When I finally woke up, I could feel the softness of sheets under me and instantly, my whole body felt relieved. Where ever I had ended up, there was no screaming, no gun shots, just a peaceful hum. My nose felt stuffy and my head hurt, but other than that, I could feel my strength coming back.

I opened my eyes and looked up at the tin roof ceiling. I pushed myself up with my arms and looked over to see my old aunt Mag.

"I've got some water and sponge here for you" she had put a wash basin right next to my bed, "When your ready, get yourself washed up and I'll get the doctor to sew that leg for you".

I was sort of speechless. She was exactly the same as she had been the day I left. I hadn't even had the chance to say goodbye. Aunt Mag was around forty now, and had tints of grey in her dark hair and worry lines etched in to her tanned forehead. Her eyes were brown and welcoming, a smile stretched across her face, as if to assure me that I was safe...

"You've got nothing to worry about, they can't get you" she promised me, kneeling down and kissing my forehead before leaving the room. She was like my dad, she never liked to linger, but this time, I needed her too.

I needed her to tell me that I wasn't going to have to see him again. I didn't want to look at the man he'd become. I tried to make myself think I was going crazy, for all I know, it might not have been him.

I hope you are...

I got out of the bed and pushed myself to go look in the mirror. I hadn't looked in one properly for weeks and I dreaded what I was going to see.

The mirror was mounted on one of those old dressing tables, like the ones you'd see in a movie.

I looked in to the mirror and found that I had bruises all along my jaw line that trailed down to my collar bone and to my right shoulder. I also had cuts all over my arms and a dark bruise on the top of my head.

My wrists still had the outlines of the binds in them and my right hand was still black.

My light brown hair was slick with blood, rain and dirt and I'd almost be able to pass for a native considering how dirty my face was. I could just see the outlines of my white skin through the dirt, the only thing I'd actually got from my red-headed mother.

I had black circles around my eyes and I wasn't sure if they were bruises or if I was just exhausted. I looked away from the mirror and to the bowl full of water Mag had left me. I'd be able to wash the dirt away. If only I could wash the past five days away so easily.

I was at the table, eating some food when I finally asked Mag the question that was lingering in my head,

"What happened?",

"They lost their god damn minds" Anna, my fourteen year old cousin muttered, which made my aunt tell her not to say such things and send her to the room.

"This guy, Volker, he came to the island" my aunt took away my half eaten food and shoved it in to the sink, "He brought drugs, and a business", she started washing the plate, "Slave-trading",

"The pirates" I said out loud,

"The whole island, all of us, we couldn't hold on to it any longer, even the Rakyat couldn't fight him", I remember how terrified the five Rakyat had been of the man on stage, the man I think could only have been Vaas. She took the cleaned plates out of the sink and started to dry them.

"Then salvation..." she put it down and turned round to me, a hope etched across her face as she remembered, "A man, a couple years younger than you, he came to the island and saved us all"

"Then what happened?" nothing seemed to have changed,

"He became a Rakyat warrior, he became one of the best, but the Rakyat made him choose" she took a deep breath before she continued, "They made him choose, them or his friends, the people he'd saved to become a warrior" she shook her head, "They wanted his ties to be broken",

"Mag, it's okay, stop" she looked as if she was about to cry, her face was full of guilt, as if she felt ashamed for being part of something so brutal,

"No, he choose them, he left, but everything he did, it was like it reversed itself, it was as if he never existed"

"What happened to Vaas", just the name hit the core of her pain and I wish I'd never asked,

"He became involved with Hoyt, he got addicted to drugs, money, and then Jason killed him" she was blunt, and I think thats all she could manage. It made me think that he hadn't really been there, but then I remembered something else.

Sofia...

"What happened to Sofia?",

"She-"

"Vaas killed her!" The interruption came from Merrick, and I knew the conversation was over. He came in and sat down opposite me. Mag put a plate of food down in front of him. She quickly composed herself, trying not to burst in to tears and put on her best smile,

"Could you and Anna feed Issie please"

I complied and went to see Anna who was sitting on her bed, reading a letter.

She had gorgeous hazel nut hair that hung in curls down her back, and beautiful tanned skin. She was so young, so full of life, I wish I could see the world through her eyes, to find the good that every child can in times of danger,

"Is that off your boyfriend?" I enquired as I walked over to her,

"No, it's from my friend in Amanaki" she explained, "My dad sees her dad a lot so they exchange letters for us"

"Why can't you see her?",

"It's too dangerous to go out in to the jungle, the pirates might find us" she shrugged,

"Let's go out to Issie".

Issie was a docile creature and my aunt Mags pride and joy. A buffalo. As Anna got to work getting some milk, I noticed the locals glances getting a bit longer. Every time I looked in their direction, they'd look away. Most of them stared at me with pity in their eyes, but there were a few that looked at me suspiciously, as if they knew something I didn't.

As we were about to go back in to the house, the resident doctor stopped me, enquiring about my hand,

"How's your hand feeling today?" the doctor asked, his american accent out of place with everything else. He was the only person in the village, other than Mag, Anna and occasionally Merrick, who made an effort to talk to me. He wasn't native to the island, and Anna had told me that he'd just appeared one day and started healing people.

His name was Dr. Richardson.

"The support seems to be doing it some good, but it''s still painful",

"It'll get better, but if you can get a hold of some arrowroot or screwpine, it'll help quicken the healing time",

"Yeah, I've been on the look out" I assured him, remembering the drawings of the plants he'd shown me,

"What about the leg?" he asked,

"The stitches are holding up" I smiled and he smiled back before turning round and walking away, back to his little shack.

I was sat outside the house when I told them my decision.

I wanted to go home, back to Britain.

My uncle Merrick agreed almost instantly, but my aunt Mag and Anna weren't too keen on the idea. I'd contemplated taking revenge on Volker, but I'd never be able to get to him, and I knew Murphy would rather me live.

You hope so anyway...

And then this voice, in my head, this stupid little voice that patronised me constantly, maybe it would just leave me alone.

You stuck with me until yuh die!

My uncle said that he'd arrange a boat. A whole week passed after that, and the tension between the two of us grew, and I have no idea why.

A few days passed and Anna and me were sitting on the bridge. She was telling me about the place, and how it used to be full of pirates and mercenaries, but when Jason had killed Vaas and the pirates had abandoned it, they'd taken it back. It was easily done, but she knew that the Rakyat were having a hard time keeping a hold of it. More so, since the new Volker had came in.

He'd been there for about six months, and he was a lot more involved than Hoyt had been.

"I sometimes wonder what really happened with Vaas and Sofia" she suddenly said, taking the conversation in to the depths I wasn't sure any of us wanted to deal with, "They were engaged? Why would he kill her?"

"Power can make you do horrible things" I told her, "It changes people",

"It didn't change Jason, I think he picked the right choice",

"Even if it meant the pirates came back in force?",

"Its our problem, it was never his, why drop it on someone and make their life hell?" Anna shrugged. Whether or not people thought it, she was right.

"What happened to Citra?" I suddenly asked, remembering the the little shit of a sister Vaas had been completely under the thumb with,

"This guy called Dennis killed her" Anna shrugged, "He didn't mean to"

"What happened to him?" I asked,

"He found another game"

All of a sudden, I was in the water.

I hit my mouth on one of the rocks and felt blood fill my mouth as I turned over and saw Merrick, he looked absolutely furious,

"I knew you would betray us" he shouted at me,

"Merrick" Mag appeared, her face filled with dread,

"What" I asked, spitting out the blood,,

"Vaas, he's still alive and you" he pointed his finger at me, a familiar madness in his eyes, "You knew",

"I thought he was dead" I shouted back at him. I'd already convinced my self that I'd been hallucinating. It was the only way I was getting myself through it. It was the only reason I hadn't told them. I didn't want them to think I was mad.

"No" Merrick screamed as he jumped down, and before I knew it, he had his hands around my throat and was dunking me under the water.

You're going to die. Not by pirates, not by Volker, by your god damn uncle. What the actual fuck?

I could hear people shouting from under the water, but I had no idea what they were saying. My head started to feel hot, as if the oxygen couldn't get to my brain anymore and I reflexively took a breath in and I passed out.

I woke up, I was still alive.

You keep doing that...

Vaas was alive, Merrick didn't like me and the pirates were heading for the village.

Something had changed, the people were planning something.

That night my aunt woke me from a restless sleep, hastily packing my things,

"You have to leave" she told me, handing me my old, but cleaned tank top and kaki pants I'd came in, "Put them on quick". I did as she said, sensing the urgency in her voice,

"Why?" I asked as I pulled the pants on,

"Renae.. They.. You just have too" she passed me the backpack she'd been packing,

"What's happening?"

"The jungle or pirates, I don't care where you go, but you have to get out of here" she had her hands on my shoulders, her eyes begging me to leave without question, but I couldn't,

"What, pirates? Are you mad?",

"Maybe you are, but you're safer with them than you are here. Renae, you're safer with them than you are in the jungle",

"They'll kill me!" I could feel the sobs building in my throat,

"Renae, don't" tears started filling her eyes, "You won't die",

"I will, I can't do this. I'm not cut out for this sort of shit anymore"

"Renae, take the strength from the jungle. Your not fully Rakyat, but your dad was. He was a great warrior and you have that strength in you, you just have to find it",

"What am I supposed to do?" I shrugged, walking back from her, "Am I gonna start killing people? Am I supposed to make the Rakyat like me? What happened the day I left Mag?"

I had a feeling that it all came back to that...

"You were supposed to die!" Mag told me, "The Rakyat thought you were dead!"

"What?"

You weren't expecting that were you?

"Renae, just go, please" the alarm went off and she pushed me out the back door.

A/N A long chapter, which a lot happens in. I haven't really decided whether this is good or bad yet, but I'm really eager to start getting more in to the action, and the whole history to the story and most importantly, Vaas!