Author Notes

WARNINGS: Strong language, violence, angst and scenes some may find offensive.

CROSSOVER: Far Cry 3, Tomb Raider (2013)

PAIRING: Vaas Montenegro, Lara Croft

REFERENCES:

RATING: M

NOTES: Thank you renwulf, schoolruler and Nix for the reviews! Also, thanks to the people on Tumblr who liked it!

So, I've finally completed the new Tomb Raider. It was brilliant. I was constantly expecting Vaas just to pop out and be like, 'hey, girrrrl', but that never happened. Now I need to finish Prototype 1 & 2.

Maniacal laugh at the misleading chapter title. HahahaMWAHAHA. If you were expecting flowers, a box of chocolates and a dinner date, you've come to the wrong neighbourhood, motherfucker.

It's so weird, I was literally just about to post this chapter, and then I got an alert that schoolruler reviewed and was asking about the next chapter. It's like...you knew. *twilight zone music*

Chapter 12: Date Night

Vaas continued to talk and informed me on Rook Islands' history. I was too deep in thought to fully comprehend what it was he was telling me, however – he most probably knew this, but he continued to talk amongst himself nevertheless. From what I managed to grasp, it seemed as if this island was eternally cursed, or just incredibly unlucky. The Chinese, British and Japanese had all, at some point, enslaved or killed many of the natives on this island, previously. Now, these pirates were mimicking those old ways. I would have most likely found Vaas' stories more fascinating if I wasn't under given circumstances. I just couldn't stop thinking about Sam.

The vehicle slowed down as we went off the road and onto sandy ground. We pulled up near a dock, where more pirates welcomed my arrival with an icy and belittling glare. Upon orders, I stood and went to exit the vehicle. Immediately, I felt my arm twist painfully. Vaas had taken hold of me.

"What are you doing?" I exclaimed in both shock and pain.

"Standard procedure," he replied before continuing to tie both my wrists behind my back. My wrists were still sore from when I was last bound, so the excruciating sensation felt emphasised.

"I want to see Sam! Where is she?" I struggled angrily seeing as Vaas still refused to prove he had kept his side of the bargain.

Vaas ignored my question and pushed me towards two pirates. "Take her to the shooting room," Vaas instructed, and then nonchalantly meandered away. He ignored me completely, as if I wasn't even there, didn't even look in my direction. The Shooting Room. Was this where I was to be executed? Was I just going to be forced to stand against the wall and act as a human target?

"You bastards, where is she!?" I continued to spit. I knew it was useless attempting to wriggle free from the pirates' bruising grips, but I did so anyway.

I felt like cattle being led towards the cove, where I was liable to be butchered within. As we approached closer, the more weary I became. Through all the struggling, I had tired myself out. I puffed and panted with perspiration beginning to form at my brow, until I entered the coolness of the cove. It shaded me from the harsh glow of the Sun, but it still seemed a little stuffy inside. It seemed packed with pirates, ammunition, weapons and barrels of what I assumed to be gasoline – or some sort of flammable substance, at least. The environment made me uncomfortable in every way possible. I could almost feel the weight of the pirates' stares upon me, some stares accompanied with cat calls and wolf whistles. All I could smell was the strong stench of sweat and napalm combined with cigarette smoke and weed. To say it was unnerving would be the understatement of the century.

As I was taken further into the cove, the dimmer it became. There was no natural light, only lit lamps guided us along the path. Any talking that I could hear at the entrance of the cove was now a distant murmur.

The cove seemed to have been refurbished to work as a suitable living situation. There were cots, tables, chairs and the floors were shoddily panelled with flimsy looking planks of wood – even stairs had been put into place for easier access down rocky slopes.

The pirates opened a heavy, metallic door and then led me up a set of stairs. The raised platform we were on was above water. Since it was dark, it was difficult to tell how deep it actually was. It looked eerie nonetheless.

The room was a strange one. It was very open, but was cluttered with all kinds of junk. Wheelbarrows, animal carcasses, cages, chests. In one corner there was a wooden chair. Aimed at it were several bright set lights and a camera tripod. Ah, shooting room. It was clear to me now. He hadn't meant shooting as in the weapon sense, but for what reason did he want to film his victims? Was he ransoming these poor people or did he just like to keep sick mementos of his kills?

Seeing that I was being taken to that wooden chair, I restarted my struggle to escape. I shouldered one pirate away from me and then booted the other, releasing me for only a brief period of time, before they recaptured me. It was difficult to fight against two opponents especially when your hands are tied behind your back. Aggressively and unwillingly on my part, they pushed me into the chair. While one stopped me from wriggling, the other tied my ankles to the legs of the chair. They then proceeded to redo my bounded wrists so that they were attached to the chair also.

I heard the door opening again, followed by the thud of footsteps coming up the rickety stairs. "Leave, amigos," I hear Vaas order the two pirates. They do so as quickly as he had said it.

The legs of the chair were uneven and wobbly, as if it was going to give in at any moment. As I struggled in my bounds, the chair slid further and further back. Knowing how weak the legs of the chair were, I knew if I struggled enough, I'd be able to break free.

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you," Vaas pointed out. "You rock any further back and you're gonna be in for another trip. By the way, I never got that postcard. Didn't I say I'd find you if I didn't get one, huh?" He was referring back to our first encounter. It seemed years ago; I had completely lost count of how many days I had actually been on this island. I knew it wasn't that long, but every hour seemed like a day and every day seemed like a week.

Vaas was right. I was edging towards the drop of the raised platform. This was where the water met the land, however, so I knew for certain that there was nothing that could break my fall. It wasn't as if it was a huge drop, but I knew I could easily land the wrong way and do some serious damage to my body.

"What do you want with me? You said you'd show me Sam, you bastard!"

"And true to my word, I will show you Sam," he spoke calmly, as opposed to my frantic and irate wails.

Once stepping into the light that blinded me, I noticed he held something in his hands. It was a camera of sorts; a very familiar looking camera. "Wait...wait, that's Sam's! What have you done with her?"

Looking down at the camera, he turned his back to me and ignored my question. "This is a good piece of equipment. Looks expensive – I like expensive things. And you're friend...she was very expensive."

"I don't understand."

He flipped the camera open and something started playing. It was the sound of whimpering, Sam's whimpering.

"Take two. Now I want you to do it this time without the lip. Don't disrespect me. And please...no swearing. Let's keep this PG, huh, hermana?" Vaas turned the camera around so that I was able to watch the video. Sam was obviously the focal attention, with a bloody nose and a contusion around her right eye. The blood looked fresh, so I'm guessing Take One didn't go so well. Vaas, who was recording the video, was pushing the camera closely into her face, but she refused to look directly into the lens. As much as I didn't want to, I continued to watch the torturous video. It was a ransom. Vaas was ordering Sam to talk to the camera as if she was talking to her parents.

For a moment, Vaas left the brightness of the lights, stopping the video in the process. He returned holding a second wooden chair, swinging it in front of me.

"Where is Sam now? You need to keep your end of the bargain. The deal was that if I showed up, you'd let Sam go, now where is she? I need proof."

"I kept my end of the bargain; I let Sam go." His tone was odd. Vaas enjoyed his games and I knew he was trying to play with me.

"What do you mean you let her go?"

"You know, Sam begged for her life. She begged...like a dog. A bitch. She was a good bitch; I'll give her that – once I trained her, that is. And I know soon, even you'll learn a few tricks or so, when I've finished with you. You might even start calling me 'master'."

I was kicking myself for how naive I had been, for thinking that I'd be able to make a compromise with this man and have him keep his end of the deal. Stupid, Lara, stupid. Okay, deep down, I knew that Vaas was going to attempt to trip me up somewhere in our deal, but I didn't think that he'd ever stoop this low, when I really should have considered it. If I understood correctly what he implied, then he had killed Sam. I couldn't bear the idea of Sam begging for her life.

"You're a monster. Why are you doing this?"

He leaned in close to me as if he was about to tell me the deepest of secrets. I leaned back as far as I could within my restraints. "You see, I'm in the human trafficking business, and Lara, business is thriving. Not to mention, so much fun."

"You sold her?" I asked in a whimper. These pirates were quite literally repeating history. It's a shame that such bad luck and ill-doings had to befall upon such a beautiful island. "Why were you ransoming her if you were just going to enslave her anyway?"

"No, no, you see, you're little friend, she refused to co-operate. Even after all that obedience training, there was still some bite in her. She was a mad dog and you know there's no getting through to mad dogs. And do you know what happens to mad dogs, Lara?"

At first I thought it was a rhetorical question, but the way he just stared into my eyes with an empty expression made me think otherwise. I decided to play along, "What?"

"They get put down. Do you understand what I am telling you, Lara?"

It was hard to take in. I had never hated anything as strongly as I did at that very moment. There was a burning sensation tingling all over my body as I felt that hate course through my veins. The tip of my tongue tickled, desperately wanting to spit the vilest, venom coated profanity anyone could ever imagine. I was seeing red. I knew, that in that brief period of time, if I hadn't have been confined, I'd have willingly killed Vaas and not thought twice about it.

However, there was something in me, some strange intuition, if you will, that was telling me I was being fooled again. Vaas was tricky and obviously hadn't done anything that gives me reason to believe a word that came out of his mouth. Not only was Vaas tricky, but he was also impulsive. If Vaas had really killed Sam, he wouldn't just be telling it to my face; he'd be rubbing it in my face. I hadn't seen sight or sound of Sam, other than on that video camera and until I had first hand evidence of Sam's death, that's when I'll mourn.

"You're lying!"

"Lara, what is it you don't understand? That dog has just had her day, she has gone to a better place now, she's in doggy heaven, I fucking killed her. And you'll be fucking joining her if you don't play your fucking cards right, hermana."

"You sick bastard! I will never do what you want me to, so you might as well kill me now. I will not bow to a beast like you."

In a fraction of a second, Vaas viciously kicked the wooden chair he had placed in front of me. It went flying into one of the set lights, knocking it over with a crash. Abruptly after, he had me by the throat. Tipping my chair onto its back legs, he teased the idea of letting me fall. My tip toes desperately fought to keep contact with the ground.

"Do I need to remind you who's in fucking charge here?!" Vaas yelled furiously. "Know you're fucking place or I'll crack your fucking skull open like a fucking coconut!"

His thumb was pressing down onto my windpipe, making it nigh on impossible to utter anything. To the best of my abilities, I tried to express my discomfort, but all that I could form were squeaks and gasps.

He pulled me forward before releasing me from his grasp. I wheezed and coughed from not being able to breathe for so long. Vaas shoved his face close to mine so that our eyes met. Now, in a softer tone he purred, "The choices you have made have brought you here. Do you feel guilty for leaving Sam behind, huh? When you left with those Rakyat cocksuckers, did you even think of Sam? If you actually cared for Sam as much as you like to think you do, you never would have left her behind. You think you're so heroic and brave, when in reality, you're ugly like me."

"You don't know a thing about me," I hissed still getting my breath back.

A smirk curled at his lips. It looked especially daunting in the shadows. He veered away for a moment to place the wooden chair to its original position. He spun it around, so that when he straddled it, he was facing me. Flipping open the camera again, his elbows rested on the back of the chair so that the camera was directed at me.

"Now, it's your turn."

"Look, you're not going to achieve anything with this ransom," I informed him before he started recording.

Vaas sighed, leaning forward to bang his head on the back of the chair in frustration. "What the fuck is the matter with you?"

Before he flew off the handle in another one of his temper tantrums, I had to quickly defuse the situation by explaining myself. "No, you don't understand, even if I was willing to do this, there'd be no point in making the ransom."

"I think it's you who doesn't fucking understand, hermana. Do you not get the mechanics of a ransom? We make this video, you beg to your mama and papa, I get paid and we all go home happy, comprende?"

"Both of my parents are dead, so unless you know of a way to bring them back, then your ransom is pretty much useless."

Vaas stared at me for a moment with a blank expression, before chuckling slightly. "I've always said you were a funny one, right? Now enough with the jokes."

"I've been told that I'm not much of a comedian. And why would I joke at a time like this?"

"And you have no other family, no relatives?" He questioned.

I shook my head in reply. It took Vaas a second to fully register all of the information. His teeth gritted together as he jumped up from his straddled position and threw the chair aside. Turning away from me, he lurched forward and bellowed a mighty and prolonged cry, "Fuck!" I flinched as it echoed throughout the cove. "What a fucking waste of – are you fucking lying to – you do know that you are useless to me now, huh?" He was so irate that he couldn't physically seem to form a complete single sentence. He pulled out the gun from his holster and quickly pressed the gun to my temple. I squeezed my eyes shut, expecting to hear the click of his gun followed by a bang; but all I could hear was the sound of Vaas' heavy breathing through his nose. I opened my eyes again when I felt the coldness of the gun grazing against my cheek. "Bonita," he hushed. "Maybe we should take this slowly, huh? I feel like we're rushing into this and I don't want to spoil this...connection between us. And you know what they say; absence makes the heart grow fonder."

Still facing me, he took steps backwards towards the exit of the shooting room. "Let's see you get out of that one, Houdini."

I heard the swing of the metal door, then silence. How am I going to get out of this?