Disclaimer: I don't own Lara Croft!
Again, thank you so much for the reviews on this.
Zip stared blindly at his computer screen. He felt like he should be doing something - anything - and yet he had already checked that Lara's flight had taken off and landed four times. Nothing had changed in the last thirty seconds. Instead of casually surfing the net or working on some new gadjet as he usually did, he found himself just sitting there, thinking.
Thinking, mostly, of Alister.
True, he wanted Lara to put the man out of her mind, and to be honest he wanted the same for himself. But somehow, all he could see now was Lara laying his friend down on the ground, the slow, sad shake of Winston's head. Alister could almost have been sleeping, if not for the blood shining slightly in the firelight from the mansion, and the lines of agony which were still etched on his face. He hadn't seen Alister again, but he hoped that some undertaker somewhere had made his face slightly more peaceful. To spend the rest of eternity with that pained expression, even in death, just didn't seem right for Alister.
Zip leant back in his chair and looked through the glass wall of the tech room. He remembered watching Lara lead Alister in that day, the day they had all met. Lara had been looking for a more experience researcher for some time, and Alister had called asking if he could trouble her to fund some interest he had in some kind of temple. She had eagerly accepted, and soon enough he was walking in through the doors, holding a small suitcase and dressed in a suit. That was what had got Zip - the suit. Who wore a suit when moving into their new home? But then he had realized that Alister always wore smart trousers and a jacket. He was always so innocent and geeky that Zip practically burst out laughing whenever he came into the room. At first Alister had been offended, but now - towards the end, he meant - he hadn't seemed to mind.
I should never have let him go...
They had all been waiting in the tomb room for Lara to return, but then upstairs they had heard someone coming in. So they had gone upstairs, and found the Doppleganger getting into the vault. Thinking it was Lara, Zip had moved forwards, calling her name. Instantly she had turned and put a bullet in his leg. Zip had managed to grab the gun Lara had left on the table and fired wildly at the Doppleganger but she had simply leapt out of the way and then advanced on him and Winston.
That was when Alister had interferred.
Idiot.
He had picked up a metal chair in the corner and thrown it at the Doppleganger, missing of course, but grabbing her attention. Zip could still hear his voice yelling.
"Hey, you... well, I don't know what you are, but that's quite unimportant... uh, leave them, um, please. No, not please, leave them alone!"
She had made a dive for him, and he had miraculously thrown himself out of the way.
"Run! I'll draw her off!"
And then he had run, the Doppleganger on his heels. Zip knew he should have followed, but the house was on fire and his leg was searing... he had been selfish and stupid. And he should have known, as Alister had, that Lara would never hurt them. Instead he had distracted her from helping him by trying to kill her when she finally found them again.
Sighing, Zip reached out and clicked on the automatic calling system on his desktop. The computer began to dial Lara's number, but it went straight to voicemail. He hung up. He wanted to talk to her, just to make sure that she was okay. He shouldn't have let her go off alone either, not in the state she was in at the moment.
He put his head in his hands and kneaded his forehead.
"God, Lara, hope you're okay," he muttered.
Lara dug her heels into the ground as Odin's staff pulled her towards the flashing silver and red lights, and god-knows-whatever was now on the other side. A sudden icy wind blew over her, as if snow had suddenly coated her limbs, and screams rang in her ears. She flinched backwards, almost releasing the staff, but managed to keep her grip. The screams grew louder as she was pulled closer. Was this... death? Was that what she was hearing? But what kind of death would this be? A sudden fear gripped her, comanding and roaring.
Let go. Just bloody let go! You tried, you did your best. There's nothing else you can do. JUST - LET - GO!
But Alister...
"Alister!" she cried out, fustration mingling with terror in her voice. "Alister, please!"
"Lara!"
For a moment she thought that she was imagining the voice. That her own hope was playing tricks on her. But then it came again, louder this time, clearer.
"Lara!"
"Alister?" she gasped. "Where... where are you?"
Her feet slipped and she let out a short shriek, scrambling backwards has best she could without letting go. To let go now was to lose her conection with Alister... if it was really him...
"Alister, talk to me!"
She was almost pleading.
"What... happening? I... stand... you... this? Lara!"
She was only getting snippets of what he was saying. She squinted against the glare of the lights, and then suddenly he was there. On the other side of them, flickering between transparent and solid, she could barely even make him out, but he seemed to be wearing the same clothes as he had been the night it had all happened. His shirt was coated with blood and stuck to his side, glistening wetly. But his eyes shone as he stared out at her, so close and yet looking so far away.
"Lara... stop!"
"What?" she called back.
"You have to stop!" he screamed.
"What? No! Come out, come here!"
"I can't, I don't know how! Lara, its going to destroy you!"
And she knew it too. She could already feel it tearing at her like a tornado, sucking at her very soul. The screeching wind ripped her very breath away. But she couldn't bear to stop now, not when she was so close.
"Alister!" she cried, desperately searching her brains. "Just jump! Just run at me as hard as you can."
His face creased with concentration, and then he helplessly shook his head. Carefully, Lara pulled one hand away from the staff and thrust it out towards the lights. The staff began to inch out of her grasp.
"Take my hand! Quickly, there's no time!"
He reached towards her. The flashing, pulsating lights blinded her, the wind snatched and screamed, the very earth seemed to tremble beneath her. She shut her eyes, still snatching desperately at Alister's shimmering form.
They weren't going to make it. She could feel the staff slipping from her hands. She could barely even grip it with her fingertips. She felt tears spilling over her eyelashes, blown sideways by the wind.
She had failed once again.
Then several things happened at once. First of all, the staff ripped from her hand. Secondly, the lights seemed to explode with colour and heat, a blast that sent her flying backwards and hitting the ground hard a few meters away. And, the thing that made her heart stop... she felt freezing fingers curl around her own.
Sorry this chapter was so short but I didn't have much time and I haven't updated for a few days. Please update!
SUPRNTRAL LVR.
