Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Tomb Raider games or movies.
Shot
"Ms. Croft, give me the gun!" Konstantin hissed, and Lara could hear that he was only an inch away from yelling. She had no intention of giving up her weapons, her last means to protect herself and Konstantin from Karel. From experience she knew that a simple bullet couldn't kill the nephilim, but perhaps it would give them some time to run and make up some sort of a plan. She hated running. It was a way to show the enemy that she didn't have a plan ready. It would show her vulnerability but it could also save her life.
She grasped the gun as if her life depended on it. She and Konstantin were drowning too fast, and the gun was the last thing that kept their heads above the water's surface. Although a bullet couldn't kill Karel, it would harm him, and she was certain that even the nephilim weren't beyond pain. Surely Karel didn't want a bullet between his eyes, for repairing the damage would take much of his precious time.
"Ms. Croft, give me the GUN." Lara didn't look at Konstantin, but she could sense him boiling already. At times it seemed like the man had no nerves at all. He was dangerously jumpy and made decisions hastily as if he believed he'd run out of time before he'd notice it. The thought stopped Lara for a moment. Could he really believe he already had run out of time? Had there been something important he had wanted to do but there had been no time left? She knew he probably had wanted to spend some time with Nikolas but truly hoped she was wrong. She missed her own parents. Even though she disliked them for what they had done she still wished they'd accept her choice, her way of life. She had even ripped most of her childhood pictures, the ones that reminded her of the time she was 'trained' to become a perfect noble woman, from one of her books leaving it almost empty. She didn't know what was worse: seeing the pictures or the empty pages.
He couldn't understand why it was so difficult for Lara to give up the gun. It was only a piece of metal, not something worth dying for, and they probably would die if she wouldn't give up the darned weapon.
"Lara, give me the gun."
The first thing she registered was the fact that he used her first name instead of 'Ms.Croft'. She looked around and gasped as if she was seeing Karel's men for the first time. To Konstantin it seemed that she realized that there was no winning in the situation. Not cooperating meant only turning to dust a little earlier than they were meant to. In the long run no one would notice a soul leaving the earth a decade or two too soon, but at the moment he wanted to live at least those years. Perhaps he'd even have enough time to make all the wrongs he had done during his years right.
"LARA" he was almost touching the firearm when she suddenly lowered her aim and released her hold of the gun, which would've dropped if Konstantin hadn't managed to grab it in time.
"So there is a thing called common sense," Karel muttered, but Lara was able to hear it. 'Like you would know anything about it,' she thought. Common sense was a concept she found impossible to use in the same sentence as Karel. The two went together like water and fire and Lara truly hoped that Karel was the fire, that he could be defeated with common sense.
Konstantin lowered the gun, a defeated look in his eyes. For a moment he stared at Karel as if he was trying to find something human in him. As much as he hated to admit it, Karel was partly a human being, he had to be. It didn't make any sense that something as cruel as the nephilim had come to be and that humans were partly responsible for it. The nephilim seemed to have inherited nothing from either of their parents. Instead of gaining the light of the angels and the emotions of humans they had turned out to be evil to the bottom of their hearts. That is if they even had such things - in the end it was the heart where the goodness had been thought to reside for ages. On the other hand, lions could become tame if they weren't taught to hunt for survival. Perhaps the nephilim were a similar case - taught to be cruel and heartless from their birth, they turned out to be real life monsters.
Konstantin stared at the gun in his hand for a few seconds and then turned to face Karel again. Sad expression took over his eyes as he studied the features of his wife, the woman he had loved for ten years and to be frank, still did. He couldn't tell it wasn't her anymore. The years of physical and mental torture had taken their toll leaving her mindless but for some reason she still lived. Life. She didn't have one anymore, it had been taken from her by the monster standing behind her, the monster who, during the years Konstantin had known Karel, hadn't smiled even once. He was unable to smile only to express his happiness over some simple thing. There was always something mean behind the expression.
"I'm sorry," Konstantin whispered while a single tear rolled down his cheek. Quickly he aimed and shot, closing his eyes, not wanting to see it.
Even though she was used to gunfire, this one shot caught her by surprise, for she hadn't seen it coming. She looked at Konstantin standing there, the gun in his hand still aimed at something. She swallowed as she saw his expression. All the emotion that had once lived in his brown eyes could no longer be seen. At first she couldn't understand what it was? But then she turned to see what he had shot at.
The woman, her face a painting of pain before, now stood there in Karel's Grasp, but her face was lacking all emotion. Lara couldn't see a single feeling crossing her face. The only thing that brought some color was the blood slowly flowing from the hole between her eyes. For a moment Lara could've sworn she smiled, and then her body sagged like all of her bones had suddenly disappeared.
Konstantin dropped the weapon, not wanting to touch it anymore. It tore him apart to see her body silently falling to the ground, but he too had seen the smile. It had been small and meaningless but to him it had meant a victory over Karel. He didn't mind how small a victory it was. The expression of pure rage on Karel's face told him that the one thing the nephilim hadn't expected had just taken place. Konstantin's gaze slid back to the still figure on the ground - at least she was free from her agony.
It was in this moment he felt a jolt of pain in his stomach. Before he lost his balance he saw one of Karel's men standing almost directly in front of him with a gun in hand. The time stood still and all the voices around him became a muffled mess, and for a moment all he could see was white. There was something happening around him but he could only see the events in slow motion. Slowly he moved his left hand over his stomach feeling the sticky liquid of life leaving his body. Had he been shot? Was that a scream? He didn't register his knees giving in until his head made contact with the ground. It should've hurt, but no feeling could pierce his mind, which had gone numb.
Everything had happened so fast that Lara was lost in the moment. The second gunshot had caused her to close her eyes as if she was waiting for the bullet to pierce her flesh and fight its way through her intestines. It wasn't she who fell, and she only opened her eyes after she heard something hitting the ground. Seeing Konstantin lying there in a slowly growing puddle of dark reddish liquid, she screamed. The front of his shirt was stained by the blood abandoning him. She rushed forward, hoping she could help him in some way but she was aprubtly stopped by a sharp pain in the back of her head that made her gasp. She tried to free herself from the grasp of whoever had taken a hold of her braid.
"Now, now, Ms. Croft," Karel said smiling but Lara could see a glint of cruelty in his eyes. "That isn't a proper way for a lady to act."
"You had him shot, you bastard!" she snapped at him, trying to sound as mean as she could master.
It made Karel laugh, but even in his laughter existed a hint of something else. He didn't laugh for a simple joy, he laughed because he had won, or at least thought he had. He laughed because he had humiliated someone and managed to capture the very beings that had been able to escape from him.
"I did, didn't I?" A grin took over his face. "You think a man would know you better after that kind of friendship he and I shared, but no. He just had to disobey." Karel aimed his gun at her. "I believe you're wise enough not to make the same mistake"
Quickly she nodded. There was nothing she could do. She was outnumbered and the odds weren't on her side, since the enemy wasn't even human.
"I thought so." Karel then pointed at Konstantin's backpack. "Pick it up. I believe there's something I will need in it."
Not being able to do anything else, Lara raised her hands up in the air to show that she wasn't carrying any weaponry and then slowly walked to Konstantin's body. As she lifted him a bit he let out a small cry of pain, indicating that he was still alive.
"Just be still," she whispered to him. "Or it'll all end here today". When she looked up she saw one of Karel's assistants aiming his gun at the back of Konstantin's head.
"No," Karel told his assistant in a voice that chilled Lara's bones. Then he turned to look at the death-warmed man lying on the ground. "Let him suffer. He has deserved at least that."
Since Konstantin wasn't being very helpful and she was held at a gunpoint she practically had to rip the backpack off his back. Angrily she threw the item aside and laid him down on the ground, trying to make him more comfortable.
Konstantin couldn't really make out what was said around him and he didn't really care. He knew there was no running away this time. The grim reaper had finally won this round of poker in which the bet was his life. He felt someone lifting him from the ground and before he could stop himself he yelled out loud. The next thing he knew someone was speaking to him in a soothing voice. Perhaps that someone was telling him that it all would be alright or he didn't need to fear because in the end he wouldn't be alone. As he felt the life slowly departing him he regretted all the things he hadn't had time to make right. Nikolas had died, he himself had died in the minds of the people who cared about him - and then there was Kurtis. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't remember how he looked when he smiled, or how he sounded when he laughed. He didn't care. It was all too late anyway.
Lara dried her bloody hands on her pants, not looking at Karel. Her gaze remained on the face in front of her. Although Konstantin seemed relaxed, she knew he was far away from it. Too tired to make an expression, too worn out to scream... too close to death to care.
"Now pick it up," Karel ordered her in a cold voice, and she was sure that no matter what happened his voice would always remain that way. Grabbing Konstantin's backpack she began to walk toward something she thought to be the Halls.
So this was the way it was going to end. All his mistakes were to be repaid at this particular moment, and all the people who should be there couldn't or didn't want to be. He couldn't really ask them to, for had made caring about him nearly impossible.
"Why are you sorry?" The question echoed in his mind. Not knowing where the voice came from, he looked around, even though moving his head seemed to be difficult. There was no one to be seen, and for a moment he thought he had only imagined the voice. He wasn't even sure if he had heard it. Was it only an echo of his past, a memory of an event he didn't remember had taken place?
"You had nothing to do with it." The voice echoing in his head was familiar to him. It had been years and years since he had last heard it, but he remembered it as if he had just spoken with the person. He turned his head slowly, finding out only that he was growing weak fast. He didn't feel pain or the warmth of the crimson liquid escaping his body with every beat of his heart.
At last his eyes made contact with ones that stared right at him. Blue eyes filled with emptiness – the eyes of a dead person. Still, she looked like she was staring at him. Did she just blink? No, it couldn't be. It wasn't possible. She had a bullet in her head and no human being could survive that. He reached for her with his hand but the distance was too far. It was too little, too late. When she finally was there he was unable to reach her. Through many years he had waited for the moment he'd be alone with her again, but this had been the last thing in his mind. Not in his wildest dreams had he thought that they'd lay on the very same island on which they had honeymooned, almost side by side with the life slowly leaving them.
"I'm sorry," he said again, not sure if his words were able to reach her anymore.
"Why?" the voice again echoed in his mind.
"I wasn't there."
"In the end it was my choice."
He couldn't actually make out what had been her choice. Leaving them would be the better of the two options he had. The other one was her going with Karel willingly. No, it couldn't be so. She couldn't have given permission for him to do this to her.
"At least now you are free. Perhaps we will meet on the other side." His talking was slow and words almost one mumbled mess.
"I will never be free from this body."
That was the last sentence he heard, and when he looked at his wife again her eyes were shut, but her chest kept rising and falling slowly. He must be seeing things. He blinked his eyes but still her eyes were closed.
As the steps of Lara, Karel and his helpers died he registered new ones coming toward him, ones that sounded like running steps. A few seconds later the sun was blocked by someone hovering over him. A shadow blocked the rays of sun, and when Konstantin opened his eyes all he could see was a figure surrounded by light standing there.
"Konstantin," the figure said, and to Konstantin's surprise he knew the voice.
Shot
"Ms. Croft, give me the gun!" Konstantin hissed, and Lara could hear that he was only an inch away from yelling. She had no intention of giving up her weapons, her last means to protect herself and Konstantin from Karel. From experience she knew that a simple bullet couldn't kill the nephilim, but perhaps it would give them some time to run and make up some sort of a plan. She hated running. It was a way to show the enemy that she didn't have a plan ready. It would show her vulnerability but it could also save her life.
She grasped the gun as if her life depended on it. She and Konstantin were drowning too fast, and the gun was the last thing that kept their heads above the water's surface. Although a bullet couldn't kill Karel, it would harm him, and she was certain that even the nephilim weren't beyond pain. Surely Karel didn't want a bullet between his eyes, for repairing the damage would take much of his precious time.
"Ms. Croft, give me the GUN." Lara didn't look at Konstantin, but she could sense him boiling already. At times it seemed like the man had no nerves at all. He was dangerously jumpy and made decisions hastily as if he believed he'd run out of time before he'd notice it. The thought stopped Lara for a moment. Could he really believe he already had run out of time? Had there been something important he had wanted to do but there had been no time left? She knew he probably had wanted to spend some time with Nikolas but truly hoped she was wrong. She missed her own parents. Even though she disliked them for what they had done she still wished they'd accept her choice, her way of life. She had even ripped most of her childhood pictures, the ones that reminded her of the time she was 'trained' to become a perfect noble woman, from one of her books leaving it almost empty. She didn't know what was worse: seeing the pictures or the empty pages.
He couldn't understand why it was so difficult for Lara to give up the gun. It was only a piece of metal, not something worth dying for, and they probably would die if she wouldn't give up the darned weapon.
"Lara, give me the gun."
The first thing she registered was the fact that he used her first name instead of 'Ms.Croft'. She looked around and gasped as if she was seeing Karel's men for the first time. To Konstantin it seemed that she realized that there was no winning in the situation. Not cooperating meant only turning to dust a little earlier than they were meant to. In the long run no one would notice a soul leaving the earth a decade or two too soon, but at the moment he wanted to live at least those years. Perhaps he'd even have enough time to make all the wrongs he had done during his years right.
"LARA" he was almost touching the firearm when she suddenly lowered her aim and released her hold of the gun, which would've dropped if Konstantin hadn't managed to grab it in time.
"So there is a thing called common sense," Karel muttered, but Lara was able to hear it. 'Like you would know anything about it,' she thought. Common sense was a concept she found impossible to use in the same sentence as Karel. The two went together like water and fire and Lara truly hoped that Karel was the fire, that he could be defeated with common sense.
Konstantin lowered the gun, a defeated look in his eyes. For a moment he stared at Karel as if he was trying to find something human in him. As much as he hated to admit it, Karel was partly a human being, he had to be. It didn't make any sense that something as cruel as the nephilim had come to be and that humans were partly responsible for it. The nephilim seemed to have inherited nothing from either of their parents. Instead of gaining the light of the angels and the emotions of humans they had turned out to be evil to the bottom of their hearts. That is if they even had such things - in the end it was the heart where the goodness had been thought to reside for ages. On the other hand, lions could become tame if they weren't taught to hunt for survival. Perhaps the nephilim were a similar case - taught to be cruel and heartless from their birth, they turned out to be real life monsters.
Konstantin stared at the gun in his hand for a few seconds and then turned to face Karel again. Sad expression took over his eyes as he studied the features of his wife, the woman he had loved for ten years and to be frank, still did. He couldn't tell it wasn't her anymore. The years of physical and mental torture had taken their toll leaving her mindless but for some reason she still lived. Life. She didn't have one anymore, it had been taken from her by the monster standing behind her, the monster who, during the years Konstantin had known Karel, hadn't smiled even once. He was unable to smile only to express his happiness over some simple thing. There was always something mean behind the expression.
"I'm sorry," Konstantin whispered while a single tear rolled down his cheek. Quickly he aimed and shot, closing his eyes, not wanting to see it.
Even though she was used to gunfire, this one shot caught her by surprise, for she hadn't seen it coming. She looked at Konstantin standing there, the gun in his hand still aimed at something. She swallowed as she saw his expression. All the emotion that had once lived in his brown eyes could no longer be seen. At first she couldn't understand what it was? But then she turned to see what he had shot at.
The woman, her face a painting of pain before, now stood there in Karel's Grasp, but her face was lacking all emotion. Lara couldn't see a single feeling crossing her face. The only thing that brought some color was the blood slowly flowing from the hole between her eyes. For a moment Lara could've sworn she smiled, and then her body sagged like all of her bones had suddenly disappeared.
Konstantin dropped the weapon, not wanting to touch it anymore. It tore him apart to see her body silently falling to the ground, but he too had seen the smile. It had been small and meaningless but to him it had meant a victory over Karel. He didn't mind how small a victory it was. The expression of pure rage on Karel's face told him that the one thing the nephilim hadn't expected had just taken place. Konstantin's gaze slid back to the still figure on the ground - at least she was free from her agony.
It was in this moment he felt a jolt of pain in his stomach. Before he lost his balance he saw one of Karel's men standing almost directly in front of him with a gun in hand. The time stood still and all the voices around him became a muffled mess, and for a moment all he could see was white. There was something happening around him but he could only see the events in slow motion. Slowly he moved his left hand over his stomach feeling the sticky liquid of life leaving his body. Had he been shot? Was that a scream? He didn't register his knees giving in until his head made contact with the ground. It should've hurt, but no feeling could pierce his mind, which had gone numb.
Everything had happened so fast that Lara was lost in the moment. The second gunshot had caused her to close her eyes as if she was waiting for the bullet to pierce her flesh and fight its way through her intestines. It wasn't she who fell, and she only opened her eyes after she heard something hitting the ground. Seeing Konstantin lying there in a slowly growing puddle of dark reddish liquid, she screamed. The front of his shirt was stained by the blood abandoning him. She rushed forward, hoping she could help him in some way but she was aprubtly stopped by a sharp pain in the back of her head that made her gasp. She tried to free herself from the grasp of whoever had taken a hold of her braid.
"Now, now, Ms. Croft," Karel said smiling but Lara could see a glint of cruelty in his eyes. "That isn't a proper way for a lady to act."
"You had him shot, you bastard!" she snapped at him, trying to sound as mean as she could master.
It made Karel laugh, but even in his laughter existed a hint of something else. He didn't laugh for a simple joy, he laughed because he had won, or at least thought he had. He laughed because he had humiliated someone and managed to capture the very beings that had been able to escape from him.
"I did, didn't I?" A grin took over his face. "You think a man would know you better after that kind of friendship he and I shared, but no. He just had to disobey." Karel aimed his gun at her. "I believe you're wise enough not to make the same mistake"
Quickly she nodded. There was nothing she could do. She was outnumbered and the odds weren't on her side, since the enemy wasn't even human.
"I thought so." Karel then pointed at Konstantin's backpack. "Pick it up. I believe there's something I will need in it."
Not being able to do anything else, Lara raised her hands up in the air to show that she wasn't carrying any weaponry and then slowly walked to Konstantin's body. As she lifted him a bit he let out a small cry of pain, indicating that he was still alive.
"Just be still," she whispered to him. "Or it'll all end here today". When she looked up she saw one of Karel's assistants aiming his gun at the back of Konstantin's head.
"No," Karel told his assistant in a voice that chilled Lara's bones. Then he turned to look at the death-warmed man lying on the ground. "Let him suffer. He has deserved at least that."
Since Konstantin wasn't being very helpful and she was held at a gunpoint she practically had to rip the backpack off his back. Angrily she threw the item aside and laid him down on the ground, trying to make him more comfortable.
Konstantin couldn't really make out what was said around him and he didn't really care. He knew there was no running away this time. The grim reaper had finally won this round of poker in which the bet was his life. He felt someone lifting him from the ground and before he could stop himself he yelled out loud. The next thing he knew someone was speaking to him in a soothing voice. Perhaps that someone was telling him that it all would be alright or he didn't need to fear because in the end he wouldn't be alone. As he felt the life slowly departing him he regretted all the things he hadn't had time to make right. Nikolas had died, he himself had died in the minds of the people who cared about him - and then there was Kurtis. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't remember how he looked when he smiled, or how he sounded when he laughed. He didn't care. It was all too late anyway.
Lara dried her bloody hands on her pants, not looking at Karel. Her gaze remained on the face in front of her. Although Konstantin seemed relaxed, she knew he was far away from it. Too tired to make an expression, too worn out to scream... too close to death to care.
"Now pick it up," Karel ordered her in a cold voice, and she was sure that no matter what happened his voice would always remain that way. Grabbing Konstantin's backpack she began to walk toward something she thought to be the Halls.
So this was the way it was going to end. All his mistakes were to be repaid at this particular moment, and all the people who should be there couldn't or didn't want to be. He couldn't really ask them to, for had made caring about him nearly impossible.
"Why are you sorry?" The question echoed in his mind. Not knowing where the voice came from, he looked around, even though moving his head seemed to be difficult. There was no one to be seen, and for a moment he thought he had only imagined the voice. He wasn't even sure if he had heard it. Was it only an echo of his past, a memory of an event he didn't remember had taken place?
"You had nothing to do with it." The voice echoing in his head was familiar to him. It had been years and years since he had last heard it, but he remembered it as if he had just spoken with the person. He turned his head slowly, finding out only that he was growing weak fast. He didn't feel pain or the warmth of the crimson liquid escaping his body with every beat of his heart.
At last his eyes made contact with ones that stared right at him. Blue eyes filled with emptiness – the eyes of a dead person. Still, she looked like she was staring at him. Did she just blink? No, it couldn't be. It wasn't possible. She had a bullet in her head and no human being could survive that. He reached for her with his hand but the distance was too far. It was too little, too late. When she finally was there he was unable to reach her. Through many years he had waited for the moment he'd be alone with her again, but this had been the last thing in his mind. Not in his wildest dreams had he thought that they'd lay on the very same island on which they had honeymooned, almost side by side with the life slowly leaving them.
"I'm sorry," he said again, not sure if his words were able to reach her anymore.
"Why?" the voice again echoed in his mind.
"I wasn't there."
"In the end it was my choice."
He couldn't actually make out what had been her choice. Leaving them would be the better of the two options he had. The other one was her going with Karel willingly. No, it couldn't be so. She couldn't have given permission for him to do this to her.
"At least now you are free. Perhaps we will meet on the other side." His talking was slow and words almost one mumbled mess.
"I will never be free from this body."
That was the last sentence he heard, and when he looked at his wife again her eyes were shut, but her chest kept rising and falling slowly. He must be seeing things. He blinked his eyes but still her eyes were closed.
As the steps of Lara, Karel and his helpers died he registered new ones coming toward him, ones that sounded like running steps. A few seconds later the sun was blocked by someone hovering over him. A shadow blocked the rays of sun, and when Konstantin opened his eyes all he could see was a figure surrounded by light standing there.
"Konstantin," the figure said, and to Konstantin's surprise he knew the voice.