Chapter 8- war
J's P.O.V 5 hours later
The nurses had put me on a stone slab, a few needles in various areas in my body. My muscles were giving me hell and of the worst things, I was half naked under a sheet. When they left me alone I looked around me, a very intricate sort of structure was formed around me, a dragon across the cieling protected me. After a few moments, my grandfather walked in to the sight of me with needles sticking out of me in every direction.
"My grandson, your mother would weep should she ever see this. Allthough I understand she would have been weeping very soon should this have not been done." He sighed solemly.
"What do you mean?" I was confused.
He put a hand on my shoulder and rubbed it gently.
"I mean that you may have died should this have not been done. Lara has been good to think so quickly."
"Is she my mother now?" I asked hopefully.
"If you want her to be so, then she will. Rebecca was a fool and I was a fool to let her be taken by that human... I mean no offence to you my boy, but he set a bad example when he tried to burn that building down with you in it." he expalined as he circled the stone slab I was sat on.
"What happens now?" I asked quietly.
"You will rest like this, by then the Dialo will feel the needles and it will strengthen itself against everything. You will be run down for a while but will feel better then you ever have done by that time. If something is to happen between then and now then I wouldn't know what to do."
A small rumble shook the temple and dust fell from the ceiling. Behavior that isn't concidred normal by anyone's standards.
"I see that someone may not be liking what is happening now." He chuckled as he directed my attention to my arms. The tattoos were flaring in blue flame that slowly began to wrap itself around my body like a snake.
"Stay with it my boy, it is these tattoos that are causing the disturbance. I must go and check the village, I will not be long." With that he left as my eyes didn't leave the lizard like flame around my body.
There it was, a dragon sat apon my chest made from ice and a blue flame. It stared me in the eyes until it gave a roar, a ear shattering roar that shook the hall again. Finnaly it spread its wings and dived into my chest. Pain struck me like a lightning bolt, pinning me to the floor in shock and unable to fight back. Tattoos began to etch themselves into my arms, they followed the same pattern as the others until they reached my hands. My entire body became flame, in pain, I screamed for help. The nurses stood by, unable to do anything.
Suddenly, it died down. My arms were once again bare from any mark. That didn't last long, on my right arm a blue flame began to etch into my skin leaving behind the flames of hell permanantly struck into my skin. My left arm however was nothing similar. Ice encased it, doing its best to look menacing as it left behind a etching of the mountain that the village was sat atop. Nothing seemed the same as cracking ice began to etch into my shoulder. My back on the other hand was a different story. I had begun to levitate, carefully I tilted my head. Wings of fire had burst from my back as they flapped to keep me in the air. When they put out I was upright so I landed on my feet. A breath was taken and held by myself as I tried to convince myself that what just happened was normal.
Out of nowhere Xaolong broke into the room, a strange look of anger and pride across his face.
"What happened? Are you allright?"
The numbness meant I could feel nothing at all. I nodded however unsure I was.
Explosions began to rock the village again, shouts of terror left much to be desired.
"Are we being attacked?" I asked calmly.
"It certainly seems that way... Here, you may need this should the attackers reach the village." He sighed as he reluctantly gave me a short sword and a robe.
The needles had slowly began to slide out of my body, they all hit the floor with a clatter as I put the robe on.
"The shouts are not of our language."
As soon as I heard the shouts, I knew exactly what happened. The attackers were european and moe likely terrorists. Carefully I looked out of the door that he had left open. Blue encased my vision, everything seemed to slow down for a few moments. There was a strange conflict between three groups. Red clad mercenaries fighting against black clad mercenaries and the Tiwinoku. From what I was hearing, it sounded like the black were fighting the red in defence of the Tiwinoku, however the Tiwinoku didn't seem too fond of letting either faction into the village. I knew who the real enemy was, and I wasn't about to let a group of angry red guys kill my entire race.
"That is obvious, but the black are defending us. We need to call back!" I exclaimed.
Suddenly there was a blood curdling scream followed by several others. Innocents were getting killed. Blood boiled within my veins as I clenched the sword with a white knuckle grip. My vision became red, my vision pulsated and my body began to take a mind of its own. Without knowing what I was doing, my body let out a roar of rage, where my body would usually engulf in blue, red took place. As I moved, my vision became somewhat miniscule, soon black engulfed my sight and I was unable to see at all. Along with that, all of my senses left me, my body had taken control of my life.
Lara's P.O.V
I was hidden behind a wall and thankfully wielding both of my pistols, gunfire had managed to ravage the village before anyone could do anything. Several innocents had died in the skirmish, but the black clad mercenaries had come to save us. I targeted the red and saw them killed by way of H&K's USP technology.
But then it happened.
The roar stopped the gunfire for a moment and drew the attention of everyone, I turned my head to the sight of what looked like the devil walking out of the temple. It was J engulfed in a red flame, wings had sprouted from his back giving him the very image of the devil. Scared, I stalled before I really reacted.
J gave another roar before he lunged himself towards the heat of battle. However, the heat had become suddenly cold as everyone in the vicinity looked on in fear, including me.
"What do we do?" One of the reds congregated.
The sword in J's hand gave a small twitch, he looked like the son of death.
"See the old world's back be broken..." J twitched slightly. He was reciting one of the inscriptions from the ceiling in the temple.
"Death will rein, lay your weapons down and run. Run, or die." He definitely wasn't himself
No-one reacted. J arched his back so he faced the sky.
"SO BE IT! PREPARE FOR DEATH!" he charged right at the nearest red and plunged his sword deeply into the abdomen of his target.
As the man fell, J withdrew his sword and with finesse like no other, he killed another by slicing his throat before throwing the blade at a red. Another roar ripped the air as the black sided with the tiwnoku. I did nothing as J leapt at another and quickly began to rip him to shreads with his teeth. Nothing could have prepared them for the rage that had been building up in J.
A robed man grabbed my arm and dragged me into one of the nearest houses, it Xaolong. He was more scared than I. I had seen many things, I had seen dragons, Set, Atlantis and demons, but nothing like J.
"You are scared by this." He spoke as another roar ripped the air.
"Well, that is a small child I looked after for a few weeks so yes, I suppose I am" I spoke sarcastically over the pained screams. J had turned into a demon and no-one could get in his way.
"You must stay here and wait for the fight to end, I will go and help him." Xaolong stood up and drew his machete.
"I don't think so, not in your state."
J had let out one of the most devastating noises in the world. It was a demonic scream, sounding like his own but it also sounded like another 6 people were doing the exact same thing. Scared, colour ran from my face. For the first time in years, I began shaking in fear.
Xaolong closed his eyes, sighed, then sprinted out of the door with speed matched by no other human being. Soon the screams began to rise again as the sound of metal against flesh reached my ears. A minute later, the sounds of death became silence. Bravely, I stuck my head out of the window.
J was no longer red, he was covered in blood. His teeth were bared and his face was contorted with pain, slowly he collapsed to his knees and then to his front. Fear encased me, I burst out of the door and ran straight towards him, not caring about the mercenaries in black. As I rolled him over, I saw his wounds. At first it made the wounds I'd seen before in Spain look tame. His eyes opened and he looked directly at me.
"D-did I get them?" He choked on his own blood.
Words escaped me, I nodded in reply.
J smiled and laughed slightly, but quickly winced in pain. Blood positively poured out of him causing me to well up with tears.
"Don't worry... I've been waiting for him for a long time now." J's smiled became quickly un nerving.
I put a hand under his neck and pulled him towards me. He still smiled even though I could see he was in pain, again a small amount of blood leaked out of his mouth. Tears ran out of my eyes but I tried my best to keep him calm.
"Don't say that J, I'll get you out of here." I looked around for Xaolong but he was no where to be seen.
"The guys in black..." His eyes were staring at a crowd of mercenaries that were approaching us.
One of them walked out, a solemn look on his face. Slowly he crouched down and put a hand on J's chest. Instinct hit J as he grabbed the solider's wrist.
"You have defended us through the battle, for this, we help." His English wasn't as good as I might've hoped. He turned and looked towards the group and shouted in Russian. A younger man ran over and crouched down. Carefully he looked over J, his head shook as he began to open the robes. I had to look away, the exposed bone was enough to make me think that J was already dead.
"You don't think he'll live?"
"He'd better, if he dies then the course of a country can't be changed"
"What about the motherland?"
"He's not like you think, it would discredit all that Russia have. A gay at the wheel of change of your country would destroy your country. We could use him for peace not war."
"Khorosho! But who will receive him first?"
"Give him to the svolochi in the west, maybe even the idiots in England could use him."
"Give him to America. These pigs are In the most trouble out of all of us. England's troubles are a few terribly dressed teenagers and drug addicts."
The conversation drifted between the two Russian's working on J's wounds, it seemed as if these words would mean something later on. The leader of the Russian came over to me.
"You must be confused about what Is happening now, well let me explain." The man was tall and relatively ugly, he pulled me to my feet and away from J and towards their vehicles.
"My name is Lazaravic, I own a PMC which was hired to find your friend and take him to a man in government with a lot of contacts. He knows about his powers and a lot more about his family. He wants him to work under cover in a number of operations. Listen to me, he will be safe with us and we will make sure that he lives. You need to get away from here. Whoever your friends are, find them and leave the country." He spoke.
Nothing set in, my eyes were affixed on the horizon. A black trench coat flapped in the wind, a pair of green eyes pierced my soul from the tree line, the pale skin, the brown hair and the malevolent smile bored into my mind. It was Angel, I was sure of it, he was there. He did nothing but stare at me, he was surrounded by dead Tiwinoku, I was comforted by those that still lived in the village. But I was confused, my hand twitched for my handguns. If there was something I could've done then I would've done.
"AAAARRRRRGGGHHHHHHH!" J was screaming from the group, all I could imagine was an adrenaline shot. It was what I was hoping for.
"Forget him, move on with your life, he was nothing but a burden. Do you understand?" Lazara-bitch tried.
"No, no I don't. I looked after that kid when he had no-one and nothing!"
Angel's P.O.V
I observed my men's handiwork. After all they were dependant on the drugs I was feeding them, I knew they were going to be killed. My plan worked. The conflict had my son so ripped to shreds that life would not be worth living even if he had lived. But there were so many opportunities to play games with the little fuck, and then to play games with the government through him. I smiled as the woman was screaming at the PMC, turning around I observed the valley and the helicopter storm coming the way of the village carrying the subject's new family. Blue flame caught my eye, I knew that the subject was going to live. I laughed, it was what I wanted. I hated the subject so it gave me all the more reason to mess around with him, to stretch out his death over a long and tedious life of pain and misery. With the plan made, I found the helicopter with the fast rope that waited for me. I rode the helicopter all the way to the group's hideout.
4 days later Lara's letter to J
-J
I don't know why I'm writing this, from what I understand you may not be alive to read this and even if you are alive I doubt you'll be able to see it, but I needed to make sure that I made some attempt to contact you.
As soon as they took you away I decided that I wanted to see you one last time and I remember what you said to me, whether or not you realised you said you still said it. You called me mother before you passed out.
I'm still unsure of what you think happened.
Nate and Sully are even more confused than I, you see I couldn't explain what had happened. I blacked out as soon as I got near them, when I woke up I was back home being told you were in America. I'm still unsure of weather or not you're alive. I want to give you a massive hug but I can't reach you. The boy's miss you too, I guess we're going to have to look forward to when we see you. Just in case though, I got you a suit.
Your concerned guardian, Lara Croft.
P.S.
As soon as you get the chance, go to your old house in Tsun and find everything you need. Call me and I'll visit you.
Fuckin' finally! After 2 years and 4 re-writes I finally finish the first story in J's chronicle, yes I will continue making stories for J's past present and future, I'm thinking about making some other stories about J's future relatives. Either way, I want to thank everyone who has read up to this point and I hope that you'll continue onto my second story which is almost finished to completion in about a quarter of the time it took to write this.
