Note: Sorry to disappoint those who wanted more interaction between specific characters, but this has stretched to 23 chapters already, and it's time to wrap up the story and see where our characters ended up…I hope you've enjoyed the journey and I have truly appreciated all of the comments and encouragement!

Epilogue

"Everyone's fine," Hurley announced with joy into the walkie talkie. "Me, Sawyer, Juliet, Sayid, Jin, Bernard...we're all... "

"Wait," came Jack's voice with disbelief. "Bernard and Jin and Sayid, they're with you?"

"Yeah dude. I told you. I saved them all."

Jack's voice could barely be heard over the shouts of joy from behind him. "Hey," he said with relief, "stay where you are. We're almost up to the tower. You'll be safer there."

It would be difficult, Sayid thought, simply to remain on the beach waiting expectantly for Jack to succeed in his plan to contact Naomi's boat. Therefore he and Jin decided to preoccupy themselves with the task of gathering fruit for the evening meal. Relaxed now in the aftermath of the fight with the Others, Sayid was not at the height of alert when he stepped into the jungle, and he did not see the figure slide quickly from behind a tree until the man had confronted him. For a brief, confused moment, Sayid thought a mirror had been thrown up before his face, because he was gazing directly into his own eyes.

When he took in the man's entire countenance, however, Sayid saw that his skin was a much lighter shade of brown than his own, and although the figure possessed a nose almost identical in shape and size to Sayid's, his lips were less full and obviously more inclined to smile. In fact, the man was smiling now.

"Don't shoot," he insisted, from behind a great grin. "I come in peace." The man laughed. "I'm not an alien, though." The man certainly did not possess an Iraqi accent, but Sayid could not place his accent either. It was not quite American, not quite European…there even seemed to be within it a hint of African.

Sayid's hand stiffened around his rifle. One finger reached cautiously for the trigger. From behind the light brown man a woman emerged, also smiling, and Sayid was certain she had Kate's freckles, in almost the same placement.

Sayid's eyes flitted from one to the other as he attempted to assess the greater threat. Jin, who had drawn up close beside him, nodded toward the woman, as though to say he would eliminate her if needed. At least, Sayid thought, the surprise couple appeared to be without firearms, although there was a bulge beneath each shirt—knives, perhaps? The blade would be no match for guns.

Yet just as that comforting thought rose to Sayid's mind, six more people emerged from the trees and surrounded Sayid and Jin in a semicircle. Some had dark skin, some light; their ethnicities were difficult to discern, but each had at least one faintly familiar feature—Claire's mouth, Sawyer's eyes, Hurley's lips, Jack's posture, Jin's cheeks, Desmond's hair. Sayid and Jin could do no more than wait for the spokesman to say something more.

"We've been watching you," the man said. "We've been watching you since you crashed, but we didn't dare interfere too soon. We're still not quite sure how it all works. We were afraid if we meddled too soon, we'd change your history too much, mess things up so they couldn't ever be fixed. We decided to wait until we got as close as we could to your last days on the island…and then we'd risk changing things."

"But now," said the woman from beside him, the one with Kate's freckles, "now we have to tell you, before Widmore gets here and it's too late."

"Widmore? Too late for what?" Sayid hissed, his muscles tense. His hope for rescue, which had just been lit on fire by Jack's assurance that they were nearing the tower, was beginning to flicker and fade.

The man smiled again. It was strange for Sayid to see that broad, Sawyer-like grin stretching out beneath his own eyes and nose. "To save the world," the man said. "The rest of us are picking up your friends at the tower, before they contact the boat. We'll show you the book that explains everything. There's even photos of you and him" – he nodded to Sayid and Jin as he spoke - "and everyone else at the Last Party in Hurley's palace. Those photos will prove to you that you really wrote it."

"The book?" Jin repeated, with a confusion no less profound than Sayid's.

Sayid was hearing every word, but he wasn't quite understanding. His initial inclination was to assume these were Others who were playing yet more mind games, but there was nothing dishonest in their eyes or voices. Either his perception was failing him or they were telling the truth. "How could we never have perceived your presence before now?"

"We grew up on this island," explained the man. "We know it intimately, and we know how to be quiet, more quiet even than those things Widmore built."

Sayid felt matters spiraling out of his control, beyond the far reaches of his comprehension. "The things Widmore…what things…who-"

"Don't worry," the man interrupted him. "We'll explain everything. It's time to stop Widmore and save the world." The man, who could not have been more than ten years younger than Sayid, extended his hand toward the Iraqi. "What do you say, great, great grandpa?"

And from the semi-circle surrounding them, an enormous laughter erupted, a laughter not of insanity or ridicule, but of hope and triumph.

THE END