UNCHARTED 2: Forget Me Not

-1-

Gloom & Doom

It was dark, cold and rainy. In a word—miserable. Nate was freezing in the back of this huge, metal truck. He felt his hands shiver here and there, his breaths showing in puffs before his eyes. He was donned in an orange jump suit, typical of prisoners. He had been held hostage by these guys for the past two months...or so they thought. It was all part of the plan. He just had to stay focused on the task at hand. Of course he'd rather be home with his new wife, Elena over this, but she understood that this was something he had to do...his 'duty' to the world. Maybe this would repair the mistakes he had made in his past, make them go away from his mind. Killing was never something he wanted to do—it was something he had to do. Kill one, save millions.

But among all the bad memories he had bothering him at the moment, he had a lot of good ones as well. When he was stuck in shitty situations like this, these memories were the ones that kept him warm. Nate rested his head against the inside of the truck, closing his eyes. He thought of his wedding to Elena and the best night of his life...in more ways than one.

Thinking of his marriage was what kept him going. They had failed at it so many times in the past, but this time they finally got it right. For a while it seemed like a hollow reality, just a dream that would never come to pass. He had abandoned their first wedding a couple years ago, thinking it was the only way he could keep her safe. Nate's job was a dangerous one, I mean, hell, look where he was now. But Elena had told him over and over that she wanted to be with him, no matter the cost. Sure, he pushed her away at first, telling her that he had moved on and didn't love her anymore. If she were away from him, she'd be sad, sure, but it was better her be sad than dead. He wanted to avoid that more than anything. He had already practically lost her when he took down Zoran Lazarevic and he never wanted to go through that again—ever.

It appeared, however, that Elena had her own fears to worry about. Upon being shot more times than she could count, Nate had danced with death quite a bit over the years. A few months prior, he had even died in her arms. All because of some lethally redheaded bitch named Adelle. She had made sure that she tortured Nate and her relationship as much as she could. Adelle had wanted the ring Nate wore around his neck for quite some time. Why? Because that coupled with the other ring she had gotten in her possession, she would become not only as powerful as a god, but invincible as well.

No one could live in a world like that.

Adelle took every measure she could to make sure that Nate didn't get the happy ending he and Elena coveted so badly. So she injected Nate with a deadly poison, hoping it would kill him and his love for Elena in one fell swoop. Before Adelle could see if her victim had taken his fate, Nate was able to stop her once and for all. He killed her and all of her evil deeds with her. Good had won the day.

Or so they thought.

Soon after Nate had taken Adelle down, the poison did what Adelle had intended, it crippled Nate in pain and he slowly began to fade away. In that moment, Nate had confessed his love to Elena and hers to him. Even though it had seemed that evil had lost, to them, it had won. And right then and there, Nathan Drake died in Elena's arms.

Through her grief Elena couldn't accept what had happened, no matter what Sully or anyone else said. She just begged and pleaded for him to come back to her, grasping his limp body in her hands with all her might. Defeated, she had taken the ring Nate had loved for so much of his life, the ring she was able to salvage from Marlowe, and slipped it on his finger. She wouldn't be able to give it to him on their wedding day, so she gave it to him there.

Much to her, Sully and Chloe's surprise, once the ring was on his finger, it began to illuminate, overtaking Nate's body completely. When it had subsided, Nate lay there for a brief moment before letting out a loud gasp and opening his eyes, taking Elena hard in his arms. Somehow, that little ring had revived him.

It was a miracle.

After that, Nate and Elena were finally able to have their wedding day. But the drama didn't stop there. Soon after the wedding it came out that Vergil discovered that Nate was his long lost brother that he thought he had lost many years ago. Not only that, but that Vergil and Chloe were having a baby and were to get married as well. Just another day in the life of Nathan Drake I suppose.

All the memories that filled Nate's mind were interrupted a second later.

"Are you getting lost in Dreamland there, bro?" A voice asked from across from him.

Nate lifted his head to look at the man before him. "I told you not to call me that, Vergil." he warned him.

Vergil was a tall, long haired blonde man who was quite the looker...but was not so much in the intelligence department. His green eyes and full lips were what had won Chloe over in the first place. Just a little while ago, he was a crony for Adelle, doing her bidding like some lapdog. But he soon gave up that life to come over to the side of good. Upon doing so he met Chloe Frazer—his sexy wife and future mother of his child. His life had changed so much just within a few months.

"Lighten up for chrissakes." Vergil sighed, leaning back in his seat. He was decked out in the same attire as Nate, not to mention the both of them were in handcuffs as well.

For a moment Nate considered apologizing to him for his coldness, but he had more important things in mind at the moment. He just kind of looked down to his hands in silence.

It was true, Vergil really was his brother, as much as he didn't want to believe it. Vergil really was a good guy, but there were things about him that just bugged the hell out of Nate. Truthfully, he still had trust issues with him, seeing as how he used to work for the woman that had killed him. Maybe it wasn't so much that he had issues with Vergil, but the whole situation in general. He didn't want to ever think of his childhood again. His mother allegedly killed herself and his father surrendering him to thr state at age five. Vergil on the other hand was told that he was in an terrible car accident with his parents and older brother when he was seven.

Neither of them knew what the true story was, but the fact remained that they really were related. They were really brothers.

Nate let out a sigh. "Look, Vergil...I-" he started, when the truck they were in came to a sudden halt. The guard that was driving quickly put the gear into park and hopped out of the car. A figure was shadowed by the bright headlights shining on him.

The guard reached for his gun and began shouting in Russian. But the guard was soon silenced when a bullet capped him in the side of the head. Dead as a doornail.

Nate shook his head. "Guy sure loves to make an entrance." he said, kicking the back door of the truck open with his foot. Vergil nodded in agreement. Once the door was opened, a familiar face appeared.

"Hello, darlings. Glad to see me?" the man said.

It was none other than Charlie Cutter—a fine ally that Nate had known for quite a while. They evened adventured together, that is until Charlie broke his leg on one of their excursions and had to bow out for a while. He was back now though, back and tougher than ever.

"I thought you were going to do this quietly, Charlie." Nate scolded him as he unlocked the cuffs that Nate and Vergil had around their wrists.

Cutter laughed and shrugged off Nate's words. "I've told you once before, Nate, you have no sense of drama."

Suddenly, what sounded like metal raindrops began to hit the truck.

"Looks like you got your drama there, man." Vergil said, the three of them hopping out of the truck and crouching next to a concrete boarder that was next to them.

"Guns would really be nice about now." Nate said quickly, holding out his hand for a gun from Cutter.

"Calm down." Cutter said, handing both Nate and Vergil a .45. "I'm not a sodding moron."

Nate let out a small laugh. "Yeah, that remains to be seen." he said, sliding a new clip into the gun in his possession.

"So...what?" Vergil asked, looking over his cover to see if he could spot anyone. "We just kill all these guards and then grab the chalice?" he asked. That damn chalice was the whole reason they were there and were taking prisoner in the first place. It was all staged by them to get into this camp so they could get the treasure they wanted.

Cutter nodded. "Here's hoping it's as easy as you make it sound there, lad."

"Okay, you two just shut up and shoot." Nate interjected. The two nodded and almost in unison, the three of them rose from their cover and picked off all the guards that were blocking their path. The rain and fog made it hard to see if they had gotten everyone, but from what they could see, they were clear.

Vergil smirked and twirled the gun around in his hand. "Easy peasy." he said happily, standing up and pressing on. Nate sighed in annoyance and went after him, grabbing his arm.

"You have to be more delicate, Vergil." He told him.

Vergil gave Nate a strange glance. "So you're telling me to be delicate when I'm packing heat?"

Nate rolled his eyes. "Yes, Vergil."

Vergil shook his head and scoffed. "You know what, Nate? I-" Vergil began to yell but Cutter interrupted him, still crouching in his cover.

"Um...guys!" he said in a harsh whisper. He pointed at the two bickering brothers emphatically.

The two looked down to see a red bead on each one of their chests. Vergil looked at Nate with a worried glance.

"Oh shit..." Vergil said through his teeth.

"Goddamn it!" Nate cursed, grabbing Vergil and forcing he and himself back to cover with Cutter.

Vergil took a few deep breaths before speaking. "Okay...now I see what you meant be 'delicate'." he conceded to Nate.

"That was too fucking close." Nate sighed. "When the hell did they get snipers? That wasn't in the original plan."

"Okay, okay calm down. It's only snipers, we can handle a few snipers." Cutter assured them.

"Yeah..." Vergil answered nervously. "It's not like things could get any worse, right?"

As soon as Vergil's jinxing words ended, a fire from an RPG hit close next to them. "Oh shit!" Vergil said once more, in a much higher and frightened voice.

Cutter shook his head. "Okay, we can't do this. We're not equipped to handle these damn RPGs." he warned them. "We have to bail out of here, Sully should have the boat at the extraction point by now."

"Wait!" Nate stopped him. "So we just forget about what we came here for and leave empty handed?" he protested.

"Better than leaving without a head. Now come on!" Cutter yelled back at him.

Nate had no choice, he had to leave the chalice behind. "Son of a bitch!" he yelled, running next to Vergil and Cutter. The three of them ran as fast as they could, ducking red beads and RPG shots that were trying to stop them. Unfortunately, he and Vergil were very easy to spot it their bright orange jumpsuits, so they had to hurry as fast as their asses could go.

They soon came to a cliff's edge that led into some black, churning water. "I see the boat!" Cutter yelled through the rain, pointing into the water.

"Are you shitting me!?" Vergil cried out.

"Come on—move!" Cutter screamed, jumping from the edge. It was either jump or be blown to bits at this point.

Nate hustled to the edge. He was all set to jump when he saw Vergil taking a step back. "What the hell are you doing? We need to jump!" he screamed to him.

"I...have a thing with heights okay!" Vergil yelled at him, totally embarrassed that this was coming out at literally the worst possible moment. "Just go! I'll find another way down!"

"There IS no other way down!" Nate roared at him. Nate caught himself, he realized he was bullying his brother again. He didn't want to hurt anyone, but now both of their lives were at stake. "Look..." he said in a calmer voice. "I'll be right next to you, you'll be fine. I promise."

Vergil nodded slowly and crept to the edge. At their feet a sniper fired a shot.

"Vergil, we have to go now!" Nate yelled, grabbing Vergil's shoulder. Another shot rang in their ears and Nate was thrown back a bit and hit the ground.

"Nate!" Vergil yelled out, running to him.

Nate let out a small groan and clasped his shoulder. He stood up quickly. "It just grazed me, now go!" A beat later an RPG shot landed ever closer to them. "Enough of this!" Nate growled, grabbing Vergil's arm and jumping off the side of the cliff, into the water.

"Oh, craaaaaaaaaaaap!" Nate shouted out as the two of them made contact with the water.