It had never been, nor would it ever be, easy to trust Benjamin Linus. For one thing, he was a senseless killer, and his loyalties changed with his every mood. For another, it was nearly impossible to discern who he was loyal to at any given moment and whether he was lying or telling the truth about it - either way, he was insistent that he was being honest, so insistent in fact, it seemed even he believed his lies; anything to accomplish his goals. Sometimes, he would conceal lies within truths to manipulate whomever he wanted.

All of this swam through Desmond's mind as he sat before the man who had tried to kill his wife and had shot him in the arm. Ben was also the man who had recently saved his life. And now, Ben was sitting opposite Desmond, smiling politely, on Desmond's own boat, and insisting that he was telling the truth; again.

"I'm telling you the truth." Ben said adamantly. His face remained impassive, yet cordial. Ben smiled politely at them all, and gave no indication of stress, fear, or anything other than the utmost sincerity. "I'm working for Hugo now. He's the 'new Jacob'- for lack of a better word, and he appointed me his advisor." he referred to himself with the just slightest hint of pride. Sawyer, who was leaning against the wall, narrowed his eyes.

"What do you mean, the new Jacob?" Kate interjected. She walked forward cautiously from the doorway. Her eyes flicked back and forth, searching Ben's face for answers. "I thought that protecting the island was Jack's job. He took over -I know he did." Desmond felt as though his heart had dropped into into his stomach; the last he had seen of Jack, he had been gravely injured. They all waited for his explanation.

"Jack is dead. He gave the job to Hurley before he died." Ben said the words slowly, lingering on each syllable, for once showing his true emotions and letting a hint of sadness through his facade. Desmond lowered his head in disbelief.

"No..., no he can't..." Kate whispered quietly but furiously. Tears began to stream down her cheeks. Everyone else seemed to be in shock. Claire looked completely and utterly lost. Her eyes were glazed over as she stared off into space, visibly unable to make sense of any of it. Sawyer just stood in the corner with his arms crossed, glaring angrily at Ben. Desmond leaned forward, propelled by so many emotions, and let go of Penny's shaking hand.

"Are you sure?"

"I buried him, why wouldn't I be?" Ben replied hastily.

At this, Kate broke down sobbing; she slid down the wall as her knees gave in, and she landed hard on the floor. Claire rushed over to console Kate. She reached out, and Kate pushed her away; refusing to be consoled, and buried her face in her hands.

"No," she gasped through strangled sobs, "No."

Sawyer glared again at Ben threateningly before walking over to Kate. Desmond's felt Penny's hand slip back into his, and she squeezed it tightly. Desmond guiltily felt glad that at least he had his loved one.

"Come on Freckles, let's get you out of here." Sawyer said in an unusually soft tone. He reached down cautiously to take Kate away.

"No!" She shouted and hit Sawyer weakly away with her arm. She pushed herself up angrily and both Claire and Sawyer moved away to give her space. Kate marched straight up to Ben. "Why should we believe anything you have to say!" she shrieked, "Since when has he ever told us the truth?" Desmond couldn't help but thinking that maybe she had a point, Ben was a liar after all.

"Come on, Kate," Sawyer said again.

"No!" Kate shouted in a desperate voice. She hit Sawyer repeatedly in the chest, and he stood there patiently. Eventually, she gave in, and crumpled into his arms. He hugged her tightly as she cried uncontrollably. Claire moved forward, and together, they managed to walk Kate out of the room.

Desmond turned back to Ben, who had been watching the whole ordeal as if he had expected it from the start. Seeing him there, wholeheartedly unsympathetic, Desmond exploded. "Who do you think you are? Saying something like that to her, brotha? What gives you the right? I should destroy you right now!"

"I was simply telling her the truth." Ben said monotonously, "She needed to hear it, ... sometime or another. But that doesn't matter right now; Jack isn't who I came here to talk about."

Sawyer burst back through the door and strode right up to Ben. Ben turned to the noise, and Sawyer hit him hard in the face. With both hands, he pushed Ben into the floor and stood over him, ready to strike again.

"Hey!" Desmond warned, "We need him."

"Fine," Sawyer growled. He let him go, but in no way did he seem pleased. Ben got back into his chair and wiped the blood from his nose with the back of his sleeve. Sawyer threw himself down on the couch, right across from Ben.

"So, where is he?" Sawyer said in a low growl. "And how did you know, we were lookin' for him?" Ben smiled in response.

"Hugo told me." Ben told them simply.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about" he snarled, "I wanna know how bigfoot knew to send his right-hand man. But that don't matter. Let's just cut right to the chase. Where is Charlie?"

From his pocket, Desmond pulled a picture of the Dharma Station logo, and a few photos of possible locations.

"This is where I saw Charlie, in a station with this logo. I've found some places it might be hidden." Desmond handed the photographs to Ben. He waited and hoped that Ben could, and would help. Desmond hadn't had any visions since his seizure, and he had grown worried that Charlie was dying or already dead.

Ben looked over the photos. He chuckled slightly. "These are all incorrect," he said in a snide voice, "I know where you can find this station, but I should tell you now, it's been abandoned for well over thirty years."

"It's being used now by Eloise Hawking," Desmond insisted. Ben was unable to hide his surprise. A more pressing question came to Desmond's mind. "What was it used for?"

"The gateway," he held up the drawing, "was used for experiments and memory modification. New Dharma initiative recruits who had broken the rules, or who seemed to be spies, were transported off island and had their memories repressed and altered using drugs so they couldn't tell anyone about the island."

"You said experiments." Sawyer pressed, "What kind?" Ben drew in a deep breath before continuing.

"Specifically, the experiments were on people who should have been dead, but came back to life unexpectedly and without reason. The Dharma initiative wanted to use this information to find out how to bring people back from the brink of death the way the 'hostiles' seemed to be able to do." They stared at him. "At the temple," he added for clarification.

"It was pointless, really. And the methods were just...ludicrous. They actually stopped people's hearts, stabbed them with injections, and started them again to monitor brain activity during death. They actually thought that they were getting somewhere." he allowed himself a chuckle. "I guess that's simply the way some people were in the 70's" Desmond was glad that Claire was gone helping Kate. She would have lost control had she heard the methods that was possible being used on Charlie.

"So, you know where it is, brotha?" Desmond asked, who had surprisingly believed every word of Ben's.

"I can take you there." Ben answered.

A few hours later, they found themselves piled into Ben's Dharma van, hopefully on their way to rescue Charlie. Liam and Karen had been more than happy to watch over Aaron and Charlie while they were away. Desmond could barely contain himself. He was going to get Charlie back to his girl.

Claire sat in the back, in-between Sawyer and Kate, who weren't speaking to each other. Claire was lost in her thoughts, staring out at the night sky. Occasionally, she smiled to herself and twirled the ring on her necklace. To her right, Kate looked out of the window. She too seemed lost in thought, but in a different way. She hadn't spoken since the news of Jack's death. Sawyer, who kept looking over at her, opened his mouth to speak, but thought better of it.

Desmond turned back around and looked ahead. Penny squeezed his hand reassuringly. Ben sat in the driver's seat, no one in the seat beside him. The car glided over the road, as street lamps glowed and people strolled by lazily.

Somewhere, Charlie Pace opened his eyes from his most recent blackout. Everything was quiet, yet something had filled him with a new feeling strength and hope. Just a feeling, but a good one. Whenever he felt this way, he thought of Claire.

"Come back safe Charlie," she pleaded. At the look on her face, a look of complete desperation, he almost gave up on his mission to the Looking Glass; just to stay with her and Aaron.

Now, after everything that had happened to him, and everything that Claire had been through because of what he did, Charlie wished that he had.