Hello! Hope all is well. It's been entirely too long. Will not delay the inevitable. Here is Chapter 30 for those of you left hanging about. There is a reference to Jack and Jacob's first meet from Chapter 19 if you're in need of a refresher. I know I was! *WHEW* Enjoy!


"Locke!" Jack called out, hearing nothing but his echo stretch farther into the never-ending distance.

His voice began to go raw. He was miles into the jungle, with any direction setting him back or beckoning him further to his goal. He still had no idea how to track, picking up on stomped-out grass and frayed branches with as much skill as he learned from watching Kate on their many expeditions through the jungle together.

His feet quickened their way through, as his heavy breathing paced with them. He was running out of time and he knew it.

He decided to stop, catch his breath. He didn't know how much longer he could keep this up, but he also knew that it didn't matter. Thoughts of the night he left kept coming back to him, the chance he had to do what he was destined to do lost in anger, defiance and now in his deepest regrets.

Suddenly, he had the eerie feeling that someone was nearby, watching him. It was as if all of his cellular being hushed and came to a point that pulled him in its direction. He knew it was her. He felt this before, while off the Island. He never questioned it, but always felt comforted by it.

He turned. Just as he knew before ever looking, there she was, a rifle over her shoulder, her eyes soft, a smile catching her lips to see him.

He swallowed hard, his eyes questioning.

"Kate?" He sucked in a breath. "What you doing out here?"

"Looking for you." It was that simple.

"Well," he brought his hands to his waist, continuing to breathe deeply, evenly. Worse for wear, but in no way ready to give up. "You found me."

She moved to him as their eyes locked in a tired, yet soaring gaze. While he didn't want her anywhere near the danger he was trying to reach, he was happy to see her. She always seemed to show up when he needed a break. He noticed the smudges of dirt on her clothes, face and forearms, and the rifle over her shoulder that she never seemed to part with. She looked like she'd been at war to get to him. She was still as gorgeous as ever, which made it that much harder for him to be upset with her for following him out there.

Casting the thought aside, he swiped the bridge of his nose, wiping the sweat collecting there before dragging that same hand through his hair, ruffling it. Kate finally took in how much she liked the longer hair on him. It somehow shaved years off of his appearance. Then again, the gray at his temples and peppered throughout his stubble informed her that this man was older than her. The tattoos that came into her view when he swiped at his face always gave away his edge. With all the worry, dread, confusion he was dealing with, even in the moment, she couldn't let go of how beautiful he was.

She definitely had a type.

"How's Sawyer?" Jack asked, bringing her back to the situation at hand.

"When I left, he didn't look so good." Kate admitted with a sigh. He didn't look happy with that answer. If one more person died because of him, he wouldn't be able to take it. "I'm hoping Sayid got him to Juliet in time."

"What?" Jack asked, confused. Then it sunk in. Kate rolled her eyes, keeping her gaze from meeting the scrutiny she knew he was projecting her way.

"Wait, you didn't go back to the group with them before coming out here to find me?"

She closed her eyes, catching her bottom lip between her teeth, like she did when she knew she had messed up. She wasn't supposed to tell him that part.

Jack turned from her then, the disapproval, the anger loud, clear in his movements. He pursed his lips together like he did when he was upset, when he was trying to fight what was always sure to come out. He asked her to do one thing, take care of Sawyer. Her resistance to do just that made his brain tick.

He squinted in her direction, his tone bitter. "Why the hell not?"

"Don't do that." Kate warned, not up for explaining herself to him over something that probably won't matter in the end.

"What?" Jack let out, frustrated, tired, and blown over by the guilt of what his mistake had caused so many people.

"That."

She knew what he was doing, trying to micromanage everything, trying to find control in all the chaos, and letting his unfounded guilt get the better of him. This was not his fault. Sawyer getting shot was not his fault. What happened on the beach was not his fault. Whatever Locke had gotten himself into was not his fault.

At her tone, Jack closed his eyes, sucked in a breath. The last thing he wanted to do was fight. He thought she'd want to stay close to Sawyer. Was he missing something here?

"You're out here in the middle of the jungle running in circles Jack." She watched him as he bowed his head with his eyes closed, rubbing at his temples and impatiently wiping the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand.

She opened her mouth, but the tension in his shoulders told her he wasn't up for hearing more, so she decided to speak her wish, in hopes that he'd let it go.

Let Locke go. Come back with me.

"You need to come back, Jack." Kate said sternly.

Jack shook his head as he began to move, walking in no particular direction. "Not without Locke."

Kate followed close behind. "Who is going after Ben, who sure enough has the upper hand here. He knows this jungle Jack, better than you, me, and Locke, combined. If he wants to hide, set a trap, he can do it."

He wasn't listening, that much she knew. Maybe he would listen to this. "If he wants to get to the Far East side of the Island, no one is gon—"

"Far East side of the Island?" Jack interrupted, turning to her. "Who told you that?"

"Alex, Ben's daughter. We ran into her in the jungle, she's the one leading Sayid and Sawyer back to the group."

"How do you know we can trust her?"

"She was with Locke when he made it to the cabin." Kate recalled. "It didn't look like her relationship with her father was on good terms. She said she didn't have anywhere else to go, that Locke swore to protect her."

"Did she tell you what Ben expects to find?" Jack asked.

"Jacob." Kate gauged his reaction. "She said that's where he lives."

Where he lives? Jack thought. He hazily remembered being there, clocking a large statue before passing out, and waking up in pitch darkness. He remembered scattered images of Jacob telling him that he healed him, that John Locke was the other side of the coin. Worst of all, he remembered what Jacob told him about what would happen if no one protected the Island.

Jack bit his bottom-lip, contemplating what he knew about Ben and Locke's cat and mouse game so far.

"Before, you told me that Ben was trying to get into the cabin, that he was meeting someone there. If Jacob lives in the Far East and Ben knew that, then why did he show up at the cabin?"

"Alex told me that Jacob built the cabin." Kate shared. "He used to live there before moving closer to the water. I guess Ben thought he'd find him there."

She was trying to read his reaction. She wanted to tell him what she had come to realize with Sayid's help, that the cabin had been protected from everyone except her, that she had been chosen by someone, something to find it and protect it, or in some way, have it protect her.

This Jacob guy seemed to be pulling all the strings, making all the moves, and the coincidence that the cabin belonged to the man that chose the man she loved to protect the Island was no longer lost on her.

It was no coincidence, it was the one thing she never thought she would ever believe in.

Fate.

"You remember I told you that I met him? Jacob?"

"Yeah." Kate shook her head. "You said he protects the Island, but you didn't say any more than that."

She knew that he was keeping bits and pieces of the story from her, and he was doing it intentionally. Locke had revealed it all, but when would Jack just come out and tell her? She recalled their closeness when he appeared in the cabin, not just emotionally, but physically. She could still feel his head in her lap, his arms twisted around her waist, and the sinewy muscles of his back, taut like tightropes, under his skin and her palms.

Jack kept moving. "I didn't know much more than that, until I saw my father."

"Your father?" Kate asked.

"After disappearing from the cabin, I ended up at the caves." Jack revealed. "He was there."

"He told me he'd been working with Jacob this whole time, and that Locke was the only chance they had to stop whatever Ben had planned."

"So much for that, huh?" Kate scoffed.

Jack's face lit up with a small grin. That was exactly what he said. "Right."

"What else did your father say?" Kate asked, watching as Jack squinted to get a better view of what had suddenly caught his eye over her shoulder. He quickly moved past her and bent down to the ground.

"Jack?" Kate asked, approaching him. When she could see over his shoulder, she understood why the scene had caught his attention.

"Is that blood?" A pool of it sat over crushed grass and leaves at the base of a tree trunk.

"You told me that Locke and Ben were going at it before you got to the cabin to detonate ELMA." Jack asked without turning around, his eyes fixated on the scene.

It could have been a wounded animal, anything other than what his mind started to conjure. Christian told him, or better yet, he didn't mean to tell him about Locke. Referring to him in the past tense and not knowing if he was dead or alive. His throat closed up.

"What if one of them got hurt?" Silence ensued, which prompted Jack to look back. There was no one there.

"Kate?"

"Over here." He heard her call out. He looked a few paces ahead, and saw that she was bent down now, mesmerized by something in the dirt.

He approached her. "What is it?"

"Tracks." Kate said, her eyes darting around the area for more clues. "And more blood." He watched her find another boot print with blood nearby. He could tell she had a thought to what happened.

His eyes followed her as she moved back to the blood at the tree stump.

"Whoever this was took a break here, or most likely passed out from the blood loss," Kate hypothesized before walking the path of the tracks. "Then got up, and moved this way."

"So, we've got a trail." Jack said with relief. She hated to admit it, but they did.

"What if it's Ben?" Kate asked, still trying to convince him to stop.

Jack countered. "What if it isn't?"

"If it's Locke, judging from all this blood, can you honestly say he's still alive?" Kate asked.

Jack took a second to think. He couldn't be sure, but if he knew Locke, a fatal wound might not have been enough to stop him from finally thwarting Ben's plan to find Jacob. There was no way for him to know unless he followed the trail for himself.

So he did. He moved past the last boot print and stream of blood Kate found with stubborn purpose.

"Jack…" Kate called out, her tone showcasing her fear.

His heart cracked at the sound of her voice. She was scared for him. Really scared. He could feel it, but he couldn't turn back now. He stopped and turned to her.

"I'm sorry Kate, but I gotta find him, dead or alive. Preferably alive." He watched her close, her eyes falling to sadness at that answer.

"I can't stop now. I just can't."

He hated to keep hurting her, leaving her. It bore a new, gaping hole in his chest every time he did, but this was the way it had to be. He didn't want that. What he said next barreled out of his mouth before he had any real chance of stopping it.

"Are you with me on this?"

He understood if her answer was the opposite of what he tried so hard not to want to hear. But he wanted to hear it.

Who was she kidding putting up this fight? She would follow this man to the end of the Earth if it meant protecting him from himself and those that have set out to hurt him. She loved him. Love was crazy, wild, and dangerous. Love was a leap of faith.

Jack watched her with hopeful, puppy eyes as she pulled the handgun that Sayid gave her out of her jeans at her back. She moved to him, stopping short when she felt their torsos barely touch. She waited a bit before looking up into his eyes, because she knew that once she did, it would be over.

She took his hand, holding it in hers for awhile, cherishing the physical closeness, the intimacy. She missed this. She wanted it just like this, for as long as they could have it. She was greedy like that. Selfish in ways he didn't know how to be. He was going to do this, and he wouldn't do it alone.

She sighed as she let her hand drop from his, replacing it with the handle of the gun.

That was it, he thought as he gripped the gun into his fist. She was going to turn around and disappear just as abruptly as she appeared. He didn't blame her. This wasn't her fight and she had every right to want no part of it moving forward.

She finally met his eyes. Those eyes. Seeping with emotion, purpose, the truth. Before she uttered the word she needed to say, one thought rushed to her.

She was home. Love was home.

"Yes."

The surprise she saw reflected in his features made her smile. He smiled back.

"Then lets go."


Locke staggered through the trees, slowly, meticulously. He felt sick to his stomach behind both his injury and what he just saw, but kept his ears peaked and his eyes as open as he could tolerate.

He heard the faint slapping of waves nearby and the grey clouds a touch above his head. He knew he had climbed through the jungle and was only getting higher within it the longer he didn't break, but he had no idea he was this high. A few more steps led him beyond the trees and into the clear, thinning air. He could smell rain in that air, the sky stretching for miles, the storm impending.

He moved further, holding to his wound, Walt's voice echoing in his head, driving him mad.

Jacob dies no matter what you do.

Given what he just saw, he didn't know if that was his subconscious trying to let him off the hook, or if it was actually true. He felt responsible for every horrific thing Ben has done since walking off the Others' compound. If only he had taken the C4 he gathered from the Black Rock and done what he set out to do.

Looking closer, he could make out a figure in the distance, sitting very still on the rocky edges, looking out beyond the cliffs. He wanted it to be Jacob, but he knew it wasn't. He knew it was him. Without a weapon to protect himself, he moved closer, stopped by the sound of his voice.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Ben asked, still staring out at the riotous sky. "Overcast was my favorite growing up. That moment right before it rains, when everything goes so unbearably quiet."

A lightning bolt struck in the distance, the thunder it created catching quickly behind it. "Then utter chaos."

Ben kept his eyes out to the sky, his voice still calm. "Is my daughter dead?"

"I don't know. I told her to run." Locke told him. Who knew if she had actually listened, he thought. She had a talent for showing up for trouble.

"You shouldn't have involved her, John." Ben accused.

"I didn't involve her, you did!" Locke seethed. "By lying to her most of her life."

"So, that's how you did it." Ben said, snidely. "You told her the truth. Did it ever occur to you that there were good reasons for why I lied to her, John? Why I didn't want my child to know what was really going on? Things no child should be burdened with?"

Locke approached him a bit more. "You kill Jacob and decide to sit up here and what…conjure another story that makes you the victim?"

Ben stood, quickly and turned. Blood was smeared all over the front of his collared button-up and caked all over his hands, one still holding to the dagger he plunged into Jacob's torso until his arm burned with fatigue.

"Jacob is dead, because he chose wrong. He never chose wrong but this time, his instructions were wrong."

More lightning lit up the sky with quakes of thunder. Then the rain came, covering everything in its wake.

"So, what now, Ben? You take the crown?" Locke yelled over the riotous thunder.

"No. The time for that is over. I've settled it, John. Killing Jacob was….oh," Ben sighed, closing his eyes and teetering into an overwhelming well of euphoria he never thought he would feel. He let the knife slip through his grip, the rain rinsing Jacob's blood from his hands, him having reveled in the stains long enough.

"It was more fulfilling than I could have ever imagined. I told him everything I needed to, about how after all those years, all those lists, I was nothing to him. Nothing but an errand boy, bound to his bidding."

Locke was set to counter when Ben began to let his rage overtake him again.

"I was right here!" Ben screamed over the downpour. "Right here for 35 years and he never dared himself to acknowledge me!"

Ben recalled the encounter with Jacob vivdly, bits and pieces falling in and out of place in his mind.

"What about you?" Was the only thing he recalled Jacob saying, asking.

Then, in a flash, there was red everywhere. Spilling from Jacob's mouth, rushing from the injuries at his belly until he keeled over in agony, falling into his arms. Ben did nothing to stop the fall, watching him slink to the ground, staring as the last breath left his body with a gag of blood close behind.

"He never begged for his life, by the way. He knew it was coming. He'd known for a good while now." Ben let out a crazed chuckle. "I've ordered a good many to be killed, slaughtered like cattle, but no one told me how invigorating it is to do it myself!"

"I'm gonna kill you!" Locke declared with a growl.

Another crazed, raucous chuckle filled the air from Ben's direction, lasting and growing until he was gasping for air.

"And how might you do that, John? I mean, look at you!" Ben gestured towards him.

Locke looked down and finally witnessed the extent of the bleeding for the first time since collapsing in the jungle. It was a miracle he was coherent, let alone standing, climbing to the heights he had to get there.

"Let me just finish the job!" Before John had realized where the handgun had come from, Ben had it aimed directly at him. Locke lunged his way just before he could pull the trigger, but not soon enough.

Three shots rang out, echoing into the storm.


Kate led the way through the trees, following the trail straight away. She grew more worried with each step. The storm ahead was close, thunder and lightning sounded and lit the way out of the jungle.

Jack was not stopping until he reached the end, and they both knew the end was near. They eventually stepped onto white sand, pebbled with drops of blood. Jack knew exactly where they were now, and no longer needed the trail, but Kate hadn't a clue.

He moved around her, turning the last bushel of weeds when she noticed it, following Jack's gaze.

What was left of a…statue? The rain started then, peppering their trail and erasing the tracks. By the grace of the Gods they made it before the rain washed away their only lead to this place.

"What the—?" Kate asked in a breathless whisper, pushing her now damp curls out of her face to get a better view. She didn't have time to register it before she noticed Jack moving towards the door that had been left ajar at the base. She rushed to follow him.

Darkness. There was nothing but darkness in this space, until a slimmer of light lead her to its belly. She found Jack kneeling nearby, hovering over a body, barely kneeling into the pool of blood that drained from it. The rain drops pattered against his back as he slumped in defeat. She looked up to find the ceiling cracked open, the storm ahead finding its way inside.

She moved over to him, slowly, reading the devastation in his body language as he dropped his head and let his hands rest over the slant of his long, flexed legs. Her hand itched to reach out to him. To hold him against her.

She was dreadfully confused most days, but getting a better look at the dead's face, his younger, but no less weathered features, upon what was left of this man, she knew one thing.

It wasn't Locke.

It was Jacob.

"He's dead." Jack breathed out, almost to no one at all. "He knew this would happen. He knew that Ben would kill him."

There was no sign of a struggle, Kate realized. The scene around the dead body unscathed. Not a speck out of place.

Kate shook her head, confused. "If he knew, then why didn't he try to stop him?"

He remembered it, he always had. After he'd disappeared from the plane, he was here, right here, in 2000 B.C., with Jacob. More detailed pieces resurfaced of what he said, what little time Jack truly had left to make a decision about saving the Island, and the world.

"And just like it had for her, my time is running out." Jacob explained.

Jack couldn't hear any more, couldn't take in one more fragment of information; he felt like his head was going to explode if he was forced to hear any more.

"I can't do this. I thought I could come back here and face this, maybe even accept it, but I can't. I'm not ready, not for this."

Jacob straightened, bringing his hands back together in front of him. "And I can't force you, it's not who I am, and it's not how I operate. I can only hope that one day you'll come back here and decide to want this, that you embrace it and all that comes with it, because once that happens, there is no turning back."

"And what if I choose not to protect the Island? What happens then?" Jack asked, terrified of the answer, but needing to know.

"This ends very badly…for all of us." Jacob confessed.

Jack barreled back into the present, weary, already behind in a game he didn't even know how to play.

It was now or never. "Because it's time." He said tiredly, but definitively.

Kate knew exactly what he was referring to, closing her eyes in unspeakable sorrow. She wasn't ready for this. She wasn't ready to lose him to this place. But she would anyway, so why keep the words at bay any longer?

"For you to take his place." She finished for him.

Jack looked up at her with eyes intermixed with surprise and devastation, and dare she saw, guilt.

He stood slowly, facing his world, on the verge of losing it to another.

At that moment, a moment pregnant with further longing and mourning of what they were always fated to be, they heard the muffled blasts of three gunshots echoing overhead.