Ben Linus
| Ben Linus | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Formal Name |
Benjamin Linus
|
| Species |
Human
|
| Gender |
Male
|
| Weapons |
Bow and arrows
|
| Status |
Alive
|
| Home Reality | |
- "My name is Benjamin Linus. We are the protectors of this island, burdened with the sacred duty of protecting it from trespassers like you."
- ―Ben to the Claws of the Phoenix[1]
Benjamin Linus was the self-proclaimed "protector" of the Island who reluctantly assisted the Claws of the Phoenix when he learned that Mazkertis could pose a threat to his home.
History[edit | edit source]
Early Life[edit | edit source]
Ben had served as the "protector" of the Island for some time. When Quolas was first drawn to the Island by its unique temporal properties, Ben concluded that Quolas was a hostile entity who had come to exploit the Source of the Island and tried to banish him, but Quolas escaped and became a consistent thorn in his side by disappearing and reappearing on a different location on the Island whenever he was discovered.[2]
Meeting the Claws of the Phoenix[edit | edit source]
In 150,084 CMT, Ben was in a darkened corridor in a fortress on the Island when Quolas, Kakamu, D-Klak, Nadle, and Bob emerged from a spatial tear in front of him. Ben, Tomas, and the other humans present assumed that the appearance of the Claws of the Phoenix heralded an invasion, so they shot at them with flaming arrows until Kakamu ordered the humans to show themselves. Amazed that Kakamu could speak, Ben lowered his bow and asked the aliens to identify themselves.[3] Nadle replied that they were there to assist Quolas, the "owner" of the establishment,[4] which made Ben laugh because he knew the truth about Quolas's claim to the Island. Quolas tried to reason with Ben by once again trying to explain why he needed to live on the Island, but Ben ignored him and ordered his men to open fire on the Claws again.[5]
Nadle pleaded with Ben to cease his attacks, because "someone [was] going to erase [their] timelines, and this place is instrumental in stopping him".[6] This statement prompted Ben to think that the Claws knew about the time wheel and a possible threat to the Island, so he ordered his men to hold their fire and offered to negotiate with the aliens instead. Ben then heard an auspicious "ho, ho, ho" coming from another part of the fortress and ordered Tomas to investigate it.[7] Once both sides had lowered their weapons, Ben opened a door to a secret chamber and invited the Claws inside to negotiate.[8]
Inside, Ben explained to the Claws that he and his men were the "protectors" of the Island and added that the time wheel was a "wheel that moved [them] through time".[1] In return, D-Klak told Ben about Mazkertis and his plans to rewrite the timeline of the entire universe,[9] but Ben did not believe him because he did not think that it was possible to change time. This frustrated Quolas immensely, who decided to prove to Ben that time could be changed firsthand. He took Ben to the same location but at an indeterminate point in the past, where he saw his past self. Quolas then severed one of Past Ben's toes and took Present Ben back to the present, where he found that one of his toes was now missing.[10] Forced to admit that he was wrong about the laws of time and that Mazkertis posed an actual threat, Ben gave Tomas a note to give to Kaira and decided that the Island must be moved to minimize the chances of Mazkertis finding it. Ben asked for a volunteer to turn the time wheel that would move the Island, but warned that whoever moved the wheel would never be able to return to the Island.[11]
The Time Wheel[edit | edit source]
D-Klak volunteered to move the time wheel because he was from another universe and thus would have no need to return to the Island in the future,[12] so Ben took D-Klak on a several-hour-long trek across the Island, stopping only a few times to drink water and eat bread. Eventually, Ben and D-Klak arrived at their destination: a cluster of greenhouses that concealed an elevator that took them beneath the surface of the Island.[13] Ben then pushed D-Klak off the elevator and into the time wheel's chamber to complete his mission alone, as he did not wish to be banished from the Island by helping D-Klak turn the wheel. Ben encouraged D-Klak to decide what time period to move the Island to, saying "Push it to the right, we end up in the future, push it to the left, we end up in the past. One rung is... 5 years, give or take". Before he left, Ben told D-Klak not to worry about where the Island would send him, because "Tunisia's lovely this time of year".[14]
As Ben took the elevator back to the surface, the Island shook as it was relocated to another point in time and D-Klak was teleported to present-day Tunisia.[15] Ben learned that the Island had been sent to 1985 AD as he made his way back to the rest of the Claws on the other side of the Island and saw that they were in the process of leaving through one of Quolas's spatial tears. Kakamu tried to get some answers about the Island itself out of Ben before he left, but Ben coyly replied "The only answers you'll get here are the ones that you decide for yourself".[16] Ben and the Claws bid farewell to each other "till the next time".[17]
