Kali's lungs burnt as she continued putting one foot in front of the other, a determined scowl on her face. She wasn't sure how long they had been trekking through the jungle, but the sun was already beginning to set. What chance did they have of finding the others in the dark? If there still were anywhere to be found...
"Can we slow down? My feet are about ten seconds away from falling off" Ken complained from where he was lagging behind.
"Unless you're dying, we ain't stopping" Kali retorted.
"How do you know Sawyer and the rest of em' would even go back to the beach?" Ken pointed out.
"It's our camp. Whatever time we're in, that's still home on this island" Kali insisted.
"Kal, c'mon. If the others jumped alongside us, they would have been there when the flash stopped" Ken suggested, as Kali shook her head, vehemently.
"You don't know that" Kali murmured, increasing her pace.
She couldn't believe that. Not if it meant she wasn't even in the same time as James anymore. But doubt did what it did best and started to gnaw away at her. They hadn't seen any sign of the rest of the group and it had been hours. For all they knew, the others were doing the same as them, heading back to the beach...but twenty, maybe even a hundred years earlier.
"Maybe we're going about this wrong..." Kali trailed off, an idea forming in her head.
"What do you mean?" Ken frowned.
"Maybe another one of those flashes is just what we need" Kali mumbled.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Ken exclaimed, raising an eyebrow.
"God, I hope not" Kali replied, with a teasing smile, watching as her brother rolled his eyes.
"We need to figure out a way to jump-start the flashes. Think about all those time travel movies" Ken suggested.
"I doubt Back to the Future is gonna' help us much, Ken. I never really got it anyway" Kali shrugged.
"...We need some type of paradox" Ken stated, as Kali's brows knit together.
"Okay, now I'm completely lost. In English please" Kali insisted.
"Think of this like a computer game. We need to make the server crash. Re-start this all together" Ken went on.
"But we don't know how this started!" Kali pointed out, with a shake of her head.
"Alright, then we need a cheat code. Some way to get to the next level" Ken said, as Kali's eyes narrowed.
"What would happen if say...I met myself?" Kali announced.
"That would be a pretty big paradox" Ken commented.
"So, I reach out and touch past me and...what, it might force us to flash through time again?" Kali theorised as Ken ran both his hands over his weary face.
"You realise how insane that sentence sounded, right?" He pointed out.
"Have you got a better plan? Have you got any fucking plan, Ken?" Kali snapped, in an angry tone.
She grimaced when she saw how her brother flinched at her raised voice, feeling as if she had been instantly transported back to their childhood. Instead, it was her shouting at Ken, and not their mother. And if there was one person she didn't want to turn out like, it was her. Pinching the bridge of her nose, she tried to calm her frayed nerves. It would work. It had to.
"You're really worried about him, huh?" Ken guessed.
"I've spent pretty much every day of the last four months with James, we're just...things don't make sense anymore when we're not together" Kali explained.
"God, I think I'm gonna' throw up. When did you get so sappy?" Ken huffed, continuing to walk toward the beach once more.
"Says the guy moping after Juliet" Kali teased.
Kali could see light peeking through the trees, signalling that they were close to people. She could only hope it was her people and not the Others. How far back had they gone? She rubbed her hands down her trembling arms, the air growing colder by the second as the sun disappeared. They had no food, no water, no shelter...whoever they had come upon, they would need their help.
"So, how're you planning to do this?" Ken inquired.
"What do you mean?" Kali frowned.
"I mean, if this is your camp, are you gonna' jump out of the bushes and just charge at yourself?" Ken scoffed, as Kali bit her lip.
"I need to try and figure out when this is, then I can guess where I'll be" Kali exclaimed, as Ken quirked an eyebrow.
"Oh yeah, what could go wrong with that?" Ken muttered, sarcastically.
"You should wait here" Kali suggested.
"Not happening, Kal" Ken retorted.
"If this is my group, then some of them might recognise you...don't forget, you have a pretty shitty reputation" Kali went on, as Ken shook his head.
"And if it's not them? If it's the Others, or...freaking cavemen? What are you gonna' do then?" Ken pointed out, as Kali slowly relented.
"Fine. We go together, but just follow my lead, yeah?" She ordered, as he gave her a mocking salute.
"Asshole" She murmured, under her breath, receiving an elbow to the ribs from her brother.
Once they made it to the treeline, the pair dropped to their knees, hiding in the shadows. Kali's eyes went wide as she saw two familiar faces walking past her, sharing a bottle of water. Her chest tightened as she watched Kate laughing at one of Jack's lame jokes, a wave of nostalgia coming over her. She missed her friends and wanted to do nothing more than run out of the jungle and tell them everything that happened.
"Any idea when we are?" Ken whispered.
"It's definitely before the raft. There's Michael and Walt" Kali exclaimed, pointing to where she could see Michael sitting with his son further down the beach.
"So, where would you be?" Ken inquired.
"Uh...I think by this point I was staying in James' tent" Kali mumbled, her brows knitted together as she tried to think back.
"Ugh, gross. I don't want to know what you two got up to in there" Ken grimaced, as Kali's lips twitched into a grin.
"Well then you..." She trailed off, the smile instantly dropping from her face as blue eyes came into view.
Kali found her own face staring back at her.
She stifled a gasp at the impossible sight, crouching further down on the ground to avoid being seen, as Ken followed suit. It was strange. It felt as if she was looking into a funhouse mirror. It was only then that Kali realised how different she looked. It had only been a few months, but the Kali in front of her didn't hold herself as confidently or have so many visible scars.
"Boone? Hey, you okay?" The past version of Kali called out, turning to her left side, as another familiar face came into view.
"Holy shit" Ken gaped, as Boone emerged from further down the treeline, covered in bruises and dirt.
She hadn't seen Boone since the day he had killed Mikhail...but the man's motives were slowly starting to make sense to her. Her brother had been brought forward and backwards by the time flashes, and she had a feeling that was what had happened to Boone too. That was why he had changed. But the Boone in front of her would be ignorant to all that. He still—
"Okay, this time I really am gonna' puke" Ken cringed, watching as Boone suddenly leaned forward to kiss the past version of Kali.
"What happened to Boone? I know you know more than you're letting on" Kali murmured, as Ken pursed his lips.
"He made a lot of shitty decisions. Far as I know, he's just trying to make amends now" Ken shrugged.
"He got me killed. He's killed people, in cold blood. I mean, you and me are no saints but...I never realised he had that much darkness in him" Kali admitted, her eyes flickering back over to Boone's boyish smile as he conversed with the past version of her.
"You know, we could try to change that. Grab him, tell him what's gonna' happen in the future, see if he makes a different choice?" Ken offered, as Kali shook her head.
"All he's gonna think is that I've lost it. We can't..." Kali trailed off, feeling tears welling in her eyes in an instant.
"What?" Ken frowned.
"We can't change the past" She muttered, rubbing at her eyes with the back of her hand.
It was the first time she had allowed herself to think she might not be able to save her brother. But she was going to make sure she made the best of whatever time they had together. They had both already lost out on so much.
"Your boyfriend looks pissed" Ken stated, gesturing to a figure standing outside a blue tent.
Kali felt her heart soar the moment her gaze fell on Sawyer, his arms crossed over his broad chest, his face pinched in irritation. A smile grew on her lips as she saw he seemed to catch himself glaring at her and Boone, casting his gaze back to the sand.
"What if we don't get back?" Kali asked.
"We will. You said so yourself" Ken pointed out, watching as Boone walked away from Kali, wandering back toward the jungle.
"This could be my last time to see him" Kali mumbled, pushing herself to her feet, and stepping out of the shadows.
"Kali!" Ken cried, grabbing her shoulder and dragging her behind a nearby tree before anyone could see.
She fought against his grip, attempting to shove him away from her, but Ken was the stronger of the two, his hands starting to bruise her arms as he held her in place. He dared to peek out of the shadows to see that the past version of Kali appeared to have heard them, now staring into the jungle with narrowed eyes. Ken's heart seized as she took a step forward, ready to make a run for it when he noticed a piece of paper flying on the wind toward her. With wide eyes, the realisation hit him that the paper had come from his own pocket, as he looked down to find it had slipped out when he was wrestling with Kali.
"I remember this" Kali gaped, watching as her former self crouched down to pick up the discarded paper.
"It was a newspaper clipping, had my face on the page, who I was...who you were. God, all this time I thought it was the Others. I thought it was a threat...but it was us. It's always been us" Kali realised, in a horrified tone.
"Guess we can change the past, huh?" Ken huffed.
"Look, I know this is a bad idea, that a million things could go wrong...but I need to see him, Ken. Please. Just one more time. So, I can say goodbye" Kali insisted, as Ken reluctantly released his grip on her.
"It won't make it any easier, Kal" Ken sighed.
Her former self crumpled up the newspaper in her hands, before stuffing the remains in her pocket and storming away. Kali remembered how long she had stayed up that night, worrying that the camp would find out her secret and throw her out. That she would lose her only friends. Lose James.
"Stay here, alright? Don't let anyone see you" Kali told him, looking past the trees to see Sawyer walking back into his tent.
"Be careful!" Ken hissed.
Stepping out onto the sand, Kali's nerves skyrocketed, knowing how dangerous her plan was. There was no telling what she could change, how much worse she could make things. Shaking her head a little, she made a beeline for Sawyer's tent, pulling back the blue tarp and finding the man in question inside, lying on top of a sleeping bag, a book in his hands. He didn't look up at her as she entered, but she could tell he was aware of her presence from the way his jaw clenched. He was pissed about the kiss he had just witnessed, even if he didn't understand why yet.
"Hey," Kali announced, earning a grunt in response.
"You giving me the silent treatment now?" Kali guessed, as Sawyer's eyes flickered up to hers.
"When'd you get changed?" Sawyer frowned, realising she was wearing completely different clothes than she had been just minutes ago.
Kali opened and closed her mouth a few times, racking her brain for an answer, but came up blank. She wiped at her dirty cheeks with the back of her hand quickly, hoping Sawyer wouldn't push the subject. Somehow explaining time travel didn't seem like an answer he'd accept.
"...Don't try changing the subject. I saw your face out there. You're pissed at me" Kali retorted, making Sawyer huff.
"I could care less who you make out with, blue eyes. Just hope you don't catch anything from bonehead" Sawyer muttered, forcing his gaze back to the book in his hands.
"You know for a conman, you're actually a pretty shit liar" Kali accused, wandering over to him.
"Ja..." Kali trailed off, realising she wasn't even supposed to know his real name yet.
"He kissed me. Besides, not like there's anyone else on this island who's interested, right?" Kali pushed, as Sawyer simply continued glaring at the book he was clearly no longer reading.
"You could do better, that's all" Sawyer mumbled.
With a roll of her eyes, Kali grabbed the book from his hands, chucking it behind her head before she crouched down in front of the blond. Without his book as protection, Kali could see the vulnerable look on Sawyer's face, knowing him well enough to know he would be seconds away from bolting out of the tent.
"I like Boone. But I know there's only one person on this island who will always have my back. And who should know I'll always have his too" Kali insisted, as Sawyer's eyes snapped back up to hers.
"Besides, I doubt this thing with Boone is gonna' work out, you know. I can be pretty high maintenance" Kali joked, making Sawyer snort.
"You ain't so bad" Sawyer shrugged, as her lips twitched into a smile.
Before she could stop herself, Kali was leaning forward, her arms wrapping around Sawyer's shoulders as she pulled herself flush against his chest. The older man was clearly taken aback, as Kali suddenly realised it would now be the first hug he had from her. After a few nervous moments, Sawyer's hands slowly circled around her waist, the warmth of his palms comforting her in a way that she had missed. Her fingers gripped the back of his shirt tightly, not wanting to ever end the embrace. It could be the last time he ever held her, after all. With that thought in her mind, she felt tears welling in her eyes, as she leant down to hide her face in the crook of his neck.
"You okay?" Sawyer frowned, not needing to see her face to sense the conflict brewing inside her.
"I'm just...I'm just really glad I met you" Kali mumbled, squeezing his shoulders one last time before she pulled away.
"Why?" Sawyer huffed, as if what she said made no sense to him.
"You're a good man. You are. Don't forget that" Kali told him, before pushing herself to her feet, sucking in a shaky breath.
"Hey, wait..." Sawyer called after her, but she refused to turn around, walking out of the tent into the cool air.
She felt her heart stop when she spotted another familiar blond only a few metres away, someone who caused guilt to claw up her throat. Someone who she hadn't been able to save.
"Charlie!" Kali exclaimed, her feet moving toward the dead man before she could stop them.
Suddenly the telltale ringing sound began to echo all around her, followed quickly by the sky lighting up above her. She could see Ken rushing forward out of the corner of her eye, calling out her name, just as everything went white all around them.
"Charlie!" She screamed one last time.
"Am I the only one who thinks this plan is a load of bullshit?" Miles spoke up, receiving a few glares sent toward him.
"I'm just saying. I mean, we're taking this guy to some Orchid Station to, what? Bring back all the people who just left? Doesn't exactly seem like a foolproof plan to me" Miles continued.
"Well, it's the only one we've got" Sawyer muttered, from the front of the group.
"I'm just saying, shouldn't we be trying to find shelter or food" Miles suggested, as Sawyer whipped around and stormed over to him.
"Listen here, Niles—" Sawyer started, but was quickly cut off.
"It's Miles" The shorter man retorted.
"Shut up. My girlfriend has been sent to God knows where and Locke says if we get him to the Orchid then I get her back. So, we ain't gonna' stop until he makes good on that. Alright?" Sawyer all but growled, as Miles held his hands up in defence.
"Now, let's get a damn move on. We need to get to the beach before the sun comes up" Sawyer told them, before he went marching off again.
Juliet rushed forward to catch up with him, hoping that Locke's theory would pay off. She had already lost Ken once, she didn't want to lose him a second time. And she wasn't sure that Sawyer would survive losing Kali.
"We'll get them back. We will" Juliet murmured.
"Kali will look out for him, ya know. It's what she does. She'll make sure he gets back in one piece" Sawyer told Juliet, who gave him a grateful look.
"Those two get under your skin pretty quick, don't they?" Juliet stated, as Sawyer's own lips quirked into a smile.
Just as he opened his mouth to reply, they heard the sound of footsteps racing through the jungle. Sawyer held his held up, as Juliet placed a finger to her lips shushing the group who dropped their torches to the ground. They all crouched down as they watched a man sprinting past them, someone only Juliet appeared to recognise.
"Who was that?" Sawyer frowned.
"An Other. He's been dead a month or so now" Juliet admitted, in a hushed voice.
"What was he running from?" Charlotte inquired.
"Stay here. I'm gonna' check it out" Sawyer exclaimed, cautiously standing back up, as he scanned his surroundings for movement.
"I'll come too" Juliet announced, in a tone that told him there was no point in arguing.
The pair crept through the jungle in the direction the man had come from and soon spotted a few torches in the distance. They could hear voices from further out but found two motionless figures in a clearing first, their faces too hard to make out in the dim light. A girl was lying down on a makeshift bed, her clothes cut and splattered with blood as a man lay sleeping beside her. As Sawyer took a step forward, Juliet reached out to grab his arm, pulling him back as the girl shifted on the bed, her face coming into view.
"Kali..." Sawyer gaped, almost falling to his knees.
"James, we should go back" Juliet advised.
"But she's here" Sawyer mumbled, his gaze softening as he looked over her wounded form.
He slowly realised when they were. Kali had fallen from the plane, her spine had been shattered...she should have died. She did die, he reminded himself. But the island kept her alive. He had given her a blood transfusion, whilst Jack had gone to check on Claire's baby, but...
"The Other. He injected her with something. Shit, we thought she was having a reaction to the transfusion. I need to warn her—" Sawyer began, when Juliet grabbed his arm a little more forcefully.
"No! You're right beside her! What do you think she'll do? What do you think he'll do if he wakes up and finds his own face staring down at him?!" Juliet cried, as Sawyer shrugged off her hold.
"Look, maybe I can't help Kali right now, but I can help this past version of her. And that's something. It has to fucking mean something" Sawyer muttered, before he went storming off into the clearing before Juliet could stop him.
His heart beat quickly in his chest as he approached the sleeping Kali, a thin blanket draped over her legs, half lying on the ground. A large gash was visible on her forehead, and her lips were tinged red but she was alive. She was breathing. And she was right in front of him. With wet eyes, Sawyer reached down to pull the blanket up over Kali's shoulders, who stirred in her sleep. His movements went deathly still the second her eyes fluttered open, staring up at him for a few seconds before a large smile spread over her lips. She was almost instantly falling back asleep, exhausted from her near-death experience. With a shaky hand, Sawyer crouched down and brushed his thumb over her cold cheek, wanting to do nothing more than kiss her.
A rustling sound caught his attention a moment later, as Sawyer's eyes darted up to see his past self had awoken and was now staring back at him, a horrified expression on his face. Sawyer watched as his past self reached for the handgun by his side instinctively, as he blinked rapidly, clearly trying to figure out if what he was seeing was real.
"I...I had to see her..." Sawyer stuttered, as the sky turned white once more.
In the blink of an eye, he was swallowed whole by the light, as he raised his hands up to shield him from the powerful force. When he looked back to where Kali had just been, he found there was nothing left. No sign she had ever been there.
"No...no. No!" Sawyer cried, his hands balled into fists.
He was startled when he felt a hand on his shoulder, causing him to twist around to see Juliet giving him a look of sympathy. She squeezed his shoulder in a comforting gesture, her own eyes wet with tears.
"We need to keep going" Juliet advised, as Sawyer let out a long sigh, but pulled himself to his feet, nonetheless.
Ken watched as Kali continued to trudge through the undergrowth that surrounded them, her jaw clenched tight. She had seen Charlie, had tried to call out to him, to warn him of what was to come, but would good would it do? Charlie had made his choice. He had chosen to save Claire and baby Aaron. But only one of his wishes had come true. Ken's forehead wrinkled when he felt something warm dripping down from his nose, reaching up to brush it away with the back of his hand, his footsteps faltering when he found blood coating the back of his hand.
"You good?" Kali called back, hearing how Ken had stopped moving.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine" Ken murmured, brushing the blood away on his trousers.
He didn't need to give his sister anything else to worry about. His head shot up when Kali suddenly raised her hand, gesturing to their left as Ken strained to hear what she had. Suddenly a figure was racing toward them, as Ken rushed to Kali's side, placing himself in front of her protectively. The siblings could barely believe their eyes when a familiar face all but collided with them.
"Jin?" Kali gaped.