(Author's Note: Since writing this story I have learned quite a few things that will change the story dramatically, much like the rest of the Thief Chronicles. I'll get around to making the changes someday...)

Claude Potier awoke to the sound of someone screaming. Considering only two people lived in the apartment, him and his best friend Theoren Marceaux, and he wasn't screaming himself, he figured out pretty quickly that the person who was doing the screaming was Theoren. He frowned as he swung his legs out of bed and grabbed his bathrobe. Theo was having nightmares more and more frequently these days, and it bothered them both.

Claude walked down the hall to his friend's bedroom and opened the door quietly. He sighed as he saw Theoren tossing and turning on the bed, mumbling incoherently, the sheets twisted around his body. The only thing Claude could think of was that something in Theoren's subconscious mind was trying to tell him something. He sat down on the side of the bed and reached over, taking Theo's arms in his hands.

"Theoren!" he said sharply, shaking his friend gently. "Theo, wake up. C'mon, man, wake up."

Theoren awoke with a start, breathing heavily and shaking, his dark eyes wide with fear. "Dis has to stop."

"Tell me 'bout it. You ain' de only one not getting any sleep 'round here," Claude said, trying to joke with his friend to calm him down.

Theo cracked a small smile and managed to control his breathing. "You ever feel like you're goin' crazy?" he asked.

Claude tilted his head to one side and crossed his eyes, which made Theo laugh. "Um, in case you didn' realize it, dis whole Guild is crazy. I t'ink one of de prerequisites of joinin' is dat all potential members have to be at least half-crazy. An' it's only gotten worse since de unification."

"I s'pose you're right. I mean how else could anyone explain Gris Gris, Fifolet and Questa?" Theoren grinned.

"Do you feel like you're goin' nuts?" Claude asked.

"Yeah. Ever since dese dreams started, I do. I wish I knew why I'm havin' dem, what dey mean." Theoren sighed. "De t'ing is, I keep dreamin' 'bout somet'ing dat happened in my past, like I relive it over an' over in dese dreams. An' I don' know why."

Claude looked thoughtful. "Maybe you should talk to Tante Mattie 'bout it. She might be able to help you figure it out. Or you could always tell me what dey're all 'bout. I know you never did b'fore, but I also didn' ask. If you'd like to tell me, you can, you know. I'd be glad to listen, if it'll help you."

"T'anks…um…you feel up to startin' now?" Theoren asked, casting a sideways glance at his alarm clock. It said 2:17 a.m.

"Sure. I got no place else to be."

"Okay. Well, may as well start wit' tonight. Tonight's was de worst of de bunch anyways…" Theoren began.

"Okay, de coast is clear. Go on in guys, but be careful." Emil Lapin said into his headset. The twenty-one year old red-haired thief was the resident hacker of the Thieves Guild. His main specialty was bypassing security systems. Emil was the youngest member of the Guild, but he was by far the most qualified to get the thieves into the places they wanted to go.

This particular job was more surveillance than anything. The Guild was scoping out some houses in the New Orleans Garden District. They were looking for places to rob at later dates. They called this job tilling.

Standing by Emil by the computer system was Theoren. He was the Guild's other computer specialist, but his gig was more along the lines of getting information. Once Emil got past security systems, no piece of information on any computer was safe from Theo's eyes. The two often worked as a team and were friends of a sort, even though there was a large difference in their ages, and their personalities clashed frequently.

There was always a certain amount of danger involved when the Guild was doing anything, and tilling was no exception. Jean-Luc LeBeau, the Guild patriarch, was with Emil and Theoren; they were the only three who weren't out scouting houses. This particular house had all six of the remaining Guild members in it: Henri LeBeau, his wife Mercy (Jean-Luc's son and daughter-in-law) and Claude Potier were on the main floor. Remy LeBeau (Jean-Luc's younger son and Emil's best friend), Genard Alouette and Theoren's younger brother Etienne were on the second floor.

Things were moving smoothly for the six thieves, until Remy, Genard and Etienne triggered a silent alarm. They didn't realize it, of course, but Emil did.

"What de hell did you hit, guys?" he demanded, pointing at the screen so Jean-Luc and Theoren would know what was going on.

"Remy hit dat desk, 'Mil. Alarm goin' off?" Etienne replied shortly.

Emil rolled his eyes at the computer screen. "Du-uh! You guys gotta get outta dere, now. I'll make sure de others know." He said, changing frequencies so he could talk to Henri on the main floor of the house.

Henri clicked on his headset. "What's up, Emil?"

"Rem accidentally hit a silent alarm. You guys gotta scram, an' fast." Emil replied.

"Got it. T'anks." Henri replied. He, Mercy and Claude got out very quickly and waited in the bushes outside the house. But as the police cars showed up, and as the police headed into the house, Remy, Genard and Etienne were nowhere to be found, and the others had to leave to avoid being caught.

"Why aren' dey out yet?" Jean-Luc asked from his spot behind Emil. Theoren was standing beside him, the concerned look on Jean-Luc's face mirrored in his own.

"What do I look like, a magic eight ball?" Emil snapped, switching the frequency again and saying "Etienne, you wan' tell me what's keep ya in dere?"

"We're kinda trapped, Emil, lighten up." Etienne said sharply in return.

Emil blew air out through his teeth in frustration. "Okay, okay. Anyt'ing we can do?"

"Make de cops go 'way?" Etienne asked.

"Ehhh…no can do, mon ami. I guess you'll jus' have to get out on your own. Sorry." Emil replied.

"Dey out yet?" Claude asked, leading the way into the room, with Mercy and Henri right behind him.

Emil shook his head silently, watching the screens as the police started going through the house, guns drawn, looking for the intruders.

"Dey're trapped." Theoren said softly, answering his friend's question.

"Damn." Emil said suddenly, switching on the headset again. "Dey're comin' up de stairs, Etienne. Jump out a window! Hide! Don' jus' stand dere!"

Etienne didn't have time to reply as he, Genard and Remy found themselves trapped in the hallway of the second story of the house. The police were blocking them from the staircase, their only means of escape.

The three thieves looked at each other. "What now?" Genard asked.

Remy shrugged, then his red and black eyes lit up with an idea. Pulling two cards out of his pocket, he charged them with kinetic energy and let them fly. "Etienne, you take left, Genard an' I'll take right…an' run fast!"

As the cards exploded, momentarily blinding the police officers, they raced for the stairs. They ran down the steps as fast as they could, Remy still tossing charged cards back upstairs to keep the police away from them. At the bottom of the stairs, they ran into their next problem: more police officers with bigger guns.

"Dey jus' can' make dis easy on us once, can dey?" Remy sighed.

Back at the LeBeau mansion, the rest of the Guild was crowded around the computer screens, watching the drama unfold before them, worried expressions on their faces.

"I can' b'lieve we have to jus' stand here an' do not'ing…" Theoren commented in a low voice. He was worried about his brother more than he would let on. He and Etienne were very close, the only members of their family left.

"Dey'll be okay, Theo. As long as Remy doesn' run out of cards, dey'll be okay." Jean-Luc said in as confident and comforting voice as he could muster.

Theoren gave him an I-don'-b'lieve-you look, but managed a brief smile before concentrating on the computer screens again.

Back at the house, the police didn't give the two thieves a chance to come up with a workable plan. Before any of the three thieves could do anything, the police open-fired. Remy was able to leap out of the way, and land behind them, tossing cards left, right and center, creating a path for Genard to get through, but Etienne was trapped. Once Remy realized he was out of cards, there was nothing he and Genard could do but stand there and watch, just as they knew the rest of the Guild was watching back at the LeBeau mansion.

"NOOOOO!" Theoren screamed, his eyes glued to the screen. He had lost count of the number of bullets somewhere around eleven, but he knew most of them were now in his brother's dying body.

Emil, his blue eyes wide with horror, took off he headset and handed it silently to Theoren in case Theo wanted to say anything to Etienne before he didn't have a chance.

Theoren cast Emil a grateful glance. "Is it on?"

Emil nodded. "Oui," he whispered.

As Theoren put the headset on, Jean-Luc motioned for the others to join him at the back of the room, to give Theo some privacy.

"Etienne?" Theo said into the headset, praying that his brother still had his own headset turned on.

"Theo…" Etienne replied, his voice barely audible.

"Shhhh, don' talk. Jus' listen to me. Everyone's always been real proud of you, I guess for puttin' up wit' havin' me for a big brother. I wish I could help you, I wish I was dere, but I'm not, an' even Remy can' do anyt'ing an' he is dere." Theoren said, fighting back his tears. He'd lost so many people in his life, but none of those deaths had hurt him quite as much as this one was hurting. Seeing that his brother was fading fast, he continued quickly. "Etienne, I'm sorry for bein' a bully an' for not bein' wit' you right now. I love you, mon petit frere."

"I…love you…too…Theo…" Etienne struggled to say as the last breath of life drained from his body and he fell back on the floor of the hallway, silent and still.

Theoren bent his head, covering his face in his hands, unable to control his sobs. The rest of the Guild moved around to give him the support they knew he'd need, but they also knew it would be a long while before Theoren got over what had just happened.

"Whoa…" was all Claude could say as Theoren's voice drifted off into silence.

"I don' need to keep relivin' dat, you know?" Theo commented wryly.

Claude nodded. "How many times have you had dat one recently?"

"Tonight was de second time. Dere are others too. It's like I said, I keep relivin' t'ings dat happened in my past. I jus' don' know why."

Claude tilted his head. "You feel like sharin' another one, or would you rather wait until some other time?"

Theoren was silent for a few minutes, considering his friend's question. Then he finally sighed and replied,

"You're not fallin' asleep, are you? I mean if you're getting tired again, we can finish dis later."

"Non, I'm good. As long as you wan' talk, I'm here." Claude assured his friend.

"Hey do you 'member de trip to Florida we made a long time ago…?" Theoren asked suddenly.

Claude's eyes widened. "Non! Man, I haven' t'ought 'bout dat in forever! Dat was, what, twenty years ago now? Holy…!"

"Twenty-one dis year, actually. Time flies." Theo replied. "So you wan' make like a Survivor castaway an' go back to de island?"

"Sure."

The year was 1980. Jean-Luc decided to take some of the Thieves Guild to Florida for a vacation. Joining him in the Sunshine State were Henri, Mercy, Theoren, Etienne, Claude and the Guild's two youngest members, nine-year-old Genard and four-year-old Emil. The two children got to go with permission of their fathers, who decided to stay with the rest of the Guild back in New Orleans.

It was only natural that the two little ones had to go to Disney World. That was the main reason they had begged their fathers to let them go. However, not all of the others wished to take them, so the group ended up splitting up for most of the trip. Jean-Luc, Mercy and Etienne did the theme park tours with the boys while Henri, Theoren and Claude went to the coast and took sailing lessons.

The day before they were due to fly back home, the three sailors rented a boat. They were planning on taking a picnic lunch and going for one last sail before they were back to being swamp rats in Louisiana. Mercy and Jean-Luc passed up the chance to go with them, but Etienne agreed to go. As the four were getting ready to go, Jean-Luc was having a hard time trying to convince the two small boys that they didn't want to go.

He eventually gave up, and approached the others.

"You guys feel up to takin' dese two wit' you?"

The four men looked at the two little boys and smiled. Henri grabbed two spare life jackets and went over to the boys. "Rule number one: you put these on and never take them off unless we're on land. And rule number two: if we tell you do to something, you do it. You two understand dat?"

The two boys nodded their heads vigorously and Henri strapped them into the life jackets. Genard had no problem joining the others on the boat, but Emil was too small to get on by himself. He looked at Henri, who was right behind him, and with an innocent, almost pitiful expression on his small face, said,

"Help."

Henri chuckled. "You are too cute for words, you know dat?" he asked, lifting Emil up and into the boat.

As they got ready to shove off, Jean-Luc, standing on the dock with Mercy, said,

"You boys be careful, an' look after dose two, okay? When will you be back?"

"By six at de latest." Theo told him. Jean-Luc nodded and the sailboat drifted away from the dock with ease.

"How far are we gon' go?" Emil asked as he and Genard tried to make sense of the map Claude was looking at.

Claude smiled at the two little boys. "Well, go look out back an' tell me if you can see land anymore."

They raced back to the end of the boat and then came back, reporting to Claude that the land had disappeared. Claude then told them,

"We're goin' pretty far, but not far enough so dat we can' get back by de time we told Jean-Luc we'd be back."

The trip went smoothly, although eating lunch on a boat wasn't the easiest thing they had ever done. The two boys got a huge kick out of the whole experience as the boat drifted along and the waves kept knocking over the cans of soda.

As they put their picnic stuff away, the boys noticed something was wrong. Genard went over and tugged on Theoren's shirt, pointing at the ominous black storm clouds that were coming up very quickly. So quickly, in fact, that Theo had doubts as to whether they would get back to land before they got hit with the worst of it.

"It's gon' storm, guys! We should head back." He called to the others, who joined them on deck. As he said it, a huge clap of thunder sounded, causing Emil to let out a piercing scream and hide underneath one of the two chairs on the deck of the boat.

"It's only t'under, Emil." Genard scoffed as Henri knelt down by the chair and looked at the terrified little boy.

Emil glared at Genard from his spot under the chair. "I'm only four…I'm 'lowed to be scared of t'under."

"You certainly are!" Henri smiled, reaching under the chair and ruffling Emil's red hair playfully. He was very fond of the child and was secretly worried about what was going to happen before they got back to Florida.

"Henri, can we go home now?" Emil asked in a quiet voice as more thunder sounded around them and lightning flashed across the darkening sky.

"We're tryin' to do dat, kiddo, I promise. But I need you to come out from under dere, an' go inside with Genard an' Etienne, okay? It's safer in dere, we don' know how rough de sea is goin' to get."

Emil crawled out from under the chair. "'Kay."

"Well guys, dis is de test. We took de lessons, an' now we have to figure out how to get dis boat, not to mention ourselves, back to where we started, in once piece. I jus' hope we know what we're doin…" Theo commented.