my hands and managed to catch her arms to stop her.

"Wanda! Wanda, I don't understand. How did you find us here?" I asked, looking down at her wildly while trying to figure everything out; we had left her down in the games room and she was supposed to go straight to our room to wait or something.

"What is going on?" she asked with a hard voice and I could see tears forming in her eyes; they were a bit red and glassy which was always a good indicator. "I want to know what has been happening that is so important that you have to leave me out of, Ian."

"Can he tell you later, Wanda? We kind of have to go and do something. It won't take too long," Jeb tried to reason with her but she was already shaking her head before he'd even finished his first sentence.

"No. I need to know right now; this has gone on long enough."

"Wanda honey, I promise to tell you everything as soon as we are done. You can even wait right here for us if you'd like. We really won't be long," I said while bringing my hands up to cup her cheeks but Wanda pulled her head back away from me before I could even make contact with her skin. It hurt to see her pull away like that, even though it wasn't anything big or anything, but then I supposed that she was feeling even more hurt than that by then.

"If you won't tell me, then I'll just have to go with you wherever you are going to find out for myself," Wanda's voice was shaking; I knew that she really didn't want to go through with her little threat, but she would if none of us relented to tell her.

"Wanda, we just want to go out and bring back some people, just like we did when you and Mel came to us. We will offer them a place to stay if they want it, but overall we want to see if they are human or not," I half-explained and I could see her literally miles away, thinking about what I had told her.

"I know that there is way more to that story, but you will tell me after we get back," she instructed me, pressing her pointer finger into my chest to make her point and I nodded before her words sunk in.

"Wait. You can't come out with us," Jared butted in then as I realized she had used 'we' in there.

"Oh yeah? And why not?" Wanda challenged him and I knew that she was quite upset by everything; rightfully so though. It was technically my fault that she had been pushed to probably spying on us to learn something. I should have told her sooner; much sooner.

"Because there aren't enough weapons," he said quite lamely and Wanda laughed at him.

"I'm coming out with you guys. I obviously am not as invested in this little expedition as you all are, but really? You shouldn't have even thought about going out to these people without taking Sunny or I. What if they're rogue souls like me, but they have guns at their disposal? I could talk them down if we need to," Wanda explained and I knew that she was right.

"We didn't want either one of you to come out with us for the opposite of what you just outlined," Jeb finally spoke up then. "We have managed a lot longer than you have known with me and a group going out to greet new people, not knowing if they were souls or not. The risk is always there, we just have to be careful."

"You should think of the opposite of that, Wanda," Melanie added. "What if they are humans and then freak out at the prospect of us not only showing up and practically bombarding them, but then having a soul with them? You know how freaked out these people might be, Wanda."

"I know, but I still want to go," Wanda replied quietly and I could hear Maggie very audibly sighing from somewhere on my left but I chose to ignore her.

She and Brandt wouldn't be happy about her wanting to join us, but I knew Wanda well enough to know that she was dead set on this just to prove a point to everyone. Wanda had been becoming more and more independent, wanting to do more of her own things just to show that she wasn't the same scared little girl who had came to us and I was glad for that, but at the same time it scared me.

"Fine, she comes. But Ian," Jeb relented and it was followed by some groans from the aforementioned people who didn't like the idea. "She's your responsibility."

"Yes Jeb," I replied, stepping away from Wanda to pick up my wooden club from the floor and offering it to Wanda. I watched as she made a small face at the plank and I knew that she would never use it even if her life absolutely depended on it; just holding the weapon was going against every fibre of her genetic make-up, both human and soul.

"It's okay," I tried to coax her into holding onto it, but Wanda simply shook her head and looked up at me.

"I'm not holding that thing at all, Ian. You'd have to be crazy to think that I would," Wanda said simply and I nodded; it was a fair response after all.

"You'll just have to stick close to me then so that I can protect you," I replied and I swore that Wanda rolled her eyes at me, but before I could look again to make sure she was turned the other way.

"Ready? Let's go!" Jeb called to us and I watched as Kyle, Jared and Brandt walked to the front of the group with Maggie, Melanie and Jeb following close behind them. I waited until Aaron walked ahead of us before I nodded to Wanda to walk as well.

"Why do we have to walk at the back of the group? I thought that you were supposed to be in the front with the other boys?" Wanda whispered to me as we took a step out into the fresh air. Being outside always made me feel good, no matter what the circumstance was. I took in a deep breath as I looked around at the darkened landscape before answering Wanda.

"Because Jeb told me that I had to keep track of you. There is no way that I can do that while I'm at the front with the others and you're behind me somewhere. I can't guarantee what Maggie may or may not do to you with my back turned," I explained in a hushed tone, shrugging my shoulders. "Besides, those three are way more scary looking than I am, and I always hate being at the front anyways."

"How far out do we have to walk to?" she asked, looking around at the desolate terrain as we marched on in our little flying V of sorts.

"It's quite a ways out. These people didn't really come close to the caves at all," I informed her, watching Jeb's feet as he expertly strolled across the desert, dodging little rocks and crevices with ease; half of which I still managed to trip over, even though I saw him go around them.

"So there's plenty of time for you to explain then," Wanda told me and I was slightly taken back by her boldness, but I also knew that she was completely right.

"I thought that we were going to wait until after," I pointed out, trying to buy myself a little more time, even though I knew that it was useless. Wanda didn't even reply to that, she simply jogged a little ahead of me, turned around and began walking backwards while giving me 'the look' so that I would just tell her anyways.

"Where should I start?" I mused to myself, rubbing a hand over my entire face and when I did that I noticed that there was a large amount of stubble growing on my jaw; I'd have to rectify that as soon as we got back to the caves.

"How about at the very beginning?" Wanda offered and I nodded, opening my eyes up and grabbing onto her hand to pull her back beside me; watching Wanda walk backwards on the uneven ground was making me quite nervous that something was going to happen to her. The last thing that we needed was a twisted ankle or something and have her sit out of everything; she would not enjoy that at all.

"That's a very good place to start," I commented, smirking to myself as I recognized the dialogue we were having was from something very familiar, but I didn't remember how the rest of the tune went.

"When you read, you begin with A-B-C!" I heard Melanie's voice float back towards us and I couldn't help but to chuckle out loud; she seemed to know exactly what I was thinking about. I scoured my brain for a moment to think of what came next and it was literally like a light bulb went off when I finally remembered.

"When you sing, you begin with do-re-mi!" I replied quietly, trying not to bring too much unnecessary attention to ourselves and not alert these people that we were indeed coming towards them, but it was just too much to resist.

"Do-re-mi, do-re-mi. The first three notes just happen to be," Melanie carried on and I just had to finish it off. I knew that we probably sounded like a bunch of loons for reciting it, but the nonsense that was going on was something that I needed before we got down to business.

"Do-re-mi, do-re-mi," I sang out and heard Melanie's giggle from a few people ahead of me.

"Hey! Maria and Rolfe, cut it out!" Jeb whisper-yelled at us and I nearly combusted with trying not to laugh out loud, but a few chuckles still escaped. Maggie turned around to face me and I saw her give me a dirty look, but I just responded to that by rolling my eyes and she turned back around again.

"I'd say that I'm more like Friedrich," I argued back playfully and I noticed Jeb shake his head.

"No, you'd have to be Rolfe so that Wanda could be Liesl. Otherwise what you'd have would be incest of the very wrongest kind," Melanie pointed out and I nodded, thinking it over some more.

"I have no idea what you're all talking about," Wanda said honestly from beside me and before she could finish her sentence, we all chimed out the same answer.

"The Sound of Music," everyone said at nearly the same times.

"It was a movie. And then a play... or something like that," Jeb explained. "Now hush up; I don't want to be attracting wildlife to our existence."

"Explain now?" Wanda asked after a few moments of silence and I nodded.

"I honestly didn't want to keep it from you for so long, Wanda. It all started about five months ago when Kyle, Jared and Melanie came to get me when you were sleeping. They'd spotted something moving out in the desert and wanted me to go and look, but by the time I got out there it was gone," I explained and Wanda sighed beside me. I turned my head to look down at her.

"I know that much, I was actually awake when they came to get you," she admitted, and that shocked me a little bit. I had no idea that she was just lying there when all of that went on, but it also didn't make sense why she left it alone and did not confront me about it then.

"Oh," I replied lamely, pausing before continuing with my explanation. "Well, after that I started doing more patrols, mostly at night and well after you were asleep and I was with Kyle more often than not; he was doing the same thing to Sunny. And for about a month after the initial sighting there was nothing moving out there, but then Melanie spotted it out there again."

"Which is when she came to get you and that's when that whole thing started," Wanda deduced and I nodded my head. Everything seemed so stupid in hindsight, I knew why it was so important to keep it from Wanda in the beginning, but I should have told her ages ago.

"Right," I replied, agreeing with her. As we walked a few more paces, I looked up at the inky night sky, easily picking out the big and little dipper in with the millions of stars blanketed across the sky as far as the eye could see.

"Then what?" she prompted me and I brought myself back to reality a little bit, focussing more on the moon that was still rising ahead of us, illuminating the pathway for everyone to walk. I was thankful that we didn't have to bother with lamps for this expedition; they were like big blinking lights saying 'humans here'.

"Then we noticed another figure and though that it was the same one at first, but quickly realized that there was more than one person. Jeb even went out there to investigate their little camp and concluded that there were indeed two people," I took a deep breath before continuing.

"After that, there was a third, and possibly a fourth. Now we don't know how many are out there, which is why our little search party is basically stacked, both with muscle and power," I finished off, feeling a whole hell of a lot better getting all of that off of my chest.

Wanda was quiet then, except for the sounds of the crunching soil under her small feet and I even glanced down at her to make sure that she wasn't terribly mad or anything. Her face was the picture of calm, probably only because she was processing everything and realizing just how serious everything had gotten. I knew that it probably wouldn't last too long, so I mentally braced myself for what would happen next with her.

"So why didn't you tell me this? I get that I might not have been much of a help to you, since you clearly didn't trust me with that, but why not tell me?" Wanda asked and by the sound of her faltering voice I knew that she was close to tears.

"Wanda, stop," I instructed her at once, jumping around so that I was standing firmly in front of Wanda. "Stop," I repeated, placing my hands on her shoulders to halt her body and she finally listened.

"It is not that I don't trust you love, it's not that at all! I just didn't want you to be hurt or upset by the news. I didn't know how you would react to learning about other people hanging around where we could see them, that's all. And then by the time that I really wanted to tell you it had already formed into the whole wedding lie thing," I tried to reason with Wanda, but she shook her head and made to step around me, but I followed her every move.

"That's no real excuse, Ian. It hurts to know that you didn't trust me enough with what was going on to tell me. What did you think that I would do? Freak out and start crying like a little baby? Run out to them, hoping that they would either kill me or take me back? Expose all of you to them at the first opportunity?" she was borderline hysterical, but still managed to keep her voice in check. Wanda started to back away from me then, but I remained firm, letting her fight with me for only a few seconds before I drew her body to mine and wrapped my arms around her tight.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry, baby," I crooned to her, feeling Wanda grip the back of my shirt tightly in her hands as her whole body shook with sobs. "I really didn't mean for it to get like this. I'm an idiot, I really am. I never meant to hurt you like this, or make you cry at all. I really hope that you can forgive me."

I swayed her back and forth on the spot until Wanda gained a little bit of control over herself and pulled away from me a tiny bit.

"I understand why you did it, Ian but it was wrong," she whispered and I nodded, closing my eyes in defeat; I really hated what I had done. "I could have helped you, you know. Instead of keeping me out of everything and having to lie and keep secrets, I could have helped. I wouldn't have been pushy or anything like you might have thought that I would be; I'm not like that, Ian."

"I know. I know that you're not at all. I just..."

"Let's go!" Maggie hissed from somewhere in the darkness. "Jeb is waiting for you two; we're almost there."

"Later," Wanda whispered and I nodded. Together, we walked towards where Maggie's voice had come from and I felt Wanda grab my hand with one of hers as we continued on, eventually catching up to the group.

"They're just over that little hill," Brandt informed us and I nodded; it was now or never.

Very quietly, the group of us crept along behind Kyle who was elected to lead the way simply because of his choice of weapon. If anyone was going to lunge at him, he wouldn't hesitate to wound them, even if it wasn't necessarily the right thing to do. The hill that these people were behind was just a small rocky formation that had a little grass growing on the top of it. It wasn't the best of hiding spots, but a small rocky ridge ran alongside of it, which was what hid them from our view.

I pressed down on Wanda's head and held our hands behind my back, signalling for her to crouch down with me and stay behind; surprisingly she followed my silent instructions without questioning them at all. I really wanted her to be the last one seen for her own safety; call me controlling, or whatever you'd like, but if there was going to be a fight I'd put my life before hers.

Kyle crept up and signalled for Jared and Brandt to follow him as they snuck up and around the small hill, putting themselves in plain view of the people behind the rock. Kyle's voice could be heard in the night air addressing the people and after about three heartbeats, Jeb, Maggie and Aaron followed behind them. I tiptoed closer to hear better, but still remained out of sight with Wanda for at least another minute or two.

"What are you doing way out here?" Kyle addressed the others and I held my breath as we waited to hear the answering voice.

"We... we were looking for somewhere safe to be," a man's voice answered. "I had no idea that there were other humans out here too. You are humans, right?"

"Why yes we are," Jeb said and I heard the flashlight click on, watching as the band of light bounced around in the darkness as he shone it on everyone's eyes.

I was especially thankful that Wanda wasn't with them as it would have instantly given her away. I felt her hand tighten around mine and I knew that we were thinking the same thing. Instinctively, pulled her closer to me and felt Wanda's slender arm gripping my bicep as we waited to hear more.

"How many of there are you?" Maggie asked as the man sighed.

"Just four. I was with my wife, but she was taken; I just narrowly escaped and then eventually met up with these two over here," he explained.

"I'm the newest member of this little clan," a musical voice rang out and my heart skipped a beat; I knew that voice.

"Wanda, come on," I barely whispered, but she nodded all the same and we rose from our crouched position to step around the hill. "I will go out there first, but I want you to stay right here until I say so, okay?"

"Please don't let go," she said quickly and I nodded, willing to oblige to that as I didn't want to let her go, but I had to see who exactly was around the corner. We edged our way around the corner and stopped when I knew that Wanda would be hidden from view once I stepped out.

I took a deep breath before making my presence know, still grasping onto Wanda's hand for dear life, with her returning the grip. I didn't realize that Jeb hadn't turned off the flashlight; rather, he was in the middle of checking the others' eyes to make sure that they were human. I focussed in on the little beam of light and saw that it lit up a woman's face, one that was very familiar to me.

"Megan?" I asked in disbelief as the light was trained on her face.

A/N: Dun dun dunn. How does he know her? You'll have to wait to find out... :P

Oh! I went to the Harry Potter Exhibition at the Science Centre in Toronto last Saturday and I Highly recommend going to see it if anyone likes Harry Potter! It was a very neat exhibit, so if you have the chance, go!

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