Chapter 20 - Victim Table
They set off again soon after sunrise. It was late morning when Ben slowed to a stop and said,
"Here we are."
It was difficult to tell at first, since the jungle had all but reclaimed the manmade structure at which they'd arrived. When they looked closer they could see the stones behind what looked like a wall of leaves.
Sayid and Ana Lucia shared a look. They'd spent a day and a half wondering if this Temple even existed. Finding Jonestown had been strange enough, and this new area of the map felt even stranger.
It took Juliet a moment to believe what she was seeing, despite what Alex shared with her. It looked much, much older than any Dharma era structure she'd seen. It looked older than time itself.
The outer stone walls were overrun with vegetation, vines crawling every surface unchecked. Tree branches grew over and through crumbling crenellations. Its wooden door was ancient, and there were strange glyphs carved on its planks. It was as if the druids, Egyptians and a dozen pan-pacific civilizations had all submitted designs, and the architect decided to use all of them at once.
"The fuck am I lookin' at?" James muttered. He stood next to Juliet, their distance pact forgotten in the face of the Temple's edifice.
"I haven't been here since I was a child." Ben remarked idly.
He stood on the other side of Juliet, and he stared up at the Temple's inner spire with the same awe as the rest of them.
"Or so I've been told." Ben added.
Juliet looked toward his profile. That matched what Alex had told her. It still didn't make much sense, but nothing Ben did made sense to Juliet anymore.
"Do you have any firsthand memories of this place?" Juliet asked Ben.
"Just one," he answered cryptically. "I was told never to come back here, unless I was summoned."
"If you haven't been back here," James asked. "Then how did you know it was safe?"
Ben smiled to himself. "I have faith, James."
James caught the eyes of Sayid and Ana Lucia. They didn't believe it either.
"How did you know where it was?"
Ben turned to James.
"Let me guess," James cut in. "Same answer?"
"No, James." said Ben. "Someone told me the way."
"Who?"
"A man named Richard Alpert."
"I don't think I've had the pleasure." James muttered.
"I hope you will, soon."
Ben turned back to the entrance, leaving Juliet and James to share a look of their own. James knew who Richard was, from the story of Juliet's recruitment. Wasn't he second in command here? Why would only Richard know the way?
"Do we knock?" Danny asked his boss.
Ben gestured to the side of the great door, to one particular vine that was actually a long, woven rope. It dangled from a small hole in the overhang above it.
"Let's try the bell first."
Danny pulled on the rope, and a very distant, very muffled bell announced their presence.
They waited. Eventually the sound of scraping wood interrupted their tense silence. The door swung on creaking hinges, pulled by a woman wearing a rough blue tunic and flowers in her hair. When she stepped forward to greet the visitors, James recognized her as the flight attendant from their plane.
"Cindy." Ben greeted her kindly, recalling her picture from his files.
She nodded with a knowing smile. She was not surprised to see him.
"Dogen is expecting you," she said, and she smiled at the rest of the group in turn.
Ben gestured for Ana Lucia and Sayid to go in first. They glanced at each other, and agreed silently that this is what they'd come here to do. If the Others wanted either of them dead they would have done it by now.
Ben followed with Alex, Danny and Ryan following right behind.
Juliet was ready to enter behind everyone else. A last minute feeling made James grasp her wrist gently in his hand, asking her to wait. She looked at him, asking him one more time to understand.
This is for everyone. Not just me. Not us. Everyone.
James looked into her eyes and felt a deep sense of loss. Playing house in Jonestown when this was over had never been an option. Even if they both made it home, back to the real world, they weren't going home together.
There was nowhere for them to go but forward. There was nothing left for her to do now, but follow Ben and make sure he didn't make it home at all.
She was the one gal he didn't want to leave. And she had to leave him.
Ana Lucia braced for disappointment. She braced for a fight, as Cindy led them to an open area within the outer wall. She wasn't sure what she was going to do if they had bad news for her. The only thing she didn't brace for was relief. Emma and Zack were waiting just inside, along with everyone else that had survived the separation of the tail section. They looked clean. They looked healthy. They looked happy, which gave Ana Lucia a strange feeling that she could not explain.
A great weight lifted, seeing they were alive. As the seconds ticked by, the weight resettled. She hadn't expected anyone to run up and hug her, but they barely seemed to recognize her at all. Dressed in similar tunics, lined up like a storybook family, they smiled politely just like Cindy. Friendly and placid. Empty behind the eyes.
"Are they all here?" Sayid asked Ana Lucia.
"Yeah…" Ana confirmed.
Sayid could sense her strange feeling. This was not the reunion she'd been hoping for.
"I'm so glad you're here, Ana Lucia." said Cindy. "We were all hoping you could join us."
Ana's natural scowl intensified when she looked at the former flight attendant.
"How did you get here?" Ana asked. She looked at the rest of them, waiting for someone to step up and explain to her what the hell was going on.
Cindy regarded her with a blank curiosity.
"Does that really matter?" Cindy asked.
Her pitying look cut Ana Lucia deeply, even more than the words themselves. Of course it mattered. She'd killed a man over it, to protect the rest of their dwindling group. Ana felt madness stirring in her belly, and it reached her eyes just as Ben stepped in to defuse whatever was brewing.
"Do you believe me now?" Ben asked the ones he'd led there. He looked at Juliet with laser focus, ignoring the wary looks that James and Sayid were shooting his way.
Juliet looked back at Ben. It struck her that Ben had to be just as surprised as they were to see the tail section survivors alive and well. He hadn't known. He'd suspected, perhaps hoped, just for the sake of being right. But he hadn't known.
Juliet refused to answer him. She was still stuck on what he'd said earlier, about not returning here unless he'd been summoned. If someone had the authority to bar Ben from the Temple, it meant he wasn't the real boss on this island.
They were interrupted anyhow, when Dogen emerged from the temple proper. He looked very displeased to see so many visitors. The unsummoned.
"Benjamin Linus," he greeted Dharmaville's usurper with palpable distaste.
Ben's nod of greeting was a shallow bow, showing a backwards sort of respect for the man who watched over the temple.
"You should leave this place." Dogen told him. "And take your guns with you. They have no place here."
"These people all survived the same plane crash. They wanted to see that their friends were all right."
"They are welcome to remain here." said Dogen. "You are not."
James smirked. Ben was being whipped out here. It seemed they'd reached beyond the limit of his powers. Even Ben was in foreign territory now.
"What is this place?" Sayid asked, directing the question to Dogen.
Dogen regarded him with caution. "Only those that drink of the waters can understand."
"How convenient," James said sarcastically. "We're thirsty."
Juliet continued to stare at Ben throughout the exchange. She couldn't enjoy the moment, seeing Ben subservient to someone else. He'd really lied to her about everything, including being the top man in charge. Witnessing it firsthand, she found a new depth of hatred she had not thought possible.
They had their answer; the kids were alive and well, the other tail survivors were all safe. Juliet didn't care what Dogen guarded here. She wanted to go home.
"Ben."
He turned to her. Ready to tell another lie. Ready to manipulate. Ready to act subservient if it served his goals.
"I'm leaving." said Juliet.
"So soon?" Ben asked with wry humor. "We just arrived."
"I'm leaving this island." said Juliet. "I'm going back to Miami."
Dogen had begun explaining to James why not everyone who happened to stop by got to drink from the Temple's spring. He stopped when he noticed how Juliet and Ben were looking at each other.
"We're all leaving." said Juliet. "Everyone from Oceanic 815 and anyone else who wants to come with me. You're going to let us use the submarine, and you're going to chart a course for us to go home."
James turned to look. Sayid, Ana Lucia, and all the seemingly brainwashed visitors at the Temple noticed too. Ben was looking at Juliet as if seeing her clearly for the first time.
"I just led you to the heart of this island," Ben explained calmly. "To a place I'm clearly not welcome. And I did it because you asked me to."
Juliet shook her head. "I don't care."
"You might not believe me, but there are rules here. I broke those rules. For you."
"I don't care."
"No one leaves this place," Ben reminded her.
"Richard did. To bring me here. And now I'm leaving." She said it again, as sure and as calm as he was. "Take us to the submarine."
"I can't do that, Juliet."
"Yes. You can."
As the tension rose, James eyed the men with guns. They were watching this exchange with growing concern of their own. Danny let his slung rifle down from his shoulder, and kept it loose in his hand. Alex and Ryan both looked more confused than anything. They were coming to the same realization as Juliet, that Ben was not the only authority keeping order in this place. They were equally puzzled as to why Dogen didn't welcome Ben and all his friends with open arms.
"I'm taking these kids home." Ana Lucia said to Ben, strengthening the wall of calm insistence that Juliet had put up.
Sayid moved subtly toward Ryan. He felt a strong urge to get his hands on that rifle before things escalated any further.
"You aren't going anywhere." Ben told Ana. He didn't say it with malice or threat. It was simply a matter of fact. It tired him, being forced to repeat it again and again. He almost seemed sorry about it.
"There are enough of us," Juliet warned him. "To fight our way there if we need to."
"I'm not saying I won't allow it, Juliet. I'm saying you can't."
From the depths, Juliet's frustration surfaced. Her heart beat faster. The back of her ribs burned with purpose. Her calm facade was failing. She couldn't do it anymore. No more games.
"What are you talking about?" Juliet asked Ben.
"And say it plain for the rest of us." James warned him coldly.
"There is currently no way to leave the island -"
Juliet cut him off. "If there's no way to leave this island then where is Richard right now?"
"He's on the island. He's been here on the island since the accident, just like the rest of us."
"Where is he?"
"I don't know."
"Bullshit." said Juliet. "I want to speak to Richard. Now."
"I'll let him know the next time I see him."
"Where is he?" Juliet demanded forcefully.
"I sent him to find John Locke." Ben shot back, offended to the core that he had to explain himself to her, in front of everyone standing around them. "Once Ethan reported back about Boone Carlyle's death and Locke disappearing into the jungle, I asked Richard to find him. I haven't been in contact with him since."
"Why the hell would that stop us from leaving?" James asked. He was still waiting for a straight god damned answer.
Ben looked at him briefly, but he addressed his reply to Juliet.
"Do you remember the earthquake," he asked. "The day the plane fell? The bright light and the sound that it made?"
Juliet's angry frown was her only reply.
"That was an electromagnetic pulse," said Ben. "A very destructive one, as Mikhail described it. It knocked out all of our communications equipment. More importantly, with regard to your current demand, it rendered our submarine unusable."
"Can it be fixed?" Sayid asked.
"Theoretically, yes." Ben said with that exhaustingly patronizing tone. "But we don't have a submarine repair team handy."
"When can you get one?" asked James.
"Without communication with the rest of the world? Probably never."
"Fine." said Juliet. "Give us a boat."
"I don't have a boat-"
"Ben." Juliet said slowly. "You will give us a boat."
"We don't have a boat that would travel the distance needed." Ben explained, slowing his words too. "There are no nearby shipping lanes. No one would pass by close enough to intercept before you died at sea."
"I don't believe you."
"Juliet." Ben addressed her with the utmost seriousness. "If you need to find out for yourself, so be it. But I will not be party to sending you out on the ocean in a row boat designed for a placid lake. That's all we have left. It would have to be carried two miles to a place you can safely launch without being dashed on the rocks with the first wave that hits it. And even then, you would not be able to steer it finely enough to achieve the right trajectory-"
Juliet reached behind her back and pulled out the pistol that was tucked into the waist of her pants. She took the safety off, readied the chamber and held the gun in both hands as she aimed at Ben's chest.
"Juliet?!" Alex's features contorted in confusion.
"Alex, stay back." Ben warned his only daughter.
"Ben, I've got a shot -" Ryan started.
"Put your rifles down." Ben commanded.
For the first time since they'd arrived, Ana Lucia saw genuine emotion on the faces of the other tail section survivors. They were afraid. Cindy put her arms around Emma and Zack's shoulders, pulling them close to her. Dogen gestured for all of them to get back inside the Temple, and they obediently filed in. He remained on the threshold, watching passively the scene playing out before him.
Ben kept his eyes locked on Juliet's. He was certain she could not pull the trigger, no matter how much she wanted to. It was why he desired her above anything else. She was better than him, and he knew it.
He waited to speak until Ryan and Danny both set their rifles on the dirt.
"Juliet," Ben said, softening his tone. "I know you're frustrated. And you must be very tired, after all the work you've been doing. It wasn't what you signed up for. I know that."
"Don't tell me," Juliet said in a tremulous voice. "That I'm tired."
It wasn't just an insult. It was an understatement.
Moving slowly, Sayid crouched and reached for Ryan's rifle. He picked it up, and indicated that Ana Lucia should do the same with Danny's. Alex watched with rising panic as they armed themselves.
James stood by, watching it unfold like the rest of them. He was not a passive spectator like Dogen. He cared very much how it played out. This wasn't the plan. They were supposed to get to the sub first, then surprise Ben. And James was supposed to get Juliet on the sub with them, before she could give up and let the Others take her. Now the sub was out, and so went the rest of their plan. How was this going to end, if neither side had any way of leaving?
"I'm sorry." said Ben.
It was, somehow, the worst possible thing he could have said in that moment. His solemn apology hit Juliet in the chest like a shotgun shell. It loosed all the emotion she'd been holding in check. The anger made her want to scream. The anger wanted her to tear his eyes out with her fingernails. But a sadness washed over that anger and drowned it in a great flood.
"No," she said with certainty as the first tears dripped from her eyelids and ran down her cheeks. "You're not."
Ben had seen her cry before. He'd stood as she screamed at him and demanded a trip home. He'd watched her cry at the monitors in the Flame as her sister pushed her nephew on a swing. He'd felt a satisfaction then, believing the pain he caused was for a good purpose, if it kept her there and gave him a chance to convince her she should choose this place.
This was different. Not because she had a gun. Not because she had allies, who now also had guns. It was the look in her eyes. The lack of spirit. He'd just taken her last shred of hope from her. She had to know what would happen if she pulled that trigger.
"You trapped me here." said Juliet, sounding absolutely heartbroken.
Ben shook his head. She just didn't understand yet.
"You killed my only friend," she said. "So I would be alone."
"You're not the only one who feels alone here, Juliet."
Juliet felt another collapse within her heart. Finding new ways to hurt her was his super power. His sadness was so convincing, she almost looked away to be rid of it. But she didn't dare look away now that he was in her sights.
"You have no idea," he said desperately. "How lonely it is being the leader, when everyone follows your instructions and believes every word you say, even when you have stretched the truth beyond the breaking point."
Ana Lucia glanced at Alex. The girl was stricken, but she was looking at her father now instead of Juliet.
"Do you know how alone I was," asked Ben. "Before you got here?"
"That doesn't give you the right to do the things you did." said Juliet.
"No, I suppose it doesn't." Ben admitted.
Juliet saw his tell. It was the way he blinked when he was cornered. She'd never seen him cornered before. She hadn't held him at gunpoint before. She wished she'd tried it sooner.
She wasn't ready yet. She needed a better answer than 'I was lonely.'
"Why did you do this?" she asked.
"Why…?" Ben echoed.
"Why did you keep me here?"
She already knew. He'd admitted the truth over Goodwin's corpse, but there had been no witnesses there. She needed him to say it again, now, in front of an audience. They needed to understand.
Bracing himself, Ben raised his chin and met her request head on.
"Because I didn't want you to leave." he said truthfully.
"Not because of the research." Juliet prodded.
"No," Ben confirmed. "Not because of the research."
Danny and Ryan glanced at each other with a grim lack of surprise. Ben's feelings for Juliet were an open secret in their tiny village. They'd never imagined he'd be forced to admit it out loud.
"Everyone else I chose to bring here, they all follow my every word." Ben shook his head. "But not you. And that made you very special, Juliet."
She'd seen through him. If he'd been able to turn it around, convince her to stay and convince her it had been her choice, it would have made him the most powerful person on earth.
"All I wanted was to go home and let my family know that I was all right. You knew that. I begged you."
And the more she begged, the more Ben needed to break her.
He'd broken something, Ben was sure of that. Just not what he'd meant to. His shell was cracked. The pathetic worm creature within, naked and wriggling, was finally exposed for all to see.
"I needed to know that it was possible," he said matter-of-factly, as sad about that fact as he was confident in it. "To change your mind. I needed you to choose this place."
"Why." Juliet demanded. Tell them why.
Ben stared at Juliet, knowing the truth was the only path through this confrontation. If it defused the situation, if it allowed her to lower that firearm, it would be okay in the end. He'd find a way to fix everything, just like he always did.
"So I could be in control." he said. "I don't think I know any other way to be."
"Why did you send Goodwin out the day the plane crashed?"
Each question was a hammer blow to his ego. This wouldn't be over until she heard the whole truth. She needed to hear him say it out loud.
"I was jealous." Ben said, his eyes never leaving hers. "And I wanted to send him away from you."
Juliet nodded, tears streaming gently and consistently down her cheeks. They were almost done here. Just a few more to go.
"Why did you put that -"
Her stomach turned. Juliet took a moment to swallow, her emotions overwhelming her. She had to relive it all to show them the real Ben.
"Why did you put the camera in my bedroom?"
Ben never broke eye contact with Juliet but he could feel the shift in the small crowd when she said it. His feelings for Juliet were an open secret, but the code to view that camera had been Ben's and Ben's alone. Danny and Ryan had given up their guns, and now Ben would lose their respect. The worst part was knowing Alex was hearing all of this too.
"I didn't put it there." Ben explained cautiously.
Another relic scavenged from Dharma times. As if it absolved him.
"But you watched."
"...I did."
"Why?"
Ben's exhale was a desperate and incredulous chuckle.
"Because you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen in my entire life."
It's not my fault, Juliet screamed inside her head, not trusting her voice to scream it out loud. The pain of it showed on her face.
"More than that," Ben pressed on. "You are the only person I've brought here that is smarter than me. Better than me."
"I'm not." Juliet shook her head. "Not anymore. You made sure of that."
Ben could admit that he'd abused Juliet's trust, but he would not concede that the opportunities she'd found there were all in vain.
"You are better than you were," Ben insisted. "Stronger. More confident. You told me when you first arrived, you'd never felt so respected."
"That was before I realized what this place really is."
"What is this place to you, Juliet?"
"A prison. And you use it like a playset full of dolls. Pitting people against each other. Manipulating them."
"And I taught you everything I know."
Ben's eyes shifted only for a moment, referencing in one glance all the people that now seemed to follow Juliet's orders instead of his.
That naked worm was wriggling through a crack in Juliet's logic. He was going to accuse her of doing the same thing to the Oceanic survivors. Manipulating them to serve her own ends.
It didn't matter anymore. Nothing mattered. She'd witnessed so much death on this island, trying to fix what he'd broken.
"You wanted me to be like you." Juliet said with disgust.
His mission was almost complete. She was about to become the ruthless killer he'd molded from the broken remains of Dr. Juliet Burke.
As she said the words, James felt a curdling dread in his stomach. He just realized he'd been wanting the same thing. He'd respected her wishes, her need for vengeance, because in the end it would make her more like Sawyer, the man who'd shot someone in cold blood without even knowing who he was. If she shot Ben in cold blood too, maybe Sawyer would be deserving of her love.
Seeing Ben exposed like this, and seeing Juliet's broken-hearted disgust of the man, James realized he didn't want that anymore. If he let Juliet do this, he wouldn't be deserving of anything other than a ticket straight to hell.
His entire body was tense just waiting for the gun to go off. He felt light-headed as different chemicals rushed to his brain. He knew what he had to do.
"Juliet." James said gently.
She shook her head faintly. She knew what he was going to say.
James agreed with Ben. She was better than him, better than all of them. She didn't deserve anything Ben had done to her. And she didn't deserve the pain that waited for her on the other side of this burden.
"You use people." Juliet said to Ben, her disgust still palpable.
"You're right." said Ben. "I use people. And that's because they're expendable. They're all expendable. Everyone except for you, Juliet. I can't replace you."
"You won't have to." said Juliet. "You're not doing this ever again."
Juliet took one hand from the gun to wipe the tears from her cheeks, then re-situated and re-aimed. She told herself she only needed one more moment, that she'd pull the trigger once the moment passed.
A seed of doubt made Ben's insides quiver with panic.
That moment passed. And then another. The breath James didn't realize he'd been holding came out slowly, as he realized Juliet had already made her choice.
Ben's panic abated. He'd been right about her. He was always right.
"Juliet," James said more urgently. "I'll do it."
"No."
She refused, because didn't he see it, after all they'd been through? This wasn't who he was either. She'd sworn she wasn't going to let Ben ruin another person.
"Juliet, please." Alex begged for something else entirely. "Don't."
"Did you hear anything she just said?" Ana Lucia snapped at the girl.
"She's lying." Alex insisted.
James shook his head. "He's the liar, sweetheart."
"He's not even your father." said Ana Lucia.
"Shut up!" Alex shouted through her tears. "You're lying! Dad, tell them they're wrong."
Alex walked up to the man that raised her, close to the line of fire. Ben would not turn to look at her.
"Dad?" Alex lost steam when he refused to acknowledge her. "Please tell me they're lying."
"Alex." Ben said calmly.
"Please?!"
"I want you to go inside the Temple."
"Dad- " Alex broke down into quiet sobs.
"Go inside. Dogen won't refuse you."
Alex looked at the man who still stood in the Temple doorway. Dogen nodded, indicating she was indeed welcome there.
"I don't want to go without you." Alex cried, turning back to the only father she'd known.
"Everything will be okay." Ben said calmly. "Danny, Ryan. If one of you could take her into the Temple I would be very grateful."
Ryan didn't move, too disturbed by the conversation that had just taken place. Danny, despite his confusion, did as Ben asked, but he did it for Alex's sake. Alex allowed herself to be pulled by the arm, whimpering as she stumbled away in Danny's strong grip toward the Temple door.
Dogen allowed Alex in, but he barred the way before Danny could enter.
"You do not belong here." Dogen reminded him.
Confused and put off, Danny retreated and rejoined the group that was waiting with high tension for a gun to go off.
Juliet kept the gun raised, even though her arms were getting tired, and pulling the trigger felt further and further away.
"If you do this," Ben warned Juliet. "You will truly be trapped here forever."
Mind, body and spirit, Juliet. If you spare me…there might still be hope for you…
Juliet's aim wavered. Her arms began to lower. She truly was so tired.
A shot rang out then, and Juliet's entire body spasmed as she startled. Ben's body moved as if pulled by wires, landing flat in the grass a few feet away from where he'd stood.
Juliet looked down at her hands. There had been no recoil. Her gun wasn't aimed at Ben. Her finger was no longer on the trigger.
James looked at Sayid, and then at Ana Lucia. They had their guns ready but both were just as surprised as James was. Neither of them had fired.
There was a red spot blooming slowly across Ben's chest nonetheless. When James checked on Ryan, he saw Ryan looking past Juliet.
Danielle Rousseau was there, a hunting rifle in her hands, eyes steady and aim unwavering as she stepped slowly toward her target. Her first shot had been a bullseye, but she needed to know that Benjamin Linus had fully expired before she let her guard down.
Ben stared up at the sky as blood filled his lungs. His eyes focused on Danielle as she reached his side and stared down at him. He was in shock, speechless in his last moments.
Danielle lowered her rifle and waited for him to recognize her, so he could truly understand what was happening.
He moved his mouth, trying to say something.
She lifted the rifle again and fired another shot at point-blank range.
Ben's skull exploded.
Danielle didn't react when the droplets of blood sprayed outward, some toward her pant legs, a few all the way up to her arms and face. She kept her eyes locked on the space where his face used to be, and she contemplated what she'd done. After a long moment, satisfied with the result, she lowered her rifle.
"You can go now, Juliet." she said, still staring at the corpse.
A gentle hand touched Juliet's back. James was beside her, looking at her profile and trying not to startle her.
"It's okay." he said quietly.
Juliet slowly became aware of her surroundings, and of the fact that her hands were shaking. She allowed James to slip the gun from her hand, but she remained otherwise unresponsive.
"What did you do?" Danny said, his voice unsteady and high in pitch from pure disbelief. He stared at the gore above Ben's shoulders. Like Danielle, he half expected the head to grow back, Ben's authority and invincibility loomed so large in his mind.
"Hey." James said, gently pulling Juliet's face to look at him.
There was no relief in her eyes. No exultation. What James found was revulsion from witnessing a murder. Shame that she hadn't been the one to commit it. A debilitating confusion, to the point that none of it felt real.
"What the fuck did you just do?!" Danny shouted, his anger directed toward the shooter.
Sayid trained his gun on Danny as the burly man turned on Danielle.
"Stay where you are." Sayid said sternly.
Danny looked at Sayid with frustration, but did as he was told.
Ana Lucia's aim covered Ryan, though Ryan's reaction held more grave acceptance than the enraged confusion of his counterpart. He looked over at the still bleeding corpse like the preceding conversation had confirmed a long festering doubt about his place there.
James placed his hands on Juliet's upper arms, holding on to her very gently. He still didn't know what to say. He didn't know how to take away her hurt, or how to fill the emptiness that now sat inside of her. Survival mode had been depleted and now there was nothing left.
As his mouth began to form some meaningless words of reassurance, another stern voice spoke up, this one new to the party.
"I need all of you to put your guns down."
James and Juliet both turned toward it. There were more people arriving, not from inside the Temple but from outside its walls.
Ryan was shell-shocked, but he recognized the dark-haired man who led the way.
"Richard. Where the hell have you been?"
Sayid looked on as John Locke followed Richard into the yard.
"The guns," said Richard, politely but insistently. "Please." He held his hands out slightly, showing that he himself was not armed, and he simply wanted to remove all remaining danger from the situation.
Danielle calmly removed the gun sling from her shoulder and placed the rifle on the ground right next to her. She had no need for it anymore.
"She killed him!" Danny gestured angrily, not understanding why Richard wasn't more upset. Sayid still had a gun on him.
"Danny," Richard said. "Nobody wants any more bloodshed. Not here, not today. Right?"
Danny looked ready to explode again, but he took a deep breath and remembered that Richard would have a plan. He and Ben always had a plan. They would need a plan, to deal with all of this.
"Where is my daughter?" Danielle asked Richard, her eyes full of tears that her body no longer knew how to cry.
Richard hesitated.
"She's inside." Ana Lucia answered.
Danielle nodded gratefully at Ana Lucia, and then looked at the Temple. Dogen looked upon her kindly, moving to the side to indicate she was welcome there, if she was ready to enter.
"I will wait out here," Danielle told them. "Until she is ready to meet me."
Dogen accepted her choice, and watched her walk toward one of the stone benches in the courtyard. She took a seat there, placed her hands on her knees and stared at the dirt in front of her.
Juliet stared past James at the woman from the woods. In another universe Juliet was the one whose feat was at its end. She was the one that could rest knowing that she'd done the right thing, even if it took her years to get there.
Sixteen years. Danielle sat there and stared as if she was ready to wait sixteen more.
Ana Lucia watched Sayid follow Richard's instruction. She had no desire to give up her weapon, but she had even less desire to use one, and so she set her rifle down on the ground too.
"Thank you." Richard told them both earnestly.
"It's good to see you, Sayid." Locke's smile was polite, and communicated that he knew Sayid might not be as happy to see him.
"John," Sayid greeted his fellow survivor. They were neither captors or prisoners here. They all seemed on equal ground. Locke made sure of it, as he gathered the two rifles and Juliet's handgun, emptied them of all ammunition and placed it all near the wall beyond anyone's reach.
Richard took a few steps toward Ben's body. Dogen stepped down from the temple entrance, and went slowly to Richard's side.
"This was too close." Dogen said to Alpert.
"I know," Richard replied tiredly. "Ben was…an experiment."
And now the experiment was over.
Cindy appeared in the door frame, and asked if everyone was all right. She was taken aback when she spotted the lifeless body in the yard.
"Should we bring him inside?" she asked delicately.
"No," Richard answered before Dogen had a chance. He glanced at Cindy, realizing his answer may have sounded harsher than intended. "He had his chance here, a long time ago."
Dogen studied Ben's body and thought back to that day. He'd been there. He'd conducted the procedure himself. He's played his own part in this near disaster.
"What are we going to do with the rest of them?" Dogen asked quietly.
"I don't know." Richard shook his head. "I don't know. We might not have to do anything…"
Dogen was not happy to hear that hint in Richard's concerned, regretful tone. But he could accept it, if it meant the Temple remained unmolested. For the things the water could not heal, there was the smoke.
"You're Alpert?" James asked.
Richard stepped away from Ben's body and turned to James. He nodded in answer to the question. James glowered and asked another.
"You got a way off this rock?"
The well-dressed gentleman glanced at Juliet. She looked back at him with eyes that had gone hollow. Richard was haunted by them, for the part he'd played in creating this situation.
Richard nodded distractedly, and turned back to James.
"Yes. Yes, we can get you home."
Home. Hearing the word got Juliet's attention. It broke through the haze.
"Ben said the sub was broken." she said.
James looked at her, worried but relieved to hear her voice again.
"It is," Richard confirmed. "But there are other ways."
"Is everyone at the settlement safe?" Juliet asked him.
"They will be."
"Everyone?" Ryan asked. Ben's people and the Oceanic survivors?
Richard looked at him briefly but did not answer.
"Did you see that?"
Emma pointed at the pool set in the center of the Temple. Zach looked.
"You can see the pictures now!"
The murky shadow that had been clouding the water since they first arrived was gone. They could see to the bottom of the pool now, to all the glyphs in the mosaic tiles that lined it.
Lennon smiled at the kids. He was going to miss them. Their curiosity brought levity to the monotony of monastic life. But Zach and Emma didn't belong here. That was clear to him now, just like the water.
Shannon stirred in the chair next to Walt's bed. She didn't remember falling asleep. It surprised her. She'd barely slept for weeks, and the chair wasn't that comfortable.
Leave it to me to fall asleep on the scariest night of all, when I'm supposed to be watching the kid.
The kid…
Walt!
Shannon sat up, adrenaline clearing the grogginess as her heart raced. Walt was sitting up on the bed, his eyes wide as he stared back at her.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
"Are you?" Shannon asked back.
Walt nodded, but he still looked scared.
An image from a dream knocked on the door of her consciousness, but Shannon did not know how to answer.
"What happened?" she asked, knowing Walt would be able to tell her whether he'd fallen asleep or not.
"Something came through."
A rushed knock interrupted their conversation. Michael made sure Walt was still there, and then checked on Shannon.
"The Others -"
"Dad-?"
"Most of them are gone."
"The smoke," said Walt. "It took them."
Shannon looked at Walt. She didn't understand what he meant, but she knew she believed him.
Jack and Kate went through one set of houses, Jin and Eko through another. Of the Others, only Harper, Tom and Luke were left. The ones that had been held hostage by the Oceanic survivors through the night. Every other house looked like it had been ransacked by a sentient tornado, doors torn from their hinges and furniture tossed.
"Is it even possible to sleep through a hurricane?" Hurley asked. The broken tree branches and strewn plywood would have made some noise overnight.
Libby suspected they'd been drugged, but she didn't voice her concern to Hurley or anyone else. Some intervening angel of destruction had spared them while clearing out the rest of the town, and they'd done it while providing the best night of sleep that any of them had had for weeks. There were some things she wasn't willing to question.
"Your friends all left you." Charlie taunted Harper.
He'd taken third watch, and though he'd been horrified to realize he'd fallen asleep at some point before sunrise, he was relieved to find Harper still sleeping on the living room couch when he suddenly awoke. She'd started awake a moment later, a funny feeling in the pit of her stomach.
Harper's response to Charlie's comment was a smug smile, as if she knew of some planned exodus. In the light of morning Charlie could sense she was faking it. She was shaken, and she wasn't sure leaving had been the Others' choice. If it was a choice, then that meant she'd been left behind on purpose. She wasn't sure which was worse.
Sun and Michael stood on a porch later that morning, and surveyed the damage in the courtyard.
"I…I didn't hear anything…" Sun stammered.
"Didn't even realize I'd fallen asleep." said Michael.
"On second thought," Rose said. "I don't think we should stay here, Bernard."
Bernard rubbed his wife's shoulders, and smiled sadly at her change of heart. Despite its healing powers, the cost of living on the island had demonstrated itself with dramatic effect. The garden of Eden did not belong to ordinary folk.
