Disclaimer: I own nothing, Everything belongs to: Toby Guard, Core design and Crystal dynamics.
A/N: Hello, Everyone. Well I hope you enjoyed chapter three, so here is chapter four. Sorry this took soooooo long, This still kind of clashes with all my other fics, I'm still trying to get my fanfictions done, please bare with me! Thank you loyal readers! (:
Lara Croft and the sword of Damocles
Chapter 4. The search, the find, the love, the loss.
"What are you talking about, Zip? Talking to objects is fun!" Lara joked.
"It makes you sound insane!"
"I am insane, I've seen and done insane things." She laughed in response. Lara observed the room's magnificent size and beauty, but also acknowledged it's smaller detail, she knelt down and brushed her fingers across the ground-through a light blanket of dust.
"Lara? What are you doing?"
"There seems to be a couple of fresh footprints in the dust, Alister, And before you say anything, Zip, they're not mine."
"My lips are sealed Lara"
"How can you tell they're fresh?" Questioned Alister, almost stupidly.
"You just can, I know they're not mine…they're considerably larger than my own, a different shape…..they've come from a completely different shoe style. I think someone else is here-" She glanced down for a moment. "-Or was here. I guess there's only one way to find out the answer."
"Oh, Lara, please don't."
"How else am I supposed to get across, Alister?" The noise from the headset fell silent. "That's what I thought, anyway, trust me, I've done this before." She took a silent deep breath, bolted to the end of the ledge and jumped, she took hold of the outcrop of the room's centre structure and clambered to itsurface. "See-" She breathed. "-Nothing to it!"
"You're going to give me a heart attack at this rate!" Alister huffed.
"I'm not forcing you to stay here, Alister. You're like Zip, You're choosing to stay, you can both leave at anytime." Lara was serious about what she was saying, however she allowed her tone to become light and cheerful, she just loved Alister's hypochondriac persona, she just loved winding him up.
Lara dropped down several platforms, she kept her eyes open for any sign of animals, or to see if her prediction of another visitor was correct.
"Things appear to be quite quiet…..I don't like it, keep your eyes pealed, boys."
"Will do, Lara." Replied Zip. She continued to climb, using a selection of ladders and ledges to reach her destination. Her feet eventually touched the room's floor.
Still there were zero signs of life, Only dust. Lara stood back and stared back up to where she just came from.
"What exactly are you looking for, Lara?"
"Well, I'm heading for a room marked 'Damocles'…believe it or not… it's further up the structure, I'm just hunting for the best way to get there."
"Very well."
"Okay, let's do this." Lara said, her voiced loaded with determination.
"Do be careful, Lara, I don't want you to have any more accidents."
"Okay, Alister, I'll try." She said, patronising him slightly. She began to climb again, grabbing ledge after ledge to reach the larger floor areas of the structure, until eventually she was level with the room she desired.
She ran and grabbed the nearest ledge with only centre metres to spare, she climbed across cautiously until finally reaching the doorway. Inside, she located the gate, exactly the same as it was the last time she was here.
"Now what? Is there a switch or anything'?" Lara ignored Zip's question and decided to show off slightly by proving she knew what she was doing. She used the convenient the ledges that had be dug into the walls and took a tight hold of the rusty metal gate.
A bold ticking sound began to swim around the room and Lara mentally counted the beats. The gate began to fall and Lara pushed up against it and crawled through to the other side.
"Show off!" Muttered Zip. Lara laughed.
"Zip, I never show off!" She lied.
"Lair!" She laughed again. The petite corridor eventually opened up into the room Lara realised she was to familiar with. The blades the had once fallen from the ceiling had risen back up into their places, and the ones that rose from the ground had vanished too.
"Eyes open, boys, if you see any swords of blades, let me know."
"Blades?!" Alister exclaimed.
"Yes, Alister…..blades."
"Oh, I don't like this…"
"Shhh! Quiet, Man! Let the lady do her thing." Lara rolled her eyes, she did enjoy their banter…..most of the time. She hugged the wall with the side of her body and pulled out her pistols as she began to traverse the room. The area remained silent, nothing dropped, nothing rose, the swords remained non-existent.
"Turn on the video camera on your headset, Lara."
"Why?"
"Might be nice to keep a recording of this."
"Fair enough." Lara flicked a red button and a beep from the headset confirmed that a video was being taken. That's when Lara found her goal.
The golden sword hung perfectly straight, it's blade sharper than any other and the strong handle was home to four deep purple gems that glistened in the light and radiated a purple glow across the wall.
"I'm a terribly lucky girl." Lara noted.
"Wow! Look at that!" Zip marvelled. "It's incredible."
"How long is it, Lara?" Alister questioned.
"About a metre." She replied as she ran her fingers across the cool metal. She secured her hand on the top gem and the other on the side and gently and cautiously removed it from the was. As it left a rumble sound began to rise. Lara back flipped to dodge several swords that fell to where she once stood. The sword flew from her hands.
As it clashed to the floor she dove out to grab it. She fixed her hand onto it, determined to never let it go again. More and more blades fell, one off the cut Lara across her leg and she cried out in pain as the deep, red liquid began to slowly ooze out of the wound.
"Lara!" Zip cried out. "Lara, we're sending someone to get you!" They went offline before Lara could protest. She struggled to her feet, sharp, intense pain shot up and down her leg. She hugged the wall with her back - every step more and more painful, but she was not hit by the blades. She ran as fast as she could towards the doors and escape with no further wounds.
As she reached the gate she collapsed onto the floor, groaning in pain as she clutched her leg. She had no medical supplies, or nothing long enough to use as pressure or a bandage. She awkwardly clambered through the hole above the gate, and fell back down with a painful thud.
She crawled her way through the corridor and out of the Damocles area, the pain increasing dramatically as every second passed. But she was out, if she could make it out of St Francis Folly alive, she would be safe. But she still had some jumps to clear, jumps that she did not possess the needed strength for. But she had to persevere, she had been through much worse, and after all of it, she was determined that she would never give up. Especially not now.
She struggled to her feet - her hand resting on the stone wall. She slips the sword through a keeper on her bag and grunts several times as she pushes against the pain so she can run. She makes the jump as she reaches the edge.
She flies through the air and her torso hit's the top of the centre structure. She made it. But the pain is worse now. Much worse. She remains curled up on the ground.
"Give me the sword, Lara." A harsh voice grunted. "And none gets hurt any further." Lara's head moved up, she was met with a gun between her eyes and the face and body of Kurtis Trent. He flashed her a evil-looking smirk as her pulled her to her feet.
"Kurtis?" She groaned.
"None other." He grunted almost cheerfully. Lara took out on of her guns, but did not aim, she simple let it fall heavy in her hand. Kurtis grunted a laugh.
"How are you alive."
"Some stupid, fucked-up creature can't kill me that easily."
"You've changed." Lara commented.
"How?" Kurtis questioned angrily.
"You're not like how you used to be…you seem cold and angry."
"Kindness and charity gets you nowhere in this world, Lara, if you want something, you need to take it from others instead of it being taken from you after all of your hard work."
"And you're here to take the sword?"
"Yes."
"I wont let you."
"What?" He laughed angrily.
"I….wont let you."
"The only way out of this for you is to give, or to die, surely these kind of things aren't worth dying for."
"Yes…they are." Lara breathed.
"Very well." Both of the shit they're arms towards each other - aiming their pistols. "No guns." Kurtis said. They placed their guns on the ground. Lara lay down the sword and kicked it off of the edge and it took several seconds until evidence of it landing was heard.
"Who ever is alive can collect it." They looked into each others eyes, if they was any kind of chemistry of affectionate feelings towards each other, they no longer existed. All that was left was anger. Kurtis threw a punch at Lara's face, which she caught with her hand, but his second punch hit her. She swung her leg up and caught him in the chin with the heel of her boot.
Lara dodge his second punch but was tackled and they began to fall and landed on the lower level of the structure. They continued to punch and kicks, bruises being created and trickles of blood flew through the air. Kurtis pinned Lara against a pillar and took a knife from, he moved it closer and closer to her throat. Lara used all her strength to stand on her wounded leg so she could kick away the knife. She landed a hard punch in his stomach and slipped out of his grip.
As she spun around him she threw a punch at the back of his head. Kurtis used his rage to take her by the throat and swing her around - causing them to fall off the platform again, this time landing on the ground.
Both of them groaned as pain corrupted their bodies, much like their fear and hatred. The sword lay stoically, only a few metres away from them. They both rushed to their feet as quickly as their bodies could and once they were up they both bolted towards it.
As the ran, Kurtis violently shoved Lara to the side, causing her weak leg to give up and she collapsed. Kurtis took hold of the sword and began to climb back up the structure.
This isn't the Kurtis I knew. She thought. I know he will do nothing but evil acts with that sword, I must stop that…..no matter what the sacrifice is…
She clambered on to her feet and trailed after Kurtis in a painful sprint. He was no too far in front of her, but every step she took was agony. Ledge by ledge and ladder by ladder the began to climb higher and higher and began to get close to the surface of the structure.
They reached the top at similar times, Lara knew that this was her last chance. She used her final boost of strength to shorter the distance between her and Kurtis and as she reached him, she took hold of his waist and tackled him to the ground.
The sword flew from his hand and slid away - but still remained atop the structure. Both of them reached to where the guns had been rested and stood pointing their guns in each others faces.
"Only one of us is gonna leave here, Lara! And it ain't gonna be you!"
"What happened to you, Kurtis?"
"Shut up!" He grunted sternly.
"You're not the man I knew…"
"That idiot persona I carried is dead, this way of living, doing things my it feels so good."
"And that's why I can let you go…" Lara's voiced weakened and began to crack as tears threatened to appear. "I know now…that you will not do good with that sword, and…a long time ago-" A stray tear raced down Lara's cheek and she almost cursed herself for displaying this. "-I made a promise to myself, that if I discovered these secrets, I would keep them away from people like you, and keep things safe. I can't let you leave, Kurtis!"
"Join me then….make new promises to yourself…." He said gruffly. "…They taste so much sweeter." Lara shook her head slowly, a few more tears now stung her face.
"No…..No, I will never join you."
"Then this is where it ends." For reasons that remained unknown to the both of them, at that split moment between life or death, they moved closer to each other - guns still aimed and pressed their lips together softly.
And then the gunshot was fired. For a moment, they both stood - still relatively kissing - disguising which one had taken the bullet. Kurtis' eyes fluttered shut as he fell, blood stains covered both the ground and Lara's top.
She kept the gun held in the same position and cried as the smoke from the bullet filled the air with it's presence and aroma. She looked down at him for the last time, savouring the feeling the lingered on her lips.
"The Kurtis I knew….." She trailed off, her throat constricting and words did not exist. She took hold of the sword - forever a reminder of what happened in St Francis Folly.
The pain from her leg and violent encounter flood back, and she had just enough strength to make the final jump. The rest of the journey out of the Folly was down in limped walks and crawls. She slowly burst through the main doors and was greeted by a stationary plane controlled by trust worthy pilots she knew.
And inside the plane, she found the two most trust worthy people of all, Zip and Alister. They questioned her many times, but her answers were not detailed. They both agreed to leave her. To have some time to herself.
The only thing she left them with was the video her headset had been recording through all of it.
A/N: Hey, everyone! Sorry this took ages! They next chapter should be up soon and it'll probably be the last.
Really hope you enjoyed this and….
HAVE A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS! :D
