When Remy woke up the next day he looked over to where Emil had been and got the shock of his life when he saw his best friend was nowhere to be found. "Emil?" He called. Not getting any answer, he sat up, rubbing his eyes groggily. "Now where'd he get off to?" He asked the shelter. Shaking his head, he got up and headed out into the bright morning sun, using his hands to shield his eyes, scanning the beach for his cousin.

A few yards away from the shelter, Emil sat on a boulder, working intently at something Remy couldn't make out. As he walked closer, Remy realized what his companion was doing.

"You t'ink any fish are gon' take de hook when you ain' got no bait?" He laughed as he approached.

Emil looked up and shrugged. "You got any better ideas? Dat food we got ain' gon' last long an' I don' really wan' starve..."

"Good point, mais, I'm sure we could find some fruit an' berries an' roots an' stuff to eat too y'know."

"You go right ahead, Remy. I t'ink I'll stick wit' tryin' to con a few fish. At least for now."

"Suit yourself, mon ami." Remy started walking towards the trees in search of different kinds of food. Emil watched him for a second before stopping him.

"Hey Rem?"

Remy paused and looked back, catching the subdued look on Emil's usually sunny face. "Yeah?"

"You t'ink de others know what happened?"

Remy thought for a few moments before answering. "De storm was prob'ly on de news." He replied. "My guess is yes. An' dey're prob'ly worried too, seein' as how dey can' get in touch wit' us an' don' know where we were when de storm hit."

"What do you t'ink dey'll do?" Emil mostly meant Theoren, and Remy knew it. Remy also knew he had to make sure absolutely no harm came to Emil, or Theo would skin him alive.

"I don' know...wait for a day or two until dey're positive we ain' gon' call 'em, an' den fly to Miami an' organize a search, I guess." Remy replied.

Emil nodded and went back to tying his fishing line to the stick he'd found. Remy stood and watched his cousin for a moment before continuing on his way into the woods. He knew Emil was scared and it didn't ease his mind any to know that he was scared too. 'Wish I had a homin' beacon or somethin' so de X-Men could come an' pick us up...' He thought as he walked.

"You should get some sleep, child." Tante Mattie said. "De others are."

Theoren sighed and didn't move. He had been sitting at Mattie's kitchen table for three hours, head in hands, elbows on the table, a cup of cold coffee in front of him. He silently cursed himself for sighing; he'd never been the type of person who got easily rattled about anything, especially his own emotions, but right now, he just wanted the damned phone to ring.

"I can' sleep Tante. I swear...if anythin' happened to dem..."

The old woman chuckled lightly and sat down across from the worried thief. "You mean if anythin' happened to Emil. You never really cared 'bout what happened to Remy an' you know it." She chided.

"Should I?" Theo demanded quietly. "If it wasn' for Remy an' his powers, my little brother would be alive today. An' now...dis...I should never have agreed to dis..."

"Remy wasn' to blame for Etienne's death an' you know it, Theoren Marceaux." Mattie scolded. "Stop makin' him your scapegoat. He used his powers to try an' save Et." Softening her voice, she continued. "An' you agreed to dis trip b'cause in spite of your hard exterior an' all de fights you two have, you love nothin' more den spoilin' an' indulgin' Emil."

"Yeah well...Francois entrusted me wit' takin' care of Emil an' I'll never forgive myself if somethin' happened to him. Not jus' now. Anytime."

"You can' protect him from everythin' life's gon' throw at him, Theo." Mattie murmured. "An' you ain' gon' live forever, either."

Theoren sighed. "I know..."

"Yeah a little." Emil replied absently, pointing to the small pile of small fish laying beside the fire, waiting to be cooked. "But Remy...we got a problem."

"What's dat?" Remy asked, dropping his coconuts and joining Emil in the shelter.

"Look." Emil showed Remy their food supply. In the heat, with them unable to refridgerate it properly, well over half the food had gone bad, or was going bad. "What're we gon' do?"

Remy glanced over at the fish. "Fry dat fish up for one t'ing, b'fore goes bad too. Other den dat we'll have to bot' go lookin' for food...a few fish an' a couple of coconuts ain' gon' last very long."

Back in New Orleans, Tante Mattie had finally convinced Theoren to at least take a nap, no matter how short it was. With her thieves securely sleeping in various parts of her house, the old woman took the opportunity of quiet to meditate and listen to the spirits.

Mattie was deep in a meditating trance when she suddenly snapped out of it, eyes wide. As she came to, she cried out loud, arousing all the thieves. They came running and converged in the living room at the same time.

"Tante Mattie, what is it? What's wrong?" Zoe asked, seeing that her four companions couldn't get the words out.

Mattie looked at the five thieves. "Dey're alive, I can tell you dat. But dey're not gon' be for long if dey don' get rescued." She said.

"Can you tell us anythin' other den dat?" Theoren asked quietly.

"Oui." Mattie replied. "I had a vision when I was meditatin'. I saw dem, dat's how I know dey're alive. Dey were sailin' wit' deir instructor when de storm hit. Dey're on an island somewhere. Deir food is goin' bad very quickly...dey didn' have much to b'gin wit'. Chances are dey're gon' go explorin' for more food an' dat's where de danger comes in. Dere's caves an' poisonous snakes an' all sorts of deadly t'ings on dat island, only dey don' know it. An' I can' go to dem to warn dem. An' I can' even tell where de island is."

"Not dat we could tell anyone anyway, even if you could, Tante." Mercy sighed. "How would we ever explain how we knew? But can you tell us if dey're okay? I mean you said dey're alive, but you didn' say how dey are."

"Dey're fine from what I could see in de vision. Tired, hungry, sunburned an' scraped up a little, but fine. I could sense from bot' an' underlyin' fear dey don' wan' talk 'bout, but de main emotion from dem is a desire to come home.

"Can' blame 'em for dat..." Claude commented.

"I'm jus' worried 'bout what could happen when dey go explorin'." Mattie admitted. "Dere's so much danger..."

"Emil slow down, would ya?" Remy asked, sounding exasperated. "Dis ain' a race."

"Yeah I know. I'm jus' hungry. An' what if we don' find anythin' else? I mean you didn' find anythin' more den a few coconut trees...an' we can' live on coconuts an' de occasional fish..."

Remy chuckled. "Many people have lived longer on less, mon cousin."

For two hours, Remy and Emil had trekked deep into the jungles of the island, searching for edible berries, fruit and anything else they might be able to live off. They didn't know how long they'd be stuck on the island and didn't want to take any chances on being able to catch fish.

Heeding his cousin's wishes, Emil slowed down and ended up walking just behind Remy. They were making paths of their own, as there were very few to be found in the jungle.

Suddenly, Remy stopped, causing Emil to almost run into him. "Did you hear dat?"

Emil blinked and listened. Hearing nothing, he shook his head. "Nope. Still don'. Why? What'd you hear?"

"I don' know. Prob'ly nothin'. Let's jus' keep goin'."

They kept walking and Remy didn't hear the noise again, so both forgot about it. Remy got a hundred yards or so ahead of Emil at one point, but Emil wasn't paying attention. He had paused to examine some berries, and had decided with pleasure that they had finally found something worth eating.

Emil started to holler to Remy before he looked up. "Hey Rem! I found some rasp..." His voice trailed off as he looked up and realized he was standing face to face with a very large snake who had slithered out in front of him. The snake would have left well enough alone, which would have suited Emil fine, only hearing Emil's voice startled it and it went immediately into a defensive position, looking to Emil like it would strike if he moved.

'Oh mon dieu where's Steve Irwin when you need 'im?' Emil thought, trying to keep his panic inside his head where it belonged instead of showing fear to the six-foot snake. Unsure what to do, Emil just stood there, frozen in place, barely blinking or breathing. 'How do I get Remy to come back here...?'

Remy, who had heard Emil shouting to him and was wondering why his friend had stopped in mid-sentence, was making his way back to find out what was going on. He paused, silent, a dozen yards away and wondered what Emil was focusing so intently on. Emil knew Remy was there, but didn't dare take his eyes off the snake. Remy saw that his cousin was staring at something, so he followed Emil's gaze and saw the snake. Carefully he started charging the snake with biokinetic energy.

Emil, seeing the snake starting to glow, knew what was happening and prayed it wouldn't be too messy. Five seconds later, the snake, unaware of what was happening, blew up, splattering Emil and the surrounding trees and bushes with blood. Emil wiped the blood off his face with his shirt and grimaced. "Okay, dat was gross, Remy. But t'ank you. Not quite up to Crocodile Hunter standards, but it'll do."

"Jus' don' tell Steve-o on me an' it'll be fine." Remy joked, rejoining Emil. "So what's dis 'bout raspberries?"

"Yeah! Found some." Emil pointed out the red berries with a smile.

For the next hour the cousins picked raspberries, putting them in their packs. Suddenly, looking up, Remy realized it was getting dark. "Hey we better get back or we'll be out here all night."

"Ooh...yeah. Okay wit' snakes an' all...I'd rather not do dat..."

They started heading back to their shelter on the beach and were about half-way there when Remy spotted something a few yards off the path they'd made. His eyesight was very good, even in the dark, so he put down his pack and started heading off to find out what he'd seen.

Emil stopped. "Remy what are you...?"

"I'll be back in a sec, Red. I saw somethin'." Remy replied as he walked. Emil didn't like it one bit, because his eyesight wasn't as good as Remy's and he couldn't see his cousin after a few seconds.

About two minutes after Remy headed off the path, Emil heard a loud crash and at the same time, Remy's voice crying out in alarm. Then, nothing. The jungle around him was completely silent.

"Remy?" Emil called into the jungle. He was suddenly more scared than he'd ever been in his life. "REMY?!"

The five thives, who had not left her house since they arrived there the day before, looked at her, all of them voicing the question in unison. "What is it?"

"Somethin's happened. I don' know what, but somethin's happened. It's not good."

"Oh dear God please..." Theoren whispered.

"Remy?" Emil called again, praying that he'd be answered. When he wasn't, he almost sobbed. He was so scared his entire body was shaking, and he didn't know what to do. His instincts were telling him that Remy was hurt, and therefore, he had to do something, but he'd never been placed in this kind of situation before. He stood there in the dark for a moment, shaking, before he decided something had to be done. He placed his own pack down beside Remy's and sat down beside them.

"Okay. Dat's it. I gotta pull myself together here." He said aloud. He found it actually helped to talk to himself because then it didn't seem so eerily quiet in the jungle. "I can do dis. Theoren's always complainin' how I've never taken charge of anythin', never been a leader in de Guild...well now it's me or no one. Time to prove all my trainin' hasn' been in vain, n'est-ce pas? So let's see...can' go back to de shelter an' wait 'til mornin' b'cause I'll never find him. Yet right now I know dat if I go straight ahead, I'll have to find him b'cause dat's where he went. But it's so dark..."

Emil shivered and wished he had a flashlight. Then he suddenly realized he did. "If I could kick myself, I would..." He muttered, reaching into a small pouch on the side of his backpack and pulling out his flashlight. Like all the thieves, he never left home without a flashlight and a towline. Coming to the conclusion the towline might come in handy, he grabbed it as well. And then he dug into Remy's pack and got Remy's towline, having been struck with a pretty good idea when he looked at his own.

He tied one end of Remy's towline to a tree on the side of the path he and Remy had made. Then, with his own towline hooked to his belt, he set off into the jungle where Remy had gone, his flashlight in one hand and Remy's towline in the other, letting it out as he walked. He was using Remy's towline as a guide so he'd be able to find his way back to the path when the time came.

A few dozen feet into the jungle, Emil stopped, waving his flashlight around. On the ground he saw a hole that looked big enough to have been a well at one point. Or a trap for an animal. Upon closer inspection he saw that it had been covered over with wooden planks. "Remy mus'ta stepped on de planks an' dey're prob'ly so old dey gave way under his weight." He reasoned. "Dat's de crash I heard. An' since he ain' anywhere up here, dat means...Remy's down dere..." Emil swallowed. "Oh lord..."

Emil took a deep breath and moved as close as he dared to the edge of the hole. He waved his flashlight around and concluded that the hole was approximately fifteen feet deep. And at the very bottom of the hole was Remy, unconscious and with what looked like a badly broken leg.

With a deep sigh, Emil sat back. "Okay Lapin." He said to himself. "Jus' how on earth are you gon' handle dis...?" And for the remainder of what seemed like an endless night, Emil sat there beside the hole, thinking.