Her heart is hammering against her ribs fiercely, her palms are sweaty and she's afraid of dropping the hand of Midas too soon, her clothing is clinging to her body, bangs sticking to the sides of her face, slick with sweat and not the kind she is fond of. Especially when there's lava rising several feet below her, Sofia is just behind her going in and out of consciousness and now she has Fernando, Liam and another guy in front of her.
Holding the Golden hand of Midas over the edge, the ground shaking beneath her feet, "do you?" and she watches Fernando's eyes grow wide in fear.
Reaching out but standing where he is, "please, don't," he says a little breathlessly. So close to his goal and now they're risking it more than ever with the volcano below them ready to erupt.
Lara keeps it held above the edge, to make sure she keeps his attention, "good, now you're going to have your guy there bring Sofia up to safety." She looked at Liam and he nods, without question and watches Sofia try to swipe for him but her angle is off and she's got very little strength.
"Whoa hey, I'm here to help," Liam holds his hands out to assure her, he watches her eyes work to focus on him and finally she rests back and holds her head. Liam takes this chance and scoops her up into his arms, bringing her to the rope he used he ties her up with it and goes to the spare rope, "pull her up!" he shouts and starts to climb up himself, keeping an eye on her head that she doesn't hit it on the rocks.
While this is happening Lara never takes her eyes off of Fernando, the mercenary behind him is looking twitchy but stays put. Fernando's eyes locked on Lara, "now," he says in a deep tone, "what is your next term? We haven't got all day."
Lara glances up to see that Sofia is almost to the top it would have taken me much longer just on my own; there must be a group of men up there. Her eyes land on the mercenary behind Fernando, "get Sofia to safety first, your man behind you can go up next. As much as I'd say 'ladies first' I don't thrust any of your men to pull a fast one on me."
Nodding in understanding, Fernando looks over his shoulder at the mercenary behind him, "go, this won't take long," he says and looks back at Lara, his eyes different. Darker, he's got his mind set on something else, he is taking the hand and he's not bringing her back with him. You've become too much of a hassle, due to the limit in transportation now I cannot afford to have you mess everything else up that I've worked so hard to achieve!
Lowering the hand from the edge, she knows he is her only threat, he is going for the hand and he'll kill her and escape if he can. Lara glances down to see that the lava is rising, but slowly thankfully. "We don't have time for games," she looks back at Fernando just in time to be tackled, his right shoulder going into her stomach and her upper back hits the rock floor hard.
Releasing the Golden hand of Midas, Fernando brings his right fist back with the plan to knock her out cold, Lara's right hand searches frantically and grabs a rock near her, slamming it into the side of his face. He leans back, losing his momentum and she pulls her right leg back to kick him in the chest, knocking him onto his back, but just as she stands up quickly so does he.
In her fighting stance that Sofia taught her, Fernando grins wickedly, "you're not leaving here with that hand Lara, I won't let you!" he spits and charges to swing his fist for her head. Lara saw this coming and dodges, once he oversteps due to his momentum she spins around to kick him in the lower back. However he turns around and catches her leg. Reaching down to his hip she is startled to see him pull a knife out.
Hopping on her left leg she forces her body to give a great push off of the ground and turns her body, the same foot going up and smacking him in the back of the head. Fernando drops the knife and staggers forward a couple of feet while letting go of her foot.
Getting to her feet again, Lara takes the opportunity to grab for her ice pick on her side and freezes when she hears gunshots ring out from above. She looks up oh no… Sofia! Looking at Fernando again just in time to get a solid punch to her stomach, she bends over but fights from clutching herself.
"I must admit, you've given me a run for my money, but the game is over!" Fernando says and Lara turns to face him, she sees him throw his right fist for her face. This time she dodges to the inside, brings her right arm up and elbows him in the right cheek, he staggers back so she takes a few steps up and swings her right leg out again to kick him in the chest.
Fernando took the hit, but this time doesn't stagger back, he rolls his shoulders, his face red with anger like before and before she knows it he charges and lifts his left knee. She moves to the left to avoid it but instead is hit hard by his fist to the left temple.
Lara falls onto the rock floor, her head bouncing off of it and causing her to get jarred, she groans and slowly moves to her hands and knees as she tries to get her bearing and receives a kick to the ribs. More gun shots ring out above her, placing her right palm to her forehead she pulls it away to see blood, turning her head to look up at him he is all too proud.
"You were never meant for this life, Lara Croft," Fernando spits and turns to the hand of Midas. He walks towards it on confident feet and Lara starts to get up and she sees it, the pocket she'd ripped from her own pants is gone.
Her mouth dry she coughs and stands up as the ground starts to shake violently, "Fernando don't!" she cries out.
He places his feet on the ground far apart and looks at the hand, he reaches down and she stands up as the shaking continues, "I won't let you have this," Fernando says, full of confidence as he picks it up.
Startled when his hand begins to turn, "oh no…" his eyes go wide in a panic as the gold spreads up his arm, "No! No! No!" he screams and turns to face Lara as it reaches his shoulder. Staggering around Lara watches as he loses his footing due to the shaking ground and his terrified state, she stands there and watches as he falls off the edge knowing there was nothing she could do. If she were to grab for him there is no way she could stop him from turning to full gold, and the hand is too dangerous to be brought to her own world with so much greed willing to spill blood for it.
The shaking calms down a little but not a lot, she carefully looks over the edge while listening to rocks falling behind her and she can just make out Fernando's other hand. Reaching out from the lava below, hand open and reaching and getting swallowed by the lava in seconds with no sign of the hand of Midas.
"NO!" Lara hears a scream just before she feels it, white hot pain flashes through her chest and her upper body flinches. Staggering away from the ledge due to the shaking she looks down as her heart rate begins to slow, she can hear her heart beating in her ears, her mind taking everything in slow motion, her mind takes in the arrow head sticking out from just below her right collar bone and to the left.
Subconsciously her right hand lifts for her finger tips to touch her fresh blood that drips from it and her hand starts shaking. Lara doesn't notice how her knees give out and she collapses onto her left side, her vision going darker by the second, her eyes looking around aimlessly and catch sight of a large figure jumping off of the rope dangling from the wall and kneel before her.
"LARA?" the deep voice of Jonah shouts, he touches her face to see she isn't truly with him anymore, he scoops his left arm around her waist and effortlessly lifts her from the ground and carried her to the rope as the bubbling lava reaches the ledge. "GO! GO!" Fear gripping his heart every foot that he is pulled up the wall as he holds Lara's limp body in his arm, he can feel his heart beating against his ribs, his nerves shot, terrified that she isn't going to make it.
He looks up again as the edge of the wall is coming up, Joe and Liam pulling Jonah up, he knows Sofia is safe, "is she breathing?" Liam asks and Jonah looks back at Lara as they are both lifted to the same level as the guys are. Mercenary bodies lying around on the floor around them. Her eyes flutter ever so slightly, so far very little blood is coming through, and the arrow is keeping it blocked so she isn't bleeding out.
"For now yeah, the lava is rising, let's go!" Jonah says as the place starts shaking harder. They all take off from where Fernando and his team came from, though they made a makeshift bridge to get across to the ledge where Lara and Sofia had been.
The ground and walls shaking harshly, cracks appearing and expanding into chunks of wall before their eyes as they run by. Up through the passages, Liam and Joe just ahead of Jonah, they both reach the bottom of this steep slope with rope and both of the guys run up it first. Liam spins around as Jonah reaches it and tells Joe to grab his ankles, Joe does it and Liam slides down most of the way for Jonah to pass Lara's limp body into his arms.
"NOW!" Liam yells over the thundering cave, steam shooting out of the new crevices that have formed. Joe pulls Liam up and once they're up Liam picks up Lara in bridal style and waits for Jonah to get to the top, "I need to make a run to Mr. Huites tent!"
"It won't be long before the lava catches us! It's rising faster now!" Jonah yells as he takes Lara in his arms, hating how fragile she now looks. His attention back on Liam as he takes off with Joe towards the entrance of the cave, Jonah runs, rocks and dust clouding the air as he charges through the passageway and around another corner, and another and finally comes out to behind the waterfall which has now stopped. The water is bubbling like mad, Jonah's heart is pounding, and anxious as he runs on already tired feet to the other end of the camp where the helicopter is waiting.
Joe is already at the other end, Liam has just run into one of the fancier tents, Jonah shakes his head what is he going for? His pay? He wonders as he pushes him to the back of his mind. After what Liam did to Lara, he wasn't willing to forgive him just yet and he is willing to leave him behind.
He jumps over ammo cashes, waves around boxes and crates that have been scattered around, he then runs between a few sets of tents. Everything going by is dark in Lara's mind, her vision is clouded, and sound is going in and out, barely picking up on the fact that Jonah is carrying her.
The ground shakes violently and steam pours out from cracks appearing in the ground, Jonah stumbles and watches the ground start to shift, heave, and separate. He runs full out and jumps off of a ledge that is going straight up and looks below to see he helicopter just a few feet away, landing he cradles her head while doing do as he doesn't want to give her any further jolts.
Joe is sitting in the helicopter next to Sofia and Roger is in the pilot, watching from over his shoulder as Jonah climbs in and brings Lara into the helicopter. "Is that everyone?" Roger asks and lifts the helicopter to hover over the ground as it is cracking up too much. Suddenly there's a split down the middle of the waterfall, steam billows out and lava starts pouring out, spilling out from the back of the waterfall.
"WAIT!" Liam screams, running along the shifted ground, staggering, leaping and bounding relentlessly to the helicopter with a leather satchel being clutched to his right side.
Jonah grunts, seeing that Liam is almost there, "hang on, we've got one more!" he shouts and sets Lara down on the floor with Sofia rushing to kneel at her side. Sofia's eyes widen in shock at the arrow sticking out of Lara's chest, and her closing eyes. Roger is forced to lift up a little more from the ground as the ground is heaving up towards the helicopter and pulls away.
Liam sees the ground going up at an angle to the helicopter as it pulls away a bit and he runs full out up the slanted ground and jumps with all his might. Jonah moves over to the door just as Liam catches the bottom bar, he reaches down and extends his hand, "take it!" he yells and looks over his shoulder, "pull up! Get us out of here!" he yells at Roger and Roger pulls the helicopter up and steers away from the erupting volcano.
Clutching her right hand in her own, Sofia caresses Lara's cheek, "hold on Lara!" she watches tears blur her vision. Jonah helps to pull Liam in and Liam hurries to Lara's left side, opening up his satchel he pulls out a few artifacts and finally holds out an artifact that looks like a set of angel wings, white crystal and smooth.
The others all stare at it and Liam looks at Sofia, "take out the arrow or this isn't going to work," he instructs and Sofia moves Lara onto her left side, her back facing her, it breaks her heart to see her slump forward, no resistance, her body lolling around. Tears spill down her cheeks at seeing the strong woman she's come to care for greatly suddenly on the brink of death, she snaps the back of the arrow and pulls the head out from her chest.
No cry, no scream, just the faintest of grunts, and then the blood starts to spill out. Sofia feels as though an icy hand has just gripped her heart, she rests Lara onto her back and looks up at Liam to holds the artifact up.
Jonah wants to ask what it is, what he thinks he is doing and to tell him to keep it away from Lara. But judging from her current fragile condition, she looks to be on deaths doorstep, no matter what happens it can't make Lara's condition worse.
Lara barely registered the arrow having come out; she doesn't even know she is lying on her back or that she is in the helicopter. Time and place are nothing to her, she doesn't notice Sofia's hand gripping her colder hand, their voices is so distant, and they may as well be miles away. Lara wants to open her eyes, she wants to lift her head and say she'll be fine, that she's been through worse. Truth of the matter is she hasn't, no matter how many times she has been strangled, crashed in a helicopter, been buried in snow from an avalanche, swam through bone chilling, below freezing, ice cold waters to avoid being captured and drowning in a river of the same temperature.
Placing the angel wings onto her chest, the artifact glows brightly and then Lara herself glows from the chest and down. Sofia watches in shock as the blood stops immediately and the hole in her chest seals up along with the cut on her head from hitting the rock floor earlier.
Gradually the glow fades away and when it is gone Lara gasps and her eyes shoot open at the same time. Her chest heaving, her right hand reaches up to the spot where the arrow head had been sticking out from and she takes in her surroundings. Feeling the hum of the helicopter, hearing the explosive sounds of the volcano behind them erupting, looking at Sofia to see the tears falling freely from her chin and onto her own shirt. Liam to her surprise is on her left holding an artifact it looks like and he's smiling, she looks down to see Jonah and is stunned to see that he is in full tactical gear like the other mercenaries they just dealt with…
Jonah watched as Liam started to get pushed around in a tent by another mercenary, he shakes his head 'that guys might as well be full of lies, I don't care that he pushed Sofia into the hole after Lara. I still don't trust him. He needs to earn that and it looks like his own people are starting to no longer trust him' he smirks to himself. 'One last Frutana Corp to deal with,' and he looks back and forth between some tents.
He spots Fernando walking out of his tent and towards this guy working on a big block like device on the ground. Looking to his right he watches as some men start coming out of their own tents to see the commotion going on with Liam. 'Hmm if they're distracted enough then maybe I can sneak in and get some Intel on where Lara is,' he turns around and goes to the back of the tent and turns left to go around the tent that was once on his right and hurries around to see another tent not far off. It looks to be on its own with the carnage left behind by Sofia's burning of the jeeps.
Watching and listening carefully he stands up and walks to the corner of the tent entrance, peeking in he sees no one on first glance and steps inside. Once inside he hurries, looking at desks and seeing paper work stacked on crates and boxes, on beds.
"Shit… none of this is going to help me," he mutters to himself and looks at a couple of beds, they've been folded up and the sheets are in packages now. "These must have been the beds of the guys who Sofia killed last night," he whispers to himself and moves to the crates there.
Opening them one at a time he finds BDU's, vests, molle's, goggles, holsters, the works. Wasting no time he pulls on the BDU's, thankful that he's not the only large guy whose come here. Fitting the vest to fit him and attaching the molle's to his vest accordingly, he puts a gun holster on his right hip and puts his gun into it. Smiling to himself he hears his walkie-talkie crackle to life.
Reaching down he turns up the volume just a tad, "Say that again," he requests.
"The helicopter is inbound, Mr. Montour is on his way, he'll only be about 15 more minutes," Joe tells him and Jonah looks around to be sure he isn't being overheard. Instead he hears Liam and Fernando at odds with each other.
"I've got gear on," Jonah says and pulls a helmet on with goggles to help protect his identity. "I'm going to see if I can get back into the mountain without Frutana Corp realizing who I am. Be a mole so to speak," Jonah tells him.
"Tread carefully my friend," Joe warns and then Jonah turns the volume down to almost mute. Walking out of the tent he sees the young man from earlier running back to the tents looking breathless, no doubt Fernando threatened him to come back with results as of yesterday and Jonah walks between two tents.
His heart rate has accelerated, feeling very nervous and terrified that they'll find him out. Coming out to the middle of the tents out front of the steaming hot water he shudders inwardly at the sight of the dead fish on the surface. 'How do you like your fish cooked?' he wonders to himself to try and calm himself down.
Hearing footsteps he looks to his left to see Fernando walking out of the tent with Liam, the young man and a handful of Mercenaries, he points at Jonah, "you're coming too! At least some of you are fully geared up! What do I pay you for?" Fernando asks angrily and Jonah walks with them.
None of the Mercenaries giving him a second glance, they see him as one of them as they go up and around the waterfall. Everyone pulls as close to the mountain as possible to avoid being sprayed by the waterfall as they go by, one splash feels like hot oil from the frying pan.
Taking slow deep breaths as they follow the young man around some corners and passageways, they finally come to stop at the corner of a room. The young man points the block like machine at it and shows Fernando, beneath the rock in front of them it's a tunnel going down.
Placing his thumb and index finger onto his chin in thought, "we need to break this, and then to anchor down rope so we can climb in and out easily, the imagery makes it look deep. Too deep to just jump in and out of," Fernando says and he turns around to one of the other Mercenaries and takes his grenade.
Pulling the pin out, Fernando motions for everyone to step back and they all hurry back for cover before he tosses it to the spot. Crouched next to Liam he watches him closely as the grenade goes off and the ground beneath it crumbles into the hole, walking over a couple of them stomp their heels onto the rock to make the loosened rock fall away and have the entrance bigger.
Running footsteps can be heard as one of the Mercenaries comes hurrying back with rope and a steel anchor, "alright, I'm going ahead while you get this working here. I want the group of you coming with me. We have no time to waste, the volcano is going to erupt soon and I cannot risk Croft getting the artifact before me!" he turns back to the hole, kneels down and slips in followed by Liam, a Mercenary, Jonah and a few others.
Jonah couldn't believe it, Fernando just tossed a grenade at the ladies 'please be okay Lara, we'll get through this!' he thinks and watches Liam. The guy has a mask on, a stone mask, showing no emotion to anyone. The only thing that no one can hide right now is how hot they all are, the gear doesn't help, his BDU shirt sticking to his back and upper chest.
The bang goes off and he feels the whole place shake, he knows it wasn't just the grenade; the volcano is probably minutes away from going off which means they have to get out of there. Fernando comes out of his crouched hiding place, so does Liam and the three others they have with them.
Gritting his teeth painfully, Fernando looks around, "damn it," he mutters and pulls out his flashlight to look down and he sighs with relief, "they're down there on another level… get me two anchors, I want down there," he commands and takes a few steps back to run and jump to the ledge the girls were on, just barely making it.
"Shit!" he turns to the others and pulls out his walkie-talkie, "bring me a platform I can use as a bridge down here, nothing fancy, make it fifteen feet long," knowing that if the ledge comes away then there's no way he'll be able to jump it and he's not going to try and figure out Lara's path while possibly running from Lava. He wants what he knows will work, quick and easy.
Within no time two men come down to meet them with long large boards that were used in the packaging stages of the trip and were cast aside next to one of the tents. The rappelling ropes now dangling down the ledge, Fernando looks back, "Liam you're with me, same with you," he points to another man. He obviously doesn't know all of their names or just doesn't care.
Jonah feels his hands getting sweaty, not just from the heat but also from feeling anxious. 'What's Lara's situation down there?' he wonders and takes his goggles off when he realizes they've grown too foggy for him to see through properly, using the back of his head to wipe the sweat off from his forehead.
"Chillax, this will all be over soon," one of the other Mercenaries comments, Jonah looks at him and then hears Lara shouting "do you?" and he has to fight himself to stop from smiling. 'My baby bird has leverage, maybe he does have the hand after all,' he thinks and then notices the rope going tight end loose a couple of times.
"Pull her up!" he hears Liam shout and watches the guy from a few moments ago roll his eyes and start pulling. Within minutes Sofia is pulled to the ledge with a nasty cut on her head and Liam gets to the top and checks on her.
"What the heck are you doing man? Leave her ass over there, this place is going to explode soon anyways," the one who'd done the lifting says and Liam purses his lips, Jonah can tell he's thinking hard about what to say.
"For now we need to keep her alive and well you moron, what if Croft and Mr. Huites both come up with the Hand of Midas? You just going to say 'oh I'm sorry, I didn't know you wanted to keep her alive so we just left her there to fend for herself," Liam retorts and the guy walks up to him and points his assault rifle at him.
"There is no way that Mr. Huites is going to let Croft live, and you know it. What are you hiding?" he asks and then the other Mercenary comes up from below, looking back and forth and chuckles.
"Even if Mr. Huites doesn't kill Croft," the guy smiles as he stands up, standing between Jonah, Sofia, and Liam and on the other side are the other Mercenaries. "Do the math, Croft dies then we kill Mr. Huites and take the hand for ourselves, if Mr. Huites is killed by Croft then we finish her off and still take the hand. We come back to camp saying they all fell into the lava which is rising steadily down there and we each use the hand on a few things to pay ourselves better than he was going to do. We all come out on top," he extends his hand to Liam. "I know you and I have worked with Mr. Huites for a few years now, but you've seen how he's changed, he treats us like dirt and trusts us less and less."
Liam stares at him hard, weighing his options, "I can't do it Marco, you know that." He pulls out his own handgun and gets a few barrels pointed in his direction. "Drop your guns fellas, this doesn't have to end-"
A gunshot goes off, Liam watches as one of the Mercenaries ahead of him falls onto his back and then more shots go off, Liam shoots Marco and the others run to take cover. Once they're in cover Liam backs up and looks at Jonah and almost jumps, "jeez when did you get here?" he asks and looks ahead, "we have to get Sofia out of here."
"No shit!" Jonah says and kneels down to fire off a couple more rounds to shoot one of their legs and the guy falls down onto his knee to get another bullet in the head.
Guns going off back and forth and finally Liam and Jonah are standing, biting his bottom lip, Liam looks around and, "I'll take Sofia up to the surface."
Jonah wanted to argue, but considering what he just did to defend Sofia he is going to let it slide. Watching Liam pick up Sofia and take off. Pacing up and down the ledge, clutching his gun to himself, he pulls his helmet off and tosses it to the opening where he came out of earlier and groans in frustration.
What Jonah doesn't see is Marco near him grabbing for Sofia's bow that was left behind and an arrow from the quiver, his mind is on Lara and the fact he cannot help her with her fight down below and the volcano that is going to go off soon. Marco shifts himself to look down below at the fight going on between Lara and Fernando, clenching his jaw Marco stares at Lara and his slippery fingers struggle to hold the string taught.
Liam returns, Jonah's back to him, "she's good… shit!" Liam's eyes widen in shock when he spots Marco with the bow and arrow, pulling out his gun which is silenced he shoots two rounds into Marco's back.
Spinning around, Jonah feels his heart skip a beat, the arrow flies free, "NO!" he screams and they both watch helplessly as the arrow finds its mark. Wasting no time Jonah scrambles with sweaty, shaking hands to grip the rope and go down.
Liam watches Lara lift her hand to touch the arrow head he assumes 'it went through…'and then his own heart does a summer salt at watching her collapse as the ground shakes. Joe comes running in and kneels down next to him to watch Jonah go down.
"What's… what's going on?" Lara asks and Jonah smiles down at her, she cannot believe how good she feels. A moment ago she didn't know she'd been taken out of the mountain, everything became a foggy mess after she collapsed and to see the relived faces of everyone around her tells her that things got really bad for her.
"I thought we'd lost you," Jonah answers truthfully, "I went into one of their tents when Liam was being interrogated by Fernando and put on their gear."
"What is that thing?" Sofia asks Liam as he puts the artifacts away back into the bag.
"It's actually the first artifact that Mr. Huites found," Liam says and Lara shifts herself to sit up so her back to the wall of the helicopter. "He told me that he had no idea what it was at first and that he let this little girl from a small village hold it, it then glowed and healed her of her 2nd degree burns. I knew he brought each of his artifacts with him," he smirks, "I'm just happy I had a chance to use it in time."
Jonah looks at Liam and tilts his head to the side his concern was for Lara… not money… he saved her life… I guess after what he did to Lara Jonah's eyes soften. Seeing a different side to the torturer, risking his life to get the artifact to save hers… if she decides to give him a chance then I will too.
Sofia sits on her butt and places her left hand onto Lara's right knee, "I thought we were going to lose you, you never even flinched when I took out the arrow," she gives her knee a small squeeze and Lara takes a deep breath before closing her eyes. I was that far gone… but not far enough not to be healed she looks up and focuses on the pilot's chair.
"Who's flying?" Lara enquires and Jonah stands up to tug on Roger's shirt sleeve, due to the head set being on he can't hear anything that is going on around him.
Pulling the headset off, Roger looks over his shoulder at his passengers, "hey! Nice to see your looking better…" he blinks, "whoa you… how does Lara… someone bring me up to speed," baffled as when he last saw her she was as white as a ghost with the arrow sticking out of her. Now her face is a healthy pigment and there's no indication of the arrow ever having been in her.
Lara is stunned to see it is Roger flying, she smiles, "I guess you want to hear the story?" she stands up, finding her sea legs very quickly and takes a seat in the co-pilot spot. Strapping herself in and pulling on the headset there.
Placing his hand onto Liam's shoulder, Jonah waits for Liam to look at him, "thank you," he says honestly. "Really, thank you."
It's not over yet! I really thought this was going to be the last chapter when I was finishing off Calculate, but I'm really happy I am wrong. However, the next chapter will most likely be the last one. What did you enjoy the most out of this chapter? What did you dislike? Please, review!
